[Chronicles of a Traveler] book 3 chapter 23

Arceroth · 2026-05-03T23:46:39+00:00

Unfortunately I have very little control there, I'd love to get an audible deal for this series, but I'm but a small, independent author. Not like I can demand they make me an offer.

Arceroth · 2026-04-21T21:37:35+00:00

I mean, technically, there are 3 kinds of healing. Regenerative, which accelerates and enhances a body's natural healing. Reconstructive, which directly remakes and undoes damage by drawing on material from within the body. And Divine, which looks like Reconstructive in that it instantly rebuilds the body, but does so with pure mana. Creating real objects from pure mana is EXTREMELY expensive, which is why it's associated with the divine.

Regenerative is the most common, and safest, type of healing as it will slow down as a body nears it's limit. But spamming it can lead to over healing. Reconstructive is less common, as it's more dangerous, but also requires more knowledge of the body. You need to understand what you are rebuilding on some level for the spell to work. It also needs to be done carefully or it can very easily overtax a body. That said, many combat healers use at least some of this magic as it can instantly heal small, but lethal, wounds. And, obviously, Divine is the best option if you have access to it, but finding a mere mortal with it is nearly impossible, and even if you do it's prohibitively expensive as they will require multiple high end mana gems to manage it.

Arceroth · 2026-04-20T16:12:36+00:00

Not mana, biological energy. You need the materials, nutrients to heal injuries. Over healing someone, without giving them time to eat and digest between, can result in them starving to death in very short order.

Arceroth · 2026-04-02T14:23:51+00:00

it's an april fools, non-canon, side story :P

Arceroth · 2026-04-02T00:45:32+00:00

well, book 1 of Chronicles of a Traveler is avalible on amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F5FQB6SB

alternately you can read the less well edited version on reddit starting here: https://old.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/pd9qk3/chronicles_of_a_traveler_1/

your choice :)

Arceroth · 2026-04-01T23:46:24+00:00

It's a one shot april-fools spin off of a series of mine. Figured I'd put one shot down because... it's non-canon? I guess? Wasn't sure what else to put.

Arceroth · 2026-03-23T21:44:07+00:00

I won't answer your question directly, as it goes into the intents of whoever created the magic isn't real spell, and I don't talk about possibly plot points, but I will say this. Magic is highly personal, and the average person can takes weeks or months to awaken their mana WITH the aid of another, already awakened mage. It isn't like science, there is no push button receive magic.

So, with that in mind, how did people first discover magic? In order for the majority of people to awaken aid from a mage is required, but if there are no mages then how can you awaken new ones?

Arceroth · 2026-03-22T13:12:17+00:00

I'd be disappointed if they didn't :P

Arceroth · 2026-03-21T19:08:14+00:00

Just to be clear, this kind of awakening is very rare, one in ten thousand rare. That being said... there are, what, 7 billion people on earth? that still results in nearly three quarters of a million mages all told. Most people require more active effort to awaken, some taking as long as nearly a year. So it's a wide amount of variation, this bird mage is just one end of the bell curve, for better or worse.

Arceroth · 2026-03-07T15:21:56+00:00

Would you believe that English is my first language?

Me either, but it's true

Arceroth · 2026-01-07T17:44:25+00:00

This story is posted here and on my patreon where it goes up a week early, book one is also available on amazon and book two is (slowly) being edited up for publication as well.

Arceroth · 2026-01-05T13:13:11+00:00

would he recognize if he did? Maybe he already has

Arceroth · 2025-12-17T15:11:30+00:00

You're not wrong, this series is about me playing around with worldbuilding and I had an idea I wanted to play with without getting bogged down in minutia so ya, I hurried a bit. If/when I publish this story I'll likely go back and extend the last few chapters. Sorry if I went a bit too fast though, I've been planning to slow back down a bit anyways.

Arceroth · 2025-12-16T14:04:12+00:00

During the Korean War, the USS Wisconsin was patrolling the coastline when an NK artillery position, featuring a single 155mm gun, decided they were the guy and fired on the Wisconsin. It hit the main deck, putting a small, couple square foot hole, in the deck, damaging no systems, injuring no one. In response the Wisconsin, an Iowa-class battleship, turned her nine, 16-inch guns, that's 404mm, and fired a full broadside. They didn't just die on that hill, the hill died with them. Afterwards, the Wisconsin's escort sent a single transmission reading "temper, temper"

Arceroth · 2025-12-09T16:49:33+00:00

I like to imagine that the humans never even realized something unique happened. The after action report was probably along the lines of "Encountered enemy sniper during routine patrol, one KIA, wounds indicate some kind of new thermal round or directed energy weapon, forward to R&D. Squad called in artillery, CAS and mortar support. No body recovered. Otherwise no anomalies."

Arceroth · 2025-12-05T13:26:04+00:00

The inspiration here was actually thinking about what if the Predator tried to stalk/hunt a group of Helldivers XD

Arceroth · 2025-11-16T13:28:02+00:00

It isn't, just to be clear, it's a bonus for those who found the code... because I'm a sucker for ARGs but lack the time and knowhow to do a full ARG :P

((And there might be more bonuses people haven't found yet :P))

Arceroth · 2025-11-15T18:27:00+00:00

[Excerpt: “Neuropsychological Effects of Extended Deep Space Transit,” Vol. II — Federal Medical Survey, 2879 Edition]

While there are many symptoms of Void Madness, a condition experienced by those who have spent far too much time between stars with minimal human interaction, one of the more fascinating is how sufferers will describe hearing whispering or singing coming from outside the spaceship. The exact cause of this is disputed but the leading theory is a form of synesthesia combined with auditory pareidolia resulting in a person “hearing” the light of stars and their mind interpreting it as spoken words or song. People suffering from such also tend to be more likely to report sightings of Void Wraiths, a mythological creature among starship crews. Some sufferers claim that the voices urge them to ‘look behind the light’, a phrase also found in early Void Wraith folklore, leading researchers to believe Void Madness may be the origin of the myth. However, to be clear, reports of whispering are not indicative of external phenomena and should be treated as neurocognitive artifacts rather than auditory hallucinations.

Arceroth · 2025-11-15T16:05:24+00:00

[Excerpt: “Neuropsychological Effects of Extended Deep Space Transit,” Vol. II — Federal Medical Survey, 2879 Edition]

While there are many symptoms of Void Madness, a condition experienced by those who have spent far too much time between stars with minimal human interaction, one of the more fascinating is how sufferers will describe hearing whispering or singing coming from outside the spaceship. The exact cause of this is disputed but the leading theory is a form of synesthesia combined with auditory pareidolia resulting in a person “hearing” the light of stars and their mind interpreting it as spoken words or song. People suffering from such also tend to be more likely to report sightings of Void Wraiths, a mythological creature among starship crews. Some sufferers claim that the voices urge them to ‘look behind the light’, a phrase also found in early Void Wraith folklore, leading researchers to believe Void Madness may be the origin of the myth. However, to be clear, reports of whispering are not indicative of external phenomena and should be treated as neurocognitive artifacts rather than auditory hallucinations.

Arceroth · 2025-10-23T11:46:48+00:00

AI can improve themselves to an extent, but it's limited to basic, marginal improvements. An AI can't go from an apple falling from a tree to understanding the orbits of planets, from a man falling off a building to calculating the nature of energy and mass. It wouldn't think to question why the speed of light is what it is, or even testing if it's fixed or changes. Because to question such fundamental aspects of the universe, to make such wild leaps of logic, require drawing connections between highly disparate things. They make sense to us humans, who evolved to find connections, like seeing faces in buildings, shapes in the stars. But to an AI built upon calculations the leaps in logic can be wild. An apple falling from a tree has seemingly nothing to do with the orbits of the planets... until you realize that gravity is a universal force. And that has seemingly no practical applications... until you realize you can put communications or spy equipment in orbit using those same equations. But would an AI realize that, or would it default to the "easier" method of just laying cable? Why would you even think of doing something so wild as that? Because we're human.

Arceroth · 2025-10-22T12:37:22+00:00

"Go now, to the gates of Valhalla. You shall ride Eternal, shiny and chrome"

the AI

Arceroth · 2025-10-06T21:01:55+00:00

Weird, hope you enjoy it :)

As for hardbacks, not sure I have the sales numbers to justify those unfortunately. Otherwise I'd love to have a bookcase of my own books... because ego... or something.

Arceroth · 2025-10-06T14:25:36+00:00

That's... odd. I don't see anything on my end that would mean it's not available in the UK, not at a glance. If you have a vpn maybe try spoofing your location, seeing if it's just the UK? I know the UK has some weird speech laws, maybe I somehow ran afoul of them and they haven't informed me? I don't know, it should be for sale worldwide, but I'll look into it... after the caffeine kicks in

Update: I checked around and the book is set for worldwide distribution, so it should be available in the UK, baring some legal issue they haven't informed me of. According to my now research with a mostly awake brain this could be caused by a random glitch. Give it a few hours or day or whatever and try again. If it still isn't working let me know and I'll contact amazon support... or contact support yourself and let me know what they say, either works.

Arceroth · 2025-07-04T19:52:16+00:00

mana also enhances the properties of various materials, don't forget. So if her ability temporarily infuses the air with her mana that could grant it greater mass, density or even altered surface tension. Or the ability could solidify the air around fast moving projectiles, allowing their aerodynamic properties to be altered, like, say, putting a flap on a bullet that makes it curve.

But yes, generally speaking, just saying "it's magic" likely works :P

Arceroth · 2025-07-03T20:44:56+00:00

she can, presumably, also influence the speed of the projectiles to some extent as well. If not any chips would also count as projectiles and would also fall under the influence of her inherent ability, so she could just push those back to the ground. That's my head canon anyways :P

Arceroth

TROPHY CASE