Summoner's Rolodex : The Tower of Trials (LitRPG/Tower Climb/Progression)

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

Bob, an average man, finds himself in a strange new world. He receives a message from an unknown source, asking him if he wants to accept the system. Curiosity getting the better of him, Bob accepts the system and is granted the Summoners Rolodex, a cursed item that allows him to summon monsters. But there's a catch: every time he uses the Rolodex, he risks temporarily turning into one of the monsters he summons.

Bob soon learns that he must climb the Tower of Trials. Which is filled with traps, puzzles, and increasingly difficult enemies, to reach the top and claim his reward. Which might just be a way for him to go home. But as the challenges grow more difficult and the stakes become higher, Bob begins to wonder if he's in over his head. With every use of the Summoners Rolodex, he grows stronger, but so does the Rolodex.

Information

Status: Hiatus
Year: 2023
Author: K.A.O

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.3/ 5.0
Followers: 345
Views: 83,261

Chapters(71 total)

Reviews

No reviews yet. Be the first to share your thoughts!

Community Reviews(10)

vorlefanRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Overall: It's like playing an old, gold Nintendo game, a.k.a, Goof Troop. Do you remember when you are struggling to find something to watch to end up rewatching again, the same old tv show that you love so much, despite knowing fully well the episodes? This story is just like that. Cliche. In this case, a good old cliche. Nothing new, but pretty good to enjoy your time. To read without thinking too much.
Grammar: The grammar is pretty good so far. Nothing major I could spot or nothing problematic that could break your flow while reading.
Character: The only thing missing here in my opinion is that would be even more fun to Bob me more 'farm-like' in the way he interacts. I mean, like an old sly fox from the field that knows one thing or two about being "smart" in the primal sense of things. For example, comparing things with old stuff from his "previous life", such as: "this puzzle kicks up like that damn old horse that always kicked me." The interactions between Bob and Snowball, and the system is on the spot! But not only this, the interaction with the NPC and better, with the enemies, make it well better to read.
Style: Nice formatting to the system using tables and different colors for fast identification on our part.
Story: Nothing original here. As I said in the Overall point, it's an old Cliche that worked pretty well. The only problem, at least for me, was the pacing, sometimes it feels a bit slow to read.
Scene: It's kind of a reminder of the arc from HunterXHunter, that they went inside a game. I mean, the tone that was set for the story. It has that feeling of Digimon World as well, at least for me.
Suggestions: Try to give it a shot in playing or at least watching some videos of the game, shadow hearts from the new world (ps2), because in the game there was a character that would help you to improve Bob's comedy in such great way, his name is Frank Goldfinger. Another suggestion would take inspiration from old comedies, such as old western movies.
Tone
DuvilRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Man this is a fun story! Lighthearted, goofy and neat, I really like how off the cuff this story is. Sometimes you just want to take a break from something heavily planned out with every detail meticulously designed and just watch a guy named Bob turn into a midgetaur to fight an army of warrior squirrels.
Style:
As fun as the story is, it does feel like an afterthought at times. The editing isn't always there, and the style does suffer for it. There are many instances where the perspective is shifting all over the place between Bob and other characters without a solid and clear idea of the situation, but it does work considering how simple Bob can be.
Grammar:
Where the style suffers from lack of editing, the grammar takes it further. Frequent grammatical errors do occur. One I often noticed was capitalization after commas for no apparent reason. However, the grammar ends up being not overly distracting where it matters.
Story:
The real strength of this story is the story. Fun, simple, creative, and genuine are the words I would use. The story has a sense of humor that almost always results in something interesting happening, and the idea that likely spawned this whole story (that of the Rolodex) is an interesting ability that I hope has more focus going forwards. One thing I wish would be for the story beats to be more... cohesive, but considering the spontaneous style, I'm not sure how possible that would be.
Character:
Simultaneously strong yet weak. Bob (excuse me, I meant to say Bob-o) is one of the main characters of all time, the Rolodex is one of the companion characters of all time, and Snowball is a cute dog. I quite liked some side characters that appeared like Gemma and Maximus, but they appear so briefly!
Read this story! Creativity is what I'm here for, and this one is overflowing with creativity.
JD GLASSCOCKRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Dig the premise. It reminds me of the old comic i used to love Dial H for Hero...keep it steaming and rolling...i could see it hitting that niche comic humor crossover with tower enthusiasts....wish you nothing but beautiful spins to your endeavors and hope it kills it for you.....best wishes
JD Glasscock
Author of the series Blood Brothers and The Dream
KleggtRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Story: The story itself begins almost immediately - there is no drawn out build up to Bob finding himself in this strange place. Straight away in the first chapter you are treated to the action and setting being developed no holds barred. With the classic tower ascent plotline being the major hook, where this story excels is the way in which everything is presented.
Style: I was actually surprised at how much I enjoyed reading the story due to the style in which it is presented. Whilst some of the prose and descriptors are simple in nature, this is where the narrative finds a lot of charm - it is a fun story, silly at times, and doesn't get caught up in trying to be something more than it is. There are some points I feel a bit more set dressing would improve the meat of the chapters, but otherwise, it is a very comfortable easy read.
Character: Our MC named Bob is a very simple man, driven by self-preservation and a good warm meal like many of us. Despite the straightforwardness, he is also shown to have emotional intelligence and the capacity to grow and improve. He is a bit goofy and friendly, but that does not stop him from rising up against the challenges he now finds himself faced with in the Tower.
Grammar: So far, the chapters I have read have been in a consistent tone and tense, and laid out in a simple manner than is easy enough to parse. I did not come across any glaring issues with spelling or grammar that were an obstacle to enjoying the writing put forth.
Overall a joy to read, the story is engaging with a fun tone and affable MC!
LunaSeaRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
The author knows the tropes of the genre, and shoves them in a blender with a hefty dose of humor, resulting in this masterpiece that will have you in stitches when you're not caught in suspense.
Style:
Fast paced and descriptive without being too much. The tables are well formatted, as are system messages. Story is written in a punchy matter-of-fact prose - whether it's a cliffhanger, a battle scene, or just the moments in between.
Story:
Brilliant. It's not your typical isekai LitRPG - the author is clearly having a blast writing this, and I had a ball reading it. The twists start early on, as the author moves away from tropes and challenges your prejudices with good humor. These instances continue all the way, even with perspective swaps that shine more light on the situation while adding to the levity. There are 'standard' LitRPG elements, of course, so fans of the genre won't feel out of depth, but what shines about Summoner's Rolodex is the way the author flips concepts on their head unapologetically, while making you laugh out loud.
Grammar:
Doesn't detract from enjoyment of the story.
Character:
Bob may just have been an 'average man' in his own world, but that's part of his charm. He's empathetic, curious, and not afraid to stand up for himself while possessing survival instincts. Most importantly: the way Bob views and interacts with the world around him lends itself to many humorous situations. I also appreciate the fact that the author chose to have Bob grow as a person over the course of the chapters, as he learns from those he encounters.
Overall:
Summoner's Rolodex is not your run of the mill LitRPG. It's a story full of humor, action, adventure, and heart. Fans of the genre, or anyone looking for some enjoyable reading, won't regret picking this up.
Mr Alex666Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This one is a quite nice light comedy, every sentence just radiates the fun the author was having writing it.
May contain spoilers!
The MC, Bob gets isekaied from a sword-and-sorcery world, to participate in some kind of tower-dungeon challenge, probably for the entertainment of others. Bob isn't an edgelord, out to game the system, a heroic... hero, hell-bent to save the damsel, or a crazed murderhobo. He is the complete opposite: an average guy, maybe a bit cowardly, who doesn't revel in bloodshed. Well, maybe a little bit, if it comes to crazed murdersquirells. He also isn't the sharpest sword in the armory, but it fits. He is, after all, tossed into a bad situation and saddled with a wiseass symbiont.
If you read the fiction's title, you know the story. It is a tower-climber. What set it apart is that it isn't a bloody, kill-everything story, in fact, the MC once settled for beating up a Minotaur with summoned Microtaurs (Midgettaurs), without killing the enemy.
The style is light, fun to read, and easy to understand. It is clear, the author had immense fun writing the story.
Grammar is basically good, I noticed only a few issues (but I'm not a native speaker, though).
All in all, a good story to read after a hard day working.
Rookie12Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This review is based on the first twelve chapters.
Before you, we have a dungeon crawl story. Our main protagonist, Bob, ends up being transported into a fantasy world filled with its own system and is granted an item that allows him to scan and summon monsters! How cool is this? Well, when the rules are not really explained and the danger is apparent right off the bat, Bob just might find himself in a deadly situation...
Style. Everything is minimalistic, from the explanation to the backstory of our MC to how the world looks like. Nothing is overbearing, everything is easy to read through, and the author's jokes work very well. Overall, I like it. Adding images of random characters from the story helps us to visualize the world. We do have occassional head jumping in terms of POV in the story, though, and that might confuse some readers.
Story and worldbuilding. We are thrown into action right from the start and are given the bare minimum information. This allows the author to guide us, along with the MC, through his world and let us learn about everything and make our own guesses about how things are working (for example, how exactly the System works, are there cooldowns to abilities, and so on). The minimalistic approach works really well with this situation, as we can see some twists before they even happen.
Grammar. I am not a native English speaker, but I have found this text easily readable. Sure, some sentences are weirdly put, and there are a few mistakes here and there. Nonetheless, the author fixes everything when it is pointed out.
Character. I am a softie for a morally good MC with a sense of humor. This is exactly what we have here. He seeks to cause no problems, but he will finish the fight if he is pushed to the brink. The bad guys are surprising and occasionally show an interesting personality, while the side characters serve their purpose for either an arc, fleshing out the world, or both.
All in all, if you are looking to spend an evening having f
sour_cigarRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
An at time comical story where we follow our MC Bob on a wild adventure to try and get back home, while desperately trying to not succumb to the powerful Rolodex and be turned into one of the creaters (the Gemma is absolutely adorable). All while garnering strength from building his way up top, trying to reach the tower of trials.
I always love when authors include artwork that involves the characters/setting/creatures featured in their stories. And the author did a fantastic job at showcasing the monsters that run around in the world Bob has found himself in.
Even though Bob has found himself in a downright scary predicament, I couldn't help but laugh. This story does a very well job at incorporating humour in all the right places and all the right times. I think we can all relate to Bob in certain ways, him being out of his element but also very headstrong and not easily detered. He has a sense of perserverance and strength, even if he seems like your average dude. He's admirable and I can't help but wonder what's going to happen when or IF he reaches the top of the tower. I hope the poor dude gets to go home safely.
This story is a great read, the characters are well rounded and hold their own in a fast paced setting such as the one Bob is in. Definitely give it a read!
AJ FluffRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Summoner's Rolodex is a light-hearted romp of a dungeon crawl, chock full of hilarious puns and good times. The story is interesting and well-paced, with little moments of quiet interspersing intense action. It doesn't take itself too seriously, instead relying on jokes and a dash of over-the-top dramatization, which is a really nice break from gritty-grimdark mcRealistic story number 728 (hello, I am guilty of this).
Bob is a noob just trying his best against a Tower of Trials. He's excitable and a bit hopeless, and I enjoyed watching him encounter different obstacles and overcome them. The leveling system is simplistic, but the emphasis is on the leveling of the mysterious rolodex, which is a cursed item that allows Bob to summon any monster he's encountered before. I like that the rolodex is a sentient item, with its own personality and sense of humor.
Style can be a bit repetitive, but nothing an edit or two couldn't fix. Grammar likewise is a bit rough, but continuously improves throughout the story, which is something I like to see.
All in all, Summoner's Rolodex is a rough gem. Could it use improvement? Yes, but KAO is improving with every chapter and fixing up previous chapters as they go. The story itself is solid and worth a read. Give it a chance! ;)
PeterRobertsRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Style: So clean. The thing that strikes me is that none of the words are wasted, there is a distinct lack of sentences that seek to confirm what the writer wants to say - it’s just written clearly the first time. The sentence structure makes Bob appear to be quite one dimensional, lacking any detailed thoughts or emotional reactions. This might be a problem as he could appear to lack depth, but it’s so damn consistent that you get sucked into the rhythm and start to enjoy Bob’s simple A to B movements and reactions.
Story: The story is simple and that’s where the beauty lies in this tale from the outset. It doesn’t add complexity with lengthy explanations and backstory about the setting. The basic mechanism is provided, along with a persona of the rolodex that is brief enough to add some mystery. Then we jump straight into following the journey of discovery of the protagonist.
Character: Bob is a mystery to me. He seems like he has been programmed with basic functionality and a big heart, like some early version of a humanoid robot. The setting is fun and there are plenty of laughs, but it’s Bob that will keep me coming back to this story. Why is he so even keeled all the time? No rage, no tears. I have to understand Bob.
Grammar: The writer uses contractions for dialogue. I don’t see this nearly enough recently and it’s so easy to do. When characters are speaking, use contractions. The dialogue flows so much more easily and it gives the reader a nice distinction between narrative voice and character speech, thus providing variety. Again, the author nails the basics and makes reading so much more enjoyable.