126

Oh boy, a high-level dungeon. The time is finally here, Rain is going to raise his cap

Tagmin

I agree that stat grinding with the ring feels a bit strange, but only because Rain is the only person doing it. Technically everyone should be out there with him training. Even Val and Jamus have been shown to get mana soul-strain pretty quick, meaning they have a ways to go towards building up their clarity oversyncrinization. Those on Rain's main squad need to adapt the having mana-regen significantly higher than their base. Also, the newly awakened should be getting drilled harder than zero week at boot camp. With everyone wearing some basic +10 stat rings so they can build up synchronization together as a unit without actually investing their stat points.

Starless

Yeah it's mostly offscreen. We had the firepit linksight scene and jamus' relationship. And Melk but then she gone died.

MatrixM

It just now strikes me how little we know about romance/friendship/interpersonal relationships in this story. The characters are so hard-up for grimderp powergaming that we don't really get any scenes where people are just having fun/bonding over some shared experiance. Closest we ever got was the 'let's all punch Carten' scene.

Starless

I suspect Rain's intelligence is being TRANSFERED to Dozer, as Dozer is best wingman and as time goes on Rain is becoming more of a simp!

JC

While I like Delve, you are right that it’s pacing is very slow and his progress is glacial in certain attributes. He is currently approaching being level capped for three times as many chapters as it took him to hit the cap in the first place. He had been fully skilled capped now for almost as long as it took him to hit the original level cap. It doesn’t really look like there’s any chance of him raising the level cap anytime soon as his party isn’t strong enough to back him up in a dungeon worth a silver blue and the slow overall pace suggests there won’t be any sudden system breakthroughs. It also doesn’t seem likely he will even find a silver blue anytime soon. He has been progressing in other areas like the stat stuff, system knowledge and personal skill but it was certainly a bold choice to make a LitRPG where the main character doesn’t level up.

HornsOfTheseus

Dozer continues to get smarter... I do wonder if his intelligence is inheritable. It would be kinda funny if rain accidentally unlifted the progenitor of a new race.

RedPine

Goddamit Rain, stop wasting time! If Amehlia leaves i am gonna be so pissed at his virgin mentality.

Ledski

I happened to know a guy who did some metalworking in his spare time a few years back. That "It doesn't have to be perfect" line is probably the worst thing you could say to someone in that particular field.

Starless

If you don't agree state your own opinion. All I see is people saying I'm wrong without addressing my points.

Rui Lourenço

You're saying a lot of things as if every reader agrees with you when you should really phrase it as if it's just your opinion and assumptions..

MatrixM

Machines have the advantage of not being people. A steam tractor never decides it wants to leave the farm or comes in late. Machines don't get bored and don't have aspirations so they take up the busy work to let people use their skills for more useful/profitable things

Oof got slapped with tech stuff.

Damian

Yea I guess 99% of people prolly wouldn't choose to fight a bunch of wacky monsters in a cave out in bumfuck nowhere. I guess my perspective on the matter is kinda skewed since Rain's protagonist aura deflects most negative consequences for those around him. Which isn't a bad thing given one of the stories main themes is how underappreciated the support options can be.

Starless

What person who made it to silver would be content just to do small jobs for dulls. If they were crafters they would be making magic items for nobles for big bucks and if they were adventurers, they’d be delving. No one is going to waste their time on what dulls needs. Machines offer a cheap alternative for those who can’t or won’t ascend.

Orion Dye

Now that we've reached the start of the industrial revolution, it's about time we addressed the elephant in the room. How in the hell can anyone market these machines as being more effective than an awakened? For example: In terms of land cultivation alone, a True Jack(and let's be honest, every worker on the planet should take the True Jack class) could duplicate the work of an entire suite of machines/laborers in a fraction of the time by specializing in a few well-placed skills. How could anyone feel secure investing in a sector where your customer base could be absorbed at any time by a plucky teenage who happens to awaken?

Starless

This was discussed in Discord for people not there, fyi

Christopher Roberts

Can I ask for more info on the newly awakened people's builds and decisions? I feel like that would be super awesome, though maybe fleshing out so many skill trees would be too hard

Christopher Roberts

Now that Rain is tied down full-time to managing Ascension and it appears to be going well, I wonder if Amelia will take off for a few chapters to 'find herself' Best progress this chapter for that world has to be steam powered lights though. Electricity for the win!

Eric Hartz

@Rui Hard disagree.

Gnossos

Don't forget about the possibility of entire hidden skill trees a few characters have theorized to exist. Rain teaching the populace about engineering could quite possibly have unlocked a skill tree associated with that.

Starless

I imagine that he's been increases some sort of capacity in his soul as he unlocks the trees. I doubt he'll get anything more than that. Sync isn't static either I think, if he tried to raise his bonus clarity it would go down again no? I never quite understood it really tbh.

It'sATap

It's not about shipping them and not wanting negative outcomes. It's that the story is pretty much missing any positive outcomes on the stuff that it set up as important. It's all about set-up ->pay off cycles. The story started with a promise that we'd see new abilities and an interesting system. Then hinted that we'd see a super-nerdy guy min-max the hell out of the system. And set up levels, skill levels and adventurer badges as routes toward progress. Early on it also set up the relationship with Ameliah as something to look forward too. It's been a *long* time since we had progress on any of those factors. We had progress on very orthogonal ways, such as the pretty out of nowhere creation of this new group. The advancement in ring synchronization and all the soul stuff. But none of that feels like progress on the stuff we were actually promised. We weren't told this would be a novel about grinding out stat gains from a ring. It's about leveling up to unlock new skills and creating a cohesive build! It feels like we're just progressing on stuff that wasn't set up before the stuff that was set up got dealt with. Not only that, the level cap business was introduced way too abruptly and out of nowhere for something that still hasn't been addressed. The story as a whole doesn't feel like it's going anywhere. The entire arc stuck inside the dome had some character growth, but it happened with characters that were pretty much introduced for the purpose and it didn't affect any long-standing issues. The solution to the dome arc also felt a bit anti-climatic. They just found the crystal and it was quite painful but Rain got it, pretty much how anyone reading this thought it would happen from the moment it begun, except it got randomly delayed by the main character literally getting buried in rubble and being forced to train his ring synch that no one actually cares about. The entire dome arch just feels pointless and unnecessary. It felt more like an arc about Velika than anything else. Rain watched friends die and that led to some growth, but it could've happened by travelling or at least by having him be stuck with characters we already cared about. But even the old cast was stuck outside and Val was sneaking around not being present. It just feels pointless. It wasn't exciting it was just 'oh shit, we're stuck in this boring city'.

Rui Lourenço

I am trying to imagine what potential hidden benefits, if any, will come from maxing his synchronization and skill trees. To me, it seems like it will be better and easier customization of his personal system. Perhaps once he gets access to the other Seasonal and Well auras he can start hunting for hidden skills with Amelia. And if he knows about a hidden skill maybe he can force it to appear on his own system to help with creating builds. Or maybe he can start investing chunks for experience into Tier 4 unlocks instead of going wholesale. Honestly, I am hoping to see more progress from the newly awakened. Kettle should be close to maxing out his skills and taking his first class.

Thransk

Ayyyy that reminder that Rain's flashback mode can perfectly recreate memories using concentrated cold mana. Good to see SS didn't forget about that. Now we need to see what 4th dimensional aspect of reality the other types of mana connect with. I wanna see some prolonged exposure to clairvoyance mana singularity! For the science of course.

Starless

Don't go amelia!

Scott Frederiksen

Eh maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaybe Ameliah leaving will be what lights a fire under his butt and gets him moving on levelling up or something

tibbish

C'mon... If Ameliah leaves it's just a slap to the readers. The relationship story arc is the only one that seemed to be having any real progress at all.

Rui Lourenço

I hope so. The system seems to love locking hidden stuff behind "do all of X" type requirements.

Pyrefiend

She is just afraid of getting close to people.

Jerzylo

I think it's more that Ameliah is afraid of commitment. She has lost people she was close to before and does not want to be hurt again.

Jerzylo

Oh no no no don't tell me Amelia's leaving ;-;

TheyCallMeSibs

yes + 1000 health will free up him to put more points into vigor for maybe a better balance between the two stats. And vigor also seems to me to be a very important stat, especially if he wants to use velocity in any capability.

Ole Halvorsen

Chitty chitty requires bang bang though, which would be super bad in this case!

tibbish

I think you can only use so many accolades depending on your level but the exact amount isn't know yet.

tibbish

There was a time skip between them clearing the dungeon and arriving at Vestvall. Apparently Rain has managed to attune those two accolades in the meantime. The accolade from chapter 117 was indeed a +20 to heat resistance, which he apparently still has equipped. It's not included in the blue window cause that window is just showing us how he's progressed, not what he already had.

Ziggy

Dose Rain has some item that gives him heat resistance he has 20 points (perhaps the other accolade? is that what it did I can't remember) in it that I can't tell where they come from? also, he seems to have the chem accolade equipped when did that happen?

Sunless

Took me way too long to figure out that the alert in the beginning is called a "progression tracker", which explains why only the new accolades are listed and not the old ones. Derp. Also, a +1000 health accolade? That has to be a load off his mind. Even if he shifts his ring stats to full mental stats, he's got a minimum of 1200 health. Personally, I'd be way less worried in general with that extra buffer.

Ziggy

Wait so the 100 chem resistance and the 1000 health are the two accolades he kept from the watch corpses? Where's the perception accolade?

Sean

Huh? Is he able to switch accolades now? He coudnt 2 chapters back, if i remember right. Amelia is trying to run, again. Hope she fails. Is it ok to hope for someone to fail for their own good? Hmmm.

D

Thanks

Erdos

What happened to the +20 cold resistance accolade?

Robert

Why is the perception accolade not listed?

Jack Trowell

He mediated while using essence well on himself constantly, built up too much back-pressure and broke his eggshell. He did this while trapped in the tunnels leading to the chemical lair under the city after the ambush on the citizen.

JC

Hmm. Looks like Amelia's wanderlust is beating out the normal kind. She keeps making the dog comparison with him as though she considers him mentally simple. A lot of people like dogs, but not many people respect them. 🐕

JC

Sounds like that drive has a virus tbh.

Talen Drake

You know at this point I’ve forgotten how Rain damaged his soul in the first place, other than over ambitious unlocks. Can someone remind me?

Yshua

soul strength seems correlated to xp, and Rain's total xp is up to mid silver for someone that only learns the trees that they buy skills in.

wanderer117

Rain's soul never had that big of an effect before... Probably due to having 1.5m exp it has become more terrifying to dulls.

Yeno Memevig

Nice chap! Great to see the info on Rain's other accolades, both bonus are quite nice. We are also approaching the point where all skill trees will be unlocked up to Tier 3, which could reveal new skills or even something like a hidden tree.

Daniel Viana Rodrigues

I wonder if they'll end up unlocking some hidden requirements that way

Adrian Gorgey

I really like the direction the company is going... more Steampunk Magitech!

Adrian Gorgey

Thank you!

Andrew

You should be able to set your default boot device in your BIOS. You can pick USB first and sata second then don't stick any USBs with an os on start. If not there then you should at least be able to navigate to the selection menus and reboot even with a bad hdd. Probably get a new computer...

Alexander Dupree

Oof. At least you had backups. Hard drives do in fact have a hard timeout (read error), so you were having some weird problems

sgv

I keep all my personal writing in google docs. It's great.

Christopher Roberts

The last successful dynamo probably

Christopher Roberts

Wow, 122/144 trees and 1.5M xp. Think any other level 18 ever got that many unlocked before?

Newguy Roy

I'm mildly disappointed, we get Chug, Chug noises and not Chitty Chitty ones.

Shaggy Stephenson

Ah, this one just made me smile

MickyD

Ah yes, computer problems, aka that thing I don't worry about until it happens to me. Glad to see you got through that mess ok.

Pedro Villa

Why not write in google docs? It's the best! Especially for anything collaborative. Google will steal your data, but who cares in this case?!

Bob Dole

I've had a similar problem with a failed HDD doesn't make sense. I agree.

Yashakami