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

this was just an exercise in administration. A tiresome task to get out of the way so that they could send me, a failed graduate, on my way, and then get busy with preparing for the Battle of the Five Stars.

If this went the way I had planned, they were in for a surprise.

Two formally-dressed kobolds carefully chipped a tiny fragment from Aethos and placed it on the scale.

The chamber hushed.

The scales whirred to life.

Light washed over the marble, lighting the numerals. One, two, three... all the way to the fifth symbol, where it stopped.

Aethos was a MidFoundation core. I had to admit, I was impressed. Jahn was an Ancient core, centuries-old and made from the original gemstone. Not forged in the academy, but brought to being in some mystical way that overseers had never figured out. As such, his core quality was ranked Ancient.

For Aethos to score MidFoundation was very impressive. Especially since I had been a normal man, as far as I knew. The overseers had never mentioned anything lacking in my old life, other than the fact that I managed to get myself killed. In fact, I must have been a remarkable person in some way, for them to even decide to forge me as a dungeon core. Even with that, my core quality was only Base. Aethos was really something.

Unfortunately, I was going to make a chump out of him.

“Beno,” said Tarnbuckle, with a hint of a smile on his lips. “no need to measure your core quality. We already know, do we not?”

“Your own rules state that each core must be measured on the same day. My quality must be evaluated again.”

He looked at me with frustration. “Why not save a slither of dignity, Core Beno? Is it not bad enough the child wets his bed? Does he need to hold up his soggy sheets for all to see?”

I could cheerfully have spawned a five-headed gargoyle and had it tear Tarnbuckle’s head off right then. We were underground, after all. I could use essence here. It was just a shame that every core and overseer in the room would immediately rise against me, and I’d be dead before a gnat could blink.

So instead, I gritted my metaphorical teeth and reminded myself that soon, he’d be the one looking foolish.

“You rules state I have to be tested today, so that is what we’ll do.”

“Very well,” said Tarnbuckle, and coughed at the kobolds.

The creatures cut a small fragment from the base of my core body, and carefully placed it on the scales. I prayed that the gemstone dust we’d taken from Jahn would do the trick.

The scale began to work and the numerals lit up.

The first symbol glowed blue.

Tarnbuckle walked in front of the podium. “And there you have it, Core Beno scores a core quality of one. He is just a Base core. It is clear that our next sponsoree in the Battle of the Five Stars will be…”

He stopped talking, noticing that Overseer Yuren was pointing.

The etchings on the marble had carried on glowing, all the way to six, where they stopped.

Six symbols. That meant I was an UpperFoundation-ranked core!

Or it would have, if I hadn’t cheated.

A cackle escaped my lips. I couldn’t help it. It was the same kind of laugh I’d normally give after slaughtering a bunch of heroes. A completely involuntary reaction.

Tarnbuckle looked horrified. “There must be some mistake! Reset the scales and try again.”

“I checked the new regulations written into the academy code of conduct,” I said. “It’s quite clear. The core quality test can only be administered once in our evaluation.”

Tarnbuckle opened his mouth, but Bolton interrupted him. “It’s true. I checked them, also.”

The head overseer looked like he was going to explode. I felt a much larger laugh build up inside me when I thought about how we’d done it.

The night before, we had cut just a sliver of gemstone from Jahn, crushed it up, and spread it on me using a transparent bonding paste. That was enough to confuse the golden scales.

However, I was lucky that the test wasn’t being administered again. Every time Bolton and I tested it the previous night, the paste had resulted in a different reading, ranging from two to seven. I was fortunate that today’s reading had been six.

Tarnbuckle stormed out of the chamber, no doubt to collect his temper and to resign himself to having to come back out here and announced to everyone I was going to be sponsored by the academy.

I didn’t mind waiting. It would make it all the sweeter when the announcement was made. So, I stayed on the stage with the academy cores and overseers all looking upon me in awe. Or at least, that was how I chose to interpret their expressions.

When Tarnbuckle came back, he didn’t look as glum as I’d expected.

Worse, he had a big, thick book in his hand.

A book I knew well.

He stood in the center of the stage and waited for a babble of core voices to quieten. Then, he opened the book and read from it.

“When an ex-core has failed to contribute to the alumni fund and has also failed to attend alumni night events, it can be considered that he is no longer associated with the Dungeon Core Academy.”

He let his words trail off, leaving a silence. All I could do was brood on what he had said.

A technicality. He had me on a bloody technicality. I didn’t need to read the book to know he was telling the truth. I vaguely recalled something about alumni fees and events.

I hadn’t contributed to the alumni fund, nor had I visited alumni night events. Why would I? Those things sounded boring. The fact was, I’d never intended to associate with the