So here we are again, fam!

Yet another story on Royal Road (I still have to stop myself from typing "RRL" -ha!)

As noted in the blurb, this story is in the same greater universe as Apocalypse Cultivation, Sponsored Apocalypse, and Past Life Hero.

I was inspired heavily by Frieren. This story's plot, message, ideas, and characters are NOTHING like Frieren. What I was most inspired by was the vibe. I think Frieren is great about exploring a fantasy world in a low key way, and seamlessly transitioning into high stakes goals, or incredible battles. It is not really epic fantasy, and not really cozy fantasy, either.

I'd like to call it..."Exploration Fantasy." I'm actually serious. And since I helped popularize "GameLit" in the past, maybe I can make this happen!

ha! But you're here to read a fun story, I doubt you care about all this author navel-gazing stuff.

Before we get to that, I'll give my normal, quick spiel for new people, and I apologize if it comes across a little arrogant, but I promise I'm just trying to be brief here and not fill the page with words that will probably still fail at communicating my attitude about all of this in type:

I am a full time author. My books do pretty well on Amazon, even if they don't always do great on Royal Road. I post stuff here for fun more than monetary concerns, but I do have a Patreon, and I do post chapters there. The main reason for that is because I most listen to feedback on Patreon.

If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

If you note grammar errors or typos, I will usually fix them, but only on new chapters. All of this stuff is eventually going to an editor before the book gets published.

Because I'm writing a book, not a web serial, my chapters can be longer than some other stories on RR. I'm never going to release a chapter a day past the first dump. Cliffs are usually handled differently than web serials. I like web serials /and/ books, so just keep in mind that this is not a battle, and I am aware that the structure might be different than some other stories on here.

Some of you might be wondering why I take the time to write forewords like this, but trust me, it cuts down significantly on PMs from people who can't even write legibly sending me dumb advice about what I need to do to be a "real" author. RR can already be kind of soul-killing for writers, because as humans our brains are dumb. We can see 1000 nice things and then focus on one attack that is written at a 3rd grade level. Luckily, I have amazing readers who often give me the 1001 nice comments first to /barely/ help ignoring the dumb stuff.

In advance, thank you for being awesome. And thank you in advance for the constructive criticism, too. Although I don't give it as much weight on here, I will still read it. And as the youtubers say, engagement is engagement!

lol.../wrists

Okay, that's probably enough yammering. On to the story!

-BC