
by Criminal Gingersnap
300 years after Bronze Age Earth fractured into pieces, two of humanity’s scattered populations have reopened trade across a barrier no living thing can touch. The unprecedented survival of an emigrant between their realms opens possibilities neither side had entertained and poses questions no one is prepared to answer. Now, a listless scholar blessed with all the powers of a flashlight has two short weeks to shape and witness history before another power wrests the matter from his hands. When an overdue adventure leads beyond the border of his world into a land of living weapons abandoned by his vanished gods, he may realize too late that some doors are better left closed. Slow-burn, Ancient Greek high fantasy with subtle cosmic horror. Violence is infrequent but brutal.
Current
7/3/2026
Peak #43
0d
#7
7/1/2026
Peak #38
2d
#6
6/30/2026
Peak #50
0d
#5
6/28/2026
Peak #50
0d
#4
6/21/2026
Peak #35
1d
Overall Rising Stars shadow rank
deep field · ~#2162 of 13,558 · 2112 below #50
By genre
beats 75% of similar stories
beats 67% of similar stories
beats 64% of similar stories
Mid-pack, room on both levers
Traffic and conversion both sit mid-field for a story this size. Growth here compounds from consistency: steady cadence feeds traffic, and a sharper hook lifts what each view is worth.
At this conversion, the Psychological Rising Stars bar (≈1 new followers/day) costs about 174 views/day — the story currently gets ~57.
Benchmarks: 8,060 active Royal Road stories, percentiles within the 20–49 chapters band, cohort of 2026-07-02. Conversion is measured as followers gained per 1,000 views over the recent window.