Skill Smith

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

Currently on Hiatus

Dyani Farlight has been planning to follow in her father’s footsteps since before she could walk. She knew exactly what fate had in store for her; monster slaying, epic adventures, and heroic quests with her friends.

Her new magical talent has other plans, leaving her unable to absorb skills and obtain the fantastical abilities she’s always wanted. While her friends go off to live her dream, Dyani must find her place in a world that suddenly makes little sense, all while she finds a way to become a monster slayer despite her limitations, solve her father’s murder, and maybe even make enough money to save her mother from working herself into an early grave.

Her path to greatness might be longer than most, but she won’t let that stop her, goddess be damned.

***

Skill Smith: Inheritance (Book 1):

Release Schedule: ~1 Chapter every week

Chapter Lengths: ~3,000 words

Writing Progress: 100% (46 Chapters)

Skill Smith: Waterways (Working Title) (Book 2):

Writing Progress: 10%

This story doesNOTcontain:

Non-consensual sexual activity

Information

Status: Hiatus
Year: 2023
Author: Zachary S

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.6/ 5.0
Followers: 1,345
Views: 313,564

What readers say about Skill Smith

“A really good story. The characters actually feel like people and face their problems in an understandable way. The writing is also good. There is a good balance between descriptive fights, social interactions and story events. Small time skips are used to…”
WildlyNormalRoyal Road5.0 / 5
“Did not expect a story to grab me this hard, this fast. Keep going! Can't wait to see what happens next, it's a very engaging read already. There's a lot of theory spinning to do already, which makes it a lot of fun even early on. Good lord how long does th…”
acausalRoyal Road5.0 / 5

Reviews

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

Community Reviews(10)

WildlyNormalRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
A really good story. The characters actually feel like people and face their problems in an understandable way. The writing is also good.
There is a good balance between descriptive fights, social interactions and story events. Small time skips are used to smooth out the pacing which is nice.
As my title says, I'd recommend it.
acausalRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Did not expect a story to grab me this hard, this fast. Keep going! Can't wait to see what happens next, it's a very engaging read already. There's a lot of theory spinning to do already, which makes it a lot of fun even early on. Good lord how long does this review have to be? It's good, read it. I'm enjoying it.
DeveRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Fun story thats also original amf so far quite unpredictable. The characters have depth and do some stupid as well as smart things. The MC starts out pretty young and acts as per her age, but also shows some growth and maturity as she faces challenges.
There's a good balance of action and character development, world building.
Would recommend giving it a try!
McBlasterRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Not everyone gets useful skills on awakening day. So when our MC is lumped with one of these while all her friends get ones they wanted, she forges her own path.
At home, she knows what a bad skill can mean for a person as her mother has had to deal with it all her life. Therefore she isn't just going to accept it, she will get the necessary Exp for a rank up to unlock her next skill which will hopefully enable her to work towards her dreams. But getting that Exp will be difficult if she isn't allowed to leave the city to face monsters. Overhearing a conversation gives her an idea of where she may find some baddies to take down, it just won't be pleasant.
Story has an easy flow to it and great starting point to kick right into a new adventure.
somenobody0Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
In a lot of ways, this story feels like a different take on "Path of Ascension" - we have that deep, rich world and environment that feels like it can act as the scaffolding for many stories, and we start the story with a character at a coming-of-age event where the talent that determines their future is evaluated for the first time (and found wanting).
These parallels started dropping off once I got a bit further into the story. Rather than getting bogged down by the long-winded descriptions of every facet of the setting, we're also get to spend time with our characters.
The scope of the setting is smaller so far (ie, no galactic scale empires or anything yet - just people in a city), but this is a feature, not a bug - there's less exposition, and more storytelling.
Style
The style is fairly standard, but executed well. We get lots of third-person perspectives from different characters to help show different takes on situations.
For the technical bits, we get the standard blue-background character sheets. Things are fairly well fleshed out here - there are enough absolute numbers to help quantify things, but not so many that you're tempted to break out a calculator or anything. (ie, attributes have integer values, but mana costs are simply recorded as high / low)
I have this at a 4.5 just because I feel like a five-point style score is more for something that blows you away - some combination of mixed sentence structures and lengths, an incredibly witty turn of phrase that strikes some chord of human truth, an opening line that demands your attention - things like that. This style is still good, it's just not the outstanding feature here.
Story
I'm liking the story so far - the synopsis gives most of the info you need about that this is about, but the execution of the story is also fulfilling.
You get a believable weak character, how they react to their situation, how their family and peers treat them, and how they develop and change, all at a thoughtful pace.
You
oddy jokerRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
I'm not good with words but heck yeah this shit is lite 🔥🔥🔥 bro.
Love the unique power system, the culture etc.
I like dyani guts, confident and aspirations. love her obsession with heroic story and it's kinda hilarious because she's like fantasy world of weebs/otaku.
It's slowburn but not boring and you can't wait to read the next chapter.
PadanFainRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
Could do with fewer unessesary infoboxes. Otherwise I'm very happy with the story. Its got a good path of ascension vibe so far. The duality of talents with negative aspects connected to strong talents is neat. Multiple viewpoints done well too. The story follows most of the characters that are introduced and atleast the main three have interesting skillsets and characters.
DSH808Royal Road
★★★★ 4.0
Thank you to the author Zachary S for writing Skill Smith.
I am increasing my rating to 4 stars as the author has back filled more background on the mother and the family situation.
The skill system at first glance looks to be simple at low levels. The author has given some insight by showing the status page of high level people. I am interested in seeing how monsters interfaces and different builds develop as the MC literally begins to improve the system.
I also hope the author continues to expand on the history of his world I think it would give context to the motivations and natures of the MC and villain(s).
looking forward to rating Skill Smith even higher as the story gains heft from added world, character and skill system building.
I can go on reading hoping for the best.
weerlingRoyal Road
★★★★ 3.5
TL:DR It’s a pretty well put together story. It’s a fun read, but some may not like the directions it goes in on certain parts of the plot.
Characters: Are fleshed out and have personalities that can be built upon, and they have abilities which are pretty cool and unique. Overall well written, though some of them make decisions that make less sense, especially considering common sense is a thing (I.e. maybe don’t take a very obvious action when you know that you are being closely watched for said thing).
Plot: Very interesting! I don’t think I’ve run into many books that have this kind of plot. I will say that some plot points were teased and would have worked better than others and the direction it story goes in because of those forgotten points can get a little aggravating to read, because they made much more sense.
Curious WandererRoyal Road
★★ 2.0
why did you leave it. It was so good. WHY???
why did you leave it. It was so good. WHY???
why did you leave it. It was so good. WHY???
why did you leave it. It was so good. WHY???
why did you leave it. It was so good. WHY???
why did you leave it. It was so good. WHY???
why did you leave it. It was so good. WHY???
why did you leave it. It was so good. WHY???
why did you leave it. It was so good. WHY???
why did you leave it. It was so good. WHY???
why did you leave it. It was so good. WHY???
why did you leave it. It was so good. WHY???
why did you leave it. It was so good. WHY???
why did you leave it. It was so good. WHY???
why did you leave it. It was so good. WHY???
why did you leave it. It was so good. WHY???