Star Rank Hunter - Chapter 393: Ice Cream

The call of the nightmare realm cannot be denied, the woven fate is inevitable.

His ability to travel to the nightmare realm granted him immortality but also pit him with an unfamiliar world, curses and magics unseen before in the real world.

Monsters of unknown origin, macabre beasts and horrors beyond the ken of man have taken the place of old inhabitants of a once glorious civilization.

Now under the light of the Clairvoyant Moon the nightmare realm is on the verge of destruction. Here you will find dishonorable knights, mad sorcerers, twisted alchemist, the malformed Lost Ones and the vestiges of old gods all converging in a dead world.

But there are also those who seek to undo the curse, to restore the world. There are scavengers that only want to survive, the seekers of truth that seek the secrets of old.

And then there’s Aldrich who plans to exploit the resources and powers of the nightmare realm to achieve his own goals.

The epic tale of struggle against impossible odds and enemies bigger than life.

What Aldrich will find outside his little village will not just test the limits of his will, but also his sanity.

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Aldrich, is a fifteen year old boy, living in a small village called Wakefield, he dreams of being a Crestmaster.

On the day Aldrich awakens his Crest, Wakefield is attacked and burned.

He is the only survivor, barely making it out with a mysterious gift, a heavy mission and dire warnings to never turn back.

He is then told to forget about what he saw and the innocent villagers that died, to never ask questions. All things Aldrich could never do.

One day he will uncover the forces behind the massacre and take his revenge. But for now he will lower his head and pretend that nothing has happened.

For now.

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.

Everything functions in a cycle, be it an ant, bird, lion, human, or even a celestial body.This cycle initiates with one's birth and governs one's end, yet there exists the potential to surpass it.Among the billions of planets floating in the cosmos, destined to merely occupy a void, some have the capacity to ascend, reaching new dimensions, standing shoulder to shoulder with realms like Heaven and Hell.---Vlad, a young man, found himself ill-fitted in a world that scarcely offered him any luck, weighed down by a mysterious secret that initially seemed more of a burden than a boon.Yet, the powers he had dismissed as trivial eventually became his most formidable strength when the apocalypse broke, unleashing literal pandemonium as angels and demons walk among the human race.

Batman: “You can't deny that your brother, Superman, brought about Zod. The two of them battled and nearly destroyed half of Metropolis. Countless people perished in that disaster—do you want to take a look at the list of casualties that could drown a person?”David: “He was adopted.”The Flash: “Why don't you step up like your brother and lead the heroes on the front lines to protect the world?”David: “I don't possess the same kind of power as he does.”Wonder Woman: “Are you saying that when Superman was punched by Doomsday, you would've gone up there and given Darkseid a round of military combat?”...Transcending into the DC world, David finds himself becoming the newborn son of Superman's foster parents, gaining the Thanos template at birth. Moreover, by influencing the emotions of plot characters, he can accelerate the fusion of templates and unlock new ones?The Hephaestus template—loaded. The template of a million stellar sentinels—loaded! The template of the divine Celestial Arbiter Arithm—complete Phoenix Force template, Golden Planet Devourer template...