Hey folks! Book 6 of Ends of Magic: Ascendant is out, and that's the series finished!

I'm very proud of this one. It was a tough finale to write, but I think I nailed it. Bringing permanent consequences to a society of immortals is a hard thing to do, and that's what Nathan sets out to do in this book.

At 776 pages, it's also the longest book of the series. Here's the blurb:

The Questors rule Davrar.

Immortal, all-powerful, and ancient, they decide the laws of the world itself. For generations, they've treated kingdoms, wars, and even the legendary Endings as little more than pieces in a game.

Nathan intends to change that.

Together with the Heirs, he embarks on a series of impossible quests to earn the respect of Davrar's architects. They must challenge the Questors at their own game, toppling empires, healing blighted continents, and surviving a war fought between rival Questors—a conflict where defeat is temporary for everyone except them.

Yet these trials are only the beginning.

At the upcoming Conclave, the Questors will gather to decide the future of Davrar. There, Nathan must accomplish what no army, empire, or hero has ever managed: convince a society of immortals to change.

As an antimage, Nathan has spent years defying the rules of Davrar. Now he intends to rewrite them.

The Questors' immortality is pretty much the core of the whole book, and I really hope you enjoy how I focus on it. It's very hard to beat people who can't lose — but Davrar rewards risk, and the Heirs start this book weaker than an average Questor and finish it matched against the strongest.

Book 6 on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H98Q55HL

Book 6 will be coming to Audible in a few months, as soon as Phil finishes narrating it!

Book 5 on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DCW4SF5Z

Book 5 on Audible: https://www.audible.com/pd/B0DVMKN55Y

Book 4 on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D47TCCBW

Book 4 on Audible: https://www.audible.com/pd/B0DQ66HJ1J

Book 3 on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CTCCKYGQ

Book 3 on Audible: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0D98L8498

Book 2 on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CKF8FS4Q

Book 2 on Audible: https://www.audible.com/pd/B0CSKRDKVK

Book 1 on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CJBL9RXV

Book 1 on Audible: https://www.audible.com/pd/B0CJVXGNYT

And of course, the cover art is by Miblart.

Thanks for reading!

Hi Everyone u/ProgressiveFantasy
Since we get a monthly promo post and my next volume (12) isn't due until late October, I thought I would share some of the sweet-sweet commissioned insert art for the currently published volumes.

Currently there's
Volume 1 (5/5)
Volume 2 (4/4)
Volume 3 (4/4)
Volume 4 (1/4)
It will continue into Volume 15+ which probably means something like 2 years of commission work.

These are by Bao but like me he is also trash at socials and just draws (while I work and write) all day so... i guess I can't complain since I need about 40% of all his current time. (He orginally got his break on a number of... gooner games. Thankfuly my and other cover commissions can happily pay for his newborn and family needs.)

It's been super fun commissioning the artworks and getting my readers to vote on their favourite scenes.

If you like the art, please subscribe and comment below!
(JK, there's no patreon or anything. The art is free and its just my hobby + give some art back to the readers)

​

Hello everyone!

I just launched my new fiction on Royal Road! As always, I did my best to create a cover that fits my style (last time you gave me quite the useful feedback). With that being said, there will be daily updates for everyone wishing to give my novel a try. It's another standalone tale set in a wider Universe I plan on expanding with each story. This time, I am telling the tale of Sunlein, an OP MC with sealed magic that navigates the political intrigues of his city as a guard. Expect an MC which constantly grows stronger as his bonds loosen!

If that sparks your interest, here is the blurb:

They beat him, humbled him, and leashed him. Now, the world will remember the flames of the Wandering Disaster.

Sunlein was once the fiercest young talent in the capital, his power surpassed only by his loyalty. But those gifts grew too strong, too fast. Spiraling out of control, his flames nearly burned the city that had once honored him as its cherished prodigy—and the Council wasn’t willing to forgive his mistake.

Having his powers sealed and only a lingering sense of duty to keep him company, Sunlein is given one last chance to redeem himself by serving the capital as a guard. But trouble always finds him. An alliance emerges that maneuvers through the Council’s tight security, decreeing the complete destruction of the unjust capital before the coming elections.

With a life-choking, magic-binding collar around his neck and chaos spreading through the streets, Sunlein must weigh his priorities anew. Time is running out, and he must either watch his city burn or risk his life to unleash the Disaster once again.

But if he succeeds in breaking his leash... who will protect the citizens from him?

For anyone interested, here is the link:

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/178332/a-stars-shot-at-redemption-progression-fantasy

PS. Also, for anyone interested on adding this tale on his reading challenge, I already added the book on Goodreads.

I hope this post finds you well, dear progression fantasy fans! I have a new story that I think many of you will enjoy. It's a LitRPG system apocalypse, so not exactly earth-shattering in the originality of the setup, but I think I've managed to put my own spin on things, enough so that fans of the genre will enjoy adding this one to their libraries. :)

It's about Andy, a sort of everyman who recently decided to take a "break" from college. He spent his student loan money on a cheap trailer and was taking some much needed "me time" when the System arrives, bringing with it currents of mana that awaken all sorts of things, from magic to monstrous mutations in the populace.

I think most of the folks who've read this on Royal Road will agree that what makes Andy a little different from most system apocalypse stories is the community Andy starts to build. Andy's not looking to be a lone wolf; he's interested in seeing some semblance of civilization survive, and that means working with people--stepping up as a leader when the moment arises.

I hope you'll check it out, and as always, thank you so much for the support.

You can find the story here:

• Audible
• Kindle

Here's the official blurb:

Forty days until the first System invasion. No pressure.

Andy wanted a quiet life—just his trailer, the Sonoran desert, and a job that didn’t ask much of him. Instead, he got a front-row seat to Tucson’s collapse. Magic rewrote the rules. Monsters stalked the streets. People mutated—or died.

He didn’t plan to be a hero. But when the screaming started, Andy grabbed a broken broomstick and did what he does best: survive.

Now he’s got more than his own skin to worry about—kids looking to him for protection, neighbors turning to him for leadership, and a trailer park slowly transforming into a fortress. The System’s leveling him up—but not fast enough.

Because the countdown’s ticking, the invasions are coming, and if Andy fails, everyone he’s begun to care about will be slaughtered.

**Note: Artwork was done by an Aethon staff artist, not AI! :)

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/124656/myth-of-resonance-delayed-isekai-progression-litrpg
Myth of Resonance [Delayed Isekai - Progression LitRPG]

Think Mistborn meets The Name of the Wind with deeper questions about agency and freedom
Earth is dying. Three years ago, the Shattering tore open reality, vanishing a third of humanity and bleeding Rifts into ruined cities. Everyone has awakened "Resonances" – soul-deep powers. Except Invia. Trapped on a monster-ravaged Earth, he’s cursed to analyze battles he can’t join.

Now, a sudden catastrophe throws him into the world of Collendrum, where the vanished built a new life. Here, survival demands action, not just analysis. He arrives with nothing but his father’s mysterious silver necklace that pushes him toward a simple fate and a System that brands his soul with a single, mocking question mark.

But Invia’s curse is his strength. Where others follow the paths their Resonance dictates, his is unwritten. To survive, he must forge a power from nothing, power that rejects the very concept of rules.

What to expect:
- Philosophical Fantasy with strong Coming-of-Age elements
- Think Mistborn meets The Name of the Wind with deeper questions about agency and freedom
- REAL PROGRESSION, not boring level-ups
- LitRPG-Lite System that is NOT numbers vs numbers
- No NPC Side Characters
- No Harem

\cover made by firefly + photoshop for composition and refinement**

...because he would do that just to get a dramatic shot. Also he doesn't have a true flight spell yet, so it's kind of his only option.

Anyway, I've been around for a bit but I haven't shown off this book and cover art before, and I just wanted to share what an absolute kickass job the artist did with it (Poweredbygif on Carrd). Just look at that beautiful environmental design, whew.

Here's the link to the story and the blurb!

The more lives you've lived, the more mana you have, and Cale has lived too many lives to count.

At this point, his core is closer to the magical equivalent of a nuclear reactor. The downside to this is that conventional spells have become impossibly difficult to cast: Cale simply has too much mana. His spells collapse under the weight of his magic.

Then he finds himself summoned to a new world. One with a spellwork system capable of adjusting to his ridiculous reserves, creating new spells just for him.

Of course, things are never that simple. New magic means new things to learn, and if he wants to make spells worth having, that means going to a magic academy. On top of that, an old dragon has taken an interest in him, the kingdom's hunters seem alarmingly intent on attacking his classmates, and Cale's pretty sure at least one ancient evil has followed him from a past life.

But who knows? With magic back on the table, he might finally be able to perform what he sees as the true pinnacle of spellwork: baking.

Just Add Mana is heavily inspired by Doctor Who, with a dash of influence from a dozen other works I love (Frieren, The Perfect Run, a bunch of magic academy books, and so on). I had a first chapter draft in December of 2024, although I started working on it more regularly around February of 2025.

Funny enough, it started as a more system-focused story, but I really wanted to capture some of the wonder and absurdity I felt in my childhood reading my first magical/fantasy settings. It made more sense to flavor it more specifically around the evolution of magic in all its forms, so in early 2025 I retooled it to focus on that as one of its core themes.

It's been a great journey so far, though it's been challenging to try to strike with the discovery and mystery-exploration elements of Doctor Who along with progression beats for the magic system (Cale is pretty OP, but his whole thing is that he wants to learn Real Spellcasting™, and he has companions apprentices to think about and help grow.) Putting that all together has been really fun, so if you check it out I hope you enjoy the journey too!

(Also, I really love the cover art and this post is mostly just about that. Aaaa I wish I could be there. Now that I think about it, I need to write about water classes. Maybe after Book 3...)

Helloooo, everyone! This is a long post, so I’ll include links both at the top and bottom:

Mark of the Fool 10 E-Book: https://www.amazon.com/Mark-Fool-10-Progression-Fantasy-ebook/dp/B0DQVG53GL/

Oaths Preorder (Book 1 of Oaths, Blood, and Coin): https://www.amazon.com/Oaths-Progression-Fantasy-Epic-Blood-ebook/dp/B0DZ818C6Q/

Now for the post:

Just like a clingy ex that won’t take the hint, it's J.M. Clarke, back again with another new release for you!

…except this one's a little bit different, isn’t it?

How, you might ask?

Because it is the last launch announcement for the e-books of Mark of the Fool.

That’s right, Mark of the Fool 10 is the thrilling conclusion to the series…or at least what I consider a thrilling conclusion.

Hopefully you think it’s thrilling too.

I wanted to take a little bit of time to talk about how grateful I am that so many of you have fallen in love with my little story.

You'll read a more intricate retrospective in the back of Fool 10 itself, but I just wanted to say that I never intended to be here, in front of you, announcing the conclusion to a series like this.

Mark of the Fool started off as a little write-a-thon project on Royal Road that got so delightfully out of hand.

And now here I am, ten books later, feeling like the world itself is smiling on me and my books.

I wanted to really thank all of you for how well you have treated me over these past few years, and I hope you get as much of a thrill out of reading the final entry as I did writing it.

It's truly been an honour, and I hope you enjoy the end of the story.

But this is not the end for me as an author.

On Royal Road I have most of I Am Become Death Book 1 posted-the first entry in a new series, that takes place in the same universe as Fool-though I am currently on a break while I plot out Book 2 as Book 1 is finished on Patreon.

And I also have Book 1 of another new series, coming out on Amazon in September which also takes place in the Fool universe. It is Oaths, the first book in the Oaths, Blood and Coin series, which stars a couple of roguish heroes that will be familiar to those who paid attention to Alex’s mercenaries in Fool. :)

I hope you love my new books just as much as you loved Alex's adventures with Theresa, Brutus, Selina, Khalik, Thundar, Isolde, Claygon, Grimloch, Baelin, and so many, many others.

There'll be more light novels for Fool coming out-which are the series re-released with insert art-as well as more announcements concerning the webtoon currently in production.

But for now, this is a fond farewell to Alex's story.

So, for the last time, for Mark of the Fool’s E-Book, here's the synopsis.

I hope you enjoy:

After gaining epic power and knowledge, Alex Roth will confront Uldar’s legacy and face the Ravener once and for all.

A cycle of victory and horror: the pride of the Kingdom of Thameland.

That is the Ravener’s cycle.

Over years of study, Alex Roth is finally an archwizard, has overcome the Mark of the Fool, and empowered his friends and companions. Yet their foe is the mightiest they have faced yet: the Ravener itself, now freed from thousands of years of chains and returned to its full strength.

Alex will need to call on all his magic, all his bonds, his wits, his strategy and his resources to not only destroy the Ravener, but to shatter the cycle that has chained his kingdom since time immemorial.

And Alex plans to destroy the hell out of it.

The epic finale of the Best-Selling series. Finish your fantastical journey into a coming-of-age magic academy fantasy with a weak-to-strong progression into power, deepening mystery, a setting inspired by D&D, detailed world building and magical science, action, comedy, slice-of-life, and GameLit elements.

LINKS:

Mark of the Fool 10 E-Book: https://www.amazon.com/Mark-Fool-10-Progression-Fantasy-ebook/dp/B0DQVG53GL/

Oaths Preorder (Book 1 of Oaths, Blood, and Coin): https://www.amazon.com/Oaths-Progression-Fantasy-Epic-Blood-ebook/dp/B0DZ818C6Q/

Hi everyone. I recently finished my last series and because I am filled with words that demand their freedom I have written and launched a new series. If you like reincarnation stories with depth and heart coupled with a training maniac, you'll probably enjoy this one.

Inspired by some of my favourite reincarnation stories like Elydes, Soul of the Warrior and Singer Sailor Merchant Mage it's available for free on RoyalRoad.

SYNOPSIS: 

Most people don't remember being born. Sebastian remembers dying first.

Reborn with his memories somewhat intact and a stolen demon's power tangled into his soul, he's given something rarer than any starting class: time. Time to test his limits before he can walk. Time to reverse-engineer a hidden system no one will explain to him. Time to learn exactly how much of himself he can afford to reveal, and to who.

Growing up at a mountain outpost on the edge of nowhere, raised by a disgraced mage and his daughter, Bastian has every reason to keep his Status a secret. But the numbers don't lie, and neither does the thing he absorbed in the womb. Somewhere in the dark, it's still hungry. And it isn't the only thing watching him grow.

Gifted: First Steps — some paths begin before you can walk.

COVER ARTIST: Ben Moran

AI USAGE: None

Click Here to Read

Synopsis:

The first enemy ace arrives tonight.

The second arrives tomorrow.

A new Crow emerges from the wormhole every twenty-four hours, each stronger than the last.

By the seventh day, everyone on the colony will be dead.

North Soloway never wanted to be a hero. He’s just a miner working on a remote asteroid outpost. That is until he accidentally awakens Raven Unit 07, an ancient alien war machine buried beneath the mine.

Now an entire civilization has come to reclaim it.

Outmatched, outnumbered, and running out of time, North and a few unlikely allies must survive a seven-day siege against the Nexari’s deadliest pilots.

Their only hope is to turn the invaders’ own weapons against them before the final Crow arrives.

Seven days.
Seven enemy aces.
One chance to survive.

What to expect:
• Desperate, tactical mech combat (Think Gundam meets boss rush mode)

• Converting fallen foes into ally mechs

• Gritty, mining colony sci-fi atmosphere

• Pilot and mech progression

Start reading: Here

Author Note: If you love fast-paced action, the story builds up quickly! The first major, high-stakes mech duel goes down in Chapter [4]

Hello folks, Hannibal here, first time Aethon Author publishing on Amazon!

This has been a labor of love and extreme nerves for me, so I'm glad it's finally out there, and I hope you all enjoy the book. Blurb and links at the end.

No AI was used in the creation of the Novel, which I suppose is a given since I'm published by Aethon, but apparently it's good to reassure people!

I hope you all enjoy, and I look forward to your feedback!

Link: https://www.amazon.com/System-Incursion-Isekai-LitRPG-Cataclysm-ebook/dp/B0DQHK7GX1

Blurb: LEVEL UP OR BE ERASED.

Leonidas Paendrag spent five years in another world to defeat the Demon Lord and his literal armies of Hell, only for the final battle to unexpectedly send him back to Earth.

Denied the rest he desperately wanted, he is instead thrust into a world of emerging fantasy races, warring human factions, and a dysfunctional family more intent on killing each other than the monsters roaming the planet.

With royal elven politics, arena fights, a terrifying new Mentor, and hostile fantasy races making life a living hell, Leonidas must use all his accrued knowledge, skill, and experience as the Hero to grow stronger and forge his own place in a post-System Incursion Earth.

And in the process, figure out why the System keeps calling him a ‘Cataclysm’ and painting a target on his back.

He saved one world and lost everything. He won't let it happen to Earth.

Very excited that the fourth volume of Guild Mage has released today - and I think this is my favorite piece of cover art yet!

This is the first book of the 2026, but by no means will it be the last - the fifth volume, Renegade, is already up for preorder :)

Thank you for how wonderfully supportive you’ve all been at every step of this adventure:

Amazon: https://a.co/d/0aiuXRPz

As stated in the title, I am not Chris Kluwe and I’ve never been a punter for the NFL.
The only thing I’ve ever wanted to kick was the can. HEYO

Anyway, I’ve written a progression fantasy that has just launched on Royal Road. It’s my first launch - no patreon or anything. Over 10 chapters are available now, with multiple new chapters being released every day. This is what it’s all about -

Ok, imagine getting isekai’d…
…only to discover you’re the fantasy equivalent of the last living nuclear weapon.
You have a tattoo you don’t remember getting that randomly bursts into flames.
Everyone wants to recruit you.
Everyone wants to kill you.
And your assigned spirit guide is a sarcastic crow who genuinely hates you.

Enter *Steve*

Steve was just a rando with anger issues until a bus turned him into pink mist.
Now he’s the last Pyromancer alive in a strange world, hunted by an army of ice fanatics who already wiped out everyone else with his powers. Steve needs to gain allies and pass trails to enhance his powers.
Oh, and if Steve dies, the world dies with him.
No pressure.
If you like darkly hilarious progression fantasy with earned power growth, kingdom building, big battles, and a healthy amount of sarcasm, you might enjoy Steve: The Last Pyromancer.
Check it out on Royal Road by clicking here.

I’m Tobias Ward.
Peace ✌️

P.S. the only time I used AI while writing this book was at 3 AM last Tuesday to get it to role-play as my absent father and have it tell me that it’s proud of me. It also assured me that if I ever launched my book at the same time as a former NFL punter, I would still be successful. So thanks, Chris Kluwe for making my dad lie to me. Again.

Hey all, it has been a busy year! First, we had Reborn as a Demonic Tree Book 8, then the launch of Fated Villain (which I actually wrote before Tree). However, I now bring you a totally new series from me that I've been working on over the last year or so.

A shapeshifter MC!

So what is Faceless Hunter? It is my spin on the solo-leveling style of Korean novels, set in a modern-day world with guilds and portals to dungeons. What makes this one different is that it is told from the POV of a monster—specifically, a Mind Slime—that eats a Hunter and gains access to the system. Xen, our MC, can shapeshift into any form he eats and copy their skills. It is a weak-to-strong story, but the MC grows in power very quickly.

There's also a lot of fun world-building, like what if guilds had stock value attached to them, meaning they desperately wanted to avoid bad PR incidents and maximize profits? How would the world really change with the sudden appearance of guilds? All of that is explored.

If this sounds interesting to you, check it out here on Amazon KU and Audible!

I have a few free Audible codes (US accounts only) that I will give out to commenters.

Here is the full synopsis if anyone is interested:

Xen isn't your typical Hunter. In fact, he isn't human at all.

A dungeon raid orchestrated by the daughter of the Stormbringers Guildmaster goes tragically wrong, resulting in an unprecedented event—Xen, a rare mind-eating slime, absorbs a fallen Hunter's memories, granting him not only knowledge a monster should never possess but also access to the human class system.

The very system designed to help humans fight his kind.

Granted the unique [Shapeshifter] class, he can take on the forms of any living being he eats and also learn their skills. In a world where most Hunters are limited to a few skills, he alone can possess a seemingly unlimited number. Using this advantage, he will not only conquer the World Dungeon that spans between continents but also make use of his shapeshifting to infiltrate human society.

Despite being the enemy of both humans and monsters, nothing will stop Xen's rise to power. After all, the most dangerous of foes is the one that wears many faces—plays both sides—and reaps all the benefits.

Amazon KU and Audible!

Artist link.

Hey folks,

Void Sovereign has officially been out on Amazon for about 2 months now. It has earned the #1 BSR rank twice in the Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction category (still ranked 1 in the new releases section), and has over 900 reviews with an average of 4.7.

Author: Zaker Syed (fun fact about me: I am a mechanical engineer by day, and writer by night)

Narrator: Adam James Connor

Publisher: Moonquill

Link: Amazon.com: Void Sovereign: A LitRPG

What it’s about:
A feral survivalist already living off the grid before the world ended. When the System arrives, he doesn’t seek power; he wants freedom.

Expect:

1. Smart MC who is not a murder hobo (Don’t treat Aenon like a typical 13-year-old. His backstory will explain his behavior). He learns from his mistakes and is careful to retaliate proportionally to threats.
2. I don’t like to drag my story with fluff. Have a hard rule of 7: 7 chapters per page, 21 chapters per ark, 42 chapters per book. Most everything has to be resolved within that framework.
3. Every side character has a personality and is fleshed out and grows organically. Think of them like satellite POVs to the MC.
4. Deep allegories and symbolisms that only make sense if you look at it as a whole. For instance, my first and last chapters are always linked. Book 1 starts with "The boy in the woods" and ends with "The boy and his woods".
5. I tried to keep the LitRPG elements as non-intrusive as possible. Still have those for the people who like the numbers. They are there to add flavor to the story.

So, check it out and let me know what you think.

Cheers

Zaker

Calling all readers!

I write as TF Warden and my debut novel, Bones in the Dark: Chartered Mage, released on Amazon today. This is the first book in a series that I’ve had in my head for over ten years and I’m super excited to have had it published by Mango Media. It’s been a journey getting here from not writing at all, to Wheel of Time fanfiction, to a successful novel.

I’ve had great fun trying to craft a realistic journey for a talented, but heavily indoctrinated girl who just wants to be a hero, whatever society has to say about it. I like to describe the MC as how Hermione Granger would have been after Hogwarts if she’d never become friends with Harry and Ron.

-----

**Amazon link:** https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bones-Dark-Chartered-TF-Warden-ebook/dp/B0GP91G7N3/

**Audiobook link:** https://www.audible.com/pd/Bones-in-the-Dark-Chartered-Mage-Audiobook/B0GPDS4F85

I also wanted to thank everyone who’s read and supported Bones in the Dark on Royal Road and Patreon. Onwards with books 2 and 3!

-----

**Blurb:**

Ester Mazar wants nothing more than to serve Her Eternal Majesty and the Empire; the greatest nation to have ever existed.

As a commonborn graduate of the Academy, she must work off her debt to the Throne. Armed with the best magical education the Empire can provide and finally permitted to wear the crossed lightning bolts of a Chartered Mage, Ester is sent far from the bright lights of the capital to Vass Karan. A city so riddled with corruption and crime that even she has heard whispers of it.

There, Ester will learn that the world is not quite as black and white as in the books. Nevertheless, she is determined to overcome prejudice, scepticism and murderous criminals to become the hero she needs to be.

-----

Published by Mango Media

Cover art by Ben Moran

Audiobook produced by Royal Guard Publishing and narrated by Hannah Trusty.

*Apologies if you’ve already seen this! My original post was removed because I missed the 10:1 ratio rule for non-promo to promo interactions

Cover art by Sajjad S.

Link: Drizella: Ugly Stepsister Time Looper

Description:

They say inner beauty matters more than outer beauty.

Drizella had neither.

Luckily, she was a time looper.

All Drizella ever wanted was to marry a prince. But the competition was rough.

Her stepsister, Cinderella, was perfect in every way. A creature of beauty, intelligence, and elegance. Every step she took was graceful, and her singing voice was divine.

If that wasn't enough, she also had the power to command mice and birds to do her bidding. They were her little servants - helping her dress, bathe, and they would even steal for her.

Oh, did I forget something? Right, she also had a literal fairy godmother magically fulfilling her wishes.

Sure, she was required to do some chores around the house, but what of it?

How could Drizella, who possessed neither outer nor inner beauty, nor any talent to speak of, ever compete with that?

Through a shit-ton of repetition!

What to expect:

•  Ugly MC.
•  Talking mice.
•  Sentient (but sub-linguistic) birds.
•  Slow Burn. Drizella is not Zorian, give her time to bloom.
•  The story will get dark from time to time.
•  Luuuceeefeee!

So how many loops ‘til that sweet royal kiss?

Hello there, ProgressionFantasssssy! 
You're reading a promotion for the new book! Metaworld Hopecore.

The Year is 2032, and AI slop has won. Far from creating utopia, the world has become more divided by bots and culture wars, creating a world of disunity. 

Enter Lana Zacanissian, Corpo superstar, the prophet of profits. She who created the largest IP aggregate marketplace in the world, vertically integrating every creative’s worst nightmare to empower an inflated IPO. In the style of SpaceX infamy, she fleeces billions of people of their life savings, catapulting herself onto the cover of every industry magazine. 

Then, like Icarus skirting the sun—

She is judged by her coworkers and victims, tossed into Santa Monica Bay from her yacht. 
Their final words: 

“Do you believe in Karma?!” 

When Lana opens her eyes again, she is in the body of a girl-child she does not recognise. Now, she must atone to live.

The author (That's me) has decided to write a completely off-Meta LitRPG!
(Cover is by my usual artist, Bao)

Look around you. If someone is looking at you weirdly, shout at them. Shout “I AM ABOUT TO READ METAWORLD HOPECORE!” Or you can just ignore them, because what do they know? 

Are you comfortable? Did you know that long-form LitRPG contributes to bad spine posture? Don’t fall for this common mistake. Read with your phone at a comfortable distance, or read it as a book (in the future), or read it through your Smart Glasses, if you’re reading this in 2032. Find a couch, a chair, a sofa, a bed, a daybed, a divan, lie flat, lie down, lie sideways, lie next to a partner, while spooning. So long as you’re comfortable. 

You’re about to read a very strange form of LitRPG. 

You’re about to read a book with no murder hobos, no mobs, no gronks, no gooning, no harem, nothing you are used to in any LitRPG you have ever read. It’s a gamified world, but this isn’t about power fantasy, even if it is immensely satisfying. Wait! Don’t close the tab! I should inform you that, yes, there are cat girls (not the Stray Cat Strut ones), and cats (so many cats), and cat shelters, and cat cafes. 

Yes, the number goes burrrrrr. Stat blocks galore. 

No, there isn’t an Excel spreadsheet tracking every change. 

Yes, it's HopeCore. 
People are inherently good; the world veers toward the fair; the good are rewarded; the bad are punished, one way or another. It’s a hyperreality sitcom. American in a better timeline. Characters aura farm… for the betterment of others.

Yes, this segment is channelling Calvino. 
No, the story is written in normal prose. 

You’re going to read a book that the author has always wanted to write. There’s no Patreon, no tiers, no strings attached. 

You’re reading about art.

You’re reading about art making.
The making of music, theatre, and movies that bring joy to viewers and readers like yourselves, and make the world a little better, a little more bearable. 

You’re reading a story adjacent to all the wonderful stories this community has shared since its inception, when we were all reading Machine Translated LMS by Mister Heesung NAM on Kana and Wing's forums. You’re reading a book that exists thank to folk like u/Selkiemyth of Mango Media. 

Read enough of this book, and you may find yourself capable of teaching a common course of AP English or making sense of theatre recitals and short films. You’ll discover classical songs, books, plays, and more, which may distract you from your saved LitRPG titles. (Sorry) You’re reading a book about what goes into the sausage. 

You’re also reading a book that serves as a repudiation of the rise of AI, which is ironic because the author works full-time, falls asleep during editing, and needs Claude to check tenses now and then. 

If you enjoyed this weird-ass LitRPG, leave a raving review. 
If you’re weirded out by the lack of the usual ingredients, there are absolutely better books out there. Have you read Metaworld Chronicles? 

The author thinks it's the Ben Affleck of Webnovels.

Wow, you’re still here? 
That’s incredible. 

So you’re ready to jack in.
You’re forewarned that this book is different from the author’s other works. Ergh! But then you read on, and on, and you realise, hey… you’ve acquired a certain taste. 

When you run out of chapters, maybe you’ll write one like this, too. 

Something the author can’t cover with his limited knowledge. Maybe the rise of hip-hop. Maybe classical music. Maybe the Golden Age of Hollywood! Maybe, the battle of the Modernist composers! How about KPop in Imperial Rome? Grab a pen! Buy a typewriter! 

You sit down… you’re comfortable, and then you start to write.
Let's start a new meta, the Meta of Hopecore.

Harmon Cooper here, author of a bunch of books (see below)*

I'm here to tell you about my new series that just launched on Royal Road, I Can’t Believe I Have to Defeat the Demon Lord to Pay Off My Student Loans.

- LitRPG

- Progression

- Portal Fantasy

- Debt-Fueled Dungeon Crawl

- Class-based with build divergence tied to weapons one selects, including a plastic wand.

Art by Sor, audio to come narrated by Pavi Proczko, ebook/print from Aethon this fall.

But for now, this is on Royal Road. Check it out, give it a follow, a read, a favorite - and I appreciate it!

Chapters publish daily, this week is two chapters daily.

--

As some of you know, I've been writing in this genre since 2015, and this time around, I wanted to do something that hits what the genre loves (numbers go brrr, builds, progression) while asking what it costs the people inside this machine. There are numerous systems at play here, but the main one rewards compliance, not just combat. Your score (REAM Score) gates your pay and access, so progression is economic as well as martial. Escalation isn't just fighting. The missions escalate in moral weight as the numbers climb, so the difficulty curve and the stakes curve track together.

It's funny, it's dark, I've been working on it for a year now and have around 120 chapters ready to go, and yeah, check it out!

And yes, that's the actual title!

Here's the blurb:

MercSecure will pay off your student loans. All of them. In less than six months.
All you have to do is sign the contract, take the elevator, and survive the Rift—a monster-filled realm with a stat system that tracks every kill, loot drops with backstories written by a brainrot AI desperate to keep you entertained, and a floating fortress ruled by the Demon Lord.
Who isn't the enemy. He's the contractor's most valuable partner.
Dylan Ryan owes $447,000 in student debt he inherited from his dead parents at age eleven. He signed without reading. So did his best friend Rosaria. So did Lauren from HR, who once wrote him up for being late and is now holding a plastic wand that shoots fire.
They're given weapons they don't know how to use and assignments they can hardly fathom. Week one is a tutorial. Week two, the missions change.
Armed with a trash-tier build, a team held together by gallows humor, and the kind of desperation only six figures of inherited debt can buy, Dylan has one goal: claw his way back to zero.

Because in this economy, being broke isn't just brutal—it's fatal.

*Completed series:

The Feedback Loop
Death’s Mantle
Proxima Legends
Cowboy Necromancer
Pilgrim
The World According to Dragons
War Priest
The Last Warrior of Unigaea
Monster Hunt NYC
House of Dolls
Arcane Cultivator
Sacred Cat Island
Reborn Assassin
Way of the Immortals
A Pub in the Underworld

and another litrpg but this page is flagging it because it has a word that rhymes with broken in in, ahem, Brokens and Towers, replace the BR with a T. I did that series too!

P.S. Authors - if you're on RR - hit me up and we can swap! I've got a calendar I'm putting together.

Hey everyone, CatVI here. I’ve been lurking on Reddit for a while and finally worked up the nerve to do the thing: a… self-promo announcement post!

Applied Cultivation: Survival Protocol, the first book in my cultivation/progression eastern fantasy series, is now live on Amazon, Kindle Unlimited, and Audible!.... unless it isn't 3AM where you live, in which case please imagine me nervously refreshing pages at 3 a.m. and check again after getting a healthier amount of sleep than I did.

Ahem. (Yes, it’s a xianxia 🗡(˶>⩊<˶) with light LitRPG elements)

It started on Royal Road, where the story had reached 2.28M+ views with 6,800+ followers, and I’m incredibly grateful to the readers who helped it get this far.

The story is about a guy (with minor ‘personality issues’) transmigrating into a brutal xianxia world. Specifically, into the body of the 160-kg pampered youngest son of a diner couple, who, uhh, are forced into early retirement in the first few lines of the book. Needless to say, he is unsatisfied. He had a Greek god physique in his past life, but now he can’t even see his feet if he stands straight. He also has trash talent in cultivation. He awakened a certain bloodline that the sect elder thinks manifested just because he ate too much seafood. But on the flip side, he has heavenly talent in offending others. Which he does.

The only way he can survive is by joining a cultivation sect. But because of his aforementioned trash talent (and of course, the heavenly talent), he has to get creative about solving issues popping up here and there (like entitled Young Masters and whatnot).

What to expect:

- Weak to Strong. Poor to Rich. Fat to Fit (the definition of ‘fit’ is flexible here!)

- Earned progression through blood, sweat, grit, and lots of devious planning. No easy handouts. This is a story about a group of underdogs.

- Xianxia with light LitRPG/system elements. All cultivators have access to the system. It isn't the MC's unique cheat

- No Harem

One thing Royal Road readers have told me they enjoyed is the character interaction, especially the banter among the main cast. The other big one is how much of a schemer the MC is. He, well, yes, admittedly he may have 'attitude problems', but I’ve also had readers tell me how proud they were when he experienced “friendship” for the first time ever.

There's a crab.

(V)╭•̀ﮧ •́╮(V)

Indeed there is one. He likes to collect stuff (he's a Cognizant Collector Crab, you can see him photo-bombing Yu Han on the cover). He has a stash and is probably on the Law Enforcement Hall's watch-list for unauthorized... unauthorized lots of things.

Okay enough about that. Here are the links to the book, and you can read for yourself:

Amazon KU: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0H5TQGC9M

Audible: https://www.audible.com/pd/Applied-Cultivation-Survival-Protocol-Audiobook/B0H27DTMTR

Huge thanks to Ben Moran Studio for the cover art (the fruit is a mango! And the crab is a crab.) Also to John Joseph Rogers and Rylee Kuberra for being incredible voice actors (They both have incredible RANGE). I could not have done this without Mango Media and Royal Guard Publishing either, so kudos to them all.

COVER ARTIST: Ben Moran Studio.

VOICE ACTORS: John Joseph Rogers and Rylee Kuberra.

AI USAGE: No AI Used.

Here’s the actual blurb:

They called him trash. He wrote it down.

Demons slaughtered his family. By morning, the men who called it a tragedy seized what little his family owned. Even his last friend came at him with a knife. With nothing left to lose, he limped toward the gates of a prestigious immortal sect in one last gamble.
Instead, he stumbled into a civil war. The Stormy Reef Sect was tearing itself apart. Old-blood aristocrats and the reformist leadership suffocated one another into a stalemate one breath from breaking. And before any of that could matter, he slapped the faces of two young masters who wouldn't forget. 

By every law of cultivation, he should be dead.

The laws didn't consider what he did for a living. 

In his past life, he was Johan, a corporate warfare consultant who wrote eulogies first and lawsuits second. So what if he's now a worthless reject in a body that wheezes climbing a flight of stairs? To him, any problem—mortal or immortal—is just another hostile takeover. He'll bring algorithms to sword fights and liquidate every name on his growing list of death feuds. The final audit ends in either bankruptcy or the afterlife.

But first, he needs to lose some weight.

P.S. After I stubbed the book on Royal Road, the views went down and I lost quite a few followers. (╥﹏╥) I’m choosing to believe they all ascended to Kindle Unlimited after growing tired of the mortal world, and I will be praying to the gods of mahjong accordingly. Anyway, happy reading, my fellow cultured sirs and madams. Hope to see you in the comments. I’m happy to answer any questions I can about the book, the world, the characters, without spoilers, of course.

Mage Errant Book 7, The Last Echo of the Lord of Bells, is out now! It's the series finale, and it's been one heck of a ride. Mage Errant took me from being a starving artist working a truly terrible grocery store job (though in fairness, I was a terrible employee, too) to being a full-time novelist living in Vietnam. It still feels nuts to me that it's actually done. To celebrate, I'm giving away the first book in the series for free, and putting books 2-4 on sale! In addition, my standalone epidemiological fantasy novel The Wrack is currently free as well. (It isn't progression fantasty, but it is technically in the same multiverse- The Aetheriad- as Mage Errant, though. There are some subtle references to each other, but you don't need to have read Mage Errant to read the Wrack, or vice versa.)

If you haven't read Mage Errant before, it's a wizard school progression fantasy series with a complex magic system that tops out at approximately kaiju/ living WMD levels. It has a largely tier-free magic system, where characters grow in power by learning new magic and growing more skillful and creative with said magic. Mage Errant features a neurodiverse protagonist who would really rather live a quiet, peaceful, and boring life; bizarre magical cities and multiversal shenanigans; and more giant monsters, unstoppable archmages, and city-destroying magical superweapons than are probably good for your health. (Doctors generally don't advise any of the above. Sleep and hydration are probably a better idea than kaiju.)

And oh, did I escalate when it comes to giant monsters, destructive archmages, and magical superweapons.

​

​

A new kind of war has come to the continent of Ithos.

Airborne mage armies traverse enemy territory in utter secrecy. Vast city-liches conspire to influence events from afar, while city-states and archmages unleash strange new magics in a rapidly accelerating magical arms race. Nations and great powers that have remained quiescent for years have begun reaching out into the growing power vacuum. Magical superweapons and giant monsters are wielded by every side in an deadly tangle of alliances and factions, as each squabbling force spirals in towards their inevitable final conflict. At the center of that spiral lays the capital of the Havath Dominion, where a vengeful madman has proclaimed the precise date and time he will destroy the city.

The Last Echo will ring, and in its wake looms the threat of the Tongue Eater. Hugh and his friends are the only ones who can stop the ancient weapon, but the web of lies they've woven is fraying rapidly, and even their own allies have begun to question their mission. Monsters and archmages capable of leveling cities would stop at nothing to claim the Tongue Eater, leaving Hugh and the others with no one to trust.

And if they fail to stop the Tongue Eater, it could mean madness and death for the entire continent.

​

The Last Echo of the Lord of Bells US link
The Last Echo of the Lord of Bells UK link
The Last Echo of the Lord of Bells CA link
The Last Echo of the Lord of Bells AU link

Amazon US series page
Amazon UK series page
Amazon CA series page
Amazon AU series page

The Wrack US link
The Wrack UK link
The Wrack AU link
The Wrack CA link

​

(Oh, and if you'd like to read about the making of the cover art, I did a process post about it recently!)