Ceranai

SOM - Chapter 43 - Albanian Standoff

In a previous life, the sight of five gun-toting men would have sent chills down Luke's spine. Now, the sight was more annoying than anything else. The weapons were a mismatch: a farmer's shotgun, a pair of antique-looking AK-47s, a 3D-printed pistol, and a large machete wielded by the fifth man.

Considering the illegal weapons and face masks, the men were clearly criminals, and ones to w...

SOM - Chapter 42 - Gathering Storm

While Nate’s spell-casting got underway, Luke walked a fine line to keep the crab’s attention on him, without engaging it directly. He occasionally darted in and out, always staying just out of reach of the snapping claws and the fat lobster tail. 

Every now and again he would let a hurled rock hit, partially to keep its attention, and partially to keep up his supply of stored mo...

SOM - Chapter 41 - Rock Lobster

In the near distance, a couple of shelves over, a [Rock Crab] the size of a house hung off the cliff. It looked more like a lobster than a crab in truth, with a long body and segmented tail. The system didn’t seem to care about biologically accurate naming conventions, and the giant rock lobster wasn’t technically an organic biological entity.

Though the aetherling wa...

SOM - Chapter 40 - Reunions

Standing in the middle of the storm, with the torrential rain swirling around him, Nate stood wearing a white toga, and a green feathered felt hat. He looked like a cross between a frat boy, and robin hood. In front of Nate, imposing herself between him and the starfish was a feminine form covered in a layer of jagged rocks. He couldn’t see her within, but common sense told Luke that it was S...

SOM - Chapter 39 - High Tide

Having reached a begrudging acquiescence with Nate’s flatmates, Luke let Ted guide him through the building. Nate’s flat was on the fourth floor, so they had several flights of stairs to reach the basement.

On the way down, Luke walked past an open flat. Ted explained that before Luke smashed through the window, he had been taking his shift watching over their last surviving flatmate....

SOM - Chapter 38 - Making Friends

Having a real moment of letting himself feel his emotions was truly cathartic. It was a deviation from Luke’s tried and true method of hitting things until the feelings went away. Not something he wanted to do regularly, but probably healthier in the long term. 

Luke knew he had been leaning on his [Murderhobo] domain as a bit of an emotional crutch. 

SOM - Chapter 37 - Mind The Gap

As Luke stepped through the rift into Paddington station, he took a moment to survey his surroundings. The normally bustling station was barren, with not a soul in sight. For all Luke knew, it could be the middle of the night, but the digital clock on the wall displayed midday. At least the power was still running, even if the lack of people wasn’t a good sign.

Turning back, he saw an e...

SOM - Chapter 36 - Off Script

Luke knelt beside Rurik's lifeless body, his armour thrumming with barely contained power. Despite the dwarf's dull, lifeless eyes, Luke spoke to him as if he was still there. 

He was in denial.

"A few days, right Rurik? I'll bring enough whiskey to get through the next decade. Thank you, Rurik. For this, for everything. I'd be dead without you," Luke said, his voice catching i...

SOM - Chapter 35 - Anchors Away

As Luke and Frank made their way back to Rurik's forge, Luke couldn't help but feel that the ancient city was different. There was something in the air, as if the death of Maruk had disrupted the dungeon beyond the confines of the viran cavern.

Halfway there, they were attacked by a [Shade] emerging from the shadows, its ethereal form flickering in the dim blue light. This was undead terr...

SOM - Chapter 34 - What Now

It took Luke twelve hours of cultivating [Recovery] to mend his leg enough that it could support his weight. This left the attribute at an even thirty. His swollen credit balance would have gone further had he spent more time shopping around, but he lacked patience for such trivialities.

While Luke had spent half a day healing his broken leg, Frank had been busy. Hundreds of freed slaves ...

SOM - Chapter 33 - Round Two

[Level 20 Viran - A psion that walks the path of the Seismic Warlord. Core Domains: Marauder, Tyrant, Spear, Earth and Vastness.]

Clearly, Luke wasn’t the only one to have grown since their last encounter. The warlord had used the [Vastness] aether of the [Nightwalker] to progress his own path. It was a shock, but predictable in hindsight.

Luke had assumed the boss would stay the ...

SOM - Chapter 32 - Must Go Down

Luke stood in the elevator, descending into the viran warcamp with Frank at his side. The ratling shifted uncomfortably, his feet pressing into the floor as Luke's Singularity Aura exerted its influence. The invisible force pushed down on everything within Luke's vicinity, a constant pressure that grew more intense the closer one got to him.

Although he typically charged headfirst into co...

SOM - Chapter 31 - What Goes Up

Luke hefted Fenn with a grunt, idly smashing the blunt head into the face of a shambling zombie. The undead abomination’s skull caved in with a sickening crunch, copper coins spilling from the ruined flesh as it crumpled to the ground. The lack of shine to the copper coins made him sad, but it was better than nothing.

This was pest control, not some grand hunt.

A slowly advancing ...

SOM - Chapter 30 - Rest and Relaxation

Luke winced as he stretched out his shield arm, the limb was still sore two days after the vicious beating he had taken. He ran his fingers over the star-shaped scar on his chest. The barbed arrow had caused much more damage coming out than it had going in. Slowly, Luke reached up to touch the white line across his temple.

Another close call.

In a single fight, Luke had almost died ...

SOM - Chapter 29 - In the Dark

The absolute darkness enveloped Luke, suffocating and disorienting. It felt like being buried alive, the weight of the void pressing in on him from all sides. He couldn't see, but he could hear the panicked shuffling of the viran warband around him, their claws scraping against the cobblestones.

Luke focused, using his aura sense to orient himself. He could still feel Nemangor's insidious...

SOM - Chapter 28 - Dead End

In the distance, a [Nightwalker] ambled aimlessly through the streets. Its tall and slender form loomed large, but it wasn’t dissimilar to the [Shade] in appearance. The creature’s movements were slow, lazy, and without purpose. Unlike the [Shade], this giant lacked a spark of intelligence behind its pale green eyes.

From his previous observations atop the forge, Luke had noticed the ...

SOM - Chapter 27 - Who Invited You

Luke watched in confusion as Frank fell to his knees, screaming, his head clutched in his hands. The plague rat squirmed in Luke’s grip, but he barely noticed, his attention fixed on his companion’s struggles.

With a quick squeeze, Luke crushed the rat’s throat, the vertebrae snapping beneath his gauntleted fingers.

“Frank, what’s wrong?” Luke asked, tossing the limp cor...

SOM - Chapter 26 - A Relaxing Walk

Luke walked through the undead city with Frank by his side, their footsteps echoing crumbling buildings and abandoned streets. Having already cleared the surrounding area, Luke felt relaxed.

At his hip, Fenn hung comfortably, its weight a reassuring presence. Now that he was paying attention, he could feel the hammer’s [Murderhobo] domain resonate with his own. Fenn didn’t have a huma...

SOM - Chapter 25 - Hammer Meet Axe

Luke dashed inside, as the scream was followed by a crashing noise. As he ran past Rurik, the dwarf stood aside, his arms crossed and his face impassive. The ratling had rolled off the table and was now waving his axe around like a lunatic, his eyes wild and his movements erratic.

Not wanting to hurt the ratling, Luke pulled up short, his hammer held at the ready but not raised to strike....

SOM - Chapter 24 - Test Drive

In the depths of an aether storm, a planet shrouded in protective frost threw skyscraper-sized icebergs at a fleet of veilcraft stationed in low geosynchronous orbit above. The vessels were thickly armoured by dense bone plating, and those that didn't move out of the way of the attacks simply absorbed the impacts.

Luke stood in an open hangar at the head of a small army of ten-foot-tall h...

SOM - Chapter 23 - Outclassed

"Look what the cat dragged in," Rurik said when he greeted Luke. The spoken words were in Eldrinsvän, but communication across the omniverse was a lot easier when everyone involved was a psychic.

"Nice to see you too. Been busy, I see?" Luke asked. On the floor of the forge, Luke saw a small-scale replica of the train he arrived in, zooming around one of the long tables.

"Yes, I tr...

SOM - Chapter 22 - Baptism of Fire

Standing in the Prophet Sanara’s domain was like stepping into the fire pit.  Luke felt like he was being cooked alive inside his armour, the heat seeping through the cracks and searing his skin. The air itself shimmered with the thermal distortion. That he had his own [Fire] domain didn't seem to matter, as his meagre copper rank paled when compared to hers. In a fight of attrition, Luk...

SOM - Chapter 21 - Apex

When Luke consented to the upgrade, he felt the world spirit vanish from the dungeon. For a moment he thought he had just abandoned him. Then, he felt the evolution take hold. Within his soul, Luke felt the threads of the [Forerunner] shrink, as the aether condensed and changed into something more potent.

[Concept evolved - Forerunner into Apex - Copper. Earned as a direct gift...

SOM - Chapter 20 - Negotiations

For a moment Luke thought the ratling was going to attack him. They stared at each other for a few seconds until the ratling broke his hateful stare to look down at the jagged wound in its abdomen.

“Ask questions, defiler. Then give me clean death,” the viran said.

“If you don’t try to kill me, and answer my questions then I might not kill you at all,” Luke said. He looked...

SOM - Chapter 19 - Rat Catcher

Details were hard to make out, but Luke could just barely see that the warlord wore giant pauldrons shaped like two large skulls. He wondered if this was where the system pulled the ‘three-headed’ description from. Luke abandoned this burgeoning theory when he saw two more oversized viran emerge from the command tent. 

Much like the armoured rat, these two were a head taller than...

SOM - Chapter 18 - Who’s there

Slowly, as the door mechanism activated the large metal tumbler turned, and Luke could hear a large metal bolt being drawn back. Then there was silence, but for the dropping of water in the surrounding chamber. He waited a few moments with his hammer ready in case something nasty jumped out from behind the door, but nothing happened.

When he cautiously pulled the door open Luke was ready ...

SOM - Chapter 17 - Jaws

The creature that emerged from the tar was grotesque. The closest natural analogue would be an octopus, but with a giant gaping mouth more suited to a leech. It had many tentacles, and no two were the same. They were a mismatch of eyes, needle-like spines, sucker pads, and claws. The monster was as big as a car, and its aura reeked of filth and corruption. 

Before the monster had eve...

SOM - Chapter 16 - Rolling in the Deep

When Luke stepped onto the streets his metal boots clanked against the cobblestones. One enchantment his new armour was missing was one to quieten footsteps. Despite his system boosted [Agility], stealth wasn’t his strong suit. That was ok; Luke didn’t intend on hiding. 

Though he was fairly confident that he had cleared the surrounding area, Luke still kept his senses alert as h...

SOM - Chapter 15 - Quest Accepted

Luke’s shoulder was burning, and as time went on it just got more intense. The pain ripping the muscles was bad enough that he couldn’t think of anything else. With each breath out, Luke grunted like a wounded animal. I will not break.

[+1 Endurance Cultivated.]

As soon as he felt the notification, Luke let go of the chain he was holding and droppe...

SOM - Chapter 14 - Drunken Fist

Facing a pair of ghouls in combat wasn’t something Luke was ready for. Bullying a few low-level zombies didn’t prepare him to face the elite Draugsvär warriors. The ghouls charged forward in step with one another, with their pikes leading the charge. 

A corrosive domain washed over the forge as they closed in. Luke’s tender soul recognised the scent of [Undeath] in the air and...