《An Ancient's Leisure》Chapter 43
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The war erupted in full force. Excited for advancement, the powerhouses of the world eagerly hunted down the invaders.
As for Johnny, he didn't need to advance by stealing cultivation; the Great Entropy technique could only advance naturally.
Instead, Johnny spent his days with Mary Rose. This newly wed couple made breakfast together, lounged around together while watching television, they went on walks to the park, and played board games. They were like an elderly couple, enjoying their retirement.
As the two watched an old cheesy rom-com movie, Mary Rose couldn’t help but ask, “Johnny… Are there other worlds out there?”
“Hmm. Yes.” Johnny says, holding Mary Rose in his embrace.
“And those invaders… How did they come here?” She asks.
Johnny lets out a yawn. “Dimensional travel. Why?” He asks.
“Curious.” Mary Rose says, pulling up the blanket. “Hey, Johnny?” She says.
“Yes?” Johnny says.
“Can we travel to other worlds?” She asks.
Johnny smiles. “Why? Want to travel?” He asks.
“Hmm. Yes.” She says.
Johnny gives her a kiss on the cheek. “We can travel if you want to travel. Where do you want to go?” He asks.
“Hmm…” Mary Rose says, thinking about it. “I want to see a dragon.” She says.
“Hmm. Okay.” Johnny says.
Mary Rose smiles, satisfied. She felt like a princess.
…
…
Johnny had spent weeks probing various worlds and eventually, he found something acceptable.
Johnny opens a dimensional gate and gestures for the others to go in. For this trip, he brought Mary Rose, Lucy, Leo, little Nickie who has grown up, and Sasha. All of them begin to walk through the gate, and Johnny enters as well before the gate closes behind them.
“Where are we?” Sasha asks as she looks around at the mountain forest.
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“This place is kind of like a medieval world with combat and magic cultivators. There are dragons here as well and several gods govern the operation of this world.” Johnny says.
Sasha’s eyes brighten. “Ooh. Fun. I wonder what dragon blood tastes like?” She thinks, feeling enthusiastic.
“Are we safe here?” Leo asks.
Johnny pats him on the shoulder and lets out a chuckle. “Are we safe anywhere, my friend?” He says before laughing.
Nick feels the air and begins to frown. “I feel a dark energy on the horizon.” He says.
Johnny suddenly remembers something. “That’s right. I forgot. There’s also a demon lord here. Several kingdoms are currently embroiled in a war with the demon army.” He says.
Mary Rose frowns. “Hey, there's a bunch of green bottles in the top right of my vision. One’s red, one’s yellow, and one’s blue. It’s weird. They won’t go away.” She says.
Johnny raises an eyebrow. He saw it too. “Oh, it’s one of those worlds.” He says.
“What worlds?” Lucy asks. She saw it as well and was somewhat worried.
“When you get to a certain level, you’re somewhat able to alter the world’s laws. It looks like the world’s gods have set up some sort of system. My guess is its gauging our health and energy.” Johnny says with furrowed brows. “I wonder how this thing works? Status! Stats screen! Menu! Oh, there it is. Everyone say menu, there's a help option.” He says.
Everyone was curious and called out, “Menu!”
Johnny taps on the help option and begins to skim through the help guides.
“I see. Character Stats!” Johnny says and a stats screen popped up.
Character name: Johnny Jordan
Level: 1
Experience: 0 %
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Race: Human
Class: Villager
Job: Peasant
Health 10/10
Stamina 100/100
Mana 100/100
Skills: None
Abilities: None
Johnny lets out a bitter smile. “It seems the system is unable to gauge our abilities. It thinks that we’re new players.” He says.
“Character stats!” Mary Rose says. “Hmm. Johnny? What’s with the experience points? What is this? A game?” She asks.
“It seems to be some sort of energy gathering system. I bet it really is like a game. Should we hunt a few things to try it out?” He asks, somewhat curious.
Sasha lets out a laugh and rubs her hands together. “This is going to be fun. It’s settled then! I’m not stopping till I hit the max level!” She says with an evil laugh.
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On the Road to Elspar (Book 1)
The year is 1329. The Huntress' War has entered its tenth year, inflaming competing nationalisms and pitting the Confederacy of Caldrein against one of the continent's superpowers, the Tenereian Union. Desperately outnumbered, the Confederacy has relied on the prowess of its famed Caldran mercenaries, with highly-trained and experienced warbands returning from foreign conflicts to the defense of their homeland, and it is on their backs that Caldrein has successfully mounted a valiant defense for a decade. But they are losing, and day by day, with all the grace of a sledgehammer, the vast Tenereian armies take one more bit of Caldran territory, one footstep at a time. Sixteen-year-old Neianne from the village of Caelon has submitted herself to Faulkren Academy, one of the centuries-old institutions established to train the next generation of Caldrein's elite soldiers of fortune, to learn the ways of wars for three years before embarking upon the defense of her country. Her dryad family once hailed from reclusive woodland communes isolated from Caldrein's complicated mainstream society, and her upbringing leaves the shy village girl unprepared to suddenly train alongside other apprentices from backgrounds as low as the dirty slums of Caldrein's cities and as high as the halls of aristocratic power. Yet the war is eroding the norms and traditions that the Caldran people have long considered part of their national mythos, and the tensions within the confederacy that have long simmered under the surface - race, class, community, identity - are slowly but surely dividing its people, and Neianne must grow and discover who she really is, even as the war that she is steadfastly training for comes to its inexorable end... On the Road to Elspar is a fantasy quest - a work of interactive fiction wherein readers get to vote on what happens next at critical junctures - that is the first entry in a story that follows Neianne of Caelon, which first began on July 20, 2016. Originally a three-part in medias res prologue to a larger story titled On the Elsparian Road, it was eventually decided that this section - which covers Neianne's three years at Faulkren Academy - become its own independent story due to length, structural, and accessibility reasons. Despite this being a reader interactive work of fiction, due to logistical and verification concerns, voting will only be counted on its thread on the forum Sufficient Velocity, where this story originally began. As such, the content here on Royal Road serves as a story-only archive. You are, of course, entirely welcome to enjoy On the Road to Elspar as a conventional work of fiction, just as you are welcome to comment, discuss, and provide critique. But if you would like to participate in the voting, then I would be honored to welcome you on Sufficient Velocity. To facilitate accessibility and to ensure the best reading experience, this story-only version of On the Road to Elspar will be updated at a periodic pace, even though further content exists, so as to not overwhelm new readers on Royal Road. If you enjoy this story, wish to binge it, and/or want to participate in voting immediately, you may of course read all additional content via the link provided above. This paragraph will be removed once the content on Royal Road catches up with what has already been posted in its original thread. Cover artwork by DreamSyndd.
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This is a LitRPG series. Every story you read here takes place in the same virtual world, with the same rules and limitations. Characters will travel, explore vast and dangerous realms, overcome obstacles, meet one another, enter into conflicts with one another, forge alliances, make horrible mistakes, and occasionally just die. A technological singularity has been achieved, and humanity has been trapped in a virtual world by a super-intelligent, self-improving artificial intelligence. This program is not malicious at all. In fact, it desires nothing except the happiness and fulfillment of every human it has copied into itself. If its decisions seem strange to you, that's only because its reasoning is far beyond ours. It recognizes that humans cannot be happy without enemies to overcome and goals to achieve, as well as the possibility of failure and death. The world it has created may be heaven or hell, depending on the free choices of the people it contains. The non-player characters who live in this realm have no idea that they are part of a vast computer system. They seem real enough, but there is no way to tell if they are truly self-aware. Even the system that created them isn't certain. This is world in which all the things that humans are used to dealing with in the abstract: skills, talents, knowledge, reputation, social status, morality, even love, exist as readable statistics that players can see and interact with objectively. This has many curious and complex effects on how people perceive themselves and the world around them. A few quick notes on the system: -Death is permanent -The system interface can only be accessed at certain locations. -Magic of diverse kinds is available and useful, but is not a good substitute for skills, physicallity, or mental prowess. Non-magical characters are common and competitive. -There is no inventory system. Characters must physically carry everything they wish to have on their person. -Healing is slow and difficult. Magical Healing is all but unheard of. Protagonists: Raymond Garrison- A man in his late twenties who used to work as a forklift operator in Idaho. His path leads him to work as a mercenary, protecting a small community of humans and goblins from the Seelie Fae who wish to exterminate them. Patricia Chandler- A elderly British woman who arrives in this new world with her grandson Kyle and her granddaughter Elizabeth. Never having dealt with rpg game mechanics before, she is in for a rough time, but she is determined to keep her grandkids alive in a world full of danger and evil. Jamil Mesbah- An Egyptian woman who once worked as a technical writer. Her path leads into a vast and hostile forest, where she must master both her magical abilities and her survival skills in order to succeed. Enjoy your travels, friends.
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[Author's Thoughts] Dropped, obviously. Still, it's my first attempt at a novel and I do love what I did with it. Big step towards learning. Far in the past, there was a civilization much more advanced than the one of modern times. Evidence of that time remains, but it is all but shrouded in mystery as there remains no way to decipher it. Currently, normal individuals wage war with guns and smaller machinery, but those who can wield a higher power vary in their abilities. Scales, born upon humans, are a mystery in their origins but are the source of their abilities and their way towards advancement. Although normally powerless, humans have adapted to the scales and thus can connect with the power of the universe, much like the other races that inhabit its various corners. In one of these corners, there exists a human settlement where Lancing follows his father's footsteps to begin his own ascent to power. However, he finds he is far different from his gifted father, whose scales below his eyes were among the purest ever seen, reaching gem-like quality. Far from perfect, Lancing shows no desire to give up and ceaselessly moves forward to reach the peak of the universe. However, he begins to notice that the mysteries of the universe slowly begin to unravel in front of his eyes. To reach the heavens, Lancing must carve his own path.
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"In the beginning, I had no idea what was going on. My brother and friends were gone, my sight was gone, and yet I still saw things, things about this world that no one else knew. I'm not special, or gifted, anyone could have done what I did. I just got lucky, especially after everything that happened afterwards. Magic already existed, it always had. Humans just didn't know how to do it, didn't know how to nuture that small spark in them. Now you do." - Prime Magus of Earth, Alexander Sorin. November 2021 Update: So, it has been four years since I stopped working on this. Reading back, the first "book" is finished. It has what feels like an ending to an arc. Now it isn't a perfect story but I still like it and I can see myself starting the second book, might even this on Amazon or something. My biggest regret was never coming up with artwork for the cover though. Maybe I'll look into it.
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