Hi everyone! First, thanks for choosing to support me. It means a lot.
The important news is that I have paused billing for one month (until March 9th). You will not be charged again until after that date. I will not re-open billing any time before then.
Additionally, updates will not be as regular. HOWEVER, I will still be updating — this is not a hiatus. You will remain 5 chapters ahead of Royal Road, and new members will not be able to sign up.
The ...
2024-02-09 23:39:39 +0000 UTC
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Zoe found herself atop a crumbling cliffside tower. Far below, black waves raged against the rocky cliffs, splashing up and raining back down as they failed to overtake the earth even despite their unfathomable power.
The moon and stars shone down from above. Leaning over the crumbling parapets of the ruined stones, Zoe looked down, and then up. The endless black void of the heavens was reflected back in the inky depths of the waters below. It was a beautiful scene. The stars were brigh...
2024-02-09 01:21:38 +0000 UTC
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It was a library.
Zoe found herself in what appeared to be the central reading lounge of a vast hub of towering shelves radiating out in every direction. Looking up, she found that she couldn’t even see the top — the shelves just stretched out forever into darkness.
The same was true when she looked horizontally instead of vertically. Looking down one of the corridors, Zoe couldn’t see an end to it.
The only light came from warmly glowing reading lamps with green glass...
2024-02-08 01:18:01 +0000 UTC
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The sky and the trees and the blade looming over her disappeared as soon as Zoe mentally screamed yes. She was now sitting upright, her hands — claws — folded neatly on the table in front of her.
It took Zoe a moment to realize where she was.
It was just a cafe that she had gone to every now and then for the past year and a half. She didn’t go as often as she would have liked, because it was ridiculously overpriced, even by the absurd standards of San Francisco. Hon...
2024-02-07 01:19:01 +0000 UTC
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Bolts of annihilation pelted Zoe from all directions as she closed in. It was happening far faster than it was before — in fact, multiple bolts were now striking her from completely different directions at almost the same time. It didn’t make sense. Where were they now coming from? Why the sudden increase?
But Zoe couldn’t focus on that right now. Even despite the rapidly accumulating damage from the bolts chipping away at her scales, the aura master was the far deadlier opponent....
2024-02-06 01:18:01 +0000 UTC
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The corruption in the man’s body wasn’t just connected to Zoe at a sensory level. She could tell instinctively that mana could flow through the link — it was like an ethereal tether not entirely dissimilar to the channels within her own spirit. Granted, it wasn’t quite the same either, but it was definitely related.
The firs thing that came to mind for Zoe to try was to push additional mana through the link. So she did exactly that. It took a modest amount of force — it felt k...
2024-02-03 01:18:01 +0000 UTC
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Zoe staggered back. She was about to fall, and she let herself.
As she reeled backwards off the cliff, she tried to catch sight of her attackers. All she managed to see was a few shapes moving towards her before she was tumbling backwards in the air.
Zoe let herself fall because she figured that being under the overhang would give her at least a little bit of protection and at least a little bit of time to figure out what was going on. It was also a split second decision, so she d...
2024-02-02 01:18:01 +0000 UTC
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It took Zoe about an hour to find the wreck. During that time, she had done her best to avoid any and all of the many monsters in her way.
Not because she thought any of them looked particularly dangerous — no, she just didn’t want them to slow her down. None of them seemed worth it.
Of course, she did have to kill a few. There were some more packs of sloths, thought she managed to avoid those easily enough. There were the large, colorful birds that had swooped down upon her f...
2024-02-01 01:18:00 +0000 UTC
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Zoe whacked the falling sloth in the chest.
While she had grown much faster since her death on Earth, her reaction speed still wasn’t anything special. Fortunately, gravity was rather slow at such a short height, and unlike Andric, the monster couldn’t exactly dodge.
The {Corrupted Strike} she had prepared exceeded her expectations. The sloth flew backwards with a spray of blood and gore, landing limply half a dozen meters away. It was probably dead befor...
2024-01-31 01:18:00 +0000 UTC
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Zoe tried her best to guide her fall so that she would land in some nice, soft and comfy leafy foliage. Unfortunately, gliding through freefall turned out to actually be pretty difficult — especially when you were trying to hold on to a flailing hostage.
It only lasted several seconds. Zoe’s hopes rose as she saw that they were headed right for a particularly dense treetop, and then she and her hostage were both skewered through the abdomen by a branch.
The initial impact took...
2024-01-30 01:18:01 +0000 UTC
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The guy came down the hallway in a totally unhurried and unbothered manner. He did pause for a moment at the door to the storage room, and Zoe thought that he might be suspicious of something. But then he shrugged and carried on, until he stopped right below her.
He wore the same simple beige uniform as all of the others. He seemed to be psyching himself up for something — perhaps he had to tell the two pilots something but was nervous about it.
Well if that were the case, Zoe w...
2024-01-27 01:18:01 +0000 UTC
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Zoe really wanted to rip the door clean off its hinges and slowly stomp into the hallway like a very small godzilla. Unfortunately, she had to restrain herself. After all, while she suspected that killing everyone would be easy, there was no reason to take chances by assuming so.
With the possibility of some kind of strong resistance in mind, Zoe stepped forward as stealthily as she could and reached for the knob. As her claws closed around it, she realized there was a slight p...
2024-01-26 01:18:01 +0000 UTC
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When Zoe woke up, she realized that she was still impaled by a harpoon and dangling from a cable, but she was no longer in the so-called “scorched wastes.” Instead of dusty, dried up ground, a mass of lush and vibrant greenery blurred beneath her. It was a bit hard to keep her eyes focused on it with how low and fast they were moving, but if she looked farther off into the distance she could make out the terrain more clearly.
It looked like a jungle canopy. She couldn’t see down t...
2024-01-25 01:18:01 +0000 UTC
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{Spirit Enhancement has gained multiple levels! Spirit Enhancement is now level 8.}
{Mana Manipulation has gained multiple levels! Mana Manipulation is now level 17.}
{Manasight has gained multiple levels! Manasight is now level 6.}
{Spirit Resistance has gained multiple levels! Spirit Resistance is now level 20.}
{Spirit Resistance has reached Tier 1. New ability options are available.}
2024-01-24 20:18:03 +0000 UTC
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It turned out that Lily and her two pirate companions were probably going to find out a bit more of what had become of Zoe regardless of whether they wanted to. A full battle was raging just outside the exit of the caverns. It seemed to have started on the ledge above the pit and worked its way backwards down the rocky slope.
As the healer shuddered and Lily prepared herself to fight again, she realized that there was strangely no sign of Zoe. Instead of being a one-versus-everyone-else...
2024-01-24 01:18:01 +0000 UTC
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Slapping the healer out of her face, Lily sat up with a hiss and started fighting her way towards the door.
“Stop it stop it — ow!” The woman cried out as Lily forced her to the side. “You sit your ass back down right now!”
“Or what?” Lily grumbled as she fended the deranged woman off while she fumbled with the door. “You’ll heal me to death?”
“I would if I could,” the healer retorted as she finally gave up restraining the mage. “But no, if you don...
2024-01-23 01:29:55 +0000 UTC
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Hi everyone! Thanks so much for joining!
I wanted to ask a question about what kind of update schedule you folks would prefer. The first option is to get advanced chapters on a regular schedule. This requires me to maintain additional backlog, but you should usually get a chapter 5 days a week at exactly the same time of day. If I expand the amount of advanced chapters, it will take the form of a chapter dump followed by continued regular updates.
The other option is for me to pos...
2024-01-20 21:48:09 +0000 UTC
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Zora stared down into the sand pit with mild disinterest. She didn’t expect anything even remotely entertaining to happen — you could say that she had been rather bored for the past twenty four hours. Everyone else seemed to love the fights, but she just didn’t get it. Genuinely interesting things seldom occurred in these trials.
Of course, she was expected to be there like everyone else. While Zora was confident that Captain Hart wouldn’t give a shit if she stayed behind, she k...
2024-01-20 01:18:01 +0000 UTC
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Zoe dashed into a backwards roll at just the right point in her spiraling trajectory to flip back onto her feet. As soon as she landed, she activated {Heal Wound} on her fractured chest.
{Kinetic Dash has leveled up! Kinetic Dash is now level 6.}
As her broken ribs began to rapidly mend themselves back together, Zoe took in her new opponent. He was still in the process of rising up from the ground — giving her both the time to heal and to assess her new circumst...
2024-01-19 01:18:01 +0000 UTC
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The iron gate opened again, and a bald, brawny man dressed in what looked like a kilt and a simple tunic stepped out. He was bald and square jawed, and he looked both mean and confident. Both his tunic and kilt were black.
He also wielded a long spear — which was black as well. He definitely has a theme, Zoe thought. In any case, he looked pretty strong, so Zoe analyzed him.
{Earth Shaker - 55}
Wasn’t that the same path that the asshole back...
2024-01-18 00:47:27 +0000 UTC
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Lily quickly formed a barrier of ice around herself. A low, crystalline wall of frozen spikes encircled her completely, facing outwards to prevent any easy advance over the ground. Along with this fully connected ring, numerous small shards orbited around her in the air, presenting a serious hazard to any airborne attacks.
The lionesses had initially seemed intent on charging her, but as soon as she conjured the ice they had become more cautious. Reluctant to advance, they circled her o...
2024-01-18 00:46:36 +0000 UTC
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Reacting to the captain’s words, Andric caught sight of the corrupted lioness and dodged just in time to avoid it as it pounced onto his prior location. Instead of prowling like before, the monstrosity immediately charged him with reckless abandon.
Furless, skinless black muscles visibly squirmed as it charged. Andric threw a knife, but while he struck it face first, the monster didn’t even react at all. Even as sizzling black blood dripped to the sand below, the former lioness char...
2024-01-18 00:45:32 +0000 UTC
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The location of their trial turned out to be outside of the camp entirely. A whole entourage of pirates led them alongside the bottom of the canyon. Traveling upstream, they walked for several minutes, until the only part of the camp that was still visible was the airship docked overhead.
There wasn’t much change in scenery — just the same orange rocks and sand and dead-looking plants. Finally, they reached a narrow, jagged ravine that shot off perpendicularly to the rest of the can...
2024-01-18 00:44:33 +0000 UTC
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Zoe didn’t have time to process what Andric meant as he was already dashing towards her, dual blades aimed at her throat.
Readying her spear, Zoe stood her ground. She didn’t have any time to form truly coherent thoughts, but her amounted to the idea that he couldn’t just impale himself on her weapon. She hoped.
It turned out she was right, as the assassin was forced to take a running leap and vault over her. She tried to thrust her spear upwards, but she was too sl...
2024-01-17 21:49:31 +0000 UTC
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“Are you just going to stand there or what?”
Instead of responding to Andric verbally, Zoe thumped the butt of her spear into the sand several times. Lifting it back up, she gripped it with one hand this time and began to inch closer. Instead of stepping back, Andric began to circle to the side. Zoe circled as well. She briefly considered trying to go the other way and cut him off, but that would position her dominant, spear-carrying hand on the wrong side.
As they circled, Zo...
2024-01-17 21:46:13 +0000 UTC
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