《Frontier of Blades and Walls》Completely Isolated
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After getting treated by a priest at a church near the eastern gate, Ken turned in the Wooker's Rope to a guild receptionist, and had asked her about the adventurer's tag he had found on the goblin. He took it off and showed it to her. She explained that goblins collect and wear anything shiny, and that it must've plundered it from an adventurer's corpse. She took the tag, gave him a reward for finding it, thanked him, and claimed he had done a great service to the guild for finding it.
Next, Ken asked some of his senior adventurers around the guild office about the talons he ripped off the goblin.
"Yeah, some of the wilder goblins have those. Kinda rare, I think," chatted a blonde swordsman in scale armor. "Might wanna ask someone else," he said. "I don't pay attention to the details too often," he snickered.
After talking to someone actually helpful, Ken gathered that Forest Goblins have talons and claws unique to their subrace. After asking a handful of other people, Ken found out that there was a store that would buy the claws for a fair price. Ken left the office and started down the road.
The Guild office was located in a district known as the Adventurer's Square. Many businesses catering towards adventurers orbited around it. The businesses eventually got so numerous that they essentially formed their own district. Shops, inns, taverns, restaurants, smithies, boarding houses, and even libraries were densely packed next to each other. All shapes of stalls, shops, and peddlers sold weapons, medical supplies, and adventuring tools like torches, rope, and provisions.
Ken turned down a roofed alley that was overgrown in woody vines and green ivy. It was lit by hanging metal lanterns, cats wandered between fences, and a group of female adventurers were sitting outside a shop enjoying tea. Ken thought that this alley must be in a different dimension. The chatter of the city didn't reach his ears, and he felt incredibly at peace.
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"The Crys'al Pestle," Ken muttered to himself, looking up at a wooden sign. It was the shop recommended to him by several adventurers. It dealt in monster parts, magical curios, and rare herbs.
Ken grabbed the ornamental door handle, and opened the door. A bell sounded, and he walked inside. His eyes began to adjust to the dark room.
"Woah," Ken uttered simply.
Planters hung from every inch of ceiling and draped Ken's shoulders with vines. Shelves hung from the wall and held any kind of relic you could imagine. Racks were strewn about the floor space in rough isles. Artifacts sat on the racks, and monster parts hung from the sides. The aromas of incense, monster parts, and plants didn't mix at all. The room didn't smell like one single thing, and depending on what you focused on, you could either gag or feel refreshed. Ken strolled between isles, and he quickly noticed that the only things he could afford were the pharmaceutical ingredients that were typically bought in bulk.
Ken eventually reached the front counter. No one was there. He waited for a minute before getting impatient.
"Hello? Anyone here?" He called.
Ken heard a crash and a rumbling in one of he rooms behind the counter. After a few seconds, he heard footsteps coming closer to him. A small girl of no older than ten appeared from around one of the dark corners behind the counter. She wore a dark blue, silk, mage's robe several sizes too big for her. Her hair was brown, frizzy, and everywhere. She was rubbing her eyes vigorously and stifling a yawn. Ken waited until she was done.
"Excuse me?" Ken asked politely.
Then and only then, did she notice Ken. Her eyes flew to his face, widened, and then squinted with disdain. Ken waited a few more seconds while she examined him. He had an immense sense of déjà vu wash over him.
"Um, can I talk to the owner of the store?" Ken asked.
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Fairy-Elf Enigma
Miles is reluctantly recruited by Elle to be part of her Adventuring Team in hopes that he can speak to the woman he fell in love with. The only problem is that she is dead, but Elle may know a way.
8 153Darkborn
The Unbinding series Arc: The Dark Spiral Book: Darkborn Shae is broken. Deeply hurt by life, unable to fit in and without the perspective to understand what the people around her mean by their actions. Her only link to the world around her, a pet cat, dies, and her world is turned upside down. When an opportunity presents itself, she grabs onto it, unaware of the part she is made to play in plots that may well determine the fate of mankind. Forum post: https://forum.royalroadl.com/showthread.php?tid=100419 *** 03-May-2018 For all intents and purposes, this book is now finished. At least the second pass. Editing a book is soo much slower than writing it in the first place :( Book 2 of the Unbinding series, chapter 1 has been submitted, and should be readable any moment now. Please check it out, read it, enjoy it and maybe even comment on it. Join me on twitter to get updates on my progress, @mroysson *** Cover background Photo by Joel Filipe on Unsplash Cover design by Al Pearce (https://twitter.com/alpearcedev)
8 197The Bridges We Must Cross (Part 1/5)
"There are bridges that need to be crossed in the world. You and I have the same bridge that we must cross simultaneously lest we fall. So tell me, Prince...will we cross this bridge, or will we burn it?" Serah is a normal princess turned villanious pirate captain who is cold hearted and ruthless. Elizabeth is a guilt-stricken emotionally abused orphan who accidentally caused her mother's death. Tanner killed his father. On purpose. Henry seems bulletproof, but is made of glass. Lydia is the youngest, who has seen the darkest side of the moon. What happens when this rowdy, tough crew of bloodthirsty pirates meets their match: A group of spoiled royals, whose lives aren't as put together as they seem? Why, love's bound to happen in the process. (I do not own the cover) (This is set in a world different from ours, with different countries.) This is part one out of five parts. Five short books in all that span over a few years.
8 107A Glimmer in the Dark
A world begins anew after an eon of recovery and regrowth had passed. The inhabitants of the world simply continue with the lives they lead with little care for the origin of their situations and of their home.Yet they will soon discover that the period of regrowth and renewal does not stop for anyone or anything.
8 126Pilgrims and Fulcrums
Poetry will collect here. I hope it comes from my heart. I hope it reaches yours.
8 176The Discarded
The Umbrae Lunae existed before man, beautiful abominations birthed in the nightmares of mad gods. They wait for humanity to misstep, for the angels to look away. For the moment when they can cloak the world in moon shadows once again. But even horrors have children. Even nightmares must feed. One child, unlike the others, finds his way to a school for young abominations. Will he be a sheep cast before the wolves, or a terror that wears the skin of wool to entice the wolf close? The flesh of his body was his only coin, strips cut to pay debts that never ended. Everyone has scars, stories in a life led, lessons learned, and licks taken. Luminous bodies touched by darkness. There are a cursed few that are the opposite, black shadows consumed by scars, twisted minds devoured by diseased hungers, bodies tortured misshapen works of gouged flesh, silver lines of blade thin cuts, ragged tears of teeth and glass. For them, the scars are marks of homecoming, the mangled wasteland the only place they feel at peace. Hell is a place. It's made of concrete, steel and glass. It's the sounds of starving kids crying themselves to sleep, huddling into small balls as creepers come and take their due of innocence and tender meat. It's eating rotten food and carrying ticks in your hair. It’s having no one and nothing while surrounded by everything. It's the life of a street kid. What abomination was birthed in the corrupt womb of man’s cast-off shit? Pretty people don't know the power of ugly. They can't see the strength in a broken soul or the power in a calloused heart. Those secrets are for the discarded alone. Only the broken understand the grace of darkness. The blessed folds that hide scars and tears, the protection of its concealing umbra. E-Begging: Character Sheets, Racial Character Classes, of both side characters, villains, and main characters as well as short stories can be found on my Patreon. Eldrik Lewis This story is cross-posted to Scribble Hub. Same cover and synopsis.
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