hi, looking for something dark like Arifureta at the beginning without the harem/tsundere crap. Any recommendations?
Havent read Arifureta/a lot of good dark WN/CN/LN, but I could recommend good dark western fantasy if you so desire.
Your avatar is dark. Where's the lord fifth? Kuro no Maou. I don't know if it satisfies your harem criteria since I only read up to chap 69. 69.
Akuyaku tensei dakedo doushite kou natta - the MC (girl) killed her family in the first chapter. Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria - not much to say, because it would be spoiler. I have to ask though, when you say [dark] does that mean [Sad and depressing] ? [Gore]? [Rape]? here's some more : Overlord Re:monster
Coldfire trilogy by C.S. Friedman: Basically a world where human nightmares literally come to life. Has the best antihero of all time: Gerald Tarrant The First Law by Joe Abercrombie: Subverts all the tropes of western fantasy and does it really well. Has a very dark and nihilist outlook. Great dark humor. Prince of Thorns(series) by Mark Lawrence: A great protagonist, even though he's an evil bastard. The worldbuilding and story are topnotch The Black Company by Glen Cook: The forefather of military fantasy. You follow a mercenary company that fights for the evil tyrant The Darkness that Comes Before: Kinda-philosophical weird dark fantasy. Its good at the start, but it wasnt my cup of tea as it went on
The Black Company, by Glen Cook, is one of my favorite western dark fantasy series, though there are darker ones by far. Gardens of the Moon is another.
But if we really want to talk dark fantasy, the Coldfire trilogy is the best. Other series are dark, but not dark fantasy like Coldfire Trilogy. Her other fantasy series has a world where magic requires one to steal life from another random human being somewhere in the world.
the first 2 sound good the other 2 are not really dark. Thanks keeping that one in mind.thx sounds promising thx gotta find a source for them except the abercrombie already read all his books. Thx i am supplied for the time beeing
Btw, there was an author who wrote two different series back in the 80's or so of pure young wizards/monks who got corrupted and became evil. Anyone happen to have a clue which ones I'm talking about? I can't quite remember and my house is small so most of my books are stored at family's places.
God and Devil World Reincarnator Terror Infinity Boku wa Isekai de Fuyo Mahou to Shoukan Mahou wo Tenbin ni Kakeru
Xian Ni (Renegade Immortal). It's the dark version of I Shall Seal the Heavens. The starting 100 chapters are slow and boring as the MC is soft and naive but later on it's quite opposite. The story is full of tragic feeling.
So basically, an MC that gets betrayed / falls into despair from the start? Try Grimgal. MC has a weak character and gets transported with a whole bunch of other people to a fantasy world. Unlike many other MCs in this genre, he does not adapt well and has no cheats. People die. He learns how to survive in this world the hard way. Actually, the closest to Arifureta would be Tate no Yuusha (Shield Hero), but that has harem.