Cognosticon

Chapter 55: Monstrous Awakening

Running through the wastes.

Biting deep.

Tasting blood in his mouth.

Reveling in it.

Dreams faded away and Kai tasted only sand and glass. He was lying on his face on the sh...

Chapter 54: Fate Plays Dice

Kai grabbed at Anaelina's wrist, but she was overwhelmingly strong, far more than she should have been. Before his stamina could drain away, he struck her arm with both of his, using leverage to br...

Chapter 53: The Truth of the Laborer Class

Cognosticon here: We just hit 100 followers on RR, so everyone is getting a bonus chapter (right after this). There will be future bonus chapters if either Patreon or the RR following hit certain m...

Chapter 52: The Crossroad of Frontier Travelers

As Kai traveled, he realized just how right Aglahai had been. Away from the major cities with strong Hunters Guilds, there simply weren't many communities so close to the central wastes. In another...

Chapter 51: Wilderness Etiquette

"Oh, come on!" Kai pulled his bow off his back and threw it down on the ground. "I don't want to hurt anyone, and you of all people shouldn't feel threatened!"

The old man blinked at him and ...

Chapter 50: Civility of Another World

As soon as Kai neared the camp in the ruins, he knew that he was unwelcome. Then again, he wasn't sure that anyone was really welcome. It seemed less like a community than a stalemate of criminals ...

Chapter 49: Fragments of a Life

After stumbling in despair for a while, Kai eventually pulled himself together. Not because he had hope. Simply because moving forward was the only thing he knew how to do.

In a sense, he had...

Chapter 48: The Final Stroke of Fate

By the end of the brawl, Kai was swaying on his feet. Taking so many potions at once had worked, but it had been reckless. Far from granting him the abilities of multiple Classes, all the new sourc...

Chapter 47: A Duel of Different Honors

"You're wasting everyone's time," Fhazi said from the safety of his small army. "You know that you'll never come to anything, but you're still consuming Monskon City's resources."

"If you rea...

Chapter 46: One Final Variable

Somehow, one month of training became two. Kai struggled with the intense pace at times, especially days when he woke up exhausted, but he refused to let himself stop. If he wanted to keep up with ...

Chapter 45: Ambiguous Recovery

As he drifted in soft darkness, Kai felt as thought there should be pain. Some animal part of him knew that he was injured and should be fighting for his life. And yet there was only a tight warmth...

Chapter 44: The Isulfr

All of the other monsters had rushed from their gates as soon as the bars retreated enough, but when the Isulfr's cage opened completely, nothing emerged. Kai could feel it within, even aside from ...

Chapter 43: The Monster Pit

"You came after all." The old man scratched at the scar across his scalp. "When you said a month, I figured you would run off."

"Why run off?" Kai pretended that he couldn't feel the monster ...

Chapter 42: What Training Means

So began one of the most intense months of training in Kai's life. He'd always worked hard, but now that he had gathered so much information about different training schedules, he could prepare som...

Chapter 41: Glowing and Burning

Kai lay back in Juray's bed and just existed for a while. The warmth suffused all his muscles, which decided that they didn't need to do anything in particular. Juray yawned and shifted against him...

Chapter 40: The Lower City Tournament

No one actually explained the rules of the tournament clearly, which struck Kai as a terrible idea. There were currently a group of men and women flailing in the ring: all of them had at least G-1 ...

Chapter 39: A New Mood

As Kai walked through town, he tried not to skip like a love-struck idiot. It took some actual discipline, because his mood was fantastic.

From the way veterans complained at the bar, he'd go...

Chapter 38: Not the Intended Advancement

In the days following the confrontation, Kai was surprised by which elements stuck with him. Talking things out with Inafay surprisingly made him feel better, since everything was clear. He didn't ...

Chapter 37: Scorn and Marriage

When it was finally time to meet with Inafay again, Kay found himself oddly nervous. Their relationship had always been comfortable, yet there had been so many new thoughts going through his mind l...

Chapter 36: Social Paths Upward

The next morning Kai began training and he had no idea why. Improving himself felt good... but was that really enough? As he pushed his body to its limits alone in the training yard, he realized th...

Chapter 35: A Conversation Between Adults

The flame immediately coursed through his flesh and Kai gasped. He could feel it reforming, twisting over him. His mana surged wildly, having no idea what to do. Allegedly it was supposed to come i...

Chapter 34: Beyond the Frontier Wall

Kai flailed wildly, hoping he could catch the side of the wall, and did nothing but churn the air. Before he could think of any other plan, he slammed into the ground.

Groaning, Kai slowly ro...

Chapter 33: Reaching the Frontier

As far as Kai had read, there were few nasty tricks when it came to Physique Level. It was simply the raw amount of mana your body could process, which usually happened subconsciously, so people co...

Chapter 32: Picking up Pieces

"Is this about the mission?" Kai nervously looked to see if anyone else was listening. "I'm sorry that we lost hunters, but the situation was more complex than it-"

"I don't give the tiniest ...

Chapter 31: Zae Zin Nim

Being smashed through a table hadn't stunned Kai much, but the hand around his neck felt like steel. How the hell could such a thin woman wield so much strength? She kept him pinned there, apparent...

Chapter 30: Smuggling Foreigners

"Son, if you know what's good for you, you'll turn around and forget you saw anything." One of the larger smugglers lifted a sword in his direction, in case there was any confusion. "This has got n...

Chapter 29: Forgotten, Not Lost

Being abandoned was not, admittedly, the way Kai had hoped his day would go. But truthfully, he was more concerned about the fact that the hunters had so little respect for him than the prospect of...

Chapter 28: What's Left Behind

His failure on the Path of Steel had been gutting at first, but Kai was surprised how quickly he accepted it. Maybe he was getting used to disappointment, or maybe it was just that hopes carried fo...

Chapter 27: Grasping a Path

Kai had worried that he would become disoriented, given that it would be impossible to open his eyes underneath the surface. That was the reason he'd jumped in so directly, and he'd planned to foll...

Chapter 26: Walking The Path of Steel

Pain swirling in darkness. Hooked needles piercing his skin endlessly. Even when he felt empty, the pain continued spearing through him, as if lines of agony had been etched in his flesh. A terribl...