DCO- Dungeon Core Online
by Glyax
James hates his real life. He spends his days being bullied in school, and at home he simply reads and plays games. The only thing he has to look forward to is immersion. When he is immersed in the virtual world he can be whatever, whoever, he wants: He can escape the world that has thrown him away.
As such, when a new game, Dungeon Core Online, comes out, James is excited to play. He immerses himself as soon as he can, but when he is set to create his character he is instead offered a different choice. Now, James is the Dungeon Core and he suddenly finds himself wielding more power, with more options, than he's ever had before. The only downside... there are people in the real world who do anything, even kill, to gain the power of a Dungeon Core in the virtual world.
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Nice start, beware of change of genre later.
Story starts as a very nice dungeon building story with many nice unique ideas. A very nice and enjoyable read.
Until it suddenly is no longer about dungeon building but about conspiracies, the MC being completely and utterly at someone else's mercy and it being a totally different genre (for people liking that genre it might be nice, no idea. I do not like (and if it started as that kind of genre just would not have read or rated it) and I defnitely do not like the inconsistency of genre of suddenly ending in that genre after so many chapters...).

An insane but fun story
Reviewed at: Chapter 127
The Good:
This story will drive you crazy only to then pull you back in by making that crazy thing awesome. Come into this story expecting puns, easter eggs, crazy shit. I had a ton of fun reading this and can't wait for the new chapters to come out.
The Bad:
The MC is pretty wimpy and the pixie is basically abusive. The beginning part is pretty cringy to read.
I still don't love the kind of relationship they have. A lot of jokes made to cover up any serious feelings that come up. Hoping that this is just so they can grow as characters later on.
If you're looking for a serious story, this is not for you.

I found it dull, but YMMV
Reviewed at: Chapter 201
I have never read a dungeon core story before. However, I was left disappointed at chapter 200 when I decided to officially put it down and pack it up.
The real life world was interesting and the world building fun. I actually found myself looking forward to the times when the MC, James, was out and about. The implications of the game impacting the real life was fun. I thought the story would be about this conflict.
But no, instead I quickly found out that this would be a spreadsheet story in which James, and the reader, is hand held as we discuss the intricies of a game. Had this been it, I could have found myself intrigued by the devlopment. Sadly, the story at some point decided to stagnate in that you never fully see the rule set. This means, just when you think you could image how a level could be designed, the author pulls out a new mechanic that completely resets and seems like a deus ex machina since it's usually exactly what the MC needs.
The third arc, or the dungeon wars arc, was the worst offender in my opinion. Not only did it introduce a host of mechanics, but the amount of chapters dedicated to a war we knew the result of (due to the stakes being racketed up so much in the earlier chapters) actively bored me.
Anyway, I don't rate this. I didn't enjoy it, I thought the cop outs were boring and the characters unfunny. But, you're not me. You may enjoy this sort of stuff as other readers have. For me, this was a good timewaster and, to be honest, that's all I expect on here.
So, 3/5 stars. Your mileage may vary however.

I hate the fairy
This book is really good, the main character is fun to read, the system is good, the plot might be a little slow but i like books that do that the right way like this one did. But the fairy "Rue" makes me want to immediately swat her with the nearest boot or anything, seriously she is the most annoying dungeon helper I have ever seen, and i've seen a lot. Even when the story progressed I tried to keep going and ignore her, but no, she sucks and drags the whole story down. Honestly if she was changed than this story woul be at least 4 stars but as of now she drags everything down

Solid but with its flaws
Reviewed at: Chapter 66
Well I have been slowly bliztikng this story and here are my thoughts.
a) James is not a real gamer, he keeps making too many dumb mistakes and is WAY to slow on the uptake for me to beleave he was a "top teir" gamer.
b) James is a wimp who is willingly sacrfising real work money to a npc for some very stupied reason. Also I hate that pixie like delete her. See point a) if he was a real gamer with that much power he would be beholden to any npc (devs/admins yes but never some npc)
c) The level designs are good I can easly envision them A+
d) The fights are wonderful! A
e) as a nerd I like the references. some may find it heavy handed however
f) Too much time outside of the game. I don't care about his school life, his partents, Goverment BS or his bully (save maybe the tiny revenge aspect) or this admin stuff.

Random Comedy
Got to say was not expecting to laugh so much but exploding sheep just hit me really hard for some reason. Great story so far and a have no qualms recommending it to others.

Hate pixie companions
I hate when a story is centered around a week willed main character that has an abusive companion. The pixie isn’t funny to me she’s a b and shouldn’t be in the story. Most dungeon story’s end up this way when they have a girl companion. The mc loses all semblance of control over there choices.

Fun world flat villain.
Reviewed at: Chapter 190
A fun take on the dungeon core novel. A punny world with random creations. Lots of references for the reader to laugh or snort at (I don't judge), though the logic of them appearing may be weak. The villain is acceptably irritating enough you wanna punch him, but the reasoning for why is weak. Because of the villain the plot is weak. The world is lots of fun and I wish the game was real as the concept seems like a lot of fun to have and the community building is also good.

New Bad guy ruins the story
I loved it right up until the new twist with a new bad guy. It was entertaining as is and would have loved to see where it could have gone but the new bad guy totally ruins the entire story.

"Skip Dialogue" button is jammed
Ever rapidly hit the skip/next button, hoping to be un-slaved from a strict and "single option only" tutorial? Only for it to never fully go away? I thought that was what was going on until chapter 12. Then it dawned on me, this IS the story. The MC is actually pushing all player decisions onto the PC. Then pretends the remaining not-really-an-option "options" are important. The natural evolution of this is idle mode, followed by offline idle mode. I've decided to take the author's lesson to heart and drop this story, even though there's 28 more chapters to read. Someone else can read them for me, form their own opinions of them for me, and I might or (most likely) might not throw in an edit later acknowledging or denying said opinions.