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Will Bender, Book 5: The Viceroy Scholarship [a Harem LitRPG Adventure]
The Will Bender series continues with a whole new arc in a whole new world.
David–not Dave, thanks–earned a high school diploma for showing up most of the time but doing little else. When his friends went off to college, he went to work for his uncle. If he wasn't emptying an abandoned storage unit or the estate of someone recently deceased, he was behind a computer, managing the eBay listings for all of the junk they found.
One of those hauls included a strange book, which turns out to be a phylactery for a depraved antipaladin from another world–Byron of Zaglis.
Byron hitchhikes on his soul and, in exchange, David gains the viceroy class, undeath, and access to the system, something no one else on Earth has seen or heard of before. David soon learns, however, that magic is real, and that his sudden boost in power has caught the attention of the secret society that practices it.
Despite being a terrible student and having questionable character, David, with Byron whispering in his mind, accepts a scholarship to one of the most prestigious magic universities in the world.
What place could be better for David to learn the art of will bending than a college campus?
(This story features an MC tempted by evil in a dark story about greed and submission.)
This book contains unconventional relationships, harem elements, and explicit adult scenes.
David–not Dave, thanks–earned a high school diploma for showing up most of the time but doing little else. When his friends went off to college, he went to work for his uncle. If he wasn't emptying an abandoned storage unit or the estate of someone recently deceased, he was behind a computer, managing the eBay listings for all of the junk they found.
One of those hauls included a strange book, which turns out to be a phylactery for a depraved antipaladin from another world–Byron of Zaglis.
Byron hitchhikes on his soul and, in exchange, David gains the viceroy class, undeath, and access to the system, something no one else on Earth has seen or heard of before. David soon learns, however, that magic is real, and that his sudden boost in power has caught the attention of the secret society that practices it.
Despite being a terrible student and having questionable character, David, with Byron whispering in his mind, accepts a scholarship to one of the most prestigious magic universities in the world.
What place could be better for David to learn the art of will bending than a college campus?
(This story features an MC tempted by evil in a dark story about greed and submission.)
This book contains unconventional relationships, harem elements, and explicit adult scenes.
813 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 2, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
October 11, 2026
First, bear in mind that this is not really the same series as the first four books. It places the main character of the first four books into the mind of the main character here, in the same way the previous books' main character had someone in his head. But the setting is otherwise completely different, so don't expect a fantasy world with dungeons or towers or any other characters or places you recognise. Instead it's like an adult Harry Potter sort of setting. It really should be sold as a second series, and treating it as such was key to me being able to enjoy it. (This is why you'll see me refer to the four previous books as "the first series".)
So, with that out if the way, this is set in modern-day Earth and written in first-person perspective from the point of view of David, a high-school graduate working for his uncle selling second-hand goods. He finds an old book that happens to be the phylactery Byron was creating at the end of the first series and, reading it, gets Byron installed in his head.
Writing quality is maybe slightly above average for self-published KU. There are plenty of grammatical errors and modern indie writing tendencies that don't quite work, but it's no worse than most other books in the LitRPG and harem fantasy genres. I noticed incorrect punctuation, spelling errors, incorrect tense and tense changes within sentences, missing and incorrect words, numbers written in numerals when they should be words, misuse of connectors, unbalanced grammar in compound sentences and lists, singular-plural mismatches, a couple of basic math errors, incorrect transitive lay, incorrect character names, inconsistent pronouns, incorrect capitalisation, inappropriate Midland American dialectics, incorrect technical descriptions, and so on. Past tense that should be past perfect is particularly distracting, making some paragraphs not mean what context suggests the author intends. Dialogue is reasonably consistent, but sometimes feels more performative than genuine, even when the context doesn't support it. There are also some minor formatting issues.
There are some pretty big inconsistencies, both internal to this book and relating back to the first series, and some little story threads that just seem to disappear. There are also a number of sections with insufficient context, like something is missing. Some of these sections could be improved with just a couple of words or another sentence, but others are relying on context from the first series, and -- especially given the inconsistencies -- they can become confusing.
When Byron dies and comes back with the voice in his head in the very first book of the first series, there's a lot of time spent on understanding what's happening and why, and what it could mean. Here, even with a main character who should be more knowledgeable (having read Byron's book), most of that is missing. There's very little concern about what's happened to him or why, and some of the lore doesn't match the first series. What's left ends up feeling disconnected and choppy, like a plot device that the main character should care about, but doesn't.
The book also has a number of scenes and discussions involving the workings of technology. The author seems to know enough to use most of the correct terms most of the time, but not enough to use all of them all of the time. This is a fairly common problem in modern fiction. It's probably convincing enough for most readers.
There's something further missing here that was present in the first three books of the first series, at least. It's hard to explain, but, like in some of the fourth book, the author sometimes seems to provide only the minimum required to get the story across, moving from scene to scene as required by the plot, but the connections, imagery, and "life" of the first books are missing. Large parts of this book feel like we're just going through the motions again in different circumstances, with no consideration given to the inconsistencies that arise. I think I would like it better if I hadn't read the first series.
Overall, this was better than I expected based on the sample chapters from the end of the first series, as long as I kept reminding myself that it wasn't the same series as the first four books. It's far too long for what happens in it, and a good few hundred pages could easily be cut without losing anything of value, but I enjoyed it enough to finish it without having to push myself. It's nowhere near as good as Will Bender book 1, but for a modern magic academy harem book with very light LitRPG elements, it's not bad.
Oh, and a note to the author: you meant chafed, not chaffed! Oh dear.
So, with that out if the way, this is set in modern-day Earth and written in first-person perspective from the point of view of David, a high-school graduate working for his uncle selling second-hand goods. He finds an old book that happens to be the phylactery Byron was creating at the end of the first series and, reading it, gets Byron installed in his head.
Writing quality is maybe slightly above average for self-published KU. There are plenty of grammatical errors and modern indie writing tendencies that don't quite work, but it's no worse than most other books in the LitRPG and harem fantasy genres. I noticed incorrect punctuation, spelling errors, incorrect tense and tense changes within sentences, missing and incorrect words, numbers written in numerals when they should be words, misuse of connectors, unbalanced grammar in compound sentences and lists, singular-plural mismatches, a couple of basic math errors, incorrect transitive lay, incorrect character names, inconsistent pronouns, incorrect capitalisation, inappropriate Midland American dialectics, incorrect technical descriptions, and so on. Past tense that should be past perfect is particularly distracting, making some paragraphs not mean what context suggests the author intends. Dialogue is reasonably consistent, but sometimes feels more performative than genuine, even when the context doesn't support it. There are also some minor formatting issues.
There are some pretty big inconsistencies, both internal to this book and relating back to the first series, and some little story threads that just seem to disappear. There are also a number of sections with insufficient context, like something is missing. Some of these sections could be improved with just a couple of words or another sentence, but others are relying on context from the first series, and -- especially given the inconsistencies -- they can become confusing.
When Byron dies and comes back with the voice in his head in the very first book of the first series, there's a lot of time spent on understanding what's happening and why, and what it could mean. Here, even with a main character who should be more knowledgeable (having read Byron's book), most of that is missing. There's very little concern about what's happened to him or why, and some of the lore doesn't match the first series. What's left ends up feeling disconnected and choppy, like a plot device that the main character should care about, but doesn't.
The book also has a number of scenes and discussions involving the workings of technology. The author seems to know enough to use most of the correct terms most of the time, but not enough to use all of them all of the time. This is a fairly common problem in modern fiction. It's probably convincing enough for most readers.
There's something further missing here that was present in the first three books of the first series, at least. It's hard to explain, but, like in some of the fourth book, the author sometimes seems to provide only the minimum required to get the story across, moving from scene to scene as required by the plot, but the connections, imagery, and "life" of the first books are missing. Large parts of this book feel like we're just going through the motions again in different circumstances, with no consideration given to the inconsistencies that arise. I think I would like it better if I hadn't read the first series.
Overall, this was better than I expected based on the sample chapters from the end of the first series, as long as I kept reminding myself that it wasn't the same series as the first four books. It's far too long for what happens in it, and a good few hundred pages could easily be cut without losing anything of value, but I enjoyed it enough to finish it without having to push myself. It's nowhere near as good as Will Bender book 1, but for a modern magic academy harem book with very light LitRPG elements, it's not bad.
Oh, and a note to the author: you meant chafed, not chaffed! Oh dear.
October 14, 2026
This book was pretty good, but there were a few things that kept it from being as good as the previous 4 books in this "series".
First of all, this is a new series, with the MC from the first four books now being a soul/spirit in the mind of the MC from this book. This new MC has been historically a loser that put zero effort into anything that required effort. School, life, work, etc. But after reading a book and agreeing to a contract, he now has magical ability (on Earth) and the ability to increase stats. Then he gets an invite to a magical academy, and he's so different from everyone else that it makes him unique and a target.
The MC has two official LIs by the end of the book, and two more heading towards it. There was a throwaway person the MC messed around with that ending up going nowhere concrete in the book. But the MC gets advice on women from his spirit guide that makes things easier for the MC to make inroads with the potential LIs. It should be noted the spirit never speaks up in the middle of sex that is shown on screen, but some readers may object to the male personality being a ride-a-long in his brain that can see what the MC is getting up to with his lovers.
The book suffers from a few editing errors. Twice a character is called by a dramatically different name out of nowhere. A search of that new name reveals it was a one-off each time, so each time it was a different out of nowhere name that cropped up.
The author really should have made this book "Will Bender II, Book 1" to avoid the confusion as to who the MC will actually be.
I will read a sequel to this one.
First of all, this is a new series, with the MC from the first four books now being a soul/spirit in the mind of the MC from this book. This new MC has been historically a loser that put zero effort into anything that required effort. School, life, work, etc. But after reading a book and agreeing to a contract, he now has magical ability (on Earth) and the ability to increase stats. Then he gets an invite to a magical academy, and he's so different from everyone else that it makes him unique and a target.
The MC has two official LIs by the end of the book, and two more heading towards it. There was a throwaway person the MC messed around with that ending up going nowhere concrete in the book. But the MC gets advice on women from his spirit guide that makes things easier for the MC to make inroads with the potential LIs. It should be noted the spirit never speaks up in the middle of sex that is shown on screen, but some readers may object to the male personality being a ride-a-long in his brain that can see what the MC is getting up to with his lovers.
The book suffers from a few editing errors. Twice a character is called by a dramatically different name out of nowhere. A search of that new name reveals it was a one-off each time, so each time it was a different out of nowhere name that cropped up.
The author really should have made this book "Will Bender II, Book 1" to avoid the confusion as to who the MC will actually be.
I will read a sequel to this one.
November 7, 2026
I read these all in a row, so I guess I'll write one review. It's smut, make no mistake. The story and the characters, as well as the world building are all well executed, and even (some of) the sex scenes are relevant to the story.
This one switches milieu to the modern world from the fantasy world of the first few books, and the new MC is less amoral than the original MC so the powers and progression are a bit different, but still interesting.
Frequently this sort of switch derails a story, but in this case it resets it as the arc of the original had exhausted its easy narrative potential. This won't be the last one, so I'm looking forward to where David can take the Silk legacy.
This one switches milieu to the modern world from the fantasy world of the first few books, and the new MC is less amoral than the original MC so the powers and progression are a bit different, but still interesting.
Frequently this sort of switch derails a story, but in this case it resets it as the arc of the original had exhausted its easy narrative potential. This won't be the last one, so I'm looking forward to where David can take the Silk legacy.
October 7, 2026
Good writing actually
Honestly didn't think I would enjoy this all the way to book 5 but I'm hooked. I really like the new direction this book has
Honestly didn't think I would enjoy this all the way to book 5 but I'm hooked. I really like the new direction this book has
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews