Zilly left the group before they got back to the caravan, determined to go it alone until they got to Oud’s Bog, which was only a couple days away at this point.
When they returned with the captives, there was a small delay as everyone helped to transfer the guards’ packs from the open-air cargo wagon to other places. Then they used the cargo wagon to transport the three bound bandits. Rye smiled and bragged about getting to ride while everyone else walked until Pio threatened to ga...
2024-06-21 22:06:57 +0000 UTC
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“Nah, I don’t care about that at all,” Hogg said when Brin got back to camp. He was sitting on a camp chair next to the bonfire, which had dwindled down to coals.
“What? I thought that’s why you sent me out there.” Brin paused, and when he felt the tingle of sound magic that meant Hogg was blocking their conversation, he continued. “We know where the bandits are now, in a way that we can plausibly explain without mentioning your Visible Eyes.”
“I sent you out the...
2024-06-19 18:37:03 +0000 UTC
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"How do you know it's the same bandits? Are you sure you can find them?" asked Brin.
Zilly glanced at Sion, and Brin understood at once. She still wanted to be seen as a [Warrior] in the wider world, which meant that she didn't want to give away her [Rogue] perception abilities. Davi had already fumbled that when he'd announced that Zilly had already heard them coming and he had the feeling that Sion was too canny to have missed or forgotten that, but there was no reason to openly out h...
2024-06-14 20:08:54 +0000 UTC
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Zerif had originally planned for the caravan to spend some time in Sudd’s Bog, maybe another day, but that was when he’d thought there might still be a town here. When he left his tent for breakfast, several members of the caravan mobbed him, demanding that they leave right away.
The [Caravan Master] grinned in delight at them, making no attempt to hide how happy he was to comply. “Arrive in Oud’s Bog a day early, you say? Ha, twist my arm a little, why don’t you? If you...
2024-06-13 16:27:59 +0000 UTC
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The next day was, predictably, more walking. Brin spent the morning off by himself with one ear surrounded by a silencing spell while he practiced his sound magic. He worked on trying to change the timbre of the magic away from computer-sounding beeps and boops. With a little work, he managed to put a little bit of character into the beeps, making them sound a little more EDM and a little less MS-DOS. They still sounded heavily electronic, though, and no one would ever mistake it for a real m...
2024-06-09 06:28:01 +0000 UTC
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I've posted this everywhere else, but I realized I haven't posted the links here.
Bog Standard Isekai Volume 1: Scarred is now available as ebook, Kindle Unlimited, print and Audiobook. While none of you NEED to read the new version that is appearing on Kindle, it has been thoroughly revised and edited to make it a much cleaner book without changing any actual content. It's a significantly smoother version of the story you know.
Also, the audiobook was narrated by Jonathan McClain...
2024-06-05 20:59:44 +0000 UTC
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Brin decided to take it slow. If Hogg thought he needed to sneak up on this one, then he wouldn’t leave anything to chance. He also didn’t have a time limit on this, except that any time he spent hunting monsters was time he wouldn’t spend sleeping. But after his months of exhaustion, six hours of sleep, or even four, felt like a luxury.
So even before leaving camp, he lay down on his bedroll and dove into his [Memories in Glass] for his Invisible Eye. He still needed [Directed M...
2024-06-05 18:52:08 +0000 UTC
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That night his dreams were nothing special. He didn’t remember them on waking, and after examining them with [Memories In Glass], he mostly saw nothing but nonsensical shapes and images, and repeated sentences from conversations throughout the day. The most cohesive part of his dreams was a short dream where he’d screamed at the spiders and they’d all run away. Davi said, “They’re really sensitive to sound.” And then they both played a weird song together where every time they plu...
2024-05-31 17:35:25 +0000 UTC
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“Ok, but why am I here?” asked Myra as she pulled her dress that had caught on a brambly bush. It tore badly as she yanked it free. For anyone else, he’d feel really bad about that, but for Myra it was barely an inconvenience. One dismissive brush with her hand, and the dress repaired itself.
“Hogg thought you should come,” said Brin. “That probably means we’re up against something quick that you’ll need to hold down for us.”
“I’m not an endless mana battery ...
2024-05-29 17:00:08 +0000 UTC
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I'm sure you've already heard, but I'll be removing Volume 1 of Bog Standard Isekai from all platforms in preparation for my Amazon release on June 4th. As far as I'm concerned, you've all already paid for Book 1, so if you'd like to download the full edited EPUB version, you may do so here:
https://dl.bookfunnel.com/na7jungz5v
On Amazon, the series title will be Bog Standard Isekai, and book 1 will be ca...
2024-05-27 20:06:33 +0000 UTC
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Hogg didn’t like the idea of hunting monsters on their very first night out of town, but he promised to find a way to make it work sometime during their trip.
“That’s actually how I always planned on getting you your first levels, by fighting isolated monsters under direct supervision. Fighting a war against the undead and assassinating [Witches] wasn’t exactly my first choice for you.”
“Assassinating? That was in self-defense.” Brin looked both directions, checking ...
2024-05-27 16:44:52 +0000 UTC
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He saw a flash of color, and then something slipped out of the forest. It had a long, segmented body, alternating tan and blue. A giant centipede maybe, except the legs were so short and thin that it seemed to glide across the ground.
It pounced towards the [Merchant] guard with two huge ribbed pincers outstretched. The guard held his spear firm, and the monster veered away at the last second to glide away back towards the forest. The other guard threw his spear at the retreating form, ...
2024-05-24 17:52:37 +0000 UTC
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Brin woke up the next morning with barely a trace of any headache at all. That was a nice change. Even in his old life, four glasses of wine would’ve been enough to give him the beginning of a hangover, but he really felt nothing other than the feeling that dawn was too early and he’d rather sleep another four hours.
He’d already packed the night before, but really there hadn’t been much to pack. Just his clothes, some glass things that he’d made, a few odds and ends that he...
2024-05-22 18:34:18 +0000 UTC
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The wedding started out a lot like System Day. Rodrige and Madely were hustled back to their separate parent’s homes, and when they came out the guests lined the street. Except on System Day the adults had held candles and watched in silence at night; here it was the middle of the day and everyone hooted and clapped as either of the couple passed by.
Unlike System Day, not everyone in town was part of the ceremony, but even those not involved stopped and clapped and the wedding party ...
2024-05-17 22:58:17 +0000 UTC
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On the morning of Rodrige’s wedding, Brin dug through his wardrobe to find his best formal clothes, and found a problem. They didn’t fit. There was a silver lining–it meant he’d finally hit that growth spurt he’d been waiting for, but that didn’t help him now. The pants left four inches bare above his ankles, and he knew that if he tried to put the coat on all the way it would tear. Sure, he could wear his everyday clothes–they weren’t poor-looking by any means–but the forma...
2024-05-15 22:31:12 +0000 UTC
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After the first night without nightmares, Brin thought it was a fluke, but then it happened again. Long, uninterrupted, dreamless sleep.
Because he couldn’t believe that something this good would happen out of nowhere, he’d gone back over his previous nightmares stored in [Memories in Glass], but he hadn’t found anything. The dreams had been dreams, and more or less how he remembered them with his actual memories. They were mostly centered on [Witches], but then again, that’s ex...
2024-05-13 18:26:16 +0000 UTC
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I've been battling a head cold and can't make the words work. Today's chapter will be either late tonight or tomorrow. Sorry for the late notice
2024-05-11 01:09:39 +0000 UTC
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Aberfa watched in exquisite agony as the knife scraped its way up her arm, gouging her muscles. The old, rusty knife wasn't sharp enough to make a clean cut, and her skin bunched up before finally tearing through all at once. She watched it draw upwards, hoping to see it nick her artery, hoping she would bleed out before anyone noticed, but of course Thesa wouldn't be so careless. When Thesa healed it, she healed it wrong, with diseased and patchy skin. Nearly all her body was in such a state...
2024-05-08 17:00:59 +0000 UTC
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A quick [Inspect] of his attacker revealed little.
Name: Jorn Banhoff
Race: Human
Age: 37
Class: Messenger
Brin skipped the list of Skills–chances were they were fake anyway, and he didn’t have time for reading. This guy’s age looked accurate to what [Inspect] said, and since levels usually came with time, Brin was in serious trouble.
He had a split second to make a deci...
2024-05-03 18:14:33 +0000 UTC
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That night, his nightmares spent hours torturing Lumina. She was slowly overcome by her curse, growing more and more monstrous as the blackness crept from her hand, down her arm, and into her heart. Or she’d be torn apart by Awnadil’s cruel and cackling familiars, or blasted to ashes by the dragon. “She’ll leave you. She’ll always leave you.” The words repeated over and over through his mind.
The only thing that helped was knowing that wasn’t real. He watched it all silent...
2024-05-01 17:00:13 +0000 UTC
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Before they could leave, Myra asked them to wait. “I can’t believe I almost let you get away without giving Marksi his present!”
She pulled out a little red bag, from first glance. She brushed off, then visibly pushed a pulse of magic into it. It popped and formed into a wide brimmed hat with a pointed top, a perfect miniature version of Lumina’s.
“I could tell he really wanted one,” said Myra.
Marksi nodded firmly and jumped into Myra’s arms. The motion knocke...
2024-04-26 18:55:49 +0000 UTC
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Brin took a moment to think about how to approach this. Myra didn't have the same sheer destructive power as Rodrige or the overwhelming speed of Gill, but she didn't have their vulnerabilities, either.
He used [Inspect].
Name Myra Corrigid
Race Human
Age 14
Level 28
Class Weaver
Description
Myra is a close...
2024-04-24 17:38:25 +0000 UTC
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The next morning, Hogg walked with Brin towards Davi’s farm on the way to the morning workout. Calisto’s potion had finally removed the last traces of the [Witch’s] curse, but his muscles had shrunk in the past several months. He was practically a skeleton, with his black leathers hanging loose against his frame.
Despite that, he walked with a firm energy, reveling in the experience of walking on his own two feet again. “I’ll be back to form in no time at all. You’ll see! A ...
2024-04-19 18:28:22 +0000 UTC
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It was a solemn little group that left at dawn, all except for Marksi who darted around happily chasing moths and scampering up and down from Brin’s shoulders. He loved going out in the wild and didn’t seem to notice the mood of the other three.
Only Brin, Marksi, and Myra had come with Lumina. Zilly and Davi had both asked to come, and had been turned away since they didn’t have resistance to mageburn. How Myra was resistant to mageburn, Brin didn’t know. Lumina had never used ...
2024-04-17 18:33:54 +0000 UTC
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With Lumina busy, Brin decided to start his day at Ademsi’s shop, but when he got there the shop was empty. He honestly couldn’t guess where the automaton had gone; it’s not like he had that many friends.
He heard footsteps on stairs heading down from the rooms upstairs. The door opened and Evita stepped out.
She approached in a happy, dancing gait, and her graceful movements were accentuated by a light, flowy dress. The fabric was decorated with the colorful flower de...
2024-04-12 18:20:06 +0000 UTC
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The feast began with much ado, with people eating at long tables. The town elders were darting from group to group, taking names, giving the rules, and assigning sleeping areas. That was no doubt the real reason for this; now that everyone was in one place, it would be easy to process them. As they ate, a few more small groups arrived; apparently the two hundred were only those who’d walked on ahead, feeling the need to move quicker once the end was in sight. He’d heard a few dozen more w...
2024-04-10 18:21:19 +0000 UTC
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Brin ran the entire way and arrived at the northern gate just as the incoming travelers reached shouting distance. “Gate” was a bit of a misnomer at this point; the watchtowers still stood, but there was nothing to block the road between them. The old walls had been torn down and the new walls of stone hadn’t yet reached waist-height. Part of that was because there was a limit to how much stone they could pull up from Neptune’s cave every day, and part of that was because this town di...
2024-04-05 17:29:51 +0000 UTC
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Stepping through the door, he had to stop and make sure [Know What’s Real] didn’t go off, because everything was different. Streamers hung from the ceiling, colorful paper covered Hogg’s more reserved wallpaper, and a big banner covered the living room window that said “Happy Birthday Brin!”
Confetti hung in the air by some magic, swirling around but never landing on anything, sparkling silver and gold. Marksi darted inside and jumped at it, but even the quick pounce of a drag...
2024-04-03 17:35:53 +0000 UTC
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Brin dreamt of [Witches], tonight the same as every night in the past few months since the battle of Hammon’s Bog.
Often, he dreamt of Bianca, the first living person to ever die by his hands. He’d feel her warm blood on his fingers and she’d scream and cry and beg for mercy. In his dreams, there were none of the important details like how she’d also been trying to kill him with a meat cleaver at the time, or how she’d set her abomination of a familiar on him. No, in this part...
2024-03-31 06:12:57 +0000 UTC
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Lumina gave Brin a couple hours to do his regular workout and he wasted no time getting started. He began with lifting weights, going through his whole routine. Normally he had a hard time motivating himself without Davi around, but today he had a new Skill to test out.
Sure enough, after five minutes of squats, he got his first alert.
[Athleticism] leveled up! 1 -> 2
That was more than enough motivation to keep going. He went through his fu...
2024-03-28 04:15:06 +0000 UTC
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