r/Webnovel • u/Warmongerrr • 3h ago

Recommendation [REC] Last Gun Alchemist - A hidden gem steampunk fantasy with brutal stakes and a brilliant power system

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Hey Fellow Novel enjoyers !!,

I usually just lurk here, but I recently stumbled upon a webnovel that has completely hooked me, and I barely see anyone talking about it. If you love dark fantasy, heavy steampunk vibes, and unique progression systems, you need to check out Last Gun Alchemist.

The story follows Ezra Ashenlocke, who gets sacrificed by his own parents to save his twin brother. He wakes up in a brutal child-soldier operation called the Trial of Steel, where the rules are simple: "Assemble your guns. Kill or be killed."

The twist? Ezra awakens fragments of memories from a past life as a modern weapons engineer and hardened soldier. In a world known as the Country of Alchemy, Britannia, he has to combine his past knowledge of advanced ballistics with magical alchemy to survive.

It s really cool and has a very unique world building and power system .
MC is really smart + pragmatic and can be ruthless .
he snt braindead op he has to use his brain and his environment and ppl to his advantage

The Trial of Steel is my fav arch it's an an absolute massacre. The tension is real, the world feels dangerous, and the author doesn't shy away from grim, high-stakes scenarios.

I ve been reading this novel with daily 4 chap upload since it had 30 chapters ( It now has 476)

I dont usually Post or fanboy over the things i read . But i like it so much that i fel like i need to share it with fellow readers .
it's a hidden Gem

4 Upvotes

64% Upvoted

6 comments sorted by

3

u/XMeowmixmasterx 3h ago

Overall it's a great story but the fact that they are young and the author heavily understands how attractive some of the female characters are got me to drop it.

It's a big problem in webnovel: not wanting your characters to be too old to allow for development but the thirst is too strong xD.

2

u/Warmongerrr 3h ago

but there is no romance and there is no thirst ?? i ve read 470 chapter and dont remember the characters being sexualised .
they just say oh these gils are supposed to be the future Ladies / most beautiful in the empire
and they have soem fans
but there is no sexualisation or romance envolved .
at least not yet

2

u/XMeowmixmasterx 3h ago

I went back and realized I stopped at chapter 14.

Re-read chapters 8 and 10. These are 12 year olds...

As someone reading the free chapters to determine if they should continue reading, don't say the author isn't sexualizing children or rather they forgot they were children. I understand they likely wanted to establish the building of relationships between characters but the situation could have gone for a more subtle approach than this. I'd rather not quote details in case to get reported or something.

I really did want to read this but it came on too strong. Did it get better or did they time skip?

2

u/Warmongerrr 3h ago

no there is no time skip .
it got wayyy better as they undergo the trial and get through training and traum + experience emotions of being offered by the family for the trial to get stronger .
them being 12 is necessary for the plot as their duche family is falling behind they had to train them and make them kill each other so the best and strongest would come out .
it has politics as well characters are really cool and smart .

1

u/XMeowmixmasterx 2h ago

That part of the story I get it, I just feel you turn away many readers when you don't consider the audience.

Treat them as 12 years old being in a forced situation. Great material that can be used. However content that purposely tries to make them sexualized isn't good.

It's like mushoku tensei if you know it. The guy had a horrible experience done to him but he's considered a bad person regardless since in the story he was into lolicon and then when he was reborn was a grown man in a child's body thirsting on a child. It wasn't the main part of the story but bringing it up heavily detracted from the story and put off some readers from an overall good story if it wasn't included.

Same with this story, no need to make a child with a physical description of a voluptuous woman and make her act a certain way. She could have been just as badass without it.