Welcome to The Ascendant: Endless Reincarnation, a novel inspired by my love of roguelikes and other games with New Game+ mechanics. Since I’d hate to waste a reader’s time with a story not to their taste, I want spend a moment talking about my thoughts and plans for this novel.

Not interested? Feel free to skip this introduction, you won’t be missing out on much.

Okay, let’s talk about the premise. Isn’t it wonderful seeing your character struggle to survive in the early game, then get stronger with each life until it’s destroying Level 50 content at Level 1? Or passing legendary artifacts down to the next generation to trivialize the first bosses they run into? It’s a rewarding experience, yet one you only gain after much grinding.

This story tries to capture that feeling. It’s the typical “Weak to Strong” genre that you’re probably very familiar with, using my preferred mix of plot devices: powerful treasures, battles against monsters, kingdom conflicts, and an “Overworld” tying it all together.

If you want to know what to expect from this, here are some slightly spoilery notes of what I have planned. This should let you know whether to drop this now or stay tuned.

Our MC dies. Repeatedly. This shouldn’t be a surprise, given the theme of the novel. Maybe it’s because of old age, maybe it’s because he gets shanked in a dark alley. Who knows? A slightly slow start. It takes time to turn an office worker into an overpowered existence. Richard learns to protect himself early - but kingdom or world domination? Heh. Even with the “slow buildup”, I’ll try not to spend too much time on any one Life / World. Many will just get a short summary (or else even 2000 chapters wouldn’t be enough). For Lives that do get a spotlight, enough focus that the setting feels real, but not to the point that the MC never moves on. Game Elements are restricted. Normal people aren’t aware of their stats. Worlds don’t have “Job Change Quests”, automatically respawning monsters, and things like that. No NTR, brainwashing, betrayal due to memory loss, or similar tropes. Too cheap. Some tragedy but not grimdark. I want a mix of slice of life fun, bloody action, and a little sadness. Wish fulfillment is real. This is first and foremost a story about someone getting strong to fulfill his desires. If I have to choose between realism and fun, I’d go with the latter. I like cliches. You can tell by my use of Truck-san. Many of the characters you meet in this story will fit one fantasy stereotype or more. Please forgive my lack of originality. NO EXTREME TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEMENT SHENANIGANS. I am very sorry, I like that genre too (Release that Witch is in my Top 5), but the balance of power levels in this story would go completely out the window if modernizing a kingdom was an option. This will be directly addressed in the plot later.

That about does it. So without further ado, let’s follow Richard Brooks on a journey that spans many lifetimes. I have written very little fiction before, however, so this will be rough at some points. Advice is always appreciated. Enjoy!