Dungeon Core Academy: Books 1-7 (A LitRPG Series) by Alex Oakchest (book suggestions txt) 📕

“Yes,” sighed Shadow, with five puppies by her feet and four ravens resting on her shoulders. “We understand. We understood the fourth time, the fifth, and surprisingly, we understand after a dozen times.”

“Sorry if I’m a little on edge. This is just an important moment for our dungeon. I’m almost certain the narkleer is guarding a core, and if we can defeat him, we’ll be welcoming an incredibly powerful monster into our brood.”

“About that,” said Gary, resting a big, leechy leg on Tomlin who stood beside him. “I have been asked to speak up, if you will permit me, my dear gem. There is some concern over what happens when we are successful.”

“We’ll have a party,” I said.

“And we will also have a narkleer in our lair. After what happened to poor Dylan, and the things Wylie and Tarius and Karson told us all about the narkleer shooting deathly energy from its eyes…”

“It doesn’t shoot deathly energy from its eyes,” I sighed. “How ridiculous! No, it emits deadly energy from its whole body, in a certain radius. It can’t control it, and it certainly doesn’t shoot it.”

“That is a little more reassuring.”

“Good. Because the only thing the narkleer can do with its eyes is cause instantaneous insanity.”

The creatures all began to whisper among each other now.

“Enough!” I boomed. “For one, the narkleer is forced to patrol its passageways in a set route, and we’ve timed our attack so that it will be far away. Furthermore, when the narkleer joins our dungeon, you will be safe. Wylie and his crew have excavated a chamber and maze of tunnels for the narkleer, and we have lined it with steel to make sure its energy is contained. All you will have to do, and we’re thinking ahead here, is divert hero parties to that part of the dungeon. The narkleer will make your job easier.”

“Why do we even need a narkleer?” asked Shadow.

“Why do we need one of the most fearsome creatures known in Xynnar to patrol our dungeon, a place where I am tasked with killing heroes? I won’t dignify that with an answer. And when Kainhelm arrives, I don’t want any of these questions. He might emit deathly energy and cause insanity with a mere stare, but you are to treat him with friendship and respect. Got it?”

A few weak replies of “Yes, Dark Lord,” came back. Not a great response, but I didn’t have time to rebuke them.

“Onto the task at hand. Next to us, we have a series of passageways patrolled by a narkleer. It is more than likely a dungeon, which means there is a core. After spending however long alone, he probably went into a kind of hibernation. This means that although his lair will be trapped, his reactions will be sluggish. This calls for stealth over brawn, so I will not be sending a horde of you into the breach. The only brawn I will take is Gary, who should be enough. Shadow, you and Edgar and the ravens will scout ahead. I want all the information fed back to the others.”

“What kind of things do you specifically need to know?” asked Shadow.

“Shiny things!” squawked Edgar the raven.

“We need warnings about traps, puzzles, sentry creatures. I don’t want a fly to fart in there without the rest of us knowing about it.”

“As you wish, your royal gemness.”

“Thank you. Gary are you ready?”

“Always, my dear chap,” said Gary, bowing and sweeping a leech leg in a grand gesture, accidentally slapping Tarius in the face. The kobold wiped a smear of leech slime from his goatee.

“And you have the pendants?” I asked.

“I most certainly do,” he said. He lifted another leech legs, which had two blaudy-stone pendants tied to it.

“Good, good. Fight, Death, Kill? How are you feeling, little bugs?”

“Fight!”

“Death!”

“Kill!”

“When you put it like that, it’s hard to argue. Well then, we are ready, aren’t we?”

There was plenty to be anxious about in the upcoming escapade, even if as a core, I didn’t feel anxiety in the way most living beings did. We had to be wary of traps, puzzles, monsters, narkleers. There could be anything waiting for us.

I looked at my legion of creatures, each of them bred for dungeon life, ready to attack, slaughter, kill, and destroy at a moment’s notice, from just a single command from me, their glorious leader.

Well, except for Tomlin who was petrified of violence.

And Karson and Tarius who didn’t consider battle part of their job as miners.

And Gore the jelly, who used to be an angry elemental jelly, but I had used alchemy to rob him of any combat ability.

Most of them were ready to attack, slaughter, kill, and destroy at a moment’s notice, then.

“Okay, good. Isn’t this exciting? Let’s go to it, my creatures. Stay alert and stay safe; dungeons are dangerous places, and accidents can happen.”

*

Edgar and his raven friends were the first to go through the hole. “Shiny things!” called Edgar, leading the flock.

“Edgar! Not so loud,” said Shadow.

“Shiny things,” he repeated, this time using the raven version of a whisper. Corvids are nothing if not stubborn.

The four black-feathered scouts were joined by another flying mammal with brown and green plumage and a big, orange bill. Yes, the duck we had spared in the hero slaughter had joined the ravens, flapping through the hole and following Edgar. Whether it considered itself a raven or just liked being with them I didn’t know, but it was part of Shadow’s scouting team now.

Shadow herself was the next through. She paused at the hole and looked at Tomlin, who was surrounded by little balls of fur.

“Take care of them, Tomlin.”

Tomlin, eyeing the puppies swarming his legs and patting one as awkwardly as if it was made from lava,