The Ruby Magician: A Tower-Climbing LitRPG Adventure

The Ruby Magician, Book 1

An ex-soldier must climb a mysterious, treasure-filled tower to repay his family's debts in the first installment of this thrilling LitRPG fantasy series.

When Ardwyn "Wyn" Thatcher arrives in Alestead, he knows he's running out of time to pay off his father's debt to hungry loan sharks. With options quickly running out, he has no choice but to face the mysterious Alistair, a treasure-filled tower with deadly monsters and impossible puzzles around every corner. If he can battle his way through enough levels, he might just accumulate enough wealth to pay his dues and save his family's farm.

Joined by throngs of other hopeful climbers, Wyn is assigned to the Ruby Magician class—one he's never heard of but soon discovers isn't a fan favorite. There's no way he can make it through the tower alone, but his peers unanimously prefer specialists over his jack-of-all-trades class. And it doesn't help that his mentor is a filthy, unserious drunk.

So to take on the tower, Wyn must prove his skills worthy and form a new guild of his own. With loyal new friends by his side, he'll find powerful items and learn devastating spells to survive the challenges that lie ahead. But all is not as it seems, and there are dangerous enemies waiting to strike at every turn.

As the adventurers discover despicable traitors and cross paths with an emerging evil cult, there's only one question on Wyn's mind: Will he become Alistair's newest victor? Or the next in a long line of its victims?

The first volume of the hit LitRPG adventure series—with more than 750,000 views on Royal Road—now available in paperback, ebook, and audiobook!

©2026 D. R. Hudgins (P)2026 Podium Audio

4 stars for narration and future potential

First, just want to say the narrator was great. it was my first time listening to something with him and I was impressed. I hope to see him in more books in the genre.

As to the book, I thought this was pretty rough. It had some interesting ideas, I liked the overall tower mystery, the idea of seasonal rotation, and power system seems good if a little vague. I also like the idea of seeing a generalist class grow strong in a world of specialists. Author has a lot of ways he can take the story which could be great.

There were a few big problems for me in book 1 -

First, this was basically a 15 hour prologue with MC getting a class, forming a group and with some very very light worldbuilding. The first 70% was literally just his first day. I seem many other similar setups accomplish more in the first few chapters. I wish I could say the extra time was spent on background and worldbuild, but that's almost nonexistent. It was most just overdiscription and talking about how no one likes ruby mages.

Which is the next issue... the hatred for red mages is so absurdly overdone. Being a ruby mage is treated like he's pure evil or a threat to everyone around him. He's basically hated seemingly by most climbers just for the class. Not pitied or ignored, actually hated. I expected a reason like there was an evil ruby mage commiting atrocities or his abilities were a danger to teammates. But nope, he's just a generalist where climber best practice teaches speciation. I could see a bit of that attitude being present if this was a story about middle school age kids, but these are all adults. Leading to the final issue....

The MC's characterization. The author describes a battle hardened veteran company commander, but actually wrote an 18 year old recruit. Outside of combat, he's awkward, foolish, naive and just a bit cringy. A war vet who commanded a company should not be getting young tied and red faced talking to girls or squeamish at the mentors gross living conditions. Shouldn't even phase him or be mentioned. To be fair, in combat, he does show the experience and decicivness you'd expect, it just disappears as soon as the battles over for some unknown reason.

I'm on the fence about getting the next one. Leaning no since this was a royal road story and it's unlikely the author actually adjusted styles between books 1 and 2. Probably want on the reviews to see.

Really enjoyed this book!

So fun and such a unique magical world. Narrator is great! Really enjoyed this and looking forward to the next one!

Narration was great

That cover does not in any way shape or form represent how dark this book is. Be ready for that. It’s good, but that covers buggy.

still reading but an early review because I'm enjoying it

Hello, I rarely pick up a book without reading reviews so when I saw this one I figured I'd give it a chance even though it didn't have any reviews. I'm about halfway through so I figured I could give a review to boost it a little. The book is enjoyable so far, I think the implied hate that his class gets is a little exaggerated in the book description unless something changes as I read. I like the premise of the story and I'm excited to see where it goes. The narrator is wonderful. I enjoy listening to him, although he's a bit quiet at times. I will update more once I finish the book. if you're looking for something new to read, I think you're safe to take a chance on this one.