Announcement:

  As promised, I will be posting book 5 starting this month! Specifically, I will be posting chapter 5.1 next Monday, March 21st. After book 5 concludes, I will be stubbing this series and moving my work to KU. Many of you are probably familiar with this process; I'll leave the first 10% or so of the first book up here for new readers, and the rest of the content will be available on Amazon. Book 6, the series finale, will be released exclusively on Amazon following the stubbing process, which will take place over a number of months. If you have Kindle Unlimited, you'll be able to finish the series there! If you don't, you'll be able to buy the ebook for a few books, or the paperback for a bit more. I have really enjoyed posting on Royal Road, but I'm going to try a different tack now to hopefully reach more readers and, yes, get paid for my writing. If you've read this far and are bummed about losing the free aspect, please reach out! Even though Clay and Aether will be moving off Royal Road, I don't want to lose the mighty few who have found me here. At this point I do not have any advance readers/beta readers, but I'm open to changing that!

  Below, I have a little preview of my next series, The Crafter's Guild. It's a portal fantasy of sorts with light gamelit elements. It still features the dynamic characters, wild creatures and larger-than-life adventures that breathe life into my stories. This is just a chapter from the first draft, and so it's all subject to change. Give it a read and let me know what you think!

  Chapter 3

  It was a strange sensation as Leth stepped into the pool, which appeared to be shallow. However, he found himself sinking all the way down through, his momentum carried him so that he came out feet first and rising into the air on the other side.

  When he reached the other side, his weight pulled him back down towards the pool. He found himself rising once again, this time headfirst, from the pool in the cave, much to the surprise of the other adventurers. He rose to shoulder height, then dropped back through once more. This time, he was more or less ready for the trick and managed to grab the edge of the pool on his way back down. He hauled himself out and stood on dry ground, sopping wet.

  The next to come through the pool was Chrys. Working out what must have happened to Leth, she got down on her belly, crawled to the edge of the pool, and slowly lowered herself in. Fully submerged headfirst, she found herself holding onto the edge of the pool on the other side and able to drag herself out. Seeing that she did not pop immediately back out, the others followed suit. Soon, all twelve were on the other side of the pool.

  However, Leth had not been idle during this time. The small army of scum goblins waiting for them had kept him rather busy. The others, one by one as they came up through the portal, engaged in the combat as well. Thankfully, no bugbears were guarding this end of the portal at the moment. The warriors were quickly able to dispatch the goblins and begin to take in their surroundings.

  They found themselves on the edge of a perfectly round pool that mirrored the pool they had found within the cave. This pool was not in a cave, but rather in the middle of a dark, dank forest. The trees had thick green foliage and wide roots that spread out in any direction from their moss-covered trunks. The air seemed alive with small bugs, bird calls, and a slight breeze. The sky that could be seen through the dense canopy looked blue and pleasant enough.

  "So, where are we?" asked the man with the hand cannon.

  The hooded daggerman shrugged his shoulders. "Beats me. It's no part of the world I've ever seen."

  "Did anyone see who put this scroll in my hand?" asked one of the adventurers, a man with a slim build carrying a green-soaked broadsword in one hand and a strange scroll in the other. "It says 'Hunter' on it. I didn't have it on me when I came in."

  "Some mage's guild trick," said the daggerman. "I don't know what else to make of it."

  The man opened the scroll and found nothing of interest or import on it save a single phrase: ‘Welcome to Farwood.’

  “I’ve never heard of Farwood,” said Chrys. “Is that what this place is called?”

  “Beats me,” said the swordsman with a shrug.

  "Well, how come you get one?" asked another of the warriors.

  "I don't know. I didn't ask for it. I'm not even sure what it is. Look, you've got one too," he said to the man with the hand cannon.

  Sure enough, tucked in the man's belt was a scroll. "Mine says 'miner,' and yeah, ‘Welcome to Farwood’ on the inside." he said. "Not sure what to make of that. I'm not a miner, I’m a mercenary with the Fighter’s Guild. You’re a real miner, I take it," he said, referencing Chrys.

  She shrugged. "Yeah, I am, but it's not addressed to me and it's in your belt."

  Interested by the scrolls and conversation, Leth stuck around. But as it descended into squabbling, he lost interest and wandered off into the forest alone, something he was well known for doing among the few that knew him.

  There was so much to see. He had never seen trees such as these, or even illustrations of them in accounts of other lands. There was something vaguely familiar about them, but he couldn't place it. For the moment, he let the thought slide. However, he figured he was here to explore, and explore he would. After stepping carefully over roots and trying to avoid the slimier bits of ground and tree moss, a noise caught his attention.

  It was barely audible, just a soft ripple in the water behind him. Faint as the sound was, the silence it broke in the swamp caused the hair to stand up on the back of Leth’s neck, and he nocked an arrow and turned just as a creature leapt from just below the surface. The arrow flew out to greet the cat-like creature that pounced towards Leth, maw gaping and claws outstretched.

  The arrow found its mark first, and Leth dove to the side, allowing the wildcat to crumple into a heap beside him. There was a strange scritching noise, but Leth couldn't figure out where it was coming from. It seemed to be behind him no matter which way he turned, and it stopped as suddenly as it started.

  Shrugging off the sound and confirming that the beast was dead, he took a closer look at the body. It was a large wildcat, about four feet long in the body, closer to eight with the tail, which was thick and flattened like a tadpole's. The cat's toes were webbed as well. Evidently it was an ambush predator at home in the swamp. Not sure what use he might be able to make out of the creature but unwilling to waste it, he hoisted it over his back and trudged on.

  He noticed that the ground had begun to dry out and the elevation had started to climb almost imperceptibly. Soon, he found himself in a thinner, drier forest. In the distance beyond the tree trunks, he could see a meadow.

  He considered setting up camp in the thinner, drier wood but decided against it for the moment. He wanted to see more before he chose a spot to bed down, even for a short time. After some thought, he decided to set up a tent in the edge of the meadow.

  There, he laid down the beast he had slain and began to set up a rough camp. He planned to stay for the night as he further investigated the creature he had killed.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  Taking another look at the creature, he began to examine it more closely, pulling back the lips to get a look at the teeth. He noted that there was still something glistening on the canines. Taking his knife and removing a tooth, he found that it was hollow.

  "Venomous," he said in surprise. “Odd for a cat. Very odd.”

  Once again, he heard the scritching noise. This time, it seemed to be coming from his backpack. Reflecting, he realized it was likely the noise had come from the same place the last time.

  Cautiously, he approached his backpack, short sword in one hand. With the other, he undid the clasps and peered at the contents. He expected to find some vermin chewing on his stores, which he had hoped would last him a while. Of course, they wouldn't if he allowed the local fauna to devour them on the first day.

  Upon undoing the clasps, he found no creature. Instead, he discovered something unexpected, something he hadn't placed in there. Reaching in, he grabbed a scroll from the top of his wares and examined it closely. Like the others, it bore a single word:

  “Hunter.”

  He recalled that one of the other scrolls had the same word.

  Shrugging, he unrolled the scroll, expecting it to have show only the same vague greeting as the others. To his surprise, it contained an inked illustration of the beast that lay behind him on the ground. Beneath the depiction of the cat, leaping through the air as it had been when he first saw it, were the words,

  "Swamp Cat."

  Below that was an encyclopedic entry:

  "A creature of the swamp, Swamp Cats are susceptible to conventional weapons, semi-aquatic in nature, and have a venomous bite."

  Beneath the entry was another line that immediately caught Leth's attention.

  "To learn more about the Swamp Cat, first build a workbench."

  He read the line a few more times. How could the Mages Guild have known that the Swamp Cat would be among the first things he encountered?

  Shaking his head, he decided to figure out what a workbench was another day. For now, he was hungry and had other matters to attend to. So, he rolled up the scroll, returned it to his backpack, and took out a salted squirrel for dinner.

  ***

  After some time of squabbling, the eleven other warriors and adventurers began checking their own persons to see if they too had a scroll. As it turned out, everyone did. Each was marked either 'hunter', 'gatherer', or 'miner'. There were four of each of the gatherers and miners, but only three hunters.

  Chrys looked around and realized the woodsman was gone again.

  “Has anyone seen Leth?” she asked.

  “Who?” asked the pistoleer, who happened to be standing near Chrys.

  “That lanky woodsman,” explained Chrys. “The unguilded one. Looks like he wandered off.

  "Some loss," said the pistoleer.

  Chrys shrugged. The woodsman seemed to have a mind of his own, which apparently took his feet wherever it pleased.

  "What's that up there?" said the robed figure, his hands resting on his hips not far from the hilts of his daggers and sticking his chin out to the southwest. Chrys looked that way and saw a broken stone wall on a ridge above them, just a few hundred yards away..

  "I guess let's go find out," she said. So, they climbed up the ridge out of the swamps and onto the small bluff where they found what appeared to be the remains of a ruined castle. Little of it was left standing. There was a small broken tower, now only two stories, though the ruined stone lying on the ground around it. The door was also lying on the ground, about feet from the door frame.

  Lighting the lamp on her helmet, Chrys cautiously approached the door and walked inside. The construction was old, one of the more ancient styles of architecture. Rough-hewn stones were piled atop each other, held together with some kind of mortar.

  Inside, she found a small flagstone floor and a stone staircase going up to the second broken level, as well as one going down into the earth.

  "This looks like as good a place as any to set up camp,” said the daggerman. “It's going to be cramped quarters, though.”

  "We'll see," said Chrys. "I have a feeling that the basement here will offer slightly more roomy accommodations."

  "I suppose we'll see," said the daggerman. He lit a torch and approached the stairs, disappearing down into the darkness rather quickly. Chrys followed him, along with some of the others.

  A tall warrior woman was among them. She had crimson hair and a long thick braid, a battle axe over her shoulder, and a short sword strapped to her thigh.

  “I'm Heiden," she said to Chrys. "I am a gatherer, apparently, whatever that means."

  Chrys nodded. "Chrys, miner, which I truly am, if the getup didn't give it away."

  They descended the steps, which were a spiral staircase, until they opened up into a large hall. The hall, which appeared to be a little more than a landing or lobby for the rest of the group, was spacious.

  The underground structure was starkly empty. A few fibers of moth-eaten tapestry still hung from the walls, but the room was bare save for a few scattered bones, including a skull which clearly marked the remains as human.

  "Former residents, I suppose," said Chrys.

  Heiden nodded, looking up into the inky black ceiling. "Makes one a little uneasy to find bones. Especially when one doesn't know how they ended up coming to rest there."

  As if in answer to her question, a massive black bat swooped down from the ceiling with a shriek. All Chrys saw was the upturned nose, beady black eyes, and slavering fangs of a bat. Its head alone was larger than her entire body, and the whole creature seemed to take up the entire room. She held up her pickaxe in an attempt to block the bat and was pushed back onto the floor, tumbling into a pile but holding onto her pickaxe as she fell.

  The bat landed on its feet and folded its wings, walking and on its hind legs and the fingers that came out of the apex of each wing, scrambling towards the fallen miner. Throwing her torch at the bat as a distraction, Heiden pulled the massive battle axe from her back and swung at the beast. It dodged, backing up and screeching at the tall warrior woman. The screeching cry of the enormous bat drove fear into the minds of the adventurers like a nail being driven into wood.

  Roaring in rage, one of the adventurers swung his polehammer in a wide arc, hoping to bring the pronged head of his hammer down onto the bat’s skull. The bat pulled its head back and struck out with a long curved claw, slicing the warrior’s throat.

  Taking advantage of the distraction, the cloaked daggerman pulled his knives, jumped onto the bat's back, and sank the blades into where he assumed its vitals should be. The bat screamed in anger and agony, sending another wave of fear through the adventurer’s minds.

  "Stand back!" the pistoleer shouted, leveling his large bore pistol at the beast and firing. The mix of shot and metal odds and ends that had been shoved into the barrel of the weapon in lieu of higher quality ammunition tore through the beast's chest and it lay down dead.

  The daggerman scrambled off, wiping his blades off and giving an ugly look to the pistoleer. "A little more warning might have been nice.”

  "I said stand back," said the pistol heir.

  The daggerman scoffed.

  At this point, having heard the commotion, the rest of the warriors descended down into the dungeon to see what was going on. Seeing the massive dead bat laying on the floor, they all gave each other somewhat worried glances.

  "What is this place?" asked one of them. Everyone exchanged shrugs and glances, unsure what to make of the old building.

  "Ancient," said Chrys, shaking her head. "All I can say about it is that it's ancient. The stone working techniques haven't been seen in our world for a thousand years. And to be honest, the stones that are here are not a type of stone that I'm familiar with, either."

  Some of the others looked at each other quizzically. "They just look like stones," said the pistoleer, looking up from where he was reloading his hand cannon.

  "I’m surprised that you got marked as a miner," she said, walking over to the stone. She put her hand on it, feeling the smooth surface, and rapped on it with her knuckle. "There's something odd about the stone. It’s hard to put into words.”

  She took her pick and gave the stone, one of the stones in the wall, a swift but controlled smack that chipped just a little bit off. She reached down and picked up the stone to examine it more closely.

  She heard a scritching sound coming from her pack.