Dungeon Core Academy: Books 1-7 (A LitRPG Series) by Alex Oakchest (book suggestions txt) π
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- Author: Alex Oakchest
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Now, I placed a riddle door next to the door that was already in front of the tunnel. The riddle door looked just like my others, except with a face on it, set in metal. It was a bloated, ponderous face. It looked like a lion that had been too successful in hunting over the years and had let himself go.
This sapped my essence to just 10 points, so I passed a little time in my core room and mentored Tomlin, while Wylie listened and tried to understand, bless him.
When I felt full of essence once again, I made another riddle door and I placed it next to the other after removing the standard door.
Okay. Now I had two riddle doors guarding the tunnel that led to my loot room. So, whatβs so special about a riddle door? Why was I feeling so satisfied about my work? After all, if rogues can lockpick other doors, and mages can cast lockpick spells, why canβt they do the same for a riddle door?
Itβs all in the construction.
Standard, lockable doors are made from wood. Riddle doors have essence woven deep into them, right into the grains. Not just any essence, either. Essence that has been treated so that it hardens and becomes extremely tough.
Yes, a riddle door is hard as hell to force or trick your way through. Sure, there were parties of heroes out there who would breeze through them. But for the level of heroes that my dungeon would attract, these doors would pose a decent challenge.
Just one problem; I had to set the riddle.
I faced my two riddle doors now. One had a bloated lion face, and the other had the face of a skinny monkey.
βHello, riddle doors.β
βTell us a riddle, make us giggle.β
βGive us a rhyme, do it in time.β
βAh, I forgot about the rather annoying way of speaking that you have. You know, you probably make heroes want to bash your heads in.β
βTheyβll never get by, unless they solve our lie.β
βGive us a conundrum, so that we mayβ¦we mayβ¦β
βAha!β I said. βYou canβt think of a rhyme for conundrum, can you? That proves it, you ridiculous doors. Your rhyming way of talking is just an act. I already told my kobolds not to conform to dungeon stereotypes, and I expect you to do the same. Okay?β
The skinny monkey door sighed. βFine. Can we please have a riddle so that we can sleep?β
That was the thing with riddle doors. They only craved two things: riddles and sleep. Once they had a riddle given to them, they would sleep until heroes came.
βOkay. Let me think,β I said.
I needed to get this right. Overseer Bolton had taught a module on riddles, but it was only three classes. He covered classic riddles, constructing your own riddles, and doβs and donβts. A big donβt was making an unsolvable riddle, or a nonsensical one. I had to play fair.
Gah, why canβt you think of a riddle when you really need one? I didnβt want to waste any more time making my own, so I went with a couple of dungeon core classics.
βMonkey,β I said. βThis is your riddle; The more you take, the more you leave behind. What am I?β
βEasy. Footsteps.β
βWell yes. By being a riddle door, itβs in your nature to know the answer to riddles. Donβt show off. Lion, your riddle is thus: you carry it everywhere you go, and it does not get heavy. What is it?β
βMud!β shouted Wylie.
βYour name,β said Tomlin.
βAh, very good, Tomlin. Doors, your riddles are set. Neither of you can open until both riddles are solved, okay? Unless itβs my kobold friends trying to pass through, of course.β
βYes. Now we sleep.β
With that, not only were my riddle doors sleeping, but I was done with puzzles.
CHAPTER 20
Bill waited until midnight. He got out of bed, checked that Lisle, his mother, and Vedetta were sleeping, and he left the house.
It was a cold, dark evening. Bats flew overhead, and the breeze sneaked down his collar and chilled him. It wasnβt the kind of evening to be prowling around, but he was worried.
Vedetta had been acting strange lately. Sheβd changed over the last few years, become moreβ¦mature, he guessed heβd call it. Then again, losing their father had affected them all differently. His mother, sheβ¦well, he hated to think about what this had done to her.
Bill knew that his sister thought he was lazy and that he didnβt care, but it wasnβt true. Heβd just been trying to deal with things in his own way, and he was struggling. Above it all, he was still her big brother, and he was worried about her.
Vedetta had been sneaking off somewhere and doing something in secret, and Bill was anxious that she was putting herself in danger. It was his job as her big brother to protect her, and heβd made miserable work of it. It was time to pull himself together and start looking out for her.
Heβd watched her sneaking off somewhere for a few days now, and now he walked away from town and over the muddy fields, to the place where sheβd been digging.
Here, he found a hole. Actually, a hole with a ladder going down into the ground. Hmm. She really had been busy.
Holding his mana lamp in one hand, he carefully climbed down the ladder until he was completely underground. There, he found a tunnel, and yet another hole with a ladder.
Then another. And another.
Soon, he didnβt even know how far underground he was, and it started to feel a little creepy. Before long he reached the end of his sisterβs strange
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