Day 26, 1:05 PM
We’re six lessons in, and we’re finally at the edge of civilization, such as it is, on the border of the corrupted lands.
“Remember, I can only use minor magic and those with mostly internal effects. I can heal you, I can enhance weapons, ignite small flames and such. Any larger show of magic would draw all nearby abominations toward...
2025-02-02 15:57:50 +0000 UTC View PostDay 21, 8:20 PM
Edna enters the hut. She was probably right outside the whole time, crying in the rain, but I left her alone, she certainly needed some time to reflect.
“How are you doing?”
“Better, thank you.”
I nod in understanding. She’s still feeling like crap, best not to smile then.
“I have a bit of news which should ch...
2025-02-02 14:10:58 +0000 UTC View PostDay 21, 4:15 PM
“One must travel a long path if they wish to become a mage.” Edna’s voice is solemn, and I have to kneel on the ground before her as she teaches; because that’s the way things are done. I don’t mind, even though it’s kind of annoying. A nice cozy lecturing hall with soft, leather seats would have been better for the students’ moral...
2025-02-02 14:09:29 +0000 UTC View PostDay 21, 10:30 AM
“Hello, Edna!” I greet the witch as I enter her home, surprising myself with the sincere cheeriness and the fact that I actually missed her. Edna’s inside, cooking, not one whit surprised I barged in. She didn’t even flinch. Meaning, she knew I was coming. The only question is when did she start monitoring me.
“I come bearing ne...
2025-02-02 14:08:09 +0000 UTC View PostDay 19, 5:20 AM
The thirty-eighth floor is dark already, but my darkness intuition is helping me navigate around trees and bushes without a sound. It’s a neat skill, lets you see in the dark, kind of. It’s more like letting you be aware of your surroundings. The range is miserable, around one foot, and it has even more quirks.
I tried it in full light...
2025-02-02 14:06:51 +0000 UTC View PostDay 14, 10:30 AM
With the kids safely heading for the surface, it’s time to focus on myself. What do I want to do with my life? The answer is magic. But the most immediate question I need to consider is whether I wish to continue advancing the weapon master class.
The skills I got from it are great, but the requirements for each level were steep and get...
2025-02-02 14:01:42 +0000 UTC View Post57th of Season of Water, 57th year of the 32nd cycle
Heroes have dramatic fights in tournaments, full of twists and turns, winning against impossible odds, snatching victory from the jaws of defeat, and advancing realm to rise to the challenge. A beautiful lady or two or nineteen see him, and he sees them, and things happen. Newt had turned eighteen, so maybe he could consider ...
2025-02-02 05:15:09 +0000 UTC View PostPick what you want in tomorrow's chapter. I'm off to have a snack and will return in an hour. If there are no responses, I'll toss a die.
Cheers!
2025-02-01 15:50:26 +0000 UTC View Post57th of Season of Water, 57th year of the 32nd cycle
The core disciple trial was taking place in an arena. Newt had no idea the Explorer’s Gate had an arena. When viewed from the street, the Chamber of Instruction’s main building completely obscures the giant structure.
Beyond the initial investigation into sect rules and what various divisions did, Newt paid little a...
2025-02-01 05:00:08 +0000 UTC View Post47th of Season of Water, 57th year of the 32nd cycle
Elder Flameax took a full day to come to terms with Newstar’s sudden realm increase. He was disappointed. He had expected better from someone of Newstar’s talent, there was no need to rush, to force things, and yet…
I thought I had gotten over it. But it was difficult to accept the situation. Whatever the...
2025-01-30 06:03:55 +0000 UTC View Post30th of Season of Water, 57th year of the 32nd cycle
“You are trying to trick me!” Magmin hissed. “If I climb to the surface, the blazing pterosaur will attack.”
Newt stared at the creature. I did not think of that.
“What if I brought its corpse into the tunnel? Or its head?”
Magmin hesitated. The lindworm looked like it was about to pounc...
2025-01-29 05:57:45 +0000 UTC View Post29th of Season of Water, 57th year of the 32nd cycle
The dark, oppressive mine shaft was no longer dark, nor oppressive. It was a mere hole in the ground, the air thick with earth energy, tinged with extinguished fire of the ancient volcano. The wounds and humiliation attached to the place no longer stung Newt. In a handful of moons, he had grown beyond what he once was. Beyond...
2025-01-28 02:00:04 +0000 UTC View Post29th of Season of Water, 57th year of the 32nd cycle
After conscripting the terrified locals to help carry the unconscious Blood Cult victims to his clanhold, Newt and his friends went back up the slopes of the Dragon’s Rest volcano.
So, could you guys not tell Elder Stronggrow about what happened? The thought passed through Newt’s mind half a d...
2025-01-26 05:48:32 +0000 UTC View Post29th of Season of Water, 57th year of the 32nd cycle
“They’ll kill me.” The flabby mortal squealed, hanging upside down.
Elder Flameax had heard plenty of inane things in his long life, but despite that he had trouble believing his ears.
“You can’t be that dumb, saying something like that to a man who has a choice between roasting you slowly, piece by piec...
2025-01-25 05:20:05 +0000 UTC View PostAN: Warning, in case you skipped the message in the previous update, this chapter has some horror elements and possibly gore, if you're extremely sensitive. This is a one chapter thing, and it will appear rarely or not at all in the future. Demonic cultivators and something called the Blood Cult has to be scary, bloody, and, well, culty. :) Without further ado, zee chappy...
29th o...
2025-01-23 04:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post29th of Season of Water, 57th year of the 32nd cycle
While deciding that Newstar’s safety was paramount was well and good, Elder Flameax still had choices to make. Important choices. A nearby city had a library, and a library was an imperial outpost, technically. Each library had a senior librarian at fourth realm or higher to evaluate the worth of knowledge shared, and that ...
2025-01-22 08:06:42 +0000 UTC View Post29th of Season of Water, 57th year of the 32nd cycle
The four lower-layer cultivators drew strange sabers. The weapons’ flat sides were jagged, covered in barbs and hooks, striking or grabbing the usually safe sides with bare hands would cost Newt a chunk of flesh.
“I’ll handle them.” Newt growled at his teammates to stand back, and they did, while the two g...
2025-01-21 04:00:04 +0000 UTC View Post29th of Season of Water, 57th year of the 32nd cycle
Newt and his team stood out in the streets. The yellow and green camouflage robes designed to blend into the jungle clashed with what regular mortals wore on a busy day. In part, it was because mortals wore browns and grays. The more important part, however, was that few wore matching sect uniforms when going to the market. 2025-01-19 04:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post
29th of Season of Water, 57th year of the 32nd cycle
Harvesting eldenroot took slightly longer than Newt and his team had expected, but they still had plenty of time to spare for a visit to the Blazing Salamander clan.
The group stuck to the lower portion of the mountain, never challenging the velociraptors nesting near the top. Their careful approach was rewarded with on...
2025-01-18 05:29:03 +0000 UTC View Post19th of Season of Water, 57th year of the 32nd cycle
How did it come to this? Newt sat in the hot-pond with Obi and the girls, staring at the stars above. Everyone was decent, in their underwear, but decent, and the water was near boiling point, hot enough to relax a low-realm cultivator’s body.
Newt hardly felt it. His physique was a realm higher than his frie...
2025-01-16 08:42:33 +0000 UTC View Post17th of Season of Water, 57th year of the 32nd cycle
Newt was at ease. On the first day, his team had collected a tenth of their quota. They could complete their mission in nine days, assuming their luck held up, then spend ten more hunting for spirit beasts and resources the sect had approved for collection. The forbidden ones were missions for other disciples, or plants signi...
2025-01-16 08:26:12 +0000 UTC View Post16th of Season of Water, 57th year of the 32nd cycle
The captain of the airship had a stern face, cold, brown eyes, and kept her back straight. Her most striking feature, however, was a fierce burn, which painted the lower left half of her otherwise pristine face a furious red. Newt wondered whether the injury was like his malnutrition, something the spiritual energy found a pa...
2025-01-15 04:13:35 +0000 UTC View Post13th of Season of Water, 57th year of the 32nd cycle
Newt and his teammates were checking available missions at the Chamber of Instruction. Outer disciples and laborers had a considerably more diverse spectrum of missions, ranging from ones as basic as cleaning to those requiring advanced skills assisting master artisans.
Inner disciples had monotonous, militant jobs. Har...
2025-01-14 05:33:20 +0000 UTC View Post47th of Season of Air, 57th year of the 32nd cycle
Half a season stormed by in a bustle of inconspicuous activity. Newt had devoted his days to improving his proficiency with spell formations, both theoretical and practical, as well as reading books at the library.
A huge rock had fallen off his chest after he had cleared his looming debt, and since nobody mentioned anyth...
2025-01-12 04:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post84th of Season of Fire, 57th year of the 32nd cycle
Newt returned to his dorm room, his nervousness made manifest as serpents dancing in his stomach. After he had learned that his friends were safe, they disappeared from Newt’s mind. Then he wanted to consult his master about what he had learned, but he found out he could not. He wanted to pay off his debt, but he found out i...
2025-01-11 06:47:47 +0000 UTC View Post84th of Season of Fire, 57th year of the 32nd cycle
The Chamber of Punishment was bare. It looked like the base model all other Chamber buildings used for their layout before filling it with furniture and life. All furniture in the Chamber of Punishment was sculpted out of the same material as the walls, then Newt realized it was fused with the walls. It was impossible to move ...
2025-01-09 09:31:53 +0000 UTC View Post83rd of Season of Fire, 57th year of the 32nd cycle
Greenbow or First, as she seemed to prefer to be called, appeared angry with him. Newt knew why. She waited for him to leave the Valley of the Lost for weeks, and when he finally left, he told her next to nothing. And the bit he did tell her, she did not seem to believe.
After narrating the parts he deemed safe to share,...
2025-01-08 04:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post83th of Season of Fire, 57th year of the 32nd cycle
Four weeks had passed since Newt got separated from his teammates. He had taken to meditation at the strangest of times, in the strangest of places. The fourth realm area of the Valley of the Lost was no longer a danger zone to him.
He slept, ate, and meditated without a care in the world, often right next to his kills, ...
2025-01-07 05:13:46 +0000 UTC View Post59th of Season of Fire, 57th year of the 32nd cycle
Alabaster listened to Newstar’s teammates’ story with furrowed brows. At first, she took their words at face value that a wandering dinosaur had snatched her disciple, but there were too many holes in that story. The visibility was much greater than the length of rope, they would have heard something, they would have seen the dinosau...
2025-01-05 09:55:23 +0000 UTC View Post59th of Season of Fire, 57th year of the 32nd cycle
Newt dodged a split second before the stegosaurus launched a volley of icicles from its tail. The frozen javelins whizzed by harmlessly, but rather than being happy with his success Newt felt frustrated.
Now that I’ve confirmed it, I can see that attack coming before my danger sense warns me, and I can’t use it f...
2025-01-04 07:57:16 +0000 UTC View Post