Actus

Quick Note

Hey all!

I'm going to be traveling a bit over the next few days (until the 4th). I'm going with some other authors to get a lil relaxation and inspiration. There's a chance that some chapters are slightly delayed or (at most) one or two are missed over the next few days.

I'll still be writing and plan to make most of any delays up over the coming days so there shouldn't be many skipped chapters overall (if any) -- but since it's still the holiday season, I'll also continue offeri...

Nightmare Realm Summoner - Chapter 323

It took a fairly impressive force of will for Alex to keep himself from letting out a disbelieving laugh. Things had seriously gotten twisted up in the timeline for him to have found himself here.

Sure, his new ability had made it clear that it would let him make some form of contract with the beings that his monsters stemmed from. Alex had been prepared to bargain. But at no point had he ever considered the possibility that he would be the one getting propositioned to.

T...

Nightmare Realm Summoner - Chapter 322

“There,” Claire said, taking a step back and brushing her hands off on her thighs. “All done.”

Something about the River King’s horde made her feel ill. Even though there hadn’t been anything apparently wrong or off with all his wealth, it felt like everything had been rubbed down with a thick layer of lard that existed only in the spirit realm. 

She squinted slightly as sunlight reflected off the giant pile of gold and riches stacked up before her. Even though th...

Return of the Runebound Professor - Chapter 860

Brayden’s eyes snapped over toward Noah at the sound of his voice, going wide in recognition.

“Noah? Is that you?”

“Who else could it be?” Noah asked with a disbelieving laugh.

He yanked his mask off, but didn’t get a chance to say anything else before the massive bear of a man slammed into him, pulling both Noah and Lee into a tight hug. Brayden had definitely gotten stronger since the last time they’d met. A lot stronger. He quite literally lifted both of the...

Rise of the Living Forge - Chapter 562

Art’s cane clicked against the rooftop as he limped over to its edge where Rodrick sat. The other man had his legs crossed and palms braced against his knees. An expression of intense concentration creased his features even though his eyes were closed as if in sleep.

With a grunt, Art lowered himself down to sit beside Rodrick. He set his cane to the side and let his legs dangle over the edge of the rooftop. The alley below was completely empty. There wasn’t even so much as a rat wa...

Rise of the Living Forge - Chapter 561

An eagerness filled the air of the Mausoleum. The three hour break was over. Everyone had returned from lunch to find that, somehow, new plates of pastries and a cup of tea had been set out for all of the auction participants.

Neil took his seat and settled in, taking a slow sip of his tea as he let his eyes trawl across the room. The doors had already shut and all the attendants had made their way to their chairs. But, he couldn’t help but notice that there were a few less people in ...

Nightmare Realm Summoner - Chapter 321

Alex stared at the words within Glint’s card, waiting for something else. But something else never came. That seemed to be the extent of the message.

The Silver Conclave? Is that a person? A group? What do they have to do with Glint? Shit, I have so many goddamn questions.

He forcibly swallowed down his excitement. Getting ahead of himself was a bad idea. The card had made one thing clear. This was a contract. And that meant the power wasn’t free. It was a deal.

Return of the Runebound Professor - Chapter 859

The Mistress stared up through her window at the clouds blocking out the moon. Another day had passed. And, for the second night in a row, her domain had been cast into shadow. There was no mistaking the message being sent.

Someone was challenging her.

And they weren’t shy about it, either. There had been a dozen more deaths in the past day. Of those, nearly all of the b badges had been left behind. But this wasn’t some sport hunter. The kills were clean. Surgical. Like someon...

Rise of the Living Forge - Chapter 560

Thane sat on the edge of a rooftop, squinting down at the milling crowd below. There were so many people here. He’d known there would be, of course. But knowing and observing were two entirely different things altogether.

But Thane was thrilled to find that, even with the larger group and entirely different demographic of person present on the Menagerie’s street today, his studies about crowd patterns were still correct.

People were still moving the way he generally expected t...

Return of the Runebound Professor - Chapter 858

Noah was pretty sure his clothes smelled like blood. That was paranoia, of course. The magical fabric Eliana had used to create them didn’t let anything stick to it. They were just as pristine as they had been the day he’d gotten them.

But he couldn’t shake the feeling that the stench of his sins was clinging to him like a stubborn hand on his shoulder. Even though Lee’s nose was scrambled up by the city, it felt like she was already standing right beside him, ready to sniff out...

Rise of the Living Forge - Chapters 572-573

December Break Announcement

Howdy all!

As mentioned in the Patreon chat, I'll be taking some time off during December. My plan is to take the time off now, so that I can build up a backlog to then post during Christmas+ the holidays since I think those times of the year can be tough and most people tend to take breaks during them.

So that said, I'll be taking the next week off, from today- the 22nd. As always, anyone who would like a refund due to the break may feel free to shoot me a message and I'll get y...

Nightmare Realm Summoner - Chapter 320

Alex genuinely wasn’t sure which of the skills to take. The System had clearly come out swinging, and the Singularity Core had doubled down on top of that. Not a single one of these options was weak in any manner.

Each of them almost seemed to represent a different path forward. Run it Back let him summon his monsters back once a day, seemingly without any restrictions at all. It was a complete hard reset. It was basically a perfected version of Encore without a time limit.

Some...

Rise of the Living Forge - Chapters 570-571

Kein moved in a blur, his broom slicing through the air in a keen hum as he darted around the street. The loud crack of shattering stone filled the air all around him as his broom struck the rocks that the Beast hurtled in his direction.

And it wasn’t enough.

Kein knew it, and the Beast knew it too. There were only so many things he could dodge at once. And, when the Beast could hurtle a dozen small rock fragments at the speed of shooting arrows, his abilities started to reach t...

Rise of the Living Forge - Chapter 559

The man sitting behind Neil who had spoken out against the Menagerie hadn’t said a word since the auction had started. It wasn’t hard for Neil to guess why. The Menagerie had put up a total of six magical items for sale already. All of them had been Epic Rarity — and each one of them had been made by Ifrit.

Neil couldn’t help but feel more than a little awe for the guild. And he wasn’t the only one. He was willing to bet that almost none of the people attending the auction tod...

Return of the Runebound Professor - Chapter 857

“Oh,” Seleth said.

She sat silently for a few seconds. Then she slowly raised her cup of tea to her lips and took a sip. She set it back down on the table, then interlaced her fingers gingerly.

“Oh,” Sievan repeated. He glanced at Yoru. “I like that. Oh. No panic. No begging for her life or sucking up. Just Oh. How novel. She’ll do quite nicely, I think. And you’ve never much liked the overly talkative ones.”

“It is a better reaction than I was expecting,�...

Nightmare Realm Summoner - Chapter 319

Alex sat at the edge of his basin, studying the waiting mantle before him. He’d delved right into his Mind Palace the moment he’d gotten back to Mirrorwane and found a spot to sit. The idea of delaying his power-up any longer felt painful.

And sure enough, there were quite a deal of rewards waiting for him to cash in on. Killing the River King had netted him two main boons. He’d already gotten the first reward. Namely, the Nexus Fragment.

In addition to the extra bonus he’...

Rise of the Living Forge - Chapter 558

Niel choked on his pastry.

He doubled over, coughing and rasping for air as he scrambled to grab his drink. Neil pounded his chest as he hurriedly washed the food down before it could attempt to suffocate him. His ears rang as he stared down at the auction stage and desperately battled to make sense of the words that had just intruded past his ears. 

And he wasn’t the only one. All around the Mausoleum, people had either burst into conversation or had suffered similar fates...

Return of the Runebound Professor - Chapter 856

Seleth watched the man known as Tim warily. She didn’t have the faintest damn idea what to expect. Yoru’s plans were unreadable. Tim might have legitimately been some figure from her past, but there was just as much of a chance that he was some poor insect that had managed to escape her web only to find himself trapped right back within it.

There was more than a small portion of Seleth that was half-expecting Yoru to kill the old man on the spot. Maybe he’d stolen something from Y...

Rise of the Living Forge - Chapter 557

A murmur rolled through the crowd. It was a bit hard to tell if people were baffled, curious, or amused. Neil was pretty sure it was some combination of the three. Nobody had quite managed to figure out what the Menagerie’s shtick was — or why they were so obsessed with pretending to be monsters.

Still, he couldn’t shake the feeling that something was a little off. Madiv was too serious. Too focused. For all his grandeur, there should have been at least something within his eyes t...

Return of the Runebound Professor - Chapter 855

For some reason, Noah’s words of comfort didn’t quite seem to work. Perhaps it was the gossamer black silk covering his features, or maybe it was the blood covering him and dripping from his hydrophobic clothes. That or it was the headless corpse lying at his feet.

All four Imbuers stared at Noah and the remains of what had once been their employer. Their eyes were wide with a mixture of disbelief and fear. It was several long seconds before any of them even dared to draw in a breat...

Rise of the Living Forge - Chapters 568 - 569

Mask — or, at least, one of them — staggered back to his feet in the dark cavern beneath the Menagerie’s street. Tiny fragments of debris covered his hair and a thick cloud of dust hung in the air all around him.

But the darkness did nothing to hide the glowing form of the massive suit of armor standing on the other side of the cavern. Brilliant blue energy burned behind its eyes, cutting through the shadows like spotlights to stare straight at him.

The armor was huge. If th...

Rise of the Living Forge - Chapter 556

The next two days slipped by so fast that Arwin barely even had a chance to realize that they’d gone by. He barely had any free time to himself. Just about every single second he — and the rest of the Menagerie — had was spent on preparing for the auction.

Anticipation hung in the air like static charge all around the Menagerie’s street. The arrival of the Dwarven Council’s puppet guild had only added fuel to the fire. Rumors filled the common room of the Devil’s Den as more...

Nightmare Realm Summoner - Chapter 318

An icy breeze ran its fingers through the enormous, frost-covered stone hall. It swept in from the open ceiling, howling as it wove between the great statues that filled the room. Each of the statues was large enough to be a centerpiece on its own — the shortest of them stood more than four stories tall.

But not a single one of the statues was still whole. They were all destroyed to varying degrees. There were few that still stood past the legs, and fewer still that had a torso. None ...

Nightmare Realm Summoner - Chapter 317

Alex stood over the body of the River King, breathing heavily as his chainsword’s whirring finally slowed to a stop, its hunger sated. A wide pool of blood stretched out beneath his feet. Sickly red liquid dripped from his clothes. Even though it couldn’t find purchase on the magical cloth, there had been so much of it thrown in every direction that it had still managed to paint him like a slasher villain.

He stared down at the corpse. It had been a man, once. But that had been quit...

Return of the Runebound Professor - Chapter 854

Yoru, the Rising Moon, slipped the mask back over her face. She ensured it covered the light of her eyes completely before she risked turning to look over at the terrified woman standing in the shadows of the alley behind her. “I’m done. You may emerge.”

“Fuck,” Seleth whispered. She stared down at the crumbled man on the ground before Yoru’s feet. “What did you— no. Don’t tell me, please. I don’t want to know.”

“Relax,” Yoru replied. “There is not enou...

Nightmare Realm Summoner - Chapter 316

Wess made it about five minutes away from the entrance of the dungeon before he collapsed to the grass.

A slew of pained expletives tore out from his mouth as he doubled over on himself, curling into a ball. Waves of pain racked his body, emanating out from the massive goddamn hole in the middle of his chest.

Shadows swirled at the edges of his vision and crept forward in attempt to swallow the world whole. It had taken just about every single scrap of willpower he had to keep any...

Rise of the Living Forge - Chapters 566-567

Rodrick wasn’t usually one to present himself directly before a problem. Unfortunately, not every situation allowed him to deal with things from the shadows or while wearing someone else’s face. There were occasionally times where he had to deal with things himself, as himself.

This was one of those times.

And so, his features set in a careful mask, Rodrick stepped out from the alleyway and right into the path of the members of the Adventurer’s Guild.

There were two of...

Rise of the Living Forge - Chapter 555

The next few days passed without incident. The Menagerie set about their own tasks. Arwin worked the forge with Wallace and Koyu, making some pieces to sell for the auction. Everyone kept a close eye on Vix to make sure that she was taking well to the changes induced by her new heart. But nobody kept a closer eye on her than Art, who had practically glued himself to his sister’s side to keep an eye on any potential issues.

There had only been one real abnormality thus far.

Vix�...

Return of the Runebound Professor - Chapter 853

If the large, bearded man could have seen Noah’s eyes behind his mask, it was very likely he would have turned around and walked away right there. He might have even ran. It probably wouldn’t have gotten him very far, but it doubtlessly would have been the smartest move he could have made.

But he couldn’t see Noah’s eyes. The only thing he could make out was the blank expression on the mask concealing his features. 

 “Don’t you worry,” the bearded man said ...