Tower of Babel: Speedrunner

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

Launch day.

That was what they called it. The day when over four million people vanished in an instant from the island of Manhattan.  The day earthquakes ravaged the east coast. The day a one hundred and one kilometer tall tower rose from the wreckage of the now empty city. The day every screen, newspaper,  and smart phone displayed a single message from an unknown source:

The Great Emperor has issued his challenge.

From the ruins of the Old World rise the Tower.  Its doors will soon open, and the great game will begin.

A hundred floors and a hundred challenges await the worthy.

And to the victor?  A Wish of Unlimited Power.

Cayden Caros yearned to play that game.  His only problem?  TheTerms and Conditions.Astrict set of rules that, among other things, prevented anyone under the age of sixteen from entering the tower.

Forced to wait for over two years, Cayden did the only thing he could do to pass the time. He researched, he practiced and he prepared. It would take a lot to catch up to players with such an enormous head start.  Lucky for him, he was a special type of gamer.

A SpeedRunner

So.... It has been a hot minute.

I don't like talking about my personal life, but suffice to say I had some fairly bad times for the last couple of years and have only just recently pulled myself back to good health, physically and mentally. I have a very supportive partner, and am put together enough that I want to get back to doing what I love. Writing nerd fiction that I am too embarassed to try to explain when people inevitably ask what my books are about.

Still beats when I used to write erotica.

Story updates for book 3 should be on a daily schedule, baring unforseen circumstances.

The majority of chapters from books one and two have been pulled down to keep with amazon's KU rules.

Book one is foundhere.

Book two is foundhere.

If you like the story, please comment or favorite.  Each comment goes a long way towards pushing visibility for the story, which means more people get to see it and I feel slightly more validated as a writer.

I have adiscordnow where you can ask me things and I can be like 'no. no. I'm not answering that. no."

Information

Status
Hiatus
Year
2017
Author
AdamElliott

Tags

LITRPGFANTASYADVENTUREMAGICSTRONG LEADGAMELITMALE LEADSTRATEGY

Royal Road Stats

Rating
4.5/ 5.0
Followers
698
Views
98,449

Chapters(24 total)

Reviews

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

Community Reviews(10)

  • biderandiaRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    It's a pretty good and has fun characters
  • EvieRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    This story is among the best LitRPG I've ready in all my time lurking on RRL.  Good enough that it finally kicke d my butt into gear to stop being just a guest!
    I'd have given it a perfect score save for one thing.  That opening chapter is a bit of a tease.  I was hoping to have a female mc, but I suppose she probably wouldn't have the same cheerful attitude.  I do hope some strong women show up in the story though!
  • KrushahRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    This is one of the best litRPGs I've read.....only nine chapters in.
    The author creates a vivid and immersive story of an invading dungeon-world being explored and exploited IRL like an RPG  would be, via VR or augmented reality style mechanics. A perfect balance of reality with game standards like status screens, combat skills, and level-ups to delight litRPG fans.
    The language, grammar and style are among the top ten I've read on RR. The character development is also one of the best and most realistic on RR so far.
    It is still too early to tell but so far the plot and story are excellent, except for a minor arguable point, and a game feature that could possibly end up making the MC overpowered.
    The only real issue I have with it is I zoomed through the nine chapters posted and am now waiting for more. I hope the author keeps this going. It could easily be a best selling book if he does.
  • Riley2504Royal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    So many litrpgs have really crappy mcs.  They are either Mary Jane's or they are incredibly stupid and just win through overwhelming power or pure plot armor.  Cayden is actually likable and intelligent.  These are traits that are extremely hard to find in the genre.
    The world building is great and the story flows well.   I like the magic system and rules of the tower even if I think they could be fleshed out a touch more.
    Overall I think these are great books and hope the author finishes the series someday.
  • KrisWoodsmanRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 4.5
    Interesting premise and solid execution. The mechanics are thought out without being over bearing.
  • AshirogiRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 4.5
    This was kind of incredible.
    And yet... How can it be so frustrating?
    Just finished reading book one. I read the first few chapters here back in the days and thought I'd wait for the paperback copy to appear before buying it. I was pretty hyped and thought about this story and how great it was from time to time.
    It was great.
    I found it pleasing. I read it in one go. But even though it was good...
    I can't help but think it could have been better.
    This isn't just about how appealing the story was. This is about the thrill. I expected to be on the edge. I expected to fear for Cayden's life. To watch him power through every hindrance and forcefully speedrun Babel like he ought to. I expected him to be in deep shit.
    Sure he had a bounty or watnot. Sure people wanted to kill him. Sure he had some scary dreams because of his new class. Cool. What's next?
    The story didn't exactly seem forced. But it sure didn't have many rollercoasters. It was good. I liked it. I loved the whole Babel Idea. I loved the whole speedrun idea. I loved how much theory crafting Cayden put into this. Hell, I even loved his Runic Knowledge skill. And the few bouts of comedy. And the sparse references to various games throughout the story.
    It was pleasing.
    But I won't be able to say this is the greatest story I ever read.
    Sure I'll probably remember it. But nothing'll come along. I won't reminisce anything. Perhaps a few dashed hopes. Hopes of reading a masterpiece.
    The... climax wasn't quite there. Even the build up wasn't up to par.
    This was really good. It set the foundations for something grand. Yet there wasn't anything else. The plot in itself was't that excting. Because I expected so much more.
    You didn't build up the tension because Cayden always solved his probs one by one, almost instantly. Even the bounty wasn't much of a hurdle after some time. Nothing seemed to really bother him, nothing put him in a pinch. This novel was like a walk in a park, when it shuld have been a motherfucking p
  • FathisRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 4.5
    Let me start my review by saying that so far (up to ch 14) I am thoroughly enjoying the story.
    This said, I am also obliged to point out that it is a refreshing take on many similar Korean novels like Master Hunter K and King of the Battlefield.
    Now let's get to the review:
    Style: The first person style is good, the story flows well - apart from a few hiccups here and there where it seems to drag on for a little bit too long.
    Story: Great idea, well executed, however too soon the MC got tangled with the stereotypical villain, which detracts a lot from setting out a fully fleshed premise. Basically what I am saying is, wait for the plot twists until chapter 20.
    Grammar: I haven't found many grammar mistakes, so it's a 4.5 from me, the story flows well thanks to its syntax and it is very pleasant to read from a native speaker's perspective.
    Character: For now we have little character development, however I am already beginning to fear that there will be standardized tropes and that the story is going towards the harem outset - and that usually makes me cry.
    Overall, it is early to say anything - however I reccomend that everyone who is a fan of RRL gives this a try.
    -Fathis out.
  • CynicJesterRoyal Road
    ★★★★ 4.0
    I was so psyched to read about a protagonist who focused on system mastery over luck and unique classes and the rest of the dross that tends to dominate this genre. And for a while I did. And then he got a unique class and a training montage. A class with minimal system mastery aspects because it operates on feel instead of quantifiable mechanics. So sad.
    That's not to say the story is bad, because it's not. Well written, okay characters, decent setting. I just feel like it would have made for a different experience if the main character had actually been able to rely on all the preparation he made instead of having it neutralized early in the story.
    And the whole murderer subplot is just weird and off in so many ways, but until it gets resolved, specific criticism will have to wait.
  • Timeseer2Royal Road
    ★★★★ 3.5
    For royal road it is good, in comparison to other books that have been written this is nothing particularly interesting and only worth bothering with if your particularly bored I saw a comment that although extremely ranty made some good points that I can not be bothered to list. The first book should definitely be longer as you've said you only intended to write it to about 130,000 words which is far too short as such the story feels far too rushed I barely understand the character at all due to frequent timeskips and a lack of interaction with other people and yet it is already chapter 13. A decent plot even if it has been done a thousand times with some intriguing characters that are not being utilised
  • ScandalfRoyal Road
    ★★★★ 3.5
    What magic trick you ask? It's: How to annoy my readers the most in a single chapter with a twist?
    You do it like this; You write a great story, you create a decent protagonist, you create a good world(well definitely not the whole world but you'll get what I mean if you read it) and you do anything else at least decently but after all that you decide to create meaningless twists to fuck your own protagonist. Why? Who fucking knows? Maybe to lure more readers in or some shit, probably. Because I swear I don't see any other reason for someone to write such events happening so early on in the story when what he should normally be doing is introducing us to more stuff. Maybe characters, maybe the world.
    Anyway, I am not going to write a long review for this since I've already wrote my complaints in the comments of one chapter but I will say this much;
    Do you like reading stories that annoys the shit out of you with twists all over the place, with a MC that does not act his character at the most important moments, with a world that makes no sense whatsoever ? You should read it then. If you can endure these then you'll have a good time, much better than you would imagine before starting this novel. Because it's actually very, very well written with the exceptions I've already listed.
    Do you not like these kind of things? Do not read it. You will find yourself cursing the author for being an idiot and making you read a great novel just to fuck everything up for you. You will wait for the author to explain his actions to you, just to get absolutely no answer whatsoever in the next couple of chapters.