Hey, as observant readers might know, I've been dealing with recurring stomach problems for a while now. Things have finally escalated to such a point I ended up being hospitalized today due to the severity of my symptoms at this point in time. (jaundice, malnutrition)

Because of my massive buffer this shouldn't affect the update rate, but it's why the comment boxes might be left empty/look a bit dreary, as I don't really have the energy to add additional flavor text to every page I post.

They're finally doing thorough research into what might be going on with me, and hopefully it may result in some changes, cross your fingers for me.

Kind regards,

Neorice

But is it really twisting your words?

Enjoy!

I know there's some site issues right now.

It should be possible to view the comic normally using the underscore link:

https://www.neorice.com/hoh_latest

https://www.patreon.com/posts/jsp-agent-4-1-10-95387301

At the request of Eve (whomst people may know from the HoH discord) I've created the first 10 pages of our little Hohverse D&D one shot that takes place in Haven and made them available as a public post on Patreon.

You can check it out on patreon, they're public posts.

Happy Holidays!

I just realized the latest update on the news page has been that kinda depressing burn out issue for ages now.

I've been feeling a lot better so I'm posting a new news article just to bump it down.

Those who follow me on patreon I've already informed about this, but I figured I'll make a news post because I'm going to be (hopefully temporarily) return to the 3-page a week format.

Since late autumn I've realised I've been dealing with pretty intense burn-out issues due to work (I'm a teacher professionally), this is part of a longer ongoing issue but I've not really recognised it for what it was until around Autumn.
Some of the stuff I've been dealing with is pretty intense emotional instability, near-constant exhaustion & severe sleep issues.

I've been working the last few weeks on adjusting my patterns regarding work, sleep etc to return to actually functioning properly, but the process is incredibly slow and any time I'm optimistic about actually making progress I feel any source of unexpected stress at work sets me right back to where I began. The moments I'm not working, the days where I'm not working, there is a pretty big chance I'm so tired I can barely drag myself out of bed.

Despite this total lack of energy & the stress issues I've been having I've tried my best to keep producing my comic at the rate I have been, because it's always been one of the biggest sources of joy in my life. I enjoy seeing people discuss it, I enjoy seeing people have fun with my characters and ideas & I enjoy actually putting ideas I've had in my head for years actually appear on the page as part of a story.

I've never considered my comic a source of stress & it's not at all the reason for my burn-out problems, I want to make that clear. I do the chapter drops & stick to a daily update rate because it's the speed at which I enjoy releasing content, not because I feel obliged somehow.

That being said, I've been on such low fumes for such a long time now, that even reminding myself to tick that manual update box 4 times a week for the "extra" days can feel like a chore. I feel that, until I start to feel actual progress in my general mood & energy levels I want to throw the comic back to the classic pace.

Hey Ciel! Been a long time!

Been a while! You know the rules, add questions for the next Q&A underneath this post.

1. "Is the reason Burk was immune to magic bullets because he wasn’t using spirit? Or is it because (as he said somehwere earlier) he’s immune to all telegraphed attacks?"

yes.

2. "Would you mind telling us which shows inspired you to create Heroland? One Punch Man, Tiger and Bunny, and others come to mind."

I would actually say my biggest inspiration was probably Hunter x Hunter? I never saw T&B and I think I had already largely settled on the base notion behind Heroland before I knew OPM had something similar. But HxH is definitely the key inspiration.

3. Does either Justopea or The Veda Project have a way to follow the mages in their "Mage Army" should they ever desert? In Justopea, does the same protocol apply for deserting (normal) soldiers and magic soldiers?

If they do, they have hidden it well so far.
Desserters get shot on sight.

4. How many people does The Empire have following Guy?

I haven't seen any? have you?

5. What's Tobi's class&level?

Just reread chapter 3 for her level, the classes can be swapped so aren't set in stone.

6. Will the story ever have a singular major antagonist?

Perhaps the antagonist is not a person but the friends we make on our journey ... or something.

7. Will any of the storylines ever end up combining/fusing together?

What if they already have but you just don't know it yet?

8. What did the Ghouls mean when they told Tobi that the Smile Games open 'new paths'?

That it'd open new passages!

9. Why does Eloy drink so much?

To stay hydrated.

10. Can Noah wish to give Ciel a separate physical body to make her stop bothering him?

Will he try it?

Will it work?

yes, he clearly doesn't want to, who knows?

11. What terms do Veda, Garth and Null use to describe Cherry's power?

"underwhelming."

12. How likely are respawned ghouls to pursue the last people who killed them?

Usually extremely likely because they were trying to kill that person to begin with.

13. Does Kimberly lose body mass when he creates slime? Can he stop producing slime or is this involuntary? Is this why he always wants to eat?

Yes.

14. If Ciel uses Noah's brain together with Noah, that means she reduces "CPU time" available to Noah. Does her existence make him dumber?

No ,just more annoyed.

15. "Ciel" is a masculine noun ("le ciel"). Does that affect Ciel's gender?

Ciel is female presenting but I think the concept of gender is relatively meaningless to her.

16. Leutenant Marble gives orders to commander Halmer, whose rank is higher. How does Justopean chain of command work?

Technically Halmer ranks above Marble in isolation, but because Marble is specifically sent in to aid the Veda project per direct instructions of military command, she's in charge of the comic-relevant events. Halmer is the type of official to respect that.

17. When did Malhart start gathering orphans? If he was doing it for 30 years, are there middle-aged magic users that would come to his aid?

I hope this one is clear now!

18. What will happen to Noah if he is in someone's mind when that someone dies or is killed? Will Noah disappear without a trace? Will he reappear next to the corpse?

Is there a safe way to find out?

It's rather unclear! Let's hope for Noah he never discovers this the hard way. ;)

19. Can Mr. Kimberly turn part of his body into slime?

If so, will his body part retain their senses when in slime form?

Theoretically, can he infiltrate other people body through their digestive system with the slime?

Nopes, he's just a regular human. Magic that fundamentally changes a human's body is extremely rare.

20. How good is magic at healing? Aude seems to have a pandemonium power to quickly heal herself, but what about healing others?

Proper healing magic is extremely rare, though spirit can be used to do minor things like closing open wounds.

21. Can any of free magic users heal?

I'd not let any of them heal me if they offered.

22. Can free magic users cure Noah from clumsiness?

They're magic users, not miracle workers. lol

23. Does Noah suffer from prosopagnosia? Can free magic cure that?

It sure seems like he does, and probably not directly, no.

24. What are the limits of what free magic can do?

A mix of their imagination, spirit reserves and understanding of whatever they're trying to alter or manipulate.

25. Tobi's eyes glow blue, when she accesses menus. Noah's eyes glow green, when he observes spirit. Did I miss Burk getting red eyes?

Nope. Burk's eyes aren't that special.

26. Can Noah use spirit powers when he is inside somebody's mind?

Can he dig with spirit next time he gets inside some dumb animal?

In case the next pages don't answer that: can he get into the mind of the big 3-headed cat?

yes. yes. most likely not.

27. Have anybody ranked the 3 main characters by their popularity among readers?

Nope, I guess I could post a poll but idk how I'd get most of the fans to actually participate so it's hard to say for sure.

28. What happened to the first two Q&As? I don't see a way of getting to them. No "older items" link on the news list.

Complain to penguin lol, he never added a button to see old news posts.

29. Is there any relation between Burk and Sunny?

I - ... how do you figure there might be?

30. Does Nail work for Garrimon?

Well he seems to work for Veda in the comic!

31. Is Garrimon the source of black crystals?

Wait a little bit longer.

32. Why do members of Pompadour gang walk in such an odd way?

Peer pressure.

33. Why can't Goldman win against Silverman?

Silverman's just too damn good I guess!

34. What happens if I put something other than 3 in the "what comes next" box for leaving a comment?

Penguin once told me there's another correct answer but I forgot which.

35. Does Eloy have any singular drink of choice, or is he more of an anything and everything kind of drinker?

There's definitely one thing he's almost always drinking yeah. He's quite specific in that way.

36. Does Nail wear glasses and mask to hide having no eyes and no mouth?

Yeah sure, y'know what? Let's go with that. His skin condition is having no eyes and mouth.

37. What is Nail? Some kind of robot? Something like Three?

Oh that explains the above question!

38. Did Garrimon create him?

Garrimon sure is popular around these parts.

39. Will Malhart live?

Gotta wait for that answer!

40. Can Noah track Veda to say if she's alive or dead?

In theory, yes, in practice ... nah. The level of spirit mastery to sense something that specific is exceptionally rare, even above Malhart's level.

And there we go! Feel free to add more questions!

I was sorta going over comments from my old pre-reboot comic, reliving the nostalgic sadness of it dying and people in the comment box rueing its demise.

I'm just morbidly curious, how many of you guys are actually here from the old days/old comic?

Did you expect HoH to come back the way it did after the mega-hiatus over my summer holiday?