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

didn’t relish having to stoop to negotiating with my prisoners. Even if I did, what would she want? What did this girl value?

All I knew was that she had some strange mind powers and that she and her friend had traveled with the pirates, for whatever reason.

Ah, wait a second…Had I just discovered a weakness? She and her friend had traveled with the pirates…

“I suppose that I should thank you,” I said. “Kainhelm was hard-pressed for time today, with having to torture you first, and then your friend. Knowing there’s no point torturing you, he can spend double the time on freckle face.”

Her granite expression cracked. She scrunched her nose differently this time. Not to use her powers but in an uncontrollable reflex of fear. She recovered herself a second later.

“Torture him all you want,” she said. “Just close the door. His voice can be really annoying.”

“I’ll bear that in mind.”

I floated toward the door.

“Wait!” she said. “Ugh. Fine. Don’t hurt Utta, you floating dungball. He’s not like me. He couldn’t even sleep on the ground when we were camping with the pirates. I had to give him my blanket.”

“Ah, you’re feeling accommodating now are you, you little rat?”

“You block of hardened cheese.”

“You insipid, rude, impertinent dunce...”

“What do you want from me, core?”

“Fine. Let’s get to the point. The average person is born with ten fingers, ten toes, two legs, two arms, two eyes, two ears. A nose. A mouth.”

“I didn’t know you had studied medicine, Mr. Core.”

“As I said – that’s the average person. Right now, let’s assume that your friend Utta has none of those things. That his ears, eyes, fingers all belong to Kainhelm. For every question you answer to my satisfaction, for everything you do when I ask you to, your friend will earn back one of his precious body parts.”

“You know, if this was a fair fight, Utta and I would smash you to little pieces. And then we’d sell you as gravel to someone building a stable, and then we’d laugh when horses and donkeys crap all over you.”

“You’re a delightful girl. Let’s begin, then. First, for the grand prize of a whole hand for your freckled friend…reverse what you did to my kobold.”

“My kobold, I think you mean.”

“Speak carefully, Anna. Your friend might find it hard to kiss your arse when Kainhelm eats his lips.”

“You revolting core! Fine. Your kobold. You will have to bring her to me and let me use my powers.”

“Fine. We’ll make arrangements later. Now, I have some things I want to ask you.”

To give the girl some credit, she spoke thoroughly and clearly. She answered my questions and gave whatever information I asked for and managed to keep her insults and complaints to a minimum. I supposed that the wellbeing of her friend was enough to make her behave.

“So you’re the Chosen One, eh?” I said.

“A Chosen One. Utta is too.”

“Ah, yes. Lots of you get chosen, don’t you?”

“We’re still special though.”

“Yes,” I said. “I’m sure you are. I’m sure that there aren’t hundreds of mages knocking on doors in little backwater villages, telling their parents that their children are Chosen Ones. You really are special. It isn’t as if there is a whole school established to train the likes of you.”

“It’s still a destiny. What are you, anyway? Just a lump of soulless rock.”

“Whereas your soul glows like a cozy fire, doesn’t it? Tell me, Anna, did you ever miss your mother when you left her behind? Do you care about your family? Or do they barely enter your mind at all?”

“You don’t know me.”

“I think I do, actually. You’re a lot like me, little girl.”

“You’re like a little girl?”

“Well…that’s not what I…”

“Keep mentioning my height all you want,” she said, “If that makes you feel tough. But just remember that this little girl is dangerous enough to have her own prison in your dungeon. Perhaps we’re similar. I have better hair, since you have none at all, and I’d bet all the gold in Xynnar my singing voice beats yours. But Utta told me that cores are people brought back from death, and since you were dead at the time, I don’t suppose they asked you if you wanted to come back. They didn’t say, ‘Hey Mr. Dead Man, do you want to be resurrected and turned into a lump of stone?’ I wasn’t asked if I wanted to be a Chosen One, either. I was born that way and then taken to the school without hardly a question or nothing. So I suppose we’re a little the same. There, Mr. Core. We know a little too much about each other, don’t we?”

The girl was too insightful for her own good. Forget her stupid Chosen One powers – her words were dangerous enough on their own.

“Tell me about this prophecy. The tablet. You’re supposed to destroy a dungeon core, yes? That’s your ‘Chosen One’ prophecy? That’s your life’s work?”

I wouldn’t pretend that the idea of being the subject of a Chosen One’s prophesy didn’t boost my ego a little. It was hard to not like the idea of being part of a Chosen One’s ultimate destiny.

“Not my life’s work, stupid. A prophecy is just a way of marking our graduation from school. It’s supposed to be easy, not a bloody life’s work!”

I was a little insulted, to be sure. “Fine. But from what you have told me, the wording on your prophecy was to destroy a dungeon core. Not Beno the dungeon core.”

“So?”

“It occurs to me that there are other dungeon cores in Xynnar.”

“There’s only one floating right in front of me, and I’d love to smash him to pieces, prophesy or not.”

“I might have a use for you and your abilities, Anna. We could come to an arrangement without