Ahhh almost at 100 chapters. That's wild.
Enjoy!
* * *
Eliza DuFont gazed pensively at the sky, dark but still smeared with a reddish haze along the western horizon. From the Spire she could clearly see the Wall, and her enhanced Perception could even make out the specks of Guilders rotating through their shifts. It was hours past midnight and the attack had petered out some time ago, but those on the Wall weren't taking any risks.
...
2020-08-21 02:31:36 +0000 UTC
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So I'm hitting a crossroads at my day job. With public school starting up here in a couple weeks, I'll have to stay home with my daughter to both watch her, and help her with remote learning. This means that I'm going to have to leave my day job.
I'm currently in talks to do an intermittent schedule (maybe) and work part time, but as of this moment, I will be home 5 out of 7 days.
What this means for you guys is, hopefully, more writing. I'll be diving head first into this story ...
2020-08-21 00:27:15 +0000 UTC
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So far so good. My experiment, as most have guessed, is writing shorter chapters. My goal is to write chapters closer to 2,000-2500 words and post more often. This week I'm attempting to post a new chapter every weekday. (This one counts for Wednesday so I'm a little ahead of the game). This one is also more like 2700, so whoops.
However, so far so good. Writing these feels a little easier and less clunky than slamming 3-4k words into a chapter. Though longer chapters won't be gone...
2020-08-19 04:03:33 +0000 UTC
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Early Chapter! Enjoy!
* * *
Armored Skin is level 42!
Relentless Charge is level 11!
Shadow Whip is level 27!
Corrosive Strike is level 27!
Blind Fighting is level 22!
Dodge is level 26!
Relentless Charge allowed Felix to leap up atop the nearest building, making his already sizable jump into a gravity defying display. He was gone before the Hobgoblin woman could say much else. He didn't have time to chat, not if he was g...
2020-08-18 04:11:16 +0000 UTC
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Shorter chapter today (~2200 words). I'm experimenting with something here. Bear with me :D
Enjoy!
* * *
SCREEEEEE!!
Dust and debris filled the air, while residents of the Dust scattered in a panic. Cries of pain and fear were everywhere, nearly drowned out by the screams of the monstrosities. Heva Groktis tried to still her racing heart, searching the street for her family.
"Mama! Mama where are you!?"
A wo...
2020-08-17 03:46:12 +0000 UTC
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Enjoy!
* * *
A few minutes later, the four of them were all assembled in the empty room. Felix had used his Voracious Eye on all of them as they came in, something he had neglected when he arrived. Evie was level 23, while Harn and Cal were level 39 and 42 respectively. His his new senses and Skill, Felix could even tell that both Harn and Cal were beyond their Second Formation while Evie was just shy of her First. However, he couldn't tell whether she was ...
2020-08-14 22:21:09 +0000 UTC
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Enjoy.
* * *
Early morning sunlight streamed into the warehouse, dusty beams that promised of greater heat in the afternoon. Moving through that light, Evie ducked a thrown blade, landing in a low crouch before springing up into a sideways somersault. She relied on her legs and right hand, her left whipping her spiked chain in a spiral around her body. Coming to her feet, Evie heard more than saw the two other blades her chain deflected. She didn't pause. Sh...
2020-08-13 14:50:32 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 94 is running late. The day job has been changing for me and this particular chapter is a bit of a trick to get right. Been writing all evening (EST here). I'm hoping to have it up tomorrow morning (8/13).
Chapter 95 will be up on Friday as well.
2020-08-13 04:46:19 +0000 UTC
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Enjoy!
* * *
After catching up, Felix made sure to keep a solid distance between himself and the group. The Wall Quarter was busy, though it mostly seemed to be revelers passing by than laborers or Guilders. Shouts and catcalls echoed from the street corners, and the constant press of bodies was a distraction. Felix found himself wanting to pull away from anyone that got too close; a vague sense of unease built up within him.
Calm down. This didn't...
2020-08-11 00:50:29 +0000 UTC
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Sorry for posting later again. Getting harder to work on these during my day job. They started cracking down on the websites we can use, including Google and others.
Regardless, I hope you enjoy the story.
* * *
The crates were easy to open, though the crowbar seemed superfluous. Felix just grabbed and lifted the tops off with his bare hands. Inside were dozens of books, each bound in wooden boards covered in various kinds of leather or cloth. Most h...
2020-08-08 05:26:50 +0000 UTC
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Enjoy!
* * *
Fifteen minutes later, Felix found the smithy. A wide but squat building, built of dark, heavy stones, it was unlike the rest of the mostly wooden buildings around them. The roof was tiled with red clay, and a lacquered signed hung from a peg above the door. It featured a series of squiggles below a huge furnace filled with a blazing white flame.
Obvious enough, Felix smiled. If it weren't, the plume of dark smoke rising fr...
2020-08-06 02:10:32 +0000 UTC
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Enjoy!
* * *
The bell above the door chimed as Felix left the tailor's shop, proud new owner of a brand new suit of clothes. Gone were the ratty pants and stained tunic, and in its place were a pair of black cloth pants, looser than his leather ones. His new tunic was a dark blue-grey and fit across his broad shoulders more comfortably than any clothes since his arrival. Plain, sure, but both were far more sturdy due to the pair of enchantments woven into th...
2020-08-03 21:08:10 +0000 UTC
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Enjoy.
* * *
Step forward.
Foot angled toward the enemy, spear up. Keep your spear up!
Twist. Foot strike! One! Two!
Faster!
Faster!
Vessilia panted, sweat streaming down her forehead and back, soaking her padded training garb. The spear, a wooden one with a lead center, was slick in her grip as she thrust forward. An arm of baked clay swiped up at her, deflecting the blow upward, whi...
2020-08-01 14:20:03 +0000 UTC
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Feeling better, thank you for the well wishes. Still got a chest thing, but the asthma's eased up, thankfully.
Hope you enjoy.
* * *
He slept like the dead. No dreams, no sudden monster attacks. Peace.
Finally.
He woke up only once, and that was to retrieve two dishes left at his door on a beaten tin platter. They were piled high with meat and bread, but he barely looked at it all. Felix merely pulled it into the room with a grunt and fell...
2020-07-30 01:30:53 +0000 UTC
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Sorry for the wait, I've been under the weather the past few days. Asthma and chest colds kick my butt.
* * *
Felix didn't exactly know how to answer the shopkeep's question. Unknown? Is that what she saw with Analyze?
He narrowed his eyes and held a Skill loosely in his mind. "What do you mean, Unknown Race?"
"Tsk. Done anything strange recently? Adventures in the Foglands, perhaps?" Felix didn't answer, but his face must have revealed somethin...
2020-07-27 20:17:58 +0000 UTC
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This one took forever. Deleted and rewrote the entire thing twice.
Enjoy!
* * *
Oh thank god this is working, Felix thought with relief. The Skill wasn't as effective here on the Continent as in the Void, but it camouflaged him enough that when he'd run to the wall and out of line of sight, it compensated. Lafei didn't even glance in his direction. That was so stupid. Why did I attack?
He didn't know what had c...
2020-07-25 04:44:33 +0000 UTC
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Tried to post this earlier but I couldn't connect to Patreon at my dayjob. Sorry for the wait!
* * *
They walked in silence while Felix chewed over his thoughts. Mervin walked silently to his side, and Pit trotted just ahead. Felix's thoughts were...uneasy, to say the least.
Mervin had explained that the Inquisition was pretty much what it sounded like; a militant arm of a church. The church in question being the Pathless, or Trackless, or 'H...
2020-07-22 20:04:17 +0000 UTC
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Enjoy!
EDIT: changed the details on Mervin's Analyze Skill.
* * *
The sky lightened with the hesitant touches of dawn, and while nocturnal creatures had long gone to sleep, daylight creatures were waking to a new day. The temperate forests of what was once the Foglands rustled with a cool breeze, but one that heralded an oppressive heat soon to come. It was a calm morning, all things considered, were it not for the screaming.
Mervin Cors ran for his life....
2020-07-21 01:38:02 +0000 UTC
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Enjoy!
* * *
A titanic bellow shook the Void, and teeth the size of buildings clashed and chomped only three hundred yards away. Captain Nokk finished cutting down another Harrowing and looked out over the prow of his ship to see a tremendous Narhollow writhe and glut upon the entrails of another.
By the Deeps, Nokk swore, cutlass nearly falling from his fingers. The thing was covered in eyes and teeth and gaping, sucking mouths that scr...
2020-07-17 02:58:09 +0000 UTC
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Enjoy.
* * *
The Harrowings flew silently, perfectly hidden from their prey as they wheeled through the Void. Their flesh was one with the nothing around them, their eyes as inky black as the Void from which they were born. Their minds were clear, only concerned with food, blood, and Mana. The truth of their existence was infallible: eat, or be eaten.
Closer they flew, gliding without movement, their talons poised to strike instantly. The smal...
2020-07-15 19:46:14 +0000 UTC
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Allllmost done with the Void.
Enjoy!
* * *
Felix was still lying on the floor when the Maw appeared in the room.
Ugh. What do you want? Felix still hadn't bothered to reactivate his Manasight, but the Maw was clearly visible even in the darkened room, untouched by the shadows. The creature looked at him like he was a bug beneath its feet, and Felix let himself float upright with a minor effort of Will. The Maw scoffed and pointed ...
2020-07-13 03:15:03 +0000 UTC
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Enjoy!
* * *
The night wore on.
Felix wasn't sure if was night time, but he was getting very tired. The party kept going, drinks served, shouts sounding, and music blaring. The various tables for dice and other gambling expanded as more pirates sought out its pleasures, while other members disappeared into back rooms. Presumably for other delights.
He mimed another sip at his horn, refusing to reset his poisoned debuff again. He'd been doing...
2020-07-10 04:23:22 +0000 UTC
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Pit was full.
So full.
The big folk had brought so much meat and he had eaten it all. Pit had not had such abundance in what felt like many many days.
Weeks. The word is weeks.
Thoughts had been coming easier to Pit ever since Felix had saved him under the mountain. It was like a whole new world opened up, one where Pit could explore and fight and eat, side by side with his Companion. It was a good feeling.
But then the giants. And the Maw. ...
2020-07-09 02:31:26 +0000 UTC
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Enjoy!
* * *
Two dozen over-sized ballistae fired at Felix, some from no farther than thirty feet away. Felix's high Perception tracked the projectiles as they exploded toward him, but there were too many. Flaring his Willpower, Felix dove aside and evaded the first few, but he also had to worry about protecting Pit. Twisting away from huge arrows the size of spears, he caught one on his lower back. His vision went white as the pain overwhelmed him, ...
2020-07-07 02:59:16 +0000 UTC
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Little late on this one! Holidays and family kinda threw me for a loop.
Enjoy!
* * *
He was wrong.
It was way more than six.
They were impossible to count as they flew toward him deceptively fast; not only were they practically invisible, they didn't move like natural creatures at all. Their wings flapped rarely, but they sped up and slowed down abruptly, as if inertia didn't apply to them. But it certainly applied to Felix and Pit, as the two of them...
2020-07-04 05:34:25 +0000 UTC
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Sorry for the wait! Enjoy!
* * *
Pit squawked in alarm and Felix stumbled back, putting as much distance as he could between himself and the Maw.
It appeared before him as a statuesque woman with long black hair and vivid blue-green eyes, the form of Lhel, a Nymean woman from two thousand years ago. However its face was cadaverous and gaunt, as if it hadn't eaten in weeks. The Maw snarled at him, and Felix noticed that its teeth were blunt and flat. No...
2020-07-02 04:20:23 +0000 UTC
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Enjoy.
***
The earth shook and trees toppled all around them, forcing Harn to pull a few of the slower Guilders out of the way of a massive rotten trunk. Screams echoed all around him, both from the Guilders and the creatures in the fog.
"What in Avet's name was that?" Harn turned, pulled off his helmet and squinted into the distance. They had climbed the foothills outside the ruined city, nearly into the narrow pass between the valley and the rest of the Foglan...
2020-06-29 21:02:37 +0000 UTC
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One more left after this one to wrap up this arc.
Enjoy.
****
Exploration is level 25!
Congratulations! You have reached Apprentice Tier in Exploration!
You Gain:
+3 INT
+3 END
...
Rare Essence Draught Detected During Formation!
[Essence Draught of Dragon's Wing]
Choose a Feature:
Soar
Eclipse
Guide
He had no time and no context for theses choice...
2020-06-26 20:56:53 +0000 UTC
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Enjoy.
***
The air quaked and the stone beneath his feet shook as Felix regarded his Bastion of Will. His visualization of it was breaking apart, piece by piece, while the howling in his guts reached a fever pitch.
Crimson wind caressed his skin, pulling Felix from his mental construct back to physical reality, the Maw's face only inches from his own. It purred at him.
"A fine hunger, sharp and fierce. You do me proud, child."
His hunger rioted as it touch...
2020-06-25 02:36:06 +0000 UTC
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4339 words!
This one was tough. A lot of rewrites over the course of three days.
Enjoy.
****
Bloody, crimson Mana surged all around them as Lhel breathed it out like steam. Sickly and rotten, it made Felix gag even from a dozen feet away. It clouded his senses for just a moment, and when he could see her again, Lhel's face had...cracked, splitting along her cheeks as two extra rows of teeth populated in her mouth, with more coming in behind...
2020-06-22 23:51:50 +0000 UTC
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