《The Tree of Life's Step Child》New Goals
Advertisement
Gradually, the mountain started to fill out the horizon. In addition, Arbor could finally make out the larger buildings of the distance and felt slightly disgruntled. When he reached the city walls and confirmed his conjecture. The city's in ruins! There are no guards at the city gate and the walls are missing large sections. He became timid as he started to notice signs of battle. Arbor moved to the side of the street just in case he had to hop inside of a building. The current state of the city gave him an impending danger.
This city was built with basic construction techniques and stone. Nothing stood out to Arbor as he strolled through the city. Arbor compared this city to a slightly more developed Roman or Greek empire. Simple buildings stand erect closely next to another, destroyed markets were scattered across the city.
As he explored the city, Arbors mood gradually improved. For the first time since he had transmigrated, he was finally able to explore and delve into the customs of a new society. The memories of his torture had just gone through got pushed to the back of his mind. He found miscellaneous children toys, broken and rusted weapons, and bones scattered throughout the city. He walked past a graveyard, medical type building, a few schools, an auction house, gardens, and more buildings that are essential to the livelihood of a city. Arbor mused that the city has been abandoned for close to a decade, given the state of the deteriorated buildings and overgrown vegetation. The lack of wildlife lurking in the city disturbed Arbor.
Arbor casually made his way towards the center of the city. Along the way he had the feeling that someone, or something, was stalking him. An eerie feeling would creep up his back and onto his neck, causing him to shiver. When Arbor would turn around he would find nothing. Only the sounds of depri being shuffled around. He kept his guard as he strode up the steps to what used to be the late kings palace.
Advertisement
At this moment four different sized figures were rapidly approaching the city. A half hour later they arrived at the same city gate that Arbor entered through. The four dashed in different directions upon entry. They moved through the city at high speeds before they regrouped at the entrance to the palace.
Moments later the four arrived in front of the throne hall. After they opened the door, they found a prepubescent boy lounging sideways on the throne. In his lap is an egg just larger than the average human sized head.
Four separate figures appeared in Arbor sights. The first one that stood out to him is the floating eyeball that is five feet in diameter with stumps for arms and legs. Next to the eye is a slender giant with a skull for a head who's missing pieces of flesh sporadically on its body. The third has the body structure of a lizard with an extremely slimy skin. The last one has an overbearing aura and is standing towards the back. A large set of boney wings are compressed behind its femine physique.
“Oh, pardon me for not being able to correctly welcome my guests,” Arbors jumped out of the seat and put the egg in its carrier. “I didn’t expect anyone given the current state-“ He was interrupted by the stranger's conversation.
“I thought we had rounded up all of the humans in this region a few years ago? It appears that we won’t be searching for the secret vault this time.”
“He must be a rogue child. No reports of any human activity have surfaced in the past three years.”
“Then do you care to explain where this one came from?”
Arbor slowly started to creep away from the four creatures as they continued on their argument.. He picked up on a few things about the area he had found himself in. Which he began to contemplate on how he had come to arrive in that purple field. He quickly gave up the train of thought of how he came to this place as he noticed the four creatures circumnavigating around him. He has more pressing matters to deal with.
Advertisement
Arbor shifted in an attempt to escape out the side but was met by a ten foot tall demon. A thick tail smacked into Arbor and sent him into a pillar. Thousands upon thousands of leaves appeared between Arbor and the pillar, cushioning the impact.
When Arbor landed, a storm of leaves appeared. The leaves started whistling as they whirled through the air. Arbor had meticulously conjured up for half of the leaves to either cause a hard impact or to be sharp enough to cut the demons. Each of the four demons took a step back and a defensive position. While they were being damaged by the leaves, the injuries were not serious. What caused them shock was the speed at which they were being injured. They needed to end the fight quickly otherwise they might get severely injured.
Just as the four demons were about to attack the leaves died down and Arbor had disappeared! The dense leaves obscured the vision of the demons, enabling Arbor to move out unscathed. The four demons quickly searched through the hall and found nothing.
During his years spent training with Telum, Arbor had honed the art of escaping. This mostly came from Tellum chasing Arbor. He had got a lot of practice in covering his tracks after he would infuriate Tellum with childish pranks playing a game of cat and mouse.
“Find him now!” A bewitching voice came from the black winged demon. The four scattered from the throne hall.
Arbor found a corner just outside of the palace and spied on the four demons as they escaped and began destroying the city in the hopes of finding him. He made sure to remain at a distance where he could hear their conversation.
“He must be using a trick to hide his aura. Why are humans so despicable?” The skull headed giant sneered.
“Even with my eyesight I can’t see him.”
“You useless lowly demons. I don't care if you have to turn this city upside down, find that human scum and kill him!” The female demon’s voice reached its peak as she finished. She made certain her threat entered Arbors ears.
As these words left the leaders mouth, Arbor turned and ran without looking back. He knew that he needed to evacuate from the city as fast as possible. Behind him he heard sounds of explosions. Without looking back he escaped towards the east side of the city and into the wooded mountain range.
After getting to a safe distance and realizing that he was not followed, he began to analyze what those demons had spoken of. What secret vault in that city? Was there a treasure trove hidden within that city? Did it use to be a human settlement or was it a mixed race city? What happened to the humans in this area anyways? Three years is a long time for humans to go unnoticed. What had happened to humanity?
Going through his thoughts, Arbor mentally set four goals. The first one is to investigate the history of humanity in this region. A second is to gather as many humans that he comes across and lead them to safety. Another goal is to return to that city and discover what those demons were searching for. Then, Arbor wants to find out where the fuck he is exactly.
Night time soon arrived and Arbor miraculously found a small cave hidden behind a couple of bushes. It was as if the threads of karma or someone was taking care of him behind the scenes. Arbor took off his harness and proceeded to sit in a full lotus position on the ground. He set the egg between his legs and proceeded to prepare to break through to the next realm. Immediately he noticed something off with the essence.
“THIS ISN’T THE DIVINE REALM. HOW DID I END UP IN SUCH A LOW REALM!”
Advertisement
Queen in the Mud
A girl suddenly vanishes from her world and finds herself drifting in and out of consciousness in a world of pure darkness. Queen in the Mud is an unusual litrpg novel featuring a female monster protagonist as she makes her way through a vicious untamed world ruled by a "system." (Book one of this story is now available on kindle unlimited. To satisfy exclusivity requirements on that platform, the chapters here have been removed. Here is a link to the book on amazon. I do plan on posting chapters for book two on royal road, but I don't currently have an estimated date for release.) (Cover art by Monomus)
8 63Sarcophagus
At the culmination of a galactic conflict, an experienced sergeant is once again deployed on the battlefront. After a series of events, he perishes and awakens in a foreign body, far stronger than he could have imagined, where the laws of nature as he knew them have ceased to exist. But in this primitive world ruled by kings and monstrosities and magic, two forgotten terrors are emerging. The Elven King in the south has assembled an army and seeks to establish a new age, while in the north stirs the ancient corpse of the White King and his desires to plunge the realm into an eternal frost. But then these seemingly undefeatable powers make a grave mistake. They assail the reincarnated vampire lord. And they find themselves facing a greater terror than anyone could have imagined—Reith Lornhart.
8 201The Spirit Games
Bullied at school and neglected by his parents, Tom Fiddle finds himself at his wit's end, until he receives a strange email offering him a job as a cultivation clan's spirit automaton. But what *is* a spirit automaton? After a successful application, he gets an answer to his question: a spirit automaton is an arcane spirit attached to a pocket realm. They can shape this miniature world to their liking and conjure spiritual entities, usually monsters, out of thin air. Their role is to create and administer trial-by-fires. These life and death competitions determine whether a disciple is *chosen* or merely *trash* that deserves to be left by the wayside. Tom's new responsibility will affect the lives of millions of cultivators and shape the future of hundreds of worlds, dozens of galaxies, and eventually, the universe itself. Will Tom use his newfound power to torment others and merely benefit himself? Or will he rewrite the course of history and transform the path of cultivation from a path of blood and destruction, to one of peace and tranquility?
8 94The Arbiter: Midgard
Tiberius Stone, aka Toaby, is an honest man. A loving husband and father who works hard as a senior accountant to provide for his family. He works for Techavant, the world's largest tech company. That was until he uncovered something the company wanted to stay hidden. Coming home to find his wife murdered, Toaby takes the fall and is sentenced to life in prison. Forced to take an alternative form of punishment, Toaby's mind is uploaded into a virtual prison while his body is destroyed. The prison is run by AIs who take form of the Norse Gods and offer him a unique class opportunity. They offer him to become the Arbiter. A class focusing on bringing law and order to a virtual world full of the world’s worse criminals. Toaby is reluctant at first but agrees when offered the chance to communicate with the real world as a reward for a job well done. Can Toaby bring justice to a land full of the lawless? Will he ever be able to convince his daughter he's not guilty? Can he bring down the corrupt organization that sentenced him to an eternal life in prison? Can he simply survive amongst the world's worst? Find out this and more in, The Arbiter!
8 151Lolly
[participant in the Royal Road Writathon challenge] Lolly lives in time. It is where she has always lived...for now. Now is a peculiar state of existence because one now leads to another now. Lolly is not quite sure where the next now will take her, but it will take her somewhere.Now, Lolly lives in Texas. It is where she has always lived. It is 1975. She has her own quiet dreams and her own personal challenges, like we all do.
8 203The Blind Man's Gambit
Set in the not-too distant future, the story of the three Ziggenbor brothers unfolds in a colony of humans living in a cluster of space stations in the Jovian system. Together with the enegmatic Admiral Neerson, they will uncover the hidden threat of the the organization, St Angel. They will navigate the murky waters of military regulation and republic politics while they skate the balance between treason and doing what is right for those who look to them for protection.
8 205