“Name’s Jeremy Miller, but I can’t talk – need to dig! I told the other tiny flying thing that I can’t stay – I need to get out!”
The Core seemed to have some sort of irrational fear towards being underground, which, if she heard him—Jeremy—correctly, then the DPRC obviously knew this; his reference to the “other tiny flying thing” was likely another Fairy that had come to be his Assistant probably as he was being formed into his Core. That Council Member sent me here deliberately knowing or at least hoping I would fail. Well, I’ll just have to see what I can do to prove her wrong.
“Jeremy,” she said as calmly as she could while using the Core’s strange name for the first time out loud, “you need to stop tunneling so close to the surface as it will be dangerous for you. You can do all of this from the comfort of your Core Room, and you’ll be better protected from any Raiders—”
“NO! I’m so close that I can almost feel it. The other flying creature mentioned something about Raiders, but I don’t really follow football. Let me ooooout!” Jeremy interrupted Tacca, his coherent thoughts interspersed with screaming to be let out. As crazy as it sounded, it also felt like he was breathing heavily in between screams – despite not having any lungs. “Ever since I was trapped in an elevator when I was five, I can’t stand being in enclosed spaces – help meeeeee! Get me out of here! Aaaaahhhhh!”
Tacca had no idea what an elevator was, but it had clearly traumatized Jeremy as a child. She had been taught that the consciousnesses of all of the Dungeon Cores came from some sort of other dimension, where their original forms had either been wrongfully killed or perished before their time; their rebirth in the form of a Core was supposed to be some sort of “second chance”. No one reportedly knew why or when it first started happening, only that dungeons were around so long that it was quite possible that Cores were present before there were any mortal races in the world.
As time went on, more and more Dungeon Cores sprung up around the world as the population of mortal races increased, though no one could say whether or not there was a direct correlation. All she was taught was that there were so many now that they barely had enough Dungeon Assistant Fairies to go around; that fact was probably the only reason Tacca hadn’t been immediately fired after her disastrous Mentor training, because trained Assistants without a current assignment to a Bonded Core were hard to find. I suppose that’s why the DPRC building was so empty.
Since the Council’s policy was to ensure that all Dungeon Cores have a Bonded Assistant through at least half of their existence, it also explained why she was there. They expected her to fail, but they also probably wanted to ensure their Policies were upheld – they were certainly sticklers for rules and regulations, after all. What should’ve been a joyous occasion for Tacca – bonding with a Dungeon Core was indeed a spiritual experience – was tainted by the knowledge that she was set up to fail…and now she was having serious doubts about whether she would be able to actually succeed in keeping Jeremy alive for much longer.
“Look, I get that you’re scared about being underground, but it will be extremely dangerous out there. Your Core is very fragile, and you’ve done nothing to protect yourself from invaders or placed any rewards to distract them. If they see you so close to the surface, they’ll destroy you – because you’ll likely be thought of as another dungeon creature like the Oozes you have here.” She paused for a moment as she had to ask the question that was bothering her since she first saw the creature in Jeremy’s dungeon. “By the way, why did you choose an Ooze for your initial creature.”
“Aaaahhhh! Let me ooooout! I have no idea. As soon as I saw that I was trapped in a small space, I just started picking things in a panic. Oh, that was a horrible time…but I can feel that the end is near! Help meeeee!”
All Tacca could do was shake her head. He picked one of the most important choices at random? I wonder what else he chose… It was this initial selection process that was so important for Assistants to be nearby for, because newly created and awakened Dungeon Cores couldn’t be trusted to think rationally. It was more than likely that there actually had been a Fairy nearby at the beginning, but when Jeremy freaked out and just started picking things without looking or listening to his Assistant, it was determined that he was a lost cause. I guess that’s what they see me as – a lost cause.
Tacca tried to convince Jeremy to stop, to retreat back down at least a room or two while he kept digging, but nothing seemed to get through to him. The Core eventually started to ignore her completely and didn’t bother to respond; she even asked him to dissolve the Bond so that she could go back to Lily at the DPRC in defeat, but he ignored that as well. Unfortunately, only the Dungeon Core and a special process done by the Council could release her from the Bond, though it wasn’t necessarily restrictive; she could leave at any time and distance wasn’t an issue, but while she was Bonded to one dungeon she couldn’t Bond to another.
All she could do at that point was wait and see if he snapped out of his crazed state.
Chapter 4
It was less than 20 minutes later when Jeremy started to frantically eat away at the tunnel and his Core’s glow started to fade as he expended nearly every drop of Dungeon Force he currently possessed in his efforts to get outside. Of course, Tacca tried to warn him of the danger, but he was too involved to listen to her. She wasn’t sure if it was a good thing or not when he finally broke through to the surface and sunlight shone through the hole he made. His glow stabilized and started to gradually brighten over the next few minutes as his incessant digging came to a stop, and even the mental assault calmed down.
“There it is! I did it! I’m free! I feel much better now…” Tacca swore she heard him sigh in pleasure at the sight of the sun beaming down and slightly into the entrance he had just made.
“Ok, so now that you’ve seen it, can we get you back to the Core Room and start protecting your dungeon?”
“Dungeon? Is that where I am? Better question: what am I and what are you? The last thing I remember was crossing the street and then the sound of a car horn next to me and…then all I remember is panicking about being trapped underground. The rest of everything is a little fuzzy…”
Jeremy sounded extremely confused, as if the last few days – or perhaps weeks – of digging was a blurry dream. Tacca couldn’t even imagine not being in control of herself like he evidently had been, and she felt a little sorry for wanting to break her Bond with him. He had been just so scared that he couldn’t do anything other than open up his dungeon, and now that he had done so he was sounding…normal. Maybe this will work out after all—
The sound of dirt falling near the entrance made her look questionably at Jeremy, but she only sensed more confusion from him. She peered through the tunnel leading to the entrance and saw something that made her start to get concerned.
“Jeremy, transport yourself down below! Have your Oozes get ready for a fight, because there are Raiders widening the entrance. Do you remember if you placed any traps?”
“Huh, what? Is there a football team here? And what do you mean by Oozes—oh, is that what these disgusting things are?”
Now she was starting to panic; Jeremy was sounding just like how a newborn Core would after it was created – at least from what she had been taught. “Ok, ignore everything except for accessing your Dungeon Core Module and using your Dungeon Force to transport yourself down into your last Core Room before the Raiders get here. You should be able to bring up your dungeon map—”
“Ok, I see that. Hey, this kind of reminds me of a video game! I’m selecting my…what did you call it? Oh yeah, ‘Core Room’, and activating the Teleport function…”
Nothing happened. “Did you pick the right option?”
“Yes, I’m pretty sure—oh, here it is. This little thing that popped up says that I have ‘Insufficient Dungeon Force’. What is that?”
“Uh…that’s not good, is what that is. You must’ve used nearly everything you had
in your digging to the surface and don’t have enough yet. Fortunately, directing your Ooze creatures don’t require any Force, so order them all to come up to this room; perhaps we can scare the invaders off before they can get to you.” I can’t believe this is happening; just as I thought this might work out, this happens.
“Ok, doing that now…why are they so slow? Who in their right mind would create something so disgusting and lethargic in their movements? Is there anything else in here that can help?”
Tacca didn’t bother to explain that Jeremy himself had chosen them for his initial defensive creature. “Yeah, there’s nothing else, and I doubt you’ve been here long enough to obtain any other Improvements – so these are what you have to work with.” The Dungeon Assistant flew down the tunnel to the other rooms and saw for herself what he was talking about; if they were lucky, perhaps one of the larger Oozes from the second room might make it to help defend in time. In fact, they seemed extraordinarily slow…
“Quick question – what does your Ooze Variant say?”
“Ooze Variant? What does that mean? Hold on, I think I saw that somewhere…here it is! It says Earthen Sludge…whatever that is.”
That would explain why they were so slow. The Earthen Sludge Variant of an Ooze was slow-moving but extremely powerful; it was highly resistant to fire-based spells and attacks (which were usually an Ooze’s bane), and once it managed to grab on to something it was extremely difficult to remove. The “earthen” quality of the Ooze would attempt to squeeze and crush whatever it enveloped, and it also had a slight acidity to it, which would break down most metals – though the speed of that happening depended on how large and powerful the Ooze was.
It turned out that she was mistaken regarding the Ooze from the second room – and not in a positive way. The entrance tunnel was widened and even more of the outside world was exposed faster than she expected, and the next thing she knew there were some Raiders already entering. She saw a Dwarf, a Human, an Orc, and an Elf – an unusual combination of races, but not unheard of working together – cautiously enter, using an Amulet of Illumination to light up the relatively dark tunnel.
“I told you there was another dungeon around here. But no, you didn’t believe me; just goes to show you that I know what I’m talking about—” the human male began to say in Common Tradespeak.
The Elven woman cut him off using the same language. “I wouldn’t necessarily say that; you were wrong about so many of the ones before, so I’d just say you’re lucky this time. Being right one out of fifty times doesn’t indicate that you know what you’re talking about.”
“Ok, you two; shut up and let me take a look at what we have here.” Putting actions to his words, the Dwarf – who was carrying a shield almost as large as he was – stepped forward and cautiously entered the room with the Amulet of Illumination around his neck, lighting the way for them all.
“This isn’t good, Jeremy – you need to have the Oozes you have here in the room attack them to dissuade them from moving any closer; they’re going to destroy you if you don’t get them moving!” Tacca used her mental communication with the Core for the first time since she had Bonded with him. She had also turned her Invisibility back on as soon as she saw the Raiders coming in, but the Dungeon Core couldn’t really hide; he was still floating in the middle of the room, glowing brighter and brighter by the minute, but still largely defenseless.
“I already sent them to attack, but they’re taking so long to move – is there anything else I can do?”
The Dungeon Assistant Fairy quickly thought about what he would likely have available, but immediately determined that he was basically out of options. Being a new Dungeon Core meant that he had limited choices in his defenses; he had his Oozes, of course, and likely some deadly traps to choose from, but they were useless at the moment for a few reasons. For one, they required more Dungeon Force than he obviously had at the moment; two, producing more creatures or traps took a little time – they weren’t instantaneous; and three, changing anything inside a room where there were Raiders (whether it was structural, trap-based, or creature design) was not only forbidden by the rules, but essentially impossible to do anyway using the Dungeon Core Module.
“You’re out of time to do anything else, though if you start absorbing your other Oozes in the rooms farther down you might eventually acquire enough Dungeon Force to Transport yourself below,” Tacca said reluctantly.
“Why didn’t you say so! What kind of assistant are you if you forgot to tell me that?”
The Dungeon Assistant Fairy hadn’t forgotten to tell Jeremy about that at all, but it probably wouldn’t do much good. While he would receive the same amount of Dungeon Force that had been spent on the creatures’ production, the process of reabsorbing them for Force also took time – which they didn’t really have enough of. Normally, having to wait a couple of hours for that wasn’t a big deal, as change tended to happen slowly inside of a dungeon; in the current instance, however, they didn’t have a couple of hours…it was more like minutes. Even if Jeremy managed to get enough force, though, he had to move before Raiders stepped a single foot in the first room – because it was impossible to Teleport out from a room they were in.
“Oozes! Eareth – you’re up! My axe will do absolutely nothing to these things; we need your spells to wipe them out so we can go further in—what is that?!” the Dwarf exclaimed when he saw Jeremy floating in the middle of the room.
The Orc came up behind the Dwarf, and she peered at the glowing crystalline rock. “It looks like a Core, but why would it be here? I can see a tunnel leading down into the dungeon on the opposite side of the room, so this can’t be the final room.”
“I have no idea either, but everyone stay back – it might be a new type of trap. Let me kill these Oozes and then we’ll deal with that thing.” The Elf—Eareth, apparently—pushed to the front of the others and raised her hands in front of her; a small ball of condensed flames formed between her palms, growing larger by the second until it was the size of her head. The entire process took about ten seconds and as the Elf released the Fireball spell, Tacca held her breath from across the room, hidden up near the ceiling.
All of Jeremy’s creatures were slowly approaching the Raiders, but there was one that was closer than all of them. It was this one that was targeted first, and the ball of flames hit the Earthen Sludge Ooze with force, flattening it with a minor flare of flames upon impact. When the fire disappeared a few moments later, Tacca could see that the creature was slightly smaller and there were burn marks over the top of the Ooze – but otherwise it was alright. Yes! This could work out after all—
“That should’ve worked; this must be a different kind other than what I’ve seen before. I wonder…” Eareth trailed off as she clearly considered Jeremy’s creatures – which were steadily getting closer and blocking off access to his Core.
“Stop wondering and do something, because otherwise we’ll have to retreat and pick up some potions in town to deal with these,” the Human said, backing up a little as the closest Ooze was only about 5 feet from the room’s entrance.
“Excellent! If they are forced to leave, then we’ll have time to get you somewhere safe and throw up some more defenses to prevent them from coming any closer.”
Before Jeremy could answer, the Elf said, “Ok, I think this might work – step back and brace yourselves.” As the others stepped back from the entrance of the room and retreated a little back down the tunnel, Eareth raised her hands above her head and for a moment and mimed grasping something while she closed her eyes; a few seconds later, she abruptly brought her arms down as her eyelids shot open…and a powerful gust of wind shot down the entrance tunnel from outside.
The others were crouched down and holding themselves steady against the sides of the tunnel, though the Human was almost bowled over by the initial gust; the Elf, as opposed to the others, was completely unaffected by the wind other than a small rustling of her dark-green-colored rob
e. As the wind passed by her, she raised her arms in front of her again and seemed to catch it in between her hands; Tacca could see that she was straining to keep it contained as it condensed together, solidifying enough that it turned into a barely visible spherical maelstrom of violent harnessed air.
Oh, no – I think that’s a Windblade Explosion spell—
“Jeremy, get out of there – keep trying to Teleport!” She had a feeling that it was probably already too late, but she had to at least try to warn him. There was nothing that Tacca could do to stop the inevitable, and she knew that even she was in danger if she stayed in the room; as a result, she fluttered down and into the tunnel leading farther down Jeremy’s dungeon, stopping until she was fairly confident she was far enough away to be safe.
“I’ve been trying, but I still don’t have enough yet. Why are you so worried? My Oozes are almost touching that exotic-looking woman with the pointy ears…wait a minute, don’t tell me that’s an Elf—”
As part of Tacca’s schooling, not only did she have to learn everything about how a dungeon was created, including all of the possible traps and creatures that were available to a Core, but she also had to learn what they would be up against. Weapons, enchantments, and – of course – spells were at the top of the list, which was the only reason why she knew they were in trouble. She was taught that the Windblade Explosion spell was extremely powerful, though very draining on the Raiders that cast it unless they were extraordinarily strong; she was proven right as the Elf released the spell when the lead Ooze was only inches away from reaching her and she collapsed backwards as her eyes rolled up in her head
The Dungeon Fairy: A Dungeon Core Escapade (The Hapless Dungeon Fairy Book 1) Page 4