Dungeon Core Trilogy
As the name implies, this is a three-book series about a human, a young wizard named Mertho, who is transformed into a Dungeon Core, an artifact at the heart of every dungeon which expands the structure, spawns minions, and creates treasure to lure people inside where they can be brutally murdered and their souls harvested to expand the dungeon. And the elven thief, Tehra, who stumbles upon him. And the demoness who wants to eat him and absorb his powers to manifest her true form into the world.
- The Wizard
- The Demoness
- The Trinity
The series is written by MJ Kaltenbrunner.
Dungeon Core contains examples of:
- Anti-Hero: Mertho is a self-absorbed, possibly sociopathic wizard with a bit of a god complex, and Aethra is an unrepentant murderer and thief.
- Dungeon Crawling: What all dungeons try and lure people into doing, by the second book Mertho has given up on killing people in this way, by the third, his reputation has grown so as to invite challengers.
- Fantastic Racism: Exploiting this was at least half of Aethra's schtick before meeting Mertho.
- A God Am I: Mertho when the mood strikes him, particularly in the final book.
- Hypocrite: The one druid who continually calls Mertho evil while planning to kidnap and dissect him when he was doing no harm.
- A Lighter Shade of Black: Mertho and Aethra are not particularly good people, until compared to Velthura, the demoness.
