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

“I understand your orders,” said Morphant. “We will be ready.”

I realized that he hadn’t answered my question about Kargot. I wasn’t going to push it. Morphant was like me, in a way. He wasn’t supposed to have feelings in his normal form. But when he mimicked a person, he had to experience emotions. There was no choice. It must have been hard for him.

So, I knew not to push it.

“Thank you, Morphant. See you tonight.”

“Good. I’m trusting you with this.”

The Dark Lord was trusting him.

Morphant didn’t think he’d hear those words again. Not after he’d failed Beno before.

This was his chance to make up for it. And it was simple; all he had to do was let a bunch of heroes get attacked. He would do it, and he’d make sure that if the Dark Lord trusted him again, he’d earned it.

It wasn’t so bad, mimicking the head of the heroes’ guild. Core Beno always drummed it into everyone that heroes were a horrible bunch of scumbags who’d rob the gold teeth from their granny’s mouth if they got the chance. He was exaggerating. They’d take one or two teeth at most.

Morphant had come to learn that there were all sorts of reasons that people became heroes. You had people who just needed a job. Little brothers who had something to prove. Guys and girls who were good with a sword and wanted to stick it in something. Folks who just wanted to feel alive, and needed the thrill of a dungeon to experience it. All kinds of motivations.

Morphant was enjoying being a hero…not that he’d ever tell that Dark Lord that. The last person he’d mimicked, Sir Dullbright, was an unpopular guy. So, while Morphant was mimicking him, he’d been unpopular, too. His only friend was…

No. He wouldn’t even think her name.

But mimicking Pvat was different. The heroes seemed to respect him. They might not like him all that much, but they respected him. People in town waved and smiled at Pvat. People had an inherent respect for heroes, even if they rarely did anything to deserve it. Somehow, they’d earned a reputation for gallantry and selfless acts, when nothing could be further from the truth. Heroism was a business. Killing monsters was done for profit, not charity.

But yes, he was enjoying acting as head of the heroes;’ guild, and he’d gotten to know some of the heroes within it. They weren’t all bad people.

So, it would be a lie to say he didn’t feel guilty that he was leading them into a trap, but his duty was to the Dark Lord.

He’d chosen eight of the town’s best heroes for tonight’s job. There was Peeping Will, Black Teeth, Rose, The Inferno, Jules, Penelope, Katana Ken, and Jessica. Eight heroes who couldn’t get any of the other Xynnar heroes guilds to take them on, so they’d ended up in Hogsfeate.

Peeping Will was scratching an itch on his neck. “Don’t see why we have to hide our armor,” he said. “Makes my eczema play up like hell.”

“Shut up, Will, you scab!”

“Yeah, stop complaining!”

Morphant, sitting at the front of the cart, guided the horses left a little. They were far away from Hogsfeate, but they needed to be further if they wanted to draw out the insects.

Course, the heroes didn’t know that.

“It’s part of the plan,” he told Peeping Will. “We can’t look like heroes.”

“But why?”

Morphant had already told them what Beno had told him to say.

But, as he was learning, heroes needed to be told everything twice.

“Because there are brigands in the area, and the traders have placed a bounty on their heads. I don’t need to tell you that the heroes’ guild plan on claiming it. If the brigands saw a bunch of strapping men and women like yourself wandering around with your swords out and your guild leathers showing, I don’t reckon they’d attack, would they?”

“Use your brain, Will,” said Penelope. She was drinking a bottle of beer. It was almost drained dry.

“Did you all douse your shields, as I asked?” said Morphant.

“We’re nothing if not obedient,” said Katana Ken. He didn’t own such a sword, of course. Nobody knew where the nickname came from, and Ken seemed to enjoy keeping the information a secret.

“Want to tell us why we had to rub oil all over our shields?” said Jessica.

Morphant remembered what Wylie had told him. Beno had sent the kobold to meet Morphant near Hogsfeate earlier that day, and he’d given him a few vials of a chemical that reeked like trout.

“It’s an experimental ointment,” said Morphant. “There’s a new alchemist in town. He wants a contract with the guild, and he gave us free samples.”

“What does it do?”

“If you get attacked, hold your shield up. But don’t bash anything with your shield. That’s important. You just hold the shield, let your attacker hit it. The chemical reacts on contact.”

“Again…what does it do?”

Morphant gave a sly grin. As a mimic, he knew Pvat’s physical tics, and this was something he did a lot. His sly smile.

“You’ll find out,” he said. “Remember what I said about swords?”

“Don’t draw them until you say.”

“Yes. This has to be done right. Do not so much as think about using your sword before I tell you.”

He couldn’t help but feel the heroes were a little suspicious of him. Katana Ken, especially, wouldn’t take his eyes off Morphant. But they followed his orders, and they stayed in the back of the wagon while he guided it away from Hogsfeate.

They were five miles away from town when the insects attacked.

Giant flies with wings the size of a tavern door. Hideous creatures that looked like they’d get rejected from the underworlds for looking too