Zogarth
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Chapter 822 - Nevermore: A Corrosive Idea
🕑 Added 2024-01-05 11:57:15 +0000 UTCPoison came in many shapes and forms. Jake usually relied on the classic poison in liquid form that he coated his weapons with, but powdered poison was just as normal. Powder had the great properties of being dissolved in water or even burned to create a mist or smoke with toxic properties. If this powder was dissolved in purified water, one could even have a do-it-yourself poison kit.
Jake felt like he could quite easily make a powder, and this was one of the things he considered as his final Creation. It didn’t take much more than putting in certain catalysts and then boiling a mixture long enough for all the water to evaporate. Getting a working method down shouldn’t take more than a month or two. Jake found a few use cases for a powder, but ultimately, it wasn’t something he thought worthy of submitting, so he didn’t bother getting more familiar with the craft.
However, as he briefly studied these powder poisons and worked on crafting his Hemonecrotic Poison, he came across another form of poison Jake had neglected for a long time. A form of poison Jake had encountered before, and he kind of questioned if it should even be called a poison.
It was something many other professions also used. Jewelers and blacksmiths used it to remove impurities when crafting, weaponsmiths while tempering arms, and Jake had even seen Arnold use some that he had acquired from who-knows-where.
He was naturally talking about the wonderful world of acids. Alright, calling it a wonderful world was probably overdoing it, as dying to an acid was probably one of the worst ways to go. Jake should know. One of his first really close encounters with death was that time in Villy’s Challenge Dungeon, where he barely touched some acid and nearly had his entire body corroded and melted away.
The poison back then had been of the necrotic kind and made to dissolve anything alive. That’s also why there could be an entire basin of it, as it wouldn’t do anything to anything non-living… and this was actually where one of the big differences between poisons and acids appeared.
If Jake opened a poison bottle and poured it into a bowl, the bowl would begin to take heavy damage as the energies within the toxins would leak into it. Even if it was a poison made to kill flesh and blood lifeforms, the antagonistic mana within was simply too reactive with anything it was in contact with.
This was also the reason why poison lost its effects pretty quickly when out of the bottle. If Jake didn’t have Malefic Viper’s Poison, it would last minutes, not hours, when he coated a weapon and had it out in the open. Another reason why his quiver was also a godsend at it allowed Jake to have poisoned arrows in there for way longer without losing potency.
Acids, on the other hand, were far more stable unless they came in contact with what they were made to corrode. Jake could leave an open barrel of acid just sitting there for years without it losing much, if any, potency as long as no one consumed any of the energy within by dissolving anything.
Jake had never really worked on acids, as, in many ways, they were just worse than the poisons he used. Splashing a few drops of Necrotic Poison on an open wound would corrode an arm away, while a few drops of acid with necrotic properties would only melt away a tiny bit of flesh where the liquid hit.
The mention of open wounds here was quite important because this was where acids differed quite a lot from regular poisons again.
While throwing a bottle of poison on someone did do some level of damage and would act slightly accidic, it was very inefficient. Nearly all of Jake’s poisons worked through injection with sharp objects like arrows or katars. He needed to personally deliver the poison to the inside of the Soulshape, or it would have little to no effect.
Acids you could just throw at people. It didn’t really matter; as long as someone was hit, it would do its thing. Sure, an open wound would be nice, but it was secondary to just splashing someone with plenty of it. And Jake did mean plenty of it because just throwing small bottles of acid would rarely do much unless it was really potent acid.
Now, the ultimate question was why Jake suddenly got so damn interested in acids. In truth, Jake didn’t really need to learn how to craft it. Combat-wise, it wouldn’t even do that much for him. However, there were some instances where acids were just straight-up better than any kind of poison Jake could craft.
He still vividly remembered his fight with the Altmar Census Golem. That damn thing had been entirely immune to all his poisons, and sharp weapons didn’t really work. The only way he had eked out a victory had been through Touch of the Malefic Viper, which managed to corrode through the Golem’s defenses. Back then, the energy Jake had released may as well just have been him making his hands into acid due to the nature of the toxins released.
In one of the books, Jake actually read an interesting analogy. It said that if the usual poisons were the swords, daggers, and spears of toxins, then acid was the hammers, maces, and staffs. The blunt weapon of the toxic world. This was mainly because of the targets it was considered good against and how a blunt weapon would hit a large area with far more overall force, especially effective when sharp weapons just wouldn’t get the job done, while at the same time recognizing that when a sharp weapon did work, it tended to be a lot more effective.
Jake liked that analogy quite a lot, and right now, he didn’t really have any blunt weapons. His closest thing was arcane explosions, and that wasn’t really a blunt weapon, now was it? So, there would likely be some combat applications if Jake made a good acid.
As for how acids worked a bit more in-depth… well, there were a few ways. Acids had to be targeted against something specific, the same as regular poisons, but in a far more deliberate way. Mixing different acids to corrode more things also didn’t really work, and honestly, why would you even want that in most cases? The acids you could mix also had to be in the same ballpark, or they were utterly incompatible. At least they were to someone like Jake, who was still working on his very first acid.
Choosing what you wanted to corrode wasn’t that much different from before the system, but instead of targeting certain chemical compounds, you targeted affinities and even concepts. All metals partly shared an affinity, and they all had the same conceptual Records of being metal. So, if Jake made a metal-melting acid, it would work on all metals, at least somewhat.
The same was true if Jake made something that was just a mana-melting acid. As for what acids could target, the more narrow it was, the more potent the acid tended to be against that specific thing. So, if Jake made an acid targeting earth-affinity mana, it would be much more effective than one generally targeting mana. What’s more, it could target only that one thing while ignoring everything else around it, not wasting any energy on what Jake didn’t want to get rid of.
There was one other big reason Jake thought creating his very first acid would be a good idea. Jake had nine Creations he had planned to submit, and while all of them used his arcane affinity… none of them really made any use of the destructive aspects of his affinity. They had all been about the stable elements, especially the small marble he submitted – though that entire thing had more to do with Jake Juice than anything else, his arcane energy just the packaging to show off the energy.
Jake did use his destructive arcane affinity when doing alchemy. He used it to eliminate things he didn’t want or need during crafting. To break apart certain ingredients. Something that was extremely similar to how acids worked.
Using his destructive arcane energy was incredibly difficult in his usual poisons due to its… well, destructive tendencies. It liked to destroy anything that wasn’t stable arcane energy and coupled with volatile poison that also wanted to kill stuff, the two of them went for each other the second Jake wasn’t holding the reins.
Acids were a lot more stable. It wouldn’t fight back as long as the acid wasn’t made to corrode Jake’s arcane affinity. This meant Jake only had to address the destructive arcane energy to make it calm down. A task that wasn’t as difficult as one would expect as long as it wasn’t actively being attacked. Jake’s arcane affinity was a lot about balance, so all Jake needed to do was stabilize the destructive arcane energy just enough to not want to consume itself along with the acid. He would put it in sync with the acid and do so his arcane affinity would work in tandem with it, helping with the corrosion. Make it so that when the acid became aggressive, so would the arcane energy.
It also wasn’t like acid wouldn’t have uses outside of combat, especially not if he infused his arcane energy. There would be many instances where he could use it together with transmutation to corrode away unwanted parts of an item he planned to transmute, and the experience of learning how to make a good acid and how exactly acids worked would surely prove useful. Especially if one considered how an acid could target very specific things to corrode.
Finally, Jake had one more reason he wanted to learn acids… one many probably wouldn’t expect:
Blood of the Malefic Viper.
Jake had noted before how his blood was pretty much acid in its own right, even if it was a pretty weak one, and he knew that a part of the Path of the Malefic Viper revolved around acids. He also highly suspected that either Palate – due to stomach acid, though that may be a stretch – and/or Blood of the Malefic Viper were skills more directly related to it.
If Jake actually learned how to make acids and even consumed a lot of it, his blood would also get more potent acidic properties which would also help when he used his blood as a crafting ingredient. Considering how damn much blood Jake could spill these days, he could see that prove very potent. So, yeah, one of the reasons Jake wanted to learn how to make acids was because he thought it would be part of upgrading Legacy of the Malefic Viper skills and because he wanted to make his own blood more acidic.
Anyway, these were all the many reasons and thoughts Jake had in regard to making an acid. As for the Hemonecrotic Poison Jake was also working on? Well, he only had all this time to work on his acid because he was already done with that one:
[Potent Hemonecrotic Poison (Rare)] – Mixing potent Hemotoxin and Necrotic Poisons, a Hemonecrotic Poison has been made, capable of rotting your foe from the inside. If injected, this poison will bind itself to your foe’s vital energies and blood, using it as a vehicle to spread necrotic toxins. Wounds caused by necrotic poison are extremely difficult to heal. Cleansing the Hemonecrotic Poison vital energy is extremely difficult.
Alright, it wasn’t really right to say he was done, but he had made one. Reading its description, it did exactly what Jake had wanted it to. It had the good properties of both Necrotic Poison and Hemotoxins, making it an extremely difficult poison to deal with for anyone unlucky enough to get it into their system.
The entire crafting process had been precisely as Jake expected. It was just a lot of work to make the two poisons properly mix while checking books whenever something didn’t work, and if the books didn’t have any answers, to just keep trying until he eventually found the problem himself.
This poison was probably Jake’s strongest yet against other humanoids or beasts. It would deal a lot more damage than his usual poisons, for sure. So, Jake had done the only logical thing he could and promptly went to the Merit Exchange Store and sold his very first Hemonecrotic Poison.
What? Jake wasn’t going to actually submit this one. Jake had checked the time and out of all the Challenge Dungeons, he would definitely spend the most time in this one. As he had been pretty damn fast in Minaga’s Labyrinth despite clearing so many Sections, he was even ahead of schedule. Two years had been allocated for all the Challenge Dungeons, and Jake hadn’t even spent that long in any of them so far. It had gotten close with the Colosseum of Mortals and Test of Character Challenge Dungeons, but it hadn’t taken quite that long.
This meant Jake was fine with spending a bit longer in the House of the Architect as long as he saved two years for the Endless Journey.
He also had to consider Temlat. The half-elf was improving, yes, but Jake didn’t want to pressure him and put him on a timer, and who knows when he would evolve? He sure as hell wouldn’t tell his student he had to evolve just because Jake got tired of waiting. That would go against any kind of teaching style Jake would ever want to be associated with.
Plus, Jake had kind of forgotten that Evolution Quests were a thing, and Temlat had come to him a few days prior and said he still needed to do those. So, yeah, that added a bit to the time Jake thought he would originally take to evolve.
That’s why Jake settled on just letting Temlat decide when Jake would be done with the House of the Architect. He wouldn’t rush himself to complete the Hemonecrotic Poison. He would only submit one to the Architect after Temlat was also ”submitted.”
If not, all Jake would be doing was making himself impatient, waiting for Temlat to get done.
As for the acid, Jake decided that he would be fine submitting that even before Temlat had reached his final form. Even if he did want to make a good acid, the regular poison was still his biggest priority, so that would be the final thing he submitted. It did kind of go against the notion of waiting with the best till last, but the Architect had never mentioned that was a thing, so Jake should be fine.
Time quickly passed as the usual routine continued. Jake had more time to focus on Temlat as his poison and acid project didn’t take up all his time, especially the poison, as he was just reiterating and improving on the current poison at this point while making a few small improvements.
Finally, one day, Temlat approached him…
”Lord Thayne,” he said in his usual semi-respectful voice.
His body looked a lot different than when Jake first met him. He had a dark aura around him and had begun to wear a cloak at all times, with shadowy energy hiding him due to his stealth skill. His eyes looked full of determination, and Jake could feel a faint bloodlust within him. A suppressed anger.
[Half-elf – lvl 199]
Seeing his level, Jake had a good idea why he was there.
”You got your race evolution quest?” he asked.
”Yes,” Temlat answered in a solemn and serious tone, making Jake frown a bit.
”What do you need to do?”
”It asks me to reaffirm… or reject the source of my hatred…”
Jake wasn’t sure what it meant but quickly got a good idea as he sighed. ”Well, it seems like it’s time for you to finally visit your homeworld again.”
Because, surely, nothing could go wrong there, right?
Comments
Daikoon
I am no Chemist, but I am pretty sure in the beginning of this chapter Zogarth mixed up Poisons and Acids. While Both lose effectiveness overtime, acids get worse way faster than poisons (on average), since Poisons mostly work against specific organic stuff and acids against everything with a high surface reactivity.
Taylor
Isn’t acid a low PH, so it would slowly overtime have a ph neutralization that would kill the acid?
Hunter Thornton
Anybody else feelin sorry for the world that Jake’s about to unleash his little monster onto? Really hopin that Tem can go out into the world after this so he can start the colt of Jake
SmokeJam
Not at all? He was already fighting with two katars and he actually needs a good second one again, which he can use with his abilities. The nanoblade is cool and all, but in the end it is not "his" weapon like the other melees before or eternal hunger. And tbh, why should only be one katar be forever at his side but not the other? That's just pure inconvenience, so I am actually expecting an Eternal Hunger partner sooner or later. Just because he is good at stabbing won't cause Jake to stop utilizing 80% of his class. He is an archer with very good and needed close combat skills.
Inv7ctus
Personally i Love hearing more of the Alchemical theory that jakes craft runs on. Learning more as He learns more is viscerally satisfyiung to me. People who claim to be bored and skimming, yall are missing out, i've loved the nevermore arc and all we've learned within it.
ABTelford
Sorry, I gotta disagree and I hope it doesn’t happen because that would take Jake away from the path of an archer and I love his archery.
ABTelford
Well said! Very well thought out analysis! ❤️
Kerry Henson
Since he can buy ingredients and it seems limitless to what is available, since he knows the name of the liquid from the statue Felix made, couldn’t he request it from the architect for his amazing poison?
Darthnarciss
For the people complaining about how some of the paragraphs are "drifting" reread those sections, those are essentially Jake's mental processes, as we've seen since way back in the first book, when he's not actively hunting something, he is very disjointed in his thought process, he drifts, he goes on tangents, he hyper fixates on a single aspect and drives it into the ground. The author is showing us jakes thought process. It's well done. For those complaining about the length of time being spent in Nevermore itself, let alone the individual challenge dungeon, with a keen desire to get back to the story. Uhm, what? This is the story. Nevermore, and by extension the challenge dungeons, are integral to the story. Look at how much attention the gods are paying to the thing. The only 2 things really "waiting" outside, is the issue with Yip and his Chosen, and the Tournament key thing. Both of which can be considered overarching goals. This is the both the prep for those things, as well as a goal in and of itself. Big deal he's not gaining levels, he gains levels like a boss. What he has issues with is progressing his abilities, if he hadn't done Nevermore he wouldn't have gained half of the advances he currently has, let alone the stuff he's going to get. For those saying "such and such section could be shortened". Why? What could it be replaced with that's more interesting? More fights? Nah we got those in the Colosseum. More crafting? Doing that now in the House of the Architect. More interaction with the gods? Still happening. More interaction with his people from Earth? Why? They are doing their own thing and need to grow or fail on their own. The capable ones are even prepping for their own adventures in Nevermore. We're going to get the cliff notes versions of the rest of his parties, and others, adventures in the dungeons, why short ourselves of seeing 60% of one of them, especially when it's the main characters? The pace is fine. The story is great.
JJB4345_80_815
I was thinking of a much more boring round table discussion where somebody asks: "All in favor of changing the baptism ritual to joining the dark side to something less mutilation-y, please raise whatever appendage that you have remaining..." Luckily it narrowly passed by a single vote (1-0) since anybody that tried to raise their hand for the not-in-favor vote got force choked... For some reason I'm thinking about how that would really spice up PTA conferences... 🤔
Ral
Show of hands like: These are not the Droids you're looking for. Or more like... Other star systems will bow before the First Order and remember this day as the last day of the republic! *star wars Nazi saluting*
JJB4345_80_815
Did the policy change require a show of hand(s)?
Karim Saadi
Jake is breezing through the house, it's a lot of fun.
john henderson
I think having that skill refer to another sin would be unlikely
Riley, Glutton of All the Foods
Yes! Every man's dream! The ability to endlessly drink acid! Thank you for the chapter!
Riley, Glutton of All the Foods
While throwing a bottle of poison on someone did do some level of damage and would act slightly accidic "accidic" to "acidic"
Riley, Glutton of All the Foods
Another reason why his quiver was also a godsend at it allowed Jake to have poisoned arrows in there for way longer without losing potency. "at it" to "as it"
Ral
It was a policy change. They needed more members.
hachetnif
It's one of those writer rules when you show your audience the gun and never use it they just want you to use it more
KenTX325
Another thought. You don’t need to develop a super acid poison. Look up hydrofluoric acid. Toxic as hell and dissolves flesh. One drop on your skin can cause a painful death.
kingofshibainu
That would rule out most fantasy, sci Fi, historical fiction etc. Accuracy is great, but internal consistency is a better measure for magical systems and world building here.
KenTX325
Biology major as well. Worked in a lab as a chemist doing HPLC and GCMS for about 10 years. I know magic changes things but I like it when authors know about the stuff in their books. I don’t want to read a book about a Calvary soldier written by someone who has never ridden a horse. Like I said that should be 5-10 paragraphs. Some of those paragraphs were drifting all over the place. Needs editing.
JJB4345_80_815
KenTX325 - I minored in chemistry as well (Biology major). I personally hated Organic Chemistry. The labs were especially demonic. Luckily for me, Zogarth didn't go into detail of carbon rings and the process of chemically altering them or I might have screamed! Thank God magic changes things. I was actually happy with the amount of acid talk. Not too detailed to bring back nightmares but also enough to pay homage to the craft. IMHO
KenTX325
I was thinking he could really be back in the 2nd universe and end up founding the order if he got a blessing.
Ty Cooper
I like Nevermore even if it is seeming to take a long time. I feel it is building the next steps of the story for Jake. Plus I am looking forward to listening to it. I think it will be nice not reading it chapter by chapter five days a week. If I read this in book format I bet it won't feel as sloggish either. Lol weekends make it rough.
JJB4345_80_815
What is this obsession with planetary sacrifice rituals? I'm starting to think that Zogarth has a lot of bloodthirsty savages as fans. *Looks in the mirror* Why am I covered in red liquid and why does it look so good on me?
JJB4345_80_815
Well said King and great idea to help reader experience!
Fleetpanda
Planetary wrath sacrifice ritual incoming. Gonna be the base for another Sin katar
JJB4345_80_815
The baptism of getting limbs severed and severely burned by lava is oddly never mentioned... (Or maybe Mr Vader was just a special kinda guy & decided that he really needed to commit)
Fleetpanda
My personal theory is his reward for a good score will be some kind of one-time system-assisted crafting. He’ll use it to combine some of his creations into a new weapon.
KenTX325
You might have a point. But the thing is these people are images. The world is fake. No experience and no consequences . I minored in chemistry and 20+ paragraphs on acids was just painful. I hate to say it but I think we are getting a lot of fill because the author is moving and it is the holidays. Fine, but I’m suggesting that a bunch of the coliseum needs editing. The Menga dungeon was great. The architect story needs to be wrapped up fast. I am looking forward to seeing the end of nevermore and a return to the main story. The Patreons are loyal fans but Amazon reviews will not be kind if you have a full book of challenge dungeons. I like books that have a plot and tell a story.
kingofshibainu
Not at all, people can still be subscribed and read smaller chunks once a week or once a month as they see fit. The delay between these chapters and the books publication is large enough to allow for exactly that.
JJB4345_80_815
I personally fear Temlat will take out his rage on the whole world in order to get revenge on his former "owner." Temlat's Holistic Approach has an ominous feeling to me. Granted, the world needs to be changed 'cause it's messed up, I just don't want Temlat's possible "cure" to be worse than the disease.
SmokeJam
God I love-hate these explanation chapters. I appreciate the detail and thoughts behind it, but damn is it a teaser :D
SmokeJam
While I appreciate the essay, essentially telling people to rather read the book instead of the daily chapters is counterproductive to the system of Patreon and you are actually at least indirectly suggesting people should stop their sub here and just buy the books when they are done.
JJB4345_80_815
KenTx325 & Cris - I can understand frustration with the approach and length of Nevermore, but I politely disagree. It's okay that not everything is personally enthralling and everyone is different. I myself have to be careful that my eyes don't start glazing over during certain fights. I do think that Nevermore is firming Jake's foundation. In these chapters Jake has had to expand his horizons and branch out into interesting new avenues that he's usually been too busy to focus on. I personally love this stuff! I've also argued this before, but we don't know what the payout is to Nevermore yet. We don't know how this all will affect Jake down the line and what the rewards are for completing the C-grade portion and finishing at or near the top of the Leaderboards. Sure, we can speculate, but the only one who does actually know is Zogarth and if he's taking this much time laying down the foundation then historically a pretty darn good house is going to be built.
Thomas Laptain
Maybe we'll finally get a planetary sacrifice ritual?
Namorat
Right? It started with Shirt and HWFWM back when he released five times a week. The new schedule makes weekends less horrible, but Zogarth took over the dread inducing weekends ^^
KenTX325
Probably some truth to that. Its different reading it chapter at a time, I don’t know where the story will end but I hope he reaches divine level and brings some of his friends with him. If so we will have to have some time skips to get through B and A grade. You won’t get there if you describe what he is doing each day. If that happens you will have a crap ending.
JJB4345_80_815
I never thought somebody could make me curse the weekends...
hachetnif
People will find a way to complain It is in our nature as Americans is the arc bad or good I would say it's all right some of it is kind of filler but there are important parts in it that I believe will affect the whole story and not just his growth but political and stuff like in that nature
JJB4345_80_815
Yes thank you for the chappy Zogarth!
Kirivina
Or just eats their records to add to itself. Like hunger eats their life and energy and shares it with Jake.
kingofshibainu
Also, summaries are general more boring to read and time skips can be jarring for pacing, skipping over important things and then necessitating flash backs or long explanations to tell us something that happened during the time skip to explain some new ability or character dynamic. If we just time skipped through these parts, the story would feel unsatisfying and unearned.
Silent Otter
Possible related skill: [Descending Dark Arcane Fang] to [Perennial Wrath of the Primal Hunter] or something. Could do something like erode/destroy other auras regardless of grade. Like instead of pushing it back, it removes it. Causing direct damage to the other soul or permanently destroys others records.
kingofshibainu
To the people complaining about nevermore dragging on, you might enjoy the experience more if you binge chapters at a time instead of reading everyday. Reading one chapter a day subjectively lengthens the perceived story time. If you wait and read larger chunks at a pace of reading a book instead of a daily chapter, you might enjoy the story more overall. This is meant to be a book series after all, and we just get the privilege of a chapter a day for those of us who don't want to wait. In a long form story, not every chapter can be action packed or affect the major plot, especially in progression series like this. There will be downtime, small improvements, world building chapters somedays. In a book, these let the reader take a break and expands the scope of the world, though if it's the one chapter you're reading for the day, it can seem slow. So, I genuinely think your reading experience will improve if you take a break from reading everyday and binge in chunks.
Riley, Glutton of All the Foods
Yeah, I'm catching what you're throwing me, Zog. Plus, after reviewing the passage, it was vague enough to warrant him learning more about it at a later date. It just confused me a bit because he just suddenly knew more about something that for all intents and purposes, it seemed he hadn't thought about at all in between the two mentions. There was no moment of realization, is what I'm saying. I rescind the statement about continuity though.
Silent Otter
Okay, so hear me out.... Everybody's like - "Temlat has too much focus cuz he's not a real character or he needs to become a real character like SIM Jake" - We all know that having him be like SIM Jake or even Rick the troll would feel like a cop-out of sorts. But what if.... What if he becomes Jakes 2nd katar somehow? Jake is intentionally developing Temlat's curse energy into the sin curse of Wrath. Also, this last part about reaffirming or rejecting the source of Temlat's hatred kinda gives me the impression Zog might be tryna pull a fast one. As in, Temlat goes ham, then decides - Hmm, lady's dead, not really mad anyone - type thing (probly waaaay off). So Jake is like - well, lemme steal your curse and put it in my nano-blade - or something. Thus starting the process of creating Eternal Wrath. And obviously using shenanigans to take the curse out of Nevermore, probly soul related.
John Balman
Wlep and now we wait
Riley, Glutton of All the Foods
As an example, if he thought about the water that had nearly killed him earlier, he now knew that said water was some kind of toxic liquid with necrotic properties. He didn’t know the details of the water, just the basics of what it was. We were both right in a way. I found this toward the end of chapter 21 in book 1.
A Bliss
True
Zogarth
An acid with necrotic properties can also be called a form of necrotic poison. All acids are also under the big umbrella of poisons or toxins.
Austin Barton
I think that’s why he is spending so much time on the architect challenge dungeon because temlat is going to be important idk if you were around for the prima event but people were saying the same thing about sim Jake
Riley, Glutton of All the Foods
After he started learning alchemy, he mentioned it when he encountered necrotic poison. If not then, it was sometime within the challenge dungeon. Give me a moment to see if I can find it.
Austin Barton
I don’t think it was ever specifically stated what was in the challenge dungeon except it melted him
Jeff McCulley
Not “filler”, because the author is adding backstory that may be usable in the future. A waste? Yes.
Jeff McCulley
Not all of them. The Valdemar stuff was awesome.
Jeff McCulley
Good morning, Cliff!
Ral
Strike me down and your journey to the dark side will be complete!
A Bliss
I skimmed most of this chapter what a waste. The Challenge dungeons are really dragging.
hachetnif
Next chapter is going to be a good one we're either going to get a apocalyptic maniac that will murder a whole world or a chill let go section I want to be surprised if that happened
Riley, Glutton of All the Foods
One of his first really close encounters with death was that time in Villy’s Challenge Dungeon, where he barely touched some acid and nearly had his entire body corroded and melted away. This is either a continuity error or a never explained misunderstanding on Jake's end. It was explained way back when that the liquid in the challenge dungeon was a necrotic poison of some sort. Of course, this was when Jake was new to the whole alchemist thing, so he could have been mistaken then, but that was never explained, so it reads as a continuity error.
Micah Molina
I don't have many issues with Nevermore. People say it's taking too long or it's ruining story pacing... what they really are saying is they want a time skip. I don't want that. It's easy to forget, this part of the story is suppose to feel like 40 years (outside of a time skip minimizing a lot of it), because Nevermore is suppose to take 50 years of valid character experience that has context. Only like 2-3 years have passed plot wise. So I'm fine with it. I do start to take issue when fictitious images, in already fictitious story take prevalence. Here's hoping that Temlat's real or at the minimum he has a similar level of effect on the story as Sim-Jake.
Chris
Absolutely, on point. Nevermore drones on and on. I’ve taken to just skimming the chapters until something of interest emerges, which it periodically does, when we actually reach the story again. I’m stilling hanging in there as I like the premise of the story and want to support the author, but it’s time to move on and get back to the substance of the story. You could summarize most of today’s chapter into a few sentences and not have really missed anything.
joel southard
Nice.
Gavin
We can agree to disagree. What is torture is reading it chapter by chapter but as a whole personally I've enjoyed it.
Sam Rosenberg
Nice chapter
Sam Rosenberg
Two years had been allocated for all [should say ‘each of’ or 10 yrs total] the Challenge Dungeons
Decibel790
Oh dear. Poor temlat. Thanks for the chapter! Curious to see how our half elf friend grows.
Taj Malloy
TFTC
KenTX325
Today’s chapter spent over 20 paragraphs discussing acid and poison theory. Seriously, edit that down to 5-10 paragraphs and get on with the story. This whole week was super slow and isn’t doing enough to push the plot forward. Just my opinion. Hate to complain but this was my favorite series and I hate seeing it stall out.
Olof Karlsson
Thanks for the chapter!
KenTX325
I’m super frustrated with Nevermore. It’s not just that the pacing is slow. My biggest problem is that the plot of the story is breaking down. We have all these important storylines outside of Nevermore that are stalled so we can spend 45 chapters or half a book in a challenge dungeon where there are no consequences. No experience, no real people, and none of the important side characters. I think about half of the colosseum should be edited out and the rest of Nevermore should be as fast as possible. Major time skips are needed to end this.
Gabriel Garcia
My goodness how did half the chapter end up being about jakes thoughts on acid. Feels like filler.
CinnamonHawk263
Ohh I’ve seen exactly how exactly much of a bastard zog can be with the cliffs, I’ve been around sense the treasure hunt arch wrapped up. I meant it’s nice in comparison to all the other times zog has left us hanging.
Dave
Thanks for the chapter
BerciTheBeast
TFTC!
Gavin
I know some ppl have had issues with the pacing and length of the nevermore arc but to me this time has been spent moving Jake from pure instinctual prodigy to properly talented combatant and alchemist. He's not Arnold in that way of genius but he is clearly a prodigy and this arc showed that and built on it and made him truly competent
Matthew Avery
If you think this small ledge is a cliff, you clearly havnt experienced the mountain ranges Zog slaps us with sometimes. Mentions of cliffage rouses his morbid facination with them, so shhh. 🤭
Tyler S.
Almost to the final stretch cant wait for more, Tyftc Zog
Namorat
I did not expect to end on a cliff, yet here we are 😄 looking forward to next week
S.w.
Enter world destroying curse energy!
BlackRazaras
Thanks for the chapter
Nate Oppy
Yay
CinnamonHawk263
What a nice cliff to leave us on, I’m very excited to see what happens next.
Thanks for the chapter!
Mark Ryane
Tyfc!
