A massive cavern spread in front of us, awash in bioluminescence like some bizarre rave. It resembled an enormous egg set on its side, with the wider end to the right ending in a solid wall and the narrow end to the left splitting off into several dark passages. The cavern’s floor sloped to the center where a wide stream ran through the cave from left to right. The water was like glass, perfectly clear.
At the banks, the stream branched into several small pools bordered by rimstone dams, some shallow, others deeper. The pools flowed into each other, stretching toward a flat island on our right. The stream split around it and emptied into a lake, its waters moving slowly and disappearing under a spectacular flowstone wall where layers of calcite formed a frozen stone waterfall.
“I need lights, people!” Melissa called out.
The mining crew spread out, planting floodlights along the nearest wall. The portable generator on the central cart sputtered into life, and bright electric light illuminated the cavern. The sloping floor was ridged with calcite, and it looked slick. A good way to break a leg.
“Much better,” Melissa declared. “It’s almost like we know what we’re doing.”
London nodded to the tank. Aaron moved to the left and planted himself in the narrower part of the cave, between the dark tunnels and the mining crew. London stayed at the entrance, guarding our exit route. The three strikers fanned out along the perimeter.
It was my turn to shine. The cavern walls were awash with swirls of bright green mixed with rust-colored metallic deposits. Promising.
I took a deep breath and flexed.
The official term was talent activation, but to me it felt like flexing a muscle I didn’t normally use. The world turned crystal clear. The edges of the rimstone dams and contours of the flowstone waterfall came into sharp focus, as if I’d adjusted my eyes to higher resolution. The outlines of individual mineral deposits glowed slightly.
I focused on the closest wall, scanning and evaluating, sorting through different hues. Malachite, copper-rich chalcopyrite, decent but not exciting. Cuprite, quartz, calcite, trash, garbage, junk…
A patch of funky plants to the left glowed with dull, pale yellow. Healer Slipper. A weird variant, but definitely in the same ballpark as the more common varieties. If processed, it would yield a potent broad-spectrum antibiotic. A decent haul, if nothing else showed up.
In the wake of the gate catastrophe and the emergence of the Talents, humanity had tried to find some frame of reference. We settled on video games. A lot of the Talent classification mirrored the familiar game classes: tanks, healers, scouts, and so on. The closest video game match for my talent would’ve been appraiser, but the government nixed that one because it didn’t sound heroic enough and was too “materialistic,” which was utterly hilarious considering what I did. Unlike Melissa, who only sensed ores and only when she was on top of them, I evaluated everything in my environment, organic or inorganic.
So far, the cavern has been relatively disappointing. Usually, orange gates offered a little more. I pivoted slightly, turning away from the wall.
The inside of the stream lit up like a Christmas tree. Well, that was something.
“Gold in the water,” I announced. “Check the pools.”
“Go!” Melissa barked.
The miners scrambled over calcite walls. The pools directly in front of them ran a little deeper, and the water came up to their thighs.
Sanders thrust his hand into the pool and pulled up a tangerine-sized gold nugget. “Holy shit!”
The mining crew erupted into a controlled frenzy. Half of the miners went into the pools with buckets, while the other half positioned themselves on the shore, emptying the buckets into wheelbarrows.
I kept scanning. Gold was okay. Just okay.
“We got time, people,” Melissa called out. “Don’t hurt yourself. Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast.”
A bright swath of deep crimson flared on the edge of my vision. The colors of the glow didn’t always make sense, but red usually meant something valuable. I turned slowly, following it, and focused. A thick vein running from the center of the cavern all the way to the far wall…
It couldn’t be. I squinted at it to make sure I wasn’t imagining it.
No, it was there. And the crimson got deeper at the other end of the cavern.
“Melissa?”
“Yes?”
“Dump the gold.”
The mining crew stopped. Sanders closed his fists around a handful of nuggets and hugged them to his chest. Gold fever was a real thing. Something about the bright shiny yellow metal made people lose their minds.
I pointed to the beginning of the vein along the wall of the island, by the two pools closest to the shore. “Adamantite. From here to there. Solid, less than a foot down. We’ll need more carts.”
Melissa splashed into the stream to the adamantite vein buried under calcite deposits and put her bare hands onto the stone. She grunted, squeezed the rock surface with her fingers, shook from the strain, and stumbled back.
“Goddamn! Team One here! Team Two there! I want those drills running five minutes ago!”
The gold went flying. The mining crew grabbed their drills. Safety glasses and noise-dampening headphones went on, and they waded into the river and attacked the dams and the island.
Gold was expensive but adamantite was twelve times more valuable, because it could be refined into adamant. In the same family as osmium, adamant was incredibly durable. Adamant-enhanced armor could withstand machine gun fire. Adamant-coated blades cut through solid metal and monster bones like butter, without losing their edge.
We found it rarely and usually in small deposits. A cubic yard of adamantite was a record-breaking haul that would mean a big bonus for every guild member that entered this breach. We had a lot more than a cubic yard here. In all of my time crawling in and out of the breaches, I had never found a vein half that large.
The drills chiseled at the rock with a dull roar. The first chunk of adamantite fell free, a dark, almost black basketball-sized rock that looked like frozen tar in the crystal-clear stream. The drills stopped as everyone stared at it. Melissa tried to lift it out of the water, couldn’t – it was ridiculously heavy – and laughed.
“We’re gunna be rich!” someone yelled.
“Ada, I love you!” Melissa declared. “Marry me!”
“Sorry, I don’t want to ruin such a good friendship.”
People laughed. Next to me, London cracked a smile.
“Friendzoned,” Melissa groaned.
“It’s not you, it’s me, Mel. I’m the problem.”
More laughter.
Melissa shook her head. “Back to work, people! And someone help me with this rock.”
The miners resumed their drilling.
The vein continued under the stream, veering across the cavern floor to the left and behind the far wall. Getting adamantite from under the water would be cumbersome, and our time was short. The wall deposit lay deeper, but it was a better bet.
I went down the slope to the water. The best place to cross was to the left, by Aaron, where the stream was relatively shallow. I headed there and waded in, careful where I put my feet. The rocks were damn slippery, and the water came up past my knee. Magnaprene wasn’t the most comfortable fabric, but it was waterproof.
I hiked over the shallow calcite ridges to the wall, pulled a can of fluorescent paint from the pocket of my coveralls, and set about tracing the contours of the deposit in bright Safety Yellow. A hell of a find. Not that I would get anything out of it other than bragging rights. Government employees didn’t get gate loot bonuses, and that wasn’t why I’d taken this job.
The steady roar of the drills filled the cavern.
I was thirty-three years old when I saw my first glow. One of the larger US guilds somehow obtained permission to sell sebrian knives to the public. Sebrian was found only in breaches, and the knife prices started at $1,000 for a tiny pocket blade. Our advertising agency had taken the contract and promptly sent it to me with the key phrase of “rugged luxury.”
I was sitting in my office staring at the knife and trying to figure out the right approach, when the blade turned pale pink. The glow refused to fade, and when I focused on it, something in my brain clicked. The weight, the density, the structure of the metal somehow popped into my mind and combined into a specific … profile was the best word.
I drove to the ER. I thought I was dying. Twenty-four hours later the DDC came calling with a contract and a patriotic sales pitch. Assessors like me were rare, and the government hoarded us, to the point of making it illegal for guilds to hire their own private assessors. The guilds had poured an obscene amount of money into lobbying against that law but got nowhere.
The invasion wrecked my life. I’d looked at that contract and realized I could do something about it. Every time I went into the breach, I found something to make us safer. Today it was adamantite. A drop in the bucket, but it was my drop.
I finished tracing the wall and set the can on a rock.
Elena crossed the stream and lingered on my left, looking toward the tunnels. She peered at the dark passageways, turned, her face sour, and called, “Stella!”
Stella, who was on the other shore watching the miners, didn’t move.
“STELLA!” Elena roared.
The dog handler spun around.
The scout waved her over. “Bring the dog!”
Stella splashed through the stream, Bear on a leash, and trekked over the ridges to us.
“I need you to check the tunnels!” Elena yelled over the drilling noise.
“Which tunnel?”
“Start with the left!”
Bear yanked at her leash, jerking Stella backward, toward the stream. Stella said some command I didn’t catch.
Bear yanked on the leash and erupted into barks.
Elena waved her arms. “Control your dog –”
Something burst out of the middle tunnel. It swept past Aaron, a vaguely humanoid shape in pale blue garments, so fast it was a blur. Four other blurs chased it, wrapped in dark gray. They tore past the tank in a flash.
Aaron’s top half – shield, armor, and body – slid to the side and fell to the ground.
For a horrifying moment, I stared straight at the stump of his torso, still standing upright. It was standing upright.
The blurs wrapped around us. I froze. They spun about me like a whirlwind, the four gray beings striking and slicing, while the creature in blue parried with impossible speed. I caught a glimpse of arms in dark armor gripping silver blades and inhuman faces with fangs bared. A second, and they tore across the cavern toward the wall and the mining crew.
Untouched. I was somehow uninjured.
I turned to Stella on my right.
Her head was missing. There was her torso in indigo magnaprene, her neck, but no head.
The headless body crumpled to the ground.
A gasp came from the side. I turned on autopilot, still trying to process Stella’s missing head. Elena’s guts spilled out of her stomach. The scout clutched at herself. Dark blood poured out of her mouth. She made a horrible gurgling noise and fell.
This couldn’t be happening. It was a weird, horrible nightmare. I was dreaming that I found the magic motherlode of adamantite and then monsters came and killed everyone.
The air smelled like blood and bile. To the left four inhuman creatures tore at their prey in the blue robe, running on the walls and leaping in for the kill only to be knocked aside. Three miners floated in the stream, face down and the water was red, so red…
Oh God. It’s real. It’s all real.
Panic smashed into me like an icy hammer. I had to get out of here. Now.
The only safe exit was on the other side of the stream. I sprinted across the ridges to the water.
To the left, the fight swung back and forth along the lake’s shore.
I slid over the first rimstone damn, tore through the pool, climbed over the other side, and landed into the stream. Water came up to my thighs and I waded through it, squeezing every drop of speed out of my body.
Half of the mining crew was still drilling.
“Run!” I screamed, waving my arms. “Run!”
Sanders turned, plucking the headphones off his left ear, saw my face, whipped around, saw the creatures, hurled the drill aside, howled, and ran for the entrance. The line of miners broke as people charged to the exit.
Time stretched like molasses. There was only me and the water trying to stop me. I just had to make it across the stream.
At the cave entrance, Melissa was scrambling up the slope, toward London. The blade warden stared straight at me. Our gazes met.
Help me…
A door slammed shut in London’s eyes.
No. No!
Melissa shoved Anja Presa out of her way. The slender woman slid on the rocks and fell, rolling down to the stream.
I can’t die here. I have to get home to my kids!
I was running so fast. Faster than I’d ever run in my life, and I wasted precious breath on a scream. “Wait! Wait for me!”
London’s face was cold like ice. He yanked something off his belt. A grenade. He carried aetherium concussive grenades to be used as a last resort.
“Throw it!” Melissa howled and ran past him.
London looked straight at me.
Alex! No!
He dropped the grenade. It rolled toward the stream, bouncing over the limestone. The blue forcefield of his warden talent flared into life, wrapping around London. He turned and fled into the tunnel.
The world exploded.
The blast slammed into Sanders ten yards ahead of me. Water punched me off my feet. I flew like a rag doll and smashed against solid rock. My right leg snapped like a toothpick. My spine crunched. Agony splashed across my side and bit into my ribs. My ears rang, my head swam, and the air in my lungs turned to fire.
I tried to breathe and couldn’t. There was water on my face. I was in the stream face down. I had to get upright, or I would drown.
I wrenched myself up.
Bright white aetherium smoke filled the cave. I couldn’t see anything, I couldn’t hear anything, I couldn’t breathe. I could only hold still as the pain drowned me.
“Mom! Don’t die!”
I won’t. I promise.
I forced myself to take a tiny breath. It felt like jagged glass cutting its way through my throat. I coughed through it and willed myself to take another. And another, swimming through the pain, one tiny sip of air at a time.
The smoke drifted up. My vision cleared. I was sitting in one of the pools by the shore, with the water up to my armpits, with my back pressed against the rimstone wall. Next to me a severed human head rested on the pool’s bottom. The dark curly hair swirled with the current. Stella.
It should’ve hit me like a semi, but instead I simply noted it, the same way I noted the blood spreading from my right leg and the broken glass that ground in my lungs with every breath.
I pulled the leg of my coveralls up, out of the boot. A jagged bone cut through the skin of my calf. A compound fracture. Okay. I tugged my pant leg over it.
I had to get the hell out of here. Out of this cavern. Out of the breach.
The exit was no more, blocked by a wall of rubble. London’s grenade collapsed the ceiling of the tunnel. He and Melissa left me to die.
The clump of alien creatures passed along the opposite wall, all but floating over the debris that had sealed the exit. I didn’t hear any gunfire. Our escorts were dead.
The aliens darted to the right, absorbed in their fight. They weren’t targeting the humans. Aaron, Stella, Elena, they were simply in the way, cut down in passing as the four creatures in gray tried to kill the being in blue. And if their fight swung this way, I would be in the way, too.
I had to get out of the line of fire.
The wall in front of me, where the exit used to be, was at least forty yards away and sheer.
I looked over my shoulder. There was a niche in the wall behind me, next to my yellow paint marks, natural depression in the rock. A place to hide.
I turned around. My right leg screamed. Standing was a no go. I would have to crawl on all fours.
I clenched my teeth and crawled out of the pool.
My right leg burned, sending stabs of hot pain through my knee. I could do it. Stay low, move slowly, don’t present a threat. It was only pain. I could endure pain.
Twenty yards to the wall.
Fifteen.
I hit my knee against a sharp rock, and my weight landed on my injured leg. The world went white for a second. I sucked in a small breath and kept moving.
Ten yards. Almost there.
Almost.
My fingers touched the stone. I turned around and tucked myself into the niche, pressing my back against the wall. There was a trail of my blood across the cave floor.
The creature in blue was still moving, but only two gray blurs remained. The third lay on the rocks, a smudge of dark fabric that shifted whenever the fight drew closer, stretching toward it like a living thing. I couldn’t see the fourth.
To the right something moved by the rock.
I sat very still.
A furry head with big ears poked out from behind an outcropping.
Bear.
I licked my lips, trying to get my mouth to work. “Bear.” I could only manage a whisper. “Come.”
The German Shepherd crawled toward me, pressed against my thigh, and let out a soft whine.
“They left you, too.”
I hugged the dog to me. We sat by the wall and watched the fight tear across the cave. The blurs were so fast. How could anyone move that quickly? It should’ve been biologically impossible.
One of the remaining gray blurs collapsed.
The last gray attacker shot toward us. It took me half a second to realize it wasn’t a coincidence. It was aiming for me.
There was no time to run, no time to do anything. I threw my arm in front of Bear shielding her on pure instinct. The gray blur loomed above us… and stopped.
I finally saw it clearly, a tall creature with four arms, wrapped in a tattered gray cloak. Its hands had too many fingers, long and clawed, and each hand clenched a sword. It stared at me with terrifying eyes, its irises missing, its sclera a solid mass of solid black, and its mouth, on the face of white pearlescent skin, was a wide, dark slash filled with nightmarish teeth. A blue blade protruded from its chest.
This is also real.
The gray cloak stretched toward my face, like some strange amoeba, its strands long and viscous.
The blue blade turned, twisting.
The creature spat purple blood and went limp.
The sword slid back into its body. The cloaked being fell to the side and slid a few feet down the slope.
A tall figure stood behind it, clad in a shimmering, ice-blue robe. The silhouette looked chillingly human, too tall, with limbs that were too long, but unmistakably familiar. The head was a solid chunk of metal, twisted into a sleek horned shape. The same metal, blue with gold filigree, sheathed their body under the robe. No visible skin. Even the fingers of their right hand, gripping the blue sword, were coated in metal. Their left arm was missing, cut off just below the biceps, and bright red blood spurted from the cut.
None of my briefings had ever mentioned a being that appeared this human. Animals, monsters, inhuman sentients with strange anatomy, vaguely humanoid beings, yes. But never this.
The figure touched their helmet. It split apart and retracted into itself. An older woman looked at me. Her skin was a muted pastel pink in the center of the face, darkening to a vivid turquoise near the hairline. A straight nose with a blunt tip, a narrow-lipped mouth with the same pink lips, and upturned eyes with blue-green irises, slightly too large for an Earth native, but not enough to alarm anyone.
Aside from the skin color, she looked so human, it was terrifying. There were crow’s feet at the corners of her eyes and laugh lines by her mouth. Either the DDC did not know, or they’d lied.
The woman stared at me. Her eyes were sad and mournful.
I stared back.
She swayed and fell.
What do I do now?
The sound of hoarse breathing echoed through the cavern.
She saved me. If she hadn’t stabbed the gray attacker, I would be dead.
Another hoarse breath. Another.
Fuck it.
I shifted on all fours and crawled the few feet to the woman.
The arm was sheared as if by a razor blade, the cut so precise, it was like an anatomy slide. I could see the bones among the bloody muscle. Blood shot out with every breath.
“We’ll need a tourniquet. Hold on.”
I dug in the pocket of my coveralls, extracted the paracord I always carried, and pulled it loose. Paracord was a shitty way to make a tourniquet, but she was bleeding out and I had nothing else. I folded the paracord length wise until I had about three-foot stretch of cord, wrapped it around what was left of her arm, and pulled it into a knot. The blood was still spurting.
I patted myself. I needed… Here. I pulled a slim flashlight out of my pocket. I always brought one as a backup to the light in my hard hat. I pressed the flashlight into the knot and tied another knot over it.
“This will hurt, and you’ll lose what’s left of the arm. I’m sorry. We have to stop the bleeding.”
I twisted the flashlight, tightening the knot. Once, twice, three times.
The woman reached out with her right arm and touched my hand. Her fingers were cool, their touch feather-light.
“I’m sorry,” I told her.
The blood stopped spurting. Now I just had to secure this…
The woman touched her own forehead. Her fingers dipped into the skin, sinking into a seemingly solid skull.
It had to be a hallucination. I was losing it from blood loss and pain.
The woman pulled something out of her head. It was round and glowing, like a brilliant jewel lit from within. It was so beautiful. The colors swirled and danced, a stunning, mesmerizing gemfire.
I had to look away, move, run, do something, but I had no will to move. The gemstone was too beautiful to resist. It was coming toward me, held in the woman’s long fingers. Closer. Closer.
The gem touched my forehead.
The Universe unfurled with light and color. A distant voice whispered inside my head.
“Treasure your inheritance, my kind daughter.”
Everything went dark.
am i first?
Certified 🙂
Absolutely brilliant.. completely hooked..
Please tell us this is being published soon? I can’t wait❤️
I don’t have an official publication date yet, but it will be published after it is serialised on the blog 🙂
He left her !!!! Fabulous instalment thank you c
Worse!!!! Those EX#^*%@!$#*^!$@Y*@&@!)^#%*!!!!!!!!!! LEFT. THE. DOGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is awesome news. Very exciting new story!
I am loving this story! Can’t wait for more.
Wohoo, thank you so much!
Whoa, what an ending!
London, that rat. He’s going to get his. Grrrr…..
Thank you! To be continued. 😁
Indeed!
he better!!!
+1 and Melissa!
Well, obviously London is not the hero/love interest. Gonna be a fast and exciting ride! Woohoo!
Anne in Virginia
Also London was there for HER, he abandoned her. Gonna be a rough day for him when she makes her report. Seems like all the genuine, decent people in this expedition got ganked and the two selfish assholes got away.
eXACTLY§
This. Is. Awesome.
Thank you. And I’m glad about London, because he clearly was not onboard with professional protocols from Day One. Rules are for other people! A$$hole.
I agree ! Selfish asshole !
Also, thank you for the chapter ! I love it !
+1! 😁
I knew you wouldn’t let Bear die and I’m glad to see they found each other quickly! 🤗
+!
She got to “pet that dawg”!
Wonderful!
How exciting!
Thank you!!
This is amazing. I knew something would go wrong, but the London ship is falling down I guess.
🤣 That’s funny!
Ooooooooh what the fuck! How delightful to see this world through your descriptions. The fact that she’s got inorganic and organic appraisal will be amazing in a fight. Excited to follow along!
After rereading the last chapter, I wonder if the assault team even made it to the anchor. Maybe Ada will have to close the gate herself since she’s locked in there. After all, if it’s left too long, the gate will pop and those gray creatures could land earth-side. With that broken leg it might take a miracle (and a good dog) to get anywhere.
Thank you for writing, I’m really enjoying this one.
Thank you!!
Ooo an inheritance. I bet it is magical. And I hope she reports that London abandoned her when she gets back to Earth. He better get fired.
ooooooh my gods! nooooo! more! please! @_@ ahhhhhh!
+1 Woweee! Who needs coffee – I’m wired now!
Soo cool 🤩
Well, now I want to punch Melissa in the face. She didn’t even try to help her crew. I am curious about London, though. I thought Ada was his primary focus. Why did he let her get so far from him that he couldn’t reach her in time to protect her. I smell something fishy.
Can’t wait for the next installment.
Yeah this is a far cry from a good guild: the advance team missed the hostiles, the escorts didn’t even try, the head of the miners pushed one of her own people out of the safety zone before she abandoned the rest, and the one person dedicated to our hero’s survival abandoned her. I doubt they could have predicted the enemy incursion would be so deadly, but the way Melissa and London united in throwing away everyone else suggests that this was their plan for any emergency – get away at all costs.
The advance team could be all dead. They are still in there, right?
We’ll get there!
You’ll be hearing “oh come on Mod R!” from the Horde soon. 😀
I can’t wait for them to get back and report: Yes, we found the motherlode but abandoned it, our “assesor” (forget the title), the rest of our people, and our equipment in a mad dash to run away without even trying to save them. 🤦♀️
What do you want to bet they’re going to try and lie about what happened, thinking she’s dead? “They were everywhere and she died before I could even react. It’s a miracle we even made it out of there.”
Man, I feel like the Guildmaster is going to be PISSED when Ada ends up reporting what actually happened. I doubt the government will be happy that London not only abandoned their DeBra, but caved in the exit behind him.
+1
I do too…. wonder if the high value of the ore made the humans expendable so London and Melissa could come back later and gather it and not have to share with the others or the government.
I’m glad Bear is OK!
Bear should also get an Inheritance for being a good girl.
InBearitance
This cracked me up so hard 😀
Looking forward to the InBearitance spinoff trilogy!
May I suggest The UnBearable Chronicles for the series name?
And who else is hoping for a crossover with Sgt. Teddy?
And the horde creates some new book rumors. 😂😂😂
Give us an inch and we’ll create a new crossover series, make it a trilogy, and probably throw in a spinoff or two for good measure!!
Don’t forget the prequels! 🤣
Not to mention the UNIQUE line of custom clothing!
For the Horde!!!
lol brilliant, titles check, marketing check…
For the Horde!!!
Is that a strange new door in Baha-char? The Horde sees crossovers everywhere!
Yeah, Go Bear!
LOL love it ❤️❤️❤️
Everyone is glad the dog survived.
Good. The animals should always survive, even if they have to be brought back like Artax in The Neverending Story. I even rooted for the ship cat in the first Alien movie, and I’m not a fan of cats.
You bet!
wow!
Gah I love this so much. After binging Solo Leveling in every format, all I could think of was how the Hidden Legacy world could parallel so well with the litrpg genre but now EVEN BETTER is a new serial, and with a middle-aged single mom FMC?! This is going to consume me.
Ooooooo! Boo to London! Yay for Bear (and Ada of course) surviving! Did not predict the humanoid! All the squees – can’t wait for the next chapter! (Haha, look at all my exclamation points)
Now, back to my re-read of Kate Daniels… <3
My mind is so blown I can’t articulate my reaction.
This has never happened to me.
Best serial ever, in a genre I had no previous experience or interest.
Your talent truly knows no bounds.
I’ve never been more part of the devouring horde ready to beg MOOOOORE! (pretty please)
Come back on Friday! So glad you like it!
Mondays and Fridays 🙂
Squee!!!
Thank you so much!
🥰
This.EXACTLY this.
Your creativity is so amazing! Great read!
OMG! I couldn’t stop reading it!
That was amazing!
So amazing! Thank you so much! I am hooked and look forward to the next installment. I am so glad it will be published!
Love love love!! Just started Solo Leveling and I am here for the vibes!!
Oooh I shouldn’t have read this before bed. Now I’m going to spend all night seething about London and Melissa.
I read before going back to work after the long Easter weekend – seething *all* day! First day back is never great, but I was so grumpy people actually commented on it 🤦
OMG. That was intense. Cliffhanger. Can’t w@!+ for the next chapter.
Wow! I can’t wait to find out what happens next. Thanks!
This is amazing! Can’t wait to read more!
Nooo! A cliffhanger! At least we only have to w@it 4 days till next instalment. Totally love it, btw.
Having just binged my way through the 2 seasons of the Solo Leveling anime I’m here for it
Wow! Love it.
This was awesome!
I’m not gamer and I’m not much familiar with the LitRPG so I went in without expectations and behold, 2 chapters and I’m utterly hooked.
The gates are fascinating, Ada’s tallent even more so, to the point that my imagination is now running wild picturing running through glowing alien caves and discovering all kinds of weird and incredible stuff.
Is this is a thing? Is there a word for it? Seekers fever? Finders lust?
And of course there was the twist with the two traitors to make things even more interesting. By the way, that did not feel like just another dick making a dick move. It had a weird calculated, planned vibe.
I smell conspiracy.
And I want more!
I agree about the planning. Their actions seem to go completely against their rep as described by Ada, except that London had been hitting on her, which was against professional ethics. Now I have to go reread to see whether I missed anything about Melissa.
London wasn’t panicked, his expression was cold and calm. That sounds like planning ahead. Clearly in it together, whatever ‘it’ turns out to b.
Ha! She DID get to pet Bear! That was quick. Guess we’re going to learn something about some of the aliens.
Thanks so much! Looking forward to the next part.
I will say, speaking from personal experience, that the calmest & coolest I have ever been in my entire life was in a moment of great personal fear and crisis. So there’s the adrenaline and/or dopamine rush that can cause that. It’s not AUTOMATICALLY a sign of an advance plan.
Holy what the frack!! London, you bastard, I thought you were a good guy! You made me swoon with all your protective vibes! Melissa, you heartless, selfish witch! And OMG I need installment three so I can find out about this inheritance! Man, you guys keep us guessing and on the edge of our seats every time!
omg. Can’t wait to see what happens next! thank you!
I love this! thank you so much!
The only bright spot in this FUBAR is that Ada got to pet the dog!
And my conspiracy overloaded brain thinks it was all planned to get rid of her. Melissa and London are going to be lying through their teeth to cover their ashes.
I don’t know if I think there was any conspiracy. I think it was just “F-no! I’m not going to die” reveal of true character. But then again, I’ve been a member of the BDH for years, so I’m all for conspiracies!
Wow this is amazing! Can’t believe London and Millissa abandoned everyone to die! Is the schedule Mondays and Fridays?
Yes it is 🙂
Woo, thank you!
Oh wow! That’s a way to end a week and begin the next one. Thanks!
seriously, is this like a new series or something? seriously?!!
It is a standalone novella 🙂, set in a new world. It will be serialised on the blog on Mondays and Fridays, and then published.
Omg! It’s getting published too! House Andrews is too kind! Thank you!
And I shall own it in all its forms. This story is amazing!
Wow, Monday and Friday!!! We don’t deserve it for sure……. lol but I’m thrilled!!
Thank you!!!
Oh boy! Now life gets interesting. Thank you so much. Very Very Awesome!
I knew something was off about London… that dirty rat! 😤 But Melissa?! Their whole escape was just too pat to not have been planned out in advance, regardless of what London’s job is supposed to be.
And yay for petting the pupper! I’m at the edge of my seat now waiting for the next installment. Got me biting my nails and everything 😅
this is so amazing !!! thank you !!! and I LOVE the fact that she’s older than most MCs, with kids to return to and everything ! Somehow, you are always on point with the story and characters, everything is so cool uuugh
After having just watched solo leveling, excited for House Andrews take on the genre
Wow thanks
Omg, wow, simply wow! This is sooooo good, I could see whole chapter played out in front of my eyes! Absolutely brilliant. Now the long wait for next chapter
Wow! I’m freaking out! This is awesome!
Wow!!
😮
Now I have to go back work!
Thank you for this awesomeness and the suspense!!
Great start to a new universe! Team Andrew rock!! When can we order it?????
This is so amazing! As someone else said, I’m not gamer and not really familiar with LitRPG but I’m loving this story!
just ,,,, wow
I’m smiling so widely from reading this. Thank you! 🙏
Whoa….
whoa! so good! ty ty
Thank you so much for this. I love it so far!
It takes talent to write in these two different genres, sci Fi and fantasy. One of them was my favorite author before I found you guys. David Weber who is kind of opposite of you. You’re best known for fantasy, he’s best known for sci Fi. But you both have success with another genre.
Hmm, I guess I can’t complain about missing Hugh. This is an excellent replacement. Thank you.
Squeeeee!!! I love this! So captivating.
I knew I didn’t trust that guy and that she’d end up alone with the dog!
So she’s a pink lantern now?
Interesting question! We’ll have to w*it and see!
Now I NEED to know what a ‘pink lantern’ is!!!
All the things! I’m sooo invested.
I’ll do my best to explain but it may sound a bit loopy by the end so link is better https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Lantern_Corps
It’s a DC thing, basically different lantern corps that draw their power from the Emotional Electromagnetic Spectrum. Pink Lanters (simplified), represent the power of love (the emotion, not the going to Hollywood one 😝)
When I read Spence’s post, I immediately thought of Green Lantern. Any relation to the Pink Lanterns?
Pretty soon, we’ll have a rainbow of lanterns. 😀
Yes, the Green Lanterns are one of the lantern corps 🙂
Re-reading, it doesn’t say Anja is dead. Just that she got pushed and fell in the water despite tying her shoes. Melissa is definitely a liar though: “If we have to run for our life out of that gate, I don’t need any of you tripping over your feet, because I’ll have to double back and get you. You have two toddlers to come back to”.
Maybe some other miners are hiding. Sanders is probably screwed being closer to that blast though. She was pretty focused on the threats and getting away from them so I doubt she’d notice others unless she crawled across them.
Wonder if that weird version of the healing plant is gonna help cuz she’s got a compound fracture? They’ve got a lot of weird alien weapons, whatever the fighters had, and the mining equipment. Food though might be bit dicey.
Oh my….
Oh my god the moment I read “a door shut in his eyes” I screamed. I didn’t think he’d be the love interest because he was disregarding protocols and would risk her job, but man I didn’t think he’d be that much of a jerk. And Melissa! Wow. Poor Stella.
Thank you, looking forward to the rest of the story.
Wowwowowowow!!! Omg thank you so much for this! Sooooo good!
The fakeout thinking London could be our possible love interest and then showing his true colors! And Melissa being her friend and the foreman of the mining crew only to push down a crew member while escaping!
2 chapters in and I want this whole series please and thank you!
OH MY!!!
Wow! This was intense and I loved it! This world is interesting and I can’t wait to see what happens next!
And the dog survives, thank you thank you!!
What a way to create a powerful heroine, can’t wait to see what talents and knowledge she inherited. Squeee, so good!
omg omg omg
whenever ada returns. i bet that london and melissa aren’t very truthful in their report.
but first, lets enjoy that new family tie
ohw gawd. when will it be finally friday again? 😅
cant wait
soooooo amazing
OMG! No words! 😳❤️🫣
Gah, this is incredible!!
London, you slimy weasel! This was such a good read.
Beautiful and brutal….
Woah! WOAH! I don’t know where we are going but I am buckled in for the ride.
Also, I love that after chapter 1 everyone was shipping London and Ada and now we’re like throw the whole man out and keep the dog.
This is amazing. Thank you!
I’m buckling in this sounds like it’s gonna be roller coaster of a story!
WOAH! LOVE THE CHAPTER!
Thank you so much for this 🙂
I’ve read it twice so far. I cannot stop thinking about it. Another story, another world to explore. Love it. THANK YOU FOR MAKING MY LIFE HAPPY.
Omg I feel so lucky! So many chapters in this marvelous new world!
Yeow! What a story!
This was really fun. I hope the “mom” does not die immediately and Ada gets some clues as to the value of her inheritance…
I think Tia and Noah are not going to see their mom in a while… Seems extremely unlikely that if Ada inherits the woman’s powers she will be able to just go back like nothing happened. Wonder if there will be cut scenes.
Wow! 😲
I absolutely loved it.
Can’t wait … an interesting world and a middle aged heroine – that’s so cool. The possibilities of how the story could continue – oh my!
Goosebumps!!! I’m covered in goosebumps and it’s not just the fever, it’s the story!
And the cliffhanger too, but who’s counting…
Thank you so much!!
Laurence
Woo Woo!
Oooooooooooooh!!! (Happy dance, happy dance!) Thankyou!!!
OMG! More, please! It is SO hard to be p*tient.
ohhh, so fabulous!
So so good!! I can’t wait for the next installment. You are so talented.
I can’t wait for the rest of the story, but I guess I have to. Sigh. This is another new, exciting world to explore.
I say this with all love: this post makes me want to scream “SHUT THE FRACK UP” and throat punch someone in excitement.
Yes!! This!!!
You are cruel author gods! I hate cliffhangers, but I gotta read this. Seems an interesting take on apocalypse portals.
I hope this is the start of a new series like Innkeeper. Not that I want Innkeeper to end just yet. Wanna know what happens with the gate to Vamp central & the big boogymen.
Holy crow!!! Oh wow, that’s just amped me way up—eeeeeeeeeee! Can’t thank House Andrews enough! Cannot WAIT for the next chapter—what a gift for Mondays! 💜💜💜
THIS IS AMAZING!!!! Holy crap. I’m so invested!!!
Aww, I was excited about London being a romantic interest, but there is really no coming back from throwing a grenade at a woman and leaving her to die.
At least Ada got to pet Bear like she said she would and so far is surviving!
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 “There is no coming back from throwing a grenade at a woman and leaving her to die”🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Too right!! 🤣🤣🤣
Holy cow!! I’m invested! This story had made on the edge!!
Wow. Just wow. So good!
OMG! I love this! It’s so amazing. I’m totally invested.
Aarrrrrggghhhh!! no it ended!!
what a rollercoaster of emotions, truly magnificent writing..
I love it! Sooo looking forward to the next installment 😃
Thank you both so much
Oooh fascinating- I’m so locked in for this story. Also I know the situation was shit but screw Alex. He shouldn’t go around making promises if he isn’t prepared to back it up.
Wow is not enough! Holy Mackerel since other phrases may get edited but what a read! Couldn’t put tablet down, so good, so good!
Thank you!
Awesome! Can’t wait for the next chapter. I hope this is the start of a new book series!!
Oooooooo
Wowzer. That was intense
Can’t wait for the next instalment
Thanks IA
Whoa! Good! Happy sigh. Melissa I could understand except for the grenade comment. But London what a self centered creep. He signed up for the job which was to make sure the government official lived and he didn’t deliver. Worse yet he flirted with and acted like there might be some affection on his part
Wow, wow, wow! Loved it! Mahalo
Well, that was a rollercoaster of emotions! I cannot wait to see where this story goes. And I cannot believe my good luck to see it posted so soon after the first chapter. Thank you!
Wow. So much to process. Thank you
So good and glad Bear made it
Oh that was so stressful – I kept getting up and walking around before reading on. Yay Bear, and the grace of human kindness. Or not just human in this case. And ooh, is the government hiding something or maybe they don’t know….
Will next parts post Monday’s? Friday’s? Or both?
Mondays and Fridays 🙂
😁😁😁
Wow. Just wow!
That was intense!
I’m hooked!
Wow.I’m on the edge of my seat now.I wanted to say congrats.I eagerly await what comes next.Also I was wondering if this is part of a novel you’re currently writing?
It is a novella in a new world, written especially for us to be a blog serial so we have a treat 🙂. Because we are beloved!
It will be published however after the serial finishes.
Wow!
Best dang pick me up to help me get thru the flu. Flu shot fail, and about half way through this crap. I love this story. Thank you. Logan will get his.
WOAH.
😲😲😲😲😲 thank you!
Thank you!
But – Damn – she’s not a very good accessor of people is she – sigh. Melissa and London both suck? I expected London to be bad. Not so soon, but that is definitely a dramatic exit! But now we have to worry about our hero, her daughter, and Bear. Going to be a long wait until Friday!
I love waiting 🤪
Cursing on main like this 🤣
Lol it’s very hard to assess personality if people never show you the real them! Maybe even they themselves don’t know what they’d do in a crisis!
+1 Some pathological types are way more sophisticated than others. They are usually careful to keep their dark side invisible to at least one subset of their acquaintance, so they always have character witnesses available. And they don’t show all aspects of their dark side to anyone but their targets. If you personally have never run into anyone like this, it’s easy to believe they only exist in fiction, or that you would recognize them by their everyday behavior. Sadly, that is not the case.
Wow!!
wow! just wow! I can’t wait for more.
Oooo. I HATE bones sticking up through skin!!!!!
Can’t wait for Karma for London. How will he explain that to Ada’s daughter?
So glad you’re doing this .
I sighed so loudly once I saw that Bear was alive 🥹
So good! Thank you! Hooray!
I love it! im 100% hooked.
amazing
love it
Thanks for keeping Bear@
+1
Please don’t kill the dog.
this is so stinking cool!
This is amazing!
I thought I’d have to wa*t til Friday. Thank you!! I love this!
Marvelous! I’m already completely invested in Ada!
Thank you very, very much!
My mouth dropped open, I cannot wait to see what happens next!
So… this isn’t the project you intended to be working on… but it IS STUPENDOUS.
I’m hoping for, at minimum, Kinsmen style amount of work (a world that you return to with different stories)… but hoping for something mooooooooar.
😀
Whoo ah!!! Can hardly wait for the third chapter!!! Thank you!!!
ahhh this is SO GOOD. I’m so in love with this word. Thank you both so much 🙏🙏
Daaaaaaannnggg! Epic! TfTc!
This is AMAZING!!!! Love, love, love, love, love!!
wow getting interesting fast! I’m hooked! Thank you 😊
Whoa! What the ! What the what the! This is so good! My BDH heart is chanting book book book in my head like Book Goblin making tracks for Bookhalla!
This is so cool!
I am invested already – that darn London promising to get her out and then leaving her behind… tsk tsk!
Thank you for this, and I can’t wait for more!
….I’ve read this 3 times today, and I still can’t even.
This is why I recommend you guys to everyone. You’re just so good at what you do, and I can’t wait to see where this goes!
Thank you so much for all your hard work!
What???!!! I said it last time and I’ll say it again: I’m hooked!!
Thank you!!
I love this tysm!
Omg I need more, this is torture. The story is sooo good.
Holy crap! Just… HOLY CRAP!
I didn’t anticipate anything like this! This was amazing and exciting and I can’t wait to read more!!
Thank you, House Andrews!
I read the chapter a few hours ago and needed my thoughts to settle before commenting.
I reread the first chapter to be sure and from what I understand the guild is supposed to make sure she gets out because the government decided that her life (or her talent most likely) was more important than the lifes of the guild members.
When it comes to survival, most people will do almost anything to live. I believe that until someone has been put in that position, they won’t know the choices they will make.
There have been report of people of gentle disposition doing awful things in order to live.
Melissa pushing Anja (I think it was her name) was heartbreaking. Anja is her protégé, her colleague and they are part of the same guild. There must have been trust between them. Even though there was an explosion, I am hoping she is still alive.
Melissa and Ada are friendly but not friends. And Ada is keeping her distance from Alex.
As for Alex, I wonder. Did he realizes he could not go on fighting like this?
Maybe in an emergency the guild has a protocol that’s not saving the DeBRAs first.
I want to know what Alex and Melissa told people if they managed to get out. They probably spun a story leaving out the fact that they abandoned people…
I want to know about the inheritance…
I wonder if Ada will have to speak up about it, will be able to hide it or prefer to be open about it.
Ah la la. I wish I had power over time so that I could speed it up and slow it down whenever I felt like it.
I really like this point about maybe there being a second, secret protocol for the guilds.
The problem with that being, of course, that DeBRA’s are really rare and Ada is an especially good one. Leaving her to die doesn’t feel like a good protocol to have in place for long term. Obviously, London and Melissa weren’t thinking long term, but guild protocol would be.
Maybe the protocol is that nothing from the other side can be allowed out of the cave? So, if everyone was too far from the entrance, London had to blow the opening regardless of who was still inside. He had to shut down his feelings and protect everyone outside by trapping everything inside.
Maybe another reread of chapter 1? 🙂
“ There was a brief period, anywhere from a few days to a few months from the moment the gate appeared, when the monsters couldn’t escape yet but we could enter the gate from our side. It gave us a chance to extinguish the anchor and collapse the breach. The moment a gate manifested, the clock started ticking.” – Chapter 1, emphasis mine.
Also Chapter 1, we find out Ada is London’s first priority and responsibility:
“ If things went to shit, the tank would put himself between the mining crew and the threat, the strikers would cut down whatever got past him, and London would grab me, wrap us both in his defensive force field, and drag me out of the gate so I could report the disaster to the DDC. Of everyone here, I was the least expendable, as far as the government was concerned.”
Well, that blew up in everyone’s face (literally), unless London has an ulterior motive? London didn’t do anything to grab Ada and run with her over his shoulder to the exit.
The government isn’t going to be happy with Melissa and London.
And after a reread of the chapter, I realized Alex aka London didn’t fight. The gray and blue blurs were fighting. But he was not under attack.
It seems obvious that his job wasn’t to guard the exit but to stay close to Ada. If he felt he had to do both somehow, he should have spoken up when she moved further and further away.
I’m guessing he didn’t think he could move faster than them after watching them slice up the others. If he had urged her not to go out so far, it wouldn’t have been a problem.
Wow! What a battle scene!
I hope Melissa and London get theirs!
I am loving this book!
This is SO FUN!!! Love it! Thank you 😊
I normally have patience for the next serial we see… ahem… that is no longer the case. I am absolutely rabid for the next installment!
I’m stunned. I know I shouldn’t be surprised by your incredible writing because I have loved everything you’ve written. But here I am, sitting on the couch, amazed at the first 2 parts of a new story/world you’ve built. Thank you so much!
wow! Just wow!
Love this!!!!! Reeling from the suspense and action
Oh wow! I knew something would go wrong but not expecting the betrayal! Solo levelling vibes
Fantastic !! I’m totally invested and love the whole feel of this story!
I am not going to “trash” Melissa and London at this point as in Chapter One it was clearly stated that everyone’s had to be in good shape and that the default for any danger was to run as fast as you can to the exit. That being said it did seem that Melissa and London were very quick on the trigger to save themselves and were OK with sacrificing their co-workers. I will be patience and wait for the story to unfold like any good onion there are always layers.
Thank you! And, thank you for doing this on a Monday. I
I had to pause my rereading of Hidden Legacy series once I remembered that you promised more last week. This is an exciting start! I hope that everyone has a good week.
wowie! amazing!
thank you.
Ooooooo O_o
My monday has gone completely sideways. My dog refused to eat, (hes just picky), I was late for work, forgot my wallet, etc.
Finally, I thought, at least I can have storytime!!
And then London is an ass, Melissa is self-centered, everybody is dead, theres no sign of the dog _and_ the adamantite won’t make it back to earth (for some reason I keep obsessing over that). Just at this point one of my coworkers asked me if I was ok… and all I could really say is ‘They killed the dog!’
Praise all author lords the dog survived!!! Im taking it as an omen, my week is not going to continue in the fashion that my Monday has thus far.
Ha. Cant wait to see what happens when she makes it back to earth and confronts London. Itd be bad enough that he didn’t do his job. Itd be bad enough that he made a promise and then broke it at the 1st possible opportunity. Itd be bad enough that he just got Ada thinking/hoping/wishing for more. But all 3!!! Damn, I hope the reckoning is worthy of the betrayal.
After all that I just don’t have an emotional investment in Melissa abandoning Ada, though I do want to kick her for pushing one of her people away from the exit. The theories that Landon and Melissa planned this out in some way are interesting though.
I have no words and all the words! What an absolute thrill of a read!!
I Knew London wasnt the end game!
Also kindness, I love thats its always kindness that it all boils down to ♥️♥️
also yay Bear cuddles!!!
Wow!! Wowzer!! Thank you for this crazy ride!! And this serial will also be a published book!! 📚📚📚
(I would say “fold time to get to Friday”, except the other nail-biting event in my life currently is the first baby alpaca of the season at the farm I follow on FB is currently at the large animal vet with her first-time mom, with some neonatal ICU concerns. The post early this morning said “much improved – running more tests”, so she and her mama need this week for the vets to get everything sorted out.)
London is struck off the romantic leads list! Great chapter. Thank you for this Monday gift!
Wow!!!! ❤️
Already invested in this story! Love it!
Oh WOW!
Well, in spite of a truly shitty day, she did get to pet the puppy.
And now, I will have to buy internet access on board ship for two days every week on my way to London so I won’t miss out on this epic adventure.
Holy sh!t!! This is getting really interesting and after the last four days (including today) this is the best! Thank you for the rescue, HA!
And you have done it again!!! I’m hooked!!! Thank you!!
wow. what a gift
So good. So so good.
Thank you!
Whoa… That was intense. I think I was holding my breath while I was reading it.
Ohhh, so good
I wonder though if London (and Melissa since she said ‘throw it’) had alternate orders.
If the Assessors were rare, maybe instead of London being there to drag her out, he was there (if everything went FUBAR, or if strange humanlike creatures turned up) to make sure the ‘other side’ didn’t get her.
‘Assessors like me were rare, and the government hoarded us, to the point of making it illegal for guilds to hire their own private assessors. The guilds had poured an obscene amount of money into lobbying against that law but got nowhere.’
Seems to me, if she gets out, she needs to take her kids and hide (from EVERYONE)
After a reread, it seems like London might have been trying to tell Ada something, I don’t think you usually make eye contact that strongly with someone you are betraying.
‘ “Throw it!” Melissa howled and ran past him.
London looked straight at me.
Alex! No!
He dropped the grenade. It rolled toward the stream, bouncing over the limestone. The blue forcefield of his warden talent flared into life, wrapping around London. He turned and fled into the tunnel.
The world exploded.
The blast slammed into Sanders ten yards ahead of me.’
If London was trying to kill Ada, wouldn’t he have thrown the grenade over Sanders to make sure it hit Ada.
Can’t wait for Friday’s next installment.
Oh! SO twisty, i love it!
wow, just wow!
Whaaaaat!! That’s was SOOOO Good!!!
this is so awesome. I’m so happy! I literally cannot contain how happy I am!
I love this! Thank you, thank you, thank you!
WHAT?!?! So much wow. Thank you!
Oh my gawd….!
What a gift!
I’ve read all the comments to this point, and I think I am a minority here, but I am extremely suspicious of this betrayal. For one, it is just too big of a betrayal, to Ada specifically and to the crew in general. Second, as many people have pointed out, how are they going to explain this on the other side? Sure, they get out, but then they are probably going to jail. There isn’t enough incentive for experienced, rational, and compassionate people to make a decision like this. Third, House Andrews usually will foreshadow “bad” characters, but everything we have points to Melissa and London being exceptional people. House Andrews doesn’t just throw away good characters, and they certainly don’t condemn characters based off of one strange, unexplained action. They always give people, even villains, an incredible amount of dignity and respect. No one is cartoonishly evil, even when you name yourself Caesar or commit atrocities to conceive a child or live for 6,000 years, quashing civilization after civilization or kill a whole Order of Knights, put a man in a cage, AND appear to torture a child. We are all just people, complicated, struggling people. The greatest comfort in Ilona Andrews’s work is that there are people in the world choosing to fight for justice and love and family and, as an added bonus, the heroes are meticulously careful and professional to boot.
Melissa and London are standard House Andrews “good leaders”. A few commenters seem to condemn London for his breach of protocol, but I think he was doing the right thing there. It shows he is compassionate for his team, that he values them as people, not just as soldiers, and indeed, Melissa and Stella try to cover for Ada by creating an excuse for the delay with the dog. Stella’s inclusion with this act shows me that this does not foreshadow the betrayal. It reads as team sticking together for team. Before the breach, when everything is “normal”, Melissa reminds Anja about her children, and appears even more concerned for her safety than Anja is (remember the shoelaces). Then Melissa pushes Anja down so that she can get away. It does not look to me like Melissa and London are acting like themselves. Up until the aliens come onto the scene, Melissa and London act with the furthest reaches of compassion and care toward their crew. This switch would be a bigger deal except we have them seemingly acting in concert when shit hits the fan, thus displaying that this is some kind of rational behavior. Of course, this may sound like betrayal, but I think that something happened to Melissa and London while Ada was cataloguing the damage to the crew. The minute the aliens burst into the cavern there were literal AND metaphorical otherworldly forces at play here.
OK, so if it isn’t Melissa and London themselves at the helm of this betrayal, my first thought was mind control or some kind of possession as a more likely explanation. They can’t have been possessed by the two aliens that are incapacitated by the time Ada makes it to her alcove, both because the timing is wrong and also because the one alien is still twitching to fight. I think the clearest thing that we know by the end of chapter two is that there is a lot more going on than we know about. House Andrews is usually much slower to condemn people than a completely sudden betrayal like this one.
Also from reading comments some people assume that the person referring to Ada as “daughter” is the alien woman. I like this idea, and it makes a lot of sense, but because this bit of dialogue is directly preceded by the Universe unfurling and also the modifier “distant voice”, I don’t think that the alien woman is the source of the voice. I would gander that part of Ada’s challenge to come is to unite with the source of the voice.
Well, I went a little too hard on all of this. My end point is that I am so very excited for where this all goes! Thank you to House Andrews for their work and their care. Thank you to Mod R, who will most likely have to read all this, good luck!
It is the alien woman’s mind communication 🙂
I think that people can act completely differently than their daily selves if they feel truly threatened. I just read it as Landon and Melissa had never felt so threatened before because they had never been confronted with any creatures that moved so fast (as Ada noted in her observations) and shifted into coward-self-preservation mode. You can teach yourself to act like a leader to get the daily job done, but under extreme stress, people reert back to their true selves, unless they’ve done a lot of internal reflection work to shift who they are at their core. At their core, Landon and Melissa are everyday people put themselves first, not true leaders or protectors.
The idea of some kind of possession/mind control/mind transfer did occur to me, and I haven’t ruled it out completely. Maybe as the predatory critters died, they transferred their consciousness to London and Melissa. Human a$$holery is a lot more common than any of those, though, especially when money/power is at stake. London’s original breach of protocol was hitting on Ada, which could get her fired if she took him up on it. So I wasn’t happy with his character, in multiple senses, even before he tossed that grenade. Yes, they are nuanced characters, but he’s not one I’d want at my back, even if they somehow get redeemed by the end of the book.
this is so awesome!!!!
i love it!
and thank you for not killing the dog!
Thank you! What an exciting chapter, can’t wait to read more!!
Oh wow. What an auspicious beginning.
Thank you, so much. Please accept my gratitude not just for this serial, but also for communicating re: work on other worlds. Please consider the following wish list: Arabella’s trilogy, Julie /Derek’s story, and (pure greed) Inn Keepers with Arland and Maude.
No matter what you write, we the BDH humbly thank you for sharing unadulterated joy.
Wow, that’s a hell of a way to start a story. I have lived everything of yours I’ve read and so far this definitely stacks up. I can’t wait for the next installment. This is incredible.
“Remember,” London called out. “We go in together as one, we come out together as one. Nobody gets left behind.”
That kids, is what we call _foreshadowing_.
And to House Andrews, thanks for scratching the itch that Solo Leveling left
Well I’m looking forwards to reading it and if you make it available to buy I’ll be preordering a copy
Snippet 2 has me fully hooked in on this knitted side story. Skimming all of the comments, will there be a rational explanation for the seeming about turn of Melissa and Alex, will Ada get back to her kids? Pretty mesmerising rocks😵💫……
All so good. thank you
Loving this
fantastic!
oh my freaking gosh OO this is just the origin story!? wow… just wow. I’m beyond hooked
oh no… this was too good and now I have a hungry chasm in my soul that needs to be fed…
also, I’m reading this at 3am and am feeling soooo unbelievably sad that they abandoned Bear
What I find interesting is that London waited for Melissa then sealed the entrance. Makes me think there was a deal or something there that Ada by refusing London didn’t get. I can kinda get why Melissa did it with kids of her own but she outright dumped everyone her own team include.
Oh those 2 are going to regret their life choices in the future. If Ada herself doesn’t get ahold of the the government and guild certainly will. Especially London because has one main job above all else is to keep the DEBRA alive and back to report he failed spectacularly and willingly.
Ada is going to get back with an upgrade and very very pissed.
Wow! Wild action. Was of course worried about Bear.
wow!
Well, how good is this, that London needs his comeuppance sooner than later, gosh love me a serial, Thankyou .
I hope Ada gets out before the authorities contact her kids to say their Mom didn’t make it…
This is so fantastic, thankyou so much for creating this! It just solidifies why you guys are at the top of my “buy anything they write” list. How do you keep your ability to write such great stories through such a different style of genre? Is it because you already were fans yourselves?
Several of your books are on my all time favourite list but I think these 2 chapters are some of the best opening chapters out of all your books, I’m hooked and I know nothing about LitRPG!
^THIS!!!
I am soooo excited every time I see your emails! this book is going to be amazing I can not fricken wait for more! thank you
Wow! I love it!
On behalf of the BDH, West Nyack, NY branch, I and my fellow members enthusiastically bestow upon the Glorious Authors a merry, “Squee!”
Holy Guacamole!!!!
Thank you. You are so generous – with everything that is going on in your lives you still give us this amazing tale. So good!
Ooooooooooooo i am so here for actual quality portal fic I read far too much bad portal fic and now one of my favourite urban fantasy creators is at it yussssssss
I don’t even have words… More! Moooooore! *runs around hyperventilating*
I have been missing my Ilona-Andrews fix! this story is so compelling- I can’t wait for more. Thank you both so much!!
I don’t understand the hate for London. He knows his entire purpose on the mission is to protect her. Not doing what he should have done will cost him. She is more valuable than he is. He saw no opportunity to rescue her and saved himself. Provided there was indeed no possibility of rescue, his decision made sense.
This feels like the first time I started reading Burn for Me.
It’s a wonderfully relatable character in a recognizable world. I am her, she is me.
This will be such a wild ride and i’m really so looking forward to it. I sincerely hope it turns into an epic journey that spans MORE books than Hidden Legacy.
I am the BDH… more, More, MORE!!!
Consider me gobsmacked. HA’s writing complexity never fails to suck me in, but this storyline blowing up practically out the gate, masterful! The intrigue layering. In general, this is why I love to read vs watch TV/video. But HA rachets it up to another, totally unexpected stratosphere…reminds me of when GOT came out and first upended all our storytelling assumptions
Thx you, thx you, thx you
WOW! I don’t know where this is coming from in your heads but….. MORE PLEASE!!!!!
Just wow. 🤩 😳😵💫
No it is getting really interesting.
“Now”. darn autocorrupt
Wow. Been on a Ilona Andrews rereading kick, immersing myself in the various Andrews worlds with old friends. Can’t wait to accompany Ada on this adventure. Thank you.
Wonderful.
This is so so good 😭 I’m going to be thinking about this a while. Love where it’s going.
It stopped to soon. I’m loving this story. I hope it a new book. Thanks.
It’s a serial with installments on Mondays and Fridays, to be published as a novella upon conclusion.
Omg I love this! Cannot wait for more! I love this genre, and am so happy my favorite authors do too! So hard to W**t for Friday!
A point of curiosity, very frequently dungeon/gate fantasy goes hand in hand with guide(healer)/esper(power user) dynamics. Was that ever a thought for House Andrews?
lol curiosity aside, super grateful for the bright spot in my week:) Thank you!
Intriguing and so worth waiting for. I don’t know how you do it. Each world sucks me in and it makes me want to stay. Thank you.
WOW! Just WOW!
Correction:
WOW! and THANK YOU!
I don’t know, if I can wait for the book. This is so awesome. I love the details and I can picture it in my mind as I was reading it.
I am trying to figure out what the other universe characters are trying to do. this breach looks like a baited trap to make contact with our side? healing and gold and adamantine all in 1 room? maybe there are two or more groups on the other side fighting over do we talk to the humans or kill them?
I really hope the stone given to Ada includes inst-heal…..
Im crying!!!
This is like a cold drink of water after being lost in the hot desert for days. It’s just that great. No one else writes this vividly. Thank you!
Wow! Looking forward to each and every posting. 😍
Awesome story, as always IA!! Looking forward to the next chapter
Hell yeah, this is awesome! Thank you so much!
How Do You Guys Di It!
After a bad night and morning I woke up to this, and if I thought I was caught by the first installment, this one sealed the deal!
I love it. You are making a wonderful world and an outstanding story! I can not wait to see where it goes!
Oh wow. Just… oh wow.
Yes, please and thank you!
London…..not just abandoned her…threw/rolled a grenade in her path…not over her , or around her …. no concern about consequences of if she didn’t die right away, just an F**U … you’re so unimportant
Yes I thought the same thing
Holy schnikees, this is amazing. Thanks for the chapters.
Thank you so much for sharing this with us!
Oh wow. This is going to be so good! Thank you!
This is SO good! I love it. Thank you!
This is fabulous!! Best surprise of my week! Thank you thank you!
H’mm can’t say much for the heads of the group. oops. Didn’t mean the pun, but I’ll leave it. But at least the dog survived.
So, when is this book, Inheritance, going to be published? You’ve got me hooked, and I want more. It’s shortly going to become a need, not a wish, a suggestion, or a ‘eh, o.k., I’ll buy it’. I wait with anticipation for the finished product, because this book is intriguing, it caught my attention by the end of the first page.
This is the suck-up part; Your books are good, they read well, and I look forward to each release.
Oh joy of joys! What a read! I now have another IA addiction, (heeheehee, so happy)!
I cannot wait until the next time London appears; looking forward to some payback and carnage!
This is so awesome!
Oh my gosh! Scary and exciting and awesome. Love it!
you know that scumbag London is going to blame her, that extra minute from 2-3 he’ll say she delayed or something UGH! But ….. YEAH Bear is alive too💃🕺💃🕺 gotta have the H have a wonderful trusty canine companion. SO can’t wait for her to get outta there and tell the brass about her shitty so called back up! With that kind of back up no wonder the world is in danger!
So hooked after only 2 chapters weeeeeeee putting seatbelt on for fun ride.
Amazing, I’ve been pulled in and I can’t wait to read more!!
Sweet baby Jesus, that was AMAZING!!! This *this* is why I’ll always and forever be a proud member of the BDH!! We LOVE your writing, you both are simply the BEST! 🙂 Thank you for a great start (and future end) to every week! Love and appreciate the talent, dedication and pure all around awesomeness you guys embody! And Mod R, too! 🙂
More please.
~This~ is why I usually avoid serials. 10 minutes of reading, then the Horde goes insane (a short trip for some of us) for 3 days. It’s only chapter 2! Also, THERE DOESN’T NEED TO BE A SHIP! It’s an action adventure, which calls for a loyal sidekick, who may or may not be comic relief. But who am I kidding? Keep horde-ing, Horde! At least the authors & ModR get a chuckle out of it. ✌️😎🤘
hahahahahahahaha ^this^! Too funny.
Ooooh! Clap, clap clap. More please=D
Oh mah gah, I love this so much. Thank you.
Thank you for writing this chapter!
What a refreshing perspective on the topic. I don’t think that I’ve read a LitRPG with the MC having an assessor/auditor/identifier power. I’m looking forward to viewing how you tackle certain tropes and power curves.
I can’t wait to see what is next!
Ooooh, this is amazing! I cannot WAIT for this to come out… Holy moly, what a wild ride.
Oh, my. So very, very good. Unspeakably excited to see more…
Well that was exciting and a good morning wake up read.
Time now to take UNNA my GS for Walkies…
What a ride! So awesome!
This is just great, you guys are amazing in the way you set everything up so it becomes a three dimensional experience from the get-go. In a very short amount of time we are already a part of the whole picture!! What a great story line and wonderfully portrayed characters.
Thank you once again.
Oh WOW! Now that is a HOOK. Bravo, House Andrews. You outdid yourself, and that’s a high bar.
What talent Ilona and Gordon have. I am not a gamer and I haven’t read any LitRPG before, but with the explanations in the text I am hooked. I am glad Bear is ok, and I want to punch Melissa and Landon. We know Ada is a good person to her core because her instinctive reaction was to protect Bear.
I am so looking forward to the rest of the novella.
Wow! Yup, I am hooked. Wasn’t that jazzed to start a new story line but House Andrews never fails. Thank you
Holy… wow.
Wheeeeee!
WOW, another great story.
I’ve said this before but… Oh, wow…
Cool
OMG!! AMAZING!!!!!!
The story sounds interesting and exciting. I definitely would like to read the book.
Thank you for sharing.
Love this! Can’t wait for more. And finally a middle aged female character who isn’t a dithering ditz!! 🙂 (Hate that trope.)
Whoa! That was intense!
Wow. just… Wow.
Wow! Thank you!
I’m late reading this but , WOW. I hope there will be more. Amazing. I love a book that grabs me right from the first chapter. So good.
dang it now I am officially sucked in!
Sooooo good. Can’t wait to see what happens next.
OOOooooh WOW – I stand amazed by HA’s truly awesome talent – that you guys can create a new world, new plots and characters – and we know your workload now – just freaking amazing!
Thank you so much!!!
Yaaaayy!! A new serial in a new world!! Can’t wait for the next installment (ad infinitum) and the actual publication!
So So awesome – words can’t thank you enough!
Whoa!
I am so totally hooked.
I almost screamed at work, I’ve been reading so many web comics with portals and I’m just so excited to read this!!!!
Having to wait each week is torture, but I don’t have the self discipline to not read it 😭
Woo Hoo! Gimmee, gimmee, gimmee!
The two great parts to this story are the fantastic work of House Andrew’s and the fantastic analysis of that writing by the readers. And maybe there’s a third part – Mod R.
I enjoyed it all. Thank you.
Just Wow
Chapter 1 gave me pause, I wasn’t certain this story would capture me. Chapter 2, yes! My reaction to London is, “why?”. Had he perceived something, seen something about her or had he always disliked her so much he had his chance? There MUST be a REASON. And now the discovery with the transfer of the stone and the mystery of her self discovery and where will this story take me?
No matter what happens next London is dead to me.
Shame on London!! But AWESOME story!!!
I’m 😳 for words
WOW!!!!
❤️
OMG,
I’m hooked, I’m totally hooked.
I swear to you, I am gonna buy the book!
Dun dun DUUNNNN!!!
Oh. My. Gosh!
… WOW! Just Wow!
as a fan of solo leveling i loooooove this. One thing SL taught me is that ANYTHING can happen in these portals so even though ADA is of te opinion that appraisers are no. 1 priority in caves that might not actually be the case when it comes to human nature as we’ve seen. Those two can escape and tell whatever story outside. what will they do? come in and check?
I’m guessing our mc will become one of the cool gem-covered warrior people, cant wait to learn more about the lore and story and characters and world etc. thank you!
Intriguing
So good. I was hooked from the beginning.
OMFreakingG! This is so cool!
All hail HA
Hugs from San Jose California
Holy moly!
Woah this is freaking awesome, I love it. It grabs your attention and sucks you in😻
hello! random question but we’re the hughdays removed from the blog? I came to get my hugh elara fix and I can’t find it 🙁
Yes, the previous serial-ish instalments are archived when the new serial is posted online.
Hugh and Elara’s draft will also go through changes behind the curtain, and we don’t want you to get too attached to the unedited version 🙂
ah rats, thanks for letting me know.
that’s okay I guess. pretty sure I read it enough to re-read in my head…
I read this, then went back and read the first instalment, then read it again.
This has been my third time reading this. This holds much promise for an entertaining read as well as a place in my library. Another brilliant, promising read for House Andrews.
Now *that* is a cliffhanger!
Well that went downhill fast…
I’m so intrigued – what will the inheritance bring (what with opening up the universe and all) and how will Melissa be able to explore and protect it while also getting home to the kids…
Healing seems an urgent priority but the gem didn’t heal the amputation …
Ada 🙂
Melissa is the betraying mining foreman.
Thank god for your imaginations! You are both the best. I can’t wait to read the rest. I love the heroine and the dog already. Can’t wait to have it join my other books on the shelf.
wow, so this escalated rapidly.
My heart was pounding!!!!?
I love this! Can’t wait for the next installment 😄😄
Oh, I like that.
Level up for Ada.
And a vein of colourful emotions for the Horde to mine over and over until Friday…
Bear should get some bacon treats
I can’t believe how much fun this story is. thank you so much! 💗💗💗
they left her and the dog!! 😡😭
I really love the set up here! It’s got action and mystery (a combination I adore) and I really like how the worldstate has been set up. The balance between the mundane and the fantastical feels very organic and the politics makes a great deal of sense.
The only thing better than reading this installment, was reading how fast the hoard turned on London. Thanks for the double update. Mondays AND Fridays feels incredibly generous, and my stressed out soul is very grateful for the twice weekly escape.
Why is it that weekend gallops forward, seemingly taking no time at all from Friday, but the week between Monday and Friday gapes like a chasm and moves like molasses? I keep hallucinating that there’s another installment, but it’s not time yet!!!
I am going to wait and see about London. I have neural transience (brain fog lol) so can’t remember the command structure and am not familiar with this genre but Melissa told him to throw it.
I also am glad about the dog.
London is in charge of the security for the entire team (escorts, DeBRA, miners, K9 and handler).
Melissa is the mining foreman – she does not outrank him and only handles the mining operations.
Hope the recap helps 🙂
Thank you House Andrews for sharing your talent with us with a 5 point harness (and helmet) level of intensity!
Not a gamer and this is my first foray into LitRPG content but that won’t matter because your writing skills are such that I don’t feel lost AND am totally invested in!
Truly appreciate you taking time from paying the bills and honoring contracts to write and share with the Horde!
Sending peace and safety to all!
Holy moly, I think that I stopped breathing there for a while!
Smart Bear, very very smart Bear 😀
Oh wow! I was not expecting that at all! Monster-like creatures and huge battle for sure, but not this. So hungry for more and more.
Thank you. This really did make my day… and made it hard to get to sleep it was so exciting.
Don’t know if this was already answered, but which day exacly is the serial going to be realeased? The 18 (Chapter 1) was Fiday, this Chapter was released on Monday. So is it going to be Mondays and Fridays or just Mondays or just Fridays?
Mondays and Fridays 🙂
Whoa!! So good!!
OMG! I want the next chapter ASAP!! fascinating, magnificent!!!, but take your time 💞
Ooooo!!! This is so good!! Thank you very much for this delight.
Different …but very interesting ! I was thinking it was more of a gaming story …then it agreed with me.
And it’s just getting complicated and twisty …Yes !
Aww baby Bear is such a GOOD DOG!! Can’t wait to see where this goes next!!
She got to pet the dog!
Oh, I can’t believe London left her!! Oh my, such a good story!
Read this yesterday, gobsmacked by the roller coaster ride these paragraphs took me on
Home from work now, chores and dinner done, my precious me time is finally here and I really want the next chapter
Wow, after all their talk in Ch 1, can’t believe Melissa and Landon would just abandon/sabotage everyone!
Loved Solo leveling, so looking forward to this!
Dam! You two can write!
Hooked, I’m completely hooked.
Wow!
Omg! This is awesome and torture all at the same time! Eagerly waiting for the next chapter.
Woah! Thank you! <3 <3
I’m loving this story! The way you’ve shown this world and characters is wonderful. Can’t wait for more! Thank you!
YES!! This is so good.
I’m anticipating the moment when Logan and Melissa have to face Ada after abandoning her. I can’t believe what they both did. Poor Anja with two toddlers back home.
Whose daughter is Ada?!
Brilliant, as always.
I don’t know what’s worse…. they left her or the dog! 😭😡 🤣 I’m absolutely hooked. This is absolutely brilliant and I needsssss more. 💗
Looks like an interesting book. Thanks
Wow
OMG! I stopped reading the blog religiously because life happens. This is my gift and torment. The next installment is due Friday. This is Friday in Australia. I HAVE TO WAIT TIL TOMORROW? I am now back to reading religiously 🙏
I LOVE this!
Oh Wow! Just Wow! What a way to leaves us.
AHHHHHHH!!!!!!! What a ROLLERCOASTER I am HOOKED!
Oh Lincoln, Melissa, you absolute jerks. Lincoln especially. Bastard.
I’m Hooked its already great!! All I can say is you all know how to write!! I love all of your books. Thank You for the all of the wonderfully books!!
I know. I know, Humanity’s lives are on the line. But I’m a caver. And the whole “let’s destroy the cave system” rings so wrong when I know people have done that for centuries.
Sitting here quietly reading. the house is quiet, even the bird is napping. and suddenly I shout “HE LEFT HER! THAT FUCKER!” Dogs are barking, bird is screaming, both cats are trying to find what scared me.
I can’t explain that it was a freaking work of fiction that made me shout out loud. Good job, Writers, very good job. Can’t wait for more.
Once agin I am totally hooked!
Oh damn. Protagonist gets abandoned/betrayed by people she thought she could trust.
Hitting the first big trope in this type of genre. Cue gaining an ability as well. Trope number 2.
I’m excited.
OMG 😯. That was wild! It’s only Chapter 2 and you have all our hearts pumping and brains awhirl!
Love it. Truly, HA, your ability to write characters that hook us from the get-go is seriously impressive. There is a reason that the BDH will buy your shopping lists – anything you write is gold (sorry, adamantite) to us 🤗.
When I read the first chapter I thought you were setting up London as the love interest. I was disquieted by my meh reaction to him. I kept chastising myself, “Just because he isn’t Curran or Rogan or Sean or Declan doesn’t mean he won’t be awesome. Give him a chance.” Ha! No. Instinct correct. You managed to signal perfectly.