On the story:

I made it \o/

Without repeating the synopsis/goal of having dungeon cores interact. I wrote this series with the intention of making a world that would spark the imagination of readers. I wanted to make a world where "theoretically" anything was possible…with a magic system that could "theoretically" turn someone into an umbrella - at a high cost.

Purposefully doing that would involve either umbrella mana or something adjacent and the ability to alter to umbrella mana…or a spell system with good control and a more generic "transformation" type of mana...or something even farther away with an insane amount of mana (much higher than simply using a [fireball]) and a high degree of skill in their respective spell system to alter to a base that works for it...but theoretically, it would be possible.

Another (better) example that's shying away from the umbrella scenario.

*deep breath*

Something that's wildly believed in world is that true resurrection is impossible. There isn't really an afterlife so unless death magic and undead come into play…or the instant revival type of spell that catches you right after you die. Well then if someone dies they die for good...

And then…after making an impossible scenario in the world where “anything is possible” I used gods as the example that breaks that rule by turning around and saying a god could tunnel through time and pull a soul from when they died to the present - making something that was lost forever no longer lost. Using the godly “Non continuous” mana in a spell with some variation of time mana would form the basis of that sort of feat. Either that or using paradox mana and forcefully controlling the madness portion to not alter the intent of the spell might work...but paradox mana has some heavy karma and fate mana tied into it so that's a weaker version of [Resurection] (someone brought back to life with paradox mana would be fated to die again and everything would conspire to return their soul to nothing…of course godly fate mana could fix that sort of curse so its back to leaning on rank 4 mana types to work).

I love hard systems over soft magic systems (with no constraints or costs things start to feel hand-wavey in a “and then I destroyed the universe and remade it exactly the same but with coffee in front of me...but also I can't remake the universe without the big bad because reasons", sort of way… but If a magic system is too constrained it no longer feels like "magic". That lead to me purposefully making rules and then purposefully making ways they could be theoretically broken endlessly.

One of the biggest constraints was the idea of different spell systems mostly locked to different races that each have pro's and cons. The idea of separate [systems] came after…and even though it wasn’t the main focus of the series it was a fun system to design.

I also wanted to write a story with non-human POV's that felt non-human in their morality and thought patterns - A dungeon core story without the MC being a pacifist or a murderhobo and written in as pure a way as I could - just dungeon cores doing dungeon core things from start to end.

If I’m being critical I think the quality might have fluctuated more than I’d have liked and I had a few too many different things I was trying to do (Everything from the experimentation and dungeon building to the more one off ideas that could only happen in the setting I had designed - like the dungeon games which were almost tacked on but also became some of my favourite chapters to write, or the tours which were not in my initial plan but I felt added something to the series).

I already wrote my thoughts on the last few chapters but a final point:

I also felt like I paced it well in terms of aging - I definitely wanted them to feel like they were slowly growing up - but even though it was what I wanted I found it harder to write the "adult" chatroom then the younger more crazy one. So chatroom content faded a bit in the last few chapters because of that.

Anyways, In terms of my goals for what I wanted to write and the reception I received, I’m pretty darn happy. I ended up with more readers than I thought I would and love each and every one of you for it.

A thank you:

I would like to thank anyone who stuck with me till the end. Anyone who read silently. Anyone who commented. Anyone who gave suggestions or spelling corrections. People who made actual constructive criticisms (but not mindless hate comments...you should know which ones you are :3 (if you are reading this you are definitely in the good camp) )

Even those who went above and beyond what I was considering when I made this a reader interactive story - those who wrote whole Excerpts or came up with ideas I liked so much I changed directions from what I had roughly laid out. You are all great. You are all important. I couldn't have done this without any of you. (No seriously, even though I wrote this as a hobby and for myself I probably would have lost steam if no one read it).

After this point I am definitely going to write some side stories either as “epilogue” sort of thing, more of the same but without any relation to any plot, or potentially different points of view.

Maybe “A day in the life of Amy” but actually following Amy's day-to-day with her internal monologue while trying to save adventurers from dying - not just her showing off her dungeon.

I want to write whole stories with minor plotlines for each of his friends and relax alot of my "No alternative POV" rules.

I’m also taking any and all questions people have about anything they can think of. I’ve been semi consistently responding to questions in regular chapters - but that makes this an Official AMA.

Final ramble+Future works:

Finally this is the end of this series. Anyone and everyone has my permission to make stories in the same world or similar. If you do, feel free to link me to what you come up with! I realize fanfiction doesn’t need permission to be made but this is me saying I give my blessing.

Actually...extending that offer to anyone who’s written anything and wants a reader. If you comment here with the request I’ll try and read any story you’ve made and, if I like it, I might extend that to a review or feedback upon request.

I probably won't be returning to this system or world again (besides the bonus chapters and there might be alot of those) - even though I'm aware there's a lot of potential in the setting I didn't use.

Now, this may be my last web novel but if it's not…I'm tentatively going to take a break for a few months (I’ve been writing DCCR for over a year and want a longish break even if it's been a fun hobby) then come up with a portal fantasy litrpg and see how writing that goes.

I've been mapping out the [system] and magic system and characters for a good part of the last year so I have a solid idea of how alot of it will go...but I also know its going to piss some people off and I'm not sure how much of that I'll be able to handle.

If I commit to writing that planned series, it's going to be quite a bit different from this story in terms of tone style and scope. I’m taking the parts I’m the worst at writing - combat and dialogue - and doubling down on that by writing a SOL, Multiple POV (with all POV's being flawed), portal fantasy litrpg with no permadeath (at least near the start). I’m also planning on adding basically all the content warning tags so I can write dialogue the way actual people talk (with periodic swears), give graphic details of any violence, use crude humor and…well I can already feel the bad reception and I haven't even started writing it yet. :3

I’m basically going down a list of tropes people don’t like and including them all!

...(plus I think people are harsher with more typical litrpg on here [ hence my “might be the last webnovel I release”.] …I can handle criticism but that has a limit and I’ve been spoiled somewhat with how great all of you have been. Not sure I want to deal with the more saturated genre and pool of readers or the fact that litrpg commenters seem denser more negatively opinionated)

Thank you for reading my unedited (Edit: Partly edited now) ramble and as always.

Thanks for reading. ~Blue