The richest and luckiest players of the video game "Thousand Tales" get their minds uploaded to its virtual paradise world, while Stan can barely buy a handheld console. Instead of sulking he plays, and grows, becoming a skilled craftsman and seafaring explorer. The game's ruling AI, Ludo, helps him find the hope and inspiration missing from his real life. When the AI starts asking for favors and having him reach out between the real and digital worlds, Stan has a chance to turn his life into an actual adventure. But first he needs to earn the most valuable prize of all: his freedom. "Crafter's Passion" is part of the emerging "LitRPG" or "GameLit" genre, combining science fiction with the world of gaming. ----- On Island East-2 stood Stan, in the dungeon, with the rickety raft. He dragged it out to the beach, scavenged more wood and some interesting shells, and paddled his way back west. The raft disintegrated just as he got within sight of East-1. He held onto a chunk of wood to help him float but couldn't carry the rest in his pack. All he could do was start swimming! A scary fish swerved into his path but he managed to detour until it lost interest. Finally he sprawled onto the beach with a bunch of stat penalties for being wet and tired. Belatedly he realized, "I probably ruined everything in my backpack." A note said, [Nearly everything you're carrying is safe, like coins and a sealed bottle, but that can be a problem with other items. There are several ways to get waterproofing.] That sounded reasonable. He'd assumed that jumping into the water with a load of items was harmless, but that was his own fault. "Fine." He headed west to Central Island across the bridge. So far he just had that crude backpack full of loot, and he couldn't carry much more without a better pack. He looked over the junky resources he'd scavenged, then the items he'd looted off his party members' bodies. None of the equipment was listed as magical, and the item descriptions were starting to give him more serious labels like [Crude Wooden Bow] for Alaya's weapon. Even he could probably make something better with a little practice. He could make something better! That could be fun. Besides, he'd swiped this gear from people he'd agreed to help, so maybe he could replace or upgrade the stuff by way of apology. Stan headed over to the Crown & Tail's workbench to give it a try. Along the way he jumped around for the fun of bounding up the sunny shore. He tapped the bench of tools and tried to fix up some items, but it buzzed at him. [Equipment repairs require access to improved crafting stations.] The bartender directed him to the "maker workshop" a ways inland from the beach. It looked like an old fort, a squat wooden cabin surrounded by a spiky wall of logs. Why not a giant golden palace? Probably it had been built by the players using the game's own physics. That was pretty neat. He walked right in through the open gate. Inside was a craftsman's playground. Saws, drills and other tools covered some of the tables. A whole corner was devoted to colorful glassware and bubbling fluids. A green-robed figure was busy at that alchemy station, pouring beakers one into another and making puffs of steam. The only other person here was a smith in a leather apron and goggles, making a pleasant rhythmic ringing of metal. Behind him loomed a forge where slabs of metal were glowing cherry-red. Stan looked around and asked, "Is this stuff open to the community?" The alchemist turned around.

    I didn’t mean to look for things I wasn’t supposed to. I didn’t mean for death to come after me. I really didn’t. But it still happened. I’m Zoran and my name is the only thing I remember about myself; not why I woke up in a forest, not why I taste blood in my mouth, and certainly not why I see weird screens in front of me. Ever since I first woke, all I wanted to do was find out who I really was. But what I didn’t expect, was for my search to spark something that was never meant to happen. It has started now. I can see it. Cities will burn and towers will fall. Chaos will descend the heavens and ravage the earth. The darkness is coming, and the world will tremble in its wake.

    These collected stories cover well known and loved characters, as well as some lesser seen NPCs. Into the Deadlands: Alistern, Grimgar, Almira, Stewart, and Flora take their first trip into the sands. The longest story in the anthology, and a harrowing tale of heroics. Lilith’s History: How did Lilith come to be with Alistern and raise five wonderful daughters? Bob’s Tale: Everyone’s favorite Imp is featured in this story. Stewart’s Upbringing: How does a Half-blood Infernal grow up in a city that despises his kind? Erin’s Story: How does the barmaid come to love a noble’s son? A story of love and acceptance. Deirdre’s Story: What is one to do when her sister’s are finding love? Find her own, of course. Marian’s Story: With the other three sisters having found love, Marian yearns to find her own soulmate. Demon Lord’s Armor: The tale of how the infamous Demon Lord Armor set was created. Skippy’s Tale: Simmer down, we know most people hate him. Understand him so you can hate him even more. Bob’s Tale Part two: Bob is back with more story to dig into. Magiblood: The story of Rolland and Kim, never before seen anywhere. I hope you will enjoy reading these stories as much as I did writing them.

     Walter LePointe and Oswald Blackwell just woke up inside of the online role playing game Realms of Th’loria. With no memory of how they arrived, Walt and Oz soon learn the hard way that living in an epic fantasy world isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. As level 1 characters with no skills or experience, nothing can prepare them for their new lives as they prepare to Enter the Realm. "Timothy W. Long injects a stark degree of realism into everything he writes. His horror is more horrific, his heroics more heroic, I love reading his stuff." --Peter Clines, bestselling author of the Ex-Heroes series, 14, and The Fold "Reading Timothy W. Long is like being in a knife fight that doesn't end until the last page." --Nicholas Sansbury Smith, bestselling author of The Extinction Cycle

    Fortunes can be made, and the most unlikely people can find glory in a land of swords and magic. With low Job Qualification (JQ) scores and 2 years of national service looming, Eric Templeton knows he is doomed to a life of poverty. When he is given a chance to enter the game, he knows he has the opportunity to save his family from their desperate situation. But when he enters the game, Eric isn’t spawned into the newbie camp of Blundow. Instead he is sent to the darkest regions of the map, filled with creatures beyond his level. He stumbles across a conspiracy that no newbie should ever see, and he knows that he can’t hope to survive. Book 2 is currently being written and will be 300+ pages.

    He makes a side-living levelling up and selling characters to order. When he gets an order for a Shadow Walker, a class he’s never played before, it seems strange. Things get even stranger when, just as he’s about to kill a goblin NPC, it talks. Tom and Gabber the goblin embark on a quest to get Gabber to safety. They're pursued by Crawford, a creature hunter with an immense knowledge of the game and resources to match. He’ll never give up, never stop, and Tom must use his courage, skills and ingenuity to outwit him. This starts an epic quest of swords, magic, and monsters, while an unlikely friendship develops. Tom can’t let the hunter catch Gabber. Unlike the players, if the goblin dies, he won’t respawn.

    Grouping up with his online friends, he had an enjoyable night of gaming and even completed the Tomb of Immortality. However, at the end of the dungeon they meet a strange wizard with a compelling offer to ‘Beta Test’ a new expansion. Since every gamer dreams of being the first to explore new areas, they agree. Nonetheless, they were not ready for what came next. Mac and his friends find themselves pulled into the game and that they have become their avatars. At first, it is exciting until they realize that they are trapped inside the game. When they find themselves attacked, the Outlanders quickly realize how dangerous their new reality can be. Vowing to return home, the survivors set off to find the legendary city of Atlantis in hopes that the Dragon Kings may know of a way back to the real world. The Outlanders soon discover that they aren’t the first gamers to be pulled into game, just the latest. But more than that, they have become pawns between two rival wizards in a long standing feud. Can the Outlanders survive the game world long enough to return home?

    He’s more than a little perturbed to discover that he is dead, but it’s not the end of the world. Due to him being in the army, he gets a 2nd chance at existence in a fantasy VR game called Adonis Rebirth. There, Nathan will get to live another life, one filled with heroic quests and epic adventures. A land packed with legend and glory, where anyone can be a hero. But there’s a problem with his transition into the game. His consciousness isn’t loaded into a player character, but instead is transplanted into a beast who lives in the bowels of a mountain. Even worse, he finds out he is the end monster in a new limited-edition quest, where the 1st to complete it wins a unique prize. Soon, hero players are going to come and kill him. He needs to find a way to survive the hero onslaught, all the while trying to discover how to reverse what happened to him. He needs allies, but it’s hard to make them when you look like Nosferatu's ugly brother. Nathan will have to master his skills and learn how to play as the monster - his 2nd life depends on it.

     Van Vanyushin doesn’t see the point in ever leaving the beautiful digital world of the game he loves—and for good reason. In the industrial wasteland he calls home, it is often the only way people can experience life’s simplest pleasures. But his allegiance to the game is tested when an ambitious CIA agent named Sang Ngo calls upon him to help as she goes undercover in the game to investigate Draco—the corporation responsible for creating the massively popular role-playing game Dragon Kings of the New World. Sang is a gifted hacker who feels nothing but contempt for those who waste their lives in what she sees as a false reality…but when people start dying in the game, she must find out why. Van, a talented gamer, is her guide to navigate the world, level up their newbie characters fast and get into some of the most dangerous areas of the game. He dreams of becoming a pro gamer sponsored by Draco one day, but his partnership with Sang threatens to expose secrets from his past that could jeopardize those plans. Now, they will have to put aside their differences to discover whatever—or whoever—is killing players, but the truth they find is darker than either of them imagined….

    Seek out a comfortable chair to marvel at the sight of two setting suns or revel in bloody battle on the Plains of Deadalon, destroying skeleton warriors with your devastating magic. Whatever your heart desires, Waara will provideeeeeeeeee Error304, Error 6799, Report! Critical Failure! Click here for customer support. That is unless your name is Hayden and you wake up in a pitch black mine, with no idea how you got there and are thrust into an unimaginable world of pain and heart attack inducing adventures/catastrophes. “Waara will provide ‘MY ASS’. Can you believe that PR ‘crap’? Come and find out what happened to me and we will see if you still want to play, ‘The Land of Waara,’ ” Hayden griped. “What the hell is that? Get it off me Spike. A little help would be nice.” Game Break is a LITRPG Series There is some swearing and a bit of nudity, but all in good taste, I hope.

    He now sees pop up windows and receives quests and is being attacked by creatures. Together with his strange companion Kala, they set forth to explore this mysterious new world. They must learn how to play this very real game, or die.

    

    Familiars are all different and each mage can have only 1 and it can only be summoned in Magic Academy due to the preparation for this being in these locations. The age that these students obtain this is when they start their second year in the magic academy. The first year was purely to teach the students how to gather mana and improve their capacity as well as to weed out those without talent for gathering mana. The entire year teaches the students breathing techniques, meditation and teaches the basis of how magic works. Our story starts with a young man that summons the most uncommon Demon, the imp or so called the Ash Golem.

    He finds himself in the body of a slime, inheriting odd abilities and an overwhelming circumstance. His only drive for survival is revenge. As a slime, the weakest monster in the world, he must discover a way to gain enough power and get his humanity back. (A GameLit story)

    However, one new job appeared that was humans-only; gold farming in VRMMOs (Virtual Reality MMO). Ken worked as a gold farmer in the popular fantasy VRMMO Avantheim Online. However one day, while gold farming in AO, he was suddenly teleported into another VR world, where he soon realizes that he and his NPC allies are far stronger than anyone else in this new world. 2nd Edition, first published November 15th, 2016.