Delve

Summary — Level 1: Delve is an isekai litrpg that follows an average guy who just... Read more Summary — Level 1:Delve is an isekai litrpg that follows an average guy who just happened to wake up in a forest one day. He wasn’t summoned to defeat the demon lord or to save the world or anything like that, at least as far as he can tell. The only creature there to greet him was a regular old squirrel.Soon enough, he meets other people, only to discover that he can’t speak the language, and that not everybody immediately trusts random pajama-wearing strangers they met in the middle of the wilderness. Things generally go downhill from there, at least until the blue boxes start appearing.Delve is a story about finding your way in a new, strange, and dangerous world. It’s about avoiding death, figuring out what the heck is going on, and trying to make some friends along the way. It’s not about getting home, so much as finding a new one.Did I mention that there will be math?Summary — Level 2:Okay, but what are you in for, really?Well, this story is supposed to be realistic, or at least, as realistic as a fantasy litrpg can be. The main character doesn’t instantly become an all-powerful god and murder-hobo his way across the universe. Delve is, at its heart, a progression fantasy, but that progression is meant to feel earned. The numbers in this story actually mean something. Everything is calculated, and if you find a rounding error, I expect you to tell me about it. That said, if math isn’t your cup of tea, there is plenty more that the story has to offer. Characters are meant to feel real, and progression isn’t only about personal power; it’s also about allies, connections, and above all, knowledge. Figuring out how the system works is a significant theme.…What, you want more details? Okay, fine, but this is going to get a bit spoiler-y. Are you sure?Yes!Really sure? I mean, this summary is practically half as long as the first chap–Now!Okay, okay!The main character becomes a magic user, but he takes a route that is not very popular in adventurer culture, namely that of a support. There is a full magic system with various spells, skills, and abilities, but our MC decides that aura magic is the way to go, and that the only stat worth investing in is mana regeneration. Most people at the Adventurer’s Guild think that this makes him a bit of a dumbass, but he’s playing the long game. We’ll see how that works out for him, won’t we?Because of his build, the MC levels up fast, at least compared to normal people. There are no cheats, though, and he is limited in other ways. There are some clear and pretty obvious downsides to his build. That’s what makes it fun, no?Morals? Our MC has them. Again, we’ll see how that works out for him. Realism, remember? Would you be okay with killing someone and looting their body? I sure hope not.POV? The focus is on the main character, but there will be occasional varying perspectives from people around him, or involved in the events related to the main plot. It isn’t going to jump all over the place.Tech is standard medieval stasis. No smartphones, but the MC does have a technical background. Computers and their programming might be involved. There might even be a bit of uplifting down the road, who knows? Anyway, it isn’t the focus. He isn’t going to invent the gun in chapter 1 and change the face of warfare.Romance is not a major focus. Friendships are more the name of the game, though there will be some characters in romantic relationships.There is exploration, though not as much of the geographical nature as you might expect. It is more about exploration of the system and the culture.The pace is slow and detailed, sometimes verging on slice-of-life. The action is meant to be realistic and grounded in the numbers, and it is intended to have meaning beyond simply punching things until they stop moving.The general tone of the story is grey, and some parts can get quite dark. People die. Sometimes, people with names, but not anywhere near GoT level. There is plenty of light, too, though, to balance the darkness. The world is dangerous, but overcoming that danger is why we’re all here, isn’t it?Anyway, if you’ve made it this far through the summary, you clearly like words. I hope you enjoy the story! Collapse High Fantasy, LitRPG, Magic, Male Protagonist, Transported to Another World, Character Growth, Overpowered Protagonist, Summoning Magic, Weak to Strong, System, Game Elements, Survival, Multiple POV, Level System, Adventurers, Medieval, Clever Protagonist Why is the synopsis so long? Reading comments you truly understand that people really don't like "CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT" tag, and are spoiled by omnipotent reincarnators/regressors who already had their character development arc. Some talked how slow paced story is, it's because of you i have to see hundreds of weak to strong novels in which MC becomes OP in 10 chapters. Just admit - you like face-slapping novels with faceless MC with no personal traits, where you can't see anyone with IQ higher than 12. For those who might want to read it: SpoilerThe story starts becoming faster closer to the 100th chapter, MC chose support class so he needs to build connections to raise his LVL cap, but even without LVL ups there is a lot of system stuff, revealing how system works and its limits. The story is more about creating a home and protecting it than power building. MC really is naive and soft in the beginning, but he becomes more mature as the story goes on. It is at least 4/5. Yeah, quite a few royalroad novels are like this Not really, I've read a lot of things on royal road, this has the longest period of nothing significant happening out of any I read to latest chapter/end (over 80 books) by a factor of at LEAST 4 times. 3000 pages and 3 months happen (over on RR, page stats can be counted) Yes, by the 3rd month, he was already getting noticed by world powers. I don't like this story for a lot of reasons (BUT, compared to others, it is definitely above average), but I think that it's fair for people to say that it's slow. It's one of those stories where the time passed and the page count ratio isn't right. I mean you don't really expect the MC in a good story to have great character development (in web novels at least where the period of the story usually takes a long time) in just 3 months. The problem is that it took 3000 pages. So after 3000 pages, there's barely any progression.Besides those problems mentioned, the MC is also pretty arrogant. Keeps saying his build is great, no, it's not. And if you are native to that world, it makes sense for people to NOT "specify" their build. His "class" is great, but his build doesn't make much sense in the world that he lives in. In a party, yes, his build (and class) is great, BUT, he doesn't really play as a party member most times. He does AoE damage including to himself as well and if not for plot armor in the shape of a literal armor, he would've died multiple times already, but he has that convenient armor and made a convenient friend that happened to be a talented blacksmith.There's a lot to complain about this story. It's a story with a hit or miss MC and a page count that doesn't justify the passing time among many others. Over 100 chapters and this guy is still weak af Unnecessarily too slow! RANK C-- Always leave it to royalroad writers to come up with trash and feel like they are Tolkien #Ranobes#panic We need tag : nonkill protagonist , simp , wimp, rapist protagonist I only read to chapter 63, but the MC is weak wimpy and stupid. He didn't seem like it at the start but now it's obvious. Also his progress in levels is cut off and he seems completely unconcerned about that even though his "god build" is still stuck in the weak and growing phase. I should've checked the tags for slice of life but I'm dumb and start novels based off the synopsis. Also SpoilerHe said that killing is always wrong, even in self defense. Automatic 2/5 star downgrade to MC for me. I want them to kill bandits and their enemies not negotiate with them Thank you! 👍 Do u like slow plot and math? This novel might be for uLike action and not that many blue boxes? Then probably not for u it takes time to read the synopsis, it take a lot more time to read this slow book, if you want thing to happen then you may enjoy the start where everything is fast paced, but you are likely to drop it because for 60ish very long chapters the mc is level capped and not working towards fixing that problem, the advertised math is there but it often lacks in importance, in later chapter he is basically looking at numbers of potential build that he may never take. Progress wise, a glacier is around the same as this novel. Review as of chapter 115. The novel starts really good IMO, the MC really struggles in this new unknown, game-like world. From knowing the language to choosing what stats/skills to take. He starts out without knowing anything about the world and slowly learns more as the story progresses. The RPG elements are unique as well. BUT.After the MC hits his level cap for the first time (I won't spoil how that works or what level it is), the story starts getting boring IMO. From trying to find out what he will do next level to be optimized and how more powerful he will get with his unique build, it becomes a slice of life pretty much, and not the adventuring type. As of chap 115, he hasn't raised his cap and the story feels way different than the first few (around 50) chapters. The story also starts introducing technology at around that point, I won't go into details about what kind, but, to me personally it didn't feel like a good way to progress, so I dropped it. Feel free to give it a read though, maybe you won't find the story boring like I did or maybe you won't like the first part I am talking about as much as the second. All in all, I would give this a 2.5-3/5.