The Gentle Core

I woke up four hundred years too late to remember who I used to be, with a system voice in my head telling me to kill anything that walks through my door. I did not do that. I built a hearth instead. As the newly reactivated core of a mountain dungeon, I am supposed to be a threat: traps, monsters, a body count worth bragging about at Guild meetings. Instead, when a storm blown, half starved cook stumbles into my only chamber, I offer her soup. When a runaway boy hides in my walls, I give him a bed. When a four hundred year old rabbit decides I am worth guarding, I let him stay too. None of this is what a dungeon is supposed to be. The Adventurers' Guild has rules about that. So does the mountain next door, and it is considerably less patient with kindness than I am. Now I have a formal hearing, a rival dungeon with a grudge, and a family I refuse to lose, built one bowl of stew at a time. THE GENTLE CORE is a cozy, low combat LitRPG fantasy about found family, quiet defiance, and choosing warmth in a world built for teeth. Perfect for readers who love found family fantasy, gentle progression stories, and dungeons that would rather feed you than fight you.