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

ranging north, was a great spread of warren-like tunnels. Hundreds of them, so that they looked like a crisscross of veins. There were no more rooms, though. Just places where the tunnels were a little wider. It seemed that the Wrotun hadn’t dug out any more besides the core room and essence room.

There was a sense to it. The tunnels to the north were a giant mess, intersecting, looping, hitting dead ends. It was like the maze at the King’s palace, except a maze that looked like hundreds of snakes all slithering beside each other.

It must have been designed this way to confuse any Seekers who made their way through the surface door, seeking the mana spring. No doubt the Wrotun had laced the tunnels with traps, too.

Though it suggested they had some knowledge of defense, my presence here indicated something else; the Seekers were getting better at finding their way through the tunnels. Otherwise, why bother paying for a core?

The thing was, even the most sophisticated trap system could be defeated. If a rogue or a mage was a high enough level, they could use their skills or spells to unmask and disarm traps. That was why any good dungeon also had puzzles and creatures.

So, I had the beginnings of an essence vine patch, I had two pedestals, and I knew the layout of my dungeon.

What I needed next were rooms, traps, puzzles, and monsters. Before I could plan what to build and where, I needed to know more about my enemy.

“Warrane?” I shouted, hoping my voice would reach him through the tunnels. Alas, a gem core’s voice sounds strange. I had been working on deepening it.

There was no answer.

In less than a blink, I hopped from the pedestal in my essence room and emerged into my core room. The mana spring was to my right, with mana gently dripping from it. Six different tunnels were sprouting off from here.

According to my map, Warrane was northeast of me. Unfortunately, without more pedestals, I had no way to travel to him.

“Warrane?”

Again, there was no answer. It seemed that sound didn’t travel well through the tunnels.

That was when I heard a shout of pain in the distance, and realized I was wrong. Sound actually traveled quite well through this place. Just not the kind of sounds that I wanted to hear.

CHAPTER 8

Footsteps came toward me, starting quiet but growing in volume and echoing out through the dungeon. My map showed Warrane heading my way, and soon he stumbled into the core room.

His face was a mess, and his right cheek had ballooned to the size of a… balloon. His green skin had turned purple. His leather armor was covered in flecks of dust and splotches of blood.

“This leaf was attacked,” he said, getting his breath. “The Seekers are here.”

I felt a jolt of panic now, and I realized just how different this situation was to what I had been trained for.

When you were building a dungeon, it didn’t open until you were ready for it to. That meant you could prepare yourself before any heroes came to loot it, and you could leave lots of nasty surprises for them.

Here, I had made no traps, no puzzles, and the only creature in my army was a leech named Sixth-leaf who lived in Warrane’s inventory bag. As situations went, it wasn’t ideal.

“The Seekers? Where did they come from?”

“The surface door, Core Beno. As always.”

“Of course. How many of them were there?”

“This leaf was blinded by a spell before he could see. If felt like a blow to the face, but made from mana. His vision only cleared in time for him to see the nearest tunnel, and run.”

“So we have no idea how many Seekers are here, who they are, or what skills they have. The only thing we know is they have a mage who can cause temporary blindness.”

“This leaf apologizes. Self-preservation wears the same cloak as cowardice. In the heat of the moment, his senses were not his own.”

“You don’t need to say sorry. Fear isn’t a fair fighter,” I said. “It’s there to keep you safe, but it can turn on you. Don’t blame yourself. How far do the Seekers usually get when they attack? I take it Tavia’s traps hold them off?”

“Further each time, Core Beno. May I see your map?”

I mentally commanded my map to appear as beams of light. They formed as straight, yellow lines that hovered in the air so that Warren could see them. It cost me .1 essence per minute to show my map this way, but my essence vines covered that.

Warrane pointed to the map. “The furthest they reached was here,” he said. “That was many moons ago, and it depleted them, I believe.”

Hells, that was worryingly close. Warrane had pointed to a section of tunnels not too far north from the core room.

“Can’t any of the Wrotun come and fight? It’s ridiculous you let the Seekers get that far. You can’t rely just on traps.”

“The leaf that struggles against the wind soon falls off the branch. That is what first-leaf Godwin says.”

“You mean he’s scared to die.”

Warrane nodded. “As are many leaves. We are not a fighting people.”

I thought I understood. These people used the mana springs to extend their lives way beyond their mortal reach. They had built their whole culture around it. But the thing about extended life was that it made you scared to lose it. These people were too frightened to defend themselves, so they first relied on traps, and now they had bought me to battle for them.

Fine. I’d do what I had to do.

“First, we protect the spring at all costs. If the Seekers launched a full assault recently, they’re probably weakened. If they have any