Samofthepen

Of Arms and Arcane: Chapter 208

The next day, after I woke up, one of the castle’s butlers came by to deliver two wooden cases. The first case contained a ceremonial sword with the kingdom's insignia at the base of the blade and on the pommel. This sword symbolized my duty to the kingdom. Dad has one just like it hanging on the wall of his office.

The second wooden case was much smaller and square. Inside was a cloak with the kingdom’s insignia on it. The butler informed me that this was for me to wear during offi...

Of Arms and Arcane: Chapter 207

AN: Surprise double release! *runs back into gooning cave*

After an hour or two of Professor Sageira explaining parasitic or symbiotic soul weapons and me asking a whole load of questions, things boil down to this, as far as I can understand.

Parasitic soul weapons are the bound souls of unwilling, hostile, or malevolent people bound to a weapon, armor, or trinket. Almost always, they feed off the wielder in some way. The souls for these soul weapons are ...

Of Arms and Arcane: Chapter 206

It has been ten minutes of getting mobbed by socialites and trying to maintain the facade of interest in whatever they were saying. By now, I was not really listening to what they were saying. I was just reacting to the inflection of their voices when they spoke and replied with “Ya,” “mm-hmm,” “uh-huh,” or “Is that so?” all while zoning out and counting the seconds I will have to suffer this hell of fake social interaction.

Just as I was looking for anything of interest...

Unto the Ages: Chapter 157

Jo'Pa, scout of the Grokan tribe, which was one of the tribes under the protection of the Thunder Strider tribe, neared the gates of the Thunder Strider tribe while waving his arms. In response, numerous bows were leveled at him.

Seeing that his life was in danger, he shouted, “Don't shoot! I am Jo'Pa of the Grokan tribe. I come bearing a message for your chieftain!”

The archers did not recognize his name, but they did recognize the name of his tribe and held their fire. Short...

Unto the Ages: Chapter 156

On the opposing side, the tribes under the protection of the Thunder Strider tribe were not just standing around doing nothing. They too had been gathering forces from the surrounding allied tribes to fend off the alliance’s retaliation.

At first, they thought powerhouses like Grud’s Rock Claw tribe would not show up for what they saw as a small border skirmish. Grud's showing up threw a massive wrench in their plans to bully alliance border tribes by raiding them and hiding behind ...

Of Arms and Arcane: Chapter 205

As we entered the throne room and walked down the red carpet toward the King, I observed that we were flanked on both sides by royal guards. Behind the royal guards stood a host of nobles, their eyes following Dad and his noble friends while I and the knights from my and the other two noble houses trailed behind them.

When we were before the king, we all took a knee and bowed our heads, and Dad and the other two nobles said, “We greet His Majesty!”

From my peripheral vision, I...

Or Arms and Arcane: Chapter 204

[Why have you not called in a week since getting back?] Professor Sageira mentally shouted at me, making me instinctively wince away from the dragon scale.

[I was resting. Can a man not take some time to relax after coming home from a hard-fought battle?] I asked as an excuse.

[Well, your rest is interfering with my research schedule.] She snapped back. [Make sure you read tonight; I’m coming over.]

[Okay, fine, but my father is sitting this training out for the moment. He...

Of Arms and Arcane: Chapter 203

We, the outgoing troops, marched our way to the rear, towards home. When we reached the outskirts of my hometown, Glenfell, there was a contingent of royal guards waiting for us.

From there, we handed over the reports, the once glowing swords that were used against us in battle, and command of the troops that were not directly under Dad's command.

The royal guard in charge of the command takeover saluted Dad and told us to expect a royal agent to debrief us once the reports were s...

Unto the Ages: Chapter 155

Unlike Grud’s past few outings, Mita was not pregnant, so his current travels were far from boring.

While his wagon’s horses just followed the line of riders in front of them, Grud was inside the wagon right next to the small door that led to the driver’s seat. As for why he was inside, it was mainly because he was feeling a bit frisky and copped a feel on Mita’s ass.

This was Mita’s signal to go inside the wagon and wait for Grud.

After Grud was done securing the ...

Unto the Ages: Chapter 154

Since the farms were established and all the big projects were delegated, Grud found himself with a lot of free time. So, besides doing the administrative work needed to run his chiefdom and the tribal alliance, Grud had nothing to do. So, he turned his attention to what would benefit his tribe, which was farming. Despite being the chieftain of a chiefdom, Grud found time to join his fellow tribe’s men and women in farming the fields that were just outside their walls.

He would have p...

Of Arms and Arcane: Chapter 201

What we got out of the prisoners of war was not much. According to Dad, most of the information we got could have been obtained from the spies we had in the Valorhelm Dominion. The only thing interesting was the involvement of a third party.

That being the Zagraf Theocracy, but we could not prove any of that. The recovered glowing swords, which were not glowing anymore, were all unmarked, well-made, ordinary swords. They were not even made of any mana-conductive metals.

As for the...

Of Arms and Arcane: Chapter 200

When I made my way to the fort’s dungeon, I found Dad and a few other men looking down at a man in chains. And for some reason, that man looked familiar. After tilting my head while looking, things clicked in my head.

This was the knight who I ran my spear into his head through his eye. Yet, here he was with an eyeball in the socket that I was damned sure I had destroyed. Even if someone reattached his eye, it would take days to restore its function, but it looked like this man’s ey...

Of Arms and Arcane: Chapter 199

~Valorhelm Dominion’s 3rd Legion HQ, In no man's land between the Valorhelm Dominion and Argus Kingdom~

Prince Avontus Valorhelm, the sixth prince of the Valorhelm Dominion, sipped wine in the company of Priest Advan, who was served tea by his acolytes. Both of them were waiting for their forces to return from the assault on the fort with news of victory.

They were mid-conversation on the finer points of philosophy when the simple wooden gates to their temporary camp opened. Thi...

Of Arms and Arcane: Chapter 198

I lay limp on the roof next to this unknown warrior as the sounds of battle raged further in the distance. Using the last dregs of strength I could squeeze out of my muscles, I rotated myself and sat up to face the onboarding battle at the back gate. Just in time, I saw the other three men in mismatched armor jump back over the wall, each clutching something.

I do not know what they took, but I am grateful that such formidable opponents did not stay to fight. As for the enemies that wer...

Unto the Ages: Chapter 153

Grud’s wives stared, fixated as whatever was under his towel went from side to side like it was waving at them.

Sonu, the animal lover that she was, asked, “Husband, did you find a pet snake? How did it survive in the winter all these years?”

Grud just smiled and replied, “Oh, it is a snake, alright. MY SNAKE!” he bellowed as he threw off the towel to reveal his massive dong that was moving around without shaving his hips.

Their first reaction was a gasp of surpris...

Unto the Ages: Chapter 152

As the hoard of hunters made their way home, wagons from different tribes, all laden with mammoth parts, even the innards, started splitting off as they neared their respective tribes.

All this time, Grud had been sitting on a wagon from his tribe that was currently carrying the massive skull of a mammoth. He had his eyes closed in concentration as he sensed the ripples of vibrations he felt through his feet.

With his feet on the carriage, he could visualize every angle and crevic...

Of Arms and Arcane: Chapter 197

Just as I had just finished connecting all the severed and torn muscle fibers in my body while watching the golem wreak havoc across the yard, four men who wore different armor from the Kingdom or the Dominion jumped over the wall, one after another, and seeing that the dominion soldiers did not mind them, it was clear which side they were on.

The four men took out some kind of amulet that glowed, one of them holding two. After looking around the battlefield, they seemed to lock on to w...

Of Arms and Arcane: Chapter 196

I had my arms draped over two soldiers as they helped me back behind friendly lines, all while hearing the booms of the wooden golem I summoned swinging and trashing the bastard who backstabbed me by his legs.

I had already cast enough healing magic to close up my wounds and make sure my blood stayed inside my body, but that was all just surface-level. Just beyond my skin, I was still suffering from severed muscles and a fucking punctured lung that had blood constantly flowing inside of...

Of Arms and Arcane: Chapter 195

~Alden Ironcrest POV~

“Luke! Get back here!” Alden shouted at Luke as he dashed out of the keep in a violet blur. But Luke did not seem to listen and was gone from his sight as he jumped from the wall towards the back gate.

But despite his son running headlong into danger, the only thing Alden could do was grit his teeth and trust that his son was strong enough to keep himself alive and chase after the wooden golem that was just about to exit the keep.

When he got out of...

Of Arms and Arcane: Chapter 194

Brimming with power, I dashed out the door and examined the front and back gates to see which would provide me with the biggest fight. 

The front gate was losing ground, but their situation was not as bad as the back gate, they were getting their shit pushed in.

I jumped off the wall, landed on a nearby roof, and broke my fall by rolling and continuing my run to the big fight. As I ran from roof to roof, I picked up some loose and broken tiles and started throwing them like f...

Unto the Ages: Chapter 151

As mammoth after mammoth fell, the hunting groups who took down their target reinforced other groups to expedite the demise of their targets.

The mammoth matriarch who defended her herd was wise enough not to overextend herself and stay close to the herd, and when she noticed that the hunters were just posturing to keep the herd away from all but the ten females and one male who went outside the range of the herd’s protection, especially with the one human that smelled like a dangerou...

Unto the Ages: Chapter 150

When news of the mammoth herd spread throughout the chiefdom, everyone was excited. It had been a good few years since anyone had eaten any meat that walked on land, and everyone was up for a change of diet.

Those who were especially excited were the hunters of the tribe who had to take up other professions during this long winter, and there was a good chunk of young men who had come of age over the recent years but had nothing to hunt for their coming of age ceremony, so they had to re...

Of Arms and Arcane: Chapter 193

My spear slid past the berserk knight’s guard and streaked toward his shoulder, but it was only by bringing up his arm to divert the path of my spear that he avoided getting skewered, and my spear that was covered in Primal Aura tore apart his pauldron.

While my spear was extended beyond him, the knight used my over-extended posture to strike at me, but he had fallen for my trap. While stepping back to avoid the incoming sword strike, I angled my spear against the knight’s now pauld...

Of Arms and Arcane: Chapter 192

AN: Sorry for the late and slow upload. Work at my day job has been kicking my ass this week.

As the restraint array on the floor started to unravel, causing the bindings already on the two advancing knights to fall away, we prepared ourselves for battle while milking every second the arrays restrained and bombarded them.

Eventually, the array on the floor failed, and the two berserk knights dashed out of the way of the wall arrays bombarding them and hea...

Of Arms and Arcane: Chapter 191

The high-pitched dings of swords striking the defensive array on the keep’s door continue as three other mages and I, who are versed in array magic, spend mana and concentration on maintaining the defensive array.

As for the other mages, they had gone to the turrets on the upper levels of the keep to support the troops by raining down spells on the intruders at the front and back gates. But at the rate we were going, we were going to run out of mana before the two berserk knights hack...

Of Arms and Arcane: Chapter 190

AN: Here is a chapter I managed to squeze out from my time with family, I am now recovering from multiple Grandma induced food comas, we will be back to normal uploads on Monday.

Dad looked at the two knights guarding him and pointed at the two berserk knights moving toward the mage squads, shouting, “Delaying action!” Without hesitation, the two knights beside Dad flared their auras and jumped to intercept the incoming berserk knights.

Dad then turne...

Update

Hi, just a heads up, uploads will be slow for the rest of the week due to Chinese New Year. I will be going to my neighboring country to visit family. That means if I want to type anything, it will be on my handphone, and that sucks.

Unto the Ages: Chapter 149

After the arrangements for the alliance were hammered out, it took another two months before any long-range patrolling was done, and now, with more eyes on the general area, more news got back to Grud’s ears, and things were worse than he thought.

They were close to six years into this long winter, and from the latest reports Grud got, a third of the tribes within the new alliance’s territory were gone. The only thing remaining were either signs of combat from both man and beast or ...

Of Arms and Arcane: Chapter 189

We made our way to the top of the inner walls to see what was going on. When we got there, we saw the chaos unfolding. 

In both the front and back gates, there were man-sized holes with Valorhelm Dominion soldiers pushing through and pulling the gates open, while each gate had five knights with glowing swords mowing down our soldiers who were trying to rush the gates to stem the flow of Dominion troops.

Dad immediately gave the order to his men to take back the gates, and all...

Of Arms and Arcane: Chapter 188

“Your Highness,” the lead priest said as he politely bowed to Prince Avontus Valorhelm, the sixth prince of the Valorhelm Dominion. “This humble priest greets you. You may call this one Advan. And as I am sure General Vash has informed you, we come bearing gifts.” priest Advan said as he stepped aside and gestured to ten white-clad clergymen, each wearing robes plainer than Priest Advan’s and each shouldering a long wooden case. Flanking the white-clad men were an equal number of da...