im looking for a novel where the protagonist could be considered to have good talent maybe barely a genius. if they were middle aged it would be a plus. time skips are okay as long as nothing to major happens and it not more than a year or two. i don’t want him to kill someone who is several times his strength through direct combat because of a sudden power up he pulled from his ass. if its through tactics and it makes sense that it worked, or skill if they are someone with low talent and are just much older that fine. though nothing like in the sense of cultivation more the enemy being two realm above them. a modern setting with magic or cultivation would be interesting. i wouldn’t mind if it’s a vrmmo. as long as it has action with some kind of magic or energy. no harem forming due to ‘reasons’, or top class beauty falling for him with no build up. it’s fine if it actually has a good build up and they meet in a reasonable way.
you should organize your points by spacing them out line by line and add punctuation, because it's annoying and confusing to read this post Mushoku Tensei (mental age, not biological age) Goblin Slayer Rakuin no Monshou The Strange Adventure of a Broke Mercenary hai to gensou no grimgal (pdf available online)
Seconded Rakuin no Monshou Tales Paul Twister Series, free to be read online. http://www.paultwister.com/lpt01/ A Hero's War on Royalroadl
Mother of Learning My House of Horrors Lord of the Mysteries The Legendary Mechanic The Zombie Knight Saga
I am not good in making summaries but here are a couple I think you would like. Though the Heavens Should Fall The MC is a temple ward. Basically an orphan child that is being taken care of by a "buddhist" temple. (a trainee monk). He is one of the talent wards of the temple and was given a chance to cultivate within a sect. Now the MC is raised as a ascetic, so he get culture shocked when he arrived in an environment with fierce competition. Its pretty good. I recommend to skip the prologue and go directly to chapter 1 Molting the Mortal Coil A mild mannered programmer died. Some Transcendent cultivator notices his soul because they are linked by karma. So he reincarnates him in another cultivation world. He does not get any cheats and is reborn as a minor child of a sect with no talent. The sect then is massacred by a cliche xianxia protagonist. Fortunately he was not there when it happen, so he survived. Tale of Ramiel and Tale of Deprived The story itself is pretty good. Tale of Ramiel is one of my favorites. Its a tragedy and it shows a realistic take on a transmigration. The ending is pretty good. Unfortunately, the grammar is god aweful. The author is probably not a native speaker As for Tale of Deprived is also good but I am not much a fan of it compared to the latter. The grammar and spelling is much better but it is still pretty bad. Both are finished. I would still recommend reading it but for your sanity run each chapter with grammarly. EDIT: Street Cultivation Modern Xianxia with capitalism. The MC is an average joe struggling to survive the modern world.
on chapter 48 of molting the mortal coil his luck is a little weird and some of the timeskips are poorly placed but other than that I really like it thank you for the suggestion.
So I'm reading light novel called Kingdom's bloodline (find it on the internet) and it hits all your points 1. MC is a character that got reincarnated (he doesn't know his past life, he just has a random drop of philosophical questions) and doesn't have a boost in strength (he grows like in real life, 1 child that is naive, 2 teenager and so on) 2. It's world is like a real life (a lot history behind the world, like it has >5000 years old history, a lot of mysteries of the past and so on) 3. REAL characters (they have their own belief, goals and how they going to get their goals (conspiracies, war, cunning schemes and so on)) 4.No harem (don't be conned like me, i cried, i won't tell why or i will spoil it) 5. There is magic (can't say more or i will spoil it, like i said mysteries of the past) That's all i can talk about right now (i didn't finished it yet)
i just realized something about the four friends in molting the mortal coil is it a reference to Kung Fu panda or just a coincidence
Did not notice but probably? Also I am glad you like Molting the Mortal Coil. Love the beginning dropped it near the end. Will read it against once more chapters are written or the story is complete. Got tired with how the MC is a mess. Starting so many things instead on focusing on the important stuff.
That why I dropped it. It was good but got tired of the direction of the story. Still looking for another one. Anything you could recommend?
world seed on royal is a good read though i dropped it shortly after the major time skip its a vrmmo in the beginning would recommend the early chapters defiance of the fall is a good one over 200 chapters also on royal road it was getting worse in ways but still pretty good before i forgot about it because of the slow updates apocalypse setting new breed of pirates is an okay one only 40 with very unstable updates and is being re released at the moment vrmmo setting theirs a book with a kobold protagonist in a vrmmo as a beta tester it was really good and had a satisfying end atleast i remembering it did i might have it somewhere in my web app but it is almost impossible for me to find it theirs also the one where a giant of a man enter a vrmmo to treat his condition thats on royal road but its really cliche and has no balance
If you do not care about gender bender then you can try For A Prosperous World. This is the story about wars/hard decisions/personal problems, but not about love. In addition there are sort of martial/magical forces.
Lol. Your request fits Kingdom's Bloodline. I feel like, so far, he will never win in terms of strength with opponents much stronger than him. He always beats them with smarts, schemes and tactics.