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

“Excuse me?” I said to a woman walking by, trying my hardest to be polite.

She ignored me.

I focused on a guy who had a sack full of rubble in his hand.

“I need to ask you something…”

Too late. He was already gone.

Eric grabbed the collar of an older geologist, wrenching him off his feet. He dropped a pickaxe and yelped.

“My friend wants a word,” said Eric.

The geologist didn’t look like most academics. Tanned skin, burned so many times by the sun that it made an elephant’s arse look supple. Lean arms. Not much muscle, but no fat at all. Lots of little cuts and nicks on his skin, maybe from those teeny hammers they used.

“We pay levies to Yondersun to study here,” said the geologist. “We have every right to work without interruption. Now, if you’ll excuse me…”

“I’m sorry about my friend. He doesn’t know his own strength,” I said.

“I do,” said Eric. “It’s tremendous.”

“We have a question, that’s all,” I said.

“We’re busy!” huffed the geologist. “We just found rock garments from the Hetaeric era! Don’t you know what that means?”

“I don’t have the slightest idea.”

“It means I don’t have time to listen to you prattle. I’m sorry if I sound rude, but this is a big deal!”

“No problem,” I said. “I’ll let you play with your pebbles, but I just needed your expertise to identify where a certain rock came from. Of course, if you don’t think you have the knowledge…if you can’t do it…that’s fine.”

“Let’s not talk silly. I have more experience than the rest of these young whelps put together,” he said, gesturing at the geologists around him. They were, indeed, young whelps compared to him.

“Prove it then,” I said.

“Fine, let’s see it,” he said stretching out his hand. “Come on. The rock.”

“Shadow?”

Shadow took a glass vial from her satchel. It was a quarter full of little specks of dirt she’d taken from the shoes of the four dead people. I’d noticed it when I was in the bakery yesterday. With the angry mob and all the trouble that followed, I couldn’t look closer. It only stuck out to be because the specks of rock were almost fluorescent yellow, whereas ground in and around Yondersun was orange and brown.

The geologist held it up to his eye. “Are you trying to insult me?”

“Sorry?”

“A child could tell you where this comes from. There’s a crater two miles east. The rocks are deontic. Bring me something harder next time. Or don’t. I am very busy.”

“And that’s the only place it could come from?”

He scoffed as if it was obvious to anyone, even non-geologists. “Of course.”

“Thanks for your help. Congratulations on the big discovery.”

We left the geologists to celebrate whatever great finding they’d uncovered. I was much more interested in what this meant.

So was Eric, apparently.

“What does this mean?” he said.

“We found dirt on the dead guys’ boots. The dirt came from the crater. That means the four people who died must have been to the crater,” I said. “And it must have been not long before they died.”

“Ah of course…” said Eric. “No, I don’t follow you.”

I’d say one thing for Eric; he was always honest. Even in his failings. We could all learn from him.

“It means that it’s not unreasonable to suggest those people died in the crater, and not in town. And that they were moved to the bakery afterward. We can’t say for definite, but there’s a chance.”

Eric, who was unnecessarily shirtless today just as he was every day, crossed his arms. “And why does it matter where they snuffed it?”

Shadow answered him. “It fits in with Beno’s theory that whoever is kidnapping townsfolk, also murdered those four people. Then they dragged them to the bakery, got Gary drunk, and left him to take the blame.”

“People are being kidnapped?” said Eric.

“I’ll explain on the way to the crater,” I said. “First, I want to ask Shadow something.”

“I’m an open book.”

“That’s a good one, Little Wolf,” said Eric.

“Exactly. What a load of nonsense. Anyway, I detect some cynicism about Gary from you,” I said. “Do you think he did it?”

Shadow took her time before answering. That wasn’t like her. Normally, she just spat whatever words came to mind. Usually sarcastic ones. I supposed she’d been acting differently lately.

“I think that just because an explanation sounds nicer, doesn’t mean it’s the truth,” she said.

“You think Gary did it?”

“Anything can happen, Beno. I am proof of that, after what I did.”

“What Anna made you do,” I said.

“Same thing.”

The crater was a depression in the wasteland soil. It was maybe a quarter of a kilometer in circumference. The surface rocks were colored bright yellow, almost like little pebbles holding sunlight inside them. Disgustingly bright, in my opinion. Darkness is always better. There’s a reason all the best spells are called dark magic and not bright magic.

“Makes you wonder, doesn’t it?” said Eric. “This world we live on. Stones that were here before we were. They’ll still be here when we’re gone. Funny how those geologist lads can look at these stones and understand everything better.”

“Not everything. And just knowing more about the world doesn’t change its natural course. You live, you die. If I’d have been cleverer in my first life, would I have avoided dying?” I said.

“Living’s mostly about luck. Trust me. The roll of a dice. Either the arrow hits you, or the wind carries it away. Either you manage to get your horses to stop before they run you over the cliff, or you pull on the reins just a second too late. You can study as far back as a million years, and all that will ever matter is