104

Here's a thought; you guys think purify would work on neutralizing other chemically aligned creatures? Small doses are already super effective at neutralizing the stomper/dissolver's abilities. Like...we could try to get a Crystal kin, or a Crystal Stomper if one could be subdued long enough for a concentrated dose of purify. Getting an army of crystal creatures would be amazing, since they are naturally inclined to attack and kill their chemical brothers. Also, just imagine how amazing a Crystalspine Impaler would be!

Starless

Really exciting being this close to the 'barrier stone', though I wonder if it has more features. Also this essence problem is interesting. I wonder if there was a method in the past, otherwise it seems really hard to even become lvl 5.

jiecut

Awesome update to the training window, to be able to see increases to tolerances and synchronization.

jiecut

he definitely made the connection.

jiecut

I am imagining a town lit by electricity to keep the monsters away with crystal slimes running around destroying the moss and a barrier controlled by Rain with permissions for the townfolk.

Chris

Patreon murders the table formatting.

SenescentSoul

Out of curiosity... why do you post the chapters in pdf format instead of just on the patreon like other writers I follow? Is it easier? Just wondering... keep up the good work! 😄

Silverwolf

SSoul did at one point describe the situation from Rains perspective as a “failure of imagination.” And he has pointed out when trying to change how a skill works that it feels like he’s fighting what others think about the skill and not just what he thinks the skill should do. I’m very excited to see the layers of the system be peeled back and explained as he goes deeper with this novel.

SunderGoldmane

Most likely she would jmprison or enslave him. That’s why it’s imperative she does not meet with rain. I doubt she will respect his metal space and once she sees what he knows, she’ll find him too dangerous to be kept loose.

Orion Dye

On your second point, I'm pretty sure Ameliah mentioned that he has to have five maxed out skills in five skill trees to get a legendary class at level 25, so, yes, he really should do some skill powerleveling before choosing one.

SoggyBiscuit

I think one of the best things about this setting is how much is going on 'under the hood' so to speak, and being able to force the system to show you numbers/calculations/things that it has to inherently understand to make skills work is really interesting. There's so many aspects of the system that people don't interact with simply because they don't know they exist, even though these aspects still play a part in how people perceive the world. Rain could probably 'brute force' skills into existence by forcing the system to recognize aspects of reality he knows to be present, but the backwards society around him don't know exist yet. Like an aura that deals nuclear damage.

Starless

It's so hard to kill someone with mana transfer alone that it took 2000 mana to make a slime, the weakest thing in existence, explode. Safe to say it's not really a viable means of attack compared to his actual attacks. According to Rain's theory, essence well is using essence as an energy or muscle to move mana. Not transferring essence along with it.

Ziggy

I hope making enemies explode from too much mana become's Rain's main form of attack. It's kinda interesting, right? Also if essence is what's actually moving the mana, couldn't you force people to awaken by forcing mana through someone? like...have them hold Rain's armor and force the mana through the person and into the capacitance rune. Theoretically, the only thing that should cross over to the rune is the mana, while the essence is left to build up in the person.

Starless

Dare to dream

Ziggy

I hope that Rain will start leveling again :)

Tomislav Fistrić

thumb

Sand Bear

Thoughts -It seems pretty likely that system-skills are teachable. Absolutely worth investigating. I bet that Reading is a system skill, but the Watch is not aware of this fact. I suspect this because reading is very powerful, but we don't see a widespread availibility of other skills not gained with point-buys. Possibly only some skills can be tought? Seems much harder to do this for magical skills, perhaps. -Clearly what class options you get is driven by what you have done or what properties you have. I bet that maximizing all of your skills is pretty rare - as is having very high tolerances, it's pretty clear that rain should become as extraordinary as possible before hitting 25 (and possibly even waiting to max out the lv-25 skill before choosing a class), since the exact choice of what class you take is perhaps the most important single decision that drives power level. -Looks like clarity (or soul power) is likely to drive your ability to see through that illusion. This seems like a good time to sit back for a day or two, convince the Watch to teach rain Reading on the grounds that interfacing with the Barrier Stone is dangerous, and it's vital that Rain be as intact as possible before trying to do so, or he may become severely injured. They may only get one shot at disabling the stone, so they should make the most of it!! -On that note, it may be worth it to top out clarity and vigour tolerance and configure yourself to be as prepared to interface with this stone as possible, before trying to interface. It's likely that simply moving everyone to a centralized location will remove almost all risk of monster killings, so it's worth waiting until food supplies are running low to go for the barrier stone. -He gets kicked out of his soul by some "chaotic energy", whereas his soul is releasing "chaotic mana". I bet if he went a few days without gaining EXP, his soul would settle down - allowing him to enter. Maybe he would even be able to do it if he entered right after triggering the summary once or a few times to help settle things down. Naturally, if it was Rain's life on the line, he would be thinking of these things all the time, so all of these thoughts have surely gone through his head.

Ryan

And that's the moment when Rain realized all this has been a highly advanced simulation

Blaublue

If Rain meditates hard enough he’ll break the 4th wall!

Deegles

Glad there was finally mention of Rain experimenting with getting the slimes to level. It's fine if the obvious ideas don't work, but frustrating if they are ignored entirely.

Pyrefiend

Thanks for the extra long chapter! Maybe someday meditation will actually work reliably.

Dizzregard Home

Probably from thermal convection because of all the ice.

Ellija

Mwahaha

SenescentSoul

Author, shame on your for messing with your MC!

Orion Dye

It’s seems pretty likely, once they’ve perfected the technology, that the city will just string up lightbulbs everywhere and build while keeping minimizing or preventing shadows in mind. So a normal city except it’s completely lit up and has normies running around replacing light bulbs all the time.

Orion Dye

I just realized that rebuilding the rank shifted city in a bubble is basically a magic world version of constructing an asteroid colony...

Adam Roundfield

The population has been devastated just trying to survive the rank shift. Lots of the buildings have been lost to random fire, knocked down on purpose, or are covered in poisonous moss. The town is a mess. Even if they found a way to exclude the monsters from the barrier, they'd be trapped inside with no way out except for expensive teleports. What on earth is their motivation to stay? Even if they got electricity working reliably, would be easier and safer to build somewhere else without rank. It's not like the guild's main city where almost everyone is awakened and founded by power and wealth. 99% of these people are unawakened and poor.

Ziggy

Finally we're approaching Rain's confrontation with the artifact. What a cliff though, I'll be gnashing my teeth for the next week.

Rondel

I think the idea to do that is being suppressed by his high clarity. His mental awareness is high, so high it’s to spread out and not forming enough of a concrete idea. With focus he could solidify his thoughts more

SunderGoldmane

I’m starting to see the beginnings of a new city infrastructure. We have purify that works on poisons and “stuff that’s not supposed to be where it is” and we have crystal slimes that take after purify. I think Fel Sedanis can become habitable again if they start raising crystal slimes like cattle to sweep poisonous fauna. And with electricity they can more efficiently create light without as much heat and resource waste. I also hope that when rankis comes a knocking again that rain uses it to level up his people skills. He’s going to have to interact with velika, exguild force mage, or possibly the warden now and come out free and alive. Also, I don’t think I will like whatever comes of the warden and luvarro interacting. We could get a failed attempt at mind control and leave everyone in the Lee dead because luvarro goes on a rage or we could succeed and then the Warden has a super powerful force mage at her fingers tips. And last, rain needs to flex focus in order to get into his soul. After all he is using aura “focus” to cancel out physical distractions, now he needs to use actual focus to cancel out his mental distractions.

SunderGoldmane

Great chapter. Some solid progress on all fronts. Lavvaro is going to get mind jacked. Couldn't happen to a nicer woman but the mother daughter reunion is going to be awkward. I really want to know what is up with the artifact and his soul. Nice to see progress on skills and stat boosts. I love the feeling of artificial progress in RPGs. Even when my own life is going nowhere I can improve this stat or that level. Great references this chapter as well. I am just waiting for a new monster spawn where Rain has to battle a fearsome mouserat. Also Westworld. Time to listen to Paint it Black.

Michael Hughes

Fixed, thanks.

SenescentSoul

Fixed and fixed, thanks.

SenescentSoul

In westworld it indicate fuckery with the mind so he might be reacting to the fact that the illusion is not only visual but also mind manipulation.

Håvard

Nobody he’d talked to had been able to tell him precisely how/,/ Vigor did that, though. (Remove the comma). Either the barrier needs a total xp threshold, either clarity finally has a use over mana generation.

Newguy Roy

#correction "Everything needed to stable enough to resist" "be stable" "We were digging there, following the disturbed earth, but when it vanished when we hit stone" remove first when Suggestion for SS, mayby you could make a first comment for corrections. Get them all in one place, easier to find and minimizing double posting.

Mattias Åkesson

Well Rain's Clarity stat is definitely doing something. And by something I mean making him not connect the dots over Velika tossing away the last personal connection she had in the dome.

Atlas Dwarf

I doubt even Lavarro could escape the Warden unscathed but more of the question of if she actually falls for it.

Atlas Dwarf

If the cause is the second one I wonder if it is the same reason he can't bind with Accolades. Either way hopefully his soul problems don't bite him in the butt trying to connect to the Majistraal artifact.

Atlas Dwarf

Excellent West World reference! 😁 My wife and I are watching season two now. Finished season one just a couple days ago.

Randall Klatt

That might be the first cliffhanger that I have thoroughly enjoyed.

Andrew

So I'm guessing he is able to see through the illusion because either: 1- High Clarity. Maybe all the stats have only the basic effects like regeneration, becoming stronger, having better memory, etc etc, until a threshold is reached and it unlocks a new ability. 2- His soul is "broken", which can also be a blessing in disguise, maybe it gives him some kind of "soul vision". Remember that it was mentioned that "progress overview" is something you are only supposed to be able to see in the morning, yet Rain can bypass this "rule". By having his soul "broken" as a bronzeplate, he is going over the system's restrictions or "safety locks", which is why illusions made through the powers granted by the system don't work on Rain. He is a glitch, an "Error".

Vydashal

Also. Must everyone poke the Lavarro bear? I don't know how this is gonna turn out, but maybe stop instigating the powerful force mage!

Ziggy

It seemed he changed his stats after he was done meditating. It seems obvious to me that his high clarity and it being boosed it negatively affecting his ability to meditate. He should be taking it out and then putting it into focus so you know he can focus better

SAY WHAT AGAIN.

Alexander Dupree

No in the show when the hosts aren't allowed to know about something but are shown it they say "It doesn't look like anything to me"

Alexander Dupree

"Even the wind was too much stimulation." Wind, in the dome?

Lance Wheeler

"When the stats were increased together, you the effects were supposed to cancel out" you issues?

Lance Wheeler

"They speak English in What". An absolutely amazing reference, thank you for the treat

BigBuckler

So, I wonder how the Warden would react if she got a chance to see inside Rain's memories...

Garrett

At the end there was Rain hearing Vals thoughts? It was said it was a westworld reference but I have never watched the show.

Chris

Oo. Not unreasonable. I was assuming it was because his soul is broken because couldn't think of anything too different about Rain compared to others that should be effected by the illusion.

Ziggy

I was totally lost, didn't catch the reference and didn't get Rain's reaction to Val saying that.

Ziggy

I wonder if he can see through the illusion because of his high clarity stat. Stats have physical effects beyond numbers on a stat page, maybe clarity helps to see clearly what would otherwise be hidden.

Garrett

One of Rain's unawakened helpers. Believe he first met them when he helped them clear a blockage in the sewers, then has been around them since getting out of being buried alive.

Ziggy

Bout time they learn to keep looking up! Still enjoying the "Rain sandwich" approach of Rain POV, other POV, then back to Rain. And they already got a water wheel working for power output? Tenacious bastards. Well at least there's one benefit to Rain's soul being broken. Seeing through illusions, it seems. Was Val's line solely a Westworld reference or did I miss something, given Rain's reaction?

Ziggy

Who was Vanna again?

Kendelle Trotter

#BugReport: "We were digging there, following the disturbed earth, but when it vanished when we hit stone" should be "then it vanished"

Andrew Gardner

Thanks!

Gabriel

Thank you!

Andrew

Hoho, things are becoming interesting ! Thanks for the chapter :)

Maximilien Muys-Vasovic

Woah I got some serious Westworld vibes from the end of that chapter. Wtf.

rizen

Bless you and your consistent release time, but I'm too tired to read this late tonight - gonna check back in the morning.

Loipers