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

As more loot and coinage flowed out of the dungeon, so too did more flow into The Village’s coffers.  They still weren’t charging a lot for staying and even eating in one of the Inns – at least compared to many of the larger towns and cities, from what he remembered – but business at the Delving Supply Store was booming.  Merchandise such as armor and weapons, healing potions, and various other supplies that helped the Raiders stay safer and more efficient while they delved through the dungeon flowed in and out of the small store, which always seemed to be crowded.  Sterge stayed far away from any of that because it was too confusing to him, though Gwenda seemed to revel in sticking her nose into the business of everyone in The Village.

“We’re doing phenomenally well right now, and all of our investments have already paid for themselves.  The steady income from our visitors has allowed us to hire many of them to harvest and even plant our newest crop, and I’m sure you’ve appreciated the extra help,” she told him approximately a week after the first disastrous delve by the group of drunk Humans.  Sterge couldn’t believe that so much had happened in just the 2 weeks since he and Gwenda had delved through that same dungeon.

Since then, there had been perhaps a dozen or so casualties; he didn’t really have an accurate count because, well, it wasn’t really any of his business.  That, and he thought that being interested enough to go about asking how many people had died so far would probably be frowned upon.  It didn’t seem to bother any of the other Raiders, however, so he figured that the casualty rate was either “normal” or better than “normal”.

“I certainly do appreciate it, as well as the fact that I didn’t have to try to harvest and plant anything myself.  Though, I have to say that it feels like a long way off before we get a handle on all of these people,” Sterge told her, shaking his head at the seemingly vast number of people still hanging out in tents – or nothing at all.

“Don’t worry, you’re actually making extremely good progress; I’d say that another few weeks of construction will get us there.”

Sterge couldn’t help but look at Gwenda skeptically, which received an explanation.  “Oh, I don’t think we need to be able to house everyone here; I’m sure you’ve noticed that many of those who arrived don’t really have any funds to spend on accommodations.  I’ve spoken to quite a few of them, and they’ve said that they would rather save up by sleeping outside; that way, they could eventually purchase some things that would help them with delving.”

“That seems strange, but whatever works for them is fine with me.”  Gwenda knew more about that kind of stuff than he did, so if she thought it was fine then he wasn’t going to argue.

She placed her hand on his arm companionably and laughed at the expression on his face.  “Oh Sterge, I know exactly what you’re thinking.  That big heart of yours wants to put a roof over all of their heads, even for free; but you have to remember that it is their decision.  Many of them are too proud to accept charity like that, and this way they can feel like they’ve suffered through all of the hard parts when they’re finished with this dungeon and can move on.”

“Move…on?”

“Of course!  This is a beginning dungeon, after all.  After fully delving through perhaps 6 or 7 times, from the information I’ve gathered, they’ll be too high of a Raider Level to really benefit from it any more.  At that point, they would move on to some other dungeon that is tougher and more dangerous; hence the reason they would want to save up for better equipment.”

That made sense; Sterge just hadn’t really thought about it before.  Regardless, it appeared as though Gwenda’s plan was working.  They were now bringing in enough money to support themselves and keep their farms running, which was just a benefit of the whole thing.  It wasn’t ideal, because now there were thousands of Raiders hanging around their village, but they weren’t just surviving – they were thriving.

At least, that was the case before the Ministry of Merchants made their presence known.

They arrived in the late afternoon one day, a large procession of gaudily painted wagons and scary-looking guards lined up protecting them.  There were also hundreds more low-Level Raiders that came with them, though you couldn’t really tell that by looking at their attire; they were outfitted with beautifully crafted armor made from leather and different types of metal, which all looked custom-made.  The weapons they carried appeared to be newly forged steel or better material, instead of the rusty and used iron weapons most of the new Raiders nearby tended to have at the beginning of their career.  The only thing missing from them was a visible sense of experience and comfortableness while wearing all of their gear. Even the small amount of time around the few veteran Raiders staying in The Village had allowed Sterge to see the obvious difference between someone brand-new (in which category he considered himself) and someone who had at least a few dungeon delves under their belt.

“Who are they?” he couldn’t help himself from asking while he watched them arrive and set up just outside The Village.  They circled their wagons, forming a perimeter of an area that encompassed the small amount of empty space near the village center, while also ruining almost an acre of Blinchy’s wheat crop that was growing nearby.  Very little of the fields surrounding the village center had been trampled up to that point – which