《Trapped in fear as history repeats》2
Advertisement
A few days later
"Meredith, what's this?" Ellis asked pointing to Meredith's latest school results
"I.. I'm sorry"
"Go to your room, I don't want to see your face anymore"
Meredith ran off to her room, she climbed into bed and began to cry, as silent as possible so no one would hear her. She just started high school, she didn't have many friends except this one girl Sadie, who lived in the same area as Meredith.
"Meredith?!" She heard Thatcher yelling from downstairs
"Yes dad?" She asked while running downstairs, slightly out of breath
"Oh there you are, well no wonder it took you so long. You're way to fat Meredith"
Meredith stared to the ground
"Look at me when I'm talking to you" He yelled before hitting her in the face
Don't cry.. Don't you dare to cry Meredith She thought to herself while she looked up and looked him in the eyes
"I want you to wait downstairs until your mother comes home" Thatcher said
Meredith sat on the couch and started to watch TV. An hour or so later her mother arrived. Ellis walked through the doors, ignoring Thatcher and Meredith.
"Mom? How was work?" Meredith asked
"Don't bother me Meredith, mind your own damn business"
Meredith looked into her lap, starting to hide behind a pillow and a blanket
Ellis walked over to the kitchen "You don't have to ask me how my day went, no one's interested in me and I'm the only one here who does something important" Ellis said ignoring the fact Meredith just asked her how her day went
"Whatever" Thatcher yelled which was the trigger to a loud and explosive fight between Ellis and Thatcher. They yelled for over an hour until he ran outside to the yard.
Advertisement
Meredith knew something was wrong, she was scared and watched his actions. They have a big yard and he walked all the way to the back of the yard to grab a sledge hammer they used when they renovated the house a few weeks back
Thatcher returned to the house with the sledgehammer resting on his shoulder
"Mom? There.. There's something wrong.. He.. He has a sledgehammer" Meredith said, totally in fear, half frozen to the floor
"He won't do a thing Meredith, he's scared, he's a pussy"
But Meredith was right, he walked all the way back to the house, to enter the kitchen which made it possible for her to ran outside. Once she was outside of the house, she wasn't able to move.. Her mother didn't follow.. Is she dead? What's happening? Where's Thatcher?
After 10 seconds but what felt as 5 hours, Thatcher came outside without the sledgehammer, but no Ellis, once he saw Meredith was a few houses further he decided to go back in. Meredith kept staring until she saw Ellis "Go to Sadie" Ellis yelled
Meredith nodded and ran off. She was so distracted but her mother told her to go to Sadie's so she listened. She rang the bell and Sadie opened the door "Hey, Mer!"
"Hey Sadie, can I euhm.. do you want to play outside?" Meredith asked
"Hey Mer, what's wrong? Come inside I need to change clothes first" Sadie said as she saw Meredith has tears in her eyes
They walked upstairs to Sadie's room, while she got changed Meredith started to tell her parents had a fight, not telling the full story
"Are.. Are you okay?" Sadie asked
Meredith nodded, of course she wasn't okay but what could she do?
"My older sister is here, we should go downstairs to wait for your mom" Sadie said
Meredith nodded and they made their way downstairs.
Maybe an hour or so later the doorbell rang, Meredith was scared but Sadie didn't really notice as she was distracted by the TV
"Is my daughter here?" Meredith could hear Ellis' voice, the living door opened and her mother walked in "Come on Meredith, we're going home"
Meredith didn't move
"Don't let me say this again, you're coming now. Your dad left"
Meredith stood up, gave a weak smile to Sadie and her sister and walked back home with Ellis.
Advertisement
Dungeon 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 258For Queen and Country [An Interactive Novel]
Purpose: I'm posting on Royal Road to keep me consistently writing and to collect beta testers/readers for my interactive novel app. Elaine It’s been five hundred years since the unified nations denounced superstition. In this age of reason, Elaine, the recent Queen of Vallis, has become the most celebrated ruler. So beloved by her people to be dubbed the ‘Millenium Queen’, the ‘Sun Queen’. Diane It is this love that makes it all the more unfortunate that she has met an untimely demise. To her only daughter, Crown Princess Diane, she leaves behind a kingdom in mourning. And though the rising sun dries her subjects’ tears, a growing shadow still lurks behind them. You It is up to Diane to protect her people from this looming threat. It is up to you to decide how she does so. Disclaimer: This story was built for an interactive novel app. There were no changes made to make the story more accomadating for this platform. The most notable lack of accomodation is that chapters will be much shorter than the site's average. Help?: If you would be interested in beta testing/reading the interactive novel, please join the story's discord server. The link is posted from time to time in the author's notes. Updates: Mondays and Thursdays* Pacific Time *: Sometimes there will be bonus votes throughout the week. Make sure to look at the chapter updates on the scheduled days if you don’t want to miss out.
8 207The Great Expedition(Hiatus)
In a city surrounded by deadly mists, the runner Lleu spends his days delivering messages and packages while trying to move up in the world. One chance encounter later and his life is catapulted in every direction. Author's Comment: I've stopped working on this for the time being. I lost interest in continuing this story in favor of other projects.
8 106(Un)Prophesied Heroes
A regular guy in his 20s gets sucked into a world full of levels, monsters, gods, and propchecies with nothing but his ukulele and the clothes on his back. Uke in hand, Wesley made his way to the local branch of the Bard College to pick up a few levels and hit the road to travel the new world. For a while its all magic forests and incredible sights, but as time goes on it seems more and more likely that Wesley is actually one of these "prophesied heroes" that the lore on this world is full of. Fortunately for him, whatever Dark Lord he was supposed to duel didn't seem to get the memo and the world seems to be at peace. So it's probably nothing, right? This is the story of Wesley's adventuring party as they do their best to get him to fulfull his destiny. A power-hungry [Rogue], a slightly evil [Cleric], a [Mage] that just wants to go home, and a [Lord] who just wants to study the blade. Hopefully destiny is on their side, because the gods seem content to watch them struggle. Author's Note: This story should update once per week, but it might update more. Please leave any constructive criticism/typos I might have missed in the comments. Please enjoy, and let me know what you think!
8 171Solitary warrior
Ye Mo is an orphan, barely remembering his parents everyday is a fight for survival. In a world where the strong rule and the weak comply fortune will strike and change his destiny forever.
8 173Real Horror Stories
This is a Collection of Real Life Horror stories.These stories are told by various different people who personally experienced paranormal events.
8 156