"Becoming a Dodge Tank was just the beginning."
The World Boss is defeated, but Ryan's troubles are far from over.
Transported to a new world, Ryan and his friends must figure out how to save their home city of Citadel, while learning to survive in a game world where death is now all too real.
But first, Ryan must keep his promise to Val Helena, and sets out on a dangerous quest to the Vale of Sorrows to defeat the Shadow King. With an enemy ten times stronger than a world boss, Ryan will have to do some serious leveling up as a Dodge Tank to be fit for task.
But when he encounters a fellow gamer with an agenda of his own, Ryan finds his plans not only derailed but his very life threatened by an enemy of his own making!
Ryan will have to grow in both level and maturity to face the difficult struggles ahead. But the game has more secrets to reveal and the enemy lying just below the surface, may be more terrifying than anything he could have imagined...
My Opinion: 364 pages, $4.99, Available on Kindle Unlimited
At the end of book 1 the dodge tank Ryan helps beat the world boss. He and the winning group are transported to the real world as their avatars. It turns out that whole game is really a test to see who is good enough to fight the monsters above ground and return to their home with the nanites they need to run the city.
But Val Helena has another goal, she seeks to rescue her friend trapped in a labyrinth on the surface. Together, Ryan the dodge tank and the group that was sent to the surface must level up and find a way to beat the boss guarding the entrance to the labyrinth.
This a good action filled story with minor elements of town building. After the group escapes the powerful monsters hunting them when they transported to the surface, they save a town. Ryan, the main character (MC), claims ownership of the town and starts to use resources collected around there to build it up and improve it. But these town building aspects don’t really amount to much in the story, even if they are a break from all the fighting.
The best part of the story, is the twisty section where the group meets another player that’s made a place for himself in the above ground world.
The part that I don’t like, is definitely the end. If feels like it comes out of left field a bit, even if it does hit an emotional note with readers.
Overall, I had a good time reading the story but not as good as book 1. Unlike the VR game world they were playing in book 1, above ground no one can really die or they die permanently. So, you lose a bit of the feeling of risk, because you know the MC is never really going to die.
Score: 7 out of 10.
Shard Warrior: A LitRPG Novel (Crystal Shards Online Book 2)