For these two, getting along means life or death.
Minette, the lowest ranked sentient dungeon in Bellstrang, deserves her Trash Tier title. She's more interested in playing with her cats and having fun than being a proper dungeon.
Scorned by recent experiences, Arden the Dungeon Pixie doesn't have time for fun. The only thing she likes on her schedule is beheading her enemies.
Following a treacherous act against her last dungeon, the Overseer of Dungeons reassigns Arden to work with Minette. If she fails to lift Minette to the Overseer's standards within a month's time, he'll smite her.
Complicating things further is a revenge-seeking rogue who wants Arden dead.
My Opinion: 279 pages, $3.99, Available on Kindle Unlimited
The Trash Tier Dungeon is a mashup of other dungeon core stories. It takes the sarcastic fairy guide from the slime dungeon chronicles, the tech tree from Futuristic Dungeon, and the town relationship from the Divine Dungeon and combines it with a smart sense of humor and lots of snark.
The author freely acknowledges these influences. There is even a passage referencing them. “Every dungeon has their humble origins, whether they’re soul stealing, slime-based, divine, science-focused, classically focused, or any permutation of all of the above.” One of the dungeon minions is even named Daccota.
While the author doesn’t bring anything new to the genre in terms of game mechanics, that doesn't mean the story isn’t interesting. The relationship between the the female dungeon Minette and the dungeon pixie Arden is initially goes through several phases of dysfunction, emotional outbursts, and then eventual reconciliation to the two becoming BFFs. It’s a dynamic you’ll either enjoy or hate.
Beyond that you still have the room building, trap building, minion spawning, and adventurer fighting. Good stuff, though things get a bit repetitive later in the story because of a lack of variety of both minions defending the dungeon and adventurers trying to beat it.
One of the few complaints I have with the story is that is sometimes ignores it’s resource mechanic. Initially, it’s made a big deal over. That resources are finite and take time and some luck to find. But for most of the story, anytime anything needs to be build or purchased, there’s no shortage of resources needed. Even to the point of some magic wand waving to get the duo out of trouble a few times.
Overall, I had a good enough time reading it. The sense of humor, the snarky characters, and the cat themed dungeon made it interesting enough. Though don’t expect the depth of either game mechanic or world building that you’d find with the other dungeon master stories mentioned.
Score: 7 out of 10.