As of now I have a Discord server, if you want to chat about the story.
The invite link is here: Discord
I haven’t added special perks for Patreon members yet, but I’ll probably get around to that sooner rather than later.
FUTURE PLANS
I have at least three books worth of stuff pla...
2025-11-10 18:40:37 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 56: Outsiders
TASTKA POV
“Who could have built a bridge like this?”
Eyssa’s question hung in the air, despite the hissing drum of the rain around us all. It was an echo of what we were all thinking, I was sure. I definitely was. I pulled my hood tighter, even as the rain let up slightly to a heavy drizzle instead of the downpour we’d been deali...
2025-11-10 18:06:01 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 55: A Bridge Too Far
TASTKA POV
The rain started shortly after dawn.
This wasn’t a surprise. Our travel gear had hoods and wide cloths to cover our packs and bodies, as we’d already heard from some of the Sylen that passed through the region that it rained a lot more here. We’d been lucky to have gone several days without more than a light drizzl...
2025-11-09 17:06:00 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 54: Isolation
ADMINISTRATOR POV
I felt a little bad for Tastka as I sat up and ran my fingers through my hair. It hadn’t really occurred to me that she’d had these visions since childhood, and normal dreams weren’t a thing to her. In tightening the connection so that the bleed through was more controlled, I’d cut her off from what must have felt like...
2025-11-08 18:06:03 +0000 UTC View PostWe've been flipping between Tastka and the Admin for quite a while now. Starting at about Chapter 60, I have more leeway with my story plans and can absolutely start to adjust how frequently this comes up.
2025-11-08 07:21:15 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 53: A Foggy Mind
TASTKA POV
When I opened my eyes, I heard faint noise around me. It sounded like talking, but… distant and garbled. My vision was blurry, and I had to blink several times to clear it up, slowly focusing on the scene before me.
Vedas was resting with his back against his pack, his injured leg stretched out in front of him. Fisk was ne...
2025-11-07 17:06:00 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 52: A Thousand Deaths
ADMINISTRATOR POV
I sat up abruptly, hand going to my chest. It wasn’t normal for me to feel disoriented when awakening in the Sanctuary, but the way Tastka had fallen unconscious must have disrupted the smooth transition some. I spent a tiny moment confused and panicked at my lack of a heartbeat, and the lack of warmth or pain.
So as the paying members have noticed, I’ve increased your chapters to 7 ahead of public release. I’d hoped to squeeze it up to 8, but this past week has been a bit brutal for writing. Probably sometime this weekend it’ll go to 8. Still plan on it being 10 by end of the month. I’d just like to hit that target sooner rather than later.
Patreon Membership Tier Cost<...
2025-11-06 06:06:38 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 51: Wild Lands
TASTKA POV
I never learned precisely how to tell direction in any way other than the sun and sometimes, the stars. By the river, the tree canopy didn’t have full coverage, but it still obscured the stars enough that I had trouble finding the right direction, and in the early barely-there light of dawn, the sun wasn’t visible. A little whil...
2025-11-05 22:38:50 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 50: Uncaring God
ADMINISTRATOR POV
I sat up, the recliner folding into a simple but plush chair once more. This time I had none of the confusion of the previous awakening. That had been a strange and singular event, and now that I was clear-headed I realized the problem had been my own confusion more than anything.
“Did you learn anything?” I asked...
2025-11-03 18:06:01 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 49: Why Do We Roam?
TASTKA POV
At dawn, we continued. The marsh cover was still too thick to know the exact time of day, but between the seven of us, we had a pretty good idea of when the sky should start to brighten. We all agreed to get out of this place as soon as possible.
That creature had looked dangerous, but nothing we couldn’t handle. What w...
2025-11-02 17:06:01 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 48: The Orpheus Gambit
ADMINISTRATOR POV
Something felt different when I opened my eyes this time. It wasn’t a headache, exactly, but some kind of distant throbbing at the back of my mind. This body didn’t feel pain – not in the same way at least – so it was more like a tickling notification that something had changed.
I also staggered, because...
2025-11-01 17:06:01 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 47: Twilight Feeders
TASTKA POV
I awoke to the sharp jab of a spear butt against my side. I dug in my claws reflexively so I wouldn’t fall from the branch. My eyes snapped open, blinking a few times. Clearly, the faint glow from the trees had faded somewhat, but since I didn’t know what that meant, I had no way of knowing how long I had been asleep.
<... 2025-10-31 16:06:01 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 46: Diamon
ADMINISTRATOR POV
I snapped awake and blinked at the barren ceiling.
Tastka’s watch would happen shortly, but that’s all relative. With the time dilation in place, that still gave me at least a dozen hours, likely more. A much shorter time than I usually had when Tastka slept, but I rarely used the entire time anyway.
This time I d...
2025-10-30 17:06:01 +0000 UTC View PostSince the Administrator is focusing on a single group of Calen Elves, the actual cultural progression of other communities isn’t in the narrative. So let’s talk about the status of the rest of civilization! This is far from complete but should give a decent idea of where the cultures are as of Chapter 50, which is around where the current narrative is, chronologically.
Elves 2025-10-29 01:06:38 +0000 UTC View Post
Chapter 45: The Pale Marsh
TASTKA POV
This place brought back a lot of memories.
We weren’t as high up as back then, but this was where the three of us – me, Fisk, and Eyssa – had snuck off to find that bush to help with my sleeping mat. We hadn’t known at the time that while the leaves were normally harmless, crushing them would irritate the skin and ...
2025-10-27 17:06:01 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 44: Conditionals
ADMINISTRATOR POV
Seated at my desk, I contemplated the world spread before me on my monitors. I wasn’t staring with the same intensity as before… distracted as I was by a mixture of excitement and worry.
The excitement was undeniable. My test had worked. It had shown that, given the proper incentive, the elves I’d created were p...
2025-10-27 04:17:42 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 43: The Day the World Changed
TASTKA POV
There was another me.
I’d felt this for a while now. Ever since the first night I went to sleep with my [Essence Host] class. The strange class that claimed I wouldn’t dream, and instead gave me something… else. A something that let me glimpse a confusing, jumbled series of feelings and impressions, of vis...
2025-10-26 16:06:01 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 42: Numbers
ADMINISTRATOR POV
This could be a problem.
I rolled out of bed with a nervous flick of my tail and took a deep breath. I’d been so proud of my emergent system that tried to work out how best to use whatever traits manifested in a creature. Now it had done just that – somehow picking up on my back door into the avatar and providing a lin...
2025-10-25 17:06:00 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 41: Provisional
On the third try, I managed to tie my hair back. The wild tumble of my mane was usually just fine the way it was, but I often tied it back to keep it out of the way when trying to do something more delicate. In this case, that wasn’t what I was doing… I just liked the way it looked.
I was usually much better about wrapping the hair tie in, but my exciteme...
2025-10-24 16:06:01 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 40: A Problem of Numbers
I settled in at my new work desk. Of late, I had been trying to track so many things in the interface that my vision had become cluttered. I’d managed to find in the Sanctuary purchase list a way to set up a multi-monitor desk where I could place and organize the elements of my interface.
Given how bureaucratic this universe-building had proved to ...
2025-10-23 17:06:00 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 39: To Push Beyond
My mat was getting uncomfortable again. Lifting it up and shaking it, I saw a number of the tiny tree hairs tumble away from it – clumps of pale, curling fibers that were now dry and brittle. It was definitely not staying together for much longer, and I didn’t have the magical talent to even strengthen what magic was in there.
For some reason, I had a ...
2025-10-22 17:06:11 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 38: A Dangerous Question
Orpheus paused, then looked at me carefully. After what seemed like several seconds of thought – but was probably only an instant – she nodded to my chair.
“Why don’t you have a seat?” she suggested. “This visit may last a little longer than I expected.”
I felt a minor sense of alarm when she said that… not because it would last...
2025-10-21 22:06:01 +0000 UTC View PostWell, things have been going pretty well lately, so here’s the status on what’s going down.
To avoid burnout, I’ll probably scale back the chapter releases on Neophyte World Builder. That said, I will be INCREASING the chapter readahead here. Not sure how much yet... depends on my buffer size. I could go to about ten right now but that’d leave me zero room for illness, but my goal...
2025-10-21 00:18:34 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 37: Visitation
I opened my eyes to see the featureless ceiling of my tiny bedroom in the Sanctuary. I lay there for a few moments, just processing the day’s events from the viewpoint of a small child. Seeing things from that perspective was limiting, but it still gave some incredible insights into how the culture was developing.
I briefly contemplated just turning the dila...
2025-10-20 17:06:02 +0000 UTC View PostThis is basically pulled right from my notes, with a little cleanup for ease of reading. If any of it is confusing I can clarify it with edits, and hopefully make it easier to understand the structure.
The universe and the world are basically the same in this case, because the Administrator filled up the entire ‘universe’ with a single world. The actual side effects of this do not cur...
2025-10-20 03:34:42 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 36: Tastka
The gentle but relentless jabs at my shoulder finally dragged me awake.
The long, relaxing yawn couldn’t be stopped, but while I drew that deep inhale, I rolled off the cushion in the corner that I called my own. I twisted my ears upward as I blinked my eyes, trying to clear the sleep from them.
“I’m up, I’m up. I’m not that late, am I?” I mumble...
2025-10-19 16:06:01 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 35: Min/Max
For a long while, I just considered the notification and what it might mean. I rubbed the bridge of my nose again and then sighed, realizing that I still knew nothing about that system.
The words conveyed meaning… probably because everything here was translated. I hadn’t thought about that in a while, but it was unlikely that Orpheus spoke English. In fact, I...
2025-10-18 17:06:00 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 34: Level Up
I let time continue at an accelerated pace for a while. It wasn’t as fast as before – only weeks going by per hour of my time – but compared to how quickly I’d been running things earlier, that was practically a crawl. I didn’t want to slow things down too much in case something interesting popped up and fixed the problem on its own.
In the meantime, I...
2025-10-17 16:06:02 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 33: Elf Lore
I’d hoped for more generation than what I was getting, but I wasn’t really sure what was normal. Maybe what I was seeing was considered a lot, and it would just take eons to pay off my debt. My quick mental math told me it would take over eighty thousand years of local time to clear it… and that was assuming it maintained the current pace.
Geologically, th...
2025-10-16 17:06:01 +0000 UTC View Post