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Return of the Woodcutter

Aito Walker was a self-proclaimed martial artist, a criminal, a broken man, and a fishing slave who later became a woodcutter before dying due to his heavy consumption of alcohol.  With thousands of other humans, he is forcefully revived into a boundless grey space by the gods of a foreign world, Iris, to take part in a never-ending war waged against Fearmongers. A race capable of corrupting living beings and inducing fear, even the bravest of warriors cannot resist—when the Fearmongers do not kill them, that is. To bait humans into this conflict, the gods offer the mortals powers in exchange of eternal servitude and the completion of trials before finally entering Iris. Even though Aito doesn't agree with it, he sees in Iris a chance to atone for his past misdeeds, in this fantasy world of swords and magic filled with many races, where everything seems possible. He will pave his own path despite the gods he despises trying to manipulate him into doing their bidding. Aito will start with almost nothing but his wit, a peculiar system, and increased strength—much like other revived humans.  Bearing a sin—he could not, cannot, and will not forget—haunting him to this day, Aito will strive to regain what little honor he has left.  He will suffer and, at times, fail. Taking advantage of his weaknesses, the Fearmongers, demigods, gods, and many others will hinder his path.  But a powerful yearning will keep him from falling apart. An ever-burning flame melting away the despair and welding back the broken pieces of courage.  A single desire.  "I will find redemption no matter the cost." ... ... ... Or not, hun, who knows? The book isn't done yet. Haha— SLAP!  "Who put this guy in the synopsis narration!? Get him out of here and launch the warnings! Now!"  __________________________ WARNINGS: -Discord server: https://discord.gg/VEMy8m2MjX -The MC is human. If you're looking for a perfect MC, you'll only be wasting your time here. However, if you're looking for an MC who will LEARN, GROW because of his flaws. An MC who will try his hardest to overcome adversity, then you're in the right place. - No harems. However, it doesn't mean the characters can't fool around without having love interests. A relationship isn't necessary for people to satisfy their physical desires. - Discord server shared with other authors: https://discord.gg/ZtxAQeHYAj - Update schedule: 6 chap/week. No chap on Sundays. - You will find a few typos, grammatical and wording issues, that’s certain. I'll do my best to bring you guys quality content and such issues will either be nonexistent or extremely few. However, one man can only do so much. If I get enough support, I’ll hire an EDITOR that will look at the chaps with a fresh eye. And POOF! Issues no more. Improved quality. Happier author and reader. Not sure if the editor will be happy tho. - The first three chapters are fast-paced as to quickly get into the nitty-gritty but slow down afterward to give the story the time it needs to progress accordingly. - The book can, never mind, it will contain “strong” language, gore and violence. - Comedy, as you know it (and if you don’t, now you know) is subjective. So you might not like the jokes. - I do not own the cover. If the original owner sees it and is displeased with his work being displayed here, send me a mail: writer.yoanroturier@gmail.com - By the way, if any of you are willing the provide me with an original cover picture, I’ll be really, extremely, immensely thankful. (The possibility of that happening is downright impossible tho.) - If you truly read that until the end you have my virtual congratulations ‘cause I sure as hell wouldn’t have done that.

YoanRoturier · Fantasy
Not enough ratings
224 Chs

Sect Master

In a blue challenger's room—the size of a large studio—"borrowed" to one of his followers, Kai, an averaged size overweight man with Asian facial traits, was sitting at his desk, staring at maps of the second, third, fourth and fifth floors.

He rubbed his chubby thumb and index together while examining the maps. It was a habit gained after counting money. With time, this habit became a tic when thinking, calculating his next move.

Each map was segmented into sections. The second-floor map had particularly a lot of them, majorly illustrating the five districts. Miniature squares with numbers symbolizing every shop could be seen. A rectangle area on the side, the map's key, contained brief information on each location.

Red lines depicted the major streets, occupied by more challengers during rush hours, meaning at the start of the day and end of the day.

What buggered him the most was the lack of a real clock. The gods had provided the challengers with some kind of internal clock, allowing them to feel the end or beginning of a day. Though the feeling was subtle. So subtle that most challengers weren't even aware of it, thinking it was natural to know the CDs period.

Another way to know the time was to either ask a moderator, shop owner or simply pay attention to the overall behavior of the crowd, which most people did.

Kai's dark iris was set on the map of the third floor, where small purple and black dots were located. The moderator and black challenger. He cared little about the moderator. To him, they were nothing less than simple workers. They usually were passive as long as rules were respected. Though, he had never tried to break them "openly" until today.

Kai had purposely sent Sam to harm the black challenger in front of Gwen for that reason, but also another. The baldy, blinded by revenge and his fealty to the sect, had accepted without batting an eye. As expected, the results were negative, but not fruitless.

His report was interesting because of a single fact, Sam had made it back in one piece. Taking that into account, plus the few other information partaking in a show of force from the moderators, he concluded they would or could never kill a challenger. That could be a hole in the security he could eventually exploit if needed.

'As for the black challenger,' he thought, eyeing the black dot. 'He may just be the real deal. May, but uncertain.'

Like everyone else, Kai had heard of the exploit of past black challengers who were able to clear the eighth floor from his guide. Even some shop owners talked about them, more because they were supposed to be good customers than anything else.

Those greedy workers were probably here for the soul cores found on the other floors that could be sold for TPs at what Kai expected to be an unfair price. Probably why some of them came into the Tower.

Apart from soul cores, he couldn't really see any other motivations. After all, TPs could only be used in the Tower, so it was pointless to keep them outside. To his knowledge, they couldn't be exchanged for whatever currency was used in Iris.

'Hum, I'll gather info on that later.' He thought, writing on a small notebook made of light brown paper. 'Now, what to do with the black challenger?'

He had previously sent his most loyal "employee" to test the terrain, knowing fully that Sam wasn't the most diplomate of men and could certainly provoke a fight.

If the black challenger had died or accepted to meet him, Kai would have been severely disappointed, since it meant he was easily influenced, in other words, a pushover.

Kai already had hundreds of pushovers under his command. A bunch of lost sheep who couldn't walk their own road in times of need.

It had been so easy to gather followers. Under the influence of confusion and despair, people were willing to follow someone who "seemed" to be a good leader. He rounded his first followers this way. A magnificent speech, peppered with charisma, an amuse-bouche of what they would get and voilà!

Their wills had already been fragmented by their revivals, making it even easier for him to influence them the way he needed.

In dark, confusing times, people usually searched for somewhere to belong, especially on foreign soil. Thus, he provided them with a group that soon turned into a real community, a sect he had named "Chosen."

A particularly meaningful name, considering their situation. Revived by gods. Presented with supernatural abilities upon completion of their trial or even before for the few with Gifts. And, also chosen by him.

He had gained their trust bit by bit after piling success after success against other leaders of the white trial. Using his calculative mind, he had brought other leaders to their knees in a matter of less than a month and monopolized the resources available.

Using the monopole, he "persuaded" them to obey him by using various means but not forced, not entirely at least.

One of them was a simple brainwashing technique. Each meal would be served under his name, as a true blessing, causing people who had mixed feeling about Kai to slowly come to accept him. It also deepened the loyalty of his other followers.

Of course, with only two months, he hadn't been able to convince them all. More than half of the remaining challengers reclaimed their freedom upon entering the Tower. No matter, he had several hundred under his command, anyway.

What mattered now was to clear the Tower and obtain the coveted reward awaiting those who did—although he didn't know what was past the eighth floor, yet. Nobody really knew, but Kai intended to get his hand on the reward, since it could only be exceptional.

However, he wasn't a man of action. He could lead people from behind, not the front. Kai knew himself. He was shrewd, smart, could manipulate people to do his bidding. But when it came to actual fighting, which he supposed the fourth to tenth floors were filled with, he probably wouldn't be able to come back alive. He did not want to risk his new life.

That's why he needed a leader, a manager his other employees could follow to victory. Sam was…

'Too dumb. A good loyal employee, but a leader? No. At best, he is a good warrior.' He thought. 'The others also can't fit the bill.'

They were all currently stuck on the fifth floor despite the fact that he was pouring a portion of the soul cores provided by other, less important employees into his managers. Hoping they would gain more strength.

But when Sam, a level 2 warrior class…

'What was it again?' Kai thought, browsing through his employees' sheets. Managing hundreds of people was hard. Even more, since he hadn't earthly modern means at his disposal.

And Sam had recently leveled up, so there were some changes to his sheet the baldy had made a few hours ago after recovering from his injuries using recovery beads.

'Found it,' he thought, taking out a sheet from his pile.

____________________________

[Sam Ford]

[I. General Info]

Death: March 22nd, 2030

Species: Human

Sex: Male

Age: 35

Height: 175cm

Weight: 73kgs

Emotional state (at the time it was written): Angry

Class: Lv2 Swordsman

Titles: White Challenger, Talkative Baldy

[II. Attributes]

1. Gifts:

- Body Blessed (Permanently increases Body by one level)

2. Skills:

Passive:

- Sword mastery Lv2

Active:

- Durability Lv1

- Power Slash Lv1 (A powerful downward slash)

[III. Basic stats]

- Strength: Lv2

- Body: Lv2

- Stamina: Lv2

- Agility: Lv1

- Mana: Lv3

- Destiny: Lv1 (cannot level up with Glory Points)

A bonus chap for today ;)

Have a good day/night guys.

Oh, from now on I'll try to post chaps at 11pm Hong Kong time (GMT+ 8). I say try because I can sometimes mess things up, but I'll mostly stick to this schedule.

Read you later.

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