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

“Hello?” called Jahn.

Shadow appeared in the doorway, out of breath and more flustered than I’d ever seen her, including when trapped with werewolves. Barely a second passed before five puppies joined her, their cream coats now thoroughly dirtied by living in a dungeon. They swarmed her legs, some pawing at her, others instigating playfights with each other.

“The surface, Beno,” she said, pointing at the ceiling as if I didn’t know where the surface was. “Invaders.”

“What?”

“Invaders on the surface.”

“What?” asked Jahn.

“I don’t know how else to put it. There are invaders on the surface! Can you cores get off your rumps and do something?”

I spoke to Jahn. “Get back to your dungeon and assemble any creatures who can fight.”

“What are you going to do?”

“To see who these soon-to-be-dead, spineless, pigeon-hearted gits are.”

CHAPTER 30

At first glance, I saw nothing wrong. The clanspeople were on the surface and were rushing to and thro, as usual, some emerging from their cavern surface door and carrying big piles of stone, iron, and other raw materials to a storage shed Jahn had created. Others were turning the soil in various squares of land marked with signposts, each the place of a different experiment designed to make the dead soil give life.

The only thing I found hard to believe was how much it had all changed. Where there was once a field of fifty tents which housed the Eternals clan members, the campsite was now blocked from view by a row of wooden houses. They were of simple construction, rather like the lodges that hunters build in woodland areas, ones designed as safe places for travelers and forest rangers to sleep.

Beside wondering where Jahn got the wood and coming up with a vague answer that the clan must have traded with the towns bordering the wasteland, another question sprang to mind.

Invaders? What invaders?

All I saw was a bunch of hard-working clansmen, laborers, crafters, and would-be farmers working on their town whilst preparing for the town naming day they had planned.

Wait a second…

It was then that I spotted Reginal and Galatee in one of the wooden houses. They were joined by a few of the elder clanspeople and were all gathered around a table. Reginal was standing up with his palms flat against the table and saying something in a heated manner. And when the chief spoke like that, boy did everyone listen. I could feel the tension in the room even from here.

Nearby, three orcish Wrotun women were lying on the roof of another lodge, using a thick lens to look into the distance. Following the direction of their lens, I finally saw the invaders.

There were some blots in the distance. I thought they were four miles away, but it may have been more; the wasteland has a habit of lying to you. Even with my enhanced core vision, it was impossible to make them out in detail because the sun was directly above and although I didn’t have eyes that it could hurt, the glare made it impossible to see particulars.

“Shadow,” I said, using my core voice on the kobold who was still in the dungeon. “You called these people invaders. How did you know that? They could be visitors. Merchants, settlers, perhaps even heroes.”

“Because they attacked a group of clansmen who were out looking for an oasis. Only Tasgario, Galatee’s assistant, made it back.”

“Where is he?”

She pointed. “With Chief Reginal and the others.”

“Can you take me to them?”

As much as I loathe being carried, I waited for Shadow to join me, and I let her take me across town and to the house, where I joined Reginal, Galatee, Tasgario, and a handful of other elders from both clans.

“Beno, about time,” said Reginal. He beckoned me over.

When Shadow moved closer, I saw a great sheet of parchment draped over the table, with a crude map of the town and surrounding wasteland drawn on it.

“Treasure hunting?” I said.

“This isn’t the time for jokes.”

“I know. I’m wondering why you didn’t alert me before now. Shadow tells me we’ve been attacked.”

“Poor Tasgario has barely got his breath back. We were about to send for you.”

“What’s the situation?” I said.

“We have a bugger with great, big balls coming to mess around in our town.”

“A brave one, eh? I suppose he’d have to be to turn up like this.”

Reginal shook his head. “No, Beno. I mean he has weird ball-shaped objects with him. Tasgario, you tell him. And make it damn snappy.”

Galatee shot Reginal a look. “Less of the attitude toward Tas.”

Reginal, rebuked, gave a small nod.

Tasgario cleared his throat. “We found the oasis. It was seven miles south, but it’s hidden by this small set of hills that's the same color as everything else, so you’d barely pay attention to them. I spotted it first, and then Trigg ran ahead screaming about how it was going to be named Trigg Falls or something stupid.”

“Skip forward, boy. Pretend our town depends on the speed of your delivery.”

“We knew not to drink the water before it’s tested, but we wet our faces and bathed in it a while. Trigg got the stupid idea that we could be the first to skinny dip in the oasis, and so we…

“Boy…”

“And that’s when the thing arrived,” said Tasgario, spitting out his words under Reginal’s glare.

“Thing?” I asked.

“A thing. A monster. A creature.”

“What kind?”

“I don’t know, Mr. Core. Truly, I don’t.”

“You must have some idea.”

Galatee spoke for him. “We’ve shown him pictures from a monster compendium - nothing. We’ve asked him to describe it, and this thing beggars belief.”

“You’d be surprised at some of the things that exist, and yet don’t require belief in order to do so. Tell me, lad, what did it