Saga of the Soul Dungeon

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

Mind the psychological tag. We spend a lot of time in the main character's thoughts. When Caden dies, in an accidental fall, he is merged with a dungeon core in another world. He's not particularly happy to be dead, so resurrection in any form isn't too bad. The real problem? The dungeon corewasn'tdead, and he has to share mind-space with it. And that doesn't take into account mastering his new abilities well enough to escape from the powerful wizard that is, understandably, leery about allowing a dungeon to escape. And, even when he manages to escape he needs to found and manage a dungeon. Of course, the location he chose might have a few issues of its own: -It's on the border of two human nations, who are not particularly pleased to share. -A sentient plant race claims the dungeon as sacred ground. -And, amidst the chaos, teams of adventurers just want to make a living and figure out how to deal with the latest challenge. And, as its own challenge, Caden doesn't want to lose his humanity, to merely become another murder-hobo dungeon. Additional tags for gore, language, and sexual content added just in case. Note that the slavery tag applies, sort-of. Not really traditional slavery, just some aspects of the system can override free will. This is a reworking, and continuation, of my original novel into first person. And it is going great! The writing is well past where my original novel got to. This work will never be dropped. Hiatuses may happen due to life, but I will never abandon this fiction. Currently 25+ additional chapters on Patreon, with book one finished, and book two started.

Information

Status: Ongoing
Year: 2024
Author: AJFoxmoor

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.5/ 5.0
Followers: 4,450
Views: 2,403,664

Chapters(129 total)

What readers say about Saga of the Soul Dungeon

“I'm loving this. I can't fully comprehend why it is that even while using somewhat common tropes like 2 souls stuck in a dungeon core this story manages to just feel so, so fresh. Almost every trope I find just feels so pristine and new even while having se…”
Nanashi22Royal Road5.0 / 5
“Just read through this from the start, and definitely recommend. It drew me in right from the start, and the reader learns about the lore and how the world works along with the viewpoint character. Pacing so far has been good. The events and arc of the stor…”
AndalumeniRoyal Road5.0 / 5

Reviews

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

Community Reviews(10)

Nanashi22Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I'm loving this. I can't fully comprehend why it is that even while using somewhat common tropes like 2 souls stuck in a dungeon core this story manages to just feel so, so fresh.
Almost every trope I find just feels so pristine and new even while having seen all of them. I think every trope is just written so well that it feels like a fresh layer on old paint.
Especially the 'Making my dungeon inspire awe in the delvers' trope. That trope is so overused and so badly written by almost everyone that uses it that I literally just stopped caring when those devices are so badly used they border on being actual storyline plot-holes. I mean, it only comes up at the very start of dungeon building and barely exists when making new floors.
I swear on 80% of those stories I have not even once seen any character, not even the core itself, acknowledge the supposedly awe-inspiring inviroments. Of the other 20%, 10% of them have had 1 single short sentence from a delver about the floor looking 'kinda pretty'. A single short sentence about the floor looking pretty once every 15 floors. The last 10% have had either semi-regular comments on how 'strange' the floor is or semi-regular comments on how 'fascinating' the floor is.
I swear this story just does everything that matters right with common but good tropes, and when dealing with the tropes that just get annoying from overuse in other stories it completely removes and remodels them or adds nice tasting things like the uniquely done Soul aspect in this story.
11 out of 10.
AndalumeniRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Just read through this from the start, and definitely recommend. It drew me in right from the start, and the reader learns about the lore and how the world works along with the viewpoint character. Pacing so far has been good. The events and arc of the story feel like they are progressing at a natural rate, and there are multiple threads in motion that hint at future arcs.
Jash814Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Love the story and world building. Enjoy the creative decisions made in said world that not only bring it alive but also gives it a refreshing take on medievalesk life style and social structure. Honestly I'm loving the personal liberties your taking and can honestly enjoy it for amazing entertainment it is. I'm strictly hetero but personally wasn't put off by your decions and I'm just enjoying the story and trying to guess what happens next lol. Keep up the great work and keep writing for you.
MorebooksRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Looking forward to seeing what happens next. I enjoyed the balanced approach as the main character grows and compromises both with their past and present self in a wildly different world, and with their new other half. I enjoyed seeing the learning process instead of him instantly getting everything as well as Exsan's growth, but most of all I adored a post human thinking to include bathrooms and insisting on basic hygiene. Hallelujah!
Because I would be totally that person too, and am surprised at how many stories I read where the post human apparently doesn't care about adventurers doing whatever in the halls of their new body. That would have been an insta-smite for me =)
DracoocardRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Saga of the Soul Dungeon (SSD) is in my view a very complicated piece of well built art. I will try not to spoil it's overall plot, so far, but that isn't always easy.
This is not a story for those wanting blood for bloods sake. It is a masterclass in descriptive writing and a rumination on philosophy. The stakes in its current state are low and I don't expect them to ever truly be high. The MC is constantly, consistently, consciously brooding over what it means, to him and to others, to be himself. What is an instinct and what is cultural. What is wrong, what is right, what is beautiful. At heart he is, in my view, an artist and thus a philosopher.
Many of the low reviews I've seen, on a brief look, complain that he is brooding for no other sake than word count. That they hate the constant switch in perspective and seeing things from multiple angles. I can understand this, I don't think it's entirely wrong to hate that either, but there is point to that perspective shift. The one thing I struggled with at first that it is all in first person whether we are seeing it from the MC or not. However there is a point to that too.
Philosophy is warped by perspective. What is man but a featherless biped? Thus i show you a plucked chicken. Man is far more than his body but we are still constrained by it. We have urges that must be fed. And so too does a dungeon. That latter seems more likely to be touched on in book 5 but it does still stay relevant throughout. The authors vision, from what I can gleam of it so far, very much seems to be a deconstruction of that. What, at it's core, is sapience. Intelligence. Will. Soul. That bleeds through if you stop and think, consider. Shift your own perspective.
It is unfortunately likely to be very slow in releases however. The author seems to have quite a tumultuous life from the many notes and apology chapters. I wish him well and hope to see more in the future. Even without it though the inspiration and perspectives in the novel so
DuckhuntjoeRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I've got to say, seeing this story improve by the absolute leaps and bounds that it has, will never stop bringing me an incredibly high ammount of serotonin.
Style: The story has a nice flow to it, and a really unique world. I could get lost in some of the envirnments that Caden and Exan set up. I feel like there are a couple of small breaks in the main story line to follow the "B" story but I can understand that focusing hardcore on one groups POV can be very...Stifling as a word.
Story: The story it's self has a lot of good things going for it, including a very passionant author, a good and freindly community. And lots of cool art work that could totaly make its way into a published book if ever there was one ;)
Grammar: Honestly when there are grammar mistakes the author is very quick to fix them and to make sure that the edits don't negativly impact the story, or flow of the story, so I can appreciate that.
Characters: I honestly only like reading from Caden/Exan's point of view, but reading from our resident plant bro has been warming up to me. And I can't say no to being able to get lost in yet more well rounded characters, now could I?
Over all I can positivly say that this story is a must read, and one would be worse off for having not read this story, and more importantly helping the author in perfecting their craft with helpful comments and reviews. Hope everyone has an awsome weekend!
AbyssalGodRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I have read the previous version and I think I love both, good job on the rewriting! And I can't wait to eventually get to where the book left off before and beyond. Not only that but we will eventually get to explore creatures and creation further and see how the people react to the dungeon.
GershRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
It's a good story. Mostly just a rewritten slightly better version of the old story.
A little slow paced tho, but that can always be attributed to the fact that the chapters are put into multiple parts and I am not the most patient reader. They need 50 words or something so badda bing badda boo this is how I rate this story. damn . still not long enough huh. There we go
GibsterRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Half human with human sensibilities, half murderous predator that wants to genocide humanity. All good story. This isn't too long yet l, but I can tell it will be an interesting story that will continue to satisfy. Honestly not looking forward to waiting for new chapters to come out.
OctaeonRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
As I've said, I think this is one of the best dungeon novels on Royal Road.
Now, I have to say, dungeon core novels are rather strange - they focus much more on other people than most other novels.
It might be possible to create a dungeon without any delvers, but doing so can't show the beauty of the dungeon. To do so, the novel needs to include PoV changes, and show how other people interact with the main character's creations.
I need to say all of this, because this novel takes this concept to the extreme.
The first two Arcs are okay (I'm less happy with the second Arc but more on that later). The third Arc is about building the dungeon, and it's great.
But the fourth Arc - it focuses on a group of adventurers delving the dungeon MC created, and I think
we have more chapters from the perspective of a single adventurer than the dungeon. (it's important to mention that I'm subscribed to the author's Patreon, and have read all of the newest chapters)
And, oddly enough, I'm happy about it - it feels good.
The differing views of the dungeon and adventurer can be displayed in how different the adventurers think about the dungeon's creations, and how they react. And the change in perspective allows for the author to praise the art MC created in a way that would feel self-indulgent from MC's PoV.
This makes it much more interesting to me, but I understand how other people might feel about this story, so I will try to explain these other thoughts.
First off, the dungeon is OP.
He created 'gun traps' that act as cannons, made 20 decoy cores who are all almost impossible to get to, and his true core is 'accessible' only by the loosest definition of the word - there is a way for a human to get to the core, but doing so would require insane amounts of skill and power. In short, the progression is quite fast.
This might make some people annoyed, and to be honest, I dislike OP characters as much as other readers, but the thing is, dungeon core novels are inherently different fro