The Guild Core: The Complete Saga Boxset: A LitRPG Dungeon Adventure

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by TJ Reynolds




  The Guild Core: The Complete Saga Boxset

  A LitRPG Dungeon Adventure

  TJ Reynolds

  Mad Hag Books

  This is a work of fiction.

  Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.

  THE GUILD CORE: THE COMPLETE SAGA BOXSET. First Edition. August 17, 2021.

  Copyright © 2021 TJ Reynolds

  Written by TJ Reynolds

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  World Map of Lianin

  Map of Anvar

  Book One: Dragon Bourne

  Prologue: Splinter of the Past

  1. Our Man in Mindonne

  2. Spark to Flame

  3. With Oldest Blood

  4. One Last Dance

  5. When Two or More

  6. Rules of the Game

  7. Sense and Suitability

  8. Stuck in the Middling with You

  9. Burning Bright

  10. While the Hero Toils

  11. The Wisdom of Water

  12. More like a Looking Glass

  13. The Inconvenience of Skullduggery

  14. Cats in a Mousetrap

  15. Staves and Stones

  16. Beggar Your Neighbor

  17. Charity Begins to Roam

  18. The Price of Pondering

  19. With Wand and Blade

  20. To Be Thy Adam

  21. Bright Eyes, Blind Sky

  22. Visit Before Venture

  23. Boots, Baggage, and a New Look

  24. Roadside Sages

  25. This Way Comes

  26. A Night Out, on Mindonne Town

  27. And the Ugly

  28. When in Doubt, Remodel

  29. Morning After and the Quest to Come

  30. Lessons in Limitations

  31. When Fate Calls, it Screams

  32. Bright Against the Black

  33. To Break the Tide

  34. The Consequences of Honor and Attraction

  35. And Caverns Old

  36. Captive Keeps the Key

  37. Shadows in the Cave

  38. Wearing the Wolf Skin

  39. Unsavory Guests, Unsavory Minds

  40. When Deep Calls

  41. Stolen Heart, Fallen Sky

  42. Spilled Milk and Broken Toys

  43. Breaking the Ice

  44. Rest and Recompense

  45. And Then There were Three

  Epilogue: Breadcrumbs and Borrowed Time

  Appendix: Anecdotes and Archival Particulars

  Book Two: Core Sworn

  Prologue: From the Top, First Lesson

  1. Seed Before Tree

  2. A Name for It

  3. Friendly, Fallen

  4. Where the Cloak Turns

  5. New Paths in a New Land

  6. Wolves, Or Something Like Them

  7. An Elemental Mind

  8. Bound by the Core

  9. The Limitations of Power and Chivalry

  10. Water from the Rock

  11. From the Top, First Trial

  12. Tipping the Scales

  13. Boon and a Burden

  14. Roots Before Leaves

  15. Denizens and Discovery

  16. The Woman Behind the Bow

  17. Rumors and Rebellion

  18. Of Gods, Kings, and Men

  19. Honors and Improvements

  20. Academic Ambitions

  21. In Another Woman’s Shoes

  22. Stronger than Crystal

  23. In One Basket

  24. Moldering Treasures

  25. With Eyes to See

  26. What Grows Beneath

  27. Stirring the Lizard’s Nest

  28. Like Playing Knights and Castles

  29. The Perilous Deep

  30. Under the Guise of Motherhood

  31. To Know is to Trust

  32. Inevitabilities

  33. Too Much Heart, Too Little Tolerance

  34. Heart of an Ally

  35. Blind Flight

  36. A Frightful Interruption

  37. Gifts for the Guests

  38. A Time for War

  39. Pain for Progress

  40. Studying Stripes

  41. Burning a Hole in Your Dungeon

  42. Circle of Fangs

  43. Keep’s Gambit

  44. Body Before Mind

  45. Punitive Measures

  46. Fire to Break the Night

  47. Mind Over Body

  48. Bird Song and Celebrations at the Sunken Keep

  49. Denizens of the Deep

  Epilogue: Echos from Times Past

  Anecdotes and Archival Particulars - Expanded

  Book Three: War Torn

  1. Hawk Flies with Sparrows

  2. The Rabble Returns

  3. Flagging Duties

  4. Blessings Before Adventure

  5. A Master Most Strict

  6. Rooftop Revelations

  7. Penance and Punctuality

  8. Acting with Ambition

  9. Unfamiliar Boots

  10. The Value of a Packing List

  11. A Place to Grow

  12. Makeshift Mansion

  13. As Seen in a Dream

  14. He Who Holds all Eight

  15. A Burdened Body

  16. Secrets of the Scale

  17. A Valid Excuse to Flex

  18. Master of the Keep

  19. To Hell with Banners Anyway

  20. More Precious Than Life

  21. Persistence of the Crab

  22. If Death Spawned Wings

  23. What the Darkness Fears

  24. A Most Peculiar Custom

  25. Reconsidering the Nest

  26. The Bounty of Friendship

  27. Oh, What Sweet Agony

  28. All Things Golden, and What Comes After

  29. Luminous

  30. The Golden Valley

  APPENDIX: Anecdotes and Archival Particulars - Expanded

  Anecdotes and Archival Particulars

  Liked What you Read?

  About the Author

  Acknowledgements and Royal Road Love

  If You’re a Fan of Cultivation, LitRPG, and Gamelit…

  LitRPG

  World Map of Lianin

  Map of Anvar

  Book One: Dragon Bourne

  Prologue: Splinter of the Past

  Shield Sergeant Bloodspar

  Drystan crushed the squaller’s sternum, his boot splintering the beast’s ribs. It flailed a pair of emaciated arms and opened its mouth, a row of thin teeth making the creature look more like a fish pulled from the depths of an underground lake than any humanoid race.

  He pounded the side of its head with his hammer to be certain of its death.

  “Sweet Andag! I think you’ve killed it twice, Drystan,” a man said from behind him. “Do you always make a mess like this?”

  As shield sergeant, Drystan Bloodspar had the right, the privilege, to stand among those in the front lines. Helm sergeants may get paid more but had to think for a living; they couldn’t have nearly as much fun.

  Then again, he frowned as he tried to pull back his boot, which was lodged in the scrawny creature’s ribcage, he figured they didn’t have to contend with quite so much blood and gore, either.

  “Should have seen the last dungeon.” Drystan smirked. “For some reason, the thing used blasted pigs to defend its core. I haven’t had the courage to eat a single rasher of bacon since.”

  The two men exchanged a laugh, then subdued their celebrations. Regardless of how easy thi
s dungeon had been up to this point, they had yet to face its champion. No matter how small an Earth Core was, defeating its champion would be a challenge.

  Drystan grinned at his friend and spun the hammer in his hand. Like so many other Elites, his armor wasn’t standard issue. He’d had each piece modified to suit his body and his style of fighting. He’d chosen the Stone-breaker class as a young man, and almost regretted it after. Few Stone-breakers lived long enough to earn their stripes in the army, fewer still to achieve any kind of rank.

  He’d been more competent, however, than many had predicted. Before long, Drystan the Destroyer was promoted to shield sergeant, second in command of an entire platoon, and served in the prestigious Vermillion Guard. The Red Cloaks, the Bloody Hand, the Elites—the unit had many names—but regardless of what you called the Guard, it was plain to all that they only took the best into their ranks.

  The shield sergeant stepped forward, eyeing the man he’d come to love as a brother. Drystan opened his mouth, but Sandrey spoke for him. “I know. You’re going first.” Holding out his armored hand, with a mocking bow, he willingly gave over the lead.

  A full squad of Elites waited in the dungeon’s small main chamber, ready to provide support if needed. As the War of the Dragons raged on, the Brintoshi had learned how foolish it was to send too many soldiers down into a dungeon at one time. As this particular dungeon had been assigned the rather low ranking of Amber ascended, Drystan and Sandrey would finish it on their own.

  The glow of pale-blue ether filled every corner, making the passages inside all dungeons easy enough to see in. Drystan was glad they didn’t have to carry flickering torches, stinking of pitch, as they delved into the hewn stone caverns for the Earth Cores. And, if one were being honest, no one could have guessed the war would end like this.

  Defeating a dungeon’s minions and harvesting its ether and loot was one thing—soldiers and adventurers alike had been doing so for ages—but destroying them by shattering their precious gemstone hearts… well, that was a different story entirely.

  Drystan strode ahead, noting a gentle decline in the dungeon floor. As he reached the bottom of the slope, he heard a scraping noise that sent shivers down his spine. So far, the dungeon had presented a consistent if disappointing defense: a rabble of roaming minions, all too weak to even dent his glorious armor.

  This new sound, though, came from something different. He glanced back to Sandrey and whispered, “Two pints says that’s the champion. Keep close.”

  Sandry didn’t press the bet. Everyone knew Drystan’s instincts were spot on. But he’d make his man buy the first two rounds anyhow. After we’re done here, we’ll both be bored out of our minds and flush with too much coin to spend. Only ale and a few run-ins with tavern girls can save us then.

  Taking a deep breath, he cleared his mind of anything but destruction. The champion fight was undoubtedly his favorite part of each dive, and he wouldn’t be distracted by thoughts of milk-pale skin and lifted skirts.

  He moved with purpose, knowing that being caught within the doorway was worse than anything. Striding into the next chamber, Drystan saw a hunched form with far too many legs protruding from its back. Yet when it turned and hissed at him, he was surprised it wasn’t anything like a spider.

  An amalgamation, as some experts called them, blinked too-large eyes at them. The dungeon had combined its humanoid squaller minion with some insect beast of the deep.

  Its skin was white and translucent, and long legs moved its frail body around gracefully. Instead of arms, the creature had long, probing appendages fanning out from its chest. By the way it moved them about, Drystan guessed they were sensory organs.

  He didn’t bother scanning it to see whatever fool name the Earth Core had assigned the champion.

  It simply didn’t matter.

  A beast like this was best felled from a distance. It would be venomous, or spit some kind of foul acid, so even as Sandrey walked to stand beside him, Drystan clutched his great hammer, lifting it just a foot above the ground. Then he trotted forward and to the side, turning in a single, tight spin, and launching the weapon into the beast’s blighted maw.

  The champion tried to move away, and avoided a killing blow. Yet the hammer careened through the right side of its legs. It fell to its side, screaming in a language no civilized man could decipher.

  Drystan unsheathed a short sword and pointed a finger at the flailing beast, urging his companion on. “All yours, Sandrey. Be quick about it. Would like to retrieve my hammer should anything else happen upon us.”

  In less than a minute, Sandrey relieved their foe of its other useful legs and finally its head.

  Drystan sighed in relief as the screaming finally stopped. Is there no way these vermin can die quietly? I swear, next time I’m packing my ears with wax.

  The tinkle of loot hit the dungeon floor, but they ignored it. They were paid by the king, and anything claimed in such a venture was his due. Sandrey merely wiped some of the foul blood from his blade and they continued onward, Drystan again in the lead.

  A chamber lay ahead, visible through the narrow passageway they walked along. Drystan could tell it was large, though still some fifty feet away. As they came closer, the sprawling room presented itself, opening up at least another fifty feet on either side.

  He gazed back at Sandrey and gave him a quizzical look. The man shrugged back, as if to say your call. At that moment, Drystan almost did the smart thing, calling in the rest of their squad of Elites to face whatever beast lurked here together. But where’s the shivving fun in that? he wondered and with a cocky grin, stepped into the chamber.

  As soon as his boot hit the stone floor, a rumbling filled the air, and a massive figure rose up before them. They could see it had been there all along, resting in a depression in the floor. Drystan had heard many fanciful tales in his life, most of them told in cramped bars over the rim of a too-oft emptied tankard of cheap ale, but none of the tales of dragons that reached his ears came from sober witnesses. Despite his lack of credible knowledge, Drystan instantly knew the dragon for what it was.

  “By the gods! Drystan, we should flee. There weren’t supposed to be any bloody dragons here!” Sandrey pleaded, tugging at his elbow. “Come on, while there’s still time!”

  Drystan would never be promoted to helm sergeant. He had neither the mental prowess to make the snap decisions required for adapting battlefield tactics on the fly, nor the patience to deal with petty posturing and the politics of the officer’s tent. But those who followed and stood beside him knew his mind was as keen as the edge of an axe when it came to the action and reaction that was melee combat.

  Already, he had assessed the situation. This was a small dragon, only thirty feet from snout to tail. Its wings, which reared over its shoulders, made for a terrifying image, but its chest wasn’t much broader than a stallion’s.

  This dungeon was weak, and its shivving dragon had remained to guard the Earth Core while all the rest had flown to Hintar’s aid. Drystan was sure the beast would still represent a danger to them. It would take a dozen or more Golden ascended knights to bring it down.

  But Drystan was no ordinary man.

  He’d gained more power than most soldiers alive, fought countless battles, and he knew he could slay the dragon on his own.

  He tugged free of Sandrey’s grip. “No, this is a fight I will not turn away from.” Striding forward, Drystan called out in a mocking tone. “If you aren’t the last by now, you’re damn near close enough. Why are you hiding away? Don’t you know the fate of your kind?”

  The dragon’s growl deepened, shaking the stone of the chamber itself. “I will not leave my Earth Core.” It sneered, “You are too small to slay me. Leave while you can, murderer!”

  Drystan’s mocking laughter was so loud, the dragonling ceased its growls. “Small? Aye, and yet my core contains more ether than yours.” He strode forward confidently. “I’ve killed scores of men and hundreds of beasts. And
when I leave here, I’ll have killed a dragon, as well.”

  Without further warning or even a pause to wait for his closest friend, Drystan charged.

 

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