But... Where is District 9?? 😉

Hi Ark. I hope you read comments, because there's something that's been bothering me about the way you set up factions in the story. The issue is: as you've explained them, they serve no purpose for the leader. When someone joins Jake's faction, they get to find out some of the secrets of his bloodline, but Jake doesn't get to know anything about the new recruit's bloodline. Members get his bloodline, but he doesn't get theirs. Members benefit from his wealth, strength, protection, etc. But what does the leader get in return?? It's the first story I've ever read where the leader position brings no benefit. There is no subordination, no automatic Aether contribution, no forced disclosure of secrets, no tribute, no skill sharing, no shared experience, nothing. The only thing I can think of is the possibility to pass injuries to others, but again, this is available to all members, not just the leader. And the leader, usually being quite strong, would be the last person to need to use such a skill. One could potentially argue that a faction can provide helpers, but Jake could easily perform just as well, if not better, on his own without help. Or he could just sign cooperation contracts with others when needed, or simply get help from friends without the need for a faction. I truly don't get it. As Jake, I see no reason to have a faction, only disadvantages or neutral factors. Jake is supposed to be this somewhat anti-social, calculating, benefit-seeking guy, and yet by creating a faction he has to be giving, benevolent, trusting, and selfless. It doesn't fit his character at all... Can you shed light on that? What benefit(s) does a leader like Jake possibly get from having a faction? Did I miss something?

Thanks for the update! Nice chapter [img=recommend] Small note for the future: not sure how you feel about getting pointers regarding grammar and the like, but the correct expression is "to have an ace *up* your sleeve", instead of "ace under your sleeves". On a different note, seems to me that you've done a good amount of research on myths and fables. The reference are quite varied and cover many different ones. It's impressive, actually. You like old myths and legends?

Sarah is definitely going to join Wyatts' faction. And since Wyatts has also been chosen to endure a more difficult 4th Ordeal, Sarah and the Myrtharian Nerds will soon cross paths again.

Thanks for the reply

Wait... How are the troll hounds feasting on goblin corpses?? They turn into particles of light when they die. Can you explain how that works? Are they eating them alive??

Oh, the things I would do with my manly essence if I had water magic... Magic bullet!!

The enslavement definitely feels contrived and shoehorned into the story. I really think you should have thought this through a bit more. Here's why it doesn't work : - any adult who cares about Will would offer to take his place as a slave since they were all saved from the beasts. - the debt doesn't make sense and they wouldn't just accept that as the reason for a child's enslavement. - if Will hadn't fetched Celine, her experiment would have been destroyed by the golden-scaled crocodile's dragon breath anyway, and she would have died. She actually owes Will her life! - and more, but I'll stop here. I think I've made my point.

You've heard of plot armor? Well, this is plot concealment artifact

I really enjoy this web novel, but I feel I need to mention something that took me out of the immersion in this chapter and some others previously: the description of geology. The way the ground and/or continents are described in the story is like they float on top of the ocean. In the story, when part of a continent is destroyed, it sinks into the ocean. But that's the exact opposite of reality. In reality, the oceans (and all other bodies of water) accumulate on top of solid ground. If you destroy the ground somewhere, it doesn't sink into the ocean – you just unearth more ground underneath, all the way to the core. I thought the author knew this because of the journey to the core, but the descriptions in this chapter of all continents being destroyed leaving only a few islands floating around shows that's not the case. You could make an argument for the new continent since it fell out the sky into the ocean, but you can't for the old continent. Soil doesn't float. You can throw as much soil, rocks, mountains as you like into the ocean, it will sink. EveOfChaos, I hope you will see this and take into consideration. And while I'm at it, another thing that doesn't fit is the time it takes them to fly around. Assuming they fly about as fast as our airplanes, if it takes them weeks or months to travel from place to place, it would mean their world is as large as our Sun! But at least this could potentially be explained by invoking "Breath" and handwaving. But part with the sinking continents cannot. Aside from that, been loving the story and looking forward to what comes next!

Some grammatical mistakes here and there but nothing off-putting (seems author is francophone?). Story is great, pace is great, power leveling is a bit inconsistent in a few places but I still highly recommend it.

Liking the tension [img=recommend]

This novel is still my favorite on this platform, and this chapter only strengthens that opinion. It's nice that despite gaining so much power so quickly, there is still a massive amount of room for improvement – Arran can only keep a limited number of BLs active at once, and each BL 's power can further improve. I'm particularly curious to see how he'll use the Sage BL, and I hope he gets the Shade at some point, despite his already having cloaking abilities. Anyway, fantastic chapter.