Malachite was silent for a moment, before he hesitantly said, “Uh, well, 132, actually.”
132! Are you out of your mind?!
“That’s how many are in the direct path of these monsters, and that is what is left after I fill in any vacant dungeons out there. And they don’t have to be that large; a small room will do, deep down, in order to keep them safe.”
Why? They’ll just be able to bust out in a few days, putting them back in danger.
“Well…not precisely.” Malachite stopped and cleared his throat while he looked away from her Core, as if he was embarrassed about something. “Something happens to the Cores that I’m able to Translocate from their current positions. They…well, they get reset back down to Core Improvement Level 1 and have to go through the selection process again.”
Ha ha – very funny. Wait…you’re serious, aren’t you?
“Deadly serious, I’m afraid. It’s either move them now or let them get destroyed – though I’m at least giving them a choice first; it’s quite possible that some may not choose to start all over. I won’t force them, though, and something tells me that I couldn’t do it, anyway; I need to stay Bonded to them for it to work, and if they severed the Bond in the middle of the process, I can’t even imagine what the backlash would be from the forces in play.”
So…what? You want me to make little rooms for up to 132 Dungeon Cores, as a place to keep them safe until they can be installed somewhere else. Like…a nursery?
“I hadn’t thought about it that way, but I suppose that’s an apt description for it. Once I fill all of the vacant dungeons first, I’ll send the others to wherever you create for them.”
Tacca could certainly do that. All it would take would be carving out a very small tunnel deep into the stone of the mountain, hollow out a 5-foot-wide room to hold the Core, and then seal up the tunnel. Since the tunnel and room weren’t integral to the operation of her dungeon, it would be quite easy to close it off – though she wasn’t sure what would actually happen if she and another Core interacted with each other. Even with some of the largest dungeons in the past that spanned for miles underground, no 2 Dungeon Cores had ever been close enough to interact before.
Fine, I’ll start making them now. The first of them should be ready within the next few hours, with more after that every 2 hours.
“That’s perfectly fine. It won’t be much faster than that, anyway, since using the ability knocks me out for over an hour. I’ll be in touch.”
That was news to her; Tacca didn’t think there was anything that could affect the powerful Council Leader, but if it sent him into unconsciousness, then the Fairy Mana he must be able to wield and expend so suddenly must have been incredible.
With another triple *pop*, the three visiting Fairies disappeared. Tacca turned her attention to Shale, who had been silent through the entire exchange.
What do you think about all of this?
He just shrugged. “I think it’s good of the Council Leader to want to save as many Cores as he can, rather than let them be destroyed. However, I have a feeling that after they know the consequences, he’s not going to have very many takers.”
You’re probably right; I have to admit that if I had been doing this for decades or centuries, starting over from the bottom would be the last thing I’d care to do. It’s possible that some of the “younger” Cores will end up wanting to move, but I’ll bet that only a handful of those that have been around for more than 200 years will want to uproot and go.
“I’m not taking that bet, because I’m pretty sure you’re right. Regardless, you should make all of those little rooms for them, just in case.”
Will do.
Tacca got moving on making the first tunnel leading out of her defensive room – because she didn’t want anything external linking up with her Core Room, even if it were collapsed – and it was much quicker going than she thought. Because she wasn’t making a “regulation” tunnel, and didn’t actually need to transport anything down it, it only had to be 3 inches wide; she tried to make it even smaller, but for some reason she couldn’t send her viewpoint down a tunnel any smaller, which kind of defeated the purpose of it in the first place.
In far less than an hour, she had amazingly shot over a mile away through the new micro tunnel, heading downwards and in an easterly direction. Tacca didn’t want over 100 little rooms beneath her own dungeon, even if it was a mile below, because she wanted them away from her little sphere of influence—just in case. Once she was 2 miles out, which ended up being nearly 2,000 feet beneath the surface at the same time, she took about 20 minutes to create the small 5-foot-wide spherical room that would house another Dungeon Core. They probably wouldn’t appreciate being so far from the surface, but it was for their own good, she supposed.
Before she spent the next hour filling in the micro-tunnel with stone, effectively cutting it off completely from her awareness, she carved a “1” into one wall of the room, so that she could differentiate it from the others she would make. When the entire process was done, about 2 and a half hours had passed, which wasn’t too bad if she did say so herself. Then she started on the next one, angling the tunnel off into a direction just to the south of where the first room was located, eventually carving a “2” into the wall of that one before sealing it off.
From there, it became kind of monotonous, but at least it was something she could do while still maintaining the rest of her dungeon, as it didn’t really take a lot of concentration. By the time she had finished 40 of the 132 rooms Malachite had requested, the Council Leader finally popped back into her Core Room, looking more exhausted than he’d been before. Seconds after he arrived, the two Fairies arrived as well, looking a bit exasperated.
“I’ve finally got one for you, is it ready,” he asked immediately, his voice a bit weak.
They are; I have 40 of them ready to go. This is the first one, marked with a “1”…are you okay? And what did you do to annoy your helpers?
She sent the image of the first room to Malachite, and he nodded in confirmation even as he answered. “I’m okay. I managed to convince 10 of the Cores to vacate the north, and moved them into the remaining vacancies; what I didn’t take into account was how detrimental the whole process is on my mind and body, with so many broken Bonds in such a short time. Aster and Begonia are fuming that I’m not taking it easy.”
Normally, she might be sympathetic toward the Council Leader, but after she essentially went through the same thing for months, at the direction of the Council, she felt it was only justice rearing its ugly head. While she didn’t wish the pain and suffering on him, she also knew it was for a good cause – just like hers had been.
Well, don’t kill yourself, but keep doing what you’re doing. Believe me, you become numb to it after a while.
“Yes, that’s right, you probably would know.” Malachite was silent for a few moments, before saying something that surprised the former Dungeon Assistant. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry that you had to go through all of that. I don’t think Lily really understood what she was putting you through when she assigned you all of those Cores, especially one right after another. It was a mistake, and I wish we could take it back,” he said sincerely.
Apology accepted. I know now that it was for a purpose, but to be treated so poorly was…well, I’m sure you can commiserate, feeling how you do right now.
“I can, I assure you.” He turned to the others he had brought with him, and nodded. “Let’s go; I have the location. After that, I’ll probably sleep for a full day, because I don’t want to kill myself.” Aster and Begonia looked somewhat mollified at that, though Tacca doubted a day would be more than a temporary salve on his pain and mental abuse. She remembered having to rest for weeks in between some of her first painful Bond severings so that she was able to function again.
After they left, Shale spoke up with a smirk on his face. “Well, maybe I should’ve taken that bet; it looks like we were wrong, and t
hat you’ll be seeing a lot more of him.”
You could be right, but we’ll see. I’d still be surprised if he finds more willing participants than not. With that, she got back to work.
It took nearly 2 and a half weeks to finish all of the rooms, and in all of that time Malachite only showed up a handful of times to request another room after the first was delivered. As in, a literal hand with 5 fingers, because that was all of the volunteers he got from those Dungeon Cores he approached. In all, only 16 Cores (10 in vacant dungeons and 6 in the rooms she had dug out) had agreed to be reset back to CI Level 1 and start over, out of only 100 or so that the Council Leader had talked to and tried to convince to leave.
“There are still a few dozen on the upper edge of the area that I haven’t had a chance to speak with, but I’ll be heading there next. I’ve been putting it off because it seemed as though the attacks have stopped, and I’m not sure where they will strike next,” Malachite reported shortly after delivering his latest volunteer. It was strange knowing that there were 6 other Cores within a few miles of her location, but she couldn’t even sense them at all. Fortunately, she knew they all had their previous Dungeon Assistants Bonded to them again, so they weren’t by themselves; from what Shale had discovered, they were slowly expanding and growing, if only to pass the time.
Isn’t that a good thing? That they’ve stopped attacking?
“Normally, I’d say yes, but these monstrous people are far from normal. I’m more worried about why they stopped attacking, though I suppose it could be in reaction to the mass evacuation of the mortal races, the departure of so many Dungeon Assistant Fairies, or even the relocation of those Dungeon Cores I was able to convince,” he responded bitterly. He was certainly taking the inability to convince the others to leave as a personal failure, and she didn’t have the desire to explain to him that it wasn’t his fault.
Or they could be just done with what they wanted to accomplish and have decided to disappear for good? We can hope, can’t we?
He chuckled tiredly. “Hope. Yes, we can hope, but I thoroughly doubt this is the case. Regardless, I appreciate everything you’ve done to help secure these Cores, which I have no doubt will be instrumental in repopulating the different sites across the continent. Anyway, I wanted to give you an update, and now I need to get some rest before I work on those last 30 or so. Wish me luck!”
Uh…yeah, you probably don’t want me to do that. But good luck, anyway.
His tired smile looked forced as he disappeared, his helper shadows Translocating away just after.
Well, now; I guess I can get back to what I was doing before all of this happened.
“Sounds like a plan,” Shale said, lifting his arms above his head in a stretch. Her Dungeon Assistant had been sticking around her dungeon the majority of the time she had been working on the rooms – which seemed like a waste now, because less than 5% of them were currently filled – so that she would have access to more Dungeon Force; now that she was done, he could spend an hour or two investigating the outside world while she started to plan out her newest section. “I’m heading out.”
A few minutes later, he initiated the Perception Link, and instantly she could feel that he was excited.
What is—?
It didn’t take her long to focus on what he was seeing, which was the familiar sight of two particular Hill Dwarves coming up the mountainside.
Finally! It’s been way too long.
“Yes; yes, it has. It’ll be good to see them inside of your dungeon again.”
Chapter 16
It felt good getting out of The Village for a change, and away from so many people. Sterge was glad that everything seemed to be working out for him and Gwenda, but being in charge wasn’t as fun as he thought it might be. Not only were the massive numbers of Raiders flowing into their little village wanting answers to questions he didn’t know the answer to, but there were dozens of families that had arrived, looking for a place to put down some roots. Thankfully, they were always in need of helping hands, especially with all of the farms working right now, and they had even expanded into a few fields that hadn’t even been touched further out from The Village, but which remained in the land space they had leased.
Though, calling it The Village is a bit of a misnomer, now. The tiny village that less than a year ago had been just a few buildings, including two warehouses for storing food, now comprised so much more than that. Hiring construction crews, help for the farms, and all sorts of other positions throughout the Inns they had previously built and the ones that had gone up after they arrived was Gwenda’s responsibility. Sterge continued to be the “Chief” of their new town-sized village, and helping out wherever he could by trying to answer questions, working on construction along the crews, and directing people where they could find accommodations and food and any number of other necessities was a full-time job.
They barely had a moment to themselves, which had been great up to a point, because they both felt like they were making a difference – as well as a sizable amount of money. They didn’t necessarily need or want all of the proceeds from the Inns, the two Delving Supply stores that now existed, and any number of other income-producing projects in and around town. Therefore, most of it went back into the town or into creating an ever-growing residential area a mile out from The Village center, off-set from most of the Raiders flowing through the area.
It was expensive in terms of the construction materials and contracting the crews to build the multi-family homes, but it was worth it. They charged a pittance in rent to them, if only to pay for the upkeep of the buildings, though most of it went right back into buying food for so many people. There were merchants traveling in large caravans nearly every day, selling much-needed goods to their stores, as well as food to supplement what they hadn’t been able to finish growing yet – though they hadn’t seen any actual representatives from the Ministry of Merchants. Oh, there were multiple caravans from them, as they were taking advantage of the new market, but for the most part they were polite and unintrusive, preferring to do swift business rather than cause any trouble.
For which they all were extremely happy about.
The problem, if there was any to complain about, was that the surge of people into their locale wasn’t stopping. Every day, another 100 to 200 people – a mixture of Raiders and non-Raiders – appeared, either after hearing about the dungeon opening up again or fleeing from the north. Though there hadn’t been many from far to the north, as the distance would take a normal person months of travel time, most of those that came had heard about the mass evacuation and were running for safety before it was too late. It was one of the reasons there were so many families showing up with few belongings, though the majority of them brought enough money to last them a while if they didn’t spend it outlandishly; they wanted to establish themselves somewhere safe, as well as beating the crowds.
Sterge couldn’t blame them, and since they were in a position to help, Sterge and Gwenda felt duty-bound to help them at least find someplace to live. After that, there were some jobs they needed help with, but designing an economy from the ground up with so many new people was difficult at the best of times, or nearly impossible with everything going on right now. Therefore, many of them were unemployed with no way to sustain their lives after their savings ran out.
The feelings of responsibility for so many people was wearing on The Village’s leadership: namely, Sterge and Gwenda. Taking a brief “vacation” from so many responsibilities was one of the reasons they were heading up to the dungeon today. Killing dungeon monsters and delving through the new section, which had been met with particularly pleasant reviews from those groups of Raiders that had gone through it, was something that they felt like they needed in order to loosen up a little bit. But that was only one of the reasons they were heading into the dungeon again.
After talking with everyone that ran the Inns, traders that brought in goods, those that operated the Supply Stores,
and Jesper – whom they were particularly grateful for because he ran the new Raider Delving Clan outpost with a firm-yet-fair attitude – they had determined that they were soon going to have a number of problems on their hands. The first of them, which wasn’t that much of a surprise, was the shortage of food that would soon occur unless they did something about it.
While they had expanded their farming operation out to the boundaries of their leased land, it wasn’t nearly enough to feed everyone who was surging into their domain. Importing food wasn’t something new, as they had done it before and were currently doing it, but eventually demand would outweigh supply. The main reason for that was the abandonment of the farming operations up north, which was not an insignificant portion of the continent’s food sources. Reserves were fine right now, but come the short winter month that was rapidly approaching, starvation was entirely possible.
As much as food being scarce during winter was an issue, it was secondary to the lack of effective shelter in the area. The freezing temperatures were enough to kill even the hardiest, warmly clothed people if they stayed outside for more than a few minutes at a time. Right now, there were thousands of Raiders and even non-Raiders sleeping outside in nothing more than tents – and sometimes not even that.
As soon as winter fully hit the area, all of the inns and residences they had built wouldn’t contain them all, even if they were shoved inside with no more than a space to lie down. Being who the Raiders were, with tempers that were at best a little cranky to at worst thoroughly volatile, keeping them trapped and packed in a building for a month could only spell disaster.
Ideally, it would be best if everyone went back up north for the season, as it was horrible during the winter month, but not everyone comprehended the danger they were in; the winters were much more mild anywhere else on the continent of Abenlure, other than in the far north, which were similar in extremities as their current location. Not only that, but many of them didn’t have another place they could stay, as most villages and towns couldn’t sustain their numbers, either. As a result of all of those different factors, it was quite likely that they would stay, disbelieving of the danger, and be found dead one morning because the very blood inside of their bodies seemed to freeze from the extreme cold.
The Dungeon Fairy: Three Lives: A Dungeon Core Escapade (The Hapless Dungeon Fairy Book 3) Page 15