...
Melina sat on Sienna's back, carefully looking through the rockpine forest for signs of any cooking ingredients or other valuable materials. Whistlewisps flew all around them, sometimes so close that the wyrm let out an angry snarl to make the birds back away.
Alistair walked righ...
2025-06-12 06:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post
Melina had expected plenty of resistance from Gilbert. She had expected the Guildmaster to completely reject her request and perhaps even send people to watch her to make sure she wouldn't sneak away. What she had not expected was for Alistair to get mad.
"Melina, this is out of the questio...
2025-06-10 06:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post
...
Heiliger and her priests left Sunglow the very same day, departing on the first ship that sailed south. Melina felt intense relief when she heard the news. She had somehow managed to avoid the worst-case scenario—being dragged away to the main monastery on the grounds of being a Syste...
2025-06-08 06:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post
...
Although Heiliger along with other priests had left, Melina couldn't help but feel uneasy. People around her cheered, presuming their victory but she didn't believe they had won yet. The Bishop wouldn't back away so easily.
But what did Leliana say to make her leave so abruptl...
2025-06-06 06:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post
...
Melina's heart thundered the whole time she was making pastries in the morning. The more she thought about it, the more holes she found in her plan. Her hands trembled while she kneaded the dough and she dropped several pastries to the floor when pulling them out of the oven. Sienna had...
2025-06-05 06:00:00 +0000 UTC View Post
Melina didn't know what she had expected to see beyond the locked doors—a storage room, a library, or maybe even some equipment for Gilbert's secret hobby. One could never know who secretly harbored a passion for art, wood carving, or some other creative pursuit.
But she certainly had not...
2025-06-03 06:00:06 +0000 UTC View Post
"Why didn't he come this morning?" Melina muttered as she swept the floor of the bakery. Sienna was scuttling about on the ceiling, chasing the spiders out of their cozy corners and burning up the cobwebs that they had managed to weave during the night. Gilbert was sitting behind the counter, cou...
2025-06-01 06:00:06 +0000 UTC View Post
"Oh, Melina is—" Leon began but Alistair cut him off.
"Leon, we should be paying attention to our surroundings, not spreading rumors," Alistair said coldly, glaring at the mage. He noticeably paled, clamping his mouth shut.
"I suppose now is not the best time," Heiliger agreed solem...
2025-05-30 06:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post
For Alistair, Melina was a mystery he couldn't solve. She tamed an ember wyrm with nothing more than a tart and readily accepted it as her familiar just a few minutes later. She stabilized a passageway to the Monster Realm in a way Alistair couldn't begin to understand. He still wanted to ask for...
2025-05-29 06:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post
I cannot go to the Monster Realm. I cannot go to the Monster Realm. I cannot!
Melina kept repeating this chant in her head from the moment she opened her eyes in the morning. She knew it was an awful idea. Absolutely horrendous idea. Not only was she forbidden from going beyond the...
2025-05-27 06:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostDo you like the AI art added to the chapters? Or would you prefer chapters without it?
2025-05-25 06:23:08 +0000 UTC View Post
"Help them with my rolls?" Melina asked in horror as she looked down on her vile creations. There were so many reasons going through her mind to let Sienna incinerate the damned things where they stood.
The flavor for one—she had never eaten anything as putrid before. No, not even w...
2025-05-25 06:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post
"Find the shamans!" Alistair ordered as he lifted his shield to protect himself from a volley of incoming arrows and rocks.
A horde of goblins was spread throughout the forest, attacking the defending adventurers and guards with whatever dirty tactics they could. Their primary strategy was ...
2025-05-24 06:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post
Melina had a hard time concentrating on her work. She had <Mask of Deceit> activated the whole time, making her forced smile appear more natural. But she couldn't help but feel worried. Alistair had gone to fight off the monsters attacking Sunglow. He wasn't alone this time, he had the rest...
2025-05-23 06:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post
When Melina opened her eyes early Tuesday morning, the sun was already peeking from beyond the horizon. The sun rose earlier each morning, signifying that summer was coming close.
"Good morning, Sienna," Melina stepped out of the bed and greeted the sleepy ember wyrm, coiled up in the corne...
2025-05-22 06:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post
...
"Melina, you're a System user?" Alistair asked Melina with a pained expression. She shook her head in horror, but couldn't bring herself to answer. "And you were hiding that from me? Me?"
Blood suddenly began dripping down from the corners of Alistair's eyes and from ...
2025-05-21 06:00:09 +0000 UTC View Post
...
Alistair was tired of sleeping. He had been doing nothing but that the whole day, as everyone insisted that he needed to recover. But in his opinion, his injuries were blown heavily out of proportion. They looked bad and bled a lot, giving a gruesome impression, but in reality, they wer...
2025-05-20 06:00:06 +0000 UTC View Post
...
Melina didn't care that she had left the bakery without a word. She didn't care about the strange glances the townspeople gave her as she ran past. She even didn't care about the guards standing by the Adventurers Guild entrance door, instead nimbly bypassing them and rushing inside.&nb...
2025-05-19 06:00:04 +0000 UTC View Post
...
It probably needs no mention, but Master Gilbert was not happy when Melina announced that Alistair was waiting for him in the kitchen downstairs.
"What does he want?" The old baker groaned so loudly that she feared Alistair might have heard it all the way downstairs.
"He's b...
2025-05-18 06:00:06 +0000 UTC View Post
...
[Congratulations! You have reached Level 37.]
Alistair dismissed the System message in haste and rolled behind the tree as a troll threw a rock in his direction. It collided with the remains of a goblin shaman, burying it deep into the soil. One less thing for him...
2025-05-17 06:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post
"Look at that, Sienna! I can't believe it." Melina was crouched down over one of the garden beds, watching the tiny sprouts. Sienna looked at her curiously from her spot on the large rock in the sun, not quite understanding what she was so excited about. "I'd better water them."
Melina hurr...
2025-05-16 06:00:08 +0000 UTC View Post
Alistair activated his Lightning Dash ability and rushed towards the marsh boar, holding his sword firmly in his hand. "Lightning Strike!"
As his sword collided with the boar, a huge crackling sound like thunder emanated around the area, confusing the beast and allowing Alistair to deliver ...
2025-05-15 06:00:08 +0000 UTC View Post
"One berry tart and a dozen pear rolls for me, please," said Mieve, an older woman who was a regular at Sunglow Bakery, her expression glowing with anticipation.
"Of course," Melina said, getting a carton box to place the pastries inside. As it turned out, the people of Sunglow loved ...
2025-05-14 06:00:00 +0000 UTC View Post
"Wasn't feyfruit toxic for humans?" Alistair asked dubiously, as Melina cut one of the smaller fruits and threw it in a pot with a bit of sugar.
"Only in its raw form," Melina said, watching how the fruit slowly turned into a pinkish shimmering mush. She has worked with so much feyfru...
2025-05-13 06:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post
On her way to the Adventurer's Guild, Melina encountered Alistair, dressed in a fresh set of clothes. He was a bit puzzled when he saw her heading into the city, but when she explained that she was going to meet Leon, he nodded with understanding.
"There might be a problem with getting Leon...
2025-05-11 06:03:01 +0000 UTC View Post
"Master Gilbert, please take me along!" Melina pleaded with the old baker as he was about to set off on his weekly supply run.
"What are you plotting this time, Melina?" Gilbert glanced suspiciously at her, as did Knight, letting out a distrustful snort.
"I'm not plotting anything," s...
2025-05-11 06:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post
This has to be the most unpleasant dinner I've been a part of, and I've attended plenty of unpleasant dinners in my time. I even had to sit at a table with a noble who had clearly poisoned my food, just because I refused to fetch him a lunarbird from the Monster Realm. It had been so awkward ...
2025-05-09 06:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post
This is irritating. But why is this so irritating?
Alistair was eating lunch together with Melina, Milo, and Gilbert. The old baker and Melina were all smiles when the carpenter's apprentice arrived, treating him as a hero who had come to save them. Gilbert wasn't shy in offering h...
2025-05-08 06:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post
If somebody had told Melina that she'd be going to the market together with Leliana, Barrett, and an ember wyrm on her shoulder a week ago, she would have called them crazy. Leliana clearly didn't like her and she had barely exchanged a word with Barrett before. Yet here she was.
They were ...
2025-05-06 06:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post
Melina looked at the row of sludgy tartlets in horror. They looked far from appetizing as the beef and feyfruit filling looked like a brownish-purplish sludge and the chili walnuts on top did little to improve the look. But the worst part was that Alistair was right there to witness the doughy mo...
2025-05-04 06:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post