Axiom of Infinity: Souleater

Axiom of Infinity: Souleater

by TSeris

Warning This fiction contains:
  • Graphic Violence
  • Profanity
  • Sensitive Content
  • Sexual Content

"They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. What then are we to think of it when the gods themselves steal our ideas on how the universe should work? Can we complain when they turn reality into a game? Can we get a refund on life itself? The gods claim they answered our prayers. That they built this world with us in mind. That they brought us here for our own sake. Maybe they did. Personally I think they have their own reasons. We're not the players in this game, we're the pieces on the board.

Still... What if it's fun?"

Axiom of Infinity follows the story of several travelers from Earth as they attempt to make new lives for themselves in a world with monsters and dungeons, where RPG mechanics are as innate as the laws of physics, and where the gods themselves seem to be playing a very different game–one with unknown stakes and strange alliances. Blessed by two gods and cursed by another, one man finds himself at the center of their machinations, a pawn destined to become a queen.

This is a LitRPG Novel built on a hard system with a lot of depth and customization, but which tries not to beat you over the head with numbers constantly. In this world finding and reporting bugs and exploits is both encouraged and rewarded, and the gods have found the most qualified testers in the multiverse: Us. Now the unsuspecting natives of Astra are going to have to learn to live with a bunch of min-maxing, power-gaming, spreadsheet slinging nerds and gamers of all shapes and sizes as we do what we do best... break things.


Note: See author's note in the prologue for content warnings, publication schedule, and a more in-depth description of the story's content and direction.

Discord: https://discord.gg/jF2XacAAQk

This story is not authorized for publication anywhere other than Royal Road & my Patreon at this time.

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TSeris

TSeris

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Stormblesssed
Overall

So I am going to be honest I nearly didn't read this because the author seemed a little preachy in the authors notes in the prologue. I am happy I did read it as the world building is phenomenal and the characters are interesting. I am thoroughly enjoying the story and I would reccomend that people give it a go. Especially if they like interesting worlds and mechanics as much as me!

 

However, I was not wrong to be worried as there are certainly times that the author comes across as preachy and heavy handed with the gender bending. Lots of it is handled well, but there is occasions where the story decides to slap you over the head with it in very strange ways and gender becomes too much of a defining thing. Remember author, some times less is more.

 

For some examples for constructive feedback:

1. We get it, girls have periods... bringing it up is completely fine and I think it is important that you did bring it up. But for the love of god it doesn't need to brought up so much. You could cut down the mentions by 80% and it would feel way more natural and less forced in my opinion. 

2. Girls like guys so gender bending = sexuality change. It is an interesting take on how attraction works (if not completely accurate one). Yes hormones play a huge role in attraction but a very very very large part of attraction is actuality from environmental factors and develops over a lifetime so the change in sexuality would be less sudden/drastic. Would be good to see more confusion and less understanding of what they themselves are feeling to begin with. Again I believe this would feel more natural as it would be confusing and would be hard to understand your own feelings I would imagine.

3. The dysphoria from the different body is too focussed on sexuality and sexual traits. It feels too heavily focussed on this and as a result the change in species, height, taste, vision, sensations etc (which honestly should be a bigger part of identity than sexuality) are glossed over.

4. On the topic of sexuality changes. I am finding it confusing that infinity has reverted to a 13 year old when it comes to hormonal urges when it is stated that the body would be considered "middle aged". I get the changes would be confusing but that shouldn't mean infinity become goo goo ga ga at every hot guy they see. I find it hard to believe that they were like that with every girl they saw before the change so it seems weird that they are now like that after. Would have made more sense narrtvely of they took over the body of a teenager with raging hormones I guess. 

5. I am getting worried about how much infinity seems to be losing themselves to their new body and slipping in to the role. I think the idea behind this is exceptionally good! I just think the execution is starting to miss the mark. It is less feeling like the body is influencing them when it happens, and more like they are just an observer in the body as the bodies instincts take over. This feels a little bit like loss of agency to the MC and this has me worried. Nothing kills a story quicker than an MC losing agency. This is exacerbated because the loss of agency isn't just loss of physical agency, but is actually lose of mental agency. My reccomendation here is too tone it back a bit so that it feels more like the body/brain is influencing infinitys thoughts and less like it is taking them over.

 

I hope the feedback as helpful as I think your writing and story is very good. In summary, less is more. It is a wonderfully written story so far and I think the inclusion of gender bending in the story to be a good one and very interesting! But a slower less heavy handed exploration of it would make it even better in my opinion.

 

Thanks for the story! Hope this helps.

Jesters Ghost
Overall

Munchkin fun with gritty, mature themes done well

Reviewed at: Chapter 10: Learn to Play

Disclaimer: I am clearly *exactly* this fiction's target audience. Your mileage may differ, not valid in all states, yada yada.

- A clever protagonist that spots obvious-in-hindsight exploits and hidden options? Check

- Expansive and logically-consistent world-building? Check

- Complex, detailed and well-thought out "system"? Check

- Gritty and realistic without being too bleak? Check

- Believable characterisation that is succinctly told without dominating the narrative? Check

- Good, clear descriptions without being verbose, long-winded, obtuse, overly loquacious, verbose or repetitive? Check

- Well edited, with minimal to no typos and excellent grammar? Check

- Fun existential quandaries over self-identity and body dysmorphia? Check

It isn't easy to tread the fine line between an emotionless protagonist who just seems to be okay with everything that's thrown at them and an emotional wreck who has countless inner-monologues explaining exactly how butthurt they are. So far (this review is written very early on) this is hitting it perfectly for me - does enough to feel believable and understandable but doesn't overstay its welcome.

Definite follow from me, was up until 3am catching up with what was already written. Immediately had me invested in the story and wanting to know what was going to happen next. Several system mechanics were introduced that I wish I'd thought of for my game designs but also work narratively.

Uriel of Vows
Overall

I’ve invested in reading a fair amount of series on RR and this one has been pretty great since I’ve started it. Great character progression, which doesn’t leave me questing for unanswered questions. Solid world building, which is by far my favorite aspect of a book or series. Magic, which is my love. This has it and the POV switches are well-timed and a good addition. Can’t wait to continue reading!

Artintrex
Overall

Extremely good. Looking forward to its completion

Reviewed at: Chapter 26: Styx & Stones

I like it a lot. MC is big on finding exploits which is fun. Enjoyed all the sofware jokes. Characters are believeable and MC aproaches problems rationally rather than acting like a headless monkey. There are occasional info dumps but still within reason so it didn't bother me. So far it hits all the right spots for me. Easily one of the best here.

Peter Heitman
Overall

This story is a great description of a world and an MC who is rewarded for trying to break the System. Interesting classes, species, magic and leveling system. I have been bing reading this since I heard about it and I am sorry to have caught up with the publishing schedule. Definitely worth following! 

Leandra
Overall

Just started and forgot how to turn the page

Reviewed at: Chapter 2: The Adversary

Pop culture references, coding references without a ton of jargon, clean explanations and loot gremlin attitude. The "what can I do?" and "I can haz?" without pushing into the "I'm going to ignore the have fun part and just wreck shizz" after the first break kinda backfired thing. Good to see that you don't get away with no consequences when you go out of the way to just break things. Not sure if this will change but I legit got to the end of an early chapter and tried to remember how to change the page so invested was I in trying to keep myself in the story.

w1w2c3p4
Overall

Well I quite like it,

Relatively novel, pretty decent characterization, lovely munchkinery.

though I should probably knock stars off as

A good third of the story is an info dump. Entertaining as info dumps go, and usually setting up to explain munchkinry, but info-dumps nevertheless.

Yet, it is still a tolerably moderate amount, and I want to see author's world, as its clearly well thought out.

Ty, I look forward to more meals.

zzled
Overall

Probably the best new story to hit Royal Road in the last few months. The world building is fantastic, deep, and has a ton of fun little twists I didn't expect. The only criticism I have is that the update schedule is torturously slow.

 

TLDR; summary - Just start reading this already.

ExChao
Overall

This is an absolutely great fic. It is written well, edited well, the chapters are long, the story is engaging and I absolutely cannot think of anything bad to say about it.

 

 The story has an impressive degree of realism and depth to it for any story set in a fantasy world. The System is incredibly detailed and described. 

I haven’t looked at any of the other reviews but there are probably a bunch that complain about the “gender bender” aspects of the story — eh, whatever. People will always complain about something but honestly it isn’t as big a part of the story as it could be. The story is very realistic — I can’t imagine any other way things could have played out with the MC other than the author just avoiding the entire series of events altogether, and that would have been a shame.

 

Highly recommended — this has catapulted up on the list of my favorite works on this site!

Hughgent
Overall

I'm loving this story.

as I'm considering this review I can only think of a quote about Shakespeare (that I cannot perfectly recall or attribute).

"The tragedy of Shakespeare's work is that he is as good as people say he is. So those looking to 'buck the trend' as it were are doing themselves a disservice."

What I'm attempting to convey is that this story is just good. It's as good as all the reviews say it is. It's so good that you would enjoy reading it.

The systems are 'dense' yet explained properly. The skills are specific enough yet have wiggle room. Our protagonist is mucking about and reveling in it. There's been three days of time elapsed and yet so much has happened. I think this pace is fantastic.

Again I reiterate, it's good. I cannot stress enough how much I am looking forward to reading more.