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

Elemental Resistance: +15% Nature

Specials: Ability to freeze in place, stopping all movement to camouflage with surrounding Environmental Objects

Pack Hunter: Bonus to physical attack if in conjunction with others in the Canine family

—gets a significant boost in its attack, more than doubling it even.  The Level 5 Wolf also received a small increase in its defense, which was already relatively low, but it’s almost on par with a Level 1 Root Fox.  Just one of these deadlier Forest Wolves would be more than a match for just about any of the beginner Fighters coming into my dungeon right now, and perhaps even for some of the ones that have increased their Raider Level a time or two.

The price for that, though, is a higher Dungeon Force cost per Wolf in comparison to the Fox, as well as a much higher Control Limit requirement.  When you add in the creation time increasing by 2 minutes per Level for the Wolf, as opposed to the 30 seconds per Level for the Fox, you can begin to see the advantages and drawbacks for each creature. 

Shale was looking at the two screens she had shared with him, and he nodded his head when he understood.  “So, it basically depends on the creature, as to how additional Levels will affect them initially.  I’m assuming that if you were to increase the Root Fox in Level enough to be similar in stats to the Wolf, you would start to see some of the same costs?”

Yes and no.  This Fox will always have a much higher Defense and would have to be quite a high Level to match the Physical Attack of the Wolf; it just depends on what you’re looking for in a creature: high Attack, high Defense, or a mixture of them both.

“I see, I see.  There always seems to be more to learn – and here I thought I graduated from DAPS knowing everything!”

Tacca chuckled mentally.  Not everything, but more than enough to get you started.  Keep in mind, I did a lot of additional studying through the years, so my knowledge is a little more complete; even considering that, there are still things I don’t know, and I will continue to learn in the future.

“Well, I think you’ve made a good start here; now that your negative Characteristics have been removed, that future is looking brighter and brighter.”

I agree.  Speaking of the future, I really need to start designing and creating my new harder, larger dungeon section underneath this beginner one.

“You’re keeping it running, right?”

Of course.  I don’t want to be like the other Cores and eliminate a potential source of increasing the “Power” of beginning Raiders by making them unable to delve.  I’m an equal-opportunity dungeon – I want all kinds, here.

“I like it – and I’m excited to see what you do next.”

Me too, Shale, me too.

Chapter 20

Thankfully, the weeks and months following the increased tension between the Minister, the other Merchants, the Raiders, and the villagers – including himself and Gwenda – seemed calmer and smoother than it had been before.  The open hostility between the two factions was muted a bit over time when nothing happened to incite further aggression; they still didn’t like each other, but the feeling that they were a few words away from a straight-up brawl faded significantly.

Sterge was sure that if something major were to occur – such as a Raider deliberately killing a Merchant or vice-versa – then it would all erupt into insane violence.  Luckily, relations were improving enough that more Raiders were visiting the Merchants’ wagons for supplies, interacting with them civilly outside of their “camps”, and a few Merchants had even taken to frequenting a few of the Inns.  It was slow-going, but there was certainly an improvement over the overwhelming tension that had been hovering around the entire Village over the last few months.

“The profits from our Store are nearly nothing after the increased cost of the supplies that we’re buying from the Minister,” Gwenda complained to him one night while they were relaxing in the governmental “Town Hall” building – or that was what everyone was calling it, despite them only being classified as a village still.  He wasn’t sure what requirements were needed to become a town, but it didn’t feel like they had made it there yet.

“That was as you had expected, though, wasn’t it?”

His best friend grunted.  “Yes, well, I was expecting to still make something from there due to raising prices, but we had to drop them after the Minister and his coterie decided to sell those same supplies at a reduced price – pressing us to drop prices as well.  Now we’re barely making enough to pay the wages of those working there, and the profit is mainly going to Atero; I mean, he is doing all of the work, after all, but it’s an income stream we don’t have anymore.”

It was Sterge that grunted this time, acknowledging what she said but not really having anything to contribute.  All of that buying and selling business wasn’t really his thing, after all, and he had no clue how to fix the situation – if it could be fixed at all, of course.

Instead, Sterge had been focused on getting as much production from all of the farms as possible.  They had quite a few helpers nowadays, but no one was in charge of all of them – which left him as the “Chief” to oversee them.  From planting and harvesting crops to managing the livestock, he took over the job of organizing them with the help of Gwenda and her skills.  Truthfully, when he really thought about it, they didn’t really need him to be in charge because they had some competent people taking care of it – but he needed to do it.

He had thought that turning