CalCroissant

Undersea Reincarnation - 2.22: Trust

“[That’s not enough. It’s still too unfocused.]”

Henry’s head was pounding as he tightened his will around the uneven ball of glowing mana between his arms. He tried to concentrate it. To increase its density and potency to match the mana material used in ability constructs, but at a certain point, he just… couldn’t. It was as if he tried to compress smoke with his bare hands.

It just didn’t work.

His yellow eyes swiveled up at the dolphin.<...

Scorching Ascension - 1.27: Going down (Unedited)

A/N: Thank you all to those who recently joined ( and those who renewed ). I'm sincerely grateful for your support and I hope you'll enjoy this week's chapters.

They should be exciting :D

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In a small clearing, not unlike the one Ethan and the team had left, a new fight was taking place.

Audrey jumped in front of Liz and summoned another shield as the tongue of the toad shot out once more. The fleshy appendage hit the tower shield with a loud squish, ...

Scorching Ascension - 1.26: Good news. Ish (Unedited)

EDIT: Don't read these here! They've been heavily edited and I'll come back and change them. Go read it on RR. Here's the announcement for the edits:

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/95647/scorching-ascension-progression-litrpg-apocalypse/chapter/1892368/announcement-lance-encounter-edits-done

2024-10-19 20:19:49 +0000 UTC View Post

Scorching Ascension - 1.25: Upside-down shakedown (Unedited)

EDIT: Don't read these here! They've been heavily edited and I'll come back and change them. Go read it on RR. Here's the announcement for the edits:

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/95647/scorching-ascension-progression-litrpg-apocalypse/chapter/1892368/announcement-lance-encounter-edits-done

2024-10-19 00:07:05 +0000 UTC View Post

Scorching Ascension - 1.24: Any clues? (Unedited)

EDIT: Don't read these here! They've been heavily edited and I'll come back and change them. Go read it on RR. Here's the announcement for the edits:

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/95647/scorching-ascension-progression-litrpg-apocalypse/chapter/1892368/announcement-lance-encounter-edits-done

2024-10-19 00:06:29 +0000 UTC View Post

Scorching Ascension - 1.23: Violent and hungry (Unedited)

EDIT: Don't read these here! They've been heavily edited and I'll come back and change them. Go read it on RR. Here's the announcement for the edits:

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/95647/scorching-ascension-progression-litrpg-apocalypse/chapter/1892368/announcement-lance-encounter-edits-done

2024-10-18 00:38:31 +0000 UTC View Post

Undersea Reincarnation - 2.21: An idea

It was with Stormsong’s dire warning in mind that the trio began working on luring in their first squid.

While they waited under an isolated outcropping of rocks and coral, Henry used one of his blood clones as bait. Using Mimicking Arms, he gave its skin an almost glossy look and began flashing vibrant colors in a pattern.  It barely took a handful of minutes for a couple of squids to detach from their group and hover closer, but that wasn’t the plan. Henry made his clone duck...

Scorching Ascension - 1.22: The declaration (Unedited)

The cat’s tail swished as Ethan finished off the remaining lizardlings. She was lying on her stomach, pupil narrowed in a line. Her flames were more agitated as well, flaring up in bursts over her back and chest but soon enough, there was quiet in the cave and she seemed to relax. She put her head down and the flames quieted.

Ethan moved to the other end of the cave, away from the smoke and smells, and sat against the stone wall. He expected the cat to move or do something, but she st...

Scorching Ascension - 1.21: Willing to negotiate (Unedited)

Ethan didn’t twitch a finger as he watched the orange cat approach. Not out of fear, though he was a bit worried. This thing had twenty levels on him and, well, it was a cat.

They were unpredictable.

Ethan didn’t have a lot of experience with cats aside from the one time he tried hand-feeding one and got a nasty scratch for his trouble. He didn’t hate them. He knew they could be adorable and cute and all that, but he also knew they could be… jumpy. 

The cat fina...

Undersea Reincarnation - 2.20: All-knowing and smug

A/N: Rough (and exciting) week. I'm hoping to have the third chapter ready by Friday, but I'm swamped. We'll see how it goes. In the meantime, have you checked the new story yet? It's doing alright :)

Henry had been dismantling [Rupturing Bite of the Sea Drake] when the crab finally came out of his shell.

The kraken looked up from studying the weird mana which wrapped and stuck to the blood red concept shard, and was about to wave to the crab when he sensed h...

Scorching Ascension - 1.20 The master (Unedited)

The lizardlings approaching him were in rough shape. Even though they had protective measures, it just wasn’t enough to shake off a close-range detonation. They came at him, slow and steady behind their shields, with their wand-users casting spells at him, and Ethan only took a few steps toward them in response.

Beyond, the chanting continued, like a countdown in his mind. He had to interrupt them. The high-level ritualists. He had to stop whatever it was that they were doing, but he ...

Scorching Ascension - 1.19: None will step out (Unedited)

Ethan decided to wait on the tier-2 selection. He didn’t want to rush it, and he didn’t want to get the wrong kind of spell now that he was getting close to level 30 and, in any case, he didn’t have a lot of time to dally. He couldn’t afford to sit down and think his options through.

Something was happening, and he didn’t want the lizardlings to succeed.

Ethan carefully and briskly made his way through the tunnel and it barely took him a minute to find himself in a dead-...

Scorching Ascension - 1.18 Tension (Unedited)

Ethan stepped in, teeth bared, and leaned into the uppercut with his whole body. His flaming fist slammed into lizardling’s rib, and the gout of flames hit the bone armor point blank. The glowing symbols shone as the flames diverged around the lizardling’s body, but no matter how magic the armor was, it wasn’t that effective at protecting the lizardling from the incredible heat his flames were generating. It screeched, but Ethan barely heard it over the ringing in his ears.

The li...

Scorching Ascension - 1.17 Tunnel fighting 2.0 (Unedited)

The lizardlings didn’t chase him for too long after his escape.

Killing the three escorting him had been quick, and by the time the camp guards reacted and came after him, Ethan had already collected the lizardling’s fragment and booked it.

They tried chasing him through the woods, but they quickly stopped once he went back into the first forested cave.

The whole endeavor netted him a level a decent chunk of fragments, which was always welcome, but now, it was time to he...

Scorching Ascension - 1.16 Salt and pepper (Unedited)

A/N: Didn't have enough time to edit another one as I'm behind with Undersea. There's specifically a pov switch scene that I'm not super happy with and it's gonna take me a minute. Tomorrow there'll be more advanced chapters, for sure. Hopefully two or three.

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Ethan stopped behind a bush and brought up the main quest. He hadn’t checked on it in a while, and after all that fighting and sleeping, it was time to check it again and see how much time he had l...

Welcome (and links)

Edit: I'm on semi-break until the start of November! I got editing work to get through. For details, check here. Subscribing now means you'll get access to the advanced chapter, but there most likely would be no new update until I'm officially back.

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Hi!

Thanks for supporting me and my writing. To keep things brief, here are the links you might be looking for:...

Scorching Ascension - 1.15 Child of Flames (Unedited)

“Let’s do the stats first… they might help with the pain and hunger.”

Ethan eyed his current stats for a moment and noted how low his Might and Spirit were. They were being raised by the wand, which was all nice and good, but the wand stats should be a bonus, not his main source of strength.

What if someone could disable his bonus somehow? Neither Might or Spirit were above 5 points. Mana was barely better at 6 points. The only one that wasn’t as worrying was Toughness a...

Scorching Ascension - 1.14 The Mystic Toad (Unedited)

Leaning slightly out of the tunnel, Ethan raised a hand and sent a gout of barely concentrated flames toward the mystic toad. It didn’t reach as far as he wanted, but he hoped it would scare the beast away or at least make it take a step back. Enough to give him time to make a run for it, but all it did was make the toad squint its large eyes at it.

It refused to budge. Which meant Ethan will need to spend a lot more time working on his skill to make it project the flames further, or ...

Scorching Ascension - 1.13 Detention (Unedited)

A/N: This is an advanced chapter of the new story! If you haven't read it yet, check in on RR before reading this! (It's already on the Rising Stars list and climbing. Fingers crossed).

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As sweat beaded his brow, Ethan’s many injuries tingled and itched as Enduring Brawler worked on healing him. 

It was bothering him, but it wasn’t too bad. Keeping himself busy was helping, somewhat, and right now, he was experimenting with his control over fire as...

Undersea Reincarnation - 2.19: Mystic

 A/N: Make sure to read the previous announcement! If you're at the 5$ tier, chapters 2.14 to 2.18 have been unlocked, so read those first.

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“[You’re smaller!]”

Maurice was, as usual, loud and obvious in his statements. Henry waved his now short arms. “[I reduced my size so we can be stealthier. I know I could camouflage you too, but we might find things that can see through my disguise. Just like the dolphins. I can’t be ...