Konung Bjørn Sharptooth, ruler of Vintervald, has announced a Great Trial. Whoever emerges victorious shall be wed to the konung's daughter, Princess Astrid.
In accordance with ancient custom, for the duration of the Great Trial, a ceasefire is declared in Northland. Sworn enemies in the midst of bloody war must put down their weapons, and all those worthy of the princess' hand may come to the capital to try their luck.
Carl III, wanting to impede Northlander raids into his northern borderlands, decides to conclude an alliance with the konung and sends his youngest son Prince Louis to Vintervald to take part in the Great Trial.
Impressed by Max Renard's mastery as a swordsman, Prince Louis invites him to join the northern embassy, to which Max Renard agrees. After all, the trip to the north with the embassy will serve as a great cover story for him to complete a secret mission from the Duke de Bauffremont.
And while the powers that be think they've found an obedient agent, Max Renard will put his own plan into action.
Heinrich de Gramont's petition to the king to release Max Renard from his duty to serve at Westerly Fort has been signed. Max's debt to the crown has been paid. And now his 'doting' uncle expects his wayward and petulant nephew to come to the capital at once so he can be wed to Viscountess Aurelie de Marbot.
Max knows there's no getting out of a trip to the capital this time. Also, beyond personal affairs, he has a lot of questions both for his father's brother and a number of maternal relatives. And so, Max decides to make for Herouxville to see with his own eyes just how far blood ties can take him.
No one knows for certain what caused the Shadow to come into existence. Clerics say it was the gods laying a curse upon this world. Philosophers maintain that the Shadow of Strix is nothing short of a blessing and new milestone in human progress. But both sides agree that the Shadow will eventually swallow up this world and change it beyond recognition.
However, there are also the mages, and they think the whole debate is just so much hot air. They accept the Shadow as is with all its horrors and wonders. Furthermore, for the last several centuries, mages have risked their lives attempting to harness the Shadow's Power for themselves.
Unsurprisingly, only a select few have access to knowledge about the Shadow's magic. Max Renard understands that, so he chooses a different and more hazardous path. He decides to head for the frontier himself to experience the Shadow's Power firsthand.
For Olgerd, the month in recovery which followed his month-long full immersion stint in Mirror World may have felt like a single day. But while he relaxed in the bosom of his loving family, in-game events progressed in leaps and bounds.
The clans of both Light and Dark continue their lightning expansion into No-Man's Lands. Reports of violent clashes between clan scouts-both with other contestants and local top-level monsters-fill the pages of game and multimedia news feeds as everyone is trying to win the juiciest morsels of these new territories for themselves.
Olgerd knows that the Dark players still have a grudge against him-and that their rickety truce with the players of Light might be broken at any moment. Then the valleys of the Silver Mountains will fall prey to new invaders.
Olgerd needs to help the Calteans mount defenses for their new settlement. Which means it's time for him to get back into the game.
In a former life, Jack was gifted, meaning he possessed peculiar abilities. If rich folks found themselves in a jam, Jack could use his talents to get them out of it. Where others were sure to fail, Jack's aristocratic clientele could always count on him to finish jobs cleanly, efficiently, and leave no trace, for which his services commanded a hefty fee.
But one day, Jack picked a fight with the wrong man and his old life came to an end. But, as it turned out, his story was far from over.
A mysterious supernatural being whisked Jack's consciousness away and into the body of a young nobleman living in a different world in the multiverse-a magical one.
In it, he must play the part of Max Renard, illegitimate son of a traitor who was recently executed on orders from the king, which caused Max to lose his home and be forced to dwell in a small town on the western outskirts of the kingdom.
And now this new life-his last life-is the one he must lead . . .
The battle with the horde of necromorphs is lost. Foreston has been overrun by Dark fiends. The foxfolk have been forced to abandon their homes and seek salvation on the far side of Narrow Lake.
Its main city lost, the Order of Monster Hunters finds itself on the brink of destruction. And now deprived of their chief ally, the gnomes are left all alone to take on the army of the Steel King.
Eric's attempts to halt his foe's advance have all come to naught-Alrak the Heartless and the other Dark primordials are simply too powerful.
To cover his friends' retreat, Eric makes use of forbidden magic, for which the Great System strips him of his rank as magister and declares him an apostate.
In spite of the crushing defeat and grievous wound, Eric's will is not yet broken. And although he has become a renegade in the eyes of yesterday's friends and allies, Eric will keep up the fight against Darkness!
A Eric Bergman le solían tratar como a un marginado, un tullido y un bicho. Algunos se compadecían de él, otros se retorcían en su presencia, mientras que otros aún se burlaban de él. Él mismo incluso pensaba que había nacido maldito por los dioses. Pero poco a poco, todo eso cambió. Lo que una vez fue considerado un defecto o fallo, se transformó en una ventaja. Y Eric aprendió lentamente a usarlo en su beneficio. Eric y sus amigos escapan de la Colmena del Maestro Chi, viajan sobre la estepa de los orcos y a través del Bosque de Piedras, haciéndoles todo eso más fuertes. Durante sus viajes, Eric descubre que su hermano mayor nunca fue a los Páramos, y que a sus padres les mintieron sobre lo que realmente le pasó. Eric se promete a sí mismo descubrir la verdad sobre su hermano perdido. Más allá de eso, cuanto más se encuentra con la sombría herencia de la Orden de Cazadores de Monstruos, más se da cuenta de lo peligroso que es el juego en el que el hombre-zorro lo ha metido. Avanzando a través de las tierras fronterizas hacia su ciudad natal, a pocos días de la Horda de Orcos, Eric aún no sabe que su aventura acaba de empezar.
The skies of the Dark Continent teem with ravening beasts. Thousands of refugees are at the gates of Foreston seeking salvation from a mysterious scourge.
The Wastes are infested with herds of bloodthirsty necromorphs that devour every living thing in their path. A Dark Gateway has opened in the Stone Forest, allowing a horde of otherworldly monsters to come flooding through.
Adversaries from time immemorial are gathering armies and amassing forces. Ancient enemies are forming alliances. The world of the Great System stands once again on the precipice of change. A new war is coming.
After sealing the otherworldly portal, Eric becomes a Magister of the order of monster hunters. From now on, as head of the once mighty organization, he gains power over all its riches.
But Eric is aware that he won't be able do it on his own. And reviving what is popularly referred to as 'the dead order' won't be enough. He also has to assert its right to exist because its ancient enemy is on the lookout!
Very soon the Steel King will realize that his plan to get back the Crown, a most powerful artifact and symbol of the royal dynasty's authority, has failed. Need it be said who will suffer all his wrath?
Eric realizes a great battle is coming, one like those described in the ancient chronicles. He also realizes that in the upcoming showdown he will need loyal and powerful helpers at his side. And thus, after defying Darkness, Eric's path takes him to the Undermountain Kingdom of the Gnomes. According to ancient legends and tales, that is where he will find Gramner the Fourarmed and convince the great blacksmith to perform the hatching ritual in the Forge of the True Flame.
After wiping out the drak nest, Eric finds himself now also in a trap. In order to avoid dying in a cave-in, he activates the manuscript he received for defeating the Lady of the Anomaly. A portal then whisks Eric away to the lookout point atop the mysterious Citadel of Chaos.
The entrance to the Citadel is guarded by the Gatekeeper, a huge troll encased head to toe in a suit of plate armor. Thanks to his Friend of the Trolls amulet, Eric manages to avoid fighting him and passes the Gatekeeper's first test and can enter the Citadel of Chaos to partake in its mysteries.
Eric isn't interested in its mysteries though and he tells the troll as much directly. He even goes so far as to say he would rather just go on his merry way and leave the Citadel. But the Gatekeeper informs Eric that he will not be able to leave quite so easily because now that he has activated the manuscript, he must undergo a test known as Unity with Chaos!
What if Eric is able to pass the test? Will Chaos grant him power?
Eric ha sobrevivido donde personas mucho más fuertes que él han encontrado su muerte. Y no solo eso: logró activar su suministro mágico, domesticar a uno de los monstruos de mazmorra más peligrosos, encontrar la antigua ciudad de los cazadores de monstruos y rescatar a Jay, la niña abandonada por los exploradores en la guarida de Gulper. Dejó las Mazmorras de las Montañas Torcidas detrás de él. Ahora su camino lo lleva a Orchus, donde nuestro mago recién acuñado tiene la intención de finalmente liberarse de su juramento de pago de deudas. Pero tan pronto como Eric y Jay descienden al valle, descubren que los barones locales han sido atacados por los hombres del joven Corwin que han arrasado las propiedades de sus vecinos, saqueando y saqueando. Esto hace que la tarea de Eric sea aún más difícil: tiene que regresar a su ciudad natal sin terminar en las garras de sus enemigos. Uno pensaría que su cautela natural y los agudos instintos de su mascota Gorgie harían de este viaje un paseo por el parque, pero la voluble Lady Luck tiene sus propias ideas. . . Una vez más, Eric se ve arrastrado a un vórtice sangriento de peligros.
Eric nació en un mundo gobernado por el Gran Sistema, en la familia de Aren Bergman, un respetado minero de Orhus. Este alegre acontecimiento en la familia Bergman se ensombreció por una terrible enfermedad del recién nacido. Eric era totalmente nulo -de nivel cero y sin puntos de características-. Y lo único que le mantenían vivo eran las pequeñas fuentes de "vida" y de "energía". La curandera que se ocupó del parto creyó que lo que pasó había sido por un truco del espíritu maligno llamado Bug. El "nulo" Eric no podía utilizar las esencias de experiencia y las tablas de características debido a las leyes peculiares del Gran Sistema, por lo que se arriesgaba a pasar toda su vida confinado a estar en cama. Sin embargo, su padre encontró una solución. Tomó un enorme préstamo en el banco y se fue a la capital a comprar en el mercado negro los artefactos de los Antiguos, los cuales no poseían limitaciones de nivel. A pesar de la existencia de estos artefactos, Eric seguía estando muy débil y para todos los de su alrededor continuaba siendo un bicho raro. No obstante, él ya podía moverse por su cuenta, y eso les dio esperanza a los Bergman. Pero, desgraciadamente, no por mucho tiempo... Cuando Eric cumplió catorce años, sus padres fallecieron en una mina. El banco se quedó con su casa y envió a Eric a trabajar en las Mazmorras de las Montañas Torcidas para pagar el resto de la deuda. Y así fue como comenzó la lucha del niño "nulo" por su supervivencia...
