I wanted to give a shoutout to a new Royal Road book called Vile, by TheRottingBard. It's a book that hasn't gotten as much attention as I think it deserves.
Here's a quick intro to it:
What happens when you take four gun-toting rural Texan teens and give them access to a magical world? When they decide to keep it a secret from authorities to keep it to themselves, what's the worst that could happen?
What happens when that same magical world has depths and layers that they aren't prepared for? When they can't tell who the real monsters are? When our world itself might be threatened by monsters?
Follow the group of four teens--Dove, Mitchel, Striver, and Kilgore--as they navigate this new world and new abilities. Will they become heroes, or will they be unwitting accomplices to a far worse fate?
Vile
NOTE: This story has been removed by the author.
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On Wednesday, Wizard’s Tower got a shoutout from MelasD, author of Salvos, Tian, and Melas.
So, in order to say thank you, I decided I would kill a djinn. Which led me to buying an old lamp off Ebay that was *guaranteed* to summon one.
The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
When it arrived, however, I realized I had made a mistake. I couldn’t just summon the Djinn in the house, or my kids would wanna make a wish or something. (Silly kids: don't they know Djinn are murderous monsters from hell and not Robin Williams or Will Smith? SMH. Too much imagination.)
In order to rectify this mistake, I snuck out to the tool shed with the lamp well-hidden in my shirt and left the package behind.
So it was, that after furiously rubbing this lamp for three hours in my tool shed, my wife came to inform me dinner was ready with the words: 'You know the label said replica, right?'
To MelasD, whom I cannot offer Djinn corpse as thanks at this time, I ask you to accept this shoutout back instead:
If you've ever considered what it might be like to be reborn into hell as a demon and fight your way to power under a LITRPG system, then I offer you the solution: Salvos.
At 1300+ pages, 2.9 million views, and an ebook, Salvos is one of the most popular stories on this website.
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Psst! Psssst!! At a recent conclave--erm, *cough* "zoom" meeting, I was informed about a certain story joining the Royal Road wizardly ranks. So I thought to investigate and found:
Hump is not just any wizard. He's a hedge wizard’s apprentice stuck in a precarious position after his master's death.
Inheriting a tome of magic, a staff, and a horse, Hump must now find his own path in life as he navigates situations that all pose great risks to himself.
Follow him on his journeys and find out how.
The Hedge Wizard
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/43181/the-hedge-wizard
Edit: this story has also been released to Amazon and can be found here: https://www.royalroad.com/amazon/B09T75SQS9.