Recommendations Novels where the MC properly earns their Strength

World of Cultivation

 

Get over myself? Given that I wrote that in jest I dont think see a reason to
Then again, I am an egosticial asshole but who isnt? Your thread screams haughtiness.
I will spell it for you very clearly:

If you keep limiting yourself with such a long list of requirements. You will miss out on gems.
Stories do not have to perfectly fit your requirements to be enjoyable.

Oh I almost forgot, you do know that synopsis mean nothing especially in Chinese novels? The synposis can simply be an undecipherable poem.
Douche out!

 

I said "act like a douche", and did not say that you are one (particularly since I know nothing about you, and was responding in accordance to specifically one post). As I have said beforehand in other threads, probably in response to you a few times, I often ask for hyper specific things that may not even exist, usually in an attempt to see if it exists and how common it is if it does. In this case, I did know that it existed, and wanted to find some more stories that properly fit that criteria.

If you have a story that mostly fits but fails in one way or another, please recommend it AND GIVE A DESCRIPTION. I'm very grateful to Caudyr who's suggestion fits what I was looking for, but comments like your prior one prevent me from feeling comfortable making exceptions for stories that fit the spirit of what I'm asking for, if not the letter of the request, like that one.

I also know that stories don't need to fit a checklist to be enjoyable. In fact, avoiding them is probably what makes many stories enjoyable. Checklists, however, are very good things to use to AVOID things you don't want. Requests on this thread go three ways, no details, the only details being "like X novel" and a detailed request. Yes, I do go far further down the detailed request route than most, to the point of being specific, and inform others that I do not believe that their response is correct to my request. Hell, I may have a haughty personality in general that is more easily seen online, particularly on sites like this one. That does not change the fact that I have made a specific request, and having someone make a post saying nothing other than "I'm criticising you for being specific in what you're asking for" in response to that specific request, particularly without attempting to make a suggestion, is an obnoxious act from that person.

 

It's true that MC of Martial Arts Master got himself an artifact. But this is what make Martial Arts Master different from other novels. he realized that he couldn't rely on his cheat for the rest of his life because it would eventually lost its effect, thus he only rely on his own power. From chapter 100 onwards the cheat is rarely used or mentioned, even mc totally stopped using his cheat around ch200 and only rely on himself. That's what we call character development

 

Hahaha guilty as charged. Own belief systems are very different.
I do not believe that being rigid is a fruitful way to do things but to each his own
Being pedantic when it comes to stories which is a form of art is counterproductive
especially given that most of the authors here are amateurs who do not even follow basic writing rules like "show don't tell"

But here goes nothing
My Castle , My Castellan which my website translates although the release speed is slow, I will look to improve.
Heavenly Star might also fit your requirement but I doubt it.
And since you want a decription, My Castle, My Castellan is low fantasy, that is why it fits your requirements
There are many Japanese stories like that eg A Girl Who Ate The Death God and other stories by the same author. The translation for Girl Who Ate The Death God is edited machine translation, even though it was done by my website
I do not recommend it but since it is just the side stories, it isnt too bad
Low fantasy is usually Japanese novels but those novels are not usually translated
Dungeon Seeker should fit your requirement perfectly, since he had to work hard all by himself for what seemed like years. I did not enjoy the story though

 

Thank you for clarifying that for me. With that additional information, I feel like this story might fit my request, depending on how much he improves beyond chapter 200. As most stories like that one would have their character continue to develop rapidly despite refusing to utilise their cheat item, I suspect that this story may end up have the MC surpass the 20% Reliance on Luck Threshold I set, and thus fit my request. Thank you again for the recommendation.

In response to your suggestions:
My Castle, My Castellan - looks to fit perfectly. Thank you for that suggestion.
Heavenly Star - Might fit... but I'm a little cautious about the "sudden strength gain" tag.
The Dungeon Seeker - Would likely fit if it was not for the Game Elements and Levelling System Tags, which give an auto disqualification to it. And the Cheats & Overpowered Protagonists tags would make me reluctant to give it a pass, as well.

Other words: Oh, you're the one who owns the Asian Hobbyist Site? Thank you for supplying a free site to read interesting novels on. I do not want to even attempt to pressure you, or any creator or translator, to hurry their work (unless I'm paying for the privilege to request faster releases). In arguments on forums I don't tend too look too closely to the specific commentator arguing unless required for some reason, so I most certainly avoided looking at the part that stated that.

I also wish to remind everyone, be they creator, modifier or audience that REAL LIFE COMES FIRST. Every now and again you run into creators who seem to believe that the fan's desires are more important than themselves, but that's thankfully rare (despite the number of "fans" and trolls who seem it's perfectly alright to make obnoxious demands to the source their using for entertainment). Most know when it's important to take time off for physical or mental health.

 

Actually I gave you one novel wrong. I got confused with the names.
The I Refuse to be a Supporting Character is Actually, Guide to Raise a Supporting Character.

 

Everyone else is Returner. Mc destined to become the one in control but, had to be tested for a thousand year to determine his will and perseverance. The foreshadowing ability is ridiculous. One of the top mc who earn his power through tremendous effort and skill. Ignoring others people mouth and just do his job properly, just to protect them back.
Reverend Insanity. Mc uses his experience for breaking the rules and law of the world. Staying calm at any situation, if he's show any expression, it mean he acting to get what he wanted. Undying will and unlimited perseverance, a man who work his ass of without any trust in fate and luck, but still use them for his own path.

 

I don't know about that...
SD is one of my favorite story on RR, but Insight is a huge part of Rain's rise to power.

 

Reverend Insanity maybe fits. I like it. Ignore the tragedy tag , idk why its there. He's usually weak but is eventually gets strong quick so eh.

 

Do you mind ongoing novel?
Not All Heroes From Earth Are Bad
I can't believe this fit the description perfectly (minus level up because he's a hero, but don't worry because he risk his live for just 1 level to be up and its really hard)
You should try it!

 

I was not expecting this thread to be raised 2 years after the prior post. Okay, some responses to the new recommendations:

Neither of these fit my strict request limitations. The MC of EER gains the bulk of his power and knowledge due to being left alone on Earth in a body that doesn't age or weaken for what is effectively millennia. The MC of RI gains his power due to a Gu Worm he spent forever discovering how to make working better than advertised the first time he tried to use it, allowing him to take advantage of all sorts of things that he couldn't his first time around.

While I could, theoretically, give EER leeway for returning to the past, the author seems to just hold themselves back from treating the MC as if he's the best thing since sliced bread purely due to him supposedly being more of an anti-hero character, so I feel fine rejecting them both.

The level up thing is enough for me to give it an auto-fail, just to be consistent with everything else I have previously said in this thread. And, reading the page about the story, I can't actually tell if this would fit this request even if it didn't have that.

 

Oh i'm sorry sir Darius if this was a wrong recommendation. My thinking is simple, i see the MC hard work, i immediately think he's a great MC. So leveling if a No-No huh...I through it could pass...

Well, i cheer for you to get another recommendation again!

 

I think you should read non translated stuff like Tang brick, Han xiang, Celebrate more than one thousand year, ruthless Daming etc.

I enjoyed Three kingdoms (Reborn as Sun ce, Master of reckless luck).

They are historical novels without any superpowers.

 

I don't typically enjoy historical novels, but they are more likely to fulfil the listed requirements. Though, Romance Of The Three Kingdoms might not, from what I know of it from Dynasty Warriors. And, no, I am not talking about the fact that Dynasty Warriors allows the playable characters to cut through mobs of normal soldiers like wheat. Instead, I'm talking about how the Sun Family's power came primarily from the land they inherited, how powerful Lu Bu was presented as (and that's reinforced by how half a dozen other sources treat him), and practically everything surrounding Liu Bei and his family's rise to power, even gaining a genius military strategist mostly because he wore down Zhuge Liang down with pure persistence (Liu Bei basically visits him a few times and the Strategist who refused to join anyone decided "eh, fine, I'll join you"). Cao Cao's the only one who actually properly developed his strength, or rather his military, during the course of the story (after the Yellow Turban Rebellion, since that's where the story started in the game I played).

Yeah, I have NO interest in actually reading the Romance Of The Three Kingdoms in English. It's longer and more specifically detailed than I would typically prefer, and I already know that it basically treats Cao Cao as the story's villain due to his bloodline having no inherent stake to the royalty title that they ended up taking, despite the fact that Cao Cao's personal ethical positioning, which the game I played seemed to present with similarities to a Meritocracy, seems to resonate closer with what I grew up with, and thus agree with. While Liu Bei is presented as a "hero" because... his family won in the end, and someone said he had blood ties to the previously dethroned emperor? Something like that.

 

You know china's history is not all about three kingdoms right? I personally think there are a lot more ming dynasty time period novels than three kingdom period in qidian

Dont know what you are talking about sun family's land they inherited? I mean what are you smoking? Sun ce was left with less than 1000 troops and few old sun jian's generals after which he won battle after battle against all odds for Yuan shu and carved out territory for himself.

Real sun family land was in changsha which was sparsely populated and of no value. Sun ce defeated the governor of yang province and cleared out all other factions to establish wu. All the hard work of sun ce was enjoyed by Sun Quan because he got assasinated. This is real history, if you are talking about romance then i dont know much.

 

Common Sense of a Duke's Daughter. Was isekaid as the villain of the dating sim game she used to play. MC uses modern day business and political tactics to improve her territory. It's been a long time since I've read this and never finished it.

I mean, he only trained for 1000 years. But he sure is lucky though. The time stopped so his body was evolved in a certain way making him physically strong without the aid of magic.

Man I wish the author showed more of those 1000 years worth of training. Who cares if it's called Everyone Else is a Returnee. I want to see all of them. Will 200 chapters be enough? Probably. Then we can start the actual story. Otherwise, people might complain that he got strong so quick. Forgetting the fact that it took him 1000 to reach that level. Well this is nothing compared to that cheater Einstein right? It only took him 11 years to write the General Theory of Relativity. Who the hell could write such a masterpiece in just a shot amount of time.

 

Yes. However, Romance is one of the three "classics" of Chinese literature, so it's one of the universally considered "better" Chinese historical fiction novels, and reading actual history books are even less interesting to me. As to the Sun Family information I brought up, I'm commenting from memory of a video game version of the story I played over ten years ago, one that started in at the end of the Yellow Turban Rebellion, and so some of the details I vaguely remember can range from easily be misconstrued to outright wrong. I remember the broad strokes, but the Sun Family was the one that I retained the least from. Probably because the head of the family kept changing, because once that Liu Bei and Cao Cao died I didn't really follow along with the specifics of their families all that well either.

Your sarcasm for me rejecting EER is noted. However, he gained that opportunity due to having an "unobservable" cheat. And in that MERE 1,000 years he mastered not only his body and spear combat (with a teacher), but also, at the very least, blacksmithing (only by reading books), numerous languages (only by reading books), and travelled the world on boats. And that's not including the fact that he supposedly read pretty much every non-fiction printed book in the world. And THAT'S ignoring the auto-fail condition of all the power he gained from the levelling system afterwards, particularly since it did more than double his power.

In short, your sarcasm is noted, and I've thrown said sarcasm in the garbage where it belongs.

 

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Is it stil still count as necro thread if OP continue reply. Never mind, I will recommend several stories.
The Last Science, might not exactly fit. Mages certainly increase their personal power through learning and studying their new force but progression of of their power is not the most focus of the story. The novel told us how humanity respond with magic, it bring as much problem as it bring blessing, that's why novel have multiple Point of Views, you can support any characters from the story on both side.

Firestaff series, Introduction on goodreads, and Summary of the series, free to read in author site.

The Power of Formations, MC is almost like Zorian from MoL, born magic power below average but compensation it high talent in formation/artifice magic.

The Red Lands, typical reincarnation story but there's something in the power system, like Douluo Dalu fighters acquire their abilities from magical beast.

 

Soul of Negary

Nightmare’s Call

Sovereign of Judgement

The Dark King

Tales of Herding Gods

Kingdom’s Bloodline