acaswell

Chapter 201: Mana and Multiverses - Markets and Multiverses

“So if we were interested in taking you up on your offer, how would Anise actually go about changing her body?” I asked the hologram.

The hologram looked down at the table, before glancing at Anise thoughtfully.

“To undergo the body-reshaping process, you need to lay down on the table with your head resting next to the orb. If you do that for a few minutes, the table will start the operation. It takes about an hour to finish,...

Chapter 200: Multiverses and Markets - Markets and Multiverses

Chapter 200: Soul Fragment - Markets and Multiverses

I froze.

“Market?” I asked. I had heard the holographic man’s words clearly the first time, but a huge part of my brain just short-circuited the moment the hologram mentioned information that it shouldn’t have.

Nobody else in the other dimensions we had entered had ever displayed any awareness of the Market. This was a first for me. My thoughts started racing.

Chapter 154 - A Budding Scientist in a Fantasy World

“Ethan,” hissed Alice, as her heart hammered against her ribs. She had already been nervous when two near-Immortals had come: now that she knew there was an actual Immortal creeping around the battlefield, she felt like she was suffocating from fear. “There is an actual Immortal among the Society attackers. There are two near-Immortals and an actual Immortal.”

Ethan scanned the area and frowned. “Are you sure?” he asked, as h...

Chapter 199: Heirs of Zelyr - Markets and Multiverses

The four of us stepped into the darkness, as I did my best to keep an eye on the strange dimensional warping taking place in our surroundings. It was clearer and easier to detect the spatial warping happening in our surroundings now that we had entered the corridor: it felt almost like we had stepped into an entirely new dimension.

The feeling of essence moving in a constant rhythm was also stronger inside of this tunnel, and I had an ev...

Chapter 198: Halls of Stone - Markets and Multiverses

Once we found a camp and set up a campfire, Old Mo proved surprisingly easy to talk to about our desire to leave at nighttime. He gave me a dubious glance, before he looked at Sallia, and then looked at the guns we were carrying with us. He made me check how much ammunition I had brought with me twice, and after that, patted me on the shoulder and told me to stay safe.

I had expected old Mo to put up more resistance against us leaving, b...

Chapter 197: Orb - Markets and Multiverses

<Your orb is heating up?> I asked, my mind whirring as I tried to sort through the implications of Anise’s statement.

For years, Anise and I had tried to figure out what her orb was supposed to do. It emitted a small amount of manifestation essence, so the two of us had always assumed it would let Anise cast spells from a manifestation essence system. but so far, neither of us had ever gotten the blasted thing working. After a ye...

Chapter 153 - A Budding Scientist in a Fantasy World

When Alice heard that Immortals or near-Immortals from the Society had possibly come for her, she felt like someone had dumped a bucket of ice water on her.

The Society had already attacked her last month, when they had thrown several agents at Ethan’s manor. However, Alice had hoped that the Society would back off after that. They had stolen several notes from various researchers in Illvaria, and if they acted again, it would only mak...

Chapter 196: Ruins - Markets and Multiverses

The next day, we stopped hugging the outskirts of the mountain and started heading directly into the mountains.

Once we left the outskirts of the mountains, I started to notice that the essence in our surroundings was very… odd. Rather than simply drifting about, the essence in the mountains seemed to surge and ripple at constant intervals. It almost looked like a machine - every single rhythmic pump of the essence in our surroundings ...

Chapter 195: Mountains - Markets and Multiverses

After we discussed our abilities with the group, the next night, as we set up camp, Old Mo pulled me aside and asked me a few questions.

“Miria, have you thought about what you want to do in the future? What do you want to be when you grow up?” Old Mo hesitated. “I know you’ve already talked about your healing ability, and I was talking about a backstory that might work for you. But does that… make you happy?”

I didn’...

Chapter 194: Ability Potions - Markets and Multiverses

After we wiped out the group of soldiers that had tracked us down, we didn’t run into anyone else for the rest of the day. Old Mo kept us moving at a decent pace, but didn’t talk much, and the rest of the group also seemed stunned by the bloodshed and revelations they had experienced earlier that day.

The parents seemed particularly surprised after seeing metal fragments zipping through the air and wiping out the soldiers. I didn’t...

Chapter 152 - A Budding Scientist in a Fantasy World

“So we’re leaving Cyra soon?” asked Alice.

Ethan nodded. “With the supply lines for enchanting materials established, everything in Cyra seems to be moving in the right direction. I think it’s time to go.”

Alice nodded. To be honest, she felt a bit of relief at the idea of leaving Cyra and returning to Metsel soon. The idea that large numbers of monsters were now active in the world and were moving around in large, orga...

Chapter 193: Tracked - Markets and Multiverses

Our group was silent as we packed everything up and started traveling away from the group of people heading towards us. I kept a close eye on them using my soul-sight, and Felix constantly fed that information to Old Mo. The group of travelers kept getting closer to us as we stuffed everything into our bags and got moving.

I hoped that they were just another group of travelers, or perhaps another group of refugees fleeing the oncoming ar...

Chapter 192: Mother - Markets and Multiverses

“Miria?” asked my mother.

I looked at my mother, who was sitting in the grass next to the dirt. Her eyes were clearer than usual. It didn’t look like she was completely here - but she looked more lucid than she had in months.

“Mama?” I asked. I felt a twinge of anxiety crawl down my spine and towards the tips of my fingers and toes.

I had dragged my mother out of the city while she was still asleep, without informin...

Chapter 191: Abilities - Markets and Multiverses

Our group spent nearly four hours walking along the road before it started to get dark. We spent most of that time simply putting one foot in front of the other. Old Mo didn’t seem very interested in answering other people’s questions after his short conversation with Felix, and Anise’s parents and Sallia’s parents seemed tired from the long trek. Sallia and Anise were doing just fine, thanks to the occasional renewals I tossed at them...

Chapter 151 - A Budding Scientist in a Fantasy World

As Alice walked out of the experiment room, she took a moment to purify her mana, and then scanned over her System notifications.

She nodded to herself.

You have leveled up!

Careful Enchanter : 32   -> 34, Scientist 65 -> 66

With the levels she had gained from the experiments, Alice was only one level away from her next Perk in [Careful Enchanter].

There were no ot...

Chapter 190: Into the wilderness - Markets and Multiverses

As they walked past the barricade and out of the city, Felix felt a weight start to lift off of his shoulders, and he had to focus to avoid breathing a long, heavy sigh of relief as he felt the pressure of avoiding the soldiers of the government, the poverty of the slums, and the danger of the ever-present gangs slide away from him.

He took a final look at the city they were leaving. He looked at the giant clocktower in the distance, the...

Chapter 189: First Steps out of the City - Markets and Multiverses

After we arrived, we saw Sallia and Anise arrive with their parents. I took a moment to inspect them.

Anise’s parents looked fit and healthy. They had a sort of dazed demeanor about them, despite the fact that they were preparing to flee the city. I got the impression that they weren’t really used to handling hardships or calamities. Anise’s father even had a very slight potbelly. He had crinkles around his eyes that made me think ...

Chapter 188: Leaving the City

The next day, those with parents started trying to convince them that fleeing was the right decision.

Sallia had the easiest time of it. Her parents were aware of my existence, since both of us lived in the slums and there was no reason to keep our friendship hidden. When Sallia mentioned that Verne had lost fort Branzo, her parents got very twitchy. A big loss on the front lines probably meant that the army recruiters would be more desp...

Chapter 150 - A Budding Scientist in a Fantasy World

While Alice was asleep, she found herself within her dream library, as usual. Originally, this made Alice grin – she had just been thinking about how she wanted to test out the spidercrab shells she had spotted, and now, a golden opportunity had appeared.

Then, she realized that she had actually forgotten to grab the spidercrab corpses and stuff them into her storage Perk. Her dream library had a lot of functions, now that multiple Per...

Chapter 187: Wars - Markets and Multiverses

I walked into Old Mo’s bakery, and I was surprised to see that there weren’t many customers there. Old Mo’s bakery usually started to get more business around dinnertime, since that was when the red light district started to get more customers. However, even though it was approaching the evening, there wasn’t a single customer in sight when I walked in.

I frowned, and used my spatial sight to look at everything nearby. The first ...

Chapter 186: Guns - Markets and Multiverses

“Guns?” I asked, as Felix led me back towards my room.

Felix nodded, while grinning at me. A few moments later, he rummaged around in the bottom of the closet I had given to him, before he pulled out a large box. His grin grew even wider as he handed the box to me.

“Guns!” he proclaimed proudly. “Well, a gun. I spent a long time trying to figure out how to make them, and I haven’t made more than one yet. But I ...

Chapter 185: Time’s Worn Tracks - Markets and Multiverses

After my failed conversation with my mother, I didn’t try to engage with my mother again. I still wanted her to get better, but most of the time she was lost in a drug-induced haze, and I firmly remembered how badly my first attempt to help her get clean had gone. I couldn’t communicate with her when she was high, and when she was lucid she adamantly refused to change.

Sallia was the one who had the firmest stance against my mother w...

Chapter 149 - A Budding Scientist in a Fantasy World

Alice had someone get her a few old iron rings to start her first experiment with System enchanting. Most System enchantments were on rings or articles of clothing, and while Alice wasn’t entirely sure why that was the case, it didn’t hurt to follow suit until she knew more.

It only took a [Servant] twenty minutes to get her a small crate of cheap, worn-out iron rings. Alice pulled out her first iron ring, and started thinking about ...

Chapter 184: Fizz - Markets and Multiverses

“Miria!” called out my mother again.

I felt a glimmer of excitement as I thought about the first real conversation I would have with my mother in this life. Thus far, she had been in a drug trip almost every time I interacted with her, and seeing her lucid for the first time in months brought hope for a real change. I wanted my mother to get better in this life. And having a real conversation with her was the foundation for improving...

Chapter 183: Shapeshifting - Markets and Multiverses

Once the more unpleasant part of the conversation was over, the group chatted for a few more minutes, before I ended the group mental call. After all, there were other things I still needed to do.

“Let’s take a look at your face,” I said as I turned towards Felix. “I promised that I’d help you change it around, and now seems like the best time to get started. Are there any modifications you want me to focus on?”

“Hmm�...

Chapter 182: Mental Privacy - Markets and Multiverses

After I gave Felix his breakfast, I sighed, and sat down.

“Is something wrong?” he said after seeing my expression. “If there’s something you need to talk about, just say it. You don’t have to be nervous.” He seemed almost expectant.

“I need to talk. Not just with you, but everyone,” I said, after a moment.

Felix nodded. “If you really need advice or want to talk about something, we’re here for you,” he ...

Chapter 148 - A Budding Scientist in a Fantasy World

Now that Alice had tested out magic seed combination, and made a few theories about the origin of the recent monster mutations, she had two Perks left to pick.

First, Alice looked at her new [Survivor] Perk choices. [Survivor] was the closest Class she had to a combat class, and Alice needed to find a way to defend herself against Society attacks and monster attacks. Especially with the recent increase in the strength and intelligence of...

Final Thumb Update (hopefully)

Final Thumb update (Hopefully).

Aight, so update on the thumb situation.

Doctor says that what most likely happened is that I strained the tendons in my hands by a lot, essentially bending both of my thumbs back way more than my tendons are meant to handle. And that overusing my tendons has likely kept my hand from healing up quite as well as it normally would have over the month and a half or so that my thumbs have hurt..

Th...

Chapter 181: Rewards - Markets and Multiverses

When morning came, I felt less exhausted, so I finally started going over the Achievement rewards we had gotten while rescuing Felix. There were quite a few of them, and a few of them made me scratch my head in puzzlement, because they had some rather interesting implications.

The first System messages were fairly normal.

Slaughter: Kill a Human who has consumed and absorbed an Ability potion

Achievement +300...

Thumb update

Quick update

So, updating ya’ll about the thumb/doctor situation.

Doctor appointment is scheduled for Thursday (Thursday in my time zone, anyway). I won’t be doing any writing on that day.

Markets and Multiverses readers, expect a chapter on Wednesday (or whatever day of the week I usually upload the first MaM chapter for your timezone). Then no chapter on Thursday, and whether there will be a chapter on Friday is current...