(B1 STUBBING mid-June!!!) Runeblade: A Delving & Skill Merging LitRPG

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

Kaius just wanted to unlock his class - instead, he restarted the apocalypse.

After years of training, Kaius has barely acquired the first two of his family's legacy skills. Powerful and vanishingly rare, the method of creating them is a secret people would kill for.

Now they might be the only thing that keeps him alive.

Narrowly surviving a bandit ambush, he gets trapped in the Great Depths- a world spanning dungeon.To escape, he will have to slay one of the Guardians that defend the exits; a feat no one without a class has survived. Ever.

If that wasn’t bad enough, if he succeeds he will reignite a forgotten trial that nearly ended civilization.

Posting Schedule: 1/day 9:30 am NZT (2:30 pm PST, subject to daylight savings kerfuffles)

-My love letter to classic litrpg adventures. The kind with long arcs, gratuitous fights, fast paced progression, and a focus on worldbuilding.

-Runic-Tattoo Wizard/Spellblade in a world of sorcerers

-Exceptional MC, with some initial Slow Burn elements

-Large scope, inspired by epics such as Azarinth Healer, BTDEM, PH, and more.

-Third Person POV, with a 99% MC focus

-Numbers go brrrr

-Attack Badger (Friendly?)

-Battle maniac MC who is not a murderhobo

-No harem, romance, or VR

Hi everyone! After being a RR reader for many, many years, I have decided to throw my hat in the ring. This isn’t the first litRPG i’ve ever written, but it is the first I’ve decided to post. I hope you enjoy and leave plenty of comments and feedback :)

Patreon is 50 chapters ahead.Writathon winner - Nov 2024

Information

Status: Ongoing
Year: 2024
Author: Bacon Macleod

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.6/ 5.0
Followers: 17,111
Views: 16,533,689

Chapters(546 total)

What readers say about (B1 STUBBING mid-June!!!) Runeblade: A Delving & Skill Merging LitRPG

“Disclaimer: Apologies for my English, as it’s not my first language. Also, this is my first time writing a book review, so don’t expect a detailed breakdown with ratings or an analysis of the good and bad points. I’ll simply share my thoughts and what hooke…”
AJrReadRoyal Road5.0 / 5
“Basic Review: The story is amazing so far. Non stop action, numbers go brrr, AND THE SYSTEM???? AMAZING!!!!!!!! Advanced Review♡♡♡ Style: The story being very Linear with minimal flashbacks is very appealing to me. And The Author has a way with describing v…”
AzrielLifeRoyal Road5.0 / 5

Reviews

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

Community Reviews(10)

AJrReadRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Disclaimer: Apologies for my English, as it’s not my first language. Also, this is my first time writing a book review, so don’t expect a detailed breakdown with ratings or an analysis of the good and bad points. I’ll simply share my thoughts and what hooked me. With that said, here’s the review:
I’m absolutely in love with this book. It has me checking the app every day, and it’s the only book that’s made me seriously consider subscribing to the author’s Patreon (though, unfortunately, the currency exchange rate makes it expensive for me). It also motivated me to write this review because of the author’s challenge, which rewards readers with bonus chapters—great incentive for poor readers like me!
What really captivated me is how unique it feels compared to other system-based novels I’ve read. The story takes you on a long journey filled with action, drama, comedy, brotherhood (not by blood, but something even stronger), surprises (not sure if they qualify as plot twists), and tons of character development. All of this happens before the much-anticipated class comes into play, which, surprisingly, is a good thing. It makes every battle incredibly intense, especially since everyone around the main character is stronger than him. He has to rely on clever strategies and take advantage of every opportunity to thrive and survive.
I can’t wait for Book 2—I’m completely addicted to this novel!
AzrielLifeRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Basic Review: The story is amazing so far. Non stop action, numbers go brrr, AND THE SYSTEM???? AMAZING!!!!!!!!
Advanced Review♡♡♡
Style: The story being very Linear with minimal flashbacks is very appealing to me. And The Author has a way with describing violence that is just beautiful to the ears. The system they use isn't to unique, but still good.
What makes it very appealing to me, is the skill fusion system that helps them create whats called Legacy skills in this novel. I absolutely love it.
Story: it's very engaging and keeps on your toes wondering what's going to happen next.
Grammar: only issues I've seen so far is spacing after periods. And that's very sporadic.
Character: The MC is very well done, a young man on the cusp of adulthood forced into being an adult and living a very harsh life from a very young age. The things he's been put through and put himself through to survive and progress would render many young men in his shoes a lot less optimistic and with a very reduced amount of happiness gained through simple means.
BUY THE EXTRA CHAPTERS ON PATREON. FAST UPDATES AND CRUNCH CHAPTERS AVALIABLE
Word Word Word Word Word Word Word
BigBadBlueBearRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
A well blended cocktail of skill mergeing, Leveling and other lit rpg elements. This bit is for the 50 words.Also got an easy to follow yet enjoyable plot. Additionally other characters have meaning and depth which makes the whole story far more enjoyable. Even more so I like how human the mc feels as he’s a loot goblin like anyone eould be and has imperfections like everyone
Brock McRaeRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
One of the most satisfying page-turners I've ever read. Runeblade is a captivating web novel that blends rich worldbuilding with compelling character development. The story moves at a great pace, balancing fun action, mystery, and strength/strategy progression. The protagonist’s growth feels earned, and the magic system is both creative and consistent. It's a must-read for fans of fantasy and immersive storytelling.
DangerousGipsyRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This story perfectly deserves a five star rating. As I said in the title it is extremely well-written and the author knows what they're doing. Without having even edited or revised any chapters, the story is so incredibly cohesive and thoughtfully planned out, with progression coming quickly but earned with grit and realistic development, and the author pays great attention to skill levels to ensure this. Moreover the story just hits the spot for me personally, with a really originial path of progression that I really liked. That said the story is centred around battles, which come thick and fast and are also really well-written and made all the more realistic by the way they are written, though I understand that might not be for everyone (I found it well worth it though).
Style: 5 stars
As I said so well written. The author really really knows what they're doing and it's just amazing. Nothing more to be said.
Story: 5 stars
Just the right amount of grit crossed with numbers go brr and so realistic. really well thought out system that is unique and more realistic in it's mechanics than other fantasy stories by far - it enhances abilities and provides knowledge but doesn't take over, and doesn't define magic in the world. Progression is earned. Also really well planned out story that just makes it more natural - one really realistic thing I like was that weaknesses are clearly acknowledged and worked on to improve and progress further. Also the right sense of background ominousness that doesn't overpower the story. Each arc keeps it fresh just as I want and new relationships are organic rather than forced. Very good pacing aswell.
Grammar: 4.5 stars
Sadly I'm dropping this half a star due to the rare typo - the story is not edited for the most part - however and mistakes do not harm the story - in fact it reads as really polished and cohesive despite the occasional minor error.
Character 4 stars
Really well written characters overall with a deep understanding of MC's
unnatural20Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
The Author has done something hear that annoys some but i love, hes not telling us everything, intentionally keeping worldbuilding in the world but just out of veiw of our protagonist and its honestly refreshing to have little leads to chew on while the main plot develops
Good action, a nice bromance and a different system than the average makes this nice, the thing that makes it great is that the protagonist is competent,
LiamneesionRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Good literature. I like the world and the characters I've met so far.
there have been a few spots where the character has far too much luck.
it's amazing how much more connected to the characters you get after each struggle.
It's a little slow at parts but they make the story better
The fighting's very good and very intense
Lost in ArcadiaRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Enjoyed the premise. Found the RPG system interesting, and enjoy the companion. I always find these type of serials become repetitive, so I’ve enjoyed having the lore come in pieces vs too many blocks of exposition. My biggest piece of feedback is that the skill combination sections drag on. We know the MC is going to succeed. No need to burn pages on every element of that process.
swhaty321Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
So as you may know I like this book and this review is for the main purpose of getting more chapters in this book but also has another purpose of many giveing some constructive feedback
basically I really like the book and the entire concept of it but at the same time there are some things that bug me slightly the main one of which is the pacing of some parts mainly focusing on the class selections while I know that this is a very momentum moment and one that the entirety of book one has been building up to I feel that they especially Kaius‘s class selection and subsequent skill and spell selection took way too long and could easily have been fitted into 2 or 3 chapters as was shown by the number of chapters that porckchops took this has happened a few other times in the book where the pacing has felt very off compared to other chapters and not always in a way that makes sense and I would also like to say that while I love the combat chapters at times they also tend to not drag but take longer that might happen in this reality to conclude. One final thing is the fact that the power scaling seems very odd essentially you have porchop who has basically already reached the end point of classless and Kaius who has barely passed the midpoint but almost every fight Porkchop never really seems to show that he is that powerful until Kaius begins to catch up with him in terms of power when he suddenly takes a massive leap in power to match Kaius. But other than that it is a fantastic book
EldwinRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
As a litRPG, runeblade stands as a somewhat common variety, if not necessarily standard. Skills, classes and magic are all present in mostly familiar ways, with enough of a twist to it all that it feels fresh enough for most of it. There isn't anything mind-blowing here, but it won't read like a copy-paste of the mass produced systems out there.
Narrative wise, it's very much an action novel. The main focus, most of the effort and nearly all of the setup so far has involved, happened during or lead to fight scenes. And it is not shy about this fact. You'll be reading fight scene after fight scene, to the point of repetition. There is only so many "champions" your hero can kill before you begin to recognize the patterns repeating over each fight. They're well written, but there's so many of them I personally skip most of it. I'm sure many people enjoy this approach though.
Character wise, we have two main characters. It's the standard "a man and his beastly best friend" trope so many have done before. They work well together, as their personalities are essentially copy pasted into different bodies, with some flavour sprinkled on top of each one. They do feel like they have more of a genuine bromance between them than in most stories, but I very much doubt non-standard relationships of any kind will ever be explored here, so they're best murderhobo bros.
The overal style is good. This is easy to read, to the point but not in a way that stunts the scenes. Could be a bit less dissonant with the narrative, but it works.
Overall, a fun enough read that doesn't bring anything particularly surprising, but accomplishes all the basics fairly well.