This post is here for a few reasons:
1: The first book had been edited. God that took a long time but I finally finished it.
2: While I am getting a bit busier at work and might not have enough time to always write a chapter, I will start writing more. Why? Because I am a bit bored and I want to know what happens. ARG. It doesn't help that I have the itch to write and can't stop for all that long.
3: This will offer people a skip point to get through the dark story while giving an overview of what happened in the previous book. I know that story was dark and such. It was necessary for the story that is to come and was realistic for everything going on.
Over View of Aetheria's Awakening - SoulForge Legacy Book 1:
Our main character, along with everyone at his company, was laid off so they could automate the production. That would be all great and dandy if not for the fact that jobs were few and far between. His friend Xander convinced him to use the severance pay to buy a pod and join him in a game where he ends up getting trained by an NPC party. Barti, the elf and leader of said party, taught him how to use his Chisa Katana Shizukana Arashi and how to care for it. Mindi, the parties mage, taught him how to use magic. Tindi, the parties berserker, taught him the basics of hand to hand.
This was all well and good until he accidently got himself into a bit of trouble with a party and ended up being forced to tag along with them for a day. The party warms up to him and he is offered some of the healers secret family sauce for cooking as well as some training. Little did he know, the sauce was made from demon blood, the healers demon blood. A few days passed as he trained until the day of the festival. A day in which the gods bestowed upon every traveler (player) a quest and a SoulStone.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
The quest was to clear the world of demons as they threaten the gods and the stability of the world. The SoulStone offers the user a single time transformation to match their souls shape. It comes with a bunch of temporary boosts that, when they run out, leave behind some nasty debuffs. Barti convinces the MC to save the stone until he has no other choice. While there are a few instances that it would have been useful, he saves it until the last fight.
A fight that is between him and the guard captain. The demon that is secretly running the town. The demon that is instigating the human supremacy idiology that has gripped the city. The demon whose daughter has been feeding our MC her blood. The fight is to give the non-humans time to escape. It is a fight that Alex knows he cannot win. So, he uses the SoulStone.
The demonic blood he has been unknowingly ingesting interferes with the transformation and the issue is escalated to the gods. After a bit of work, Inari agrees to Hephaestus's plan. Instead of turning into a foxkin, Alex is turned into a female Kitsune. He (now a she) ignores the changes and fights the demon for as long as she can until, just before the timer runs out on the buffs, the demon steals the orb. With it in his possession, he orders her to stop. She defiantly blows up the gate that is preventing the rest of the group from running and passes out from the pain as all the debuffs take effect.
Xander shows up just in the nick of time and assassinates the demon, saving Alex from the demons twisted ideas. Picking her up and taking her back with him to the front lines where he can watch over her and maybe help her get stronger.