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

“Got it.”

“Look for blood, a weapon, that kind of thing.”

“Thank you for the clarification. When looking for signs of murder, I was going to see if I can find any discarded picnic baskets.”

“Get out of my sight, you bloody rogue.”

Shadow stalked off, head bent and taking soft steps. Not that she needed to be quiet. I supposed it was just ingrained into her to sneak. All rogues were like that. I’d heard a story of a rogue who was delivering food to his grandmother’s house. He couldn’t help sneaking inside, and ended up scaring her to death.

I turned my attention to the children. While Shadow checked out the crater, I saw an opportunity. If a girl was stuck underground, then odds were that she was the kid who’d gone missing recently.

I could get her back, find out why she’d gone missing, and maybe put a stop to it. Then, when I proved to everyone that Gary hadn’t killed those people, all my problems would be solved.

“How sure are you that a girl’s down there?” I said.

“We heard her!”

“Okay, stop moving stones. We need to be very careful here. First, you all need to get back.”

“You’re going to help?” said the orc.

“I told you I’ll try.”

“I knew it! Ma and pa were wrong!” said a gnome boy. “He isn’t evil after all!”

“I am,” I said. “But there are different flavors of evil. Some are more palatable than others.”

“What’s a palate?”

“Forget it. Eric, can you keep an eye on these three?”

“Babysitting, Beno? I’m a bloody barbarian.”

“And?”

“We haven’t discussed terms of service. Wages. And I’ll need a room in the Scorched Scorpion paid for by my expenses. Last time, I slept on your dungeon floor. I don’t know if it was the stone or the cold, but my back was playing up for weeks.”

“I never asked you to come here, Eric. I seem to remember that you left my employ because a monster scared you.”

“Not to mention I broke my bloody leg and didn’t get a single coin in hazard pay!”

“I paid for Cynthia to use a web casting on your leg. Without it, your leg would have healed cock-eyed, if it healed at all. Way I see it, injuries are part of a barbarian’s job. You don’t see stable boys asking for more pay because they had to touch a horse.”

“I really need to start building a retirement pot,” said Eric. “I’ve had enough of this. Fine, Core. We’ll work the details out later. Kids, come over here. I’ll show you my scars. Each one’s got a story worse than the last.”

The hole was big enough for me to float through with an inch to spare. A lone ray of sunlight lit the way for a good twenty feet, and by then I was too deep for the light to penetrate. Luckily, as a core forged for life underground, I didn’t have much of a problem with the dark.

As I’d thought, there was a cave system under the crater. I emerged into a cavern almost as big as my loot chamber. Various tunnels sprouted off in all directions. Ten of them. Some so small a rat would struggle to get through, others large enough for a man to walk into.

There was a sense of age down here. Of lots of time passing by completely unnoticed. These caves wouldn’t have heard the noise of a footstep in millennia. Until today, that was. If the kids were right.

I looked around, but there was no sign of a girl. I amplified my core senses. I smelled dust. Chalk. A hint of water. And then sweat.

Something was here. Whether it was a girl or not, I didn’t know. But it was there, and it was sweating.

“My name is Beno,” I said, quietly. “I’m from Yondersun, just like you. You’ve probably seen me around. You don’t have to be afraid, despite what your stupid parents might have told you about me. I’m here to get you out.”

My words echoed away, before trailing into silence.

And then something stirred in one of the shadowy tunnels.

Shadow had circled the crater once and was beginning her second lap. Eric was way across from her. The kids were sitting in front of him and smiling at the gentle giant. He was pointing at a big scar on his left bicep. Telling a story that seemed very animated, and had the kids looking enthralled. He’d told the real story to Shadow; he’d cut himself falling through a shop window when he was drunk.

So far, she’d found nothing but yellow pebbles. Interesting, in a way. Beno seemed like he didn’t care about the world’s past, but she would have liked to have spoken to the geologists and asked a few things. Like if different parts of the world had different rocks, and why that was so.

The furthest she’d been away from the dungeon was the town Hogsfeate, but there wasn’t much to see there. And she hadn’t had time, what with being sent to murder someone. There was a whole world, and she’d spent most of it in a dungeon.

She heard stones shifting.

“That her! That’s the bloody rat who got me walloped!”

The voice came from her left.

A group of people were approaching. Geologists in their dirt-smeared smocks. A party of guards, one of whom had an enormous purple lump on his head. And then a tall man with a tidy beard and oil-groomed blonde hair. The one they called Riston.

“Where’s Beno?” said Riston.

Shadow shrugged.

“The geologists say they’re being harassed. They pay good money to study in the wasteland. They don’t expect to be harangued by a core and his monsters.”

Shadow was going to answer with a cruel barb. Something really sarcastic that she hadn’t thought of yet, but it