Dungeon Core Academy 2

by Alex Oakchest

  After that, Reginal had locked me in here while his people moved into the cavern.

  So, I spent my time brooding in the darkness. That is something we cores are great at; we love a nice bit of brooding time.

  At first, I ran my racing mind over Godwin’s last words. Over his treachery towards Jahn and I. Over the great risk he’d taken with his people and the lives that had been lost because of it.

  As Galatee had once told me, Godwin had his people’s interests at heart. His plan was centered around saving them.

  He’d just done it in an utterly moronic way.

  After I had thought about the stupid gnome for as long as I could bear, I turned my attention to other things. First, my friends. Gary, Tomlin, Wylie, Brecht. All of those lovely creatures and kobolds who had stood by me. There, in the darkness, I missed them. I hoped that Chief Reginal had not hurt them.

  To distract myself, I turned my attention to other things. Namely, to the Soul Bard story I had begun imagining in my head, a sequel to one I had written before. If I ever got a chance to meet the writer of the great Soul Bard series, I would share my ideas with him.

  I was halfway through it when I heard a distant voice.

  “Ah, what a nap,” it said.

  That dopey voice. I knew it! How could I not?

  “Jahn?”

  “Beno?”

  “Where are you, my friend?”

  “I am here.”

  “Well, yes, but where is here?”

  “I believe I must be in the cell next to yours.”

  “Then you survived,” I said. “The academy has a lot to answer for, selling us to those lunatics. Really, I’m thinking of lodging a complaint with the ethics board if I ever get out of here.”

  “You should have seen me, Beno. You’d have been so proud. I cultivated my essence. I made traps. Bear traps and pitfalls and-”

  The door to my cell opened.

  A goblin stepped in. An old goblin wearing gold-trimmed metal armor, with a crown on his head. With him was a young goblin boy with a pale-green face. He was holding an orb that had traces of black smoke inside it.

  “This is him?” asked the boy.

  “This is him, Devry. The core.”

  “He looks smaller than I imagined.”

  “You’ve seen him now. So go along to your room.”

  “I want to speak with him!”

  “And you will, but not yet.”

  The boy left, and then it was just the goblin and me. I recognized him as the leader of the Seekers, the one who had led his people through my dungeon and into the loot room.

  “We have a lot to discuss, little core,” he said.

  “Indeed,” said another voice.

  And then I had a shock that would have stopped my heart, if it existed.

  A man stepped into the room. A small man with a bald head.

  “Overseer Bolton?”

  “You have changed, Beno. I see it in your core.”

  I couldn’t believe it. What the hell was an academy overseer doing here?

  “I hope you brought a wordsmith,” I said. “One practiced in law. You have a lot to answer for, Bolton. Do you even do due diligence before you sell a core to someone? The old gnome was a lunatic.”

  Bolton fixed me a kindly smile. “We owe you an explanation. And there is a lot to explain.”

  And so, Bolton and the goblin chief, who introduced himself as Reginal, spoke to me. They explained things. Lots of things. Events that happened long before my second life. Things that the Wrotun had hidden from me.

  I learned about the Eternals clan, and how this was their home. They weren’t the Seekers, that was just a name Godwin made up to rid the caverns of their true history. They weren’t invaders. They were people trying to win back what had been taken from them.

  They told me about the battle; how the Wrotun warriors were killed, and how they found Godwin’s bloodless body in my core room.

  With the Wrotun beaten, Reginal had led his goblin fighters into the caverns that were once their home. There, he met with the kind of hostility you’d expect from all the Wrotun leaves who had been told again and again that the goblins were their enemy.

  But he addressed them with kindness. He let the adult leaves pull their children close to them. He told them that those who wished to leave could go without being harmed. Those who wished to stay in peace, could join the Eternals and help their clan prosper.

  “That’s great,” I said. “A lovely tale. But what of me? Of my clanmates?”

  “Clanmates?” said Reginal.

  Bolton sighed. “He means his kobolds. Core Beno has quite an unusual way of seeing the world, for a core. Your clanmates are safe, Beno. Wylie was hurt, but Tomlin has been at his side while the goblin shaman tends to him.”

  “And Warrane?”

  “This leaf has found his tree again,” said a voice.

  Yet another figure appeared in the doorway of my cell. This was getting ridiculous.

  “Warrane? I’m glad you’re safe.”

  “This leaf’s family came with the rest of the Eternals. He understands now. They have explained why they left; about their dreams. He will stay here.”

  “As will I,” said another voice, a female one.

  And there was Galatee.

  “This is getting quite cramped,” I said.

  Reginal and Galatee eyed each other. There was a flicker of hostility in their gazes, but I could see the struggle on their faces as they both fought to bury it.

  Bolton addressed me now. “The Wrotun and Eternals have found peace, as fragile as it is,” he said. “But this underground chamber is too small for them, and it is no home for people. If they are to thrive, they need a true place to live.”

  “Well, there are lots of places in Xynnar,” I said.

  “True, but no lands they could truly claim as their own. The king has allocated almost every fertile land in the world to his lords and dukes, and the rest. The allies he made promises to so he could unify our lands. But there is one place that has no owner. A place that no sane lord would wish to rule.”

  “The wasteland up top, I take it?”

  “The core is more preceptive than I realized,” said Reginal.

  Bolton nodded. “And there is more to a dungeon core than you know. The essence they use to create can be wielded in places other than a dungeon.”

  I thought I was begging to see what he was implying.

  “Then you mean-”

  “Yes, Core Beno. You have proven yourself a much worthier core than the overseers and I expected, and we believe it is time you learned what else a core can do. First-Leaf Galetee remains your owner, along with Chief Reginal of the Eternals. You and Jahn are to transform the wasteland for them.”

  The End of Book 2