Path of Conquest: An Apocalypse LitRPG

Ruthless, Book 1

By: D. J. Rintoul

Narrated by: Chris Monteiro

The end of the world affords a restless everyman the chance to be a fearless warrior in this exciting apocalyptic adventure filled with magic and monsters.

James Robard was a risk-taking con artist and thief before he turned over a new leaf as a loving husband and a dull suit in a law firm. He's never felt so unadventurous. That is, until the System descends upon Earth and he's initiated into a thrilling game world of magic and mayhem, training for exhilarating challenges that make him feel alive again.

With much of the Earth's population already wiped out, James's first mission is to survive. But the System sees much more in him—like his potential as a warrior. After all, it's judging him by his nefarious past. It knows he'd kill to outlast the dangers ahead and be reunited with his family. In fact, it's counting on it. It seems the System has found its game villain.

Forging a path of escalating stamina, mana, and skills, James is tossed into violent combat with ravenous monsters, treacherous humans, diabolical cults, and gods of less-than-divine intervention. The life-and-death risks and total abandon are giving James a rush. He's been given free rein to be ruthless. But being a pioneer of chaos has its consequences.

Torn between his power-hungry impulses and better instincts, James embarks on a journey of self-discovery through a cataclysmic new realm. And along with a band of fellow survivors, he's about to find out his true purpose in the System's apocalyptic endgame.

The first volume of the hit LitRPG adventure series—with more than 700,000 views on Royal Road—now available on Kindle, Kindle Unlimited, and Audible!

©2024 D. J. Rintoul (P)2024 Podium Audio

Has potential

The MC has all kinds of cool powers that could give him good tactics but just runs in blind, gets messed up and then explodes. A lot of lost potential. Like a subpar version of Primal Hunter with the MC not as appealing.

Edgelord Fantasy

While the performance was solid and the writing better than most in this genre, the story overall is still cringy.

It's full of convient skill acquisition, a main character who is overpowered 1/3 of the way into the book and incredibly wooden supporting characters.

A great Fantasy title can immerse you immediately through world building and the ability of some authors create protagonists who we connect with in someway... unfortunately this book does neither.

Good Start Bad End

Story was interesting and traditional tutorial start, unfortunately I began to dislike the MC as the story progressed as his decision seemed chaotic and didn’t line up with the with how the MC originally portrayed himself. The book also ends on a cliff hanger without any foreshadowing which further decreases my opinion of this book. Will take a stab at book 2 but might drop the series if things don’t improve.

fun read

was fun. first litrpg listen. kinda got bogged down with reading the updated character sheet at times but I expect that's less common when he progresses and levels up less. op mc but still gets his butt kicked occasionally.

Different , but good

I am a fan of the MC. He is not OP but his skills certainly are. He has a skill stealing abilitiy. The MC is more like a anti hero than a hero which is cool.

I think his desire to be a leader is overshadowing his goal and limiting himself, but it's still good.