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

I felt a little embarrassed. I thought I had prepared as well as I could, but evidently, I was wrong. “I was concentrating on my own plans. My own strategy. The longer I spent watching other cores, the less time I had to prepare my dungeon.”

Gill’s belly face formed a glare. “Beno, what do you think watching other cores is about, if it is not preparation? How do you expect to grow stronger if you do not watch your enemies? I have not brought you here to show you how much stronger this core is than you. How easily it would tear you to pieces if you were to fight it. I have brought you here to show you what you can learn. The skills you could have if you are ready to apply yourself.”

This got my attention. If this core had skills I could learn, then I was more than eager. I watched the arena, where the Infernal Obelisk core was moving into position.

The main core of the Academy of the Infernal Obelisk was named Mokrus. He was much taller than most cores, with a long, rectangular body that was rounded at the top. Etched into his gemstone was a series of lines and symbols, perhaps a dozen in total.

Across from him was a core at the same shape, but was much smaller and had fewer symbols. On the command of an overseer, this core used essence and conjured a kobold shaman into the arena. The shaman looked around, before raising his bone staff high and squeaking in his kobold voice.

On the other side of the arena, Mokrus used some essence of his own, soon conjuring an obelisk that stood six feet tall. It looked like it was made from stone in parts, and flesh in others. It had no face, no limbs. And yet, it seemed to pulsate as if it were breathing.

“This is the important part,” said Gill. “Pay attention.”

The shaman planted a totem into the sand and chanted shamanic words in its direction. The little bone stick glowed red.

“A simple fire spell. Watch how Mokrus responds,” said Gill.

One of the symbols lit up on Mokrus’ body. It was a blue raindrop. Essence traveled from him and to the obelisk he had created. A corresponding symbol lit up on the fleshy shape.

The kobold yelled and waved his bone staff. A fireball blasted from the totem, roaring through the air and leaving a black scorch mark on the arena ground.

From the obelisk came strange blue energy, starting a few feet above it and falling to the ground like raindrops, forming a curtain around the obelisk.

The fireball smashed into it and fizzled out. Barely a few sparks reached the obelisk itself.

“Did you see what Mokrus did then?” asked Gill.

I thought about it, finding myself strangely eager to give Gill the right answer. “He commanded the obelisk to use a water attack to nullify the fire totem.”

Gill nodded. “We are staring out of the same window, yet you insist on describing what I can see just as well as you. Let’s go deeper. When did he decide to use a water attack?”

“When he saw the shaman, he must have realized that fire is the most common shaman attack. So he summoned a water obelisk.”

“Almost correct…yet completely wrong. Keep watching.”

While the shaman’s totem recharged, I saw the air shimmer around Mokrus, indicating he was about to use essence again. The blue raindrop on his core dimmed, and a purple symbol lit up instead.

Three projectile arrows. What did that mean? A mana based attack, perhaps?

A corresponding symbol appeared on the obelisk. Giving the shaman no time to react, three purple mana arrows shot from it.

They homed in on the kobold across the arena, quickly tearing through him like water through tissue. He lay dead on the arena floor, smoke rising from his body.

It took me a moment to process what I’d just seen.

“What element did Mokrus just use?” asked Gill.

“Something mana based.”

“Precision, Beno, please. If you were shooting an apple from a child’s head, would you aim roughly where you think the apple is, or would you be crystal clear in what you target?”

“I wouldn’t waste my time shooting apples off children’s heads in the first place. No idea why archers insist on doing that. Rather like how knife throwers always have to tie their assistants to a spinning wheel. Why?”

“If you aren’t going to take this seriously, then I won’t waste my time. I can just as well pretend to be an overseer and spend my day drinking beer. You will have to pay me all the same.”

“You’re right. I am sorry, Overseer Gill.”

“Then focus.”

I thought about what I had seen. The purple arrows could only have come from one discipline of mana.

“Mokrus used the arcane element.”

“Correct. And before that?”

“He used a water element to deal with the shaman’s fire.”

“Two elements from his obelisk. Can you create a monster who uses two elements, Beno?”

I wracked my brains for a monster that combined two elements. There weren’t many, and there was a good reason for that. Some elements cancel each other out. Try and give an ice yeti the fire element, and he’d melt himself into a puddle. Other elements simply became weaker when you tried to combine them.

But I didn’t want to tell Gill that I simply couldn’t make a monster with two elements. It would be like admitting defeat.

“A shaman can use two elements,” I said. “Rusty, my kobold shaman, has a fire totem and a healing totem.”

“Ah, but he can only use one at once, can he not?”

“Three, actually. A perk of leveling up.”

“A clever workaround, I suppose. But limited. A shaman is weak to physical attacks and is also constricted by the cooldown time of their totems. Besides which,