The Daily Grind

Information

Status

Ongoing

Year

2018

Author

argusthecat

• Questions and Answers 2
  Jan 24, 2021
• Announcement
  Sep 25, 2019
• Questions And Answers
  May 9, 2019
• Chapter 003
  Jan 6, 2018
• Chapter 002
  Jan 6, 2018
• Chapter 001
  Jan 6, 2018

Reviews

Community Reviews(10)

• ReliricRoyal Road

  ★★★★★ 5.0

  It's a great story and something new to the genre. Not to be biased but I also  like it when boys kiss boys so I gave it 5 stars 🤩. Love your writing and screw the haters. I haven't checked out the other books by the author so I will be doing that. I just started this one so it'll be a while before I check on them though 😅.
• AretaeRoyal Road

  ★★★★★ 5.0

  The defining characteristic of science fiction is to suggest: What if something were true, which we currently do not know/believe to be. If that thing were true, what would the consequences be?
  This is a science fiction book. The what if has to do with extradimensional "dungeons" encountering a real life group of geeks, and then how they end up needing to interact with the rest of the world when dungeon powers show up.
  The characters are a bit to the extreme side of geekiness. But for a what if you found a dungeon in real life question...this is as good as I've seen here.  Intelligent story. Thoughtful. Considering multiple angles, though not in the crazy over-the-top way that Worth The Candle does.
  I really enjoy it, and its sufficiently different than anything else I've read that I'd recommend you try it.
• BlueCoffeeJavaRoyal Road

  ★★★★★ 5.0

  Review Covers Ch.s 1-60
  I'm harsh on grammar, and found this an enjoyable read with better copy proofing than some of the big name editors have given their A-list authors. There's a very slight room for improvement, but, again, the copy is at a professional level.
  I find the dry humor easy to laugh with, and the story is developing with the complexity of a spiced latte, leaving a lingering joy long after the latest sip has been swallowed. Even the incidental characters feel well-developed, and the main characters stay true to form throughout.
• dogcomplexRoyal Road

  ★★★★★ 5.0

  (X-post from /r/rational recommendation)
  The Daily Grind is an excellent example [of a litrpg-style fic that uses unique stats systems], and one of my general top-tier recommendations (out of like 50 total rational-fics I've read now). It's the story of some friends finding a dungeon portal in their real-world office building inhabited by aggressive office supplies. Defeating them nets very random skills like "+1 Formatting: Times New Roman" but slowly but surely cumulates into somewhat-useful stuff like "+3 History: Military Tactics" and "Breath Capacity +3min".
  By the end
  Wonderful tone and optimism, despite dealing with some emotional topics and being really good at keeping to the knitty-gritty of events and powers and maintaining a nice ascension narrative throughout. Unfinished, but each "book" is a good stepping-out point to wait on more chapters. "Office Space" meets "Severance" meets DnD. And the author really finds their legs after the first book so hold out if it's feeling shaky to you.
  [I will gush a bit harder here, now that I'm finally paying a tiny fraction of my good-citizen dues and leaving a review:  this was an absolute treasure of a fic, thank you so much for writing this.  It's a really really tough thing to do - writing something that takes the current world in all its heavy flaws and tries to push up through it all towards an uplifting post-scarcity society tale.  This fic has really been a friend to me, and given me some of the strength to try and do the same irl - it's a crazy world we're entering into, with AI about as close to a Magic is Real storyline as you can get - and this fic really set the standards of how to go forward through it all emotionally and ethically.  I really appreciate your choices to write James' depression, your post-humanist stuff, and not shying too hard away from the darker aspects of human society (even as our heroes focus on making their own culture stand tall through it all).  Really looking forward to periodical
• David GilesRoyal Road

  ★★★★★ 5.0

  The story starts as a rather endearing dungeon delver where the enemies are made out of office equipment, then starts the ask the really big questions about how magic would actually change the world.
  It's deeply thoughtful, well plotted out and though the pace may be slow at times that's not a bad thing.
  The romances are very delightfuly slice of life, and I'll say no more on them to avoid spoilers beyond Arrush and Keeka being one of the sweetest couples I've ever read.
  It's worth your time and won't insult your intelligence, even better it might even make you think.
• JahithRoyal Road

  ★★★★★ 4.5

  The daily grind is a wonderful piece of fiction. It has ritch world building and characters that feel real. As all stories it is not perfect. There are nagging little problems, like character feeling the need to restate the goals of their organisation multiple times or missed thematic opportunities. Some readers might also not like Socialist Philosophy that Author likes to beat the reader over the head with. Personally I was able to enjoy the story despite that but I recognize it might not be the cup of tea for evereyone. If you don't mind those you will spend wonderful time with the "Order of Endless Rooms"
• MonochromiaRoyal Road

  ★★★★★ 4.5

  If you hate LGBT people, to the point you'd drop a book for including a bisexual, polyamorous couple, then don't bother reading further.
  If you hate left wing politics, Book 2 dives deep into real world politics, and the questions that would come up if you and your friends wanted to use magic powers to end poverty. Quit at the end of Book One, and you'll avoid almost all the politics.
  This story is kickass, because the characters act and feel very much like real people in real situations. The dungeons are unique, and packed with creative and interesting ideas. The real word mechanics, cause and effect, and consequences are all very well written. If you're looking for an unrestricted power fantasy, look elsewhere.
  Pros:
  Combat is well written and executed.
  Characters are excellent and feel very human and lifelike.
  Crammed full of twists and turns, interesting developments, and a sense of exploration and wonder. This is probably the main selling point. The dungeons are amazing, creative, and interesting.
  Amazing discord community and author is open to correcting mistakes.
  Cons:
  Visual descriptions are not the author's strong suit. Many things have their appearance glossed over entirely or only described very briefly.
  Similarly, some locations are not sufficently described, or hard to understand, at least for me personally.
  Ocassional run-on sentence or comma abuse.
  Overall, an absolutely worthwhile read. The prose is not exceptional, but the plot and characters absolutely are.
• CestarianRoyal Road

  ★★★★ 4.0

  This is a quite fun read, but also riddled with plotholes, misconceptions/misinformation and poor characters. When I say my favorite character is the protagonists pet stapler, that should tell you something about the protagonist.
  The characters are however somewhat realistic in return, they're stupid kids doing stupid things, it fits the narrative, so I'm unsure if it may have been done on purpose.
  Through 49 chapters, no one even thinks of the fact that suppressors for guns are a thing. While taking their equipment 'seriously' they make sodding poor choices of armor that quite honestly shouldn't be protecting them as much as it is; plastic fucking armor man... PLASTIC! against bona fide monsters! Some of which shoot lazers!
  Their weapon choices are equally idiotic, for example one character gets a rapier skill: Doesn't consider getting a rapier even if it would be at least as useful as the same character's spear. In trained hands.
  Protagonists gets a sidearm skill: Gives his pistol to another character afterwards. Still no suppressor of course.
  Protagonist gets judo and jeet kune do skills, he even showed once that he can fight hand to hand so well he'd impress bruce lee himself: Only does it once, then keeps using an axe, the only bonuses he gets from his jeet kune do skills are better footing and solid kicks. Would perform better if he just made himself a cestus and used the weapon he knows best.
  Learns javascript: Wrongly thinks it can be used to create a game all on it's own. Without so much as an artist.
  Learns C++: Can create just about any sort of crazy program with this he wants. No comments at all.
  And more like this... Lots and lots and lots more like this.
  So that's why I hate the characters. A lot of things are just poorly researched by the writer, while other times he seems to completely forget some of the capabilities he's given his characters as well as conversations from past chapters. (Like this one character called dave everybody agrees not to tel
• MuadibRoyal Road

  ★ 0.5

  Good prose, but incredibly slow with boring, forgettable characters and a dungeon that takes an interesting concept and ruins it.
• AntediluvianComplicationRoyal Road

  ★ 0.5

  Royal Road expects that I've read a story on the site to be able to review it, so I've clicked through to my current chapter. I can't see what it will display for my progress though, so just know that I'm writing this as I look at the beginning of chapter 135. Do not read this review if you want to avoid spoilers. I'm going to try to keep this short and general, rather than digging into specific content that would be spoilers, but I make no promises.
  As others have noted, Book One is the strongest part by far. Book Two still has some interesting content, but the story really seems to lose its way. It doesn't seem to find it in what I've read of Book Three. In fact, I would say it is wandering even further from the premise that hooked me. I would attribute this to three factors: Lack of focus for/on the main plot, cast bloat leading to lack of sufficient focus and nuance for each character, and the needless injection of contemporary politics and just politics in general, to be honest.
  The plot starts off simple. James is a downtrodden office worker in a mediocre job working night shifts. He discovers a portal to an office-themed dungeon, which provides excitement, potential for growth, and financial stability his life was otherwise lacking. In many ways, I think it's mostly downhill from here, although the earlier expansions to the plot and cast are a lot more sensible. He eventually recruits
  his roommate Anesh
  to delve with him. I really liked the dynamic these two had. When a third delver is added, that really starts to open up how many characters the story has to split its focus between. But, it's still manageable around that point. I do feel that
  Alanna
  , the third delver, is really the beginning of where the story went wrong though, in retrospect. I don't think she complements James as well as
  Anesh
  did. She also brings in the
  romance subplot
  , which I think is the most unnecessary subplot in Book One, and perhaps the story as a whole. She's also the vehicle for