dragonheartednovels

[NR] Zombies Shamble Around - Chapter 670

As befitting an undead siege, the event started not the next day, but the next night. As the last rays of the sun vanished below the trees, the first shamblers pulled themselves from the ground. Yes, from the ground!

The classic zombies that made up the first wave died easily. Not that anyone with half a brain thought it would go otherwise. And the same happened over the next two waves of zombies afterwards. Though this wasn’t a waste.

While forced to start at the edge each time...

[SD:M/H] Wind Blades Till You Can't - Chapter 10

Gem rolls their eyes, “This situation is completely different! The monster below us doesn’t know we’re here this time. Makes things a lot easier. No, the real question should be, where are we going after getting out of this situation?”

June looks over to the side and points, “How about there?”

Gem glances over their shoulder and then does a double take. Right behind them is a town. Not only that, but it seems their predicament has gathered a bit of a crowd. There are m...

[D'sP] More Shaking - Chapter 421

More time had passed and Doyle was ready to start his next floor. Both Ace and Jim had returned to the last floor with their teams multiple times at this point and he was getting antsy. Not because they were coming close, Doyle actually wanted them to see his core.

No, rather, they weren’t advancing fast enough. Who knew that a dense forest would be the perfect environment for his kobolds to really bring the pain? Though the massive number of them certainly didn’t hurt.

Then D...

[D'sP] Not An Earthquake - Chapter 420

Jim was settling some issues with the recent change in the dungeon when the ground moved. The movement was subtle. He felt more when a fully loaded merchant cart would rumble by outside. So subtle that Jim wasn’t even sure he would have noticed it before the system.

He didn’t doubt what he felt, but when the termitekin Frink that was the main receptionist perked up as well, it caught his attention.

Frink mumbles, “An earthquake?”

Jim nods, “That’s what it felt li...

[NR] Miasma - Chapter 669

Over the next five days, things go into overdrive for the town. With a System backed prophecy and the bandits handled, they begin to harvest. Early? Yes, but better harvest than frosted.

And on the fifth night, only a day after everything was harvested, the first freeze happens. The town wakes up next morning to frost tipped plants and white shadows, evidence the previous night’s temperature chased away from wherever the sun touched. At least a month, if not two, early.

Not the ...

[NR] Prophecy - Chapter 668

And despite expectations to the contrary, the town guard manages to clean up bandit travellers. It wasn’t like they were talented travellers or anything. After all, if they were actually talented they would have been out with a proper team instead of in such a large group. While the System didn’t stop people from forming “raid” groups, as it were, you lost out if the threat you faced wasn’t dangerous enough to justify it.

Despite the ease at which they managed their capture, t...

[D'sP] Shutting Them Down - Chapter 419

Ace sighs, that had been more of a meeting than he had planned for. Though really, it came back to the same thing it always did these days. Power and the projection thereof.

Ace shakes his head. It wasn’t like things were any different before the system came. The major difference being that the power tended to be purely a matter of political and monetary. Now, personal strength mattered once again.

He ruffled through some paperwork he left on his desk to look busy. Not to say th...

[NR] They'll Keep Themselves Alive For Us - Chapter 667

The guards can hear the moment that the enemy notices them. Seems the bandits have no concept of maintaining silence when things go down. Though it isn’t completely unreasonable. Lily hadn’t been able to report the actual numbers, but there was a lot. Three to four teams worth with another team of harvesters and haulers.

If it was an actual military they were facing, silence would be expected. However, chances are this is literally just a handful of teams and a bunch of individuals ...

[NR] The Cutest Person On Watch - Chapter 666

Lily hopped around the field, nibbling on the various stalks. She wasn’t supposed to, but they didn’t actually care about the stalks themselves, anyway. It is a shame that she couldn’t hang out in the roughly harvested fields. There were a lot of actual crops left on the ground for her to taste.

However, the danger of being spotted meant such a risk would not be tolerated. Any other time, it wouldn’t have mattered. Too bad the current event meant even something as common as a ra...

Author’s Note: Just 3 days left to the Banished Talent Kickstarter

Tuesday is the last days of the Kickstarter and we're only $91 away (as of my writing this post) from hitting the goal! I am a little worried about it though, so if you'd be one looking for an ebook version of my story, Banished Talent, please check the Kickstarter out now! For a $3 pledge you get the finished ebook and if you want to put in even more, $12 will get a name of your...

[Closed] Deciding the Short Story Prompt for January 2025

Below are the full prompts as the poll doesn't allow the full text. In the case of ties the first option that got there wins. The short story will be finished by the end of the month.

• Human have become the grand master of the universe to the point that it's a war crime to use human in wars. but it seem that nobody told other universe. and now, in the middle of a summoning circle a group of human appear "Ho, Hero please save the world from evil".

• Mirrors. Teeth 2025-01-05 06:39:21 +0000 UTC View Post

[SD:M/H] Ejection Completed Without Error - Chapter 9

June glances around, trying to figure out an idea. “Umm, we can. Hmm. Oh! Water. We don’t have to outrun them or guide them into someone else. We just need to escape their notice.

“There should be some kind of river next to the city, if only to provide water and trade. We just need to keep running and hope we find it before the monsters catch up.”

Gem nods and makes a peace sign, “Sounds like a plan! Re-up my buff and I’ll give us a direction to head.”

June rai...

[D'sP] Year 1aa - Chapter 418

Doyle and Ally settle down. Without a new floor to make and people they need to watch, there isn’t much that needs done. Well, obviously all the observational stuff still needs work, but this ends up being more like sitting back on a couch and watching Internet videos.

Because goodness knows, even post-apocalypse, people are still people. Even the inner circle isn’t free of nonsense. Though in there, things haven’t ever boiled over. It seems going through life and death together h...

[D'sP] Not CEO Material - Chapter 417

Doyle turned to Ally, ‘I have indigestion.’

Ally slowly turned to face his core and raised an eyebrow, ‘The what? You’re a dungeon core. You don’t “eat” in a way which could do that.’

Doyle shakes his core, ‘Seems to not be the case. I did some mediation or whatever you’d call it and figured out my instincts were pulling me away from creating a new floor because of the sixth floor.

‘I’ve got more than enough world energy, but it isn’t getting a chan...

2024 Wrap Up

How's the Writing gone?

A year has passed and during that year I managed to write 12 short stories, finished Banished Talent, started SoulDive, wrote 78 chapters of Dungeon's Path, and 104 chapters of NeoRealm. I don't have an exact count, but that means I wrote over a quarter of a million words at least. So as far as writing goes, I did pretty good!

How's my personal life gone?

However, the year has definitely had some downs for me on a personal level. A bunch of...

[NR] Supposedly No Fighting - Chapter 665

Jason’s breathing is even though showing signs of strain. He had been at his tenth meridian for hours now and it was almost clear. The intention of this session hadn’t been to clear an entire meridian.

However, it has been partially cleared already and he is so close now. Besides, Courtney hadn’t messaged him and so he wasn’t needed yet. Though he would have to close out the session soon. His thoughts on mental stamina coming home to roost.

Jason picks and probes at the bl...

[NR] Farther Along Than He Thought - Chapter 664

Halina claps, “That’s the ticket! Now just give the council a few more hours and they’ll probably settle on that.”

Jason sighs, “You already suggested banishing them for the duration of the event?”

Halina smiles, “I can’t take all the credit. Me and my brother spent the night hashing out various plans. Oh, and since I’m not the most liked, Siegfried was the one to suggest it and thus also the one that has to keep up with the meeting.”

Jason, “Anything t...

[Closed] Collecting Short Story Prompts for January 2025

Once again I'm here to ask all of you for short story prompts! I'll take the more popular ones as decided by the number of hearts (or that I particularly like) in the comments and make a poll at the start of the month. The winner will be made into a short story of a thousand or so words.

Not many rules on what you can suggest at the moment. That will mostly be figured out as we go. Besides that, the short story will come out before the end of the next month.

Rules for prompts:

[Short Story] VCAPS Arrives

On the 19th of October 2017, it was a normal enough day on an Earth similar to our own. Just like us, they spotted an interesting extrasolar object that had just passed by the sun 40 days before. `Oumuamua, a red-colored cigar-shaped object between 300 and 3000 feet (100 and 1000 meters) long, but only between 115 and 548 feet (35 and 167 meters) wide that was tumbling through space. Scientists described its movements as exhibiting “non-gravitational acceleration”, which here ended up not...

[SD:M/H] Moving Hills - Chapter 8

The first signs of being in a new territory was the thinning of underbrush. Though once that happened, it didn’t take long for Gem and June to spot a new variety of monster, deer with rocky antlers. So, of course, Gem ran right towards them.

Those first deer ran away up on seeing the boar chasing the two.

“Get back here! I’m a juicy freshly made character! Fight me!” And came flowing out of Gem’s mouth as they chased the fleeing herd of deer.

June grimaces at that,...

[D'sP] Pushed Back Again - Chapter 416

Susan, “Even if the kobolds made the trap, it will have been placed with a skill. Me and my husband have been keeping track of instances of kobold traps. We haven’t quite nailed it down. I personally suspect some floors have hidden kobolds, but the ratio of kobolds to their traps never goes too far beyond a certain point. I’m nine-tenth certain each kobold can only lay a certain number of traps.”

Ace nods, “I can see that. If anything, the system probably wouldn’t allow that...

[NR] Admitting Ignorance - Chapter 663

The team squeezes their way through the crowded street for a moment, before realizing that it was only this street that was crowded. So, with only a medium amount of embarrassment, they take a side street and are soon making much better time towards the admin building the Mayor has told them to drop by today. Though as they approach the building, they slow to a stop as there is a loose ring of guards around the building.

This makes some sense as it was also the location for the prison. ...

[NR] The Mayor Laughed - Chapter 662

The group was back in the settlement and forced to be a part of a quite dull meeting. It was a gathering of the town’s leadership going on and on about what to do about “the situation”. Though the trio weren’t the only ones done with it all.

Helina was slumped in her chair, grumbling with an ear flicking in irritation. This is mostly ignored as she was in charge of the supplies already in the town and not the guard or the fields. Siegfried, on the other hand is forced to activel...

[SD:M/H] Tongue Too Twisted - Chapter 7

The woman raises an eyebrow, “How about we Introduce ourselves first?”

Gem nods, “Ah, gotcha, same thing? Anyway, you can call me Gem! I’m the They/Them causing May/Hem!”

The woman bridles, “I didn’t get here by accident! It was just that there were too many people and I ah, yeah, here I am.”

Gem, “And your name is?”

The woman fake coughs, “Ah, right, you can call me June and uh, She/Her? I’ve never really introduced myself that way, but it only...

[D'sP] Cracked Wood - Chapter 415

In the end, no one returned to the 17th floor before Kelly figured out how to make other kinds of tokens. Though over those days, many of the inner circle made their way to the 16th. All in search of more ashen cattle hides.

This was actually the first time in a while where all of the inner circle had made it equally deep into the dungeon. Not to say any had been lagging behind in strength. Rather, many of them simply hadn’t bothered to push too deep as it was a waste of time.

B...

[D'sP] Observing Visitors - Chapter 414

Doyle watches with rapt attention. The town had already started on figuring out external magic items, but what little loot they did get from the kobolds included lizard tokens. Tokens that Kelly had already noticed and was going to be checking them out right now.

They received three of the lizard tokens from the fight, which Doyle admitted was probably a little too frequent of a drop rate. After all, it isn’t like there’s a nearby lizard based threat. Though since they are magical, ...

[NR] The Same Level - Chapter 661

Jason snaps out a kick to the right, slamming the dwarf’s shield back. All the while he has to bend his waist to the side to avoid the enemies’ back row thrusting their spears at the same time to catch him.

With him thrown off balance, the other defender goes in for a shield thrust to knock Jason over.

Jason windmills his hand up under the shield and the enemy is thrown off balance as they certainly didn’t expect to be pulled. Though Jason doesn’t follow up on this, instea...

[NR] Well Past Midnight - Chapter 660

There was a small pebble under the left side of his hip. However, Jason remained still. This was a stakeout and he had been chosen to be the closest to the fields.

Well, that doesn’t really cover it. He was IN the fields. Sure, one of the fields on the edge that stuck out, but it was the stalks of the roughly harvested field which hid him. Yes, he was hiding in a field that had been ransacked.

This might have been more dangerous if whoever was doing this hadn’t made sure not t...

[SD:M/H] Getting Out - Chapter 6

Gem looked down at their new ring and was mildly shocked, though they had been expecting something after Crystal called attention to it. So yeah, it now looked like a stylized frog, because of course it did. “Cool. So what needs to be done now?”

Crystal shrugged, “You need to escape? Good thing we have a few hidden ways out you can use. If you’re the type, consider staying outside of the city for a week. By then, a new batch will be dropped off here and drawing all the attention...

[D'sP] A Quick Fix Gets Them Through - Chapter 413

Doyle was interested in how they would handle the leather and kept an eye on it. Well, some of it. Most of the untreated ashen cattle hides

Doyle was interested in how they would handle the leather and kept an eye on it. Well, some of it. Most of the untreated ashen cattle hides were being handled in a more traditional fashion.

So Doyle instead focuses on an experiment they were running to speed tan hides with the help of magic. Now, while he didn’t know the exact time to tan a ...