The Dungeon Fairy: Two Choices: A Dungeon Core Escapade (The Hapless Dungeon Fairy Book 2) by Jonathan Brooks (free e books to read .txt) 📗

profits from it, because he seemed desperate enough to do just about anything other than wandering around and trying to sell whatever he could.

They started building the Store just as soon as the third Inn was completed, and since it didn’t take nearly as long as the larger hospitality structures, they were free to construct yet another Inn afterwards.  After seeing the few groups of Raiders already visiting temporarily, most of the villagers could see the potential for it; those who still didn’t agree went along with it anyway, because they could always tear it down later if the need for supplies arose and they were forced to build something entirely different.

Everything was going well, until just that morning.  Actually, that sounded ominous even to his own thoughts; something happened, but it wasn’t something necessarily bad – just unexpected.  Jesper had significantly underestimated how many Raiders would be looking for a new place to increase their Raider Level and look for loot.

They arrived in waves of dozens at a time, starting just after dawn, and by mid-morning even the partially finished fifth Inn was full to capacity with Raiders looking to visit the dungeon.  Those who came afterwards had to camp outside, some individuals or groups with tents, but most just sleeping on the packs they brought with them.  The flood of people was overwhelming, and Sterge worked until the sun went down, finishing the Inn so that there would be more space for the incoming horde.  There were still a few things that needed to be done in the morning to complete the job, but for now it was acceptable.

All he knew was that they were going to have to build even more places for them to stay, mainly because they couldn’t have all those people lying around and causing trouble.  A few fences around the nearby farms were already damaged from the sheer number of Raiders tromping through, though luckily their crops were undamaged.  They were going to need them, too, because they now had a lot of mouths to feed; not for free, of course, which meant that they were going to make some money from their visitors.  He was leaving all of that to Gwenda and the more knowledgeable villagers, though.  He had his own job to do, which was inexplicably a position in charge of their construction crew.

He’d rather have that than be in Jesper’s fancy boots, however, because the order the Clan representative gave out earlier in the day that there wouldn’t be any delving until the next morning certainly wasn’t met with any happy responses.  To back that up, the original group of Raiders that had investigated the dungeon was there to back him up and restore order, which was a literal lifesaver because the entire area nearly turned into a gigantic brawl.  Unbeknownst to Sterge, Jesper had already recorded the order of arrival of everyone in or around The Village, and he was placing time slots for them to delve on a first-come, first-delved basis.  He was glad to see that there wasn’t any favoritism going on, which helped to dispel most of the complaints – but not all.

Oh well, not my problem.  I just need to build more structures for them and stay out of their way; from what I heard from Gwenda already, the money is already steadily pouring in from those staying or eating at the Inns.  “Before too long, we’ll have broken even with what we put into everything, and then we can finally relax.”

Relax?  Sterge snorted into his scratchy pillow as he drifted off to sleep.  For some reason, I find that highly unlikely….

Chapter 5

The dawn arrived with a group of 5 disheveled and poorly equipped Human males, who walked up to the entrance of her dungeon appearing thoroughly weary from a sleepless night.  Or they could possibly be intoxicated.

“Actually, I think they might be both.”

Regardless of whether or not Shale was correct, she was pretty sure it was a bad idea to try to delve through a dungeon in either of those states.  Then again, it wouldn’t be her dying if they messed up going against her defenses, so she wasn’t too disappointed at their presence.  They all appeared to be some sort of melee-Class of Raider, and all of them wore nearly identical ragged leather armor and held an iron sword in their hands quite inexpertly.  In all, they looked like larger copies of the Hill Dwarf who had first come to her dungeon nearly 2 weeks ago – except much less prepared, if that were even possible.

“Why, pray tell, did we have to get up so darn early?” she heard one of them complain as he held his head.  It was hard to tell them apart, because they all dressed exactly the same, had greasy-looking hair and unkempt beards covering their faces – where dirt wasn’t covering the skin, of course.  Tacca was suddenly glad that she couldn’t smell because she was overwhelmingly certain that they all stank horribly from their unwashed bodies and the still-wet stains of spilled alcohol dotting their leather chestpieces.

“For the same reason we came to that stupid village before everyone else did,” said one of the others, who appeared slightly less tired and intoxicated.  “We needed to be first so that the other groups wouldn’t steal all of the loot for themselves and then there would be nothing left for us!”

“Uh…*hic*…I don’t think it works that—”

“Shut up!  We’re here already, and despite the early hour, we have no other choice.  That red-clothed fool said that we have to go now, or else we’ll be put at the end of the list.”  The leader pointed at the others one at a time, as if to make a point.  “And I will not wait another month or two to have our turn at this place.”

The wait to get in here is already a