The three of them stood there, staring at what was clearly a severed human head sitting atop a spike someone had planted into the ground only a few feet past the border into the next fragment. Vin was far from an expert on decomposition, but it was clear that whoever the head had belonged to had died at least a few weeks ago.
It was a testament to all the messed up crap he’d seen over the past month that the sight of a severed human head only made him feel mildly queasy.
“That...
2025-04-25 16:00:19 +0000 UTC
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“So let me get this straight. You’re afraid this town of horrifying criminals might be too dangerous to even consider talking to Spur about… And your solution… Is to go walk right on in and take a look?” Scule asked, looking at Vin like he was crazy. “You know, I always thought you were just a really unlucky guy with how many bad situations you found yourself in, but I’m starting to think you might actually just have a death wish.”
“Scule’s right Vin, this i...
2025-04-24 16:00:22 +0000 UTC
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“What the hell are you doing in my room in the dead of night?” Vin began, having yet to release his hand clasped around Golrim’s throat. “Doesn’t Spur have men guarding you or something?”
“He does. But giving them the slip wasn’t exactly what I would call a challenging endeavor,” Golrim shrugged, still looking entirely unbothered by the current situation he found himself in. “Now, would you be so kind as to drop the act? I’m pretty good at reading people, and you d...
2025-04-23 16:00:46 +0000 UTC
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Vin spent the afternoon helping Frank out in the new hospital Spur had put up sometime during the last two weeks. With Shia leading the effort to remove all the monster corpses, the older man had his hands full helping the wounded, and even through his grumpy demeanor Vin could tell he appreciated the help. Enough so that he was actually willing to make a little small talk here and there.
“Battlefield Healer,” Frank grunted, washing his hands in a basin of water as they took another...
2025-04-22 16:00:55 +0000 UTC
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Vin spent the rest of the morning going over actual future plans with his sub-councilors. First, he greenlit Kelly’s suggestion to divide and conquer the three adjacent fragments sporting civilization with the two fresh Earther’s under her. Though only after she’d brought them into the Sacred Forest with her to gain a few levels first.
For Theodore, he had an interesting suggestion. As good as the man was at acting, he was the first person to admit that his repertoire of Spy relat...
2025-04-21 16:15:03 +0000 UTC
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Vin frowned, doing his best to gently toss a small rock he’d summoned up and down while he waited for his audience to arrive. Since accidently shattering Kyle’s hand, he’d been rather conscious of the fact that his control over his new limb was severely lacking. Even now, despite his best efforts, every couple of catches his limb would flash with electric blue mana, and he would inadvertently crush a rock into dust rather than gently catch it.
Sighing, Vin cast Summon Rock...
2025-04-21 16:00:51 +0000 UTC
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“So…” Spur said, smacking his lips and glancing at Vin out of the corner of his eye as they waited for Golrim to show up. “You uh... Wanna talk about why you shattered that guy’s hand?”
Groaning, Vin shook his head, praying that Golrim would hurry up and magically appear in front of them. He and Spur had been waiting outside of camp for nearly a half an hour now, and obviously Spur had gotten bored of the silence. Frankly, Vin was astonished he’d lasted this long.
Se...
2025-04-18 16:00:25 +0000 UTC
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Vin did his best to ignore the shocked stares and not so quiet conversations as he went around erecting temporary shelters for the freshly homeless Earthers. Night was quickly approaching, and Spur’s first request was for Vin to use his Stone Wall spell to put up some temporary buildings. While he couldn’t exactly do the roofs all too well, so long as he put a few walls together the Earthers could then string a tarp over the top to help protect them from the elements.
...
2025-04-17 16:01:12 +0000 UTC
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“Now, you’re probably all wondering why I gathered you here today,” Spur began, leaning over the table and fixing the other council members with a series stare.
“We all know exactly why we’re meeting Spur,” General Witherson frowned, already tired of Spur’s antics before the meeting had even begun. “We have bodies to bury, a camp to rebuild, an almost certainly hostile neighbor visiting us first thing in the morning, and a thousand fresh Earthers to deal with on...
2025-04-16 16:00:17 +0000 UTC
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Hello everyone! You'll probably notice based on the fact that the next chapter begins with 3.1 instead of 2.89, but yesterday marked the end of what I'm intending to make book 2 when I finally publish! Book 2 ended up being much longer than book 1, but it was a lot of fun to write! Now then, I've already got a good chunk of book 3 written, so we're running straight into it without any sort of pause or anything! Ever onward!
The only other thing I wanted to mention was a slight change I ...
2025-04-16 15:59:01 +0000 UTC
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Vin stared at the grim-faced Frank, wondering what the hell he was talking about.
“What do you mean he signed their death warrant?”
“The idiot is trying to play hero, and in doing so, he painted a giant target on his own back,” Frank grumbled. Seeing Vin’s confused face, he sighed. “We’ve got some powerful new neighbors that have already attacked the camp once trying to recover someone we’re sheltering, and we know they have some way of tracking him. Spur knew if t...
2025-04-15 16:00:09 +0000 UTC
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Vin could do nothing but stare at the horrific scene before him, his mind refusing to come to terms with what he was seeing.
It was a massacre.
Monster and human corpses alike dotted the meadow, the once green grass now stained red with the blood of the fallen. Just from his current position Vin could easily make out what had to be at least fifty or so dead bodies, the Earthers clearly caught entirely unawares based on the lack of weapons he could pick out.
If the other side...
2025-04-14 16:00:19 +0000 UTC
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Vin stared at the lizardman’s severed head as it rolled across the ground before coming to a sudden stop against the tunnel wall with a wet thud. From all the bruises it was covered in, the divine warrior looked like he had in fact spent his last few minutes running blindly into wall after wall before he finally got tired and Alka relieved him of his head.
Based on the gasps beside him, he wasn’t the only one surprised that it was actually over.
“Damn, I didn’t ex...
2025-04-11 16:00:29 +0000 UTC
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Vin stood within the tunnels of the trogum fragment, his nerves on high alert as he waited for Shia to give Alice the signal to activate her trap. His part of the plan was already done, which meant now he just had to sit and wait until their trap was sprung and the divine warrior was, theoretically, taken care of.
If only he’d known how much waiting was involved when luring someone into a trap.
“Anybody got a deck of cards or something?” Scule asked from his shoulder, his vo...
2025-04-10 16:00:12 +0000 UTC
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“What?” Vin blinked, staring at the Trapper in shock. “What do you mean you’ve killed someone before?”
Alice looked like she wanted to explain, but her eyes flicked over to the rest of his party, and she hesitated. “Look, like I said, a lot has happened while you’ve been gone. You really shouldn’t be hearing about it from me. You should come back and speak with Spur yourself.”
“I’m planning to, but first we need to deal with the divine warrior,” Vin sighed,...
2025-04-09 16:00:08 +0000 UTC
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Unfortunately, Eithan’s warning around Stone Shape ended up ringing true. By the time Vin was roused from his Introspection to find Shia pinching him on the arm, he’d yet to make any significant headway on learning the spell.
“Shia?” He blinked trying to figure out how long he’d been away based on how achy his body felt. “What time is it?”
“Dinner time,” she snorted, placing a basket of familiar fruits and some choice meats in front of him. ...
2025-04-08 16:00:07 +0000 UTC
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Just like the last two times Vin had approached Sakis, Shia and him were greeted by an armed force of six warriors as they approached. This time however, despite the group being made up of villagers he didn’t know, he was recognized immediately.
“Vin, was it?” The leader asked, cocking her head as she took the two of them in. “And… Shia, right? What brings the two of you back to the village so soon?”
“I need to check in with Eithan really quick. Grab a new spel...
2025-04-07 16:00:13 +0000 UTC
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Seeing as their quickest way back to the Earthers’ fragment was either through a hard to maneuver swamp or the death fragment, Vin decided to use this opportunity to run some more tests on dungeons.
Once he’d led the party back into the infernals’ fragment, Vin went straight for the insect infested dungeon. This time around things were very different.
After Madam Trebella’s ritual, whatever strange, godly powers governed the System seemed to have decided Alka was now...
2025-04-04 16:00:18 +0000 UTC
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“I can’t say I hope you return someday, but I do appreciate all your help,” Nohral said, shaking Vin’s hand with a grunt. “Like I said, we’ll take care of the trogum, so no need to come back and check on him.”
After everything they’d been through in Valdora, the leader of the dwarves was finally seeing them off at the edge of the Crater stairs. Naturally, with Myndra and a small contingent of heavily armed warriors behind him. Chuckling, Vin gave the dwarf an apologetic ...
2025-04-03 16:00:19 +0000 UTC
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While Deorer went ahead and got started on detaching Alka’s arm at the elbow, Vin took the dwarf up on his suggestion, finally accepting that bottle of wine from Scule and downing it as quickly as he could. Despite his high levels of Resistance, he didn’t want to go through any sort of magical, medieval surgery without having something to take the edge off. Even if they did have Shia’s healing on standby.
Deorer quickly showed them why he was so revered among the dwarves. Before V...
2025-04-02 16:00:15 +0000 UTC
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While Vin just stared at the dwarf in confusion, Alka strode forward and clapped him on the back. “Yepp, this is the guy! Shouldn’t be a problem, right?”
“Nope,” Deorer grunted, squinting at Vin’s missing arm. “Not at all.”
“Master smith,” one of the guards called out hesitantly, having finally stood back up and regained a sliver of their former confidence. “Nohral made it very clear-”
“You can tell Nohral to cram it up his Crater,...
2025-04-01 16:00:18 +0000 UTC
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“What the hell, Alka?!” Vin gasped, looking the Slayer up and down. “What happened to you?!”
At first glance, it looked as though Alka’s spirit had been moved yet again, this time going from the library golem to a rather intimidating jet black suit of armor. But upon closer inspection, Vin realized what had actually happened. Alka’s body was definitely still that of the golem, but it looked as though she’d received something like a paint job. There were a few new ...
2025-03-31 16:00:15 +0000 UTC
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Lumel hadn’t been exaggerating.
Dimensional magic was hard.
Despite losing his sense of time while using Introspection, Vin somehow knew before he’d even let the skill drop that figuring out how to replicate Sense Dimensions had taken him quite a while. He’d gotten so used to being able to figure out tier 0 spells in only a few hours, that he was shocked when he finally came to and realized it was already morning.
Introspection in...
2025-03-28 16:00:17 +0000 UTC
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The magma men and lavaskips were just as easy to run past on his way out as they were on his way in, and it wasn't long before Vin found himself walking out of the dungeon and back into the uncomfortable heat of the Crater. As promised, Myndra was nowhere to be seen, but Nohral was sitting on a chair made of stone, waiting patiently for him. As soon as Vin appeared, the dwarf stood up, giving him a hopeful smile.
“Well, I must say seeing you back in one piece is certainly a good sign....
2025-03-27 16:00:13 +0000 UTC
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Author's Note: This is yet another bonus chapter I wrote as a thank you for reaching our third rating and review milestone on Royal Road. This chapter contains no relevant information in regard to the main story and can be skipped without fear of missing anything. However, similar to Bonus Chapter #2, this one does take place within Edregon and may shed some additional light onto life within the Sacred Forest and dryad society in particular.
Poll Winner: E...
2025-03-26 16:15:02 +0000 UTC
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Lumel blinked at his suggestion, staring at him like she hadn’t quite heard him correctly.
“You… You’re actually inviting me to come with you? Even after I abandoned you back in the library?”
“Like I said, it all ended up working out in the end,” Vin shrugged. “You don’t have to by any means, but I thought I’d at least put the offer on the table.”
Lumel stared at him silently, seeming to give the offer some serious thought. After a long stretch of silen...
2025-03-26 16:00:14 +0000 UTC
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Lumel, the Dimensional Mage they’d met back in the ancient library, blinked at him, clearly just as surprised as he was. “Vin?” She asked, hiccupping and wiping her runny nose on her cloak. “How… What are you doing here?”
“I could ask you the same thing!” Vin laughed, grinning at the shocked pulmon. Despite the fact that she had abandoned their plan and fled when she realized she couldn’t teleport the golem they were trying to steal, Vin didn’t hold that against her....
2025-03-25 16:00:13 +0000 UTC
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Vin stared at the empty corridor that looked out of place against the natural stone, his hand unconsciously going to his chest as he remembered that horrible pulling sensation that he’d experienced when he’d tried to run down the identical corridor back in the insect dungeon. Even with his life on the line, he hadn’t managed to bring himself to enter the mysterious passage. That unnerving sensation of something important to him preparing to snap if he took so much as a single step insid...
2025-03-24 16:00:19 +0000 UTC
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“What do you mean something intelligent?” Vin asked, his eyes flicking to the dimly lit tunnel, half expecting to see some man running out of it with his arms waving.
“It was large, about the same size as you, except covered from head to toe in thick hair. By sheer luck I happened to be nearby, collecting some tools from the abandoned portion of town when I heard the explosion. I rushed toward the source of the noise and found it standing there with its fist out, as if he’d blow...
2025-03-21 16:00:22 +0000 UTC
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“What kind of a problem are we talking about?” Vin asked, casually leaning against the metal couch and doing his best to look like he wasn’t absolutely freaking out on the inside. As much as he wanted to ask if Nohral’s small problem was in any way related to a certain petian, he wasn’t dumb enough to incriminate his friend like that.
“Something he does not want discussed where others might hear,” Myndra said bluntly, her eyes narrowing as if she could tell he was hiding s...
2025-03-20 16:00:11 +0000 UTC
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