《The Invincible Hero》A Hole Lot of Something
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Lorne came home later that evening to find his parents impatiently waiting. His mother looked really mad. Lorne walked in sheepishly and greeted his parents.
"Where exactly did you go today young dragon?" Lorne's mother asked angrily.
"Mother, I went to the Bear Tribe," Lorne said.
"The Bear Tribe! Don't you have any sense?! How could you go there alone?" Lorne's Mother asked.
"Mother, how could they do anything to me when you were there watching me?" asked Lorne.
"How...How did you know I was there?" Lorne's mother asked, shocked at her son being able to detect her. How easy was it to detect a Wu Di? It wasn't easy at all.
"I didn't know, you just told me." Inside Lorne was pumping his fists. Finally, it worked. How many years had he wanted to use the clever spy technique to expose someone? It felt so good.
"Wha...You little..." Lorne's mother didn't know how to react. His father on the other hand did.
"Hahahahaha, there you go son! Hahaha, he really got you there mother Yun!" Lorne's father was really amused. She was so clever, he never got one over on her. Yet their little baby just got her. The expression on her face alone was one of the funniest things he had seen in a long time. This kid getting one over on his wife, for some reason, it felt so good.
Lorne's mother finally processed what happened. Even she was amused by the whole thing. All of her anger from earlier completely vanished.
"Oh haha, you two are very funny. What a smart little guy. I guess since he's so smart there's no need to go out anymore right? You're so smart I'm sure there's nothing out there that could truly be of interest to someone such as you," Yun said.
Lorne realized his freedom was in jeopardy. "I'm sorry mother, I'll be good." As Lorne said this he made the best puppy dog face he could muster.
"It's fine," Lorne's mother said. She always fell for the puppy dog face. He was just too cute.
"Okay, if you two are done, I'd like to hear what happened at the Bear Clan today," Lorne's father said.
“I went with Big Bear, He and I became brothers. I told him about you and your brother bear and since we are both named Xiong, he said, "I'll be Big Bear, and you'll be Little Bear." I thought that was pretty great.
“After that, we went to the Bear Tribe and all these other animal kids followed us. We went into the tribe and I was surprised to see all the different species living and working in the tribe. I thought since it's called the Bear Tribe only bears would live there, but it wasn't the case.
“We went to the lodge of elders where I got to meet Big Bear's Grandpa. He's the Tribal leader right now. He asked me some questions about how long ago I hatched and asked if you two would ever like to pay a visit to the Tribe. If so, he said you were both very welcome.’
“We all chatted for a little while and then we noticed these glowing eyes. Grandpa Bear said, "You cats sure like to lurk, why don't you come in and join us." It turned out that the Cat he as talking to, wasn't any old cat. It was the Tiger Ancestor!
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“The Tiger ancestor said, "I heard the baby dragon was finally born, and I wanted to take a look at him." He took a look at me and said, "I like dragons, my master was a dragon." I was like "really?", and he said: "yes really." I asked him where his master was, but he said he didn't know.
“His master appears from time to time to give his teachings. Grandpa Bear said the Dragon Master always offered help to the beasts in the forest. He would offer guidance and what not. It was pretty interesting hearing about an old Dragon who lives around here. Mother, Father, have either of you ever heard of this old Dragon teacher?" Lorne asked.
"I've heard the legends about an old dragon ancestor who teaches the creatures of the forest. However, he's never met with either of us," Lorne's father said.
"Hmm, well the forest kids asked if I could come tomorrow to play some more. Can I go?" Lorne asked.
"It's fine Xiong'er, but I don't know if you should get too close to those forest kids," Lorne's mother said.
"Why's that?" Lorne asked.
"Xiong'er when baby dragons are born they need lots of sleep. You've been awake for over thirty years. In a decade or so you're going to fall asleep for about one hundred years. When you wake up, all of your forest friends will be grown up warriors with families of their own. Some of them might even be dead. It's very hard to go to sleep having friends and then to wake up alone. It's better to be friends with dragons," Lorne's mother explained.
"But I can't be friends with other dragons because we don't live near other dragons. I don't want to worry about what I don't have. I understand that I'll be saying goodbye to these friends of mine soon. Even though it will be hard I still want to be friends with them. Maybe I'll be friends with their kids!" Lorne said.
"Okay, if that's how you feel then we'll let you have fun with your friends while you're awake." Lorne's father said.
Over the next few months, Lorne went to the forest every day to play with his friends. Sometimes Lorne felt a little weird playing with his friends like a kid. He was an adult after all. However, he noticed the kids were getting older really fast. Big Bear already looked like an adult bear. He would start his warrior training soon and he wouldn't have the time to play with his friends anymore. The last days of childhood were quickly ending and in six months Big Bear would head off to the Forest Warrior Academy.
One day, Lorne was playing a game of soccer with a litter of rabbit kids. Lorne recently taught this game to the forest kids and they loved it. The rabbit kids especially loved the game. All the bigger animal kids preferred the game 'football' Lorne introduced to them.
Lorne was one of the few creatures able to play soccer against the rabbit kids who had really strong legs. It was like the game was invented just for them. Lorne jumped up to intercept the ball catching it in his chest. Lorne fell towards the ground, but when his feet touched the earth the ground broke and he kept falling! Lorne had fallen into a hole.
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"Little Bear, are you okay, are you okay? The rabbit kids came to the hole to check on Lorne.
"I'm fine," Lorne yelled at them.
Just as Lorne looked around this hole he noticed an interesting smell. He used his Ridarn vision to see what he could see. Over the years his Ridarn vision had gotten stronger and stronger. Even still, he could only make out splotchy scenes here and there throughout the hole. One thing Lorne realized was he hadn't just fallen into a hole. He fell into a hole connected to a tunnel. Lorne kept smelling the air and looking around. Finally, he noticed something and wondered if this tunnel was an entrance to an inheritance.
He heard that sometimes someone might find a hidden inheritance. These inheritances could pave a new cultivation road for the chosen or lucky! Lorne grew really excited. He flew up and when he was out of the hole, looked at the rabbit litter. "Little Tiao," Lorne cried out.
A little rabbit hopped out from his brothers and sisters. He and the Little Bear were pretty good friends. He was always happy to do things for him.
"Get Big Bear as fast as you can!" Lorne said
"Right, Little Bear!" Tiao turned to go but was stopped by Lorne.
"You should tell him to bring some brother bears with him, but no adults," Lorne said.
"Right, Little Bear!" Tiao turned to go but was stopped again.
"Tell him to bring some rope, shovels, and lights," Lorne said.
"Right, Little Bear!" Tiao turned to go but paused to make sure there weren't further instructions.
"Well, what are you waiting for hurry up!" Lorne said.
Tiao couldn't help doing a double take before finally rushing to get Big Bear.
Lorne watched as Tiao rushed off. Inside he was laughing saying, ‘Yes, yes, yes, I finally did it! The Han Solo C-3PO maneuver. Hahaha.’ Lorne laughed in a satisfying way.
Soon, Big Bear came to the hole with six other bear brothers. Lorne motioned Big Bear forward and threw a barrier up so no one could hear them talk.
"Big Bear, big news!" Lorne began.
"What is it? Why all the secrecy? What's so important?" Big Bear asked.
"I have a gift for you before you go to the Warrior Academy," Lorne said.
"Really, what's that?" Big Bear asked.
"I found an inheritance for you. it's down that hole," Lorne said.
Big Bear was touched by the actions of his thoughtful little brother. "If you found an inheritance you should keep it," Big Bear said.
"What am I going to do with a bear inheritance? If there are any weapons down there, they'll probably be bigger than my whole body. It would be such a waste to hold onto such items until I get old enough to use them. That'll be thousands of years. You need these things. Shouldn't us brothers look out for each other?" Lorne asked.
Big Bear's eyes were starting to tear up. There were a few things people knew about bears. They were tough in battle, a little dumb, and very emotional.
"How do you know it's a bear inheritance?" Big Bear finally asked.
"Come with me, and tell your bear brothers to guard the hole," Lorne said. He immediately removed the field that made it impossible for others to hear them.
"Hey, you other bears, guard this hole and don't let anyone enter. If anyone enters I'll tear the fur from your hindquarters and make a fur hat for old Baldy Bear!" Big Bear bellowed. All of the bears of the younger generation were scared of big bear. The only person Big Bear ever spoke to like a real friend was Little Bear.
The pair entered the hole and stood before the tunnel.
"Take a big whiff and tell me what you smell," Lorne said.
Big Bear smelled the air and his eyes lit up. "I smell bears!" Big Bear said.
Big Bear started forward but was stopped by Little Bear. "Don't be impatient, we'll do this scientifically. We'll collect the data as we go and uncover the traps too," Lorne said.
"Traps?" Big Bear asked.
Lorne threw a rock and several giant knives suddenly shot out of the wall and sliced the rock to pieces.
"Your ancestor didn't want just any dumb bear getting his treasures. This is going to take a while. Go tell your brothers. I'll get started on the traps and data collecting."
"How long is a while?" Big Bear asked.
"Four hours at most," Lorne said.
"That's not long," Big Bear said.
"It is for me. It's hard being as fast as I am yet having to move so slow. It takes real determination and focus!" Lorne said.
Big Bear didn't get it but nodded his head anyway and left to tell his brothers.
Lorne was excited. When was the last time he was on a dig? Lorne pulled out a recording crystal and set to work. As he dismantled all the traps he realized the traps were also made from treasures. He assumed the Bear tribe would want these treasures. He didn't need them, and they were left to the bears by an ancestor anyway. He also knew Big Bear had hopes of being the Bear Tribe chief one day. It wouldn't hurt to get some merits right now.
Just as Lorne promised four hours later, he finished his excavation. All that was left was to walk into the main chamber. Lorne motioned for Big Bear to go in. Whether there were trials or enemies to face, Big Bear had to do it himself. Lorne just prayed he would be successful. Big Bear entered the main chamber and the door closed behind him.
"WHO DARES TO DISTURB THE SLEEP OF THE FEARSOME BEAR KING!!!
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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.
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