Andrew Thompson
Stories
8
Chapters
3,542
Words
1.4 M
Comments
0
Reading
4 d, 23 h
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“He could have given us a guide,” Dallion said as he walked behind Euryale. According to the maps, Croya had roughly the same latitude as Nerosal. In theory, the weather was supposed to be the same as elsewhere in the wilderness. In reality, all weather in the wilderness was quite similar: dry, hot, and windless. The gorgon, though, had insisted that Dallion buy a set of fur clothes from the city, as well as an entire pelt for the night. Trusting her, he had done so, even if he soon came to notice…-
2.0 K •
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A pair of soldiers were waiting to escort Dallion and Eury to the Duke’s estate. It was all very civilized, one could say, even polite. The major difference was that the guards in question were both awakened, and as such didn’t have the limiting echoes Dallion had found to be present in the rest of the locals. There was no question that compared to this place, Nerosal could be considered a free city. The guards led the pair to one of the “entrances” to lower Croya. This was the closest thing to…
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Dwarven cities—the real ones, at least—were different from what humans were used to. The best way to describe them was like land-icebergs: seven-eighths of the city was below ground, and those were the parts occupied by the wealthier individuals. Since ores, minerals, and food roots were valued far more than anything that could be found above ground, the powerful families lived close to their mines, while the less esteemed were further up, or even above the ground itself. When the guard had warned…
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Dallion’s realm was full of commotion. It wasn’t often that one of his familiars gained a level, and since this had occurred to Lux—the most cheerful entity in the realm—everyone had quickly come to the conclusion that the best way to stop him from constantly flying about from constantly showing off was to mark the occasion with a celebration. On first glance, the leveling up didn’t seem to have changed the firebird’s appearance. Lux was the same plump firebird chick he had always been,…
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2.0 K •
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Anger and viciousness pulsed from the creature as it glared back. In the realms Dallion had seen his fair share of scary creatures from blanks to guardians, even Star-spawn. This was on a completely different level. It wasn’t as strong as a free chainling, but enough to tear Dallion to shreds the moment he let his guard down. The cutling snarled, circling Dallion from a distance. Fangs and knife shards moved throughout its body as if they were swimming in tar. The realization of what he was facing made…
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Balance gave Dallion a slight nudge as he returned to the real world atop his borrowed force. Before anything could happen, his acrobatics kicked in, preventing him from falling off or even swinging significantly. Anyone not paying attention would just attribute it to him adjusting on his saddle, but the awakened knew. “How did it go?” Rei-Alika asked. “Good,” Dallion replied. It had been a painful experience, like most trials lately, but the results were worth it. His greatest fears had been…
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Dallion felt a sense of serenity as green light surged through him. It was very different from what he imagined—not strength, or power, just the sensation he was part of everything and everything was part of him. “Calling a Moon to fight your battles?” the Star asked, its mortal face twisted with anger. “Some things never change.” “Don’t they?” Dallion looked calmly at his opponent. “I’ll be fighting the battle, only with a bit of help. After all, it was you who gave me the idea. You…
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Having three familiars and two rare skills would normally be enough to ensure victory in most circumstances. When it came to trials, though, the logic was reversed. The more and stronger skills an awakened had, the stronger the enemies would become. Also, there were other drawbacks. Ever since Dallion has started walking along the Path of the Empath, he has been careful not to destroy items in battle, including enemy armor. Sadly, the same didn’t hold true for the echoes the trials created. As usual,…
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It was a five-day walk to the nearest town. Villages were scarce and mostly avoided, especially by hunters. Even since Dallion had joined the hunting party, the group had only gone to a village twice and, in both cases, it was at the local chief’s request. Villagers didn’t particularly trust hunters, seeing them as mercenaries that stirred up trouble, and hunters knew that even a wealthy village didn’t have the means to hire their services. As Euryale had put it, there were only three cases in which…
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It had become second nature for Dallion to split into a dozen instances each time he was about to do something important. However, it was quite rare for a guardian to do the same. Even stranger, the guardian didn’t make any attempts to attack, but rather positioned itself in front of each of Dallion’s instances, indicating that it would take a lot more effort for someone to get past it. Fighting the guardian was going to be tough. Fortunately for Dallion, his music skill told him that the creature had…
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