<AUTHOR NOTE>
Chapter 2/2 coming today. This is an extra long one.
<AUTHOR NOTE OVER>
Carmen stood over the body of the demon. Blood dripped onto the floor from fists that didn’t even have a single scratch on them. She breathed heavily as she kicked the corpse in frustration at the fucker dying so fast. She knew it wasn’t all fair that she had let out everything on a man she had only met less than an hour ago, but from the lo...
2022-05-08 15:17:22 +0000 UTC View Post<AUTHOR NOTE>
Chapter 1/2 coming today.
<AUTHOR NOTE OVER>
Jake’s attention was firmly on the two newcomers, especially the scrawny-looking man. He was thin, pale, wore glasses, and even in D-grade, he still looked like someone who hadn’t left his basement for half a year. Yet he did have an aura of confidence, and Jake could see why.
[Human – lvl 165]
He was actually higher leveled than Jake hi...
2022-05-08 15:16:58 +0000 UTC View PostJake walked with Carmen towards the large gate with two guards out front. The two guards had clearly already seen them and noticed the black mask on Carmen and Jake wearing his own rather unique mask. Both were identifiers that they were guests of Paradise and likely wealthy individuals, which also meant the guards took a polite demeanor by default.
“Good afternoon, sir and madam. May I know your purpose for visiting the Salvento residence?” one of the guards asked courteously.
<... 2022-05-06 07:09:36 +0000 UTC View PostJake and Carmen sat on the balcony and looked out over the city. Jake saw the mansion in question as Carmen also stared intently. Due to the enchantments placed on the construction, everything was vague, and he could only barely see some people moving within. When he didn’t focus, that is. A bit of squinting, and he saw around the formation and could see the large lawn and even in the windows clear as day.
Peter and Sylphie were still out, with Sylphie being on a super-secret special ...
2022-05-05 07:14:34 +0000 UTC View PostJake had not talked that much with Sultan recently. He knew the merchant was still busy and operating out of Haven while making liberal use of the teleportation network. In fact, he had been a pushing force to integrate more cities into the network and establish more connections with factions like the Holy Church and independent cities.
Miranda had been the one keeping Jake up-to-date on this, but clearly, she had no idea about everything the shady merchant was up to. Jake was already a...
2022-05-04 07:16:59 +0000 UTC View PostAh, gambling.
Who doesn’t love gambling? Well, okay, many people don’t like gambling due to the innate predatory nature of the practice and its proneness to exploiting and preying on those with addictive personalities. So, in fairness, gambling was actually more an epidemic that ruined lives and split up families. But, there was one crucial aspect required to make gambling a negative experience: losing.
Gambling was designed to always favor the house. There were ways to cheat ...
2022-05-03 07:13:58 +0000 UTC View Post”It looks pretty normal,” Jake said as he looked down at the city known as Paradise. ”Very well-defended too.”
”The question is if those walls and barriers are to keep monsters out or the people in,” Peter said with a frown.
”Perhaps a bit of both,” Carmen added.
They were all currently standing on top of a cliff, looking at the city below. It was defended by many natural barriers and had tall cliffs on nearly all sides. Finding it had actually been a bit dif...
2022-05-02 07:06:08 +0000 UTC View Post<AUTHOR NOTE>
Hello there. Just a reminder that I will go on a 2-week break in May from the 9th-23rd. This effectively means a bit more than half the usual chapters for the month, with two full weeks (and 2 days) of regular releases (including the first week of May, starting Monday).
This is mainly a reminder but also a quick update on current happenings. As I am sure many of you recall, I had (and still have) some wrist issues caused by writing a bit too mu...
2022-04-29 07:16:27 +0000 UTC View PostJake and Carmen stood outside of the small brick house. It looked cheaply built, which made sense as this was squarely in the slums of Puddlerock. Apparently, many of those who lived there had been exiled from Saint-something island due to breaking some of their stupid Holy Church rules. Or maybe they just had a bit too much independence to fit in.
“This is the place?” Carmen asked as Jake checked the paper in his hand.
“Definitely looks like it,” he nodded. “How did you...
2022-04-28 07:11:22 +0000 UTC View PostJake woke up the next morning to a bird nipping at his hair. Sylphie clearly hadn’t been able to sleep as long as he had – assuming she had slept at all – and had gotten bored. Shaking his head to get her off by scooping her up as she put on a fake struggle.
“You’re a little bully, aren’t you?” Jake teased with a smile as she looked up at him.
“Ree!” she answered defiantly.
“Excuses,” he chuckled as he let her go. She flew a few rounds around the room a...
2022-04-27 07:10:58 +0000 UTC View PostCarmen knew she had messed up when she accidentally spilled a bit too much to the snake and ended up offending it. She was ready to use the talisman she had prepared to hopefully temporarily distract the snake enough for them to make an escape, but she was relieved when the snake said it would still let them go.
And then Jake decided to piss off the C-grade even more by acting all offended himself. She nearly wanted to smack him over the head and drag him away while apologizing, but a f...
2022-04-26 07:08:52 +0000 UTC View PostJake stared up at the white snake that, in turn, regarded him, waiting for an answer to its question. It had mentioned something about a Forefather, and the hamster wheel in Jake’s mind spun as he put two and two together… the snake had to be talking about the Malefic Viper. It did confuse him a bit, though.
The snake didn’t have any Blessing as far as Jake could tell, and he couldn’t see any connection between the C-grade and the Viper at all. Well, besides them both being high...
2022-04-25 07:13:47 +0000 UTC View PostJake’s attachment to archery didn’t exactly stem from anything logical. Sure, one could argue the fact that his Bloodline gave Perception made it an obvious choice, but Perception was a stat highly beneficial to nearly all classes and professions. Heck, Arnold had said himself that Perception was his highest stat, and he didn’t even use a gun… or any weapon for that matter.
Many types of magic were also based on Perception. Jake could become a melee fighter with a focus on the s...
2022-04-22 06:19:59 +0000 UTC View PostFrogs in all shapes and sizes, birds that ambushed with pecks nearly as fast as Jake’s arrows, and a plethora of other annoying animals hounded Jake, Sylphie, and Carmen as they made their way deeper into the mangrove. The first frogs they encountered were a good indicator of what they would face.
They were all specialized creatures adapted to their unique environment. They all made use of the many ambush possibilities offered by the dense branches and leaves above or the river below....
2022-04-21 02:53:52 +0000 UTC View PostEarth had some damn beautiful vistas after the system arrived. Grand forests with multi-colored trees, endless sprawling plains with groups of deer jumping across them, passing tens of meters with every single leap.
Jake, Sylphie, and Carmen traveled through this land as they kept a good pace. They didn’t get into any fights for the next two days as none of them saw any need to bully far weaker creatures. Even the playful Sylphie had an instinctive repulsion to killing anything below ...
2022-04-20 09:20:22 +0000 UTC View PostWas it a sign of intelligence to willingly kill yourself to try and take down your would-be killers with you? It was undoubtedly a sign of ego and proof the Earth Elemental Prima had been no simple-minded creature. Calling it smart would perhaps be a bit too much, but it certainly did have some level of intelligence not found in its regular brethren. They just died when they ran out of mana and fought the same way from the beginning till the end. They simply didn’t have the mental faculties...
2022-04-19 09:23:23 +0000 UTC View PostMartial artists had a long history of chopping down on stones – or tiles - to show off how strong they were. Now, this wasn’t actually the martial artist having tougher hands than the tile but just someone that took advantage of physics and generally weakly-constructed and brittle tiles to make themselves look cool. Some did it with bricks, too, even though that also didn’t make sense as these bricks were not constructed to resist force applied to the edges, making them rather brittle t...
2022-04-18 09:10:11 +0000 UTC View PostSultan stood in the old ruins of what had once been Ambermill as he looked at the departing former citizens. Four large barges able to accommodate every person had been brought from the Fort and would help transport them all back to the settlement.
He had been asked by Miranda to go to Ambermill together with a crew of others to handle the situation. She had heard slavery was going on, and people had been forced into contracts, so she wanted someone with knowledge of slave contracts to ...
2022-04-15 09:11:32 +0000 UTC View PostThere were few kinds of people in this world Carmen hated. Scratch that, there were a lot of people she hated, but some she hated far more than others. Towards the top of that last was anyone who reminded her of a certain someone. Someone who relied solely on their status, their family or backing, or whatever else vain bullshit to lord over others. In fact, she just hated people who liked throwing their weight around to have others do what they wanted if they couldn’t even back up their wor...
2022-04-14 09:12:27 +0000 UTC View Post”So, Arnold, what made you decide to get blessed and enter a pact with some sort of otherworldly being of the void that usually turns people insane merely by laying their eyes upon it?”
Jake had barely entered the sphere of metal and made his way to the mad scientist before he popped the question burning in his mind. He hadn’t even taken out the creepy cube yet. Jake had just been invited in by Arnold’s assistant and walked into his workshop asking about his Void God pal first-t...
2022-04-13 09:11:24 +0000 UTC View PostVilastromoz made sure Jake had safely passed through the void and back to his planet before he regarded the being before him. Today had been a stark reminder that even with all of his preparations, there existed beings in the multiverse that could circumvent them.
The Viper had used several methods to hide Jake traveling through the void. The biggest one was, of course, Shroud of the Primordial, but the teleportation itself should also help hide him. These preparations should have been ...
2022-04-12 09:08:16 +0000 UTC View Post<AUTHOR NOTE>
BREAK ANNOUNCEMENT: Hello there. I am going on a 2-week break next month from the 9th till the 23rd of May. Why? Well, because I want/need a break.
<AUTHOR NOTE OVER>
Before returning to Earth, Jake needed a proper method to travel back and forth that didn’t rely on being in Haven. Luckily, he had already talked about this with Villy quite a few times and knew the snake god was on it. They both wanted to give Jake...
2022-04-11 09:14:23 +0000 UTC View PostMeira went over some material from her latest lesson as she gazed towards the mansion. Sir had said he would be around less, but she had believed he insinuated he would leave the Order to return to his own universe, not this.
He had entered the laboratory and then just stayed there after giving Meira the task of handling anyone who came looking for him. He had even done so everyone who tried to contact him through the token would instead reach her, making Meira more than a little uncomf...
2022-04-08 00:18:09 +0000 UTC View PostJake had asked for alchemical ingredients with hemotoxin properties as well as those with blood affinity. Most blood affinity ingredients were easily translated into products with hemotoxin properties, making it an ideal material to use. The other function of the blood affinity was in Blood Potions which vampires very much enjoyed. As well as quite a lot of beasts that could actually use them as natural treasures to gain experience and levels.
This led to the vampire clans cultivating t...
2022-04-07 07:44:49 +0000 UTC View Post”This one too?” a large vampire asked as he lifted a coat hanger very carefully.
“Definitely that one,” Fairleigh said as he nodded.
“Where to stash the tablecloths?” another vampire inquired.
“Set the tables like they used to be on the seventeenth picture.”
“Understood,” the attendant said as she began carefully using telekinesis to move the tables and chairs into their exact positions, as shown in some old picture. A second vampire joined in only ...
2022-04-06 07:35:01 +0000 UTC View PostJake had many questions and doubts as he stood before the vampire. First of all, why was the Patriarch of the Nalkar Family there, and not just some lower-level leader? Heck, why was there a leader to begin with? Even if Jake assumed the vampires just placed a lot of importance on history and lineage, this still seemed like overkill.
Based on the line of questioning, it was possible they suspected him of being more than he represented himself as. The poking into his views on the Viper...
2022-04-05 07:51:28 +0000 UTC View PostAh, vampires. If any race had been truly marginalized and suppressed throughout the history of the multiverse, it was them. The Risen and Holy Church both hated them, and most humans, elves, and other humanoids also weren’t fans due to the racial skills they possessed.
For a good reason too. Vampires had the ability to drain the lifeforce of others. In fact, they had to do this due to a massive drawback associated with their race: the lack of natural regeneration.
Pretty much al...
2022-04-04 07:40:25 +0000 UTC View PostJake spent the rest of the World Congress checking in with the Sword Saint to tell him that Reika was doing fine at the Order and just chatted with a few people. He had expected Arthur to talk to him at some point, but it never happened. Jacob’s dad had approached nearly every other faction but had stayed clear of Haven for some reason.
The last five minutes were spent chatting with Miranda as they set up a time for the next meeting. They had to plan it around Jake’s lessons and als...
2022-04-01 06:54:07 +0000 UTC View Post<AUTHOR NOTE>
Hey there. Working on some merch stuff, made a poll to gauge interest and get feedback on the design (still WIP). Check it out: https://www.patreon.com/posts/poll-on-coin-64460300
<AUTHOR NOTE OVER
”Do you have any of those keys?” Miranda asked Jake first thing after she had also read the message. It appeared she had g...
2022-03-31 06:54:16 +0000 UTC View PostHello there. Now this one is a bit different. With the book launch and all that I got talking with my publisher and another author (Actus) who also signed with them and has done some cool merch in the past. So we talked about me making some myself.
Not wanting to do some boring shirt or something (not ruling it out for the future, but seemed a bit boring to just do that), and I have seen the coins that Actus did and liked them quite a bit. Look below for an example of how it looks:
<... 2022-03-30 07:09:50 +0000 UTC View Post