CONQUEST: The Dungeon Core Gambit Book One

by Antony W.F. Chow

When 31-year-old Markos Turloch is murdered in a heinous manner by his boss, Bobbi Nox, as revenge for whistleblowing on his employer, he loses his humanity and is reincarnated as a diamond-like dungeon core in another world. After discovering and exploiting a dungeon-breaking cheat, Markos maxes out his dungeon level and begins to explore the world above his dungeon.When his dungeon helper, Jessica, comes across a dying young man being sexually tormented by a female ogre, Markos' decision to save his life becomes the turning point in Markos' new existence. Upon learning the truth of this new world as one where females dominate in both numbers and social status, Markos settles on a new to conquer the land of Enwald and reassert male dominance as its king! Markos' first target of conquest is the Kingdom of Vessar, where his dungeon is located. Borrowing the body of Sibalt, the young man he saved, Markos journeys across the kingdom in search of information, allies, and companions to help achieve his goal to conquer the kingdom.CONQUEST is the first book in The Dungeon Core Gambit series. It is a dark harem fantasy built on the twin pillars of GameLit and Dungeon Core elements. Inspired by " The Inner Chambers" and "How to Build a Book of the Demon King," CONQUEST will appeal to readers of both Japanese manga This 93,000 words book contains profanities and numerous mature situations involving sex and violence. In particular, the opening chapter depicts the violent murder of the main character. Furthermore, there are numerous explicit sex scenes as well as the enslavement of the MC's enemies. Reader discretion is advised.

310 pages, Paperback

Published November 1, 2018

Reviews

[Pablo García · Rating 1 out of 5]

The author is irrational, illogical and nonsensical and also lacks a moral/ethical compass. Starts this fantasy/Dungeon-Core book series with a chapter from Fatal Attraction. But there is really no point to this Dungeon-Core book series. The main character, Marcos, (in his past life) was murdered in a terrible sexual assault by his ex-boss, and then without rhyme or reason ends up being a Dungeon Core. Main character is filled with dogmas (warped beliefs), and at the same time jumps at the chance to enslave people from this other world. "Justifies" it by saying that those people would have been sentenced to death (if this other world had a due process and a rule of law) but they don't, so it comes out as irrational-nonsensical. One either does what is right, or simply forgets what is right, there is no middle ground to ethical values. Either the problem or the solution of the problem.
The author is contradictory in his story. The author wants the Dungeon to grow, so he does everything possible for the Dungeon to be known by the people/beings around it, but at the same time is totally defensive and irrationally worried about someone destroying the Dungeon Core (main character) Marcos. You either worry about maintaining the core, or you are inviting and letting everyone know, but not these two things at the same time. Because Dungeon could actually level up without adventurers delving it, I find there is no point to the advertising and letting everybody know that there is a new dungeon in this territory (which just opens it up to someone/probably the Queen, wanting to either own the Dungeon/command the Dungeon or destroy the core and reap the benefits of that.
There are a lot of strange sexual situations in this book. There are no warnings about sexual content on the cover or inside of the book. There are no maps (even though it's a dungeon), there is little to no World Building (descriptions of the territories and peoples around the Dungeon). There is little no no character descriptions for the main characters. No inside illustrations, no character summaries, no descriptions of their abilities or skills.
I feel that this book series needs editing (polish to remove plot holes and improve the focus of the story) that, and all the sexual situations could be taken completely out. If Marcos is a Dungeon Core, with no real body, what is the sense of having all those sexual encounters around him?? Does the author suffer from peeping-Tom (voyeurism) disorder?? Was it due to the tragic and awful death (sexual assault where he died)??? Is the author the one "transferring" his "weird fetishes" towards his main characters???
The story is missing a point. I understand that the Dungeon Core, needs to consolidate it's power and grow (so as to not be fragile/weak) but that is not enough to create a fantasy novel series. This story has no depth, no other story arcs, no vision other than creating and making the Dungeon grow. But what is the point of having a murdered/sexually-assaulted guy as the main character, Dungeon Core, (isekai-ed - reincarnated to this other world) to spend the rest of his life in a sub-terranean Dungeon?? Is it a lack of ambition?? Lack of vision?? Lack of depth?? That and the fact, that for the Dungeon to reap benefits (be able to develop and level up), they have to kill everybody and everything that comes into the Dungeon, so is the main character a sociopath?? Psychopath?? and if he is not, then why place him as a Dungeon Core?? Is it just to be a push-over/fragile target to be "murdered"/broken again?? The author copy/pastes the main character's (level and skills) but again we are reading about a diamond shaped Dungeon Core, that has no physical body and at the very end of the book has the intention to "conquer this other world"??? Really?? Wasn't Marcos (Markos) supposed to be a good guy?? Didn't he die in his "real-life" a brutal (sexual-assault) death because he did the "right thing"?? Or is it one of those "Absolute power corrupts absolutely" (19th century British politician Lord Acton), that before as a nobody, he would stick it to the man (in this case his boss) but once he has power, he totally forgets about ethics, throws away the moral compass, and is the first Tyrant of this "other World"???