It was hard to tell where the Manatree ended and Hal began.
For that matter, it was hard to tell where the Shard ended and Hal began. He felt so in tune with the Shard that from time to time, he glimpsed gorgeous streamers of light twisting through the air like watercolors brushed across the world.
Instinctively, he knew they were streams of both mana and aether....
2024-06-04 11:00:08 +0000 UTC View Post
“They are clearly not here,” Doug said, pacing the flat grounds where clearly something had once been, but was clearly no more.
“This is the place!” Corbin snapped, rubbing at the smooth side of his head where an ear should have been. He was still sore about it. That shrub was a dastardly one!
“Brother, mine, perhaps your… senses are uh,...
2024-06-04 08:00:01 +0000 UTC View Post
Grab your copy here:
(Direct Link) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D5XFZBQP
(Auto-Region Link) https://mybook.to/Voidknight3
I know everybody's already read it here (or most of you at least!), but it would be absolutely awesome if you c...
2024-06-04 01:58:51 +0000 UTC View Post
Your Monster Core has graduated to Tin Rank.
You have learned [Dragon (Spiritual Form)].
You gain:
(1) [Shadesblight Seal Fragment]
More and more prompts rolled in, but Hal let them wash over his tired eyes. It seemed as if he had only shut them for a second.
Overwhelming power flowed thr...
2024-06-03 11:00:04 +0000 UTC View Post
Shrubley motioned at the remaining clock coins on the table. Those in Cal’s hand had disappeared as he had inadvertently used them.
“As you can see, these are potent magical items, but they also use them as currency,” he pointed out.
Miranda looked greedily at the pile. “It is easy to see why they would disdain common coinage then. Compared to this, ours ...
2024-06-03 08:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post
Hal realized with mounting horror that he had not heard the Manatree’s song since entering the glade. It usually serenaded him with a song of love and companionship, as a child to its parent.
It was silent as the grave.
Dark mounds were heaped beneath trees that he had taken for shadows until, upon closer inspection, they turned out to be withered wortlings. Th...
2024-05-31 11:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post
Just as Shrubley and Smudge were coming out of the clock tower, they ran into Miranda as she was about to storm the place. Cal followed on her heels.
“Shrubley!” Miranda snapped. “Where have you been, young man?”
Without a word, Shrubley pointed at the tower.
“Oh.”
“The clerk was telling the truth,” Cal told her.
“Yes, I can se...
2024-05-31 08:00:01 +0000 UTC View Post
The Tower took its toll on Hal.
For days on end he went in, cleared floors, and then took another group in. Each time he claimed more rare materials for the Dawn Citadel, more Levels and skill Levels, and each time he felt like a piece of himself was left behind in the Tower.
The ring of corruption spread further. His guess that the Shadesblight was invading rath...
2024-05-30 11:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post
“Where are Shrubley and Smudge!?” Miranda roared, lifting the innkeeper by the collar and shaking his entire body. “What have you creepy townspeople done with my students?”
She glared into his terrified face.
“W-what do you mean, my fair lady?” he asked, clutching her arm. He was lifted so high his hair brushed the rafters.
“Don’t you ‘fai...
2024-05-30 08:00:01 +0000 UTC View Post
Voidknight Ascension Book 3 will be going live on Amazon & Kindle Unlimited on June 2nd, 2024! There's no preorder since I borked up and couldn't get the files done in time, so it's only purchasable on the date above. As usual (and to avoid issues like Voidknight 2) chapters are going to go poof and will be replaced by Voidknight Book 4 chapters.
2024-05-30 00:02:03 +0000 UTC View Post
Hal was up and out of bed as soon as the mandatory hour was over. He knew that Noth wouldn’t bother him. If he slept another eight or more hours, she would make damn sure nobody disturbed him.
He must have fallen asleep at some point because Hermes was nestled in the crook of his arm. I’m pretty sure I would have remembered that, Hal thought, looking ...
2024-05-29 11:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post
The mayor waxed poetically about Shrubley and Smudge’s actions. How they valiantly defended the town despite not owing any allegiances to it, and then the mayor’s own top hat was passed around for people to donate to their reward.
Shrubley found the attention surprising and a little overwhelming, but he wasn’t about to say no to rewards. With the Countess’ fund...
2024-05-29 08:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post
It felt good to be back home. But throughout the rest of the day, Hal struggled to pay attention to the home he loved so dearly. His thoughts were drawn like iron filings to a magnet back to the Tower and its hideous corruption.
Hermes showed him his half-finished workshop beneath Hal’s cottage, and Noth showed off her latest concoctions. Hal did his best to make sur...
2024-05-28 11:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post
With full bellies, Shrubley and Smudge headed off to the western end of town, their backs strapped with a dizzying tower of packages.
The errand wasn’t as simple as it first appeared to be.
They were to fill in for Eiran’s courier today. In return, not only were they able to have some of that delicious chicken, but they would be able to get more later as well...
2024-05-28 08:00:11 +0000 UTC View Post
Hal laughed. “You make it seem like that weapon Levels Up with you or something.”
The six sharp looks he received told him that his joke hadn’t been much of one.
“You’re serious.”
Val nodded. “Deadly.”
Now Hal was tempted to try for the weapon chest. He couldn’t make a relic himself after all, but then he began to wonder about someth...
2024-05-27 11:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post
Waking up with the stroke of midnight, the Count yawned and stretched languorously. He expected good news this day. The cousins had been dispatched, and they were fast movers when properly motivated.
Corbin and Styx at least understood the meaning of family. Their… brother… well, he was another matter entirely. Bit of a black sheep, but he was family....
2024-05-27 08:00:02 +0000 UTC View PostHey everybody! Been a while since I've done one of these posts, hasn't it?
For those of you new here, I customarily take a short break after wrapping up a book to prepare all the admin work behind-the-scenes that eats up ungodly amounts of time (woo being self-employed!) but is necessary all the same.
Voidknight Book 4 will pick up immediately once all these pesky tasks are done and...
2024-05-24 22:06:23 +0000 UTC View Post
They slept in shifts, always keeping two people on watch, but nothing happened. All throughout the day, they slept until the golden rays of sunset set the sea on fire.
Rested and rejuvenated, they had a quick meal and then went searching for a door.
The sun sank below the waters to the west, and the warmth of the world vanished. Hal kept them walking to the south...
2024-05-24 11:00:01 +0000 UTC View Post
Shrubley reached into the golden light spilling out of his bushy body and pulled out his [Magical Map]. So many details had been filled in during their travels, charting all the way up to this peculiar town with a very obvious specialization in clocks.
With a start, Shrubley saw that the town wasn’t on the map.
That does not seem right, Shrubley t...
2024-05-24 08:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post
Everyone screamed, flying into the next chamber. Even Shadowmachi hiding in Val’s armor let out one long, howling, “Ko–maaaaa-chiiiiii!”
For one horrifying moment, Hal had thought they were being sucked out into the vacuum of space. It was cold. Wind rushed around him. They were tossed up into the air, and his vision was filled with stars against the pitiless b...
2024-05-23 11:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post
The going was much harder than any of them thought it would be. There was a reason few people traveled between the Outer Ring and the borderlands. The influx of mana that flowed out from the Outer Ring, held in check by the towering Oulstand Mountains, was more than most people could withstand.
Mundane Rankers had the most trouble, but levels could help ease the burden...
2024-05-23 08:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post
Hal plunged through the miasma-strewn cavern, using golem and frost gigant essence to make himself as immovable and heavy as possible. With his grip reversed on his blade, he dropped like a javelin bolt onto the misshapen head of the frost gigant.
The creature had skin as white and hard as diamonds, sparkling with such cold that touching it with his bare skin ...
2024-05-22 11:00:08 +0000 UTC View Post
They slept that night in the [Autotent], crowded around the Countess.
After Slyrox started slinging around punches while dreaming, knocking Smudge clear out of the tent and over 100 yards away down the mountain, Cal had to sleep outside.
“I’ll get him,” Shrubley told the rest.
“This isn’t so bad,” Cal said, looking up at the stars. Back when he ...
2024-05-22 08:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post
Noth made sure to keep Hermes on her shoulder, nestled up against the warmth of her neck, the whole way to Rondo’s warehouse.
Outside of the cottage, the oppa went quiet, watching the snow blanket the world.
After trudging through the hip-high snow, Noth learned something new. Not quite a skill, or even a traditional ability.
You learn soul aeder equi...
2024-05-21 11:00:06 +0000 UTC View Post
Once outside of the Dungeon, they rested by a new campfire and went through their treasure chests. Even Konko had one, much to her surprise. Then she covered her mouth, stifling a scream.
“What is wrong?” Shrubley asked her. “Are you all right?”
She nodded quickly, tears forming in her eyes. Her hands flapped awkwardly, as if she’d just touched somethin...
2024-05-21 08:00:01 +0000 UTC View Post
Noth petted the grumpy oppa, Hermes, feeding him treats even though he professed he did not like them.
Every now and then, he would squirm and try to slip out of her lap, proclaiming he was some prisoner of war or something silly like that, but he never got very far.
His oppa nature betrayed him when she used her fingernails to scratch just behind his ears. He ru...
2024-05-20 11:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post
Konko looked at each of them in turn. “You don’t know?”
Miranda put her hands on her wide hips. “Out with it, girl.”
“It’s the Fable of Farseil!” she said, eagerly pointing at the engravings. “This tells the story of Farseil and its fall from grace. How they once lived peacefully with nature. Then a charismatic madman swept through the nation an...
2024-05-20 08:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post
The Fifth Cohort hunkered down behind their ramparts of wood and earth. Centurion Il’tam watched from his tent as the men and women worked tirelessly to replace the broken sections of the wall and to make the camp whole once more.
The ice storms were getting worse, but it was nothing the Fifth couldn’t handle.
“Tam,” a soft voice urged from deeper within ...
2024-05-17 11:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post
Miranda and Konko tumbled into a large cage suspended over a dark, lightless abyss far below.
Several other cages gently swung from metal chains that rattled in the dark. Each cage had a few monsters each, with a central platform providing a pale white light from an obelisk.
Miranda picked herself and Konko up off the hard metal bars of the cage floor. Konko took...
2024-05-17 08:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post
The tiefling Bard, Altres, leaned over the cooling body and wiped his rapier on the fallen man’s clothes.
Another noble down.
He tsk’d. Why did they have to be so stubborn?
It was as if the Trinic Call woke them up, and not in a good way. The nobles suddenly realized how far Murkmire had fallen from the “good ol’ days” and began instituti...
2024-05-16 11:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post