William was just about to scoop another mouthful of porridge and berries into his mouth when someone scooted into the seat next to him.
“Marline.” He inclined his head before returning to breakfast.
A breakfast that, prior to his teammate’s arrival, had been blissfully free of noise or interruption.
Which made sense given that the ‘rise and shine’ bell wasn’t going...
2024-04-26 20:40:34 +0000 UTC View PostYelena watched the doorway through which the young Ashfield scion had just left for a few moments more as she pondered over the meeting they’d just had.
Precocious indeed, she thought with a smile.
A smile that only grew as her gaze flitted over to her childhood friend’s… complicated expression.
It seemed young William’s decision had come as much a surpri...
2024-04-20 11:26:09 +0000 UTC View Post“Where did he get a core?”
There was no preamble as the Blackstone matriarch appeared within the crystalline confines of the communication orb Tala was stood in front of.
Truth be told, that didn’t surprise the Blackstone heir.
Given just how many Instructors, students and other assorted ‘sources’ sent reports to the duchess, the notion that one of them had managed t...
2024-04-14 12:32:11 +0000 UTC View PostWilliam struggled not to wince as the door to his alchemical storage room slowly cracked partially open.
“Goddesses’ mercy,” Marline hissed from behind him. “How is it worse the second time?”
“Because we added a few things the last time we were here?” William said as he unhooked the tripwire attached to the door before pulling it fully open.
“The potatoes are w...
2024-04-06 13:15:06 +0000 UTC View PostWilliam smiled broadly as he watched his team whooping and hollering with delight as they made their way back to the dorms.
Though there was no missing the slight… gingerness of their movements.
Nor the smell, he thought with some amusement, thankful that he wasn’t downwind of the small collection of young women.
Anyone that believed a girls’ locker-room smelled...
2024-03-29 14:33:28 +0000 UTC View PostAN: I remember someone asking for the old chapter nineteen to be reposted, so here it is.
Now little more than a non-canon omake of 'what could have been'.
Among the staff of the Academy it was generally acknowledged that, for all that they were impressive displays of wealth, engineering, and foresight on the part of the Crown, the Floats and Skeleton were imperfe...
“Are you insane!?”
All movement in the hallway paused at the sudden outburst, before rapidly recommencing as the cadets present saw from whom said outburst had originated.
“Ah Tala,” William smiled as he regarded the rapidly retreating backs of his fellow marine-knight cadets. In no time at all the only ones that remained were himself, his team and Tala’s team. “So nice ...
2024-03-25 08:49:42 +0000 UTC View Post
House move went well. My back hurts. My fingers are sore. My mother's plants have been re-homed rather than thrown into a burning pit of fire like they deserved!
*Cough*
Just letting ya'll know that the next chapter will either be out in the next few hours or tomorrow morning depending on how long my eyes stay open - and how happy I am with it when I finish. Either way, t...
Griffith watched with muted awe as dozens of sailors and fishmongers clambered over the slowly rotting corpse of what had once been a mighty animal.
Mighty enough to have once been thought of as a god.
And now she was dead.
“Al’Hundra,” Captain Sulla, as she’d introduced herself, breathed. “I honestly never thought it’d happen. Let alone that I’d be alive to witn...
2024-03-15 14:19:02 +0000 UTC View PostEvan scowled at the visage that greeted him as he emerged from the toilet stall he’d just occupied.
There, reflected in the mirror over the sinks, was the passive expression of William Ashfield, the boy casually washing his hands as he hummed happily to himself.
The prick was clearly happy about something.
He was tempted to call the other man a satyr too, but he knew better ...
2024-03-09 14:07:52 +0000 UTC View Post“You know, it’s not going to disappear.”
It amused him a little how Marline failed to react to his words as she maintained a death grip on the mithril core in her hands.
For his part, he’d stashed his own below deck in an innocuous looking burlap sack. He’d also been amused by the face his teammate had made when he physically slung the thing down below.
He understood...
2024-03-06 16:05:29 +0000 UTC View Post“It doesn’t look like much.”
It was all William could do not to sag as Verity so casually undercut his grand reveal.
Admittedly, the orc wasn’t wrong. His latest invention didn’t look like much. Little more than a long pipe with a variety of off-the shelf bolt-bow parts either magically or conventionally welded onto it. The thing in his hands looked like a paintball gun th...
2024-03-01 11:49:59 +0000 UTC View PostSup all,
I'll just come out and say that I made a mistake last chapter - one that's been bothering me since yesterday.
Which is a shame because I like it as a chapter.
The issue is one of chronology.
To that end, I want to rename chapter eighteen to chapter nineteen and have this upcoming chapter be the new eighteen.
I mean, I suppose I could have it be a flas...
Among the staff of the academy it was generally acknowledged that, for all that they were impressive displays of wealth, engineering and foresight on the part of the Crown, the Floats and Skeleton were imperfect systems.
The practice environments they provided were little more than pale imitations of real combat.
The most glaring example of which was a lack of offensive spells. Easi...
2024-02-24 09:49:08 +0000 UTC View PostTruth be told, Angelina hadn’t even been aware that the Academy had alchemy labs. Certainly, she’d never had cause to visit them in the two year she’d spent here.
Though, as she looked at them now, she had to wonder if she wasn’t alone in that. Separate from the rest of the campus, the squat decrepit structure had clearly seen better times.
Old, she thought as her e...
2024-02-18 10:43:00 +0000 UTC View PostWilliam would be the first to admit that this was a terrible idea.
“We- we shouldn’t,” the very seductive dark elf under him moaned as his lips trailed along her neckline, fingers moving undoing the buttons of her shirt. “It’s… I’m your instructor.”
Alas, he couldn’t quite bring himself to care. For while he liked to consider himself a man in control of his own fac...
2024-02-09 11:43:23 +0000 UTC View Post“So, nothing happened?”
“As I’ve said. Repeatedly. We shared a room. That’s it,” William mumbled as he pulled up his welding goggles.
Seam looks good, he thought as he gazed down at the oversized and partially constructed brass and copper helmet on the table in front of him.
“Yes, but you can’t deny it’s suspicious,” Bonnlyn continued from her posi...
2024-02-02 11:22:08 +0000 UTC View PostAs far as taverns went, the Salty Kraken could best be described as firmly average. Neither particularly rough, nor particularly classy, the small business nonetheless had a quiet reputation for reliability and security.
A reputation aided by the fact that the owners were all former royal navy.
“Here’s your fish pie, love.”
“My thanks,” William said, smiling as he sl...
2024-01-26 11:28:15 +0000 UTC View Post“He rejected me!?” Tala definitely didn’t screech.
That would be beneath her.
There was definitely a certain amount of… frustration present in her voice as she stared down her teammate.
Cherie shifted uneasily under her friend’s gaze. As did the rest of the team as their leader paced back and forth.
“Does he truly hate me so? That he’d sabotage himself just...
2024-01-18 10:36:12 +0000 UTC View Post
Someone asked for a map and I do happen to have one. (Generated well in advance while I was planning out the story.)
So here it is. The map.
Of the world.
A world I have yet to name.
“He’s developing a reputation for being particularly vigorous.”
It didn’t need to be said who ‘he’ was. Tala’s reluctant fiancé had been a hot topic of conversation within the dorm of her team since before he’d even shown up at the academy.
Though how much of that was down to their genuine interest in the eponymous ‘Kraken Slayer’ and how much of it was down to ...
2024-01-11 20:56:44 +0000 UTC View Post“We slaughtered them!” Bonnlyn cheered as she took a swig of her flask.
The dwarf looked a sweaty half-dressed mess as she reclined into her seat, the top half of her gambeson unbuttoned to reveal her rather ample cleavage to the world.
Not that she was alone in that. Just about all the girls had shed their tops prior to sprawling about the team’s communal lounge. The only exc...
2024-01-04 08:27:24 +0000 UTC View Post“She’s staring at you.”
At Bonnlyn’s words, William glanced across the training fields to see that the green-clad half-elf from yesterday had arrived with her team. And sure enough, she was eying him.
Which was a little amusing, given that a maneuver-suit was hardly a revealing piece of attire – despite what all the leather might suggest. Just like on Earth though, Lindhol...
2023-12-29 10:56:15 +0000 UTC View PostThe bolt-bow was, by any and all metrics that mattered, little more than an oversized nailgun. Oh, it had certainly been beefed up – the ‘nails’ it fired had more in common with crossbow bolts than anything else and the energetic properties of aether gave it significantly more power than air might have – but at the end of the day, it was still effectively a nailgun.
Unlike the clo...
2023-12-21 11:23:47 +0000 UTC View Post
"Early designs of the Drake can rightly be said to be the template from which all other designs were born.
Though the original variant's air-frame was made of lacquered wood, it wasn't long before advances in elemental alchemy allowed the creation of variants with aluminum fuselages. Leading to many jokes about coating even later designs in gold.
Slower, but sturdier than the ...
“I think I’m going to die,” Bonnlyn whined as she sank onto a chair with all the grace of a jellyfish beaching itself.
“Don’t be so dramatic,” Olzenya grunted half-heartedly as she took her own seat.
Despite her words, the sweaty-high elf didn’t look much better than the dwarf, who was even now sprawled out across the cool wooden surface of the common room table.
“Why’s everyone staring at me?” Verity asked warily as she paused in the act of tearing into her food, with an enthusiasm usually relegated to wild animals, to glance around the cafeteria.
Just watching her, William knew he would need to help teach her proper table manners at some point. Not because her lack of them offended him personally, but because it was a skillset she’d need...
2023-12-08 02:12:16 +0000 UTC View PostIt had struck her at breakfast, and it struck her now, for all that the entire populace of the Academy wore uniforms, they weren’t actually all that uniform.
For example, the classroom Bonnlyn sat in now was a veritable riot of colors.
Reds. Blues. Greens. Blacks. Whites. Each representing differing houses.
Which didn’t really make a ton of sense until you thought about it...
2023-12-03 05:55:03 +0000 UTC View PostAwkward.
If he were forced to pick a word to describe the current atmosphere, awkward would have been it. With tense being a close second.
The team’s common room had already divided itself in two. Or perhaps, two and a half would be more apt, given that while his dwarven teammate had wasted no time in sidling up to him, his orcish one was hanging back a bit.
And across from ...
2023-11-28 05:48:41 +0000 UTC View Post