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

they don’t think we’ve worked a day in our lives.  By working hard at building up our Raider Levels to something ‘respectable’ without paying for it, that would go a long way towards showing that we aren’t just a bunch of ‘money-grubbing wastrels’.”

“Yeah, whatever – but this chainmail is rubbing me in some…uncomfortable places.  Let’s just get this over with so we can leave.”  The neck-scratched Fighter started pulling at his armor down below, to the short titters by the Caster and Scout.

“You do know that this isn’t the only time we’ll be in here, don’t you?  We’re supposed to ‘delve’ here as much as possible, until we’re at least Level 6, before we move on to a harder dungeon,” the Healer said, having recovered from the attack already.

“Yes, of course I know that,” the Fighter snapped out. He then dropped the harshness in his voice and practically mumbled, “That doesn’t mean I have to like it.”

They were certainly a contentious bunch that didn’t seem like they wanted to be there in her dungeon in the first place.  Tacca could understand being told to do something that you didn’t want to do, and then doing it anyway; that was her entire career as a Dungeon Assistant, after all.  She felt the slightest bit of sympathy for them for a moment before she tightened her scrutiny of them – because she still didn’t trust them.  Either they really were who they seemed to be (incompetent Raiders who didn’t want to be there), or they were extremely good actors, and it was hard to tell right away which it was.

Ten minutes later, she had her answer: incompetent Raiders who didn’t want to be there.  Their teamwork was almost non-existent, they seemed to hurt themselves almost as much as her creatures, and they complained non-stop – all of them.  By the time they made it to the third room with the Branch Jackals, their arguing and complaints were becoming extremely annoying.

“I think this is the first time I’ve ever wanted a group of Raiders to leave,” Shale said while they were fumbling around and screaming in fear from the trap they had activated in the room.  “And not because they were a threat, but because I don’t want to listen to them anymore.  Please tell me you won’t Bond with them if they manage to kill themselves; I don’t think I could look at you the same way if I knew you had gained some sort of Ability from them.”  Tacca couldn’t tell if he was joking or not, but she supposed it didn’t matter – she wanted as little to do with them as possible.

Fortunately (for both their own safety and Tacca’s sanity), they finally took themselves from her dungeon after barely finishing off her creatures in her sixth room, just before her Boss Room.  It had been a wound-filled slog for them to kill the Coyotes, Jackals, and Foxes after the two Fighters had been caught by the Confusion-based trap in the room, and she was glad that they decided not to push on.  While one or more of them might have actually died in the last room, Tacca was done with them; they left by the exit staircase in the side of the room, still complaining, arguing, and now whining from all of the wounds they had suffered (though they had all healed up fully through the Healer’s help or through some Minor Healing Potions they had brought along).

Figuratively breathing a giant sigh of relief as they left, the grateful Dungeon Core signaled to the Raiders waiting outside, via her Root Fox appearing at the entrance, that she was more than ready for another group.  Just her luck, though, another group of these “Merchants” appeared looking very similarly attired, if a little different in Class composition.  She groaned as they too started to complain almost immediately after arriving, though they proved to be a bit less incompetent.  They managed to—barely—finish off all the creatures in her Boss Room, though it was more than obvious that was probably their limit as to what they could accomplish.  Her worries about them continuing on to find her Dungeon Core also proved to be unfounded, as they left right after they were able to ambulate on their own.

For the next three days, Tacca was on edge as one of these better-equipped groups after another arrived at her dungeon to delve through.  There were periods during which she was able to relax a little bit, when some of the groups seemed as incompetent as the first “Merchant” group (or even more, if that was possible); for the most part, though, she was stuck watching their every move and word on the chance that they were there to destroy her Core.

“You’ve got to relax a little bit, Tacca.  I think that all of this stress you’re putting yourself under about these Raiders is causing your Core to crack again,” her Dungeon Assistant mentioned one day.

What are you talking about—? Tacca started to ask, before she looked at her Core for the first time in days.

The Former Dungeon Fairy had been so focused on watching everything going on in her dungeon that she hadn’t really been paying attention to her form. She was surprised to see that there were some fine cracks that were spiderwebbing all over her Core.  Tacca knew that it hadn’t been from overextending her use of Dungeon Force, because even though she had been distracted lately, she had been very careful not to strain herself like that.  She couldn’t tell if the stress of a potentially imminent attack was what was causing the cracks to appear, however; all she knew was they weren’t there before all of the “Merchants” started to arrive, one after another.

I…think you could be right, Shale.  Thanks for letting me know – I hadn’t even noticed the cracks.  Tacca hesitated to think about what