Death Smith
Self-Published
Community Rating
Description
Thirteen years ago, large Rifts occurred in our world, connecting us with something beyond our understanding. Survivors of these Rifts came back with strange and unique abilities that set them apart from the rest of humanity.
When an unsuspecting young man finds his life turned upside down after surviving a Rift and suffering betrayal, he vows to take revenge on those who betrayed him and to battle the nature of the Rifts, no matter the cost.
Sadly, the cost for him would mean to put aside everything he used to think was right and wrong, and to accept his new fate; A Death Smith.
Information
- Status
- Ongoing
- Year
- 2022
- Author
- OsiriumWrites
Tags
Royal Road Stats
- Rating
- 4.1/ 5.0
- Followers
- 729
- Views
- 109,079
Chapters(54 total)
- (OsiriumWrites) Death Smith - IV - Plague Lord - Chapter 35 (The Hollow Win)Apr 30, 2026
- (OsiriumWrites) Death Smith - IV - Plague Lord - Chapter 34 (The Summit)Apr 23, 2026
- (OsiriumWrites) Death Smith - IV - Plague Lord - Chapter 33 (Warwolf's Shadow)Apr 16, 2026
- (OsiriumWrites) Death Smith - IV - Plague Lord - Chapter 32 (Salt and Blood)Apr 9, 2026
- (OsiriumWrites) Death Smith - IV - Plague Lord - Chapter 31 (The Sentinels)Apr 1, 2026
- (OsiriumWrites) Death Smith - IV - Plague Lord - Chapter 30 (The Charnel House)Mar 25, 2026
- (OsiriumWrites) Death Smith - IV - Plague Lord - Chapter 29 (The Choice)Mar 18, 2026
- (OsiriumWrites) Death Smith - IV - Plague Lord - Chapter 28 (Legacy)Mar 10, 2026
- (OsiriumWrites) Death Smith - IV - Plague Lord - Chapter 27B (Status compendium)Mar 10, 2026
- (OsiriumWrites) Death Smith - IV - Plague Lord - Chapter 27 (Blightbound)Mar 6, 2026
- (OsiriumWrites) Death Smith - IV - Plague Lord - Chapter 26 (Call of the Dead)Feb 24, 2026
- (OsiriumWrites) Death Smith - IV - Plague Lord - Chapter 25 (Mantis Knight)Feb 17, 2026
- (OsiriumWrites) Death Smith - IV - Plague Lord - Chapter 24 (Bathroom Surgery)Feb 10, 2026
- (OsiriumWrites) Death Smith - IV - Plague Lord - Chapter 23 (Confessions in the Sand)Feb 2, 2026
- (OsiriumWrites) Death Smith - IV - Plague Lord - Chapter 22 (A Name and A Face)Jan 27, 2026
- (OsiriumWrites) Death Smith - IV - Plague Lord - Chapter 21 (Altitude Sickness)Jan 20, 2026
- (OsiriumWrites) Death Smith - IV - Plague Lord - Chapter 20 (A Declaration of War)Jan 13, 2026
- (OsiriumWrites) Death Smith - IV - Plague Lord - Chapter 19 (Winnie the Charred)Jan 5, 2026
- (OsiriumWrites) Death Smith - IV - Plague Lord - Chapter 18 (The Corpse in the Trunk)Dec 29, 2025
- (OsiriumWrites) Death Smith - IV - Plague Lord - Chapter 17 (A Price to Pay)Dec 22, 2025
What readers say about Death Smith
“One of the best novels i read on RR . well written ,I find no grammatic errors that will deteriorate the reading quality . for the charachters they are relatable the feelings are conveyed and dialogues are good . The plot is good and the pacing is just righ…”
kleinTheFoolRoyal Road5.0 / 5“Most progression fantasy on RR seems to take place in roughly the same generic fantasy kingdom with the odd twist or spin: the elves are evil, gods are real, some thematic terrain scheme or the like. Then the civilization hosts the same merchants, guilds, r…”
AustimizedRoyal Road5.0 / 5
Reviews
No reviews yet. Be the first to share your thoughts!
Community Reviews(10)
- kleinTheFoolRoyal Road★★★★★ 5.0One of the best novels i read on RR .
well written ,I find no grammatic errors that will deteriorate the reading quality .
for the charachters they are relatable the feelings are conveyed and dialogues are good .
The plot is good and the pacing is just right
and u can feel the effort of the MC trying to ammass his strenght u see the strugle and no hand outs cause of plot .
I read the story before the rewrite and still follow it now good job Os for keeping up the quality .hope u continue in the same pace - AustimizedRoyal Road★★★★★ 5.0Most progression fantasy on RR seems to take place in roughly the same generic fantasy kingdom with the odd twist or spin: the elves are evil, gods are real, some thematic terrain scheme or the like. Then the civilization hosts the same merchants, guilds, random cities amid dangerous wilds full of monsters and the odd dungeon.
Not so Death Smith.
Set in a mid-Apocalyptic earth where rifts to dimensions full of monsters have begun opening randomly and sucking pockets of reality to Elsewheres packed full of fantasy monsters. Those few trapped inside who survive become Rifters, with access to the System and all that it entails.
Beyond the cool setup, the story focuses on a pair of friends bonded intimately by the trial they face struggling to survive their first Rift. As they journey down the road of a Rifter we learn about a shaded world of grays with corporations "buying" access to Rifts to earn a profit, governments handling Rifts not just on basis of urgency, but public image, rogue Rifters causing supervillain-level havoc among the "normies", and powerful Rifters making stupid calls when their egos grow larger than their skill.
The MCs read like real people rather than hollow, pure-rational stand-ins for the readers.
If you enjoy LitRPGs but are looking for a well-written twist with great writing (aside from the odd typo) and a complex world both in worldbuilding and morality, read Death Smith.
Enough review, back to reading. - CritzyMazRoyal Road★★★★★ 5.0This might be the best work of fiction ive read in a while, i even got my english teacher to read it too. We both liked the insane aspect and the ubsurd writing style. It incapsulates my tastes exactly, its gory, utterly insane and insanely entertaining.. I enjoy this litrpg can't wait for morr
- Ellen TaylorRoyal Road★★★★★ 5.0Oh, man. My heart is still pounding after that last chapter.
This is a great, terrifying story. At first I thought it was more sci-fi feel, but the longer I think about it the more I realize it's fantasy. Yes, there's huge scary monsters that aren't specified as aliens, and there's definitely some sort of magic involved.
The style was great. It was third person, and it flowed well. The prologue was intense, and then there was a time... backwards leap? Not sure on the terminology, but it was clearly marked, so I wasn't confused.
Grammar was excellent. I didn't see any mistakes, and I'm not terribly picky with grammar, so well done.
The story I'll be commenting on is mostly the set up, since that's what I've read so far. It does an excellent job of doing just that. The prologue was intense before the jump backwards. I'm going to put the rest under the spoiler, because I'm not sure how much the reader wants to know going in.
Due to the clues, I did expect the rift that was mentioned to come into the story, and the author does a great job setting that up. It was almost like watching a train wreck in the process of being explained how very gruesome one could be before the characters get on a train. It was very well done. Not only that, but I didn't have to wonder too long. It was pretty quickly that they were forced into the rift, and that was also really nice that I wasn't waiting forever for what I expected to see.
The characters are the only section I took half a star off, because I'm still not 100% sure I can differentiate from Thomas and Lance. Maybe a silly thing, but they both felt very similar to me.
Overall, it was a great read. And if you're thinking to yourself if you'd like your heart rate to spike today, give this book a read. - Skas8825Royal Road★★★★★ 5.0I like this story a lot, the characters are great, the world is full of things and the fights are awesome. It's start a little slow but once the MC reach a certain event he start's to speed up his actions. My favorite aspect of the book are the tactics involved in Rift's delving and when fighting, skills are simple and limited so they need to be used correctly and in the rigth moment, the equipment also matters a lot, things like trowhable spears, traps and explosives are used constantly by the MC because he prepares a lot, i honestly can't express in the rigth words how much i love this book and how well done it feels at times.
- TelRoyal Road★★★★★ 5.0The story is an amazingly nice suprise. Top notch writing, the pacing is not exactly "slice of life" slow but it is more casual than most action filled stories. Which oh boy monsters, fighting, more monsters, more fighting....really it is a world filled with handy monsters to punch.
The characters are despite that fairly vibrant and well written.
The "system" litrpg bits are also well balanced, it adds to the story without being ebdless status page word count filler. - TharsultRoyal Road★★★★★ 5.0This story is quite interesting, and defies easy classification to a degree. I think it would be closest to a tower story by the 13k or so mark. The author spends 2 chapters establishing the MC and the world, then thrusts the MC into a dark location where he is trapped for an indeterminate amount of time. By the 13k mark, no powers have been gained, but other characterts do have powers and abilities. The MC spends alot of time watching the other characters be cooler and talking to them, but this isn't a "MC as window on the world" problem, the MC is invovled in trying to save everyone he enters the dark world with, and while the author does make a point of showing a character that is weak in the face of disaster initially, the MC is already growing, using their brain and ingenuity to fight back, by the 13k mark.
I did this review as part of a review swap, and just the fact I voluntarily read past the point that I agreed to tells you alot about my opinion of this story--its good. I heartily recommend it. Based on when I said I would have this done i needed to break to do the review, but I'll certaionly finish at least the arc i am in if not go quite a bit further depending on where the story goes--but certainly by 13k I am excited and will keep reading.
My only complaint is that the writing isn't always clear and is sometimes a bit repetitive, but that is a minor quibble compared to the very interesting world and the characters that are receiving deep and meaningful development. I have read substantially worse written Litrpg/Dungeon core novels on amazon and enjoyed them for their world building, and this has all the elements of those books I liked.
I hope that the eventual system is as developed as the world and characters, as I haven't reached the 'crunchy' elements by the time i wrote this review, but given the detail elsewhere, I strongly suspect it will be.
Again, a strong recommend. - VelvisiRoyal Road★★★★★ 5.0I've really enjoyed the story so far. Its no completely new take on the whole "portals appearing all over the world" theme, but its seems quite balanced so far and I like the idea / the class that the MC got. The characters also feel quite fleshed out and make for an entertaining story where you start to like the side characters as well
- baelrathRoyal Road★★★★★ 5.0This is a rewrite / polish piece of authors previous story. They took some time to tidy up books 1 and 2 and rerelease them before eventually starting with book 3.
Story is about two MC's, one extrovert, another introvert. In this world, Rifts can spawn randomly and suck in people and buildings. Those inside at initial spawn have horrendously low survival rates. But if they manage to clear a rift, it unlocks the System for them.
After that they can become Rifters and clear out other Rifts that form around the world.
Since this can happen, the world has formed around Rifters and the support necessary to maintain them. Nothing not from a Rift can re enter a rift. Clothes, food, weapons, etc. So Rifts are farmed after they stablize to provide materials for the Rifters to have supplies made. Rifters can make insane amounts of money from bringing materials back from inside a Rift to sell, especially anything more than a base material. For example, MC's phone survived. That kind of tech sells for quite a lot if they were to sell it. Inside rifts is random environments and monsters. Some have powers and can drop skill shards. That forms the world base.
The main MC is very introspective and lives in his head a lot. There is a major personality shift after book 1 I think, or book 2, that changes the tone of the rest of the story that we've seen so far.
Grammar and mechanical rarely prop up, and certainly not enough to break immersion.
Characters are well formed, though we aren't exposed to too many. Humanity shows its true colors a lot when exposed to superpowers and the world it can lead to. Lots of believable assholes.
Story is slow sometimes a slowbuild, but is so far very interesting and can't wait for book 3 as author left it on a cliffhanger! - AnxiousReaderRoyal Road★★★★★ 5.0I didn't think I'd like this book when I saw the Anti-Hero and Grimdark tag, and if I'm being honest.
In my defense, there are a multiple of stories who use those tags to tell a tale of excessive gore, rape, bigotry, and other unpleasant topics for the sake of shock factor rather then a cohesive story.
I'm so, so, so happy to be wrong.
Alright, from the top.
Style
I've never been too good with reviewing this catagory but anyways.
I really loved the... flashback? Of an intro. The impending doom of the last few chapters before it really set in and makes you be like "oh no... OH NO."
I'm a sucker for that type of stuff.
Story
I struggle to say anything cohesive other then "read it now". It's just so well done, everything flows together, everyone's actions makes sense.
From the first chapter you already know what everyone wants... so it's extra fun to see all their life plans thrown out the window.
Grammer
No complaints, an odd word choice here and there but it's virtually nonexistent.
Character
And here, ladies, gentlemen, and everyone in between, is where the story shines.
I can't think of a single named character who is a weak character.
Aka the story would be fine/better without them.
I think that's a really important thing to have, especially in newer stories where people can and will drop quickly.
Overall
Read it. Just do it, honestly. The story (despite the author's misgivings) very much deserves it's place on rising stars and more then that.
Am following, as all of you should too <3
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