CHAINS: The First Link (Book 1 Complete)

[Progression High Fantasy, LITRPG-Light, Skill Evolution, Earned Power Growth] CHAINS is an Iceberg **Layer 1: Book 1 Plot** Can one person make a difference? Damian is just your average adventurer. Coming from a less-than-humble upbringing, he's managed to carve himself a simple life. Unfortunately, that simple life of adventuring has come to an abrupt end. A grand conspiracy is unfolding in the capital city, and Damian and his party have found themselves caught in the middle. What can a bunch of underleveled adventurers do to make a difference while the 'powers that be' fight? And what rewards lie at the end of this initial journey? Maybe it will be the key to getting into the big leagues for these ordinary adventurers. - **Layer 2: Larger Story - Early Spoilers** Death Isn't An Escape. It's A Curse. All who die in these lands are cursed to return as the undead. Stronger, terrible, and hungry to kill the living. The lands of Tania have been plagued by this curse for over 1000 years, with no end in sight. The four goddesses have been missing all the while, and only their guardians, the Valkyrie, remain to enforce stability in a slowly crumbling world. Our heroes must uncover the mysteries of this world and piece it back together before it's too late. They will not start as the most capable, or the smartest, or even the most courageous. They're just the ones who keep getting back up after getting knocked down. Updates W/Th/F - **Layer 3: Grand Plan** This story is a progression-adventure litrpg that will cover a multitude of subgenres between books. Sometimes it will be a mystery adventure. Other times, it will be a slice of life or a dungeon crawler. Mix in a little horror episode here and there, and eventually, it's going to become a weak-to-strong adventure with world travel. The reason for this is that Tania is a complex world fraught with strife. A world that will change and evolve as this adventure continues. Sometimes it's happy, and you feel butterflies in your stomach and want to snack. Other times, it's so sad that it feels like your heart just got ripped out. There is no static with these chains, because the goal is to break them. - **Layer 4: Humanity** I've used NO AI to write my story. Not for writing or generating ideas. I use Grammarly to fix spelling and grammatical errors, as recommended by Royal Road. All the AI tools on Grammarly are turned off, and to my knowledge, it's a much better version of Microsoft Word. I do use em and en dashes because I think they look good. (Alt + 0151) You can toss any of my chapters into an AI detector and get a 100% human-reading result. I have failed as a human when it comes to the cover art, though. It is currently AI, and I hope to replace it. I looked into commissioning artwork, and it's expensive. But I have someone lined up for when I have the disposable income. - **Layer 5: ???** Not all things are as they seem.