Boss Breaker

He grabs the boss's crown bare-handed, and a woman's voice asks who is holding her. Ellis Sutton is only in that hall because his own captain threw him at the Floor 1 boss as a human shield. To the Academy he's the Zero: Level 0, no class, zero mana, dead last on the board at 212 of 212. What nobody knows is that magic dies in hisis bare hands, and every new kind he eats makes him permanently stronger. The captain seals the gate and leaves him for dead. Ellis eats the gate, walks out, and goes back for her. Because the Dungeon's crowned bosses aren't monsters. They're women, trapped for three hundred years, killed for loot and remade every midnight. And a crown is just more magic. Soon he isn't delving alone: Hallbera, a gold-haired shield-captain whose sealed strength only his hands can unlock. Mairwen, a long-legged, bronze-skinned huntress with a wicked grin and two hatchets. Rosanna, a freckled ward mage who knew what the crowns were before anyone believed her. Each of these former bosses chooses to stay with him. But a freed boss drops no loot, and the Academy counts every core. The noble house that left Ellis to die owns the harvest rights to Floor 1. The old seals are failing, and the Descent Exam is coming. The bosses come back every midnight. The women he frees stay free. Boss Breaker is a 230,000 word novel with a Level 0 hero who eats magic for permanent stats, status windows and loot, a rank board to climb, crowned bosses to break, and a growing circle of romantic partners.