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

into human form, and he had spent this new life as an overseer in the Dungeon Core Academy.

Had he wasted it all? Maybe so. Why hadn’t he traveled Xynnar? Why had it never occurred to him to find a wife, to have children, to live a peaceful, quiet life free from monsters, dungeons, and those damned pain-in-the-arse cores? He’d wasted his third life, and now he was on the last trek to death and he had nobody to share the journey with.

“Ha! I win!” shouted Anna, slamming a card on the ground.

Utta shrugged, taking the loss without losing his cool. He walked away for a few paces and dropped to the ground and began a circuit of pushups.

“Oh, you’re no fun when you lose,” said Anna. “I suppose it’s time I had some fun of my own.”

Anna hobbled over to Bolton, a grin on her face. She sat down in front of him. Without saying a word, she stared at him, her eyes piercing. She scrunched up her face.

“Your mind is blank,” she said.

Bolton’s mouth fell open. “Who…who are you?” he said. “What am I doing out here with you?”

“I’m Anna. I have beautiful hair and the greatest singing voice. You have taken us far enough from the dungeon, and we are going to part ways now, overseer.”

“Anna,” grunted Utta, now doing stomach crunches. “Are you messing with him?”

“I’m a Chosen One, Utta. I’m using my chosen gift. We don’t need him anymore.” She turned to face Bolton again. “As I said, Utta and I are going now. Before I do, you will strip down to just your unders. You will give us your food, water, and we will take your horses. You will stay all the way out here, half-naked. Understand?”

“But it is the wasteland,” said Bolton, his voice strangely empty. “I would die.”

“Even so, you will do it.”

“Yes, I will do it, Miss Anna.”

“Overseer Bolton, I want you to answer me honestly. What do you think of destiny?”

“Destiny doesn’t exist, Miss Anna. It is something those who fail at something use to console themselves, or it is an excuse people use to never try things. To never give themselves the chance to fail.”

“Destiny is a load of crap, isn’t it? Nobody is chosen. Nobody deserves anything just for existing. Life doesn’t have some big, grand purpose mapped out for us, does it? Stone tablets mean absolutely nothing, do they?”

“Exactly, Miss Anna.”

She laughed, tossing her hair. “Thank you, Bolton. Now come on, Utta,” she said, turning her back on the overseer. “If we hurry, we can-”

Bolton grabbed hold of her, yanked her back, and shoved her to the ground. Utta bolted to his feet and charged. Bolton held out a gloved hand, sending a blast of purple light at his chest. Utta crashed onto his back, winded.

“I’m an academy overseer, you stupid girl. Did you really think your little tricks would work on me? I have spent my life working with cores. Mind powers or not, they are a damned sight more devious than you.”

She scooted back on her arse. “Then you…you weren’t under my…”

“The water you drank from my canteen? It had kerowit in it, my girl. A useful herb, and one that suppresses powers like yours. Same with you, Utta. Don’t bother trying to use your abilities for the next day or so.”

“What do you want from us?” said Anna. “Where are you taking us?”

“To the Dungeon Core Academy. There is an old core we need to wake up, and your powers do the trick. Now get some rest, and we’ll set off when it’s dark. If you behave, Anna, I’ll teach you how to steer the horses. You might as well learn some practical life skills while we’re together.”

CHAPTER 20

“I’m in love, Beno. There, I said it.”

“Yes, Gull. You’ve said it a hundred times.”

The wagon made a clack-clack-click-clack as the three straight and one wonky wheel rolled over the wasteland.

“All the places I have been. All the ladies I have known. And now, finally, I have found my soul’s partner.”

“You believe in that stuff?” I said.

“No, it’s utter hogwash. But I’m a scribe, it’s in my blood to speak the language of the love gods.”

I laughed. “As long as you’re happy. Not that you asked, but I approve of your choice of a romantic partner, if only for her ability to get our arses out of trouble. Unfortunately, I feel like we’ve climbed out of a bog, only to find ourselves mired in the middle of…an even bigger bog.”

“Morphant?”

“Exactly. Somehow, he has broken free of his bond to me. Or, someone broke the bond for him. Either way, he serves another master now. My gut tells me that the person with the most to gain, the person conniving enough to do something like this, is Pvat. If he somehow rumbled Morphant’s mimicry, he would absolutely seize the chance to turn it to his advantage.”

“How would he know how to do it?”

“That’s the question. He wouldn’t, I don’t think. Pvat is an experienced hero, a master swordsman, and has no doubt seen lots of dungeons, cores, and monsters during his career. But he isn’t a magic-user. Only someone adept at magic could sever a bond between core and monster.”

“There’s only one mage in Hogsfeate, Beno.”

“Hardere.”

“Exactly. The mage with the ever-wandering nipples.”

“Well, we know he can be bought. He doesn’t exactly pretend otherwise. Pvat’s hero guild has been getting rich by sucking on Hogsfeate’s teat, so he wouldn’t lack the funds.”

“If Pvat paid Hardere to break Morphant’s bond to you and make him his new master, it means…”

“That the heroes’ guild now controls our mimic of Dullbright, and through him, they control the town. If Hogsfeate was hostile to cores and monsters before, it’s going to