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

with little sense of humor, as Riston had already observed. You couldn’t pry a joke out of this shriveled old gasbag.

Oh well. Riston was an Awakener. It wasn’t his job to tell jokes. He had his duties, and it was just as well he stuck to them.

“Yes, it’s done,” he answered. “And a hello might be nice next time. You always psyche-talk at the worst possible times, do you know that?”

He regretted what he said. Not because he feared his master, but because talking back just made things worse.

Maybe if I answer his questions and get him out of my head quickly, I can have an hour or two of reading time before I’m needed again…

“Good, Awakener,” said the voice. “Tell me. Why do you not plant a trigger in all of his monsters? It would ensure his destruction much faster.”

“Oh, is it that easy?” said Riston.

Silence.

They had no sense of humor, and no time for sarcasm either. Even though all they had was time, they had no time for anything.

Trying to be empathetic, Riston supposed that if he’d woken up after centuries of slumber, he might be impatient, too. Maybe a little ratty.

“Using powerful magic like that,” said Riston, “Casting my mind across such a wide distance…it takes a ridiculous effort. And this one’s mind was better protected than I expected. Some kind of alchemic brew, no doubt.”

“I thought you were more powerful than this, Awakener.”

Awakener.

What a job title.

It wasn’t long ago that Riston was engaged. Teaching at the East Imperial Mage College. Not the most exotic of lives, and he’d always wished for more.

And then more came in the form of a dormant duty awakening in him.

All puns intended.

His old life was gone before he knew it. He was an Awakener now. Not by choice, but by destiny. The thing about destiny was that it was a real ball-ache. Riston’s fiancé was gone, his job was gone, his boring old life was gone.

He should have been happy. A higher calling, a reason to be special, was all he’d ever wanted.

Now, he missed the boredom. Missed Leona. Hated the fact that Awakeners could not be married, could not live normal lives.

But there was no way out of his duty. He knew because he’d tried everything. Read every book he could. There were no answers.

He was an Awakener, and he had a master to serve, and that was that.

His only hope now was to get this all over with as quickly as possible. If he did, maybe there was a chance he wouldn’t be too late to get his old life back.

“You swayed the townsfolk, did you not?” said his master. “Why would controlling monsters give you more trouble?”

Ah, the people of Yondersun who had fallen so easily under his control.

Sure, it looked impressive at first glance. A great use of psyche-magery. The reality…not so much.

“Their minds were easy to seize,” said Riston. “Think of their minds like boulders perched at the top of a hill. They need a force to set them going. The corpses, the big spider monster, their suspicions of the core…those were the forces. And once they set the boulder rolling downhill, the momentum did the rest. I only needed to use my powers a little to bring them under my sway. The core’s monsters are different. He is their creator, and his bond with them is great. As well as that, they are devoted to him. Breaking one of their minds took all of my mana. I mean, look at me. I’m in my nightclothes, and I’m drinking lukewarm nettle tea. Does that not say that I need a rest?”

“Rest? You speak to me of rest? All I know is rest!”

“Exactly. So you understand the importance of a good night’s sleep. Too little of it and your mind erodes. I don’t want to end up like those demented old mages who cast spells by accident. The ones they keep in mana-proof sanitoriums. A good night’s sleep is important.”

“Your job is to be an Awakener.”

“And sometimes Awakeners need sleep. The trigger is planted, and things are under control. Or they will be. Now kindly, ancient one…push off and let me relax.”

CHAPTER 15

It took a quick conversation with Morphant, my Hogsfeate mimic, to set the plan in place. A quick conversation…repeated again and again, until I was sure Morphant knew what we were doing, why, and what orders he needed to issue to the heroes’ guild.

“How’s your mimicry of Pvat going? Do the heroes suspect anything?” I asked him.

Morphant gave an irritated sigh. “Their brains are swill, Dark Lord. They think I am their leader. When I appear in Pvat’s form, they fall over themselves to kiss my rump.”

“Good. I’m trusting you with this.”

“I will repay that trust.”

“How are you feeling?” I said. “You know, after what happened to Kargot?”

Morphant was quiet for a moment. I knew why, and I cursed myself for having the sensitivity of a drunk troll.

While living in his mimic form of Sir Dullbright, who used to be mayor of Hogsfeate, Morphant had become good friends with a beggar woman. He used to take her back to Dullbright’s mansion, much to the scandal of the town nobles.

But Pvat - before he got what he deserved - had murdered her. He’d used a mage named Hardere to seize control of Morphant, and then he’d tried to make the town his own.

Luckily, I had come to an arrangement with Mage Hardere. He’d given Morphant back to me, but with a new form to mimic: Pvat, head of the heroes’ guild.

Acting as Pvat, and following my orders, Morphant helped Hardere become head of Hogsfeate. It was annoying because when Morphant had been pretending to be Dullbright, Hogsfeate was my town. I controlled