The Dying World - Synopsis and Prologue (Patreon)

Hello! This first part isn't part of the synopsis or prologue.
Now, I will be starting new series from time to time on Patreon and making them just like The Wolf of Calamity. After a few months have passed, I will create a poll for you all to choose which one of these series will become a new main series, next to Dungeon from the Void and The Rise of the Winter Wolf!
The prologue, as with The Wolf of Calamity will be for anyone to read, but the rest of the series till it eventually moves to Royal Road will be for patrons only.
Anyways, announcement is over, so go ahead and try my latest series! The Dying World!

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The darkness is here, and all Silver wants to do is live a peaceful life.

The world of Yggdra once was a peaceful place before the darkness came.

It started out as nothing but a black mist that slowly spread throughout the land, blocking any and all sunlight.

The people were curious, if not a little nervous about the loss of sunlight, but they soon waved it off as something they can do without thanks to the help of the evolvers; people who have evolved through the use of Mutrex.

That, as it turned out, was a bad idea.

Those very same people were slaughtered without any mercy as soon as the monsters came, along with many of the evolvers.

And now, after centuries have passed, the last remaining people live in dozens of cities located under the protective dome of the World Tree, with the majority of them barely scraping by to survive. Meanwhile, the evolvers, the ones that were once their protectors, became more focused on fighting themselves than the darkness.

Our story begins at a very critical moment in time; one where travelers from another world with the ability to fight are summoned to Yggdra to bring about change.

As for Silver?

He is nothing but a werewolf evolver at his second evolution. No one special. And he wants nothing more than to continue exploring the darkness with his partner, in peace.

That all changes when he finds a man wearing strange garments whilst on a job in the darkness.

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Now to start the prologue.

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The Summit of the World Tree
Year 573 | Month 2 | Day 18

The Guardian of the World Tree lets out a heavy sigh as he looks out at the darkness beyond the dome.

“I wish it didn’t have to come to this…” he mutters with a resigned tone before the tree below him vibrates, as if agreeing with him.

Far away from the tree, outside of the dome of green light, lies the lands of darkness. Lands covered by an endless black mist, filled to the brim with both monsters and treasure. These lands are often the target of the ‘evolvers’ of the world; those creatures who have evolved through the substance known to those from the dome as ‘Mutrex.’ This substance is a naturally formed mutagen that can be found everywhere in the world of Yggdra. It is able to forcefully mutate a creature’s body, pushing it towards evolution and improving every aspect of the creature, from their physical strength, all the way to their magical ability and lifespan. There are even several points in an evolver’s struggle to power where their bodies mutate to produce what the people of the dome refer to as ‘abilities.’

These points are commonly known as ‘evolutions.’

For years now, the evolvers have been trying to push back the darkness, but at some point along the way, the various Guilds began to shift their focus from protecting the lands within the dome, to selfishly striving for power and wealth. This led to the overuse of the dome’s Mutrex, and the inevitability that has led to this critical moment in time.

The time where the only place to find Mutrex, is within the darkness.

The Guardian closes his eyes for several seconds before opening them again with one last flash of determination as he turns to the World Tree.

Without any more hesitation, he begins muttering a chant underneath his breath.

“I call to those of another world; come to our aid! I call to the warriors, to the craftsmen, and to the heroic few! Save the world of Yggdra before it falls, forever to sleep in the darkness!”

As the words leave his lips, a bright green glow begins to shine from the World Tree beneath him as a violent tremor spreads through the tree and the surrounding areas at its base.

The half-dozen cities settled at the base of the enormous tree all begin to awaken in fright as many people – both evolvers and non-evolvers – point up at the tree.

Soon after this, hundreds of bright lights begin to shoot out of the World Tree one after the other as various eighth tier evolvers abruptly appear in the air around the tree to investigate.

“People of Yggdra!”

A voice echoes in the minds of every being within the dome.

“Put aside your personal wars and strife to look at what is happening at the edge of the dome!”

The Guardian’s voice pauses again as the lights finish leaving the World Tree.

“If nothing is done about the world, then it shall be completely covered in darkness by the end of the next century! As a result, I, the Guardian of the World Tree, have brought travelers from another world to aid in our plight. Welcome them to the dome, as they may just be our last hope to fight against the darkness!”

As he is speaking, the various eighth tier evolvers begin to land upon the World Tree’s summit to find the Guarding – the only living creature within the dome known to have reached the ninth evolution – as he lies against the World Tree’s heart. They all frown as he coughs out a mouthful of blood before deciding to stay silent as he finishes his declaration.

“Let the World Tree guide your way, and never lose sight of our goal.”

The man coughs out another mouthful of blood before he looks up with a smile at the sight of the bright lights as they scatter throughout all of the dome.

“The goal of claiming our world back from the darkness.”

After one last cough of blood, the man falls unconscious before the World Tree seals him in its protective shell along with its heart.

The various assembled eighth tier evolvers look at each other before turning to the lights with a frown.

One of them in particular curses as he sees a few of the lights fall into the outskirts of the darkness, just barely outside of the dome.

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Silver
Year 573 | Month 2 | Day 17
One day prior to the incident

“-and I’m telling you, he was…” the voices trail off as I walk into the Strikers branch guild building with Amalea walking next to me.

I continue through the entrance hall towards the job requests board on the side of the room without paying any attention to the fearful gazes sent towards my golden eyes.

Werewolves have always been feared by most people, so this is nothing new. As long as no one decides to act on that fear, I am fine.

Amalea, however, isn’t fine with their treatment of me and quickly meets the eyes of every last guildmember within the hall until they all take their attention off of us.

A light smile briefly lights up my face as I give her a short nod of appreciation.

Amalea has been my partner ever since I first started out as an evolver. She was never afraid of my species, nor did she have much reason to be. Seeing as she herself is an elf; another one of the rarer non-human species within the dome. She has two long, pointed ears, with beautiful brown hair that reaches her mid-back, and a tall figure to match.

That said, she has a rather fiery temper, and a short patience. Which tends to throw people off, especially when they see us together.

After all, werewolves are normally the ones with the temper. Not elves.

“Which request do you think we should do?” Amalea asks me as we arrive in front of the tier two evolver jobs.

I purse my lips in thought while reading through the jobs before eventually pointing at one of them in particular. A simple kill and collect request for this town’s resident blacksmith. “Would this one work?”

Amalea reads the request before nodding her head and grabbing it with a simple, “Sure.”

Without wasting any time, we both walk up to the receptionist’s desk before placing the paper on it. The receptionist gives it a once over before muttering, “Another raptor request?” as she accepts our cards.

I share a brief look with Amalea before turning back to the receptionist and asking, “You been getting a lot of these lately?”

The receptionist – a short girl with raven black hair and a somewhat laidback personality named Liz – looks up at me and nods, “That’s right. It makes me wonder if there is something about their scales that the blacksmiths might have discovered recently.”

I rub my chin in thought as she uses the enchanted device known as a ‘card reader’ to register our job to our evolver cards before she hands our cards back to us.

Something unique about their scales, eh? Maybe I should test them out after we’ve collected enough for the job.

“I know that you two are probably the last evolvers that I would have to warn like this, but be careful out there,” Liz says as she takes the job paper and places it somewhere below her desk, “from what I have heard, the darkness has been getting more and more dangerous as of lately.”

“Don’t worry about us, Liz. We’ll be fine,” Amalea says with a smile.

I nod my head in agreement with her before we both turn around towards the entrance.

As we walk out the door, I once again feel the fearful eyes of the gathered evolvers before shutting the door behind us.

Amalea glances behind us with an annoyed look before I tell her, “Ignore them. Let’s head towards the edge of the dome.”

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Silver
Year 573 | Month 2 | Day 18
The day of the incident

The tier two raptor cries out as I rip its heart from its chest with my bare claws before crushing it and turning around to Amalea.

I cover my eyes with a grunt as Amalea uses her light magic to blind another raptor right before she sends two bolts of light straight into its eyes.

“So bright,” I mutter before hearing Amalea chuckle as the light begins to fade, revealing another dead raptor at her feet.

“That’s the point,” she says before wrinkling her nose at the sight of the blood coating my fur-covered claws. “You should clean that before you shift back.”

I glance at my claws before turning to the raptor at my feet and wiping my hand on it before shifting back into my human form with a brief grunt of pain.

Within a few seconds, I once again stand in my human form facing Amalea as she puts her hands on her hips and says, “You werewolves and your pain tolerance. I doubt I would ever be able to handle the pain of my bones shifting around like that.”

I raise an eyebrow at her comment before saying, “It kind of comes with the territory of shapeshifting. Wouldn’t be much of a point to it if we fell unconscious from the pain every time we shifted.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever you say,” she says with a slight wave of her hand, “we should get moving. I think we should have enough scales with just one more pack.”

Just as I am about to voice my agreement, I hear a loud crash from several dozen meters away through the black mist. When I turn to see what it was, I find a bright light splitting the black mist.

“Light?” I mutter in confusion before glancing at Amalea.

After she shrugs in bewilderment, we both break into a sprint towards the source of the light.

Surprisingly, the light quickly fades as we approach it. To the point that, by the time we arrive at the clearing where the source is located, the light is nothing more than a brief spark that is quickly replaced by a figure in strange garb.

I send a confused glance towards Amalea before we both press on further into the clearing to get a closer look at the figure.

As I get within a few meters of it, I realize it’s a man. A human man.

“Why is he out here, alone?” Amalea mutters in confusion before tensing as I crouch down to inspect him.

The man is clothed in a strange outfit consisting of a mixture of green and black colors, and an equally strange looking cap. He has some sort of tool strapped in a belt on his waist that I have never seen before, along with a couple of knives next to it.

My eyebrows raise in surprise as glowing green veins begin to move around under the skin on his face.

“He’s evolving?” I mutter in confusion before turning to Amalea.

She just stares at the man for a few seconds before saying, “I’m curious as to why he is here, and why he thought it was a good idea to take Mutrex in the darkness.”

She then turns to me with a mixture of curiosity and bewilderment and says, “We might as well help the guy.”

I meet her eyes for several seconds before shrugging and turning back to the man.

After one more glance at the strange tool at his waist, I pick him up as groans come from his unconscious form. I then move him over to a nearby tree and lean him against it before grabbing a stick and writing a message in the ground next to him.

As I am doing this, Amalea begins chanting under her breath, and the area around the us begins to warp from her camouflage spell.

I finish writing my note in the dirt before climbing back to my feet and sending a nod in Amalea’s direction, signaling her to cast another spell on my note, making it shine with a very faint light so that the man will be able to read it in the dark without it attracting the attention of any monsters.

“That should be good enough,” I mutter before glancing at the man again, “I just hope that he will be willing to sate our curiosity whenever we come back. Assuming he actually reads my note.”

Amalea just shrugs and says, “It’s fine if he doesn’t. It’s not like it’s the end of the world if our curiosity about him isn’t satisfied.”

I watch the man groan in pain for a few more seconds before focusing on Amalea and saying, “That’s true and all, but I would still like to know what that strange tool is on his waist.”

She briefly nods in agreement before I notice a smell in the air and begin sniffing.

Amalea notices my actions and frowns as she asks, “More raptors?”

I nod my head.

“Let’s go finish the request.”