The Dark Lord's Diner

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

The Breakfast of Champions (The Dark Lord’s Diner Book 1)

When he was alive, the Dark Lord tried to conquer the world of Allbreath. Who knew that conquest was easier than opening a diner in a bad part of town?

Salvanguish Abner Ordinal was having a bad day. He lost his ancient coin of power, his best friend stabbed him through the heart, and he died. Death is so inconvenient. A thousand years later, he is resurrected and given a choice: Live by a strict code of ethics or return to the Abyssmuck for an eternity of torture. Kind of an easy decision.

His only option for cash is opening a haunted diner where one ghost is giving him peaches while another is trying to kill him dead. Tower City on Torment Island isn’t an easy place to live, not with all the tower climbers there, seeking the Deux Coin. Then there’s the inept but very fashionable governor and five very strange mafia families fighting over territory.

Sal has his work cut out for him. His arsenal of spells are gone, and he’s having trouble figuring out his new character sheet. But one thing is clear, his Karmic Gauge makes it impossible for him to lie, cheat, steal, or murder his way to success.

It's like THE LORD OF THE RINGS meets PARKS & REC, or what if Sauron opened a breakfast café in Minas Tirith with the help of a friendly mouse?

Information

Status
Completed
Year
2024
Author
aaronwriterdie

Tags

LITRPGFANTASYSLICE OF LIFEGAMELIT

Royal Road Stats

Rating
4.6/ 5.0
Followers
469
Views
96,950

Chapters(48 total)

Reviews

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Community Reviews(6)

  • AfkJustAfkRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    Well.. I rated this work a 5 star review because on how the story's interesting, the character, the plot, everything.
    The only problem was the grammar of the story, some grammar are hard to understand while others are super easy to understand > Which decrease the balance of your work. < Only affecting the words.
    Nut overall, the story is great and really captivating! Keep up the good work and happy writing!
  • Pipes MacRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    This story ended much earlier than I expected,  yet it was at a good point with a lot of story fulfillment.   Author did a nice job with this MC.  The MC is limited in action and karma, and pretty much can't lie or harm anything...that sounds like so.ething I'd hate, all snow-flakey.  However, the author actually does a nice job making it interesting as our MC, the former Dark Lord, learns to first live with the constraints and then change to embrace them.
    Because the story is pretty short, a lot of worldbuilding didn't happen, and there are internal inconsistencies.   Like how the Tower dungeon thing works, who controls access, and death rates while climbing tower.  Like, if you don't beat the 1st level and get copper Key, everyone dies at the 4 hour point...yet book says there are 3 groups a day, 6 folks recommended, and only 1 a week wins key.  That means 120 people a week die, maybe 6 live.  But there are little or no rewards to support that suicidal rate, nor is the hooplah of Tower observers explained... just a lot missing to make the Tower setup believable.
    Same with the 5 mafia families, each controlling one area of commerce.  Eggs, pork, grains, etc.  It's silly, economies don't work that way, and it's not really explained to be believable these groups are the actual city powers.
    Despite the somewhat silly world setup, and enough inconsistencies to make suspension of disbelief difficult at times, this is STILL A VERY FUN AND REWARDING story to read.
    The author clearly has some skill with character development,  as well as backstory and character motivation--this was probably the high point of the story.  All the characters have decently believable motivations, enough that it makes each chapte rinteresting.  Really, this character structure was robust enough that a massively longer and bigger story could have been hung on this structure successfully.  Like 5 more books of this length easily, as we learn about them and each progresses.  The author was well on
  • Sayanel LyantRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    I cannot overstate how pleasant this story was to read, and the appreciation I have for its quality
    I hope the author continues in their endeavours, and find them fulfilling
    They have my gratitude for sharing this with us, and I look forward to read more, should their creative spark keep on shining
  • Spleen23Royal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    Seriously, I'm the first one to review this?
    Review at 15
    A sort of dark slice of life about a guy starting over on hard mode.
    Nice read, developing setting, a mix of high and low fantasy, well developed pantheon of deities two steps removed but deeply ingrained as part of the setting.
    Read this, Follow it, and do a review.
  • bob7777Royal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    Its a great, lighthearted story about a reserected Sauron (not literally, not a fanfic) being forced to come back as a pacifist. Binged it in 2 hours. BOOK 1 IS COMPLETE and free here on RR
    Style: Commited to the bit throughout. Even when the whole pacifism/truth thing was going to hurt, it kept real consequences and interesting ways to get out of issues. It also managed to maintain a lighthearted style throughout even as it kept enough real stakes/conflict to keep me engaged.
    grammar : No complaints, anything hard to read was obviously intentional
    Story: This is more style over plot, I don't want to say I don't care about the plot, I did, and it was engaging, but it was they style and characters that kept me turning pages. But for a slice of life it really hit the right balance of having enough progression and conflict to keep me binging without losing its whimsical nature.
    Characters: The best part hands down. I love our Mc. I love his mouse friend/supervisor. I love the ghosts. I love the adventurers. I love the gangsters. I love everyone. All of the characters have depth and nuance. Our criminals aren't just surface bad, they do some bad shit sometimes, and its faced head on for the most part while again keeping it light hearted. Our core group though is awesome, you can see them becoming a found-family and that was the absolute best part of this book. I NEED to see the resolution of some of their arcs, and learn more of their backstories!!
  • WorldsRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 4.5
    I don't write reviews often but seeing how there really weren't any for this amazing story I thought I'd give it a go.
    I absolutely loved the overall story all the way to the end and the premise of the story was refreshing and not as food focused as I expected. The Karmic system was a great motivator and the ups and downs really hit home in the later chapters. The writing style was unique in my opinion especially in the the verbiage of many of the characters along with the characters themselves. Overall I'd recommend this as a good book for a Day read and I'd look forward to more if it comes.