Wolfpack

We’d survived the battle for Sklava City, but just... Parties were scattered, academies split, and the Tower—the monolithic structure that served as both order and protection, was toppled. What should we do next? In short, make the city safe and find our path forward. The mistresses and elders have a plan, but it requires us to venture forth into the wilderness and seek out a new mind stone. The problem? We’re just students. And the world beyond Sklava’s wall is a wild and dangerous place. We find far more than we bargain for—hostile beast tribes, ancient and unpredictable elementals, but also the repercussions of generations full of bad decisions. How do we survive? Cultivate new strength. Find new, more powerful allies. And prepare for a life unlike anything we’ve ever known.

This is the story about how I died. Not really…I mean, I don’t remember most of it, thank goodness. Long story short, I was betrayed. Some people I thought I could trust invaded my sky palace, stole my women and enslaved my pet shadow hounds.

I was destroyed, utterly. Or so they thought.

Somehow, mana, the source of my previous power, brought me back. The backstabbing weasels think they are safe, barricaded in their strongholds. Here’s the horrible part. They willingly sacrificed their own flesh and blood for security. And they had the nerve to call me evil?

Death wasn’t all bad, I guess. It showed me what was truly important. But before I can get around to living my second life, I have some retribution to dish out.

Yes, some will call me unnatural. Others, evil. Blah blah blah.

I call me the Manaborn.

My name is James, but my mom’s the only person that can call me that. To everyone else, I’m JD—a struggling artist, working my fingers to the bone for my shot with one of the big comic book companies. Oh, and I work nights, managing a dive called Judson’s Bar and Grill. I know, the dream life. Things were boring, disappointing, even. Until one faithful night, when everything changed.

Why? Where do I start?

First: An odd woman showed up in a booth while I was trying to close for the night. Rude, but on its own, not so weird. She was dressed in a kimono and had a sword in her lap.

That part? Getting a little strange.

Second: It turns out she’s a mistress at a magical academy and had been looking for me. Right? Please pick up on my sarcasm. Except, she proved it, and with just a few violent swings of her very real sword, ensured I both didn’t have a job any longer, and more or less had to follow her into a scary, glowing portal.

Where did it take me?

A surreal place called Zenith Academy, and a life I’d only ever dreamt of. There I’ll learn how to cultivate mana and wield magic-like powers. And that is just the beginning. The tower imbues cultivators with visual prompts and game-like stats, making my new life feel like something straight out of a choose your own adventure novel.

But it’s not all for nothing. Evidently, they’ve been fighting a war for thousands of years, and I’ve just been drafted.

<>

After a hundred years of regrets, revenge is just around the corner.

We have finally reunited with Kristan, Marko, Franja, and Renata, who proved to be instrumental in our battle against Harkel's Hellhounds and the siege on Arrdeam. Having brought down the first leg of Harkel's slaving empire, we're getting ever closer to cutting off the head of the snake. Before we can face him, though, we must still grow stronger, but assassins lurk in the shadows and dangerous foes want us dead.

There's only one good thing about the whole mess we keep finding ourselves the giant, near indestructible mimic by our side. Chester can turn into anything he absorbs, from a giant carriage to a huge pile of garbage that can even kill monstrous dungeon bosses. And by the end of our quest, maybe he'll have a few more new transformations too.

My life was ordinary, but never boring. That is, until a colossal tower landed smack-dab in the middle of the city. What should have followed was mass panic and hysteria, but I never got to that part. Why? Simple. I was taken along with 99,999 other people from Earth and dropped onto an unknown world.

Strange beings appeared before us—floating, featureless figures that call themselves demi-gods. They ruled this place, this fantastical world called Gaea. The reason why they took us? Not so simple. We’d supposedly been selected to show that Earth was worth saving from an upcoming cataclysmic event. So, no pressure there.

Gaea is a world entirely controlled by the System, a sarcastic and level-hungry intelligence that granted everyone magical powers, strange classes based on personality or luck, monsters to fight and even loot. It forces us to compete in ‘events’ but no one can really tell us what the endgame is. Climbing the tower and finding out exactly what Gaea is, who created it, and why, could bring us closer to the truth behind our abduction and the fate of our world.

My name is Devin Cain. Join me as I wield Muramasa, a cursed katana that hungers for blood and souls, and a class created to curse players and monsters to death. What can go wrong?

I’ve become a monster…sort of.

Betrayed and left for dead by a group of slaving nobles, I thought there was nothing left for me but bleeding out as I counted the number of bricks on the ceiling. But fate had different plans.

A gelatinous, gluttonous mimic found me right when I was about to die. But instead of eating me, he started demolishing the food in my pack - sandwiches, cookies, and everything else! Encouraged by my (admittedly forced) generosity, he fused with me, enhancing my body and turning me into a half-man half-mimic monstrosity.

Once a poor, down-on-my-luck scout, I now have new capabilities far beyond anything anyone on Basania has seen before.

The only problem? My new bodymate’s insatiable hunger for cake and human flesh.