Showing results by author "James T. Callum" in All Categories

The Founders were the first marked, and they used those powers to build kingdoms, subjugate the land, and enrich themselves. They will not suffer another to join their ranks. Lost in a world with levels, stats, and monsters, Hal fights to survive in an unforgiving land, and to escape execution from its rulers. Ingenuity and courage won’t be enough. With marked powers he doesn’t understand, he’s easy prey for all the goblins, bandits, aberrations, and foul monsters that plague the realm. He’ll need to abandon his humanity by embracing the beast within.

As a monster, Shrubley is forbidden from joining the adventurers guild. In a world where essence artists rank up in power and most monsters are feral beasts, Shrubley is among the weakest of creatures and is treated as an outcast. With curiosity essence bound to his spirit, Shrubley might be weak, but he's intelligent and determined. Against all the odds, he discovers a loophole from the Druid that gave him life—but there's a deadly catch. For a chance of ever being accepted as a true adventurer, he must challenge an otherworldly realm threatening to consume everything.

To claim his powers as Founder and secure their freedom, Hal and his cohort must fight to build a Sanctum where no other living kingdom dares to tread. The search for a Manaseed to serve as the Sanctum’s heart will take Hal and his caravan to distant, strange lands, and force them to weather vicious beasts and Manastorms alike. To survive the trials ahead, Hal crafts weapons enchanted with rare loot and sates his appetite for monster essences...all while struggling to balance the price of his corrupting, otherworldly powers and securing a foothold in an unforgiving land.

When Pyresouls released, it was a brutal new virtual reality game with a twist: The first to beat the game would win billions of dollars. But after the Burgon Beast couldn’t be defeated, Pyresouls turned very real and unleashed an apocalypse of undead, monsters, and a system of levels and stats onto the world. For many years since, Jacob Windsor has fought with sword and shield to survive Post-Collapse Earth where only ancient, guilt-soaked weaponry can harm the monsters from Pyresouls.

Sam was surfing with his cat when the world ended. Suddenly enlisted into a battle to fend off annihilation, Sam seizes the strength of the void to survive. In the aftermath, Sam is thrown into a new world shattered into floating islands with survivors from Earth. Training and fighting with his giant sword and apocalyptic mana alongside his magical healer cat, Sam's unusually quick to adapt to this deadly realm of monsters and magic. With endless threats to face and countless powers to attain, Sam's journey of ascension climbing has only just begun.

Shrubley, the Hero Adventurer, has vanquished the serpentii threat. Everything he ever wanted is within his twiggy grasp: fame, fortune, adoration, and the love of the people who had once shunned him for being a monster. But Shrubley is an adventurer at heart. Along with his monstrous friends, Cal, Slyrox, and Smudge, Shrubley embarks on a long journey to the fabled monster city of Pandaemonium. Guided by Countess Haalften, Shrubley seeks to master his Sage Knight essence healing powers even as vampyrs, monsters, and bandits ambush the party along the way.

Stuck between a rock and a hard place, Sam must outrun the Black City full of cultists hellbent on avenging their fallen god while avoiding the grisly fate of his newly claimed skyshard falling into the Maelstrom at the heart of the first layer.

The battle’s end was supposed to bring peace and establish the Bravers’ new home in the Shiverglades, but all it brought was pain and suffering. With his closest friends lost to another realm, over half of the settlement’s population injured, and missing supply chains, Hal doesn’t have a moment to rest. He may have won the battle with the Shiverglades, but he has yet to win the war.

To restore broken magic and powers, Hal and his Guild brave Dungeons, facing nightmares made real. The dwarves and koblins of Brightsong seek new inventions to protect their growing settlement and its Manatree. Afflicted by a fatal essence, Hal turns to the crucible of the stars to break his shackles and reforge himself anew. Crafting an experimental new path is rife with dangers, but no kingdom of monsters and men is made without strife and sacrifice.

Sam survived the end of the world. He fought demons and forged a unique legend that he has only begun to tap into the potential of. With his talking cat and a mysterious sage, Sam ventured to a multiverse shattered into floating islands, and then claimed one for his own. Now, his growing camp of survivors from two worlds is beset by danger from all sides. At least fighting these roaming monsters from the broken sky doubles as training for his newly awakened War Incarnate bloodline and Void magic.

There is more to power than raw strength, a harsh lesson Sam must learn if he is to overcome threats from one world to the next. Though Sam's ascension to Paragon has elevated him to new heights, his overconfidence traps him in a trial on a dead world. Separated from his friends, Sam must survive the last Immortal Magus's training to navigate the Proving Grounds littered with mechanical monsters. The only way home is through.

Hal and his Beast have been sundered in two. Done with sacrifices, Hal seeks greater monster powers and delves into the ancient magic of his world. With his wounds healing, his strength grows tremendously, opening up a new evolution of bonecrafting. To reforge his eldritch body, Besal, Hal's Beast, ventures into the depths of the Fathomway dungeons, chasing after the source of the land's corruption.

Though the Abyss beckons to Hal, an old foe resurfaces. Poisoning his home, the Shadesblight cannot be ignored. The Tower of Blight will corrupt the entirety of the Shiverglades if Hal does not stop it. With bitter winter setting in, Hal will have to battle not only the corruption on his doorstep but the very elements themselves. As the armies of the Twelve Tribes march on Brightsong, Hal and his allies don't have the luxury of time to deal with the Tower. Every floor presents life-or-death battles, even as loot and new monster powers dangle like bait. But there is a silver lining.

Hal's triumph over the Tower of Blight should have left his settlement of Brightsong stronger than ever. Instead, it left them without a leader, and their strongest members were sent halfway across the world. Trading frigid cold for unrelenting heat, the Dunes of Midnight are no less vicious than the Shiverglades. Beastmen attack the outskirts of civilization while the Adventurer's Guild falls to ruins. Wanting nothing more than to return home before the tribes of the Shiverglades arrive on Brightsong's doorstep, Hal seeks answers in the metropolis of Dalmanii.

The tutorial is over. The rules of Pyresouls have changed for the worse. Defeating the Burgon Beast should’ve been the end of it, but it was only the beginning. Beating the next boss monster that invades Earth will only stave off the Collapse, not prevent it. The future devoid of all life but a single Pyre proves that. Jacob refuses to accept that future. He’s done playing their games. Even if he must walk through the fires of despair and glory to be rid of them.

Deklin will become a villain to rival the gods… somebody should probably tell him. For now, Deklin's just a fourth-year magi looking for a post-midterm vacation from Earth. When a failed portal spell strands Deklin on a dangerous, massive worldshard, he unwillingly embarks on an adventure where spire climbers compete for ever higher standings, and cultivators bind magical aspects to strengthen their spirits. Transformed into a dragonblood and branded as an outlaw, Deklin is forbidden from advancing past the first threshold alongside his growing band of exiles.