M.J. Markgraf

Kingdom of Rust Chapter 20

The town was as dead and quiet as I remembered it from my previous visit. Or so I thought at first glance from my vantage point on the distant ridge. I had decided not to blunder into the town this time without checking it out from a safe distance first. It was a good thing I had.

In the center of town was the town well and parked next to said well was a two-horse cart. That wasn’t my concern, what was, was the woman standing next to the well, pulling a ball of water from it to feed t...

Kingdom of Rust Chapter 19

When I woke up, I felt extremely lethargic. I tryed to turn my head but the effort is too much. I’m in a room and can feel a rough straw mattress under me but that’s really all I can see as I tiredly move my eyes.

A blur of movement from the corner of my eye catches my attention as a form moves. I now realize my eyes are unfocused as the shape gets closer. It's roughly human in appearance but I can’t make out a face.

“Easy there, sonny,” the calm elderly voice says as he...

Kingdom of Rust Chapter 18

The farther I got from the valley and the closer I got to home the less my mind conjured images of my imminent demise. Sure I was still afraid that my former mentor would catch up to me but keeping that level of paranoia day after day just wasn’t possible. At least for me.

I was also looking forward to going home. It had never been my intention to visit so soon after leaving but now that I was forced to go back, I wanted to see Gan, with everything that had transpired over the last tw...

Kingdom of Rust Chapter 17

“Well, well, well… what do we have here?”

Startled by the sound of Teacher’s voice, I scramble to my feet. Weeks of practice honing the instinct into me, only to relax a moment later. “By the Mother, you scared me!” I sputter out.

“You should be scared, you filthy Father worshiping bastard,” Teacher growls.

Confused, I take a step back, then I notice he has his sword out.

…Oh…oh, no.

“Teacher, I think you’re confused, I’m your mentee. Wh...

Kingdom of Rust Chapter 16

It was easy enough to return to the secluded valley of the elves. It felt weird thinking of them as elves instead of strange humans but I didn’t want to belittle their customs.

As with the first time, the leader came out to greet me. Apparently, they didn’t like outsiders within their village proper. That was fine. I had to explain to the man that I was just here to make sure no other seedy people had come by since we had left. He seemed to buy that excuse and left me to my own devi...

Kingdom of Rust Chapter 15

The needle slid through my cheek making me wince, which made the stitches pull, which caused me more pain. Sewing my cheek closed was far harder than when I did my leg, it also hurt more. Without a mirror, it took longer than I would have liked to get the last stitch in, and the wound closed. Teacher was just stepping out of the mine as I was wrapping a bandage around my head and cheek.

“Fuck sake, I’ve seen better stitching from a blind woman.” I couldn’t comment back so I just...

Kingdom of Rust Chapter 14

Our assignment took us east for a full week by horse. It was the first time I had seen the eastern mountain range. My father had told me about it from his travels but it was one thing to hear about it and another to see it in person.

Unlike the red hills and rock formations back home, these mountains were covered in green and any exposed rock was any number of shades of grey.

The path we were on was small, barely large enough for a hand-drawn cart to fit down, and led into a seclu...

Kingdom of Rust Chapter 13

After three dusty days on the road, where Teacher did his best to break my spirit, we arrived at Roddan.

The town itself wasn’t much to look at. It was smaller than the town with the Magistrate, that I just now realized I hadn’t gotten the name of.

“Teacher, what was the last town’s name?”

He looked at me like I was an idiot. “Bershal.”

Bershal…why did that name sound familiar. As our horses walked down the street, I racked my brain until I remembered. ...

Kingdom of Rust Chapter 12

A ray of sun hitting me directly in the eyes jerked me from my restless slumber. Groaning from lack of sleep, I slid my half-exposed blade back into its sheath after I realized I wasn’t in danger. Between the nightmares and the screams of ecstasy coming from my Teacher’s room next door, I hadn’t gotten a lot of sleep.

The nightmares were a bit of a surprise as I hadn’t suffered from them since leaving the city. At the time I had been too exhausted by training and travel and my n...

Kingdom of Rust Chapter 11

Teacher tied up his horse in a stable near the city outskirts and I silently trailed behind him. My passing left a wet trail along the ground and a chorus of snickers from people we passed. I swear Teacher walked the most roundabout route to get where we were going just so I would be forced to suffer the humiliation that much longer.

Thankfully our parade through the city came to an end at an official-looking stone building. It wasn’t original in its imposing design and when you’ve ...

Kingdom of Rust Chapter 10

The next few days were a nightmare for me. “Teacher” as he kept telling me to call him, he refused to tell me his real name. I assumed he wanted to be called that so I couldn’t find him later in life and exact retribution for his training methods. So, yeah… a nightmare.

I was bruised all over by the damn switch he used to correct my form. When I really screwed up or didn’t attack him with the ‘intent to kill’ – his words – then I earned a searing burn. I had quickly le...

Kingdom of Rust Chapter 9

After escaping the underground I had been pursued by a few more monsters. Each time I successfully evaded them but I could tell something was wrong with me.

First was the non-stop sweating. It got so bad that I had to rip the arm of my shirt off and tie it around my forehead to keep sweat out of my eyes. It was currently soaked and chafing my skin but I left it in place as I was currently in a precarious position to avoid one of the hunting monsters.

I had thought all the monsters...

Kingdom of Rust Chapter 8

The blue glow seemed to be coming from a doorway on the far side of this cavernous room. I carefully made my way over, trying not to splash or make any more ripples than I had to. I was also careful to test my footing before placing my weight on my next step. These buildings were old and who knew if there was a deep hole hidden by the shallow water.

As I neared the doorway, I saw it was another hallway that turned to the left. The glow was brighter here and I could see it poking through...

Kingdom of Rust Chapter 7

The noise was loud and I only made it a dozen steps down the street before a lumbering behemoth of a monster stepped from around the far corner at the next crossroads.

I froze in panic, looking for an escape as the beast reared up on its back legs and turned its head towards me. When it dropped back down I felt the entire street shake. Then it started charging down the street.

With no other options, I bolted across the tree-choked road and past broken and rusted piles of metal tha...

Kingdom of Rust Chapter 6

After I recovered from my moment of existential panic, I calmed down a bit. I was still well and truly afraid of the monsters roaming the city but I now had time to think of a way to survive.

I had made it this far without injury. I just needed to stay quiet and move out of sight or through the decaying buildings.

My current hiding spot was a large chimney. I managed to squeeze myself up past the damper, making it so I couldn’t be seen from the fireplace below. I was thankful th...

Kingdom of Rust Chapter 5

As I raced to catch up to the scavengers, I realized, I left a fortune of items behind. I doubted anyone would be kind enough to take care of them for me until I returned.

I huffed and puffed as I raced past a few people. I was fit for my age, having practiced sword fighting for hours a day for years so it wasn’t much of a surprise. The people I passed looked older and out of shape. I couldn’t help shaking my head, they had no reason to be here where speed and endurance could be the...

Kingdom of Rust Chapter 4

Cresting a small rise, I spotted the telltale signs of smoke from chimneys in the distance. I estimated a few more hours of walking and I would arrive at Shad.

From what I could learn through passing merchants and texts back while I was still at home, Shad was an odd town.

It was built for the express purpose of people trying to get rich by looting from the fallen city. I hadn’t seen signs of the fallen city yet. As far as I knew it was still another few hours past Shad.

T...

Kingdom of Rust Chapter 3

“You know Gan… you didn’t have to walk all the way here with me.”

“Bah… what sort of friend would I be if I let you walk to the outskirts by yourself? God forbid an animal or bandit jumped out and end your journey before it barely began.” I rolled my eyes as Gan chuckled at his joke. As if there were any beasts large enough around the town to harm a human. And as far as I knew there hadn’t been a bandit attack within a three-city distance in over a decade.

“Yes, ...

Kingdom of Rust Chapter 2

After dinner and the lesson on how to care for the dagger, I went to my room. It was a luxury that most families in the area didn’t have. It wasn’t that my father was wealthy. I had seen the homes of wealthy people in other cities and even remembered a few from my home country. We were well off at best. Or my father was. I was just above being a pauper. But I made due by helping out around the village to earn a few plates here and there.

My father did give me a monthly stipend when ...

Kingdom of Rust Chapter 1

Clack! Clack! Clack!

A rapid staccato of impacts reverberates around the courtyard as my friend Gan intercepts the strikes of my wooden training sword against his wooden shield. But my mind isn’t on training today instead drifting to memories from my past. It’s something that has been happening more and more as I get closer to my coming of age day. The memory today is of when I was five and shortly after my mother passed away from disease.

“Time for bed, Bakus,” my father ...

Kingdom of Rust cover art

Most of you have seen this already, but this amazing art is by artsantis over on Fiverr

Update for April.

Little change of plans for April. I was going to wait another week to release but I realized that the Writathon starts on the 1st. So to help take advantage of that fact and try and get a larger audience, I'm releasing early. It will be a bit off though. I will release the first five chapters of KoR today, then Saturday I will release the next five. After that it will be Monday through Friday until Chapter 20 is released, then back to my normal Saturday release schedule. So Congrats to the Ma...

Release schedule

With Mana System coming to an end and my new story, Kingdom of Rust kicking off in a few weeks, this is the perfect time to change things up. Do you prefer I keep the Saturday release, or would you rather I release a new chapter the same day I do on RR? 

Mana System Afterword

Hello everyone, and thanks for taking the time to read Mana System. When I first started this story, it was on a whim. I never really expected to be writing this for two years or for it to reach over 600k words.

Back before the Writathon, I realized I had no idea where to take the story after this arc. For the better part of six months, I tried to come up with an idea. One that wasn’t the same tired nonsense that some of these litrpg stories fall into when they tend to drag...

Mana System Epilogue

Martin strode down the hall of the capitol building with a worried smile on his face. He was a bit greyer now but he still oozed charm and confidence. Time had been kind to him.

The city had become a booming metropolis in the ten years since Paul returned, after his year and a half of being missing. Martin knew something had happened because one day a bunch of massive flying ships had come from nowhere and obliterated the ships that had been harassing the city non-stop for over six mont...

Mana System Chapter 226: The devil you know

As soon as the pirates realized the Guild ships were approaching the island, they broke off the fighting and retreated toward the edge of town to dig in. They weren’t stupid enough to attack the Guild but it seemed they wanted to ensure there wasn’t an accidental incident.

One of the Guild ships docked and the Captain stepped off to greet the three of us. I had been carried over by Barcos and Em’ah on the same chair she plopped me in the night before. My legs were looking less lik...

Mana System Chapter 225: A valuable lesson

Groaning, I opened my eyes. All I saw was darkness. I tried turning my head or moving but it seemed like I was pinned in place.

I fought down the urge to panic as I evaluated my condition. My arms were still broken, the sharp stabbing pain when I tried to move them told me as much. I could breathe though so my organs had healed after the beating I had taken. That was something at least.

Seeing as I was in no immediate danger of dying, I checked my skills. My blood ran cold as I sa...

Mana System Chapter 224: Unexpected arrival

Those two words seemed to freeze everyone in place, but it wasn’t magic that caused it, it was fear. My body was frozen along with everyone else but my eyes rose into the air, tracking two creatures as they forced the magical fog away from the entire area with some ability.

It was hard to tell by their alien physiology but I got the distinct impression they were looking directly at me. The initial fear was subsiding and people were starting to move again until the larger of the two sq...

Mana System Chapter 223: Beachhead

The meager fleet of ships I was now in charge of, rose from the dock and slowly spiraled into the air to get above the mist. The chaotic coloration of the mana storm was visible in the distance even through the mist. That meant the enemy was almost upon the island.

The Retribution was the first ship to breach the thick covering and it was no surprise to see the enemy ships had spread out in a crescent shape to surround the island. Enemy fast attack craft zipped toward our location and I...

Announcement for April

A bitter-sweet announcement for Mana System. After 2 years of writing it will be coming to a close at the end of this month. This wasn't a spur-of-the-moment decision as I had been thinking about it since October. It gave me time to come up with a suitable ending as I had never meant for the story to go on forever.

With the sad news out of the way, I will be taking the first week of April off, but don't let that discourage you from remaining a patron or joining up. After my short vacati...