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202 (Patreon)

Published:
2022-06-05 05:00:02
Imported:
2026-06
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Poll

202

  • 👍 229
  • 👎 112
  • 2022-06-04
  • 341 votes
{'title': '202', 'choices': [{'text': '👍', 'votes': 229}, {'text': '👎', 'votes': 112}], 'closes_at': None, 'created_at': datetime.datetime(2022, 6, 4, 22, 24, 21, tzinfo=datetime.timezone.utc), 'description': None, 'allow_multiple': False, 'total_votes': 341}

Content

never odd or even, 202, never odd or even


Su Mo Tu W Th Fr Sa
29 30 31 01 02 03 04
05 06 07 08 09 10 11
12 13 14 15 16 17 18
19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30 01 02

Comments

Cjack PVP

Thanks for the chapter! 🥳

Mike G.

That Iceberg disguise is very clever, I like it!

Thenais

thanks for the chapter, but the slow pace is frustrating.

Doodlyboy15

Bah! Too short, ended too soon. Thanks as always! Glad I got my question answered about anchors relative to the ship. I assume they're just floating then? The morse code pulse system is neat, I wonder if he'll eventually be able to compress to hex or something with an interpeter.

Bzzt

I’m…not sure what the point of this chapter was. To hammer home how from the boonies everyone in the story is? Is Rain self aware how dumb it sounds (and how not reassuring) it is to call yourself “one of the good kind?” Why would Ameliah whos at least been to larger cities not be here? Why is it Jamus and Carten? If we had at least gotten those answers or answers to what happened with talking to Velika and Halgrave I would feel like something happened but as it stands this chapter literally felt like Shrek and Donkey walking into Duloc to meet Lord Farquaad. Edit: sorry if that comes across as harsh, but the last 10-15 or so chapters have been really great and this one feels so out of place in comparison

Gnossos
>>85227315

I agree. I think a more succinct description is that interest existed in what was skipped but not most of what was shown.

kyle

Seems like I still need to wait a bit longer before continuing on....can't wait to dive back in!

Jac Onue

Disappointing chapter. Almost nothing happened, and for a weekly (less) release the pace is far too slow. Worse, we still haven't gotten a conclusion to the 3 Cliffs arc, and it now feels like we won't be getting it at all, since the story is moving on. What arrangement did Rain come to with Halgrave (and to a lesser extend Velika)? We don't know. What does Bakal think about leaving his estate behind and starting from scratch (possibly joining Ascension)? Don't know. Why does Cesa freak out every time she sees rain cast? Don't know. Instead, we got 7 pages of three stooges trying to dock a boat, followed by Rain suffering a bout of amnesia and going "how do you do, fellow laborers" as if he had forgotten about the divide that exists between the awakened and dulls. Why is Rain so shocked that Guilders would get a different treatment than unawakened peasants (not having to wait in line)? I understand he thought everyone had their eyes on him & Temerity, but shouldn't that made him approach the gate with more confidence, not less? Not to mention that between Halgrave, Velika, Ameliah, Mlem, Myth & Reason someone should've been able to tell Rain at least the basics of how a DKE city functions. Especially since Velika doesn't want to get caught, and Halgrave probably doesn't want Mahria to get caught in a fight between DKE and Velika. Also, why is Jamus gawking at a self driving cart, when Mlem had one too, and Ascension had a freaking self driving tank? I don't mean to sound harsh, it's a fine chapter, even if some things don't make sense. But for a weekly release it's far too short, both in length and content, not to mention it's not what was expected. I'd much rather it covered Rain's talks with Halgrave & Velika, and then skipped to them getting through the gates, instead of having them goofing around in the boat, followed by Rain's shock that laborers are wary of a silverplate.

Stormlock

I actually really liked the chapter. Delve has always had pretty slow pacing, but I don't mind as long as stuff is interesting, and seeing a new place in detail was interesting to me. I do really want to hear more about Velika and Halgrave though. Edit: Two more things I'd like to add. First, even more than Velika and Halgrave, I want to see Rain interact with an authority in the Watch and Guild (which Halgrave should be? Feels weird he doesn't care about the ship.) Second, I think it's healthy for an author to see criticism, even if it's not terribly useful, as long as it isn't just ad hominems. Readers (or the equivalent for other forms of media) don't need to be skilled authors to have a valid opinion. Even if you don't know how to solve a problem, or even articulate what exactly you don't like about something, simple "This is worse/bad" feedback is better than an echo chamber. I'm glad the author does the polls for each chapter.

MoonlitShade

Yeesh. This chapter has a *much* higher dislike proportion than the last several chapters. 25%. Personally, I’m happy we’re getting chapters at all since this is my second favorite story on RR and one of 3 I’m even following on Patreon… but this chapter did seem to just be a “filler episode”. We’ve had lots of skips the last few chapters, leaving lots of questions with no answers, and nothing really happened this chapter at all. Not trying to be harsh, and again I love the story. Don’t let the negative comments hurt your or anything, SenescentSoul. Just letting you know this chapter in particular wasn’t that strong.

abowden
>>85229114

Not everyone feels that way. Too little content for a weekly release in my opinion, whatever you say it doesn't shake the feelings of dissapointment people, including myself, felt when they got to the end. "That's it?" Was my initial, gut reaction.

L Pedersen
>>85228487

Yeah there's something to be said for forshadowing and the expectations you get from that. I think most people were ready for a chapter of talking, some exposition and maybe ending with them arriving in barstone. Instead we got them walking from the docks to a slightly better part of town. That isn't to say that the chapter was poorly written or that it's really as empty as my description made it sound. We get a lot of information about little stuff and world building, the problem is that in 18 pages the story barely advanced at all. This is the kind of chapter I'd expect to get axed in the first round of editing, its more important details added to the following few chapters. Currently the chapter has 25% downvotes which is about as much as I've ever seen for this story, I wonder if it'll stay that high or go down.

Zarik0

"He was tired. Beyond tired. “I’ll fix it,” he muttered. “I have to fix it." "WE’LL fix it. Fix this stupid world. One starfish at a time if we have to." No plz, dont go this way with the MC, delusional, thinking he gonna change it and garie sue and its his job and responsability to try to do it everywhere and for everyone, fix this stupid world and how it is? that he gonna do better? taking the misery of the whole world? and go into crusade? its delusional man and its the exact same as how it is on Earth, nothing really changed in the background, just with magic and powerfull individual themselve, its less hidden, but same problem and same thing but with just another cloth, you dont gonna change and "fix" human nature man, it will alway be the same for a long long long time untill human evolve a bit more Take care of your group and build something with (and maybe go somewhere with them to do it), it will create influence and "change" thing a bit, or you can "restart" a place with them with a good base, going into crusade to the whole world to "fix" thing? that can only be delusional in my view Feel a bit strange, scratch that i call bs here, that nobody come to them and check them as soon as they arrived, no official or guard or responsable of the dock? feel off, specially for a obvious new boat and people coming and they are in a state of war, even in normal time its just to much unplausible they let thing open like that and have no checker Guess we get a good shock culture for Rain and other here xD wow Awakener are really treated like a alien superior specie Nice little chapter :) though feel he have little problem here and here in some way, not your best one honestly, but not terrible terrible too, waiting for the next one of this story i really love :)

Starless

Rain, Jamus and Carten arrive in Barstone.

Alex Flint

Really enjoyed the chapter, it leaves a taste for more and sometimes I wish you had super human writing speed

Starless
>>85231884

Maybe the citizen died in the war and hasen't been replaced since the DKE is a bit understaffed at the moment.

Hubris

I guess we got our dose of good chapters last month, now we get scheduled month of nothing per week.

Enkelados

Ok so Rain wants to change the entire society. That's nice. How does he plan to do it? In contrast to our reality there is a real difference between awakened and unawakened. You just can't treat a person that can nuke a city or only a block on a whim the same as normal people.

Stormlock
>>85233483

Well, Rain's pipedream seems to be awakening the entire population to shift the balance. Which is conceivably possible. You'd still have people who can nuke cities like Lavarro, but people like the crappy level 10 nobles or even the idiot swordsman from Three Cliffs wouldn't have the same kind of influence they do currently.

jdouglas

The author is incapable of allowing Rain to have character progression without erasing it. Back to delusional Gary Stu Rain. Gotta keep the story stagnant somehow.

Oliverthms
>>85242010

so in your eyes rain needs to become someone that doesn't care about the powerless people or what? Should he only help certain groups? I don't understand your point

crusaderstar

I think parts of this chapter are great, but overall I downvoted for two reasons. 1. Time skipped over juicy conversations with Halgrave, Bakal, and Velika. Those would've been great from both a character and plot perspective. To worsen matters, we-the-reader also don't really know the outcomes of those convos but we know they've happened. I can't enjoy a light fluffy chapter when there's such high tension meat unresolved. 2. Rain's character here feels like he teleported in from way back in the early double digit chapters, is jarring and disappointing if all he's learned and grown just regresses. He's been in multiple towns where he's treated like a terrifying god, and he was the pirate king of three cliffs a week ago just by walking in, it makes no sense he'd be this confused or surprised about people calling him Silver Lord and not wanting to drink with him. Other regression is him being so focused and spending so much mental space on random orphans and the plight of the unawakened, yes he cares about those things but Ascension is in deadly danger! Just last chapter he was reminding himself he can't do everything, he was agonizing over the guilt of losing people under his command, and the stress of wtf they're gonna do or where they're gonna go. This chapter felt like all that went out the window which was frustrating. What would've made sense to me is if Rain noticed all the bullshit of the unawakened, the orphans, etc, but had a mental catechism of gotta help ascension, they're my people hungry in the ship, Ascension is what'll help everybody if we just have space, let's go go go. I did like the city, though as others have mentioned idk why nobody went with them who have travelled before (Mlem, Myth, Reason?).

Kendelle Trotter

I don't understand how this story can be going so great and then have Rain regress in character so heavily all in one chapter. He acts like an idiot who hasn't been paying attention to a single thing he's done in the last chapters. He took over an entire city and is even accustomed to the reverence his own company shows him to an extent as much as hate dislikes it. But he's surprised that some dull strangers from what is essentially a dictatorship fear him as a silver. He went from high stress in the last chapter and fear as well as a need to escape to happy go lucky joking around. It's like the last few chapters were an illusion. Part of it is likely because we time skipped all his interactions with people on the ship. Frankly this chapter is completely misplaced. Seeing Rain and crew's interactions and then time skipping to being on the way to the watch stronghold would have been so much more rewarding and entertaining than spending half the chapter listening to Rain shoot the shit with Jamus and Carten on a rowboat and try to dock it. First of all Jamus and Carten of all people? They're not a combat asset to Rain as he is and Carten is extremely loud and likely to get into trouble. And apparently Jamus is a bumpkin who gets surprised by journey carts now even though Ascension has a literal metal ship, Mlem has his own cart, and Ascension has a massive forgewagon. He mentioned Mlem passing through Barstone before? Why not bring him? He's clearly a better diplomatic asset and familiar with navigating cities. It all just seems so stupid.

Zoe

I don’t really think Rain regressed this chapter, more like he’s tired and continually disappointed in this world. After all the shit he’s been through he’s having some trouble controlling his emotions because yes, that takes significant energy. Overall I think it’s and OK chapter, I would have preferred to have a reaction chapter to the events at 3 cliffs but I’m still hopeful we’ll get that “soon”. Mostly this just reminds me why I normally wait a few months for chapters to build up rather than reading them as they come.

Adunk

What a literary faceplant this chapter was. Filler, character regression, and narrative whiplash all in one package.

Jac Onue

Thinking more about it, another thing that really bothered me about this chapter is the tone. Last chapter ended on Rain realizing the peril of his current situation, as he went to talk to Halgrave & Velika. This chapter should've reflected that tension. The future of Ascension is on a knife's edge, one wrong move and it could all collapse. People could get killed, Tallheart & Rain could get enslaved. Just the Watch taking Temerity would crush Rain's plans. Heck, even if everything went well, Valika could freak out if they took too long, and apparently she's holding Ameliah as a sort of hostage to make sure Rain doesn't sell her out. With stakes this high, Rain & co should've behaved in a somber, serious way, as the weight of responsibility presses down on them. Instead, Jamus & Carten are goofing off, with not a care in the world. Rain is the only one that seems apprehensive, but then he gets filled with self righteousness. Why? Because some fishermen were wary of a guy with the power to kill them all with a thought? Because he saw an orphan? Because some woman was mean to said orphan? Rain should be more experienced by now to get so distracted by the injustices of the world. Even the way the chapter ends, with Carten joking about being hungry. Does he not understand that the lives of Ascension are hanging in the balance? Why is he behaving like they are on a tourist outing? Given the high stakes of the situation, wouldn't a more appropriate reaction be along the lines of "Well, that went better than expected. Now let's hurry up to the Guild and get some info!"

Adunk
>>85258290

Rain acts like normal people being scared of silvers is bad. No, it’s fucking normal. If you see a guy walking around in body armor and carrying an assault rifle, you are going to be cautious and potentially frightened. And that’s here on earth, the difference is much bigger between silvers and dulls. God I hate how Rain can’t seem to understand basic concepts like this and goes full self-righteous “this society is bad, I know better than everyone but also pretend to be humble.” That false humility where he pretends he doesn’t think he knows better than everyone else is super annoying.

Jac Onue
>>85258290

The funny thing is, Rain acted exactly like that when he met gold level people (Halgrave, Velika) and before that silver (the Watch Sentinels) and for the exact same reason as a dulls are wary of guilders = these are powerful people who could do whatever they want, and there is nothing he could do about it. So yeah, it's funny how Rain can feel apprehensive about Halgrave, but then be oblivious as to why some unawakened would feel the same apprehensive towards him, a complete stranger with the power to do anything he wanted to them.

Starless
>>85258290

The mental regression thing others have said fits the bill here. That scene with Jamus, Carten and the fishermen was so wildly inhuman I started thinking the characters were replaced by skinwalkers who have a vague idea of how normal people act/react, but have never done it before.

Evil Legend

Before reading the chapter, I read the last ten comments, in most of which people are outraged by the regression of the nature of Rain. To be honest, it was pretty scary to start a chapter after that. But there's nothing to be done, so... Are we sure we read the same chapter? None of the things that people complained about belonged to the things that the author focused on. Rain and the team walk through the docks and interact with the people living there along the way. Rain does not try to convince anyone, does not get into their affairs, the maximum interaction that we see is that he donated a certain amount of coins to a person who, perhaps, cares about the local population of orphans. The narrative is conducted from the point of view of Rain, so it is obvious that he pays attention to the problems of medieval society. But hey, he's actually always done that, and his thoughts that he's going to work on fixing society "one step at a time" are part of his standard way of coping with the circumstances around him. He does it all the time. This is not a regression of character, it is one of the pillars of his personality. If you think that immersion in selfishness and cynicism is what you should expect from the progress of the character of a normal character, then I feel a little sorry for you. After the heat of events in the previous chapters, I actually like a few transitional descriptive chapters. In addition, we know that many important interactions between the characters are expected in the next chapters. I liked the chapter, I'm looking forward to next week.

Zarik0
>>85258290

Yeah Jac Onue you put your finger on what bothered me in this chapter and said it well in this comment Well a bust overall this chapter but oh well, the author cant be perfect all time on this good story :)

RedFaux

For other comments... being afraid of silvers is bad? It's normal, and that just makes it worse. He can kill them all. So can a police officer, with just marginally more effort. Yet when people are afraid of police, their is something wrong with the police. Most silvers and up do not care about the common man, dulls they call them, so they behave callously and without regard for their safety. Its perfectly justified to find such a state being considered 'normal' to be more than a little infuriating. Its against everything Ascension is trying to do. And if see being pissed off at someone for mistreating an orphan is 'self righteous', I don't want to be friends with you. Trying to be righteous is a good thing, don't let some assholes with holier than thou attitudes taking it too far jade you into hyper cynical pricks content to accept injustice

Conor McGroarty

Guess it wasn’t as well received chapter as it was expected to continue with Rain talking to Halgrave first. Though getting the scene transition from that to here when the conversation itself could have taken a chapter likely means this was probably the best option (skipping Halgrave’s conversation and just summarizing any conclusions in Rain’s head) in retrospect. Guess people expect more when you only get 39 chapters (give or take) a year. I prefer judging a chapter on its own merits and try not to hold any logistical, real life stuff and expectations against it. After all, this chapter did give atmosphere of the DKE and the society of this world as a whole. I didn’t expect them to disguise Temerity as an iceberg (clever) either though that is preferable to risking temptation to steal their stuff (especially since Velika needs to keep a lid on the Citizen Link and keeping a distance from a Citizen should help hide her from being sensed).

Harley Shockley

I… Really don’t get why people are hating on this chapter. Yeah, he talks about how people are afraid of him and it’s kind of hypocritical, but it is kind of right that he gets to complain about that. Most Silvers we have seen are assholes who need someone to knock ‘em upside the head, which that most recent silver we found at the docks did, and Golds have fucking war crimes attached to them like Velika, that ice chick’s mom, and all of the Citizens that are gold plate. However, here is Rain, protector of the people and common man, being treated the same as walking shit. Of course it would be good for him to complain about that. It would be like you come from a racist town, but you aren’t racist, but people treat you like a racist anyway. It’s fucking insulting.

abowden
>>85272281

Lavarro is a silver plate, or at least, she was when she killed the citizen.

Ahmed Halat
>>85272281

I don’t hate the chapter, I feel it just doesn’t do the last chapter or Rain justice. We were setup for some very interesting interactions that were skipped. Plus it also let rain change his state of mind instantly and it was kinda disappointing

ZeroSkillz

I don’t believe that many people really disliked this post, more that there was no middle option. There wasn’t much to really Like about it (Besides the Morse code anchor, that was neat), just that it wasn’t that interesting overall. As to the criticism of the character, look; people aren’t like comic book heroes, we get stuck in our ways and Rain’s main flaw was that he gets hyper focused and stuck in loops. He was actively attempting to heard the two most disruptive members of Ascension (Kettle not withstanding) so it gave him more of a leader-y feel. Do I feel this chapter would have been shorter and not lost much? Maybe. Do I feel it was a bad chapter? No. Good on you, Author, for describing the world as best you can. With that out of the way, we can realize the new environment we’re in now, and get to the meat of the story next chapter.

Newguy Roy
>>85282852

Yeah, this is not a "chapter breaks lore" chapter, it's just a neutral set up and get things underway for what comes next. If there were 4 choices, my guess is it would be a 2 or 3 mostly.

Cory C.
>>85272281

There was speculation (in story) that she (Lavarro) was hiding her level to stay at silver for some reason.

Cirvante

Man, it's always one step forward, two steps back with this story. The battle of Three Cliffs was amazing and had an epic conclusion with all the powerhouses joining up on Temerity. But instead of a talk with Halgrave, Bakal and Velika, we got a soul chapter instead. Now we get this chapter, which was frustrating for several reasons, and get told that the conversations we wanted to see happened off-page and the story is moving on. This really bothers me because it's not the first time this happened. We only get glimpses of what's happening and often those turn out to be boring or irrelevant while the interesting stuff is skipped or only mentioned in passing. The main character always knows more than us and if we're lucky, something they learned in an important off-screen conversation will be mentioned or referenced weeks later. There was so much potential after Three Cliffs, interesting conversations to be had, exposition and worldbuilding, character development. And now a lot of readers, myself included, feel cheated out of that. It's just kind of a letdown.

Nnelg
>>85258290

On earth, a guy wearing body armor and an assault rifle (assuming they're someone who's expected to have such things, like a soldier or bodyguard) is merely given a wide birth by the average person. But most people wouldn't allow themselves to be walked all over unless the armed individual started to directly threaten them, because the basic assumption is that they *won't* shoot you for no reason, because they are not above the law. Rain is absolutely justified in being sickened about how awakened *are* effectively above the laws, and can deprive the unawakened of their human rights mostly without consequence. And the way the unawakened treat him is a constant reminder of that endimic injustice.

Arhin

For me Rain's aptitude "WE’LL fix it. Fix this stupid world." is one of the reason why I love "Delve" so much.

Adunk
>>85358929

The goal might be noble, but it’s the childish execution we are angry about. Rain needs to grow up. He can still want to change the world without acting like a child.

Monadologist
>>85251104

The stated reason was Velika made him take people she knew. The unstated reason is probably that it makes a good excuse for face-time for side-characters we've not been seeing enough of to justify their accumulated buildup to date.