Hello Dear Reader,
First, I would like to thank you for your continued support. A great sense of pride and satisfaction wells from the bottom of my heart, knowing someone enjoys my writing enough to pay to read my words. Once more, thank you.
Here is where people often put a but — however, there will be no butts from me. All I will offer is an explanation, because you deserve one....
2025-04-10 07:11:52 +0000 UTC View Post51st of Season of Air, 59th year of the 32nd cycle
The plateau stretched to Newt’s left and right, seemingly into infinity. A mere hundred feet ahead, stood the next wall, and Newt pulled himself up over the ledge before rushing towards the next wall while others hurried to do the same.
He did not know whether he had reached it first, but the pressure that ...
2025-04-10 01:00:04 +0000 UTC View Post49th of Season of Air, 59th year of the 32nd cycle
Newt distinctly disliked being the center of attention. The establishment Dandelion had chosen was a great place to be when Dandelion won the event, and when Newt’s participation went by largely unnoticed. With Newt winning again, that was no longer the case.
Fortunately, his two elder sisters noticed his u...
2025-04-09 00:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostDay 131, 11:15 AM
“Welcome to the dungeon,” we’ve got fun and games. My voice is much more normal than the words might imply as I step onto the first floor, leading Millie and Elie.
“Millie, I need to know your class, level, agility, physique, wisdom, intellect, and the number of attribute points you have available.”
The girl is a lev...
2025-04-08 18:06:14 +0000 UTC View Post49th of Season of Air, 59th year of the 32nd cycle
Whenever a lull happened, Sleek came to the game of microraptor and mouse played by the Explorer’s Gate’s Newstar Blazing Salamander and the Shadow Valley’s Willow Blackeye. Fairly early on, the game had changed into microraptor and ankylosaurus, since the assassin-in-training could not breach the explorer’...
2025-04-08 16:04:53 +0000 UTC View PostDay 127, 10:00 AM
“I’m too old to be anything other than what I am.” Of all the dumb things Harlos could have said, this is probably the dumbest. He’s barely a kid.
“My knees ache, and I have trouble walking. It would take a month to reach the dungeon. I’d probably drown in the rain. It’s not worth the bother.”
“You do know I can heal ...
2025-04-06 01:00:06 +0000 UTC View Post49th of Season of Air, 59th year of the 32nd cycle
One against two, Newt had no intention of being a gentleman. He fireburst towards the closer swordsman, Magmin Scales and Granite Crust enveloping his body. The grand sect’s core disciples scattered, their moment of confusion lasting less than a blink before their training kicked in.
Newt’s target, a red-...
2025-04-05 23:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post49th of Season of Air, 59th year of the 32nd cycle
Newt’s flags buried themselves into the soft, squishy ground yet again.
“This is so annoying,” Newt mouthed the words, but did not vocalize them.
He had two choices, stand in the middle of a small clearing, or head for the nearby bushes from which he could ambush any would-be attackers. He chose n...
2025-04-04 18:39:27 +0000 UTC View PostDay 123, 6:10 AM
“Where do you think you’re going?” Edna asks, her treant army blocking my path.
“Neat creations. Did you come up with the design?” I don’t answer her question and watch her reaction.
“Archmages long dead designed the tree soldiers, now, where are you going?”
“Deephorn, to see how the residents are doing, deliver ...
2025-04-03 23:00:08 +0000 UTC View Post49th of Season of Air, 59th year of the 32nd cycle
Finally, after waiting half an hour in the bushes, Newt could move again. He skulked through the jungle for a handful of minutes, carrying four flags in his hand, when he saw three flags planted in the ground, their owner nowhere to be seen.
Newt focused on his third eye, closing the two physical ones. The forest wa...
2025-04-03 06:00:28 +0000 UTC View PostDay 106, 11:50 AM
I start yet another loop, fifty-third, I believe, by quickly reaching level six of the mage class. Thanks to plentiful experience, I can cast and maintain six active spells at the same time. That should be the level up condition which stopped Edna from reaching level six.
Level seven is tougher, reaching perfect mastery over three spells, bu...
2025-04-02 01:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post49th of Season of Air, 59th year of the 32nd cycle
Newt had taken Dandelion’s advice for what it was - a roundabout confession that he would throw future matches against Fiery Glory, and that he should not bet on him. That and the odds of Dandelion winning the next event had gone down from one to ten to one to five, so Newt bet a third of his winnings on his own ...
2025-04-01 23:00:06 +0000 UTC View Post47th of Season of Air, 59th year of the 32nd cycle
Newt watched round after brutal round until the only ones left were the Sword Abode and Dandelion. A female announcer listed the victors amongst second-realmers, listing them in order, while Sleek and Northstar continued narrating the third-realmers’ competition. Newt kept watching the event, catching that the Ex...
2025-04-01 05:18:27 +0000 UTC View PostDay 119, 7:30 PM
My two weeks passed quickly. An hour a day, usually around meals, went on teaching the girls new spells. The rest of the time I spent on searching for secret compartments and wasting mana to improve my capacity.
The most exciting discovery was the secret room beneath the library, a place where I plan to spend several redos, not counting the time I will take to study...
2025-03-31 05:37:05 +0000 UTC View Post47th of Season of Air, 59th year of the 32nd cycle
“I’m spent, Newt,” Flare’s voice came from the other side of the fort. It was just the two of them, two gates destroyed and over a minute left until the end of the current wave.
“Go into the jungle and try to find something that will help us. I’ll go fix the breached walls.”
After filling ...
2025-03-30 02:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post47th of Season of Air, 59th year of the 32nd cycle
“The eighth round is about to start with only seventy-two teams remaining, two of which are independent cultivators.” Northstar interrupted Sleek’s heated cheers for the Billowing Sands’ final cultivator.
The woman fought desperately against the four remaining nanuqsauruses. One snapped its jaws at he...
2025-03-29 03:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostDay 106, 7:30 AM
An invisible force pulls a carp the size of my forearm from the pond and places it atop the paralyzed tarantula we caught along the way. Edna sings a wordless song of two trees which have merged as they grew next to each other, the other scene is more graphic, and once more reminds me of Manny, the joys we have shared, and everything I have lost. 2025-03-29 02:00:04 +0000 UTC View Post
47th of Season of Air, 59th year of the 32nd cycle
The wall gave one loud crack before Newt arrived at the scene. The nanuqsaurus had a bloody face and a pair of legs sticking out of its jaw as it bashed its head once more against the reinforced palisade.
The blow landed, then Newt’s glaive sliced the spirit beast’s throat and it toppled to the ground, disappearing as it did, al...
2025-03-27 01:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostDay 106, 4:10 AM
Hundreds of drums beat in the darkness. The sound of rain battering at the roof and gushing through the drains is reassuring and intimately familiar after the years I’ve spent in this room. My chest feels tight, air entering my lungs with difficulty.
I’m alive, the thought comes unbidden, and I recall crawling through the mud, worm...
2025-03-27 00:00:09 +0000 UTC View Post47th of Season of Air, 59th year of the 32nd cycle
Newt appeared on a flimsy wooden wall fifteen feet above ground, his eyes at the level of the jungle’s canopy. The surrounding greenery was dense, with a path heading straight from his location into the depths of the rainforest.
“Welcome to my realm.” A squeaky male voice sounded from the heavens to explain the trial. ...
2025-03-26 05:25:04 +0000 UTC View Post45th of Season of Air, 59th year of the 32nd cycle
A group of disciples from five different sects surrounded Dandelion, enthralled by his story.
“So there I was, in front of an army of fearsome cannibals, them staring at me, me staring at them. My jaw dropped, and I was about to utter a curse, when a tall, handsome young man, bare-chested with skin as black as ebo...
2025-03-25 01:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostDay 105, 1:45 PM
The blinding lightning, moth dust, and the spasming urchin’s backstab started a havoc amongst the minor abominations. Three died to my spell, five more injured, all of which frenzied and tearing at each other rather than me. A centipede from hell turns around and starts feasting on the survivors, along with a giant antlion, which takes the chance and si...
2025-03-24 08:26:31 +0000 UTC View Post45th of Season of Air, 59th year of the 32nd cycle
Newt followed the corridor alone. It was a gentle slope, ever rising upwards. His heart raced, unbidden thoughts assailing him. Could it be that the previous team were mere semifinalists? Was he really heading for the twelfth match? He counted on his fingers.
Eleven done. Twelfth waiting ahead. And he had less than ...
2025-03-23 02:30:34 +0000 UTC View Post45th of Season of Air, 59th year of the 32nd cycle
Newt lost three sect-mates in the three following battles, each time finding himself forced to finish the matches personally. Spell formation scribes, in particular, presented a challenge for him, but he endured and plowed through their tricks.
After the moons he spent learning and reading, he considered himself a m...
2025-03-22 04:41:39 +0000 UTC View PostDay 101, 11:30 AM
There’s a lot of magic I was passively training during the decades-long loop. My internal clock is now precise down to seconds, and the information constantly trickles into my mind, letting me know the exact time.
Combined with the constantly active scanner and having to sing spells to cast them leaves precious little focus for me. With slight un...
2025-03-22 03:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostDay 86, 10:01 AM
I turn around in the service corridor once more. Instead of going to get drunk and cause a needless incident with Edna, I head back towards the library. I must look like a madman to anyone watching. Fortunately, I’m alone in the cramped space.
The plan for this loop is to finish the last batch of books. Hopefully, the grimoires are in the library;...
2025-03-20 09:35:15 +0000 UTC View Post45th of Season of Air, 59th year of the 32nd cycle
Newt’s taunt worked. The wielder of the slender sword, probably a woman by the shape of her body, lashed out. Newt thrust his glaive towards the center of her chest, but she sidestepped. With a twist of his wrist, Newt turned the blade and slashed towards the charging silhouette while stepping back.
The woman did ...
2025-03-20 00:00:10 +0000 UTC View Post45th of Season of Air, 59th year of the 32nd cycle
Newt was not tall by any means, but he never considered himself short either. That changed when the black giant stepped forth to meet him. The man loomed, easily seven feet tall, maybe more, and Newt did not doubt for a moment that the one facing him was a man. He did not believe a woman could have shoulders as broad, arm...
2025-03-19 05:18:55 +0000 UTC View Post45th of Season of Air, 59th year of the 32nd cycle
Twochains won the duel with some difficulty, meaning he was also between yellow and orange on the power rainbow. The moment the decisive blow landed, the yellow-orange man vanished, and four paths appeared in the circular room.
Newt chose the leftmost path, and a hundred feet later came up to another battle chamber,...
2025-03-18 04:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostDay 86, 10:00 AM
I rub the phantom pain out of my neck. Snapping it while Edna was having a mental breakdown was one of the worst deaths in a long while. Well, not exactly, it was no worse than cleaving my head, but the despair and madness in Edna’s screams was something I’d like to forget as soon as possible.
I turn around in the service corridor. Instead of go...
2025-03-18 02:00:04 +0000 UTC View Post