“What the hell is that dumbass doing?” Heath asked.
After all of the challengers had been stolen away by a fracture each, the remaining crowd had begun to move to areas reserved for the viewing of the spectacle that was the first challenge of the Championships.
Countless screens lit up the sky, displaying images of all of the challengers as they made their way through a terrain ...
2025-02-18 16:00:11 +0000 UTC View PostThe deep shoulder wound was already showing signs of healing as Eik dashed forward toward the hobbling tank. Injury and confusion clearly addling the man’s mind, Eik touched him lightly and triggered Accelerant just as he was raising a healing potion to his lips.
The shield bearer could hardly keep up as his leg exploded around the spike, Eik already releasing more toxin.
“P-Ple...
2025-02-17 16:00:14 +0000 UTC View PostEik’s eyes flitted to the vials in the grass. At a closer look, there weren’t just two lying there in the grass. There were four. Two whose color matched the Potion of Mighty Strength class 2 perfectly, and two others whose effects he couldn’t even begin to guess at.
At that moment a loud bang reverberated through the blue bell, followed by another and then another, at which a spide...
2025-02-14 16:00:13 +0000 UTC View PostThis was no deja vu. No, this was simply exactly what he had already experienced once before. That being yoinked suddenly through a dimensional gate against his will to be spit out in some unknown place was a trauma of Eik’s was perhaps a bit of an overstatement, but that most certainly didn’t mean that he liked it.
Fracture vertigo in and of itself wasn’t that bad — and could may...
2025-02-13 16:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostEik’s eyes went wide as he read over the message that hadn’t appeared on the wooden plaque for a very long time. Finally!
[New skill available]
[Choose one:]
[Blades]
[Concentration]
[Persiste
“What’s going on?” Heath asked. “Why does i...
2025-02-11 16:00:11 +0000 UTC View PostWith the massive crowd, it was difficult to spot the speaker but Eik finally found him a little ways away. A small group of people had created a little clearing in the throng where they stood, faces beaming with pride and cunning.
Darius Kerman and Chairwoman Huntley stood at the forefront, Merchant Lord Greggers immediately behind them. Judging by the filthy nod he sent Eik when their ey...
2025-02-10 16:00:11 +0000 UTC View PostA glowing blue hue rapidly spread across his skin as it cracked and tore. This pain he felt with maddening clarity, but it only served to fuel his rage to even greater heights. As if underwater, his hair flowed with thousands of motes of toxin that weaved through the strands.
Suddenly, Frank’s focus switched completely to the figure of light, several daggers rocketing forth with deadly ...
2025-02-07 16:00:15 +0000 UTC View Post“Frank, that wasn’t a potion,” Eik said with an ear splitting grin.
“What…?” Frank stared down at the empty vial in his hand. Not even the tiniest of drops remained in the glass, as if the substance had possessed a will to be consumed. Suddenly his stomach felt very strange. Something was rushing around in there, like a river flooding its banks.
Desperation set in immedi...
2025-02-06 16:00:14 +0000 UTC View Post“That’s more like it!” Eik grinned gleefully and watched the members leapt for him like a single entity operating under the order of Frank of the Black Fang.
The moment the first person reached him, he created a thin protective shell around his entire body and let the rest of them get into range. Two narrow slits in the shell allowed him to see enough to watch the attackers start wa...
2025-02-04 16:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostMichael eyed Eik as they ran through the crisp night air. The man had changed a lot since they had first met. From the beginning the sense of desperation to save Olivia had been constantly present beneath Eik’s usually flippant attitude. He’d been a guy thrown into deep water.
He was still that man. When they ate dinner together or he came to visit at the clinic, there was hardly a tr...
2025-02-03 16:00:14 +0000 UTC View Post“So you’re more afraid of some old business men than you are of me?” Eik asked tilting his head. “After all I’ve done?”
The blue needle was still stuck in her arm but he had recalled most of the toxin already. Profound Toxin still sat on his back, looking over his shoulder and whispering to him.
“I’m not afraid of a bunch of useless swindlers like them.”
“T...
2025-01-31 16:00:12 +0000 UTC View PostEik sat on a roof, knees pulled up to his chest with his coat buttoned all the way up. It wasn’t exactly a cool night but sitting still for so long sent a shiver through him nonetheless. Sitting hidden in the shadow of the slanted roof, he hoped this was enough to not be noticed by whoever was coming to check that the thief had successfully robbed Eik of his belongings.
He looked down t...
2025-01-30 16:00:12 +0000 UTC View Post“I-I don’t know what you’re talking about, man!” the balding man. “Potions? I’ve never even seen ‘em in my whole life!”
“Your friends already told me, mate,” Eik said and held up a large burlap sack wherein two whole wooden crates of potions, all of what he had left in the shed, had been placed. “Plus, I must say, this doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence in you...
2025-01-28 16:00:11 +0000 UTC View PostWhoever it was, he was not slow at all. Most of the merchants who’d been approached by the hooded man had been adamant in their belief that he was an E-rank Awakened. If this man they were following was indeed that same man, then he definitely wasn’t an E-ranker. D-rank was more likely.
“He’s heading to the market,” Lisa muttered as they approached the inner city.
“Don...
2025-01-27 16:00:19 +0000 UTC View Post“It hasn’t gone away yet?” Eik exclaimed, shooting up from the couch once more, this time out of excitement rather than worry.
Heath opened and closed his hand several times as he felt around his body. “No, yeah, it’s definitely still there. In fact, I don’t think it has faded at all. Eik, you might just have made something crazy here.”
“D- Damn…” Eik muttered as...
2025-01-24 16:00:11 +0000 UTC View Post“I call it… Eik’s Legendary Mystery Medicine!”
Both Heath and Michael stared at him with jaws hanging slackly. “That’s… so dumb,” Heath finally said.
“What?”
“Eik’s Legendary Mystery Medicine? That might just be the dumbest name I’ve ever heard. Why did you put ‘mystery’ in there? It makes it sound like you have no ...
2025-01-23 16:00:11 +0000 UTC View PostEik sat on the stool again, facing the cauldron with his eyes closed. It had taken him a couple of days to build up the nerve to attempt the energy fusion extraction again but now he was steeled for it.
If anything, he was even more ready now than he had been when Robert had barged in on his previous attempt, not only mentally but also because he now had a large sign with “do not di...
2025-01-21 16:00:11 +0000 UTC View Post“You’ve got a good eye there, son,” the old man said from a chair behind the counter. “Just got this in yesterday. Real rare stuff I can tell you. It takes your strength straight from E-rank to D-rank like magic!”
“Hey, Mr. Jefferson,” Robert said and offered a wave as he stepped in behind Eik, having let his boss walk through the door first.
“Robbie! Two visits in a...
2025-01-20 16:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostWhat he had done in the world of Profound Toxin had been a victory — there was absolutely no doubt about that. But there was something he hadn’t quite thought about.
Trying that again out here in the real world was utterly terrifying. Yes, it had certainly hurt badly whenever he had failed in there, but what if that pain was caused by something that would be fatal out here?
How ...
2025-01-17 16:00:11 +0000 UTC View PostEik steeled himself against the pain that was to come and smashed the two opposing forces into a collision course.
Actually, not quite. He inched them closer with ultimate caution, clenching his teeth in butthole-tightening dread. Inside his body, he saw them fuse, the combined matter flowing languidly and sluggishly around the barycenter like cosmic dust.
And more surprising than a...
2025-01-16 16:00:11 +0000 UTC View PostEik sat up with a sigh. The rotten wood crumbled like paper against his fingers now. To think he’d struggled the first time he came here. Water splashed lazily as he sat up and scanned his surroundings. Same as always.
“Does it have to be a coffin every single time? How about some damn creativity - ivity - ivity?” he shouted, not expecting a response. He looked down at his naked bod...
2025-01-14 16:00:12 +0000 UTC View Post“It’s- It’s… But it’s huge,” Olivia stammered, her jaw hanging open at around hip height.
“Yeah, duh,” Eik grinned. “We’re visiting an inter dimensional super alliance, remember?”
“Is all of this part of the headquarters of the Nidafjeld Alliance?” she asked.
“Technically only that big thing of stone up there,” Heath said and pointed up. “but Gi...
2025-01-13 16:00:11 +0000 UTC View Post“Atla?” he muttered with an eyebrow raised in confusion. Olivia saw his expression and followed his gaze.
“What’s she doing here?” she asked.
“No idea…” Eik said and got to his feet, patting dirt out of his hair. “I didn’t hear anything about plan to come to Earth.”
Atla raised a hand in greeting as they approached.
“What are you doing here, Atla?...
2025-01-10 16:00:14 +0000 UTC View PostThe judges weren’t happy with Eik’s aggressive approach to testing. Travis told him in no uncertain terms that he would find someone else to conduct the testing if he couldn’t rein it in and do it properly.
“I apologize,” he drawled and offered an almost ninety degree bow. “It was my first time testing the class 2 potion against an actual opponent. I only just brewed the first...
2025-01-09 16:00:14 +0000 UTC View Post“Shall we get started then, people?” Eik asked.
“No!” Mushroom Head screeched and turned to regard the other D-rankers. “I heard his teammates are also trying for the tournament spots! They’re here somewhere. He’s going to make sure they’re the ones who get the spots we want!”
The hopeful test takers eyed Eik with a mixture of suspicion and a...
2025-01-07 16:00:12 +0000 UTC View Post“Our boy looks pretty nervous,” Michael noted as he finished treating an F-ranker’s arm.
“Well, a lot is riding on this.”
“You think they’ll be able to go all the way?” Michael asked.
Eik didn’t answer right away and instead gave it honest consideration. “It’s… possible.”
“Mmm.” Michael nodded as he replenished his first aid bag from the sup...
2025-01-06 16:00:11 +0000 UTC View PostAmong the C-rankers were also a few familiar faces. Cecilia, the spear user who had saved Eik, Michael, and Heath from a creepy, gangly monstrosity back during the first wave of the second phase of Earth’s induction into the Unified Mass.
Eik remembered her as a nonchalant, aggressive woman, who enjoyed fighting as much as but more openly than Travis Lockwood. She also wasn’t as chuun...
2025-01-03 16:00:11 +0000 UTC View PostEik wiped the sticky, green mass off his face with a handkerchief. This was the seventh time he’d failed already but there was definitely a sense of progress.
Before, the mixture had self destructed almost the moment his aura even touched it. Now that he’d gotten a feel for the behavior of this specific ingredient aura, he had at least managed contact without failing.
However, t...
2025-01-02 16:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post“Mikey!” Eik shouted as he slammed his fist continuously against the door, the wood complaining under the power of his hits. “Mikey, are you in there? Miriam, can you hear me? Hey! Can you hear me? Alright, I’m coming i—”
Eik almost kicked Michael fatally in the chest as the young healer ripped the door open, his face a mask of wild panic. “What, what? What’s going on!”<...
2024-12-31 16:00:09 +0000 UTC View Post“Eik Magnasen. A score of 203.543!”
“Two… T- Two hund—…” Ihasu stammered, her jaw flapping like a fish out of water. Everywhere around them people whispered among themselves in disbelief. If anyone were to beat the record, it would obviously be some platinum spoon kid with all the support one could ask for. It wasn’t supposed to be some nobody like this guy. And yet here h...
2024-12-30 16:00:13 +0000 UTC View Post