tobiasbegley

The Third Gate: Chapter Sixty-Four

The Cult of the Primes did not have many allies in this world. 

Their churches were scattered through only a few of the lands that tolerated them, and otherwise held to the wild lands, where they could hide their communes. Even then, most shunned them. In Delitone, the cult was forced to operate in a heavily reduced capacity, since it was too close to Mossford, to the enemy’s territory.

The First Spear, Leader of the First Decanus contemplated this, hate in his heart, as he...

The Third Gate: Chapter Sixty-Three

After Orykson left, I decided that I may as well head to the graveyard and see if there were any spirits that I could help out. I would leave tomorrow, sure, but that was no reason to not get a bit of practice in today, especially since Ed, Kene, and my dad were all working. 

As I walked I started by sketching out the spells one at a time and flooding a bit of power into them, in order to form the array inside my body. I had the oddest sensation that they were writing themselves on...

The Third Gate: Chapter Sixty-Two

Just as a quick reminder: Monday, December 16th to Sunday, December 29th, I will be taking off in order to spend time with family. Chapters will resume as normal on December 30th.
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“Ghosts,” I finally said. “I like the idea of being able to help people, lay things to rest. Learning skills and having eyes all over is useful too.” 

“A reasonable choice,” Orykson said. “As much as I believe that osteomancy provides the most power in the long r...

Vote that funky music

The Third Gate: Chapter Sixty-One

So, I actually really found doing the two chapters on Wednesday to be convenient for writing schedule. I think I'm gonna keep doing that, if y'all are alright with it?

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“What do I know about necromancy,” I said, flopping down onto the grass and sprawling out. Orykson gave me a disapproving look and sat down on a chair that appeared beneath him. 

“Well, I know there are five major branches,” I started. “Zombies, bones, shades, ghosts, and soul...

The Third Gate: Chapter Sixty

I spent the last few days in Mossford before I had to take the boat to the Isle of Crysite working and training, mainly focusing on rounding out the last few spells that I had yet to bring up to snuff. Ingraining Sky Dragon’s Senses assisted in the technique of casting my senses through natural winds while also expanding their range, Enhance Forging gained the same effect as my old cavern dragon ring of improving any spell that created solid mana, Spatial Tripwire helped refine my spatialse...

The Third Gate: Chapter Fifty-Nine

“How long was I out?” I asked as I rubbed my head. It didn’t hurt, this hadn’t been painful. But it was… disoriented. Dusk let out a cheerful raven’s caw as she told me I had only been out for about thirty seconds, maybe less. 

“Huh. It felt a lot longer than that.” 

I hopped to my feet and leaned over to look at my reflection in the lake. Just like I’d felt when I’d been working with the spell directly, there was a flower crown around my head, woven ...

The Third Gate: Chapter Fifty-Eight

I didn’t actually end up deciding then and there. I had another cup of tea, then Meadow and I headed back to my dad’s house, where we cooked a spicy peanut curry. It was only then that I made my decision. 

“Synergy is important,” I said. “I don’t have anything for hudau mana, not right now, but I do have two thirds of it.”

Dusk looked up from where she and Dawn were building a sand-castle out of flour and whistled that I was wrong. Kind of. Not entirely.  2024-12-02 13:00:09 +0000 UTC View Post

Minor Annoying Update!

If you had pre-ordered a copy of The Second Gate, and just had it removed, it's because Amazon is throwing a fit. I've now had every single book I've ever published trip SOME form of internal alarm, and as such, they've banned me from doing pre-orders for a year.

I'm working to try and get this resolved, but we'll see what happens. There's a chance I may not be able to make pre-orders for a bit, despite having now sent them all relevant information four times.  2024-12-01 18:31:08 +0000 UTC View Post

Baron of Nightmares

Ming limped forwards, through the Hall of Empty Whispers, blood leaking from her mutilated arm. When she stumbled, almost falling flat on her face, she considered turning around or ascending.

The shadows in the hall around her echoed, whispering for her to surrender. They soaked into her mind, and she was forced to resist them with raw effort of will. 

When she was fourth gate, her carefully handcrafted blueprint would allow her silver blades to cut into the liminal dreams, b...

Vote Time :D

The Third Gate: Chapter Fifty-Seven

Since tomorrow is a holiday where I live, and I'll be with friends and family, I made the Executive Decision to release this chapter and the vote today. Congrats? Apologies? Yes.

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“Remarkable,” Meadow said, setting her teacup down on the table across from me. “My goodness, you’ve certainly had a productive couple of days.” 

“Yeah,” I said, then grimaced. “I still wish I knew who’d set the bounty on me. But I’...

The Third Gate: Chapter Fifty-Six

Fun fact: The crystal honey fungus is based off of real world armillaria gallica, which is actually able to do the adaptation bit. It's staggeringly able to run multiple genetic lines at once, allowing it to adapt much faster, while also shedding the things that damage it! It's super cool :D

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It took me a bit of time to explain everything that had happened to Kene, and I was forced to do it again when we arrived back within the now-mostly empty village of the fun...

The Third Gate: Chapter Fifty-Five

When I appeared, hovering in the air above the root, Dawn was blazing with her newly minted second gate. She couldn’t use any new spells – it was dedicated to a full-gate spell, though one whose alien, mind bending structure meant I couldn’t even begin to parse what it did – but the jump in mana density helped strengthen her mind, body, and beyond. After all, she was a being of purely mana.

That new strength, alongside overcharging some of the spells that she had been working on...

The Third Gate: Chapter Fifty-Four

The moment the mycelium tendrils started to enwrap me, I began a chain of quick spells. First, I used Transport Item, reaching into Dusk, then into some glass within her. 

Technically, I could pull items in and out of dusk without needing the spell, especially since our bond had strengthened, but I was doing something rather more… difficult… than just transporting something into my hand. 

The spell itself struggled to do what I needed, but linking to the powerful spa...

The Third Gate: Chapter Fifty-Three

Like I said in my minor update / chapter post, with the temporary break on Effaced chapters, I'm going to be doing four Mana Mirror chapters a week. So here's this week's fourth chapter! No vote, but that should return soon. I'm still getting a hang of four a week vs three in terms of pacing, so apologies if it's a bit clunky!
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The old mushroom man led me to a boggy bit of ground a short ways away from the village, then began waving his hands about. It took several ...

The Third Gate: Chapter Fifty-Two

Though it had been a long while since I’d worked on Lesser Psychometry, it was still a useful spell. Ikki had alluded to it having some future uses, but most of the time, my mana senses were more than enough to solve whatever sort of magical information gathering problems I faced.

Still, there were exceptions. I’d used it in the cave to figure out some of what had happened, and now was another. I might have slacked in my practice, though…

I reached down and pressed my finger...

The Third Gate: Chapter Fifty-One

I bounded from rock to rock, chasing after the blink fox. It nimbly moved down the hill, occasionally using its own version of Foxstep to gain ground, or Foxswap if I got too far ahead from it. 

I followed it in a merry chase around the forest, zipping around with a combination of a flight potion and Foxsteps, though the latter still threw my spirit into disarray every time I used it. When we finally came to a stop, I opened a portal to Dusk’s realm to let it enter for a snack, j...

The Third Gate: Chapter Fifty

I set out the following morning for Kene’s village with Seven League Step, pushing through the spiritual disruption that occurred with my use of teleportation spells.

As I did, I noticed something new in the winds of resolve, as they twisted in to focus on my Foxstep spell each time my spirit rebelled. Reading the winds was something that I was still a novice at, but I was left with the impression that I needed to first focus on breaking the resolve root’s hold on my Foxstep be...

The Effaced: Epilogue

On the grand airship Malapert, floating over the city, the Parliament Chairman awoke. It was six in the morning, which was when he always woke. A healthy body helped nurture a healthy mind. His mother had always maintained that, and she had lived to be a hundred and six. 

He performed a quick stretching routine, then called out. 

“Egress!” 

The young woman appeared in his bedroom, which slightly unnerved him. He knew she had a familiar boon that allowed he...

The Effaced: Chapter Forty-Five

I leaned back in the booth, at least as much as I could, and watched her. 

“I can understand the motivation. But I don’t see why I should trust you. Like you said – you wouldn’t trust yourself, hearing this. Why should I?” 

“I don’t know,” she admitted. “But I can tell you a few bits of information that might be able to get you to help. Try them out, test the waters. See if you can maybe believe me, one day. Maybe after you finish cleaning up the Arenam...

The Effaced: Chapter Forty-Four

I strolled down the street of the undercity, Hadiya’s anti-divination device floating over one shoulder. 

Against an enemy with the sheer resources that Nexus had, it was probably useless. Even Hadiya had admitted that, and was working on building a better version in her free time, but it was ultimately about the principle of the thing. If I was going to walk into a dangerous situation, doing it without any defenses was just foolish, and if they were going to scry on the meeting,...

The Effaced: Chapter Forty-Three (And Update)

So, Trump has been elected as president, and several senate seats were won by republicans. As I'm sure anyone who's been following along with the Effaced can discern, I'm not a fan of one small group being able to control a massive amount of the government.

But his win isn't a plot to commune with the Deep Realms and Elder Things From Beyond Reality. This is real life, and has real consequences. It's also got me scared, tired, and sad. And even with it framed in...