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

by Alex Oakchest

  Ball of Everfrost.

  A freezing ball that cannot be defrosted, and will freeze a small portion of any surface it is placed on.

  Bracelet of Stored Agony

  When worn, the Bracelet of Stored Agony will absorb the pain that the wearer might otherwise have felt. When the bracelet is removed, the pain will flow back into the wearer. The bracelet will not stop any wounds or damages that would have accompanied said pain.

  I floated back and forth in front of the items, already picturing uses for all of them. The Ring of Anti-temptation, for example, might help overseer Gill stay off the booze. Then again, I knew enough about Revered Trinkets to realize that their descriptions were chosen very carefully.

  The description of the Ring of Anti-temptation was that it would make someone immune to anything they classed as a vice. Gill didn’t class his alcohol consumption as a vice. Until he did, the ring would be useless.

  The Ball of Everfrost could be a potent weapon, given its ability to freeze any surface. But I decided against it. It would only freeze a small section of the surface, and I guessed that would include the hands of any monster who I asked to carry it. As such, I couldn’t see any practical use for it in battle, unless I could get hold of some antifreeze gloves.

  Note to self: business idea. Antifreeze mittens. Target audience: snow-yetis and arcane snowmen.

  This left me with the Bracelet of Stored Agony. A beautiful looking trinket, and important in the power it granted. Certainly, in a tournament like this, it might help my monsters push through the pain barrier in an especially tough fight.

  The bracelet would absorb their pain, and they could safely take it off in the dungeon, after the fight, when experiencing the pain wouldn’t hamper their combat abilities.

  Revered Trinket received:

  Bracelet of Stored Agony

  Revered Trinkets Updated:

  Glade of Rest

  **Bracelet of Stored Agony**

  With my choice made, I was about to leave the arena, when a tournament announcer approached me. He was half-human half-troll, and had painted the stony cracks of his face in bright yellows and reds.

  “Core Beno? Are you forgetting something?”

  “Don’t think so.”

  “After every round in the tournament, a rule is either added or altered. If you recall, after round one, it was decreed that the winner of any fight can choose a monster to keep from the dungeon of the core he defeats.”

  “I can choose one of the League of Necromancers’ monsters?”

  The announcer nodded. “Quite so.”

  The League of Necromancers had left the arena almost a second after their defeat. It was custom for both cores to hang around for a while and show honor to both each other and to the crowd. For an institution looking to bolster their reputation, I had wondered why they flouted honor. Now, though, I understood why.

  “Can I visit their dungeon to see what monsters they have?”

  The announcer shook his head. “The portdoors are sacrosanct. No core may use another core’s door.”

  “Then how will I choose which monster to take?”

  “You should thank me for even reminding you of this. I can only tell you the rules, I can’t hold your hand and tell you how to use them. Just make your choice before you leave the arena. If you leave the arena, you give up your chance.”

  This was tricky. I didn’t know what monsters they had, besides the ones the cores had used in battle. And I wasn’t overly impressed with them. How could I decide which to take?

  I decided to try something. “I will take the League of Necromancers’ dungeon core.”

  “Nice try. That is against the rules.”

  “Fine. If you put me on the spot, I suppose I will take their undead tiger.”

  “A fine choice.”

  New monster added to dungeon:

  Blunt Fang

  Undead Tiger

  Level 8

  A tiger appeared in front of me, confused about its sudden change of surroundings. I had already seen it in round two of our fight, and I had noticed then how hideous it was. Dull orange in color, with most of its body corrupted and rotting. One of its eyes was sewn shut, one of its fangs was broken. Seeing me, it let out a smelly yawn.

  “You are my new master?”

  “Looks like it.”

  “I’m hungry. What do you have to eat?”

  I sighed.

  “It’s going to take a lot more than a worm larder to fill you up, isn’t it? I’ll show you to your new dungeon. You might like to meet Shadow’s dogs. They are roughly your size. And if you behave, I may even let you eat Tomlin.”

  Chapter 21

  We gathered in my core chamber. Overseer Bolton had changed out of his overseer robes, but Overseer Gill was still wearing his. I took that as a good sign. My respect was growing for the overseer, and I sensed he had much more to teach me.

  Also present were Cynthia, and Shadow. Gulliver was visiting another arena, interviewing people in the crowd for a book he planned to write about the tournament. Anna hadn’t been around much, preferring to spend her time in Heaven’s Peak, visiting the shops and exploring the city.

  “Our next opponent for round three,” I said, “is the Academy of the Eastern Spire. I’m told that they have a ridiculously powerful monster in their dungeon. One that they haven’t used so far in the tournament.”

  “It might simply be a rumor designed to make their opponents nervous. The warrior who goes to battle with fear in his heart is already half beaten,” said Bolton.

  “And yet, fear is a shield for some,” said Gill. “It can make a reckless warrior develop a shield of caution.”

  “Rumor or not,” I said, “I need to plan as if it is true, and the Eastern Spire really does have an incredibly dangerous beast ready to use. That means I need to come up with something special myself. Something that I can keep to one side for when things get really bad. This is round three, and from here, things will only get harder.”

  “I might be able to help,” said Gill. “When I first retired as an overseer, I had savings to fall back on. I traveled the world, sampling some of the finest sights – and beers - in the land. You can probably guess that my savings diminished pretty sharpish. As such, I had to take work as a substitute overseer in various academies. One of those was the Academy of the Eastern Spire.”

  If Gulliver had been with us then, I would have shaken his hand. I had originally tolerated Gill because we needed an overseer so that we could get a license. The more I learned about him, the more useful he was becoming.

  “What can you tell us about the Eastern Spire?”

  “The Eastern Spire,” said Gill, “Trace their roots back to a sect of monks who dedicated their lives to building the tallest monastery in the land. They wanted to make a mark on Xynnar that could be seen from the highest mountain or lowest street.”

  “They didn’t succeed, then. It’d be famous,” said Gulliver.

  Gill’s belly mouth pursed for a moment. “They did. Unfortunately, when something is accomplished, there are always those who covet the glory. No soon was the monastery completed, then various people in Xynnar attacked them, hoping to take it for themselves.”

  I thought I was catching on. “And lacking defenses, they recruited a dungeon core.”

  “Exactly. Their core was successful for almost a hundred years, but eventually, the spire fell. Not before the sect had recruited more cores, however. After losing their work of many generations, the sect disbanded. Brothers and sisters lost their faith. Those who remained did so under a new guise.”

  “As a dungeon core academy.”

  “And thus we see their modern iteration. The Academy of the Eastern Spire,” said Gill.

  “I would love to learn more about this. For now, can you tell us anything that will help in our fight?” I asked.

  “Their current head overseer used to be a monster hunter. That obviously was very useful to the academy, because he could
capture some of the rarer monsters in Xynnar and give them to his cores. There was one creature above all, that he was always obsessed with capturing, and I recently heard that he had finally done it. I would bet my last gold that the creature they are holding back for a rainy day, is the one that he always sought.”

  “And what was that creature?”

  “A dragon.”

  “A bloody dragon?”

  “I’m afraid so,” said Gill.

  A dragon. Of all the creatures they could have. And to think, if I’d just been a little quicker back home, I could have had a sand dragon of my own! But it was useless to think about could-have-beens. I had to focus on the present.

  I racked my brains trying to think about what to do. No monster I could create myself from essence would ever rival a dragon. Not even after all the essence pulsing I had done in the Glade of Rest. There was no creature I could call upon that would help me here.

  Unless…

  Aha!

  “Bolton? Would you mind going into Heaven’s Peak to send a mana message for me?” I said.

  A few days later, I hadn’t received a reply to my mana message. But it wasn’t as if I just sat around waiting for it. I spent two full days in the Glade of Rest, pulsing my essence. It was a strange feeling, drawing essence into myself when I hadn’t actually spent any. It was like trying to shove a rat into a drainpipe that was already full of rats.

  But the more I did it, the more I felt it working. When I pulled essence into myself using Gill’s technique, it squashed up against the essence that was already there. The pressure caused the essence to meld together, becoming stronger.

  As well as my new essence technique, Tomlin was constantly tweaking every single essence bud, vine, and leaf. Nourishing them, caring for them using alchemical potions and pastes made by Maginhart. The vines grew thicker and stronger. The cultivation chamber emitted a pungent smell and pulsated with heat so much that you could feel it in the tunnels outside.

  When I wasn’t in the Glade of Rest, I was supervising training in the arena, where the shrub bandit I’d created for the first fight had leveled up to 8.

  I decided it was time for an experiment. I had created this shrub bandit before Gill had taught me his technique. It was a level 8, and also had the sun-drenched boost from a shaman. It should easily have been able to beat a newly-created shrub bandit.

  I spent 100 essence and made a fresh shrub bandit. This was just a level 1.

  I commanded the two shrubs to spar with each other. Over the next few minutes, my level 1 bandit held his own against the level 8 for a while, before eventually admitting defeat.

  The time I had spent pulsing essence in the Glade of Rest had strengthened my essence to the point that my newly-created monsters at level one, could rival a level eight monster made using my old essence.

  There would be diminishing returns, of course. The more I pulsed, the longer it would take me to improve. But this was still something. It might even be a way for me to close the gap between myself and cores with a higher core quality.

  My third fight of the tournament soon approached. We fought in the Potalius arena, which was shaped like a star and had a grassy surface rather than sand. The spectator chairs were made from oak, and birds nested in foliage that surrounded the arena.

  The Academy of the Eastern Spire entered the arena with quiet dignity, holding their emblems aloft. I entered afterward, flanked by Overseers Bolton and Gill, with Wylie and Klok trailing behind and holding a big white sheet in the air. That was the advantage of having a blank emblem, I realized. It could be easily improvised from old sheets and blankets. I’m nothing if not thrifty.

  Not only that. It made it easier for spectators to change their allegiances to my academy. Today, there must have been 60 spectators holding blank placards and cheering when they saw me. They were still the minority, but it was an improvement. I stopped myself from floating around the arena in a lap of honor, after taking note of the dignity of the Academy of the Eastern Spire.

  After the overseers announced us, the battle began. The Eastern Spire core took the first round.

  I regained the second and felt momentum on my side. Just one round remained, and I was optimistic.

  It was then that I received troubling news.

  Gill approached me in the loot room before round three. “Problem, Beno. I just visited the arena tavern to get some…water. I overheard two Eastern Spire kobolds chatting. The dragon is coming out next.”

  “You’re sure?”

  “Positive.”

  The dragon. I had prepared for this as well as I could, but it was useless. I had no monsters capable of fighting it. I still had two monster spaces available for use in the fight, but who could I summon?

  Shadow was probably quick enough to avoid the dragon’s fire attacks, but she wasn’t strong enough to pierce its scales. All my other monsters would be scorched before they raised their claws.

  A voice echoed through the chamber. “Cores, take your places in the arena.”

  “You need to make a decision, now,” said Gill.

  Everyone in the chamber stared at me.

  I didn’t know what to do.

  And then footsteps boomed through the dungeon. Two sets of them. Soon, a pair of familiar monsters stomped into the loot room.

  Relieved was much too strong a word for how I felt. They got my mana message after all.

  “Razensen! Kainhelm!” I said.

  “Beno!” boomed one monster. “By the ice, it’s good to see you.”

  “A pox on you, core. I am pleased to be back,” said the other.

  Standing in my loot were Razensen and Kainhelm. Razensen was a bogan monster who hailed from icy climes. He towered over everyone in the chamber. On his head were three horns, and his bogan eyes shone with light. Right now they were glowing orange, but if they ever turned red… well, the person who angered Razensen enough to make his eyes turn red would soon regret it.

  Kainhelm - and I meant this as a compliment - was one of the ugliest creatures in existence. He was tall and skinny and made almost entirely from bone. On his back was a flap of skin made from the people and creatures he had killed.

  One look into Kainhelm’s eyes was enough to infect the mind of a weak-willed person and send them crazy.

  Thankfully, Cynthia and Maginhart had created a potion that suppressed Kainhelm’s madness-causing affliction. After all, how was he going to travel the world if he sent everyone in it insane?

  It wasn’t just his stare that made him dangerous. Kainhelm also possessed the power of psychic disembowelment. He could pull a person’s guts out using the power of his mind. All in all, he was a delight.

  Razensen and Kainhelm had spent the last few months traveling around Xynnar. Kainhelm and lived all his life in a dungeon. Despite him once swearing allegiance to me, I had allowed him to leave so that he could see some of the world. He and Razensen had subsequently become best friends. Right now, I was beyond happy to see them.

  “You got my mana message, then?” I said.

  “We took a mana carriage to get here quickly,” said Razensen. “And by the ice, it isn’t easy to get one that will accommodate two good-looking, yet extremely large specimens like Kainhelm and I.”

  A voice echoed through the dungeon again. “Will Core Beno make his way to the arena, or risk forfeiting the fight.”

  “We don’t have long,” I said. “I’ll explain the ins and outs of it later. The basic of it is a dragon is waiting out there. I need to send someone out to fight it. This is a tournament, so you can’t die. Will you temporarily swear allegiance to the dungeon and fight under my banner?”

  “A curse on your lineage, core,” said Kainhelm. “Where is your banner, eh? All I see are bedsheets and white towels, curse it.”

  Razensen laughed. “I know about the Battle of the Five Stars, Beno. I will gladly fight for you and send your enemies to the ice! Especially a dragon. Anything that breathes fire needs to face frosty wrat
h, if you ask me. Leave it to Razensen.”

  “There’s just one condition. You have to temporarily swear allegiance to my dungeon core academy. Then, you will technically be one of my monsters, and thus eligible to fight.”

  “You ask a lot, core. It is lucky you have earned the friendship of the bogans.”

  Chapter 22

  The crowd cheered my name. Actually, they cheered “Razensen! Razensen!” In my head, it was easy to make it sound like, “Beno! Beno!” Self-delusion is a powerful tonic, and very easy to drink. But no matter which of us they were cheering for, it was clear by their placards which academy they now supported.

  And why not?

  Razensen and Kainhelm had just defeated a dragon!

  Razensen had taken a nasty wound on his leg from the dragon’s tail, and Kainhelm’s skin cape was scorched. But they’d won, and I was through to the quarter-finals of the tournament.

  At least half the arena held up blank placards. By my estimation, that meant around 500 spectators supported Beno and Jahn’s Dungeon Core Academy. It was more than I could ever have asked for. More than I could ever have hoped for.

  And I still wasn’t satisfied. Glory is a curious food. Its taste is divine, yet fades from the tongue all too quickly, and never leaves you feeling full.

  Across the arena, the Academy of the Eastern Spire lackeys tried valiantly to help move their beaten dragon out of the arena. Their air of quiet dignity was gone now. One of their overseers even took off his robes, threw them onto the ground, and stomped on them, before shouting obscenities at me.

  An announcer took his place in the center of the arena and reeled off his usual obligations. Who won the fight – me – and a request that the audience gave applause to the Academy of the Eastern Spire for their honorable show in combat.

  “Core Beno will now choose a monster from the Academy of the Eastern Spire,” he said.

  I didn’t even need a second to think about it.