WebNovels and Books ∽ Fantasy
2 months ago

Mark of the Fool by J.M. Clarke

Mark of the Fool
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After his parents died, Alex Roth had a plan: become a wizard. Through hard work, he was accepted... Read more
After his parents died, Alex Roth had a plan: become a wizard. Through hard work, he was accepted into the world’s greatest university of wizardry—but fate had another plan.

On his eighteenth, he is marked as one of his kingdom’s five Heroes, chosen to fight the land’s great enemy. But his brand is 'The Fool', worst of the marks.

Rather than die or serve the other Heroes like Fools in the past, he packs up his little sister, his childhood friend and her cerberus, then flees for the university in hope of refuge, magic and to unravel the truth about his land’s evil.

There’s one small problem: The Mark tries to ruin magic while enhancing skills outside of divinity, combat and spellcraft.…

…that is, unless he can learn to exploit the hell out of it.

*****

This the first time I am writing a web novel type story, and I hope you like it. I like progression stories and I've always wanted to try and write one like a few of the web novels that inspired me.

Updates Tues-Wed-Thur-Fri-Sat.

There are currently 20 advanced chapters on my patreon as a thank you to patrons.

Join us on discord! https://discord.gg/A4M3CzfWBn

Chapters will be roughly 2000-2500 words.

[participant in the Royal Road Writathon challenge]

***

Rating: This story is kind of like a PG-13 movie. There'll be gore and some swearing but not much beyond that. If that changes, I'll warn you.

Tone: Tone will be a mix of some action-adventure with excitement, comedy, slice of life elements and mystery. I won't be going too dark with this story. There will be mentions of war, some death, grief and violence.

MC: MC is analytical/rational with emotions. He is mostly in control of those emotions. MC will progress in power, eventually becoming very strong. When that happens, I'll add the Strong Lead tag.

Fights: Fights will be detailed.

***

Stuff this story won't have:

- Extreme grimdark content

- Murderhobo plots

- Edgy, anti-hero MC

- Pacifist MC

- Harems Collapse
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Comments 71

  1. Offline
    Emmalyn
    + 0 ⋅ 0 -
    • 4.5
    4.5
    12:58 am June 3rd 2026
    4.5 stars it is
    It is perfect in the story development and writing quality departments. Some characters aren't fleshed out or are one note gags so 4 stars for character design. While the world isn't fleshed out focusing on only two nations of the over eleven mentioned so 4 stars for world background.

    On to things not covered by the ranobes.net rating system:
    Humor: 5 stars. I made the mistake of reading this at work and struggled to not burst out laughing.

    Length: 4.4 stars. It is quite long with 900 above average word count chapters.

    Pacing: 3.7 stars. There are many pacing errors such as uncalled for time skips and chapter to time inconsistencies. Often calls back to past experiences quoting a third of a past chapter, vastly slowing the reading experience. This is increased to a 4.5 if you don't care about the slow burn as that is part of the progression fantasy genre.



    A great book that does progression fantasy right. Expect dnd references and to laugh a lot. It hits just about every kind of humor at some point so you will laugh.
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  2. Offline
    1justreads
    + 0 ⋅ 0 -
    • 4.3
    4.3
    Some of ppl below don't know what they are talking about. I suggest you don't read the comments and dive into the 1st chap. Hopefully by then you'll know if you hate it or love it. this author knows what he's doing....... Some what. I came here thinking a cozy progression fantasy like Beware Of Chicken but with more comedy. But this is not that. It's a little less polished and in terms of comedy you will get meta humour and sarcasm but situational comedy author uses only at the start which I think is damn shame. The part before the 1st semester starts in generasi was extraordinarily difficult to read for me. The author used a diary entry style to show progress and personally I like progression through conflict. Not like I must defeat this bad guy so I must train and get strong like dragonball z but like he can train and master spells in the background and then he runs into a problem that shows his progress over past years and Beware Of Chicken does this masterfully. But I am rating it so highly is because the author changes this after the fist semester arch. And shows other improvement in world build and intrigue
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  3. Offline
    Koroik
    + 0 ⋅ 0 -
    Essa capa é foda, se não fosse pelo MC parecer ter uns 70 anos provavelmente seria uma capa muito imponente.
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  4. Offline
    MrRightNow
    + 0 ⋅ 0 -
    Read 20 chapters, and yeah, not for me. Feels childish
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  5. Offline
    AUH
    + 2 ⋅ 0 -
    Is it a Gem or a Crap?
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    1. Offline
      1justreads
      + 1 ⋅ 0 -
      It's good story wise
      MC is not brain dead and be ready for character development
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  6. Offline
    xektop99
    + 2 ⋅ 2 -
    tbh i can´t relate with this mc, he is too emotional, people are different and some have the emotional spectrum different, i can´t feel emotions that intense, either of grief, anger , happiness etc. i can feel all of that but never that strong, so when i read about this i feel disconnected with the novel, like the feelings of the mc are more of a child in a tantrum, and is frustrating me a lot.

    i have been thinking on giving pauses to the readings, and read other novels
    but i don´t want to because i will forget a lot of details, and i´ve been liking this novel so idk what to do

    is a good novel though, just that the slow pace is annoying when the wizards can live so long and it feels as if he is always in a rush to accomplish all his objectives, is not as time-wise disturbing like when a xianxia mc becomes the superpower of the universe in 2 years of plot, but it has been more than 100 chapters and the mc is on the beginnings of 2nd semester
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  7. Offline
    NotSoAmazing
    + 4 ⋅ 0 -
    • 4.5
    4.5
    As of chapter 800. Great novel with a great attitude to character growth. The mc is prohibited from his goals from the start and has to work his ass off to overcome them in creative ways. Characters are varied and interesting, and for the most part actually draw the reader in. Allies grow closer and villains have different motivations for how they behave.
    There is very little stubbornness seen in characters and no-one is black or white. (Edit: black or white in terms of morality not skin colour xD, just realised how that could seem)

    In terms of worldbuilding there hasn't been a huge amount of exploration but what has been shown has been detailed and interesting.

    Unfortunately there are sections where it feels like the author is just doing it for word count of the plot just slows down which can be painful.

    Overall very good novel, unique, entertaining and logical. 7.5/10 in my opinion.
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    1. Offline
      GenericUser837
      + 5 ⋅ 0 -
      Username does not check out
      Read more
  8. Offline
    IftaherAhammed
    + 1 ⋅ 0 -
    Can anyone guve me spoilers
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  9. Offline
    unknown007
    + 19 ⋅ 0 -
    LOTM fans see the word THE FOOL: troll11
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    1. Offline
      Melovelent_King
      + 2 ⋅ 0 -
      That's honestly why I clicked, its like a click bait gloom
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    2. Offline
      Thalanill
      + 0 ⋅ 0 -
      ranobes has spiffing brit emoji? lol
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  10. Offline
    KING OF CHAOS
    + 5 ⋅ 4 -
    It's not bad, but it's not good either, it's average at best. It's a 5/10
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