Dungeon Master

by Andrew Bardsley

  The Unknown god: The Dark Part of the Soul

  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07S7YJYCM

  William faces death by execution for a murder he swears he did not commit, while Michael meets his end at the hands of a gang rival in a knife fight. Jane wins her latest legal battle but loses her life in the moments after, as the convicted murderer chokes her to death on the courtroom floor. And Evon? She wants to replace her rival for the affections of a crime boss but feels the sharp pain of death instead.

  Now these four, departed from the world of men, find themselves at a climactic crossroads in a world that is stranger than any fiction, inhabited by armies of orcs and fire-breathing dragons; a world that is ruled by four Gods for their own pleasures.

  But a new God is coming. And this one is intent on restoring the balance to the world and replacing the chaos with order. How will four travellers fare in a land that is beyond death and which holds terrors like nothing they have experienced before?

  Into the Ether: The Ether World Series

  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07MQC26LX/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i2

  Chris Smith, a brilliant researcher, is the first person to discover an entirely new branch of magic inscriptions. The four elemental pillars have been used since mankind learned to scribe, but the world is about to change with the realization that space-time can also be affected.

  Chris is ready to lead the charge in making the new world, operating out of a magical start-up with his closest friend. His ideas will be just the beginning. However, when Chris is betrayed, his life is sent spinning in a chaotic downward spiral, leaving him with nothing but his wits.

  Engaging and fast-paced ‘Into the Ether’ spins a story of magic, intrigue, and determination.

  Following is an Extract from the book:

  Chris delayed a few moments longer until he heard the sound of a group of charging footsteps. As Chris looked back, he saw about seven men from the Panther gang running towards the other thugs. The lead fighter of the Panther gang stopped at about two meters distance away from the five thugs and made a sudden movement with his gloved hand. Out of his hand, a bolt of electricity shot out and hit one of the five. The bolt at first, fizzed over some protective clothing without effect and then the thug who was the target started to spasm in pain. The man finally collapsed onto the ground, and the electricity stopped, as the gloved Panther made another hand gesture. With one down the four thugs were attacked using stun rods, two of the thugs that were left activated the inscriptions on their clothing to flare with the absorption of power but were eventually taken down by the sheer overwhelming force of all seven Panthers. All of the Panthers were well armed and protected by magical devices that glowed with use.

  The conflict between the criminal gangs, was quickly over and the leader of the Panthers pulled out a farseeing device for instruction on what to do with the other gang members. Soon a magical hovering platform arrived, and the rival gang members were loaded on to it. A large sheet was then used to cover them as they were taken away.

  The Inscribed Angle: The Ether World Series

  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07NHBP8TR/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i3

  This is an extract from the book:

  Ross whispered to Freya roughly, “Time for us, well me at least, to start earning the money. I know that Jack has gone through this briefing already but I’m going to repeat it once. Only hit the targets that are indicated in your farseeing goggles, those are connected to the combat net with the plan uploaded into them. It is most important that you limit the effects to the designated areas, as if you injure or kill any of our people it will not go well. I’ll be keeping an eye on you to make sure nothing goes wrong. If you just do what is in the command net, everything will be okay. Got it rookie?”

  Freya gave a quick, “Yes sir,” and put on her farseeing goggles.

  As soon as she put on the goggles, the whole valley lit up, as if it were day. She could see the fire teams moving closer to the compound. As Freya, concentrated on each member, she was able to see detail of the persons health and who they were. The system also lit up the enemy combatants. For the next half an hour, Freya was able to watch the fire team move from cover to cover to the side of the compound. The movement was a fluid motion of one team's movement and the other team covering. As the fire team reached the edge of the compound, one of its members sent out a mist from his hands. This mist slowly dispersed any magical runes or alarms inscribed on the fence, where the teams would be breaching. Freya zoomed in with her goggles and watched the same man use a small flame, from his finger, to cut a hole in the wire fencing. The fire team moved through the hole and started moving toward a building at the back of the compound. In there was the figure of a woman marked in green as the target for extraction. The first fire team went in for the extraction, as the second guarded the exit route. As they went inside the building Freya started to see the enemy combatants being blasted by stun, fire, force and close combat magic. Every now and then, the mercenaries would be hit by a blast on their shield, but none of her team were down yet.

  Suddenly, a loud klaxon horn sounded from the compound. The compound lit up as balls of magical light shot into the air.

  Ross kept calm and said, “Just follow the orders on the farseeing combat network.”

  Before Freya could respond, several icons appeared on each of the light balls, indicating a requirement of extinguishing the lights. Freya made a mental image of the inscription for opaque shields surrounding each of the light ball. As she added her power into it, all of the bright lights went out. This had only taken a fraction of a second. Now the whole compound was back into darkness. Soon several circles appeared within the compound ordering fire strikes confined within each of the circle.

  Ross said clearly, “You are free to strike with fireballs anywhere inside the circles.”

  Freya just pulled on her fire power and mentally worked the inscriptions for the desired effect. Emerging from the sky above the compound, jets of fire washed down, and stayed restricted to the circles. At the edges of each circle, the flames cascaded and stopped. Ross let out a muffled exclamation but said nothing. As the circles in the command system moved, the waves of fire moved with them. Next were several commands to force shield certain areas, Freya accomplished this with little exertion. As the Fire Teams were exiting the compound, the shields and fire kept the enemy combats at bay. Freya saw people start to shoot magical bombardments attacks on her shield. To counteract this, she channeled more magical energy into the shields, which easily held. The next command that came across the combat network was an order to destroy all vehicles in the compound. Each vehicle was lit up by an icon, and an area of effect of not to exceed. Freya decided that the best way to destroy the vehicles was with pure force.

  First Chapters of:

  The First Era: The History System Chronicles

  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07LDZSH9Y/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

  The First Era

  The History System Chronicles

  Andrew Bardsley

  Page Break

  Copyright © 2019 by Andrew Bardsley

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Page Break

  Contents

  Chapter One: All Things Have a Beginning4

  Chapter Two: Survival29

  Chapter Three: An Emergency Rescue63

  Chapter Four: Weapons and Traps79

  Chapter Five: A Journey92

  Chapter Six: Into the Deeps112

  Chapter Seven: Civilization at l
ast124

  Chapter Eight: Training151

  Chapter Nine: Trolls and other Monsters175

  Chapter Ten: Weapons making and other discoveries197

  Chapter Eleven: Storm-Demon212

  Chapter Twelve: A Request243

  Chapter Thirteen: The Power of a Tribe274

  Chapter Fourteen: The Power of a Tribe in Battle283

  Chapter Fifteen: Alone with Evil291

  

  Chapter One: All Things Have a Beginning

  Ahava woke up as the light slowly increased through the window in the bathroom. The bathroom was adjacent to the bedroom, and the window allowed the early morning light to shine directly onto the bed, where Ahava’s head lay. As Ahava slowly gained consciousness, thoughts of what he would do today slowly ran through his waking mind. Originally, his family had planned to have a day out, taking the time to go walking around some of the waterfalls nearby. The walk had been planned because his son Chris was home, on leave from the army, and as this was Chris’s last full day with them before flying back to his base. The noise from the rain outside indicated that the possibility of getting soaked during the up-and-coming walk was high.

  As Ahava lay in bed, listening to the rain, he re-considered the plans for the day, considering what to do instead. He checked his computer tablet, an old device with a small crack across the screen, for the weather report. The screen lit up showing a Google weather report with an icon of a storm cloud for the day, and for the next week. This spring in Perth had been cold and rainy for Western Australia. Around this time Ahava’s wife, Kate, had also woken up. She was glancing at her phone, a sleek new model as she had just lost her phone a few weeks prior.

  Ahava looked over at Kate. “It’s raining outside, so I think it’s best if we cancel the plans for the walk. As I have some work to do, I might as well go into the office today.”

  Ahava worked as an engineer in the drilling industry and, due to a recent downturn, he was working whenever there was work available. This week he had been at home and his family had been off doing activities together. This unfortunately meant that Ahava had already had had a couple of days off this week and there was a bit of outstanding work in the office to be done for a client.

  Kate blinked rapidly as she yawned, clearing her eyes and looking over.

  “That will be ok; after all, it is raining today. I can take the time to prepare the house for the board games event this evening.”

  Kate had been planning a games night for some time, inviting several other families that Ahava knew.

  Ahava thought for a moment. “OK then, I’ll go into the office, but I may come back early in the afternoon as I do not have much work to do,” he decided.

  It was about five thirty in the morning, and as Ahava did not normally start getting up for work until some time after six o’clock, he tried to go back to sleep. Upon finding that he was not able to sleep, he sat back up and chatted to Kate about what was on her Facebook feed that day. While Ahava had his own Facebook account, he only used it for news and keeping in contact with a few family members. This meant that he largely relied on Kate for updates about the wider circle of family and friends that both he and Kate had made over their twenty-seven years of marriage. The anniversary was last month, though they were still deciding what to do to celebrate it properly.

  Their marriage was a happy one, with four children. Now, only their youngest son Sam was still living at home. He was in his second to last year of the local high school. Their oldest son, Dave, had got married last December to a daughter of one of their family friends, Mary, and was living in another suburb in Perth, only a short drive away. He also worked in the same small engineering consultancy as Ahava in Perth’s city business district. Bill, the second eldest, was living abroad and the third child, Chris was currently staying with them after finally getting leave. He had been in the army for about nine months and had just finished his training in the infantry.

  After another short attempt at snoozing, Ahava got up from the queen size bed and walked into the en-suite bathroom. Getting undressed for a shower, Ahava examined at his upper body in the bathroom cabinet mirror. He recently had lost a lot of weight but still was significantly overweight. Ahava was in his late forties and had suffered from being overweight throughout his adult life. His hair was in a short style and since the last decade had been white and gray, showing his age early. He had broad shoulders and was around average height. Generally, he was not a fit or active person, and even had had some significant health issues over the last couple of decades that he had lived in Australia.

  After showering and performing his other daily ablutions, Ahava walked back into the bedroom to get dressed in jeans and a T-shirt. This was his standard dress attire for a casual Friday, and in fact, any other day he could get away with it. He enjoyed wearing casual clothes and only dressed up if it was required or, as was more often the case, if his wife encouraged him. She often did this by affectionately saying she would not be seen with him in the clothes he was in.

  He kissed his wife before leaving the bedroom. The bedroom was in the second story of their house, with the kitchen and living rooms downstairs. Ahava went to the downstairs to prepare for work. Generally, on a workday, Ahava was always quick in leaving the house, as he liked to be moving to the next thing without any periods of waiting. Ahava found himself generally impatient to be placed or doing some activity. Boredom was not something that he enjoyed, but being overstressed was also something that he hated. On a date with his wife, before they had been married, they had done four different activities in one night. This was largely because at the end of each activity, Ahava had asked, ‘What do you want to do next?’ In hindsight Ahava was sure that this must have been exasperating for Kate by the end of the night.

  Packing his laptop bag for work with his wallet, keys, and tablets he walked the kitchen to grab breakfast. Recently he had started trying liquid breakfasts. Ahava found them not as appetizing as regular food, but at least they had a certain simplicity. Chris and Sam were both already awake in the living room. As Ahava walked by he noticed that they were both either playing games on their laptops or watching an animated TV series on the computer.

  “Morning,” Ahava said to his two sons. They both grunted an incoherent reply, without looking up from their screens. This was not an unusual response from his sons at this time in the morning and he waved as he walked off. Last, he picked up his phone, put it in the laptop bag and started moving toward the front door.

  He had just walked out of the front door toward ‘the large red car’ (as he called it on his Trans Perth parking application) when his phone made an unusual notification sound. Beep. Beep. Beep. Ahava looked around, bemused, as this was not the normal notification sound that he had set for his phone. He fished the mobile phone out of his bag and checked the screen to see what application was causing the sound. On the front of the phone was:

  Initializing the History System, 1% complete.

  Nothing else was on the screen and the background was the same blue color as the dreaded Windows error screen, now a remnant of old operating systems. Puzzled, he tried to flick to another screen on the phone but got no response. Pressing buttons to escape the application caused nothing to happen, except now the one percent on the display increased to two percent. Finally, he tried to turn the phone off, but it was still unresponsive. The same message now showed it was at three percent. Thinking that he would definitely fix his phone when he arrived at work, Ahava put the phone back in his bag. As he opened the door to get into the car, he noticed that in the far corner of his vision he could see what appeared to be some type of moving symbol. It looked to be an egg timer moving around in a circle once per second. Ahava blinked rapidly to clear his eyes. The symbol remained. Closing his eyes, the symbol was still there, right in the corner of his vision. Shaking his head did not remove the slowly rotating hourglass either.

  “What the heck!” Ahava muttered out loud. As he expected,
there was no answer back from the general world. Another “What the heck!” was also met with no answer. As he slowly got into the car he remained sitting, perplexed about what was happing. Ahava could not think of anything to do about the strange circling symbol except wait. He decided, as with his phone, that this problem would have to be sorted out later, maybe when he got to work.

  Starting the car, he backed down the house’s small driveway toward the road. He reversed onto the road and drove along the street, away from the ocean and toward the main road and the train station. The trip to the train station was uneventful, except for the persistent symbol still in his vision. Blinking, moving his head and some more exclamations of “What the heck!” did nothing to help.