The Admiral (Fitzwallace)
New Norfolk
Luckily, when the Admiral returned to his base of operations nothing untoward had gone on in his absence. The City continued to function like a well-oiled machine.
A few projects had to be delayed or mothballed due to a lack of manpower, but that was something he had known going into it. Bringing as many men as he did West didn't leave that many free to keep the work going at home.
The losses they...
2025-06-11 20:00:09 +0000 UTC
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~~AN~~
I've seen the comments about his Class choice and it's teased a little in this Chapter. It's not my intention to unnecessarily drag it out. You will get his full choices by Friday, just be patient.
~~
Chris
"What happened to calling me Uncle Topher, eh? I seem to remember you calling it out quite endearingly." I lectured as Anna attempted and failed to hit me with her icy training sword. Apparently, she had outgrown the nicknam...
2025-06-10 21:38:37 +0000 UTC
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Chris
Present Day (5 years after the Change)
The memory came unbidden, as I thought back on the last time I felt my intuition warning me. The part that came next wasn't exactly pleasant, and I didn't care for reliving it.
Once was enough.
Still, it put me on edge. I knew something was building in the background, I just wasn't sure of what. Would it be another attack on me? Would it be an attack on someone else, like Marcus?
2025-06-09 20:51:19 +0000 UTC
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Chris
I gestured to the side of the courtyard and Austin followed behind me. It wasn't that I needed to keep the conversation secret, just that I didn't want any casual interruptions.
Ones that standing near the bar would entail.
I looked Austin up and down and finally got a good picture of him. This was the first time I'd seen him in over a year. He had a few new scars and looked weathered, but overall, he looked good. His aura felt stronger and I ...
2025-06-06 21:32:54 +0000 UTC
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Chris
Anna was obviously jumping around and ready to start practicing her new Skill. It was quite funny to see the young girl vibrate so hard while trying to contain her excitement.
"Well, come on then," Abigail knew her daughter wouldn't be able to wait, "Let's see it."
It wasn't so much the Skill that we were all interested in, but the color of mana it took on. Through training, Anna had been able to slightly manipulate mana outside of her body an...
2025-06-05 21:42:32 +0000 UTC
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Chris
My run back to Frostheim was some of the fastest traveling I'd ever done. I pushed with all my strength to get back in time and I was glad to have made it.
There were slightly fewer trees along the way, but they would grow back. One thing I didn't leave behind were craters. Not anymore. The mana levels of the ground were strong enough now that I didn't explode the dirt with my leaps.
It was a curious thing to witness over the years. Just anoth...
2025-06-04 21:33:07 +0000 UTC
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Abigail
"Tomorrow is going to be fine, sweetie. Anna will choose what she will choose. We've done our best to make sure that she is ready." Her husband soothed.
Jon had taken a more active role in Annabeth's training after the girl staunchly refused to consider anything other than Warrior. She wanted to be like her Dad and Uncle. Even though Mage was the far safer route.
Abigail's hope was that maybe Josh would go the Mage route. Or better yet, the ...
2025-06-03 21:45:49 +0000 UTC
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Vasariametz
Even with his Power, it took a long time to reach Desmodius's Kingdom from the land of the Dwarves. Vasaria hesitated to call it a Kingdom as it wasn't really in the natural sense. Demons had their own sense and hierarchy that didn't match the normal standard.
Still, he reached it eventually, even if it took him over a year to get there.
He shifted his attention over the newly integrated Planets every once in a while, but nothing excitin...
2025-06-02 22:03:39 +0000 UTC
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Chris
Clearing the area took time. Prepping it for the Formations did as well. The undertaking wasn't small and I wasn't alone in setting it up.
I was far from the only one who could create Formations and a few from the City came up to help. It was odd working with others, but not all that bad. It took some getting used to, and understanding how they went about things, but it cut down on the time it took to get right.
Many hands make light work and ...
2025-05-30 20:53:06 +0000 UTC
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Chris
The water lapped up on the shore in a rhythmic hum that was nearly enough to put me to sleep. It had been a long time since I had seen a shoreline. The beech left much to be desired, as it leaned toward rocky over sandy, but it still didn't take away from the scenery.
"What kind of nasties you think live out there?" Austin said while he threw a rock skipping across the surface.
With our considerable more strength, it went skipping much further...
2025-05-29 21:12:21 +0000 UTC
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~~
Christopher,
My stay here with the Eternal Flame Faction is going rather well. Vanessa tried to recruit me but I turned her down once again. She'll get the picture eventually. Also, achieving all I set out to is taking longer than first anticipated.
With the amount of people in the Faction on the edge of evolving, my time with the Eternal Flame is getting harder to secure. I've already had to go out and tamp down on a few Dungeons in the are...
2025-05-28 21:33:25 +0000 UTC
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Vulwin
Winter was truly fascinating to live through. All the seasons were for that matter. It wasn't something that he was used to, being from a Planet without them.
Summer was... not the most pleasant, but it had its own charm. Even if he had yet to find it.
Fall was breathtakingly beautiful if you were in the right spot to appreciate it. The gradual shift of the leaves and the wash of reds and oranges wasn't something he'd seen before. He was used...
2025-05-27 21:36:47 +0000 UTC
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Chris
The pale blue tongues of my Spirit Flame flickered and danced as it roared from the mana. I was feeding it quite a bit to get it to such a state. The metal didn't necessitate such... ferocity, but I liked how cold it made the room and it was fun to watch the flame dance.
I liked to see something that represented cold being portrayed as a flame. The contradiction made it amusing.
Fed with my mana, the Flame could get to levels that even I would...
2025-05-26 20:37:49 +0000 UTC
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As the title states, there won't be a chapter today and for that, I apologize. I don't know if I'm coming down with something, but I slept for nearly 12 hours and woke up more tired than when I went to sleep. I tried to put some words to paper but just couldn't do it.
Anyway, I'm hoping to maybe make it up sometime this weekend. If not, I will get to it sometime next week.
Once again, I'm sorry.
2025-05-23 20:27:28 +0000 UTC
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Gabriel
There was a mustiness in the air that Gabriel still had yet to get used to. The smell of wet fur wasn't the most pleasant and he worked hard to keep his dry all the time.
His control over snow usually made that easy.
Except it wasn't his furs that were smelling. It was Miles who couldn't keep them dry, but it wasn't like he couldn't do anything about it. Having power over wood didn't help in that regard.
"This goes here and this goes t...
2025-05-22 21:29:39 +0000 UTC
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Chris
"How are you liking my City? I don't know how it compares to the others you've been to, but I'm quite proud of what we've accomplished." I said and meant it. It was something I didn't think about often, but it was hard not to step back and look at what we'd built.
This all used to be forest and wilderness before.
"It's quite... rugged, but that is to be expected. I see you are striving to change that, so I applaud you," Vulwin said.
The ...
2025-05-21 22:11:30 +0000 UTC
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Chris
Alright, Christopher, no more distractions.
I knew returning would be filled with things I needed to see and take care of, and now that we had been back for three weeks, all that needed my attention was finished.
There were a few more meetings about Samuel, but that was all set in stone now. He had his plans updated to account for what we were giving him, and now that his departure was 'sponsored,' a sizable number of people sought to...
2025-05-20 21:56:26 +0000 UTC
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Chris
"I don't see the problem with it." Hal said, "They want a quieter life and to live outside the City. In return for being sheltered under our banner and our protection, they send us taxes and food. What's not to like?"
"What's not to like is this is how Kingdoms start." I retorted. "When I started this, I only ever envisioned one City. A fortress that would protect us. Not some expansive Kingdom with Villages and Towns and whatnot."
"I think yo...
2025-05-19 20:27:59 +0000 UTC
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Chris
I had to admit that I may have handled things wrong. It was hard to train Annabeth without remembering the faces. Those of the Order. While I didn't spend a lot of time with all of them, I spent a decent amount of time training them. The memories and seeing them repeat made me feel... hollow.
Doing the same things all over again wasn't fun.
Having a yelling match with my Sister over it also wasn't the best highlight either. It was her first da...
2025-05-16 21:30:52 +0000 UTC
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Annabeth
Training was fun! It was so much better than just sitting around and watching other people train. That had been the hardest part about being told no or to wait.
She saw everyone else doing it, yet she couldn't.
Well, couldn't in the eyes of her parents. They didn't know that she'd already started training long before they gave her permission. Sensing mana wasn't the only thing that she tried to do to get better.
She still remembered t...
2025-05-15 21:23:08 +0000 UTC
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Annabeth
Anna was doing something that she wasn't supposed to. Her Mom always lectured her on it whenever she was caught, but she couldn't help herself this time.
It was too important!
'Sneaking around is bad!'
'Eavesdropping is wrong!'
But they were talking about her! That should be permission enough to listen in, right?
Well, it was a skill she'd gotten good use out of in the Castle, and her Dad always told her ...
2025-05-14 21:34:21 +0000 UTC
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Chris
"Sam did a wonderful job, by the way," Abigail started. "The fields were tended to, and the harvest was in good order. We exceeded our expected yield, and it was all stored properly before the first frost came."
"While we were gone, our population broke 20,000 as well, which has put a strain on the land we have available. With the Wall limiting growth, we need to think about either going up or down. The increased strength of materials allows us to g...
2025-05-13 21:16:34 +0000 UTC
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Chris
"Come on! Come on! Come on!" Austin pleaded like a petulant child, "Just one more time!"
I sighed heavily, "Austin, I already know where we are and exactly how close we are." I pointed to a grouping of Trees that had marks on them, "We're only a few miles away."
Austin followed my finger and his face scrunched up at seeing the markings, "You don't know that those are ours. They could be made by beasts?"
I gave him a deadpan look without ...
2025-05-12 21:44:40 +0000 UTC
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~~AN~~
A long overdue full status sheet to start the chapter off. That being the case, I've noticed that its girth is becoming untenable. The deluge of Skills listed is... unpleasing to the eye. If you guys have a better way to list them out, please let me know.
Right now, they are listed in chronological order of when they were gained. Upgrades have just replaced the skill that was there previously.
That be...
2025-05-09 21:52:46 +0000 UTC
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Chris
Marcus and I walked around the recently cleared area and checked it over one more time. When I had asked the man where he wanted me to build the Communication Formation, I hadn't expected him to choose here.
I wasn't really expecting anything, but inside one of the rooms of Marcus's Manor wasn't it. Outside somewhere or hidden away, maybe, but not just inside one of the rooms.
It isn't that weird. Well, it's his choice.
"This wi...
2025-05-08 21:17:32 +0000 UTC
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Vasariametz
It took nearly three years, but his debt was finally paid, no small part because he finally got fed up. Diving into the blight and slaughtering half a sector had a way of speeding things up.
High King Dain didn't approve, but he also couldn't tell Vasariametz what to do. Dain wanted to draw things out a little longer and use the front lines to battle harden his troops, but Vasaria wasn't going to sit around and wait a decade for that to happen...
2025-05-07 21:53:06 +0000 UTC
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Chris
My fingers traced out the tiny Runes upon the Mana Crystal in yet another attempt to create our very own Message Stone. My attempts had all ended in failure, but it wasn't as frustrating as one might think.
Even if every failed attempt was mightily upsetting, all I had to do was remember this wasn't life or death. A mistake didn't mean I would perish on the battlefield.
It was simply that. A mistake.
I did my best to throw myself into th...
2025-05-06 21:18:33 +0000 UTC
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Vulwin
After spending nearly six months with the First Generation Humans, he began to understand things a little better. Not much, but enough that he wasn't caught off guard by every little saying or gesture.
When the Human Leader told him that the trip would take a matter of several months, Vulwin about shut down. Never in his many years had it taken more than two months to travel from one place to another while on the same planet.
It was absurd!
2025-05-05 21:48:57 +0000 UTC
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~~
The initial forging of the Mana Core is always the most strenuous and difficult of the process. Inexperience and ignorance play a major role in that distinction. While the next steps take more mastery and continually raise the bar for performative execution, the experience gained allays some of that.
Constructing or forging your first Circle or Star, depending on how you refer to it, is harder, but not in the same way the initial forging is.
2025-05-02 21:31:56 +0000 UTC
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~~
Anything regarding the Spirit or its advancement has always been shrouded in mystery. For as long and as far back as recorded history spans, Spirit Advancements and what is now known as the Path of Power through the Spirit has laughed in the face of any codification.
It has bucked convention, spit in the face of comparison, and all around undermined any attempts to regulate the process or its effects.
The other paths, Body and Mind, can both...
2025-05-01 20:41:21 +0000 UTC
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