Legend of the Dungeon Core Landlord is a cozy dungeon core LitRPG series about a dead Cleveland property manager reborn as a sentient dungeon core. The monsters are tenants, the adventurers are customers, and the rent is always due. Four books are out now, in paperback on Amazon and as PDF and EPUB on Payhip. This page lists them in reading order, with where to buy each one.
Nate Halloway was a mediocre landlord who died re-caulking a bathroom. He woke up as a fist-sized grey stone in a damp wall, renting his dungeon from a cosmic bureaucracy called the Ledger. His staff is why readers stay: Grib, the card-cheating goblin who carries him in a sack; Grumble, the one-eyed kobold foreman who minutes everything; two mimics who are both named Gerald; Barnaby, a skeleton who works for applause; and Valthor, a Death Knight still learning how to sit down.
The Dungeon Core Landlord books in reading order
| # | Book | Main conflict | Length | Get it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | How I Became the Slumlord of a Dungeon | Pay the rent or be scraped out | About 98,000 words | Amazon · Payhip |
| 2 | Collective Bargaining | The monsters unionize | About 87,000 words | Amazon · Payhip |
| 3 | Hostile Takeover | A rival files to absorb the Warren | About 98,000 words | Amazon · Payhip |
| 4 | Under New Management New | Fame, burnout and the Hollowing | About 107,000 words | Paperback · Kindle · Payhip |
Book 1: How I Became the Slumlord of a Dungeon
The rent is due and Nate’s dungeon is a damp hole full of rats who don’t pay. He has to learn the Ledger’s rules, hire a crew, and turn the worst dungeon in Thornveil into something adventurers will actually pay to enter, before the bureaucracy scrapes him out of the wall. The comedy of learning the rules, and the start of the found family.
Book 2: Collective Bargaining
The toughest monster Nate has to manage is his own staff. The crew unionizes, the Break Room clause becomes a hill to die on, and the landlord learns that running a dungeon means listening to the people who keep it running. Workplace comedy with votes, minutes and bylaws that drive the plot.
Book 3: Hostile Takeover
A gold-plated rival core files a claim to absorb the Warren. What follows is a 90-day ratings war, a sad Death Knight, and a duel won with kindness instead of firepower. The underdog book of the series.
Book 4: Under New Management
The Warren is finally famous. The line runs out the door, the crew runs on fumes, and LV.MAX, the biggest celebrity party on the Glimmer, is coming to judge it. Grumble’s columns don’t balance, the overnight shift never ends, and the Break Room clause is about to be voted away “just for the season.” Book 4 asks what winning costs, and finally shows how the Hollowing gets in. A recap and Who’s Who up front make it a workable starting point. Read the full Book 4 review.
What kind of LitRPG is this?
Legend of the Dungeon Core Landlord sits in the cozy, base-building lane of LitRPG. The protagonist is the dungeon, so progression comes from building rooms, hiring staff and earning ratings rather than grinding combat levels. Status screens, Ledger forms and union minutes appear as boxed text throughout. The tone is warm and funny with real stakes: no gore, no sexual content, and a slow-burning threat called the Hollowing that feeds on exhaustion.
If you like The Wandering Inn for its found family, workplace comedy in the vein of a good office sitcom, or the management side of dungeon core fiction, this is built for you. New to the subgenre? Our guide to dungeon core books explains the setup, and base-building LitRPG covers the wider lane.
Play the Warren at your table
Every dungeon in the series is designed as a playable 5e-compatible crawl. The back of each book shows how to lay out its floors, and you can build them yourself in Ink Hammer, our in-house map-making program. If you run tabletop games, our D&D one-shots come from the same workshop.
Frequently asked questions
What order should I read the Dungeon Core Landlord books in? Publication order: How I Became the Slumlord of a Dungeon, Collective Bargaining, Hostile Takeover, then Under New Management.
Can I start with Book 4? Yes. Under New Management opens with a recap of Books 1 to 3 and a cast list. The emotional payoffs land harder if you start at Book 1.
Is this a cozy LitRPG? Mostly. It is warm and funny, with no gore and no sexual content, but the stakes are real and the threat grows across the series.
Where can I buy the books? Every book is on Amazon and on our Payhip store, where you get the PDF and EPUB directly from us.
Will there be a Book 5? Yes. Book 4 resolves its main plot and leaves a few threads open for Book 5.
More LitRPG from Anvil N Ink
Looking for what to read alongside the Warren? See the best LitRPG series, books like Dungeon Crawler Carl, the best LitRPG audiobooks, and our complete guide to LitRPG books.