Dungeon Walkers
Daniel Schinhofen
Dungeons are appearing all over the world, threatening mankind. Dungeon Walkers brave their depths for personal gain: clearing a dungeon means dungeon points for gear, but more importantly perks — every first-time clear offers a choice of three life-changing perks. When someone dies inside, their soul fragments into four shards that can be recovered and taken to a temple of the Goddess for rebirth, and a sub-sect called the Rescue Squad dedicates itself to bringing the dead back. Stern, an irregular born with unusual perks and shunned as blighted, graduates from the academy with his polydactyl Maine Coon Pawly, determined to join the Rescue Squad.
Progression: Explicit LitRPG perk-and-points advancement. Each first-time dungeon clear grants a choice of 3 perks that stack into builds; dungeon points buy gear and dead Walkers soul shards (4 shards = rebirth at a Goddess temple). Stern progresses from solo academy graduate to crew leader of Pawsitively Irregular, climbing a geographic dungeon tier ladder (starting dungeons to Darkstone to Waterrock to Whitewater to Mistwood to Blackwood) with ever-harder dungeons, growing from irregular outcast to summoner of many perks in the Rescue Squad tradition.
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