All of that alarmed her still because she worried that these people were much stronger and more experienced than they should be for her dungeon. That lasted until the Fighter in front tripped over his own feet and landed awkwardly, sprawling out on the ground just as her two Root Foxes snuck out from near the roots of the two trees near the entrance and attacked. The resulting fight would’ve been hilarious to Tacca if she hadn’t been so tense about their presence.
The Fighter still on his feet managed to see the Foxes before they could close on the group, but his swing with the dented and slightly dull steel sword in his hand went far above the jumping creature, which landed on the back of the fallen Fighter and started to bite and scratch at the chainmail on his neck – to very little effect, unfortunately. Despite the rust, the protection was more than enough to save the Raider from serious injury, though from his high-pitched screams you couldn’t tell.
The second one jumped on the front of the male Human Healer, who also screamed in a high-pitched voice and started punching at the Fox, which was trying to dig its claws into the smooth silk of the robe while trying to bite the Raider’s face. The Caster swung her simply carved wooden staff at the Canine who was trying to eat the Healer, but only managed to sharply smack the Healer on the back. The accidental attack caused another outrage of pain.
“How do I even use this?” the Gnome inquired, before she pulled back the string of her bow and let the arrow that was…semi-nocked…on the string fly. By her words and her actions, she obviously had no clue what she was doing, as the arrow flew off and spun a few times before embedding itself a half-inch in the thigh of the Elven Caster. Her scream accompanied the others as she stared down at the projectile in her leg in shock and dropped her staff, before tentatively pulling it out. From Tacca’s perspective, the wound didn’t look that deep, but someone watching her reaction and near-faint as she pulled it out probably couldn’t tell.
The upright Fighter finally aimed correctly at the Root Fox doing its best to bite the prostrate, armored Raider and practically sliced its head from its body – though it was plain to see that it didn’t do nearly as much damage as the enchanted swords the previous group possessed did. The Healer was finally able to knock the creature trying to bite his face off his robe and he kicked it across the room. The force of the kick wasn’t all that powerful, however, so as soon as it landed, the Fox got up and ran back at him without delay.
The Scout had recovered from her initial shot going awry and had managed to hold her bow almost correctly. Another arrow shot out and managed to hit the creature aiming for the Healer in the right foreleg, which caused it to trip and tumble forwards. Before it could get up and continue to attack, the upright Fighter had moved over and chopped down at it with his sword, killing it nearly instantly.
“You…you shot me! How…why…?” the Elf yelled out, still apparently in shock and unbearable pain from the minor wound in her leg.
There were quite a few apologies flying around afterwards, as well as some healing done by the Healer, which fixed the Caster up quite well. The Fighter who had fallen down had suffered some nasty scratches to his neck from the abuse of the Root Fox, but nothing had actually punctured his skin.
“Why do we have to wear this junk? I know for a fact that the Minister has some enchanted armor—”
The Fighter who had managed to kill both creatures scoffed at the formerly prostrate Raider’s words. “What, you think he would share that with us? Besides, even if he did, we couldn’t wear it; this ‘dungeon delving’ is supposed to build character, or something stupid like that. This armor is the best we’re going to get here, because if this place is too easy, then that defeats the purpose of the whole thing.” He paused for a moment. “Or at least, that’s what my mother said.”
“Character? Who needs character when you’ve got lots of money?”
“Your father, for one! Before we left him, back in the city, he told me that most people don’t trust us Merchants because they don’t think we’ve worked a day in our lives. By working hard at building up our Raider Levels to something ‘respectable’ without paying for it, that would go a long way towards showing that we aren’t just a bunch of ‘money-grubbing wastrels’.”
“Yeah, whatever – but this chainmail is rubbing me in some…uncomfortable places. Let’s just get this over with so we can leave.” The neck-scratched Fighter started pulling at his armor down below, to the short titters by the Caster and Scout.
“You do know that this isn’t the only time we’ll be in here, don’t you? We’re supposed to ‘delve’ here as much as possible, until we’re at least Level 6, before we move on to a harder dungeon,” the Healer said, having recovered from the attack already.
“Yes, of course I know that,” the Fighter snapped out. He then dropped the harshness in his voice and practically mumbled, “That doesn’t mean I have to like it.”
They were certainly a contentious bunch that didn’t seem like they wanted to be there in her dungeon in the first place. Tacca could understand being told to do something that you didn’t want to do, and then doing it anyway; that was her entire career as a Dungeon Assistant, after all. She felt the slightest bit of sympathy for them for a moment before she tightened her scrutiny of them – because she still didn’t trust them. Either they really were who they seemed to be (incompetent Raiders who didn’t want to be there), or they were extremely good actors, and it was hard to tell right away which it was.
Ten minutes later, she had her answer: incompetent Raiders who didn’t want to be there. Their teamwork was almost non-existent, they seemed to hurt themselves almost as much as her creatures, and they complained non-stop – all of them. By the time they made it to the third room with the Branch Jackals, their arguing and complaints were becoming extremely annoying.
“I think this is the first time I’ve ever wanted a group of Raiders to leave,” Shale said while they were fumbling around and screaming in fear from the trap they had activated in the room. “And not because they were a threat, but because I don’t want to listen to them anymore. Please tell me you won’t Bond with them if they manage to kill themselves; I don’t think I could look at you the same way if I knew you had gained some sort of Ability from them.” Tacca couldn’t tell if he was joking or not, but she supposed it didn’t matter – she wanted as little to do with them as possible.
Fortunately (for both their own safety and Tacca’s sanity), they finally took themselves from her dungeon after barely finishing off her creatures in her sixth room, just before her Boss Room. It had been a wound-filled slog for them to kill the Coyotes, Jackals, and Foxes after the two Fighters had been caught by the Confusion-based trap in the room, and she was glad that they decided not to push on. While one or more of them might have actually died in the last room, Tacca was done with them; they left by the exit staircase in the side of the room, still complaining, arguing, and now whining from all of the wounds they had suffered (though they had all healed up fully through the Healer’s help or through some Minor Healing Potions they had brought along).
Figuratively breathing a giant sigh of relief as they left, the grateful Dungeon Core signaled to the Raiders waiting outside, via her Root Fox appearing at the entrance, that she was more than ready for another group. Just her luck, though, another group of these “Merchants” appeared looking very similarly attired, if a little different in Class composition. She groaned as they too started to complain almost immediately after arriving, though they proved to be a bit less incompetent. They managed to—barely—finish off all the creatures in her Boss Room, though it was more than obvious that was probably their limit as to what they could accomplish. Her worries about them continuing on to find her Dungeon Core also proved to be unfounded, as they left right after they were able to ambulate on their own.
For the next three days, Tacca was on edge as one of these better-equipped groups after another arrived at her dungeon to delve through. There were periods during which she was a
ble to relax a little bit, when some of the groups seemed as incompetent as the first “Merchant” group (or even more, if that was possible); for the most part, though, she was stuck watching their every move and word on the chance that they were there to destroy her Core.
“You’ve got to relax a little bit, Tacca. I think that all of this stress you’re putting yourself under about these Raiders is causing your Core to crack again,” her Dungeon Assistant mentioned one day.
What are you talking about—? Tacca started to ask, before she looked at her Core for the first time in days.
The Former Dungeon Fairy had been so focused on watching everything going on in her dungeon that she hadn’t really been paying attention to her form. She was surprised to see that there were some fine cracks that were spiderwebbing all over her Core. Tacca knew that it hadn’t been from overextending her use of Dungeon Force, because even though she had been distracted lately, she had been very careful not to strain herself like that. She couldn’t tell if the stress of a potentially imminent attack was what was causing the cracks to appear, however; all she knew was they weren’t there before all of the “Merchants” started to arrive, one after another.
I…think you could be right, Shale. Thanks for letting me know – I hadn’t even noticed the cracks. Tacca hesitated to think about what would’ve happened had Shale not observed what was happening to her Core. It was entirely possible that she could’ve been killed from the stress alone.
“I just want you to take care of yourself,” the Dungeon Fairy said sincerely. “Don’t let these Raiders who wanted to kill you win by worrying yourself to death.”
That made her think about the whole situation in a new light. Do you think that was part of their plan? If they didn’t succeed with their first group, they would send all of these incompetent Raiders who looked like them, until I cracked from all of the stress?
Shale waved away her concerns, though. “That kind of thing seems highly improbable; I was taught that the Raiders don’t fully understand exactly how Dungeon Cores work – and especially your Core – so that would require some insider information that I’m confident isn’t available to them.”
Her Assistant had a point, Tacca had to admit. She had been taught the same thing, and such a plan or conspiracy to destroy her Core seemed a lot more elaborate than what she would expect from them. Besides that, her own situation was unique in the fact that her Core cracked at all; stress and overuse of Dungeon Force normally didn’t cause those same problems in other Dungeon Cores. It might make them become a bit odder than many of the ones she had met seemed to be, but they wouldn’t physically crack under the stress and pressure of managing their dungeon.
Taking Shale’s advice, she pulled back her constant surveillance of the Merchant Raider groups coming into her dungeon and let her Dungeon Assistant relay anything that might be some sort of concern to her Core. That didn’t mean she didn’t check up on each group’s progress (or lack of progress) as they delved through her dungeon rooms, but her persistent obsession with watching them was cut back significantly. Almost immediately, her mind felt better and clearer than it had in days, and the cracks stopped growing any worse on her Core.
Thankfully, the tide of plate-armored and silk robe-wearing Raiders stopped after another day, and for the first time Tacca recognized the group entering her dungeon. Not personally, of course, but she thought back and identified them as the second group that had delved through her dungeon.
“It looks like those who had visited your dungeon first are starting to delve through again. That’s strange, though, because the last time I looked outside at that village with all the Raiders, it had been filled with many more than we’ve seen come through here already.”
Maybe things have changed now that these “Merchants” have arrived; I can’t say that I know much about these things. Obviously, I know what a merchant is and what they do, but these seem like some sort of social or economic faction I know nothing about.
Her Dungeon Assistant could only agree. “I know nothing about them, either. If you’d like, I can always head over to the DPRC and ask about them; if anyone would know about them, I’m sure they would.”
Eh…I’d rather avoid involving them in my business right now if I can. Even though they tried to kill me, I’d rather go up against these Merchants than the Council any day.
“Suit yourself,” Shale told her, before he smiled. “For what it’s worth, I agree with you. They didn’t seem like they were in any position to help much the last time I was there, and I don’t want to get sucked into whatever crisis they were dealing with there and leave you all alone.”
I wouldn’t want that, either. Thanks, Shale.
After an awkward silence, Shale cleared his mental “throat” as he continued to watch the familiar group battling their way through her dungeon. “Anyways, now that there are some returning visitors that we’ve already seen, there likely will be more groups that have delved through your dungeon before. If they didn’t manage to get stronger through their first visit, they probably will soon; regardless, as you can see here, they have experience delving through your rooms and therefore know exactly what to expect. That’s a good thing for them, as it means they will probably finish their delve quicker; it could potentially be a bad thing for you, however, as you’ll have less time to restock your rooms.”
Tacca was more than aware of all of that, but it felt good having someone reiterate it to her, nonetheless. After the first few groups of “normal” Raiders that went through, which were indeed repeats of those they had seen before, she was forced to delay the arrival of another group by nearly 15 minutes. As Shale had predicted, the experienced Raiders knew their way around her dungeon already and knew what to expect first-hand, so they practically breezed through without too much trouble. This made restocking everything take a bit longer, but overall it wasn’t that much of a difference. The main issue was that Tacca wouldn’t have as much DF to play with to continue creating her traps down below while these experienced groups were tearing through her dungeon.
The delay wasn’t remarked upon, luckily, and she thought it was quite possible that they didn’t even really notice. It turned out that it didn’t matter overly much, actually, because there soon were chunks of brand-new Raider groups (thankfully not the Merchant-types) interspersed in between the experienced ones. This gave her a little more time to recover and regulate her DF expenditure, and to expand her defensive trap repertoire down below.
It became a bit routine after a while, with one Raider group entering while another was exiting up the staircase, and the days became a bit of a blur. There hadn’t been any sign of the Raiders being other than what they purported to be, and there weren’t any other incursions into her Core Room – though one new group decided to investigate her Core Room and nearly all died because of their curiosity.
“Uh…I don’t think we should venture in there. It doesn’t seem like it’s part of the dungeon, and we were told not to poke around outside of this last room.” Tacca was on edge again when she saw them seek out and venture down the tunnel leading from her Boss Room to her Core Room. She silently urged the group to listen to their Healer, who was pleading with the leader to exit from the dungeon. The Core had very little doubt that they would all perish if they progressed any further; they had shown their inexperience and lack of powerful gear throughout their delve, and even the traps inside of her Core Room would kill them easily. Granted, they could be tricking her by demonstrating a lack of competence and experience, but she didn’t think so.
“What if there is some more loot just waiting here for us, though? I don’t see the Core that they were talking about that is supposed to be here, so it probably couldn’t hurt to check—” the Human Scout of the group had started to suggest, before he stepped inside and immediately fell into the pit that was revealed as the stone façade crumbled apart on top. He barely had time to scream before he hit the iron spikes down below, dying instantly as one of
the sharp protrusions entered through his mouth and pierced through the back of his head – in addition to the half-dozen spikes impaled through his body.
“Barton! NOOOOOOO!” shouted the Caster, another Human who rushed forward when the Scout (Barton, Tacca assumed) fell in the pit. She managed to catch herself from falling inside with him, but she was also unbalanced as her feet skidded to the edge of the pit. The others were too shocked at everything happening to react in time, so the robe-wearing Caster was forced to throw herself to the side of the pit. She caught on to the edge with surprising alacrity, pulling herself up even as tears ran down her face.
The others were just starting to move towards the edge of the pit when the Caster stood up near the edge, looked down into the pit, and then stepped back sobbing with her hands against her mouth. “Barton! Why—?”
Suddenly, her foot triggered the Blade trap that Tacca had placed there, and 3 sharp, circular blades flashed out of the nearby wall, passing through the grieving Human woman before retreating back into the stone edifice in less than a second. Her body seemed to freeze for a moment in shock, and the others just stared at her, trying to figure out what had happened; the next moment, her body slowly collapsed into four different pieces as the blades had sliced completely through her knees, her waist, and her neck all at the same time. Actually, it’s more like 6 pieces since she had her hands around her mouth in shock at the time.
Wisely, the other three Raiders screamed and ran away back up the tunnel, fleeing out through the Boss Room’s exit staircase in shock and fear.
“Do you think they will tell the others what happened here?” Shale asked.
I certainly hope so; maybe they will understand not to venture any farther than the Boss Room, now.
The Dungeon Fairy: Two Choices: A Dungeon Core Escapade (The Hapless Dungeon Fairy Book 2) Page 14