The dining room was more elegant and formal compared to the rest of the house, though Alex was excited to have an occasion to use the room. The large oak table was set with dishes that Edwin had arranged and Gabby was preparing to fill. Soon, they would be seated, and Alex could smell the appetizing mix of garlic and onion wafting in from the kitchen.
Above, the modern light fixture cast a warm glow over the room, which did a lot to change the room from feeling quite as stuffy or steril...
2025-01-29 14:00:17 +0000 UTC
View Post
Subplot: European Adventures
Alright, everyone! I just wanted to post a quick update and see if I couldn't get a few volunteers!
I'm putting together some chapters from the point of view of a character who's overseas! As of now, I just know that they're likely somewhere in Europe and meeting with another organization similar to the Adventurers Guild.
I'd love to get some assistance in chatting with people who are either from Europe or know more about those cultures than ...
2025-01-28 17:16:04 +0000 UTC
View Post
Late January sunlight filtered through the floor-to-ceiling windows that led to the courtyard at the center of the U-shaped building. The modern living room was open with high ceilings and the couch, living room table, and TV, all in the corner of the room, were depressed two steps into the ground.
Slowly, things were changing around the comfy living space and Alex was beginning to feel like it was his home, rather than he was squatting in a house that was far too nice for him. On the f...
2025-01-28 14:00:09 +0000 UTC
View Post
Alex crouched behind a natural crystal formation on the ground, using it as cover. Peering around the side, he watched the last floating crystal in the distance. The aurora above had intensified over the past two days, casting brighter lights and stranger shadows across the snow. Small, clear crystal growths had begun to spread across the ground, making the terrain a bit more hazardous.
More than the terrain, the wolves had changed and evolved. It hadn’t occurred to them at first, but...
2025-01-27 14:00:14 +0000 UTC
View Post
This is a bit of a bonus chapter added after the fact from reader feedback.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The three of them moved to an open area beneath the awning. Pete rolled his shoulders and grinned at Olivia. "Ladies first?"
"Sure, but don't come crying to me when I make you look bad in front of the new guy." Olivia bounced on her toes, and her ponytail swished from side to side with the mo...
2025-01-26 21:25:25 +0000 UTC
View Post
More Patreon Chapters!!!
I'm going to put this at the top because I'm assuming many of you just skim these posts. But, with the edits almost finished (see below), my next goal is to focus on writing enough to bump up the amount you guys get here on Patreon.
The growth on Patreon has stagnated a bit, and I'd love to see Patreon continue to grow, even if it's slow. If Patreon can help me maintain a steady income, the thought of being a full-time author is SUPER a...
2025-01-24 15:43:52 +0000 UTC
View Post
Alex leaned over the small hand-drawn map that was laid out on the folding table under the tent. Several others stood to either side of him, and while he was hoping for more information, the drawing didn’t show too much.
He moved away from the table to return to his team, standing a short distance away. Taking a deep breath of cold air, Alex looked around the abandoned supermarket parking lot. News vans crowded between old shopping cart corrals and dirty patches of half-melted snow we...
2025-01-24 14:00:05 +0000 UTC
View Post
Mark’s SUV idled in the small lot off to the side of the Safe Zone checkpoint. Alex looked from the passenger window at the busy area as the chilly morning sun reflected off of the reinforced barriers that guarded the entrance to the city. There was a steady stream of people and vehicles flowing through the big gates, occasionally being asked to stop as he saw someone step up and activate an ocular skill to scan them.
“He’s running a bit late,” Sarah said from the back seat. “...
2025-01-23 14:00:08 +0000 UTC
View Post
Alex’s boots dragged across the front steps of his fancy mansion steps. He looked down at his shoes as he trudged up the stone stairs, unable to pull his thoughts from Rylan’s words at the Voss Estate.
‘…your progression will plateau once your luck runs out. Mine won’t.’
Alex made a frustrated sound as the words rung through his head. He grimaced as he thought back to his original thought about wanting to help his friends and he knew it was true, but didn’t ...
2025-01-22 14:00:10 +0000 UTC
View Post
This chapter is a pretty drastic change as well. The two major changes were:
I had Alex be a lot less whiny about his trait. I had mentioend that he was a video game player, even if not in the last few months, he should understand what that trait means a little more than I had him originally just thinking it was "trash". It's not trash. You know it. He should likely know it. He still doesn't quite understand the gravity of it, but he doesn't think i...
2025-01-22 13:50:05 +0000 UTC
View Post
Yeah... I rewrote pretty much this entire chapter. I was shocked at how much I was really trying to keep sentences short and have Alex be in his head. While I do want him to be a character that is second guessing himself and in his head, the original chapter was almost every other line as a thought. It was too much.
I had him think through the fight a bit more, and he tries to make a little makeshift spear with the stick and knife, but the ending t...
2025-01-22 13:44:21 +0000 UTC
View Post
This chapter stayed mostly the same, other than some grammatical changes and Alex now grabs a knife from the restaurant as he's heading toward the Rift. Even though this is a spur of the moment decision to go to the Rift, since he knows (mentioned in the next chapter) that he needs to fight/kill something, I do feel like he should attempt to bring something with him to fight or defend himself.
--------------------------------------------------------------------...
2025-01-22 13:42:27 +0000 UTC
View Post
Most of this chapter was rewritten. When I went back to reread it, I realized I had written almost an entire play by play of exactly what Alex was doing in his apartment to unwind. I didn't really like it and felt like I could show something better of Alex's personality.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alex stared at his computer screen. It’s glow illuminated his tired f...
2025-01-22 13:40:12 +0000 UTC
View Post
I'm creating a collection for the Rewrite Chapters, though when they do end up going live on Royal Road, I'll just merge these into the Volume 1 Collection.
Very small rewrites in this chapter. You could pretty much skip this one if you wanted, I just tightened up some of the grammar and dialogue tags.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alex's ...
2025-01-22 13:37:54 +0000 UTC
View Post
Hey everyone, hope you had a good weekend!
This week I'm going to dip into my backlog a bit and actually not write to progress the story.
Rewrite:
Now that the full first book has been published on RR, I feel like I need to polish it up and get ready to submit it to Aethon. A big part of this, and something I've been wanting to do for RR anyway, is to rewrite some of the early chapters.
Before I post them on Royal Road, I plan to post them here!!! I will likely post...
2025-01-21 15:26:36 +0000 UTC
View Post
Alex lay spread-eagle on the training mat with his chest heaving and sweat cooling on his skin. The lights were back on, and the late afternoon sun was streaming through the tall windows of the training room. Beside him, Olivia sat cross-legged, drinking deeply from her water bottle.
“You know,” She said between breaths. “I thought I had figured you out after watching you train with Mark and Sam. But you’ve really been holding back on them, huh?”
Alex turned his head to ...
2025-01-21 14:00:10 +0000 UTC
View Post
Alex pushed through the heavy door into the same training facility at the Voss estate where the New Year’s tournament had taken place. As he looked through the thick glass window at head height, he caught his own reflection and was still shocked, even after being back for an entire month, to see the difference in his appearance.
“-and that’s where the fundamental difference lies,” a woman’s voice came from the phone. “The Hunters Association wants control, regulation, and ov...
2025-01-20 14:00:14 +0000 UTC
View Post
Mark crouched behind his shield with the short sword by his side. The Snap-Vine’s brown bulb protruded from the ground a short distance ahead.
“Ready?” Alex called from behind a tree to Mark’s left. At Mark’s nod, he lifted his wand and sent a mana bolt through the forest, causing several nearby bushes and branches to rattle together.
The Snap-Vine reacted instantly by lifting its hidden tendrils from the ground and whipping them toward Alex. Mark burst forward, shield r...
2025-01-17 14:00:07 +0000 UTC
View Post
Alex and Mark stood at the back of his SUV with the door lifted, looking at Sam, who sat with his legs hanging off of the back.
“Alright, you both have everything on the lists in your bags, right?”
Mark and Sam nodded in response, and Mark tapped his hip. “Yep, ready to go.” The large Polish man practically bounced from one foot to the other.
“Good, let’s head down the trail.”
“Why didn’t Olivia come?” Sam asked as he hopped from his perch on the ba...
2025-01-16 14:00:06 +0000 UTC
View Post
Sorry for the random time and late post, but I just had to share this!
I mentioned this a little while back, but I'm stoked to share some thumbnails from an artist with you guys!
Marco Defillo is the artist I contacted for this first project. I'll post some of his other social media links below.
I think I'm leaning most toward the second picture, but I might ask him to mix in Sarah's pose from the third picture and make sure that Val is asking for a cookie off of Sam's plat...
2025-01-16 01:29:31 +0000 UTC
View Post
“Ugh, come on!” Mark sat up from where he was lying on the couch. “Seeing how strong Sam is this morning, and how much of a difference he can make, gets me pumped! We’ve been waiting forever to go into a Rift, dude. We’ve only got tomorrow and Sunday before the Teams Event starts.”
Alex released his main focus from cycling his mana, but left his secondary focus on his mana-shaping practice. It was helpful to shift quickly between making the basic shapes of the ritual circles...
2025-01-15 14:00:07 +0000 UTC
View Post
The morning sun cast long shadows across the large house’s driveway as Alex, Mark, and Sarah piled into Mark’s SUV. The drive into the city felt surreal to Alex. Even though they’d gone into the Safe Zone multiple times, the city was so different than he’d ever seen.
The immediate difference wasn’t something he would have ever noticed before the integration of the System and his time spent in the Celestial Rift. As they drove through the city and Alex looked around with his en...
2025-01-14 14:00:06 +0000 UTC
View Post
Alex watched Sam fidget at the bottom of the mansion steps. The early afternoon sun was warming the entire group as they lounged on the front steps, there to support Sam however they could. Returning from the hospital the day before, Alex felt happy to be back at his house.
Still ridiculous to think that this is my house.
The temperature was still in the low forties, putting most of them in sweatshirts or coats.
Sam’s nervous energy had been palpable, and he’d f...
2025-01-13 14:00:11 +0000 UTC
View Post
Alex leaned back in his office chair and rubbed his eyes. He took a moment to himself before returning to the runic manual on his desk. He’d been studying for hours, and the sun had long gone down below the tree line outside his window. Many of the concepts of this runic magic resembled learning a language to him, whereas ritual magic had just felt like learning a new type of art style.
He used his finger to trace along the lines and mumbled the words aloud.
“The art of inscri...
2025-01-10 14:00:09 +0000 UTC
View Post
Alex settled into his new office chair, tablet in hand. Near the window, to Alex’s left, Val lazed on his cat tree. The wyrm would occasionally flick his tail fins to catch the rays of sunlight streaming in from the windows.
Smiling up at his companion, Alex watched as the small creature fought to keep its eyes open.
Look like a lazy cat on a windowsill. I wonder how big you’re gonna get, buddy.
While he hadn’t directly sent the thought through their bond, Val...
2025-01-09 14:00:05 +0000 UTC
View Post
Mark started laughing before Alex had even finished reading.
“You better go ahead and put us on the list for some Common Rifts, now!”
Alex ignored him and clicked on the notification, which took him to a more detailed article containing more information on the event.
***
Posted by Derrick Holloway (Moderator) - 2 minutes ago
Hey Adventurers!
I'm excited to announce our first official Teams Event! Starting next Monday, January 20th at mid...
2025-01-08 14:00:07 +0000 UTC
View Post
Sunlight streamed through the large windows of the new house’s spacious living room. The white and gray space looked immaculate, and Alex was still finding it hard to adjust to having Edwin around to coordinate things and Clara around to constantly clean through the week.
Alex sat cross-legged on the wide cushioned couch with one large book in his lap and another smaller one in his hand. His eyebrows came together as he used his newest skill, though he was quickly becoming frustrated ...
2025-01-07 14:00:12 +0000 UTC
View Post
Ritual Suggestions!
Just thought this might be fun!
What are some rituals you guys want to see Alex create or learn? Most things have been focused on utility, and as we get further into runes, they shift more into the elements.
We can do this again once he creates Spell Circles soon. But for now, let's see what you guys want to see him learn or modify to create rituals!
Nothing is off the table for suggestions or ideas, but I hope you realize suggestions like "Infi...
2025-01-06 17:11:09 +0000 UTC
View Post
“You should be safe here,” Alex said. He looked around their secluded chamber. He knew that from the direction they came, there were more adventurers, and he’d be heading in the direction of the concentrated mana. “The slimes only come from these smaller tunnels, and they move slowly enough that you’ll see them coming. Besides, you’ve already proven you can handle them.” He smiled as he thought of how efficiently their cooler traps had worked.
Edwin nodded, still processin...
2025-01-06 14:00:10 +0000 UTC
View Post
Alex stared at the Rift’s shimmering surface and his heart hammered against his ribs. The now familiar blue-tinted portal shimmered in waves, but all he could see was same entrance he had stepped into with Valtherion several weeks ago.
He knew that it was a different Rift. He knew that it wouldn’t lead to him appearing in the same Epic Rift as before, but with nothing to see the inside of the Rift, just the swirling blue tear in reality, his overactive imagination couldn’t help bu...
2025-01-03 14:00:07 +0000 UTC
View Post
