The Stubborn Skill-Grinder In a Time Loop

As of writing this, I’ve read the two published books and a few more chapters on Royal Road.

Blurb

Fight. Grind. Grow strong enough to stop the Cataclysm.

Orodan was an orphaned street rat who clawed his way to the county militia with hard work. When calamitous events unfold and draw him into events bigger than himself, Orodan’s battle-loving disposition leads to a warrior’s death.

Then he wakes up again at the start of the Cataclysm. Then again. And again.

In a world of skills, titles, and blessings, a smart time-looper would perhaps scheme, plan, amass equipment, and allies. But not Orodan. If there’s one thing he’s good at, it’s stubbornly trying the same thing over and over again via brute force till it’s done.

If a wall is in front of him, going around is not an option. Instead, he’ll batter it thousands of times until either the wall breaks or he does. And gain skill levels along the way.

Until, maybe one run, he’ll grow powerful enough to stop the Cataclysm.

Thoughts

This has to be the most popcorn read I’ve picked up the whole year. It’s pure turn-your-brain-off-and-enjoy action and its very cathartic seeing all those NumbersGoUp after a few slower, less LitRPG reads. The plot is simple—there’s a local catalysm from an ancient war golem awakening, and a larger global cataclysm from Eldrith horrors, and Orodan has got to figure out a way to stop them from happening.

Don’t expect deep layers to the plot like you get in time looping stories such as Mother of Learning or Years of the Apocalyse, for Orodan solves problems not by subtle machinations or unravelling mysteries, but by punching his way through them as many times as it takes. The worldbuilding isn’t lacking, though. The different nations, the magical schools, especially the gods and their use of avatars is all well done, and the build up to the Eldritch cataclysm and its overwhelming strength is great.

In fact… and I know some people will think I’m a monster for saying this… but I sort of wish that was it, you know. The first book is 800 pages, the second is 400, so this would be a standard trilogy, and we could have had a finished series. Adding extra worlds of different kinds (hell, tech worlds, cultivation worlds), and a shift from Orodan as a one-man powerhouse into a powerhouse plus teacher sort of felt a bit unnecessary from a narrative standing. By the time Orodan wraps the Eldritch horror, he’s fighting triple Grandmasters in his sleep and its a natural finish for his skill caps as well.

Guess I’m one of the few that like finished series instead of new arcs, system changes, and thematic changes to keep things going.

Alright, so I mentioned skills, and the LitRPG elements in the story focus on skill grinding (obviously), where skills have thresholds at specific numbers (Expert, Master, Grandmaster, etc), and Orodan naturally picks up a lot of skills. These do allow some variation in the fights so its not just punching things, but I will point out the majority of ‘boss fights’ so to speak follow the pattern of:

1. Orodan gets almost killed and is reduced to sludge or some cells
2. Orodan uses the stress of this to force an epiphany breakthrough, normally by combining or expanding skills into a new, higher rarity one.
3. New skill tips the scales and Orodan then beats the shit out of his opponent.
4. Chapter ends with the author making a remark about how stubbornly Orodan is grinding out his skills in a time loop.

Hey, if it works, it works. I’m not always convinced things make sense with skill levels (like how a level 100 skill is constantly thwarted by Orodan’s much-lower-levelled resistances). I’m exaggerating a bit with point four… but only a bit. You know in a movie when someone drops the title, you nod your head and think “Nice.” The author did this very early on, I nodded, continued reading. And then they did it again. And again. I swear they must get some sick pleasure if they can end a chapter by remarking on Orodan stubbornly grinding his stubborn skills in a stubborn time loop. They need help.

On technical writing, no complaints. Prose is simple but clear, very minimal grammar and typos given the edit passes Aethon gives.

Characters are decent. Orodan is just a ball of stubbornness — that’s his personality — and side characters when they appear in the specific loop are fleshed out and given their own goals that don’t always just serve the MC or to advance the plot.

So in summary, a fun popcorn read that contain a narratively complete three-book arc for you to either stop at or continue into the multiverse.