The Dungeon Calls for a Sage

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

Archimedes was the ego behind one of the most powerful dungeons ever created. He grew and developed his halls, filling them with powerful monsters and beasts, over the course of thousands of years. He was a grand structure of ten thousand floors which even heroes had failed to defeat.

However, an Evil God had come from another world, calling himself the Demon King, and a party of heroes were sent to do battle with it. Through their victory, they obtained enough strength to breeze through Archimedes' dungeon like it was nothing. Forseeing the end of his life, and realizing how pointless his pursuit of power had been, Archimedes destroyed himself, taking the heroes down with him.

Still, Archimedes felt despair that he had lived a worthless life as something as pitiful and futile as a dungeon. Sensing his regret and potential, the voice of the world presented Archimedes with the chance to start anew and live a more meaningful life. Thrilled and hopeful for the first time in eons, Archimedes accepted the offer, only to be reborn again as a dungeon core with not a single room or monster to his name.

Just what was the meaning of this?!

Archimedes couldn't figure out what the voice of the world was thinking. Somehow, he would have to draw a sage into his dungeon to figure it out for him.

_______________________

DCS is now a member of theWriTEr's Pledge, which means I have sworn to see it through to a satisfying end.

Information

Status: Hiatus
Year: 2018
Author: docemoon145

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.5/ 5.0
Followers: 2,378
Views: 794,123

Reviews

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Community Reviews(10)

TheCourtShukaldesRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Archimedes progress so far has been delightful to binge. I do hope that the story continues and the author finds the inspiration needed to explore the infinite possibilities of such a being. Update schedule? Not much. :( But overall it's a lovely story and we can't wait to see how it grows!
BumpRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Big fan of this fiction and, as an avid reader of amateur fiction in general and dungeon fiction in particular, I think you’re writing this sub-genre really well, with your own flair. Your characterizations feel well realized, and there is a good sense of overall plot progression.
Even the speculative magi-science nature of dungeon creation is kept pretty interesting! There are a lot of little and big mysteries that keep the reader coming back, as I definitely am planning on doing! Overall, great job!
ZagarothRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
And I am very happy to see this story back from Hiatus.
And apparently, I forgot to rate it! So now the author gets a full review instead. :)
Alright, let's get grammar out of the way. This is easy: the author has neat and tidy writing, everything is very cohesive and flows properly and there are no grammar or punctuation issues I can find.
The characters are lively and interesting, personalities are clear, personality quirks and flaws are even more clear and make sense. These are people, imperfect and beautiful for it. Especially the ones that are really weird people by our standards, because their situations *should* make for 'weird' people.
I love the style. I know some people have issues with multiple Points of View, but I use it often myself. It just has to be used properly. The main character is stationary, he's a dungeon, and we can't use his point of view alone.
And that brings us to the story. This is a bit of "it is what it says on the tin." This dungeon needs philosophical answers, and is doing what it can to find them. I can already spot where his methodology is slightly flawed, but from where he is starting there is no way for him to not make that mistake.
It also means that I can see the vague outline of where he will actually find his answers, but that's just good foreshadowing. And along the way, he will probably end up talking to a few proper sages, but that is not always where you find the Sage Advise you actually need.
JaceyTreyRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I've read many stories on RR...a hundred, at least. I've "favorited" and followed many. I've never commented on any. Of all the thousands of books I have read in my 53 years on this earth, this is my favorite. A dungeon searching for meaning. Brilliant. I hope you continue with this story, and I'm certainly going to check your page for other writings you may have. Thank you for this!
AydenaRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I have enjoyed this so much I just binged 52 chapters without paying attention to where the writing horizon was and slammed right into it. Painful.
It's filled with interesting and varied characters (my favorite part) with a well-thought-out setting that seems to be interested in exploring such questions as 'What is a meaningful life?", "What is required for one?" and "Why are we even here?" Maybe even 'What is or isn't a person?" and "What is or isn't life?" while not getting bogged down in those questions.
Well, anyway, full stars from me.
TekknosRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
so far one of the best starts for a dungeon story so for i have read in a long time.
(i read most ) whould not mind more blue screens but ive read that they are annoying to make. so keep up the good work.
bor902Royal Road
★★★★ 4.0
The style of writing in itself is nothing special, it is simply there, an average combination of words and sentences that despite mediocracy serve their purpose well. Due to the style being simple, the grammar can be said to be almost perfect, there are not many things to screw up and the author evidently either has an editor or uses spellcheck.
The characters are quite flat and fall into the pitfall of telling instead of showing when the attempt is made to show it, it isn't very good except in some few cases.
This is all brought together to a solid 4-star story though by the plot and fresh concept of a trapmaking dungeon. This is something I haven't seen before and it is certainly pleasing in its originality.
The only reason the story-specific rating is not a full 5 stars is due to the fact that the author is rather unimaginative in the trap and puzzle creation. Maybe the simple puzzles are made to represent Archimedes newness in the subject since he is said to have been a power-reliant dungeon in the past.
There are several suggestions for improvement I can offer to the author. Firstly I do not know if your original style of writing is this bland or if it's intentional. If it is intentional I would insist on more of a free rein on your part, if it is not intentional I can only say that more books need to be read. Books with very conceptualized styles of writing, Dostojewsky, Kierkegaard and Twain come to mind.
The grammar can be corrected so as to deserve 5-stars with a better implementation of the different tenses.
Characters can definitely be improved, by the scaling up of their positive and negative attributes and a better showing of these.
The last suggestion would be to read up on puzzles and traps, if not on the technical side, then on the psychological.
RoxtRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
This is shaping up to be a very good story. Written in understandable english with a minimum of typos and grammer flaws... practicaly makes it to the top stories list with that alone.
Toby ZieglerRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
The story builds on a combination of Archimedes' arrogance and desperation to survive. The ancient dungeon's mind knows tricks employable by even a spanking new dungeon can use, and so pulls out all the stops live another day.
The building progression and preparations for avoiding the inevitable doom approaching combine with the dungeon's quest to understand in interesting ways.
When the discovery of how the world really works is made, the story starts to fall apart instead of coming together for a new motivational arc. The story seems to get too caught up in character abilities and needs to get back to character interactions and motivations.
Spoiler:
Building main doors out of thick platinum, then being surprised by adventurers just peeling off the material and leaving. Really?!? The story felt like it was off the rails by this point.
The author could benefit from more advice about how to make interesting traps and logical dungeon floors, but I have enjoyed this story regardless, and if the author can manage to write more, I would love to continue reading more as well.
Armour:ClamberRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
A story which examines some of the Big Questions: identity, personhood, free will, life's purpose and meaning. Is what comes out of the transporter really "me", or do "I" die, and my clone mistakenly think it's "me"? If my thoughts and feelings are just neuronal firings, are they legitimate? Am I a person, or am I just a bundle of atoms? And of course, the biggie: What's it all about, anyway? Camus' big question, in other words.
But it doesn't get too dark. As at 1-48 the plot is stalling a bit for want of an antagonist, but there's world-building going on, which is pretty cool. And ultimately, the series isn't really a story about heroes saving the world against impossible odds. The world is mostly doing just fine. The conflicts are internal. Archimedes has a long way to go. But so do we all.
So tempted to blurt out what this story's answer to the Big Question is, to "I know what that is!", but I will refrain. Archimedes already has his answer, he just hasn't recognised it yet. That this particular answer comes to a dungeon core, of all people, is unexpectedly sweet. There's just no getting away from The Beatles, no matter what you think of their generation.
Anyway. Looking forward to Archimedes grappling with ethics and aesthetics.