Chapter 62
Standing in front of the flag and looking outside of the entrance, Larek could see across the arena to the fortification directly across from him, but that was about it; he couldn’t see the other two to the left and right, but that didn’t really concern him. From the opposite structure, he watched as a trio of Martial trainees rushed out of the entrance and began sprinting directly across the arena – and right toward him. One of them was much faster than the ...
2023-06-16 17:01:00 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 61
“Welcome, one and all, to the mid-year Skirmish!”
Larek blocked out the sounds of the cheers as the crowd responded to the announcement, made by an Academy Professor using some sort of air-based spell to amplify his voice so that it reached everyone within the massive arena. He was sitting next to Nedira and Penelope in a special section of the stands reserved for the teams participating in the Skirmish, squeezed between the two women as they looked around at the ...
2023-06-15 19:57:13 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 60
Penelope rushed up the stairs and nearly tripped on the top step, her attention distracted because all that had happened over the last week. It had been a whirlwind of training and revelations of the incredible power this Mage possessed, but now the Skirmish was nearly about to begin. Starting the next morning, the first quartet of teams would begin to fight for the flags of the others, and with all of the advantages they now possessed, there was no way they could lose.
...
2023-06-15 17:00:07 +0000 UTC
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(Larek's status was a little long to add to an existing chapter, so I decided to update it in a full chapter all by itself since I hadn't done it in a while)
Chapter 59
Current full Status:
Larek Holsten
Fusionist
Level 18
Advancement Points (AP) : 3/16
Available AP to Distribute: 33
Mana: 1330/1330
Stama: 4...
2023-06-14 20:48:00 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 58
The process of refining the new Repelling Barrier took a few days of experimentation and practice with it, mainly because of the many problems that sprung up. First, he discovered that the repelling portion of the barrier was a bit wild and unfocused; at one point, when he raised the Magnitude up to 4 to test it out at a higher knockback force – which he discovered increased by 10% per Magnitude – the arrow that Vivienne shot at Bart (who was acting as a test s...
2023-06-14 20:43:08 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 57
It took Larek the rest of the evening before they left the sparring room for the night to come up with a viable Fusion that could potentially work for what he planned, but it was going to take some fine-tuning of its Effects to get it to work properly.
At first, he considered trying to adapt the Wind Barrier effect so that it would conform around their bodies and would move with them even after they were hit, but his intuition when it came to Fusions told him...
2023-06-14 17:01:01 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 56
Larek didn’t tell them everything, of course, but enough that they wouldn’t be too surprised by the Fusions he was going to create for them. His objective was to camouflage his other secrets – namely, that he had Martial stats – by dazzling them with his Mage abilities; the same thing would likely be done after the Skirmish was over when most of his Fusions were revealed to the greater Mage community of the Academy. With so much for everyone to pour over, L...
2023-06-13 20:00:03 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 55
“I’m glad that to see you made it!” Penelope exclaimed as soon as Larek and Nedira showed up to the Fort side of the humongous building. With neither of them having been on that side before, other than a brief stop at the training yard where Larek had healed Bartholomew more than a month ago, they hadn’t known where to go; fortunately, the blue-haired trainee was waiting for them outside and jogged over to them immediately. As he waited for her to arrive, for the fi...
2023-06-13 17:00:07 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 54
Unfortunately, the next couple of weeks were anything but enjoyable for Larek, despite learning all about Advanced Fusions from his instructor. First, he had to convince Nedira that he needed to participate in the Skirmish – which went as well as he expected.
“WHAT?! WHY?!”
Thankfully, they were in Larek’s room when he broached the subject, so her shout didn’t cause as much of a commotion as did the incident out in the part the day before. “For the s...
2023-06-12 20:47:59 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 53
“I heard that you were invited to participate in the upcoming Skirmish, Larek.”
He wasn’t sure if he heard his Fusions instructor correctly. “You did?”
“Of course. I may not look it, but I hear more gossip around here than most. That, and it’s just about the only thing that my students can talk about,” Shinpai said with a chuckle. “What do you think about it?”
“About the Skirmish? It sounds like a waste of time and needlessly...
2023-06-12 17:05:38 +0000 UTC
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𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐭 is now on pre-order for July 26th!
The first book of my LitRPG story is wrapping up over on Royal Road in about 3 weeks, so I put it up for pre-order on Amazon for the end of July. I'll be revising it based on feedback from RR and Patreon, so it should be even better than it is on that site!
Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C7PMKVDS
Amazon UK: ...
2023-06-12 14:25:02 +0000 UTC
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I recently picked up a new friend to sit on my desk to keep me company while I write -- a Pukwudgie! I hadn't heard of it before I picked it up, but it's pretty awesome so I figured I'd share it with you all.
2023-06-11 20:32:40 +0000 UTC
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I was originally going to start Dimensional Dungeon Cores book 5 this upcoming week, but I believe I'm going to push it back for at least another week until I'm either finished or close to finishing Fusionist book 2. I found during the writing of a little of book 2 and Scorched Time that my brain just can't handle switching between two different stories even if I separate them out by doing them on different days.
As a result, we're going to have the end of book 2 before I g...
2023-06-11 20:29:09 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 52
“I don’t see why we can’t check out the arena,” Verne said as they walked along the perimeter of the park. “I mean, we haven’t even seen it up close yet!”
“I believe that’s because they don’t have weekly duels like we did back in Crystalview,” Nedira informed him.
Larek was just listening to them talk as they walked slowly around the park. It was a gorgeous day, not too hot nor too cold, which was a rarity up north. He was used to it being ...
2023-06-11 20:00:02 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 51
Larek’s roommates returned the next day, not entirely back to normal, but well on their way to a full recovery. Each of them had lost what extra fat they had on their bodies – which was already fairly little – and some muscle mass, making them a little weaker than they had been before. Still, it wasn’t nearly as bad as it could’ve been, and they didn’t need as many muscles to cast spells as, for example, a trainee from the Martial Fort would need to perform well...
2023-06-11 17:00:04 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 50
That night, alone in his room for the first time since attending Copperleaf – and for the majority of his time at Crystalview – Larek slept horribly. The temporary curtain that one of the staff had put up where the doorway had been were unable to block out his screams that woke him up multiple times, and tears that sprang unbidden to his eyes wet his pillow until it was soaked.
It wasn’t thoughts or dreams about the abrupt attack on the room, the sound of his ro...
2023-06-09 20:00:03 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 49
“Umm… what?” Larek asked, wondering if he had heard her correctly.
Dean Lorraine sighed once again, something she had been doing a lot during their conversation. “Every Dean and Vice-General of the Academies and Forts are forced to endure the Dominion magic of the Great Ones, bonding them to slavery as part of their position.”
“That’s… I… why?”
“Because the Academies and Forts are the lifeblood of the SIC, which in turn defend the...
2023-06-09 17:01:00 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 48
The Dean leaned back in her chair, a smirk on her face as she glanced at Shinpai. “Oh, you’re no fun. He gave it away, didn’t he? He never could bluff his way out of a pot in Bruha, so why should I expect anything different?”
“I’ll have you know that I play Bruha quite well, and I have absolutely no tells to take advantage of. You just happen to have an uncanny ability to tell when I’m bluffing.”
Larek just sat there, more confused than ever. He ...
2023-06-08 20:00:03 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 47
Larek turned around to see the same healer that he had talked to earlier on his way back to check on his friends’ wellbeing. She appeared exhausted with rings around her eyes that hadn’t been there before, and her shoulders were slumped as if she was having difficulty staying upright.
“Hurry up, I have way too much going on right now to have to deal with this ridiculousness,” she added, waving him forward. Larek looked at Nedira and she nodded, which let him k...
2023-06-08 17:01:00 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 46
For some reason, Larek didn’t think about how he would explain what happened to Nedira. With his roommates, he would have enough time to come up with something before they woke up from their comas, but Norde’s sister was another story altogether.
“Nedira—”
“Where were you?!” she shouted, cutting him off. “I came back here after an insane defense of the city walls against monstrous bugs expecting to find you all safe and sound, only to hear from s...
2023-06-07 20:01:00 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 45
The handle of his axe dropped from Larek’s hands as he looked down at the decapitated body of the student he had just killed, the wood making a sharp report as it echoed through the tunnel. His knees followed suit as he collapsed, the import of what just occurred slamming into his mind with such force that he couldn’t take it.
What… what did I just do?
He knew what he’d done, of course, but he was having difficulty processing everything. The hyp...
2023-06-07 17:01:00 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 44
“Is that—? What happened? I thought you said you secured the door?”
Irritated, Ricardo snapped back at Phyllia. “I did! Someone must have let him out.”
He cautiously moved ahead, the unbelievability of the situation thoroughly confusing him as he looked around. As he closed in on the entrance to the room, he could see pebbles and thick stone dust all over the tunnel floor where there hadn’t been much of anything before, due to all of the moving in an...
2023-06-06 20:00:03 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 43
Ricardo staggered a few steps backward as he felt his Mana bottom out for the third time, his large area-of-effect windstorm buffeting the large spiders out of the air as they jumped toward the walls of the city, throwing them back down toward the ground with leg-snapping force. With their incredible ability to leap more than a hundred feet into the air, they were some of the more difficult monsters to come out of the Category 5 Scission to deal with – though they were by...
2023-06-06 17:01:00 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 42
Moving at a speed no faster than a walk, the Camouflage Sphere was able to maintain the light-bending Effect of the Fusion around Larek. This allowed him to pass through the park and into the kitchens he had just left a few minutes ago without anyone noticing him; if they did notice anything, it was more of a slight distortion than anything else. He made sure not to come within 5 feet of anyone, because otherwise they would be included in the Effect and see him —...
2023-06-05 20:00:04 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 41
Finding the way out from where he had been trapped was easier than Larek expected it would be. Only 20 feet or so after leaving the cracked stone doorway lying on the floor, he discovered footprints in the dusty floor, the area around the room too disturbed by the crashing stone to show much trace of anything. It was simply a matter of following the multiple sets of footprints through the stone hallway and taking a few turns when the path he was following led that way. Even...
2023-06-05 17:00:06 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 40
The Fusion Larek made was, of course, one that would heal him. As much as he desired to use what he’d learned from studying Intermediate Fusions to refine Healing Surge so that it didn’t cause as many problems, he would rather focus on simply healing himself rather than having to rework the Fusion. Therefore, concentrating on the stone floor underneath him, he quickly assembled the grid formation for Healing Surge and debated for a few moments on the M...
2023-06-04 20:25:14 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 39
The Mage sighed in apparent relief at Larek’s words before turning to one of the Martial trainees. He appeared as though he was going to say something to him, but before he could speak, everyone seemed to freeze where they were as they felt a pressure invading their senses.
The Scissions are opening. I need to get back to my room, check on my roommates, and help Nedira!
“We have to get up there and make an appearance, otherwise the faculty will begi...
2023-06-02 17:01:01 +0000 UTC
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(This chapter has some revelations that have been a long time coming, and I hope it explains some of what has occurred before. I'm sure there will be even more questions after this, but they will be explained in time. Enjoy :) )
Chapter 38
The two bright lights practically blinded him when he woke up, a splitting headache piercing into his brain and making everything blurry. As he struggled to move and focus on what was going on around him, an anger he’d never expe...
2023-06-01 20:06:23 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 37
“I’m sure she’ll be fine, won’t she?”
Larek nodded at Norde’s worried question, his concern over his sister plainly written all over his face.
“I should be there,” Larek said, wanting the exact opposite, but unwilling to let one of his good friends face the danger of the Scissions without him there to help her. Not that she couldn’t take care of herself, of course, but she could always use some assistance. Or maybe I’m selfish and don’t...
2023-06-01 17:00:09 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 36
“You were successful?”
Larek nodded, excited to show off his Fusions to his instructor.
“I was, though not all of them worked out exactly the way I wanted,” he said, sighing a little at his one semi-failure. “They should all demonstrate the concepts for Intermediate Fusions, however.”
Handing over the 5 steel plates with a warning to be careful with the one containing a sharp edge, he watched as Shinpai looked through them one-by-one, sta...
2023-05-31 17:30:01 +0000 UTC
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