Structure does not match any currently registered Stygian Citadel schematics. Would you like to add a schematic?
The notification didn’t come as too much of a surprise, and I quickly confirmed. The actual blueprint was in storage, but somehow doing a scan of my inventory, the system brought up a list of applicable schematics. Seeing as the list was only one lon...
2025-05-01 12:00:21 +0000 UTC View PostIt was with great relief that I could confidently say Verin didn’t hate her surprise. Better yet, she’d regained her mana sense, and I’d even scored a portrait out of the entire thing.
Naturally, I’d immediately framed and hung it in my room, as befit Verin’s artistic prowess.
I hadn’t quite expected the tears, nor the heartfelt hugging at the end, but they only served a...
2025-04-28 14:19:06 +0000 UTC View PostAs the Lady Verin’Sylus lounged idly in her bed, she couldn’t help but reflect that two things were true at once.
Firstly, without a doubt, the past few months had been far better than she’d had any right to hope for. With her mana sealed and her condition unmanaged, Verin had expected each and every moment to be utter torture. Even with the handful of frost aspectors the grand magu...
2025-04-24 12:36:56 +0000 UTC View PostConstruction has reached level 17!
“Aaand, we’re done!” Placing the final bit of exterior wood paneling, I let the system take over, signaling that I was finished.
You have constructed an Interior Garden!
…
As per usual, a slew of notifications appeared, detailing the exact bonuses and ...
2025-04-21 12:00:22 +0000 UTC View PostFlying through the air and clutching her chest, Cal cursed before slamming into the cloudy ground. On the one hand, the cushiony landing was much appreciated, but on the other, the flecks of red which erupted from her throat were considerably less so.
Preparing to assault her with another thunderous blast, a cloudtender began to close the distance. For the first time in a full month, thou...
2025-04-17 12:29:22 +0000 UTC View PostIn fairness, if Cal had been thinking far ahead, perhaps she would have anticipated what the quest update was telling her. Unfortunately, she’d only come up with her plan to chop the tree down a few seconds before she acted on it, which didn’t make for the best forethought. Even if she was partially to blame, though, that didn’t stop Cal from thinking all manner of nasty thoughts about th...
2025-04-10 12:00:11 +0000 UTC View PostIn general, Cal got the sense that quest updates were a good thing. They meant you were progressing, gradually uncovering more details about your system-assigned task. Unfortunately, after the dungeon had foisted too many cruddy and not-quite-optional quests on her, Cal was coming to dread any quest-related notifications.
That didn’t stop her from reading the update, but by the same vir...
2025-04-07 11:52:23 +0000 UTC View PostHaving taken enough abuse for the time being, Cal slipped into the embrace of her Apex Shroud, shakily pulling herself to her feet before fleeing the scene. The enemies in the region were more trouble than they were worth, and outside of her current resistance-training regimen, Cal had little desire to stay and play with them.
When the coast was finally clear, she cancelled...
2025-04-03 12:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostHaphazardly strewn about, dozens of wooden boards dotted the cabin’s common room, covering all the tables, a few chairs, and even the ground below. It was, without a doubt, a mess, and I could only be thankful for Verin’s looser relationship with order and etiquette, as she doubtlessly would have yelled at me otherwise.
“So? Is this the one?” Burnt into each of the wooden slabs we...
2025-03-31 12:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostStupefied, I read through the construction notifications twice and then a third time for good measure before I found my tongue.
“Wait. So you’re not going to give me anything for that? Like, anything at all?” I hadn’t expected to suddenly gain immortality or be able to shoot laser beams out of my eyes, but I’d been hoping to repair my Stygian Citadel at least a...
2025-03-27 12:00:08 +0000 UTC View Post
Hi all! It's been a while since I had a non-chapter update.
First and foremost, Book 3 is finally getting its audiobook release tomorrow. If you'd like to snag a copy, you can find it here. I know the audiobook release is a good bit after the actual book's rel...
2025-03-24 21:46:19 +0000 UTC View PostTo say that I was bewildered with Verin’s actions would have been a dramatic understatement. From her mad dash through the prairie to her almost animalistic knife pilfering, I was caught off guard at pretty much every step. That was to say nothing of the alien thought process that seemed to be pushing her to constantly please her family, even while her life was constantly at risk.
Admit...
2025-03-24 12:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostThe very first thing Verin noted as she began to wake up was the surprising lack of pain.
Make no mistake, it was still there, but muted. Manageable. Certainly not the sort of thing that would keep her from accompanying the others when they next headed out.
My body must have adjusted. A soul-deep relief filled Verin as the worst of her worries were washed away. I do not...
2025-03-20 12:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostMuch to my delight, Sett had confirmed that the months I’d spent in the spatial region were enough to let me learn a new spell. Much to my dismay, I was severely limited in what I was able to learn.
If I had it my way, I would have learned dozens of new spells and, in particular, Apprentice-ranked spells for each of my schools of magic that were languishing in the low-twenties....
2025-03-17 12:00:35 +0000 UTC View Post“Do you know what’s wrong with her?” Having been silently nominated as our spokesperson, I questioned the newly awakened grand magus as Verin lay at our feet. I’d summoned a mattress from my storage to make her more comfortable, but her face still contracted in pain, even while she was passed out.
Perhaps extra irritable from having his slumber interrupted, Sett scoffed at the que...
2025-03-13 12:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostWhile it was hardly the original intention, two weeks turned out to be just about the exact amount of time I needed to finish my two major goals.
Much as my gut feeling had alluded to, my last level of Spatial Magic came first. Not all too dissimilar from the previous, it arrived while I was using the Orb of Isolation, doing my best to straighten out the mess of space su...
2025-03-10 12:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostWhen I awoke, sprawled out on the ground and with a raging headache, my first thought was that I must have drank too much moonshine the night before. Only slowly did the true details of the previous day come back to me, jolting me awake and checking to see if I was all right.
As best I could tell, most of the tonic’s bizarre side effects had been temporary. The spatial grid was no longe...
2025-03-06 13:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostImmediately upon opening the chest, I was gratified to see a full four items waiting for me inside. Better yet, two of the four were, in fact, rings, just as I’d hoped. Neither of the two were what I truly had my eyes set on, and it took a monumental amount of self-control not to jump directly to my own reward, but for Verin’s sake, I examined the rings first.
My initial satisfaction ...
2025-03-05 16:24:22 +0000 UTC View PostOne of the larger benefits of my enhanced Perception was that I had little trouble following the entirety of the battlefield. In turn, that meant that I tended to keep close track of how the others were doing. Naturally, that tended to be a bit harder when it came to Cal, but for Verin, I tried to know exactly what she was up to at all times.
Thus, the moment the boss sent its incendiary ...
2025-02-27 19:08:29 +0000 UTC View PostContrary to what her companions might have assumed, the Lady Verin’Sylus was rather enjoying her time in the dungeon’s fire region. Gods only knew it was far preferable to most of the others she’d visited.
No disease-ridden rats, biting at her ankles from the cover of darkness. No festering undead intent on disemboweling her for a snack. No toxic, muddy clouds or potent poison linge...
2025-02-24 18:07:28 +0000 UTC View PostIn the end, I finished Overload Armor’s trial first. As was often true of my Armorist trials, it largely focused on hitting me over and over again. Pain, as it turned out, was a good teacher.
And so it was that, after getting pelted with all manner of attacks and subtly adjusting my mana output to handle them, I was faced with a list of much-appreciated upgrades.
Spell Adjustment has reached level 9!
Before I could start smelting metal and banging on anvils, or whatever else it was that blacksmiths did, there was one last issue to handle: air flow.
My knowledge on building forges was practically nonexistent, but I was under the impression that just burning some coal in a box wouldn’t be enough. I couldn’t recall...
2025-02-17 13:00:15 +0000 UTC View PostThe very first thing we did once the space around us returned to normal was to summon Tal’Ket. We’d tried to do exactly that a number of times from within the region, but whatever effects had kept us trapped within had similarly seemed to keep him out. This time, though, the summoning went off without a hitch, and in short order, we were back on our way to the cabin.
There were all so...
2025-02-13 13:00:16 +0000 UTC View PostAt first, I was slightly alarmed by my newest ability’s sparse description.
Spatial Sight
Allows the user to visualize space.
Actually using it hadn’t immediately assuaged my worries either. Rather than providing me with a nice neon exit sign, the skill lit up my entire field of vision with countless, translucent purple s...
2025-02-10 13:00:15 +0000 UTC View PostSpatial Magic has reached level 26!
Mold Space has reached level 18!
Bend Space has reached level 12!
Drinking has reached level 16!
Gambling has reached level 9!
Singing has reached level 5!
Based off of ...
2025-02-06 13:00:14 +0000 UTC View PostSpatial Magic has reached level 21!
For what felt like the thousandth time, I picked at the boundaries of our spatial enclosure, trying to glean even the smallest of insights into its innerworkings. Naturally, I would have far preferred to finish up my class trial instead, but with each failure kicking me out for half a day, I didn’t have much of a choice.
<... 2025-02-04 12:55:00 +0000 UTC View PostTwelve hours later, my next class trial run turned about a bit better than the first. Admittedly, that was a low bar, but I was happy to prove that my previous failure was a fluke.
Into my class space, down the stairs, into the tunnel, I repeated the many well-worn steps that signaled the start of my trial. This time, I made sure to be vigilant from the get-go, and when the first strike c...
2025-01-27 13:00:13 +0000 UTC View PostRather than immediately reveal her suspicions, Cal asked us for a bit of setup first. From me, all she wanted was a small stone, an easy ask given my Summon Pebble cantrip. From Verin, she simply tapped on her thin glacier, asking her to get out and join us. The noble cautiously complied, climbing from my back while she took in our new environment. At the same time, Cal reared back to ...
2025-01-23 22:58:19 +0000 UTC View PostWarring instincts fought within the Lady Verin as she sat ramrod straight in the common room of the cabin, idly casting off minor frost spells to further train her magic.
On the one hand, her outing with the Lady Calilah had been a rousing success. Not that it had been pleasant, per se. The initial week of scouting out new regions alongside the princess had been a perpetual slog,...
2025-01-21 14:22:10 +0000 UTC View PostFor better or for worse, I’d taken a lot of earth-shattering blows since grabbing the Arcane Arsenal class. First had been the tsunami-like wave from Drawgin’s shower elemental. Then I’d been body-checked by a multi-ton obsidian snake in the dungeon of Emer’Thalis. While not technically something I’d had to endure, I’d then watched Alara duke it out with Sylum’s ...
2025-01-16 13:22:53 +0000 UTC View Post