《The Ascension Age 》Chapter 22: Stellar Smith
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Aire couldn't help but ask, "Smith? As in blacksmith?"
Sera nodded, answering, "Well, it's not wrong to think about it that way."
Kymei also added, "The problem with it is the enormous Stellar Energy Aptitude requirement, so it should be a perfect fit for you."
"Does that mean I'll have to hammer metals and things like that?" Aire immediately began to think of the heavy workload that would greet him once he did that.
However, Sera and Kymei shook their heads as one of them said in response, "What the hell are you talking about? Are you perhaps living in the medieval age? Although you will indeed work with metals and other materials, there's no need for hammers. Well, there are hammers, but you won't have to strike metal like some old craftsman in the medieval ages."
Kymei then began to explain, "It's fine that you don't know about it since it isn't a profession that many take on. After all, this is extremely taxing on the Stellar Riser. Not only that, but most of the Risers disdain this job since they're never recognized. Unfortunately, people think there's no point in trying it since it involves nothing more than preparing the materials for someone else to work with."
Sera nodded as she continued in Kymei's place, saying, "High Stellar Energy Aptitude and little attention. That makes everyone think that this is a thankless side occupation for Stellar Risers. No one wants to do something that won't bring them benefits. That being said, the number of Stellar Smiths is very, very limited."
Aire, of course, didn't want to do that either. A heavy workload was definitely something he didn't want to experience. "Sorry...but I don't think this job is a good fit for me."
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Altina smiled brightly after hearing that as she soon said, "Great! Since you don't want to do that, you will be my punching ba-cough, cough...my combat practice partner from now on."
Aire's expression went pale straight away as he hastily replied, "You were going to say punching bag, right?! Right?!"
Altina looked away after that, pretending she didn't hear the question. Nevertheless, the faint smile on her face showed how excited she was to get a new punch bag for free. Not to mention that it was a punching bag with high Stellar Energy Aptitude! How could she not be happy?
Aire, on the other hand, was almost crying. Though, he soon asked the two once more, trying to keep his hopes up, "I-Is there any other type of job worth consideration?"
Sera and Kymei shook their heads as one of them replied, "If you really want to be part of this team, you have to do something worthy of our time. I can design Stellar Suits, Kymei can work on the Stellar Rune Circuits, and Altina can give us all the combat data we need. If we have a Stellar Smith on our team, we will finally have everything to start working on our own Stellar Suits."
Aire still tried to persuade his way out of that idea. "Didn't you say that being a Stellar Smith was a thankless job? Would it be of any use in this year's Resource War? What can we even use it for?"
The others laughed before explaining, "Wrong! What Sera said was that most think it's a thankless job, not that it really is one. I believe you understand that we already have quite a few Stellar Suit Designers and Stellar Rune Circuit Researchers, right?"
Aire nodded and waited for them to continue as one of them soon asked him, "That being said, why are Stellar Suits rare?"
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Aire immediately answered, "Didn't you say that it's because they're expensive?"
Kymei nodded as he responded, "Yes, they are expensive. After all...materials processed by Stellar Smiths are always in high demand, but there is always little supply. The law of business. The higher the demand, the higher the price. But, if we have our own Stellar Smith..."
Aire understood even though he didn't want to, asking as he scratched his head while sighing, "So, you want me to be the bridge between money and our team's Stellar Suits?"
Sera, Kymei, and Altina nodded as one of them said, "Yes! As long as you get to do it, we will be a lot closer to creating our own Stellar Suits."
Kymei then mentioned, "You have always been a guy who didn't like attention. With that, this is the perfect job for you. Most don't care too much about the Stellar Smiths even though they're their own lifelines. You will become as inconspicuous as possible. Save a lot of money when you need a Stellar Suit, and help our team."
"Just so you know, although many don't take this job, Stellar Smiths are definitely included in the Resource War," Altina said as she looked excitedly at Aire. "Of course, I would love to have you as my punching bag as well! In any case, the choice is up to you."
Aire's mouth twitched in response as he thought, 'She didn't even try to hide her intentions this time.'
Aire quickly calmed down as she looked at Altina. In the end, between a heavy workload or a heavy workload filled with suffering, the choice was obvious. "Ahem...I think I can try my hand at Stellar Smithing."
Kymei and Sera immediately patted Aire's shoulders as one of them said, "Great! During the aptitude tests tomorrow, all the new students will need to select a side occupation. Of course, there are other occupations, but those occupations are of no concern to us. We want our Stellar Suits."
Aire couldn't help but ask, "What kind of other occupations are there?"
Kymei pondered over the question for a bit before mentioning a few, "Well, you have those related to starships. For example, aiming to be a captain or work at the bridge and things like that. The Stellar Chefs, which is just a fancy name for chefs who cook with Stellar Energy Materials. There's also the Stellar Hunters who go out into the area dominated by Stellar Creatures to hunt for their body materials. There are also a few with little use you can check by yourself later."
Aire immediately understood. There was definitely some much easier side occupation he could choose, prompting him to ask, "Can I select something else other than Stellar Smith and Sparring Partner?"
Unfortunately for him, the group wasn't having it. "No! If you do that, you might as well quit school and not drag us down. Having three team members who want to work is still better than having one in the group that doesn't want to do anything."
By now, Sera and Altina had already noticed Aire's lazy nature.
Without any other choice, Aire could only agree with it, consoling himself through his thoughts.
'At least people won't care about me...'
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Thera
The Mystic Turtle. They stand with the Elder Dragons and the Spirit Dryads as creatures of legend. Timeless. Immortal. They live solitary lives, drawing power from their own soul. They are the hermits of the sea, their power unmatched in the ocean. Yet, this power is not attained easily, for as Thera will learn, the life of a baby Mystic Turtle is full of trials and tribulations... She will scour ancient sunken ruins, survive the dangers lurking in the depths of the sea, and, perhaps one day, grow to become a Mystic Turtle that surpasses even legend. Cover is a placeholder for now. What to expect: - werds What not to expect: - not werds
8 282The Stars Have Eyes
The universe was a vast, empty, dark, and uncaring place. Then life happened, and the universe was changed forever. Only a teeny-tiny bit, but definitely different. Then again, the universe changes a teeny-tiny bit every second of every day. For instance, if someone were to get off the couch and randomly drink a glass of milk? Bam! One less glass of milk in the universe. Changed forever. Well, excluding any time-travel shenanigans, but anyone who puts a big old hole in the time-space continuum just to un-drink a glass of milk should really reevaluate their priorities. Unless, of course, they were attempting to prevent some massive catastrophe vis-a-vis said glass of milk. Such a scenario is by no means impossible, as one should never underestimate the importance of calcium. Another important tip for any life forms out there is to keep things in perspective. Some look at the vastness of creation in relation to themselves and go, ‘Man, this sucks!’ These people really need to narrow their focus. Sure, they will never affect anything happening on the other end of the galaxy, but so what? That’s way the heck over there, where it doesn’t matter. Therefore, in order to maintain a healthy mindset, it is important to narrow one’s perspective to the things and people that affect them, and that they can affect in turn. But what happens if one is an unfathomable cosmic being from beyond the veil of reality? What happens when such an existence is capable of influencing entire swathes of the universe just by its presence? A creature such as Magh'rathlak the Observer? That particular entity is only about average as far as reality-warping creatures from the dawn of time go, so its influence over the fabric of reality is rather limited. And it still struggles to keep things in perspective. That, among other things, is why it decided to narrow its worldview a bit by compressing the maddening vastness of its being into a single corporeal form. Magh'rathlak had never tried such a feat, but that wasn't about to stop it. After all, how hard could being human possibly be?
8 183Dominion Expansion (a 4X LitRPG)
Clay is one of the world's top players of 4X games, a genre where the goal is to eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate. He's also one of the only players in the world to so stubbornly stick to the one city strategy, a favorite tactic of his that involves only ever using a single city or planet depending on the game's setting. All that matters to him is winning with his favorite strategy, but earning the respect of his fellow players for taking a sub-optimal strategy to its highest level has always been a nice bonus. And now it is because of his skill and entertaining determination that he has been chosen to represent a higher realm in a strategy game where the fate of Earth and dozens of other worlds are at stake. To the victor goes the spoils, and the spoils include entire worlds and billions of lives. That's how he ends up representing the ascended realm of Hell in a grand "game" between an entire pantheon of godly beings and other higher powers. But while it may just be a game to those overseeing it, it is a genuine war for survival to those participating in it where billions of real lives will go to the victor of whoever wins, and many will die before the game is over. Quick Author's Notes: System inspired by Civilization, Endless Legend, Stellaris, and Crusader Kings 2. Combat mechanics inspired by the Total War series. Slow-paced with many long-term plans. Protagonist has a personality heavily inspired by Ron Swanson. Know who that is and love him? You should like Clay. Know who Ron Swanson is and hate him? You'll probably hate Clay. Planning on writing every single day (turn). Days with important things happening will have the system/game mechanics be the priority of the chapter. Days where there isn't really anything important happening will be more slice-of-life and focused on character interactions. Designed a dice-based randomized map generator to create the world as the story goes on, so I don't even know myself exactly what's going to happen as a lot is dependent on world generation. Tech tree with hundreds of technologies already designed. There is a "harem," but it's not the main focus, the girls won't be cardboard cutouts, and I'm not going to completely forget about any previous women in the relationship whenever a new one comes along. One last thing. The "game" starts off with primitive technology level. The current plan is for the "endgame" tech level to be equivilent to WW2-era technology. After that and war just gets boring until you end up in space. Cover is temporary and made from royalty-free stock images while waiting for the real cover's commission to finish.
8 129The Art Of The Popup Dungeon
A metahuman in a world of superheros uses their power to create a dungeon in order to get stronger and achive thier goals. Updates weekly.
8 89The Bromance Scheme (boyxboy) (Editing)
I took a deep breath, it was my turn and I was already feeling uneasy about this game. I sat there waiting to hear my 'death sentence'."Justin I dare you to kiss Jason," Hannah said grinning. I went numb those six words echoed in my ears I froze. If I don't then they would know that the scheme we had for so long was fake and if I do I know it would change our friendship forever."Well go ahead we all know about the budding 'bromance' or romance shall I say between you two, we just want to see it ourselves," she continued that made no sense to me I wanted to curse her but it was as if my lips were stapled together. I looked around at everyone in the small circle the girls were grinning and blushing , the boys were smirking then I looked at Jason he had the same facial expression.I finally snapped back to reality when I realize she was pushing me towards him.... I took a deep breath and leaned forward....This is happening because of our little scheme and I guess our sins caught up with us now we have to face them.... I know this will change everything forever....All Rights Reserved-DarkOverlordKira Get your own Ideas ... ._. Copyright ©
8 133Actors in love- Javon Walton
15yr old y/n live with her dad in Atlanta. She was casted for the role of Ashtray's girlfriend/lover in season 2 of euphoria. She meets the cast and becomes very close with them, especially Javon. After filming the two find out they live next door and soon y/n becomes best friends with Javon and his family but then they feel feelings that are more than just friendship ones towards each other. read to find out :) WARNING: this story doesn't contain major Smut. there will be kissing/making out and cuddling but nothing more. I am not trying to sexualise Javon in any way.
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