The Dungeon Fairy: A Dungeon Core Escapade (The Hapless Dungeon Fairy Book 1) by Jonathan Brooks (great novels to read txt) 📗

the entrance made her look questionably at Jeremy, but she only sensed more confusion from him.  She peered through the tunnel leading to the entrance and saw something that made her start to get concerned.

“Jeremy, transport yourself down below!  Have your Oozes get ready for a fight, because there are Raiders widening the entrance.  Do you remember if you placed any traps?”

“Huh, what?  Is there a football team here?  And what do you mean by Oozes—oh, is that what these disgusting things are?”

Now she was starting to panic; Jeremy was sounding just like how a newborn Core would after it was created – at least from what she had been taught.  “Ok, ignore everything except for accessing your Dungeon Core Module and using your Dungeon Force to transport yourself down into your last Core Room before the Raiders get here.  You should be able to bring up your dungeon map—”

“Ok, I see that.  Hey, this kind of reminds me of a video game!  I’m selecting my…what did you call it?  Oh yeah, ‘Core Room’, and activating the Teleport function…”

Nothing happened.  “Did you pick the right option?”

“Yes, I’m pretty sure—oh, here it is.  This little thing that popped up says that I have ‘Insufficient Dungeon Force’.  What is that?”

“Uh…that’s not good, is what that is.  You must’ve used nearly everything you had in your digging to the surface and don’t have enough yet.  Fortunately, directing your Ooze creatures don’t require any Force, so order them all to come up to this room; perhaps we can scare the invaders off before they can get to you.”  I can’t believe this is happening; just as I thought this might work out, this happens.

“Ok, doing that now…why are they so slow?  Who in their right mind would create something so disgusting and lethargic in their movements?  Is there anything else in here that can help?”

Tacca didn’t bother to explain that Jeremy himself had chosen them for his initial defensive creature.  “Yeah, there’s nothing else, and I doubt you’ve been here long enough to obtain any other Improvements – so these are what you have to work with.”  The Dungeon Assistant flew down the tunnel to the other rooms and saw for herself what he was talking about; if they were lucky, perhaps one of the larger Oozes from the second room might make it to help defend in time.  In fact, they seemed extraordinarily slow…

“Quick question – what does your Ooze Variant say?”

“Ooze Variant?  What does that mean?  Hold on, I think I saw that somewhere…here it is!  It says Earthen Sludge…whatever that is.”

That would explain why they were so slow. The Earthen Sludge Variant of an Ooze was slow-moving but extremely powerful; it was highly resistant to fire-based spells and attacks (which were usually an Ooze’s bane), and once it managed to grab on to something it was extremely difficult to remove.  The “earthen” quality of the Ooze would attempt to squeeze and crush whatever it enveloped, and it also had a slight acidity to it, which would break down most metals – though the speed of that happening depended on how large and powerful the Ooze was.

It turned out that she was mistaken regarding the Ooze from the second room – and not in a positive way.  The entrance tunnel was widened and even more of the outside world was exposed faster than she expected, and the next thing she knew there were some Raiders already entering.  She saw a Dwarf, a Human, an Orc, and an Elf – an unusual combination of races, but not unheard of working together – cautiously enter, using an Amulet of Illumination to light up the relatively dark tunnel.

“I told you there was another dungeon around here.  But no, you didn’t believe me; just goes to show you that I know what I’m talking about—” the human male began to say in Common Tradespeak.

The Elven woman cut him off using the same language.  “I wouldn’t necessarily say that; you were wrong about so many of the ones before, so I’d just say you’re lucky this time.  Being right one out of fifty times doesn’t indicate that you know what you’re talking about.”

“Ok, you two; shut up and let me take a look at what we have here.”  Putting actions to his words, the Dwarf – who was carrying a shield almost as large as he was – stepped forward and cautiously entered the room with the Amulet of Illumination around his neck, lighting the way for them all.

“This isn’t good, Jeremy – you need to have the Oozes you have here in the room attack them to dissuade them from moving any closer; they’re going to destroy you if you don’t get them moving!” Tacca used her mental communication with the Core for the first time since she had Bonded with him.  She had also turned her Invisibility back on as soon as she saw the Raiders coming in, but the Dungeon Core couldn’t really hide; he was still floating in the middle of the room, glowing brighter and brighter by the minute, but still largely defenseless.

“I already sent them to attack, but they’re taking so long to move – is there anything else I can do?”

The Dungeon Assistant Fairy quickly thought about what he would likely have available, but immediately determined that he was basically out of options.  Being a new Dungeon Core meant that he had limited choices in his defenses; he had his Oozes, of course, and likely some deadly traps to choose from, but they were useless at the moment for a few reasons.  For one, they required more Dungeon Force than he obviously had at the moment; two, producing more creatures or traps took a little time – they weren’t instantaneous; and three, changing anything inside a room where there were Raiders (whether it was structural, trap-based, or creature design) was