Ashes of Vaeltharion: Burden of Fate

Update: Ashes of Vaeltharion: Burden of Fate is being stubbed ahead of its March 10 release on Amazon. To comply with Kindle Unlimited exclusivity, most chapters have been removed from Royal Road. The full book is now available on Amazon in Kindle, Kindle Unlimited, paperback, and hardcover. Thank you to everyone on Royal Road who followed the story early, left comments, and helped shape the journey. Your support made this release possible. You can continue the story here:  https://www.royalroad.com/amazon/B0GMYYPHB2 Trace Veeran is no chosen hero. He’s a washed-out Army Ranger from Kentucky, drowning in guilt, alcohol, and the ghosts of a war he couldn’t outrun. He thought war had taken everything from him. Then he wakes up in Vaeltharion. A world of dungeons and Dominion armies, where survival is measured in levels—not years—and power is granted by a system that neither explains itself nor offers mercy. There is no prophecy waiting for Trace. No destiny. Only trials designed to break those who hesitate. The system doesn’t care who he was—only whether he learns, adapts, and kills. Armed with a battered spear and instincts forged by trauma, Trace is forced through brutal lessons where every dungeon demands blood, every level exacts a price, and power is never free. The deeper he goes, the more the system strips away—until survival means confronting the parts of himself he tried to bury. He wasn’t summoned to save this world. He was dragged here to survive it. A dark, progression-driven fantasy about a broken soldier, a ruthless system, and the cost of power. For fans of Dungeon Crawler Carl, He Who Fights With Monsters, and The Primal Hunter.