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Added 2023-03-19 05:00:01 +0000 UTCWhew. This chapter was a struggle despite being on the shorter side. You're actually getting version 2, as version 1 wasn't fit for human consumption. Time lost on the complete rewrite, plus the day job being in peak circus mode lately, made it quite a stressful week. Time for a break. Except not really, as the day job people have also decided to send me on some international travel for the first time since well before the global panini. Maybe I'll try writing on my phone while I'm stuck in the flying test tube. Wish me luck!
Anyway, enough about that. As always, thanks for reading! Hope you enjoy.
2023-03-05
2023-03-12
2023-03-19
"Break"
2023-04-02
Comments
So, what are Ascension going to do with the ship? (It is fairly recognizable from fairly far away...) Bury and hide it until needed? Deconstruct it and use the parts? Or reconstruct it to better fit themselves? I don't think they'll be physically able to reconstruct it yet; they need to figure out the runes first, and have trained workers, and maybe some extra sub-cores and other materials. Even so, I have ideas. For the hull, I'm thinking a hydrofoil catamaran. And waterjets are good for normal use, but when there's a whale in pursuit, I'm thinking an actual jet motor might be called for, or perhaps a rocket. As a bonus, if it's made to be propelled by a single jet motor in the back, that's also a good spot that Halgrave to get out and push on when the fuel runs out. Of course, they might skip a few steps and reconstruct it as an airship instead. In which case, it'd still be kinda useful to have it be a catamaran hydrofoil, because they'd likely have to disguise it as a boat when going other places. Hm, I wonder if Rain is going for hot air, hydrogen or helium - or if he's going full Sci-fi and making a vacuum balloon...
Elaborate
2023-03-28 22:46:14 +0000 UTCIt's a good idea, though the main exit is controlled by the Bank. "Oh yeah, we raised prices. The new portal fee is 'a 51% controlling interest in Ascension'." I guess since it's a chasm and not an enclosed cave, Ameliah can fly them out of it; they can get there quickly via portal and return the hard way. On the other hand, it's so out of the way that the Bank would suffer absolutely no repercussions from portalling in ten Rubyplate Enforcers and capturing Rain by force. Meaning Rain and Ameliah have to go in disguise and limit their distinctive abilities like Purify until just before they leave. (Rain's Purify would otherwise be perfect. The chasm is full of poisonous gasses? Purify all of it, then use Detection to see where it all leaks out from. Odds are good that it's emitted from a Chemical Dungeon or something, and then you can find it easily from those emissions. I guess maybe Rain can do the inverted-Radiance thing to keep Purify from shedding light, but it's still going to be pretty obvious if the poisonous gasses just disappear overnight.) The decision will come down to whether there are better alternatives. Brightside is rank 20. Is there somewhere else that's rank 30+, as accessible, and safer?
Elaborate
2023-03-28 19:43:19 +0000 UTCI just realized, this expedition presents a unique opportunity. While they are most likely going to head to Xiugaaraa, if they instead teleported over to the Southern Isles, they could visit Brightside. Ameliah sounded like she regretted leaving before getting her silver class. She said she could have been their saviour had she waited and the System punished her with her class name, Uncertain Saviour. I could see her and Rain waltzing into Brightside, purifying the zone and wiping out the monsters, then letting all the trapped awakened there escape. Great way for her to get some closure.
Cirvante
2023-03-28 16:58:02 +0000 UTCCrystal Slimes target filth, not insects. To clean up the Blood Marsh, you'd need to consistently kill and dissolve all the spawned bloodhogs and other monsters, while frying insects all throughout the Marsh via Aura Anchors for several days or even weeks. And even then, the insects could quickly come back if left unattended and with access to the bloodhogs.
Cirvante
2023-03-28 16:49:14 +0000 UTCHow do you farm bloodhogs, anyway? Do you just tap blood, or is it a Särimnir thing where you peel off bacon and then it regenerates? How cooperative is the bloodhog? I mean, it IS a monster. On the other hand, getting some bacon carved off once a day is probably heavenly compared to being The Worm That Walks out in the Blood Marsh. If they're smart enough, they might stay willingly. I could imagine a [Painless Cut] Skill being in one of the Rogue Trees, seems like a good choice for a Bloodhog Vivisectionist. Or maybe there's a [Painful Cut] that can be run in reverse with metamagic. Hm, I wonder if there's a Tree for Cook/Baker/Butcher-type Crafters. [Food Preparation] or something. The classical setup is to have food give potion-style buffs, but you could mix it with the Xianxia trope and have prepared monster meats provide Essence, (and maybe some sort of minor but long-duration regen buff).
Elaborate
2023-03-24 11:46:35 +0000 UTCHm, Ascension brought a bunch of Crystal Slimes. Would that be enough to start terraforming the Blood Marsh? If they're put in a low-ranked zone, would new Crystal Slimes - or regular ones - start spawning naturally, resulting in a positive feedback loop? Can a tamer induce mitosis in a slime? Or do they split naturally once they've eaten enough? All you'd need is one slime per bloodhog, just riding on its back and slurping up bugs 24/7, and the insect population would start collapsing. One could argue about the ethics about disrupting an artificially sustained ecosystem, or about introducing an invasive species on a continent where they don't belong - but in the end, this planet is in large parts extremely hostile to human life, and it feels reasonable to be hostile right back. The environment is borked anyway - just do whatever.
Elaborate
2023-03-24 07:05:08 +0000 UTCSo, like, what is there for Ascension to eat in the Blood Marsh? I guess they might capture and domesticate a bloodhog, especially if the tamer guy has a slot free, and there might be enough mosquito larvae in the water to support a thriving fish/frog population? Maybe there are plants that Tallheart can eat? The alternative is using Refrigerate to collect bugs to mash and cook... Ascension needs someone with a superpowered farmer Class, who can carry a sack of seeds and produce a field of vegetables in a day. Too bad they didn't have the time to rescue Green; maybe Rain can raid Three Cliffs on the way back?
Elaborate
2023-03-24 06:44:36 +0000 UTCEh, there's a limit on how many people Ameliah can princess-carry, and speed is of the essence, because the sooner he can get his mind defenses online, the more high-value platinum-level secrets he can squeeze out of Vatreece's NPC before it runs out of battery. So I think it's reasonable for him to spend six weeks focusing on that, and *then* go back and powerlevel people. But yeah, it's time to get these people some Blues, and Rain is the ideal guy to do it.
Elaborate
2023-03-22 21:21:05 +0000 UTCNow that he actaully can protect people I hope he takes a whole party with him this time to help others raise their level like he promised everyone he would.
Andy Coppock
2023-03-22 20:01:41 +0000 UTCThanks for the chapter!
Gopard
2023-03-22 00:31:40 +0000 UTCIt could be cool to see them being incognito Adventurers in a big city with access to the Depths, mostly because it'd enable cool PoVs from NPCs trying to figure out what the Deal is with these two extremely-strong-for-their level mysterious strangers in matching armours. And also we'd be getting a look at new people with interesting builds. Presumably Rain will only need a few hours per day in a high-rank place at first, until he hits the System Essence limit, so doing Quests would be a fine way of getting pocket change for the first two weeks. ...Well, realistically I suppose he and Ameliah will simply explore the middle of the blood march and find a Dungeon or entrance to the Depths there, and they'll take it on with just the two of them. I just think going in another direction would be more interesting...
Elaborate
2023-03-20 23:59:50 +0000 UTCHeh, Reverse Purify is Rain's "Dangerous Forbidden Technique"
Tohron
2023-03-20 21:09:12 +0000 UTCAs painful as it is to think, but you should be able to take a couple weeks or a month off! We would all survive... lol, I think! And it would probably help you out too
Marwolaeth
2023-03-20 17:50:59 +0000 UTCLooking forward to rain going more solo for a bit ... being tied down as captain sucks. I want to see more cool, party sized, adventure times.
James Heskett
2023-03-20 04:13:38 +0000 UTCI sure hope so!
Justin
2023-03-20 01:51:22 +0000 UTCDo you think he unlocked natural mana sight? He unlocked taming naturally with Dozer so it is theoretically possible to stumble upon natural skills (though they have to be trained manually too instead of using the system I think?). Wonder if he has a taming spell form he will separate from his old core just like he is separating his auras and metamagics.
Conor McGroarty
2023-03-19 20:59:29 +0000 UTCI enjoyed this chapter. But you know what I just realized? We didn't get any follow-up on Rain's eyes changing color. I thought there'd at least be a throwaway line like, "My eyes are blue now. That's a thing. One I'll obsess over when I actually have some time to spare."
Ziggy
2023-03-19 18:13:32 +0000 UTCReally love the story, and seeing Rain having to abuse the system to survive is exciting!
Isekaitis
2023-03-19 17:00:09 +0000 UTCI doubt the Watch's civil war will end peacefully. The Watch is all about keeping the Awakened in check for normal people and their last Warden just caused a continent wide catastrophe. That alone likely tainted the reputation of the Warden's chosen successor with the rest of the Watch.
Atlas Dwarf
2023-03-19 16:27:12 +0000 UTCI feel there is a lot of knowledge behind the scenes that is missing inside the story.
D
2023-03-19 13:39:24 +0000 UTCIs something expected to happen when he unlocks every T4 skill tree?
Pyrefiend
2023-03-19 12:20:39 +0000 UTCi hate myself for saying this but if you need a true week of rest after your travel, be sure to skip another week of release. With love.
pipMcDohl
2023-03-19 10:22:38 +0000 UTCAssuming you have no technical plbackground, I will not use differentials. Assume Rain is a big Hole in the landscape (concerning essence) the bigger the hole, the faster the environment tries to fill it with essence. And unlocking, eg. Increasing the ammount of total XP on rain, increases the size of that hole. Sadly there is just not enoigh essence in a rank 0 area...
Dragebar
2023-03-19 09:42:20 +0000 UTCOk can someone remind me how does unlocking skills help Rain? It said unlocking each tree gives him allocation and improves the ways in which system can help him, but I totally forget how that actually helps? 😕
Edwin Kravcenka
2023-03-19 09:01:26 +0000 UTCNot really. He is a greedy Banker who wants to wring Ascension dry for profit. Such a mindset doesn’t allow a tacit cooperation as his greed is that deep. Not that being greedy is inherently bad but it is when you seek to steal and monopolize the work of others.
Conor McGroarty
2023-03-19 07:09:16 +0000 UTCPresumably Rain can still help out with his anchors.
Random Information
2023-03-19 06:58:45 +0000 UTCSeems like the fastest way to fix Rain's problems would be to get to a town with a teleporter, then go from there to a place with high-level Dungeons/Delving/Depths - possibly paying for escort down to around rank-40 - rather than hoping to find a higher-level zone in the middle of the swamp. Well, OK, the *fastest* way would be to sit on the bottom of the ocean for a good while, possibly with Spring or Summer to help with needing to breathe. But that would be ludicrously dangerous. Hm. I wonder if Vatreece underestimated Rain's capability, and if so, how much. Thing is, you don't want to play around with a mindshredder, so regardless of how quickly Rain develops, he's probably going to want to beef his mind up even more before the thing triggers. Though I'm guessing he'll set a limit of 2.5 months or rank-30 defenses, whichever comes first, so the Vatreece-drone will still have some battery left.
Elaborate
2023-03-19 06:52:47 +0000 UTCBTW, Rain probably ought to add Essence count to his Progress Report.
Elaborate
2023-03-19 06:24:47 +0000 UTCHm, how will the others deal with the bugs if Rain leaves? Guess Myth and Reason will have to make god-tier insect repellent...
Elaborate
2023-03-19 06:23:42 +0000 UTCDozer will probably not be Happy with Rain until he Turns the Blood-mash into its equivalent of a Crystal Slime.
Call0013
2023-03-19 06:19:17 +0000 UTCSo it has been a month since Rain had the time bomb installed by Granny Vatreece and he is erring on the side of caution by assuming he only has one more left (2 instead of 3). It is wise since pushing it beyond that point risks him dropping brain dead at any moment even if he is really close to done. Rain truly would be uniquely suited for scouring the Bloodmarsh and rearranging ecosystems in general with enough time and energy. Though would take much less time if he was gold. Essence meditation truly is a great advantage he has to rapidly accrue essence as long as he watches the damage. A good part of the bottlenecks high levels face is not enough essence to keep up with their advancement. Not everyone can camp in rank 50+ Depths for months especially since the amount of gold plates are so rare and well balanced teams even more so. Guess Rain can reach the bloodmarsh ranked zone and try search deeper from there.
Conor McGroarty
2023-03-19 06:03:27 +0000 UTCPoor Luna - you've really got to feel sorry for him!
Random Information
2023-03-19 05:58:13 +0000 UTCA civil war in the Watch? Let’s hope it is a Cold War (even though those are a tease and no fun) or a duel between the Guardian contenders as using the rank and file for combat to decide the Warden is stupid. The Watch cannot afford to cripple itself anymore than it already is without the Warden. They can stand to lose a few Guardians as with the resources and knowledge they have, wouldn’t be too hard to power level some replacements (if needed) even if they would be half assed from being so rushed. Losing hundreds (if not thousands) of backbone Watch members raised and working for the institution for years? That would be a large blow as several of them would become competent Guardians one day instead of paper mache ones.
Conor McGroarty
2023-03-19 05:55:45 +0000 UTCEnjoy your break, take care of yourself!
Doodlyboy15
2023-03-19 05:36:54 +0000 UTCTake care SS, enjoy the traveling. If you have a Bluetooth keyboard, it makes typing on your phone trivial.
Metierian
2023-03-19 05:23:10 +0000 UTC
