The Dungeon Fairy: A Dungeon Core Escapade (The Hapless Dungeon Fairy Book 1) by Jonathan Brooks (great novels to read txt) 📗

coating the surface.  Tacca checked her current CIPs and saw that her endeavors were successful: she now had exactly 100 Core Improvement Points.  In fact, it was so easy that she figured she might as well continue the trend instead of creating any creatures; it was both faster and cost a little bit less than even a Fox, and now that she had plenty of room to place them in her other constructed rooms, she thought she might even be able to get to 500 CIPs.  It would require 200 for advancing her to Core Improvement Level 3, and then an additional 300 to get her to Level 4.

I probably should have done this before, instead of creating all of those Foxes.  When she looked back on it, however, she was glad she had made so many creatures at the time because it was a full-scale proof of concept; she hadn’t really known that her “All Variants” plan had worked, and it felt good to prove that she hadn’t made a mistake.  Now, however, she knew that it was working, so there was no need to create them when the small traps worked just as well or better.

Tacca had just started on placing more traps when the sudden sound of a Translocation popping into existence near her Core disturbed her.  It only surprised her momentarily with its suddenness, because she was expecting someone to return at some point; to her trepidation, it was the same Fairy from earlier – Shale.

The dark-brownish-reddish-skinned Fairy looked around her Core Room with nervousness before he immediately turned his Invisibility and Repellant Shield on; luckily for her, she was still able to follow him through either her Core or Fairy senses – she wasn’t exactly sure on that point – so it wasn’t that big of a deal.  Shale didn’t say anything as he waited for a few minutes (probably for his Fairy Mana to regenerate, she thought), before fluttering his dark-red and grey-striped wings to bring him closer to her Core.  As he reached out his hand to touch her spherical form, she noticed for the first time (once he was close enough that the Invisibility faded a little bit from proximity) that his “Mood” clothes – his skin-tight shirt and trousers – were a deep yellow in color, interspersed with streaks of black throughout.

He was almost scared out of his mind and despairing at the same time.

I wonder if he thinks I killed myself.  I guess…when you look at it a certain way…I did, but it wasn’t intentional.  Tacca couldn’t help but let a little amusement leak out of her Core, which made Shale hesitate before he placed his hand on her side.  She was expecting to feel it pressing against her…but nothing happened.  Instead, she could look from outside and vaguely see him with his hand there; past that, it was as if he didn’t really exist.

Quicker than she expected it, she could feel the Bond start to form between them; as soon as it firmed into existence, then she could feel his hand against her Core, like a warm brand pressing against her surface.  Tacca didn’t consider it invasive or awkward, instead it felt natural and welcoming.

Unlike the first words out of Shale’s mouth.

“Tell me why you killed Tacca, now!”

She was a little taken aback by his forcefulness, though she was also warmed a little that he seemed to actually…care.  Tacca responded with only the slightest hesitation; while she had already considered what she would say was the reason for “her” death, the recognition of her voice was still a worry.

“I didn’t kill her – I would never do that.  One day she started complaining about some sort of power building up in her body, and before I knew it she fell out of the air, hit the ground, and died.  I tried to wake her up, but there was nothing I could do; she had been such a great…you call them Dungeon Assistants, right?  Anyway, she had been such a great Assistant that I didn’t want to just absorb her, so I buried her in a place of honor in my Core Room.  When you came, I figured you could bring her back to her family so that she could be respectfully honored by those who loved her.”

Strangely, as the words flowed out of her and were transferred to Shale, she could hear the tone of them change subtly.  If she hadn’t known her voice so well, she probably wouldn’t have noticed it; as it was, she sounded nothing like herself.  That’s a relief.

Her explanation made Shale pause and soften his angry expression, which – according to what she could see of his Mood Clothes – was all a front; he was still scared and not in the least actually angry.  As she watched, the deep yellow lightened up, only to be replaced by a pale orange.  Hmm…I confused him.

As for Tacca, she held her emotions in check and kept them inside her Core as much as she could.  It was actually easier than she had thought when she applied herself, which meant that every other time she felt emotions from Dungeon Cores in the past it was either deliberate or they just didn’t care about what they were sending out into the world.

“Yes, well, I had to ask.  We can’t have Dungeon Cores going around killing their Assistants, after all – there’s too few of us as it is.  I’m not sure the Council will accept that explanation, however, but that’s what I’ll report back to them.”  He paused.  “Uh…in the meantime, before they make a decision regarding you, I’m to be your new Dungeon Assistant.  My name is Shale…and who might you be?”

If she were still a Fairy, she’d probably be hyperventilating by this point.  Despite all the time she had to come up with a story to tell about her “death”, Tacca