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

by Jonathan Brooks

  “Was that everything? Did we miss anything?” William asked.

  Sterge thought about what they had just seen throughout all of the different rooms, trying to remember if there was anything that they had overlooked in their exploration. With a nod, he said, “I think that was everything. Why? Wasn’t this enough?”

  “Oh, more than enough – and I’m sure it’s more than we expected. I was just wondering when we can start moving things in, because there is a lot that still needs to be done to get this place habitable. Plus, I’m no expert on farming, but I’m sure you need to plant something in order for it to grow.”

  “We’ve got plenty of seeds,” Gwenda mentioned. “The problem had been space for our crops, as well as the time it takes to grow and harvest each crop. I’m not sure how well they’ll grow in here, but we can only try it out and see what happens. The construction crews and those we’ve contracted for handling our farms are super busy right now, getting the last of the harvests in, so we’ll need some other hands to get this place in shape before it gets too late in the season.”

  Sterge knew exactly who they were going to use. Looking around at the others, the Hill Dwarf saw that they were thinking the same thing.

  “Let’s get moving then,” he said. “We don’t have a lot of time, and we need to get some seeds in the ground if we’re going to have enough to eat in a month’s time.”

  As they made their way out of the magnificent cave, Sterge stopped and turned to the great Hall. “Thank you,” he whispered, only to be echoed by the rest of his group.

  Now the only obstacle I can foresee is convincing thousands of Raiders to volunteer to stay inside of a dungeon’s creation for a month, without being able to leave. Should be quite easy, right?

  Chapter 21

  Tacca was pleased at how her project had turned out, and the reception from her two Bonded Hill Dwarves (along with their Raider group) had been overwhelmingly positive. She briefly thought about adding some additional rooms with some Saltwater and Seaweed, so that they might have another source of food, but she wanted to wait to see if they managed to produce what they needed on their own. Thinking about it, she had done a lot to help them survive already, and if they couldn’t figure it out by that point, then they had more problems than she alone could solve.

  The countdown to winter had begun, as she estimated that it was now less than a month away. While her dungeon with its two sections continued to operate, she watched as her Bonded organized a massive campaign to make the Hall and its rooms habitable, as well as starting to grow crops in the farms.

  Hundreds of Raiders were in and out of her creation, after some more than obvious hesitation by the majority of them, carrying supplies that were either brought down to the storeroom Tacca had created or delivering them to the various living spaces. Simple cots were placed rather than large beds, which she quickly learned was because they didn’t actually have that many beds; the same went with many other fundamentals that most people used to live, as they had a scarcity of quite a few products. That didn’t seem to be too much of a bother, though, because most of them knew they would only be forced to live inside of the mountain for a month, and “roughing it” was much easier inside than sleeping on the ground outside of the town like the Dungeon Core had seen through Shale’s eyes.

  However, as far as food went, it was how well the farming was going that surprised both Tacca and her two Bonded Hill Dwarves. The first plot of dirt they planted with seeds grew substantially faster than either of them had supposed, with sprouts shooting up within minutes of being planted and watered. In 24 hours, the stalks of wheat, corn, and a small variety of other edible foodstuffs had matured and were ready for harvest. From what she learned from listening into conversations, this was much faster than anything they could grow outside.

  In short, they were pleased – and they would survive.

  With the revelation of the fast-growing plots of soil, there was a massive operation set up to plant, harvest, store, and even transport the newly grown crops out of Tacca’s dungeon to help feed the town and those living thereabouts. After a week, they had grown enough to easily feed the entire nearby population, with at least a little to spare – which didn’t even count the fields of food growing outside of the mountain.

  All of that was perfectly fine for Tacca, though, because she was getting plenty in return. At first it had been a trickle of earned Core Improvement Points, but as such a large quantity of Raiders moved in and out of what was technically her dungeon – despite the only connection being a 3-inch-wide tunnel in an unobtrusive section of the Hall – she began to see major gains. Where she might earn a little less than 50 Points a day with her regular dungeon sections, she was soon gaining 400 to 500 a day from visitors to her new creation! Even the non-Raiders provided some points, though Tacca estimated that it was something like a 5-to-1 conversion for them, where 5 non-Raiders equaled 1 low-Level Raider; it was better than nothing, she supposed.

  The weeks passed, and it became a little colder every day outside, which she only gathered because of Shale listening in to conversations. It wasn’t quite winter yet…but it was coming.

  While all of that was going on, with the Raiders turning what she had created into something they would be able to inhabit in the coming month, Tacca was hard at work on her newest section. It would be quite different from anything she’d either constructed already or had ever heard of, but she thought it would be suitable for the situation.

  “What exactly is this? This doesn’t look…right,” Shale asked, after seeing her creation.

  Tacca had previously carved out a massive room before everything lately had happened, mostly as an idle thought and something to do, but she finally figured out what she could use it for – all thanks to her Dungeon Assistant’s suggestion, even if he didn’t know it at the time. The majority of the time and resources she’d had access to over the last few weeks were spent on perfecting her new section, though it was more of a new room than an entire section.

  Well, it all stems from what you told me about the town below and how I needed to keep them happy. Having somewhere to sleep, as well as enough food and water to survive is one thing – but you also mentioned boredom being a problem, didn’t you?

  “Yes, I did. But I figured you might just connect your dungeon sections to this place somehow, so they could continue to delve even in the middle of winter.”

  I had thought about that, and even started widening a tunnel toward the Hall, but changed my mind.

  “Why?”

  Because that would only help a few Raiders at a time. With the thousands that will be living in here, it’s doubtful that all of them would even be able to go through my sections once in the month that they’ll be trapped here, which won’t really erase the boredom. While in-fighting and the subsequent deaths might be good for me in terms of gaining Points, it takes away from the whole reason I agreed to help out in the first place.

  “Ok, I can see that, but what does that have to do with—” Shale hovered in the middle of her newest section, looking around at it again with wide eyes. “Ahh, I see. You really don’t do these things halfway, do you?”

  Of course not. That’s not who I am.

  “How is this going to work?”

  Here, let me explain—

  But she never got the opportunity to go into detail, because someone popped up into her Core Room. Someone she didn’t want there, but one look at Head Instructor Lapis’ face caused her to hold her tongue.

  “Tacca! I have news that you will want to hear, and though I know you don’t like me, I thought it would be better if you hear it firsthand. Where’s Shale?”

  Tacca mentally told Shale what was happening, and her Dungeon Assistant Translocated the next moment into her Core Room, as well.

  “What’s going on, Head Instructor?”

  Lapis was now nervously fluttering around the room, flying back and forth in obvious nervousness. Throughout all of the years that Tacc
a had known him, as well as the brief interactions she’d had with him after the invasion and attack, this was the first time he’d ever appeared flustered.

  The Head Instructor finally stopped and turned to them both, sighing heavily once before he said anything, still obviously bothered by something. “Well, as you’ve been informed, after Malachite disappeared – taken or otherwise – the attacks on the northern Dungeon Cores increased in frequency.”

  Tacca was well aware. While she didn’t want any contact with Lapis, Shale had been keeping abreast of the news over the last few months, passing along the information he had gained. It had been so busy over the last few days, though, that she needed her Assistant nearby to help; as a result, it had been nearly a week since he had checked in.

  “Recently, the Raiders finally decided to strike back at these mysterious people, sending a force to stop the destruction from happening as well as to take revenge for their own fallen, which they had been informed of by their own methods. Today, from all the sources I can gather, will be the confrontation – and I fear it will not bode well for them. I have about a dozen free Assistants watching the inevitable clash, and I thought it would be prudent for someone who has seen these things and lived to tell the tale to watch. I’m told you can perceive what Shale is seeing and experiencing, even from a distance?”

  Tacca was a bit perturbed that Shale had been sharing information about their Bond to the Head Instructor, but she let that pass as the import of what the stuffy old Fairy was saying finally hit her. Yes, that’s true. You say it’s happening right now?

  “We believe so, or it will within a few minutes. Shale, if you’ll come with me?”

  Go. I’ll watch from our Link – if it works, that is.

  “I’ll do what I can. Let’s go, Head Instructor.”

  The next moment, both of them disappeared, and Tacca felt the Perception Link enabled moments later. It took her a moment to fully comprehend where Shale was, but when she did she listened in and watched what was happening.

  “…about as close as we can get before whatever effect these murderous people are employing will affect us. Not being able to Translocate out or keep our Invisibility up is dangerous, and we don’t want to be caught by them,” she heard Lapis explain.

  Shale looked around, sensing that there were about a dozen other Fairies nearby, though they were using their Invisibility to hide themselves. When he turned back to what was going on about 500 feet below them, Tacca was awestruck at what she was witnessing.

  Thousands of Raiders were charging towards a line of approximately 50 blue-skinned, 6-armed figures, all holding various weapons like she’d seen before. Tacca figuratively shivered as she remembered those same weapons slaughtering the Raiders outside of her dungeon with ease, and how the monstrous people had managed to ignore almost everything she had thrown at them in her dungeon, from creatures to traps. They had shrugged off any type of damage because of a white glow surrounding each of them, some sort of shield that was invisible until it was forced to block that damage.

  This time, though, for some reason Tacca could see the hazy white glow of their shields even before they were attacked. That’s strange. Shale, why can I see their glow already?

  “What are you talking about? What glow?”

  The shield that protects them, Shale. You know, that’s why they’re glowing?

  “I don’t see anything, Tacca.”

  It was extremely obvious to Tacca that they were there, and it was like Shale was being deliberately obtuse. Regardless, she didn’t argue with him, because the leading edge of the Raiders was already within range of the blue-skinned line. Spells flew through the air from behind those in front of the charge, slamming into the six-armed people in a maelstrom of multicolored death, knocking them back and causing their shields to flare up and then fade a little. A second wave of casted spells impacted them with even more force, sending one of them flying, its shield collapsing as it was forced to block too much damage. It didn’t seem to be hurt, though, as it tumbled to a stop 40 feet back from the rest of the group, though it did appear to be startled and disoriented when it quickly got back to its feet.

  Yes! That’s exactly what they need to do!

  In her message to the two Hill Dwarves, she had mentioned a way that the invaders could be defeated, with overwhelming attacks that could bring down their defenses, and it seemed as though they had passed on the word to those that could take advantage of that knowledge.

  She saw a second and third blue-skinned invader lose their shields as they grunted in pain and fell back a few steps, but they quickly got back into formation moments later. A few seconds after that, Tacca saw the hazy glow start up again around their bodies, as if the shield was being automatically replaced after it had been used up.

  Almost like one of Tacca’s traps that had been triggered; it took a little while for them to “recharge” with Dungeon Force taken from her Core, where it would become active. This was similar, but instead of taking minutes or hours, these shields were doing it in seconds. Not only that, but they didn’t wait until they were fully “recharged” to be of use, but would be functional at a limited capacity in a very short amount of time.

  What that essentially meant was that when the first ranks of Raiders finally approached them, most of their glowing protection fields had at least partially recovered from the first two waves of spells thrown at them; a third wave was held off as their fellows got too close, where the risk of hurting them as well increased. That proved to be a costly mistake, though they didn’t know it at the time.

  Dozens of different Classes of Melee fighters clashed with the blue-skinned people, using abilities that allowed them to do more damage, to approach their opponents with speed, or bash them with their shields. Powerful flashes of different-colored light streamed out from the Melee Class’ weapons, as special techniques were used to inflict various effects or for attacking faster than the eye could see. Some wielded two weapons, slashing and hacking with abandon, dancing around their opponents and looking for an opening.

  Hundreds of arrows flew through the air, shot by all sorts of Archers, Scouts, Rangers, Elemental Archers, Snipers, and other high-Level Classes. Sneaky Assassins, Thieves, Brigands, and other stealthy Classes appeared behind the enemy, stabbing with swords and knives – really anything they could get their hands on. Additional spells also shot out from the Caster types, in a variety of shapes and colors as individual targets were identified and focused upon, while even the Healer Classes sent out what offensive abilities they had to join in on the action.

  Combined together, the attacks took a toll on the glowing shields of the six-armed people, until one after another blinked out and left them vulnerable. Wounds appeared on them as they were impaled, sliced, hacked, or had arrows or thrown knives embedded in their flesh. Tacca saw three of the blue-skinned invaders fall to the ground in death, even as the fourth had its leg practically severed from its massive trunk of a body.

  The Raiders were winning…which was when everything went wrong.

  The weapons of the invaders were deadly, hacking into and through armor and shields like they weren’t even there. Tacca couldn’t see it too well from Shale’s position so far above, but she thought she saw some sort of glow around the weapons as well, though instead of an off-white color, it was a deep red, almost crimson in appearance. Wherever the weapons landed, limbs were hacked off, armor was ruined, faces were smashed, and even magical defenses were pierced through as though they weren’t even there.

  While they did massive amounts of damage to anything they managed to hit, the six-armed people were still being overwhelmed, despite the carnage they caused. It appeared as though thousands of strong opponents were exactly what needed to be applied against these invaders, which Tacca was relieved to see.

  Unfortunately, the now-less-than 50 blue-skinned figures weren’t alone. As though they had been hidden by some sort of Invisibility like the Fairies near Shale, 10 purple-skinned
invaders appeared behind the line of the others. Not only were they a bit larger than their blue-skinned companions, but from what she had observed of them in her own dungeon, they were also more intelligent and strategic. While the blue-skinned ones had died in her previous defensive room, it had been the single purple-colored one that had managed to reach her Core and shatter her into hundreds of pieces even as it died.

  The warning of their presence came too late, as the rear crowd of Scout-type Raiders was hit with the full might of the 10-strong purple-colored invaders. Heads went flying as they failed to avoid being hit, and the crowd was so thick with surprised Assassins and Thieves that a few swings of a massive sword wielded by one of their 6 arms was enough to kill 2 or 3 at a time. Within 30 seconds, despite another 5 of the blue-skinned invaders falling to the onslaught, the battle had turned into a rout.

  Shale – and by extension Tacca – could hear shouts of “Retreat!” echoing through the small valley where all of this was taking place, and individual groups started to peel off and flee, flinging spells and arrows behind them as they ran. The invaders started to slaughter all of those that were left, either abandoned by their groups or unable to flee for some reason, which helped hundreds of others get away.

  Or so she thought. “Oh, no – look!”

  Shale focused in on something behind the battle lines, as another invader appeared – though this one was a bit different from the others. Instead of blue or purple, this figure was a deep red, nearly the same color as what Tacca had seen on the monstrous peoples’ weapons. That wasn’t the only difference, as it had eight arms along the sides of its body, which was nearly twice the size of even the large purple-skinned invaders. The weapons it wielded were proportionally bigger, as well, with one of its swords at least 8 to 9 feet long, along with it being 2 feet wide.

  A second after it suddenly appeared, it started running towards the battle line, which was still undergoing a slaughter of those Raiders that had left. Instead of joining in, it jumped, practically flying nearly 100 feet into the air as it sailed over the remnants of the Raider army, landing at least 300 feet away from the line – and right in the middle of two Raider groups that had been fleeing. Two quick attacks at the startled groups with all 8 of its weapons was all it took to bring them down, and the red-skinned invader started running after another group further away.