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

Seekers find their way here, it’s over. It only makes sense, then, that this will be my core room.”

“Core room?” asked Warrane.

“When heroes – Seekers – come into the dungeon, I’ll watch them from the core room. This is where I will control everything. It needs to be hidden from the rest of the dungeon, and well protected. If the Seekers get here, they will destroy me and the spring.”

“This leaf likens it to your place of rest. Living quarters for the core.”

“A little like that, yes. But there are too many tunnels leading out of it. Let’s see…there’s the one we came through. The one over there. Another. Another. Six tunnels that lead in and out of this place. That’s way too many! I need to fill some of them. For that, I need a kobold.”

“Second-leaf Godwin says no kobolds can be spared from the cave. After purchasing Core Beno and Jahn, we are low on reserves of everything.”

“Don’t worry, I can make my own kobolds. Which leads me onto the second thing. Essence.”

“This leaf does not know what essence is.”

“It’s a little like mana, but for a core. It is the fuel for everything we do. A fire is strong, but only as strong as the wood you feed it.”

“Ah, this leaf remembers now. Second-Leaf Galatee told him about it. Follow me.”

Warrane began to head toward a tunnel immediately to my right.

“Warrane,” I said. “The core bearer needs to…uh…bear the core.”

“This leaf remembers you saying you would not need him to carry you in the dungeon.”

“Not after I build pedestal points to hop to, but I need essence for that.”

“This leaf is happy he can still be of service.”

Warrane picked up the wooden rod and carried me to the tunnel. It was a short walk with three turnings, and soon we emerged into another room carved into the stone.

I was a little surprised, to say the least.

There was essence here. A patch of moss growing on the dungeon wall, one that I would cultivate into essence vines that replenished my essence passively.

But here was the confusing part. There was a patch of purple essence on one wall, which looked as I’d expect it to.

On the opposite wall, there was a spread of red essence moss.

“Can you carry me closer to the red moss please, Warrane?”

Up close, I could see that the color of the moss wasn’t the only difference from its purple counterpart. This moss had beads growing in it, like little dewdrops of red essence.

I couldn’t believe my luck.

We had covered the different types of essence in the academy, though only scant mention was given to anything but purple. See, purple essence was the most common type by far, and the other colors were so rare that it was unexpected a graduate core would ever find them. They were usually only found in master-level dungeons, such as the Necrotomitlita created by Overseer Bolton, regarded by many as the greatest dungeon ever made.

“Warrane, who prepared this moss for me? I assume that you had to purchase it before my arrival.”

“Second-Leaf Godwin had the honor,” he said. “She was assisted by Tavia, Fifth-Leaf of the Redbar tree.”

He spoke the name Tavia with a strange inflection in his voice. I couldn’t work out what it meant. As a core, more and more remnants of my human feelings left me each day. It meant I struggled to process human emotions.

“Tavia Redbar,” I said. “Is there something I should know about her, Warrane?”

“Leaf Tavia is of the Redbar tree. Mages of great power, descended from Risto.”

Risto, I thought. Where have I heard that name?

“Ah, the illusionist who originally found the door to this place. Galatee told me about him. I’d like to meet him; an illusionist can be important in a dungeon.”

“Risto left us. He is the only First-Leaf to ever do so.”

“Left in the same way as your parents?”

A look of anger crossed his face now. “Not all trees are treated the same way. The Redbar tree, for instance, seems to be looked on more favorably. Tavia is not without honor, unlike this leaf. Although, this leaf would never wish the same dishonor on her.”

“Makes sense, if Risto Redbar found this place, then his family gets treated with a little more honor. If it weren’t for him, you wouldn’t have found the springs.”

“As the scripts say.”

“As they say? You doubt them?”

“This leaf doesn’t presume to doubt what his elder leaves tell him.”

“So Tavia is an illusionist?”

“Unfortunately, leaf Tavia has not inherited the powers of her fore leaves. She earns her honor as a trapper and defense artist, supervised by Second-Leaf Godwin.”

I thought I was beginning to understand. “You’ve been fighting the Seekers for a while, no? I take it that Tavia was responsible for making defenses and that kind of thing?”

“The core is wise.”

“I’ll need to speak with her at some point. See what traps and things she has placed. In the meantime, both Tavia and Galatee have done very well, Warrane. Better than they expected, I would guess. I don’t know how they got some red essence moss, but this could change things.”

“This leaf wonders what you mean?”

“I’ll have to show you, but only once I’ve cultivated it. That will take some time, so is there anything you can do while I’m busy?”

“This leaf is here to serve his core.”

“I can’t have you standing around. Hmm. Let’s see what you can do. Ah.”

With just a thought, I sank deep into my core. This is a tricky thing to explain; I suppose it would be like closing your eyes, and then imagining things in your head.

Oh, that’s called thinking, isn’t it?

Maybe it isn’t so difficult after all.

At any rate, I conjured an image