Artorian's Archives
Dennis Vanderkerken
After his town is put to the sword and its children taken to replace the fallen, old scholar Artorian — too corrupted to even take the first steps of cultivation — agrees with those who call it impossible, then quietly starts anyway. From failed elder to true cultivator, academy headmaster, gladiator, and eventually Administrator of Cal's dungeon-born world (Eternia/Eternium), he masters Essence, Laws, pylons, and the deity/Archetype systems across 19 volumes of cultivation adventure set in the Divine Dungeon universe.
Progression: Essence-based cultivation (Divine Dungeon universe), central and explicit, publisher-labeled 'cultivation adventure': Artorian progresses from corrupted non-cultivator onto 'the path of a true cultivator' — finesse, techniques, Laws, Mage ranks, Seed Cores, administrator privileges, S-ranks and 'double-S ranks', the deity system and the Eternia game-system (numbers-based bodies, limiters, speedrun-style advancement). Ascension/godhood is the endgame ('success comes with Ascension'). Every volume centers on breaking through to the next tier of power.
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