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

“I was talking to Gulliver about this,” I said. “Duke Smit swore fealty to Lord Dresden. A nasty bugger, by all accounts, and a nasty bugger with thousands of more men than Smit.”

“He won’t be happy that we slaughtered one of his vassals,” said Reginal.

“Then we have a choice,” I said. “We can either clean up the town and carry on as normal and pray nothing comes of this, or we can be proactive.”

“How? The battle winded us badly,” said Galatee. “Even now, we haven’t caught our breath.”

“There’s a reason why wild animals tend to form packs. We need a pack of our own, chiefs. Yondersun needs allies.”

“No, damn it,” said Reginal. “We will swear fealty to nobody. I didn’t spend decades fighting just to have to kiss some other duke’s arse.”

“I’m talking about allies of mutual consent, not a relationship of servitude,” I said. “The bogans, for one. I happen to know their leader. The Silkers merchants offer another avenue to explore. The Dungeon Core Academy, also, can be bought if you know their price. I don’t have all the answers yet, but I know the question. Who can we get on our side?”

I left the meeting feeling peculiar. It had always seemed right that Reginal was one of the Yondersun chiefs. It seemed to fit. I couldn’t imagine myself being a chief, but nor could I just refuse the opportunity without considering it. It would give me significant power, and it would mean I had even more of a say in what went on around here.

That was something to think about, but not today. Today, I had done enough thinking. I just wanted to go to my dungeon, settle in my core chamber, and read a book or listen to one of Gulliver’s stories. To just let my mind rest for a while and think of nothing.

When I got to my dungeon, though, I got the feeling that it wasn’t quite time for rest.

The whole lair was silent. Not a single voice drifted through the tunnels. Something was wrong here.

Using my core vision, I saw that all my dungeon mates were in the loot chamber. All the mana lamps were extinguished, and they appeared to be crouching down, holding their breath, and trying to stay as quiet as possible.

What in the name of the underworlds was going on?

Cautiously, I floated through the passageways and tunnels until I reached the loot chamber.

“Right, you bunch of miscreants, you better explain just what in all hells is going-”

“Surprise!” cried a multitude of voices.

Mana lamps flickered to life one by one, and I saw that someone had put a banner on the chamber wall. It read: ‘Happy Rebirthday Day, Dark Lord!’

In the center of the chamber were piles of book-shaped, wrapped gifts, as well as a flattering portrait of me floating above the corpse of a fallen hero.

“You bloody soft-hearted fools,” I said. “You did this for me? You knew when my resurrection day was?”

“You didn’t think we’d forget, did you?” said Gulliver. “It’s not every day a guy can mark the anniversary of when he was brought back to life. Have a rest and enjoy yourself for a while, Beno. You earned it.”

End of Book 5

Dungeon Core Academy: Book 6

CHAPTER 1

“Folks are going missing every day. I’m bloody sick of waiting for something to be done about it!” he shouted, pounding his fist on the table.

I took the liberty of translating what the trader said, because he’d stuffed a pie in his mouth before speaking. It’d be nice if people finished chewing before they talked. So what if this was a dungeon? We didn’t need to forget our manners.

Then again, describing it as a dungeon was pretty generous right now. If heroes wandered into my lair today, they’d think they’d taken a wrong turn somewhere.

The loot chamber, usually home to furious hero-monster battles, boasted a twenty-feet-long oak table. I’d bought it from a carpenter in Yondersun. A flower-pattern cloth was spread over the table. Dozens of mana lamps lined the walls, glowing silver and white so they looked like stars.

Brecht, my kobold bard, tapped his tambourine and sang songs about disgusting concepts like hope, peace, and love. My blood-soaked loot chamber was a horribly pleasant place today, and I hated it.

I also hated entertaining. If I didn’t need these traders’ influence in the upcoming Yondersun elections, I’d have been more likely to feed them to my monsters than to feed their bellies.

“They say a little girl is the latest to go,” said one trader. “Poor lass.”

A gnome, his chin hair into three oiled forks, nodded. “Vanishing out of thin air, I ‘erd. What a nasty business. Makes you scared to leave your house! Can’t we be left to make money in peace, eh? That’s the tragedy of it all.”

“And the girl. That’s a tragedy too.”

“Yeah, yeah, and her. That’s a given, obviously. But think of all the gold we’ll lose if this carries on…”

“Damn it! If the chiefs were in charge of the sun, we’d have a month of nighttime.”

“That ain’t everything. Rumors are that corpses are being stolen.”

“What?”

“Heard it from a rug merchant. He’d just come back from Hogsfeate, where they’re having to post night guards on graveyards. Some sicko is stealing corpses!”

“Makes me scared to leave my bloody latrine, never mind my house! And now I find myself in a dungeon, of all places.”

“I’m sure our friend Beno has a good reason for persuading us to join him here.”

I listened to them prattle on, and it took every ounce of self-control not to unleash a swarm of deadly hornets on them. Did they never shut up about money? Was all they cared about their stupid coin purses?

If only I had