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Hello, I am new here after deciding to become a patron. Thank you for the story, even though it is utterly late. So for me, I have a lot of thoughts about this. Given how unexpected the series has come, I suspect it might be an accidental lord simulator due to how much he is managing part of the city. Surprisingly, for me my favorite part of this series is the interactions of Rain, one of my favorite in my memory is the hand shadowing scene between Rain and Amelia. That's why I liked is his conversation with Carten and Velika, since they all also have changed after the rebellion.

@Dal Frakked this chapter was 12k words lmao. That's like 4 chapters worth. How much volume are you looking for exactly?

Kendelle Trotter

Welcome! Release Schedule: Every Sunday Bonus: Whenever I have the time to write an extra one

SenescentSoul

What’s the usual release schedule? (New patreon)

Time for midweek chapter!

Dal Frakked

Right? This definitely seems like a set up for him becoming mayor or something.

Lessthan

Now that I think about it, if Rain manages to seize control of the barrier through some combination of soul training and his programming experience, he's going to be able to use it as a defense in the case of a Rank Shift. Depending on how much control over the city he's given he could start building what is essentially a second City of Light depending on the level of the ranked territory, awakening the populace. Though the question is whether or not the barrier would prevent monsters from spawning within it. Would be kind of cool for Rain to find an ally to awaken and mentor. He's a min-maxer at heart and I fully expect his build to turn out sufficiently broken even though it may be pretty weak combat wise right now (that's the big long term pay off I'm most excited for). But if he finds someone to mentor he can use his knowledge of the skill trees and his min-maxer tendencies to create the build for a powerful ally that he can further enhance with his amazing support capabilities.

Kendelle Trotter

Unlike a lot of people I actually don't mind how long this arc has lasted. I think the high stakes in the city are forcing Rain to grow in ways he wouldn't have if he remained in a cohesive party delving non-stop. He's seen death. He's confronted his own weakness and realized that although speccing support is great it still needs to be backed up with sufficient personal strength to match his peers. He's a little less naive about things like killing others and sharing resources, though he could still stand to lose a little more of his naivete. He's just growing non stop and his ability to lead continues to grow (which I think is going to be essential if he becomes a dps/support hybrid like I'm hoping. He controls distribution of power so it makes sense that he would lead). Pets I actually love and think if he had the skillpoints to afford tamer skills would make perfect sense synergistically with his auras as long as he doesn't lose a legendary class from it. His place is in a team first and foremost, not as a duelist, but if he had pets it would make him a powerful force individually as well. He never has to be worried about not functioning without a team if his abilities give him one.

Kendelle Trotter

Couple of points. Clarity is not the stat that allows expert control over the system. We had Ameila confirming that such control comes from your highest stat, whatever that happens to be. A Westbridge "true mage" cannot only be by a measure of clarity. Velika was able to interface with the barrier stone without going mad, and shes not even a mage. It might be useful in working with the barrier, but it is not the full story. A gold plates highest stat? take 500+ points from leveling, 500+ points from enchantments maybe another lot from accolades and yet another lot from boost skills. Allocate them up as you see fit, then give them there Gold plate class bonus of ??. Rain might be in the same range as them, but they could also reasonably be multiple times higher. Also note Rains 200% boost, gives an effective X3 to Clarity not X2, however he can at most max out at 180 points from his ring currently. About the soul damage. The over XP tear which presumably caused the crack, came after he had been trying and failing to use accolades. So he already had at least some of the soul damage before that event. My guess is too much over training at once. I think Rain has a chance of using the barrier stone and I like the idea he will have to work out the rune system programing as part of that. However by many measures he is tiny in comparison to Westbridge, which might rule him out. Take total XP, if Rain opens up every single tree his total XP will max out at around 1.7 million. That is equivalent to the XP needed to level a rare class up to 34ish only - a tenth of the total XP a level 50 would need, before counting tree unlocks.

payforthat

So the device that controls the barrier was teased again this chapter. With Rain's experience as a computer programmer and clarity build a lot of people think Rain will be able to interact with the device especially given Westbridge's comment about a true mage. I don't disagree per say given that with the death of most of the high level mages in the city watch and Rain's Dynamo class giving a 200% boost to Clarity effects not just mana regeneration it is likely that he has the highest clarity in the city. Clarity has already been shown to increase the ease with which a person can interact with and manipulate the system. Additionally he has an epic tier ring that can boost any stat by 287 points. Currently he can only use 139 general stat points and clarity is capped at a 61 point boost. From the buried arc we know that he has suffered under soul strain and his soul is damaged currently. I am unclear if this is only because of essence meditation or if the various soul strains can also damage the soul in addition to the backlash of ADHD that is clarity soul strain. I think he shows a grater ease in boosting the tolerance of clarity and a stronger resistance to soul strain because of his higher natural levels in clarity and maxed synchronization but I do not know if this is correct. I want Rain to recover in his soul, get some kind of boon from the accolades he still has, interact with the device and discover he needs even more clarity if he is going to assume direct control. If he was able to boost his clarity the total amount he would have a clarity of 487 which the 200% boost his rare dynamo class gives would give him an effective clarity of 974 which at 10 points a level except 20 at level one and a starting value of 10 would give him the same clarity stat as a level 95 monolith. Forget silver rank that is almost diamond rank ( assuming that is after platinum at 75 ) At that level many things are possible. It would make the character too OP and kill the narrative flow of the story unless you get into the realm of very large numbers like the new world. I would not like it to go to this extent in the main story for those very reasons but it would make for an amusing omake. Given the length of the previous 2 chapters I do not expect an extra chapter at 4:20 pm tomorrow but I will still check in. Goodnight everybody.

Michael Hughes

He doesn't really need to lower the barrier. He needs to put a lot of people on the whitelist though. If they can leave and come back to bring food and trade, the Barrier may be the only thing that saves the city from the Rank Shift.

carebear90

Absolutely true that without new skills...any math will be philosophical at best...and boring as shit

Dal Frakked

Better. Resolve the dome and powers that be take him Dungeoneering to Silver+

Dal Frakked

Even though at this point many people are annoyed with Rain living in a prison, I don't really see any other way for the story to develop. Even if he or someone else could shut down the artifact and free everybody, there is still the issue with the rank shift and the lightning storms. They even said people that are unawakened would die out there. So what I believe will happen is that Rain removes the barrier temporarily but gets it back up every time a storm is coming.

Johann Franz

So we know from Uncertain Savior that it is possible to respec skill points by interacting with the menu. Furthermore this chapter we were told about accolades that can do the same thing one point at a time. I think that Rain will grow to be more aware of his soul and calm the chaos that is leaking out currently. After that he will have a basic awareness of his soul and be able to acquire accolades once again. I would like for one of the accolades he still has to be able to respec one point. He could be forced into it by needing a skill to work on the barrier. I want his soul awareness to allow him to observe the respec process and eventually be able to interact with the system to be able to act like uncertain savior so that we can see continuous skill progress even if he is stuck being level capped at 18. Do you think something like this is likely to happen? Would you like that or would it seem to OP and ruin story progression for you?

Michael Hughes

You say your hands? Maybe a typing class or 3. If I wrote this out long hand...I might sympathize with you but this bit is nothing special on a word processor...using all 10 fingers. Hunt peck with 2...ok maybe.Made me wonder...are you doing this long hand and getting another to publish it later?

Dal Frakked

Thinking Lord Rain will start growing on him soon (or he’ll get too weary to correct...at which point he might start filling the role...which is what I’m hoping for.

Dal Frakked

The green house effect wasn’t the air quality but the shield bubble acting as a literal greenhouse

HornsOfTheseus

Just saw your subscription list. Very similar to mine. I dropped Shirtaloon for next month. How is Apollos Thorne?

Drew Gilmour

Thanks for the chapter - nice with an extra long one! Excited for when/if Rain gets to interact with the barrier stone

Isekaitis

It’s not even that good of a solution. She could pound on the barrier for months without bringing it down, and meanwhile her own mana regeneration will be reinforcing it.

Andrew

That's how I feel too. I kind of liked this chapter but still feels like it's getting nowhere.

Simon

Nice, the story is continuing again! Thank you for the chapter!

Andrei

No wonder, she is depressed, when that is the only solution she see's for lowering the barrier. Westbridge may have been a genius. but he was also an overconfident idiot...

carebear90

Gotta admit, I really am done with this arc, it was interesting for maybe the first few but now its dragged on for more then 1/3 of the entire story, it has reached the point where I honestly don't look forward to chapters anymore. It is just going to be more "We are all gonna die" or philosophical meandering where nothing new is shown or is rehashed constantly.

Klever Kilvanya

Or maybe that is exactly what we need. A bug while linking?

David Otis

Tbh it was tiresome like two weeks ago

Seb

Thinking back to when Rain was in the dungeon, he was cut off from the mana siphon then. So if they can over come the five person limit, then the shield can be starved that way.

MitchyGoodness

So amelia is out there? Would be nice to see her again. :) Hope he gets her to show him the stone and we can end the whole prison in the city arc. As nice as it is, it gets a bit tiresome.

D

This seems like a really good amount of length and progression, but it seems to take a lot out of you. Maybe you should release more infrequently instead of doing shorter segments, so you can deliver goo progression while not straining yourself. Maybe every two weeks?

Orion Dye

She doesn't actually have to. People will start starving in a few weeks. When enough if them die that there isn't enough left to power the shield, it will shut down and the survivors can get out. Rain SERIOUSLY needs to stop giving out mana. He's literally costume lives by doing that, since the barrier will last longer as a result.

David K. Storrs

I hope this plot won't be dragged on simply because Velika doesn't want to show the Barrier-Control to Rain. I'm fine with Rain realizing he can't quite control it though, Velika and Rain awaken people into the 'Slave-Beacon' build for food to the city, and slowly Rain will manage to control the Barrier and free the city

Blaublue

Fixed, thanks.

SenescentSoul

Nah she is okay

The barrier is also very aura like and its allowed list is similar to his IFF skill. So maybe he can get help from his interface which is setup to work with such things.

payforthat

Ok so I have a theory : that the barrier stone works with some sort of programming language. Considering that Velika is even worse than Carten at math, it's no wonder that she got a headache when she looked at it. Westbridge, a genius, was able to figure it out, but the modern mages don't have a clue about programming. But from what I remember, Rain has worked with computers to some degree in the past...

Daoist

#bugreport Minor continuity error, from chapter 75 "but Staavo hadn’t been home. He hadn’t seen him since the barrier had come up. He’d sat on the step to wait, but the constant attention and requests for aid from passing people had driven him to try the door, finding it unlocked." From this chapter "There was nothing on the subject in Staavo’s tower, which had been thoroughly ransacked during the riots. Rain felt bad about that, having been the one to break the lock. "

payforthat

Be interesting to see if Rain's previous Earth job experience and knowledge allows him to shut down the shield. At this point that seems to be the only real option otherwise Velika will have to kill everyone else if she wants to make it out alive.

tibbish

This cliffhanger physically hurts, gonna need a new chapter asap

Ah Mahria, I expected better from you, but it seems you took after your mother, Lavarro, a bit too much. You think only of yourself and your own selfish needs. Begone thot, the Dark Lord, Lord Rain, has no use for a spoiled princess, and he will not soon forgot your disregard for the common people. Once the barrier is down, run back to your mother. It is all you are good far.

Pagemaster

I loath Val. He is the definition of an asshole.

Death2Shrimp

" Don’t spread this around, but the city’s only got six weeks of food left. " it will be all over the city by nightfall :p

Thenais

Well Done!

His Dad

You are getting better with the cliffhangers. Ugh!! A decently long chapter too, greatly appreciated!!

Alex Anderson

Excited to see how they solve the situation. I hope they do some proper cooperation. I wonder if Val's dad is gonna be involved, or if he only becomes more relevant once they bring the barrier down/take control of it

Mani

Thank you!

Andrew

You can't raise your cap with sentient leveled kills. That only works if you kill someone who recently got a blue... Maybe an accolade?

Scott Frederiksen

I figured Rain would have ramped up what he was doing. The whole process of dispersing water should have been temporary. If he went to the river then froze and purified a section of it people could have gotten their own. Like they used to. Then he could continue doing that to sections each day. He also figured out that the air quality had a greenhouse effect so it seems to me he could be purifying large areas to help the situation.

Chris

Your halfway to a Pirateaba chapter! She is a beast! All kidding aside great job.

Pike

Great chapter today. Good character interactions and the westbridge reveal is amazing. I know this is not how it will work but I kind of want the new citizen westbridge to be able to shut it down. I think that either rain will be able to interact with the device or he will need to be a much higher level which means he will need to break through, delve after a rank shift, or possibly kill Velika. We know that people can absorb essence from other people like what she wanted to do to Val so it might work but I think it will be too late for that and the essence will be too settled in her. My favorite part was who throws a spoon. Austin Powers much. Who throws a shoe honestly. I am excited to see what happens next week.

Michael Hughes

Damn that was a great chapter. Looking forward to developments on the sign language and pet slime.

ricky jackson

Well crap Rain needs to get to that device asap. Not a guarantee that he can access it at his current power but it is his best chance at this point. Also hopefully oversoul doesn't cause a linkage issue like it does with Accolades.

Atlas Dwarf

Val really needs to get the shit kicked out of him. "Hi, thanks for saving me, but I need to go skip out of this joint while leaving you to deal with the fallout of my actions...again."

Empty Shelf

Also who dared to downvote this chapter, by the power of my refrigirator, begone

xSzakix

Ok, that was ominous.

Andrew

Loved the chapter, love it even more when it is long

xSzakix

This was fantastic. You did an amazing job with this, and I am eagerly looking forward to the next chapter.

Fabhar

I got the full chapter as epub, try download it again.

Chymor

.epub version only has the first two pages

>over 12k words You spoil us

Thanks, be safe yaw

ricky jackson

Thanks mate.

Ezio Azrael