Hello there,
I took most of a week off from writing because I was having some hand pain/inflammation. It was partially from writing/other computer use but another part was because I hold my phone weird when reading and I read a lot. Swapped to tablet so I'm not actually holding anything. Anyway, feeling much better so I'll be getting chapters out and caught up as soon as possible. Hand st...
2025-02-03 14:03:31 +0000 UTC View PostMT 232 - Surgery Prep
Xim, Grotto, and Throne fucked off to the Third Layer and I wished the Xor’Drel tribe all the best in dealing with that trio. Xim would do some research on how to manage the flow of Divine energy on a vastly greater scale than she was normally capable of, while Grotto and Throne talked to Sam’lia about… something. I wasn’t sure what the Core wanted wit...
2025-01-31 15:48:29 +0000 UTC View PostMT 231 - Barely an Inconvenience
Varrin ended up being the easiest person to map once we figured out that his ancestral soul clone was unaffected by whatever was happening. It couldn’t talk, had a very limited capacity to remember anything, and could only make decisions based on the tasks that Varrin gave it, but I could gaze into its soul without issue. There were no areas that ...
2025-01-28 06:50:00 +0000 UTC View Posta/n: Seems like my thing lately is doing double on Monday. Anyway, I have another one coming later today!
MT 230 - Working Out the Kinks
I followed Etja’s directions and honed in on one of the deepest layers of Xim’s spiritual essence.
This level of soul diving was something I’d rarely done. My passive perception of the soul was more like a bird’s eye vie...
2025-01-27 12:00:11 +0000 UTC View PostMT 229 - Change of Plans
“Soooo,” Xim chimed into our thoughts. “What do you want to ask the Dread Star next?”
I was once again strapped into a harness below Varrin, who flew us northward above the flat, frozen tundra. We whipped over the ground two hundred feet up, moving at airliner speeds while everyone else hung out inside the Closet. Despite ...
2025-01-24 21:35:18 +0000 UTC View PostMT 228 - The Best Option Comes First
I thought over Etja’s claim, calling to mind the other times I’d seen a Deific ability. Yaretzi’s Thunderdome had been Deific, but I hadn’t ever found out what it cost the Littan to use the skill. It seemed like the kind of thing he was reluctant to use, given that the psychopathic soldier had waited until he was an inch from death to ac...
2025-01-21 00:09:53 +0000 UTC View PostA/N: There'll be another chapter out in 12 hours. Cheers!
MT 227 - Dimensional Magic 40
Congratulations! You have cleared Delve 1156: Throne of Hubris (Formerly known as Throne of Zng)
This was a Platinum Expansion Delve!
You have earned 8 additional stat points.
You have unlocked an additiona...
2025-01-20 12:00:15 +0000 UTC View PostMT 226 - The Boss We Deserve
With a wave of the Elder Lich’s hand, the six remaining collectors exploded. Tons of frozen debris rained down, but another swipe of the hand swept it all aside to land clear of the soldiers. Spiritual energy funneled from the wrecked devices, flowing into the General’s palm.
With a few gestures, an Undead soldier floated up from the ground, t...
2025-01-16 21:27:26 +0000 UTC View PostMT 225 - Lich in a Ditch
“Stay alert, we aren’t done,” I thought to the group. The Demilich’s soul thrashed and escaped from the corpse, fleeing up through the mound of bodies held at bay by my Elemental Barrier. I noted that Nuralie’s Spiritual poison was still attacking the boss’s soul even as it fled, and it had to shake off Xim’s Divine fire. That wa...
2025-01-14 05:31:43 +0000 UTC View PostMT 224 - Handling It
***
SYSTEM ADDENDUM ADDED BY: DELVE CORE 9963
ADDENDUM NOTE: Those bastards.
***
Core 9963 watched the Delvers work in shock. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing, so she reset her sensor arrays and even did a soft reboot of her operating system. When everything came back online, the scene before her was the same.
They were s...
2025-01-12 07:41:31 +0000 UTC View PostMT 223 - Please Die
***
SYSTEM ADDENDUM ADDED BY: DELVE CORE 9963
ADDENDUM NOTE: Sometimes it’s better to cut your losses.
***
Delve Core 9963 had come online after a brief, eighty-year nap to discover Phase 2 had been implemented. She’d been surprised it had happened so soon, but also excited beyond words to finally see her Delve in action.
She’...
2025-01-09 21:58:43 +0000 UTC View PostMT 222 - 1,518
The legion was spread out in a large chamber that looked like it might have once been an outdoor field. The side where Nuralie and I perched had windows and large doors that gave the impression of a building’s exterior wall. The observation platform was about three stories up, with the second story featuring several small terraces accommodating tables and six-legge...
2025-01-06 18:47:46 +0000 UTC View PostHello!
I wanted to make a post detailing some of the work that was done on Volume 2 after publication on Patreon and RR and to provide a couple of scenes that got added during our review of the volume.
Substantively, there is only one change in Volume 2 of note that has yet to be mentioned, and it’s one that doesn’t have a huge impact on the story. It...
2025-01-06 03:23:43 +0000 UTC View PostMT 221 - How Many Zombies in a Horde?
Instead of experiencing the abstract concept of instantaneous movement on the soles of my boots, I felt something slippery.
Despite not focusing on Agility, my score of 10 still placed me into the superhuman category for balance and coordination, if only barely. Thus, the slick surface refusing to grant me an iota of friction did not<...
2025-01-05 01:31:22 +0000 UTC View PostMT 220 - Delving Through the Snow
Ayama was an ecological impossibility. It was a verdant nation established in the center of the Wastes. A century prior, the space it occupied had been as barren as everything else around its borders. Godking Ayamari had spent decades performing magical terraforming of the region, an ongoing project that transformed frigid, lifeless desert into a l...
2025-01-02 12:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostHappy New Year!
2024 was a pretty transformative year for us here, and hopefully it brought some positive things into your life as well. I wanted to take the opportunity to mention some stuff that'll be happening in 2025.
Volume 1 is getting an official launch!
We've been working with Aethon Books to get Mage Tank onto Kindle, KU, and Audible. Volu...
2025-01-02 05:16:33 +0000 UTC View PostMT 219 - Implant or Eccentricity?
Etja gave us all a long look while we waited for Grotto to join us. The Delve Core was allegedly unaffected by the outside influence and was coming to assist Etja in judging us. Grotto teleported into the room, wearing his little man disguise. His c’thonic body had been destroyed, and he’d need access to an array of specific organic compounds t...
2024-12-31 16:53:32 +0000 UTC View PostMT 218 - Offer on the Table
“That sounds like quite the opportunity,” said Etja. “We haven’t had the chance to pursue any Dungeons, given what little time has passed since returning from Deijin’s Descent. We are interested in them, of course. However, like the matter of your Creation Delve, I’m not sure why the Empire would need outside assistance.”
Empress Litt...
2024-12-30 12:14:44 +0000 UTC View PostMT 217 - Cognitive Biases
I was compromised.
I didn’t know how it happened. I didn’t know what kind of danger I posed. All I knew was that my mind couldn’t be trusted.
And it wasn’t just me. It was almost everyone in the party.
Three hours after handing Hysteria off to Avarice, I found a wealth of new essences in my inventory, along with a note. The essenc...
2024-12-28 12:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostMTB3 Epilogue
*****
SYSTEM ADDENDUM ADDED BY USER NAME: [ERROR: REDACTED]
ADDENDUM NOTE: Two months after the founding of Closetland
*****
Brae’ach seethed as he grasped the table, and the air shuddered around him. Lately, it was always crowded around Brae’ach; there was always some avatar, some Un...
2024-12-24 19:47:00 +0000 UTC View PostMT 216 - Intentional Nation Building
I undid a swath of slots at the Icon’s feet. The moment the floor was released, it crumbled away, reduced to tiny chunks like something had been taking a sledgehammer to it every day for a month. As the floor collapsed to reveal the plant beneath, the Icon used its fleshy tendrils to crawl away up the wall.
The Dominion Ivy was a pulsati...
2024-12-24 03:04:30 +0000 UTC View PostMT 215 - God Wranglin'
All of us were experienced enough to wait for the kill notification. Predictably, we didn’t get one.
“I’ll be honest,” I said. “I’m not sure how to double-tap a puddle of burning goo.”
“More fire,” Nuralie offered. “I have some acid, as well.”
“I can keep using Disintegrate,” said Etja. “And you can send it to the...
2024-12-24 00:08:29 +0000 UTC View PostHey folks,
I've got three chapters ready to go, with at least two of them dropping today. I've been working them as a group to make sure everything is lined up the way I'd like since these are the final few entries in volume 3. I'm going to try and run them over with SRK a final time today and push them out as soon as possible, but I need to catch a few hours of sleep first.
I did ...
MT 214 - Lockdown
The shockwave pushed me back a step, and a dense web of cracks appeared in the inventory slots below our feet. I was momentarily stunned by the sight but tore my eyes away from the now-wiggling vines when metallic plates along the golem’s arm began to open.
The inside of the golem was covered in glowing mana weaves, but the power rolling off of them was hu...
2024-12-19 12:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostMT 213 - Unworthy
Hysteria flipped the chalkboard over, revealing a cartoonish image of a castle.
“A disaster like an earthquake is a classic example of an external threat with well-defined boundaries,” they said. The castle cracked down the middle, then crumbled. “In this example, ‘nature’ is the external threat. It originates from outside of the society itself. It...
2024-12-17 08:51:49 +0000 UTC View PostMT 212 - Divine Cowboy
“Sorry for making you look bad,” I said to Hysteria, filled with regret. “I’m an asshole, and I deserve a good spanking.” I hung my head in shame.
“He is,” said Xim.
“It is true,” said Varrin.
“And you,” said Hysteria, pointing past us. “Do you have anything to say for yourself?”
I turned to see Etja walking i...
2024-12-16 10:29:15 +0000 UTC View PostMT 211 - Chat Room
“Brae’ach!” said Hysteria, clapping their hands together. “Buddy, friend, pal, guy, when have I ever called you for something that wasn’t important?”
The hulking Davahn stared at the avatar, what little I could see of their face devoid of emotion. The grid of souls surrounding them sat silent and still, and the moment stretched unt...
2024-12-13 03:43:41 +0000 UTC View PostMT 210 - System Call
Please provide additional context.
I took a deep breath and formulated my argument.
“Delve Core 1156 has suffered significant damage to his chassis and has become non-responsive,” I said. “The perpetrator is suspected to be another Delver, but I am unable to determine whether that Delver has been killed. An entity...
2024-12-10 08:45:11 +0000 UTC View PostMT 209 - The Plant Dimension
Using Coordinated Thinker to find a valid teleport location for Shortcut was a bit like groping about blindly with a big phantom hand. I didn’t ‘see’ the spaces I was searching through, but I could get a feel for their structure and dimensions.
It made me think of one of those sticky hands I used to get out of a gumball toy machine at ...
2024-12-09 11:41:40 +0000 UTC View PostMT 208 - Shared Fate
I was blinded for several terrifying seconds after the beam hit. I kept a spiritual eye on everyone with Soul Sight, but the wastelanders seemed to be as fucked as I was. When the afterimage cleared from my vision, it was just in time to see a massive section of the six-foot-thick stone floor droop and fall away into the empty space of the Closet below. Blue’...
2024-12-05 09:15:06 +0000 UTC View Post