Enjoy!
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The strangest thoughts ran through Serenity’s mind as he hugged Rissa.
He’d proposed while wearing sweatpants and no shirt. At least he knew that clothes weren’t everything to her?
He needed pants, maybe a shirt, and a map. Plus sunglasses; he didn’t need those for the dungeon, but he’d need them later. Oh, and a bracelet or something to string a laughing coyote head charm onto. It was a gift from a god, and he really didn’t need anothe...
2021-12-04 00:00:14 +0000 UTC
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Boop!
Enjoy!
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Serenity woke up in the morning to a bedroom covered in a rainbow of glitter. When he tried to figure out why, he was struck by the realization that it was his fault. He’d been so happy about seeing in color that he’d wanted to make a prism … and had dug into the craft supplies Rissa had in the closet to turn their bedroom into a glitterbomb.
He had glitter all over everything, including himself.
Rissa was not in...
2021-12-02 23:59:22 +0000 UTC
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Enjoy!
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Serenity searched around the far side of the car for where the creature had gone when it dove away from Russ’s sword. He didn’t immediately see it, so he checked under the cars, thinking it might have rolled under one.
If it had, it had kept rolling, because it came at Serenity over the top of the car beyond where it disappeared. The attack reminded Serenity of a jumping spider and his naginata was in his hand and aimed at the creature before it reached h...
2021-12-02 00:07:01 +0000 UTC
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There might be a theme in a few of my chapter titles.
It's not important, really, just tells you sort of what's happening.
Also says I probably read too many nursery rhymes as a kid.
Enjoy!
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The thief looked through the car’s window. Really, who just left a purse on a seat? That was an invitation. An invitation he had no intention of turning down.
He reached a hand through the window and flicked the Unlock button. That would disable the alar...
2021-12-01 00:00:04 +0000 UTC
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Enjoy!
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To some, the Void is the absence of everything; to others, it is that which lies between or the structure of Space itself. To still others, it is nothingness, negation, or even madness manifest. For some it exists, while to others it hungers. As with any Concept, all of these are true and yet they are all incomplete, for they do not see what I see. To me, Void is the wonder and horror of the Unknown, that which we have yet to explore. The Void is all of th...
2021-11-29 23:57:44 +0000 UTC
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As I mentioned at the beginning of this month, this month's schedule isn't sustainable long term. I've managed to keep up, but I can't continue it into next month; there simply isn't time, even before the holidays.
Therefore I will be releasing extra chapters, but there won't be as many of them. I WILL however release some for the Pathed tier as well as Chimera, now that Chimera is far enough ahead.
The Chimera extra chapters will be on the 4th, 11th, 18th, and 25th. The Pathed ex...
2021-11-29 23:01:00 +0000 UTC
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Enjoy!
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Serenity, Raz, and Lex had just sat down in the living room when the door from the garage opened and Serenity’s mother walked into the house. Like Serenity's father, Bethany Rothmer was dressed formally in a suit. Unlike Lex, Bethany looked younger than her age.
“You’re already done?” She sounded surprised. She moved over to hug Serenity in welcome before she even put her keys on the table. Like his father, Serenity could smell an underlayer to he...
2021-11-29 00:06:00 +0000 UTC
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In case it's not obvious: Lex Rothmer's assistant is named Karen. No, she's not "a Karen". It's just her name.
Enjoy!
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The person who asked the first question managed to speak again before anyone else. “Why should we trust anything you say? You’ve already given up your humanity, how do we know you haven’t also given up your-.”
His voice stopped suddenly.
Serenity started to respond, but felt his father’s hand on his shoulder. “Thanks for th...
2021-11-29 00:01:00 +0000 UTC
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Enjoy!
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“Aunt Ina’s. She’ll pick me up at the station, I called her when I got to the Metro.” Mandy didn’t even look up from her phone as she spoke.
“Why don’t you call her again now? She’s probably worried about you.” Mandy looked up at Serenity. She seemed puzzled, so Serenity continued. “It’s been hours, she won’t know why you weren’t there when she expected you.”
Mandy shrugged but called her aunt.
Serenity checked out ...
2021-11-28 00:05:00 +0000 UTC
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Enjoy!
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“It looks like we can wait as long as we like for this one. What do you think it’ll be?” Serenity looked at the others. Roy looked clueless.
“I want it to be more wisp-sparkle-things!” Mandy volunteered.
How old was Mandy? She was bright, but painfully young.
He had to repeat himself in Bridge for Raz, but when he did, Raz shrugged. “I’m expecting a magic puzzle like the last set. I’m not sure what the others are for,...
2021-11-28 00:01:00 +0000 UTC
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There's a connection between Serenity and this new Dungeon. That's been clear since it was created. He can't talk to it, and (at least while he's in it), he doesn't seem to be able to see from its perspective. Still, things he thinks about do seem to affect it.
Enjoy!
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The puzzles needed instructions. Yes, they’d figured them out so far, but not everyone would have Serenity there to explain how magic worked, and what if someone didn’t realize that was the goal ...
2021-11-27 00:01:01 +0000 UTC
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Enjoy!
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All motion seemed to have stopped outside the subway car. The magic level dipped back to something comfortable but not intoxicating the way the ley line had been. Serenity took a deep breath, then let it out as he realized that he no longer felt the static of the subway car trying to talk to him.
Even though mana was no longer flooding into him, Serenity felt much better than he had outside; mana and essence were no longer draining out of him as quickly as he ...
2021-11-26 00:01:01 +0000 UTC
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Underlined text is in Bridge; normal text is in English.
Enjoy!
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Serenity led the way down to the subway station. Normally, it was just a matter of pulling out a Metro card and scanning it at the turnstile, or at the most buying one and then scanning it, but that wasn’t going to work. Not when he didn’t have money and couldn’t even see the readouts even if he did have money.
He was going to have to ask for help.
Serenity hurried past the...
2021-11-25 00:01:01 +0000 UTC
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Enjoy!
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Katya stepped through the portal and found herself in a much dimmer location, surrounded by trees. Immediately in front of her was a short spire of crystal; it looked like a miniature City Crystal, but this didn’t look like any city she’d ever been in. Perhaps that was why Serenity didn’t know of any teleport locations on his planet; maybe they’d been damaged?
Where was Serenity? She hadn’t taken that long to say goodbye to Hale; he should be ri...
2021-11-24 00:06:05 +0000 UTC
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Enjoy!
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Serenity tried to drop the device, but he couldn’t let go. It was like the device was stuck to his hand.
He cut off the flow of magic to the device, both mana and essence. Either might have been enough, but it was easier to do both.
The noise fell down to a tolerable background level. He couldn’t actually tell what any of it was now, but he could still hear something. It would get annoying with time, probably, but at least it wasn’t screaming...
2021-11-23 00:03:46 +0000 UTC
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My notes say this one should already be out for Pathed; you should be getting Chapter 165 today. I'm not sure what happened.
Therefore ... two chapters today! To catch you up to where you should be.
Enjoy!
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Serenity turned to Tek. “You’re the god of technology?”
Tek held an absolutely enormous wrench. Serenity had no idea where she got it, but she held it as though it didn’t have any real weight. “Yep. More a concept really, but a lot of peo...
2021-11-22 00:06:00 +0000 UTC
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Welcome to Arc 4!
Enjoy!
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The text in orange is in Sterath. I'm trying another color to see if it is more visible than the last time.
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Cancel that, it looks like I can't do colors on Patreon at all. Joy. I'll uh ... underline it.
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When Serenity stepped out of the travel portal, he stepped into a room rather than being outside the way he’d expected. The room was slightly cool and the air smelled familiar. It took Serenity a moment ...
2021-11-22 00:00:04 +0000 UTC
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Enjoy!
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Pulled from a hopeless (if powerful) future back to the moment of Earth’s integration to try to improve the outcome, Serenity has met unexpected threats and unexpected allies - even friends. Everything is different this time.
Serenity’s been away from Earth figuring out how to survive the changes he’s gone through while his friends back on Earth have been dealing with the problems there. Now that he’s back, what’s changed? Why is there a “Settlemen...
2021-11-21 00:16:00 +0000 UTC
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It’s been a bit of a wild ride, but Serenity’s finally on his way back to Earth.
This arc had some growing pains; it was originally supposed to spend about half the storyline in the Necropolis (instead of the Shining Caverns). Greyvine was going to show back up as an antagonist, angry about having the dungeon “stolen” even though he abandoned it and the people in it (that never fit into the plot, so he’s out there somewhere, still angry about it).
I started plotting a mi...
2021-11-21 00:10:59 +0000 UTC
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If I missed a character, please let me know; it's easy to do with a large cast, and the cast's getting pretty big.
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Stojan Aith is here; she's definitely nonstandard for her Tier, but I thought you guys might like to see her sheet.
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Character List of Braving the Necropolis
This list includes people mentioned in all Arcs to date.
Aki - Crystal Raz removed from the dungeon below ...
2021-11-21 00:05:01 +0000 UTC
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Enjoy!
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[A DeathLord has risen on Tzintkra]
[A Seat is prepared]
Serenity smiled and stopped pushing Death mana through Tasi’s body when he saw the notice; he’d been correct, and it had only taken a few hours to raise Tasi’s Death Affinity enough to break the threshold.
“How did you do that? That should be impossible. My Life Affinity’s higher than it was, I shouldn’t be able to get more Death Affi...
2021-11-21 00:01:00 +0000 UTC
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I seriously thought about writing the sequence where they had to find out what was going on in the water supply, then fight off an ancient ginormous crocodile. I decided that however fun it might be to write (and it would have been!), everyone would probably prefer if I moved forward and got Serenity headed back home again. That'll take a bit, even so.
Enjoy!
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It turned out that he couldn’t push as much onto other people as he wanted, but it was still more tha...
2021-11-20 00:00:39 +0000 UTC
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[Yes]
There was a long pause after the Tzintkra Core’s reply before it spoke again.
[It was stolen before your ally, her brother was born. Many, many of your years ago. She built a pack and bound them to her and they dug]
[I was already a world of Death, yet I was not so fractured as I am now. My screams brought aid from Order’s Voice. Until the Shatterin...
2021-11-19 00:03:21 +0000 UTC
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Enjoy!
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It would be hilarious if he defeated her with her own magic, but surely she’d stop before she was actually in danger.
Wait. That was it. Her own magic could hurt her, even though he had trouble doing it himself.
He’d just have to take down the shield first.
Serenity called his axe back to his hand. It was a magic-canceling axe, and he’d repeatedly shown that it would temporarily knock out her shield. He’d just have to time it right....
2021-11-18 00:00:03 +0000 UTC
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So, there's a pissed off City Lord standing right next to Serenity.
It's almost like she expected something to happen and wanted it to be in front of her, where she could do something about it....
Enjoy!
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Serenity was still staring at the messages in shock when he felt a rush of Death energy pass over him and he heard Order’s Voice speak.
[A Lord’s Challenge has been issued. Defend your Lordship!]
The next words he...
2021-11-17 00:01:01 +0000 UTC
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Stojan Tasi expected walking around the Necropolis with a giant banner that says 'powerful person here' to scare off trouble.
Somehow, it doesn't seem to be working out that way.
Enjoy!
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Shortly after they left the restaurant, a group of six men walked towards the group. They were all armed and armored the same. It was clearly a formed unit of some sort, though Serenity didn’t know whose.
He could hear Stojan Tasi curse, but he didn’t say anythi...
2021-11-15 23:56:12 +0000 UTC
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It'd be nice if the rest of the plan went as smoothly as the dungeon, wouldn't it?
Go through the city without incident, reverse their cloaks, meet with the Necropolis City Lord, leave, get to the City Node Stojan Tasi knows, then he can go back to the Shining Caverns while the others go to Earth ...
Too bad things never work out that well.
Enjoy!
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The portal area the Wailing Woods Dungeon led to was laid out the same as the ones Serenity had seen i...
2021-11-15 00:06:00 +0000 UTC
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Enjoy!
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Entering the dungeon didn’t immediately seem to change anything. They were still in a dark wood, lit by sunlight that didn’t really seem to reach the ground.
At least, it didn’t change much for Serenity. He could barely see the mist that appeared; it was still easy to see the trees and his party members. It was a bit wetter than it had been before, but that was all.
“I hate this mist. Anything could jump out of it.” Katya looked around; ...
2021-11-15 00:00:03 +0000 UTC
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Enjoy!
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Serenity watched the mostly incorporeal wraith float in a corner of his room at the inn. “I don’t want to send you back. I’m still a bit hurt from pulling you here, I’m not sure it would be safe for me; I know I’d have to heal again afterwards. I can try if I have to. I’m not sure what else to do. Maybe if we go to the edge of town you can travel back on your own? Or maybe I can get you through the dungeon to the Necropolis and you can take it fro...
2021-11-14 00:05:01 +0000 UTC
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The pain at the time wasn't so bad, it's the aching afterward that's unpleasant.
Enjoy!
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The next few hours passed quietly.
The Nightmare Wraith didn’t seem to want to move, and neither did Serenity. He hadn’t felt sore like this since the beginning of the Tutorial. It didn’t seem to be getting better, either, so he decided to take a look at what had happened.
He tugged on his Essence and Mana affinities, figuring they would probably b...
2021-11-14 00:00:03 +0000 UTC
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