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

There was no getting around it now; she had to tell him the truth.  As she explained what she did and why she did it, he actually took it better than she had thought he would.

“Good for you.”

Wait—what?  I thought you would disapprove.

“You did what you had to do, Tacca.  This was a matter of your life on the line, and communicating with them – which I know you did before this – was just another way of defending yourself.  What those Core-killers did when they came in here was not justified in any way, and letting those that seem to be in charge of the area outside of your dungeon know what was going on was not only smart, but imperative.”

You…know about that?

“Not until you just confirmed it right now, but I suspected.  I’m sure you did it for a reason, just as you did this, but I wish you had told me.  I can’t help you if I’m going to be surprised by sudden revelations like this in the future.”

Tacca felt a little ashamed of keeping her activities from Shale, and though he seemed like he wasn’t overly mad, she still felt like she disappointed him for some reason.

No more secrets.  I promise I’ll tell you if I do anything like that in the future, as long as you don’t argue with me too much.

Even though she technically couldn’t see him because he was currently invisible, she could feel that Shale was smiling.  “How about you tell me before you do something like that, and you have a deal.”

That wasn’t too hard of a deal to agree to.

Nothing of note happened with Sterge and Gwenda’s group – it’s good not having to think of them as the Hill Dwarf Fighter and Caster anymore – though she did figuratively wince when they mentioned the Power Boost +50% passive Ability they had.  None of the new group seemed to be surprised by that after the other revelations; instead, they only remarked that they thought it was strange that they had gained so much “Power” (which she knew was the equivalent to a Fairy’s Experience) compared to other new groups.

By the end of their delve, the Elven Fighter, Human Healer, and Gnome Scout achieved an increase in their Raider Level – bringing them to Level 3 like Sterge and Gwenda.  The two Hill Dwarves said that they were just shy of getting to Raider Level 4, which was impressive; there had been one group of repeat Raiders that had managed to wiggle their way into 3 delves already (which she was sure was going to be more common soon), and they had just reached Level 3 by the end of their third delve – at least, that was what she gathered from the conversation and celebration after their battle in the Boss Room she witnessed.

After they left, things went back to normal – or as normal as running a dungeon where groups of Raiders delved through the rooms she had designed was concerned.  In addition to moving creatures and traps around, after a few weeks she started to move trees, ferns, and other environmental objects to different places within their respective rooms.  She even added or subtracted some from various rooms, just to keep up with the variety, depending on what she felt like doing and what was going to work best with her other defenses.

For the most part, the response was overwhelmingly positive.  The Raiders who delved through were excited about the differences, even though they weren’t major changes – like rearranging what was in each room or replacing each creature with something else entirely.  Tacca thought that having to wait for weeks or over a month before getting a chance to delve through her dungeon, just to do the exact same thing as last time, meant that any bit of change was welcome.  The success didn’t mean that she would start altering everything and changing the rooms around, though; there was a limit of what she considered to be “allowed” by the people visiting her dungeon, and doing something like that was probably past that limit.  Especially when she considered that she still had a “beginner” dungeon that was suitable for those just starting out – any major changes could mean more deaths than could normally be accounted for.

Regardless, things were looking up for Tacca – and she didn’t normally like to think that way, because it was almost inevitable that something bad would happen.  This time, luckily, nothing significant happened all month, even though she halfway expected it.  She wasn’t prepared to say that perhaps her luck was changing and things in the future were all going to be positive, but it was a nice change.

Congratulations, Tacca GloomLily!

You have reached Core Improvement Level: 10

Current CIP Countdown: 553/1700 in 30 days

Core Improvement Points earned: 1400 (1400)

Special Characteristic Points earned: 25 (200)

Tacca didn’t have to cheat in the least for her Core Improvement Points this month, mainly because she didn’t have that pesky negative Special Characteristic reducing the Points she earned holding her back.  While she didn’t really earn much of anything extra due to “Raider Presence” in her dungeon – which, because of their lower strength, wasn’t more than the 1 CIP per hour she was getting before – the main difference really occurred in what she earned from Raider Deaths.

Core Improvement Point Awards

Type

Variable Conditions

Potential CIP

Current

Rooms Constructed

Size

1 – 50

0

Traps Installed

Complexity

1 – 20

511

Monsters Created

Levels

1 – 20

76

Rewards Placed

Valuation

1 – 50

76

Raider Presence

Time

1 – 5

690

Raider Deaths

Quality

100 – 10000

600

There had been even fewer deaths this last month than the month before – only 6 – but they were worth a lot more CIPs: 600 compared to the 30 she would’ve gotten before she eliminated