《Core .001》Volume 01: The path that will forever close (1)
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The next day, we got back up and were forced to again carry the heavy materials and the baggage. Since everyone here was under [Order], they didn’t even bother doing the material count. Of course it was possible that these materials only had moderate value so the middle aged man did not care much about it, and the expensive materials were carried by Ryo. Either way, I managed to sneak a few pieces into my [Item Box] when I was 1000% sure no one would see. I don’t work for free you know... Even with lightening my load a bit, it still was rather heavy due to carrying both the materials and baggage.
After a grueling 10 hours of walking, we ended up coming to a small village. It was about maybe a third the size of Diara Village? There was no adventurers guild here, but luckily there were shops here where we could sell the materials. Which definitely helped with lightening our loads.
I was hoping on picking up some sort of merchant skill when we were in the market, but unfortunately there was no luck. Were they not using any skills? Or did I just have bad luck? Speaking of odd things though, I did not get a skill for horse riding either when I saw the middle aged man and others riding a horse...strange...
When we started going for the Inn though, I noticed a shop by the side with a man sitting smashing a hammer against a metal object on an anvil. And to my delight...
You have acquired a new skill [NP][Blacksmithing] Level 1
Unfortunately I could not stand there for 5 minutes and see if I could get any more levels, so I had to move on. Maybe if I get another chance to pass by I would find out.
When we arrived to the Inn, the middle age man bought himself a room, and a few spots in the stables. One spot for the horse, and the others for us. Either the middle aged man is being cheap, or Inns around here don’t even allow us access. Which would really make things difficult when I plan to go on my own.
Prior to going to sleep, Ryo gave a bit of a heads up on where exactly we are going and why. There have been some strange sightings and monster attacks between this village and the next village over. Our job is to investigate the forest between the two villages. Considering the distance between the two villages, there is a large area to explore. So this will be our last chance to sleep under a roof for a long while.
Since this was a special request, it was hard for the middle aged man to turn it down. And since he was on his way here anyways, he decided to get the [Woodland Ant Queen] nearby.
The nature of the investigation it seems is due to the large amount of monsters that have been attacking both villages. The villages previously sent some lower level adventurers but they never heard back from them again.
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That does sound quite worrying and makes me wonder on what I should do. These kind of vague investigations rarely end well based on my knowledge. But then I probably shouldn’t conflate literature knowledge with real life ones ha? I don’t think anything could kill that middle aged man, but him using us as bait when it gets dicey is something he most definitely could do. I saw it first hand with the [Woodland Ants] subjection where he had me distract those ants despite me not being bait anymore.
But on the other hand, there is plenty of advantages here as well. The most obvious advantage is that if we plan on staying in the wilderness for a while, that means fighting a lot of different monsters. And if it is anything as fruitful as the [Woodland Ant] subjugation, I can get both skills and levels with minimum risk. If it gets to a point where he uses the beastkin as bait and runs, I can just run away as well. With my [Sprint] at Level 2, I can probably get away pretty fast, add to it [Charge] and [Jump] and I have a pretty solid escape arsenal.
As the saying goes, the greater the risk, the greater the reward? But then lets look at it another way, if I do run away now, where would I go? If I try to go to a village, they will try to enslave me again. This time there would be no guarantee that the [Slave Collar] would be defective. If I go to the forest, I risk being attacked by monsters, especially when I am sleeping. So it isn’t really a choice between going to the wilderness or not, but to be exact. Going into the wilderness with strong protection or going there without protection.
Not to mention, the party sent before consisted of Rank F adventurers. In comparison, the middle aged man is a upper tier Rank C adventurer. The difference in strength is worlds apart. It would be safe to say the middle aged man has more levels than the entire Rank F party combined.
To put it in some context, the [Woodland Ant Workers] were Rank E monsters. He slaughtered 10 of them in less than 2 minutes. Considering from what I heard prior, he is one of the strongest adventurers in this region, along side his companions. There isn’t a safer spot I can think of to farm levels and skills.
When things are put simply like that, I have no choice but to follow…
.
The next day, we left at around mid-day due to the middle aged man stepping out for last minute supplies. Unfortunately, I was not brought along so I could not get some more of that sweet blacksmithing skill. Blacksmithing is the production skill I am the most excited about because it may allow me to repair the dagger. One can only imagine how powerful that mithril dagger would be once it is fully repaired. But as expected, Level 1 blacksmithing is nowhere enough to repair something made out of mithril. I tried to take a look at it while everyone was sleeping just in case and couldn’t figure out anything at all. There is also a possibility that there is another skill that is necessary for repairing other than blacksmithing. So I am out of luck for the time being.
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Contrary to how we came to this village by road, this time around we traveled exclusively by forest. Probably as part of the investigation. Which made traveling a bit slower and harder. Though on the bright side, the trackers including me got far less luggage to carry. Since our assignment is to look for monsters. The initial goal is to complete our [Smell Sense] and become familiar with the local monster scents. Once that is done, we will search for the source of the anomaly.
Personally, I couldn’t be happier than going on a find monster skill hunt… err.. I mean smell hunt… Of course Kuina and the other non-dogkin are less then pleased about the development due to being forced to carry about 50% more baggage. Taking a quick glance at her, I notice she is already glaring daggers at me… It is not like I am the one who came up with this idea… If you have a problem, take it up with the middle aged man ok? She is most definitely a tsundere! No doubt about it…
Though the trackers also have another job as we move along, pick up any herbs we see. Apparently the middle aged man is pretty stingy and does not want to give up the herb revenue while we are passing by.
We travel for about an hour and do not come across any monsters so far. Which is pretty normal, all things considering. Only after 2 hours did we finally pick up some scents. To be more accurate 3 scents. We first target one of the scents, which seems to be a mammal scent and head towards it.
It took us about 30 minutes to reach where the scent originated from, and standing there next to a tree is a weird looking beaver. According to [Identify] it is a [Terranian Beaver]. It does not take long for the beaver to notice our rather large group and start running for us.
I simply can’t wait to see what skills I’ll get!
In response, the middle aged man takes out a dagger, and flings it at the [Terranian Beaver] killing it instantly.
You have acquired a new skill [NA][Throw] Level 1
Okay… I did not see that one coming… I do appreciate the [Throw] skill despite me already having the racial one as I can combine the two. The bigger issue is that I did not think of a possible downside to being protected by someone who is “too strong”. The fact that the monsters don’t even get a chance to use their skills! If he just kills them too fast, I am out of luck…
With that sad realization, we head for the next scent which seems to be some sort of reptile?
It takes us about an hour to reach it due to some detours we needed to take due to crossing a river and etc. But we finally arrived where the reptile monster should be. The scent of the monster seems to be coming from the tree. But we see nothing hiding on top of the tree or next to it. Is the tree some kind of reptilian monster? It looks like a normal tree to me...
Obviously though we keep our distance from it, just because we can’t identify it does not mean we should carelessly go into its attack range. Though if the middle aged man gets impatient, he might just send one of the beastkin he uses as bait to check it out.
To have a better view, I activate [All-Observing-Eyes]. With my improved vision, I look around the tree carefully and notice something. I keep staring at the anomaly for a good half a minute and what I have been waiting for appeared.
You have acquired a new skill [RA][Blend Stealth] Level 1
Yey! My survival skills are going up! But as always, fate will never let me have my 5 minutes as the middle aged man begins to get irritated. Since I am not going to get another skill level from it now, might as well as make the best of it… I take a rock and combining by two [Throw] skills, I throw it at the [Terranian Iguana] which blended in rather perfectly with the tree. The [RA][Throw] is weaker than [NA][Throw] but allows for more control, since I am a good distance away I make sure [RA][Throw] is focused on accuracy over more damage. While [NA][Throw] will do most of the damage, in this way I combine the two skills.
You have dealt 34 damage to the [Terranian Iguana] !
Since [Blend Stealth] requires a target to be perfectly still, it quickly gets thrown out of stealth on impact. Once spotted, the pissed middle aged man charges forward and with a strong motion impales the [Terranian Iguana] to death.
You have acquired a new skill [NA][Impale] Level 1
Ooh! Nice, yet another skill! The skill fest continues!
Unfortunately the 3rd smell is all too familiar with me, it was a [Giant Rat]. So there was no skills for me to gain there. The middle aged man again killed it by throwing a dagger, and unfortunately [Throw] skill did not seem to rise.
We continued for about 3 hours through the forest and did not find any other new scents while avoiding monsters. Afterwards, the middle aged man ordered that we set up camp. It was somewhat early to do that, but we found a rather safe area and wanted to take advantage of it. So with that we retired for the day.
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RE: Souls War Apocalyse
When I and every other humans on earth have been summoned to the cursed world of Yvelmore, to serve as a front-line soldier in an impossible war against an invasion of nightmarish creatures, I knew right away that something was going to go wrong. I was right. The war? Hell, we lost it so much all the nations of the world have been destroyed and all the races have disappeared. Me? I was a veteran who survived until the end. Was I strong? Fuck yeah of course I was, except ... it was useless, I died like everybody else. The bad news? When I thought it was finally over, I woke up in the past, the moment I was summoned to the beginning of the war. Come on, seriously? Do I really have to go through all that again? What? And everything restarts every time I die? No... are you fucking kidding me? Right? Genre: Action, Adventure, Medieval Apocalypse, Times Loops, Progression, War & Fantasy, Grimdark, Magic, Horror, LitRPG (but RP). Tone: Despair at the firsts chapters (which makes sense for a story that begins with the end of the world, doesn't it?), and lots of humor and stupid situations after to lighten the tone of the story. (Oh, and the MC is NOT a psychopath, a rapist, a hypocrite, or human garbage, so sorry for those who like that, because I don't like that). Note: Expect this story to contain grammatical errors and occasional random conjugations. I am learning English, and I have made a lot of progress, but I still have some gaps. So if you're allergic to it, don't read this story, you would inevitably be disappointed.
8 183Magic System: Becoming a Deity
There's a saying that difficult times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men and weak men create difficult times. This is the story of a man that by chance of perhaps destiny thrives to become a magician capable of protecting the human race from the threat of the demon race. I do this for fun and to improve my writing, so feedback and constructive criticism is greatly appreciated. This story is also being posted on webnovel.com under the username Avner. I will leave this discord link where we can discuss plot and characters. https://discord.gg/EjZ8hc6 I don't own the cover but according to google the picture is Boom Shiva by Android Jones if you want me to take down this picture please contact me and I would do so as briefly as possible
8 129Tale of the Forgotten Heretic
"History is written by the victors, while the defeated are forgotten." But what if what's written of the past is but a mere fragment of the whole truth? Come and join me on this lost history to find out what really happened during the Era of Darkness. Uncover the hidden past of the Hero King and his rise to power. Refusing to let his birth dictate his life, he takes up his righteous sword granting true freedom for the people of the land. But little does history let us know of another hero who prevented the downfall of man. One who fought for what he believed was right, always moving forward to the end for his cause. But why does no one remember such a man accomplishing this grand feat while the Hero King is praised for his work as he rules from his high throne? It's simple really. This unsung hero was branded as a blasphemer, despised by the Church for his ideals and beliefs seen as heresy, never to be rewarded for his meritorious deeds. Come, read this story so that the true history may never be lost from the eyes and ears of our descendants. Come and witness the Tale of the Forgotten Heretic. Release Schedule: Whenever.
8 111The Life Not Worth Living (HaikyuuxReader)
(Y/N) (L/N) the girl who's done nothing but suffer and live a life that's no longer worth living. So why right when she's about to end it all, right when she thinks she can free herself from all her troubles. Did she meet four first years that remind her so much of four people she hoped to see in the afterlife?Warning: Mentions of suicide, self harm, blood, and death (Please don't read if these topics make you uncomfortable)-I do not own Haikyuu or any of it's character!!-ANGST - READ AT YOUR OWN RISK -
8 98ᴠɪʟʟᴀɪɴᴇss ɪs ᴛʜᴇ sɪsᴛᴇʀ ᴏғ ʜᴇʀᴏɪɴᴇ
Warning : UNEDITED (I won't change any grammars in the story, forgive me)Viola is the youngest child and the lost daughter of Duke Univers. Ever since the Duke found her and learning that Viola is his real daughter, she started to live with them under the name Viola Univers.But being a total brat who's always throwing tantrums, she didn't get anyone's favour, not her brothers or father. Everything start to get worse when she turned 16. A new sister comes and claimed herself as the illegitimate child of the Duke. Being lovely, cheerful, and kind, she gain everyone's favour immediately even her own father and brothers.Viola couldn't accept it and bully her as she treats her sister very badly that Viola even attempted to kill her. In the end, Viola got executed for her crimes. But after Viola open her eyes, she found herself being a 9 years old again!? This time, she'll treasure her family and won't make any mistakes.___________________________Side Note :COMPLETED Reverse Harem with Main Love Interest*WARNING :COMPLICATED StorylineCOMPLICATED ExplanationRUSHED Storyline Random Update Spelling Mistakes and Grammar
8 147The Apex
You awaken to find everything you’ve ever known gone. The flow of time has wiped away all association. No longer chained or burdened by your fate. What will you do when you realize for the first time that you are truly free? Follow this man as he journeys to find new meaning for his life. A/n: Hello! Wanted to try writing so here I am. If you have time, leaving some 'constructive' criticism would be greatly appreciated. Also there will be swearing, gore, sexual stuff, etc.
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