Cornman8700

MT 154 - Sharing (your stats) is Caring

154 - Sharing (your stats) is CaringThe way forward was to crawl further onward through the hive surrounding us. It took an hour to convince Etja to dive back inside the tunnels, but she relaxed once we realized that most insects had hidden or fled. Whether that was due to our completion of the objective or Varrin and Co’s relentless week-long slaughter, we didn’t know. Either way, we were onl...

MT 153 - Lonely Langhrey

MT 153 - Lonely LanghreyI gave everyone the rundown on what Nuralie and I had faced, then began sharing the item descriptions. I opened with the Wand of Boundless Night since it felt dangerous to even hold on to. I pitched the idea of leaving it in the care of Sam’lia, and no one was opposed to ridding ourselves of it. Xim once again entered a pensive stillness while we discussed the wand, but w...

MT 152 - Mystery of the Insectoid Society

MT 152 - Mystery of the Insectoid SocietyNo sooner had Varrin commented on our reunion, than a series of System messages appeared.You have successfully defended against the Doomed Aspirants!Your Dimensional Magic skill has increased to level 32!Your Mystical Magic skill has increased from level 17 to level 19!Your Physical Magic skill has increased to level 22!Your Blunt skill has increased to lev...

MT 151 - Chips, Loot, & System Warnings

MT 151 - Chips, Loot, & System WarningsBankrolls.Cash money.Scrooge McDuck levels of legal tender.I actually didn’t have that much. I mean, I had more notes than most people, but in comparison to my total liquid wealth, it was a very small fraction. What I didhave was an unreasonable amount of chips, especially after dealing with the bug brigade.Your party has slain Quiet Solitude, the Doomed As...

MT 150 - Diptera Fatalis

MT 150 - Diptera FatalisAnimate ObjectSpiritualCost: 20 mana reservedCooldown: 1 minuteRequirements: CHA 20, Spiritual Magic 20You extend your will into an inanimate object, causing it to spring to life and act according to your wishes. Animated Objects gain a flying speed equal to your CHA, and you can communicate with the Object telepathically so long as it is within a number of feet of you equa...

MT 149 - Death Sequence

MT 149 - Death SequenceKill the healer.It was age-old wisdom, passed down from elder homicidal vagrants to their soon-to-be murderhobo progeny. Varrin had probably been laid to bed as a child with cheerful tales of the underdog swordsman turning the tide of battle by expediting the enemy cleric’s journey toward their final destination in the embrace of their god. I expected that Lil’ Var had a...

MT 148 - The Four Bugwomen of the Apocalypse

MT 148 - The Four Bugwomen of the ApocalypseOnce Explosion! had been countered, a lot of things happened very fast.Fly was flanked on three sides by allies in a triangle formation, a gruesome menagerie of insectoid bodies. Their frontliner fell while facing me and wasted no time charging.The creature was a hulking woman covered in a dark brown carapace. Her body was wide and oval in shape, with sh...

MT 147 - A & N Exterminators

MT 147 - A & N ExterminatorsIt was frustrating that the System, the Delve Core, or whatever was running this place hadn’t given us an express time limit before we’d gone into our individual challenges. It also seemed arbitrary that we were suddenly facing a countdown a few hours after Nuralie and I emerged from the loop. Had we barely scraped out a victory just before we would have failed a hi...

MT 146 - Anty Bodies

MT 146 - Anty BodiesNuralie and I had eaten our fill and then separated into our own corners of the room to pursue our individual interests. Nuralie had taken several clippings of the thickly growing ferns and picked several of the glowing mushrooms for study. She had flora samples from across the Delve lined up in front of her on the table, cleared of its dirty dishes, and now covered in a portab...

MT 145 - System Addendum #3

MT 145 - System Addendum #3*****SYSTEM ADDENDUM ADDED BY USER NAME: [ERROR: REDACTED]ADDENDUM NOTE: 5 months before the awakening of the first monolith*****Tavio examined the walls of the Imperial Palace with fascination. He had never before been inside the splendorous halls, decorated with art and material from across the empire.The palace had been altered on multiple occasions, sometimes being e...

Eschendur Map

Littan Empire Map

MT 144 - Two Places at Once

MT 144 - Two Places at OnceOnce Nuralie reluctantly agreed to the strategy, I spent 3 days experimenting with my Dimensional skills. Nuralie took the time to study the threads, growing intimately familiar with their composition. She even learned to look deeper upon the thread that sought to move through an unknown spatial dimension without suffering mental trauma. Not much trauma, anyway.Volume 4 ...

MT 143 - Dimensionalism and You

MT 143 - Dimensionalism and YouI studied the loson carefully, mindful of her emotional state. I knew that she’d fully realized her first revelation while within the Training Expo, but she hadn’t yet discussed it with us. Given her history with the three churches, none of us had been willing to press her on it and so far we’d made it through the challenges without issue.“Mind telling me wha...

MT 142 - The Cathedral

MT 142 - The CathedralThe air around us was cloying and thick. I grew short of breath as my lungs worked in rapid, short bursts. I was reluctant to draw in too much of the repugnant scent and what atmosphere I managed to inhale seemed thin of oxygen. The space in front of the cathedral was an empty field of flat, wet dirt; gray in color and flecked with spots of dark blue. Combined with the awful ...

MT 141 - The Basilica

MT 141 - The BasilicaNuralie and I waited for an hour in case our allies were on some sort of time delay, but moved forward with the assumption that the party had been split. Even though the Delve had no express time limit, it didn’t mean that individual sections weren’t conditioned on completing them quickly. It was better to use the time and scout at least.When I checked the party interface ...

MT 140 - The Winding Path

MT 140 - The Winding PathThe first part of the Delve was a maze, naturally. To be honest, the maze part was easy. Etja’s Total Recall allowed us to make sure we never backtracked unless necessary. Coordinated Thinker allowed me to keep us oriented spatially so that we always understood where we were relative to where we’d been. Finally, there were nodes hidden in the walls attuned to divine ma...

MT 139 - Becoming a C’thon in 1 Easy Step

MT 139 - Becoming a C’thon in 1 Easy Step“Go for it,” said Xim, looking up from where she’d sat to meditate while I reviewed my evolutions.“More limbs are better!” said Etja, raising all four arms like she’d just won a prize fight.Nuralie watched and listened to the others react, but voiced no opinion.“Evolutions for additional limbs can be tricky,” said Varrin, throwing a bucket...

MT 138 - You Get an Evo, and You Get an Evo, and You Get an Evo!

138 - You Get an Evo, and You Get an Evo, and You Get an Evo!After taking a moment to appreciate Shog’s existence as a barely contained entity of malevolent destruction, Etja decided to go next.“I got Wisdom to 40!” she said with a bright smile. “I put the 2 other points into Luck.”“Luck?” I said. “Why Luck?”“I wanna see what the level 20 evolutions look like.”“Hmm, good en...

MT 137 - To the Moon!

Author's Note: Hello! This is chapter 137, which begins book 3. Book 1 is available on Amazon Kindle, KU, and Audible. Book 2 will be available on June 4. If it's after June 4 and you've finished book 2, then you're in the right place!A note for our Amazon/Kindle/Audible readers. Book 2 includes the Dumping achievement towards the end of the book. We felt like that was the correct ...

MTB2 - Epilogue

MTB2 - Epilogue***SYSTEM ADDENDUM ADDED BY USER NAME: [ERROR: REDACTED]ADDENDUM NOTE:Nine months after the disappearance of Fortune’s Folly into Deijin’s Descent***Brae’ach guided his long, sharp fingers slowly over the monolith, creating delicate swirls of mana-rich color that etched into the stone’s surface. Jakom had been watching his work over the past hour as the tall man’s artistry...

MT 136 - Entry Requirements Met

MT 136 - Entry Requirements MetI minimized the notification for my amulet to check on my allies and ensure we were truly out of danger. The Pit had gone completely still, most of its tendrils destroyed and the rest unmoving. The remnant’s remaining eye gazed out toward the sea, unfocused. The rain and wind continued, but nothing was presently attempting to murder us.Etja, Xim, and Varrin were al...

MT 135 - We are Arlo

MT 135 - We are ArloI began to think that pushing Reckless Shortcut to its maximum distance had been a mistake.My eyes bulged as the delayed onset agony of my body being thrust through a dimensional blender and spat out through a hole in reality that was several sizes too small caught up to me. Unlike the last time I’d used the reforged spell to extend the teleport’s range, I currently had my ...

MT 134 - Danger Close

MT 134 - Danger CloseI pulled earplugs from my inventory–acquired after my last dance with deafness from the spell I was about to supercharge–handed a pair to Etja, then quickly shoved my own in. Hopefully, everyone else was far enough away to keep their hearing. I shoved my helm back on and began chanting.“The Goliath and the ancient, in due time they all crumble!”Etja’s flight seamless...

MT 133 - Dumping (Not Just for Stats)

MT 133 - Dumping (Not Just for Stats)Like any good member of the well-to-do, one of my most reliable methods for solving difficult problems was to throw money at it.Back in the Creation Delve, our party had stumbled across an immense field of poison essences that we happily stuffed our pockets with. The only thing that stopped us from taking more essences than we had was the size of said pockets. ...

MT 132 - Stacking DOTs

MT 132 - Stacking DOTsEtja caught Xim, Nuralie, and herself with Siphon shortly after the floor collapsed. Varrin’s fabulous cloak billowed out with sparkling fury as he flew to meet them, while I stood upon Gracorvus and quickly closed the short distance. Shog and Grotto floated like usual, their inherent ability to fly without cost sending a flash of envy through me.The storm had begun to pelt...

MT 131 - It’s too Big for Us to Handle

MT 131 - It’s too Big for Us to HandleThere was the sound of scraping stone and the obelisk rose from the pile of broken glass that was once Kaleidoscope. Its runes lit up and beams of energy connected to our bodies, distributing our stats. I dutifully confirmed that I now had 8 points banked, then closed the screen without distributing them. Everyone else took a moment to drop them where they w...

MT 130 - Kaleidoscope

MT 130 - KaleidoscopeIt began as a tranquil blush of iridian luster rising from the dark like a warm morning star. A crystalline structure at the center of the room caught the light and its endless facets glittered, casting trails of color across the floor. The 12-foot-high gem had replaced the dark pillar of the Delve obelisk. A warmth bloomed at its center, pulsing with the on-and-off rhythm of ...

MT 129 - Clockwork II

MT 129 - Clockwork III used Oblivion Orb to destroy the wire and disentangle my legs, doing my best to ignore the insistent voices. I hopped back onto Gracorvus and checked on my allies.The wire embraced Varrin’s entire lower half, but the big guy ignored it, swinging at the machine with ever-increasing haste. The moving plates were shredded after a dozen strikes, and their movement stopped. The...

MT 128 - Clockwork

MT 128 - ClockworkChunks fell away from the ceiling above, crumbling down on us like the ancient structure had suddenly felt the weight of its age and given up. Hunks of stone, some larger than the Lardigrey, crashed to the ground as we all strafed and dove to avoid being crushed. We were all heavily resistant to mundane damage, but no one wanted to test how effective that was against the tons of ...