Personally the interest in this type of narration came from a webtoon aka manhwa "Tyrant of the tower defense" that was an isekai set on a video game of "tower defense/dungeon offense". There was no game of the such, but the closest thing was a "protect the dungeon" game named "legend of keepers" but the game was very lacking in terms of player creativity, which lead me to these dungeon core stories that are pretty self explanatory. I believe that manhwa exempt this was more or less the reason this stories were created for. While there's a wide range of books, going from the classic fantasy to less conventional things such as sci-fi, however most of them seem to be magnification of an aspect from Divine Dungeon, a notorious book within the (sub)sub-genre.
2/24 Dungeon Life (Dungeon core webnov.)
The first dungeon core novel I've read. While the very beginning was somewhat interesting, the book was plagued with typos of all kinds and worst still, few chapters in the dungeon begins having this sympathy for humans and as the story progresses the place becomes some sort of thematic park with maze included. The submission of the dungeon to the adventurer's guild was repulsive to see. Perhaps intended for younger audiences? 2/10
2/24 Bound Dungeon (Dungeon core webnov. in perpetual hiatus)
Following a list, this was the number one dungeon core novel. It was decent, much better than dungeon life but very similar to divine dungeon as I'd later found out. Much better at building floors and the author sometimes gets tempted to show off a bit making the plot become too slow for RPGlit, clearly the sceneries would be preferred to people with affinity for hotter climates, which is not my case. While it would have been interesting to see what would've become of the novel, it was put on perpetual hold due the author running out of ideas. I agree with the list maker and put this book at the top of the dungeon core novels. 6/10
2/24-3/24 Divine Dungeon (Dungeon core series, composed of five books; Born, Madness, Calamity, Desolation)
The author in spite of being British decided that a good mash up for the dungeon core would be xiuzhe (chinese cultivation, heavily influenced by zen practices) which at least for western readers such as myself is a bit strange. Since the author himself is not too deep in the xinzhe niche the book is much more readable than Reverend Insanity or others of the sort, still a bit too descriptive in the "spiritual core" mana/magic movement. I'll be honest, half the time I just skimmed through those parts. While this is somewhat annoying I think that what prevents the book from being above average is none other than the side/main character Dale. That guy's like, Overlord's "Climb" level annoying. Not only are his segments horribly mundane and don't complement Cal's POV at all but he's awfully disrespectful of the dungeon and takes every opportunity to boast about achievements that aren't really his. As the book progresses Dale's POV becomes more and more common and Calamity forward is half the book if not more... For me personally the drop that spill the goblet was that awful time travel that's supposed to be explanatory but instead it's just more confusing that before, where we are told that Cal is actually Dale that died because he was saving Dani for the sake of Cal, whose also him but not at the same time, all this ten years ago. Also, this mess of a backstory, desperate attempt to make Dale interesting is quickly discarded into oblivion not to mention except for some pun or joke. Another problem that becomes more and more relevant as the plot progresses is that Cal becomes less impressive in growth terms and other place-holder characters that have achieved higher levels of cultivation just show up at Cal's dungeon, wreak havoc and leave which is super anti-climatic. Conclusion? Dungeon born was pretty decent but all the other books became worse and worse until I just couldn't bring myself to finish it.
3/24 The Laboratory (Dungeon core RPGlit)
All this human huggin faggotry made me google "Dungeon core stories, dungeons hate humans and want to kill them all. Preferribly after heavy torture" and got this garbage of a novel as a result. Some fat nerdy Portal fan decided to put herself in the story and glaDos as the dungeon core, the plot progresses clumsly and the verbal abuse/hatred that this GlaDos allegedly feels is crassly injected onto the dialogue. Things as ridiculous as "You're a fat rolling ball, and you deserve to die. What type of facility should I be making" "Researching, I think would suit you" "Did I say you look fat? You're awfully fat. Fat, fat, fat. Yes I have already picked research, what should I do next?" It was literally, an eye sore. 1/10
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