How did she even know I was coming? She immediately felt foolish at her questioning thought; it should’ve been obvious that someone from DAPS must’ve Translocated there with her file as soon as it was determined that she was going to the DPRC.
She followed the other Fairy down a fairly tight hallway, which shortly led to an even smaller office than the one used by Head Instructor Lapis. The DPRC representative flew over and sat down behind a large desk that took up most of the room, before pointing at a stool in front of the desk.
“Let me introduce myself. My name is Lily MageDaisy and I’m the Lead Placement Council Member here—”
“Ooh, Lily was my mother’s name!” she exclaimed, before shrinking back down on the stool from the dangerous look coming from the other Fairy.
“I’m well aware of that, Tacca GloomLily, and if you want to live to have children of your own someday I suggest you don’t interrupt me again.”
Tacca somehow shrunk even further down in her stool so that she was basically bent in half, and the look and tone of Lead Placement Council Member Lily made her want to shrink down even more. There was so much power and authority inside her aged frame that her presence was extremely intimidating. Just shut your mouth and don’t do anything else to cause her to dislike you any more than she obviously does.
“Anyway, as I was saying – before you so rudely interrupted me – is that I’m the Lead Placement Council Member here, and I normally deal with placing Dungeon Assistants with quite a bit more…seniority. However, after being informed of your…unique…circumstances, I had to take care of this myself,” the much older Fairy continued. “I’m assuming you aren’t too sheltered not to know about your portentous origins, yes?”
There was no reason to fake understanding, since that almost certainly wouldn’t go over well. “Yes, I’m quite aware.”
“Well then, that will make this much easier. There isn’t anything in your file about how your Mentor training went other than it was completed; would you care to expound on that?”
Tacca had been fervently trying to forget what happened through her entire flight there, so she was reluctant to share her experience; plus, Head Instructor Lapis distinctly stressed that it wouldn’t be a great idea telling anyone what had actually happened, though it was more for his School’s benefit than hers. Still, she thought it was probably prudent not to mention it unless she was expressly ordered to. “It was…an experience, that’s for sure,” was all she said, though she was prepared to provide more detail if she was pressed.
Lead Placement Council Member Lily apparently didn’t care to dig too deep. “That’s fine, it doesn’t really matter anyway. Your test scores are quite impressive, which works perfectly for my needs; having a Fairy that can think on her feet and use her smarts to provide Assistance to a Core is essential to success. Luckily for you, I have just the Core in need of your particular skills. I’m not going to lie and say it won’t be a challenge, but I’m sure you’ll be fine,” she said, her smile mirroring the same disingenuous one she had just recently seen on the Head Instructor’s face.
Before Tacca could request any more information about her assignment, she was mentally sent the visual for where she was supposed to go – and then ushered quickly out of the room and hallway to the waiting room she had briefly sat down in when she first arrived. There was a hollow thud behind her as the panel hiding the passageway to Lily’s office was shut, and even knowing exactly where it was the entrance was very difficult to see when she looked for it.
She stood there with her head spinning from the abrupt meeting and subsequent dismissal; after a few minutes of her mind coming to terms with what just occurred, she finally spread her wings and flew out of the garish waiting room. When she was in the open air, Tacca looked around and still didn’t see anyone nearby, which seemed strange for such an important place. I guess new Assistants don’t arrive very often needing placements.
Regardless of the reason why the DPRC headquarters was so empty, the newly placed Dungeon Assistant knew she needed some sleep before she reported for her assignment. Peering down the mountain in the dusky light of impending night, she saw a narrow valley filled with grass and what appeared to be flowers; nothing made a better place to sleep than the petals of almost any flower. Tacca zipped down the mountainside, feeling her eyelids start to droop as the day caught up with her.
Within minutes, she was close enough to see that there were indeed flowers in the peaceful-looking valley, and that they were giant lilies 20 inches across from petal to petal – thousands of her mother’s namesake in a myriad of different colors. Maybe this is a sign that things are about to change for the better…
Gently setting down on the nearest white-colored lily with hints of pink, she lay down and curled up around the stamen and stigma in the center of the flower, as the petals naturally rose up around her, keeping her safe and comfortable. It didn’t take long for her to fall asleep, despite the horrendous memories of her Mentor and his Dungeon Core flitting through her mind as she closed her eyes.
Chapter 3
A nightmare caused Tacca to jerk awake with a scream on her lips. As she calmed her rapidly beating heart, the petals of the giant lily folded down and the Fairy was surprised as she couldn’t help but notice that the sky was starting to lighten. I don’t think I’ve slept that long in…well, ever. Normally she only needed an hour or two of sleep, but apparently her body and mind needed at least eight or nine to recover from the ordeal she had gone through.
Shaking off the disturbing dreams of the previous day’s events, she stood up on the lily’s petals and stretched, emitting a happy yawn at the same time. “This is the start of a new phase in my life; I’m finally getting my own Dungeon Core!” she shouted to the field of lilies around her in semi-false joy; she really was looking forward to meeting her new Core, though the feeling of joy she knew she should feel was tempered by the memories of her Mentor. Regardless, she knew that it was a new day, and in turn it was a new stage in her life.
A quick flutter of her wings brought Tacca safely up above the valley, and without further delay she activated her Translocation ability while thinking of the odd image she was given by the Lead Placement Council Member the day before. Unlike the large and fairly uniform Core Room where she had Translocated to meet her Mentor, the new one was a lot smaller and had stone and dirt walls that were cut in odd angles. I’m sure I’ll find out what that’s all about soon.
Fairy Mana drained out of her body as she felt the Ability activate, and a quick eternity later she was inside a comparatively dark space – at least relative to the last Core Room she had been in the day before. Tacca looked around, expecting to see a Dungeon Core…but there was nothing there. Oh, no – did this one get destroyed before I even got here?
She dismissed the thought, however, as she could tell that there was still a Core around; the walls of the room she was in had a faint ambient glow to them, though it was turned down to the lowest setting that a Core could dictate. It cost a bit of extra Dungeon Force to do so, which was why it wasn’t recommended that low lighting be used – at least, that’s what all her schooling said. It was much more cost-effective to leave the ambient illumination alone or even increase it, saving some Force in the process, as it was easy enough for Raiders to bring a way to see in the dark with them. Torches, Amulets of Illumination, and even Darkvision Enchantments on their gear were almost standard, so in general it was considered a giant waste of Force.
Tacca shook her head and spoke out loud, while hovering in the middle of the air with her hands on her hips. “It looks like there’s a lot I need to teach this Dungeon Core about Dungeon Force conservation and streamlining the construction process—”
A presence near her interrupted her vocal thoughts, and she instinctively activated her Repellant Shield Ability. Tacca felt an invisible bubble surround her as a portion of her regenerating Fairy Mana was siphoned off to maintain it; I should know better than to arrive in a new du
ngeon without my defenses in place.
She turned around mid-air and saw that she was just in time; a long tentacle coming from a nasty brown-grey ooze was reaching out for her and stopped only inches away. The Repellant Shield was the easiest way for a Dungeon Assistant Fairy to avoid being killed by a dungeon’s creatures, as it repelled them and caused them to lose interest in attacking. Sure enough, as soon as her Shield was activated, the long “arm” of the slimy ooze retracted and sunk back into its form.
Great – the Dungeon Core chose “Ooze” as its initial creature. Oozes weren’t the best choice for a new dungeon; while the shapeless blobs of deadly, viscous, and semi-fluid creatures were quite effective when used in conjunction with other hazards, by themselves – and as the only creature in a dungeon – they weren’t a great choice to start out with. For one, they moved rather slowly, and therefore were easy to avoid unless the dungeon’s rooms were specifically built around their placement. Second, they were excellent Raider killers when they were large enough to completely engulf a victim and were difficult to destroy, but it usually required a lot of Dungeon Force to create something like that. In their smaller forms – such as the one settled on the ground like a pool of mucky water – they could eat away at metal, cloth, and flesh effectively, though at a much slower rate.
An Ooze wasn’t the worst choice for a new Core’s initial creature – she’d have to place the immobile non-poisonous demi-Fungi at the top of the “Worst” list – but it was definitely going to be a challenge to Assist her Core in creating something that would be effective in killing Raiders. With the extra expense of Dungeon Force in having darkened rooms, as well as the Oozes as a creature to work with, Tacca had her work cut out for her.
She reasoned that the Dungeon Core had moved its Core Room further down the dungeon, which was the smartest thing she’d seen so far. Protecting the vulnerable Core by placing deadly rooms with traps and creatures was the whole point of having a dungeon, after all, which made it all that much more important to make it as hard to get to it as possible.
Before she moved away from where she appeared, Tacca activated her Invisibility, which – combined with her Repellant Shield – consumed all of the Fairy Mana that was regenerating every minute; as she increased in Rank Stages, she knew her maximum Fairy Mana and regeneration rate would also improve, so it would hopefully only be temporary. As she felt the Ability flow over her body, making her invisible to the traps that could potentially activate as she passed by, she felt much safer exploring and looking for the Dungeon Core. She could still be hurt if she wasn’t careful, but now no creatures should automatically attack, and traps would essentially ignore her.
The Dungeon Assistant Preparatory School – for all of its faults when it came to dealing with her – was actually a great place to learn everything there could be taught about dungeons. One particularly useful training she and the other students had participated in was navigating through a mock dungeon; the dangers were illusionary and made from Fairy Mana, of course, but it also allowed them to practice traveling through a potentially unsafe dungeon system. There were multiple tidbits of knowledge that went along with that exploration, but one that came in handy in the present circumstances was being able to tell which way to go when trying to find the end of the dungeon.
Looking for the signs along the walls, as well as the tunnels linked to the two different entrances to the small room she was in, she could immediately tell the direction the Core had constructed the dungeon by a few subtle details. Confident in her assertion, she followed the tunnel that led deeper down into the unknown Core’s Ooze dungeon.
She saw a few more Oozes in the rooms she passed through, but they weren’t varied; nor were the rooms, for that matter – they appeared to be constructed in almost exactly the same way, with dark ambient illumination and strange angles cut into the walls of the similarly sized spaces. After passing through six rooms, she began to question her assumption that she knew the way down further, despite the obvious downward slope to the tunnels. Where is that Core?
Finally, after counting past ten rooms, she arrived at the eleventh and emerged into a much larger space; it was at least five times the size of the others and it had relatively smooth stone walls, a tall ceiling, and multiple places where she could just imagine traps being placed to effectively protect a Dungeon Core. Now this is what I call a Core Room.
Except…there was no Core.
What is going on here? Tacca flew up close to the walls, using her better-than-average Fairy vision to search for any hidden crevices, tunnels, or secret compartments where a potentially paranoid Dungeon Core might be hiding, but after nearly a half-hour of searching she found absolutely nothing. To put it shortly, she was thoroughly confused; to her, this was obviously the final room in the dungeon and should theoretically be the Core Room, but it was missing the Core.
The only other explanation she could think of was that this was the original Core Room and that – for some inexplicable reason – the Core had gone up instead of down, where it was safer. As soon as that thought crossed her mind, she immediately turned towards the exit tunnel and shot back up through the rooms she had passed on the way there, not even bothering to be cautious anymore about potential traps since she was invisible. Tacca quickly passed the room she arrived in and kept going, searching for the Core; she tore through an additional 5 small identical rooms before she finally saw a glowing light coming from ahead.
Slowing down, she emerged into another familiar room, only to see the softly glowing Dungeon Core floating in the middle of the room, surrounded on all sides by tiny Oozes that were frantically undulating around in strange patterns along the floor. On the far side of the small room, the dirt and rock was being eaten away as a new tunnel was being constructed as she watched.
Tacca dropped her invisibility so that the Dungeon Core could see her, though she kept her Repellant Shield on so that she wouldn’t inadvertently get attacked by the dozen Oozes below her. “What are you doing?!” she practically screamed out in shock. This was such anti-typical behavior for a Dungeon Core – or so she had been taught – that she barely knew how to react.
She somehow felt the Core’s attention focus on her, and she shivered at the intense sensation as an overwhelming feeling of dread and fear fell over her mind. It couldn’t directly communicate with her using any type of understandable language unless they were bonded, but it could transmit emotions – and for some reason this Dungeon Core was scared out of its mind. Pulling up her Dungeon Assistant Information (DAI), Tacca saw that she hadn’t yet regenerated enough Fairy Mana to use her Core Bond, but it was slowly going up now that she had turned off her Invisibility; she needed to Bond with the Core as soon as she could to find out what was going on, as well as stopping it from breaking through to the surface while it was nearby – instead of safely down below in a defended Core Room.
When she didn’t do anything else – because she was waiting for her Fairy Mana to come back – the attention of the Core turned away from her again and she breathed a sigh of relief as the emotional assault stopped. After a few more minutes, she finally obtained enough to perform the Core Bond – and so she could get to the bottom of what was going on.
“I need to form a Bond with you so that we can communicate with each other—” she said slowly as she fluttered forward, before she stopped mid-flight as another wave of pure terror flowed over her. Fortunately, it didn’t last long, and she felt the Core’s attention turn away from her within seconds – which hinted that the fear it was experiencing wasn’t caused by her but was from something else entirely.
The Core didn’t react as she continued her short flight towards it, before placing her hand on the top of its glowing gem-like form. Tacca marveled at how warm it felt – as she was never taught that kind of information – and she briefly wondered what else she hadn’t been taught while at DAPS. Forget about that for the moment; it’s time to do what you’ve been training for most of your life. It’
s time to Assist a Dungeon Core.
After activating her Core Bond Ability, she felt the Fairy Mana being pulled from her body and given form; a thick dark-black and bright-white (which reminded Tacca of her appearance a little) cord formed between her chest and sunk into the Dungeon Core, disappearing somewhere inside of its glowing form. The cord floated between them for approximately a minute before it suddenly flashed brightly once and then faded away. As soon as it completely disappeared, she could feel the Bond complete and was aware of someone else in her mind – which was quickly made obvious as she held her head between her hands because of the incessant mumbling and screaming that she couldn’t block out.
“Aaahhhh! Let me out! Let me ooooooout! I can’t take iiiiitttt! Need to dig, need to dig, need to dig… Aaaahhhh! Let me oooooout!”
Now that they had a Bond between them, the Dungeon Assistant and the Dungeon Core could communicate and understand each other – though now Tacca wished that wasn’t the case as she tried to talk to the freaking-out Core. “Slow down and stop screaming for a moment – it’s going to be okay,” she said, trying to be as calm as possible. “I’m here to help you, but you have to tell me: what’s going on and why are you doing this?”
The Core paused its internal monologue long enough to quickly answer her in a male-sounding voice. “I have to get out of here. Won’t stop, need to keep digging until I’m free. I can’t deal with enclosed spaces. Aaaaahhhhh! Let me oooooout!”
Tacca could tell that she wasn’t getting anywhere with that, so she started with something a little simpler. “Ok, then…my name is Tacca and I’m your Dungeon Assistant Fairy, here to help you. What is your name?” The Core hadn’t stopped his tunneling yet even while he was communicating with her, so she was trying to establish some sort of rapport with him to get him to stop what he was doing. Tunneling was fine, but if he were to break through to the surface without any type of defenses in place, he could be destroyed within minutes; Raiders had the ability to locate new dungeons as they were getting close to breaking out of the ground, and it was entirely possible there was a group nearby that would invade immediately.
The Dungeon Fairy: A Dungeon Core Escapade (The Hapless Dungeon Fairy Book 1) Page 3