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

“How to use four words when one will do? The art of sticking your nose into other peoples’ affairs?”

“Propaganda, Beno. You want to undermine the No-Cores? Then by all means, mimic one of their higher-ups. At the same time, I can also flood Yondersun with so many lies and disinformation about their movement that they’ll hear the gossip all the way in the southern caves. All I need is lots of paper and a quill.”

I really wasn’t doing well at keeping my core chamber as a place where work wasn’t allowed. All day Gulliver and I had made plans in there, and in the evening I found myself alone with Shadow and one of my new mimics. Gulliver, meanwhile, had taken the other mimic to Core Jahn’s Spying Chamber, as we had taken to calling the place.

“So…that’s about the size of it, Shadow,” I said. “That’s what I’d like you to do. How do you feel about it?”

“You would like me to sneak into the home of the most powerful man in Hogsfeate, who I would guess has lots of idiot guards, and then murder him?”

“Murder him in an extremely quiet and clean way, yes. If this is to work, not a sound can be heard.”

“And I must take this blob with me?”

“You heard my plan. The mimic is key to it.”

“If I was suspicious by nature,” said Shadow, “I would guess that you are trying to get rid of me, my Evilest Excellence. We can’t pretend it wouldn’t be easier for you if I was gone, and it wouldn’t cast you in the best light if you had me killed. If I was to die in service to the dungeon, however…”

This was a situation where knowing exactly what to say next was vital. Utter the wrong thing, and this would not work. Shadow wouldn’t take the assignment, and I was stuck if she didn’t. Nobody else in my dungeon had anything approaching her level of stealth skills. It wasn’t as if I could force her, either. I had the authority to issue the order, yes, but this was a task that only had a chance of working if Shadow was completely invested in it.

So, what to say? I could flatter her. I could tell her what she wanted to hear. Tell her that her suspicions were so ridiculous that they were laughable. But then, Shadow was rare for a kobold. She was so astute that she would see beyond any deception.

“The thought crossed my mind to send you somewhere,” I said. “Either on a task that would keep you away from the dungeon for a while, or one that would see you die without me having to murder one of my own dungeon mates.”

She blinked. Evidently, my honesty had surprised her, and she couldn’t think of what to say.

I pressed on with the advantage. “But I’d like to think I’m a practical core, above everything else. You have skills that we need, and despite the indifferent air you try too hard to portray, you care about this dungeon and your dungeon mates in it. I won’t set fire to my house just to get rid of a spider.”

“Then this…task…it is genuine?”

“It is vital, Shadow, and only you can do it in the way I need.”

“It will most likely wind up with my head on a spike. Townsfolk do that to monsters, so I’m told.”

“Only the most barbaric of towns. In some, monsters are positively accepted.”

“And in Hogsfeate?”

“Let’s say that we aren’t the most welcome of guests. That is a risk we have to take. That you have to take. If we can’t deal with Dullbright, it mind end badly not just for you, but for everyone. Gary, Brecht, Maginhart, your hounds. Tomlin.”

“Pah. I don’t care about that stupid gardener.”

“All the same, we need you to do this.”

“And if I do? What do I get?”

Ah.

That was when I knew I had talked her around, because she was no longer asking about my intentions, but looking for a reward. Good. That was something I could work with.

“Get this done, Shadow, and you can name what you want. More knives, more dogs, whatever. I’ll get you a pack of giant wolves if that’s what you desire.”

“I want a voice.”

“Excuse me?” I said, surprised.

“A say in how things are run in this dungeon. You act like you’re a benevolent leader, some kind of progressive master who listens to us. You act like you’re different from the dukes and lords that you and Gulliver seem to despise so much.”

“I am different. That should be obvious.”

“Really? You see, from listening to Gulliver prattle on about all his past jobs with lords, it seems to my little kobold brain that lords risk their men on the battlefield just as you risk us. Do the lords give their people a choice? You might say that they don’t have to become soldiers, yes. Or that they could move to a new land. When you think about it, Dark Lord, you offer us even less freedom than that! We were never given a choice who to serve, where to serve them, or whether our life is ours to gamble with. We have less choice than the lowliest peasant serving under the cruelest lord.”

It was difficult to know where to begin with that.

Anger was my first instinct. A flash of my old human anger that began to well up inside my core. Dulled, but there all the same.

Then I forced myself to try and think about what Shadow said. To ignore what could be perceived as insolence, and to see the words filtered through her perception. Not just hers; but Gary’s, Brecht’s, Tomlins…and poor Dolos. Was there something to what she had said?

“You want a voice, eh?”

“I know