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The Arcane Emperor
"Rainer, an amateur arcanist and college student, sought to create a new spell far surpassing the magic of the few he inherited from his grandfather. Yet the interference of an unknown event during the casting of his spell led him to be thrown through space and time.
Where status screens were accepted as normal and class distinctions were quite clear. Leveling and achieving a class beyond a simple farmer or peddler was an affair of life and death combined with years of hard training. Goblins were not the fodder that they should be, orcs filled bedtime stories in order to scare children into behaving, and a dragon? You might as well pack up and move to another country.
He, however, enters this world with the rare and powerful class of the Arcanist. How will the recently ardent seeker of magic find greater heights, or will he land in deeper depths?"
Where status screens were accepted as normal and class distinctions were quite clear. Leveling and achieving a class beyond a simple farmer or peddler was an affair of life and death combined with years of hard training. Goblins were not the fodder that they should be, orcs filled bedtime stories in order to scare children into behaving, and a dragon? You might as well pack up and move to another country.
He, however, enters this world with the rare and powerful class of the Arcanist. How will the recently ardent seeker of magic find greater heights, or will he land in deeper depths?"
984 pages, web serial
Published September 24, 2016
27 people are currently reading
175 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
January 5, 2018
TL:DR Power trip wank off story.
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Story that HAD, HAD promise but later on it starts treading the line into complete utter garbage. Story has less tension then a kids books. People are eager to kiss ass and hand away victories. Failure should be rampant for a young man who does not know jack about where he is let alone the acting, the hammy lying with everyone eating it up. How he spot on nails stuff that he has NEVER done in his entire life and has no fucking idea how to do it... but does it anyway on the first try bs.
The main character has good fortune handed to him on a platter. He meets enemies one by one. They give him convenient time to rest and plan. There is little mystery to this new world he finds himself in; he seems to grasp the enemies' motivations and strategies easily, not because of his intelligence but because his assumptions are somehow ALWAYS correct. Women attach themselves to him with little to no reason or conflict or challenge. Even when the main character steadily absorbs and invents new magic, there is almost no cost to be paid. One can't appreciate sugar if one only eats sweet things. One can't appreciate anything if it's so free as everything is to the MC. S/orange/gold super rare items are only and ONLY as such because they are good AND don't rain like whites/copper.
As the story goes on it just gets worse, more generic, characters somehow get flatter. MC is not smart (never was) just everyone else is not bright or as powerful. MC is a one trick pony. The other characters feel like cardboard. The main character has little interest in understanding them. Their interactions do not do much to drive the plot.
On RRL there ARE LOTS... LOTS of super awful bad stories. But this one managed to get into top ten seemingly from spammed votes, fake bs reviews among other things. If you like awful poorly written wuxia/xiania kind stories you'll like this as it's drawn out and very shallow power wank story
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Story that HAD, HAD promise but later on it starts treading the line into complete utter garbage. Story has less tension then a kids books. People are eager to kiss ass and hand away victories. Failure should be rampant for a young man who does not know jack about where he is let alone the acting, the hammy lying with everyone eating it up. How he spot on nails stuff that he has NEVER done in his entire life and has no fucking idea how to do it... but does it anyway on the first try bs.
The main character has good fortune handed to him on a platter. He meets enemies one by one. They give him convenient time to rest and plan. There is little mystery to this new world he finds himself in; he seems to grasp the enemies' motivations and strategies easily, not because of his intelligence but because his assumptions are somehow ALWAYS correct. Women attach themselves to him with little to no reason or conflict or challenge. Even when the main character steadily absorbs and invents new magic, there is almost no cost to be paid. One can't appreciate sugar if one only eats sweet things. One can't appreciate anything if it's so free as everything is to the MC. S/orange/gold super rare items are only and ONLY as such because they are good AND don't rain like whites/copper.
As the story goes on it just gets worse, more generic, characters somehow get flatter. MC is not smart (never was) just everyone else is not bright or as powerful. MC is a one trick pony. The other characters feel like cardboard. The main character has little interest in understanding them. Their interactions do not do much to drive the plot.
On RRL there ARE LOTS... LOTS of super awful bad stories. But this one managed to get into top ten seemingly from spammed votes, fake bs reviews among other things. If you like awful poorly written wuxia/xiania kind stories you'll like this as it's drawn out and very shallow power wank story
May 3, 2018
DNF
Awful writing--awesome imagination. Despite wanting to read the story I can't get past the poor quality.
Awful writing--awesome imagination. Despite wanting to read the story I can't get past the poor quality.
January 22, 2020
Superb story, at last I found a story where MC is NOT totally stupid, does NOT save universe in each chapter, has to do something to earn his OP powers (but still have them), is NOT saved in each fight by totally improbable plot twist. The story has quite good progress so far (i am in chapter 97 now). Where other authors make progress by MC getting more and more stupid as they gain powers (to keep them occupied by enemies who don't progress much) in this story progress is smooth and "believable" (for fantasy story). The story is not just fighting and saving whole universe, but about MC research and progress. Fights make sense, MC fights mostly because he cares about his friends, not because he wants to save universe or similar garbage. MC is believable and normal, no excessive dread or gilt trips, if he thinks about it once or twice he is done with it like any normal person and get used to it.
July 30, 2020
Too bad about the hiatus...
started-this-didn-t-like-it
July 31, 2020If only his grandfather had administered an IQ test before teaching him magic.
November 13, 2021
Part 1: Chapters 1-50 5 stars
Actually, I have not finished this. I discovered royalroad.com (which I think is owned by Amazon) that publishing serial fiction for fantasy titles. The problem is that many series, like this one, go on for a long, long time. This one is 193 chapters with some of them over 10,000 words. I am on chapter 86, but for most books that would be the equivalent of finishing book 3. Still, I am very impressed at the skill of the author in keeping me hooked. At the end of each chapter I HAVE TO read the next. This is a LitRPG novel (fantasy stories based on role-playing game structures) where Rainer is college student who is unusual in that he has some magic. He is accidentally transported to a magical world in which he starts "leveling up" (with actual view screens that he can see). While I often skip the tedious repetition of his stats, I am nonetheless drawn into a story where the character is constantly growing and learning in order for him and his growing posse to survive and thrive. I want to give it 5 stars despite all the typos and pop fiction tropes, since the plain fact is that I was excited to keep reading. It reminded me of my teen years when I would run home to read and see what happens next. Also, I wanted to rate the opening arc by itself (let's say the first 50 chapters) since it would be virtually impossible for a single rating cover the entire series and still be that meaningful. It could end poorly, but that would not mean what I have read so far is not worthwhile. Enjoy.
Part 2: Chapters 51-100 4 stars
I started skipping all the explanations of different levels and kinds of magic and meditations on what each could do and so focused on when the story actually moved forward. That made it much more enjoyable.
Part 3 Chapters 101-150 3 stars
Still hooked, which shows quite a skill in knowing how to keep readers engaged.
Part 4 Chapters 151-193 4 stars
It just ended with notes talking about the next chapters. Still, he must be getting close to 1 million words and so I can understand tiring. Still, it will be fun if he continues sometime in the future.
Actually, I have not finished this. I discovered royalroad.com (which I think is owned by Amazon) that publishing serial fiction for fantasy titles. The problem is that many series, like this one, go on for a long, long time. This one is 193 chapters with some of them over 10,000 words. I am on chapter 86, but for most books that would be the equivalent of finishing book 3. Still, I am very impressed at the skill of the author in keeping me hooked. At the end of each chapter I HAVE TO read the next. This is a LitRPG novel (fantasy stories based on role-playing game structures) where Rainer is college student who is unusual in that he has some magic. He is accidentally transported to a magical world in which he starts "leveling up" (with actual view screens that he can see). While I often skip the tedious repetition of his stats, I am nonetheless drawn into a story where the character is constantly growing and learning in order for him and his growing posse to survive and thrive. I want to give it 5 stars despite all the typos and pop fiction tropes, since the plain fact is that I was excited to keep reading. It reminded me of my teen years when I would run home to read and see what happens next. Also, I wanted to rate the opening arc by itself (let's say the first 50 chapters) since it would be virtually impossible for a single rating cover the entire series and still be that meaningful. It could end poorly, but that would not mean what I have read so far is not worthwhile. Enjoy.
Part 2: Chapters 51-100 4 stars
I started skipping all the explanations of different levels and kinds of magic and meditations on what each could do and so focused on when the story actually moved forward. That made it much more enjoyable.
Part 3 Chapters 101-150 3 stars
Still hooked, which shows quite a skill in knowing how to keep readers engaged.
Part 4 Chapters 151-193 4 stars
It just ended with notes talking about the next chapters. Still, he must be getting close to 1 million words and so I can understand tiring. Still, it will be fun if he continues sometime in the future.
October 19, 2021
Another Royal Road story.
Not bad - it was entertaining enough that I didn't really hit "fatigue" with the story until chapters in the 160s. The last few chapters were a little bit of a hot mess, but I was entertained by the beginning. On the other hand, had a few elements that also just induced eye-rolling. I suspect that may be my definition of litrpg though too - I'm getting fussier about what I like, even as I continue to read it in bulk.
Not bad - it was entertaining enough that I didn't really hit "fatigue" with the story until chapters in the 160s. The last few chapters were a little bit of a hot mess, but I was entertained by the beginning. On the other hand, had a few elements that also just induced eye-rolling. I suspect that may be my definition of litrpg though too - I'm getting fussier about what I like, even as I continue to read it in bulk.
November 27, 2022
I believe the novel has been dropped (technically on hiatus but it has been quite a few years) It starts out well enough but it does start to burnout on its own pacing. Good weaving of past and future events , while it is definitely an OP MC they at least try to think ahead. Decent world building but the side events can be time consuming. All in all would of marked higher if it achieved a good finish but sadly not to be...
August 14, 2022
IMHO one of the best RR stories. It hits right in my sweet spot of having a progression that makes sense. A MC who is not an idiot. Fights I dont want to skip. Very much in the vein of HWFWM and DOF.
In the early chapters the author’s English is more English with German sentence structure but it gets much better by as he goes on. If that bothers you too much I guess it!s not for everyone.
In the early chapters the author’s English is more English with German sentence structure but it gets much better by as he goes on. If that bothers you too much I guess it!s not for everyone.
October 8, 2023
Standard opening moves, decent over powered MC, and all the better for the tropes it embraces.
Second read is continuing beyond book one on RR, etc.
Second read is continuing beyond book one on RR, etc.
January 1, 2019
This web novel lacks depth. The authors focus is more on the quantity of plot lines he can present rather than quality of a given few. The side characters only exist to provide brief humor and for the mc to bounce ideas off of, the web novel would be the exact same without them. Later on the details on his abilities and the ‘reseach’ he does unnecessary go on for countless chapters and rarely progress in any meaningful way. Despite this, I enjoyed this web novel, even if I would never recommend it to anyone looking for anything beyond a casual read.
-Dropped Ch 173
-Dropped Ch 173
November 2, 2019
I really enjoyed this story.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews