The Tower in the Shadows

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

Dying is not what I expected.

Its really boring!

Meeting a God and being offered a deal on a new life as a Dungeon keeper was too good to refuse. The job was to build a dungeon and save the world by helping to clean up a problem created by a rogue accident. Something felt off about all of it. Call me paranoid—well, I am!

I just got to figure out how I am being screwed over! Then a way out if I can!

Information

Status: Ongoing
Year: 2023
Author: Valknar

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.5/ 5.0
Followers: 989
Views: 317,830

Reviews

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Community Reviews(10)

Lion-RyeRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
now I am not verry good at reviews but I like how the story is going.
Bro dies gets an offer takes it, becomes magic rock grows kills etc.
there are little to no grammar mistakes and is consistent with the tense of writing.
the main character Is understandable and I like reading from his point of view also the thing about him being aware of how he thinks is a nice detail.
overall a good read if a bit short at the moment.
QueSeaRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This has been a pleasant surprise as there is more to this story than a simple dungeon core building tale. The author delves some into the mental health of the core which I find fascinating. As an added bonus, the author puts in some light town building elements as well. There is distinct character development for the MC and the various players. Overall, this is very well written. It lacks a lot of word form issues I see plague a lot of stories on this website. Grammatically, I didn't see the issues previous reviewers saw. I felt like it was solid. Some rough spots but pretty much what I would expect from an amateur, self-editing author. I will definitely be keeping up with this one.
Atlas he who holds the skyRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
I have enjoyed this story greatly. It is the best dungeon core I have read in some time. This genre is a favorite of mine and this is well written with a solid world. I am so happy to see a reasonable progression and vibrant low level world. No dumb overpowered cheats thank goodness. Worth a read.
Florian ReicheltRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
the dungeon design is nice, that there are no secret rooms/areas is a bit sad but the overall design is good , the greater story has more potential but is fun to read as is. I am interested how his interaction with the world and it's people will evolve and hope that experimenting and dungeon building will not fall to the wayside.
Strictly WorseRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
I'm writing this when only 16 chapters have been released so my opinion may change as more of the story releases. So far it seems like a very solid dungeon core story that is starting at a fairly low power level and ramping up gradually. Already there are some hints of interesting world building and the dungeon has made some creative use of trying not to appear like a dungeon.
The only major problem is there are a fair number of spelling mistakes/typos but hopefully those will be fixed. The story also touches on the topic of slavery which I know some readers would rather avoid.
Overall this seems like it has a lot of potential and would be enjoyed by the vast majority of those who enjoy dungeon core stories.
DOVAAHRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
Honestly this is pretty good. I don't read dungeon core stories. So this is a first, and I gotta say I enjoyed every single chapter. Only issue this story has is editing. It's not bad. Just need to fix a few things here and there. Overall pretty good story
PrashantjainRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
An interesting take on the Dungeon Genre. The MC'growth is believable and seems like a natural progression while subtle hints of its fall are evident too. The narrative is crisp, no boohooing about morals and phycho stuff..beyond a point. The fact that it has managed to retain my interest after 60 chapters is a credit to the author.
The side story, of the town and it's inhabitants is interesting too. The buildup of the pantheon and its own plot seems interesting.
Overall a good read till now (abt 60 chapters). While nothing "dramatic" has happened it's seems to there just over the horizon..looking forward to more!
Fenrir2401Royal Road
★★★★ 4.0
With "The tower in the shadows" you find a typical but nonetheless good dungencore story:
A guy dies and gets reborn as a dungeon; he has to learn the system, dungeon-building and his abilities and has to deal with both delvers and external threats to his core. We also get regular pov changes to the people building a town around the dungeon and the delvers trying to conquer the different floors.
In my opinion, the main strength of the story lies in it's focus on the main story. The author does not meander around but rather each chapter drives the story foreward with hardly any content which I would consider needless filler (with one exception - the family plot no idea why that was included at all). The story itself is pretty basic and stereotypical but interesting/exciting enough (with occasional humour sprinkled in) to keep you fully engaged till the end. On the negative side, said end came somewhat suddenly and felt a bit rushed; but it worked in the story and on the plus side, the author found an end did not keep going forever.
There dungeon delves are engaging and seeing the floors and monsters from the perspective of the delvers was imo one of the highlights of the story. I would have liked a bit more creativity with the dungeon monsters though. The combat itself is ok but not spectacular.
The dungeon-building and ability-testing of the mc is also a strength of the story. It does not fall into the trap many similar stories do where you have to toil through endless chapters with minute details of every single thing the core does. Instead we see examples and summarizes of the the mc's experiments and activities so that we can follow what he is up to and how he came to his results.
The main characters are both relatable and likeable. They and their actions mostly make sense in the story's world. Still, there are some instances where their decisions leave you scretching your head.
The big downfall here is the grammar though. Especially in the later third there did
Quantum_KatRoyal Road
★★★★ 3.5
I realize that this is just the first chapter; but, I can't do it. I want to - it looks really interesting. However, the first chapter is just absolutely riddled with tense shifts. It makes reading the story itself too difficult.
I have kept the story on my "To Be Read" list and will check back over the course of time and see if this issue gets corrected. If it does, I will update my review and happily dive into the story.
From what I can see, it has a lot of promise. This level of review is completely due to my inability to get past the constantly shifting tenses. This is something that absolutely needs to be addressed by the author, so I don't feel particularly badly about calling it out; however, it is disappointing that I cannot give any deeper insight into the story as that one issue is a complete deal breaker for me right up front.
The premise is very interesting; and, the author's flow of writing seems to be along the lines of what I would enjoy. Again, this is solely due to the consistently shifting tenses. If that is not something that bothers you, I highly encourage you to give it a read and post a review about the actual content deeper in the story.
~QK
BoredHandsRoyal Road
★★★★ 3.5
Nice dungeon core isekai story. The MC is bound to a core as a way to purify and filter Void mana. There’s a solid overarching plot involving the gods, and some enjoyable town/city-building elements. I especially liked the beginning, seeing how the city develops, the dynamics with its leader, and the political undercurrents tied to him.
I'm curious to see how the city handles future interaction with the world, thow the cult progresses, and how the dungeon and gods respond to it all.
Now for the cons, the story could really benefit from more editing. Some sentences contain words that don’t quite fit like the author’s thoughts are racing faster than the typing. Tense shifting between present and past is fairly common and can be distracting.
There's also some plot logic issues too. For example
the core sometimes seems to overlook obvious defensive tactics or monster logic. A major one is the stairwell that connects all floors allowing people to bypass the dungeon monsters and bosses on a floor, while Void-corrupted monsters still fight on each level. This could be explained later, but it feels inconsistent.
Another issue is the MC not coordinating his bosses to gang up on corrupted enemies, especially since those enemies don’t follow dungeon rules themselves.
Regardless, overall it is a engaging story! I would love to see more direct dungeon-human interaction, though I get that the story’s unique flavor comes from its current approach.