by Charles Dean
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Lars didn’t know what to expect next. He was helpless. He had been stripped of his health, his guards were dead, and his body was lying in front of a warehouse only a few feet from the road. But the one thing he didn’t expect when he was finally capable of opening his eyes was to see Ophelia. He had only seen her image once before, but there in front of him, like the most beautiful sunrise he’d ever seen in his life, was the transcendent opulence of her purple eyes staring into his.
“Good morning, Lars,” she said, the words coming out of her mouth instead of just popping into his head with an accompanying text bubble. “Did you sleep well?”
I . . . I did, Lars thought in reply. He was having trouble forming words as he looked into her gorgeous eyes, the two amethyst crystals shining with every ounce of hope and wonder his heart could hold. “It was . . .” The words finally exited his mouth this time. “It hurt a little bit, but seeing you again . . . it almost feels worth it to see you again.” The words spilled out before his brain could catch up to his speech.
“Uhh . . . well . . . I . . . umm . . .” Su Ryeon’s voice replied, causing the illusion of Ophelia’s face to begin to crack. “It’s just good you’re still alive. I didn’t want to die.”
“It was a close one indeed, little one,” the old man who had saved Lars said, and as Lars turned his head, he began to understand why he was being called “little one.” There, so large that even Jung would be at least a head shorter, stood an old man peering across a carriage cart at Lars. “But, somehow, you seem perfectly all right. Most people would have been bedridden for months, but you’re fine.”
“Fine . . . and stronger,” Su Ryeon noted. “Did you go up another stage in that fight?” she asked. She leaned over Lars and peered into his eyes, resting half of her own body against Lar’s upper torso.
“I’m Apep, and I’m interested in that question as well,” the old man added.
“Let him rest. He just lost his mother again, and he’s still not all here yet,” Desdemona, who was apparently there too, said. “The trip to the sect is a long one, so you’ll have plenty of time to nag him once he’s feeling better.”
Lars couldn’t even raise his neck far enough to see where she was.
“Ha ha! Quite a lively little slave you have,” Apep said. “To even defend your rest against an old man like me. Not many would. Do you seduce all of your slaves?”
“Seduce all of his slaves? He didn’t seduce me!” Su Ryeon protested.
“Young lady, you don’t need to lie to me. I saw the way you blushed and smiled when he used his devilish tongue to compliment you the moment he woke up.”
“I . . . I just was worried about your man,” Su Ryeon replied.
What in the heck is he? Lars wondered as he looked at him. Of course you’d be worried at the man with curling black horns, golden eyes, and two large black scaled wings jutting out from his back. The stranger’s appearance was more fascinating than any silly argument Su Ryeon was having with him. Lars studied the man’s features to try to identify what type of cultivator he was and how he had wings, a thing Lars had never seen before.
That is a Lesser Clay Brick Stage dragon cultivator and likely your new sect’s master from what we’ve heard. He also seems to be doing something funny to the carriage with wind because we’re not feeling even the slightest bump. Usually a cart of this width and size without the ancient human technology’s springs would be bouncing all over. I wonder if we’re flying.
My new sect . . . Lars thought, unsure of his situation. What’s the point? Why do I need to go to a sect? I still need to find my mother again. Lars protested the idea of going to some school when his mother, just like when he had left his village, was still suffering some unknown fate, captive to some clan.
You’re alive. You’re alive, and so is she. They’ll keep her safe, and this old man will keep you safe, so stop complaining. Suck it up and go to that sect. We’ll figure out what to do when we get there, but as you are now, you couldn’t even touch a hair on this man’s head if a real fight started, and even he couldn’t stop just two members of your mother’s clan.
Freaking hell, Lars grumbled. There has to be something I can do. He actually considered just following Ophelia’s constant, nagging, murderous suggestions. He thought for a moment that if he could go on a quick and brutal-enough rampage, he could save his mother. He might turn into a monster, but to save her, that felt somehow worth it to Lars.
Lars. For once, just turn off that brain of yours and close your eyes. Let’s get some sleep. We’ve got a long road ahead of us and a lot of things to figure out.
Yeah . . . we have a lot to figure out. Lars let out whatever air was in his lungs as he pushed his head back and forth, trying to get comfortable on the pillow, and closed his eyes. We have a lot to figure out, but at least I got you to help me do it.
Yeah. I’ll help you kill them all, Lars. Every last one of them.
About the Author
Charles Dean has an English Degree and an MBA. He's worked in multiple service and sales level jobs.
He spent most of his childhood playing every story-based RPG and reading every fantasy book he could get his hands on. When he finally ran out, as the price of books and games was rather costly, he tried writing his own. The first LitRPG he produced was a simple Diablo 2 fanfic, involving the president becoming a Paladin in an epic quest to save the world from a treacherous demon's nefarious plot. Unfortunately, this book was part of a creative writing assignment for a school project and the teacher deemed it 'too violent.' It would be over a decade later until he finally had free time to begin his next attempt at a LitRPG with his original series The Bathrobe Knight.
You can follow him for upcoming releases, beta-reading opportunities, and general shenanigans at the Dean Novels Facebook page.
Special Thanks
A special thanks to the amazing efforts of those who sampled the earlier, less-than-edited version of this book. We thrive on the feedback of our readers, and these proud souls stepped forward and deserve special recognition. The fearless, the brave, the beta readers:
Bilal
J.B.
Brandon
Dray
Kyle
Michael
Ramon
Other Books by Charles Dean
The Bathrobe Knight:
Darwin, a video game addict, was sitting in his bathrobe and slippers playing his favorite MMO on a Christmas night when an uninvited guest breaks into his house to steal his belongings. After the scuffle is over, he finds himself transported into one of the sword-and-magic RPG-style MMOs that he has always loved to play, albeit one he has never heard of, where he has to overcome trials and tribulations at every turn as he fights for his life alongside new companions.
Available on Amazon
The Bathrobe Knight Volume II:
Having gone from a simple video game addict to the leader of a band of refugees, Darwin continues to cut his way across the world of Tiqpa searching for a home. Be it his home in real life, or one for his people in the game, the sleepless warrior presses forward. Unfortunately for him, each step he makes changes the fate of Tiqpa, a fact that is not welcomed by those who inhabit the lands.
Available on Amazon
The Bathrobe Knight Volume III:
Our hero carries on down the path that has been laid out before him. He must wrestle with the task of leading a new race of Demons and grapple with a madness that threatens to completely consume him–all while working with a bounty on his head and thousands seeking to kill him.
Available on Amazon
The Merchant of Tiqpa
Tiqpa, the first VRMMO to hit the markets, has become a world in and of itself with its own burgeoning political structure and growing strife between kingdoms and players. This unknown terrain, ripe with opportunities, becomes a new frontier which Locke, a blacksmith, tries to use to pay off real-world debts. But when he is betrayed by one of his business partn
ers, he finds himself caught between his growing lust for revenge and his very real need for capital.
Available on Amazon
The Merchant of Tiqpa 2
When a diplomatic mission goes off the rails, Locke quickly finds himself between a rock and a hard place as old urges and new desires clash to shape the life and death decisions that he is forced to make. He soon realized that a mysterious new organization is pulling everyone’s strings and calling the shots from the shadows, and it seems to have the uncanny ability to anticipate his every move. Ultimately, he must choose between saving a friend’s life or a kingdom from the brink of corruption
Available on Amazon
War Aeternus: The Beginning
Lee is a quiet and unassuming office worker who leads a life of solitude, comfort, and routine. Day in and day out, he shuts off his brain, keeps his head down, and goes about doing his job and minding his own business. That is, he does until a drunken god shows up randomly one day and whisks him off into another world, demanding that Lee serve as his pawn in a game between the gods. Now, trapped in a completely different world full of danger, magic, and creatures he's never imagined outside of fairy tales and video games, Lee has to figure out how to stay alive long enough to make it back home.
Available on Amazon
War Aeternus 2: Sacrifices
Desperate to save as many people as he can from a horrible fate in the cruel game of the gods, Lee and his small group of friends abandon the relative safety of Satterfield for the great city of Kirshtein. Tensions within the city have reached a breaking point after the arrival of an enemy Herald, and Lee is soon caught up in the struggle for power. Captured, imprisoned, and forced to fight for his life on the blood-soaked sands of the Kirshtein arena, Lee has to figure out how to survive long enough to mend the rifts in the broken city before it falls apart completely. Armed with new skills, joined by new allies, and up against his most dangerous enemy yet, Lee's bid for survival in the War of Eternity takes on even higher stakes as he learns the what true leadership requires. Now, with an ominous new threat looming in the distance and an army on the horizon, Lee has to answer one question: Can he pay the price of victory?
Available on Amazon
War Aeternus 3: The Culling
Struggling to recover from his losses in Kirshtein, Lee is swept back into the fray when a dangerous new Herald sets her sights on him. Hell-bent on reshaping the world in her own image and with her own ideals, she is willing to commit even the most immoral acts in her pursuit of righteousness. At risk of losing everything he has worked so hard to create, Lee has to find a way to defend the weak against a madwoman whose deranged sense of justice has twisted the limits of the game.
To make matters even more difficult, Lee is forced to face these problems while dealing with an increasingly erratic system he doesn't understand and the Goddess of Blood's own strong-willed Herald.
Available on Amazon
War Aeternus 4: Harbinger of Ash
Lee has managed to survive encounters with the Heralds of three different gods, but the price he that has paid has been tremendous. Every step he takes leads him closer to victory in the cruel game that he had been forced to play, but it also takes him further down a dark path and away from the man he used to be.
After receiving a request for aid from a beautiful and mysterious messenger, Lee and his inner circle travel to nearby Birnefeld, a large and prosperous city ruled by the Dragon King. Before he ever arrives, however, Lee encounters a group of marauders ransacking the countryside, meets a strange new Herald who has set up camp in the region, and receives the dire news that the hero Brigid of Kildare has gone missing. To make things worse, a powerful new enemy is stalking him from the shadows, toying with his dreams and striking at his closest relationships. With the seeds of doubt sown, Lee has to choose whom he can trust before his nightmares become reality and everything he has worked so hard for goes up in flames.
Available on Amazon
War Aeternus 5: End of the Faithful
Lee has barely established his foothold in the kingdom of Birnefeld, and yet enemy forces are already rushing to attack. Almost all of the other Heralds have been stamped out of existence by the anti-religious zealot King Ramen, and now that the ruthless rule of the empire has turned his sights toward the newly conquered realm, and started marching a massive army easily capable of crushing the entire kingdom beneath their feet straight toward Lee's doorstep. With no other choice, Lee has to turn to the nemesis who plagued his dreams, the Mistress of Shadows, for help. Now, with everything on the line, Lee has to race against the clock to gather the last remaining world stones and finally finish the gods’ cruel game and close out the final chapter of War Aeternus before King Ramen puts an end to the faithful.
Available on Amazon
The Heroic Villain
Although he was once the promising young CEO of a successful corporation, Lucas abandoned everything he knew and retreated from both the real world and his demanding life following a horrific accident. In order to cope with tragic loss, he began spending his time in virtual reality, lazing about in the sun and living a carefree life.
When he learns that his escapist paradise is being threatened and is about to disappear, however, Lucas is once again forced to take action and do what he does best: take charge. With newfound purpose, Lucas desperately begins making plans that will not only save the world that he has come to love but also propel him back into the spotlight once again—only this time as the villain.
In this GameLit LitRPG adventure, Lucas overthrows local lords, assumes command of the evil Imperium’s forces, and begins designing a dungeon that no player would ever want to miss out on. As he struggles to evolve his monsters and create an entourage of minions in order to become the greatest villain ever, however, Lucas realizes that things aren’t going to be as easy as they initially seemed.
Available on Amazon
The Heroic Villain 2
After conquering all of Hesse, creating a devilish new dungeon, and establishing himself as the villain that everyone loves to hate, Lucas decides to continue his quest to create new content by taking over as a dungeon master on the mainland.
Unlike the dominant force on the island he left behind, however, the once-mighty Imperium only controls a single capital city in a rapidly shrinking territory, leaving a group of scheming nobles to bicker among themselves and fight over scraps of land. Seen as an upstart and rabble-rouser, Lucas is instantly shunned and must struggle to find somewhere to begin building his new base. Now, after declaring himself the enemy of every man in the city, and with every player in the region hunting his head to claim the bounty placed there, Lucas has to decide which allies he can trust as he fights to stay alive long enough to establish a new lair and gain a foothold in a hostile land.
Introducing new monsters, a curious new group member, and flashy new spells, this Gamelit LitRPG adventure follows Lucas as he writes his own story as the greatest villain the game world has ever known.
Available on Amazon
The Heroic Villain 3
After a night of drunken debauchery following the defeat of the academy's headmistress, Lucas awakens to trouble on all fronts. The steady balance of power within the Imperium has been shaken by his's presence, and the resulting aftermath is a town full of heavily armed and well-staffed enemies that seek Lucas's death. Lucas must not only survive their assault but also manage his own slowly crumbling internal affairs when his party begins to fracture. Angered by Lucas's increasingly selfish actions, some of his closest allies are tempted to turn against him.
Follow our protagonist while he tries to grow his influence within the empire, survive the daggers in his back from Imperium traitors, and restore the relationship he truly wants with the woman he has slowly fallen in love with in this epic litrpg adventure from Charles Dean.
Available on Amazon
Books by Richard Haygood
Death Flag
Madison spen
ds his days lugging around boxes in a warehouse while dreaming of adventure and longing to see the world. He keeps his head down, goes to work, and does his job to earn a living, but he can't help but feel that his life is passing him by with nothing that he can do to change it. Then, on the way home from work one day, he is confronted by a beautiful but vengeful woman who accuses him of crimes he doesn't remember committing and banishes him to another world as punishment.
Now, trapped in a mysterious world he didn't think existed outside of fairy tales, pursued by angry slavers and vengeful pirates, and in the company of killers and assassins, he has to figure out how to survive long enough to get revenge and make it home. The only problem is that he might not be as innocent as he thinks he is, and everyone else seems to know more about his past than he does.
Available on Amazon
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