“Is this world fraying? Will it crumble from the crack?” Voiceless thoughts floated through the absolute black, a tiny golden crack the only light, and beyond it lay Everrain.
“Nonsense. Worlds cannot fall on their own. Someone is tugging at time like a string. We wouldn’t have even noticed it if we didn’t exist here and there. O...
2025-03-17 12:29:40 +0000 UTC View Post45th of Season of Air, 59th year of the 32nd cycle
“Morning, Pumpkin.” Maelstrom waved at Newt and his group of fifteen disciples as they approached the gathering spot. Tidebreaker Abyss had forty-two disciples present on the half-full square, meaning they outranked Explorer’s Gate by a large margin.
“Why did she call you Pum...
2025-03-16 04:30:59 +0000 UTC View PostDay 89, 5:30 AM
I’ve found a decent pace. Around ten loops of reading, then, practicing spells on my own, fighting monsters, playing board games, cooking, hunting. It almost feels like living a normal life, if not for cleaving my skull in half once every fortnight.
The subject of magic and natural sciences, biology...
2025-03-16 04:00:04 +0000 UTC View Post44th of Season of Air, 59th year of the 32nd cycle
Sage’s City spread in all directions like a giant white monster, its titanic maw waiting to snap and devour countless cultivators touring the place. Newt and his fellow disciples walked with their backs straight, heads held high, displaying the prestige and honor of the sect recently com...
2025-03-15 05:45:06 +0000 UTC View PostDay 100, 8:30 AM
My hands have been shuddering ever since last night. I’ve been devouring fifteen books per day, relying on hyper-stimulator and my mental stats to build up my understanding of magic from scratch.
The topic is interesting, and now I know Edna sucks as a teacher, but that is fine. Knowledge lives in ...
2025-03-14 05:55:55 +0000 UTC View Post44th of Season of Air, 59th year of the 32nd cycle
Newt, his eyes closed, sat on his bed in the airship’s private cabin. Within his realm, he toiled, making what few improvements he could while the ship raced towards the gathering spot for the Sage’s Realm tournament.
Elders Alabaster and Flameax each spent two moons working with...
2025-03-13 03:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostDay 86, 6:20 AM
Hadriuse’s servants slept better than anyone currently alive in this world, assuming Harlos’s inn is any indication of average bedding quality. Unwillingly, I get up from the mattress made of firm, flexible foam.
I stretch my back and my joints pop softly.
How long has it been since I st...
2025-03-12 13:14:44 +0000 UTC View Post48th of Season of Fire, 59th year of the 32nd cycle
The sect canceled the trial of the Wander’s Forest and made a number of other changes. Sect Master Greenthorn, in agreement with the venerables and the elders, used the calamity as an opportunity to reorganize the sect.
He restructured the outer disciple area, which the attackers ...
2025-03-12 05:47:18 +0000 UTC View Post48th of Season of Fire, 59th year of the 32nd cycle
Newt reached his residence, the generic housing which all core disciples received as a benefit of their status. The only use he found for the building was that of storage, since he constantly moved between library and cultivation rooms, only stopping by to sleep.
The lacquered woode...
2025-03-11 05:35:41 +0000 UTC View PostDay 85, 9:00 PM
The building stretches left and right of me with no end in sight. Based on the elegant, tall windows, the ceilings are at least twenty feet tall, and everything from the pale beech window frames down to the entrance door’s blue paint appears brand new.
The jungle has long since swallowed the estate,...
2025-03-10 05:22:21 +0000 UTC View Post48th of Season of Fire, 59th year of the 32nd cycle
The whole situation seemed surreal. Nine moons ago, the sect was a ruined battleground, but as Newt walked the path towards the inner elder residences, he noted that nothing had changed. The Chamber of Healing, along with all other chamber buildings, appeared the same as ever. The devasta...
2025-03-09 05:42:07 +0000 UTC View PostDay 79, 10:10 AM
Floor after floor we went, clearing abominations until we reached the stairway leading to the seventy-fifth. The big, slow lugs made for easy kills, mounting them and steering them into landmines did the trick. The ones causing trouble were the more exotic creatures.
A praying mantis-octopus hybrid was a real horror ...
2025-03-08 04:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post45th of Season of Fire, 59th year of the 32nd cycle
“Big brother?” Newt knew he was delirious. Dandelion gripping his arm and helping him stand straight was a figment of a dying man’s imagination.
“Our timing is quite fortunate.”
“Yes… Impossibly fortunate.” Sect Master Greenthorn dragged out the words, glaring ...
2025-03-08 01:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostDay 77, 12:30 PM
I hop off the smoking remains of the eighty-foot-long abomination. As advertised, Edna’s landmine ended it in an instant. The monster’s impenetrable shell worked against it, concentrating the blast and the heat on its body.
“That looks like a major design flaw.”
“What? Having all its organs, flesh, an...
2025-03-06 05:22:41 +0000 UTC View Post44th of Season of Fire, 59th year of the 32nd cycle
Newt ran, fiery blasts exploding from his feet, propelling him impossibly fast. The sun had long since set, and he did not pause to admire what was possibly his last sunset ever. He flew, his feet destroying the earth and the roads. He did not care. If anyone ever pursued the matter and h...
2025-03-06 03:00:04 +0000 UTC View Post29th of Season of Fire, 59th year of the 32nd cycle
Newt sprinted out of the jungle, clutching his glaive. The weapon was impressive to say the least. Ever since he parted ways with Greenbow and the rest, he had relied on it to stay alive despite his reckless charge through the dinosaur-ruled jungle.
With each battle, the weapon chan...
2025-03-05 02:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostDay 77, 9:45 AM
My head is pounding. I should ask Edna whether she can do some aspirin magic or something. While loathe to, I open my eyes, my guts queasy.
“Hello, crazy person,” Edna greets me with excessive cheeriness. “What did I teach you about flushing all mana from your body?”
That explains the ha...
2025-03-04 06:00:12 +0000 UTC View Post59th of Season of Water, 59th year of the 32nd cycle
Realm spirits, old ghosts, honorable ancestors, there were many names for what was left of Coldsteel. Like Magmin, such entities lacked a sense of outside time, stuck in the loops of their own thoughts and actions for an eternity until an outsider changed the routine.
“… and so...
2025-03-04 05:42:28 +0000 UTC View PostDay 76, 5:20 PM
With ten attribute points to spare, I sank three of them into intellect, to round it at thirty-five, increasing my mental acuity by a third, reaching around elven times the base human intellect. My intention was to use the increase to help me reach my next level as well as to find the overlapping spells fro...
2025-03-02 05:57:40 +0000 UTC View Post64th of Season of Earth, 58th year of the 32nd cycle
Nearly an entire moon had passed since the crash. Newt’s party carefully avoided any spirit beasts they came across, even though their realms had dropped marginally. Upper and middle fourth realm spirit beasts made up the common predators in the domain of the quetzalcoatlus. But hundre...
2025-03-02 05:37:23 +0000 UTC View Post38th of Season of Earth, 58th year of the 32nd cycle
The sun was setting, the jungle growing dimmer, and Newt was the first to spot the snout as it appeared from behind the trees. Head-sized nostrils flared as Newt grabbed Emeraldstreak’s forearm. The woman opened her mouth with a frown, but Newt placed a finger to his lips and pointed t...
2025-03-01 06:15:20 +0000 UTC View PostDay 71, 6:30 AM
My lids feel like they are burning as Lucy shakes me from my sleep. I struggle to crack them open, but they resist, wanting nothing more than to stay shut for another hour or two.
“Leave him be, he worked hard last night.” Edna comes to my rescue, and I’m grateful. Learning magic is surprisingly taxing, and my b...
2025-02-28 05:31:18 +0000 UTC View Post38th of Season of Earth, 58th year of the 32nd cycle
Alabaster sat alone, away from prying eyes. She stared at the ruins of her once mighty sect and wept. A day had passed since the attack, and only after the twenty-odd hours did she have time to sit and gather her thoughts.
Treason. A pair of outer elders disabled defenses and alarm...
2025-02-27 06:18:57 +0000 UTC View PostDay 70, 8:30 PM
Since I don’t plan on fighting Edna, I pick Initial Overpower Resistance and check my new level up condition.
“Cast at least one spell of each mana affinity.” I look at Edna to confirm she heard me, but she just keeps eating her dinner.
So, consider what I’ve...
2025-02-26 07:38:46 +0000 UTC View Post38th of Season of Earth, 58th year of the 32nd cycle
Blue skies above, jungle below, and mountains in the distance. The ruined Explorer’s Gate airship still screamed through the air at breakneck speed, but the disciples aboard no longer noticed it.
Newt estimated their ship had descended to around half a mile above the treetops. An...
2025-02-26 05:29:52 +0000 UTC View Post37th of Season of Earth, 58th year of the 32nd cycle
The blue skies—were not. Instead of a deep blue, blackness welcomed Newt and his five fellow disciples as they climbed out of the cargo hold. They gasped at the sight. There was light. They could see everything just fine, but the sky had taken on the color of the night.
“Did we...
2025-02-25 05:39:18 +0000 UTC View PostDay 70, 4:05 PM
The first floor is overrun. Forget a bunch of beginner-friendly land lobsters, nearly invisible orb-weaver threads are criss-crossing the trees. Some are torn where stronger monsters passed through them, some are still standing.
I consider the scene indicating hundreds of orb-weavers, and the dungeon ...
2025-02-24 08:45:40 +0000 UTC View Post37th of Season of Earth, 58th year of the 32nd cycle
The problem with going up became immediately apparent. The airship left the sect’s defenses. An explosion to the left rocked them, scattering the seven cultivators like straw. Blossom, a third realm water cultivator and beast tamer, hurtled towards the open door.
“No!”
...
2025-02-23 06:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostDay 66, 5:45 AM
Finally, a night during which I didn’t feel bugs crawling all around me or vines reaching out towards me to check whether I was alive or dead. Initial Darkness Intuition feels like a curse most of the time, almost like my nose. I’ve gotten used to both, even so, sleeping on a bed w...
2025-02-22 05:38:00 +0000 UTC View Post37th of Season of Earth, 58th year of the 32nd cycle
Newt fought with a dead man’s spear. At some point, someone had ordered the outer disciples below the third realm to retreat. Their efforts and sacrifices served nothing save to empower their enemies with their blood.
The battlefield grew less cluttered, but the damage was alread...
2025-02-22 04:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post