Things had started off well for Guardsman Delmin, all things considered. The forest shadow Amak had led him to the Protagonist, and the meeting place was in the center of the city with countless bystanders surrounding them. Delmin couldn’t begin to guess what type of person the settlement owner was, but he at least liked to think she wouldn’t kill him in front of this many people.
He ...
2023-05-18 07:25:21 +0000 UTC View PostNadja woke up the next morning lighter than she’d felt in ages. There were a number of reasons for that, but one of the most obvious was that she’d awoken in a bed. Not just any bed, in fact, but the kind of bed she hadn’t known existed until the night before. The kind of bed she imagined that kings and gods probably slept on.
In fairness, it was not exactly where she’d e...
2023-05-15 11:55:37 +0000 UTC View PostHad she been asked only a few short weeks ago, Nadja would have confidently said there wasn’t much that could shock her at this point. With the year she’d had, abnormal was pretty much just par for the course. Kicked out of her home city. Relocated to a dark wasteland. Scouted by a dryad to run a bar. Trained to fight a hulking forest shadow.
It was, then, rather impressive that she...
2023-05-11 11:54:59 +0000 UTC View Post“I will confess, I may have been somewhat overeager in selecting my attire.” Verin glanced down towards her pair of blindingly white pants with a hint of a scowl. Or at least, her pants had been blindingly white. Streaks of brown dirt intermingled with a few dashes of green, the surrounding forest seeming intent on granting her a level of natural camouflage. “Had I perhaps though...
2023-05-08 11:44:10 +0000 UTC View PostIn a single instant, two balls of mana sprung into existence, floating in the center of the room. Both were easily recognizable, the first the roaring red of fire mana, the second, the much calmer blue of water mana.
“A question,” Xander’Callis chimed. “Certainly you are aware of composite mana types by now. But what exact type do we get if we combine both fire and water?” At hi...
2023-05-04 11:59:05 +0000 UTC View PostDespite the fact that Dark Magic was class aligned, jumping two levels wasn’t something I could do over the course of a day. While that might have been the case in the Novice rank, I was finally hitting the point where levels were starting to get hard to come by.
Still, over the next two weeks, I saw growth in all of my spell classes and in all of my Initiate spells. All of the...
2023-05-01 10:17:19 +0000 UTC View PostGiant monsters weren’t particularly novel to me by this point. In fact, given how many of them I’d already fought, one could be forgiven for thinking I would be largely inured to their presence. As I craned my head up at the massive figure in the boss chamber, however, all I could think was one thing.
Man, that thing is huge.
Unfortunately, a quick check with God’...
2023-04-27 12:37:35 +0000 UTC View Post“Congratulations. You pass.” The gray-haired dungeon delving instructor stood against the reflective metallic walls of the dungeon, delivering her verdict with not even a fraction of the excitement it deserved.
But that was fine. Whatever excitement she lacked, the five of us more than made up for. Standing about the burnt and bubbling metallic sludge that had moments ago been a dunge...
2023-04-24 03:07:35 +0000 UTC View PostAuthor Note: Reminder that I'm on admin week now (week of June 18th)! No chaps next Monday or Thursday, and then we resume.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Despite its somewhat rocky beginnings, the second semester continued to advance largely without a hitch. Much to the delight of my mining instructor Merve, the earth variant of Gloves of the Arcanist -- Miner’s Mitts ...
2023-04-13 11:17:07 +0000 UTC View PostAuthor's Note: Reminder that I'm taking an admin week after next chapter (the week of June 18th).
~~~~~~
“I’m sure that’s not concern or pity I’m seeing in your eyes, girl.” Standing tall at the far end of the clearing, the ex-commander of the forest deftly tossed his spear from hand to hand. His voice held firm despite the many infirmitie...
2023-04-10 04:10:25 +0000 UTC View PostCal would freely admit that she would jump at any chance to level up her Stealth and strengthen her class skills. Especially when it came to her class-granted invisibility skill, there was very little that she wouldn’t do to power it up.
As such, when a literal god had offered to help her with just that, of course she went along with it. Not that she really had much of a choice in the f...
2023-04-06 04:55:15 +0000 UTC View PostAuthor note: Next Admin Week will be the week of June 19th!
~~~~~~~
“The first ten levels of learning any spells school are simply about acclimating your mana core to a new mana type. No more, no less. The next ten levels are where you learn some minor level of control -- spells which allow you to vary the amount of mana you use to achieve stronge...
2023-04-03 06:22:08 +0000 UTC View Post“Okay, if you all have your bearings, we’re going to start moving forward.” Shouting out to us, the instructor completely ignored the armored man’s original question. “I’ve already said everything I needed to say in class, but we’ll run through it one last time for anyone who needs a refresher. Walk and talk.” She motioned the five adventurers forward, their rogue taking the lea...
2023-03-30 16:30:20 +0000 UTC View PostSweat poured from my brow as I hacked into the stone wall for what seemed like the billionth time. Since hitting the first Endurance threshold, it was fairly rare for most things to cause me to work up a sweat. Spending an hour straight smashing a pickaxe into a wall happened to be one of those things, however.
Strength Training has reached level 3!
Huh...
2023-03-27 06:45:44 +0000 UTC View Post“Can someone remind me how I ended up here?” Unlike the last time I’d gotten drunk off of Emer’Thalis moonshine, I hadn’t done it in the bar, which meant none of the bar’s building bonuses applied. In this case, that meant I was woefully, abysmally hungover.
That only made me question what I was doing even more so as I scanned the room, taking in the obsidian walls that surrou...
2023-03-23 14:11:43 +0000 UTC View PostUnder different circumstances, the sheer stupefaction Emin was displaying would have been funny. Unfortunately, it was significantly less so while I was standing there completely nude with Emin still pointedly staring at me, mouth open.
Did I seriously forget to lock the door? Wait, not the point right now!
“Emin! Out!” I sank back into the water, the resulting waves he...
2023-03-20 11:40:27 +0000 UTC View PostA few days later, I found myself walking through one familiar spooky, dark-veined forest.
It was good to be back. In all honesty, it had been far longer than it should have been. I’d been meaning to visit Emer’Thalis at some point between semesters, but between my mini-coma and my training for my visit to the archmage, I’d just never found the time.
On the flip side, the exten...
2023-03-16 05:41:55 +0000 UTC View PostHi hello, all! We're back!
I had a lovely hiatus, and it was sorely needed. Feeling much more refreshed and energized than I was a month back, and I want to thank everyone for letting me take a breather!
Three quick notes:
First off, book two released today on Amazon! If you'd like to grab a copy for yourself, you can find it 2023-03-13 08:55:07 +0000 UTC View Post
Books! Everywhere the eye could see lay shelves and shelves of books, some thick leather-bound tomes, others thin enough to be mistaken for magazines. At last I’d managed to find time to hit up the academy’s library, if only after sufficient prodding from both Suds and Advisor Flithus.
It was without a doubt the largest repository of knowledge I’d come across since I’d become a Pr...
2023-03-13 08:41:04 +0000 UTC View PostHow did I get myself roped into this? As I stood in the bounds of one of the raised dueling areas, I questioned myself for the umpteenth time. Even now I was beating myself up for not being the voice of reason here, but it seemed like neither Nella nor Alara were willing to back down on this.
A smattering of students saw what was happening and gathered round to watch the impendin...
2023-02-14 03:34:49 +0000 UTC View PostHi, hello all!
If you haven't seen it yet, I posted some details and a poll about my upcoming admin break. It looks like the option with an overwhelming majority is for me to pause subscriptions and give myself a month.
First off: Thank you!
I always feel guilty taking any sort of time o...
2023-02-11 12:02:38 +0000 UTC View PostWhen I was finally released from Alara’s death hug, I took a moment to examine our would-be party member more fully.
In a lot of ways, he seemed… underwhelming. Dark circles hung beneath his eyes, accentuating a seemingly perpetually lazy gaze. He held himself with a slight hunch, as if anything else would be too much of an effort. Short, curly hair sprung out haphazardly from his hea...
2023-02-11 12:02:15 +0000 UTC View PostHi all!
As a reminder, my admin week/break is coming up after chapter 20 (Monday)!
I posted a while back letting everyone know that things were picking up in my non-writing life right now, just as a sort of heads-up that I was running low on writing time. The short of it is, they laid off a bunch of people at work, and my workload has unfortunately increased a good bit as a result o...
2023-02-10 01:16:06 +0000 UTC View PostI pulled to a stop as the notification came in, ending my brief running session. As it turned out, the academy was home to some pretty stellar gym facilities, complete with a track. It wasn’t something I’d ever considered, but in hindsight, of course there’d be a track -- if high schools back on Earth could manage it, then a training academy surely could as well.
While a mile wasn...
2023-02-09 08:26:27 +0000 UTC View PostAfter all the work I’d put in to get my magic skills up to the Initiate rank, I was now the proud owner of a solid eight class points: Two from getting the advanced Mental Magic up to 10, and then another one each from light, death, life, frost, earth, and air.
While normally having that many points would have been as daunting as it would be exciting, Advisor Flithus thankfully...
2023-02-06 07:51:54 +0000 UTC View PostAuthor's Note: A Patron reached out asking about the feasibility of attaching epubs to each chapter. I'll be trying to do so moving forward.
~~~~~
“Ugh, I hate this.” As we walked through the streets of the Divinity District, Emin ran a hand through his hair, only for it to come out slick with sweat. He tried to put some of that sweat to good us...
2023-02-04 08:29:56 +0000 UTC View PostHi all!
Book one has an audiobook now!
For those of you who are auditorily inclined, you can find it over here.
Author's Note: Reminder that my admin week starts on Monday (April 17th)! I'll be out this Monday and Thursday and then continue right after that. Happy reading!
~~~
It was something of a shock when I managed to get through the remainder of Resistance Training without getting arrested (not that Warram hadn’t threatened it once or twice).<...
2023-02-02 03:53:29 +0000 UTC View Post“First, I’d like to be honest,” Advisor Flithus hummed out. I found myself expecting him to say something about me being a Protagonist. Or maybe my Legendary skill or godly boon abilities. I wasn’t sure what level of weird he was used to with his job, but regardless, I had to be pretty high up there, didn’t I? While I hadn’t had time to grow to a super high level, I was still pretty...
2023-01-30 03:59:22 +0000 UTC View PostAuthor's note: Admin week scheduled for the week of April 17th! Happy reading all.
~~~~~~
The class erupted into muttering at the instructor’s words, and rather than waiting for the noise to die down, she spoke over it.
“Yes, yes. I don’t have much for you today. That’s because essentially all of this course is to be done in teams of f...
2023-01-28 12:49:50 +0000 UTC View Post