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

“Perhaps you need to send for a different healer from Hogsfeate if his current healer can’t get through to him. This whole thing is beyond my knowledge. I have already died, after all, so I’m not one to ask about staying healthy.”

“Sometimes, Beno, I just think it would be easier if someone was to take the burden of leadership away from Reginal. Perhaps cede smaller controls to him, ones that wouldn’t stress him, while lifting the burden of everything else. He always talks fondly of his battles over the years. Of leading his warriors in times of war…even if that war was against my own clan. Part of me thinks he might feel better if someone took the weight of leadership away.”

“And you think that perhaps his wife could ease his troubles?” I said.

Galatee stopped. Her eyes lit up. “Hmm. You might have a point, Beno. Maybe when we are wed, I could lift his troubles from him. Yes, hmm. Something to consider.”

I watched Galatee sit down now, all the while thinking about how I felt like I had just been strummed like a bard’s lute.

“Thank you for our talk, Beno. Your idea might work out best for all of us. Now, what did you want to say to me?”

“Recently,” I said, “Both you and Reginal have visited me to discuss something. Each of you has asked for my support in a matter of the Silkers’ merchant guild having a guild house in town.”

“Oh really?”

“Yes, really. I can see by your face you are utterly flabbergasted at this turn of events. Reginal asked for my support in refusing the Silkers, while you asked me to back up your acceptance of their offer. I realize now, of course, that you and Reginal were testing both my loyalties and my honesty.”

“I really did misjudge you, Beno. I wagered Reginal that you would try to play us off against one another.”

“Would I be so two-faced?”

“A core has many faces, I am beginning to learn. But since you have told me about this, I see that one of your faces is an honest one. Thank you, Beno. I don’t like to lose a bet, but I feel better knowing that Reginal and I can trust you.”

“And I you, Galatee. It’s good for neighbors to get along with each other.”

CHAPTER 16

“Dark Lord?” said a voice.

It wasn’t spoken out loud but in my head, projected to me from another point in the wasteland where shards of my core self were hopefully in Dullbright’s home. Frustratingly, my core level wasn’t high enough for my shards to project pictures from so vast a distance, so I would have to make do with just sound.

“Shadow?” I answered using my core voice, while doing my best to rein in my excitement and act with a little more decorum.

Oh, to hells with decorum.

“How did it go? Is he dead? Come on, Shadow! Lift my spirits a little.”

Silence.

Yet more silence.

Just as I was about to speak, I heard Shadow’s voice again.

“Sorry, Dark Lord. I thought someone was coming up the stairs.”

“Is Dullbright worm food yet?”

“I’m not sure what creatures he’ll be feeding in his current state, I suppose that depends on Eric’s favored method of disposing of bodies. But he’s dead all the same.”

“Excellent! I knew you would do it, Shadow! How did it go? Tell me every little detail. I won’t lie; I am a little jealous that I didn’t get to take a bigger part in the slaughter.”

Shadow told me everything, from Eric starting a fire to her sneaking through Hogsfeate and killing the governor and three guards by herself. She even explained why it had taken so long for her to contact me. Straight after the kill, she had spent hours scrubbing the room clean of blood before the guards came back.

It sounded like she had done a better job than I could have imagined. Though I had missed out on the murder, I felt happy that choosing to put faith in my most rebellious creature had more than paid off.

“What now, Dark Lord? How long do you want me to stay here?”

“Your job’s almost done, don’t worry. I’m sure you’re desperate to get back here.”

“You sound sarcastic, Dark Lord, but I actually am keen to return.”

“Really? Did…uh…you take any blows to the head during the assassination, Shadow?”

“I would like to thank you for your faith in me,” said Shadow. “I understand the trust involved in assigning this job to me, even if you lacked other options.”

“Thank you, Shadow. Really.”

“I also want to apologize for the incident in the Remembrance chamber. I realize it wasn’t the way to go about things, Dark Lord.”

“We’ll just have to work out a system of getting your grievances across, Shadow. But for now, we have more important things. Is the mimic with you?”

“Here, Dark Lord,” said Dullbright’s voice.

Ugh. Hearing that pompous bigot’s voice coming through my core senses made me want to slaughter things. That was the problem with mimics, I supposed. Sometimes they were entirely too good at what they did.

“You are to feign illness for a while,” I said. “Communicate via letter and hold brief meetings inside the governor’s home. Don’t risk going into town in Dullbright’s form until you have leveled up enough.”

“That may look suspicious,” said Shadow.

“That’s where the illness comes into it. Tell people you have a stomach condition that flares up from time to time. For the first person who pries too closely, go into detail about some kind of toilet-related troubles. People will soon learn to stop asking.”

“As you wish,” said Mimic Dullbright.

“Besides, this will play into Dullbright’s pomposity. If we need to do any governing, we summon