Battleforged: Survivor by M.H. Johnson

To do list for the post apocalypse:

1. Survive the orcs rampaging through your city.

2. Survive the pod trying to steal your mind.

3. Pull off the greatest heist of all time.

Eric was as shocked as everyone else when the apocalypse struck, but unlike his mother’s movie, there were no chosen heroes destined to fight the beast hordes now overrunning the planet.

Just people trying desperately to survive.

Yet there was a glimmer of hope that humanity could hold on to. A chosen few really could level up in this brave new world, and embrace magic, adventure, and the potential for limitless power!

But the only way to find out if you were one of the lucky few who can level-up and grow stronger was to dare alien vegetative pods. Pods as happy to turn you into topsoil as give you any shot at mastering a System designed to benefit elite invaders, not fragile humans just trying to survive.

But Eric was all about beating the odds!

Along with a handful of new friends who happened to be rogues long before there was any System.

Friends absolutely intent on stealing a priceless fortune that their enemies are eager to claim, right out from under the noses of everyone trying to kill them!