Webnovel.Forum

EternalNightLotus yeah, thx, Supreme Magus is a good recommendation although I’ve already read it

Tomoyuki I understand some misgivings you might have about ATG harem but the protagonist never actually pursued strength. In fact it’s a point of joke for most of the novel that unless for outside stimuli he would just play around following women all year long. He only ever cultivated to achieve some immediate short term goals (typically revenge or rescuing some damsel). Also, ATG has some pretty solid holistic world-building despite valid reasons for criticism so it illustrates my other points nicely. But anyway, let’s try not to turn this thread into ATG discussion.

Some examples of what I like: Skyfire Avenue, Second Coming of Gluttony, Keyboard Immortal, Against the Gods, Way of Choices. As you may already guess, I am not expecting some award-worthy flowery writing - it'll do as long as it's not too grating and doesn't throw logic to the wind. You don't need to mention novels from the same authors since I am probably already aware about them.

Needs to have a male protagonist with a healthy outlook on life that values friends and relationships and doesn't just mindlessly pursue strength and achievements at the expense of everything/everyone else.

Strongly prefer something with prominent romantic subplot. Doesn't matter whether it's monogamous or polygamous relationship as long as there is some foreplay and MC doesn't just receive girls for free.

Tropes that I particularly enjoy (not necessary but something to keep an eye on):
- academy setting
- enemies turn love interest

Red flags (please don't recommend novels that have any of the following):
- any sort of "system" unless it's used very sparingly and deliberately. I already mentioned 2 novels with a "system" that I liked so it's not a hard negative, but in general I find that most web novels' authors who use this trope tend to substitute the actual plot with system notifications (VRMMO novels being the biggest offender).
- shallow world-building (e.g. protagonist transmigrates into the world that has has elves and goblins because reasons, protagonist finds himself inside a game he played and other such stupid nonsense)
- protagonists whose main/only goal is achieving immortality (in short, don't recommend generic cultivation novels, e.g. IET works)