Cho | historical | Complete
Tsunoda Naoki is a ghost expert! Maybe. Okay, not really. He just pretends to be one, scraping a living by putting the easily-spooked at ease. But his luck seems to run out when he's suddenly got a real ghost to deal with. He can't even see this spirit, let alone exorcise her—and to complicate matters further she apparently seems to like Naoki… a lot. Is this ghost hunt a romantic comedy or a tragic horror? Artwork by hachikuro.
45.03 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-27 16:01
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
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
In a world of sky islands orbiting around a core of mist, humanity is besieged with countless threats. When a young girl from the slums unwittingly becomes one of those threats, she finds herself capable of horrific things that she can't help but learn to love... Vigor Mortis is a lighthearted story about existential terror. Come for the horror, stay for the hope. Updates Fridays. Enjoy the read!
456.61 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-27 16:39
It is the final days after the end of the world and you only have one month left before the last sanctuary erupts into chaos. There's a dead body hanging from a tree and cadaverous giants watch you sleep at night. The end is already here, you just don't know it yet. Now rated in the top 3% of all novels on Royal Road! Palus Somni (Marsh of Sleep') is a worldbuilding webnovel about what happens when your God forsakes you. Inspired by gothic horror and mingled with British myth and folklore, join the Alucinari nuns as they struggle with day-to-day life after the world has ended. Every night when the sun sets the monstrous Gol, colossal beings with too many teeth, awaken and roam the marshlands. Only those with a faithful heart will be spared. Young acolyte Wille has never seen the walls fail, but when a fellow nun is murdered within their sanctum the very safety of the monastery is thrown into question. Did the Gol find a way to breach their defences, or is there a human traitor amongst them? The answer lies both far in the past and deep beneath the earth, through the maze of ancient catacombs. With a cast of over thirty different characters, watch as your friends and enemies spiral into inevitable madness at the hands of a callous and unforgiving world. Discover the secrets of Palus Somni through letters, diary entries and notes found scattered across the monastery. Uncover the mystery of the grotesque giants that stalk the night and bring your challenge to the Gods themselves. Each character has their own handmade pixel art, and every update includes a music recommendation for a dark atmospheric dungeon synth album that you can listen to while you read. Slice of life meets cosmic abomination: Palus Somni is a collection of intertwining stories, some chapters are stand-alone tales while others feed into the overarching narrative. It is an exploration into a community, and rather than focusing on any one character the story meanders through the convent, exposing the hopes and fears of its inhabitants. Story updates every full moon.
83.11 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-13 10:57
SealJohnson | mystery | Complete
Saskia thought her life was finally getting back on track after the accident. Thenshe got trolled. Now she'supa tree the size of a planet,andall who meet her either run screaming or attack on sight. If everyone would just calm down and stop trying to kill her for one moment, shemight get a chance to explain that this has all been a horrible misunderstanding. Containslight GameLit/LitRPG elements, but no number crunching. Chapters average around 4500 words / 16 pages. Updated weekly. Cover art by Ben J.
246.11 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-27 16:46
Some dude falls into another world and decides he’d rather live as the Heroine than go out and fight to death as the Hero. He might have changed his mind if he’d read the terms and conditions, though.
1.55 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-27 16:57
MysteriousAlt | satire | Complete
A story about a man coping with an Otterly terrible fate. This title came to me in a vision, so I wrote it at 2 AM. I regret nothing.
1.06 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-27 17:05
Vowron Prime | satire | Complete
"Don't worry. Nothing could possibly go wrong," said Dick as an enormous Christmas tree fell on him, killing him instantly. Freshly reincarnated, Dick must face a world where blue boxes define one's worth, and where the only game in town is 'number go up'. Dick's reaction: What in Tarnation!?- - CONTENT WARNING: This work is a piece of supremely based fiction. Don't get traumatized. If you do get traumatized, double it and give it to the next person.Join us on the discord, where much merriness may happen: https://discord.gg/tPGzvWK6
20.24 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-11 17:07
Xavier had a happy, humdrum life: normal friendships, a normal girlfriend, a somewhat oddball family. Until, that is, he literally stumbled through the fourth wall and discovered he was the protagonist of a manga. Now he's scrambling to maintain any semblance of control over his own life in the face of something he never imagined he would need to contend with: the power of the Genre. Hello, E.O. Tenkey here; thank you for your interest in "Not A Manga"! This was my first serial novel, and I hope you enjoy Xavier's predicament! Familiarity with manga not required (though it can't hurt)! I look forward to exploring the bounds of the Genre with you. (First volume is rated PG-13 for comic mayhem and light profanitythese are high school students, after all. Second volume is rated PG-13 to R for some violence and similar levels of profanity. Tags may or may not contain spoilers.)
82.77 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-13 16:10
Lise Eclaire | sci_fi | Complete
Decades ago, Elcy was a battleship. Her recklessness on the front led her to forced retirement in a human body. Fallen from favor after her last mission, she's now stuck on Virgo station as a cadet instructor. Eager to return to the front, Elcy accepts a bureaucratic mission that no one else wants to take on. On the way there, an unexpected party approaches her with an offer that is too bizarre to be true. Listed on Top Web Fiction HERE The story is a continuation of Quod Olim Erat and The Scuu Paradox
128.09 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-27 17:35
FrustratedEgo | tragedy | Complete
Follow Grant Legate's trials and tribulations through:Memories, Made, Realities, Crash, Together. Memories: A man broken by despair and depression, Grant Legate finds himself in a once-in-a-lifetime situation after receiving an Ultimate Edition copy of Continue Online. All hewishes foris a distraction from the thoughts plaguing his waking hours. He dives in headfirst, unknowing of the AIs intentions. They offer him the chance to play as one of their own, a NPC deserving of a proper send off. What he discovers during the journey shakes Grant to his very core. Made: No longer playing as a Local from the world of Continue Online, Grant Legate's adventure can begin.The Voices offer him a unique title along with a test and reward.To starthe'll have to survive underground horrors, old girlfriends, become a warrior.To winhe must become an imp familiar and kill another player, one with a dozen tricks up his sleeve. Realities: Worried for his sanity after poor in-game choices, Grant Legate's sister, Liz, blocks access to Continue Online. With no way around the restriction, he ventures into a new worlda VRMMO game based in spacecalled Advance Online. There he must help his companion AI, Hal Pal, overcome an identity crisis, race to the center of the universe to bring back his true love, and figure out where he stands on the scariest implication of all; AIs are bringing the dead to life. Crash: Grant's prior adventures tie together and he finds himself back in Continue Online, as Hermesin jail. He's forced to experience life as a digital convict and earn redemption points to gain his freedom. Each in-game death pushes his goal of helping his friends out of reach. The AIs Grant's grown to love, trustand sometimes fearare facing extinction, he holds the key to their survival. Together: The game is no longer about adventures in a new world or exploring fantasy lands. Grant's digital wife faces deletion, along with everyone else he cares for. He, and those who know this is more than a game event, search for clues to salvation left behind by the game's creators. Even if he finds them all, the Voices have one last task for their messenger. A sacrifice.
380.09 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-27 18:22
sarvashaktimaan | tragedy | Complete
This is an older story which I do not think is up to my current writing abilities. Read at your own risk. The Gods are dead As they bled dry, so did the magic which gave them birth. In the new era of technology, its pathetic remnants must hide in the shadows or be locked away. In the ancient era of magic two beings often stood out: Galileo, an immortal scholar obsessed with knowledge and Angelica, the most loyal servant of the greatest among the now dead Gods. But why are they worthy of mention? Because after millennia of isolation, the two emerge in the new world beyond their reckoning. The entire story is told from the third person, however, each chapter will be told from the perspective of only one of the characters. This will be signified by the first letter of their names after the chapter number to avoid confusion. I submitted this fiction as a[participant in theRoyal RoadWritathon challenge] as well as a participant in National Novel Writing Month. The original challenge had been to finish this entire faction within the month of November reaching the 55.5k word minimum. This goal had been achieved. I do not own the cover picture
33.88 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-13 16:06
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
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
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
Oftentimes, our suffering plays out in the things we're drawn to, and out of all of his amazing & powerful friends, Xander was the one stuck in a vicious time loop. Either he's the most unfortunate soul on the planet or he really is destined for something more. This is the journey of discovery Xander Harris never got.
334.21 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-29 11:31
Now available on Amazon! Only the ruins of vast mega-cities remain of the old world after everything went down the drain& Well several times at that, but who cares? It's what is left behind that is important - secrets, wealth, knowledge, technologies, food and the occasional pack of mutants.There is also Axion, the last of the floating cities, but only the privileged leave there. Only those who have obtained the expensive permits can dive into the locked sectors. Those who cannot afford such a luxury, become Scavengers.Dubbed criminals, they are mostly ignored by Axion's law enforcers. But not Grey. No, Grey is a wanted man, for being the only one who has entered Sector 7 and come out to tell about it. In other words, nothing that out of the usual day to day life of a Scavenger.So, who are these Axion teen wannabe Tech-hunters? Why do they want to get in Sector 7? But most important of all, what do they hope to find there? Cover image done as commission by revismissing.
52.85 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-29 11:46
Solus-Solace | horror | Complete
A new dawn is on the horizon for the land of 揲rge. The cult of Irka has found a means to quickly expel the blight that devastated the land, many generations ago. With the power of the St閗kr trees, great hosts of immense spiritual energy, the cult shall send their witches into dangerous regions still beset with blight where they will attempt to purify the land. While many of these regions are only slightly blighted, others are steeped in a miasma powerful enough to ruin the body and drive the mind to madness. Summoned by the high king to guide a witch through the deadly wilderness, the ranger captain G髍in arrives in the city of Elbregn, where another secret and urgent mission awaits him... ------------- Cover artwork made by Wong40k
40.19 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-29 11:50
Epsilon Twilight | psychological | Complete
When a lost soul awakens in the underworld without any memories of its previous life, it is offered a choice between eternal suffering and a second chance by a mysterious goddess. The soul decides to take a second chance and is reincarnated as a violet-colored elf in a magical metropolis. As the newly born elf navigates this fantastical world and its curious elven culture, he discovers the secrets of arcane and soul magic, from weaving mana to unlocking the mysteries of life and death. Join the elf on a journey of self-discovery as he learns to harness his newfound powers and unravel the secrets of the world and its inhabitants. Book 1 micro-synopsis: Slice of life, children, school, introduction to Ferilyn and magic, arcane magic. Book 2 micro-synopsis: Academic pursuit, adolescents, academy, advanced magic, soul magic, some action. Book 3 micro-synopsis: Political drama, adults, military, highest magic, a lot of action. Updates every week. Author's notes: -Expect a slow burn and heavy descriptions in the early stages of life. -The story will evolve in setting and genre as the soul progresses in life. -This fiction is greatly inspired by Mushoku Tensei, Mother of Learning, and Warcraft. -Cover art by @AruOwlsArts
190.51 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-29 12:25