I have made this spreadsheet that y’all can access. This spreadsheet updates Kestovar’s stats via snapshots. We have 2 important snapshots so far: Chapter 12 and Chapter 91. Come in and check how much Kestovar has progressed! This might be the first LitRPG ever where the MC takes 80 chapters to level up by 1 level . . .
I will soon be adding hi...
2025-08-22 18:56:06 +0000 UTC View PostThe Archive was not a single hall but a sprawling complex of chambers, vaults, and stairwells stacked into the heart of the Academy’s oldest keep. Every wall seemed laden with stone-etched formulae and erased annotations from long-dead researchers, while the air carried the faint mineral tang of preserved aether. The deeper one went, the more the ambient glylphlights dimmed, until even the grand corridors had the hush of a subterranean sanctum.
High Instructant Bellare, the bald and s...
2025-08-22 16:06:58 +0000 UTC View PostFabrisse didn’t know if the Quartz-Mutated Nibberhare had noticed them staring, but if it had, it hadn’t cared enough to move yet. It sniffed the air then lowered itself into a crouch that made every muscle coil like a wound spring.
“Don’t make sudden movements,” Liene whispered. Her hand dipped into her satchel. When it came out, she was holding a small crystalline orb inscribed with faint glyph-lines—another one of her emergency light traps.
The runes danced in tiny ...
2025-08-22 09:36:35 +0000 UTC View PostIt didn’t make any sense. How come Fabrisse Kestovar, of all people, pulled her mental health out of the nadir?
DeShawn. Explain.
DeShawn’s reply came instantaneously.
[Certain man just come with the vibe, ya get me? When you’re near, it’s like man’s aura buffs you automatically.]
How much does he buff me?
[Can only tell when I see him.]
“Aunt Merry,” Severa said, her voice steadier tha...
2025-08-21 21:05:47 +0000 UTC View PostThey’d already managed to capture six more hares, and that wasn’t necessarily a good sign. Veliane could only maintain so many constructs, and the net of her light glyph had sagged with the weight of their extra prisoners.
Veliane said, “If these hares keep fighting inside here, the lattice could destabilize. We need to head back before they wriggle free.”
Sven grinned. “So basically, we’ve overachieved.”
“Overburdened,” Veliane corrected.
They turned...
2025-08-21 07:09:10 +0000 UTC View PostI think the challenge for me with writing Severa's book is that I have to treat it like a separate entry instead of just an extension to Fabrisse's POV. I'm going to post it separately on Royal Road, and naturally a lot of readers will be completely new ones. I think right now there are things in Severa's book that are implied knowledge from Fabrisse's first book. It's going to need some tightening before it bears a structure of a standalone book with clear world-building for a brand new read...
2025-08-21 04:06:58 +0000 UTC View PostSevera’s breathing had stabilized by the time they reached the dungeon’s entrance. The weave of warmth Halveth had threaded into her had dulled the worst of it—what had been a gnawing, suffocating throb in her chest was now only a muted undertone, steady enough that she could draw full breaths without shuddering.
Only now did she realize one thing: her weapon was gone. “My . . . my dagger.” The Embervein was supposed to be strapped to her side, nestled in its sheath. Now only ...
2025-08-20 17:43:58 +0000 UTC View PostThey had to devise a new strategy, though Fabrisse didn’t think the problem lied in strategizing, but more so in how they actually implemented their plan. Liene insisted on not murdering the pest, which ruled out the most efficient approaches, so they had to settle for creative measures.
“Bait them,” Veliane said, rubbing her temple as if she were tutoring children. “Everything moves for a reason. If we can find what they want, they’ll come to us.”
“They want to not ...
2025-08-20 12:16:40 +0000 UTC View PostFabrisse had forgotten he had a skill called Shadowed Reposition Protocol until a hare the size of his torso shot straight toward his face. And today, he learned he could cast that skill only by thinking about it.
[SKILL CAST: Shadowed Reposition Protocol (Rank II)]
[Displacement Radius: 0.479m]
The world tilted. His body whooshed into a darker spot in the woods where the canopies covered fully, half a meter to the left. The...
2025-08-19 18:24:30 +0000 UTC View PostMarrieh Halveth never let her boots touch the ground. Each swirl of crimson wind carried her like a kite on its string as she rode the air.
[Yo, who that? Let me check her out really quick.]
Check the dragonkin’s status first . . .
[I hear ya.]
DeShawn immediately spat out the results.
Frostborn Juggernaut — Hostile
Emotional Equilibrium: 34%
Emotional Status: Res...
2025-08-19 10:32:47 +0000 UTC View Post[Nibberhare Count: 2/5]
They tried the same routine twice more, crouching through the undergrowth with Fabrisse coaxing the wind and Liene playing with her golden lights. But the nibberhares were far from stupid. After the first capture, the colony seemed to realize something was wrong. The brush went quiet except for their own footsteps. Every crackle of leaves turned out to be nothing but the tail of a squirrel or the flutter of a bird lifting away.
By the time ...
2025-08-18 21:38:07 +0000 UTC View PostThe moment they stepped into the forest, a quest popped up in Fabrisse’s vision as if that quest was region-locked.
[QUEST RECEIVED: Vermin Control: Nibberhares]
Objective: Capture or eliminate 5 nibberhares
Reward: + 250 EXP
[SYSTEM NOTE: Do not underestimate a rodent’s bite radius, reproductive velocity, or ability to ruin footwear.] 2025-08-17 22:38:01 +0000 UTC View Post
This chapter got some crazy shiii.
Her fire struck the dragonkin’s neck. For a moment, the cavern lit like a forge. But when the flare died, the Juggernaut remained exactly as it had been—its crystalline plates unscorched, its glacial veins untouched.
DeShawn’s overlay bloomed across her vision:
Frostborn Juggernaut — Hostile
Emotional Equilibrium: 78%
Emotional Status: Stable, Confident 2025-08-17 18:52:26 +0000 UTC View Post
The last time Severa Montreal had felt fear was last week, when she was jumpscared by a medium-sized spider. That one was lame; she didn’t talk about that. The time before that, however, was real. She had stood before the examination dais and felt her focus drain away, knowing the spell wasn’t going to form. It had been a light thaumaturgy test; an element that she could execute in her sleep. Her Eidolon of Luminance had been so beautiful, so elegant, that she had spun it again and again,...
2025-08-16 21:53:17 +0000 UTC View PostIt took only minutes on the second level for Severa Montreal to realize this would be a punishing run.
The second level opened into a much narrower cavern network that felt almost deliberately designed to funnel intruders into predictable paths. The ceilings were lower here, the rock walls scorched and etched with blackened streaks; evidence of fire magic used not for creation, but for survival. That was the first thing that struck Severa as odd.
Severa’s eyes adjusted to the da...
2025-08-16 18:40:24 +0000 UTC View PostIt seemed nature had decreed that every misfortune should befall Celine Moose. A fresh blemish had appeared on her forehead, and now she’d learned that Greg Johnson was unlikely to appear at the jousting tournament. She’d also overslept again, by no fault of her own. An all-nighter devouring her latest detective story was just too enticing to resist, by nature. Her worst nightmare, however, was that her blood tasted too sweet and attracted the entire surrounding mosquito population; which...
2025-08-16 12:34:44 +0000 UTC View Post“This is a Hearth-Laughed Brick,” Min Hajin said as he returned the brick to Fabrisse. It turned out that Fabrisse hadn’t yet had the skills nor the knowledge to assess this brick, according to Min, who’d spent half an hour on assessment. Fabrisse couldn’t even feel its emotional imprint from touching the object. No joy; no ale craving; nothing.
“Why couldn’t I feel anything?” Fabrisse asked.
Min glanced at him. “Did you feel any change in heat?”
“A bit...
2025-08-15 21:01:33 +0000 UTC View PostThe remaining skirverns seemed to have flapped their wings more slowly. They now moved in a circle as the scent of their fallen kin carried on the aetheric currents. That was the annoying thing about skirverns: once one of their flock died, the rest went into revenge mode.
The one redeeming aspect, however, was that they came in flocks. A well-aimed, sustained spell could turn that instinct against them. Severa adjusted her grip on Embervein, letting the triumphant certainty swell throu...
2025-08-15 17:36:18 +0000 UTC View PostSo I’ve gotten accused of AI-generating my book, and em-dashes aside, I can assure you the only thing I have in common with an AI is the inability to remember which skills Fabrisse has learned over the course of the book (which has led to more than one instance of harrowing editing). You are telling me the AI can come up with legendary, thought-provoking lines like ‘The pie shop smells like pie’ or ‘It implied he was a dog’! I find that hard to believe.
Jokes aside, I am ...
2025-08-15 16:31:17 +0000 UTC View Post[Mastery Training: Whirlweave (Rank I)—Progress to Rank II: 100%]
[Training Completed: +87 EXP]
[Progress to Level 7: 3811/4550]
Fabrisse had managed to finish leveling up during the break after his morning lecture. The instant he levelled up, he was met with the following message:
[FP: 0/38]
[You cannot cast spells anymore. Please rest and drink water.]
From 10...
2025-08-15 08:30:54 +0000 UTC View PostThey would depart at dusk.
Severa had spent the better part of the afternoon deciding what to bring. She laid out her usual assortment of vials, reagents, and instruments, weighing each item’s usefulness against the burdens of carrying too much. Her hand lingered over the usual trinkets she might grab absentmindedly—small charms, an extra grimoire, her routine thaumaturgical stylus—but Aunt Merry had warned her earlier: this would not be her usual dungeon run.
Fi...
2025-08-14 19:38:49 +0000 UTC View PostTommaso strode into the courtyard with that breezy, nothing-to-see-here gait he used whenever he was absolutely hiding something. His jacket hung slightly lopsided, the right pocket bulging in a way that would’ve gone unnoticed if he hadn’t kept patting it like a guilty street vendor guarding stolen pastries.
He didn’t come bringing fireworks, but he did bring Ilya. Her sleeping eyemasks were still covering her forehead as she trudged along, a small distance behind Tommaso.
...
2025-08-14 13:30:46 +0000 UTC View PostOne of the most important chapters of Book 2, I think.
“Where are we going?” he asked as he fell into steps just behind her.
“You’ll see,” Liene said, already steering him toward the main path. “Do you think a skitterwhit can beat a freefly in a 1v1?”
By the time they’d crossed the first courtyard, the hour felt heavier in the air—glyphlight pooling on the flagstones, the shadows beyond too deep to look at directly. Liene kept them t...
2025-08-13 22:22:41 +0000 UTC View Post[Mastery Training: Whirlweave (Rank I)—Progress to Rank II: 40%]
[Training Completed: +32 EXP]
[Progress to Level 7: 3657/4550]
***
[Intermediate Synaptic Threading—Progress to Understanding: 51%]
[Training Completed: +43 EXP]
[Progress to Level 7: 3700/4550]
***
[Mastery Training: Whirlweave (Rank I)—Progress to Rank II: 56%] 2025-08-13 18:47:08 +0000 UTC View Post
“Miss Montreal. Miss Montreal?”
Berrick’s voice registered in her head before his knocks on the door did.
Severa forced her eyes to open. She was once again sprawled across her bed, fully dressed from collar to cuff. Her cheek felt tight and grimy, and when she pressed a finger to her skin, it came away faintly tinted—layers of foundation, unmoved since morning, baked in place by a nap she didn’t remember starting. Her shoes were still on and her hairpins dug into ...
2025-08-13 15:57:08 +0000 UTC View PostFabrisse had never had the misfortune of waiting over an hour for a girl before, and he hadn’t imagined his first would be Celine Moose.
To say that she’d been taking her sweet time had been an understatement. By the half-hour mark, he’d memorized the pattern of cracks in the flagstones; by the forty-five, he’d counted and recounted every twist in the carved stone balustrade across the street. Now, at sixty-two minutes and counting, he was starting to suspect this was less about...
2025-08-12 20:08:22 +0000 UTC View PostChanged the voice of the System. Refer to last chapter for changes :)
The symbols rearranged again, coalescing into a languid ripple of text across her vision.
[Ohhh. You.]
Her jaw tightened. Meaning?
[Relax. Ain’t deep. You got a name, yeah?]
I am Severa of House Montreal. I was advised that I have been soulbound with . . . you, whoever you are.
[Me? I’m th...
2025-08-12 14:26:03 +0000 UTC View PostHey. So I've made changes to Patreon tiers. Now we have separate tiers for Severa's and Fabrisse's advanced chapters, both are currently priced at $10.
You'll see that there's another tier for both stories, which is also priced at $10 (??). That's my exclusive offer for those who have supported me from Day 1. From now until the 2nd of October, those who subscribe to that tier will receive advanced chapters for both stories forever. The price won't ever change for y'all. From the 2nd of ...
2025-08-12 12:10:43 +0000 UTC View PostThe probe’s tip hovered over the first marked grain point.
Fabrisse steadied his breathing, adjusted the sub-zero matrix, and let the instrument’s imprinted aetheric resonance merge with the quartz’s own. The Eidralith flashed some results.
[Survey Point 1/3]
Aetheric grain reading: 0.037 Hz deviation from baseline.
Status: stable.
The Eidralith really is convenient in situations...
2025-08-12 09:18:42 +0000 UTC View Post