nemorosus

Chapter 645: Sand in the Hourglass

Seven days passed after Argrave and his entourage entered into the Shadowlands, and a feeling of unease over all who knew this fact. But unease was something that could be overcome, and overcome it they did. The research team—now headed by Llewellen—marched boldly onward, progressing magic in a period of seven days more than had been done in several decades. Illusion magic, itself an incredibly young field, advanced in countless ways. Druidic magic, too, spread far beyond its source in th...

Chapter 644: Conspiring to Steal Valor

“How were you actually born?” Anneliese asked the horseman on his steed of shadows as they walked through the lifeless Shadowlands.

Other than some mutterings between the ancient heroes—some of whom had become fast friends, after putting aside their desire to genocide the other—Anneliese’s incessant questions to their escort Shadowlander was the only sound permeating this endless dreary place. She was asking questions that Argrave himself wanted the answers to as they charted ...

Chapter 643: Make Love, Not War

As Argrave felt the stampede of the hounds of hunger come ever closer, it felt as though he was witnessed a stampede of wildebeests charging at him. Predators seldom worked in herds, but these cooperated to sate the hunger eating them from within. He began to see these blackened, indistinguishable creatures as hyenas—and like that, the image crystallized.

In his mind’s eye, color returned to this blackened world as a vast savanna took shape. Golden grass sprouted from the flat groun...

Chapter 642: Hopeful Man Smiles Pleasantly at House Guests

After Argrave gave his somewhat insistent request that the Hopeful should speak, the unceasing tide of darkness coming from all portions of the man’s body waned somewhat. In particular, the writhing shadows near his face started to lessen, revealing a teeth-revealing smile. Argrave thought the pressure might lessen in intensity once his features were revealed, but the strain upon his fighting locusts of blood felt all the denser as the shadows pressed them harder.

Argrave opened his m...

Chapter 641: Realm of Hungry Ghosts

Argrave walked out of the makeshift interrogation room a great deal later, his gray eyes looking somewhat darker after what he’d learned. Others, who’d not participated in the interrogation so as not to make it overbearing and overcrowded, walked up to him.

“Have we learned any useful information?” Bhaltair questioned.

Argrave stood, searching in his own head for how he might answer that question. After a long while of many waiting expectantly, he finally said, “I think ...

Disregard Fantasy, Acquire Currency: 6

Really been enjoying these. Looking forward to my weekends a lot more than I was. I do tend to procrastinate, and the way I've found to avoid that is making promises to people-- in this case, you fellas. Thanks for being my unwitting partners.
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“The countess will see you now,” the male attendant said, bowing fluidly and perfectly.

Willem was jealous of this attendant. It made the small package that was Dirk seem somewhat lackluster by comparison. The only thing Dirk had g...

Disregard Fantasy, Acquire Currency: 5

They arrived at the city of Gent at the midday. Willem sat by the window of the enchanted carriage, watching the city come closer into view. It had solid twenty-foot-tall walls of beige stone. It reminded him of his visit to Spain, and more specifically his tour of the Aljafería Palace and Alhambra. Its gates had those distinctive horseshoe-like arches he’d seen in Moorish architecture on the Iberian Peninsula.

“Does this place have proper sewage?” he wondered, casting a glance a...

Chapter 640: Curse of Competency

Argrave walked out into a wide-open valley, alone in spirit but not in fact. Excluding the thousands of blood-infused wind eels soaring above him as a cloud of death, he had the charming company of the Shadowlanders, playing the role of the lurking mountain lion ready to leap down upon him. In the back of his mind, he kept at close attention the blood echo positioned miles away. One of the good fortunes about being in an area where the enemy had no knowledge of him meant that he could call up...

Chapter 639: Portrait of Grim Endings

After they earned some reprieve from the initial assault, they took two actions. Argrave and Anneliese set to work charting out more of this land. Argrave used blood-infused electric eels to deliberately carve out areas of the Shadowlands, and Anneliese worked to replace what he burnt away. The terrain that took place before them was a land of vast canyons, mesas, and valleys with treacherous falls into places where Argrave was certain Shadowlanders lurked. It remained devoid of color.

...

Chapter 638: Justified Fear of the Unknown

From the beginning, their group had agreed upon some strategies. One such strategy was a devastating opening salvo combining the grim virtues of necromancy and Argrave’s blood magic. As the dull steps of the Shadowlanders filled the air before them, Bhaltair, founder of the Order of the Rose, tapped Argrave’s shoulder.

“Bhaltair speaking,” he said quietly, predatory orange eyes gleaming. He was a large man, bulging with fat in places that hardly seemed possible. “Fifteen blade...

Chapter 637: Terra Incognita

Entering into the Shadowlands, even changed by Anneliese’s rewriting of its fundamentals, stripped Argrave of countless things that he’d come to take for granted; fundamental aspects of being that helped qualify the world around him. He was the first to pass through the threshold, and once he did, several facets of several senses left him.

Color ceased to exist. There were only different iterations of white and black, and all in between. Or at least, so he thought—when Anneliese e...

Chapter 636: Pieces of Peace

Knowing that all of them might not ever again return from the Shadowlands, Argrave gave one final compromise for those he’d brought back beyond the grave: a day to say their goodbyes to this world, in whatever manner they saw fit. He wasn’t trusting enough to see them roam freely, though, so he only allowed those who were fitted with something of Raven’s design to leave. It would kill them if they did not return in a timely fashion.

Argrave sat with Garm, who went without eating d...

Disregard Fantasy, Acquire Currency Chapter 4

Lennard stared down at the paper splayed out before him. On the very bottom of it was a signature. The part that read ‘Willem’ looked practiced and refined, while the ‘van Brugh’ looked like a messy scrawl, almost as if the man wasn’t used to signing his own last name. Maybe he wasn’t—Willem didn’t have many official duties in the household.

He leaned back in his chair, feeling odd. His younger brother had asked for only three things: to be disinherited while keeping his...

Disregard Fantasy, Acquire Currency: 2 and 3

I'm thinking I might change the first chapter up. Willem's background won't change, but I'm considering revealing it piecemeal throughout the story instead of front loading it at the beginning. Instead, I considered doing the first chapter wholly from the perspectives of other people. Matter of fact, I intend on making that common throughout the whole story. People seem to enjoy it.
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Lennard stared down at his younger brother, Willem. His nonchalance in the face of their father’...

Chapter 635: The Three Principles

Elenore looked at the debate raging all around between many different parties, and felt a rather peculiar feeling. She was certain that she was witnessing a historical event of far greater magnitude than even the organization of the parliament. That was merely an institution, and they could rise and fall. But today, they strived to create something that defined the essence of their government henceforth.

Argrave had created a very effective cudgel. By limiting what was to be written to ...

Chapter 634: Capturing Freedom

Argrave wasn’t necessarily opposed to giving those who’d been brought back by Garm’s machinations some generous concessions. The Fruit of Being had chosen Durran, and as a consequence, all of this had spiraled into this. He had been half-joking about trusting the fruit, but actually going through with it had made clear that the golden snacks had some deep foresight. Without leaving it to them, things would not have turned out half as well.

Just because he wasn’t opposed didn’t...

Chapter 633: Legendary Lobbyists

“Before I could even consider lending you any help whatsoever, you must make certain concessions for my people,” said a dark-skinned southron elf. “Your kingdom must provide them special privileges, as well as state-subsidized immigration programs allowing them to move out of the Burnt Desert to where ever they wish to go. Considering the limited time I have, I would expect you to promulgate this law in a public address.”

Argrave regarded the greatest emperor of the southron elv...

Chapter 632: Alive Yourself

Anneliese had gone to talk to Elenore, and after, she intended rejoin the research team—Argrave could feel her presence inside the parliamentary hall in his sister’s office. Raven hadn’t been lying in saying that they’d become a closed loop, sharing everything. Argrave had been lying in bed trying to think of what was to be done next to prepare when Durran came to him, spouting a rather outlandish idea.

“It was Garm’s idea, not mine,” Durran clarified as he stood in front ...

Chapter 631: Cogs of the Machine Driving a Nation

Argrave had been skeptical if giving the Fruit of Being to Artur to use in a crafting project was truly the best use of the item. A masterpiece was infinitely less useful than a skilled master, by his estimation—someone that could continue to make ingenious project after ingenious project. Instead, in the twisted fate the fruit had chosen, he’d received two wonderful artifacts, and shared with Anneliese some of the power he received after eating the Fruit of Being.

After a while, th...

Disregard Fantasy, Acquire Currency: Chapter One (Real)

This is the first chapter. I probably should have posted this yesterday, but it wasn't complete then. It also doesn't run seamlessly into the next, I know, but starting a new story is kind of just like this for me-- rearranging, rethinking, et cetera. Fortunately, some comments on last chapter helped me crystallize my intentions for characters and pacing. Hopefully, it will all be perfectly seamless henceforth.

Next weekend, I'll post a revised chapter 2 and 3 together, along with cha...

Disregard Fantasy, Acquire Currency: 1

Title is a working title. Not final by any means, but I like it. This story is something light-hearted that I've always wanted to read, personally, but never found one that matched my taste-- a tale where the transmigrated protagonist forsakes all the hero stuff, disregarding might and magic to build a business empire. I suppose it qualifies as slice of life. I'm not entirely sure. There won't be much killing.

Much.

The humor in having one story be about someone deep in debt, a...

Chapter 630: Royal Regalia

Argrave and Anneliese wore strange robes of Artur’s design. They were made of metal formed into a wire—how it had been crafted was beyond Argrave, but apparently, it was made of electrum. Argrave had rather embarrassingly thought electrum was a fantasy metal, but no—it was an alloy of gold, silver, and a few other metals. Both of them looked like they were going into a rave, doubly so because every single inch of metallic thread had been enchanted. The worst part was, Artu...

Chapter 629: Artur is Taken By a Fey Mood!

Artur had been examining the small diamond-sized portal into the Shadowlands in total silence for near an hour. He might’ve expected that behavior from Raven, or a cat, but not him. Argrave had attempted several calls to pull him out of the trance, and even considered removing him physically. Every time, Artur insisted that he remained silent. Raven assured Argrave that there was nothing ailing his mind, but he wasn’t so sure.

Then, after that hour-long period, he floated up above t...

Chapter 628: I Was an Elf Who Lived One Thousand Years Ago With Trash Talent, but I've Been Revived as a Homunculus to Live a Carefree Life Doing Research in a Free Society

Llewellen set aside the dwarven music box, exhaling in a mix of pain and amusement as magic continued to flood into him. He imagined, decades or even centuries from now, someone finding the last recording he’d made. If the dwarves ever came to reclaim this place, or if the elven empire breached in search of something… what was the likelihood of them knowing how it functioned? What was the likelihood it wasn’t tossed aside, or found by someone who had no understanding of its value?

Chapter 627: Grasping Something in Total Darkness

“Don’t you think this is a little morbid?” asked Anneliese. “Bringing Llewellen back… feels perverse, in some manner.” She rubbed her hands together uneasily.

“I thought you might be eager to meet him,” Argrave answered, leaning up against the wall disaffectedly. He was still quite bothered by the conversation with Garm. No one liked hearing another was so utterly depressed. He’d said what he felt was the right thing, but he couldn’t say everything would be all right...

Let me tell you a couple of three things

I love writing. JAS is not the first book series I've written, but it is the first that's achieved any success. It came from being honest with myself-- that I like trashy transmigration fantasies, and I'd like to write one. I think that helped it perform well.

The little comment at the end of the latest chapter was written hastily, and as a result, didn't convey what I wanted to. I didn't want to throw a hissy fit to force people to check out my new story, but some of you did go back ...

Chapter 626: Flux of Life

Garm found that walking through the ancient city of Malgeridum was rather like walking through a recently renovated library. The previously blood-ridden canals of the Low Way of the Rose had been replaced with unending clean water, and the streets and buildings that had been paved with blood had either been torn down or cleaned. The vines atop the ceiling illuminating the place had been replaced with far more reasonable magic lamps. The place couldn’t exactly be called thriving—c...

Devil's Debtor, Chapter 1

The wooden door rattled as it jammed, but with the second push it swung open. Cold sea winds disturbed the scantly decorated room as a monk in black robes walked in. Tall, tan, and built, his scalp had been shaved of all but a ring of hair on his head—a tonsure. He looked outside for unwanted followers, then put the door back in its place.

The monk’s brown eyes darted from place to place before settling their gaze upon a stubby dying candle. Its flame partially illuminated the face ...

Devil's Debtor: Pick One

Given people's unanimity in preferring Devil's Debtor, I've decided to shelve the parody and work on it for fun, on the side. If some good jokes about the genre I write in come to me, I'll write a thing or two. But upon reflection, I think people are right in saying a longer series with a parody would be challenging to make a full book of, let alone a full series.

Anyway, here are three synopses. I've heard numerous time my synopses suck. I'd like you to pick your favorite, and hopeful...

Chapter 625: Consultation With Cruelty

“I’m surprised you’re visiting me.” Emperor Ji Meng poured tea for Argrave. “I thought I might see you only when it was absolutely necessary.”

In truth, Argrave himself was the most surprised he’d ended up here. Emperor Ji Meng had been a very large obstacle when they’d first met, then became a snake waiting for an opportunity to strike after he’d been imprisoned. Now, the old man might be considered a docile predator. Clean-shaven, wearing luxurious Great Chu-style ro...