Dungeon Core Academy: Books 1-7 (A LitRPG Series) Alex Oakchest (list of ebook readers .TXT) 📖

First-leaf Godwin had this aura surrounding him. Not just in the way that Galatee, who had seemed so commanding, shied away. But in his stance, his expression, and in his eyes. These shone bright blue like Galatee’s, but the color seemed to swirl, as though inside his eyes was a raging sea. He wore a robe that trailed to the ground and walked with a staff that was curled at the top so it would wrap around his wrist.

It seemed to take an age for him to approach us, and when he finally did, Jahn turned to face him.

“First-leaf?” he said. “Pleased to meet you! I am Core Jahn.”

The first-leaf banged his staff on the ground. The noise was much louder than it should have been, and it rang out through the lightorium. Even the colors up in the dorm stopped swirling. All except two of them; black and red, great waves of it that swirled round and round.

“So these are the products of our fortune? Galatee, you have spent a king’s ransom on turnips.”

“Excuse me, first-leaf?”

“Look at them!”

“All cores look alike, first-leaf. I saw many of them in their academy. Different colors, different shapes, to be sure, but they are all gems like this.”

“Really? I can feel waves of imbecility come so strongly from this one that my brain is shrinking,” he said, pointing the bottom of his staff at Jahn. I felt a flicker of defensiveness toward my friend, but I held it in.

“And this one,” he said, pointing at me. Now I was really feeling prickled. “He thinks not of his service to us, but himself. Vanity seeps off him like steam from a fresh cowpat. Given enough time, he will think of a way to cross us.”

This was a little unfair. Vain? Sure, sometimes. I think everyone has a little vanity in them. One thing I would never do was to cross someone, nor act duplicitously.

Unless the duplicity was to murder a hero, of course. That was required, given the reason for my existence.

I sensed that our introduction to the first-leaf hadn’t gone as well as we could have hoped. I tried to think of something to say that didn’t make it worse, something that would let me exit this situation and go do what I love – making bloodthirsty creatures and constructing murderous traps.

Before I could speak, the first-leaf hobbled closer. I could see on his skin the battle of age versus the mana springs. It was written all over his body. The way his skin had shriveled so badly, how his limbs seemed to resist his attempts to move.

I wondered why Galatee feared him so much. It seemed to me that the first-leaf on any tree must always be the oldest, but not necessarily the strongest. What did she have to be scared of?

“Your minds are independent; I understand that,” he said. “I know it is that freedom of thought which makes your essence constructions possible. I cannot take that away, for I would be cutting off my foot to rid myself of a rotten toenail. What I can give you, cores, is a warning. The slightest hint of rebellion will mean the end of your pathetic second existences.”

That was an empty threat. As a core gem, Jahn and I were pretty hard to kill. Sure, if heroes busted their way into our dungeon, they might have a chance. Even then, they’d need the right weapons - legendary ones - and mages who knew the rare spells that could weaken our structure. In the academy, only the Forgers who made us, could also unmake us.

So this gnome? He was all talk.

First-leaf Godwin raised his staff. The bottom of it glowed red, and spectral flames seeped from it and wrapped around the staff shaft.

I was a little worried now. You can tell the quality of a made by the clarity of light around him when he casts a spell. All mages manipulate mana the same way a core uses essence. Rookie mages waste most of theirs, and this shows in the dilution of their spell light.

If an apprentice mage and a master both drew the same amount of mana to power a spell, the apprentice’s light would be dim, like a lamp on a foggy night. The master’s would shine with blinding clarity, much the same way the first-leaf’s was shining now.

It was an attempt to intimidate Jahn and I.

“A light show to welcome us to our new home,” I said. “I would have preferred fireworks.”

He slammed the base of the staff on the ground.

Nothing happened.

But then…

Holy hells, I had never experienced anything like it. Agony flared inside me, not just in my inner core but somewhere deeper, a dark place within my gem that I hadn’t even known existed. The pain was worse than anything I could imagine, and I felt my consciousness warp, and the lights all the way above in the dome flashed black and red, black and red, and I heard only a screeching that drowned everything else out.

A piece of me flew off and hit the ground.

Yes, a piece of my almost-indestructible core cracked off me. I could hardly comprehend it.

It was only as the pain died and my senses began to return that I realized I had been shouting, and that a piece of Jahn was scattered on the floor too.

What kind of power did this crazy gnome have?

Galatee gave me a sympathetic look, while the first-leaf’s expression was murder. Right then, I believed he could rip me apart with a stare.

He was silent for a second. I looked longingly at the tiny sliver of myself on the ground, and for the first time since I had been resurrected, I became keenly aware of my mortality here.

Core gems