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

There were no windows. Although the room was housed at the rear of one of Jahn’s wooden lodges, the inside walls were actually made of stone. Mana lamps burned from their metal fixings. There was a great oval table, behind which Reginal and Galatee were seated.

“Well? An improvement on your dreary dungeon chambers, no?” said Reginal.

“This…well, chiefs…it looks exactly like the meeting chamber in my dungeon.”

“Are you blind? It looks nothing like it!”

“Stone walls? Mana lamps? No windows?”

“Practicalities,” said Galatee. “To prevent eavesdroppers. We discuss the most sensitive of town issues here, you see.”

“Right. Well, I suppose we better get started. Wait - where’s Jahn? Part of our terms was that he would get a seat. Figuratively, of course.”

“Jahn was told about the meeting again and again, Core Beno, and yet he is still on the construction site, helping build the memorial.”

“It seems your friend isn’t as keen to stick his nose into town business as you,” added Reginal.

“Let’s get down to it, then. Do you have an agenda?” I said.

“Firstly, let’s talk compensation,” said Galatee.

“Excuse me?”

“Your fight with the mercenaries left a tremendous mess on the wasteland, and would be off-putting to any travelers. Do you suppose people would want to visit a town surrounded by corpses and bloodstains? I had to divert some of our labor force to move the bodies, or they’d have attracted vultures and the like. Then there was all the blood that your giant three-eyed monster left behind! That took a while to clean, let me tell you. He’s in your dungeon, isn’t he? How in Xynnar could anything lose so much blood and still live?”

“I suppose he isn’t ready to go to the ice yet.”

“What in all hells does that mean?”

“Never mind. He lost a lot of blood, yes, but he will heal.”

“What was it all about, Beno?” said Reginal. “One of the dead men was an absolute mess! His chest caved in, face torn to shreds. I have seen lots of battle, core, lots of killing, and never have I come across such anger wreaked upon a person. Was this personal, or something?”

“Personal?” I said. “I’m a dungeon core, Reginal. I don’t have feuds. I’m above all that nonsense. I am glad you brought up compensation, actually. You see, the mercenaries were actually here to raid the town. I was alerted to the fact and felt it would be swifter for me to assemble monsters and fight them, rather than find you. The battle happened outside my dungeon territory and inside Yondersun territory, and I expended considerable resources in fighting it.”

“What are you saying?”

“That Chief Galatee is right; we should add compensation to the agenda.”

Reginal rubbed his temples and muttered something. Galatee put her hand on his back and rubbed it. “Are you okay?” she asked. Then she glanced at me and guiltily removed her hand.

“I’m fine,” said Reginal. “Another headache, is all. Now, Beno, my scouts have combed vast parts of the Wasteland around us. Your kobold, the one who you sent to Hogsfeate for supplies…what was her name…Darkness?”

“Shadow,” I said.

“Yes. We haven’t seen hide nor hair of her, I’m afraid. Is there a chance she is in Hogsfeate?”

“No.”

“How would you know for sure?” asked Galatee, looking at me suspiciously. I couldn’t tell her that my mimic had murdered Hogsfeate’s governer and had assumed his form, taking over his life and acting as my proxy to rule the town. I couldn’t admit that I had given him shards of myself so that we could communicate over vast distances.

“Just an inkling,” I said.

“Well, I’m afraid I cannot spare any more scouts to look for this Shade. Of course, if you wish to commit your own creatures to the cause, I will not stop you.”

“Very generous of you, chief.”

“Now, Beno,” said Galatee. “There is something we need to discuss. Despite the commotion you caused outside his town, Governer Dullbright of Hogsfeate has written to us offering terms of trade.”

“No,” I said. “Really?”

“Yes, yes he has. Not only that, but he has revoked his ultimatum and no longer wishes us to hand you or Jahn to him. What’s more, he concedes that he started the fight and that you are not to blame. He was strangely insistent upon that.”

“If he hadn’t used his own seal, and if his handwriting didn’t match the past letters he has sent us,” said Reginal, “I’d have believed it was a forgery of some sort. But no, it is from Dullbright alright. Even had a pair of guards from Hogsfeate deliver it to us. Len and Ben. Loathsome fellows, if I’m honest. Seemed to resent having to do their jobs.”

“This is all shocking to me,” I said. “Completely out of the blue, like a lightning bolt on a clear day.”

“Well, it is a virtue when a man can change his mind about someone,” said Galatee, looking at me.

“What about the trade terms?” I said. “I can’t imagine what they would be.”

Galatee slid the paper across the table. “He doesn’t just wish to renew the old terms, but offers more favorable ones. Everything we need for Cynthia to make the special fertilizers. Materials to speed up Jahn’s construction projects. All kinds of resources that our lack of was holding us back.”

“What do you think?” asked Reginal.

“You’re asking me?”

“We value your opinion,” said Galatee.

This was interesting. It seemed that though I had bargained myself a seat at the table, they were much less begrudging about my presence than I had expected.

“I would say that Dullbright seems to have had a change of heart. He has scuttled into his cocoon and fluttered out as a butterfly. Why not take him up on his terms?”

“Excellent!” said Galatee. “Now, we have a delicate matter to discuss. We do not wish to