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

mace far too large for her whispered.  Fortunately for Tacca, it didn’t matter how softly they spoke, she could clearly hear whatever they said – and what they were saying immediately raised an alarm in her Core.  She wasn’t sure if it were natural “Dungeon Core” instincts, or the fact that she had lived through dozens of her Bonded Cores being destroyed, but something told her that these people were up to no good.

“Pshaw!  You don’t really believe that do you?  These dungeons are just mindless killers that like to tempt the feeble-minded with baubles to lure them in further.”  Tacca now didn’t like the Elf so much, either.

“That’s enough, you two,” the Fighter who’d spoken first interrupted their argument.  “Let’s mo—AAAHHH!”

Tacca’s creatures near the entrance chose that moment to attack, and their complete silence as they moved allowed them to get the jump on the group.  One of the Root Foxes leaped onto the back of the armor of the Fighter who’d been speaking, while the other latched onto the arm of the Elf, which was largely unprotected.  The caster screamed out in pain even as she used her Magistrike spell to bombard the creature, blasting it off and causing it to almost disintegrate from the sheer power of the Ability.  That staff must be enchanted with a Spell Amplifier or two.  Or perhaps three.

The armored Fighter, on the other hand, didn’t suffer any injury other than to his pride, and he struggled to reach and knock off the Fox who had managed to wedge its legs into a few gaps in the Raider’s back armor, where it was ineffectually trying to bite through chainmail and metal plates.  It was quite comical to watch as he screamed out shrilly, jumped up and down, and tried to shake it off – all to no avail. Other than the Elf, who was drinking a Healing Potion of some kind she pulled from a small bottomless bag at her side, his groupmates were all laughing at him. If Tacca hadn’t been worried about them in general, she probably would’ve laughed as well.  Eventually, the other Fighter swung his sword and bisected the brown-colored creature, causing it to fall off and disappear into a copper coin.  None of them even moved to pick it up, nor the other coin left from the one obliterated by the spell of the Caster.

That…well, that wasn’t a good sign.

“I’m going to kill everything in this dungeon!” the now-embarrassed Raider yelled out after the Fox was dead.

That wasn’t a good sign, either.

The Fighter surged forward, chopping into the plants she had lined up along the edges of the room with ease, his anger and superior equipment making it quite easy for him to do so.  By the time the others stopped laughing and caught up to him, and the wounds on the injured Elf healed, he was already chopping through the other Root Foxes near the exit of the room.  This time, none of them were able to sneak up on him, as he seemed hyper-focused on destroying everything in his path that made even the slightest movement.

Tacca couldn’t help but notice that there were some similarities between the sheer abandon of the incensed Raider – and his groupmates, to a lesser extent – and that first group of intoxicated Humans who delved through her dungeon so disastrously, but the major difference here was the gear wielded by this current group.  It was so superior in comparison that even when one of the Frond Coyotes in the second room was able to sneak up on the Fighter – who garnered the attention of the entire room full of creatures – it couldn’t hurt him in the least.  He was protected not only by the plate and chainmail covering most of his body, but she was also sure there was some sort of enchantment on it that prevented most minor damage to the armor itself.  None of the bites or scratches that managed to land left any sort of impression on the state of the armor, at least.

Not only that, but when he triggered the Rage-inducing Enchantment inside the room, it didn’t seem to do anything to affect him.  Unlike the intoxicated group, it wasn’t because he was already “raging”; instead, a quick flash of a yellow light on his helmet was all that Tacca could see as a result – which indicated another enchantment had protected him from being affected.  Must be some sort of Mental Resistance enhancer. 

“Uh…Tacca?  This doesn’t look good.”  Shale was watching everything unfold from a distance inside the room, so he could see exactly what the Dungeon Core was seeing.

I think you’re right.  I don’t know why, but I have the distinct feeling these people are here to destroy my Core.  They seem to have gear perfectly suited to delve through without any issues, despite their obvious inexperience.

“Unfortunately, you could be right.  The problem, however, is that I can’t see why they want to destroy you; you haven’t done anything, as far as I can see, that could be considered bad enough to warrant your destruction.”

That’s true, but neither did most of the Cores I had bonded with before this happened.  Sure, there were some that had done wrong and probably needed to be removed – as much as it pains me to say that – but the others hadn’t actually done anything against the rules.  My Mentor, for example, was one that shouldn’t have been destroyed.

Regardless of the reason why they appeared to want her Core destroyed, the fact of the matter was that she was in danger.  Or she would be if she didn’t still have access to her Fairy Abilities.

Using her Dungeon Core Teleport Ability, Tacca moved her Core down to the deepest room she had created, which was quite a bit of a journey past her normal Core Room.  There was