Ard is a 'Game Warden' of the Unstructured Lands. A glorified title for a moderator who hunts down cheaters, referees big events, and keeps an eye on game balance. It's a job, not his life. A pity as when it becomes his life, it risks being a very short one.

Awakening on a deserted island with a familiar menu, unfamiliar monsters, and a divine blessing he only chose for the buff it gave him, Ard chiefly regrets his class being 'Cosmic Mage'. Even Teleport doesn't help much when you can only see ocean. Stumbling from one near-death experience to another, he finds himself lost in an alien rainforest where everything wants to kill him. Not a great place for a wizard with only one viable attack spell.

Working out what's going on can wait, Ard has simpler goals. Survive. Get off this damn island. Clobber everything that's trying to kill him with a big stick.

Tasks made all the more challenging as cube-obsessed cultists hunt for ancient secrets, a local fugitive seeks to exonerate themselves while hiding from a fire-breathing rival, and adventurers seeking money and fame struggle against the greatest foe, their employer,

The key concept came from the idea of a GameLit where the character doesn't ever get a level up. Instead focusing on their growth into powers they don't know or are uncomfortable using. The growth is in bringing themselves up to match the 'character' they're suddenly inhabiting. Their path is about building skills, and finding a way to play path to growing into a power set, rather than levelling like crazy. Written as a bit of satire on common tropes of an OP protagonist, but built around a genuine love of the isekai, gamelit, and littrpg genres.

Currently working through a lot of already written content but after that will settle in on a schedule of publishing on Monday and Fridays.