Devil In Making [A Xianxia LitRPG]

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

Ram woke up in a new world as a ghost, with a lifespan of two hours.However, he had a system that allowed him to increase his lifespan and also gave him formidable abilities.The catch? Well, it's nothing sinister -- Just a small requirement to feast on the fear of unsuspecting souls, or eat them outright.

1 chapter per day (1.5k+ words)

What to expect:

- While the story primarily focuses on Xianxia elements, it also incorporates elements of Progression Fantasy, Horror, and a System.

- The protagonist slowly transforms into a villainous (or anti-hero) character as he adapts to the world around him in order to survive. He is not evil from the start.

- The plot maintains an equal emphasis on both intricate scheming and intense fight scenes.

- Expect well-developed side characters with their own individual character arcs.

- Initially, the story features multiple points of view (POVs), but as the narrative progresses, the number of POVs decreases to maintain a smoother and more focused storytelling experience.

Information

Status: Hiatus
Year: 2023
Author: LUCIFER36

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 3.7/ 5.0
Followers: 366
Views: 127,219

Reviews

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

Community Reviews(10)

Steve NRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Devil in the Making—well, what can I say? It's a title that perhaps hints at what the MC is destined to become or serves as a reference to his name: Lucifer.
So far, I've thoroughly enjoyed what I've read. I believe I'm currently on chapter 18, having breezed through the first ten chapters (I'll explain why later).
Style:
Although it seems to be the author's first story ever, the writing style is commendable and deserves praise. The narrative flows smoothly, although I must admit feeling a bit conflicted when I encountered the xianxia elements in the story (I'll delve into this later in the story section). I don't have much to say about the style, except that the occasional POV shifts may not be to everyone's taste, especially for readers on RR (Royal Road). Personally, I have no complaints so far, as I feel it adds impact and depth to the story.
Grammar:
I must say, I have nothing to criticize when it comes to the grammar—it appears flawless to me. (Admittedly, I'm not the best at grammar myself.)
Story:
The story revolves around a ghost who has taken the name Lucifer, a name that fits him so well that I can't even recall his original name.
The system introduced in the story is intriguing, centered around the concept of fear points, which I presume replace the usual XP points.
The setting seems to be in a xianxia world (I assume), so I was a bit bewildered when I encountered these xianxia elements unexpectedly. Personally, I prefer not to read tags or synopses, as I feel they often spoil too much of the story. The presence of characters with Western names added to my initial confusion, but I won't say it's a bad thing.
Characters:
As mentioned before, we follow a ghost named Lucifer, who, based on the knowledge displayed in the first chapter, appears to be one of us—a human who reads novels and is familiar with concepts like isekai and cultivation. Lucifer possesses a peculiar sense of humor, which I initially found quite endearing. However, I noticed that it began
TetraRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I've been wanting to do a review for this going back quite a few chapters but didn't feel like I had enough of a grasp on what it was evolving towards. Even while being uncertain I was quite enjoying the read as things congealed & wasn't concerned. Ultimately I decided to post a review for now and update it later because the main character has started interacting with others & the story is enjoyable with interesting room for growth that I'm looking forward to.
ThatLazyDragoRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Sorry for the pun in the title but I couldn't think of anything else.
I want to start off with saying that I like the storya lot, and I'm hally that the author asked me to review this.
The plot is interesting, and I love the character development. The story is a hit fast paced, but that doesn't take away from the story too much. The story is fairly redundant, with the weak to strong tripe, but the other parts of the story are original and fun to read.
Overall I give this a 5/5 and would recommend to someone looking for an interesting story to start reading, just make sure your ok with some gory scenes.
drewmcgunnRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This review is through chapter 6.
The character of Lucifer comes across as a complex figure. He's a ghost trying to figure out the world into which he's been "reincarnated." His is a solitary existence, so don't expect for the other characters (aka, his victims) to share the same degree of development. They're there to fuel his development.
The story, when it focuses on Lucifer, feels taut and well framed. It loses some of it's tightness when the POV changes to Lucifer's victims. The pasion of this story really shines through when it stays focused on our lovely, but diabolical ghost.
The grammar is consistently high. I think I noticed one error in the first six chapters. I noticed the simplication of grammar when the focus shifted off Lucifer. There wasn't any weird grammar that took me out of the story.
The style of the story is Isekai; reincarnation. It's told in 3rd person. Not to harp on it, but the story feels most complete and engaging when focused on our ghost. A bit less so, when the focus shifts to the victims.
Still, it's a very engaging read and for fans of unusual twist in Isekai stories, this deserves a read.
JarexRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Overall Impression:
The idea of what ghosts actually are can often depicted in one of two ways: As some form of mystic being/energy, or in a mundane sense as a dungeon mob with resistances to physical damage and a scary screech or something. This story combines the two ideas, because while our protagonist himself is living the good Ghost-leveling life, the parts of the story told from the perspective of outsiders evoke the unease and mystery accompanying an incorporeal invasion into the lives of mortals. The mixing of this idea with a Xianxia world makes for an interesting fusion, one I'm intrigued to see how it further develops. 5/5
Grammar:
The grammar is technically correct, the best kind of correct. If there were any flaws in the grammar then they did not keep me from enjoying or understanding the story. 5/5
Story:
The combination of the litRPG system and the story forces the protagonist to keep on searching for tension and interesting encounters purely out of a need for self-sustainement. From here, things escalate quite nicely and smoothly transition into introducing the xianxia element of the world to us and the protagonist. There is a constant element of progression without the power scaling increasing too drastically. 5/5
Style:
The style uses a lot of description and initially we are locked to the inside of our protagonists head. While the first chapter may appear somewhat cluttered in that sense, the style quickly conforms to the needs of the story and lets us look at the whole situation from other perspectives as well.
4/5
Character:
Our protagonist is a fairly standard guy who with snarky humor leads us through the experience of what it feels like to live life with an all too variable lifespan. He is a good ghost, he scares people quite proficiently and while he could easily have been depicted as a power-obsessed monster, there is a strong vein of humanity that still courses through his being. There are a variety of side characters that get entire chapt
RainHarlowRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This is a LitRPG with a blatant, self-aware cultivation framework — take note of the ‘self-aware,’ for your MC is a modern product despite the world he’s thrust into, in true Isekai fashion. How much of a devil he really is, well, that’s up for debate, and in reading you will get to deduce and decide for yourself. Such ambiguities are explored as ‘Lucifer’ (as he self-styles quickly on) struggles with the realities of the (quite pitiless and neutral) system, which makes him into a fear-mongering ghost.
Style-wise, this is snappy and quick writing that is unafraid to zoom in and out whether for summary or for line-by-line action and psychological angst on an assortment of characters that come into view. And grammatically, it's pretty much on point in a similar fashion, with little to complain about. It definitely summarizes at times to increase pacing and will shift POV.
What strikes me the most initially is a firm foundation in balanced humor throughout, which you can see immediately when you start reading, but I was amused plenty by ironic situations or character interactions as it went on. Sometimes I got an ‘anime’ feel from them, which was nice.
I thoroughly enjoyed the story and the characters, particularly those that come a little later on after the first scenes, when the MC is doing some ghostly observing of events. Take note, the events were set in motion by the MC. This is another plus the author is willing to create in my book: simulation points where we feel like we’re ‘peeking in’ on the world. This is where the willingness to shift perspectives on a dime is extremely entertaining.
It’s a unique one and I have to recommend giving this a shot to see if you like it. I’m certainly inclined to read on. If you get to chapter 14 and 15, I doubt there is any chance you won’t be as well.
keeganashleyliveRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Okay…this one! Whew! First, you need to be okay with a comical and diabolical main character. If you’re cool with that, you’ll be kosher with the level of wickedness that runs like lifeblood through this story. It’s strange in that it’s both dark and light, simultaneously. You have the main character, a ghost who names himself “Lucifer”, attempting to instill fear in children and adults alike, but, then, you, also, hear his comical thoughts unravel as he does it. It’s an interesting point of view and…well, I’m not a “diabolical main character person” and, somehow, I still thoroughly enjoyed the back-and-forth, lighter feel to it.
…Not saying that the storyline won’t get pitch black as the story progresses. We get that warning very early on in the story that it’s going to get dark. I think it’s a very interesting take.
The writing style is pleasant to read. There were no glaring grammatical errors, and the text is almost stream of consciousness sometimes which makes for a very fun (and, often, humorous) ride. There aren’t that many characters early on to delve into as it’s a very main character centered plotline in the beginning, but I could see where the author might expand that as the story continues. We certainly understand the MC pretty well the further on the chapters go.
I like this one! It’s an interesting potpourri of styles and contrasts. I’m very interested in where it will go!
Zodiac36GoldRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Reading the Review's title may not explain much, so let's fix that right now!
Our protagonist has just been Isekaid in a world that reminds him of ancient China, which, I'm told, means the story is inside the Xianxia category. I hope that's right, or else I just wrote something extremely stupid.
He appears in this world, his soul an unstable mess that cannot even form a physical form, while the System tries and fails to create something fitting for him. That's how he becomes a ghost, and, cherry on top, with a time limit to his existence! You can very well imagine the stress that can cause to someone. And that is only the first reason. There are more, but I cannot write about them here without spoilering.
That is one of the reasons why I say our poor protagonist, who was given the edgy name of Lucifer by... something, needs a psychologist.
That, to me, seems like a novel take on this genre, because we've all seen the "evil protagonist" at least once, but rarely have I seen someone write the concept of "evil for necessity" protagonist so well. So, ten out of ten on both style and score.
I do suggest to recheck the grammar, because there are some typos here and there in every chapter.
Finally, I didn't give the full five stars for the character score simply because, so far, we've only seen the protagonist as a character, and it seems to be missing a little something. Maybe a bit more insight in his past, something like that. But I'm sure that's mainly because the story is in its early stages. In the future this will most likely change.
To finish this off, I really suggest you give this story a chance. The beginning alone is very promising.
Wolfgang HuxRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This story starts slow and then speeds up and gets entertaining real fast! I am new to this genre so I'm wary but all my doubts were cast aside as the story dragged me in. Our MC is, in some ways, a bit of a blank canvas. He has moral compunctions but is also very influenced by the strange creatures he inhabits as a result of a system designating who and what he is at any given time (he of course can level up and change forms as well).
What is really interesting here is the system is well designed, novel and keeps you hooked. It also changes as our MC changes form. We start off with ghost and fear points and begin to level up to darker points like soul stealing, and in every case we see drawbacks and dangers to contend with. We also get to see the perspective of NON MC characters and how they are dealing with and reacting to this strange force in the world.
Overall this is super fertile ground for a unique and entertaining story.
STYLE: Easy breezy and fun. The prose is not purple, its perfectly paced and succint. It gets the point across and really that's what we want as with a fic like this we are in it for the story firs tand foremost and we want to just enjoy and not get too bogged down in flowery language.
GRAMMAR: I didn't spot any issues at all! And that is saying something for RR. I think some good edits were done here. Congrats to the author on that!
STORY: My favorite part, you heard me ramble about it up top and that's because I enjoyed it a lot and will coem back for more!
CHARACTER: Our MC is, as I said, a bit of a blank canvas. But that doesn't mean he isn't interesting. This is kind of the charm of the story as we can experience a pure kind of interaction between MC v.s. the System v.s. the worl d/ creatures / humans around. Very cool
Give it a try! And give it a few chapters to let you get hooked, you won't regret it!
Sentient_SockRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
To start off this review, I would like to point out that I, myself, am not actually a huge fan of martial arts/wuxia/xianxia; But this somehow insnared me! A mixture of a LitRPG and Martial Arts, both ideas being present while simultaneously not being heavily skewed towards either. I was only intending to go up to Chapter 15 to review it, but I had gotten so engrossed in the story and it's happenings, that I went through all of the currently available chapters in one go. Now, let me explain my score:
The first being a doozy, as the Grammar and Vocabulary used directly impact the Style.
Style & Grammar: To start off with, it is important to note that I have witnessed almost NO errors in the fictions grammar. But that doesn't matter, what DOES matter; Is the vocabulary. The vocabulary used is especially descriptive, yet being simplistic enough that most all ages above 12 can comprehend its content. Even those with English as a second language, as long as they were adept enough to read most any book in the language; Could grasp its contents, say for a few words here or there. This is also what makes the style of the story so appealing. By being relatively available to a large demographic, while simultaneously incorporating numerous genres and ideas; It's hard not to find parts of it appealing no matter your preferences. Thus being incredibly engaging to read!
Story: As touched on in the stories style, this fiction has something there for everyone. Blending in aspects of LitRPG, Martial Arts, Psychological, Adventure, Action, and really just all of the above. Also, the pacing is excellent, and unless you are specifically looking for flaws, you won't come across any; Much less ones that hinder the progression and understanding of the story as a whole. Excellently done!
Character: As for the characters, Lucifer and Emily are very well flushed out! With the stories internal dialogue and our MC's actions, we are able to grasp his qualms, ideals and values. With us taking a