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The Grave of Stars

Ash counts stars the night before his Trial. Not because he finds them beautiful. Because counting is the only thing that keeps the fear from swallowing him whole. His mother taught him that, before she got sick, before she went quiet, before she left him with nothing but a rented room and three months of unpaid rent. The next morning, he enters the white room. Eighty-seven other candidates wait with him, invisible presences scattered through the endless white. The hum begins. The walls breathe. And then something tears through reality itself—a wound in the world that bleeds darkness. It touches Ash's chest. Marks him. Claims him. He wakes in a dead city beneath a bruised sky that never changes. This is a Grave. A world that died long ago, now home to the lost, the broken, and the fading. Here, wanderers drift through empty streets with smooth faces and reaching hands. Here, the gray comes at regular intervals, and those caught outside when it arrives are rarely seen again. Here, Ash learns he is not alone. Something lives inside him now. Ancient. Patient. Hungry. It took his mother's voice as payment for its first gift, and it will take more every time he calls on its power. The marks spreading across his chest are not a curse or a possession. They are something stranger. They are growth. Mira, a woman who has survived this Grave longer than anyone can remember, teaches him the rules. Don't follow wanderers. Don't look at the sky too long. Don't sleep alone near the fountain after dark. Never go outside when the light goes gray. Kael, the oldest marked survivor, shows him what he might become. A faded shell. Empty of memories, purpose, self. A being who has waited centuries for something he cannot name. And Ellis, a seven-year-old girl born in this dead world, sees something no one else can—the shape behind Ash. The darkness that follows him. She isn't afraid. She asks questions no one else will answer. She trusts him for reasons even she can't explain. Her mother, Sara, spent a year watching her daughter disappear into silence after her husband faded into the gray. Now Ellis talks again. Smiles again. Trusts again. And Sara must decide whether that gift is worth the danger Ash represents. Because the gray comes early when Ash is near. The wanderers speak to him. The city itself shifts around his presence. And the thing inside him—older than the Graves, older than the Gap, older than human memory—is waiting for something. Waiting to be born. Waiting to wake. Waiting for Ash to become what it needs him to be. The stars above the city are graves. Every light in that bruised sky marks a world that died. And something in the darkness between them has been watching. Waiting. Choosing. It chose Ash. Now he must decide what that means—what he's willing to become, what he's willing to lose, and who he's willing to protect. A child trusted him. A mother fears him. An ancient thing grows inside him. And somewhere in the depths of the mark, behind doors that have been closed since before this world died, something is stirring. The Grave of Stars is waiting. And it will not wait forever. --- The Grave of Stars A novel of mystery, survival, and becoming
SilentSeven · 2.7k Views

Reborn as the Genius Son of the Richest Family

After 600+ chapters, here’s what to expect. First of all, throughout this novel, I have learned and improved in my story-making ability. Sadly though, you could only see this improvement about several hundred chapters in, like in the upper 300s and early 400s. And this change comes before a story arc that is bad compared to my recent story arcs. You may feel inclined to stop before then. You may feel inclined to stop even before you reach a hundred chapters. You may think, “Oh, there’s no action, it’s boring, and everything is easy for our MC.” But if you persist, you will see the true vision I have for the novel. Kingdom building, action-packed, and enough slice-of-life to warm your hearts into overdrive. If you hear the words, DIVA, AUBILITIES, and METROPOLIS, then you are about to enter, what I think, is my best major story arcs I have written so far. The Metropolis Arc is peak. Here’s what to expect: — Action: Yes. There’s a new and exciting change in the latter chapters that allowed for a lot of action. — Kingdom Building: Absolutely. I’ll admit that in the earlier chaps, there’s a lot of need for improvement. But I think that I was able to remedy most of them in the recent chaps. — Slice-of-life: Yes, sir. If you loved the novel for its slice-of-life, then you can rest assured that it would continue on even in the most latest chapters. — Romance: This one, I’ll admit, needs a lot of improvement. But it’s because they are still kids in the novel so I still stray away from something truly romantic. However, romance in this novel could be attributed to the romance of family and of friendships for now. I hope that I was able to convince you to start reading my novel. If you read it before and want to start reading again, you can message me on Discord for questions regarding plot points, characters, or anything you forgot and I can remind you. ——————— Michael was suddenly reborn into a another world by a God because of an accidental death. To make up for this fact, the God gave him another life in a fantasy world of swords, magic, and monsters. Unfortunately, it turned out that the world he was reborn into was still stuck in the medieval times. It didn't have electricity, it didn't have proper plumbing, and it didn't have any technology that he was so used to back in his old world. But thanks to the God's blessing and an AI assistant called ChatJK1, he was given the power to MAKE his life comfortable. Slowly, Michael transforms this new world into a place even better than his previous one by taking ideas from the modern world and putting it in this world, with the added bonus of magic.
KangarooCruz · 5.1m Views