Vainglory [LitRPG, Progression Fantasy]

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

NOTE TO READERS: Vainglory, Books 1-3, are stubbed as of 12/15/2025. They're now on Kindle and Audible (book 3 as of 1/7/2026.)

Thanks for your support!

You can find it here:Vainglory on Amazon

Furthermore, the series is on hiatus as of September 18, 2025. There won't be any further chapters on my Patreon.

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Dive into an adventure where the line between hero and villain blurs, and the cost of survival may be more than you bargain for.

In the rain-soaked streets of Seattle, Ward Dyer, a seasoned Port Authority detective, finds himself entangled in a case that defies reality. His latest stakeout on a suspected kidnapper leads him to the eerie, forgotten tunnels of the Seattle underground—a place where shadows whisper and danger lurks.

In a heart-stopping encounter, Ward disrupts a human sacrifice, but the victory leaves him gravely wounded and teetering on the brink of death. He’s approached by a mysterious young woman with an offer he can’t refuse. In exchange for a cryptic price, she saves him—sending him to Vainglory, a system of worlds where magic intertwines with the unknown and mysteries unravel in the darkest corners.

Now, with a devilish presence haunting his thoughts, Ward embarks on the Vainglory Challenges—a perilous quest for power, riches, and the elusive secrets that may hold the key to his salvation—or his undoing.

Cover Art by: Hugo A. Ruiz (@hartcomic on IG)

Discord invite: https://discord.gg/jrkHqZhdeK

Information

Status: Ongoing
Year: 2024
Author: PlumParrot

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.6/ 5.0
Followers: 1,277
Views: 52,519

Chapters(11 total)

Reviews

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

Community Reviews(10)

BiovoreBarrageRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Plum once again uses the trope of a powerful(?) being in the main characters head, but in such a different setting that it feels fresh and exciting. This story has been great so far, and extrapolating from the success of their previous novels, will be going forward. The only gripe I have is the “stat sheet” being present, as I’m more of a fan of looser progression models, but that’s just a me thing.
ChristopherCravenRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Instead for Fame and Fortune in the Vainglory System, it is for Mana, Words of Power and Glories!
Style: We are following the MC and his Guest in his head in a mixture of Indiana Jones, Who Dunnit ( Once a Cop...you know how it is), 1920 Adventure Movie and a splash Litrpg.
Story: A Cop raises the flag before retirement and wosh, he has a nice succubus in his head, is a bit Younger and in another world; trying to figure it out and growing stronger.
So far he has visited the first of the challenges you can find in the Vainglory System and it seems to be a mixture between a DnD Dungeon and a cultivator secret realm.
Grammar: You will find more mistakes here than in the story!
Character Score: Ward improves and is not only getting the rust of his body so to speak but also getting a bit out of his habits just not all. Grace his passenger is towing up a bit and finding out what stories she heard where true and which aren´t. Both are learning and improving and the side characters are making sense, are motivated, have feelings and do not give enough Lore ;)
World Building: We start on Earth and then teleport to the First of the Vainglory worlds. It is flashed out great and so far there were no holes in it, just in the knowledge our 1.5 MC´s have had.
So as always if you liked the other works of the author you never read this if not you might want to try those two.
Paradox047Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Vainglory feels like the perfect mix of VoT and CD. Steampunk instead of Cyberbunk, Devil instead of Angel, with magic and race/vessel improvements. The Hemograph chart also looks like a lovechild of the 2 systems. The pacing also seems great to me personally. Very much looking forward to seeing where this story goes.
SgtStrykerRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Went through the first book at a nominal pace and enjoyed it. The main character is fairly well developed. The "supporting" MC only mildly so, but is being used as a mystery. It appears that the MC is being a true isekai protagonist by having a number of females attracted to him in one form or another. Only complaint I have is a common one to many of this genre of writers in that there are cliff hangers at the end of a lot of chapters.
SnandersonRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Interesting character, well written. The scenarios move along at a good pace, with a variety of secondary characters, including a spiritual sidekick.
There are stats to show character growth, and a clear view of where the story is going, which is introduced well close to the beginning.
The MC uses a gun (from his law enforcement beginnings), but is also starting to learn magic.
Worth a read.
SomewhatBokenRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I was almost killed and teleported to a new world, and all I got was this devil in my head.
Really enjoying Plum's new series. The MC would fit right into a hard-boiled detective novel, but that's not this book. A bit of action and adventure. A novel magic system.
CurlyGreekRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
This is one of the best stories I've had the pleasure of laying my eyes on in quite some time. To be honest, it came on my radar during its first release, but the blurb threw me somewhat, so I filed it away for later and forgot about it until last week when I burned through all I wanted to read and found myself perusing something new. To be fair, I've read the start of the blurb and labeled it in my head as a urban fantasy about a cop and it is my fault for not reading the blurb till the end.
When it comes to the story, it checks many of my boxes and I can honestly say this is what I've been looking for for some time. There is no "world saving hero-porn", no LitRPG system, although there are some system elements that are integrated cleverly with no actual system, which I personally prefer. Worldbuilding is very interesting, with various peoples and places, each bringing their own distinct flavor so far, I hope that it stays the same. Very much to my delight, the author blends magic, melee and firearms together very nicely. I appreciate the steampunky vibes without being actual steampunk with all its trappings, hopefully it stays in the same vein of development, with early cars and revolvers but no computers (aside from magical computers) and no polyester. There is foreshadowing a-plenty, with different planets and challenges, magics, peoples, and other good stuff.
The MC is pretty good, not the best I've seen but very much far from worst. He compliments the story well, but he's not the main draw for me. The MC is what you and I might expect when we think about "Good Cop" although he should start showing some depth at this point (first part of Book II), otherwise he feels a bit two-dimensional. The supporting cast is pretty good, with somewhat complex dynamics and memorable villains. To get into the nitty-gritty, the favorite stuff of us, nerds, - the fighting and magic - the MC is set up as an experienced and competent combatant on Earth, but in Vainglory he's kind
kkmeRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
Vainglory is at its best, when the MC continues being an investigator in his new environment. There's a lot to like and I'll keep reading.
That being said, the MC reminds me of a TTRPG player who gets all the perks: Multiclass, too many items, magic, stats, ...
But with all these advantages they just cannot play their character properly and so they struggle with softballs while asking for hardballs. Frustrating.
Wolfshed66Royal Road
★★★ 3.0
Honestly, I would've preferred it if it was in the same "System" as Victor of Tuscun, one of his other series. The MC in this book if a decent enough guy. Likeable even. But as of Chapter 31 he hasn't actually "changed" in any way that I can see (other than shiny eyes). He's still a Detective from Earth. The magic system is still a mystery yet, and again I think I would've preferred if it was in the same system that many other book of this genre are in.
TBH I'm not really invested enough in this story to continue at this time. It's kinda boring, truth be told. Furthermore, if the MC somehow finds a way to get bullets made for his .357, then I'm definitely not interested! Guns are boring!
Also, the devil that rides in his head with him isn't to my liking. I'm actually not interested in anything she has to say at any given time. She's more of a distraction for me.
IM_MORTALRoyal Road
★★★ 2.5
The start was kinda good because I was expecting something Grand something more but then it just spiraled down and things just happened for the sake of it Happening and the mc is just being manipulated like a good little bitch the main thing that irks me is how he's this experienced policeman then he acts like an inexperienced teenager