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Added 2023-12-10 06:00:04 +0000 UTCThe end of the year insanity has descended in force. If there's a month where I'll be late on a chapter, this is it. I'll do my best!
2023-12-10
2023-12-17
2023-12-24
Break
2024-01-07
Comments
Man I hope Dust gets airwalk or another flight skill so Ascention can have a dragon!
Andrew Fraser
2023-12-14 07:06:35 +0000 UTCChapter 103 “Illumaination” has some relevant excerpts like Val training from young and how his father left him the needed info: ‘“Just save up? Do you have any idea how ridiculous you sound?” He clenched his fists. “I’ve been training since I was four! FOUR! Since before Fecht took my father away! And here you come, blowing past me in less than a season! It should have been me, standing up to that thing. Being the hero. Not you.”’ ‘The silence stretched on for a few moments, then Rain shrugged. “So if you’re not an Illuminator, what are you? You’ve got some secret legendary class, don’t you?” “No,” Val said, hesitating. “And not here. Ask me again if...when we get out of here. It isn’t like it will matter if I can’t raise my cap. My father left me everything he knew, and you heard for yourself what he…what Lightbreaker can do. It isn’t an easy path to follow, thank the gods. Imagine what the Empire could do if they could make more…” He shook his head. “Anyway, it is still dangerous. Someone could be listening. I did kind of make a scene.”’ Edit: The guy above was right about chapter 46 so guess Val got the minimum information (soloing essence monster and types of skills needed) but not a step by step guide. Well Val should have figured it out over the years.
Conor McGroarty
2023-12-13 02:47:25 +0000 UTCWe definitely know he didn’t get the training or level boosting. His father didn’t even tell him the full class requirements for bronze Contender of Light as it says in ch46 that it took Val years to figure out all six skills.
HornsOfTheseus
2023-12-12 16:50:52 +0000 UTCCitizen Bowcraig used a glass charm to give himself 10k light resistance. It can be enhanced with Empowered Charms from T1 Equipment use. If an Empowered Potions skill existed, it would be in that tree. It might very well be an obscure hidden skill we never found out about because Ameliah skipped the prerequisites and Lilly had no use for it. Tallheart's not a Chemist afterall.
Cirvante
2023-12-12 14:55:54 +0000 UTCI think Val straight-up said one time that he didn't get any training, he was like five years old when his Dad got captured. He just reconstructed the required Skills for the Class based on things he knew Vannon could do, and a lucky System Synesthesia thing that gives Skills colours that he can interpret.
Elaborate
2023-12-12 13:14:53 +0000 UTCI think Consumables makes sense as a general System concept, so you could have a Skill in Survivalist Utility or something that gives you a bonus to the effect, and maybe one that gives you an Inventory of them. (And we know there are non-potion consumables; that one Citizen broke a glass thingie to get temporary Light Resistance) It would also fit the theme of having very broad Crafting Trees, where it's the combination of trees that make you a particular type of Crafter. (...OK, I admit we probably would have heard of famous Cooks with beneficial dishes, if the Consumables Skill Tree were a thing, so there likely is just a Potioncrafting Tree. But I still think it's such a neat idea... I can think of cool Skills for Consumables that wouldn't be as obvious a fit in Potioncrafting, like [Conjure Dungeon Construct] to give you temporary potion bottles or shell casings, or make bandages on the spot...)
Elaborate
2023-12-12 12:51:51 +0000 UTCI don't think there's a Consumables tree. Bandages are Natureworking, with a textile focus. For smoke bombs, the chemical ingredients require Chemistry, maybe Stoneworking for the container and Artificing for more intricate trigger mechanisms. I do believe that there's a Potion-crafting tree, similar to Weapon-crafting, Armor-crafting and Artificing. Hurling is a neat idea for a combat chemist, maybe some stealth skills as well.
Cirvante
2023-12-12 01:23:42 +0000 UTCAs for Ruce, he has Divination and Magical Utility is a no-brainer. Not only does Mana Sight combine with Piercing Gaze and Unveiled Sight from Divination, but Channel Mastery boosts all three. Chanting works on Threat Assessment, Identify Weakness and Scrying Pool. That's about the extent of the known Divination skills. I don't know if Sense Danger is in Divination or Survivalist Utility, but it's a must-have. Again, pick up Arcane Bolt for damaging blues, Arcane Mastery might even work for Divination. But since so many of it's spells are channeled, I would only grab Chanting from Evocation Metamagic, maybe also Guide Sending. For Ruce I'd recommend Divination, Magical Utility, Arcane Mysteries and Arcane Utility, the Translocationist build, basically. You need to see where you want to teleport afterall. Edit: Detection combines with Mana Sight, Piercing Gaze and Unveiled Sight for a full sphere of awareness. So grabbing Detection and Extend Aura, possibly even Amplify Aura and Aura Focus for some 360° vision might be useful. And imagine a Divination/Aura Mage with Aura Anchors spread around the world. That's the ultimate information broker build.
Cirvante
2023-12-12 01:03:41 +0000 UTCA combat support Healer needs at least one high-damage spell. Otherwise they'll never be able to scratch a lair blue that could raise them to silver. Either Arcane Bolt or Lightning Ball should do the trick, being some of the highest-damage basic spells available. Other than that, every Mage who doesn't specialize in channeled spells like auras should take Evocation Metamagic. Chanting for that 3x modifier, Quicken Evocation to reduce casting time, Guide Sending for more accurate dmg spells and Somatic Manipulation could help with healing. The tree also has Dislocated Casting (probably hidden Mana Manipulation skill), so he doesn't fry his hands with Arcane spells and Triplicate Casting. Finally, I believe the T4 capstone skill is Spell Recursion, which allows you to apply multiple stacks of the same metamagic, like Triplicate Casting. Not sure if it works with Chanting, that would be broken. Magical Utility is mandatory, which leaves one more skill tree. I'd take Arcane Bulwark and spec into whatever tree has Barrier Shaping, Permeable Barrier (made-up name, but the skill exists) and Affix Conjuration. Being able to cast triple-layered Arcane Bulwark envelopes around your teammates that let their own attacks through and move with them is very useful. Once you have Spell Recursion at silver, you can give your tank 243 layers of Arcane Bulwark. Better to protect your teammates than to have to reattach their limbs in battle. Edit: T4 Magical Utility has Hybridize. Use that to combine Arcane Spark with Healing Touch. You get a Healing Turret.
Cirvante
2023-12-12 00:42:54 +0000 UTCVal trained for years with his father to prepare to follow the path his father found. Val should have the theoretical class progression from bronze all the way to gold and just needs to get the essence monsters to do it. By the time Vannon was suppressed and taken away by Fecht to become Lightbreaker, all the info should have been passed to Val as there was no reason not to as he was gold and Val should have been raised smart enough to not spill secrets. Anyway, glad to see progress and Ascension finally coming together. Though would really be comforting to have an entire gold team to act as a deterrent and establish them as a world force. Well they are getting there.
Conor McGroarty
2023-12-12 00:17:45 +0000 UTCYes, but that was for a rare class, Contender of Light. I'm assuming the rare upgrade, High Contender of Light, has similar requirements. Get one 100% kill against a blue. The blue could even be at a lower level than him. But a legendary upgrade would have more strict requirements. Similar to how Dynamo requires your Clarity to be five times your Focus. Someone at level 5 could have 60 Clarity, 12 Focus and 18 Strength, and get Dynamo. He could still get High Dynamo with 150 Clarity, 30 Focus and 100 points spent on his physical stats. That's the 'balanced' monolith build. For some physical monoliths, it's quite good. Like a Dustrio with lots of Strength and Physical Synergy linking it to his stamina pool. High-damage speedster. But the Legendary Monolith requires every single point to be invested into it's monolithic stat. No balance possible aside from accolades and bonus stats. So I expected his legendary upgrade to require either consecutive solos to raise his cap, two solos, or a solo against a level 25+ blue. Soloing a silver blue could still be a requirement. Alternatively, Val has no idea how to get the legendary upgrade because Vannon only got the rare one at silver, but I doubt it. Lightbreaker is too much of a monster for that.
Cirvante
2023-12-12 00:11:23 +0000 UTCOh, right. Good catch. Well, if I had to guess Vannon's interface colour, that particular shade of yellow would be pretty close.
Cirvante
2023-12-11 23:47:47 +0000 UTCWe love you Dust!
Deegles
2023-12-11 19:43:53 +0000 UTCI'm sure Dust could be a workhorse, if he put his mind to it.
Random Information
2023-12-11 17:44:49 +0000 UTCNah, that was logically always the case. He soloed a level 5 Blue, and then afterwards he got up to level 8, the cap from his first essence monster.
Elaborate
2023-12-11 11:40:56 +0000 UTCHave you heard about the Saudi royal family?
LaughingCoyote
2023-12-11 07:52:41 +0000 UTCNot Stint's natural interface colour, the rest of the boxes were blue.
LaughingCoyote
2023-12-11 07:47:10 +0000 UTCI"m aware. But IIRC one of the two healers (I don't recall which) is planning to be a full-time town-based healing specialist, basically a pacifist, and the other is presumably planning to be combat support in delving parties. These roles require different builds.
Elaborate
2023-12-11 03:40:13 +0000 UTCI’m so glad he’s a mage and not a tank or warrior. While the others would be fun for the surprise factor, no one would even notice until mid battle when he’s dishing out or tanking way too much damage the sheer wtf a mage horse will inspire is so much better.
Kain
2023-12-11 03:23:24 +0000 UTCMereck is one of the two healers in Ascension. You can see his class in the template near the top of his wiki page. All the classes for the party members are also listed this chapter.
IntegrationConstituency
2023-12-11 01:56:36 +0000 UTCWhile I do agree that hundreds of heirs is likely too high, this is not a typical monarchy. It is a "meritocratic monarchy", so ruler is just the highest level family member which likely makes the heir just the second highest level member of the entire family (including "sons daughters, fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, and niblings").
IntegrationConstituency
2023-12-11 01:53:38 +0000 UTCif say Sadir had only 1 child, and they had 2 kids by 40, and those 2 had another 2 by 40. There are plenty of relatives to go around. Now if we assume some reigns ended prematurely (be accidental or otherwise) or some heirs died before taking the throne, to be replaced by other heirs ... it's not an impossible number
stubs
2023-12-11 01:07:30 +0000 UTCWe do not have enough information for Ruce... I guess Arcane Mastery helps with Divination? Question is which tree that is in. I guess Arcane Utility or Magic Utility? Or maybe Arcane Metamagic is its own Skill Tree? Hmm. Just from the information we have, I'd say a decent build would be Divination, Magic Utility, Arcane Utility, and Beams. (He's probably going to put 10 points or so in Divination, so 4 trees are the limit.) Beams is a decent offensive option because it has attacks of all flavors, can attack a small vulnerable spot, and Ruce can pick the aspect depending on what the enemy is vulnerable to. it's long-ranged, too, which would fit a Diviner. It's possible that Arcane Mysteries would also be a good pick, because Teleportation and Divination might benefit from the same range-enhancing metamagics. It'll depend on where the Arcane metamagic is. In either case, he'll apparently need Arcane Bolt to unlock Arcane Mastery. Evocation Metamagic might be useful if Beams are Evocation, but specializing in it is probably overkill; Ruce is not meant to be DPS.
Elaborate
2023-12-10 21:38:26 +0000 UTCCannot have hundreds of heirs for rulership for Sadiir in 700 years. Dozens perhaps. But an heir every 2-3 years means they were breeding faster than rabbits.1
Dragonkinn
2023-12-10 20:08:38 +0000 UTCA Dust Couture line
Alexander Dupree
2023-12-10 19:06:43 +0000 UTCA completely asthetic non restricting bridle with pins and a little white Ascension coat/blanket
Scott Frederiksen
2023-12-10 19:05:15 +0000 UTCHuh. Ominous indeed. ...Anyway, I wonder what Skill choices Mereck and Meloni will make. Was Mereck the prospective battle healer? The wiki doesn't specify. Following a party means having high Focus, for good bursts of healing, but also a good spread in his physical Attributes. Maybe pick up some buffs and/or Auras, to assist the party. A bit of Blood Magic, maybe, to use in emergencies. I could see good synergies with Water Manipulation; he can use it to keep people's blood inside their bodies, and also as last-ditch monster defense. Hm. Restoration, Magic Utility, Blood Magic, Water Manipulation, Utility Auras? Maybe Chemical/Restoration/Arcane Metamagic, depending on which one affects Healing. With Meloni, it's a question of whether she wants combat capabilities at all. She could go for a hybrid of Chemist and Chemical Malefactor. Or she could try to complement Myth and Reason, maybe focus on Natureworking if she wants to be a potion expert. I imagine there could be a crafting Discipline Tree for potions, though, maybe call it "Consumables", that way it also covers cooking, bandages, smokebombs etc. I'd say Chemist, Natureworking, Consumables, (Chemical Metamagic or Magic Utility), and Hurling. (With Hurling, she could store potions in an Inventory and throw them unerringly at targets.)
Elaborate
2023-12-10 17:34:49 +0000 UTCGreat dossier on Sadiir and it's ruler. Although it feels like everyone and their mom can suddenly break the damage limit at gold, whereas before it was exclusive to platinums and Lightbreaker, aside from forcing a paradox like Lavarro and Velika. Is that what Reece meant? Other than that, we've gotten confirmation that Threat Attraction has a skill called Taunting Shout which monsters can resist, probably with Mental Resistance. And Velika has a legendary class called Inheritor of Osar. Also, Dust has officially turned into a pokemon. Ascension now has eight level 19 awakened, including a Chemist, a Healer, a Diviner, a Tortugo tank and a Contender of Light. Meloni can outperform Myth and Reason now. Carten isn't the biggest Turtle anymore, I would have preferred him to get the cap increase here. And Mereck might be able to learn to restore limbs with his new cap. Tissue Scan at rank 13 plus Rain's Winter should give him a pretty good understanding of what the human body is supposed to look like on the inside. And Lerith, at a similar level, had both Limb Restoration and Scar Tissue Removal. Speaking of Lerith, he's apparently using his biomancy to create some very attractive ambassadors for the Entin Theocracy and they are making moves. They probably have some enhanced supersoldiers as well by now. War on Rellagia could be interesting, especially when they violate their treaties to only let dulls fight. Ascension could move in and kill that bitch Lerith during the chaos. Anyway, good chapter!
Cirvante
2023-12-10 17:30:45 +0000 UTCBest chapter in a long time. I can't believe they're actually delving. So satisfying. Dust finally got some of his own back.
Eidetic Eidolon
2023-12-10 17:16:42 +0000 UTCI wonder what build Dust will be going for. There are already two fire mages in Ascension, so it's a bit of a waste if he chooses that. Didn't Ameliah use a fire-based buffing spell in the shadow-lair? I can see Dust go for Fire+Speed, with fire-aspected buffs. Let's see... Fire Evocation, Elemental Enhancement, Heat Metamagic, Magical Utility, Physicality? If Heat Metamagic is a thing, that is. Maybe you need to be a full Heat Mage to access it... He might also take a few points in Arcane Shifter, get a human shape... This is all assuming Dust gets human Skill Trees. I can see a lot of the Skill Trees being blocked or reworked for animals; Dust would be unlikely to become a successful Metalworker, for example, so why even give him the option?
Elaborate
2023-12-10 17:01:46 +0000 UTCVal has been a confirmed lemming for a long time. We mistakenly assumed that since his rare bronze class required one blue solo, and he told Rain that he can't advance the regular way, that the legendary upgrade takes consecutive blue solos. Afterall, the rare upgrade to High Contender of Light should require another solo already. The High Monoliths require the same thing as the Monoliths, while the Legendary Monoliths have far more extreme requirements for example. Maybe Val needs two solos for this upgrade or a level 25 solo. Or maybe SS didn't have a convenient way to give Val multiple blue solos and simply retconned his class requirements to give him a quick power up. Either way, I'm happy. We've seen too little of Val lately and with his old man becoming Potentate, he needed this power up so that Rain could help him solo his way to silver.
Cirvante
2023-12-10 16:58:18 +0000 UTCShe mentioned being taken into the depths by seven Citizens who got her a gold cap during one of her POV chapters.
Cirvante
2023-12-10 16:45:15 +0000 UTCI doubt it. Rain is still far from becoming an administrator. I'm curious about the colour of the message window. Is that Stint's natural interface colour? We know that Rain's interface is blue and Ameliah's is gold. When I saw the bright yellow window, my first thought was Lightbreaker. He's ruling over Ekrustia, where the hole in reality is and where system-less monster started appearing. He's also Fecht's former protege and there was speculation that Fecht might know something about system administration. Of all the powerhouses in delveworld, Vannon and Kev are the only ones I could imagine trying to gain administrator status. And Vannon seems more likely, he could sneak into the platinum depths with his build and attempt to access some hypothetical artifact. Or maybe I'm way off and this is just an aborted global system warning from the hole in reality getting worse or causing damage to the system.
Cirvante
2023-12-10 16:38:14 +0000 UTCDidn't Reece tell Rain that animals could always be awakened, once they hit a certain threshold for intelligence (which his Winter helped achieve for the animals in Ascensions), but that 1) Who'd waste a slot to awaken an animal, and 2) Awakening an animal might not be a good idea - we'll see how Dust handles his new ability to burn everything to a crisp. Certainly the Watch wouldn't be happy if they learned that there is a fire-breathing horse which may or may not understand that it's one spell cast away from being a muss murderer.
Jac Onue
2023-12-10 16:37:10 +0000 UTCNice! Getting everyone's level cap raised is an important task for Ascension. Also awakening more members.
Hal Canary
2023-12-10 15:16:10 +0000 UTCThis makes Val's decision to attempt that blue in Fel Sadanis really really stupid. Just to up his cap by maybe one or two he risked dying and the wrath of Velika.
Random Information
2023-12-10 15:08:30 +0000 UTCDust evolved into Ponyta! Now lets see if he can get to Rapidash next
WarStrider72
2023-12-10 14:30:45 +0000 UTCAwakening animals was established as perfectly possible in 222, with Dust getting specifically mentioned as awakening-viable already. The impossible/unheard of was for animal to get into awakenable state by itself, so without assistance like Winter.
Veritas Dolor
2023-12-10 13:38:48 +0000 UTCI hope Dust someday looks like the ghostrider horse
JoBer
2023-12-10 13:35:03 +0000 UTCSS once clarified at discord that he doesn't need full kills to up his cap, but he may need them to upgrade his class. So he will probably need solo kills at 25 and 50.
Veritas Dolor
2023-12-10 13:34:22 +0000 UTCInteresting. The omen mentioned in the chapter may not only be the global warning message sent via the system, but the fact that Dust could get awakened as that was previously established as an impossibility. If this is a sign that the system itself is beginning to collapse and its rules are beginning to fray I'm curious to see what new abilities and creatures come about from this (especially Dozer's slime family).
JC Silver
2023-12-10 12:18:55 +0000 UTCLet’s hope Rain asked Reece for the skill combination to get the rare heat attribute class at level 5 and told Dust. Don’t want such a flame enthusiast like Dust get a subpar class due to picking the wrong skill overeager. Also I seemed to have been under the wrong impression that Contender of Light requires all subsequent essence monster kills to be solo. Guess the higher classes at silver and gold don’t need such things.
Conor McGroarty
2023-12-10 12:09:10 +0000 UTCThanks for the chapter.
Joshua Little
2023-12-10 10:39:37 +0000 UTCExcellent side chapter!!!
Bzzt
2023-12-10 09:51:42 +0000 UTCIt took only 261 chapter for the hidden true MC to awaken ! Dust power !!!
Samityaou
2023-12-10 09:23:03 +0000 UTCA horse a horse of course of course
a passing Fnord
2023-12-10 08:59:26 +0000 UTCXD I think a certain tiny girl has been a bad influence on Dust, hahahaha!
Osamaru Ta
2023-12-10 08:27:25 +0000 UTCAyoooooo Pyro horse coming through hahaha
Marwolaeth
2023-12-10 08:14:42 +0000 UTCCould it have been Rain pushing a message to all of them, to play into the ruse?
SecretsOfTheVoid
2023-12-10 07:27:14 +0000 UTCYes, and she received it immediately, before she was even elevated to rule Fel Sadanis. She remained lvl 48 throughout the arc because there were no good exp sources around, but her cap was gold already and by Three Cliffs she probably promoted.
Veritas Dolor
2023-12-10 07:26:53 +0000 UTCVelka was originally level 48 NOT gold. Getting to gold was the inducement the citizens were offering
His Dad
2023-12-10 07:16:11 +0000 UTCOf course, what could possibly go wrong with a horse that has access to fire magic ha. Thanks!
Doodlyboy15
2023-12-10 07:01:04 +0000 UTCWhen even the horse wants to go full DPS in the Delve world... Also given the WARN message, seems like the hole in the world has finally caused a global System issue. Or something got into the Delve world that really shouldn't have.
Atlas Dwarf
2023-12-10 06:43:42 +0000 UTCIt’s finally happened! The moment we’ve all been waiting for! Pyromania, ho! Yeah, this won’t end badly at all. TFTC
Judah Frankel
2023-12-10 06:39:50 +0000 UTCYou used "indecent" twice in a row.
Stefan J Neylon
2023-12-10 06:37:37 +0000 UTCDeer*
Gardor
2023-12-10 06:34:04 +0000 UTCHmmmm interesting, I have a feeling Dust is going to be an amazing member of the team. In terms of the methodology of helping people uncap I think there could have been a better way to do it but I think Velika did try to make it as safe as possible without hindering them. Thanks for the chapter can’t wait for what comes next.
Zero
2023-12-10 06:31:31 +0000 UTCOh my god. Horse ascension ranking pins need to be made for Dust.
Alexander Dupree
2023-12-10 06:28:58 +0000 UTCBoooo I wanted a rain focused chapter
Gardor
2023-12-10 06:17:18 +0000 UTCThankd for the chapter! Dust Has Awakened!!!
ZCochraine!%
2023-12-10 06:14:01 +0000 UTCOh dear, this is a nightMare.
Random Information
2023-12-10 06:13:49 +0000 UTCGood luck Senscent, we're rooting for you!
Metierian
2023-12-10 06:12:47 +0000 UTCThank you for the chapter. I would accept no chapter on Christmas Eve, or a short one if it helps you enjoy the holidays more. Being a creator is mentally draining sometimes, and you might need the space to recharge. Especially if things get hectic around the holidays.
SecretsOfTheVoid
2023-12-10 06:03:51 +0000 UTCI forgot who Stint. Understandable. But why was my first guess the Horse?
Ruriva
2023-12-10 06:03:44 +0000 UTC
