Actus

Rise of the Living Forge - Chapter 528

Art fought to keep himself from sending a nervous glance over at Vix and the giant bag of trash she had slung over her shoulder. Everything — and everyone — was in position. He’d checked to make sure at least half a dozen times before they’d set out.

It wasn’t that he was concerned about the viability of his plan. Art didn’t believe in half-measures or uncertainties. He had complete certainty that he’d thought everything through. The Dwarven Council would already have an e...

Return of the Runebound Professor - Chapter 827

“Tell me something,” Noah said as Elania held up a skintight pink bodysuit in front of him. “What did you see?”

“Hm?” Elania tilted her head to the side and lowered the suit. Then she clicked her tongue in disapproval. “No good. It would bulge in all the wrong places.”

Noah suppressed a sigh. It didn’t look like their attention was quite in the same space. Ever since he’d told Eliana that he was interested in seeing her wares, she’d pretty much forgotten they...

Nightmare Realm Summoner - Chapter 291

“Hold on really quick,” Alex said, raising a hand. “Just one moment, if you would. I just want to make certain of something before you go about distributing anything.”

Shawn tilted his head to the side, peering down at Alex with a mixture of curiosity and amusement. “What is it?”

“The Legacy… if someone actually gets their hands on it, what happens?” Alex asked. “I mean, it doesn’t feel possible for someone to infinitely stack Legacies. That would be complete...

Rise of the Living Forge - Chapter 527

Caldera collided with the Golden Guardian’s head with an echoing crunch. The statue crumpled in on itself. Obsidian spikes of jagged, solidified magma tore out from beneath the hammer and sheared through the crumpling gold with loud shrieks.

Arwin’s blow slammed the statue back down into the ground and embedded it a foot within the stone like a squashed bug. The entire Guardian lurched, its limbs clanging against the piles of gold as they splayed out in odd directions.

Beads o...

Return of the Runebound Professor - Chapter 826

Noah let out a surprised cough.

She can sense my soul? No way. That’s not possible beyond a surface-level sense for its strength, is it? Did I mishear her?

“What?” Noah asked.

“Does the damage extend to your hearing?” Eliana asked. She cocked her head to the side, then slipped over to a mannequin clad in a full suit and wearing a shimmering purple sequin-covered masquerade mask. She plucked the mask from its head and gave it a quick glance before gagging a...

Rise of the Living Forge 4 is out on Amazon & Audible!

Howdy all! Rise of the Living Forge book 4 is out on Amazon & Audible! (In case you missed the title).

I think you all know the drill at this point. I am here to request that, if you've been reading and enjoying the series, please hop on over to leaving a rating/review/download (if you've got KU). Every single interaction is enormously helpful and lets me keep writing these series for a really long time. It's available on Amazon and Audible right now, so check it out!

2025-10-15 15:28:16 +0000 UTC View Post

Return of the Runebound Professor - Chapter 825

Noah tried not to look like too much of a tourist as he followed Corban and Alina through the streets of Banesbridge. There really wasn’t much room to maneuver on the tightly packed bridge. They squeezed along the edge of the path, barely scraping past walls made up by all too many shops that had been stuffed into a space much too small for them.

There wasn’t much space for the crowd to part before Corban. But, to Noah’s surprise, they did their best. Corban seemed to have at leas...

Rise of the Living Forge - Chapters 539-540

Arwin let Caldera lower as he looked upon the results of his work. It would be impossible to tell just how successful he’d been until he installed everything, but as far as he could tell, he’d been successful. The pieces to awaken the Auction House were complete.

He banished his hammer and wiped the sweat from his brow. As far as Arwin could tell, it hadn’t even taken more than an hour or two to complete his task. That wasn’t to say the quality had been impacted in the slightest...

Rise of the Living Forge - Chapter 526

The entryway slammed shut behind them.

That was so incredibly unsurprising that not a single one of the Menagerie even turned back to look at it. It would have been odder if the door hadn’t suddenly closed at their backs. Nobody dumped enough gold to fill a swimming pool in a room only to then turn around and leave the way out open.

Arwin banished Caldera, flexing his fingers as he summoned the Prism’s Reach to his hand. The massive bow materialized against his palm, ...

Rise of the Living Foge - Chapter 525

Kien’s prediction proved to be right. The sound of rolling thunder heralded Arwin’s advance through the dungeon as he rung the walls like gongs, tearing the poor skeletons from their sleep before subsequently smashing them into a thousand little pieces.

It quickly became clear that the monsters in this dungeon hadn’t been prepared for a strategy like this. Their camouflage with the walls was perfect. These things were basically ambush predators. And when the element of surprise wa...

Return of the Runebound Professor - Chapter 824

Banesbridge turned out to be a somewhat more accurate name than Noah had expected. It might have been one of the most unique looking cities that he’d ever seen. It was located inside enormous gorge that almost seemed to come out of nowhere, splitting the ground like the enormous claw of some dragon god had carved a huge swath of earth away eons ago.

But it wasn’t at the bottom of the gorge. Banesbridge was suspended between the two sides of the sheer rock face. The entire city was a...

Nightmare Realm Summoner - Chapter 290

It was a moment before anyone managed to muster up the words needed to speak. Everyone was just a little bit too busy staring at Derek and the door hanging open behind him. Murky green energy churned just behind the door in wait for anyone to step into its depths.

“Well,” Alex said, drawing the word out for a second longer than he needed to. “I think that means we fulfilled our end of the deal.”

“You can do that?” Alyssa muttered, sounding equally parts stunned and ann...

Nightmare Realm Summoner - Chapter 289

Patreon did the thing where it didn’t email. Trying again, sorry about the spam if you’ve seen this chapter already.

———

Vincent’s lone eye bore into Alyssa like he were trying to dig her soul out from under her skin with his attention alone. It sent shivers running down the back of Alex’s spine. Saying that there was malice within the Starfallen’s gaze would have been wrong.

There was scorn for the fool that had passed up on the opportunity that he was about...

Rise of the Living Forge - Chapter 524

Arwin’s team arrived at the dungeon around 11 hours after leaving Milten. Their trip went surprisingly well. There wasn’t a single incident the whole way over. Either they’d gotten incredibly lucky or Art had arranged to make sure nobody would follow them from Milten.  

He was partial to believing the second option. Arwin wasn’t a huge believer in coincidences.

The dungeon in question was situated at the top of a small valley and surrounded by looming mountains whose ...

Rise of the Living Forge - Chapters 537-538

Thane kept his hand on Vireth’s hilt, his eyes narrow. The alleyway was just deep enough that they were out of sight of the crowd. But no matter if anyone could see them or not, the sound of a fight wasn’t exactly that easy to conceal. There wasn’t even a reason to let things get as far as a fight.

Sorry, Vireth.

“Help!” Thane yelled. “We’ve got some people trying to stir trouble!”

The men laughed. None of them looked even slightly concerned.

�...

Return of the Runebound Professor - Chapter 823

Mordred rifled through his cards as they walked. His mind wasn’t with his body. It still lingered on the events of the previous day. He’d gotten so many answers. So many new questions. The more he learned, the more he realized just how little he knew.

Lee was unlike any creature he’d met before. But that was every creature. None was the same as another. All beings were special. Some were just a little more special than others… and Lee was a lot more special.

There was no w...

Nightmare Realm Summoner - Chapter 288

Wess shot the River King between the eyes.

The beam of blue energy from his Soul Manifestation slammed into the huge man’s head with a sizzling hiss. It sent the River King pitching back, where he crashed to the ground with a mighty thud.  

Everyone froze.

Alex stared at the huge, fallen man, his the chains of his anchor still wrapped around his wrist. He hadn’t even had a chance to try and attack yet. There were several moments of silence.

“Huh,” Wess sai...

Return of the Runebound Professor - Chapter 822

Some people didn’t get the email, so I’m doing a small tweak and re-sending.

———

Noah scratched the back of his neck as he tried to think of an explanation that would make him and Lee look a bit less like psychopaths that had just happened to stumble across a fight at an opportunistic time. Lee tearing the head off the monster after it was already dead really wasn’t going to do them any favors.

But the armored woman beat him to speaking.

“Who are y...

Rise of the Living Forge - Chapter 523

Everyone split off immediately. Arwin, along with Olive, Anna, and Kien, headed up with Lillia to the main floor of the Devil’s Den. She then headed up the stairs to the second floor of the tavern. Lillia returned before so much as a minute had passed, the crown cradled in her hands.

“Here it is,” Lillia said as she handed Arwin the crown. “Rodrick tested it a while ago, back before he got chosen to Sunset. “The dungeon isn’t too far, but you’ll have to move fast. It’ll ...

Rise of the Living Forge - Chapter 522

Arwin and Lillia wasn’t the only ones that went looking for Uriel that morning. Monica was already awake well before they were. She stood with her back against the wall, keeping watch over entrance to the basement.

The orc gave them a nod of greeting, clearly too tired bother with anything else this early in the morning. Arwin and Lillia returned it as they made their way down, only to find that it seemed the rest of the Menagerie had already beaten them there.

Uriel sat in the ...

Rise of the Living Forge - Chapters 535-536

After everyone realized that Koyu well and truly had gone straight through Eleven’s portal, Art and Arwin’s teams filled everyone in on the details of what had gone down on their respective jobs.

Aside from Rodrick’s surprise appearance and the potential of splits in the Dwarven Council, everything had pretty much gone exactly to plan. There wasn’t much that could be done about the armored dwarves that had dealt with the Blacktongues.

Ironically enough, their presence migh...

Return of the Runebound Professor - Chapter 821

The enormous monkey pounded its fists against its chest. Spittle flew from its mouth and its eyes burned in fury as it shook itself off like a wet dog before bringing its hands down onto the ground. An enormous explosion tore through the ground.

Stone erupted out in a tsunami. It raced toward Noah, a thick wave of jagged rock that rose up in attempt to block out the sky as the earth trembled beneath him in fear of its approach.  

 Noah couldn’t help but be a little imp...

Nightmare Realm Summoner - Chapter 287

The snakelike blade rising up from beneath Vincent’s robes coiled around him like a spring as his lone eye bore into them with undisguised interest.

“I am impressed,” Vincent said. He ran a hand along the flat surface of his blade in a practiced motion, never once so much as glancing down at the razor-sharp weapon. “It isn’t often that Nativeworlders are able to adapt fast enough to make it this far. 274-50 really is a curiosity. Even for Tier 1 worlds, this is rare.”

...

Nightmare Realm Summoner - Chapter 286

Alex’s stomach sank. Some part of him had known that avoiding House Starfallen forever would be inevitable. Especially after he’d stolen their name to bullshit his way through more than a few situations, there was no way fate would be kind enough to keep their paths from crossing.

But this was not how he’d seen the first meeting going.  

You have to be kidding me.

“Shit,” Alyssa whispered. “Oh, shit.”

“The most powerful of the Outworlder f...

Return of the Runebound Professor - Chapter 820

Noah let his mindspace fall away. He found his consciousness back in his body on the grassy plain that he and Lee had landed. The demon in question laid a few feet away from him, hands behind her head as she stared up at the stars overhead.

The night was peaceful. They had no company but for the wind coiling past them. Not even clouds had taken up residence in the sky, leaving it clear but for the shimmering stars looing down from above.

“I’m bored,” Lee said. She turned her...

Return of the Runebound Professor - Chapter 819

Noah studied the runes floating within his soul. An addition to his own Rank 5 Runes, he had four new ones — two Horizon Collapse and two Crumbling World Shaker. That set him at exactly seven runes. He’d filled the slots in his soul.

Of course, that really didn’t mean all that much to him. Noah had so much space to work with that he was pretty sure he could store several more Rank 5 runes without all that much trouble at all.

Though, right now, he didn’t need more runes. T...

Rise of the Living Forge - Chapter 521

It was morning when Arwin’s thoughts drifted lazily back to his body.

At least, he was pretty sure it was morning. Telling the time was impossible when he was in Lillia’s room. But, judging by rested his body felt and how all the aches and pains from the previous night had been washed away, he couldn’t imagine it could be anything but the dawn of a new day.

His mind was hazy. It wasn’t uncomfortable. On the contrary, it was the relaxed haze that only arrived at the end of ...

Rise of the Living Forge - Chapters 533 - 534

Haley didn’t stick around for long after the deal had been agreed upon. She simply promised to return with the Dwarven Council’s human guild representative in two weeks and asked to ensure the grand opening of the Auction House was delayed until then.

Arwin and Lillia had absolutely no problems agreeing to that. It meant they’d have enough time to bring the building to life with the Dungeon Heart and finish a few more preparations in the meantime.

And with that, their meetin...

Nightmare Realm Summoner - Chapter 285

Alex and the others stared in stunned disbelief at the River King for a long second. It didn’t even feel possible. But there was no denying the truth right in front of their eyes. The huge man stood alone, blocking the path to the door just beyond him.

“How the hell is this the guy that beat us here?” Wess asked. “There’s no way he could have fought a single monster on his own. He’s shaped like the broad side of a barn. You couldn’t miss an attack on him if you tr...

Rise of the Living Forge - Chapter 520

Arwin stood in a vast sea of white. His heart pounded like a runaway racehorse in his chest and he found himself reaching up for his heart before he caught himself. There was nothing around him at all.

Nothing but vast, empty nothing.

Faint tongues of electricity tingled against his bare feet. Coils of power twisted through every fiber of this place, stretching out in every direction around him with no end in sight.

This wasn’t the first time he’d seen this place. He’d...