Dungeon Core Academy 1

by Alex Oakchest

  Then I manipulated the loot chest so that it was the right way around. This left the tunnel mostly clear for the bogbadug to go through, but I quickly opened the chest lid.

  I held the spare essence leaf I’d taken from my core room and I waved it. “Essence? See? For you.”

  The frog’s eyes bulged. Its tongue hung from its mouth, and saliva dripped from it.

  I threw the leaf into the loot chest. The bogbadug dived in, and I quickly slammed the lid over it.

  Just then, Tomlin ambled over tentatively, eyes darting around for sign on the monster.

  “Recovered your courage?” I asked him. “That’s nice timing.”

  “Ah, Core Beno,” said a voice behind me.

  I whispered to Tomlin. “The frog freak is in the chest. Sit on top of it. Don’t let it out. If it makes noise, pretend that it’s you making it.”

  I turned around to face Overseer Bolton. I expected the worst. After all, I had appealed against his decision. Overseers were a vain bunch, and they didn’t like their judgments being questioned by lowly cores. I understood it; after ascending to their third life, the had earned respect.

  Overseer Bolton didn’t seem angry at me. He was smiling, and his eyes looked just as warm and kind as always. There was one difference, however.

  “You shaved your head, Overseer Bolton. It looks great on you.”

  “Yes, well, there comes a time when we must stop lying to ourselves. My hair was thinner than the bristles on a tavern boy’s broom. If you lie to yourself, who else will you lie to? Honesty begins from within.”

  “I agree, integrity is paramount. I’ll just be a second, I need to check something.”

  “Core Beno, I don’t have ti-”

  I hopped to the pedestal in room three. “Vedetta,” I said. “Vedetta?”

  I heard a muffled sound coming from the walls surrounding room 4 in answer.

  “If you can hear me, shut your mouth for a few minutes. I have an overseer here. When it’s clear, I’ll knock on the wall. Or Tomlin will, anyway. Got it? To summarize, shut up.”

  Then I went back to my core room, where I found Bolton and Tomlin in conversation. Tomlin was sitting on the loot chest, trying to look natural and swinging his legs back and forth so that his heels were thumping the chest.

  I realized he was doing this to keep in time with the bogbadug inside it, who was hammering to get out.

  Great.

  “You want to study, hmm?” said Bolton, smiling at Tomlin. “I admire an inquisitive mind, but you must always carry out your core’s tasks. I see that you’re a miner. Level 3, eh? Perhaps you’ll come to love mining as a craft. And I mean craft, too. It isn’t just a job. There’s a craft to everything, if you open your mind enough to seek it out. Ah, Beno, you’re back.”

  “Let’s go to the core room, Overseer.”

  “I’d like to tour the rest of the dungeon.”

  “I haven’t progressed much there since your last visit.”

  “Ah, yes. The one where I wrongly issued a condemnation, yes? I’m glad you pointed that out to the overseers’ panel, Beno. I love to be corrected by them.”

  For the first time ever, I picked up on a little hostility in Bolton’s voice. It made me sad. I understood I had probably pricked his ego, but my existence was on the line! His condemnation could have sunk me.

  I could have apologized like I had planned, but I decided that he wouldn’t appreciate it. It would be drawing attention to it all. Better to move on.

  “If you please, overseer, I have made great progress in my core room.”

  “The essence vines? Yes, I saw they now cover two walls. The vines have connected at the corner of the walls, you know. Interesting, that one flame would make a carpet of fire of the whole lot. One core, not naming names, has already wasted all his essence. Don’t be the second.”

  “I have plans in place, Overseer.”

  “Come on then, let’s take a walk.”

  Overseer Bolton stood in front of the loot chest now. He wanted to walk down the tunnel and into the rest of my dungeon, but the chest was blocking it.

  “Ahem,” he said, and made a polite cough.

  Tomlin didn’t pick up on the hint. Or, he was following my orders to not get up from the chest lid. Either way, Bolton wasn’t happy. I wished I had unlocked the puzzle and traps part of the crafting list, because I could have added a lock to the chest.

  “Core Beno, could you ask your kobold to move, please? Why is your loot chest there anyway? It is a strange placement.”

  “I’m experimenting on the effects a chest’s placement can have.”

  “Ah. Displacement theory. I remember when I first had that idea, I thought I was a visionary genius. Fine, Beno, we mustn’t disturb your experiments. Excuse me, chap.”

  He smiled at Tomlin now, who gave a ridiculous smile back. Seriously, it was like he’d never smiled in his life, and he was being asked to guess what it looked like.

  Bolton stepped past him and walked down the tunnel toward room three, where I prayed to all the demons in the land down south that he wouldn’t hear a little girl yelling through a mud wall.

  When I pedestal-hopped into the room, Bolton was pacing around it. “Not much to inspect,” he said. “Little progress from my last visit. A new tunnel and room, yes. A loot chest. More essence vines. Oh, and the kobold. Not much advancement to speak of.”

  I was going to point out that it had been only days since his last evaluation, but I was feeling especially level-headed that day. I sensed it would be a bad idea to offer a contradiction to an overseer who I had already annoyed.

  “By the way,” continued Bolton, “Your kobold is extraordinarily bad-mannered. Sitting on the loot chest? Not working? Refusing to move out of the way? If I was still a core and this was my dungeon, I’d have whipped him for two days straight, and I’d make him wash the whip.”

  Hmm, this was a side of Bolton I had never seen before. He hardly ever talked about his days as a core. When he did, it was in class, and he spoke on a purely educational basis.

  “You used to whip your minions?” I asked.

  “You’re a core, Beno. You aren’t their friend. A dungeon needs discipline, and you set an example for the others by punishing the unruly. Well, what do I know, standing next to Beno the Almighty? Hopefully, Core Beno, your minions will accept your softer brand discipline, and will not appeal it.”

  That sealed it. He was fixing to issue me a condemnation. I don’t know how he had rigged it so that he could evaluate me again so soon. I mean, cores were picked randomly for evaluation until each one had a turn. Then the random process would begin again. There was no way that very core had been evaluated already.

  I guess I was right about the appeal. I hadn’t meant to, but I had made an enemy of my favorite overseer. Great.

  My only job now was to get through this evaluation without giving him a reason to condemn me.

  “You know,” said the overseer. “Two cores have already opened their dungeons.”

  “What?”

  “I won’t give names, but you can use them as a measuring stick. In your dungeon I see 1 requirement satisfied, 1 partly satisfied, and 2 completely ignored. Your quick start has slowed down, Core Beno. Don’t rest on your laurels.”

  “Sometimes haste can lead to mistakes. I would hate to open my dungeon early just to get ahead, only for the heroes to sweep through and maybe even find their way into my core room. Some cores open their dungeons without any traps, relying on their monsters to defeat the heroes. That seems risky to me.”

  “And you are risk-averse, aren’t you? You don’t have a history of trying out dangerous techniques or anything like that?”

  “Sometimes a risk is worth it, sometimes it isn’t. I would like to be prepared for my first heroes, to ensure success.”

  “Hardly any core ever defeats their first party of heroes,” said Bolton. “The best you can hope for is to kill one of them, and prevent the others from removing hi
s corpse from your dungeon after they have taken your loot.”

  “That’s the dream,” I said.

  “Is that sarcasm?”

  “How about I show you my core room now, overseer?”

  He shook his head. “I have seen it. Actually, I believe I have seen enough. You’ll receive my reports shortly.”

  With that, Bolton was gone.

  Well.

  That had gone smoothly, hadn’t it?

  CHAPTER 15

  Let’s be honest. I was going to get a condemnation, wasn’t I? Hopefully, it wouldn’t be too harsh. Maybe an increase in essence costs or something like that. It wouldn’t be ideal, but I could handle it.

  It was just…before I came to my dungeon, I was excited. I had all these ideas. I wanted to get my dungeon running as soon as possible, and for the overseers to evaluate it and be impressed. I had blown that, hadn’t I?

  Even if I was optimistic and could convince myself that Bolton would reward me, there was always the chance the overseers were watching me remotely, and that they knew I was struggling to deal with a bogbadug, and that I had let an eleven-year-old girl waltz around my dungeon.

  I was playing with fire, and I might already have a bunch of overseers looking unfavorably on my work.

  Still, it wasn’t over. Hopefully, I wouldn’t get Bolton in my next evaluation. Now, I just had to make some real progress.

  Yeah, that was it. Get busy, keep my worries at bay. Victory against a party of heroes would mean instant success; if a graduate core completely obliterated a gang of dungeon divers, then it didn’t matter how many evaluations he failed. The overseers would be forced to give him a pass mark.

  Time to get to work! This thing wasn’t over!

  I hopped into my loot room, where Tomlin was still sitting on the loot chest.

  “First things first,” I said, “We better think about how to deal with the bogbadug.”

  “Tomlin sat on the chest for you, Dark Lord.”

  “You did. Actually, my first step should have been to thank you, so I’ll do that now.”

  “An order is an order.”

  “It is, and I’d like you to carry on sitting there for a minute. Back in a sec.”

  Hopping to room three, I listened and couldn’t hear a thing. Either Vedetta was being quiet like I asked, which was unlikely. Or she had left, and I had lost my surface liaison.

  Still, it was lucky I had blocked up the hole in the wall. Imagine if I had left it open, and a little girl had walked into the dungeon while Bolton was here?

  Phew.

  Anyway, even if Vedetta had left in a huff, she would be back. She needed to help her mother, and she wasn’t really a child. She was older than me, in fact. She’d be sensible enough to not let her emotions ruin her chances of helping her mother.

  “Vedetta?” I said.

  No answer. Yep, she must have left.

  Hopping back into my loot room, I needed to come up with a way of destroying the bogbadug once we let it out of the loot chest.

  Problems, problems. I thought back to my academy classes, but we had never covered what to do when you trapped an overgrown frog in a chest and had your kobold sit on it to prevent it from escaping.

  I had an idea, though.

  By now, all of my essence had regenerated, leaving me with 49 points. That was enough, I hoped.

  I focused on the ground in front of my pedestal.

  Create fire beetle.

  There was a whoosh of light, and I felt essence leave me in a gust. The light spiraled on the ground, forming into a shape. When it dispersed, I was left with a strange little creature.

  It was a beetle. Small, black, with a hardened shell that had streaks of red light on top of it. It smelled faintly of horse crap.

  “What is it?” said Tomlin, staring curiously from the loot chest.

  “You have never seen a fire beetle before? Not even in the academy?”

  “Breeding grounds are kept separate, Dark Lord.”

  “Ah. Yes. Well, this is quite simple. It’s a beetle, and it’s infused with fire damage. That’s as clear as I can put it, but it describes it quite well.”

  “Tomlin doesn’t like it.”

  “Tomlin will have to get used to it; this beetle is now one of our clanmates.”

  “What is your name, fire beetle?” said the kobold.

  “It can’t talk, Tomlin. It doesn’t have your great intelligence. Beetles are quite simple creatures, I’m afraid. At least it won’t talk back to me, though. Now prepare yourself, because I need another.”

  Create fire beetle.

  Another twenty points of essence left me, and a second beetle spawned on the ground. The two of them faced each other now, and they gently butted heads. I guessed that was what passed as a hello among the beetles.

  They were quite cute. Probably hideous to most people, but as a core, it was natural that I’d be fond of the creatures I created. Even ones who were cowardly, and who only mined for me so they could earn study time.

  The greatest thing about the beetles was that with their limited intelligence came a limited emotional response. They would at least carry out my orders without reluctance.

  They also had fire damage. That was the key when dealing with a frog creature like the bogbadug. I was hoping that, as a creature that spent some of its time in water, it was weak against fire.

  “Tomlin, when I tell you to, I want you to jump off the chest, and then run to the tunnel behind me. No matter what happens, do not let the frog into my core room. Got it?”

  Tomlin sighed. “Yes, Dark Lord.”

  “Okay. Here we go…jump!”

  The kobold leaped off the chest and darted over to the tunnel. I felt anxious now as I waited for the bogbadug to emerge.

  The loot chest rattled. The lid shook. Then it suddenly opened, and a rather angry overgrown frog emerged from it.

  I stared at my beetles. “Attack!”

  They made strange chirping sounds, which my core intuition translated.

  “Attack!”

  “Kill! Kill!”

  Ah, so they could talk, just not very well. They wouldn’t be making entrancing dinner conversation, anyway.

  Both insects bombarded the bogbadug with little balls of fire. They were barely bigger than apples, yet the fireballs hit the creature again and again, burning its skin and tearing holes in it.

  It made me feel bad if I’m honest with you. Only for a second though, because then I remembered that I was a core, and that particular feeling had no place in my dungeon. Besides, this was an essence-hungry intruder. If I couldn’t watch it die, how would I cope with slaughtering parties of heroes?

  So I stayed on my pedestal and watched, resolute and unrelenting, as my beetles killed the creature.

  Finally, it made a rasping sound, and then it fell to the ground, limp and lifeless.

  Bogbadug killed!

  +200 EXP

  You have leveled up to 2!

  - Total essence increased to 100

  - Crafting categories unlocked: Puzzles and Traps

  - Existing categories expanded

  - Dungeon capacity increased: 6 rooms, 8 traps, 4 puzzles, 8 monsters

  Your fire beetles can now learn the [warrior] specialty.

  Ah, that felt good!

  Let me try and explain just how brilliant it felt to level up. Have you ever had a really, really delicious meal? One that danced over your taste buds, one that left a warm feeling inside your belly? Where you weren’t hungry anymore, but you weren’t too full? It felt just right? Of course you have.

  Even that delicious sensation wouldn’t compare. This felt bloody brilliant, and it wasn’t just a phantom feeling, either. This was all too real.

  I enjoyed the feeling as it worked through me. Once it left, I realized I had quite a lot to take in.

  Firstly, leveling up had increased my total essence to 100, and I don’t need to tell you how important that was.

  In addition, and even
more vital to my dungeon operations, was that I had unlocked both the puzzle and trap categories. This meant I could finally satisfy one of my dungeon requirements. Progress!

  Finally, my beautiful little bugs had earned an important specialty; warrior. Now, I had two creatures who could fight any dungeon intruders for me. No hesitation, no fear, just plain, blood-thirsty obedience.

  Assign specialty to fire beetle; warrior.

  Your fire beetles are now [Warriors Lvl1]!

  Hmm. The day had begun with an overgrown frog threatening my very existence, and then an annoyed overseer springing a premature evaluation on me. It hadn’t turned out too badly, had it?

  Now it was time to move a step closer to opening this place to the loot-hungry public.

  CHAPTER 16

  With a newly replenished, whopping 100 points of essence, I felt ready to conquer the world. Pity that my world consisted of miles and miles of mud.

  My first step was to install a pedestal point in room 4. In there, I accessed my fixtures list and saw that new things had been added.

  Dungeon Fixtures

  Pedestal Point [Cost:12.5 ]

  Lamp [Cost: 10 ]

  Door [Cost: 15 ]

  Pathway [Cost: 5 ]

  Small Loot Chest [Cost: 20]

  *New* Iron Door [Cost: 30 ]

  *New* Disguised Iron Door [Cost: 35 ]

  *New* Lock [Cost: 10 ]

  *New* Rug [Cost: 15 ]

  Rug?? Tell me why, in the name of all that was unholy, I would want to put a rug in my dungeon?

  I mean, sure, when I first became a core I retained a glimmer of my old self, and I used to miss home comforts. I’d shed that part of myself entirely now. Even in my core room, which I supposed was the equivalent of my living quarters, I didn’t need a damn rug.

  Forgetting the useless carpet, I was happy with what I saw. Doors and locks were very important in my dungeon, for several reasons. Firstly, I now had a means of protecting my core room, and with it all of my lovely essence. It meant I had a place where I could lock myself away once the first adventurers came.