After the battle under Everlast, Lucid and the survivors returned to Setterton. The people that had taken over the village under the church’s orders were gone, due to circumstances nobody knew about. The three leading theories were that a dungeon scared them off, they left to find a more defensible village, or the church had recalled them at some point. It didn’t matter.

  Lucid reclaimed his space in the caves down below, but sealed off the deep caverns with a wall and a promise to explore them once they were ready again. The survivors of the battle numbered few. Only six of Mimi and Rab’s children had survived until the end, as well as only ten fish monsters. Aside from Damian, none of the other true monsters survived, meaning unless a situation ever demanded it, there would never be any more puppeteer squirrels.

  Grant officially joined the Dungeon Rat kids as adventurers working for Lucid. The few human thralls that Lucid had also stayed with him in the caves, but over time, as the villagers of Setterton returned one by one, a large stone building was erected outside the cave to house them properly.

  Not everyone in Setterton accepted Lucid’s presence, but with the recovery of the kingdom requiring all of the King's soldiers, none were spared to contest Lucid’s recovery. It took nearly a whole month for his core to recover into a complete sphere again, and it was much smaller than before the fight, but he was whole eventually.

  Likewise, Abby lost her super-strength in order to regain the ability to bear children, but it would be a long while before Owyn and Abby gathered the courage to take that step. Owyn was converted into a thrall in order to heal his legs, and this time, he refused to return to being enthralled in order to remain close with Abby. In the meantime, Mrs. Vernant began having a most peculiar craving for dungeon cores. As it turned out, she was pregnant.

  Grant doted on his younger sister as much as he could. Since his boney figure was too harsh on a baby, his partnered bat was evolved to mimic human skin, and something peculiar happened when their souls melded into one, making Grant a truly immortal vampire like Lucid had always wanted.

  When the kingdom finally stabilized, Lucid was fully established within the upper caves, and nobody in Setterton that had disagreed with his presence had stayed. By working with Owyn and the other craftsmen in Setterton, technology exploded throughout the village, establishing itself as a key figure in the development of the world. Small trinkets, like music boxes and toy cars with spring wound motors were sold to the wider world, cementing it as a valuable resource to be invested in.

  Time passed, and over time, disagreements grew, forcing Lucid to leave. The entirety of Setterton and a large number of other individuals left with him.

  Once more establishing themselves a home outside of any kingdom, the new village without a name enjoyed the technologies that Lucid introduced to the new world. Electricity for lights, heated stoves and homes, and other fantastical comforts. Due to Lucid’s knowledge of his old world, his evolutions took on more industrious purposes, discovering and mining metals for more advances in technology. The mimic crabs found more of their own kind, and even established dedicated suburbs within the village for the monsters that enjoyed the surface.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Years later, the world's first flying aircraft was introduced, powered entirely by batteries, charged either by magic or mechanical means. While initial flights were short, with a mage powering it during flight, they were able to travel vast distances. Though even that was just a small step for Lucid.

  With Owyn’s help, organisms were built that could nearly exist in a vacuum. Abby used the airplane to explore the world, making a vital stop at the condemned Setterton to search the deep caves for Entomology for its expertise in insect based evolutions. More advances were made when it came to things like shortening lifespans and establishing new species. They were never able to convince it to relocate or form a true peace with Lucid or any other humans, but a trade system was established, which worked well for both parties involved.

  Lucid’s dungeon grew so large that he was able to communicate at vast distances, but even that was merely a temporary measure. Years turned to decades of practice. Experiments were done. Successes and failures, celebrated in equal measure. Airships turned into low orbit space ships, piloted by a pair of individuals, one enthralled communicator and one unenthralled magic wielding pilot. Abby became the first person to see the whole world, even if it was from very far away.

  Due to the advances in technology, less and less people had to be farmers, freeing them up to do other things, like develop more magi-tech for themselves. The Dungeon Rats continued their simple lives as adventurers for Lucid, collecting exotic monsters around the world. Felecia found new love, but never had children again. Grant’s little sister Sasha grew up to be a chemist of all things, enjoying life filled with modern conveniences and scientific advances that never saw the rugged life of the outside world. Mr. Mayflower and Mrs. Brook became Mr. and Mrs. Mayflower, parenting a very energetic litter of children. Abby and Owyn had two kids of their own, but never stopped doing what they enjoyed.

  Nearly eighty years of development later, Lucid’s dungeon vanished from the world.

  Owyn retired from adventuring to become a lecturer, and eventually founder of Mycroft University. Abby never stopped exploring the world, and constantly took Owyn’s students on field trips to learn things in the real world. The village without a name became a city, and eventually the foundation of Lucid Kingdom, but this was after Abby and Owyn’s time. Angler, with his practice of being King of the Pond, made for an interesting first ruler.

  As more people immigrated to the kingdom, they would notice people praying not to the Goddess, but supposedly to the moon. Every so often, all of the thralls would look to the moon as one, almost like they heard something. Each of them swore they heard something, but nobody was ever able to actually confirm anything.

  It was Abby and Owyn’s oldest grandchild, the one who appointed themselves as head of the Lucid Space Program, and one of the last of Lucid’s still living thralls that eventually heard his voice. Loud and clear.

  Phase one complete. Lunar environment established. Survivable environment established beneath the surface.

  Send the astronauts.

  The epilogue means nothing in the grand scheme of things. It’s more akin to fanfiction of my own work than anything else. If it wasn’t clear by the way, certain electronics were never produced. Things like radios and radar aren’t very useful when you can just use the dungeon link to communicate over vast distances, and bullshit evolution magic to take care of the rest. The shortened lifespans of insects and such were meant to help in the ecology of the moon base. Faster breeding insects means more death, meaning more mana for expansion in a loop, helping Lucid to conquer the entire moon!

  I’ve been reading a bunch of HFY (Humans, Fuck Yeah!) stories, which depict humans as a fantastic race against the vastness of the stars. (they’re fantastic, I recommend checking out the subreddit for stories, both long and short form. Some of them are even posted here on RR!) I like imagining that after this stereotypical fantasy story, Lucid Core evolves into an HFY story of some kind. But again, it’s just my own fantasies I like thinking about.

  Lucid Core was meant to be a break for me. Something to write in between those times I burned out from writing my novel. It was never meant to be a 300+ chapter epic that just goes on and on and on without stopping, detailing every little thing as the story progresses to an end that’s nowhere in sight. Lucid Core was always meant to have an ending, and while I’m surprised it took this long to get here, I’m glad I got here in the end.

  THAT BEING SAID! I do have MANY gripes with my own story. If I was to edit it like I would any other novel, there’s so many things that I’d change. For one, the Dungeon Rat kids offer nothing to the story. I wrote myself into a corner within the first few chapters by introducing them, and then having the entire Setterton village move into the dungeon. I had to realistically incorporate so many parties and consider so many perspectives about how people would view their circumstances. That’s kind of the biggest gripe I have with my story. Too many characters. Kind of inevitable with the kind of story I wrote, and the plot armor being as thin as paper, but still.

  My novel is 250 pages, and when I wrote general notes of things I wanted to edit, my bullet point notes ended up 20 pages long. Lucid Core is 470 pages long, but some of those pages are after chapter notes, including this one, so I’ll call the actual story 450 pages long. (Google docs calls it 250k words long, which sounds about right)

  I don’t even want to imagine how long my editing notes for Lucid Core would be… *shudder*

  When writing, I like to consider a theme, and how the elements of the story can relate to said theme. I hinted at it in my notes a few chapters back. Any guesses as to what the theme was!? My intention was for it to be: Subservience and its Relationship with Power. Sounds deep right? But hopefully you can see how it relates to dungeons that overwrite free will, and powerful factions like the church entirely forcing compliance within the kingdom. If I were to rewrite Lucid Core (without the time constraints of posting chapter by chapter), I’d change so much about how the church is depicted to better highlight the theme. I debated talking about slavery somewhere, but decided in the end that dungeons fulfilled the same role but better.

  I’d also like to point out the church’s in-universe motivations of stopping dungeons wherever they pose threats. It’s supposed to doubly tie into the theme by depicting the power the church wields, to be able to decide for themselves which power people should serve. The Kingdom, the God Core, or other dungeons. Power vs subservience.

  A better writer could have approached the same topic, with the same universe I created here, and wrote a much better story. Make it more concise, in depth, etc.

  I am a better writer. Well, better than this at least. Even before starting Lucid Core I knew I could write better than what I presented here, but I also acknowledged that it would take a number of drafts for me to get it to a point where I was proud of it. Don’t get me wrong, I’m proud that I finished Lucid Core, but that’s not the same thing as being proud of the end product. It has its flaws, but it’s done. And I can be very proud of that.

  It’s been a journey to get here. It started back just before November. I thought to myself that I could attempt my first NaNoWriMo and challenge myself to post one chapter a week. Something good and polished. Obviously, that never happened. Royal Road introduced a challenge to write 55,555 words in 5 weeks, and I was determined to get it. Ever since then, I’ve been writing a minimum of 2,500 words a day, each day. It’s forced me into a schedule, and I can’t see my life without it anymore. I will be forever grateful for the learning opportunity and the challenges Lucid Core presented to me. Through it all, I’ve objectively become a better writer.

  Whether or not I’m a better storyteller? That’s a whole other issue.

  I mentioned in an author’s note in an earlier chapter, but I finished the novel I was putting off by writing this! And this time, I’m proud of it. Sure, it still has some nit-picks, but I’m confident that with one more edit, I can get it to a publishable state. I also mentioned that if anyone wanted to, I’d offer it to you to read. However, it comes with a small stipulation. Since it’s still in beta (late phases, but still), I’d like to ask that if anyone wants to read it, that you give me some feedback on it. What you like, what you don’t like, etc. You don’t have to give me a full, comprehensive review, I have actual beta readers for that, but I’ll leave the decision up to you.

  Here’s the first chapter, to entice those who just might not be sure:

  And here’s the blurb!

  ***

  Eric has been summoned to another world. After the people that summoned him abandon him, he must follow the two mages that have been following the mysterious group and their nefarious deeds in order to find any answers. Why was he brought here? Who brought him here? He’ll discover the darkness hidden beneath this fantastical world, and the unique danger such a world brings.

  ***

  It’s a whole other universe, with its own set of rules and stuff, but it’s still fantasy, magic, knights, and dragons. My specialty. You’ll also notice that it doesn’t really have a name. I’d love suggestions if you have any! A better blurb wouldn’t go amiss either.

  If you’d like to read my novel, you can either DM me, or post a comment below! I’ll send you a DM with a link to the full story!

  But overall, that’s it from me. If this wasn’t a one sided conversation, I’d have so much more to talk about. Themes, character creation, the decisions that go on behind the scenes about what elements of a story I should introduce or whatever else you could imagine. I’d love to do an in depth criticism of my own story, like I do when I beta read other peoples stories, but I just can’t see myself looking past my own bias. Plus, that’d mean I’d have to read through the whole story over again, taking notes along the way. Too much work for something that was just for fun, lol.

  Anyways, one last time, if you liked the story, or even if you didn’t, please give it an honest rating. It’s been an honor to have you here.

  Cheers