Have you tried these: The Godsfall Chronicles Monarch of Evernight Dungeon Maker I am the Monarch Kusuriya no Hitorigoto Solaris the Abyssal Non-NU: Mother of Learning
Reading both, and regularly reccomend them to others. To each their own... While I'm fairly secure in my masculinity, and can laugh at the occasional bl reference, I don't enjoy reading about male couples just not my thing. As for the other novels, they seem rather tragic. Was kind of looking for more a fantasy adventure with an uplifting and romantic sub-plot.
Here are two copy pasta of one of my recommendations. (The Experimental Log of the Crazy Lich) The short version Try The Experimental Log of the Crazy Lich. An odd, unregretable and unforgettable read ! Odd because, even if it's an "isekai-like" written by a chinese author, the quality is good and in fact, all the usual isekai bullshit isn't there (you know, the usual: game elements, action, comedy, harem with a MC dense as Lead, harem female members who are all rivals, etc). It's a false isekai, in my opinion: it's the only reason that the MC know so much about the world. The rest is more about survival in dark fantasy and underworld settings. Because, even if the MC sometimes think with game stats (that's just for readers convenient understanding), the world is real for him and his allies and only the fittest can survive where he is. I think the more convenient words to define it would be : grimdark, fun and somehow crazy, with a good world building (but be careful of info dumps). If you know Overlord, it's a bit like it (a bit I said !) but with a cunning, calculating, resolved MC who knows what he is doing, not "simulating" with his subordinates. But he is also a champion at shooting on his own foot and causing calamities befall him ! He has strong allies, with hilarious personality. (Have a taste of Beifeng, and you'll understand soon). 2. the long version (context: someone wanted specific points to be included or not, so the bold sentences) Don't stop on the fact that it's chinese. That one is really a masterpiece. There isn't Wuxia/Xianxia stuff (like the MC bossing around and killing the others just on a whim, with an awed peanut gallery) And it would somehow remind you of Overlord. The MC is an Undead and a Lich. ^^ 1. "Mc must be male. He can be other than human." You can say that he is human and not ? Something to do with his multiple reincarnations (yes, you read "multiple" reincarnations) and the races'lineage advantages. 2. "Besides Mc, i want his friend also grows, i don't want them just stay weak and useless to mc. I want them Work as a team not invidual.": If you are thinking about those Japanese harem isekai and the uselessness of the best male friend of the MC; I understand your point. Well, In ELCL, the MC has friends, enemies and subordinates. There is something to do with soul imprinting (you somehow could relate this to cultivation in Chinese novel). As a reincarnated gamer, he has a certain ambition: change the fate of the world in order to tilt its fate on the good one (like in The Amber Sword). So the MC is indeed OP but he is limited by numerous things so he is'nt the sort to settle all with brute force. He is cunning, wicked, selfish, but caring for his friends. He helps (and helped) them to further advance on their soul imprinting. And then, as I said, he is cunning, so he had them help him via politics or military strength, or inventions. And they are really useful. But, well, they all have a screw loose. (Special mention to Beifeng and Xueti) 3. "If harem, please make sure the girls are not Annoying type like, Naive, Whimp and look down on mc." For ELCL, that point is rather strange. There are female interest around the MC, that's sure but... They're not his lovers except for a few. For sure, they're not naive, whimp. But some look down on the MC because there are acceptable reasons (the MC is some sort of a mix between a nice guy with humor and a scumbag ?) One of them was even his enemy ! (but the love budded with time, not the usual "MC save a girl -> the girl is awed at his OPness -> 3 days after, she's in a state that she think is love..." I'd say that's a too big of effect of the bridge ^^" Well, I'm not sure if you understand my point: the love interest are not annoying or looking down on MC for trivial reasons. And hum, the MC and the girl are not on couple-like relationship. (EDIT as of December, 7th of 2018 : there are some couple-like relationship, one official but it's rather one-sidedly forced by one of the female character, and another one where the sail is till sailing and you're still thinking that the author gave heavy hints. Besides, some other girls are interested by the MC but it's more some evolution of their feelings than the "awesome OPness" trope described above. 4. "I want world also develop. Idk what you call it." A really good world building here (at least well thought). I said that the MC is a reincarnated gamer. It's not as in the Japanese isekai one: he is OP because he has a System like on those isekai with game elements (and a lottery, but with useless item and really random effects) but here the System is just here to give pointers on the Story quests (well, more like real history events for him where if he makes a mistake, he has to bear with the consequences). And the System is really trolling hard. Sometimes, the MC will explain the differences between the game and events he knew, the magic system, the flow of events, he will define some realy special things like what's a god in that story, etc. All is well explained. I mean there is coherence. But the author is really hard on info dumping and you often will be a bit lost between 2 chapters because you finished on a cliffhanger and the next chapter start with an explication on elementals. The game elements are not intrusive: No 1 million stats windows ! The MC uses the stats to explain the difference in strength (and stat points are really difficult to get: as a example, a difference of 2 points at lvl 1 for 2 different races is a huge difference for further developpement). But at most, you'll have "well that's an average human stats/dragon's" etc but the MC will never give the stat's of all the existing characters. There are politics, wars underhanded manoeuvres, complicated situation (like the enemy of your enemy is not your friend but a temporary ally that you'll betray after a while but you were oblivious to the fact that they'll do the same), scheming and more. Even if you have all those serious stuffs, the novel can be hilarious without the impression that the comedy is forced. It seems to me that it flows naturally. One of the reasons is that the story is narrated at the 1st person, by the MC himself . And he is really unique. 5. "NO RACISM and Make sure the novel got less sex plot/scene(i am fine if none)" Racism, there are some but the usual (human hates undead -> that's a really important point as the MC is an undead and his destroyed kingdom is at present full of his trusted... undead subordinates) and less usual but normal in human minds (the MC comes from the East Mist country, that is considered as a land of northern barbarians... But they are not Skyrim viking ^^" ) I guarantee you: no sex scene, no sex plot. At most a kiss, and some verbal sexual abuse against the MC. (After 300 years, he's still a bachelor...) 6. Most important. The novel must be more than 150 chapters. Other than that. No. Yeah, ELCL has 300~ chapters now. Please note that ELCL is finished but the translation is ongoing and novel updates doesn't list all the translated chapters. So read until the count stops and go on the qidian app (well, it's Webnovel now...). Keep in mind that ELCL recently became premium so you need as much spirit stones you want (well, Instead of purchasing them with money, you can be satisfied with the daily spirit stone reward and have about 1-2 chapters per day. ELCL chapters are pricy so I highly recommend to use the app instead of the PC web version: you get more spirit stones !) ELCL also has a sequel but only the prologue has been translated so far (as a teaser project) and I think that if the translator didn't continue, it's simply logic: the story isn't fully translated yet, so why starting a sequel that begins in the middle of nowhere ?
Today I am in a mood for shifters. As in werewolf x were-something/human romance novels, so I went on Wattpad to read some. There are plenty completed werewolf, heterosexual, completed and even more than one book series of this genre on Wattpad... plenty of other “complete” tag stuff as well. Usually I’d type a single letter in search bar and then add whatever tags/genres I’m in a mood for. There are even novels with good language as well. Eg: I’m not a jersey kind of guy, this one just came into my head...
There is also Release that Witch (also on Webnovel now: chapters are relatively short if you compare it to ELCL's. Indeed, at most, a long chapter will cost you 8-9 spirit stones and a short one 6). Well it's more about a world building one. The MC is a transmigrated one but he lands off in the body of Roland Wimbledon, the worst prince of the Kingdom of Graycastle. He is in a remote border town and has a challenge: he need to compete with his brothers and sisters to show that he is worthy to become king. So he must develop the town he is in charge to a new high, economy wise and resource wise. The MC was an engineer and he'll do all he can with his knowledges to develop Border Town, from a remote poor miner town to an Industrial one. In order to attain his goal, he decides to be "unusual": he will seek the help of witches (who are discriminated by people and the Church) and use their power accordingly. (I'll spoil a bit without details) So, the MC impersonates the prince, use his authority and will develop trust with people, integrate witches into society thanks to drama play, propaganda and the awe "his" inventions can bring, transform the town, become a king and face a new ennemy. There is politics, a bit of battle (but story isn't mainly focused on that point) and lot of science. As a transmigrator who use modern knowledge, he is one the most cheat-like: He has too much knowledge for an engineer. He can "invent" a steam engine from scratch, develop firearms, a heating system, armored trains, artillery cannons, steelboats etc. I mostly spoke about weapons but he isn't only focused on these one. The story is about witches. Indeed. But: Yes, the story takes place in a medieval world with sword and magic... But magic is scarce there are only two phenomenons that include it (as far as the story progesses, that will change but magic is still scarce): monsters and witches. That's all. You read it right: on human side, only witches can use magic and each witch only has one ability (that can evolve but it's still only related to her original one) For me that's a plus: the story doesn't give reader too much magic (wich can be detrimental to plot construction) and focus on two narration points of view: the MC's and the side characters'. MC's is about the main plot and Side characters includes common people and their reaction to the inventions of the Prince/King, and the most important witches. Some side characters will really become important (witches not included, because they are a given). Special mention to Private Van'er. Romance... There is. And I see your question: is there harem ? It's ambiguous and at the same time, it's not. Why it's not. The MC develop feelings with the first witch he met. And it's reciprocated. They're officially in a relationship. And the couple foundations are solid. No other witches in. Well, I heard (read to be exact) it's mainly due to the author wife. She had threaten him to divorce if he includes harem. So no harem and it is not ambiguous: Roland only has eyes for the main female lead perhaps due to the author's wife projection. Somehow, why it is. I said above "no harem because of author's wife influence". But as in real life, the female lead, Anna, has a competitor. Yes, I said competitor, not rival, that's important. And as you could have guessed, she's a witch. And she has her importance but her relationship is awkward. I'll explain after the following point. So, somehow, we readers have that assumption during reading: a new witch added to the town = a new member of the harem. And at first, that feeling was strong: when the first batch of witches came, because of some actions of Roland, some witches somehow thought that he was interested in them and considered the harem (and also because of the story settings, all witches are beautiful women and nobles tend to make them their plaything. But I digress, the MC isn't of that sort) (He mainly gifted a bra to Wendy, the busty one, because he thought that he could help her to relieve her shoulder pains. Because of the story settings, she thought that it was a hint to take her as a concubine). But among witches, there are women and little girls, so this is evident, the story isn't about pedophilia and the MC doesn't swing that way. Mostly, to say it roughly, all witches are in awe with him (&his inventions) and feel gratitude thanks to all his effort to integrate witches in society. We can question if that gratitude can be some disguised hidden hints to romantic feelings among the more mature witches (remember ? due to author's wife curse) but that's speculation and nothing solid can further that hypothesis. That's the gist of "somehow why it is". As of the competitor to the female lead, Nightingale, it's really awkward. She loves the MC and she's ready to become a concubine at most. The MC knows her love, Anna the female lead knows her love and is also in a secret agreement about it (not the threatening one but more like the one between two best female friends who are on the same crush). But the relationship is awkward: because MC knows her feelings and Anna is in an agreement with her, the author didn't really gave her screentime on the romance side. As I'm at the ~1052 chapter, Roland knows but he is on some sort of "let me sort my feelings and give me time to carefully consider it as I did with Anna", Anna knows, sometimes Nightingale speaks about her relationship with Wendy. But that's all. I suspect that the state of the relationship is still due to the author's wife who limits what he wants to do; even if it does'nt seem that the MC want a harem, but only the female lead and at most one or two concubines (he is from modern China, so he is monogamous) because of his royal situation. Contrary to the long text above, romance isn't all that important even though it's correctly presented. I wanted to be precise about it. The story really focus on the town development and how life for residents become easier, how his military develops to fight his enemies (yes, it's plural) and how his industries develop alongside entertainment (Roland gave Gwynt to play !) The world building is coherent, well thought and stand out in a positive way compared to some other similar novels. The story sometimes have plot armors and flaws but for me, they are not too important (not too much deus ex machina).
I remember starting this one and stopping soon after, just wasn't mmy type of novel. Spoiler I read up to the part where Roland's sister fights one of the church's pet witches. I assumed she lost and was absorbed. Frankly. Felt it was game over at that point. The special stones offer no protection, and while I don't doubt Roland could defend against her if she targeted him first, she would utterly destroy him if she took out 90% of the witches he lives with crippling his ability to defend himself. Even if he managed to eek out a win, his entire support staff would have been destroyed. It was also around this time that Qi steamrolling translators and absorbed this novel. So with those two issues, I have up the novel.
Do you mean the imperial princess that disguised as a boy? Then yep it continued, kinda? If you want to know, then here's some spoilers, though I suggest if you're going to read the novel just not to bother opening it. Spoiler Grandpa Blind kidnaps the princess and the current cult saintess of the cult the Grandma is a part of and marries them to MC one day after another because he wants MC to settle down in the Great Ruins since he was afraid of the gods who were going to descend on the mortal realm and kill him or something because he helped the empire build a cannon that could, and eventually did, kill a god. It isn't really a conventional romance that happened between them perse, but they are still technically married now, I think that's way ahead other novels of the same genre or nature. The novel does a good job at making many characters of the novel stay relevant for the majority of the novel and MC doesn't just go to some higher realm or something, instead the elders of his village actually are at the peak level already and they take major roles in shaping the novel's plot.
@Miserys_End For ELCL, It can't be help, it's like or not like, so i'll not force you to continue. For me, it became better and better with many good plot-twist, so if you're now interested, feel free to continue. If not, I hope you'ill find something to your liking. For RTW, well, it's as you say about Garcia, she lost to Zero. As of Roland VS Zero, he won and the story is still continueing. I don't want to spoil too much, so i'll say that after the battle VS the church and Zero, Roland get an strange ability (so, he was an OP engineer ? now he as access to all the past knowledge he had seen or read about ! but that's not all). Moreover, there are some politics involved with the kindom of Dawn. That last one helped him secure some things about Taquila Witches and furthered his undertanding of the Battle of the Divine Will. So at the beginning, the story was about Roland VS Wimbledon Brothers&Sisters + Church, right ? Now, Roland has secured his position and it's all about battling demons and a third mysterious faction similar to demons (who are also at war against them). If my comment regave you interest, feel free to continue. At this point, it's still very interesting (I don't know if you really liked RTW or not though, so do as you wish, I'm just here to give recommendations. The final say is on you) About qi, I don't know what is the global problem about it so could you explain ? As for the reading, if you only focus on one premium series, like RTW for exemple, with an account, without paying any penny, you can secure easily and freely 2-3 chapters per day thanks to the stones. So, you're more a winner in this situation than the readers who pay. But as my question imply, i'm probably missing a huge thing about Qidian (hence my favorable perception), so could you enlighten me ? I just know that Qidian has translation quality issues, but no more.
Not necessarily. You'd be surprised how some fanfics go beyond what readers expect and create a whole new story entirely. Take The Games We Play for example, it has more action scenes (around 60% of the story), badass dialogues, in-depth skill analysis, LitRPG in genre, making it better than the original (biased opinion)