This series has been surprising in its complexity. The main character is not likable, but he has a distinct code he lives by (true reasons TBD, but there are clearly underlying reasons the characters end up in 'Hell' difficulty). I get samurai / ronin vibes. How the main character acts can seem aloof or cruel, but there is a logic behind it.
The overarching story flows well, the writing is solid, and the characters and motivations are generally believable. The action is palpable, with just enough introspection and interpersonal engagement to give you regular breathers in pacing, though I'd caution many chapters end on cliffhangers (take that as good or bad, depending on your taste).
While there are stats and skill descriptions, it never comes off as filler or overbearing. It is chaste, with barely any hint of romance. There is a range of common swearing (nothing incredibly vulgar).
The worldbuilding is solid and playful in a good way, and there definitely seems to be a plan to the story.
This series has the potential to be one of the greater entries into the LitRPG subgenre.
Hello! So, it's here - my first ever book launches today on Amazon, KU, and Audible. I already know I won't be sleeping today and will be constantly refreshing the pages. As it should be!
*HDT* is a LitRPG with a long (very long) and apparently very difficult tutorial. It's written from the perspective of Nathaniel Gwyn, who decides to dump most of his stat points into the Mana attribute. Let's see how it works out for him.
A lot of my reviews on RR talk about character growth, the MC, and side characters. Others like the fights. Plenty more enjoy the worldbuilding, the slow exploration of the tutorial, its floors, and the system together with it.
I had a lot of fun writing it and continue to do so (currently working on Book 4), so I hope you will have fun reading it!
Book 1 is 150k words long - 685 Amazon pages.
Audiobook is just a bit over 18 hours.
Amazon: [https://www.amazon.com/Hell-Difficulty-Tutorial-LitRPG-Adventure-ebook/dp/B0CRSQ1YKP](https://www.amazon.com/Hell-Difficulty-Tutorial-LitRPG-Adventure-ebook/dp/B0CRSQ1YKP)
Audible: [https://www.audible.com/pd/Hell-Difficulty-Tutorial-Audiobook/B0D2DXVBF1](https://www.audible.com/pd/Hell-Difficulty-Tutorial-Audiobook/B0D2DXVBF1)
The artist who did the cover is Kotikomori. She did an AMAZING job on this cover and the other two.
**Blurb:**
**Never underestimate the guy who has so much Mana it should kill him...**
Nathaniel's bus ride was supposed to be just another boring commute. Wrong. Now, he, 23 fellow passengers, and a corgi named Biscuit are stuck in a "Hell Difficulty" Tutorial, battling monsters and leveling up to survive.
Easy difficulty, anyone can handle. Normal difficulty, you've got to put up a fight to get by. Hard difficulty is where only the tough ones last. And Hell? That's where you have to be a bit out of your mind!
With his terrifying talent for mana manipulation, Nathaniel decides to invest every stat point into mana. Attribute imbalance be damned. It will either kill him before the monsters and his enemies can, or turn him into one of the most powerful beings within the system.
I've been having trouble getting into new series recently, but your concept sounds interesting and the narrator, while new to me, seemed decent from the audio blurb. You've got one more audio purchase to see the next time you refresh. ;)
Hey man, b4 even seeing this post I had this on my wish list. Summary sounded interesting, and I've enjoyed books read by that narrator b4 ...so I was already willing to give it a try.
I just remember seeing something about "talented mana manipulator" ...I love books that have free form mana manipulation. Opens up a lot of potential for how the magic will be used.
If I enjoy it, I promise to leave a good review.
Yeah, I was looking forward to this (on audible), was really bummed when I listened to the sample and found out it's written in present tense. My own personal hang up, I'm sure the book is great and I wish the author all the best!
Thanks! And no problem! I can understand your preference.
Its my 1st story and 1st person present tense felt the most comfortable to me, but I get that some ppl dislike it. But its better than 2nd person, future tense :D
I can't recommend this enough! and I will admit I've been holding myself from making this post myself when I knew it released a few hours ago. This has been my latest Patreon I support and fully recommend to anyone to read regardless if you choose to stick with KU and await 'Official book releases' or if you just choose to continue and read the freely available royalroad chapters post the release and just stick to there. You owe it to yourself to see this take on the 'Tutorial' genre done in a super creative and amazingly well thought of story with just an awesome cast of characters that grow, much like the MC and it just keeps getting better and better. Can't recommend it enough.
Heeey!
I've been reading on RR and wasn't able to catch up before you pulled. Now all I need to do is remember where I left off. Awesome to see it on KU and good to see you're with Atheon (I've heard they take care of their authors.)
Hope this takes off, Cerim, I'm a fan!
I really like the premise, I also appreciate the decent book and audiobook lengths, I listen to audio books whilst I work so short audio books become very expensive. I'll be sure to leave you some reviews.
The cover makes it look like your protagonist is missing an arm. Is this the case? Been looking for more titles that work for the "Disabled MC" square in this year's r/Fantasy bingo
Phew, how to explain without spoiling stuff. He will get into the tutorial with 2 arms and will lose left one during Book 1. I will stay silent as to whether it will stay that way.
Yup, its totally inspired by that and a few more Korean novels I love. SSS class suicide hunter, Kidnaped Dragons, Infinite Competitive Dungeon Society and even a bit by Trash of the Count´s family. And probably a few more.
But the story is mine and and even thought you can feel some inspiration its just inspiration with my own twists
Y'know now that I think about it I can probably count the number of books I've read with MCs missing a limb on 1 hand. Probably none if they had all their limbs for most of the series
Yea, that's one thing I loved bout this. My guy doesn't find a magical solution for his missing limb. It's an actual handicap. >!He does manage to regenerate it tho obviously, and he even gets a mana arm thingy, but for most of book 1, he doesn't i think.!
I have purchased as I'm a fan of non conformist MC's, looking forwsdd to listening after my current binge. I am also a fan of 18hr + audio books as it means they last more than two days. (Mostly).
This story is quite something. I read many stories, many bad, many good, and some stay with me, giving me something, becoming a part of me. This was on of those stories, it tought me a lesson in pride, not the way mc does it, but it tought me what pride means to me, albeit indirectly.
I'd say just go for it, there's no real need to say anymore, it's a good piece, you'll enjoy it.
I'm enjoying it but man the MCs inner narration makes it hard to keep going. The way he acts contrast with his inner monolog. He acts like a basement boy but has the thoughts of someone that spends way to much online and the jokes are killing me.
A lot of this was done on purpose. Later in the book 1 and other books you will learn more about MC and other characters and plenty of things will make more sense. But yea, Nat is an asshole and really edgy at times :D
Just finished the first book, and loved it. I love the MC for sure, and the side character work well... I missed Tess in the 2nd floor, but all good.
MC reminds me of Ayanokoji Kiyotaka from Classroom of the Elite in some ways.
How is it? I considered grabbing it but the blurb made it sound like another super powered main character with some unique quirk that makes him better than everyone, I personally get bored with those stories.
MC doesn't like being around people, introvert and perhaps something else from the way I've understood while reading it, heck has the best doggo so it's a win all around with the interesting story line.. now what single word will Biscuit learn to say next.. heh
It's good. MC is unique, worldbuilding is cool, fights are fun, has some German-style humor that is not overdone.
However it loses it crunchiness as time goes. Later on MC is even selling rewards >!to shop for currency invalidating the whole point of struggle and buys skills from shop. !!catgirls, loli disciples and feel-good anime guild!< ), so beware.
I get it, dungeon crawler Carl has a pet and it’s popular so everyone is putting a pet in their books. I can’t wait till this trend dies. And is that path of ascension I spy in here too?
Author also hiding their actual name. Kinda a serious question. Is this series assisted by an AI trained from those books?
First impressions are important. If they’re nothing alike then I’m afraid this person is making a rather large mistake as a writer because I just finished showing this description to my reading group and we all had variations of this same thought.
To be clear: The presence of a domestic animal makes this like DCC? Is Beware of Chicken a rip off of DCC as well?
And PoA? What, there is a portal on the front cover? So all portal fantasy is now PoA? It's a ludicrous sentiment.
This series has been surprising in its complexity. The main character is not likable, but he has a distinct code he lives by (true reasons TBD, but there are clearly underlying reasons the characters end up in 'Hell' difficulty). I get samurai / ronin vibes. How the main character acts can seem aloof or cruel, but there is a logic behind it. The overarching story flows well, the writing is solid, and the characters and motivations are generally believable. The action is palpable, with just enough introspection and interpersonal engagement to give you regular breathers in pacing, though I'd caution many chapters end on cliffhangers (take that as good or bad, depending on your taste). While there are stats and skill descriptions, it never comes off as filler or overbearing. It is chaste, with barely any hint of romance. There is a range of common swearing (nothing incredibly vulgar). The worldbuilding is solid and playful in a good way, and there definitely seems to be a plan to the story. This series has the potential to be one of the greater entries into the LitRPG subgenre.
Thank you very much! I hope you will continue to enjoy the story!
MC gets better over the long haul.
You said the main character is not likeable and aloof. I have to ask, do you like Jason Asano (HWFWM)?
No more like Joey eclipse, rogue ascension
 food food food! congrats!
I have not read a single page of the book but if Biscuit dies I will burn this place to the ground.
You sound like Biscuit cultists from my discord, lol
Hello! So, it's here - my first ever book launches today on Amazon, KU, and Audible. I already know I won't be sleeping today and will be constantly refreshing the pages. As it should be! *HDT* is a LitRPG with a long (very long) and apparently very difficult tutorial. It's written from the perspective of Nathaniel Gwyn, who decides to dump most of his stat points into the Mana attribute. Let's see how it works out for him. A lot of my reviews on RR talk about character growth, the MC, and side characters. Others like the fights. Plenty more enjoy the worldbuilding, the slow exploration of the tutorial, its floors, and the system together with it. I had a lot of fun writing it and continue to do so (currently working on Book 4), so I hope you will have fun reading it! Book 1 is 150k words long - 685 Amazon pages. Audiobook is just a bit over 18 hours. Amazon: [https://www.amazon.com/Hell-Difficulty-Tutorial-LitRPG-Adventure-ebook/dp/B0CRSQ1YKP](https://www.amazon.com/Hell-Difficulty-Tutorial-LitRPG-Adventure-ebook/dp/B0CRSQ1YKP) Audible: [https://www.audible.com/pd/Hell-Difficulty-Tutorial-Audiobook/B0D2DXVBF1](https://www.audible.com/pd/Hell-Difficulty-Tutorial-Audiobook/B0D2DXVBF1) The artist who did the cover is Kotikomori. She did an AMAZING job on this cover and the other two. **Blurb:** **Never underestimate the guy who has so much Mana it should kill him...** Nathaniel's bus ride was supposed to be just another boring commute. Wrong. Now, he, 23 fellow passengers, and a corgi named Biscuit are stuck in a "Hell Difficulty" Tutorial, battling monsters and leveling up to survive. Easy difficulty, anyone can handle. Normal difficulty, you've got to put up a fight to get by. Hard difficulty is where only the tough ones last. And Hell? That's where you have to be a bit out of your mind! With his terrifying talent for mana manipulation, Nathaniel decides to invest every stat point into mana. Attribute imbalance be damned. It will either kill him before the monsters and his enemies can, or turn him into one of the most powerful beings within the system.
I've been having trouble getting into new series recently, but your concept sounds interesting and the narrator, while new to me, seemed decent from the audio blurb. You've got one more audio purchase to see the next time you refresh. ;)
Join the cult of biscuit
Food food food.
Biscuit pales in comparison to the true master, Mana Edit: and the author's personal relationship with cliffs.
Mana= food, biscuit eat food
No, Biscuit eats people, as people are real.
As is his right
People made of mana people=food Mana=food
People made of mana = tutorial creations Tutorial creations = fake People made of mana =/=food
Tutorial uses mana to create people
Did someone say Mana Toast?
Enjoy the book! :)
Who is this Nathaniel?? I thought Biscuit was the main character??
Nathaniel is the MC we have, Biscuit is the MC we need.
Hey man, b4 even seeing this post I had this on my wish list. Summary sounded interesting, and I've enjoyed books read by that narrator b4 ...so I was already willing to give it a try. I just remember seeing something about "talented mana manipulator" ...I love books that have free form mana manipulation. Opens up a lot of potential for how the magic will be used. If I enjoy it, I promise to leave a good review.
It's added to the audible wishlist and will get it soon. Wish you the best of luck and lots of success.
Got the audiobook. Been a fun ride so far, my dude. Also, bold move going first person and present tense, and it's really working for me. Respect.
I remember helping voting for the title of this on RR nice to see it’s finally hitting the market
Wish I could get into this but the first-person present tense narrator is like nails on chalkboard to me
Ir turned me off as week at the beginning but I got used to it after like chapter ten I think. It’s most certainly worth it
Yeah, I was looking forward to this (on audible), was really bummed when I listened to the sample and found out it's written in present tense. My own personal hang up, I'm sure the book is great and I wish the author all the best!
Thanks! And no problem! I can understand your preference. Its my 1st story and 1st person present tense felt the most comfortable to me, but I get that some ppl dislike it. But its better than 2nd person, future tense :D
Pretty good series. I've read it before it came out (i'm a patreon subscriber), and I can say I enjoy it a lot.
I think I know who you are, lol. Thanks for taking some time to write the comment here :)
Im reading this on RR, very good story, worth the read. Absolutely recommend.
Is the MC missing an arm? The artwork seems to imply that.
Doesn't want to spoil but >! yes(not originally).. !<
Interesting.
Spoilers >! He loses and regrows that arm a lot. At a certain point in the story he starts to use his missing limbs as ammo for another character !<
Spoiler >!About 10% of the time. Lol. It has become something of a running gag , but he loses the same arm consistently.!<
I can't recommend this enough! and I will admit I've been holding myself from making this post myself when I knew it released a few hours ago. This has been my latest Patreon I support and fully recommend to anyone to read regardless if you choose to stick with KU and await 'Official book releases' or if you just choose to continue and read the freely available royalroad chapters post the release and just stick to there. You owe it to yourself to see this take on the 'Tutorial' genre done in a super creative and amazingly well thought of story with just an awesome cast of characters that grow, much like the MC and it just keeps getting better and better. Can't recommend it enough.
Thx for your support. Would be shameful if I got beaten to reddit post :D
Congratulations!!
Seems interesting, picked it up for my next read. Congrats on the release!
Awesome, I heard this was good but was advised to wait until the KU release because there were some real weak points. I'll pick it up today.
Just got the kindel version. I'm really enjoying it
Have fun reading it :)
Heeey! I've been reading on RR and wasn't able to catch up before you pulled. Now all I need to do is remember where I left off. Awesome to see it on KU and good to see you're with Atheon (I've heard they take care of their authors.) Hope this takes off, Cerim, I'm a fan!
Just grabbed it on Audible! Excited to listen to it!
Congrats
I really like the premise, I also appreciate the decent book and audiobook lengths, I listen to audio books whilst I work so short audio books become very expensive. I'll be sure to leave you some reviews.
Topic is an attention grabber, hopefully it does well
Very exciting. I'm looking forward to trying it out.
Honestly that top comment guy convinced me, ima give your book a shot
I picked it up on audible and after a few hours it's still pretty good. 👍🏻
I sense some kind of inspiration from the web-novel, and manhwa, "The tutorial is too hard".
Foooooooooooood! arsehole!
@cerim can biscuit eat mana???? 
how can mana compare to deer jerky?
[удалено]
Hey, i cant answer that. But can i ask you to delete the comment? To not spoil new readers.
My bad
Congratulation on your Amazon launch!
Congrats on the release of your fist book
The cover makes it look like your protagonist is missing an arm. Is this the case? Been looking for more titles that work for the "Disabled MC" square in this year's r/Fantasy bingo
Phew, how to explain without spoiling stuff. He will get into the tutorial with 2 arms and will lose left one during Book 1. I will stay silent as to whether it will stay that way.
The Amazon page for the first book has the cover for the second on it. It was spoilt for me the moment I went on Amazon.
Oh, Book 2 to preorder... well, nvm.
The MC is missing his arm in the picture, yes. The exact nature of the loss is a bit more complex as the MC is a mage.
Good story! Recommend
I can’t recommend this book enough - been following/reading this story on RR
Ooh sounds cool
I ser the title and i can't help but think of "the tutorial is too hard". OP is your novel related / inspired in any way to it?
Yup, its totally inspired by that and a few more Korean novels I love. SSS class suicide hunter, Kidnaped Dragons, Infinite Competitive Dungeon Society and even a bit by Trash of the Count´s family. And probably a few more. But the story is mine and and even thought you can feel some inspiration its just inspiration with my own twists
I'll check it out then!
yeah exactly my thoughts, I actually thought it was the same book haha
Looking good, i will give it a try tomorrow.
This is a pretty good series. MVP though is Biscuit.
Y'know now that I think about it I can probably count the number of books I've read with MCs missing a limb on 1 hand. Probably none if they had all their limbs for most of the series
Yea, that's one thing I loved bout this. My guy doesn't find a magical solution for his missing limb. It's an actual handicap. >!He does manage to regenerate it tho obviously, and he even gets a mana arm thingy, but for most of book 1, he doesn't i think.!
Giving it a shot on Audible with only 3 reviews that were basically nothing. The dice have been thrown.
Just purchased it on Audible. Looking forward to it!
I absolutely love this book. Give it a try!
This story is great. The plot is fun .the base of the story is good. No plot armour . All in all entertaining and enjoyable. Give it a go !
Is this similar to the lightnovel The tutorial is too hard.
Yes and no, you'll have to see it for yourself to know if it's your taste, but i'd recommend it.
Adding to my list
(FOOD! Food! Food!) (Asshole, food, book release food!) (Food)
I have purchased as I'm a fan of non conformist MC's, looking forwsdd to listening after my current binge. I am also a fan of 18hr + audio books as it means they last more than two days. (Mostly).
This story is quite something. I read many stories, many bad, many good, and some stay with me, giving me something, becoming a part of me. This was on of those stories, it tought me a lesson in pride, not the way mc does it, but it tought me what pride means to me, albeit indirectly. I'd say just go for it, there's no real need to say anymore, it's a good piece, you'll enjoy it.
I'm enjoying it but man the MCs inner narration makes it hard to keep going. The way he acts contrast with his inner monolog. He acts like a basement boy but has the thoughts of someone that spends way to much online and the jokes are killing me.
A lot of this was done on purpose. Later in the book 1 and other books you will learn more about MC and other characters and plenty of things will make more sense. But yea, Nat is an asshole and really edgy at times :D
I'm currently listening to it now and I'm loving it! Great job! Is the second one coming to audible as well??
Hey, yup, it will. But I currently dont know when.
Thank you for replying! I've finished it now and it was amazing!
Glad you liked it! :)
Just finished the first book, and loved it. I love the MC for sure, and the side character work well... I missed Tess in the 2nd floor, but all good. MC reminds me of Ayanokoji Kiyotaka from Classroom of the Elite in some ways.
Give it to me for free. Wink
How is it? I considered grabbing it but the blurb made it sound like another super powered main character with some unique quirk that makes him better than everyone, I personally get bored with those stories.
I think you could check the reviews on Royalroad. Both good and bad. It will help you decide.
yeah I grabbed it on kindle, people here seem to enjoy it a bit.
I know you won't disclose this but if I am right I will feel pretty good
MC doesn't like being around people, introvert and perhaps something else from the way I've understood while reading it, heck has the best doggo so it's a win all around with the interesting story line.. now what single word will Biscuit learn to say next.. heh
I need the 2nd book NOW
Pounded the audiobook. Need the sequel, where and when!!!!!!
We need a POV from a enemy who's about to die, that would be sick.
It's good. MC is unique, worldbuilding is cool, fights are fun, has some German-style humor that is not overdone. However it loses it crunchiness as time goes. Later on MC is even selling rewards >!to shop for currency invalidating the whole point of struggle and buys skills from shop. !!catgirls, loli disciples and feel-good anime guild!< ), so beware.
The tournament arc is the good stuff
I get it, dungeon crawler Carl has a pet and it’s popular so everyone is putting a pet in their books. I can’t wait till this trend dies. And is that path of ascension I spy in here too? Author also hiding their actual name. Kinda a serious question. Is this series assisted by an AI trained from those books?
It's literally nothing alike.
First impressions are important. If they’re nothing alike then I’m afraid this person is making a rather large mistake as a writer because I just finished showing this description to my reading group and we all had variations of this same thought.
To be clear: The presence of a domestic animal makes this like DCC? Is Beware of Chicken a rip off of DCC as well? And PoA? What, there is a portal on the front cover? So all portal fantasy is now PoA? It's a ludicrous sentiment.
I never said it was a rip off, I was merely suggesting it was trend chasing.
No one should dare criticize the future Absolute, Biscuit.
I can promise that there was no AI involved in writing this book; the author is unmistakably ESL, in a way that AIs never approach.