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

You have to consider their size as an advantage here; the duke’s men are not used to fighting dungeon monsters. Like most soldiers, they’ll have trained to fight people and not insects. It shows a lack of foresight if you ask me.”

“And how does that work in our favor?”

“They’re used to fighting an enemy they look in the eye, not a swarm of insects on the ground. Their cavalry is useless against fire beetles because their horses don’t have enough dexterity. Equally, their infantries’ sword training will be useless. Training with a weapon involves practicing techniques until they become muscle memory. Repeating the same thrusts, blocks, and counters again and again. But they are all based on fighting an opponent who stands in front of you, not one that swarms around your feet, that requires you to twist, turn, bend.”

“They are still insects, Beno.”

“They’re not just insects. You see, when I kill heroes in my dungeon, I use my alchemy chamber to dissolve their bodies, and then I…”

“Ugh. Spare me the gore,” said Galatee.

“Fine. My alchemy chamber allows me to strip the class from fallen heroes and distill it into essence dust. That is how Rusty became a shaman, and Brecht a bard. A fire beetle is not capable of such a sophisticated class change, however feeding them hero essence boosts their attack and defense. It toughens their shells, sharpens their pincers. These are no ordinary bugs, and I have 30 of them as well as my other dungeon creatures.”

“Yondersun can supply almost a hundred warriors. Thirty-five are soldiers by profession. A further thirty retired when we built Yondersun, but they can still fight once they’ve shaken the cobwebs off. The rest are formed from our town militia. They have been training in their spare time, but I wouldn’t call them soldiers.”

“We’re still way, way short of an army, much less the kind of sophisticated army a duke would bring. To go out and fight would be suicide. We lack numbers, and the numbers we do have lack training. We’ll be coming up against a professional army,” I said.

“After everything we have done to make this town what it is, I will not let some silver-spooned moron take it! I will go to my grave with a dozen swords in my belly before I allow that!” said Reginal.

“Nor do we have to. Do you really think I would give up? We simply need to even things out a little more,” I said.

“And how do you propose that? We have no weasel-faced weathermage to stuff with gold this time.”

“Again, it all comes down to that classic fallacy that dukes and lord have. They’re so arrogant that they only train their people to fight fellow human armies. They’re used to civilized battles on large patches of land, where both armies line up, inexplicably give each other time to prepare, and then blow a trumpet before charging at each other, to their deaths. They are not, in experience or training, used to fighting below ground.”

“Ah. So we draw them underneath Yondersun,” said Reginal.

I thought about the duke. About how he might have the advantage in numbers, but there was one thing he could never have; the ability to split his thoughts like a core.

I could handle a battle on two fronts. I would have no delay in responding to stimuli on the surface and in my dungeon at the same time. The duke couldn’t think that way. Even if he could command a split army, he would need time to think about every decision. The more I gave him to think about, the more pressures and decisions I forced on him, the more mistakes he would make.

“We’ll draw part of his army into my dungeon, part of into your cavern, and fight another part on the surface. I will handle whatever soldiers he sends below ground while committing part of my force to tackling him on the surface. Both of you will focus on fighting the duke in town. We’ll split their army into three and make them fight in unfamiliar terrain.”

“That seems a lot for you to handle. How can you focus on three separate terrains?”

“Trust me. I can do it.”

“It will be a blood bath, Beno. Your tunnels will be stuffed to the gills with the dead.”

“I know. Sounds wonderful, doesn’t it?”

“There are two problems, as I see it,” said Galatee. “Firstly, why would the duke send his men underground?”

“Think about this. Imagine that the Duke and his friends get to Yondersun and find it empty. The duke might not have a genius intellect, but he will realize that the people of the town have gone somewhere. That they’re sheltering. He won’t truly be able to call Yondersun his own until he knows he’s crushed our ability to fight back.”

“Fine, so we could lure him underground to look for us. A second problem, then. All of our people are sheltering in the caverns adjoining your dungeon. If the duke’s soldiers get in, they’ll be trapped.”

“Not so,” I said. “There are a few emergency tunnels that led out of the cavern and emerge deeper in the wasteland, yes? Take the children, the old, the sick, and anyone else who cannot fight to the tunnels so that they don’t get caught up in the battle. Everyone staying behind, either in my dungeon or the cavern, is staying to fight.”

Reginal looked at Galatee. “Is this true? There are chambers that lead out of this pit of hell?”

“We lived in the cavern for decades. It was only prudent to have other ways out of it.”

“Then that’s settled.”

“There’s a third option,” said Galatee. “It makes me sick to even think about it, but it must be considered, otherwise we are not doing our job as chiefs.”

“Go on…”

“There is always the option that we swear fealty to