Emperor's Domination... mc is a shepperd boy with shitty talent in cultivation.... and it's true... every word of it...
Despite what everyone's saying, with stories written at the moment, aka webnovels, this is rare, excluding grimdark or other types of "horrific event" stories. About 70% of them are power fantasies, either with the MC being Strong From The Start, or having some sort of System Assistance, if not being directly "Blessed by the heavens" as well. I do have some suggestions I can make, however, all English Original Webnovels: - Mother of Learning. MC discovers he's trapped in a month-long timeloop after his suddenly far-too-strong-to-be-reasonable classmate fought a Lich attacking the city his Magic School is in. Watch as MC learns about the timeloop and develops as a mage. - He Who Fights With Monsters. MC wakes up naked, bald, and in a hedgemaze one day, to his confusion. Interesting Magic System and a System that conforms to the Magic System of the Universe, rather than being an excuse for the MC to grow absurdly more powerful than everyone else without explanation. - The Menocht Loop. MC is trapped in a time loop where he mysteriously wakes up in a rowboat in the middle of the ocean, which floats into a damaged cruise ship where the passengers have mostly died, and those that haven't aren't in a condition to survive being taken out of the water they're half-submerged in, with the only thing he can use to help anyone is a book on Decemancy, aka Death Magic. He's been in this loop for a while now, and is now Overwhelmingly Powerful at Decemancy, but hasn't been able to solve the issues that seem to be the core of why he's trapped where he is. That's where the story starts, and it basically continues to be a story where the Trappings of Power is shown, particularly if the one with Power has a moral compass, but lacks enough support to have any protection. - Healer. MC climbed a Tower that took in all of Humanity and forced them to fight for survival, and now he's tired. Tired of fighting, tired of trying to succeed where others easily failed. He was dragged into taking one last Level, but he just wants to retire from the climb. He and his companions succeed in defeating the boss of that level, giving them the right to receive a "wish". The MC's desire to retire was "granted" by the Gods who manage the tower using Humanity's one "life-reset" on the MC, sending him back to the day he entered the tower. This is the story of him just trying to survive in a reasonable way. - Delve. MC gets transported into a world where System is normal, and barely survives a situation that gives him the "right" to level up further than most other humans. MC decides to Min-Max on Mana Regeneration, and ends up picking up a class that empowers his Mana Regeneration. The story of a man who focused everything on the Mana Regeneration Stat, how he grows in power, and the situations he ends up in. Some people do complain about the MC not "realizing" that he's OP, while ignoring the fact that he receives potential recoil from the attacks he has picked up.
https://www.novelupdates.com/series/atelier-tanaka/ MC is basicly all the otaku stereotypes. He does get a cheat but is definitly not a genius.
Birth of the Demonic Sword on webnovel, kinda. MC is still sort of a genius but it is justified. He still struggles a lot.
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/32502/heart-of-cultivation maybe? He's unable to cultivate beyond the first realm from the start of the story to the current chapter. It seems unlikely to stay that way though, and only time will tell if it'll become an out of control power fantasy. https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/31429/cinnamon-bun She's a diehard pacifist though. https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/22518/chrysalis non-human, but also not a genius or particularly lucky by MC standards. https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/15935/there-is-no-epic-loot-here-only-puns mostly fluffy with some tragedy and light horror. A good bit of action as well, but its not really the point of the series.