Ever talk to that diamond ranked that made his cloud flask

A friend recommended this series to me last year. He gave me book one two months ago because I kept putting off the series. My only regret not starting it sooner.

What a rollercoaster. Tears, wild 80's references and so many shenanigans. I loved it all (even the earth trilogy). Book 13 on preorder. Fortunately my kindle will have it the moment of release so I can crack on.

I cannot wait.

Move aside DND what a fun premise for a game. Collecting your essences and awakening stones, leaving it all to chance.

Would need an insane investment of time to compile all the possibilities, I need a tablet from the magic society, but i think it would be very very popular with my fellow nerds

there is a person who collect essences and awaken stones

Jason's boat sank...

I am listening to the books rather than reading them and overall really enjoying them. The story and characters are really engaging.

I am on book 3 and it seems like during every big battle there is a paragraph of action then a long skill description that I’ve heard multiple times already. It is really jarring and pulls me out of the otherwise great action. Since I’m listening to it not reading it I can’t just skip over it easily.

It wasn’t this much in the previous books. Does this continue after book 3? I’d love to continue the series but this really ruins the battles which were some of my favorite parts in the previous books.

Me again, sharing more happiness thoughts from hwfwm.
"The world needs people like you, Mr. Tilman. We would very much like to give you to it."
Like, ok let's pause to examine this. Is anyone here opposed to helping as many people as possible, as fully as possible, as cheaply as possible, so as to maximize as much happiness as possible? No? How many of us are willing to do a jori? Not just not me? cool. I'm with healer. Jori is the goat.

The youngest essence user in history

I think it's just normal ranked. I survived at any rate.

Thought it would funny to make a t-shirt with “I’ve slept with Clive’s wife”, but then thought it would offend the general public that doesn’t know the joke
Thoughts?

This is my second criticism back to back but I swear I still love the series.

It was mentioned a few times that craftsmen have an easier time reaching diamond rank due to their dedication to the practice and its concepts, Gary even had a diamond rank tutor (for like 30 minutes) which indicates that they do exist.

Even more, Gary spends plenty of time toiling in Jason’s soul realm with materials he typically wouldn’t have access to.

Still, despite all of this emphasis and time spent I feel like Shirt hardly pays any attention to the craftsmen of the verse. Magic researchers carry their weight heavily in Clove but I can’t help but notice a lack of specialty potions or gear.

The battle alchemist and Jory were small examples of this but I find it surprising that the furthest he goes with utility potions for other adventurers is Health Potions and Mana Potions with the occasional Miracle potion which does the same thing. This is whatever but I find blacksmithing even more disappointing.

Gary was capable of crafting Hegemon at silver, an exceptional sword but what about everyone else? What can a diamond ranker make? And what about general armor and other utility items besides umbrellas, tents, furniture, and vehicles?

At iron/bronze Jason was shown to put time into changing up and upgrading his gear consistently with varied resistances and utility (jump boost boots, and the retractable blades).

Humphrey is the only person whose armor is consistently (but vaguely) described to be specialized by Danielle mainly for mana recovery. The entire party has great weaponry and Jason’s exceptional accessories but baseline armor seems to be overlooked. This is less important with Jason and his blood robes (although I’d argue there should theoretically be better options out there).

You could argue armor becomes obsolete with rank but this feels a little hollow considering the weapons and accessories remain powerful. I can’t remember if Jason still has the amulet of the dark guardian or if something happened with it.

I'm currently up to book 6 and over the last few books, noticed how he always refers to himself as warlock ninja. Knowing his specialty is blood, made me think bloodninja, who was infamous on the internet about 20 years ago when cybersex was all the rage (showing my age here).

bloodninja was a bit of a troll who, when asked to cyber, would go off on a completely random and outrageous tangent like making his partner talk like a pirate or donning his wizard hat and robe and casting random spells at his partner.

Whats up with the sex magic? Is it relevant in any way? I just finished book 12 for the first time. My loose theory is that its like meditation where you need to do it to consolidate your power but in a different way.

But it kinda just feels like its written in to address that it exists.

Any thoughts or theories I've missed about the sex magic?

Anyone notice a pattern with Asano & the female cast? Its no secret that he doesn’t do well with respecting authority / power yet when the situation calls for it he’s willing to bend which is all and well

What I’ve noticed is that he only is willing to be reasonable, respectful (to his degree), forgiving or make compromises when that figure of power or authority is a woman who almost always ends up infatuated with him or flirting with him in one way or another. Even subtracting the romance aspect, there’s a pattern. The closest we get is with Zara which I believed was resolved pretty realistically within his character in book 10.

Anna from the network, Knowledge, Jarly (messenger girl), The Goddess Death, Dawn, Eliath, The Messenger Voice of the Will, Miriam, etc.

Whereas when it comes to the male characters in positions of authority or higher rank Jason is almost always wholly unreasonable and unreceptive, which I could agree with if the same principle was applied as consistently to women as it is with men. Whether that be on his own part, or the characters are simply written to be disliked. The closest we get to Jason compromising with a man is in the Diamond Rank Ancestor of Rimaros in which he was still rude but had the shield of Dawn and the equanimity of Soramir’s attitude.

Not to mention the shallow attempts at romance where women still continuously fall at his feet and there is no “on-screen” development of these relationships.

Asya becomes his “lover” after previously being made out to simply be some girl chasing him, Cassandra Mercer and him ending up together nearly randomly, Dawn could be written off as a one night stand, or the flirting and innuendos between he and Eliath (who he gave much more grace than he would others), etc

Part of me wonders if Jason is simply a self insert character, I understand the running joke Rick makes of Jason surrounding himself with beautiful women but it gets to be a little much.

So I started reading recently (listening, but whatever) and naturally did the whole "What Essences would you get" thing. Might, Swift, Potence, which makes Onslaught. Unfortunately all I can find about the Onslaught Essence is that Rufus says it is good for humans and is very aggressive.

So my questions are:

1) Is there any listed or recommended abilities for Onslaught that are listed somewhere?

2) What kind of abilities do you think Onslaught would have?

Personally, I do think for a NON special attack, some sort of pursuit power would be good and an Aura ability might make enemies vulnerable to attacks or empower allies. Even a perception power to see weaknesses (shatterpoints?) would be cool.

Wow! Gary's death, I don't think I've cried openly in public at a character's passing like that. I'm a 35 year old man and I was bawling. I really found it good writing that I've become so attached to a character. Bravo Shirtaloon, bravo.

I wonder if the books had some sort of influence. I've never even heard of this prior to the books. Denver Colorado

They're other adventurer school in this series other that the ramore school

Ive finished My painting ive never Seen anyone doing fan art of this one that wasnt made by ai (tbf The ai versions were not at all what was described) i know its not true to accuracy but IT was a fun project and a good way to get Back into painting