DakotaKrout

Easing back!

Hello, my friends!

As we approach the end of tenacity, I just wanted to let you know that yesterday I finished the next Completionist Chronicles as well :-)

My goal is to have three of them up and for sale on Amazon and audible, starting October, November, finally December!

Here's the thing, though. It's the start of August. Just to make sure I don't overload myself, we're easing back to the Monday, Wednesday, Friday release schedule.

I hope you are h...

CC 9: Tenacity ~ Forty-Seven

Watching carefully as a hacked-off Cyclops finger was fed into his aspect tower, Joe had to take deep breaths so he didn't feel too queasy. It wasn't that the actual process of watching a body get converted into aspects was an issue, more it was the fact that this had been an intelligent monster that spoke to him directly. Something about that made this process more… personal.

“Can't complain about the results though.” Joe breathed to himself as he watched Unique aspects flooding ...

CC 9: Tenacity ~ Forty-Six

The Ritualist shifted his position, ready to bodily block the Dwarf from approaching the Town Hall. His words came out dripping with condescension, “What’re you going to do, Stu? Destroy the Town Hall in front of your entire people? Smash it so that we can't build all of these fine people some better places to live, work, and thrive? Go ahead! Be the reason that all of their effort, all of their losses, are thrown away.”

The Master’s furious strides slowed to a halt, an...

Book in your inbox!

Hello, my friends!

Check your inboxes for the new Artorian's Archives book! Thanks so much for your patience, we got hit with viral pneumonia and have been mostly focusing on breathing for the last week. :P

Hope you love it!

CC 9: Tenacity ~ Forty-Five

He was buried beneath a thin layer of snow, but the Ritualist’s body was broken and his lifeblood was pooling in a sanguine puddle around him. Unable to move his arms, his legs, or his head, Joe was utterly uncertain how he was still conscious. Even though his mind was screaming with pain, the fact that he could think at all meant that he had a chance. Working to channel every ounce of his Battle Meditation skill, he put all of the alarms his body was hollering at him to the side and focuse...

CC 9: Tenacity ~ Forty-Four

Joe's mind was having trouble processing the stream of events that was occurring around him at this moment. The Legion was in full-blown retreat, a Cyclops was bearing down on them with the intent to destroy their home and then their bodies, and here he was, dodging a yo-yo as a Dwarf who was a master of annoying people tried to use the situation to sabotage humanity’s reputation with the Dwarves. The entire Village was a chaotic frenzy of clashing weapons, swirling spells, and the thundero...

CC 9: Tenacity ~ Forty-Three

Joe backflipped to disperse his momentum as he approached the ground, coming up to his feet and Omnivaulting forward on the first roll, doing what he could to maintain his speed without sending out a shockwave that would cause his allies to stumble. At nearly the same time, the Cyclops reached the entrance to the Village, maintaining its heading and slamming directly into the illusion that Joe had created of open space.

A wide smile appeared on his face as he saw the Cyclops stumble bac...

CC 9: Tenacity ~ Forty-Two

There was no need for Joe to add additional stability to the ritual, as it was a high enough rarity that it could weather the chaotic pressure Jotunheim placed upon it. Under the careful observation of Grandmaster Snow and Master Stu, Joe began altering the ritual ever-so-slightly so that it would drop all who entered it among the Dwarves that had left to start over with a new Hamlet.

Joe described the process that he was undertaking to give Master Snow a better idea of what was happeni...

CC 9: Tenacity ~ Forty-One

“You dare to assault the son of the son of the grandson of Brontes?” At this close range, the air-shuddering quality of the words coming from the enormous Cyclops’ mouth made the sounds nearly unintelligible. It was only after several long seconds, when the echo came back to Joe, that he was able to understand what was actually being shouted at him.

He had larger issues than the linguistic limitations between his foe and himself at that moment. Namely, the fact that upon ...

CC 9: Tenacity ~ Forty

Joe stood at the breach in the wall furthest from the city proper. His ritual was active, and the warehouse he was making was nearly complete. The far wall fit directly into the hole, jutting out slightly as he had repositioned the warehouse to ensure that there was the maximum amount of room for the creatures to wander through it. “I really hope the narrowing of walls doesn’t count as a blockage. This thing will fold like paper if they run into it too hard.”

The Ritualist had got...

CC 9: Tenacity ~ Thirty-Nine

Trying to leave the oddities of the system behind him, Joe turned his attention to the task at hand. There were huge, gaping holes in the walls, and without some immediate intervention, the Village was likely to be destroyed. As far as he could tell, there would be no nice, easy, uniform solution to the issue, as the walls were entirely different shapes and sizes. “Come on brain, I know you’re trying to race, but you're just spinning your wheels!”

The Ritualist continued his journ...

CC 9: Tenacity ~ Thirty-Eight

The ever-swirling storm clouds hung low in the sky, seeming to sink lower as if to get a better view of Novusheim’s impending doom. While Joe had convinced the Dwarves to set scouts, and ensure that they weren't taken by surprise by a sudden surge, his main focus was completing the inner set of Journeyman ranked walls. The only creatures to escape the commands of the Cyclops were the least intelligent, most feral of monsters. Fodder, in other words.

So long as the main force was held ...

CC 9: Tenacity ~ Thirty-Seven

Five days, or more accurately one hundred twenty-eight hours, had passed since Joe had finished working on the initial chunks of wall. The Village had settled into a rhythm, and Joe in particular had dived deep into the peculiarities of defending this place.

He now had a devoted group of people that were charged with refilling the Mana Batteries at the end of each wave. They were paid in beast cores, an expense that Joe passed along to the city by simply holding on to the materials that...

CC 9: Tenacity ~ Thirty-Six

The Ritualist spent the entirety of the Beast wave in his workshop, perfecting the buildout for a single section of wall. He’d forgotten how ruinously expensive the wall was by itself, but he had to merely grit his teeth and accept the burden of creating it. “Can't say I'm unhappy that my bargain for resources handed over to the council was after expenses. Otherwise I'd be a whole lot less willing to invest. But now? Now it’s just using up resources I’d lose to them ...

CC 9: Tenacity ~ Thirty-Five

“This next wave is going to be a rough one.” Joe muttered to himself as he put the finishing touches on the ritual that would inscribe enchantments on his behalf; gmaking the careful and precise changes to the structure of a core to turn it into a Mana Battery. “I really need to figure out how to make a recharging station… making a new battery so that it has a full charge right away isn't exactly efficient.”

Joe had gone through his notes, almost positive that he had ...

CC 9: Tenacity ~ Thirty-Four

The once-bustling Village Square now echoed with a solemn emptiness. This was all thanks to the departure of a huge chunk of civilians, and a concerning number of the Legion that had marched away with them. Ostensibly the troops had gone as an escort, but by the way each of them was carrying supplies, it was unlikely they’d be returning. Joe looked at the report he'd been handed, wincing as he saw that their overall population, which had been over ninety thousand, was now below forty.

CC 9: Tenacity ~ Thirty-Three

Quest updated: Student Ritualist III. Monsters slain by the Ritual of Slaughter: 183/1000 (914 Marked before activation.)

Experience gained! Calculating experience…

Your Village has completed the second Beast wave needed in order to upgrade into a Town! Beast waves remaining: 23/25.

“The second wave had hit during that? They can overlap? Abyss.” Once again, Joe anxiously watched the ‘experienced gained’ notification, hoping for a...

CC 9: Tenacity ~ Thirty-Two

Wasting not a single moment, Joe clapped his hands together to bring his right palm into contact with the tiny Ritual of Activation that he was holding in his left. Sparks flew as his magic bounced off the magical diagram, and he sucked in a breath as he shook the lingering power off of his hand. “Feces! It's too low ranked to activate without stabilization!”

He started dropping cubes around him as rapidly as he could while ensuring they were in their proper place, but was ...

CC 9: Tenacity ~ Thirty-One

The frigid wind that near-constantly blew across the flat landscape of Jotunheim started to pick up, howling over their heads and through the corridors as the newest residents of this world braced themselves for another relentless assault which would only end with the death of their enemies, or the destruction of everything they'd accomplished to this point.

Joe critically eyed the walls that they were relying on to keep them safe, having been assured that they had been reinforced with ...

CC 9: Tenacity ~ Thirty

“We have a handful of hours until the next Beast wave, and you're choosing now to be stingy with sharing the resources we will need to survive?” Master Stu Sarcasm scoffed and folded his arms in front of him. “How very like a human, pretending to be all friendly and useful until they can war profiteer off of us.”

All that earned him was an amused stare as Joe continued writing out the notes for his next project. “I think lack of visibility was the biggest sou...

CC 9: Tenacity ~ Twenty-Nine

Just as he prepared himself to dive into the fray, Joe received a series of notifications that gave him pause. A quick glance confirmed that they were kills of monsters, and they were racking up faster and faster. By the time he looked over, a half dozen of the messages had appeared, with more arriving every second.

Defeatist Fluttering Penguin defeated!

Hoardling defeated!

“The rest of the first wave must’ve just got here.” The Ritualist took solace ...

CC 9: Tenacity ~ Twenty-Eight

Only a fraction of an inch from Joe's eyes, a thick sheet of ice had appeared. No matter how he struggled, his entire body was utterly immobile. From the outside, he was certain that he looked like an ice sculpture, but his Exquisite Shell had collected the dense ice along its edge instead of allowing the attack through.

Damage taken: 9,065 frost damage! You have been Immobilized! Exposure to absolute cold is sapping five Health per second!

Exquisite Shell: 2,604/11,6...