B. A. Baker (Thedude3445) | satire | Complete
The most underrated character of Tower of Somnus finally gets his due: Hear Arnold Jacques's side of the events for the first time ever. Read a story about how the world's nicest guy tried to win over the world's hottest girl by buying a hundred thousand dollar video game from space.
9.48 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-11 17:18
BigMartyrs | satire | Complete
A Cyberpunk Coming of Age Tale The Apocalypse is ugly. The only lights that work are battery powered or neon. Scroungers kill your neighbors and take control of their bodies. Gang wars run rampant in the perpetual night, as usual, except now, most members have magical spells to defend their turf. Life certainly changed once the Rainbow Letters came. For Milton, things changed for the better. The world became familiar. He could find loot, learn skills, and equip weapons and armor. It was all much easier to understand than the perils of pre-Apocalypse life with its grocery shopping and going outside. Then he discovers Ragnarok, Orchestrator of the Rainbow Letters and all of Milton's problems. The race to figure out why is on. If Milton is to survive long enough to find answers, he must first be strong enough to confront his worst enemy: himself. * This is work in progress and NOT professionally edited. * ** This story is humorous in the begining, but gets very dark around the turning point. Reader discretion is advised.**
38.11 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-13 16:10
Humanity once ruled space, building an empire that stretched across hundreds of stars. Now Earth is a cold cinder in the void, its colonies and ships annihilated in an instant. For five thousand years the surviving races have huddled in the dying light of those few stations which avoided total destruction, eking out their existence in the shadow of the long-dead humans who built their homes. When a piece of that lost legacy resurfaces, the few who still remember humanity have one last opportunity to find the truth and avenge the fallen. Cover by Harry Rowland - https://www.instagram.com/rowl_art_/
111.61 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-27 17:22
MichaelJSullivan | one_shot | Complete
TWO ROGUES | FOUR SHORT STORIES | ONE CLASSIC FANTASY OF UNLIKELY HEROES The Riyria novels featuring Royce Melborn (a cynical ex-assassin) and Hadrian Blackwater (an idealistic ex-mercenary) have been enthralling fantasy readers for more than 15 years. Now for the first time four short stories and two full-length novels are available for free on Royal Road. You can read these shorts in any order, but if you haven't read any of my books, I suggest starting with The Thieves. The Thieves:THEY ATTACKED TWO RIDERS. THEY THOUGHT IT WOULD BE EASY. THEY WERE WRONG.A band of thieves set upon two lonely riders in the middle of the night. They had a larger party. They had the element of surprise. There was no reason to be concerned. But they didn't realize who they were dealing with. The Viscount and the Witch: WHO WILL BE SCHOOLED?A desperate woman seeks help to rid her barn of a drunkard. Hadrian agrees to help, and Royce goes along only to teach his idealistic partner that no good deed goes unpunished. What they find isn't what they expected, and maybe it'll be Royce's opinion that will be changed. Professional Integrity: YOU WANT US TO STEAL WHAT?Several years have passed since the war-weary mercenary Hadrian and cynical ex-assassin Royce joined forces to start their thieves-for-hire organization, better known as Riyria. Things have gone well enough for the team as they perform tasks for nobles throughout Elan. Usually, that means stealing something, but when a young heiress asks them to steal her . . . well, that's a first for the pair. The Jester: WHO WILL HAVE THE LAST LAUGH?Stop me if you've heard this one. A thief, a candlemaker, an ex-mercenary, and a pig farmer walk into a trap . . . and what happens is no joke. When Riyria is hired to retrieve a jester's treasure, Royce and Hadrian must match wits with a dwarf who proves to be anything but a fool. Difficult choices will need to be made, and in the end, those who laugh last do so because they are the only ones to survive. If you enjoy these Riyria short stories, you'll be happy to know there are another 10 full-length novels (2 are available for free on Royal Road) featuring these rogues-for-hire and a total of 19 novels in an epic series that spans 3,000 years. The novels are spread across four collections as seen here. The Riyria Revelations:Theft of Swords(containsThe Crown Conspiracy&Avempartha).". Rise of Empire(containsNyphron Rising&The Emerald Storm) "Heir of Novron(containsWintertide&Percepliquis) The Riyria Chronicles:The Crown Tower " The Rose and the Thorn " The Death of Dulgath ". The Disappearance of Winter's Daughter Legends of the First Empire:Age of Myth " Age of Swords " Age of War " Age of Legend " Age of Death " Age of Empyre The Rise and Fall:Nolyn "Farilane " Esrahaddon
22.48 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-27 17:36
AlexaLee | one_shot | Complete
Follow Dasher, the food delivery robot, as he fights to deliver food to hungry people, even though the journey is at times scary and perilous. Plagued with fading memories from his life before, he struggles to hold on to his humanity whilst also making sure he keeps the items entrusted to him safe until he reaches his destination.
19.07 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-27 17:47
Aster Loka | one_shot | Complete
~First place winner! January 2022 Royal Road Community Magazine Contest~ When all else fails, when all hope is lost, perhaps madness is less important than results. If the world is going to end, save what you can from the ashes. No matter the sacrifice. When came the monsters, So fell the elves; The rising of the Dungeon Queen, And then the sun went out.
8.70 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-27 18:11
drewhead118 | one_shot | Complete
Dr. Laura Brandie is ready to change the world. She's the lead researcher behind the KSE, a revolutionary cure for paralysis and neurodegenerative conditions. And now, by good fortune, she's found the perfect candidate for her first human trial: a man who suffers from locked-in syndrome. Brett Harmon's paralysis is total: he can't move his arms, legs, torso, neck, or face. To the outside world, he's little more than a statue that breathes... but Dr. Brandie's KSE might be the miracle that allows Brett to run again.
7.96 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-27 17:38
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
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
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
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
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
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
"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
alstonsleet | action | Complete
For Joshua Still, Skills were the lifeblood of his business. He wanted to understand them, collect many of them, and teach a few of them. Which was a problem because while his profession of a Skill Trainer was perfectly legal, it was frowned upon by most of the kingdom. After all, it wouldn't do for a non-tailor to teach Tailoring. Or, so says the Tailors Guild. The same could be said by the Blacksmiths, the Bakers, the Butchers, the Candlestick Makers, the Mages, and every other Guild with enough money and clout to complain. But still, Skill Trainers provide a valuable service, and so he has managed to start his business and keep it under the table. To a degree. With many a bribe. But his quiet anonymous life of research, practice, and training was about to change. When the Baron demands you pay him a visit, you have little choice.
101.35 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-27 18:30
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
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
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
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
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
