Dead End Guild Master: Unfinished Quests [Book 5 stubbing March 31]

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

Now uploading to Kindle Unlimited:https://a.co/d/00umOVM0

Hans had a realization that changed the direction of his adventuring career: “above average” is different from “great.” At 39 with a litany of lingering injuries, he accepted that he would never progress from Gold-ranked to Diamond-ranked. He plateaued long ago, lacking whatever secret sauce that produced the legendary adventurers he grew up admiring. With his prime behind him and disillusioned by guild politics, Hans accepts a guild master posting in a remote village. Usually, guild masters had to be Diamond-ranked, but the guild was happy to accept Hans’ voluntary exile to fill an insignificant position no one else wanted.

Looking forward to a quiet life of teaching, Hans arrives in the small town of Gomi at the foot of the Dead End Mountains. As he sets his mind to rebuilding the local chapter of the Adventurers’ Guild, his unconventional teaching methods earn him allies and enemies, while his career failures find ways to resurface.

This slice of life fantasy explores a life post-adventuring and the challenge of reconciling dreams with reality. The author describes the tone as “if lofi fantasy beats were a LitRPG.”

Patreon subscribers get early access to five chapters a week:https://www.patreon.com/c/marshalcarper

Disclaimer:The version of "cozy" in Dead End Guild Master aims to be more akin to the cozy feelings found in stories like Frieren, Battle Mage Farmer, or Delicious in Dungeon and less like Beware of Chicken (a great book, though). That means conflicts exist and the world isn't bright and cheery all the time, giving the cozy moments a different flavor in one author's opinion.

What to expect from this series:

-Light RPG elements (RPG tropes form the backbone of the world but this story is light on systems and does not have number crunching)

-Emphasis on teaching, training, and community building

-Adventuring stories and anecdotes

-MC is flawed and is not OP

-Character relationships matter and the MC can't solve everything alone

-MC and other characters don't metagame (in-world knowledge matters, including its limitations)

-No harem content

Information

Status
Ongoing
Year
2024
Author
marshalcarper

Tags

ACTIONFANTASYADVENTURECOMEDYMARTIAL ARTSSLICE OF LIFEMALE LEADDUNGEON CRAWLER

Royal Road Stats

Rating
4.7/ 5.0
Followers
2,215
Views
194,453

Chapters(91 total)

Reviews

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

Community Reviews(10)

  • wabensRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    This is something special, I really love it. I'm not the most critical reader, but I don't have patience for shitty writing. This story sucked me in and my only hesitation is whether I should wait for book 2 to come out in it's entirety. The author has a really mature voice, consistent style and good grammer.
    Vibes wise the comparison to frieren and battle mage farmer is perfect. Slice of life might not be so accurate but mostly because it doesn't have boring ass description of food randomly. References video games quite a bit but it's not a litrpg.
    The action is not super frequent but when it shows up it's very well developed, exciting and feels high stakes.
    Relationships between the MC, the town and the rest of the world are varied and evolve through out the story.
    The scope of the story is smallish but it feels like it fits into a larger world in a way that appeals to me. Im pretty tired of stories where the whole world is at stake but at the same time I want the MCs actions to matter and I think this story threads the needle perfectly.
    I'm excited to see where the story goes I hope it lasts forever.
  • AkhenKluloRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    I have been reading this book for about 4 months now. This book does not have ever rising stakes where the main character first saves Gomi, then the kingdom and then some ever looming threat in the wilderness ...
    The characters in this feel real, as you read you are anticipating the story building up to something worth the payoff, but due to the style I am not impatient for what's going to happen. Everyone says the journey is more important than the destination, and in this book I found that the journey is really enjoyable.
    There are other authors on RR whose books are more addictive in the short term, but a lot of those stories are scene to scene with stuff in between feeling like fillers and hard to re-read completely because you get tired of it due to ever rising stake fatigue.
    I wouldn't say this is my favorite book on Royal road but it is definitely a gem worth reading and totally deserves a five star from me.
    I also recently read the author's thoughts on character building and the thought they put into building these characters is apparent and the characters have stayed consistent so far. a lot of other books start out strong but it feels like the character got lost in the scenes and saving the universe.
  • beauxsteelRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    This series has just enough drama and monster slicing to keep me hooked in to the cozy life slicing. Being written from the perspective of an educator brings a fun new angle and drive to the narrative. Great read, overall.
    While the overall pace is nice and easy, there's lots moving behind the scenes to keep readers interested. I'll be interested to see how the story maintains its tone as it's world continues to grow beyond the borders of Gomi. Thus far, though, I've found plotting to be thoughtful and deliberate, doled out carefully and mostly consistently. I'm content to let the author cook.
  • 7whitewolf7Royal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    This story is very compelling and engaging despite its easygoing slice of life feel at times. Plots simmering in the background as faction building progresses.
    I'm very excited for the upcoming arcs that are making themselves known currently, and I am giddy thinking about how things could go!
    If it seems a little slow at times, trust me you'll get hooked if you keep reading.
  • HuruHaraRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    The title of the book "Dead End Guildmaster" might give the wrong impression to some readers, maybe they expect the MC to get into a big, explosive  adventure in their "dead end" job, but not in this book. No, no.
    After finishing Book 1, we get that this is a well-written cozy, slice of life story of an old, low-rank Guildmaster sent to the boonies and taking over a defunct guild chapter. Hans do get into adventures, all of them small and localized, centered around rebuilding the Gomi guild chapter through training and with helping locals to handle local problems. Other middling authors might set-up big adventures, but not in this book. No, no.
    Hans slowly shows that he is capable, he is gold-ranked after all, and is willing to work hard to grow himself and those around him. The rebuild centers around training, and there are lots of training; training of kids, young teens, and adults. It is the norm for most middling authors to zip through or, even worse, skip pass training montages; handwaving the training away; but not in this book. No, no.
    The supporting cast provided by small town Gomi adds flavour to Hans' story, he is the MC afterall, without detracting from how well paced and how well the story flows as a whole. Every character adds layer after layer to grow Hans' story and moves along Hans from one arc to another, and in the end, all the story intersects showing how large a small and cozy story can be. Usually wooden side-characters are just used to move the MC along, but not in this book. No, no.
    For an adventurer slice of life story, this is as close to perfect as can be. Readers would expect the story to hit the right spots at the right pace without much issues to deter enjoyment of the story, but you can get joy from this book. Yes, yes.
    A++, highly recommended.
  • ImperialfoolRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    It's good, a nice mix of slice of life and the early beginnings of a overarching plot, the MC has goals at least. I tend to dislike slice of life because the stories end up being in this weird static story structure where nothing actually happens which is kinda counter to the "life" aspect of slice of life.
    Happy I gave this story a chance.
  • NecamijatRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    Long overdue review. I've started reading Carper's work since Chapter 5 of book 1 came out, then went ahead and bought the books and caught up here.
    If there's one phrase that could persuade you to try this book, it's that the prose is so simple and readable that it flows perfectly.
    There is no flowery language or long prosaic introspections of a character's psychology. Yes, the work does delve into personal growth, but it's interleaved with slice-of-life and adventure.
    Each of the books takes a bit of time to "mature" as the story progresses and the pace picks up, but the setup is so good that you're always at least a bit surprised by the result.
    Now, onto why this is a 5/5:
    The story is believable and the plot threads are complex enough to allow you to truly immerse yourself and wonder what's going to happen next. Carper also brilliantly weaves in a bit of repetition and exposition so you're never lost on what exactly each character is supposed to be or doing or what type of animal is being talked about.
    As mentioned, the style is simple, but that's exactly what makes it readable. You don't get bogged down with foreign phrases or too much worldbuilding for the sake of worldbuilding. If for nothing else, I'd recommend reading the work just so you become a slightly better writer and pick up on some good habits.
    The grammar is almost perfect (there is a typo or two that sneaks by, but nothing major), and the language choice itself makes this one of the easiest-to-read books available.
    Character-wise, the main cast of characters constantly grows, and their actions can surprise you quite a bit. While they start as a bit of cutouts that get infused with meaning and purpose, we get to learn more about them and truly appreciate their complexity.
    But don't just trust me. Read the first chapter and see for yourself.
  • OnyavarRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    There is a new guildmaster in town - prepare for well-researched combat lessons, wild stories of an eventful past, and little everyday quests. With Hans' arrival, a snoozy backwoods town turns out to be quite eventful.
    Now let me explain shortly that I am generally pretty critical with stories, and my ranking goes from decent and enjoyable stories (2 stars) over good and great stories up to the best stories I can imagine (5 stars). Yes, I run the whole gamut and this is a case where I go with "yep - one of the best".
    In three dozen chapters there was one typo, and it was debatable. The grammar is about perfect.
    The style is third person with interior insightto the PoV of Hans, and written in past tense. There are rare passages where the reader gets a glimpse of a neutral observer PoV, or even the PoV of another character - and I have to say, those were a bit jarring (hence a point deduction). However, the story is otherwise designed with a long term plan in mind. There are of course little infodumps, but they are included as lectures, conversation, tales told, or thoughts.
    The story aspect is where I include the worldbuilding score. And oh, this is quite good. First, the whole story is a fantasy world. But despite being a fantasy (with orks, elves, dwarfes, halflings, dragons, magic spells etc) the world feels very real in the story, thanks to the realistic slice of life style. The fighting scenes are written by someone who actually studied Hema (or similar martial arts), the planning sessions are leaving nothing out, the village life is detailed nicely, people react naturally. I have not detected obvious plotholes, and that is rare in fantasy here on RR. There are a few things though: people have canned food, chocolate bars and other consumer food that would be appropriate in a more modern setting. And then, people have massive tear ducts apparently. That was weird.
    The characters are plentiful and not the least cookiecutter, although there is a common "exile" them
  • XoxRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 4.5
    This is a kind of relaxed-pace slice-of-life with a side of adventure and tension story. It has a nice blend of peaceful interactions and small town moments while the plot is still moving forward with a little adventure full of mysteries and tension-filled reveals. The tone is sometimes a bit sad, but hope is on the horizon. I love the premise of a slightly over-the-hill adventurer settling down to retire in obscurity only to have SPOILERS occur!  Two thumbs up, give it a try.
  • DreamsRoyal Road
    ★★★★ 4.0
    This is a solid slice of life story. Failed adventure turned guildmaster in the middle of nowhere is a nice premise. MC is very dedicated to teaching and it seems like the author put in some time to learn what makes someone a good teacher.
    I do think the story needs new tags and a new synopsis. It's just basic fantasy. It's not remotely gamelit or litrpg. False advertising for sure on that one.