Waters of Memory

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

Fifty-five years ago, the world was vastly different. The human population was seventy percent larger, animals – not monsters – prowled the forests, and only one moon hung in the sky. Oh, and people didn’t have superhuman powers.

It sounds like an old wives tale.

Now we’ve clawed our way back from near extinction, but the worldwide territory battle against monsters still rages. Some people hope lost knowledge from the past will improve our circumstances. Others think newly developed sciences will shape the future.

As for me? I’m stuck in my own past. I thought moving to the city of my trauma would help me heal. I thought becoming a Hunter would prove I was strong enough to be worth something. Anything.

Maybe … I thought wrong. I’m simply not strong enough.

But now I'd gained a mysterious System that enhances my physique with each level – just like a video game. Every level draws me deeper and deeper into the secrets that suddenly rule my life. What does the System want? What secrets does it know about me? Is it connected to the overpowered, unidentified monsters that keep appearing?

All I know is in the middle of the mystery was Terre Noble, a powerful Hunter with too many secrets of his own.

Information

Status: Hiatus
Year: 2023
Author: ML Reid

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.4/ 5.0
Followers: 359
Views: 166,980

Reviews

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Community Reviews(1)

CarbonCopyRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I found this story through a royal road suggestion. I was not expecting much as I didn't mesh with the initial setting. That said I was completely and pleasantly surprised.
The characters are fantastic. They are real. The sibling bickering is familiar. The juxtaposition of child and adult of the MC comes through as she interacts and fights with her dad for her independence. Even the strangers feel like they are people and not caricatures.
The setting grew on me. It's an alternative modern setting, but 100 years-ish in the future. There's magic and magic items, but technology seems to have stagnated at what you'd find in the 2020's. This is my biggest complaint. In my head, technology should have either kept going, or have regressed due to the passage of time and loss of infrastructure. Things should be different. If you can suspend disbelief here, the rest of the background is quite interesting. The lore is established in appropriate bite sized chunks that makes sense in context instead of being a lore drop or a wall of text. The world as we know it has overlap with what we know with significant enough differences to drive curiosity.
The action scenes have punch and a good feel to them. The system is neither soft nor truly crunchy. Numbers have meaning to them and it feels good as they go up, but there's still a mystery as to how everything comes together. (This may change as things advance, though)
My second biggest complaint is typos. They are minor. The fact that I'm complaining about a typo or two a chapter should indicate why I rated the story so highly.