Rise of the Class Smith

A Dungeon Building LitRPG Adventure

By: Leon West

Narrated by: Mike Mathewson, Skylar Rae Guernsey

Everyone gets skills. Nobody gets classes. Until a dead-last adventurer kills a raid boss and breaks the system.

Levi Summers is an F-rank tank freelancing E-rank instances for pocket change. He's got two skills, no party, and a past that still haunts him. When a routine run locks into a raid and his team dies around him, he redirects the boss's own lightning into its skull and claims a Dungeon Lord's crown. Hidden inside it: Class Smithing, the power to forge new classes and give anyone the ability to level up.

Blair Harrington, a Phoenix-kin pyromancer running from her father's guild, is the first to fight beside him. Maddy Walker, a Fairy-kin carrying the same scars Levi does, evolves into his Dungeon Fairy.

But a dungeon lord who forges classes is the most valuable target alive. Killers are already inside his walls. The Outwilds are pushing through his portal. And the entity that gave him this power wants something in return.

Dungeon building meets class crafting and the kind of progression where an F-rank nobody forges his own path to power.

• Dungeon Core Adjacent
• Progression Fantasy
• Unique Class Crafting System
• Zero-to-Hero MC
• Found Family Party
• Base Building
• System Magic

Series: Rise of the Class Smith, Book 1 — Ongoing
POV: First Person with Third Person Interludes
Ending: Series-continuing with resolution

Perfect for fans of Solo Leveling, Danmachi, and Dungeon Keeper. Start the Rise of the Class Smith series today.

©2026 Leon West (P)2026 Royal Guard Publishing LLC

The detail

The detail in the mixed classes is really cool. Can’t wait for the next book!

Mostly good

There were things about the MCs personality that I found pretty weak, and that made some parts of the story annoying. But overall it was a solid story. I’ll check out the next one.

Pretty great story overall with one minor peeve for me.

It is a pretty great story overall. However, one issue I have is the part about the MC constantly blaming himself for self-defence against an old party member who went insane. Killing in self-defense is generally not considered murder. Stop calling it murder! It really isn't! The below conditions most definitely qualify!
A simple google search shows the following:
If a killing is legally justified, it is deemed a justifiable homicide rather than a crime.
A valid claim of self-defense requires establishing several key elements:
Reasonable Fear: You must have had a reasonable belief that you were in imminent danger of death or serious bodily harm (LITERALLY consuming someone magically would count).
Proportionality: The force used must be proportional to the threat. Using deadly force is typically only justified if you reasonably believed your life was in danger (stating it again... LITERALLY consuming someone magically would count).

Fixated on bucklers

Honestly there was a lot of potential with this series, but I'm not sure I can continue reading it. I almost just gave up during the end of the last fight scene, all because the writer has made the MC develop a weird fetish with the use of bucklers, with blades/spikes or not. Not to mention the literal Deus Ex Machina over and over. With half the neutered potential of Green Lantern, and the literal set up to a Gilgamesh MC without the pompous attitude and all the Gate of Babylon power and beyond. He decides that the MC has taken a few too many blows to the head from past tanking experiences and can't figure out what a weapon is or if it's tasty. You can literally parry with a full sized shield! Maybe use a weapon instead of crying about how you can't deal damage while using two bucklers in the most demented game of twister ever conceived. TLDR; I was expecting enchanted miniguns and got flying bedpans instead. The crafting was interesting, but the rest of it was just alright. Maybe expand the weapon list just a bit to actually include a weapon in the next book?

Great take on the Genre

Positives: great start to what I hope is a lengthy series. Interesting characters , plots within plots, even a little bit of humor here and there. Voice actors are outstanding in their roles!

Negatives:It does sort of follow the usual narrative of “Mc is nothing at the start but by the end of the first book, the Mc is on the path to potentially saving the world “

Overall : if you don’t mind the usual narrative, and can hold off on some somewhat obvious foreshadowing, this is a great book and worth reading/listening to for fun! Hope book 2 comes along soon!