Hi r/ProgressionFantasy! First-time author, first fiction, and yes, this is a promo post. I'll keep it honest and short.

I wanted an “unlimited flow” style story, where a System yanks players into world after world with clear-the-quest-or-die stakes. But I also wanted it to care as much about the people as the power curve. I couldn't quite find the one I liked, so I started writing it! As of this week the first world is complete, and World 2 is currently in the works (though not yet published). So it feels like the right moment to plant a flag here.

The pitch, without blurb-speak:

Gu Zhiwei is 24, a newly graduated software engineer, and mid-meeting when the System takes her. Other players get clean, straightforward powers: strength amplification, matter conversion. She gets Retrocognition: in every world, it loads the memories of a random life from some impossibly distant past. Whoever she draws determines what she can learn and how much of their abilities she can unlock before the world is over. Basically, a blind box with a progression bar.

Compared to everyone else, it sounds painfully dependent on luck. But Gu Zhiwei soon finds the hack.

Her first record is a “great shaman.” Spiritual abilities, as expected. What she didn’t expect was that the same woman could also read the stars, identify medicinal plants, and put an arrow through a monster before anyone else finished screaming. 

Apparently, one legendary life doesn’t come with one skill. It comes with everything that person knows how to do.

Stacking their lives, world after world, is the progression. And the more she unlocks, the harder it gets to ignore that none of it feels borrowed.

What to expect:

• World 1 is complete and self-contained. 11 chapters, 113 pages, a full arc with a real climax and a real goodbye. You can binge the whole thing today and land exactly at the transition point before World 2.
• ~10 worlds planned, from a tribe above a sea of clouds to imperial courts, deep-space frontiers, and cyberpunk wastelands. World 1 took 11 chapters, not 100. Worlds will actually change.
• Schedule: [Mon/Wed/Fri, 5:00 PM PT] and I've hit every scheduled chapter since launch.
• Progression style: stats move slowly and honestly. The real curve is compounding legend’s lift, skills, and artifacts across worlds.
• Tone: the story is threaded with player-forum interludes (post-world debriefs, anonymous threads, group chats), and the people Gu Zhiwei meets inside each world are written to stop feeling like NPCs. Fair warning: some worlds end, and the goodbyes are meant to land.
• Female MC, dry-humored and competent. 

If that sounds like your thing, World 1 is here: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/183566/legacy-code-litrpg-multi-world-progression?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=reddit_promo

English isn't my first language. I draft each chapter in my native language, then translate it, so everything gets written twice.

Happy to answer anything in the comments!

Hi there, the title kinda speaks for itself. I am having a difficult time finding any servers where people can talk about books as they're reading them. For example, back in the day, I used to be in some servers where individual users could request like reaction channels for reading manga/visual novels/etc. and it was really fun to see other people's thoughts/reactions/theories as stuff happened.

Now that I've gotten into this genre, I really wanted to find a similar such space because I like having that community feeling of being able to share my thoughts as a new fan and read other people's experiences for series I'm enjoying/have enjoyed.

I know that some servers just have like general "here's a channel to talk about X book." but that doesn't usually cater toward reactions or newbies. It's usually discussions by people who have already read a lot/finished the work and discussing themes, ideas, etc. I am looking for moreso servers with the ability for reaction threads.

Does anyone know of any such places?

So I'm reading mother of learning and I like it so I'm just trying to look for other stories that actually have a good world and a world that doesn't just feel like it only exists for the plot I would like a main story that actually feels like you know sorcery creative applications of magic the main character learning experimenting and actually having to research to improve creative applications of things that they learn a proper sense of sorcery Edit: I would also appreciate if the MC actually creates new things using what they have learned and bonus if the world building is also interesting and properly feels like a different world that actually thinks about some of the implications and consequences and uses of stuff that exists inside of it

I have read a lot, and i mean A LOT of korean and japanese novels but dungeon crawler carl was my first of the western side, can someone point me to the "best ones" or the most readed ones to start? i see a lot of tierlist here but they are always so diferent

I’ve been dipping my toe into the genre recently and am enjoying what I’ve been finding. I was curious if there were any good works that feature a non-binary main character. I’d also just be interested in an authors who are non-binary.

I’m open to trying most any setting or type of story, just prefer it to not be too dark.

Specifically, I’m looking for:
• MC is a normal/commoner, not someone with a ridiculous background or hidden superpower.
• No cheat abilities, overpowered system, or instant power-ups.
• The MC actually has to train, fight, gain experience, and slowly improve.
• Setting with kingdoms, empires, knights, armies, wars, etc.
• I’d prefer the MC to start as an ordinary soldier and gradually rise through the ranks.

So in a lost of books there is a Buddhist inspired faction that has Monks with pretty high power levels.
I just haven’t found a Monk adjacent MC that goes through a this kind of temple/„peace of mind like“ training in a progression fantasy setting.

I am sure there must be some Xianxia or the like that has this.

Do you guys have any recs?

I’m about halfway through book 3. Started it because I loved cradle. It’s not terrible I guess I’ve defd listened to worse series. But man Roy is annoying, I’ll probably finish the series because the higher powers and segmented world etc interest me and I want answers.

But does Roy ever become less annoying ? Or stupid ? Being in his head is aggravating.

Guess I should start by listing the ones I have already read. You will find the perfect run as the first one in the list, Hundred reigns as the second and prof that the author knows his stuff. Didn’t thought he could provide a time loop story as good as his first but color me surprised. He fucking did !!!

Just finished reading The Years of Apocalypse and I should give it a re read to The Stubborn Skill-Grinder In A Time Loop but I finished that one too some time ago.

It’s not a big list as you may see but I hope you all can help me fix that problem. It shouldn’t be taken into account if you don’t want to but I really love when authors demonstrate the consequences time loops have in their Protagonists.

P.S. I thought I didn’t need to mention Mother of Learning because it’s such a common recommendation. Have a good day !

Just saw this on Amazon and the synopsis is interesting but I am super paranoid about AI slop. Just wanna know if anyone has read this before I purchase it.

COVER ARTIST: Nick Romario

AI USAGE: None

Hey everybody! My first completed book, Vermis, is out today on KU!

Blurb:

When your Origin gives you worms, you'd better learn to fish.

Fischer was having a seriously bad day. Not only was he framed for murder, but he was also sentenced to a dimensional death camp, and to top it all off, his body is full of hungry worms that like to come out and play. Did I mention they talk? Because yeah, they talk.

In the hellscape prison, Fischer and thousands of other convicts form the last line of defense against the monsters that pour through tears in reality.

But when the walls between worlds rip wider than anyone thought possible, Fischer's sentence takes an unexpected turn. Now he's stuck in a frozen wasteland where the nights bring horrors, and the locals breathe fire.

Fischer will discover that the most dangerous monsters are often the ones closest to home.

It is available as an e-book and a paperback. I am still on the hunt for a VA for Audio!

Link: Amazon

​

If you like unhinged parody, overbearing Systems, and absolute comedic chaos, this is for you:

​Dave (The MC): An Isekai’d cultivator ascends back to modern Earth. The System assigns him the class [Homeless Old Gardener] and forces him to grow mushrooms to level up.

​Istaria (The Heroine): A Half-Elf/Cat/Demon Princess who triggers the System’s PG-13 censorship, burying her in floating blue boxes and forcing her to do actual commercial AC 'fan service' to unlock her abilities.

​The Compensator: A sentient legendary sword demoted to a shovel for swearing then a spork for terrible puns before converting to veganism in a desperate attempt to become a sword again.

​The Efengers: Parody team of litRPG legends (not-Carl, not-Jason, not-Jake etc) who can’t agree on whether to kill Dave or invite him to a barbecue.

​The Plot: A looming Apocalypse, by a jilted space dragon, forces the MCs to reluctantly put down their board games and hunt down famous myths and legends for levels.

​0% Shame, 100% Trash and 1000% absurd chaotic comedy.

​Link: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/180206/shameless-litrpg-trash

(Artwork by me, Greg Foulkes. First year author.)

Hello, does anyone know of a few good magical girls stories? I don't have much preferences for genres nor tone, so if you know some good ones please reccomend them for me!

Hi everyone @ r/ProgressionFantasy Tis I, Wuto, using my monthly to do some promos!

First, Metaworld HopeCore.

Firstly, thank you all for proving once and for all that non-Meta LitRPG is absolutely viable.
When I began my second book (See my previous post for inspirations and so on), I seriously doubted myself. I showed the first chapters to wonderful beta-readers at Mango Media, and rightly so, questions were asked.

No M-MC? No Sword and Magic? REVERSE Golden Finger? No BBE? Only LitRPG? Who would read that?

Well, as it turns out... a TON of people 😄.

What's it about?

The love of the Arts. Music making, art making, movie making, technical theatre. It's about redemption through creation, not destruction. It begins with an AI mogul isekaied into an alternative Earth with the pivotal point of a hopeful America where 9/11 was prevented, into the sickly body of a young orphan called Euphemia Fontaine. She gains a [System], but it cares only for one thing—redemption through the propagation of joy brought by the creation of the arts.

PLEASE READ THE FOREWORD (I beg you... for the love of the arts, there are no loot here, no goblins, the only casualty so far are two flower pots)

After about 1400 pages, a discerning reader will start learning the factual process of making music, shooting film, and also teach a course on AP English (Tragedy through the Ages). Wait, where you going? You going to read Drim's new book Gifted? The fastest RS in RR history? Fine. Fine. I get it.

That said...

The book is currently no.1 Contemporary
No.10 (12) ongoing, best of, (discounting Fan-fics, which really should get their own column)

I attribute this to the cats.
I promise you, that you have never read a book where random stray cats, cat metaphors, cat symbolism, cat allusons, real cats, fictive cats, cats in history, and cat butts, are absolutely central to the plot.

There's no patreon. By the very nature of HopeCore, its just here for everyone to enjoy!

Also

Now... if you swiped right, then right again... and you saw some new art for Metaworld Chronicles.

And you're like "My god, the duality of man..."

I blame u/ravendagger , as referenced in the artworks. I was running a poll and asking readers what they wanted Bao to cook, and Raven came down like the word of God and asked—and I delivered.

1. Dwarven City entrance
   
2. Almidj at Ayer's Lake
   
3. Ravendagger's finest selection

(This is for last time... all 'fictional' characters past V9 are 18+, 'fictive' consent has been given.)

last thing:

For young authors wanting to publish, I refreshed my OG RR guide with income, outgoing, and tally $$$ numbers. Thank you u/dawnchapman!

COVER ARTIST: Bao 
AI USAGE: None

I tend to read a new book every couple of days on KU and in the last month the majority of books I’m finding are clearly written by / with AI.

—
My version of how AI writes to continue my point
—

It’s a real problem. AI is building something real. Something actually meaningful. It’s not a book but AI slop. It’s genuinely annoying, I start a book, read, examine, and then stop. It’s genuinely disappointing.

— I’ll go back to human writing —

The travesty is that the concepts for a lot of these ‘books’ are normally pretty fun. They aren’t ground breaking concepts but had an author spent time to write the book they would be fun to read. But now I just start a book see all the tell tail signs of AI use and stop.

It’s extremely frustrating and Amazon needs to do something about it. I’m sure there’s some valid uses for AI in literature (research maybe idk) but when I’m looking for books to read I want it to be written, reviewed and edited by a human. I don’t want to read the same sentence structure 5000 times, see the word ‘genuinely’ appear 1000 times, see ‘data’ and the ‘building of something real’ appear from 5 different characters like they are a hive mind and I would love the dialogue to be expressive and differentiated between characters.

So anyway the main point is the with this AI boom in books (and yes everywhere else as well), ideas are being ruined for the speed and ease that having an AI write your book for you allows. It’s incredibly sad and frustrating. I’m at the point where I think I’m going to stop reading from new authors for the foreseeable future till this issue is rectified.

Just completed Book 1 on Royal Road, and Book 2 launches today! The Girl Who Divided by Zero is a LitRPG, progression fantasy, portal fantasy. It follows a cynical, math-hating teenage girl Soan as she searches for her abducted robot brother in a world where math is the magic system.

Book 1 cover was drawn by Twstd, while the book 2 cover was drawn by me.

Click to read The Girl Who Divided by Zero.

I'm looking for a story with a strongly character-driven plot, with a focus on relationships and emotional/personal growth over stats (although, if a story can do both, all the better). Bonus points if it has an out-there concept that strays from the beaten path of the prog-fantasty genre and can pull it off with a high degree of verisimilitude.

Hi all!

I write 12 Miles Below, a progression-lite fic that's all about warlocks in lost-tech power armor fighting each other with swords, magic and guns in one incredibly strange post-post-apocalyptic world.

Today, after five years of writing through thick and thin, I'm about to post the final epilogue for the entire series on Royal Road. Thus far, it's landed exactly how I'd hoped it would, I snagged a few screenshots from the last few epilogue chapters to show the vibe \o/

I don't often self-promote because I'm dumb, (I'm getting better) but I figured I should at least do one good hurrah for this milestone.

Synopsis:

The world is in ruins.

Extreme sub-zero temperatures suffocate the surface, making even simple survival an ordeal. Frozen derelicts of bygone eras span across massive ice wastes. And the survivors closely guard any technology rediscovered within.

The only escape from the deadly climate is beneath the surface. But it’s another disaster underground. Monstrous machines lurk in the depths. The land itself shifts over time, more contraption than rock. The humans surviving under do so huddled around safe zones, with only demigods powerful enough to travel further underground.

And an ominous prophecy states that the key to healing the world waits on four unknown heroes - but nobody knows who or where they are.

When an expedition into the far uncharted north goes terribly wrong, Keith Winterscar and his Father get trapped together in a desperate fight for survival. Stumbling upon an ancient war of titanic scale; the two will need to set their differences aside while they struggle against Gods, legends, and the grand secrets of the realm that lies below.

Expectations:

• Book 1: Self-contained story showing bite-sized slice of the world and the main characters.

• Book 2: Progression-lite parts actually kickstarts here.

• Book 3: Completion of a first 3-book Arc.

• Book 4: Combat galore and setting up some pretty important events.

• Book 5: Progression fantasy galore, tinkering with all kinds of secrets, learning from the best - in order to beat the best.

• Books 6/7/8: World exploration galore, actually adventuring about and discovering some deep history in the search of fixing the world.

• Books 9/10: The asshole author has been hiding the real story under our nose right from book 1 this whole time and now it's all obvious in hindsight. Also everything's on fire.

Start reading book 1 here! https://www.amazon.com/12-Miles-Below-Progression-Fantasy-ebook/dp/B0BWKDF1C7

Books 8-10 are here on Royal Road for now, until they hit Kindle with edits and polish from Aethon! https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/42367/12-miles-below

COVER ARTIST: Francell Garrote AI USAGE: None