by Firecrakcer
The military encampment is on alert after a miner with an obsidian-black shell was discovered. Major Risjias, the acting commander of the base, General Bavaey, and Councilor Dulis are gathered to uncover the mystery of this affliction. Tensions rise as their investigation uncovers an infection led by a monster with fire so hot it can melt metal with one touch, the Akshaki. With more questions than answers, General Bavaey struggles to maintain order and control over the base as Councilor Dulis attempts to supersede his authority. Can the monster be contained or will its infection over run the encampment. This short 18,000-word story is part 2 of 9 of an 85,000-word book to be released over the course of 2023 and 2024.
No streak history
One state-enhanced oracle order, filtered by each list. Observed Royal Road ranks remain separate ground truth.
Rank updated 9 Oct 2026, 15:18 UTC
Entry forecast updated 9 Oct 2026, 15:18 UTC
Ranking model: rs-public-oracle-state-v1
Forecast model: rs-model-entry-v1
Chart history contains only this ranking model's runs; legacy points are not spliced in.
Not enough recent follower history to estimate a shadow rank yet.
beats 21% of similar stories
not enough data yet
beats 16% of similar stories
Both levers trail the field
Traffic and conversion are both below comparable stories. Cadence is the first lever — stories posting near-daily reached 25 followers 17% of the time; stories posting every few days almost never did. Get the flow going, then re-check conversion.
Benchmarks: 8,060 active Royal Road stories, percentiles within the 5–9 chapters band, cohort of 2026-07-02. Conversion is measured as followers gained per 1,000 views lifetime.
