dragonheartednovels

[Archived Short Story] Opening The Wall

“One drop of aquar spidoriod silk goo

Half a pale of shadow mouse aura

Thirteen fiery snowflake stones ground unto pyramidal dust

And a wisp of a dying mountains last breath”

A glowing crysglass bottle shakes with the sound of an earthquake. Then a man turns his attention to a massive tome to record the results. “Too much of the dust for this component. Switch to twelve and a half.”

Behind the man, a door opens cautiously and a man dressed in fancy clothe...

[NR] Courtney's Confusion - Chapter 525

Rosha and Courtney return with little fanfare. Their couple hours of stolen time is enough to get a proper taste of the powers present around them. Next time, they will be ready to pull in the power and truly cultivate.

Not that Jason would say they weren’t cultivating. Too many cultivation snobs put limits and requirements on what is needed to be called a cultivator. Jason never saw a reason for that and as long as you are actively practicing a cultivation technique, he was more than...

[NR] A More Reasonable Encounter - Chapter 524

After those discoveries and the planning, the trio checked the time and decided to not bother repacking everything. Courtney’s fact finding had happened irl and thus took a few hours so while there was still half the day left, it wasn’t out of the question to stop. Of course, that meant they only managed a couple hours of travel, but it isn’t like they’re on a strict timeline.

Oh, and it gave Rosha and Courtney some extra time to cultivate. Jason of course had been planning to d...

[D'sP] Bird - Chapter 311

Doyle turns back to his status, ‘Welp, now I can focus on making the thirteenth floor. Time to finally figure out what my new monster even looks like.’

To get to that step quicker, Doyle doesn’t even wait for the 13th floor’s main expansion to finish. Instead, after a quick check of the new floor’s stats.

{Thirteenth floor dimensionally anchored

World Energy cap +9,700 [Constitution(97) * 100]

thirteenth floor spending limit set to 61,320 [Previous floor’s ...

[NR] Just How It Works - Chapter 523

Rosha rolls her eyes, “Personal skill at growing herbs aside, I feel we should keep the mode in place at least until after our time in the Deep Wilds.”

Jason nods, “At the very least, it sounds like it should keep us and our base safe from any griefers, whether player or local.”

Courtney, “That is actually the one of the other main benefits. Rosha’s family has a number of people on retainer who live like hermits to keep certain family secrets safe.”

Jason, “W...

[NR] Lonely Travellers - Chapter 522

When Courtney logged back in, she didn’t look happy.

Rosha, “What did you find out? Is it Jason’s fault?”

Courtney raises an eyebrow, “Why in the world would it be Jason’s fault?”

Jason shrugs, “While you were away we realized that when we separated to head to the dungeon, you two saw a few people traveling while I saw no one actually traveling. Sure, there was the whole demon thing, but that wasn’t actually people traveling around.”

Courtney shakes...

[D'sP] Another Source Of Adjustment Points - Chapter 310

Doyle sighs, ‘I guess I can’t really do much about those skills right now. Instead, I should figure out my paths and then try and think of new skills to gain. Because until now, it’s mostly been haphazard.’

Ally, ‘Not quite haphazard, rather curated. While the system won’t pop up a message asking if you would like to learn a skill. It will not force a skill on you. In fact, if you ever come across something that grants a skill, the system will at that point give an option on...

[D'sP] Magic Doesn't Fix Who You Are - Chapter 309

With the addition of Tess’s fledgling healing magic, the teams of Ace and Jim can progress in beating the tenth floor without pushing. They were worried about how she would handle the floor. It would be perfectly reasonable for her to have some form of negative reaction.

Whether that was to shut down or go berserk, they expected the worst. Now, not to say that when she first returned, there wasn’t some stuff for her to work through. However, while she certainly wasn’t 100%, Tess w...

[NR] Lonely Roads - Chapter 521

Once Jason is back in NeoRealm, things move fast. The group had been ready to leave the day before and were ready and raring to go. While they didn’t have quite as defined of a route as when leaving the nine bamboo kingdom, they knew where they wanted to go.

The kingdom of Steelford, creatively named after the capitol which was positioned in one of the few places a particularly large river could be forded. As for the steel part of the name? The founding king thought it sounded good. W...

[NR] Another Meridian Cleared - Chapter 520

Jason settles in, he doesn’t have much time left before needing to get back to NeoRealm and plans to use as much as possible on clearing his meridians. At the moment, he only has one meridian open and so the speed at which he can clear new ones should still be relatively fast. The only problem is that the false sleep or whatever it is being in the VR pod does seems to have an even bigger negative effect than just sleeping.

It is normal for some extra detritus to end up in the meridian...

[D'sP] Vision Quest - Chapter 308

Time passes as Doyle waits on his next floor. While this is happening, Tess has sunk into learning magic, delving quite deeply into training. Some might even say to an unhealthy degree.

Though since she had been stating herself to be a melee fighter, Tess had more than enough Constitution to handle it. If only she hadn’t hit a roadblock on her progress. No matter how much she tried to delve into the various magic types, there seemed to be a mental block or lack of talent that stopped ...

[NR] Paranoid - Chapter 519

Courtney sighs, “I guess we’ll have to depend on getting lucky.”

Jason rolls his eyes, “Hey, it isn’t like we need the reverse meridian stuff. We’ll definitely get a ton of mystical herbs with an extraordinary meridian opened and that will help. Beyond that? It will be on us to find them ourselves.

“While hard, most people who were serious about cultivation in my last life managed to open at least one of them. So opening them all might go a little slow, but ...

[NR] Eh, I'll Know It When I See It - Chapter 518

Jason sighed, “I wish there was a simple solution to finding the reverse meridian resources. At least, that there was a simple solution that could still hide what you were looking for. In my previous life, the solution was simple. You just need someone that has excavated their normal meridians, but not moved on to the next stage yet.

“Since they’re finished with the regular meridians, their extraordinary meridians can influence the outside world until they move on to the next stag...

On the matter of the Tiers

Last year I was considering a bit of a change up with how my tiers are structured. However, I didn’t get around to releasing my third book and some responses weren’t too positive, so I put it off. Now, the third book is going to start releasing and I have some ideas.

First, there will be a new $3 tier. This one has actually been kicking around in the back of my head for a while now. I’ve got a bit of a gap between the $1 tier and the $5 tiers that goes from zero to 60. Right now I...

[Closed] Another Quick Poll for next Story's Blurb

Been working on the blurb even more (between not having time and sleep). Anyway, I've got a better feel for it this time and I've taken various suggestions into account. Any feedback is appreciated, though the actual poll is going to be lightning fast at only 24 hours. So without further ado:

There were things hidden in the darkness and they’re about to introduce themselves to the hood of my car. Not that the knowledge will do me much good. Some Talents aren’t too appreciat...

2023-08-07 11:01:37 +0000 UTC View Post

[D'sP] On Regular Immortality - Chapter 307

Doyle, ‘Why maybe? If my growth is slowing down, it would make sense for my skills to slow down as well.’

Ally shrugs, ‘Because you haven’t reached the first major milestone for any of your skills. None of them have hit level 100 yet.

‘Mind you, nothing particularly special happens at 100. However, it is seen as a general mark of competency. For instance, nearly all crafters finally begin to manage a masterwork around the time their crafting skills hits 100. They won’t...

[D'sP] Monster Inheritance - Chapter 306

Doyle focuses on the nine golems and with the intent to gain the pattern, deconstructs them.

{Plated Crystal Core Crystal Clay Hexape Golem pattern acquired at lv13}

{Plated Crystal Core Crystal Clay Hexape Golem

S[6] A[15] C[15] I[2] W[1] P[1]

Inherits from [Golem]

Max 2 Skills

Required Skills: Magic Resist

Available Skills: Magic Resist lv5

Cost: World Energy[70]}

The stats look alright, though Doyle pulls up the kobold’s starting stat...

[Closed] Deciding the Short Story Prompt for August 2023

Below are the full prompts as the poll doesn't allow the full text. In the case of ties the first option that got there wins. The short story will be finished by the end of the month.

Magical Research - A really  bizarre plot with an intrigue around a magical  research project.

Heroic Weapons:- God: "OH HEROES, YOU HAVE BEEN SUMMONED TO AID THIS WORLD! AS THE GOD OF WEAPONS, I BESTOW YOU WITH A SACRED WEAPON OF YOUR CHOICE!"

Repeated Heroics - The Powers That Be wa...

[NR] Like A Stone Just Under The Water - Chapter 517

Jason smiles, “Now I admit, that is being a little harsh. The matching items do have a variety of methods you can use to improve their efficiency. However, most of those involve having the second type of item, the opposites.

“You might think that shouldn’t be too hard for the extraordinary meridians which come in pairs. That is sadly not the case because those matches while half made of opposing elements are also half matching elements. So, they’re basically a wash.”

Cou...

[NR] They Suck - Chapter 516

Rosha lets out a long sigh, interrupting the others. “This is interesting and all, but is there anything else that needs to be done about the whole cultivation nonsense? Like, yeah, I felt all of that irl, but where does it go now?”

Jason shrugs, “Form your core with whatever powers call to you, excavate your meridians, find and open your extraordinary meridians, and keep advancing.”

Cortney, “Why find?”

Jason, “The extraordinary meridians, unlike the normal on...

[D'sP] Almost There - Chapter 305

So with his plan for the next floor crystalized in his mind, Doyle begins work on what will hopefully be his first golem pattern. With that in mind, he went all out in terms of quality. The first step being the quartz core and dust.

The making of which ended up taking multiple days and many failures. Before, Doyle had just carved a pleasing shape. For this, though, he wanted something more resistant to damage, a perfect sphere.

Now, before becoming a dungeon core, it would have be...

[NR] Eh, Neither - Chapter 515

Jason shrugs, “The military shouldn’t get their hopes up too high, at least to start. Part of why only low-level cultivators tend to be in the army is because you need someone stronger at the top. Not by a rank or two, either.

“You need someone who could keep them all in line by themselves. Now, I’m sure this world will fare better on the war front. Many people still see it as an honorable duty to serve.

“However, while you can have cultivators mixed into the general pop...

[NR] Calcification And Memories - Chapter 514

Courtney, “While I will admit that some of the elders are... hmm, less than stable. Work has been done to assist. Why would cultivation fix this specific problem? There doesn’t seem to be anything directly modifying the mind. Which admittedly, if there had been, we wouldn’t have gotten this far.”

Jason, “There are two major trouble areas with exceeding your natural lifespan. That is, after you remove the more obvious ones brought in by medical problems which can be fixed throu...

[Closed] Collecting Short Story Prompts for August 2023

Once again I'm here to ask all of you for short story prompts! I'll take the more popular ones as decided by the number of hearts (or that I particularly like) in the comments and make a poll at the start of the month. The winner will be made into a short story of a thousand or so words.

Not many rules on what you can suggest at the moment. That will mostly be figured out as we go. Besides that, the short story will come out before the end of the next month.

Rules for prompts:

[Archived Short Story] A Friend, A Villain

The sound of a single pair of hooves echoes through a hallway made of black stone. Well, it is painted to look like black stone. There hadn’t been any locally available that matched the desired quality and so the owner had made do.

Also, that pair of hooves isn’t the only sound, however their sharp clickity clack does cut through the noise of shoes and quiet conversation. Of course, the guy making the noise should have technically been wearing shoes as well. They were a part of the ...

[D'sP] The System Speaks Up - Chapter 304

Doyle leans back, ‘Okay, so I’m a bit weak on the faith aspect.’

Ally nods, ‘Yes, you personally are. Good thing you’re not the only human around. Faith, despite what people may believe, isn’t a personal thing. Yes, you may or may not personally have faith in something, but that is only a single grain of sand in a desert. Whether your grain is red, white, yellow, or black doesn’t matter if every other grain is another color.

‘However, don’t take that to mean each...

[D'sP] It Really Doesn't Like Them - Chapter 303

Ally shrugs, ‘That’s a good question. Be nice to know the answer, but the system isn’t telling and it isn’t like other dungeons are too talkative about the subject.’

Doyle sighs, ‘The system really does hate dungeons using golems, doesn’t it?’

Ally once again shrugs. ‘I wouldn’t say hate? Though mostly because I don’t know how emotionally developed this system is. Rather, whoever made the system certainly had a specific view when it comes to golem dungeons. 2023-07-21 10:01:01 +0000 UTC View Post

[NR] Why Does Sleeping Work? - Chapter 513

Rosha shrugs, “Sure, it does that, but wouldn’t mental acceleration do the same? You can’t tell me that the godly figures with thousands of years under their belts aren’t capable of accelerating their thoughts a bit.”

Jason, “Firstly, the big thing with the whole ‘messing with time’? It works from an outsider’s perspective while not actually doing anything for the person experiencing it. What NeoRealm is doing works from everyone’s perspective. Secondly, I think what...

[NR] Lifespan - Chapter 512

Jason sighs, “For now, humans are enough of a handful for humans. So”, and he turns to Rosha, “Since you succeeded, how did it go?”

Rosha rolled her eyes, “Basically answered that by the fact I didn’t have to push any disruptive nonsense out of the way. Probably caused a tizzy for those watching you.”

Jason nods, “I’m not really sure how that will manifest. You didn’t actively rebuke them like I had to. However, you were against them from the start.

“I�...

[D'sP] Strange Golem Nonsense - Chapter 302

Instead of using clay, Doyle found a way to use quartz. Well, any of the gemstones would likely work, but basically all his crystal patterns were various quartz varieties. Anyway, it had to be a non-magical crystal.

What needed to be done was you had to get a relatively large crystal. One that if added to the clay would equal around one percent of the mass. Easy enough for a small golem, but if you wanted something man sized was going to get silly quite quickly.

That crystal neede...