The Dungeon Fairy: Three Lives: A Dungeon Core Escapade (The Hapless Dungeon Fairy Book 3)

by Jonathan Brooks

  “Or, what I think is more likely, is that they are not from Gairth at all.”

  That got the Council Leader’s attention – it was something he hadn’t even contemplated before now. That’s probably because such a thing is almost as inconceivable as a Fairy being turned into a Dungeon Core.

  “Where do you think they’re from, Lapis? Another world? Another dimension? I can’t say that I’ve heard of anything like this before.”

  The Head Instructor thankfully had been listening, as opposed to lately when he seemed to be lost within his own thoughts and appeared to block out the world around him. “No idea, unfortunately.” He shrugged. “Without more information, it would be premature to promote any assumptions.”

  Malachite just sighed, sensing that they were still lost in their cycle of mystery surrounding these six-armed people. “Fair enough. It’s a moot point, anyway, because it really doesn’t matter where they are coming from. What matters to me more is why they are doing what they’re doing. That’s what doesn’t make sense.”

  From the Council Leader’s conversations with Shale while he was frantically looking for his Core that he believed was still alive – and which wondrously ended up being true – Malachite had gotten a better understanding of the current social and economic environment on the continent of Abenlure. At least, he had gotten as much information as the rattled Dungeon Assistant had managed to gather without endangering himself unnecessarily. It was something that Malachite realized he had been neglectful of over the last few millennia; he had rarely involved himself in anything other than the regulation and operation of Dungeon Cores that a bit of it came as a surprise to him.

  Namely, that there were now 2 major factions inhabiting the continent, though on the surface they were both Raiders. One faction was the same sort of organization he had been dealing with for thousands of years, ever since he had been appointed Council Leader: the Raider Delving Clan. These were who he was used to hearing about or seeing, and was what the ruling Conclave of Sages had consisted of; they were the typical individuals who rose from the ranks of nothing to become the most powerful of all, delving through dungeons tens of thousands of times over the years. They were a rough lot for the most part, but that was to be expected based on the experiences and hardships they had gone through to get to where they were.

  The other faction, however, was a relatively new power in the world. While their origins weren’t exactly new, the Ministry of Merchants had obviously risen quite a bit in power and influence over the last few centuries. The description of the group of low-Level Merchant-Raiders that had come into Tacca’s dungeon, equipped with gear that was enchanted with resistances that should’ve been far out of their ability to acquire, was worrying. The fact that Tacca had summarily trapped them in a room they couldn’t get out of was also disturbing, but he also couldn’t fault the former Dungeon Assistant for defending herself. That was technically what Dungeon Cores were all about, after all.

  If that had been all, he wouldn’t have been all that concerned. Rises and falls in power were typical of the mortal races, and such occurrences usually didn’t matter in the long run; what the Raiders and those like them did outside of the dungeons that Malachite was responsible for was their own business. It was only when they involved themselves in his business that it became an issue, and the last year and a half had shown that it was rapidly becoming a problem.

  Based on information gathered by Head Instructor Lapis and Dungeon Assistant Shale, from interviews with Assistant survivors and through safe observation, it was proving likely that the Raiders and Ministry of Merchants were at war. Not an open battle, as if they were on a large field and were charging at each other, but a war of attrition – and the Dungeon Cores and Fairies that were their targets were the victims.

  What better way to weaken the enemy but to remove their support? It’s a known aspect of delving through a dungeon, after all: A group was only as strong as their supporting members. Whether it was in the form of a healer or any of the myriad of other supporting Raider Classes, those that did all of the creature killing wouldn’t be able to survive for long without their help.

  In this case, the “support” that both the Raiders and the Ministry of Merchants was undermining with their clandestine efforts were the dungeons under the control of the other faction. That was a bit of an abstract concept, of course, because no one actually controlled the dungeons other than the Cores themselves, but access to a dungeon from the outside could certainly be regulated.

  The fools don’t understand what they’re doing! And without the Conclave of Sages to stop them, they are going to keep eliminating the dungeons that are allowing them to stay powerful, as well as providing a means of wealth. The Sages certainly could’ve stopped both factions if they had learned about it in time, but with them all dead…there was nothing stopping the slaughter.

  Except, thankfully, the Core destruction from sources that could be identified as coming from either faction had essentially died off after the attack on Tacca’s dungeon. Malachite wasn’t exactly sure why, but he suspected that word traveled fast about the attack that led to the deaths of both Raiders and Merchants, as well as the Core – as far as they knew – and a shaky ceasefire was called. The Council Leader had hoped that the situation would stay that way, as there hadn’t been any other deaths since the occurrence; a few weeks ago, however, a week before Tacca in her Core reappeared, another dungeon was destroyed, along with its Dungeon Assistant.

  Since the former Assistant-turned-Dungeon-Core had come back, the destruction was only increasing.

  “Do you think it will continue like this? Do we have any eyes up there?” Lapis asked him, and Malachite had to think for a moment.

  In the end, all he could do was shrug. “I have no idea, but if the pattern over the last few weeks continues, then it’s more than likely,” the Council Leader said sadly, looking at the northern part of the continent of Abenlure. While the attacks seemed nearly random when they started a year and a half ago – despite Lapis discovering a correlation – there was nothing random about this new series of attacks. The northern Dungeon Cores were being systematically invaded and destroyed, with no survivors or witnesses. “We have no other sightings of these blue-skinned people whatsoever, and if there were any type of representative of the mortal races near or in the dungeons, they were killed. It was as if they were silenced to prevent knowledge of who perpetrated the attacks from spreading.”

  Lapis looked at the map as well, before turning to Malachite and giving him his full attention for the first time in weeks. “Can we start pulling them out now?”

  The Council Leader gave the question more consideration this time than the first 50 times he had heard it from the Head Instructor. The DAPS Leader was a softy at heart, which made his question more a demanding request than a gentle inquiry – but it was understandable when it came down to those that used to be his charges. What he was asking would be unprecedented in the history of Gairth, even dozens of millennia ago when the overall world situation was a bit more chaotic.

  Pulling out hundreds of Dungeon Assistants from their positions was certainly something that Malachite never thought he would have to do.

  It wasn’t all of them, of course, only those in the northern part of the continent. Every dungeon located above the “Girdle” – the middle part of the continent – would be evacuated of their Fairy Assistants, so that there wouldn’t be any more loss on their part. If the Cores didn’t break the Bond between them on their own, then Malachite and those helping him in the DPRC, such as Lapis, could manually break the Bond – though it usually took a few hours to complete. Which was why they were thinking about preemptively moving them all out before an attack, where they could still manage to enact a Bond-severing before it was too late.

  All because they couldn’t see any other way to save them.

  Malachite, in a desperate attempt to Translocate into range to see if he could help the Assistant escape when
one of the lights started to flash, discovered that there was some sort of protection around the entire area; his Translocation started, but almost immediately shut down, which was something he had never encountered before. He knew from Shale’s report that the distraught Dungeon Assistant hadn’t been able to Translocate away when the blue-skinned monster people had arrived, and it seemed as though this applied to Translocating in, as well.

  Every Fairy in an Assistant position had been informed of the sudden attacks, and to be on the watch out for them – not that it had done much good to those that had been killed in the last few weeks. Recalling every single Assistant from every dungeon was a drastic choice, as it would leave every Core without their valuable assistance, but it had been one that he had been considering over the last few days, especially with Lapis questioning him about it every other hour. Now that there seemed to be a pattern, and an obvious one at that, Malachite knew it was time to implement some sort of evacuation plan – within reason.

  “Yes, Lapis,” he finally said, but stopped the other Fairy from running off right away with a hand on his shoulder. “But not all of them; I only want regions 22 through 35 recalled, as those are in the sweeping pathway of these mysterious invaders. If there are any changes in the pattern, we’ll deal with it then.”

  “But—”

  The Council Leader firmly squeezed the shoulder of the Head Instructor, cutting him off. “I know you want them all brought back safe and sound, but we also have a responsibility here. As it is, there are going to be nearly 200 Cores in those regions that won’t have an Assistant for however long this lasts, and even asking those ones to break their Bonds with their Fairy will be difficult. Leaving them unsupervised at this point in time is a big risk, as you well know, but I’m going to do everything I can to save as many Fairies as I can.”

  He made no mention of the fate of the Dungeon Cores, because there was nothing they could do to save them if these invaders attacked. They couldn’t move the Cores from their dungeons, after all, nor could they relocate somewhere else. Abandoning them to their destruction made Malachite physically sick, because it felt like a dereliction of his duty and responsibilities; however, he also had a responsibility for the Fairies under his charge, and they were something he could save.

  “…Understood. I’ll see to it, using my students from DAPS again to relay the messages.”

  The Council Leader only nodded as he turned back to the map, noticing another light starting to flicker and dim to the north. He was about to mention it to Lapis, but the Head Instructor was already frowning and scribbling something in his notebook. As the leader of the Dungeon Assistant Preparatory School finished, Malachite saw him wipe a tear away from his cheek as he called out to some of the other Instructors from his school.

  I know just how you feel, Lapis. He still hadn’t had any clue yet as to where the rest of the Council had disappeared to, and their absence made him want to cry and rage in frustration at the same time. He felt more helpless now than he had since…well, ever. There just wasn’t anything he could do, despite searching in his free time all over the world for any sign of their presence. Or their corpses, even if that wasn’t the ideal situation; the not-knowing was somehow worse than if he had come back to find them all slaughtered as horridly as the Conclave of Sages.

  It’s like they completely vanished…. Looking down at the map again, he couldn’t help but glance to the far south in the Wentrylock Mountains. There, farther south than any other dungeon by dozens of miles, was a single light nestled near the edge of the mountain range. A few months ago, the light had disappeared, vanishing as Tacca’s Core had been destroyed in an attack. Or so he thought, as it had reappeared shortly afterwards, dim—but alive. Now, it was bright and seemingly getting larger by the day.

  I wonder – will we find the Council alive somewhere as well?

  Chapter 2

  Tacca watched Sterge and Gwenda, the pair of Hill Dwarves that the former Fairy had Bonded, walking up the hill leading to her dungeon entrance. Entrances, actually. There were now two of them, each one leading to a separate section of her dungeon, marked with some fancy-looking skulls carved into the outer façade of the mountain where her Core was located. The original entrance, denoted by a single skull as her system for identifying the easiest difficulty, still had a Root Fox stationed just inside the passageway to indicate that it was ready for another group of Raiders to enter. The second entrance was a little further down the face of the mountainous slope, this one with 2 skulls (because it was more difficult) and a Gnoll Scout standing there casually, again waiting for the next group of Raiders to enter.

  They had both been waiting there for months. Just like Tacca had been.

  “You can’t really complain, though, can you? You certainly needed the time to get your dungeon back in shape.”

  Yeah, I can’t say the time went to waste. Shale IronSchist watched, along with Tacca, as their first visitors observed the remains of the Raiders that had perished outside of her dungeon. Since they weren’t inside her influence, she couldn’t absorb them to clean up, and no one had visited since the events that nearly led to her destruction. In fact, with her Dungeon Assistant’s help and information-gathering trips, there hadn’t been any people within at least 15 miles of her dungeon over the last 6 and a half months. Of course, she had only been present for the last 2 and a half months, as she had been in a kind of “limbo” for the first 4, but it sure seemed like longer to Tacca GloomLily.

  “You’re not really going to let them delve through your newest section, are you? I mean, there are only 2 of them – and they don’t appear to be much stronger than they were when we last saw them.” Her Bonded Assistant had a point, but she was already way ahead of him.

  I had hoped that they would be the first ones back, but I couldn’t be sure. Now that they are here, and there is more at stake than just obeying some rules and regulations, I’m taking matters to the next level. As the pair of Hill Dwarves discussed their plans to enter her newest section, she prompted her Gnoll Scout to gesture invitingly to them with its paws. She couldn’t communicate with them very well out there, so it was imperative that they be inside before she did anything else.

  “I…don’t disagree, actually,” Shale said after she explained what she was doing, as she was doing it. “Whether or not they believe you is something to be considered, however.”

  If anyone is going to believe me, then it’ll be these two.

  Tacca worked furiously to finish what she was working on before they arrived, and managed to complete it just as Sterge took his first step into her dungeon. For the first time in what felt like forever, the Dungeon Core experienced the small “tingle” of pleasure from their presence; it wasn’t actually their presence that was pleasurable, but instead it was the knowledge that she was finally gaining Core Improvement Points from a source outside of what she could create internally. Strangely, I’ve missed having Raiders in my dungeon.

  “Are you absolutely sure about this, Gwenda?” Sterge asked as soon as he cautiously walked inside, the Gnoll Scout stopping 20 feet in front of him when he didn’t progress more than a few steps. “We have no idea what this entrance is, after all.” The Hill Dwarf in the lead looked at the Gnoll further ahead of them and frowned. “And why is that thing just standing there?”

  “I have no idea, Sterge; it’s probably just showing us the way or something.” Gwenda shrugged, before continuing, slapping the Melee-focused Hill Dwarf on the back. “As far as this dungeon, I think we did pretty good the first time we ventured into the unknown, don’t you?”

  Sterge sighed, looking at the other Raider with a put-on expression on his face. “Uh, we almost died, Gwenda – or don’t you remember that?”

  “Oh, I remember. But we’re much stronger than we were back then, and it’s important to check out this new entrance.”

  You’re definitely not strong enough to face what’s down here. She wished that she could communicate with the two Hill
Dwarves mentally like she could with Shale or even the Council Leader – she refused to even think of Head Instructor Lapis, since she still hated him for what he had done to her at DAPS – but that wasn’t to be. She wanted to let them know that without a full group of Raiders tackling the second section, or at least more powerful (in terms of Raider Levels) individuals, there was a much larger risk of death than anything in the original section. Alas, that wasn’t to be, but she had something else planned just a little further inside.

  Sterge sighed again, and Tacca could tell he had given up on trying to change Gwenda’s mind. “Fine; I do agree that we should check it out, but at the first sign that it is too much for us, we leave.”

  “Sure. Absolutely.”

  They continued walking cautiously down the tunnel leading further into the mountain, the Gnoll Scout staying the same distance away from them, when her creature suddenly dropped from their view.

  “Whoa! Where’d it go?” The leather-armored Hill Dwarf advanced cautiously, obviously expecting some sort of trap, but there wasn’t anything dangerous ahead. Dangerously fun, maybe, but it wouldn’t hurt him. “There’s a drop-off here, though it appears sloped instead of straight down. What do you think it is?”

  “I think it’s pretty obvious, especially if you consider that this might be an additional section of the dungeon. If I’m not too far off, the first few rooms we’re familiar with are over that way,” Gwenda said, flicking her hands off to her right and a little ahead, indicating that she was referring to behind the stone walls. “That being said, unless everything has changed drastically, there’s really no other place to put some new rooms…other than down below.” With that, and before Sterge could stop her, Gwenda stepped off of the edge and promptly slipped onto her butt when her foot hit the polished and slick stone surface of the wide chute leading downwards.