Prologue: Dreamtouched (book 1) - Prologue
Chapter 1: Dreamtouched (book 1) - Chapter 1
Chapter 2: Dreamtouched (book 1) - Chapter 2
Chapter 3: 2023-09-27 03:06:06 +0000 UTC View Post
Today I realised that I’m pushing myself too hard, and if I don’t change something I’m going to break.
I wrote today’s chapter for Accidental Champion and don’t feel like it’s up to the quality I want—and the quality that you guys deserve.
I’m currently writing two books at once, Surgecaller 9 and Accidental Champion 2, both with hard deadlines that seem immovable. I have no backlog chapters for Accidental Champion left, which means every chapter is done the night ...
2023-09-11 13:08:40 +0000 UTC View Post(Updated Author Note: I changed a few things at the very end of this chapter, following "And then… then there was Earth." Nothing major, just a few details about invasion restrictions back on Earth. Oh, and I'll be posting a new chapter today!)
(Author Note: There were a few errors in the stats in this chapter, but they've all been fixed now. I had a glitch in my spreadsheet in one of the formulas. Sorry about that!)
On the first day, the sun sh...
2023-09-08 19:01:00 +0000 UTC View PostXavier found he couldn’t resist watching the castle’s exodus.
He’d destroyed the fifth wave in almost an instant, dismissing the notification that came up saying he’d cleared the floor, eager to about Celestial Energy. But the queen had to see to their people through the portal, and he wasn’t selfish enough to keep the adviser from that.
Queen Alastea stood by the portal. They were in a large throne room—the largest hall within the castle. Kiralla was flanked by her Qu...
2023-09-07 19:01:00 +0000 UTC View PostXavier sat, cross-legged on the cold stone floor of the battlements. He could have applied the 20 free stat points the second he’d levelled up, but he wanted to be able to focus on the shift he felt.
With a smile, Xavier placed all the points into his Spirit attribute.
Spirit increased from 493 → 518!
Something shifted within his mind. No, within his very soul. An awareness came over him that was like nothing he had ever felt before. The auras o...
2023-09-06 19:01:00 +0000 UTC View Post(Author note: I posted this on the wrong tier this morning. Thanks everyone for letting me know! Posting time is 5am for me, so I only just got to my desk and realised.)
Xavier looked between Queen Alastea and Adviser Karlon. They spoke politely to each other, but there was an undercurrent to their words. If anything, it looked more like they were bickering with one another. Not like an old married couple—no, definitely not. But it was clear that this man had once be...
Xavier spoke with the queen and her adviser, Karlon, right up until the war drums began to beat once more, the thrum of their consistent thuds announcing the imminence of the next wave.
Has it really been an hour already?
He pushed himself off the cold stone, standing from where he’d been sitting on the parapet. Xavier informed the queen to once more order her soldiers not to interfere with the wave. This time, the woman did not argue. She simply lowered her head in a s...
2023-09-04 19:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostXavier sat on the parapet wall of Queen Alastea’s castle. Behind him, the ranks upon ranks of the Endless Horde waited for the next wave to begin. In front, Queen Alastea and her Adviser, Karlon, stood. He ran a hand through his hair.
These people are real. There were so many things he didn’t understand about that.
“What confuses you?” Karlon asked in the tone of a tutor.
Xavier released a sigh. “I was led to believe that the Tower of Champions had been ar...
2023-09-01 19:00:00 +0000 UTC View PostWhen Xavier stepped inside the tower room his mouth fell open. All he could do was stare around in awe.
The castle’s tower library was like something out of Beauty and the Beast. The room was circular with ceilings three floors high. Bookshelves lined every inch of the walls reaching all the way up to the tower’s ceiling which was topped off with thick glass, letting the sun bath the spines in light. He couldn’t help but imagine what the place would be like when there was a light ...
2023-08-31 19:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostThe army of enemy Denizens and beasts stretched on farther than the eye could see, covering the horizon on every side of Queen Alastea’s castle. A sight that should strike fear into any warrior’s heart. The ranks of the Endless Horde held Denizens of all sort and manner—some that looked no different to those soldiers standing within the castle. Humans, elves, and men who looked like demons—even lizard men were among them.
There were other races, too. Ones that weren’t containe...
2023-08-30 19:00:59 +0000 UTC View Post[Author's Note: I think this is where I'll end the first book. Chapters for the second book will continue as normal tomorrow, however!]
In between the stars at the core of the galaxy, near the supermassive black hole that kept the sector together, the Empress Larona floated in a deep meditation. The vacuum of space had long ago lost its ability to affect her, and there was an appetising silence about the void between the star...
The next three waves on the fifth floor of the Tower of Champions came and went all too fast.
The second wave had been barely more difficult than the first. While the first wave had only contained beasts, the second wave had contained races of humanoid Denizens. Xavier wasn’t surprised to see that the Endless Horde contained even more variety amongst its ranks than that of those within Queen Alastea’s castle.
Xavier stepped out—or rather leapt clean over the moat from atop t...
2023-08-28 19:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostXavier looked around the battlefield with slight surprise. He’d expected the first wave to take much longer than it had. In fact, he’d been trying to make the wave last a little longer so Howard and Justin would have a chance to practise their new spells in combat.
But only a few minutes passed before all the Wolven were dead around Queen Alastea’s castle.
He glanced over at the rank of enemy soldiers and beasts, expecting them to surge forward. They didn’t. They simply st...
2023-08-25 19:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostXavier, standing on the battlements of Queen Alastea’s castle, gazed down at the first wave of enemies charging toward the wall.
There were too many for him to count, but there had to be a few thousand beasts in the wave. None of the ranks of Denizens in the distance had charged forward to fight.
The first wave of beasts were wolf-like creatures the size of horses. They had twin horns jutting out from either side of their head, curving downward. Xavier could imagine how painful ...
2023-08-24 19:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostA wide smile burst onto Xavier’s face as he read the notification explaining what would happen on the fifth floor of the Tower of Champions.
He was in a castle about to be under siege by countless waves of enemies. Perhaps he should have felt some dread after reading the last line of the notification—
The waves are never Ending
—but this seemed like the perfect floor for him.
Though he had identified a few issues. First of those issues was the fa...
2023-08-23 19:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostXavier spoke with the Champions down in the tavern for a full hour before he headed back to the Staging Room. He wasn’t used to having so many people listening to his every word, but he pushed past any nerves he was feeling rather easily. Especially whenever he looked over at Dawkins. The man was no longer nursing his fist—his broken knuckles would have healed quick enough—but he was begrudgingly paying attention to all Xavier said.
When he returned to the Staging Room, he found t...
2023-08-22 19:00:04 +0000 UTC View Post“Watched?” Sam asked, staring intently at Xavier. “Why do you think you’re being watched?”
Xavier lowered his gaze. Looking down at the key he’d just placed on the bar instead of up at the bartender. “At the end of the fourth floor, after I received my titles, I felt—” He paused, bit his lip.
Sam raised a hand. “As much as I want you to continue that sentence, Xavier, I think there’s something you should know.”
Xavier blinked up at the man, waiting fo...
2023-08-21 19:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostXavier stared, expectantly, at the bartender—caretaker, or whatever the hell Sam, AKA Samericalian, actually was—waiting for him to answer all of his questions. Or, at least some of them.
Sam pulled up a stool on the other side of the bar and slid up onto it. He plopped his elbows onto the bar and let out a sigh. “A sector is…” He waved his hand in a circle. “A very, very big area of space. Containing a huge number of interconnected planets.”
“Lik...
2023-08-18 19:01:00 +0000 UTC View PostXavier walked down the spiralling staircase toward the lower floors. He didn’t even pause when he reached the floor that contained his chambers, he simply kept on walking, heading to the ground floor, contemplating what he wished to talk to Sam about.
The last time they had spoken, Xavier had burned through his core. If the man hadn’t been there, there was a good chance that Xavier would have gotten himself killed doing something as foolish as he had.
System-damned fool. 2023-08-17 19:01:00 +0000 UTC View Post
“Divine Beacon?” Xavier’s curiosity was piqued. The names of Howard, Justin, and Xavier’s own class had felt more descriptive than hers did.
His mind worked, wondering about the name. He supposed the divine part could speak of her ability to heal others, where the beacon part could have something to do with summoning.
But she may have gained other powers seemingly unrelated to those two when she’d chosen her rare class.
Siobhan smiled. “Since I...
2023-08-16 19:01:00 +0000 UTC View Post“A new energy source,” Xavier asked, his curiosity more than piqued, excitement swelling in his chest. “What do you mean, a new energy source?”
The big man shrugged, then scratched at his beard. “It looks like it works off my Toughness attribute.” He shook his head. “Which, of course, should be obvious…” He chuckles. “For every point in Toughness I have 100 points in Toughness Energy.”
“Sounds remarkably like Spirit Energy,” Siobhan said in a musing tone....
2023-08-15 19:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostXavier, still holding the Sector Travel Key in his hand—it felt oddly heavy, given its size, and he got the feeling the key wasn’t actually made from brass—looked over at the others.
Howard, Siobhan and Justin had just opened their own loot boxes. Their eyes had that slightly glazed over look a Denizen got when they were staring at their notifications. None of them had a particularly excited look on their face, as though their awards were normal and expected.
“Did you guys...
2023-08-14 19:01:00 +0000 UTC View PostIn the centre of the Greater Universe, upon the largest, most densely populated planet in the Traval sector, stood a tower that reached so high into the sky it was above the clouds.
The tower had a thousand floors. The owner of the tower had it made as an homage to the one where he had first gained his strength, and it has stood since before most of the planets in the universe had even been formed.
A monster of a man, with a neatly cropped grey beard and silver hair that draped do...
2023-08-11 19:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostXavier watched, somewhat impatiently, as Howard was able to solo clutch after clutch on his own. It didn’t take the man too long until he was able to take down an entire clutch fast enough to be ready in time to face down the next.
And so it wasn’t long before the man reached level 10. His spell and skill ranks soared straight up to 10 and beyond as well. Like Justin, he gained another skill while fighting. A skill called Immovable.
The skill increased his defence while his fe...
2023-08-10 19:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostThey re-entered the floor once more, and though Xavier was admittedly getting sick of clearing the same floor over and over, he couldn’t argue with the results.
At least watching what the others could do never failed to be entertaining.
Darkness spread out before them, only Xavier able to see the auras of the thousand beasts that were out there. He stood at the back of the platform, Siobhan to his right, Justin to his left. The teenager was bouncing on the balls of his feet, lik...
2023-08-09 19:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostLiona lunged forward, grasping at nothing as Huon fell back from the ledge he’d been standing upon. Her feet skidded through the snowy ground.
Then he was gone.
For a moment, Liona just watched as Huon sprouted wings and began to fly away, far faster than she could ever manage.
He’s leaving me. He’s leaving and there’s nothing I can do about it.
Liona fought the impulse to follow. She stood atop the highest peak of the Shurin Mountains, right at the ed...
2023-08-09 08:36:59 +0000 UTC View Post
Just letting you all know I've officially started writing chapters for Surgecaller book 9. Chapters will be uploaded sporadically as they're ready.
For those of you new to my work, coming in through Accidental Champion from Royal Road, here's the blurb for book 1, and the amazon link is at the end if you're curious.
(All 8 currently published books are in Kindle Unlimited.)
Huon is weak. A surgecaller who escaped...
2023-08-09 08:31:31 +0000 UTC View PostXavier watched in slight awe at what was the insanity of Justin.
Less than an hour ago, the kid had been terrified of heights. Now, here he was, voluntarily flinging himself off the floating rock’s ledge over and over, straight into that pitch darkness, gaining a single kill each time.
The party got into a rhythm once more. It was far slower going than it had been when it had just been Xavier alone killing the Dark Wyvern clutches, but he was glad to see Justin finally lighting ...
2023-08-08 19:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostXavier smirked as he watched Justin step right back from the ledge, then everyone turned their attention onto Siobhan.
Justin was the first one to speak. “What… what do you mean, fly?” His eyebrows shot straight to the top of his forehead. “I don’t have wings!”
Howard chuckled. “That would be a sight.”
Siobhan, still with that somewhat menacing, wicked look in her eyes, turned her gaze back out to the expanse of darkness. She placed the butt of her s...
2023-08-07 19:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostIn the darkness of the fourth floor, the only thing visible to the naked eye the four of them standing on that floating chunk of rock, with Xavier’s Spiritual Trifecta spell giving off a silver light, and Siobhan’s fireball washing them in flickering orange, Howard and Justin struck Xavier in the back with a constant stream of attacks, slicing through his Shrouded Robes, gouging sharp red lines through his skin that were healed a moment later by Siobhan.
Every few seconds, pure bolt...
2023-08-06 19:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post