But her Dungeon Assistant wasn’t even done yet. “Then there are two more abilities, both of which will help you immensely. One, the Perception Link, should allow me to share with you what I’m seeing and hearing – even outside of your dungeon.”
That is amazing! Now I can finally see what it looks like in the village down below. Is there a range limit on it?
Shale shook his head. “Not that I’m aware of. It should work just about anywhere, as far as I can tell.” His face brightened up as he explained his last ability. “Lastly, and this is another ability I’ve never heard of, is Energy Transmutation.”
What in the world is that? Although many of the abilities that Dungeon Assistants gained from working with a Core were common, there were quite a few that were unique – but even those abilities were documented. As she had studied everything she could at DAPS, she had knowledge of most – if not all – of the abilities a Fairy could gain from their increase in Ranking; this Energy Transmutation was not one of them.
“From what I understand, I can use the ability to…transmute?...my Fairy Mana into Dungeon Force, and then transfer it to you.” There was silence in her Core Room as they both processed that for a moment.
That is…insane! How? What? Why?
For a wonder, Shale actually had some sort of explanation, while Tacca was floundering in shock. “I think it’s because of our connection, and because of your unique situation,” he explained slowly, working it out as he spoke. “You are both Fairy and Dungeon Core, so it makes sense that I would gain an ability that would take advantage of both aspects.”
It did make sense, in a way, but the ability was extremely powerful. Since the ability didn’t cost anything, it essentially meant that – with Shale’s natural FM regeneration – he was essentially an extra 80 DF per minute. Unless he was using his FM for something else, of course, which would cut that down extensively, but otherwise he was like a portable power source.
In short, it was awesome.
She took advantage of that immediately, as she continued to hollow out a new room in a new section, directing her Carve Earth ability in 20 different areas, each of them consuming 5 DF per minute – which made the entire process so much faster. Tacca also found that it was much easier to split her concentration in so many different places than it had before, which she attributed to her recent Core Improvement increases.
Shale flew out of her dungeon, with both of them eager to test out if his Perception Link would actually work, and she found the downside to his Energy Transmutation: it stopped as soon as her Dungeon Assistant crossed the entrance threshold. That wasn’t too much of a bother, though, because when she really needed his help, he usually wasn’t too far away.
For the first time since she had become a Dungeon Core against her will, she once again experienced the freedom of flying through the air, of being able to bathe in the morning light of the sun, and feel the wind whipping through rapidly fluttering wings. They weren’t her own, of course, but the Perception Link that Shale now had was much more than just seeing and hearing; it was as though every sensation he experienced was passed through to Tacca’s mind. It was both wonderful and made her a bit sad, as she missed experiencing these sensations herself, in her own Fairy body.
Regardless, even a taste of it was better than nothing, and she refused to let disappointment that it wasn’t her body’s sensations that she was feeling right now get her down. Instead, she focused fully on what Shale was physically feeling, drinking in the ease of which he flew through the air like a dehydrated wanderer in the desert. That might also explain how she was able to see movement below Shale before her Assistant even registered it.
Shale, there’s someone climbing up the mountain pathway.
Her Dungeon Assistant immediately focused on the movement, acknowledging her communication. “This…could be interesting.” With that thought sent to her, he swooped down lower, hoping to overhear any conversation between the ragtag group of people coming up the mountain – heading straight for her dungeon entrances.
Chapter 7
“See, I was right!”
Squab pointed towards the small cave opening on the cliff face in the distance, seeing what appeared to be some sort of small animal at the entrance. Right where it was reportedly supposed to be.
“Yeah, but that doesn’t exactly mean anything,” Marvus remarked sarcastically. However, now that he was close, his Valuation Sense was telling him that there was something nearby. It wasn’t nearly as much as what he had felt back in Heftington, but whether or not it had yet to be mined could make a huge difference. His Sense typically only pinpointed finished products with set values, and chunks of gold ore inside of the walls of a mountain were anything but finished products. Quite valuable, naturally, but nearly impossible to locate using his ability. “Wasn’t this dungeon supposed to be destroyed—?”
He cut his own question off as they neared the flatter portion of the trail leading upwards, where he saw the scraps and bones of dozens of Raiders that had reportedly been massacred outside of the entrance. Those same reports also said that the dungeon itself hadn’t been responsible, and had been destroyed by whatever had killed so many of the Clan. As a result, the area had been off-limits for nearly half a year.
Not that he overly cared, as he hadn’t really followed most laws or orders for a long time, especially once he joined the Pilfering Cohort, a sub-branch of the Raider Delving Clan. However, he hadn’t been willing to risk going into danger if whatever had done this was still around, but it had been extremely quiet this far down south. When he heard that the two Hill Dwarves had recently visited and returned whole and healthy, he was fairly certain it was safe; as a result, he had already been planning on visiting with his own group, if only to loot the bodies that were said to have been left rotting in the sun after the sudden attack.
That was before his Valuation Sense started going crazy while he was getting his group ready in the nearby town. Not the relatively small village down at the bottom of the mountain range – as that had been empty of anyone since the night of the massacre – but in Heftington, which was also the nearest outpost of the Clan. While there was wealth inside of the town, there wasn’t a lot except inside the coffers of the outpost, which was heavily guarded. Neither he nor anyone else in the cohort would steal from the Clan, though, because it would almost be like stealing from their siblings; there were some that would do even that if it netted them some money, but even they would follow the rules.
Even thieves had some honor, after all.
The sudden appearance of large amounts of wealth apart from the Clan’s coffers was a curious-enough happening that Marvus was almost forced to investigate. What he found was both interesting and exciting: Sterge and Gwenda, the two Hill Dwarves that used to run the village further south, had somehow obtained large chunks of raw gold, which they were turning into coinage. It was these gold coins that he suddenly detected, but that wasn’t all; his Sense told him they had more than just gold, though it wasn’t quite finished product – but it was strong.
From experience, the only thing he could think of that would cause that kind of reaction to his Valuation Sense was an uncut gemstone of some kind. He’d Sensed a small uncut emerald hunk before, though he’d had to be within 5 feet of it to detect it. As he had recognized the particular feel of uncut gemstones from nearly 50 feet away while he observed them in the small-town marketplace, he knew that they were likely carrying more than a small uncut gemstone.
Unfortunately, almost as soon as they arrived back in town, they were under the watchful eye of the outpost leader, Trevelyan. The Elf was extraordinarily powerful – not to mention influential – and getting on her bad side would be a death sentence; it was for that reason, and that reason alone, that he had made the trek with 19 others of the Cohort to see if they could find where the two Hill Dwarves may have obtained the raw materials. Stealing from those two would’ve been so easy that he could’ve done it blindfolded, but
risking the wrath of the outpost leader was something all of the Cohort would like to avoid.
“Check the bodies; see if there’s anything left of value.” From the information he had dug up, he was fairly certain that no one had looted the corpses of those that had fallen to whatever it was that attacked; the only ones that had been up since the evacuation were Sterge and Gwenda, but they didn’t seem the type to go rooting around dead bodies. Besides, they had come back with raw gold and gemstones, which were certainly not being held by the bones and scraps of clothing he saw littering the mountainside.
Marvus didn’t bother to check any of the corpses himself, as he was after a larger payday, but he did notice that none of them looked particularly disturbed. The accuracy of which was proven moments later when the Cohort members started finding caches of coinage, as well as over a dozen bottomless bags that had been abandoned. Re-keying them so that they could be opened was an expensive operation, but the rewards were almost always worth it.
“Your cut, sir.” Squab held out a pouch to Marvus, which he took absently, not bothering to count. Most likely he was being cheated out of his fair share, but he didn’t really care at the moment. Instead, his focus was on the dungeon entrance; correction, on the dungeon entrances.
“Squab? Since you’re the only one that has been here, what do you know about that?” he asked. Squab was the most junior member of the Cohort with them today, at only Raider Level 12, and he had visited the dungeon once before it had been destroyed. Or supposedly destroyed. The rest of those with them ranged between Level 18 and 23, with Marvus being the most powerful at Level 25; none of them had any reason to visit a dungeon that was meant for Raiders just starting out.
“Uh…that wasn’t here when I visited before,” Squab said uncertainly.
I wonder if that is another entrance? But why would there be two? Marvus had been in his fair share of dungeons over the last decade or so, but this one was the most unusual one he’d ever heard of – and it became even more unusual at his first sight of it. He had already heard about the dungeon’s ability to put one of their monsters in the tunnel leading inside, letting the next group know that it was ready for them, but a second entrance? Not only that, but there appeared to be some sort of animal person waiting inside of the tunnel for them, which he quickly recognized as some sort of Gnoll.
Something new could potentially be good or bad. As Sterge and Gwenda hadn’t been spreading the news that the dungeon was still operational, he tended to think that this was something good. “I have a feeling we’ll find what we’re looking for in there. If those two weaklings can come out with riches, then we’ll probably be able to find even more.”
Marvus refused to think of his last score, a previously thought defunct dungeon full of big cats, and a treasure room full of hundreds of thousands’ worth of gold. He had destroyed the Core because he didn’t want anyone else knowing about his find, but in the end it hadn’t mattered. It turned out that the Ministry of Merchants had caught wind of his activities there and had ambushed him one night as he was moving more of his treasure out. Left for dead, they had cleaned out the entire cave while he was unconscious and severely hurt, and it was only by luck that they hadn’t finished him off.
Truthfully, at the time he thought it would’ve been a blessing to have died, because after he woke up and found himself stripped of anything of worth, he almost let his wounds take him to the afterlife. His depression didn’t last long, and he managed to pop out the Minor Healing Potion he kept in his boot; fueled by a desire for revenge, he healed himself up and had been working to build up enough wealth to destroy the Ministry. It was a lofty goal, but it was also something he felt driven to strive for; if anything, it gave his life purpose.
“Let’s head in,” he ordered, waving the Cohort members inside. “This shouldn’t be too difficult; that other entrance was for beginners, after all. I dare say that Squab could probably defeat whatever is in this new place all by himself,” he joked, taking pleasure in the horrified look on their junior member’s face.
As soon as they got close to the entrance, the Gnoll disappeared inside. Emboldened by their numbers, the Cohort ran after it, intending to dispatch it before it could raise a warning – or whatever it was designed to do. Enhanced by the speed of their Class choices, which most of them had chosen as Thief or Brigand when they hit Level 10, they were actually able to catch up before the Gnoll could get away. Just as Marvus walked inside the entrance tunnel, he watched as the monster was practically decapitated from a powerful cross slice coming from one of their Assassin Classes, Gerthin, who had changed from his previous Thief Class at Level 20.
As for Marvus, he had chosen to become a Plunderer, which really helped to enhance his Valuation Sense ability. Less about speed and staying hidden, the Plunderer Class was more melee-focused and had better defensive abilities – something that he found paramount when it came to avoiding the same fate as had happened before. He was confident that if he hadn’t been just a lowly Brigand when he had lost his big score, he could’ve fought back against those Ministry cronies that took his stuff. Stuff that he had earned fair and square after finishing off the rest of the Cohort that Marvus had led there.
He couldn’t help but recognize the parallel between then and now, as he was the leader and Squab was the lowly Thief leading them to the dungeon. This time, though, he was watching out for any treachery that might arise; he didn’t want what happened back then to happen to himself, after all.
“There’s some sort of sloped hallway here,” he heard called back to him from up front, after the Gnoll’s body disappeared, leaving behind a single silver coin – which was promptly snatched up and squirreled away by Gerthin.
“Do you see another way? No? Then start walking.” None of them had sensed any traps, obviously, but they were hesitant to investigate this hallway. Eventually, a few started walking, only to slip and fall, sliding down the hallway without the ability to stop themselves. Marvus and the remaining 15 waited for any type of scream to indicate that this was some sort of elaborate trap.
There were screams, but not of pain – more of fright at what they were probably anticipating. In less than a minute, however, the screaming stopped, only to be replaced by vague echoes that sounded like, “Okay.”
“Alright, let’s go.” When no one moved, Marvus pushed through them and flung himself down, leading by example. He didn’t want to be there all day finding the riches he felt were down below, as his desire was to get in and out. It was his inability to move all of the treasure from his previous score in a timely manner that led to his tragedy, so it was only prudent to get this done in less than a day if at all possible.
After sliding down a very long passageway, which wasn’t scary in the least (meaning that the others were being frightened little babies), he ended up slowing down in a very large room, and it took him a moment to realize that it was still inside as opposed to having exited the dungeon. A miniature mountain range spanned across the back of the room, the blue “sky” behind and above some sort of bluish-white stone flawlessly covering the bare stone of the otherwise austere walls that he normally saw in dungeons. A fake “sun” sat off to one corner of the room, another bright-colored yellow-white stone that he couldn’t identify. He was positive that they weren’t precious gemstones, however, and likely more of a rare-colored granite or marble. Rare didn’t always mean it had value, however, unless he was somehow able to carve out massive slabs of the stuff – and someone was interested in blueish stone, of course.
He wasn’t here to gather that kind of stuff, though they all had mining tools to extract ores or gemstones, which Marvus was now increasingly sure was what happened. This first room, with the unique mountain range and colored stone just screamed literal “goldmine”, and those were few and far between. Heck, a dungeon that provided anything other than iron and copper ores was almost unheard of, and those that had gemstones or gold ore were usually much more dangerous. As in, Level 70 or 80
-type dangerous, but by that point most Raiders weren’t as concerned about wealth as they were about increasing their own power.
At the base of the mountain range, behind some miniature foothills, were 5 obvious passageways, with nothing to indicate where they were supposed to go.
“Teams of 4!” Marvus called out. “Check it out for traps first, then take a safe peek to see if you found the way forward.” While he wasn’t too concerned about the difficulty of this dungeon, stupid mistakes could and did happen for those who were overconfident.
While they all broke off into teams of 4, he joined a trio of the Cohort as they cautiously approached the tunnel leading to the far right of the room, and he pulsed his own Detect Traps ability. Although it wasn’t as developed as his Valuation Sense, it was still adequate enough to handle whatever he found inside this dungeon.
Strangely, there wasn’t a single trap that he could detect. Nor did anyone else, which was a good sign. Walking into the tunnel, he noticed that it was down towards the end; he wasn’t the only one that brought out an Amulet of Illumination and held it up, lighting the corridor until it was as bright as day.
“Looks like it turns to the left, though for how long I’m not sure,” Gerthin, one of those that had joined him in investigating this direction, remarked as they looked down the tunnel. Without direction, the Assassin inched his way through the passageway, checking for traps the entire way, and Gerthin watched him disappear around the corner. The next moment, he saw a hand appear, gesturing them forward.
The rest of the hallway was equally empty of any threats, but it was also where their progress stopped. The tunnel ended with a blank stone wall, with no obvious way through. “Guess this isn’t it.”
They made their way back out to the main room, only to find 3 other teams waiting for them as well. “Nothing?”
All of them answered in the negative, but there was one team that wasn’t back yet: the one that had gone to the left. With only the slightest hesitation, he gathered everyone up and headed for the entranceway, only to see Squab emerge from the left tunnel and nod in his direction. “Looks like this could be the way through.”
The Dungeon Fairy: Three Lives: A Dungeon Core Escapade (The Hapless Dungeon Fairy Book 3) Page 7