Chapter 72

I think one of the best things about this chapter is that it effectively puts to rest the claims that Rain will be too OP since there already clearly people who are 'OP' in story by showcasing their powers and effects against not only normies but also in comparison to Silver and Bronze plates too. That there are individuals in each major and some minor cities who'll be able to either fight off or outright easily kill Rain at lvl50 (which is looking to be a long ways away) much less when he is at lvl26 guarantees the story won't suffer from excess powerscaling even from a simplistic combat only perspective. Realistically there is a lot more Rain would have to deal with beyond that even if he was the sort who'd want to fight everyone. Which he doesn't, he wants to change the society yes but not through fighting it. If anyone here has ever read Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court they'd know what I'm hinting at here.

tibbish

thats like *counts the days* 3 YEARS from now daaaaangit

tibbish

Sunday.

SenescentSoul

When’s the next chapter arriving chief?

It's not difficult to find; there's a giant hole in the ground leading straight to it. Anyway, we know Detection can be blocked (from the pouch of Tel Rain tried to find in the Guild) and there's no way the Majistraal would go to such efforts to hide something that could be found by a low-tier aura.

Rheklr

I can’t remember the specifics of how rains detection aura works but i wonder if rain can use it to somehow pinpoint what is causing the mana drain, thats also assuming he can even generate mana over the mana drain to use his auras.

Itsdice

To me it's doesn't break my suspension of disbelief (for reasons previously mentioned) and personally, I really like that the world is alive. There are enough powerlevelling fantasies on Royalroad that read more like video games - world's that wouldn't do shit if the protagonist wasn't there. Also, Rain has been there for a month, most of which he's spent in a sewer or a forest. That the setting has characters that a) know more than him, and b) act on that information, is extremely refreshing.

Rheklr

I can make up even more excuses/reasons for it. And on reread I agree that it’s clear DKE knew of other platforms with similar defenses. But to me it still feels like a cheap gimmick. It isn’t a major issue, just something that makes me roll my eyes a bit.

Chymor

It's ancient hidden and secret tech. The DKE Citizen system seemingly runs in it so they have reason to know about it. A quiet low level city does not. But the teleportation platforms make it reasonable that there's more such tech lying around (and indeed, that's why the DKE went looking for it in the first place).

Rheklr

I have attempted to address this.

SenescentSoul

Or maybe Rain will be doing lots of cool plot relevant things inside the city. The shield is draining everyone's mana. Who's the only person in a city with a high mana regen and a way of transferring it? That could get rain involved with the resistance or whatever. Who knows, there may even be a delve into the sewer dungeon to farm a blue or two so the resistance can awaken more people. I hope the kid from the sewers is one of them.

And Then There Was None

Yes, I don't know what was the reason probably something wrong from patrons side. It worked later when I tried 3-4 hours later. It's might be smart for the once going in there if they see the unlocked channels. Been there for weeks discussing in spoiler free story, having no incentive to link up my patreon to discord. First when I knew there was a patreon only chat I wanted to join.

Ole Halvorsen

Not sure what your issue is but try opening the link in a new tab, and then on the next tab just click “open in books”

Itsdice

Is anyone else having an issue importing the epub from the patreon app to the books app on iOS?

Jordan

Any luck fixing this?

SenescentSoul

Anyone else having problems with linking up patreon and discord? Have tried everything making new discord account the new one and nothing seems to work, and there is nowhere you can find any information about it.

Ole Halvorsen

That's a good point. I hope we get to see a more fleshed out tree at some point.

Robert

The whole system is supernatural. It's probably a case of mana being external manipulation (environment) and stamina being internal manipulation (the range of the soul). Not sure what health could be - maybe the soul itself? Hard to say without properly seeing what the health trees can do.

Rheklr

I'm not really clear on way there is a distinction between stamina and mana if they both allow for blatantly supernatural effects. Why would the system make a distinction?

Robert

My two cent regarding foreshadowing and the chapter... I really liked the foreshadowing. It's a classing bait and switch, focusing on the "evil empire" attacking when the attack comes from the "good" side expanding/preemptively covering their rear. I also like the way is shows DKE, being less "the democratic good guys" and more the gathering of bloodlines and power. My biggest issue with this chapter is the convenient mystic defensive artifact that no one knew about/the watch left laying unbound. I mean really? Especially the part where no one had claimed it and it was free for anyone to claim.

Chymor

The wards boost resistance by a percentage rather than a flat rate. Force doesn't have a lot of non-damaging effects to block so we haven't seen Rain block any subtle effects yet but I'd put money that the heat and cold wards protect against extreme temperatures, light ward protects against sunburn and blinding effects, chemical ward protects against bacteria and poison, mental ward protects against subtle influencing effects (and maybe headaches?) and arcane ward protects against misc. effects like the barrier. Not sure what dark ward would block besides damage.

Garrett

Bought the subscription today. Best 3$ purchase in my life, and this chapter is the reason.

Haa... much better than Rain-chapters.

8Psycho

Thanks!

SenescentSoul

Thanks! That last one was a good one.

SenescentSoul

Mmm, I wonder what Westbridge's trick is to deal with Halgrave.. Given that he's a mage and that Mana regeneration is locked he's supposed to be at a disadvantage... Now if Halgrave has Mana skills then Rain could probably turn this around, but even then the Artifact is still in place and I don't see those 2 from the DKE turning it off. This might makes right philosphy really seems to be one the running theme of the story. Hopefully Rain will turn this around Thanks for the chapter it was great !

CentaureHeart

A+ chapter. I really love what you've done with it and how it leads to a lot of speculation of how rain will deal with it.

@joseph leahy you don't think this mana draining barrier is going to give some kind of opportunity to Rain? Mentioning it multiple times when our mc's most used aura is mana regen and can be buffed to a ridiculous extent...this won't be a Rain ignoring arc, obviously.

Mikkel

Best chapter in a long time imo. Lots of plot progression and each character reaction was well done. Excited for the next one.

ZaA

See, now THAT'S a cliffhanger.

You fool, Warren is dead!

Wow, so we can expect the next 10 chapters to be Rain dicking around in the city while Talheart staavo and amelia dick around in a forest. Rain has no way to resist what's happening, he'll just have to sit around and hope he doesn't die until the barrier goes down. Unless I'm wrong and the rank shift actually gives Rain something to do, otherwise this story just got another shitty arc about side characters This story is called Delve! Wheres the damn delving!

It'sATap

Typo: missing word : He the woman standing with her back to him at a wooden workbench.

Newguy Roy

Fun side fact I noticed: the mana drain effect is considered an Arcane Effect (based on the Citizen's comments after activating it). Now, Rain's defensive auras mitigate damage, but as I remember they don't actually change his resistances. So future defensive auras might include resistance increasing effects.

Rheklr

Oh look Val is still being a short sighted not-thinking-ahead stubborn butt. *sigh* atleast his bit was super short. >...only suitibly-minded person strong enough to withstand the implantation. Well, now thats a horrifying sentence to unpack. Sweet ninja jesus...so DKE's power is basically because they figured out how to interface with lost-magitech and kept that information under wraps. I'm not really sure why they think the Watch will take the sudden annexation...at all. It seems like declaring war on someone while you're just starting another war. Do...do they get bonuses for the more people they warmonger at once? I wonder how Rain's mana regen is looking right now. Maybe he can 'interface' using his big dick Clarity providing processing power- Hackerman Rain? :satellite: Maybe not though- Level 50 is a lot of stats to close the gap on as a piddly lvl 18. Then again, he *is* a Monolith versus their (presumably) more balanced stat spread. And his ring basically can give him +24 levels worth of Clarity statpoints if he dumps everything into it. ...oh fuck. He's an Auramancer. He's going to run foul across a Citizen because of using Winter- and they'll assume he's a spy. Fuck. FUCK

Keifru

Oh look, a random thingamabob that excessively screws the MC over appeared out of nowhere! Honestly, for all this buildup, this better kick shit off. This was one of the watches only completely controlled cities. Hopefully the Guild and Watch take up arms to smash thiese pricks heads in. Dumb fucks trying to open a three way war. There's no reason for this on a strategic level at all, simply reinforce it with a garrison in case of attack.

Garend

The artifact can only be used by anyone if everyone on the approved operator list is dead. Rain won't be able to use it unless both Velika and the mage guy are killed.

Garrett

It's been said in-story that goldplates in the DKE have an entire city to themselves. Fel Sedanis is a random town not yet annexed by an empire that is being targeted. It was established as not being important enough to even get a goldplate level watch member. And no one has even hit platinumplate in the guild in hundreds of years so goldplates like Halgrave are the top tier in the guild. The silverplates are to gold what the bronze are to silver. Remember Lavarro tossing Carten, Jamus, and Rain around like dolls? Well, that's this guy. And he seems pretty confident, capable, and powerful to the point he's telling another goldplate he can't win. Probably a decent level and a higher rarity class compared to Halgrave. It makes sense that the resources to combat a DKE citizen weren't worth shunting over to Fel Sedanis besides Halgrave ala the guild. Everyone thought they didn't want to add another Citizen and war had only recently been called. They acted pretty swiftly to take Fel Sedanis.

Ziggy

I was literally watching a video on good story-telling in soft and hard magic systems the other day. How to avoid power creep, setting baselines and frames of reference, etc. Giving us an example of what gold plates can do sets a good bar for how powerful the protagonist can become. Plus we can assume the mage is probably higher leveled with a higher rarity class than Halgrave given his reaction so we get more than one example. It's been established there are platinumplates, too, but I'm glad we're getting another relevant barometer for the powerful.

Ziggy

honestly, I'm disappointed in this chapter. not in how it's written but in how easily two people can just conquer a city. it seems that either the watch and guild are trash that the DKE can just ignore, the watch in this city are so pathetic as to be useless at their sole job of protecting the powerless or both are in on this at a higher level. the consequences of this act will either make or break this story for me.

Faruel

That was an absolutely incredible chapter. Great to see the world-building and tension you've built up start paying off! Interesting to see that even a gold-rank considers Tier 4 game-changing, and the Citizen who uses Mana Sight. Sounds like Rain is going to have very powerful skills for his level once he starts leveling his legendary class.

Rheklr

Thanks for the chapter. [Error] (correction) It was the alchemist that [here] was here to see. (Rain) [He the] woman standing with her back to him at a wooden workbench. (He saw a) [He] and he hadn’t found Rain or Jamus, either, despite searching. (That) [My] the power of my soul, be healed. Greater Restoration.” (By) There [mere] more like it under a few other old cities in the DKE, (were) The shaft made a line parallel [line] with the floor, () There were thirty-six faces all staring at her from within the orbs, with Westbridge’s annoying superior stare making [thrifty-seven]. (thirty-seven)

Roderick McKinney

Even if he'd had to submit to some questions, even the watch never asked Rain what his class was. They can't completely invade your privacy apparently. Oh. Didn't even think of that. I mean either scenario is going to say a lot. Either they get an update next week from Fel Sedanis' branch with "AHHHHH" on it, or the barrier blocks all communication and the main branch gets nothing. Either way is a huge red flag.

Ziggy

The mage is so sure that nobody can use the artifacts without turning their brains to mush, he left it defenceless... What is the ONE thing Rain is OP in? Overmana. What do overmana do? It make your brain freakishly adaptable. He most likely could use the artifacts. To do what? Hell if I know.

Darcy Lessard-Patola

Quite the tease with Val dodging out of revealing his class again. Does the barrier around the city block magic communication? If not the guild could put a SOS in their ledgers and wait for it to be pulled.

And Then There Was None

If someone is abused as a child, then perpetuates the cycle of abuse by hitting their spouse and child, are people required to like this person or approve of their actions? Environment or not, there reaches a point where everyone is in control of their actions or no one is. Velika is wayyy past the point we can excuse her actions with her environment. Plenty of people grow up privileged and don't callously murder and laugh at the peasant's misery. That's just too much.

Ziggy

I dont know why people hate on velika she is byproduct of her environment . Plus rain doesn't need to do shit because the world is much bigger than he is and he is just small piece we like to follow

Love the new characters. Looking forward to the next chapter!

Yshua

I think I'm going to wait until a few more chapters are out.

PloofDoodle

Please let Velika die, and definitely dont let her hook up with Val.

Nasser

The artifact drains mana or mana regeneration of the people within. Something Rain has an abundance of and the skills to boost and share it.

Ziggy

Only thing I can see Rain doing in the coming chapters is getting killed, watching godzilla fight ghidorah or trying and failing to find a way out of the city. I'm with Shelf, this was a great chapter in almost ever single way, even where it cut was honestly the best possible place as much as I'd have loved more. But this basically sets up for Rain being sidelined AND isolated for the next good couple of chapters. Jamus, Staavo and Tallheart are all outside the city. The only one Rain really knows in the city is Val. What is a lvl 18 Rain and a lvl 5 or maybe 6 Val gonna do about any of this?

L Pedersen

My question is...what is going to be Rain's role? There is not much he can do...,maybe take control of the barrier? another thing he could try and do is overmana the barrier which could possibly destroy it... But that wouldn't be ideal if the barrier couldn't be restored for when is going to be necessary.

Vydashal

Well that was one long chapter. I understand why the DKE decided to take measures considering how important Fel Sadis could be for the Empire whenever they want to invade DKE. I'm a bit surprised that there choice ended up on Velika as the head tho. I don't really see what they see in her, there needs to be a lot of character development for her to be a good ruler, she has a lot of flaws not wanting to take anyone advice is one of them, and a critical one. I don't really see what they see in her, maybe the hole point is that she will fail. So it will be Rain and Val and I guess he will get closer to alchemist duo + Janus girlfriend plus will get to know more from the watch. I wonder what Rains role will be in all of this, with he's mana regain locked away he will certainly be at a disadvantage unless the alchemist can cook up something special, or they need to do something funny with the dungeon. Well I was right tho, nothing exiting will happen before Velika shows up. I was just not expecting this and so soon.

Ole Halvorsen

Amazing chapter/novella, can't wait for more. Thanks for the chapter. Wonder if Rain can overpower the drain or if Velika will be using him to power level.

Joshua Little

I doubt we'll get an actual fight. Call me cynical but that would be way to satisfying. It seems likely from hints that Westbridge has a trick up his sleeve just for Halgrave. I just hope that Halvgrade realises that all he has to do to stop this whole thing is kill Velika. Without her Westbridge has to break DKE law if he wants to claim the city in her place. Also I'm sincerly tired of her as a character, I was willing to give her a chance after her introduction but honestly she's way worse than I had expected. Kill it before it lays eggs.

L Pedersen

Maybe you will become like the wandering inn's author and have your word count increase as you get more comfortable writing a web serial. Can't say I'd complain, this chapter was long enough that it it really drew me in, much more than any other chapter really. More of this please

derp

You had some subtle foreshadowing in several different areas. This specific outcome? ZERO idea. I thought maybe we'd see Val and Rain help stop an Empire plot in town, or see some trouble with the odd monster stuff around Fel Sedanis, Velika being a dick with Tallheart somehow, Rain chumming with the unawakened some more, MAYBE see something from the DKE about preemptively taking over town so the Empire couldn't use it. A hostile takeover by DKE citizens, goldplates fighting it out, a magical artifact that makes a barrier and eats mana? Not on my prediction list. I'm glad you took the time to put the groundwork in for this plot development. I'm surprised at the result, but you fleshed out all the parties and details involved so well it seems completely plausible. Managing that while still surprising me is a fun treat. Side notes: Bip and Bop are adorable. Guess Staavo is outside the barrier with Tallheart and Jamus. Ameliah is going to have to run back but is still outside the barrier. Carten is off somewhere. Seems Val and Rain are going to have to team up with the watch, townsfolk, and random guild members. Don't have a ton of notes or anything this time. But I hope that citizen doesn't have a way to instantly end the fight via blackmail or strength. Goldplate battle? SQUEE

Ziggy

I'm conflicted. On the one hand, I'm happy that "things happen." On the other hand, I'm wary of the MC's role in things going forward. A lot of it comes down to how this barrier actually works... We'll see.

Empty Shelf

Yay

GunySa

Finally, the jitters can stop

happy!