Litrpg Young Adult Fantasy

With the threat of a second cataclysm bearing down on them, Matt and his allies double their efforts to climb the tower, juggling personal responsibilities, new players, unexpected assistance from unlikely sources, all while weighing the insidious possibility of threats from within.

Eric has survived where people much stronger than him have found their deaths. And not just that: He's managed to activate his magic supply, tame one of the most dangerous dungeon monsters, find the ancient city of monster hunters, and rescue Jay, the girl abandoned by the scouts in Gulper's lair. He left the Dungeons of the Crooked Mountains behind him. Now his path leads him to Orchus, where our freshly-minted mage intends to finally free himself of his debt-repayment oath.

After battling the hyenas, Eric gets a notification that something called a Place of Power has been found. That is the only clue that might help him get back to his native world. But there's a problem. The system needs mana to calculate a route. Eric simply doesn't have any, and he doesn't know when he will. That is because, due to the strange laws this world lives by, Eric's mana supply isn't filling up. But the Great System also exists here, though its laws are only partially functioning.

It’s been a full three years since Sam journeyed into the past, yet his task remains nowhere near complete. A powerful criminal network of rogue Travelers has overtaken the southern seas of Westria, threatening to upend everything Sam has been working towards.

Feyland is the most immersive sim-game ever designed, and Jennet Carter is the first to play the prototype. But she doesn't suspect the virtual world is close enough to touch - or that she'll be battling for her life against the Dark Queen of the faeries. Tam Linn is the perfect hero - in-game. Too bad the rest of his life is seriously flawed. The last thing he needs is rich-girl Jennet prying into his secrets, insisting he's the only one who can help her.

Eric was born in a world governed by the Great System, in the family of Aren Bergman, a respected miner from Orchus. But the joy of gaining a son was overshadowed by the newborn's terrible affliction. Eric was completely nulled-level zero and no characteristics points. The only things keeping him from dying were his tiny base supplies of "life" and "energy". The medicine woman who delivered Eric believes this to be the work of the evil spirit, Bug. Due to the peculiar laws of the Great System, Eric cannot use experience essences or characteristics tablets.

Seth loved his life on Earth. He graduated from his dream college, worked at his dream job, and married his dream girl. Unfortunately, it was all taken away from him when he woke up alone in a dark cavern prowling with dangerous monsters. Armed with only a small dagger of mysterious origin, he has no choice but to fight through this web of death and darkness to get to safety. But with both his rare abyssal magic and his desire to return home, he will survive this nightmare by any means necessary.

If waking up in a new world isn't bad enough, Hestia starts her new life as a small, newborn dragon in a hostile forest filled with vicious monsters. With status screens obscuring her vision, her first task is to escape two hungry kobolds wanting some grilled lizard for breakfast. Equipped with fragmented memories from her past life and the gamelike mechanics of her new reality, Hestia must face trials, beasts, bosses, and more as she grows in size and power.

After their scary adventure, Bex and Charlie have sworn never to play Monsters Unleashed again. Then Veratrum Games Corp releases a new augmented reality game featuring aliens instead of monsters, and the best friends just can't resist. After all, everyone loves it, even their science teacher, because it includes real star charts. But when they go to an observatory on a class trip, and open the game near a radio telescope, they get more than they bargained for: real aliens.

After witnessing the devastation of the end of the world, Salvos returns to the Netherworld stronger than ever. She is still resolved to find her first companion, but the threat of corruption still weighs on her mind. Because she knows she has to speak to the one responsible for the Apocalypse. She knows she has to speak to her father—the Devil himself.

Roark von Graf fought his way up from the bottom to become not only the Dungeon Lord of the Cruel Citadel, but the leader of the Troll Nation, making underhanded alliances with other dungeons and players along the way. To stop Lowen and his Divine armies once and for all, Roark will have to drag the magics of the game into the real world, harness deadly new technologies, and build dungeons in places no Dungeon Lord has ever gone before. The fate of Earth hangs in the balance. The duel between Dungeon Lords has begun. And one of them isn’t leaving Hearthworld alive.

Eric Bergman used to be treated like an outcast, cripple, and freak. Some pitied him, others squirmed in his presence, while others still mocked him to his face. He himself even thought he was born cursed by the gods. But bit by bit, all that changed. That which was once considered a flaw or defect transformed into an advantage. And Eric slowly learned to use it to his benefit.

Death came on swift wings. A soul, blessed by a goddess, falls to the land and enters his new life. He clings to a single memory, the defining moment of his previous life. Now he learns how to succeed in his new life as a new dungeon heart. To become the best dungeon he can be, he partners with the one existence all dungeons need: his bonded dungeon pixie.

Finding herself in a strange new realm in a sleek new body that is not her own, Nikole must learn to survive fast. She quickly befriends an elite healer and his masterfully skilled crew, hoping to find safety in numbers. But bigger problems lurk on the horizon than just monsters of the wild. This new world is on the brink of war.

This year’s selection of science fiction and fantasy stories, chosen by series editor John Joseph Adams and bestselling author of the Divergent series Veronica Roth, showcases a crop of authors that are willing to experiment and tantalize readers with new takes on classic themes and by exchanging the ordinary for the avant-garde. Folktales and lore come alive, the dead rise, the depths of space are traversed, and magic threads itself through singular moments of love and loss, illuminating the circulatory nature of life, death, the in-between, and the hereafter.

Pax and his friends are trapped in a deadly game, posing as empire loyalists in a double life secretly supporting the rebellion. Under the scrutiny of the empire’s elite, they collect crucial intel and perfect their formidable taming magic. But their deception is a precarious tightrope walk. When their cover is blown, Pax and his crew must escape with their crucial magic to the rebel headquarters.

As Qube and her companions reach the end of the now thoroughly broken game, they must come to grips with the nature of their reality, and the world beyond. Interested parties from the real world clash with our heroes as they scramble to defeat the Evil Emperor in time and reveal the secrets they’ve been keeping from one another. In an increasingly relevant dilemma, these video game characters, born of AI, must decide what it means to be free.

Death is not the end. But the hells might just end Evelyn's story. They're a strange, dangerous place, and as it turns out, the hells have connections to the Titans...and the system itself. Sapphire wants something out of them. The worlds are falling apart at the seams. In the madness, all Evelyn knows is a handful of truths. She will advance. She will survive. She will kill. And she will DEVOUR.

The mystery deepens as more clues come to light about Melvin’s bloodline in the form of long-lost half-siblings. Not all of them are nice. To top it all off, Melvin quickly discovers there is something wrong with his mana. Everything he touches, he corrupts.

The final battle draws closer. A new god-king sits at the tower's peak with only one goal in mind. Destruction. Max and his friends must now embark on the ultimate climber mission. Ascend the tower to its summit.