As a ten year old orphan, all Wick ever wanted was money, power, and well, what else was there? Enough is never enough. His father's death left him only with a glass amulet, his trusty spade, and two level one skills. Six months in the backwater city of Outlast, Wick has finally decided to make his move for a brighter future. It may cost him the beating of his life, but he lives by the Sprawler's Code: The strong live long, but the bold get the gold.
Follow Wick on the beginning of his new life as he explores new powers and manipulate anyone foolish enough to get in his way.
Story Does Contain: Male Lead, Fast Pace, Slightly Overpowered Protagonist, Greedy Protagonist, Right of Passage, Multiple Magic Systems, Mystery
Story Does NOT Contain: Harem, Ultraviolence, Horror, Mopey Protagonist
My Opinion: 262 pages, $5.99, Available on Kindle Unlimited
Despite some small issues, the story is great. I mean I liked it so much, not only did I stay up till 2 am to finish it, but after I just wanted to start it all over again.
The couple of issues mentioned. I'll admit I was a bit disappointed there wasn't more crafting in this novel. There are also many small technical writing errors including: missing words, missing letters in words, about 1 small error every three paragraphs. The author says that the fully edited version should be updated by July but that he wanted to get this out for fans that were excited to read the finished novel.
Structurally it reminds me of The Name of The Wind with a dual narrative of future MC (main character) and past MC. Future MC is totally badass but doesn’t take away any of the tension from past MC storyline. Past MC story is part coming of age, but also a bit OP story establishing the world, and the journey of how he eventually becomes badass. The world building is simply great and the character development is just top notch. There is not much action or fighting overall, but there is still some great storytelling.
On the game mechanic side, things are light. The story doesn't involve VR or even being transported to a game world. The MC has grown up in a world where magic has been streamlined and everyone sees notifications specifically for their skills. People have to gather mana or some other source of energy to unlock skill slots and upgrade them. Skills can be found in dungeons or upgraded and then sold at a marketplace. While skills have ranks, people don't. So in that way, the story leans a bit more towards fantasy. But there is still clear power progression and the mechanics there are culturally important and matter to the story. It's just not super crunchy.
Overall, this is just a great story. Honestly, I didn't mind that it wasn't crunchy LitRPG. The world building and just stellar characters kept me entertained. Even days later, I'm thinking about the cool stuff the author could do with the story and the MCs powers. Though if you're someone that gets bothered by technical writing errors you might want to wait till July when the fully edited version is updated.
Score: 8 out of 10