To her surprise—though she really shouldn't have been surprised, at this point—Derivan was right. There was a lot to learn from the festival. It was called the Festival of Stolen Light, apparently, and had something to do with a divine war that resulted in light being spread all across the land. The dances and forms they had to perform to get through the exit were specific physical forms that were somehow capable of manipulating divine threads. Of casting divine spells, even with...
2024-04-08 15:40:13 +0000 UTC
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There's no one at the rendezvous point when I go to check on it, which means I'm either going to have to wait or check in on the rebels myself. I choose the second option, because there's a risk their efforts will be for nothing if they aren't able to get whatever information they find to me before the loop ends.
Bimar's up first. She's apparently visiting a hidden underground lab somewhere near the outskirts of Isthanok. It's the most secure and dangerous location on the list, and alth...
2024-04-08 15:20:15 +0000 UTC
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Vex still couldn't access his system, and it was starting to frustrate him.
The system had been the cause of a lot of problems. He'd never really liked it because of that. Half of Elyra's problems existed because of the system, and though one could argue that it was more the fault of the people who used the system, well... it didn't change the fact that the system itself did very little to discourage the problems it caused.
He didn't really blame Sev for it. It w...
2024-04-06 15:56:35 +0000 UTC
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Author's Note: Having a bit of trouble with 50, but have 49 in the meantime! (I deleted and am rewriting chapter 50)
--
The imbuement process takes exactly five minutes, and so much happens in those five minutes that it's almost impossible for me to absorb it all. There's a couple of things I pick up on almost immediately, though. The first is that the Interface's process of imbuement is far different from anything I've seen so far—there's no working with
2024-04-05 17:06:17 +0000 UTC
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It had been a long time since Sev was last alone in a dungeon.
Properly alone, anyway. He'd been separated from his party before, but even then, they were always nearby. Now Derivan, Vex, and Misa were all basically on the other side of the continent—and while it wasn't impossible for Misa to get back into the dungeon, it was... inadvisable, at best. Sev wasn't planning to help her get back via her block-teleportation even if she wanted to; the first teleport had put enough strain on ...
2024-04-05 14:35:48 +0000 UTC
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Author's Note: All references to the third Prime KIngdom have been changed to Enkiros to match what it was called in Book 3. I forgot I already named it. >_>
--
"Ow," Vex said dully.
Everything hurt. He wasn't really sure why everything hurt, but he did know that everything hurt, and he knew that it hurt in a way that was wrong. Like deeply, badly wrong. In a "he probably needed immediate medical attention" sort of way, not that there was anyo...
2024-04-05 14:34:15 +0000 UTC
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Vex was dimly aware that something hurt.
But it was a dim awareness. There was a point where the pain had become excruciating, and then something had snapped—which was a relief, really. He wasn't sure he would have been able to tolerate the pain for much longer, and he'd grown up on pain. This was excruciating on a level he'd never had to define and that he hoped he'd never have to define again.
Whatever it was that had snapped, the pain felt lesser after that. Or maybe...
2024-03-31 14:50:15 +0000 UTC
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Author's Note: Do you guys want the book as a completed PDF/epub instead of me individually uploading every chapter? Or should I do both (pin a post with the completed book and keep uploading individual chapters)?
--
[What do you mean, you can't reach Anderstahl?] Misa asked, worried. The system still wasn't operating perfectly—it took more time than she would've liked for each message to go through, and even longer for the mess...
2024-03-30 14:47:56 +0000 UTC
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"Shit!" Misa leapt out of the way, dragging Sev with her; she didn't want to risk another block. Not with their system skills apparently being on the fritz. The Soulblossom didn't move that fast, at least—that was the one advantage they had over the monster that was over two thousand levels currently trying to eat them.
At least, she was pretty sure that was what it was trying to do. It was a little hard to tell with most of her focus dedicated to staying alive. Sev'...
2024-03-29 15:19:09 +0000 UTC
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"You basically did the thing you keep telling me not to do!" Sev complained. Misa groaned, already annoyed by Sev's nagging—mostly because he was right, dammit, and she knew that. She knew that, but she hadn't been able to stop herself, and even now she wasn't sure that she would have.
"I didn't know what it was," she tried to explain. "It just hurt a bit! That could mean anything! Things hurt while we're adventuring all the time!"
"But you're dual classing with a class...
2024-03-29 15:18:21 +0000 UTC
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Author's Note: That pause lasted a little longer than I expected--I'm sorry about that. Turns out writing 80,000 words in a couple weeks is kind of hard. But we're back now! This chapter is a bit of a warmup; I need to get used to writing DRR again, and then we'll ramp up with releases. Also finalizing edits on Book 1 which should help me frame myself for more DRR.
Thank you all for your patience!
--
"Uh... Ethan?"
Ahkelios is talking to me, I think. I...
2024-03-29 15:15:36 +0000 UTC
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The first step to their plan was finding the errant soulbloom in question. Despite Tinsel's words, it didn't seem eager to erupt out of the ground and attack them—in fact, if Misa hadn't known any better, she would've guessed it was avoiding them. The soulbloom flowers in the field shifted around from time to time, some of them moving away from the pair, others moving toward them.
They'd left Tinsel back in Soulbloom Station. There wasn't really a need for it to come with the...
2024-03-20 01:35:15 +0000 UTC
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"...You're going to have to explain that one," Misa said. She took a seat on one of the nearby benches—because why not, really—and was only slightly surprised when one of the tiles beneath her feet suddenly lurched to life and launched itself at her.
She didn't even bother fighting this one. It was a level 10 Floor Tile. It could chew on her arm for hours and not scratch her health enough to take it below her default health regeneration. She just stared at it for a moment, then back...
2024-03-20 01:34:23 +0000 UTC
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Vex stood at the precipice of the Void. His eyes glowed with mana. His connection with his Grand Anchor was as strong as it could possibly be, and though there was a small piece of himself that still felt a little strained, he wasn't sure they had time to let him try to recover. Hopefully, what he had would be enough to bring back Ukaros.
"Vex," Derivan said. "You are sure you are ready?"
Trust Derivan to always see through him. Vex chuckled, smiling, and gestured for the armor to...
2024-03-20 01:32:56 +0000 UTC
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There was a red dragon standing in front of the three of them. It looked about as confused as Novice did, though both Derivan and Vex didn't seem particularly surprised.
"Uh," the dragon said. He was surprisingly soft-spoken. Vex had expected a powerful voice that echoed through the field; instead, the words came out quiet and almost-timid, and at a normal speaking volume that he would have expected to hear from a lizardkin his own size rather than a dragon several times larger than him...
2024-03-20 01:27:11 +0000 UTC
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"That was a little depressing." Vex stared at the cover of the now-closed book. It had been a remarkably short read, considering the size of it. The rest of the pages were blank, though Vex flipped through them all in the faint hope that one of them would contain... something, Some hint at who had once owned this book—any insight into who this person might have been.
But there was nothing. They hadn't ever thought to identify themselves, or if they had, then perhaps that information h...
2024-03-20 01:25:21 +0000 UTC
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An hour later found them with a small pile of books about semerits. If there was anything Helg was good at, it was organization—all the books about semerits were sorted together, and it hadn't actually taken a lot of time for them to find the section and then drag every last one of those books over to their shared table.
The 'small pile' probably had over a hundred books in it. It was only small relative to the size of the library.
"A lot of these books are just fiction," Vex sa...
2024-03-18 16:40:31 +0000 UTC
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The meal they had was fantastic. Sev regretted that he hadn't called for Derivan and Vex to join them — this would have been an incredible dungeon delve for the four of them to go on together. His memories of the dungeon were returning, and while it wasn't devoid of its dangers, the Anderstahl Prime Dungeon was a monument to flexibility and adaptation. Every run was different.
"Are our systems still not working?" Sev asked, glancing at Misa. She frowned a little, prodding at ...
2024-03-18 16:39:34 +0000 UTC
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"Okay, okay," Sev said. "Knowing that it's a train doesn't actually help us. Does it?"
"You still haven't even explained what a train is," Misa said dryly. She'd stopped with the pushups and gone back to leaning against the wall and tapping the head of her mace against her palm impatiently.
"It's like... a bunch of wagons linked up and guided on rails," Sev explained vaguely. "Powered by a mana engine of some kind, usually. There's one in Anderstahl, actually. We can go see it lat...
2024-03-18 16:38:42 +0000 UTC
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The revelation that they were most likely in a region of Anderstahl that the Prime Anchor had unwittingly designated part of a dungeon made Sev tense up immediately. Not because he expected to be attacked, although that was part of it — the dangers in any given dungeon were typically unpredictable, and assuming you were safe in any part of a dungeon was folly.
But it wasn't that danger that made the hair on the back of Sev's neck stand. It was the sudden clarity with which he...
2024-03-18 16:37:45 +0000 UTC
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A few things were immediately clear to Sev.
One was that Solar and the new phoenix had something of a bond. The bird had certainly imprinted on him when he'd picked it up — it had been comfortable enough to fall asleep in his arms, and that meant something — but there was something more in what it shared with Solar. It chirped at him, then hopped from Sev's hand into Solar's.
"I am not sure I would call a phoenix a pet," Solar said, gently stroking a finger down the back of th...
2024-03-12 15:44:09 +0000 UTC
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Phoenixes were divine creatures.
Sev supposed he should have seen that coming. It wasn't something he'd thought about—there was the passing knowledge in his mind that there were species out there that belonged to the divine planes, yet were not gods themselves. Angels were one such example. Dragons were another, though he hadn't sensed those threads of divinity around Vex when he'd transformed in the fight against Irvis. Something unique about his style of transformation, maybe.
2024-03-12 15:43:15 +0000 UTC
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[Misa, I need you to come meet up with me,] Sev sent. Being connected to her reality anchor was convenient — unlike most others, his system didn't suffer from the same strange glitches and stutters that plagued most others he knew. [Are you done with Fendal? I'm not sure what progress looks like on that front.]
[Uh, yeah, more or less done, actually,] Misa replied. She seemed surprise...
2024-03-12 15:41:19 +0000 UTC
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A few hours later found Sev sitting in the midst of a pile of old books and papers, slowly poring through them. Not for the first time, he wished he had Vex with him — the lizardkin would be done with all these in an instant. He'd reached out through the system already, but apparently there was something going on in Teque that Vex and Derivan had to handle, first; for now, he was on his own.
There was something about flipping through these old papers that made him... ache. The familia...
2024-03-12 15:40:24 +0000 UTC
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"You've just been living two lives this whole time?" Misa asked, half impressed and half in disbelief. Her mother snickered at her expression.
"Is it that hard to believe?" Charise smirked a little. "It's not that hard."
"You're controlling two bodies!"
"Misa. You have a skill that allows you to split into an almost arbitrary number of copies of yourself and you control them simultaneously in combat."
"I don't control them," Misa grumbled. "They're all me. We ...
2024-03-12 15:39:33 +0000 UTC
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In lieu of a chapter update this week, take a look at some cover art for DRR I commissioned! Same artist that I've posted fanart from before, cosmiccroissant on Twitter. Beautiful work, as usual.
2024-03-11 16:51:53 +0000 UTC
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Hey folks! I missed last week's update--I'm sorry about that. I had quite possibly one of the worst-timed "getting sick" events ever, in that it coincided directly with the launch of the second book of Edge Cases and also with an upcoming manuscript submission deadline. Long story short, I have to finish the entirety of Book 4 and submit it to Podium by March 22.
I am, currently, almost a third of the way into Book 4. I haven't been able to work on writing DRR because of this d...
2024-03-11 16:48:03 +0000 UTC
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I stare at the shop window for a moment, then look past it at the Ringmaster. "Should I be worried about the stone's aspect being listed as hunger?" I ask.
It's mostly a rhetorical question. Of course I should be worried. Even Thys looks skeptical.
The Ringmaster, to his credit, gives it a moment of thought before answering the question. "Hunger is not an easy aspect to work with," he says, his tone low and solemn. "But it should not pose a problem for a Trialgoer such as...
2024-02-26 17:29:40 +0000 UTC
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None of them realize I can see them. I let out a breath when I realize this, relief trickling through my system; as lifelike as these Firmament mimics are, I don't think they're actually alive. I'm not even sure this is a trap anymore. Not an intentional one, at least. There is danger here, but the silhouettes aren't moving with intent — they're just drifting toward the closest source of Firmament.
It's the reason they went for Ahkelios first. The mantis bats at one of them a...
2024-02-26 17:29:02 +0000 UTC
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The main problem I'm running into right now is that I don't have any quality imbuement stones. Or really any imbuement stones. Thys and Thaht have a stash somewhere, as they've said, but neither of them can remember where they're kept and all the rest of their siblings are out... somewhere. Thys is clambering around in the basement, trying to find them. The stones, I mean. Not his siblings.
I'm starting to wonder if I need to pull off some kind of heist and steal whatever stash...
2024-02-26 17:27:54 +0000 UTC
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