The story follows Matt, a young man planning to delve the rifts responsible for the monsters that... Read more The story follows Matt, a young man planning to delve the rifts responsible for the monsters that destroyed his city and killed his parents. His dreams are crushed when his Tier 1 Talent is rated as detrimental, and no guild or group will take him.Working at a nearby inn, he meets a mysterious and powerful couple. They give him a chance to join The Path of Ascension, an empire wide race to ascend the Tiers and become living legends.With their recommendation and a stolen skill, Matt begins his journey to the peak of power.***Chapters will now be MONDAY and FRIDAY AT 3:00pm EST.This is a mix between LitRPG and Xianxia. It's like a car that looks like a LitRPG with dungeons and skills, but the interior and engine are all Xianxia. So no blue boxes and clicking +’s to get stronger.***What you won't see in this novel:Bland protagonists.Bland love interests that immediately fall in love with the MC.Murder hobos who kill entire families and clans for looking the wrong way at somebody.Pacifist MC’s who wouldn't kill a single person to save millions.Cartoonish villains who are bad just to be bad.***What to expect:A MC who acts rationally.World building that has more depth than ‘strong people 'stronk'. There will be no rules only benefiting the strong and no rule changes as they see fit. An empire that actually cares for its citizens.People who act and talk like real people.A magic system and progression system that are logically and internally consistent.Realistic fight scenes. Collapse Dungeons, LitRPG, Magic, Male Protagonist, Character Growth, Strong to Stronger, Weak to Strong, Skill Assimilation, Ancient Times, Monsters, Absent Parents, Hard-Working Protagonist, Game Elements, Clever Protagonist, Kingdoms This has a feel to it like "Supreme Magus". The tone of the novel, more than just a little similarity between the MC and friends. Which seem similar also. Pet, needs to break bond later when she becomes human, ect.So, the MC was an orphan, got lucky and was scoped out by a pair of "hunters" sent by an AI to test his character. He gets a protected legal status in the Empire he is in and gets into a "hunter" school for dungeon delvers. It is a remarkably no kill society thus far in the story.The MC, as i compared to Supreme Magus', is sort of broken with unresolved psych issues he's going to therapy to deal with. Highly regulated society, with more of a today's world youngsters on issue such as sex and relationships. More like hooking up with lots of casual sex instead of pairing up with your own friend/companion - like Sup Mag's characters behave. Maybe I'm just too old to relate to today's generation like that, but I don't approve of that lifestyle.I dropped the novel because I'm a bit uncomfortable with the MC getting cucked. SpoilerHe had just spent 6 months delving, sharing a tent, paired with a girl who jumped into someone else's bed after a party. She even made a bet with someone else if she lost a duel she'd sleep with him - right next to the MC. Most people would be offended if their companion did that. Worse, they are bonded together for like, good, with a pair of growth rings that can only work for them that lets them swap positions in battle. The female lead's viewpoint had even including knowledge that they'd be paired up in the future (they are similar to her parents, not going to say more on that), knowing her parents would love him and the concept of the rings when they met. Hmm..... this isn't my cup of tea and I'm not really relating to such a relationship. What chapter was that that she jumped into another man’s bed? I don’t think they were even saying at the time? Even he was sleeping around. Tbh I doubt I’ll even read this novel it seems like a harem to me Eh? Fairly early I suppose. The MC was even involved in several affairs with girls himself before the mission he met his "fiance". Sex is pretty casual in this book. The girls moved on from the academy.Not only was the female lead jumping into another man's bed, and referring to other times she did, but when the MC confessed to her, the girl refused to be an item with him - she stated it was customary only when they became immortals (for those on the path).So, the MC had to agree that they "would see other people" until then.In essence, they agreed that eventually they would marry, but the girl wanted to play around until then. Like I said, it's not my cup of tea - it would not be a relationship I'd want to be involved in if my fiance was bedding other men until the actual marriage.A story is made up from characters, not merely the greater plot. This situation is so pathetic that I don't care for the higher story, for the green hatter and the harlot bothers me. Additionally they lose their "child" in the future - she has to be stripped of the bond with the MC. just finished ch 241 ... the story doesnt have any kick to it anymoreit got exponentially worse after the minkalla arc, to such an extent that its almost unreadable now.Had fun reading the initial chapters but it really just became too boring after a while Minkalla Arc Is Shit.....It A Chore Reading The Novel Now It doesn't get better imo I don't mind when you go and steal some random image but dont't go and use the cover of the 2° book of the Stormlight Archive Rank: C Vsfd author, all bad, meh!! Rank D- Chapters will now be MONDAY and FRIDAY AT 3:00pm EST.For someone who said that, the gap bw posting chapter’s is just too long reading up to ch 148the first 40 chapters are really good, there is progress and reasonable choices, but if you cant read through them its best to give up as afterward the progression of the mc and the story slow down to a crawl.in the early chapters he enters a traning school called a playpen, my impression of the story is that he never really left it, most of his fight are avoidable and lacking in tension, his mental age may swing from 8 to 40 years old depending on the situation, and most infuriating of all, at least for me, is that he takes non optimal choices when he know of a better way.on the current pace i assume his “training“ will continue until ch 250 or more, and after that he will be in the middle reaches of the power structure.its not a bad read but you need to willing to give it a lot of patience and time before you see results. and some more spoilerish dataSpoileryour future is largely determined by talents, talents are obtained at tier 1-3-25-50, as of ch 148 and 3000+ pages mc is tier 10 in a tournament arc, the economy is based around the price of mana, the mc talent allows him to output mana in balance breaking quantities, fights lack tension because we get to know that mc and girlfriend are watched and protected by tier 40+ guys wich is our equivalent of a walking nuclear holocaustpath of ascension, the name of the novel is ironically his biggest limitation as while he is on it he can only receive limited help and rewards basically nerfing many uses of his mana generation. I dont know how to feel about this one, its always easier to say the negative about a novel because we take the positive for granted so im doing just that but take it with a grain of salt i´ve read some disastrous first 30 to 100 chapters and this one is not so bad and you can feel that the author is finding his style.° The fights/plot lacks tension° The MC personality is not solid, life experiences, what he says or does do not translate to the way he makes decisions° The technical quality of describing skills and demonstrating via a graph the upgrade curve is bellow subpar° What you get at the begging of the novel is not what you are going the end up reading later, could be a good thing, a bad one, you decide Mc is the problem Personally not for me, its decent but also easy to lose interest in it... A 13-year-old guy talks like a wise man, I was building cakes in the sand at that time)