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

by Alex Oakchest

  “All well and good, but I’m sure you can be practical while staying in fashion.”

  “I’ll bear that in mind when my senses are dulled enough that I take style advice from someone who spends his life under the dirt.”

  “Gulliver, you’re a friend, so let me tell you this; I have seen centuries-old narkleers with a more contemporary sense of fashion.”

  “If you’re comparing Kainhelm and his skin cape to my…forget it, you bloody floating trinket,” said Gull, barely able to contain his grin. “I’m glad we’re going to see Core Jahn; he’s so much more refined than you. But what do we need from him?”

  “Though I suspect the No-Cores are mainly opposed to me and my dungeon, they can’t pretend to hate one core and not the other. With Dullbright posturing and with Reginal and Galatee looming over me, I find myself needing an ally or two. Core Jahn needs the No-Cores dealt with just as much as I do.”

  “Jahn isn’t much of a fighter, Beno. That’s why he uses his essence powers to build houses and wells, and not in a dungeon.”

  “I don’t need that kind of help from him. You’ll see.”

  We found Core Jahn on the far side of Yondersun, floating upon a pedestal in the middle of a hubbub of construction. Around him were the wooden skeletons of a housing estate still under construction, their frames built but lacking roofs, windows, or any of the finishings needed before people could move into them. Laborers scurried back and forth, working under Jahn’s direction and completing the menial tasks that were most likely a waste of essence for him.

  “Impressive,” said Gulliver, as we approached. “I have never understood why you insist on telling me that Core Jahn the worst core in your academy.”

  “Put him in a dungeon and you wouldn’t doubt it. He failed his Dungeon Core Academy graduation class, and he managed to completely collapse his dungeon here in Yondersun.”

  “Looks like he’s working well enough up here.”

  “Jahn has a talent for using his essence on the surface. Building things like houses and shops and other boring, non-lethal things. A waste of time.”

  “It sounds like a certain core is jealous that he cannot use his essence on the surface as well as his friend.”

  “Gull, when a horde of barbarians appears on the horizon, the Yondersunians won’t be begging for Jahn to build them a fancy shack. They’ll want monsters. An army. I’m not jealous of the town he’s built.”

  “Or the well systems, the beginnings of crop systems and farmland, the Yondersun town walls…”

  “Yes, all that impressive, useful stuff. I’m not jealous in the slightest.”

  Jahn was floating on a surface pedestal point, overseeing four goblin workers who were using a pulley and rope to life a roof beam into place.

  “A little to the left, please! To the left! To the left, I said! Oh…yes. You are correct. I meant to the right, of course. My apologies. Ah, Beno! What a delight! My old chum, here to visit!”

  Though a core cannot smile, lacking the prerequisite mouth, lips, and muscles with which to use them, it is possible to tell when flickers of our old human emotions are upon us. Jahn had retained more of his human emotional range than any core I had ever met, and he was beaming at me now.

  “Things are really coming along,” I said.

  “All of this? A trifle.”

  “Really, Jahn, you’re not the slightest bit proud of yourself?”

  “Well, it’s not for me to say…”

  “You’ve done a great job, Jahn. Well done.”

  Waves of happiness came from Jahn now. Enough that it was sickening.

  “I need to talk to you about something,” I said. “There’s a-”

  Jahn turned away from us and began yelling at a pack of gnomish laborers who were pushing wheelbarrows full of stone chippings and then dumping them in piles. “No! Not there! We need them by the new well!”

  The gnomes, without a single word of objection, began piling the stones back in the wheelbarrows.

  “Incredible,” I said.

  “What?” asked Jahn.

  “Not a single word of complaint from your gnomes. No backchat. No moaning. I’m astounded, Jahn. I never had you down as such a disciplinarian. How do you do it?”

  “Remember the thunderstorm months ago, Beno? When I first got started on town building?”

  “It’s hard to forget the only time this hellhole has seen water,” said Gulliver.

  “Well, one of the gnome laborers was refusing to accept me as head of the Yondersun construction team,” said Jahn. “He was saying he wouldn’t listen to me. That I’m a self-important chunk of flint, and that nobody should do what I say. I didn’t know how to deal with him. I thought what would Beno do? And I imagined that you’d have him whipped or something.”

  “I’m not a tyrant,” I said.

  “Nor am I. I couldn’t even bring myself to rebuke him when it came down to it. But then, just as the other workers started to listen to him, he was struck by lightning. Completely fried.”

  “Lovely,” said Gulliver.

  “They all thought that I had summoned the lightning. They don’t fully understand us cores, Beno. But it was okay, because after that, nobody questioned my orders.”

  “Interesting. So all we need is to be able to wield the weather itself, and we could cow this whole town into submission.”

  “Exactly. If only, eh? Did you need something, Beno? It’s great to see you. Really. But I have lots to do…”

  “It’s funny you mention whining townsfolk because that’s what I need to speak to you about. You know about the No-Cores, yes?”

  “Galatee said to ignore them and concentrate on construction.”

  “Ignore a rat problem for long enough and soon they’ll be so many you won’t be able to move without stepping on a tail. We need to do something about them.”

  “Something? I don’t like your somethings, Beno. Your somethings will get people killed.”

  “I wish. We can’t hurt them, because then we’d have worse problems. But there might be a way to stop them.”

  “Why should I want to? They hold nasty signs and they crowd around my construction sites and sing hurtful songs sometimes, yes, but Galatee’s guards usually disperse them. She doesn’t let them stop me from building things.”

  “Galatee is losing control of them. If we don’t help her, this problem might go beyond you and me, and then we’ll wish we could go back in time and act before the movement grew too large. We need to seize this chance, Jahn. If you do what I say, perhaps we can.”

  “I don’t know, Beno…”

  “You trust me, don’t you?”

  “Of course.”

  “And who is your best friend from the academy? Who is the only core you have seen since we left?”

  “You.”

  “Exactly. It’s me and you, Jahn. The unstoppable pair.”

  Gulliver coughed. “Ahem.”

  “Feeling left out?”

  “An itch in my throat, is all.”

  “What do you say, Jahn?” I asked. “Will you help me?”

  Jahn sighed. “What do you need, Beno?”

  “It’s simple, really…”

  We were in the ruins of Jahn’s dungeon, one that he hadn’t done any work on in months. Light streamed in through the hole in the ceiling, the result of Jahn accidentally triggering one of his own explosive traps. While I described my own dungeon aesthetic as practical, the most generous label I could give Jahn’s was disaster. Half-finished tunnels that didn’t lead anywhere. Chambers not fully excavated. Tile puzzles which, by the merest glance, I could tell had no sensical solution nor deadly consequences. There was no point in a puzzle that had no way of winning it and no nasty surprise for getting it wrong.

  But Jahn wasn’t really a dungeon core anymore. He was a construction core, I supposed. Judging him for his dungeon abilities would be like judging a bard on his swordplay.

  We followed a tunnel that led to a chamber that had
once served as Jahn’s core room. Jahn met us on the pedestal in the center.

  “This should be fine,” I said. “Nobody will be able to see.”

  “I’m not entirely happy with this, Beno. It seems dishonest,” said Jahn.

  “It’s very dishonest, yes. Sometimes you have to be.”

  “Can’t people just be nice and tell the truth?”

  “The truth is rarely nice, my friend. Better to hear lies, sometimes. Would you prefer that we give this up and let the No-Cores grow? Recruit more people, gain more power? Keep singing their mean songs about you? Because most of it is aimed at you, Jahn. I hear rumors that in secret, they say that I am the greatest dungeon core ever forged.”

  “They won’t do anything to me. Not when it comes down to it. They’d be mad to, when I have built half their town!”

  “Jahn, it’s the fact that you have done such a good job that makes them hate you even more! They don’t like being beholden to a core, and they sure as all the underworlds don’t like having to thank you for it. There will come a time when Yondersun has enough buildings, enough people, and enough supplies. After that, they won’t need you. If we reach that point and we haven’t done anything about the No-Cores’ influence, you’ll be wishing we had a time mage who could send us back to this very moment.”

  “Time mages don’t exist.”

  “No, but foresight does, and we have the gift of it right now.”

  Jahn sighed. “Fine, but nobody better find out.”

  “They won’t. Let’s try something simple to start with, and we’ll see if this even works. Pick a house. It doesn’t matter which, as long as it is one that you created.”

  “You just want me to cast my core vision onto the wall?”

  “Yes, just there.”

  Jahn glowed like a lamp that had just been fed with fresh mana. Light streamed from him and was cast onto the wall. This rectangle of light formed colors and gradually a picture, showing us the inside of a house. It was a modest abode, with little in the way of decoration or furniture. A Yondersun resident was sitting at a table and eating a pie with his hands.

  “You cores always amaze me,” said Gulliver. “And I’ve seen lots of amazing things. How are you doing this, Jahn?”

  Knowing that, with the utmost kindness, it was a mistake to ask Jahn to explain even the simplest of core things, I jumped in. “It’s easy. You’ve already seen that I can use my core vision to look at any chamber in my dungeon, yes? And that I can cast this vision out for others to see?”

  “But that is a dungeon. I don’t see how it applies…”

  “Just as the chambers in my dungeon belong to me, so do the houses in Yondersun belong to Jahn. You see, Jahn uses essence to create the structures, so technically, they are his. Not in a legal sense, I suppose. But the principle of core vision is the same. Jahn created the houses, so he can use his core vision to look inside them.”

  “Ah,” said Gulliver, wearing the expression of a man starting into a dawning truth. “You’re going to spy on folks.”

  “That’s right, Gulliver. Jahn is going to help us get an intimate look at these No-Cores and their lives. Whatever secrets they have, whatever grubby little things they try to hide, we’ll know about it.”

  The light faded from the wall, and the gnome and his pie disappeared. “I really didn’t like doing that, Beno,” said Jahn. “It seemed insincere.”

  “We’re looking into people’s homes. Of course it’s insincere. Do you suppose if we knocked on their door and asked if we can come in and spy on them so we can learn their secrets, that they’d let us?”

  “I don’t see why we must do this, Beno!”

  “I told you. The No-Cores will get rid of us both as soon as they have the influence.”

  “No. I mean, why can’t we reason with them?”

  “Because to them, reason is just a fancy word for ‘something I should ignore.’ They don’t particularly care about us, Jahn. They don’t hate us personally. They just need something to hate, and we’re an easy target given that we’re so obviously different from them. If we weren’t here and the town was full of scribes, I have no doubt they’d become the No-Scribes and want to string Gulliver up by his cravat.”

  “What good will this do, anyway? All this spying?”

  “Because, my all-too-good-hearted friend, watch anyone for long enough, and you’ll discover a secret. Secrets, by their very nature, are things that people don’t wish to share. It will be relatively easy to persuade a No-Core to shove a cork in their mouth and burn their anti-core signs once we have leverage over them. Do that with enough of them, and the movement will dwindle into nothing, without us killing a single Yondersun resident.”

  “I suppose if it means we don’t have to kill anyone…”

  “That’s the spirit! Now, I’ll create a few kobolds who will come and watch the visions you cast and write down anything worth using as blackmail or to tar the No-Cores reputations. Oh, this has been an excellent morning! It’s been a pleasure seeing you, Jahn.”

  I had lit the fuse that would result in the complete obliteration of the No-Core movement. Now, I needed to find a way to deal with Dullbright. The problem was that without Reginal or Galatee’s support, I didn’t see how. It wasn’t as if I could go and storm the Hogsfeate gates.

  For now, I needed to make sure my dungeon was adequately defended. Only with stronger foundations could I then think about making some moves of my own. This meant a whole afternoon and evening spent using all of my essence to create new monsters for my dungeon.

  Razensen’s Unit

  Monsters created:

  - Kobold x 6

  - Bone guy x4

  - Shrub Bandit x4

  Essence remaining: 50 / 1505

  It was a risk, using all my essence like that. It meant I would have to wait for my essence vines to slowly replenish it. Tomlin had done an excellent job in cultivating them to peak performance, but even so, it would take at least a few days for all my essence to return. I hoped I wouldn’t have any cause to need to use any in the meantime.

  My 14 new monsters were standing in the center of the arena. The kobolds lazed on the ground, the bone guys formed a group behind them, while the shrub bandits moved slowly across the room, inspecting their new terrain and sniffing it like dogs. The arena was filled with kobold squeaks, the rattle of bone guys skeletons, the gentle rustling of sentient shrubs scraping over the ground.

  Razensen and I watched them. “This is what you give me, Stone?” he said. “An Ill-disciplined bunch of skeletons, plants, and weird little wolves?”

  “You were a warrior back home, no?”

  “I was killing before you were even a blink in creation’s eye.”

  “Did you ever lead men?” I asked.

  “Men? No. why should I want to do a stupid thing like that? But bogans? Yetz. I have led many. Some to glory, others to the ice. Such is battle.”

  “Then as part of our deal, I thought you could have this unit of fine monsters under your command. The kobolds can be trained to use bows here in the arena, and when heroes come, they could be deployed…”

  “Have you ever fought in a battle, stone?”

  “I’ve killed plenty of heroes.”

  “That isn’t the same. Playing Hide and Go Look in this labyrinth, trying only to stop greedy champions from stealing gold. That is not battle.”

  “I studied plenty of battle tactics in the Dungeon Core Academy. We looked at all kinds of wars, battles, skirmishes. The famous ones, like Ferd Sinter against the Black Hands, and the not so well known ones.”

  “You should have said you have read so many books! I bow to your battle knowledge, Stone! Snow, give me strength! Battle is not just words on a page. Battle is when a warrior could cut you down and move onto his next kill with nary a thought for the life he just ended. Mark me, when the scream of the first kill shrieks into the sky, books and learnings and even training leave your mind. Your brain is like an ice blizzard, a
nd nothing will let you see through it until the last scream dies down.”

  “You make it sound so delightful.”

  Razensen’s three eyes turned from yellow to orange. “You joke?”

  “That might be a nice speech to scare youngsters who just picked up their first sword, but it’ll take a lot more than horror stories to get to me. You’re an experienced fighter, and that is why I want you to lead these creatures for as long as you are part of the dungeon. But don’t presume that your battle experience buys you any kind of authority over me whilst you are in my labyrinth.”

  The monster eyed me then, his eyes burning orange. I waited for them to switch to red.

  But within seconds they paled, settling on a clover-yellow.

  “Fine, Stone. I say all this not to belittle you, but for you to understand that I take this seriously, and I know how to lead. I have never led wolf creatures or walking bushes before, to be sure, but I can lead them. I would ask that you let me do so without presuming to give me advice.”

  “Nothing would delight me more. Please, go ahead.”

  I watched Razensen drill the new creatures for the rest of the night. He barked at them relentlessly. He rebuked when rebukes were needed, especially for the kobolds who were quick to descend into horseplay, but he stopped short of scaring them completely. By the end of the day, it was obvious how much they respected him.

  “To your marks!” he boomed.

  The bone guys gathered together at the front of the formation now, raising shields that I had procured them from my dead hero inventory store. Behind them were bow-wielding kobolds, flanked by shrub guys who not only would provide cover with their dense thickets, but could shoot poisoned thorns from their branches.

  Even in so little time, Razensen had made them look almost competent. It would be interesting to see what he could do.

  Glug, glug glub.

  Gulliver filled his glass to the brim, so much so that even a millimeter more would make it spill. He leaned back in his chair and rested his legs and winkle pickers on the table.