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

sense or see any enchantments on their gear, and I can visually see that it isn’t quite as high of quality, either.  Hold off for a moment, if you will; you’ll still have plenty of time to prepare if I’m wrong.”

Tacca put her sudden preparations on hold while she looked at them closer, trusting for the moment that what Shale said was correct.  She relaxed the tiniest bit when she observed the plate armor of the two Fighters out front, which was a well-used, dented, and thoroughly scratched-up lower-quality steel.  The chainmail underneath the plates was visibly rusted in places, as if it wasn’t properly cared for in between delves.  None of it had the slight, barely visible glow that indicated to her that it was enchanted, either.

Looking at the others, she saw basically the same sort of thing in their attire.  While the Healer’s and Caster’s robes were clearly embroidered silk, they were frayed in spots and worn nearly through in a couple of locations.  The superb leather armor worn by the Scout – which Tacca suddenly realized was a Gnome this time, instead of a Human like the last group dressed like this – was tooled in delicate designs around the chest area, but there were also obvious places where the original armor had been mended multiple times; it was very well done, but it was plain that the armor had seen some action.

All of that alarmed her still because she worried that these people were much stronger and more experienced than they should be for her dungeon.  That lasted until the Fighter in front tripped over his own feet and landed awkwardly, sprawling out on the ground just as her two Root Foxes snuck out from near the roots of the two trees near the entrance and attacked.  The resulting fight would’ve been hilarious to Tacca if she hadn’t been so tense about their presence.

The Fighter still on his feet managed to see the Foxes before they could close on the group, but his swing with the dented and slightly dull steel sword in his hand went far above the jumping creature, which landed on the back of the fallen Fighter and started to bite and scratch at the chainmail on his neck – to very little effect, unfortunately.  Despite the rust, the protection was more than enough to save the Raider from serious injury, though from his high-pitched screams you couldn’t tell.

The second one jumped on the front of the male Human Healer, who also screamed in a high-pitched voice and started punching at the Fox, which was trying to dig its claws into the smooth silk of the robe while trying to bite the Raider’s face. The Caster swung her simply carved wooden staff at the Canine who was trying to eat the Healer, but only managed to sharply smack the Healer on the back.  The accidental attack caused another outrage of pain.

“How do I even use this?” the Gnome inquired, before she pulled back the string of her bow and let the arrow that was…semi-nocked…on the string fly.  By her words and her actions, she obviously had no clue what she was doing, as the arrow flew off and spun a few times before embedding itself a half-inch in the thigh of the Elven Caster.  Her scream accompanied the others as she stared down at the projectile in her leg in shock and dropped her staff, before tentatively pulling it out.  From Tacca’s perspective, the wound didn’t look that deep, but someone watching her reaction and near-faint as she pulled it out probably couldn’t tell.

The upright Fighter finally aimed correctly at the Root Fox doing its best to bite the prostrate, armored Raider and practically sliced its head from its body – though it was plain to see that it didn’t do nearly as much damage as the enchanted swords the previous group possessed did.  The Healer was finally able to knock the creature trying to bite his face off his robe and he kicked it across the room. The force of the kick wasn’t all that powerful, however, so as soon as it landed, the Fox got up and ran back at him without delay.

The Scout had recovered from her initial shot going awry and had managed to hold her bow almost correctly. Another arrow shot out and managed to hit the creature aiming for the Healer in the right foreleg, which caused it to trip and tumble forwards.  Before it could get up and continue to attack, the upright Fighter had moved over and chopped down at it with his sword, killing it nearly instantly.

“You…you shot me!  How…why…?” the Elf yelled out, still apparently in shock and unbearable pain from the minor wound in her leg.

There were quite a few apologies flying around afterwards, as well as some healing done by the Healer, which fixed the Caster up quite well.  The Fighter who had fallen down had suffered some nasty scratches to his neck from the abuse of the Root Fox, but nothing had actually punctured his skin.

“Why do we have to wear this junk?  I know for a fact that the Minister has some enchanted armor—”

The Fighter who had managed to kill both creatures scoffed at the formerly prostrate Raider’s words.  “What, you think he would share that with us?  Besides, even if he did, we couldn’t wear it; this ‘dungeon delving’ is supposed to build character, or something stupid like that. This armor is the best we’re going to get here, because if this place is too easy, then that defeats the purpose of the whole thing.”  He paused for a moment.  “Or at least, that’s what my mother said.”

“Character?  Who needs character when you’ve got lots of money?”

“Your father, for one! Before we left him, back in the city, he told me that most people don’t trust us Merchants because