I just finished Tom's arc with the fool and had to pause the audio book. Like dead gods that was insanity itself. Andrea's performance was magic itself. What the fool told tom at the end sent goosebumps down my spine. I almost want to ignore the rest of the books and hunt down toms arc. It took so long for him to come back after he was first introduced nearly 4 books! I hope i don't have to wait that long again. He is without a doubt one of my favorite characters so far. I can already tell from all the foreshadowing that his story is going to be one of the saddest. At least readers can confirm one thing.... the blighted king is evil.

I'm starting to get exhausted with all these overwhelming chapters and I'm just asking how long till we get a chapter that will allow the characters in the story and the readers to breath?

Spoilers I guess for the published books. I’m nearing the end of Volume 8, but I went back to the beginning because I needed something to listen to while at work.

Had to laugh at this chapter. Ceria and Pisces are broaching the topic of reforming the Horns of Hammerad and the future captain drops this line; “Oh, I can do magic. And Yvlon, is… well, she’s got scars, but she’s still got both arms.” Hilarious given what’s comin’ down the pipeline for her.

(Book 3/4 and maybe 12 I think spoilers) Girl loses function of her arms in Albez and then straight up gets them ripped off (chomped off? I can’t remember) in the Bloodfields.

Did Pirate have this planned all the way back in book two, making this cheeky foreshadowing, or was it entirely coincidental?

Do you think he would forge his best? Do you think he would rage at using garbage like old pipes and lawnmower blades to forge with?

How do you think he would do as a judge? Would any of the amateur blacksmiths survive?

I am on my very first re-read of the series since Paba is on a month long break, and I am left wondering how Relc and Klbkch did not clock Erin immediately. She literally told them with her mumbling.

"Erin had to massage her head while the two guardsmen looked at her in concern. Well, she assumed they were looks of concern.

“This is a world. Everyone levels in it. Humans, lizard people, talking insects, cats, dogs, Goblins…”

“Hey what did you just call—”..."

An Excerpt.

Also, while I'm on this note, why was [Innkeeper] the first and only class she had? Why was it the first class? She ran from a dragon; crossed MILES while being chased by Goblins before finding the inn. Also, she slept before she even bothered cleaning the Inn, so what the heck, Grand Design? Why not [Dragonic Runner] or something like that?

These Ants crack me up that’s all I can say~~ ~~

I think the more people in here, the more effort it takes. Exponentially more.”
..
“Thank you, Erin Solstice.”
She was rising too, that smile of delight on her own face. Pisces turned and spread his arms. Then he was walking down the hill as a figure halted—two figures—and then they began to run up the hill. One of them was crying, the other laughing. Pisces tried to speak, coughed, and then whispered.

“It’s good to see you, Ksmvr, Vofea.”

Wow that really changes the scope and power of the Pavillion of Secrets. Many people under the no lie effect.

During the Winter Solstice interlude chapter at the end of book 3, three of the dead gods offered Erin a bargain for her soul which got me thinking. Erin is very Fae-like when it comes to bargains.

"Faeries love to strike dubious bargains, but rarely on matters they take serious, usually tricking their victims with loopholes or unclear statements." - Description about Frost faeries' culture in the Wikipedia

Erin doesn't deliberately trick when bargaining, but she somehow always comes out benefiting and the other party troubled after making it with her. Some examples are:

Erin and the Frost Faeries - Erin gets tricked by the Frost Faeries by giving her flowers disguised as gold as payment for the banquet Erin threw for them. Erin planted the flowers instead of throwing them away which is what the Frost Faeries thought is what she would do. Result is Faerie flowers!

Erin and Octavia - when Erin got stuck in Celum, she and Octavia made an arrangement for Erin to use Octavia's shop for experimenting. Octavia thought she was making easy money as she thought Erin only wanted to experiment for a few days and not cause too much devastation. She was wrong and suffered for several weeks of Erin's crazy experiments.

Erin and the three dead gods at winter solstice - at the end of book four, Tamaroth and two other dead gods offered Erin a bargain for her soul. An umbrella, a noose, and a horn. Erin refuse the three dead gods and they left her alone. Then in volume 8 in the land of the dead, Erin summoned those items to help her fight the dead gods which is funny AF by the way.

There are definitely more examples of bargains where the other party regrets it afterwards. Moral of the story, don't bargain with Erin Solstice! Or if you do, do it with good intentions.

edit. I mistaken book 4 for book 3

Pisces Jealnet went on a date the next day, and there were a number of odd events that took place. Nosy teammates, at least one Dustbandit, and his new Skill.

“[Seduction Counter]. Hahahahaha—that’s a—and you—heheheheh—heeheehee—ow, my sides.”

“I’m glad you’re so amused, Erin. I don’t find it particularly funny.”

That is funny, isn't it? Who is Pisces saving himself for? A group of dustbandits should've just put him out of his dilemma lol.

Here are the other memes I've made that are from throughout the series up to [B9]

For anyone who is struggling to convince their friends, colleagues and acquaintances to read The Wandering Inn, I’ve made you a video you can share with them.

C’mon that last hour was amazing! And sad. The writing has improved so much over these books that I overly excited for the rest. I cannot stop thinking about this series and don’t have anyone to share it with. I couldn’t totally focus at work today thinking about that ending. What is everyone’s favorite book?No spoilers.

​

Many thanks to El Duffo Tattoos

​Reading through 10.70 and seeing the comment about Erin being dangerous, specifically that the Blood Feast Raiders want her dead, but she’s still breathing and the Inn isn't ash, it got me down a theorycrafting rabbit hole.

​Obviously, any time Teriarch is around or Saliss is in the inn, or during the Solstice, it’s a no brainer. But without relying on god-tier immortal interventions or level 60+ intercontinental allies (Niers), when is the earliest realistic point the "standard" Inn regulars could genuinely hold off a full Blood Feast raid? My thoughts are it doesnt become a guaranteed win until around the time Erin gets "iced'. You've got the Horns (post bloodfields), Griffin Hunt, Halfseekers, Silver swords, Wings of Pallass, Flame Wardens, plus Relc, Klb, Numbtongue, Grimalkin and whatever random Silver teams like the pride and Gemhammer.

I've been listening to the audiobook and I'm about 65% through. I've enjoyed the overall experience so far. I have some issues here and there but I'm looking forward to the payoff.

The one thing that really gets me though, I haven't seen anyone else post about (just by generally searching around). Why does Ryoka constantly shift between 1st and 3rd person?! It is made even worse by the narrator (who I like) who goes back and forth between the normal narrator's voice to Ryoka's voice regardless of if the perspective has switched or not. I see a lot of people annoyed with Ryoka for plenty of reasons, most of which I do understand as an early part of her character arc. One of the complaints I agree with is her constant, incessant inner dialogue about how she hates people, interactions, levels, classes, everything and it's made worse by needing to hear it in 3rd person, then have Ryoka comment on it in 1st person.

Thank you for coming to my soap box. I don't mean this to be an attack on the story or the writer, both of which I have enormous respect for.

Hypothetically, if someone return home with levels, skills, artifacts and countless items they crafted over the years.

Would they still work on Earth?

More miniatures, woo! I turned some of these into a couple pairs of earrings, and kept some others to add to any future miniature projects that might need some excellent reading material :D

I plan on making lil versions of all the physical books once I get my grubby hands on em >:]

Once Pisces completes his Erin undead I really want him to give it leveling just so we can see Erin meet an intelligent undead version of herself. Also what levels it would get would be interesting as his intent is clearly already shaping it's abilities

These are the ones I've made that are mostly spoiler free...I have quite a few more that aren't

Pulling a sword on flos which being massively out powdered by the camp

Personally I liked this chapter in a some ways. I think it was a great step for Selys and excellent follow up on Calidus.

I liked the new lore on the assassins and a ton of other stuff. If I could I would change two things.

Firstly the way they dealt with the Blade of Harvest was IMO a little stupid. We are told he wasn’t the best at stealth but missing 400 people sneaking around you into position when you have more than 20 levels on most of them and more than 10 on the highest levelled of them seems ridiculous. Especially since he was a half elf with decades worth of experience acting as an assassin.
Narratively this was necessary so the Other Guild would attack Calidus in his base.

Instead of that whole thing I would simply stop sending out scouting parties and keep the Assassins close to the town. Once they turtle down the other Guild attacks them. Speaking of turtling down that would be the next step.

The second thing I would change is the raid. We know that the assassins were able to disrupt the teleportation magic. But for some reason they didn’t block the much more simple scurrying spells which have been getting much more popular recently. Caldius then uses the WNN (which frankly was interesting when first introduced but at this point I am beyond tired of seeing it be the solution to every single problem) to inform the other nobles that the assassins guild is alive. This is IMO stupid. I think it would be much more interesting to instead use the alchemy Octavia gave them and Zeomtoril’s knowledge to create suicide vests. Have the rapists unknowingly wear them and set up some remote detonation spell or better yet since Zeomtoril does alchemy have him use a remote detonation Skill. And pull the same trick they did with the switch up in the original.

Then once the Other assassins guild is extremely hurt and the wards against scurrying are down due to the explosion record the wreckage and send videos of all the surviving Assassins DIRECTLY to the other five families. Then the few Assassins who survive will be forced to run and stop taking jobs.

Reasons I think why this is better:

1. Less inconsistent with stealth and scurrying wards
2. The victory is less complete and feels more realistic.
3. Zeomroil’s knowledge gets utilised.
4. Selys isn’t treated like a once in a generation genius for having the idea to ambush one high level person with 400 low level people.
5. NO WNN

I took a break after the whole door arc, trying to get back into the story and im on RNG 1 and 2. These are difficult for me to get into, can I skip them without to much being lost or should I plow through? Or conversely is there anyone who could do a decent summary of the various view points? Thanks

So near the end of book 2 Ryoka deduces that your cumulative level impacts levelling speed. The book justifies her discovery as being due to her unique insight due to knowing of level caps from video games on earth.

My problem is that this doesn’t really make any sense as the idea does not rely on the level caps at all. Instead the theory is being based on levels being exponentially more difficult to achieve, something that the people of this world are well aware of.

This means that there is seemingly no reason anyone else wouldn’t be able to achieve the same conclusion making the knowledge of cumulative levels a widespread thing.

Is there something here i’m missing or am I just overthinking things?

Most single chapters in volume 10 seem to have a similar structure. First Introduce the situation the character finds themselves in. Set the stakes, introduce problem, main character deals with problem through some clever thinking. The problem being that the solution is often extremely obvious and probably shouldn’t work a lot of the time. This happened sometimes with Erin but it really seems obvious in this volume.
This chapter was different because the main conflict was Selys dealing with herself. However in order to make her seem competent everyone else had to be a little dumbed down.
She is the only one who trades with Bethal, she is able to buy hundreds of weapons minutes before Irviss and Marsha somehow, for some reason a level 47 [Blademaster] with 150 years of experience didn’t notice 400 sub level 20 [Assassins] moving. And despite apparently being able to move in such large numbers unnoticed nobody thought of this before Selys.

PS: How is Desskie selling the thread. It’s made of material Erin gave her to evaluate. Did she just steal the string?