The others, though, would be taking advantage of the windfall in less than a month, due to their altered countdowns from Tacca’s Shared Risk ability. That alone could spell the difference between destruction and success in the future, as long as they were able to survive that long, of course.
Looking at her Awards from so many Raider Deaths wasn’t the only thing she had put off, though. During the battle, as the tide had turned in favor of the Raiders, Tacca had risked taking advantage of the situation to do one more thing.
Bond Results:
Bonded Targets: 3
Abilities(s) Obtained:
Abilities(s) Granted:
Creature Type Unlocked: (Interdimensional Being) H%l#?t*^!p%
Variants Unlocked: Fodder, Soldier, Elite
That was certainly unexpected. She’d never seen an
I guess that proves that they aren’t from our dimension, doesn’t it?
She shared what she had done with everyone else, as they already knew she could Bond with Raiders.
“What concerns me are those Variants you unlocked. Fodder, as far as I remember from the games I’ve played in the past, usually means that they were expendable. I’m assuming that was from one of the blue-skinned invaders?”
Yes, I Bonded with each color right before they died, including the red-skinned one – which I’m assuming is an Elite.
“Then that will probably mean that there are many more where they came from, which again is worrying. And while the ‘Elite’ Variant meant that it was powerful, it certainly doesn’t mean that it was the most powerful Variant there is. At least, according to my knowledge, which may or may not apply here.”
David had been relatively accurate in his guesses so far, so she had no reason to doubt him. It was better to plan for potential threats beforehand rather than have to worry about them in the moment; if it turned out he was wrong, then it wouldn’t harm them in any way.
“This is all nearly too much for me,” Tulip abruptly whined. “How did we go from Assisting Dungeon Cores to defending against interdimensional attacks?”
It was a good question – and one that no one had an answer to.
“I think,” Shale began, “that it’s about time to involve the Head Instructor and anyone else with experience in all of this. What’s done is done, and it really doesn’t matter if he knows, but I believe that we’re going to need all of the help we can get in the future.”
Tacca wanted to immediately disagree, but she held her opinion. It wasn’t just about her dislike for Lapis anymore, it was about all of them and their need for help. What kind of help he might contribute, she wasn’t sure, but she had to reluctantly agree that it was probably best to seek out some advice.
Fine. I guess I agree, even if I have personal feelings that make me want to say no.
She thought about the upcoming confrontation, and something about it made her feel a bit mischievous.
So, since I really don’t like speaking to him, who wants to be the one to tell Lapis that we’re all essentially Bonded together and breaking probably 50 rules and regulations in the process?
Their groaning response only served to make her chuckle.
Chapter 33
Malachite let himself drift off for a while, the exhaustion from being drained repeatedly just too much for his mind to handle for long. There wasn’t much of interest that he could observe at that point, anyway, because the projection map that the blue invaders had been looking at disappeared and there was currently only one of the monstrous people in the room. Since it was manipulating the panel on the long table in front of its figure, the Council Leader couldn’t see anything; after a while, he realized that all he was doing was staring at the back of the invader for no purpose.
He wasn’t sure how long he had drifted off, but a loud, annoying ringing noise woke him up. His first sight of the room again was of three more of the blue-skinned invaders running into the room, followed by a purple-colored one, barking orders. Orders that he couldn’t understand, since it was in no language he had ever heard before, but the tone was obvious enough that it told Malachite what was being conveyed.
Looking around as much as he could, he saw that many of the Fairies that had been captured and were imprisoned with him were awake as well, the loud alarm-like noise waking up even those that had been unconscious for as long as he had been there.
The large map projection was suddenly back up, as detailed as it was before, and he could see that the northern part looked very similar to how it appeared before. Whatever the six-armed people were doing to the strange panel, they were able to manipulate the map so that it concentrated on the south, right where the glowing dot from earlier had been. Correct that, where it still was.
There were 21 distinct symbols surrounding the dot, which he still assumed was Tacca’s Dungeon Core, gathered around as if they were hunting and had finally cornered their prey. As far as Malachite could tell, from the perspective of the invaders, everything seemed to look alright; he didn’t see any reason to be alarmed. Maybe they just want to know that their deed is done? If those 21 symbols represent those they sent out to destroy Tacca’s Core, there’s no hope for her.
Unexpectedly, there was a blurring of those symbols, as if they were somehow being obscured. The Council Leader could tell that something significant had just happened, because there was some frantic hand-waving and yelling, and another series of angry noises reverberated throughout the room.
Then – if he hadn’t seen it himself, he wouldn’t have believed it – the room’s walls seemed to be sucked into the floor, and the ceiling seemed to lift away as if it was some kind of hat. Before his eyes and mind could register what was happening, Malachite’s world abruptly became so much bigger. Whereas he had felt as if the area outside of this room had been large, it hadn’t prepared him for just how big it really was.
He looked up…and up…and up until he could barely make out the ceiling of the gigantic room he was in. It must be at least 1,000 feet above my head, if not more. The walls of this new room were even more impressive, as when he looked at them in the distance they were practically just a blurry image, as they were so far away. Where am I? What is this place?
All he could tell from his vantage point – as he couldn’t really look behind him that well – was that they seemed to be in the corner of a much larger space, made from a similar metal material as the original, smaller room. There were lights everywhere along the walls, blinking or static, and there were strange lines running along them that he eventually worked out to be passageways behind some sort of transparent glass barrier. There were other oddities nearly every other place he looked along the walls and the ceiling, but he was distracted by something else on the floor.
He couldn’t believe what he was looking at, as his mind couldn’t comprehend it at first. What he originally thought was some sort of organic-looking black pillar about 50 feet away from his position, turned out to be something else entirely. As he looked up again, he finally rearranged his brain into focus, only to realize what he was looking at: a 100-foot-tall, black-colored, 12-armed invader. It wasn’t holding any weapons, thankfully, but Malachite was sure that if it had been armed, each weapon could destroy half of a Raider village in the blink of an eye.
It took all of his willpower not to pass out again, though this time it was from fear rather than exhaustion.
The map projection rapidly expanded, until it was so large that he couldn’t even keep it all in his current field of view. There was a painful, deep shout that Malachite immediately knew came from the giant invader, and the focus again was on the southern Wentrylock mountain range and Tacca’s Core. The symbols were present, though still obscured, and he saw them move around slightly, as if they were somehow tracking e
ach movement of their people on a real-time basis; he wasn’t sure how he knew that was what he was looking at, but he instinctively knew it somehow. Plus, it just made sense; otherwise, they wouldn’t be so intent on watching it.
Then one of the symbols, which had been blue to start with, suddenly stopped and turned red. Another one switched to red and froze a moment later, then another, and another. Now that he could see them better and they weren’t moving, he realized that 16 of the symbols were exactly the same though with little marks next to them that meant nothing to the Council Leader. Another 4 of them he could also classify as similar enough to be the same, while there was a unique one that seemed the most active, moving all over the place with rapid jumps.
One by one, all 20 of the other symbols stopped moving and turned red, leaving only the unique symbol still active. Except, it didn’t appear to be moving; about 20 seconds went by before it moved, though it only seemed to jerk around a little before stopping completely and turning red like the others.
Does that mean they’re dead? Did Tacca just defeat four times as many invaders as what had attacked her last time. If she did, how did she do it?
There was absolute silence throughout the gigantic room, which was eerie, to say the least. All of the invaders he saw were frozen, staring at the map projection in either shock, horror, or some other unrecognizable emotion.
Another roar from the enormous black-colored figure suddenly rang out, and the blue and purple-skinned invaders jumped into action, manipulating things on their panels, making the projection disappear as they worked. The giant 12-armed monster took a step away from where it had been standing, freeing up his view of the rest of the room. He sincerely wished he had remained ignorant of what he saw, though, as he saw row after row of blue-skinned invaders, hundreds or thousands of them, along with the slightly larger purple-colored ones, though in less numbers. In addition to those, he also saw dozens of red-skinned figures, at least twice the size or more of even the purple invaders, with 8 arms instead of 6.
The next moment, the walls that had previously defined the room flowed back up from the floor, and the ceiling abruptly appeared to cap it off, shutting off the massive staging area from view. Looking at the other captives with wide eyes, he wasn’t surprised to see that more than a few were actively weeping, having seen what appeared to be the doom for the world they had worked so diligently for hundreds and thousands of years to safely maintain.
However, what worried him the most wasn’t necessarily the fate his world had in store for it, but in the way his mind wouldn’t let up on something. For some reason, he couldn’t help but think the last roar from the black-colored invader hadn’t been a shout of frustration, but one of amusement and laughter.
It was…excited. There’s no other way to explain what I heard in its tone.
It seemed insane, after assumedly watching 21 of their own people die, but everything that these invaders did seemed insane – so it wasn’t that much of a surprise.
Tacca, I don’t know how you did what you did, but you better be ready; they’re coming for you.
The End of Book 3
Final Stats
Dungeon Core Status
Dungeon Core Name:
Tacca GloomLily
Core Improvement (CI) Level:
12
Core Improvement Points (CIP):
259/5900
Core Improvement Pending/Countdown:
500570 in 318 days
Special Characteristic Points (SCP):
25
Current Primary Assistant Bond:
Shale IronSchist
Dungeon Force (DF):
4000/4000
Dungeon Force Regeneration:
60 per minute
Reward Tier:
4
Control Limit:
1115/1200
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, H%l#?t*^!p%
Variant(s):
All
Trap Specialization(s):
Enchantment, Life, Water
Environmental Access:
Forest, Mountain, Water
Permanent Assistant Sub-bond:
Tacca GloomLily
Special Characteristics:
Access all Variants for available dungeon creatures
All
Decreased Dungeon Force cost for all creatures and traps
40%
Decreased Control Limit for all creatures
60%
Increased Dungeon Force Regeneration
25%
All creatures start with extra Levels
1
Puzzle Traps require less Dungeon Force
33%
Experience for Dungeon Assistants is increased
50%
Frozen Tundra Environmental objects require less Dungeon Force
33%
Jungle Environmental objects require less Dungeon Force
33%
Increased speed of creature creation
35%
Dungeon Assistant Information
Assistant Name:
Tacca GloomLily
Assistant Rank:
Expert
Assistant Stage:
4/5
Experience:
7808/13900
Experience Pending/Countdown:
500750 in 5 years
Fairy Mana (FM):
1500/1550
Fairy Mana Regeneration:
55 per minute
Abilities:
Bond
Instant – Multiple
50+ FM
Omen Charge
Instant – Distance
10+ FM
Translocation
Instant
1000 FM
Blinding Flash
Instant
150 FM
Shattering Icicle
Instant
600 FM
Shared Risk
Automatic
0 FM
Leadership
Sustainable
75 FM per minute
Light Cage
Sustainable
300 FM per minute
Flame Wall
Sustainable
500 FM per minute
Mass Confusion
Sustainable
700 FM per minute
Assistant Information Meld
Sustainable
1 FM per minute
Electrified Pacification
Sustainable
250 FM per minute
Healing Aura
Sustainable
20 FM per minute
Hibernate
Sustainable
1 FM per minute
Invisibility
Sustainable
3 FM per minute
Repellant Shield
Sustainable
2 FM per minute
Locked (11)
Variable
Variable
Dungeon Assistant Information
Assistant Name:
Shale IronSchist
Assistant Rank:
Expert
Assistant Stage:
5/5
Experience:
8623/27800
Experience Pending/Countdown:
757014 in 50 years
Fairy Mana (FM):
20
00/2000
Fairy Mana Regeneration:
80 per minute
Abilities:
Core Bond
Instant
50 FM
Translocation
Instant
70 FM
Forceful Repulse
Instant
400 FM
Mass Ejection
Instant
2000 FM
Energy Transmutation
Instant Transfer
0 FM
Hibernate
Sustainable
1 FM per minute
Electrified Pacification
Sustainable
250 FM per minute
Healing Aura
Sustainable
20 FM per minute
Creature Boost
Sustainable
40 FM per minute
Perception Link
Sustainable
5 FM per minute
Invisibility
The Dungeon Fairy: Three Lives: A Dungeon Core Escapade (The Hapless Dungeon Fairy Book 3) Page 31