《Swords and a Shortage of Sorcery》On the Trail
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The group exited the city and started to follow the stone path that led to Silesia. As they trod along the uneven trail, Lina spoke up.
"Now that we've got some free time, how about we get to know each other better?" Lisa suggested.
"And how would we do that," Derik asked. "Are we going to take turns giving our life stories?"
"Why not?" Montag asked. "We'll be staying with each other for a while."
"True enough," Derik said. "Not like there is much else to do. Brace yourselves. Picture New Baden again, overflowing with monsters. Are you picturing it?"
Montag and Lina nodded their heads.
"Now think about the town square, there is one man in the square onset on all sides by beasts and monsters. Yep, that's me. You're probably wondering how I ended up in this situation..."
Derik went on to explain his perspective of the battle. Forging a story about how he bravely went back to save the citizens.
"And so I went from being forced into the guard, to here," Derik concluded his story.
Montag let out a hearty bellow, "Ah Derik, you are a good man."
Derik responded, "I don't know if I'm the good or the bad. The only thing I know for certain is that I'm not the ugly."
Montag then explained, "I volunteered for the military as soon as I came of age. There is no greater calling than serving one's country. I eventually got posted to New Baden and became the captain from there."
"I admire your courage," Lina said.
"You pay us a king's ransom to get us to join, and you still have money left over. Where do you get all this money? What's your story?" Derik asked.
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"Don't worry yourself; I have riches to spare. I may not look it, but I am of noble descent. I left my home carrying this bow. It is an artifact passed down through my family line, and I have used it to travel the lands as a mercenary. Understand that I have more than enough to give you a life of luxury if you choose to continue following me," Lina responded.
"I guess everyone has got a different calling," Derik replied. "Personally, I wouldn't mind that life of luxury one bit."
As the group continued to walk, it began to get darker. The group decided to rest for the night.
"I guess we will have to sleep on the ground for now," Derik mentioned. The party moved off the road and walked out into the green field of grass.
"Good night," Lisa said. She went out like a light.
"She went out instantaneously," Derik remarked. "I wouldn't think someone from high society would be able to sleep so easily in literal dirt."
Derik began to lay out his bag as a pillow to sleep on before Montag, then pulled him off to the side.
"Here, Derik," Montag said, "I want you to take this."
He pulled a leather sheath with shining silver fittings from underneath his cloak and handed it to Derik.
"I give this arming sword to you in lieu of other rewards for your heroic acts during the defense of New Baden. It was the weapon I received to signify my promotion to captain, and now it serves you."
Derik nodded his head and fastened the scabbard to his belt.
"Are you sure about this?" Derik asked.
"A man such as myself never regrets their choices Derik." Montag took an abnormally long pause after the statement gazing off into the distance. He continued to speak, "I suspect you will need the weapon more than me. The handle of your halberd might have been damaged from your earlier encounter."
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"Thanks."
"I shall watch the camp," Montag stated.
"By yourself?"
"It's fine. I am used to it. As I said, I used to be a guard like you before I became captain and a skilled one at that." Montag reassured Derik.
Derik shrugged his shoulders and laid his belongings on the cool grass. He was about to go to sleep when he noticed something in the dim light of the campfire. He walked over to Lina, who still lay sound asleep. He saw an ornate jeweled necklace attached to her neck that he didn't notice before. As he inspected it closer, Lina's eyes snapped open. Derik stumbled backward.
"If you are so curious," she said, "you could have just asked."
Derik regained his footing and cautiously asked, "In that case, what is it, and why are you wearing it while you sleep?"
She held up the necklace and opened it up. It was a locket. "This is a reminder of my parents."
"Oh, neat."
Derik examined the locket. It contained a glass panel that held in two locks of hair.
Lina went back to sleep. Derik lay down on his makeshift pillow.
"Forget about sleeping with jewelry," he thought, "who keeps the hair of a loved one on their person?"
He shuffled around a few times before finding an appropriate position to fall asleep.
The next day the group rose early in the morning, returning to their journey towards Silesia. They arrived without incident. A guard at the gate saw them and waved them over. The guard pulled out some papers and examined them.
"You from New Baden?" he questioned.
"Yes, we just left," said Lina.
The guard jotted down something and quickly ushered them in. Maybe it was the state of their garbs or the fact that he recognized Montag, but he let them through without further questioning.
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Edge Cases (Book 1 Complete!)
Rare classes and powerful skills are helpful. Too bad the system doesn't seem built to handle them. What even are all these errors? Our team of outcasts and adventurers will have to rely on their trust - and the bane of all stories, healthy communication - just to survive, let alone understand what the system is doing. Because they're quickly realizing that it's doing something; to people, to monsters, and maybe even to the gods themselves. And their goal isn't just to survive; it's to make things better. It's a good thing they're not doing it alone. --- Edge Cases is an attempt to take the LitRPG genre and the overpowered MCs trope and write a story where numbers aren't everything. Sometimes it takes trust, support, and just a touch of being very, very clever. Expect a mix of action, slice-of-life, friendship, and ominous worldbuilding. Updates M-W-F at 6pm EST. Cover art by Alovck of Artstation, and typesetting by jessessey right here on RoyalRoad.
8 228Dungeon 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 258Exitium (dropped)
Year 2232 World destruction is imminent. All nation leaders and renowned scientists gather at the UN for a secret meeting, called by a doctor, declaring to have a way to perpetuate humanity... but on another planet, a very hostile one. Planet Exitium, the closest habitable planet, filled with deadly fauna and flora. This is the story about the people sent there- children, to be honest. Children with no idea where they are, what had happened to them, and what would be of their life. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is my first story ever, and I hope you all like it, I'm sorry for the horrible piece of art that is the cover, I did it myself, and have absolutely no skills in photoshop, and I'll change it later. And yes, the MC's get some pretty OP skills and weapons.... At least until they find the enemy...
8 192Dearest O'Malley
This story tells about a car's life and the way he lived in 1967. His name is O'Malley Malibu and he is a 1967 Chevrolet Malibu with a straigh six engine. He grew up with a two door Lincoln and a Chevrolet Impala and did everything with them together. Later on into the story, O'Malley is sitting up for sale in a yard of a little old lady who's husband was mean to him for a little while. He meets his new owner Gladys Kennedy who takes care of him well. She takes O'Malley to work with her and to church. But one day, a bully picks on a car for a parking space and when the bully tries to pick on O'Malley, he learns his lesson of what happens when he messes with a Chevy Malibu raised in Texas. Soon after Gladys gets too old to take care of O'Malley, she gives him to Randy and Jan, the next owners. They have O'Malley as the only car they have to drive until he met Susie, a Mercury Grand Marquis and a blue van. Then comes along Erik and Nathan, the two additions that he meets. O'Malley plays and makes Nathan smile by the time he reaches 2 years old. Leading Nathan up the road to learning, O'Malley guides his new master through a home schooling system to keep him on track. As many years went by, O'Malley soon is passed on to Nathan's care and being a planned college subject of a college sememster work of having his transmission redone. When Nathan meets his new girlfriend, Natalie, O'Malley grows a liking on her just as she is showing her photos of O'Malley that she captured on camera in 2014 and 2015. He soon finds answers for all the questions he had been always asking from finding out what happened to Impa to discovering the location of where Gonzo was to opening up to a friend back that seemed to be next to him all these years. O'Malley and his friends make videos for the internet from a pickle and white flour bath to the Elvis impersonations to honor the Elvis Presley feastival for all Elvis fans around the world. The three friends have a lot of fun together including pranking each other for kicks and laughs. Ticking back in time, O'Malley tells the audiences the memories he had back to his younger days when he and his cousins would prank each other and laugh at it now as he remembers it then. From the happy to sad stories that he experiences throughout the novel. People stop and stare at the beauty of O'Malley's sleek body all over town including taking pictures of him without his knowing. The story has yet to unwrap the secrets inside of O'Malley outside the car shows. There are hints of originality, heart, tranquility, untapped potential, undisturbed sensational zen, and undiscovered twerks that make him so amazing that people don't see nor don't pay attention to like they do in the show. O'Malley has a smooth, witty, sweet and relaxed personality. O'Malley travels down the road of memorable experiences from being in a sample teaser trailer of a movie to meeting a new love to finding another of his old friend from the 70s to meeting a life coach that would be his biggest inspiration. This is a novel that needs to be discovered for all eyes alike.
8 121Wednesday x Enid {Wenclair}
Based on the trailers
8 383Ninjago: the Daughter of the Overlord
Aria Lord is the daughter of the Overlord. She lives her life like any other citizen of Ninjago, except for being the princess of darkness. After the defeat of her father she vowed to avenge him and take over Ninjago in his place. She started teaming up with other villains, but she didn't account for getting caught. She also didn't account for falling in love with the enemy.
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