Aster Brooks Books

Ch. 66: Separate Form

The rest of the day was uneventful. Several boar leapt from the bushes to find themselves skewered on either Cass’s spear or Alyx’s sword. If there were other monsters out there, they avoided t...

Ch. 65: The West Forest

“And you’re sure this is safe?” Cass asked, looking at the return portal. As she had guessed, the octagonal, stone platform in the Safe Zone was the portal out of the Deep. 

Howeve...

Ch. 64: Concepts

“I don’t think there is anything for us here,” Alyx said after another minute of searching through the shelves of the hidden room. 

Cass nodded in agreement. It was disappointingly...

Ch. 63: On the Gods

Cass and Alyx backtracked to the hidden room once Alyx was done eating. Neither had spent much time looking around previously, both badly injured and more focused on putting one foot in front of th...

Ch. 62: A Good Talk and a Nice Fire

It must have been an hour later when Alyx finally opened her eyes. 

She put a hand to her head and cursed loudly. Cass didn’t need the translation skill for that one, she recognized an...

Ch. 61: Angel's Grace

“Hey, you still alive?” Alyx said, nudging Cass with a foot. 

Cass grunted. She didn’t know how long she’d been lying there. Long enough for the minor cuts to scab over and for t...

Ch. 60: The Core

Experience poured into her. Just as she’d imagined, it was rich and powerful, but not quite enough to level up. She took a deep breath.

The world around her stabilized. The madness settled....

Ch. 59: The Lord of the Deep

Cass took a step back from the pool to sprint back to the passage they’d entered from. This was a lost cause. They needed to escape.

But two sentences echoed up from her memories.

2024-04-01 22:00:04 +0000 UTC View Post

Ch. 58: Identify

Cass blinked and read the notification in front of her again. 

Demonic Possession Broken.

Everything snapped back into place, the world sudde...

Ch. 57: Demonic Possession

Cass spun on the noise. Across the room, a pair of doors thudded shut. Before them stood a gangly, humanoid figure. 

It was wreathed in a cloak of purple light. It hung from its body lik...

Ch. 56: The Spawning Pools

Cass waited only as long as it took to recover her Focus to get back to making air pockets. As soon as it was full again she stood. 

But pain laced up her leg as she put her weight on it...

Ch. 55: Skirmish

Creating the air pockets was far easier than Cass had expected, but far less interesting than she’d hoped. It was also just far more time-consuming. 

She had made four of the ten to fi...

Ch. 54: Breathing

Things went easier from there. Trap detection didn’t automatically flag traps, but while she was using it, she could feel it tugging at her attention when there was a trap nearby. She successfull...

Ch. 53: More Traps

Cass let the conversation die. It didn’t matter what she wanted if she couldn’t get Alyx through the underwater section anyway. She had the vague sketch of a plan but needed to think through th...

Ch. 52: Deep Breath

Cass leaned back against her pillar, the fire was nice, but there was more she could do to help with the recovery process.

It was time for tea.

She shaped a pot from the stone around he...

Ch. 51: Rest and Recover

Alyx stumbled as she spoke. Cass scurried to her side, slipping her shoulder under the other woman’s arm and catching her before she fell.

“Woah! You okay?” Cass asked, not waiting for ...

Ch. 50: Freeing Alyx

The memory of the trapped person was like cold water to her system. There wasn’t time for congratulating herself. She needed to free them.

She scooted up beside them. They were wrapped tigh...

Ch. 49: Finish it

The spider stalked through the chamber, slow and deliberate, the hairs on its legs standing on end, searching for her with every skill and stat at its disposal.

Cass padded around it, paying ...

Ch. 48: New Plan

Cass slunk around it, keeping to the shelter of the pillars, only braving the open spaces between when she was sure that it was looking in another direction.

You should move on, Salo...

Ch. 47: Spider

She paused. It couldn’t be another person? Could it?

She hadn’t seen another person in all the time she’d been here. Salos was the closest she’d gotten. And while he was a person, he ...

Ch. 46: Entrance to the Shadow Hall

Cass was back on her feet and tapping her way down the corridor a short while later. It was slow but effective. She found another two spike traps and another blade trap in this hallway alone. Her p...

Ch. 45: Traps and Skills

The upside was the Temple was essentially backward, which meant the path to the Lord’s chambers was maybe a quarter as long as it would have been had she challenged it at another time of year. Th...

Ch. 44: Growth

Level Up!

+ 1 Dex

+ 1 End

+ 1 Ala

+ 1 Wll

+ 4 Free Points

<...

Ch. 43: Shadows

Unable to continue onward, she turned around and followed the right-hand path. They were able to follow it for a solid ten minutes before it widened into another room.

“Either I missed all ...

Ch. 42: Raid

The remainder of the way to the Temple of the Deep was uneventful. Cass never shook the feeling something else was following them, but if there was something there it never showed itself.

The...

Ch. 41: Cockroaches Reprise

Titan Roach Lookout (lvl 9)

Titan Roach Hunter (lvl 10)

Titan Roach Hunter (lvl 9)

Titan Roach Hunter (lvl 9) 2024-02-19 23:00:04 +0000 UTC View Post

Ch. 40: Stalker

Decision made and unable to find any other useful mushrooms, Cass ventured out of the Safe Zone.

She could feel the exact moment she exited the system-designated safety. The sourceless warmth...

Ch. 39: Risk and Reward

“Is it safe to bring you near the demon hunters?” Cass asked.

Probably not. Not if you tell them about me. Or if they figure out I am with you. Salos sighed. But I also have ...