Samofthepen

Of Arms and Arcane: Chapter 228

There was silence between us for a few seconds while I stared at Santon suspiciously. “What kind of favor?”

“Oh, nothing much, just two jobs that are in the nearby regions. Easy, right?” he said as he took two folders from his suitcase and slid them over to me.

I took the folders and started reading through the first one. The first thing that stood out to me was the date the job was posted. To confirm if that was the only problem, I looked through the other folder and foun...

Of Arms and Arcane: Chapter 227

When the chirps of alarm started, hippogriff chicks, that were the size of medium-sized dogs, all got to their feet and backed away from me, to the back of the nest. Most of them cowered behind the front row of their siblings, while eight of them stood in front of their siblings, chirped at me aggressively while puffing up their fluffy down feathers that covered their whole bodies, making them even more fluffy, flapping their underdeveloped wings, and performing mock pounces at me.

If I...

Of Arms and Arcane: Chapter 226

After an hour of entering the woods, we had to leave the horses behind due to the thick vegetation and go on foot. As for the direction, it was an easy assumption to make, as beasts are not in the habit of leaving false trails, so we just followed the straight line of where the blood trail led from the village to the woods.

Fortunately, the mercenary scout found stray drops of blood that made it through the canopy, confirming that we were on the right track. But that meant we had to go ...

Unto the Ages: Chapter 167

That night, as almost everyone went to rest in preparation for what was to come tomorrow, Grud spoke to Mita, who was resting inside of him.

That night, as almost everyone went to rest in preparation for what was to come tomorrow, Grud spoke to Mita, who was resting inside of him. [Mita, can you go send a message to our boys? I have some things to coordinate with them tomorrow.]

[I could, but what if one of the shamans from the Thunder Strider side sees my wisp form floating away ...

Unto the Ages: Chapter 166

After chasing off their pursuers and checking on their casualties, despite losing three men and a few others sustaining minor injuries, this haul was a great victory. And as the men distributed the loot to where it was needed the most, Grud gave and received a few congratulatory backpats before excusing himself and going into one of the empty houses.

When he was behind closed doors, the victorious smile vanished from his face as he sat down on the bed with a pained groan. He then looked...

Update

Hi Guys

I am still alive... barely. Sorry for the late uploads, I have been swarmped my my day job, and by the time I get back home, I am too tired to do any writing. But my tasks are done and out of the way, so I can get back to it.

Here is a chapter of UtA, there will be another chapter either tomorrow or the day after, then it is back to OAA.

Of Arms and Arcane: Chapter 225

“Hammel, why are you acting this way? What is wrong?” Dad asked his old friend, who gave him an aggrieved hug.

“I can’t take this anymore. Day in and day out, people come to me with inane and petty problems… I thought I would be able to sit back, happily manage a town, and kill anything that comes to attack the town. I did not know that I would be put in charge of grown children who would continuously complain to me if they did not wipe their ass properly!” Sir Hammel compla...

Of Arms and Arcane: Chapter 224

During the couple of days of travel to inspect the pioneering villages, there were no incidents. The mercenary scout reported signs of goblins in the area, but with the size of the caravan, they were not bold or stupid enough to attack. So if the mercenaries play their cards right, they are in for an easy job of goblin clearing when their escort job is done.

When we reached the first pioneering village, we found that they were, for the most part, living out of tents with a rudimentary w...

Of Arms and Arcane: Chapter 223

When I got home after completing my job, my parents were rather surprised by the small chest of gold coins I placed on Dad’s study desk.

“How much gold did you say was in here again?” Dad asked to clarify if he heard me right the first time.

“You heard me right the first time. Inside that chest is five hundred gold. And that's just the bonus,” I said as I folded my arms proudly.

“I knew dragons were rich, but this is ludicrous.” Mum commented.

“By our s...

Of Arms and Arcane: Chapter 222

During the few days it took to transport my three “packages” to my client, said “packages” were most uncooperative. They first tried to free themselves and each other from their rope bindings, and they were pretty successful in doing so until I knocked them out and acquired iron manacles from the blacksmith of the first village I stopped at. And to make it extra difficult for them to run off, I linked all their manacles with a chain.

When escaping their new bindings did not work...

Unto the Ages: Chapter 165

Chieftain of the Swift Swallow tribe and alliance commander of the north wall, Jahro, was in the middle of shouting more men to an area of the wall that needed reinforcement, when he saw another battering ram coming toward his part of the wall where the gate was.

His first instinct was to turn around to call for Chieftain Grud to alert him to the incoming priority target, only for his eyes to land on a sleeping Grud attended to by a medicine man. And from the amount of bloodied rags aro...

Unto the Ages: Chapter 164

Grud swung his spear over the top of the wall, splitting the heads of three men in half, only to be forced to take cover when a hail of arrows concentrated on him. This had been an action Grud repeated over a hundred times by now in an attempt to stem the tide of the horde assaulting the walls and gates.

“CHIEFTEN! ANOTHER RAM IS COMING!” A shout from the gate side of the wall sounded off.

Grud cursed and jumped down from the side of the wall he was on and ran toward the gate....

Of Arms and Arcane: Chapter 221

AN: Sorry for the late upload, my day job had be busy.

With my targets in sight, I shrouded myself in darkness magic and climbed out the window. I slinked from shadow to shadow until I was in the darkness of the alley closest to the kissing couple. With the tall buildings on either side of me blocking the moonlight, I was one with the darkness.

I unsheathed a short wooden club that I would use to knock both of them out and was about to pounce on my target...

Of Arms and Arcane: Chapter 220

After the chanting meditation was done, there was a sermon about being one with nature and the moon. When they closed out the sermon, the cart holding the two barrels was brought over, tapped, and they started having a drinking party there and then.

Is this just a gathering of hippy chuckle-fucks? Am I really going to get my answers out of these people? I spent a few hours sitting in a tree. I had better get something out of this.

As everyone got themselves a cup of what I think i...

Of Arms and Arcane: Chapter 218

Santon set aside my gift, and rather than presenting me with a selection of jobs to choose from, he only took out one folder and pushed it over to me. “To make up for the time you have not been active, this is a challenging yet lucrative job that just came in and is somewhat urgent.”

I took the folder and was hooked by the reward stated at the top of the page, a thousand gold. That was the kind of money a normal commor family could live comfortably on for two or three generations if...

Unto the Ages: Chapter 163

When Grud declared his intention about the children, there were a few disgruntled faces, but they were young, in the minority, and had no place questioning their chieftain.

As for the loot, the men were more than happy with their haul. Coin, jewelry, trinkets, and resources were all in different piles in the village square. The only problem was getting all this loot back home.

There were carts in the ransacked tribe, but most were primarily those pushed by hand. Fortunately, they ...

Of Arms and Arcane: Chapter 217

When I started crafting my first piece of work in my new workshop, I decided to test things out by making a normal steel longsword blade. It took a couple of hours to get the hang of the different quirks and make some slight adjustments to the tolerances, but what used to take around fifteen hours of work, with the help of my machines and some aura-enhanced elbow grease, I managed to knock out a the longsowrd blade, sharpened and polished in around five hours.

As I gazed upon the polish...

Of Arms and Arcane: Chapter 216

~Lady Amara Ironcrest (Luke’s Mum) POV~

“FUCK! SHIT! MOTHERFUCK!” CRASH!

Those were the sounds that rang out from Luke’s workshop, and it has been going on since morning.

Amara was sitting with her husband, Alden, having some tea. “Are you sure he is okay, dear?” Amara worriedly asked Alden.

Alden put down his cup of tea and just nodded with understanding. “Nothing to worry about, my love. I checked on him when this started, and I, too, would be ...

Of Arms and Arcane: Chapter 215

It took a few hours of discussing my designs with Mum to justify my need for the gold. Even though she wasn't savvy on the technical aspects of what I was explaining, she understood that with better tools, I could increase production on more complex pieces with greater precision and speed. And if what I was commissioning performed as I claimed, the revenue I would generate would more than cover the cost.

“I can see why you will need to outsource for this project, there are simply too ...

Of Arms and Arcane: Chapter 214

When I got out of my bath, one of Dad’s knights was waiting for me, “A man who says you are expecting him is here. He says his name is Santon.” he reported.

Wow, that was fast. I thanked the man and got dressed before going down to the inn’s lobby and to one of the private booths where Santon was waiting for me.

“You contracted me sooner than expected. I thought someone of your station would have many other affairs to attend to.” I said as I took a seat opposite Santon...

Unto the Ages: Chapter 148

I am re-uploading this in PDF form because one of you flagged it.

Unto the Ages: Chapter 161

After one and a half days of hard riding, or in Grud’s case, running and jumping, Grud and his riders neared the Thunder Strider’s tribe.

Along the way, Grud and his men took down some lookouts. At first, they were lookouts from other tribes that were close to the route they were using, but as they continued, Grud ran into more Thunder Strider lookouts or just those who were unfortunately out foraging.

Eventually, they dismounted some distance from the tribe so the sounds of o...

Unto the Ages: Chapter 160

As Grud expected, the Thunder Striders were slowed down to the point that they needed to set up camp at a cave.

Tents were raised, torches were lit, and guards were posted. But even with the posted guard, sleep came hard to everyone. Something felt wrong.

The insect life that came back in recent years was oddly silent. Every other night, those insects had no problem calling out to each other, but tonight, there was not even a cricket’s chirp to be heard. And they all knew there ...

Of Arms and Arcane: Chapter 213

I arrived at the Eldermere estate, introduced myself to the gate guards, and was ushered to the back garden by one of the butlers, where tables and chairs were set up. There, just like in the drawing from Stanton’s info packet, I saw my target talking to three other noble lordlings. In fact, that was all there were; I was expecting more people given the number of tables and chairs set up.

When I entered the back garden, the butler heralded me, “Lord Luke of House Ironcrest.”

Of Arms and Arcane: Chapter 212

Santon took out a binder from his suitcase and flipped through it. After a few flips, he took out a piece of paper and pushed it to me. “Seeing that this is your first job, let us start with an easy one.”

I took the paper and gave it a read-through. After going through it, I did not believe what I was reading, so I read it again. “People waste gold on this?”

Santon just nodded, “Indeed they do. But who are we to tell fools how to part with their money?”

Well… T...

Of Arms and Arcane: Chapter 211

When Santon mentioned The Steward’s Guild, I held back from striking him when he extended his hand for a handshake, but I kept my spells at the ready.

Prior to this meeting, Professor Sageira had given me a brief rundown of The Steward’s Guild. On the surface, it was an association of advisors and administrators that manages the estates of the rich and powerful, but just under such an innocuous name, they “manage” more than estates.

For those in the know and who have enoug...

Of Arms and Arcane: Chapter 210

With the problem laid out before us, we sat down as a family to brainstorm ideas.

“The first and most obvious step is to get more people on our new land to pioneer farming villages.” Mum said.

Dad, who still had his face buried in his hands, replied, “Yes, but it’s going to take a lot longer than six months to get people settled and set up, let alone produce anything worth exporting. While these long-term money makers are starting up, we need something quick and profitable...

Unto the Ages: Chapter 159

Ba’Rak was in a foul mood. His march to war had been interrupted, his men were killed without even seeing the enemy, and now, the stench of a dead woman's blood had seeped into the wood of his carriage, spoiling his appetite.

It had taken over an hour to get on the march again, and Ba’Rak’s hands were itching to crush some heads.

A couple of hours later, there was a scream of pain coming from the front of the column.

Anticipating battle and wanting to vent his wrath, B...

Unto the Ages: Chapter 158

In the following days, Grud and his riders attacked three additional tribes, swiftly overpowering or defeating any resistance. These tribes were situated along the evacuation route that the retreating tribes intended to use in their journey toward the more powerful tribes near the Thunder Strider tribe.

Each time a tribe was conquered, the main body of the invading alliance forces could restock their supplies. Despite this, there were always people who managed to escape, but Grud ordere...

Of Arms and Arcane: Chapter 209

Back home, life went back to normal… well, as normal as having a dragon fly Dad and I in the middle of some god-forsaken forest to train and experiment with new techniques could be normal.

On that front, it has been a couple of weeks since coming back from the capital, and both Dad and I have seen progress in our endeavors. After a lot of good food, rest, and light training, Dad has gotten back into shape and gotten around to tempering his mana pathways again. Just recently, Professor...