Reddit reviews Dante's Immortality: Beginnings

My native fantasy world litRPG recommendations:

Dante's Immortality has a strong zero to hero theme for a native to his fantasy world. The MC is worse off than a beggar at the start. Has some magic academy parts. Well written. Some of book 2 is on Royal Road but the author has been re-writing book two for a long time so it may or may not ever be completed.

Threadbare is a quirky litRPG story about a stuffed bear and his attachment to his girl and the friends he makes along the way. This story is full of puns, some clever and some more on the nose but I had a good chuckle several times and had a lot of fun reading this series. As lighthearted as this story appears at first, it does have some grimdark elements and tells a good story. The series actually has a conclusion which is rare enough in this genre so it gets major points for that.

The City and the Dungeon has one of the more interesting magic systems I have seen in litRPG. The characters are all native to the fantasy world. This series is a bit different in that it is written in the form of the MC retelling past events to his sister kind of like how Patrick Rothfuss' Kingkiller Chronicles are written as a flashback. The story itself features old school dungeon diving party mechanics which I happen to really like. The fairly original magic system and strength ranking system are very interesting. I did find myself wishing that the author would give more details on stats, character builds, etc., but the plot skips events and advances too quickly. At the same time it over-explains superfluous details like various branches of dungeon religion theory and courtroom law procedures. That was my main complaint, but overall I enjoyed the story. Not sure on status of book 2.

Arcane Ascension This one is strongly represented on the r/ProgressionFantasy subreddit but has some light litRPG elements too. No user interface and on the soft end not having many stats. The world is a native fantasy world with tall RPG like puzzle towers that people try to climb. These books feel more polished and professionally written than most books in the litRPG genre. It is a hybrid story that bounces back and forth between school life (magic academy) and dungeon (tower) diving. I really loved the focus on the Tower exploration and the puzzle solving that was required. The magic academy part of the book is cool as well but I think for specifically litRPG readers it won't be the main appeal.

The magic system is pretty deep, with over 50 different "classes" of magic ability called attunements. For example, Guardian attunements are melee fighters who can strengthen themselves, while Elementalists wield Fire, Air, and Lightning. It is also possible to gain more than one class as well and we see glimpses of characters that are god-like in power while the MC, a first year student, is incredibly weak in comparison. The MC makes the most of his attunement though and crafts clever items to help cover his weaknesses and relies on his friends to fill the other gaps. Crafting magic items is a major focus for the MC which I found entertaining and satisfying.

The first ebook of Dante's Immortality was recently published, and should fit your criteria. Dante basically distrusts everyone all the time, but because he genuinely doesn't know a lot he ends up committing some believably naive mistakes.

You might also like Threadbare - the main character isn't naive so much as innocent, given that he's a newborn golem for most of the novel. The combat system is all about skills and skill synergies, and the dialog is great (even though the main character can't speak).

There's also Everybody Loves Large Chests. Again the main character starts out a little naive, but that's largely because it starts from more or less zero Int. It doesn't become an asshole so much as a completely amoral monster, because that's what it is.

If you're willing to read serials that aren't published as complete books, you can try out the bifecta of combat LitRPGs on Royal Road: The New World and The Legend of Randidly Ghosthound are both great.

The Crafter by Outspan Foster. I haven't read this one yet, but I'm pretty pumped. Ordered the paperback. Set in a non-vr world.

Dante's Immortality. Highly recommended on this sub. Book 2 probably won't happen. Probably once a week asks about book 2. Still, so good that it's worth reading book 1 of an unfinished series. I think that's pretty high praise for it.

Sufficiently Advanced Magic. Another sub favorite. People argue whether or not it's LitRPG, most important thing is: it's dope.

Adventures on Brad. Nice slice of life in a non-vr fantasy world with game mechanics. Fun stuff.

A few others:

Adventurer Academy andIs It Wrong to Try and Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon.

Enjoy!