Dragonheart Core

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

To take a dragon's hoard is to challenge death.

The greatest of the sea-drakes wakes, curled on his silver throne; but there is no silver. His hoard is stolen. He rises, screaming, and chases the thief to the ends of the world—only to be shot from the sky.

But dragons do not die easy, and never one with such festering hatred. A dungeon core rises from his corpse.

If he intends to survive so near the cove of pirates that slew his past self,he'll need to master his powers—and quickly. For these pirates are dragonslayers; they won't be felled by mere mushrooms or spiders.

Beneath the lawless Calarata, the young dungeon core will have to fight to survive; and one day, he will return death to the man who killed him.

Updates on Fridays at 8 pm EST!

Information

Status: Hiatus
Year: 2022
Author: Atenburgh

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.6/ 5.0
Followers: 3,979
Views: 2,779,705

What readers say about Dragonheart Core

“The story is incredibly easy to follow, nothing too complicated that would confuse more casual readers and break their immersion, with a simple, yet interesting plot. The main character is likeable with enough going on that he isn't bland and overshadowed b…”
0 Jordinio 0Royal Road5.0 / 5
“This is a great dungeon core story. And just to be compeletely fair, I haven't read a ton of this kind of genre, but I still think it's a great story to get a feel for the genre. I know I definitely have. The style of the story was great. It flowed well and…”
Ellen TaylorRoyal Road5.0 / 5

Reviews

No reviews yet. Be the first to share your thoughts!

Community Reviews(10)

0 Jordinio 0Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
The story is incredibly easy to follow, nothing too complicated that would confuse more casual readers and break their immersion, with a simple, yet interesting plot. The main character is likeable with enough going on that he isn't bland and overshadowed by the plot itself. Anbd as far as grammar and spelling goes, I didn't notice anything out of place at all.
Monster reincarnation stories are a dime a dozen and most of them are a total boring flop that generally get bogged down by their level or evolution systems, especially dragon based ones, which is disappointing because I love dragons. I can definitely say for sure, this story is not like them at all, that I can gaurantee to anyone interesated in this type of genre, yet disappointed with the sheer lack of quality like me as well.
Definitely worthy of a 5/5 and I reccommend this story to anyone who wants a nice, simple yet captivating read. Anyone who has a love of dragons like me would defiitely be a big fan of this story and I'd tell you straight up to check it out. All in all, this is definitely worth a read to sit down and relax with.
Ellen TaylorRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This is a great dungeon core story. And just to be compeletely fair, I haven't read a ton of this kind of genre, but I still think it's a great story to get a feel for the genre. I know I definitely have.
The style of the story was great. It flowed well and I didn't have any problems following along in the story. I was invested in it.
The story was excellent. The author took a slower approach to it, which I really appreciated. It helped me feel grounded in the story. Things may not have moved quickly, but setting the foundation takes time, and the fact that the author managed to set the foundation while still making it a facinating read is a credit to their skill.
Grammar, nothing much to say. I didn't see anything that caught me off guard while I was reading.
Character, mostly there is just the dragon/ dungeon. And the lizard. And the fact that there was a chapter where I was concerned about the lizard's safety was something I didn't expect to feel today, so there's that. :) The dragon/dungeon character was also very realistic with very realistic motivations.
Overall, well done! A great read!
Mr ArtistimoRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Disclaimer: In keeping with the rules of the website, I am mentioning here that I have spoken with the author outside of this website, and consider them to be a friend of mine. While I am doing my best to not let that affect my view, it will influence it slightly. My ratings are however my own opinion, and I love this story for the content.
This story served as my introduction to the Dungeon Core genre, so to speak. It sets itself up beautifully and truly is a great showing of why reading between the lines. Exposition doesn't feel like the reputation it has. Within a single line I read, I learned one of the most important drives behind the first major event, without realising it was even exposition. It is only upon re-reading that I spotted it.
While at the writing of this review, only three chapters exist, each cleanly has its' own identity and explores something new in each, with almost seamless transitions between them.
When it comes to the style of the story. I personally find it flawless, it is consistently fun and invokes fascination like a well-crafted 4 am rabbit hole. It also manages to weave the actual dungeon aspect of the story believably into the world. And I'm amazed at how much I believe it. Utilising aspects of an ecosystem and an analogy of an ecosystem, it perfectly conveys a natural dungeon that works, is known to work, and is a micro example of the macro examples of dungeons that exist in game worlds.
The characters remain distinct and don't change immediately. Despite being humbled in size, power, and presence, our protagonist doesn't mentally adjust immediately, a lizard is not going to take the place of a dragon in their mind just because it feels that big. Nothing mindlessly gives in, unless you want to argue that a mushroom isn't mindless.
From single lines I learn more about characters than I sometimes do from character sheets. Their personalities are well established and highly entertaining.
The story itself so far has been flawless, at le
TwilightWings21Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This book is amazing, probably one of the best I have ever read. Gonna keep this fairly brief, but it’s incredible.
The way Atenburgh has developed his system, creature evolution, and flow of the dungeon is one of the best I have read on this site. It’s missing a few things other books have, such as a wider variety of elementals, undead, or creatures custom designed by the core, but uses basic creatures to extraordinary ends, which I love.
The story itself is believable and obviously relevant to the characters while still maintaining mystery and intrigue, and gives the dungeon an ultimate goal unlike most other dungeon core novels. This can be a detracting factor for other novels, but Atenburgh handles it masterfully and makes it feel natural. There are a few points that are left vague, such as the history and effect of most of the wider world and the MC before he became a core, but it isn’t to the point where it actively detracts from the story.
Grammar is fine, I have noticed little to no errors and it flows very well.
Characters are fun, believable, and best of all, Atenburgh occasionally includes reader OCs! This makes for fun reader interactions without committing to characters as consistent delvers if Atenburgh doesn’t want them to stick around.
__________
If I had to say one negative comment against this story, it is Chekov's Gun. For those who are unaware, that basically means the introduction of features or story elements, but then never using them or having them leave an impact. This is particularly relevant when introducing creatures, and there have been several instances of creatures dying without having an impact on the story or utilizing their highlighted feature.
I do understand that creatures will die when the dungeon is delved, but specifically killing off creatures who were mentioned to have a unique factor that they never used is disappointing.
However, despite that, I would still 100% recommend this book. Let’s go [Nameless MC]!!!
______
(Also I
hatersmusthateRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Like the title says, this is one of the good ones. It is about an unjustified incursion on someone's personal health and safety, and setting appropriate borders to protect the same. And, more importantly, about the process of the defense of those borders. Which involves making lots of friends across the ecosystem, and sacrificing idiots that let themselves be lured in to empower that same ecosystem.
Colorful writing, well-built world, and good morals make this a work that I can only encourage people to read.
RedWyrmLordRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
TLDR: Fantastic if you're interested in slow burn plot and focus on dungeon monsters and ecology. Not as great if you want focused plot progression.
I've read a lot of dungeon core stories on this site, and this one is in the upper percentile in my opinion. It's by no means a perfect story, but it excels in certain ways that not many similar stories do.
The monsters the dungeon creates are interesting and varied, and can evolve in fascinating ways as they gain strength. Watching the dungeon create crazy ecosystems is my favorite thing about this story.
The powers of the invading people are also creative and intriguing, which can add unique challenges or opportunities for the dungeon.
I also appreciate that the conscience behind the dungeon was both a local and a monster. It knows many things about the worldbuilding already, though not all, and has no moral issues with killing people. It still runs into problems because it spends a long time thinking like a dragon instead of a dungeon, which results in bad decisions sometimes. But also gives it room for growth.
On the downside, the plot is incredibly slow. There's like a dozen plot threads progressing at any given time, so the story can take a while to progress since it needs to touch on each of them every once in a while.
The main character's growth, mentally, is also very slow. It makes sense, because they used to be a prideful dragon who thought they knew best, but it can be frustrating to see it make the same mistakes multiple times because it's too stuck in its ways to change. It does, eventually, but it takes longer than I'd like.
DizzymashRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
The story is fantastic, the world already has a progression system with high caps in place. The idea of power creep shouldn't be cropping up. The monsters are the best part, their unique personalities and struggles for evolution are amazing.
The only con is the language and phrases don't seem to fit with the core's identity or the appearant time period at times. It's the most minor of things.
TinHandRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
Dragonheart Core is an engaging, well-written, and creative story about a dragon who, with his dying act, transforms his heart into a dungeon-core to hide from and defend against the denizens of a nearby pirate city. As a dungeon-core, the MC focuses on cultivating and evolving species of plants and animals to create self-sustaining, but ultimately hostile environments for any delvers that may come by. The motivations are clear and believable, descriptions of the dungeon floors are full and complex, and the system used by our MC is unobtrusive, but formulaic enough for readers to guess at future evolutions and "builds" that the core might make in the future. Unfortunately, the author seems to have given up on his MCs origin by replacing a dragon-core's 1st person perspective with that of a modern, Earth-standard isekai protagonist; this is not super apparent in the initial chapters, but there is almost a tone-shift around chapter 30 that felt pretty jarring during my binge of the novel when I read it. If that doesn't sound like a deal-breaker for you, this is a wonderful example of the dungeon-core genre that will quickly pull you in and keep you captivated.
Note: I've only read up to chapter 40, but I've skimmed ahead and the issues I've identified below seem to remain constant.
Style: This was a difficult section for me to score, as the language is nicely descriptive, the litRPG elements are straight-forward, if a little minimalistic, and the setting is largely exactly what is promised: a progressive, litRPG dungeon-core story. I especially enjoyed the focus on dungeon ecologies and how the flora and fauna interact to create unique, self-sustaining systems that are largely independent, but ultimately serve the goal of protecting the dungeon-core from invaders. The occasional map given by the author also really helps to fill in the few blanks that his written descriptions leave to the reader, though I never really felt like I didn't know what was being described in
TitansRookRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
I'll fully admit to coming into this story as an excuse to pass the time while waiting for other stories to update. To that end, Dragonheart Core does a wonderful job, sucking you into the world and keeping you there... until another story updates.
The focus of Dragonheart is more towards the dungeon aspect of it, and less so the story. The opening chapter starts off on a strong premise, of a dragon out for revenge of a stolen hoard, and then further for their death (not a spoiler, happens within the first few paragraphs), but the narrative screeches to a halt after that. The in lore reason is understandable, a dungeon needs to grow after all, but regardless, it still feels like the story is more worldbuilding than 'story', ya know?
All that said, it's still an interesting read, and I recommend binging it when you have the chance. The main character is believable, the creatures they create are interesting, and there's a careful eye given for environments beyond just "fancy cave". A whole ecology thrives here, and you can believe it might be possible in a fantasy world full of magic.
DragonaaxRoyal Road
★★★ 2.5
It was fun at the beginning with interesting story but later I just stopped caring, there are interesting concepts but sometimes too much story focuses on Nicau. As I continued reading at some point I stopped rooting for the core, maybe it was personality maybe it was something more but I felt more empathy towards creatures in dungeon rather than main character.
Also some of the choices core did are questionable