The Sandbox: Classless [Royal Road Writathon Winner]

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

This fiction is a participant in the RR writathon

Chika is an adventurer that completely idolizes and idealizes her profession. In her mind being an adventurer means being capable of anything, and being able to use any and every skill in existence. Art, science, math, every kind of magic imaginable, every weapon imaginable. In other words, she believes an adventurer is someone who lives in a sandbox environment, a place with absolute freedom to be anything and everything you want.

Unfortunately for her, those days have long since passed, and in current times adventurers divide themselves into ranks and classes, preferring specialization in order to then form teams. Teams that she is left out of because there is always a supposed better option.

This is the story of how the adventurer Chika climbs her way from going without food for over a month, to becoming the founder of the 11th great guild, and eventually becoming one of the few people to ever live that is wealthy enough to obtain a legendary mithril coin.

Information

Status: Hiatus
Year: 2024
Author: Lions Quill

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.5/ 5.0
Followers: 488
Views: 223,756

What readers say about The Sandbox: Classless [Royal Road Writathon Winner]

“I had a fun time reading about Chika's life. Though a bit of a slow-burn, there's enough action and mystery here -- tragic pasts creeping here and there -- for this novel to be an entertaining read. Let me break it down for you. Style: The prose is strong i…”
GD_CruzRoyal Road5.0 / 5
“Style: The prose is really nice, light and enjoyable. More importantly, it's easy to read, and is detailed enough that it tickles the imagination. Story: The concept of the story is weird, but is impressively written. I particularly enjoyed the chapter wher…”
Jordan Elias R.Royal Road5.0 / 5

Reviews

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Community Reviews(5)

GD_CruzRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I had a fun time reading about Chika's life. Though a bit of a slow-burn, there's enough action and mystery here -- tragic pasts creeping here and there -- for this novel to be an entertaining read.
Let me break it down for you.
Style: The prose is strong in this one. Perhaps it's because this is the author's 2nd novel, but you can read the experience in the writing, which is smooth, relatable, and easily understood. It also helps that a 1st person POV let's you dive into Chika's thoughts, helping you to quickly understand what she's going through.
Story: at its core, this story feels like a tale that oozes familiar tropes that we tend to root for. Chika's an underdog. You see that in the first chapter where it's a fight of 6 against one. It's a tale of enduring adversity, something we see while reading about how Chika survives through a 40 day fast. It's a story of overcoming hardships, which we see during her time hunting wards, giant spiders, and all manner of beasts... She's the lone wolf who can do it all, not perfectly, and not in some grand manner or.flare, but she gets the job done through the skin of her teeth, and isn't that fun to read?
Grammar: Didn't notice anything that could break immersion. Clearly, the author knows how to string words together. The descriptions, particularly with how Chika was starving in an early chapter, evoked a sense of hunger in me as I read it. So, good job on this front.
Character: Chika is a delight. She's determined, scrappy, tenacious, feisty, daring, talented, and not at all like a YA FL that swoons over young men and can't do anything by herself without the help of some random guy. Basically, she's not a damsel in distress. Hell, she can starve for 40 days and come out of it ready to work. That's Chika in a nutshell.
The supporting cast are few and not really focused on at the moment. This is Chika's story. They just live in it. Luckily, she's the kind of protagonist who can keep a reader's focus.
The novel's not gonna
Jordan Elias R.Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Style: The prose is really nice, light and enjoyable. More importantly, it's easy to read, and is detailed enough that it tickles the imagination.
Story: The concept of the story is weird, but is impressively written. I particularly enjoyed the chapter where she survived more than a month without food.
Grammar: There were a few typos here and there, a few missing comas, but not enough to jar the flow of the story. I'd advice a quick re-edit before the story goes too far.
Overall, the book is pretty good and I got to the last chapter pretty quickly. Definitely looking forward to how she changes the mindset of her people.
Scott CrosswhiteRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I know I'm writing this review early on, so for now know that this is subject to change.
Firstly. I do love this style. It's easy to read and understand, even if there were grammatical errors, of which there are none (That I notice but I'm dyslexic) Secondly. This is the authors second fiction, and you can really tell that they are using what they learned from writing their first to make this one even better, which I absolutely love to see.
The story, while there isn't much to it at the moment being on only chapter three, seems pretty interesting, and is already going in a few unique direction I really like, and actually progressing relatively quickly, especially compared to the more slice of life style from the authors previous fiction.
The characters I already love. The tomboyish girl that is the MC is a pretty cute character all things considered, but she also seems like the type to just not let things get to her which makes her come off as pretty fire, for lack of a better family friendly phrase. What is most impressive to me though is that despite both the authors fictions being in first person, the main characters both have their own distinct narration and personality that completely separates them from each other.
I really like the story so far and will update this review later on. I just hope the quality continues as it is a writathon story. So honestly I wouldn't blame it for not, but it is cool that the story seems very well thought out so far at least.
I would say this one seems a lot more like Log Horizon (Without the Isekai) or maybe something like Dan Machi vibes As the pace seems to be pretty good, starting with a bit of action and about to throw us into more in Chapter 4 or 5, but still developing the characters, which is good. And since the story is about forming a guild I am expecting many more exiting loveable characters. If it's one thing I really love from the authors work it is the character design.
kafkametaRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Overall Score: 5/5
This fiction grabs attention with its direct style, solid character development, and a story that hooks readers, especially those into progression tales. The author skillfully mixes character details, world-building, and magic system explanations within an action-packed narrative.
Style: 5/5
The writing is efficient, moving the story along quickly while packing each sentence with multiple layers of information. This approach keeps the pace fast and the content rich.
Character: 5/5
The main character starts from a position of vulnerability, making their resilience and active struggle to improve their life both relatable and inspiring. This strong character foundation drives the story.
Story: 5/5
What might seem like a basic introductory mission is deeply engaging due to the well-crafted main character and their journey. It's a solid start that promises more complexity and development.The main character starts from a level lower than zero, a very interesting weak-to-strong scenario.
Grammar: 5/5
Minor errors exist but don't detract from the story's enjoyment. The narrative is smooth and engaging overall.
Conclusion
This fiction stands out for its clarity, character depth, and story engagement. It's a promising start that will likely appeal to a wide audience, especially fans of the progression genre. Looking forward to seeing where this goes.
Appropriate Amounts of ButterRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
To start off, I’d like to point out that while this story isn’t anything wildly innovative, it is done in a way that makes familiar concepts not feel stale. There’s a lot here you’ve probably read in some way or another before (at least that was true for me), but they’re intermixed with just enough differences that it makes the story have a unique vibe to it, for lack of better words.
Starting off with Style, the author does a good job of showing instead of telling – to the point that I would describe it as a semi-unreliable narrator. Specifically, if Chika is calm or focused, the writing will be clear and concise and can often paint a vivid image in your head. If Chika is panicking or confused, actions and details will fly by with minimal attention, and the pacing speeds up to frantic levels, making it difficult to know what’s actually going on. This may turn some people off, but for me it actually enhances the experience. It also helps that Chika is level-headed most of the time, so the chaotic bits are few and far between. That said, it also means the exposition can occasionally be a little weak, since if two characters know what something is, they won’t bother explaining it to the reader. They’ll just talk about it like they expect the listener to know what it is, meaning at times you’ll have to discern information yourself.
As for the story, it vaguely reminds me of a non-satirical version of Gintama. Chika is clearly stronger than other people in her class, but because she doesn’t distribute her strength in the way society thinks should be done, no one really accepts her… at least at first. While her ultimate goals are clear and well defined, the path she takes to achieve it is not. Often times, things will happen outside of Chika’s control, and as a result she ends up doing things way differently than she originally plans to. For example:
Between chapters 50 and 80, it genuinely feels like the entire plot turned into [things happen to Chika, and as a result s