Echoed Lands

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

Summary

Colm Arden, a diligent computer programmer, had worked tirelessly to build a successful career. Years of studying and dedication had paid off, allowing him to settle into a comfortable, remote job. However, the routine of his days had grown monotonous, leaving him feeling stuck in an unchanging cycle.

That all changed when a mysterious rift tore through his reality, pulling him into an unknown land. Alone in a forest reeking of decay and teeming with strange, deadly creatures, Colm finds himself far from home with no allies to rely on. Armed only with his wits and strange new abilities, he must navigate this hostile world, uncover its secrets, and fight to survive.

About this Book

This is a LitRPG story that blends combat and leveling with a journey of self-discovery. As Colm battles through challenges and grows stronger, he also works to break free from the habits of his past life on Earth. Determined to create a meaningful existence, Colm strives to make a real impact on the world around him while pushing himself to greater heights.

Schedule

I release new chapters every Monday, Wednesday, and occasionally Friday at 9AM Eastern Time.

Author's Note

This story is going to have a lot of fighting and a lot of numbers for that nice dopamine hit.It’s going to be a mostly solo story, with a few smaller arcs that bring in group dynamics to help flesh out character depth and build the world. Writing this has been a blast, and I genuinely hope you all enjoy it as much as I’ve enjoyed creating it. I’ll be the first to admit I’m not the best writer out there, and honestly, I never saw myself doing this. But after years of reading LitRPG and getting completely hooked on the genre, I realized I had stories and ideas I wanted to share. Seeing the incredible interaction between authors and the community inspired me to take the leap, and here I am, hoping to join in and contribute to this world I love so much. Thanks for being here, and I hope you enjoy the journey!

I don't want this to be a never-ending story; I want it to have a dedicated ending. My estimate for this is to be about 500 chapters but its hard to give an exact number. After finishing this work, I’d love to continue creating more stories in the same universe. I aim to develop a massive and ever-expanding cohesive storyline across books and characters.

One thing I want to mention is that I have this story flagged as AI-Assisted. As a first-time writer, after writing a few chapters of this story, I was unhappy with my result and felt it fell below my standards. I specifically use it to help with spell-checking and grammar.

I understand that because of this it will deter some folks and I completely respect that.

The cover art is likely temporary. I commissioned a couple of pieces, but the results didn’t quite capture my vision. Ultimately, I created my own using AI and tweaked it into something I felt fit the story better.

Information

Status: Hiatus
Year: 2025
Author: Arhend

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.4/ 5.0
Followers: 979
Views: 310,751

Chapters(117 total)

Reviews

No reviews yet. Be the first to share your thoughts!

Community Reviews(10)

Dhe suraRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
DO TRY GOOD READ
Very good story telling there is some lag but worth it tbh
The flashbacks into his character the how of his circumstances felt real
The power system and abilities were interesting but a bit too lengthy for my taste at this point I'm just rambling on for the word count.
Normalguy19Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Reading this has been fruitful. The combat system is good as are litrpg elements. The story is shaping up awesomely and progress is eventful. Like it a lot. The words are flowing smoothly and since it's good there is no boredom. English is my second language so please forgive me for any spelling and grammatical mistakes. Thank you author for making day.
JHARoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I'm really enjoying the story so far.
I like the fast pacing and the variety of scenarios.
The main character makes rational decisions and reacts realistically,
especially considering that he has been alone for multiple weeks.
Not a lot of world building yet, but I suppose that will come soon as well.
Lord_of_AvalonRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This is one of the immersive stories I've read yet. The main character is engaging. He has a personality beyond fighting and levelling up and then fight some more and saying some words and fighting even more and level up like most Litrpg MC do. The levelling is earned with swear, pain and blood, and you can feel the MCs efforts to power up. He struggles against foes and he is not the biggest bamf around just because he is the MC, though make no mistake he is plenty badass. Above all he is ignorant of lore and the system of the new world, and while his past and video gaming experience helps it no substitute for true knowledge and it becomes very clear as the story goes that he needs knowledge. However, this does not make the MC an idiot or stupid. He expirement and he practice and he makes mistakes but strive to learn from them. His phantoms despite not speaking have personalities of their own.
The grammar and tone shift are superb and the writing flows well. As far as I saw no grammatical mistakes in the story. In all I look forward to the next chapters.
AkuroRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
So far I like the story, just some minor points I don't like (sometimes he doesn't read in the library enough like skills in general and to get more) and the direction of the story is good and the big boss undead tha is looming hope the battle will be epic
MurkelRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
Ok, not bad, the story. Found it yesterday and read all there is right now.
Definitely has weaknesses, like one review stated, like the talking to himself, but also an exaggerated exhausting prose that reads like it's trying too hard, including circling back and repeating what was already stated one or more times with different words. Both problems became less over time though.
The grind is acceptably varied and interesting. Too many of the simple stories make it so boring like following an RPG game stream log, this story does it much better.
Also, I like that there is no great "tension", like many of the "sophisticated" stories have with lots of forces shown moving all against MC who has to save the kingdom or world. No, THIS here is what I want, much better.
I compared it to my favorite among the simple stories, Azarinth Healer, the kind of stories where I never have to fear for the MC and it still is very entertaining and interesting. This story does well enough in that comparison. The OP-ness of the MC also feels similarly.
I like the world too.
I'll keep reading and even recommend it in the "easy reading" sub category. It won't win any literary prices, but it takes the place of what used to be known as "dime novels" and it does well among its peers.
EstanforthRoyal Road
★★★★ 3.5
Talks too much for little to no reason.
He talks about things that is useless for him to say especially since no one else is there. Essentially, he's talking to the reader, though this means he's
constantly repeating information that the reader already knows. Examples:
he'd have lost or died without his spectral summons, they're his MVPs, the rat has magic,
he got too cocky and ended up in situations where it was more dangerous that it might have needed to be. The reader can figure this information out for themselves,
especially since it's not particularly deep information, however, the reader is escentially told this information by the narrator and by the MC and it gets irritating
very quickly.
When his Spirits die he says "this isn't good." The reader doesn't need to be told this and why would he have to say it out loud in the first place if it's not to
spoonfeed barebones information.
In chapter 10,
the fight against the Stone Gnawer, we are told something happens and then the MC repeats it. Ex: The rat's charge barely missed by inches,
MC: "almost didn't react in time," Should stick to the first because there's no reason for him to say that in the first place. He should be focused on the fight not
narrating it.
The Class selection is annoying because he's handed obviously overpowered Classes because the System wants his survival and success. If, in the future, there's no good
reason for wanting his survival and success then everything does out the window. The only possible reason I can think up is that the System or someone controlling it
wants the Echoed Lands cleaned and they can't get people there normally, thus gifting a powerful class and taking a chance on the MC.
The inscription that MC needs translated changes between normal English and an older form.
I like the outburst in chapter 13 because it shows that the silence is getting to him, though I think a more minor mental collapse would do good instead of telling
the reader it'd been a few weeks and he ju
NorrieRoyal Road
★★★ 3.0
Interesting read. Nothing really standing out but still entertaining in the way most litrpg without any major flaws tends to be.
One real complaint would be the author seems to have written themselves into an awkward situation. The only in story excuse for it would simply be the protagonist is extremely stupid and reckless to the levels of idiot shonen protagonists.
Basically the protagonist got a race that requires no rest or food, then he comes across a safe place with seemingly hundreds of books explaining so much of the world that he knows nothing about.
He reads 1 geographic book and part 1 of a dairy and calls it quits, and this is only after getting called out for being an idiot and ignoring the Library and walking around clueless/reckless for days.
This character is supposedly smart and not adverse to reading, so the conclusion I come to is author error. They gave the protagonist to much free time, no urgency or mission, and infinite information.
If this book ever got an Amazon release in the future like many do I feel like this part would need to be touched up. Maybe have the guild require certain things to access the library, or have some racial drawback that has the protagonist urgently need to go fight enemies. As it stands dude is just roaming around cluelessly picking up escort quests and running dungeons asking people obvious questions when he is supposed to be 'laying low'.
Sorry if this review got a little ranty I just got upset with the latest chapter.
TomTomsonRoyal Road
★★★ 3.0
At first, its feels like someones first novel, later it improves, becoming entertaining, that last until chapter 50ish afterwards down period comes, I though bait and switch happened, but not really, just focus of novel changes and what I loved is gone, mc not very likable, something between wet tissue and good hero without spec of cruelty, author introduced something to give excuse for mc lean into action, but its jarring, which may be what was intended. My biggest complaint and im guessing author big weakness as he doesn't know how else to write is mc never shuts up, at first was fine comments here and there, but it kept ramping up, its like no one bothered to tell author that, now its out of hand, im at chapter 87 and its obnoxious and insufferable, 60% most likely more is mc talking with himself, you know those novels that 90% is dialogue, yeah feels like that, you need to balance man. Now its horrible. I don't know why quality fell but I was skipping last few chapter and nothing but bloat, it ruined what I enjoyed.
System is innovative and growing, part of world, used, mc growing and changing feels meaningful.
World is not static or in backround, its part of story.
Descriptions are weak point as it very few proper colours or shapes described, but it doesn't feel as novel need them.
Character is stick in bicycle wheel, author obviously trying to make it matter but failing, at first was just random tidbits introduced badly, then it shifted into main focus and it revealed how bad it is, it gives of feeling as he is normal 90% of time but out of nowhere that changes into illogical direction, that cannot be explained by emotional instability or scars because that 90% creates illusion that he is normal. Too jarring, flow is bad. Other characters are good, POV are not about how they are impressed about mc but about world and POV owner, that part I like as its different from usual novels.
PONAFRoyal Road
★★★ 2.5
The story seems great, especially at the beginning. It's unique, fun and well written. My issue with Echoed Lands is that both the summery and the beginning of the story give off strong solo-oriented adventure vibes - which would have been great, if not for the story transitioning into a party-oriented plot just when I started enjoying it. It was unbelievably frustrating and a blatant example of false advertising. Now, don't get me wrong - there's nothing wrong with "party plots" and the like, it's just that I don't like how the story - intentionally or not - is misleading about it's contents. I especially don't like that it's misleading about solo/party play, seeing as those two archetypes are widely influential for people even giving the book a shot. Don't waste people's time, Arhend. Please, for the flying spaghetti monster's sake, change the summery to make your story's party play tendencies clear.
edit: the author actually reached out and asked for details, but RoyalRoad said my account wasn't old enough to send them a private message so this is my next best solution:
Hello Arhend, and thank you for seeing and replying to my review ! It's nice to know that you pay attention to opinions :)
Anyway, I would be more than happy to provide clarification regarding my review. The main thing that bothered me (other than the summary which you said that you changed) was that the brother-and-sister duo (I forgot their names) actively mentioned leeching off the MC and feeling bad for it, yet they did nothing to actually stop it. In addition, the MC carried both of them to an ACHIEVEMENT of all things, which, correct me if I'm wrong, is a pretty big deal - yet he got nothing meaningful out of it. Now, it's completely understandable for the MC, being the nice guy that he is, decides to carry a weaker individual/s because he feels sorry for them or because he is getting something meaningful out of it, but that works only if it's, like, a one-time thing, and only if the MC is c