《Binary Progression》Volume 5 - Chapter 35: A favour~
Advertisement
Moomglade, the zone was falling apart, massive trees were cut, houses flattened, entire islands demolished.
Abby, Vinnel and PastaFiend hid from the skeleton in the basement of a nearby house.
They were all badly hurt and low on health.
"Looks like I underestimated it..." Abby sighed.
"I knew I shouldn't have let Malagmus in here..." she thought.
Vinnel was using a barrel as a seat as he looked down to the ground, twiddling his thumbs.
The ceiling above them trembled as the skeleton slashed buildings apart on his quest.
PastaFiend was slowly healing his missing arm.
Nobody had anything to say, they all knew defeating the skeleton was their only chance at survival, but they were powerless to act, stuck sitting around on their asses while their home was being destroyed above.
That's when they heard the loud noise outside.
Like the sound of metal hitting metal.
"I FACE THEE AT LAST!" Bonifacius exclaimed, his shield smashing into the skeleton, its body smashing through a window and into an unlit house.
Moments later the roof exploded as the scythe-wielding skeleton launched itself through it and into the air.
It landed in the ground by impaling its scythe into Bonifacius' shield, the clash of the two weapons went nowhere as neither yielded.
The skeleton, Monoblum let go of the scythe, using his hands to grab onto Bonifacius' throat only to once again be launched back, this time by a stream of water to his side.
Monoblum's eyes focused on Revenberry standing a fair distance away from Bonifacius.
"Tidal jet!" she thought as from her hand came a stream of water powerful enough to pin the skeleton to the wooden walls of a nearby house before they shattered.
In a flash, an explosion of green launched the skeleton past Bonifacius and towards Revenberry.
"Abyssal grasp!" she cast the spell as from the water came a hand-shaped water-tentacle grabbing onto Monoblum, weeds and fish suspended within as if they were just going about their everyday water-business.
He evaded the hand, summoning another scythe mid-air and going in for a kill on Revenberry before being pulled into the hand by a goose growing out of the water.
Revenberry breathed a sigh of relief.
"Thanks, though I was actually gonna die!" she remarked.
Crown was standing in the opposite direction, past Bonifacius,
The sight of Crown's ability sent the skeleton into a blind fury as he gripped the scythe tightly and scanned the area in search of the caster.
The skeleton was tossed into the massive lake with enough force to make it skip atop the water's surface like a flat rock.
"One... two... three! Three skips!" Revenberry cheered before retreating behind Bonifacius to proceed as John planned.
Advertisement
After that the skeleton finally sank, falling down to the dark depths of the lake before clawing its way out, as an undead it could see underwater flawlessly.
Monoblum leapt out of the water only to be intercepted in the air by Bonifacius' charge ability, thrusting them both across the lake and into the designated area.
As they hit land they were forced into a tumble on the ground, Bonifacius clung to the skeleton as it tried to escape.
Finally, it kicked Bonifacius off, swiftly moving its scythe to slash him before he even landed, only to be met with a dagger to each wrist. Both John and the Thief swooped in from above, taking a skeleton hand each before backing away.
Bonifacius landed before using Colossus roar to grab the skeleton's attention.
It worked, the skeleton snapped towards Bonifacius as it was lifted into the air by the pocket of water it now found itself in.
"I got him!" Foxly exclaimed as from behind a tree appeared Steve,
"Here I go!" Steve said excitedly as a gust of sand came from his hand.
The water whirled in one direction, so quickly that it became white with foam, Steve used sand swirling in the opposite direction to erode the skeleton within.
After a cautious five minutes, Foxly finally released the spell as he breathed a sigh of relief, in the puddle of water lay a white, chalky pulp.
Slowly it began to take shape once more.
"It's not dead yet!" Steve exclaimed.
Everyone looked at the slime-like pulp.
"We must make haste and defeat it!" Bonifacius exclaimed.
"Hold on..." John said, hopping down from a tree with a loud crunch.
"Shit... I keep forgetting to activate cat's fall..." John thought.
With his now broken, shaky legs he John approached the skeleton-pulp.
He extended his hand towards the white pulp as the purple-black tendril make their way towards the skeleton's soul.
In an instant, JohnWillStab was greeted with silence.
The memories of this individual seemed blank at first sight.
No hearing, no scent, no taste, no feel, even sight was more of a stream of information than true sight.
JohnWillStab looked through the skeleton's memories and they were nothing more than blackness, since day one in this world, darkness.
The occasional thought came into view whenever his "eyes" saw Crown, "FIX IT!"
Within only minutes of feeling this void, JohnWillStab was starting to feel sick, he pulled his tendrils off the skeleton, as soon as their connection broke John gasped for air.
"What is it?!" Foxly asked.
JohnWillStab looked to the white pulp that slowly took shape, a piece of a skull was beginning to form, in one socket a green ball of light that acted as an eye.
Advertisement
Like a compass, it pointed towards one person as from behind John came the rest of the group, Crown and Revenberry.
JohnWillStab noticed this and came up with a theory.
John opened his friends-list communication and spoke directly to Bromy.
"What's up?" Bromy asked.
"We found the skeleton and... immobilized him..." John explained looking at the skeleton's remains.
"We'll be taking the leftovers to the little village," John continued.
"Right, I'll let Larry know..." Bromy replied before hanging up.
JohnWillStab scooped the skeleton pulp into a small sack and carried it over his shoulder.
"Quickly, before it gets bigger!" John exclaimed.
The Thief, Crown, Bonifacius, Foxly and Revenberry hurried back to the town where they met up with Bromy and Larry.
"We got him!" Foxly exclaimed,
Bromy lit a cigarette.
"What now?" he, looking at the bag.
Larry was looking through the homes in search of any remaining people.
"Crown, he's very obviously after you, Is this like you ex-skeleton?" John asked.
"I ONLY HAVE ONE SKELETON!" Crown replied.
"UNLIKE SOME PEOPLE!" she continued looking at Bromy.
"...hmmm" John scratched his head.
"Did you... piss off any skeletons in-game?" he asked.
"No... Nobody plays as a skeleton since its annoying, you can't see or hear anything - it's never meant to be played, but much like many other things, the devs never removed it..." Crown explained.
"I really dodged a bullet in chapter one... what if I picked a skeleton?!" John though trying to keep a straight face.
JohnWillStab got another idea.
"Did you, turn someone into a skeleton?" John asked.
"..." Crown thought about the question.
"Now that you mention it..."
Crown thought about it before remembering what happened.
"Two years ago, some guy tried to get me banned so I turned him into the worst race, undead, specifically the one-hundred percent decayed one!" she exclaimed with a sudden gasp of realisation.
"That explains it!" John said patting himself on the back.
"Mystery solved gang!" John exclaimed.
"That was fast..." remarked the Thief.
"Yeah, Bony did all the fighting..." Bromy sighed.
"Hold on, are you saying this is the person I turned into a skeleton?!" Crown asked.
JohnWillStab nodded.
"That would make sense, right?" he laughed.
"So... I screwed up his character..." Crown thought.
"He's stuck playing an undead... how terrible..."
"That last comment was unnecessary...!" John thought keeping a straight face.
"Yeah, well - he's been living without any senses for the last month!" John exclaimed.
"What?! Tis terrible!" Bonifacius exclaimed.
"In some less than ethical experiments done in the past, people couldn't deal with losing two senses for a few hours, imagine losing all of them for a month..." Bromy remarked.
Crown was overcome with a feeling of guilt.
"Wait... it's my fault...?" she thought.
"It's my fault this whole zone is wrecked..."
"It's my fault this random person lost his mind..."
"And I can't even fix it..."
Crown looked down to the ground.
"And now... he's going to have to be perma-killed or locked away somewhere because I fucked up..."
"Over a stupid game..."
A few tears began to run down Crown's face as she thought about the person she doomed, they could have had friends or family, maybe some of those people are in this world.
"I ruined an innocent person's life... over nothing..."
"I never wanted this to happen..." she said quietly.
Crown felt a hand push down on her head once more, she looked up and saw it was Bromy.
"Quit crying like its the end of the world, what kind of main character are you?" he sighed.
"I'm not-...!" she was cut off when Bromy called out into the forest.
"I know you're there, Malagmus! Get your ass out here!" Bromy exclaimed.
A few moments later Malagmus walked out of a nearby bush, seemingly unhurt.
"Oh, hi, didn't notice you there!" he laughed awkwardly.
Bromy let out a sigh.
"Make the skeleton a meat-suit," Bromy ordered.
"..."
"..."
"..."
Everyone looked at Bromy and Malagmus in awkward silence.
"Sorry, no can do!" Malagmus said with a shrug.
Crown looked down in defeat.
"I knew it was impossible..." she said.
Bromy gave Malagmus a cold stare.
"..."
Malagmus sighed.
"Maybe if I was to be compensated handsomely..." Malagmus began.
Crown looked up.
"I guess I do owe you guys a bit of an apology for bringing the skeleton here, he just kind of followed me so I signed him up for the fight," Malagmus continued.
"..."
"Wait, you can seriously make the undead not-undead?!" asked JohnWillStab.
"Like I said... If I was to be compensated fairly..." Malagmus repeated,
Bromy let out a sigh.
"Fine, what do you want?" he asked.
"Mmmm...." Malagmus scratched his chin.
"I dunno... It'll take me some time to figure that out... I think of that part afterwards!" Malagmus offered.
Bromy placed his hands in his pockets.
"Forget it, then,"
"Whatever," Malagmus shrugged.
Advertisement
- In Serial20 Chapters
Sword System Academia
2/17 NOTICE: I'm putting this on hiatus, possibly permanently. I didn't want to spam with an "update chapter", so hopefully here and in the story blurb will get enough eyeballs. There are a couple reasons for ending SSA for now. 1) I wrote the next chapter but wasn't happy with it. I've been less and less satisfied with SSA's quality the more I thought about it. Part of the reason is... 2) I am seriously thinking about trying to publish some novels to help pay the bills, since I don't have my other source of income anymore. I have never asked for anything from SSA readers, no money, not even a review or rating. SSA is written for fun to amuse myself, primarily, and I would kind of feel bad actually charging someone money for something as unserious as that. I don't think it is good enough to ask anything in return. To use an analogy from music, SSA is more like a jam session with a bunch of friends. You're just chiling and having fun playing some music. I mean, if you are Mozart or even Eminem, your jam session is good enough to sell, but for an amateur beginner like myself, haha, no. If I want to publish something, I feel like I need to go the proper route of practice and rehearsals, which might be more similar to a classical concert performance. With SSA, I work from worldbuilding notes and a loose outline, but what you are essentially getting is the first draft with lots of so-called pantsing. Pushing out a web novel like this also means it is very difficult to go back and improve things without breaking everything else downstream. I wanted to try this "jamming" approach, as it was a good way to teach me about another aspect of writing, but to move forward, I think I need to hone my "classical" techniques, which emphasize rewriting, or at least, revising outlines. 3) While I intend to try to make $$$, my actual current goal is to "get gud". I've spent a lot of time recently trying to understand the self-publishing industry, and I'm pretty sure I can make some money by using short-term strategies with my current amateur skill level. But I've seen too many authors come and go/burnout, and really, the only way that I think I can enjoy writing and still make money on a long-term basis is to become a better writer. And the next step for me, which I haven't done much before, is to spend more time on rewriting and outlines. That is pretty much antithetical to the way SSA is developing. I've always been kind of 20/80 plotting/pantsing, but I want to spend a lot more time outlining before I even start writing. SSA jam sessions don't really fit my goal anymore. If you're curious about what's next, read on... Among other regrets, I regret not finishing SSA. It's the first story I've dropped, but then again, it's the first web novel I've attempted, so I suppose that's not a surprise. I don't think traditional web novel formats suit me that well. The whole SSA story I had loosely planned (beyond a first book or major arc) is way too large as well. Big story = good for neverending webnovel with Patreons, bad for penniless and fickle writer like me. I am currently outlining a complete trilogy to another story in great detail. I want the story to end concisely, and I also want the chance to really spend a lot of time on the full outline to spot pacing problems, character issues, lost themes, and so on. I'll still share this story on RR. What I intend to do is finish book 1, flash-publish the whole thing here for a few weeks, then publish on the big Zon. Repeat for books 2 and 3. The upcoming story will be about crafting heroes. The backdrop is an isekai-like setting, where elves will summon humans to their world as heroes, but the whole hero crafting business is still in its infancy. The elven mage researchers are figuring out how to imbue heroes with power, while the heroes are trying to figure out how to use the powers that they gain. Humans are the best hero templates because they are blank and have no intrinsic magic. Or at least that what the elves thought. The human MC has his own secrets... There will be some similarities with litrpgs, but I would call it more a progression fantasy or gamelit story. For example, the stats are very low, at least initially. Say we have a stat called Str. Going from Str = 1 to Str = 2 is a huge deal. Also, going from Dex = 0 to Dex = 1 is an even bigger deal. I guess you could call it a "low-stat litrpg", haha. Also, the heroes won't be gaining stats simply by killing things or leveling up. You can't increase stats arbitrarily, either. There will be rules to how stats can increase, and how they work with each other. The elven mages will be figuring out these rules in order to craft stronger and stronger heroes. Some inspiration will be from cultivation magic systems, but there won't be overt cultivation, at least for now. A theme I really want to explore is the idea of interactions. That includes things like hero crafter vs hero, tactics vs strategy, skill synergies, racial interactions (dwarves, elves, etc), and son. Yeah, so hero crafting. I'm super excited about this project and venturing into publishing. If you want to check out the upcoming story, you can follow my RR author profile to see when it drops here. Finally... THANK YOU TO EVERYONE! I'm very sorry that SSA is stopping, but I hope at least some of you will find the next story at least as enjoyable, if not more. Thanks to all the readers who gave SSA a shot. Big hug or solid fistbump to all of you, whichever you prefer! I hope this message is not a downer but an upper, because I am psyched!! -purlcray -------------- BLURB: Talen, youngest Master of the Koroi, makes his way to the Empire's capital to salvage his clan's fate. But the bustling city has few opportunities for the traditionalist. For the old sword clans are fading. With the rise of alchemy, gold can purchase strength that ordinarily took years of training to cultivate. Sword artists, once rare and accomplished, are quickly growing in number, especially among the wealthy noble class. Even with such alchemy, though, no one has advanced to the rank of Grandmaster in countless years. Talen's true dream is to walk the path of a sword artist to the very end while fulfilling his clan duties. And then the Swordgeists return, fabled founders of all sword arts, gods who had touched the world long ago and vanished. These myths turned into reality warn of a coming threat. Alongside this warning, they issue an invitation to the Sword System Academy, a path to power beyond the mortal realm. But first, they will hold an entrance exam... Story notes:Sword System Academia blends elements of western and asian fantasy such as xianxia and litrpg. I took parts from different genres I enjoyed and twisted them into my own creation. There will be an explicit system, both of the litrpg kind and the hard(ish) magic kind, but it is embedded within an academic structure that will develop over the course of the story. This is my attempt to design a unique type of system, the System Academia.
8 153 - In Serial20 Chapters
Azalea
Waking up the middle of nowhere, Lilly finds herself stumbling from one precarious situation to the next as she tries to find her way back to her lovely bed that she worked so hard for. A teen girl finds herself stranded in a world of monsters and dragons, with no way of going back home. Join her on her journey of eating new foods and exploring new realms! At least the world isn't in need of saving... unless? Tentative Release Schedule: Every Three Days. This is my first attempt at writing a proper story so bear with me and please provide feedback as that would be incredibly helpful for the development of my writing! Thank you for your time and I hope you enjoy! This story draws inspiration from some of my most favorite WNs, namely Azarinth Healer, He Who Fights With Monsters, Worth The Candle, and Whisper of the Nightingale. Be sure to check all of them out :D Cover Credit: Rose Miller
8 146 - In Serial40 Chapters
Fate Of The Swordsmen
Anarion Ragnor struggles to move ahead in a world that is on the brink of collapse. Demons, Gods, Undead, Cursed Beings and more are all fighting for control of Terath. Anarion a student on his way to graduation from the Swordsmen Academy struggles to cope with his issues of abandonment while those around him are trying to breach through the emotional mask he wears to protect himself from becoming attached to the people around him. Anarion is forced to live in the Shadow of his older brother who has fastly become one of the most renown Swordsmen alive. Dealing with his insurecity, ineptitude and inner fears. Anarion must face the world and himself. Swordsmen are ancient Warriors who wield legendary blades that can become so powerful they could shatter reality. They also know a unique magic called Elestran.
8 64 - In Serial75 Chapters
What happened in Vegas - English version
Part I(Completed story Part II - coming soon)Hesitantly, I turn my head and look at the other half of the bed. Spellbound, I stare at the back of a man with black hair. The image of Elvis flits through my mind and I swallow dryly. What on earth has happened? I look at the body beside me and my heart beats a few beats faster than normal. Broad shoulders, his back muscles clearly defined and pale flawless skin. His raven hair shines and the sun casts a soft light on his body. My fingertips begin to tingle. A feeling of re-membrance settles over me. My body remembers this man. But I don't know him.Smut and boyslove. Don't like it. Don't read it.The characters belong to Cassandra Clare. The content of the story is mine. Copying is expressly prohibited. English is not my first language. Errors may have occurred in the translation. For every mistake you find, it colors a ride on the Rainbow Express.
8 133 - In Serial31 Chapters
My Fate Is Your Love || KTH FF || ✓
[ COMPLETED ]This book is my first fanfiction and I didn't get time to edit it yet. So you may find some errors in this book. I am sorry for the inconvenience (〒﹏〒)__________________________________Kim Taehyung is a successful business man and a bit introvert person. He has a ability to recognise ones good or evil intentions while calmly observing them. Being a busy person Taehyung doesn't have time to date anyone. And he don't even want to trap himself in this love thing.Y/N is an ambivert person. She is an HR manager in a fashion designing company. Four years ago Y/N was in a relationship but the guy she loved used to control her, abuse her and he even cheated on her. After breakup she didn't get in any other relationship because she don't believe in love anymore.Start: November 2020End: October 2021
8 86 - In Serial6 Chapters
Power rangers (Male reader) Omega red
Travel through the ranger universe, to world where ranger history twists and turns in ways no one can predict. You job is to correct this world's distorted history and correct to what it was. You are the Omega Ranger!
8 108

