Echoes of the Wild: Tales of a Beast Tamer - Chapter 33 - - Academy Exams (5)

I am currently re-writing the first chapters of this story. They are quite rough and bounce around a lot and I can do better. At some point, I will replace these with the better chapters.Sometime in 2024 Aethon Books will publish the first volume of this story on Amazon, KU, and audible. This will mean the story will be stubbed. I will notify people far in advance of that.In the dystopian world of the future, life is rough when you live at the bottom. Jobs are non-existent. Far too many people live in poverty, crammed into huge buildings called Habitats. With no jobs in the real world, many people can only find work online in VR worlds as servants to the very rich. And it's getting worse. The old internet is unusable and hacked to pieces. The new system needs AI to run things, but all but one of them were destroyed. The last sentient AI is ordered to create a new game world so the rich can have a playground, and the corporations that rule the world can have a new global market place. Everyone wants a piece of the new game. The guilds are competing to be the first to find the dungeons and kill the biggest monster. The corporations are claiming land and putting in their online market places. Ozzy and his friends just want a paycheck.Four friends sign five year contracts as virtual serfs in a small village, and can't go adventuring at all to gain money. They don't have many choices. They can work as a blacksmith, barmaid and shepherd for all those years....or they can cheat and find ways to take advantage of the system and carve out a section of the game world for themselves, and earn a fortune in the real world.When they give you a mop and not a sword, you have to find the loopholes and change the rules.

In the vampire-ruled kingdom of Mildelar, the Blood Games stand as the ultimate form of entertainment—savage battles between familiars, humans bound to their vampire masters through blood pacts. Far more than mere spectacles, these brutal fights determine the prestige of noble families, shaping their power and influence across the realm. Lyon, a young human saved from death by a blood pact with the alluring Arya Valakys—one of the king’s daughters—is unwillingly thrust into this cruel world. Bound to his mistress, he is forced into relentless battles to elevate her standing.Lyon, however, stands apart from other familiars. While they derive their strength from the fear of punishment, he draws his... from having dirty thoughts about his mistress!

Claimed to be the greatest team in the history of the card film industry — “Mu Lei” is born. With even the elites of the academic world unable to decipher these cards’ structure, his powerful cards were able to unnerve even the federation, causing the greatest Card Creators and Card Fighters to grow frantic, triggering open battles and covert maneuvers among various interest groups — all behind the silhouette of Chen Mu. Although he was not the originator of the federation’s unrest, he was definitely the number one reason for continuously escalating it.