EdgeCases

DRR Book 2, Chapter 2 - Incoming

Author's Note:

I'm posting two chapters early because it's Zerpaderp's birthday (I don't know what your name is on Patreon, sorry). Happy birthday! Hope you like the early(ish) chapters.

There will be a third and maaaybe a fourth chapter out over the next day or two if I can swing it. Taking my time to get chapter 4 right.

—

I pore through the logs for a while more, but it soon becomes clear that this is a task for another day — mostly because this...

DRR Book 2, Chapter 1 - One More Death

Author's Note:

I mentioned there might not be chapters this week because I was so sick the last week, but I'm going to put out at least this chapter. The rest of this week I'll be taking to edit Book 1, prepare notes for Book 2, and hopefully come out with 3+ chapters at the end of the week. I'm feeling pretty good about this week, so let's hope that keeps up. You'll get extra chapters if I manage it (if not this week then definitely the next).

Thanks for reading!...

EC Book 4, Chapter 2 - Cascade Failure

Author's Note:

I've been really sick, and there's a lot I have to keep in my head for Book 4 - sorry for all the delays! I'm planning to take a small break on RR and catch up on chapters here soon, once RR gets the end of Book 3.

—

Sev let himself relax. There was a comfortable sort of silence in the caravan as it rode and bumped along the makeshift path; Vex was poring over his notebooks, Derivan was watching over his shoulder, and Misa was typing away in...

DRR 63 - End Book 1 - Temporal Storm

"I think we might have a problem," I say. The ache in my chest is only growing, and with it, there's a distinct sense of dread. I'm not sure if the dread is coming from me or from the Void, which has very much decided to start paying attention to current circumstances and is now emanating a distinct feeling of hunger.

Ikaara stops. When she speaks, her voice is strange. "It is difficult to navigate the currents, especially with two passengers," she says to me; the words are dis...

DRR 62 - Fast Travel

So the summary of it all is... simple. I think. It's a lot of information at once, but I've got the gist of things.

The Great Cities, it turns out, are a loose coalition of various cities in the center of this particular Hestian continent, with the very rough goal of appropriating the resources allocated to the Trial for themselves. They have the view that since Hestia is their planet, and they bear the cost of the Integrators rearranging their landscape and introducing monsters to thei...

DRR 61 - Feeling Antsy

Author's Note:

Some important stuff to get through before the chapter: 

- I've made changes to chapters 43 and 57 to fix a continuity error (thanks to Jaroslav for spotting it). Ethan can combine the same skills together multiple times to get different skills, but only if the Eye sees different ways to combine those skills.

- I've been down with a fever for the past few days (including while writing these chapters, whoops), and I still have one today. I...

EC Book 4, Chapter 1 - A Tale Long Past

A long line of wagons led the path away from Elyra, along with a long line of people. For all that there should have been sound — voices of people talking, laughing, sharing in their worries and their fears with one another — the whole evacuation was eerily silent.

There was the occasional laugh. The occasional voice that tried to break the oppressive silence that hung over them. The occasional musician, even, that tried to play a song to lighten the mood.

But no one ...

DRR 60 - The Void Giveth, and the Void Taketh Away

There are no words to describe the feeling that the Void Inspiration suddenly exudes. It doesn't speak, like it has a few times when trying to convey something to me. Something within it is suddenly raw and animalistic, and I feel the Accelerator begin to zip around again, as if in excitement.

I don't know what's triggered it. I don't know what makes this source of Firmament so different from all the others; why the Void remained largely dormant until now. Maybe it just took th...

DRR 59 - A Classic Interruption

We travel for half a day before we have to stop and take a break.

Not because I'm tired. Rotar's pushed himself to the edge and beyond, and it's when he starts panting loudly with his tongue hanging out of his mouth that I decide he's had enough, and make us stop. I get him some of the water Mari so generously provided, then set up a nice bed of leaves for him to collapse into.

"We need to pace ourselves better," I tell him out loud. I mostly just mean he needs to pace himself bet...

DRR 58 - New Journey

"You reckless," Mari says. She stares at me, wings folded across her chest. I'm sitting meekly on Tarin's bed, the straw beneath poking uncomfortably into my skin, which I have to believe is intentional, considering how comfortable it normally is.

Also, Tarin is sitting on her head. Why the heck is Tarin sitting on her head?

"Why is Tarin sitting on your head?"

"That not the point!" Tarin points at me dramatically. I try very hard to take him seriously, I do, but... again, h...

Book 3, Chapter 62 - End of Book 3 - And the World Keeps Turning, Ever Smaller

While Sev told his story, the evacuation of Elyra began in earnest. Misa helped provide a few extra bodies, but by and large it was carried out by those more experienced in handling people — the job of an adventurer, after all, was not typically that of organization and management. So they left the task up to those that were suited for it.

Still, the process was not without its complications. The Adventurer's Guild, while they had the personnel trained and willing to help, we...

DRR 57 - Skill Combos

The first thing I want to try is the skill combination I was able to glimpse before, just for a second. I'd been able to combine Firestep and Triplestep into Accelerate — but in the process, I'd noticed something strange. There was another way the two skills could be combined.

I let them thrum through my body, trying to figure it out without the help of the Eye, at least at first. Without it, though, the Firmament is nothing more than energy pouring through me. I don't see the individ...

DRR 56 - Need for Speed

more, the Void Inspiration whispers. more?

"Not yet," I tell it quietly, like it's a pet. I wonder if there's a reason I've only heard its voice within this time-stopped space meant for choosing an Inspiration. I would have expected to hear it speak before now, but then again, maybe it's just getting used to... existing.

okay, it says, and it recedes back within me, surprisingly obedient. Gheraa stares at me, eyes slightly widened, though he doesn't say ...

DRR 55 - Integrator Interview

[ Select between:

Warpstep (Rank A)

Misplaced Aura (Rank B)

Sunder (Rank B)

Somatic Discharge (Rank B) ]

[ You have unlocked an Inspiration. Bonus will commence once skill selection has taken place. ]

I pause as I look over my options.

Warpstep is an obvious choice. The other three are interesting, and far different from other Speed skills I've seen b...

Book 3, Chapter 61 - Conflict Resolution

The northern gates of Elyra were absolutely teeming with people. If it weren't for the massive, massive barrier that Helix had erected, no small number of them would likely have surged right back into the streets of Elyra — but the barrier created by the Ashion heir was absolute, and none of the higher-leveled elites seemed willing to help them break it.

Not even Liz, who was sitting, bored, in a small stool right in front of it. "You're not paying me enough to break the barrier," she...

Book 3, Chapter 60 - The End of Elyra

It took effort for Vex to hold back his mana as much as he did. A not-insignificant part of him wanted to unleash it all, in no small part driven by the frustration he still felt with his father — but he grit his teeth and held it back. The dragon-transformation had done a lot for his mana channels, and the amount he could now hold exceeded even Derivan, whose Slime stat also let him carry far more mana than the average adventurer.

There were so many other ways to store mana. If his f...

DRR 54 - Use Those Credits

Author's Note: Edited skill selections to four options per roll, as Pete kindly pointed out.

—

I'd almost forgotten about the Chromatic Root and Chromatic Threads, wrapped up in the rest of the rewards as I was. I'm not sure what to do with the Root, but I'll maybe consult with Akar about it — she probably has the most experience with herbs and plants.

Or Ahkelios.

Yeah, I'll ask Ahkelios first, or the little guy will never forgive me.

The Th...

DRR 53 - Skill Prep

Mari's skeptical of my plan, if only because I don't have any idea where to even begin. Gheraa isn't anywhere near the planet. I speak with a confidence I don't really have, but it feels wrong to do anything else — to leave something like this to chance. I need to state the goal so I can try to work towards it.

At least Ahkelios is excited. He pumps his fist in a silent cheer, as if invigorated by my words, and I chuckle slightly at his antics. Tarin gives me a nod, and while Mari sco...

DRR 52 - Crows and Calvaries

Author's Note: There were some errors with Ethan's status in the last chapter. They should all be fixed now. Here's his updated status:

[ Status:

Name: Ethan

Strength Skills: Crystallized Strength (Rank C), Concentrated Power (Rank B), Amplification Gauntlet (Rank A)

Durability Skills: Tough Body (Rank E), Second Wind (Rank B), Barrier (Rank D), Crystallized Barrier (Rank C), Verdant A...