MTL - After Crossing, I Marked the Empress - Chapter 200 trace exposure

Zorian is a teenage mage of humble birth and slightly above-average skill, attending his third year of education at Cyoria’s magical academy.

He is a driven and irritable young man, consumed by a desire to ensure his own future and free himself of the influence of his family, whom he resents for favoring his brothers over him. Consequently, he has no time for pointless distractions or paying attention to other people’s problems.

As it happens, time is something he is about to get plenty of. On the eve of the Cyoria’s annual summer festival, he is killed and brought back to the beginning of the month, just before he was about to take a train to Cyoria.

Suddenly trapped in a time loop with no clear end or exit, Zorian will have to look both within and without to unravel the mystery before him. And he does have to unravel it, for the time loop hadn’t been made for his sake and dangers lurk everywhere…

Repetition is the mother of learning, but Zorian will have to first make sure he survives to try again — in a world of magic, even a time traveler isn’t safe from those who wish him ill.

Lan Xi made a mistake during her interstellar travel and landed on Earth.

As the princess of Planet Moyi, she decided to save herself. First, solve the money problem.

So she took out the “Guide to Conquering Earthlings 2003 Edition” that experts from Planet Moyi had carefully compiled years ago –

“Chapter 1 How to Elegantly Make Money”:

“Beginner’s Guide: Find a high-end building, take a broken bowl, and sit there for a day to elegantly make enough money to spend for one day.”

However, after sitting bitterly for a day, Lan Xi didn’t make a penny and was driven away by security guards –

“Don’t sit here begging, President Xie already criticized us for negligence! Besides, it’s not that era anymore, beggars use QR codes now!”

No problem, there’s still –

“Intermediate Guide: Find a luxury car, pretend to be hit by it, lie on the ground paralyzed, and you can elegantly make enough money to spend for three months.”

However, before Lan Xi could lie down, a driver got out of the car –

“We have dash cams installed! Move away quickly, President Xie is in a hurry. I’ll sue you if you try this scam again!”

This tactic also failed. But no worries, there’s still –

“Ultimate Guide: Find a rich Earthling, conquer him, marry him, and you can elegantly make enough money to spend for a lifetime.”

Very well, might as well go all out and get it done once and for all!

Lan Xi already had a perfect candidate in mind, the boss of the company she begged at on the first day, the owner of the luxury car – Xie Cheng!

Xie Cheng met a strange beautiful woman.

On the first day, she begged at the door of his company;

On the second day, she staged a car accident scam on him;

On the third day, she blocked him in an alley, with a face of great mercy –

“I really like your money, I hope it becomes mine.”

“So I’ve decided to marry you.”

She coughed –

“Are you going to voluntarily be conquered by me, or be forcibly conquered by me?”

[Story background is Earth in 2023 AD]

Jiang Yuan traveled to a fantasy world.

His father was a big boss in the county, and he originally thought that he was rich and honored in brocade clothes.

Unexpectedly, his father was robbed while walking the darts, and the whole army was wiped out.

Overnight, everyone stared at the Wanguan family property left by his father.

Fortunately, he has already awakened the luck panel, which can be used to upgrade his own luck talent by considering other people’s innate luck.

Strong body (white) → extraordinary physique (green) → dragon and tiger body (blue) →??? (gold)

Outstanding savvy (green) →? ? ? (gold)

 …

[Longevity without Borders (Purple)]: Increase your lifespan for ten thousand years and keep your youth forever!

[Ancient double pupils (gold)]: Born with double pupils, the human emperor’s vision is equivalent to the ancient human emperor alive, with peerless talent.

[Five-color divine light (gold)]: Innate supernatural powers, once sacrificed, within the five elements, there is nothing that cannot be brushed and nothing that cannot be broken!

[Never fall into reincarnation (red)]: It is a taboo by nature, never fall into reincarnation, and can always keep the true spirit unaware of reincarnation and rebirth.

The luck entries one by one constitute the peerless genius!

And he also found that he could continuously gain innate luck and accumulate upgrades.

Talent has become unrivaled in the past, and gradually embarked on the road of invincibility.

- Description from novelbuddy

Warning This fiction contains:

Graphic Violence Profanity Sensitive Content

Summary – Level 1:

Delve is an isekai litrpg that follows an average guy who just happened to wake up in a forest one day. He wasn’t summoned to defeat the demon lord or to save the world or anything like that, at least as far as he can tell. The only creature there to greet him was a regular old squirrel.

Soon enough, he meets other people, only to discover that he can’t speak the language, and that not everybody immediately trusts random pajama-wearing strangers they met in the middle of the wilderness. Things generally go downhill from there, at least until the blue boxes start appearing.

Delve is a story about finding your way in a new, strange, and dangerous world. It’s about avoiding death, figuring out what the heck is going on, and trying to make some friends along the way. It’s not about getting home, so much as finding a new one.

Did I mention that there will be math?

Summary – Level 2:

Okay, but what are you in for, really?

Well, this story is supposed to be realistic, or at least, as realistic as a fantasy litrpg can be. The main character doesn’t instantly become an all-powerful god and murder-hobo his way across the universe. Delve is, at its heart, a progression fantasy, but that progression is meant to feel earned. The numbers in this story actually mean something. Everything is calculated, and if you find a rounding error, I expect you to tell me about it. That said, if math isn’t your cup of tea, there is plenty more that the story has to offer. Characters are meant to feel real, and progression isn’t only about personal power; it’s also about allies, connections, and above all, knowledge. Figuring out how the system works is a significant theme.

...

What, you want more details? Okay, fine, but this is going to get a bit spoiler-y. Are you sure?

Yes!

Really sure? I mean, this summary is practically half as long as the first chap–

Now!

Okay, okay!

The main character becomes a magic user, but he takes a route that is not very popular in adventurer culture, namely that of a support. There is a full magic system with various spells, skills, and abilities, but our MC decides that aura magic is the way to go, and that the only stat worth investing in is mana regeneration. Most people at the Adventurer’s Guild think that this makes him a bit of a dumbass, but he’s playing the long game. We’ll see how that works out for him, won’t we?

Because of his build, the MC levels up fast, at least compared to normal people. There are no cheats, though, and he is limited in other ways. There are some clear and pretty obvious downsides to his build. That’s what makes it fun, no?

Morals? Our MC has them. Again, we’ll see how that works out for him. Realism, remember? Would you be okay with killing someone and looting their body? I sure hope not.

POV? The focus is on the main character, but there will be occasional varying perspectives from people around him, or involved in the events related to the main plot. It isn’t going to jump all over the place.

Tech is standard medieval stasis. No smartphones, but the MC does have a technical background. Computers and their programming might be involved. There might even be a bit of uplifting down the road, who knows? Anyway, it isn’t the focus. He isn’t going to invent the gun in chapter 1 and change the face of warfare.

Romance is not a major focus. Friendships are more the name of the game, though there will be some characters in romantic relationships.

There is exploration, though not as much of the geographical nature as you might expect. It is more about exploration of the system and the culture.

The pace is slow and detailed, sometimes verging on slice-of-life. The action is meant to be realistic and grounded in the numbers, and it is intended to have meaning beyond simply punching things until they stop moving.

The general tone of the story is grey, and some parts can get quite dark. People die. Sometimes, people with names, but not anywhere near GoT level. There is plenty of light, too, though, to balance the darkness. The world is dangerous, but overcoming that danger is why we’re all here, isn’t it?

Anyway, if you’ve made it this far through the summary, you clearly like words. I hope you enjoy the story!