Of Gods and Dungeons

July 12, 2025 - Status note: I won't be coming back to this story, sorry :(

It's been a number of years and I forgot what the original outline was. I did have fun with it, but my backlog of things I want to write is kinda enormous. I don't know when, or if, this story would become a priority, but it's probably not going to happy. Sorry guys!

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Amy Barnes, an aspiring chemical researcher, finds herself dying from cancer. One of her most desperate prayers is answered in a way that she'd never dreamed possible, and she finds herself living a new life as a dungeon.Warning: Violence, morbidity

Cover: Taken fromhere, courtesy of www.pexels.com by photographer @tookapic.

Author's Note:

I've read some dungeon core stories on here, and they've tickled my fancy. I've thought up a whole story, start to finish, and thought it'd be a blast to put it into words.

Other than the violent and morbid aspects, this story is suitable for children. Aside from the vocabulary, that is. I will avoid the temptation to have any cursing, sexuality, or gore. Excessive gore, I suppose - it is a dungeon story, after all.

I’ll do a little research from time to time, but this story will not have a great deal of rigor. I’ve made Amy’s knowledge comparable to my own for that reason. There’s a few things she knows more about than I do, and a few things that she knows less about. Unlike me, she doesn’t have access to Google - it’s a non issue for her to be more knowledgeable than me, on occasion :P

This story does not use the same magic system that I’ve used in either Sorcery in Boston or A Summoner’s Confession. This one is mostly intention based, and designed to be easier access for people who are more used to the idea of, “It’s magic, therefore it works” kind of thinking. Do note that Amy is, in most senses of the term, overpowered. This goes along with the usual dungeon core stories. She’s not more powerful than other dungeons per se, but she does have knowledge and intelligence that puts them to shame.

I thought about doing this in a LitRPG style, but systems take balance, and I wanted this to be pure fun to write. This story was inspired from a few sources. Despite the title, it wasn’t really inspired by Of Mice and Men, though some of the themes match. Rather, I’ve taken inspiration from a few dungeon core novels on Royal Road Legends for the main idea. Many conventions of dungeon core stories have been perverted from the genre, however.

I’ve taken my usual science-loving self to town to play around with the powers, and I can only hope you have half as much fun reading this as I have had writing it.