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
