The Runesmith's Trials

The Secrets of Giantskarl Mountain, Book 1

By: Andrew Karevik

Narrated by: Eric Michael Summerer

This is it, the day I take over my father’s adventuring shop!

Set at the base of Gianskarl mountain, where lies a vast and mysterious dungeon, this is the perfect spot. Many adventurers come to try their hand at the Karl in the hopes of hitting it big. And it’s up to me now to sell them the equipment they’ll need to face the dangers that await them.

But where my father was content selling trinkets for a pittance, I want to turn this modest shop into the industry leader. Heck, I want to make a fortune out of it so I can help grow my poor village, Karlton, into a thriving city and accomplish my dream of building New Valley.

To help me in this endeavor, I can count on my skills as a Level 1 Runesmith. My plan is simple enough: inscribe the items I sell with various enchantments to improve their stats and command higher prices. There’s just one tiny little problem. See, my shelves are pretty much empty. I have no inventory and I also miss the scrive I would need to create the runes in the first place. To add insult to injury, that scrive ought to be fashioned from a magical beast’s body parts; the more magical, the better. And I just happen to know exactly where to get such a rare find: in the boneyard of Giants, resting within the dungeon.

Yep, seems like the only way for me to kick start my new venture is to delve into that death trap in search of items to sell and the magical bone for my scrive. But there’s a reason no one from our village dares to enter the foreboding place. As I’ll soon find out, the Karl is home to all manner of strange creatures and spirits that will not hesitate one second to turn you into their next lunch. One thing is certain, I will need all the skills I learned as an apprentice Runesmith to succeed in my mission and come back alive.

But hey, who said the life of a shopkeeper was a peaceful and uneventful one?

©2023 LitRPG Freaks (P)2023 Podium Audio

Great story overall

Super annoying how the MC use diplomacy to solve all his problems. Barely any action. Decent for background noise in my opinion .

Mixed Feelings

I have to agree with the other reviews in that the sex scenes where wildly unnecessary, but thankfully not overwhelming gratuitous. They were just unnatural and felt forced, so much so that it wouldn’t hurt to hire a consultant before trying to write a scene like those again.

I was pleasantly surprised by this book.

What I liked about the story.
Good story line and progression.
It's not a Harem story.
it doesn't have graphic sexual content every
10 minutes.
The only thing I would like to see changed is have the Stat sheet of the character as a stand alone chapter segment so for the people that don't want listen through it can skip it.

a lot like civCEO

fun story. similar premise and character as civCEO. I love his girlfriend. she's my favorite but Jacob is hilarious too .

48min left...I can't.

I just can't finish the book.

What do you mean you "never agreed on a split plan, so it's first-come first-serve, I guess" !?!? What kind of response is that when you had an agreement and then they just rob you?

This character is absolutely all over the place and deserves for everything to go wrong for him. He lacks a proper sense for business, makes deals by strong arming people, fibs his way through just to make a little extra gold...but his passion is runecrafting. Right. He wants to trade for runes with the runes he has...but that's a losing game because he'll never get more than a few from the people in the surrounding lands. They'll know all the runes he has. So instead of, idk, LEVELING UP to get free runes, he would rather struggle with being a merchant.

The leveling system makes little sense and is explained very little. It's virtually an afterthought and this story might have been better without it.

Not to mention the random dragongirl gratuitous sex thing. Super unnecessary and shoehorned into the "story." This ancient dragon queen gets the hots for a guy she has never seen, only had a 2min conversation with THROUGH A DOOR, and her reason is that it's because he was nice to her? Really. He did the bare minimum to help her and she wants him to be her mate for life. Absolutely ridiculous.