《Skeleton》Bones(5)
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"Necromancy is one of the few ancient magicks that can be wielded without mana. These, of course, require grand rituals and massive sacrifices to the lords of the dead, but the results are usually far greater than spells cast with mana. The most likely cause is the direct contact with they who rule the afterlife. However, the other reason may be connected to the origin of our world. Of course, proving such things is impossible, and all documents even remotely mentioning such things are lost to time."
- Unknown Necromancer. Found in the diary of a mysterious Necromancer
"To be truthful boyo, it ain't the undead ya gotta worry about, oh no. It's yer so-called 'brothers-in-arms'. Yer fellow living that ya gotta worry about. At least with the undead, ya know they're gonna try ta kill ya, and they'll be up front about it. With another person though? Well, ya never know when another living being will decide ta randomly gut ya like a fish ripe for cookin', just cause they reckon they can."
- Captain Bannius of Fort Grunvest in the Mirelurk Swamp. Part of the former Foregeth Kingdom to a new recruit.
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The Mitocrasis leaped into the crater with a terrifying aura of grace. Its eyes cruel and unblinking as it studied every currently visible inch of the skeleton, its forked snake-like tongue flicking in and out to taste the air. It slowly circled the outer perimeter, confirming to itself the skeleton wasn't moving either towards or away from it.
This monster hadn't lived so long for nothing however. Due to the lack of movement, the Mitocrasis quickly cautioned itself. Never before had its presence been given this sort of reaction. To this creature of several centuries, it was a new experience. It circled thrice before quietly closing the distance between the two. From its experience, if a strange thing it found attacked, it was an enemy. If it stayed frozen or attempted fleeing, possibly a new tasty food.
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Its nose sniffed the skeleton, attempting to incite a reaction, however none it received. This made the creature lose caution and gain a great amount of curiosity. It circled the skeleton rather close, continuing to sniff at it, before stopping in front of its face. The monster nearly pressed its self upon the skeleton, seeking some sort of change in behavior.
The skeleton noticed it no longer saw the rising sun, and instead something was blocking it. The skeleton focused its black orbs on identifying if this thing was one of its friends or its eternal foes. However, being the way it was, it immediately recognized the monster was neither, and as such returned its eyes to the last place it saw the morning sun.
The creature snorted, now ever so slightly annoyed at being ignored, and patted like a house cat wanting to play at the skeleton. The monster smelled no meat on it, so it wasn't food. However neither did it attack so it wasn't hostile. So what was it? The creature lacked the intelligence to properly come to make the proper category of what exactly it should be, thus to this king of the mountain, it was merely just an interesting thing, like a shiny rock to a goblin or another peculiarity a given species might find of interest.
The patting, however, garnered no further response from the skeleton, thus it went back to circling and sniffing more. This continued for several minutes before the monster sniffed at the strange things right shoulder. It smelled something, and it thus immediately stopped. The smell was different than the rest of it. It turned its head to the side and brought an eye forward for closer inspection, searching for the cause of the sudden difference of smell.
Suddenly a blue glow appeared, normally causing this Mitocrasis to retreat quickly out of caution, however, it was frozen, and its normally golden eye was now glowing an azure blue like the strange mark on the skeleton's shoulder.
The skeleton felt something within it. If the skeleton had the ability to describe, it would reply 'like a homecoming'. It felt a sort of pull, drawing its gaze, and for the first time, the skeleton truly looked at something outside of its former prison.
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Blood Elf Monarch
Abandoned since birth, mistreated, exploited, betrayed, and hurt. This was all society had offered to Tristan.
8 2863The God of Midgard
The world fractures, rifts form and everything changes. When Kailan returns to Earth after being pulled into another realm for a thousand years, he finds the Earth he left behind has changed, but not as much as he expected. With the advent of Dungeons the birth of humans with the power to challenge them soon followed. Magic becomes a reality. And new businesses centered around the trade and manufacturing of otherworldly materials skyrocket. When Kailan left Earth as a human, everything was normal, but when he returned as a God, the realm of fantasy became his new reality. [One of the Winners of the 5th Royal Road Writathon Challenge - 13th Place]
8 117Dungeon Core Chat Room.
This is a slower-paced "experiment and dungeon building" web novel that tries to use the idea of peer-to-peer communication with Dungeon Cores instead of Dungeon to slave monster communication to break up the detailed dungeon building. Rank 1 description: (minimum met for system initialization...detailed description as follows) Each race was given a system by the gods to make up for their shortcomings and balance their place in this world. Humans: Abysmally bad at understanding and using magic unable to use more than the lowest of magic were given the "Skill System" magic in the form of premade skills with use, study, and mastery tied to experience. Elves: Intuitively understand magic and have long lives leading to vast knowledge and skill in their chosen fields. However, as a species, they have nearly zero sex drive and less than low fertility, so they were gifted the "World Tree System" with experience gained through the care of natural areas – gifting the chance of children to increase their numbers without dirty copulation. All “natural” or “wild” monsters are given an "Evolution system" designed around killing and consuming as many creatures as possible, slowly increasing strength and, at thresholds, allowing mutations to alter them multiple times. Dungeon cores are different. Unlike humans, they can see, manipulate and live off mana. Unlike Elves, they naturally crystallize after extended periods of time in high mana level areas. However, they cannot easily move or communicate and typically go insane without companionship. As a species other than the odd eccentric they are unimaginative. Brute forcing solutions without the drive to truly innovate. Thus they have been gifted with the "Dungeon Connection System" a magical version of the internet accessible by their peers that allows them to barter and sell: bait, traps, monsters, and knowledge, as well as entertain each other with “adventure streams” using exciting recorded battles and humorous reels of arrogant chumps biting off more than they can chew to often fatal effects. This is the casual story of a dungeon unluckily spawned far from potential adventurers forced to innovate beyond its peers to find its place in this world. Rank 2 Description: Justification. I've been on a dungeon core kick for months and while I love the genre – it's sparse with entries. Often the forced conflict gets repetitive and frantic solving of threats "power levels" the protagonist to god levels to progress the plot – taking away the nice steady progression fantasy I'm looking for. (Progression in this story is linked to how strong of monsters/traps/whatever he can create not his "level"...this is demonstrated by some of his newer monsters beating his older monsters not with discrete "this monster has 10 attack this one has 40") Additionally, the focus on 3rd parties with their drama takes away from the reason I’m reading dungeon core novels in the first place – I'm looking for magical crafting, experimentation and kingdom building – not defence from higher and higher levelled enemies looking to steal/destroy/control the MC. This novel is kind of just me writing the story I wish I could read. I like thinking about the experimentation that can be done in fantasy settings using 'mana' as an excuse to make up rules and try to keep them internally consistent. IE once I define how a rule works, I'm going to commit to keeping it – no breaking hard truths I've given when it's convenient, even if it backs me into a corner. Hopefully, that should make the story interesting to read even if it's SOL and less action-oriented. There will be problems to solve and a clear progression in strength (of created monsters and knowledge) however due to not wanting to force conflict for the sake of conflict the general theme will be closer to slice of life with few action sequences and no overarching goal so please keep that in mind when picking this up as the genre is not for everyone. Finally, I have a clear goal of what I want from this story (not an endless romp but a series of arcs and then a conclusion that's a couple of dozen medium-sized chapters long) I want to commit to finishing it or at least bringing it to a point of rest. I hate all the engaging stories that stop with a “hiatus” indefinitely so in the event I lose motivation I'll work to end this even if the ending becomes rushed/unsatisfying just to give a sense of closure. I’m planning on including several polls in terms of direction and taking feedback heavily into account if I get enough readers (but may choose to ignore it if it deviates too far from the direction I want to take this as in feedback like: “The MC needs a cartoonishly evil arch-enemy that wants to enslave him and force the mc to pump out magic items” or “the MC needs to make a body and learn teleportation then live with humans” will get shot down without consideration.)
8 258The Beast of Ildenwood
An epic fantasy adventure with LitRPG elements. 🏹 He awakens in a strange forest with no memory of who he is, where he's from, or what has happened to him. She is on the run, carrying a precious bundle that could mean the destruction of the world as they know it, or peace everlasting. When their paths intertwine, the two of them are in a battle against time - to save him, and to save the world - with death biting at their heels. 🏹 Lahab takes her oath as a Noble Guardian with dead seriousness, so when an artifact that has the power to destroy the world - or create an era of lasting peace - shows up on the battlefield, she risks her life to make sure it doesn't fall into the wrong hands. While on the run from those who desire the mighty power of the mysterious artifact, she stumbles upon an unconscious amnesiac and decides to take him with her. The Wanderer of Realms - the only name the man has - travels with Lahab as she makes the journey to Burj Annur, but as he begins to regain his memories, dangerous secrets come to light about this Wanderer...
8 112Sander sides oneshots
I hope you enjoy. Started- 8-6-20Ended- 6-16-21-sorry it won't be getting updated anymore!!-
8 69A True Rogue
Rain is used and tossed away like a piece of trash by her mate after claiming to soothe her from the pain she suffered by her pack.Returning years later, she's exactly what they made her, a Rogue.******My first work, please check it out and tell me what you think.
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