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

Eric nodded. “Most people try and cram three days into one. They live for yesterday, tomorrow, and spend whatever’s left of their energy on today. Barbarians are taught differently. It ain’t all just shouting and killing.”

“And having glorious hair,” said Shadow, who had been silent and looked thoughtful up to now.

“Aye. That too.”

“Maybe if I’d been cleverer,” I said, “I’d have avoided my first death. Or postponed it, at least. I’d still be out in Xynnar somewhere, living as a man. I don’t know. The academy doesn’t tell us cores how we died. I suppose I wouldn’t have avoided death forever.”

“None of us do.”

Shadow looked at me. “Are you saying you don’t care about the past, Beno?”

“I’m saying I’m not here to understand the world better. Just to understand how to help my friend. Somewhere in this crater, four people were murdered. I’m sure of it.”

“Or are you just hoping that’s true?” said Shadow.

“I wish people would give Gary the benefit of the doubt.”

“I never thought I would kill…” she began and then stopped.

I knew what she was thinking. Redjack.

Funny. Shadow had killed plenty of heroes on my orders. Orders she couldn’t refuse, because I had created her.

Then Anna had seized control of her mind and forced her to kill Redjack, a fellow kobold.

Anna and I had both controlled Shadow’s mind, in a way. Me with my creator-creature link, Anna with her powers. Could I really say I was any better than Anna? After all, we both gave orders. We both denied monsters a choice in the matter.

“Looks like we aren’t alone,” said Eric.

A bunch of Yondersun children were playing on the crater. Two little gnomes boys and an orc girl. They were on their knees, scrabbling in the dirt. They’d made a pile of rocks beside them, almost taller than they were.

“Seems dangerous,” I said. “They’re a long way from town.”

Eric shrugged. “At their age, I was fighting bears.”

“If anyone else had said that, I’d have called them a liar.”

“They were teddy bears to be fair,” said Eric.

I floated on ahead, reaching the children before Eric and Shadow. Up close, I saw that it wasn’t a game. They were digging as if their lives depended on it. Scooping great handfuls of pebbles and rocks and mud. Piling it next to them.

One of the gnome boys kept talking to the ground.

“We can hear ya! We’re coming for ya!”

“You kids shouldn’t be so far from town,” I said.

“It’s the core!” said a gnome boy, pointing. An adult town person might have been pointing in fear, but this was different. The kids were happy to see me.

I didn’t like that one bit. Demons below, I was really losing my touch if I couldn’t even scare children anymore!

The orc girl beckoned me over. She had a big steel spike through her earlobe, as was orcish tradition. Course, real orc tradition dictated that the tip be coated with poison. So the wearer always had the means to end their own life if they were captured by their enemies. Back when that custom was relevant, their enemies were various gnome tribes.

Yondersun was living proof such things belonged in the past. Wars like that were over. The tradition was more symbolic than anything. By making her wear it, the orc girl’s parents were saying, ‘We’re glad the wars of the past are over, but we won’t forget tradition.’

“Come here, Mr. Core,” the orc girl said. “You can help her.”

“Her?”

The girl pointed at the hole.

“She’s stuck. Down there.”

The hole was just about big enough for a kid to fit through if they sucked in their belly. I couldn’t see how far it went. Only that it was dark. There were cavern systems spread throughout the wasteland, right under everyone’s feet. I didn’t need to be a geologist to know that. In fact, being a core put me at a distinct advantage. I spent most of my day directing mining operations under the ground.

“Right,” said Eric as he and Shadow caught up. “What the bloody hell are you kids messing with?”

“We heard a girl in the hole.”

“In the what, now?”

“Down there, Mr. Barbarian! There’ a girl down there.”

Eric got on his knees. He pressed his ear to the hole.

“Can’t hear a bloody thing.”

“She’s there! We promise.”

It would have been easy to dismiss the children. Think they were playing games or just hearing things. But too many adults treated children like they were imbeciles. As if they weren’t just like adults only younger, but instead were idiots who would walk into a burning lava pit if you didn’t stop them.

“Hello?” bellowed Eric. “Little girl?”

Like most barbarians, Eric had a voice that could knock over an elephant if he shouted loud enough. It was a barbarian thing. Something to do with their vocal cords, I supposed. There was probably mana involved too, though I’d never heard of a barbarian being attuned enough to access it at will. Mostly, their voice powers seemed to work only when they were in battle.

“Keep it down,” I said. “If there is a girl down there, you’ll get her killed.”

“Killed how?”

“The hole looks like it drops way too far to climb down through, so she got down there another way. There are miles of caves under the wasteland. The slightest noise could disturb them, bring the whole thing crashing down on her head.”

“Can you help her, Mr. Core?” said the orc girl.

“I’ll try.”

“I knew you would! You’re not as cruel as Dad says.”

“Your dad is an idiot.”

I used my core voice now, so the kids couldn’t hear. No point scaring them. “Shadow, while I deal with this, I want you to make a lap of the crater. Try and find any sign that