Roots and Steel

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

Hunters wait all year for the Festival of Knives, when they put their skills to the test and claim new ranks with every monster they kill.

Trapped helping the family business instead of pursuing his own career, Trellin has never been allowed to participate. But when he risks expulsion to sneak out and claim a kill beyond his rank, his hunt is spotted by a senior guildmember.

Rather than turn him in, she offers him a chance for freedom: Join her, and sail to the distant isle of Deldynne to compete in the bloody race for the rank of Guildmaster. If they can kill the monster that calls Deldynne home before the other teams do, he'll soar to new heights as apprentice to the leader of the Hunter’s Guild.

But if they fail, neither will leave that island alive.

Roots and Steel is a Monster Hunter LitRPG series.

Information

Status: Ongoing
Year: 2021
Author: Inorai

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.6/ 5.0
Followers: 655
Views: 35,394

Chapters(19 total)

Reviews

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

Community Reviews(10)

sabazurcRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This is one of the best action/fantasy/adventure on Royalroad which has not become as popular as it deserves for now. Author writes the world and characters pretty well and takes more of a show not tell approach sometimes and I like it. Both male lead and his guide are great and you will truly wish for them succeed.
CongraRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Overall: This story takes you on a great journey. All of the fight scenes feel super fleshed out, punchy, and highly actionable. It feels much more immersive than a lot of fight scenes I've read in the past.
Style: Inorai's style is always great. You really feel like you're there in the story seeing every decision made by the MC and getting a good look into their mind while it's still tied into the prose. It's super voicey which I always appreciate, so much of the character is injected into every paragraph.
Story: It gives off exactly the monster hunter vibes one would expect from a fic like this. If you like monster hunter, you'll love this story. As stated earlier in this review, the action is just perfect, it really gives those vibes of the relatively small human going up against this gigantic beast. I particularly like the inclusion of the stamina-y system where they can empower themselves, I just think it's a really neat way of going about making the people of the world more durable than a human would be otherwise while still balancing out how much of that they can do.
Grammar: Inorai always has very solid grammar both in terms of actual grammatical structure and with regard to typos. The prose is pretty much spotless from what I've seen.
Character: I really feel like I understand who Trellin is as a character, and that's always the #1 thing I look for in an MC. Some MC's can feel very "insert yourself onto this person" because their personality is rather hollow. That's not the case here. I feel like I've stepped into Trellin's shoes in that I'm experiencing the worldview from him, not my own. This goes along well with what I talked about in the style score with how the prose really reflects Trellin's thought processes. Both of these factors work really well together to give me a good idea of how Trellin is someone who is still learning to be confident in himself in a world that's forced him to be ranked much lower than he would be otherwise, and now he has a c
Galaxy876Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I was going to leave a basic review but that wouldn't be right. This is a very good story. All the half marks being removed ties into the characters review.
Overall? The author knows where they're going and there isn't any Bleach level fillers at all. I'll go into all the pros below.
Style Wise - We focus mainly on our MC and see the story played out from his perspective. There is a good amount of action scenes, and it's GOOD action scenes too. It's not a slow paced story, and there are enough key scenes that pulls us along in the story. There isn't a lot of exposition and we learn of the world almost at the same time as the MC as he's from a small village and never paid attention in class, lol.
Grammar - Nothing I've seen to bring down the rating. Very readable, no typos or errors or weird sentence structures. Reading the story feels very natural in terms of flow.
Story Score - I'm 47 chapters in and there is really good progress for the quest. It's not a slow burner at all, and it's honestly really good. There are multiple races, nothing stereotypical. The take on monsters is fairly interesting and the fauna seems to be mostly a mirror of our animals, but the name they're known by is closer to our scientific name for animals. If you're not familiar with latin prefixes you have to pay attention to the description to figure out what animal our giant monster of the day is based off. I think that's really cool.
Character Review - Now this is where I have a little bit of a gripe. The MC was stuck at a much lower rank than he deserved and has confidence issues because of it. He has since proven himself in little ways but I see no growth in his confidence, not in a way that feels like a core change of his character. I hope for that to change so I can give a complete five stars.
bob7777Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Surprisingly addictive story. Set in a world that's basically Monster Hunter, but doesn't suffer from that. I hate fan fics like truly hate almost all of them. But here I found an original story, that just borrows a boatload from the game, world-wise. But also isn't afraid to deviate as needed/wanted.
Characters are well developed and 3D. Lots of show instead of tell to get their characters. No long internal monologues here!! Character motivations, actions, and goals are also just...real, slightly comedic, but real.
Fights are well written, with interesting monsters, and unpredicible action. Characters are fallible, and NOT OP, which is great.
Cons- videogame mechanisms don't always make a lot of sense in world. Waiting to see if the world building eventually covers why/how they work like that.
All around would definitely give it a try!
grovekeeperRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
The story is excellent, the prose is really good and has a flavour to it. The characters are well thought out and have a depth to them. The MC is an annoying wimp but his character develops towards the end. The grammar is great.
The worldbuilding is fleshed out slowly and even at the end of the first book, there is a lot to explore which is a nice suspense for the next book. The system is unique.
Brian BrunoRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I'm not great at reviews but this novel is better than most others on royal road. Combined with the fact that book one is complete, and the fact that it will be a stub soon, you should probably read it if you've got time to spare.
Reviews must be 50 words long so a a a a a. Sat. A a as a a. Aa
RobotmurlocRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Overall:
Great story so far, interesting world and a system that feels unique. I ended up binging the 60 or so chapters in a day, and I just can't wait for more. Definitely one of the best stories I have read on this site!
Style:
A fairly standard style, not a bad thing necessarily.
There haven't been any perspective changes, so rest easy you people who hate that.
Story:
A concise and straightforward premise from the onset but the more you get into it the more you are intrigued by the past and want to know more
Grammar:
Good grammar is probably what I desire most in a story, I will lose interest very quickly in a story if I keep spotting mistakes, even if that story is unique and interesting.
And I must say that I haven't spotted any problems at all so far in the story!!
Character:
Not too many different characters, and they feel unique!
One thing I spotted once or twice that could potentially be seen as "a problem". (which it really isnt, it's very minor) Trellin sometimes has internal monologue where he has one way of thinking but then a different when he acts on it.
Then again it could just be me, at 3 am binging this 😅
SimpleMindedRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This is a really well written story. Starts off kind of slow, but not in a bad way. Would recommend giving it a try 100%. No grammatical mistakes whatsoever and it is written like a published book. Also quite an interesting amount of lore/world building so far, I have very high hopes for this book. If it stays on its current track in terms of quality, I'm sure this will stay a 5/5 book.
Unity DragosRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I love this story. I love the system, and I love the characters in them. Without giving any spoilers on the story, I want to say how amazing and well put together this is. The characters are believable and have great backstories, with flaws that do not make them feel annoying or terrible. Trellin may come off as a bit arrogant, but he is also a little awkward around other people and passionate about what he does, making him more endearing and likeable. Avira, on the other hand, is the guiding and slightly sadistic mother, and is a lot more serious than Trellin. Their interactions between each other constantly make me laugh. This is a great book and I highly recommend people read it. I do not know why it is not on Rising Stars right now.
JujubeanzRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
These first couple chapters are setting up the newbie for powerleveling for the most part. It gives an in depth look at the power system in the world and some history but not much else. We don't meet any recurring characters until you're 30+ chapters in when they arrive at the capital. I personally think this power up light training phase can be expedited due to them ritually hunting everything they can within their schedule. So it's kinda predictable. Unique litrpg elements make it more bearable to those who like the genre. MC doesn't make a lot of decisions and is forced in a more passive role due to being a disciple of the master type thing. The dialouge shows the awkwardness and quirks of the current main cast which is nice. It holds my interest as the action scenes are superb and uniquely tailored, the hunting/investigation seems pretty one size fits all. But since it seems they won't be in the wilderness with just each other all the time I would encourage you to give other characters a moment in the limelight moving forward. Also the antagonistic force isn't intresting enough imo. I want their to be more intrigue involved in the tragedies presented, to match with the ongoing mystery about the monster queen emergence. But that's just preference. So while this novel does a lot of things well, and nothing poorly so far it could definitely be improved in the aforementioned areas. But keep writing and getting better.