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

would’ve happened had Shale not observed what was happening to her Core. It was entirely possible that she could’ve been killed from the stress alone.

“I just want you to take care of yourself,” the Dungeon Fairy said sincerely.  “Don’t let these Raiders who wanted to kill you win by worrying yourself to death.”

That made her think about the whole situation in a new light.  Do you think that was part of their plan?  If they didn’t succeed with their first group, they would send all of these incompetent Raiders who looked like them, until I cracked from all of the stress?

Shale waved away her concerns, though.  “That kind of thing seems highly improbable; I was taught that the Raiders don’t fully understand exactly how Dungeon Cores work – and especially your Core – so that would require some insider information that I’m confident isn’t available to them.”

Her Assistant had a point, Tacca had to admit.  She had been taught the same thing, and such a plan or conspiracy to destroy her Core seemed a lot more elaborate than what she would expect from them.  Besides that, her own situation was unique in the fact that her Core cracked at all; stress and overuse of Dungeon Force normally didn’t cause those same problems in other Dungeon Cores.  It might make them become a bit odder than many of the ones she had met seemed to be, but they wouldn’t physically crack under the stress and pressure of managing their dungeon.

Taking Shale’s advice, she pulled back her constant surveillance of the Merchant Raider groups coming into her dungeon and let her Dungeon Assistant relay anything that might be some sort of concern to her Core.  That didn’t mean she didn’t check up on each group’s progress (or lack of progress) as they delved through her dungeon rooms, but her persistent obsession with watching them was cut back significantly.  Almost immediately, her mind felt better and clearer than it had in days, and the cracks stopped growing any worse on her Core.

Thankfully, the tide of plate-armored and silk robe-wearing Raiders stopped after another day, and for the first time Tacca recognized the group entering her dungeon.  Not personally, of course, but she thought back and identified them as the second group that had delved through her dungeon.

“It looks like those who had visited your dungeon first are starting to delve through again.  That’s strange, though, because the last time I looked outside at that village with all the Raiders, it had been filled with many more than we’ve seen come through here already.”

Maybe things have changed now that these “Merchants” have arrived; I can’t say that I know much about these things.  Obviously, I know what a merchant is and what they do, but these seem like some sort of social or economic faction I know nothing about. 

Her Dungeon Assistant could only agree.  “I know nothing about them, either.  If you’d like, I can always head over to the DPRC and ask about them; if anyone would know about them, I’m sure they would.”

Eh…I’d rather avoid involving them in my business right now if I can.  Even though they tried to kill me, I’d rather go up against these Merchants than the Council any day.

“Suit yourself,” Shale told her, before he smiled.  “For what it’s worth, I agree with you.  They didn’t seem like they were in any position to help much the last time I was there, and I don’t want to get sucked into whatever crisis they were dealing with there and leave you all alone.”

I wouldn’t want that, either.  Thanks, Shale.

After an awkward silence, Shale cleared his mental “throat” as he continued to watch the familiar group battling their way through her dungeon.  “Anyways, now that there are some returning visitors that we’ve already seen, there likely will be more groups that have delved through your dungeon before.  If they didn’t manage to get stronger through their first visit, they probably will soon; regardless, as you can see here, they have experience delving through your rooms and therefore know exactly what to expect. That’s a good thing for them, as it means they will probably finish their delve quicker; it could potentially be a bad thing for you, however, as you’ll have less time to restock your rooms.”

Tacca was more than aware of all of that, but it felt good having someone reiterate it to her, nonetheless.  After the first few groups of “normal” Raiders that went through, which were indeed repeats of those they had seen before, she was forced to delay the arrival of another group by nearly 15 minutes.  As Shale had predicted, the experienced Raiders knew their way around her dungeon already and knew what to expect first-hand, so they practically breezed through without too much trouble.  This made restocking everything take a bit longer, but overall it wasn’t that much of a difference.  The main issue was that Tacca wouldn’t have as much DF to play with to continue creating her traps down below while these experienced groups were tearing through her dungeon.

The delay wasn’t remarked upon, luckily, and she thought it was quite possible that they didn’t even really notice.  It turned out that it didn’t matter overly much, actually, because there soon were chunks of brand-new Raider groups (thankfully not the Merchant-types) interspersed in between the experienced ones.  This gave her a little more time to recover and regulate her DF expenditure, and to expand her defensive trap repertoire down below.

It became a bit routine after a while, with one Raider group entering while another was exiting up the staircase, and the days became a bit of a blur. There hadn’t been any sign of the Raiders being other than what they purported to be, and there weren’t any other incursions into her Core Room – though one new group decided to investigate