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

And it wasn’t such a big deal that I told Bolton that Riston hadn’t chased me out of my dungeon. I told him that I had decided to come here, to the caverns. That was why I had left the dungeon. On a quest to find out what was happening.

I knew it was wrong to lie. It was uncore-like.

Well, damn me if I’m not a bag of flaws. Floating there, speaking to my old mentor, I just couldn’t admit how badly I had messed up.

“It makes sense,” said Bolton.

“It does?”

“It’s obvious, no?”

“What is?”

“Riston and the core are working together.”

“We haven’t even met this core. How can we assume that?”

“The core is making the insects. Riston is using his mind spells to control them. Together, he and the core are using the insects to make wraiths. The question is, why?”

I thought about it. It made a lot of sense, actually. There wasn’t much doubt I could throw on it.

“I suppose we better go talk to this core, then,” I said.

“No.”

“What?”

“We go away, Beno. We strategize, and then we come back, prepared.”

“Nope. We go find it right now.”

“That isn’t very core like of you, Beno. I taught you better. I taught all you cores the same; fail to plan…”

“Plan to fail. I know a certain barbarian’s grandfather who says the same thing. But you think it’s uncore-like for me to want to hit this insect-spawning bastard right now? That’s where you’re wrong, Bolton. Your humanity is showing.”

“Excuse me?”

“I know cores better than anyone. And I know that this core is out of essence. It’s not a threat to us while its insects are sleeping and it has no essence. If we wait, its essence will regenerate.”

“That’s a lot to assume. Assuming makes-”

“Makes an arse out of you. Yep, I know a trader who says the same thing.”

“You seem to know a lot of sayings these days, Beno.”

“What can I tell you? I became a people person. I started to listen.”

“And now your humanity is showing.”

I gave a grim laugh. “It was. Almost too much, and then not enough. Now? I might be somewhere in between, I don’t know and I don’t care. All I know is that we’re in this core’s loot chamber, and he’s doing nothing. That means he’s out of essence. He’s not holding back, he’s not plotting. When enemies reach a core’s loot chamber, he throws everything at them. Right now, after we’ve dealt with his insects, this core’s doing nothing but sitting on his core arse.”

Bolton chewed his lip and nodded vigorously, deep in thought.

Finally, he said, “Perhaps it’s been too long since I was a core. Maybe you are right, Beno. We should go visit this core. It will be in its chamber, no doubt.”

CHAPTER 20

There are thousands of ways a core can set out his dungeon. A trap here. A puzzle room there. Plenty of variations, but most conform to a few general layouts. Kind of like chess strategies; though different individual moves can be made, there is an overall tactic to follow. Unless you’re a crummy player, of course. As indeed, there are crummy cores.

As an ex-student of the dungeon core academy, I knew all the layouts. I was certain that leading out from this core’s loot chamber, there would be a tunnel that’d eventually take us to the core chamber. And there, we’d meet the lovely person who owned this place.

Bolton and the two annoying Chosen One gits had joined us in the loot chamber via a false door. It stood to reason that there were other hidden doors. We spent a while trying to find them all until we had uncovered three.

“Three doors,” said Eric. “And one of these will lead to the bore chamber?”

“Core chamber. Yes.”

“And the other doors will take us to places full of swinging scythes, falling lava, and hungry monsters, no doubt.”

“Your barbarian instincts are beyond reproach.”

“So what’s the scoop?” said Gulliver. “Do we split up and each try and different route?”

Eric shook his head. “Stupidest thing you can do in a tomb is to split up. Trust me. It’s up there with slapping a bull’s arse in terms of moronic things. In fact, there’s a book I once read that mentioned splitting up. 50 Stupid Things to Do in a Dungeon.”

“I wrote that!” said Gulliver.

I was pleased to see Gull looking well. He’d been on death’s door when Shadow cut him. Now, he wasn’t exactly in peak condition. But he was maybe a few paces away from death’s front stoop. As long as he didn’t take a step forward, that was good. Besides, death’s house was messy and overcrowded. And I heard he served biscuits that were harder than bricks.

Maginhart had managed to seal Gulliver’s leg wound, and it seemed that he hadn’t lost as much blood as we’d feared. I was beyond relieved. As a core, I never thought I’d feel that way about a human in a dungeon. After all, it was my job to slaughter them.

Cynthia had given him a tincture to perk him up. Now, he was walking, but he needed support. Since Eric was the strongest of us all, he had the job. He wasn’t all too happy about it, given their recent differences.

“What? Come off it,” said Eric. “You didn’t write that book.”

“Seriously, I did! Bloody hell, that was years ago. I’d barely finished my apprenticeship.”

“Why’d you suggest splitting up, then? Splitting up is number 16 in the list of stupidest things to do. Don’t you read your own stuff, you hack?”

“It was a ghost-writing job. An old hero paid me to write it.”

I glared at Gulliver. Though I don’t have eyes, people