Less progression, more story

I deal conflicted about asking it here, but can you recommend me stories with something more than just progression? When I first discovered this subreddit and RR I was fascinated by all those stories, but with time I have seen way too many plots build on making the MC stronger and literally nothing else. Sure, getting that level up notification is nice, but too many people rely only on it. Recently I've finally gotten into Journey od red and black, which I regret not starting earlier. That's a great example of a storyline based on progression that has been masterfully developed, with subplots, characters and so on. There isn't really much to the steps of power progression since there are only like 4 main stages for vampires, but it doesn't make following this progress any less interesting. Do you know any other fantasy progression stories focused more on the story than leveling up mana levels and so on?