“Congratulations on ninth-tier!” Bjorgrund slapped Alex on the back, nearly knocking the young wizard over. The giant’s strength had grown from their daily training together, while his rune now blazed brighter, glowing under the divine new breastplate Alex had given him. The armour was a bit snug, but the protection it provided him was worth a little discomfort, he’d said.
“That's quite the accomplishment, Alex!” Birger said. “Congratulations!”
“...
2024-01-02 20:16:37 +0000 UTC
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“I had him!” The Stalker’s scream echoed over the Lake of Ever Ice. He pulled his beard, gnashing his teeth. The squat fae stomped on the frozen surface, kicking at frost like a child throwing a tantrum. Below him, the ice rippled and writhed from his wrath.
Nearby, his mount pawed the ground as though preparing to charge, its hoof scraping the ice-packed snow. Bells rang in disharmony throughout his antlers.
Behind the moose, the hidden church’s forces had paused at their...
2023-12-30 21:00:40 +0000 UTC
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“What tier?” Alex had pressed Professor Mangal.
“Ninth,” she’d told him grimly. “Without a doubt. The spells would likely be Conjure Ultimate Ally or Conjure Grand Gate, both at ninth-tier. The former would allow you to conjure the most powerful of planar entities, while the latter creates a full portal between planes. But…very few summoners can cast those spells, Alex.”
Ninth-tier.
The pinnacle of spellcraft in wizardry.
At l...
2023-12-29 19:25:13 +0000 UTC
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Alexander Roth embraced the feeling burning inside him.
As energy flowed from his natural mana pool to the artificial one, the new construct blazed, filling him with more power than he’d ever known. He felt like two fiery hearts were inside him, beating as one, pumping blood back-and-forth, supporting each other. The energy built, flooding his being with powerful mana, feeling more intense than ever before.
It was intoxicating, he felt himself smiling, laughing, wanting to leap ...
2023-12-28 21:36:59 +0000 UTC
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Alex pointed to an instrument resembling a temperature gauge filled with blue glowing liquid.
“I've put enough of Hannah’s energy into the controls so you’ll be able to use them, Birger,” he said to the giant. “As long as the gauge has liquid in it, you’ll have enough energy to operate the sanctum without me. Kelda’s foresight’s really something to admire: she installed an energy storage compartment inside the controls that takes and holds Hannah's energy for a while. I ...
2023-12-27 20:16:57 +0000 UTC
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“Whoa! That's incredible!” Bjorgrund cried, shielding his eyes from the blasts of heat. “I can't believe this!”
“Me neither,” Alex paused, “I've got a plan if you'd like to help me.”
“What is it?” Bjorgrund asked.
“I'm going to do something I think I should call Operation Aeld-Sword-Staff,” he said.
“That doesn't sound like a very good name,” the giant said.
“I get that a lot. But anyway, while I'm doing that, I'll also be learning a...
2023-12-26 23:36:39 +0000 UTC
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Alex and Bjorgrund came at each other at least a dozen times in an hour, each time the giant was moving a little faster, reacting a bit more aggressively.
Alex continued using the Mark of the General, seeing his speed and combativeness increase in bounds. The last three years spent battling monsters—dodging and foiling attacks with dance moves that translated to fight positions, time spent learning anatomy, and even longer perfecting his abilities in the kitchen, all came together. Th...
2023-12-23 21:59:18 +0000 UTC
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“Are you sure you want to do this?” Bjorgrund asked, hefting his greataxe. The enormous weapon—built to be wielded by golem knights for crushing through the hardest, thickest armour—gleamed in the multi-hued light of the sanctum’s portals. “This isn’t how you normally fight, is it? And excuse me if that sounds insulting, but…”
The young giant flexed his muscular arms. “I’m scared that if I make a mistake, I could smash you into oblivion, or cut you in half, or rip ...
2023-12-22 21:08:41 +0000 UTC
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“The Marks aren't straightforward, they just appear that way!” Alex Roth cried, his mind was ablaze, like he was reaching new levels of understanding he’d never known before.
Everything he’d learned seemed to have been for this moment.
This revelation.
His mind began considering the Marks.
“Each Mark has a power that helps with its role, but there are inefficient ways to use them, and better ways to use them, ways that maximise thei...
2023-12-21 21:55:36 +0000 UTC
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Alex remembered more of his conversation with the ancient chancellor of Generasi.
“So…” he’d said. “The Mark obstructs my thoughts when I’m learning and casting spells, so I need to pay a lot more attention to every single detail of every spell I learn. That’s the ‘necessity’ part you were talking about: the part that creates discoveries. The more comfortable I am with every detail of my spells, the higher my chances are of casting them without a dis...
2023-12-20 21:20:05 +0000 UTC
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Bubbles burbled softly, watching its summoner work magic.
Alex cast Protective Force Weapon as easily as he had Wizard’s Hand, and just like that, crimson swords appeared, rotating around him, shielding his body. He stood wide eyed, grinning, shocked at what he’d just done.
“I can’t believe this, I can actually make force construct weapons!” his voice awestruck. “I remember sitting in Ram’s class, watching him cast this exact spell with a twitch of an eyebrow, thinki...
2023-12-19 19:37:03 +0000 UTC
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“Are you dead?” Bjorgrund called through the portal to the kitchen.
“Would I be able to open the portal if I was dead?” Alex called back laughing.
The two giants were stooped low, moving through the portal at speed, eager to see the still living young wizard. Alex was not only very much alive, but he was all smiles, dressed, and waiting for them.
“Did it work?” Birger asked. “Or did you have to stop?”
Almost giddy with laughter, Alex rolled up his right...
2023-12-16 22:17:47 +0000 UTC
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Warning: This chapter is darker
Deep within its lair, the Ravener was screaming.
Loose rock broke apart, rattling, shaking, raining from the ceiling. Its guardians yelped in fear, fleeing from what they feared was its rage.
Yet, rage was not what gripped their leader.
This time, it was not voicing its rage…this time it screamed in confusion, frustration, and horror. Its maker had etched hundreds of protocols into the midnight-black ...
2023-12-15 22:47:22 +0000 UTC
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Alex Roth was screaming.
The energies of Kelda's machine were boiling through him, piercing his very soul with sensations unlike any he’d ever felt before. He’d known pain and pleasure, endured hunger, anger and despair.
He’d borne the shock of a bane knife carving away bits of his soul.
But, what he was now experiencing was something else entirely.
There was no word, emotion or sensation he could think of, in any language he’d learned, to desc...
2023-12-15 00:11:33 +0000 UTC
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The time was near.
Soon, Alex would be ready to take a step that would forever change his life.
The young wizard crouched beside the Cage—Kelda’s well-named device used to operate on her soul—carefully altering glyphs designed to work in tandem to energise the mortal soul. While power within the glyphs increased, a rare material would discharge, adjusting the bane scalpels, causing them to resonate in time with a subject’s spiritual essence. As they throbbed, they would to...
2023-12-13 19:13:46 +0000 UTC
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For three hundred years, Kelda of Clan McCallum’s sanctum had been silent. For three hundred years, her laboratory had been dark. For all those many years, no living soul had walked its floors.
But no more.
In recent days, it had stirred, coming to life with activity.
When Birger wasn’t busy with other tasks, he’d be cooking meals in the unremarkable, galley kitchen that was equipped with enough stoves, ovens, and hearths to make meals for eleven people at a time.
<...
2023-12-12 18:23:42 +0000 UTC
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NOTE: Warning this chapter has part that is darker than usual.
“Has he found them?” a question was asked.
“Did he find them?” Someone asked the same question.
“Has he found them yet?” the question was repeated.
For hours, those words swarmed through the campsite on the Lake of Ever Ice, spoken from dozens of lips. Men and women huddled in their tents, sheltering from the icy wind, looking to each other and god for guidance.
<...
2023-12-09 21:20:58 +0000 UTC
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“Tell me…do you know what a patch is?” Hannah Kim’s spirit had once asked.
Her question had come when Alex was in a corner of the Hells, within the burning maze of Cretalikon.
He’d frowned, answering her with a question, “Like on a piece of old clothing?”
“Something like that. I couldn’t remember if I wrote about that in my book…” She’d taken a deep breath. “In my old world, there’s something we use called ‘program...
2023-12-08 20:54:59 +0000 UTC
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Kelda—in death—looked much as she had in life.
The young woman was pale and still, yet showed no sign of withering or decay. In many ways, the state of her body reminded Alex of Uldar’s lying dead in his sanctum; both looked as though they might take a deep breath and open their eyes.
But just like Uldar, it was clear that Kelda was long gone.
As were her assistants.
Ten men and women—some young and some old—were laid to rest around her, clad in the robes and...
2023-12-07 22:14:11 +0000 UTC
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Four crimson eyes watched Alex, burning from two snarling faces carved of slate-grey stone.
All else lay in blackness; the vicious expressions were all he could see under the light of glowing red eyes flickering like embers. A chilling memory returned.
One of fire, danger and death.
One of lines of flame streaking across stone, the scent of burning monsters, and the sound of bursting exoskeletons.
Alex remembered a skinny young man—who’d left his job as a simple ba...
2023-12-06 23:25:53 +0000 UTC
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Three months.
Three months had passed since Alex, Bjorgrund and Birger had begun their search for Kelda’s sanctum. Three long months of cold, danger, frustration, and disappointment.
Time was running short.
Only a few weeks remained until Toraka was out of golems.
According to Claygon, her agitation was giving way to panic.
That feeling was no stranger to either Alex or the two giants lately.
It now felt like the church had become expert at tracking them....
2023-12-05 21:41:17 +0000 UTC
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Alexander Roth was many things.
He was a wizard, alchemist, brother, a father, businessman, warrior, leader, friend, lover and prophesied Hero. The young man was also a baker, a hard worker, a scholar, and a traveller. He'd been a counsellor, guide, healer, and a helper.
Alexander Roth was many things.
A quitter had never been one of them.
He hadn’t quit when McHarris abused him because he knew how much Alex needed the job. He hadn't given up when th...
2023-12-02 19:01:08 +0000 UTC
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Cold waves crashed against the rocky coast.
Salt sprayed through the air.
“Merry bloody Sigmus,” Alex grumbled, flying close to the surf. He glared bitterly up at the moon, wiping droplets of salt water from his face, the closest he’d been to a bath in weeks. Looking over his shoulder, he called to his companions, the only two people he'd spent time with in more than a month. “Do you see anything?”
Birger floated over the rocks on the beach: the giant’s form was ...
2023-12-01 22:16:52 +0000 UTC
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From somewhere high above, something shifted, tumbling to the stone below, surprising the three companions.
Alex raised his staff, taking the first stance of the Spear-and-Oar dance as Birger reached for a rock from a heavy sack slung over his shoulder. Bjorgrund held his axe at the ready—the blade chipped from battle and biting through layers of thick ice—gripping it hard.
The trio didn’t breathe.
Alex reached for the Traveller’s power; listening for the sou...
2023-11-30 23:00:26 +0000 UTC
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“Get my house in order? You have a lot of nerve coming here and speaking to me that way! How dare you address a monarch in such a fashion?” King Athelstan Merciex’s voice rose, filling the meeting room.
On either side of him, High Priest Tobias Jay and court wizard Errol glared at counsellor Kartika.
The six armed woman—her three pairs of hands clasped before her on the table—glared right back. Outside, late fall had given way to early winter, and the windows were coated...
2023-11-29 21:02:14 +0000 UTC
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Claygon, at this point in his young life, couldn’t be considered ancient, old, or even aged, and as ridiculous as it sounded, he was still only a toddler, technically speaking. But, in his short life, the young golem had seen and experienced things that would inspire mortal legends for generations.
He’d seen battles that had changed the face of realms.
He’d seen magic and miracles.
He’d seen life, death, and the very fires of the Hells.
He’d even seen a soul ...
2023-11-28 21:08:17 +0000 UTC
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The frostbitten wind whipped over the Lake of Ever Ice, lashing a small cluster of buffeting tents. The lake spread from horizon to horizon: still, frozen, seeming to have neither banks nor shorelines, simply stretching out endlessly. From east to west, and north to south, one’s gaze found only mile after mile of icy, frigid landscape glittering beneath the harsh white sun.
In the distance, tiny frost-sheathed fairies beat blue crystal wings, fluttering through high winds, laughing an...
2023-11-25 21:49:05 +0000 UTC
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“What do you mean you can't stay here? And why are you saying you can’t go to the insula?” Alex looked around, eyes searching the room. “Did something happen while we were gone? I knew leaving you overnight by yourself was a bad idea!”
“I'm fine, I'm fine!” Selina insisted, waving her hands in front of her. “Nothing happened!” There was a note of desperation in her voice; it had been her idea to stay the night at the bakery instead of with the Lus or at her fr...
2023-11-24 19:46:31 +0000 UTC
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The Roth siblings reluctantly broke their hug knowing that their time together was growing shorter.
Alex stepped away from his sister, placing his hands on her shoulders. His eyes held hers. “You’re one of the bravest people I’ve ever known, Selina, and I want you to never forget that. Remember that when you think about me, and remember how much I love you. I’ll miss you, and I’ll come back home. I promise.”
Selina sniffled, looking up at him with her large, green eyes...
2023-11-23 20:32:38 +0000 UTC
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In a quiet neighbourhood in Generasi—in the wee hours of the morning—all was still. Golem crafting carried on in Shale’s workshop as it always did at all hours of the night, while late night wanderers strolled down the magically lit street. Most windows were shuttered for the night, very few lights burned within the homes and small businesses in this part of the city.
Even in the Roth Family Bakery—where Troy and the other staff would soon arrive to make preparations for the day...
2023-11-22 21:27:05 +0000 UTC
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