Stranger's Handbook - Chapter 16: Training with the Soldiers

After years of exile, Marcus is coming back home. A powerful mage with few equals, Marcus lives in a world full of monsters and powerful adepts, many of which have bad histories with him. But he has not come back to pursue vengeance or start a fight. All Marcus wants to do is reconnect with old friends, build himself a house, and maybe train a successor or two.Alas, the world didn’t stop just because Marcus went into exile, and not everyone is content to let go of old grievances. Strange things are happening in the world at large, too, hinting at a looming disaster of unknown nature. Still, where there is a will, there is a way.If nothing else, Marcus has a lot of magical power to throw at problems.+++Zenith of Sorcery is set in its own original setting and isn’t related to Mother of Learning… beyond being written by the same person, of course. This is a more classical fantasy story than my previous one, with a lower level of technology and stuff like elves and dwarves, but it has a lot of worldbuilding effort put into it and its own complex magical system. The story has significant xianxia influences, but isn’t meant to be a xianxia story.For those of you not familiar with my previous work, I write relatively slowly. I intend to publish chapters at the rate of one chapter every three or four weeks, subject to further delays as life intervenes.

“Everyone deserves a happy ending, don’t they?”…In the brutal fantasy RPG Fall of Ares, saving the world came at a cruel price — the deaths of every heroine the player had grown to love. No matter how skilled you were, their sacrifices were inevitable. The game warned you not to get attached.But one young man did.After beating the game and lamenting their tragic fates, he wakes up in its world — reborn as an extra, armed with one mission from a mysterious system:[Change their endings. Let them live.]Now enrolled at Mysteria Academy alongside the heroines doomed to die, he must rewrite fate itself. For every girl he saves, he’s rewarded. But the world resists change. Calamities draw closer. The true enemy — the Children of the Sky — are watching.And one of the heroines… remembers it all.

I traverse along the pathway of darkness and imagination…

In an era where humans and demons compete in fierce battles for survival, the Hero has fallen.“…I will take your place.”Thus began the deception of the fake Hero.If exposed, it could mean the destruction of humanity.…But the imposter is just too good at it.[Academia], [Professor], [Hero]