tobiasbegley

The Third Step: Chapter Eight

The following morning, after eating at the ship’s attempt at a breakfast scone, Kene headed to their room to work on ingraining the last few spells they needed before they could work on breaking into peak fourth gate. The soul array had helped strengthen their spirit, and their advancement had outstripped the hag’s, helping keep them fairly stable, but Kene wasn’t planning to slow down and let the hag catch up. 

Dusk and Dawn, having finished their stone project, were now tur...

The Third Step: Chapter Seven

I stared at the door, then let out a sigh and stepped through. There was no sense in not at least checking, but I also needed to balance my own health. If I thought I could easily take it on, great, but I wouldn’t push myself. 

I cycled Mantle Dragonfyre, then stepped through the door. On the other side was a large, ape-like creature, radiating mid-fourth gate power, a blend of abnegation, spatial, physical, temporal, and tinges of life, knowledge, and lunar. A bit of an unusual ...

Minor Tweak to Dates

Hey! As previously mentioned, I'll be gone the first week of June to visit family. In order to best align with my writing cycle, however, you won't get any chapters of The Restored on June 26th or 27th, but will get them July 3rd and 4th. The total number remains the same, it's just a shuffle of dates.

I know this is a weird schedule, but it's the best way I can fit my work schedule.

Thank you for your understanding!

The Restored: Chapter Thirty-Eight

The tires of the automobile screeched down the street, and Rhys let out a scream almost as loud as the tired were as yet another demon was dissolved by the magic of the spell components they were holding.

“Stop being a baby!” Hadiya said as she pulled the automobile to a stop, slamming on the brakes so hard that Rhys’ head actually smacked into the windshield. Idly, he considered that there really ought to be something that could stop people from doing that. Maybe if there was som...

The Restored: Chapter Thirty-Six

Hadiya’s eyes slowly opened, and she let out a groan of pain as she shoved herself to her feet and looked around. The entire world around her was glowing red…

No, that wasn’t right. It was the lights in the ceiling that were glowing red, and crackling as they passed magical power from point to point. It was like someone had hijacked the entire power grid.

Her eyes flared open wide and she snapped back to full alertness as she realized that it wasn’t like someone had done t...

Vote Bote Note Mote

The Third Step: Chapter Six

I appeared on sand, and forced myself not to move. I’d never beaten the mid-fourth competition so far, but I had entered it twice before. The first time, I’d tried to take a step forward, and immediately been blown up by something under the sands – a ward trap, single use enchantment, or alchemical explosive most likely. The second time, I’d tried to extend my mana senses out, only for them to hit a weak wall. I’d pushed through, only for the explosions to set off again.

I slo...

The Third Step: Chapter Five

After Meadow grew tired and decided to take a nap, I flickered back to my room using a couple of Foxsteps, then opened a portal in my room and wandered to my scrying mirror. I tapped the glass and injected a bit of ungated mana, shaping the number for Elio. The mirror flashed in waiting a few times before the weathered old face of the ancient dragon appeared. 

“Ah, hello Malachi,” the old dragon said, squinting at me. “I’m guessing you’ve broken into early fourth gate, an...

The Third Step: Chapter Four

“I don’t suppose there’s any way I could fit the Cwn Anwnn spell in my death gate, is there?” I asked hopefully. “Between my Magister’s Body and the organshield providing some more telluric flavor to my spirit. And I mean, it’s a spirit interacting spell, and I’ve got death mana.” 

Meadow hummed and seemed to consider it for a moment, drumming her fingers along her cane. 

“I don’t think you could do it without help,” she finally said. “Your Magi...

The Restored: Chapter Thirty-Five

Slipping onto the Malapert was a strange mix of impossibly hard, and incredibly easy. 

Devi led them through the endless gray landscape until they stopped in the part of the Wandering Path that geographically mapped to where the Malapert was apparently hovering in the air. Kelly wasn’t sure how that was possible, as they’d only walked for a few minutes, and they hadn’t gone upwards at all, but Devi was certain.

Given that as they approached, they could all see a vast ne...

Release!

My first collaboration work is now out and released! You can read Loss of the Star's Tranquility here: https://www.amazon.com/Loss-Stars-Tranquility-Travis-Riddle-ebook/dp/B0F4RD2SRG

I hope you all enjoy! It's set in the world of Mana Mirror, and gets to show off some of the less cheerful elements of the world - the unclaimed lands, the criminal underworld run by Numbe...

The Restored: Chapter Thirty-Four

The instant the three teenagers hit the ground on the other side of the portal, Devi was already pulling herself to her feet. Jin kipped up an instant later, and Kelly staggered to his feet. With his aura so low, he could feel the Wandering Path already starting to suck him dangerously dry, so he snapped. The rush of quasi-alien power flowed into him, and he snapped again, working to try and restore his power as he looked at his companions.

The last thing that Jin had said ran through h...

Poll Redux

Sorry, I missed an option on the original poll, and patreon doesn't allow retroactively adding options

The Third Step: Chapter Three

I found Meadow sitting on one of the top decks of the boat in a beach chair, with a large, floppy hat and cheap sunglasses on, reading a book and sipping on an iced tea that smelled faintly of shaved aniseed root. When I flopped into the beach chair next to her, she lowered her glasses and looked at me. I felt her mana senses sweep over me for a moment, then she gave me a warm smile. 

“Well done, Malachi! You’re in much better shape to start progressing again. Have you seen Dus...

The Third Step: Chapter Two

I flickered along the boat with a handful of short teleports, then unlocked the door to the room and slipped into Dusk’s realm – technically, I could have done it from the boat’s small training room, but it was a good idea to let the staff see me entering and leaving the room if I wanted to continue to seem slightly normal.

Once I was in Dusk’s realm, I walked to the alchemy room and flicked open a chest to reveal the small pile of elixirs that I’d purchased with the leftover ...

The Third Step: Chapter One

I lifted a silvery shovel and slammed it down into the earth. With one final grunt, I finally ripped out the last scoop of dirt from my mana-garden. Power flooded through my entire garden, and I took a step back, shielding my eyes as dust blew around me and the bricks transformed. 

I let out a sigh and stepped back, examining my mana-garden as I completed my breakthrough into the peak of third gate. My spatial gate had been the last one that I’d finally finished working on steppi...

The Third Portal: Chapter Seventy

After the ascension, things moved quickly. The city seemed largely unbothered, and it was a stark reminder that despite all the power that a high gate mage like the Amethyst Mask could wield, most people weren’t interested in snapping up every bit of power they could find. They were more concerned about keeping the lights on than hitting one gate higher. 

A man had ascended to gain enough power to tear apart a mountain with a spell, but to a normal person, it didn’t matter. It ...

The Third Portal: Chapter Sixty-Nine

We were silent after leaving the shop until we had nearly arrived in the middle of the city, where Meadow explained a few key details about the masks. The magic they used was partially suppressive, partially concealing. While they were on, we could choose to make them either, or shift between. 

The concealing function was the easy one, since it would merely shift our appearances. Mine wouldn’t change my tail, but it would make my face look different, which was the main reason mos...

The Third Portal: Chapter Sixty-Eight

Jinwei, Meadow, Kene, Dusk, Dawn and I all gathered together on the decks of Port Ruby, and Meadow tapped her cane against the thick, forged stone beneath her feet. I could feel a public teleportation platform a few feet ahead of us, and focused my attention on it. 

“You said you hired a portal mage?” I asked. “That must have been expensive.” 

“Oh, I didn’t pay,” Meadow said, waving her hand. “The mage owes me a favor – I helped her get through college....

The Third Portal: Chapter Sixty-Seven

While the rest of the world had their eyes locked onto the Crystal Cove, Vivian clicked down the halls of the vast tomb under the capital of Nightflock. In the nearly two centuries since she’d broken Orykson’s leash and Nightflock had become independent, nearly every single citizen of her nation that had died had been interred within this great burial mound. 

Between a quarter to a half a million people every year, for close to two hundred years. 

Admittedly, one in ...

The Third Portal: Chapter Sixty-Six

Weird thing: To fit with my schedule, I'm actually going to be posting five chapters of the Third Portal this week, and as such, have to skip the chapters of The Restored. Things will eventually go back to normal, fear not.

-

“You’ve been aiming for the timemind for a long time,” Heather pointed out. “It almost seems like a waste to pick up something else.” 

Dusk piped up that while the timemind might not be perfect for me, a...

A Quick Update

Hello everyone!

Thank you all for taking a moment out of your day to read through this.

We are coming up on the end of The Third Portal, and once it completes, I'll be taking a break for the week. I've been pumping out a lot of content recently, and I'm starting to feel close to burning out. I'm going to be putting in a week to do some R&R.

Chapters should go up as per normal this week, but the first week of June I won't be posting. The first week of July (technically ...

The Restored: Chapter Thirty-Three

The world around me started to grow fuzzy under the choking grasp of the Arenamaster’s claws. I couldn’t even breathe now. My soul was being assaulted by demonic power on all sides. 

I was going to die. 

I didn’t know how. Maybe I’d choke out and die that way, maybe I’d lose my free will and humanity and become a demon in service to Alyphize. 

But one way or another, I was going to die. 

I shouldn’t have gone into this fight. For all tha...

Roll off results

The Effaced is out now!

Hello everyone! I am happy to announce that the Effaced, the first of the Secret Logs of Axel Font Duology is out now on Amazon!

Here’s the description for book one:

If you can, please leave a rating or review. Even if there's no text, having the stars is super critical to the all-powerful algorithm. 

Book Link: https://www.amazon.com/Eff...

The Restored: Chapter Thirty-Two

With shaking hands, I began to build magic. It swirled and glowed around me, which was a testament to just how nervous I was. Hiding your aura from an outside observer while shaping a spell was one of the first things that a sorcerer was taught to do, and I couldn’t even manage it right now. 

I tried to take a deep breath, and was prepared to use my split mind arch-star in order to let me focus on my spells with one portion of my mind while the other section panicked, when a hand...

The Third Portal: Chapter Sixty-Five

The rest of the day passed by swiftly enough after Meadow’s route planning, and I moved off to take care of a variety of issues, both mundane and otherwise.

“The thing that you need to understand is that investment is a complex, multifaceted, and layered field,” Orykson lectured as he took a sip of his iced mocha. “There is no one, universal one-size-fits all investment for anyone, least of all a mage.” 

“I’ve heard that gold and houses were good investments,”...

Where to Spend Points?

The Third Portal: Chapter Sixty-Four

I blinked, then turned and started to focus on the air next to me. Dusk joined her power to my own, and we slowly started tearing open a portal in the air. As we did, Meadow began to take a map out of her pocket, unfolding it out until it was clearly displayed as a map of the globe. 

A few moments later, Kene stepped through, dusting himself off, and looking over the table. A round of introductions went through with Jinwei, who Kene hadn’t really had the opportunity to meet. Once...

What Path to Take?