dragonheartednovels

[NR] It Used Literal Salt - Chapter 442

Within the private practice room, Jason lays in the very center stripped down to his underwear. No sitting for this one. Sure, by lying down it did mean more of his skin would be in contact with the ground, but by lying down he isn’t going to end up falling over halfway through.

After an indeterminate amount of time and once he had fully settled himself, Jason selected Conductive Skin as his reward. Then the pain hit, because of course there was pain. Good thing it looks like this “...

[D'sP] The New Boss' Status - Chapter 250

As the wave of power flowed over myconid after myconid, they changed. From a rabble of random mushroom types, they took on the myconid boss’ characteristics. Along with that, another shift happened, though this one was much less visible.

Before, each group had been its own troop. While they would share work and the floating three with the construction skills were accepted everywhere, each group was its own thing. Now they were all one troop under the boss despite living in separate vi...

[D'sP] This Wasn't Meant To Be A Reference - Chapter 249

Doyle turns his attention back to finding a soul for his boss. His soul extends across the unknowable depths. Avoiding the halos of souls directly around the various dimensions and the most stagnant parts of the void were souls lose all connection to any reality.

This dive it was even easier to find dimensions inhabited by sapient myconids. The problem ended up being finding a dimension that wasn’t only inhabited by fungus based creatures. It seems that some of his thoughts about the ...

[NR] Claws, Knuckles, Or Skin - Chapter 441

Being just a week away from the dungeon however didn’t give Jason much time to solidify his thoughts on the System’s potential control over those who had exceeded it. And to be honest? It didn’t particularly affect him in the first place.

Sure, he was going to look into making it so that Lily stopped gaining stat points from the System. That was just common sense as far as he was concerned. Other than that though, Jason’s goal right now was basically to escape the grasp of the S...

[NR] Seeing Stars - Chapter 440

On the other hand, Agility only grew by two points. To be fair, Lily didn’t exactly do that much dodging in those fights. It basically wasn’t worth it because the shell protects most weak points she might attack so the only way was through the front door.

Jason was a bit frustrated at those two points of Agility that Lily had gained. Both of her other stats were now started and that only left Agility, which may or may not star in two more points. He really wanted to know, but it is...

[D'sP] Deciding The Boss' Skills - Chapter 248

Doyle still isn’t quite happy with skills. Sure, they clearly are designed to exceed the norm, as he had put it, but not in the sense that someone couldn’t manage those things. Rather, the system seems more keyed towards lowering the difficulty of those things and opening up the use of mana or what have you even if not directly. Simple stuff like unknowingly boosting your muscles at just the right time to carve a smooth line that otherwise would have required an extra cut.

Doyle sha...

[NR] Hitting 99 - Chapter 439

Lily, of course ignored the scorpion sting these kangaroo mice were packing in their tail. After all, she wasn’t trying to take a bite of them, instead using her spiky fur and high Agility to simply slam into the main body.

Sure, if she tried to chase after them, they could probably give her a nasty sting. Lily wasn’t trying that, though. If they fought, she would fight. If instead they ran away? Neither Lily nor Jason bothered to chase.

In fact, as far as Jason was concerned,...

[NR] The Wilderness - Chapter 438

Jason’s backpack now sufficiently full of heavy feathers, they left the ostrich based monster nest. That meant he would now be able to focus all his attention on grinding out Lily’s stats. A task which would be much easier now that not only was she at a bottleneck because of Jason’s level, but an actual bottleneck so more can go towards stats.

Or at least that is something Jason assumes matters. Companions like Lily always did seem to have the oddest edge cases when it came to how...

[Closed] Deciding the Short Story Prompt for November 2022

This month is a bit unique. Instead of choosing between prompts, there are a large number of jobs that aren't combat related and I'm going to write a high level fight between two of them. Oh, and you can pick as many options as you want on this one.

(Next month goes back to normal)

I'm Better Now - Covid Free

As the title says, I've lived through having covid. It sucked, but here we are. Part of that here we are is that I basically didn't work half of last month. I've gotten some money from my mom so I can pay rent which was a slight worry since rent comes out the first business day of the month and Patron takes a few days to payout.

1: Side track, speaking of Patreon, I've not done anything with the new subscription payment method where people pay on the day they signed up....

[D'sP] Myconids Did Something Unexpected - Chapter 247

Suffice it to say, Doyle was happy with his array. Sure, the level 14 limit hadn’t changed as so far he was only copying it, but the array section turned into a proper part of the pattern database.

{Array Patterns: simple world energy gathering array for individuals [lv14] lv21}

Though the way it displayed the 14 next to the pattern level of 21 was a bit confusing. However, Ally assured him that once he had more arrays and an array had more options, it would likely split into it...

[D'sP] Figuring Out Arrays - Chapter 246

Doyle tilts to the side, ‘So will the level my arrays can affect rise with the pattern level?’

Ally laughs, ‘That would be so, so, so convenient. So no. You can totally have a level one thousand pattern for a level one array. It can even be really handy as you could specialize the array. A popular version of that is a hyper-efficient one which is meant to run off of the natural energy so people don’t have to keep throwing power at it.

‘You would think that an array meant...

[NR] Why The Don't Care - Chapter 437

And the answer was yes, the other ostriches were using the bodies Jason left behind. More specifically, they stripped the two he had been examining of the talons and feathers. A little close to some taboos, but they didn’t actually eat the meat so he just shrugged it off. Besides, they’re monsters.

After that though, Jason is more than happy to help the other birds gain a bit of a leg up on their act of bioaccumulation. Sure, he was taking the choicest feathers, but compared to the ...

[NR] They Don't Care - Chapter 436

Despite everything being in his favor, Jason still required a good four and a half days to find his groove. The pairs were easy enough, of course. All he had to do was sneak up on them. If he managed that then the first bird would fall to a neck shot, then the second was by itself and so a quick fight. An important factor when trying to grind out levels.

It was the larger groups that were a hassle. Not that he couldn’t kill a full group of ten ostriches. The fight just took too long. ...

So I Have Covid, But I'm Getting Better

I must have caught it at the event I went to last week as I started feeling sick on Monday. The thought of it being Covid didn't even cross my mind at first as I wasn't coughing or anything, but apparently some of the new variants decided to  cause throat pain instead of coughing. It shouldn't cause too much problem with my stories since the headache went away Tuesday night. On the other hand, I'll be out two weeks of work so that sucks.

Anyway, thankfully I was both vaccinated and...

[D'sP] Some Of You Have Been Asking For This - Chapter 245

After that, Doyle turns back to his paths, after all, he still has a good number of points to spend.

{Points:75

Class: Dungeon Core III 100/100, Awakened Dungeon Core II 10/10

Location [2/1 I]: Heritage Kobold Community I 15/15, Communities of Myriad Heritages I 15/15

Completed: Goat Supremacy 20/20, Energy Well I 3/3, Commanding Subordinates 12/12, Ageless Queens 15/15, Earth’s First Home of the Limit Breakers I 1/1, Biomes Aplenty 5/5, Potion Dispensary 10/10, Elem...

[NR] Effects Of A Monster Nest - Chapter 435

It took Jason over a week to finally find a monster nest to grind his levels on. This was mostly because more of them matched the recent nest in size than they did the monster nests along his original route. Which would make some sense.

The Adventures Guild doesn't want a lot of dangerous nests all over the place. Sure, the monsters Jason saw in the smaller nests weren't exactly high level, but likely that is one of the things that grows when the nest expands. Though even if it didn't, ...

[NR] Keeping An Eye Out Above - Chapter 434

Worse from Jason’s perspective, there was no way that the rich and powerful wouldn’t instantly fall into heart devil nonsense. In his new life, many things had been improved about the standard of living. All of it, however, was the result of normal people banding together. Corporations and politicians still needed to be kept on a tight leash because those positions attracted a certain type of person.

Jason can just imagine it, some Ceo or Mayor succumbing to a heart devil and turnin...

[Closed] Collecting Suggestions for the November 2022 Short Story Prompt

Heyo! Edit: This is not for suggesting parings. I want a single suggested class to a comment. The paring will be decided later by way of poll.

Oh hey, the title is different! What does it mean? It means I'm not accepting random prompts this time and instead I've got a prompt and I want you all to fill in the blanks. The prompt is "High Level Fight Between Two Nonstandard Classes". Note, when I say high level, I mean very skilled so archmage, not a level 100 mage. Also, ...

[Archived Short Story] Broken Chains Yet The World Is A Cage

Elder Broken Chains, though the disciples called him Elder Chains when they thought he wasn’t listening, resisted the urge to sigh. He wasn’t the oldest immortal, but he was one of the few that still remembered when breathing wasn’t a sickening experience for the so-called “ruler’s of the world”. Most preferred to erase those memories as they only brought sadness.

He waved his hand and the gathered inner disciples below were dispersed. It hadn’t been his choice, but he was...

[D'sP] The Monument - Chapter 244

Ally turns to Doyle, ‘Now that the whole god thing is out of the way, what seems to be the problem? I can practically feel your emotions churning about through our link.’

Doyle’s core shakes for a moment, ‘A double hitter. Both my normal nonsense and dungeon instincts teaming up to cause problems. Though what it comes down to is the fact the monument was placed in my dungeon without my say and I didn’t have a choice in it.

‘I’ve just personally never liked people mes...

[D'sP] A Monument Appears - Chapter 243

Doyle nods to himself, for good or ill, paths are the time to trust yourself. So with confidence that probably wasn’t earned yet, tells the system to put 15 points into Communities of Myriad Heritages.

{15 points applied to Communities of Myriad Heritages I...

5/15 - You have earned +20 Destiny, Beings that are created or born within communities that identify themselves as being in and around your location and all monster patterns gain +2 Strength

10/15 - You have earned +...

[NR] Thinking About The Slayer Bonus - Chapter 433

Jason continues to think over a number of facts and figures as he walks. In fact, he does this for the next three days in a row, never giving his mind a chance to wander in dangerous directions. It is finally on the fourth day that he wakes up and doesn’t instantly feel the need to look back. So he went one more day of distracted walking and on the fifth day Jason got his bearings.

Because sure, Jason had just been walking slowly, but that was only slow for him as his movement ability...

[NR] Comparing Himself And His Status To Others - Chapter 432

Jason shakes his head. The feeling of something being missing is hitting quite hard, but while he doesn’t remember why, he knows it was for a good reason. That and to not look back. The previous area was only useful in getting through quickly and only because it forced him to overextend himself again.

Ever since forgetting, Jason had been going at a slow walk because over the last month or so, he had been forced to run way too many times for way too long. Worse, this time he only got ...

[D'sP] Doyle's Thoughts On Tradition - Chapter 242

Doyle was about to move onto something else when it hit him. The inner circle was working like a seed crystal. While the roads encouraged people to build in certain areas, the design of the inner circle gave them a guide to follow without making it a law that people would chafe against. Though for some reason he suspects Ace wouldn’t put up with any spite houses or people following the letter of the law and not the spirit.

Not that there are too many choices for Wolf’s Rest when it ...

[NR] Better Forget That - Chapter 431

The first week of traveling through the birdless area was easy enough. Sure, there were still an absolute ton of snakes underneath the canopy, but even those had thinned out as the ones that got hungry would either leave or reduce the number of snakes more directly. Though this added a new consideration.

Below, the snakes are advancing in level and evolving as they are forced to fight or leave. Given how snakes normally deal with their children, this could actually be something purposef...

[NR] A Dangerous Opportunity - Chapter 430

Jason sighs and looks out over the new terrain he is going to have to deal with. It was all hills and trees. Though they seemed to be mutually exclusive. This meant the trees were only in the valleys between the hills.

Not that he had realized the green foliage was trees until he got up close to them. You would think a bunch of deep valleys next to a swamp would be asking for trouble. And maybe it was, but Jason didn’t stick around on the edge of the swamp long enough to learn if it h...

[Closed] Deciding the Short Story Prompt for October 2022

Below are the full prompts as the poll doesn't allow the full text. I'm going to run the poll for five days and in the case of ties the first option that got there wins. The short story will be finished by the end of the month and will be available to all patrons.

• "Freed" From the System - Most worlds have a problem where they are "integrated" into a system and that's that, this world doesn't have that problem- rather its been integrated for so long that almost no one is left who ...
  2022-10-01 10:01:02 +0000 UTC View Post

[Archived Short Story] Blighted Grey Dust

My Dearest Friend Henry,

I hope this letter finds you well as if you are reading it; I am not. There is nothing you can do for me. My choices will have led me beyond what mortal man was meant to know, to see. I hope that you will archive my experiences. Though I will keep my destination secret so you do not walk down the same path as I have.

-----

Henry sighed and folded what was left of the letter, his carriage having arrived. That scrap of paper was the last anyone had hea...

[D'sP] New Skill - Chapter 241

What Doyle missed was that Ace was preparing alternate options in case things go south. In Ace’s opinion, no one else in the little group of rebels was proper leadership material. Ben had done an amazing job of picking up followers, but that is all they’re good for. Give them a task and they’ll do it. Ask them to make a decision and they turn it back on Ben or the lady.

All of this and more was extracted from the group within only a few interviews. In fact, the reason they were gi...