by Eddie Patin
Suddenly, Jason felt a weight on his leg, and he looked down to see Zelda springing onto him from the couch. She bounded off of his leg—a white streak surrounded by flying sparks and the roaring noise of the rift—then dashed away into the kitchen. Jason turned to look back and saw panther-Gliath also startled away, sitting up, yellowish-green eyes wide and reflecting the orange fire of the rift, a good portion of his sleek black fur puffed out. Riley was laughing loudly, the sound of it drowned out by the lightning-shearing noises and sputtering of the rift.
With his concentration broken, the rift shuddered, collapsed like a spinning, crumpled piece of paper, and popped out of existence. Jason was left with only the sounds of Gliath grumbling deeply and Riley laughing his ass off.
"Ha! Good job!" Riley exclaimed. The soldier settled down again, taking a hearty drink of his beer, then shook the bottle, realizing that it was empty. "Man—that was funny! Okay, so that’s the fourth. Be careful with temporal dimensions, though. You can get into some really weird shet when you start messing with time and splitting off into parallel universes—so I’m told."
Jason lowered the OCS and took another drink. "What about the tenth dimension?"
"The tenth..." Riley replied with a pensive smirk, calming Gliath down with long, petting strokes. "The tenth is everything. It's everything all in one point. You can’t travel through the tenth—it’s more of a ... source of information. See, you know how all of the universes parallel to this one along the fifth and sixth pack up into this entire multiverse?" Riley waved his hands and empty beer around him for effect.
"Yeah..."
"Well, imagine the next level, with all of the different multiverses—all infinity of them—packed up into a single point. That’s the tenth. The omniverse. You can access the tenth through the OCS, if I understood Jason 47 right. There’s something about that device—something that one of the Jasons designed—that can tap into the tenth dimension. That’s how you can look up anything—scan anything."
Jason looked down at the OCS. It was the size of an electronic tablet, though a bit thicker.
There was some sort of conduit to the tenth dimension—to information about everything—in this thing?
"Like ... a little portal?" Jason asked, staring at the device, imagining a tiny, black whirlpool deep inside a compartment somewhere; like a little black hole.
"I really don’t know," Riley replied. "I'm not totally sure how it works like that. I’m just a soldier. Now ... my beer’s empty, and you probably need more explanation with those sliders and settings. I’ll show you what I can. Lemme get another beer and let’s go back to the garage."
Riley stood.
Jason had a feeling that the explanation he’d just heard about everything had just barely scratched the surface of this new planeswalking world. As he turned the concepts over and around in his mind, the man realized that his grasp of the ten dimensions was still a little shaky. It was confusing. He’d have to give it a lot of thought...
"Sounds good," Jason said, taking another sip.
He stood to follow.
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"The Minotaurs of Maze World"
Author Notes & Appendix – Wyvern
"The Wyvern in the Wilderlands" is book one of a series that will eventually contain at least six books. In this 'Author Notes' section, I'll be throwing in thanks to contributors and others, as well as compiling an ongoing 'appendix'—certain bits of information and concepts, characters, and other things from this series. If you're ever unsure of a concept from this series that you feel you should know from past books, check here.
First some thanks. This is going to be a large and involved series, and there was a lot of world-building involved before I started. I've actually been working on "Monster Hunting for Fun and Profit" for all of 2018. I'd like to thank certain people and YouTube channels for their awesome work and videos that helped inspire me and provided great information for my research:
Dinosaur Stuff. I've been really into dinosaurs ever since I was a little boy growing up in the 80's. Dinosaur lore and science has evolved quite a bit since back then—even since the 90's when the first Jurassic Park movie came out. I've learned a lot this year and last year about the new dinosaur science from YouTube channels like "Trey the Explainer" and "Dangerville" mainly, as well as others.
Quantum Physics and Dimension Theory. There's a lot of stuff out there on the Internet about higher dimensions, many worlds theory, string theory, etc. Ultimately, I found a really interesting interpretation model out there that made a lot of sense and worked well as a foundation for my higher dimensional theory in these books. My concept of higher dimensional travel for this book series is based largely on the "Imagining the Tenth Dimension" interpretation by Rob Bryanton. He has many great, old videos about his Ten Dimension model on YouTube, and I share them on my Facebook author page from time to time. We start ... with a point. Special thanks to Rob Bryanton. Here in Book One, Jason doesn't get too much into higher dimension theory and interdimensional travel (other than by accident), but you (the reader) will see a lot more of that in the coming books. Hopping from universe to universe in pursuit of bounties is a major part of this series.
Various Self-Help Stuff. Jason Leaper listened to a lot of random self-help videos early in this book. Some was totally made up. Others were inspired by real stuff by gurus that teach people how to take control of their lives, build businesses, and become better versions of themselves. I'd like to thank YouTube channels like Alex Becker, Evan Carmichael, Storytellers, Clark Danger, Tim Ferris, and others who may recognize modified snippets of their ideas in this book's fictional YouTube segments. I also included a long quote from Napoleon Hill.
Running Appendix
Now, since this is Book One in the series, there won't be much here yet. However, as you continue reading through these books, if you ever need to look up a character, or which universe is which, or clarify what dimension does what, check the back of the book to see this section. I don't want to spoil anything for later, so you'll find this first Appendix rather limited. Jason starts learning a lot more in Book Two. But let's start with this:
The Characters
Jason Leaper 934. This is the series main character. He starts the series at thirty-three years old, living in a fictional Colorado mountain town next to Lake Granby called "Ridgeview". When he was eighteen years old, Jason's family went down in a plane crash on the way to Alaska. His parents were both killed, and Jason was crippled for life. After that, he dropped out of college (Physics major) and spent the next fifteen years of his life distracting himself with games and friends. He lives in his parents' house, which he inherited. All Jason Leapers have the ability to 'rift', able to manipulate dimensions to move between or inside different universes and multiverses. As of Book 1, Jason doesn't know about much other dimensions and his rifting powers at all. Jason's very smart and has a lot of capability. He can invent solutions to his problems from limited resources and imagination, and is fairly skilled with firearms as a hobby. At the end of Wyvern, Jason is given a previous Jason's OCS—Omniversal Cosmic Scanner—which will allow him access to any information he desires and help him rift through an elaborate coordinate system.
Riley Wyatt. Riley is a cyborg for a technologically-advanced planet in universe 244, starting this series at the age of twenty-eight. He was one of the Reality Rifters under Jason 113, and Jason 47 before that. In his past, he was a mercenary for a more famous merc team called The Ninth Fists, and before that, he was a Dust Angel (special forces) in his planet's military. A very skilled gun-fighter, Riley possesses many cybernetic augmentations that enhance his physical and sensory abilities, as well as his ability to survive. I've written a free short story about Riley's first mission with the Ninth Fists when he was twenty years old, called "The Helion Depths". (Click here to find it). Riley says some words and figures of speech quite differently than Jason 934 because of his different culture.
G
liath Voidheart the Deathhand. Gliath is a Krulax from the planet Luva in universe 679. He is a powerful leopardwere; a shapeshifter with regenerative powers and great strength and speed, and is Riley's constant companion and bodyguard. It's easiest to think of him as a werepanther; however, where a werepanther is a human that can shift into a panther, Gliath is an intelligent panther who can shift into a human. Gliath has three forms: his human 'pretender' form, where he resembles a severe Native American youth; his seven-foot-tall man-beast 'warrior' form; and his 'primal' form, where he looks like a normal (large) black leopard. Learn about how Riley and Gliath met and partnered up by reading my free novella, "A Bond Between Man and Monster" (Click here to find it).
Jason Leaper 113. The older, bolder version of Jason from universe 113 that almost led the entire Reality Rifter team to their deaths in universe 1240 before the very beginning of this series. As Jason 113 lay dying back home in universe 113 as his universe and the Reality Rifter base was being destroyed by the open rift to universe 1240, he sent Riley and Gliath (the only survivors) to universe 934 to find Jason 934 and start over.
Jason Leaper 47. This was the first Jason that Riley and Gliath worked for. Jason 47 introduced Riley and Gliath (and the other Reality Rifters) to Jason 113 after the accident on the Night Hag mission in "A Bond Between Man and Monster" (Click here to find it).
Zayden Skinner. Only alluded to briefly in Wyvern, Skinner is the manager of the Bounty Boards in the Market on Churn, universe 12. We'll see a lot more of him in Book Two.
Ben Jackson, Amanda, and Tom. Jason 934's DnD friends. They've been gaming ever since high school. Amanda and Tom (married) move away in the beginning of the book, and Ben is Jason's only friend remaining.
Zelda. Jason's cat. She's petite and mostly white with a splotch of brown-orange on her face.
Universes
Universe 934. Earth, much like our own. Jason 934 lives in Ridgeview, CO, which is a fiction town east of Granby, south of the lake and off of Highway 40.
Universe 113. Also Earth, slightly different. Jason 113's world, destroyed in the beginning of Book One.
Universe 312. The Wilderlands. A very different parallel to our world where the dinosaurs never went extinct and humans never developed. There are also very different aspects that don't mesh with Earth's normal laws of physics. For one, many mythical creatures (like the wyvern) exist there that would be impossible on u934. There is also something Riley calls the 'Vitality Element', which lets all living things on that world constantly regenerate and avoid infection. The strangest thing about the Wilderlands if the vines. No unnatural structure can survive for long, as it will eventually be pulled apart by tiny vines growing out of the earth. Also a great source for Infinity Crystals.
Universe 12. Churn. The Market is mentioned at the end of Book One, but Jason won't visit it until Book Two...
Universe 244. Ebonexus. Riley's home world.
Universe 679. Luva. Gliath's home world.
Other Stuff
OCS. The Omniversal Cosmic Scanner. This device is part encyclopedia, part rifting focuser. It looks like a large electronic tablet (like an I-Pad), extra-thick with an extra rugged frame. At the end of Wyvern, Jason 934 is given the OCS that used to belong to Jason 113 before he died. He will be using this device a lot. The capabilities of the OCS are only alluded to in Book 1. More info on this coming in the next book's appendix.
Focus Key. An item unique to a particular universe (or set of universes) that Jason can use to focus on opening a rift to a particular point in space-time. The more unique the focus key is (i.e. to a single universe instead of several), the more easily Jason can open a predictable rift. Jason instinctively tries to use American cash as a focus key when trying to get home, which results in him jumping into random other universes that also have the same cash. Focus keys are only alluded to in Book One. More info on this coming in the next book's appendix.
Infinity Crystal. A piezoelectric crystal from one world or another capable of producing more power than is required to activate it, capable of creating a surplus of energy. The infinity crystals from the Wilderlands are unique and act as a focus key to the wyvern's cavern in the u312 equivalent area of Jason's home on u934.
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