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

First was Larry, a lethargic Dungeon Core that complained incessantly about his existence, his dungeon, the Poisonous Giant Sloths that he chose for his initial creature because they looked “cool”, the fact that there were Raiders in the first place trying to invade him, and – for some reason – the presence of his new Dungeon Assistant.  Larry didn’t want to do anything, though Tacca convinced him to at least put a trap in his first room – which took hours of pleading just for him to do it – and the next invader that came in was dissuaded by the stone-spiked pitfall trap that was cleverly hidden near the entrance.  No one died, but the Elf Archer narrowly escaped being impaled by the sharp stone protrusions on the bottom by a deftly timed leap, and then she left without venturing further.

Tacca couldn’t help but be excited by that development, since it meant that Larry wouldn’t die right away – and that maybe she wasn’t bad luck after all.  Of course, seeing that his trap had worked, and deciding that nothing else was needed, the lazy Dungeon Core retreated into himself and refused to do anything else, stating that he was tired and needed to sleep.  Unlike Dungeon Assistants, Cores like Larry didn’t need to actually rest as they could continue operating without “sleep” for centuries if they wanted to, so that was a complete lie.

The lazy, uncooperative, disgruntled, and lying Core lasted all of 12 hours, as the Elf Archer came back with an entire group of Raiders, and after easily avoiding the pit trap that hadn’t been moved and killing the two Poisonous Giant Sloths that were guarding the first room, they made their way through the rest of the dungeon.  Larry hadn’t bothered to give rewards for killing the two Sloths, and as the rest of the ten rooms in the dungeon were empty and therefore a waste of time, the party of Raiders was rightfully annoyed…so they inevitably destroyed the Dungeon Core, who couldn’t even bother to care.

The next was a former woman, Betty, who was both a perfectionist and an aesthetic fanatic; she built perfectly cubic rooms and straight tunnels, without any type of curving or misdirection.  Tacca had to admit that it was very unnerving to fly around in because it was so uniform – and also for the fact that if you had good enough eyes, you could walk into the entrance and look all the way down to the Core Room.  The only thing that broke up the uniformity were a series of creative art pieces made out of stone that were attached to some of the walls, looking for all intents and purposes like three-dimensional chessboards.

Betty had chosen Kobolds for her initial creature, which was actually a great choice (she was told that the former Dungeon Assistant helped with that selection), but after creating a single Kobold she refused to bring forth any more.  They were apparently not very pleasing to look at and ruined the bright “aesthetic” of her dungeon; by “bright” Tacca meant bright – the ambient light was turned up so high that it appeared like the brilliant sunlight of a summer day.

The only thing that she had agreed to create – and what had kept her alive for so long – was the introduction of traps that she could hide cleverly inside her rooms.  Most Cores – she was taught – installed traps and did what they could to hide them, hoping they wouldn’t be found and be effective; Betty, on the other hand, was a perfectionist and had apparently spent hours upon hours looking at each one and hiding them so well that even Tacca had trouble finding them – even in the increased ambient illumination.

Of course, eight hours after the new Dungeon Assistant arrived, another Raider group came looking for rewards when they invaded Betty’s dungeon.  They were eight strong, and didn’t look particularly powerful – but they were not amused when there were no creatures to slay, no rewards to acquire (again, the Core thought it went against the minimalist approach she had adopted for her dungeon to put in reward chests for those who got through her traps), and half of them had died traversing through the well-hidden and deadly traps throughout the dungeon.  Betty was destroyed while still confused why they didn’t seem to appreciate the perfection that her dungeon was.

Next up was an extremely paranoid Core named Jeff – which was another strange name to Tacca, but she was starting to get used to their unusual names.  She was at first hopeful when she arrived because he had brilliantly constructed rooms, deadly traps in each room, and had taken advantage of a rare Dragonling Variant that allowed him to create highly effective flying – and fire-breathing – Dragonlings that were quite deadly.  It wasn’t until she introduced herself and took a grand tour that she realized that it was too defended; only the strongest and most powerful of Raiders had a chance to get through even the first room, as every inch of the floor, walls, and even the ceiling was filled with traps, and the dozens of Dragonlings had to stay airborne just to exist without triggering any of them.

As had been the typical attitude lately with all of the Dungeon Cores Tacca had bonded to, Jeff refused listen to her and ease up on the defenses – though at least he had rewards prepared in case someone got through a room or two.  He said that he was something called a “Prepper” in his previous life, and that he needed to take appropriate steps to ensure that the apocalypse didn’t reach him – whatever that meant.  He lasted a full two days before he was destroyed; the only consolation that the Dungeon Assistant could gather from the whole event was the fact that