by Dante King
Monster Core (Book 1)
Dante King
Copyright © 2018 by Dante King
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
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Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
12. Interlude
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
17. Interlude
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
25. Interlude
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
28. Interlude
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Want More Monster Core?
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Chapter One
Why was an eight-foot-tall demon goddess standing in my living room?
I stared at my new VR terminal and wracked my brain to make some sense of the situation. The metal cube was a plain matte black except for a DarkTech logo imprinted on each side. The hulking rectangular shell wasn’t even plugged into the power socket. Maybe I’d jumped into the system and completely forgotten about it? Or, maybe I was already in the game, the terminal simply projecting this beautiful woman onto the backdrop of my living room? I’d heard that some of the newest machines messed with brainwaves, and some could even cause short-term memory loss.
Yeah, that had to be it.
“Did you not hear me?” the beautiful goddess asked. Her words were laced with a peculiar accent, and I marveled at the level of detail in her form. Even the best games designed for the best hardware couldn’t quite match real life, and this woman was something else.
If it wasn’t for the vaulted ceilings in my top floor apartment, the goddess would have needed to hunch over. Her indigo-colored skin glistened as though carved from some non-existent jewel. Twin ivory horns curled out from her midnight black hair while the arrow-shaped end of her tail flicked around her ankles. She wore the least amount of clothing possible, little more than strips of leather, and barely anything was left to the imagination. Powerful curves of smooth muscle and flesh looked as if they still wanted to escape. It was distracting as, well … hell.
“Are you Sir Yorik of the Golden Seraph?” she asked.
I wasn’t sure how many times she’d asked me that question, but it was the first time I’d actually heard it. She had to be the creation of the VR terminal; there was no other explanation.
Otherwise, I would have to admit I was either insane or what I was seeing was real.
The goddess stepped toward me as though demanding an answer, but my ability to speak more than a few words had suddenly vanished. I wasn’t normally so tongue-tied around beautiful women—especially not one who was little more than a bunch of code.
“I’d offer you something to drink, but I doubt you can actually, you know, drink,” I managed to say.
“Actually, I would very much like something to wet my lips,” the goddess purred.
I felt my neck heat up and cursed the game developers for creating something so alluring. “Sure,” I forced my mouth to say the word.
I went to the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of cream soda from the refrigerator; the goddess accepted the drink with a cool smile, using a clawed finger to pop the lid. The bottle touched her dark lips, and she let out a little moan.
“The taste is wonderful. My deepest gratitude for the refreshment. Now, I must meet with Sir Yorik. Has he returned from his quest?”
“Ah, I’m Sir Yorik,” I said. It was the name I used for my avatar in Enter the Dark Realm. I hadn’t played the game in years, but it had been my favorite dungeon crawler when I was in high school.
“You?” The demon’s eyes roamed my body. “Well, you are quite muscular, and I imagine you would wield a blade quite well, but you are certainly no paladin.”
“I am Sir Yorik,” I repeated.
The demoness narrowed her eyes, and her irises took on a crimson glow. Something touched my mind, and goose-pimples rippled over my arms. Even though the sensation spooked me, I couldn’t help but marvel at the accuracy of this new VR terminal’s physical responses.
“Yes, I can see you tell the truth,” the demoness said after her eyes stopped glowing. “You are also not delusional. I assume your world has some means of transfiguration? Is that how you become Sir Yorik of the Golden Seraph?”
“I guess you could call it that,” I answered.
“Excellent. Then the first component of my mission is complete. My name is Lilith, Goddess of the Infernal Realm.”
“Pleasure.”
“I am very good at that.”
“Of course, you are,” I said with a chuckle.
“I must now move onto the details. Forgive me if I do not tarry.”
“Go ahead.” I tore my eyes away from her, finally, and looked at the small black box by my PC.
It was the weekend, and I’d just been fired from my job at the world’s biggest marketing firm, Blue Word. Management had turned a blind eye to my gray hat tactics, but then one of my colleagues had turned to the competition, and the shit had hit the fan.
Someone had to take the fall, and they chose me as their sacrificial lamb.
The VR terminal, along with the top floor apartment in a high-rise building, had been purchased with my ridiculous salary, but I would have to give them up now. I could handle that next week. For now, there was a world-class gaming terminal sitting in my living room, projecting the most beautiful woman I had ever seen.
“When do we start?” I asked.
“Firstly, you will need to select a dungeon,” Lilith replied.
“Nice. Dungeon crawlers are my favorite types of games. Killing monsters, collecting loot, and upgrading my character.”
“You won’t be entering the dungeon as an adventurer.”
“Oh,” I said with a little disappointment.
“You will be the dungeon itself.”
“How does that work? Is it like that old Dungeon Keeper game?”
“I am not sure I comprehend your meaning.”
“What’s the game called?” I asked.
“My land is named the Sinarius Realms.”
“Really? Did your company buy the rights to Enter the Dark Realm? Because that’s the end-game world.”
“Your mortal masters have no sway over the realms,” Lilith told me. “Many may wish to destroy them, and many have tried. All have failed; I am your master now.”
“What the hell was I thinking, asking you that question?” I said with a shake of my head. If DarkTech hadn’t secured the rights, then they were risking a seriously expensive trademark battle. “Of course, you don’t know. You’re programmed into the game, not one of the developers.”
“I helped construct the Sinarius Realms at the beginning of time.”
“So, you’re a developer? It seems kinda arrogant that a developer would program herself into the game to look like some beautiful goddess.”
“You t
hink me beautiful? I am the least alluring of the goddesses. Even the demigods are more beautiful than I am.”
“False modesty. Nice. Remind me not to ever meet the real developer.”
“God? I am afraid you would not like him very much.”
“Very funny. So, what’s the hook for your game? Why would I want to play it when I could be playing 100 others?”
It was hard to shake my marketing brain and the way this goddess acted made me think she was actually controlled by a human rather than an AI. Even the best NPCs in other virtual reality games couldn’t answer every question a player could ask, so there was no other explanation. The terminal and its starter games were all still in beta, so it wouldn’t be unusual for every player to be given a personal introduction from one of the customer service team members controlling an avatar.
“I have been preparing for your arrival for quite some time, so I have used the means available to me to make your quest… enjoyable.”
“Dungeons, loot, and monsters. The usual staples.”
“Oh, there will be plenty of those, but I am referring to the other dungeon cores. Many are beautiful females. Not quite human, but sufficient for your male tastes. I understand you human males from Earth are quite ravenous in your sexual appetites.”
That made me smirk.
“Sure, I like sex, but wouldn’t exactly call myself ravenous.”
“There are rules.” Lilith’s expression shifted from sexy goddess to stern dominatrix. “Just like in your world… laws of nature and laws of science. We also have laws of magic and laws of attraction.”
“You mean these laws of attraction actually function like physics in your world?”
“Indeed. You will learn more of this, and I shall teach you, but now I must show you my world.”
An image of an entirely different kind of dungeon appeared in my mind, and I couldn’t help imagining this beautiful demoness cracking a whip while a tight leather bikini barely stopped her breasts from tumbling out.
I dispelled the image from my head when the goddess lifted her clawed hand and drew a finger across the air. The sharp digit seemed to carve a line through reality, and adrenaline raced through my veins. The stench of sulphur invaded the room as the slit expanded until it was like a window into a whole other world.
I looked at the goddess and grinned. I was tongue-tied again, but for an entirely different reason.
This was unlike any other virtual reality game I had seen before.
“Will you join me in my realm?” Lilith asked.
I didn’t even need to answer, but if I’d been in the mood for puns . . .
Hell, yes.
Chapter Two
When I passed through the portal, I was no longer in my human body. I was a disembodied soul, a red spark of light floating in the air like a fire wisp. I still had all my senses, but they weren’t filtered through a body.
I could see and hear with total clarity, and Lilith’s steady heartbeat sounded like a bass drum as she made her way to a high-backed throne. My form floated across a chamber made of a vibrant crimson stone that seemed to flicker and glow as though embers sparked beneath its surface.
“These are the Sinarius Realms.” Lilith’s voice entered my mind. She waved a hand in front of her, and a square section of the floor in front of me retreated to show a pool of boiling lava. I stared within the fiery depths until the lava retreated, and the ridges in the earth formed a map.
The total area was massive, and the steam from the lava actually formed a fog of war over the majority of the landscapes. I could make out borders separating mountainous regions, forests, cities, lakes, rivers, farms, and fortresses in the sky.
If players could go to all these places, then it was the biggest game I’d ever seen.
“Are all of these places accessible to players?” I asked Lilith. My voice sounded identical to when I’d had a human body, but I was now communicating through a kind of telepathy.
“Yes. There are six realms in total. Infernal, Holy, Cold, Fire, Storm, and Nature. I can only show you the Infernal Realm on this map. I am closed to the others.”
“That explains the fog of war. So, there are six realms in total? Do they come with the release or are they expansion content?”
“You will start in the Infernal Realm, and most of your time will be spent there. It is most unusual for a dungeon core to venture outside its birth realm.”
“Dungeon core? Is that what I am now?” I enjoyed the roleplaying aspect of online games, but being a dungeon seemed a little strange.
Lilith chuckled and gave me a smile that was both schoolmaster and sexy seductress. “No, Dominic. You are merely a disembodied soul.”
“How do you know my name?” I asked.
“I know many things. Like I know I shall seal your spirit to the jeweled heart of an infant Infernal Dungeon.”
“I don’t get to choose what kind of dungeon I’ll be?”
“You do not.”
“Damn,” I said. “Infernal Dungeons sound kinda cool, but I was hoping there’d be more decision making in this game. It seems a little . . . restrictive.” I paused to look at the leather constricting the goddess’ curves. “You might be into the whole asphyxiation thing, but I like a little more room for movement. You can breathe in that thing, right?”
“Oh, I have no trouble breathing, Dominic.” Her voice was deep and breathy. “Nor should you worry about your position in my realm. It fits your personality. I always assess a person’s spirit before calling them to this world to ensure they are sealed to a dungeon befitting them.”
“Really? What makes you think I’d be best matched with an Infernal Dungeon? I was a Paladin of the Golden Seraph, after all.”
“You may have been on the side of the light, but you carry in yourself a great darkness. You were spurned at your previous occupation, and already plot the downfall of your enemies.”
“That’s true,” I said. I wasn’t sure how she could know this since I hadn’t told anyone my plans to destroy the rival marketing companies that had cost me my job. This VR terminal was one hell of a machine if it could sense that much.
“You desire the power to enforce your will upon others for the greater good,” the goddess continued.
“People don’t know exactly what they need.” I made a mental shrug.
“You are cunning beyond measure,” Lilith said.
“Yeah, you’re right about that. Sounds like I’m your man, Lilith.”
“The Infernal Dungeon should be your home.”
“Your game, your rules.” Well, I had to start somewhere; it might as well be hell.
“Excellent. And on the matter of choice, you need not worry. There will be many, many decisions to be made as an Infernal Dungeon core. You are actually my first in a very, very long time. The other realms have many dungeons, but you shall be the lone Infernal Dungeon.”
“I’ll have you all to myself then?” I doubted I’d actually be the only player operating a dungeon in the Infernal Realms since that would lead to balancing problems on the developer end, but I was happy to go with it for now.
“Yes, but I am only capable of setting you on the right path. After that, you shall be on your own. The Others have forbidden me from creating another dungeon core. My last cores proved far too troublesome for the other realms.”
“I can’t guarantee I won’t be trouble.”
“Oh, I am more than aware of the chaos you shall bring to the realm.”
“Tell me more about being a dungeon core.”
“You shall be the very heart of a dungeon. You will have control over what monsters lie within, the layout of the various floors, and the rewards adventurers seek inside your perilous depths. A dungeon core needs these soldiers of fortune to live. When the heroes and heroines command the arcane forces, they leave residual essences behind. These essences make the land and the creatures that inhabit it stronger.”
“Do they make a dungeon stronger?”
“I see,” I said as I tried to dismiss my sudden attraction to her sadism. “So, I’m basically a dungeon master.”
Lilith tilted her head as if she didn’t understand. “You are a dungeon core.”
“Right.”
“But you are something else, too. You are my Viceroy. As thanks for bringing you to this world, I have a special task for you.”
“Go on.”
“I want you to become the most widely renowned dungeon in all the realms,” she continued. “You must capture the attention of the strongest guild. Entropy.”
“Entropy? They couldn’t think of something less obvious?”
“It has been their moniker for millennia,” she said.
“Long time. Why are you interested in this guild? Do they have some kind of diabolical plan to take over the realms? Or are they threatening to destroy all the dungeons?”
“That is for you to find out. It will take some time, perhaps years, for you to become sufficiently infamous for Entropy to visit your dungeon.”
"I like the sound of that. Not the years part, of course. I’m a pretty impatient guy.”
Even if it did take me months to master this game world, I wouldn’t mind. The level of sensory detail so far was astounding, so I expected the developers would include some tactile experience in the sealing. I hoped it wouldn’t be too painful since some of these games could really take things a step too far.
