《Evolution: A Warlock’s Rise To Power》Evolution: A Warlock's Rise To Power
Advertisement
Lucan was at level 24 while he worked in the fields outside of the village. It was becoming harder to level from the villager's quests. He spoke to Renia about going to the Forest of the Lost, but she cautioned that all monsters and beasts in the woods were level 50 to 100. It would be hard enough if Lucan had armor and gear, so he would have to wait until he raised his level further.
"Lord Quilldrake, why don't you take a break with us, have some water." Said a farmer next to Lucan.
"I am alright, if I keep up my pace for another 30 minutes, I will be done with this section of the field."
"I won't bother you then, but if you don't have plans this evening Mary and I would enjoy hosting you again. The kids are still talking about the last time you came to visit."
"Ha, ha, if I am free, I will stop by, but I need to make a new wand tonight, so I don't know."
The farmer left Lucan to his work. Half an hour later…
[Congratulations! You have leveled up.]
"Ah, finally to 25."
Lucan may have advanced a quarter of the way back to level 100 but, level 0-25 only made up 5% of the experience needed to climb to level 100.
Lucan cleaned up his tools and returned them to the farmer's shed. He headed home and sat on his porch while starting on his new wand with the Forgotten Oak.
Traditional spell casters had access to three devices to cast spell. A staff, an orb, or a wand. Staves generally have the ability to sizably increase the damage output of a spell, orbs normally increase the size of a persons mana pool and wands boasted an increase attack speed and better control while using multiple spells at once. Warlocks were a bit different. Orbs were replaced by rods, usually 2-3 feet long, usually made from metal or stone. Rods didn't increase mana, but they gave an attack bonus to melee damage. The rod could be useful when connecting with someone's face.
Lucan had made a few staves but most of his efforts and gains came from making wands. Now that he was a spell weaver, he was even more determined that control was the way to go. It was a shame that even if he became the best wand maker in the world, he would only do a tenth of the business that an above average staff maker would do. When considering NPCs, maybe there would be more people who appreciated wands.
Advertisement
Lucan snapped out of his bigshot wand dealer daydream when a curious sight occurred in the street before his patio.
A human woman walked past, a player.
'Since when do players come here?'
When she disappeared around the corner, Lucan sent Adrestia to go find Alasan. The shadow drake flew into the half elf's office through the open window.
Lucan conjured an illusion of himself and spoke through the drake.
"Alasan, were you aware that there is another Traveler in the village, besides me?"
"Of course, Lord Quilldrake. She entered the village yesterday with two grassmen. All three were brought back from the Forest of the Lost by Renia's party. It's in the report I gave you this morning."
"Oh, umm, I see. My apologies."
"Do not worry my Lord. We know you are working hard to restore your strength right now, if it were something important, I would make sure you are informed right away."
"Then I will excuse myself, thank you for your hard work." Lucan collapsed the illusion in embarrassment and had Adrestia return to him.
By now, everyone in the village knew Lucan was the weakest person here. They didn't give him a hard time and even recommend several odd jobs that he could do to raise his level. Lucan was very grateful to the people of the village. They were welcoming and accepted him how he was.
Lucan couldn't help but feel concerned now that a player had shown up. His gut instinct was that he wanted her gone. He decided to just keep working on his wand and let time pass. He couldn't concentrate and failed 2 attempts at making a wand and destroyed the ingredients in the process.
"Are you going to stop and say something or circle the block another 10 times!" Lucan yelled from his patio.
Everyone in the street stopped and stared at Lucan. They followed his sight and saw his gaze on the Traveler who had come to the village yesterday. The villagers started whispering and moving about their business while the woman stood before the stairs to his patio fidgeting with embarrassment.
"Ah, I'm sorry." Lucan said, realizing how he put her on the spot in front of all these people. "Do you want to take a seat? I have tea."
Advertisement
Lucan turned away from her to prepare another cup. When he turned back around, she had silently taken a seat. Lucan took a good look at her for the first time.
"Hey wait, I know you! You're the seventh-place ranker Heaven's Kiss. You're the mage who always wears the skimpy clothes. I have seen you on tv."
"That's not me, and that's not my body!" She suddenly yelled while standing up, toppling over her chair and pulling her cloak tight around her as if Lucan was about to molest her.
Once again, the villagers turned and stared at the woman who was backing away from Lucan and protecting her body. She stopped once she realized the villagers were whispering again.
Her head dropped and she tried to apologize.
"That makes us even." Lucan said with a chuckle while motioning for her to take a seat again. "I'm sorry, you're not Heaven's Kiss, I assumed you were using some item to change your name."
The woman took her seat.
"Don't be ridiculous, that's not a thing." She said.
"My mistake." Lucan said, taking great care to not fidget with ring on his right hand.
"It is fine. Heaven's Kiss is my twin sister. She has been playing since 'Evolution' came out, but I only started 4 months ago, my name is Silent Night."
"I am Lucan Quilldrake."
"I can see."
"Okay, why were you circling my house? It isn't a good look for a rogue. Don't let the floppy hat and slippers fool you, if you are looking for an easy mark, it isn't here."
"Hush, I know your only level 25. If I wanted you dead you would be dead."
"Pah, what do you know? I am the Lord of this land for a reason."
"Wow okay, this place is doomed. Just tell me how to leave, I am going to give up on this quest anyway."
"Why don't you go call your sister for help." Lucan said standing up from the table, having had enough of her crap. He turned around to storm off inside while she hollered after him.
"Like hell I would go to her! If you're the damn Lord, do something for me."
"Kill yourself and go back to your saved graveyard!" Lucan hollered from inside.
He heard her shout "ASSHOLE!" As she stormed off.
Adrestia was perched on the roof of Lucan's house and watched Silent Night head off to the outskirts of the village.
Lucan headed into the basement to keep up with his magic practice. He had managed to isolate the expansion formula from the beginning of the illusion spell. Without the appropriate constraints and other formulas, the mana would quickly disperse. But Lucan still had fun filling his basement with shadows as he applied the growth formula to a discharge of pure shadow mana.
He had devoted enough time to become proficient in the 6 spells he knew, the newest being the ability to speak telepathically that Raze had given him. With that spell, he would be able to speak to his followers, even if they were in other realms. Otherwise, the spell was limited to targets he could see.
Lucan had asked Raze about how to leave the shadow realm. He was informed that Bruno could take him if he could negotiate a price with the man, or Lucan could always buy a spell or ability. The latter was both expensive and extremely complicated magic.
He did have a plan though. If Lucan could acquire another 15,000 experience, he could spend 100,000 experience to learn a spell that would allow him to connect 2 places with a magical tunnel. But that would require him to not level up, or else the cost would rise.
Advertisement
Wasn't my new life in a magical world supposed to be easy?
Victor Norman died. And then he was reincarnated into another world by a powerful entity and given awesome skills. So far so good. He thought that fun days of adventure awaited him like any other protagonist that found themselves in a similar situation. He thought that he would be unrivalled and free. He thought that his new life in a magical world would be easy. So why is it that things are turning out this way? Hello, author here~. If you are willing to read this story, I'll warn that I am writing this story purely on a whim, with very little planning and purely for my enjoyment. I don't know how things will turn out but let's hope they will go well~. I will be giving my other story that will be rewritten and renamed later priority so there won't be consistent releases but I'll do my best not to drop it or put it on hiatus for too long. Beware that this story will (maybe) contain: gore (moderate amounts), profanity (moderate amounts), litRPG elements, (probably) logical plot holes. It won't contain (a lot of): politics, romance (mm, likely not much), harem. As for the warnings about gore, profanity, sexual content and traumatising content, I don't know what I will put in there so it's not necessarily true that they will be present. I do not own the picture. If you have the rights for it, please contact me and I'll take it down
8 225Spirit Chef Chronicles
"Powerful cultivator! Your strength soars to the heavens and your arrogance knows no bounds. When you climb to the peak of strength and unlock the secrets of immortality you will no longer place us in your eyes. A timeless immortal cannot be chained by the whims of man. Until that time, however, you still have to eat." - unknown author Since he was born with blocked meridians Zhang Wuli knew he had no hope to be a fate defying cultivator, but he never thought it would be this hard to even find a job! Even a normal office worker has to have a Foundation Establishment Cultivation and three mastered arts! With his options running out Zhang Wuli's Uncle reminds him of one thing; "Everybody has to eat." [participant in the Royal Road Writathon challenge] Photo by Mae Mu on Unsplash -------------------------- This is my first story on Royal Road and my first attempt in general at writing Xianxia. As such I expect that it will need a lot of polish to get it to its final form, but for now I hope to keep up with NaNoWriMo and get something on the page. Until then I welcome comments and constructive criticism. Thanks for reading.
8 77Starcycle - Synastry
Of the six great stars orbiting the planet Adroban, Mito's vile purple starlight is the most feared and hated, especially in times of war and bloodshed. The black sands of Jiovar turn red from the crimson tide of war, and with Mito's eclipse looming near at hand, the kingdom searches for a way to protect themselves from the great star's blight. By Prince Kaeto's command and the guidance of the court stargazer, Sora, a jah annan warrior slave, must undergo a harrowing rite to bind herself to the dark star's power, eliminating Mito's threat and tethering herself to the prince as the sword of Jiovar, a weapon to strike down the kingdom's enemies. Fate, however, has other plans. A partial failure of the rite leaves Sora lost in unfamiliar lands with unwanted powers, helpless to aid her kingdom or the prince until she can find her way back.
8 166Unlucky
How does a 65 year old, ex navy seal survive the integration into the multiverse? What if, in the case of wrong time wrong place, that individual was integrated as a monster and hunted by fellow humans in the noob zone for easy XP? What if, to top it all off, that individual has a really low luck score and can't get it any higher? Well, it takes a love of pot roasts, an ability to talk to oneself, and 40+ years of survival skills to make it all happen. Oh, and maybe just enough unluckiness and a proclivity to undergo hardship to become unstoppable.
8 195Phantom Wings (pending rewrite)
Notice: A major rewrite is currently ongoing, all chapters shown currently are pre-rewrite. Two cities, closed behind walls, separated by an entire continent, are all that's left in an atomic war which has dragged on for decades. Fueled by hate, disagreements, misunderstandings, and stubbornness, the war wages on day after day. Caught in the crossfire, two teams of fighter pilots of opposing sides come together, with a hope to discover what it means to truly be human, and to end the war for good. This is their story. A story of war, of discovery, and of rebellion. This story (this arc, at least) is now complete. No promises for a sequel yet.
8 207Chasing the Hurricane
There was once an Empire that stood here. The Clawscar Empire. For centuries they were the dominating power of the lands of the west. However, during the reign of Emperor Rahl, the people of the Empire became complacent and lazy, giving themselves to debauchery and degeneracy, ignoring the problems the nation faced. As time passed, the land started to die, relationships with other nations worsened, and Clawscar was slowly becoming a miserable place to live. However, one night, suddenly, the old, rotting order was swept away by a mysterious storm that left as quickly as it came. The people who lived to see it called it the Ghost Hurricane. Years have passed since the hurricane's rampage. Now, a young man prepares to make his trek across the Empire's Corpse, hoping to learn the truth of things... Note: Has nothing to do with the ongoing Magic Knight Saga, also written by me.
8 158