by timbat2001
Mara Talbert dies at thirty-one and wakes in another world with twenty-four silver marks, a mysterious gift called Load-Bearing, and no idea what to do with her second life. Then she sees a woman in full plate carrying a shield almost as tall as she is. Oh. Mara wants that. She settles in Bellwether, a market town built around a mostly peaceful dungeon, and begins the long road to becoming a tank: terrible secondhand armour, aching muscles, dangerous jobs, new friends, and an armourer she is becoming far too interested in for an allegedly straight woman. Her goal is simple: Become the strongest tank in the world. Along the way, she might have to figure out what else she wants.
No streak history
One state-enhanced oracle order, filtered by each list. Observed Royal Road ranks remain separate ground truth.
Rank updated 21 Oct 2026, 08:28 UTC
Entry forecast updated 21 Oct 2026, 08:28 UTC
Ranking model: rs-public-oracle-state-v1
Forecast model: rs-model-entry-v1
Chart history contains only this ranking model's runs; legacy points are not spliced in.
Not enough recent follower history to estimate a shadow rank yet.
beats 1% of similar stories
not enough data yet
beats 47% of similar stories
Mid-pack, room on both levers
Traffic and conversion both sit mid-field for a story this size. Growth here compounds from consistency: steady cadence feeds traffic, and a sharper hook lifts what each view is worth.
Benchmarks: 8,060 active Royal Road stories, percentiles within the 10–19 chapters band, cohort of 2026-07-02. Conversion is measured as followers gained per 1,000 views over the recent window.
