Most of the facility was underground, with only a few silos breaking through the dirt to squat amongst the rolling hills that made up the area. That did make it a bit harder to break in unnoticed, or at least it might have if I hadn’t stolen the knowledge of the site’s unloading grounds from ...
2024-07-30 11:53:46 +0000 UTC View PostUnfortunately, just transplanting the mysteel pillars and expecting them to work wasn’t a reasonable assumption. Even if I managed to get them in the exact same formation, right down to the inch, there wasn’t the slightest chance of them activating once I fed them mana. Instead, I had to deep...
2024-07-29 11:33:39 +0000 UTC View PostI glanced around, curious to see if any other secret panels would open to reveal guardians that had long since lost any semblance of power. Whoever had been in charge of security must have decided that one was enough, or else the panels had malfunctioned in some way. It might be as simple as ther...
2024-07-28 11:14:24 +0000 UTC View PostThe cavern wasn’t natural, of that I was sure. It was another five hundred feet lower than the little pocket I’d claimed earlier, well below the sewer lines running under Derro. If Keeper’s theory was correct, it was part of the ancient machinery used to elevate the city from mundane to a m...
2024-07-27 12:34:43 +0000 UTC View PostSenica and Juby followed me into the greenhouse. I’d explained what I wanted, and not only had my sister agreed to help, she’d volunteered Juby’s assistance as well. When he’d tried to protest, it had only taken a single look from her to silence him. Perhaps if our parents hadn’t been t...
2024-07-26 13:05:45 +0000 UTC View PostUnlike the old village, New Alkerist had only continued to grow since its founding a few years ago. I wasn’t entirely sure where all these people had come from, but the introduction of the teleportation platform network across the island had certainly encouraged traveling. With the knowledge of...
2024-07-25 12:41:43 +0000 UTC View PostWhatever faults she might have, Keeper was a thorough researcher. She’d pulled information from dozens of different sources, speculated on what hadn’t been written down, confirmed those speculations, and compiled everything into an entirely logical conclusion. I couldn’t find a single fault...
2024-07-24 12:27:36 +0000 UTC View PostThere were three mages waiting for us at Derro’s platform, all of them with anxious looks on their faces. Zara froze for a second when she saw them, then asked, “What are you doing here?”
“Waiting for you, of course. Your father… he was not happy with your decision to leave…”<...
2024-07-23 12:03:20 +0000 UTC View PostWhen I’d first traveled to Derro, it was with the intention of breaking a cabal known as the Wolf Pack. They’d managed to set up a system where they were harvesting mana from tens of thousands of people all over the island, with agents installed in practically every village and town. Even Der...
2024-07-22 11:59:55 +0000 UTC View PostI spent two weeks flying around the edges of the old Ralvost Empire placing scrying beacons anywhere and everywhere. Some might be found, but I went out of my way to make the objects they were attached to unobtrusive and to shield them from casual detection. If Ammun himself randomly stumbled acr...
2024-07-21 11:10:41 +0000 UTC View PostI’d stumbled upon lossless casting a few years ago when I’d encountered a flock of gigantic sapient birds. It hadn’t been a skill I’d needed in my old life, but now that I was living in a world without ambient mana, it was perhaps the greatest technique in my repertoire. Unfortunately, I...
2024-07-20 12:15:37 +0000 UTC View PostBaviru sat in one of the dozen stone petitioner’s chairs I’d shaped for the meeting hall I’d built in their administration building while I leaned against the table where the town’s leadership would be seated.
“Alright,” I said. “I want you to walk me through everything that h...
2024-07-20 12:15:06 +0000 UTC View PostCurious apprentices had asked me many, many times over the years what it felt like to be bonded to a genius loci. Place spirits, as they were sometimes called, encompassed so much more than the human range of senses, and connecting to one on a profound level had a tendency to fundamentally alter ...
2024-07-20 12:14:38 +0000 UTC View PostIf anything, the refugees were understating the precariousness of their position. It had taken me a few hours to look everything over, but by my rough count, they had close to five hundred people with them. That number included a hundred or so children who would not be able to contribute meaningf...
2024-07-20 12:14:09 +0000 UTC View PostIn the worst-case scenario, Ammun’s hunters finally caught up with me and came in numbers. Even if they were all stage fours, I still wasn’t worried about them actually killing me, but the fact that they’d found my family’s home was a different matter.
“What are they doing?” Fat...
2024-07-20 12:13:29 +0000 UTC View PostFor two years, I’d devoted practically every waking moment to a singular goal. I’d make compromises, I’d sold my skills, and I’d begged favors to keep the mana I needed coming in. I’d sacrificed time with my family and secluded myself away to stay focused. And now, finally, I was ready ...
2024-07-20 12:12:59 +0000 UTC View PostThe man who broke the world has risen back out of the pages of history, and Keiran is the only one who can stop him from making things even worse.
Two years ago, in the process of determining exactly how to fix Manoch’s world core and restore m...
2024-07-20 12:12:06 +0000 UTC View PostAuthor's Note: Book 4 will begin tomorrow. 7/week updates will continue until August 23rd when book 3 reaches the end on Royal Road.
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For three days, I’d been overseeing the migration of Sanctuary’s population to their new town. I’d helped put up homes for ...
2024-07-19 11:28:56 +0000 UTC View PostI didn’t hesitate to send out a dozen more phantasmal swords from my cloak. They wouldn’t be very effective against a mage’s shadow, but they would do something. If it didn’t dodge out of the way, it’d be taking damage. If it did, it’d give me the time I needed.
Unsurprisingly, ...
2024-07-18 12:16:05 +0000 UTC View PostOur new arena favored Ammun. While I could process the mana here, I couldn’t do it nearly as efficiently as he could. I wouldn’t go so far as to say he had an unlimited amount of mana, because even though a lich naturally drew it in, it still took time to trickle into his withered, dead mana ...
2024-07-17 12:30:39 +0000 UTC View PostThe reaction was immediate and violent. Ammun whipped both hands straight up and hurled mana out in a tightly controlled burst. Telekinetic force ripped down the hallway, hitting me and everyone else nearby in an ingenious, albeit expensive, attack.
Most shield wards, mine included, handled...
2024-07-16 11:56:45 +0000 UTC View Post“I can assure you, you’ve missed a lot while you were sleeping,” I told Ammun. “And I’m not even close to the age this body appears.”
That wasn’t even a lie. I just didn’t clarify and tell him that I was less than half my apparent age. Hopefully he’d think I was significan...
2024-07-15 11:47:49 +0000 UTC View PostAverin had nerves of steel. I’d just taken out three dozen people, though admittedly none of them were actually dead. Maybe he thought that meant his life was safe, that in the worst case, he’d just be imprisoned. Whatever his rationale was, he didn’t show an ounce of fear over his plan to ...
2024-07-14 12:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostI stepped off the teleportation platform and unleashed a spell through my staff. The dozen or so Breakers guarding it all crumpled to the floor, their shield wards overwhelmed and their minds battered into submission by pure pain. Their brief screams were a chorus to announce my arrival.
At...
2024-07-13 11:51:22 +0000 UTC View PostThere were six people meeting at one of the safehouses I’d put surveillance enchantments in. One of them was Averin, and another was the man who’d introduced himself as Seven. Without the mask on, it was easy to see the familial relation between himself and the former matriarch of House Adyle...
2024-07-12 12:44:01 +0000 UTC View PostIt took a week for my scrying mirror to let me know someone was trying to reach me. I’d expected them to try to drag me in much sooner, but apparently, I’d underestimated the Breakers of Chains. When I activated the mirror, it wasn’t Averin on the other side – yet another surprise.
...
2024-07-11 12:38:02 +0000 UTC View PostStorage crystals and mana crystals had a lot of similarities in function, but diverged in construction principles. Mana crystals were, for lack of a better word, a more intimate creation. At the end of the day, a mage who wanted a mana crystal had to build it themselves. It had to be tied to thei...
2024-07-10 12:39:36 +0000 UTC View PostIt had become a habit of mine after I mastered lossless casting to run constant divinations whenever I could. A person could seem to do everything right and still get outmaneuvered because they lacked the information to know that their choices weren’t going to grant them victory. The old adage ...
2024-07-09 12:25:19 +0000 UTC View PostI had to stop almost immediately once I was inside the tower, something that was actually a bit difficult to do. Heavy mana rushed by at such great speed that it affected the physical world around it, forcing me to expend some of my own magic just to keep myself firmly rooted inside the vent.
... 2024-07-08 12:19:51 +0000 UTC View PostIf I’d let only gravity take me, it would have taken me close to half an hour just to reach ground level after jumping off the top of the Sanctum of Light. Speeding it up with a flight spell got me there in about half the time, but I still had a long, long way to go. The true size of the tower ...
2024-07-07 12:10:01 +0000 UTC View Post