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

This was my biggest mistake in the fight.

 Aethos sent three elemental jellies into the fray. The goop that forms elemental jellies makes them especially receptive to elemental powers. They are the living version of a mana sponge, if such a thing exists.

Not only that, but they had the ability to move very quickly over the ground and through the air.

This meant that my bone guys couldn’t get a clear shot on them. Vile was capable of running fast enough to catch the jellies, but he couldn’t turn quickly enough to keep up with them zigzagging all across the arena.

If this wasn’t worrying enough, Aethos began feeding essence into his obelisk.

His first essence was pure white in color, like the flash of a mana explosion. A symbol lit up on the obelisk. It was a halo with sunlight shining down on it.

Oh, hells.

I knew what this meant. It gave me a dark feeling deep in my core.

The obelisk sent the essence out to one of the elemental jellies. The jelly became pure white and yellow, like a cloud bathed in sunlight.

It was holy essence, according to the tome of essence that Gill had made me study. Often used by clerical cores, most of which were now gone from Xynnar. How the academy got hold of this essence, I had no idea.

Being undead, my archers were especially vulnerable to holy essence. When the jelly clashed with them, its essence poured out.

Sunlight corrupted their bones, quickly whittling the archers into dust. Within a blink, all that remained of them were twin piles of ash. A bow rested on top of each.

This left me with Vile as my only monster for round two. I quickly tried to improvise, pouring through my mental list of traps I could create. With just 400 essence remaining, it didn’t leave much.

A spike pit?

A pitfall?

Neither would help against the jellies. The obelisk was on Aethos’ side of the arena, so I couldn’t create a pitfall underneath it.

 Aethos sent more essence into his obelisk. Once again, he filled it with holy essence. The obelisk transferred it to another elemental jelly, and this one floated head-on into Vile’s path.

I knew what was coming, and there was nothing I could do to stop it.

The holy light devoured Vile’s bone body, peeling back his skeleton and crumbling it onto the arena ground.

Vile lurched onto his belly with a thump, sending a cloud of dust up from the arena. The Bracelet of Stored Agony stopped him feeling pain, but Vile couldn’t even move his legs, let alone attack.

The fact that Vile and the archers weren’t really dead was little consolation to me. I had lost round two.

It wasn’t long before the announcer declared Aethos the winner. This time, I didn’t look at Overseer Tarnbuckle.

I didn’t see how I could even compete in round three. Many of the monsters in my dungeon were underpowered compared to Aethos’ elemental attacks, or they were nursing wounds from previous fights.

This was the end of my journey. It had to be.

I almost didn’t want to go through the port door, as I knew I would have to face the rest of the dungeon. I had let them all down.

 Gritting my metaphorical teeth, I swallowed those dark thoughts. The least I owed my clanmates was to fight round three with everything I had.

And so, I headed toward the portdoor to prepare. As I did, I noticed that some of the crowd had begun to flip their placards around, so that the blank sides were no longer showing.

But that wasn’t the only thing I noticed about the crowd.

They were all staring at the sky.

“Look!” shouted one man, spilling beer from his mug as he pointed.

An excited din rose among the spectators. The Dungeon Core academy overseers whispered to each other.

The tournament announcer stared at the sky, his mouth open in shock.

Hurtling towards the arena, using what looked like ropes made from mana, were a score of men and women. They held weapons in their hands and daggers between their teeth. Printed on their leather armor was a symbol of the Shielded Republic.

Chapter 27

The arena erupted into chaos as more and more Shielded Republic soldiers repelled down their mana ropes and landed in the arena. Spectators fled from their seats, soon clogging up the doors that led out of the arena and into God’s Fist.

They began to crush each other in their desperation, and nothing the tournament orderlies could do to separate them helped. Finally, the orderlies gave it up and tried and joined the crush of people trying to flee.

In the arena, the soldiers of the Shielded Republic fanned out into a practiced formation. They were armed with swords, spears, and axes, but none of them had shields. I thought that was strange, considering their name.

I didn’t have to wait long for an explanation.

The soldiers began tracing their fingers over the republic symbols on their leather armor. The symbols lit up, and giant shields formed in front of each man and woman.

It wasn’t the appearance of magic shields that surprised me. I was a dungeon core, after all. I created monsters from nothing except essence.

 But actually, that was why I was so surprised. The Shielded Republic soldiers had used essence to create shields. I could tell from the smell in the air, which most people wouldn’t have sensed.

Overseers Gill and Bolton joined me.

“The soldiers are human. How are they using essence?” I said.

“Since the republic clearly exists, we can only guess that the other legends surrounding them are true. The children of the Shielded Republic swallow core dust from a young age,” said Gill. “Such a practice is stupid, of course. Cores are toxic. Otherwise, there would be no need to