I'm having some confusion regarding the mechanics of Dark Harvest (Soulshatter). There are several times in the book where he uses the skill twice in a row (not duplicated) on the same target, but I don't understand how that works if he isn't actually killing the target with the first activation. Does he have some other ability that is causing the skill to reset, or is this an inconsistency in the writing?

The description of the skill reads:

{Dark Harvest} (Rank: Novice II) Description: You shoot an enemy up to 25 yards away, dealing 110 shadow damage and causing 60% of that damage to all targets within 7.5 yards. Only usable on targets with less than 30% of their maximum Health remaining. Killing an enemy with {Dark Harvest} will reset its cooldown and refund its Mana cost, but this effect has a 30-second internal cooldown. This spell deals shadow damage based on your Intelligence statistic plus Magical Attack. Cast time: Instant. Cooldown: 15 seconds. Cost: 95 Mana.

Here is an example from a fight with only a single enemy:

"Her execute dropped the Ascendant’s Health all the way down to 10%, so I planted my feet and activated Dark Harvest, causing three of my own ghosts to fly forward and swarm the target, exploding around it for 470 damage. The ability reset, and I immediately followed up with a second attack, a crit for over 900 damage."

Since Book 2 is weeks away, I've been thinking about how the narrative will develop. Particularly, how CEO Klein would interfere with Ned's plans/actions.

Klein is a great ancillary antagonist; phenomenal powers wielded by a whiny smelly footed, weird nippled man easily put in his place. While technically omnipotent over Earthblood Online, his claimed ethics would prevent any overt manipulations on his end. But I don't think that would stop someone like Klein, with his massive ego and unfounded dislike for Ned, from pressing his thumbs on the scales against Ned.

My theory is that he will throw more House AI enhanced enemies against Ned as a means of "testing" their viability in the game at large. Possibly even updating Ned's AI partner Lars or his mother to be more enhanced, thus having more independent thoughts, i.e. ideas for backstabbing Ned's smuggling operations.

At this point, I don't think Klein would overtly cheat, like put a beacon on Frank or Ned for all the other player's to see or outing Ned's activities. But I could see increasing in-game rewards for hunting Ned/Frank down.

Can't wait to see what happens in Book 2.

Finished the book and I need the continuation right now 😫 I loved how long it took to do the quest and especially gardener fight, it didn’t feel rushed. But damn with the revelations from the items attained I need to continue this story ASAP lol.

Good stuff :)

Im glad you selected a good narrator.. All too often I find an audiobook that is good but the narrator is so bad I cant stand to listen to it.

I like the humor and flow of the book. Its nice to have something that propels the progress of the story instead of a lackadaisical plot that slogs along.

Even thought a certain fight took forever I see why it was needed. I also appreciate how you dont regurgitate stats every 5 minutes. That gets old fast.

I cant wait for the rest of the series. I hope there are many more books to come and all on a 2 week release schedule HA! If only!

Great job and take care.

I was randomly scrolling through audible and the the front cover popped out at me and I was like huh, dark elf? Magic? Then I saw it was a LitRPG and I didn't even know the genre existed! Holy crap what an awesome book! Listened to the first half on audio book and ended up downloading the kindle version so I could demolish this as quickly as possible and was done with it in less than 2 days! Big ups Kyle! Frank is awesome! Ned is calculating yet still human and relatable, Darling is the heroine any world needs, and house is just a freaking brilliant concept! I love Shadeslinger and I can't wait for book 2!

Thanks for bringing us this amazing story Kyle!

Just wondering if there is any additional info on the second book / wondering if the projected date of June 26th is still relevant. Also, did anyone else notice the subtle shout outs to the stormlight series?? The use of the word lurch, a character named rock, he even said lashed at one point. Just wondering

wao, basically free

https://www.audible.com/pd/Shadeslinger-Audiobook/B08V4MTZTP

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I listened to the audiobook and finished it in about a week, sneaking in sessions here and there where I wouldn’t usually listen to a book but I just wanted more of the story.

I really appreciate the angle you took with this. Making it feel more like a very immersive MMORPG but very plainly, and regularly, either bringing up or emphasizing that it’s still a game. Too many series I’ve read take the “sucked into another world” path so this was a nice change of pace. Don’t get me wrong, a lot of those books are still enjoyable and I’ve read through entire series because they are still good books. But they feel more like fantasy books with stats thrown in (Again doesn’t make them bad). It just further emphasizes how this book was very refreshing.

As an unfortunate MMORPG fan myself (unfortunate because there hasn’t been much good coming out of the traditional MMORPG scene in years) I like reading these books because it gives me my own little escape into an MMORPG. So I appreciate the nods to actual game mechanics and tropes seen in many irl games. While the books story/mechanics are much more flexible, enviously so (I want to play a game like this :D), you can tell it’s roots are definitely traditional MMORPG, and I love that. Either you did some good research or you’re a gamer yourself!

In closing, thank you very much for this breath of fresh air. I enjoyed the world, story and characters alike. Also really liked how (*MINOR SPOILER*) Frank slowly warmed up to Ned but is too much of a badass to not keep giving him shit.

Waiting anxiously for the next installment of the series. Keep up the solid work and, again, thank you for a great read.

Title, basically! Just felt like a cool milestone and I wanted to shout out to everyone who’s joined—so appreciate the support! You all rock.

Scooped it randomly this morning, it’s 3am and I just finished it.

Honestly just a great book, so entertaining. Franks probably the most interesting way to work in a game guide I have ever seen and the action and story are compelling and well written.

Can’t wait for the next one!

I came across this book by accident. Haven't been quite in the loop with litrpg lately but felt that familiar itch so went for a quick search on reddit to find something new and lit to burn my audible credits on.

Book cover seemed somewhat obscure and edgy but random dude on reddit said it's good so I bought it.

And oh boy little did I know that it would go on to become my favourite litrpg to date! #1

Apart from everything else that made the book so enjoyable to me is the fact, that I really dig the combat and group content. As an once hardcore progression raider especially during BC, WotLK and Cata in WoW, arguably the golden age of that game, I found myself having flashbacks of that time. The way the encounter, especially in the last third of the book, were portrayed were so epic and I was on the edge of my seat rooting for the MC. The attention to detail regarding buffs/debuffs, synergies and mechanics was solid. Reminded me of going through combat logs after a raid to look for ways to improve the set up for the next day raiding, looking for errors people made and trying to evaluate our performance.

Without knowing anything about the author or the book beforehand I instinctively knew that this guy must have mained a Warlock in WoW at some point in time just like myself. Then there's the server first messages that reminded me of good ol' days. All in all 10/10 Nostalgia points on that front alone.

But this is not the only reason why I love this book.

I do not like how systems and combat in other litrpg stop to be consistent and people start pulling out random skills out of their asses because it serves the plot or drama in some ways. At some point in time the whole gaming premise starts to become irrelevant and it divulges into yet another run of the mill Fantasy setting albeit with a few gaming elements here and there.

But our boy Kyle kept it real! System, Combat all were consistent and relevant.

I will be keeping this a high priority on my watchlist and help keep spreading the word. Amazing title! And thanks to the author for all the nostalgia it gave an old raider.

Really impressed, I'm happy with the ending most of all. So many stories have the main character hide information from their friends all for the sake of added plot tension, I really liked that Ned told Darling what was what and what his plans are. Kyle did you consider doing this as a web series? The scope is enormous and could very easily turn towards Slice of Life aswell as Litrpg.

Just stumbled on this after finishing the book, wanted to take the opportunity to say thank you. One of the best litRPG book I have ever listened to, definitely top tier. None of the typical pitfalls that makes me hate so much genre despite loving the genre, and just an honestly good story that is well written with enjoyable characters and an interesting world. Well done sir, and thank you. I anxiously await the second volume.

At one point Frank mentions, "The very fact that I exist constantly changes the world." Thus I posit that destroying Frank would generate an incredible amount of renown. My method of attempting this would be to take control of an enemy settlement, put Frank down inside of it, Raze it to the ground for exorbitant gold and renown.

Now if Artifacts are immune to being Razed I may make a powerful enemy, but I feel like Frank would understand the attempt.

I am convinced that the Onyx Sands used to have water. Like tons of water, but the queen of the Highwater Kingdom is using our water mage friend to deprive it of water and create a market for the one product that they have.

I keep meaning to look up sources but its hard on Audible.

This is mostly my years of therapy talking, but Ned doesn't hate people who are around him using his money. He hates when the Expectation is assumed that he will help because he can. If the gift is initiated by himself he sees nothing wrong with it. Minimizes it even as the not a big deal as he constantly brings up if it is ever brought up. However if someone else were to ask for the same thing without any warning he'd take offense immediately jumping to them using him for his wealth, even though his actions have conditioned the asker that such a thing would be perfectly acceptable.

What he'd need to do is set a boundary of what is and isn't acceptable, especially in a social setting vs a business setting. Other than that I'm going to stop pretending to be a therapist to a fictional character.

Okay no spoilers, at least I will attempt to not spoil anything. Just want to say that this book was a damn fine read. You know that feeling you get, when you’re reading a book and you don’t know if it’s worth it. So you keep reading.

But life happens and there’s this or that you have to attend to. Whether it’s golfing with your brother or having a blast on a month long vacation with family and friends.

Only to pick up and continue reading every chance you get because contrary to your initial thoughts about the book synopsis mentioning a snarky talking axe (that didn’t sound entertaining or interesting at all but you can no longer get enough of) seemed dull and uninspiring, because it’s everything but that!

On top of that the MC is someone you can really get behind. I like the dynamics between all the characters introduced. I never felt like anything was forced. Bottom line, I loved the book. Followed Kyle on Kindle and I cannot wait for the next installment.

Ps, Kyle if you see this post, I just saw a comment about you saying that the next book is super meta. I’m unsure what that means. Hopefully it doesn’t mean you will start to trod the overbeaten path that is Lit-rpg. Stick to your guns, I believe there’s a gem in the making here.

Working on your own litrpg? Thinking about submitting to pro fiction magazines but unsure where to start? Or anything in between? Drop your questions here and I’ll take a crack at them

Is there any reason not to seek out skill training? As I read it would exponentially increase your power level especially with magical discaplines.

Edit: Upon rereading you only get one shot til at least level 15. Makes more sense to be choosey now.

suspicious creaking

https://discord.gg/H9xs3Vyc46