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

Here we go, I thought.

I floated to the side of the chamber, so I couldn’t be accused of manipulating the trap in any way. From there, I watched it.

The reanimated took five steps before standing on a pressure plate. Pretty standard core stuff. We learned about pressure plates in Traps 101.

From a hidden recess in the ceiling, a giant metal rod swung out on a pivot. At the end of the rod was the head of the shovel. It slammed into the corpse’s arse at such a speed that it lifted into the air.

When the corpse was in mid-air, it tore through a line of fishing wire, triggering two more ceiling recesses. The first covered the corpse in oil, and the second spat down thousands of feathers.

Soon, the corpse was covered head-to-toe in chicken feathers, like some kind of bipedal zombie poultry.

Blinded by the oil, it shambled to and fro, soon stepping on yet another pressure plate, which released a scythe, scissoring the corpse in half.

I wasn’t proud of the trap by any means. The humor wasn’t my style, and neither was the means of death. But that didn’t matter. At least it had worked.

From outside the chamber came the sound of an overseer laughing. Overseer Yuren, who had the sense of humor of a child and was just as easily entertained.

“Excellent, Beno,” he said. “Excellent stuff.”

The blue and green cores were eliminated from the trap round, which left just me and Grey. In almost any task, I would have liked those odds, but I knew what was coming next.

The core quality test. The one I’d scored the lowest ranking on. The one that told me I had a core that ranked in quality with a diseased rat.

The quality test was to take place the next morning. Bolton, Jahn, Gulliver, Shadow, Anna, and I were given rooms in the academy. Gulliver decided to spend the night chatting to the overseers in their lounge, where they were happy to entertain a world-renowned scribe. In exchange for getting their names mentioned in his next book, of course.

Shadow kept to herself, as she often did these days. No doubt she was missing her pups, who were more like wolves now they were fully grown. She hated having to leave them behind. Anna was in the chamber next door, staying true to her word and studying the books that Bolton had given her, which would add to her education as a Chosen One.

That left Bolton, Jahn, and I gathered in my chamber. Bolton, being the only human, was sitting on the bed. I was floating, and Jahn was resting on a pedestal.

We were staring at the marble podium in the center of the room, on top of which rested a golden scale.

“I had to pull every favor owed to me to have the academy kobolds bring this here and keep quiet about it,” said Bolton.

“I appreciate it. Do you think there is any way we can manipulate it during the test?”

“I doubt it. I spoke to Overseer Yuren, and they’re all very excited about this thing. Not only does it evaluate a person’s potential core quality before committing to forging them into a core, but the test is beyond reproach. Completely spell proof.”

“If we can’t tamper with the instrument of measurement,” I said, “perhaps we can mess with the subject of measurement.”

Bolton looked at me strangely. “Explain.”

“Jahn,” I said. “Will you let Bolton measure your core quality?”

“I suppose so, Beno. But I don’t...”

“Don’t what?”

“I don’t want you to feel bad, old pal.”

In my inner core, I smiled at Jahn. “Don’t worry about me.”

Bolton placed Jahn on the golden scale. Blue light washed around the marble pedestal, and the symbols on the front began to illuminate.

While my core had lit just one symbol, Jahn’s made one after another flash with blue light. One, two, three…all the way to the eighth marking.

A sole quality of eight! I had scored just one, marking me a base-core. As an Ancient, Jahn was seven places above me on the ladder.

“I told you this was a bad idea, Beno. I didn’t want to make you feel bad.”

“You didn’t, Jahn. It’s not you that’s made me feel bad, even if I do feel pretty crappy. It’s the test itself. Never mind. Bolton, how long do we have with this thing before the kobolds have to take it back?”

“An hour or two.”

“Then we better figure out how it works so we can cheat it.”

“Is that possible, Beno?” asked Jahn.

“Bolton?” I said.

“Yuren said it is magic proof… but that doesn’t mean it is tamperproof. Just like how you could place your finger on a scale to make the measurement look heavier, we should be able to tinker with the golden scale. But according to what Yuren told me, will need to chip a few flakes from Jahn’s core.”

“Are you sure you’re okay with this, Jahn?” I asked.

“If you think it will help...”

The next morning, Tarnbuckle gathered me and the grey core back in the main chamber. This time, all the other overseers and some senior core students were present. No doubt they were here to see Grey massively outscore me in core quality, and thus get the sponsorship.

The golden scale and marble podium were dragged into the chamber by Tarnbuckle’s kobolds, who huffed and wheezed at the weight. The head overseer proudly adjusted his necklace medallion and then addressed the audience.

“We will begin with Aethos, esteemed student of the Dungeon Core Academy. A core already in possession of five separate offers of employment from some of the finest armies in the land.”

A few cheers rose from the crowd, quite out of keeping with the dignified air the overseers had tried to foster. No doubt everyone present thought