The Way Ahead

What do you do when you don’t fit in? Edwin never really felt many connections to other... Read more What do you do when you don’t fit in?Edwin never really felt many connections to other people, but as a physics student, that was fine. He didn’t really need it, anyway. He was content to peel back the mysteries of the universe… not that there were many left to find. Modern-day research was just too well-established, too well-trodden for any single enthusiast to make any significant headway.But that doesn’t apply to other worlds. Not ones where magic and Skills run rampant, where well-defined roles and Classes dominate much of society with little room for novel experimentation from its residents. That kind of world would be perfect for an overeager, newly-minted Alchemist to make his mark.Things are never that easy, though.The Way Ahead is a very slice-of-life story following the story of someone trying to find his place in a world that doesn’t know what to do with him. Expect lots of science, lots of alchemy, a few sarcastic quips by the System, and lots of exploration involving the world, self-discovery, and above all, science.After all, further research is always required.Updates Wednesdays. Collapse Game Elements, Sci-fi, LitRPG, Magic, Male Protagonist, Strategist, System, Weak to Strong, Alchemy, Magic Formations, Anti-social Protagonist, Naive Protagonist, Character Growth, World Travel Quote: Kuro_Nox P.S. Don't even get me started on how truly and utterly unintelligent the mc is (basically Sheldon Cooper.), not to mention the senseless laws of this super nation. This is my only problem with reading this. The f#cking choices mc makes and laws I can say it's idiotic as this is a medieval times and with some insane mind controlling kinda skills each king might have . There are both good and bad traits to this story that I would like to discuss here.First and foremost, a summary: The good traits are that the system is unique, the characters are distinct, the dialogue is thought and emotion-evoking, the plot is interesting, and the novel is enjoyable to read (at its core).However, the core issue I have with this novel is related to its length and formatting. The length of the novel compared to the density of events occurring in-universe is far too imbalanced. Typically, we will have one thing happen, such as the main character becoming hungry, but we the reader have to go through at least three to eight paragraphs describing this one change.It is not described as "He became hungry after walking for two days without food." or "Hours of strenuous hiking over mountains and fighting monsters made him starving." but paragraphs after paragraphs describing how he became hungry, what it feels like to be hungry, his thoughts on how he feels now that he's hungry, how harrowing it was to become hungry, what he could do to not be hungry, and then at least three separate theories on how not to starve to death. To which he will catch himself for rambling, only to continue rambling as he manages to find some strange food and not starve to death. It is as though we are reading a real-time stream of consciousness from this person than a story. We see almost every damn thought and idea. Now I am ironically rambling on this topic, but my point still stands. Almost 30% of every chapter can be removed and it will not impact clarity whatsoever. And onto formatting, these huge paragraphs of verbal diarrhea make it incredibly difficult to read. Usually you can only see about two or three paragraphs on your screen at once simply because they are so large. Each sentence is stretched as though the author is a high school student trying to get 600 words for his essay. And the sentence structure is often so convoluted that each sentence is layered with meanings to the point that clarity is sharply decreased and your ability as a reader to... well... read the sentence also is impacted. Besides this, there aren't many problems. It is a good story besides the convolution, and if you enjoy reading the insane formatting, this is probably heaven for you. P.S. Don't even get me started on how truly and utterly unintelligent the mc is (basically Sheldon Cooper.), not to mention the senseless laws of this super nation.