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“The first step is always design. Nothing else matters if you don’t know what you want to make. This is too early to know everything about what you’re going to make, but you need to have a pretty good first idea before you start. For example, this.” Emery waved at the fire-heart. “I asked Daryl to get me a fire-heart because I needed the Fire Essence, but if I didn’t know what I was making, I wouldn’t know I needed it.”
Emery returned to he...
2023-04-04 23:34:19 +0000 UTC
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There was, in fact, a shower in the bathing room. The water clearly came from elsewhere, but the heat was generated at the showerhead with a fairly intuitive to use magical design. It was one that Serenity didn’t remember seeing until quite a bit later in time; of course, that could have simply been because Vengeance wasn’t exactly in a good place after he left Earth. How showers worked wouldn’t have interested him after he saw the destruction of his home...
2023-04-03 23:07:06 +0000 UTC
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“What took you so long?” Daryl didn’t sound happy when Serenity arrived outside the dungeon. He didn’t seem to have noticed that anything had changed about the dungeon, simply that Serenity was late.
Serenity forced a smile. He didn’t want to arouse any suspicion. “I wasn’t quite ready. I didn’t take that long, did I?”
Daryl just grunted, while the other two Silver Blades ignored the man. Well, he’d tried; sometimes things took time...
2023-04-02 23:01:48 +0000 UTC
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Quick reminder:
Lex (Alexander) Rothmer is Serenity’s father. Thomas Rothmer is Serenity’s name from before everything started. Baxter is a friend of the family with his own charter service (and airplane).
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Lex stared at the map in front of him. It’d taken months of searching and even now he couldn’t believe what he’d found.
The Bermuda Triangle was a myth. He’d checked the records he could get his hands on, and - like Area 51 -...
2023-04-01 23:09:50 +0000 UTC
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Serenity felt the chair try; he felt as it followed the ley line network as far as it could. He even vaguely felt it ask Asihanya’s World Core. Compared to the dungeon, the World Core was placid and unruffled. Unfortunately, while it was slow to answer, its answer matched the answer the dungeon had found.
Jenna wasn’t on Asihanya. While there were many ways she could have been hidden or simply missed by the search, Serenity hadn’t expected her to be on...
2023-03-31 23:27:20 +0000 UTC
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Serenity waited for a moment to see if Daryl was going to say more, but unfortunately the archer seemed to think better of it. However much Serenity wanted to pry, he wasn’t certain he should. On the other hand, he also didn’t want to have someone who might turn out to be working against him with them.
Come to think of it, that was the answer, wasn’t it? He simply needed to make his position clear. “You don’t have to tell me now, but I’ll need to...
2023-03-30 23:29:30 +0000 UTC
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Today's late post is due to a pair of SpaceX launches (the second one scrubbed again - it was weather delayed from yesterday, not sure what caused today's delay to tomorrow) and my parents' desire to watch them with me. So ... yeah, I was having a good time with family instead of writing and posting.
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Gabriel nodded decisively. “I should, especially if Daryl’s question depends on my answer.” He walked confidently over to the throne-like seat and sat ...
2023-03-30 00:50:05 +0000 UTC
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Naomi gave Serenity an odd look. “What are you laughing about?”
Serenity’s laughter trailed off into a chuckle. “Myself. Or maybe the surprise.” Serenity didn’t want to explain his laughter, mostly because he couldn’t. It just struck him funny at the time. “These are Affinity stones. This one’s Death; my guess is that they’re each associated with one of the floors. The brown one is probably mud or earth; that could be from the swamp or th...
2023-03-28 23:14:09 +0000 UTC
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Pathed: As I said in the other note, this is a double-chapter release today so no chapter tomorrow. We will continue with the one numbered 665 the day after tomorrow, but it is *really* 666.
Original comment:
While I was still trying to figure out how to do what I mentioned yesterday, I got some good feedback in the comments. I still feel like the justification to the reader for Serenity’s decision to hare off and worry about dungeon breaks before the attackers is a lit...
2023-03-27 23:31:05 +0000 UTC
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There's an important note about the next few chapters in the Author's Note at the end of the chapter.
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When Serenity finally managed to get far enough behind the Guardian to slice a rear leg, the strike was far more effective than he anticipated. It didn’t just damage the muscle; it sliced cleanly through it and bounced off the bone. The leather wrapping on the leg might as well not have been there; in fact, after he sliced it, Serenity could see pieces of...
2023-03-26 22:48:59 +0000 UTC
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If he were being fair, Serenity would admit that his ax was only Tier Five. That really wasn’t good enough at Tier Eight, though it retained some usefulness since it was specifically designed as a magic-draining ax. He’d originally intended it to be a shieldbreaker; while that hadn’t entirely worked out for either Vengeance or Serenity because it was hard to capitalize on a broken shield with the weapon that broke it, that didn’t make the weapon useless.
2023-03-25 22:40:59 +0000 UTC
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Serenity hadn’t expected that at all. As far as he knew, there wasn’t a Dungeon Binder in Takinat; if there was, the guy at the Mercenaries’ Guild should have mentioned it. On top of that, this didn’t really seem like the Bound Dungeons Serenity remembered from his time as Vengeance; they were usually set up to maximize what could be pulled out of them and rarely had secrets.
You couldn’t even enter a Bound Dungeon without the Binder’s permiss...
2023-03-25 00:22:09 +0000 UTC
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The Death attunement in the Layered Dungeon’s ninth level felt slightly off. It was definitely Death, but there was a slight hint of something else. Undeath, maybe? It was familiar but at the same time slightly foreign. All that meant, really, was that it was based on a Concept of Death that didn’t quite match Serenity’s. That was common, since Concepts were rarely identical, but this difference seemed more obvious than most.
Serenity couldn’t...
2023-03-23 23:59:39 +0000 UTC
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Serenity didn’t have strong feelings either way about the plan; if it was a Death-based level, he’d be fine and could probably keep Naomi safe, but he had no idea if he could open a shortcut or not. At least, he wasn’t sure if he could open it without communing with the dungeon; he had the feeling that if it was one of the dungeon’s secrets, the dungeon would be willing to tell him about it once he was there.
Serenity tried asking the dungeon while h...
2023-03-23 01:07:48 +0000 UTC
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It was clear Serenity wasn’t going to convince them in a single talk; he needed something more than just his words and experience. “That’s not how we do things” was always a powerful opponent.
Serenity still didn’t think he’d be any more successful with the argument that there was probably something in the pit, since the dungeon was clearly trying to protect it. He didn’t think it would have succeeded earlier and it seemed even less likely n...
2023-03-21 22:10:55 +0000 UTC
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Late, but not nearly as late as yesterday. Today was busy as anything but still not as bad as yesterday! At this rate, I should be caught up again tomorrow. Here's hoping!
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Serenity followed Gabriel out of the tent, then told it to collapse itself. For a Tutorial reward, the tent was coming in surprisingly helpful. Admittedly, Serenity remembered Vengeance’s rewards as being useful, even if he didn’t entirely remember what they were. Knives or something...
2023-03-20 23:44:26 +0000 UTC
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I'm sorry for how late this is today. I know I've mentioned Wednesdays being bad, but today was extra Wednesday if that makes sense. On the other hand, at least my computer didn't get fried!
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Serenity was still trying to come to terms with his new Path, a Path that didn’t seem obvious to use or directly rewarding to him even if it was very helpful to others, when Gabriel stuck his head inside Serenity’s tent flap. Serenity tried hard not to...
2023-03-19 23:21:24 +0000 UTC
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Aide was happy with his Paths, and at the end of the day, that was what mattered. They had to fit him, not Serenity.
Serenity’s Paths had to fit Serenity. On that note, it was finally time to look at his next Path, and he was worried about it. Would it be Tier Five or Tier Eight? Would it be a Species Path? That was the pattern he was used to, but was Dungeon Deity even a species? It didn’t sound like one.
Putting it off wouldn’t help; he wa...
2023-03-18 23:47:33 +0000 UTC
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It was a good thing Serenity’s tent blocked the light completely. It gave him somewhere he could try things without being in the blinding light of the dungeon level. He didn’t get the sleep the others were getting, but at Tier Eight he could manage without sleep for a night. It wasn’t the best decision, especially long term, but one night could be managed.
Preventing the overwhelming light from blinding was both easier and h...
2023-03-18 00:00:12 +0000 UTC
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After that pair, the lightning started spitting out pairs of monsters in all sorts of combinations, followed by triplets. The penultimate group was four monsters, one of each type. The last one to fall was the fulgurite golem, as it happened, since Gabriel took care of the water elemental while Serenity handled the tornado and Daryl took out the lightning.
Naomi darted away from the spot where she’d been holding off the golem. Her cloak was now badly rip...
2023-03-16 23:00:57 +0000 UTC
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Daryl rushed around to the far side of the golem while Gabriel set up an Ice Wall behind it and Naomi rushed the golem to get its attention. It was clear they’d done this before, since they did it without any directions or confusion.
Serenity shrugged to himself and started to get to his job, killing the golem with Death magic.
It was a boring fight. Yes, it knocked Naomi back a few times, but each time Gabriel was ready with an ice Wall in plenty ...
2023-03-15 23:18:54 +0000 UTC
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Daryl handed Serenity a fist-sized chunk of black fireglass. It was probably obsidian, at least notionally, but since it came from a dungeon and was used in the same dungeon it was hard to be certain. “If the giant fire-rock elemental gets too close, hit it with this. Don’t miss. I’ll take care of preventing any more from coming out of the vent, but that means I won’t be fighting the big guy. We usually whittle it down more and this isn’t needed, but...
2023-03-14 23:14:44 +0000 UTC
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The discussion died out again, leaving only the crunch of carbonized plant matter to break the stillness of each step. The fire-ember field didn’t particularly bother Serenity; his eyes were protected and when he accidentally touched one of the floating embers, it was uncomfortably warm but not painful.
The same couldn’t be said of the three Silver Blades; they were clearly sweltering in their damp outfits and while they’d tried to cover everything, mo...
2023-03-13 23:09:11 +0000 UTC
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Serenity gaped at Daryl. Why hadn’t he ever thought of pretending to be a follower instead of the leader? The symbol on Ita’s chest wasn’t any different from his own; how had he missed that?
Also, did the fact that there were now three planets and a moon on the symbol on his armor make it less obvious it was a Planetary Sovereign’s mark? Daryl only said it was a Lord’s mark, so he clearly didn’t recognize it for what it was. Serenity didn’t k...
2023-03-12 23:02:18 +0000 UTC
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They packed up; moments after they left the clearing, Serenity felt something change in the air of the dungeon. There were no other signs and no one else seemed to notice anything; on the other hand, he didn’t say anything either. They walked for about ten minutes before the mountain started shaking.
It was only a small earthquake, but it was followed by a continual rumbling under Serenity’s feet. Not only could he hear it, he could feel the magma that ...
2023-03-12 00:05:03 +0000 UTC
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“Lunch or overnight?” Naomi looked around the group. “I know we normally overnight here, but it’s been fast so far, having another person is making things a lot easier.”
“Five would be better,” Daryl stated. There was an edge to his comment that Serenity didn’t understand. History of some sort, maybe? “But yeah, just a break for lunch. I think we can make it through two more levels, unless anyone is wiped?” He turned towards Serenity. ...
2023-03-11 00:19:17 +0000 UTC
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Carrying Gabriel did make it faster - slightly. It didn’t change the number of Giant Waves they had to face, but it meant that Gabriel was able to attack the cuttlefish that tried to grapple Naomi and Daryl without having to worry about his own footing; on the other hand, it meant Serenity’s sword wasn’t available. It wasn’t really needed, so Serenity didn’t mind being a transportation device for a while.
The Giant Waves themselves mostly se...
2023-03-10 00:02:07 +0000 UTC
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Serenity was grateful he’d thought to bring his tent; while he’d offered to loan it to Rissa, she’d turned him down. He’d spend several days in the Layered Dungeon, while the dungeon she was headed towards was no more than a single overnight and could be finished in a day. It wasn’t like he’d needed to leave it behind for the others, either; they’d already moved out of the tent into the beds that Legion gathered.
The comfort was definitely nic...
2023-03-09 00:01:21 +0000 UTC
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Serenity ignored the new sense telling him everything about the area around him as best he could and focused on what he could see, hear, feel, and unfortunately smell. The Silver Blades had mentioned that the first level was a swamp with primarily frog-like enemies, some of which were poisonous. They’d also mentioned that it had a lot of heavy, sodden mud.
They hadn’t mentioned that it was a saltwater swamp filled with mangrove trees. They also hadn...
2023-03-07 23:26:38 +0000 UTC
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NOTE: This chapter is the ORIGINAL version. The REVISED version is in the chapter titled 685/664+1: https://www.patreon.com/posts/chapter-685-664-80640883
I will be opening that chapter up for Pathed today as well. Since it contains the revised 664 AND the revised 665, there will be no chapter released for Pathed tomorrow.
The following day will continue with the chapter numbered 665. Th...
2023-03-06 23:47:30 +0000 UTC
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