So, why am I making this post? Well, at the start of April I saw Writathon was starting and I needed a change of pace from the other things I'm working on, so I pulled up an old doc I had started last year. I wasn't sure it would take, but, well, I ended up writing more than enough to "win" Writathon, if I actually bothered posting it. Which I didn't, for various reasons, but as you may have already guessed, I am posting now!
This new story is a monster evolution time loop LitRPG called Re:Chimaera. Here's the blurb:
A crazy wizard bound my soul and turned me into a monster!
My memories, lost; my body, an amalgamation of different parts; my soul, crammed into the core of a creation called chimaera.
Despair was interrupted by curiosity. After killing and eating something for the first time, I started to learn about my new powers.
Just as I was beginning to find happiness in my new life, the wizard blew up time itself. I should have died, but somehow I survived and found myself starting the whole thing all over again!
A monster evolution time loop LitRPG about becoming the best chimaera possible in order to save the world... and the friends we meet along the way.
I wanted to preemptively answer a few potential questions about this story, so here we go.
Is this story for you? All I know about you, the reader, is that you were here for Worldseed, and are presumably reading this post now because you enjoyed it enough to keep following it. Re:Chimaera is not more Worldseed. There are going to be some similarities, given that I'm the author of both and they're both reincarnation LitRPGs, but in most other ways I'd say they're different. While I wouldn't particularly call Worldseed complicated or deep, Re:Chimaera is still simpler, or maybe, shallower, or at the very least more straightforward. Not that Pilus wasn't pursuing power, as he often was, but this story's MC only really chases power, at least in terms of the story's narrative. There's also a more clearly defined end goal, with sub goals along the way.
If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
So what's there to like or dislike about this story? While I'm not getting super crunchy about numbers, it's a pretty quick-paced weak-to-strong progression for MC. Since MC doesn't really have memories, there's not so much science and logic (just a bit of biology. Gotta have something!) I tried to keep things moving, but I think my characters will always do a bit too much rumination; in this story, that's more with regards to skill choice and build. This story is still pretty low in dialogue, since MC can't actually speak, but I have been trying to take in feedback I got from Worldseed in order to write more accessible stories. Part of that means I tried adding more side characters and getting MC involved with the people around them. I'm also not doing as much world-building in this story; I'm borrowing monsters from D&D and popular fantasy, though I'm also making up some of my own or tweaking things around to work better as I go.
What's the long-term plan for this? Well, I do intend to do my best with this story, as it is, but it's a simpler story and will probably have a shorter run than Worldseed. I have to say, though, that Re:Chimaera is not what I thought my next story would be. This is more of a side-project, I suppose. It's more just something light and fun for me to work on. I think I can finish it this year. If you don't like it, no worries, it'll come and go and make way for something else. I've got two other stories that I'm taking more seriously which I would consider my next big projects (more on that later.) Both of those stories will probably run longer than Worldseed, with more of a plan for continuous serialization. For Re:Chimaera, we're looking at shorter chaps, quicker progress, and defined bosses to beat on the way to the end.
Obviously, since today's the day I'm posting the first chapter, you might not want to jump in right away with so little content. Check back in a couple weeks or months, if need be! If you do decide to check it out right from the jump and read it as it gets released the whole time, I'm extremely grateful. Early views, and especially early follows, favorites, ratings, and reviews will really help the story, though my expectations are low (I can't realistically expect the same kind of success Worldseed had.) But wait, there's more, you can read ahead of chapter one already!
Let's jump down to the post-chapter author note so I can add some links.
Re:Chimaera, what else I've been working on, and what I plan to release in the future, you can check out this . It's got some crossover with what I wrote above, so there's some repetition, but it's a broader view of what's to come and why. Also, yes, I have a Patreon now! I should have done this in the first place with Worldseed, but oh well. (Side note, if you're still a member over on Ko-fi, please .)
begun posting on Patreon. I'm going to keep it a couple of weeks ahead of here for the Party Member tier. I'm going to be posting chapters daily for the next two weeks here, like I did on Patreon, then switching to the same MWF I'm doing now. I'm going to have a solid go at writing and posting consistently moving forward, as opposed to the way I posted Worldseed (which was pretty much either daily or on total hiatus.)
other next story on Tuesday and Thursday: . This will be posting for the Hero tier first, and I talk a bit about my thought process about that . This is more likely what you'd expect from me after reading Worldseed, though it has plenty of differences as well. Stylistically, though, it's similar. As I mention in the previous linked post, this is the "earliest" I've ever posted any of my writing; it's still very much a WIP as I post it to for Heroes, which means I'm a lot more open to feedback, though I do still have my own plans that I mostly intend to stick to.
will eventually make it to Royal Road, so please don't feel any need to join my Patreon if times are tough for you. I'd appreciate you joining as a free member so I have a better way of pushing updates to you, like when I take applications for ARCs for Worldseed's final publication, but I'll likely do that here as well.
Patreon and on the new fiction page for Re:Chimaera. I appreciate you!