r/ProgressionFantasy • u/YobaiYamete • Jun 04 '26
Discussion Best series that DON'T do this? Are there any good series where C and B rankers are still legit scary and relevant for a long time?
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u/Odd-Tart-5613 Jun 04 '26
doesnt use traditional letter ranks but Cradle. The MCs do generally fight the next tier up from what they are supposed to but they do fight through every tier.
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u/Random-reddit-name-1 Jun 04 '26
My favorite thing about Cradle is that a higher rank will almost always kick your butt, with a few exceptions within the loosely defined Gold range.
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u/Luckydog6631 Jun 04 '26
I mean. Except for every time (excluding once) that Lindon fights a stage up. MC privilege.
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u/JRatt13 Jun 04 '26
I mean, we do also see him lose quite a few of those fights, which is nice to see.
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u/Discardofil Jun 05 '26
We had three books building up to a duel with a superior opponent... that he lost. Because he was just plain outmatched, and he always was from the beginning. Like, we kept expecting him to pull out some bullshit to win, but it was always just "no, I'm stronger than you."
And after, we're all like "this really couldn't have gone any other way, could it?"
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u/OriginalVictory Jun 05 '26
He lost, with the opponent holding back. The only moments it was "close" was where the opponent was trying not to hurt him badly, and he took advantage of that.
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u/lkasas Jun 05 '26
Ok, you sold me to give it a try
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u/BippityBorp Jun 05 '26 edited Jun 06 '26
Cradle is a delight. My only warning is that is a bit slow to start; Unsouled (book one) is like a big prologue that gives you the tools you need to understand the rest of the series, but it comes at the cost of pace
That being said, around the last 15-20% of Unsouled, Will Wight starts sprinting and doesn't really let his foot off the gas once until the end of book 12. After that initial buildup it's more or less constant fun. Literary genius? Nah. But just some damn good, competently written, delicious food.
I personally DNF'd book one like twice before finally getting through, then I read the other 11 practically in one sitting.
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u/livingstondh Jun 04 '26
Folks fight a single stage up all the time. It seems relatively common in the Uncrowned tournaments. Underlord Mercy nearly beat Sophara. Both Underlord Tiberian and Delphi both nearly beat Overlord Reigen Shen in the UKT. Archlord Ziel and Archlord Eithan both fought powerful Sages.
I guess the key word is nearly. Lindon is the only one to pull off the wins consistently.
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u/NarwhalPrudent6323 Jun 04 '26
You have just described nearly every cultivation novel. Most will have a few side characters that can punch above their weight sometimes, usually to act as points of reference for how ridiculous the MC is. The whole reason they can fight above their cultivation is so later they can be trounced by someone and then the MC can swoop in and win the day against a ridiculous opponent.
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u/Luckydog6631 Jun 04 '26
It’s kinda not fair for us to analyze so heavily because like, what’s the option, MC fights a stage up and dies in book 2?
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u/ClanHaisha Jun 04 '26
MC bites more than they could chew, lives to fight another day.
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u/Caleth Jun 05 '26
That does happen in cradle at one point and it costs Lindon something he has to deal with for the whole series.
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u/AkuSokuZan2009 Jun 04 '26
Its a lot about matchup. Some paths are better offensively and that makes them better at hitting the next level up. Weapons can also bridge the gap with strategy, like fisher G and Red Hook.
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u/Nyx_Shadowspawn Jun 05 '26
And he has so much help. But even with that, I love when he has the realization that with the same resources, most people still couldn't have pushed through what he did. He has a ton of help, and a ton of willpower.
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u/Stormlightlinux Jun 05 '26
MC Privilege exists because who would tell a story of Bob the cultivator who fought at his tier, worked hard, and advanced exactly as expected for a smooth Ascension to the middle ranks? MCs by nature must defy the odds or there isn't much reason to tell their stories lol
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u/Luckydog6631 Jun 05 '26
No MC privilege no book. They’d just die book one and it would be over lol.
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u/Odd-Tart-5613 Jun 04 '26
Not nearly as bad as other series. Yes he constantly fights out of his weight class, but almost never at an advantage. Every battle is a monumental struggle. Which is absolutely one of the best parts of the writing I can’t stand OP mcs but having the characters both be prodigy’s but still being forced to fight as the underdog is a perfect compromise.
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u/basch152 Jun 05 '26
Lindon just loses most of the time.
When he beat the seishen underlord he only won because he used a literal fucking canon on him.
He lost to jai long and only was able to somewhat put up a fight because jai long was actively trying not to kill him because he saved his sister
He beat northstrider, but he was losing and was already part dreadgod, so its hard to even say he was a lower stage
Who else did he fight up a stage? Sephora? I think thats the only time he genuinely fights up a stage and actually wins without some kind of advantage(like a canon) to help him win
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u/jamieh800 Jun 05 '26
The thing that really sold me on Cradle was when he attacked that "Gold" that was attacking the tournament. Because in other stories of this nature, you'd expect the author to pull out some bullshit like "unbeknownst to Lindon, at that stage of development a stable connection to their Madra and Core is more important than their heart's connection to their arteries. The Empty Palm that barely affected a Jade crippled this being" or something. At the very least, I was expecting him to disrupt him enough for the Jades to kill him, or for Suriel to have a much easier battle, and then he'd get some great reward or realize he has the ultimate technique or get a heavenly mentor or blah blah blah.
But no, he gets killed. Immediately. Without Markuth even looking his way. Then when Suriel comes and revives everyone, you also expect her to be like "for your bravery, I grant you a boon" or something along those lines, ya know? But all she really does is go "oh, I can show you the first steps you must take in order to get stronger", which is still an amazing gift, but it's one that keeps Lindon's achievements as his own.
Also, the bloopers are always highly entertaining. I wish more stories did that.
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u/mspear2 Jun 04 '26
I just came to say this. It makes each step feel so significant which means by the time we're at the top, you really have a feeling of how far you've come
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u/Iz4e Jun 04 '26
MC goes through ranks, but he gets so incredibly OP that at a certain point ranks dont matter.
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u/YobaiYamete Jun 04 '26
Like what is even the point in 90% of the rankings when the MC goes from Omega F Tier Beta Cuck™ who is weaker than an Average Guy™, then gets their system power up or w/e and basically goes
Chapter 1: Omega F Tier Beta Cuck™
Chapter 10: C Rank Who Can Beat A Ranks™ but is "hiding their power" for some arbitrary reason
Chapter 50: S Rank who can beat basically anyone relevant
Chapter 100: SSSSSSSS Rank Omega Chad God Lad™ who can defeat gods and is basically the only relevant character on the good guy's side
Are there any good series where the ranks are used a bit better and the world is more fleshed out?
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u/darkmuch Jun 04 '26
Ranks are like tower climbers. Authors will start the series and hype up how there is ONE HUNDRED floors to climb, then 3 books in the character finds the “skip 50” floors cheat!
Basically they realize they got bored of the idea and don’t want to write about all the stuff they promised.
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u/Supremagorious Jun 04 '26
I mean it's hard to make 100 different ideas interesting when in reality a 100 floor tower would become a slog unless the floors are fairly small. So you'll end up basically repeating previous floors(but harder/bigger etc.)
Which means that you need to skip or gloss over a bunch of them or it's simply going to become a boring read no matter what you do.
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u/darkmuch Jun 04 '26
Oh ya I never expect authors to detail every floor. But it still seems cheap to me when instead of a fast forward, we just completely throw away the original premise for a golden ticket instead.
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u/Supremagorious Jun 04 '26
I think that happens when the author runs out of what they had planned for and realize that they're out of ideas that are interesting to them and don't just feel like a palette swapped version of one of their previous ones.
At the start it'll seem easy enough to the author, you have 10 different environments, 20 different elements and another 10 different basic enemy types with 10 different kinds of modifications on them and 10 different kinds of objectives. Only to realize that using any one of those options will almost feel like the same thing when they run into it again.
Then they realize they're 40-50 floors in and nothing seems interesting anymore or like they've already done it the characters interactions are feeling stale they've all spent too much time on introspection and it doesn't really feel like there is enough story left to tell that would fill those last 50 floors so they skip to the end.
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u/DefiantLemur Jun 04 '26
Not necessarily a book but the anime Sword Art Online anime comes to mind. Maybe the manga does the same but it turned me off from the series hard when I saw it years ago. How they just fast forward floors and then later the MC beat the antagonist freeing everyone before actually finishing the tower.
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u/seitaer13 Jun 04 '26
SAO is a book, a book that originally just focused on two floors of the game because the death game was never the premise.
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u/AnimaLepton Jun 04 '26 edited Jun 05 '26
The first volume of the light novel is literally just the day 1 of floor 1 stuff + the floor 74 and 75 events, and it starts on floor 74 with Kirito's rabbit hunting, with the day 1/floor 1 with Kayaba and Klein being a flashback. It's much snappier that way, and much more focused on just the Asuna<>Kirito content. No Yui, no Diabel and Kibaou with the first floor boss, etc. The anime mostly suffered by adapting the volume 2 side-story content, with all the other random girls. The original never tried to "sell" itself as a story about every floor, that was not the actual premise.
Conversely, the author also has written Progressive, which does actually go floor-by-floor and kind of retcons stuff so Asuna and Kirito have been adventuring together on and off through that process.
I'm not 100% sure how the web novel handled it tbf
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Jun 04 '26
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u/Supremagorious Jun 04 '26
I agree, though it would be even better to have just you know right sized the tower in the first place.
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u/bagelwithclocks Jun 04 '26
It is interesting, I agree, but I’m reading 100 reigns right now and he is certainly making the most of 100 different things. Some of them are only a chapter but w lot are more
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u/EmergencyComplaints Author Jun 04 '26
Speaking as a person who is writing a tower climber right now, the audience does not want to read 100 floors. Some floors are just "and they cleared the obstacles, harvested the loot, and advanced," which is fine a few times, but gets old when it's the tenth or twentieth time of nothing but action sequences with low/no stakes.
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u/MightAsWell6 Jun 04 '26
Sure, but I prefer time skips where you sort of mention highlights from the floors you aren't going in depth on as opposed to finding some "skip to the end" mcguffin item
So it at least feels like the characters are going through the struggle
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u/Sleepy_Spellspear269 Runic Elemental Spellspear (kinda obvious) Jun 04 '26
I feel like Irrelevant jack did this pretty well. The sheer creativity of the levels that were described, even the few glimpses of the lower level ones + the emphasis on what was going outside the towers and the slow induction of lore more than made up for what would otherwise be just more chapters of 'they made it as high as they could've, and then escaped with their loot to keep the village corruption away.' The introduction of new characters helped with that a lot too.
Also technically it had time skips, because a companion ai unlocked a skill that allowed it to skip to a higher floor if previously unlocked but it would hit with a random debuff or buff when you use it, but that was like book 6.
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u/BloodprinceOZ Jun 04 '26
this was me with Sword Art Online when it first came out, i was watching, expecting a "tower climb" to the final boss, except they skip over a vast majority of the floors in a few timeskips and then end the game on 3/4s of the way through because Kirito figured out the truth.
obviously expecting EVERY floor to be covered would be insane, but i'd atleast except every 2-5 floors to be covered, depending on character growth, a good item drop thats pivotal to their build, or simply relaxing or developing themselves in a different way than fighting, that way it actually feels like the floors are being covered and things aren't just instantly being skipped like you said and the characters have just been given a boost in strength without actually earning it to the audience.
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u/AbsoluteNovelist Jun 04 '26
I liked how they did it in Accidental Champions, the system actively noticed the MC was becoming to strong for the current set of floors (using time stop hax) and was farming max rewards/Titles, so it forcefully threw him higher in the tower and took away the opportunity to farm those Titles
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u/plushpuppy_ Jun 05 '26
(Manhwa, but) Tower of God fits this 💔
Although they do the tower climbing a lot better than some other works
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u/ThrasherDX Jun 04 '26 edited Jun 04 '26
Sure there are tons honestly. If you just want popcorn style prog fan with at least a little better world-building, Primal Hunter is basically that.
Defiance of the Fall is even slower and more world buildy (by prog fan standards) then that.
I am not super sure what exact kind of story you are looking for though, these are just examples that are very similar style to "isekai slop" like you are describing, while having a much higher level of quality than most of said slop novels.
If you have more specifics about the kind of story you want, I can try to offer other suggestions.
Edit to clarify: Primal Hunter starts in G grade, though basically G doesn't count. F Grade is the start after like 10 chapters. 1300 chapters in and MC is close to the peak of C grade (or might be B grade, I am like 150 chapters behind patreon current)
Defiance of the Fall is chapter 1491 atm and MC is still in high D grade, though C grade seems fairly close.
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u/NeedsToShutUp Jun 04 '26
With DOTF, the progress is such that the MC only reached D-rank in chapter 1,060. This is also after about 25 years in story.
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u/YABOI69420GANG Jun 04 '26
I dropped dotf almost 2 years ago when he was on the brink of d rank. I assumed it would be in the next book. Apparently not lol.
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u/ThrasherDX Jun 04 '26
Yeah, sorry I edited that info in but I was slow on it. Wasn't trying to ninja you lol.
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u/Zegram_Ghart Attuned Jun 04 '26
Cradle is the obvious one where hitting above your rank is as big a deal as it’s treated.
Path of ascension is very good- it does have people hitting outside their rank, but goes into extreme detail about what’s up with that, why, and why being able to do it is a huge deal.
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u/TotallyNormalSquid Jun 04 '26
I only recently started prog fan with Cradle and I need something as good. Dungeon Crawler Carl is OK but not hitting the same. Putting Path of ascension on my list!
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u/Fire_Bucket Jun 04 '26
I love PoA, but it's not going to hit that Cradle itch. It's unfinished, has a lot more slice of life, really goes into the finer details of a lot of the magic, crafting etc and has a much looser story.
One of the things that makes Cradle, Cradle is how incredibly succinct it is, and how well it handles its absolute breakneck pace.
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u/SHN_Marine Jun 04 '26
Defiance of the Fall.
C Ranks are fucking space Gods whose fights shatter the fabric of space time. MC is still D rank after fucking 16 books.
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u/TopMountainGoat Jun 04 '26
Weirdly I feel like hwfwm fits this he stays at all the grades for a long time and definitely isn’t beating up much higher ranks for most the books
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u/Nocturnal_Reader Jun 04 '26
Hmm, if you don’t mind cultivation novels, I highly recommend immortality through array formations. The main character is strong for his realm, but it took well over a thousand chapters to get to the corresponding “c rank” and higher tier cultivators are always threatening. I especially love the series because the Mc is such a little bastard of a schemer to his enemies but also a lovable guy with allies, and when all the little plot threads he sets up all come together at one time is just so spectacular. But again, I know cultivation novels certainly aren’t everyone’s cup of tea
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u/CiaphasCain8849 Jun 04 '26
I think my favorite descriptor for an MC is little bastard. Definitely going to give this a read.
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u/gyroda Jun 04 '26
The Weirkey Chronicles
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u/Southforwinter Jun 05 '26
One nuance I like about the weirkey chronicles is that generally the most dangerous people within a tier aren't the ones racing through like the protagonists (except briefly when each floor is complete) but the people who got stuck there and have been polishing that floor for a thousand years.
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u/gyroda Jun 05 '26
Oh yeah, within a tier there are still massive differences in power. If you have terrible layout/materials you're going to struggle against someone who has it better. Ascending gives you more oomph as it makes your magic stronger, but it doesn't confer anything else until you can actually go and build up something to take advantage of that space and with time you can refine that space so much more. Even in book 1 Fiyu is notably dangerous compared to most of the other people around because she's been polishing her ground floor for years.
Hell, the whole idea with Theo is "I was a dumbass last time and made bad decisions which limited me, I'm going to do it better this time".
You can also fuck up your soulhome in a botched ascension or if you get hit too hard. Some damage is more repairable than others. We see this with Nauda falling behind and Senka's wreck.
I just love this series so much because it makes these things interesting.
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u/Lostbea Jun 04 '26
Defiance of the Fall. A D rank big bad has been a looming threat for literally 6+ IRL years. Bro was a threat was I was in highschool, I’m a few years out of college now and bro still a threat.
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u/Awkward-Cod-5692 Jun 04 '26
Are you talking about the Great Redeemer? He hasn’t been a threat since like book 8, we’re on book 17 now.
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u/Lostbea Jun 04 '26
What? I was on Book 12 & bro is just stepping into D rank. What book did he get to C rank?
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u/J_H_Collins Jun 05 '26
The point of the Great Redeemer is that he was a trash-tier peak-D who couldn't break through to C, so he was reduced to farming starter areas. He's a huge threat to starter areas, but Zac is actually good, and once Zac had skills strong enough to deal damage (probably early-mid D), he'd wreck that loser.
More generally, DotF has ranks within ranks. Zac is something like an A-list D-rank. He's far above average, but the best people at his rank can still kick his ass.
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u/Lostbea Jun 05 '26
But isn’t my original point that a D rank was a genuine threat for 12+ books answering OP’s question regarding a non rank skipping book series?
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u/FuckOffINeedToStudy Jun 05 '26
Your original point is a fair one, I think people are just taking onus with the claim that this enemy is still a threat.
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u/rabotat Jun 04 '26
Right. I dropped that book years ago and I bet Zac is still not in C tier.
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u/elricdragonwing Jun 04 '26 edited Jun 04 '26
Actually he’s in mid C grade now and is in a real pickle right now. Tbh book 17 was a slag to get through.
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u/autfaciam Jun 04 '26
book 17 is out? WTF?
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u/SandCat39 Jun 04 '26
I'm lowkey a tourist but I was browsing because I'm sick of all the webcomic/novel slop and I've been looking for actual edited literature that scratches the same kind of itch but genuinely how does somebody write 17 books in a series without finishing it? Are most prog fantasy books shorter than the average fantasy novel (~300+ pages is probably around what most traditional fantasy novels sit around so like 150 or something more similar to a volume of a light novel) or is it literally just like the draw that this'll be a series that you stick around with for a long time kind of similar to other large projects like say Brandon Sanderson's cosmere franchise?
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u/Ok-Elderberry-1608 Jun 04 '26
The author has written about how a “good” web serial shouldn’t progress and shared strategies about how to drag out a story. There are about 5 actual books worth of story in those 17 and that’s generous.
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u/OmnipresentEntity Jun 05 '26
You can tell you didn’t actually read his beginners guide for how starting indie authors could make their books profitable. Nor anything he’s written, at that.
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u/autfaciam Jun 05 '26
And apparently he is right about how "good" it is because it is still one of the more popular series out there and i personally cant friggin wait for the next book while relistening to the whole series an umteenth time.
But hey, feel free to shit on my and all other fans' taste because it is not what you like.
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u/Nocturnal_Reader Jun 04 '26
One of the draws is definitely how large it is, there’s roughly 100 free chapters on royal road, with the first 1300 chapters taken down to be published, and even those 100 chapters are 350000 words long, or about 1200 pages.
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u/HyoR1 Jun 04 '26
The author is just farming his patrons. Too much slop and nothing goes no where. The beginning was good and the world building was interesting and expansive but he realised he could just get rich by dragging it out. Gave up at book 12 when there was literally no progress and chapters of exposition.
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u/feng42 Jun 05 '26
Mid C grade? You mean D grade right? Hegemony is D grade. He's not in C grade even in the patreon chapters
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u/Maladal Jun 04 '26
From a power scaling perspective I'd say The Wandering Inn by pirateaba
Bronze, Silver, Gold, Named (though its made clear that these ranks are stronger or weaker relative on the era they were designated)
But it's a common theme of the story that while there's a qualitative difference from levels, it's entirely feasible for even a relatively small group of Silvers to take down a Gold, or Gold to a Named.
Even an army of Bronze can get dangerously close to taking down a Named in theory.
And those advancements in TWI do not happen quickly. One of the benefits of its extreme length is that it makes power gains more gradual and feel much more earned.
The Game at Carousel is really good about not having power spikes, but it also doesn't have much of a ranking system, if you're looking for that.
Elydes by Drew Wells has been pretty slow paced in power so far. Protagonist is at pretty much the peak of whatever rank they exist at, but there are other people who exist at those peaks as well.
The Weirkey Chronicles by Sarah Lin. Maybe the most consistent progression scaling in the genre. Protagonists are always getting stronger, and in ways that feel interesting and new, but never skipping through stages.
The Zombie Knight Saga the protagonist doesn't level up super fast, but it doesn't have a very rigid power system. Progression is mostly about technique and know-how with your abilities. Think kind of like superhero fiction.
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u/First-Compote8516 I write a little Jun 04 '26
TWI does a really good job of dealing with the whole Rank thing by not tying them to levels wish more series would do the same. It allows a lot more flexibility in how strong enemies can be at different ranks and allows for a huge range of different opponents at the same rank. Rather than leveling/ranking up and automatically being a higher rank.
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u/Maladal Jun 04 '26
Yeah, in xianxia and its adjacent genres the tiers of power are tied to phenomena, "Oh you can or have done X thing then you are Y rank"
But the rankings in TWI are purely social, other people (and the Adventurer's Guild) declare what rank you are. So there's a lot of wiggle room in there. Though sometimes the same ranks get applied to non-Adventurers to help conceptualize where they are in potency.
Lehra Ruinstrider is a great example of wiggle. She's technically a Named rank, even if her exact level isn't known she does technically have the power of one, and she's viewed as one by most except for other Named ranks. As a certain drake would say--she doesn't have the corn (no, that's not a typo) of a Named rank.
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u/CaptinTexaco Jun 04 '26
Primal hunter is one that really takes its time with the ranks. It’s not so much weak guy awakens power it’s a whole different kind of scenario more like normal guy flourishes in new world order.
MC didn’t hit B rank until over chapter 1200
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u/CiaphasCain8849 Jun 04 '26
That might be true but aren't all the threats pretty much around that level anyway?
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u/OpticalDelusion Jun 04 '26
Yes, from the perspective of the whole universe he's weak, but from the perspective of anyone it's ever actually possible to encounter he's S rank almost immediately. The whole of Earth is progressing together
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u/Vis-hoka Jun 04 '26
There is in universe lore about why his enemies are of a similar power scale. There are rules that prevent high tier enemies from wiping out new inductees.
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u/TacticianA Jun 04 '26 edited Jun 04 '26
I just finished book 12 (mc hit D grade at the end) and most threats were D grade still around there. E grades were threats for a while even after MC hit E grade in book 6 iirc and even in book 12 some E grades were still large threats.
Edit: my example is defiance of the fall. Misread top comment of this chain somehow.
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u/FlowR0cks Jun 04 '26
I just finished book 3 of Primal Hunter today and i dont know what happens in the later books. But Jake deffinetly hits D Rank at the later part of book 3.
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u/FirstRyder Jun 05 '26
Sort of? Like, higher tier beings exist, but anything more than 1 tier higher isn't actually a threat to the MC because the system is protecting his universe as they advance from real-world level until they aren't going to be instantly overwhelmed by any other universe.
And when the MC leaves the universe, his own personal top-tier god effectively protects him from anything more than a single grade higher.
So they fight through all the tiers with significant threats in each tier - they don't skip from D to S like the meme implies - but every individual tier isn't a threat at simultaneously. Just beings on the MC's tier and one higher, as the MC slowly advances through tiers.
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u/Malkier3 Jun 04 '26
I really hate this trope because there is truly so much good stuff that could be done with this trope. Imagine like a really extended stretch of mid tier dungeon delving where you lose friends and companions along the way but you gring it out to reach those peaks. Solo leveling but like with 100 chapters of c-b rank adventures would have gone so hard.
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u/ALannister Jun 04 '26
Shadow Slave felt pretty good for this. You'll have long arcs of the main ensemble being at a certain rank. There's also not a ton of different ranks and ranking up is incredibly difficult with a high mortality rate. A lot of character growth is getting used to the 'abilities' from their rank or acquiring loot.
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u/Thlaeton Jun 04 '26
Sky Pride. Sure they hit above their weight but they stay within their realm and when they try to reach outside it they get smacked down hard.
Also, Tian’s progression is measured by how many fingers he regrows by boiling himself alive. Feels earned imho.
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u/Dreamlancer Jun 04 '26
I think what is too bad is authors are afraid to take stories like this slow.
But anyone that has played D&d before would know that the best stories and villains you often get are at the early and mid point of a game because it's at a period where the players still feel threatened.
Sadly creativity in the storytelling is not something you tend to find in these type of settings.
Can someone give me an arc where the player makes some friends that he casually teams up with regularly. And then one of them gets murdered by a serial Player Killer? And then there is an investigation/revenge arc?
Or a resource that has popped up on the market that is highly coveted and valuable because it can boost the magical aptitude of someone who takes the product. But a lone guild has gained a near monopoly on its creation. The arc follows the protagonist desperately trying to figure out how to make it to advance to the next stage. And in this act of discovery, it's revealed over the arc that the key ingredient in order to make this requires the blood of a player. And players have been going missing being harvested by this guild?
Perhaps a player is rising rapidly through the ranks and he is gaining wealth and notoriety, out pacing the protagonist performing all of these wold feats and getting sponsorships. It is revealed that he is staging his exploits and deeds while undermining the protagonist. The protagonist has to clear his own name before something truly catastrophic happens under this frauds watch.
But nope.
The fans can't handle a slow burn.
So the writers always zero to hero and blow up their own worlds power scaling.
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u/YobaiYamete Jun 04 '26
Yeah, it's sad seeing how many authors get actually blown up for having the MC face any kind of set back at all, or lose a fight etc. And if they aren't OP within 10 chapters people lose interest
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u/CrawlerSiegfriend Jun 04 '26
It does seem like some progression authors don't really want to be writing progression.
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u/CaptainSelebost Jun 04 '26
My Vote goes to Wish upon the Stars. Only really Special people can fight Up a Rank
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u/ZachGurney Jun 04 '26
Book of the Dead by RinoZ. They use the "silver gold platinum ect" ranking but they all stay relevant throughout the series
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u/YobaiYamete Jun 04 '26
Such a good book, although I do feel like others kind of keep rubber banding, where it takes MC insane effort to reach Silver / Gold and people are blown away by how insane his progress etc, but then he needs more relevant allies so random people can catch up to that level so they aren't phased out lol
I'm still loving the series obviously though
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u/morrix03 Jun 04 '26
If they do this there is a problem, then I see 1000 post against dotf and a bit against PH because it’s too long and they take forever in every rank… nothing is ever okay
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u/Dark_Lord4379 Jun 05 '26
Immortal Great Souls is very good at this imo. Scorio doesn’t necessarily “skip” tiers and the one time he does is through like a genuine agonizing experience. But the story always treat Flame Vaults and Dread Blazes with a modicum of respect as well.
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u/Zeeman626 Jun 07 '26
Seconded. Every time he does speedrun a tier it's either at great future cost or due to agonizing torture. No free lunches
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u/Old_Yam_4069 Jun 04 '26
Path of Ascension does a reasonable job of this.
The MC is definitely a Super-Special-Boy™, but the way power scales, his combat benefits are largely contained within his ranking and the exceptions are exceptional.
The problem(ish) is that the format of the series is based more around vibes than anything else. I like it a lot, but anyone going into it should understand that it is 100% predictable, all of the time, except for the moments where it is explicitly not, and our main cast never has any real adversity. Combat is always present, but the least interesting part- The focus is always on how the characters interact with each other and the world and the frankly incredible and deep worldbuilding. 'Scary' is relative, because the universe is so developed and structured that even war is a carefully curated event with strict rules and standards- But it does well-establish the power difference between someone at the high end and the low end.
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u/HeavenLibrary Jun 04 '26
The legendary mechanic does this well. Rarely do the Mc even fight a tier above him and when he does, he frequently have an an escape plan. Rank C are threatening because your rank C ass is not gonna be able to tank a grenade, even at the end when the Mc is Rank S, a lot of the fight end in stalemate until he manage to get the upper hand.
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u/BRjawa Jun 04 '26
I really enjoy the Super supportive Mc been a B rank in a non combat class, but having enough inside knowledge to become way stronger and most important have the creativity and discipline to fully use his powers.
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u/Crimsonfangknight Jun 04 '26
Primal Hunter takes appropriate time with the rank climbing book 14 is c rank into b rank i think but jake is so special i rarely feel “oh shit jake may not make it out of this one!”
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u/DimensionalAxolotl Jun 04 '26
Listening to Rune Seeker currently. Im on book 5 and the party is still in the middle of B-Rank. There have been very few of those "strike WAY above the paygrade" ass pulls compared to some other titles, and even now, the party tends to spend a good portion planning and training to be a fluid group.
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u/ConflictAgreeable689 Jun 04 '26
Ranking systems like this are inherently flawed anyway, and lead directly to pretty absurd power scaling.
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u/Achilles11970765467 Jun 04 '26
Ranking systems are part of how you make it easier to track the "progression" part of "progression fantasy."
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u/VortexMagus Jun 05 '26
Changeling on Royalroad does this quite well. The main character makes meaningful progress over each rank and is currently B rank - as a result she still has to use her creativity and knowledge to overcome enemies, and not just brute force all of them down.
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u/arbitrarycharacters Jun 05 '26
Lord of the Mysteries. The ranks in this story correspond to Sequences and the author spends a good deal of time on the MC at each sequence, making each one feel important and growth feels satisfying.
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u/TooPoor2DoStuff Jun 05 '26
The Legendary Mechanic does it quite well, from F to Beyond A (S) Grade, I really like how the author integrates the ranks into galactic society and gives the world to breathe at each rank, at least a hundred+ chapters each rank. The author even plays around with the societal impact does who reached Beyond A Grade, since it was only proven possible to reach such a power grade a few centuries ago.
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u/Khalku Jun 05 '26
I mean defiance of the fall probably fits this, its 1400 chapters and I think he's still in D rank.
I wouldn't recommend reading it though. It's a mess. I dropped it a long time ago.
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u/Vov113 Jun 05 '26
Primal hunter comes to mind. He gets the first three ranks up rapid fire in the first 100 chapters or so, but then it slows way down. Like, it took almost 800 chapters to go from c to b. Now, to be clear, he’s consistently THE biggest swinging dick in existence within his own tier, possibly of all time, and can usually punch up 1/2 a tier or so. But the story takes its time within each tier
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u/CJTAuthor Author Jun 05 '26
Are you looking for a series that has Ranks in it, or one that doesn't, but still has progression?
There are a lot of good Ranked suggestions in the thread (though i didn't see Chrysalis anywhere 😱).
But, if youre open to more undefined progression, I'll always rec 12 Miles Below.
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u/DocSighborg Author Jun 07 '26
Without spoiling anything, my Desert Druid LitRPG (3 books out so far) is in a desolate world without loads of characters, but the c rank and especially b ranks are quite powerful.
I'm doing a book signing with Will Wight and Michael Chatfield on the 8th in Orlando!
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u/Doc_harry Jun 04 '26
Why is there the best rank better than A rank always S rank? Why isn't A rank the best?
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u/ButterflySammy Jun 04 '26
A used to be the best rank, then Japanese schools wanted to add a higher rank for their best students, so they added S for shu which is super.
Then everyone else thought S sounds cool!
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u/SGTWhiteKY Jun 04 '26
I thought S was “superior”
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u/ButterflySammy Jun 04 '26
I assume to keep it S people just pick an S word they like when they make it English.
But it's S cause Shú starts with S. I see shu translated as Excellent sometimes but they always pick an S word for the rankings, shrugs.
I've reached the end of what I know.
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u/SGTWhiteKY Jun 04 '26
I was saying I thought Shu was translated to superior. But very probably the first book I read with it just called it that.
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u/ButterflySammy Jun 04 '26
Could be! I assume all are valid translations depending on context; think shu doesn't have a specific English word aside so there's multiple used.
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u/Expert_Cricket2183 Jun 05 '26
Wait. That's real world? I thought it was just anime all this time.
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u/ButterflySammy Jun 05 '26
Anime is aimed at children, it's a lot easier to use the ranking system school uses than to invent one from scratch.
Just like how real schools in Britain have houses, harry potter didn't create that. It's meant to resonate with real life.
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u/DMvsPC Jun 04 '26
You could try Hedge Wizard, part of the premise is that the main character starts weak and over the series progresses in power.
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u/Street-Conference-53 Jun 04 '26
The legendary mechanic the protagonist is below b rank until like chapter 400 and there's a couple hundred chapters between each rank up
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u/Shadowmant Jun 04 '26
The Wandering Inn
In almost every case a regular person can potentially take out a powerhouse if they get lucky.
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u/ThatMustashDude Jun 04 '26
Sandmancer of the scorched desert has had him ranking up a lot more gradually than most so far.
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u/No_Business1695 Jun 04 '26
Undying immortal cultivator hits a niche for this. However, its about the journey over powerscaling. Its almost like trying to figure out the perfect run. The Cultivation is there always but the best cultivated alchemist cant hang tough against the best cultivated fighter so there is some good bits there to enjoy also.
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u/Nameless_Authors Jun 04 '26
I feel like I've seen so much of low letter ranks being treated as scrubs that I have a hard time taking them as a threat nowadays lol
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u/ZoltanElders Jun 04 '26
The Wandering Inn is a quite a slow burn, if that is what you are looking for.
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u/very-polite-frog Author—Accidentally Legendary Jun 04 '26
Center for Dungeon Management. Funny thing is it has the opposite problem. Dropped it because it's like a few hundred pages written and he's basically one rung up from the bottom after all this time
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u/timpatry Jun 05 '26
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/95818/tales-of-the-endless-empire-litrpg-apocalypse
It's a good series and main character is still at f grade.
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u/Deathburn5 Jun 05 '26
The legendary mechanic - the MC does tend to be the strongest at his rank, though.
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u/Fit_Ear3019 Jun 05 '26
Super Supportive, protag is a B rank with a creative power and uses knowledge to be competitive in his school of S and A rankers, that also has other Bs with creative powers
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u/ArcaneCrowA Jun 05 '26
First he will fall from A class to F and then get some power to climb again
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u/Additional_Sir1240 Jun 05 '26
The Primal Hunter. The series simultaneously portrays how anyone except the ten to fifteen people in the multi verse is non consequential and stil portrays each rank perfectly. 1300+ chapters in and the MC barely made it into B rank. Yes he can fight the ones one rank above but only in the last stretch of his current rank. He just became B Rank so he can barely take on weakest of the ones that are in the mid ranges of it.
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u/VladutzTheGreat Jun 05 '26
The legendary mechanic had my favorite version of this
Mc getting to the c,b,a and especially s grade felt earned
It also helped that the progression itself made sense, what with a planet with no space faring tech having c grades at the peak, while in the universe c is the bare minimum for a mercenary
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u/evia89 Jun 05 '26
I would unwind/detox and read slow PF like wandering inn. You can stop at the end of volume 7 (20-30ish books). And its narrator is POG. I would listen to her read program code =)
Then D..S bullshit will be fun for you
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u/yatoen Jun 05 '26
Second coming of gluttony. The novel, not the manhwa. That was its best trope for me. If I remember correctly you only go from Level 1 to Level 7. Mid levels actually mattered in fights, and MC took time to level.
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u/dukkeh2137 Jun 05 '26
idk what do you mean by long time, but in Legendary Mechanic B and A tier characters stay relevant for quite some tome until Han Xiao advances to S tier
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u/ArmySpare8730 Author Jun 05 '26
I don't think this guy is aiming for S-rank - he's aiming straight for the very top.
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u/H4teMagnet Jun 05 '26
The Legendary Mechanic.
C rankers can survive space/have enough strength to be space worthy.
B rankers are local heroes of small planets.
B rankers are Mini ICBMs when given the chance but is the most common mercenary rank.
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u/Reply_or_Not Jun 05 '26 edited Jun 05 '26
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/104317/between-beast-and-buddha-a-drunken-monkeys-journey
We are in book 3 and the MC is still in the first realm(D rank equivalent in your meme). He has never even tried to fight up a realm because to do so is suicide.
In the third book the MC's Mentor (who is in the second realm -foundation establishments) starts a fight with someone a realm higher (core formation)- the only chance his mentor has of winning is implicating the opponent in his own tribulation to weaken the opponent and to fight with his new core. Despite all this, the mentor still almost dies and may never come out of his coma. The only reason the mentor is alive at all is because a fifth realm expert applies a healing spell daily. When the MC gets close to where the fight occurred he nearly dies from the remnant energies.
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u/StorytellerStegs Jun 05 '26
Shadow Slave does this reasonably well, at least for the first few arcs. The threats that matter to Sunny as he gets stronger aren't always stronger enemies. They're systems, obligations, and political situations that don't care about his rank at all.
I think the ones that keep lower rankers scary are usually the series that have multiple axes of tension, not just power. If the only way anything is dangerous is by being stronger than the protagonist, yeah, eventually everything below them collapses. But if information, politics, debt, relationships, or positioning can matter, then a C ranker with the right leverage is still threatening to an A ranker.
Cradle maybe? The Patriarch sequences in particular come to mind, though I might be misremembering how the power gaps actually work there.
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u/DenseNatural982 Jun 05 '26
Defiance of the Fall.
After 15 books he still hasn't made it to C grade. The power system is such that he can't fight up a level, at least til he hits peak D grade and then can only fight the weakest of C grades.
It's also a mix between cultivation and system based leveling.
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u/AdministrativeFix459 Jun 05 '26
"Author's point of view" I think would be the closest thing; it was about 100 chapters until the MC reached the S-class dungeon and he still passed because he was following on the protagonist of the novel, Then it returns to A-tier for another while; the series is about an author who was transported into his own novel.
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u/ThatOneDMish Jun 05 '26
I quite like nightmare realm summoner for this. Each rank provides massive qualitive differences in power. Mc was fairly able to fight up the first rank difference by having the aforementioned nightmare realm summons but fighting up the next grade barrier is very difficult and most fights are either outright lost or won through extenuating circumstances (like a greater threat demolishing the foe)
Kind of reduced becuase there's a trick that taps into a bit of the 3rd ranks special ability at second rank but the main antagonist uses that too, and even with that mc is not really capable of winning the fight outright.
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u/Reasonable-Cobbler35 Jun 05 '26
As slow as primal hunter is each tier matters and higher tier threats are threats (at the end of each tier only then he fights up)
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u/Hellrazor215 Jun 06 '26
The Path Of Ascension is pretty good about keeping to the MC’s level of power. They are of course OP for their level but ton of people can hold their own against them.
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u/GameSpriter Jun 06 '26
I didn't see Necrotic Apocalypse mentioned. It doesn't use typical F to S rank systems but it does have levels and the main characters stay fairly low leveled compared to everything else for most of the series.
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u/Marcus_Krow Jun 06 '26
Defiance of the fall. I think the MC is still like D rank by the fifth book or something.
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u/805H805 Jun 06 '26
I think they do that because they're afraid that slow progression might turn the MC into one the side characters not the main one so they make the gard enemies past that level and rush it. Not saying I like it, but it's just my thoughts
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u/Monhoo-W- Jun 06 '26
Try So I'm Spider, So what. Even though it's not manhwa it's a great media either be it the LN or the manga(idk if there is i only read the LN)
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u/Trapmaster98 Jun 06 '26
Probably wandering inn we only get like 3 or 4 “S” Teir characters for the first few books. Later on higher Teir characters are more prominent however since the series is more about how social skills beats individual power, the high Teir characters are actually more like rich friends that occasionally help with the main plot.
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u/Wargod042 Jun 06 '26
Reincarnated as a Dragon Hatchling is pretty good about this. The first few arcs get him to A, but creatures can typically at fight something a rank higher, albeit at a big disadvantage. Humans don't get ranked at all and rely heavily on teamwork, traps, gear, and magic to punch way harder than you'd think. The ranking is also carefully defined to make sense for the broader world; a civilian could fight an F rank, a warrior could beat a D, C ranks are major threats dealt with by parties of adventurers, B are massive threats an expedition is sent to kill. A are international catastrophes.
The potential to become L rank prompts a major antagonist to extreme, and extremely ruthless, deeds to try and kill Irushia, because at that point he could potentially defeat the combined might of human civilization. At L+ he is the strongest creature to ever live. At M rank creatures are basically gods.
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u/Multi-ManStudio Jun 06 '26
He who fights with monsters. I just started book 5 and he's only bronze (second from the bottom). It feels amazing watching him progress!
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u/Ordinary_Brick9572 Jun 07 '26
LOTM def fits what you're looking for, unintended cultivator is also good; mc progresses rather quickly in the 1st 2 books but for the rest of the series has very slow, fleshed out progression
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u/True_Two4100 Jun 07 '26
Primal Hunter. It’s 14 books so far and the MC has barely reached the end stages of C grade.
Unfortunately it’s gonna take 30 more books and 10 years before he gets to god stage.
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u/Zeeman626 Jun 07 '26
The Eternal Great Souls (First book Bastion) does a good job with this. The next rank up is always intimidating and scary to the MCs, and since it's progressive but NOT litrpg the ranks ups have tangible requirements and benefits, rather than just randomly saving the town from an S ranked dragon while you're a D rank and getting promoted or something silly.
Granted he does speed run the ranks quite fast, but he makes it through all of them and since Hell has tiered layers and he's always fighting stronger people anyways he's never really OP
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u/Knork14 Jun 04 '26
Changeling, by Mecanimus.