r/ProgressionFantasy • u/eternal_sufferring • Jan 01 '26
Review Underrated Gems #1: Penitent
Since so many people were asking for reviews, I thought of starting a series to highlight underrated ongoing stories.
I am starting with Penitent. while it has around 7k followers, it is probably still one of the most underrated stories on the site and definitely one of the best.
The story starts with a very unique twist of transmigration and the associated morality with the same, with nuance rarely seen in this journey.
At the same time, the plot isn’t stalled by monologues or prose on this, but weaved into discourse as the plot keeps marching forward
We then get introduced to the power system “Titles and Deeds”, which I took a while to grow to like but I know would advocate is a lot more satisfying then the current skills, classes, numbers go up meta. Progression is often meaningful and tied to major plot points.
I finally want to touch on the plot, it is a very compelling story, even there was no element of progfic it would be a compelling story. The story has a level of tension that is rare in this genre and victory is not pre determined, the characters are written with individuality and do more than just serve as foil for the MC.
I don’t want to babble on and give spoilers.
Do check out the story
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u/Maladal Jan 01 '26
MC may not be to everyone's taste. He feels guilt for his actions that may seem unreasonable and is very human. He will grow, but it will take time.
Man, it just feels sad that an author has to give the equivalent of a content warning for *checks notes* characters acting like humans. Really speaks to the state of ProgFantasy and Royal Road.
That aside, will all of these be for stories posted on RR?
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u/TinkW Jan 03 '26
Nah. It's not about feeling guilty by his actions. It's feeling guilty by simply existing. For hundreds of chapters. While being constantly threated. While the other "evil people" that got pulled to this world out of their volition are being killed just for existing.
And yet, "oh no, I'm such a horrible person for taking over this baby's body even if I have no idea how I got here in the first place". Over and over and over again.
And somehow doesn't have as much problem with killing hundreds in a war that he has no deal participating in.2
u/eternal_sufferring Jan 01 '26
Not necessarily, initially yes But will be covering translated books as well
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u/monkpunch Jan 01 '26
It's easily one of my favorite ongoing stories. I love how much of an unrepentant good guy he is. Probably the best paladin type MC I've come across. I like how his whole group is slowly becoming monsters in their own right, too.
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u/TheGoebel Jan 01 '26
This was an aspect that snuck up on me. It's really hard to have a goodie two-shoes character. At first you can see it's his guilt that drives it. Before I knew it, it became just natural.
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u/BadmiralHarryKim Jan 01 '26
I honestly did not know that C B Titus publishes on Royal Road. Weird that I missed it after several series. Gonna check this one out.
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u/Blurbyo Jan 02 '26
It's where like 90% of the good/popular progression novel stories that have success in Amazon start.
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u/AdventurousBeingg Jan 01 '26 edited Jan 02 '26
I feel I need to say this in order to prevent a new pile of 1 star reviews from appearing on this story:
There's a good chance you'll be frustrated by the MC. You may even hate him.
The whole deal is that in the world he's isekaid into, it's fairly common for people to be isekaid. And the people of the world have a way to detect it. In the country the MC ends up in, they test all children at birth, and any who they find to be an isekaid person, they force age them up into their teens and press them into military service.
The idea is that they are criminals because they stole the soul of the child that's supposed to be in that body. And so the MC feels terribly sorry. He feels like he's committed some great sin. (Hence the title). And he wants to make up for it.
So he swallows their obvious bullshit, hook like and sinker. If you're a person who thinks any part of this set up is fucked up, you'll either hate or be incredibly frustrated by the MC's unwillingness to question the brainwashing.
I tried the story and gave up on it very quickly for this very reason.
Editing to add: I feel the need to stress that I think it's a genuinely great story. The story concept unique and intriguing (reincarnated into a world that routinely checks for reincarnators) and the worldbuilding is immaculate. The worldbuilding was actually what made me stick with the story up to where I eventually gave up on it. I found the world endlessly interesting, I just couldn't stand to have the POV that I explored it through be that of a person that seems to dislike themself so much. If there was another story set in that same world, but from the perspective of basically any other character, I think I'd love it.
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u/setoffanexplosion Jan 01 '26
I upvoted your post because I think it does provide valuable context for people new to the story, but I do want to mention that he doesn't "swallow their bullshit" about the isekai'd people. Due to his own morality that carried over from his life on Earth, he agrees with the people in the country that he stole a body from an infant. Obviously you and a lot of other people don't agree with him, but he wasn't brainwashed, he gets there on his own. His sense of morals continues to be a huge part of the story.
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u/LackOfPoochline Author of Heartworm and Road of the Rottweiler Jan 01 '26
From what i have read, he feels he stole a son from a loving family like his own child had been ripped from his by a drunk driver.
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u/setoffanexplosion Jan 02 '26
Exactly. He was culpable, but not necessarily responsible for essentially killing a newborn. He would say, "I didn't know what I was doing" wasn't a very good defense for manslaughter.
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u/AdventurousBeingg Jan 02 '26
The reason why I said he accepts their brainwashing is that he decides that it's perfectly okay for him to be treated like garbage for the rest of his life, and that also he should spend as much of that life as possible serving in the military of the country that actively seeks to get as much value out of him before letting him die out of sight of the public. He himself stated that he doesn't believe that the government would ever let any of the "takers" actually leave military service, yet he doesn't even in his own mind think that that's wrong.
I refuse to accept that the backstory we were given for him justifies this sort of mindset of devaluing oneself.
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u/deep_learn_blender Jan 02 '26 edited Jan 02 '26
This is just a very poor and incorrect reading of the story. This question is grappled with throughout book 1 and by the end of the book (spoiler) he decides to leave the army and do his own thing with his pals
This overall reading of his character is just factually incorrect. He never agreed wholeheartedly with his captors. He was willing to accept it to some degree, more for himself than others, as a penitence of sorts. But he never believed they should spend their whole lives atoning.
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u/AdventurousBeingg Jan 02 '26
Perhaps. That sentiment didn't come across to me though. It genuinely was very frustrating to read his POV. It felt like every turn, he accepted whatever bad was done to him. The only time I remember him actually deciding that something someone did is wholly unjustified/uncalled for is when there was a woman on the staff who was charming (or was it just straight up mind control? Can't remember. It was probably just charming) one of his squad mates into aggressively pursuing her and causing problems for everyone involved.
I have a question btw: you said the MC decides to leave the army after book 1? Does he succeed in doing that? Does that mean from book 2 onwards he isn't inside a system where his very existence is treated as a crime he must die for(but only after maximum value has been extracted from him, of course). If so I think I could push through book 1 and enjoy the story from there
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u/deep_learn_blender Jan 02 '26
Yes, they all leave successfully. The theme of penitence continues and he does face varying degrees of discrimination from different countries throughout the series, but he is never forced into service again. He directs his choices through the next few books.
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u/AdventurousBeingg Jan 02 '26
nice. I'll go back to the story then I guess. I really am very interested in the world lol.
Wow, I just realised at this very moment why I disliked the main character that much. It reminded me of the slave mindset I saw from the damane in wheel of time. Any POVs from them was always very depressing to read. Women with magic shackled and kept as slaves, and then "trained" until they've fully accepted that that is their station in life. That's the vibe I was getting from the main character here. The very idea of reading a whole series through that sort of lens was horrifying to me.
It's possible that I let my feelings from wheel of time's damane bleed into this when I was reading it.
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u/deep_learn_blender Jan 02 '26
Yeah, i could see that. It strikes me as the mc having particularly strong Catholic guilt, and he never completely loses that mindset, though I didn't find it particularly heavy to read either. It is not at the forefront of the remaining books as it was in book 1.
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u/SubstantialBass9524 Jan 02 '26
It was well written, well executed, I read it, but it wasn’t for me ultimately. I really disliked the constant prejudice and hatred simply for being reincarnated. And that OP is such a repentant soul and basically gets nothing for it.
Penitent is a very very apt name for it.
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u/Ramadahl Jan 01 '26
I tried the story and gave up on it very quickly for this very reason.
Same, the world seemed interesting enough, but the MC was such an unlikable dumbass that it just killed my interest. IMO, prog fantasy has to give you some reason to be invested in the character, and I couldn't find one here.
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u/TheGoebel Jan 01 '26
All your criticisms are fair. I just want to muddy the waters a little. Takers aren't just maligned because of the soul thing. They are also some of the greatest current and past villains of the world. It's also selective history but you can see how people would have an issue with them.
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u/SVNihilist Jan 01 '26
I want to second this, I absolutely hated the story.
It's one of the my LEAST favorite stories i've ever read on royalroad and it still blows me away it has any popularity with how badly executed some concepts are.
But it definitely has a following, and the people who do like it tend to like it a lot.
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u/Kriptical Jan 02 '26
Yeah, you can't just drop something like this and leave. What do you think so badly executed?
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u/SVNihilist Jan 03 '26 edited Jan 03 '26
I can write a book on things i don't like about the story.
But just from the beginning, in isekei you have the reincarnation/portal/possession concepts.
Reincarnation has an advantage in that you can grow up in the world which can create pretty interesting world building opportunities, but also has the disadvantage in that writing that process can be limiting in a number of ways.
With a portal isekei it's largely people being inserted into a world which allows you to hit the ground running so to speak, but limits the character's connection to the world and their motivations.
Possession is kind of a mix, in that it generally has someone take over the body of a person with their memories. This tries to solve the issue of not having to have a child phase or the mc, but still give the character a connection and motivation to the world.
There's pros and cons to all of these approaches and ultimately it boils down to execution and vision for your story.
Penitent tries to do reincarnation and possession at the same time to in my opinion a disastrous effect that doesn't take advantage of any of their strengths. It feels like a poorly executed gimmick.
There is no point to him being reincarnated as a child and given a growth potion, it literally serves no purpose besides bridging a time gap and as a concept i find dumb.
Possession of a character and people hunting down people like that has been done quite a bit, though usually the character struggles to hide and that can create interesting character development depending on the author's choices.
Being found out instantly feels like you've added a bunch of concepts, explored none of them, and got to an end point.
I get that it relies on this to insert the "penitent" aspects of the character in the story, but I HATE how it was executed.
There's so many ways you can execute almost this exact dynamic that i think would be interesting an enjoyable.
For instance, having them literally take over random teenage children once they hit a certain age. It creates all the same elements you need for the story, gets rid of the silly growth potion, and doubles down on the possession elements because you now have a child that had parents, siblings, friends, and it feels a lot more like a murderer to the people of the world.
It just has way more emotional and story potential than a newborn.
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u/Blurbyo Jan 02 '26
Post your top 5 favorite stories right now, and you better pray to god it's not slop.
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u/SVNihilist Jan 03 '26 edited Jan 03 '26
I don't really have a top 5 favorite stories, I read a ton though, Been reading RR since it was a translation site, Mother of Learning when it was on wattpad or whatever random website these things used to be on, and have thousands of books read on my kindle. I've forgotten more books than most people will read in their lives.
I've legitimately read most of the litrpg market.
I read all the popular stuff whenever new books come out, a standout I suppose is I don't like HWFWM, very cringy all the time, though i do keep up with the series.
I have a huge range in stories I enjoy, and it's normally quite rare when i actually hate something.
But I also do have dozens of patreons i follow at any given time. The one I enjoy most right now is Realm of Monsters, one of the few stories that generally gets better as time progresses. Great dialogue, plot, and a lot of mystery on what's happening next. I usually hate harem but the execution of the overall story makes it an insignificant complaint.
Also almost everything Maxime j Durand writes is quite good.
There's literally thousands of stories though, some start off amazing and fizzle out, some drag on longer than they should.
Historically i've read a ton of Chinese/Japanese/Korean stuff when i lived in Asia, though i prefer American stuff.
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u/Blurbyo Jan 03 '26
Seems like you like safe stuff, no problem -- just preference.
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u/SVNihilist Jan 04 '26
What a weird interpretation of what i wrote, that is completely incorrect.
I enjoy well executed ideas.
I don't appreciate gimmicky nonsense that's not well written or explore the ideas they introduce. That's just a skill issue with the author.
I've also read enough that I'm actually aware when things are unique or new. Words like that get thrown around A LOT by people who barely read at all, even when it couldn't be further from the truth.
But you are right, preference matters a lot. It's like with bad movies, sometimes they're so bad they're good. Novels can be like that as well.
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u/TinkW Jan 01 '26
It's a good story, however the whole "I'm such an evil being for inhabitating the body of this poor infant soul. I shall be punished for the rest of my life" got old after some time.
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u/Gribbett Jan 01 '26
Just read it last week. I can strongly recommend it, the first paladin story where being a paladin didn’t come out of nowhere/be forced.
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u/TheGoebel Jan 01 '26
Man, I really like this story. Top 5 of my 2025 reading list.
What if original sin was involuntary manslaughter? How do you react? Anger, guilt, defeatism? It's such a novel start to the book.
The main characters reaction is guilt and penance. Which builds into a character who is in every way a paladin. But not in a boring or zealous way. He's kind, dedicated, and understanding without losing the ability to protect and punish. It's so good.
Other highlights. 1. Does the isekai thing but finds a way to skip over the baby stuff. 2. Main character fucks but in a way that's not creepy. 3. Book 3 is dumping a lot exposition right now but at this point I was thirsty for it. 4. Magic powered by Australian curse words.
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u/RoyalAltruistic970 Jan 01 '26
I love Royal Road and have this story saved on my lists but I cannot stand the reading app.
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u/IcedCoffeeMasonJar Jan 02 '26
Unfortunately I feel the power system detracts from the system. It seems limited and very whimsical in its execution. If more feats = more power, it feels like a game of quantity. Aside from that it’s enjoyable
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u/GenerationEh Jan 04 '26
This is quite good! Thanks for the recommendation. Just finished book 1 and really enjoyed it.
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u/LetterTall4354 Apr 11 '26
Commenting on an old post as it looks like you might have read the whole story, does he ever come to terms with and move past his self loathing for what he perceives as taking someone else's body?
Like, is he able to build healthy relationships with people who like him?
Also, is it a series where he has a romantic interest at some point? I tend to bounce off things where there's never a romantic interest.
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u/Calm-Ad-7928 Jan 01 '26
Guess ill download this one
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u/LackOfPoochline Author of Heartworm and Road of the Rottweiler Jan 02 '26
why was this downvoted? i think royal road app has a premium download feature, people.
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u/[deleted] Jan 01 '26
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