hermitscave

Twisted Skies, Chapter 17 - Cultvation Training

After his run-in with Theodoro and his girlfriend, Thurain spent most of the night mixing colors and covering the walls in thin lines of qi-conducting paint. By the time he was done with the main structure, he could feel traces of qi focus inside his new room. As it swirled and followed along the lines drawn on the walls, it collected in a spot towards the center of the room, where Thurain would sit to cultivate.

As a final coup de grace, he added his newly acquired Valorplume as the fo...

Twisted Skies, Chapter 16 - A Place of His Own

By the time a well-fed Thurain returned to the apartment building, it was late afternoon. If Theodoro was out for as long today as he had been yesterday, there was a real chance that he would only return long after nightfall. Thus, the young cultivator first went up to the landlord’s door and knocked, since he thought the old Mr. Artia would be more likely to be there. Although he only wanted to say hello, he regretted his decision straight away. A terrifying bellow from inside caused the y...

Chapter 351 - The Final Talks

“Hah, finally, the king shows his true nature, acting like a tyrant towards his equals.” Mayu’s bitter laugh and harsh accusation rang across the snowy camp. Though Corco knew that his cousin was just blowing hot air into the cold, as he usually did, and remained unimpressed.

“No, that’s how I always act towards my enemies, especially if they approach me with an army,” Corco replied in a tone as cold as the air around them. “It’s just that you haven’t tried hard enough...

Chapter 350 - Welcoming the Visitors

As he had done in the days since his arrival near Kapra, Corco sat atop his command hill, surrounded by snow. While he watched the city with Ogulno Castle at its center, he thought about his future course, and about the future of his kingdom.

After everything that had happened over the past few days, would the other lords still have a place in it? That was a key question that would be answered soon, he was sure.

Back when he had first planned out the development direction of his k...

Twisted Skies, Chapter 15 - Cheater Meets Cheater

Soon after he had begun his search for a buyer, Thurain managed to find a section of the market which did not deal in the fruits or vegetables of the city's fields. Instead, he could feel all manner of qi fluctuations from within, and the smells spoke of mad concoctions. This should be the place where the day laborers got their talismans from, and the place where many hopefuls would come if they had a supernatural problem, but couldn't pay for the official services of the sect.

As soon ...

Twisted Skies, Chapter 14 - Day Laborers

After he said his goodbyes, Thurain's strange new friend turned and disappeared among the masses of the day market. Even now, he still didn't know what to think of this acquaintance he made on his first day in the city.

At first he had seemed to be the perfect image of a heartless scammer. Despite everything, Thurain still hadn't forgotten about all the money he had stolen from him, or about the way he had tricked Ria at the train station. Not only had the lack of money caused Thurain a...

Twisted Skies, Chapter 13 - Life in the City

Quiet as thieves, two dark shadows climbed down a building's facade in the pre-dawn's twilight of Heliana.

“Mr. Vartel! Good morning we're having, isn’t it!?” a sudden bellow startled Thurain. His grip slipped, but he barely caught the rung before he drop down from the ladder. While he was still holding on in desperation, he heard Theodoro below him jump down and fawn for his life.

“Mr. Artia, how nice of you to greet us on this fine morning! I wonder, did you lose weight ...

Twisted Skies, Chapter 12 - Lost Knowledge

After Theodoro had destroyed his fleeting good impression, he and Thurain marched through the night in awkward silence, towards a goal that was unknown to the young cultivator. At least they didn't have to walk for long until they reached Theodoro's home, so Thurain didn't have enough time to suspect foul play. No wonder the scammer had passed by that alley, he thought. It turned out that his home was only a few houses away.

“It's up here. Pure luxury, upper floor apartment,” Theodo...

Chapter 349 - The End of His Patience

As he sat and ate some hot soup to warm his body on this icy cold day, Corco looked at the picture outside his tent. Beneath a sky as clear and blue as ancient ice, he could see the goal of his army’s latest trek. The town of Kapra stood tall, hidden behind its high walls, with the copper hill and the castle of House Ogulno in the center. Although he didn’t enjoy what he had to do next, there really wasn’t a choice, not after what he had learned from the prisoners.

After the first...

Chapter 348 - Interview With the Devil

Corco had been attacked by his own people. That much became clear with one look at his prisoners. Since the details of his enemies still eluded him for now, he ordered his men set up proper restraints for the caught warriors that would allow the king to interrogate them. They needed to find out the details of Saniya‘s newest, shadowy enemy as soon as possible.

Based on these considerations, Corco had his people set up three tents. The first tent would house all the captives for now. A...

Chapter 347 - Unexpected Enemies

Smoke rose from the cup, and into Corco’s nose. He had always liked the aroma of coffee far more than the taste. Today, he needed both. As he sipped his liquid breakfast, he watched his troops get into formation on the plaza in front of Rapra Castle.

Just like he had promised, Corco left Saniya the morning after his meeting with Mayu. To design a proper plan of operations, he had spent the previous night with his staff. However, all their discussions hadn’t changed much about his in...

Chapter 346 - Fires Everywhere

By the time Corco and his fleet finally returned to Saniya, every corner of his kingdom was on fire. At least with the radio, he was already informed of the most important details. Though in this case, he would rather not have known at all and enjoyed a short moment of peace after he had just resolved the crisis in the Verdant Isles. Through the radio reports, he realized that the times of peace wouldn’t return for a long time.

In the east of his kingdom, foreign soldiers had appeared...

Chapter 345 - Open Contempt

Although negotiations ended quickly, the logistics of it all weren’t quite so easy to resolve. While the captains had no choice but to give in and return to their previous role as servants under their Queen the following day, transferring soldiers in an active war zone wasn’t that easy.

On the Rasacopa side, the scattered warriors needed to be formed into a coherent army. This wasn’t exactly easy, since they couldn’t just be sent there with the captains in charge of their crews....

Chapter 344 - Reigning in the Opposition

When Atau’s fleet docked in Rasacopa’s harbor with Corco on board, preparations had already been made for the king’s arrival. With the new radio, announcing and planning these things early had become much easier. There was no longer any need to send a ship with envoys ahead of the fleet.

As soon as Corco stepped onto land, he was picked up by a palanquin that would carry him to the Green Palace. Inside, he once again met with Maci’s unfun maid-and-bodyguard-combo called Llamka.<...

Chapter 343 - Machines

One by one, Corco carefully checked the brass sliders in front of him, as well as the complex machinery that connected to it behind. In the end, he saw one that didn’t properly grip the corresponding gear inside the machine, possibly because the shaft attached to the gear was bent by a degree or so.

On a workbench nearby, Corco found a wrench, which he used to apply some careful tension. This way, the shaft bent back into shape. It wasn’t a proper solution, but it would do for this ...

Chapter 342 - The Final Piece

While Pacha was forging new deals with his dysfunctional family, young master Loreius Divitius Ichilia was busy putting together the final pieces of his own family’s plan. With all other pieces in place, he approached the final parts of the puzzle. Before him sat both Lord Vareo, owner of Port Ulta, as well as one Margrave Hakon of Padrava, representative of the foreign kingdom of Cahlia, just like the scary Duke Herak represented Borna.

All Loreius had to do was convince these two an...

Chapter 341 - His Entire World

Surrounded by half-empty bookshelves, King Pacha leaned over a map of the Medala Empire. This map depicted the territories of all the noble houses, as well as their allegiances marked in different colors. Unlike what the outside world may have believed, there were more than the colors of the three kingdoms represented on the table. Beyond the white of the north, the red of the center and the blue of the south, there were three more.

Gray represented the neutral lords, who had nominally ...

Chapter 340 - Focus

Herak was equal parts annoyed and bored, as had been the case so often over these past years.

His arm swung down, and the axe head at the end of the handle sank deeply into the flesh. Lodged like this, he had to use his foot for leverage to get it back out again. By then, he had already made sure that the body was no longer breathing.

Only then could he move on to the next target. Although the work was monotonous, it calmed him down. At least here, he could feel like he did someth...

Chapter 339 - Modern Weapons

As soon as Alcer’s men heard his warning, they became alert. Their shields and spears raised, they set themselves up in a semi-circle formation, with their front towards the bamboo trap and their backs left for Alcer to cover. However, for some of them, any warning came too late. One of the soldiers had stepped ahead of the formation, to rescue his injured comrade.

Even now, the man was still stuck in the spike trap, his voice now hoarse from the constant screaming. Both the injured s...

Chapter 338 - Guerilla Warfare

There were many tall trees in the jungle of Iskay Island, but this one was the largest Alcer had found in the area. After he had climbed halfway up, he rested on a branch and pulled a handkerchief from his pocket. He wiped the moisture off his brow, although he knew it would just start collecting again.

In the jungle of Iskay Island, water could never be avoided. Even the air itself felt like it would start dripping if he squeezed a bit. Soon, the sweat he had just wiped after his stres...

Chapter 337 - Felian Northdale, Really Trying to Keep it Together

In the humid air, a little creature flapped its wings and flew around in an erratic pattern. As always when its instincts didn’t draw it to a mate, it was in its eternal search for food. Then, something attracted the creature, a smell it enjoyed, and a warmth it could not resist. The creature flew towards the warmth, and landed, ready to feast.

BAM!

Felian smacked the bug off his hand. With a grimace, he looked at the nasty stain it had left behind, a fitting metaphor for this e...

Chapter 336 - Bent and Upright

While Corco was busy preventing trouble in Saniya, Sumaci was still in Rasacopa, dealing with her very own brand of problems.

“Queen, this servant brings news from the captains,” Captain Aqta said as he handed a scroll to Sumaci’s attendant Llamka. At their first meeting, Aqta had been quite haughty, but ever since he had accepted Sumaci’s offer, he had become more and more submissive. Now he sat there folded in the chair across her desk, his body cramped and weak. He wouldn’t...

Chapter 335 - Modern Education

Once the topic of separate universities was breached, Corco got excited again. After all, this was one specific area where he applied some of his own ideas to the educational system of the other world. Although his plans were unproven, he felt confident. After all, Saniya’s school curriculum was also markedly different from the other world’s school system.

For one, memorization was considered less important, and there was a greater focus on teaching students how to research and lear...

Chapter 334 - Unhappy Clergy

Out of Corco’s view, trouble was brewing in the country of Medala. For now though, the king was still happily dealing with what he dealt with most happily: Country development. After his return from Rasacopa, he first ordered an increase in Artemisinin production and dealt with the resulting bottlenecks in terms of manpower, raw materials, and finances.

After he managed to scrounge up some additional funds, he locked himself into his study and did administrative work for a few days, t...

Chapter 333 - House Ogulno Breaks its Isolation

Even though Ogulno had come to Saniya because all the other lords were here, Mayu’s explanation wasn’t something he wanted to hear.

“Although you may have to stay in this place, it would be prudent to remain off the streets as much as possible. Be careful lest you be corrupted by the decadence of the common people here.” Ogulno snorted in derision, though his warning was mostly out of pettiness.

After all, Mayu’s warning about leaving the noble circle was exactly what ha...

Chapter 332 - Tricks of the Commoners

Every day, countless people entered the city of Saniya, eager to find their fortune hidden somewhere in the maze of roads. Even with the impossibly fast construction methods of the local workers, they still could only barely keep up with the residential demands of the new immigrants, so all the streets of the city would constantly feel overstuffed. Worst was the congestion around the old city wall.

After years of expansion, the city had long grown beyond its old limits, but the wall was...

Chapter 331 - Two Sides of Progress

After their visit to the cotton fields and the jungle reclamation, Corco and Llamka had completed their inspection of the raw material procurement for Rasacopa’s new textile industry. After, the maid led the king to inspect their plans for the refinement and manufacturing of said raw materials.

Not far from the edge of the jungle, next to a river that led into the depths of the green hell upstream and into the sea near Rasacopa downstream, the workers had begun to build a camp for the...

Chapter 330 - War Against Nature

Although the war was still raging on within the Verduic Sea, the ongoing transformation of the Green Island's political and economic landscape couldn't be neglected. Thus, Corco had set off to inspect Saniya's newest industry on this day, while Sumaci was still busy with her restructuring of the court.

On his way to his inspection, Corco had to travel by palanquin. He tried to avoid those things whenever he could, but he needed to keep up appearances as demanded by his status. Plus, Sum...

Chapter 329 - Felian Northdale, Victim of Workplace Abuse

Once again, Felian Northdale had been forced to take on a thankless task against his will. Ever since Duke Herak had enlisted him as part of his entourage, things hadn't gone right for him even once. That had only worsened after he had been dragged across the ocean into these foreign lands.

First, he had been tasked with the protection of the merchant caravans across Medala, while the duke traveled further south, to deal with his old enemy, the merchant Corco Fastgrade, who had somehow ...

Chapter 328 - Finding Meaning

Although Dedrick had already been an experienced commander when he had met Corco, even he had learned one or two tricks about combat from the layman merchant king. Back in Arcavia, one of the king's most common strategic principles was his insistence on always fighting in the defender's position. Even if he was the aggressor in a conflict, he would maneuver his troops in such a way that his enemies would be forced to move first. This way, he could take full advantage of his technologically ad...