The House Beneath - A Progression Fantasy

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

Hina has an invitation to study magic at the prestigious Qalarian Academy.With her unusually high potential, that's a path to real power—if she's bold enough to take it. All she has to do is back out of her arranged marriage and survive a trip across the dangerous wilds. Easy, right?

But when thediscussionwith her fiance ends with Hina's kitchen knife buried in his chest, she and her little brother, Kai, are forced to flee. They'll have to outrun their pursuers and avoid roaming beasts and titanic monsters while Hina devours every scrap of magic she can beg, borrow or steal along the way.

She must grow strong enough to guide them to safety, or they'll both pay the price.

What to expect:* Slow progression that ramps up as we go* Cultivation influenced magic in a western setting* Monsters, dungeons and mayhem* High personal stakes* No romance* No OP MC any time soon* ~1.5-2k word chapters

Book one complete.

Information

Status
Completed
Year
2023
Author
amoorby

Tags

FANTASYMAGICFEMALE LEADHORRORPROGRESSION

Royal Road Stats

Rating
4.6/ 5.0
Followers
896
Views
210,360

Chapters(63 total)

Reviews

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

Community Reviews(10)

  • Blyg998Royal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    This book is an excellent story about a girl who has great magical talent but is forced to flee her home and travel with her brother through dangerous wilderness on her way to a magic academy. The tone is what has made this book special so far. It’s reminiscent of a grim fairy tale, done very well and in such a way that one fears for the characters at every moment. I’m excited to read more since this story is clearly just starting out.
  • DabossUnberogenRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    The House Beneath seems a bit atypical at first, but the classic progression fantasy tropes come through eventually. Of course, the book is quite new, so barely any of the storyline is revealed yet. Still, of what I have read so far, it's quite good.
    The style can be a bit jarring at times, with paragraphs eschewed in favor of single lines, but it became readable after a little bit of acclimating. The actual writing itself wasn't choppy, which was good. Some of the chapters were a bit short, but it was properly paced.Overall, quite good.
    The story is well constructed, with a clear progression. The people all seem realistic enough, and the world is quite well done. It's not anything enrapturing, but it gets the job done well enough. The trope is a bit overdone, but it's still entertaining.
    The grammar is decent, with few to none errors as far as I could tell. Because of the quick paced style of the story, I might have missed a few here an there. However, in my mind, unless there are grammatical errors every few sentences, it's fine.
    The characters are realistic, and they talk like actual people. This might seem like a basic ask, but I am always surprised at the poor writing of many stories, even those that are really popular. Well done.
    In general, a good read.
  • VirrcatRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    I'm really enjoying this story so far! Sometimes the protagonist-learns-magic-and-goes-on-adventures can be a bit blah, especially with younger characters (let alone children, e gads!). But there's something about slightly ruthless Hina, friendly-but-reserved Kai, and the strange world that they're traveling in that I really like.
    I'm particularly interested in learning more of the lore about this place and the 'house beneath' - still don't know if it was a shared magical hallucination, an alternate reality, a TARDIS run by a creepy puppeteer spider, or something else... Looking forward to finding out more!
  • XeoKnightRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    Great prose, doesn’t (so far) have any game elements like stats and classes, which I personally really appreciate. The small cast of characters are likeable, with our protagonist having the most depth so far. The other two are still a bit flat, but hopefully that changes with time. The setting is pretty unique as well, with a medieval fantasy setting and is fairly original compared to works I’ve read before.
    Overall big recommend.
  • attentionwRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    We’re dropped right into the action, and the pace remains steady.
    The world is dangerous, but power can be grasped if one is willing.
    MC is enjoyable to read, inexperienced but with drive and curiosity.
    World building is well done, setting up future plot points and adding a lot of flavor.
  • Slightly_MorbidRoyal Road
    ★★★★ 4.0
    At the start, this one has a feel of a saga or fairy tale, more than modern fantasy. The magic is wild, monsters are lurking out there and strangers appear in the wilds. While initially a bit choppy, the random encounters turn out to not have been so random and the tales turns darker than it initially appeared.
    Much of the readers view of this book will depend on how they think about the ending which seems quite polarising in the comment section. I personally liked the tale as a whole, but if I would like to continue if more books are written is another thing.
    Anyhow, it's well-written, well-thought out and has nice characters and plotting. I'm quite happy to have read this.
  • TerelinthRoyal Road
    ★★★★ 4.0
    Came to this after finishing up all of Practical Guide to Sorcery. I was looking for something with magic systems that have more of an occult feel, ritualistic and/or more learning based and this ended up fitting. The world building was awesome too, monsters and things that go bump in the night in the wilderness with dark/occult vibes going on. I want more!!!
  • Myrdin OsrekRoyal Road
    ★★★★ 4.0
    Just A really well done book. Its quick, engaging and easy to read. The story is interesting and the characters are really well fleshed out. The magic system is interesting, but I still found myself skipping over some of the longer sections of the techical processes by which the MC gets more powerful. Like yeah ok, I don't wanna read 5 paragraphs of the MC meditating and strengthening her soul. I just wanna know what happens next.
    Despite that one relatively minor flaw, it is overall very very good, and I would definetly recommend it, with one caveat.
    Like the title said, it is an excellent Beginning. But so far the story is not even near finished. I personally look forward to reading more as the books come along, but I know some people prefer to wait untill a story is done to start it.
  • Raphsyc0Royal Road
    ★★★★ 4.0
    I went into this story without reading the synopsis. From the opening sentence, I surmised that this would be some type of murder mystery, and by the way, I was hooked from the first sentence.
    But the way, the story flowed in the first chapter I did not think that magic would be involved. It was natural as if this new world already existed even before I read it.
    In regards to the story, the female protagonist seems to be a very free spirit, and her ability to decide with little to know contemplation makes me appreciate her a lot. The way magic was introduced was very subtle. The world seems to be very fantastical with magical structures and other stuff you would see in a cultivation story.
    A very interesting format, but it ultimately made reading a breeze.
    Overall, the pacing is good, and the protagonist's brother seems like someone I will soon come to love.
  • LessGenericRoyal Road
    ★★★ 3.0
    Interesting worldbuilding and premise. Has some good moments, especially in scenes that are emotionally impactful for the characters or that have to do with the magic system.
    Plot felt haphazard and unfocused to me, which is a large part of why I stopped reading at this point; I do not feel that this story is going to deliver on the mysteries that it is continuously setting up in a reasonable timeframe.
    The choices the characters make strike me as weirdly inconsistent at times, and this is not helped by the lack of investigation into the reasoning behind what the characters are doing.
    Grammar was mostly ok. Most chapters had some errors though, and there were a few bothersome instances of odd/ambiguous phrasing.
    Overall, I could see this becoming a great story with additional editing, a cleanup of the story arcs, and more insight into what's going on inside the character's heads.
    As it stands though, this failed to keep me interested.