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

all of those instances, other than the first delve, the Raider who had fallen had been savagely mauled by her creatures, but not completely killed.  By the time the rest of the group escaped, leaving their “dead” companion behind – most times with tears and yelling about “how could you leave him/her?” inside of the exit passageway as they left – Tacca was already there to form a Bond with the Raider before they died.  All but 2 of the additional 18 deaths (after the original 4) survived long enough for her to complete the Bond, which gave her a few additional Abilities for her creatures that she hadn’t had access to before.

Bond Results:

Bonded Targets: 16

Abilities(s) Obtained: Soothe, Minor Regeneration, Accurate Shot, Muffled Step

Abilities(s) Granted: Dungeon Sight, Power Boost +50%

Creature Type Unlocked: Elf, Gnome

Variants Unlocked

Hill Dwarf

Fighter

Caster

Human:

Fighter

Scout

Elf:

Caster

Healer

Gnome:

Scout

The good thing about it all was that she had managed to unlock all four new creature types for use in her dungeon, including both Male and Female types.  There were quite a few repeats in Class type, however, so she only managed to acquire a few Variants for Humans and Elves, and only one – a Scout – for the Gnomes, though at least one had been Male and the other Female.  Tacca didn’t add to her repertoire for Hill Dwarves, either, but she was happy enough with what she had gained.  Sadly, she hadn’t had any Orcs die within her dungeon, though there had been quite a few that had delved through.  She also still wasn’t exactly sure when or if she would actually use the different races as creatures; nevertheless, the extra Abilities she gained from the new Classes that she Bonded with would eventually come in handy.

Especially those Abilities that didn’t require any type of weapon or object to utilize.

Gnome Scout

Cost (Level 1): 100 DF

Control Requirement (Level 1): 6

Creation Time (Level 1): 40 Minutes

Equipment: Flimsy Pine Bow (Ranged Attack +3), Ragged Leather Armor – Full Set (Physical Defense +4)

Stamina: 60

Stamina Regeneration: 5 per Minute

Physical Attack: 1

Ranged Attack: 3

Physical Defense: 5

Ranged Defense: 3

Elemental Resistance: +10% Air

Specials: Bonus Stamina for use of Abilities

Ability Options: [Ranged Weapon Required] Accurate Shot – 10 Stamina (+30 DF), Muffled Step – 20 Stamina (+40 DF)

Elf Healer

Cost (Level 1): 100 DF

Control Requirement (Level 1): 6

Creation Time (Level 1): 40 Minutes

Equipment: Basic Cotton Robe (Physical Defense +0)

Stamina: 60

Stamina Regeneration: 5 per Minute

Physical Attack: 1

Ranged Attack: 0

Physical Defense: 1

Ranged Defense: 1

Elemental Resistance: +10% Nature

Specials: Bonus Stamina for use of Abilities

Ability Options: Soothe – 25 Stamina (+50 DF), Minor Regeneration – 10 Stamina (+25 DF)

She didn’t have a handy Raider available to tell her exactly what the Abilities did like the Hill Dwarves had before, but she knew enough about what they could do to figure them out.  Soothe was a basic healing spell that could heal minor wounds when the Healer made physical contact with another person, or in this case – another creature.  It wasn’t nearly as effective as her Healing Paralysis Enchantment, and it would only fix superficial wounds to the skin – so, broken bones and internal injuries were out of the question.  Minor Regeneration was a very similar spell to Soothe, especially when comparing the quality with which it healed, but it cost less Stamina because it did the same thing over a lengthier time.  Whereas Soothe healed within 10 seconds, Minor Regeneration worked over 10 minutes.

Those might come in handy after a group of Raiders came through and ended up having to retreat before they finished off one of her rooms, leaving wounded creatures behind; during the heat of combat, however, she couldn’t see it working so well because of the time needed to break off and heal themselves.  For her Canines, at least, both Abilities were of relatively limited use – but not so much for the Scout-based Ability, Muffled Step.

If she remembered correctly, using Muffled Step would create a small muffling field around their feet; that field would prevent any noise caused by their steps from escaping to be heard by others.  Many of the times her creatures were detected before they struck, even after being behind cover, what gave them away was the soft patting of their feet against either the dirt or a scratch against a root or tree branch.  With this Ability, they could silently attack before the Raiders even knew they were there in most cases, which could end up being a huge advantage.  While her smaller creatures like her Foxes and Jackals were still a bit less-than-dangerous to most of the delvers, being able to attack without any warning could give them the extra oomph they needed to make a significant impact in a fight.

 It was something she wanted to test out immediately, though she had to be careful not to mess with too much at first; she had a fairly good system set up managing her Dungeon Force so that she could keep the restocking and resetting of her dungeon fairly consistent.  Adding Muffled Step to just one of her creatures would cost an extra 40 DF, which didn’t sound like a lot, but over a while it would probably add up.

“I think it’ll be worth it, though.  For one, you need to see if your creatures can actually use the Abilities like you think they should be able to; your experiment with one under your direction was a complete failure.  Whether or not they require an enemy around is something that you need to find out.”

Shale was right, of course.  Tacca had taken the time to experiment with a simple Root Fox with the Muffled Step Ability added to it – which had been remarkably easy to arrange, just by assigning the Ability