Zachary Scott

Level One God Launch Day! Ebook and Audio now available on Amazon!

Level One God is finally live on Amazon as an ebook and audiobook! I'm also excited to say John Pirhala is narrating the audio. If you're not familiar with him, he did amazing work on books like Accidental Champion, Cultivation Nerd,...

Book 3 is finished!

Hey guys! First of all, thanks so much for reading and supporting the story.

I've spent like two hours trying to write this post because I keep getting insanely long-winded, so here's attempt #15 at keeping it shorter (it's still long, but believe me it was way longer before).

With book 3 finished here on Patreon, my next step is to re-read the story and revise. After that, I need to write book 2 of my lit RPG. After that, I'm currently leaning toward a decision that may be unpo...

Chapter 142 - Book 3 Epilogues (Multiple PoVs)

Amuntep

The morning air was crisp on the surface above Thrask and a thick fog had settled across the landscape.

Talia and her Tomte friend, Norick, rode just behind me.

None of us spoke as we cantered through the fortress guarding the platform into Thrask. I kept my eyes forward, relying on my Divine Footman’s sash to serve as more than enough excuse to move past the kiergards at the gate without question.

We crossed the bridge and passed a few trave...

Chapter 141 - Cursed Wings

Burchakan hovered in place nearly a hundred feet above the battlefield, his wings extended and motionless, though the air blurred with strange energy around them, keeping him in his place.

He extended an arm and pointed toward me. The gesture was almost casual, but Mana Sense flared with immediate warning.

I jumped aside just as a pinprick of blue light slammed into the ground, erupting with a half-dome of magical light that sprayed dirt, chunks of vaporized tree stumps, and rocks...

Chapter 140 - The Beast

From my side, Vay’nar let out a scream of terror and started to run toward the outpost. I snatched his upper arm before he could get far, locking him in place. “No running,” I said. “You’re my ticket out of here if things go to shit.”

To his credit, he cleared his throat and stood a little straighter as the beast hammered into the ground, its long body burrowing out of view.

It must have been two or three hundred feet long and at least fifty feet wide. It lacked the mu...

Chapter 139 - Rathborne

Three skirmishes still raged in the small courtyard. Lyria and her group fought two nobles to the left, Kalcus was holding his own against a group of my allies led by Portus, who was using an offensive martial combat kind of skillset that made his fists blur with energy. To the right, the gravity mage and his ally were once again pushing back Thorn and the others trying to hold the top of the stairs, preventing the mages from getting the high ground against all of us.

I felt oddly calm ...

Chapter 138 - Mana

The outpost was on fire and the scent of burning wood and cooking meat filled the air.

I sprinted closer, head tilting up to track a fireball the size of a house lifting out of the treeline, trailed by a curling plume of smoke. The fire moved slowly like a rocket taking flight, but gained speed after reaching the apex of its arc and even changing direction to drift toward the outpost. Jets of water rushed up to meet the fireball and steam erupted on impact, the force of the impact drivi...

Chapter 137 - Blue and Black

I felt the power wash over me as a brand new accomplishment flashed in my vision. I stood, closing my fist. A wave of collected energy rushed out of me with a woosh, shaking the door to the small building and the loose boards overhead.

Silver.

In less than a year on Eros, I’d already climbed halfway through the ranks. From everything I’d heard, it was an unprecedented pace. But I also had every reason to believe it would only get more difficult from here.

Chapter 136 - Closing Doors [Talia]

The game manager’s room was cold, as usual, but my under robes were soaked through with sweat. Today, I knew I wasn’t the only person sweating. We all felt the pressure because the integrity of this year’s tourney was in far more danger than I had ever imagined.

Yes, disruption to the tourney and chaos were the objective I’d had in mind for months. But it was as if I had hoped to sabotage a single building and accidentally put the entire city at risk. If Brynn Stygos co...

Chapter 135 - The Celestial Stacks [Amuntep]

There was a scent unlike any other within the Celestial Stacks of Ithariel. I breathed in deeply, trying to etch it into my memory. It was the familiar notes of a library—old parchment and the preserving oils, the decaying spines of bound books, and wooden furniture. But here, there was another scent.

Strong enough magic carried a smell, and the magic here was strong. It was impossible to know if Ithariel created this place himself through some form of rare magic or if it was...

Chapter 134 - Blood and Shadow [Rake]

Nobody ever looked up. It was one of the first rules of stealth I’d ever learned, and I lost count of how many times I’d made use of this simple fact.

It was evening and I was perched high in a tree just outside the mongrel army’s first outpost. One of my legs dangled freely as I chewed idly on a handful of dried meat I’d looted from a dead aspirant yesterday.

To my right, the trees stretched on with no end in sight. To my left, there was a little wooden outpost. ...

Chapter 133 - Enemies Within [Lyria]

I stood in what had become a makeshift war room within the first outpost. The crafters had done some work to repair the leaks in the roof of the small wooden building and put together sturdier tables for us. Scouts had been busy updating our map of the tournament grounds, and we had regular pairs of people coming in to report their findings

Naia’s fingertip dragged along our makeshift map. “It’s only a matter of time,” she said.

This had become a recurring argument among t...

Chapter 132 - Courtyard Clash

I swiped away the text about Devour Mana’s Tier 3 evolution and something about an accomplishment as I stared at the man in bone armor.

Clouds blotted out the stars and the night was so dark I could barely see him. He stood in a tall doorway, most of his body and features shrouded except for the high cheekbones, nearly white eyes, and the lines of someone else’s bleached white ribcage he wore around his chest. 

He seemed to drift closer rather than walk, his long face and...

Chapter 131 - The Bone Choir [Voy'nar]

Lord Ashmore waited silently as we watched the constructs drag corpse after corpse into the center of the keep’s courtyard. For some reason, a small viewing portal showing a group of grommets was hovering near the pile of bodies.

Odd. 

Grommets weren’t particularly morbid creatures, and the viewing portals had largely steered clear of us once the game managers caught wind of our grisly deeds.

“Eliminated?” Lord Ashmore asked me, voice pitched low and curious. �...

Chapter 130 - Working Too Well [Talia]

I chewed a nail as I watched The Master’s Eye. The game manager’s room was thick with silence except for the sound of approaching feet.

I nearly choked when I turned and saw the approaching figures. Around me, others fell to their knees bowing or backed away, faces pale with terror. King Theon and Calipha Ra-Set strode toward us, leaving silence and wide eyes in their wake.

Calipha approached the Master’s Eye as senior game managers and junior managers alike scrambled to get...

Chapter 129 - The Proposition [Vitus]

I rested my frozen gauntlets on the wall of the latest keep we’d taken. My jaw was set as I watched the open clearing for signs of movement, occasionally scanning the trees beyond.

Marcia moved to my side. The normally pristine girl smelled of sweat and the faintly metallic scent of blood. Her dark hair was pushed away from pretty features, upturned eyes ringed with dark circles. “Anything?” she asked.

“No,” I said. “And Isarona wouldn’t miss her de...

Chapter 128 - Scouting Party [Nephele]

For the fourth time in the last hour, I seriously considered eliminating Darius myself.

The muscle-covered man strode beside me speaking at full volume, snapping every fucking twig, stick, and branch he came across, and worst of all? He was trying to get into my pants.

Again.

“...Thirteen times,” he said, turning to me with a smile that showed a single dimple. Darius was handsome, but noble breeding meant almost everyone in our social circles was nice to look at...

Chapter 127 - Pigs

The Coil Gromville was growing on me. They had begun keeping guinea pigs as pets and using some kind of crushed up pigment to paint the guinea pig fur bright colors. Each Coil grommet was usually seen with a little bright-colored pig under one arm and sometimes even more burrowing into their thick grommet hair.

The Coil grommets found me when I was on my way back to the outpost after surviving the second challenge area. I was tired, filthy, and itching to sleep in my cursed bedroll so I...

Chapter 126 - Summoned [Amuntep]

I stood in the game managers room with hands clasped behind my back, eyes trained on what they called “The Master’s Eye.” At the moment, it displayed a view of the man with the horned helmet. Currently, he was speaking with grommets who all carried small furry pig-like creatures. They appeared to be excited about something which the man in the horned helmet did not appear to be excited about.

Curious.

He wasn’t the only curiosity in the tournament, of cou...

Chapter 125 - Hole in a Tree

My Abyss Walker boots squelched in the soggy undergrowth and fallen leaves. It had been raining off and on all day, and the night was already shaping up to be the coldest yet in the tournament.

The bulky, clattering plates of armor I wore strapped to my uniform didn’t help. The metal armor absorbed every bit of cold and seemed to radiate it back toward my skin. 

Unlike the other suits of armor Torgen made for the mongrel army, mine was a bit unique. We had to focus on sewin...

Chapter 124 - Plans

I hoisted a big wooden post with the tip carved into a spike and helped Hector carry it out the front gate of our newest outpost. More rain drizzled down on us as dawn settled over the tournament grounds. We dragged the heavy post through the mud, leaving a long winding groove that joined dozens of others just like it.

We passed through the front gate of the fourth outpost and found Erasmus, Thorn, Ramzi, and Protus planting more defensive wooden spikes in pre-dug holes.

High abov...

Chapter 123 - Battering Ram

I kept low as I moved through the thick forested area outside the third outpost. There were bushes everywhere with edges sharp enough to slice skin and some kind of bugs I kept having to swat away from my skin. Annoyingly, they seemed completely disinterested in Erasmus, who also wasn’t sweating despite the heat.

Erasmus insisted on coming with me, claiming the kiergard race didn’t need to sleep as much as other humanoids. Everyone else was back at the first outpost sleeping after o...

Chapter 122 - The Bone Choir

It was my first time back at the outpost we’d taken from the wooden constructs. Everyone needed half a day to recover before we could push to claim a third outpost tomorrow, so we were taking the night off for recovery.

The crafting team was happily testing the fit and balance of metal armors and weapons as we all gathered in the outpost courtyard for a very late dinner. Protus stirred a huge cauldron of soup that smelled absolutely incredible, his bald head shimmering by the light of...

Chapter 121 - Frost Keep [Vitus]

The frozen gauntlet caught Julius across the ribs, and I heard the crack of ice forming on his armor. He rolled with the blow, twin swords already moving to sever the animated armor’s elbow joint. We all knew by now that the ice would keep spreading unless the beast was killed.

“Flank! Pincer it!” I barked, bringing my greataxe down in an overhead strike that split another suit of armor from helm to groin. The pieces shattered like glass, trailing wisps of condensed air as they cl...

Chapter 120 - Muscle God [Lyria]

The smell hit me first in the makeshift infirmary. It was rot and sickness mixed with whatever ungodly combination of herbs the grommets kept bringing, chewing, and spitting on the wounded.

Wherever Brynn was, he needed to hurry the hell up and get back here.

I pressed my sleeve to my nose as another guinea pig scurried past my feet, carrying what looked suspiciously like a human tooth.

“For the last time,” Yolo wheezed, his face gray with exhaustion from hours of heal...

Chapter 119 - The Trap

The second outpost was loud with the sounds of the wounded. It was ours, along with another altar that let us claim a second piece of equipment and a crafting station designated for metal works, but the cost had been high.

Both a slave and an aspirant had died to take this place. I’d hoped to be wrong, but when the aspirant girl took a claw to the neck, her stasis had never triggered. She simply died, eyes wide with confusion and betrayal.

Victory or not, the ghoul-like things d...

Chapter 118 - First Steps

I stretched sore muscles, grimacing as something pinched in my lower back. With a quick, nearly reflexive surge of mana, I cleansed away the

I stretched sore muscles, grimacing as something pinched in my lower back. With a quick, nearly reflexive surge of mana, I cleansed away the discomfort. I devoted a portion of my focus to meditating to recover the slight loss of mana with the same automatic nature.

It was odd how quickly I was taking to all of this. At times, I still wondered...

Chapter 117 - Phoenix

Circa

Rock sat on a flat stone to my right, sipping his favorite tea. Loudly.

I tried not to breathe too deeply because the stuff had an earthy scent so strong it burned my nostrils.

Aside from the occasional sip and sigh of Rock, the only sounds were night birds chirping as the sun set and the quiet, cool breeze rustling the grass. 

Neither of us said much. We didn’t have to. I’d fought with Rock and chased Forsaken with him by my s...

Chapter 116 - The Game Managers

Talia

The viewing chamber of the game manager’s guild hummed with controlled chaos as I stepped through the doorway, my yellow robes swishing across perfectly clean stone floors.

A clammy wave of sweat beaded across my lower back and brow despite the chill in the room. I surreptitiously wiped it from my face, keeping my expression a careful neutral. Showing fear here was a quick recipe for the wrong sort of attention.

No.

I was supposed to be exultan...

Chapter 115 - Womp

One moment, the constructs were charging at full speed. The next, they were covered in brown hairy masses and falling apart one limb at a time. Nails, iron banding, and pieces of wood flew in every direction.

The sound of creaking wood, bending iron, and crunching teeth was almost as deafening as the roaring crowds and announcers in the view portals.

When the dust settled, there was a mass of dusty grommets and half of the huge constructs were simply… gone. All that remained of ...