Dungeon Core Academy: Books 1-7 (A LitRPG Series)

by Alex Oakchest

  CHAPTER 5

  Maginhart headed out of the dungeon and to the surface, where I had instructed him to find Cynthia, the Eternal clan’s tinker. The Wrotuns didn’t have a tinker, and as such Cynthia had found her skills in high demand when the two clans merged.

  The mammoth task of helping transform an expanse of nothingness into fertile lands meant Cynthia the tinker hadn’t been asked to make small items like mirrors, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t. Even I knew how mirrors made, but they weren’t in my crafting list, so it wasn’t a case of just using essence to construct one.

  It shouldn’t be a tough task for a tinker. Simple ones were constructed using iron or silver polished with mana-infused oil until clarity and reflection were achieved.

  “The sssurly tinker sssurely will not sssuffer to acquiesssce to a sssimple kobold’sss requestsss,” Maginhart had said when I told him what to do.

  “Okay, Magen, buddy, that’s it. I’ve had enough. You need to admit it now; You loaded that sentence with tons of s’s on purpose.”

  “Thisss kobold would do no sssuch thing.”

  “At any rate, take the dungeon token with you,” I said. “Tomlin has it, I believe.”

  “Dungeon token?”

  “Chief Reginal gave it to me so that I could requisition supplies I need for my work. Or rather, so my kobolds could do so on my behalf. Because, as you rightly say, a person’s instinct when a kobold asks for something is to tell them to take a hike. But as long as you show Cynthia the token, she’ll give you what you need.”

  So, Maginhart was up on the surface procuring mirrors and a grain sack for me. That left a couple more things for my plan to capture the narkleer to work.

  I found myself in the alchemy chamber later that day. This was a most useful addition to my dungeon. It was also the brightest, with decoratively carved walls, and waves of multi-colored lights flowing over them like a stream. Annoyingly cheery, actually.

  Oh, and it was also the room where I could dissolve corpses to take their power.

  That was how my kobold, Brecht, had become a bard, after all. A party of Eternal clan goblins had raided the dungeon, a while before the clans’ peace treaty. I had killed the party with a delightful riddle door trap, earning myself a pile of corpses.

  One of them was a bard, and after dissolving the bard’s corpse in my alchemy chamber, I was left with a pile of bard dust. I made Brecht gobble this down, imbuing the kobold with bard magic.

  Right now, there were no corpses to be dissolved. I needed to-

  “You asked for me?” said a voice, interrupting my thoughts.

  A female kobold was standing in the doorway. She was short and squat, with devious eyes and dull lizard scales all over her body, except for on her wolfish snout.

  She was Shadow, a former escape artist, a full-time trickster. A kobold you needed to keep not just one eye on but three, and for most people that meant procuring an extra eye from somewhere.

  This kobold girl was an expert at stealth, able to move with barely a whisper and to blend into her surroundings like a pair of really unremarkable curtains. Adept at spotting traps and sensing danger, it meant she was a great weapon to have when heroes came calling. Her signature move was a wicked backstab, where she would jam a dagger in a poor sap’s back, twist it, then drag it up his spine. Lovely.

  But for all of that, she was about as loyal as a really, really disloyal cat. Only two things allowed me to trust Shadow and keep her around; the fact that as the dungeon core and her creator, she could not disobey me, and also her weird penchant for announcing when she was going to double-cross someone. That’s right; Shadow would stab her own grandfather in the back, but she’d make sure to warn him first.

  “Ah, Shadow. Come in.”

  She slunk into the alchemy chamber, her hips swinging, the daggers in their sheaths on her belt knocking against her thighs.

  “As you command, oh glorious master,” she said.

  “We’re on a sarcastic day are we, Shadow? It’s always a treat wondering what mood you’ll be in. I much prefer this to aloof day.”

  “You’re lucky you get the occasional smile, gem-face. It’s more than you deserve.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “Tomlin tells me that you are figuring out a way to free yourself from the idiots up top,” she said.

  “Pillow talk, was it? Don’t tell me you and Tomlin are a couple again.”

  “Why, you jealous?”

  “Thanks. Now I feel physically sick, and that’s quite the achievement since a dungeon core can't vomit. Good job, Shadow.”

  “Take a big old glass of hypocrisy to settle your stomach, you busted up lump of asphalt,” said Shadow. “Tomlin says you want to free yourself from servitude. That you don’t like the goblin and the woman chief ordering you around.”

  “Most cores work for the academy, but they do not have owners. I don’t see why I should be someone’s property.”

  “This is like the pig telling the goats that they stink,” said Shadow.

  “Excuse me?”

  “How is it any different you being told what do to by your lawful owner, and me being told what to do by you?”

  Damn it, she had me there. She really did.

  “It’s plenty different,” I said.

  “Tell me how.”

  This kobold was sharp. Way too sharp.

  “I’m waiting…” she said.

  “It’s different because…”

  Lots of things rushed through my head then.

  It was different because I conjured Shadow from essence. Or more accurately, I used essence to generate a mana-transfer that brought Shadow from the academy breeding grounds, to here.

  It was different because I was a dungeon core, and not too concerned with looking like a hypocrite.

  It was different because I had the power and authority to erase her from existence.

  “It’s different because…shut up,” I said. “I called you in because we’re heading into dangerous territory. I assume you’ve heard about the narkleer, since you seem to know everything else that goes on.”

  “The walls whisper of Dylan getting his guts ripped out.”

  “You don’t seem too upset about a fellow kobold’s demise.”

  She shrugged. “We all meet the ten reapers eventually, gutless or not.”

  “At any rate, we might need you to do some scouting for us once we get in. If narkleers are lurking around, then who knows what else is?” I said.

  “You know me; always delighted to help. Where does alchemy come in this?” she asked.

  “Oh, just something I need to do with an angry elemental jelly cube. You wouldn’t be interested.”

  She shrugged again. “I might. The stuff you do with corpses is fascinating in a way.”

  I couldn’t help feel an inner smile then. The stuff I do with corpses is fascinating! That was the first time I’d ever heard such a sweet compliment.

  “You want to see?” I said.

  “If you don’t mind, boss,” she said, this time without sarcasm.

  I guessed it would be nice to have an audience, someone watching me work. Much of a dungeon core’s labor is spent alone, so it would be a welcome break.

  “Well, first, I need to create a jelly cube,” I said.

  I brought up my list of craftable monsters.

  Spider [Cost 15]

  Leech [Cost 15]

  Fire beetle [Cost 20]

  Kobold [Cost 35]

  Angry Elemental Jelly Cube [Cost 75]

  Sinister Owl [Cost 120]

  Stone Dwarf Troll [Cost 180]

  Bogbadug [Cost 200]

  Bone Guy [Cost 250]

  Hivemind Shrooms [Cost 375]

  Mimic [Cost 500]

  *New* Drownjack [790]

  *New* Balachko [3000]

  It was quite a list. I remembered back to the days when I could only make leeches, beetles, and kobolds, and it was clear I had come a long way.

  After
leveling up to 7 following my recent hero party slaughter, I had unlocked two new monsters that I could create.

  The drownjack was a simple being at first glance; they lived in dark pools of water and looked like giant tuna fish when viewed the water's edge. Yet, if a drownjack breached and you saw its true face, you would see a half-human visage staring back at you.

  Drownjacks were made up of the body of a giant fish, combined with the soul of a person who committed a foul deed in life. If a person swum in the same waters as a drownjack, whether by accident or after being lured, it would be the last splash they would ever make.

  What about the other new monster available for creation, the balachko?

  Wow, would be an appropriate word.

  I had read about balachkos in Creatures and Critters Volume 2, where the author described a three-headed giant who could shoot fire from one head and wind from the other. The third head? Well, that was used for talking, since you can’t be shooting magic from all of your heads, can you?

  As fearsome as a balachko was, I had to forget it for now. It cost a whopping 3000 essence points to create, and I wasn’t powerful enough yet.

  This was why the narkleer was such an opportunity for me; if narkleer was in my monsters list, it would cost between 6000-8000 essence points at least. A chance to capture one happened in the rarest of rare occasions. We’re talking a-spotted-unicorn-dancing-under-a-four-leafed-clover-tree-while-a-meteorite-shoots-overhead kind of rare.

  I brought my core stats to mind next.

  Core Beno

  Level: 7

  Core Purity: 95%

  Essence: 615/615

  Proficiencies

  Kobold [Minor]

  Great, my essence was completely full. I could use some now, and then it would replenish thanks to the essence vines that grew deeper in my dungeon, which were cultivated by Tomlin.

  Time to create a monster.

  Angry elemental jelly cube created!

  Essence: 490/615

  The creature floating before me was a giant splodge of slime. A blob of jelly flaunting a red hue, indicating fire damage, and its two eyes gazing at me with the fury of the Underworld behind them.

  “Oh, you’re the guy who summoned me, huh? Big guy? Big, tough, dungeon core?” said the jelly with undiluted venom in its tone, its angry voice like that of a dwarf blacksmith who’d just caught a gnome urinating in his forge.

  I wish I could say I was surprised, but they don’t call them ‘angry elemental jelly cubes’ for nothing.

  In the academy, I read the journal of an old core named Frostig who tried to calm his jelly cubes down, but to no avail. The buggers are just really, really annoyed most of the time. If you decide to have them in your dungeon, I’m afraid the only way is to suffer their anger.

  The cube floated closer so that his wobbling mass was in my face.

  It bumped into me, hitting my gem body with its jelly in an attempt to provoke me.

  “Yeah, tough guy,” it said. “You jumped-up, crystallized gonk. How’s that feel? Huh? Getting slammed by some gelatinous girth? Going to cry to your dungeon mother? Tell her that a big, bad jelly is making you wobble?”

  Luckily, as a student of the Dungeon Core Academy, I was all too aware of how to deal with rebellious gelatinous blobs.

  “Jelly,” I said, raising my voice into the most booming sound I could, putting all my conviction behind it. “You will be quiet.”

  “I will? Yeah? Who’s going to make-”

  “Silence!” I thundered.

  The cube shut up and floated in front of me. As inexplicably angry as it was, it had no choice but to listen to its creator.

  “See the markings on the floor behind you? Float above them,” I said.

  Shadow watched from the doorway, smirking, as the cube drifted to the center of the room, positioning itself above a set of red runemarks.

  With a mental command, my alchemy chamber got to work. Light flashed from the runemarks, wrapping around the angry jelly and sucking the red hue from it. Soon, the cube of goo was completely transparent.

  Next to the red runemarks was a set of blue markings, and on those were two piles of dust. One was colored fire-red, which I guessed was the distilled fire elemental damage my alchemy chamber had taken from the cube.

  But what was the other pile of dust?

  The jelly looked at me strangely now, and it spoke in a soft voice.

  “I have to say, my good core,” said the Jelly. “I feel so at peace here in this dungeon. So at one with the land, with nature, with the aura of cosmic lifeforce.”

  Ah. The other pile of dust must have been the jelly’s anger, and my alchemy chamber had stripped that away, too.

  Shadow laughed. “Impressive. And you can use the chamber to strip the essence from anything?”

  “Simplistic lifeforms,” I answered. “No offence, jelly. Put a live human in the runemarks and there’s no telling what they’ll be stripped down to, since people are a mess of conflicting desires. But put a human corpse on there, and they’ll be stripped to the essence of their class; ranger, rogue, and so on. Much simpler. You know where you are with a corpse.”

  “I learn something new every day down here,” she said.

  “That brings me onto another thing, Shadow. I’d like you to learn something new up there, up on the surface. I’d like you to do some scouting for me up there.”

  “Scouting for what?”

  “Anything interesting. You know; raw materials, creatures I might want to capture. Even stuff you think will amuse me. You know, like a turtle stuck on its shell who can’t right itself.”

  “If I saw that, Dark Lord, I would assist the poor thing. I may live in a dungeon, but I’m not a monster.”

  “Quite right, yup. I was only kidding. Anyway, you can start scouting tomorrow. I don’t need a report on everything you find; unless it’s urgent, just give me an update once per week. And don’t spend too much time near the clansmen above. You know how touchy they get.”

  “Righto.”

  “Thanks. Now, follow me. We have work to do.”

  CHAPTER 6

  Shadow, the jelly, and I left the alchemy chamber and headed east through the dungeon. I hopped from pedestal to pedestal, arriving in the most eastern cavern where the ominous hole in the wall waited.

  Brecht was there as well as Wylie, Tarius, and Karson. They hadn’t moved an inch since I had gone to see Reginal and Galatee earlier in the day. That’s the thing with kobolds; they aren’t great at acting on their initiative. With their mining delayed, and lacking orders from me, they had simply stayed put, picking their noses and chatting in their kobold squeaks.

  As well as the mining crew, Brecht was sitting against a wall with his tambourine on his lap, and Maginhart was loitering nearby with a grain sack in his hand and three giant mirrors propped up against the wall next to him.

  “Ah, Maginhart. Good job getting the mirrors,” I said.

  “Thanksss, Dark Lord. Tinker Cynthia was pleasssed to make them; ssshe sssaid it wasss a welcome break from her dutiesss.”

  So we had jelly, mirrors, and a grain sack. I guessed there was nothing else for it.

  “Time to stare death in the eye and give him a wink,” I told the kobolds.

  Wylie’s eyes widened. He looked at the hole, then me. “We go in now?”

  “Unless you think you can coax the narkleer into climbing through the hole to greet us?”

  “Dark Lord…Wylie is scared.”

  Tarius and Karson tittered.

  “I suppose you two chumps are volunteering to go through,” I said, “Since you’re so brave.”

  Karson rubbed his foot. “My foot, Dark Lord. From where the rock fell on it. I will need a rest to recover.”

  “Nice try. The rock fell on your other foot. All three of you will go in. Brecht, you too. Shadow? I need you as well.”

  The kobolds stared at each other, eyes shining with panic, willing one another to find a viable excuse to s
pare them. It’s easy to know when a kobold is desperately trying to think of something because you can almost see the smoke emitting from their overworked brains.

  I had expected this kind of reaction.

  “Shadow,” I said, sensing the stealthy kobold lurking behind me. “The dust.”

  She slunk fully into the room, her confidence dwarfing the rest of the kobolds put together. She opened her hands and let a pile of dust fall onto the ground.

  “This is to boost your confidence,” I told them. “It is distilled anger, and it will burn the fear from your cowardly bones. There’s nothing more fearless than displaced fury.”

  The kobolds gathered around the dust.

  “Only take a pinch of it,” I said.

  Tarius and Karson both ate a smidgeon of the dust. But to Wylie, a ‘pinch’ meant something different than to the rest of us. He scooped a full handful of it and threw it into his mouth before I could stop him.

  While Tarius and Karson stood a little taller now, their posture that of faint anger mixed with new-found confidence, Wylie’s face changed. His expression became hideous, holding a fury as I have never seen before. He looked like an underworld demon who’d just been relegated from torture duties and told to knit a wooly scarf.

  “Narkleer!” he boomed. “Wylie is coming for you. He smash you! He eat soul and drink marrow from bones!”

  With that, he dashed toward the hole.

  “Shadow, stop him!” I said.

  Utilizing her great speed, Shadow darted ahead of Wylie, stuck her foot out, and tripped him, sending him crashing to the ground.

  “You could have been gentler,” I said. “Help him up.” Then I faced the others. Okay, gentlemen kobolds, we are ready. I have a plan, and you must follow it to the letter…”

  Shadow, Wylie, Karson, Tarius, and Brecht headed through the hole in the wall, clambering through one at a time, with Shadow taking the lead. The jelly followed them, floating through the hall and changing shape as it squeezed into the next room. I watched through Brecht’s eyes using my core vision, and I spoke to them using my telepathic core voice.