Faceless: The Monster Within

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

Everyone wants to be a hero. That’s certainly what it felt like, anyway. Young men and women poured out into the wilds in waves, risking their lives to beat back the enemy. Little boys and girls went to sleep at night to stories of legendary heroes, of shining pillars of strength and power. But of course, in every story of heroes, there must exist the villains. And, unfortunately for Dharen, this night his own villains had arrived.

Alone and forgotten, Dharen must forge a new path amidst his former enemies. He must become stronger. But first, he must discover who he once was.

Discord Link: https://discord.gg/UW6DDKx

Information

Status: Hiatus
Year: 2020
Author: Zendran

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.3/ 5.0
Followers: 1,091
Views: 432,347

Reviews

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

Community Reviews(10)

xcaresRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
A great find so far.
The MC is getting properly fleshed out, background and all.
He doesn't act out of character to further the plot.
The worldbuilding is going properly and is interesting.
No deus ex machina plot armor as well.
Well worth the "Follow"
Anthony1967Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This litrpg system is unique like I've never seen before. It's interaction with the raising and lowering of stats is crazy. The grammar is amazing and the characters make sense!
5/5 for me
ArusalanRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
An interesting take on the LitRPG genre. We have a protagonist with plenty of potential for personal growth.
XyphiasRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I've never written a review before, but figured I should since someone already rated it a .5. I know this story deserves better.
I have already read up to chapter 16 as a beta reader.
I rated 5 stars for grammar. While it is not entirely free of mistakes, they are few and far between.
Likewise, I rated 5 stars for story. While the format is not entirely original as it is a LitRPG, Zendran does a good job of putting his own twist on it. I think he does a good job of flipping the usual paradigm between monsters and men. I'd go deeper into the story elements I appreciate, but I don't want to spoil anything since so few of the chapters have been posted.
Style similarly was rated 5 stars. He does a great job of bringing you into the action.
The only lower rating is for character, at 4.5 stars. That is not to say it is poor; the character is just harder to grasp because of his circumstances.While I believe the character can and will be improved as the story evolves further, overall the story is above and beyond most of the chaff of this website.
I recommend you read it.
heiv123Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
From these 35 chapters, I've found that this story is good, It's very good and I like it so I'm gonna give it a 5. Thank you for reading my TEDTalk and see you next wednesday.
toddRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This is a fun read. It's a different take on litrpg progression, with empowering seeds that raise some stats while decreasing others and adds additional abilities at discrete breakpoints. While stats grow, with clear descriptions of the changes, skills are not a part of the system and each individual's talent is their own. My favorite aspect though, has to be the fact that I have no idea what path the protagonist will be taking, whether hero or villain, or who he'll be taking it against. This is unusually refreshing, as many books (even the good ones) often lay out an overarching evil or villainous group that their purpose is to defeat from the very beginning. Here, beginning and past events combine to form an ambiguity as to who the MC is going to be once he attains the power that he's looking for.
The writing itself is well done, with consistent characters and little in the way of errors. The MC is reserved but not unfriendly and doesn't go charging around and creating problems for himself and makes no attempts to steal attention and glory. The world is interesting, and even with the perspective being narrowly focused around the MC, it still feels fully fleshed out and functional.
Overall, it makes for an enjoyable read and I look forward to seeing where the author takes it.
13lack12oseRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
This story is a fun read. The author is responsive and happy to take feedback which makes you feel like you can help shape the story.
Our MC is strong but comes from a very rough background making for an interesting read.
Thanks for the great story Zendran :D
S_k_yRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
The story is interesting, will 100% give it that!
It has some REALLY awesome details and ways of escaping countless cliché we see much too often in other works. Things here do not play out as you are accustomed to... but only partially.
You still have an MC which miraculously saves himself - just in the nick of the moment - and it is not a one-time thing. Furthermore, the powers he gains throughout the chapters just scream of "pre-planed" or "convenient" to whatever peril he is currently in.
However, that is honestly the only complaint I can find in the entire story, and I make it sound worse than it really is. Plus, it is something the author is actively trying to improve on. And I hope he does. Because this story has huge potential. Going further it just has to shoot, kill, decapitate, and bury all the last clichés habits it has left (roast them in napalm for a good measure if you ask me).
The author clearly has some original thoughts and talent and he should not be afraid to use them.
Truly, this story shines in those precious moments where the MC acts differently than all those countless stereotypical protagonists we had already seen far too often. And it does so without breaking the MC's character.
Bravo!
NightHereticRoyal Road
★★ 1.5
I apologize but I cannot keep reading this story, I have seen nothing but good reviews, yet every chapter is riddled with people saying that they're dropping. It is extremely suspicious and leads me to believe the possibility of this being a boosted story, but enough about that. The grammar is good, idea is a tiny bit unique in delivery but overused in general. I read to chapter 35ish before I gave up and got on my account to make a review. Maybe for other people this is a decent story, but for me it's taxing to read and just an all around waste of time.
The reason I dropped this story, the largest that is, is how fake everything feels. The story is made to depict a realistic fantasy setting, but in this instance, the fantasy is there, but the realism is poorly delivered. We're led to believe the main character is 'intelligent' all the while he constantly does stupid things. This is also a 'hiding main characters strength' story, although in this instance it isn't just hiding his strength, it feels like he never had any. The main character is constantly gaining power and agility, but continues to only use use his 'cunning' to win at anything. The prologue isn't needed, infact this story might be better off without it. We're shown a story full of possibilities, and instead get a mind wipe and a dumb character who although 'supposedly grew up on the streets' has less cunning than your average golden spoon would. If you're into my little pony friendship is magic powerups and what not, along with illogical plot holes where the character is shown to be 'intelligent' but in reality it's just a plot based intelligence. This may be for you, although this can't even work as a popcorn story due to all the little cringe simplits where we get 10 paragraphs to describe a 2 second scene. The things the main character does are not smart, they are only smart because the rest of the stories world is stupid.
jacckkkoRoyal Road
★★ 1.5
Prologue is a bit interesting but then is just forgotten. MC is mind wiped and that's it. No time to learn anything about the world or the mc life. We just go straight to the magic tower. You accomplish challenges and you will become more powerful. Sounds great, I don't care. Random monologue about MC living on the streets so he cares about the virtual people. Such great characterization. I dropped it. Took the time to dislike the shitty 5 stars reviews