Rise of Mankind Series

Matt's just an ordinary guy, but when he's beaten, robbed, and left for dead, bleeding out at the bottom of a gully, it all has to change as he grasps frantically at his only chance for survival, coming as it does in the form of a glowing, dangerously pulsing light. With his reality forever altered, Matt must quickly find a suitable place to deploy the Dungeon Core, fighting his way through the hundreds of people between him and safety, because if he doesn't do it soon, a Core Detonation will solve all of his problems for him....permanently.

Matt survived the Dungeon's founding, and managed to gather a small, but dedicated team to him, but when he finds his is not the only Dungeon in the area, he has a choice to make. Attempt friendly co-existence, but lose the element of surprise, or attack, and risk it all? Matt has learned the consequences of being too trusting when the world collapses around you, but is the path of grim dictator any better? Can he trust those around him? When those he left behind seem to be abusing his gift?

The dungeon is surrounded, the refugees have made it to safety, but...they need food, water, space to recover and rest, and none of these things come cheap. That cost must be paid in mana. Mike and Kelly were sent to bring reinforcements from the park, but they're walking into a meatgrinder, one that will strip the life from them, then raise them to besiege those they love. Matt has only one chance...lead the refugees, forge them anew into a force that can face the undead, in their tens of thousands.

The rising wave of the undead has been stilled, the Lich Lord Daedalus defeated, and the dungeon is safe . . . for now. Now comes a time of growth, of calm and restructuring as the dungeon upgrades and the new alliances settle . . . but not all is peace and love. The gangs are rising, the asuras spread, and the dead never truly rest . . . The Age of Steel has begun.

Matt and many of his people are alive, and they've found a new ally, more or less, but the damage done to the dungeon and its future are beyond measure. Time and great effort are needed to repair the cracks, to seal the warping and to rebuild, but the world after the fall isn't somewhere anyone can afford to wait around in. Matt and his people must push on, they must grow, they have to rise up if they are to have any chance of surviving.