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

people to perform an investigation.  If we are not back within…8 hours, I would urge everyone to evacuate.  I’m going to send a messenger to Trevelyan in Heftington, asking for some help with reinforcements, but we need to discover whether there is a threat to everyone here.”  The Clan representative turned to the head Merchant and said, “Minister.  You’re welcome to come too or send some of your own, but obviously I can’t guarantee safety for anyone at this point.”

The fear of going up where there might be danger appeared to shake off some of the anger in the Elven Merchant.  “No, no – not necessary for me to go.  I’ll send Anders and Francha.”  Two of the Merchant Raiders stepped forward; one was a Hill Dwarf that Sterge felt a little envious of with his pristine plate armor and shield as large as his body; the other was the same Human woman along the perimeter of the Merchant camp that had been so rude to Sterge and Gwenda when they first arrived at The Village.  The woman had been humbled in front of them by the Minister, and he could only hope that she wasn’t going to hold a grudge.

Because there was no way that he and Gwenda weren’t going.  It took a little convincing for the rest of their group to stay behind, but eventually the fear of the extremely dangerous unknown got to them and they agreed to stay back.  They only seemed slightly disappointed.

“It’s time to go – are you sure you two want to come?” Jesper asked, looking specifically at Sterge and Gwenda.  They were the only two that weren’t veterans and under Raider Level 10 (and possibly even Level 30), so it was a fair question.

“Yes.”

“Yes.”

Sterge and Gwenda spoke at the same time, and The Village Chief could tell that she felt the same need to investigate that he did.  If it was indeed the dungeon itself that did this, then Sterge at least felt a little responsible for what it had done.

“Let’s go, then.”

He and his best friend followed the others as they led the way, running behind those that could handle themselves a bit better than they could.  Sterge and Gwenda might feel responsible for the dungeon…but they weren’t suicidal.

To Sterge, arriving at the dungeon entrance felt like it took forever and only seconds at the same time.  In reality, he was told that it had only been about 20 minutes since the group that discovered the bodies had come back to the village – because everyone was running, and things were happening fast.  Not knowing what to expect when they arrived felt a little like their first delve into the dungeon, where everything was unexpected; this time, however, they had an idea of what they would find – but the reality of it was much worse than he could’ve ever imagined.

Bodies and body parts were scattered all over the well-used waiting area, and blood was staining the stone of the mountain red in such a wide swathe that it was hard to see bare, clean stone.  Some of the corpses were bunched together, which Sterge assumed meant that they had died as a group, while more of them were spread apart.  Whatever had attacked and killed them must have been so frightening that many of them had run, which was obvious from the wounds in their backs.

If that was the worst of the wounds, it wouldn’t have been so bad.  What made Sterge retch and Gwenda throw up was the horrendous carnage on display.  At least a half-dozen of the bodies were missing an entire head; others had their lower bodies separated from their upper with their insides spilling out; a few appeared to have been smashed to a goopy mess of blood and broken bones, their faces and bodies barely recognizable as a person in some cases.

The worst by far was Myra, the Raider Level 72 Elementalist – or so he had been told on his way up by Jesper – who appeared to have been bisected from head to hips, and the two halves of her body appeared to have separated and fell in two different directions.  What made that horrible scene even worse was having one of Jesper’s assistants point out the gouge in the stone in between her feet – as if whatever had split her in half had so much force behind it that it chipped out a few inches of stone after it was done.

“What…happened here, Jesper?” Sterge finally asked, the only word he had spoken since they had arrived.  He and the rest of the “investigation team” had walked downhill from the macabre display of carnage to try to center themselves again after only a couple of minutes.  Gwenda hadn’t been the only one to vomit from the sight of so much senseless slaughter – including both Anders and Francha, the Merchant representatives.

 The Clan rep wearing shades of red shook his head with a sorrowful look upon his face.  “I have no idea.  I’ve heard stories about monsters escaping – or being sent out of – dungeons before, but from the blood spatter, the order of the deaths, and what the scene is telling me, the start of the attack came from the opposite direction.”

“Wait.  It came from down the mountain?  And what do you mean about ‘what the scene is telling me’?”

“Yes and no.  It came from that direction, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it came from all the way down the mountain.  It’s possible that the dungeon has created a separate entrance where monsters could escape from, but I highly doubt it.  This dungeon hasn’t been here nearly long enough to have the ability to create something this dangerous.  Something that could kill all of the newer Raiders here?  Sure.  But nothing that could even touch Myra, let alone do what we saw was done to