Dig Two Graves—A Japanese Historical Fantasy

DCHaru | historical | Complete

In 12th century Japan, Yoshi, a down-at-the-heels bushi, agrees to do a "small favor" for Surei, his estranged lover. This embroils Yoshi and Surei into a deadly conspiracy for control of the Chrysanthemum Throne. Can Surei and Yoshi put aside their differences and come together to survive traitorous retired emperors, powerful yin-yang sorcerers, deadly shape changers, and vengeful spirits?

105.80 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-27 16:16

5 Threads of Fate

HWPerfidy | historical | Complete

Lin is a Weaver of Fate, someone who can see and weave the Threads of Fate. Her family had always cautioned her to be aware of the boundaries her role imposes upon her, to know that she is merely to watch and witness all that happens. But Lin is not convinced. She will do all she can to write a shining legacy, no matter what Fate has to say about it. (Community magazine contest submission)

9.02 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-27 16:20

The Emperor's Concubine

A Writers Refugium | historical | Complete

The heroine is good and the villainess is evil. That was the absolute truth. That rule was undeniable as well as the fact that only the heroine would receive true love and her happy ending. Likewise, the malicious villainess would always suffer and leave the stage to clear the path for the perfect heroine in the end. So, for Blanche, it felt like her world came crashing around her when she remembered the truth about her life. As the villainess in the typical romance novel "To Be Empress", she was fated to be condemned and abandoned by her lover. No matter how devoted she was to Theodore Estien, the emperor of Artias, she would only be the bratty concubine that would obstruct the heroine, who happened to be Theodore's lawful wife and the empress. In the end, the villainess would be deserted and executed. It was destined to happen like this, and yet she couldn't give up. She had to change the future. Preventing the romance between the main characters would get her killed. Much like trying to steer away from the enemies' intrigues, in which she was already caught up, would. But neither the heroine nor the emperor's political rivals would change the fact that Blanche loved the man that was supposed to be the heroine's. And no matter what happened she would always stay by her lover's side. So she wouldn't just follow the book's storyline and let her own doom arrive. Blanche would survive while trying to suppress all of the selfish desires that had made her the villainess. But was she truly fine with that? Did she not desire more than just surviving? Did she even have the right? Could the villainess ask for a happy end? Was she too brazen if she just wanted to stay with the man she loved and receive his affection? And wasn't there a bit more to this novel than she remembered? She didn't know and in the end that mattered little when the world around her changed with each day as more and more questions about the future and the past arose. *The Profanity tag was added due to the characters' occasional swearing, which should not happen too often.

982.28 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-11 13:58

A Lonely Dungeon

cathfach | mystery | Complete

When a new dungeon is born, it wants nothing more than to have the most vicious monsters, the most cunning traps and the most shiny of loot. There is only one problem, but it's a rather big one; it finished its first floor years ago, but it still hasn't been visited by any adventurers! In order to find someone or something to explore its floors, or perhaps just to find someone to talk to, this dungeon will have to go way off script. But it soon discovers that going off script brings problems of its own, and that adventurers are not the only thing this world is missing. A shortish story about a dungeon's journey of exploration and self-discovery in a devastated world. Cover made (poorly) with POV-Ray. Prequel to An Unbound Soul Published here, scribblehub and amazon.

36.47 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-27 16:37

Flight of a Villainess

cathfach | mystery | Complete

Few people are purely evil or good. Everyone has their own desires and their own principles guiding what they are prepared to do to achieve those desires. A duke who wants to expand the influence of his house, his wife who is fiercely loyal to her friends, and their child who just wants some comfortable clothes. The queen who wants what's best for the kingdom, the king who wants what's best for his family and a prince with an inferiority complex. Even if everyone acts in a way they deem 'correct', sometimes people can still get hurt. This was the first story I finished writing, although not the first I posted. It's a very short (11k word) story about a 'villainess' who just wants to get away from it all. Only posted on scribblehub and royalroad. Cover image is from the graphics fairy.

6.62 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-27 16:39

Master, This Poor Disciple Died Again Today -- Complete!

noct | satire | Complete

In a deadly cultivation world, the only way to survive is to play dead! Trucked in the middle of faking his death, Xiao Hui finds himself transported to a cultivation world and quickly acquires a powerful master and a high rank in his sect. There's just one problem: it's a cultivation world, and only the strong survive. As a weakling who recognizes his place in the world, Xiao Hui faces certain death. So why fight it? A silly cultivation novel about a clever disciple desperately faking his own death all the way to the top of the world! -- old blurb -- A silly cultivation novel about an airheaded master putting his foot in his mouth and his poor, clever disciple ducking the fall. In the midst of faking his death, Xiao Hui finds himself trucked and summarily reincarnated into a cultivation world. With great hopes for what is to come, he gets himself taken in by a sect and chosen by a powerful master, but his master seems to have a hole in his brain! What's a poor disciple to do? What Hui does best, of course! A xianxia comedy in the vein of A Will Eternal and Spirit Blade Mountain! [Volume 1 - 7 Complete] -Cultivation/progression fantasy -Neither grimdark nor fluffy, but interwoven with both silly and intense moments -Not your typical cultivation protagonist [participant in the Royal Road Writathon challenge]

695.12 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-27 18:10

The Isekai Police (aka "Earth's Advocates")

Vnator | satire | Complete

When evil kings summon kids from Earth to be used and abused as fast-leveling soldiers in their petty wars, the Isekai Police will be there to stop them. A group of ex-isekai protagonists in their own right, they utilize their collective skills to fight for the end of summoning abuse. Artyom Choi, cynical ex-hero and founding member of the organization, is sent to investigate the presence of an Earther on an innocently idyllic World where no summoning has supposedly taken place. His mission: rescue the Earther and figure out how he got there. Dark secrets lie beneath the surface of paradise, however. Will he be able to find this new hero and get out before whatever malicious forces brought them there doom them both? Book 1 has been finished! You can read Book 2 here in parallel or even before Book 1 if you want more TOAL than Artyom! https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/47708/the-isekai-police-hero-summonings-are-overrated This story is meant to be a deconstruction of the isekai genre that references and sometimes pokes fun at various tropes. Artyom isn't some kid whose goal is to amass Levels or a harem. In fact, all he cares about is protecting other Earthers, and won't let anything like that get in the way! So expect to see: -A mature main character who still has some flaws. -Character development over the course of the story. -No harems! (see last point) -A vibrant world full of interesting people, deep culture, and mysterious lore that gets uncovered as the story goes on. -Plenty of funny moments along the way! -The presence of a few cliched tropes and stereotypes only for the sake of poking fun at them. So step in, take the first leap, and uncover the next hot take on this expansive genre! My discord here: https://discord.gg/Zc8CHSrxVr

124.55 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-27 17:10

Trash Knight: System Recycler: A litRPG Satire that No One Asked For

Foxatal | satire | Complete

MISTAKES WERE MADE Obi Imsi enjoyed his life as an overpowered paladin tryhard filled to the brim with beautiful women who loved him unconditionally for all the wrong reasons. Everything was going great until he tried to woo the wrong one and was polymorphed into a literal trash can. Starting back at level 1, he must find someway to regain his power and hopefully return to his real body. He soon finds that his new life won't be easy, and he embarks a fantastic fantasy adventure that's so bad, it's good (terrible). Formerly known as Harem Trash, renamed due to disturbing lack of harem (crow harems don't count). Updates on weekends. Once the story is complete, it'll stay up for a few weeks until I take it off to put it on market.

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

carl@fire

irony | satire | Complete

Hi,If you're receiving this message, I am unable to respond to your email.If this is an emergency, please contact Madhavaditya Sharma (adi.sharma) for immediate assistance, otherwise I will reply as soon as I'm able.Regards,CarlDirector of Information TechnologyPS. If you're reaching out from Engineering, please use the engineering-help@fire inbox to ensure proper handling of your request. The above message is intended solely for the named addressee and may contain trade secrets, industrial technology or privileged and confidential information otherwise protected under applicable law including the Uniform Trade Secret Act and Defend Trade Secrets Act. Any unauthorized dissemination, distribution, copying, or use of the information contained in this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify the sender by email and delete this communication immediately.

491.99 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-27 17:44

Superheroes and Magic Invasions [apocalypse litRPG]

Belial666 | sci_fi | Complete

[completed the October 2022 and April 2023 Writathon ] In the town of Destiny, Florida (not to be confused with Destin, also in Florida), magic portals open and spew out undead horrors. A few lucky survivors discover that killing the invaders grants magic powers seemingly following popular game or comic book tropes. For Maya Wennefer that's only the beginning of her problems. Invaders from another world, normal people realizing there are easier paths to power, the government's reaction to the new reality; surviving all that is hard, let alone becoming a superhero. As chaos spreads and stronger monsters appear, human greed may yet prove to be more dangerous than any invader. What to expect:Man-eating monsters, unsupervised young adults, mistakes being made, exploration of superpowers, violence, superheroics, cheaty power combos, arrogance, struggle.

112.35 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-27 17:37

The Lightning Witch

officialleehadan | one_shot | Complete

Daramethe was a hedgewitch until lightning struck her for a second time, and she gained incredible, devastating power. Her husband is a blacksmith who loves his tiny electrical wife, and would like prophets to stop kidnapping him.

6.80 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-13 10:50

The Void Wolf

Monad | tragedy | Complete

A ritual, with the sole purpose of obtaining immortality, goes horribly wrong. What's left in its aftermath is aboy who receives an inheritance from the Void, a mysterious place that embodies darkness. With a newfound power, he is given a chance to carve his own way into the world.

336.65 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-27 18:01

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

Focused Fire (ATLA Fanfic)

arg3nt | action | Complete

The rise of a young Fire Nation commander Xing, a survivor of a village attack-turned prodigious firebending colonel of the Fire Nation's 11th Regiment. Taking place not long before canon, Xing seeks to keep his adoptive family in the Fire Nation military as safe, sound, and sharp as he can, even as the pieces of the puzzle that is the main story start to fall in place around him, the biggest of which is Princess Azula joining the 11th in their military duties around the Earth Kingdom.

232.91 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-27 18:31

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

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

Lemon

EmergencyComplaints | comedy | Complete

Lemon is a good girl, smart as any human, even if she does have four legs and a tail. She lives with her master, the great Wizard Hogarth, who is sometimes a little forgetful, very excitable, and often quite smelly. Hogarth loves making new potions, and Lemon is his trusted assistant! Hogarth has been talking about an upcoming wizards' conference for months, and has been eagerly refining his latest work, the Potion of Unlimited Invincibility. It only works for a minute, but during that time, nothing can hurt him. Unfortunately, he rushed off to the conference and forgot the sample potion! It's up to Lemon to get it to him so his big debut isn't a total flop. It's a long trip, but Lemon has plenty of magic to help her along the way, and her master needs her help! Sometimes, a dog's gotta do what a dog's gotta do to save the day. [participant in the Royal Road Writathon challenge]

30.45 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-27 18:45

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

Old Tales Worth Retelling

Mad Sadie | historical | Complete

Most people grew up hearing fairy tales and fables. They're such a part of our cultures that Cinderella has a two-part definition in the Oxford Dictionary, and if someone name-drops Robin Hood everyone instantly knows what they mean. These stories have been told and re-told for literally centuries. In some cases millenniums. So I'm gonna tell them again. Not to "update" them, or because I think I can improve them, but just because I can. Why not. And fair warning: the style of these retellings will be "ditzy catgirl with attention-span problems". I'm not taking these tales seriously, I'm just having fun. Most of these stories will be from HC Andersen, Grimm Bros, or Arabian Nights, because those are the ones I'm most familiar with. If anyone has a specific story they think needs more love, let me know and I'll try to include it! Back when these tales were first penned, "word count" was a foreign concept. So chapter length will probably vary wildly. Sorry. Participant in the Royal Road Writathon.

30.14 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-29 11:45