The Dungeon Fairy: Two Choices: A Dungeon Core Escapade (The Hapless Dungeon Fairy Book 2)

by Jonathan Brooks

  I’m well aware of that. However, what would happen if I were to add exits to each of the rooms leading up to the surface? That way, as soon as they either finish all of the rooms, or decide they don’t want to push on anymore, they could take the exit and walk up a set of stairs until they are above ground. Do you think that could work?

  Shale was silent for a moment as he settled on the floor of her Core Room and tilted his head to the side in contemplation. After nearly five minutes of complete silence and intensely focused thinking on his part, her Dungeon Assistant shrugged and said, “I don’t see any problem with that, and it doesn’t violate any rules or regulations that I can think of. But how are you going to prevent people from abusing these exits and using them to enter?”

  He had a good point. If they could exit from there, what was to prevent a group of Raiders from entering and skipping all of the rooms to access something further down – like her Boss room, for example. The point in having Raiders inside was to gain Core Improvement Points from their presence; if they could enter, kill everything in the Boss room quickly, and then leave…what was the point? This problem was probably why none of the other dungeons that had ever existed had done anything like that, because it was difficult to devise a way to prevent those who would abuse the system from taking advantage of it; that, and for longer dungeons, if they had to navigate through the entire thing to get to the harder rooms – then that was just a bonus, in terms of time spent inside and consequently more CIPs.

  It was a mystery and problem that needed to be solved, especially as she grew in Core Improvement Levels and was able to create harder sections. She wanted to be viable as an easier dungeon, but also have the option for stronger Raiders to visit and get something from it. Rather than expand right away and have even more ground to cover with their limited Dungeon Force and creature Control Limits, all Dungeon Cores that she knew of upgraded their initial rooms when they were able to, with harder creatures and deadlier traps. They didn’t have the resources available to keep it and expand with other sections – at least for the first decade or two.

  After that, they expanded downwards, while keeping what they had designed up to that point the same; as they made the dungeon harder initially, they would receive stronger Raider visitors, which in turn gave them more CIPs from their presence and potential deaths. It didn’t make sense for them to stay open to beginning Raiders who weren’t worth as many Points. For instance, if they were only able to have 3 groups inside of their dungeon during a day’s time – because of the lengthy process it usually took to restock everything – then they would much rather have 3 stronger groups worth 50 CIPs minimum a day than 1, 2, or 3 weaker groups only worth 5 CIPs for their time spent inside. It was a little more complicated than that, of course, but that was the general idea. It was only when they had the resources to expand, and to keep that minimum section open, that they would concern themselves with lengthier times the Raiders spent inside their dungeon.

  At the moment, and for the foreseeable future (until she acquired enough Special Characteristic Points), the quality of each group of Raiders didn’t really matter – only quantity. Unless they were super-powerful – which wasn’t likely to be the case – then the most she could expect to get from their presence in her dungeon was 1 CIP per hour, and probably only 5 CIPs for each Raider death.

  Core Improvement Point Awards (95% Reduction)

  Type

  Variable Conditions

  Potential CIP

  Rooms Constructed

  Size

  1 – 2

  Traps Installed

  Complexity

  1 – 2

  Monsters Created

  Levels

  1 – 2

  Rewards Placed

  Valuation

  1 – 2

  Raider Presence

  Time

  1 – 1

  Raider Deaths

  Quality

  5 – 500

  Therefore, when she looked at it that way, there was no point in trying to upgrade her original rooms when she had the resources, as it would then just take longer to replenish them after every Raider group was done. Overall, there would be no real benefit for her.

  Therefore, the ideal situation for her would be a way to get her dungeon full 24 hours a day without stoppages, which was why she wanted the separate exit; while one group was exiting through an isolated passageway, another group could be delving through her dungeon from the entrance. Constant occupancy was ideal for her situation, and it was the only real way for her to increase her Core Improvement Level consistently; eventually, she would be able to get rid of the “95% reduction in her CIPs earned” Special Characteristic, but that could be years in the future. Regardless, it was something she likely had a little time to work on, since it would probably be a few more days before any significant influxes of Raiders arrived to delve through her dungeon.

  I don’t know exactly, but perhaps you can help me figure it out. She explained her reasonings regarding her prospective CIPs to Shale, and he understood what she was saying, because it certainly did make sense in her situation.

  “I think we can figure out something. I have some ideas; whether or not they will work is another matter entirely,” he said with another shrug. “By the way, how long do you have until your next Countdown is up?”

  Pretty soon if I remember correctly. Let me check.

  Dungeon Core Status

  Dungeon Core Name:

  Tacca GloomLily

  Core Improvement (CI) Level:

  6

  Core Improvement Points (CIP):

  0/800

  Core Improvement Pending/Countdown:

  65 in 4 days

  Special Characteristic Points (SCP):

  125

  Current Primary Assistant Bond:

  Shale IronSchist

  Dungeon Force (DF):

  880/1500

  Dungeon Force Regeneration:

  18 per minute

  Reward Tier:

  2

  Control Limit:

  95/200

  Core Options:

  Carve Earth

  Targetable

  5 DF per minute

  Place Environmental Object

  Targetable

  Variable

  Teleport

  Instant

  40 DF

  Dissolve Assistant Bond

  Instant

  1 DF

  Create Creature

  Targetable

  Variable

  Create Trap

  Targetable

  Variable

  Core Access:

  Creature(s):

  Canine Family, Hill Dwarves

  Variant(s):

  All

  Trap Specialization(s):

  Enchantment

  Environmental Access:

  Forest

  Permanent Assistant Sub-bond:

  Tacca GloomLily

  Special Characteristics:

  Access all Variants for available dungeon creatures

  All

  All creatures are reduced in Level (cannot be less than 1)

  10

  Core Improvement Points are reduced when earned

  95%

  4 days. Not nearly enough time.

  She noticed that she received 2 CIPs from the time that the recent group had been in her dungeon, and that her creatures and traps were still being slowly replenished throughout her rooms. She had dug out another 6 rooms underneath her Core Room for the future, which netted her another 6 CIPs from just after the two Hill Dwarves she had Bonded with had left – which was still an unusual experience and something she couldn’t really think about at the moment. She had also replaced the creatures that she had taken out when those two had visited so as to not overwhelm them, which gave her another 40 Points. That gave her a total of 65 CIPs of the required 800 that needed to be earned to advance to the next Core Improvement Level. Unfortunately, now that she
was open to the outside world and had been located, some of the methods that she had used before to increase her CIPs for the current time period weren’t quite viable anymore.

  She couldn’t get rid of her current creatures and create some to add to her Points when the time came to bank those points, because she needed to be up and running at any time – Raiders didn’t really keep to a schedule, after all. If all her creatures were missing and a group visited, then that would be Bad with a capital B. She could probably eliminate them all once and then replace them with brand-new versions, but that would give her only another 40 CIPs from the ones that hadn’t been replaced in the current time period – which still put her nearly 700 points away.

  There was no way she was going to risk trying to create 700 small traps again, as the last time she had done something like that it had cracked her Core badly. That didn’t mean she couldn’t do at least half of that in traps and then bank the points, though. She could easily make it up during the next month and achieve a full increase in her Level at that point.

  “Don’t push it then; you have plenty of time to get stronger, and with your reduced countdown you can do it fairly quickly. Instead of having to wait a year, you can do it every month.”

  You’re right, of course. I just have the urge to get as strong as possible, as quickly as I can, for some reason. I know it isn’t something that is inherent in all Dungeon Cores, so this is probably just my normal Fairy personality rearing its head.

  “It’s still strange to hear you say that, by the way,” Shale said, perceptibly shuddering for a moment. “Now, shall we figure out these exits?”

  Certainly.

  Tacca got to work using her Dungeon Force to carve out a relatively large tunnel, which started near the right wall of the Boss Room and touched upon the walls of each room as it spiraled to the surface. She didn’t create an opening up top, however, and wouldn’t until she had figured out a way to prevent access from above; what she did add was a set of relatively wide steps inside the tunnel, making the journey to the top relatively easy for anyone walking up the long staircase. It was lit up with just as much light as the rest of the dungeon, so it was quite friendly-looking – or at least that was her perception of it.

  “Ok, I think I’ve got it; it’ll take a bit of experimentation to get it right – if you can even do it, that is. This is certainly not the way it is supposed to be used, so whether or not it can be done, well…” Shale shrugged helplessly, before he told her his plan.

  Huh. Never thought about that, but I don’t see why it shouldn’t work.

  Rotating Stone Bridge

  The Rotating Stone Bridge can be inserted in any section of the dungeon, though there must be enough room for it to perform at least a 20% rotation. The rotation on the Stone Bridge is triggered by an adjustable amount of weight applied to a single end; this trap can float freely in the air if so desired, and it need not be connected to any other section in particular. All traps can be disabled with high-enough Disarm Trap skills.

  Cost: 400 DF

  Replacement Cost: 200 DF

  Creation Time: 30 Minutes

  Disarm Trap Resistance: 2

  Activation Weight: 2 lbs.

  Trigger Proximity: 0

  Strength: 0.5

  Duration: N/A

  Resistance Category: Physical

  Special Effects: If rotation is less than 30%, the Rotating Stone Bridge will reset to its original position automatically after 30 seconds

  Normally, the Rotating Stone Bridge was meant for use in elevated sections of a dungeon that wanted to have some sort of puzzle or acrobatic portion in their designs. The trap could be adjusted so that a certain weight – such as 2 Raiders instead of just 1 – would trigger it, dumping whoever was on it down into whatever was below, which tended to be some sort of pit or just bare floor. It was a staple of many dungeons that wanted to have something that wasn’t inherently dangerous, but could lead to death if a Raider messed up jumps from one Bridge to another, or chose the wrong one that rotated under anything that touched it. Not only that, but they could also be adjusted so that if one of their creatures passed over it, their weight wouldn’t trigger it, but if a Raider and the creature were on the same bridge, it would rotate and dump them both…somewhere.

  Shale’s idea was to place it vertically, however – right where the entrance to the tunnel leading out would be. If Tacca positioned it correctly, the idea was that a Raider could easily push it open with a firm shove, causing the “wall” (which was the Stone Bridge) to rotate approximately 25% so that it inserted its bottom portion inside of the tunnel, stopping when it came in contact with the ceiling of said passageway. The group would then have 30 seconds to exit, before the trap would automatically reset itself and close up access to the room. Granted, if someone were too slow, they could just open it again from inside the room, so it wasn’t like they would be trapped.

  In theory, this seemed perfect; in reality, getting everything to line up with the right size of Rotating Stone Bridge and seamlessly incorporating it into the wall was difficult and required a lot of time, experimentation, and Dungeon Force when she had to try again and again. Fortunately, Shale’s idea to have the trap placed vertically instead of horizontally worked without a hitch. It was just the finer adjustments that needed some help. In order to test it out each time, she had one of her Root Foxes jump into it feet-first, which was plenty of force to activate the 2-lb Activation Weight of the trap. Finally, 14 hours after she had started making the exit staircase tunnels in the first place, she succeeded in creating her first exit door inside of the Boss room. To test out whether it could be opened from the other side, Shale volunteered to watch a Mastiff try to ram it open from the staircase side, and then tried to do the same himself by sticking his relatively tiny fingers under the small gap that separated the trap and the floor of her dungeon and pulling. The Bridge was a foot thick and without something touching the inner surface and pushing, it wasn’t going to budge. Trying to destroy it with a weapon might eventually work – because almost anything could be technically destroyed if enough force were applied to it – but hopefully someone wouldn’t try that. The stone itself was also immune to spell damage; while it was a trap that could technically be disarmed, it just made the bridge inert and wouldn’t move from either side, in that case.

  When she was done and happy with it, she altered the face of the Rotating Stone Bridge so that there was a carved pictogram of some stairs leading upwards on it; no words, unfortunately, even though she wanted to carve “EXIT” into it – because that could definitely be construed as communication, which was against the rules. Shale wavered between approval and disapproval, but after staring at it for a few minutes and looking at it from different directions, he just shrugged and said it would be acceptable.

  Not that Tacca needed his approval, but she didn’t want to have to fight with him over it.

  After that, another few hours went by as she added additional exit traps to each of the other rooms except the first, as that already had an exit: the entrance itself. When that was done, she noticed that she acquired a whole 6 CIPs from placing the traps, which brought her a tiny bit closer to her goal. There wasn’t much time for anything else, however, because dawn was breaking over the horizon outside – and there was already a group outside climbing up to her dungeon.

  Ready for some more visitors?

  Chapter 4

  The first few days of her dungeon being “open” were relatively slow in comparison to how Tacca hoped it would be, but overall it wasn’t too bad. The first day after it was evaluated saw two groups appear at her dungeon, one in the morning and another in the afternoon. Both Raider parties were filled with teams that were probably a bit over-Leveled for her defenses, but they didn’t seem to care overly much that they didn’t benefit from it other than obtaining the rewards left behind by the killed creatures. From the conversations that she overheard as they delved through her dungeon, they just happened t
o be nearby when word spread that there was something new to check out.

  Basically, she was an unusual novelty in the sphere of dungeons around the world, so they wanted to say that they had been one of the first to see it.

  That was fine with Tacca, of course, because all told she received 3 CIPs from their presence. What perturbed her, though, was the fact that neither group investigated her exit staircases, nor even seemed to know they were there. She couldn’t blame them too much, because they were seamlessly incorporated into the walls, so they were easy to overlook; that, and the exit on the surface wasn’t exactly obvious, as she had placed it about 50 feet away, around an outcropping and out of view of the entrance.

  The two groups also seemed to know exactly where everything in her dungeon was, down to where the creatures would emerge from their hiding places to attack. The traps were – for the most part – bypassed or disarmed, including the Soil-covered Pit Traps; this was beneficial in a way, because it meant that she didn’t have to pay to reset them afterwards, but it also meant that there was virtually no possibility that anyone would die from an unexpected surprise trap.

  “Ah, that would explain it. See those parchments?” Shale asked, after watching the second group make their way through without any trouble. Tacca could tell that he was talking about the bundle of parchments that one of the Raiders seemed to be carrying; every once in a while, he would pull it out and glance at it so quickly that Tacca couldn’t get a good look at it before it was rolled up again.