Sterge just stood there with his mouth open, shocked as the other Hill Dwarf immediately disappeared out of sight as she slid down the curving shaft. Gwenda screamed in fright at first, but Tacca could hear its tone change from fear to excitement in just a few seconds. The slope gradually steepened from the gentle decline to one that sped her up even further, as she practically flew down the stone-made slide at nearly insane speeds. Eventually, the slope leveled out little by little, becoming nearly horizontal; when Gwenda finally stopped, 20 feet before the end of the chute that ended in a blank wall, she was practically laughing.
Sterge, on the other hand, was screaming in worry and fright as he plummeted after the female Hill Dwarf, banging his face a few times with the shield he held on his left arm when it would smack against the side of the slide. Tacca felt a little sorry for him, but if he had just relaxed he would’ve been fine.
That worked better than I had hoped.
“Gwenda!” Sterge immediately called out when he came to a stop and picked himself up. “Where are—oh.”
The Gnoll Scout that had gone first was nowhere to be found, as Tacca had it slide down and disappear down one of the other rooms almost before Gwenda had taken the plunge. While she could control the Gnoll somewhat near the entrance if it kept a certain distance away from the Raiders, as soon as the pair of Hill Dwarves were inside a room with any of her creatures, it would be difficult – if not impossible – to prevent an attack from happening.
“That was one of the dumbest—”
“Sterge—look!”
Gwenda clearly ignored Sterge’s admonition as she took in the sight of the placard in front of her. In reality, it was a thin, 8-foot-wide and tall wall that Tacca had hastily constructed when she first saw the pair walking up the mountain, and the Dungeon Core had finished carving words into it just as the Hill Dwarves had entered her dungeon.
“I knew it! I was certain that the dungeon didn’t have anything to do with what happened!” the female Raider exclaimed after a few seconds.
“What are you talking about?”
Gwenda waved at the large carved placard that Tacca had constructed. “This is describing the attack on the other Raiders in detail, describing the ones that did it as ‘blue-skinned, six-armed, monstrous people’ that had some sort of magical shield that prevented them from being hurt. The dungeon, the ‘Core’ it says, was damaged in the process of defending itself and took months to repair back to normal. It ended up killing the invaders, but—oh, that’s not good.”
Tacca could see Sterge reading through the information the Core had placed on the large sheet of stone, though he was much slower at it than the Caster. “What? What’s wrong?”
“Here—do you see?” Gwenda said with a shaky voice, pointing to a particular part towards the end. “It says that while the invaders were destroyed, they weren’t the only ones. Towards the north of Abenlure, supposedly, these ‘monstrous people’ are attacking and destroying dungeons.”
“So? That’s a long way from here; why does that matter?”
Gwenda put her hands on her hips and turned to Sterge. “Don’t you remember what they did here? Did you suddenly forget the corpses of the Raiders that were killed just outside of the dungeon?”
Tacca, for one, couldn’t forget the frightening scene of slaughter outside of her entrance. The 5 invaders that had arrived seemingly out of nowhere outmatched even the strongest Raiders that had been nearby, though the majority of them had been low Level. That didn’t mean that they were invulnerable, but it took literally everything that the Dungeon Core had at her disposal to destroy them, and she had barely made it out of it in one piece. In fact, it was quite possible that she hadn’t made it out unscathed, as she was still stumped by the etchings all over her Core, as if she had been shattered and pieced back together.
“No, I’ve not forgotten. But how do we know, uh, this—” Sterge pointed his finger at the placard— “is even telling the truth? This could be some sort of trick—”
Gwenda, thankfully, just shook her head. “I don’t think so, Sterge. I also remember what happened to the dungeon when we were inside of it, how everything seemed to just disappear after that shockwave blasted us against the walls. Even those more experienced Raiders with us, such as Jesper, knew that the dungeon had been destroyed; it’s kind of hard to fake that sort of thing, I would think.”
“Then how do you explain the fact that it wasn’t destroyed?”
“I…don’t know. But I don’t really think that this is some sort of trick, or at least I hope not.”
“Why?”
“Because of this right here,” Gwenda responded, pointing at the very last part.
…your current strength, only death will find you if you continue to delve without a group. Leave the dungeon now, and spread this information as far and wide as you can. Prepare yourselves, as the invasion is coming.
In addition, take these to help with your endeavors, as you will likely need help communicating with the rest of the continent. Be safe.
It was a little heavy-handed, granted, but it was for a good cause. Through Shale, who had been assisting Council Leader Malachite and Lapis in investigating what was going on (especially lately, as there really wasn’t anything going on in her dungeon), Tacca knew only too well the situation with the loss of both Dungeon Cores and Dungeon Assistants to the north. While her words sounded as if she was concerned about the intelligent races living around the continent – and in partiality, she was – the former Fairy was hoping that they would be able to help stem the tide of destruction by attacking these invaders directly. They just had to know about them first.
True, it was a bit selfish that she wanted to save the Cores and Assistants instead of the intelligent races, but who knew what would happen to them if all of the dungeons were destroyed? The Council Leader had mentioned something to Shale about all of this upsetting the “balance”, but it wasn’t something of which Tacca was aware. All she knew was that her people were dying, and she was currently helpless to prevent it. Except what she was doing by relaying this information, of course.
“It wants us to leave? B-but that’s crazy!” Sterge shouted.
Normally, yes – that would be crazy. But this isn’t just about me anymore.
“I really think the dungeon means it—look!” Gwenda pointed to the two small stacks of things on the floor near the placard.
One was a stack of pure gold nuggets, each the size of a fist; the other, a much smaller stack of spherical gemstones of different kinds, uncut and raw. Both of them were possible for her to create due to her Mountain Environmental Access, though she didn’t try to shape them into coins or cut gems. It was a literal fortune, but Tacca didn’t think it was time to mess around.
“What? Why?”
Despite the riches waiting for them, neither of them moved to pick up the gold or gemstones. Tacca didn’t understand it.
“Like I said, I think it’s because the message here is serious. Why else would it offer more wealth than either of us has ever seen before in an effort to shoo us on our way?” Gwenda finally moved, picking up two of the gold chunks and putting them into a bottomless bag she now had on her hip.
“Just two?”
The female Hill Dwarf nodded. “Yes; any more and things will start looking suspicious. I think we can melt these down in Heftington without too much trouble and exchange them in Fiona’s shop without drawing too much attention. Come on, let’s go.”
Without another word, Gwenda took off at a run for the recognizable exit passage located on the wall next to the bottom of the slide, completely ignoring the rest of the large room, with its mountainous terrain and different exits branching off to different pathways. “Just like that? You’re not going to explore?” Sterge asked.
“What? No, not after everything we’ve learned. There is one thing we still need to do, though.”
Sterge caught up to the other Hill Dwarf in a few seconds, running with her as they exite
d out the straight pathway leading outward. Tacca hadn’t wanted anyone exiting to have to walk all the way back up, as she had originally intended for the exits to join up with the original exit staircase, because it was a long walk up thousands of steps. Instead, she had the main exit heading straight out from down below, where it would eventually let out about 300 feet below her entrances. Technically, it was a little bit longer distance to walk, but there wasn’t nearly as much vertical movement this way.
“And what else, pray tell, do we need to do?”
Tacca watched Gwenda slowly smile as she answered. “Why, we need to go down that slide again, of course. That was the most fun I’ve had in a long time!”
Chapter 3
The silence once the two Hill Dwarves finally left – after sliding down the chute again – was a bit disheartening, because it meant that Tacca was all alone with her thoughts…and Shale, of course.
“You made the right choice, even if it isn’t the most beneficial to you right now.” The Dungeon Core knew her Assistant was right, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t disappointing.
Unfortunately, that is true. I’ve already been unlucky enough to get to this point, so I guess there’s no sense in borrowing trouble.
“Unlucky? What are you talking about? You’re still here, aren’t you?” Shale appeared confused, which was reflected in the changing colors of his Mood Clothes.
Obviously, but I’m talking about the invasion by those six-armed people.
“How so?”
You should know, after having worked with the Council Leader and…others…concerning these attacks. I’m pretty sure it was you that had mentioned that my attack was more than a bit of an outlier compared to those Malachite suspected were instigated by these invaders. If that isn’t bad luck, then I don’t know what is.
Shale seemed to think about it for a while, hovering in front of her Core. “Or you could consider it good luck – on the behalf of the people of this world.”
Now it was Tacca’s turn to be confused. I don’t understand – how is what happened to me lucky?
He spoke slowly, as if he were still working it out in his mind. “Well, if you hadn’t been attacked – and somehow survived – then we might not have known what was happening. If you hadn’t figured out a way to kill them, then it might be suspected that they were entirely invulnerable. If you hadn’t Bonded with those two Hill Dwarves, then the mortal races wouldn’t have the knowledge of what they are up against. If—”
Ok, ok – I see what you’re saying, but that just reaffirms my original statement. Just as luck seemed to be on the Raiders’ sides when they delved through my dungeon, it also hindered my development because of the lack of deaths after a while. She thought about it for a second, before mentally shrugging. It’s not like I’m not used to it by now; I guess I have to take the good with the bad.
Shale huffed in response. “Tacca, that’s life. Sometimes you take the good, other times you take the bad, but when you take them both, then you have—"
I know, I know – but it seems like my good and bad are one and the same for me. It took Tacca a few minutes to really drag herself out of her sudden rut after her Bonded had left, so she busied herself with looking over her dungeon again. Not that there was much she wanted to mess with, since her recent additions hadn’t been tested yet, but she could at least evaluate her choices since she had recovered from the invasion by the frighteningly powerful blue-skinned people….
* * *
“So, what’s the plan?”
Plan? Well, I guess it’s time to rebuild. Maybe make a few improvements on what I had already, but I think the basic structure I already had in place worked well enough.
“What are you going to do with all of those CIPs you acquired?”
I’ll probably save most of them until I can figure out what I’m going to do after the section I was working on is done. Just using enough of it to fully stock and maintain everything without too much difficulty.
“Sounds good. When do we start?”
I guess now is as good a time as any.
There was no reason to wait, of course, but she had to prioritize what she wanted to work on first. Did you mention earlier that there are no Raiders around? They think I was destroyed, right?
Shale nodded, relief still on his face that she hadn’t been destroyed – at least not permanently. Tacca still didn’t know exactly what had happened or what might be different, but only time would tell, she supposed.
“Yes, and from my wanderings and investigations of the nearby area, I’ve learned that the village down below was evacuated and there aren’t any people for miles. Though, from some distant observation, I believe those two Hill Dwarves of yours are staying in the closest town; it seems as though there is some sort of ban on anyone visiting.”
So I guess that means that it’ll be a while until someone comes back here. It might even be a long time – months, perhaps. Is that what you suspect as well?
Her Dungeon Assistant just shrugged. “Eh…maybe? Honestly, unless someone comes to clean up the corpses of the Raiders outside and happens to look in on your dungeon, it could be years before your dungeon is found again. You can’t really blame anyone for not wanting to investigate, after what happened – can you?”
Sadly, she couldn’t. Tacca hoped that it wasn’t years before someone came back to her dungeon, but she would wait if she had to. Or try to use her Dungeon Assistant ability to Hibernate during that period of time, hoping that she could wake up if someone got close to detecting her presence again.
What it ultimately meant was that she could do something other than fully restore her dungeon first; something that took priority in her mind over everything else: Protection. You’re right; it could be longer than I would like, but that gives me an opportunity to protect my Core as much as I can before that.
“How are you going to do that? I have severe doubts that you’ll be able to withstand another explosion like the one that both saved you and destroyed your Core.”
Naturally, I wasn’t thinking about trying that again. But I did have some success before the explosion in killing them with my traps. So that will be my priority before I do anything else.
The room she had been using as her primary defense, filled with concentrated Enchantment and Life traps as well as her creatures with powerful gear, was technically no longer there; the explosion not only killed everything in her dungeon, but it had also created a 200-foot-wide spherical hole from its origin point. As a result, her “Core Room” was now huge, but she had lost her entire defensive room and the hallway connecting to it from her Boss room. With a straight shot down her entrance to her Core room, as all of her Rotating Stone Bridge traps that had been blocking off access to different connecting tunnels in her second section had disappeared along with everything else, Tacca was feeling more than a little vulnerable.
Dungeon Core Status
Dungeon Core Name:
Tacca GloomLily
Core Improvement (CI) Level:
12
Core Improvement Points (CIP):
1749/2300
Core Improvement Pending/Countdown:
26600 in 15 days
Special Characteristic Points (SCP):
50
Current Primary Assistant Bond:
Shale IronSchist
Dungeon Force (DF):
2000/2000
Dungeon Force Regeneration:
28 per minute
Reward Tier:
2
Control Limit:
0/400
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, Feline Family, Semi-human Family, Hill Dwarves, Humans, Elves, Gnomes, Orcs, Dungeon Fairy
Variant(s):
All
Trap Specialization(s):
Enchantment, Life
Environmental Access:
Forest, Mountain
Permanent Assistant Sub-bond:
Tacca GloomLily
Special Characteristics:
Access all Variants for available dungeon creatures
All
After checking to make sure she had enough Dungeon Force – which she did, as it was full at 2,000 – Tacca started to fill in the curved walls of her Core Room with stone, while also digging out another tunnel opposite from the entrance. Her plan was to create a whole new Core room a little further down and to use her current one as her new defensive room, though it was going to look a little different than before.
It took a few hours to complete using her Carve Earth ability to dig a long tunnel and a 30ft X 30ft X 30ft room for her new Core Room, while at the same time filling in the previous room with the same stone that made up the mountain range that housed her dungeon. When that was done, she Teleported into her new “home” – and instantly felt better, even if there were no defenses in place as of yet. It was almost as if being in that room was suffocating me. The memories of the attack, the explosion, and the resulting pain as she was shattered—I was shattered, wasn’t I?—haunted her a bit in her former refuge, and getting out of there was like taking a deep breath of fresh air.
The Dungeon Fairy: Three Lives: A Dungeon Core Escapade (The Hapless Dungeon Fairy Book 3) Page 3