Faceless Hunter: A Shapeshifter LitRPG

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

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Xen isn't your typical Hunter. In fact, he isn't human at all.

A dungeon raid orchestrated by the daughter of the Stormbringers Guildmaster goes tragically wrong, resulting in an unprecedented event—Xen, a rare mind-eating slime, absorbs a fallen Hunter's memories, granting him not only knowledge a monster should never possess but also access to the human class system.

The very system designed to help humans fighthiskind.

Granted the unique[Shapeshifter]class, he can take on the forms of any living being he eats and also learn their skills. In a world where most Hunters are limited to a few skills, he alone can possess a seemingly unlimited number. Using this advantage, he will not only conquer the World Dungeon that spans between continents but also make use of his shapeshifting to infiltrate human society.

Despite being the enemy of both humans and monsters, nothing will stop Xen's rise to power. After all, the most dangerous of foes is the one that wears many faces—plays both sides—and reaps all the benefits.

What to expect:

Solo Leveling style world building, think modern day setting with portals leading to dungeons, and the existence of guilds.

An MC that starts as a dungeon slime who can shapeshift and devour the abilities of others.

Weak to strong, but fast-paced progression.

Uploads on Tuesday and Thursday!

Information

Status: Ongoing
Year: 2025
Author: XKARNATION

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.5/ 5.0
Followers: 4,466
Views: 97,698

Chapters(13 total)

What readers say about Faceless Hunter: A Shapeshifter LitRPG

“I pay for it now so it’s five stars for sure. Didn’t realize I hadn’t rated it yet. It’s a good story following a guy who definitely isn’t human, but is definitely learning things as he goes. I love the nonhuman perspective. its like the world is against hi…”
jumureRoyal Road5.0 / 5
“This story is good for light reading, without thinking too much about the gritty details. The general story is good, but the details feel a bit underdeveloped. He keeps hinting about unfairness and changing how the world works, but details are vague. World-…”
GorrionRojoRoyal Road5.0 / 5

Reviews

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

Community Reviews(10)

jumureRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I pay for it now so it’s five stars for sure. Didn’t realize I hadn’t rated it yet. It’s a good story following a guy who definitely isn’t human, but is definitely learning things as he goes. I love the nonhuman perspective. its like the world is against him lol.
GorrionRojoRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This story is good for light reading, without thinking too much about the gritty details.
The general story is good, but the details feel a bit underdeveloped. He keeps hinting about unfairness and changing how the world works, but details are vague. World-building is good, but a bit barebones.
Characters: the characters are likable, and they have their own motivations and goals.
Poor Gerald didn't deserve dying like that. I would have loved if he had accompanied the slime to the surface.
Inconsistencies: The skills are cool, but an atent reader can spot small inconsistencies between one chapter and the following. Nothing story-breaking. If you are willing to forgive this, then it's a fun reading.
Not a power fantasy: the MC gets humbled quite a few times.
He scapes death by the skin of his teeth a few times. Sometimes by preparing well. Or by pure luck. Or by having a certain skill equipped. Or by a random passive activating itself.
Localization: almost non-existant. all characters have occidental behaviours, morals, ways of greeting, etc. The story could happen in Chicago or Detroit and it would fit better. Sorry, I think the author is occidental and he is just using their default world-view. The plot is so well-written, but I keep noticing this issue.
Next time, maybe ask someone to review the draft for localization advice, and howmthe characters should behave. There is a million small details.
The MC spawns below Tokio, and all the hunters live in Tokio. However, many people have occidental names.
People never bow, they only shake hands. Monsters are from occidental mythology. Undead crypts sound like Medieval Europe stone churches.
The dungeon should have influenced japan-specific society. And this should affect how people interact with the dungeon. Sooooo many things should have appeared in many conversations: Japanese Parliament, frequent earthquakes, salaryman instead of generic office workers, yakuzas, visiting temples for luck, blamings kamis for bad stuff
L.O.W.Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Story: The story follows a monstrous slime as it escapes death and gains power while trying to avoid death at the hands of adventurers. Its interactions cause a spiral of chaos as the adventurers band together to hunt the slime. It is a simple story that is building in complexity to create an interesting set of cascading events.
The story has hinted at him integrating into society, and I am excited to see how the story progresses and how the slime explores the world.
Style: The author does a great job of capturing the monster evolution story. I kind of wish the pacing were faster, but that speaks more of my desire to read more of the story than the author's style.
Grammar: The grammar looked good and didn't affect my take on the story.
Character score: Xen comes off as an opportunist monster, which is not surprising considering how slimes are farmed for experience. Despite sometimes being brief in appearance, the adventurers don't feel flat. They have an emotional and moral complexity that makes them interesting.
Summary: The story is a darker shade of monster evolution with complex characters and an interesting world to explore. I really enjoyed the story and look forward to reading more.
BlayaRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Love how this story is unfolding, I like how he was a slime to begin with, and the fact that he is a monster is interesting. The main thing I like is that he treats others based on his benefit and his bond with them, not because of some sort of species camaraderie. Most stories like this have the monster always end up with morals that have weak foundations, and so far, since he has not needed them, Xen does not need to uphold them. Though I do hope he becomes a bit more of a people person for the sake of humanity.
JdWRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
Unique is not always the flex or the positive people think it is.
But in this case the unique premise is executed very well. The internal monologues and dilemma's of the MC feel very natural and an effective sprinkeling of other viewpoints adds to the experience.
The worldbuilding is engaging, with lots of detail and further hints at more depth to come.
Apart from the MC all characters are very destinct with clear thought given to keep interactions interesting.
Only slight, very slight, criticism of this great story is that the preperaded dump part is better than the later part, I enjoyed the first 50 chapters the most and I hope the author keeps up the quality.
In any case a hearty recommendation for one of my favourite stories of the year.
Hmm. That was basically what I had to say, and I still need some 60 words for rhe minimum.
Let's take inspiration from Jim Morrison.
Ode to a slime
Vermillion victory bound monster
Shifting shapes confusing hunters
Diving deep meditating advancement
Clamoring clay bossfight triumphant
Clever canine deadly movement
Unexpected undead affinity discovered
Humanity honoured in sudd3n comraderie
Egocentric Exceptional prospective guildmaster
Hope he gets to feed the cat though.
joenRoyal Road
★★★ 3.0
Xen, a purple slime with a genius complex, transforms from "intellectual jelly" into a multispecies criminal by devouring the brain of Joe, a human hunter. Thanks to his new unique class [Shapeshifter], he can:
Copy abilities like a child with Pokémon stickers.
Infiltrate societies using corpses as skin suits.
Break all RPG laws by having unlimited abilities in a world where humans only have four slots.
His goal: to dominate the World Dungeon (an Airbnb for monsters) while playing "Who's Who?" with two kingdoms.
CrowTalksRoyal Road
★★★ 3.0
On the positive side: fast progression, not drawn-out fight scenes, and the writer's skillful handling of multiple converging plot lines. Given the author's experience, this is the bare minimum you can expect - to make it worse would be trying on purpose.
Everything else is either mediocre or bad.
The world-building is bare bones. Location descriptions and details of what's going on are minimal. It barely serves as background for the plot, and the reader will constantly stumble over absurd and implausible things that have been shamelessly pilfered from other stories.
The style is light, so it's perfect for reading with your brain turned off. However, even so, you will be lost in what is happening and ask questions, because the author forgets important descriptions from time to time: events sometimes happen as if in a void, and characters or problematic situations can disappear and appear when it is convenient for the plot. In other words, you should not expect consistency and plausibility.
The characters are simple and understandable, I have no complaints about them. However, their speech sometimes resembles the work of underpaid clowns who were forced to work as actors overtime. The jokes are flat and inappropriate, the lines are unnatural, and often the characters speak when they shouldn't or don't speak when they should.
I would like to separately note the comic side of the story. The characters shout out the names of their skills and magic. This should be absurd and funny, but it looks just stupid. MC, who is a monster, has an unbiased view of people's lives, but all his conclusions and observations are more artificially aimed at advancing the plot than creating a good comedy. At times, reading feels like you're talking to someone who's trying to be funny all the time and failing.
The magic and system are pretty primitive, probably so as not to interfere with MC's speedrun to the top of the food pyramid. Moreover, the system even helpfully explains many things t
XanatoseRoyal Road
★★★ 3.0
Ok so the story is very entertaining I really enjoy how It is written. There are pov shifts but not to ofter and done well enough that it is enjoyable. The mc is very interesting and the side characters are developed enough to make you care. However I really dislike the change the author made starting in book 2 so I dont believe i will continue the series.
JozeRoyal Road
★★ 2.0
This story feels like the author took Systems from every series they have ever read, and just mixed them together, sometimes less is more, we dont need to have skill slots, skill fusion, evolutions, letter grades, arbitrary biomass requirements, and more to enjoy the story, even the titular shapeshifter class is useless, why would a monster, with an innate Devour skill, throw an error and gain a super duper special unique class when using their innate ability on the most common thing to enter a dungeon
LionardRoyal Road
★★ 2.0
Overall its currently an alright story, with a pretty basic plot, pretty basic character design and pretty basic system.
Characters actions and reactions are mostly described from above (meaning that instead of reading that someone raises their eyebrow in confusion you just read that they are confused), and the surroundings and general world building does not expand outside the direct surroundings of the characters (exept some really specific bits that dont get expanded on).
Sometimes some things seem rewritten and not edited backwards, which causes some confusion, like "Undead Immunity to Poisons" being changed to "immunity to poisons" literally in the next chapter. Nothing horrid but still breaks the flow of reading.
The magic system is nearly non existant, with there being no spell shaping or manipulation of any kind. Skills otherwise seem fine, but the system is blatently lying about them in their description which no character has so far mentioned (like a skill that only works through the eyes field of vision working even without eyes and even to see behind you).
The plot is pretty basic, with "kill everything that moves" and "go deeper into the dungeon" being the main themes so far.
Censoring of cursing. Fuck that shit. I hate it so much. Dont censor your own fucking art.
That bits arent mentioned when the MC should notice, but only when they become relevant to the plot is horrendous writing from my view, but eh, what do i know about writing. Especially when done as often as here.
Overall, there are a lot of problems that would likely all be solved by having a second person or and editor read through these chapters, which makes reading this currently a bit of a mental task. And i dont want reading of all things needing ANY amount of mental capacity.