The Archmage Coefficient

As of writing this, I’ve read all 45 chapters on RR

Blurb

Magic was chaos. Now it’s chemistry.

Through Stoichiomancy, power is measured, quantified, and controlled. Ascension follows a strict ladder, each tier with a fixed number of sanctioned seats.

There are no anomalies.

Until Arielle Blacksoil.

Born to a bloodline without magic, Arielle should have been invisible to the system. Instead, an accident reveals the impossible: She’s an unsanctioned archmage.

If discovered, they’ll strip her power or turn her into a weapon.

To survive, Arielle enrolls in the Academy and pretends to climb the ranks while hiding magic that eclipses her professors.

For the first time in her life, she has rivals, teammates…maybe even friends.

But hiding overwhelming power isn’t easy. Pretty soon, she’s embroiled in faction conflict, foiling villainous plots and hunting a mysterious primordial that lurks in the dark.

Thoughts

Damn, this story with its autistic MC is going to resonate with a bunch of us neurospicy readers, hey? This is a super-OP story with Ari being absolutely uncaring of social norms, smalltalk, and pretty much everything which isn’t magic.

I love it.

The magic system is chemistry based, and I’ll be the first to say that apart from imagining little balls of power floating in the all (invisible to all but Ari) I haven’t a clue how it really works. But that’s alright, because I’ll admit I didn’t take chemistry in high school. I did physics instead, a much better subject. I digress.

The characters are brilliant, and while there are definitely some that might be a bit too Young Master for me (like please dial back the ridiculous arrogance 20% or more, please), the vast majority are entertaining to read. The banter… or Ari’s version of not-banter… is hilarious. It’s on point. Maybe a bit too on point. There’s feeling seen, and then there’s feeling Seen.

Honestly, biggest gripe so far is that a) there aren’t enough chapters for me, b) the Patreon isn’t far enough ahead for many to jump over to it and c) the lack of chapters means that we’re still lacking an overarching plot or stakes. The massive follower count and explosion of this series is people just vibing with Ari and wanting to read her be an unashamed autistic magical genius.

As to the system itself… it’s a big shrug from me. There’s one. There are technically stats and builds. I don’t think they’ve mattered in any way at all, and the author has very little time making them matter. Honestly, I wish the author would delete em and just roll into Progression Fantasy instead of trying to put some version of them in the story to tick boxes. That’s effectively my only not-happy thought about this new series.

Go check it out.