Memories of the Reborn Chapter 3

I'm on the home stretch editing Memories of the Reborn. Most of my efforts are editing in beta reader feedback and final touches from my own notes.

As two people have already discovered, my new patreon is a lot further ahead in chapters than this blog, with a new chapter being posted at about 11 AM EST time every day until I run out of chapters. I might vamp that up to two chapters per day if it looks like I'll finish editing sooner.

I should note it is paywalled. Patreon will charge you $1 per month to read them. Sorry, but I have to put a paywall up otherwise Amazon and my audio people will get mad at me, and $1 is as low as I could make it. On that note, we're going to tap out what I'm contractually able to post on my blog in another few chapters.

Memories of the Reborn Chapter 2 + Cover reveal!

Progress update: I'm sending out the second wave of beta copies for Memories of the Reborn. ETA 1 month before it hits Amazon. I'll likely start posting more chapters (possibly the whole book) on my Patreon once I max out what I'm allowed to post here on my blog (I can only put 10% up here because of my KU contract).

Here's what the cover looks like, featuring Nela Songstone. Just got it from my cover artist this morning.

The paperback for Secrets of the Hearthwood is still a work in progress, I'll hopefully do it and the Memories of the Reborn paperback at the same time. I've been playing with the demo for Vellum, the paperback making software most Amazon authors seem to use, and it's definitely easier than doing it manually like I did for book 1.


Now, what you probably clicked for:

Memories of the Reborn Chapter 2!

Urrrrrrrrrrrgnnnnn.

Low and rumbly, the deep groan creaked like a falling tree.

A wet and sickly sound echoed throughout the forest. It had a disgusting dampness to it, like a knife being drawn through a puddle of blood.

Schllllck

Then came the moaning. Dry and crackling throats echoed throughout the forest, crying out in hoarse, pained voices.

The girls instantly recognized the sounds we were hearing. "Undead!" Eltiana and Sava shouted in unison.

"They're headed this way?" I asked. This was sooner than I'd like to test my new defenses.

Mac was the one who answered me. Speaking directly into my head, he said [Hostiles incoming. I don't know how I missed them during my earlier scans. It's like they popped out of thin air!]

"Eltiana!" I shouted. "You're the fastest amongst us. Do you think you can get eyes on them? What are we up against?"

Illiel pressed two fingers against her temple as she closed her eyes. "I'm counting a few major entities here. It feels like ten mage acolyte level undead, and a lot of heartwielder-level lesser undead."

Eltiana was already up on the wall. "I recognize the sound alone. Undead Abominations, followed by a host of zombies and skeletons."

"I see the same." Nela confirmed, a golden glow fading from her eyes. “This would have been a tough battle for any one group here. But with all of us together, there’s no reason we should lose.”

"Waterbeetle tribe!" Assyrus called. "To battle! Man the walls!"

Blue-haired elves dropped what they were doing. Seconds ago they'd been working ordinary tasks like tanning hides and digging trenches. I noticed with surprise that most of them weren't more than a few steps away from an ironwood sword or spear, and within moments they were armed and rushing to the towers I'd just finished building.

"Ring the bell!" Sava said, yelling into the distance. Her voice carried with far greater clarity than it should have, considering the trees and the distant. It was like the grass and trees around us amplified Sava's voice instead of quieting it. The call went out, carried by all the elves who heard it to some distant location. Moments later, a chime rang through the air and the remaining elves dropped their tasks and scrambled to and fro.

"We need to deal with the mage acolytes ourselves." Sava said. "But the rest of the Hearthwood clan should be able to handle the rest."

Schlllllck!

That wet slimy sound hit my ears again, louder and closer this time.

"Agreed." I said. "We should form up, same as we did in the dungeon. From what I've read, these undead aren't too big on strategy. Together we should be able to take them down one at a time."

Nela reached for her waist, pulling a long golden spear free. "I'll take the front line."

"Not alone." Yorik said, stepping up beside her. I wasn't sure where she'd hidden her hammer, but it was in her hands once again as a grin pulled at the corners of her mouth.

"Sava!" I shouted over the stampede of elves rushing towards the sentry towers and half-formed walls. "Get your people to bring bows and arrows! Swords and spears will only be of so much use at the top of these walls!"

Sava nodded and reached into her own bag of holding. Moments later, a small pile of bows and arrows materialized on the ground before us. She grabbed one of her kin and yelled something in her ear while thrusting a bow into the elf's grasp.

Soon enough, those bows and the rest of the ranged weapons were retrieved and distributed amongst those standing on the walls.

I watched more than a few elves trip and stumble over each other as they tried to find a space on the wall. All the elves cleared away to make room as the tribal chiefs and I ascended to join them though.

In a hurry to make room, one of the nearby elves scrambled too far too fast and nearly fell off the wall. I grabbed her by the back of her shirt and haul her to safety before she could fall.

"Careful there." I cautioned as I pulled her back from the wall.

"T-thank you, Patriarch." The elf stuttered, clutching a small ironwood dagger in her shaking hands.

I looked her up and down under mage sight.

Hidden Serpent Heartwielder (Level 5)

The elf would have been powerful among her old tribe, but with all the spellheart enhancements happening these days, the sixth layer of zeal accumulation was no longer so difficult to get to.

Then I glanced out over at the oncoming horde of undead.

Riverweed Zombie (Level 4) x 50

Dungeon Skeleton (Level 6) x 35

Undead Abomination (Mid Mage Acolyte, Level 15) x 8

"Help the Riverweed elves distribute weapons." I decided after surveying the enemy forces. After realizing what we would be fighting against I raised my voice so everyone could hear me. "Heartwielders at the fifth layer and below! Pull back and distribute arrows and healing potions. Get off the walls!"

Those lower leveled heartwielders were evenly matched with the lower level undead before us and were outmatched by the Undead Abominations leading the pack. Keeping them on the frontline was only throwing their lives away.

The nearby elves glanced at me in confusion, but two low-ranked heartwielders pulled back as ordered, save one small group on a distant chunk of wall. A head of dirty off-green hair stood proud and strong on the wall, surrounded by a circle of low-leveled heartwielders as he glared defiantly at the oncoming army of undead monsters.

"Segolas!" I shouted. "Get down from there!"

Of the children I'd sired here, only Segolas had hatched. He was my only son, and I wasn't putting him at risk.

Segolas either didn't hear me, or had other ideas. He glared ahead, unflinching as he stared down an undead abomination headed directly for him.

"Damn it. I'm too young to have a rebellious teenager." I cursed to myself.

I looked around before spotting Ullua, pushing her way onto the walls. She was one of the mage acolytes who wasn't one of my girls, and I pointed her towards Segolas. "Grab a few other acolytes and keep my son out of trouble." I ordered.

Ullua didn't have to be told twice. Segolas was second in importance only to myself to the Hearthwood clan. Without even needing to hear my request, Ghessa jumped off the wall and scrambled to catch up to Ullua.

That was all the attention I could spare for Segolas, because I was about to have my hands full with the remaining seven Undead Abominations.

"I'm afraid I'll be of limited use in this fight." Illiel said, taking a step back. She turned to me worriedly. "Don't rely on Twisted Step to keep you safe. Undead are extremely resistant to mind magic. I imagine that's why they stumbled right through the warding network I set up around the settlement."

"That's unfortunate." I frowned. The best way to deal with large hordes of heartwielders I'd seen was to blast the entire group with mind magic. Even Yorik had subdued large numbers of elves with that strategy, despite her limited mind magic repertoire. But that wouldn't work here. This battle just got a lot harder.

"Then you'll sit back and coordinate the Heartwielder's defense of the walls." Nela said. "I can take one of these Undead Abominations myself. When I'm finished, I'll help you with the rest."

Nela whipped her spear forward, holding it under her arm like a cannon. I recognized the pose, and a moment later a beam of golden light shot out of the tip of the spear.

“Star Dragon’s Descent!” Nela shouted into the open air. She struck the closest Undead Abomination in the chest. The beam of sunlight zeal could not slay the Undead Abomination, but it could stop it in its tracks.

"Graaaaaaaa!" The Undead Abomination screeched as it faced Nela's blast. It held up one arm and a cloudy shroud of darkness filled the surrounding air.

"That won't be enough!" Nela bit her finger, drawing a drop of blood which she slapped to the shaft of her spear. The golden light spiraling down the shaft grew brighter and stronger. The power of the beam of sunlight doubled.

Moments later, the Undead Abomination fell to its knees. It tumbled to the ground and several small elf and animal-sized corpses crawled from its body. Like a balloon that had been poked with a needle, the Undead Abomination deflated, letting out enormous clouds of black mist as it fell apart into bits of gore and rotting flesh.

Undead Abomination slain by follower (+30 points)

"You wouldn't be able to do that seven more times?" I asked hopefully.

Nela wheezed in response. "No. Took more out of me than I'd hoped. Never unlocked the bloodline seal on my spear before."

"Then I suppose the rest of us will have to prove our worth." I said, pulling my steel sword out of my dimensional storage and into the open. I was confident I could kill one of these Undead Abominations with it before it became filled with death zeal.

"Hold the wall!" an elf in the background shouted as lesser undead piled atop each other as they rammed into the earthen wall. Armed with long spears and crossbows, the elves shot down the invading undead, killing them in droves before they could form a big enough pile to climb over the walls.

"A few hundred more skeletons and zombies and we'd be in trouble!" Assyrus laughed.

"Fight isn't over." Yorik said, hefting her hammer. "Abominations will break through the wall. The little ones will follow through."

I saw what she meant. The Undead Abominations stood three times taller than the other undead, putting their heads just above the height of my walls. Not only could they reach over the walls on their own, but their size would allow them to tear the walls open. If they broke through, the weaker elves behind the walls would suffer heavy losses.

Even those strong enough to fight the lesser undead alone might find themselves singled out by the Undead Abomination. On the eve of a massive war with the Corpse Collector Company, we couldn't afford to suffer those kinds of losses.

"So we have to stop the Abominations from breaking through the wall!" I shouted. With a bounding leap, I jumped over the side of the wall.

Eltiana followed close behind, landing far gentler. Yorik slammed into the earth, knee bent, and Sava appeared out of thin air next to me. She'd used the space-warping ability she'd gained from her botched ascension to mage acolyte to teleport to my side. Melise and Assyrus were quick to join us.

"I'll clear the path!" Melise shouted, pressing her palms together. When she pulled them apart, two glowing spheres of light hovered in each of her hands. She ran ahead of our group and made a grasping motion at one of the oncoming undead. Before the skeleton could even contact her, the light in her palm shone brighter. The dim red glow behind the skeleton's bleached-white skull went dim and it collapsed to the ground, burned and blackened.

Six more skeletons fell one after another before the light in Melise's palms faded. These heartwielder-level undead stood no chance against a mage acolyte.

Numbers were still effective against overwhelming power though, and the rest of the skeletons soon took notice of Melise.

The blonde elf hurried to recast her spell, but before she could, Yorik leaped clear over our heads, swinging her hammer in a massive arc. It hit a zombie, not stopping or slowing as it carried through two more enemies. Yorik's hammer blow was so mighty that all three undead were sent rocketing into the skeletons behind them, toppling more foes as they flew, before finally crashing unmoving into the ground.

A few faint lines of blue text scrawled across my vision.

Skeletons slain by followers (+10 points)

Zombies slain by followers (+10 points)

“Mac, stow these things somewhere until after the battle!” I shouted, certain he was watching the fight.

[Done.] Mac replied in my head. [And Theo, consider taking out that one ahead and to your left. It appears to be concealing an explosive device within its body.]

“Damn it.” I cursed. Now where did a mindless undead get a bomb? “Eleven o’clock! Follow me.”

“Eleven what?” Sava shouted as she and the rest of the girls trailed after me on the battlefield.

I held my steel sword aloft, prepared to deal the killing blow as we approached the massive legs of the Undead Abomination. Up close, it was even more sickly and foul. Each of the malformed limbs were made of half decayed animal corpses. There were a few elf bodies in there too, and I wondered how one even collected elf corpses, since they dispersed into zeal once killed.

“I’ve got this one—” But before I could sink my sword into the Undead Abomination’s foul flesh, it toppled over and died.

I looked up and found Eltiana sitting on its head, fearlessly reaching into one of the gooey sunken cavities that passed for eyes on these monsters to retrieve a pointed dagger as long as my arm. Purple light coursed along the daggers side and faded to nothing.

“Don’t touch the corpse!” I warned. “There’s a bomb inside of it!”

We left that dead Abomination for later and went to deal with the others. The remaining six were much closer to the wall now. Segolas was still waiting for the abomination headed in his direction, but Ghessa and Ullua should at least be able to get him out of there before he got hurt. He was wearing a big, eager smile on his face, like battle was a game he couldn’t wait to play. Maybe a scare like this would be good for him. It would teach him to know his limits.

We headed towards the next Undead Abomination. This time it was Sava who claimed the kill.

As we ran, she donned a pair of pitch-black gloves. She’d stolen those from Sharian’s bag of holding, but she must have figured out how to use them sometime recently because a dim crimson glow enveloped her hands.

In the distance, a pair of ephemeral red and white hands the size of Sava’s entire body picked up a zombie and hurled it under the Undead Abomination’s footing. The giant undead stumbled, and a moment later Sava appeared on its head, pouring a lust vitality potion down its neck.

The Undead Abomination howled and screamed as it stumbled to the ground. Frowning, Sava dug her heel into the back of the abomination’s head, stomping out a hole in which she could pour the potion. It sizzled and crackled like a pot over the fire. The Abomination twitched before finally going still.

“I’d always heard vitality was the opposite of death zeal, and would harm undead even though it helps us. I never expect it to be true.” Sava said, appearing beside me.

“That’s a trick I’ll have to remember. My blood would do the same then?”

“Yes, it would. I pity the vampire who tries to have a bite of you.”

I’d prepared myself for a tough fight. I’d been prepared for a long battle. I’d even been prepared to have to tack one of my girls onto the resurrection tree until I could revive them.

I hadn’t been prepared for what happened. We crushed every enemy we came across.

The last time I’d seen one of these Undead Abominations, our entire group could do nothing but huddle in terror. Each of those monsters was the equivalent of a mid mage acolyte!

But I’d forgotten Assyrus and Eltiana had already reached that level themselves. Nela was an even more powerful late mage acolyte. While the rest of us were just early mage acolytes or their equivalent, our teamwork gave us an overwhelming advantage picking off these Undead Abominations one at a time.

The closest we came to getting hurt happened when a second Undead Abomination charged us while we were still dealing with one of its kin.

“I’ll hold off the new guy!” Assyrus shouted, bearing her shield and club. She’d long since unlocked the force enchantments that enhanced the weapons, and crimson light sprouted from both tools as Assyrus drew on their power.

“Eat this!” She shouted as she leapt in the air towards the oncoming Undead Abomination.

She swung for the monster’s knee, sending it stumbling. These things were tougher than that though. Like a grotesque stream of flowing flesh it repaired the wound in an instant by corpses migrating from the monster’s torso.

Unlike the other girls, Assyrus didn’t have any killer move to bring her opponent down in one mighty blow. What she had was an instinct for combat and an exceptional talent for manipulating zeal.

When the monster summoned a fistful of cloudy necromantic energy, Assyrus let the blow strike her on the shoulder, only to be reflected at the monster by the Waterbeetle defensive technique. Now that she was a mage acolyte, Assyrus could cover most of her body with the ability, evading the corrosive effects of the black cloud.

On the back foot from having its initial blow deflected, the Abomination fell back only to be hit by a barrage of blows from Assyrus’ club. It lashed out at her with a fist, only for Assyrus to dodge and weave even deeper into its guard, bludgeoning it left and right.

By the time Melise finished off the Abomination we’d been fighting together with a fist of glowing starlight, Assyrus stood atop the Abomination and was busy beating its head in with her club.

“That makes seven.” I said, having kept careful count of each one we’d slain. I still hadn’t used my steel sword with how quick the girls were at dispatching each of these undead monsters.

“Ullua and Ghessa have fallen back. It looks like they’re dragging Segolas back over the wall.” Nela said.

Sava sighed. “He’ll definitely be grounded after this.”

[Theo! I just scanned that thing again! The remaining Abomination also has a bomb in it!]

“Damn it! Why didn’t you say something sooner!?”

[The scanner picked nothing up before. It’s like the bomb switched places!]

“We have to kill that thing, now!” I shouted, running at full speed for the remaining Undead Abomination.

I called on all the powers that would help me run.

Blackgorge Fiendbody.

Sutra of the Living Earth.

Heart of the Mountain.

At these speeds, only Sava and Eltiana could keep pace, with Nela close behind.

Segolas tore himself free of Ghessa and Ullua, jumping back into the open.

“You little…” I growled under my breath. The kid must have seen how quickly we took down those Abominations and thought he could do the same.

Inky shadows bloomed on the Abomination’s forearm. Deep crimson colors circled the air around its body and I felt the sudden presence of a mountain of force zeal that hadn’t been there a moment before. It weighed down on me like a mountain.

I hefted the steel sword in my grasp. I’d seen Eltiana throw bladed weapons this large. If I could just get my steel sword in there quickly enough, it could absorb the zeal before it could detonate.

I cast another spell, Quicksilver Thought.

Time slowed. My body felt like it was pushing through syrup, my mind a step ahead of my ability to move.

The Abomination’s body broke apart at the seams. Its arms flew to the side as the crimson light in its chest expanded and tore the monster apart from the inside.

How did Eltiana throw her daggers? My mind flashed back to my memories of her. When we’d first met in the woods nearby. 

Twirling her daggers with that cheeky grin.

Our first dungeon dive.

Fighting Sharian, Tim, and the Corpse Collectors.

She’d always gone through the same motions.

The Abomination’s frontmost arm detached under the might of the force zeal unleashed in the explosion.

Elbow up. Right foot forward, Twist of the wrist. And then… release.

A ring of crimson light blossomed in a wave around the Abomination’s corpse. The flying severed arm of the Abomination sailed over the wall where it would land somewhere near Segolas.

I felt the strength of my limb pushed to its limits. No ordinary human could have thrown the sword so far or so fast, and I watched the shard of steel leave my grasp point-first like I had shot it from a ballista.

The crimson ring of explosive force zeal reached the earthen walls, cracking and tearing them apart. The explosion threw the elves who guarded that wall into the air and tossed them to the ground as the wall beneath them gave way.

I watched the steel sword sail through the air, carrying my will to protect the elves of the Hearthwood. The balance wasn’t right for a thrown weapon. Nor was I Eltiana, who had spent countless hours practicing those motions. But the sword stuck my target in the upper right shoulder all the same.

Like a puppet with its strings cut, the Abomination collapsed to the ground. The explosion of crimson light was cut short and what little remained dispelled into the open air.

Though we had cut it short, the explosion had still done a considerable amount of damage. I spotted two blue and purple wisps floating among the debris of the destroyed walls, the only casualties of the battle so far.

My eyes scanned the wreckage for Ghessa, Ullua, and Segolas. I found the two mage acolytes, but not my son.

Moments later, I spotted the overly confident green-haired hooligan. He’d used the explosion to break free of his two mage acolyte retainers and was hacking away at a zombie with an ironwood sword he’d swiped from somewhere.

Maybe it was just paternal pride clouding my judgement, but the kid seemed rather skilled for his age. The zombie swept its axe at Segolas’ head, only for the kid to duck low and sweep high himself. At less than a week old, Segolas hadn’t even bonded a spellheart yet. He was using nothing but skill and speed to overpower an undead monster at the fourth layer of zeal accumulation.

I’d been able to do the same at his level. He must have inherited some innate advantages being human brought me when I came to this world. Being able to fight beyond your level was the mark of a rare talent, and he was valued and respected in the clan for that alone.

Seeing Segolas was unharmed quelled my anxiety. With all the mage acolyte level threats destroyed, all we needed to do was clean up the lesser undead.

Even unarmed, slaying monsters at this level had become effortless. I swept through the battlefield, the girls fanning out among the invading undead to cover the most ground.

Compared to my speed, the skeleton I’d set my sights on was nearly standing still. I appeared behind it in a flash, grabbing the white bone skull in my hands and crushing it with the strength of my grip.

A zombie behind me tried to slash my back with its sickly fingers, but with the body of a Stone Skin orc practicing the Blackgorge Fiendbody, it couldn’t do more than ruffle my shirt.

Still holding the Fists of Stone spell, I didn’t bother looking back at my attacker. A casual backhand was enough to bisect the zombie as I dashed off in search of further prey.

Sava was having fun testing her new gloves. I could see giant ephemeral hands of glowing light appearing across the battlefield, tossing zombies and skeletons left and right. These weren’t opponents worth of wasting new potions on, but she still had her nature magic and had no trouble binding the undead with the surrounding foliage.

Assyrus and Yorik were like me, dashing around the battlefield and crushing undead wherever they went. Illiel was limited to using her frost spellheart. The shards of ice she fired were weak, but she was an excellent shot. Though her projectiles didn’t slay her foe, since she was only a first layer heartwielder in the frost aspect, she was still a mage acolyte and could keep watch over the entire battle.

Any time a heartwielder on our side was about to lose a limb or get tossed over the wall, a shard of ice would come flying out of the distance to distract or disable the elf’s opponent for the instant they needed to regain their footing and seize the upper hand again.

Nela swept her spear in wide arcs, not even bothering to skewer undead with the tips. Melise stood by her side, smashing her foes with fiery palm strikes.

Eltiana was as effective as the rest of us combined. She wielded her nunchuks deftly, now that she was just fighting with them instead of trying to impress me.

Though they didn’t even appear to reach their targets, the nunchucks lit with crimson light and the undead nearby exploded into shards of bone and gore. With her other hand, Eltiana unleashed wave after wave of throwing knives, flying like a fountain of ironwood blades. She’d tossed two bandoliers of extra projectiles over her shoulder, and each passing second another three left her hands to fly across the battlefield.

By the time I made it to her region of the battlefield, every undead was full of holes or missing a limb and barely crawling along. And those were only the ones she didn’t kill outright.

“I had no idea there were so many undead in the Hearthwood.” Assyrus said.

“I’ve never seen the like before.” Sava said. “Perhaps an artificial creation?”

“These types of undead are typically formed through natural processes around dense sources of death zeal.” Illiel explained. “Though that explosion had a lot of force zeal in it. Perhaps our enemies used naturally occurring monsters, hoping to weaken our defenses?”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if the Sakaku clan set this up. It might even be Sharian’s idea. She’s not a skilled commander, but she is talented at pulling petty tricks like this.” Nela said.

“It would have worked,” Sava spoke as she reached her arm into the chest cavity of a dead Undead Abomination “if she’d sent this against us a month ago. We’ve gotten a lot stronger faster than anyone could predict.”

“We can’t rely on our enemies continuing to underestimate us though. They’ll know how strong we’ve gotten soon enough.” I said. “We just have to be even more powerful by the time they figure it out.”

Battle Won! (+1250 points)

Undead Abomination slain! Zombies slain! Skeletons slain! (+300 points)

Enemies Slain by followers. (+400 points)

Total Points: 2820

Read Spellheart book 3 for Free Online! Click Here!

Haha! You fool! You’ve fallen for my clickbait! Now I will infiltrate your computer with my demonic malware that I bought off a demon from the lowest circle of hell (a very nasty place. Tiny cubicles and no water fountain).

On a more serious note, I’m still editing book 3, which I’m calling Memories of the Reborn. I’ve got a finished draft, there’s just a few bits I’m tweaking and rewriting. I’ll be sending out copies to beta readers sometime over the next few days (I meant to do it weeks ago but there always seems to be something new I want to add or tweak). However, none of the major changes I plan to make are in the first chapter, so I figured instead of a boring “I’m almost done for real this time guys!” post, I’d just post the first chapter.

I’m not completely sure on this front, but I’ve been told Amazon lets me post up to 10% of the story on the web. Considering the novel is pretty long (over 156,000 words, though I’m cutting a few parts) I should be able to post at least the first few chapters.

I’ve also started a Patreon. There isn’t anything on it yet besides a test post (same as the chapter below), but it seems like a lot of authors on Amazon use Patreon as a platform to post their content in a way that’s protected from getting spread all over the internet (which would break my KU contract with Amazon).

I have never used Patreon before, so if you guys could take a look and confirm that it does indeed look like an author Patreon account that would be great. I’d also be interested in knowing what other author Patreons you follow, that way I can shamelessly copy what more experienced authors are doing.

Without any further rambling from me, here’s Memories of the Reborn chapter 1!
Edit: 5/13/2020 -- I lied about being done with this chapter, I did end up changing quite a few things, but I'll leave this one up as is. Don't be alarmed in the version in the book is different.

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To evade the blazing heat of the sky above me, I was dancing between the shade of two trees of prodigious girth. I was out here, sweating and ankle deep in the mud while glaring up at my sad excuse for a sentry tower. This pathetic piece of scrap wood was one of the scant few defenses protecting me, my women, my son, and his unborn siblings from the looming threat at the edge of the forest we called home.

The sentry tower was made of round stakes of wood with the bark still on them and lashed together with nothing but rope. The ship that brought me to this world had modified my brain implant and installed an interface I’d been referring to simply as the system. This system identified the structure before me with a flash of text over my vision.

Crude Sentry Tower

Upgrade to Sturdy Sentry Tower? (50 points)

I accepted the prompt and watched my points vanish. I’d had a brain implant before coming to this world and using the implant had been much the same as the system I now possessed. All it took was a thought and my work was done. Now, all I had left to do was see what my points bought me.

Blue sparks filled my vision, floating through the air like shimmering particles of light. They danced and swirled in intricate patterns I couldn’t quite grasp before materializing as bits of wood or stone.

Where the crude sentry tower had been nothing but a lanky tower of wood, this sturdy sentry tower was anchored to the ground by a cylindrical column of smooth stone. Limestone, by the look of it. Instead of being exposed to the weather, the top of the sentry tower now had a wooden roof over it. Instead of hanging out in the open, the ladder leading upward was now sealed behind a wooden door at the base of the tower.

“Not bad for pushing a button.” I muttered to myself. Though, I remembered that 50 points usually meant fighting and killing a raptor with teeth the size of my fingers and the temperament of a hungover frat boy who just realized he was out of orange juice.

[Once you upgrade the rest and connect them with the wall, I think things will look rather nice.] Mac said. He spoke directly in my head through the same mechanism that placed text over my vision. Mac had been my robot butler before coming to this world. After arriving here, he’d turned into a dungeon core and the interface unit for the ship known as The Wanderer. As an unfortunate side effect, I could now receive his transmissions all the time, so long I was within range of the scanner. And I’d already made the mistake of upgrading the scanner to the point where it could cover nearly the entire Hearthwood forest.

[…just picture it Theo! White alabaster walls would match the cobblestones wonderfully, and make them absolutely effortless to keep sparklingly clean!] Mac continued, his enthusiasm for cleaning having not changed in the slightest despite no longer being an AI employed to mop floors.

“I’ll keep ‘easy to clean’ on the list, Mac.” I replied, thinking back to the ship as much as saying them aloud. “Though that’s going to have to come in second place to defensibility. We do have an enemy army on the way to loot and pillage everything we hold dear.”

[Yes. Do try to avoid letting them past the walls. Blood stains terribly easily, and there’s quite a bit of it between all the elves you’ve brought here.]

“That’s a challenge I’m willing to take on. Just give me fair warning the moment you sense them on the move again.”

I trod through the dense undergrowth to the next crude sentry tower, noticing it was already crumbling. Upon closer inspection, I saw mushrooms sprouting from the side of one of the supporting poles and tooth marks from a giant beaver on another.

I’d built this crude sentry tower no more than a few weeks ago, yet it was already rotting. The virility of life here on this world was astounding, but on a planet filled with magic, anything was possible.

Everything in this world was filled with tiny particles that took after the element from which they originated. The locals called these particles zeal. Water held water zeal, fire held fire zeal, and the air held air zeal. I had a personal preference for earth zeal, as that was the affinity of the spellheart I’d bound and since inserted into my body, making me a mage acolyte of the earth aspect. Though unlike most elves, I was also holding onto a mind aspect spellheart as backup.

I pictured the rising pillar of limestone that encapsulated the crude sentry tower, protecting it from the wind, rain, and potential invaders. What I was doing now was informal magic, as I had no spells or techniques for this. 

My familiarity with the Stone Obelisk spell certainly helped, and I even took the opportunity to cast that spell and summon a finger of stone nearby. The black tower sprouted from the earth like a stone tree, and the sharp angles cast an ominous shadow over the otherwise picturesque natural clearing. The Stone Obelisk spell helped me control informal magic like I was working now, speeding up the time it took to work and the rate at which I could influence the surrounding earth zeal.

With the help of the Stone Obelisk, I built a cylinder of stone around the crude sentry tower, exactly as I’d observed The Wanderer’s system construct. I checked to see if the system recognized my handiwork.

Crude Sentry Tower

Upgrade to Sturdy Sentry Tower? (20 points)

Sure enough, building the stone base manually cut down on the number of points I’d need to spend to upgrade the whole sentry tower. I could have tried to upgrade the whole thing manually, but I didn’t have the right magic to build a wooden roof and the Hearthwood didn’t have a locksmith who could make the lockable door to the sentry tower.

Since I’d saved as many points as I reasonably could, I upgraded this sentry tower as well and watched my points vanish. Two down, eight more to go.

Remaining points: 5400

I’d made quite a few points thanks to all the battles I’d fought against the Corpse Collector Company and Sharian in addition to hunting raptors in the dungeon below. Still, those points were rapidly being consumed as I made roads, tools, and defenses like these. Even though I felt like I had a big nest egg stowed away, I still needed to be as thrifty as possible.

My slow and methodical work was interrupted by an ambush.

An elf with shoulder-length purple hair popped out of a tree. I hadn’t even suspected that anyone had been hiding there, and if this assassin had been after my life I would have been in serious trouble. She was clad in a skin-tight black leather outfit that concealed a seemingly impossible number of throwing knives.

She plucked an ornate set of nunchucks from her waist and twirled them in a rather intimidating fashion… only to knock herself in the back of the head at the last moment.

“Ow! Still haven’t mastered these yet.” The purple haired ninja-elf said. She was none other than Eltiana Violet, the tribal chief and leader of the Hidden Serpent tribe.

After rubbing the back of her head, she thrust a finger in my direction and shouted. “Aha! A heartwielder would never have been able to raise three of those piles of rock one after another.”

“Not without some valuable potions, at least.” A green-haired elf appeared from behind a bush. Long green hair spilled down her bare shoulders and she dusted off the dress she was wearing. Her eyes scanned the surrounding terrain, always on the lookout for valuable ingredients.

“Even among the great clans, I’ve never seen a heartwielder exert so much power on their own.” A golden head stepped delicately over the forest floor in a dress more suited to a ballroom than a backwoods place like this. That was only fitting though, considering the wearer was Nela Songstone, the young lady and leader of what little remained of the once-mighty Songstone clan.

Behind her was another mage acolyte of her clan, Melise.

Melise shared her matriarch’s golden hair, though she wore it shorter, and despite wearing armor and having a spear propped against her shoulder she looked more like a young secretary than a warrior. Her face bore a girlish pout and her eyes were fixed in my direction. “Why didn’t you tell us, Theo?”

A blue haired elf slipped in behind them, glaring at the muddy ground that matched the wet splotch on her knees as she grabbed onto a nearby branch for balance. “Darn roots popping up out of nowhere…” she grumbled before glancing up and seeing me. “Theo! Everybody’s saying you advanced!”

“Blackgorge Fiendbody has that power, but not that control.” The largest woman of the bunch appeared. Unlike the others, this one had leather armor and pointed teeth, though her ears were still pointed. A necklace of teeth adorned her neck, and her skin was a bright green. She was an orc and stood out amongst the elves already present.

A small elf with hair that stood out only because it was a completely ordinary dirty blond pushed her spectacles back up her nose and folded a book up under her arm. She smiled lightly as she glanced around at the others. “Sorry Theo. They pried the secret out of me.”

All seven of these women before me were magical beings, masters of their own unique brand of magic. They were leaders among their own people, and their recent work had united tribal groups that had historically always been enemies. Even stranger, all seven of them were my women.

“Alright then. I suppose it’s no more use continuing to hide it.”  I reached into my pocket and tapped my mind spellheart. Instantly, the mind magic technique that had been concealing my new status as a mage acolyte from all but Illiel vanished.

I felt a slight tingly sensation, like something invisible brushing against my senses. “It’s true!” Sava confirmed. “He’s a mage acolyte!”

Nela cheered and Eltiana made to give Assyrus a high-five, only to pull back when she realized the blue-haired elf’s palm was also covered in mud.

“You advanced without us, Theo?” Melise pouted. “But I wanted to be the knife bearer at the ceremony!”

“Sorry ladies. I figured it would be faster and easier for Mac to do it in the medical bay.” I explained sheepishly. Truth be told, the only reason I’d been holding the Elementary Cultivation Concealment technique so long was because I was afraid this conversation would be a little awkward. Ascension to mage acolyte involved inserting a spellheart into the would-be acolyte’s body and fusing with it. Normally, the elves performed a seppuku-like ritual where they sliced open their own stomachs and clung to life with nothing but grit and determination.

That wasn’t my style. Especially when we had a fully functional surgical table. Despite having only been built with custodial staffing in mind, Mac was a competent surgeon and I trusted his skill more than any masochistic elvish ritual. Advancing through the orcish tradition of body cultivation had been painful enough, and I had no desire to experience the even bloodier elvish version.

“So how should we celebrate?” Assyrus asked the group. “When I advanced to mage acolyte, Chief Wisdom threw a banquet in my honor. I was young for a mage acolyte, so it was a big deal for us. But Theo’s a chaka! With him reaching mage acolyte, our entire clan has become stronger!”

“We certainly could use the moral boost, with enemies at the gates.” Nela said. “This will be good for the Hearthwood clan. With the destruction of our previous settlement, most of the Solar Essence Peaches I’d been trying to grow had been knocked down. We’ll have to harvest all the fruit soon or let it fall in the hands of the Corpse Collector Company. This will be a good excuse to distribute them.”

“I suppose I might be able to brew a diluted vitality and zeal potion to drink. Every sip saves a month of diligent meditation.” Sava added.

“I’ll have to go hunt down a few more raptors. We should be able to put together a decent feast.” Assyrus said. Yorik, Eltiana, and Melise all agreed to help Assyrus hunt.

“Alright then. The last party I planned didn’t turn out so well.” I said with a sad chuckle. Our clan’s only true mage died, and we barely defeated Matriarch Red Serpent.  “I’ll leave this one to you ladies. In the meantime, let me show you all the new defenses I’ve been working on.”

The elves had long since finished working on the crude earthen wall I’d wanted. Unfortunately, none of the tribes that I’d brought under the wing of my Hearthwood clan practiced earth magic. That meant I was the strongest earth-aspect cultivator around, and it was up to me to turn this pile of dirt into something defensible.

Luckily, it had already been built around all the old guard towers, so it wasn’t hard to push that dirt until it leaned over the outside ground at an angle. I’d asked Mac to look up medieval wall designs from earth and this was one of the simplest designs he’d found. The extra angle, along with some ridges on the edge, would make it much harder for attackers to climb over the wall with a ladder.

The other reason we’d chosen this design was that it was close to a blueprint already present in The Wanderer’s databanks. In an emergency, I wanted to be able to spend points to repair the walls instantly. That would be an unexpected and very valuable ability, should Mac figure out how to unlock the blueprint for our use.

“And this here is how the wall is going to look,” I announced as I climbed a pile of rock and dirt to gaze down at the only finished section of wall.

Assyrus stepped towards the edge and yelped as her foot slid through a hole along the edge of the wall. “Uh, Theo? I think you have a few holes in your wall.”

Eltiana helped Assyrus unstick her foot. “They’re perfectly square, so I assume you put them here intentionally?”

“Oh! I think I’ve heard of this design before! You drop things through the holes to repel enemies.” Illiel said, tapping her temple as she tried to come up with the name.

“Murder holes.” Yorik said simply. “Enemies come to the walls. You pour boiling oil down and light them on fire.”

Sava gave the murder holes a curious look, but the others looked disturbed. 

“Seems a little barbaric, don’t you think?” Melise said.

“Not to mention it’s only effective against those bound to the ground.” Nela said. “What about those coming in on flying swords? You might be able to reinforce the walls with enough zeal to stop a mage acolyte, but what if a true mage arrives? They’d simply blow the wall to bits.”

“Alright, it isn’t perfect. I plan to have one of those crossbows with iron-tipped bolts in each of those sentry towers. For now, we’ll have to rely on them being able to shoot down any flying adversaries.” Maybe there was a way to make the wall taller? The only way I’d stop aerial attacks would be to extend the wall into a dome that covered the entire city, but that wasn’t possible.

The girls continued to pepper me with questions about my walls, picking over every little detail. As we talked, I was beginning to worry that these structures weren’t going to be as formidable a defense as I’d hoped.

This world had access to medieval-level technology, and I’d been treating it that way. Against the purely mundane tools the Corpse Collector Company could bring to bear, this would be an effective defense. But The Corpse Collector Company wasn’t limited to mundane weapons. They had magic, just like us.

“Alright then, I’m all ears. How does a clan like ours usually defend itself?” I asked my girls.

“By having the strongest matriarch.” Nela answered, as if that were obvious. “With a powerful cultivator to rely on, reputation alone is enough to keep the wolves at bay. And should the clan ever face direct attack, the matriarch can annihilate legions of lesser experts. That’s why the great clans all at least have wizard-realm matriarchs protecting them, and a few of the stronger ones are rumored to have elves who have already reached the sorcerer rank.”

“Hmm… as far as your intelligence indicates, Kysalian is the only true mage in the forest, and she’s here to protect Sharian rather than to fight us. Given that the Corpse Collector Company is made entirely of mage acolytes and heartwielders, we should be evenly matched. Or we would be if it wasn’t for the vast disparity in numbers.”

“I imagine that’s the reason why they were sent to take care of us in the first place.” Nela replied. “Sending true mages or wizards against us would have been a waste of resources.”

“But if they attacked with overwhelming power, they could wipe us out without losses.” I argued. “Why send a force they know we’ll actually be able to fight when the Sakaku clan could just send a force we couldn’t possibly resist?”

“For one, their honor.” Illiel answered. “Slaughtering those weaker than you in mass is seen as… distasteful, though nobody would blink an eye at a true mage who killed a few mage acolytes who didn’t show proper respect. Additionally, true mage is the lowest rank at which an elf can be granted citizenship in the Queendom. At that point, everything they do is a matter of official record. Mass slaughters don’t look good if you want a position in court or the army.”

Yorik snorted. “It is to train the weak.”

We all glanced at her. “Well… I suppose that’s one way to look at it.” Illiel conceded.

“Fighting is the best way to grow strong.” Yorik continued. “Orcs know this. Elves do too, but pretend they don’t. Throw ten thousand heartwielders into a war and get a thousand mage acolytes. Let them fight and get a hundred true mages. Then they fight too. Ten wizards. Cull the weak, feed their bones to the strong.”

“Mage acolytes have mage acolyte-level resources.” Sava added. “Killing their peers can be very profitable for mage acolytes, but true mages have different needs and many things precious to a mage acolyte are useless to them.”

“This all sounds… inefficient.” I murmured unhappily. So we were nothing more than training dummies? “There has to be a better way.”

“It’s true that the reason the Corpse Collector Company doesn’t have any true mages is that they all leave the moment they advance.” Illiel said. “True mages have options, petty banditry and slave-raiding among the least of those. The Corpse Collectors have a few tricks for dealing with small clans and tribes with one or two true mages, but if we had more than that they wouldn’t willingly fight us.”

“So we just have to become true mages and we’ve already won the war!” I said with sudden realization. “I became a mage acolyte in a couple of months and have even refined one region. Eltiana’s already at the fourth region, and I’m sure the rest of you won’t let her stay too far ahead for long. How much longer could it really be before we all advance? A year? Two?”

The elves all glanced at each other sheepishly. “You’re an exception, Theo.” Sava said. “I didn’t expect to reach mage acolyte this decade, let alone true mage. Besides that, we couldn’t reach true mage in the Hearthwood, even if we refine all nine bodily regions. It requires resources we don’t have access to. Finding a source of vitality to reach mage acolyte is a bottleneck that blocks most heartwielders from advancing. We can harvest vitality from you instead of hunting for phoenix blood can help us reach mage acolyte, but I’m afraid it isn’t the same for true mage.”

Sava reached into the pouch at her waist and extracted a loose bundle of papers. It was her copy of the guidebook Dean left for me. “To be honest, I wouldn’t have even known the process for breaking through to true mage if not for this. For that gift alone, we owe the creator of this guide a big favor. But it says right here that to advance to true mage, you need an Aura Fragment from a true mage, either living or dead. Though getting an aura fragment from a dead true mage they would have either needed to be very powerful in life or have intentionally left the fragment behind.”

I glanced at the sheet of paper, and sure enough there was a drawing of an elf passing on a whirling cloud of mist from its own body to another elf kneeling nearby. It was titled ‘Inheriting an Aura Fragment.’

“I don’t suppose the Hearthwood has any aura fragments in reserve? Maybe from a true mage who died a long time ago?” I could tell by the faces of the surrounding elves that I needn’t have bothered asking. “Well then, we’ll just have to get some, or trade for them somehow.”

Before any of the girls could respond, our happy moment was broken by a malevolent roar in the forest just beyond.