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

go to all the trouble of being his Awakener, of messing around in town for him, trying to get things ready for when he was strong enough to come out. And he doesn’t even consider you as a friend. You didn’t think any of us would leave the dungeon alive, did you? Even after we dealt with your insects. You thought Ray would finish us off.”

“You met Wreithintzo?”

“Met him, said hello, killed him.”

“Impossible! He’s an ancient one! You’re just a lump of rock.”

“Ray doesn’t look much better than me these days. If you go to his dungeon with a broom, maybe you can sweep him up into a nice big pile.”

I looked around now. What was taking Eric and Shadow so long?

Riston took a step forward.

“You are nothing,” he said. “A pale imitation of a core. Just a man who was weak enough to get killed, and got forged into a core. Your immortality doesn’t suit you, Beno. The fit isn’t right. Dress a cow in a suit of armor, but it’s still a cow.”

“I don’t think people do that to cows, Riston. Are you feeling yourself?”

A guard approached now. I recognized him. Bluenose. He liked to drink in the Scorched Scorpion and had a grudge against Gulliver for always beating him at cards.

“We found a kobold and a barbarian sneaking through town,” said Bluenose.

This wasn’t good.

“Interesting. Where are they?”

“Tied ‘em up. Put ‘em in Chopson’s butcher shop.”

“Good. I’ll visit them later, after I’ve finished with my current engagement.”

“Aye, I saw the core, Riston, sir. Remembered what you’d told me if he ever came to town. Brought this for you. Just like you always told us to, if the core came back.”

Bluenose handed Riston a sword.

Oh, hells.

It couldn’t have just been a normal sword, could it? I don’t mind those! They can’t hurt me!

Riston was holding a sword with a corespite blade. Bolton’s dagger had been enough to kill an already weakened core, but such a dagger would have been too small to kill a fairly healthy core like me.

But this horrible weapon?

If I was a man, I guessed my bladder would be feeling a little weak right now.

Eric and Shadow were captured. We’d left everyone else outside of town so we could do this quietly. After all, we hadn’t wanted to start a mass fight and risk townsfolk getting murdered.

I was alone, and Riston had a bloody big corespite sword.

He ran at me now. He was quicker than he looked. I floated to the side, but not fast enough.

His sword cleaved through me.

10% core purity lost!

New core purity: 61%

The blow sent me reeling

Demons arses, the pain! Damn Riston to the hottest fires of the underworlds!

The agony was searing. White light covered my vision as if I’d been struck by lightning. I felt myself crash into something, but I barely registered what it was.

I heard people talking. The townsfolk, maybe. Maybe someone else. I didn’t know. The voices seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere. All I could think about was the pain.

A corespite sword. One of the few things that could destroy a core.

My purity was down to 61. The lower it got, the weaker I’d be. When it reached the 10s, I’d look like Ray. Parts of me missing. The other parts cracked.

Close to my second death.

I’d come to Yondersun with my friends. My monsters.

I’d entered the gates with Shadow and Eric.

But now I was alone.

I didn’t have any essence left. And if I did, I couldn’t use it on the surface.

The plan had been stupid. Sure, the orb part had worked. It got us by the guards and into town. But then Riston had been ready for everything else.

He’d outthought me. A man had outmaneuvered a core.

My vision began to return to me.

Just in time to see Riston feet away. Getting closer.

He swung the sword.

I rolled to the side. The blade smashed into the decking of a lodge behind me. Wood splintered into the air.

“You can join the ancient ones, Beno. You aren’t a pure core, but they would accept you as a servant. They’ll accept you more than the humans ever would.”

He waited for me to answer.

I looked around, desperately searching for something that would help. Anything.

There was nothing.

“Well?”

Join the ancient ones. Assuming he was telling the truth, it would save me, sure. Maybe he was right. I was a man once, but I wasn’t anymore. I would never find true acceptance as a core.

But the ancient cores wouldn’t accept me, either. Ray’s snooty attitude had told me that. He saw me as lesser.

That was the truth of it, I finally realized. I wasn’t one thing or the other. Not human, and not a real core, either. That made me weaker than both sides.

Or did it?

Maybe it could make me stronger. I could think like a core and a human. Use my core essence powers but keep my humanity. Keep my emotions.

Maybe it wasn’t about whether the humans or the ancient cores would accept me. It was about asking myself who I accepted. Which side did I want to be on?

“Shove your sword up your arse,” I said.

“I’ll take that as a no, then.”

He swung the blade. It missed me by inches. Wedged into the support beam of the lodge’s outer pavilion.

I still didn’t have anything to use against him.

Riston was above me now. He held the sword high.

And then a gust of wind knocked him off his feet and sent him sprawling onto the ground.

“Evening!” said Anna. “Or is it morning? You’ve made it hard to tell, mage-guy. I don’t know if I should be sleeping or waking up!”

She ran into the middle of