Souladonis: The Novel Series with its own MMORPG World

By Michael Brock

Experience the wonder of a unique fantasy series featuring its own MMORPG world.

Six years have passed since Souladonis left Winterspring Academy in pursuit of a cure for the petrification curse. During his travels he has vastly improved his magic and martial arts abilities, yet nowhere has he found a cure for petrification. Eventually, his travels take him to Belle Forest in Âme Kingdom where he meets a pushy village girl named Katherine. Together they try to solve her village’s goblin problem. Yet when things go horribly wrong, he throws himself in harm’s way for her sake. Filled with gratitude, Katherine volunteers to follow him as his servant for three months. Thus, they set off together to experience more adventure than either of them could have ever dreamed.

The Souladonis Novel Features:
·An emotionally vulnerable hero with whom the average person can identify.
·A strong heroine who often outshines the hero.
·The budding romance of two shy people.
·Thrilling fast-paced battles of magic and martial arts written in vivid detail.
·Extreme moments of joy and sorrow that will make your heart both cringe and sing in elation.
·The witty sense of humor of a protagonist who doesn’t take himself too seriously.
·An established MMORPG world boasting nearly 500 magic spells in 13 Magic Disciplines, a myriad of distinct mage classes, a world map with an index of nations, a complete list of magical affixes, crafting materials, and all of the essential elements that compose an MMORPG video game.
A Killer Clown death mage who contributes to one of the most intense yet awkwardly funny scenes ever written.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Michael Brock
• Release date: Oct 7, 2014
• ISBN: 9780990821212

Michael Brock

My name is Michael Brock. I'm an American LitRPG author who writes action adventures that are inspired by video game and anime culture.LitRPG is a fast-growing sub-genre of fantasy fiction. Oftentimes authors set the genre's stories in virtual reality game worlds. I, however, do not. That's because my approach to the genre is different. I simply define LitRPG as the fusion of traditional literature with video game and anime culture. This broad definition allows me to create stories that are true to the heart of the genre without being cliché or replicating what's already been done.My primary series is called Souladonis. This series is divided into short stories, novellas, and novels that all take place in a single MMORPG-styled world. The core branch of novels follows the story of the namesake character, Souladonis. It contains seven volumes and currently the first two are published.On my blog, I release a free new short story each week as well as write about relevant and interesting topics.For a limited time, readers who visit my website and join my e-mail list will receive a free copy of Souladonis: Ouroboros (volume 2). If you're interested in LitRPG or the Souladonis series, then please visit my website at www.souladonis.com.

Book preview

Chapter 1

Beady yellow eyes trace my every step. I continue forward cautious, but unafraid. I knew full well that passing through this dark forest alone would mean encountering monsters. I even knew what kind of monsters they would be. All the little eyes glaring at me undoubtedly belong to goblins. I just had no idea that they’d be this numerous.

Goblins aren’t particularly dangerous, especially not for a mage like me. Yet given their numbers, I don’t want to fight them, and for their own sake I hope that they don’t plan on fighting me either. I could actually kill them all despite their numbers. That’s because for the past six years, I’ve scarcely done anything other than battle monsters. I’ve battled armbears, boar-rams, spitting seahorses, and even gigantic molten slugs. Since I’m constantly in combat, my fighting skills far exceed that of the average mage. In fact, I even spent the greater part of last year mastering martial arts. Learning to fight hand-to-hand was necessary to erase my obvious weakness as a pure mage. Everyone knows that people who rely solely on magic have weak bodies. The slightest blow to the chin could knock out even the greatest of classically trained mages. That’s why I trained night and day to forge my body into steel. I cannot afford to have any weaknesses. Not if I’m going to reach my goal.

I gaze over my shoulder. The beady goblin eyes continue to follow me. I know from experience that if I make myself seem large, loud, and imposing, small monsters are less likely to attack me. So to keep the goblins at bay, I make a big display of tapping my staff against the ground with every step. My staff easily makes a loud thud since six years ago it was turned into stone by the petrification curse.

I tap away with it steadily and then take another peek behind me. To my great surprise, the goblins continue to trail me despite the noise that I make with my staff. Finally, tired of the little yellow eyes following me, I make my stand. No sooner than the moment that I stop walking, the little miscreants trickle out of the forest. My stomach churns a little as I watch them amass in a large group of twelve or so. Even though goblins are small and weak, they have one characteristic that makes them a real potential threat – goblins are tool users. Now I find myself face to face with an army of tiny goblins wielding bows, slings, and knives. I still feel confident that I can handle them, but seeing multiple weapons pointed at me kind of drops my confidence down a bit. To avoid the fight, I try to scare them off by wildly swinging my arms through the air and shouting loudly. The goblins don’t buy it. They place arrows on the bowstrings and stones in the slings. Their readiness to attack leaves me no choice.

Before they fire a single arrow, I cast the Comet spell. Their small yellow eyes grow big in fright at the sight of a large fireball powering towards them. Swiftly, they dodge like deer and scatter to the wind. I immediately kick myself for using the Comet spell yet again. Don’t you know any other spells? I ask myself.

The Comet spell is the one that I unconsciously default to whenever I’m in danger. At this point it’s starting to become a bit of a crutch. I do actually know other spells. Lots of other spells in fact. It’s just that I’ve been able to cast Comet ever since I was eight years old despite it being a grandmaster-level spell. It’s one of the main reasons that I grew so arrogant and ruined my life six years ago. Every time that I cast it, I relive a small piece of my past. But at the very least, the goblins are gone now. So I continue my journey. Within four hours time, I reach the edge of the forest without any further goblin incidents.

Coming out of the forest, I enter into a grassy flatland and see a small village to my right. The village is surrounded by a wooden fence formed with beams that are shaped to a point at the top. It’s common for small, poor villages to use this fence design to keep monsters out. I surmise that this must be Belle-Forrest. I had heard about it while talking to some sailors back in Cammy Port. I make a habit of visiting as many new towns as possible. I figure I’ll never find a cure for the petrification curse backtracking to places where I’ve already been.

Making my way to the village, I get distracted before I pass through the gates. Enclosed in square fences just in front of the entrance gate, are two small fields of mana plants. Mana plants are a cash crop that botanists fashion into mana potions to sell to mages. They’re always white in the center while the tips of the leaves are various colors. The colors of the leaves tell you the quality of the plant. Said quality is determined in part by the natural magic density of the soil they grow in and in part by the skill of the botanist growing the plants.

I kneel over the plants to examine them more closely. During my travels I’ve learned a few things about mana plants. The leaves of these plants are a dark blue color, which indicates that they are high-grade plants even though the soil that they are planted in has a low natural magic density. I know that I’m in a low magic density environment because of the puny monsters in the area. If there were a greater natural magic density here, then there’d be far worse things than goblins lurking around. So if these plants are as good as they look, then I can accredit their quality to the one who grew them.

Carefully, I clip a small leaf off of a plant and chew on it. The leaf has a mild minty taste to it. That tells me that the plants are not only good, but also ripe and ready to be made into mana potions.

Knowing that there is a skilled botanist in the town gives me some hope. A good botanist will not only deal in mana potions, but also in medicinal cures and remedies. If I’m lucky, then the botanist in this town will know of a cure for the petrification curse. Yet quickly I pinch myself hard to keep from becoming too optimistic. In the past six years, my every lead towards finding the necessary cure has ended in disappointment. Nevertheless, I don’t give up. Or rather, I can’t give up. Finding the cure is the purpose of my existence.

I stroll into town and look around. The houses in the village are all composed of wood, have one floor, two front windows, and a chimney. Basic houses for a basic village I figure. The only real difference between the houses is the color of their paint. I’ve seen lots of these little villages built on the fringes of modern civilization. Here you won’t find any people of so-called high society, but you will find humble, simple people who are generally of good will albeit often not well-educated.

As I venture further into the town, I start to get the feeling that something is amiss. I see two kids playing with some sticks, a cat wandering around, a dog sitting on a porch, and a young girl walking somewhere by herself. I’d expect a small village to be more densely occupied. But I don’t know. Maybe there’s a town meeting or something. Jogging lightly I quickly catch up to the girl that I saw. Excuse me. I just came into town and I have a few questions.

The girl stops walking. She turns around and looks at me and both of our eyes light up in surprise. Obviously she’s surprised because I’m a stranger wandering into a town in the middle of nowhere. But what surprised me were her big gleaming brown eyes. Not just her eyes but also the shade of her skin. I’ve never seen someone like her before. She has long, straight, dark brown hair, aforementioned puppy dog brown eyes, and light brownish skin that’s not quite brown nor peach colored like the skin of most of the people from Âme Kingdom. Her strange beauty leaves me at a sudden loss for words. Yet almost immediately she snaps me out of my unintentionally rude stare.

Wow! she says. I mean, hello. I’m Katherine. Are you a mage?

Me? Yeah, I am.

Do you know Life Magic?

Yeah. But I just came into town and...

Suddenly, she grabs me by my coat sleeve. Then she continues her walk to wherever she’s going while pulling me along with her. Come with me, she orders.

I have no idea what’s going on. But the girl doesn’t even give me a chance to refuse, so I guess I’m going with her. As we walk I get to see more of the town. My first impression holds true. There’s practically nobody around. Given the eerie emptiness of the village, I’m surprised that there aren’t a bunch of tumbleweeds blowing about on the dusty, barren dirt.

Before long we stop at a beat up house on the edge of town. The wood of the house is rotten, its windows are dirty, and some of the tiles on the roof are missing. Belle-Forest is by no means a rich town, but whoever lives in this house is poor even by small village standards. Katherine knocks on the door. Then pressing her ear against it, she waits quietly for an answer. When she doesn’t receive an answer, she slowly opens the door and invites herself in. Wait here, she tells me.

Okay, I agree.

I still don’t know what’s going on. Yet I find myself strangely compelled to do whatever this pushy village girl tells me. It must be the eyes. Yeah Soul, she definitely got you with her eyes. Snap out of it man. Or maybe she used some sort of Illusion Magic spell on me. I’ve heard that there’s an all-female class of mages called the Temptress class. Supposedly, they can hypnotize men. Just to be safe, I reach into my inventory bag with all of my medical supplies. There’s got to be a magic remedy in here somewhere. As I fumble through my bag, Katherine emerges out of the worn down house.

I’m sorry. What was your name? she asks.

Traveler, I answer.

"Right, ‘Traveler.’ Listen TRAVELER, there’s a woman inside this house who is really sick. We’ve tried lots of different medicines, but nothing makes her better."

Why doesn’t she just see a doctor?

We don’t have a doctor in this village. The nearest doctors are in Magali. But she’s too sick to go there, and we don’t have the money to bring a doctor here.

Now it all makes sense to me. As soon as she found out that I know Life Magic, she eagerly dragged me here before I could refuse. I bet she’s hoping that now that I’m already at the sick lady’s door I won’t refuse to see her. Well lucky for her she’s right. Although really, she could have told me the truth from the beginning and I still would have come. There’s no point in mastering healing magic and then not using it to help the sick or injured.

I take a step closer to the door. Katherine puts a hand on my shoulder to stop me. She’s been sick for a long time. Just so you know, the house is messy. And it smells.

I lower Katherine’s hand and enter the house without hesitation. Right away a putrid scent assaults my nose. It’s like a mixture of vomit, body odor, dust, and rotting food. All around the house in every direction is clutter. There are old newspapers, dirty clothes, quilts, kitchen tools, and unclean dishes. On the far side of the room, there is a bed pressed against the wall. Lying on the bed is a half-awake, older woman with gray hair and pruned skin. Stepping over various knickknacks, I make my way to the woman and kneel by her bedside.

Gently, I place my hand on her head. She groans in agony in response. Right away I remove my hand lest I suffer third degree burns. What’s her name Katherine?

Hilda.

Hilda is a bit squirmy, but I do my best to hold eye contact with her. Hilda, I have some things to help you, but I need you to understand something. This mess is unacceptable Hilda. You see, there are these things called germs. They’re small and you can’t see them, but they’re what make you sick. Germs grow in dirty places like this. You have to clean up your house and especially make sure that there’s no rotting or spoiled food around. If you don’t clean up your house, then you’ll never get better. Do you understand?

Awaugh, she groans with what I think was an attempt to nod.

Good enough. I search around in my medical supplies again. Then I pull out two superior-grade life potions costing 10,000 âmes each. They’re worth quite a bit of money, but I can afford to make the sacrifice. Rising from my kneeling position, I place my hands over Hilda. Next I close my eyes and focus my mana energy. Then I cast the Miracle Heal spell followed by the Regenerate spell. The first spell is used to immediately heal severe wounds or sickness whereas the second spell has a more gradual, long lasting effect. Nevertheless, given Hilda’s degree of illness, it will take more than one or two spells to make her well. That’s why I’m leaving her the potions.

Okay then Hilda, I begin. I’ve cast some healing spells. Within the next hour or so, you should feel better. But you won’t be entirely well just yet. You’ll need to continue getting lots of rest and drinking lots of liquids. Also, I’m leaving you two potions. You’re to drink half of one potion tomorrow morning and then the rest of it tomorrow night. Then you’ll do the same thing the next day with the other potion. After that, you’ll clean up this mess and get better okay?

She nods in understanding. What is your name young man?

Traveler.

No, what is your name?

Traveler.

She looks at Katherine in confusion. No what is your name? she asks a third time.

I draw in a deep breath and exhale slowly. She asked for it.

My name is Souladonis.

Sodummis?

Just remember Soul. It’s easier.

Politely, I bow to Hilda and then exit the house. Katherine trails behind me. I notice that she has a concerned look on her face. Maybe I did something wrong? It’s not unusual for me to screw things up. What’s wrong? I ask her self-consciously.

Those potions that you gave her were expensive. We can’t pay you.

Oh, I say relieved. Don’t worry about the potions. That’s what they’re for anyway.

I leisurely walk back towards the center of town. There’s still nobody around. Well, other than Katherine, who is still following me for some reason. Hey, she says.

I stop to hear what she has to say. You’re a really good person Souladonis.

The irony of her comment overwhelms me. I squeeze my stomach muscles but fail to prevent myself from laughing in her face. Katherine’s mouth contorts into a confused frown. Clearly she didn’t get the joke. What? she asks unknowingly.

You’re too quick to jump to conclusions. You don’t know me.

No, but I know that you’re a kind person who likes to help people.

I cross my arms unconvinced. For all that you know Katherine, I could be a death mage.

You’re not a death mage, she says with conviction.

Oh yeah? How do you know?

Because death mages can’t use Life Magic.

I smack myself in the head. Okay Soul, she got you on that one. I quickly walk away from her in an attempt to escape. Yet as I feared, she goes out of her way to keep up with me.

Like I said, you’re a good person.

Now her presumptiveness is beginning to annoy me. I stop walking again. But this time I lean my face towards her accusingly. Oh yeah? What if I did something that was so terrible that no amount of good deeds could ever make up for it? Would I still be a good person?

Yes.

I raise my left eyebrow at her confidence. How do you figure?

Katherine mimics my lean. Our faces are now only a few inches apart. Because what you did in the past only defines who you were. What you do in the present defines who you are now.

My back shoots up straight. I never would have expected such a thoughtful answer from a common village girl. Pondering her words, I turn from Katherine and walk away slowly. Truth be told, I’d like to believe what she said, but I just don’t think that it’s that simple. As I walk away, Katherine catches up to me once more.

Curious, she asks, So what exactly did you do that was so bad?

I refuse to answer that. Instead, I ask her a completely unrelated question. When I arrived at the village, I saw mana plants. I’m assuming that means that there is a botanist in town. Do you know where I can find him?

Katherine smiles brightly. At my house!

My head tilts in reluctant surprise. You mean you?

Katherine laughs and lightly slaps me on the shoulder. No, silly. Not me. My mother.

Oh. That makes sense. Katherine moves ahead of me and then beckons for me to follow her. Suddenly, I somehow find myself once more obeying the whims of this pushy village girl. Soul, I say to myself. You’ve got to stop looking into her brown eyes before she takes you for all that you’re worth.

Chapter 2

I follow Katherine to her house. I had actually already seen it when I came into the village. It’s the third house on the left from the front gate. Its outer walls are painted green while the window shutters and the roof are brown. Thin vines droop down wildly from the roof for decoration. Also the dirt around the base of the house is mulched and laden with flowers. A botanist living in a nature-themed house. How shocking.

Katherine invites me inside. Without being told, I take off my shoes and leave them by the door. I notice that there is a coat rack, but I don’t use it. I prefer to keep my favorite purple cutaway coat on my shoulders. I follow Katherine deeper into the house. The kitchen is on the left just past the front door and the salon is straight ahead. Well I say salon, but clearly for them the space doubles as the living room and dining room. Katherine’s mother is sitting at the dining room table creating indigo dye out of the dried roots of mana plants. A good indigo dye is quite rare and can sell for a great deal of âmes. Seeing that she knows how to make the most out of every part of her plants encourages me. She’s as skilled of a botanist as I had hoped.

She rises from the table to greet me. I nod and say hello. She holds up her blue hands to explain why she’s not offering me a handshake. Of course I saw what she was doing and hadn’t expected one anyway. My name is Margaret Hamilton.

Souladonis. Nice to meet you.

Margaret has peach colored skin, shoulder length puffy gray hair, overly large round glasses, a white wool sweater rolled up to her elbows, and brown pants tied entirely too high up on her waist, strangled to death by her belt. She looks like the cliché school nerd who grew old without ever grasping the concept of fashion. I only halfway listen to what she’s saying while I concentrate on summing her up. But from hearing her accent and the big words that she strings together fluidly, I can tell that she is a well-educated, bookworm scientist. The only questions are what is she doing in this town and why does her daughter look so different from her?

Nevertheless, I avoid asking the obvious questions. I hate it when people ask me questions about my past. I’d be a hypocrite to try digging into Margaret’s history. If she says that Katherine is her daughter, then Katherine is her daughter. That’s good enough for me.

So how can I help you Lord Souladonis?

I’m looking for a special remedy; one that I haven’t been able to find anywhere. I’m hoping that you might have something.

Margaret invites me to sit at the table. I sit in the nearest available seat while Katherine circles the table to the other side to find a seat. Then Margaret moves to a nearby dresser and grabs a small box off of the top shelf. She comes to the table and sets down the box facing towards me. She opens it to reveal potions of varying shapes and colors.

I have all kinds of potions and remedies. Whatever you need.

I’m looking for a remedy for the petrification curse. I’ve tried all sorts of cures and remedies but nothing has worked.

Margaret turns the box towards herself and sifts through the contents. She then pulls out a vial of light blue liquid and gives it a little shake. Have you tried an organic/magic hybrid potion combined with acid? It’s made of wild bergamot, crushed mana plant leaves, hydrochloric acid, and sugar for flavoring.

I’ll try anything. How much for the potion? I ask eagerly.

To my surprise she places the vial back into the box and closes it. Money won’t do us any good. Not when the goblins keep attacking our villagers and stealing everything we have. We rarely see traveling mages and the inquisitors don’t come out this far. We need someone to find their hideout and get back our stolen goods.

So in other words, if I solve your goblin problem, then you’ll give me the potion?

Just as soon as Margaret can nod her head, I’m already on my way to the front door. Katherine follows behind me as I exit the house. I didn’t bother asking for any suggestions on where the goblins might be hiding or how I could find them. I figure I’ll just charge into the woods and start blasting spells until I find what I’m looking for.

While on the way to the nearby woods, Katherine tries to get my attention. I don’t stop walking. I have no time for the nonsense of a village girl right now. I have an idea, she pleads.

I have an idea too, I tell her. Find the goblins, blast them with fire, get the potion, done.

Yes, but you’d have to find the goblins in the forest first. That could take forever. Instead, we should fill a cart with empty boxes and pretend that we’re transporting valuables to Magali. The goblins will come out to rob us, then you can use just enough magic to chase them away. Follow them back to their hideout in the forest and destroy their home. That should force them to move away from the village.

Hold on a minute... That actually makes sense! I stop walking and turn to Katherine with one eyebrow raised. That’s actually a good idea. We’ll go with your plan.

She swats me on the arm. See, she says giggling.

Yeah I do see. I thought that Katherine was the presumptive one, but really it was me. I assumed that she was just a foolish and uneducated village girl, but she’s actually quite clever. Furthermore, her mother is a scientist. Margaret probably home schooled her too. A lot of rural villagers don’t even know how to read and write, but I’m willing to bet that Katherine is not one of them.

I follow Katherine. She leads me behind the village’s general store, where there is a cart and empty wooden crates. The two of us take about ten minutes or so to load up the cart with some empty crates. We then cover the boxes with a blanket to make it seem like we don’t want the goblins to know what we’re doing. Call it reverse psychology. Goblins are relatively smart for monsters, but they’re far from geniuses.

Yet just in case something does go terribly wrong, I take the precaution of marking our current location with my portal stone.

What’s that? Katherine asks.

I show her the diamond-shaped stone in my hand. It’s a stone that records its current position. That position is then marked in the user’s portal record book. By tearing a page out of the book, one can return to any spot previously recorded by the stone. If I ever get into serious danger, then I can escape using the Portal spell like I did the one time when I was severely wounded on the Molten Islands. However, I never carry more than one page in my book. A lot of mages become over-reliant on the Portal spell. It makes them weak. Moreover, you can only visit places where you’ve already been, and I won’t find a cure for petrification by revisiting towns that I’ve already searched.

Katherine finishes examining the stone. I put it back into my coat pocket. Then I roll the cart out of the village’s rear entrance. Out of the backside of the village, there is a dirt path that extends from Belle Forest all the way to the king’s city of Magali. I intend to go to Magali as soon as I finish my business here. When I do, I’ll let this path guide me there. But for now I’m only pretending to walk it to get the attention of the goblins.

As Katherine and I walk along the path, I check the edges of the forest out of the corners of my eyes. I hope that I don’t look too suspicious. If they realize that it’s a trap, they won’t attack. Maybe I’m giving them too much credit though. I should just think about something else and not worry about it.

I gaze up at the fluffy white clouds in the clear blue sky. When I was a kid, my girlfriend and I used to compete to find the most interesting