A sudden heat boiled in her gut, just above her navel. It burned with an agony so intense her darkness crept in from the side of her vision and threatened to swallow her whole. Molten fire stabbed into her and grabbed a fistful of her intense and twisted. She gasped and doubled over, nearly collapsing right off the bench. Only her sheer force of will kept her upright as everything inside her writhed in utter torment.
Gritting her teeth so hard blood began pooling in her mouth, Grace fou...
2025-01-02 14:00:06 +0000 UTC
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“So, when I said a few, I wasn’t thinking that a couple hundred is what you heard.”
Max shrugged, as he helped pick up the purple gems that lay scattered all over the road.
“Well, when I realized they couldn’t really hurt me, I started running through the trees and plants. Then I got lost, not because I didn’t know where I was but it didn’t seem anywhere I went was the way I wanted to go. So then I used some of my walls to climb upward, rode an ice spear into t...
2025-01-02 14:00:05 +0000 UTC
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“How long should I expect you to be gone?”
Max could see the relief but also the tension in Everett’s face. He looked to have aged a year in the months he had been kidnapped, captured or whatever everyone kept calling it.
“I don’t know. There are some other places we need to visit and I might end up causing some trouble as we travel. No, let me rephrase that, I’m going to cause some trouble.”
Tom chuckled as he sat next to their long-lost Faction member.<...
2025-01-01 14:30:02 +0000 UTC
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Lots of you have requested a skill list… so why not give it to you now? Enjoy the long list to read or listen to. If you’re on audio - You can skip this part or you can listen and know exactly what each skill gives.
[ Skill Description - Baking ]
*****
Baking - Common: The user has a basic understanding of cooking breads, cakes, cupcakes and an assortment of other treats focused around the baking class. Use of better ingredients will provide ...
2025-01-01 14:10:01 +0000 UTC
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“What the hell was that, Grace?” Max shouted at her as soon as she neared the boarding house. He leapt up from his chair faster than she thought the man capable of. He turned to his retinue of thugs and started barking orders. “Go spread the word that Grace is back and is okay. And go and fetch Levi—he’s been worried sick.”
Twitch took off, his head ticking even as he ran. One of the men nodded and ran inside, banging the door as he did and bringing a few curses from Max.
2025-01-01 14:00:11 +0000 UTC
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Book 7 is here!
The story so far…
Book 4
The tower is finally open to them and after some assistance from Everett and Tom, the party gets a 5th member. Cordellia brings a bow and a high-pitched voice, adding damage and some laughs. Obviously there is that hard problem of how much Max can reveal but thankfully Tanila can flaunt that magical power of being a princess and shut down a lot of the questions.
Max and the gang now finds that...
2025-01-01 14:00:09 +0000 UTC
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The Sergeant’s eyebrows rose as confusion dawned on his face. “What do you mean another murder?” Miles glanced at the other guards, and they all shook their heads. None of them clearly had any idea what Grace was talking about. “Explain,” he finally said, “Where is this other murder?”
Grace nodded, playing her part as a frightened young girl. “I’ll lead you there… but it’s in the opposite direction, about a fifteen-minute walk from here.”
His fingers began ...
2024-12-31 14:00:09 +0000 UTC
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Hey all!
We're just a few days from 2025 (and the release of book 7 UL1) and I wanted to give you a little update on things taking place and how 2025 looks.
Life in General
I'll start off here first.
This week and next week my mother officially comes to live with us. I've gotten most of the repairs needed to get her room at our house done (last of them should be finished on Wednesday this week). It's been a long thing in the making but I'm glad ...
2024-12-30 20:14:33 +0000 UTC
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The well in the center of Lowtown was a designated safe place. Everyone used it free from fear. Once, long before Grace had come to the city, it supposedly had been fought over by many of the rival gangs. The number of people who died to hold the rights to the well had been so high that all of the leaders finally agreed that no one would own it.
It would be shared, and no fighting was allowed anywhere near the courtyard where it was located. Those who broke that rule served as a vicious...
2024-12-30 19:19:04 +0000 UTC
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Her mind itched as she strolled through the city streets. It was a strange sensation. Grace honestly felt liberated—and yet by the time she’d finally broken free from her restraints, she’d already shackled herself to a new master.
But one who will give me more freedom than I could ever achieve on my own. I’ll be a god, with a master of one… as long as Azaroth keeps his word.
Now that she’d accepted her role as an agent of the Sovereign of the Endless Abyss, sh...
2024-12-30 04:02:27 +0000 UTC
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Lily sat beside her, quiet and not moving, but she was like a coiled spring, ready to unleash in a split second.
Grace found comfort in the dagger clutched in her fist. Her heartbeat thrummed through the grip as sand dried her mouth. Despite killing last night in the heat of the moment, there was something different about this time.
Maybe it was because she knew she could get away from the lowlifes. No matter how skilled they were, few could move like she did—and that was before...
2024-12-30 04:02:05 +0000 UTC
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Most mornings left Grace stiff and sore from working the night previously, but as she slowly rubbed the sleep from her eyes, she realized she felt fine. More than that, her body was alight with electricity like she’d managed to capture a fragment of a storm and store it within her chest.
She grinned, finally waking up with the belief that perhaps her and Levi could actually escape the hand Fate so cruelly dealt them. It was a damned good feeling, and Grace wanted to bask in the moment...
2024-12-30 04:01:46 +0000 UTC
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Twenty minutes later, after stopping by her nearest stash house to store a good portion of her loot, wipe herself down and change clothes, Grace found herself deep in Lowtown close to the place her and her brother were staying for the time being.
It was a two-story old wooden boarding house that had changed hands a dozen times in half as many years according to rumor, but the man who owned it now, Max, was a decent enough sort. It wasn’t much to look at from the outside, but it was st...
2024-12-30 04:01:23 +0000 UTC
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Before Grace even finished speaking, Azaroth moved like lightning, snatching her wrist and turning her hand over. With her palm facing upward, he reached out and sliced open her flesh with a single swipe of his fingernail.
Pain flooded through her as the cut burned and tendrils of necrosis began eating away at her flesh. Half a breath later and Azaroth placed the obsidian gemstone into the wound and
Something inside her shattered.
A force of some kind rushed through h...
2024-12-30 04:00:59 +0000 UTC
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“Finish it!” Fowl shouted as the last scorpion tried to jab him again with its tail, instead striking the shield and taking damage from it.
“I’m coming!” Dexic shouted as she yanked her sword from the scorpion she had just slain.
Max wasn’t sure what he wanted to do for the longest time as he covered the hundred yards to where his friends were battling the last scorpion.
He knew Tanila was low on mana, her spells getting smaller with each one she sent.
So h...
2024-12-25 14:00:01 +0000 UTC
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Less than 20 mins till the end of book 6!
Hopefully you all have a great Christmas!
2024-12-25 13:42:16 +0000 UTC
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Max reread the descriptions for the two skills he had acquired from Ezreal.
[ Skill Description - System Travel - Planetary ]
*****
System Travel - Planetary - Common: The user is able to travel between planets they have visited once a month. Travel is instantaneous. Anyone or anything they are touching may be transported with them, provided they have the strength to carry the object. In order to add other locations to travel to, the user must find another means of arriving ...
2024-12-24 14:00:17 +0000 UTC
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I'd be remiss to not mention this to those of you who enjoy the audio!
Did I mention yet that Johnathan is going to do all 9 books!? Super excited!
2024-12-24 13:51:47 +0000 UTC
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You all will get a rare glimpse into what most people want that’s one of the perks of being a patron
The truth is the power difference between Max and Ezreal at the start is obvious. I wont give specifics as I have a spreadsheet that tracks everything but Ezreals power lies in a few different areas (specificially his domain area and certain skills.
For those not wanting that spoler, look away.
Compared to Igarra - Ezreal is we...
2024-12-23 16:44:35 +0000 UTC
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Breathe!
Max retched as he felt the blood he had ingested burn his lungs.
[ Regeneration ]
A few seconds passed, and the pain and scarring healed as Max blinked, wiping the blood from his eyes and turned to see the corpse next to him.
Gone was the pain. No longer did the aches and sorrows of what had hurt him exist.
Even the lack of noise from the spectators seemed eerily silent as Max stood.
[ Bonus Stats Consumed ]
[ 17,432 Hit Poin...
2024-12-23 14:00:01 +0000 UTC
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Ok!
Here is the Christmas moment!
I'll ship this to anyone I can around the world. If for some reason UPS doesn't deliver to you, I'll send you money via paypal.
Entry is easy - Just comment below! Google picks the winner on Christmas Day!
Good luck!
2024-12-21 17:39:36 +0000 UTC
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So... I guess this means you all know what's coming... Starting Jan 1st book 7 will start up!
((Sorry again about the cliff for today's chapter... man I forgot how strong that one was))
We'll do a bunch of chapters stacking up on top of each other in in March!
Just wanted to let you all know and say thanks again!
2024-12-20 18:45:16 +0000 UTC
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Heat and pain beyond anything Max had ever felt so far washed over him. The very hair on his head was vaporized the moment her breath found him, and Max hung there in the air as Igarra beat her wings, billowing out molten fire upon him for what seemed like an eternity.
Every ounce of his body was burned away, the very flesh that had withstood so much gone in a moment.
Only his armor and jewelry managed to survive the heat and flames, as the robe he wore had been burnt up not long ...
2024-12-20 14:00:32 +0000 UTC
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It was smart sending that rabbit away. Do you believe he will truly be safe?
Max nodded, his foot tapping as Jazzjak’s did all the time as he sat on the stone bench in the room that helped decrease his skill cooldowns.
If we don’t win, no one will be safe.
This battle will be the hardest one we have ever faced before. Know that if it takes every ounce of energy I have saved to keep us alive, I will use it.
He could feel th...
2024-12-19 14:00:02 +0000 UTC
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“AHHHHH… oh, shite!”
Max couldn’t help but chuckle as he popped out the other side of the wall, finding himself in a room that was larger and adorned with more things than Max had ever imagined.
Slowing down his steps, he set the elf down and tried to take it all in.
“Don’t move, touch nothing. In fact, sit right there on that stone, or so help me, I will break both your legs right now.”
It took less than one point five seconds for Quilazmore to sit.
<...
2024-12-18 14:00:01 +0000 UTC
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Glad you all are enjoying book 6!
Seriously!
Your comments are really keeping me super charged!
Book 7 currently sits at 165k words, easily 40k words longer than usual. Got some edits and changes to make before I upload for starting on Jan 1st, 2025!
Thanks again to all of you for supporting me!
2024-12-17 21:40:21 +0000 UTC
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So much flesh was bare, the scales removed with a precision that made Max wonder what all his skill could truly do.
He savored the bite of food in his mouth, a breakfast cooked in the Faction house, still okay, having been preserved in the dimensional storage.
Now there were enough dragon scales to outfit an army. Every tooth was in storage, as were the claws and some organs as well.
You didn’t leave much, did you?
Would you have considered leaving a...
2024-12-17 14:00:03 +0000 UTC
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“Impossible… for one of your kind to be so strong, and yet I do not feel like you are boasting or lying. Yet here you are, uninjured and standing before me, and I can see that you are confident by the stance you have taken.”
“I felt no need to lie to you, Kuneoss. Now tell me, must we fight? I would prefer to not kill you.”
Thrumming echoed again as the dragon stood up on all fours and began to stretch.
“Max Hoste… you are a funny one. Again I sense you believe...
2024-12-16 14:00:02 +0000 UTC
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Hey all!
Just wanted to let you all know I'm going to be 'out of office' but not really during the next 5 days. I'll be on a trip and goal is 5+ hours a day of writing (no kids under 18). Looking forward to waking up, grabbing some breakfast, chatting a little with my 2 oldest and then sitting down and pounding on my laptop keyboard (ok maybe not pounding)
Regardless - I'll be able to access the web a little bit, but I'm not sure how 'great' it will be.
Sup...
2024-12-14 04:36:47 +0000 UTC
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