Vivi soared through the sky. Her flame wings beat back the clouds as she rushed forward at top speed.
Usually, this kind of energy expenditure would be considered reckless and putting her at risk. Now, she had no time to care. Smoke rose in the horizon. The smoke of Ouagadougou—the capital of Burkina Faso. Her headquarters.
She sped through the air and over the walls. The people below shouted at her, but the wind stole their words. Her wings took her to the presidential palace c...
2023-04-07 17:36:01 +0000 UTC
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Jack emerged from the tunnel with a full breath of fresh air.
“Ahh,” he said in mock relief. “Nothing beats a good old desert.”
The Village Ring, unlike what its name indicated, was not a village. It was a scorching desert striped with red and brown sand, complete with a large amount of sun mushrooms a hundred miles overhead, an arid climate, and a whole menagerie of fearsome monsters.
The ring’s name came from the nine villages spread around its surface, each in i...
2023-04-06 17:36:01 +0000 UTC
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Jack appeared in the middle of the shrine with a stumble. The moment reality finished playing around, he scanned his surroundings.
Destruction. The skeleton by the corner was the only thing left untouched. The rest of the shrine was carnage, like someone took a sledgehammer and went to town on it. The thin walls were torn and battered. The floor was upturned. The ceiling had collapsed in places, showering the room with debris.
Not even the statue of Enas had escaped. It lay on the...
2023-04-05 17:36:00 +0000 UTC
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I've been looking forward to this chapter for a while now. Enjoy!
---
A huge circle of darkness was superimposed on Jack’s vision. It was close and far away at the same time. He could sense it just before his eyes, a threat of cosmic scale, but he could also see stars orbiting it in the distance, their shapes twisting and warping, elongated.
In this moment, Jack didn’t have a mind to observe the universe around him. His gaze and soul were captivated by the darkness. He f...
2023-04-04 17:36:01 +0000 UTC
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As the last of Jack’s flame whisked away with a final spark of infinite sadness, gentle warmth filled his entire being, suffocating him, completing him, burying him under power the likes of which he couldn’t even begin to imagine.
His world turned green, a plain of infinite vitality, a pond of life from which he was allowed to drink. His ruined body sucked in the life like a cracked desert absorbs the rain, drinking greedily, desperately. His numbness became infinite pain, filling h...
2023-04-03 17:36:01 +0000 UTC
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His arms was leaden, his body coal. Weakness suffused him, but his Indomitable Body pressed on, guided forward like a precise blade. He was only fighting two robots now—one attacking, one buried under his onslaught of strikes.
He feinted an attack to the right. The defending robot didn’t fall for it, but the attacking one did, swinging where he pretended to go. He moved the other way, dodging the attack, and kept laying on the defender.
His fists erupted with the power of fall...
2023-04-02 16:36:00 +0000 UTC
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Happy new month, everyone! As always, thank you for your support, and enjoy the chapter!
---
He burst with power. His frustration became a deep roar, echoing through the stone walls of the cavern. Suddenly, the previously spacious battlefield seemed cramped, not leaving him much room to dodge. There were sixty-four enemies. Even if all of them were weaker than him, how was he supposed to handle them!?
But even as the doubts were forming in his mind, Jack lashed out with atta...
2023-04-01 16:36:01 +0000 UTC
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There will be 2 weekend chapters again, both on Saturday and Sunday. I'm pushing to stay high on RR's PtW -- and also, come on, I wouldn't leave you on these cliffhangers.
We'll resume normal posting starting next week. Enjoy!
---
As the voice finished ringing, the mists receded completely, vanishing back into the nothingness they came from. The cavern was left empty again, stone the shape of an upturned bowl.
Without power, one’s impact on life is insignificant....
2023-03-31 16:37:00 +0000 UTC
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The moment the voice boomed out, ancient and resounding, Jack’s world changed. He felt the familiar lurch of teleportation for an instant before everything stabilized again.
He wasn’t in a shrine anymore. He stood alone in the middle of a large, dome-shaped room, like an upturned bowl. Stone surrounded him on all sides, with a single sun mushroom hanging from the top of the ceiling, around fifty feet above his head, showering the room in still, yellow light.
Jack looked around...
2023-03-30 16:35:06 +0000 UTC
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A goblin stood in the middle of the high-tech room. The contrast was almost jarring.
Its bare green feet were planted on the immaculate marble floor. It was green, child-sized, and covered in brown rags. Its teeth were sharp, like a dog’s, its eyes were dark beads of hatred, while it rubbed its short claws together, enjoying the prospect of devouring them without the slightest idea of how massive the gap between them was.
“Kekekeke,” it laughed, licking its long, clawed fing...
2023-03-29 16:36:01 +0000 UTC
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The space behind the door was a deep, thick darkness. At first, Jack’s enhanced senses didn’t pick up the slightest hint of light coming from beyond.
Thankfully, they had a torch. Jack waved it before the door, revealing a new corridor, but it was nothing like the tunnels they’d been traversing so far. This one was smooth. Sharp. Carved by tools. There was a slight slope downward but no steps.
Jack gulped. “So,” he said, “are you coming?”
“We can’t just tur...
2023-03-28 16:36:01 +0000 UTC
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The ancient door remained stubbornly shut, its exposed metal glittering in the dwindling torchlight. Jack tried pushing, pulling, even sliding the door. Nothing worked.
“Guess I have to break it,” he concluded after a five-second analysis.
“Oh, give me a rest,” Nauja intervened. Raising her good hand, she wiped off some of the dust that had alighted on the door, revealing a line on the metal underneath it. “See?” she asked. “It’s engraved.”
She then drove h...
2023-03-27 16:40:01 +0000 UTC
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Jack remembered falling. He tumbled through the air, struggling to control his descent through waves of crippling exhaustion, but it was difficult. His body was malfunctioning. His Dao, in disarray.
He accelerated for several seconds. By the end, he thought he was a goner.
Then, he crashed into icy water, and all went black.
***
Jack awoke with a groan, his eyes fluttering open. The darkness was all-consuming, impenetrable. As he’d already opened his eyes, a hint of ...
2023-03-27 16:39:01 +0000 UTC
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Jack’s feet thundered on solid rock. The light had disappeared by now, letting only his weak darkvision steer him away from walls and outcroppings. Nauja was a step in front, running with large strides as she led him deeper in. Jack really hoped she knew the way—and that she could see.
A host of pursuers came after them.
The minotaur, Bocor, was at the front, charging on all fours like a bull. Smoke rose from his nostrils, the ground shook and moaned under his hooves and arms,...
2023-03-27 16:38:00 +0000 UTC
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Four people emerged from the trees; four cultivators led by the Animal Kingdom minotaur. The jungle went quiet as if the animals understood what was about to go down. A breeze came from behind the cultivators, making their long robes flutter, and pulling Jack and Nauja’s hair back.
“Can we help you?” Nauja asked coldly.
Maybe he doesn’t know me, Jack hoped.
“You can’t, but he will,” the minotaur replied leisurely, seeming in complete control, mouth for...
2023-03-27 16:37:01 +0000 UTC
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Five-chapter batch release! Woohoo!
Every once in a while, I enjoy treating you guys. Have fun!
P.S.: The chapters will come at 10-minute intervals, so give it some time if you're fast.
---
“Done!” Jack shouted, pulling open the curtain. The same little cabin waited for him, but he was not the same.
He had fused a Dao Root. He had advanced a skill into a Dao skill. He’d gotten sixty stat points—the equivalent of twelve levels, though only half of those we...
2023-03-27 16:36:00 +0000 UTC
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The two fists clashed in a terrifying explosion. Both bore the Dao of the Fist. They were strong, unrelenting, indomitable. None backed down. Jack’s knuckles ground against the copy’s, and all the amassed power erupted in a ring-shaped shockwave that blasted into the ground.
The grass disintegrated under their feet, leaving a blackened crater the size of a bathtub.
Jack turned and smashed a hook into the copy, which stepped into his guard and shot a straight right into his fac...
2023-03-26 16:36:01 +0000 UTC
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The next few minutes passed quietly. Jack and Nauja were resting on the ground next to the dead t-rex, chests rising and falling with laborious breaths, while Brock kept watch from a high branch.
Nothing disturbed their rest until Nauja stood up. “Let’s go,” she said. “Can you walk?”
Jack groaned. “Letting our bodies go cold was a terrible idea.”
He struggled to stand. When he eventually succeeded, everything hurt. His ribs had cracked from the impacts. His bac...
2023-03-25 17:36:01 +0000 UTC
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With a few hand signals from Nauja, Jack crept towards a fern. Brock hid in the faraway canopy, ready to assist when and if he could. The barbarian herself climbed on a tree branch. She would start shooting the t-rex from afar to weaken it, and then Jack would ambush it as it approached. That was the extent of their plan. After that, they would improvise and hope to survive.
Jack crouched between the ferns, letting the ancient plant caress his skin. The wind slipped through the trees, c...
2023-03-24 17:36:01 +0000 UTC
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Quick good news: This weekend, there will be a chapter both on Saturday and Sunday. Hurray!
---
Jack and Nauja paced through the jungle. The vegetation was dense enough to limit their sight but sparse enough to allow easy passage, while the cave ceiling a hundred miles in the air remained filled with enormous, glowing, yellow mushrooms.
The soil was soft and porous, caving easily under Jack’s feet, and the incessant sounds all around them—from chirps, to buzzing, to rust...
2023-03-23 17:36:00 +0000 UTC
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Jack awoke to a pair of strong hands shaking him.
“Orgh,” he said groggily, rolling over.
“Bro.” A commanding voice reached his ears.
“Ugh… Five more minutes?”
“No.”
“Damn, man.” A yawn. “Is it really time to go?”
“Yes.”
Jack yawned again, then rose to a sitting position and rubbed his eyes. He was in the guest hut of the Tri Lake tribe—little more than a walled-off circle on the soil. There was a fur bed on the floor, ...
2023-03-22 17:36:59 +0000 UTC
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The story got its first advanced review in a while on Royal Road! It feels nice to be compared to such big stories.
If you have a spare few seconds, consider taking a read and upvoting, please -- provided you agree with it. It helps a lot.
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/61041/road-to-mastery-a-litrpg-apocalypse?review=1600442#review-16004...
2023-03-21 17:38:01 +0000 UTC
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Nauja led Jack and Brock through the jungle, ducking under long leaves and parting bushes. The path was easy to follow. After some point, Brock abandoned the ground and began swinging across branches, making excited monkey cries all the while.
“He’s cute,” Nauja said, a smile playing at the ends of her lips.
“Yes, but don’t let him hear that or he’ll be grumpy forever,” Jack replied, laughing. “He’s a big, strong warrior!”
Nauja laughed back. Perhaps it w...
2023-03-20 17:36:01 +0000 UTC
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The ants are dead. Victory is ours. Long live science. Now, I shall celebrate by eating and leaving crumbs on the table.
However, there will be no chapter tomorrow. Things have been a bit hectic these days with personal stuff so I fell slightly behind schedule. Sorry!
On the bright side, things will be picking up soon in Trial Planet. Look forward to it.
---
Jack was doubly stunned.
One, he had just seen and been attacked by a fucking dinosaur. In the fl...
2023-03-17 17:36:01 +0000 UTC
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Small change in previous chapters: The cave ceiling in the previous ring wasn't actually a couple miles high, as I wrote before, but a hundred miles. It is taller than the actual sky of Earth. There were even clouds and stuff. I think that's better imagery.
Plus, I would reaaaally struggle to fill a planet with 3-mile-high rings. We'd be here until Book 78.
Enjoy the chapter!
---
The passage leading to the next ring was a rough tunnel carved into the earth. It was bere...
2023-03-16 17:36:01 +0000 UTC
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Jack yanked at the staff. Hard.
The chamber erupted into chaos instantly. The queen screeched—a harsh, grating sound, the likes of which he’d never heard before. Chittering came from all around, feet stomping on dirt as the ants frantically darted for the entrance of the chamber, assuming there was an enemy coming. The stale air suddenly smelled of ash.
However, the staff in Jack’s hands only budged a little before remaining still.
Fuck.
He couldn’t se...
2023-03-15 17:36:59 +0000 UTC
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Jack and Brock peeked from behind a boulder. The anthill lay right before their eyes, a hundred-foot-tall mound of dirt smelling vaguely of metal. There were black ants running on the sides of the anthill, but far fewer than before. Jack’s hunting had seriously lowered their numbers.
Besides the ants carrying food to the colony, leaving to go search, or adding more dirt to the mound, there were also guards. These were shaped exactly like the other ants—argentine ants had no soldier ...
2023-03-14 17:36:01 +0000 UTC
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I thought I had won the First Ant War. I hadn't seen one of them in three days.
However, it turns out they were just biding their time. Hiding, repopulating, and training. I hadn't exterminated them, only taught them to hide better. When I left the remains of a profiterole in the trash, they arrived en masse.
Like, literally. I must have killed twenty of the fuckers. And when I slid back some bags to trace their nest, I discovered another twenty. In that moment, I realized a truth...
2023-03-13 17:36:01 +0000 UTC
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“You have got to be kidding me,” Jack said in disbelief.
A hundred feet below him, the giant grinned, revealing a set of sharp, yellow teeth. Its eyes stared into Jack’s, and there was no emotion there, only malice.
Forest Giant, Level 122
“Great. And it’s even stronger than the last one!” Jack cursed out loud, still unable to believe what was happening.
Brock, on the other hand, was very much up-to-speed. He shot to his feet and looked...
2023-03-11 17:36:01 +0000 UTC
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“Holy shit!” Jack whispered. “Brock!”
A second face emerged from the leaves, right next to his. Nobody would notice them in such a heated battle, anyway.
The giant roared again, shaking the entire forest. It raised its club high, then brought it down on the minotaur, who raised a tower shield.
The clash was cataclysmic. The earth moaned. The wind stirred. Even the titanic trunks around groaned a bit as the force of the giant crashed down. Jack was horrified; even at ...
2023-03-10 17:36:00 +0000 UTC
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