The Dread of Damned - Chapter 124: WorryWart

I am currently re-writing the first chapters of this story. They are quite rough and bounce around a lot and I can do better. At some point, I will replace these with the better chapters.Sometime in 2024 Aethon Books will publish the first volume of this story on Amazon, KU, and audible. This will mean the story will be stubbed. I will notify people far in advance of that.In the dystopian world of the future, life is rough when you live at the bottom. Jobs are non-existent. Far too many people live in poverty, crammed into huge buildings called Habitats. With no jobs in the real world, many people can only find work online in VR worlds as servants to the very rich. And it's getting worse. The old internet is unusable and hacked to pieces. The new system needs AI to run things, but all but one of them were destroyed. The last sentient AI is ordered to create a new game world so the rich can have a playground, and the corporations that rule the world can have a new global market place. Everyone wants a piece of the new game. The guilds are competing to be the first to find the dungeons and kill the biggest monster. The corporations are claiming land and putting in their online market places. Ozzy and his friends just want a paycheck.Four friends sign five year contracts as virtual serfs in a small village, and can't go adventuring at all to gain money. They don't have many choices. They can work as a blacksmith, barmaid and shepherd for all those years....or they can cheat and find ways to take advantage of the system and carve out a section of the game world for themselves, and earn a fortune in the real world.When they give you a mop and not a sword, you have to find the loopholes and change the rules.

Reborn into a world shaped by ashen storms, brutal blizzards, and sword-wielding sorcerers, Arilyn must forge his own path.Magic is abundant, spread far and wide by the realm-spanning Grand Spell. Even in the frail body of a newborn, Arilyn is rewarded with attributes, points, and power simply for stubborn hard work. Yet not everything is as bright as it seems. Legends walk the land, and the Blight Lords are hell-bent on resurrecting the Old God.None of this should have mattered to him, living on the fringe of the empire—until strange rumblings rise from the heart of the Candor Mountains.What to Expect: • [Reincarnation, but the MC does not retain any memory of his past in the beginning.]• [Slice of Life, Crafting, Spellcrafting, Training, Slow burn, Weak to Strong, and silly things] • [LitRPG elements, Detailed Magic system, Greek/Roman Empire-esque settings]• [Magic Academy, Eventually]• [Beast Companion?] • [No harem]

Johnathan, an old man with an extraordinary past but an ordinary end, gets reincarnated in a dark fantasy world full of magic, darkness, and mysteries furled.

However, he committed a grave blunder by taking the fiction he had read as a reference. Reborn as a baby, he hoped to be deemed gifted by speaking early.

One thing led to another, and tragedy struck. The villagers declared him a demon-possessed and called the church. Johnathan, now known as Sylvester Maximilian, realized that he had messed up.

When the church's inquisitors came to judge him and burn him on a pyre. As a last resort and to welcome his soon to arrive second death, he started chanting holy hymns as his last breath.

Overwhelmed, they kneeled, thinking he was a messenger of Solis.

From there, the story of how Sylvester Maximilian rose through the ranks to sit at the top began.

But his life won't be ordinary, as he uses his cunning and the tag of 'God's favored' to his advantage. Fighting treachery, unearthing secret plots and world mysteries, facing the darkness around him and creating his place in history, engraving his name in the annals to be forever remembered as the—Immortal Pope, The Young.

[A/N: To not mislead you, the novel's name does not mean he instantly becomes the Pope from the start. The story will follow the life of MC. Though he will become the Pope at a pretty young age. 40% of the novel will be based around MC fighting to sit on the supreme throne.

If you enjoy world building and lore building, then you will like this story.]
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***Main Tags: FANTASY, ADVENTURE, MAGIC, DARK, STRONG MC(Weak at the start because he's a baby. Not an instant OP though.), WHOLESOME, COMEDY, KINGDOM BUILDING. MENTALLY OLD MC, Politics, Backstabbing, World Building.***

[WARNING: MC will not go around saving everyone. Absolutely not if it puts him in danger. But if he can save someone using his status or position in the church, he will. He will kill innocent people if he has to. MC is not crazy, cynical, or unsociable. The world at some times may seem very DARK.]
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[DISCLAIMER]
The religion will be fake. I won't make it similar to those existing in our world not to trigger anyone. However, the Church terminologies and designations may feel identical as they are simple vocabulary words.

Again, everything you read in this novel is fictional and has no relation to our world.

I hope you enjoy my work. Stay safe and eat healthy bananas.
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25 years ago, Gu Yuan who had a terminal disease was found to possess one kind of kind rare powerful gene.
In order to allow the gene to pass through the generation, she donated out 5 ova before the failure of her surgery.

25 years later, today she awakens. Her 5 ova had now turned into outstandings and famous men.
Mmmm….who is it that laughs at her for being old-fashion, backward, have nothing at all and penniless?

The world-renowned tycoon prince accompanied Gu Yuan for supper. The media was in an uproar, is the prince going to be in love?
Tycoon Prince: That’s my mother.

The media tycoon who controls the world public opinion, stake a thousand pieces of gold on one throw for Gu Yuan. The whole audience was in an uproar, an unknown girl going to marry into the noble family?
Media Tycoon: That’s my mother.

The film emperor with thousands of fans who received worldwide attention broke his 8 years practice and for the 1st time ever unexpectedly composed music for Gu Yuan. The whole internet was in an uproar, is this film emperor’s love of the century?
Film Emperor: That’s my mother.

17 years old beautiful young boy genius with IQ that beyond compares named the asteroid he found after Gu Yuan. The world was in an uproar, is this love between an older woman and a young boy?
Genius Boy: That’s my mother.
……
All the supporting males and females who had ridiculed and bullies Gu Yuan before cried: She actually has how many good sons?!

Finally, when the handsome world most eligible top billionaire accompanying Gu Yuan for shopping, the crowds immediately shout loudly: She must be his mother! His mother! His mother!
The aloof top billionaire: She is the mother of my sons.

- Description from Novelupdates