GivingTree

Everyone wants to be a superhero.

Except for Alden. He wants to be a sidekick. He's got his reasons, but the path ahead won't be an easy one.

Even if he's lucky enough to become one of the few humans who are granted powers by the extraterrestrial system that's been running things on Earth for decades, true battlefield support classes are rare, and old-school sidekicks haven't been popular in years.

But Alden's got determination on his side...and maybe a murderous demon, too.

I wrote this story because I wanted to read a superhero origin story every step of the way from the very beginning. You will get slice of life and world building on multiple worlds and darkness and comedy and action. It is a slow burn because that's what I love. I hope you'll enjoy it, too.

** This story has stats, but they don't appear in the early chapters. This is a slow burning story. It's character-driven. It will be long.

**The protagonist is a child in the first chapter, but he will be in his mid to late teens for most of the story. Lots of violence. Some darkness. This is fiction for adults and/or young adults.

** Updates once or twice a week. Please consider supporting with a follow.

When the world changed, disaster followed.

Mana awakened, causing the planet to grow and give birth to monsters.

The survivors got the System. They were given stats, classes, and the ability to fight back.

Because of their hard work and struggle, Dylan Thatcher was born into an increasingly stable society. But now, 150 years after the advent of mana, the world is beginning to change again.

There's more mana in the air, the planet is expanding again, and monsters are becoming more aggressive.

In the midst of the emerging chaos, it is finally Dylan's turn to go through the System's Tutorial and receive his class. It's one he's never seen before and doesn't quite understand.

Deckmaster.

Where other's use swords and magic, Dylan only has his cards to fight. He must constantly play a game, juggling spells and summoned creatures, to stay alive.

In the increasingly dangerous world around him, will it be enough?

Release schedule:

Updates five times per week with a new chapter every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

Currently participating in the April 2023 Writathon, so the release schedule may not always be accurate.

Revenge.

The Kingdom of Avalon swept across the Empire of the Fox a generation past, conquering the heartlands and leaving the broken remnants to stew in the island duchy of Guerron.

This isn't a story of Good versus Evil, of kindly kings doing their best to lift all subjects, or of unvarnished heroes doing battle against evil. 

Instead, this story is about power: who has it, who wants it, and what people will do to obtain it. It is about the violence inherent in the imperial project and how even the most well-intentioned rulers and conquerors are, still, engaging in systemic violence against those conquered and defeated.

Our three point-of-view characters are a peasant turned fire wizard, an excitable duelist with more enthusiasm than sense, and a scheming mage-priestess bent on reclaiming her family's birthright and waging war on the foreign oppressors who rule her home... no matter the cost in blood or treasure.

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.