“I…uh…experimented a little.”
“I can see that, Beno. I can tell what happened by looking at them, and at you.”
Here comes the praise, I thought.
Bolton glared at me. “Are you out of your mind? You split a part of yourself so you could grow more buds, didn’t you?”
“I figured that in the early stages, the core with the most essence will outperform all the others.”
“At the expense of his own defense. That is a very dangerous technique, and there is a reason we do not teach it. I really should speak to our librarian about some of the books he lets you cores read. What happens if heroes find a way into your core room? You’ll already be down to 95% purity.”
“The way I figured it, if heroes get into your core room, you’re dead already.”
“Not always the case, let me tell you. Hmm.”
Bolton walked out of the core room and down the tunnel, heading toward the loot room. I watched him go, feeling a growing unease. This wasn’t going well. Maybe I’d gotten the wrong overseer after all.
I knew that Bolton liked me. We weren’t friends, since he was an authority figure, but we got on well. That said, Bolton liked to have rules, and he liked to follow them.
Maybe if an overseer like Chompit or Buttabun had visited to evaluate me, this would have gone better. They were well known for encouraging their cores to try something new.
I listened to Bolton’s footsteps deeper in my dungeon. He sounded like he’d reached one of the other rooms I had made beyond the loot room. Well, he wouldn’t find much there. Yet another strike against me, no doubt. I could almost hear him thinking, ‘Why hasn’t Beno made any traps or monsters yet?’
Well, Bolton. I’m getting around to it, okay?
Nope, this wasn’t going well at all. At this rate, I was heading for an evaluation punishment.
Maybe I should have played it safe like most cores, and just taken the single bud as a lucky gift and absorbed it. Then again, if I had done that I would only have around 10 essence points now, and I wouldn’t have finished the loot room, let alone two more.
“Thank you for your hospitality,” said Bolton, suddenly standing next to me. I hated it when overseers did that. They couldn’t just walk into a room like normal people, could they?
I sensed that the evaluation was over, and he was about to leave. I couldn’t read his expression, but I guessed he wasn’t impressed.
I had to do something.
“Can I ask you something, Overseer?” I said.
“Of course. As long as it isn’t a technical question. You know I can’t answer those while you are being evaluated. It wouldn’t be fair to the other cores.”
“Sure. My question was actually about the other cores.”
“Oh? Go on.”
“I was just wondering how many have been evaluated so far?”
“Four of the core graduates have been visited.”
“Interesting,” I said. “How many of them have managed to dig out a loot room?”
“Hmm. A couple of them.”
“Of those two, how many have extended their dungeons further? How many have already managed to dig two extra rooms, thus satisfying requirement number four in the dungeon blueprints?”
Bolton smiled at me for a second, and then hid it. “A good question, Beno, and very timely asked. I should go now. Good luck, young core. Keep building. You will learn the results of your evaluation shortly.”
With that, Bolton was gone, leaving me alone again. I had gotten used to being on my own down here, but now that Bolton had visited, I was keenly aware of how silent the place was.
That was to be my next task. While I waited for Bolton to return my evaluation, I needed a friend.
A friend who could also kill heroes!
CHAPTER 6
Now that I had my core room, tunnels, a loot room, and two extra chambers, I guessed it’d be good to stretch my legs for a while.
Course, I didn’t have legs, so that was a no-go. But there were ways for a core to travel. It wouldn’t have helped much if I couldn’t tour my own dungeon, after all.
Although I could send my core arms out quite far to dig, and although I could use my core vision to see the dungeon rooms that I wasn’t in, there was no substitute for actually being there. Especially when it came to designing traps and stuff.
So, I needed to take a walk. The means of doing this was actually quite simple.
First, I gave a mental command, opening my crafting list. This brought up a menu for me to read.
Core Crafting Categories:
1) Dungeon Fixtures
2) Monsters
3) ????
4) ????
5) ????
6) ????
The fact that four categories were unavailable to me wasn’t a surprise. I was only a first level core, after all. You don’t get everything all at once, so they say. You have to work for it!
Selecting the ‘fixtures’ category, I read the list of things I could make.
Holy Lords of the Underworld, what a measly list it was.
Dungeon Fixtures:
Pedestal Point [Cost:25]
Lamp [Cost: 20]
Door [Cost: 30]
Pathway [Cost: 10]
Small Loot Chest [Cost: 40]
The cost listed next to each item was how much essence I had to spend to create each one.
It didn’t make for happy reading at first. Twenty essence points to create a simple lamp? That meant I could only make 2 at a time, and then I’d have to wait for aaaaages for my essence to replenish.
Yeah, it was a bum deal. But as I leveled up, not only would more crafting categories open up, but the cost of simple things would decrease.
For now, I was only interested in the pedestal points. Lamps could wait; I didn’t need them, and they were only there to help guide heroes through my dungeon. In fact, it was easy to lead heroes down very dark paths by strategically placing lamps.
I focused on the loot room ahead of me, way down the tunnel.
Build pedestal point.
I felt essence leave me, and there was a great hammering sound, as if some invisible crafter was working in the other room.
Pedestal point created!
Woo hoo! Now it was time to stretch my metaphorical legs. With a mental command, barely more effort than a person takes to blink, I zapped away from my core room and onto the pedestal point I had created.
What a rush!
I found myself in the loot room. This was larger and wider than the core room, and I’d excavated the walls to form an oval shape. That wasn’t just because ovals looked nicer. There were very good reasons to make a loot room oval.
Reasons that involved killing heroes.
Some cores subscribed to the whole ‘let’s make every room square and rectangular’ thing. Pah. That was old school.
I wanted to become something of a visionary, and I had studied lots of dungeon layouts in the academy library. I’d seen plans for all kinds of dungeons, some of them you wouldn’t believe. A dungeon architect named Lazori had even designed a dungeon that was set on a cloud way up in the sky! Course, nobody would give him the essence or the gold to make it, since they were understandably worried a cloud dungeon might fall down.
My ideas were a little more grounded than his, but I still had a good idea of what I wanted my palace of hell to look like.
Right now, I was way, way off the mark. The loot room was large, oval, and bare. The walls were made from mud, but with patches of clay. Unfortunately, I hadn’t hit on any metals or minerals while digging.
At any rate, I could make a start on it.
In my head, I pictured this being a really horrible room. Nothing special, just the kind that made grown men and women quiver in their stupid hero boots. Demon faces carved into the walls, blood dripping from the ceiling, all those kinds of cool and cruel stuff.
For now, there wasn’t much in my crafting list I could use here. The onl
y thing was a loot chest. That cost 40 essence points, and after creating the pedestal point, I didn’t have enough.
Time to wait for my essence to replenish.
To pass the time, I moved back into the core room. My lovely essence vines now covered half the wall, which increased my essence regeneration to four per minute.
Rather than do some more damn digging, I decided to improve my essence regeneration. There wasn’t much real estate left in my core room, and eventually, I’d need to use the wall space to mount defenses, in case any pesky heroes found their way in.
For now, I decided I could devote yet another wall to the essence vines. Using my core arms, I snipped five vines from the mass on the wall, and I planted them at the bottom of the adjoining, bare wall.
There. Beautiful. I just had to wait for them to grow.
With a little more time yet to pass before I could afford to make a loot chest, I was about to carry on working on the Soul Bard story I’d been plotting in my head when a message appeared in front of me.
Attention, Core Beno.
Overseer Bolton has completed your evaluation.
He commends you for your progress in creating three dungeon rooms so early, and he was impressed that you have already satisfied requirement four concerning dungeon blueprints. This places you in the top 10% of the recently graduated cores.
However.
After deliberation, he has decided that the means you employed to make such progress were reckless and could set a bad example to other cores. Core safety is paramount to the academy, as you know.
As such, he has no choice but to issue an evaluation condemnation. Henceforth, all items in your crafting list will cost 2x the essence to create.
What?
Bolton, you’re killing me!
I knew that he hadn’t been happy with me splitting a part of my core, but I’d hoped that the results would speak for themselves. Turned out I was wrong.
I mean, I couldn’t blame Bolton too much. I knew it was a risky thing to do, and sure, it wouldn’t be great if other cores copied me. Knowing how competitive cores were, it wouldn’t surprise me if some of them learned about my technique and then split 10, 15, or even 20% of their cores just to get ahead.
Bolton was only looking after the interests of the academy cores, as was his duty.
Still, if stuff cost twice the essence to make, it’d set me back a hell of a lot. So much so that the next time an overseer came, I’d probably be waaaay behind everyone else. What would they do then? They’d give me another condemnation, this time for being too slow!
Luckily, as part of my incessant reading in the academy, I knew that there were rules to an evaluation.
“I wish to appeal against Overseer Bolton’s evaluation,” I said.
It might have seemed like I was speaking to an empty room, but I knew the overseers were listening. I knew that every core had a right to appeal his judgment.
A face appeared in my core room now. It was hazy, and it floated in the air. As was protocol in an appeal, their face was covered so that I couldn’t see who it was. I knew it wouldn’t be Bolton, however.
My only hope was that Bolton didn’t take offense to this. Just like he was looking after the academy’s interests, I was only looking after my own.
“Core Beno,” said a curt voice. “You wish to appeal the judgment of a learned overseer?”
“In the nicest way possible, yes. I understand Overseer Bolton’s reasoning, and I do not cast any doubt on his motives or honor. But I feel the judgment was harsh.”
“Fine. You may give a reason. Only one reason, as is the standard for an appeal.”
Yup, I expected this kind of attitude. The overseers would bow down to protocol, but that didn’t mean they liked it. I’d probably ruffled a feather or two by doing this.
They only had to grant me one chance to state my case, so I knew I better make a good job of it.
Let’s see. What was the best argument to make? Appeal to their emotions?
Nah. Overseers were like dried old prunes.
Appeal to their sense of competition?
Not a good idea. This anonymous overseer might be even more prudish than Bolton.
Okay. I think I had a way of making my case. I just needed to say it in the right way, a way that didn’t upset them.
In other words, don’t say it in my usual jackass manner.
“Overseer,” I began. “I’d like to thank you for hearing my appeal. Now, Overseer Bolton has issued me a condemnation on the grounds that using the core splitting technique may give a bad example to academy cores, thus endangering them.”
“You do not need to state our own judgments back to us, Core Beno.”
“No probs. I mean…very well. My argument is this. I learned the core splitting technique on academy grounds. In the academy library, in fact, where all students have the right to access the books on its shelves. As the library is maintained by the overseer librarian, it stands to reason that part of his job is to vet the resources, and make sure they are all suitable for core students to read.”
“Go on…” said the overseer. I noticed a slight change in their tone now.
“Secondly, as a core student visiting the library, I should be able to presume that I will not be exposed to any teaching inside it that may harm me. You know, given that it is paramount for the academy to protect me. Therefore, by allowing me access to a book with dangerous techniques, the academy actually placed me in danger.”
There was a pause now.
I knew what I had said was right, I just hoped I hadn’t gone too far… and that I hadn’t phrased it like a jackass. No use making enemies just to be right.
“I’m going to kill that damn librarian,” said the overseer. They tried to mutter it under their breath, but I heard it. I knew that I had won. It was lucky that core gems couldn’t smile because the overseer would have been pissed if they saw me grinning.
I waited patiently for them to speak again. I might not have known much, but I knew when it was wise not to push my luck.
“Very well,” they said. “We find that your appeal has merit, Core Beno. The overseer panel reverses Overseer Bolton’s decision. Furthermore, we will now reduce the cost of crafting all level one items by 50%.”
I would have been beaming now. You know, if I had a mouth. I tried my best to sound magnanimous. “Thank you, overseer, for your careful-”
“Let this be known, Core Beno. Rules are in place for a reason. You are perfectly capable of thinking for yourself, and while your argument about the library has technical merit, we are disappointed that you refuse to take responsibility for your own actions. That is all.”
The face faded now, leaving my core room much darker. Inside, though, I felt a warm ray of happiness glowing through me.
All my level 1 crafting costs would be halved! Way to go! This was going to let me advance even more than the other cores. Sure, some of them would also have received rewards for their evaluations, but plenty of them wouldn’t. I had already leaped forward by using the core split technique in the first place.
I just hoped overseer Bolton didn’t take it personally. If he came to evaluate me again, I would apologize.
For now, though, I had replenished some essence, and my stuff cost less. Time to go make things!
CHAPTER 7
I traveled to my loot room again. There, floating on my pedestal point, I accessed my crafting list and picked the small loot chest, which now cost 20 essence points instead of 40.
I placed it back against the edge of one of the oval walls, purposefully making it off-center. It made it seem a little out of place.
I wasn’t just being different for different’s sake here. Most cores put their loot chests in the center of the loot room. There was no good reason why, really. I guess it was because a lot of dungeon blueprints showed them this way. Again, for no good reason. It was just a habit that got passed down through generations of cores.
The thing was t
hat heroes became used to seeing loot chests in the middle of the loot room. It was what they expected.
Now, I was a newbie core. I had to remember that. It’d be a while before I had a dungeon tough enough to slaughter a party of looters, so I had to take little advantages where I could find them.
By placing the chest off-center and way against a wall, it would throw the heroes off just that tiny bit.
When they entered my loot room, they might not consciously register that it was strange that the chest was placed there, but its placement would play with their subconscious. It’d be like an itch they couldn’t quite scratch.
And on that subject…major plus about being a core. I hadn’t had an itch all year.
The chest itself was crappy. It was made from unvarnished, splintered wood, with a little metal clasp. Really, really shoddy work. Still, what could I expect for 20 essence points?
Now came the problem of filling it with loot. After all, no hero would brave my dungeon unless there was loot. In fact, the four requirements meant I couldn’t even open my dungeon without it.
But where would a dungeon core find loot?
The answer is that there are a few places. One is on the crafting list, though right now, the loot category was disabled for me until I leveled up.
Even then, the loot available in a crafting list was always shoddy. Iron daggers, crappy steel shields, that kind of thing. Maybe even a bag of gold coins. Nothing to salivate over.
If a core wanted better loot, they had to go ask the surface dwellers for help. If I created a monster, I could send him out onto the surface to go trade with a jeweler or a blacksmith or some other mortal chump. One that was happy to deal with a goblin or an orc or whatever.
Another way of getting loot is the cruelest and the most delicious. Given that I was a dungeon core and had a certain evil side to me, this was my absolute favorite. As soon as I had learned about it in the academy, I couldn’t wait to try it out.
Dungeon Core Academy: Books 1-7 (A LitRPG Series) Page 3