Hey Everyone,
I'm happy to announce that Painting the Mists 18 - Planesfall, is now out on Audible.
https://www.audible.ca/pd/Planesfall-Audiobook/B0CN1N53JJ
I hope you enjoy the listen. And if you're not a reader of Painting the Mists, thank you for your continued support as a Patron regardless.
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The world is collapsing. Planesfall is imminent. 2024-01-30 15:57:19 +0000 UTC View Post
Two chapters today, but no chapter tomorrow. Enjoy ^^.
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The Governor's Manor was not too far from the building they'd been hiding in. The only signs of life they saw was the occasional soldier on patrol, who scanned them with a demonic detection device before continuing with their missions.
Likewise, the Governor's Manor was completely empty. Sturdy as it was, it wasn't a bunker; all its inhabitants had been evacuated to the nearest shelter prior to the final wave of the d...
2024-01-30 15:46:57 +0000 UTC View PostSorin had always been a composed person, especially around critical patients, so he found it odd to suddenly reminisce about his childhood as Haley's situation worsened, and Stephan grew increasingly frantic.
As his hands pierced needles into her skin to guide the mana in her body around obstructions, he thought of the practical structure of Pandora's educational curriculum.
First came primary education, which lasted six years and covered general topics. Next came secon...
2024-01-30 15:44:45 +0000 UTC View PostBy the time Gareth noticed the elementals, it was too late. Their team could only try to make ground as the shelter collapsed under the weight of the many fists smashing down on it.
The intentions of the elementals were clear: by threatening a large enough population, they would force the Governor to divide his attention away from fighting the creator of the treants, the dryad.
This tactic proved effective; seeing that Sorin's group wouldn't make it on time, the governo...
2024-01-29 15:57:01 +0000 UTC View PostSorin and his companions raced across what used to be the well-maintained cobblestone roads of the Bloodwood Outpost. Vines and tangled roots were spreading rampantly across entire city blocks, barring roads and tearing down buildings.
What's worse, an entire square kilometer of civilization had been transformed by the dryad near the aqueduct, with more land falling under her control with each passing moment. It sent a statement to the defenders: time was not on their side, a...
2024-01-26 23:43:14 +0000 UTC View PostSorin and his team soon discovered that it wasn't just two but four bone-forging cultivators who died in battle that day. The heavy casualties provoked a shuffling in the assigned adventurers, as well as the conscription of bone-forging cultivators who normally avoided battle.
Team We Don't Need a Life Mage was one of many teams sent to the Southern Wall. They were joined by Mr. Primrose, who was arguably one of the more deadly cultivators in battle thanks to his p...
2024-01-26 02:31:07 +0000 UTC View PostNo one mentioned Orpheus's condition upon returning to the guild. To any outside observer, it was clear that the greedy cultivator had gone out to take advantage of Team We Don't Need a Life Mage's questionable presence on the battlefield. His plan had backfired, and he only had himself to blame for his injuries.
Sorin only felt the vaguest twinge of guilt. Not for the man himself or for what he'd done, but for the valuable physician time wasted on restoring the functionali...
2024-01-24 23:20:13 +0000 UTC View PostStephan and the shadow-pawed were both in rough shape. A mixture of red block and black gore covered their bodies, and Stephan's Armor, newly repaired and upgraded since their last round of corpse collection, was in tatters.
Despite the heavy damage he'd suffered, he didn't hesitate to taunt the badger using a skill as Sorin and Lawrence closed in. Thanks to his efforts, Sorin was able to inject two doses of flesh-melt poison straight into its heart while Lawrence stabbed i...
2024-01-23 23:14:32 +0000 UTC View PostThe curly-horned demonic bull was the fastest of the three demons. The tiger-pawed musk deer, in all its vampiric glory, was just behind it. As for the shadow-pawed demonic badger, Sorin couldn't see it. Only a parting wave of demons confirmed that it was circling around their group and cut off the perpetrator —obviously Lawrence— from retreating.
"This is ridiculous!" said Lawrence, splitting off from their group and attracting the demonic bull's attention. "It was the r...
2024-01-22 15:59:40 +0000 UTC View PostThe bell tolled a total of six times before letting out, sending a loud and clear message that this was not a drill, and that the demon tide was heading into its final stages. Soldiers and cultivators scrambled to their stations, some of them carrying large bundles of arrows and alchemical supplies, as well as entire crates full of mana, health, and stamina potions.
"This is our assigned section," said Stephan as he led them up a set of wooden stairs. "Remember: we'r...
2024-01-19 23:40:23 +0000 UTC View PostMr. Primrose's coffee awoke Sorin to a whole new world of possibilities. "I just – I just can't stop thinking about it," Sorin confessed in an all-too-quick voice. "Poisons. Lots of poison! And no side effects!"
His four companions blinked, sipped coffee from their mugs, then turned their attention back to the wall. They were officially on standby but were free to do whatever they liked as long as they were equipped with their armor and weapons and were physically within 50...
2024-01-18 16:23:30 +0000 UTC View PostHaving a workable escape plan, Sorin focused on the steel door connecting the cellar to the rest of the basement. The door was conspicuous now that they'd rolled the barrels away, so they kept the barrels ready to move back in case they had more time on their hands for their getaway.
Sorin used mostly acidic mana in the shape of a blade to melt away the mass of metal, locking the door in place. Its composition was mostly iron-melt poison, which was extremely effective in melt...
2024-01-17 16:04:00 +0000 UTC View Post"Absolutely not," said Lawrence, throwing himself down on a comfy chair and picking up a cup of hot chocolate. "You listen to me, Sorin Kepler. Drink some hot cocoa and have a few cookies to calm down. You'll soon realize that life is worth living and that sneaking into the governor's manor is basically suicide. Seriously – ask my dad. Dad, it's suicide, isn't it?"
"It's only suicide if you get caught!" said Mr. Holt from the kitchen. "How long are you staying, Sorin? Lawre...
2024-01-16 22:55:10 +0000 UTC View Post"Blink?" said Daphne when Haley confessed her heroic ability. "You mean, like the spell?"
"Like the spell, but without magic," said Haley, looking quite pleased with herself.
"But that's… that's at least a flesh sanctification level spell," said Daphne, flabbergasted.
"Which is why I can only use the ability once every minute and only within thirty feet," said Haley. "Oh, and it has no cast time and limited mana cost."
"But that's…" said Daphne.
...
2024-01-15 17:13:34 +0000 UTC View PostWhen Sorin awoke, he found himself inside the Adventurers Guild on a bed reserved for recovering patients. The room was a semi-private one, with two other occupied beds.
"Urgh…" Sorin felt his pounding head as he lifted himself up into a sitting position. A quick inspection using his spirituality and mana confirmed his condition was perfect. The headache was due to the excess mana and vitality he'd imbibed by the river and was quickly subsiding.
Organs are fully f...
2024-01-13 00:07:25 +0000 UTC View PostMr. Primrose was experienced in assessing environmental contamination. In the time that Sorin was able to brainstorm ten ideas as to what might be the cause of the corruption, the man had thought up dozens and taken out an array of test tubes, each with their corresponding test medium.
"Have that earth flame rat of yours heat ten of these vials, then add three drops of river water into each one," directed Mr. Primrose as he took out two portable heating arrays. "You'll need...
2024-01-10 16:20:17 +0000 UTC View PostThe next day was an off-shift day for Team We Don't Need a Life Mage. After verifying that his companions were fine and that they'd all unlocked a few additional silver meridians as he had, Sorin returned to the poison workshop in the Alchemists Association, where Mr. Primrose was hard at work.
The older man greeted Sorin briefly before turning back to a large cauldron of poison he was busy concocting for the defense effort. Sorin recognized the poison as scorching bramble as...
2024-01-10 01:15:55 +0000 UTC View PostHaving experienced a harrowing battle, Sorin and Barbara's teams were taken off rotation one day early. "I just got here, and now we're already getting time off?" said Sorin, wincing as he rolled his shoulder. Flesh-melt poison and healing potions had prevented complications, but his arm would still need surgery to restore full functionality.
"Don't get too comfortable," said Stephan. "The shifts are three days on and one day off. We won't find out till later if we're stuck o...
2024-01-08 18:57:09 +0000 UTC View PostThe first thing Sorin did after finding Stephan was coldly analyze the situation to see where he could best jump in. Our battle with the minotaur tainted my expectations of what a two-star battle should be like, thought Sorin as the arctic rune bear and the two-star stag traded blows.
The stag was extraordinarily nimble and liked to jump in battle and kick out with its clawed hooves. Thanks to its thick demonic energy, its body had further mutated, granting the deer ...
2024-01-05 21:25:40 +0000 UTC View PostTime slowed to a crawl as Sorin weaved through ten stunned boars, cutting three in passing to inject a lethal dose of poison. Due to the constraints of the Veridian Smoke Bomb spell, the paralytic poison keeping the boars in place was insufficient to support their stunned state; it wasn't long before he ran into a fully functional enemy that lifted its horned snout to gore him.
Sorin moved his dagger to defend but aborted when he saw a blade flick out of his shadow and pier...
2024-01-04 16:18:06 +0000 UTC View PostShortly after seeing Lawrence, Sorin paid Gareth a visit to the east end of town. He arrived late at night, but fortunately, the archer was not yet asleep. Upon hearing of Sorin’s success with Lawrence, Gareth had Sorin unlock his Thrust Vessel and Yin Link Vessel, which would greatly improve the power and accuracy of his arrows.
Next, Sorin went to the Mages Guild to find Daphne. He found her half asleep, trying to figure out a spell model. Sorin successfully unlocked her ...
2024-01-03 16:00:17 +0000 UTC View PostOn the sixth day since the start of the demon tide, Sorin received a letter from Stephan informing him that he should prepare to return to the team. The demons were becoming increasingly aggressive, and there was no telling how long it would be before intense fighting broke out.
The ninth poison had reached a critical point, so Sorin spent the entire night nurturing it. At dawn, the poison finally broke through to become a substance that could melt one-star enchanted stone wi...
2024-01-02 22:04:50 +0000 UTC View PostSorin spent the next few days that followed amassing gold by concocting the more lucrative poisons on the apothecary request board. He managed to earn 3,500 gold before realizing that this was the limit of easy money to be earned.
With all the lucrative missions out of the way, there's only the recurring one-star mission issued by the governor's manor, thought Sorin. The poison is a simple one that alchemists probably wouldn't mind concocting. But with the low ma...
2023-12-30 02:08:15 +0000 UTC View PostLady Duchene had a total of three obstructed meridians. For a mortal, that wasn't a big deal. Still, for a bone-forging cultivator, this was not only a massive impediment to their cultivation but a lethal flaw.
In Lady Duchene's case, the obstructions are causing some organs to be exposed to too much mana, thought Sorin. Meanwhile, other organs are starved for mana. A bone-forging cultivator's body might be powerful. Still, it similarly required high level...
2023-12-30 02:07:23 +0000 UTC View PostThe long weekend is coming up, so I'm uploading three chapters at once. Happy New Year!
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Sorin spent the next three days concocting all manner of poisons. He cleared the simpler poisons required by the outpost's physicians out first, then moved on to custom requests by the Adventurers Guild. The Governor's Manor's request was the least profitable venture. It was focused solely on killing instead of healing and was, therefore, the lowest on Sorin's priority list.
It was imposs...
2023-12-30 02:06:30 +0000 UTC View PostMr. Primrose took his time in evaluating Sorin's answer. The white snowflake-like powder was now dehydrated. He peeled off a sheet of filter paper from the filter flask's funnel, then carefully knocked the dry contents into a pouch, which he weighed and labeled before placing on a shelf. He then took a seat by the waist-height lab bench and gestured for Sorin to do the same.
"What if you were wrong?" Mr. Primrose quizzed. "What treatment would you recommend to guarantee succe...
2023-12-29 16:03:35 +0000 UTC View PostHey Everyone! I'm back from a wonderful holiday feeling refreshed. There are 7 chapters this week, then we're back down to 5 per week.
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The following day, Sorin headed out to Sanderson's Leather Outfitting to retrieve his leather armor. The shop was empty save for the sole employee and proprietor of the shop, Mr. Sanderson, who dusted off his large but nimble hands as he walked out to greet him.
"An early riser, I see," said Mr. Sanderson. "Not like those...
2023-12-28 16:43:47 +0000 UTC View PostThe week following the banquet was uneventful, and Sorin spent most of it learning from the spell books he'd rented from the Mages Guild. Threading the Spear was easy enough at lower levels, but learning the 'spear spray' spell necessitated a practice room with sufficiently durable walls and mannequins.
In the end, Sorin rented a silver-ranked one-star training room for 50 gold per day. The training room contained a total of five training dummies, which allowed him to train...
2023-12-19 19:24:00 +0000 UTC View PostSorin didn't like wine. It was much too sweet, and he'd never been able to enjoy the complexities wine aficionados liked to educate people on. Instead, he liked more potent drinks like whiskey in all its regional variants. Near Bloodwood Forest, the farmers grew rye, so Sorin had adopted rye whisky as his drink of choice.
Stephan seemed to have similar tastes because he was already on his tenth glass of whiskey. Thankfully, he knew moderation and didn't even attempt to test h...
2023-12-19 19:23:11 +0000 UTC View Post