Where am I? What is this! I... I don't remember anything. I am in chains? Why am I in chains?! And why am I so very...

Thirsty.

This is a story of vampires as I believe they should be, with their strengths and weaknesses, with their remnants of humanity and the beast inside. Updates every Friday. Mind the tags. 

Cover by Antti Hakosaari: https://www.artstation.com/haco

Special thanks to Svensonsen for getting me started, as well as Omi Nya, Jemima, my patrons and you dear readers, for the support.

NOTE: Currently on Haitus. To return on or before 6/14/2021

An irritated Pokemon might tell you to stop what you're doing. An irritated animal will probably just attack you. Pokemon, for all their power, would be open books and a breeze to care for to any competent animal handler on Earth. After a fiery death, a professional zookeeper who never outgrew Pokemon games ends up in the world of Pokemon. The entire world is thrown onto its side.

When humanity first encountered alien life, we were judged and found wanting.  

The Galactic Consensus interviewed our leaders and subjected us to a battery of psychological tests to determine our progress as a society.  They found us to be selfish, wasteful, impulsive, and boorish neighbors.  Earth was blockaded and our collective encounter with our extrasolar neighbors rapidly faded from memory.

All they left behind was a hypercomm relay and a handful of subscriptions to a massively multiplayer game that participants played in their sleep.  The Consensus said that it would let us interact with our neighbors in a controlled setting.  That it would teach us to be better members of the galactic community.

The megacorporations that controlled Earth ignored the game until they learned that the powers earned from clearing dungeons were just as real when day broke.  Magic, supernatural abilities and rumors exploded from nothing and a subscription to The Tower of Somnus became a status symbol.

Katherine ‘Kat’ Debs doesn’t have much, but it could be worse.  Born in an arcology, she was assigned a job in the megacorporation that raised her almost as soon as she could work.  Despite the stability of her corporate life, she wanted something more.  A chance to claw her way up the rigid social and financial ladder to make something of herself.

A chance that wouldn’t come naturally to someone as familiar with dark alleyways and the glint of steel as she was with office work and corporate niceties.

Cover art by Faewild

Coloring/shading by KrazeKode

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Book One was  a National Novel Writing Month/Writeathon entry.  Book one has zero editing or proofreading.

As a warning, this WILL eventually go to Kindle Unlimited (meaning each book will come down shortly before I publish it).

Participant in the Royal Road Writathon challenge!

Successor Book to Power of Ten Book One: Sama Rantha, and Book Two: The Far Future. Chapters began 9/5/2020. There are around 2000 words (4 Word Pages) and updated daily since Dec. 26, 2018.

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A shard severed from a soul, full of Karma, but needing a body and life of its own.

The first true Rantha Hagbloods.

A Shrouded Earth invaded by magic, struggling to once again see the sky.

Three souls with the full knowledge of Power of Ten are on a world in need of something to break the stalemate and suppression of the Shroud of Undeath.

It's going to take gold, and Gear, and Levels, but the undead aren't the only enemies that they'll be facing as they strive to liberate a world, and guide it towards the Light of Heaven.

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Power of Ten has a Patreon for anyone who wants to read advance chapters (up to 35 ahead, and you can even pay annually!). We use a Google Docs system, sending out access emails to our Patrons once Patreon confirms things to our Patrons' gmail accounts. Help support PoT today! :)

For those who would like to support me, my Patreon Link is at: Contribute Goldweight to Save the World!

The Original Power of Ten/Sama, the Tip of the Spear, is being posted at: 

Tremble, She Comes!

Books One and Two for Sama Rantha are at: Rantha Hags Forever!

The permanent Discord Link is: Your Friendly Allegiance LInk is active!

I always have Discord up if I'm online, although I may be busy writing and not see it right away...

Courtesy of the Dread Fluffy Goblyn, I even have a Facebook page! Markspace is active!

And join the Power of Ten Fan page! Tremble We Come!

Ian Dunai thought he was powerless.

He’s not alone: only a small percent of the population have high enough affinities to perform magic. But in the eyes of his father’s gifted family, Ian’s impotence is a disgrace—and the stain of his mother’s common blood.

But on one fateful day, Ian awakens not in his college dorm but in the middle of the ocean on an old dinghy. Reaching land is the least of his problems as he encounters risen skeletons, tortured captives, and a shoreside city in the throes of contagion.

Ian doesn’t last very long without magic. But death isn’t the end: Ian wakes back up on the dinghy and relives the day again...and again...and again.

As Ian investigates the purpose of the loop and a way to escape, he begins to realize that he might be more powerful than anyone—especially himself—ever imagined.

Release schedule: Tues-Thurs-Sat releases (3 chapters/week) at 11:30 am EST. 

Book 1, The Menocht Loop, is complete at ~100k words (~370 pages; chapters 1-41).

Book 2, The False Ascendant, is complete at ~110k words (chapters 42-83)

Book 3, The Eldemari's Wrath, is complete at ~145k words (chapters 84-143)

Book 4, The Samsara Crucible, is ongoing (chapters 144 and on).

Constructive criticism welcome.

Join the discord.

Vote on Top Web Fiction!

View the wiki.

Cover art by the very talented Jeff Brown. (Higher res version here; 3840 x 2400 ultra high res wallpaper version here)

"He who fights with harem tropes should see to it that he himself does not become a harem protagonist. And if you gaze for long into a narrative, the narrative gazes also into you." --- Friedrich Nietzsche (probably?)

How would you react if one day you woke up inside an environment running on tropes and clichés? For allegedly average high-schooler Leonard Dunning, this question became quite relevant when one day he woke up in a pristine city on a strange island in the middle of the Atlantic, without any memories, surrounded by classmates who are barely more than characterless placeholders, and with a classic indecisive harem protagonist and his impossibly beautiful love interests for friends.

That would be hard to deal with already, yet his investigation into the tropes governing the world, trying to avoid harem shenanigans, and his odd blend of outside-context knowledge, unique abilities, and a penchant for causing trouble wherever he goes ends up dragging him into the center of the action anyway.

Disclaimer: This is a tongue-in-cheek, slice of life romantic comedy, with occasional sprinkles of combat and mystery to spice things up. Please do not expect a straight up deconstruction beyond some in-universe meta-commentary by the characters.

Death is coming. And he wants to help.

The world of Eleg may seem like a normal enough place at first blush, but wade deeper into it, and soon the dark, the deadly, and the mad will begin to reveal themselves.

But don't worry.

They usually have a sense of humor.

((Ebook versions of the first four Volumes [138 chapters] are available on Amazon.))

Nightmares and hallucinations have plagued Heather Morell all her life.

Diagnosed with schizophrenia as a child after the loss of her twin – a sister who never really existed – now struggling with her mental health at university, Heather teeters on the verge of giving up on life. A chance meeting ends in a revelation: she is not crazy, her visions are all too real, and probably want to eat her soul.

Embroiled with a crippled, bad-tempered magician and her self-proclaimed ‘bodyguard’, Heather rapidly descends into a world of terrifying magic and otherworldly monsters, in an effort to stay sane, bring back the dead, and maybe, just maybe, make out with cool older girls.

Katalepsis is a Ancient Greek word which means ‘comprehension’, or perhaps more accurately, ‘insight’.Katalepsis is a serial web novel about cosmic horror and human fragility, urban fantasy and lesbian romance, set in a sleepy English university town.

New chapters are currently posted once a week, on Saturdays.

This is a Royal Road mirror of Katalepsis' own website, located here, currently updated at the same time with a new chapter every Saturday.

[This fiction is on indefinite hiatus. I'm currently acting as a 24-hour caregiver for my step-father who had a massive heart attack. I apologize for disappearing so quickly, but sometimes that's just life. I'll return as soon as possible. Sorry everyone!]

Zhao Gang, after hundreds of thousands of years cultivating, has finally reached the penultimate threshold. He is ready to ascend to the level of True Immortal. 

Driven by the need for a place his enemies won't find him, Zhao Gang puts together an audacious plan. He has developed a revolutionary new formation which will allow him to ascend while on even the lowest planes. To avoid drawing attention, he has to choose a plane that is relatively desolate, however.

He chooses Earth. Fast forward three thousand years.  Zhao Gang discovers what his work has wrought - a cultivation-free culture that has delved the deep mysteries of creation - he can't help but think how this tiny little planet devoid of natural energy could affect the course of all creation.

There's only one problem. For that to happen, he has to succeed in cultivating Earth.

Notes: Chinese names should be ignored in the social context - they don't mean anything. Sorry for slaughtering such a beautiful tradition.

This novel starts off slower than most. If the slow-roll isn't your thing, you might want to give this a pass. If it's not for you, I understand. Also, releases may be broken up into smaller chunks. The goal is 5k words, but definitely more than 4k. If you see a short release, be aware that more is probably coming.

 I'll be honest and say that I'm struggling with each new scene, if only because I want to balance the scope of vision with good pacing. I hope the work I put into it is worthwhile.

Everyone wants to believe they are the hero of their own story. But in a world where prophecies are real, what happens if you're not the Chosen One?

A budding arcanist named Caden enrols in the Academy, entering the same cohort as one of the legendary Chosen Ones, and finds himself caught in a tangle of fate that threatens to unravel the entire Empire. 

Updates Mondays and Thursdays, 10:30 PM (GMT+8).

Join the Discord community here.
Support me on Patreon here.

Cover art by Fuyu Dust.

30/7/2020
A number of people have asked about how they can support me, so I've started a Patreon page for those who would like to make a financial contribution.

"Just a Bystander" is a work of love and I intend to keep posting it for free on RoyalRoad for everyone to enjoy. As someone who has been blessed with a full-time job that has remained stable even in the midst of a global pandemic, I would like to stress that I am able to continue writing with or without financial support and that you should not feel compelled to put dollars into this. 

I've chosen not to offer early chapters because I'd like my readers to keep apace with each other, and there are time constraints that come with my situation. The best I can offer for now is the promise of special Discord privileges once I get the opportunity to get them up and running in the future.

Thank you for reading my work. I hope you continue to enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it. =)

Humanity is extinct.

In their wake, they left behind powerful artifacts and wonderous relics, most of which are still yet to be discovered.

Alien life flourishes in the ruins of ancient human cities. Hundreds of distinct species and cultures. But they all worship the "Old Ones" as gods, for who else could have created these impossible devices: ships that can fly, droids that can think, and gates that form bridges between worlds.

One power-hungry Empire has learned to use these gifts to conquer and dominate all other alien cultures. With each passing day, they grind the people of Gaiam deeper under the bootheel of oppression.

But when an old, jaded thief stumbles upon an ancient, living secret... a new revolution may be at hand.

This is the story of The Last Human.

Mana Artists rule the world, and the path to power is a well-kept secret, restricted to state-approved programs and universities.

Akari Zeller will never be a Mana Artist. Not if society has its way. She's a Bronze with no money, no family, and no connections. But technology is advancing too. And to a skilled hacker like Akari, no secret is safe forever. The dark web holds the keys to true power, advancement, and her only chance of survival.

Curse Gunner is urban fantasy, set in a realm where magic is common but powerful magicians are not.  Unfortunately for Helena Aoede, if your magical specialties are necromancy, curses, and blowing things up it's hard to find a job no matter how strong a magician you are.  So when a rich woman who needs a curse removed shows up at her apartment, it seems like a solution to her problems.  Or at least a good way to pay the rent.

Then again Helena's never been shy about shedding blood.  Especially if she gets to decide who's blood it is.

A horrific attack on a crowd ends with tens of thousands dead before Loren Parker abruptly wakes up in his bed, miraculously unharmed, two days before the explosion. Setalite City is on the brink of destruction, famous heroes and infamous villains are being systematically killed worldwide, and an unknown puppet master is pulling the strings. Lucky for him, Loren has all the time in the world to set things straight.

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…

In the modern world, qi is money.

The days of traveling martial artists and mountaintop masters are over. Power is controlled by corporations, modernized martial arts sects, and governments. Those at the bottom of society struggle as second class citizens in a world in which power is a commodity.

Rick is a young fighter in this world. He doesn't dream of immortality or becoming the strongest, just of building a better life for himself and his sister, who suffers from a spiritual illness. Unfortunately, life isn't that easy...

(Author's Note: After the first book's successful run on Amazon, I'm posting the sequel chapter by chapter here as well for all the fans who supported me.)

Everyone knows that magic is real, that it's the driving force behind the evolution society has gone through over the past few thousand years.

Everyone gets annoyed by faeries that steal your socks, or swap your car for a carriage, or coat all your food with salt. Because things like that don't matter enough to hide.

Everyone learns about Hitler, the darkest necromancer ever known,who singlehandedly waged war on the rest of the world, in school, and the other similar events in history. Because they were too large to hide.

But for everything else, the veil hides the magic from the mundane. There might be an unlicenced werewolf working as your librarian. Maybe a dragon owns your local banking chain. Maybe the murder victim who was killed in a locked room WAS killed by an angry ghost. Or a shapeshifter. Or the elder Fae. Or a rogue Wizard.

The solution? Everyone knows the answer to that too. The one thing every police department in the world has in common. The Wizard Division.

The L.A.W.D. (Los Angeles Wizard Division) is in for one hell of a ride, when Charlie, a new trainee foisted into the world of magic joins their ranks, and with him a whole host of new and unusual magic sheananigans comes to Los Angeles.                                                                                                                                  Updates twice weekly. Make sure to follow for more updates.

Touch is a story about a boy named James, and his friends: a group of young, superpowered people brought together by trauma; all trying, in their own ways, to come to terms with what that trauma means to them and who they want to be in response to it. This is a learning process, and mistakes are made, but they grow, learn, and adapt to these difficulties in ways that some might say only young people can.

While it may look it at first, this is not intended as a sad story, merely an honest one. I wanted to make the characters human, and unfortunately, that means that difficulties hit them in very real ways through the story, but then again, they have some equally human moments of warmth between one another as they grow.

Triggers: Explores the aftereffects and recovery process of sexual abuse, and some other forms of physical abuse. I like to think I avoided making it edgy, but you deserve to be informed. Some readers have told me that it can feel a bit too real at times. A bit too honest.

If you like what you read, feel free to comment or review. I like the feedback. Or you can vote for Touch on TopWebFiction.

Touch also now has both a Discord and a Patreon!

Updates weekly.

The world changed forever when supers emerged. Eighty years have passed since WW2, when Prime flew through the skies for the first time, and scholars still debate the origin of power.

Daniel Das lives with his uncle in post-super London, the Hero League's primary hub. He's spent all of his twenty-one years waiting to awaken a metagene, but it hasn't happened yet. The cut-off age is rapidly approaching, and he's losing hope. The last thing Daniel wants is to become another statistic.

Meanwhile, the league is steadily losing parts of the city to the growing villain factions. Daniel's uncle wishes to keep him away from the world of supers, but with the hot zones closing in, that's easier said than done. If that weren't bad enough, something deep inside Daniel has awoken, it demands he step up, do good and protect the people he loves. He doesn't know the source of the compulsion, but it's getting stronger by the day and he's desperate to feed it.

Daniel dreams to join the league. It needs all the assistance it can get, and only they can help satiate his hunger.

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Disclaimer:
The story contains body-horror elements due to how the protagonist's power manifests.
The GameLit/Progression elements are gradual, and there are no stats in this story. The protagonist will enjoy occasional power upgrades as opposed to rapid growth like in other RR stories.
The story doesn't have any intended tragic elements but its a harsh reality and will sometimes edge towards the darker end of the spectrum.

Participant in the Royal Road Writathon Challenge!

(Updates sporadically)

Wilfred had been thinking about ending it all, but then it all ended before he could.The apocalypse came in a matter of hours. Not from weather, not from nuclear strikes, but something far worse. Mankind lost its dominance over their own planet in a short afternoon, and now Wilfred is one of but a handful of survivors who must make sense of the catastrophic nightmare world that they once called their own.While the Earth is many things after the end, it is anything but the sole domain of humanity. As Wilfred and other survivors discover, their planet was not subject to just one world-ending event, but several. The undead roam the once proud metropolisis, and inhuman beasts stalk the countryside. The physical fabric of reality itself is twisted beyond repair in some places as unnatural distorions that warp physical laws appear across the landscape, and even a simple jog across an empty street can prove fatal to the unwary.The ones who died in the initial catastrophes never had to face the horrors that followed. And for Wilfred, a man who found no purpose in life before the apocalypse, what is there to be found after?