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

the Raised Arrow emblem drawn on them. Only one or two held up completely blank placards. I wasn’t sure if that meant they were supporting me, or if they had simply forgotten to draw anything on the cards.

The Raised Arrow core and I took our places in the semicircle. Guided by the announcer, we prepared ourselves to fight.

“Core Beno,” said the core. “Hagmer greets you with honor.”

“Nice to meet you.”

“And he will crush you with honor, too.”

The announcer raised his hands in the air.

“Cores…please summon your monsters!”

This was it.

That morning, we had all gathered and listened to Shadow and what she had learned by sneaking into the Raised Arrow academy. Using that, we came up with a strategy that seemed rather obvious.

As such, I summoned two stone dwarf trolls and an angry elemental jelly cube. Summoning three monsters in the first round was a risk. But Shadow told us that the Academy of the Raised Arrow intended to use skeleton archers in rounds one and two. That meant was a simple matter of having the dwarf trolls draw the skeletons' attention and absorb the damage of their arrows.

Meanwhile, my elemental jellies cube would float across the arena and commit a surprise attack against the archers. The archers would struggle to fight the cube at close quarters. In the confusion, my trolls would cross the arena and pulverize them.

That was how it should have gone.

I summoned my trolls and jelly. However, the core opposite me didn’t conjure skeleton archers. Instead, he summoned a kobold shaman. Just one monster. No archers, nothing else.

This wasn’t good.

The announcer raised his hands again. He seemed rather fond of doing that. “Cores… prepare to fight!”

The announcer ran to the arena sidelines just as Hagmer’s kobold shaman planted a totem into the sand. I had barely begun to re-strategize with my trolls, when light shot out of the totem.

This was when I knew I was in real trouble. It wasn’t just any light that left the totem. It was pure sunlight, distilled by mana. The kind of magic-boosted sunlight that was every stone troll’s weakness.

A bolt of light hit one troll, instantly freezing it.

The totem fired again, freezing another troll. This left my elemental jelly cube alone against the shaman.

The jelly didn’t last long, and before I knew it, the first round was over.

Back in the dungeon, we gathered in my core chamber. We had fifteen minutes to re-strategize before tournament lackeys would bang on the portdoor and request my presence for round two.

“That wasn’t just coincidence,” I said. “Their shaman had a totem firing pure, mana drenched sunlight. That is so ridiculously specialized that it can only be used on stone trolls.”

“Are you saying Hagmer knew our plan?” said Gulliver.

“He must have. Otherwise, he conjured shaman with a rare totem, on the slight chance that out of all the creatures of I could use, I would summon stone trolls.”

“I blame him,” said Shadow.

She was pointing at Gill, who leaned back in his chair. He lifted his shirt to show his belly face. “Me? You grubby little wolf. How dare you accuse me?”

“This drunken lout has debts all over Xynnar. He only joined the academy to earn beer money. We don’t even know him. Who’s to say he wouldn’t sell information to rival cores?” said Shadow.

Gill stood up and started ranting angrily. Unfortunately, his shirt had fallen, muffling his belly mouth.

I didn’t have time to listen to this, not with round two around the corner. I rose from the table and left the core chamber. Just as I reached the tunnels, Bolton called out. “Beno? Where are you going?”

“I’m going into the loot room. When I call your names, I want you to come and see me individually. Whatever I tell you, do not repeat what I say to you to anyone else.”

When round two began, Hagmer gave me a smug stare. That was some achievement, for a core. “Back for more, Core Beno?”

I said nothing and waited for Hagmer to summon his monsters. He had brought his kobold shaman into round two, of course. It didn’t make any sense not to. Sending him out of the fight would be a waste of a monster space.

But it was what he summoned next that interested me. In my dungeon, I had spoken to everybody one by one and told them my plans for round two.

However, I had told each of them a different plan. All I had to do was see what my rival summoned, and I would have a good idea who had broken my confidence.

My guess was Gill. Shadow had a point about him. We didn’t know him, and the one thing we did know was that he needed money.

To my surprise, Hagmer summoned a fire imp.

My stomach sank when I realized what this meant.

I didn’t have time to dwell on it, however. I had a fight to win. While I had told everyone in my dungeon a different plan, I had kept the real plan to myself. And luckily, a fire Imp and shaman didn’t hamper it.

I had already selected my monster before floating back into the arena, as per the tournament rules. So, when the announcer told me to summon my monster, it was mostly for show. My choice had already been made.

I gathered my essence in my core, imagined the shape of a creature in my mind, and let the essence form it. It felt curiously sluggish, which was unusual. Or, perhaps it had always felt like this. But now that I knew my core was of the lowest quality, my mind was making me feel inept.

A shrub bandit appeared in front of me. It was nothing special. Merely a piece of foliage with barbs inside it, that it could fire like arrows.