7.1 KiB
[RT][WIP] Worth the Candle: Chapter 21
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Author: u/xamueljones My arch-enemy is entropy*
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URL: http://archiveofourown.org/works/11478249/chapters/26748348
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Score: 52
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Created: 2017-08-19T17:28:19
Post:
Comments:
u/cthulhuraejepsen [+26] Fruit flies like a banana (4 hours later)
Also, ch 22.
u/Noumero [+24] Self-Appointed Court Statistician (2 hours later)
Let's look at some descriptions of level-ups.
First one: Level up!
That last message came with a sensation that I can only describe as orgasmic. Golden light burst forward from me in a wave that kicked up wind and I briefly lifted up off my feet. It was like someone had jabbed a live wire directly into the pleasure center of my brain.
It was over in less than a second and left me trembling afterward.
Fourth one: Level up!
You might have thought that the golden light was familiar to me now, but it still managed to catch me by surprise, and the wave of ecstasy was no less sweet for having experienced it before. I lifted out of my seat, only slightly, and came back down without losing my balance.
Fifth one: Level up!
I sank down to my knees as the golden wave of bliss took me, but it lifted me partway up, supporting me entirely as it shook my body with ecstasy. It seemed to last longer this time, long enough that I felt myself in its grip. When it stopped, I felt this hollow emptiness, as though I’d been pithed.
Seventh one: Level up!
It had been too long since I’d felt that light touch me, the fingers of it gently gracing the pleasure centers of my brain. I felt somewhat hollow as it receded from me, a feeling that hadn’t come with it before, and it was with regret that I returned to the real world.
The apparent trend isn't hard to note.
Speculation: level-ups' side-effects are going to be increasing in intensity and duration, asymptotically approaching wireheading. At higher levels, Juniper would become obsessed with leveling-up, as no worldly pleasures would be able to compare to this sensation.
u/FudgeOff [+22] (5 hours later)
My theory is that each level-up brings him closer to divinity. Because he's a god. He created this world (with some help) and each level up restores some of that divine power.
u/Noumero [+7] Self-Appointed Court Statistician (a day later)
... Sure. Let's see, there's a nearly-infinite number of gods in this world, but most of them are locked into an eternal state of bliss. Juniper was, for some reason, brought down from it, and is now on a quest to retain it.
(Probably not.)
u/Sven10 [+8] (an hour later)
Piqued my interested, just finished reading up to here. Definitely one of my new favorites. Great read, and I actually can't wait to continue reading.
u/None [+9] (7 hours later)
[deleted]
u/BoilingLeadBath [+6] (a day later)
Alternatively, he could just have a bit of some sort of hitherto undocumented magical perception. This could explain how he knows backstories and the abilities of people and magic items he's in the room with, though in the latter case, this perceptive process is rewriting his memory rather than doing the game-layer overlay thing.
With a lower prior due to the stronger ESP required, this class of explanation would explain how he knows what many of the 1000 magical items he's made do, so is unfortunately a bit hard to test.
u/Kuratius [+1] (4 days later)
He would have created the world 500 years ago, maybe people created a disproportionate amount of magic items during that time?
u/None [+1] (4 days later)
[deleted]
u/Kuratius [+1] (4 days later)
Their characters were active in the the world 500 years ago, e.g. Uther Penndraig. I assumed the changes and additions were just the result of the natural evolution of his original world, more or less.
u/troublemubble [+5] (9 hours later)
Fantastic serial. I tend to disdain LitRPGs, but this one is fascinating and clever (people in the world aren't stupid and protagonist doesn't get to win by thinking about basic and obvious things), and the advantages (levelling up is OP compared to training) is balanced against zero world knowledge in a deadly world.
u/Kurupi69 [+6] (an hour later)
Great Webserial, got hooked instantly. Hope there is no unnecesary sex scenes
u/cthulhuraejepsen [+22] Fruit flies like a banana (2 hours later)
I don't plan on including any sex scenes, mostly because I have this division in my head between proper prose fiction and erotica, and I don't tend to like it too much when they overlap. So if anyone were to have sex, it would be more of a "fade to black" thing rather than descriptions of body parts and fluids and things like that.
(And I say this here mostly to assure people that this story isn't going to dip into pornography, and conversely, to warn people that this story isn't going to dip into pornography, if that's the thing they're after. If anyone really wants to read heavily NSFW stuff I wrote, you can find that under the /u/HPMORkinkthrowaway [NSFW] username, which I've decided I'm not actually that ashamed of.)
u/eternal-potato [+7] he who vegetates (3 hours later)
*mildly disappointed*
u/cthulhuraejepsen [+7] Fruit flies like a banana (4 hours later)
Hey, better to be disappointed now than later.
u/renegadeduck [+1] picky but enthusiastic (a month later)
That is some excellent slash. Best I've ever read, though to be fair that's not a very high bar.
u/SeekingImmortality [+2] The Eldest, Apparently (2 days later)
And, Chapter 23
u/entropizer [+1] (a day later)
Two shots left, for those counting at home.
This felt anachronistic.
I could quite constrain myself
Couldn't.
u/cthulhuraejepsen [+2] Fruit flies like a banana (a day later)
Fixed the typo, thanks.
As for the anachronism, it's hard for me to definitively track down the etymology, but my suspicion is that it's a post-radio invention created by sports broadcasters, maybe independently, and used as a rhetorical device in speech since shortly after that. Aerb is firmly post-radio (and post-nuclear, for that matter). This is also a story that's somewhat egregious about its disregard for the fourth wall (though I mostly try to keep it like that within the bounds of narrator voice/thoughts, I guess). With that said, I'm always somewhat gun-shy about things that take people out of the story and have tried my best to avoid too many of those, so I did take it out.