Sky Island Core

After dying in an accident while performing field research, a senior archaeologist is transported to a fantasy world and reborn as a new dungeon core on an ancient sky island.  Struggling to figure out how to live as dungeon with a novel set of challenges, he progresses his new dungeon by expanding through archaeological levels of his new home.  Periods of dungeon engineering and archaeological exploration are interspersed with interactions with a variety of visitors - starting with an invading ground squirrel and ranging up to the dragon that currently dominates the island,  representatives of the Adventuring Guild, and the Church of the God of All Dungeons.  At the same time, he is learning about the previous occupants of the sky island, his new world more generally, and teasing out hints about his divinely-appointed mission. This is a fairly slow growth progression story with episodes of exploration and combat with a focus on world-building and character development/dungeon engineering.  There is, in the current plan, no sex or romance, limited violence/gore, and some minimal swearing. **This story is a first effort by a new writer and a participant in the Spring 2025 Royal Road Writathon.  You have been warned. ** Cover art is temporary, and I apologize for the low-resolution, AI-generated art involved.