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

“Interesting,” she said.

“Do you have any idea why he might want to find you?” I asked.

“Perhaps one reason. But I feel so weak, Beno. I fear I do not have the energy to talk. I’m fading. I’m faaading…”

She was silent. There was no sound at all; we were too far underground for even the surface breeze to find us, and all of my creatures were on the level above us.

“Namantep?” I said.

Nothing.

She must have used up all of her energy, or something. I had no clue. I’d heard of a core going dormant when in a state of mortal peril, but I’d never actually seen…

“BENO!”

The sudden sound shocked me. “Don’t do that, you absolute fool!”

She laughed. “The answer to your question would seem obvious to me,” she said. “The Dungeon Core Academy repurposes old cores. Healer cores, construction cores, any core you can think of. They collect broken or dormant cores, reforge them, and teach them how to kill things. They don’t all end up in dungeons you know, Beno. You’d be surprised about who can get themselves a core. With enough gold and influence, a person can get anything.”

“How do you feel about becoming a dungeon core if Bolton gets his hands on you?”

“Truth be told,” she said, her voice taking on a new seriousness, “the idea fills my core with dread.”

“Thank you very much.”

“I am a healer core, Beno. We are forged differently. To act differently, to think differently. I do not relish the idea of my whole being getting reshaped without my say so, as would happen if your overseer found me.”

“Yes. A core without an owner can be taken by the academy without reprisal.”

“We are not seen as beings of our own, in the eyes of most Xynnar laws.”

“I wasn’t asked if I wanted to become a dungeon core,” I said. “I was plucked from death, and my human soul was stripped of its past identity and stuffed into this gem. It was a choice the overseers denied me, and I won’t be the one to perpetuate that. If you do not want Bolton to find you, then I will do my best to make sure you are hidden.”

“Thank you, Beno. Perhaps dungeon cores aren’t as bad as I was led to believe.”

“Oh, we are. We just have our nice days.”

CHAPTER 9

The sound was like a hammer striking an anvil. Bang-bang-bang.

“Wake up, damn you! Stop acting like snow-brained fools!” shouted Razensen, clapping his great hands together again.

“That’s enough,” I said. “What happened to my monsters?”

“As you can see, there was a witch of some sort. She beguiled them, blizzard take her!”

Razensen’s unit, which had consisted of four kobolds, three bone guys, and four shrub bandits, were acting peculiar. They were each tied up by thick coils of rope, an effort that owed most of its thanks to enforcer Wylie. Struggling unsuccessfully against the bonds, the creatures looked at me and Razensen with stares of pure hate. And not the good kind of hate, either. Not the kind of hate directed at heroes, but instead at me. I couldn’t believe it.

“And this witch…she did this to them?”

“With barely a word. She completely destroyed their minds and turned monsters of my own unit against me! She tried doing it to me, Beno. I do not know what to do with them.”

Half of the dungeon had gathered to watch the spectacle, and I was so fraught with various problems that I didn’t even have the energy to rebuke them. It was a sign that I was tired when I couldn’t even manage a half-decent rebuke, something that I used to enjoy immensely.

“Rusty?” I said.

My kobold raised his shaman staff. “Yip?”

“Can you place a shamanic totem of some sort to snap them out of this?”

“Nip,” he said, shaking his head. “Sorry, Dark Lord.”

“Demons’ arses. Brecht? Do you know any spells that might reverse this?”

My bard, sitting cross-legged and idly tapping his tambourine, shook his head. “Apologies, Dark Magnificence. None of my ballads would work.”

“Then what in all hells am I to do with them?”

The current situation couldn’t last, that was for certain. Although Razensen had dealt with the hero raid as well as he could, he wasn’t a dungeon core and he didn’t have any training in fighting a witch. I should have been here. And because I hadn’t been, some of my monsters had been beguiled against me, and now I was faced with a horrible choice.

“I take it that without the ropes binding them, they’re attacking their fellow dungeon mates?”

Razensen grunted and nodded. He lifted his arm and showed a deep, red gash. “A bone guy tried to sever my damned arm off. See it? Pah. The weakling couldn’t get through my muscle.”

My choice was unthinkable. If we couldn’t remove this beguilement from the creatures, then they would have to be destroyed. After all, if we cut their bonds, they would attack the other creatures in my dungeon. And if I released them on the surface and made them someone else’s problem, they would attack the people of Yondersun.

Demons below, what a decision! I had never thought that I would have to consider destroying a whole group of my own creations.

“Any idea where this witch went?” I said.

“She and her little friend fled your lair. But we must talk, Stone. I heard the heroes say something that makes me think they have Shadow. They avoided some of your traps. At first, I assumed your devices were too pathetic to stop them, but then I heard the heroes talk. They have captured a kobold and have learned information about your little grotto from them.”

“It has to be Shadow. Nobody else is missing.”

“They will be far away now, Stone. Too far to give chase. If