Age of Stone (Rise of Mankind, Book 1) (Volume 1)

Dark fantasy meets Dungeon Core LitRPG in the bestselling Age of Stone (Rise of Mankind, Book 1)!

An Epic Dungeon Adventure. A post-apocalyptic event. Can Matt thrive in this new reality or will he fall to the odds stacked against him?

In all the games Matt has played, Dungeons are places to raid, places you dream of conquering, but when the world is stripped of electricity, and the first mana-twisted beasts start to prowl, the games all come to an end...

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.

Welcome to the New World.
Experience a dark apocalyptic LitRPG Dungeon Core tale, Matt is a normal guy, pushed into terrible situations, and without anyone to hold his hand and explain the system. This is a weak-to-strong tale about doing what’s right, not what’s easy, in a nightmarish world. Fans of Dungeon Core stories, progression fantasy and strategy real time expansion games are sure to love it.

"Grimdark litrpg at its finest. I read the hell out of this book and this series!" —Michael Chatfield, International Bestselling author of The Two Week Curse

Jez Cajiao ditched school at 11 to join the family catering circus—because who needs algebra when you've got appetizers, right?

After feeding people for years, he escaped to Greece to sling drinks and live his best bartender life. (The stories from that era are locked in a vault marked "What Happens in Greece...")

Next came welding—sparks flying, metal melting, living the dream! Until his lungs said "nope" and gave him welder's lung as a not-so-fun parting gift.

Then 2020 happened. Pandemic + dodgy lungs = mandatory couch time. But instead of binge-watching Netflix like a normal person, Jez decided to write. Every. Damn. Day.

Plot twist: readers actually liked his stuff! Now he's living his best author life in South Shields, surrounded by his wife, two kids, two dogs, two cats, and the legendary Sanddancers (local dance troupe or mythical creatures—you decide).

Stalk him on Facebook, Discord, Instagram, and TikTok where he's basically the friendliest author on the internet!