It was early in the morning. I sat in front of an old desk at the abandoned library inside the branch office of Farcrest’s Alchemist Guild with a stack of paper and a quill in my hand. Traveling half the city each time I wanted to do proper runeweaving was a huge time sinkhole, but my world-saving endeavors required privacy, at least for the m...
2025-08-05 23:44:02 +0000 UTC View PostThe following months flew by. Nobody tried to kill me or my students, Evelisse barely showed signs of life, Astur treated me like royalty, and Byrne continued acting unaware of my Runeweaver Class. Once a week, I got a stack of letters from Elincia and the orphans. Lyra Jorn had made significant advances in the literacy of the youngest ones, so ...
2025-08-01 22:10:23 +0000 UTC View PostAN: Sorry for the delay, I was trapped in traffic :((
________
I followed Talindra to the dueling platform, but instead of summoning her spider legs, she knelt in the center of the platform, her hands carefully resting on her lap. She closed her eyes and for a moment, I thought she would perform a Japanese apology prostration, but in...
2025-07-27 03:34:13 +0000 UTC View PostI used a mana hand to drag the teacher’s chair across the room and sat by Evelisse’s side while the cadets performed sword drills. I crossed my arms and watched the class develop like my old P.E. teacher, Sitting Bull, used to do. I wondered who came up with the nickname; it was one of those things that came by default with the school. Sitti...
2025-07-19 03:04:02 +0000 UTC View PostTalindra threw daggers at me as the royal delegation entered the classroom.
I added ‘bad friend’ to my List of Misdeeds just below murder, arson, and indecisiveness. The list continued, but those three plagued his mind the most lately. Maybe I should even push ‘indecisiveness’ a few positions higher. The Byrne Problem hung ov...
2025-07-11 20:37:27 +0000 UTC View PostThe success of Cabbage Class at the selection exam had consequences I hadn’t expected. Suddenly, our classroom had turned into something like a tourist attraction. Astur had been considerate enough to give me the heads-up a few days before the unexpected visitors arrived, and surprisingly enough, he had also apologized. Not about the blackmail...
2025-07-05 05:00:35 +0000 UTC View PostHey, y'all.
Thanks for your words of encouragement, they meant a lot!
I feel much better now. The general drowsiness is almost completely gone, and after two weeks of mind fog, I finally have complex thoughts again (lol). Writing while being able to think coherently is a lot easier. I still have a few tests and doctor appointments, ...
2025-06-30 03:19:34 +0000 UTC View Post“If you want to meet them, turn yourself into an asset they can’t ignore,” Ralgar said, turning towards the working desk and putting the flask of crimson fluid out of the fire with a long set of pliers.
Luciflorae Revelation Concoction. [Identify] Alchemical Brew. An alchemical reagent that glows upon touching plants from the...
2025-06-30 02:10:52 +0000 UTC View PostHey everyone!
I'm sorry for the delays in the chapters this past week. I haven't been in great health. My thyroid seems to have gone on strike, and I have been dealing with extreme fatigue and problems staying focused on anything that requires real mental effort. I'm sorry if the past few chapters haven't been great. I really can't seem t...
2025-06-24 03:32:52 +0000 UTC View Post“Do you want potions? Yes or no?”
“What do you have?” Firana asked, straightening in her seat.
The librarian sat across us, pulled an enchanted glass cup from his pocket, and put it face down on the table. Suddenly, an opaque bubble surrounded us. I examined the gadget. User. Direction. Cloak. Dark. Absorb. Field. I had to bl...
2025-06-24 03:12:58 +0000 UTC View Post“Do you want our robes?” Lip asked.
“Yes,” Firana replied. “And Jax’s glasses.”
“Okay.”
I was starting to see the outlines of Firana’s plan. She intended to trace the origins of the Energy Boost Potions from the Library. I couldn’t help but feel proud. After all, the Library housed far more commoners than ...
2025-06-20 06:29:02 +0000 UTC View PostAfter reading Byrne’s note, I channeled [Minor Aerokinesis] and launched into the sky, over the outer wall, and down the cliff. Part of me refused to believe Vanira was dead, but the evidence was undeniable. When I reached the chambers of the Nature Circle at the Library, Byrne was having a heated discussion with a group of healers.
<... 2025-06-15 08:01:50 +0000 UTC View Post“W-we went into a rally in this shady place. I swear I didn’t want to go. They told us we could be as strong as nobles. Improve our classes. Get levels easily. T-they gave us those potions, but I swear, I told Vanira not to drink them,” the boy said.
“Where was that?! Who were these people?!” Evelisse barked.
The boy retrea...
2025-06-11 22:56:05 +0000 UTC View PostThe System prompts piled before my eyes. Surprisingly enough, writing down rune strings was enough to trigger Class progress. It had been a while since I had sat down for a proper lesson, and I felt like I was cruising through the lesson. Byrne was right. [Foresight] made it a hundred times easier to grasp the quirks of the runes used in specifi...
2025-06-07 06:41:27 +0000 UTC View PostI was walking down the avenue connecting the Academy with the Library when the sun fell behind the hills. Night in Cadria fell quickly, and service gnomes climbed the posts and ignited the lamp burners. Down the street, another gnome squad refilled the lamps with a black, tart-like liquid. Judging by their pace, they were behind schedule. The in...
2025-06-04 06:22:41 +0000 UTC View PostHey everyone. Hope you are doing well.
I have an important announcement regarding changes in the rewards of all the tiers. Starting in June, I will stop producing the monthly Patreon Exclusive Chapter and focus on working on a novel-length spin-off of An Otherworldly Scholar. The chapters of the new spin-off (that might, or might not have...
2025-06-01 04:54:50 +0000 UTC View PostIt took Cabbage Class nine hours and thirty minutes to finish the selection exam, and I couldn’t be prouder. A hundred cadets had exited the maze through the ‘winners’ side, but none looked like a winner. Those who managed to complete the maze looked like missing hikers found after a weekend lost in the woods.
Young novice libr...
2025-05-31 05:33:33 +0000 UTC View PostMalkah’s team outwitted Astur’s cadets, but the moment of respite was short. After a few sharp turns and deceitfully similar corridors, they stumbled upon a swarm of Rustclaws led by a huge Alpha. The boys couldn’t turn back for fear of meeting the cadets, so their only way out was to fight. Odo and Harwin were drained, so Malkah took the ...
2025-05-28 06:39:30 +0000 UTC View Post“Mister Clarke’s Gloomstalker projection didn’t shoot spears from its tail!” Cedrinor shouted as he glanced at the stakes buried deep in the soil.
The Gloomstalkers I had seen before, during the Lich’s Monster Surge, were above level twenty and were strong enough to fend off orc warriors. They were not made out of thorny vi...
2025-05-24 02:49:06 +0000 UTC View PostThe selection exam started just as we had predicted. Low-level monsters blocked the paths to the maze's heart, with a few more threatening ones scattered around. Beasts, slimes, insectoids, arachnids, and many more monsters not native to Farcrest and its surroundings. Most cadets emerged victorious from the first encounters, but the exam wasn’...
2025-05-21 05:13:27 +0000 UTC View PostThe Nychtys Queen floated gracefully in the air, looking at Leonie and Aeliana with predatory eyes. Her laughter was eerie, not completely human, like the distant sound of water mistaken for the crowd's chattering. The spring sun made her orange monarch butterfly wings shimmer. Each section of her wings was a bright piece of stained glass, casti...
2025-05-18 22:52:54 +0000 UTC View PostWith a thousand totems hidden in the maze, only half of the cadets could meet the requirements to pass the exam. My greatest concern, however, was that the exam promoted deception, sabotage, and conflict among cadets. Although no cadet exceeded the low tens, skills were still dangerous in the right hands.
I wondered what Astur was th...
2025-05-14 23:20:37 +0000 UTC View Post“Hypothetically speaking. How hard could it be to kill Archivist Byrne now that he knows we are coming for him?”
“Ilya, no.”
“He’s a Runeweaver, so we should assume he has a contingency plan.”
“Zaon!”
The boy gave me an apologetic smile.
“We are talking hypotheticals!” he said.
Ilya opene...
2025-05-11 07:48:58 +0000 UTC View PostByrne stumbled upon magic in the 1970s after his first business venture went south. Before becoming a real estate tycoon, he was a gold smuggler moving bullion for those eager to evade government control: drug cartels, arms dealers, and paranoid wealthy individuals. Risks were high, but the money was good. Byrne knew the trick to survive...
2025-05-08 05:19:56 +0000 UTC View PostWE’VE GOT A BOGEY AT 5 O’CLOCK, RANGE 45 METERS.
I turned towards the doors and pushed Ilya behind my back. My eyes scanned the entrance, but nothing stood out besides a group of Preceptors and Archivists, draped in the flowy black robes of the Imperial Library.
“Librarians?” I ...
2025-05-04 21:49:27 +0000 UTC View PostIlya and I entered the antechamber arm-in-arm. The vaulted ceiling arched ten meters over my head, like the room had been designed for giants instead of regular people. The pillars were carved with vines and statues of the royal house’s heraldic stag. Along the walls, heavy wooden benches offered a place for the cadets waiting to enter...
2025-05-01 03:23:00 +0000 UTC View Post“Don’t push it too hard, Aeliana! Tomorrow is the big day!” Talindra shouted, standing on the edge of the fireplace.
Aeliana completed her spin, elegant like a ballerina, and her sword returned to her hand. The mana thread connecting the handle was a faint blue filament, barely visible to the untrained onlook...
2025-04-27 05:58:27 +0000 UTC View PostPlotting an assassination wasn’t on my isekai bingo card, but Byrne was a huge question mark that I wasn’t going to leave unchecked. The System Avatar told me Byrne kept his runeweaving skills even after parting ways, and it was also safe to assume that his scientific knowledge had given him a massive mana pool with access to the Fou...
2025-04-24 02:51:51 +0000 UTC View Post“And on the seventh day, the cadets rested. But unlike the cadets, the Scholar had many things to do,” I said, examining the runes on Red’s enchanted flail.
It was a difficult one, even with [Rune Identification] on my side. The flail had two enchantments, one in the mace head and the other in the handle, but...
2025-04-19 07:44:59 +0000 UTC View Post