Manaless Mage - Chapter 173 Cobra’s Bite

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.

Orodan was an orphaned street rat who clawed his way to the county militia with hard work. However calamitous events unfold and draw him into events bigger than himself and Orodan's battle-loving disposition leads to a warrior's death for him. Only for him to wake up again on the day of.In a world of skills, titles and blessings; a smart time looper would perhaps scheme, plan, amass equipment and allies. But not Orodan. If there's one thing he's good at it's stubbornly trying the same thing over and over again via brute force till it's done.If a wall is in front, going around is not an option. Instead batter it with your head thousands of times till either the wall breaks or you do. And gain skill levels along the way

When he woke up, Zhou Sui became a low-level Qi refiner in the world of immortality. Fortunately, he obtained the most precious Gu god bowl, which can refine various Gu insects.

Refining the Spring and Autumn Gu can prolong life and make you immortal.

The refining golden cicada Gu can give birth to dead people, flesh and white bones.

Refining the Dragon Elephant Gu to gain the power of the Dragon Elephant, the body of the Dragon Elephant, and the indestructibility of the King Kong

But the Gu he refined for the first time was the Infatuation Gu.

From then on, he discovered a bright road to cultivation.

The years change, the mountains and rivers change, but I am the eternal Zhou family.

- Description from novelbuddy

He married the daughter of the Lancaster family purely for revenge. He expected her to be obedient and submissive, not to resist or show emotions—a perfect pawn in his plan for vengeance.However, when his gaze locked onto the third daughter of the Lancaster family, the one who barged into the living room was her—disheveled and stained with blood. She seemed ordinary, but beneath the surface, she hid an unknown sharpness.“Do you love me?” he asked coldly.“You're crazy!” she rolled her eyes in disdain.In that moment, he smiled with satisfaction, believing he had everything under control.But she fought back. Marrying him was merely one step in her own plan.Four years later, with the Lancaster family completely destroyed, she threw the divorce papers in his face, smiling like the final victor:“Albert Wilson, have you finished using me? Thank you for making me think I once loved you. Now, never see me again, even in death.”Just as she turned to leave in triumph, she accidentally walked into a gang's arms deal, and an explosion forever separated her from him.It was only when he found the two-month pregnancy test result among her belongings that he realized he had lost the only salvation of his life.