Light Novel's similar to Mushoku Tensei

I'm struggling to find works that match my exact tastes the way MT does. I appreciate its world building, but my gripe with most others in the genre is the lack of effort in becoming who they become.

Throughout MT Rudues, though powerful, stays on the cusp of being too weak for each scenario he hits. The friendships and the realism of his relationships are a core drive of the story and I can't help falling in love with them (or raging at certain ones).

Any sword and sorcery novels with a weak-to-strong hardworking protagonist and well written relationships? Romance is just a factor I can't do without

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@kira_yam 15d ago

Not isekai so a bit of a stretch, but Secrets of a Silent Witch. Anxious shut-in who has to grow, and never overpowered for long.

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@saltscript 15d ago

silent witch mentioned, i need the rest of it translated yesterday

@crimsonfox 15d ago

The Beginning After the End is the knock off brand of what you want, and somehow still the closest thing out there.

12 Reply

@mateorossi 15d ago

Re:Zero gets closest for me in spirit. Flawed mc who is genuinely unpleasant sometimes and keeps trying to be better, and the people he gets close to are just as messy.

@arjun3 15d ago

Min-Maxing My TRPG Build gets recommended for this exact ask and it earns it. Huge world, fights that had me gripping my chair, and the extras at the end of each volume run alternate timelines where it all goes sideways.

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@lenarossi 15d ago

Keep bouncing off it. Less people talking, more wall to wall narration. And I had to google an old ttrpg meme just to get the Henderson bits.

@oskar70 15d ago

Read the Henderson bits as a multiple endings screen and they click. I pushed to volume five and it landed way better after.

@noah64 15d ago

The gm who had to invent that scale:

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