• Age: 16 to 18
• Grade: 11 to 12

THE IRREGULAR AT MAGIC HIGH SCHOOL meets DUNGEONS & DRAGONS with a touch of NAME OF THE WIND in the bestselling LitRPG Epic Fantasy Action Adventure series MARK OF THE FOOL – in print and as a Light Novel for the very first time with MARK OF THE FOOL (Light Novel) Vol. 1 from Vault Books!

The gods chose him. He said no.

After his parents died, Alex Roth had one desire: become a wizard. Through hard work, he was accepted into the University of Generasi, the world’s greatest academy of wizardry.

Fate had other plans.

On his eighteenth birthday, Alex is Marked by prophecy as one of his kingdom’s five Heroes, chosen to fight the Ravener, his land’s great enemy. But his brand is 'The Fool’.

Worst of the marks.

Rather than die or serve other Heroes like past Fools, he takes a stand, rejects divine decree…and leaves. With his little sister, his childhood friend, and her cerberus, Alex flees for the university, hoping to research the mystery of the Ravener. He’ll make lifelong friends, learn magic from mad wizards, practice alchemy, fight mana vampires, and try to pay tuition.

There’s one small problem. The Mark insists on preventing the Fool from learning and casting spells, while enhancing skills outside of divinity, combat, and spellcraft…

…that is, unless he learns to exploit the hell out of it.

Explore a coming-of-age magic academy fantasy with a weak-to-strong progression into power, a setting inspired by D&D, detailed world building, and magical science, action, comedy, slice-of-life, and GameLit elements.

With nearly 10 million views on Royal Road, the popular web-serial MARK OF THE FOOL has sold more than 100K eBooks, while the bestselling (100K+) audio book is narrated by author Travis Baldree!

J.M. Clarke is the author of the bestselling, mega-hit, seven- volume LitRPG epic progression fantasy series MARK OF THE FOOL from Aethon Books, and the hit audiobook of Mark of the Fool Book 1 from Aethon Audio, as well as the super-hit RUNE SEEKER series (currently four books) co-written with C.J. Thompson.

MARK OF THE FOOL (Light Novel) Vol. 1 is for fans of: Dungeons and Dragons, Pathfinder, Baldur’s Gate 3, The Irregular at Magic High School, The Rising of the Shield Hero, ARCANE (Netflix), Black Clover, Mother of Learning, Mage Errant, The Beginning After the End, The Primal Hunter, My Best Friend is an Eldritch Horror, Amelia the Level Zero Hero, System Reborn/Apocalypse Reincarnation, All the Skills, The Path of Ascension, Sufficiently Advanced Magic, He Who Fights With Monsters, My Necromancer Class, Last Round Arthurs, Axis Church vs. Eris Church, Kino’s Journey, Will Wight’s Cradle series, as well as Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere universe, The Name of the Wind / The Kingkiller Chronicle (Patrick Rothfuss), The Chronicles of Arthur: Sword of Fire and Ice (John Matthews and Mike Collins), King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, and for fans of magic school settings.

LIGHT NOVELS FROM VAULT BOOKS:
2024
The Primal Hunter (Light Novel) Vol. 1
My Best Friend is an Eldritch Horror (Light Novel) Vol. 1
2025
Mark of the Fool (Light Novel) Vol. 1
Path of Ascension (Light Novel) Vol. 1
Battle Mage Farmer (Light Novel) Vol. 1
Road to Mastery (Light Novel) Vol. 1
Hell Difficulty Tutorial (Light Novel) Vol. 1
Reborn as a Demonic Tree (Light Novel) Vol. 1
The Primal Hunter (Light Novel) Vol. 2, Vol. 3
My Best Friend is an Eldritch Horror (Light Novel) Vol. 2, Vol. 3

J.M. Clarke is a Canadian author that watched way too much Godzilla as a kid. He has worked with children and families over his career, volunteered in hospice, and failed to learn how to play the bass three times.

Having written stories for twenty years, he started sharing them online during the pandemic and—next thing he knew—he was a bestseller on Amazon. He is still half-convinced this is all a dream.

He is best known for his Mark of the Fool and Rune Seeker series (cowritten with Carter J. Thompson), and has had short stories published as well.

Seriously, this has to be a dream, right?

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Der-shing Helmer is Managing Editor of Vault Comics. Der-shing is based in the San Diego, CA area and is an acclaimed illustrator.

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