The Principle of a Philosopher by Eternal Fool “Asley”

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The 5,000 years-old boy has resurfaced!

In the distant past, young and foolish Asley flunked out of the prestigious Magic University… by failing an early exam that had a 100% passing rate until then. Shortly afterwards, he accidentally created the immortality-granting “Drop of Eternity,” and upon consuming it, obtained an eternally lasting body.

He devoted himself to researching magic for almost 5,000 years… after which he traveled in search of the world’s most mysterious Dungeon. Along the way, he happened to save a family, and then their town, from a monster attack. Before he knew it, he was hailed by the locals as a savior with ancient arcane arts and knowledge…

While helping to rebuild the town, an opportunity came up for Asley to enter the Magic University once again, so he did. One thing led to another, and his initially normal journey got bigger and bigger — studying, adventuring, monster hunting, money-making, hellish training, uncovering conspiracies, saving the world, the whole nine yards!

Thus began the adventure through the mundane and the insane of “Eternal Fool” Asley, his Familiar wolf-dog Pochi, and all their friends and enemies along the way!

Associated Names
One entry per line
Yuukyuu no Gusha Asley no, Kenja no Susume
悠久の愚者アズリーの、賢者のすゝめ
悠久愚者阿兹利的贤者之道
Related Series
N/A
Recommendations
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Recommendation Lists
  1. Cliche or mid
  2. Things I read(Mostly JP Novel)
  3. novels i like
  4. uwu owo
  5. My List (Isekai/Fantasy)Adapted to Manga

Latest Release

Date Group Release
03/28/24 Divine Dao Library c467 part2
03/22/24 Divine Dao Library c467 part1
03/21/24 Divine Dao Library c466
03/15/24 Divine Dao Library c465
03/14/24 Divine Dao Library c464
03/08/24 Divine Dao Library c463
03/07/24 Divine Dao Library c462
03/01/24 Divine Dao Library c461
02/29/24 Divine Dao Library c460
02/23/24 Divine Dao Library c459
02/22/24 Divine Dao Library c458
02/16/24 Divine Dao Library c457
02/15/24 Divine Dao Library c456
02/09/24 Divine Dao Library c455
02/08/24 Divine Dao Library c454
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16 Reviews sorted by


Shoji
Shoji rated it
October 26, 2019
Status: Completed
Do keep in mind that I've already read the whole series in Japanese.

I must say, this series as a whole is excellent, though individual books may not feel like much because of the relatively slow pacing. It starts off a little slow and lacking in direction, but subtly introduces plot threads early on and slowly addresses them as it goes. Almost every character is important in some way, and they all have their own stakes and motivations in the big picture. I'd say that the core story starts really moving... more>> at around volume 5 (about chapter 130), but before then there are plenty of enjoyable mini-arcs and funny moments.

As for translation quality, the older translation (by Estelion's Secret Imouto) is absolutely horrible. It's basically barely edited MTL that becomes a poorly disguised translation of the manga adaptation a few chapters in.

On the other hand, the newer translation (by Divine Dao Library) is wonderful. Very well written with consistent names and terminology throughout, and the writing is localized smoothly without losing any nuance. Note that they've re-translated the first few chapters that Estelion's Secret Imouto did, so if you're starting off, go to the second-to-last page of the chapter list.

Edit (6/7/2020) : The translation by Divine Dao Library, which is up to chapter 82 as of this edit, has dropped in quality slightly after about chapter 40. There are also some infrequent commentary by the editor and proofreader (none from the translator so far) that can come off as annoying.

Edit (10/10/2021) : The translation by Divine Dao Library is up to chapter 225 as of this edit, and the overall quality has gotten somewhat better in the last 100 or so chapters. I've also noticed that the jokes are localized more heavily, which seems to be working better for the translation to deliver the series' humor. <<less
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Nvelist
Nvelist rated it
April 6, 2018
Status: c6
I must say not bad. Although the title really indicate the MC is a fool. He is still smart, a strategist and calculated.

Always bantering with his familiar Siberian Husky Pochi but all fun and laughs even in the face of dangers.

A real slowpoke towards learning but never gives up even 5000 years passed.

I give this 8 out of 10 since MC is pretty slow towards change and realization. But still good as it gives a broader scene for him to regained his lost humanity of values, kindness, thoughtfulness, fairness and... more>> etc.. Over the 5000 years of his isolation from the rest of the world.

A worthy story. <<less
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YeYueLiang
YeYueLiang rated it
June 23, 2018
Status: c7
very funny.

I like the MC its not the typical good boy, also all indicate he Is a fool... I wait and see how he evolves. Well its very fuuny...

The familiar and MC combination form a good environment :3

I like the story and hope for More releases :3
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jpmrblood
jpmrblood rated it
June 2, 2019
Status: c12
This is a unique translating strategy. The translator brought the novel and the comic as one reading content. It made the story cohesive.

I just need to get used to switch between reading comic bubble and reading the novel. Just getting used with reading from right to left in comic mode. Then, read left to right in novel.

A new experience for reading habit.

I give kudos to the translator's effort. The story is nice. The language is good.
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AndyDarren
AndyDarren rated it
March 11, 2019
Status: c5
Dissapointed.

Even if you can get past the not so great translation quality, the story itself isn't all that great.

First of all, literally every "chant" he uses is "Hoi hoi hoi no hoi *spell name*". Wtf is that?! That s**t is so freaking annoying to read! It's like he has eighth grade syndrome and a mental illness at the same time!

Next is a point that was already brought up and it's that the litrpg elements are just a defect in the plot, not only does it annoyingly quantise everything but it... more>> also makes it so that all the power the MC could've had from all his years of research is severly limited because of the s*upid titles. Now he only amounts to a really good magician.

Lastly is what happened just before I stopped reading. So the MC want's to help the villagers whose well has dried up. You would think than someone who's been doing research for 5k years would come up with a clever idea like using earth and water magic to locate and create a new natural well right? Well you'd be wrong, because for some cocaphony reason, water magic can't be used without being near a water source?! Yet for some other even more cocaphony reason, ICE MAGIC CAN BE USED NO PROBLEM! The MC then proceeds to launch a giant ice chunk into the old well, chop it up using sword magic, and melt it using fire magic, lather rinse and repeat until the well is full and then problem solved UNTIL THE WELL GOES DRY AGAIN AND HE HAS TO REPEAT THE PROCESS! 'Clever Protagonist' my ass!

You know I wanted to give this novel a 3 star out of fairness since I've only read up to chapter 5 but the more I think on it the more I feel like it deserves a lower rating especially after the manga got my hopes up for nothing. <<less
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2Girls1Cupcake
2Girls1Cupcake rated it
November 2, 2018
Status: c7
The premise of this novel is great, a young man with low potential in magic becomes an immortal by chance, spends 5000 years learning magic and researching, after which he comes back out into the world that hasn't advanced but rather the opposite.

It's an awesome premise for the template of an op sage-like MC without any common sense and who has trouble dealing with other people, but rather than this it's just turned into a giant joke, he's basically useless because of the litRPG elements where he has horrible titles... more>> that lower his abilities and his personality is 2D at best.

The litRPG elements are horrible in themselves, they are there just as filler without any real depth, the editing of the translation is bad and the manga images thrown in is annoying as hell.

I expected better. <<less
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Xemul
Xemul rated it
July 7, 2020
Status: Overall
It is an Adventure story in a Fantasy World. The story is told from the perspective of a Main Character *Asley* - a logical, analytical person, who after Millenia of Hikikomori lifestyle devoted to scrutinizing study of Magical Arts decides to leave his comfort zone and go out to see the World. Of course, not on the own accord but rather under nagging and trolling suggestion of his familiar doggo Pochi. As a person Asley is a very relatable character, as many issues he faces are very commonplace in our... more>> daily lives. However, in order to save the readers from the depressing prospect of self-reflection and endless reports on his analysis, the Author has paired him with hell of a Troll Familiar, who always deescalates and neutralizes boring situations with her out-of-place comments. And now, together they are going to face the REAL WORLD and all variety of its ridiculous, obnoxious and life threatening events in order for us to see whether a Nerd and his dog companion could come out of it alive.

-----------

The distinctive traits of this story IMHO are:

- Although MC is somewhat OP in certain perspectives, the Author presents this in very balanced manner and had made an extra effort to pack a set of drawbacks, which Asley is attempting to overcome.

- The storytelling is quite well tuned, pace of events are not overwhelming, the progress of the characters is rationally conceivable and there are very little dull moments.

- Characters are very well compiled but are all described from the perspective of MC, so... the evaluation of them is based on same standards. Nonetheless, there are very little plain characters who fulfil the roles of place fillers. Most of them are interactive and have certain role in the Grand Scheme...

- Grand Scheme.
There is one, but it is kept quite vague and the progress is not so linear. Throughout the story you will keep gathering fragments, which you would then have to put together to solve the puzzle.... and most of the time fail to do so correctly. (Isn't that fun?!)

- Romance.
No, the story is not reduced to another harem comic. Many Thanks to MC being completely Noob in this aspect and continuous pestering of one certain doggo. Overall, the romantic elements are present and kept... rather on the scarce side of the balance.

- Adventure.
Since we are talking about a Hikikomori Scientist, he is by no means a nomad that travels all over the world. No, he actually tries to stick to one place and do as much as he can until the next turn of event forces him out to meet new scary things. And believe me, there a lot of them. Although this element is not extremely vivid, the adventures that do happen are rather refreshing and medium to high quality of content. There will be more than enough challenges for Asley to overcome... leaving the audience to guess how the heck is he not dead yet?!

- Comedy.
Yes, this is one of the most prominent highlights of the story. The sense of humor, although being Japanese, is very well timed and integrated to the core of the story. Ridiculous moments not rare but always conforming to rationale. And as I mentioned, there is a lot of trolling... tones of trolling... Hell, reading the interactions between Asley and doggo can be called a standalone reason to checking this novel. The sense of humor and the reaction of its victims cannot be called anything but veeery relaxing.

- Guidebook.
All in all, if you seek some useful value in this novel - it will be its presentation of Communication Skills or lack thereof. The story of MC is a guidebook of how you should and should not do things. With a colorful depiction of the consequences, it teaches you enough about what you should not do and how exactly whatever you intend to do should not be done. Still, there is an exception: none has figured how to deal with Women, so we cannot blame Author in not presenting anything on this topic.

Anyhow, this is my review for now... <<less
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bloggbigg
bloggbigg rated it
April 14, 2022
Status: c106
One of the most 'constantly mildly irritating' things I've read in a while...

Three stars is generous.

Now, don't get me wrong- it's not exactly bad... but the author's style leaves a lot to be desired (just to start). Definitely a novel that banks on readers 'not thinking about the details', and liking his particular style of humor- as this is apparently supposed to be a comedy primarily.

The Good:

  • The story does have a plot, and it's not terrible- but nothing really new.
  • A lot of 'little bits of interesting' here and there show some potential for the author.
  • The little hints towards a romance are less ham-handed than other new authors, (though it's kinda pointless with all the harem-baiting...)
The BAD:

  • Let's start with the comedy- which is mostly nonsense and low-effort slapstick. It's got a vibe not far removed from 'Tom & Jerry', except (and I kid you not) Tom & Jerry both come off as more intelligent and focused on their respective goals than the MC & his familiar (or anyone else who chimes in, usually). Also- not really that funny... (but he tries so hard (too hard) and constantly).
  • Expositions & Infodumps galore, as the author has to get things off his chest, make the MC get things of his chest, or (more often) ramble on with near-irrelevant speculation or commentary. most of the 'slow pacing comes from all this excess, unfocused fluff.
  • Plot armored slapstick: MC & his sidekick are doing a comedy routine 24/7- even when lives are at stake. The author ignores that 'maybe getting serious could save more lives', and plot armors over their ineffective actions/waste of time. It's tiring because it's constant. Also, too many characters use violence to express their frustration with others- all girls of course.
  • Intentionally s*upid. Includes an MC who (despite having experienced literally hundreds of lifetimes worth of events- somehow starts the story at level 20, and more clueless than any teen about... everything. I know this is supposed to be 'the hook' but to then have him level up rapidly (in a few months) with 'almost by accident' effort? Ok- whatever. That really doesn't explain how everyone else is conveniently clueless about the diabolical plot the author thinks is 'clever' (it's not). So everyone is s*upid.
  • Everything is forced. Nothing about this story feels natural- all plot progress, interactions, revelations- forced-- especially the plot. Even the things properly foreshadowed & developed end up being jammed in what feels like 'too soon' or 'now, you finally want to talk about that?'.
  • Everyone is a 'plot puppet', Nothing happens in this story unless the author looks at his watch, blows a whistle, points at a mark, makes the 'actors' read their lines. The story pacing is horrendous in general- but so many things just get 'dragged in' or 'revealed' at weird moments that you realize it's all just 'I feel like writing about this today', more than any level of natural story progress.
  • Story is 'All for show'. Things happen- why? people makes choices, then carry them out! Except here, where many get quietly abandoned because the author found the next thing to move on to.
    Spoiler

    MC helps little girls avoid being 'brothel-s*aved', because this shitty civilization think s*avery is ok. Huzzah! He rescued a few- then there's a backlash. You know what? Gonna do other things! And no one ever speaks of it again (except in praise). Even the rescued girls totally never think about other girls not so lucky as them (well- maybe years later? More years than 2-3 that have passed so far. Not so far anyway is what I'm saying...

    [collapse]
  • Faux harem? Why?
  • Levels are s*upid nonsense that are irrelevant except to confusingly show 'something' (likely to not reflect actual performance).
  • Horrible 'pantser' world progress. The world canon and mechanics develop along with the main character. He gets more stuff- now it can exist in the rest of the world.
    Spoiler

    The way 'teleport' was 'discovered'- then turned into a 'rediscovery' shortly later (despite that 'history' should record one way or the other). Crap like that. Author put little advance thought into his 'made up as he went along' story.

    [collapse]
  • You know what? That's enough. Way more- but you get the idea...
The different:

  • Transparently doing nothing but showing off and being an a$$ for humor? I guess?
Anyway- if you like low-brow slapstick, humor involving people being constantly shitty to one another, or people actively using undeserved violence as a 'punchline'- then 'forge ahead'-- otherwise this might not be for you, as it's mostly recycled content, but slower-paced and padded with nonsense.
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Japan112
Japan112 rated it
April 16, 2020
Status: c66
Excellent Comedy, Good Strory Flow, More Dialogue than Monologue Of MC, Variety of Character & their Varied Personalities.

Overall MUST READ.
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CamperDave
CamperDave rated it
May 10, 2021
Status: c178
A story about an immortal teenager who has stayed away from civilization for thousands of years, missing all of the world-changing events that occurred during that time (this is important to know). One day he and his talking dog companion decides to go on an adventure, and through a combination of legit skill, ancient knowledge, dumb luck, and sticking their noses where they shouldn't be, they end being selected by various entities to play a key role in what seems to be a new set of world-changing events. The story... more>> also gives substantial focus to a handful of other key characters, who have their own goals and development arcs separate from the main duo.

The text is written mostly in first-person, with a few sections shifting to third-person. The relatively simplistic level of linguistic depth feels alright for the story and tone it's going for, but can sometimes feel incomplete or abrupt with how fast it switches conversation topics. The comedy can feel inappropriately timed in some serious moments, but most of the time they can give me a good chuckle. The real meat of the story seems to start at around chapter 130, with the chapters before it being minor conflict with set-up for various key characters, world building, and build-up to the actual overarching conflict.

I've read all chapters translated to English so far and compared some notable moments with the original Japanese web novel. I'd say the translation by group "Divine Dao Library" is well-done for the most part. Removal of honorifics is handled well, with characters' speech tones still feeling appropriate considering their relationships. Terminology is almost always consistent, it's mostly easy to distinguish who's talking at who during long dialogue strings, and emotional impact of key scenes seem to be retained (... which means the cringy scenes are as cringy as they were originally too).

Don't bother with the older translation by group "Estelion's Secret Imouto" by the way. When comparing their translation to the newer one, it's clear that they barely even understood the text and their English was totally broken... that or they were using Google Translate. They also put the dialogue into the manga adaptation's panels for some reason, which makes it extremely jarring to read and wastes internet data to load their webpages.

Speaking of which, the novel ('s published version) has a manga adaptation with excellent art and covers almost every detail and line of dialogue. It's pretty slow, being barely into the content of the second major story arc, but I recommend reading it as well. <<less
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The_Follower
The_Follower rated it
September 27, 2020
Status: c114
Overall I really want to like it because it has a lot of good characters and an actual plot, but between the super hazy power levels and the changes to the plot over time I don't feel comfortable giving it even a 4/5, so I had to settle on 3/5.

The issue with power levels is that the author keeps pulling them from nowhere. We're repeatedly told in fights that the current top tier guys move so fast that the lower ranked guy can't even see them move unless they're completely... more>> concentrating, yet we're to believe that a handful of lower ranked guys can take them on? Same thing with monsters/humans being pulled from nowhere after it being established that people at certain power levels are rare, and then the main character happens to meet a ton of people on that level coming after him randomly or gets into fights at that level. Perhaps it was me just not really understanding the explanations, but the explanations of the magic itself are also questionable, being incredibly vague in a lot of important parts to understanding why certain things (like magecraft) are even important or useful.

All that would've been fine if the series had maintained its status as more of an adventure novel with him slowly advancing and focusing more on taking a deeper look at Asley's mentality, but it quickly becomes generic with the setting of him being a 5000-year old magic maniac quickly becoming irrelevant and him transitioning into the average dense harem main character. Talented mages of the current era are better than him at a lot of magic despite magecraft being almost gone in this era, and so his 5000 years feel pretty much wasted in terms of his actual abilities.

All that being said, the gags are genuinely good and Pochi is a great doggo with her banter with Asley, so I'd still recommend it if you like fun character interactions. <<less
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maisonaustyn
maisonaustyn rated it
October 22, 2019
Status: c16
The story so far is fine but not much has happened or seems to be happening. The focus seems to be more on character interactions and minor world building than anything so far. At least from what has been translated. The characters are actually well done imo but the goal and direction of the series seems to be all over the place. Nearly to the point of some chapters being only SoL content without any plot/story relevance.

The translation isn't as bad as the other reviews make it out to be... more>> but still not amazing. The translation seems to be moving quite fast which is most likely the cause of its flaws. Seems the translator is rushing to catch up to the managa. (The manga is a decently ahead of this translation atm) <<less
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fantasy
fantasy rated it
September 9, 2022
Status: c320
Sometimes I really wish Asley would act his age. The only sign that he's 5000 years old is his magic. The whole novel is really fun at times, but really frustrating otherwise. Up and down really (that's also why I keep reading it). If you're going to read it go in with the expectation that it will focus more on the comedy and being "funny, " and not action. His and Pochi's banter can be alright at times but mainly it only adds to my frustration of him never acting... more>> his age. All in all, it isn't all that funny most of the time. Asley also feels somewhat soft at times, letting his enemies go and stuff, which makes for yet another annoyance. I guess that's where the R-15 tag comes from though? <<less
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WeepingBirds
WeepingBirds rated it
January 8, 2022
Status: c250
The main problem with this novel is that the story is super slow...

And the reason why it's slow is because of the immense amount of filler dialogue present in the novel.

This filler dialogue exists as banter between the MC and his dog. Although I haven't done the math, but I believe if you were to cut out most of the pointless banter you can probably half the number of chapters and words in the novel.

Other than that I quite enjoy it, pretty good overarching story and battles. Cool skills and... more>> magic from the MC.

Best to save up a bunch of chapters and binge read in 1 go. <<less
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sadduckss
sadduckss rated it
February 6, 2021
Status: c50
This novel is undoubtedly overrated. The story is mediocre, and 3.0 star is the best grade I could possibly give it.

The character development is shallow throughout the novel. The MC fails to mature over the 5000 years of living and has no goal in mind, ultimately creating a boring plot with few serious conflicts. The novel evokes humor at times, however, for the most part, it remains quite balnd to readers.

It gets on my nerve how the MC keeps on reciting every spell with "Rise, A-rise, A-rise!" like he has... more>> eight grade syndrome, and it confuses me on why the MC continues to act like an idiot and fails to learn from his mistakes. The author should have fleshed out more emotional aspects and touch upon his lack of "humanity".

The character relationships are also undeveloped, and there are times when too many time skips make the novel slightly confusing.

TL;DR -->If you can stand someone reading about someone with an eighth-grade syndrome and don't mind wasting time on shallow character development, go for it. The humor definitely makes it funny. <<less
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SeventhTale
SeventhTale rated it
November 12, 2022
Status: Completed
A great story. It involves saving a village to saving the world. There's a lot of foreshadowing in the middle, the war is epic, same when the MC just amaze everyone with his spells.

The story revolves around Asley and Pochi. There seems to be a lot of people who don't like Asley's personality since he already lived for 5000 years. But if you look at it, at the start of the story he is low leveled, meaning despite those thousand of years of living what he did was mostly research.... more>> Unlike other MC, Asley is not talented in magic, but he has a perseverance and big curiosity in knowledge. That's why although he's not OP at the start of the story, he's so knowledgeable in magic, though not completely as over the course of the story he learned a LOT of things. The magic system here is so detailed, and not just involved imagination.

Now there's also Pochi who is Asley's familiar and the one who understand and trust him and vice versa. I don't like their banter as first but after reading further, those banter adds comedy in unexpected moments. Though I agree the some of those are repetitive.

The story involves a lot of things, just like "Zero Believer Goddess" but minus the gods. There are epic moments that excites you and the foreshadowing and revelation adds to that. There's a lot of interesting characters that are well fleshed that it's easy to remember their names despite their numbers. The whole plot revolves around the MC, but he's not the only one who moves it. There's not romance nor harem, but a number of girls are interested in MC. The ending too is a complete happy ending.

I really recommend this one to those who want to read a good fantasy story. <<less
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