Douglas Miller

MiP Chapter 26: Academy

"Well? What are you two waiting for? I opened the door for you, so come in already!" The old robed man waved a hand, beckoning Carlos and Amber forward. Carlos blinked, shook himself, and hastily stepped into the tiny room on the other side of the great tower's doorway. Amber followed him a moment later, her eyes wide open and trying to look in every direction at once.

With Amber dumbstruck by her surroundings, Carlos gave the old man a respectful nod and greeted him. "As she said, I am...

MiP Chapter 25: Troubleshooting

Carlos sat on his rented bed and adopted a meditative pose as he focused inward on what his introspector could sense about the state of his soul. He thought back to the inspection Lady Telrar had done. She had followed a consistent procedure for both himself and Amber, and presumably that procedure had reasons for how it was designed. She had specifically looked for soul structures from eight points around the horizontal circumference of his soul, plus one on top and one on the bottom. What m...

No chapter today

Today's news is much better than last week, but still mixed. Last week, I announced, uh, everywhere except Patreon, that I was scheduled to be evicted on August 14.

The good news: With the generous support of my readers, and the initial advance of a hastily negotiated publication deal, I have made arrangements to pay my overdue rent. I will not have to move.

The bad news: My safety margin for paying rent in upcoming months is still uncomfortably small, and dealing with th...

MiP Chapter 24: Nobles

While Carlos pondered over the mysteries he'd suddenly been presented, Lady Telrar shooed him out of the ritual area, called Amber forward, and began repeating her inspection. Carlos shook his head and mentally put those mysteries aside for later. He could think about them anytime, but he likely wouldn't get another chance for a long time to observe this inspection process from the outside.

There was remarkably little to see with mundane senses. The only noises Carlos heard were Telrar'...

MiP Chapter 23: Inspection

Carlos was the one Varlinden gave the teleport scroll to, and he'd kept it in his pack, but when the time came to use it he gave it to Amber. He could experiment with using scrolls himself later, with unimportant scrolls where any mistakes wouldn't matter. This was far too important to risk screwing it up through inexperience.

Since he wasn't occupied with using the scroll, Carlos took the opportunity to exercise his new mana sense. He could tell that Amber did something with h...

Schedule: Weekly on Tuesday

After getting feedback from several patrons, I have decided that in the interest of a more reliable schedule and higher quality I will update with a new chapter weekly.

One new chapter will be posted each Tuesday.

When I have an additional chapter ready beyond the upcoming Tuesday, I will post that on Saturday for Platinum patrons until Platinum tier reaches the promised eventual 8 advance chapters. After that, I'll build a backlog again, and hopefully improve my writing pace enou...

MiP Chapter 22: Completion

Assessor Varlinden looked at Carlos and narrowed his eyes. "Identify? Not confirm?"

"Yes, Assessor. He said he is forbidden to reveal his house unless absolutely necessary."

"I see." Varlinden slowly swept his gaze from Carlos's face down to his feet, visually inspecting every inch of him. "Leave us. All of you." Varlinden didn't even glance aside.

Darmelkon, Tornay, and their minions quickly bowed and rushed to the exit, but Carlos grabbed Amber's hand before she could foll...

MiP Chapter 21: Assessment

Enchanter Tornay cursed under his breath for perhaps the thousandth time, as yet another test told him that the small purple crystal he was looking at was a perfectly ordinary and unremarkable dungeon core. The weakest dungeon core he had ever seen, little better than freshly spawned, but completely normal for a dungeon core of that weakness.

It was drawing in mana from its surroundings. It was connected to the field of ambient mana in the area. If not for his array of control disruptio...

MiP Chapter 20: Deceit

Darmelkon casually carried his chair back over and sat down in front of Carlos. "Something to show me? Not to discuss terms or negotiate?"

Carlos nodded. "To establish some background information. You called my behavior 'curious', and I think it's time to explain a bit of why I'm so blasé about the situation." Carlos carefully kept his breathing calm and even. His heart was beating a bit fast, but he reminded himself that he was pretty sure Darmelkon truly didn't want to kill ...

MiP Chapter 19: Deliberation

Amber sighed, and stretched, carefully keeping her movements slow and steady to avoid startling anyone. If not for the tension and uncertainty about what would eventually happen to them, this would actually be quite boring. She didn't even have anything to meditate on like Carlos, because those damn suppression cuffs would prevent her from making a soul structure. If she tried, she'd just be feeding her irreplacable soul shell mana into the cuffs.

She wished she'd gone ahead and made he...

MiP Chapter 18: Discussion

Carlos lost track of time meditating as he gradually eroded the mana absorber, but he was pretty sure at least a couple hours had passed. His mana redistributor was feeling more and more overfilled, loaded with mana it was struggling to make use of. Finally, the next speck of mana he moved into it sparked a change. A wave of compression passed through the soul structure, and it shrank, becoming more dense. It felt more solid, and stronger.

He paused to reassess, checking the status wind...

MiP Chapter 17: Dispute

"Well, now that the Enchanters Guild has acquired this dungeon core, I believe it's time to fulfill your side of the contract and pay me."

Tornay turned to look at Darmelkon. "What?"

"You heard me. You have acquired the dungeon core, so the Guild now owes me the agreed payment."

Tornay snorted. "Are you seriously calling this 'acquired'? What nonsense is this?"

"The previous owner denied opposition, and you securely laid hands on it. That is more than enough to qualify...

MiP Chapter 16: Delved

Enchanter Tornay and Lord Merchant Darmelkon stared at the dimly lit dungeon entrance in the cliff face in front of them. Darmelkon broke the silence first. "Any chance it's another dungeon they just found here?"

Tornay shook his head. "This is much too far from the nearest settlement for a dungeon to spawn naturally."

"Hmm. If it's the same one in a new location, we should be cautious of traps."

Tornay snorted. "A dungeon this weak is no threat to me. I will handle whatever...

MiP Chapter 15: Found

Carlos woke much earlier than usual that morning, full of excitement to continue building soul structures. He quickly choked down a portion of trail rations, then turned toward Purple, but paused and frowned at the spot where Amber had built a fire to cook dinner the day before. He looked up towards the cave ceiling, but there was too little light to see much.

He quietly spoke the lengthy incantation of the light spell, and reached up as he finished, trying to direct it to place the lig...

MiP Chapter 14: A System, of Sorts

Carlos meditated again, focusing once more on the feelings of mana moving into his soul and etching itself into a structure. This time, the concept he focused on for what the structure should do was the second on his list, the introspector: a structure that would examine the state of his soul and keep him informed about it, with the comprehension aid he'd already made helping him interpret the information.

The mana began to flow easily enough, but this time there was no existing mana co...

MiP Chapter 13: Making Soul Structures

Carlos frowned and put a hand on his chin, thinking. "Hmm. A dungeon core making a soul structure. Amber, do you know any reason why it might not work?"

"Um. Well, dungeon cores don't have mothers to give them soul shells. On the other hand, dungeons have a much stronger natural influence on mana, so I'd think they shouldn't need a soul shell."

Carlos nodded. "Makes sense. That just leaves us back at no ideas, unfortunately." He paused briefly. "Purple, I think you need to talk wi...

MiP Chapter 12: Cave

Carlos cast the light spell many times, paying careful attention to the sensations he could feel from using mana, as he waited for Amber to return. He was pretty sure he'd learned all he could from that when, just over an hour after his first successful casting, she emerged from the surrounding trees and undergrowth. He was also starting to feel tired, drained of energy in a way he hadn't felt before. He didn't bother to speak, just holding up his glowing hand towards Amber as she approached....

MiP Chapter 11: First Spell

Carlos yelped as something pointy dug into his side and he jerked awake. He blinked repeatedly as he sat up and rubbed sand from his eyes, his heart slowing back to a resting pace.

"Wow, no wonder it took so many tries to wake you up back at the inn. You sleep like a log."

Carlos yawned, but determinedly shook his head and tried to clear the fog from his mind as his situation came back to him in a rush. "I'm awake, you can stop poking now. Give me some privacy to get dressed."

Carlos's soul structures plan

Soul structures list

1. Comprehension aid: My first wish from Purple, but embedded into my soul. This will help me understand whatever I might need to understand, whether that's the speech of an unfamiliar language, the proper ways to do mundane everyday chores, the mysteries of the universe and magic, or anything else.
2. Introspector: Analogous to monitoring, diagnostic, and debugging tools of a computer. This will examine the state of my soul and its structures and give me...
   2023-06-16 16:07:29 +0000 UTC View Post

MiP Chapter 10: Soul Computer

Building a computer made of mana in his soul was not an easy or simple thing to do, of course, but at least he could start from concepts higher level than transistors and binary logic, Carlos reflected as he looked over the notes he'd written during their discussion. He was glad he'd thought to buy a notebook and pen before leaving Erlen; there were way too many details to rely on just memory.

"So you think it's viable?"

Amber nodded slowly. "Some of the pieces you suggested are s...

MiP Chapter 9: Soul Development

In a remote wilderness area, most definitely not a capital city, Carlos anxiously held a dimly glowing purple crystal in his hands, frowning as the glow fitfully fluttered a few times. "Are you ok, Purple?"

[Yes.] The dungeon core's mental voice gave an impression of profound weakness and fatigue. [Scroll destination wish small, but little mana. Need rest. But will recover.]

Carlos sighed. "I hope you're right. And thank you again, we really needed that wildcard." There had been s...

MiP Chapter 8: Hunted

Amber turned and began marching briskly along the road, much faster than the casual walking pace they had been using, and Carlos rushed to keep pace.

"Ok, I know one hundred gold is a lot, but help me understand just how much. What are the conversion factors?"

"One hundred copper is one silver. One hundred silver is one gold."

"So Darmelkon? Do I have his name right? He's offering one million copper for information about where we are. And three copper was enough for a full m...

MiP Chapter 7: Bear

The bear prowled forward menacingly, approaching from the side of the road, and Carlos frantically scrabbled for his sword, heart pounding in his chest. He tried to remember if he'd read any advice about what to do when encountering a bear, even as he wondered whether that advice would still make sense in this other world. He thought he vaguely remembered something about not running away, because that would encourage it to chase. Oh, and never threaten a mother bear's cubs. Crap, were there a...

MiP Chapter 6: Learning

"So that armor fits? Great, we'll take it!"

"That will be 8 silver."

"Done."

---

"Uh, is bargaining not a thing here?"

"No time, we need to go!"

---

"The edge feels sharp enough. It'll do."

"5 silver for the sword, then."

"Here."

---

"I'm grateful, really, but why are you helping me so much?"

"Talk later. Hmm, ten days of food and water for us should be enough."

"Um, a small notebook and pen would be nice too?"

MiP Chapter 5: Secrets

"Wait, what? Magic is programming?"

Amber stared at Carlos, and raised an eyebrow. "There's more to magic than just crafting spells, but of course crafting spells is part of it. How is that surprising?"

Carlos stared back and blinked a few times. "Huh? 'Crafting spells' is..." Wait. He thought a moment, and experimentally prodded at the translation magic in his head. 'Programming' translated to 'abraril miks', and 'crafting spells' translated to... exactly the same thing....