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

small fee, of course.  You know, because you’ll be operating on our land and all that.  As for visiting the dungeon, your people can do that as well, as long as they follow the rules already put in place by the Clan representative here.  My hope is that we can all get along together and make this a very profitable venture,” Gwenda added with a smile – before the negotiation took place.

There was a lot of back and forth about the fees involved, and Sterge was sure that Gwenda got the worse end of the deal; not through any particular failure on her part, but from the fact that the Elf had hundreds of years of negotiations and business knowledge behind him.  Regardless, they seemed to come to an equitable agreement, which the merchant said he would have written up later to seal the deal.  Neither Sterge nor Gwenda thought that was the end of it, however, especially after the Minister’s parting words.

“I hope this will be very profitable, as well.  Don’t think for a moment that I’ve given up on trying to acquire this land, though; I’m sure I’ll be able to…convince…you all to sell, in time.”

That doesn’t sound ominous or anything…

Chapter 7

The days and nights blended into each other seamlessly, though it wasn’t like Tacca really worried about the time of day so much as a Dungeon Core.  All she knew was – through some reconnaissance from Shale outside of her entrance – that a few days after discovering that her dungeon was available to be delved through quicker than expected, the Raiders had set up a pathway with dim enchanted lights leading up to her entrance in the mountains.  Because of that, she was getting visitors 24 hours a day in a constant cycle of one group entering her dungeon while another was exiting through the staircase tunnel.

She was glad she had thought about using one of her creatures – the Root Fox – to indicate when her dungeon was available again, even though Shale had a problem with it initially.

“This feels entirely too much like you’re communicating with them,” he had said, frowning at her Core as soon as she mentioned it.  “That, and I’m worried that the people out there will think you’re letting your creatures outside of the dungeon – which you know is one of the worst things you can do.”

Tacca had been annoyed at how inconsistent the Raiders had been at checking the first room in her dungeon to see if she was ready; sometimes they would check almost immediately after the previous group had exited, while at other times it was an hour or two.  The Root Fox appearing at the entrance for a moment to indicate when the dungeon was ready for the next group seemed like the best choice, as it didn’t require her to create any special system to do the same job.  The creatures were already there, and all she had to do was instruct one when the previous group was walking up the staircase, and she was finishing up the rest of the replacements.

Streamlining the process by refilling the “conquered” rooms almost immediately after they were completed by the Raiders worked exceptionally well; the only thing that delayed the process was if both of the Soil-covered Pit Traps were uncovered, because it took a little longer and more Dungeon Force to replace them.  She was still considering changing them soon, because that was a bottleneck of sorts in her process, but she was going to wait until she could make some additional changes and do them all at once.  However, things were going well enough – which was why she needed some sort of message-relaying mechanism to keep the system running smoothly.

Fortunately, even over her Dungeon Assistant’s protest, Tacca decided to go ahead with her Fox plan – which was a resounding success!  After a few hours, the Raiders had caught on to the meaning behind the creature’s presence, and now she was dictating when they could come and go.  It was a measure of control that she didn’t realize she wanted—no, needed—in her life. For so long, she had been pushed around and told what to do and where to go; and now, because of some strategic thinking, she finally felt in charge of her own destiny.  Granted, she was basically acting as a glorified gatekeeper who simply allowed the teeming hordes of Raiders into her dungeon at a measured pace – but it was a pace that was set by her, and not by the whims of those same Raiders.

Shale could only agree that her plan had worked out beautifully, though he worried what would happen when the Dungeon Placement and Regulatory Council found out about it.  “I highly doubt they would find this acceptable, but as they don’t seem really interested in hearing any of my reports, I guess it doesn’t matter.”

We’ll deal with it when the time comes, but hopefully they will see this as something that could be applied to other dungeons to make them even better!  I can even share the trick of having the exit staircase with them, so that they can pass it on.  Who knows, such a thing might even become “standard” in many of the new dungeons.

“Ha, yeah.  I have to agree, it’s a great idea, and I know that some dungeons might be interested in it; of course, Raiders would love it, but not all dungeons would be willing to sacrifice the time their visitors spend inside of their dungeon for a little expediency.”

Whether or not her idea caught on didn’t really concern Tacca, as she wanted to have as little interaction with the DPRC as possible after how they had treated her.  She understood, fundamentally, why they used her “bad luck” to destroy poor-performing or dangerous dungeons – but she didn’t have to like it.  The whole thing