“Two trolls incoming! One downhill, one from the front!” Muti’s warnings were timely as Astrid whipped her shield into the orc’s ribs. The monster wheezed and was forced over as bones cracked, and the Warrior raised her hammer for a devastating overhand blow to the crown of its skull. With the orc’s head bowed low, Astrid immediately dispatched it, uncaring of the kill notification as she turned her attention to the other remaining orc warrior. Felix dodged two strikes from the beas...
2025-09-15 23:38:18 +0000 UTC
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This is me making up for a missed chapter last week. Should be posting like normal tomorrow!
A part of me mentally noted the tone with which the ants invited me in. The formality, the gravitas with which they mentioned the “youngmother“ spoke of their near worship of the ant that I’d only been granted an audience with after months of deliberation. I turned and gestured for Joral and Sybil to accompany me as I strode forward to speak with my guest. That a ...
2025-09-15 06:02:03 +0000 UTC
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TJ made a special effort to stop catastrophizing and worrying about what would happen if a different Zealot, for example, one whose Occupation and Class worked together to make him a political and physical threat at the same time, then managed to gain the Divine Transformation. What kind of additional benefit would the Jormungandr Bloodline provide to their Neophytes? TJ had to assume that Divine Transformation, when granted through Skill selection, would still give that boon like he had with...
2025-09-13 15:00:14 +0000 UTC
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To my knowledge, every time in our brief history together with the ants and the royals had made themselves known, there’d been a pattern. The ants around the mouth of the hole that led downward started acting differently before we had any information. Then, after one of my people approached, it wouldn’t be long before they would have the ants touch on their mind. Given the communications we’d had before, I’d expected much the same thing when I finally engaged in talks with this qualif...
2025-09-13 07:45:06 +0000 UTC
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Skandr and Benedict’s faces both lit up in understanding why while Muti and Felix squinted at each other in mild confusion. After several seconds, the Barbarian threw her hands in the air. “What are these trials? A time to fight?”
Though Felix didn’t react quite so explosively, he waited for the same answers as the Barbarian.
“I’m sorry, I forget that some people didn’t spend every day of their childhood thinking about things like this. The Wandering Trials is ...
2025-09-13 06:43:25 +0000 UTC
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Happy 200! That's awesome! Just realized I meant to schedule this but forgot. Eh. Take it!
To nobody’s surprise, Sarah refused to give any direct answers when TJ and the others called for them. Instead, she rushed this way and that, leaving trails of lightning in her wake as she cackled and crackled at evaporating so many bugs. When finally TJ had had enough, he barked, “Everything’s already dead! Get your ass over here and talk to us! Bring the corpse wh...
2025-09-12 06:35:29 +0000 UTC
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Greely looked up with cataract–clouded eyes, his focus a little to the left of Astrid's face. The first time that she’d met the man, she couldn’t understand how he could begin to administrate to a bustling Guild like this, but she quickly learned how foolish that thought was. The old man, definitely well over 100 years old given that he was at least Steel and showing significant signs of age, had weathered skin and well tended shoulder–length white hair. The equally well tended rose h...
2025-09-11 23:54:53 +0000 UTC
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Swarms of buzzing, thrashing, writhing bugs entered into the domain of TJ’s influence, moving like a slow-motion tsunami of legs, segmented carapace, and general grossness. The word “swarm“ didn’t begin to cover the horror that was the hordes of creepy crawlies that approached. Thousands and tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands of bugs flowed forward in an implacable body, and only then did TJ realize that he hadn’t been hearing or seeing any of the omnipresent insects in the...
2025-09-11 15:00:15 +0000 UTC
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The days, weeks and months melted together as I worked together with my people. The Unbroken Blade worked tirelessly to shape, curate, and redesign every last aspect of the temple to be dedicated to Nievtala. There wasn’t a single original design that remained untouched, not from her tail, stretching around the entirety of the inside of the chapel, to the quiet wrath in her visage where she looked down on the congregation from where her body was at the front of the temple. Her fangs seemed ...
2025-09-11 08:20:58 +0000 UTC
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After glancing through and seeing the change to her status, Astrid smiled as she followed the rest on their way back to Purcell. With how far they had to travel through the branch to get there, she was able to use Quick Recovery again to return the vast majority of mobility to her back, letting her walk without pain. Striding through the hills while carrying enough kilos of loose metal to activate the secondary effect of Steady Load was hard enough to count as training when she was healthy to...
2025-09-10 23:18:37 +0000 UTC
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You’ve always been cautious of overstepping your bounds as the leader of the Mustelid Corps. Part of why you were chosen, Captain Inoktuk, was due to your prudence. The Council has always trusted you to make the correct decision when the time to choose is upon you. We continue to trust in you to do so, so, for the final time before you are taken from your position due to inaction and continuous seeking for the approval of the Council, you are trusted to make all decisions relati...
2025-09-10 06:17:00 +0000 UTC
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Funnily enough, I was pretty nervous about that timeskip in the last chapter, though I didn't say anything about it to anyone. To have everybody mention something along the lines of how they thought it was well done and well placed was quite a good feeling, haha.
Enjoy!
Two orc warriors screamed in rage as they leapt from one massive stone to the next in their pursuit of Muti. She’d disappeared, but the reason for their rage wa...
2025-09-09 22:48:52 +0000 UTC
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Just got this back! Pretty great to have this cover almost exactly one week before everything goes live on Amazon! Again, this was done by Whitehorn, and I’m really excited about it. Let me know what you think!
2025-09-09 15:06:06 +0000 UTC
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It turned out that the new ritual was significantly more time-consuming than TJ had expected. With the limited experience he had with the two rituals that he already had, those being Stormcaller and Ritualistic Transfer, he’d expected the ritual to only take a couple minutes. Instead, half an hour later, TJ was finally mostly finished with the preparations of the first half of the ritual circle on the ground for the participants to then stand in. Unfortunately for said participants, he’d ...
2025-09-09 15:00:12 +0000 UTC
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Ytte turned to Shraal, who bowed his head briefly in acknowledgment and then spoke. “The temple is coming along well in accordance with your wishes, but it needs the hand of the goddess. You are her arm, and we need you. Her sanctum and representation require your input, and I have spoken with Ytte regarding the use of some of the product of her experiments in our Holy Lady’s representation.”
I squinted for a moment, understanding what he was saying. Even so, looking at Y...
2025-09-09 05:16:04 +0000 UTC
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“Damn, so that’s a troll?“ Benedict said as the beast lowered itself just enough to scream at Astrid’s face level. It might’ve been more intimidating if it wasn’t nearly 100 meters away, but Benedict danced back regardless of any distance between them. Astrid chuckled as the roar echoed off the cliffs all around them. Without saying anything, she pulled her hammer from the skull of the orc warrior underneath her. Looking around, she pushed the corpse to the side, trying to create ...
2025-09-08 23:04:15 +0000 UTC
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Hey! That's pretty good! I got this all figured out today. I like the absolutely screwed up warg faces haha. Anyways. This was done by the awesome Poyjeee (https://www.fiverr.com/poyjeee?source=order_page_summary_seller_link ) and yeah. I'm happy with it. B1's edits are all done, moved to audiobook production stuff, and now I need to look into how I actually create an epub. Wish me luc...
2025-09-06 06:34:39 +0000 UTC
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Late today. Finished getting the manuscript finished for PW today, which was more work than expected. Life's been busy, and this chapter took more work than usual, but here we are! Anyways. enjoy.
“You were close, but he’ll be ok.” Astrid sighed in relief as the Healer explained, “There’ll be some scarring, but most of it will be near the bottom of your jaw, and it won’t be extremely noticeable most of the time, given how pale you are. If you ...
2025-09-06 06:31:07 +0000 UTC
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Hey. You who read all my stuff. This won't be new.
Sorry for no chapters yesterday. You wanna know why? It's a cluster.
So. I have things going on behind the scenes. What a surprise, Ben, people live? When they're alive, no less? Yes, shut up. Anyways. One of the many things I have going on is preparation of book 1 to go onto KU eventually. I have an editor, he's great. And, turns out, a consequence of greatness...
2025-09-05 04:32:04 +0000 UTC
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Sorry for no chapters yesterday. You wanna know why? It's a cluster.
So. I have things going on behind the scenes. What a surprise, Ben, people live? When they're alive, no less? Yes, shut up. Anyways. One of the many things I have going on is preparation of book 1 to go onto KU eventually. I have an editor, he's great. And, turns out, a consequence of greatness is leaving comments on my document. Again, that's fine. He's suggesting edits, lik...
2025-09-04 23:52:22 +0000 UTC
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First, TJ checked the description of Storm Serpent. Despite the Skill having grown to Silver, there wasn’t any change in the description, which wasn’t much of a surprise. Even so, it bore to check. Once the System verified as much, he moved on to the other two Skills.
Skill: Stormcaller, (Silver (II)): You have embraced the storm and, with it, the Divine Authority of Storm. Some Divine Authorities are nearly or entirely omnipresent, while Storm, a violent, encompassing...
2025-09-03 07:44:41 +0000 UTC
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“Yes! That’s how you do it!” Skandr’s voice made Astrid laugh as she followed up on her attack. As the chieftain had reared back to use its Rousing Howl, she’d crushed its throat with her hammer. As it wheezed and stumbled, unable to react, she continued the smooth flow of her attack. This chieftain, different from the one they’d fought the day before, wielded only a simple gnarled club. While Astrid pressed forward, it swung down at her while trying to catch its own breath, but s...
2025-09-02 23:24:53 +0000 UTC
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Sorry for the lateness. Busy holiday today.
“You are a crippled lion unable to bite when you stand like that! Get your bloody hips under your shoulders and your hips over your knees! Center! Center! Center! Center!”
Muti refused to stop calling out instructions to Felix, and that she was able to do so while taking care of the rangers on the back line was impressive. She shredded through the last two, leaving them literally disarmed and crippled on the...
2025-09-02 02:15:33 +0000 UTC
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I stretched comfortably as I rose, walking from the bed to the door out into the nursery. In the short time since I’d been gone from Nievtra, construction on the palace, because that was what it was shaping up to be, had moved apace. Now, there was a room for the children, and it was separate from mine and Sybil‘s. There wasn’t much in the way of solid doors, mostly just roughly cut and tied branches in the approximate size and shape of the doorways, carefully bound together and hung at...
2025-08-30 05:39:18 +0000 UTC
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As Astrid woke, she tried to stretch and immediately flinched as her left arm panged in complaint. She hadn’t been sleeping for too long, given that her wrist was still aching so badly and Quick Recovery was still a fair ways off of coming off of its cooldown. Thinking more deeply about it, she could tell that the Skill was halfway to being ready to use again. She’d hoped that the upgrade to Bronze would come with a reduction in cooldown, but that wasn't the case. To her limited understan...
2025-08-29 23:30:37 +0000 UTC
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Item: Ritualist’s Knife Blade (Copper (I)); This blade fashioned from the horn of a Wendigo Ritualist Copper-tiered Boss is not a complete piece of equipment. Instead, it is an item that has been carefully and deliberately changed to be a perfect medium for ritual magic. If the blade is fastened to a handle, it can become a piece of equipment, but as it is, the Ritualist’s Blade is an item that can be used to increase the potency of a ritual by 20%, if the Blade can be realistical...
2025-08-29 15:00:18 +0000 UTC
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While the ant, who didn’t seem to have or want a name, disappeared into the underground, I felt my tail twitch, an involuntary expression of both confusion and happiness. I couldn’t say that I was sure that she understood everything that I wanted her to, but I did know that we'd made steps in the right direction, and that was good enough for now. The colony, or Queen, or whatever they were called, knew that I existed and would potentially be taking steps to work with me. I turned...
2025-08-29 07:25:38 +0000 UTC
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The chieftain bound into view, battleaxe slung over its shoulder. Behind it, the pack followed, five brawlers and five rangers snarling and slavering as they rushed into battle. Astrid wanted to be grateful that there weren’t any shamans there to make it significantly harder, but ten level 11 gnolls plus the Boss were going to be difficult to deal with at best. Fortunately, Skandr’d had enough of a heads up to get his lightning curtain prepared. The spell was, of course, meant to deal wit...
2025-08-28 23:32:25 +0000 UTC
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Different from if the ant had been speaking to me with her voice, I understood more of her intent than I could have with mere words. This wasn’t her asking me to kill her people, however it was that the ants distinguished themselves, but instead of her own kind, those being offered were the ones that were currently being offered to my herds. Even so, I had no idea what specifically I was supposed to be doing with that request.
“I’m going to need a little bit more information befor...
2025-08-28 06:31:06 +0000 UTC
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Just as an announcement, I was asked to put things together in collections, which I'd never done. Never did because when I first started Patreon when I was first writing AR in... 2022, I think? it didn't exist. I think. Anyways, then I was so far in that I didn't want to deal with it because Patreon famously has terrible UI. I bit the bullet and tried it out, and, turns out, it was super easy. So, there you go. If you wanna use them, I'll try to remember to keep everything put together where ...
2025-08-28 00:05:39 +0000 UTC
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