Chapter 146 – Major Interlude – Iona – The 300.

Alternatively, the molecules return intact rather than atomized. In this case the void mage would have to vanish something that would explode if aerosolized. It's called a 'Dust Explosion'. It can be done with things like flour and wood.

ido

I think I figured out why void mages explode randomly and violently. From chapter 40 we have an explanation of conservation of matter given by Julius. He explains that conjured matter degrades over time and that vanished matter returns. Here is the quote "material that gets sent to this alternate realm, when it’s brought back, persists. It’s in such small amounts that it doesn’t really matter." so imagine a very high level void mage using a ton of mana to vanish some matter. The matter will come back gradually over time near them, but it comes back atomized. Get enough hydrogen, carbon and oxygen returning in atomized form into the atmosphere and you have small amounts of a flammable gas. Do that in a confined space (indoors/closed room) where it can accumulate and you get an explosion similar to a gas leak.

ido

It's like the clone wars being mentioned at the beginning of Star Wars (the original trilogy) and we only learn the significance of that war decades after the first trilogy was released. Great story telling trick in my opinion.

ido

I have this feeling that there is much more to it. Remember that Elaine sighed her manuscript with her mana as Healer Elaine. The scribe said that all copies will have that same signature. How did every copy of this text get changed across the empire? Especially considering that it was considered so important that healers praise it thousands of years later. How did each and every copy change and no one noticed? Given other hints and foreshadowing, my guess is that Elaine was cursed. Either by the fae or black crow. Cursed to be forgotten by history.

ido

Probably starlight flavored attacks with the destructive aspects from dark and barriers and buffs from light. Maybe constructs or something. It really would depend on the type of mage you're looking at.

ido

Maybe that's their curse. They can never know peace.

ido

One possibility I see is Elain, at eaither 256 or more likely 512 gain the ability to heal agerelated "injury" thereby essentially making herself and anyone she wants to immortal. Will also mean that the stories somehow merge with Elain being high level immortal healer in this alternate world. Could also be what "immortal wars" refer too

Kalle

sorry for the delayed response - humans get +1 each time they class up. everyone gets a +3 to all their stats initially because of their contributions. Which leads to stronger initial classes, which has a snowball effect

Selkie

Do you think we’ll see what a celestial mage is capable of as well, since we’ve seen both a healer and a warrior?

Jacob Wilhelmsen

Said it before and I’ll say it again; I feel like Iona and Elaine are star crossed lovers . Said it at ch 200 but got told different times. But now we see the gods are involved; whether Elaine is being pulled to Iona or vice versa I feel like a Celestial Knight with a vow named the dusk seeking a partner and a Celestial Healer named the Dawn are a pairing for a story.

Milandaanza

So I'm late to the party and I'm not sure anyone will even read this but there was one thing that hit me as strange reading all the thoughts people had about this chapter. When they talk about the immortal wars, why do so many assume that select humans gained immortality when there is a whole group of races collectively refered to as the immortal races? Isn't it more likely that it was a war between vampires, fae, etc rather than humans having gained immortality?

L Pedersen

This would be my guess, too. Two sides of a coin, really. One the Protector, one the Healer. They each base all of what they are on having lost their counterpart as a child, because they couldn't help them. Iona lost Lux, the somewhat flighty, not very social, aspiring healer; Elaine lost Lyra, the earnest, social, aspiring Priestess. Iona has a celestial and a water ranger class; Elaine has a celestial and a fire ranger class. They are both capped at 256 with their main class. Both looking for/without a companion to balance them out. Both god-touched. I could go on. And after that question, frankly a bit out of nowhere, about the possibility and requirements of human companions in that last chapter with Hunting, it fits. If they are indeed in different times, which seems likely, the only question in my mind is how they will meet. Either via (godly) time shenanigans or Elaine in a kind of stasis, surviving the fall of the Republic would be my guess.

Michael

Honestly not a fan of flash forwards. Knowing healers are treated as they are in the future and seeing what become of elaine's achievements like her manuscript kind of undermines them. And knowing that all the characters we know are probably dead at this point doesn't exactly help

SDCard

Is this suppose to be an Alt World MC? or just another World entirely? because some things here don't seem to be adding up.

Osamaru Ta

I think it lining up but being a different world and system is going to be important. It's been said that it will be story related it's only speculation at this point though.

Jack Stiles

Ugh, feels like a re-do of the same story. Really hope this is a skippable side story or something alike.

Omy Sadat

It’s Elaine’s childhood friend reincarnated. The one who wanted to be a priest. Elaine/Dawn will have to meet up with her at some point and they will be “Dusk & Dawn”

Forrest Hinkle

What I'm thinking is, different world, different laws, different system. Laws of the people dictate if you can class up, laws of the system could be different strengths for levels. It's obviously another world. How it relates to Elaine? Each moon is its own world? With how the gods sounded, they probably didn't stop testing on "origin"

Jack Stiles

Levels don't align to the standards set in the previous books and chapters. Now there are so many OP characters. Sure I can go along with the Valkyries training but Elaine was on the front lines for months but didn't get to 256 but in 3 days Iona does. A 2000+ mage? Really? Why were the Valkyries even on the front line against such numbers if you have a 2000 mage? The restriction on leveling up needs explaining, especially for the healers. Hopefully somewhere along the line a description of how or when does this align with Elaine's storyline. If Night is 'NEARLY' 512 and was able to wipe out so many formxxx the expectation is the Valkyries 512 and for that matter all those above 256 should be unstoppable against these low level goblins. Another thing about the level cap for the healer he's male, Valkyries are an all female entity. Why would he need permission if he is not a Valkyrie?

So no one connected that with the immortal wars? Looks like healers over 256 just dont die.

coolblue

Not including breaks in the horde, and goblins not running into the blender that is Alruna after seeing all there companions die

Jachin Nelson

My guess, she hits 256, evolves the class, and gets cursed or her powers do something that curses humanity in a way. People then associate humanities struggle with healers moving past 256.

IJustWannaRead

Something I noticed but so far no one commented on it.. - - >Speaking of healers. The only healer the Order had was an old man, entirely unsuited to a battlefield, perpetually stuck at level 256. Healers weren’t allowed to go any higher. Nobody – nobody – would give them permission.<-- This paragraph about no one allow healers to lvl up above 256.. I have a strong feeling that this is because of Dawn 😁🤔

DayWalker

Alright, I have a bit of an issue with this chapter. Mainly, the numbers don't add up. You need to massively increase the number of Goblins in this horde to at least one million. Let me explain. Alruna was able to kill 12 goblins with a single sweep of her blade, and there were presumably an endless supply of goblins throughout the multiple days this took place. None of the Valkyries rested, and were constantly fighting. Assuming Alruna can swing her long blade every 10 seconds, each swing killing 12 goblins on average, than Alruna alone would have been able to kill 103,680 goblins in 24 hours. In other words, Alruna could have taken the entire horde herself. As I said earlier, the way this is currently written implies all the Valkyries were constantly fighting without rest, so logic dictates Alruna alone slew at least that number.

BeatleNerd

2000+ wizard casually thrown in. Why were Goblins even an issue.

Jack Stiles

"It kept going, and going, and Iona looked around at the other squires." - What poor discipline. . . In comparison to the other organization we know of. “It’s not an Immortal. It’s not the start of another round of Immortal Wars.” - Um. . . What? Where's that chapter? Why am I reading this sideshow when there are immortal wars!? WEEEHHH. This makes me wonder if Elaine did something. But in all seriousness I can't really bring myself to care too much for Iona and crew. This makes me wonder if Elaine did something. "Lunaris." "Selene." - Great. Divine intervention. Now she's just an edgy anime protag. Can't say I'm a fan of the world building in this chapter, but it did put me off rather early and that may have colored my views. The leader of the Valkyries is somehow over 512, and a few tens of thousands of goblins are a threat? Right. Hell, 512 isn't even considered odd anymore. What happened that isn't going to be made to look stupid that Remus wasn't doing it? Or maybe the world in general is just getting higher level? I just get severe edgelord vibes from all the characters here. They're so lame. That and how dry the chapter was really turned me off it. I can't finish it.

Venalitor

I'll just throw in my guess that dusk IS Elaine. Reincarnated or something similar.

Thaabit Rivertree

Not void, probably miasma. Getting a class that creates airborne poison sounds like something that he might do and then be ashamed of.

Andrew

I think it's more the organization is afraid of an experienced healer's class changing and therefore shifting their skills to something non-healer.

ben

considering that there are level 2000+ humans in this particular society, it seems odd that the Valks would think themselves so highly and remain so self-sufficient and unaware of their overlordly 'comrades'.

bob barker

Definitely worth the read mate. There are some juicy hints in here.

Michael Buchler

Can anyone give a rundown? I’m really not invested in these characters and 15k words is like a sixth of a published book.

IJustWannaRead

Its a currently unrelated story going on in the same world’s far future.

Addicted_Reader

I feel like I'm missing something...like a skipped I bunch of chapters. Who is this? What is going on? I'm lost.

FancyPantsu

I feel oddly empty after finishing this chapter.

Helios

Gosh, Artemis’s school sure is doing well for itself

Starlit

Iona's stories are taking place in the far flung future. The entire Remus Republic no longer even exists, barely even any of it's history is left. See chp 100 interlude.

Gregory Hunsicker

I feel a little out of the loop here. Everyone else is saying that the stuff with Iona is in a different time period, when I just thought it was in a different part of the world and the two characters would meet up at some point

Thomas Jacob Soule

I wounded if that thing about not letting a healer class up at 256 has anything to do with why Elaine went missing

Jet Kean

I thought that humans got 2 or 3 bonus points? Edit: "Felix and Chloe, two of the three names every human knew. They were each responsible for a global +1 to all humanity, the [Knight] and the [Mage], along with the [Grand Hero] Herculix." To me implied humans would get +3. But even on that chapter humans got +1. I'm confused.

Gabriel

Time Passes and Populations rise, just look at our own World how Humans Exploded in the last 100 Years, if thats the same for all Races then Conflict Rises, more EXP more Levels, they breed more to make up for the loss and more and more

Grissly1000

There has certainly been a massive amount of power growth since the time of the Republic. People with levels higher than Night are apparently common now, with the only thing stopping everyone from getting to such levels are artificial limits on leveling. Even the goblins are more than twice the levels they were at before. How did it get so much easier to level than it was in the past? It seems like just having better information about classes and skills might not be enough to explain it.

Todd Kloos

But her title is Dusk. Dawn and Dusk. There is a obvious connection

Gustavo Claude

I just remembered, we got a Chapter about Companions and Human Companions and how they have to be alike...Oath of Elaine to Lyra, Oath of Iona to Lux, Sentinels Superiority, Valkyries Valor, and and and maybe one of them Time Travels? Most likely Iona because She got that Language Skill.

Grissly1000

Even major skills seem to have shifted a bit. I noticed Iona picked up 'Analyze' back in ch 100 because that's what everyone else uses in her time, while in Elaine's time everyone uses Identify. I'm not sure what the difference between the two is but it's certainly interesting.

Russel Yount

Expectations matter. Maybe I would too if there was a whole story to go along with it to give the character and this chapter meaning. As it is it's just a chapter about a random person's grueling fight against a goblin horde. That's just not that interesting. They need a whole story around them to make it interesting, or a connection to the main story for us to understand their relevance and why they are important. Without that, it's just not that interesting, and I don't care. Why *should* I care about any of this if there's no greater story to give these events/people meaning and there's still no connection to the main story? For such a long passage, author you need to set expectations. You made it sound like it was this awesome gift to us. I'm not saying others can't enjoy it, but to me it was a huge time-suck. When you post side stories or interludes you should tell us if it's important to the main story or not, for example how important it is, or if these characters will ever enter the main story, or what the point of the chapter is (world building/setting up a future plot point or arc/ introducing critical characters/reimagining the current story/ just something random for extra fun) etc, anything like that. Like I said, to be this long and still have no connection to anything else in the story is just wrong without some sort of explanation about what these are for. As for me I learned my lesson.

Thaabit Rivertree

That was an interesting look at the future. It seems like the powerlevels of just about everyone is higher than in Elaine's day. Given what Night told Elaine before, and previous worldbuilding, I've got the feeling that humanity's little corner of the world has relatively low-levelled monsters living there (probably because the Rangers also help cull incursions before they can grow too much). It seems like humanity has spread out quite a bit and grown a lot, both in numbers, territory, and levels. Then again, with how young the world and civilization are in Elaine's days that doesn't sound too weird. I suppose it makes sense that over the course of hundreds or thousands of years they've managed to nail down the system more and more to the point that reaching such high levels is common enough that people are held back from advancing their classes. Hm, thinking on it, if those higher levels are quicker to get to, it makes sense to hold people back until they're mature enough to handle their newfound power, so between that and the people in power wanting to have some kind of order and control it makes sense to restrict their levelling.

Tango

Wow, very nice. This must be far future, right?

Sebastian Lachs

Iona looks at her regen on a per-day basis, while Elaine's on a per-hour basis. 24 hours to the day.

Selkie

It’s set in the far future.

BladeTytan

I feel like I might be missing something, but why is Iona's mana regen so high? Looking over the stats in chapter 144, Elaine has much higher magic stats but only a third of the regen when compared to Iona.

Russel Yount

I don't understand if this interlude take place in a distant future or a distant place, the mention of the medical manuscript make me think about a distant future but the end of the previous chapter and everything else make me think about a distant place

DANTE

I would legit read an entire book about Iona.

S. Nutter

I just read that whole chapter expecting Elaine to show up at some point. I'm never doing that again. Please be more informative next time about whether an interlude is or is not connected to, or needed for the main story. Would have skipped it if I'd known it was a completely separate issue and would never involve Dawn. Won't make that mistake again.

Thaabit Rivertree

I'm bad at inventive curses.

Selkie

>“What’s the fucking point of fucking religion if you can’t fucking call down a fucking miracle!?” Sigrun had yelled, before storming off. > >Iona hadn’t realized that Sigrun’s cursing could be quite so verbose. It was like she worked in swears the same way others might work in oils or clay. Is that supposed to be sarcasm? Sigrun is using exactly one curse word four times. That's the opposite of verbose, etc. Remove the F-ings and you still have a functional sentence. Or is Iona so sheltered someone repeating F-ing four times in a sentence seems an impressive form of cursing?

K Hilliard

100

Selkie

Well we already know the gods are to an extent bastards. They supress technology and probably some sosial developments to. It's not that hard to get an prophets to explain that socialism will destroy society (as an simple example). So it's totally possible that they have reversed some upward trends. Afther all how interesting is ower worlds really for an god? With the level of technology we have combined with an system that goblin hord would be no problem.

Håvard

When was the last Iona chapter, I honestly don’t remember what happened in it

Raphael

RIP good catch

Selkie

Dusk and Dawn, enemies or allies, Friends or Foes so many questions so few answers

CHoobler

What a depressing future. Knowing that whatever actions or events Elaine will take part in the story will lead to this is sad >.>

Potation

All we can do is speculate wildly but obviously something big happens with class options after they rank up from L256. Not really enough hints to come to a solid conclusion about what they might be though.

tibbish

Interesting chapter! Thanks for posting. I'm curious to see how this ties in.

RottenTangerine

"Healers weren’t allowed to go any higher. Nobody – nobody – would give them permission. He’d only be a liability." I can't imagine how he would be a liability after the rank up?

Patrick Schuldt

I don't think it's a female thing. I think they limit the number of high class people in general. Like you have to have a license to have a higher level. The healer thing is probably related to Elaine. She'll do something as a high level healer that makes everyone agree not to let another healer get that high again.

Lictor Magnus

They need permissions for classing up?! It's not sexism anymore it is violation of right to choose and think independently for all. And healers can't class at all? What they have too many healthy people? Just no. Thank you for your work, but as I was indiffrent for your first interlude, that this one I don't like.

Raven

The Wait is killing me...its only monday

Grissly1000

Well, as I commented, this is a likely spoiler for everything. Valkyries come from the school of Artemis and Elaine. They control some areas and defended the Kingdom at some point against someone (who?). We have Elaine and that evolving her 256 healer Class will bring something forth that society forbids later. We got the future of Toxics research results, with his pores and poison and so on. It's not about the MC, but for some reason, I still think Elaine is alive, cause she signed that book for the healer, yes?

Christie

I imagine it has something to do with the immortal wars mentioned. Night already said that humans would reach extreme levels if they lived as long as him. Mages probably figured out eternal youth or something.

Lino

Well we know two things, we will have fun when Elaine evolve her Class and Toxic may have turned into a void or a variant and for some reason that has something to do why he avoids Elaine

Christie

I like long chapters but this felt so much longer. Next time maybe release in smaller batches throughout the week. That way you still get a break & we can get daily chapters. I’m also interested how Iona & Elaine will come together especially with names like Dawn & Dusk. Will they be partners? Lovers? Master & Apprentice? Something else?

SpaceGoddess76

I get the impression that most non-imperial "orders" are somewhat restricted as to HOW powerful they are allowed to be. With the idea that if they want to get higher they would need to funnel their power to the empire. That limit on healing was specific to the Valkyries, because it would make him a "full" Valkyrie and be entitled to a title and a squire.

Daniel Sifrit

Also on the stat page "Constellation of the Warrior" should be "Celestial" and not "Light"

Daniel Sifrit

It feels like the Valkyries are being set up to be wandering knight/squires. Solo versus an order. Sigrun isn't going to hold them together.. she is lost to her anger.

Daniel Sifrit

Maybe they speak another language and Elaine is the word for Healer now

Fraxx

Just think, I plan to go that long!

Selkie

They need to ask for permission to rank up, and healers are not allowed beyond 256? Destroy that Empire!

Grissly1000

I don't really like this Interlude if I'm honest. It has nothing to do with the story and only lead to questions and no answers. But if Selkie think it's necessary there should be a reason. Please make a note above a chapter if this will be ever relevant.

Patrick Schuldt

How the fuck do you get to lvl 2000+? In Elaines storyline there isn't even an enemy that high leveled, dragons excluded.

Patrick Schuldt

These interludes are going to have the slowest payoff.

luda305

It is the same person yeah.

Arkeus

Wait, is this the same weird POV as was posted way earlier, with no intersection with the main story so far? Because I skipped that one, and it would be good to have confirmation that this is the same deal so I can skip it too.

PrimalShadow

Wow the Valkyries leadership was pretty crap to let their forces get forced into a position where they were pretty much wiped out. Hopefully they fall apart so Iona can be free to go elsewhere

tibbish

It's in the far future. Also compare my comment above yours to what the chapter says about the medical manuscripts for a neat surprise.

Robert Mullins

hmm, Is Iona storyline in the future or is she in a different country/continent and a potential romantic interest for Elaine?

Allow me to quote you from book 2. { I relaxed, feeling a skill wash over me. I quickly unrolled the scrolls, signing at the bottom of the scroll, and at the top, right under the title of the scroll. Elaine. I kept it short, sweet, simple. I didn’t bother with a title, or anything fancy. Just – Elaine. That was me. }

Robert Mullins

Thank you for the chapter, will enjoy it :D i love long chapters

GoHazard