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

“This is all amazing.”

“You understand now why I brought you here,” said Gill.

“But I only have normal essence in my dungeon. I never knew about the other types. I’ve seen a couple of different species of essence before, but no healing essence. No fire essence. No arcane, water, poison…”

“I’m not surprised you don’t know,” said Gill. “This is just one of the techniques that academies haven’t taught their cores in a long time.”

“But this is so effective! Why wouldn’t they teach it to us?”

“Your answer lies in your question, Beno. Dungeon cores turned the tide in the battle against the Shielded Republic. But they were so effective in doing so, that the empire insisted they be regulated. They decreed that dungeon core academies could not teach their cores the full range of their potential abilities. They also made sure that academy forgers inhibited cores’ abilities in certain areas. For example, you, Beno, are able to use your essence below ground. Yet, you cannot use essence above ground, can you?”

“I’ve seen cores who can do that.”

“Cores like Jahn, who is an ancient core. And other cores who, through hard work and the right mentality, overcome their limitations.”

Suddenly, I felt greedy for all the powers I’d seen Mokrus use. I imagined all the uses I would have for it. For instance, right now, I could create bone guy warriors. They were just basic skeleton fighters with no elemental strengths or weaknesses.

If I different kinds of essence inside me like Mokrus, I could watch my enemies, gauge their strengths, and then fill my bone guys with the corresponding elemental essence to counteract them.

“Can I learn how to hold different essences in my core?” I asked.

Gill’s belly mouth smiled wide. “Finally, the question I longed to hear. Nothing beats an eager student. I didn’t bring you here to show you how weak you are compared to cores like Mokrus. I wanted to show you what you could become if you listen to me and are prepared to work.”

“I’ve never been scared of that.”

“I mean real work, Beno. The kind that makes you wish you were never forged. Study with me, and you’ll have to push through so many barriers of pain that you will forget what it is like not to feel it. You will hate me. I will hate you back. But together, we will reforge you. Break you down and build you back into a core that nobody recognizes. If we are to do that, I need your word as commitment. I need you to promise you will do what I tell you to, when I tell you to.”

The pain and wishing I was never resurrected didn’t sound good. But I thought about all the power I could get.

“When do we start?”

Gill and I went to the dungeon in my arena. The walls were covered in murals depicting fights between my monsters and the various hero groups who had braved my lair. Blood-covered straw was strewn across the ground, though that was mostly for effect. Maginhart was adept at brewing a very convincing fake blood. At the far end were practice dummies peppered with arrows and sporting all kinds of scorch marks and sword wounds.

Overseer Gill set his leather burlap sack on the ground. After rummaging for a while, he took out a parcel of leaves. They looked like the essence plants in my cultivation room, except their leaves were pond-green, sharper, and lined with thorns around the edges.

“Let’s see how you get on with these.”

“What essence is this?”

“Venom,” said Gill. “Have you seen it before?”

“Never. I never even knew it existed.”

“What did your academy actually teach you? Anything?”

“I’m beginning to wonder,” I said. “But you said the empire restricts what they can teach us.”

“True, and most shackles are forged by fear, not iron. So it is with your academy. If only they realized the potential they are locking away. Never mind. Venom essence is used by the cores in the Academy of the Forked Sting. It is how their cores can imbue any monster they create with a poison aspect.”

When I had watched the Forked Sting core practice, I assumed that he was making monsters who naturally possessed a venom or poison elemental. Now, I realized that he was combining Venom essence and Formation essence in his core. As such, every monster he made would have the venom element, regardless of whether that was typical for the said creature.

I eyed the venom vines greedily. “So I can use this? I’ll be able to create…hmm…a poison kobold? No, too small. A venomous rhino, perhaps?”

“Steady on. First, I want you to draw on the venom.”

Using the technique Gill had taught me, I actively drew on the essence. It was akin to lifting a weight. I was so used to drawing formation essence that its weight was nothing. But venom essence felt like a ton of steel. As much as I tried, nothing happened.

“You can’t feel it?” said Gill. “Not even a little bit?”

“It’s as if it’s refusing to enter my core.”

“The essence is doing nothing of the sort. It is your own core that is reluctant to play.”

“What do you mean? I’m trying to draw on it.”

Gill frowned. “It is as I expected. I thought it was worth a try, but this technique may be a little beyond you, for now, Beno.”

With a new power just sitting there ready to use, I wasn’t about to give up. I wanted to be able to use the venom essence and create poison monsters of all different kinds. I wanted venomous apes, poison gargoyles, toxic serpents. After that, I wanted to get some arcane essence. Fire essence. Water essence. I wanted to try every essence imaginable.

Bracing myself, I drew again. My inner