Novels2Search
The chronicles of Tinker
Chapter 24: The Tower of Terok Nor part III

Chapter 24: The Tower of Terok Nor part III

On level 10

The old man was there again. He stood on the far side on the hall. The stairs where there already. They walked to him and he spoke.

“Before you lies two paths. The easy and the hard way. If you choose the hard way. Walk now to the next level. If you choose the easy way, stay here and listen.”

Since nobody walked to the stairs the old man talked again.

“If you choose the easy way, all twenty of you must remove one item and place it in the chest. That item is permanently lost and cannot be replaced.”

“O hell, I can’t open my inventory.”

“I guess, that is his way of making sure we don’t take items from our inventory.”

“Shit, I can’t take out an arrow”

“That would be cheating if one arrow could be used by a hunter”

“Old man. If I place my weapon inside. Will I be able to replace it with my backup once we leave this level?”

“No, once an item is removed, you won’t be able to replace it, till you leave the tower.”

“Why would we want to lose an item for the rest of the tower?”

“To make the challenges up ahead easier.”

“And how do we know you are not lying to us and it will just be the same.”

“You don’t. You would just have to trust me. If you choose not to, proceed onwards.”

“Ok guys, I say we put something in. Rings seems to be the obvious item for me. The rest of you will just have to put something in you won’t need that much”

“That may be easy for you to say, not all of us have 10 rings yet and all the things we have equipped now, are important to us.”

“Either choose something, or I will choose for you.”

With a few unsatisfied grumbles people started removing items. Most of them gave rings. One person gave bracers.

“Old man, I have my BoS cape on. It gives me no stats, can I put it in?”

“Yes, you won’t be able to equip a new cloak or cape until this instance is over.”

“That works for me.”

Only three people present raided with their capes on. The others found it to be in the way and someone like Quantum needed a dark cape, not one with a huge silver sword on and smaller golden scale.

“Score, those with capes get a free pass”

“While the others of us suffer.”

With all the items placed in the chest the old man disappeared.

They opened the chest and got their level ups. All their items were gone

“I hope this pays off”

“Think of it as an investment for later.”

“How long we been in this tower?”

“It has been just over 24 hours.”

“1 day and 10 levels cleared. We can do this.”

“What scares me, is what lies ahead.”

On level 11.

*Range fighting

After the message the old man appeared next to them

“On this level we are going to test your accuracy and precision over varied distances. There will be 11 tests. Depending on how many you hit here, will determine how difficult the next level will be”

“Ok, so we can’t fail this level”

“That is correct, if you chose the hard path, you will have needed more than 6 wins to pass. But since you chose the easy path, you will pass this level no matter what the results are. I must warn you, not to lose focus.”

“We won’t.”

Tell us of the test.

“Test one is where you stand 10 meters from a target and need to hit its head with the sharp point of the dagger.”

“Test two is to hit a moving target with a dagger in the head at 10 meters.”

“Test three is to hit a full body with an axe at 20 meters.”

“Test four is to hit a full body with a sword at 20 meters.”

“Test five is to hit 5 targets the size of a head with one attack at 30 meters.”

“Test six is to hit a fast moving target the size of a head at 50 meters.”

“Test seven is to hit a target behind a fortified position at 50 meters.”

“Test eight is to hit a target with random behaviour at 60 meters.”

“Test nine is to hit a target in the head at 70 meters behind a glass.”

“Test ten is to hit a target in the head that are between others at 80 meters.”

“Test eleven is to hit a target at 90 meters the size of a cup.”

“It would seem the last seven tests are designed that any of our range fighters can do them.”

“Yes, let us first figure out who will do the close test before we move on to the next.”

“So Quantum you up for test two?”

He nodded.

“Will our thief handle the other test?”

He nodded

“Who wants to do test three, how about you Antrax? You seem to be the only one that plays with axes here.”

“I must warn you, I am more into the hitting then the throwing, but I’ll try.”

“That leaves the test to throw the sword. Any takers?”

Another warrior volunteered.

Ok, let us do these before the others start. The thief tossed his dagger and pierced the dummy on the forehead. Quantum did the same and hit the target on the chin.

Antrax stepped up and was given a tomahawk axe. He aimed and hit the target, but with the handle and not the metal part. A lightning bolt struck him. He died and respwaned at the door to the level.

“Did I forget to mention that if you do no succeed, you die?” The way the old man said it was so cavalier. No evil or hate behind it.

“No, you missed that part”

 Antrax cursed him in full when he joined them again.

The warrior was given a big 2 handed sword. He tried and he missed his target by the smallest of margins. He died and came back to life.

“So who of our range fighters wants to do what?”

“I’ll do the 5 targets”. Lina said. The others were relieved. 5 targets was hard. 2 or 3 was average. She stepped up to the line. She took some time and 5 balls of fire appeared before her. In an instant they all left and hit the targets. The others actually applaud. It seemed to be more a trick shot than something else.

The next test a hunter said he will do. Arrows move a bit faster than spells. It took him a while to get his timing right. When he felt the time was right he shot and hit his target. He made it seem easy.

Asmodian said he will handle the fortified shot. The target was just a humanoid behind a wall. Every now and again he would stick out his head. The others were still trying to time his pattern when an arcane beam fell from the ceiling and hit him. It happened fast and Asmodian just grinned and said they should move on to the next test.

The other mage got the target with the random behaviour. The target was a humanoid. He stayed 60 meters away. He would jump. Walk, run, bend over. He even did some sort of dance for a while. The mage shot and missed badly. He died for his error.

The hunter shot the target behind the glass. He said it was a combination of strength and angle. The power was the most important.

The other hunter that had to shoot a target in a group of humanoids, also made his shot. He needed some time but he got it.

Yuri was up last. He claimed he focused more on precision than rapid fire. It took him a while and as the arrow flew through the air he held his breath. The arrow clipped the target but it was good enough for it to break it.

“That was close”

“Too close”

“Ok, our chest is there, and that old fart is gone.”

Inside the chest was their level up. The axe and a piece of multi coloured glass.

The glass gave no stats but the message said that if they choose to use it in a building or donate it to a church they will get to see it purpose or get a reward.

The throwing axe had the ability to magically return to your hand after you threw it. Antrax said he should get it, since he is the only person proficient with axes

On level 12

This room seemed different. Inside was a small open area and a huge wall with a larger entry. From their they could see 5 paths leading off.

*The random maze

The old man stood at the entrance. They walked to him. He did not speak, so they talked to him.

“What is this.”

“This is the random maze. It changes every 30 seconds and resets every 5 minutes. It stretches from here, over most of the room, all the way to the other side. Once one of you make it through, it will disappear.”

“What do you mean it resets?”

“After 5 minutes the entire maze disappears and another appears.”

“What happens if we are inside?”

“You die”

“Ok, so since we are on the easy path, how is this better from the hard part?”

“I told you of the changes and reset. If I was not here, you would have to figure it out on your own.” He disappeared after that.

“So have to kill that guy.”

Aloud sound and rumble came from the maze. Even one of the paths disappeared.

“Wow, it is gone. How we doing this?”

“Do we all go in and hope that someone finds the exit?”

“I don’t think so, Think we send in our hunters, thief and assassin.”

“Why?”

“They move the fastest and will have the best chance to avoid traps and so on.”

“How must we navigate a maze that changes?”

“Not sure. You guys have time till the reset to figure it out.”

“Why do we 6 have to go? I don’t want to die over and over.”

“This is what we do. You 6 try now. It you guys fail, we will all go after the next reset…if we fail after that. We will think of a new plan.”

“Fine, so hate doing this.”

“Try being a plate wearing fighter. First in and last out. We all have our roles to play.”

The six stood at the entrance waiting for almost 5 min. As soon as the reset happened they went in. Each had his own idea and plan to navigate the maze. Yuri plan was to go left and after that right, and left again whenever he faced with a choice. Always an alternate way than his previous choice. If there was an option to go straight he will do that.

The maze had minor traps. Most were activated by pressure plates. Those inside navigated and evaded the traps the best they could. The first change annoyed them more than damage them.

Soon a hunter walked up behind them. “Hey guys, fell into a trap.”

“How is it inside?”

“Confusing. At the start I could keep my general direction but after that it became harder. I was dodging a blade from the wall and fell right into a pit fall”

“How you think the others are doing?”

“Not that awesome. It is really a hell of a place. I can understand why they don’t talk with us”

About a minute later Quantum came right after a change.

“And?”

“I hate this place, I was dodging a huge blade from the left, then the change happened. After the change the wall to my left was now behind me, and the huge blade was firmly in my back.”

“Sounds bad.”

“How far did you get?”

“Over half way, if I had to guess. Hard to pinpoint your location.”

Another person soon made his appearance. His story was the same as the others.

Soon after the last change, before the reset, the maze disappeared. One person stood at the end while another was not far away. Yuri was standing near the start of the maze. He took his insults like a champ. He did manage to survive the traps. He claimed that he knew he was close to an exit, all be it the wrong exit.

“Let us not do this again. I am just so glad that right after the last change I could see the exit to my right. I might not have gotten it.” The other two thanked him. Because they would have died soon after that.

Inside the chest was the level up and a ball of something.

Ball of endless yarn

Place this ball of yarn at the entrance of a maze or in any dungeon. The ball will roll and find the fastest way through the location to the nearest exit. It only works if a instance does not change. Monsters and traps will not be activated by the rolling ball of yarn.

WARNING : Cannot be used in tailoring or for anything thing else.

On level 13

When they all entered the level they could see a table in the middle of the room. On the table was a golden scale and in a bag near it was 8 marbles.

The old man appeared between all of them and started to speak with no regard to those around him.

“In this challenge there are 8 marbles. Each of them weighs 1 ounce and one of the marbles weigh 1.1 ounce. You must figure out, which marble weighs 1.1 ounce. You may only use the balance scale twice. For each wrong answer a random party member will die. Your one minute time limit starts now.”

“O crap, does anyone know this trick?”

“I think we weigh all 8. 4 in each side. After that we take the 4 that weigh the most and split them in half. After that is a 50/50 chance to guess which is the right one.”

“Does anyone have a better suggestion?”

Nobody spoke up. That seemed to be the best way. They did it like that and guessed. They guessed wrong and Kenny was instantly killed. Their guess after that was right, and their chest appeared.

“Hey old man, what is the difference between the easy and the hard way here?”

“In the hard way, you would have had 30 seconds to figure it out.”

“So what was the correct way?”

“Think about it, I will see you on the next level.”

Just before they opened the chest someone spoke up. “I got it. You want to put 3 marbles in each scale. If they are even you use the last 2 marbles to figure out which is which. If one of the three is heavier. You take 2 from there and weigh them. Then you will know which one of the three is the 1.1 ounce marble.”

“That is kinda easy. Damm time limit got us.”

“Yes, it seems even an easy riddle with a time limit, is not that easy after all.”

Inside the chest was the level up and the golden scale that was on the table.

Golden scale of balance

A very unique item that allows the user to balance weights and/or compare different items worth to each other. Worth will be calculated by the current market value of the items and by the region the scale is located in.

This was a very unique item. Later they would figure out how it worked exactly. If you take a bag of silver. You can put the gold coin equivalent in the other side to make sure you get a fair price. Or you could trade a gem for a bag of equipment. The scale will do all the calculations for you. Many merchants did not like the scale but the none merchant types would prefer this way, because most merchants will overprice or give too little money for a item so that they can turn a profit.

Thanks to magic bags any item could be bartered this way. At the start the scale was not used to its full potential, but once Major got his hands on it, the item became somewhat legendary in the Heaven kingdom capital and synonymous with the BoS guild. What helped that the banner of the BoS had the silver sword and golden scale on

On level 14

At the far side of the room the old man was sitting in one of the 20 chairs near the doorway, that was clearly the way to the next level. They went over to hear what test he has planned for them now.

“Many people underestimate the power of books. They tend to focus more on swords or powerful abilities. In this test you will read.” He closed the book he was reading and rows of bookshelves appeared.

“This is but a small part of our grand library. One of these books contain a phrase of a few words that will open the door. Your group must read till the correct words are spoken aloud.”

“There are a lot of books here. How long will it take to read them all?”

“If you have bad luck. You will finish just before your 1 week expires. If good, you will find it soon.”

“Why are some books glowing green and some purple?”

“If you read green books, you gain stats, if you read purple books, you learn a skill. After you read a green or purple book, it will disappear. To make things a bit interesting I gave a uneven amount of green books, but there is one purple book for each of you.”

“Why would you do that?”

“There are 4 hunters. And 14 books that increase their stats. You will have to decide. Who gets more books. You can even decide that one person gets all the books. But I doubt they will have time to read them all. I see some of you are confused.” He took a deep breath and started again.

Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

“The coloured books that you see, are only those that will help you. Thus a warrior can’t learn a skill of a mage, or gain stats from their books. Since you chose the easy way, the phrase you are looking for are not in the coloured books.”

“By my estimates it will take about a day and a half to read through the books for bonuses.”

“That leaves us with a few more days for the others, and the other levels.”

“At all depends on when we get the phrase.”

“We also have no idea how long, the other levels will last.”

“Well they can’t be that long, otherwise we would not get such a level as this.”

“I don’t agree with that, he said luck was a major part of this.”

“I have made up my mind. We are going to divide the books evenly and first read those that give stats. After that we will start with the masses.” After Cuzen said that all of them stopped their talking and arguing.

Now the hard part would come. How would they divide who gets more books than the others. Some suggested it be by guild rank, where others wanted to be, according who had died the most so far, get the most. The problem only effected those that had the same class as the others. Those that were the only class, could read their glowing books with no problems. In the end Cuzen chose to use the most gruesome of ways to decide….Rock, paper and scissors. Those that won, got 1 more green book than the others of the same class. The losers of the same class could however have the first pick of a purple book.

The old man was standing in front of a book shelf and seemed to be looking for a specific book “Hey old man, how will we know what skills are in the purple books?” Tinker asked him

“I can see why you chose the warrior class, not very bright are you? Books have titles, those titles tell you what are inside the book.” He went back to what he was doing.

Tinker was starting to feel humiliated. Not only did he loose against all the other warriors, now the NPC was insulting him. He could however pick first. The titles of the purple books where the following.

‘The Crusher of skulls’. That sounded like something a person with a big blunt weapon could use.

‘Attacks from a blind spot’. Tinker thought that one sounded good, he did however already try and attack people from their blind spots, like if an enemy used a shield to block and they lost sight of his free hand. He would punish them with a stab or slice from that sword.

‘Pressing the advantage’. He thought this sounded a bit vague, but it appealed to him. He did not have an impressive skill yet other that stat morph. If he could make an opening a skill that capitalise on that could only help him.

‘The Defensive Warrior’. He immediately put that book back, no need to bother with it.

After some thought he chose the third book. He took it, with his three other books and walked a distance away. He did not want to sit on a chair and he liked to read in private. When he was far enough he sat down with his back to the wall. He double checked to make sure no one was close to him. He decided to read one green book and then the purple book.

The First green book seemed to be a bunch of short stories, all of different type of warriors and their achievements. When he completed his book 5 hours later, he gained 4 intelligence, 2 wisdom and 1 stat in leadership.

After that he decided to log out for a short while.

He came back about 30 minutes later. He saw most of the people. Some sitting in chairs and others like him sitting a small distance away. He assumed the others he could not see, were logged out and taking a break.

Now for the skill book. On the first page, the first sentence of the book clearly stated. That you must read the entire book, look at all the pictures and then only will you learn the skill. How the system knew if you did it that way, Tinker could never really figure out how it worked. He assumed it had to do with the data transferring from the capsule to you and the other way around. But the way the 1’s and the 0’s worked, were beyond him.

The book said a lot about creating openings or to kick your opponent when they are lying down. The usual warrior related stuff. The book was not hard to understand. It was simple to say the least. Thinking that, he could not help remember how the NPC said he was not bright just because he was a warrior. Judging by this book, he could understand why. The pictures where bad and he even picked up on a few spelling errors. This book was written by warriors for warriors.

At the end of the book a message popped up. *You have learned a new skill

Fury Swipes

Allows the user to attack 1000% faster for 5 seconds or until 5 attacks have been swung

Costs 500 mana.

WARNING: Due to your current specialising you may use the skill for each weapon you are currently wielding.

That meant he could use fury swipe with both his swords in succession or at the same time. The problem was that he did not have the mana for it. His current potions would not give him nearly enough mana. He would have to figure out how to do that.

Before he started with a new book he went over to the others to hear how things are going. All of them chose their skill book first.

Lina learned a new spell called fire wall

Fire Wall

Allows the user to make a wall of fire

Lasts for 2 min.

No cool down and no double stacking of the spell is allowed

WARNING: Must be used in certain areas.

It means she could only make the wall of fire in small places. Like door frames. Small rooms, Narrow passageways and so forth. On an open field or even the room they were in now, it could not be used. It’s damage was high, the problem was that a person can only get damage by it once. It took them some time to use the wall to its full potential.

Yuri learned a new skill called Artillery Shot

Artillery shot

Allows user to shoot an arrow 500 meters far

Arrow will be affected by wind and external factors, including the users skills and stats.

10 min cool down.

You may wonder how such a shot can be useful. Hunters could combine shots. Using this with a skill that splits an arrow in 10 or whatever number the hunters skill is on. So an arrow that may hit at 500 meters suddenly turns into a small barrage of arrows. It is most effective against advancing armies or hordes of enemies. Since the group did not encounter many of these so early on, you would think he did not use the skill a lot.

Wrong, sometimes when Yuri was bored or up to no good, he would fire his shot into the air, over a city. Then use his barrage, which rains downs arrows all over the place. So the next time when you are hit, while walking in a safe city and minding your own business. Know it was not the Gods in heaven that shot you or anyone close by, it was Yuri. The amount of trouble he got into with that skill….

Zomger learned a new healing spell called Instant recovery

Instant recover

Heals the friendly target for the same amount of damage suffered in the last 2 seconds, before the spell was cast

30 min cool down.

A person needed to have good reactions and a mind to monitor everyone’s health pool of a large group. A strong healing spell as this can save and/or keep an important player alive. There would be times that Zomger failed hard with the spell, but those times he did not, he seemed like a pro.

Cuzen gained something called a judgment.

Judgement of Strength

Judge any person/monster in a 10 meter radius.

1 min cool down

WARNING: Only one type of judgement may be cast every 5 min.

Judgements where like spells for paladins. It allowed them to do damage from a distance. The damage was calculated by your faith and the type of judgement you use. Most paladins used the strength, but there were those that had agility or intelligence as their main stat. It looked like a large fist that would fall from the heavens on the target.

Quantum learned a skill called Shadow dagger

Shadow Dagger

When user tosses a dagger from a concealed position and remains hidden. The dagger will do 2 times normal damage. If the shot is a critical hit, it would do 5 times the normal damage.

WARNING: Only works for daggers.

This skill fit his play style well, he did not have any strong range attacks and now he finally had one. It had no cool down and as long as he had the mana and a dagger to throw, he can use the skill. Finding a dark corner or hidden position was like second nature to him.

Antrax skill was probably the most powerful skill.

Power kick

Kicks a user on the shin.

When target is kicked, the target will bend over and hold its kicked leg for 5 seconds. If target is busy casting a spell or skill it will count as being interrupted. Active skills and abilities are still in effect.

One day cool down.

Be it a level one player or level 500 dragon. Nothing would be safe from him. Monsters that had no legs, were not affected by a spell. Monsters with 8 legs or more, just made it easy for him. A person would think that he would have got a skill related to mining, But it seemed more like he got a skill for fighting that was closely tied to his dwarven race and insane strength.

It seemed almost every person had two or three more green stat books to read, before they have to read the others. Tinker took his books and left again.

The next book he read was all about weapons. They did mention the different heroes that wielded them and the why. Some weapons he could see were leather things. Others made no sense now matter how he looked at it. It seemed that anything sharp that could kill was counted as a weapon. Then however you get weapons that looked like smelted metal pieces that would inflict more damage to you then your opponent.

What caught his eye where the parts that claimed how these odd looking items where good counters to the more traditional weapons he knew of. He once remember watching how Ninjas in the real world, would use things like these to gain an advantage. They did out of necessity. Because they needed none weapon looking items that were easy to come by. These weapons also needed to be good against those weapons used by the enemies.

Tinker had seen some players walking around with weird things, but there was a reason why most used swords. Because they worked. The stats he got from this book was strength, dexterity and intelligence. At this point he wanted to badly increase his mana pool.

The third book was a war story of some sorts. It was written from a captains view point. It started the day the king told them that war was imminent. How meetings went and what plans where decided on, was mentioned in great detail. What preparations the captain and the men under him did were also mentioned. For a warrior he did a good job to mention the detail and to keep a person interested to know more. He died 5 years later at the final battle where his side lost the war. He gained wisdom, charisma and a surprising amount of leadership

When he returned to the group at the chairs, a few were already reading the normal books. He decided to log out for a bit and then tackle his task.

Sometime during their second day on the level the door opened.

On level 15

On this level the centre was well illuminated. They could see dark and white cubes. The old man was already sitting in a chair waiting for them.

“On this level we will play chess, 16 players must be used. If you lose, you may try again. After each loss the difficulty decreases. The person who is the King must choose all the commands that the others follow. Once you are in a cube, you will be unable to leave it, until the king has spoken or you die.”

“Shoot, who here knows how to play chess?”

Two people said they could. What shocked most of them, was that Yuri was one of those that spoke up.

“How we decide who takes command?”

“Each of you tells us your credentials. Yuri, you are up first.”

“Ok, back in Russia before I moved to England, we where house friends with a grand master in chess. Me and his snot faced son played a lot. He beat me most of the time, but you pick up a few things along the way.”

“Really, such as?”

“Patients and thinking 10 moves ahead is still not enough.”

The other person that had his hand up claimed he was only good against the computer. Yuri should handle this one. It seems the mention of a grand master at chess made him realise he was not as good as he thought.

“Great how we decide which 4 people get a break?”

“Shot gun”

“O no no no. That is not going to work this time. This time those 4 with the most deaths so far, get a free pass here.” Cuzen’s popularity went down after saying that.

“How we decide, who takes in what positions.”

“Shot gun the queen”

“That is still not going to work. I decide who goes where. We the plate wearing classes and melee classes will be the peons in front. The rest of you take a spot that is open. The first to a spot other then the King takes it.”

In what seemed to be a stampede of some kind. Every one ran to get a good spot. Most knew that queens and castle’s would be good choice. The melee players also went and stood in corners in hopes that their peon will survive this game.

More than a few people were not satisfied with their positions. Cuzen was the last to take up his place. They left him the space open in the middle. When all of them where in a cube their counter parts spawned.

They where human looking statues, with black coating. They had weapons, gear and items mimicking their corresponding functions. Knights had big swords. Peons had a small shield and sword. The Castle had a huge shield and the bishops looked like they were real bishops. The king and queen had their crowns on. The queen was the only female looking statue, so it was easy to distinguish between them.

“Are you ready to start?” Asked the old man.

“Yes.”

“You have the first move.”He vanished after that.

“Yuri, do not play favourites. Do not think of us as friends. Just play to win. Even if 90% of us die, just win.”

“I know, already have a few moves planned out and I am more than willing to sacrifice you guys for the cause.”

“That is oddly comforting to hear.”

“Cuzen go forward two spaces.” With that said the game was underway.

At the start people were talking. Yuri demanded silence. Most were not pleased but then someone had the bright idea of sitting in your cube until you are moved. Soon after other people started spending their time more productively. Tinker worked on his leatherworking. Zomger was writing a bards tale of their exploits in the tower. It seemed nobody took the time to read a book. After over a day of constant reading, nobody wanted to read more.

It was sometime during the second hour Yuri spoke more than a few words. “I think I got him.”

“Really. It seems about even.”

“You do have one knight and a peon more than him.”

“Don’t let that fool you, tactic wise I got him. I can end it in 5 moves or play longer and chip away at him. I don’t think I can loose from here, but a person never knows.”

“Great, let’s do this.”

“It will require me taking some loses.”

“I don’t care, I am tired of standing here and want to log out.”

“Fine, don’t say I did not warn you. Zomger kill that peon and go die my faithful bishop.”

The game ended shortly thereafter. 11 of the 16 had died. First was Cuzen, followed by the others.

In the chest was the level and a bonus 20 intelligence to Yuri, who was the king and made the winning moves.

How Tinker wished he got that intelligence. He could not really have blamed Yuri for killing him. He took down a knight after their knight bated him out. But such is the nature of chess.

----------------------------------------

Ok, so the levels of the tower are getting less.

Some of the Items that drop i kinda need as setup for later chapters. Others are just cool stuff i thought would be nice to have lying around.

Also some skills were long over due. My poor MC only has one skill that is Stat morph. Now he has two. Sure he only got mana for the one, but that is what you get for choosing a mainstream class.

There are still two more chapters about this tower before its done. The last is almost finished.  Ill post chapter 25 maybe tomorrow and see if i cant finish up chapter 26 this weekend. At least about 1/4 of the way with chapter 27. After that I think i can finally post three chapters i wrote about 6 months ago, By then then story would have caught up and not mess up my time line.

As always are comments and suggestions are welcome. Like the one where someone complained 10 chapters ago that my MC needs more skills. C he got one now