The Quest of Words

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

This is a story about a regular guy who worked in a call center. As you might expect, he hated his job. Then he was dropped into a fantasy world right out of the games he grew up playing.

Unfortunately, playing a game and living the life of an action hero are completely different propositions -- even if the world plays by gaming rules. Now stranded in the middle of nowhere with a class he does not understand, a menu system that's a littletooloose, and no idea how any of it is supposed to work, follow our 'hero' as he stumbles his way to greatness. Eventually.

Author's note: The tags are there for a reason. If you are uncomfortable with sex, cursing, or slow mental and physical transformation, then this story will not appeal to you.

Attention new readers: What you will find here is the first five chapters of Book I, but beyond that is the rough draft version of Book II, which is still in the process of being written. If you would like to catch up to the story, I would encourage you to head over to Amazon and pick up the first novel beforehand. It's been professionally edited and everything!

I do own the cover picture. It was commissioned and paid for by the wonderful artist Dragan Panauvic.

Thank you!

Information

Status: Ongoing
Year: 2021
Author: Seleroan

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.3/ 5.0
Followers: 815
Views: 332,646

Reviews

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

Community Reviews(10)

TPKjccjRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
ok, I'm bad at doing reviews and English is not even my first language.
I will divide the section in overall, style, story, and character. things that I don't like, could be improved at the end, or things that I don't understand.
OVERALL
first, let me say, this is waaaaaaaaaay different (in a good way) from most same themed isekais out there. no sudden changes, no over-the-top reactions (that are boring at least), and an escalating concern between the characters.
it may disgust anyone that is not expecting what is happening or just by the situation in general, but this is part of the charm. I wouldn't call it body horror because is not something horrific, is something tense that could be converted into anything, including sexual tension ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°).
In the whole "isekai" thing some people just drop the MC and done, but this one, this one is like "le fuc just happen", as he didn't do a hero summoning or had a god to tell him what to do (at least when he appeared in the world). So he realizes the differences between how he thinks this would work (including a language barrier).
and the system, using terms that I haven't heard anywhere else (although is just a change of terms, sort of), it made so it technically unique to each character (sort of) to the point that if someone can't read they basically get their stats through voice mail. it has an element of surprise in the class system (more of this in the style and characters sections).
One of the best things that this novel does is make a parallel with the otherworldliness of a literal isekai and different cultures. more on this in the next section.
STYLE
The strongest part of this novel is, BY FAR, the style.
It has some weak points, some parts left me with that feeling when you hear a very bad joke (facepalming for a good moment) while other parts just felt like "why is this here?" (mainly the parts of the dreams, but that is just me).
However, I feel like so many other points are amazing, this guy (author) is takin
Ephraim_BairRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Love the story, and the style and the characters! The one drawback, I think, is how few there seems to be sometimes. But the banter, I love banter BTW, between Donum and Jax and then Hess is superb.
What are you doing still reading this review go and read the story already!
Mongolian1324Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This is a wildly fun tongue in cheek, serious/ not serious story. It is wildly fun to read. I really like the dream sequences and the menu interactions they have been fantastic.
It is a fantasy story with a twist. Not to dark not to light. It has blood in it, but also food and humor.
A real pleasure to read.
mallixRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
A great story, very well written, worth the read.
Story characters and worldbuilding are good.
The system premise is very interesting and very good.
The powers behind the system (Bline et al) feel like they are making it up as they go along to some extent and are obviously very facinated with the Protagonist. The Natives get a completely different system.
Getting a fairly helltaker vibe from Bline and Co
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helltaker
It goes some places some people wont be that comfortable with but its done in a fairly tasteful way in my opinion
Gender Bender
Mind Control (Protag does not realise he is doing it at first)
Similar to Pokegirls but less grimdark
chaogoesmuRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
Later review: starts off ok, becomes great at the frog dungeon, becomes porn a few arcs after that and doesn't live up to the promise it started showing. Worth reading until it's not and you should definitely read until it's not then just stop and pretend it's a story that ended well instead of fizzling into mediocrity.
Old review: The story is solid, characters are believable setting and world building are so far a little underdeveloped as the characters haven't explored enough, grammar good enough that nothing has stood out... and it should just be an average story but it's really really good, and i cant say why exactly.
To be fair I'm interested in people dealing with unwanted mental and physical changes in stories as I think the idea of change and learning to live with them is fascinating and terrifying. Maybe that's it.
Fair warning, if your homophobic it is touched upon but not in the shove your face in it way that SJW writing does, it's just a part of what's going on and actually adds a lot of moments that I couldn't stop laughing at. Sexuality occurs so be a mature reader, conservative views might be offended as jokes about masturbation and orgasms happen. It's not porn, it's just a little raunchy at moments... later chapters get a bit into porn territory.
I really cant say why it's so good but you should definitely read it to find out. I recommend untill the end of the giant frog dungeon section before making any judgements as that's when it really seems to hit its stride.
esotericistRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
edit: a year and a half later (this was originally posted may 1st, 2021), well into book 2, and i think my review still mostly stands. i think some of the porn and porn-adjacent stuff ramped up a bit more than i'd prefer (especially the 'utility' skill the main character picks up), but it's honestly not something i didn't expect considering the nature of the story, and that it wasn't as there previously is due to the necessarily slow build-up due to the core elements of book 1. still an inexplicably engaging work for me. i didn't love book 2 so far as much, but i'm not inclined to remove any points for it.
preface: i am an asexual girl, and rather uninterested in reading about dudes (or anyone, really, but dudes is where it usually comes up the most) getting into physical relationships.
going by the tags, and off of the surface premise, there should be nothing for me here.
but with a core conceit most authors would use as nothing more than a lever for "lol porn", the author here has managed to make something genuinely interesting: a study into mental compulsion, identity and body horror, and all while having the nominal 'perpetrator' having no clear idea what they've done to the victim (at least as of this review; the protagonist is beginning to wake up that something is going on, but doesn't understand the breadth of it).
while what's actually going on is rather exorbitantly foreshadowed for anyone paying attention, and a decent amount of the narrative as presented leans on crude humor, that somehow doesn't detract from the nuanced specifics. the real meat here is the slowly dawning "oh, wait, something isn't right" as the protagonist starts noticing things, dismissively at first, then putting pieces together.
the litrpg elements are competent, not entirely reliant on tropes, and have their own novel engaging elements.
the depiction of skyrimesque dungeoneering (with 'puzzles' that require 'solving') has been quite entertaining so far.
scores:
i've marked off sligh
luda305Royal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
This is surprisingly well done. I'm not going to get into the nitty gritty, but I will focus on a few themes that are well executed.
There's an alienness to the fantasy world he is isekai'd to. And it makes both the protagonist and the reader viscerally uncomfortable, especially with some aspects of the system and magic at play. It's not quite eldritch in nature, but combined with misfortune, the story could be played off as some sort of comedy-horror (like reality). And on that note, part of the reason it plays so well is because it feels so realistic (and not in the grimdark emo ways that some so-called "realistic" isekai feel). Yes, the protagonist wanted to escape his call center job; he didn't want to be Alice'd and actually coping with a fantasy world is f****** hard. That said, he's in his mid-late 20s, and even if he doesn't have all his shit together, he's got a maturity that far too few protagonists in the genre (or this website) have.
One last point. A number of reviewers have focused on the cover art / body transformation mentioned in the synopsis.
The gist of their point being that the ugly, male bandit who became the protagonist's "lilim" is going to turn into a hot female lilim. If that is where the story is going, it's a really, really subtle point. I don't get that from the synopsis, I have no idea what's going on in the cover art, and while there's some weird sexual pleasure thing between the protagonist and his lilim, that's played off more for crude male humor between two hetero-males. Also, the word "lilim" doesn't really clarify much from checking the internet, other than a vague suggestion that it's a female demon? So he's becoming a succubus trainer? Oh. Well, maybe.
So, yeah. Not sure where it's going. But it's well put together and certainly worth reading and watching.
Jean FereRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
A good solid read that's a pleasant way to kill some time.
The story starts with a basic isekai premise the throws you for a loop, as it's all about the discovery of the world. The MC knows next to nothing and the natives are not much better. As the story progesses bits and pieces of the world are gradually revealed.
The only problems are pacing and character development. The pacing is on the slow side and can make you want to skim sections. It;s very hard to enjoy fight scenes when you have no idea about the mechanics. The characters also seem a little undifferentiated.
Bottom line very much above the pavk on RR. Well worth taking a look at
Mikhail ArkashRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
I reviewed this at chapter 2 and reviewed the review at chapter 20.
The overall style is very nice. The author is obviously knowledgeable about writing–either from online courses or wherever–and demonstrates all the best techniques. By the smallest details and with few words, the author manages to show us a perfect picture of his main character and the world around him. Also, the professionally made cover is a good one.
After 20 chapters, story drags its feet. There are details that don't help much the narrative, and honestly, would have been better left out. However, this is still interesting.
BeyogiRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
Overall a very interesting go at an Isekai. The MC is a college educated office drone, who ended up in a glorified call center. Like any good Isekai that makes it easy to empathise with at least one facet of their prior life.
Now as the guy gets dropped into the LitRPG world he figures it's best to let summons fight for him and gets a class accordingly. That class is what the story is mostly about. It's a Lilim Trainer, which allows the protag to claim defeated foes (and IIRC volunteers) as their Lilim and allows him to order them around. Now this has potential to go into pretty dark places since it's effectively a slaver class, but there's where the personality of the MC and the handling of the author comes in.
The MC got a solid moral code and is a pretty nice guy, so this story doesn't have the usual anti-hero asshole turn-offs. Also his first Lilim kinda had it coming, but also isn't an unsympathetic monster.
Honestly, the whole setup reminds me of Pokegirls (though the protag is the only one with a class like that so far) only without the Grim Dark and the Stupid. The Mc actually needs to build a relation with their Lilim, he can command them around, but there seem to be limits to that. There's misscommunication but the Lilim retains their free will and doesn't just become a stupid haremette. (I hope it stays that way)
The only criticism I have is that the story is pretty slow paced. This helps a lot for building the relationship between the protag and his Lilim, but it also means progress takes a long time.
Overall a great story that I can absolutely recommend, but if you're terminally allergic to gender bender or mind-controller storeis you should probably keep away.