riverfate

Wild Era 2, Ch 24: Mausoleum of Bones

Kelin took in the others’ conditions at a glance as he headed toward them. 

He set a Soulfire Sigil in the air and established a ward. As they collapsed to the ground inside, his hands glowed with healing flames. 

For a while, no one spoke much. They sorted themselves out and focused on healing. 

From the changes to their soul auras, Kelin could sense that the...

Wild Era 2, Ch 23: Ascendant

When the world resolved again, Kelin was in a different place.  

He was still among the stars, but the hall and the sovereign were gone. Now he was standing on a flat stone plain that seemed to extend forever beneath a starry sky.

It wasn’t a natural place, but something made of magic and thought, or perhaps the inner workings of the Path.

Magical runes and artifac...

Wild Era 2, Ch 22: Meeting in the Stars

Kelin’s awareness gathered together and he found himself standing in a different place.

Stars stretched into the endless distance, their light shimmering with a thousand colors that created a sense of eternity, as if time and space were merged together here.

Rivers of flame and primordial mist of silver and grey light twisted through the stars, flowing through everything, both nea...

Wild Era 2, Ch 21: Aura of Fear

Kelin considered the mysteries of Lareth for the rest of the night, as well as of the dungeon, but no answers were forthcoming.

Serai’s dream had given him some information that he’d been missing, and the match between her dream and his own rebirth here was too coincidental to ignore.

He had heard at the guild that there was a dungeon break out twenty years ago, but the timing h...

Wild Era 2, Ch 20: Remnant of Decay

Kelin spent a good part of the night investigating the library, studying every design and inscription he could find.

Gaius helped by finding stonework that was altered with inscriptions and murals, even if they were hidden beneath the ruins. 

The result was fruitful.

He used his time on watch to continue his research and got some sleep in between. By the time morning arri...

Wild Era 2, Ch 19: Library of Silence

In the morning, Kelin dismantled the ward that had protected them throughout the night and they returned to clearing nearby monsters.

It didn’t take long to find the first mana concentration that marked a challenge, but in the interests of efficiency, they circled around it to clear everything nearby first.

There were a couple of dozen wandering undead in the area. 

The...

Wild Era, Ch 18: Shadowfall

Shadows stretched in every direction as the dungeon opened in front of Kelin.

Broken pillars and shattered stones soared into a dark grey sky that was filled with mottled clouds. 

The dungeon portal was inside a ruined building that looked like it had once been a temple. The remains of arches and a domed roof were still visible, but it was mostly open to the sky, providing a cl...

Wild Era, Ch 17: Departure

Kelin spent the next few days in the training hall, working on his combat abilities.

Eventually he ran out of monster cores and mana crystals and had to buy more from the guild, but by the time he was done, he had achieved his main goals.

Soul Paralysis reached Elite first, since it had been getting quite a bit of practice. Using it against the assassins had helped.

Reactive S...

Wild Era 2, Ch 16: Resistance

Verasun’s Perspective

Silas Crest watched from his window as the guild officer appeared in the sky.

His frown deepened as he watched her punch destroy the assassin’s main outpost.

He couldn't assess her level, but she was either Gold or Platinum ranked.

The attack was a massive column of red and white flame. It was a hundred feet wide and almost a thousand f...

Wild Era 2, Ch 15: Send It

Highmist was bustling with people going about their morning work, but it didn’t take Kelin long to work his way through the crowd.

As he turned another corner, he took out a dozen Soul Veil talismans and silently activated them one after the other.

With each one, a layer of obscurity descended around his aura and he felt the pressure of mystical attention sliding off of him. His b...

Wild Era 2, Ch 14: Into His Own Hands

“Are you alright?” Sandren asked. 

She had just flopped down in a chair in her office across from Kelin. The last couple of hours had been busy and there was a touch of exhaustion in her tone from dealing with it all.

“I’m fine,” Kelin replied, waving his hand. “They didn’t succeed, and I wasn’t even scratched. What I care about is the challenge to the guild’s...

Wild Era 2, Ch 13: Interference

When Kelin arrived at the training hall, it was similar to the one where he’d done his guild assessment. 

It was a rectangular chamber with a spot for the combatant to stand and another where monsters would appear. 

A control node on the side of the room regulated the enchantment, which was capable of simulating any monster whose core had previously been fed into it.&nbs...

Wild Era 2, Ch 12: Colors of Irian

The enchantments took Kelin the better part of the next week and in between he made some time for other things.

He made sure to visit the kids every few days to help them with mana circulation and their general understanding of magical theory. 

He also taught them some basic concepts of soul magic, in case it was ever useful to them, and he spent some effort infusing their bodi...

Wild Era 2, Ch 11: Armaments

After his mana practice the next morning, Kelin returned to the crafting hall.

It had been a pleasant evening with Sandren. 

When the serious part of the conversation was finished, they’d focused more on teasing and getting to know one another.

Throughout the evening, he’d felt his anti-scrying bracelet heat up several times. There had also been more than one person m...

Wild Era 2, Ch 10: Progress

After his mana practice the next morning, Kelin headed back to the crafting hall.

He’d stopped by last night and booked out the room for a month, so it was his until then.

He had some plans to meet with the team now and then to refine group tactics in the combat halls, but for the most part they would be working on their own and he would be doing the same. 

The sunlight...

Wild Era 2, Ch 9: Foundation

The guild’s training halls were split between the back part of the first level and the lower levels, and mixed between combat and crafting. 

The farther away they were from the entrance, the higher the level they could handle, but Kelin didn’t need anything elaborate. All he wanted was a standard crafting hall with testing capabilities.

He stopped by the desk and booked one...

Wild Era 2, Ch 8: Fealty

Verasun’s Perspective.

Silas Crest, known more often by his title as Baron Verasun, was standing on the edge of his balcony looking out at the city below.

He sipped wine in a golden cup as he watched people go about their lives, but he was not in a good mood.

His most loyal retainer, his butler Kolburn, was dead, and his youngest daughter had betrayed him and joined...

Wild Era, Ch 7: Highmist

An hour later, the walls of Highmist rose in front of Kelin.

He passed through the gate with a flash of his guild badge at the guards. They looked surprised at the Low Steel rank it displayed, since he wasn’t at the First Evolution yet, but it was close enough that they didn’t pay much attention.

Low Steel quests started at Level 100 and went up to 150 or so, and it often took u...

Wild Era 2, Ch 6: Dual Elites

As Kelin took in the presence of the two dungeon bosses, he ignited his mana and soul pools, sending the condensed mana of Blaze surging through his meridians.

The form of the wolf turned hazy and disappeared as it merged with the dark mist that covered everything. Its fangs were the only thing that stayed physical, flashing bone white and crackling with necrotic energy as it shot toward ...

Wild Era 2, Ch 5: Temple of Mist

As Kelin walked into the temple, the doors led onto a narrow tiled path between the rippling waves that filled the left side of the interior and the leaping flames on the right.

It was like walking into a land of primordial mist, water, and fire.

It looked like there was an ocean stretching away to his left into an endless distance, while an inferno dwelled to the right.  ...

Cover Sketches, Wild Era 2

Okay, time for opinions.

This art is by Paris Ioannou.

These are three options for the cover of Book 2.

We can mix and match things.

What elements do you like the most?

(There's no guarantee it will end up exactly like this, and the lich in Ch 4 might not be this lich.)

My thoughts for what to combine:

1) Kelin's stance/posture from A (although all thr...

Wild Era 2, Ch 4: Deathfrost Lich

Kelin grimaced as he studied the Deathfrost Lich.

He understood what the Path was up to. The effective level rating was based on what he did, rather than an assessment of his ability levels.

It was trying to give him a challenge that matched his strength, so when he killed everything quickly, it gave him something stronger.

It was what you would expect from the Path’s desire...

Wild Era 2, Ch 3: Prodigy

As Kelin walked toward the second convergence, he could sense the flow of mana in the dungeon changing as it adapted to him.

The Path had taken his measure during the challenge, and now it was adjusting things. The dungeon was full of mana for it to use and the sense of danger in the air intensified.

Notifications began to ring in his mind.

Your strength exceeds the re...