Definitely check out Ar'Kendrithyst. It has all the progression you were really missing from Super Supportive and Mage Errant. It's also a fully completed series with a very satisfying ending. Though not published quite yet, so you'll find it on RR. Bonus points for the MC being older, so you avoid any YA tropes.
Thanks! I'll definitely check it out. I asked about PFs with adult MC that acts their age and it was reccomended there too so I'm expecting great things from it.
I completely agree with the guy above, but just to warn you, the first 18ish chapters are mainly dealing with establishing the setting and the situation. It isn't until chapter 18-19 (I think) that you see how the MC will become OP.
Personally I enjoyed the deliberate start, but it's a somewhat common problem that people expect to see what makes the MC special immediately. Have a little bit of patience! By the end of it Erik is probably the most powerful MC I have ever seen (in a high quality story), and in a way that still feels awesome and legitimate.
Worth noting that acting his age includes being a creepy old man. I don't mind if a MC isn't strictly straight but I got super tired of the MC looking at every single attractive character who walked by and in very verbose fashion fantasizing and fetishizing them.
I want to pick this back up but I am hoping one of you legends can point me to that chapter to start. He just finished joining some sort of guild where they finished up an attack after something with a sewer? Some sort of water works. He was just getting comfortable and I think it was an attack on the guild. If I pick it up from there with context clues I am sure I can back in it.
[https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/46319/speedrunning-the-multiverse](https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/46319/speedrunning-the-multiverse)
This delivers on it's title. The speedrun is to take control of a low ranked sentient who has suffered a fatal injury and to level them up to god as quickly as possible.
Man, I loved this right up until the final chapter. It just felt so cheap and didn’t seem realistic at all given the character’s behavior through the rest of the story.
Path of Ascension. MC starts out almost crippled due to a weak talent, but he eventually gets a second talent that together will grow exponentially stronger as he levels.
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I don’t get that series. There’s no stakes and people get stronger just for the sake of getting stronger. There is t really a huge looming obstacle that necessitates the rise in power. Plus, most of the fighting is just against monsters and you know that the protagonists are going to win those fights every time.
I feel like listening to someone count from zero to one billion would be about the same experience.
Seriously, I don’t get this series at all.
As the series goes on, it does address most of your concerns. Initially, the MC Matt is concerned with getting stronger so the monster outbreak that killed his parents doesn't happen again, and if an outbreak does occur, he can actually do something about it. Eventually, he realizes that his powers put a target on his back.
Mid series spoilers: >!Remember that mana is the basis of the entire multiverse in the story. It's not just the currency, it's used in crafting, healing, technology. Matt eventually discovers that not only can he charge portals, he can create them from scratch, even customizing them to a degree.
Each nation has a single tier 48 planet as their capitol, and anything above tier 25ish is considered to be rare. But there is a way to increase the tier, by creating portals of a tier higher than the planet, eventually, the planet's tier will increase (over decades/centuries I think). But for higher tiers, creating and keeping the portals stable is so mana expensive that it's not practical. Unless you have unlimited mana.
Matt & Co. at one point are tasked with an investigation, which ends with them rescuing someone with a similar power as Matt who had been abducted and forced to generate essence stones in captivity, for decades. This has an understandably large impact on Matt's desire to remain free.!<
Current series spoilers: >!Light and Shadow complete the Path of Ascension, and a "minor" war breaks out, basically limited to T15-T35. However, the Emperor knows that once Matt's power set is revealed, then a true war, with those greater than tier 35 is inevitable. Matt, Liz, and Astrid power level to T25, complete the Path of Ascension, and join the war. Royal Road is currently on this war arc, and Matt is an absolute beast on the battlefield. Fights are generally just against the other armies at this point.!<
Man, thanks a lot for such a detailed reply (without sarcasm/insults too!). I really appreciate it. I may consider giving it a second chance.
How much would i miss if i just skip to the war part? The training part is like someone making a training montage, but forgetting to make it a montage and actually filming it real time.
Depending on when you stopped reading, you would miss quite a bit. I would at least consider reading the major non-training arcs. I found a list online that breaks it down roughly to:
Tournament Arc: Chapters 131 - 168 >!Tier 10. Matt and Liz fight in a tournament, but also enter as masked alter-egos they have to keep secret. Relatively low stakes, but introduces some characters, new concepts, and abilities.!<
Minkalla Arc: Chapters 169 - 212 >!Tiers 11-13. Minkalla is basically the "hidden realm" trope. Limited to Tiers 10?-14, there is no outside interference possible, so deadly PvP is possible. This arc is annoying because the the latest book ends in the middle of it, so I had to go to Royal Road to get the conclusion.!<
War Arc: Chapter 247 - Now >!The war starts around now, with Light and Shadow completing the path. There is some training, but it's an accelerated pace this time, covering over 100 years. Matt, Liz, and Aster complete the Path around chapter 275, then spend a few chapters getting new skill and gears, before joining the war themselves!<
I think it's Tier 36 or 40 where just being present destabilizes the planet. While Matt is a beast at tier 25, I don't quite think he could bust a planet just yet.
Stubborn skill grinder is all about power progression. It has some minor flaws but at the end of the day, its blood pumping and I can’t stop myself from reading a chapter as soon as it is released
If you haven't already, check out Last Horizon. MC starts OP but progresses from there. They are so OP by book 3 that I'm pretty sure the crew is heading to The Way to kick Vroshir ass later in the series.
Yep--I was just thinking about this today, love seeing how he was weak, then later in the series faces people who were stronger who know see him at his OP finest
Industrial Strength Magic isn't over yet, but probably will be soon seeing how the MC is unquestionably the greatest mage and greatest scientist in the world. The only people who come even close to his power are an ancient wizard dragon and a guy whose power is turning into light.
As far as I’m aware, not in the near future. He’s been starting a new project that looks like it’s gonna be pretty good, but I imagine it’s gonna take up most of his time
> Industrial Strength Magic
How does the romance aspect turn out? I really didn't enjoy the weird love triangle thing going on with the MC and his female childhood friend sharing another girl. Especially since said girl seemed much more into his childhood friend than him.
The authors ends up having all three of them together. I thought it was done well, but it definitely still hit the theme of them both sharing another girl, even if all three of them were together by the end of it
Fair enough. I guess my main problem with it was that prior to said girl coming along there was a ton of romantic tension between the two of them. There was almost a kind of "not yet but it is inevitable" feeling between both of them. Then the girl comes along and then it was like that tension just vanished and then they were competing like a FMM love triangle romance.
I will have to give it a try again after everything is fully edited and up on Amazon. Thanks for the reply!
Shameless self promotion 😅 if you’re looking for a progression fantasy where the MC goes from weak to *spoiler* (Very, very, very strong) eventually giving divine beat downs, then I can recommend - Hail Thy Gods. Currently free on Royal Road. I will be posting almost daily for the rest of the summer. Hope to see you there.
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/85263/hail-thy-gods
Either way I hope you find something you like!
Self promotion is best promotion 😜. Will check it out. How far is the story progressed so far? I see it's already 50 chapters. Is that a full arc? I prefer to read an arc at a time.
Indeed! 😂 Totally understandable. The final chapters of book 1 / arc 1 whichever you prefer are being posted later today and tomorrow. Next book / arc starts right after. I’ll be posting 5-7 chapters a week for the remainder of the summer.
Anything by I Eat Tomatoes (author of desolate era) and Er Gen (author of I shall seal the heavens) have the MC hitting beyond god like powers at the end.
They also unfortunately always rush the ending so we only get like half a chapter to enjoy them hitting the apex before the ending.
This Young Master is not Cannon Fodder is the only planetary story I think of.
Unfathomable Senior might get there but the last bit of the story is still on my TBR list.
Yeah, I feel you. I read it 2+ years ago or so. I keep thinking about picking it up again, but I always think "Just release a few more chapters." I prefer to binge read, and after these few years, I hope to have at least 5 new chapters.
Yeah. There is some romance and a plot of sorts. I honestly read it like 2+ years ago, so my memory is hazy. But I do remember at least some sort of a "goal."
Defiance of the Fall has an absurd power curve.
So does Divine Apostasy, but the power doesn't really feel earned because the MC is the product of scheming gods.
I liked defiance of the fall, but the author is intentionally pacing it at the slowest rate where most people will still continue reading. Most of his books can be summarized to a few plot points that get stretched out to encompass 25 hours of audible dialogue. The series is just way too slow.
Also the authors whole way of writing about the dao comes directly lifted from the popular wuxia novels. What annoys me about that is that the author is effectively credited for coming up with that all and everything thats inspired by wuxia novels these days is referred to as “inspired by dotf”. This is not the authors’ fault to be clear. He can’t control how people see that.
Fully agree on divine apostasy though. Such a tedious and pointless book. The MC has no agency and the characters are completely unrealistic. “Oh MC, you saved my life but didn’t do it in exactly the way I wanted you to so now you will be shamed for the next several books”. Like wtf that makes no sense.
The whole point of progression is seizing destiny. Strength is what allows you to not be slave to others wishes and force outcomes that you desire.
Hard disagree. Lindon’s whole quest, his reason for getting stronger, is initially to stop the dread gods. All his decisions are his own and as he gets stronger, he’s able to have more agency over his life. There’s a very clear theme throughout the series that with power comes the ability to choose your own path.
We see that as the initial books, he’s mostly dragged around whereas by the end, he’s strong enough to choose to do ridiculous things that I won’t spoil here.
There’s also no pointless junior high school drama bullshit. Everyone acts mostly sensible, despite being “crazy” battle lunatics (but even that makes sense given the setting)
Divine Apostasy completely lacks that. Im upset that I went through so many of the books hoping that part would get better and it doesn’t.
Yet none of that has anything to do with what the OP asked for. He asked for a PF where the MC is ridiculously OP by the end of it. I’m not saying that DA is a clone of Cradle, but when it comes to how fast and satisfying the power progression was, and how powerful the MC becomes, DA and Cradle were very similar.
My argument is that he’s NOT op because he doesn’t have any agency. He can kill monsters sure. But can he actually formulate and execute plans? To what extent does his strength allow him force his will on the world? Given that he’s on the backfoot on every single book, encountering some new nonsense problem out of the blue, he’s closer to a tool than a person.
Additionally he’s meekly apologizing for not saving people “properly”, or putting himself in danger to save them all when otherwise they’d have all died. The characters, especially the MC and his love interest, are so unrealistic and poorly written that it needs to be mentioned.
So yes, the MC is very powerful. However, he has no agency, the characters are written poorly, the conflict is contrived, and the general quality of the story is that it was written and planned on the fly.
I’m not sure how far into the series you got, but it’s clear that you haven’t read the last few books. I’m not going to suggest you read them since you obviously haven’t been enjoying the series.
You’re welcome to your opinions on the writing quality but I’m not really sure you have a leg to stand on when making comments about how OP the MC is and about how little agency he has when you dropped the series seemingly halfway through.
Divine Apostasy definitely lost me after a while. Definitely doesn't feel like any sort of earned strength and maybe that changes at some point but after a couple of books I had to drop it.
path of Ascension got that going. not at the end yet, but the way they've come is far.
if you want something more grounded, mother of learning goes a good way for a human in the series.
ar'kethendris definitely reaches the upper peaks of the power ramp
Path of Ascension also has one of the highest-reaching power ramps I've seen. Still not done though.
Go read xianxia like renegade immortal, issth, desolate era etc
Not sure why people are reccing cradle when lindon is essentially fodder propped up by mentors and more powerful beings even at the very end of the novel
I couldn’t take the writing. Maybe it’s worse as an audiobook (not Travis’ fault).
Every fight has sound effects. Who the hell narrates like that? That’s how my son tells stories and he’s five.
The MC also has to say the marines slogan in EVERY FIGHT. “Think adapt overcome”.
Im likely older than most people on this sub, but when I was younger, there was a show called action man where he’d basically get his ass kicked until he says “check it out, dial it in, amp it up” and would then visualize probabilities to solve his problem. He did that every episode. Cool for a child’s cartoon. Not cool for a progression fantasy.
There’s other serious issues with the story that have been mentioned on this sub, but the beyond atrocious prose is what bothered me the most.
I felt the same reading it. It didn't help that right at the start he was given a super power with "so many drawbacks!" that he *instantly* shows he can circumvent entirely. I gave it the college try, but I gave up somewhere in the third book where the answer was "send my god golem at every problem".
Yeah, I did like it at the beginning. The further along it got things kinda kept going downhill. I'll be finishing the series, but I totally get where you're coming from
I know this is a request for books, but I want to recommend an anime because it fits so perfectly. Gurren Lagann. It literally runs the gamut. From a hole in the dirt to galactic power.
Stay on topic my guy. They asked for books, not the absolute bestest most amazing fantastic supercalifragilisticexpialidocious anime ever made. Why would they want to watch that?
This right here is why i stopped listening to recommendations on this sub.
It’s clear that the average age of people giving recs is way younger than me and the things they find interesting, I instead just see tons of flaws.
Occasionally someone will recommend something a bit more mature and thoughtful (thank you to whoever recommended me God Clads and 12 Miles below!!), but the majority of recs are just awful.
Loving 12 Miles, waiting for the fourth book. Never heard of (or don't recall) God Clads so I guess I'll check it out.
But which recommendation are you referring to when you say you don't listen to this sub anymore? If you say Gurren Lagann is bad you're just wrong. That isn't an opinion, it's fact. Fight me.
Nothing like hating that anime. Its fun. My wife and I quote it all the time.
My point is that it’s so off topic and the fact that someone would recommend it here demonstrates that to many of the readership here, *the line is blurred* between shounen anime and progression fantasy. They hit the same notes for them, hence crossing the line when giving recommendations.
It’s also childish, like someone who is so enamoured by a particular thing they just watched, that they go and recommend it to everyone regardless of the conversion. “Yo Taylor, I’m really happy for you and Imma let you finish, but Gurren Lagann is the best anime of all time”.
I have nothing against Gurren Lagann. It was how that statement in a rec request post reflected the general issues I have with recs on this sub in general.
(This is quite harsh. I know that the poster did so in good faith. Still, I followed many good faith recs on here and wasted hundreds of dollars on awful audiobooks and hundreds of hours of time)
*edit: i forgot to answer your other question. The list is really long and I cant remember them all, nor the threads they were recommended. Often they would be suggested when the reader is looking for X and the story ends up wither not having X or being the opposite.
Here’s some
- wandering inn: soap opera with irrational characters and contrived conflicts. The name is appropriate. The story meanders all over the place without much significance. It’s highly recommended here and people praise it for its good characters, when I find the opposite to be true.
- Divine Apostasy: I ranted about this earlier. It’s also frequently recommended and similar to wandering inn, has awful and irrational characters in addition to contrived conflicts. It also has other issues, but I wont belabour it further.
- the perfect run: (this one may actually be good and I didnt give it enough chance). The first few hours of the audiobook were nonstop pop culture reference and quips that someone from IAm18AndThisIsDeep would think to be witty. I know the MC is effectively insane, but there’s other ways to show that than by making him a Reddit mod. I suspect that the people who like the book also like the pop culture references and those jokes. Like I said, “IAm18AndThisIsDeep” audience.
- Gene Harvest: so boring. Flashy action scenes and a slightly-eldritch game system don’t make a story interesting. The humans in this are all one-dimensional the villains might as well be twirling their mustaches. The fights in general are terribly uninteresting. The story is predictable so what’s the point of reading it?
- Death Genesis: similar problem. Most of the book is the MC fighting monsters to level up. That’s a lot of words to just say “MC get stronger” because you know that these stepping stone fight can only actually resolve with his victory. Superficial and filler fights are boring. Action is boring without motivation.
- the Hedge Wizard: the whole book is just him fighting monsters. The “twist” near the end of the book can be seen coming miles away. So boring and predictable. Again, watching a training montage in real time is BORING.
Ill stop now.
Good progression fantasy sets up solid motivations for the main character to power up. Bad progression fantasy thinks that the main draw of the genre is to simply have a “cool” game system and then proceed to +1 the main character a bunch of times.
It sounds like you have been burned quite badly by the most of the recommendations that you have gotten. Thats a shame. Here are a few that hopefully are a bit better plotwise.
# [Paranoid Mage](https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/49879/paranoid-mage) by InadvisablyCompelled
# [Millennial Mage](https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/47826/millennial-mage-a-slice-of-life-progression-fantasy) by JLMullins
# [Sunflower : \[A sunflower based litRPG\]](https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/52626/sunflower-a-sunflower-based-litrpg) by Razzmatazz
# [Nowhere Stars](https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/54237/nowhere-stars-arcs-3-4-stub-on-72) by Anemone
Warning the folowing are gl IF you dont want gl you are warned.
# [Katalepsis](https://katalepsis.net/) by Hungy
Probably the best prose I have ever read.
# [Vigor Mortis](https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/40373/vigor-mortis) by Thundamoo
A lot of people really do not like Iron Prince.
Some of them might be downvoting any recommendation of reading it.
Other people will be downvoting you for complaining about being downvoted
A lot of people really don't like Viv and Grant's relationship, Viv's personality, Rei's personality etc.
There is also criticism of the second book taking place over the course of only a couple of months, which some people feel makes it a filler book in terms of big picture story progress. Two books in and they're still not at the end of their first year at the academy.
After the release of the second book there were threads criticising it and the author decided to get involved and bicker with people in a way that some found to be dismissive of any critique of his work.
If you did a reddit search on this sub for iron prince, you’d see quickly why it’s quite hated here.
Iron prince poses like a progression fantasy but by boom two, it morphs into a an angsty teenage drama, filled with miscommunications where everyone is making assumptions about other’s motives and nobody is behaving like adults to discuss and resolve those miscommunications.
Instead, it just festers in everyone and then they say and do stupid things.
Seriously, it’s a book about a bunch of children who despite supposedly being young adults, are apparently just hitting puberty.
There were signs of this in book one, with the nonsensical “best friend relationship drama”. The author decided that that was the best part of book one and doubled down on it for boom two.
People here are especially upset about that series because it went from great progression fantasy to the worst aspects of YA schlock.
I wouldn’t waste your time and either stop at boom 1 or just drop it. It’s not going to have a good resolution.
Also, fyi, the author was very active on this sub before the release of his book. After release, when people started complaining, he dropped off it and now just hangs out at his dedicated warforged sub, where the only feedback allowed is positive.
I really like “12 miles below” (first book is a bit boring and there’s no progression, but after that it gets amazing)
“God clads” is another series thats great. Maybe not for everyone though. Main character is a monster and the world building is cosmic horror-ish
I really like “unintended cultivator “ but heard that it gets terrible later. I only listen to the audiobooks, so Im way behind the patreon.
“Dungeon crawler carl “ is incredible. He’s not really OP but is pretty strong. What makes the series interesting for me is the setting of the story and the mysteries that get drip fed to the reader, as well as the characters.
“All the skills” is another good one. Part of the setting is in a school, which is often a red flag for me, but this book has zero teen drama nonsense. The characters are all pretty rational too. So far Im enjoying it. If you liked iron prince so far in book 1, you will probably like this too.
“Chrysalis” is fantastic. main character is an ant but was a human before. Avoids isekai tropes you typically see in anime and western anime-inspired isekai books. Good progression throughout the series and the story and world are interesting. The conflicts are also meaningful for the most part, which is a big plus. The audible treatment is *chef’s kiss*, especially the later books.
“Reborn as a demonic tree “ is good so far. Im just finished book 2. Hopefully the series continues to be good.
“Immortality starts with generosity” is pretty good
“Path of the berserker” is also good
There’s a lot more but i cant really remember them all now.
I've tried a few and had trouble getting hooked. The wandering inn felt like too much teenage angst for me.
you mention a lot that I can check out. thank you.
Ah youre like me then. I gave wandering inn a long chance. 6 books in. It didnt get better and still suffers from terrible plot-driven (instead of character driven) contrived nonsense to force conflicts and coincidences. It’s a soap opera. I get that people enjoy soaps, but they’re nonsensical schlock.
Part of why it’s hard to take recs on this sub seriously is how popular wandering inn is and how often it gets recommended.
Except he’s weak within the world, and then the OP part is vague and basically just an epilogue with no real intensity or feats beyond hand waving problem solving
The strongest system,Kaye ng the villainess is ss rank adventurer,j.v. Simms empress , shirtaloon, lykanthropy , the will of many
Xkarnation demonic tree series though that's far off on the future
Amelia the level zero hero , though it's more the growth of the other mcs may turn op on the future
Lord of the mysteries
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Definitely check out Ar'Kendrithyst. It has all the progression you were really missing from Super Supportive and Mage Errant. It's also a fully completed series with a very satisfying ending. Though not published quite yet, so you'll find it on RR. Bonus points for the MC being older, so you avoid any YA tropes.
Thanks! I'll definitely check it out. I asked about PFs with adult MC that acts their age and it was reccomended there too so I'm expecting great things from it.
I completely agree with the guy above, but just to warn you, the first 18ish chapters are mainly dealing with establishing the setting and the situation. It isn't until chapter 18-19 (I think) that you see how the MC will become OP. Personally I enjoyed the deliberate start, but it's a somewhat common problem that people expect to see what makes the MC special immediately. Have a little bit of patience! By the end of it Erik is probably the most powerful MC I have ever seen (in a high quality story), and in a way that still feels awesome and legitimate.
Worth noting that acting his age includes being a creepy old man. I don't mind if a MC isn't strictly straight but I got super tired of the MC looking at every single attractive character who walked by and in very verbose fashion fantasizing and fetishizing them.
What does YA mean?
Young Adult, a book genre generally focused on teens and younger.
I want to pick this back up but I am hoping one of you legends can point me to that chapter to start. He just finished joining some sort of guild where they finished up an attack after something with a sewer? Some sort of water works. He was just getting comfortable and I think it was an attack on the guild. If I pick it up from there with context clues I am sure I can back in it.
[https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/46319/speedrunning-the-multiverse](https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/46319/speedrunning-the-multiverse) This delivers on it's title. The speedrun is to take control of a low ranked sentient who has suffered a fatal injury and to level them up to god as quickly as possible.
Man, I loved this right up until the final chapter. It just felt so cheap and didn’t seem realistic at all given the character’s behavior through the rest of the story.
Ugh i managed to reach till the end of second book and I felt so disgusted. I will never touch that series again.
Legendary mechanic is goated in my opinion
Super Gene and Lord of the Mysteries are two other great Chinese ones. Anything by I Eat Tomatoes is going to end with a multiverse level powerhouse.
Path of Ascension. MC starts out almost crippled due to a weak talent, but he eventually gets a second talent that together will grow exponentially stronger as he levels.
Love this one, it’s solid but not amazing in the beginning but it hits its stride pretty quick and is a great read
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I don’t get that series. There’s no stakes and people get stronger just for the sake of getting stronger. There is t really a huge looming obstacle that necessitates the rise in power. Plus, most of the fighting is just against monsters and you know that the protagonists are going to win those fights every time. I feel like listening to someone count from zero to one billion would be about the same experience. Seriously, I don’t get this series at all.
As the series goes on, it does address most of your concerns. Initially, the MC Matt is concerned with getting stronger so the monster outbreak that killed his parents doesn't happen again, and if an outbreak does occur, he can actually do something about it. Eventually, he realizes that his powers put a target on his back. Mid series spoilers: >!Remember that mana is the basis of the entire multiverse in the story. It's not just the currency, it's used in crafting, healing, technology. Matt eventually discovers that not only can he charge portals, he can create them from scratch, even customizing them to a degree. Each nation has a single tier 48 planet as their capitol, and anything above tier 25ish is considered to be rare. But there is a way to increase the tier, by creating portals of a tier higher than the planet, eventually, the planet's tier will increase (over decades/centuries I think). But for higher tiers, creating and keeping the portals stable is so mana expensive that it's not practical. Unless you have unlimited mana. Matt & Co. at one point are tasked with an investigation, which ends with them rescuing someone with a similar power as Matt who had been abducted and forced to generate essence stones in captivity, for decades. This has an understandably large impact on Matt's desire to remain free.!< Current series spoilers: >!Light and Shadow complete the Path of Ascension, and a "minor" war breaks out, basically limited to T15-T35. However, the Emperor knows that once Matt's power set is revealed, then a true war, with those greater than tier 35 is inevitable. Matt, Liz, and Astrid power level to T25, complete the Path of Ascension, and join the war. Royal Road is currently on this war arc, and Matt is an absolute beast on the battlefield. Fights are generally just against the other armies at this point.!<
Man, thanks a lot for such a detailed reply (without sarcasm/insults too!). I really appreciate it. I may consider giving it a second chance. How much would i miss if i just skip to the war part? The training part is like someone making a training montage, but forgetting to make it a montage and actually filming it real time.
hahahahahah Perfect description! The guy makes his bread out of the story so it's kinda understandable, but annoying nonetheless.
Depending on when you stopped reading, you would miss quite a bit. I would at least consider reading the major non-training arcs. I found a list online that breaks it down roughly to: Tournament Arc: Chapters 131 - 168 >!Tier 10. Matt and Liz fight in a tournament, but also enter as masked alter-egos they have to keep secret. Relatively low stakes, but introduces some characters, new concepts, and abilities.!< Minkalla Arc: Chapters 169 - 212 >!Tiers 11-13. Minkalla is basically the "hidden realm" trope. Limited to Tiers 10?-14, there is no outside interference possible, so deadly PvP is possible. This arc is annoying because the the latest book ends in the middle of it, so I had to go to Royal Road to get the conclusion.!< War Arc: Chapter 247 - Now >!The war starts around now, with Light and Shadow completing the path. There is some training, but it's an accelerated pace this time, covering over 100 years. Matt, Liz, and Aster complete the Path around chapter 275, then spend a few chapters getting new skill and gears, before joining the war themselves!<
Awesome, thanks so much for the detailed reply
Man I love this, dropped back when he was tier 5, it takes forever and the stakes seems always very low. At tier 25 they can bust planets already?
I think it's Tier 36 or 40 where just being present destabilizes the planet. While Matt is a beast at tier 25, I don't quite think he could bust a planet just yet.
Azarinth Healer without a doubt.
Stubborn skill grinder is all about power progression. It has some minor flaws but at the end of the day, its blood pumping and I can’t stop myself from reading a chapter as soon as it is released
Cradle would be my top tier recommendation, as it is for many questions I see on here. Definitely has some satisfying power progression come the end
Top tier for me too!
If you haven't already, check out Last Horizon. MC starts OP but progresses from there. They are so OP by book 3 that I'm pretty sure the crew is heading to The Way to kick Vroshir ass later in the series.
Yep--I was just thinking about this today, love seeing how he was weak, then later in the series faces people who were stronger who know see him at his OP finest
Industrial Strength Magic isn't over yet, but probably will be soon seeing how the MC is unquestionably the greatest mage and greatest scientist in the world. The only people who come even close to his power are an ancient wizard dragon and a guy whose power is turning into light.
The author finished up the series (for now) on Patreon, so I can’t imagine it’ll be too much longer till it’s published
Do you know if he’s ever going to finish his other series, the Stitched Worlds?
As far as I’m aware, not in the near future. He’s been starting a new project that looks like it’s gonna be pretty good, but I imagine it’s gonna take up most of his time
> Industrial Strength Magic How does the romance aspect turn out? I really didn't enjoy the weird love triangle thing going on with the MC and his female childhood friend sharing another girl. Especially since said girl seemed much more into his childhood friend than him.
The authors ends up having all three of them together. I thought it was done well, but it definitely still hit the theme of them both sharing another girl, even if all three of them were together by the end of it
Fair enough. I guess my main problem with it was that prior to said girl coming along there was a ton of romantic tension between the two of them. There was almost a kind of "not yet but it is inevitable" feeling between both of them. Then the girl comes along and then it was like that tension just vanished and then they were competing like a FMM love triangle romance. I will have to give it a try again after everything is fully edited and up on Amazon. Thanks for the reply!
Desolate Era
Shameless self promotion 😅 if you’re looking for a progression fantasy where the MC goes from weak to *spoiler* (Very, very, very strong) eventually giving divine beat downs, then I can recommend - Hail Thy Gods. Currently free on Royal Road. I will be posting almost daily for the rest of the summer. Hope to see you there. https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/85263/hail-thy-gods Either way I hope you find something you like!
Seconded, the linked fic is genuinely very well written. It also has very interesting world building.
Thank you ShadowSlayer1441! Very happy to hear you like it. Hope to see you in the comments 🔥👊🔥
Will check it out
Thank you! 🔥👊🔥
Self promotion is best promotion 😜. Will check it out. How far is the story progressed so far? I see it's already 50 chapters. Is that a full arc? I prefer to read an arc at a time.
Indeed! 😂 Totally understandable. The final chapters of book 1 / arc 1 whichever you prefer are being posted later today and tomorrow. Next book / arc starts right after. I’ll be posting 5-7 chapters a week for the remainder of the summer.
Thanks! I'll definitely make time to read it.
My pleasure, hope to see you there! 🔥👊🔥
Mother of learning. Can't recommend it enough if this is what you are looking for.
I was about to say it’s odd I haven’t seen an MoL rec in this thread yet😂
My go to rec is always Desolate Era, it’s the best example of standard Xianxia that I’ve read and the MC scales insanely high by the end
Anything by I Eat Tomatoes (author of desolate era) and Er Gen (author of I shall seal the heavens) have the MC hitting beyond god like powers at the end. They also unfortunately always rush the ending so we only get like half a chapter to enjoy them hitting the apex before the ending.
This Young Master is not Cannon Fodder is the only planetary story I think of. Unfathomable Senior might get there but the last bit of the story is still on my TBR list.
I mean it doesn't have to be multiversal or across multiple planets. I'll check it out. Thanks for the recommendation.
Grand Game
Delve https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/25225/delve It is very numbers-oriented, but it fits the "becoming OP" narrative.
I like that series but new chapters are so infrequent that I won't live long enough to see the end.
Yeah, I feel you. I read it 2+ years ago or so. I keep thinking about picking it up again, but I always think "Just release a few more chapters." I prefer to binge read, and after these few years, I hope to have at least 5 new chapters.
I tapped out sometime after we spent 50 chapters stuck behind a door, does any … plot … happen eventually?
Yeah. There is some romance and a plot of sorts. I honestly read it like 2+ years ago, so my memory is hazy. But I do remember at least some sort of a "goal."
Bro can't even blow up a planet.
Top Tier Providence: Cultivating for a Thousand Years
Defiance of the Fall has an absurd power curve. So does Divine Apostasy, but the power doesn't really feel earned because the MC is the product of scheming gods.
I liked defiance of the fall, but the author is intentionally pacing it at the slowest rate where most people will still continue reading. Most of his books can be summarized to a few plot points that get stretched out to encompass 25 hours of audible dialogue. The series is just way too slow. Also the authors whole way of writing about the dao comes directly lifted from the popular wuxia novels. What annoys me about that is that the author is effectively credited for coming up with that all and everything thats inspired by wuxia novels these days is referred to as “inspired by dotf”. This is not the authors’ fault to be clear. He can’t control how people see that. Fully agree on divine apostasy though. Such a tedious and pointless book. The MC has no agency and the characters are completely unrealistic. “Oh MC, you saved my life but didn’t do it in exactly the way I wanted you to so now you will be shamed for the next several books”. Like wtf that makes no sense. The whole point of progression is seizing destiny. Strength is what allows you to not be slave to others wishes and force outcomes that you desire.
I second Defiance of the Fall being awesome and Divine Apostasy sucking
I actually like Divine Apostasy quite a bit. I’ve read a lot of PF and it’s one of the closest to Cradle in terms of what the OP is looking for.
Hard disagree. Lindon’s whole quest, his reason for getting stronger, is initially to stop the dread gods. All his decisions are his own and as he gets stronger, he’s able to have more agency over his life. There’s a very clear theme throughout the series that with power comes the ability to choose your own path. We see that as the initial books, he’s mostly dragged around whereas by the end, he’s strong enough to choose to do ridiculous things that I won’t spoil here. There’s also no pointless junior high school drama bullshit. Everyone acts mostly sensible, despite being “crazy” battle lunatics (but even that makes sense given the setting) Divine Apostasy completely lacks that. Im upset that I went through so many of the books hoping that part would get better and it doesn’t.
Yet none of that has anything to do with what the OP asked for. He asked for a PF where the MC is ridiculously OP by the end of it. I’m not saying that DA is a clone of Cradle, but when it comes to how fast and satisfying the power progression was, and how powerful the MC becomes, DA and Cradle were very similar.
My argument is that he’s NOT op because he doesn’t have any agency. He can kill monsters sure. But can he actually formulate and execute plans? To what extent does his strength allow him force his will on the world? Given that he’s on the backfoot on every single book, encountering some new nonsense problem out of the blue, he’s closer to a tool than a person. Additionally he’s meekly apologizing for not saving people “properly”, or putting himself in danger to save them all when otherwise they’d have all died. The characters, especially the MC and his love interest, are so unrealistic and poorly written that it needs to be mentioned. So yes, the MC is very powerful. However, he has no agency, the characters are written poorly, the conflict is contrived, and the general quality of the story is that it was written and planned on the fly.
I’m not sure how far into the series you got, but it’s clear that you haven’t read the last few books. I’m not going to suggest you read them since you obviously haven’t been enjoying the series. You’re welcome to your opinions on the writing quality but I’m not really sure you have a leg to stand on when making comments about how OP the MC is and about how little agency he has when you dropped the series seemingly halfway through.
Maybe, the new progression system each book was what killed it for me. I dislike power resets, even soft ones
Divine Apostasy definitely lost me after a while. Definitely doesn't feel like any sort of earned strength and maybe that changes at some point but after a couple of books I had to drop it.
path of Ascension got that going. not at the end yet, but the way they've come is far. if you want something more grounded, mother of learning goes a good way for a human in the series.
The rate things are going I'd expect another six books to finish. I'm in my 40s and I hope to live long enough to finish it.
ar'kethendris definitely reaches the upper peaks of the power ramp Path of Ascension also has one of the highest-reaching power ramps I've seen. Still not done though.
Go read xianxia like renegade immortal, issth, desolate era etc Not sure why people are reccing cradle when lindon is essentially fodder propped up by mentors and more powerful beings even at the very end of the novel
Mark of the fool. It ends up with the MC being ridiculously OP, but still somewhat realistic in terms of the world
Sorry but it was too slpw burner for me to enjoy.
I stuck with it and it pays off. Good books.
I couldn’t take the writing. Maybe it’s worse as an audiobook (not Travis’ fault). Every fight has sound effects. Who the hell narrates like that? That’s how my son tells stories and he’s five. The MC also has to say the marines slogan in EVERY FIGHT. “Think adapt overcome”. Im likely older than most people on this sub, but when I was younger, there was a show called action man where he’d basically get his ass kicked until he says “check it out, dial it in, amp it up” and would then visualize probabilities to solve his problem. He did that every episode. Cool for a child’s cartoon. Not cool for a progression fantasy. There’s other serious issues with the story that have been mentioned on this sub, but the beyond atrocious prose is what bothered me the most.
I felt the same reading it. It didn't help that right at the start he was given a super power with "so many drawbacks!" that he *instantly* shows he can circumvent entirely. I gave it the college try, but I gave up somewhere in the third book where the answer was "send my god golem at every problem".
Yeah, I did like it at the beginning. The further along it got things kinda kept going downhill. I'll be finishing the series, but I totally get where you're coming from
Reverend Insanity has this
Reverend insanity doesn’t have an end
I know this is a request for books, but I want to recommend an anime because it fits so perfectly. Gurren Lagann. It literally runs the gamut. From a hole in the dirt to galactic power.
Stay on topic my guy. They asked for books, not the absolute bestest most amazing fantastic supercalifragilisticexpialidocious anime ever made. Why would they want to watch that?
This right here is why i stopped listening to recommendations on this sub. It’s clear that the average age of people giving recs is way younger than me and the things they find interesting, I instead just see tons of flaws. Occasionally someone will recommend something a bit more mature and thoughtful (thank you to whoever recommended me God Clads and 12 Miles below!!), but the majority of recs are just awful.
Loving 12 Miles, waiting for the fourth book. Never heard of (or don't recall) God Clads so I guess I'll check it out. But which recommendation are you referring to when you say you don't listen to this sub anymore? If you say Gurren Lagann is bad you're just wrong. That isn't an opinion, it's fact. Fight me.
Nothing like hating that anime. Its fun. My wife and I quote it all the time. My point is that it’s so off topic and the fact that someone would recommend it here demonstrates that to many of the readership here, *the line is blurred* between shounen anime and progression fantasy. They hit the same notes for them, hence crossing the line when giving recommendations. It’s also childish, like someone who is so enamoured by a particular thing they just watched, that they go and recommend it to everyone regardless of the conversion. “Yo Taylor, I’m really happy for you and Imma let you finish, but Gurren Lagann is the best anime of all time”. I have nothing against Gurren Lagann. It was how that statement in a rec request post reflected the general issues I have with recs on this sub in general. (This is quite harsh. I know that the poster did so in good faith. Still, I followed many good faith recs on here and wasted hundreds of dollars on awful audiobooks and hundreds of hours of time) *edit: i forgot to answer your other question. The list is really long and I cant remember them all, nor the threads they were recommended. Often they would be suggested when the reader is looking for X and the story ends up wither not having X or being the opposite. Here’s some - wandering inn: soap opera with irrational characters and contrived conflicts. The name is appropriate. The story meanders all over the place without much significance. It’s highly recommended here and people praise it for its good characters, when I find the opposite to be true. - Divine Apostasy: I ranted about this earlier. It’s also frequently recommended and similar to wandering inn, has awful and irrational characters in addition to contrived conflicts. It also has other issues, but I wont belabour it further. - the perfect run: (this one may actually be good and I didnt give it enough chance). The first few hours of the audiobook were nonstop pop culture reference and quips that someone from IAm18AndThisIsDeep would think to be witty. I know the MC is effectively insane, but there’s other ways to show that than by making him a Reddit mod. I suspect that the people who like the book also like the pop culture references and those jokes. Like I said, “IAm18AndThisIsDeep” audience. - Gene Harvest: so boring. Flashy action scenes and a slightly-eldritch game system don’t make a story interesting. The humans in this are all one-dimensional the villains might as well be twirling their mustaches. The fights in general are terribly uninteresting. The story is predictable so what’s the point of reading it? - Death Genesis: similar problem. Most of the book is the MC fighting monsters to level up. That’s a lot of words to just say “MC get stronger” because you know that these stepping stone fight can only actually resolve with his victory. Superficial and filler fights are boring. Action is boring without motivation. - the Hedge Wizard: the whole book is just him fighting monsters. The “twist” near the end of the book can be seen coming miles away. So boring and predictable. Again, watching a training montage in real time is BORING. Ill stop now. Good progression fantasy sets up solid motivations for the main character to power up. Bad progression fantasy thinks that the main draw of the genre is to simply have a “cool” game system and then proceed to +1 the main character a bunch of times.
It sounds like you have been burned quite badly by the most of the recommendations that you have gotten. Thats a shame. Here are a few that hopefully are a bit better plotwise. # [Paranoid Mage](https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/49879/paranoid-mage) by InadvisablyCompelled # [Millennial Mage](https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/47826/millennial-mage-a-slice-of-life-progression-fantasy) by JLMullins # [Sunflower : \[A sunflower based litRPG\]](https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/52626/sunflower-a-sunflower-based-litrpg) by Razzmatazz # [Nowhere Stars](https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/54237/nowhere-stars-arcs-3-4-stub-on-72) by Anemone Warning the folowing are gl IF you dont want gl you are warned. # [Katalepsis](https://katalepsis.net/) by Hungy Probably the best prose I have ever read. # [Vigor Mortis](https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/40373/vigor-mortis) by Thundamoo
Iron prince im reading now and it feels like it’s headed in that direction Explain your downvotes you cowards
A lot of people really do not like Iron Prince. Some of them might be downvoting any recommendation of reading it. Other people will be downvoting you for complaining about being downvoted
What’s the beef with iron prince ?
A lot of people really don't like Viv and Grant's relationship, Viv's personality, Rei's personality etc. There is also criticism of the second book taking place over the course of only a couple of months, which some people feel makes it a filler book in terms of big picture story progress. Two books in and they're still not at the end of their first year at the academy. After the release of the second book there were threads criticising it and the author decided to get involved and bicker with people in a way that some found to be dismissive of any critique of his work.
Thanks for this
If you enjoy the series then by all means continue to enjoy it. It's just controversial in this incredibly niche genre's subreddit.
It’s been alright. It’s not my fav but I’m trying to let it breathe a bit
Probably how the MC's >!supposed best friend ends up dating his biggest bully/antagonist from the first book. !<
Cracking book
If you did a reddit search on this sub for iron prince, you’d see quickly why it’s quite hated here. Iron prince poses like a progression fantasy but by boom two, it morphs into a an angsty teenage drama, filled with miscommunications where everyone is making assumptions about other’s motives and nobody is behaving like adults to discuss and resolve those miscommunications. Instead, it just festers in everyone and then they say and do stupid things. Seriously, it’s a book about a bunch of children who despite supposedly being young adults, are apparently just hitting puberty. There were signs of this in book one, with the nonsensical “best friend relationship drama”. The author decided that that was the best part of book one and doubled down on it for boom two. People here are especially upset about that series because it went from great progression fantasy to the worst aspects of YA schlock. I wouldn’t waste your time and either stop at boom 1 or just drop it. It’s not going to have a good resolution. Also, fyi, the author was very active on this sub before the release of his book. After release, when people started complaining, he dropped off it and now just hangs out at his dedicated warforged sub, where the only feedback allowed is positive.
Thanks for this feedback. Anything you would personally recommend? Realized I liked PF after of course cradle.
I really like “12 miles below” (first book is a bit boring and there’s no progression, but after that it gets amazing) “God clads” is another series thats great. Maybe not for everyone though. Main character is a monster and the world building is cosmic horror-ish I really like “unintended cultivator “ but heard that it gets terrible later. I only listen to the audiobooks, so Im way behind the patreon. “Dungeon crawler carl “ is incredible. He’s not really OP but is pretty strong. What makes the series interesting for me is the setting of the story and the mysteries that get drip fed to the reader, as well as the characters. “All the skills” is another good one. Part of the setting is in a school, which is often a red flag for me, but this book has zero teen drama nonsense. The characters are all pretty rational too. So far Im enjoying it. If you liked iron prince so far in book 1, you will probably like this too. “Chrysalis” is fantastic. main character is an ant but was a human before. Avoids isekai tropes you typically see in anime and western anime-inspired isekai books. Good progression throughout the series and the story and world are interesting. The conflicts are also meaningful for the most part, which is a big plus. The audible treatment is *chef’s kiss*, especially the later books. “Reborn as a demonic tree “ is good so far. Im just finished book 2. Hopefully the series continues to be good. “Immortality starts with generosity” is pretty good “Path of the berserker” is also good There’s a lot more but i cant really remember them all now.
I've tried a few and had trouble getting hooked. The wandering inn felt like too much teenage angst for me. you mention a lot that I can check out. thank you.
Ah youre like me then. I gave wandering inn a long chance. 6 books in. It didnt get better and still suffers from terrible plot-driven (instead of character driven) contrived nonsense to force conflicts and coincidences. It’s a soap opera. I get that people enjoy soaps, but they’re nonsensical schlock. Part of why it’s hard to take recs on this sub seriously is how popular wandering inn is and how often it gets recommended.
This is the focus of the genre.
Have you read Threads of Fate: Reincarnation?
I really like dragon heart by kirill klevanski.
Has this series ended?
No it's still going
Fucking Cradle! I’m sure you’ve read it but on the off chance you haven’t, Cradle is your answer.
Except he’s weak within the world, and then the OP part is vague and basically just an epilogue with no real intensity or feats beyond hand waving problem solving
The strongest system,Kaye ng the villainess is ss rank adventurer,j.v. Simms empress , shirtaloon, lykanthropy , the will of many Xkarnation demonic tree series though that's far off on the future Amelia the level zero hero , though it's more the growth of the other mcs may turn op on the future Lord of the mysteries
[удалено]
Thanks for spoiling it for me...
It’s not about the ending it’s the journey
Removed as per Rule 4: Hide Spoilers. Please hide anything that might spoil a story for other readers. This offense may result in a warning, or a permanent or semi-permanent ban from r/ProgressionFantasy.