Book picks similar to
Core of Fear by Jonathan Brooks


litrpg
dungeon-core
fantasy
audiobooks

Beginnings (Peaks of Power Book 1)


Paul Campbell Jr. - 2018
    Bored with his life as a casual player, he slipped easily into the lifestyle of a professional gamer. After reaching the pinnacle of success, an email arrived from the mysterious Beta Academy. With his best friend and self-proclaimed bodyguard, Dimitri, he decides to take a chance and accept the strange offer contained within. Overconfident in his skills, Ryan thinks he’ll defeat this game as easily as every other, but that confidence is shaken and shattered within the first fifteen minutes. This wasn’t a standard game with haptic chairs or gloves; this was the real thing. Ryan and Dimitri must learn the heights of the Peaks of Power… and what it will take to achieve their summit.

Awakening


Levi Werner - 2021
    He can't even use the cutting-edge hardware that would allow him to play in the full-immersion-games that have become so popular. This all changes when he hears from New Universal Frontiers, the company with the best game out there: World of Magic.They offer him the ability to use their hardware despite his injuries, but at a cost... he can never leave the game.Once in the game world, Lox quickly realizes that there is a lot more to this new realm than just a game. Given a class that everyone thinks is useless due its inherent dangers, Lox begins a long and painful series of trials, some of them explosive, almost all of them dangerous as he masters his magical abilities.As Lox explores the depths of this world's magic system, he soon discovers there is a lot more going on here than anyone ever expected.

Village of Hawkshead


John Elijah Cressman - 2021
    Now he’s been abducted and dropped into a strange world with others who have been taken from their homes. And magic and monsters are real.Now, Ethan is a wizard and must convince his new companions to band together in order to survive in this strange new world as they level up, gain abilities and try to unravel the mystery of why they were abducted and how to find a way home.But things are never easy and soon he and his friends find themselves in the middle of a conflict that could spell disaster to their new home.Oh, and there might be something murdering wizards and sucking out their brains.Could things get any worse?

Tusk and Blade (Exodus Online) Book One: A LitRPG Novel


Lavelle Jackson - 2020
     Charge your core. Bash some skulls. Logan Sharpe’s life has been a disaster, but that’s finally going to change. As soon as Incessant Technologies heard about his situation, they knew he would be the perfect fit for their new game. Only catch? Once he goes in, there’s no coming back. Without hesitation, he signs the paper and enters the new VRMMORPG world of Exodus Online as a Star Child. As an extra incentive, Logan is given a chance to become what he’s never been before. Something unique, something powerful. Abandoning his old name to go with one that suits his new body, Necro is ready to start over. To face his new reality, Necro must learn to survive in a dangerous, unforgiving world. Even with the help of two daring women at his side, how will he fare while exploring deadly dungeons, facing power-hungry leaders, and leveling his new body? The only certainty is this: Logan is dead, but Necro has risen.

Opening Moves


Cosimo Yap - 2016
    The alien invasion brought social upheaval, advanced technology, and an armada of peacekeeping robots. But Alan, a college student pursuing a now-useless degree, cares little about all of this. He has only one thing on his mind: the Game. A fully immersive virtual reality, the Game appears to be a major part of the invading civilization. Alan can't wait to play, recklessly diving into the digital universe. Soon though, Alan realizes the Game is anything but simple, and the stakes are higher than he ever imagined.

Quantum Cultivation


J.C. Kang - 2021
    His kind serve as a benchmark for XHumans to measure how far they’ve progressed, and a reminder of what homo sapiens once was.His life changes when eight-hundred-year-old Ryu crosses over from the World of Rivers and Lakes, looking for a lost temple; and Aya, a beautiful hacker whose Sensory Interface perceives the EtherCloud as Feudal Japan, learns that XHumans aren’t as perfect as they thought.They’ve edited out the genes which allow for Cultivation.That will give Ken a chance to surpass them. And maybe use mythical martial skills to save the world from an oppressive government, spirit beasts, and alien invaders.A Cultivation system based on Daoist Five Elements and Eight Trigram Theories, written by an Acupuncturist/Wing Chun Sifu.WARNING: This story contains graphic scenes describing the Daoist methods of Dual Cultivation, but no harem elements. Suggested audience 18+.