Geek's Guide to Thriving in a Low End Fantasy World ( Robert Baratheon OC SI AU)

[Samael61]

Hello there,

If you enjoy my stories you can read advanced chapters in my patreon page

Commander Shepard, The Greatest to Ever Live, a Mass Effect story where Shepard is greater than ever,

Geek's Guide to Thriving in a Low End Fantasy World a Robert Baratheon OC SI in an AU,

Her Eternal Excellency, a Genshin Impact and ASOIAF crossover, Raiden Ei Reborn as Argella Durrandon,

and DCU:Blacklist, a Raymond Reddington inspired OC SI using his knowledge for his own advantage, as well as the rest of the world

All stories are five chapters ahead.

Thank you in advance.

---

Stormlands

Robert did not know what he was going to face at Valyria exactly, but he was going to face it, no matter what.

His journey would be in two steps, first he was going to land and camp at an uninhabited island off the coast of Volantis, and then make his way to the ruins of Valyria .

Flying over the Stepstones, Robert examined the destruction he had wrought on the islands. No ships were in sight, a sure sign that his cleaning was thorough enough to scare any more advances by the pirates, and Free Cities.

Other matters were on his mind though. Robert wondered what the creature wanted from him, though it was obviously tied to the dragons, but he couldn't begin to guess the details. He had actually considered searching the Free Cities for any information, hell, even Asshai if he had to, but less people knew about why Robert was suddenly interested in Valyria would mean lower chances of someone discovering he was haunted in his dreams.

Wouldn't do if people started to claim he was going mad, especially the Targaryens as Robert had no doubt they would advertise it as a proof of how they were the only ones capable of controlling dragons.

He would do it after all.

Robert wanted to say goodbye to his family, but the simple truth is, he was afraid of telling them, knowing they would try to stop him. Maybe it was cowardice, just leaving a letter instead of saying proper goodbyes but he could only hope to return safe and sound.

He couldn't help but think of Asgard, and what would become of it if he did not return. He had no children to entrust the developing city to, nor had he appointed an heir, besides the letter. Would his family continue its construction, or would it fade into obscurity?

Robert wanted Asgard to be the City of Tomorrow of this world, a place of innovation and scientific advancement to uplift this world from its current situation, but life had other plans for him.

Now, he was flying towards the ruins of a dead and cursed city, where there was a good chance he would meet death.

The thought of death did not scare him, in fact, if he were ever to die, both sides of him wanted to go out in a blaze of glory, though not necessarily in the same agonizing manners as Princess Aerea.

There were still a lot of things he wanted to do before dying of course, a sort of a bucket list.

He wanted to recruit the giants, because who wouldn't want a private army of at least ten foot tall creatures capable of batting a human aside like a toy?

Robert also wanted to go and mock Cersei, because he was petty enough to avenge himself even though she technically did not do anything.

Then there was Bloodraven, he wanted to kill that bastard for spying on him. Even in Asgard the bastard did not leave him alone and Robert dearly wished to make the Targaryen regret ever crossing him, and find Darksister while he was there.

He also wanted to neutralize the Ironborn, whether by changing their ways or annihilating them, because Robert didn't want to let that crazy cunt Euron start the fucking apocalypse because he was bored.

Not to mention the damn White Walkers, because if Euron did not, they would bring the end of this world.

For all that Robert thought of this world as a low fantasy one with magic being rare, it was in fact mostly the Seven Kingdoms itself, as the rest of the world seemed to have an abundance of it.

Red priests of R'hllor, Shadowbinders of Asshai, skinchangers and wargs in North and beyond the wall, that island with the fish people.

Damn it, he should have killed Melisandre, who knows what damage she could do if the red bitch targeted Stannis or Renly, or one of the Targaryens?

He wanted to help Jon clear out the Mountain Clans, make sure Stannis and Delena were happy, Renly did not become someone's pawn, Tywin didn't get to run amok as he wanted, enjoy tormenting Rhaegar and Lyanna and a ton of other enjoyable activities.

A fury welled up inside him. He died once, only to find life again, and now a monster wanted to take it away?

Robert gripped the reins tighter, scowling to himself. If that monster wanted him dead, it was going to have to work for it.

Deciding to formulate a plan with what he knew, Robert reviewed everything he had learned from Tyrion's report.

Creatures with human faces and snakes with hands coming out of someone's skin meant they probably used her as a host to grow, just like some bugs were known to implant their eggs into other animals.

Which meant whatever the creature was, it could be a sort of parasite, one meant to grow inside the body of a human, and perhaps requiring one with Valyrian blood due to all that blood magic. He had no idea how large they could grow, but if they needed sustenance, then Robert didn't think there would be any left on Valyria after the Doom killed every living creature.

If they did not, the entire city could be crawling with them for all he knew, and since they were creatures of fire, dragons did not seem like a possible solution.

Grand Maester Benifer's records said the largest creature was the size of his arm, easily disposable by sword and hammer, depending on their numbers. After all, even ants could kill something far bigger than them if they came together, though seeing as Princess Aerea somehow managed to escape there was a chance they weren't too numerous.

Origins of the creature, well he had no idea, but it could talk and use magic, so it wasn't some mindless monster that got out of control. A possible connection to the Firewyrms was there, but in what way or shape, Robert had no way of knowing.

Valyrians using blood magic to create a human dragon hybrid creature was possible as he had considered previously, but unless they were completely and utterly mad, he didn't see the point in those slimy creatures, not unless they were some sort of a mistake or a side effect.

A reconnaissance was in order first, he would fly over the city to see the situation, and if it was safe to land with dragons, or would it be better to continue on foot. If the city was teeming with them, any of these creatures getting near his dragons could have catastrophic consequences as they would have a flight capable carrier and who knows how much their infection could possibly spread.

Depending on his findings, he would have to approach wherever that creature was exactly, and then it would most likely end in a fight because Robert did not see any other ending to this.

Robert would prefer to use his hammer, but Nightblood had magical effects, and would be better suited to dealing with unarmored enemies outnumbering him, so he would have to leave his beloved hammer behind.

He had a bow, and was a better shot than the original, but again, they were ordinary metal tips, so Robert was unsure of how effective they would be.

At any rate, even if he could not kill the creature by himself, he could always come back with an army at his back after escaping, though the Smoking Sea presented an issue on that front.

He could bring ships to the edge of the cursed sea, and carry men to the ruins with the dragons.

Fighting an enemy you knew nothing about was folly, as such information, no matter the outcome here, would be vital.

Killing the creature though….

It would mean he would have Valyria, along with all its riches and secrets, provided the Doom did not just eradicate everything, but if Euron could find a whole Valyrian Steel armor, Robert wagered he could find more.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Island on the Shore of Volantis

Hours later, as the sun began to set and he approached the island, Robert felt trepidation.

He had a date with destiny tomorrow.

Offloading the saddles on the dragons, and sending them off to hunt, he began to set up camp. He had learned it from Elbert and Jon at Vale, he and Ned setting camp together, enjoying the campfire, singing and being merry.

All coming to an end at Harrenhal when Ned pulled a sword on him to stop Robert from killing Rhaegar. Someone had knocked him out while he was shocked by betrayal - Arthur Dayne he later learned- and before he knew what was happening he was shipped off to the Free Cities.

The Earth side of him didn't really care about the Starks and the Targaryens, but the Planetos side of him was seething with fury. Eventually, as both sides began to merge, he just found them irritating.

Starks, Targaryens, Lannisters, even the Tullys because of Lysa and Hoster, he just stopped wasting his time on them.

Tent was ready, and as the dragons were still out, Robert found some logs and started a campfire, pulling out his canteen, he began to munch on bread and beef jerky, shaking the thoughts of these houses away.

Finishing his dinner and cleaning up, Robert went to prepare his sleeping bag, and his dragons landed near him, licking their snouts, evidently satisfied with their food.

With his tent in the center, he and the dragons went to sleep, though it did not come easy to Robert.

He could hear the dragons snoring outside, and while he was used to the sound enough to sleep through it, the anticipation of tomorrow left him unable to sleep. Deciding he needed to calm himself, Robert went and took the bottle of wine back to the tent. After an hour and an empty bottle later, he finally closed his eyes.

No dreams bothered him that night.

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Robert woke up with the sun, a slight headache bothering him. Yawning, he went to drink water, and the dragons slowly rose from their sleep upon hearing him.

He didn't feel like having breakfast, and broke camp, and saddled the dragons with the luggage again, feeling as ready as he could be.

Mounting Obelisk, Robert took a deep breath, and they were on air once more. He would head to Valyria from the sea, to avoid prying eyes. The flight wasn't long and after a couple of hours Robert saw the Smoking Sea in the distance, covering the ruins of Valyria like a veil.

As it grew ever closer, so did the unease in his heart.

He stopped at the edge of the Smoking Sea, waiting. The sea appeared to be fluctuating, but Robert wasn't sure if it was actually happening, or just an optical illusion. He had his answer soon, as the white smoke began to disappear right before his eyes.

The dragons growled, unnerved by the magic in the air. The smoke kept receding slowly, revealing the sea at first, and then Valyria itself.

Robert didn't remember the details of the doom, but he knew it was extremely destructive so he couldn't help but be surprised at what he saw.

Valyria was intact, relatively, there were destroyed buildings but also just as many standing ones, scorched and damaged, yet still standing.

Light, red veins glowed everywhere, on the roads, buildings and there was no vegetation in sight. He urged Obelisk forward, slow and cautious, approaching the land of the dragonlords of the past.

Towers and spires of marble decorated with dragon statues and motifs covered in soot and ash stood tall, a testament to the nature of the magic used to build them. Robert circled at the edge of the city for a bit, but he saw no movement. He didn't let his guard down though, and advanced on the city, ready to abort this task if he saw something he couldn't handle by himself.

"COME TO ME" the infernal voice was back, punctuated by all the red veins glowing brighter.

Robert sniffed, seeing as they were heading towards a tower on the other side of the city, and with all those downed buildings, it seemed to be the epicenter of whatever the fuck this was.

He would land as close as he could, but with how fragile the buildings looked, Robert couldn't afford to bring his dragons too close.

It was time.

---

Next chapter:
A corpse, one that was of brown, dried out skin and bones burst through the door, mouth open in a mockery of a scream, and a white, slimy reptilian with the parody of a human face lashed at him like the tongue of a Xenomorph, screeching. Robert swung Nightblood, cutting the slimy abomination and the zombie's head in half. It fell to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut, and both halves of the creature squirmed on the ground before going still.

Robert took a step back as the corpse's stomach bulged and contracted, bursting open with a stench so vile he almost puked. He was no stranger to bad smells, he was covered in the guts of his enemies, and had burned many men alive, yet this stench was thousand times worse than all of them combined.

Good thing he avoided breakfast.

Inside of the corpse was black and oozing sickly coloured liquids, and dozens of these creatures, far smaller than the one he killed slithered out of the corpse, some even had hands and were crawling towards him. Most died after a couple of seconds, most likely not grown enough, but some did come closer and Robert stabbed and cut through the disgusting creatures with his sword.
Curious about the next chapter? Please consider supporting me in Patreon.

 

[Samael61]

Hello there,

If you enjoy my stories you can read advanced chapters in my patreon page

Commander Shepard, The Greatest to Ever Live, a Mass Effect story where Shepard is greater than ever,

Geek's Guide to Thriving in a Low End Fantasy World a Robert Baratheon OC SI in an AU,

Her Eternal Excellency, a Genshin Impact and ASOIAF crossover, Raiden Ei Reborn as Argella Durrandon,

and DCU:Blacklist, a Raymond Reddington inspired OC SI using his knowledge for his own advantage, as well as the rest of the world

All stories are five chapters ahead.

Thank you in advance.

---

Valyria

Robert landed the dragons on a square a mile away from the tower and checked the area. The dragons were restless, as expected, and so was he, but there was no movement he could hear around them.

In fact it was too silent, he thought, even for a city with nothing living left in it; hell, there wasn't even any wind.

Robert dismounted, unsheathing his sword, and told the dragons to stay. Obelisk put his massive head in front of him to stop Robert, followed by his brothers.

"I know you are worried, boys, but I will be fine." He scratched their heads and chins to soothe them. Taking a deep breath, Robert began to walk, scanning his surroundings. The eerie silence was unnerving, but he kept calm.

The buildings got more and more damaged as he walked towards the tower in the distance. Roads were uneven, with potholes and uneven parts caused by the time and the Doom.

Making his way past what appeared to be a blacksmith, Robert stopped as he heard the sound of metal hitting the ground. He slowly turned his head to the right, tense with his sword at the ready.

He approached slowly, waiting to see if anything would come out, or was it just his nerves? Unwilling to take a chance, Robert raised his foot to kick the blackened door open before something beat him to it.

A corpse, one that was of brown, dried-out skin and bones, burst through the door, mouth open in a mockery of a scream, and a white, slimy reptilian with the parody of a human face lashed at him like the tongue of a Xenomorph, screeching. Robert swung Nightblood, cutting the slimy abomination and the zombie's head in half. It fell to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut, and both halves of the creature squirmed on the ground before going still.

Robert took a step back as the corpse's stomach bulged and contracted, bursting open with a stench so vile he almost puked. He was no stranger to bad smells; he was covered in the guts of his enemies and had burned many men alive, yet this stench was a thousand times worse than all of them combined.

Good thing he avoided breakfast.

The inside of the corpse was black and oozing sickly colored liquids, and dozens of these creatures, far smaller than the one he killed, slithered out of the corpse; some even had hands and were crawling towards him. Most died after a couple of seconds, most likely not grown enough, but some did come closer, and Robert stabbed and cut through the disgusting creatures with his sword.

What the fuck?" he thought, stepping far away from the corpse.

He was right in that they used human bodies to grow like parasites, but the knowledge brought him no closure.

He wouldn't wish this on his worst enemy.

Staying away from the corpse, he continued to the tower, wondering what the dragonlords did to fuck up so disastrously.

Robert moved even slower now, checking every building, nook, and cranny to avoid being swarmed by these creatures, because if one existed, more of them probably did as well.

It was like a magical zombie apocalypse survival mission; one mistake and a horde would be chasing him to death. Speaking of death, Grand Maester Benifer's records said they died in ice water, so perhaps he could draw them to a water source in case he was outnumbered too much to kill them all.

Stopping before a tower several stories high, Robert decided to go up to check the area from high ground and make some noise to see if he could draw out any zombies.

The metal door was rusted and took a bit of effort to push open. The inside was luxurious, which meant this tower used to belong to someone rich and influential.

White marble, decorated with depictions of dragons and Valyrians inlaid on the walls with gold and valuable gems, it was a monument to the vast riches the Dragonlords of old had acquired.

The second floor was just as lavish, and if Robert managed to clear the island, he was going to remove everything of value from here, even if he had to scrape the gold out with a chisel himself.

The third floor was a library, and it was well maintained, and while some of the books were damaged, the Valyrians seemed to take extra care to ensure no fire reached the room. At least those sisterfuckers understood the value of knowledge books could carry.

The fourth floor was where he found the family who owned the tower. They had died while seated around a table with golden plates, utensils, and gem-like glasses covered in dust. There were four of them, two adults and two children, though telling the genders was impossible.

There were also other people around the room, though from the chains around their necks, Robert would wager they were slaves. He knew Valyrians enslaved people to work in their mines, but they seemed to use them as servants too.

He watched the corpses from the door, wondering if they would move like the one he encountered earlier did, and wasn't disappointed. Slowly, the one sitting at the head of the table—the lord himself—raised his head, bones scraping on wood as the rest of the family and the slaves started to slowly rise as well.

Not that Robert was going to give them the chance. He attacked before the lord of the tower could get up from his chair, holding his breath as he split the head in half again, with the same creatures bursting out of the Valyrian's skull. The children and the other adult were next. He took the head of who he assumed was their mother and stabbed through the heads of the child-sized zombies, skewering both with a single thrust.

The rest of the zombies, with the chains around their necks, were having a hard time getting up, and Robert put them out of their misery quickly.

Knowing what was going to happen next, Robert raised the heavy table from one end and crushed the corpses of the Dragonlord family, ensuring those slimy abominations could not get to him.

The rest of the corpses, he simply threw out of the broken window, dragging them forward with Nightblood.

Robert made his way up and stopped, holding his breath and taking several gulps of air.

Fucking magic snake zombies.

The rest of the floors included a living place, a study, an entire playground for the children, and what he assumed was a place they used to practice blood magic on the slaves, if the corpse tied to the floor with weird glyphs around it was anything to go by.

He finally made it to the top of the tower and went to the balcony.

There were no zombies in sight, so he took several of the broken pieces of rock and threw them down. At first nothing happened, but after a while, the undead began to pour out of the houses, converging on the sound. The creatures poured out of the orifices of the corpses, most likely searching for the source.

Too many for him to even think of taking on by himself, Robert began to plan.

He could go and get the dragons to burn them down, but whatever hellish magic was responsible for their creation made Benifer describe them as creatures of heat and fire, and if they proved to be resistant to dragon fire, he would just destroy the bodies and scatter thousands of these little buggers all over the place, making the already precarious situation worse. So an alternative method would serve him better.

One of the towers straight ahead, smaller than this one, was leaning forward due to an eruption having taken a quarter of its foundation. If he could damage it enough, it would fall straight on the undead, crushing them and the creatures inside the walking corpses.

How was the issue?

He either had to destroy more of the tower for it to fall, which wasn't a good idea, or he could put something heavy at the top.

Robert happened to have three of them.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Making his way back to the dragons was hard; those bastards responded to every single sound, and a six-and-a-half-foot man wearing full plate armor was by no means subtle.

Tying rags he found around his feet to muffle his steps, Robert walked between buildings to avoid the creatures, which meant he had to be extra careful because there were a lot of places one of them could jump out.

Which happened when one of them showed its head out of the window right in front of him just as he was passing through a narrow road between the buildings to avoid a large group. It didn't notice him at first, as it was looking forward, but very quickly turned around, somehow sensing Robert.

Knowing he didn't have the necessary motion range to utilize Nightblood, Robert pulled out his hunting knife from his belt and stabbed the slimy bastard in its ugly face, nailing it to the corpse it was using as a host.

Squirming but unable to screech, the creature died, and the corpse became still, and he just pushed it inside the building again, continuing his way.

The dragons were waiting and rushed at Robert, happy to see their father. Quickly mounting Obelisk, he headed to the leaning tower. Blasting fire towards their general direction to draw attention, Robert gathered the other three groups with the one near the tower.

They had followed like moths drawn to light.

Flying above the tower, he watched as the walking dead swarmed the tower to reach him. He waited for more of them to gather, and once satisfied with the numbers, he landed Obelisk on top of the tower, followed by his brothers, Ra and Slifer. Each dragon caused the tower to lean forward, and it completely went down when Slifer landed at last.

Robert quickly pulled the reins up as the tower came crashing down on the horde of undead, kicking up a cloud of dust. Robert did not land the dragons until the dust settled and he could see how many were dead.

It took some time, and the noise drew more of those creatures, but there were noticeably fewer of them.

When the dust settled, Robert was glad for the dragons once more. Hundreds that were either inside the tower or were directly under it were crushed to pulp, and the rest were thrown away due to the impact.

He killed a great number of them with that stunt, but there wasn't any other tower around for him to drop on them, and there were still too many for him to take on.

If he couldn't kill them, then perhaps he could keep them contained somewhere. Searching for a suitable place through the whole city, gathering more of them as he did.

He found something even better. A bridge was damaged in the middle when one part of it had sunk to the ground. Looking from the safe side, it didn't appear to be broken due to the angle, not until you made it to the very end. Deciding to further damage it with dragon fire, Obelisk descended, standing just a bit above the sunken side.

No matter how smart these bastards were, he and the dragons made too enticing a target to pass.

He watched with narrowed eyes as they approached, thinking Robert was right in front of them; the slimy, snappy bastards charged.

And went straight into the water.

"Come on, you ugly bastards, come and get me." Robert screamed, smirking as the corpses in the water eventually stopped moving, with hundreds of those parasites floating to the surface.

Too bad he didn't have a water dragon or something; this could have been a lot easier.

Which was when Murphy decided to strike, as the last group, a small number compared to the ones that died in the water, stopped steps away from their doom, hissing and squealing at him.

---

In the next chapter
Robert watched as the remaining parasites, for whatever reason did not fall for his trap, standing at the edge of the broken bridge, and refusing to attack him, as if smart enough to be aware of the trap.

Taking his bow, Robert notched an arrow and fired, nailing one of the bastards right in its slimy little head, skills honed after countless hours of training showing themselves.

With the first one dead, the rest of the monsters ran.

Peculiar.

Robert followed on dragonback, and for creatures of literal skin and bone controlled by a parasite, they were surprisingly fast. All of them headed in the same direction, which made him suspicious.

Either they were smart enough to escape but not enough to scatter, or they were luring him somewhere.

The latter was objectively worse, because that meant there was something out there capable of killing a dragon, but what?
Curious about the next chapter? Please consider supporting me in Patreon.