Pactmaker

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

Abandoned - rewrite coming!

Vittorio Merchant has grown up under the control of his demanding, abusive parents. When the time comes for him to see a Class Guide and gain his class they make their expectations clear: Get a mercantile class and come back to start working off the cost of raising you. His friend Gloria begs him to leave them and their town behind with her.

When given the chance to gain a strange class Vittorio does just that. He leaves his past behind to try and find his own way in the world - but little does he suspect that his past will come to open his eyes to something wrong with the world. What do you do when faced with foes you can never match and a wrong you cannot right?

Sensitive content:Talk and vague descriptions of violent child abuse in the first two chapters. Nothing explicit.

What to expect:

Male main character who seeks to find himself once out of his abusive home.

Medium-hard system without numbers or details but with clear rules and consistency.

Clear overarching plot with defined goals.

Adventures and exploration in an expansive high-fantasy world.

Information

Status: Cancelled
Year: 2024
Author: Sneaky Carrot

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.6/ 5.0
Followers: 105
Views: 28,772

Chapters(34 total)

Reviews

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

Community Reviews(1)

EfferennRoyal Road
★★ 2.0
Let’s start with something positive.
The positive summary would be “ A story that takes its time to present the world and its mechanics.”
It is nice to feel like the author spent more than a second to come up with the concepts and I really like the introduction of religion in the story.
If you like slower stories you might want to give it a chance.
Now the less positive part.
It might be just my personal preference but I found the story very slow and had to put it down midway chapter 5 and then read a chapter here and there.
Before I address the story, characters and the world in more detail I have to address the source of unease this story made me feel once I thought it over night and makes me wonder if the author is ok. The short version of the story is “MC escapes his evil parents and is recognized as special , rewarder and helped by strangers”. It is eerily similar to the real world where bad actors on the internet play on insecurities of teenagers and try to “reprogram” them with a technique called “love bombing”. Also the description of monsters was something like “they may look like animals but are just evil”, which is fine itself but together with the first point it reminds me of the hyperpolarization due to the politics and “shore outside our group are evil”. However It might be just me seeing things that are not there.
Now more relevant critique
Parents of MC are evil: Their evilness really stands out as every other character is just good and helpful. It feels a bit eerie to me. The absence of other threats also removes tension from the story.
Parents of MC are stupid: They do bad things to the MC , promise him a future of basically slavery and then send him on a trip with a person who they consider a bad influence for him and plans to leave adventuring. That is just soo stupid of them and stupidity undermines evilness because you just “don't know any better” It also undermines MC as he could have tricked somehow before, especially since he is so old.
Age