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

varying degrees of disdain and boredom.  Sort of how the other Raiders at the Clan outpost appeared, though the Human talking to Sterge looked to be important enough that they didn’t try to interrupt or interject anything into the conversation.

“Uh…yes?”

“Very good.  My name is Jesper Whittle, and I’ll be the Raider Delving Clan’s representative here to help with the administration and regulation of the various members visiting your little…village here.  Of course, everything depends on the verification that there is a dungeon nearby, which I still have my doubts about, but when Trevelyan gives an order there are very few who can tell her ‘No,’” Jesper said knowingly, as if Sterge should understand.  He didn’t have any clue what he was talking about, but he nodded anyway.

“Uh…who is…?”

“Oh, my pardon.  These few are the Raiders who are going up to verify that the dungeon is indeed there and not some sort of error or fiction.  They’ll be leaving in the morning—” the Human said, before looking around and hesitating.  “Is there anywhere we can stay?”

Sterge was at a loss, but fortunately Gwenda arrived before he could think of an answer.  “Not quite yet, as we weren’t expecting visitors; you all can sleep in one of our storage shacks for the moment until we get something built for you.”

“Oh, that’ll be fine for the moment.  I’ve certainly roughed it in worse locations.”  Sterge somehow doubted that from his appearance.  He didn’t look unfit or anything; actually, his upper body seemed to strain at his suit from muscle, not fat. As he had seen before, though, his outfit somehow didn’t have more than a few specks of dirt or dust on it.  It also looked positively sweltering, as it fully covered the man from neck to toe in thick folds.  Granted, those behind him looked equally hot in the sun in their armor, but they appeared used to it.

Jesper directed the group of 5 Raiders to the storage shack that stood empty after Gwenda pointed it out, and then bent down a little to speak to Sterge and Gwenda privately.  “Our esteemed outpost leader noticed that you were already gathering supplies to build some accommodations here; she wants to thank you for doing that, because otherwise her budget wouldn’t allow for such expansion currently.  It would be better to have business headquarters here, anyway, since it will allow access to the dungeon faster this way.  Am I to assume that you’ve decided to oversee development here?  And that you’ll be in charge?”  At Gwenda and Sterge’s slow nods, Jesper smiled.   “Good; from what I understand, you’re leasing this land from the Crown, am I right?”  Another nod.  “Excellent.”  He dropped his voice even lower.  “Keep it that way; as tempting as it might be to transfer your lease to some generous offers, the best thing for everyone is to keep it for yourselves.  That way, this will stay as a bit of…neutral territory…if you know what I mean.”

Before Sterge or Gwenda could admit that they had absolutely no idea what he meant, one of the Raiders who had gone into the shack popped his head out and called for Jesper.  “I’ll see you around,” the red-clothed Human said to them both, before heading off for the storage building.

“Do you have any idea what he meant?” Gwenda asked Sterge, as soon as their visitor was out of hearing range.

Sterge laughed softly.  “Ha!  I was going to ask you the same thing,” he confessed.  “Regardless, it seems like we’re doing the right thing here; very smart plan, by the way.”

The other Hill Dwarf blushed at his words.  “Oh, well…you know, it just made the most sense.  Of course, I have no idea how to manage everything, but some of the others have backgrounds in various professions other than farming – so I’m sure we’ll figure it out.”

“I sure hope so.”  The imminent arrival of additional Raiders in the near future was nearly as daunting to Sterge as walking into a dungeon for the first time.  The prospect of building some sort of town specifically to cater to the Raiders was nearly mentally overwhelming. Nevertheless, Sterge could only trust that everything would work out…eventually.

It was too late that evening to start on any type of construction, but the next morning, everyone was up early and eager to get to work building their future.  After the Raider team left to check out the dungeon just as the sun peeked over the horizon, every member of The Village was busy either constructing what was going to be their brand-new Inn or deconstructing the two storage shacks for materials.  One of the shacks was already empty, and the supplies that were being held in the other were transferred to a few of their houses, where there was room.  Another group of villagers left for Heftington again, where they would pick up some more purchased materials that they weren’t able to fit on the wagon the day before.

With over 40 people working towards a single goal, the project to build the inn went surprisingly fast.  By midday, the entire bottom floor of what was going to be a rather large, two-storied building was nearly complete, though it wasn’t furnished in the least; more materials would be needed to fully finish the common room, kitchen, and 8 bedrooms on the first floor, but what was coming that night would help complete a few of those.

Sterge took a break just after midday, sweat pouring down his face from the intense heat of working out in the sun. Just as he was pouring a ladleful of blessedly cool water over his head from their communal rain barrel, he looked up and saw the group of Raiders in the distance, coming back from their exploration of the dungeon he and Gwenda had found.

They appeared to be a little worse for wear than how