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I liked that series, though it got super super grim and depressing near the end, to the extent that it became almost comical. Speaking of translations, the Magical Girl Raising Project LN translations are still chugging along at a REALLY fast pace; chapter 2 of arc 5 was just released about a week after chapter 1, and these are 60 page chapters. The translation quality is also quite high compared with most other LN/WN translations. It's obviously a passion project on the part of the people involved.
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Dec 16, 2016 21:59
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Kaja Rainbow posted:I recently found Cultivation Chat Group. Basic premise: college student gets invited by accident to an internet chat group for cultivators. He thinks they're just deluded roleplayers at first. Some decent comedic touches in there. It's really good in my opinion, at least in the group of translated novels that are competent and nonweird (top 10%?) Too bad not a lot of it has been translated, yet.
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Dec 16, 2016 22:12
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Motto posted:Dunno if this is where lns go or not, but hey Oh, nice. I'll actually pick this up.
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Dec 16, 2016 23:54
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Kaja Rainbow posted:I recently found Cultivation Chat Group. Basic premise: college student gets invited by accident to an internet chat group for cultivators. He thinks they're just deluded roleplayers at first. Some decent comedic touches in there. Krunge posted:It's really good in my opinion, at least in the group of translated novels that are competent and nonweird (top 10%?) Been reading this one for a while and it's probably become one of my favourite stories. I've been reading ahead with my limited abilities all the way to its most current chapters and it manages to remain funny, avoids or minimises the standard creepy or dumb tropes. Genuinely its biggest downside is the slow, but regular, rate of translations. At least they're decent translations however. Shanakin fucked around with this message at 00:48 on Dec 17, 2016 |
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Dec 17, 2016 00:44
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I might have to pick that one up. I've been hankering for some decent Xianxia stuff (though what I really want is Jingyong style Wuxia stuff), and this sounds like it would scratch that itch ever since I've finished My Disciple.
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Dec 17, 2016 03:09
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I was randomly searching around on Amazon looking for a new fantasy novel to read when I stumbled across Unsouled and Soulsmith, the first 2 novels in a new open-ended fantasy series called Cradle by a guy named Will Wight. They are essentially western-interpreted versions of a fairly standard cultivation based xianxia setting. While the world and some of the plot beats (especially in Book 1) are distinctly xianxia inspired, they are also novels instead of web-novels and are written with a different story structure than your standard xianxia. I enjoyed them immensely, and definitely think they're worth the $2.99 they cost. What follows is my slightly spoilerish overview of book 1: As I said above, I very much enjoyed both of these novels - The world is well-developed, the cultivation system has some complexities that could be very interesting down the road, and the characters seem much more fleshed out than your standard xianxia side characters. The first novel covers a fairly cliche opening arc of a xianxia - The main character cannot cultivate and is ostracized by his clan, so he must use his wits to outsmart his way forwards. After a brush with fate shows him how much greater his destiny could be, he escapes his valley into the wider world, learning in the process that the strongest person in his valley is like a child in the outside world. So yeah, pretty cliche when you're just laying out plot points. But at the same time, it uses a much different story structure, and it definitely benefits from being written in English instead of read through translation. In particular I love the way the life changing moment is done. He isn't given some super OP magical device, or a magical guardian that trains him or anything, he is just given a glimpse of how big the world is and a nudge out the door. There are several side characters which are very well written, and the arc of the protagonist's growth is well-developed. So anyways, if you can spare $2.99 I say give it a shot.
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Dec 17, 2016 19:05
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Hahaha, Cultivation Chat Group is great. I don't know how far the translation is, but I'm right now at the point where a western monk is facing off with a poltergeist on a subway. It's like My Beautiful CEO Wife, but without the "justified" murders and excessively horny (antagonist) men. Only the first 100 chapters of 900+ though, so I hope it doesn't change. Also, modern weaponry isn't seen as jokes, as apparently a pretty powerful cultivator almost got blown up by a nuke one time.
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Dec 19, 2016 01:56
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according to novelupdates, us monolingual peasants are still in the 60s for cultivation chat group
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Dec 19, 2016 04:53
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jwang posted:Hahaha, Cultivation Chat Group is great. I don't know how far the translation is, but I'm right now at the point where a western monk is facing off with a poltergeist on a subway. It's like My Beautiful CEO Wife, but without the "justified" murders and excessively horny (antagonist) men. Only the first 100 chapters of 900+ though, so I hope it doesn't change. Also, modern weaponry isn't seen as jokes, as apparently a pretty powerful cultivator almost got blown up by a nuke one time. We aren't at that point yet, but this sounds like the story'll still stay awesome.
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Dec 19, 2016 05:12
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Silynt posted:I was randomly searching around on Amazon looking for a new fantasy novel to read when I stumbled across Unsouled and Soulsmith, the first 2 novels in a new open-ended fantasy series called Cradle by a guy named Will Wight. They are essentially western-interpreted versions of a fairly standard cultivation based xianxia setting. While the world and some of the plot beats (especially in Book 1) are distinctly xianxia inspired, they are also novels instead of web-novels and are written with a different story structure than your standard xianxia. I enjoyed them immensely, and definitely think they're worth the $2.99 they cost. I just bought it (despite never having read a xianxia before, unless you count the first volume of Terror Infinity), and it seems interesting so far.
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Dec 19, 2016 05:39
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Boy do I feel silly now for initially putting off the newest batch of chapters of Way of Choices, just because the ones before that ended with the tired old "Protagonist stumbles upon bathing girl" cliché. The fight being over before all the limbs finish falling from the sky kind of reminded me of Dwarf Fortress 
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Dec 19, 2016 16:07
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i was kinda neutral on emperor of solo play, but then the mc responded to an attempted mpk by having all his skeletons /dance instead of taking any aggro himself. that's some good poo poo.
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Dec 19, 2016 18:12
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Cultivation Chat Group is definitely worth the read. It's like My Disciple, only the Xianxia world is moved over to the "real" world instead of a person moved to the Xianxia world. All the characters are great, even the minor (very minor) characters like the western monk. (To clarify, that western monk is a Caucasian dude that's a Buddhist monk. I thought he was a catholic priest or something, but turns out he's a Caucasian who decided to join a Buddhist monastery and was thus inducted into the world of cultivation)
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Dec 20, 2016 03:05
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gimme the GOD drat candy posted:i was kinda neutral on emperor of solo play, but then the mc responded to an attempted mpk by having all his skeletons /dance instead of taking any aggro himself. that's some good poo poo. It's pretty decent as far as MMO stories go, but it has the dual issues of spending lots of chapters on pointless happenings + slow translations, making it essentially pointless to keep up with.
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Dec 20, 2016 03:15
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Silver2195 posted:I just bought it (despite never having read a xianxia before, unless you count the first volume of Terror Infinity), and it seems interesting so far. Now 22% of the way through the first book. Not sure what's up with the names in this world; the mix of Chinese names (mostly family names) and generic 2-syllable fantasy names (mostly given names) is an odd combination. The line about Lindon's badge having the "old" character for nothingness or whatever makes me think that the Chinese names are from an archaic language and the fantasy names are from a language that developed from it or displaced it more recently. Lindon is a lot less of an outcast than the term Unsouled implies. Not that he doesn't still have a fairly rotten deal in many ways (his parents don't care much about him, he's subject to arbitrary rules that seem intended to keep him from ever accomplishing anything, and Teris feels entitled to bully him), but there's more nuance to, say, the First Elder's interactions with him than I'd expect from the antagonistic authority figure in a story like this. It's an interesting approach. Kelsa is cool. I like the line about how Lindon might resent her for having everything he doesn't if only she wasn't so fair. She doesn't coddle him, but she's helped him out a lot...which is only fair, since he's helped her out a lot, between the spirit fruit and giving her the basic idea for a fairly overpowered technique. Elder Whisper claims there's still room for a lot of progression beyond Gold (and as a kitsune with only five tails, he should know), but what are the levels beyond Gold even called? Platinum-Diamond-Pearl? Or do they switch to descriptive names? Or do they not even really have names for the stages beyond Gold? Part of me is disappointed we got the oops-I-cheated-you-win-so-don't-hit-me ploy instead of a straight up fight between Lindon and Eri, but I can understand why the author didn't want the protagonist beating up a little girl, lol. Edit: Turns out the Empty Palm is pretty much useless for Kelsa, and perhaps for Lindon too in the long run. I guess it makes sense; as Jaran points out, if it were really as overpowered as it seemed, everyone would use it. Silver2195 fucked around with this message at 05:13 on Dec 20, 2016 |
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Dec 20, 2016 04:45
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If you enjoyed the comedy Xianxia of My Disciple, Cultivation Chat Group is a must read, especially when you get around chapter 240. All you need to know is: Initial D... with a tractor. This guy is GENIUS!
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Dec 21, 2016 01:31
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45% through Unsouled. I love how completely absurd Li Markuth is. Killing a hyped character like the Wei Patriarch is expected to establish a villain like that, but no-selling the main character's one-in-a-million-chance plan and then killing the main character demonstrates power surpassing narrative conventions. Suriel is obviously going to resurrect Lindon in about five seconds, but still. Edit: Based on his jewelry, I guessed that the beyond-Gold stage Markuth had reached was called Diamond, but he's being referred to as a Gold from Suriel's point of view, so I guess either he was lying or the levels beyond Gold don't really have names. Silver2195 fucked around with this message at 05:31 on Dec 21, 2016 |
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Dec 21, 2016 05:23
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Finished Unsouled. Suriel explaining how crazy the powerlevels get was cool. Lindon got a little too lucky in some of his fights towards the end. (Whitehall even calls him out on his reflexes being better than they should be.) Other than that, the ending was good.
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Dec 22, 2016 08:28
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Meng Hao's family is the best.
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Dec 22, 2016 21:36
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Got a question for folks who have actually done fan-translations or edited them. Sometimes I'll be reading a release of something and there'll be a (?) next to a word or phrase. Is this the editor questioning the word choice and it just doesn't get addressed sometimes, or is it a Japanese thing like putting (lol) next to a phrase to indicate sarcasm or something? I ask because I cracked volume 2 of Yen Press's Mahouka and ran into it twice in the first, like, thirty pages. It wouldn't be the first time I saw an egregious editor fuckup in the series, so.
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Dec 23, 2016 22:18
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Zwingley posted:Got a question for folks who have actually done fan-translations or edited them. It does happen that the narration will include (?) to show that there's a general doubt whether the thing in question is worthy of the name, kind of thing. As an imaginary clichéd example, let's say a girl makes lunch for her boyfriend, but she's oh-so-terrible at cooking, and what is handed over is more like a piece of goo, then the narrator may call it a "lunchbox (?)" in order to show that maybe it doesn't really qualify, even if the girl insists that's totally what it is. In the case of Mahouka, I can try to look at the original Japanese text to see if it was introduced in the translation or not, but I'll need a page number and some surrounding context / sentences to figure out where it's from. Note that page 123 in the English version won't be page 123 in the Japanese, so it's not enough with a number on its own.
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Dec 23, 2016 22:34
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When I get home I can pick out the exact spots it occurs, but if it's an actual thing in the Japanese text I'm not particularly surprised it was left alone. We'll definitely see, though, because there was a conversation in the first volume where they accidentally translated Mizuki as Miyuki during a speaking part and it made literally no sense. 
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Dec 23, 2016 22:47
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It wasn't that hard to find, it's on the very first page of the volume: so yes, that's from the original text and not an editor fuckup.
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Dec 23, 2016 22:50
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Maybe it helps to know that Mahouka was originally a web novel published for free on Narou, and some of the quirks rampant there probably remain in the paper edition.
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Dec 23, 2016 22:56
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don't support the author of mahouka, you monster
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Dec 23, 2016 23:26
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Why are you reading Mahouka man don't do that to yourself.
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Dec 23, 2016 23:30
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I thought the paragraphs from the novels that Namtab posted back in the Mahouka thread would've been enough to convince everyone not-Wickedhate that it was bad
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Dec 24, 2016 00:33
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Speaking of former Narou web novels, has anyone heard something about a title called Kimi no Suizou wo Tabetai (君の膵臓をたべたい == I'd like to eat your pancreas) ? I've seen it top the sales charts for a year now, and it's apparently sold nearly 700 000 copies, which is absurd. Looks like there'll be a movie adaptation next year as well. Was surprised to see on Wikipedia that it started out on Narou, until some author discovered it and pulled strings at a publisher or whatever. Edit: Oh, looks like there's some sort of translation on-going, http://www.novelupdates.com/series/i-want-to-eat-your-pancreas/
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Dec 24, 2016 00:49
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Tamba posted:It wasn't that hard to find, it's on the very first page of the volume: Yeah that was the one I was gonna post. Thanks for clearing things up for me! darkgray posted:Maybe it helps to know that Mahouka was originally a web novel published for free on Narou, and some of the quirks rampant there probably remain in the paper edition. This makes sense. gimme the GOD drat candy posted:don't support the author of mahouka, you monster I understand and respect your opinion, but will continue to pay for my entertainment when I can. Ytlaya posted:Why are you reading Mahouka man don't do that to yourself. HiveCommander posted:I thought the paragraphs from the novels that Namtab posted back in the Mahouka thread would've been enough to convince everyone not-Wickedhate that it was bad Yeah, they're not great. But sometimes I just need to shut off my brain for a few hours. It's not that much different than reading a Reacher novel. Also the thread deserves to hear about professional translation/editorial errors as egregious as this:  The last instance of Miyuki is supposed to be Mizuki.
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Dec 24, 2016 03:05
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The terrible secret to professional translators is that the vast majority of them aren't that much better than fan translators. They just have competent proofreaders and editors.
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Dec 24, 2016 03:29
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I like how the one random page you linked is talking about how amazing and awesome Tatsuya is. I would be curious to get a total count of the number of times characters/the narrative talked about how great he is. edit: The one thing I have to give Mahouka credit for is that the protagonist, while super boring and personality-less, at least isn't an abrasive rear end in a top hat who hates women like most WN/LN protagonists.
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Dec 24, 2016 04:31
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I mean, there are only two or three volumes officially translated. I could make a drinking game out of it and keep a running total if you really want. e: I'll even do you a solid and not hold you liable if I die from alcohol poisoning
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Dec 24, 2016 04:33
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Ytlaya posted:I like how the one random page you linked is talking about how amazing and awesome Tatsuya is. I would be curious to get a total count of the number of times characters/the narrative talked about how great he is. that's just the surface layer. the real heart of the series is racism, nationalism and objectivism. mahouka is vile propaganda under a thin veil of generic ln trash.
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Dec 24, 2016 04:40
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Silver2195 posted:Finished Unsouled. Suriel explaining how crazy the powerlevels get was cool. Finished Unsouled too, but I don't remember Suriel explaining that?
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Dec 24, 2016 21:55
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I read Unsouled on the recommendation and enjoyed it quite a bit. Thanks!
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Dec 24, 2016 22:11
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I read both volumes of cradle while traveling. Good enough that I'll continue the series when more come out, though the new character they introduce in the second one is a couple notches too flighty to fit in with everyone else.
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Dec 24, 2016 22:12
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I still am in the beginning of the second volume, but I am quite disappointed that Kelsa was left behind without any hints as to what was coming, as she was in many way a better character than Lindon. While Lindon being fairly good at using loophole is very nice, he - so far- is really not a hard worker at all and is VERY arrogant as it seems he somehow got from Suriel that he was sure to achive his goal, instead of it being a very, very, very long shot that he has to go against the odds for.
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Dec 25, 2016 01:13
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Arkeus posted:Finished Unsouled too, but I don't remember Suriel explaining that? I meant stuff like that Eight Man Empire woman reaching Gold at age 6, and now being at a level where 1000 ordinary Golds couldn't scratch her armor. She doesn't go into specific details. Speaking of power levels, the beginning of Soulsmith explains something that confused me about Li Markuth. He claims that the term Gold is inadequate to describe how far he's advanced, but he's referred to as a Gold from Suriel's perspective. The Lowgold/Highgold/Truegold distinction explains it; Markuth means he's beyond Lowgold. I kind of agree about Kelsa. I hope she survived the Heaven's Glory attack on the Wei clan. Suriel's Presence described the event as "destruction of the Wei clan," but we know that Elder Whisper, at least, survived. It would be cruel if Kelsa is dead, since she's probably the main person Lindon is getting stronger in order to try to save in the first place. It's not like anyone else in Sacred Valley was particularly nice to him, aside from Elder Whisper (who only met him once), the random merchant he tricked into getting him past the staircase, and Elder Anses (who ended up pointing Heaven's Glory at the Wei clan).
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Dec 25, 2016 03:37
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Silver2195 posted:
I think Markuth is a more than a few steps beyond gold at all. He was beyond Cradle's power scale and Cradle is shown to at least contain underlords and, presumably, overlords. He asks if anyone else in the valley is gold ranked and accepts the gold badge only because it's above the rank of everyone else present. I'd have to double check but I believe Suriel mentions him having outgrown Cradle as a planet/world. The reason she intervened was because he was crawling his way back from a "stronger" world to set up a fiefdom where no one can challenge him.
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Dec 25, 2016 04:17
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Desuwa posted:I think Markuth is a more than a few steps beyond gold at all. He was beyond Cradle's power scale and Cradle is shown to at least contain underlords and, presumably, overlords. He asks if anyone else in the valley is gold ranked and accepts the gold badge only because it's above the rank of everyone else present. I just looked up something on Will Wight's site, and it seems we're both wrong, although only because Suriel essentially lies to the reader twice... http://www.willwight.com/a-blog-of-dubious-intent/deathmatch-part-i-the-death-ing-begins#comments Will Wight posted:the Ninecloud Court princess and Northstrider are a level beyond Li Markuth and the Sword Sage, who are both a level beyond Underlord. So he's actually beyond Gold entirely (despite the narration describing him as a Gold in a Suriel POV section, which I assume was a mistake on Wight's part), but there are other people on Cradle stronger than him (so he hasn't really outgrown it). The Sword Sage being on that level too is surprising, since the Heaven's Glory Elders were able to poison him. I guess either you don't get automatic poison immunity from advancing even that far, or Heaven's Glory can cook up some really special poison. Silver2195 fucked around with this message at 04:44 on Dec 25, 2016 |
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Dec 25, 2016 04:42
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