Echoterra: Rise of the Verdant King - Chapter 48: Roots of vulnerability

After being framed by her boyfriend and best friend, Nicole ended up spending the night with a mysterious stranger. She thoroughly enjoyed the unexpected rendezvous, but when she woke up the next morning, she couldn’t help but feel bad about what she did. All of her guilt, however, was washed away when she saw the face of the man lying next to her.

“He’s... beautiful,” she whispered, awed by what she was seeing. Her guilt quickly turned into shame, and it drove her to leave the man a bit of money before she left.

Kerr was astounded. ‘Did that woman try to pay me? Like a prostitute?’ he thought, offended. “Ask the hotel manager for the surveillance video,” he commanded his assistant authoritatively, his eyebrows furrowed. He had a determined expression on his face. “I want to find out who was in my room last night.”

‘And when I find that woman, I’m going to teach her a lesson!’

Where will their story go?

Darkness. The ultimate ruler, the true One-Above-All. Everything starts from it, and everything returns to it eventually. People say that in your final moments, darkness seeps in your very existence, engulfs your whole being. They say it’s an incredibly relaxing feeling that takes you on your journey to your afterlife. They say that in the very darkness, the ‘nothingness’ your weary soul will finally be able to rest and relax. This brings up some very philosophical and existential questions. Do you even exist?

Follow the epic journey of Aiden, the last primal, a unique and ancient race as he finds his place in a strange, new world, filled with threats and violence.

Facing extinction, humanity seeks salvation in the Astral Verge, a dangerous dimension accessed via portals that threatened to wipe out the entire planet.Few years later, aspiring recruit Daniel Vance enters the Verge for his final assessment, hoping to Awaken a Talent and secure his future. While others gain common abilities, Daniel secretly Awakens the mythical SSS-Grade Talent: [Soul Assimilation]. This allows him to absorb essence, enhancing gear, gaining stats and EXP from slain creatures, and crucially, absorbing attributes and skills from fallen Awakened.Witnessing the swift death of the arrogant Jaxon Rex, Daniel makes a grim choice: he assimilates Jaxon, gaining his first skill, [Kinetic Pulse]. This sets his path: scavenging the aftermath of others’ battles. He enhances gear and, after achieving his first kill on an injured beast, waits patiently to assimilate two more fallen recruits, acquiring [Quick Step] and the invaluable passive [Aura Sense].Starting as average, Daniel rapidly gains power in secret, enhanced gear, multiple skills, and boosted stats , far exceeding his peers while remaining outwardly unremarkable. He navigates the lethal Verge alone, using its inherent dangers to fuel his growth, wrestling with the moral cost of his unique, overwhelming power.

On just another normal Monday, the world changed. The universe had reached a threshold humanity didn’t even know existed, and it was time to finally be integrated into the vast multiverse. A world where power is the only thing that one can truly rely on.

Jake, a seemingly average office worker, finds himself thrust into this new world. Into a tutorial filled with dangers and opportunities. In a world that should breed fear and concern, an environment that makes his fellow coworkers falter, Jake instead finds himself thriving.

Perhaps… Jake was born for this kind of world, to begin with.

***

Author Note: Tags and content warnings are mainly to give me creative freedom later on. This is my first novel ever, and English isn’t my native language, so go easy on me chaps.