《Phantasmagoria》7. The Hierophant
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In the last three years, Miss Fern (or Natalie, how I normally call her) taught me a lot of things, so now I can go to school. I’m 17 now but tomorrow, when school finally starts, I’ll be a tenth grader. Differently from my peers, I’ll be one year older, but that’s okay as I want to experience all three years of high school.
Natalie said that university and college are really different from high school, so after pestering my parents for a long time I was able to attend school from the tenth grade instead of the eleventh grade. I really love mom and dad, and I’m thankful for this chance to enjoy life normally. Well, I already know the tenth grade curriculum and I am halfway through the eleventh, but that’s okay.
It’s 11PM and, while staring blankly at the ceiling, I feel too excited about tomorrow’s events. I can’t sleep, I’m restless. I know it’s not gonna be always good, but that’s okay because life is like that. It’s not always good and it’s not always bad, it’s got ups and downs and it always tries to shake up your routine when you less expect it.
Looking to my side, I can see various Moluccella laevis, or Bells of Ireland, sprouting from the floor to greet me, making me feel even more excited as they wish me good luck.
From inside the car, I could see all sorts of people entering the school building. Professors, both young and old, were easily recognizable by their mature attitude. Most of them were like that, at least. Also, a lot of the passing students greeted them with a minimum of respect. I could feel my stomach trying to give me back my breakfast. Excitement and anxiety were overwhelming my senses, until a warm hand held my own, which was slightly trembling. I hadn’t even noticed it.
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“Don’t worry kitten, it’s gonna be alright. I’m sure you are going to fit in and enjoy yourself.”
Mom stared at me in the eyes as she spoke. Her confident words and radiant smile seemingly gave me the strength to nod. I held my backpack, entirely covered with a photo of a galaxy/the space, tighter. It was really nice looking, but after seeing a couple of the girls’ backpacks I thought that maybe it was too flashy.
Continue reading here~
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- In Serial20 Chapters
Sword System Academia
2/17 NOTICE: I'm putting this on hiatus, possibly permanently. I didn't want to spam with an "update chapter", so hopefully here and in the story blurb will get enough eyeballs. There are a couple reasons for ending SSA for now. 1) I wrote the next chapter but wasn't happy with it. I've been less and less satisfied with SSA's quality the more I thought about it. Part of the reason is... 2) I am seriously thinking about trying to publish some novels to help pay the bills, since I don't have my other source of income anymore. I have never asked for anything from SSA readers, no money, not even a review or rating. SSA is written for fun to amuse myself, primarily, and I would kind of feel bad actually charging someone money for something as unserious as that. I don't think it is good enough to ask anything in return. To use an analogy from music, SSA is more like a jam session with a bunch of friends. You're just chiling and having fun playing some music. I mean, if you are Mozart or even Eminem, your jam session is good enough to sell, but for an amateur beginner like myself, haha, no. If I want to publish something, I feel like I need to go the proper route of practice and rehearsals, which might be more similar to a classical concert performance. With SSA, I work from worldbuilding notes and a loose outline, but what you are essentially getting is the first draft with lots of so-called pantsing. Pushing out a web novel like this also means it is very difficult to go back and improve things without breaking everything else downstream. I wanted to try this "jamming" approach, as it was a good way to teach me about another aspect of writing, but to move forward, I think I need to hone my "classical" techniques, which emphasize rewriting, or at least, revising outlines. 3) While I intend to try to make $$$, my actual current goal is to "get gud". I've spent a lot of time recently trying to understand the self-publishing industry, and I'm pretty sure I can make some money by using short-term strategies with my current amateur skill level. But I've seen too many authors come and go/burnout, and really, the only way that I think I can enjoy writing and still make money on a long-term basis is to become a better writer. And the next step for me, which I haven't done much before, is to spend more time on rewriting and outlines. That is pretty much antithetical to the way SSA is developing. I've always been kind of 20/80 plotting/pantsing, but I want to spend a lot more time outlining before I even start writing. SSA jam sessions don't really fit my goal anymore. If you're curious about what's next, read on... Among other regrets, I regret not finishing SSA. It's the first story I've dropped, but then again, it's the first web novel I've attempted, so I suppose that's not a surprise. I don't think traditional web novel formats suit me that well. The whole SSA story I had loosely planned (beyond a first book or major arc) is way too large as well. Big story = good for neverending webnovel with Patreons, bad for penniless and fickle writer like me. I am currently outlining a complete trilogy to another story in great detail. I want the story to end concisely, and I also want the chance to really spend a lot of time on the full outline to spot pacing problems, character issues, lost themes, and so on. I'll still share this story on RR. What I intend to do is finish book 1, flash-publish the whole thing here for a few weeks, then publish on the big Zon. Repeat for books 2 and 3. The upcoming story will be about crafting heroes. The backdrop is an isekai-like setting, where elves will summon humans to their world as heroes, but the whole hero crafting business is still in its infancy. The elven mage researchers are figuring out how to imbue heroes with power, while the heroes are trying to figure out how to use the powers that they gain. Humans are the best hero templates because they are blank and have no intrinsic magic. Or at least that what the elves thought. The human MC has his own secrets... There will be some similarities with litrpgs, but I would call it more a progression fantasy or gamelit story. For example, the stats are very low, at least initially. Say we have a stat called Str. Going from Str = 1 to Str = 2 is a huge deal. Also, going from Dex = 0 to Dex = 1 is an even bigger deal. I guess you could call it a "low-stat litrpg", haha. Also, the heroes won't be gaining stats simply by killing things or leveling up. You can't increase stats arbitrarily, either. There will be rules to how stats can increase, and how they work with each other. The elven mages will be figuring out these rules in order to craft stronger and stronger heroes. Some inspiration will be from cultivation magic systems, but there won't be overt cultivation, at least for now. A theme I really want to explore is the idea of interactions. That includes things like hero crafter vs hero, tactics vs strategy, skill synergies, racial interactions (dwarves, elves, etc), and son. Yeah, so hero crafting. I'm super excited about this project and venturing into publishing. If you want to check out the upcoming story, you can follow my RR author profile to see when it drops here. Finally... THANK YOU TO EVERYONE! I'm very sorry that SSA is stopping, but I hope at least some of you will find the next story at least as enjoyable, if not more. Thanks to all the readers who gave SSA a shot. Big hug or solid fistbump to all of you, whichever you prefer! I hope this message is not a downer but an upper, because I am psyched!! -purlcray -------------- BLURB: Talen, youngest Master of the Koroi, makes his way to the Empire's capital to salvage his clan's fate. But the bustling city has few opportunities for the traditionalist. For the old sword clans are fading. With the rise of alchemy, gold can purchase strength that ordinarily took years of training to cultivate. Sword artists, once rare and accomplished, are quickly growing in number, especially among the wealthy noble class. Even with such alchemy, though, no one has advanced to the rank of Grandmaster in countless years. Talen's true dream is to walk the path of a sword artist to the very end while fulfilling his clan duties. And then the Swordgeists return, fabled founders of all sword arts, gods who had touched the world long ago and vanished. These myths turned into reality warn of a coming threat. Alongside this warning, they issue an invitation to the Sword System Academy, a path to power beyond the mortal realm. But first, they will hold an entrance exam... Story notes:Sword System Academia blends elements of western and asian fantasy such as xianxia and litrpg. I took parts from different genres I enjoyed and twisted them into my own creation. There will be an explicit system, both of the litrpg kind and the hard(ish) magic kind, but it is embedded within an academic structure that will develop over the course of the story. This is my attempt to design a unique type of system, the System Academia.
8 153 - In Serial102 Chapters
Congratulations, You're Dead!
*Ding**Ding**Ding**Ding**Ding**Ding**Ding**Ding* *Ding**Ding**Ding**Ding**Ding**Ding* *Ding**Ding**Ding**Ding**Ding**Ding**Ding**Ding**Ding**Ding**Ding* "Uh, whatcha doing there System-chan?" *Ding**Ding**Ding**Ding* "You know they can't understand you right?" *Ding* "No need to get rude. Fine, I'll leave you alone to do the synopis." *Ding**Ding* *Ding**Ding**Ding**Ding**Ding**Ding**Ding**Ding**Ding**Ding**Ding**Ding**Ding**Ding* *Ding**Ding**Ding**Ding**Ding**Ding* *Ding**Ding**Ding**Ding**Ding**Ding**Ding**Ding**Ding**Ding**Ding**Ding* *Ding*. "Well, you heard the lady, go read it."
8 204 - In Serial79 Chapters
The Forest Spirit who sought the Gods
After the Gods of Time, Nature and the Elements created this world, they took a rest under the shade of a tree they created. Thanking their creation for helping them back with its shade, they gave the tree sentience, blessed him and called him a friend. Now the Gods are half-asleep, content with only watching. The world has breathed for millenia, and the blessed tree still watches over the forest around himself. The world has changed and his life comes to an end, surrounded by loneliness. Gathering what's left of his strength, he passes his torch on, in the hope of giving a last goodbye to his friends, wherever they may be and whenever they would see. Meet and follow his first and last creation he passes his will to, a one of a kind forest spirit with... abilities (wouldn't want to spoil too much here now, would I?). Curious and cute, he will travel and meet new people, discovering the world he's in, to try and give a last goodbye to the three creation gods in his dad-tree's place.------It's my first time writing a novel! Or anything of the kind, in fact. So bash me as much as you like (within reason, of course).------This will be a world of humans, humanoïds, beasts, magic, and a heartwarming tale of travels across it. It won't always be butterflies, roses and friendship though, heavy moments are there too. Also : depictions of violence, blood and gore, nudity, strong language, alcohol and other classic +17 stuff. To the reader's discretion.
8 119 - In Serial14 Chapters
[Indonesian] Great world traveler
Nama asliku adalah Armil Zefrana. Aku berasal dari Negara asia, di Indonesia. Tapi suatu hari aku nyasar kedunia lain dan berusaha untuk kembali pulang kedunia asliku. Tapi aku pun sudah bisa menyimpan dunia yang ku datangi aku tidak pernah sampai ke dunia asliku. Kita telah banyak dunia-dunia yang telah ku datangi. Lihat itu dunia modern, memiliki negara-negara yang sama dan teknologi yang sama, itu bukan dunia asliku. Aku sama sekali tak menggali dunia yang mana ada ada riwayat kehidupanku. Dan pada akhirnya aku menyerah untuk kembali pulang keduniaku. Apa yang telah kulakukan dalam perjalanan antar dunia lebih menyenangkan dari pada pulang dan melakukan hal-hal normal. Aku juga paham jika aku pulang tidak akan ada lagi yang namanya kekuatan besar seperti yang kurasakan. Ini seperti aku selalu ada di dunia khayalan, meski sudah ratusan tahun aku menjalaninya. Juga tentang dunia tempat aku dicampakkan. Aku juga merasa itu bukan dunia asliku. Karena selama disana aku juga merasakan kekuatan aneh dari diriku, jadi aku mengganggap diriku sendiri tidak normal. Ya, aku tidak ingin kembali ke dunia asliku. .
8 83 - In Serial18 Chapters
Rise of an Adventurer
Dust... was only human, weak, and fragile in spirit. He had experienced loss, and tried to move on. After seeing him spend his most recent days as an adventurer at the bottom of the barrel, fate decided to give him another chance.A lucky encounter leads him to meet valuable friends and advance beyond his originally mediocre fate. Dust and his companions traveled together, growing stronger and fighting against difficulties as a team. Everything was going well......But sadly, all stories have tragedies.Will he succumb to the sadness? Will he fight on, only to find that his efforts were for naught? Realize his own weaknesses and collapse under the weight over his shoulders?This... is the story of how an ordinary adventurer rose to the top.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Mature tag for occasional gore and cursing, plus the occasional fanservice and planned sexual scenes. If it ever goes [17-18+] though, a warning will be placed on the chapter's title. Also, there will not be any big tragedies in this fiction.
8 133 - In Serial44 Chapters
falcon [sara lance]
She couldn't save her sister. But she sure as hell will save her, in more ways than one. [sara lance x oc] [ranked #1 in saralance 11/05/18]
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