Arden's Ascent - A Deckbuilding Cultivation Story

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

All Arden’s life he lived in a desert filled with stone trees. He expected Ortus to grant him Earth affinity like every other Desert Elf. However, when his induction into Ortus came, that wasn’t what happened.

What will a Desert Elf do with Nature affinity in the middle of a desert? How will he find enough cards to fill his deck? Will the thin nature mana of the desert stall any progress?

Fortunately, his parents have a plan. He just doesn’t know it yet. A plan that thrusts him into an unknown and hazardous environment alone with nothing but his own skills and instincts to guide him.

Follow Arden on his ascent.

Information

Status: Hiatus
Year: 2023
Author: Draecath

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.3/ 5.0
Followers: 662
Views: 230,799

Reviews

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Community Reviews(6)

ChristopherCravenRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
In the past calamity struck resulting in an era of strife, where once nature was bountiful and plenty desserts and arid wastes dominated now, life is scarce and few cities remain around their dungeons. But with time people forget and so we are in a small village in the desert ruled over by the City of Magna Vita Urbs in the year 5000 of the Ortus era when our story starts:
Join Arden on his coming of Age ceremony to get his Ortus Bracelet access to his deck and magic and on his journey to collect his deck, level his cards and travel the world.
Because staying in the Great Stone Tree desert is not an option for the young desert elf unlike his parents he does not have gained sand affinity or another affinity branch of earth but nature but how should he find nature and its subset cards in a desert filled with sand and stone trees? What you can expect is a great story about magic, cards, fights, storytelling and settlement and kingdom-building down the line according to the author.
I have a bit more information as I had the pleasure to be a beta reader for this new gem. After all, it is not the first work of Draecath and if you loved the others you will be right at home just this time with a male elf as our mc.
Grammar is great without any problems aside from a small typo if you can find it which is rare.
The style we experience the world from Arden's point of view aside from some small interludes.
ElmoBRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
The story is good, I enjoy the characters the writing and the direction. Whats not to like with deck builders. The powers and magic are well explained and seem deep enough while leaving some mystery and progression as we move forward. the pacing seems good so far no waiing around or talking for 5 chapters. I'd reccomend it and lets be honest what do you have to lose, It's a good story and based on how i'm enjoying this i'll likely give the authors other work a try.
Thanks for the story mr/mrs author and keep up the good work, dont let the negatives get you down. I for one like it.
PunpopeRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
An exhilarating journey awaits in "Arden's Ascent"! Arden, a Desert Elf expecting Earth affinity, is instead granted Nature affinity in a desert landscape. This unexpected twist sets the stage for a gripping adventure as Arden navigates the challenges of his newfound powers in a hostile environment. With his parents' plan propelling him into the unknown, Arden's ascent promises thrilling twists and turns. Join him as he harnesses his skills and instincts to overcome obstacles and forge his path to greatness. Perfect for fans of fantasy and adventure seeking a fresh and captivating tale of self-discovery and resilience.
Grimms Minions 66Royal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
Edit: #2
story/style: system is interesting. Combines a cultivation and card system where a person can’t just use all their abilities as they wished. World shows a lot of promise. MC by himself but that’s pretty typically for genre. Could do with a little more character interaction. Miss snake doesn’t seem very friendly.
Grammar: not enough to really be an issue
Character: none of the characters are bad but they aren’t great either. I get it focus was on other things. Definitely no issue if they are flushed out later.
Bryek WardRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
A great start to a new story. There are some grammar errors and wrong words but nothing outside of what you'd expect from a RR story.
Overall the plot is intriguing and I look forward to reading more! This is my first deckbuilder so it is interesting to see how they are building the magic system.
So far, characters are probably the weakest as there is only one character for most of the story (@ch25) but I hope to see how they handle more characters. The main character is interesting and well developed but since they are only one so far, I can't rate it too high yet.
Plot wise, there is a main goal but I feel like there is a bit too much analyzation going on by the main character which will add a bit to the bloat and may make some readers feel like the story will drag on too much. Its not bad yet and overall, enjoyable but something to consider if you like more fast paced stories, this one (at this time) might be challenging for those people.
Style wise, the writing is easy to read abd doesn't bother trying to be flowery and literary. I get the feeling this story will explore the characters and the magic more than a theme, which I prefer over heavy thematic stories.
All in all, very enjoyable. I look forward go reading more.
RocksNPebblesRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
The MC has a silver spoon and has no idea. He’s wrapped up in his parent created tutorial laden with rare gifts and makes endless wild and pointless speculations to needlessly over complicate things which do not matter, all while missing out on obvious clues.
For example he becomes fixated at one point on a game his parents played to hand him a bunch of valuable resources. He goes through some motions to try and not accept these gifts for no discernible reason and receiving them is clearly a time honoured and expected thing to occur in every elf family after he gets his system.
Then later as he is dropped off for a challenge scenario where he speculates that his parents had been forced to play their earlier game of who gave the best gift or he might have become ‘suspicious’ of…something. I’m not sure how his convoluted beliefs are about a sequence of events lasting only a few minutes prior to him being whisked away or how they could have possibly mattered.
What he was suspicious of or could have done differently is nothing at all, yet he repeated returns to this point in his thinking spending paragraph after paragraph on this nonsense to try and show how clever he is.
Id recommend to the author to include some in world references to prior events instead. Some very brief flashbacks to fill in the world, his character, and how things work would have been a great way to show us examples of him actually being clever, quick, intelligent, or superior in some way.
His parents routinely have surprise training and attacks for him, so umm…he’d be suspicious that at this key turning point moment in his life where he unlocked his system for which he has prepared for years to do….that his parents might do the thing they always do and have even more reason to do than usual?
Yea of course they will do something! What? I have no idea how this shows him being clever, he comes off like a dopey dog trying to sort out what’s going on with his food bowl showing up at the same time every