Restart (Reborn as a Reluctant Demon Lord, Book 2)

TitusGM | tragedy | Complete

This is book 2 of the series! If you haven't read book 1 (which you can find here https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/34776/new-game-reborn-as-a-reluctant-demon-lord-book) then you should probably do that first to avoid spoiling yourself in the synopsis. But that's just a suggestion. If you want to be confused, go ahead. Have I used enough space so that you can't see this in the preview yet? Okay, good. ----- For a [Demon Lord], not even death is the end. So, after death, I found myself revived once again in the world of Placeholder as a grotesque monstrosity. That was my first reincarnation, but it would not be anywhere near my last. Disillusioned with the admins and their quests, and wanting nothing more than to fix the mistakes of my past, I set out with a new goal in mind. To bring back the woman I loved. Or maybe... to ensure that she never died in the first place.

248.68 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-27 18:06

On Foreign Soils We Die

saithorthepyro | tragedy | Complete

Story is completed The Travelers. People from earth reincarnated in the country of Aetheria, powerful and skilled users of the System who have arrived in this early modern world just in time to aid Aetheria against the many foes and threats facing them. They can and will transcend all powers of this world in order to make their adoptive home country safe. This is not their story. This is the story of the Scaverians, a people at war with the expansionist power of Aetheria and the otherworldly people known as the Travelers, their grand superweapon. Ever since they refused to stop supplying the Aethereans with weapons and tools for their conquest, the Aethereans have been dedicated to driving them underground. Their deities and elder dragons are dead. Their last great fortress line has fallen. The only thing protecting them now is the gargantuan Malden river, and that they are considered an unimportant front by the Aethereians. Now, they have one final plan. A concerted blow with the remaining nations still fighting, targeting the one advantage the Aethereans have. For one scrapped-together regiment of Scaverians, their target is five Travelers, relatively weak, inexperienced, and on leave in the rural town of Halice. It is an operation few are expected to return from. Releasing Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 9 AM MST

50.45 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-27 18:06

Descendants of a Dead Earth

HeWhoLooksSkyward | tragedy | Complete

In the future, Man has traveled the Cosmos. In the future, Man has discovered many other races. In the future...Man has no home. 200 years after the great war that destroyed Earth, humanity struggles to survive; fractured, divided, wanted by no one. Until Maggie, of the Tinker Clan, makes a discovery, setting in motion a chain of events that could change everything.

485.54 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-21 12:14

The Warrior

Ellen Taylor | tragedy | Complete

A young man born with all four God-given powers would appear when Santollia needed him most, winning the war and giving them peace. The High Elders of the church thought the Warrior would be a holy man, but even the prophecy couldn't prepare them for Indenuel. Indenuel's mother never told him of the prophecy, nor a lot of things about her past, leaving him to hide his four gifts. The more he smothered them, the more easily he turned toward the darker aspects of the powers. When High Elder Martin discovers him, he's taken to train in Santollia City as the daunting task of fulfilling the prophecy crashes on his shoulders. To make sure people keep their holy image of the fabled Warrior, Indenuel stifles the darker tendencies he's always had with his powers. But as he learned before, he can't pretend to be something he's not, no matter what the prophecy says. *Book is COMPLETE!*

463.31 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-27 18:18

Edge of Apocalypse [Progression LitRPG]

RejectHumanity | contemporary | Complete

The threat: the destruction of all life on Earth. The agents: a young man with a system, and a military woman in charge of Bureau of Supernatural Affairs. Albert woke up and saw a Quest waiting for him, from a [System] that had not come without reason. Its purpose was to give him power to fight an invasion of Earth at the hands of an unknown species. One day, one step at a time. First, he must become strong. And he is not alone. There is another: a woman of pure steel and resolve working against all odds to save humanity. Slow start, then the pace picks up. Stakes are real. Choices matter. Characters make mistakes. Progression makes sense and no power creep. No dumb villains. No plot armor.

167.30 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-20 14:48

Leave No Survivors [RRCM Winner Jan. 2024]

Aest Belequa | one_shot | Complete

The Highwayman leaves no survivors. He hasn't in over a century of terror on the Old King's Road. His reputation for ruthlessness and immortality is his greatest weapon. When a dying noble begs him to spare his daughter, the Highwayman is faced with a choice; he can protect his reputation, or he can do the right thing. One choice lets his myth live on forever. The other may mean the Highwayman's end. Edit: I'm incredibly honored to have won the January 2024 Community Magazine Contest. Thank you all for reading!

5.10 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-27 18:13

139 Years to the End of the World

aden_ng | tragedy | Complete

"My name is Milton Jones. I am one hundred and sixty-nine years old. Welcome to the end of the world." Due to a terminal illness, Milton Jones has just 15 days left to live. When the government offered to cryogenically preserve him to save the world, he will become the judge of humanity. Journey with him through an ever-growing dystopian universe, where he will struggle with the meaning of family and the value of life. Discover whether there is still life left in the years to the end of the world, and if it is truly worth saving.

41.42 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-27 18:17

A (Not So) Simple Fetch Quest

cathfach | adventure | Complete

Oh great hero! The evil Demon Lord has once again arisen to terrorise our lands, and we have summoned you to save our people! No, we don't want you to fight the demon lord! Of course not; we're the good guys! What sort of good guys kidnap people from other worlds and force them to take part in wars that have nothing to do with them? That would just be plain evil! We'd be no better than the demons! Katie, after her summoning by an excessively loud mage suddenly takes an unexpected twist, is sent off on a simple fetch quest, with a promise that she'll be back home in five minutes at most. She doesn't even need to leave the building. Alas, when a goddess' blessing causes her wish for an actual adventure to be taken rather more literally than she expected, she finds herself lost in a dark cave, far away from the sword she was supposed to acquire and far too close to a population of giant bugs. Still, at least she wished her life wasn't in any danger. Among other things. Be careful what you wish for. You might just get it. This is a dark litRPG adventure, both in terms of Katie accidentally wishing all the lights out, and also in that she loses as often as she wins, often with horrific and disturbing consequences. Luckily, Katie isn't the sort of person to let a mere grizzly death or two get her down, and is prepared to try, try and try again to get her hands on the holy sword and finally complete her simple' fetch quest. Or perhapswith a few resistance skills under her nightieshe might even come to enjoy losing. Not that she'd ever consider forgoing revenge, even if she did. I've ticked all the content warning checkboxes for this one. Dark things happen to the MC, and she does dark things right back to everything else. There's no explicit sexual content, but there are more than enough references to justify the warning, including to rape. Profanity happens rarely, but Katie isn't averse to swearing when she gets particularly angry. As for gore/trauma, it doesn't get much worse than the first few chapters, but there will be occasional chapters that have extra content warnings. There will be mind control. Published here, Scribble Hub, patreon and Amazon.

163.65 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-27 18:34

Pluto

MagusJosh | adventure | Complete

Talia Redowl, daughter of the goddess Athena, expected - and definitely wanted - to work for her mother when she graduated. In particular, she was hoping to be assigned as an aide to her older sister, Danae, their mother's Avatar. So when Talia's graduation assignment is to become the Avatar of Hades, the legendarily anti-social and brooding god of the Underworld, she protests&the position has gone unfilled for two thousand years. Why her? Why now? The Fates weave a tangled web, and more is at stake than Talia's plans for her own future.But before she can take up her new post, Talia Redowl must die.Death is just the beginning&

87.43 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-27 18:35

Fantasy World Epsilon 30-10

Phillip Rayne | comedy | Complete

New Dive Assignment: 0B5 Personnel: Citizen of Gamma G-037-072 Jonathan Kelly World Designation: Epsilon H-037-072-030-010 Classification: Pre-industrial Exotic World, significant outliers in biosphere including atypical flora and fauna. Quarantine protocol in effect pending more data and acclimation testing. Further anomalies include populations of morphologically distinct humanoids, and aberrations in otherwise normative physics laws. Causal chain appears provisionally stable. For the purposes of delaying onset of collapse as well as above mentioned factors, only one subject is cleared to Dive. Initial mandates shall proceed with scouting and surveillance. Further details are classified. Warning: All other qualifying personnel are currently dispatched. Refusal will result in deployment delays and possible unsupervised causal decay. Do you wish to accept this assignment? Note to Readers: This is not MC isolated in a new world. This is new world joins the multiverse. What I'm tentatively coining Subverted Isekai (Formerly I used 'reversed' but, as pointed out, that would be fantasy MC goes to the modern world. Hey, there'sidea! Not this book though.). There is plenty of scientific and philosophical stuff; I know that can be a turn off for some. It has a strong bearing on the story, but is mainly covered in the 'Comments & Calculations' section (optional reading of course). If you are looking for an extreme suspension of natural laws with no technical considerations, you will not find it here. Formatting Notes: Audio chatter from characters that are not currently in the scene I format in "inverted commas and italics". Given the layered nature of modern communication, I thought this distinction was best denoted visually in my prose. Critique is welcome. Language Notes Jon is a South African ex-pat. As such he will use some Afrikaans colloquialisms plus a dash of Japanese. Most importantly he says "Ja" meaning "Yes". Pronounced with a J sound like "yo" and an A sound like "bar". As in: "Yo, let's go to the strip bar." "Ja." And not the Rastafarian /jya/. Other words: Nee - /niya/ : no Juffrou - /yif-row/ : Miss Lekker - /lacker/ : nice, good, delicious Nooit - /noit/: never The rest is mostly swear words. Indisputably the most useful words in any language and simultaneously holding the least innate meaning. Fok - "fork" without the "r": fuck Bliksem - /Bluksim/: darn, damn. Also common noun meaning damn person or thing. Donner - "Dorner" without the "r": originally meaning thunder, can also mean darn or damn. It is often used as a verb meaning: to hit hard' Kak - /kuck/: shit Voetsek - /foot-sack/: go away

69.93 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-27 18:38

Colossus' Dream

Danetello | comedy | Complete

An ancient elemental is awoken in a time that is not his own. He sets off to finally complete the dream he has always had. Armed with the chance granted to him by the strange new system, hewill set off on a journey throughout the ages.

34.89 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-27 18:37

Binary Soul

Exterminatus | comedy | Complete

So let's say there's this girl. A young girl who happens to be a highly-trained, psionically-gifted, nanite-infused, genetically-enhanced and emotionally unstable assassin that doesn't know the concept of 'mercy' or 'holding back.' Let's say she and her imaginary friend miraculously pass through the borders of reality into an alternate universe, crash landing into a world of swords and magic aboarda starship full of high-tech wonders. Now, let'salso say the first person this borderline psychopathmeets happens to be her doppelganger - a highly gifted mage who happens to have a few problems of her own, like a bad temper or a bad habit of chronic self-delusion. With me so far? Good. Now,what's the on theagenda forthese two different people who happen to be the same person?Settle down, start a family and thoroughly enjoy life.Maybe get married and have some kids. How about befriending a violent alcoholic or defeatingan ancient evil being? Perhaps kill a few dragons and wreck a city along the way. Anything can happen around the city of Runetap, after all. It's a place where bizarre and strange things occur on an almost weekly basis. The people living there have long abandoned silly things like common sense or minding the details. Agiant flaming UFO streaksabove the city in broad daylight? That's just another Tuesday. The City Guard even had the form for that, so believe me when I say this. It's your loss if you mind it. This is the light-hearted and fluffy tale of Ellie and Kira as they forge their own path of absurdity and crazyness across a world that often makes little sense. Loosely inspired by the Discworld series of books by Terry Pratchett, even though the author hasn't actually read any of them. Contains yuri, mature themes and the author's personal views on several subjects. Explicit content is kept to a minimum.Does NOT contain slavery, rape, drugs or any other similarly heavy themes.

196.21 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-27 18:50

Champion of Small Gods [A Slow-Burn Fantasy Epic]

PeterRoberts | comedy | Complete

Konrad's brother was the hero of the valleys when he was chosen as the champion of the Father. Now Konrad has been chosen too, only his gods are slightly smaller, the smallest in fact. He's already got three gifts, two quests and he owes a favour to an old hermit. As soon as he buys his freedom he can set off adventuring - if he can find a sword. More Info about the book: CoSG is a slow-burn epic fantasy. The story starts off slowly, more like a slice of life than action-adventure, but it gets there. In this book you'll find magic, arcanists, witches, faelen realms, and champions of the gods (clerics) who maintain the power and status of their deities. The world is mostly light but there are touches of darkness our MC will have to wade through. Expect the MC to progress up from being low powered as he receives new abilities and skills from his gods in return for completing quests. He'll soon be swept up by forces beyond his control, but for now he's wide eyed and stepping out into the world. Update: book complete and ready to be enjoyed!

103.57 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-27 18:43

Princess

RavensDagger | comedy | Complete

In which a girl's only memories are about how to escalate until everyone respects you, Queen Salem tries to deal with being a single mom, and all of Remnant develops an acute case of acarophobia. A Worm/RWBY crossover

68.48 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-27 18:42

Inexorable Chaos (COMPLETE)

Cliff Hanger | comedy | Complete

Gods are, generally speaking, not fans of directly putting their fingers on the scale. This is for a variety of reasons, ranging from cautioun to amusement, but is generally because after a few hundred millennia and enough prayers to fill a hollow Earth, you're bound to learn the art of delegation. Luckily, among the unwashed masses, there exist the exceptional, the gifted, those with the potential to become Heroes. Useful pawns. Thus, the Gods adopted a more laissez-faire policy. Quasi Eludo has been a Hero. He did the whole "save the world" rigmarole, came home, and mulled over his magical journey. It was amazing! A whole lifetime as the destined savior, with magic and monsters, love and adventure, lifelong friendships and heartfelt goodbyes. There was so much, and yet, gone so soon. It wasn't enough. It was never enough. He wanted to do it again. And where wants coincide, there's a market, so he sold his services to the lazy, wanton Gods. Quasi Eludo, Hero for Hire. [No world too big, no quest too small] Now, after countless subjective centuries of Hero-ing, and several awkward conversations with the IRS, an odd God has come to Quasi with a unique request: Destroy a world, minimum payment of several million dollars on completion. Quasi sees no reason not to accept. *$50,000 USD minimum charge plus expenses for all fetch quests. Extermination requests subject to environmental review. Parental Warning: Contains descriptions of nudity and lizard sex. No eldritch abominations were molested in the writing of this novel.All characters are fictional. Any resemblance to actual Gods, Deities, or Discord server members is purely coincidental regardless of how accurately they are described.

433.63 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-29 11:16

Catherine 2.0

MDW | contemporary | Complete

Greetings. Nowadays, I call myself Cat, short for Catherine. I usually don't use her full name for reasons that will become clear soon enough. It's been a few months since I became her and I'm still adapting to my new reality. Being in someone else's shoes, especially someone with a life so complicated as her, was a challenge. One I must overcome or perish. I finally accepted there is no way to go back to my old life. Yes, old life. I was named William Cooper when I first came into being. I was 30 years old and about to marry when Catherine accidentally killed me. This is the story of how I became her and beyond. How Catherine was reinvented. I guess I should start on the day of my fateful and forceful meeting with Catherine. I apologize for talking about myself in the third person, but I'll try to keep this narrative impersonal. Trust me, my head nowadays is a huge mess and 100% too crowded. Cover credits (public domain): Hernan Sanchez, https://stocksnap.io/photo/architecture-building-MI902J0X1H

102.21 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-29 11:05

The Spell Struck Convenience Store.

Spleen23 | contemporary | Complete

Modern day world were magic is hidden, not out of fear, but because it's a limited resource. Mage who was kicked out of his family because his spells go wrong ends up sending the convenience store he works in to a ever changing fantasy landscape after being shot during a robbery. His shooter ends up in a copy in hell, and a Magical Incident Bureau agent is trying to figure out what just what exactly happened and why. Finished work

34.85 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-29 11:05

CALLSIGN: BLOODBATH FPS

TJ Lombardi | contemporary | Complete

In a world full of assassins, there are those who choose stealth and there are those who arrive violently and leave only a trail of blood. Awakened to excruciating pain and torment, Trevor Brinkworth discovers he is an agent of Scalpel LP. The only problem, he has no memory of ever joining them, nor the multiple missions he conducted as their assassin. A neurochip implanted in his brain provides him with super soldier abilities, but with the blank spot in his memory also comes the discovery of having to start back at Novice - Level 1. Trevor quickly realizes there is only one path to take, level up his skills and get back to doing what he did best. The long road of intensive training is ahead of him but when an old love interest reemerges, he dedicates himself towards being a better man and a better agent. No matter how hard Trevor tries to prove his past won't define his future, he cannot shake the dark reputation which still looms over him. Trever soon realizes the best way to survive in his new reality and get back to the love of his life is, shoot first, ask questions later. For every mission he is given, it always ends with bloodshed. Marvel's Punisher + John Wick = CALLSIGN: BLOODBATH

71.54 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-29 11:11

Swept Away.

Not_Important | contemporary | Complete

After being subjected to a strange drug while on a language trip in Kyoto, Young adult Sias Jourdin is forced to go on the run, his semblance of a normal lifereduced to nothing by the tremendous force of the wave called fate. Even worse than the serial killers, hired assassins and crazy billionaires believing to be able to control magic, His true foe is his own past. As everything happening, every encounter, good or bad,makes him come one step closer to awakening the old, buried demons under his House. I am Sias, the legitimate heir of the Jourdin and the sparkle that ruined it.

33.64 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-29 11:11

Arcadis Park

javert | contemporary | Complete

Jonah is a college senior who can't seem to score an internship, so she's returned to the summer job that she's had every year since she was old enough to work: lifeguarding at the run down waterpark on the outskirts of her small town. Things take a turn for the worse when a dismembered body is discovered in the lake that feeds the park's attractions, and the whole staff becomes convinced that they are the murderer's next target. [participant in theRoyal RoadWritathon challenge] (this story is complete as of 12/3/19, though no promises I won't make edits at some point lol)

37.12 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-29 11:13