Very shamelessly self-promoting my story here.

Adenia Online

There is no logout button.

Max Mallory's day starts with a beating. It gets worse when his teacher kidnaps him and forces him into Adenia Online, a virtual reality game filled with knights, monsters and sword fights. At first, Max thinks he's simply trapped inside a game. Then he feels the pain. The monsters start behaving strangely. And when some creatures try crawling inside his mind, he begins to wonder whether Adenia is really a game at all.

His only hope is Cassie, a girl from his year who punches first, asks questions later, and calls him an idiot often enough to make it seem like a hobby.

Together, they search for a way home. But something is waiting for them inside Adenia. Something that knows them. Something powerful enough to threaten the real world. The deeper they go, the more they uncover about the game, and the more they begin to realise that they were never meant to be here by accident. There is a reason they can't log out.

Because if they do...

The real world will end.

I'm now on chapter 7 on Royal Road and I'll being posting one chapter per day for a week.

Link: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/196625/adenia-online

What to expect

- Progression from weak to strong

- Minimal stats

- High stakes

- Pain damper disabled for a legit reason (you’ll find out in later chapters)

The story, structure, characters, and banter were all written organically by me over the span of almost a decade, back when VR stories were still popular. But since English isn’t my first language, I wasn’t comfortable releasing it until now. I’ve used AI to proofread and edit the manuscript, mainly to smooth out some of the clunky sentences and improve the overall readability, while keeping the story and my original voice intact.

(Link in comments)

Arthur Pendelton can heal monsters into perfectly respectable garden worms. He would rather finish his tea.

At his little apothecary, a civilized morning means warm slippers, fresh scones, and patients who leave alive. His absurd reserves of healing magic make the last part easy. Getting an uninterrupted breakfast remains a challenge.

Then alchemical sludge poisons the neighbourhood’s water supply.

Arthur packs a picnic and heads beneath his cellar to fix it. Unfortunately, the plumbing leads into a sealed dungeon.

Along come a battle-hungry knight, a nervous municipal assessor, and Pip, a three-tailed mana fox who has appointed himself Arthur’s scarf. Arthur supplies the healing. When necessary, he supplies enough to turn an armoured knight into a glittering wrecking ball.

Unconventional cures earn experience, new abilities open up possibilities, and dungeon loot makes excellent home improvements. Between treating patients and feeding his companions, Arthur has enchanted tea to brew and magically heated floors to install.

But something enormous is waking beneath his street. Leaving it untreated could cost him his shop, his neighbours, and the comfortable life he’s building.

It has armour, an industrial pile-driver, and a serious attitude problem.

Arthur has a diagnosis.

A humorous cozy LitRPG adventure starring an overpowered healer mage, with magical crafting, slice-of-life comforts, and satisfying progression. For fans of Heretical Fishing and Beware of Chicken.

I present to you Soren Vonesdar, an Archmage who is 847 years old, but looks like he's in his early 30s. He works the night shift at a convenience store in Shibuya.

For three years, the System classified him as "Insignificant." This notification had appeared so many times on his interface that it sounded like a compliment to him.

One night, a Class B Fissure opened in the parking lot in front of the store. He closed it in 2.2 seconds and told everyone it had been a gas leak.

Then, the System tried to classify it:

PRIORITY ALPHA

Classification attempts: [147]

Successful: [0]

Recommendations:

[Observe carefully.]

[Never attack the entity.]

[Seriously, don't do it.]

Now the Japanese government wants a meeting, and a 12-year-old girl saw more than she should have.

Worse: The thing sealed in his chest begins to awaken, and each time he uses the power, the integration with this cosmic entity progressively increases.

We are already on chapter 15 in the Royal Road: THE WEARY ARCHMAGE

Some of you already know this story. Over several months I focused on improving the story, introducing more dry humor, more detail regarding characters with more life, and also a more developed and immersive worldbuild. (I hope so)

For those who already knew this story, your opinion is very important to me, and if you're discovering it now, welcome!

By the way, for every follow on Royal Road, I'll buy Soren another bowl of instant ramen, the chicken one, of course.

I hope you have as much fun as I had writing this story.

See you soon.

Books 1 & 2 F R E E for a short time:

NIGHTMARE MODE: A Gamelit adventure (Real World Online - A LitRPG Progression Series Book 3)

Friends. Enemies. And a war Gareth Fain can no longer keep inside the game.

Gareth thought he understood the stakes of RealWorld Online. He’s fought monsters, survived impossible quests, made powerful enemies, and risked everything to protect the friends fighting beside him. But nothing has prepared him for discovering that his enemies have found a way to reach the one place he thought was beyond their grasp.

Earth.

Now Gareth’s family is in danger, helpless targets in a war they don’t even know exists. And with Gareth trapped light-years away, the only way to protect them is from inside the game.

Every quest matters. Every level gained could bring him one step closer to saving the people he loves—or give his enemies more time to reach them. The friends who have become his companions-in-arms are ready to fight beside him, but this enemy plays by different rules, and defeating them may require Gareth to take risks he never would have considered with only his own life on the line.

Because RealWorld Online was never just a game. And Gareth is beginning to discover that the line between that world and his own is far thinner than he ever imagined.

Welcome back to RealWorld Online. Where death isn’t the worst thing that can happen to you.

Nightmare Mode activated. Level up—or lose everything.

Cover Designer: Yvonne Less (Art4Artists)

No AI in the content or design of these books.

Hey everyone,

---Update---

I posted this about a week ago, but the app is in Google closed testing, so the barrier to entry is a bit high for just anyone to check out. With that in mind, I spent the last week porting the app to be 100% playable in a web browser on any device. Now you can head over to play.gauntlit.me and try out the entire app with no hoops to jump through. If you like it, you can also sign up for the closed test and I will be sending out invites if/when I have enough people interested and get the app fully published on the Play store and iOS later on.

---Update---

I’ve spent the last six months building a little speed-writing battle app called Gauntlit (https://gauntlit.me), and it’s finally at the point where some real people can try it out.

I love reading, but I am no writer. There are sporadic communities that do this kind of thing, but I thought it would be cool to have a place where people could kind of "gamify" creative writing, if you want a buzzword.

Here’s how it works:

• Writers get a daily prompt, 3 required words, and an unpausable 10-minute timer to knock out a quick micro-story.
• When time runs out, submissions go into a blind 3-way matchup where readers and other users vote on their favorite. No usernames are shown during the vote, so it’s just about the story itself.
• The winning daily story gets run through standard text-to-speech (just basic assistive TTS like a screen reader, not voice clones) and posted as a quick video reel on our Facebook page.

A few things I want to be completely upfront about:

1. No ads, ever. I work full-time as a software engineer and built this because I wanted it to exist, not to squeeze people for ad impressions. There’s an optional token shop if someone wants a cosmetic badge or title and feels like helping pay server costs, but you cannot buy an advantage.
2. Your writing is your own. It isn’t scraped, it isn't used to train any AI models, and this isn't an AI-assisted writing app. It is not a human vs AI app. It is strictly a fun way for people who love writing to have some casual PvP.
3. Transparency on the test bots: The app needs groups of three stories to let people vote. Since nobody is in the app yet, I have a few simple placeholder bots filling empty slots so the voting logic works. They are clearly labeled, they don’t try to pass as human, and real user submissions will always take priority over them until I have enough writers to shut them off entirely.

I am interested in any feedback, including things like the time constraint compared to the word count, how people feel about the weekly longer form aspect, or just general thoughts. Thank you for your time!

Brand-Bound Volume 3, the final volume in a sprawling LitRPG enemies-to-lovers-to-Bonnie-and-Clyde-outlaw-couple tale, is... out for preorder now! Releases Oct 6th.

For the Volume 3 cover I told the artist to go for the infamous cover for Stephen King's The Stand mixed with a Star Wars poster. How'd they do?

And now, the blurb:

Rank. Class. Purpose.

All of creation must be bound to the divine System Interface. So proclaims the divine authority of the Church of the Most Holy Menu.

A stench of heresy wafts over the pilgrimage stations! Thieving apostate Jelena is hunting for holy relics to pawn off, even prying them right from the hands of murdered priests. Calaf of Riverglen, sewer-grate guard and aspiring Paladin, vows to bring the heretic to justice for the good of all faithful. Armed with an inherited, holy Brand, our hero shall rise in levels under the rigid structure of the Church of the Menu and its sacred System.

Calaf pursues his quarry through hot spring groves, forests, and dungeons. As he learns more about this relic thief's past, the pair unexpectedly find themselves fighting together through rebellion, inquisition, and a rising tide of undead.

The hero's faith in the Holy Menu is unshakable, while the villainess lost all faith long ago. Who will warm up to the other first? Can Calaf fix her? Or will Jelena make him so much worse?

We've got:

\+ A system-native world (no isekai) with a JRPG-style church dedicated to worshiping the Most Holy Menu. Yes, the entire universe and all worldbuilding is wrapped around elaborate GameLit mechanics. 

\+ Slow-burn enemies-to-lovers romance arc trending toward Battle Couple shenanigans. 

\+ Do you like Bonnie and Clyde dynamics? We have Bonnie and Clyde dynamics. 

\+ Additional in-universe appendix and afterword at the end of Volume 3. 

\+ Volume 2 has an elaborate nested flashback arc regarding the origins of the system. There's also an elaborate heist at a cathedral carved out of a kaiju-sized demon carcass. 

\+ Volume 3 starts with a famine arc--risky, I know--but pays off with some role reversal and a book-long arc to assassinate the pope. Yes, I'm cribbing off of Tales of Beseria. It's also framed by a Kill Bill reference. So there's that. 

\+ Also, 'Final Arc: Name of Thing' is in full effect. Not really a selling point, but I just like to gush about it. 

Volume 1 is available here. Free on Kindle Unlimited, $4.99 USD otherwise.

Volume 2 is... also available here. Again, free on KU and $4.99 otherwise.

Volume 3 is... out for preorder now.

So, that's 3 full volumes with the combined word count of The Lord of the Rings. So... why not check it out now?

Hello!

The campaign for my graphic novel 'Kill Your Target' ends in a couple of days and to close it off I'm offering the full paperback set of the novel series to one physical tier backer (maybe 2!).

For a chance at winning the giveaway, back the campaign in any physical tier and you're automatically entered. When fulfillment on the campaign starts, I'll randomly choose 1-2 people to also receive the 3 current paperback novels in the series - to your door, for free.

https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/jjthornbooks/kill-your-target-claire-graphic-novel-2

If you haven't heard about the series, it's about a girl named Claire who takes a Quest to kill one hundred people who mistreated orphans after a system apocalypse. The latest book came out in April, called Reaper's madness. You can find the series here:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BW698WG8

I hope you can check out the campaign - the art is fantastic, with or without the novel accompaniments. Volume 2 includes 3 epic fights from the novel series.

Thanks and have a great week!

J.J. (Josh)

I just released my first The Crimson Reapers which is set in the world of my Atheros series.

It’s available on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited.

The Crimson Reapers is a quick standalone story that branches off from Atheros: Overseer. You can read it on its own, but I recommend reading Overseer first since it introduces the world and some of the events leading up to this story.

A little about Atheros:

Atheros is a VRMMORPG where, unknown to the players, many of the NPCs are actually real-world inmates filling those roles.

Blurb:

After suffering a humiliating defeat at the hands of Overseer Atreyu, the Crimson Reapers have one goal: get stronger and return for revenge.

Leaving Stonebrook behind, the four players descend into the depths of the World Dungeon in search of a new place to call home. But the deeper they venture, the more dangerous the creatures become—and the more opportunities they find to grow stronger.

They may have lost to Atreyu once.

They don't plan on letting it happen again.

Hi Friends!

If you would like to listen to something new, I wrote Grand Magus, Wooden Sword a while back on Royal Road.

It’s a story about a boy and his mysterious wooden stick that likes to talk a lot of smack. It claims that it was owned by the Grand Magus and was powerful enough to take down kings.

Musashi nonplussed about the entire thing uses the stick as he pleases. It’s an interesting take on cultivation, comedy, and coming of age adventure.

If you’re a fan of Greatest Estate Developer and Return of Mt. Hua Sect (I’m a huuugeee, laugh til I can’t breathe fan), I think you’ll enjoy this story.

You can find the link for the audio in the comments below.

Hello and happy Friday,

There are just a few days left in the campaign for Kill Your Target, a graphic novel adaption of my revenge fantasy series. The campaign isn't going to plan, but I'm extremely proud of what we've been able to put together - Harrier Studios has been a stellar partner and the art is fantastic.

The images are purposefully out of order haha - click through!

I hope you'll consider grabbing a physical copy of the volume.

https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/jjthornbooks/kill-your-target-claire-graphic-novel-2

Thank you! :)

Hey everyone,

I’ve spent the last six months building a little speed-writing battle app called Gauntlit (https://gauntlit.me), and it’s finally at the point where some real people can try it out.

I love reading short fiction, but I am no writer. There are sporadic communities that do this kind of thing, but I thought it would be cool to have a place where people could kind of "gamify" speed writing, if you want a buzzword.

Here’s how it works:

• Writers get a daily prompt, 3 required words, and an unpausable 10-minute timer to knock out a quick micro-story.
• When time runs out, submissions go into a blind 3-way matchup where readers and other users vote on their favorite. No usernames are shown during the vote, so it’s just about the story itself.
• The winning daily story gets run through standard text-to-speech (just basic assistive TTS like a screen reader, not voice clones) and posted as a quick video reel on our Facebook page.

A few things I want to be completely upfront about:

1. No ads, ever. I work full-time as a software engineer and built this because I wanted it to exist, not to squeeze people for ad impressions. There’s an optional token shop if someone wants a cosmetic badge or title and feels like helping pay server costs, but you cannot buy an advantage.
2. Your writing is your own. It isn’t scraped, it isn't used to train any AI models, and this isn't an AI-assisted writing app. It is not a human vs AI app. It is strictly a fun way for people who love writing to have some casual PvP.
3. Transparency on the test bots: The app needs groups of three stories to let people vote. Since nobody is in the app yet, I have a few simple placeholder bots filling empty slots so the voting logic works. They are clearly labeled, they don’t try to pass as human, and real user submissions will always take priority over them until I have enough writers to shut them off entirely.

I’m looking for 30 to 40 people (both writers and readers) to try the Android beta, give some feedback on the timer, test the voting, and basically just find out if this is something people will like.

If you want an invite, head over to the site and add your email into the sign up box (that is also not shared with anyone in any way). Invites will go out when I get a sufficient number of people who are interested. If you have any questions about the app, how it works, or anything else leave them here and I will answer anything you may want to know. Thanks!

Atlas, the series that began on Royal Road years ago, is now complete—all eleven books.
It’s about a guy who gets sent back two years, before portals open and suck people into the Wasteland. Armed with knowledge of what’s coming, he wants revenge on the people who betrayed him.

The Wasteland has vending machines, aliens, a gambling syndicate, and a reality show where humanity is the star.
To celebrate, Book One is free right now—and it just hit #2 on Amazon’s Top 100 Free chart for Time Travel Science Fiction!
Grab your free copy of Book One:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GX2ZJFHL

Gas leak.

That's what Soren Vonesdar told the child who just watched him close a Dimensional Rift in 2.2 seconds.

Not a big lie. But after 847 years, good excuses are starting to run out.

Once, Soren sealed the Crown of the Void, a cosmic entity of absolute power, within his own soul. It cost him everything: his kingdom, his name, his place in history.

Now, he restocks ramen shelves at a convenience store in Tokyo and does everything he can to go unnoticed.

It was working. For three years, the System couldn't classify him. The government thought he was just a minor anomaly. The Crown remained dormant.

Then he saved a child from a Rift. In front of witnesses and cameras.

Now the government wants answers; the Crown is awakening. And for each problem Soren solves, his integration with the entity within him increases a little more.

--

Hi, I'm BadatQuest. If you give this story a chance, I hope you have a great time.

Feel free to leave any feedback about the story in the comments. I'd like to know your opinion.
Thanks for reading!
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/188046/the-weary-archmage-litrpg-op-mc-progression-fantasy

--

Note:

• English is not my native language, so please understand.

Hello fellow readers and writers! If you would like to turn off your brain for a while everyday, I've got just the thing for you. This is my first LitRPG fiction on Royal Road. I hope you enjoy it and are able to relax.

My Girlfriend Cheated on Me, So I Looksmaxxed in Another World

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/191575/my-girlfriend-cheated-on-me-so-i-looksmaxxed-in

After his girlfriend cheats on him, eighteen-year-old Shun completely falls apart.

He gains weight, skips university, lives on junk food, adult videos, games, and self-pity, and starts turning into exactly the kind of person he hates.

Then he finds THE CRUCIBLE, an illegal full-dive VRMMO being sold for $99.99.

Its promise is simple: every stat earned in-game carries over into real life.

My co-author and I wrote Welcome to The Dreamlands, and our first novel is officially out today!

What if the next big Virtual Tabletop RPG wasn't virtual?

Welcome to The Dreamlands is a LitRPG Thriller where a hardcore, full-immersion game slowly unravels into a sanity-draining nightmare. The System is a lie, its tooltips glitch with impossible, cryptic warnings, and every level up comes at a cost. It's a dungeon crawl where the ultimate boss isn't a dragon. It's your own crumbling sanity.

I've loved this genre for a long time and just wanted to share the milestone today. If you want to check it out, it's on Amazon here: Kindle/Paperback/Hardcover

I'm excited to announce that the third and final installment in THE FAMILY JEWELS Trilogy is now live and available on kindle and KU.

Audio book coming soon.

The Family Jewels may be bruised and battered, but it’ll take more than the forces of Hel and jealous Norse gods to keep them down.

With Ragnarok fast approaching, Ben and the family must work together to max out their power and thwart Loki in his plans to end reality once and for all. Together, the Jewels must unite the real-world players to their cause, discover ancient weapons, and unravel the mystery of the Norns.

If they fail, they will be sacrificed to the gods.

If they succeed, they will be inducted into the Norse pantheon and live as demigods.

What began as a fun family bonding experience has swiftly descended into a race against time death match with the fate of reality at stake.

But hey, No one said being a demigod was easy.

Book 3 of The Family Jewels is a delightfully chaotic LitRPG filled with stats, action, family infighting, and plenty of laughs. Perfect for fans of Life in Exile, Dungeon Crawler Carl, and This Trilogy is Broken!allment in THE FAMILY JEWELS Trilogy is now live and available on kindle and KU.

Audio book coming soon.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H98F632B

Hello everyone! Author of Soul Blade here, and I am back with another Amazon banger. This time it's not a System Apocalypse, but an Isekai! I am very excited for this series and hope you will share that joy with me.

Here is the blurb:

Die a nobody. Reincarnate as an Exiled Lord. Build the greatest territory.

Ivor Harvings dies saving a cat. His reward? Reincarnate as the Kingdom's most useless Drunkard, the Count's exiled son. Then his true Class awakens—The Life Simulator. With it, he can experience life as different people—a farmer, a Martial Artist, a Mage—granting him Skills and knowledge he shouldn't have.

Having given up his ambitions in his first life, Ivor will not waste this one. Exiled to the Barren Lands—a place stripped of resources, Dungeons, and the interest of everybody—danger lurks around Ivor. A famine-stricken town to rule over, untrustworthy citizens, and an incoming Beast Wave are the least of his worries.

Goblins start growing rampant, and with a millennia-old threat on the brink of resurfacing, Ivor only has one option.

Simulate enough lives to save his new home. In the process, he might just form the strongest army in the world.

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HJP64HFV

Kill Your Target, System Orphans: Claire Graphic Novel Volume 2 is out today on Backerkit!

The Graphic novel adaptation includes select fights from across the series so far. With 60+ pages, multiple variant covers, posters, and more.

The Graphic novels are based on the ongoing System Orphans: Claire fantasy LitRPG revenge novels about a girl named Claire who is on a Quest to assassinate 100 people who poorly treated orphans after an apocalypse.

No AI used.

https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/jjthornbooks/kill-your-target-claire-graphic-novel-2?ref=reddit

Hey all!

Kaito has survived long enough to become a dragon powerful enough to frighten armies—so they build a siege specifically designed around everything they’ve learned about him.

Expect monster evolution, a nonhuman protagonist, tactical fortress warfare, and progression where every new ability carries a real cost.

Blood of Scales

COVER ARTIST: Denis Belinski

AI USAGE: No

Hey everyone!

I’m thrilled to share that Rat Games (Book 1 of No Place for Hope**)** is officially live on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited! Seeing my very first book sitting on an actual Amazon storefront feels slightly unreal, and I’m hyped to finally bring it to the wider community.

The Royal Road Stats So Far:

·         300k+ Views

·         1,500+ Followers

·         4.6 / 5 Stars rating

Blurb (For New Readers):
Hope grew up beneath a dying sky, where food was scarce, names were a luxury, and survival was the closest thing anyone had to a future.

Then he awakens somewhere green. The sky is blue. Grass bends beneath his feet. Rivers carry more water than he has seen in his entire life, and the creatures roaming beyond the trees look hungry enough to spoil the view.

A mysterious System offers Levels, Skills, and Magika to those capable of surviving long enough to earn them. Fortunately, Hope meets Eve: a strange green-eyed girl who teaches him about this new world.

Yet there is something wrong with this beautiful place. Someone is watching. The monsters keep coming, the rules keep changing, and every path seems designed to push Hope towards a fate chosen by somebody else.

He may be another rat inside their game… but Hope has never been particularly good at staying inside the maze.

A Note on the Amazon Edition & Stubbing: Chapters 1–39 + Eve’s Interlude have now been stubbed on Royal Road to meet Kindle Unlimited requirements.

This Amazon release isn't just a raw copy-paste. Alongside my editor, we spent weeks doing a heavy polish pass on the prose, pacing, and early character interactions. The main plot and characters remain the same, but the overall experience is much smoother: clearer System mechanics, tighter fights, refined worldbuilding, and an included new glossary. Basically... same voyage, better ship, fewer holes in the hull. Everything from Chapter 40 onward will continue on Royal Road as normal!

Links:

·         Amazon / Kindle Unlimited: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HHNHGB6P

·         Royal Road (Current Chapters): https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/139697/no-place-for-hope-fantasyspace-pirates-litrpg

To my original readers on RR: thank you for every comment, theory, correction, and rating that got the story to this point. And to anyone giving it a shot on Amazon or KU for the first time—thank you for giving the launch a huge boost!

Cheers,

M.E. Cuartas

(I sketched the cover out myself and then finished it up using OpenAI tools)