bark or crack

The stone went out from under his foot. No sound, no dust, only a hollow where the step had been, and a cold behind his breastbone that never left. Wick Tanner is eleven and small for his age, and his hands are already going brown from the tan-pits. He was born in the Reek, the tannery slums at the bottom of the hill, and he was never meant to be anything more than his father. A tanner. Downwind of the city and downstream of it, beneath the notice of the grey academy tower that has stood over his whole life. Then he carries a load of hides up to Karthal. Four academy boys corner him on a stair in the dark, and the world stops being there under his foot. He falls. The boys look once at the hole that nothing could have made, and they run. It is not magic. Magic shapes the world. Whatever woke in Wick unmakes it. The scholars of Karthal spend their lives pulling the world apart to learn how it was built, and they would pull him apart the same way to learn how he is broken. They are not the only ones who would come looking. Older things have been waiting a long time for a power like his. So a tanner's boy who cannot control what he is and cannot hide it begins the one climb that keeps him alive. He goes up, out of the Reek, staying a step ahead of everyone who wants to cage him or cut him open. He does not know what woke in him on that stair. By the time he understands it, putting it back will no longer be a choice he has. A slow-burn progression fantasy. A weak-to-strong underdog in a grounded world where power is licensed, ranked, and rationed, and the lowborn get none of it. Magic that has to be earned, not handed over on a system screen. Close third person, and a mystery that widens with every arc.

For a thousand years, humanity believed the heavens were sealed. The ancient war between mankind and the celestial races had long become nothing more than myth. Until the night the sky cracked. Arka, a boy from a forgotten town, loses everything when monsters emerge from a crimson fracture in the heavens. Hunted by masked figures and haunted by powers he cannot understand, he discovers a terrifying truth: The world beneath the sky is only the beginning. Beyond the clouds lies Celestia, a realm abandoned by history. A world of ancient kingdoms, fallen gods, sealed gates, and a war that was never truly over. And somewhere beyond the cracks in the heavens… something is waiting for him. As the boundary between worlds begins to collapse, Arka must uncover the secret behind the mysterious Fragment within him before the coming catastrophe consumes both heaven and earth. Because when the heavens crack… the world will never be the same again.

Aiden Lobo is a graduate student in a world where magic, gods, and demons are part of everyday life. After a terrible betrayal, he is cursed with a Crack in his heart, slowly turning him into a living doorway for an ancient war demon. If Aeshma breaks through to Earth, he will kill millions.<br><br>But before Aeshma can open the Crack, Aiden is rescued by his guardian angel, who uses his own Light to seal Aiden's heart. As a servant of the divine, the nameless angel was supposed to kill Aiden to avert the growing cataclysm inside him. But he loves Aiden too much to end his life, even to save the world.<br><br>It's impossible for Aiden not to love his warm, generous guardian in return. He names the angel Eskandar, but then learns to his horror that because Eskandar was created for him, when Aiden dies, Eskandar will too. The angel has long since accepted this fate, but Aiden refuses to. He will do anything to keep his beloved angel safe. But with no other recourse than to sacrifice himself to prevent the apocalypse, there's only one way for Aiden to save Eskandar: a terrible betrayal of his own.

"The Last Bark of Orion" Bolt isn't your average Siberian Husky. Cruising the cosmos aboard the freighter Wanderlust with his pragmatic human captain, Eva Rostova, he’s a wisecracking, genetically-enhanced canine with the ability to talk and senses that reach beyond human understanding. His life, already extraordinary, catapults into the heart of an ancient galactic war when a mysterious signal from the Orion constellation awakens dormant ancestral memories within him—terrifying echoes of an eons-old conflict between star-faring Canid and Felid empires, both engineered by a vanished, god-like race known as the Progenitors. Plunged into a universe of intrigue and escalating danger, Bolt and Eva discover the truth behind the legends. The "Heart of Orion," a colossal and fractured Progenitor power source, pulses with unimaginable energy—a force that ruthless factions from both Canid and Felid empires now desperately seek to control, believing it the ultimate weapon. They see Bolt, with his unique Progenitor-linked "seed of hope" granting him profound empathy and a unique connection to the Heart, as the unwilling key to taming and wielding its devastating might. Hunted across the stars by formidable warlords who misunderstand the cryptic prophecy of "The Last Bark of Orion" as a command for conquest, Bolt is caught between warring ideologies. As he grapples with the terrifying allure of the power the Heart offers and the immense pressure to choose a side, his "First Echoes"—shared, agonizing memories from both sides of the conflict—pull him towards a different path. He begins to suspect that the "Last Bark" isn't a call to arms, but a complex, misunderstood Progenitor failsafe designed not to empower a victor, but to heal the fractured Heart and perhaps the galaxy itself. With Eva as his anchor, Bolt must navigate treacherous alliances and deadly confrontations, racing against time to understand the true nature of the Last Bark before the Heart of Orion is unleashed as a doomsday weapon. His choice will determine not only his own fate but whether the galaxy succumbs to an even greater cataclysm or takes its first fragile step towards a new dawn, founded on understanding rather than endless war.

After the glitch in the finals, EGO does not announce an error. It continues. As rumors of a higher threshold begin circulating, old names resurface. Old patterns repeat. And the system feels less like a game—and more like something watching. Some players chase rank. Others chase control. Raxian isn’t sure what he’s chasing anymore. But something has started responding.

En el nuevo y despiadado mundo de Koinus, un planeta donde todo gira en torno al poder, las riquezas y el estatus, donde lo importante son las habilidades y la familia a la que pertenezcas, un simple humano como yo no tiene valía alguna. Aquí no soy considerado más que un objeto del que todos pueden disponer, un pedazo de carne que solo sirve para alimentar a las bestias o un sirviente que lame el suelo por el que alguien más fuerte ha pasado. Aquí no soy nadie y, sin embargo, tengo una historia. Una historia propia. ¿Cuántos más héroes podrán decir lo mismo? ¿Cuántos habrán pasado por lo mismo que yo? Aventúrate a mi historia si deseas averiguarlo. *** Esta es la primera vez que escribo una historia de este tipo y en otra plataforma que no sea la que suelo visitar, así que apreciaría alguna crítica constructiva. Además, la historia en sí no gira en torno al sistema únicamente, así que habrá capítulos en los que se aborden otros temas. Cabe recalcar que solo escribo por gusto, no para complacer a masas, así que si no te gusta la historia, hay un amplio abanico de otras posibilidades a leer en esta plataforma. Te invito a que salgas y busques lo que más te gusta.

Nate Carter, a poor and bullied student at Redthorn High, endures another humiliating day filled with mockery and loneliness. After being cruelly set up at a rich kid's party, he discovers a mysterious device offering him a chance to change his life — but at a dangerous cost. Desperate and broken, Nate decides to take the first step into an unknown, darker path.

To be resurrected, Lin Zhi binds herself to a system and transmigrates into different book worlds, becoming cannon fodder destined for tragic endings. But Lin Zhi refuses to follow the script. In every world, she fights to rewrite her fate. (1) The Scheming Gold-Digging Stand-In Used by the male lead as a tool to win over the female lead, Lin Zhi refuses to be discarded. Since he wants to use her? Then she’ll make a countermove—get pregnant first, flip the board, and end up with the real overbearing CEO. (2) The First Wife Fated to Die Early in a “Cousin” Story The reborn female lead knows her older male cousin will hold immense power in the future—and that he has always loved her. This time, she vows not to let him go. Only… “Sister-in-law, why aren’t you dead yet?” Lin Zhi smiles. “Still alive. What, are you mad?” (3) The Cannon Fodder Fiancée in a Teacher-Student Romance The aloof Master falls for his young disciple, while Lin Zhi—the fiancée—becomes the villain in their love story. Lin Zhi: “Respect. Blessings. Please stay locked together forever.” Then she decisively breaks off the engagement and devotes herself to cultivation… alongside her adorable little nephew. Who needs romance when ascending is better? (4) The Substitute Bride in a Period Drama In her previous life, she stole the marriage meant for her sister out of gratitude for a life-saving favor, marrying the factory director’s son. Who would have thought he had a “white moonlight” in his heart, leading to her tragic death? Meanwhile, the “mud-legged” man she rejected rose in status, and her sister became an official’s wife. After rebirth, her sister eagerly snatches back the original marriage arrangement, convinced Lin Zhi is doomed. She waits to watch Lin Zhi suffer. Instead— Lin Zhi’s life only gets better and better.

Accidentally bound to a quick transmigration system, Ning Yue is resistant on the surface, but inwardly, she's screaming wildly: "As long as I keep completing missions, it's equivalent to gaining eternal life, I'm going to keep transmigrating forever!" In "True and Fake Rich Daughter," she is the fake rich daughter who was abandoned. She declares, "The wealthy family abandoned me, so I will create a wealthy family of my own!" In "Era's Blessed Child," she leads her entire family to build a fortune, turning the fake blessed child into a real blessed child. In "Flourishing Age of Shengshi," having transmigrated into the Empress who was turned into cannon fodder, she simply turns the ungrateful mother and son into cannon fodder instead.