Where does one begin to untangle the knot of time?
What do we know? What do we think that we know? And are these things even the truth?
I can not say.
We look back at the history of our world and see clear definitions written in the lines of the books we were taught as children and in the books that we ourselves now teach our own children. But, in truth, how do you know that what is... 2022-08-26 19:40:09 +0000 UTC View Post
What is ‘holiness’?
Is it the warm, reassuring love of the sun that would cascade down over us in bountiful grace, day after day, after day?
Is it the tender, gentle kiss of the moonlight, coating us in an ethereal essence, which is much the same as the graceful love of a departed spirit — Pale, yet full of warm intent.
Or is it perhaps the more material gestures of a species ... 2022-08-25 19:02:05 +0000 UTC View Post
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A massive, yellowed tooth that belongs to a giant serpent that lives in the southern regions of the world. Despite being long detached from the body of the snake, it continues to drip with a thick, deadly venom.
Weight: 8.4 kg
Hineni whistles, looking at the massive toot...
2022-08-24 18:12:02 +0000 UTC View PostI can not describe to you in words that you would understand, that you would believe, what happened there.
The things that happened in that time, the era of the demon-king, the horrors that fell over us. It’s just… it’s too much. You had to be there, you had to see it. Otherwise, you’d just… you’d never believe it — The screaming, gnawing, gnashing of teeth and bones. The smells of fire, carrying the ashy particulate of your loved on... 2022-08-23 19:54:38 +0000 UTC View Post
It takes several days before the structure really begins to take shape. After about a week and a half, the planning and the outlines of the first walls have all been placed. The work on the road has been continued, so that it leads up towards the hill now. All of this, in spite of the siege and the arrows and the spells flying towards the city day and night. The sapling in the center of it all has begun to grow stronger and taller, its base showing the first hint of ‘woodiness’, as it cha...
2022-08-22 15:32:30 +0000 UTC View Post“So… how many do you think it is?” asks Rhine.
It is late in the evening, but not yet nightfall. This is around the time of day when the hostilities of the war-zone begin to simmer down for the night, as all involved parties retreat and return to their camps, in order to hide in safety from the terrifying monsters of the deep-forest. A sort of first floor has been created for the house, on the elevated edge of the hill. A wooden platform, reinforced with stone and concr...
2022-08-20 17:52:27 +0000 UTC View Post
Hello everyone, I am happy to let you know that DEMON CORE has been approved for release on Royalroad! If you were waiting to read without the terrible Patreon tables, now is your chance! <3
Do you want this to be a long, juicy story? Do you want more high quality, always free to read stories? Then while you are there, please rate! This is a critical phase in the story's life. Depending on how it does now will determine how much time I can invest into it i...
2022-08-20 05:55:00 +0000 UTC View PostThere is a magic to life.
I do not mean this in a wishy-washy sort of metaphysical sense. Rather, I am speaking of the topic of ‘ambient magics’, as they are commonly known. Great regions of the world, such as tall mountains, deep, ancient forests or awe-inspiring, vast oceans, emit a constant, passive amount of ambient, magical energy out into the world. It stems from the abundant life that lives atop or inside of these places. 2022-08-19 19:27:51 +0000 UTC View Post
Do we bury the dead? Or do we burn them?
It is a question often asked by not only the religious scholars of the world, but by the more mundane folk who operate the civil infrastructure of the city.
In the distant past, burning the dead was considered to be a proper form of burial, given the prevalence of undead monsters such as zombies and reanimated ghouls. Nobody wants to see their close friends and family turn i... 2022-08-18 19:45:56 +0000 UTC View Post
It’s starting to take shape.
Hineni stands atop the hill, looking down at the marked out walls that line the area all around the growth. In the center of the hill, a small sprout peaks out of the grasses, reaching and stretching up towards the cool moonlight.
He wanders down the hill, running a hand along a partially finished wall of the complex, feeling it, touching it — Just to make sure that it’s real. After all, this might well be some odd frog illu...
2022-08-17 18:43:23 +0000 UTC View PostThere is debate amongst the scholars of the world as to the age of the common races of people.
Some argue that all races, Humans, Elves of all variants, Orcs and Dwarves were all created at the same time and place.
Others argue that all species are simply a variant of one core, elder race. Just as dark-elves and elves are beings that belong to the same family, it is argued that humans, dwarves and orcs are also sim... 2022-08-16 19:46:42 +0000 UTC View Post
The wood is oddly supple and pliable, but, despite him bending it to the lengths of its flexibility, it doesn’t crack or splinter and instead holds its form well, offering a lot of resistance to his pressure.
It’s wood from some of the precious, ancient trees of the deep forests of the south. It’s a material that, while rare in the north, is plentiful down here in the south. Because the trees are so old, having sat in rich, nurtured sections of the forest for generation...
2022-08-16 18:00:25 +0000 UTC View Post
Here's a concept art piece of big sister Eilig from Weaponsmith! Although, in this image, she isn't a blurry fairy-blob. =)
Drawn by GreenNGreen#8633
2022-08-15 07:57:10 +0000 UTC View PostHineni stands there, watching as the first wall of the new house is erected. The stoneworkers are at work today, beginning construction of the exterior of the external structure, now that the engineers have finished planning all of the details.
Insects buzz and voices hollar out from the surrounding regions as people spend their days fighting to the death. The front-line has phases. It shifts continuously, moving in towards the city, where the lines fight on open plains, litt...
2022-08-13 19:48:53 +0000 UTC View PostHuman, Female, Herbalist
Rain softly trickles down all around her, water cusping on the edges of thick, verdant leaves. The rain, while mild, gathers into thick, heavy drops that drip down from the crowns of the trees, giving the spring rain the sensation of being a quiet, summer’s storm.
Jizalia squints, trying to focus her blurry vision on the odd plant before herself. It’s a white, cu...
2022-08-12 20:11:42 +0000 UTC View PostRest?
Adventurers don’t get to rest.
While high-level, top ranking adventurers might make a mean take-home income, the average adventurer lives in the realms of poverty. A level ten, rank D- adventurer without a party stands to reach the first boss of a dungeon, assuming they live in a city with access to a low-level dungeon.
This means that they might earn across all ten floors r... 2022-08-11 19:42:56 +0000 UTC View Post
Hineni looks down at the odd, gangly monster bit laid out over the table. He tilts his head, turning to Sockel. “Sockel, what the hell is this?” he asks, picking it up with a gloved finger. It’s a long, soft, squishy mass with round ridges.
Sockel points at him with her pen. “That there is an intestine.”
Hineni lifts an eyebrow, looking at her and then at it. “Okay. And, let me ask, what the hell do I want with an intestine?”
...
2022-08-10 19:45:57 +0000 UTC View Post‘Those who can not swim should not stay near rivers.’
Isaiah teaches us a lesson on the hubris of the living condition. Self-control and true self-love are interwoven roots that hold a tree above themselves steady and strong. A person who claims to love themself, but who has no control over their own actions and emotional state, is simply playing a game of self-deceit.
Learning about your feelings and your pain... 2022-08-09 19:40:23 +0000 UTC View Post
Water trickles noisily, the creek quietly making its presence known. Nightbirds sing in the distance, their shrill voices not muffled by the deep, heavy forest. Crickets chirp and a contrastingly peaceful aura is present in the air.
An owl hoots off in the distance.
Obscura turns her head, sharply looking off to the side, towards the direction of the call.
She turns her head back, looking at Hineni, who has lifted an eyebrow. “Many owls do ...
2022-08-08 19:44:14 +0000 UTC View PostA jagged, snarled tooth that once belonged to a goblin. It now belongs to you.
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Goblin Affinity: NATURE/DARK
Weight: 0.1 kg
Value: 04 Obols
Hineni looks at the little goblin-tooth that he is holding between his ...
2022-08-06 15:22:12 +0000 UTC View PostOf the nature of magical-affinities.
Oftentimes, fledgling adventurers will go far out of their way in order to understand and study the intricacies of a form of magic that they are not naturally familiar with.
What is meant by this is that people, humans and elves mostly*, are sometimes born with an innate tendency towards prowess in a particular branch of magic, such as FIRE or NATURE, or even sub-elements as LIGHTNING or ... 2022-08-05 19:21:21 +0000 UTC View Post
Dungeons are engines of prosperity.
Just like a great manufacturer will draw in people from all around the region to work for them, just like a trade-hub on the ocean will draw in ships and merchants from distant nations — so too, will a dungeon draw in adventurers.
There is incredible wealth to be found in dungeons.
Traditionally, ‘adventurers’ as they are colloquially known,... 2022-08-04 16:54:18 +0000 UTC View Post
Despite the oddness of the scenery present around himself, Hineni finds himself simply standing there, taking a sip of his drink as he admires this new view.
— People scream off to the side, their horrified voices carrying through the flames that engulf the deep-forest.
Fresh morning air reaches his face, cusping the strands of his long, unwashed hair. There hasn’t really been time for him to clean up yet, as they’re still in the middle of their move. H...
2022-08-03 13:50:19 +0000 UTC View PostIf you read FINAL CORE chapter 41 on Patreon (Or yesterday on RR), I've added 1 new section to the RR release for Witch Perchta - https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/54046/final-core-a-holy-dungeon-core-litrpg/chapter/958786/chapter-41-graceful-divinity
In some instances, Hineni has found it hard to let go of the past. During his initial anxieties about entering this new stage of life, together with these people he finds himself surrounded by. During his stubbornness in opening his house to others and then to admit that it was theirs as much as his. But this thing, this new thing, this move, it feels right.
The wheels of the carriage rattle as it moves down the wide, stone roads that lead towards the south.
...
2022-08-01 17:27:19 +0000 UTC View Post“You know, I’ve never left the city before,” says Hineni, looking down at his reflection in the river. “Apart from the forest and stuff and uh… I guess when I was kidnapped as a baby. But apart from that.”
“We used to take trips a lot when I was really young,” replies Rhine. “But I honestly don’t remember where all of those places were.”
The two of them lift their gazes towards Sockel, who turns back their way and shrugs, sensing the que...
2022-07-31 19:17:23 +0000 UTC View Post
New art of our very best friend, Burch, just dropped! I wish I could be as happy as she always is. What a life she lives *-*
2022-07-31 15:26:12 +0000 UTC View PostRecipe: Rot of the Soil
Step 1) Acquire a dryad, living.
Step 2) Flay arms and legs. Remove the bones, but leave the flesh and sinew attached.
Step 3) Drop blackwater inside of flayed limbs.
Step 4) Take flayed, soft limbs and fold inward. Tie all four together over the heart.
Step 5) Force feed healing potions to regrow cut skin and bones. (Break teeth and use tube if required.)
<... 2022-07-29 19:58:36 +0000 UTC View Post
“Do I hold it against a dungeon when someone in my party dies?
I mean… yeah. Why the hell wouldn’t I?
Sure. Some people will say that it’s our fault for going down there in the first place. But, what the hell else are we supposed to do? I grew up poor. Most of us do. The rich don’t become adventurers. I don’t have any qualifications. I don’t have any education or formal training of any kind. 2022-07-28 18:16:09 +0000 UTC View Post