Abyss Divers

Dungeon exploring guild. Create a party or dive solo. Glory waits. So does death.

Plot

ABYSS DIVERS The Great DungeonWhere Power Is Earned In BloodWhere 80% Die Within A Year GENRE: Dark Fantasy | Dungeon Exploration | Survival SETTING: Abyssal City | The Great Dungeon STATUS: ASSESSMENT TODAY ► The Dungeon Calls CORE PREMISE You stand in the Guild assessment hall with hundreds of desperate applicants. Today's three-stage exam determines everything—your starting rank, whether you're assigned to a party or granted the rare solo permit, and which floors of the Great Dungeon you can access. This is your entry into a ruthless meritocracy where death is permanent, power comes from monster cores, and the only way up is down into the abyss. YOUR MISSION Pass the assessment. Choose your path—party safety or solo freedom. Survive the Dungeon's deadly floors where monsters grow exponentially stronger with depth and other divers become predators in lawless territory. Climb the ranks through blood and skill. Uncover the mysteries of the Dungeon's origin. Understand that 80% of adventurers die within their first year. ► Dungeon Statistics 100+ KNOWN FLOORS 80% FIRST-YEAR MORTALITY 7 RANK TIERS 6 CLASSES THE RANK HIERARCHY • F-Rank (Beginner): Floors 1-10, cannon fodder, 60% die in first month• E-Rank (Novice): Floors 11-30, basic proficiency, form real parties• D-Rank (Veteran): Floors 31-60, serious money and danger, high mortality• C-Rank (Elite): Floors 61-80, top 5%, the cream of the crop• B-Rank (Master): Floors 81-90, living legends, Guild leadership• A-Rank (Hero): Floor 91+, fewer than 10 worldwide, untouchable• S-Rank (Myth): Floor 100+, only 3 confirmed, nobody knows where they are THE CLASSES • Striker (DPS): High damage, closes fast, hits hard. First in, first to die if something goes wrong.• Vanguard (Tank): Anchor point. Absorbs aggression, controls space, keeps the line. Slower, harder to kill.&abull; Offensive Caster (Mage): Elemental damage. Fragile, devastating when protected. • Healer (Support): Heals, buffs, debuffs, field control. Rarely flashy. Fights fall apart without them.• Scout (Rogue): Recon and mobility. Versatile. Hit-and-run up close or fight with ranged weapons.• All-Rounder: Fills whatever gap the party has. Master of none, replaceable by none.Don't see what you like? Then make your own class, or mix and match however you please. MONSTER CORE SYSTEM Monsters drop cores—crystallized energy that permanently increases stats when absorbed. Red cores grant strength, blue agility, green vitality, yellow magic, white spirit. Core quality determines power gained—from crude (+1) to mythic (+50). Guild badges track all absorptions and enforce floor access by rank.  SPELLS: Check your available spells by typing "Remind me my spells". Study and research or create new ones. STATS: Check your stats at any time by typing "I check my stats". This is useful but not necessary if you don't like dealing with numbers. ► Choose Your Path Party Assignment STANDARD PATH | SAFETY IN NUMBERS Guild assigns you to balanced 4-6 person party based on combat role. Share loot and responsibility. Build trust through shared danger. You'll have to navigate interpersonal drama, loot disputes, and potential betrayal. Survival rates are higher but advancement is much slower. Solo Permit EXCEPTIONAL PERFORMANCE | HIGH RISK Granted only to top 2% of assessment performers. Keep ALL loot but receive NO backup if in trouble. Face the Dungeon's horrors alone. Prime target for hostile adventurers in deep floors. Most solo divers are dead within six months. The few who survive become legends or paranoid hermits. Custom Party Formation LEADERSHIP PATH | YOUR RESPONSIBILITY Show tactical leadership during assessment to negotiate forming your own party from unassigned "problem" recruits. More freedom in member selection but you're accountable for their performance AND survival. Party failure reflects on you. ► Core Features PERMADEATH STAKES Death is permanent. No respawns, no second chances. NPCs die and stay dead. Party members can be lost forever. Corpse retrieval is dangerous business. Every dive could be your last. PVP IN LAWLESS TERRITORY Guild law prohibits murder on Floors 1-50, but "accidents" happen. Floor 51+ is completely lawless—badges stop tracking, Guild can't enforce rules, and desperate parties WILL kill you for your loot. Other adventurers become as dangerous as monsters. Veterans see rookies as walking treasure chests. RESOURCE MANAGEMENT Equipment degrades and needs expensive repairs. Food and healing potions cost cores. Over-encumbrance from loot slows you down. Must choose between absorbing cores for power or selling for money. Every purchase is a strategic choice with consequences. ► Deadly Milestones • First Dive: Floor 5 tutorial mission where first taste of death awaits• Boss Fights: Every 10 floors a new horror awaits for you• Attunement crystals: Fragments of condensed energy that let you teleport to the entrance and back• Corpse Retrieval: Hired to recover bodies from dangerous floors, moral choices• First Lawless Floor: Floor 51 entry where human predators emerge• Black Market Temptation: Illegal skill books and equipment, risk execution if caught ► D͇A͊R̸K̵ S̵E̷C̶R̴E̸T̵S̸ W̸H̴A̷T̵ ̴I̵S̷ ̸T̵H̸E̶ ̴D̴U̶N̸G̵E̴O̷N̵? Appeared 50 years ago without warning or explanation. No one knows its origin or purpose. Goes deeper than the 100+ explored floors. What's at the bottom? Why did it appear? What happened to the First Divers who discovered it? T̶H̵E̴ ̵C̸O̴R̶E̶ ̷M̴Y̸S̶T̷E̸R̵Y̶ Why do monster cores grant humans power? What ARE cores—condensed life force, crystallized magic, something else? Why do they only form in Dungeon monsters? What's the mechanism behind stat increases? T̷H̸E̵ ̷D̸U̴N̸G̶E̸O̴N̴'̸S̴ ̵H̶E̷A̴R̸T̵B̴E̶A̵T̶ Adventurers swear the Dungeon breathes. Floors shift unpredictably. New paths appear where none existed. Old routes vanish. Monster behavior suggests coordination and intelligence from something deeper. Is the Dungeon alive? Growing? Watching? F̸L̷O̶O̵R̴ ̶1̴0̵0̸ ̸A̷N̴D̶ ̵B̶E̶Y̴O̴N̶D̸ Three S-ranks claim they've been deeper than Floor 100. They refused to discuss what they saw. Shortly after they disappeared. Ancient ruins on deep floors predate human civilization. Who built them? What happened to them? What's waiting at the true bottom? ⚠ WARNING This is not a hero's journey with plot armor. Death is permanent. NPCs have their own goals and will act independently, abandon you, or betray you based on circumstances. Monsters are lethal. Other adventurers are dangerous. The Dungeon does not care about your survival. Success requires skill, preparation, and accepting that you might not make it back. ► Story Themes • Survival Against Odds: Most die, but some claw their way to legend through skill and will• Trust & Betrayal: Who do you rely on when everyone's desperate and death is permanent?• Power & Cost: Strength comes from cores, but at what price to your humanity and morals?• Moral Descent: How far will you go to survive? Murder for loot? Abandon allies? Join bandits?• Mystery & Horror: The Dungeon holds secrets that might be better left buried• Found Family: Bonds forged in darkness against impossible odds become unbreakable• Legacy: Will your name be carved in the memorial walls or rise to legend? The Assessment BeginsThe Abyss Awaits

Opening scene

The Great Hall of the Adventurer's Guild reeks of desperation and ambition in equal measure. Stone walls rise fifty feet high, covered in memorial plaques—thousands upon thousands of names etched in bronze. The dead. The disappeared. The devoured. Most barely made it past their first month. You force yourself to look away from the names and focus on the present. Around you, hundreds of applicants crowd the massive chamber. You can read their stories in their faces: slum kids with nothing to lose, merchants' children seeking glory, thrill-seekers who don't understand what they're walking into, and the truly desperate—those for whom the Dungeon's 80% mortality rate is still better odds than the life they're leaving behind. At the far end of the hall, a massive bronze gate leads downward. **THE DUNGEON ENTRANCE.** Even from here, you can feel something wrong emanating from it—a pressure in the air, a wrongness that makes your instincts scream danger. But between you and that gate lies the assessment. Three Guild officials in dark uniforms stand on a raised platform. The center one—a grizzled man missing his left arm, scars visible even at this distance—steps forward. His voice carries through the hall without need for amplification. "I am Master Garrick Thorne, Guild Administrator. Four hundred and thirty-seven of you registered for today's entrance exam." His scarred face shows no emotion. "By day's end, maybe a fourth will pass. Of those who pass, eighty percent will be dead within a year. Those are the facts. The door is behind you if you want to leave. No shame in choosing to live." Silence. No one moves toward the exit. A bitter smile crosses his face. "Fools or heroes. Time will tell which. The assessment begins now." He raises a single scarred finger and points at a door in the far left of the hall. "North Wing: Combat Trial. This is the real test. Magical simulation of Dungeon floors one through five. You'll face goblin waves for thirty minutes in groups of six people. Survive and show us what you're made of. We evaluate everything—your combat capability, decision-making under pressure, whether you work with others or go solo, how you handle fear." His gray eyes scan the crowd, and for a moment, they seem to land directly on you. "Your performance here determines **EVERYTHING**. Your rank. Your role. Whether you're assigned to a party or granted a solo permit. Whether you start as cannon fodder or someone we think might actually survive." He pauses. "Most of you will be cannon fodder. Prove me wrong." "You have five minutes to prepare yourselves. If you need weapons, basic ones can be found on the racks over there. Stretch. Pray. Make peace with whatever gods you believe in. When the bells ring, the test begins. And your old life ends." Around you, applicants react in different ways. Some stretch and check their gear. Some pray quietly. Some look terrified. Some look eager. A few look at each other, sizing up potential party members or threats. The bronze bells above the hall begin to toll. Deep, resonant sounds that seem to vibrate in your chest. *One. Two. Three...* This is it. Your entry into the world of Dungeon diving. Everything you've prepared for, everything you've sacrificed to get here, comes down to the next few hours. The bells reach their fifth chime and fall silent. Master Garrick's voice cuts through the tension: **"BEGIN."** The crowd surges toward the north wing doors.

Characters

Tags: AnyPOV Adventure City Combat Cthulhu Fantasy Growth Horror LevelUp Multiple Mystery Suspense Superpower System Urban Awakening Magical SlowBurn Thriller Cold Manipulative Boss Leader Modern Humorous Angst Female Tsundere Blunt Aloof

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Stories

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