Monsters do come in organized attacks. It is not uncommon at all. Packs of flying wolves or giant rats are normal, as are bands of goblins or orcs. Wild ogres are frankly just like very large, primitive humans, so working in groups is their default behavior. Although with ogres, it’s the lone wolves expelled from tribes that are the troublemakers …

An underground forest is an amazing and surreal sight. In an above-ground forest, the light source is above, and partially cut off by the canopy. In a subterranean forest, the light sources are everywhere, scattered throughout the foliage, and every plant has a faint glow, a byproduct of photosynthesis transformed into mana synthesis. The stronger sources  are in the blossoms …

He huddled beneath a stray vine branch, leaning out slightly to see around the foliage that covered most of his body, with a cluster of unripe fairy grapes hanging just above his head. A haunted shadow dimmed his huge eyes, and his wide lips were working in agitation. Ceria moved forward carefully, until she reached four paces or so from …

I wound up landing Bruna on the ground below the outcrop, because it turned out to be too difficult to make a pinpoint landing arranged the way we were. After I flew Ceria down to us, I dematerialized my wings, double-checked the direction and began heading toward the locator stones in the distance. “Hold up!” Bruna protested almost immediately. I …

Using Fairy Sight, I could already tell how my three former companions had managed it. Two enormous impact sites still glowing with waste mana showed me where Graham and Ryuu landed. Leaning out from the opening far enough to look at the wall, I could see Brigitte’s trail as I expected. “Did your friends have a magic rope or something?” …

. It was at least thirty minutes before I caught my first fleeting whiff of the park that Ceria had detected. Not long after that, we entered a gallery with three exits. Ceria pointed at one and said, “The scent is that direction.” While digging out my locator stone, I shook my head. “We aren’t looking for a park. We’re …

. We went ahead and took a short lunch before continuing, so Bruna could have more time to recover. Throughout that time, I kept nervously checking her condition. The bracelet seemed to be doing its job, thankfully. Finally, I felt confident to allow us to continue. It was well-timed, since as we gathered our things and prepared to head deeper …

I held down panic that I’m certain came from the Robert side, because steel-nerved Tiana would never panic, and rolled Bruna onto her back. In order to see better, I lit my circlet of light. Her arm had indeed mostly stopped bleeding, but my fairy sight showed miasma raging out of control in her body. “I really need to do …

  Mines are an existence that no civilization can do without. Britain had prehistoric flint mines long before they built Stonehenge, and in Egypt there are copper mines dating back to before the pyramids. The work was dangerous, but had to be done, in order for civilization to exist. It’s no different on Huade, but here, the miners always run …

I woke to a familiar feeling. Maybe I should call it a texture. Now that I had experienced it a few times, it had become familiar. I can only describe it as a state of awareness that feels like neither reality nor dreams. The room was lit much better than the one small magic lantern near Arken’s cot could explain. …