Hi all, Looking for a weak to Strong Journey for a Male MC who is not and does not become arrogant, is humble. PLEASE NOTE:::: Looking for MC in this journey to be an ordinary compared to his peers. Not winning competitions, losing out in the middle, losing here and there. Not having anything special other than determination to keep starting again after setbacks. Looking for MC being in the middle ranks of whatever current realm the MC is, just that his growth does not stop until he gets to a realm where no one else is present. Loner MC would be really good because want to avoid all tropes involving saving love interests etc. Late stage companion is ok.
..........(o_o)..........T-T-T-That's awfully specific..............Does a novel like this even exists???.............well, i know of a manga, which is adapted from a novel, which similarly but the MC wants to be the n°1, his party is full women but he is dense....well, he isn't in the bit interested in romance so he doesn't notice the girls growing feelings, was in a competition but due to plot reasons he was interrupted before the final, he isn't the strongest since he needed the help from his companions.......besides this one i really don't believe such a novel exists......there will be at least something else mixed in there.....
Friend no one wants to read about some boring mc, his cheats make him mc otherwise he's no different from some side character. Which makes the novel plain and boring. Record of Mortals journey to immortality is the best one on that category people seem to like it, the others I forgot since they were too plain and I dropped them, even That one I made in a couple hundred chapters then quit, still don't know why people like it. If I had to guess they were sick of the cliches and it was a breathe of fresh air but meh, I take cliche over boring any day.
I'm currently reading SSS Class Suicide Hunter right now and it meets several of your criteria. He starts weak. I would say he's humble. He has been getting more confident as the story progresses though. Definitely not arrogant at least. He slowly starts getting friendly with his new peers (they are high ranking though) He is definitely heading towards being the strongest ever. There is a love interest though. But the love isn't any cliche I've ever heard of at least. Also maybe Nine Evolutions of the true spirit. Not much interaction with his peers but there is a little.
Cultivation Chat Group, maybe? Spoiler OK, maybe there are some arrogant moments, but most of the time the MC's quite humble, esp since he's quite often dragged into situation that are out of his control (ie: got dragged into & survived someone else's 8th stage ascension while still in 4th stage (which (seriously) raining w/ nukes), then got to give speech afterwards. THEN got dragged again into it on the demonic side Else, maybe the manhwa The Gamer on webtoon
Also maybe Nine Evolutions of the true I enjoy The Gamer but the MC tends to get a little full of himself because of his OP power.
Kinda formulated the content based on Cultivation Chat Group, though he is quite strong at his realm, but it matches all other points
Only novel I can maybe think of is "SSS Rank Suicide Hunter", and it's not a novel but maybe "Kenichi, History's Strongest Disciple"?
It Turns Out I am a Dao Ancestor hits at 95%, the last 5% is there is a FL meet early enough to make it interesting and so far none of the regular troupes. Another good one is I’m Really Not The Demon God’s Lackey and so far no real FL (though I hope one shows up and it's actually done right to the story). I'd second KHSD if not for the rush of troupes it has (one I really hate made me drop it for a year till they translated past it and I could rush read past it) and it was fully translated and if you go comics that fit the criteria that are done another good one is Legend of the Angel which was from the same guy that went on to do Claymore (sadly it's not as good IMO) and sadly the place I liked to read both is no more ,,,