Power Leveling

Level Up!, Book 4

By: Simon Archer

Narrated by: Gary Furlong

Real heroes power level!

Sam and his team might be the fastest heroes to get licensed in history, but that doesn't mean they can rest on their laurels. A rash of villain attacks have sparked across the world, and people are disappearing in the aftermath, and the authorities are lost. It's up to Sam to rely on his video game Aspect to follow the quest lines, gain the levels he needs, and track the waypoints until he can uncover the truth behind the assaults.

But even that can't prepare him and his team for what they discover at the final marker.

Warning: This audiobook contains beautiful women, steamy sex, incredible super powers, city-busting laser beams, bizarre experiments, crazy power leveling, and the ability to become the strongest person the Universe has ever seen. That’s right, we said Universe.

©2020 Simon Archer (P)2021 Simon Archer

I like this series but....

The continuity errors are glaring and highly distracting. Hoping the entries going forward will fix that.

Forgetful

Feels like the author forgot so much of the previous books and that made some glaring potholes in this book. overall good series though.

Soooooo

Alright, we've got a couple problems here. The main problem is that the mc vastly underutilizes his blood magic. Literally 99% of boss fights could be handled in a instant with no muss or fuss. Second, he literally could've solved everyone's problems and saved lives by taking out the head villain when he instead made a escape, when doing so wouldn't have kept them from getting away.

My First Listen Assessment (lite spoilers)

I shall try to avoid any biases one might possess if they are a fan of Simon Archer.

Plot Armor trope was handled very well, when compared to the previous book, Expansion Pack.

The title Power Leveling wasn’t relevant to this book, I expected the final fight to be the biggest quest reward MC would acquire, but The Fall of Rome Quest remains the largest in previous book. I at least expected a Legendary weapon fragment as a quest reward, for defeating an Omega-level (beyond S rank) threat. MC ending level was only 52.

Fight mechanics felt really solid! I felt like I had a strong grasp of everything going on, but the final fight felt like it should have included at least a little more. However, I suspect an editor was involved in cutting it down, although not by much.

Romance scenes were super hot! There was one scene that had me shouting DAMN BOI!!! Out my car window while driving. Simon Archer does each very well, with a focus on the MC’s perspective, and not the other characters when the cuddle pile grows larger! Those senes would just take too long to describe. Satisfying the harem trope with the addition of Heather and Viper, albeit lightly.

Blood Magic: the first use of this skill was in expansion pack, but only used to stop someone’s movement, but this book expanded upon the power, which I greatly appreciated the clarification, although it felt super broken, because the body control time limit was subjected to plot armor trope. Basically, as last long as it was necessary for the plot to advance.
The video game-like controls the MC experienced was awesome.

Overall, despite my grumbling I loved this book and the building of plot overtime, which didn’t feel rushed, but you could feel their urgency and anxiousness throughout; even for the romance scenes🙃

I strongly recommend you start the Forger of Worlds series if you haven’t, because Simon Archer has big works coming soon! Hero team up!!!!!!!!!!

Several Inconsistencies.

I want to preface this by saying the Narator is great, and I have loved the series so far. This book does feel like a filler episode, which is kinda weird for a book series, but ok.
Having said that, the series has a notable issue with time. The first book only lasted about 3 weeks. The next book was billed as immediately after the first but talked about the events as if they happened a year ago. The second book lasted 9 months, but the third book said the events started 2 years ago. The third book happened over 5-6 months, yet this book said the story so far, which happened over the course of 16 months, has taken 4 years...
Spoilers ahead...

The part that really messed me up was the recap chapters. In book 1, we meet Viper, whose dad is a Villian and has been thrown out of her family for his crimes. In book 2, we meet Lotus, who is Vipers cousin, and her family has forced her into Hero Academy to bring honor back to the family because her uncle (Vipers Father) cost them Face. During the recap in this book 4 Lotus is surprised to learn from the main character that Viper had a villain in her family...

My feelings are unsure

1st off the narrator has done a great job.

Now to the truth of things. I'm continuously being thrown off by the timelines and inconsistencies in recaps from previous books. There are times when the MC says something about the past where I know it wasn't how it happened.

Another problem I'm encountering is the power leveling. I can't help but feel that I'm listening to an episode of DBZ. Basically the power level seems pointless. In the 1st book he seemed almost genius when fixing up his AI bot. That was what 200-300 levels ago. He doesn't seem any smarter, charismatic, etc now than then. Then there's his strength and dexterity, they're hundreds of levels higher now than when he 1st fought Ultimatum. He should be able to reck any and everyone at this point... I just don't get it.

***SPOILERS BELOW (regarding daily challenge)***


Finally my last complaint is with the daily quest. How the hell is the MC supposed to be able to maintain this everyday for the rest of his life? He's at what 20k push-ups, sit-ups and jumping jacks, then 100 miles! Unless he's using quicksand skill to do it all, how can he maintain this🤔 ??? The fastest human todate ran 100 miles in like 11 hours. Given how power levels seem bogus here and in previous books he was splitting the workout up through the day because it took so long... how? Say it takes him 2 hours to do it all (being generous), fine, but what about in 5 years or even 10? See my point. The daily challenge is just ridiculous... it doesn't even take into account his other exercises.

Ok, that's enough rambling. I love the idea of the book, even most of the execution, these are just a few plot holes and mechanics you have to ignore.

I hope you enjoy it. I'll be buying the next book... once I finish this one.

decent

if you have ready the previous books and enjoyed them, you'll enjoy this one. It does have sex scenes, some people you dislike and some you like, but like I said if you enjoyed the previous books this continues the story and gains new love interests and new villains.

Loving this series

I'm off to the next book. This was so good!!! I don't want this story to end.

No thank you.

Worst book ever. I'm glad I listened to it so I can just stick a pencil in my ear drums instead of having read it and needing to gouge my eyes out.

book 3 ending completely changed

I really loved books 1, 2 and 3 the problem I am having is that at the end of book 3 certain events happened and by the beginning beginning of book 4 and the middle of book 4 the major ending that happened in book 3 were completely erased like it never happened at all no explanation.. I don't know if the writer just forgot the ending to his own book and decided to change the story completely but this is crazy and changes the whole dynamic of the story