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

“Right. For a moment, I thought it was because you are proud of your kobold making progress on new skills.”

“Preposterous. Anyway, we have work to do, Gull. It took the best part of two days, but I finally have enough essence.”

“This should be fun. Wait a second. Let me get my quill.”

“Oh,” I said.

“A problem?”

“I don’t like to create monsters in my core room.”

“Does it really matter?”

“Yes, Gull. It does. I like to have a part of my dungeon room that is just for me. A place where I do as little work as possible. In this chamber, the only monsters, heroes, and battles I like to concern myself with are the ones on my bookshelves.”

Gulliver scribbled something in his book.

“What did you just write?” I asked.

“Nothing.”

I sighed. “Let’s use the alchemy chamber. Razensen is training his unit in the arena, and Gary and the fire beetles are in the loot room. I swear, I can’t get any peace in this bloody dungeon.”

The alchemy chamber was the most decorated chamber in this part of the dungeon. Waves of mana light glowed on the walls, illuminating patterned carvings of various spirals and shapes. On the ground were two runemarks, one red and the other blue. Both were large enough to fit a corpse inside, which was useful given that my primary use of the alchemy chamber was to dissolve hero corpses.

“This is my least favorite room in your whole dungeon,” said Gulliver. “And that includes your toxin chamber. There’s something so dreary about it. I mean, look at all the blood on the floor! Can’t you at least try to mop it up?”

“That becomes a chore after a dozen corpses. Besides, this is a dungeon. It’s supposed to be covered in blood and guts and other innards.”

“To think. my master always told me that a scribe’s life was exotic.”

I focused on the alchemy chamber floor, gathering my essence in my core and forcing it to ball up, to compact and to tremble inside me, desperate to be unleashed. When I judged it was ready, I let it out, focusing it into the shapes I needed.

Mimic x2 created!

[Essence remaining 505 / 1505]

“I’ll never get used to how utterly unimpressive mimics are in their natural state,” said Gulliver, staring at the two translucent blobs lying on the floor.

“They have ears, you know.”

“Really? I can’t see them. Correct me if I’m wrong, though I doubt it, but mimics don’t have emotions of their own, no? They merely take on the emotions of those whom they mimic. It isn’t as if I can hurt their feelings.”

“Personal emotions would hamper them. If they’re to successfully mimic someone else, they must be a blank canvas. The more of themselves they bring into their mimicry, the less convincing they will be.”

“Correct, you trussed up goose!” said a voice from the floor.

“Remember that, you poncy prat!” said another.

My two lumps off goo had formed little gooey mouths and lips, and had evidently decided the first words to come from them would be insults toward Gulliver.

“Not as blank a canvas as you’d hope then, eh?” said Gulliver. “They might look like Dolos, but they sure as demon turd don’t have his reserve.”

“They’ll do the job. It’s not like I have much of a choice, is it? I can only think of a few ways to deal with both the No-Cores and Sir Dullbright that don’t bring all-out war on my dungeon.”

“What are the other ways?”

“They’re impossible to pull off unless I had a dragon or a wish lantern. Let’s get to it.”

“What exactly is it?”

“One of our mimics is going to take Boothe Stramper’s form,” I said. “This is how we’ll deal with the No-Cores. Using force against the protestors would only turn them into victims or even martyrs. It would also give credibility to their stupid slogans about how dangerous I am. We need to fight them another way. The same way their movement grew in the first place.”

“I’ll get started on the poorly decorated signs and badly rhymed chants,” sighed Gulliver.

“No, Gull. We just need to spread a little disinformation. To ruin their reputations. Once our mimic has seen what Stramper looks and sounds like, he can mimic him. Then, we’ll make sure this mimicked Stramper gets seen around Yondersun doing things that completely undermine the No-Core movement.”

“Stramper is just the hired help. If you really want to undermine them, have him mimic their leader, Gilleasberg Torp.”

“If only. Gilleasberg is seen around town a lot more than Stramper, which increases the chance of the real Gilleasberg and the mimic Gilleasberg being seen at the same time, which wouldn’t be ideal. Whereas Stramper works mostly in the background and thus is not expected to appear publicly as much.”

“What if Lady Chance does decide to take a great dump on you, and two Strampers end up in the same part of town?”

“I’m not a complete amateur, Gull. We’ll use Jahn’s visions and make sure Stramper is at home.”

“I like this. I like it a lot. But it seems to me that you are missing something.”

“What’s that?” I asked.

“Critical mass of the popular movement. Using a mimicked Stramper to undermine the movement’s credibility will work a little, but it will be like chopping down a tree. One axe will take time. But many axes will get the job done faster.”

“You sound like you have a suggestion.”

“I’m a master scribe, Beno. I have served for countless nobles, rulers, businessmen, and not always so that I could write a story for myself. Do you know why almost every court in the land has a master scribe?”

“Because lords love to see their name in print?”

“That’s true, yes. More importantly, though, because most scribes