Toaru Majutsu no Index - Volume 16, Afterword

“Doc, it’s like the game I made is becoming a reality.”“Isn’t that nice? People are under so much pressure at work these days, but you can get away from it all, play the game, and live the life of your dreams.”“But I’m a famous ghost story game designer, I’ve conceived one hundred and twenty-six mu*der cases, portrayed dozens of mu*derers with different personalities, and to find material I’ve watched ninety-five thriller movies, more than four hundred horror comics, and collected more than two thousand urban weird tales. Now they all seem to be true!”“So …… do I look familiar to you?”

The poor Commandery Princess is down and out. Her father died when she was young, and her mother passed away not long ago. Her grandfather, the only one she can rely on, is now at death’s door from his illness. Faced with the merciless uncle, the greedy aunts, as well as cousins competing to present the model of the worst relatives, the Commandery Princess could do nothing but feel depressed in heart.

Unite the Clans? Create an Empire?Atrox Soryu thought he was destined for greatness… until he wasn’t.Born into the smaller Soryu Clan, Atrox was a prodigy, praised for his unparalleled swordsmanship and relentless ambition. He vowed to become Emperor of the Eternal Skies, a title that hadn't been claimed in centuries. But on the day he was to manifest his Order Mark—the source of every knight’s power—everything went wrong.Instead of the revered Holy, Elemental, or Mystic Orders, Atrox was branded with a Forbidden Order: Something twisted and wrong. A death sentence in the eyes of the world. Branded a monster and exiled by his own father, Atrox was cast into a brutal labor camp where the weak are crushed, and the strong are barely tolerated.But exile isn’t the end—it’s the beginning. In the harshest of conditions, Atrox awakens the full potential of his forbidden powers, powers that could rival even the strongest Knights. He will forge alliances with the forgotten, turn his enemies into allies, and rise from the shadows to build an empire from nothing.Betrayed, exiled, and broken? No. Atrox Soryu is building an empire—and the Eternal Skies will bow to him.

In the grand world of Nova, many different races exist such as elves, humans, dwarves and beastmen and through years of war, strife and competition the world has grown, becoming home to great empires and countries throughout the oceans and five continents. However, to the great creators the world has become stagnant and boring, ever since the calamity that was the Church of Light and their Holy White empire.

Now the Dark God has created a new race after years upon years of dedicated effort. A species that is like none other and his hope for Nova’s future….Dungeon cores, beings that have the ability to reshape the very world itself, entering the domain of the gods.

Join Frost a newly born first generation Dungeon core as he embarks upon his journey within Nova and carves out his place in the world. How will the world’s current denizens react to his birth? Will they be friends or foes? And most of all how the Light God react to this new addition to the world, will he accept them or seek to destroy them?

This novel incorporates dungeon building and management but most of that won’t fully take off until the later volumes when Frost has much more floors and money to play around with. This is not a solely dungeon story as the MC Frost will have to explore and interact with the world of Nova much like how an adventurer would and forewarning the story is slow. There’s a lot of details and avenues which the story goes into, not simply battles, wars and action, it follows all aspects of Frost’s life, his growth and interactions with Nova not only as a Dungeon core but also as a person.