dragonheartednovels

[NR] Sweet And Tangy Water - Chapter 373

Then Jason is ambushed by a bunch of spiders, because of course he is. Ten dog sized spiders jump out of the foliage and trees. This would be quite the threat for most groups.

For Jason, though? Sure, his venom resistance might not be too up to snuff at the moment, but he has more than enough experience with paralytics and that is what jumping spiders tend to be packing. After all, without webs they need to be able to immobilize their prey pretty quickly. Though the pack hunting thing i...

[NR] Changing Plans - Chapter 372

Jason, having offloaded the two skins, leaves the town. Sure, it would have been nice to stay at an inn. The problem with that idea is more than enough people in the trade caravan will have thought the same thing. So since they weren’t exactly going to be thirsting after all the claws and teeth he had been gathering, Jason decides to move on. This little side trip didn’t put him too far off his path, but only because the roads had been designed to funnel people towards Havenline, no matte...

[D'sP] What Wall? - Chapter 197

Jim looks over his party and sighs. That last patrol didn’t end up dropping any equipment, not that they were depending on it doing so or even hoping that it would. Still, it would have been nice to get something to equip Jay with. Though admittedly, his leather armor was of better quality than everyone else’s normal armor, but at least for the moment the dungeon based stuff was the best available.

Besides that, though, the patrol did end up dropping quite a large amount of non-equi...

[NR] More Than Expected - Chapter 371

As the last of the titan python’s health drains away, Jason is rewarded with a System prompt.

{Event Goal Achieved

1 hour until Event Space closes

Close Event Space early? [Y/N]}

A question that Jason easily answers yes to. While he could stick around in the event space to finish cleaning up the other monsters, with the way he had cleared and how rewards are calculated, it was better just to be done. After all, an assassin optimally should only kill their target. Any...

[NR] Seven Inches Back - Chapter 370

Jason burst out of hiding, the trickster coyote wasn’t completely surprised by this, but that didn’t matter. Even though the coyote was prepared for the attack, it hadn’t actually seen him and so the assassin title was in full effect. Sure, he would have been able to eventually beat the coyote without it. Just would have been hard to do without his middle finger.

See, instead of one of his usual ways of dealing with monsters, Jason decided to try a method that would put the tricks...

[D'sP] Razor Leaf - Chapter 196

To Susan’s left Sammy and Jay crash into the shield kobolds, Sammy using her shield and Jay the haft of his poleaxe. Through their combined bulk, the two of them are able to rebuff the shield wall. Not by much as the kobolds had been ready for them. It was, however, enough.

Susan spun out of the hole left by the downed shield kobold and ducks low, shoving a dagger up under a shield. With a splash of blood, the middle shield kobold loses all ability to stand on one of her legs, a dagge...

[D'sP] Extra Spicy - Chapter 195

Back in the dungeon, Ally claps, ‘That was quicker than expected! I was going to bring it up in a couple years but I guess your world has stabilized more than normal.’

Doyle tilts to the side.

Ally laughs, ‘You ever notice how all the fantasy worlds had multiple races? That isn’t natural. Sure, sometimes you will get a world that technically has two but this is because elves like to be extra spicy racist. The whole dark elf thing? They’re just elves. Your world wasn’t ...

[NR] Tricking The Trickster - Chapter 369

Jason takes his time looking around the event space. While he does know where the fight is, that can wait while he plans. With his need to take down the coyote first, he will need to figure out how to approach it unnoticed so as to take advantage of the assassin title.

On the surface, this was stupid easy to manage. The System basically left a giant path leading towards a number of obvious ambush locations to deal with both sides. Jason even believes that those locations are valid metho...

[NR] An Annoying Event - Chapter 368

Back on the ground a good distance away Jason is taking some time to rub his arms. Not exactly his usual workout routine and his arms weren’t shy about informing him of that fact. Then the pain vanished as his cultivation’s ability, Untainted Core, kicked in.

Though Jason almost wishes it hadn’t. Stuff like broken bones went away cleanly because all that needed done was putting things back together. The pain from a good workout, however, couldn’t just be magiced away, at least n...

[Closed] Deciding the Short Story Prompt for Mar 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. The short story will be finished by the end of the month and will be available to all patrons.

• Perpetual Reincarnator who dies just to see how things turn out in the future, also rants about historical inaccuracies because "I was there!!!"
• Slime Salesman who goes door to door with small customizations available on request.
• Grim "Reaper" - The Villain final...
  2022-03-01 05:51:26 +0000 UTC View Post

[Closed] Collecting Short Story Prompts for Mar 2022

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 few thousand 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] The Most Frustrating And Pointless Dungeon

Gregor crests the hill with his three friends and they spot their goal. Down in the valley below is an unassuming hole in the ground. His friend Jace, on the other hand, sees something quite different. While the hole doesn’t change, he can see massive plumes of mana being pumped into the atmosphere. He nods to Gregor, this dungeon hadn’t been conquered yet.

To the side, Beth sighs, “For a single floor dungeon this one has been here way too long with no one finishing it, are we eve...

[D'sP] Aliens! - Chapter 194

Ace had a headache. Over the last few weeks, the population of the town had doubled. Now, that wasn’t really all that much, all things considered. In fact, if it wasn’t for the source of these newcomers Ace would have been ready for them.

The problem was that these new people had just exited their tutorials. Not because they took a long time. Rather, their tutorial had started later than his own planets. These new people had actually been dropped on the settlement upriver and prompt...

[NR] Tree Swinging Time Again - Chapter 367

Up the crook of a tree, Jason really feels the venom hit him. His elevated heart rate had really spread it around and now that he relaxed even the smallest amount he could feel his limbs tightening up. Good thing he didn’t need to move for the next part.

Jason dives into himself and focuses on the threads that make up his body. While it had been a while since he had last used the active ability of his skill, the venom stuck out too much for any rustyness to get in his way. Across many...

[NR] Ambush In Coyote Territory - Chapter 366

At first things seemed to settle down as most of the snakes grew larger and tended towards being constrictors. In fact, Jason and Lily spent a number of relatively peaceful days, even managing to pass through the halfway point and into the coyote territory. While the constrictors had a very threatening bulk to them, only so many could live in an area. Combined with the active war going on, there just aren’t enough to bar their way.

The coyotes on the other hand did a better job of pro...

[D'sP] Cutting Monsters From The Eighth Floor - Chapter 193

Happy with the kobolds, Doyle turns to the 13th room, the five-sided square with strange furniture. The room is interesting because of the design that he just can’t figure out how to repeat, but otherwise the layout is simple enough. A bit of a problem, as that also means it doesn’t lean towards any specific set of monsters except maybe kobolds.

That, or maybe wolves dressed up like grannies to play off that old story. Doyle shakes his core and refocuses on the room. Without thinkin...

[D'sP] Adding Monsters To The Eighth Floor - Chapter 192

The top most room of the eighth floor was easy. Just a copy paste of the monsters on the first floor. That also made figuring out the total points spent a breeze as well, after all, he did spend the full 1,000 points there. That settled, Doyle moved his attention to the first room.

A big room full of glass platforms and bridges. Yeah, that’s going to be goats and kobolds. Sure, he has all these other monsters, but that is a little hard on anything else. Assassin vines? Nowhere to hide...

[NR] Constricted Conflict - Chapter 365

With that worrying combo monster, Jason sets a much faster pace over the next week. Even going so far as to travel well into the night. About the only thing that keeps him somewhat relaxed is that he had long ago gotten used to sleeping while in a sitting position and Lily gladly spent the nights curled up in his lap. If anything wanted to take her at night, it would need to be more than just an ambush predator extraordinaire or some other stealthy type.

It is only when he gets close to...

[NR] Not A Bug, But A Feature - Chapter 364

After whatever that nonsense was, Jason was a tad bit fed up with things for the moment. Good thing the plan at the moment was to leave everything up to Lily. A task that might seem out of place. After all, a rabbit versus a bear? Though as she had already proven, once she gets on the bear, the equation changes.

A fact she is soon enough able to prove wasn’t because of Jason’s help. Sure, when he threw her on that one hindbear helped. It wasn’t necessary though.

Next fight, ...

[D'sP] Copy Pasting A Floor - Chapter 191

After a quick break Doyle dives back in and starts to work on the ninth room. A little tricky as in theory the entrance coming from the last room could pop up anywhere. Sure, he could make it so that hole was always in the same place.

Doyle however wanted to keep the feeling of continuity. Anyone that visits the floor should feel that they truly are in a part of an infinite skyscraper. So even if he can, he plans to keep the perceived spatial coordinates the same between rooms.

Wi...

[NR] There Is A Connection - Chapter 363

Of course, after earning a new title Jason can’t help but test it and so the next hindbear the two meet suffers a similar fate. Only the next though, as Jason can easily tell the difference. For the very first strike of the knife to the temple, it goes in much easier.

While Jason wasn’t exactly all that skilled in daggers, but this didn’t feel like the System had made the dagger sharper or the target weaker. Rather, it felt like the hindbear just wasn’t as able to absorb the dam...

[NR] Lily Is Actually Kind Of Strong - Chapter 362

Suffice it to say, despite how threatening the hindbears might seem, they very much aren’t. At least not for Jason. So it is a good thing that he doesn’t intend to personally use them for training.

Sure, the first couple fights had netted him a few ability points, but that wasn’t likely to hold out. Those points came more from experiencing a new situation than any actual difficulty on his part. Instead, the hindbears made a perfect sparring partner for Lily and so Jason decided to...

[D'sP] Another Vine Room Or Three - Chapter 190

Now with the basic structure of the eighth floor set in place Doyle felt free to play with it and so turned to the first room. He wasn’t ready to go full Escher on it so left space itself alone for now. Instead, through the use of unnaturally tough glass, a number of platforms and bridges are formed. Each one is just clear enough that you might lose sight of it if not paying attention.

Doyle wasn’t planning on hurting people through tossing them off the side of the platforms, especi...

[D'sP] The Secret Holy Swords Don't Want You To Know - Chapter 189

Ally rolls her eyes, ‘You’ve had more than enough time to think about what you want the floor to be.’

Doyle laughs, ‘True enough. Though I must admit I haven’t thought too deeply about it. I’m having a bit of a hard time judging my recent floors. How will the delvers react to my seventh floor? While the sixth floor has some nonsense to it, I started to warp space in a visible manner with the seventh floor.’

Ally nods, ‘Yeah, your world wasn’t exactly at the tech ...

[NR] Adding To The Stew - Chapter 361

With the hindbear dead next to his campfire, Jason has no problems processing it. Though, to be honest, he is quite far from being able to take it for all it is worth. Just the hide itself would be worth a decent bit but is way too cumbersome to handle so instead he focuses on distinct features. For this particular hindbear, that meant three incisors as one had been knocked out at some point in the past and the side claws, which were significantly bigger than the rest.

Not that Jason pa...

[NR] Breakfast Visitor - Chapter 360

The next day passed peacefully for Jason so of course it was time to ramp things up again. There was a split in the path and it was easy enough to tell which way saw more people. This is a great indicator for him and so resolutely he turns and takes the road less traveled.

Though, unlike the previous bits of fun, Jason actually knows what he will be facing. This path was specifically in place for the occasional adventurer to go through and cull the hindbear population. He had wanted to ...

[Closed] Deciding the Short Story Prompt for Feb 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. The short story will be finished in February and will be available to all patrons. For the moment the stories will remain patron only as despite my thoughts last poll I've since become not sure if/when to make them public.

• A  retired senior citizen adventurer group who all have middle schooler syndrome run a dungeon.
• A Dwaven Clan that raises and trains slimes...
  2022-02-01 08:26:41 +0000 UTC View Post

[D'sP] A New Motivation For The Town - Chapter 188

In the end, Doyle can only sigh and head off to continue his work on the seventh floor. He had other plans but with the increase to his debt he decided to scale back a little for the near future to start paying it off more actively. The upside is that once he stops spending his world energy on everything the amount of quintessence generated ends up being greater than predicted.

Though after thinking about it, Doyle realizes it would make sense. The four days to a point was predicated on...

[NR] Just Chilling - Chapter 359

Back on the road Jason takes one last look back at the ravaged area and shakes his head. The area it took up was too large for him to do anything much about, but he would pass it on to the next settlement he came across. While it wasn’t his responsibility to take care of, someone would probably care. At least enough to go and check it out if they didn’t already know about it.

Jason shrugged as he let Lily out. The world was full of mysteries and not all of them were meant for him to...

[NR] A Couple Bears - Chapter 358

While it would delay him, Jason wasn’t exactly planning on speed running his trip in the first place. So with great care, he backtracked to determine the exact start of this strange area. Even just that though isn’t without trouble.

His guess that everything was fighting hadn’t been wrong as groups of small animals threw themselves at him twice before finding the end. Jason felt it odd that he hadn’t experienced this on his way in but could only assume nothing had been along the...