The Hero Slayers
O. S. Marrow
When a Hero goes bad, it's up to a thief to stop him, in this big-hearted and witty fantasy adventure that's perfect for fans of role-playing games. Working-class thief Styk thought heroes were to be admired. Then one tried to kill him, and the attempt on his life left the town of Plainside burned to the ground, hundreds dead. Given a chance at a new life by a mysterious stolen artifact, Styk sets his sights on justice. OK, more like revenge. But if he's going to take down a near-immortal adversary, Styk will need a decent team and a damn good plan. When he stumbles across the dysfunctional Hero Slayers—a team comprised of a brazen sorcerer, a vain elf, an old orcish warrior, and a barbarian with a heart of gold—the battle is on. While Styk levels up new skill trees, he and his crew track down their powerful enemy, facing cultists, monsters, and much, much worse along the way. The first volume of the hit LitRPG fantasy series—with more than 600,000 views on Royal Road—now available on Kindle, Kindle Unlimited, and Audible!
Progression: Central LitRPG portal-magic progression drives every arc. Protagonist Styk levels up new skill trees, earning experience from combat and quests to unlock abilities, stat increases, and class synergies — verified via Goodreads description 'While Styk levels up new skill trees' and Royal Road tagging LitRPG portal magic. The world operates on RPG mechanics: heroes are near-immortal, ranked entities with quantified power; Styk's progression is from street thief to team-based power via explicit skill-tree allocation, team composition strategy (sorcerer, elf, orc warrior, barbarian), dungeon/cultist encounters, and artifact-driven power scaling. The series is pitched as LitRPG Adventure, with portal fantasy elements (heroes transported/recruited), systematic grinding vs monster/cultist tiers, and the 600k-view Royal Road origin confirms structured advancement is the core fantasy. Explicit weak-to-strong where each level and skill choice directly determines combat viability against near-immortal heroes.
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