The Autocraft Alchemist

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

[Winner of the Royal Road April 2025 Writathon challenge]

Book 1 complete.

Richard finds himself running out of money during his latest funemployment. His options are to try to string along with Universal Basic Income, find a job listening to some Zoomer tell him what to do, or try exploring the “safe” areas of the dungeons.

Well, he picks the dungeons and gets more than he bargained for. Now he’s trying to find a work life balance that won’t burn him out like a millennial. All while dealing with the attention that a rare skill brings him and trying to make time and money for his hobbies.

Only posted to Royal Road. If this is found anywhere else then it has been pirated.

Information

Status: Hiatus
Year: 2025
Author: Wellchior

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.5/ 5.0
Followers: 363
Views: 125,115

What readers say about The Autocraft Alchemist

“Awesome story, interesting take on the crafter side of things. Book 1 definitely left me wanting more just finished book 1 kinda bummed that we're on hiatus but life happens. I hope the author comes back before long as I enjoyed it and would like to see whe…”
Rockville traumaRoyal Road5.0 / 5
“Whenever dungeons+monsters+magic come to Earth, we are typically timeskipped a few centuries down the line, where society has been completely reshaped. Not the case in this story! With a world only a couple of decades removed from the first dungeons, the go…”
classified39Royal Road5.0 / 5

Reviews

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Community Reviews(9)

Rockville traumaRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Awesome story, interesting take on the crafter side of things. Book 1 definitely left me wanting more
just finished book 1 kinda bummed that we're on hiatus but life happens.
I hope the author comes back before long as I enjoyed it and would like to see where it goes
classified39Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Whenever dungeons+monsters+magic come to Earth, we are typically timeskipped a few centuries down the line, where society has been completely reshaped.
Not the case in this story! With a world only a couple of decades removed from the first dungeons, the government is still (mostly) in operation, the internet is still (mostly) functioning, and pre-dungeon money is still (mostly) in use. One example I particularly liked was the concept that one can rent carbon fiber metal armor made in the early days for around $10k a day, but getting anything with Dungeon Metal requires one to purchase it outright at a much higher cost.
I also enjoy the fact that organizations are not painted with shades of black and white. Yes, there may be a member of the government feeding info to the black market. Does that mean the government as a whole is an antagonist? No! They hate spies as much as anyone, if not moreso! Another ongoing arc I've enjoyed is the fact that the Crafting Union the MC works for has a particularly idealistic egghead running the alchemy department, but his subordinates are smart enough to know that the guy would come on way too strong if he actually met the MC.
I've also enjoyed that there are *relatively* low stakes thus far. Without spoiling too much, the first true antagonist of the story is handled in a manner that both helps the worldbuilding and doesn't immediately launch into the MC being hunted by Bad Guy +1. There are certainly seeds for things to get more complex in the future (i quite enjoyed the reaction of the first person who learns the true scope of his powers), but it's nice to have a progression-esque story that still has a bit of slice-of-life.
Overall I am quite glad I found this story!
DGPRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Love this story! The main character is likeable and growing, and the premise of his skill is fun and I can’t wait to see how he and the skill progress.
I was sad I caught up so fast but I’ll keep and eye on future chapters and bing read them. Thank you!
dtracersRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
The main character is a little dense. Just floating through life and going with the flow. I relate.
He meets nice people he meets mean people but he is slowly leaning his way through life.
This book has action, crafting, and wholesome family moments. An enjoyable book and read. I recommend.
RafMereCRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This story flows evenly.
Easy to read. The characters are relatable.
The setting is a mix of modern day/fantasy/Litrpg.
I like how you can step between the two genres
One minute you're in a Dungeon, the next you're in a relatable modern day setting
Love to see more of the modern setting.
Raf
AccidentalRogueRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
Thou the story has not ended as of the posting of my review I believe that when it continues it will be a banger.
Down on his luck and scraping by MC finds a skill book that changes his life. Seeming to be overly paranoid at the beginning he then finds out first hand there's good reason to be.
Haru Desu KattoRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
I have to admit, the beginning was cliche and trope combined. MC gets a one-in-a-billion best OP skill to rule them all. Yeah... boring. However, it quickly moves beyond that, focusing instead on the larger ramifications and how it changes his life. In many ways, these changes are NOT an improvement to what he had before.
It's a story about people, decisions, and consequences, not numbers and tiers and blatant abuse of power (except by the villains). That's what makes it good. In fact, the same story would work just as well without the LitRPG elements - especially since the characters never get any real choices within the system.
Style - Very good use of paragraphing, easy reading conversation, and communication of concepts. Likewise, good use of description and exposition without overdoing things. Foreshadowing is well placed and surprises are telegraphed beforehand. Clearly, the author planned a story instead of just writing it as they go.
Grammar - As other reviews have noted, I don't think the author is a native English speaker. Either that, or they don't have a lot of experience writing. Usually, I don't mind, but the errors distract from the story. Most common are partial sentences - for instance, sentences that start with the word "and" or "but." There are also misspellings or words that sound similar but mean something different. There are also a few cases where the characters sound awkward in conversation, as if the wordplay was taken from another culture.
Story - It starts as a cliche setting and premise that I've seen recycled too many times to count. However, there is depth underneath. This is a great example of how to make sure everything fits together in a realistic way. The world described comes with enough details to make it interesting.
Character - The MC has flaws, which is a big plus. He's self-absorbed. He's burnt out. He's lazy. He's a bit cowardly. Despite those flaws, he cares about people enough to do the right thing when it matters. The fi
Anita JuliaRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
is one of those books that catches you by surprise — not just for the creativity of its world, but for the quiet strength of its protagonist. It’s a good book, yes, but it goes beyond that: it makes you want to root for the main character, to cheer for every small victory as if you're right there beside him. The protagonist is compelling in a subtle way, growing on you as the story unfolds, until you find yourself deeply invested in his journey. A captivating read that leaves you wanting more."
xXSB101XxRoyal Road
★★ 2.0
There are objective and subjective issues with this novel. The biggest objective issue is that a lot of this story is telling, and summarizing, not showing. There are numerous instances in which events are just skimmed through instead of going through them organically. There is also a problem of grammar issues, which ties into a more potentially subjective issue I have, which is that the author most likely isn't English, and doesn't know how to actually write convincing social interaction between people. This is more subtle usually, but sometimes it's obvious like in an instance where the MC calls his sis "Sister", which isn't a normal word people use to address their siblings by. Sis or their personal name is how things are generally done. There's an issue of cliche plot progression and choices, like family turning out to be in this old secret clan, or his online bud being this rich powerful person, or someone happening to see when he got his skill book, which is as you can guess a top rank skill. There's also the attempt at world exploration which I can respect, but it just isn't clicking for me and feels illogical. A world thats implied to be in the late twenty first century or even later would be far more advanced, and would not be having information problems like the story has done. The idea that item prices wouldnt have some public hyperdetailed market, or that info about making items would be hidden in a post apocalytic rebuilt society scenario like this is unrealistic, and takes me out of the story. Even the MC is kind of grating, as he's a dumbass (intentionally written by the author like that most likely) but dumbass in kind of forced ways, like him being paranoid enough to care about stories of being kidnapped, but not enough to assume someone who could have saw him get his skill book to potentially be a threat to him even after he was warned about them.
Overall, there wasn't anything I really enjoyed from here outside of the general idea of a crafting ba