《How I Rule The World》 Prologue - Demon Lords, Volcanoes and a mention of arse ¡°Such a pain in the arse¡± frowning deeply, I mutter to no one in particular. Right now, a despondently clich¨¦ setting is being played out before my eyes. To make it worse, I¡¯m stuck as the lead antagonist in this farce of a ¡°Grand Finale¡± to the story of the everlasting battle between the forces of ¡°Good¡± and ¡°Evil¡±. -------------------------------------------------------- Built in the middle of nowhere, surrounded only by tremendous and devastating volcanoes and barren wastelands, proudly stands a colossal obsidian black castle with an unreasonably grotesque design and a sinister aura. The largest room of the castle, the audience hall, contains a majestic throne of the same obsidian black color as, essentially, everything else inside the adobe of a malicious being. A being so ambitious, that it aims to dominate everything under the sky. A being so powerful, that everything under the sky cowers before its ambition. A being so demonic, that it¡¯s believed to be the personification of the world¡¯s ¡°Evil¡± in flesh and blood. A being, titled - the ¡°Demon Lord¡±. Giving of an air of arrogance, the ¡°Demon Lord¡±, inspects his uninvited guests with mild interest. A group of two young men and three young females, not one of them older then seventeen years of age, have infiltrated his castle, cut their way through his minions and made it all the way to his audience hall. One of the young men steps forward from his group. If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. With short golden hair, azure blue eyes, flawless facial features, down in a radiating silver armor and wielding a sword of light. Staring at the Demon Lord, his expression is filled with disdain and anger, taking a second to hold his emotions in check, the young man speaks up ¡°My name is Lance, I¡¯m a Hero from another world, blessed by the Goddess, supported by my companions, trusted by humanity¡­etc... ----------------------------------------------------- And after that the guy (Lance) just never stopped talking about how good is he, how I¡¯m a vile being and some such things. Regardless, what am I doing, wasting my precious time on a retard like that? Well¡­ It¡¯ll be best if I¡¯ll just tell everything from where it started Between, my name is Marcus and this is my story. AuthNote: I¡¯m not sure what exactly did I just write but anyways... comments and suggestions are welcome! Next Chapter Chapter 1 - Magicians, Demonic Werevampires and a fiery old man Greetings everyone! I believe that last time we left off with me questioning myself on exactly how did I end up in a company of an imbecile blondy that gets a hard on from swinging around a lightsaber while ranting an impotent speech. So this time to answer my own question, I¡¯ll be bringing up some events that took place in the past and have led to my current ¡°predicament¡±. --------------------------------------------------- It all began on my 25th birthday, of course that is if we skip the part where ¡°It all began when I was born into this world¡±, and while I¡¯m sure that most of you would have loved to read about some tragic events of my childhood. Maybe something along the lines of my parents being ripped to pieces by some enraged cannibalistic demon werevampire with me watching such events transpire through a barely visible crack in the wooden doors of our closet, precisely where my parents hid me before stomping off to face their imminent demise in the hands of such monstrosity. Alas, no such luck, because I had a pretty decent childhood and was brought up by me well-off parents that have lived happily ever after before dying on the same day because of old age. Now then, enough with the distractions and let¡¯s focus on the more pressing issue of my autobiography.. uhm.. I mean continuing on the quest to figure out the cause of my recent misfortunes. So yeah¡­ Back then I was a talented mage apprentice to the Arch-Magus of our kingdom. Unfortunately, after so much time, I no longer remember the name of my original home country nor of my first master, the Arch-Magus. Though I do remember that the title of Arch-Magus is conferred on the most potent practitioner of magical arts in the kingdom. Now you might be thinking that I have prided the fact that I was being trained directly under such an exulted master? Regrettably, you¡¯re wrong. The old man was nothing but a burden to my progress because two years ago I have already surpassed him in control over the basic elements. Now at the age of twenty-five the old man was practically left in the dust and had absolutely nothing to teach me. Yet, he was reluctant to announce the end of my apprenticeship claiming that even though I have eclipsed him as a magician, I still have a long way to go as a decent human being and pose a threat to the society. Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. I didn¡¯t bother rebuking him, because the old man was absolutely correct as I turned him into a small pile of ash the very instant he finished speaking. I¡¯ve already wasted two unnecessary years playing along with the old man. Originally I was planning to play along and become a certified mage of our kingdom to live a carefree life and simply enjoy myself, but that was not meant to be. So I might as well become the threat to society that he feared me to be and survive on what my power can afford me. Unfortunately, as much as I hate to admit it, I¡¯m not a threat to an enormous entity regarded as society. Of course, a master elemental mage like me is a valued asset for any known empire with our capacity at unleashing destruction, but this power is not absolute. I need something far more compelling. With such a mindset, I leave on a journey to search for such power. ------------------------------------------------------ Though this journey has forced me to painstakingly overcome countless unreasonable trials and ultimately brought me to my current destination in the path of life, that I constantly nag abut, yet I have never come to regret leaving that day. Oh, and guess what¡­ Blondy is still speaking¡­ Even his comrades seem to be getting pretty annoying with his endless banter AuthNote: Next chapter will be about the journey obiously..) Anyways¡­ comments, suggestions are welcome. Also I need your opinion guys¡­ Does this story seem to have a dark feel to it? Because it¡¯s supposed to be a lighthearted comedy that includes gore and other nasty stuff so I in the middle of drawing a line to provide it correctly. Next Chapter Chapter 2 - Love, Manly Tears And Generic Bandit Experience Hey everyone! Marcus, here once again, to spread love and the word of god on the unsuspecting world. Love being my obsession over my belongings, I am compelled by nature to love and treasure what is mine. So as the amount of my possessions steadily rises after parting ways from their original owners, so does the amount of my love increases. I don¡¯t steal¡­ I make fair exchanges, because no matter the price of an item that is take by me, in the end it can never compare to the price of scarcest element that I give back, and that is love. To put it simply, I take an item, (and as we all know, any item is a part of this world) and love it as my possession, and if an item is a part of the world then I love the world as a whole, and what our world lacks the most in this corrupted time? That is absolutely correct. The world lacks love. As for the word of god? Ever heard of crusade? Slipping off topic again, naughty me¡­ Time to get back to that journey. --------------------------- Determined and with a specific goal in mind, I head on my journey towards the countless adventures that await ahead of me. After a few hours of nonstop walking, the excitement in my steadily dies down and I decided to take a small break to take in stock of my surroundings and consider my situation in general, and then it hits me. I have no idea where I¡¯m going. I got so overexcited that I didn¡¯t even bother to my any arrangements and actually have no real idea of where I am at the moment. And so I decided to do, what any 25 year old grown adult would do in my place. I stealthy hide myself in nearby bushes and quietly sulk to myself. After an hour or so of self-pitying, I see a small group of armed man wearing black leather outfits. As they are, carrying around a banner signed ¡°I¡¯m a bandit¡± wouldn¡¯t be as much of a giveaway as their current attires. Observing them slowly progressing through the forest, I can¡¯t help but frown. ¡°How come this guard bait knows their way around and I¡¯m stuck here lost¡±. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. And then it once again¡­ Hits me! Without waiting a second longer, I abandoned the relative safety of my self-pity bush, and caught up with their party of seven leather-bound future sacrifices. Still frustrated over my recent blunder and in no mood for discussions I bind all seven of them in floating bubbles of water. Done with their capture, I turn my attention a strange song stuck in the back of my head which goes a little something like this ¡°Pokemon! Gotta Catch Em ALL!!¡±¡­ Failing to make any sense of it I turn my attention back to the bandits bound in water balls, and as I¡¯m about to speak some strange box flashes in front of my eyes¡­ something is written on. ¡°You can¡¯t carry more than six pokemons¡­.¡± ¡­.. ¡­.. ¡­. ¡°Bandit #7 has been safely transferred to your PC¡±¡­ After that the window disappears and together with it goes ¡®POOF!¡¯ one of the bandits. Hmmm¡­ Well, better to just ignore it. Now to spread the word of god to this pagan evildoers. ------------------------------------------------ I¡¯m sorry to stop the story right here but there seems to have been a falling out in the heroes group and they¡¯re in the middle of an inner dispute, can¡¯t miss out on something like that¡­ now can I? Either way I¡¯ll be sure to finish this story for you in a few hours. AuthNote: Doesn¡¯t happen much here¡­ Just a filler chapter or something :p Either way.. I srsly need a small break from this¡­ but I¡¯ll probably finish another chapter or two today so don¡¯t you worry) Though not sure if anyone cares xD Next Chapter Chapter 3 - Artifacts, Broken Toys And The Purpose Of Life AuthNote: Before you read, let me warn you that this chapter is a bit on the gloomy side¡­ While I was writing, I came up with a few interesting ideas for the dark side of this story and got so stuck in its line of thinking that kinda forgot to lighten it up with some humor and stuff so bear with me on this one¡­ ;) With that said, I¡¯d like to warn people that even with all the tension free atmosphere that I¡¯ll be trying to create for the story, the MC ¨C Marcus, is my picture of a perfect anti-hero and the disregard for the human life will be displayed profoundly.. Probably.. Not sure what profoundly means exactly ;) And soz for poor spelling in AuthNotes.. I barely even look at what I type and just go straight with the thought that come out from my head¡­ Either way.. Enjoy the read) And once again, I, Marcus, am back to being a bad influence for you. Last time a got distracted by my quarreling uninvited guests, but now that they got over their differences and are busy bonding with each other, I can return my full attention to my story. Though, I must admit that I¡¯m a tad bit unhappy over the fact that they¡¯ve settled their argument with words alone. Indeed, a pity. ----------------------------------------- If I remember correctly, last time the story stopped on the part where I acquired six loyal companions to act as my guides and provide me with, essentially, everything I required. Meeting this six, proved to be a godsend. Before I only had a goal and raw determination, but thanks to the chance encounter with this leather-bound outcasts of society, I have been provided with the means to follow through to my goal. While being stranded in the forest, I understood that to make my journey lead me to acquiring undisputable power, wondering aimless would be futile. I needed information. Information on legendary relics, forbidden magic, location of ancient ruins, etc¡­ After meeting those six (Well, seven.. but since there are no PCs in this world¡­ Tough Luck.) , and providing them with a few solid arguments, to prove that a life of devotion to me, is their best, and only, choice with 6 sharp solid ice arguments hovering pointed in the direction of the nether regions. This was it, all I need to get information is a source and a valid point. Valid point is that no information cost more than the life of its source. What use would the source have for information without he means, being alive that is, to use it. Reaching such a conclusion, I spent the next year roaming the world with my six faithful assistants. Even though, this outing was nothing but a step toward my ultimate goal, yet I enjoyed every minute of it. We were playing a game with the whole human continent as our playground. It was a fun combination between ¨C hide and seek, tag and breaking toys. Although most participants didn¡¯t choose to play the game to enjoy themselves, each and every one of them was after the prize. No a single one of them could resist the temptation to achieve it, since the prize of this game was their life, while the price of losing was their demise. This year we spent most of our time searching for and interrogating countless mages, officials, criminals, information brokers, etc¡­ Basically anyone who might have any useful information to achieve my goal. Every time we located a potential target, we approach the person in question and proposed a generous offer. He tells us everything that he knows and he is free to continue through with the pathetic existence that is his life. Otherwise he may choose to flee to which we won¡¯t interfere, but once we seek him out and tag him into a corner, where he will receive the privilege of having an actual purpose in life. That, of course, is until he breaks, just like the rest of my precious toys. As much as a treasure my possession, a broken item has lost its utility and can no longer serve any purpose to me, or to the rest of the world. If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. ------------------------------------------------------ Now that our quest for information has been fulfilled, it was finally time to put it to good use. You know¡­ Ancient ruins to scavange, forbidden magic to practice, legendary artifacts to be stolen¡­ No, not stolen, claimed is the correct term. Claimed to serve a greater purpose and reveal their true potential. After putting the puzzles of acquired information together we spent the next five years treasure hunting. Busy Busy Busy¡­ Though it had its fun moments and we faced a fair share of dangerous situations, there was nothing particularly interesting or led me to where I am today. It all began after I collected all the required fragments and gained the power that I so much desired only to realize that it wasn¡¯t even remotely enough to shed free from my coil and only weakness, that is mortality. Regardless, I do not despair. I have no time for such pity emotions now that I¡¯m in a race against time as a mere human being, but that is only a consolation that I came up with to keep me going. What really keeps from breaking up is my goal. I still have it, my goal, my most trustworthy partner. Now, it¡¯s only a matter of figuring out the means to have our partnership finally bare fruit. ----------------------------------------- Now that I reflect on those moments I understand why I was so hasty to grab at any means that opportunity provides. My goal was extremely complicated to achieve and the life time of a mortal, a simple human being is only so long. So taking drastic measures was a reasonable decision and it indeed led me to reaching my goal but the price was such a pain in the arse.. You simply cannot begin to imagine. *Sigh* AuthNote #2: Next time I¡¯ll continue from the part where finally gains the long awaited lazor pew pew powaz and realizes that it¡¯s not enough¡­ If anyone has any objections to skipping the collection of the treasures part then feel free to voice it.. If you guys are interested then I can set it up..) Either way.. suggestions and comments are welcome.. pwease am hungry for attentionz!! Next Chapter Chapter 4 - Masterplans, Sacrifices And The Magic School AuthNote : Now here¡¯s a chapter dedicated to my constant rattling about all kinds of things from the magic system to spilling my masterplan that I actually came up with while writing this chapter without giving it much thought so a lot of things here might make pretty much no sense, or I¡¯m actually having a pretty decent plot going here. One of the two¡­ Either way, enjoy the read or hate me for wasting your time. It¡¯s always one of the two¡­ Though please don¡¯t hate me xD And once again I¡¯m back with you guys! Right now, I¡¯m mostly known as the Demon Lord, which is of course my current occupation, but I wasn¡¯t always a constantly brooding, black castle dwelling definition of evil. Back in my days, I was actually a quite successful treasure hunter and managed to survive in such a dangerous line of work for no less than five years! Ain¡¯t I amazing? No?? Well, I never really liked you either¡­ Hmph! *turns around to silently cry off the pain of his pristine heart* My hurt feelings aside, I was originally planning to skip that part of my life altogether, but thinking about those days brings up distant memories that I¡¯m more than happy to share the adventures of my youth with you, while relieving those wonderful adventures and not as welcome misadventures that I¡¯ve come across in my quest of collecting a certain line of ancient and ridiculously powerful items. ------------------------------------------- After a tiresome year of search and destroy¡­ uhm.. What I meant to say is that after spending a year roaming all around the continent and meticulously searching for all kind of information regarding our subject of interest. We have finally gathered enough to figure out the general location for all the items in my must have list and many others as a small bonus for working overtime. With that taken care of, it is due to make some preparations to handle everything smoothly. This lesson I had to learn the hard way, but surviving alone, in a middle of a forest, for an extended period of time, more specifically, an hour. Amounts to an experience, which turns making arrangements into a compelment, reinforced by repercussions in a form of a pounding headache if I happen to overlook even the tiniest detail while putting a shopping list together. So it¡¯s best to play it slowly, rather than with a splitting headache. After reading up on the necessary knowledge on raiding ancient ruins and familiarizing with the concept of trap systems that were commonly employed during their era. I scratch down a list of equipment that will prove useful in the previously mention environment and passed it to my leather-bound entourage, ordering them to split up and get all the listed items with a deadline of one month. Done with preparations, I turn my attention to a pile of books that we claimed to serve a greater purpose, my purpose. Each book in the pile is a one of a kind, priceless treasure, which contains knowledge on the aspects of magic that were deemed forbidden by society for all sorts of reason, from being unstable and destructive to simply emitting a purposeless green aura that was considered to be sinister. Shuffling my way through the pile, I dismiss one book after another. Most of them either serve no real purpose or will take me longer than a month to master. It takes some time, but I¡¯m finally left with two books. Now I¡¯m in a tight spot, both of the books contain knowledge on very interesting applications of magic that I find endless appealing. Unfortunately, I only have time for one. Putting aside my own fascination over two different brands of magic that require elementary level of expertise in magic to master completely yet are so potent, unpredictable and dangerous that even I have to agree that this kind of thing should never be revealed to general public, but to someone like me this is a godsend. Dismissing the motion of receiving support from a god for his endeavors, I struggle to take my pick. One book is dedicated to all the possible applications for ¡°Blood Magic¡±, with detailed description step by step instructions for every spell. From what I understand, expertise of blood magic includes a wide array of sinister curses that require blood of the victim to active. The scary part rests in the fact that all you need is a single drop and you can have your adversary face a death so sinister that even my twisted mind has trouble reproducing the picture from the ridiculously detailed description of the process. The second application of blood magic is briefly mentioned here and there between those detailed descriptions of all possible curses and their unreasonable effects. If not paying close attention or is simply to immersed in the potency of the curses a person would overlook the existence of the second application all together, forget about putting all the spread out pieces together to find that all those brief paragraphs put together, reveal yet another intricate description with step by step instructions. At first, I started putting the paragraphs together only mildly interested at the prospect of a forbidden magic book that is better off being called ¡°101 unfortunate ways to die¡± and sort all those death in a meticulously scrutinized ranking while all of the step by step instructions for every spell in this ¡°Magic Book¡± will make a perfect fit in the epilog section as an afterthought, in case someone decides that seeing is believing and kills 150 people in the process of comparing the descriptions in the book to the reactions of the dying person withering in agony under his contemplating gaze. How come 150 die with only 101 ways to die? Well, most of them will die because comparing details from the book while observing the process on a living human is not always possible, so for the sake of his experiment he will repeat the process this time concentrating on the previously overlooked moment detail that has been mentioned in the book, while the rest will die because some of the ways will definitely catch his fancy enough to make him repeated the process only to once again witness such a sight. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. But enough of this, it seems that I have once again slipped away from the story in hand. What I was trying to say is that such a hideous book that seemed to be dedicated to death contains such a puzzle so simple that it was probably design by a child yet together with the distracting and alarming contents of the book it is close to impossible to come across. Though there is always a key to every puzzle and in this case the key was myself, because I neither find the contents distracting nor alarming, if anything I find them completely uninteresting, save for the magic bits, because the end result is always the same ¨C Death. Again I¡¯m trailing off, so I¡¯ll just stick to the point and keep it short. So after a while, I finish my machinations with the contents of the book. The book is a complete mess, save for the content that I chose as necessary to be preserved, limited to the few most potent and ominous curses mentioned and the third expertise of blood magic that I have put away for further inspection. Now back to my solved puzzle. Ripped out pieces of the book are spread all over my work table in chaotic manner, but I wasn¡¯t aiming for it to look good, I needed it to make sense and now it finally did, from one ripped off paragraph to another it all makes perfect sense! I take a second to admire my handy work with the book, before what I just read finally sinks in and saying that I was flushed with excitement what I just chanced across is pretty much saying nothing. In the oh so familiar step to step instructions it explained how to hold the ¡°Original Sacrifice¡±. Yet another ¡°godsend¡±. I get a bad vibe from all this but it doesn¡¯t matter now that I have obtained the article that stood on the very top on my list yet we never managed to located it¡¯s ware bouts which now doesn¡¯t seem at all surprising. What is so special about the ¡°Original Sacrifice¡±, not much, really. Sacrifice is common place in our world and is mostly employed by countless overzealous cults, every single time expecting to be rewarded for their undisputable faith but nothing ever happens and everything is blamed on an unsuitable sacrifice or something along those lines, and that¡¯s where the ¡°Original Sacrifice¡± is different. It¡¯s not an act of killing your fellow cult members to show loyalty to a piece of stone that you consider to be some deity. The ¡°Original Sacrifice¡± is a actually a very complicated spell, the pinnacle of where human had reached in their need to know everything. It¡¯s a spell that completely drains the target of life energy and instantly converts it to raw power that the caster is free to tap on it as he wishes. Pretty crazy, all in itself, except for one small point ¨C It¡¯s an area-of-effect spell that can expand indefinitely so long as you provide it with energy, and that¡¯s where the artifacts that I¡¯m after come in to play, the ones I¡¯m after act as vessels that can be charged with energy over time as I feed it until the thing is full. In total I need 5 of those and with that much power to feed to that insane sacrifice spell to gain the desirable effect. ---------------------------------------------- I trailed off from the story again and ended up spilling my guts. Well, stuff happen. AuthNote: Also this chapter might have some sentences with missing words here and there. Not 100% but I do tend to conjure a perfectly fine sentence in my head and type it out without really paying attention and somehow end up skipping a word, and most of this chapter was written with my eyes looking all around the place, save for the screen of my laptop.))