Grand Duke It Was A Mistake

Introvert!? Me!? The hell am I an introvert? I stay indoors all day because I am afraid of getting my butt kicked. Until I contract my beast, I won’t be walking freely. This is a promise I made to myself. My name is Ryder, and I am black-marked. The planet where I live is dominated by summoners. If you guessed it, then you are right—we contract beasts from the Astral Shadow Plain and summon them at will after successfully forming a contract. A mark appears on the left shoulder of every human after a period of maturity, a mark given by the beast that chooses you. There are five different types of marks—the brown, the orange, the red, the black, and lastly, the white. Of all the markings, I was marked black. I was chosen by a supreme demon monarch of the Astral Shadow Plain—the Dracogon. There was only a 0.5 percent chance for me to survive the contraction process. However, with a slight twist in the original outcome, contracting a creature from the black-marked plain was nothing compared to the catastrophe I caused shortly after—I opened a link between the beasts of the Astral Shadow Plain and the planet of humans, Terra. Everyone on my planet has been endangered because of me. The fact that no one knows when the link will trigger and cause a breach that pours mindless creatures into my world makes it all the more unsettling. Now, with no other choice, I have to find a way to resolve the mistake I made—alone, just like I caused it.

Ethan is an ordinary college student, majoring in history and leading a quiet, unremarkable life. One day, while walking home from class, he is suddenly engulfed by a mysterious portal and transported to Aetheria, a sprawling fantasy world of magic, monsters, and legendary heroes. Upon arrival, he discovers he has been summoned as a “hero” to aid the realm against an encroaching darkness. However, his magical aptitude is abysmally low, and he fails every basic test and training exercise. The other heroes and villagers quickly label him “the weakest hero”, mocking him as a liability. Desperate and confused, Ethan’s life seems doomed… until a hidden system activates. A mysterious interface appears before him, explaining: > “Your power grows through failure. Each mistake, setback, and defeat will grant you new skills or enhance your existing ones. Your strength is derived not from talent, but from resilience and perseverance.” With this strange rule in place, Ethan begins to experiment. At first, his failures are laughably pathetic: falling off training cliffs, accidentally triggering explosions, or summoning useless monsters. Yet, each failure brings surprising growth: a missed spell suddenly evolves into a devastating magical combo, a botched sword swing awakens latent elemental energy, or a misstep in stealth unlocks precognition. As he slowly accumulates a patchwork of bizarre yet powerful abilities, Ethan’s reputation shifts from the weakest hero to a legendary wildcard, a hero who seems to defy logic and overwhelm enemies in the most unexpected ways.

In the eyes of the powerful Lockhart family, Kael Virex is nothing but a disgrace—a silent, unaccomplished man who married into wealth he could never match. His wife, Seraphina Lochart, sees him as a mistake she is forced to tolerate, treating him with cold distance and quiet contempt. To her, he is insignificant. To the world, he is a myth. Hidden beneath his unremarkable life lies a secret no one could imagine. Once declared dead on a classified battlefield, Kael returned with a divine anomaly—a radiant hand capable of healing any wound and even calling the dead back to life. Now known only in whispers as the “God Hand,” he moves in the shadows, sought after by the most powerful figures in society. Leaders, tycoons, and kings bow their heads for a chance at his touch… yet the same man returns home each night to be ignored by the woman who bears his name. Seraphina does not know that the man she looks down on is the miracle the world is desperate to find. But when a crisis strikes the Lochart family—one beyond wealth, influence, or power—they are left with only one option: seek out the elusive God Hand. And unknowingly, she turns to the very man she has spent her life belittling. As secrets begin to unravel and identities draw closer to the surface, Kael must decide— Will he remain the invisible man in her life… or step forward and become the force that reshapes her world? Because the moment the truth is revealed, nothing in their lives will ever remain the same.

“You don't deserve this throne. Your birth was nothing more than a mistake by my late husband, so don't think any more of yourself. But if you still want to be King, then go into the territories and kingdoms outside Griffindale and build your army of followers and allies from scratch. Whenever you feel like you have amassed a huge following enough to seize the throne away from me, then you can come back to fight for it. But from now on, you are on exile.” “The throne belongs to me, Stepmother. Nevertheless, I will do as you ask. But rest assured, for what you've done, I will return—not just for my throne, but also for your head.” “While the Queen fumed with rage in her private chamber, Cyrus emerged from her quarters wearing a satisfied grin, knowing his destiny was now set in stone. He would one day become king, no matter what.” -------- This is my first novel on the platform, so my pacing and world-building aren't the best, but it gets better with time. The story is set in a medieval world, somewhere in an alternate version of ancient Europe. At first the tone focuses more on war and basic politics, but as the story progresses, there will be more magic/fantasy elements added - like dragons, witches and fables. If you enjoy the work, please consider supporting it in any way you can. Any means of support goes a long way for me and is duly appreciated. Have Fun!!!

EARTH ONLINE The black towers hung silent over every city for six months. Then, one November morning, a child's bright voice rang out in every head at once — Earth has gone online — and gave the world three days to eliminate a stranger, or be erased. Half the planet didn't make it. Cole Mercer is a librarian. Quiet, exact, ruthlessly calm — the kind of man who reads the room while everyone else is screaming. When the games begin he finds he's been handed no fire, no lightning, no gift worth the name: only a snide little book that collects the powers of the people he kills, and a mind that has never once lost a game that had rules. The Spire has a great many games. Every one is a trap dressed as a fairy tale, and every one can be solved — if you're cold enough, and fast enough, and willing to do the math while the monster is still smiling. But there's a voice on the other end of a cracked artifact, two hundred miles away: the strongest player on the server, a man Cole has never seen, who already seems to know exactly how he thinks. The tower wants them to climb. It should never have let them meet first. A slow-burn M/M apocalypse where the deadliest thing in any room is two minds that refuse to lose — and the one mistake the end of the world ever made was growing them a partner.

Phoenix Arizona 2 years ago, Maks made a terrible mistake by trusting an "inner voice" who was actually Pandora, the mother of monsters. He unleashed monsters into the world until a war between the awakeners and the monsters started. Pandora wanted a world where the monsters could be included. But she realised that it was never meant to be. Maks with the help of his friends and allies. Banished the monsters back to the null void and peace was restored. ...But not entirely... Maks sat back brushing his black cat's ears. He was finished with college at 23 and he wanted to go to med school. In a funny turn of events, his bully's father would be funding his med school journey. He wanted to do things for himself and that didn't end well. That wasn't to say that he wasn't going to try. "Maks, to the kitchen." His stepmother Doreen Fletcher-Anderson said. She had come into her life when he was 8. She had trouble conceiving for 3 years before she had his half sister Jessica. He was so conflicted and it took him over a decade to come to love her but he couldn't blame his half sister. He took care of her even though he thought she was a burden. He went to the kitchen and his stepmom gave him a tray of sandwiches. "You haven't been eating, you've lost weight." "I lost the football tryouts, of course I'm trying to lose weight." Doreen turned to him and smiled.

Maeson Monroe is drowning under the heavy weight of massive medical debt. His little sister is fighting for her life in a hospital room, and the steep bills keep piling higher every single day. To the corporate world, Maeson is just a quiet computer technician. He keeps his head down to protect his job. But in the deep shadows of the dark web, he is the most powerful anonymous hacker alive. He alone controls a secret artificial intelligence that could bring strong nations to their knees. He only breaks the law to keep his sick sister breathing. Ava Carter is billionaire royalty and the brilliant lead historian for her father and his massive tech empire. She has unlimited wealth but zero freedom. Ava also holds a fierce grudge. She is obsessed with unmasking the unknown hacker who caused a devastating financial crisis for her family years ago. She has no idea the quiet man fixing her laptop is the exact enemy she has sworn to ruin. Everything shatters when her father unearths an ancient metal cylinder holding a terrifying secret. A careless mistake wakes up a destructive power the ancients called dark magic. Maeson must use his hidden AI to read the code, risking his own life and secret identity. Now, the billionaire heiress and the secret hacker must go on the run. Their only hope is a dangerous global journey to find a magical child born to control the dark energy before the whole world burns down to ash.

Roman Walter had been humiliated for three years. A garbage collector. The company joke. Married to beautiful Mira Donaldson, who grew to despise him. On their third wedding anniversary, Roman carried a secret. Millions saved. A card that could restore Mira’s stolen company. He was ready to reveal everything. Then he walked into the office. Mira’s best friend Mario was on one knee. Diamond ring gleaming. Proposing to Roman’s wife. She said yes. In front of everyone, Mira destroyed him. Their marriage was forced, she claimed. He was poor. Worthless. She wanted an open marriage to be with Mario, the vice president’s son. Roman signed the papers without a word. Hours later, a Rolls Royce crashed through the parking lot. A stunning woman emerged, calling Roman “boss.” She revealed his true wealth. Millions in gifts prepared for Mira. Luxury cars. Designer everything. A penthouse. All of it waiting. If Mira had stayed one more day. Mira refused to believe it. Just tricks from a desperate man. Back at the office, the mockery continued. Coworkers blamed Roman for lost bonuses. Mira painted herself as his victim. Then the CEO made an announcement. Roman Walter was now chairman. Majority shareholder. He’d just invested twenty million dollars. The room went dead silent. Every person who’d insulted him now worked for him. Mira stood paralyzed, watching her mistake unfold. Mario’s face drained of color. Roman surveyed them all with ice-cold eyes. His revenge had only just begun.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Tristan Asher died on the floor of the Apex Gate, betrayed by the one man he trusted, while the world he'd spent five years trying to save burned around him. Then he opened his eyes in his own apartment—twenty-three years old, five years younger, fourteen hours before the sky cracks open and everything begins again. This time, he's not here to be a hero. He's here to win. He has a list. Every gate, every betrayer, every mistake that cost him everything—he remembers all of it. What he doesn't expect is her. Kira Knight should be a stranger. Instead, he already knows her coffee order, the way her voice drops when she's trying not to cry, and exactly how she died in the life he's not going back to. He can't tell her any of that. He can't tell her he's already loved and lost her once, or that the System itself has a name for what he is—and a warning waiting underneath it: *you are not the first.* Someone else came back before him. Someone else had the same plan, the same knowledge, the same fourteen-hour head start. It didn't work. Now Tristan has seventy-two hours to become someone the apocalypse hasn't already beaten, a woman he isn't allowed to love yet, and a truth he's terrified to find out—why every version of this story before his has ended the same way.

I was born and lived inside a virtual game world, till I was tricked by the Great Administrator and got kicked out to the Real World for my bad mouth! I am Athanasios, a citizen of the virtual game world of Elysium. The world I'm living in, is a paradise or that's what everyone says. It's boring and all day I'm forced to play games like Tetris to mine virtual coins. That's the only way to buy new avatars or expand my dungeon tower, the only two things that actually matter to me. However, everything changed when I received a strange message saying I can try a new game experience. But there was a catch! Instead, I was tricked and transferred to the real world. Things aren't that much different from the virtual world: Goblins plague the villages, dragons tear down cities and adventurers try to loot dungeons. In fact, this world is better than expected! So realistic and not to mention that for the first time in my gaming life, I managed to multiclass from level-1. You see, I drank the blood of a Vampire Lord by mistake and became a vampire mage once I got here. The problem is that I wasn't meant to drink his blood and now he and his minions hunt me. At least, most of them identify as hot, so no reason to complain on that either. What troubles me however, is that there's no exit button from the Real World and the only way to get back to my world is by finishing the missions I was tasked. Warning: This novel contains harem elements, strong language and graphic violence.