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

can start tonight, how about that? So you just come up with a list of topics, and I’ll-”

Tomlin opened his backpack and brought out a ream of rolled-up paper, which he unraveled …and unraveled…and unraveled.

“That’s quite a lot of subjects.”

“Tomlin wants to learn everything he can.”

“Let me see.”

He went to bring it over to me, but I stopped him. “I can read it from here. Tomlin. It’s alright. So... alchemy, botany, astronomy, herbalism, archery…Wow, Tomlin. You might have to be more selective about this. The subjects you have included here, some people spend their entire lifetime mastering. Do you want to know a tiny bit about lots of things, or become a master at one?”

“How can Tomlin know what to dedicate his life to, when he hasn’t tried something?”

“Ah. The question everyone has to answer to some point: what should they do with their life? How old are you, Tomlin?”

“Five blood moons.”

“So sixteen years old? Just say that, then. You’re sixteen years old, and I’m asking you to decide on a subject that will become your life’s work. That isn’t the way to do it, is it?”

Tomlin shook his head furiously. “Tomlin chose ten subjects. He will try them, and then decide which to pursue.”

“Dark Lord teach Tomlin…I mean, I will teach you the little that I know about the things you chose. Sound good?”

“Great!”

Relationship status with Tomlin improved from [loyal] to [warm]!

I have to admit, it felt good that Tomlin and I were becoming friends. I liked his style. He would still do the dirty work even though he clearly didn’t like it, because he wanted to pursue his real passions in the meantime. It showed good self-discipline. I was happy that he was the first creature I had brought into my dungeon.

“Tomlin, we have work to do,” I said. “How do you feel about rat-catching?”

He screwed his nose at this. “Eeeee, not sure, Dark Lord. Does it have to be rats?”

“Or voles, moles, mice. Things of that size or bigger.”

“To eat?”

“I don’t eat, Tomlin. I’m a core. Come to think of it, I hadn’t considered that. You’ll need food, won’t you?”

“Tomlin could eat the vines,” he said, pointing at the essence vines flourishing on my core room walls.

A flicker of fear ran through me at the suggestion. That’s how bad an idea it was. It made me, a dungeon core, feel scared.

“Tomlin, those are very, very important to me, to you, to the whole dungeon, and our clan. You can’t eat them, ever. Not even if you’re really hungry. Come to think of it, if you sense anyone getting to them, anything happening to them, you must drop everything to come help. Okay?”

“What are they?”

“That’s not important right now.”

“This can count as study.”

“Fine. They’re essence vines. When I create things in the dungeon, I use up the essence stored inside me. Without it, I can't do anything. The vines give off essence, which I absorb.”

“Got it.”

“We better get something for your belly to absorb. Catch some vermin and kill them. You’ll get food, I’ll get exp. Perfect.”

“Great. Tomlin has question.”

“Sure.”

“How?”

“How what?”

“How do we catch vermin?”

“Damn it. I thought you would come here with the knowledge of how to do that. Didn’t the academy teach you anything? Let me think a second.”

We’d covered this in the academy. Some cores wanted to earn their first level up by killing a hero, so they could get used to battling those pesky looters. Others, like me, wanted a level up or two under their belts before they let stupid heroes into their dungeon.

Overseer Bluetop had covered this in his ‘Creatures and Critters’ class. So…leveling up…catching stuff…ah. Yeah.

I needed bait, and there was one thing that no animal could resist. Didn’t matter if it was a rat, dog, moose, bear, chimera. There wasn’t a single monster or animal in the whole of Xynnar that could resist the smell of pure essence.

“Tomlin, meet me in room four,” I said.

CHAPTER 14

It pained me to do it, but I snipped two leaves from my essence vines and used my spectral hands to place one leaf in room 4. I kept hold of the other, as this might not work on my first try.

In that bare room, I floated on my pedestal point while Tomlin kneeled on the ground, inspecting the leaf.

“Tomlin doesn’t see how this is so special.”

“You can’t smell it?”

“Smells normal.”

“How can something smell normal? What’s a normal smell? There must be thousands of smells, even in a simple place like this. It isn’t as if there’s a uniform smell of normality. Ah. Hang on. I might understand what you mean.”

Tomlin had been raised in the academy grounds, which meant that he’d become accustomed to the smell of essence. The fruity, weirdly nourishing aroma that hung around the academy day and night. This made sense now.

“Here’s what we do, Tomlin. I’d like you to make a small hole in the mud wall. Do it near the ground. Then, build three tiny mud walls surrounding the hole. Almost like a little goblin’s house.”

“A trap, you mean? Tomlin isn’t stupid.”

“Right. Sorry.”

Tomlin got to work. Even as a level 3 miner, it was easy to see the difference in his effectiveness. He was quicker in his digging now, more efficient in using the pickaxe. He even looked less grumpy as he did it, though that might have been because we’d improved our relationship.

Soon, he was done. There was a hole in one of the walls, about two feet off the ground. Tomlin had built a kind of mud enclosure around the hole.

“Great work,” I told him. “Now, take the essence leaf, place it in the enclosure, and crush it up. Crushed essence leaves let off a pungent smell,