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The Amber Beast: A Dark Dungeon Core LitRPG
Every dungeon has a hunger.
In a hole in a limestone hill, something opens its eyes.
It has a body it didn't ask for. Amber eyes, pointed ears, a tail. It has a dungeon — small, cold, empty — and a system that tells it to grow. Its name is Kale. It is a Dungeon Core. Stone yields to its touch. Organisms dissolve into blueprints. Every creature that enters becomes data, and every data point becomes a weapon. Kale studies, catalogs, builds — and expands deeper into the earth.
Then the humans come. Armed, trained, and carrying enough fire to burn everything he's built.
But Kale doesn't just consume the survivors. Fascinated by their complex pathways and resilience, he keeps them. Among the captives is Corvin, a young tracker who realizes the monster holding them might be learning what it means to be human.
Kale has never encountered anything that looked back.
A Dark Dungeon Core LitRPG.
Non-human MC & System Progression
Gritty Base-Building & Evolution
Slow-burn MM Romance Subplot
Body horror & Survival mechanics
Book One of an ongoing series.
(Content Warning: graphic violence, body horror, captivity, non-consensual experimentation. Rated 16+).
In a hole in a limestone hill, something opens its eyes.
It has a body it didn't ask for. Amber eyes, pointed ears, a tail. It has a dungeon — small, cold, empty — and a system that tells it to grow. Its name is Kale. It is a Dungeon Core. Stone yields to its touch. Organisms dissolve into blueprints. Every creature that enters becomes data, and every data point becomes a weapon. Kale studies, catalogs, builds — and expands deeper into the earth.
Then the humans come. Armed, trained, and carrying enough fire to burn everything he's built.
But Kale doesn't just consume the survivors. Fascinated by their complex pathways and resilience, he keeps them. Among the captives is Corvin, a young tracker who realizes the monster holding them might be learning what it means to be human.
Kale has never encountered anything that looked back.
A Dark Dungeon Core LitRPG.
Non-human MC & System Progression
Gritty Base-Building & Evolution
Slow-burn MM Romance Subplot
Body horror & Survival mechanics
Book One of an ongoing series.
(Content Warning: graphic violence, body horror, captivity, non-consensual experimentation. Rated 16+).
383 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 11, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 22, 2026
A Joyfully Jay review.
3.75 stars
The Amber Beast is the first in a series that combines litRPG and traditional fantasy storytelling. LitRPG is the default mode for events told from Kale’s perspective (though in the third-person); all the humans have more traditional storytelling, albeit with sometimes very short sections and the narrator usually clearly marked. This is also only the first part of the story, the part in an RPG where a player is exploring the world and level-building. Here I will be blunt: it feels like the real story is only just beginning when this book ends.
The commitment to the gamification aspect of the storytelling was solid. If that’s your thing, then I’m sure you’ll enjoy all the various ways Kale interacts and reacts to his dungeon environment.
In terms of writing, I was surprised at the spareness of all the words on the page and yet there were so very many pages. Perhaps some of that was due to how the characters interact with each other and how those interactions were conveyed in writing. There was a lot of attention paid to how little anyone actually said.
Read Camille’s review in its entirety here.
3.75 stars
The Amber Beast is the first in a series that combines litRPG and traditional fantasy storytelling. LitRPG is the default mode for events told from Kale’s perspective (though in the third-person); all the humans have more traditional storytelling, albeit with sometimes very short sections and the narrator usually clearly marked. This is also only the first part of the story, the part in an RPG where a player is exploring the world and level-building. Here I will be blunt: it feels like the real story is only just beginning when this book ends.
The commitment to the gamification aspect of the storytelling was solid. If that’s your thing, then I’m sure you’ll enjoy all the various ways Kale interacts and reacts to his dungeon environment.
In terms of writing, I was surprised at the spareness of all the words on the page and yet there were so very many pages. Perhaps some of that was due to how the characters interact with each other and how those interactions were conveyed in writing. There was a lot of attention paid to how little anyone actually said.
Read Camille’s review in its entirety here.
April 24, 2026
I enjoyed this for what it was. Maybe its my mood but I didnt fly through it. It also could have been the povs. There were quite a few and it got confusing even with them being labeled. Things sort of ran together. The plot was confusing and I didn't really get it. However, the beginning had me hooked and its why I kept reading. I may not have enjoyed this as much as I originally though, I will pick up other books by this author. I very much loved the cover too
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews