Home
Artists
Search Recent Random
Posts
Search DMs Popular Hash Lookup Tags Random
Importer
Import FAQ
Register
Partychan Telegram ThePornDude
Home Artists Posts Import Register

091: Essence (Patreon)

Published:
2020-03-01 06:00:02
Edited:
2020-04-19 17:25:39
Imported:
2020-09

Downloads

Content

Warning: contains math.

Comments

Ezio Azrael

Thanks mate, sorry that the whole pirating site thing is going on. Hope they take it down soon.

The Human

Warning: contains math could be the byline for the cover

Anonymous

Is this the start of Rain's path to cap growth without hunting blues? Seems promising

Ezio Azrael

Damm, poor Rain, I hope he doesn’t go insane.

Anonymous

Wait, is rain a blue now, or can he just train instead of needing a blue? My mind is boggled.

Michael Hughes

Great stuff in this chapter. The great thing about rpgs is the sense of progress you get when the numbers increase. Having quantifiable growth is a wonderful feeling. Being locked for a while the story got away from what I love about it. Now we have total experience, increased stat tolerance, soul strength, and possibly essence gain to chart positive growth. Thanks SS.

Robert
>>33105988

I think that's what it is building toward. Probably at some point you are able to turn raw experience into level cap.

The Human

I love the feeling of discovery and that we're somehow tense with excitement over being in the cusp of figuring out essence and possibly how to train it. Also, how great would it be if Velika really did stash him down there on purpose, for whatever reason maybe just to scare him/store him away while she sorts stuff out with the watch mutiny, and then comes back after a few days to see if he learnt his lesson. And somehow, infuriatingly, in the meantime, he's uncapped himself and is approaching her level. *velika's paranoia intensifies*

Anonymous

May need to check the Strength Tolerance maths, 18+6+6+7 = 37 not 36, unless one of those points was where that single Vigor point come from.

Daoist

Interesting. It'd be very cool if he can increase his cap without fighting blue monsters, but it seems like we're still missing a piece of the puzzle, because it doesn't seem like just getting mana usage xp and spending it on skill unlocks is going to cut it, even if it is strengthening his soul.

Anonymous

8.4 general experience a second for as long as Rain devotes his aura slot to it. When he first checked, he had gained a total of 336,832 experience since awakening. If he leaves Essence Well running in free experience mode for a full 24 hours, that's 8.4*60*60*24 = 725,760 experience. Rain could more than triple his total experience in a single day. TRIPLE. The limiting factor seems to be the soulstrain from unlocking skill trees to stay below his experience cap, but that limit seems to be increasing with his total experience gained as well. This could run away until he's unlocked every single skill.

Yshua

Oh man I am super psyched! It /is/ called “Essence” Well, isn’t it?!

Atlas Dwarf
>>33106507

Maybe if he gets 22,750 total XP from Essence Well alone he'll level? It would really be broken though cause he'd level in just over 45 minutes.

Gabriel

One of the best chapters yet.

Joshua Little

Forget efficiency, time to crank essence well. Thanks for the chapter.

Rheklr

Totally called it on the soulstrain! I knew it was more complicated than we'd been led to believe, and the effective Focus headache threshold was too perfect to not be the case. Now that we have a total experience stat, I wonder if soulstrain is related to a percentage of total experience spent, rather than a percentage of experience to the next level.

Anonymous

Interesting indeed! The next question is what else can he spend xp on? And does anything special happen when he unlocks all skill trees?

Kyle
>>33106844

There's a limit on skill tier unlocks though. Each successive tier is 10x the exp to unlock as the previous one. So he could unlock up to all tier 3 skills, but he can't even unlock 1 tier 4 because it's over 4x his total cap.

Anonymous

He should try to modify Aura Compression ability so that he only compresses the aura of his back, creating an aura cone instead of a circle, would increase the power without increasing the cost.

Anonymous

Makes me wonder if he trained his essence if he could increase his level cap.

Thenais

theorically couldn't he absorb the essence of the dead around him to increase his cap ? he can transfert out, can't he transfert in ?

Anonymous
>>33110273

I guess that is how it is going to work. Otherwise the skill would be too powerfull. He probably needs to find places with a lot of essence in the air, like dungeons.

Ziggy

I enjoy all the theorizing on soul strain stuff. It's important and hard to figure out for him. Plus everyone takes that shit "as is" because they've grown up with it but he's actually trying to figure out what is legit and what isn't. Theory crafting, mmmm... You might want a very short sentence (or add on to a sentence) to remind the audience what each part of the new "armor" section of his status is for. Totally appreciate that you think we're smart or remember. But I've read the related chapters several times and it took even me a minute to parse out that those stood for Durability, Saturation and Charge. I'm no genius but I know the material pretty decently. If I'm having troubles, I imagine plenty of the casual weekly readers will too lol. Also, lord I can't wait to figure out what's happening with the DKE and Empire! This chapter just makes it even more obvious either shit is being mismanaged or there are plots. When it all finally comes to a head, I'm going to have SO much catharsis.

Dax

He could lower the effeciency to the point that using the skill cost as much as his Regen rather than nothing at all. Should get more xp for free that way too

Kalle

Finally using his essencewell to harvest XP for compression it has been bugging me for so long that he doesnt max compression this way in a day or two

tibbish
>>33108484

No one knows but I'm guessing it might unlock a secret or hidden skill. Or maybe he breaks the system a bit more and he can level without killing blues or something. I don't think the author would go that far but who knows?

Elayda

And then Rain became an essence cultivator and ate the adamant empire.

Chopper

Has it occurred to no one that he could have just spent the whole day moving rocks instead of wasting time doing calisthenics? And don't say 'oh but it would collapse on him' because from the description it's just a large pile of rocks blocking the exit with larger rocks that he can't move at the top. If he moved enough small debris the larger bits would shift allowing him to escape, probably.

tibbish
>>33114435

In story he already said that wasn't possible at his current strength which is why he is training it up. He is 'there' and we're not so I guess we have to trust him here.

payforthat

Ok, I am not buying that Rain has stumbled upon the secret to raising his level cap. As he wont be the first to unlock all available trees(just the first to do it this fast). I think all he has is worked out is one of the ways to strengthen his 'soul'. We don't have much to go on as to what advantage this gives. We know it can be used to 'read' people(and block it) and bypass metal armor absorbing mana (and presumably block attempts to do that too) How useful will this be to Rain?. At a guess it will probably allow for some tricks(such as reading) and give advantages in applying and resisting some skills. Mostly I suspect its part of buildup to him successfully linking to the barrier stone. Guess we will see. One soul strain he mentioned was over detection "synesthetic mess". That fits very well with potential issues dealing with a highly complex enchant. If Rain decides to train all forms of soul strain that could get some attention. Might even end up using it to map out the collapsed sections to work out where to dig.

payforthat
>>33114869

Some maths. Rain at start of this chapter is listed as having 336,832Xp. 14,749 in the bank, 112,661 'spent' on leveling. 158,400(144*1100) unlocking T1&T2 skills and 50,000 on five T3 gives 335,810 Total. So 1022 short? is my maths off or something else going on? He can unlock another 139 T3 skills, so can get total Xp up to 1,734,833. Equivalent to total spend on leveling up to 34 (for Rare class). EDIT: 1022 missing XP was me messing up maths. I missed 100XP from level 0 to 1 and level 5 to 6 cost 2022 not 1100 mana due to switch from unclassed XP to rare.

And Then There Was None
>>33105660

I really REALLY hope it isn't. Rain hasn't done anything to earn breaking the system entirely. He picked a rare but hardly unknown build (Endless had the same afterall, and the empire is known to use monoliths) and... not much else. He's not even silverplate.

Adam Roundfield

Westbridge mentioned that only a true mage can interface with the barrier tech and change settings. Maybe that simply referred to soul strength and/or total xp, and not being level 75 or any specific class...

Pyrefiend

Essence is the energy used to manipulate Mana through skills. Maybe Rain could try using it without the guide of his skills, like messing with his Mana manually.

Pyrefiend

If essence is a soul stat, Rain should try to get it displayed on his stat screen. Without more data than "it exists", there is no way to learn new ways to use it. If it was possible to do blindly, some native would have stumbled upon it by now.

Spicyice101

My bet is he’s going to exploit the essence well to raise his cap.

Sam

Does the .pdf link work for anyone else?

Ziggy
>>33105648

You know, if it weren't for the pretty cover SS had made, I'd totally agree. As it is now it would just detract from the cover instead.

Ziggy
>>33105667

I enjoyed the way we see Rain's terror break through at the end. He can't distract himself with exercising and has a lull in his theory crafting and it hits him again. That'd be scary as hell.

Ziggy
>>33106260

CAN her paranoia intensify? I guess she could start seeing shadow people. ...wait are shadow people a thing?

Michael Hughes

So anyone else notice that the honor post was removed. Patreon count went down 46. 2.5 X 46 X 12 = $1390 a year.

Tycho Green
>>33124625

Isn’t this story only 3 dollars if you want? Really stupid to still go pirate

Atlas Dwarf
>>33107998

One thing that has been mentioned is that monsters are a lot stronger per level than humans. Then tack on monster levels depending on ambient mana, them being attracted to mana sources, and Essence Monster being even stronger per level than regular monsters. So maybe soulstrain is just evening out that level power disparity between monsters and humans.

Kiiiddd
>>33116403

When they talk about the Majistraal I always thought they must of had a better way to get high levels than essence Monsters

Anonymous

What im interested in is what this means for the Life/Energy monikers that the other wells have. Does this mean you can turn essence into the other two somehow?

Styx
>>33140985

How I see it is the essence is the internal ‘soul energy’. Mana is an energy source external to the person and is essentially infinite. Essence is what the person uses to force that external mana through the spell and is converted to other types of energy IE: soul stamina or soul health. In this case essence well converts external mana into essence which replenishes the essence that rain uses so he can use it indefinitely. The higher the the persons essence the more external mana they are able to move through the spell. Im guessing the the other attributes also have an essence which will draw from this same external external energy source for their techniques.

Anonymous

I think people are doubting rain knowledge of math such as having the concept of 0 and etc, is really underestimating maths. I think it's entirely possible this discovery of this is what going to make him into someone like the emperor power level wise. His going to uncap and steam roll plebs like nobodies busies and you all are going to like it.

Stephen Pearson

Oh he's definitely in the path to being OP, and maybe this will unlock essence growth through a cultivation-esque path as part of that. However, if it does then that will remove potentially engaging scenes/arcs of intense danger as he had to fight to level up. Which might be fine, honestly - those tend to get repetitive. Even if this does unlock essence cultivation, it won't be quick. The path of growth and learning is the meat of the story. Every power gain story I've read had gotten uninteresting when the protagonist is truly op; often the author has to the themselves into knots as suddenly there are lots of strong people/ other areas/ other worlds that were not properly foreshadowed as a goal. Or nerfs, which suck. Phew! So what I'm saying is that whatever path it goes, it will take a long time and be fun to read as a story, because the author is good:-)

Stephen Pearson
>>33151669

Btw, even without that he's way in the path to op. His ridiculous ring and training methods will allow him to optimize for many different situations ( the invincible yet corrupt superhero in a book I read recently was so powerful because his secret ability was to move his stats around in exactly this way). One single level and he will be able to pick an offensive aura that he can blast at full since it has no environmental mage burn effects. Several levels and prismatic intent. I honestly think that with detection, and at around level 26 or 27 he will be able to take mana vision, plus mana manipulation, and perfect recall with over mana, and his new understanding of essence, that he will be able to duplicate non aura spells that he has friends teach him. So, even without endless leveling... Super OP. Plus great armor:-)

Anonymous

I have to say, I actually really enjoyed the breakdown of the maths and the experiments. Feels quite fun to try peer into the mechanics of the system

Silver Beard

Bit disappointed in Rains thoughts of rescue. If his aura can detect...could it not also impact? First of the story...he got tracked down by his winter aura, No? If he hit folks in his range with even a little velocity...a bit of purity, etc the anomaly would be noticed.

Kalle
>>33158554

He does not have any aura which isn't stopped by walls that can affect environment

Anonymous

I just realized, couldn't there totally be a mana-manipulation hack in this world? Like if you just had a bracelet that let you put mana in and take it out again that would be an efficiency hack on the level of this Essence Well one. You would only be gated by the bracelets transfer in/out efficiency and how much mana you can handle in a day. Would also be great for helping Jamus grind his sync stats.

Kalle
>>33167627

Seems like a resonable way to level mana manipulation without dynamolevels of mana yea

Darastrix

When is the next chapter expected to drop? Is there a chance for a Thursday chapter or is it a Sunday one?

Styx
>>33231613

Do bonus chapters usually come out on a Thursday or can they be any day?

Zelosh

A decent chapter but not too satisfying, and not because of the math bits (I never mind that). I just think this whole "I'm trapped and need to train to get out" dilemma could be resolved in one chapter and at this rate it seems it'll take 3. The epiphanies are interesting enough but too much time is being spent on it.

Michael Hughes

So Rain is described as being in a wash room off to the side blocked off from the main chamber by rubble and a drain chamber too small for him to go through within detection range of dozens of corpses on the other side of a wall. I want him to get strong enough to clear the rubble and return to the main chamber full of corpses so that he can purify them and maybe get accolades. Then I don't know he could use the lever to get some water flowing through the drain tunnel and then freeze it with novas to cause the ice to expand the hole, go back in the dungeon to break the core and be spit out someplace else, clear enough of the rubble to escape, get rescued, or use essence well or accolades to get one skill point to get the force aura that damages mundane materials as well as entities to break up the rubble. He could strengthen his soul enough to force a skill point refund like uncertain savior to work on things while staying capped but that seems unlikely. Still if the system allows her to do it then it is something the system can do. Less than 28h to go.

Anonymous
>>33366050

Going back to the dungeon instead of to the surface would certainly be interesting. It would have to be motivated by necessity though. Given the option I'm sure Rain would go for the surface.

evyatar

Maybe a hidden skill? With the essence stuff?

Anonymous

I just bought the patreon subscription. I'm thinking the votes are gonna be kinda skewed in favor of whatever you are writing in any case because it's patreon supporters only. Of course we like the stuff you write even the math.