AleronKong

Announcements and Updates!

I'm sorry to say, we've come to the end of the completed chapters of the comic, let me know what y'all thought about it and if it is something you'd like to see more of! I'm not going to leave you hanging though, on June 14th, I will be starting a new live event on Facebook, discussing different topics with everyone - and I want to hear your thoughts on each topic! In addition to that...

June 14th I will start sharing chapters of (working title) Omnimage with you! Omnimage is my third series, all within the Labyrinth Universe!

Hope to chat with everyone on Facebook on the 14th, think about your favorite swordfight scenes from books/movies/shows, and what made them the best!

https://www.facebook.com/LitRPGbooks

LitCON is in 2 days! Come see me, Nick and Luke :0)

LitCON, the first ever LitRPG CONvention, is in 2 days!

It's completely FREE and it's on the LitRPG FB group and Discord

Over FIFTY Authors and Narrators including me, Luke Daniels and Nick Podehl!!!!!

All the info is here.

www.LitCON.net

If you want to donate or buy some shirts, all proceeds go to Feeding America to help those who had an even harder time than most over the last few years

Gnomes Rule!!!!

Sharing some fun artwork

I appreciate you Patrons!

Don't forget that the first ever LitRPG Convention, LitCON, is happening in a week!

www.LitCON.net

GNOMES RULE!

Episode 4

Hey my wonderful patrons :)

First, let me say that I really appreciate you!  One of the main reasons I'm investing in this comic is so that I can get ya'll new content on a regular basis.  I'm so glad you're enjoying it!

And please don't worry.  I am still writing lol, but honestly I'm also really enjoying my world come to life in a new way.  For me, on my specific journey as  a writer, having this kind of excitement is essential.  It's the air to my literary body, the fuel in my creative energy, the juice in my worldbuilders... I don't know where I was going with that.  

Enjoy and GNOMES RULE!

************************

If you like it and post on social media, make sure to tag me! @litrpgbooks #litrpg

And if you'd like to help an indie author a lot, please vote "Helpful" on five reviews you agree with!

https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Land-Founding-A-LitRPG-Saga-Audiobook/B071DNLS1F?qid=1624557101&sr=1-3&ref=a_search_c3_lProduct_1_3&pf_rd_p=83218cca-c308-412f-bfcf-90198b687a2f&pf_rd_r=JDFB8NJSPASBT07BNHYV#customer-reviews

- Aleron

Episode 3!

Hey ya'll :)

Thanks so much for all the great responses to the webcomic.  We are only a few months away from it going wide!

Please tell some friends 

GNOMES RULE!

************************

If you like it and post on social media, make sure to tag me! @litrpgbooks #litrpg

And if you'd like to help an indie author a lot, please vote "Helpful" on five reviews you agree with!

https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Land-Founding-A-LitRPG-Saga-Audiobook/B071DNLS1F?qid=1624557101&sr=1-3&ref=a_search_c3_lProduct_1_3&pf_rd_p=83218cca-c308-412f-bfcf-90198b687a2f&pf_rd_r=JDFB8NJSPASBT07BNHYV#customer-reviews

- Aleron

Episode 2

More episodes coming!

If you like it and post on social media, make sure to tag me! @litrpgbooks #litrpg

And if you'd like to help an indie author a lot, please vote "Helpful" on five reviews you agree with!

https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Land-Founding-A-LitRPG-Saga-Audiobook/B071DNLS1F?qid=1624557101&sr=1-3&ref=a_search_c3_lProduct_1_3&pf_rd_p=83218cca-c308-412f-bfcf-90198b687a2f&pf_rd_r=JDFB8NJSPASBT07BNHYV#customer-reviews

Gnomes Rule!!!

Episode 1B Ya'll!

Thank ya'll so much for all the support again!  For my awesome Core Patrons...  Enjoy Episode 4 lol

If you like it and post on social media, make sure to tag me! @litrpgbooks #litrpg

And if you'd like to help an indie author a lot, please vote "Helpful" on five reviews you agree with!

https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Land-Founding-A-LitRPG-Saga-Audiobook/B071DNLS1F?qid=1624557101&sr=1-3&ref=a_search_c3_lProduct_1_3&pf_rd_p=83218cca-c308-412f-bfcf-90198b687a2f&pf_rd_r=JDFB8NJSPASBT07BNHYV#customer-reviews

Gnomes Rule!!!

Hello Wonderful Patrons

Hey all!

No matter what level you are in the guild, Episode 1 of the Webcomic is LIVE now for everyone :)

https://www.patreon.com/posts/secret-project-50645222

Episodes 2 and 3 are live for my Core Patrons!

Preciate ya'll, and again I'm sorry I had to push the release of Mayhem, but I want it to be the best it can be.  I'll let you know more when we are closer.

Thank you so much for being on this journey with me,

Aleron

Episode 1A of The Land Webcomic

Hello you awesome MISTFITS!!!

I'm so glad you're enjoying the webcomic :)

In answer to some of your questions, no, I'm not giving up on writing to just focus on the comic lol.  Honestly, it just feels like my writing is evolving and working on other projects really fuels my creativity in general :)

So again, I'm sorry that I'm having to push the date for Mayhem back, but I want it to be the best it can be.  I'll let you know more when we are closer.

Thank you so much for being on this journey with me,

Aleron

Episode Prologue

And here it is!

Episode 2 coming atcha :)

Thank you so much for the awesome feedback on Episode 1.  

I hope you enjoy

GNOMES RULE!

Sion

Thank y’all so much for the great response to the webcomic 😀

Episode 2 will be up for my Core Patrons in a week or so!

Gnomes Rule!

The Secret Project is The Land Webcomic!!!

Okay!  

So after a year of work, and LITERALLY interviewing 500 different artists around the world... I am so happy that I can finally share this with you :)

Ya'll have been there with me for years, and though I don't pop in a bunch, I have always felt bad that I can't express it to you adequately. 

This is the answer lol

From now on, I should be able to share several comics a month with ya'll until the wheels fall off!

So that's enough talking from me lol.

I hope you all enjoy the very first episode of The Land Webcomic!

Gnomes Rule!

God’s Eye is LIVE!!!

The wait is over wonderful Patrons!!!

Gods Eye is Live for download on Audible 😀

Audible.com/AleronKong

Gnomes Rule!

God's Eye Up for Preorder!

God's Eye is LIVE for preorder!

Much love to my supporters at Audible.com for making this happening!

You can find it at www.audible.com/AleronKong

I cannot WAIT for you to hear what an amazing job Luke did

And here are some reviews already placed for the ebook!

Brutal and Beautiful!

The Best New Series of the Year!

Took my Expectations and Blew the out of the Water!

God's Eye Awakening comes to Audible Feb 2nd!

That's right!!!

Luke Daniels CRUSHED it!  His range of voices is superhuman lol

I know you'll love it!

Thank you for your support my wonderful patrons!!!

Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4

You have been offered a Quest: Ruined Temple

Quest Rank: Not   Gradable (Special)

The Cosmic Forces that have given you a new life   have arranged for you to have this quest. It is always your choice whether to accept it or not. There are many hidden locations of great   power in your new world of Telos. One   of the most important to a god is a temple. Follow the directions that will be provided to find a ruined   temple. Once there, remove any   threats.

If this Quest is accepted, you shall be shown the   way.

Success Conditions: Find the remains of a specific   ruined temple and remove any threats.

Rewards:

A home for your new tribe.

Penalty for   failure or refusal of Quest: The generation of this Quest was not strictly within the guidelines agreed upon by the various Cosmic   Forces that conspired to Seed this new Labyrinth world. If this Quest is rejected, claimed and   failed, or completed by another, this flexible   interpretation of the rules could lead to serious consequences for your   sponsor.

Also, your soul would be torn into 100,000 ragged   pieces and cast to drift in the formless expanse for all eternity.

There is also a possibility that if this Quest is   not accepted, the Quest Orb will be discovered and you will immediately be torn into 100,000,000,000   ragged pieces, each possessing enough consciousness to scream.

Do you   accept? Yes or No

Back on Earth, there had been a few quests picked up by people he’d met. They had usually offered experience or maybe a clue toward finding more survivors of the Forsaking. Failing those quests had also had a corresponding consequence. He had never, in his worst nightmares, imagined that there would be a consequence as bad as “torn into 100,000,000,000 ragged pieces and cast to drift in the formless expanse for all eternity.” What did that even mean?

Remy obviously understood the words, but was that a literal possibility? As many difficult things as he had been through in his life, including his death, he just couldn’t wrap his head around what that would actually be like. All he knew for certain was that he didn’t want any part of it.

As he read it again, he was struck with another certainty. Whoever had made this Quest Orb was a dick. The prompt made a big deal about how it was his choice to accept or not, but then it said that the “soul tearing” would happen if he failed or said no. Not really an actual choice, now was it? That wasn’t even mentioning the mind splitting pain he’d gone through when the quest had been shoved inside his head.

He also didn’t like how the penalty had been worded. The real concern seemed to be with his sponsor getting in trouble. Remy was sure that a cosmic yellow card for unsportsmanlike conduct would probably be troublesome, but not compared to his own soul being shredded.

Remy gritted his teeth. He didn’t doubt that there would be advantages to having a sponsor. That didn’t change a fundamental fact about his nature. If there was one thing he hated above all others, it was being forced to do something.

Whether he hated being pigeonholed or not, he wasn’t a child. Of all the options of life after death, he was also 100% sure that being soul-shredded in the “formless expanse” didn’t sound like a good time. That was why, still hating the fact that he’d been manipulated, he chose “Yes” on the quest prompt.

The orb in his hands flared with an intense orange light. The script began to flow from the sphere into his arm. There was no pain this time, thank god, just a strange tingling. After it had flowed up his arm, it crossed over to the center of his chest and sank into his skin.  A sense of weight and obligation settled into him. It was similar to the one time he had accepted a quest on Earth, but thousands of times more profound. The orb itself crumpled to dust. Even that disappeared as it fell from his hand.

Shaking his head, Remy turned to the third and fourth items in the box. They were small leather books. The cover of the first was embossed with a picture he’d seen before on Earth. It was a man in the lotus position with a string of circles going up the middle. He wasn’t fully familiar with it, Eastern philosophy having never really been his strong suit, but he was pretty sure the circles were supposed to be meridians. When he picked it up, a notification window appeared.

You have found:  Basic Cultivation Technique of Gods and Clergy

Technique Rank: Common

Requirements: Divine Core or Clergy Class

This book will impart the basic Cultivation   technique for Gods and their disciples. Practicing this technique will improve your State of Being. This will only aid you until you reach Tier   1. To progress beyond Tier 1, you will   need to find another cultivation technique.

Special Benefit: This technique imparts is ubiquitous among deities   of the Labyrinth. As with all faith   based cultivation techniques, it has no bottleneck.

Do you wish to absorb this knowledge? Yes or No?

This had to be one of the ways to advance his Tier that Sariel had mentioned. Of course, this whole scenario seemed like a bad acid trip. That didn’t mean he didn’t want more information. Any knowledge vs none was always an easy choice.. He chose “Yes.”

The book slowly faded from view. Left in its place was a constellation of glowing motes of light. These twinkling stars flew into his eyes. Remy’s pupils dilated as the information flew into his mind. He knew!

Not only did he fully understand what “cultivation” was now, he also knew how to do it. Basically, he could use the faith people had in him to grow stronger. In a very real way, the more people worshipped him, the stronger he would get. At least, until he reached Tier 1.

He also now knew just what a major milestone tiers were. The warning Sariel had given him about growing as fast as possible made more sense now. He didn’t know exactly how it would manifest, but he knew in his bones that gods who cultivated faster would gain major boosts in power. A Tier 1 deity would experience a qualitative and quantitative increase. If he had to fight a god with a higher tier than his own… it wouldn’t be good.

As fascinating as the new knowledge was, it was useless at the moment. He didn’t have any worshippers. No worshippers meant no Faith for him to use, which made the cultivation technique a nonissue for the time being.

Still, after having gained so much from the first book, he couldn’t wait to gain the knowledge of the second. This one was bound in black leather as opposed to brown. It had a stylized eye on the cover.

You have found:  Soul Consumption Cultivation Technique

Technique Rank: Scarce

Requirements: Divine Core and Soul Art

This book will teach deities who follow the Art of   the Soul how to cultivate using captured souls. Souls used in this manner will be   completely consumed.

This technique will currently only progress you to   Tier 1, but has the potential to be improved.

This technique has a small chance to impart special   benefits depending on the souls absorbed. Do you wish to absorb this knowledge? Yes or No?

Note from your   Sponsor: This technique is not exactly what you would call “street legal” so   SGS protocol.

Remy shook his head again. The “note” at the end was in the same handwriting as the word “Jump” on the star picture. He chose “Yes” again and knowledge flowed into his eyes. After a short bit, he was able to fully understand the difference between the two cultivation techniques. In many ways Soul Consumption was superior. Unfortunately, just like Basic Cultivation, he didn’t have the raw materials, this time captured souls, to put it into practice.

The last item was just a handwritten message in a style he was becoming familiar with.

We had to destroy a solar system to give you seven gifts, so pay   attention. There is more at stake than   you can possibly realize. We cannot   directly affect events on your new world, we can only give you a head start   on the others. For your own safety, you cannot know who   “we” are. You were chosen for many   reasons, not least of which is your mental aegis, though most people in your   life would have called it your stubborn streak. You called it giving zero fucks. Because of this I am sure that the   vagueness of this note is infuriating as hell to you. Let me just say…

Suck it up!

You died, we brought you back, and now you get to be a god. We even blew up a star to help you. Stop complaining! Appreciate the fact that we took the time   to write the above words to you. We   had to grind a reasonably nice moon into dust just to gather the power   required to write that part of the letter. The cost per word on this type of communication is insane.

Suffice it to say, the objects in this chest were determined to   be innocuous enough to raise no flags among the other Cosmic Forces yet   strong enough to give you a chance to rise above the pack. You can only take knowledge with you, not   resources or currency. I am sure a   small part of you realizes that we are cheating by giving you this   advantage.

I am equally sure that a larger part of you does not care. What you need to know is that we are   definitely not the only sponsor bending the rules. Other new gods will be given their own advantages. Some of these gods will be old gods from   other worlds with alliances and pantheons to call upon. Do not piss off a pantheon member until you   are strong enough to fight the entire group! Use the knowledge and power of these gifts well.

Our powers are vast, but we cannot influence what happens to you   from this moment on. No cosmic power   has that ability, so we cannot save you if you fuck up.

Finally, we cannot specifically tell you to break the rules of   your new existence, or even bend them, but good gods, read between the   lines! Do not discuss the contents of   this chest with anyone. If you were to   be caught cheating, ack, gwack, gak, soul dissolution, endless expanse for   eternity… you get the idea.

When you are done reading this note, do what we did not tell you   to do and put everything else into the chest and close the lid.

Never forget, S.G.S.

- Your Sponsor

The contents of the letter might be the craziest part of everything that was happening to him. The tone of it was even nuttier. Despite all that, whoever had penned it knew personal information about him. They knew exactly what to write to get him to fall in line. And that pissed him off more than anything. He hated being manipulated. Still, he wasn’t the type to hem and haw either.

No matter what else, it seemed that his “sponsor” had done him a solid by giving him another chance at life. He was a big enough person to admit that. It didn’t mean he would always dance to their tune if he didn’t like the beat. And it didn’t mean that he’d been given this chance out of the goodness of their little cosmic hearts. For now though, and for as long as their interests aligned, he would heed their advice.

Only two things gave him pause. One, there were only five items, so he had no idea where they were counting seven. Was the time with Sariel a gift? That would only be six though. He couldn’t figure it out, so he put it at the back of his mind.

The other thing that gave him pause was just how personal the letter was. Even the threat at the end was custom-tailored for him. Almost no one else would understand it. If nothing else, that level of familiarity made him take their words seriously. As he set the note aside, he noticed a faint mark in the bottom right hand corner. It was invisible looking right at the page, but it caught the light as he was putting it down. It was only a small sigil, looking like seven shining jewels. He didn’t understand what it meant, but he filed it away for later.

That done, Remy put the note and the picture of the starscape back in the chest. The cultivation technique books and the Quest Orb had turned to dust, and even those small particles had disappeared. After closing the lid, the chest started vibrating wildly, shaking fast enough to leave an afterimage. A moment later, it shrank to the side of a pinpoint and disappeared. Along with it went any evidence that his sponsors had broken the rules.

Not seeing anything useful he could be doing, he summoned his shiatsu chair again. Wondering what would happen, this time he summoned Alysson Hannigan circa Buffy years. He wasn’t disappointed.

Time passed. Remy had fallen asleep, but woke when the ever-present lights began to flash. A soft chime accompanied them. Standing up, he saw that there was a disturbance in the floor. It looked like a section was bubbling. At first he thought it might have become superheated somehow.

It turned out the floor wasn’t actually boiling, it was just changing color, from milky white to crystal clear. The process picked up speed, the change occurring faster and faster until the entire surface became completely transparent. Remy felt a presence and looked up. While he’d been distracted, Sariel had reappeared and was sitting in her seat.

Remy looked askance at the Ethereal, but she remained calmly in her chair, regarding him with her voluminous eyes. After a moment, he just decided to accept that he was not in control and summoned a chair next to her.

Soon the entire room had turned transparent. All he saw was blackness beyond it, but then a point of light appeared. Then another, and another. He realized the lights were torches set in sconces. They not only illuminated the blackness, they also revealed a massive structure.

Remy saw what looked like an ancient coliseum. Torches of white flame dotted the circular top. In the center there was a deep dark that seemed to undulate. Remy leaned forward to get a better look.

Then he was falling.

The transparent room plunged toward the coliseum, the building growing huge in his eyes. If he didn’t have such a strong mental reserve, he would have fallen out of his chair. He still cursed for good measure. The room slowed again, neither the acceleration nor the deceleration detectable. It alighted into one of the arched alcoves of the coliseum.

Remy looked around, and saw that the structure was bigger than he’d initially thought. Thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands, of other alcoves mirrored his enclosed room. He couldn’t be sure, because the structure his room rested in was so large that either end curved into darkness.

In every archway sat a sphere with a mirrored surface, at least on the lower levels of the coliseum. As he looked up, he saw that the upper levels had increasingly larger archways, all of which were empty. The ones approaching the top were so large he could not see their apexes. He could only see that there were seven of them.

Throughout the rapid descent, Sariel had stayed in her seat. Her body displayed perfect poise and her expression was one of absolute calm. Her eyes danced merrily, however, betraying her amusement. She knew that Remy wasn’t quite as composed as he appeared. The new god noticed her staring at his clenched fists. He relaxed his death grip and stared at her, daring her to make fun of him.

The amusement remained in her eyes, but she didn’t rise to the bait. Instead, the Ethereal turned in her chair and gestured with a delicate hand toward the dark center of the coliseum. A light began to flicker, quickly growing into a swirling sphere containing every color imaginable.

She spoke in a prophetic voice, “The time of Choosing has come.”

********************************

What up wonderful Mist Villagers!

I hope you're enjoying these early chapters lol

I plan on getting them to you every couple of days.

If you'd like to preorder God's Eye, you can do it here:

https://smile.amazon.com/Gods-Eye-Awakening-Labyrinth-World-ebook/dp/B08JJGYZJM

As always, please use Smile.amazon.com, instead of just amazon.com.  It's the same for you, but part of your purchase goes to a charity of your choice :)

And if you're up to help, trolls have already left fake reviews on Goodreads for God's Eye.  I messaged Goodreads and they said that even though it's obviously fake, they can't take any reviews down.  They said it was fine if my fans left honest reviews though to balance it out :)

So please take just one minute and leave a review on Goodreads if you've been enjoying the chapters!

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55740170-god-s-eye?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=C3hkN59UOr&rank=3#other_reviews

GNOMES RULE!

God's Eye Chapter 3!!! :)

CHAPTER 3

Remy did indeed. Without preamble he asked, “What is a Being of Power and why do you think I’m one?”

She nodded again, expecting the question, “Let me say first, you are no longer human. Or perhaps, it would be more accurate to say that you are no longer only human. You have been altered to occupy a higher State of Being. At the moment of your death on your home planet, your spirit was captured. After that, I do not know all that occurred, but I do know you have been implanted with a Seed of Power. This can trigger any number of possible evolutions, but it has turned you into a god.”

Going to put a pin in that, he thought. Let’s stay on topic. “What happened to my body?” Remy asked.

“Left to rot, I would assume,” Sariel said offhandedly. This matter was obviously of no consequence insofar as she was concerned.

She might have been able to brush it off, but that simple statement made Remy’s head spin. Part of him had still been thinking that maybe this was some sort of strange firing of synapses at the moment of his death. That this was just a time-dilated dream.

No.

He’d actually died, and his body had been eaten by the cats. He took a deep breath, then shrugged. He’d never understood the point of worrying. I died, but now I’m alive again, sort of. Might as well embrace my new reality. So he asked another question, “Who brought me here then? Who ‘altered’ me to a ‘higher state of being’?”

“Do you not remember?” she asked carefully.

Remy furrowed his brows. Had there been a giant face? A giant- Even that wisp of memory faded away. “No,” he replied, shaking his head. He knew that something had happened after he’d died and before he’d come here, but he couldn’t recall it now for the life of him.

“Then you are not meant to have that knowledge,” she told him definitively, a firm look on her aquamarine face. “Suffice it to say that you have been given another chance at life. Most importantly, you have been provided this opportunity with your consciousness intact.

“The souls of humans are only quasi-eternal. If you had not ascended, your spirit would have continued on in some fashion after your death on Earth. The specifics of ‘who’ you are, however, would have been lost. It is rare, especially on a mana-void world such as yours, to maintain your consciousness after death. The power that sent you here must have taken special care to preserve your personality.”

Sariel looked at him pointedly, until Remy responded, “So I should be grateful to whoever brought me here?” Before she could answer he continued, “I have learned not to put my faith in hidden organizations.” She started to frown, but then he added, “I have also learned to trust my instincts, however. No matter what group is behind my resurrection or whatever it is, I am grateful for your help, Sariel.”

The Ethereal’s face softened. She considered her words before speaking, “The unique powers and sensitivities of my race make us ideal for facilitating encounters such as this. I will not discuss such matters in detail, but I will share that I have met countless beings from millions of worlds. Few would be able to suffer the extreme trauma that death can inflict and still have the inner strength to remain true to who they are. Most beg, threaten or simply become unresponsive, unable to process their new reality.” She paused, gazing at him intently, “Seeing your strength, I can understand why you were chosen.”

Your ability to   bravely face the truth of your life after death has distinguished you from   the masses. This has once again   increased your relationship with Sariel. You have gained +450 Relationship Points.

Total Relationship Points with   Sariel: +750

Congratulations! Your relationship with Sariel  has improved from Pleased (+250) to Kind (+500). “It is my pleasure to help you!”

Remy was somewhat taken aback. He hadn’t been trying to sway her one way or another. It was especially strange because he knew that his emotions were being artificially suppressed. Was this a coincidence, or could the beings that sent him here possibly have foreseen this?

He was about to say something, but she suddenly waved her hand. A series of glyphs appeared in the air. They looked like a mix between Chinese characters and the digital numbers that appeared on calculators. After a moment, she waved her hand again and they disappeared.

“We do not have much more time,” she told him. “From what I understand, the majority of the people of your planet believe in one omnipotent and omniscient being that created the Universe. You call this being God. Though you have ascended to a higher State of Being and have evolved, you are nowhere near that state of existence. You are the lowest evolution of a godlike being, A Spirit Made Flesh.”

He nodded for her to go on.

“All gods have a nonphysical organ called a Divine Core. It will give you great power, but will not keep you safe, especially on this new world. Unlike Earth, Telos is not mana void.”

“Mana?” he asked. “You mean magic?”

The Ethereal heard the confusion in his voice. She stopped speaking for a moment, searching for the right words to explain it in a way that he could understand. “On your world you understand the concepts of magnetism and electricity, correct?”

After he nodded, she continued, “As a loose analogy, there exists a similar relationship between mana and magic. Magnetic fields, properly manipulated, can be used to generate electricity. Mana is similarly a natural phenomenon. Through various processes, it can be converted into magic. The reason no one on your world had been able to cast spells before the Labyrinth connected to it was not because they lacked ability, but because the mana levels of your world were so low that their bodies couldn’t use magic. Do you understand?”

Remy nodded slowly.

“The more mana a being can safely absorb, the stronger they become. They can increase in levels, gaining attribute and other points. They can increase in rank, something akin to what you call evolution. They can even increase in tiers, completely strengthening their State of Being.”

Seeing his confused expression, she spoke in an assuring voice, “This will all become clear. For now, what you need to know is that Telos has recently connected to the Labyrinth. Which means-”

“Which mean,” Remy interrupted grimly, remembering Earth, “there will be monsters.”

“And they will become stronger as time goes on and more mana flows from the Labyrinth into Telos. If you do not grow your strength as well, you will be consumed.”

The gravity of that moment dragged out for long seconds before Remy asked, “Why did you call Earth a ‘mana void’?”

Sariel coughed delicately, “There actually isn’t a true classification for planets such as yours. Mana void is a commonly used term. They are also called ‘Nulls’ or,” she couged again, “sad deserts. They all refer to areas that are so starved of mana that creatures within them have their growth and development stunted.”

“I was ‘stunted.’” Remy repeated slowly.

“Not just you,” Sariel chimed in quickly. From her tone, you could tell she was trying to help, albeit failing miserably, “Your whole race and every living thing on your planet. In fact, even the rocks and minerals of your planet were mana retarded.”

“Hmmm. Mhm. Mhmm.” Remy made a few neutral noises while nodding too fast and processing her words. Sariel had basically just said that the entire Earth was so lacking in mana that they had all grown up bowlegged and nearsighted.

Seeing his distraught expression, Sariel tried to cheer him up again, “You should actually be quite proud. Mana-retarded environments typically do not allow beings to advance to your level of civilization. The low energy nearly always leads to a lack of connection to the environments such beings dwell in. That in turn leads to what is typically viewed as a deviant and self-destructive behavior. That trait can make the denizens of such environments turn on their own families, let alone society at large. The few civilizations that do manage to survive and thrive in such atmospheres are classically so wantonly cruel and vicious that they are viewed as an infectious threat to other civilizations. As such, they are typically quarantined and sterilized.”

Remy blinked, trying to process what she’d just said.

“You, however, seem very nice and respectful,” she concluded with a bright smile. “If you are in any way representative of humans on your planet, then it seems your people beat the odds and survived without turning horribly cruel!”

Remy stared at her incredulously. The accurate and woefully predictive description she had for human history notwithstanding, he wasn’t about to admit that he was indeed from a society that fit her description. No matter how he felt about Earth, he certainly wasn’t about to tell a cosmic being that his former home should be “quarantined.” Sariel continued.

“Just as on Earth, your new world will change quickly now that it has been connected to the Labyrinth. Connecting always causes an influx of mana. Monsters and beasts native to the world will rapidly absorb it. Their levels and ranks will increase. The connection will also always cause cracks in the skin of reality, allowing monsters foreign to the world to force their way in. Given enough time, even higher tiered beings will appear. Your path will indeed be fraught with danger, but,” she said pointedly, raising one finger into the air, “all is not lost.”

“Unlike Earth, Telos is not a Null Planet. Though its mana levels have been low for millennia, it never fell to the depths of Earth. You, and the tribe you shall lead, will begin as Tier 0, Rank 0, Level 0 beings. The same shall be true of any enemies you encounter, and there shall be an even playing ground, at least at first. I have not told you all of this to discourage you, but to encourage you. You must solidify your position quickly and never stop pursuing your power.”

“And how do I get more power?”

“I cannot tell you specifically, but you must never forget: a god is always tied to his followers. You must advance not only your own power, but that of your people. It will be a balancing act, to increase both their power and your own. For even if you master whatever lands you settle in, if you remain a Tier 0 god, any Tier 2 or 3 being could render everything you hold dear to ash with just a snap of their fingers.”

Fighting on Earth had left a deep impression on Remy. He knew full well the hopelessness of struggling against a strong monster.

“Would I really be that helpless against a higher tiered monster?”

“There are no absolutes,” Sariel told him with a smile. “It’s the application of power that matters.”

“That’s something I can understand,” Remy said with a nod. “Of course, applying power requires a certain amount of intelligence and common sense, two things that I’ve never been able to take for granted in others. I’ve often wondered how humanity didn’t die out early. It seems like people have at best a fifty-fifty chance to make a smart decision.”

“Forty-two,” Sariel corrected definitively.

“What?”

“Forty-two,” she repeated. “Sapient beings only have a forty-two percent chance of making the right choice at any given moment. That particular question has been definitively answered.”

“Bu-. Bu-,” Remy tried to speak several times, but his mind was imploding with connections. “Are you saying…”

“We don’t have much more time. Heed my warning and increase your power quickly. You have leveled on Earth, so you understand the concept. You must not ignore your cultivation, however. This is how you progress your tier. Your first steps on that journey are called the Rainbow Path. It will require a great deal of time, but it must be done.”

“How long?” he asked.

“It could take a year or more to progress to the first tier.”

“I thought I was supposed to get strong as fast as possible. A year doesn’t sound fast. Isn’t there a better way?”

Sariel developed a coy smile, “It is good that you asked. I have always thought that those who do not seek the light of knowledge are doomed to die in the darkness of ignorance.” Her voice carried the hint of ritual, “As the worthy seek knowledge, so shall it be shared. There is indeed a faster way. On the very first day of claiming your first altar, a one-time price can be paid to take the first step on the Rainbow Path.”

After she finished speaking a prompt appeared.

You have been provided extra   knowledge due to having reached Relationship Rank 2, Kind, with Sariel.

You have unlocked Secret Knowledge: A god who can inspire dedicated belief within a tenday of   his arrival on Telos need only speak the words, “The worthy shall know,” to   take the first step down the Rainbow Path.

Relationship status for the win again. He was happy it was continuing to pay off, but he didn’t really understand it. Asking for clarification just earned him a mysterious smile. Changing tacks, he asked, “Are there any other shortcuts I should know about?”

She actually laughed this time, “I am positive that there are many ‘shortcuts,’ as you put it.” Her mocking gaze made it clear she wouldn’t be offering up information that easily, however, especially not after already giving him a leg up.

Remy shrugged unashamedly. Like his daddy said when he turned twelve, ‘Later in life you never remembered the times you looked foolish, but you always remembered the pussy you let get away.’ Put another way, shoot your shot and don’t get worked up if you got a ‘No.’

She waved her hand and the ubiquitous soft light in the room darkened. Between them the image of a solar system appeared. It was a yellow sun, and only one planet circled it. Except for the strange configuration of the continents, and the off-color blue of the water, it looked a great deal like Earth. White clouds floated lazily across the blue and green marble.

At first Remy thought there were countless moons circling it, but then he realized that what he was seeing looked more like motes of light. Also, while the planet was circling the sun and clouds were flowing across its surface, the motes remained in fixed points relative to the planet, like they were satellites in geosynchronous orbit.

“What are these?” Remy asked.

“These are connection points to the Lattice.” Sariel waved her hand again, and Remy’s breath caught, looking at the beauty of what she had just revealed.

A glistening, crystal-like web appeared around the solar system. It wasn’t flat, but instead radiated out in all directions. At each of the connections points of the web hung another solar system. In each, there might have been one planet or many, but one or more of the spheres in each system had the same glistening motes of light that he’d seen on Telos. Motes that he now knew were the ends of the strands that connected each world to the next.

Remy started trying to trace the connections, but Sariel waved her hand once more. The cosmic projection disappeared and the light in the room raised to previous levels, “You are not allowed to know the specifics of the Lattice. You may be told however, that the worlds of the Lattice are as varied as your dreams and nightmares. You may be told that each will pose different challenges, that they all possess untold power.” She looked at him meaningfully in a way he had come to know meant there was more to say about that topic. Sariel even cocked her head and looked at him from the corner of her eye. The message was simple: Get on with it, guy!

“Oh, right. Um, is there anything else I should know about these challenges, or, um, the Lattice?”

Sariel rolled her large beautiful blue eyes at that weak-ass attempt to learn more, but still responded with the formulaic response, “As the worthy seek knowledge, so shall it be shared. The solutions to problems on a specific world of the Lattice may not be found on that world. Do not be afraid to explore. Whoever controls the Lattice would be able to wield great and horrible power. They might just have the ability to decide the fate of us all.” Her words were almost apocalyptic in gravity. The two of them shared eye contact for several intense moments. The serious vibe quickly fled when she added, “You’re lucky I like you.”

You have been provided extra   knowledge due to having reached Relationship Rank 2, Kind, with Sariel.

The Lattice is the home of powerful beings, magics and items. If you wish to survive and prosper as a god, you will need to enter this realm and garner power as quickly as you can. I assure you other gods, demons and even more exotic beings of power will be doing the same. If you do not move quickly, you will not be able to match their power.”

Why was this sounding more and more like he was about to be in a battle royale… with gods and demons? Remy asked the logical question, “How do I get into the Lattice?”

“That will be made clear in time,” she responded cryptically. The Ethereal had been fairly forthcoming on other topics, so Remy was fairly sure her answer had been purposeful. Trying to gain more information on this particular point would be a waste of time.

Sariel was going to speak again, but the light in their nondescript room increased momentarily before shifting back to normal. It only happened once, but it was enough to trigger the next phase of Remy’s life. The Ethereal looked around, “The time of Choosing is almost here. Our time is coming to an end.”

The Ethereal held up one graceful blue hand like she was holding a platter. She spoke a word of power and a ring of mystic symbols encircled her fingers. In the blink of an eye, a black lacquered chest appeared on her upturned hand. It looked heavy, about the size of a large suitcase, but she bore the burden with ease. Dark grey swirls appeared and disappeared on its surface while Remy watched.

“Each new god and being of power will be sent to Telos with nothing more than a set of clothes appropriate to their new form. That has been decreed and decided by the cosmic forces. Some fortunate gods, however, have been...,” she stopped, looking for the right word, “sponsored.  Sponsors provide extra information and benefits. You have a sponsor and they have made two arrangements to help you. The first of which is the time we have spent together.” A wry smile grew on her face, “I hope you have found it useful.”

“The second,” she continued, “are the contents of this chest.”

Remy accepted it from her. The swirling box was slightly warm to the touch. It also felt like it weighed over a hundred pounds. He looked at Sariel’s deceptively frail form and realized just how much power it must contain if she had held the chest so casually with one hand. He was obviously curious about what was inside, but there was another answer he wanted more, “Who is my sponsor?”

Sariel paused as if she was listening to something he couldn’t hear, “I am not allowed to share that information if you do not already have such knowledge.”

“Why not?”

“Like every being in existence, no matter how powerful, I have laws I must abide by, and I would suffer consequences if I were to break those rules.” She smiled wryly, “I like you, but not that much, young immortal.”

You have been denied extra knowledge due to your   relationship with Sariel being of insufficient level.

Remy realized he had stumbled onto a semi-taboo subject. For a moment, he considered trying to increase his relationship with Sariel. The only problem was there wasn’t much time left. The Ethereal did give him some information without any further prompting.

“What you can know is that a great price was paid to furnish you with the contents of this chest. Even paying for my time was a small price in comparison.”

“How great a price?” he asked.

“You cannot measure such things in terms of currency. The best way for you to understand is that the energy sacrificed to provide these items would, at a minimum, be enough to destroy a sun. Whatever the contents are, I suggest you pay close attention to them, but nothing please remember that nothing material can be taken with you into Telos. If you are found attempting to do so, the consequences will be severe.”

Remy looked at her nonplussed. What exactly did “severe” mean? He probably didn’t want to find out. It couldn’t be great if he was dealing with beings that could destroy a damn sun. Before he could formulate a response, she stood up.

“Part of the arrangements made by your patron were that you be provided privacy while opening the chest. I will return prior to the Choosing.”

He stood as well, struggling a bit with the heavy weight of the chest. Setting it on the chair, he extended a hand. He spoke simply but with sincerity, “I don’t know a lot about what’s happening here, but I’ve been given another chance at life. Thank you for helping to make the transition easier, Sariel. I appreciate it.”

She smiled at him fondly. Hesitating for just a bit, she finally asked a question. “This new world will let you be whomever you choose to be. You can be a savior, a killer, a thief, or an emperor. What are you going to do in your new world?”

Remy looked at her, not sure how to respond. His entire past life had been a struggle between wanting to save the world and needing to indulge the anger inside him. It was why he’d done such terrible things in the name of the “greater good” and why he tried to save lives afterward. He’d always sought a balance he’d never obtained.

Sariel saw his struggle to answer and let it go. With a final smile, her body became insubstantial until she faded from view completely. Forgetting her question, he found himself smiling as well.

Lady knows how to make an exit.

Remy turned his attention back to the chest. Placing his hand on the lid, the random swirls of grey energy solidified into three distinct letters: “SGS.” Remy paused, his heart beating a bit faster. That message was one that had literally been beaten into him from an early age. Nodding, he pushed forward regardless of the warning he’d just received.

Opening the chest, there were five items inside sitting on a bed of velvet fabric. The first was a simple drawing. It was scrawled on run-of-the-mill printing paper and drawn in simple black ink. It looked like a starscape with three moons in the sky. Clouds occluded part of the view. In the center of the three moons an orange comet had been drawn.

The viewpoint was of someone might staring up at the night sky. Underneath was a simple word: “Jump.” There were two more lines of text under that. The second said, “Yes, really!” Then a third line that said in all capital letters, “JUMP OR DIE, BITCH!”

Remy turned it over, but there was nothing else. He even summoned a light and held it against the glare, looking for a secret message. Nothing.

Hmmm.

Didn’t really seem ‘destroy a sun’ worthy. Just seemed weird. Remy looked at the paper closely, turning it over in his hands, but there was nothing on the other side. He couldn’t detect anything else about it. Even smelling it revealed nothing. He put the inane object to the side.

The second item was a sphere about the size of a tennis ball. It was made of a bright red metal, the color of a cardinal. The whole surface was covered in runes or some type of script. The engravings glowed a soft orange. Picking it up, a prompt appeared in his vision.

You   have found a Quest Orb

Another prompt came right after.  This time, the lettering looking as if it was handwritten.

PS – Sorry about the pain. Unavoidable side effect of smuggling this   quest to you.

Pain?

Before he could do anything else, the light from the script flared and another window appeared.  Right after, an ice pick stabbed his mind taint and almost made him black out. It took several seconds for the pain to pass, and until then he couldn’t even think about focusing on the prompt. When he did though, he read it twice, especially the threat at the end.

WTF!

*******************

What up wonderful Mist Villagers! 

I hope you're enjoying these early chapters lol

I plan on getting them to you every couple of days.  

If you'd like to preorder God's Eye, you can do it here:

https://smile.amazon.com/Gods-Eye-Awakening-Labyrinth-World-ebook/dp/B08JJGYZJM

As always, please use Smile.amazon.com, instead of just amazon.com.  It's the same for you, but part of your purchase goes to a charity of your choice :)

And if you're up to help, trolls have already left fake reviews on Goodreads for God's Eye.  I messaged Goodreads and they said that even though it's obviously fake, they can't take any reviews down.  They said it was fine if my fans left honest reviews though to balance it out :)

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GNOMES RULE!

Chapter 2 God's Eye!!!

CHAPTER 2

Welcome, creature of Chaos! You will soon enter the world of Telos!

This is an old world that is on the cusp of a new   beginning. The Cataclysm that   destroyed its civilizations, plunged it into anarchy and laid low its old   gods has passed from regret, to myth, to legend, and now almost beyond any   memory. Be warned; forgotten or not,   the sins of the past will always haunt both the present and the future. As is always true of Labyrinth worlds,   however, danger and reward are close bedfellows.

Wait, what? Remy thought to himself. He’d been eaten by the giant face and now he was here, wherever here was. All he could see was an unrelieved blackness and the words that scrolled across his vision. Did the prompt just call him a “creature of Chaos?” He had a vague memory of someone else calling him a god, but as he reached for the memory, it dissipated like smoke in the night. More words blazed across his gaze.

Ages past, the Lattice, a unique   and interconnected series of worlds and realities, was consumed by the Labyrinth. For immeasurable time the mana of the   Labyrinth has flooded the Lattice, sinking ever deeper into it, until finally   reaching the jewel at its center. This   jewel is the world of Telos.

Dungeons have now appeared across the face of the   planet. Locations of magic are   reawakening as the ambient mana levels of this world increase. Like water on dry sand, the first drops of   magic may be quickly absorbed, but in a short time this world shall create a   magic system both akin to all Labyrinth worlds and unique unto itself.

At this pivotal time, you are one of an unknown   number of creatures that have been seeded with Power. Demons, monsters, gods and more shall vie   for survival in this new world. Each   Being of Power shall have their own strengths and weaknesses.

You are a god!

A great number of rudimentary tribes have been   brought to this new and dangerous world. They call out for aid!

Your first task as a Tier 0 deity is to choose a   people to worship you. As you have a Sponsor,   you have been granted a short amount of time in which to prepare. Your primary senses will now be   restored. You may customize this space   to ease your transition into this new phase of being.

And just like that, Remy could see, hear and touch again. He took for granted that taste was back as well, but he couldn’t smell anything. He stood in a featureless white room with curved walls. There were no doors or furniture. After pinching his skin and confirming that he once again physically existed, he checked the walls. Minutes later, he came to three conclusions:

One, it looked like he’d been reincarnated into the same body he’d had before.

Two, he was in an empty white room.

Three, it’d be nice to have a place to sit.

No sooner had that thought occurred to him than a short white stool appeared. It didn’t slowly morph into existence. One moment the room was empty, the next, it was there.

Remy frowned at it. It was about two feet tall and had three legs. Just your average wooden stool. Not exactly comfy, he noticed. That thought triggered another change, and it became a plush recliner. It even had a console on one arm for shiatsu. Just like the stool, the entire thing was pure white. He tried to change the color with his mind, and the leather turned a rich chocolate color.

After poking it a couple times, he sat down and turned on the massage function. A slight buzz filled the air and pure pleasure spread through his naked body. He let out a faint croon of pleasure. This was amazing.

As he lay there in his birthday suit, he thought back on how crazy everything was. He’d died and been brought back to life. Now he was in a sterile lab environment, and he could manifest his thoughts. A normal reaction would be to freak out about all of this, but Remy had never been normal. There was a reason he’d gained the nickname Zero. When most people panicked, he stayed calm. It wasn’t that he had nerves of steel, it was just that he gave zero fucks.

He enjoyed the massage a bit longer before standing up and turning the chair off. Pursing his mouth, he thought about his situation. If nothing else, it was always a good idea to gather information. Testing out his new “power,” he summoned a mirror and examined himself.

The most obvious thing was that he was completely naked. He’d noticed that before, but after coming back from the dead, it just hadn’t seemed like a big priority. The lack of temperature, either hot or cold, had made it even easier to ignore. Looking in the mirror now though, he checked to make sure his oldest friend had made it through his reincarnation without injury. That act made him chuckle as he remembered a talk with an old ICU nurse.

She’d told him that after thirty years in the long-term recovery wing, she’d seen a great number of men and women wake up from comas. With a dismissive shake of her head, she’d then told him that every time a woman woke up, the patient would immediately ask if her husband and children were okay. A woman’s first thoughts were of the well-being of their loved ones. Every single man who woke up though, the first thing they did was frantically reach down to grab their package and make sure it was still there. That was usually followed by a huge sigh of relief, asking for some water, and maybe then asking about their loved ones.

Remy had always thought that story was a bit ridiculous, but now, seeing that the monster was still home and hanging, he understood the profound relief those men had felt. He chuckled again but the levity quickly fled. Thinking about that old nurse had triggered another memory, this one about his favorite nephew. Other than his sister, the brilliant boy had been one of his last living family even before the Forsaking.

James had been a medical student with a bright future, but sadly he had also been one of the first victims of The Land Effect. To the government, he’d been just one of millions of lost souls. To Remy, it had been like losing a son. James had even followed in his footsteps, pursuing a career in medicine, but all of that had been lost when the boy slipped into a coma.

The only comforting thought was that his nephew’s condition had kept him from experiencing the monster-infested hell that Earth had become after the Forsaking. The boy was probably dead now, but at least he’d been spared the horrors the rest of the human race had lived through. Remy shook himself free of such dark thoughts and examined the rest of his body.

He didn’t look any different. He had the same dark brown skin bedecked with an unhealthy number of scars thanks to his years of military service. His eyes were what many women had thought to be a distracting shade of hazel, something he’d taken advantage of as often as he humanly could. He was only lacking the eyeglasses that he’d gained from years of studying in med school and residency.

His eyes sat above a crooked nose, broken and reset one too many times, full lips, and a strong jaw. His hair was in the simple fade style he always sported, short cut, thick and black. He had the same six feet of height he’d had back on Earth, and even the osteochondroma in his left knee was still there.

Seeing that everything essential was where it should be, he thought about some clothes. Just like with the stool, they immediately phased into existence. Without having to move, he was suddenly wearing a perfectly snug pair of boxer briefs, some perfectly broken-in jeans and a two-hundred-wash-softened t-shirt.

The clothes weren’t random. They were exactly what he’d been imagining. His favorite outfit. The shirt had originally been black, but long ago it had faded to its current dark mist-grey. A faded three-stripe Atari symbol could barely be made out on the chest. It even had the same stains and small rips. There was something comforting about being in these clothes, and another faint smile graced his face.

Clothing and shelter were taken care of and he didn’t have any hunger or thirst, so he decided to sit back down in the recliner chair. The shiatsu turned back on. Oh god, he thought, shutting his eyes in bliss. This feels like heaven.

That thought made his eyes pop back open. Is this heaven? A white room where you could summon anything you thought about? Could be worse, he realized. Closing his eyes again, his fingers wandered over to the control console. Using his imagination, he created a “young Betty White” option. The sensation of the massage changed in a wonderful way. Oh god, he thought, just how I always imagined it.

He didn’t know how long that went on, but after a time he heard a distinctly feminine voice greet him.

“Hello.”

He opened his eyes, but didn’t see anyone. A lesser man might have looked around wildly and shouted, ‘Who said that?’ but he was Zero. Besides, he’d always prided himself on being a bit less on the nose. He’d already been reborn in a weird white room, been given the power of transmogrification (thank you DnD vocabulary) and in the past hour had felt the wonderfully dry fingers of all four Golden Girls on his body at once. Compared to all of that, a disembodied voice was some JV stuff. A disembodied, sexy voice wanted to talk to him? Sure, why not?

That was why instead of freaking out he stood up, dismissed the recliner, and summoned a table and a pair of comfy high-backed chairs. A pitcher of sweet tea and two glasses appeared as well.  There were even beads of cool condensation slowly creeping down the outside of the glass jug. That done, he pulled out one of the chairs and asked, “Will you join me, please?” in a respectful tone. As his granny had always told him, ‘Manners cost nothing.’

There was a pause, then a shimmer appeared in the air. It solidified into a woman garbed in diaphanous blue silk. It was so sheer that it hid nothing, but this was not what immediately captured Remy’s attention. It was that her skin was the pale blue of a spring morning. That, and she was about eight feet tall.

Her body was thin with no curves to speak of and her arms and legs were overly long. Despite that, she possessed an inhuman grace as she walked. The supple giant met his gaze with her own sea-green pupils as she effortlessly settled back into the chair he had created for her.

Remy helped move her chair in and sat across from her. She looked at him and the tea inquisitively, so he poured a glass for them both. With a delicate hand, she picked it up and brought it to her mouth. Rather than drink though, a long white tongue extended past her lips, and she lapped some of the tea from the top of the glass. A look of surprised delight crossed her face. She finally raised it to her mouth and took a full drink.

A strange sound emanated from her chest, half purr and half the trill of a bird. “Thank you,” her voice chimed. Her words had the faintest of echoes even though she sat right across from him. “Few Beings of Power show respect and consideration for any creature other than themselves. Such efforts do not go unnoticed. You may call me Sariel. I am an Ethereal.”

Your polite   invitation and welcome has impressed Sariel and   distinguished you from other “Beings of Power.” You have gained +300 Relationship Points. Total Relationship Points with Sariel: +300

Congratulations! Your relationship with Sariel has improved from Neutral   (0) to Pleased (+250). “I am pleased   to see you.”

Despite his decision to just “roll with it,” the appearance of an eight-foot-tall alien supermodel had definitely thrown Remy off his game. He just stared back for a few seconds before shaking himself slightly and coming back to the moment. He collected himself enough to say, “Pleasure to make your acquaintance.” He leaned forward and extended his hand.

Sariel smiled faintly, amused at the quaintness of his human custom, but still extended her hand as well. As he took it in his own, he marveled at the smooth coolness of her skin, like whipped cream fresh out of the fridge. After they had both settled back into their chairs, he started to introduce himself, but she held up a hand.

“I am-”

“You should never speak your True Name again. Those with enough power and the proper magics could use that information to cause you great harm. You will need to choose a new name to be called by.” She paused a moment and took another sip of tea.

She made the same trill-purr noise and closed her anime-large eyes in pleasure before speaking again, “You should know that I was not required to tell you to guard your True Name, but you, and this marvelous drink from your memory, have pleased me.

You have been provided extra   knowledge due to having  reached Relationship Rank 1, Pleased,   with Sariel.

Remy thought over what she had said. The whole “True Name” thing sounded strange, but only when you didn’t take into account that you’d just been reborn and were talking to the opera singer from the 5thElement. He decided to take her advice about keeping his name close to his chest.

He also sent a silent thank you to Granny for teaching him the secret of true sweet tea. Anyone that thought you just added sugar was failing an intelligence test as far as he was concerned. He was also grateful that he’d taken the time to greet Sariel properly. In any world, knowledge was power.

He’d become familiar with the importance of “relationships” since Earth had been connected to the Labyrinth. In his opinion, this had been one of the weirdest things that had happened: being informed of when people did or did not like you. Reaching certain relationship levels also triggered certain events or behaviors. It was almost like a self-reinforcing prophecy. Having a pleased rank relationship with Sariel meant she was actually pleased to see him.

Of course, you couldn’t follow the rankings blindly. It didn’t tell you about the person’s character. It was just an indication of how people felt about you. Even if you reached a “Friendship” level with someone, if that person was a no-good, untrustworthy bastard, they’d be the type of person to betray you no matter what relationship rank you reached. That phrase, “he’d sell out his own mama” was actually true for some people, so a relationship rank did not mean you were safe from treachery. Everyone had their own nature, after all.

The men and women he’d led to the bunker had reached the eighth relationship rank with him, Trusted. That was why they had followed his directions almost without question. His mood darkened somewhat at remembering how many of the people who had trusted him had died, but the feeling quickly passed. Those men and women were just the latest in a long line of bodies he’d left behind.

Remy turned his attention back to his new life. Namely, that his improved relationship with Sariel had already shown dividends. She had shared info that she normally wouldn’t have. Information was worth more than gold.

Seeing as how sweet tea and a smile had earned him some points, he figured he might as well really pour it on. After all, you can never have too much butter on bread. At least, that was what his uncle always said.

“Thank you very much for the information, miss,” he responded with a pleasant tone. “I will wait a bit before deciding on a new name if that’s alright.”

She gracefully nodded her head, “Of course. Part of my purpose is to tell you of your new world and to provide you with the opportunity to ask questions. I make no guarantees that I can or will answer, however. Knowing that, do you have any questions before we begin?”

*******************

What up wonderful Mist Villagers!

I hope you're enjoying these early chapters lol

I plan on getting them to you every couple of days.

If you'd like to preorder God's Eye, you can do it here:

https://smile.amazon.com/Gods-Eye-Awakening-Labyrinth-World-ebook/dp/B08JJGYZJM

As always, please use Smile.amazon.com, instead of just amazon.com.  It's the same for you, but part of your purchase goes to a charity of your choice :)

And if you're up to help, trolls have already left fake reviews on Goodreads for God's Eye.  I messaged Goodreads and they said that even though it's obviously fake, they can't take any reviews down.  They said it was fine if my fans left honest reviews though to balance it out :)

So please take just one minute and leave a review on Goodreads if you've been enjoying the chapters! 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55740170-god-s-eye?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=C3hkN59UOr&rank=3#other_reviews

GNOMES RULE!

Win a FREE hoodie and signed copy of God's Eye!

I'm giving away 5 FREE hoodies and signed copies of God's Eye!  Don't wait though, the contest ends tomorrow!

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GNOMES RULE!

God's Eye: Prologue and Chapter 1!

Hello wonderful patrons!  I can't wait for you to read and enjoy God's Eye.  I'm sure you'll love it and her is an early taste.  More Chapters to come :)

********************************

Prologue

617,827,053 breaths.

That was the original measurement of Remington’s life.

At the time of his birth, the Fates of the Skein had determined exactly how much time he would be allotted and what he would do with it. His would be a life of honorable achievement. Of sadness, true, but of far more joy. Of children and warm hearths, and finally, after a life well spent, he would be gifted with a dignified death.

It was true that predicting the weave of Fate’s strings was harder on Earth due to the Chaos in every Earthling. Still, the predictions of Fate could be relied upon. For even in a system of the greatest Order, there is the possibility of Chaos, and even in a world of pure Chaos, Order can be found.

Put another way, Fate’s plans went FUBAR when a bolt of pure Higher Energy struck the world. The Wyrd Skein was torn asunder, and the three immortal sisters found their own fates to be at risk. In the days following the Forsaking when the sky turned a roiling grey, some lived that should have died, and many, many more died that should have lived.

Threads were cut short, and countless new threads were woven into the story of Earth. No being, no matter how powerful, could now predict the future of the planet. The destinies of billions were set free to float on the winds of Change and Chance. One such soul was now running for his life.

***

Screams filled the night and the sour tang of vomit filled the air. Remy’s heart beat harder than ever before. Though neither he nor any other being could know, he was gasping the final breaths of his tragically shortened life.

107 breaths remaining.

Remy stood at the door of the bunker, looking out into the night. It had been a long run out of the city and then through the forest. Sweat was running down his face and plastering his shirt to his back.  He didn’t even notice. His heart was thudding hard enough to cause physical pain. Even that didn’t capture his attention though. All he was thinking about were the living and the dead.

Two hundred and fifty-nine of them had fled the city. Every one of those hundreds of souls had agreed to run to the dubious safety of this old army bunker. Only sixty-eight remained. Fifty-five had made it into the fortified structure that would hopefully be their new home and salvation. Twelve more prayed to any deity that would listen while they tried to make it to the fortified door. One stood at the threshold.

Remy stood in the doorway, one hand braced against its frame, and bellowed, “Run! Run! They’re coming after you!”

105 breaths remaining.

The only answer was the agonized scream of a woman. Sara was an overweight suburban mom that had managed to survive when so many others had died. You wouldn’t have thought she would make it through the last days of hell on Earth, but she had discovered a strong will to live. Where others had succumbed, she had fought tooth and nail to survive. She had gained the respect of everyone in the group. Within eyesight of safety, however, her story came to an end.

A mutated cat, black with red claws, jumped out of the darkness. It was no mere housecat. It had the size and physique of a mountain lion and easily bore her screaming figure to the ground. The two rolled in a violent struggle, but there was no doubt as to the outcome. Within the first few seconds, Sara’s red blood splattered in broad arcs across the grass. In the twilight it looked black. The shadow cat gouged, bit, and clawed while she screamed and begged for mercy.

Remy watched with a tight jaw, but did not leave the safety of the doorway. When a group of people survived days of death and hopelessness, they could form bonds strong enough to last a lifetime. Her screams for help echoed through the night, but not one of the other eleven slowed down or even looked back.

No one was coming to help her.

In this new world, no paltry bond of friendship would protect you when monsters prowled. Misplaced mercy would kill you as quickly as a fang or claw.

They weren’t men and women of the Western Confederation any more. Nations, gender, and race no longer mattered. Idealism was for fools. Most idealists had died out in the first few days of monster attacks. Those that survived lived only to feel those soft feelings crushed by the weight of reality. They were all Forsaken now. All that mattered was survival.

Instead of stopping or helping, they just used her agonized screams as motivation to run faster. Their legs pumped like pistons. They all heard the yowling screeches of more monsters closing in. When given a choice between heeding the threatening roars of monsters or the begging of a woman who was already almost dead, the answer was obvious. The most kindhearted of the eleven just wished her a quick death. The more pragmatic of them hoped that she suffered as long as possible. Her screams might distract some of the monsters and provide the rest of them with precious time.

Remy watched as the woman went down, as more blood sprayed across the ground, as Sara continued to fight, frantically pushing at the partially insubstantial body of the shadow cat. Her efforts accomplished nothing. The only reason she was still alive was because the monster hadn’t gone for the kill yet. Mutated or not, the beast still had the personality of a cat. It was playing with its food.

The dark skin on Remy’s face stretched as his jaw clenched even tighter. Still, he didn’t leave the doorway. He knew the same thing the remaining eleven runners did. She was already dead. Her body just hadn’t caught up to that fact yet. Instead, he looked at the men and women he could still save. Remy’s eyes locked onto the man lagging the farthest behind. Jay was a father, a good man. He was the kind of guy you would be lucky to have at your back. The only reason he was lagging behind was that he held his little boy in his arms. Even at fifty paces, Remy could see the whites of the man’s fear-swollen eyes.

100 breaths remaining.

Remy shouted for him to run faster, but it was obvious Jay was at the end of his stamina. He was falling farther behind the others with every second. Exhaustion was putting lie to the belief that parents could do anything to save their children. The monsters crooned in excitement at seeing a weak member struggle and fall behind the herd. The sound deepened Jay's fear into terror. Froth appeared at the corner of his lips, and his son sobbed into his chest.

I can’t look back! I can’t let go! Those two thoughts were on repeat in Jay’s mind as he gripped his small son to his chest. Don’t look back. Don’t let go. Don’t look back. Don’t let go!

With fell, inevitable cruelty, two shadow cats emerged from the darkness and leaped. Their combined weight easily overwhelmed Jay and drove his body to the ground. One swipe of red talons opened up three jagged wounds in his back. His back arched and he shrieked in agony.

Most people would be surprised that such a large man would make such a high-pitched sound. Remy was not. He’d seen hardened soldiers cry for their mothers as they bled out far from home. To him, there was neither surprise nor shame. Everyone went out in their own way. In the end, it just didn’t matter. Dead was dead.

In Jay’s pain-addled state, he lost his grip on his son. The second cat sank its teeth deep into the boy’s shoulder. The three-year-old cried out in pain and fear. He screamed for his father, the invincible figure that had always kept him safe. He screamed it over and over while the shadow beast mauled him. The only blessing was that the cries did not last long. He died still believing he would be saved. Jay howled, “No!” as the last member of his family was literally ripped from his arms.

The last sight Jay had was another shadow cat clamping its jaws over his son’s face before jerking its head to the side. The small body twitched spasmodically after the neck snapped. A foul scent revealed the child had soiled his pants.

The world of the Forsaken showed the full extent of its mercy in that the father’s throat was ripped out before he saw his son being eaten piece by bloody piece. As their blood spilled out on the grassy field, the last vestige of their bloodline disappeared forever.

95 breaths remaining.

Damn you, Remy thought. His fingers gripped the doorway so hard his knuckles turned white. Yet still he remained in the bunker. He couldn’t help either of them, and he wouldn’t waste the life left in him for nothing. They were Forsaken, and the weak would die sooner or later. Instead, he shouted once more for the survivors to run faster.

Remy’s eyes flashed upward in a particular way. His HUD phased into existence, and he examined the three bars in the upper left corner. They were the same length and were each a different color: red, blue and green. He grunted, seeing the purple corruption infesting the red line. It was what he’d expected, but it still sickened him. Breathing out, he focused on the full green and blue bars. They would have to do.

He turned his focus back to the men and women running for their lives. In the back of his mind, he reflected on the insanity of the world he was living in. Everything had changed when that “heads-up display” or “interface” had appeared in the vision of each person on Earth. It was the same moment they were all notified that their world was now connected to the Labyrinth, whatever that was.

Since then, people had come to accept that if they let their eyes unfocus, they could pull up their very own video game interface. They had also figured out that it could give them information and even make them stronger. Some had gained significant powers. The “Able.” That was what people had started calling the minority of the human race that had been granted an ability during the Forsaking.

Remy was one of those precious few. His ability was only second rank, uncommon, far from the nearly superhero capabilities that others had gained. Still, it had let him teach a few survivors to develop their own skills, attacks and defenses. Being “Able” had played no small part in making him the de facto leader of this group, even though that thought seemed like a cruel joke. What kind of leader lost nearly eighty percent of his people?

Dark figures continued to materialize out of the night, each a monster capable of killing a full grown man in single combat. They gave chase while the survivors sprinted for their lives. A teenage boy was the next to fall. His screams were bloodcurdling as two of the cat monsters sliced through his Achilles. The boy’s shrieks only grew in pitch and volume as he was dragged off into the night. Remy realized he didn’t even remember the kid’s name.

The next to go was a father who chose to spend his life to save his family. He knew what was about to happen to him, but still he bought his wife and daughter precious seconds. The little girl was peeking over her mother’s shoulder, and watched her father turn to face the monsters. She reached her small hand backward and screamed “Daddy!” but her mother held tightly on to her squirming body. The woman’s heart was breaking, but still she sprinted for the safety of the bunker door.

The nail-studded bat the father held glowed red for just a moment as he activated Sweeping Blow. The weapon moved almost on its own. The speed with which it cut through the air was far faster than the man should have been able to manage. More, it struck not one but three cat monsters all at once. The trio of monsters were knocked backward, rolling back along the ground. Sadly, the special attack was not without its price.

The man’s stamina was already low from running; the special attack bottomed it out. The father fell to his hands and knees, gasping. It felt like he’d sprinted uphill in a Georgia summer. He could barely focus. The edges of his vision blackened.

Another cat approached him cautiously. It sniffed and circled his body to see if he would attack again. The man glared at it, but could do nothing more than heave labored breaths. Seconds later, it sprung onto his back and sank its fangs into his neck. A strangled huff mixed with his ragged breathing. More blood spilled onto the ground. A wheezing groan came out and he collapsed to the ground. Seconds later, four more cats latched on, eating him alive. In his last seconds, the brave man lost all semblance of courage. His cries filled the air. He screamed for his mother as he pissed himself.

Remington just nodded at the man’s passing and picked up his gun. It was almost time.

81 breaths remaining.

Remy had made a promise to get these people to safety. He wasn’t a fool and wouldn’t waste his life if he couldn’t help, but he was no coward. It could easily be argued that he had done enough getting any of them to the bunker. God knows it hadn’t been easy, and there had been sacrifices. Even though he would not waste his life on a hopeless cause, it didn’t mean he wouldn’t spit in Fate’s eye if he found a worthy one. He saw just such a cause in the pleading eyes of the mother running toward him. Saving a woman and her child was a good thing to buy with the life he had left.

He’d left men and women to die before. Just like he’d watched Sara and Jay die, he could see the big picture and act accordingly. Making difficult decisions did not weigh him down like it did so many others. That didn’t mean he had no heart, contrary to what many in his life had thought. Instead, it meant that his heart was just harder and rougher than others. He was willing to bear pains that others were not. If he thought there was no hope for the people running, he would have already shut the door. Point in fact, Remy had two distinct reasons for leaving the safety of the shelter.

One, he was sure that he could help at least some of the runners make it. More accurately, he was sure he could improve their chances. That fact made it easier to focus on the task at hand. It wasn’t that he couldn’t feel fear or doubt. Those emotions just didn’t stop him from anything he decided needed to be done. He’d learned long ago that pain was a lesser burden than regret. Remington had sworn to help these people. He would try to fulfill that promise if he could, even if it meant risking his life.

Two, he hadn’t made it through the last several days unscathed. There had been a personal cost to getting his group to the bunker. A bite from a small mutated insect, like a small flying ant with a scorpion’s tail, had done him more damage than any monster. After everything he had lived through, before and after the Forsaking, the thought that a bug bite was going to do him in had made him chuckle more than once. Not a bullet. Not a bomb. A bug bite. He’d climbed over the bodies of his comrades, swum through rivers turned red with blood, and in the end it was shitting on an anthill that was going to do him in.

In the past few days, the bite had grown from a small red nodule to a golf ball-sized hole in his side. The edges were black and necrotic. Tendrils of infection spread out from the wound. The contamination reached across his chest and down his leg. He’d held some hope that the bunker might have antibiotics, but in the last day he’d come to realize that a shot of penicillin was not going to kill whatever organism was eating him alive. Better to make his last days count for something.

Gripping his rifle, he took a step out of the bunker. Before he could take a second, a hand grabbed his coat sleeve. Looking back, he met his sister’s eyes.

“What are you going to do?” she asked, already knowing the answer.

She asked the question in a tone that was half accusation and half begging. It held a pleading intensity that was reflected in her fevered eyes. Her face was also wan from blood loss and fever. She had lost three fingers in an attack five days ago. Now the entire limb was fire-engine red and the stumps were black. She didn’t say anything else, but the plea in her rheumy eyes was obvious. Don’t leave me, they said. For once, don’t try and be the hero. Don’t risk your life. Let them die.

The look in his own eyes was all the answer she needed. Love, apology, and steely resolve. Maybe if he was the hero she thought he was, he would have stayed. What she did not know was that he had killed more people than any of these monsters. He had sent countless more to their deaths. Again and again, he had made difficult, blood-drenched choices that men and women of conscience would balk at. He had committed atrocities for his Federation, for his people, for his government.

He was no hero.

That was why his government had always called on him. He was the one who would always look at the bigger picture and then just wash the blood from his hands when he was done. Now, however, there was no bigger picture. There was just a child he could help with the life he had left. Preserving decades of potential in exchange for the few pain-filled days he had left was a good deal, plain and simple.

Seeing the steel in his eyes, his sister let go of his arm, tears already beginning to fall. He didn’t waste time or breath on more words. Instead, he took that second step out of the bunker and raised the rifle to his shoulder. Focusing, he poured his will into the weapon and brought the stock up to his cheek. A now-familiar overlay appeared in his vision as he accessed his Sure Shot skill. Reticles appeared over each enemy in his view and greatly increased his accuracy.

With a second exertion of will, each bullet in the rifle was infused with gold-white light. He had no idea how it worked but, thanks to a skill, he could pour “mana” into each bullet. It made his shots hit harder. That was necessary because the monsters and invaders seemed to be able to shrug off normal bullets. In the past few days, Remy had had plenty of time to shake his head at the insanity of these new “natural laws.” All he cared about in that moment though was bringing the pain.

Activating his skills took barely any time at all. In fact, it was done by the time he took his fourth step away from the bunker. Despite his speed, he’d unknowingly just spent a major portion of the life he had left.

69 breaths remaining.

After triggering Ammo of Light, his mana had plummeted by more than half. It gave him a headache, but Remy pushed it aside. His focus was on the enemy and the innocents. The former soldier sighted through the ACOG scope and squeezed, never pulled, the trigger. Three rounds shot from the end of the barrel in a second. Each tore through the air, trailing white light. All three exploded into the body of one of the cats.

Fifty yards away the bullets entered the monster, the kinetic damage amplified by Remy’s use of Light mana. He didn’t know it, but the cat was at least partially a Dark creature. The opposing nature of his attack greatly magnified the damage. Three grievous wounds appeared in its body. It dropped to the ground, dead. Remy had already sighted on another and three more white tracers filled the night.

With his increased accuracy and damage, the closest members of the pack were soon dispatched, giving his people precious seconds. Even as he replaced the mag in his AR-17, his breath came in heavy gasps. Sure Shot increased the likelihood that he hit his target, something absolutely necessary with the agile cats, but it drained his stamina every second he used it. His mana had also bottomed out when he used Ammo of Light on the second mag. The magic depletion brought on a splitting headache that made it harder to think. When he fired again the bullets glowed, but didn’t have the white tracing of magic. He just hadn’t been able to put as much mana into the second round. Because of that, the bullets did considerably less damage. It didn’t matter to Remy. He kept firing.

57 breaths remaining.

Under his cover fire, survivors made it into the bunker, including the mother and her child. The woman had actually increased her pace somehow and made it to the bunker ahead of some of the others. Seeing her run past him had brought a smile to his lips. The whole time he never stopped firing, advancing all the while.

When the last living member of his group finally ran by, hope surged in his breast. It was another suburban mom, Jenny. She was still wearing the ripped and filthy designer track suit she’d had on when the world ended. At some point the rhinestones on her bottom had probably spelled “PINK,” but now it just read “IN.”

Jenny had clearly been a Buckhead Betty, one of the young trophy wives who looked down on Publix and only shopped at Whole Foods or the farmer’s market. Now though, her cheeks were sunken and her face was gaunt from weeks of near-starvation. Sweat drenched her body and made her skin shine in the fading light. She looked him in the eye as she passed, her gaze filled with both fear and gratitude. Remy just nodded, keeping his rifle trained on the cats that were coming ever closer.

“Keep going!” he shouted, while he started backing up. “I’ll hold them back.”

“Thank you,” she cried. It was more sobbing gasp than pronounced words, but she did as she was told.

Remy kept firing as he retreated. His eyes were on a swivel, trying to keep track of the shadowy bodies of the predator cats. Not an easy task as they all but disappeared when they stepped into shadows. When his mag ran dry, the monsters slowed to an aggressive stalk. They all glared at him malevolently but didn’t rush forward.

He kept his gun raised but didn’t fire. This was his last mag, and he didn’t have any mana to use his skill again. Remy had managed to kill more than ten of the monsters, but they just stepped over their fallen without a glance. The man pointed his gun at one of them, then another, hoping they were smart enough to be afraid but not smart enough to know that his stamina and mana were almost at zero.

39 breaths remaining.

For a moment, he allowed himself to think that everything would be okay. That his foolish gamble would pay off and he would make it safely back to the bunker having saved some lives. That was when he heard the scream. Risking a look behind him, he saw Jenny lying in a pool of her own blood. Two cats had circled around behind him and caught her before she could make it to safety. He looked past the duo now feasting on the woman’s flesh and saw more shadow cats running toward the entrance to the fortified structure only thirty yards away.

Remy looked past Jenny’s mutilated body and locked eyes with his sister. She was still standing in the doorway, her one good hand on the knob. She silently begged him to somehow run faster than the bounding cats. To make it back to safety and to not leave her. He gave her the smallest shake of his head, and his face communicated a simple request.

Close the door.

22 breaths remaining.

Her heart broke, but they had both been raised by the same strong woman. Neither was afraid to face the truth, and neither shied from difficult tasks. With a fractured cry, she slammed the heavy door shut and threw the bolt just in time. One of the shadow cats threw its body against the door so hard that it fractured its spinal column. The impact made a bone-cracking crunch.

The other monstrous cats immediately began scratching at the wood. Their claws gouged deep furrows in the door, but only the outer door was made of oak. The inner door was solid steel. She closed that as well, and locked it seconds after the first. The only light was the faint red from the hazard bulbs. In near darkness, she stared at the chrome metal door as if trying to see through it. Trying to let her brother know that he wasn’t alone even though he was. A thick strand of spider silk drifted down and caressed her tear-streaked face. After yanking it away in shock and disgust, she noticed there were a good number of webs farther down the corridor, still thick even after everyone had walked down it.

Outside, a low-pitched growl made Remy snap his head forward again. He had only looked away for a second, but some of the cats stalking him had covered more than half the distance between them. They weren’t slowing down. After having been through so many life-and-death struggles, he knew what was about to happen. He’d survived more times than he could count, but this time something inside him knew that there would be no escape. As the end of his journey raced toward him, he realized, with a slight bit of shock, that in addition to the adrenaline, pain and a wisp of fear, what he felt most was… free.

Soon, he could let go of his chained rage, his impotent fury at trying to make an ever-worsening world a better place. Soon, the clogged poison in his soul would weep, and he wouldn’t have to worry about fitting into society, about being a “good” person, about keeping the monster inside him at bay. His entire life, he’d struggled against the violence and anger that always seemed to be right below the surface. He’d joined the military to channel his impulses. He’d been recruited by the Organization to release them.

He had tried to balance out the lives he took after leaving the service. He’d gone into medicine to square his cosmic debt, though, truth be told, it was more to humor his mother than anything else. As it turned out, even in the hospital he couldn’t run from what he was. He’d been drawn to blood and trauma, once again making dispassionate decisions that carried the weight of life and death. Every action and decision of his life had been aimed at “that part” of himself. Now though, he could just be what he was. Now, and forever more, he could be free.

There wasn’t much time left, but with the time he had, he was going to share his anger! There was a savage smile on his face as he squeezed the trigger again and again. Cats fell, but countless more kept running toward him. Guess Uncle Yo was right, he thought with a grin, pussy really will be the death of me.

With the stock at his cheek, Remy squeezed the trigger and pumped rounds into the circling shadow cats. He pulled the trigger until he heard the inevitable, click, click, click. The rifle was empty.

The pack seemed to know he was no longer a threat. They slowed down again and began to creep forward like an unstoppable black tide. The cats did not have the intelligence of a human. What they did understand, however, was pain. They also understood suffering, and they loved them both. At the end of their prey’s life, they followed the instincts of their evil hearts and savored the hopelessness of the bleeding man before them. After all, surrounded and alone in the dark, what could he possibly do?

Hearing their yowls and soft screeches, the small wisp of fear Remington had felt disappeared. Anger filled the void. He had been through too many battles to delude himself that he’d survive long. He knew that these were his last minutes. That didn’t bother him. He’d spent his life well. As far as he was concerned, the people he’d just saved were worth what was about to happen. He wasn't worried about his impending death. What really pissed him off was that he could feel the arrogance and scorn of the beasts. They were looking down on him. Dismissing him. Silently asking the same question that so many others had asked when they told him he wasn’t good enough.

What can you possibly do?

He had the same answer he always had.

“I can do anything,” he spat at them in defiance.

Reaching one hand into the diseased wound in his side, he dug out a handful of congealed blood and pus. It cost him a few health points, but that wouldn’t matter soon. He reached down to his waist for the foot-long knife he’d taken from a hardware store. He liberally smeared his own filth on the blade. It wouldn’t kill any more monsters before he died, but maybe, just maybe, he’d pull a few more of these bastards into the abyss with him after he was gone.

“Well,” he shouted as loudly as his weakened body would allow, “let’s finish this!”

The monsters could not understand him, but they agreed to his terms all the same. The rest of the pack sprang forward like a shadowy black wave. Angry yowls filled the air. He swung his weapon and scored a deep cut against the face of one of the cats. It was knocked to the ground. Before it even landed, he was already swinging at another.

This time, his knife bit deep into a monster’s shoulder. His attack stopped its pounce, but his weapon caught in its flesh. It was only stuck for a second, but that was long enough. Another jumped on him at the same time, raking its Dark magic-enhanced claws down his left side. Remy cried out in pain and fury. His blood flowed fast and thick.

14 breaths remaining.

Turning awkwardly, he chopped at the head of the cat that had sunk its teeth into him. It growled deeply but didn’t let go. He pulled his arm back to swing again, but a second cat pounced before the strike could land. It caught his right wrist in a bite that fractured bone.

Remy screamed in spite of himself, and fell to one knee. Before he could do anything more, a third monster dove onto his back and rode him to the ground. He fell on top of the one biting his wrist. With madness-induced strength, he bit its ear and tore it free of its head. The cat screeched and Remy smiled, blood caking his teeth. A sick and cheerful laugh gurgled from his throat.

3 breaths remaining.

That was his last victory. After that, the shadow cats piled on. Then he felt only pain. The stink of his blood was heavy in the air. Lust-frenzied cries filled the night and monsters fought over the right to tear off pieces of his flesh.

2 breaths remaining.

He’d never felt pain like this before, but even as he wailed, something inside of him let go. At last, he was free. Free from expectations. Free from the selfish people who screamed arguments they didn’t understand simply because they enjoyed screaming. Free from the contradiction that had made every day a confusing agony.

Free from the lesson of his father.

Free from the command of his mother.

1 breath remaining.

A cat bit into his neck, tearing into his carotid artery. His lifeblood geysered into the monster’s mouth and his thoughts came to an end. The breath escaped his body with a sigh, and a final bolded prompt appeared in his vision, heavy with finality.

You have died.

CHAPTER 1

Ignorance was bliss.

Remy had always thought that death would mean everything going black. Maybe there would be a tunnel with a bright light. He’d hoped it wouldn’t be a falling sensation swiftly followed by a great deal of heat and the scent of brimstone. Truth be told, he wouldn’t have been overly surprised by that last one.

What happened though was that the world froze and was bleached of color. The next moment, he was outside of his body, dispassionately watching the shadow cats devour his mortal coil. He couldn’t muster any emotions. Even when one of the monsters pulled his leg free from his torso, he didn’t have an emotional reaction to it. Intellectually, Remy knew that he should be bothered by his own mutilation, but he felt nothing. He floated away, not higher necessarily, just “away” somehow. Everything grew darker and darker until all he could see was blackness.

Then he saw the light. Above him, a glowing white portal appeared and his astral self flew toward it. The gateway radiated an energy that made him start to feel things again. It was like the photons flying toward him were each engraved with messages of contentment, peace and love. It felt like seeing a warm glow through your house’s front window after finishing a cross-country drive. It felt like he was going home.

As he floated toward the portal, he thought back on his life. He thought of the years of service when he had “protected” his country. He thought about his family, the good times and the bad, and knew beyond any doubt that there had been more “good.” He thought about his sister, hiding in the bunker, and hoped that she would be alright.

With each thought that flashed through his mind, and with each moment of his life that he replayed, he let go of his mortal attachments. The reports of “one’s life flashing before one’s eyes” had apparently been true. It was the first part of a necessary process to truly embrace the next phase of existence. More of Remy’s bonds to his old life were peeled away as he drifted closer to the shining gateway. By the time he was in front of it, he was left with a very simple conclusion.

He was ready.

It was time.

Right when he was about to pass on to the next phase of existence, however, a force grabbed his astral self and ripped him away from the welcoming light. Remy was only able to keep the portal in sight for a billionth of a second, but he thought the white luminescence had flashed an ominous, angry red. He would never be sure though, because he was pulled away so fast that everything was a blur.

As he flew away from that portal to the beyond, all his memories and thoughts slammed back into his “self.” He couldn’t feel actual pain, but after being in a state of near-total enlightenment, then it ripped away from him, Remy was more than ready to cut a bitch. He would have shamed the devil with his cursing if he still had a mouth.

There had been no sounds since his death, but now what he heard was a great vortex of wind. Remy wondered if it was his imagination. Were the remnants of his consciousness adding fictitious sensory input? He felt like he was moving fast, but without a body how could he be moving at all? How could he hear the wind? Then the time for wondering was past. The feeling of movement decreased before coming to an abrupt stop. He was somehow able to cast his gaze around, and what he saw made the last vestiges of his old self feel pure terror.

He knew where he was. This was what people had come to call a Death Zone. It was a location that every human on Earth avoided. All that waited here was a brutal and painful death. That hadn’t always been the case, but it’d been true ever since these words had been emblazoned across the vision of every living man, woman and child:

Your world is now part of the Labyrinth

Remy struggled to free himself from the invisible bonds that held him, but he was helpless. His astral self continued floating forward. Humans had come to call this a Death Zone, but it had another name. It was an entrance to the Labyrinth. It was a Dungeon.

His consciousness felt the barest hint of resistance as it passed through the energy field of the Dungeon’s mouth. Then, a minute later, after zipping through many turns of the Dungeon, he passed through another portal and entered the Labyrinth itself. After that his speed picked up even more, so fast that it shamed his previous movement. Even though he lacked a body, the magical force of his passage crushed his astral consciousness to the size of a grain of sand’s left nut. Everything became black again.

The next thing Remy knew, he was in an open space so immense that he could not see the sides or the ceiling. What he did see when he looked around was a swirling grey… something. The environs were both wonderfully familiar and strangely disconcerting. His mind began to warp. He was old and young at the same time. His chromosomes rearranged, and he became a she. Then he was back to himself, but he had been born a twin. He was the twin. He murdered his brother. He could not remember why!

Remy’s mind began to splinter until the force holding him aloft exerted a new form of pressure. It counteracted the effects of the Probability Curve and let him maintain a rudimentary sense of self. He moved through the Formless Infinite. In time, a massive platform came into view and panic flared once again in his ghostly heart. There were rows, endless rows, of people strapped to tables. Some were smiling, some were screaming, but most just lay there unblinking as they stared up at the swirling grey “stuff” that was all around them.

He was afraid he would be strapped to one of those tables, but the force transporting him carried him on and he once again lost any sense of orientation or time. The next “time” he was “aware,” Remy was still floating in the fathomless grey expanse, but now seven disembodied faces revolved around him. They were each the size of a house. The features of the visages flowed so quickly that they never settled on a single form. The lips of a man moved beneath the eyes of a snake all surrounded by feathers that a moment later morphed into long curls of purple hair crackling with white lightning. The other six faces shifted just as quickly and into visages even more bizarre.

~THIS IS THE CHOSEN?~ one face asked in a hissing voice.

~DANGEROUS!~ another boomed in response.

~IT MUST BE DONE!~ a third interjected.

~THIS HAS BEEN DECIDED!~ a nightmarish face thundered.

~THIS SEED IS HEALER, FIGHTER AND MORE! IT IS THE CHOICE!~

~THIS SEED IS KILLER, TYRANT AND MORE! IT IS THE CHOICE!~

~THIS SEED IS LEADER, CONQUEROR AND MORE! IT IS THE CHOICE!~

~YES! POWER IS SHIFTING ACROSS THE INFINITE FRACTALS OF THE UNIVERSE! WE MUST GROW THE INFLUENCE OF CHAOS AS WELL!~  The voice was initially the rasping of an old man, but it shifted to the innocent tones of a child.

~ITS TRUE NATURE MUST BE HIDDEN~

~THEN WE MUST BLOCK ITS TRUE FOCUS UNTIL~

~YES~, another voice interrupted, ~BUT WE MUST GIVE IT PRODIGIOUS GIFTS IF IT IS TO SURVIVE~

~THE COST WILL BE GREAT~, for the first time, several voices spoke at once, as though united in concern.

~IT CANNOT BE AVOIDED~

~IT WILL BE NEEDED~, added a voice that Remy had not yet heard.

~SO SHALL IT BE~, all seven faces intoned together.

The disembodied heads were spinning around Remy while they spoke about his fate. Between their movement and the shifting of their faces, he could not be sure which spoke next, but he supposed it didn’t matter. What did matter to him was that he did not like being discussed as if he wasn’t there. For the first time in his afterlife, though by far not the first time in his existence, he impetuously spoke up when perhaps his silence would have been the better choice.

“Who are you! Why did you take me from that light? What is this place?”

Remy had wanted to speak earlier, but there had been what he could only call a “pressure” inhibiting him. Only his anger at being ignored let him force his way past it. The faces did not respond at first. When one did, he thought he heard the barest hint of approval, if not respect.

~THE CHOICE IS WISE! THE SEED IS STRONGER THAN EXPECTED! THE BLOODLINE IS TRUE. IT WILL BE PREPARED!~

All the faces began to vibrate, then they slammed into one another. The seven melded together until only one remained, and Remy’s astral self started flowing toward it. The mouth yawned wide and Remy began struggling to get free again. It had as little effect as before. All he could do was project his words once more.

“What are you doing? I won’t be a prisoner or a slave or whatever you’re doing to those people strapped to the tables.”

The face ignored him and the mouth yawned wider.

Remy continued to struggle ineffectually. But, effective or not, he was still furious. He’d spent a lifetime fighting to control his own destiny. The idea that in death he would be robbed of his choice at this point was worse than the death he’d just suffered. At least then he’d been on his feet and had died on his own terms. He would not live another life controlled by others!

What came out of his mouth next was a stream of the foulest language that the planet Earth had evolved after thousands of years of war. He let the giant faces know exactly what he thought about them, exactly what they could do with their giant mouths and exactly how long they should gargle after. The torrent of filth coming out of his mouth was so spectacular that for a moment the collective consciousness of Chaos stopped and thought, “What the hell? This guy really does give zero fucks!”

“Just kill me again!” Remy screamed after taking a deep breath. “I was already dead. I deserve to see the end of war! I will not be a slave! Not anymore! Never again!”

This time, a voice did respond. It seemingly came out of nowhere, but it was almost human.

~No. There are no slaves here, at least none that do not choose such a path. Those you saw are only being momentarily detained to improve their power and prepare them for what comes next. In either case your fate diverges from theirs, though in time they may become intertwined once more.~

“What, then?” Remy shouted. He was almost inside of the mouth, but even the idea of being eaten by some cosmic being didn’t scare him. He was too angry. Most of his personality had been stripped away, but what was left was the core of who he was: a desire for freedom, a need to improve the world, and fury!

“What?” he spat. “What are you preparing me for?”

His astral self continued to drift into the mouth of the face, now swelled to the size of a mountain range. There was no response for the seconds or centuries that passed as Remy continued into the black hole of his destiny. Right before he was consumed, the voice spoke again, and this time there was no mistaking the pity and sorrow it held.

~Godhood.~

Then Remy entered the maw of the Lords of Chaos and his mind passed beyond thought and time.

*******************

What up wonderful Mist Villagers!

I hope you're enjoying these early chapters lol

I plan on getting them to you every couple of days.

If you'd like to preorder God's Eye, you can do it here:

https://smile.amazon.com/Gods-Eye-Awakening-Labyrinth-World-ebook/dp/B08JJGYZJM

As always, please use Smile.amazon.com, instead of just amazon.com.  It's the same for you, but part of your purchase goes to a charity of your choice :)

And if you're up to help, trolls have already left fake reviews on Goodreads for God's Eye.  I messaged Goodreads and they said that even though it's obviously fake, they can't take any reviews down.  They said it was fine if my fans left honest reviews though to balance it out :)

So please take just one minute and leave a review on Goodreads if you've been enjoying the chapters!

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55740170-god-s-eye?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=C3hkN59UOr&rank=3#other_reviews

GNOMES RULE!

We Take Care of Our Own: Week 1

Patreon Members, never forget, the Mist Village takes care of its own! 

This week we have been able to help 7 Mist Villagers that have been impacted by the Coronavirus, as well as thank 7 Mist Villagers for their hard work in essential services during this time!

In addition to the daily $100 recipients, TWO of this week's Champions were awarded an additional $400 each with the help of your generous donations through Patreon! One Mist Villager was awarded the additional funds to help with formula and diapers for his newborn daughter recently home from the NICU, and the other was awarded the additional funds to help replace his family's refrigerator, which stopped working during this time. 

Thank you all for your generous donations! You all helped to make this happen! 

If you are in need of a little extra help this month, please comment on the original post here with your story: https://www.facebook.com/LitRPGbooks/posts/1154739928198675

#MistVillageCares #ForTheMist #WeTakeCareOfOurOwn 

Monsters is LIVE New Years Day!

What up my wonderful wonderful Patrons!

I just wanted you to know that The Land: Monsters is up for Preorder and will be dropping New Years Day!!!

Ya'll are the best and you help make The Land a reality :o)

And yes, now that the date is set you can be expecting some more advanced chapters soon my Core Patrons lol

Panel with Brandon Sanderson, Jim Butcher and Marie Brennan!

Hello my wonderful patrons!

I got to be on a panel with these fantasy greats!!!

Just thought I'd share the video that an awesome Mist Villager made :)

GNOMES RULE!

New Art coming

Just thought I'd share a fun little art piece of Richter screaming like a wee lil' baby as he ran from the skeeling lol

Courtesy of Scott Repka :)

The Land: Monsters, Chapter 1 SNEAK PEEK

Hello my wonderful patrons!  I know its been a while, that's because life gets real sometimes.  I've transititioned in my work life, had some family issues come up which thankfully have all worked themselves out and a few other things happen.  Through it all, I've been working, but the books just aren't ready yet.

Anyone who was here before Predators came out remembers how I had to move the publishing date so many times.  Because of that, I made myself a promise that I wouldn't say a date until I KNEW it was the right one again.  

Despite all that, I've never stopped appreciate ya'll.  So, before its ready lol, here is chapter 1.  I need to be super duper clear that I am NOT going to start releasing other chapters until they are ready for multiple reasons, not the least of which is that I've already had other authors steal my concepts and ideas, I've had to hire lawyers... It was a really negative situation all around.  So until my baby is ready for the world, she'll stay underwraps.

I hope ya'll understand, and I hope you enjoy this first chapter of The Land: Monsters.

Either way, I appreciate you!

Now without further ado, Chapter 1 :)

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CHAPTER 1 – Day 150 – Juren 1, 0 AoC

Richter cursed. He was in a lair! Not only that, he’d finally found out where the high-level monsters were hiding. The ichorpede skittered towards him faster now, clacking its pincers together in anticipation. It was only fifty yards away. The chaos seed ran to the left and grabbed the only weapon available, a gnawed leg bone. He had no idea what kind of creature had left it behind, but it was as big as a Louisville Slugger. Part of him realized that this bone was only here because the ichorpedes had been able to bring down such a large beast. A bigger part of him told that part to shut the fuck up! It was game time. 

As the giant insect closed the distance, Richter began to prepare. Minor Chitin Carapace thickened his skin and increased his natural armor by +4. Weak Haste boosted his speed and Weak Mirror Image made two copies of himself. He summoned a saproling and spider, evolving them both with Chaos magic into stronger versions. With the ichorpede only ten yards away, he dismissed his night vision, then cast Grease and Weak Flame in quick succession. The entire circle of brown gravy sludge lit up, enveloping the giant insect in fire.

It reared back with a hiss of rage, its head towering five feet above him. Richter was raising his makeshift bone club to strike when he heard a voice that made his mouth drop open in shock. Floating out of the darkness came a small winged creature only a single foot in height. His body was ash grey and black bat wings flapped behind him. The expression on his face was both bored and annoyed. When Xuetrix spoke again, his tone was a perfect match. 

“I said stop playing with those bugs, human. You made me a Vow, and I’m here to collect.” 

The moments of distraction cost Richter dearly. The ichorpede, though damaged by the flames, dove through them. It shot towards the chaos seed’s figure, it’s powerful pincers snapping shut on his unarmored body. To its surprise, the figure it had attacked shattered into countless shards of light a moment before disappearing. It was not Richter, it was merely one of his mirror images. Wasting no time, the real Richter spun and slammed his bone club on the head of the ichorpede with all of his strength. 

The hardened boned slammed into its armored shell and forced its head to the ground. For a single instant, Richter cheered in his heart, but then he was forcibly reminded of the necessity of powerful weapons when fighting high level monsters. Though the force of his strike forced its head down and away, it caused no actual damage. Before he could perform a second swing his impromptu bone club, the high level monster of the depths struck again, and this time, it’s aim was true. 

A moment later, he was knocked off of his feet. He landed heavily, the rough rock digging into his bare back. The force of the massive insect’s charge propelled him along the ground. Skin and blood were left behind in a gooey pink smear. For the second time in as many minutes, Richter was reminded of the horror of battling without armor or arms. The tattered remains of his clothes offered no real protection. This was not a movie where the action star never really got hurt. This was relief and it was real agony flaring with him while he struggled for one more minute of life. 

The ichorpede’s serrated mandibles surged towards his face. There was not a doubt in Richter’s mind that it could rip half his face off if they managed snapped shut. As he fell, his hands shot up and just managed to grab the pincers. The sharp spikes on the inside of the mandible’s tore into his hands. Red hot blood flowed in small rivers on to his face and chest. The scent drove the ichorpede wild and it surged forward with a high pitched keening noise. 

As bad as the tearing pain was in his hands, and this was not the worst agony. The monster’s acidic spit flowed faster as it grew lustful and blood drunk. The scant drops ofo Richter it had tasted were only enough to make its terrible hunger soar. The green tinted acid form its mouth immediately started eating into Richter’s hands. A large drop fell from its mouth onto his chest with a sizzle, and he could smell his own flesh cook while it dissolved his flesh cell by cell, sinew by sinew. 

Richter screamed in agony as the skin and then muscle of his chest began to melt and run. His Strength attribute was just enough to keep the insect from stealing his life. The lich’s Curse of Eternal Servitude had been weakened when Singh suffered the final death, but it could still damn Richter’s soul if he died in the next seven days. The scream of pain issuing from his mouth began to be mingled with rage. After everything he had gone through, he would not let his story end like this!

The ichorpede kept surging forward trying to bite Richter’s head free of his body. As it pushed, it’s mandibles would come closer before the chaos seed was able to force them back. The continued to skid across the rock ground leaving more of the young lord’s tissue and blood behind. Richter managed to get his left knee up between himself and the monster, but in response, it plunged some of its countless legs down onto his right side. Five of its spike like appendages sank into chest, abdomen and leg. His health dropped by more than twenty points and fifteen as the legs sank in to the first joint of the insect’s dagger like extremities. If he hadn’t cast Minor Chitin Carapace increasing the natural armor of his skin from 0 to +3, the damage would have been even worse. The high leveled monster’s poniard legs were even stronger though. 

Richter howled. 

If he had been wearing his wood sprite armor, he might have been able to ignore the attack long enough to counterattack. Without it though, his body was being savaged, and his spell thickened skin was scant defense. Less than ten seconds into the battle, and he was already afflicted with a Bleeding debuff. As the sharp ends of the ichorpede’s legs were still in his body, Richter’s debuff had no time limit. The chaos seed’s life literally oozed away as he fought the level thirty-one insect, struggling to just survive another minute. More drops of acidic spit fell onto his chest and neck, inflicting more damage and sapping his will to fight. 

Though Richter did not know it, most men and women would have already succumbed. The pain of feeling one’s own flesh liquify, after all, could easily drive one mad. His own Secondary Attribute Resilience was several times higher than most peoples of The Land.  Resilience was a person’s ability to withstand the worst of circumstances.  The average person had a base value of +1. His own was +3.6, more than three times greater. It was in part due to his various life experiences, but mostly due to the boon he had received for eating the First Fruit of the Quickening. While others would have panicked, Richter’s own mind became oddly still now that his life balanced on a razor’s edge.

The first thing he thought about was Xuetrix. Casting about, he saw that the imp had faded back into the darkness of the cavern. Richter cursed in his own mind, but was not surprised. How much could you trust a demon? Next, he turned his attention to his two summoned creatures. The spider and saproling had evolved into a Mesmer spider and thorn element respectively.  Both of these evolutions were magic based meaning they couldn’t stand up to too much close combat. 

Even if they could, they were on the far side of the fire. That was where they needed to be. More ichorpedes were spilling into the cavern. Several were coming through a large doorway at the far end of the underground gallery. Others were coming through holes in the stone, crawling on the walls in defiance of gravity. He needed his summoned creatures to delay the others if even for a few moments. 

Those mental calculations took place in an instant. Richter was no stranger to battle at this point. He had lived and died and killed and saved more than he could easily count. He was without any true weapons or armor, but he was not without resources. He had his items. Eight rings, a bracelet and his necklace. All of them power talismans. Baring his teeth to keep from screaming, he accessed his Ring of Shadow Shift. Looking up at the monstrous face of the ichorpede, he thought, fuck you!

You Ring of Shadow Shift cannot transport 2 beings!

“No!” he grunted. “Fuck me!” Richter’s mind raced. Whether it was because the massive insect’s segmented legs were piercing his body, or just because he was in contact with an enemy, his ring wouldn’t work. He strained to keep the ichorpede’s pincers from savaging his face. It grew closer with every surge. Even as he fought a losing battle, it’s acidic spittle fell on his chest and face. His health literally dribbled away. As he struggled, he was reminded of his first life and death struggle in The Land with a wolf in the Forest of Nadria.

In his first days as a resident of The Land, he’d taken a quest from the Hearth Mother to kill diseased wolves. He had been attacked and born to the ground. Only a bracer against the wolf’s throat had kept it from biting his face off, just like the ichorpede was trying to do now. He’d killed the wolf, but had died minutes later when the other members of the pack tore him apart. It had been one of the more traumatic and horrible experiences of this life. The fear had nearly crippled his soul, broken his mind. He’d only been a level two noob, nearly helpless.

Despite the corollaries between his position now and then, he was not the same person. He had burned settlements, enacted revenge on those who had dared harm him and used the bones of his Mortal Enemy to adorn the central building of his village. He was not weak. He was not prey. He was not even a predator. He was Richter. He was a monster!

With a shouted strain, he pushed against the monstrous centipede’s head and gained a scant inch of relief. At the same time, he shuffled through the notifications he had gained during the destruction of the Mausoleum. Some shocked and amazed him, others confused him, but he still minimized them all to the side to be viewed later. They were not what he needed and could not help him that instant.  That was, until he heard the sweetest sound any man or woman could ever hear. A snarling grin appeared on his face and he let the prompt wash over him.

TRING! TRING! TRING! TRING! TRING! 

You have reached level 40, 41, 42, 43 and 44! Through hard work you have moved forward along your path. You are awarded the following points to distribute:

Per Level

Total

Stat Points

As a Chaos Seed, you gain 6 Stat Points to distribute to characteristics instead of the   usual 4

30

Talent Points

As a Chaos Seed, you receive 15 Talent Points instead of the usual 10.

You receive an additional 15 Talent Points from your Profession and Specialty for having a   100% affinity in Enchanting

190

Chaos Points

You receive 8 Chaos   Points due to your Blessing by the Lords of Chaos

41

Skill % Points

+25% to the   skill of your choice

+125%

There was a new line at the bottom of his leveling sheet that he didn’t understand.

Further leveling blocked until Evolution branch determined. 

Richter had no idea what that meant, but that didn’t matter to him in the slightest. He had Character Points to burn. A deep and malignant chuckle rumbled in the depths of his chest while points were poured into Strength. 

Six points arrested the forward movement of the ichorpede. Ten let him push it back. Pain flared in his body as his muscles and their attachments to his bones and flesh were enlarged and augmented. Suffering had never been so sweet, and the insanity in his laughter grew stronger. Fifteen let him force its pincers wider and he was able to force himself into a sitting position. Pain ripped through his body and it underwent changes to accommodate his increased Attribute. His musculature bulged and his bones strained. If his Constitution was not already so high, the changes might have ripped and torn his body into a grotesque parody. A hunchback of the underworld, strong, but imbalanced. Thankfully he had already invested heavily in Con allowing his body to handle the changes. 

The ichorpede hissed in surprised fury and redoubled its efforts. Richter was slowly pushed back towards the rocky ground as it brought more of its several ton body to bear. His Strength was now twelve points higher than the thirty-foot long centipede, but it outweighed him by a great amount. Between that and his precarious position on the ground, he was not able to gain the upper hand. As he waged this struggle for life and soul, more insects flooded the cave system. His summoned creatures went to work. 

Facing the largest concentration of monstrous centipedes, the mesmer spider released its magic. It stood three feet tall on its sharp sleek legs. It had only one eye that crossed its arachnid face like a prismatic band. The bejeweled organ lit with an inner fire before a conical beam of light shot forth. The five ichorpedes caught in the beam were entranced and froze in place. The spider scuttled forward and tried to bite them with its poison fangs, but was unable to penetrate their armor. 

The thorn elemental joined the fray as well. Casting Entagle roots broke up through cracks in the stony ground. Though much less effective than if it was cast in a forest, the evolved creature’s magic was not weak. Inch wide green vines ensnared the bodies of two ichorpedes that were within the ten yard AoE. The insects hissed and snapped at the plant tendrils, breaking them with ease. More came however, and the thorn elemental followed up its first spell with another. Yellow particles filled the air as it cast Sleep Pollen. The spores were inhaled by the ichorpedes, stilling their actions to a certain extent. The high level monsters were not easily quelled and only one fell asleep. 

Using its last offensive ability, the elemental shot a poison thorn at one of the bound ichorpedes. It struck a lucky shot, threading between armored plates. The poisonous dart sunk into flesh. The giant insect hissed as its HP started to fall, but its health barely fell. With half its mana gone and all of its skills on cooldown, the thorn elemental moved to engage with another ichorpede rushing towards its master. It would buy Richter all the time it could with its three foot tall body.

Richter did not have time to pay attention to the valiant efforts of his summoned creatures. With some regret in his “frugal” heart, he invested the last fifteen points in the Strength. He had not wanted to invest them all into this one stat, but if he was miserly, his life might end right here, right now. This was not a time to worry about the future. With the points allocated, an honest to god bellow ripped itself from his throat. It was deeper than any yell he’d ever remembered issuing before. Power flooded his body as it acclimated to his over all Strength nearly doubling in the past minute. His shoulder’s broadened, his arms and abs became a topographic map and legs bulged at the ruins of his clothing. 

Suddenly, the straining battle he had been waging seemed silly. His hands had been wrapped around the ichorpede’s mandibles, fighting desperately to keep it from biting through his face. It had been all he could do to hold it back. Now though, it felt like he was fighting against a child. With a wild grin, he tightened his grip and yanked his arms wide!

The left pincer was forced wide and back. Richter felt something crack in its mouth. That was nothing compared to what happened on the right. The chaos seed ripped the mandible completely free from its head. The two foot curved bone dripped acid from the pointed end and gushed grey blood on the other. The ichorpede squealed, a surprisingly high pitched sound that Richter had not heard it make before. His left hand was cut as it reared back in agony. He barely noticed.

While it whipped its head back and forth in horrible pain, the chaos seed rolled clear. Rolling over his broad shoulders, he pushed up in a handstand while he did, easily launching himself up and onto this feet. The ichorpede had reared up teen feet off the ground. Gushes of grey ichor sprayed side to side from the hole Richter had left in its face. For the moment at least, it was ignoring him as it was wrapped in its own personal hell. The chaos seed did not miss the opportunity.

With one hand, he wove a quick spellform cast Minor Slow Heal. With his Life Mastery, Richter’s spell was 50% stronger than it would have been otherwise. His Intelligence was also high, and Limitless maximized the bonus his attributes gave his spellpower. The extra 36.5% boost to his magic meant that over the next minute he would heal about one hundred and sixty points of health. The golden glow suffused his body, bringing relief from pain and a fifty-six point drop in his mana.

That done, Richter grabbed his bone club and took stock. His health was improving. He’d lost over three hundred HP during his scrape with the ichorpede. The monster’s sharp legs had wrecked the left side of his body when it had pierced him. If his skin hadn’t been thickened due to his Minor Chitin Carapace spell, the damage could have been far more extensive. It had only given his skin another four points of defense, but that had stopped the monster’s legs from hitting any major organs. With eight hundred and twelve max Health Points, he’d been able to endure the pummeling. Within the next minute, he’d restore half of what he lost. Richter would give a lot for a health potion, but that was just one more thing he had to go without. His stamina had dipped as well during the struggle, but it was still three quarters full.

His mana was another story. Preparing for the battle, he’d cast a good deal of buffs. Coupled with summoning two creatures and evolving them, he’d spent nearly seven hundred mana. His mana pool was respectable at seven hundred and seventy-four, but he’d still suffered a large headache from depleting his MPs so fast. Richter had long since become accustomed to such minor annoyances. What he could not ignore, was the fact that he needed mana to power his spells. 

The saving grace was that he had invested a large amount of points into Wisdom. A value of forty-five, coupled with his Ring of Flowing Thought, let him regenerate thirty-two mana a minute. Compared to his initial regen rate of six MP per minute, it was blazing fast. Unfortunately, it just wasn’t good enough to let him keep slinging spells nonstop. It would take more than twenty minutes to completely refill his tank. He didn’t have twenty seconds before he was in battle again. 

The two minutes he’d been struggling with the ichorpede had given him sixty mana, but he’d used that to cast his healing spell. Currently, he only had eighty-six points of magic to spend. That was enough to cast two rank-one weak spells or maybe one rank-two minor spell. That would not be enough! He’d stored a spell in his Ring of Spell Storage that he might be able to use as a trump card, but it could only store novice magic, level nine or below. He needed time! 

A cracking noise drew his gaze and he saw that his thorn elemental was being ripped apart. Two inchorepedes had clamped onto it and were pulling it in two directions. It’s health dropped quickly. The mesmer spider was surrounded and was only seconds from being destroyed. It did not have nearly the same defense as the evolved saproling. Worse, the ichorpede had oriented on him again. It threw the length of it body towards him. Cursing, Richter dove at an under it. A moment before it made contact, he fell into the silhouette it cast backlit by the flames. He was in the shadow realm. 

The first thing he did was frantically look about. This was the second time he’d broken his promise. The shadow realm was a place of intense danger where even low level monsters could steal his life. Not only that, but it was filled with disease that could be resistant to his magic. He’d promised that he wouldn’t reenter the realm unless he was at his full strength. There just hadn’t been a choice though. Thankfully, his luck held. There weren’t any monsters right next to him though that didn’t mean there weren’t any close by. For the moment, he was safe. 

The body of the icihorpede fell through him, having no effect except Richter feeling a faint resistance as they passed through each other. Richter paid it no mind. Until his time in the Shadow Realm elapsed, it shouldn’t be able to hurt him. He glanced at the new icon in his vision. It was the silhouette of a man with the number “5” next to it. That was the time he had before he was ejected from this dark space. Time moved differently in the shadow realm. The last time he’d been inside it had been in the Barrow of the Chaos Serpent. When he had tamed the mauler, he’d had about five seconds of shadow time for every real world second. Hisako had told him it was variable though, and the further removed he was from sunlight the longer the conversion would last. Keeping an eye on the timer, he started running. 

Richter ran past the injured ichorpede and was about to run through the grease fire, but he felt heat even in the shadow realm. The fact that the fire could effect the shadow realm just remined him of how much he didn’t know about the magic he was using.  He could just hear the Hearth Mother’s lecturing tone. It wasn’t that she wasn’t right, but he had limited options at this point. 

The chaos seed detoured around his grease fire and kept running through the cavern. A screech of pain made him look back.  Three ichorpedes were attacking and eating the one he had injured. Everything else in the dungeon looked like it was moving through honey. He saw the wooden body of the thorn elemental snapping and saw a slow spray of fluid come from the mesmer spider as two of its legs were bitten off by an ichorpede. Its abdomen was also a melted mess as it suffered from the monsters’ acidic spit. 

The summoned creatures had not lasted long, but they had bought him time. Initially, Richter’s goal had been to run out of the stone doorway, but as he watched, another five ichorpedes spilled through. He couldn’t take the chance of his time in the shadow realm running out when he was in the middle of enemies. Looking around, there were small holes pockmarking the walls, but half of them had ichorpedes crawling through. He was not a huge fan of enclosed spaces already, but being trapped in one with acid spitting monsters took his aversion to a whole new level. There was only one exit that didn’t have ichorpedes streaming through it. A large and incredibly ominous hole angling down into the ground. 

The further he ran from the fire, the more gloom occluded his vision. Especially in the dim Shadow Realm, it grew increasingly hard to see. Thankfully, while most magic was suppressed in this realm, Light and Dark magic worked fine. As he sprinted to the hole, he cast Night Vision. Black energy coalesced around his fingers during the one second cast time. The spell only cost five MP. In the midst of a battle, every point of mana could count, but it was more than worth the price.

Richter’s view became an overlay of green and black. Even the green was muted by the color suppression of the Shadow Realm. The dark hole became much easier to see through, and the chaos seed discovered why no ichorpedes were streaming out of that particular exit. The expletives that flooded the still air around him would have made an orcish sailor proud. All he could hear in his mind was Solo saying, “This is no cave.” 

The entire passage was lined with teeth.

#LITRPG #ALERONKONG

Hello my wonderful Patrons

I know you're ready for Book 8

The truth is personal life and the hospital reared their ugly heads and slowed down the process

I am happy to say that the words are flowing well though

I promise I will get the book to you as soon as possible, though we are probably looking at early next year.  

Please enjoy this sneak peek of the Book 8 cover, and dont share it around lol.  This is for my awesome patrons!

You are getting this several days before anyone else.

CORE members, I'll get the early chapters to you as soon as I can.

Thank you for being on this journey with me! :)

GNOMES RULE!

Aleron

Dragon Con Schedule

Hey ya'll!

My Dragon Con Schedule is on the site www.litrpg.com/events

But I'll also post it here, hope I see you :)

DragonCon Schedule for Aleron Kong

FRIDAY
~~~~~~
TITLE: AUTHORS PANEL: WHAT IS DIVERSITY
TIME: FRI 11:30 AM LOCATION: INMAN - HYATT (LENGTH: 1 HOUR)

-------------------

TITLE: SOCIAL MEDIA AS AN EFFECTIVE TOOL FOR AUTHORS
TIME: FRI 01:00 PM LOCATION: EMBASSY CD - HYATT (LENGTH: 1 HOUR)

-------------------

TITLE: CYBERPUNK AND TECHNOLOGY IN YA
DESCRIPTION: CALLING FANS OF "READY PLAYER ONE" AND "WARCROSS"! 
TIME: FRI 02:30 PM LOCATION: A707 - MARRIOTT (LENGTH: 1 HOUR)

-------------------

TITLE: AUTOGRAPH SESSION
TIME: FRI 05:30 PM LOCATION: INTERNATIONAL HALL SOUTH 4-5 - MARRIOTT (LENGTH: 1 HOUR)

-------------------


SATURDAY
~~~~~~~~~

TITLE: YA AND SOCIAL CHANGE
DESCRIPTION: HOW HAVE YA BOOKS ENCOURAGED YOU TO TAKE ACTION IN THE REAL WORLD? 
TIME: SAT 02:30 PM LOCATION: A707 - MARRIOTT (LENGTH: 1 HOUR)

-------------------

TITLE: THERE MUST ALWAYS BE A STARK AT DRAGONCON
DESCRIPTION: WINTER IS COMING, & SO IS THE STARK'S REVENGE. THIS SHOW & BOOK INCLUSIVE DISCUSSION WILL COVER THE HISTORY OF THE FAMILY & OUR BEST THEORIES ABOUT WHAT TO EXPECT FROM OUR NORTHERN NEIGHBORS.
TIME: SAT 05:30 PM LOCATION: L401-L403 - MARRIOTT (LENGTH: 1 HOUR)

-------------------

TITLE: WHEN MAGIC IS NOT ENOUGH: HEALING
DESCRIPTION: WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU CAN'T JUST PULL UP THE HOSPITAL, THE HEALING SPELLS JUST AREN'T ENOUGH--OR WORSE, HAVE RUN OUT. 
TIME: SAT 07:00 PM LOCATION: EMBASSY EF - HYATT (LENGTH: 1 HOUR)

-------------------

SUNDAY
~~~~~~~

TITLE: THIRD ANNUAL DRAGON AWARDS PRESENTATION
DESCRIPTION: THE WINNERS OF THE THIRD ANNUAL DRAGON AWARDS WILL BE ANNOUNCED.
TIME: SUN 01:00 PM LOCATION: CENTENNIAL I - HYATT (LENGTH: 1 HOUR)

-------------------

TITLE: READING SESSION: ALERON KONG
TIME: SUN 04:00 PM LOCATION: VININGS - HYATT (LENGTH: 1 HOUR)


-------------------

TITLE: MEET THE AUTHORS: DRAGON AWARDS
DESCRIPTION: LISTEN TO THE NOMINEES OF THE DRAGON AWARDS. 
TIME: SUN 05:30 PM LOCATION: INTERNATIONAL NORTH - HYATT (LENGTH: 1 HOUR)

-------------------

TITLE: AUTHORS PANEL: BRIDGING THE GAPS
DESCRIPTION: WRITING FROM DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES THAN YOUR OWN. 
TIME: SUN 07:00 PM LOCATION: INMAN - HYATT (LENGTH: 1 HOUR)

-------------------


MONDAY
~~~~~~~

TITLE: ALL THE SUBS! (OR, AT LEAST, A GOOD NUMBER OF FANTASY CATEGORIES)
DESCRIPTION: EVER WONDER WHAT LITRPG IS? OR SUPERVISE? HOW ABOUT WEIRD WEST? PRAIRIE GOTHIC? TIME FOR SOME ANSWERS! 
TIME: MON 01:00 PM LOCATION: EMBASSY EF - HYATT (LENGTH: 1 HOUR)

Predators is LIVE on Audible

Hello my wonderful patrons!!!

It has been a WILD day lol.  Predators went live on Audible a few hours ago, but the Mist Village literally crashed Audible lol

The book is 47 hours of Misty Goodness!

For those of you who have been waiting, here you go!

https://www.audible.com/pd/Mysteries-Thrillers/The-Land-Predators-A-LitRPG-Saga-Audiobook/B07F3MCHF4?ref=a_cat_Teens_c6_lProduct_1_2&pf_rd_p=175435ba-5563-4b14-8658-61c6ce672ed3&pf_rd_r=1134RVBE6AKKB2HBNYXG&

FB Live 5.27.18

Please Share and Tag a Friend in the Comments lol Summary: 

1) We have raised almost $400 for Books for Africa. Thank you for being so wonderful! Still plenty of bumper stickers to give away! If you want a free one, just email me at Richter@litrpg.com. If you buy one for $5 though, ALL proceeds go to the charity Original Post here: https://www.facebook.com/LitRPGbooks/... 

2) Last month, we raised $5000 for Brotherhood Sister Sol, a nonprofit focused on helping children succeed in life. I am blown away by ya'll! :) 

3) I'll be at DragonCon, hope I see you there 

4) The 3rd annual LitRPG Gala will be happening at the same time, either Aug 31 or Sept 1 in Atlanta!!! Rock your Mist Village gear lol 

5) Nick is almost done with the audio for Book 7. Predators will be on Audible in June! 

6) Book 8 and other projects are well on the way. You WONT have to wait a year lol 

7) More artwork is coming!  Thank you, thank you! I am honored to have so many awesome readers.   

Stay wonderful ya'll!  Peace, Love and the Perfect Margarita! :)  

#litrpg #aleron #theland #mistvillage 

TOPIC: Bumper Sticker

TOPIC: Bumper Sticker

2 WAYS TO GET IT!

Now you know that Aleron comes with the FREE, but he also loves charity... so I'm doing both here lol

You can have this FREE if you like, just email me your address: Richter@litrpg.com

BUT if you buy it for $5, all proceeds will go to Books for Africa, a charity with a 100/100 score on www.charitynavigator.org

To buy just click here:

https://www.litrpg.com/shop/bumper-sticker-all-proceeds-go-to-charity-

Either way, Gnomes Rule!  Ya'll Rock!  Much Love :)

* Need help with shipping if outside the US, Sorry lol

** Bumper Stickers are 7.5" x 3.75" Vinyl

#litrpg #aleron #theland