MTL - Tomb Robbery: Starting From the Classic of Mountains and Seas - Chapter 59

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!

NOTE: cover art is a commission done by Ripcorez a fellow author on here and amazing artist. If you like his work, don’t hesitate to reach out to him with a request for a commission of your own

Samuel Foster would be turning 18 in two weeks. He grew up in a fairly normal low case family home with his parents and two younger siblings. The thing out of the ordinary was he knew for as long as he could remember he would be getting married at 18 to a girl he never had met before due to a promise his family had made.

Lena Scarlet, Princess Scarlet was feared by many, respected and loved by everyone near her. Deadly as she was calm, her one annoyance in life was the arranged married he father decided upon before she was born. Being fiercely independent and trained to protect herself, she never felt the need for a relationship or marriage as she fully capable of taking care of all her needs.

However, a promise was a promise and whether either of them liked it or not, their parents were at least going to force them to live together before calling the wedding off.

Please give the book a chance. I’m not the greatest of synopsis writers, as I am sure some of you can tell and the book may be slow at first due to the setup and lead in. But I promise it will getting more interesting as it goes along.

Scene excerpt from the story:

“You didn’t happen to think it was important to tell before now?! The princess was furious with the other woman.

“I..” She paused for a second to swallow,

“I never thought that it would come down to this. I promise though that they wouldn’t do anything terrible.”

“They said the same thing to my father.. but they were wrong. I don’t trust anyone’s word.” The princess replied standing up. The more her anger rose, the darker her eyes got.

“You should just be fortunate that I am not my father. Do you know what he did when faced with a similar situation?” with no reply, she continued

“He killed almost all of them. You could say it was a massacre. Me, I won’t got that far, but if anything happens to him, I will personally kill the person who touches him.”

Sometimes. You face a choice in your life

“Choose. Between the two of them. Whom will you save, Michael Aroa?”

You look back into your life and wonder how you ended up here

“Michael please!! Save your mother!! Not me. Michael you don’t need to make a choice here!! Michael! I love you! I won’t hate you for your choices!! Please save your mother!!”

You question the path that you took that brought you to this point

“Son. She is your wife! She has your child. It’s not one life over another but two over one. I am already old but she has a long life. You are smart enough to make the right decision, Son, aren’t you?”

Since it hurts, you wish you could stop time and have some time to think

[Activating Ability: Temporal Pause!!]

[Activation failed!! Not enough Energy!!]

You wish to go back into the past and change everything that led you to here

[Activating Ability: Time Reverse!!]

[Activation Failed!! You don’t have the Requirements to use this ability!!]

And then when nothing works as it shouldn’t.

[Are you sure you want to use this ability?]

You make a decision that you had never thought you would

[Activating ability!]

And then... Chaos ensues

[Ability Activated]

[God Power: Time Collapse]

“Gege, what does cultivating feelings mean?? Is kissing when you eat someone’s mouth?? How are children born??” The 3-year-old Xiao Tu likes to chase after her ChangZhi gege and ask questions…

Ten years old Cheng Zhiyan had always seemed been studious and hardworking. However, when he heard these three questions, he was stunned and fled in an instant… until one day, a certain thirteen-year-old Xiao Tu pressed Cheng Zhiyan to the wall and kissed him. Then she smacked her lips to savor the taste and said: “It turns out that when you kiss orange juice, it really taste like orange juice ah…” the always calm and indifferent Cheng ZhiYan, once again fled in defeat.

**TN: ChengZhi Yan’s name sounds like orange juice

- Description from Novelupdates