by TJ Reynolds
The Guild Core: The Complete Saga Boxset
A LitRPG Dungeon Adventure
TJ Reynolds
Mad Hag Books
This is a work of fiction.
Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.
THE GUILD CORE: THE COMPLETE SAGA BOXSET. First Edition. August 17, 2021.
Copyright © 2021 TJ Reynolds
Written by TJ Reynolds
Created with Vellum
Contents
World Map of Lianin
Map of Anvar
Book One: Dragon Bourne
Prologue: Splinter of the Past
1. Our Man in Mindonne
2. Spark to Flame
3. With Oldest Blood
4. One Last Dance
5. When Two or More
6. Rules of the Game
7. Sense and Suitability
8. Stuck in the Middling with You
9. Burning Bright
10. While the Hero Toils
11. The Wisdom of Water
12. More like a Looking Glass
13. The Inconvenience of Skullduggery
14. Cats in a Mousetrap
15. Staves and Stones
16. Beggar Your Neighbor
17. Charity Begins to Roam
18. The Price of Pondering
19. With Wand and Blade
20. To Be Thy Adam
21. Bright Eyes, Blind Sky
22. Visit Before Venture
23. Boots, Baggage, and a New Look
24. Roadside Sages
25. This Way Comes
26. A Night Out, on Mindonne Town
27. And the Ugly
28. When in Doubt, Remodel
29. Morning After and the Quest to Come
30. Lessons in Limitations
31. When Fate Calls, it Screams
32. Bright Against the Black
33. To Break the Tide
34. The Consequences of Honor and Attraction
35. And Caverns Old
36. Captive Keeps the Key
37. Shadows in the Cave
38. Wearing the Wolf Skin
39. Unsavory Guests, Unsavory Minds
40. When Deep Calls
41. Stolen Heart, Fallen Sky
42. Spilled Milk and Broken Toys
43. Breaking the Ice
44. Rest and Recompense
45. And Then There were Three
Epilogue: Breadcrumbs and Borrowed Time
Appendix: Anecdotes and Archival Particulars
Book Two: Core Sworn
Prologue: From the Top, First Lesson
1. Seed Before Tree
2. A Name for It
3. Friendly, Fallen
4. Where the Cloak Turns
5. New Paths in a New Land
6. Wolves, Or Something Like Them
7. An Elemental Mind
8. Bound by the Core
9. The Limitations of Power and Chivalry
10. Water from the Rock
11. From the Top, First Trial
12. Tipping the Scales
13. Boon and a Burden
14. Roots Before Leaves
15. Denizens and Discovery
16. The Woman Behind the Bow
17. Rumors and Rebellion
18. Of Gods, Kings, and Men
19. Honors and Improvements
20. Academic Ambitions
21. In Another Woman’s Shoes
22. Stronger than Crystal
23. In One Basket
24. Moldering Treasures
25. With Eyes to See
26. What Grows Beneath
27. Stirring the Lizard’s Nest
28. Like Playing Knights and Castles
29. The Perilous Deep
30. Under the Guise of Motherhood
31. To Know is to Trust
32. Inevitabilities
33. Too Much Heart, Too Little Tolerance
34. Heart of an Ally
35. Blind Flight
36. A Frightful Interruption
37. Gifts for the Guests
38. A Time for War
39. Pain for Progress
40. Studying Stripes
41. Burning a Hole in Your Dungeon
42. Circle of Fangs
43. Keep’s Gambit
44. Body Before Mind
45. Punitive Measures
46. Fire to Break the Night
47. Mind Over Body
48. Bird Song and Celebrations at the Sunken Keep
49. Denizens of the Deep
Epilogue: Echos from Times Past
Anecdotes and Archival Particulars - Expanded
Book Three: War Torn
1. Hawk Flies with Sparrows
2. The Rabble Returns
3. Flagging Duties
4. Blessings Before Adventure
5. A Master Most Strict
6. Rooftop Revelations
7. Penance and Punctuality
8. Acting with Ambition
9. Unfamiliar Boots
10. The Value of a Packing List
11. A Place to Grow
12. Makeshift Mansion
13. As Seen in a Dream
14. He Who Holds all Eight
15. A Burdened Body
16. Secrets of the Scale
17. A Valid Excuse to Flex
18. Master of the Keep
19. To Hell with Banners Anyway
20. More Precious Than Life
21. Persistence of the Crab
22. If Death Spawned Wings
23. What the Darkness Fears
24. A Most Peculiar Custom
25. Reconsidering the Nest
26. The Bounty of Friendship
27. Oh, What Sweet Agony
28. All Things Golden, and What Comes After
29. Luminous
30. The Golden Valley
APPENDIX: Anecdotes and Archival Particulars - Expanded
Anecdotes and Archival Particulars
Liked What you Read?
About the Author
Acknowledgements and Royal Road Love
If You’re a Fan of Cultivation, LitRPG, and Gamelit…
LitRPG
World Map of Lianin
Map of Anvar
Book One: Dragon Bourne
Prologue: Splinter of the Past
Shield Sergeant Bloodspar
Drystan crushed the squaller’s sternum, his boot splintering the beast’s ribs. It flailed a pair of emaciated arms and opened its mouth, a row of thin teeth making the creature look more like a fish pulled from the depths of an underground lake than any humanoid race.
He pounded the side of its head with his hammer to be certain of its death.
“Sweet Andag! I think you’ve killed it twice, Drystan,” a man said from behind him. “Do you always make a mess like this?”
As shield sergeant, Drystan Bloodspar had the right, the privilege, to stand among those in the front lines. Helm sergeants may get paid more but had to think for a living; they couldn’t have nearly as much fun.
Then again, he frowned as he tried to pull back his boot, which was lodged in the scrawny creature’s ribcage, he figured they didn’t have to contend with quite so much blood and gore, either.
“Should have seen the last dungeon.” Drystan smirked. “For some reason, the thing used blasted pigs to defend its core. I haven’t had the courage to eat a single rasher of bacon since.”
The two men exchanged a laugh, then subdued their celebrations. Regardless of how easy thi
s dungeon had been up to this point, they had yet to face its champion. No matter how small an Earth Core was, defeating its champion would be a challenge.
Drystan grinned at his friend and spun the hammer in his hand. Like so many other Elites, his armor wasn’t standard issue. He’d had each piece modified to suit his body and his style of fighting. He’d chosen the Stone-breaker class as a young man, and almost regretted it after. Few Stone-breakers lived long enough to earn their stripes in the army, fewer still to achieve any kind of rank.
He’d been more competent, however, than many had predicted. Before long, Drystan the Destroyer was promoted to shield sergeant, second in command of an entire platoon, and served in the prestigious Vermillion Guard. The Red Cloaks, the Bloody Hand, the Elites—the unit had many names—but regardless of what you called the Guard, it was plain to all that they only took the best into their ranks.
The shield sergeant stepped forward, eyeing the man he’d come to love as a brother. Drystan opened his mouth, but Sandrey spoke for him. “I know. You’re going first.” Holding out his armored hand, with a mocking bow, he willingly gave over the lead.
A full squad of Elites waited in the dungeon’s small main chamber, ready to provide support if needed. As the War of the Dragons raged on, the Brintoshi had learned how foolish it was to send too many soldiers down into a dungeon at one time. As this particular dungeon had been assigned the rather low ranking of Amber ascended, Drystan and Sandrey would finish it on their own.
The glow of pale-blue ether filled every corner, making the passages inside all dungeons easy enough to see in. Drystan was glad they didn’t have to carry flickering torches, stinking of pitch, as they delved into the hewn stone caverns for the Earth Cores. And, if one were being honest, no one could have guessed the war would end like this.
Defeating a dungeon’s minions and harvesting its ether and loot was one thing—soldiers and adventurers alike had been doing so for ages—but destroying them by shattering their precious gemstone hearts… well, that was a different story entirely.
Drystan strode ahead, noting a gentle decline in the dungeon floor. As he reached the bottom of the slope, he heard a scraping noise that sent shivers down his spine. So far, the dungeon had presented a consistent if disappointing defense: a rabble of roaming minions, all too weak to even dent his glorious armor.
This new sound, though, came from something different. He glanced back to Sandrey and whispered, “Two pints says that’s the champion. Keep close.”
Sandry didn’t press the bet. Everyone knew Drystan’s instincts were spot on. But he’d make his man buy the first two rounds anyhow. After we’re done here, we’ll both be bored out of our minds and flush with too much coin to spend. Only ale and a few run-ins with tavern girls can save us then.
Taking a deep breath, he cleared his mind of anything but destruction. The champion fight was undoubtedly his favorite part of each dive, and he wouldn’t be distracted by thoughts of milk-pale skin and lifted skirts.
He moved with purpose, knowing that being caught within the doorway was worse than anything. Striding into the next chamber, Drystan saw a hunched form with far too many legs protruding from its back. Yet when it turned and hissed at him, he was surprised it wasn’t anything like a spider.
An amalgamation, as some experts called them, blinked too-large eyes at them. The dungeon had combined its humanoid squaller minion with some insect beast of the deep.
Its skin was white and translucent, and long legs moved its frail body around gracefully. Instead of arms, the creature had long, probing appendages fanning out from its chest. By the way it moved them about, Drystan guessed they were sensory organs.
He didn’t bother scanning it to see whatever fool name the Earth Core had assigned the champion.
It simply didn’t matter.
A beast like this was best felled from a distance. It would be venomous, or spit some kind of foul acid, so even as Sandrey walked to stand beside him, Drystan clutched his great hammer, lifting it just a foot above the ground. Then he trotted forward and to the side, turning in a single, tight spin, and launching the weapon into the beast’s blighted maw.
The champion tried to move away, and avoided a killing blow. Yet the hammer careened through the right side of its legs. It fell to its side, screaming in a language no civilized man could decipher.
Drystan unsheathed a short sword and pointed a finger at the flailing beast, urging his companion on. “All yours, Sandrey. Be quick about it. Would like to retrieve my hammer should anything else happen upon us.”
In less than a minute, Sandrey relieved their foe of its other useful legs and finally its head.
Drystan sighed in relief as the screaming finally stopped. Is there no way these vermin can die quietly? I swear, next time I’m packing my ears with wax.
The tinkle of loot hit the dungeon floor, but they ignored it. They were paid by the king, and anything claimed in such a venture was his due. Sandrey merely wiped some of the foul blood from his blade and they continued onward, Drystan again in the lead.
A chamber lay ahead, visible through the narrow passageway they walked along. Drystan could tell it was large, though still some fifty feet away. As they came closer, the sprawling room presented itself, opening up at least another fifty feet on either side.
He gazed back at Sandrey and gave him a quizzical look. The man shrugged back, as if to say your call. At that moment, Drystan almost did the smart thing, calling in the rest of their squad of Elites to face whatever beast lurked here together. But where’s the shivving fun in that? he wondered and with a cocky grin, stepped into the chamber.
As soon as his boot hit the stone floor, a rumbling filled the air, and a massive figure rose up before them. They could see it had been there all along, resting in a depression in the floor. Drystan had heard many fanciful tales in his life, most of them told in cramped bars over the rim of a too-oft emptied tankard of cheap ale, but none of the tales of dragons that reached his ears came from sober witnesses. Despite his lack of credible knowledge, Drystan instantly knew the dragon for what it was.
“By the gods! Drystan, we should flee. There weren’t supposed to be any bloody dragons here!” Sandrey pleaded, tugging at his elbow. “Come on, while there’s still time!”
Drystan would never be promoted to helm sergeant. He had neither the mental prowess to make the snap decisions required for adapting battlefield tactics on the fly, nor the patience to deal with petty posturing and the politics of the officer’s tent. But those who followed and stood beside him knew his mind was as keen as the edge of an axe when it came to the action and reaction that was melee combat.
Already, he had assessed the situation. This was a small dragon, only thirty feet from snout to tail. Its wings, which reared over its shoulders, made for a terrifying image, but its chest wasn’t much broader than a stallion’s.
This dungeon was weak, and its shivving dragon had remained to guard the Earth Core while all the rest had flown to Hintar’s aid. Drystan was sure the beast would still represent a danger to them. It would take a dozen or more Golden ascended knights to bring it down.
But Drystan was no ordinary man.
He’d gained more power than most soldiers alive, fought countless battles, and he knew he could slay the dragon on his own.
He tugged free of Sandrey’s grip. “No, this is a fight I will not turn away from.” Striding forward, Drystan called out in a mocking tone. “If you aren’t the last by now, you’re damn near close enough. Why are you hiding away? Don’t you know the fate of your kind?”
The dragon’s growl deepened, shaking the stone of the chamber itself. “I will not leave my Earth Core.” It sneered, “You are too small to slay me. Leave while you can, murderer!”
Drystan’s mocking laughter was so loud, the dragonling ceased its growls. “Small? Aye, and yet my core contains more ether than yours.” He strode forward confidently. “I’ve killed scores of men and hundreds of beasts. And
when I leave here, I’ll have killed a dragon, as well.”
Without further warning or even a pause to wait for his closest friend, Drystan charged.