Tower of Jack
Sean Loomer
Jack Atlas, self-proclaimed 'World's Best Assassin', planned to retire and marry the girl of his dreams — instead he is thrown into The Tower, a divine deathtrap where gods pit their creations against each other for the promise of eternal paradise. If you lose, oblivion awaits. Press-ganged by the notorious assassin cult The Black Centipede (join or they murder everyone he loves), Jack must climb a lethal, game-like Tower floor by floor, slurping health potions after being stabbed by goblins, managing glitchy mana, and turning the dungeon's monsters into reluctant allies. With his best friend Hannah, a rule-ignoring goblin alchemist, and a rotating crew of sketchy oddballs, Jack must conquer impossible floors, survive the gods' entertainment-driven design, and decide whether Sarah wants to kiss him or kill him — all before happy hour.
Progression: Explicit, central LitRPG Tower-climbing progression. The Tower is a divine, System-governed deathtrap with numbered floors (Floor 1, Floor 2 Broken Moon City, Floor 3 Cheater's Tournament, etc.) each presenting an 'impossible' conquest objective. Advancement is quantified via LitRPG mechanics: mana (often on the fritz), health potions, levels, stats, skills, loot, and dungeon rewards. Each floor escalation requires capturing/controlling territory (e.g., Floor 2: conquer Broken Moon City, an undead metropolis no one has ever claimed), defeating bosses/liches, and managing faction wars. Alchemy, monster charming, and party synergy are progression vectors (goblin alchemist ignores rules, Jack charms dungeon creatures into allies). The Tower's gods design floors to be maximally entertaining/torturous, with cheaters, tournaments, and external civil war (mentor Rodeo vs Sarah's faction) providing continuous power gating. Reviews and Goodreads descriptions confirm mana, health potions, dungeon timeout, and floor-by-floor impossible tasks as engine of plot.
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