Unborn Hero Epilogue 5: The obligatory NSFW chapter
... Is on scribblehub, because this is a polite patreon and we'll not be having any of that filth here.
2023-09-26 04:59:02 +0000 UTC View Post
cathfach posts
Unborn Hero Epilogue 4: Another Wedding
Attaching the image to this reminded me I haven't mentioned the magical girl designs for a while. Obviously, the remaining three haven't happened.The artist involved got sick, and while I was hoping she'd be back in time for the story ending, it's a bit late for that now. :(
Rose winced as a maid behind her tugged on the laces of her corset, trying to eke out one last fraction of an inch and leaving her with the distinct feeling that her kidneys were being squee...
2023-09-22 04:41:49 +0000 UTC View PostUnborn Hero Epilogue 3: Another Day
"And can you believe it, Rrillandral and Dreobeth are in a relationship!" sent Kellela as she walked down a street on the outskirts of the capital, employing [Telepathy] to talk to Mystery. Or perhaps at Mystery would be a better description, given that she didn't exactly expect a reply. That didn't stop her talking almost endlessly, though; her [Telepathy] had reached a level high enough to speak smoothly, and she didn't even need to pause for breath. She kept it up mostly in the ho...
2023-09-19 04:31:20 +0000 UTC View PostUnborn Hero Epilogue 2: Another Artefact
Hayedalf was focused intensely on a chain of mythril beads, carefully engraving runes into each, when a buzzer sounded on his desk. A simple timekeeping device he'd crafted to ensure he didn't become engrossed in his work to the expense of all else. But he was almost done with the chain; only a few more runes to engrave, which would take less than half an hour. No point stopping so close to the end. He reached over to deactivate the buzzer...
... And then paused and sighed, carefully st...
2023-09-15 04:59:49 +0000 UTC View PostUnborn Hero Epilogue 1: Another Ball
Rrillandral Lehibeborn sat in an unpainted wooden carriage, the wood a healthy brown with just a tint of green. It wasn't formed of planks or boards, but rather appeared grown, a single piece without join or seam, as if a tree had simply decided that carriage-shaped was the look it wanted to aim for. Not a single nail held it together.
The wheels were a particularly impressive feat of biological engineering. In order to rotate without the entire carriage spinning or the axles twisting t...
2023-09-12 05:02:42 +0000 UTC View PostUnborn Hero Chapter 85: Aftermath
This is the final regular chapter, but there are 6 more patreon-exclusive epilogue/bonus chapters still to come that will fill out the rest of September. (#5 is NSFW, so will appear on discord like the other NSFW bonus chapters.)
Edit: Fixed the separators. That's 2 chapters in a row I've forgotten!
In a stone room, a group of zycrian mages poked and prodded their experimental test subject. There was a certain resign...
2023-09-08 04:24:31 +0000 UTC View PostUnborn Hero Chapter 84: The Final Cycle
In the capital city of Flinel, a certain [Travelling Merchant] was trying very hard not to rub his hands together with glee. After having an entire caravan—pretty much everything he owned—destroyed by a rather unpleasant lion-headed demon, he'd come very close to bankruptcy. Thankfully, the kingdom had paid out some amount of compensation, but it wasn't enough to cover the value of the destroyed goods. The families of the murdered guards had received more, but he wasn't so unscrupulous as...
2023-09-05 04:45:42 +0000 UTC View PostUnborn Hero Chapter 83: Dings
For witnessing the manifestation and destruction of the demon lord, [Soul's Eye] advances to level 48.
For successfully engaging in telepathic communication with a demon, [Telepathy] advances to level 23. Sorry, but no huge leap in levels for that one. You should have tried talking to the demon lord after getting stuck.
Achievement unlocked: [True Hero]
Achievement unlocked: [The Final Cycle]
Mystery the Human has obtained the mythical achie...
Unborn Hero Chapter 80: Pocket World
Hayedalf swore as a large gemstone forcefully shattered, showering the room in crystal shards. Once the clattering had stopped, he lowered the arm he had protectively raised in front of his face, saw what little remained of his previous week's work, and swore again.
The exploding gem had obliterated the detailed mana circuitry he'd spent days etching into the mythril. Not to mention that the mythril would have been contaminated, and needed to be thrown out. Tens of gold coins worth of m...
2023-08-22 04:41:06 +0000 UTC View PostUnborn Hero Chapter 79: Incorrect Conclusions
Kellela finished her day at work, walking back home through the evening streets. If she was honest with herself, she wasn't quite sure where the time had gone. Normally, she wouldn't mind that; time seemed to draw out further the more boring the task, after all, so losing track of it during the day implied that she'd found something interesting to do. That wasn't the case today, though. The time just seemed to skip forward, so yes, it passed quickly, but she hadn't got anywhere near as much w...
2023-08-18 05:11:36 +0000 UTC View PostUnborn Hero Chapter 78: Vale of Dreams
Rrillandral leapt from tree to tree, none of her enemies able to pierce her [Stealth]. It was her best, highest level skill; her desire to maintain a youthful appearance heavily limited what she could learn, and most of her budget had been spent on its sub-skills. Alas, that meant that while her enemies couldn't see her, there were limits to what she could do to them. Anything with fast reactions was a risk. Anything with natural defences was completely safe from her. Nevertheless, she was ki...
2023-08-15 05:08:00 +0000 UTC View PostUnborn Hero Chapter 77: Lost Memories
Rose sat on the dusty, frozen ground, cross-legged. It was cold, but it also wasn't real. She damn well wasn't going to let a dream give her frostbite.
"Okay. What do I know? That this isn't real. It's a dream of some sort. I know I am Rose, an adventurer, and I was travelling to Karn's Vigil with my parents to answer a call from the adventurers' guild to cull the forest's monsters. It was to be my first proper mission. My parents got me new equipment and everything. B...
2023-08-11 05:19:45 +0000 UTC View PostUnborn Hero Chapter 76: Wedding
Grace took a few deep, calming breaths as she stood outside the main doors of the temple. Or at least, she tried to. Her corset meant deep breaths were not currently a feasible option, so she settled for a few slow, shallow breaths instead, which just led to her feeling breathless, which in turn led to a burst of hyperventilation.
"Control yourself," demanded her teacher disapprovingly. "Look, here comes your father."
Grace thought a few choice rude words—doing her best to not l...
2023-08-08 05:09:04 +0000 UTC View PostUnborn Hero Chapter 75: Stolen Bonds
Rose peered up at the black sky, shivering in the cold, violet sunlight. "Drat, not again," she complained. "I don't even remember falling asleep!"
She looked around, spotting the same mountain range in the distance, still looking like a row of teeth. In retrospect, that was probably symbolic of something, this place being the metaphorical stomach of a dream eater.
This time, though, she only had one shadow.
"Where are you hiding?" she muttered, looking around, but there was...
2023-08-04 04:49:53 +0000 UTC View PostUnborn Hero Chapter 74: Demon Lord
Since time immemorial, the cycle had repeated itself. As any [Spell Forger] would attest, mana had a life of its own. It responded to conscious thought, picking up ideas and images, bringing imagination into reality. What, then, of the unconscious thoughts? The nightmares conjured by a sleeping mind? The overactive imagination of a child? The fractured ideas of the insane? What was it that mana did to them?
What was a 'thought' in the first place? An electrical signal ...
2023-08-01 05:02:48 +0000 UTC View PostUnborn Hero Chapter 73: Last Stand
Not sure what to make of the windows 11 narrator. Yes, it sounds more natural than windows 10 (assuming I'm willing to tolerate an american accent - the british versions are no better) and it seems to cope better with homonyms, but I'm not actually finding any typos with it... Somehow, I doubt I've suddenly gained the ability to write perfectly. :/
"They can't do that!" exclaimed Xander. "Immediate transfer of mana between two individuals is not possible 2023-07-28 05:03:41 +0000 UTC View Post
Unborn Hero Chapter 72: Upgrades
Last weekend, I finally replaced my ancient 8-year-old desktop. On the bright side, I now have a boot/application drive that's bigger than 256GB. On the downside, everything has changed! Why is libreoffice saving in utf8 now rather than ascii, with &xxx; entities for anything outside of the 7-bit range? (Which, I suppose, also makes it valid utf-8...) Why can't windows keep a consistant user interface for more than two seconds straight? Why do amazon music's 'this is the song I'm... 2023-07-25 05:17:27 +0000 UTC View Post
Unborn Hero Chapter 71: Running Interference
"I can't believe she chopped Rose's hands off," thought Mystery, as she watched Grace trying to repair the damage. "That's some serious badassery, but really not proper magical girl behaviour. Not that I know what proper magical girl behaviour should have been in that situation. Probably some spiel from Grace about how she would never leave Rose, the power of friendship would blossom and she'd find herself with unimaginable strength and tear Rose straight out of the wall."
Than...
2023-07-21 04:56:52 +0000 UTC View PostUnborn Hero Chapter 70: Fleeing
Dreobeth found himself significantly vexed. Much thought had gone into the design of the hero's prison. Certainly more than Xander had offered, who simply wanted to kill everyone except the pink one, then chain her up somewhere. The idiot hadn't even thought far enough ahead to plan how to feed her. Yes, his suggestion of imprisoning the [Hero] had been a stroke of pure genius, by demon standards, but they were very low standards indeed.
Dreobeth hated to admit it, but the bloody elf wa...
2023-07-18 04:47:42 +0000 UTC View PostUnbound Soul Side Story: Goddess
In the ruins of one world, a dungeon gave birth to another. The unlikely chain of events that led to that outcome could almost be described as a miracle, if not for the lack of divine intervention. Instead, the fail-safes and adaptability built into a gigantic computer combined with the emotions and will of a form of artificial life that should have had neither, and what should have been a simple supplier of resources grew to become the earth mother, Erryn.
Things were not perfect. Erry...
2023-06-26 04:51:57 +0000 UTC View PostUnborn Hero Chapter 62: Entry
Approaching the southern border of the demonic forest, a group of slimy blobs watched their escortees with interest. They had been ordered to gather whatever information they could, after all. Every empire, kingdom and republic on the planet wanted to get their hands on the magic with which the Flinellian [King] had earned a legendary achievement, but having the hero's party themselves pass through in order to invade the forest from an unexpected direction had given this particular jellax rep...
2023-06-20 04:26:24 +0000 UTC View PostUnbound Soul Side Story: Monsters
With the unwavering craftsman side story finished, today and next Monday will be occupied by Unbound Soul. (Next week's isn't a continuation of this one, though.) For July, I'm not intending anything in the Monday slot; I want to get An Unprepared Castaway world-building and plotting properly started, and start building up a backlog for it, so that's where my focus will be* for the next while.
*Assuming I don't get distracted again. But the last distraction re... 2023-06-19 05:01:10 +0000 UTC View Post
Unborn Hero Chapter 61: Overwhelming Victory
A young (apparent) girl in blue spat out a stream of very unladylike swearwords as he dodged out of the way of a stream of fire. "Will someone shoot that bloody thing out of the sky!" he yelled.
"I think they're busy with the other one," replied another apparently young girl, glancing back towards the rear line where a second dragon was strafing their mages. While their defences were holding, and their combined efforts would shoot it down in time, it meant that the front line was tempor...
2023-06-16 04:55:34 +0000 UTC View PostUnborn Hero Chapter 60: Twig
Blessed of the Forest (Common)
Only a blessed few are permitted into the core of the Vale of Myllearn to view the forest's beating Heart. You may now count yourself amongst that number. The bridges between mana and vitality are made clearer to you.
"Again?" complained Mystery to herself. "If it's only the 'blessed few', why is it common?"
While she was moaning, the [Monarch of the Vale] walked into the room, the fabric of his dress immediately scorching and bl...
2023-06-13 04:58:42 +0000 UTC View PostUnwavering Craftsman: What if Damien turned around? (End)
"Shall we continue to Grungle?" asked Gaia, buoyed by the combined faith of humanity as the pair stepped back into the world below, where a panting Kari had finished raising the dead of Kakkerxat's formerly coastal city.
"No," answered Damien. "He won't interfere further than he has done. He is waiting for me, but I will never come. His victory is his punishment. He gets to keep his power, but without his source-lights, he's unable to do anything with it. He'll remain too scare...
2023-06-12 04:51:17 +0000 UTC View PostUnborn Hero Chapter 59: Tempting Fate
In a room far outside of Flinel, a group of zycrians sat on granite slabs, arranged in a neat circle around a mushroom-shaped arrangement of limestone. Panels of marble made up walls, floor and ceiling, with open, glassless windows providing a view out onto the stone city below.
Or maybe 'stood' would be more accurate than 'sat'. It was hard to tell with zycrians.
Something else that was hard to tell with zycrians was their emotions, at least for human viewers, who found it very h...
2023-06-09 05:13:26 +0000 UTC View PostUnborn Hero Chapter 58: Rehabilitation
Across miles of the border of the demonic forest, spanning the area around Karn's Vigil, ten-thousand members of the Flinellian army waited. They were accompanied by the adventurer volunteers, lined up behind a wide moat and abatis.
"I feel ridiculous," said Platus, trying for the hundredth time to push his petals down. Just like the previous ninety-nine times, they sprung back up the moment he released them, pointing nearly perpendicularly from his waist. As long as he stood completely...
2023-06-06 04:40:51 +0000 UTC View PostUnwavering Craftsman What if Damien turned around? (Part 12)
Grace's guards were no happier about the flesh cave than Shigeo, but none let that stop them, and the group were soon racing towards Jurelli. Grace's group were back on their giant eagles—which had been rather happy at the flesh cave, at least until their tamer stopped them from trying to eat it—while Damien and Shigeo travelled by the [Bloodwave] express. Not quite as fast as teleportation, but since someone had helpfully mushed all the islands together, and hence removed a lot ...
2023-06-05 04:57:06 +0000 UTC View PostUnborn Hero Chapter 57: Skit
"Uhh... No offence, but shouting out what you're about to do before you do it sounds like a terrible idea," pointed out Rose. "Even against dumb monsters, it would kill your reaction time, but giving intelligent demons a heads up on your plans would be suicidal."
The party of magical girls—which for some reason included half a dozen more Leaf Green's than the squad should have contained—were lined up while Mystery tried to give them a lesson on proper magical girl behaviour...
2023-06-02 04:55:29 +0000 UTC View PostUnborn Hero Chapter 56: Motivation
Royal Corrupter (Epic)
There previously hasn't been an achievement for distressing people by forcibly dressing them up in outlandish outfits, else you would have earned it ages ago, but your latest effort was so completely misguided, so utterly lacking in judgement, that we couldn't help but invent one for you. We considered a variety of names. 'Embarrasser of Young Girls' or 'Bereft of Any Sense Whatsoever', but we felt that something that captured the extreme breakdown you'v...