The Power of Ten, Book Five: Versatile Wizardry

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

(This story is now complete) Book Five:Versatile Wizardbegan on 2/17/23 after Book Four:Dynamoconcluded. Cover by Jack of Hearts! He did great work! Participant in the April/2023 and Nov/2023 Writathon challenges! --------------- The last of the soul-shards of Aelryinth is cut free, and is drawn through astral space to a new realm... one with no exposure to the gods, powers, and system of the Power of Ten at all. It is a world of Magery, where Elements of Magic is the science, the power is in people, and humanity dwells alongside countless magical creatures who actively contest the world with them... yet is still remarkably similar to our own in many ways. Shard Zeben will have to hit the ground running and make some major adjustments in a gamer's outlook as she introduces the mages of this world to what it means to be a truly versatile wizard... and to bring the Light of Heaven to a world that has no such thing! --- Ebooks in the Power of Ten Series (Kindle):Power of Ten: Series Page for the First Day, the First Week, and the First Month! Based on, but not set in, the world of, the Chinese WebnovelVersatile Mage.The magic system is a guideline, and gets modified a great deal and fleshed-out for completion, because wizards are total geeks about that stuff and it's what they do. No smut, no harem, sex is offscreen, profanity is mild. There'll be occasional numbers, occasionalAssaysof progress, and a lot of trying to work out how the magic is actually functioning. Here is the link to the Fictions Page for the preceding Books One through Four: Books One through Five of the Power of Ten!

Information

Status: Completed
Year: 2023
Author: RE Druin

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.8/ 5.0
Followers: 1,416
Views: 3,596,533

Chapters(409 total)

What readers say about The Power of Ten, Book Five: Versatile Wizardry

“All of the Power of Ten books are pretty good. I get a lil tired of how the prose is set up, I don't like the idea of ontological evil, but all in all is good stuff. My largest complaint, though, is the fact that queer people don't really appear as central…”
AwesomerRoyal Road5.0 / 5
“This is not a story that shoud be read out of order. It is really important to have knowledge of the system and main characters before attempting to read this. By this point, you know what you are going to get - a ridiculously smart MC taking advantage of u…”
BlenheimRoyal Road5.0 / 5

Reviews

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Community Reviews(10)

AwesomerRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
All of the Power of Ten books are pretty good.
I get a lil tired of how the prose is set up, I don't like the idea of ontological evil, but all in all is good stuff.
My largest complaint, though, is the fact that queer people don't really appear as central characters. Maybe that's me making assumptions from earlier books and it's improved, but in general it's got the same feel as a lot of the books made by cishet people. Where being cis and het are the default state of everything, and queer folks aren't even mentioned as a possibility.
One of the best ways of integrating queer people into a story following mostly cishet people I've seen was with Path of Ascension. I dunno if I'm not supposed to mention other books in reviews. Oh well. The way the author of that does it is by just having gay couples just be there. Nobody says anything about it, it's not framed as being different or important. It's *normal*. I feel like something similar to that style could have been integrated.
Or maybe go into the sociopolitical aspects of equality with Primos, Powered, and Forsaken- or Awakened mages versus the common rabble in this book's case- as a parallel to queer peoples' struggles in a system that's not built to support them? It's not an exact parallel.
I just feel like it could be improved. I had a problem with how Power of Ten gamers had Templates imposed upon them and that didn't cause any adverse mental effects due to conflicting gender and/or sexual identity. It could be seen as the Template being the primary entity, with IRL memories tacked on for flavor, I suppose.
I just feel like there was some room for diving into how being spontaneously changed into your ideal form, as made through a video game or any other medium, is the ultimate fantasy for many transgender people. IDK.
It's just the same nagging feeling of "everyone's straight and cis" that I get in some stories. It'd be super cool to have it explained that the incongruent mismatch between the body of a trans pe
BlenheimRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This is not a story that shoud be read out of order. It is really important to have knowledge of the system and main characters before attempting to read this.
By this point, you know what you are going to get - a ridiculously smart MC taking advantage of unlimited XP and a cheat magic system to bring the wrath of heaven to evildoers. Always three steps ahead of the bad guys.
The MC in this case is explicitly devoted to a mission of personal sacrifice, no fun and games for her. It is for Sama to bring a bit of comic relief as assasinator in chief.
The human characters are not memorable, but great action sequences involving beasts.
A nice addition to the amazing series, but hoping for something different next.
DepressedLurkerRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Been reading Power of Ten for a couple years now, and this book didn’t disappoint! Actually watched the first anime on the ON so the way all the magic was interpreted in regards to the systems of magic was interesting.
10/10 would read again, full review when the book is completed.
EiferRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I'm mostly doing an advanced review because I find it silly that there's so few ratings/reviews compared to the number of readers (look at me throwing stones while I live in a glass house). I'm also not really that great at putting my thoughts into words, so you'll most likely just read a opinion piece word salad, but eh, there you go.
I believe I started reading Red's books just around when they were finishing up The Human Race, which incidentally is my favorite so far, and have been mostly enjoying them, while Dynamo was my least liked mostly because I don't much care for super-hero stuff on the Good side ;)
For someone that has zero knowledge of the underlying magic system, dungeons and dragons or whatever, Red still somehow manages to make it an incredibly engaging read with some interesting character dynamics.
The only thing it really lacks in my opinion, is some deeper connections/friendships for the main character. While it's clear that Sama and Briggs are very good friends with her, everything is so busy that it comes off as a afterthought and we don't see as much development there as we did in for example Dynamo.
To cap off, It's pretty obvious that Red is imbibing some kind of black voodoo juice with the consistency they put out chapters combined with the quality of said chapters. That alone earns a toast in respect.
Flight2069Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Book three was just a masterwork of munchkinry, the thing I come to litrpg for. I cannot wait for more. The numbers go up is more than just numbers go up, it's actual optimization that isn't just some opmc's cheat ability. Hell, I'd love to have even more Assay's going up.
Spelling and grammar are perfect as always, the writing is clear, and the formatting is clean
I am just genuinely so excited to see PoT gamer in a xixiania world. It's just gonna be so f--king funny. R.E. Druin is a master munchkin and the powergaming shennaigans literally don't get better than this. I'm sitting here typing a review for the first time literally giggling in excitement. The exploits are going to be real. No world is ready for soul shard of a power gamer like Aelrynth.
Jack0fheartRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
In The Power of Ten, Book Five: Versatile Wizardry, another soul-shard of Aelryinth is transported to a new realm where magic replaces science.
Overall Score 5/5: This book was a joy to read from start to finish. The worldbuilding was fantastic, the plot was captivating, and the characters were engaging.
Style Score 5/5: The writing style was top-notch, and the pacing of the story was perfect. The descriptions were vivid, and the dialogue was engaging, making it easy to immerse myself in this new world.
Story Score 5/5: The book picks up right where the previous book left off, but it can also be read as a standalone. The author always delivers exceptionally high results and I expect this to be no different as the story progresses.
Grammar Score 5/5: The writing is excellent, with no obvious grammatical errors.
Character Score 5/5: The characters were well-developed and had unique personalities that made them stand out.
In summary, The Power of Ten, Book Five: Versatile Wizardry is an excellent addition to the series that fans of fantasy and magic will absolutely love. I would highly recommend this story to anyone who enjoys immersive, magical worlds filled with action, adventure, and mystery! ♥
Kevin McElroyRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
RE: Druin has been my favorite author for years now. I started reading The Power of Ten series during Sama Rantha and in three years there has never been a missed post. In the approximately 1500 chapters so far I have noticed only four errors, and two of those were corrected by the time I finished reading that chapter. The stories are fast paced and contain deep, dense world building that doesn't slow the plot advancement. The characters are rich and complicated with proper philosophic and emotional motivations. This latest book has some of the most compact story-telling I've ever read. I only wish there was more to read every day. I always get a little extra happy on Friday when I remember I get to read two chapters.
KryptonHDRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
read the previous 4 books multiple times now, started this one months back on patreon and let it to collect chapters - this like the previous ones are greatly entertaining and a unique take in a different universe with different rules. Loved the beast realm and Reynard, just started this but can already tell im gonna love it like the last 4 books. Keep up the great work.
Kyrin FireheartRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
So I've binged all five stories and even dug up my old account just to review since this whole series is magnificent. My biggest issue is now I have to wait for normal scheduled releases. Oh well. Here take my review and let's hope others find this gem! A world Heaven hasn't noticed yet and it's up to our plucky Heroine to show a bunch of self serving assholes just how little she'll put up with their nonsense. Add in some Chinese cultivation and some VERY intelligent magical beasts and you've got a recipe for quite a fun ride without all the horrid tropes you get from standard CN novels.
LokordaRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Style:
If you've read a RE Druin story before you'll understand what style to expect. The Author is very consistent with writing in a certain way that I personally enjoy. Expect lots of DnD-inspired power systems/munchkin-ing that's just deep enough to catch the interest of those more versed with the TTRPG but still shallow enough, with enough descriptions and story, to keep the attentions of those who are just here without much foreknowledge.
Story:
It is great in my opinion. You could consider it a little lackluster because of the comparatively lacking tension, but I enjoy the deepdive into a setting that RE Druin seems to have rebuilt from (basically) the ground up. 'The Versatile Mage' was just slightly above average Chinese fast-food fiction in my eyes and the Author of this fanfiction has organically injected new life and perspective into a setting that I didn't know had room for that. The wealth of hidden depths we see unveiled to us speak to far more than just the plotholes of the original work, good job RE Druin.
Grammar:
This is, as far as I can tell, Impeccable. I'm no grammar-nazi, but to someone who can fairly regularly spot small problems in even the pretty good fictions, this is top-tier.
Character:
This is where the story suffers slightly. Still giving a 5-star for the algorithm, but the depth of world-building and the utilization and exploitation of the power systems means there isn't a lot of screen time for the characters. When three of those characters can be boiled down to two reskins of characters from a previous fiction and a SIOC this means the pickings are pretty bare. The characters who come from in-universe are further separated into Beast characters and Human characters so distinct voices become a little difficult but the Author's style usually manages to handle this perfectly.
TL;DR
The story is a great exploration into a world I thought I knew. Expect the normal munchkin-ing of a RE Druin story and enjoy.