The room was exactly as Dallion remembered it. Clean, yet untouched, it was almost as if Hannah was expecting for him to return some day, even after all this time. Apparently, him moving out to Eury’s place and joining the Academy had never taken place.
Hey, Dal! A wave of greetings erupted. Welcome back!
Normally, he had developed a habit of ignoring guardian small talk, but it was a bit different here. These were guardians he knew better than most. Other than...
2023-05-12 21:17:01 +0000 UTC
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The aether barrier shattered under the effect of a dozen spells. Dallion, however, was prepared. A few seconds were enough for him to create four additional echoes. Thus, when the vixenairs burst onto the floor, a multitude of spells were cast their way. Chains and aether projectiles poured down like hail, followed by an expanding fireball. A flash of light flickered as the last spell hit the room below. Sadly, that only gave Dallion a brief reprieve. Thanks to his high perception, he could h...
2023-05-10 21:18:54 +0000 UTC
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Tower vortexes. Dallion had read a bit on the topic. Like everything else related to magic, it made just enough sense for a person to get a general idea, though not enough to convince anyone it could exist. Increasing his magic trait to twenty definitely helped. Since then, Dallion was able to see the descriptions that came with magic constructs, spells, even the magic threads themselves. A vast number of the instructions required higher levels, but even twenty was enough to see some basic pr...
2023-05-09 19:08:04 +0000 UTC
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All of Dallion’s personal echoes were waiting for him in his realm. Two of them—Gen and July—had blotches of concern within their bodies. Ariel, in contrast, had nothing but determination and even slight annoyance. Having the highest echo of all, he was of the opinion that Dallion should constantly keep on persisting until he gained the skills to move on.
“We’ve been urging you for years and a chat with pan gets you to finally do it?” Ariel crossed his arms. “Seems they we...
2023-05-08 19:55:22 +0000 UTC
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There was no way of telling how Hannah would react upon seeing Dallion. Considering how he’d left, she had every right to be furious. She could shout at him or even toss him out as she’d done with a few customers she didn’t approve of. On the other hand, given her obsession of helping lost causes, she could be glad to see him. Possibly, even if highly unlikely, she might get emotional.
When Dallion stepped into the inn, he was quick to find out. The innkeeper sat at the bar, an an...
2023-05-05 19:46:48 +0000 UTC
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Passing through the provincial capital was the smart choice. Dallion’s life would have been a lot easier, not to mention it was likely he’d get quite a few generous gifts from the archduke and nobles there. Being a mage was always a big deal, amplified considerably after the end of the internal conflict that had wrecked Wetie.
Dallion chose to send a courier letter instead, informing the archduke of his visit. That was he was in the clear, since he’d addressed the rightful ruler f...
2023-05-05 19:46:03 +0000 UTC
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Sunsets were always pleasant in Dallion’s realm. Lately, this was the only place he had to himself. Here he could rest, train, and spend time with his echoes, guardians, and companions. Sadly, this was also a place in which he could see reminders of those he’d lost.
“First Gleam, now Nil,” Dallion said, looking at the bridge remains that once had connected the main part of his realm to the Vermillion’s islands. “Sometimes I wonder who will be next.”
“It better not ...
2023-05-03 20:12:08 +0000 UTC
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Book 9
Five mages split the air, darting at the small hamlet like hawks in prey. Spells shot down, tearing structures out of the ground, surrounding them in massive spheres of purple, like enormous bubbles in the air. The only building left was a solid two-story mansion right in the middle.
Seven new mages emerged, swooping in-between the floating houses. Half of them cast illusion spells, causing them to vanish once more. The rest focused on the main building.
Streaks of li...
2023-05-02 15:03:08 +0000 UTC
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The Academy reorganization ceremony had so much fanfare that would make the Nerosal Festival look like a pauper’s gathering. This time the crowds were replaced by nobles, and the nobles by members of the imperial family itself. Dallion was easily able to identify over thirty members with the imperial crest embroidered on their clothes—a golden sphere surrounded by a gold or silver circle. Interestingly enough, there didn’t seem to be a single archduke present.
The new archmage was...
2023-04-30 22:44:30 +0000 UTC
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“Alien,” Dallion whispered.
With the exception of Countess Priscord, this was the one person Dallion wanted to stumble upon. So far, they’d only talked twice and, in both cases, the old man had warned Dallion to leave Nerosal or face the consequences. Knowing what he knew now, Dallion could see that he was only alive because the mage hadn’t made him his target. Even so, there was no love lost between them.
The mage was a political cockroach, pure and simple. One could only...
2023-04-29 13:15:12 +0000 UTC
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“Didn’t think they’d send you in person, mage,” Dallion said with a hint of sarcasm. After being locked up for what seemed like years, he was glad for any human contact, even her.
“They didn’t.” The woman’s fingers danced in the air, completing a spell. Apparently, the limitations preventing Dallion from casting magic in the room didn’t apply to her.
A chair appeared out of thin air and gently floated to the floor.
“Wash your face, shave up, then put that...
2023-04-27 23:22:56 +0000 UTC
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Dallion was back in the spike-filled room. Raven instantly collapsed to the ground. The events that took part in his realm had left him mentally and physically exhausted.
“Lux, heal him,” Dallion said, as he used a few simple spells to clear as much of the wreckage as possible. It was almost funny how he couldn’t do a spell that he had found so simple not too long ago. The spikes coming from the walls and ceiling were going to have to stay until mage reinforcements arrived. At lea...
2023-04-27 23:17:53 +0000 UTC
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Daggers rained on the tower like meteors. Each strike chipped away at the realm, creating crater after crater. The overall size of the top had already shrunk by half. What was left was more scarred that a newbie hunter in a cutling pit.
Dallion watched the destruction as he fell. Every second brought over a dozen strikes, all of them a safe distance away from Raven. The enemy echo made some attempts to limit the destruction, though not very successfully. Neither his skills nor his advan...
2023-04-27 00:39:22 +0000 UTC
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“What do I call you?” Dallion asked, rising further up in the air. “Lord Dreud?”
“I suppose you’ve earned it by serving this long,” the echo mused. “Grym.”
Grym… The name didn’t sound familiar, although to be honest, Dallion only had dealings with the southern and central provinces. The north was out of sight, out of bound. It could be said that, with the exception of the imperial capital, an archduke’s influence was proportional to the geographical positio...
2023-04-25 22:20:38 +0000 UTC
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Three echoes of Dallion mixed with his instances, running down the corridor. All three of them did a point attack, and all three had the attacks deflected back at them. Whatever technique the enemy echo was using, it was superior to anything Dallion had seen. No question about it. If it came to a standard fight, he’d lose.
What happens if an echo kills the owner of its domain? Dallion asked.
Nothing, the old echo said. An echo can’t destroy the realm it...
2023-04-23 21:48:22 +0000 UTC
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Ordering the shardflies off, Dallion drew his harpsisword.
Harp, will you survive the magic drainer? he asked, evading Raven’s attacks through extreme combat splitting.
It can’t affect items, the nymph guardian replied.
That was all Dallion needed to know. Tapping the blade of his harpsisword, he sliced through a spoke of stone, parrying Raven’s attack. The boy flinched, surprised for a moment, but then quickly twisted his body in a way that even some...
2023-04-21 09:17:03 +0000 UTC
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It was said that the only thing worse than a skilled opponent was an unstable one. Facing the erratic combat style of Raven, he could partially agree. The boy was a lot more skilled than he imagined. The Moonstone he had absorbed made his speed match that of Dallion’s. Significantly inferior in the combat splitting department, the boy made up for it through spell knowledge. Aether shards and bolts of magic flew all over the place, often neutralized by the room’s own defenses. As any snob,...
2023-04-19 01:28:07 +0000 UTC
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Typical of Valerian to do something like this, Nil said, words dripping with disapproval. He always was easily impressed and with a terrible sense of aesthetic.
Looking at the cluster of buildings below, Dallion couldn’t argue. What had seemed like square structures turned out to be a recreation of a modern twenty-century building complex. The architects had started with the basic idea, but added a few local features to make the whole thing more palatable. Ultimately...
2023-04-16 14:13:40 +0000 UTC
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Shardflies, like all creatures of the wilderness, were capable of a great many things—more than people could imagine, more than the creatures themselves knew. In his current state, Dallion was able to get a glimpse of all of them. Earth knowledge combined with magic and zoology, allowing him to command them to gather onto him, creating an almost impregnable living armor. There was no longer any need to cast spells to cast barriers or fly—the shardflies did that for him as Dallion issued c...
2023-04-13 13:14:49 +0000 UTC
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Several things were wrong with what Dallion planned to do, not least of which was the potential reaction of the Moons. Already being in their bad books, this had a chance of getting at least one of them really furious. On the other hand, even the Moons had to follow their own rules.
Please let this slide, Dallion thought as he dashed towards the large glowing cluster of Moonstone within his realm. I’ll pay the price, just give me a bit of time to see this through.
2023-04-10 23:52:05 +0000 UTC
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The memory slowly faded away, returning Dallion back to the real world. Things hadn’t completely worked out as Dallion expected them to; he had managed to use his empathy trait to peek into his enemy’s past, just not the one he had originally planned. Looking back, it was logical that the trait would affect the person in front of him, not the echo within. Nonetheless, he had obtained quite a bit of useful information. Now all he had to do was make use of it.
“You aren’t even a m...
2023-04-06 21:35:07 +0000 UTC
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MEMORY FRAGMENT
Mage Academy Learning Hall, 16 years ago
The room was a lot larger on the inside, as was the structure itself. The notion that an entire city could be packed within a single building was new to Palag. Now that he had the limiting echo removed from his awakening realm, he was able to remember many things that had taken place on the cloud fort he was born on. Clouds had the ability to change shape, as well as expand and co...
2023-04-04 21:14:47 +0000 UTC
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MEMORY FRAGMENT
Order of the Seven Stars’ 121st Monastery, 16 years ago
There was no doubt that something major was going on. Palag had instantly been taken to the bishop’s building, where he’d been made to wait outside the chambers, all the time under the escort of two clerics. None of them said a word, and seeing their stern expressions, the fury decided to do the same. However, thanks to his natural skills, he was able to hear ...
2023-04-03 08:34:33 +0000 UTC
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MEMORY FRAGMENT
Order of the Seven Stars’ 121st Monastery, 16 years ago
The inside of the stone building was a lot different from the rest of the monastery’s architecture. Palag had the distinct impression that he’d seen it somewhere before, possibly when he’d been very young. However, there was nothing made out of stone on the cloud he’d grown up on. The fury tribe he’d been part of prided itself for remaining true to their...
2023-04-01 00:15:53 +0000 UTC
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MEMORY FRAGMENT
Order of the Seven Stars’ 121st Monastery, 16 years ago
Months of vigilance and suspicion proved to be no match for a warm bed. Despite Palag’s attempts, he was asleep moments after touching the sheets. When he woke up, it was already dawn. There was a tray of food placed on a stool nearby.
It had been so long that Palag had slept in a single room that he couldn’t distinguish it from a dream. The thought fill...
2023-03-30 22:53:10 +0000 UTC
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Hello, all! :D
Another big day! Tomorrow (which should be in a few hours) Book 2 of Leveling up the World hits Amazon, Kindle, and Audible!
Thank you all for being with the series for over two years now (how time flies) and making it what it is today :D
Amazon Link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BTFY44MG
Audible Link: 2023-03-29 00:22:03 +0000 UTC
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MEMORY FRAGMENT
Tamin Empire’s eastern borders, 16 years ago
The sound of galloping horses and creaky wooden wheels almost blotted out the crying that filled the wagon. There were three dozen children in total, gathered in far less space than could hold them. The younger were sitting in the laps of the older. Even then, there was barely enough space to move around. Yet even these conditions were far better than what most of them had e...
2023-03-29 00:13:06 +0000 UTC
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Layers of the floor peeled off, constantly revealing new symbols. The spell Adzorg had created was rather ingenious in the way it worked. Rather than being a whole spell, it was semi-complete, merging with the symbols on the exit location. Once Dallion dispelled the top illusion, all he had to do was fill in the missing pieces in a calm and consistent fashion until a portal emerged.
The amount of skill involved was breathtaking. It was like looking at the inner-workings of a Rolex watch...
2023-03-28 00:34:23 +0000 UTC
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“How do you deal with the waiting?” Sof asked.
It had been over a hundred hours since we departed from the previous system. The Fleet had managed to stabilize the front, even going on a slight counteroffensive. On the surface that was good. Looking at the big picture, though, I wasn’t so sure. The number of reinforcements sent to the sector was considerable, and while they were mostly composed of new battleships, the resources could have been better utilized elsewhere. At the very...
2023-03-27 13:53:34 +0000 UTC
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Seeing new faces that couldn’t be identified was a common occurrence in the Fleet. Not being able to identify them even with my newfound access authority was rather impressive. It told me that I was being taken seriously. A short, dark-skinned woman met me in the hangar bay. Introducing herself as an arbiter’s aide, she escorted me to an unmarked shuttle of non-existent design, taking me off Sof. I would have liked to be able to say my goodbyes, or at least leave a message, but that was s...
2023-03-27 13:52:29 +0000 UTC
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