Zae Zin Nim fought against the incursion with a scowl, considering her failings as a wife. Ordinarily, that was an unpleasant accusation cast on her from the outside, but this concern came from within. Her marital relationship was far more wonderful than she had anticipated, which meant that she needed to be correspondingly wonderful, and she had fallen short.
How could she have failed to...
2025-11-06 18:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostThe launch was actually yesterday, but I was posting chapters and didn't want to spam people. This one is going out to everyone following the Patreon: if you like Depthless Hunger and want to see more of it, please support the release by grabbing a copy or leaving a review (especially on the audiobook):
(I promised I'd give chapters as normal, but this is release day, so let me remind you with links:
https://www.audible.com/pd/Depthless-Hunger-Audiobook/B0FX64WVSR
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FXVCN78K 2025-11-04 18:00:08 +0000 UTC View Post
After defeating the Deepclaw, Kai was operating in a reduced condition. He could still kill the average monsters easily, but was it actually a good use of his time to go off fighting them? Yet just sitting around felt wrong - Behemoth's Heart had a lot of work to do fully recovering him, but the incursion was still ongoing and he couldn't leave it alone.
That was why he had asked the elit...
2025-11-03 18:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostTime for the big audiobook announcement - you can preorder it here:
https://www.audible.com/pd/Depthless-Hunger-Audiobook/B0FX64WVSR
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FXVCN78K
If you like Depthles...
2025-11-01 17:00:11 +0000 UTC View PostWith the battle against the Deepclaw over, Kai found himself strangely off balance. It was the next morning, somehow, and the incursion had been officially started for over a day. His mind was constantly seeing the Deepclaw under the ground or trying to come up with more strategies even though the fight was over.
And it was over: he could feel the new essence within him. Simple but immens...
2025-10-31 17:00:22 +0000 UTC View PostAnother clash, another smashing blow, another tumble over the wastelands.
Fighting against the Deepclaw for so long had put Kai into a strange fugue state where he was more thoughtful than he would have expected. As if all the blood and brute force faded away into consideration. This battle, with all its blows and injuries, was ultimately an equation.
The damage had taken its toll, ...
2025-10-30 17:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostHow many hours had it been? How many blows had they traded? Kai had been fighting the Deepclaw all across the Frontier, crushing many lesser monsters in the battle, and he wasn't sure whether or not they were at a stalemate.
Their strength was about equally matched, but he was a lot more mobile and could always take to the air for a new angle. Now that he'd grown used to its thrashing mov...
2025-10-28 17:00:09 +0000 UTC View Post(In theory, there will be audiobook preorders available this week, but as I schedule these chapters it isn't ready. Hopefully that will change and it can occupy the Wednesday slot.)
After that initial impact of meeting, Kai had come to know his enemy. He and the nation-destroying monster clashed over the Frontier again, their blows making the ground tremble.
The monster was h...
2025-10-27 17:00:11 +0000 UTC View PostKai won, over and over again, and he had no idea whether or not they were losing.
Any given location he arrived at, he could easily annihilate the monsters in his path. Now that they had spread out somewhat, by distance as well as the work of the elites, he could decisively win a battle. The problem was, there were hundreds of potential fronts, eventually becoming thousands, and he couldn...
2025-10-24 17:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostThough Omilaena had fought during the main waves, that had been the most boring part of the battle for her, because the calculations were so simple. By far her most efficient method of killing monsters was exhaling clouds of poison, so that was what she had done, over and over, filling the eastern side of the Frontier with endless poison.
When monsters started to appear that could survive...
2025-10-23 17:00:13 +0000 UTC View PostTechnically, Kai should have been much less nervous going into his second incursion.
He was overwhelmingly more powerful than he had been the first time, stronger than all the normal monsters and potentially even the worst destroyers. Instead of precious few friends, he had strong alliances across the continent. In the intervening years he had fought against demons, patriarchs, and countl...
2025-10-21 17:00:08 +0000 UTC View Post(Cognosticon here, back from hiatus. The Audible release is still November 4, but prep and announcements may come sooner than I expected. Things may be hectic, but I promise not to take another hiatus here since I just took one. May need a break at the end of the year, though.)
Of course Kai didn't sprint off from the dinner the instant he had an objective. Throwing ideas at one an...
2025-10-20 17:00:12 +0000 UTC View Post"When do we stop?" Kai asked.
The question hung over the wasteland, and to their credit, the elites seemed to consider it seriously. They were all a bit worn down from training, nursing injuries and headaches. Kai was now extremely confident fighting with phases, but the elites were getting better at ganging up on him, so the sparring was still rough.
"We don't," Sheiri answered fir...
2025-10-10 17:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostAs Kai kept sparring with the elites, more of them came to take their shot and build experience. Because he didn't want to accidentally kill anyone, Kai wasn't sure how he would do if he fought with his full ferocity... but he wasn't completely confident that he could win, not when outnumbered. The elites definitely punched above their weight.
Fighting at such a high level for sustained p...
2025-10-09 17:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostSix months.
Six months... come and gone.
On the seventh anniversary of the previous incursion, everyone made a grim final celebration, accepting that preparations were ending. Many spent time with their loved ones, knowing that the exact beginning was uncertain, but expecting to wake up soon with monster hordes pouring out of the Frontier.
The day after the planned date was an...
2025-10-07 17:00:08 +0000 UTC View Post(Cognosticon here. Normal chapters this week, but hiatus the next.)
Kai didn't trust the general members of the Hunters Guild not to be Lantrian toadies, but he sent a message to Gunjin to ask about his other trainees, and the others spoke to Rallia for suggestions. She didn't know anyone with nearly as much potential as her, but she recruited a couple of friends who Omilaena was able to ...
2025-10-06 17:00:13 +0000 UTC View Post"You didn't recognize him?" Zae Zin Nim's voice in a soft void. "Then why were you all over Kai? Supporting your husband on principle?"
"Nonsense." Omilaena responding. "He just looked like an asshole and I wanted to make him feel bad."
For a moment Kai was disoriented, relaxing in a pleasant haze. He wasn't sure whether he was awake or asleep - the drifting warmth felt like a dream...
2025-10-03 17:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostNo more wasting time. With the incursion potentially imminent, Kai needed to visit Monskon City to end his tour, then he could wrap up training with the elites and his students to begin final preparations. He'd gone above and beyond what anyone had expected of him, done everything he could in defense of the continent.
Everything except going home.
He expected to have more time to wa...
2025-10-02 17:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostBoosting people up to D-rank was well and good, but Omilaena was starting to view it as routine by now. She came up with a formula that she was absolutely sure could take her from D-9 to C-0, but she did it as a mere intellectual exercise. No, the real goal was to unlock the secrets of Physique and build something new for herself.
Zin Nim had advanced from E-10 to E-11, thanks to some "ef...
2025-09-30 17:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post(Cognosticon here. I've had a pretty good run of chapters without any hiatuses or days off, but I will need a break eventually as we get closer to the audiobook launch. Not this week, not next week, but likely in October.)
Being a symbol in Goralia wasn't actually so bad.
Kai had hated it in Krysal, with so many hopes and expectations placed onto him. But here, everyone just ...
2025-09-29 17:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostTraining was perfectly in Kai's wheelhouse. Whether his own, his wives', or even his students', he enjoyed making meaningful progress without any of the complications of politics. The problem was, he was committed to going to Goralia, which likely wouldn't involve any of that, and he didn't want to.
For a time he thought that there would be nothing driving him except his own sense of obli...
2025-09-26 17:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostBeing granted free license by the Frontier elites had a benefit Kai hadn't expected: he could wait for people to come to him. Gunjin and some of the others in charge of teleportation apparently decided that it was easier for Kai to remain stationary and others to be brought to them. That mean that, after so long rushing around the continent, he could remain still and focus.
For Kai's own ...
2025-09-25 17:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostMost of the men were giddy with their new power, speculating about their new good fortune and what they might find next. They had run into several other groups of monsters on their ocean voyage, and if anything, the later groups were even weaker. To celebrate their new power, they broke out their limited stores of booze and had a night to remember.
Kojajix drank along with everyone, but h...
2025-09-23 17:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostThey met beside the abyss.
Kai wasn't sure whether or not he should have been surprised. It could have been a message, but if so, maybe a message to all of them. Maybe the location was just fitting in a way they didn't articulate. Or, given how practical the elites were, it might simply have been the central location that was best for so many of them gathering at once.
Before the me...
2025-09-22 17:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostCompared to the climactic end to their time in Irun, their trial period in Krysal practically drifted to its conclusion. For a few days Kai had been tense, expecting some additional fallout from their scheme, but for once everything went according to plan: both reactionary and nativist factions were massively weakened and the treasures ended up with the Crystalliers Cooperative.
They were...
2025-09-19 17:00:12 +0000 UTC View Post"I still think that was too fast," Zae Zin Nim said. "The merchant has been arrested and within hours has collapsed his deal?"
"I'd be more worried about the Irunian side." Omilaena sat back as if relaxed, but she was puffing smoke regularly. "That's a quick and aggressive response for anyone, much less them."
"You just remade Irun, shouldn't they be indebted to you?"
"Their l...
2025-09-18 17:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostThree of them in a row, all nervous, all cultivating, all waiting. Kai took a deep breath and tried to focus.
There was nothing else they could do while they waited for the operation to begin. Early on Omilaena had suggested that their triple cultivation become "triple cultivation" but Kai was too anxious to be aroused, Zae Zin Nim had locked in mentally, and Omilaena had given up.
...
2025-09-16 17:00:08 +0000 UTC View Post(Cognosticon here with news. Some of you may recall that I've signed a big six-figure deal for Depthless Hunger audio rights. This has been progressing in the background, but the relevant thing is that one of the terms requires me to take down and relaunch the current ...
2025-09-15 17:00:13 +0000 UTC View PostLater, with all kinds of stress melted away, Kai was able to truly relax in the baths. He still felt a bit sad about Orillia's memory, but knew the indefatigable old woman would be glad that her name was being used to build a better Krysal. Newly refreshed, Kai settled back against the marble to confront his problems, this time with backup.
"The problem is the factions that will undermine...
2025-09-12 17:00:12 +0000 UTC View Post