《Bestiary of All Nightmares》 Husk Species: Husk Family: Insectoid Risk level: Low Weaknesses: Fire Description: Husks are dead bodies animated by insects. It matters not if the body is from a human, dog, horse or even another insect, provided it`s big enough. It happens in situations where corpses are not dealt with before they start to rot, in turn attracting all kinds of bugs. After enough of the corpse is eaten they start to multiply and take over the body. If during this process one of the bugs gives birth to a broodmother, the broodmother then takes over the consciousness of the rest of the bugs. When the only things left are skin and bones, the broodmother commands pests residing inside of that corpse to move in a way that mimics natural movement. If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. Every single husk walks on all limbs for better stabillity and for higher moving speed. Even then it isn''t fast enough for it to catch a human child so their danger is limited. They are dangerous only in higher numbers and their creation is limited because of the far spread tradition of cremating corpses. Even then in isolated places or wiped out villages they can form a small, yet dangerous army of undead. Fortunately even though they pose some kind of risk, most animals easily escape them and after one week of nothing to consume they fall apart. Personal notes: "Husks are very interesting test subjects, due to their ability to control bugs inside their body. We still theorize how broodmother can control so many insects of different species but the most widely accepted theory is that after consuming the flesh of their host they assimilate leftover lifeforce and using that link, the broodmother can give the bugs simple commands." Dr. Henry Spencer, Entomologist Shadow Walker Species: Shadow Walker Family: Living Shadow Risk level: Medium Weaknesses: Direct sunlight when without a host, otherwise positive thinking Description: Shadow monster feasting on nightmares. Without a host it takes a form of mostly circular shadow. Unlike most shadow-likes it cannot move on walls or ceilings. When connected to someone it fuses with original shadow and takes over its form. If you happen to see a shadow not attached to anything it is highly advised to turn around and leave or if escape is impossible shine a bright light directly at it. If it''s already fused with someone it will start to emit dreadfull aura. After a while it will cause the host to experience extreme nightmares and unrestful nights. After that point the shadow walker will start to feast on it''s victim and in turn grow rapidly. When it has consumed enough energy, it breaks apart into five smaller copies of itself. If not removed in time it could cause severe mental damage and in extreme cases, possible death due to lack of sleep. Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. When you see an animal with symptoms of possession you should put it down as fast as possible. Animals don''t experience positive emotions as much as we do and there is no known instance of animal getting rid of parasiting shadow walker. Fortunately for humans it is easy to repel it if its victim experiences a lot of positive feedback from its surroundings, so in case of affliction, it is recommended to spend as much time with your family or loved ones as possible. Personal notes: "Every living shadow is a pain to deal with, but shadow walkers are usually mild cases, because a shadow walker`s influence on living being is limited and easily negated. Unfortunatly the majority of their population hides in places that no humans reside, so their number is growing quickly. When we deal with more important threats we will send an expedition to limit their spread." Henry Blackeye, Member of Blood Hunt Famine Species: Famine Family: Undead Risk level: High Weaknesses: Fire Description: One of the most dangerous kinds of zombies that ever walked on this planet. It''s hunger is insatiable and won`t stop until there is nothing left to consume. It looks like very malnourished undead but has one distinctive feature that distinguishes it from its weaker brethren, which is the size of of its mouth. It can even be ten time wider than normal. On top of that, it''s mouth also contains three rows of razor sharp teeth that it uses to shred everything it puts inside of it. And I mean everything. There were instances where during zombie hordes it ate through steel gates or stone walls as easy as meat of its victims. It is also very durable, using substances extracted from its food to strenghten itself. Fortunately, its ability has limits, such as being unable to absorb energy constructs or spiritual bodies. It also, surprisingly, cannot stomach other undead causing it to vomit and in process weaken for short time. This kind of zombie forms only from bodies of the most glutonous people condemning them to eternal hunger. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. When spotted in the wild it is recommended to report its location to the nearest church or hunting facility to prevent major losses in live. After it dies its body can beharvested for valuable metals or used as a base for a powerful golem framework. It can also be proccessed to brew alchemical concoctions used to repel lesser undead. Personal notes: "The only thing that we tolerate in this thing is its usefulness after death. You need an army of trained soldier to even have a chance to defeat it. It`s better if you have a squad of specialized mages on standby to distract it or slow it down, but it`s stll extremely dangerous. Otherwise the whole area is doomed. Until stopped it will eat even the foundations on which buildings stand condemning the entire area to becoming unhabitable for quite some time. Better to kill it before it has had enough time to grow so resilent that it might as well be immune to physical damage." Gerald the Rosefell, Knight of Erdeic order Lamenting Scarecrow Species: Lamenting Scarecrow Family: Ghost Risk level: None Weaknesses: Fire Description: Those are but simple ghosts of farmers possessing scarecrows that used to be on their farms. When said farmer dies of grief, in situations where they lose their family, most of their lifestock, their plants catch on fire or some high ranking noble takes their land there is a chance that they will stay to protect their territory. Even in that form they can''t do much but repel animals and weaker monsters. Still, any future owner of that land will hear their sobs and cries unless properly exorcised. After prolonged contact they can also experience mild halucinations showing entities walking through the farm. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. Personal notes: "Not all monsters are bad by nature. Of course it doesn''t mean that we shouldn''t be vary near them. Monsters are, no matter in what form, not natural. In the case of ghosts their life is tied to the earth by strong emotions and remnants of life energy. That''s why not only spirits of normal people but also joined together fragments of their remnants can stay away from the afterlife. It is in our great interest to help them move on, since in practically all cases every single second for them is a pure agony." Priest Genah, Church of the Afterlife Biochemical Warfare Machine Species: Biochemical Warfare Machine Family: Automaton Risk level: High Weaknesses: Electricity Description: Leftover tools of war. In ancient times used to spread diseases and weakening enemy armies. Nowadays they are only found in ruins and poisonous swamps. The knowledge of how to craft them was lost with the end of Golden Ages and maybe it is for everyones benefit for it to stay that way. They are 3 meter, bulky, iron golems, looking like old diving suits. On their backs they have two glass tubes connected to their shoulders. Both of them contain green, bioluminescent substance which they can shoot from their hands at distance of one hundred meters. This liquid is a mixture of very sticky, easily vaporous acid which can spread on wide areas. Inhaling said acid can cause instant lung melting and massive damage to digesting system. This substance isn`t the only danger they can pose. Even though they look like they can barely move they can run as fast as horses. Also because of their weight their sheer punch strenght is enough to dent even the most sturdy armors. This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. After their destruction or corrosion they spread acidic lakes in their immediate surroundings causing it to become unhabitable. Because of that it is ill advised to engage with them in a fight or go anywhere near them to avoid unnecesary losses. Personal notes: "Thank God that they are no longer used in combat. Even to this day ancient battlefield sites where they were used are highly corrupted and unusable. Thankfully they don`t wander to far from their usual location and their range is rather limited so they aren`t dangerous if not provoked. Of corse there will always be an idiot that decides to ''kill the beast'' and fights it alone even after many warning. At least we don`t have to clean them up afterwords. Another liquid in acid lake." Dr. Inil Garder, Plague Doctor Sweet Tooth Species: Sweet Tooth Family: Insectoids Risk level: Medium Weaknesses: Drastic changes in temperature (use liquid nitrogen) Description: They live deep in jungles and places high in moisture. There were a few cases where they were even found on swamps. On very rare occasions when someone was inresponsible enough to start to breed them, they could also create nests in dark and wet enough attics if provided with bodies. They are a special kind of bee that due to massive supply of bodies turned into bloodthirsty monsters. And in this case they are literally thirsty for blood of the living. They gather it into their nests, just like regular bees, and turn it into crimson red honey. It is safe to consume it in small doses and long waits in between intakes but very harmful in large numbers because of high corruption concentration. Their size is around human heads'' and instead of yellow stripes they have it coloured in deep red. It is very frowned upon to keep them for honey production because of their high need for various corpses and very high reproducibility, which badly handled can easily cause them to escape and endanged many lifes. The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Even though they are dangerous, many merchants and nobles can pay extremely high for any amount of blood honey. They think it is a very prestigious item and desire it to show of to their equales. It pains me to write it but i must say that if anyone finds one of their nests in the wild it is better to sell this information to the Vault of Knowledge rather that inform knight, because merchants will deal with it faster that any kind of law enforcer. Personal notes: "I tasted their only only one time, but I can say with confidence that if i ever get another chance I will take it with everything I can. Not only it has unique sweet flavor that fits with any kind of meal it can also lenghtens life of everyone that eats it. The more you live the better you understand how important your time is. You can never have enough of this." Albert Montier Salabaz, Low ranking aristocrat "I could never undarstand why anyone would want to get a hand on their products. Almost every single one of them is harvested illegaly and probably harvested from human blood. Even if it can lengthen your life it also highly corrupts you. There is no safe way to live longer by literally getting rid of your humanity. Unfortunately many nobles ignore that risk. Maybe they will learn something when enough of them turns into mindless beasts." Euran Highheart, Knight of Erdeic order Dreamless Man Species: Dreamless Man Family: Sleep Demon Risk level: Medium Weaknesses: Having as much healthy sleep as possible Description: This monster looks like a 6 meter man in black robes, with no facial features except a pair of spiky ears. On his back there is a single arm, as long as his entire body, ending with claws instead of normal nails. He can only appear in dreams of insomniac, distressed or psychotic people. In his first phase the only thing a victim can see when asleep is his vague siluette behind buildings, trees or in crowds. It is also where most of his prey report that it was a first instance of lucid dream they ever experienced. After around two weeks he starts to be more solid and even appear directly in front of the sleeper. In this phase he also tries to talk to them but unfortunately his speech cannot be uderstood before phase 3. Finally after victim is stressed enough because of constant lack of sleep and stress they can hear the creature trying to offer them a contract stating that he will leave them alone if he can take one year of their lifespan. Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. Of course no sane person would agree to this under normal circumstances, but after unending stress from lack of sleep caused by his influence they usually sign it down. Unfortunately they won''t have time to celebrate their freedom. After taking their lifeforce this monster manifests in real world and immediately goes on a murder spree until killed or runnning out of energy. It is only classified under medium threat because of easily seen symptoms and simplicity in which it can be expelled, meaning a solid, uninterupted rest. Personal notes: "Good nights sleep is all it takes to keep them at bay. Thats why it is important to camp during our hunts. We mainly do that to be rested enough to not be a burden when fighting beasts but you can never be overprepared. Especially if some new recruit decides that they can survive on 4 hours of sleep and summons one of those monstrosities. After an incident in Averei Kingdom we made sure to teach them that before their first expeditions" Fagon Steeltooth, Member of Blood Hunt Soulweaver Species: Soulweaver Family: Ghost Risk level: Beneficial Weaknesses: Silver Description: They form in places high in spiritual energy like graveyards where it comes from dead bodies or mental hospitals where it is emited from unstable people. Formation process depends on the densitity and quality of said energy at takes from 1 month to even a decade. They always look like older women, around 70 years, wearing baggy clothes and apron. They always hold a spool of thread in their hand, which they constantly winding it, and in another hand a simple bag with already finished productes. You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. They are considered as harmless and even beneficial because their ability to gather spiritual energy into a thread greatly decreases chances for another ghost to spawn, heals mental damage and creates silk like material greatly resistant to spiritual corrosion. She will give you this thread when asked and even personally create a piece of clothing perfectly tailored to a that person. Personal notes: "It is very unusual for a ghost to be harmless and even more rare is to find a ghost that actively helps its surroundings. Technically soulweavers should not even be classified as ghosts because they doesn''t have memories from its past life or aren''t created from soul but just from remnants of one. Maybe if we learn the way in which soulweavers spawn we could one day build our own artificial ghosts and spirits than help us directly." Unnamed Spirit Priest "Seeing one in my workplace can be sometimes unnerving but like everything in life you get used to it. I can even say it is a nice change of pace when first thing ghost does when it looks at you isn''t screeching and violent tantrums. Unfortunately some patientes don''t take it as well as others so we must keep our soulweaver in isolated rooms, far from human sight." Dr. Barol Erion, Surgeon Deceitful Beauty Species: Deceitful Beauty Family: Plant Risk level: Low Weaknesses: Fire Description: Located deep in the forests and very rarely in caves full of vegetation. Individual parts of this monster look like a normal Blue Auroras. For anyone that is unfamiliar with this flower, it has five symmetrical petals with deep blue colour and no thorns on its stalk. You can fit one in a palm of your hand. The body of this monster is build from thousands upon thousands of singular flowers. It can be seen in a wild as unnatural field consisting only of Blue Auroras, not containing any other plant or with no presence of bugs and animals. Its hunting method is a simple luring of prey with hypnotizing chemicals that it produces instead of usual scent. You can easily break out of its enticement if you are aware of it. But if someone or something, usually an animal, is unable to back off of its area of infuence and steps on that field they immediately start to sink, much like in quicksand. After they are unnable to dig their way out the flowers start to absorb nutrients from their body, leaving only dried out corpses. This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. When seen by someone, they should try to notice the closest authorities or church for them to take action against it. Otherwise they don''t pose much threat. Personal notes: "Not even flowers are safe anymore. Blue Auroras used to be such simple little thing. Growing on fields, mesmerizing everyone that layed their eyes on them or perhaps adding a little beauty and simplicity to our everyday lives. Not anymore. After one of its kind turned into a monster no flower that came in contact with it was left unturned. It spreaded like a disease, until no healthy instances of it were left. Now we can''t even relax where they used to grown. Burned to the ground, with no hope of fast recovery of those places. Contaminated beyond the possibility of easily curing it. That''s why when any living beeing turns into a monster it must be hunted before they have any chance to spread." Werin Lentein, Alchemist [BONUS] Vault of Knowledge Name of the organisation: Vault of Knowledge Place of activity: Libraries Specialization: Information gathering Description: Main organization responsible for spreading knowledge and information. They have a policy that states that any knowledge they possess should be available for the public. Of course they also take on the fee if you need a specific information or they still don''t have. They also send gatherers and researchers to ancient sites to gather more of it. Their main objective is to gather all of it and expand using what they know. They are the main source of new inventions, equations and prototypes. Their workers are easily recognizable by steel, featureless masks, mechanical implants instead of hands and elegant suits. Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. Blood Hound Species: Blood Hound Family: Demon Risk level: Low Weaknesses: Silver, Items enchanted with banishing runes Description: Very common scavengers in demon realm. Can be easily summoned using barely any materials. In consequence anyone with basic knowledge about summoning can bring it to this plane. It doesn''t mean it is easy to control in comparison to higher ranking demons. I can even say that it is harder having in mind that they have the mind of an animal and can''t form more complex contracts that bind them stronger to summoner''s will. If done incorrectly they can even break out of the control and lash out on moments notice. They look like malnourished guarding dogs covered in thick layer of solidified blood. Instead of eyes they have heart shaped growths that despite how they are shape don''t limit their ability to see objects and instead allows them to detect nearby blood. Because they are an inhabitants of hell they can to some extent externaly malipulate life essence and in their case allows them to create blood constructs, like needles and projectiles, which they use in hunts. Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. Fortunately, there aren''t many cases where they escaped their contractors and even then they usualy die in short time after meeting stronger, unfamiliar for them monsters. Even then if you don''t have the ability to fight weaker monsters they should absolutely avoided. Their ability to manipulate blood, and high regeneration which comes with it, makes it a tricky opponent to deal on your own. Personal notes: "I enjoy having them as my summons, for a simple fact that they are very cheap. For the same amount of materials as required to summon a single, high ranking demon you can get a few hundred Blood Hounds. Of course a single summoner can''t bind to himself so much creatures but they do not require personal contracts unlike others, so person binding them doesn''t even have to be present during the summoning. If someone is very fluent in using them, one can even use their blood manipulation abilities to help in surgeries and transplants." Dr. Marin Crimson, member of Diseased Order Electric Leech Species: Electric Leech Family: Parasite Risk level: Medium Weaknesses: Water Description: Like every ordinary leech, they have long, lean bodies, no eyes, and circular maws with many raws of razor sharp teeth. Their main difference to their normal brethren is that their bodies are made mainly of electic energy. Their only solid parts are teeth and small, nail shaped cores. They feed of electric currents in stormy clouds, and if they find any also in generators and power stations powering our city lights. They can be easily removed if sprayed with water, which causes them to destabilize and eventually fade away. But it is very ill advised to get anywhere close to them, because their structure allows them to be literally as fast as a lightning. They also tend to travel in groups of around ten individuals and gang up on anything that threatens them. If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. If prepared for them they are not very dangerous, but their signs of activity can be easily mistaken for power outage. If you suspect that they reside near your location, you should prepare something that can eject water or any other conductive liquid on far distances. Personal notes: "This critters can cause lasting damages to electric constructions and infractures. Thankfully, they usually don''t get out of clouds if they can hep it. They only wander close to powerhouses when there is a spike in energy in situations like overheating of main engines. When we see them we try to kill them as fast as possible otherwise our superiors will get over our heads for any defects in machines." Unnamed worker in main power plant Glass Warrior Species: Glass Warrior Family: Automaton Risk level: Low Weaknesses: Blunt damage Description: Automatons covered in glass-like substance created by Iron Shell. They are loose robots that escaped from their creators and now run around wrecking chaos. Thankfully, they didn''t have enough time to implement in them the ability to create more of itself. Curently they are hiding deep inside wilds and corrupted lands. They look like humanoids but instead of skin they have something that look like glass but is much more durable. Also in place of hands they have simple glass blades reaching to the ground. Their only special ability is that using their reflective substance they can momentarily blind their target. Also their cover grands them electricity immunity that is not common in automatons. But because of their unfinished design most of them are slow moving and can''t put much strenght behind their slashes. Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. They can be easily eliminated if their glass cover is shattered because fragments from it damage their insides and disable their movement. They don''t pose much of a threat so anyone that sees one should be able to deal with them on their own. Personal notes: "A very creative invention but badly executed. If only the creator of this things thought about their aplication for regular people and not used as tools of war we could have had a cheap way to light our cities in the dark or even scare away monsters in its perimeter. But of course they had to be used as a weapons. I am not even mad that they limited its potential but about how were they build. They could use its mirrors to give it the ability to become invisible for a short period of time or maybe use it to concentrate sunlight and let it use concentrated rays or energy. But no, of course not. They used that only to blind its enemies. I can only hope that after we research it enough we could give it a better use than a simple, primitive weapon." Nagu Toren, member of Cogs'' Ordeal Undead Vines Species: Undead Vines Family: Conjoiner Risk level: Medium Weaknesses: Fire Description: This is one of a more unique conjoiners because it isn''t created artificially. It looks like a normal zombie but through its skin emerge multiple vines. They mainly concentrate around stomach area. Thankfully in contrast to others it isn''t as dangerous and doesn''t need as much force to deal with. Even though it isn''t as much of a threat it is still very difficult to defeat. It has both the basic abilities of living vines and primitive zombies giving it better mobility than both of them. It uses its vines to ensnare prey and moves it to itself. After it is close enough it grabs it and instead of eating, it puts its vines into its prey''s mouth and plants its seeds into victim''s stomach. After around a week it transforms itself into another Undead Vine. Because of its ability to spread itself using a very wide choice of animals and humans it is obligatory to burn it on sight. If not able to do it on your own or team it is required to inform the nearest church or Blood Hunt. Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. Personal notes: "Conjoiners are vile creatures, even naturally formed ones. They defy what''s normal even among already irregular monsters. Undead Vines are on its lower spectrum but still are a pain to deal with. Their increased undead resistance against damage of any kind makes them a very nasty opponent, expecialy including that they are made in high concentration of vines which makes them even more durable. They may look weak on the outside but never be fooled, they can be very tough to deal with. I just hope that we can find a way to decrease their chance to form or more realistically prevent them from spreading further." Antonio Galikazi, knight of Erdeic order Blood Rose Species: Blood Rose Family: Plant Risk level: None Weaknesses: Lack of sustenance Description: Rose with red petals made out of crystalized blood. This plant can manifest itself in blood rich environment, like sites of rituals. If bodies are fresh enough it can even form multiple flowers. It can grow up to the size of the forearm, but usualy doesn''t exceed the size of the palm. Despite it being categorized as a monster it isn''t harmful and can''t pose any threat on its own. It is only classified as such, because besides blood they also require life essence to grow. Their petals are used as alchemical ingredients for things like summoning rituals or healing oinments. In rare occasions they are also used as expensive decorations in noble households. It is best to sell them to Merchant Society if found or directly to alchemists in need of it. The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Personal notes: "If only all monsters could be like that. Harmless, not hurting anyone. At least there is this one plant, that not only is extremaly rare, but also requires unimaginable bloodshed to grow properly. I know that I sound salty but it is meant to be this way. I just can''t stand the fact that all around me are beasts that endanger our everyday life and no one stops to ask why? Why did it have to be this way? Can''t we go back to times where they didn''t exist? Tell me WHY!?" Random Citizen Damned Species: Damned Family: Ghost Risk level: Medium Weaknesses: Silver, Coins Description: They are created from souls of people that caused to many suffering to others. They usually rise up from corpses of underground leaders and slave dealers. The Damned look like half transparent ghosts wrapped in chains and barbed wires. If the person that turned into this ghost commited enough sins there is a chance that thay will also be covered in greenish flames. Their shrieks can be heard from half a mile and cause mental damage to anyone that hears it. When it spots someone it will try to suck all of their life essence, and in turn doom that person to join it as one of the bodies bonded by the chains. If enough of the souls merge with this ghost it will turn into a creature known as a Damned Prisoner. It will grow a cage surrounding its body and trapping it in place but also giving it much more powerfull shrieks that now can even cause person hearing it to die a painfull death and be forced to join the rest of ghost. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. When you hear ghostly wails, and start to feel sleepy, you need to immediately inform local church. If no church is close to your location try to find the source of that sound and leave a few coins near it. When the ghost is young enough it can be exorcised by being able to pay of their sins using coins. Personal notes: "Even after death greed is still in human nature. If they don''t have money then they will take someones else. Or if they don''t have anything they will take their life. Maybe even gods are materialist and don''t care about our wellbeing" Ludic Goldsworth, member of Merchant Society "Everyone must pay for their sins. Unfortunately they don''t want to pay them themself but drag others with them. Many think that money can buy anything. Good life, happiness, health and family. Maybe even visit to the afterlife. We don''t know what happens when we die, and we can only hope that whatever it is it will be adequate to how good we were and pay according price." Unnamed priest of Church of the afterlife Meat Slug Species: Meat Slug Family: Aberration Risk level: Low Weaknesses: Fire Description: They can be found only in locations where someone or something was sacrificed or mass graves. Those things can also be created in incomplete or failed experiments regarding life essence. They look like grouped up pile of flesh with varying amount of eyes and lipless mouths on its surface. Depending on the speciment and amount of corpses they absorbed their size can be as high as a horse or as small as a rat. Their main way of attacking prey is sneaking towards it by taking elevated position and jumping on top of it. Thanks to its weight it can easily overwhelm the opponent and suffocate it. After this it uses its many mouths to tear at the body and slowly absorb it. Even though they are sneaky, they can be easily spotted because of their contrasting colours in comparison of its surroundings, and easily escaped from thanks to their low speed. You can dispose of them by simply setting one on fire. They burn like dry twigs and can''t put themself down. When spotted somewhere it is advisible to get rid of it yourself or inform local guards. The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Personal notes: "One of the lower ranking aberrations. They can''t reach massive sizes like their stronger brothers or don''t have any unique ability that can help them with catching prey. But they can still be dangerous if you are not aware that they can be in your immediate area. Personally I hate the idea that anything like this would be near me. Thats why I don''t leave my facility if I have any say in that. Unfortunately from time to time they still give me one for research. I would rather not eat for a week that spend another minute near such disgusting creations." Paranic Halun, member of School of life essence Automaton Dancer Species: Automaton Dancer Family: Automaton Risk level: Medium Weaknesses: Electricity, Overheating Description: Automatons specially constructed for noble theater performances, but due to the flaw in design, which caused them to show explicitly violent behaviour, since then discharged. To this day only few copies of the original remain and are used by criminal organisations to start massacres. Depending on the individual machine they have different looks, but still share many similarities like slim build and generally pretty faces. They are masters of stealth and dexternity. Unfortunately, when charged they are uncontrolable murder machines that only want to slaughter. Even then they are not stupid, they can still perform basic tactics and make their own decisions. If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. Their metal bodies make them very durable, and thanks to their human like bodies can wield many kinds of weapons, though they seem to prefer stilettos and rapiers. Their numbers are steadily dimishing, so their danger level is relatively low compared to other medium level beasts but can still cause many casualties when caught unprepared. Personal notes: "Simply elegance in body uncannily similar to human''s. It shows the highest peak of craftsmanshift and creativity. It is such a shame that they are no longer put on stages to perform for crowds. At least there are still blueprints for them that we can use and fix all the details that caused them to malfunction. Hopefully, one day we can see them perform once again." Harnold, member of Cogs'' Ordeal. Black Void Species: Black Void Family: Sleep Demon Risk level: Medium Weaknesses: Low amount of sleep Description: Very unusual sleep demon due to its form. Most other sleep demons take for themself appereances that vaguely look like animals or humans. This one doesn''t resemble any living thing, rather than that looks like a tear in space leading to endless void. It can randomly attach itself to any being that has basic self-consciousness and usualy manifests itself to people seeking knowledge beyond what they should know. It shows itself when in deep sleep and preys on its victim''s life energy. It is a slow proccess but with its presence can cause other effects. Sometimes its victims can perceive something beyond what''s on its surface and learn something that they never should had. This can cause mental instability, schizophrenia and deattachment with reality. Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Even though it is a sleep demon it can be repelled by lack of sleep or complete absence of it. When someone doesn''t provide this demon with required energy it will move on to another person. Unfortunately, it cannot be destroyed or killed but will only exist as one instance at the time. Personal notes: "Very interesting object of attention. At first it doesn''t seem to be alive in any sense or form but after observing its patterns we can definitely tell that it can, in some manner, select its victims. Or perhaps something is influencing its appearances. For now we can''t tell for sure but recently we managed to get our hands on an individual that is affected with Black Void. Maybe we can manage to learn something from it?" Paranic Halun, member of School of life essence [BONUS] Blood Hunt Name of the organisation: Blood Hunt Place of activity: Taverns Specialization: Monster Hunting Description: Organisation consisting of loosely connected with each other hunters. They do not have any hierarchy or ranks between themself. They also do not actively try to recruit new members, which makes them a very small faction in comparison to others. When someone wants to join them they have to find one of the members and try to convince them to teach you and recommend you to others. Even though it doesn''t sound convincing and they seem as a very badly managed group they are still known as one of the more powerfull organizations, due to their bloodthirstiness and fighting abilities. It comes from their fighting style, which is based on fighting abilities of more brutal monsters. Thanks to that they are very unpredictable and are known for their survival skills. Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. Formless Shadow Species: Formless Shadow Family: Living Shadow Risk level: High Weaknesses: Death of the host Description: Like lower ranked members of its family, before it is bonded to someone it takes form of pudle of shapeless shadowmass. When connected it immediately takes form of its owner''s shadow and permanently transforms into it. This stage is the easiest one, where you can kill it by sending its host to the early afterlife. After that it only gets harder, until after one day when the shadow completely takes over its host''s consciousness. When it gets to that, the shadow inherits all the memories of the original and transforms its body to better accommodiate it. It makes it much more dexterous and also grands it basic shadow abilities like nigh invulnerability, turning back into shadow, walking on walls and ceilings and simply shapeshifting. It makes it very hard to catch or interact in any way due to their high inteligence and their very secretive ways of doing anything. Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. If it manages to fully take over human body it is required to inform as many monster hunting organisations as possible and request hunts of highest priorities. Personal notes: "Virtually immortal before connecting with someone and after full transformation. If not quickly dealt with can cause irreparable damages to our people. They can outsmart even the best strategists and have enough abilities to make them almost impossible to catch. After they take full control of the host we can only pray that they decide to leave and never bother us again." Unnamed member of Knights of Erdeic Order Otherworlder Species: Otherworlder Family: Demon Risk level: Low Weaknesses: Ignoring its presence Description: This species can only exist inside mirrors and other reflective surfeces. They also manifest themself to only one person at the time and take form of the person thet sees them. They are not very dangerous if treated with absolute ignorance. If you do not act to anything it does it cannot interact with anything outside the mirror. But if in situation where someone decides to listen to them they can find themself enchanted by their words and if that person has small will or self esteem. Then they will try to convince them to break the reflective surface they currently show themself. It acts as a sort of invintation for them to this realm and lets them interact with it. In all noted situation when that happened the person that broke the mirror immediately lost their consciousness. When they woke up they could not remember anything from their life. Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. It is theorized that Otherworlders steal memories and feast on them by extracting life essence from them. It is unknown if they can do anything else except steal memories but we know that they don''t show up again before one month passess. If ignored for long enough they move on to another person. Personal notes: "Demons are a very strange creatures. They can simultaneously exist in two realms and will survive if at least one of their bodies remain. In Otherworlders it functions a little differently that other demons but follow the same rules, like they can''t enter this realm without some sort of invintation but can still in some way manipulate our perception. Like anoying illusions." Unnamed mage Skin Tadpole Species: Skin Tadpole Family: Parasite Risk level: Low Weaknesses: Poison, High concentration of life essence Description: They are frogs with ability to rewrite your bodily functions with nothing but a touch. They are basically unrecognisible from normal frogs, except their slightly longer fingers. If touches you it turns on you your own ability to heal, changing that from now on every healed tissue turns into tadpole eggs. It is healable, but it requires the use of rather high ranking life essence manipulation. Even then it must be done fast enough, to let healer reverse this change before it is firmly implemented into the body, otherwise it will be impossible to heal that individual with our current knowledge. After examination of the victims it turned out that they directly changed the blood particles responsible for regeneration. This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it However they are ranked only as low level threat due to low survival of eggs, leading to small population, and due to time required to rewrite someones body. If there is a suspicion that they are infesting the area it is recommended to inform members of Diseased Order, mainly Plague Doctors. Personal notes: "Another disgusting creation. At least this one has some useful ability, from which we can learn something new. Their precise use of life essence is just what we need to advance our studies. If only they could not use that in such repulsive way. Also, researching them comes with few risks, like amplifying their ability to spread further or erase their limitation to require touch to use their powers. But it is a risk that we all must take, otherwise our studies will stagnate." Paranic Halun, member of School of life essence White Death Species: White Death Family: Undead Risk level: Low Weaknesses: Too much external movement Description: A cloud made out of bone particles. It can greatly vary in size between each member of this species. It depends only on the amount of bones that it managed to absorb. They biggest noted instance was around the size of regular cloud. Their main way to gather sustanance is to go to cemeteries of piles of bodies and slowly use their bodies to grind the bones to dust. In very rare situations they also try to find living prey and suffocate it by pushing itself into its lungs, but rarely it is successful due to their slow speed. They can be easily dispersed by stronger winds, so they usualy inhabit closed out locations, like inside tombs. Those monsters do not require to be regulary hunted due to their low danger level, but still require to be reported to local guarding unit, for furter security. You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. Personal notes: "Dust. A damn killer dust. Nothing is safe anymore, even air we breathe in. What''s next? Flying spoons? Cups? Or maybe murderous toys? I just hope that nothing happens to my family. We already have to much to worry about." unnamed civilian Shadow Tick Species: Shadow Tick Family: Insectoid Risk level: Medium Weaknesses: Fire, Bright light Description: Even though they belong in the insectoid family, they have some abilities from the shadow family. It isn''t enough to categorize them as conjoiners, due to their unchanged phisical build and very restricted uses of their skills. They look like pitch black ticks, the size of around half the fingernail. They usualy form groups of three to five insects, but in rare situations they can reach even 20 bugs. In terms of unusual skill they can attach themself to someone''s shadow and by it drain that person of their emotions. It isn''t a simple draining, because it causes them to completely stop feeling anything and there isn''t a known cure for that. If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. They can be very dangerous if not spotted fast enough, because it will cause its victim to not care enough to remove it and let it feast. Fortunately, they have distinctive outline while connected to someone and can be simply removed by walking into bright enough light. It also causes them to massively restrict their draining ability. It is recommended to remove it on your own, and not inform any hunting organization, due ti their low danger to the public. Personal notes: "Yet another bug, that found new ways to fill its stomach, especially so similar to living shadows. How it managed to do this without having any physical disposition towards living shadow is still beeing researched, and we hope that it can give us many valuable information. Maybe we could recreate it in another creatures and make use of it in special treatments." Dr. Henry Spencer, Entomologist Bed Bugs Species: Bed Bugs Family: Insectoid Risk level: Low Weaknesses: Fire Description: A species of monster bugs very similar to normal roaches. They are named Bed bugs due to their habit to make their nests in beds and other sleeping places. During the day they do not make any sound, don''t move and don''t give out any kind of presence. If during the night someone lies down on their habitat and falls asleep, they crawl out of the bed sheets and inject the victim with fatal amounts of anesthesia, and then eat the insides of the person they killed. They are usualy not successful, due to the noise they produce during their wake up. That''s why their main source of sustanance are kids, old people and disabled. When they consume someone they migrate to the other closest bed. If there is a risk of their infestation it is recommended to set their habitat on fire. Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. Personal notes: "On the first glance they may seem to be normal animals, but upon further investigation they are nothing similar to them. First of all their physical structure doesn''t allow them to ingest anything other than fresh, living matter. If they consume anything else they have immidiate rejection reaction, which causes them to defecate the contents of their stomach. Second of all, unlike other similar insects they cannot survive for long in areas that are not close to large animals or humans. Even in habitats simulating their usual conditions and provided with sustanance, they will die out in around a week. Our research team found out that they not only require food to function but also, like for us air, they need the residue life essence for continues survival." Patric Oric, Entomologist Bloodsucker Species: Bloodsucker Family: Undead Risk level: High Weaknesses: Blunt force, Ripped membrane Description: Very unusual type of the undead due to the requirements in which they must form. First of all they need almost rivers of blood, and relative small amounts of other bodies in the vicinity for them to rise. Because of that there where only two instances where they formed naturaly. Unfortunately, in most of the noted cases they where created artificially, by human hands. They look like crimson skeletons covered in thick layer of cristalized blood. Under it you can see a pulsating mass of liquified blood that allows it to move, and in joints there is a thin layer of red membrane that protects the blood from leaking. Due to that they are very durable to any kind of damage, and the only way to kill them is to first weaken them by cracking their exterior or cutting the membrane and then smashing the exposed skeleton. This, of course, isn''t ease due to their sheer power and stranght. They can easily smash through metal plates and boulders. It doesn''t help that their structure allows them some basic shapeshifting that they use to create spikes and turn their hands into blades. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. If seen in the wild it is required to inform the nearest hunting organisation to deal with the threat as fast as possible, before it manages to gather even more blood, and in turn more power. After their demise, their leftovers can be used for regenerating lost limbs, healing permanent damages and creating bases for homunculi and automatons. Personal notes: "I once witnessed the process in which they were created. Of course it was arificial, or otherwise I would have to wait for weeks for it to end. The lab in which it was initiated had one giant glass container filled to the brim with blood. I tested the composition of that blood and it turned out that it was mostly old, pig and cow blood. There were hints of other animals and a little bit of human blood. After the preperation they put a single human skeleton inside, covered in thick chains and completely immobilized. Then they sealed the container and set the temperature of the blood to the boiling heat. Around ten minutes later the blood was completely absorbed by the skeleton, which then tried to break free of its containment. They managed to kill it easy enough, but due to recklessness of one of the operators it managed to free one of its arms and cut with it two of the personel. After it was killed they used the remains of the skeleton to heal the daughter of the organizator of the project. Turnes out that with enough luck and preperations even monsters can be used for good." Dr. Philips Giarno, Plague Doctor Corrupted Animals Species: Corrupted Animals Family: Varying Risk level: Varying Weaknesses: Varying Description: These creatures are transformed animals and humans by corruption emitted by monsters. Depending on the family of the monster and its danger level it can produce varying amounts of corruption. For an animal to become corrupted it needs to be under constant influence for around one month to change. It also happens on humans but depending on the mental state it can shorten or lenghten the time needed for it to happen. In the first stage of the corruption the body of the infected creature begins to strenghten and in turn causes them to live longer. If done correctly it can also be aplied to humans if done with enough caution and preperations. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. In the second state it starts to directly modify the body to become more in tune to the specific corruption. It causes mental instability and health problems like fevers and other changes in body temperature. The third phase is when the creature is fully changed, and their mind is dead set on killing anything it comes with contact. Strenght of the created monster depends on the type of the corruption, starting strenght of the creature, its species and if it continues to absorb other kinds of corruption. Different from regular monsters it can do this to further transform its body. Of course it is not safe for them either if they won''t stop for transformation to stabilize, but in their state of mind they cannot comprehend it and usualy die by the third try. Personal notes: "I don''t know if corruption is a hidden blessing or a full curse. On one hand it allows us to grow stronger and let us fight the monsters with greater ease, but on the other it can break someones mind and cause massive amounts of deaths. I will continue my research of the subject to find safer methods for self improvement than exposing yourself to corruption." Eric Gurik, Researcher Distorting Light Species: Distorting Light Family: Ghost Risk level: Medium Weaknesses: Energy contamination Description: A big, stationary wisp of light. It can form itself from enough fragments of other spirits, but only if they are pure enough. Fragments from people that did not pass away in peace or others with to much sins on their name cannot be a piece in this ghost. If even a single fragment from that kind of person touches this ghost before it is fully formed it will transform itself in to another kind of spirit. It constantly emmits a kind of light that destabilizes the basic structure of anything it touches. Or using better terms, it seperates every piece of the structure and segregates them. If it touches any living beeing, said creature will experience violent seizures, lack of control of their body, and in around one minute, death. Even if the animal or human escapes its influence it will forever be deformed, and won''t function the same as before. Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. But there is one big drawback to this ability, which comes from the fact that it will do anything, including itself, pure. If in some way the ghost is contaminated by other kinds of energy, like electricity, heat or corruption, it will destabilize itself, and in turn completely desintegrate. Thankfully, due to their stationary nature it cannot cause too much damage, but still its light covers wide distances. If you spot an unusual light in the area it is required to inform any organization that can deal with it. Personal notes: "Quite curious creature. It doesn''t seem to have any resemblance of consciousness, but can still decide how it sorts substances. Depending on the object it does it in very different manners. For example when it comes to living beeings it will sort them by muscles, blood, skin, nervous system and others, but in items like mixed liquids it will seperate them by the kind of the material. Why doesn''t it seperate water from the blood? Or protein from muscles? I hope we kind find out in the near future." Adwin Turin, scholar under Vault of Knowledge [BONUS] Monster Families Insectoid: Monster having insect like body or being composed of many insects. Undead: Moving leftovers from the body of the dead. They do not possess a soul. Ghost: Pure souls or joined together fragments of souls creating immaterial creature. Automaton: Machine created by human hands but due to negligence turned against them. Plant: Monster having body made out of plant tissues and fragments. Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. Living Shadow: Creation made out of pure darkness. Instead of souls, like ghosts, they are remnants of human emotions and wants. Aberration: Beasts consisting of disorganized flesh, muscle mass and other additions. They do not have constant form. Demon: Creature from different dimension. They vary greatly in forms and shapes but almost always have superb abilities in manipulating life essence. Sleep Demon: Monster very similar to normal demons but differs in their location. While demons come from another dimensions, sleep demons come from mirror plane, which consists of relfections of human nightmares. Parasite: Creature that depend on animals, humans, machines and other monsters by sucking out the energy. Conjoiner: Beeing that loosely consists of monsters that do not fall in other categories and usualy consist of two or more different kinds of them. Flesh Spider Species: Flesh Spider Family: Abberation Risk level: Medium Weaknesses: Fire Description: Amalgamation of flesh, chitin and insect legs. The legs are places randomly on its surface, and belong to many different species of bugs, like bees, spiders, beetles and ants. The only thing that may seem similar in each of those is their size, which is usualy as larg as human leg. The chitin, istead is fully covering the fleshy parts of the spider and allows it to remain in mostly circular shape, but like in other abberations it can sometimes malfunction and cause the flesh to spill out of its insides. It can reverse this process with relative easy but before that it creates a very disturbing image. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. They can be spotted in the vicinities of tombs, massive graves and sometimes neglected prisons. Their ability to be stealthy and the possibility for them to be patient makes them a formidable foe, expecially due to their speed that can reach that of the racing horse. It is recommended to leave them alone, and if that is impossible to find the nearest source of fire and try to scare them of. After that the nearest Blood Hunt facility should be informed of their sighting for them to deal with this trouble. Personal notes: "They are very irritating to deal with. Not only they are fast, they are also masters in stealth and the only thing that seems to threaten them is fire. It also must be accuratly hit or otherwise their armor will protect them from most threats. Fortunately it is a double edged sword, because if their insides are burning their chitin will prevent the fire from extinguishing. Last time when we had to deal with one we lost two rookies that tried to fight it in close range. Not only they didn''t manage to hurt it they also lost fast enough that we didn''t manage to save them in time. A real shame, I must say." Amir Tagar, member of the Blood Hunt Helping Hand Species: Helping Hand Family: Plant Risk level: Beneficial/Medium Weaknesses: Fire Description: A simple vine with five branchings at the end of it. It is connected to the ground by a set of roots, and wrapped around to a single tree. At first it is a very friendly creature, helping when help is needed, and often saves anyone in danger. They also help with ways back to civilization if lost in the woods, and provides sustanance when malnoutrished. Their agressive nature makes itself known only after they save someone enough times to bond with them. It is dependable on the age of the individual, time frame between each helps and direct sympathy of the person towards it, but usualy doesn''t extend beyond five times. Then they start to think of that person as a member of its "family" and wants it to stay that way. And in their way of thinking that means trapping that person with itself and not letting anyone else get near that person. In that state they also stop helping others and focus on only their captive. Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. They are extremely dangerous when agitated due to the fact that they can, to some extend, manipulate the flora in their surroundings to to their will. There are no known cases of freeing its victims from it, but it was possible to for some time pacify it by setting it on fire. When their captive dies of old age they bury their body underground and by some unknown means turn them into another member of its species. After around a year, when the new plant is big enough, the first one rips it out of ground, and throws it as far from its territory as possible, which is around ten kilometers. It is advised to avoid them if you were already saved by one. Personal notes: "A have mixed feeling about this speciment. On one hand it is intelligent enough to recognize others and have the capibility to make bonds and feel sympathetic to others. On the other it is also capable of extreme greed and violence, and can turn around their entire behaviour in the matter of moments. That gives one simple question. Is every single intelligent being inherently evil, or is that just a twisted idea of wanting to protect something?" Unnamed botanist Rust Fox Species: Rust Fox Family: Automaton Risk level: None Weaknesses: Any kind of physical damage Description: They are old mechanical toys, around palm size. They look like metalic fox figurines with functional joints. Due to their unique build and flaw in desing, they burned themself to function, which caused them to rust in abnormal speed. Originaly they were created as half-sentient toys, clocks and little, minature guardians for kids. Unfortunately they broke down to quickly to function properly, and because of the damages, quickly turned hostile to the kids they were meant to protect. They were not very successful, due to the fact that their main role in protecting the kids was to scare off attackers and produce noises load enough to alert others, which in turn caused them to have zero casualities under their belt. To this day only around ten of those toys survived, and are still functional. But now they are used only as decorations, a sad echo of what they could be. You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. Personal notes: "I shows just how much faulty our current technology level is. Maybe its creator didn''t care enough about it, didn''t have the materials to improve the final product, or maybe didn''t know how to do it. I wish it could live up to the original purpose and not rust away into oblivion. Maybe in the future more people will have drive and means to create more unique automatons, or even normal tools that will advance our society. For now only people borned with silver spoon can hope to achieve more that average. I will work towards that goal to hopefully see the world where anyone can invent new and exciting things." Andrew Montes, member of Cogs'' Ordeal [Not a chapter] I have a simple request to you all. I want to improve my writing skills, and I can''t possibly learn how to write better in English in short amount of time, or to not sound like a gremlin trying to speak. That''s why I want to ask for help with it, by writing in comments what I can improve. Do you want longer chapters with added monster habitats, list of its abilities, or maybe to explain its appearance in greater detail? Or maybe to write in specific style, trying to better impersonate characters in Personal Notes? Any feedback would be much appreciated, and I also want to thank Octaeon that they helped me in earlier chapters. I am sorry that it is not the greatest novel but I am trying my best :) If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Btw, if you wonder how long will this book be, I will try to write up to 100 entries, maybe more if I will have time and willingness to do more. Or I will try to write something with a story. Thanks for your attention, and I am very thankful for reading my (amazing) work. Wrongness Species: Wrongness Family: Unique Risk level: ??? Weaknesses: ??? Description: This is one of the least known monsters that we ever knew about. Its pure existence is contradictory to everything we know and doesn''t seem to follow any common law. It seems that this monster can to some degree manipulate memory, cause psychosis, or erase the fact that it was present on the scene. The few times someone managed to see it and remember it, they described it as ever morphing creature with no consistent form or shape, managing to manifest on itself parts that belong to other beeings, including other monsters. We know that it appeared several times outside of noted situations due to the fact that every time it existed, it distrubed local territory, and changed materials from which it was built. If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. For now we can only speculate if it''s the only one of its kind, or if there is a whole species of those creatures. If you spot any kind of anomaly in the wild it is strongly advised to turn around and leave the location as fast as possible and avoid direct contact with Wrongness. It is also recommended to inform nearest research station to let them know of that phenomenon. Personal notes: "I-I-I don''t want t-talk about it. I-it had to m-many limbs, oh my god s-so m-many." One of victims"I still have headache when I try to remember how it looked. At one moment it was similar to a dog with tentacles instead of legs, covered in bark and with detached head, and on another it was a flying, raingow colored ingot with five different wings. It wasn''t a nice experience." Second victim Crimson Mosquito Species: Crimson Mosquito Family: Insectoid Risk level: Medium Weaknesses: Poison Description: This is a very specific kind of mosquito that due to contamination developed one of its original abilities, namely its venom and changed the original colour of chitin to crimson red. It changed from numbing the target to forcing it to produce abnormal amounts of blood. The changes can cause popping of veins, accumulating blood under skin, causing it to change colour to red, and of course quick death. Thankfully, this change is reversable, if you manage to inject yourself with small doze of non lethal poison. It will not damage your organs if done correctly, and will eliminate any traces of original poison. After testing the researchers found out that after the poisons mix, both of them become useless. The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. They only produce this poison on their mating season, which lasts around one month, but in this amount of time can cause many fatalities, expecially taking in consideration the fact that when they successfully manage to infect someone, they inform every member of its species of it to suck the victim dry. When it is time of their activity it is advised to avoid going outside at night, tightly lock doors and windows and have in your possession prescripted poison in case above methods fail. Personal notes: "Its venom works very similar to bacteria or viruses, and not normal venoms. First of all it doesn''t disturb parts where it is injected, or doesn''t spread to organs, but directly seeks out bone marrow and plants itself there. Then it overrides the original genes and removes all limitations in blood limit. Even then it somehow is still a venom but touched by corruption, which means it can possibly have self- directioned essence manipulation. For now we don''t have the means, or time to test it but maybe in the near future we will have enough free hands to deal with it." Garon Haston, Plague Doctor Finger Mimic Species: Finger Mimic Family: Parasite Risk level: Low Weaknesses: Fire Description: This parasite took for itself a unique way to adapt, and better conceal its parasiting behaviour. Namely when its chosen victim falls asleep it inject them with anesthesiac substance and then burrows itself inside one of the fingers. Next over the course of few days it slowly replaces the tissue simultaneously taking over its functions, connecting itself to its host''s nervous system. The victim doesn''t feel any difference exept occasionally losing control of it. The only way to identify it is to take notice of small changes in softness of the finger during the transformation, rare moments when after it, it changes consistency. It is not required to report its presence, due to the fact that it can''t reproduce when bonded. Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. Even if it isn''t very dangerous, after the host dies it consumes the rest of the body, and with that replicates itself rapidly, this is why after victims death the body should be burned, or if the family wants to preserve it, to quickly cut of the infected finger and similarily dispose of it. Personal notes: "I had this bugger with me for around twelve years and to this date it didn''t harm me in any way. Maybe it takes some blood from me, but isn''t it what every finger does? Also, what would I gain from removing it? It doesn''t bother me, doesn''t spread, and does not do any harm. I don''t exactly want to lose my finger, so just let it stay. Maybe after I die I will ask to cremate my body, to don''t take any risks, but for now I am alright." Unnamed victim of this parasite Hawk Cyclop Species: Hawk Cyclop Family: Sleep Demon Risk level: Low Weaknesses: None Description: As its name says it is a giant hawk with singular eye, but unlike normal animals it is positioned on its stomach. Its victims reported that its size was usualy thet of the human adult. Like any normal sleep demon it only manifests itself in its prey''s consciousness and its only visible to them. It is also rather weak and limited in ways which it can appear. For example it can only haunt one person at the time and cannot switch victims for around a week, and can also only exist in dreams. The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. This species gets itself energy by hypnotizing its hosts and causing them distress and anxiety, which in turn overworks their body and takes excess energy which comes from it. There were cases where it caused death of the person which it was parasiting on, but they were not numerous, and usualy happened to old people, and people with heart problems. Of course people with high enough mental fortitude can resist its influence, but it still results in restless night. It is not very dangerous, but you can still prevent it from taking a hold of you by resting enough. Personal notes: "One of the few monsters that we can''t do anything against. In other cases at least we could somehow influence their appereance, but here the only think we can do is just limiting it. Thankfully, it is not very dangerous, but just to be sure when something similar, but much more dangerous shows up, we must prepare and learn more about those beasts, to better prevent losses." Andric Reinic, knight of erdeic order Iron Gate Species: Iron Gate Family: Automaton Risk level: Low Weaknesses: Electricity Description: A simple iron door leading to crypts, safes and secure locations. They are used on daily basis in banks and vaults to secure what''s inside them, but the reason they are even mentioned in this book is that they can also be situated in abandoned locations, or long forgotten places with no regular commands that keep them from harming inocent victims. They are also one of the few kinds of automatons that can manifest from normal iron gates due to their simply mechanisms and presence of thick concentration of life essence. Their main function is to not open under any circumstances without a password or showing a signature, but can also defend themself and what they are holding if pushed. The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. The have limited repeling abilities like clouding someone''s mind to distract them, and if resisted to literally push them away with force wave. Except that they can also shoot out metalic fragments and create spikes covering their surface. The ones made artificially are also equiped with load alarm sounds and other, unique for designer, abilities. Personal notes: "They are a pain to deal with if we are hunting other beasts. Some of them can manipulate their essence with enough precision to bypass those doors, making it a nightmare to deal with. They may be only iron, immobile gates, but have you ever tried to force open thick, closed, metal doors to open, especially if they are activily resisting it?" Edward Blackeye, member of Bloodhunt Mantra Species: Mantra Family: Demon Risk level: High Weaknesses: Lobotomy Description: This demon doesn''t have a specific form in which it can be defined. In every single case when it managed to manifest itself into human realm, its witnesses couldn''t explain how it looked, and every time they tried to remember they lost their consciousness. The higher the inteligence of the person, the higher the chance that it can influence them. The only method to stop, is to lobotomize its victim, which allows to trap this creature for a while, until it finds out that the person is not responsive and then moves on to another one. When it manages to get a hold of someone, it continuously repeats its true name inside that persons mind and tries to convince them to say it out load. The longer it tries, the harder it is to refuse it. No one managed to note down its name, due to the impossibility of writing demon language. When finaly, its victim speaks its name, it can using that link open the rift to our realm. It cannot stay in here for long, and in every situation when it managed to do so, it lasted only a few minutes. But even in that short amount of time it erased everything in ten mile radius and made it inhabitable due to the coruption. Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. Thankfully for us, and not so much for the victims, most of them kill themself before they speak that demon''s name. If anyone in your family starts to behave strange and seems like they have problems with thinking for themself, is is required to alert the nearest church, and when the presence of the demon confirmed, sent to the clinic for quick lobotomy. Personal notes: "Let us prey for all the victims of the Mantra. Those poor souls can''t even hope for clean death, because the only alternative for suicide is permanent brain damage. If only we could enter the demon realm to eradicate these monsters. Maybe someday we will manage to do so, but for now the only thing we can do is to protect ourself from other beasts, and hope that other demons will grow tired of our plane of existance." Gerald the Rosefell, Knight of Erdeic order [BONUS] School of life essence Name of the organisation: School of life essence Place of activity: Labs, Designated academies Specialization: Essence manipulation, Researching Description: This is a group of scholars, mages and researchers. To join it, it is required to have at least one recomendation of the member, have academy certificate and to pass an entry test, which includes whole body scan and mental tests. To remain in this group every member must submit at one paper a year in which they showcase their findings to the higher ups. Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. It is possible to extend that period if you can manage to prove that your current research requires extensive searching or travels, and even then only older members will be taken in to the consideration. Newer members can expect to have access to libraries containing methods to manipulate life essence and scientific knowledge about many materials and monsters that they can eploit. Basic abilities of the mages include, but are not limited to the blood manipulation, biomorphia, shapeshifting, disease manipulation and mind control. More experienced mages could also use those abilities to set their own blood on fire, create chimeras and manipulate the dead. Due to the fact that they can directly control life essence, every average mage has also much sturdier body that normal, and has longer lifespan, which extends with ability of the user. Their main goal is to achieve immortality and elevate human species to another level. Phantom Scavenger Species: Phantom Scavenger Family: Ghost Risk level: Low/Medium Weaknesses: Silver, General Metals Description: This is a monster that specifically travels in large groups, measuring even one hundred individuals. They look like crimson red, transparent spirits or crows, with wings that look like are about to fade away in the air. They are individually not very strong and can easily repelled by silver or protected against them by a layer of steel or other similar materials. They have difficulty going through solid objects and their strength is weaker that their alive counterparts. They make up for their inane weakness by traveling in groups, and instead of seeking fresh prey, feasting on old carcasses. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. Of course, the more there are of them, the more dangerous they grow, but can''t pose enough threat to endanger bigger settlements, and can be easily repelled by trained military and mages. But those kinds of situations are very rare, due to their high enough intelligence. They will not seek out dangers, like that, and they would prefer much more to continue living on rotting flesh and easy prey. Personal notes: "Before monsters first came into existance we thought that only humans had souls and now we are not so sure. Maybe some ghosts form from pure spirits there are some that require only life essence to live. But the amount of specific animal and plant ghosts puts into consideration fact that maybe everything alive has a soul. Until we can prove it or disprove it in some way we could never what what''s the truth, but for now we will stick with our believe that only creatures with enough inteligence or power can have souls." Priest Jenod of church of the afterlife Skin Crawler Species: Skin Crawler Family: Ghost Risk level: Low Weaknesses: Silver in earlier stages, None in latter Description: This is a particulary nasty ghost. It doesn''t take a solid form, maybe a vague human shape, until it possesses someone. Then they slowly take form which they have had in their previous lives, while changing how their hosts looks based on that. Given enough time they can completely change someone''s appereance and even gender. They can form from people with enough pride and self interest to stick with them to their afterlife. Usually they can manifest themself from arogant nobles, kings and other high ranking people, but there were cases where even normal citizens became those spirits. You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. Thankfully, the only think they can do to a person is to change the original appereance and not their personality, although if not exorcised fast enough those changes can become permanent, and in few cases cause suicides of their victims. If the person dies while still possessed, the first spirit moves on to another one to continue its obsessive work. Personal notes: "They are the perfect example why foul behaviour can destroy someone''s life. In this situation it is rather unfair that the aftereffect of the act reflects on victims, but world is hardly fair, and we cannot wait for it to deal with our problems. The best thing we can do is to fight back against sin and foulishness, by pulling out by the roots the causes of such behaviour. Nobels should have in mind the good of their people and not only filling up their pockets with wealth." Garold Jakil, exorcist Steel Wolf Species: Steel Wolf Family: Conjoiner Risk level: Medium Weaknesses: Fire, Lack of energy Description: This one is rather unique amongs other monsters, due to the simple fact that this is the only one in existance. It was supossed to be a war machine designed in a way that allowed this wolf to reproduce and create offsprings with already existing implants. The experiment was highly unsuccessful but is still kept in the facility, in which it was created to study it further, and upgrade original desing. This monster was only made known to the public after its first escape. Ever since it regulary managed to break out of its containment, with frequency of around one time every year. This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. Its general appereance is very similar to normal wolf, except the fact that it has all of its legs replaced with mechanical implants, and on its back is a set of razor sharp blades, around arms lenght. It was also generaly enhanced using life essence manipulation, to make it drastically more durable. As a side effect it also made it much smarter that regular wolf, and due to that no normal containment procedures work on this monster and must be adapted frequently. Thankfully, the area in which it is located is rather far from any human settlement, and there are very rarely any casualities in case of its escape. Personal notes: "Such a shame it is a failed product. It had so much potential. At least we managed to mark one of the subgoals of the poject, which was allowing it to function, by directly using life essence and not sustanance. If all goes well, we will be able to create self sustainable animal-automaton hybrids in around ten years. And maybe in around a year we will be able to put down original creation, when we create better test subjects." Unnamed member of Cogs'' Ordeal, Scientist in this project Caravan Pit Species: Caravan Pit Family: Plant Risk level: Medium Weaknesses: Fire Description: This kind of monster is expecially dangerous, due to their groth speed. In around three days they can grow to full size and take over the area in which they reside. They are, mainly speaking a giant nepenthe, reaching around ten meters in diameter. They developed a unique sensing abilities that allows their kind to sense the worned out roads, and expand to their directions, when they are currently low on regular animals to eat. Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. Suprisingly, even though the are quite sizeable, they can hide their presence extremely well, by changing their coloration and consistency depending on the surrounding. Though there are signs when one of them moves, like a overturned patches of grass in the vicinity, or massive pitfalls near the area. They can be avoided, and it is highly advised that when spotted in wild, to burn it to the ground, but even with preacutions there are a lot of accidents involving those plants. When going on a journey traversing less used roads it is recommended to bring with yourself experienced hunters or guards to avoid casualties. Personal notes: "Those plants are a pain to deal with. It is rather rare when any of us has to use any other path than main roads, but every now and then there is a need to go to isolated settlements and villages, even if it doesn''t bring us as much cash as usually. Those people still need to eat, and be able to sell their stuff, or otherwise the amount of supplies we possess will dwindle greatly, and no one wants that to happen." Gustavo, member of the Merchant Society Dark Sleep Species: Dark Sleep Family: Conjoiner Risk level: Medium Weaknesses: Daylight Description: This is a very specific kind of sleep demon, because instead of manifesting itself as some kind of unsettling creature it instead takes after their host''s shadow. They attach themself to people with severe lack of self confidence, or anxiety. They show themself every night in dreams, or better said nightmares, of the victim, constantly harassing them and repeating to them everything bad they thought to themself. Using their life, they slowly take over the shadow of their prey to further strenghen their hold of that person. The longer they are present, the stronger is their influence on the hosts behaviour and thoughs, causing them to close themself up and isolating themself from society. If in that time they manage to cause their victim to commit suicide, they take over their identity, by replacing their body with the shadow. You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. This way they essentially become that person, and continue on with their, now better live. This process can be stopped, and the demon exorcised if during the possession the person in question goes outside during the day and stays in sunlight for a few hours. This is because of their vulnerability to the sunlight, that they force their victims to stay inside at all times. If one of your family members is suddenly withdrawing themself from others, it is highly recommended to convince them to spend more time with others and to go out as often as possible. If that doesn''t work try to confirm if they are attached to the demon, and if true to force them to stay outdoors. Personal notes: "Not all monsters are a cause of problems. This one in particular just expands on what is already existing and uses it to improve itself. The symbtoms in which it can show can be easily mistaken for normal depression and not monster infestation. This problems already exist in us, and we need only a push to let them fully show themself. Humans are full of imperfections and we need to get rid of most of them to fully be free in mind and spirit." Luis Rose, psychologist Dead Silhouette Species: Dead Silhouette Family: Living Shadow Risk level: None Weaknesses: None Description: A remnant of persons consciousness after their death. It can only form itself if the person in question had expecially strong will, or experienced very strong emotion right before death, like shock. They are similar in their behaviour, but it can vary depending on the circumastances in which they died. They all look like a shadow of the original with low details to them, like a vague form, not the perfect copy of it. In case of Dead Silhouettes that came from strong will, they repeat their everyday behaviour, like going to work, doing house chors and just doing their daily routine. They physically cannot touch anything, so their work is entirelly pointless, but it shows how they where strongly anchored to their, largely peaceful life. The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. This contrasts to ones that came from strong emotion. Instead of repeating their life, they stay in the same position as when they died. The other thing that differs them is the fact that they can interact with objects, like the place they are sitting on or things they are covered with. Both of those kinds disperse in around a year of their creation, and this time cannot be shortened, at least for now. If one of your neighbors, or someone close to you turned into this monster it is advised to contact church, for them to limit the spread of its corruption. Even if it is small, over the years it can accumulate rather massively and cause a monster to form. Personal notes: "One of my close neighbores left behind this silhouette. You can only imagine how his wife was devastated. Not only he left her behind, he also left her a sad memory that she can never return to. It wasn''t healthy for her, not one bit. She became obsessed with it and treated it like her husband. It was sad to watch, expecially after he left her the second time. She commited suicide a day after. It is better to let the dead rest." Unnamed civilian Dealbreaker Species: Dealbreaker Family: Sleep Demon Risk level: Low Weaknesses: Refusal to pay before their part is done Description: A group of weak demons dependent on their victims distress. They always show themself before people in dire need of help, and propose to them to sign a contract with them. In the closure it says that they will help their vicitm with current predicament, in exchange with their memories. Like their name suggestes, it isn''t a fair deal. Their idea of dealing with problem is to let the victim to forget about it completely, consequently being true to the contract. They can be tricked rather easily, because their whole strategy to is to stick to the one that always worked, and when it doesn''t, blame the victim and quickly move on to avoid another loses. You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. The only way they can be described is that they look like perfect image of imps. A small demon, with red skin, slick, sharp ending tail, long nails and of course hornes on its forehead. They usually show in groups of five to ten, never under tree and above thirteen. The best way to deal with them is to refuse their help, or if it is really necessary to first tell exacly which memories they can consume, and agree to this only after they do their part. They can also be payed in blood and pure life essence rather than memories. Personal notes: "They are the perfect example, why you need to pay attention while signing any contracts. One small detail, or note can overturn the deal for worse. Is is also applicable to normal life, like searching for a job, or any kind of sale. It is very hard to write a contract that doesn''t inconvince you in any way, and perfectly secures your safety. At least demons can''t break their contracts, unlike some of the less upright merchants. Maybe we are the greater evil after all?" Terin, member of the Merchant Society Humanoid Mass Species: Humanoid Mass Family: Aberration Risk level: High Weaknesses: Fire Description: Extremely dangerous species of aberrations, derived from their ability to assume human form. In their basic shape they look like any other of their breathen, a huge amount of eyes, mouths and other kinds of body parts stuck in giant, fleshy orb. Though they can sometimes be observed like that, they mainly do this when badly hurt, recovering from damages or trying to squeeze through tight passages. Although, most of the time they asume, like their name suggests, humanoid form. Almost all of them are not skilled enough to form more convincing appearances, and often it is not energy efficient for them to do so, and that leads to only a mere imitation of shape and not looks, and that leads to their horrifying facade. Their exterior gives them very unsetling looks, like stuffed pig meat inside decaying human skin, with massive ripped holes on in, from which many eyes peer through. That''s why when in public, they wear thick robes to conceal what they really look like underneath clothing. The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. But their most dangerous aspect is that they can speak human language, and can be patient enough to learn how to expertly exploit it. This species is known to be very charismatic and convincing, and using that to secure prey they need by convincing people to follow them without second thoughts. Also, their learning speed is terrifing, easily ten times that of normal human, which allows them to learn enough about our society to perfectly blend in, and secure their position. If you suspect that anyone you know can be this monster in disquise it is required to report to inform local monster annihilation units, to let them check this, and dispose of the danger. Personal notes: "You know, once I though I had a very good friend named Kevin. He was a good guy, never would have hurt a fly. He helped around the village, helped old people with their taskes, took care of kids, you know like any other country bumpkin. He even had a wife, imagine that. Then Blood Hunt came a killed Kevin in front of my eyes, in front of the entire village. He dissolved. He became a flesh pudle. He was a monster. He was a Monster, and I let him look after my kids. I can only imagine what he could have done to them. Our village became much more quiet after that." Unamed civilian Playtime Species: Playtime Family: ONE AND ONLY Risk level: Sealed FOR NOW Weaknesses: HAVING FUN Description: Unique concept that came into existance, by accumulated emotion of happiness, twisted by monster corruption. DOESN''T THAT MAKE ME MORE FUN? WE CAN PLAY ALL YOU WANT, WE HAVE ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD TO ENJOY OURSELF. Under no circumstances try to free it from this page. It has been sealed in its book entry, and that means that it can partially exist in every book it is mentioned. AND I GROW MORE AND MORE WITH EVERY PERSON THAT KNOWS ABOUT ME. It couldn''t be forgoten about, or not mentioned, otherwise a new instance of this monster would form itself in places with most people and make itself known once again. By defining its properties we could somehow limit its abilities. THIS WON''T STOP ME FOREVER. It doesn''t have one form in which it can show itself, but seems to prefer to look like a circus clown, in bright coloured clothes, white makeup, red hair, nose and other accessories. HOW ELSE SHOULD I PRESENT MYSELF FOR YOU TO ACCEPT ME? If it finds someone that seems ''fun'' it takes that person into its personal dimension, from which they never show up again. Then for indeterminable amount of time it ''enjoys itself'', and after that show itself again covered from head to toe with various kinds of fluids, including blood, acid, venom, liquefied eyeballs, oil and pure alcohol. THEY MAKE SUCH FUNNY NOICES WHEN I PLAY WITH THEM. I WONDER IF IT CAN GO EVEN HIGHER? It was sealed after School of life essence tricked it into attacking one of the automatons they designed to contain demons and other otherwordly beings. THEY WILL BE FIRST I AM GOING TO ENJOY. It can still comunicate with readers of this book, and it often tries to tempt readers to free it from its containment. Once again, do not follow any of its instructions, otherwise you will be first to be its victim if it manages to escape. This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. Personal notes: DO YOU WANT TO BE HAPPY FOREVER? DOES THIS WORLD MAKES YOU SAD? YOU CAN JOIN ME IN ETERNAL HAPPINESS, IF YOU ONLY HELP ME WITH ONE TINY THING. tHE ONLY THING YOU HAVE TO DO IS TO DRAW A BIG SMILE ON THIS PAGE AND ALL YOUR TROUBLES WILL MELT AWAY. WHAT DO YOU THINK, FRIEND? [BONUS] Church of the afterlife Name of the organisation: Church of the afterlife Place of activity: Churches Specialization: Spreading religion, Knowledge about souls Description: This organisation came to being after monster manifestation, by combining multiple religions into one group. Despite them being a church they rarely meddle in politics and are only responsible for giving the faith to the people in need. They also help cure lesser diseases that do not require visits to Diseased Order for free. The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. They do not worship a God, but rather a concept where regarding how you behaved during your life reflected on your afterlife. When you were helpful to other, managed to improve general life or were generaly good you were allowed to pass on and do anything in your imagination in this theoretical heaven. When you had unfinished business, or were a social outcast you were granted another life to live and fix all your previous mistakes. In the last situation when you actively hurt others, that person was punished by reincarnating as a monster and living that punishement until redemption or complete whipe out of mind. Saphire Spider Species: Saphire Spider Family: Insectoid Risk level: None Weaknesses: Blunt force Description: Arachnids inhabitating deep caves, with rich amounts of crystals like saphire, ruby and diamont. Even though their aspects can involve many different crystals, they were named Saphire Spiders, because the first ever discovered spider of that species was made from said above crystals. Their appereance is very similar to regular arachnids, even having the same size as normal spiders inhabitating our houses. The biggest ever recorded member was around half a palm big. The main difference to their non-monster counterparts is that their whole body consists of crystal- like structure, which makes them look like masterpiece kind of jewel. This characteristic expands even to the webs they produce, making them very valuable pets and lifestock. When this ability was tested after catching some of them it turned out that they can, in some way, process normal food, rocks and biomass to turn them into said web. Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. Underneath the crystalized cover, of which they consist, there is some kind of liquid gem that allows them to move around. That substance is even more valuable that that normal crystals, due to their research value and unique consistance, unavailable to recreate using normal means. Unfortunately, because of their high value, and extreme sparsity in which they can appear, there are currently only around twenty of them, and all are locked under the watching eye of few groups that managed to catch them. There are also good news, for example School of life essence managed to partially replicate one member of that species, using the knowledge that they managed to extract during testing. They speculate that in around one decade they will be able to successfully recreate the original spider and even expand their subspecies to other crystals in which they were not seen before, like black diamonts or even pearls. Personal notes: "I have one of them at home. They are great at producing high quality, and more importantly, unique kind of silk. If only I could get my hands on more of them. Lesser people will never understand the prestige of good products." Gustavo la Bonicart, high noble "It is such a shame that they are used to such extremes. It is not often you can encounter none threatening monsters, even more so when they are so beautiful. I shall use every free time I have to further the research on them, to allow those monsters to live more freely than now" Unnamed member of School of life essence Obsession Species: Obsession Family: Demon Risk level: Medium Weaknesses: Killing members of its cult Description: A particulary nasty subspecies of demon, with ability to corrode minds of people that know its true name. It specifically cultivates a group of people to create as big of a cult as possible. Anyone that knows its name becomes obsessed with it, slowly destroying everything that made them ''them'' and transforming into the vessel of pure fixation. But of course someone has to first learn about it, to be able to let it influence them. If that particular demon doesn''t have group of cultists it invades the minds of highly susceptible people, like artists, and one step at the time nudges their train of thoughts towards learning of it. It doesn''t have any kind of form, existing purely as condensed thoughs and essence, not being able to personaly come to this realm. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. Their cultists can be very dangerous, due to their possibility to quickly expand their group, by forcing others to know the name of their false god. If you learn of any activity involving those kinds of cultists, it is required to inform nearest monster hunting factions, to let them contain their activity. Personal notes: "It is extremely hard to deal with them on your own. They only way to limit them is to exterminate every single member of their group except a single one. From what we currently it isn''t possible to heal them of the mind corrosion, due to the fact that there is no mind left to heal. It doesn''t help that if even one extra person survives and escapes during the wipe out, they can quickly rebuilt their entire cult from ground. I prefer killing regular beasts that dealing with mind benders." German Silver, member of Blood Hunt Animal Remnant Species: Animal Remnant Family: Living Shadow Risk level: Beneficial Weaknesses: Corruption Description: No one knows how any of them come into existance. There are few theories about it, but none of them was ever confirmed. Maybe they are remnants of animal kindness to humans, maybe souls of animals attacked to people, but for now it will remain unanswered. Their appereance is almost identical to normal animals, or rather their outline due to their shadowlike consistency. From rabbits to bears, they can be seen in many forms, but they don''t seem to be able to change them at will. There are no records of them changing their shapes, exept from external factors, so it is likeable that they don''t have a say on how they look like. This species has a very interesting way of surviving, and by that I mean connecting itself to willingful hosts and taking a small amount of life essence in exchange granting them unique abilities, depending on the shape of the shadow. One can give them giantlike strenght, the other eagle eyesight and then another sharp talons. Hosts can reverse those changes any time they want and also add another ones assiociated with said animal. There were also cases where the shadow was unfortunately, corrupted with other monsters aura. In those situations it transformed themself in monster hybrids, partially similar in shape to the original monster. They could then give new abilities to their users, but it caused them much greater instability, and gave the host unwanted animalistic urges to tear through any living thing in the vicinity. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. They are great creatures that can give new hights to human race, but for now there are to few of them to even provide to ten people, not speaking of the entire human population. Researchers are currently running tests to increase their numbers, but for now are largelly unsuccessful. Personal notes: "They are very interesting test subjects regarding body manipulation. They can, without any bigger obstacles, manipulate and replace human tissue with animal one. This is not only perfectly integrated into hosts body, it can also be withdrawn at will. The process in which they do so is extremely complex, but can be broken down into three simple points. Firstly they trick the body into thinking that the parts it is exchanging were always a part of it, then they have to provide required energy to power the change and to stabilize the process, and lastly give the body knowledge of how it should use its improved body. For now we don''t know how they have the information about how human body works and should work with added changes, but it is still being researched until success. For now we managed to only replicate the ability to change a single finger into claw, and even with that this can be used only on complatible individuals, which are far and few between, but we are still making progress and this is what matters." Dr. Fritz, member of Diseased Order Blood Lake Species: Blood Lake Family: Unique Risk level: Medium Weaknesses: None Description: Located deep inside our kingdoms''s mountain range lays a circular lake filled to the brim with blood. Its diameter is around ten meters of size, which is dramatically disproportional to the depth of the pool, that amounts to ninety five meters. The lake emmits a foul odor very similar to rotting flesh, which spreads to all around the mountains. The immidiate area, where it is located, is severely corrupted, and because of that its appereance reminds one of cracked, dry skin with exposed muscles underneath. Nothing living inhabits that region. Anything that comes near it is almost instantly absorbed inside it, no matter how close they are to the lake the proccess of absorbtion begins when they step onto the corrupted ground, slowly sinking in until they are fully submerged. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. The reason why it can even hunt in this way is due to its presence that muddles with minds of its victims and distracting them from their slow death. Every month there must be at least one expedition of mages to that region to nullify its spread, otherwise it is estimated that it could cover the entire mountain range in around a decade. Personal notes: "I was on the first expedition, when it was discovered. Our original task was to investigate the mountains in search of any mineable ores, or maybe suitable places to expand our kingdom. After two weeks we stumbled on crimson lake, the sun''s light reflecting on its surface and enchanting with its appereance. First knights that tried to get closer to examine this phenomenon stopped responding after getting near it. We knew that something was wrong, but at that moment we didn''t respond correctly. Two next fools tried to shake their comrades from their stubbor, and like before also froze in place. We only managed to save them after using our ropes to form a lasso and getting them away from the danger. Unfortunatelly, one of them was to deep inside the ground to pull out. He was a good man and we will remember his sacrifice." Maze Gulet, member of Shool of life essence Cave Moss Species: Cave Moss Family: Plant Risk level: Low Weaknesses: Fire Description: This is a plant that found an interesting way to blend in with its surroundings. It plants itself near normal cave moss and adjusts its coloration to blend in more with it. They can vary greatly between each other, for example there were recorded instances of both brown, rought monster moss and yellow, glowing, squishy ones. After they adapt to their area, they start to absorb nutritions from surrounding plants, but not enough to let it wither or otherwise change. When it gathers enough energy it then develops ability to directly catch small criters that walk on its surface and trap them until sucked dry from essence. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. They can grow to rather huge sizes, like the entire house floor big, but are restricted by the amount of prey they can catch. When this monster is in danger or lacks enough sustanance to live it can slither away at slow speed to another location. If it isn''t currently possible it ejects from itself massive amounts of pollen that allows it to assure its species survival. They can be dangerous if allowed to grow large enough, but due to the rarity of those situations and the extremely small amount of corruption the produce it is better to leave them alone and inform Vault of Knowledge of its location, that to burn it down. They can also be useful at times, thanks to their great absorption ability that allows it to quickly clean up any filth that could have accumulated in its area. Personal notes: "They may be monsters, but quite useful ones. When we manage to gather enough of them and place them in our sewers they can clean any waste that gathered there. Even with our current technology we are not able to do that as quickly, efficiently and most importantly, low cost as them. Maybe we can create our own species specifically designed to clean sewers? Is there a kind of moss that grown in there that we can exploit, and use it to adapt them for our use?" Faliz Gathur, member of Vault of Knowledge Eye Tree Species: Eye Tree Family: Aberration Risk level: High Weaknesses: Fire Description: One of the monsters that cannot move from its location and is forever stationary. Its every aspect is very similar to a tree, with both form and way of spreading. And like normal trees it also creates roots and branches, but unlike them, like any other aberration, it is made out of flesh. This particular one doesn''t have any mouth and instead of them it decided to create more eyes. From bottom to the top, on every branch and also inside of it is an obscene number of different eyes, varying with size, coloration, shape of pupils and amount of visible veins. It can come into existance in situations where an unnatural amount of corpses is stockpiled near a tree, and then is left long enough for it to rot and spread inside the entire trunk. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. Even though it cannot attack in any shape or form, it is considered a very high level threat, due to its spread speed. It can overwhelm normal vegetation in the matter of few hours, causing it to transform into similar to it aberrations. Even the ground it is on, and animals inhabiting those parts aren''t safe from the transformation. With every single plant under its control, its speed it multiplied until the entire forests are changed. They are to be exterminated on sight, and if not possible, to inform the nearest hunting facility, for them to burn it to the ground. Personal notes: "We are usually the first to come, where it is. Our job is to deal with danger under any circumstances, we can''t allow our self to wait for other groups or otherwise it will be to late. The worst part of it is that we have to destroy it entirely, or otherwise it will regrow in mere hours from its complete wipeout. No matter how small it is, even if it is a single grass, it will live on. That''s why it must be dealt with as fast as possible, or we risk our lives and the fate of our people." Unnamed member of Knights of erdeic order Family Friend Species: Family Friend Family: Ghost Risk level: Beneficial/Low Weaknesses: None Description: This is what usually remains from house pets, after their death. In almost all situations they act as guardian angels, helping the family that raised them. The help can extend to guarding the household, cleaning it and giving the children a good night''s rest. In rare situations, where they were very strongly bonded to the family, they can also directly save them in dangerous situations, like a robbery. They can also be seen in their ghost form, when there is a full moon on the sky, but unfortunately it doesn''t last long and can only be seen as mere glimps. Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. Sadly, there are also cases where animals where abused during their life, which caused them early death. In those situations the pet doesn''t become a helpful spirit, but a vengeful ghost that does everything in its hands to make the life of its abusers miserable. From producing load noices during the night to causing all animals in the vicinity to become agressive, it won''t stop until they break and won''t dissapear until the do their mission. Personal notes: "My dog Rex became our home spirit. My kids were delighted to have their dog back, even though, at first, their mother was teriffied of it. It is a shame that we can''t see it more often, but the fact that it is still with us brings a smile on our faces." Klaus, citizen Flying Spider Species: Flying Spider Family: Insectoid Risk level: Low Weaknesses: Fire Description: Depending on the subspiecies it can have very different appereance. Basically every normal spider has it monster equivalent as this beast. Every single one of them, from normal house arachnids to even jumping spiders, can turn into this monster with minimal amounts of corruption. As its name suggestes, they developed wings that allows them to not only glide, but easily fly to the clouds. After dissection it was confirmed that under normal circumstances it would be impossible for them to even use those wings to jump, so it was used to confirm that they are indeed monsters, due to their manipulation of life essence, that allows them to perform those unlikely acts. The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. Thanks to this skill, their ability to inhabit harsher habitats was also improved. They can be found almost everywhere on this planet, from deep forests to even the highest mountains. They are as dangerous as the subspiecie of spider they came from, so it is not required to get out of the way to exterminate them. It is preferable to treat them like any other critter, and not panic when happen to see one. Personal notes: "I hate them with passion. Who could have though that giving spiders wings would make them so much more unsettling. I thing the nature just decided that we don''t have enough freakish monstrosities to worry about, so it thought why not add wings to damn spiders?! If only any of the product that are supposed to scare them away would work, then maybe I could tolerate them, but no, I have to see one almost every day of my life." Christopher, farmer Mind Hoarder Species: Mind Hoarder Family: Parasite Risk level: Medium Weaknesses: Bad mental health Description: This monster is an invisible menace, that becomes much harder to kill, the longer it lives. No one saw it in its basic form for a simple reason, that it doesn''t exist until it manages to gather enough memories. It does that, by sticking to random person it detects and sucking them dry over the course of a few weeks and then moves on onto another prey. Its victims suffer severe mental damage and usually become vegetables with no hope of recovery. When it manages to secure around five people, it creates for itself a human like shell, looking like the combination of all of them, that allows it to better blend in to the society and better secure its source of food. With every person it absorbs it becomes smarter and more knowledgeable about its surroundings. It uses this knowledge to avoid any monster hunters and to better select its targets. A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. Only at the point when it creates for itself a body it can be directly harmed, and at last killed, but it can be damaged before that proccess. The only way to do this is to, in some way, trick it into connecting with mentaly ill person. Due to the instability of the mind those individuals usually possess, it causes the Mind Hoarder to destabilize, which in most cases causes it to dissapear. In those few instances, where it manages to survive, it basically becomes useless, with no ability to develop further. There is no sure way to detect its presence, so it is simply advised to avoid people with sudden cases of dementia, and if it is regular precedence in your area, to inform the Blood Hunt or the church of it. Personal notes: "The worst enemy is the one you cannot anticipate. It can strike from anywhere it wants and you can''t do a damn thing about it. It doesn''t help that it is also cunning and inteligent enough to actively avoid our detection. It could be walking aywhere around us and we would known about it. Fortunately they can''t replace someone completely. From what we know about them it seems that they can''t change how they look and with every person they consume they transform into another image. Or perhaps the ones we catched couldn''t do that. Hopefully not." Victor the Thrall, member of the Blood Hunt [BONUS] Cogs Ordeal Name of the organisation: Cogs'' Ordeal Place of activity: Workshops, Tool shops Specialization: Creating complex tools and blueprints If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.Description: This fraction is mainly responsible for creating new objects and prototypes, allowing us to improve our civilization using technology. After monsters began to show themself, they created new methods to modify their creations using life essence, and monster body parts. In this way they managed to create half sentinet automatons, and enchanted weapons or armor. Thanks to their steam machines and generators we can have cheap source of light during the night, and fast transformation, by using trains and cars. Spirit Trickster Species: Spirit Trickster Family: Undead Risk level: Low Weaknesses: Fire, To much spirits under its control Description: This monster is very similar to the most basic undead that ever existed, namely zombies. From appereance they are almost indistinguishable from them, they possess the same rotting bodies, the same slow movement and the same drive to kill anything living in its sight. The only thing that is different lays in the abilities of the former, mainly the capability of commanding weak spirits. This gives the undead a massive advantage over their weaker breathren, due to the ghosts'' higher speed and better sight, which allows the Spirit Trickster to better locate prey and gives it a limited way of distracting the opponent during combat. Even though it has those skills, it isn''t much smarter than normal zombies, which limits the extend of the ghosts'' performance. It also doesn''t allow the undead to control stronger spirits with developed minds and personalities. Also it cannot control more than six ghosts, or better said it won''t live long enought with more of them, because of the way it manages to secure them under its influence. It does that by instinctually offering them the deal, in which they get to go to the afterlife after they help it secure food. Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. Of course, as its name suggestes, it will never keep its promise, mainly because it doesn''t even know how to do that. When it tries to control more than six ghosts, its ability to control them weakens, which causes the ghosts to seek revenge for mistreatment, and leads to drastic dismembering of the undead. They don''t pose much of a threat by themself, and it is recommended to simply deal with them like normal zombies. If the zombie has the maximum limit of spirits under its palm, it is also preferable to sacrifice to it a single small animal to add another ghost to its arsenal, causing it to perish early. Personal notes: "Simply disgusting. Slavery, deception, violating the free will and of course desecrating the dead. Normal zombies I can understand, they don''t think, they are just living corpses moving on instincts. Spirit Tricksters can in those same instincts take someones mind and use it to spread it to more people. And they gather more followers, by killing innocenct people. Vile vermins, the only think they would be good as is a fertilizer." Lavius Geron, priest of the Church of the afterlife Steel Guard Species: Steel Guard Family: Automaton Risk level: Medium Weaknesses: Electricity, Overheating Description: This automatons once served a basic purpose, mainly guarding and defending from threats. It changed after criminals found a way to redirect its wiring to disidentify attackers and assume everything moving around it can threaten the one thing or person they were supposed to protect. It was suprisingly a very easy method, expecially so because their complex structure and careful design should be almost risk free from those malfunctions. It could be done by hitting it exactly on the right eye, causing it to momentarily rewire its internal signals which leads to sensory malfunction and drastic, unsuccessful attempt to fix the issue. If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. It looks like a knight covered from head to toe with iron plates, holding in hand a weapon it was designed to wield, usually a sword or a spear, bit that could also extend to maces, bows and rarely whips. The thing that differed it from normal humans was the fact that it never moved a single digit without any exterior disturption, unnaturally so. Expect their one weak points, like eyes, they are as durable as steel wall and with strenght expected from human sized, metal statue. Now the only remnants of their presence can be found deep inside fallen castles and treasuries. It is illy advised to engage them in any way, due to their tendency to form small groups of patroling units in their vicinity, and the best course of action is to stay at least one hundreds meters from them, and if spotted to slowly back off into safe distances. Personal notes: "I always doubted that the flaw in its design wasn''t intentional. No self respecting artificer would allow that. But why would they intentionally leave it? Were they threatened, stupid, brain dead? Or maybe they just wanted to cause as many deaths as possible with as little effort as possible? Shame we will never know. The creatar of those machines smells flowers from down under. " Fredric Maln, member of Cogs'' Ordeal Acid Spitter Species: Acid Spitter Family: Plant Risk level: Medium Weaknesses: Fire Description: Acid Spitters are essentially giant monster fly traps, which instead of coating their inards with secreting juices they gather it up to later shoot it at their victims. They grow in large batches of around seven individual plants, but can it can grow larger, if they have enough food to sustain them. They are around the size of young trees and don''t often reach higher, but there were cases when one managed to grow up to ten meters, due to the fact that it previously absorbed the entire village of people. They can injest food in two ways. First one is by absorbing the liquified remains of their prey using their roots and the second is when anything is foolish enough to get close to it and gets trapped by its huge maws. It is almost impossible to escape ones catched, because it produces, in addition to acid, paralizing toxin to imobilize anything that is inside of it. Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. Fortunately, they are immobile kind of monster and due to their extreme predatory behaviour they often wipe out anything that is even half digestable, which causes them to slowly starve themself overtime. They overcompensate it by their resilence and rapid reproduction, but it can be quickly stopped if all of their remains are disposed of before it manages to grow further. If you suspect that one of this plants grows near your location it is highly recommended to inform the nearest Blood Hunt base or Knight barracks, for them to exterminate the threat. Personal notes: "We need to often exterminate them, because of their nasty tendency to grow near population. They are also queite resilent and need special preperations to wipe them all out of the area or they will grow back up in around a month. To do this we must forst burn the part of the plant that is on the surface and then pull out the roots that are left and burn it too. It still doesn''t stop it from regrowing in that region but it still lenghtens the time it needs to show up again." Hall Marnic, Knight of Erdeic Order Death Stalker Species: Death Stalker Family: Sleep Demon Risk level: None Weaknesses: None Description: This sleep demon is quite a peculiar one. It doesn''t try to comminicate, doesn''t in any way influence the though process of the victim, doesn''t kill them when it manages to successfully complete its goals and doesn''t in any way harm anybody. It could be as well the only demon ever recorded that is completely harmful, not including the small fright of the host. It selects the people that it wants to ''attack'' randomly and there is currently no pattern to its manifestations. It bonded itself to people of all social standings, genders, races and ages. The only limitation it has shown is that it cannot attach itself to anyone that is incapable of clear thoughs, that includes children under four years old and some mentally challenged people. Its appereance is very similar some more humanoid living shadows, which means that it only has a vague shape and not one defining feature. Many of its victims reported slight differences in its height or proportions, but it didn''t vary greatly enough to be of importance. If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. The way it behaves is that it slowly, over time approaches its host in their dreams, which can take up to one week. It moves very calmly and not a single time changes its pace. From the perspective of the victim it walks towards them like it is on a stroll and when they wake up and go to sleep again it doesn''t move a single digit from the previous night. But no matter if they run away from it or towards it it doesn''t get any closer or further away from them. It''s like it is attacked to a specific distance relative to the person. When it finally manages to get face to face with them it says only a single sentence, which is ''You are not fun'' and then disappears and never shows itself again to them. There was only one instance when it said something different and it ended in it appearing before its host in physical world and handing them a mummified cat head and once again disappearing. Personal notes: "It said that it had fun with me. A monster said that I was fun. The only thing I have done different from others is that I tried to get to it first. I thought it was just a weird dream. Not I regret that choice. The head it gave me talks in its voice every night, asking me how I am doing. It is definitely weird adn when I tried to get rid of it it just came back the next morning. I just hope that it won''t change its mind and get rid of me because I lost the value it had seen in me." Ceryl, the victim that heard the unique senctence Fake Algae Species: Fake Algae Family: Aberration Risk level: Low Weaknesses: Drough Description: They are created when algae swimming at the top of the lake becomes infected with monster corruption. It blends perfectly in the environment, by mimicking the state of surrounding it plants. Its size is dependable on the amount of original algae, but it cannot increase by absorbing the near vegetation, so that means that any damage it receives is permanent. It hunts by ensaring its prey, mainly fish and small insects, and then suffocating them with its body. After the creature dies it absorbes the carcas and uses it as energy. It can survive on a single fish for as long as one week. Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. This creature is not very threatening by itself, but its presence causes the nearby algae to transform into similar monsters, so the best course of action when one of them is spotted, is to drag it to the surface using fishing nets and then leaving them on the sun to dry out. To confirm that it is dead it is recommended to leave it there for a few days, otherwise it can bring itself to full health if it manages to be in contact with any body of water. Personal notes: "They are vermins. If left unchecked they can dwindle the number of fish in my pond. My neighbor even lost a dog to one of those. They replicate like crazy if they have enough plants close to them, so I must check from time to time if one of them didn''t sneak up in here. At least if it suddenly appears I can tell that some worse monster is nearby, so I can avoid it, but it still ain''t good." Gustav, fisherman Magma Crawler Species: Magma Crawler Family: Insectoid Risk level: Low Weaknesses: Leving their habitat Description: A specialized subspecies of monster insects living exclusively on active volcanoes. In appereance they are very similar to beatles, except their outer shell is covered in obsidian rock and in its cracks you can faintly see the lava veins coursing through their bodies. They use their large mandibles to chew through solid rocks and minerals. They live off substances present inside the said above rocks and heat emmited from the volcano. They cannot survive outside this environment, otherwise the magma coursing through them will stagnate and in turn cause them to become immobile. Even if somehow they come back to their original habitat, after that change, they will not cure themself from this and will stay still as statues until they die from starvation. They are dangerous to all creatures that trespass on their terrain and will attack them in swarms until the attacker gives up or is killed by the tide, though they can be pacified. Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. Miners found out that if you give them rocks that do not exist naturally in the vulcanic environment they will instead come investigate this phenomenon and take it inside their hive. This method works only if the kind of the rock is used no more that one time a month, and it only takes effect to up to three days depending on the size of the gift. Still, it is very recommended to not try to get closer towards their hives, otherwise they will abandon everything to chase of the intruder. Personal notes: "They are smart little critters. They know how to dig through the mountain to not only not detibilize the structure but also gain as much sustanance as possible. They create entire networks worth of tunels to traverse through. Ii is a shame that they are defenitely not human sized, but in this job it is our task is to use what we have to navigate inside the caves. They function as great landmarks and often tell where is some more valuable ore to dig out." Gardun, miner Mindshroom Species: Mindshroom Family: Plant Risk level: Low Weaknesses: Fire, Other infections Description: This is a subspecies of muchrooms specialized on controling its victims to do its binding. They exist in two different forms, one of them is passive and the other is active. The passive ones are almost indistinguishable from normal muchrooms that can be found anywhere in the forest. The only difference is that they do not expand using mycelium and grow only the buds of this monster. They only react to near creatures, by spreading its seed into the air in hope it infects something. When it manages to do so, it then creates a in the organizm the instance of active unit. The main job of active ones is to spread through the nervous system of the animal or human it infected to take a hold of the brain and control every action of the victim. They slowly replace parts of the brain with their own, which overtime reflects on the surface of the skull, by growing more mushrooms on it to spread even further. They have an innane instinct to search for humid areas to lay down and decompose the body for nurishments for the plant. Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. Thankfully, to infect anything, the victim must inhale a massive amounts of spores to override the immune system, so their main hosts are usually small rodents and insects. It also reacts badly to other kinds of infections already inside of the body, so it cannot control already sick victims. If you spot any mushroom that grows in unlikely areas, or you have seen any Mindshroom infected animals it should be reported to any hunting organization near you. Personal notes: "The biggest question about them is why they also don''t spread via normal means. If only they would do they their spreadind capability would skyrocket. Maybe the amount of changes that can occur during the corruption are limited depending on the species? For now this is the only theory on this subject, but it seems most likely to be the case." John Fazer, member of Vault of Knowledge Organ Failure Species: Organ Failure Family: Parasite Risk level: Low Weaknesses: Removal from its source of sustanance Description: This is a nasty case of a parasite that feeds directly on organs of the organism an not the substances inside of it. It doesn''t slowly drain it of its values, but directly absorbes the flesh from which it is composed of and adding it straight to its own mass. It then, using its new found structure, replaces the organ it consumed and takes over its role in the organism, slowly and meticulously taking more and more substances from the body until the host drops dead. It then exits the body using one of the already existing openings to leave it as intact as possible and goes on to find a new body to infect. In their original forms the look like finger sized earthworms with leechlike mouths and two, small appendages on the sides of its body that look very similar to mole''s arms. You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. Their main way of infecting others is to find someone sleeping and waiting until they are in deep sleep state to enter their bodies and start to parasite on them. They can infect almost every normal living being, which includes humans, house pets and domisticated animals, but are unable to attach themself to any other monster, due to their negligible amounts of corruption they emmit. The best way to kill one is to remove it from the host''s body when it unable to transform itself back to its more dextrerous form. This method unfortunately is almost always fatal for the infected, but no matter if it is removed now or it exits the host on its own it is still impossible to save the victim. Personal notes: "I didn''t even feel a thing after it took a literal part of myself. I wouldn''t even know that it was slowly killing me if not for a traveling mage that decided on a whim to diagnose everyone in the village. Thank God that aunt Becky gave him that piece of pie, otherwise I would not be talking to you. Fortunately, it only took with it one of my kindeys and not something more important like heart." One of the few survivors of this parasite Shattered Mind Species: Shattered Mind Family: Ghost Risk level: Low/Medium Weaknesses: Life Essence Description: One of the rarer monsters in terms of life essence, due to its major weakness to it. It still uses it to function and use any of its unnatural abilities, but it cannot regain the lost energy, which causes this spirit to slowly burn out the more it stays active. And it isn''t one of those calmer spirits that only care about self preservance, but the one focused on attacking anything in its sight. They don''t stay around for long, the longest noted lifespan of Shattered Mind is one month and the average lifespan is around one week. But they can still wreak havoc if left unchecked. They form themself after someone who witnessed something trully horrible, which caused them to experience severe trauma, dies because of it and isn''t confronted in their final moments. Their appereance mimics the original looks of the dead, but more like a painting on cracked wall than literal copy. Every aspect of it is in some way disproportional, or otherwise malformed in ways that the only thing it can be described as is unnatural. This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. From time to time they emit sounds like voices of patients in mental hospitals or otherwise unstable people. As written above the only thing they do is hunt anything that comes near them, no matter if it is an animal, monster or even human, it will attack them with no discimination. They attack others by assaulting the victim with horrid imaginery created from its broken psyche and then ripping appart their body using its claws and teeth. The best way to stop them is to in some way force them to absorb life essence of another beeing. It is a hard process, made significally easier if there is a mage near, but possible with enough time and preperation. This causes the ghost to disintegrate into fine particles, with nothing left to hunt anybody. Personal notes: "They are like containers on the verge of collapse. Imagine that every monster is some kind of a box. Some are larger, some smaller, but every single on of them can be filled with life force and it can be emptied of it. Human mages are similar to them in this aspect, because we also have to in some way absorb life essence into ourself to use it. Now Shattered Minds are like crumbled boxes forced by its content to remain in one defined shape. If what is inside of it is taken out it cannot operate normally, it becomes useless. This is how the existance of this spirit looks like, it is so fragile it cannot function for long. This is a risk of using life essence and we must be vary to not become like them." Unnamed life essence mage [BONUS] Diseased Order Name of the organisation: Diseased Order Place of activity: Hospitals, Alchemical shops, Medicin schools Specialization: Healing, Experimentations on diseases and alchemical mixtures If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.Description: They are certainly a weird gathering of people. On one hand, they are the most vague collective of different kinds of jobs, spamming from medics and plague doctors to alchemists. On the other most of the members seem like some kind of a cult, focused on improving humanity as whole, using diseases and changing body structure. There are no situation where they took someone without their consent, but too many criminals that where sent there came back different to overlook what they are doing. For now they didn''t hurt anyone innocent, and are the main source of medicine, so we can only hope that what they are doing is only going to benefit us. True Disease Species: True Disease Family: Undead Risk level: High Weaknesses: Fire Description: Shriveled remnants of deceased lesser zombie. They can only form themself in very specific circumstaces. First of all they require at least one corpse of previously killed undead, then its body must be left completely untouched until it doesn''t have even a drop of water inside it. Then in the process there is extremely small chance that inside of it will develop a specific kind of disease that animates the corpse and takes over the remnants. This process, even with many tries from greedy militarists, couldn''t be recreated and probably never will, due to the fact that this virus seems to only manifest if its surroundings are not observed. We could learn more about it only after the autopsy of this undead, which allowed us to carefully study the entire process of how it came into beeing, both the virus and the True Disease. The disease in itself is not very remarkable, it functions as any other of its kind and at first doesn''t seem to be extraordinary. Its unique feature comes from being able to analize and absorb into itself the characteristics of other cells and microbes with almost immediate results. This allows it to specifically select the traits that allows it to spread itself with speeds much faster that any other of its kind. This also nullifies the boundaries between species in which it can spread allowing it to grow even further than normal. The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. The one weak point of it is that it cannot leave the original body and forces it to become stationary, due to the state of the body it inhabits. To counter this it is also able to control the bodies of the victims it managed to kill, forcing them to bring it even more samples of other diseases. The only way to completely get rid of it is to burn the body it is stationed until only ashes remain. The main problem with this is the danger of getting anywhere near it, or even the area it is in due to the unreasonable amount of viruses and bacteria in the air. Even after it is dead the plague remaining afterwards and the already raised undead are further spreading the diseases to the land of living. At least it is no longer coordinated as well as before. Thankfully, in history there were only two instances of it appearing, and we all hope that there will not be a third one. Personal notes: "The amount of preparation you need to even get close enough to kill it is insane. First of all you must have near you almost lethal amounts of general purpose medication, in hopes that even one of it will lower the risks of falling ill. Then enough masks to last an entire city for the next century and clothes thick and isolating enough to block any airflow to avoid contracting anything. And lastly do this fast enough to not risk falling down from lack of air, food or water, because through the entire expedition you can''t even nible on anything brought to its area of influence. At least I made it back alive, unlike some of my brothers." Gath the Vermin, member of Blood Hunt Unresting Miner Species: Unresting Miner Family: Automaton Risk level: None/Medium Weaknesses: Water Description: This kind of automaton was specifically created to operate inside caves and mine shafts. Their body is based loosely on human silhouette, but has enough enhancements to be only vaguely similar. One of their hands is replaced with a drill, to better extract minerals and other valuables from stone, their legs are divided into six seperate parts to mimic the movement of cave spiders and to better cling to surfaces. Their heads have very circular shape and around it are placed the receptors for better sight. They also have giant containers attached to their backs, where they place all their gathered materials. Only a few of them can be seen without supervision and only if they are somehow abandoned ine the mines. It can happen in cases of collapses or death of the supervisors. Unfortunately, the only ones dangerous to unsuspecting explorers are the ones that are not controlled. Normally every single action they perform are guided by their operators. This is not the case with loose ones, because due to their orders if seperated from commanding entity they are to continue extracting materials until full and then come back to the station under any circumstances. Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. They interpret that as attack anything that can be potentially obstruct it from its path, that includes humans. They are unable to discern living, only able to recognize the valuable substances they are extracting, localization and special marks that every supervisor possesses. If on of them is spotted far from any extraction site it is to be avoided and the nearest mine informed on the possible lost miner. Personal notes: "Thankfully, they still need us in this job cause no machine is smarter than human. It will do everything to the letter and I mean everything. Move that boulder? Yeah, how about three inches to the right? Get him out of the hole? He didn''t say he had to be alive. Or maybe stop everything dangerous from entering? Now I don''t think that normal worker can be classified as dangerous, but you do you. At least we don''t have to carry everything by ourself anymore." Bern, miner Bonepit Species: Bonepit Family: Undead Risk level: Low Weaknesses: None Description: They are a representation of what happens if we neglect our dead. If enough time passes inside of a crypt the bodies begin fall apart, and when given enough time they turn into fine dust. The said dust is what is used in creation of this monster. Slowly it takes every single remnant remaining in that place and absorbs it into its body. When it gathers enough of it, it then engulfs the entire floor of the crypt and waits for any creture that comes into its new layer. It works very similar to quicksand, but quicker and more selectively. It can wait for its prey to go deep onto its body, far enough for it to not be able to catch anything, and then start to sink them. When a creature finally dies it then grinds the entirety of the carcas and uses the bones as another addition to its mass. They are fortunately rather easy to spot among the floor of the crypt, so they are ease to avoid if you know they are there. The main victims of it are usually small animals or cemetery hyenas that ignore obvious signs of their presence. They are unfortunately almost impossible to get rid of due to their body structure, so the best course of action when you see one is just to avoid it. They aren''t very mobile, so keeping away from it is stupidly easy, as long as you don''t step on it, because if it think it can catch you there is almost nothing you can do to survive. The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. Personal notes: "Paradoxically their presence makes it somewhat easier to research ancient ruins and graveyards. They clean every body on the site, get rid on nasty vermins and gather it in a single location. They may destroy any biodata we could gather from those old corpses, but being fair we wouldn''t be able to gather much, even with them intact and any remnants that matter are preserved and stored in location unaccessible for Bonepits, so eve with that they do more good than harm." Egnic Falvor, member of Diseased Order Chimera Species: Chimera Family: Aberration Risk level: Depends Weaknesses: Depends Description: This monster was very hard to classify because of its nature. Depending on the environment it inhabits all of its characteristics vary greatly. The only similarity between each of them are circumstances of their birth, and then they quickly branch away, until the only thing left that is familiar between them is their predatory nature. They come into existance when monster tries to breed with the other one. Their child is quickly discarded upon birth and left alone to survive. At first it is nothing more than a blob of flesh, but the more it eats and grows, the more it adapts to its habitat, until it becomes the apex predator of the region. Because of the very unlikable circumstances of its birth the amount of Chimeras is very low, and will remain as such until monsters start to normally reproduce. This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. There are currently ten known Chimeras in the world and all of them are very unique on themself. One of them is a mix between a whale, a shark, a squid and partially a jellyfish. The others inhabit such regions as swamps, forests, mountains, caves, volcanoes and one of them even made for itself a layer inside an abandoned sewer system. Almost all of them are so dangerous that the only chance for survival is to avoid them before they manage to detect you. That''s why humanity was unable to slay even a single one of them. There was one try, when a group of hunters layed an ambush near its layer, but it managed slay them all and following their leftover scent it went into the city to wipe out the rest of the citizens. They are to be avoided at all cost, under any circumstances. Personal notes: "A literal nightmare of a beast. It adapts, grows and learns from everything it does. No matter what we do or try to do it will always just adapt to new stimulations and come back from it stronger than before. They aren''t monsters anymore, but just plain calamities." Buck Crisk, member of Blood Hunt Cursed Power Species: Cursed Power Family: Demon Risk level: Medium Weaknesses: None Description: This monster is the perfect example of a demon that first comes to mind when mentioned. It requires a bloody ritual to summon, it tries to convince you to sign a contract with it, and gives you power in exchange with your soul. There is not much to say about it in terms of behaviour. The only thing distinguishing it from others of its kind is that in never shows itself during the rituals. Instead of it, this demon forms a temporary link to physical realm and uses it to manifest only its speach. It has a very deep, raspy voice, like what would rocks sound if they could communicate. There is a possibility that its speech has some kind of magical effect on perception, which compuls the summoners to accept its deals. It isn''t confirmed, but upon further testing in contained environments and using specialized personel, the researchers are rather inclined towards accepting it. When the deal is completed it allows you to transform into demonic looking lizardman. The transformation includes crimson red scales enveloping the entire body, thick hornes growing at the top of the head, long tail coming from the back of the body and razor sharp teeth and claws. In terms of abilities, it gives the user unnatural strenght, sharp animalistic instincs and extreme resistance to high temperatures. Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. This pact unfortunately, causes the victim constant mental degredation every time they use their new found skills. It progresses until they are no more than mere animals and with further changes they become more beast like and lose any resemblance with humanity. It is highly advised to report any sightings of this kind of transformations and to inform the authorities of anyone possessing the knowledge to summon this demon. Personal notes: "Demons are repulsing creatures. Hunting them down is our job and duty, but unfortunetaly it doesn''t change much, because what we see in this world is just their projection from demon realm. There are ways to hurt them more permanently, but even then demons adapt to those techniques. Cursed Power is one of this examples, it changed its operations and doesn''t fully manifest here. Fortunatelly, it somehow limits how it can influence its deals and degrades the quality of the pacts. This won''t stop it from sowing discord, but will at least lower the amount of casualities it causes." Ardon Melic, priest of Church of the afterlife Dune Nightmare Species: Dune Nightmare Family: Aberration Risk level: High Weaknesses: Starvation, Acid Description: They are giant sand beasts living exclusively on deserts. They thrive in habitats with high temperature and relatively close to other places with thriving ecosystem. This species looks like a mix between earthworms, foxes and moles. Their main body, mainly torso comes from earthworms, but with one altered feature, specifically their skin. It is closer to the surface of bald cats rather than worms. Their arms are based on moles in structure to better dig through the sandy pits, which they inhabit. And lastly, the faces come from desert foxes, but lacking eyes and with added extra heat sensitive tongue to navigate underground and to better find prey. It hunts near the edges of the desert waiting for some foolish travelers to try to cross it. When they manage to detect someone they begin to follow them, deep enough for the tremors they produce to become almost unnoticeable. They use the heat of their bodies to slowly increase the temperature near the victim for them to more quickly lose strenght. It continues for a few more days, until they either drop dead or come close enough to some kind of setlement, forcing the worm to act earlier than planed. They then dig themself out of the ground and try to rip the person they followed to shreds and then swallow the remnants. The victim usually is unable to fight back, and even if they can it hardly matters, because this monster usually reaches the height of full grown stallions, with greater muscle strenght and speed, so they have rather slim chances of survival. The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. The only way to personally hurt this monster is to pour a botle of acid directly on its skin. They are exceptionally weak to this, even to the weakest of acids, like citrus juices. This will unfortunatelly not kill it, but will disctract it long enough to escape its grasp. The is one sure way to kill it though, but it involves starving it to death, which can happen suprisingly fast. This requires to wait around two weeks, and force anyone wanting to cross the desert to stay until further notice. The monster is usually dead by the first week, but in case of some unfortune accident it is better to wait more. By the time the travels are resumed the worm either died, or moved on onto another location. Personal notes: "Their entire body structure is simply wrong. Normally it shouldn''t even function properly. Not only it manages to dig deep enough to be undetectable, but also can detect others on the surface. The level of sensitivity, and pure endurance would be plainly impossible normally. But it sustains itself on massive amounts of life energy, literally forcing its body to work as intended. That''s why they require stable source of sustanance, otherwise they will just stop functioning." Unnamed member of Vault of Knowledge Everlasting Bindings Species: Everlasting Bindings Family: Conjoiner Risk level: High Weaknesses: Any source of light Description: This specific monster if a conjoiner between plants and living shadows. It grows in any location that is dark enough, this includes cellars, basements, caves and sewers. Fortunately, it requires massive amounts of uninterrupted time in order to grow, so it can only form in places not touched by human presence, or anything living in fact and to remain as that for a few years. When all of the above is successfully secured it then sprouts a single shadowy vine from the ground. Even in this basic form it is very dangerous, because it can extend its appendage to very disproportional lenghts and ensare anything it is able to reach. It is also born with an ability to travel to any nearby shadow in order to search for any prey. Using that, it can move for around ten meters in a single instance and it can repeat this around twenty times a minute. It gives it a very fast movement and makes it very hard to catch it under normal circumstances. When it manages to find a prey it then catches it using its vine and then slowly drains it from all of the energy. It then uses the energy to create more vines for itself, expanding its already deadly abilities. There is no known limit to the amount of vines it is able to wield , which makes it exponentially more dangerous with every successful hunt. It can be harmed, and even killed, using normal light sources, like torches and lamps, but in order to do that it is required to firstly cut away all of its escape routes, which is rather hard considering the fact that it can teleport to any nearby shadow. If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. To make sure it is unable to escape there needs to be a constant number of watched light sources encircling the perimeter of its location. It must be keeped save, otherwise it will try to extinguish the lights. Then specialized experts must search the entire area for its direct location and force it to remain long enough inside the light to vanquish the creature. It is highly recommended to regulary visit any dark place under your possession to minimize the risk of it manifesting inside of it. Personal notes: "After examining the bodies of its victims we came upon a terrifying discovery regarding its consumption. It not only sucks out all energy from the corpse, leaving it as dry husk, but it also directly absorbes the remaining soul remnants. That means that the more it kills, the more it hunts, it becomes smarter, more cunning. It explaines how it is able to so effectively avoid the traps we lay for it and how it becomes harder to get rid of it the longer it lives. It is one of the monsters of the highest priority to hunt down. Any sightings of it must be immediately reported to avoid as much losses as possible and to prevent it from growing to smart for our own comfort." Tertic Malone, priest of the Church of the afterlife Ferryman Species: Ferryman Family: Ghost Risk level: Beneficial Weaknesses: Refusal Description: This ghost on paper sounds more like a fairytale than a normal monster, but it definitely exists, because many high ranking fighters use its services. We do not know how it came into being, but what we know about it is that it just one day appeared before a small village and offered them its services. From that time the village grew into one of the biggest town in the kingdom, thanks to the prosperity which its presence brought to the area. It looks like a heavily dried skeleton in long robes, holding in its hand a single oar. Other than that its voice is rathe unremarkable in contrast to its appereance. It sounds like a very tired old man, the ones that because of their old age cannot work. If asked it offers a simply deal, give it two years of your lifespan and it will secure your next year of life. That means that no matter what happens to you, you will survive through the entire next year. You could find yourself in situations where your survival is almost impossible, but you still manage to escape with your life. It has a few complications however, like you do not have to be healthy to live, so if you fall into serious comma you could sleep through the entire protection period and die the very next day. It also comes with limitations, like the deal with one person can only be done once, and this spirit cannot make another deal if it already has one active with another. Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. There were cases when someone trid to hunt this ghost under the impulse of jealousy, which always ended with immediate death of the attacker. If you think that you are qualified enough to be able to make a deal you have to make an appointment with a crown to ask for permission. If they agree you then have to wait for your turn and try to convince the spirit to answer your requests. Personal notes: "I managed to secure a deal with Ferryman. I can tell that its infuence is immense. No matter what I did, no matter how hurt I was, no matter how unlikable was my survival I always managed to come out of it alive. There was one situation when the enemy almost show me directly in the eye, but with sudden wind it got of track and I didn''t receive even a single scratch. After it ended I had to once again get used to depending only on my skills and not dumb luck, but at least I managed." Knight Frederic, Erdeic Order [BONUS] Knights of Erdeic Order Name of the organisation: Knights of Erdeic Order Place of activity: Churches Specialization: Fighting, Guarding This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.Description: They are closly related to the Church of the afterlife. It can be said that they are a subgroup of the above faction, seperated due to the job they were required to do. Formerly they were crusades, tasked with spreading the faith to the unfaithful and fighting other churches in wars. Now they are responsible with guarding cities from monsters, and solve problems within them. They also use resources belonging to church to cure monster infections and prevent troublemakers from causing any losses to the city. Iron Maiden Species: Iron Maiden Family: Conjoiner Risk level: Low/Medium Weaknesses: Electricity, Fire Description: This is an artificially created kind of the monster. It was meant to be an inexhaustible war mashine, meant to self regenerate and be under complete control, but like always with this kind of experiments it went loose. Currently there are about twenty of this monsters running around the world. They look like a very buff undead, covered by an extremely thick layer of steel and mechanic parts. They as strong as a horse, run with the speed of the best runners and can heal from deep wounds. This would be the truth if they where complete. Fortunately for us they are labeled as a failed test subjects, so most of them are in some way defective. Depending on the individual they are either to slow, weak or don''t have enough energy to keep with extended battles. The best way to deal with them is to either destory its exterior, cause it to malfunction by electrifying them, or set their organic parts on fire. This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. However some of them still regained their heightened regeneration from previous tests, so to successfully hunt one down the best way is to inform a specialized personel to deal with the threat. If you have seen any monster similar to appereance with the above description you should infrom the authorities. Personal notes: "Their design is an elegant mix between organic parts and mechanical ones. If only they would be a successful experiment we could create a perfect base for new kinds of creatures. No matter, we always can have more researches and test subjects, so no harm done for long." Hest Teski, member of Cogs'' Ordeal Jumping Menace Species: Jumping Menace Family: Living Shadow Risk level: Medium Weaknesses: Long falls Description: Like its name suggests, this monster is specialized in jumping, hopping and evading anything dangerous to its life. Even though it is a living shadow it can''t transform itself into incorporeal form, and is only able to exist as a physical being. It loses its abilities to walk through shadows, but in exchange it is immune from any damage caused by light. It looks like a little shadowy gremlin, meaning a mix between a bat and a child, the size of a four year old toddler. It has disproportionally thick legs in contrast to the rest of its body, which allows it to jump up to the height of some rather large buildings. It also gives they heightened speed in comparison to humans. They form groups of up to ten individuals and use group tactict to hunt down prey. You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. They inhabit the areas in which they gain the most from their jumping skills, mainly high mountains, forests and sometimes a few cities. They are individualy weak, but their group behaviour makes them a hard opponent. It isn''t helping that on sight of a larger gatherings of hunters they tend to escape and not engage with them. The easiest way to eradicate them is to go towards them in group of three and try to irritate them as much as possible. When they are enraged, they blindly try to kill anything that caused them such anger. Then you just need to lure them to a steep fall and nudge them to jump towards that location. Even if they can jump very high it doesn''t make them less vulnerable to falling down and splatting on the ground. Personal notes: "One time we had to exterminate the nest of this critters. The thought that it was a genius idea to make themself at home directly under our city storages. We didn''t even have to lure them anywhere, we just threw a few torches down their hole, covered the exit and all of them died without a need to engage with them. This shows that enemy doesn''t have to be smart to be dangerous and cause casualities in citizens." Christopher Nicot, knight of Erdeic Order Living Cave Species: Living Cave Family: Aberration Risk level: Medium Weaknesses: Fire Description: This monster is a literal living cave, with all that it entails. It is created when a normal aberration grows to large to be able to move around and settles inside some kind of cave system. It then devourers any living thing already inhabiting that place to grow even larger and envelopes the entire area. After it manages to peacefully settle down it then changes its exterior into the texture of surrounding it environment, meaning it starts to resemble a rock. Anything that wanders into that cave is promptly absorbed after it goes deep enough and is unable to escape. Because it covers all of the walls of that cave it is able to sense anything that enters its reach, which allows it to hunt its victims with minimal efford. Fortunately, the requirements for creation of one are so hard to achieve that in the entire history of monster infestation there were only two cases of its sightings. It also is rather easy to get rid of it if you know where it is located. The only thing that is needed for its extermination is to just set it on fire using anything flameable. Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. Regrettable, to locate this monster it must be firstly be known that it exist in that region and the only way to do this is that someone must fall victim to its clutches. It can blend with its environment so well that you can only spot it after it starts to move, but then it is already to late to escape. In the off chance that it manages to form and people in your area started to dissapear after going into any cave system it is required to inform any hunting facility to get rid of the problem. Personal notes: "Their entire body is like a giant trap. No matter where you go, if it catches you there is no way to survive. I was once on an expedition where people where complaining that their animals were dissapearing after letting them feast on the fields. It turned out that after tracking their traces all of them entered the nearby threat. To test if anything managed to make it its home we left a leftover remnants from our previous meal near the exit of that cave. We planed to come back after the sunrise to check if something snatched it away. Turned out that we didn''t have to wait. After few seconds it was left alone the entire entry trembled and absorbed the food into its insides. That was one of the most disturbing images I ever saw. To be safe we called for reinforcements and with all of us we setted that beast on fire. I didn''t even imagine that something could produce such terrifying sounds. At least it won''t disturb anyone else." Abel Mark, member of Blood Hunt Lost Carriage Species: Lost Carriage Family: Automaton Risk level: Low Weaknesses: Electricity Description: They are a failed byproduct of currently functional Automated Carriages. Someone decided that giving one basic intelligence was a brilliant idea and of course it turned out badly for everyone involved in the project. Turnes out that creating something just to enslave it isn''t very smart. The moment the first one was activated it barreled through any obstacle and fled its facility causing tree casualities. Currently there are two Lost Carriages that are still on the loose, but it won''t be for long. In terms of appereance they look like mechanical and metalical equivalent of normal carriage, but without the place for horses. However this models were made to be a little larger than normal to fit more passangers inside of them, which also gave it more mass, and it uses it to trample upon any of its victims. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. It has a very simple behaviour, meaning when it detects any human it barrels towards them with murder in its artificial mind. It is a straightforward charge, so it if you are fast enough it can be easily avoided. In order to escape this automaton it is advised to climb onto elevated position and wait until it gives rest to its chase. It is also recommended to avoid its detection, by hiding behind any obstacles on its path. Any information about its location will be highly rewarded by authorities if reported. Personal notes: "It is such a shame that that one of our researchers even suggested the idea to give something such excessive comprehension, not even saying that some of our other members agreed to this. It is a known fact that giving automated mashines minds on their own always ends in disasters. Some will never learn." Getruld Temis, member of Cogs'' Ordeal Lost Wisp Species: Lost Wisp Family: Ghost Risk level: Beneficial Weaknesses: None Description: This one is simple enough. It is nothing more than random remnants of spirits lost deep inside of the forests or swamps. They are not extremely rare, but meeting one is seen as a sign of good grace. More often than not you can find one after only a week of searching, but it usually advised against, because it lowers its value to the lost in that region. They look like transparent little balls not larger than fist. They hover above the ground somewhere around the eye level of normal adult and move with speed similar to one. The only thing they occupy themselves with is patroling the deeper reaches of their habitats to search for anyone lost in its vegetation. If they manage to find someone they then wait for them to start following it and try to lead them to safety. They are known for avoiding any regions occupied by stronger beasts and only guide the lost soul by the areas more or less devoid of any dangers. If they are successful in their endeavour they then go back to searching for more travelers to save as much as they can. In many cultures they are assiociated with good luck and safety. The villages near their known location often build small shrines to thank them for their contribution and to wish the souls, from which the remnant for its creation came, a good rest in the afterlife. This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. Personal notes: "I will always remember the one time I have seen this spirit. It was deep inside the forest after I tried to come back from my job after the long day. At that time I was still fresh behind my ears and didn''t know all the paths that lead to our village. My pa made sure to every day remind me to not go to deep or otherwise I could never get out again. Of course I didn''t listen to his warnings and tried my luck. To no one''s suprise I got lost. It took me around two hours of wandering before this wisp managed to find me. I was thanking all my lucky stars that I made out of there in one piece. My family gave me a solid beating after I came, to get through me thick skull to never try something like this again. At least I made it back alive, unlike me deceased before brother. May his soul rest in peace." Dave, lumberjack Necrolimb Species: Necrolimb Family: Undead Risk level: Low Weaknesses: Removal, Fire Description: This monster can form in case you experienced a necrosis to one of your limbs, or other body parts. There is a chance, after that particular part dies, that it can transform itself into an undead. It acts just like before, meaning its fully functional under normal circumstances and except a change of color it doesn''t seem to be in any way changed. The unusual behaviour can only be spotted if it is exposed to meat or other organic tissue. It divides itself into smaller parts to grind down that particular item and absorbes it into itself. It can also react if it is left long enough without intervention, but in that case instead of transforming it expands onto surrounding it body which causes it to grow bigger. To avoid this fate it is highly recommended to cut of any dead tissue that you could have on yourself, and if it already is a part of you to get rid of its as soon as possible, otherwise there is a risk that it can fully change your body into an undead. Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. There were very few cases when it managed to completely get a hold of someone and in every single one of them they transformed into a being called Necrocorpse. It functions exactly as original Necrolimb, but with the fact that it can now hunt on its own. Even then it isn''t very dangerous, because of its slow speed, but if it manages to get a hold of you it is almost always a death sentence. When it cathces someone it this form it opens up its entire body and uses it to grind the victim into a fine meaty paste, which it then absorbes. Its normal form dies almost immediately when removed from the infected body, and the second one is extremely vulnerable to any fire source, so getting rid of them is easy enough, but it is suggested to report its presence to any hunting facility, or in the lighter cases any surgeon to remove the threat. Personal notes: "When I was a young lad I had a particulary nasty infection, which later caused one of my fingers to completely lose the sense of touch. I didn''t think much about, before one day while eating my birthday dinner it started to move on its own and proceeded to devourer my food. Nothing in my life scared me as much as that. Thankfully, I managed to cut it of before it turned into something worse." Bern, villager Peek a Boo Species: Peek a Boo Family: Unique Risk level: None Weaknesses: None Description: Like the name suggests this monster is specialized in very particular activity, namely ''Hide and Seek''. It doesn''t kill any of its victims and doesn''t harm them in any way, but its goals are unknown and there is not much that could be interpreted from its behaviour. The people that were attacked by this monster describe it as a tall humanoid, wearing some kind of one piece clothing blending with the rest of the body. Its proportions are a little wrong compared to humans, like longer fingers and neck or too thin of a silhouette. Its skin is entirely white, without a single blemish, except a very contrasting set of eyeballs and lipless mouth that are covered in some kind of black goo. It doesn''t seem to spread, but instead seep inside of its skin. It moves just like a few kinds of insects, meaning regular but small stirsof the head or other joints or rapid and drastic moves of limbs. Its victims stated that looking at it is extremely uncomfortable, bordering on uncanny valley and preferably they would not like to experience it ever again. It mainly inhabits forests located deep outside any societies, but there were few sightings of it closer to more populated areas. Its way of ''hunting'' consists of cathing lonely individuals, when they are unaware of its presence, and putting they in some kind of isolated personal dimension. Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. This plane changes its structure for every new person that is placed inside of it and doesn''t seem to follow any recognizable pattern. After capture the monster begins to inform its newest catch of rules governing its game, namely that they must hide before the monster manages to count to one hundred and if they are able to avoid it for ten minutes it will give them a price. When they are unable to hide successfully the monster tells them in anoyed voice that they failed and forcibly eject them from its pocket dimension. However if they manage to win the monster is visibly more happy about the outcome and gives the victim a random part of the body of some kind of unidentified animal. The body part doesn''t have any kind of unnatural characteristic, but after further investigation it seems to come from much harsher environments that are possible normally, exceptionally the density of its muscle tissue. The only thing that is recommended to do is to never go exploring the woods without some kind of company. Personal notes: "It was definitely not a fun experience. Imagine gettig suddenly kidnaped on the way home and some monster just tells you to hide. I shat myself then and there. No matter how much I run I knew it was only getting closer and closer. I didn''t even try to look behind me in fear it would be just after me. And then it just grabs me, makes the most frightening expression anything could ever do and says that I failed. I am ashamed to admit that I lost my consciousness. After I woke up I was directly at the place it took me. I am sure that it was not a dream, it was to real. Never again I went to those woods." One of its victim Possessor Species: Possessor Family: Ghost Risk level: Medium Weaknesses: Destruction of its body Description: This is a type of ghost very similar to the spirits mentioned in old stories, mainly poltergeists. They are created as the aftermath of death of someone really attached to one particular location. The power of the spirit can vary depending on the level of attachement, but in most cases they are dangerous enough to threaten anyone trying to pillage, vandalise, or otherwise threaten its resting place. They are not visible to the naked eye and can only be seen if agitated enough, which is extremely discouraged, because at this stage the ghost is actively trying to get rid of the intruder, using everything at its disposal. Like the poltergeists of old, it is able to directly manipulate objects in its surroundings and use it to hurl mundane items at anyone passing close enough. It extends to everything that isn''t directly attached to any surface and even then, if enraged enough, it can rip said objects from its location and use it as another weapon at its disposal. This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. As said before when it feels threatened it can make itself become visible, but not through normal means like materialization. It uses the items under its control to build itself a new body. The end result is vaguealy humanoid, but it is clearly not made of blood and flesh, because everything used in its creation is still visible, jutting onto its surface from underneath fastly made exterior. It is the most dangerous state it can be in, due to its now improved capabilities. It had traded its telephatic abilities with extremely resilent body and force disproportionate to the structure of its new form. It is advised to stay as far as possible, when it comes to that and inform anyone capable of fighting this foe for them to subdue it. Personal notes: "It is very hard to exorcise this spirit under normal circumstances, not even talking when it is agitated. You could always just employ regular mages to do the job, but the usually make a very sloppy job, which leaves a room for the next ghost to manifest. They usually just blast it with some kind of spell until it disolves. This while clearing the area of corruption, still leaves the remaining emotions lingering after its death. The proper way to do this is to firstly prepare the ghost for dispeling and only then try to permanently get rid of it. There is always the possibility to clear the remnants after it is already killed, but it still is not a sure method and tends to leave just enough fragments to create a lesser spirit. I wish we could cooperate more to be better effective with some hunts." Augustus, priest under Church of the afterlife Secret Librarian Species: Secret Librarian Family: Living Nightmare Risk level: Beneficial Weaknesses: Fall of its library Description: They are created after someone with great thirst for knowledge dies without being content with themself. After they pass away the remaining thoughts and remnants of personality bond together to form a single entity. They look like silhouettes of people in long robes and hoods over their heads. The only parts of its body that are visible are a pair of hands that stick out of its sleeves. They are around the size of a normal person in basic form, but they can extend parts of their bodies to get a hold of items that are out of reach using normal means, like books at the top of a bookshelf. When they first manifest they can somehow detect the nearest location with the biggest amount of information and using that knowledge they try to get towards it. When they are successful they bond themself to this place and start their questionable ''job''. Their main task, while there, is to read every record, every book and every note they can find and then try to sort it depending on the kind of information they extracted from it. In every case where they appeared they managed to increase the productivity of sorting methods drastically. Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. If asked directly if they can show you where is the specific information you are looking for, they will in most cases help to find it. If the know that this is something that this place doesn''t include they will then go into searching frenzy that will go as long as an entire week, for them to cool of. When they finally read everything there is to know in their current place they will move on onto another to expand their knowledge. If somehow this living shadow becomes a nuisance they can be killed by tearing down the library they inhabit. This will unfortunatally also destroy most of the books inside, because if they are extracted before the demolishment the Librarian itself will just escape this place. But this is advised against, because they do more good than harm and are not worth the effort to take down. Personal notes: "The are extemely useful for segregating any of our old blueprints and notes. You would think that they are the most valuable for Vault of Knowledge but you wouldn''t be further from truth. They developed their own libraries over many, many years and they don''t need a new one for the next century or so. But for us, they are almost irreplaceable. You don''t even know how much more managable our research progresses became after a few of them managed to sneak inside our facilities." Aron Tern, member of Cog''s Ordeal Soul Bonded Species: Soul Bonded Family: Living Shadow Risk level: High Weaknesses: Death of the host Description: Soul Bonded does exactly what its name says it does, namely bonds with someone for life. It isn''t as romantic as it sounds, because it does it only to expand its influence. But firstly regarding its appereance it is not very distinguishable from other living shadows. It just looks like a black puddle on the ground, until it chooses its victim. It fully merges with their shadow, not showing itself in anyway and not influencing the behaviour or the health of the host. It does that to be as unrecognizable as possible. When it fully joins itself with the original shadow it then starts to produce massive amounts of corruption, by using the life force of the victim. Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. Because of this direct exchange the sheer volume of it is so huge that almost anything living in the vicinity is quickly turned into a monster. to stop this change it is required to kill the host as quickly as possible, otherwise the amount of corruption will be so big that it will be impossible to get rid of. Even after the death of the bonded victim the contaminated aura of that place will continuously spawn more beasts until fully eradicated. Thankfully, there is a very small number of this monster in the world and they manifest themself very scarcely. There is unfortunately very little we can do to prevent them, but we still can collectively try to eradicate them as fast as they are recognized. Personal notes: "Their ability shows that the potential of the life force in our bodies iss immense. If just the amount of energy contained in a sibgle individual can cause such devastation, we can only imagine what we could do with more direct control. Hopefully, I will survive the days when we can manage such feats." Dr. Gist, member of Diseased Order [BONUS] Merchant Society Name of the organisation: Merchant Society Place of activity: Shops, Markets Specialization: Selling, Supplying products Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.Description: This group is functionally a large gathering of all kinds of merchants. No matter if you have a small stand on the street or you have a large shop imperium covering entire nations, you must be registered in this group to be allowed to sell your products. There are no exceptions to that rule, and there is nothing more important in this world than coins. In the few cases where someone tried to cheat the system, even nobles, the next day they mysteriously commited suicide or went missing to never be found again. You do not cheat people ruling the entire economy. Truth Seeker Species: Truth Seeker Family: Sleep Demon Risk level: None Weaknesses: Bad thoughts Description: It is hard to call this entity a demon, due to its rather peaceful nature, but it was the best classification for it. We call all entities coming from other planes of existance demons, which makes it hard to properly categorise some of them, but there are to few harmless other dimensional creatures to to form a new group to put them under it. Tea Party is one of the examples of the calmer side of those organisms. Its appereance reminds one of some older gentlemen, who can be seen around cafes and public parks. It wears a simple tuxedo, a top hat and holds in one of its hands a plain cane. It visits the dreams of random people and engages with them in simple conversations. The meeting lasts for what feels like three hours, it then excuses itself and vanishes in puff of smoke. The rest of the dream is transformed into a lucid one, even if the person in question never experienced it before. The demon can be asked many question and up to this date it answered all of them. We are currently unable to confirm if they are thruthful, because that would require a visit to the outer planes, but given the nature of the creature it can be at least partially correct. Homewer, for every question asked it will require an answer on its own and will not continue the conversation until it will be properly replied to. It can in some way know if the answer in question is true or false. Depending on it, it will either end the talks then and there, or it will continue it with no further complications. Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. If its presence is disturbing to you, it can be politely asked to leave, or if you don''t want to engage with it you can also try to remember any bad memories you ever experienced to discourage it to approach. If you had the pleasure to be visited by Truth Seeker it is recommended to report your findings to the Vault of Knowledge, because they will reward any information about this demon handsomely. Personal notes: "Chatting with it was suprisingly pleasant. I let me unwind a little, relax and hold a normal conversation without it batting the eye on my presence. As you can see I don''t look like someone easily approachable, so people tend to avoid me. In this job it is a benefit rather that a drawback, but it also stoppes me from becoming aquainted with others. That''s why I think that it was a nice change of pace. It also allowed me to earn a few more coins after talking with scholars in Vault of Knowledge, so I can''t complain." Unnamed city guards The End Fruit Species: The End Fruit Family: Plant Risk level: Low/High Weaknesses: Fire, Decay Description: It is not much different from normal berries growing in the forests, with the exception of its unusual coloration. Instead of green stem it is deep purple, which makes it easily recognisable among normal vegetation. It is known for its extremely deadly fruits, which can cause death of fully grown adult in no more than few seconds of consumption. Anything living, even other monsters, that eat its fruits meet the same fate in very similar time period. It wouldn''t be much different from normal deadly plants, that grow in that areas, if not for what happens after the creatures die from its juices. The corpse turns into a literal trap, which kills anything that touchess it or comes close enough to inhale the gases it produces. It is the same effect as after the ingestion of the fruits. The more bodies the faster is the spread of the toxin. Uncontroled it can wipe out entire towns in span of a single night. Thankfully, animals learned to avoid this plant as far as possible and there is an easy method to get rid of it, which as usual to plant monsters involves fire. The bodies in turn are rendered safe from more toxins after the decay processes deep enough, which disolves the chemicals inside of it. Any sightings of this plant are to be reported as to any authorities or groups like Blood Hunt. Stolen novel; please report. Personal notes: "The neurotoxin this monster produces is rather curious sample. It behaves like few known diseases, instead of normal toxins. It is able to produce on its own more chemicals required to process more of itself and use it to spread onto more bodies. We also found why it doesn''t spread its toxic fumes when in basic form, or doesn''t spread onto other plants. The poison inside of it requires a specific combination of biological substances current inside animals. In less scientifical words it needs flesh to spread further. Maybe we can use it to produce airborne cures, allowing us to permanently erase some of the diseases." Dr. Lich, member of Diseased Order The Extractor Species: The Extractor Family: Parasite Risk level: Medium Weaknesses: Fire Description: The Extractor is a humanoid mass of parasites, with human intelligence and cognitivity. It is able to mask itself in public by wearing think robes and other accessories. It does that to better locate individuals with the highest amount a parasites inside their bodies to mark them and then on later note to extract the vermins inside them. When night falls and the town is deep asleep it sneaks inside of the homes of its targets and begins to feast on them. It does so by extanding its appendages and inserting them inside the bodies of the victims using their mouths. After it manages to extract all of the parasites inside them and then produces special substance taht forces the prey to forget their disgusting experience. This substance is not always working, so that''s how we know about this process and its workings, after we examined them for any traces. This monster continues to extract vermins in this way until it is in some way attacked. If it is, it then uses all of the parasites it managed to extract and use them as a repulsing wave of worms, leeches and other bloodsuckers. The wave goes on until everything on its path is sucked dry and then they return to The Extractor. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. The best way to stop it is to set this monster on fire. In this way it is unable to react to the danger and is slayed easily under continues arson. If you suspect that one of those can be near your location, or you where in the small percentage of people that regained their memories of the extraction you should inform the nearest hunting facility for them to help you. Personal notes: "Even searching for it is hard, not even speaking about safely eliminating it. You need a team of at least ten people just to find its location. It can blend with the crowd like no other and it must be done in a way to not alert it, otherwise the whole action must be reorganised. And to kill it you first have to corner it and burn it before it is able to unleash its collection. I hope that I don''t have to meet one of those ever again." Erot Vefir, member of Blood Hunt The Horde Species: The Horde Family: Insectoid Risk level: Low Weaknesses: Fire Description: In behaviour it is almost identical to other horde kind insectoids. It gathers towards itself large amounts of bugs, vermins and other pests to gather for itself a source of sustanance. It is different to others in fact that it requires this army only in its earlier stages of developments. It starts as a giant bug egg the size of a small rat. It can be randomly birthed if an insect experiences large amounts of corruption, while preparing to lay eggs. Instead of many small eggs it transforms its entire body into the egg of The Horde. At this stage it has limited psychic abilities, enough to attract to itself various critters and to deter anything that could endanger its existance. When its army gathers enough food it then forces them to shut down and become the remaining amount of nourishment for itself. After around two weeks it is then fully developed and emerges from its containment. In this form it looks like a vague human silhouette made out of something similar to left over chitin from the corpses of many insects. It regains its psychic abilities and still uses it to command its lesser brethren. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. Its main danger comes from its extreme caution. It will not leave its nest, unless forced to and will continuously gather its sustanance without bothering creatures stronger than itself. There is not much need to actively hunt for it, because of its behaviour, but if you suspect that you know of its location it is recommended to report this to avoid unnecessary loses in populace. Personal notes: "Their entire bodies are a giant stockpile of treasure. It may seem bland on the first glance, but under careful inspection you can notice that the carapace covering its body is made from countless compresses chitins. This makes it a perfect material for high quality armor. I say it only because under normal circumstances I am unable to gather it on my own, so I hope that anyone reading this journal is able to gather for the the necessary materials." Gus Reit, member of Merchant Society The Mother Species: The Mother Family: Demon Risk level: Low Weaknesses: None Description: This demon is known as the only one capable to directly change someones entire nature. I doesn''t mean their bodies or mind. It directly transformes their soul, the whole thing that makes them ''them'', and turn their existance into another demon. Upon summoning this creature from demon plane it shows itself as a beautiful women, with perfect figure, proportions and no imperfections on its skin. It entices, tempts the summoner to accept its contract without reading into it. When they refuse the demon immediately goes back into its plane, without even trying to negotiate. However, if they accept the terms, under the false promises they gain strenght unobtainable under normal means. They become faster, stronger, smarter than before and grow more and more with each day. This is but a false security, because with every second under the contract they turn more and more into a demon, slowly growing closer and closer to The Mother. After accepting the contract they are also put under the charm, from which they are unable to escape. It forces them to remain under the contract and become more loyal to the demon with each passing day. This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work. When they finaly fully transform themself into creatures from hell, The Mother takes them with herself to her plane of existance. It is unknown what happens to them afterwords, but it theorized that they join the servants under the rule of that demon and remain there until the end of their pathethic lives. All texts containing the information about how to summon The Mother are to be burned with no prejudice. If you suspect that someone possesses on of those tomes or already is under the monsters control it must be immediately reported to authorities. Personal notes: "The most vulgar, disgusting, repulsive demon ever known to humanity. They bare them from the sweet embrace of death and turn the contractors into mere beasts, the remnants of themself. How could such revolting creature even exist is beyond me. Our only saving grace is that it cannot influence people not contracted to itself, but what would happen to us if it manages to somehow bypass this limit. We all would be doomed and not even death could save our corrupted lives." Huze Garo, priest in Church of the afterlife Tree Lurker Species: Tree Lurker Family: Insectoid Risk level: Low Weaknesses: Blunt Force Description: This insectoid took quite a peculiar path of gaining life essence, namely forming a symbiotic relationship with a tree of its liking. The tree gives it energy and the bug gives it protection from vermins. It the aftermath of the extermination of other inhabitants of that plant it also gives it extra nurishments for quicker growth. The monster looks like a mix between termite and mantis, taking the main body from the first one and appendages from the second. It is around the size of human face, give or take another five centimeters, not growing past thirty. Their coloration allows this critter to better blend with the environment giving it greater steath in the crown of the tree. Its speed is rather ordinary, and doesn''t allow it to match up to a human, but it is enough to hunt anything threatening its home. This monster when in bond with a tree transforms said plant into partial monster, which gives it better efficiency in absorbing energy and makes the tree a little more resilent. This change is reversed when the monster is killed or abandones it, but this change can keep up to two weeks, so it is better to burn that plant before it gives birth to another beast. This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. The best way to get rid of Tree Lurker is to first force it in some way to get farther from its home, it can be done using force or tempting it with some food, and when it goes far enough to repeatedly hit it with a mace or other blunt tool. They do not pose much threat, due to the fact they do not travel far from their trees, but they can still be a nuisance to farmers and travelers, so it is in our best interest to exterminate them when some of them are spotted in your area. Personal notes: "The way the create symbiosis is more tha fascinating. They form a direct link between themselves and their chosen tree and use it to directly exchange the life essence with the monsters corruption. Another thing is that the change inducted inside the plant are not random, bur rather directly shaped by the bug to achieve the shape it wants. It shows that some monsters have more control on their own essence than others, and also how much more we can learn from them." Eric Mamut, scholar of Vault of Knowledge Unmoving Dream Species: Unmoving Dream Family: Sleep Demon Risk level: None Weaknesses: None Description: It is a rather harmless demon, but not particulary friendly and prone to mischief. It haunts anyone prone to its influence, mainly children and artists, by manifesting itself as their worst nightmare. Depending on the person it can be anything from spiders, through syringes, up to unimaginable horrors, or even multiple forms at the same time. It cannot recreate a scene or a specific memory, but can chow itself as a part of it, like a dead parent. It haunts them only for a single night and ends it just before the victim is about to collapse from fear. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. It doesn''t seem to follow any pattern regarding its show ups, but it never was longer than one month and shorter than one day. This shows that it has limited influence on our realm, but also that this behaviour is its main source of entertainment. There is no way to avoid it if it decides to select you as its victim, so the best thing you can do is to pray that it doesn''t choose you for its next ''fun''. Personal notes: "It showed me my dead family. All burned out, just like I remembered them. It repeated, time and time again, ''it was your fault'', ''it was your fault'', ''it was your fault''. Why did it decide to attack me! I didn''t no damn thing! I just want to forget. " Unnamed victim Wriggling Mass Species: Wriggling Mass Family: Parasite Risk level: Low Weaknesses: Fire Description: A simple group of tapeworms crawling throught the sewers. Somehow, if enough of them manage to gather in one place they can develop limited psychic abilities when near each other, using the already existing corruption emmited by lesser monsters, which manifests itself by forming hivemind enveloping every single one of them. They still parasite on other creatures, but developed rather unique way of doing that. They usually try to overwhelm with their numbers any creature small enough for them to successfully subdue. Depending on the size of the colony it can be anything from rats to even few humans that regulary patrol their habitats. But those instances are very rare, due to their inability to form groups with more than coming from their limited intelligence, limiting the size of the hivemind. If they get a hold of some creature they then infect it with their eggs and stick their weakened bodies to the walls using the slime they produce. If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. When the eggs inside hatch they are forcefully extracted by members of the hivemind, resulting in death of the victim. Its remnants are then consumed by the Wriggling Mass to sustain itself. It still isn''t very dangerous and only needs rare, but regular hunts to keep its numbers in bay. If some of them are neglected and one of them manages to sneak outside, the best way to deal with it is to simply throw at it a single torch. They burn like dry sticks on hot summer days, so this is the easiest method to get rid of this beast. Personal notes: "Thankfully, they are quite easy to hunt. They burn like twigs, so we don''t require anything expensive or hard to preserve just to eliminate some vermins. But they could stop reproducing in current numbers. We definitely should ramp up hygienic standards un the notch, or otherwise more people will die, not even from monsters but just regular parasites." Cern Bladearm, member of Blood Hunt Bestiary Species: Bestiary Family: Unique Risk level: Unknown Weaknesses: Unknown Description: Because of the amount of described monsters in this book it seems to resonate with outer planes of existance. After researching it we managed to find out that exists in two different realms at the same time, so maybe it is able to allow us to open the exit to that realm. For now we can only manage to write short messages and notes to there, and we don''t even know if they can understand our language but we will deal with this problem for now. We also discovered that the more monsters this book describes the more it resonates, so I will hasten my findings as soon as I can to speed up our tests. Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. Personal notes: "If you can read this, and understand it then I must ask you for help from your side. If you are able the in some way enhance the resonance between our realms we should be able to communicate more freely than now. If we do so continuously there is a chance that we could help each other with our problems. I will await you answers with patience." The Author [BONUS] Summary of the history of the world What used to be an advanced world powered by steam and electricity, now became just a husk of its former self after the cataclysm. When mages grow more arogant, and close their eyes on morals, death follows. After gruesome experiment, where thousands of people where sacrifices, to allow few a graze of immortality, they could not contain the energy that came from that. Spreading around the world, to every animal, plant, bug, even space itself, malforming it, twising it until everything adapted to the new force. First months of cataclysm harvested many lives, no place on earth was spared from that fate. Then, after half a year humanity learned to fight back, for they were not excluded from transformation and adaptation of their new reality. Strong people became hunters, strong willed became mages and smart became artificers. Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. The bravely fought back, until they took their lands back, and managed to extract their lost knowledge. Now is the age of new knowledge, and new possibilities, but also new dangers. Can humanity prevail, or given enough time something better that them will take their place. We may never know the answer. [THE END, MY THANKS] Yeah, this whole think is an unedited, botched up mess of a book, but at least I had fun while writing this and I am somewhat happy about how it turned out. I am extremely grateful to all of you that decided to stay through the end, I hope that you enjoyed it. Once again I am sorry for the low quality, but I was writing it to relax after the long days, so I was not only tired but also didn''t want to bother with checking everything, so unfortunately it turned out like this. After a short break I will try to write another novel and this time you can expect an actual story instead of short notes. And, suprise suprise, this time I will check for any errors I made along the way, so you can expect at least some improvements. Maybe I''ll try to read the entire english dictionary to expand my vocabulary. To summarize, thank you so much for your support, you can expect to see me again next year (probably), and I hope that next time my book will be more enjoyable. This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it I wish you all a very nice Christmas and see you soon. Btw. The next book (not including contests) will be called ''My True Face''. If this is gonna change I will edit the title in this footnote to not confuse anyone, sorry for the inconvenience EDIT: After a lot of preparations and worldbuilding, I figured out that the idea for ''My True Face'' is too good for my current writing level, so it will be further delayed until I feel confident enough to deliver satisfactory results. For the time being I will write books based on already existing tropes, like ''dungeon building'', ''partial transfer to another world'', ''superheroes'' and ''apocalypse'' but with enough twists and changes to keep it somewhat interesting. It may not be up to par to even half of the novels on this site, but I will try to continuously develop my skills and language in order to create something that can bring a