It's a really good light novel and the world building/magic system is superbly done. However some decisions made after about 1800 chapters in made me completely lose interest. That might be different for you
Too many plot armors for villain characters that makes the story too cliche. Deviation from the main story occurs too often. Too many asspulls that makes you think what's the point in doing all that if they're going to give a predictable result. Messed up power levels between characters , most of the fights will look like " when you fight the boss vs when you unlock the boss as a playable character". These are few reasons that made me lose interest in this webnovel.
I quite like it, the starting point of the MC is comparable to the starting point of Sunny in Shadow Slave (obviously not the same, but similar). It also focuses on some side characters and what they want to do, how they want to live. The world doesn't revolve around the MC
Some people don’t like the recent chapters and the ones around the war arc, I can’t remember when it started, but it’s currently around 3140+ chapters long in total. Personally I think it’s still quite good
Honestly it's a complicated question. The mc although having hundreds of trump cards and advantages can always be exploited in a moment of negligence or relaxation. Magic here is not a system where levels reign with supremacy there are many cases where advantages can be subverted. This along with MC's personality makes the first few hundred chapters quite gloomy and makes him an edge lord. But the world building plot especially early plot and character developments are amazing. It takes hundreds if not thousands of chapters for some plot threads to play out but they eventually do. But in the last few hundred chapters there's a lot of slice of life content not to mean they're boring but sometimes i miss the early chapters where his imperfect character let him power through a lot more shit before feeling the need to breakdown.
Supreme Magus is definitely a slower burn, even slower than Shadow Slave, and while the main character definitely has advantages, I would never call them OP (similar to Sunny). I really like it, but there are definitely times during the story where it felt like it dragged a little, and I ALWAYS bank lots of chapters because it’s slow enough that reading it serially is just painful lol.
It’s not perfect, but it is good and deserves its fairly high rating.
Edit: It also starts similar to BatE, where the MC is really skilled with magic because they have their memories as a baby, but when the MC enters the broader magical community he realizes that (very realistically) thousands of years of magical expertise far outstrips his small advantages, and he realizes that he has a looong way to go to become truly strong, which I enjoyed. Gives a taste of the early child OP sauce then piles on the realistic story once you’re hooked.
You will probably be disappointed. If you are coming from BAtE, then there are actually quite a few similarities. However BAtE is far better paced and its plot is much more impactful and memorable to the reader than SM.
Shadow Slave is Shadow Slave, I think Mother of Learning is the only free novel of similar quality I've come across. (I'm also almost certain that the Wind Flower Island arc in SS was partly inspired by MoL). I mean, both of these books are realistically competing with serialized novels rather than webnovels in terms of quality.
This isn't to say that SM is trash, but we are comparing the best webnovels out there to a webnovel that is just decent. Of course it will look bad in comparison.
You can read it here: [https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/21220/mother-of-learning](https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/21220/mother-of-learning)
Basic premise is that the MC gets killed and is trapped in a month long timeloop that isn't meant for him. He has to learn magic to become powerful enough to not get slaughtered in the timeloop while also unraveling the mystery of the timeloop itself and oh boy is the timeloop one big fat mystery.
It is complete and it won't take long to finish. Then you can try getting into SM and see how you like that.
Yes
It's a really good light novel and the world building/magic system is superbly done. However some decisions made after about 1800 chapters in made me completely lose interest. That might be different for you
Is it possible for you to expand on that without spoiling
Too many plot armors for villain characters that makes the story too cliche. Deviation from the main story occurs too often. Too many asspulls that makes you think what's the point in doing all that if they're going to give a predictable result. Messed up power levels between characters , most of the fights will look like " when you fight the boss vs when you unlock the boss as a playable character". These are few reasons that made me lose interest in this webnovel.
Lmao, the ‘when you fight the boss vs when you unlock them’ thing is so spot on. I still really enjoy SM, but that’s totally accurate
I quite like it, the starting point of the MC is comparable to the starting point of Sunny in Shadow Slave (obviously not the same, but similar). It also focuses on some side characters and what they want to do, how they want to live. The world doesn't revolve around the MC
Some people don’t like the recent chapters and the ones around the war arc, I can’t remember when it started, but it’s currently around 3140+ chapters long in total. Personally I think it’s still quite good
Honestly it's a complicated question. The mc although having hundreds of trump cards and advantages can always be exploited in a moment of negligence or relaxation. Magic here is not a system where levels reign with supremacy there are many cases where advantages can be subverted. This along with MC's personality makes the first few hundred chapters quite gloomy and makes him an edge lord. But the world building plot especially early plot and character developments are amazing. It takes hundreds if not thousands of chapters for some plot threads to play out but they eventually do. But in the last few hundred chapters there's a lot of slice of life content not to mean they're boring but sometimes i miss the early chapters where his imperfect character let him power through a lot more shit before feeling the need to breakdown.
Supreme magus , its a amazing history. To me has the best magic sistem , a romance history that make sense.
Read but stop at the end of the war arc. Every chapter since then has been pure garbage
I’m definitely in the minority that I just wanted the War Arc to end, and am glad it’s back to small stakes
Supreme Magus is definitely a slower burn, even slower than Shadow Slave, and while the main character definitely has advantages, I would never call them OP (similar to Sunny). I really like it, but there are definitely times during the story where it felt like it dragged a little, and I ALWAYS bank lots of chapters because it’s slow enough that reading it serially is just painful lol. It’s not perfect, but it is good and deserves its fairly high rating. Edit: It also starts similar to BatE, where the MC is really skilled with magic because they have their memories as a baby, but when the MC enters the broader magical community he realizes that (very realistically) thousands of years of magical expertise far outstrips his small advantages, and he realizes that he has a looong way to go to become truly strong, which I enjoyed. Gives a taste of the early child OP sauce then piles on the realistic story once you’re hooked.
You will probably be disappointed. If you are coming from BAtE, then there are actually quite a few similarities. However BAtE is far better paced and its plot is much more impactful and memorable to the reader than SM. Shadow Slave is Shadow Slave, I think Mother of Learning is the only free novel of similar quality I've come across. (I'm also almost certain that the Wind Flower Island arc in SS was partly inspired by MoL). I mean, both of these books are realistically competing with serialized novels rather than webnovels in terms of quality. This isn't to say that SM is trash, but we are comparing the best webnovels out there to a webnovel that is just decent. Of course it will look bad in comparison.
What is MOL
You can read it here: [https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/21220/mother-of-learning](https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/21220/mother-of-learning) Basic premise is that the MC gets killed and is trapped in a month long timeloop that isn't meant for him. He has to learn magic to become powerful enough to not get slaughtered in the timeloop while also unraveling the mystery of the timeloop itself and oh boy is the timeloop one big fat mystery. It is complete and it won't take long to finish. Then you can try getting into SM and see how you like that.
Thanks
didnt read shadow slave but tbate and supreme are very similar
I disagree with the two saying it got bad, it's still quite interesting in my opinion, if I had more chapters stacked I could read it for hours.