The Ancient Core: A Progression Fantasy

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

The title of [The Ancient One] is bestowed upon an unassuming, forgotten Core. Hidden deep underground, it lies in wait, biding its time as it learns the rules of its surroundings. Roaming beasts and unknown threats surely threaten the little rock as it sticks to the darkness, its one true refuge.

This is a slow-burning Dungeon-Core fiction with a LitRPG-System. You can expect an extreme amount of kingdom-building, an more in-depth Mana-System, and a Evolution-System.

Chapters are between the length of 2-4k words, though the first 50 will likely be closer to 4k. Anything after will have the average be 2.5k.

I personally like explaining how things work a lot, so do have that in mind if you decide to read this fiction.

Cover is credited to [Asviloka] who can be found on this thread:https://www.royalroad.com/forums/thread/110578

[participant in the Royal Road Writathon challenge]

Information

Status: Hiatus
Year: 2021
Author: Buller

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 3.8/ 5.0
Followers: 1,447
Views: 796,446

Reviews

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

Community Reviews(10)

tfisbRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This is the closest you will ever get to being a dungeon core.
From the moment of inception, every thought, sensation and action of this new dungeon core is described in immersive detail. We are transported from the hum drum of our daily lives to the exciting world of the dungeon core. The core has experiences we could never have, until now. I believe this could be the basis for dungeon core virtual realities in the future and I will be a customer.
The style is most remincient of the impressionist painters like Monet. Seen close, there are a thousand details, each an independent mark in a greater whole. But upon reflection, the details disappear to form a greater, harmonious whole. Readers should be aware that such landscapes take time to construct, This is not a meteoric rise to power but a symphony in multiple, careful crafted arcs. Your patience will be rewarded.
The dungeon core itself can be hard to relate to because it is so alien, as well as inimical to human life. But the author somehow overcomes all of this and we find ourselves rooting for this seed of Evil as it overcomes its enemies with ruthlessness, calculating strategy and panache.
If the grammar is imperfect, it is only because of the torrent of words being poured out. I am sure any minor flaws will be corrected over time.
Red_FauxRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
People here complaining about it being slow, or bits falling flat.
They can have their opinions, but implying that this is anything less than a story worth trying is just incorrect.
Its a sad fact that most people just don't bother checking out stories on this website when they have less than 4 and half stars, myself included. When I first checked this out, it was sitting at around that score.
People, please don't treat the 'overall' score as 'the part I have a problem with' just because you can't be bothered with an advanced review. Its a disservice to the effort put into this story.
Style wise, I do love the introspective perspective, the prose perfect for a mind in isolation, and it transitions as close to perfectly as possible into a more traditional dungeon perspective.
The story so far is very much still in the beginning stages. I find the slow gradual, earned, process to constructing aspects of a dungeon most other stories just hand wave away, like the idea of a domain, or even just constructing walls, barriers that make sense, in a setting with perfectly permeable mana that goes through everything, using technical yet easily intuited concepts as simple as pressure and density of gas.
Grammar is almost always fine, and when it is wrong its never an eye searing misspelling, simply the occasional misplaced letter, or a few letters out of order. The original meaning is always preserved.
The characters, for now limited to the core and an antagonist, are simple yet believable as terrifically intelligent and capable children that haven't existed for even a year.
FateWillHaveItsWayRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
A Dungeon core story, slowly building itself up
It has some interesting differences in what a dungeon core can do,
making it set itself apart from the rest.
It feels like the core is slowely and gradually building up what it can do without
getting godgiven super powers that allow it to be op
This actually build upon the credibility of the core's situation
Not to mention it is making mistakes in that process
The core getting the health upgrade is a bad move, and it know's it
Or how it doesn't close the hole's in the wall's for to long.
How it would be cheaper to keep casting spear spell's to kill the enemy instead of healing.
How it's not trying to change the template to get stronger ants for so long
There seems to be a decent thought process as to why and how the wold is build and can be interacted with.
Things don't just happen beause there is a need for a power spike.
The way an ant get's it's health back by watching it's mana move inside it, and it's journey to learn how to heal
Or it's more gory process of learning the stamita spell
It doesn't feel like the core has insane unfair advantages forcing the story to scale
at incremental levels before it is forced in a corner
It's road with mistakes can be a lot more fun than the "I just made it stronger" explanation
think about how the core is playing around with it's wall's for example
And how it is gradually replacing it with stronger things
Hope the core can find some more interesting and new ways
to interact with it's environment
RafvtellRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
As of chapter 109, I have mostly good things to say about this story. What you can expect is that slow burn is not an understatement, at least in the first 50-70 chapter, I could also say that, thankfully, we don't have to read about the same things twice, there is no repetition in the events.
The main downside, I guess, would be the spelling, there is quite a few minor mistake, such as Core being written as Croe or Coer, as I said minor.
Most likely the kind of story that should be read a chapter a day or each time a chapter comes out, if you caught up. You can also go on patreon to read ahead too if you want to.
RoachRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
In my opinion, this webnovel is certainly a cut above most of what you would see on Royalroad. Though it has obvious shortcomings due to the nature of the main character, mainly the drawn out sequences where the main character has to learn about the world around them, the novel is overall still enjoyable. I feel that the novel's strengths such as the quite excellent prose and the interesting story more that make up for the "boring" sections where the main character has to learn how to do things. While I am biased due to being a fan of slow burn novels, if anyone makes it even ten chapters in and isn't hooked enough to read keep reading, then they just weren't the type of person that would enjoy this novel, no matter what edits you make. I will commend you for going an interesting route with the System, and I am quite intrigued by the mysteries surrounding the main character. There are a few grammatical errors every so often, though that is to be expected from an unpublished work without a professional editor.
From now on is spoilers.
The mysteries of the main character, whom I assume was reincarnated or somehow transformed into a core are very intriguing, yet may push away some viewers who wanted a story about a natural dungeon core. However, the main character acts like a normal dungeon core in almost every way aside from when his memories leak through. It gives the readers questions that they want answered, while still keeping viewers who like the vibe of a nonhuman protagonist. I never really felt that any of the ways that the main character survived any encounters were asspulls, instead, they seemed to be calculated moves that were only slightly sided by luck. I don't have to suspend my disbelief when the main character is fighting the Queen or any other enemy they've encountered because everything the main character does is something that it was established to be able to do.
I've been rambling and honestly I could keep going, but this isn't a book report so I'l
TamaNzRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
Overall: In so many ways the beginning of this fiction reminds me of one of my favorite books, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig. There is an extended meditation on what it means to think and to be aware of our surroundings.
This develops into an interesting world with a well thought out system underlying it.
Style: Every part of this Fic has a clear, cohesive voice behind it. There is almost nothing in the way of wasted words. Each thought, action or visual/auditory clue is designed to communicate something to the reader. A huge part of what it communicates is the sheer alienness of the Core entity.
Story: The nature of this story and the slow, deliberate way it unfolds is somewhat limiting to me as a reader. I found myself wanting to know more about certain elements and I had the sense that this information wouldn’t be shared within a timeframe I would enjoy. I feel like to a certain reader this would be incredible, but I found myself somewhat frustrated.
Grammar: This is damn near flawless and I have nothing but envy for the editing skills on display.
Character: The Core is the character. I found it both compelling and alienating which is a new experience for. There were times when it felt as much like an a priori thought experiment as a character, and watching it discover itself and the world definitely drew me in.
GreenthumbRoyal Road
★★★★ 3.5
The premise is interesting but the story spends the first 60 chapters in a bit too much philosophy and self reflection. The pace doesn't really pick up until the dungeon core gets a mentor.
That being said the first 60 chapters could probably be condensed into about half as many though the few chapters with action should be kept to help break up the self reflection a bit. I was rather disappointed that the story was just developing when the author put it on hiatus in favor of another story.
The grammar is kinda a train wreck. There are the occasional odd word choices- usually the odd words are very similar too words that would fit well, but don't quite work. Additionally, there are many, many convoluted sentences because the author uses passive verbs improperly- they are occasionally either difficult to parse to outright bafflingly. Either way I found myself very distracted from the story-telling by all the weird grammer. I do 'edit suggestions' but they exhausted me in this work.
Though there were few characters thus far in the story, they were developing well. Characters interacted logically and reacted to their situations reasonably. I appreciate, for example, that the dungeon conquers it's mentor rather than having a 'Dungeon Fairy' magically appear. As of my review, secondary characters were being introduced but hadn't had time to develop much.
On the whole, I enjoyed this story and intend to follow it if there are new chapters to come. I would however, recommend the author commit to rewriting and editing the story if the author choose to continue - and I hope that the author will because its an interesting point of view on this particular story troph.
ehutch79Royal Road
★★★ 3.0
The problem when you start out with the MC ignorant of all existence, is you have to sit through things like it learning what color is. I find it really boring. At least the first 5 chapters could have been condensed.
the writing itself isn't that bad. It just goes into excessive detail
Andrew616Royal Road
★★★ 3.0
I read the first ten chapters, and they are well written, and have a good style. The overall premise is interesting
The problem is that everything is done a hundred times. The author spent 10 chapters on learning to manipulate mana by looking at mana. Nothing has happened, and the story doesn't seem to be progressing. The details that the author goes into for world building are to be applauded, they lead to a deep layered system and world, which is much better than "it happened, because!". But there needs to be a balance between the exposition on how things work for ten long chapters, and having something interesting happen.
I get the feeling that if I could stick it out for another 20 chapters or so the story would pick up, but the general style if a very slow build up with repetitive detail being shared is likely a trend.
NocainRoyal Road
★★★ 3.0
It's not a Dungeon story, its a Core story with dungeon elements.
If you like World and magic system crafing its for you. i read till chapter 42 but it was just.. a lot of nothing. Good system\ magic\science system... but so slow that it gets to boring for me.
Still i read 42 Chapters, because the system is interresting...