The Core Trial

The Core Trial
Book Five of the Core Overlord Series

I broke the rules. Bound a soul. Triggered the Bureau. Now they want to delete me. Again.

I’m Nightshard — former gamer, current Dungeon Core, and possibly the biggest arcane violation on record. A few months ago, I was a glowing rock just trying to survive. Now I’ve got sentience, strategy, and a fairy sidekick who knows far too much about Bureau execution protocols.

When a Bureau Observer arrives to sniff out “anomalies,” I do the sensible thing: fake being dumb. No talking walls. No smart traps. Definitely no illegally-bound undead paladin wraith in the basement.

But cover stories crack fast when adventurers come crashing back for revenge, old secrets surface, and the Bureau decides to send a purge team with orbital mana cannons.

Build the perfect lie.
Hide the illegal soul magic.
Survive a three-way dungeon brawl.
Evacuate before the mountain explodes.

For fans of Dungeon Crawler Carl, Benoit the Anomaly, and Reborn as a Dungeon Core, The Core Trial delivers high-stakes infiltration, dungeon vs. Bureau warfare, and one hell of a final boss fight — me.