This is an old version of this chapter.
James slept for a full eight hours, missing most of the day after the battle.
When he woke, Mina was lying next to him.
As he stirred, she rose up, left the room, and brought him a tray of food.
When did we get that? he wondered silently.
But he ate and quickly forgot about the question of where the tray had come from.
“I was starting to worry you were the last casualty of the battle,...
2024-07-15 17:00:06 +0000 UTC
View Post
Over the next few minutes, James watched Ben and Alice as the former recovered at amazing speed and began to move again, and the latter moved from disbelief to ecstatic joy.
Alice let loose a fresh torrent of tears and alternated between hugging and kissing her freshly recovered boyfriend and occasionally throwing a grateful glance at her brother, who sat slumped on the seat next to the happy couple.
“I’m so glad I woke up to see you,” Ben said, his voice slightly hoarse.
2024-07-13 20:27:55 +0000 UTC
View Post
Rosslyn’s body crackled with the fire that still blazed all around her as she thought for a moment about what Adon had just said.
The adrenaline was still flowing through her, amping her up.
It was fun being in a sort of quasi-sparring session again.
Her senses were all heightened, her body was losing the rust that it had accumulated from her long sleep quickly—and Adon wanted to quit.
All right, she thought. But it wasn’t quite.
Is he truly ti...
2024-07-12 17:04:39 +0000 UTC
View Post
Adon felt a surge of unique power all around him as he added fire magic to his roster of abilities.
I didn’t even have to go into the darkness this time, he thought. That thought was a quiet one, almost fully drowned out by his focus on what he was doing. He was still feeling out fire magic, trying to intuit how to keep it stable. That had not been part of Rosslyn’s lecture, he was certain. Perhaps because she had not expected any of her students to start using magical affi...
2024-07-11 19:31:14 +0000 UTC
View Post
As Rosslyn conveyed Adon down the halls, her mind sifted through possibilities for the future.
How quickly would Adon pick up fire magic? He seemed like an extremely talented magic user, but she had not actually seen how well he picked up new abilities yet, only heard about it. There was a part of her that saw Adon the way she knew her father saw him. An ally, an asset, or more bluntly, a weapon that still needed to be honed.
He could be the savior of their nation, if he lived up ...
2024-07-11 01:01:57 +0000 UTC
View Post
What greeted James’s eyes was worse than he had expected.
Hundreds of still bodies. Many displayed an unhealthy pallor. Only the slow, shallow rise and fall of their chests showed that they were still alive.
Jesus.
Most of those he and the Healers had carried from the woods were not only still here, recovering, but they remained unconscious and in poor condition.
The number of people who have gotten up and left like Dave has to be in the double digits, a...
2024-07-09 03:16:42 +0000 UTC
View Post
James opened his thoughtfully closed eyes, and a smile unfurled itself across his lips.
The Galts might be a weak link, he thought. I need to figure out how best to use them.
What’s the evil smile about, Master? asked Roscuro.
That made him discipline his expression in an instant. He was still outside, for the moment, having only briefly stopped to spy on the new arrivals. He didn’t want other people to see a creepy expression on his face ...
2024-07-08 20:17:28 +0000 UTC
View Post
As Rosslyn watched Goldie and Samson practice moving Mana around their bodies, Adon was still thinking about the Telekinesis ability.
He realized that he did not know if it was an Adaptation or a Skill. Rosslyn had not distinguished between those at all in any conversation with Adon that he remembered off the top of his head, and he was not certain humans had the same System interface as monsters in this world.
Which might mean I could have obtained Telekinesis without realizi...
2024-07-05 20:40:26 +0000 UTC
View Post
Thanks, Goldie, Adon sent, very carefully targeting his friend alone.
Are you all right? she sent back. Flap twice for no, and I will make an excuse for us to leave.
I’m just a little tipsy, Adon replied. Going to drink some water and try to let my body burn through the alcohol.
He found that he could reliably target who he wanted to receive his telepathic messages even while he was slightly intoxicated. He just had to focu...
2024-07-05 14:58:34 +0000 UTC
View Post
Claudius and the rest of Cyrus’s followers marched from the outskirts of the Fisher Kingdom, following behind the Fisher King himself and his army of beasts.
The King floated above all, wearing a cape that moved with the breeze, almost like a pair of wings, and looked as if it was made of some organic material.
“Is he really human?” Claudius’s father murmured.
“Why would you believe he was anything else?” asked Julia, raising an eyebrow. “He sure looks ha—hum...
2024-07-05 03:33:28 +0000 UTC
View Post
“Welcome to the Fisher Kingdom,” James said, keeping his expression and tone of voice friendly. “I am the Fisher King, James Robard.”
The man who stood across from him seemed to relax slightly.
“Thank you for the welcome,” he said, his voice rich and deep. “My name is Cyrus Berberian. My flock and I are relieved to have, um, stumbled upon a friendly human leader. We have walked far, across dangerous lands, to get here.” Cyrus’s eyes kept darting to the monsters b...
2024-07-01 15:58:55 +0000 UTC
View Post
“Let us eat,” said the King, smiling ingratiatingly. “I hope our guests will find the meals prepared to their satisfaction. If not, our kitchen staff will bring additional options for you.”
Adon, already impressed with the variety of options that he could see in front of him, had nothing to say to that, except a quiet Thank you, Your Majesty!
He felt like he ought to add something more, but both his imagination and his courage failed him. Instead of making convers...
2024-07-01 15:57:07 +0000 UTC
View Post
“Yes, Adon,” Rosslyn said, a question in her tone. “We recorded most of our knowledge of the particular disciplines we have a grasp on in a book. I had actually been wondering about how you learned magic. Whether you were born with it, or found a book somewhere…”
She allowed her voice to trail off doubtfully.
No, Adon sent. I guess monsters have a different method available. A way that doesn’t involve studying, exactly. I went to a dark place and sort of c...
2024-06-29 19:19:33 +0000 UTC
View Post
As James led his small army of monsters to confront the newcomers, he saw dozens of faces, and sensed dozens more pairs of eyes, looking down at them curiously from the apartments they passed.
Even after the violence of the previous day and night, the citizens were interested in watching the Fisher King and his army march to meet the intruders.
On the faces James could see, he detected a mixture of emotions. The predominant one was curiosity.
The Mole People and Goblins usua...
2024-06-29 03:16:25 +0000 UTC
View Post
Adon focused his mind on how his body was supposed to look, and after a moment’s thought, he returned to his previous post-Evolution coloration.
There you are! sent Goldie in an obvious tone of relief.
So cool, thought Samson.
For a few seconds, as he thought of becoming one with the air, Adon had unintentionally turned his whole body invisible. Not simply clear, as his crystal-like wings had been naturally since the moment he emerged from the chrysa...
2024-06-26 17:57:44 +0000 UTC
View Post
The procession of volunteer medics marched almost silently through the night.
The mood that had settled over the group was solemn. Despite the best efforts of the Healers, hundreds of the unconscious soldiers had yet to wake up. The number of those who remained in a serious condition—though exactly what remained wrong with them, James could not yet tell—was far more than he had expected when he ordered Jeremiah Rotter to prepare the community center for occupants.
James walked...
2024-06-26 17:00:07 +0000 UTC
View Post
Adon, Goldie, and Samson exchanged some more news.
The other children, while far from Samson’s level of proficiency in Claustrian, were learning the language rapidly. Goldie credited the fact that Samson was helping her reinforce the terms she taught his younger siblings—which was all of them, since he had been the first to poke his head out into the world.
Adon almost made a remark about Samson not being the little brother in this world, but it felt like it would be catty. He...
2024-06-24 22:47:40 +0000 UTC
View Post
Zhang Chāo rose from an uneasy sleep.
He had been a light sleeper even in earlier days. Now, with the weight of all responsibility for his homeland squarely on his shoulders, his body carried more tension than it ever had before.
He slid a pair of slippers onto his feet and padded lightly over to the balcony. A stranger observing his steps would have seen that he moved with an effortless grace, like a ballroom dancer. For Zhang Chāo, who had been naturally elegant and eloquent s...
2024-06-24 16:01:32 +0000 UTC
View Post
Author's Note: There will be a Prologue that comes before this in the actual book (and on Royal Road).
James looked down on the aftermath of battle.
He could see it all from up there, his cloak fluttering in the breeze.
I could get used to flying like this… But he couldn’t make himself smile at the thought.
The light around him was fading now.
What a disaster, he thought. But he knew it could have been much worse. I...
2024-06-21 19:48:38 +0000 UTC
View Post
Rosslyn raised a hand, trying to slow the conversation slightly while she processed each separate piece of what her father had said.
I have mystic beast blood. That is why I can manipulate Mana. I suppose that is true for every other magic-using human, or at least that is the theory.
“Um, just a moment, father,” she said. “The way you described our heritage—you used the word monstrous. Was that a slip of the tongue? Mystic beasts are—”
“No different fr...
2024-06-21 16:39:25 +0000 UTC
View Post
Rosslyn barely kept pace with her father as he strode briskly through the palace halls.
She made the struggle to do it, however, despite the sensation of weakness running through her whole body.
Every so often, she would see servants poking their heads out from rooms where they were dusting or performing some other task—or pretending to do so, so they could be in position to check on how she was doing when she walked by. As a member of the Royal Family, she had to remain constan...
2024-06-19 18:00:06 +0000 UTC
View Post
“You see, Adon, we encountered your friend—” The King stopped speaking, suddenly.
There was a loud racket from somewhere around the floor level. A noise of something thumping against thin metal.
Adon, King Alistair, and Rosslyn all turned their heads at once.
Adon! The sound of Goldie’s inner voice reached him from a place he could not see, below the height of Rosslyn’s bed.
“It appears that your friend is behind a ventilation grate in the wal...
2024-06-18 02:24:10 +0000 UTC
View Post
Goldie’s heart soared as she heard her firstborn child’s voice.
Mama, the tiny voice said once more.
It was a little, weak, but clearly male voice.
A small one, she thought, but clearly smart. He already knows his mama.
She felt proud of him already, and only slightly silly for being proud. He had to genuinely be something special. As far as she knew, he was the only spider besides herself that she had ever encountered who had anything ap...
2024-06-16 15:00:07 +0000 UTC
View Post
“Sir, we may have a problem!” The voice of Cyrus Berberian’s lieutenant, Christopher Smith, reached his ears.
Cyrus listened with calm equanimity, even though he felt certain that he knew to whom he should attribute this complaint without needing to hear the details.
He turned, and sure enough, he saw the Galts walking toward him, moving past the hundred and ten or so other members of Cyrus’s camp. Christopher Smith led the way. Claudius, Coriolanus, Julia, and the father,...
2024-06-15 17:00:07 +0000 UTC
View Post
Good morning—er, I mean hello, sir—Your Majesty!
Adon stumbled over the realizations that it might not be morning anymore and that the intimidating figure he was speaking to was probably the King.
Fortunately, the man he was speaking to did not seem to mind.
“It is a pleasure to meet you, Adon,” the King said. “You must have had quite an—” he paused to search for the proper word—“experience with your chrysalis. I hope you will enjoy the palace. Thi...
2024-06-15 02:59:46 +0000 UTC
View Post
Standing in the upstairs hallway, Mina spoke almost at the same time as Alice, talking from within one of the small rooms.
“So, is this over?” Mina asked.
“Why didn’t I get a notification for the other one?” Alice asked. “The System said I killed Sister Odd and Sister Wyrd. Shouldn’t it at least say I helped kill Sister Strange?”
The building felt different with the sisters gone. Before, it had felt like a haunted place. Creepy, uninviting, inha...
2024-06-14 17:00:09 +0000 UTC
View Post
A new day dawned, and Adon felt a surge of energy through his whole body.
Part of it was the light hitting him more directly. The outside wall of his chrysalis had grown more transparent, so that he could see the outside world as if through a slightly fogged window.
The quality of the liquid inside had clearly changed. Adon could sense it through his legs somehow. The best way he could describe it to himself was that he could somehow taste through his legs now. Somet...
2024-06-13 14:51:09 +0000 UTC
View Post
James looked around and found himself in what appeared to be an isolated desert town.
Some of the houses were ruined, much like the buildings he had seen when he first returned to Earth. But these buildings were completely different than the ones James was used to in Central Florida. As if they were built without access to modern technology. Adobe houses. Dirt paths and roads.
I better not be in another vision of the past, he thought irritably. But he hesitated to jump to...
2024-06-12 17:00:06 +0000 UTC
View Post
Adon watched in horror as his incarnation and the other lead creatures in the horde of beasts engaged the horned humanoids.
Although “engaged” would have been a misleading term to apply.
The fight was a bloody, one-sided slaughter. Adon’s past self mindlessly tore into those enemies who were bold enough to confront him, grabbed at those who tried to flee and slashed them with its claws, and then smashed its body into the buildings, trying to get at those occupants of the vil...
2024-06-11 21:16:21 +0000 UTC
View Post
