Mankind has been under attack for fifty years by the awesome power of bosses and monsters who are the denizens of dungeons. Monsters started these attacks when a mystical beast named Raekast appeared and threatened the world, eradicating human life from several continents. Raekast threatened all human life until a mysterious ceremony called 'Rebirth' unlocked the hidden potential of humans strong enough to repel and defeat her. Raekast’s final, desperate act caused dungeons to spawn across the globe. The greatest of these dungeons is known as Titan. Dungeons are a threat to humanity and nature alike. Powerful reborn humans known as 'Slayers' enter their dangerous depths to kill the monsters and bosses that live within and retrieve treasure, items and more.
Tad Harrington, a video game loving 16-year-old high school student, was bullied relentlessly throughout his life. Tad’s Rebirth date has come. His last hope is to be reborn a slayer strong enough to enter the toughest dungeons where a life of power and luxury could await him.
When things don’t go according to plan, Tad finds out he has a special Rebirth, one that can level up and grow stronger by defeating monsters. Starting from level one, how high can Tad climb? Can he overcome the challenges and become the ultimate dungeon slayer?
My Opinion: 370 pages, $0.99, Available On Kindle Unlimited
I eventually really enjoyed this novel but it has one of the whiniest openings I think I’ve ever read. I mean I understand the need to show the low place the main character (MC) starts out at so that he has some progress to make in the story but it just goes on and on for way to long about just how much of a loser the MC feels like and how he’s so weak that bullies find him wherever he goes. It’s a real turn off.
Thankfully, the story improved as it continued. The setup also included an interesting world building element where everyone has to go through a rebirth between the ages of 15-16 to discover if they’ll have powers and if they can help defend the world from monsters or fight in the dungeon that spawns them.
The MC gets a zero power rating and is considered less powerful than even a normal person. Things change for the MC as he gets an RPG interface that lets him increase his power by leveling, improving his stats, and completing quests. Most of the story is dungeon diving to further this power growth to make him less wimpy.
From the point where the MC goes into his first dungeon, the story takes a turn for the better. There’s lots of good action with the MC fighting in dungeons with a group and growing in power as he develops his character while unlocking the mysteries of his abilities. The end in particular took a dark turn that I wasn’t expecting, but was pleased with.
The RPG stuff shows up at about the 7% mark, and unfortunately isn’t something anyone else has. There’s a few character sheets that show the MCs level, stats, and abilities. There are also a few quests the MC gets. The MCs powers are varied and honestly felt a little wand wavy as they just appeared as the story went on without the MC really working for them. Other rules that showed up also felt inconsistent with the world building. For example, the MC uses tools for healing and spell casting which he’s told are specific to certain people, like they’re class tools. But there’s no mention of such a restriction in any earlier world building. Instead, the power system is just numeric with higher amounts of power determining just what place you have in society as a civilian, soldier, creator, etc. The use of these class specific tools fits with the RPG interface theme but since the MC is the only one in the world that has it, it doesn’t fit with the larger world building. On the plus side of things, the story focuses heavily on the MC improving his stats as he levels and that is done well. Each stat increase has a real impact on the MC both in his physical description and how he fights. Additionally, though the powers were gained in a little wand wavy manner, their use was well done and added tension and variety to the fights.
Overall, it’s eventually a good action filled story. Despite the whiny beginning that was frankly annoying and the way the MC gains power is a little wand wavy, once the MC gets to the dungeon diving, the fighting and character progression is enough to be very entertaining.
Score: 7.6 out of 10
The Dungeon Slayer: A LitRPG Level-Up Adventure (The Dungeon Slayer Series Book 1)