Awakening Horde: Shieldwall Academy LitRPG Series

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

Against all odds, a defiant street rat takes on a ruthless empire.

Pax, a cunning orphan without a class, navigates life in a city constantly threatened by monstrous beast waves. He's dedicated to keeping his crew safe and fed, especially after his family vanished without a trace. But when his best friend is captured, Pax risks it all—even his freedom—on the eve of the Awakening.

Caught and thrust into the Astan Empire's war machine, Pax must adapt to survive the perils of the empire's elite mage academy. While struggling to harness the forbidden magic surging within him, he must avoid the attention of corrupt leaders determined to snuff out any hint of rebellion and maintain their iron grip on power.

With ancient secrets, and long-lost spells at stake, can Pax triumph against his foes, defeat fearsome monsters and secure a future for himself and his crew?

- Stat-filled litRPG series

- Slow-burn-to-OP MC

- Found family crew

- Tamed pets

- Forbidden magic

- Corrupt empire and brewing rebellion

- No harem or swearing

Regular release schedule: 3 chps/week. T, Th, & Sa.

Read first on Royal Road andPatreon, months before Amazon!

Currently postingTriumphant Dawn: Book 6chapters which is the st arc finale!

The first five books are onAmazon and Audibleas of 10/3/25, free to read in Kindle Unlimited and with 20+ hours each!

FYI:Apologies, but Amazon requires the removal of ebooks from RoyalRoad, in order to publish in the KU program.

Royal Road and Patreon will continue to get the newest chapters of Book 6 first. Thank you for your support!

Information

Status: Ongoing
Year: 2025
Author: M. Zaugg

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.5/ 5.0
Followers: 2,714
Views: 132,042

Chapters(98 total)

What readers say about Awakening Horde: Shieldwall Academy LitRPG Series

“Fantastic story. Extremely well written. Good plot development. Lovable characters (and hatable enemies). Definitely worth picking up the book… good luck putting it down once you have started it! Excellent addition to the “mage goes to academy” sub genre of…”
Splash99Royal Road5.0 / 5
“This story incorporates the best elements of the 'magic school' trope without falling into any of the caveats. There are lessons, but they don't dominate the story, there are teachers/mentors but they don't force their specialities on the MC all the while t…”
StrangestQuarkRoyal Road5.0 / 5

Reviews

No reviews yet. Be the first to share your thoughts!

Community Reviews(10)

Splash99Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Fantastic story. Extremely well written. Good plot development. Lovable characters (and hatable enemies). Definitely worth picking up the book… good luck putting it down once you have started it! Excellent addition to the “mage goes to academy” sub genre of litrpg. Author has done a wonderful job and keeps me eagerly returning for the next chapter.
StrangestQuarkRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This story incorporates the best elements of the 'magic school' trope without falling into any of the caveats. There are lessons, but they don't dominate the story, there are teachers/mentors but they don't force their specialities on the MC all the while the world continues to fill with new families, agendas, plots and lore that provide more then adequate challenge to the MC and friends. My only real issue here is how much happens in the first few weeks of the story. It makes sense with the 'danger fosters growth' theme of the magic system, but is still a bit miffing to me.
The characters are also interesting and distinctly different from each other. I'm also happy to say, that there are yet to be any romantic interactions in the story, meaning the members of future pairings get the benefit of growing as individuals instead of the overtly romantic blob some stories seem to love.
The main story itself is fairly generic, but quite well executed. There are assholes in charge, there are people who fight them and there is the ever present threat of the monsters looming over it all. The part this shines in is the subplots that both build the characters as well as provide the necessary growth to continue with the main plot. Cool and entertaining, but nothing revolutionary (heh).
Overall, one of the best stories I've seen on this site and definitely worth the money to buy the rest on Amazon.
I am AlphariusRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
It is pretty rare that a story has a compelling plot, mystery, and likable characters. This story has all of the above.
My only gripe is that the nobles in the story are cartoonishly evil at times, this is not a huge problem though.
I cant decide if the character is op yet or not, which is the perfect place you want a litrpg style story to start off at.
Read this story If you want to read a story that will catch your interest and keep it.
Shitpost4uRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This story has been great to read so far (and I believe Book 1 is scheduled for release soon)!
The magic is a solid, system feels like it meshes well with the story well, and the characters are developing in a steady way. I think some additional and specific descriptions of physical locations and scale could be nice for visualizing the settings. Some spaces seemed less fleshed out so my brain defaulted to "mage errant caves" or "LOTR city." Otherwise, it's a medium pace with magic, an academy, schemes, and a decent bit of promise if it keeps going!
Eric LonborgRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
A well thought out world, offering interesting and diverse characters. The mc is becoming op, but still faces challenges. His background is as a street kid who lost his parents while old enough to remember. This sets up a nice tension between what he lived and how life might have been. The supporting cast shows that there are good and bad people at all levels of the society.
Kevin_martinRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
It's so good. Read the first book on kindle, couldn't wait so I searched on royal road and quickly got hooked. I finished everything on royal road at like 3am and I was devastated lol I needed to know what happens next, definitely one of the top litrpg series out there!
GruRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I may eventually come back and do a full review, but I have to admit this story has been a very pleasant surprise. I felt like the MC was a little unlikable and generally volatile early in the story, but the whole thing has been playing out very well: from having a world I want to learn more about to having characters that feel like they're characters instead of caricatures or props, it reads well and keeps you reading. The more that I do read, the more I'm appreciating what the author has done here. Most of my questions or criticisms even end up having perfectly reasonable explanations that get revealed within a chapter or two of my questioning them.
Read the summary, read the author bio. If you like the idea of the sort of fusion being described, give the story a fair shake. I certainly can't speak for everyone, but I can speak for myself, and I have to say that although the styles are very different I'm putting M. Zaugg here up with InadvisablyCompelled (Paranoid Mage) and madisj (Annihilation Core) as one of the most promising among newer authors on RR.
ArginnRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
An ardenous struggle for survival in a magical, monster-infested world. Decently gruesome combat. Slow but weighty progression. A whole lot of mysteries to unravel.
The story, still at the beginning now, is exploring a new world building concept almost as frequently as each new chapter. We are exploring the world together with the main character. It's gripping enough that I personally binged almost all of the available chapters the first day.
The overall tone is mostly serious. There are a few more relatively humorous moments here and there but not one feels forced. We are seeing the world from the pov of the main character so this might change in the future as he develops further.
The LitRPG pieces are the stats/notification/dialogue windows which all the humanoids of the world seem to be able to perceive.
There's an interesting political system in place. The war of civilization against monsters and any lack of support to its cause is used to control the population. The strong feel righteous and justified in any act of culling the weak. There's still a lot of mystery here so will be fun to explore in the future.
Overall, it's a great read!
Heather LewisRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
It's quite well written, with a nice beginning mystery and enough action to keep the story interesting. It has a nicely fleshed out world with distinct characters. Looking forward figuring stuff out with the main character and reading it all. I appreciate that the author has obviously gone through and edited it as I have not noticed any grammar or spelling typos.
azul_boyRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Been following since the middle of last year, and I don't think I've got any other story I'm sk hyped when a new chapter drops, every new one gets us intriguing discoveries and just all around fun characters, and the action is just as thrilling.
You should definitely give it a go, the progression is just natural, in a way that doesn't feel neither slow or cheaty