I Write Stuff

Leveling systems create overpowered main characters. Cooking systems create master chefs capable of conquering any stomach. Founder systems create monstrous sects from nothing. However, who creates the systems?

This is a completely serious story written by the author of The Blue Mage Raised by Dragons.

Cadence Lee thought she was a normal girl, perhaps a little well to do, but not exceptionally so.  She had her college classes, she had her job that her uncle gave her, and she had a nice boyfriend who was sweet if a little awkward.

Except, when a mugger accosts Cadence and her boyfriend attempts to wrestle a gun away from the criminal, Cadence ends up shot.  A normal girl, with the kind of wound Cadence had, would die.  Cadence managed to do that part.  But a normal girl wouldn't then open her eyes again and learn that death is not as permanant for her as it is for other people.  She can be reborn again, and again.  Each time stronger and with new abilities.

The catch?  Any world she is born into, she can never return to.  She has infinite lives, but only one life for each.

So begins The Many Lives of Cadence Lee.

[participant in the Royal Road Writathon challenge]

Subtitle: I'm cursed to die 100 times.

Earth is in Turmoil.

Youngsters are vanishing left and right. Rumors of the end of the world, of Gods and dimensional travel start to get traction.

To one New York computer engineer, it is about to become reality. Loki needs a champion to further the Asgardian's plans. The Half-Jotunn deity needs to do it in secret, though. It wouldn't do to ruin thousands of years of plotting by being careless now.

Tossed into a barbaric world and burdened by daunting curses, this person needs to learn and grow. A monumental task that cannot be undertaken in a single life.

An invader in a virginal world, Loki's champion must escape prosecution by the local pantheon. All the while living dozens upon dozens of lives, growing and evolving along an uncaring and rather brutal world.

This champion will go from the lowest of organisms to the top of that world's food chain. They shall seize what seems to be ultimate power, only to discover there's an even higher peak.

And maybe, just maybe, escape Loki's wicked machinations. And if that's not possible, at least save a little spot of the multiverse from the end of all things.

 Winner in the 2022 November writing contest.

This story will no longer be updated.

After living decades and dying hundreds of times, Kegan has learned that he has finally passed some test that the cruel spirit had given him. Now, Kegan has the ability to gain “perks” that can make his life much easier. He is looking forward to finally having an easy life with the new perks he has earned.

Rules to keep me honest for the perk system:

I want to avoid one of the pitfalls I see for other LitRPG stories where the game elements barely relate to the story, or offer very little information. If people are skipping over and not reading the perks then I'm doing things wrong. So I promise to try and make the perks interesting, sometimes humorous, informative, and relevant to the story.

Cover art by http://dertypaws.com/

Zorian is a teenage mage of humble birth and slightly above-average skill, attending his third year of education at Cyoria's magical academy. He is a driven and irritable young man, consumed by a desire to ensure his own future and free himself of the influence of his family, whom he resents for favoring his brothers over him. Consequently, he has no time for pointless distractions or paying attention to other people's problems. As it happens, time is something he is about to get plenty of. On the eve of the Cyoria's annual summer festival, he is killed and brought back to the beginning of the month, just before he was about to take a train to Cyoria. Suddenly trapped in a time loop with no clear end or exit, Zorian will have to look both within and without to unravel the mystery before him. And he does have to unravel it, for the time loop hadn't been made for his sake and dangers lurk everywhere... Repetition is the mother of learning, but Zorian will have to first make sure he survives to try again - in a world of magic, even a time traveler isn't safe from those who wish him ill.

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Mother of Learning is now available for sale on Amazon. The story will remain available in full here on Royal Road and on Fictionpress, but if you're more interested to read the story as a Kindle Edition e-book you now have a way to do that.

The audiobook for the first, second and third arc is available for on this link here. The physical edition is available through a Kickstarter campaign, which can be found here.

I will keep you all updated on that as things develop.

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If anyone is interested, I have a story-related worldbuilding site that can be found here. I don't update it as often as I should, but there is a fair amount of content there already. It also contains a page with all the fanart, fan translations, audio books and the like - you can reach it directly by clicking this link.

I have a patreon account for those kind people that want to give me money. It also contains info for those who want to donate via paypal.

The story was originally posted on fictionpress, back in 2011. When I reached chapter 91, I started uploading the story to RoyalRoad, one chapter per day. The Fictionpress version of the story can be reached by clicking on this link if somebody is interested, though at this point there is nothing there that isn't also on RoyalRoad.