Greetings all! 

I am Elandrial, Author of Once a Hero, and welcome to my mind!

I wanted to take the time to explain a few things about the story, for one it takes place in a fictional town in New Mexico in the Four Corners Area. Scott Smith retired there at the age of 39, having served 20 years in the Marines, having joined out of High School at the age of 19. He was unemployed living off of savings and inheritance.

his mom and dad died to a drunk driver killing them.

2 years later he finds himself in this new world, where hell itself has come to life and the power of the imagination rules all.

First misconception many have: Marines are NOT perfect human beings. Sure they get training and are tough, however they are still human and make mistakes. This is one of the things I am trying to show here. In combat he excels, but in day to day life, he can at times be like a fish out of water.Basically if it is not a gun or a knife, well lets see what happens.

Second misconception: Marines do not booby trap their homes. Sorry folks it is RARE that one does so and must be paranoid as hell to do so, Must get help fast imo.

Scott makes mistakes and tries to adapt, but keep in mind it is only day 5 and every hour they are practically discovering something new to remember. I never claimed he had total recall. In fact if anything he has avg to slightly above avg intelligence. He is just a normal guy like you and me when it comes to smarts. When you first start playing a game do you remember everything that you read or did? No and most things are put on a hotbar to be used. But Scott does not have that luxury, there are no hotbars or short cuts.

Scott, Julie and Cindy......sigh hehe

Day one Scott and Julie go out, she admits she wants him, and he her. Meet Cindy who is pretending to be a ditsy girl. They find out otherwise, she is intelligent and calculating however she is vulnerable. She was 38 never married, and was feeling love was hopeless to her. She is attracted to strong men (mentally), who display confidence, but she is insecure of her looks and body, thus the massive boob job.

Scott, once he saw her true personality was drawn to her, she was his type, as was Julie, he is torn now internally and is a person who keeps his word. In a rush he declared him to be Julie's and does not regret that, thus he began to close Cindy out of mind. Now keep in mind, Scott saved Cindy's life not once, not twice, but three times in less than 24 hours. Heart pumping danger, life and death each time.

Scott in her eyes is not only the shining knight she always heard and dreamed about, he was her savior. Like a leech she latched onto him emotionally. Is it love? Who knows, but that is how she feels. When things calm down and she gets a chance to think things over, who knows what will happen. She appreciates him with all her heart and is going to go out of her way to show and or do it.

Scott not in a serious relationship before gets Julie on day 1, happy as can be. Then Day 2, Cindy shows signs of affection towards him, openly. Not just a little either. He is torn, as he wants to be with Julie, that much is certain, but he feels a tug towards Cindy as well, she is all over him. She shows true affection for him as far as he can tell and there is nothing wrong with her, in fact as I said she was his type too.  What to do? His heart is going in both directions here.

Day 3 the biker gang hits and he saves them once again. Save number 4. He goes bezerk, seeing both girls about to be raped, he feels so strongly about it he blacks out. Cindy says it was because he loves them both.........he realizes she is right, but can one love another in a short time, one let alone two different girls? Sure you can. And even tho he committed to Julie, he will still love Cindy, tho he can show it openly, which he pulls off badly as Julie later points out. Tha night the girls solve his dilemma.

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To the girls Scott is an open book so easy to read it is frightening. They can not read his mind, but his body language, his face and his actions all tell them everything they need to know about him, and also the reason they love him, he is honest to a fault, both mentally and physically. He will not betray or abandon them in their minds....will this hold true thru out the story? 

Did the love happen too fast, probably, but I need these 3 together now, it is important to my story and I cut a few corners, (writers privilege) as the story is supposed to be fast paced, not giving Scott time to breathe and think, in love, danger and leading the survivors. Just when he thinks he caught a break, something new happens that throws everything back into turmoil.

Scott leading the survivors and making newbie mistakes. As I said he is human. He is learning, He is adapting, but he has Julie and Cindy, plus the Sheriff to keep him grounded. Him and the sheriff are becoming good friends. He started to call him Rick, but Sheriff is a better fit for him and a sign of respect. When the talks get more personal, he will switch to Rick once in a while if you can tell by my writing.

Guns vs Magic vs Lasers which would win? Well I can only go by my opinion and hope it makes sense to you. Are light sabers possible? No, as you can not stop light once turned on it will go and go forever, so a real light saber would well reach into space once it turns on, its harmful energy effect would diminish with distance, but the light itself goes on.

So what was the point of that you ask? I am demonstrating here that futuristic weapons such as the light saber, can not be compared to reality, thus magic itself will have a greater influence over time. tho they exist in our minds, they can not exist in reality. So making a comparison is not only hard, but unrealistic. but for the sake of the book they exist, thus everything is from my opinion from here on and may contradict others opinions. Argument may ensue, but I will ignore them as this is all from my mind.

I did not want my MC to be OP, but at times he will be, like bezerker mode and later will probably be so, but at a cost, there should always be a downside with OP stuff. So if something is too good to be true, look for the downside before going forward. Was the Advanced Marine gear OP? Against these low level mobs yes they are, but then you saw the Boss Worg, only level 28, sure he could have used the Rail Rifle, but as shown it comes at a cost.

Am I using his stats correctly? Yes, The Boss was an enhanced creature, A BOSS, not a regular creature of the same level, which he cold have probably blown away with the sidearm. So when you see boss expect a tough fight, no matter the weapons used. 

And lastly, head shot, heart shots (exception undead for heart shots), you die.....I do not care if you are a level 10000000000000000000000000000 character and have infinite hit points. However, armor, toughness, magic barriers, personal shields, deflectors, and anything else that can hinder a head shot or heart shot can come into play, but if successful, a single shot or sharp object can kill, regeneration  or not,you are dead! At least in my book.

I hope up till now you all enjoyed my story, I plan to have a total of at least 5 books, may push to 10, each book being at least 300 pages long, and we are on page 127 of the first book. So please enjoy the ride as much as me, because I am in the same boat as you, I make this up as I go, I just write, I have a direction I want to go, but then somethings changes and the story changes too. The only thing I do know is how this story will end. That will not change.

Thank  you for reading!!  And I hope this insight helped you to better understand the story thus far!