“…A larger hoard? I’m no hoarder, believe me, I’ve seen the shows and that certainly isn’t me. I’m just poor, that’s all—or, at least, I was poor; now I have all the money in the world! I’m quite content to keep it all safe right here and live in luxury for the rest of my days. I don’t need any more than this, and I’ll just expand this room if I need more room when I make more.”
Now that Tacca was looking, the Dungeon Core looked dimmer than what she remembered from her brief look at her Mentor’s; it wasn’t nearly as bad as Jeremy’s had been when he practically wiped his Core out of Dungeon Force, but it was dim enough. While the Core was talking, she also saw a slight dip in the glow, and she heard and saw a handful of gold coins appear near her and roll down an already overloaded hill of rewards nearby. This has got to stop; it looks like she’s using everything she’s regenerating over time to create more and more rewards – and probably on nothing else.
“Ok…I can barely understand that reasoning, but what you’re doing isn’t safe. If some Raiders get wind of what you’re doing here, then they won’t stop until they take all of this and destroy you in the process.”
The Dungeon Core laughed at her. “Oh, sweetie, you don’t have to worry about that! Old Darlene is smarter than your average cookie; I removed all of my traps and Panthers months ago from my dungeon and then reduced the ambient lighting so that it looks vacant. You know, so it looks like the lights are out and nobody’s home? I haven’t had more than some quick glances from a few Elves – did you know they have real, actual Elves here? Anyway, other than a few that looked inside a few rooms and then exited, I’ve been left completely alone. It’s like window shopping, dearie; if there’s nothing pretty up front, then there’s no reason to shop in the store.”
You can’t be serious…
This was going from bad to worse…
Chapter 6
Tacca’s head was reeling. “Wait a minute, are you saying you took out all your defenses? No traps or…Panthers, did you say?”
“Absolutely! I used the Force from reabsorbing them to create more treasure in here, because otherwise it was going to waste. It’s all really pretty, don’t you think?”
Darlene – if that was indeed the Core’s name, which she had stated in third person – had to be one of the stupidest, ignorant…whoa there, Tacca – slow down. You can fix this, you can fix this; it’ll take a little time and a lot of persuasion, but it’s not over yet. “Uh…yes, it’s pretty. But what I’m more concerned about is the fact that there is nothing standing in the way from a Thief-type Raider sniffing out the treasure you have inside your dungeon and walking right into your Core Room.”
There was silence and a bit of shock coming from Darlene, before she asked in a much less confident voice than before, “They...can do that?”
“Yes, it’s called Valuation Sense and it’s something that most Thief or Brigand-type Raiders can choose to acquire after they’ve been Raiding a while. I’ve been told that it’s not the most accurate of abilities they possess, but I’m sure it would be more than enough to at least give them a general idea of what’s here.”
“That’s…not good. How come the other Assistant didn’t tell me that?”
“Well, I made it my goal to learn everything about Raiders during my schooling, and it’s quite possible that the other Dungeon Assistant hadn’t retained as much knowledge as I possess. It’s a fairly obscure ability and doesn’t really matter too much to Dungeon Cores, as you all likely don’t care that they can sense how many rewards are in your dungeon; it was an elective course where I learned about it and it wasn’t very popular—”
“Hold on, there’s someone walking into my dungeon entrance. It’s just one guy dressed all in black leather – I would imagine that would chafe something awful – aaaand…it looks like he’s leaving. False alarm—wait, now he’s back with a whole group of his friends all dressed like him. I wish I could understand what they’re saying!”
Without thinking about it for more than half a second, Tacca was off and flying through the dungeon as fast as she could; while Dungeon Cores weren’t born into their current forms knowing any of the languages spoken – even Common Tradespeak – Dungeon Assistants had certainly been taught nearly every language in the world. The only reason Darlene – and Jeremy, for that matter – could understand her even when she spoke out loud was because of the Bond they shared, otherwise it was nearly impossible to communicate effectively. Over time she was told that Dungeon Cores could be taught how to speak Common Tradespeak or even any other language like anyone else, but for some reason it took much longer for them to learn than anyone from her world would.
Tacca didn’t bother to watch out for any traps or creatures, as she sadly believed that Darlene had taken everything dangerous out – and so it proved to be correct. She was flying so fast that she managed to get all the way to the entrance with barely a glance of what she was passing through in less than a minute, which was fortunate because she caught the tail end of an important conversation.
“—know what they said, but even if this is a dead dungeon, I can still sense some loot here. And not just a little that may have been missed when this place was cleaned out, but enough that we could live like kings for the rest of our days—”
“Yeah, sure, Marvus. Something like that being missed is next to impossible, but I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt; you do have a better Valuation Sense than any of us, though who would’ve thought your years of improving the skill would actually come in handy? We’re here already, so we might as well check it out…but if you’re wrong, you’re buying dinner for the next…month, is that a deal?”
Tacca fluttered nearby and saw the one that she had originally heard speak hesitate, and she was silently urging the Human to back out. Unfortunately, instead of backing down, he stood up straighter and puffed his chest out. “I’m not wrong, you’ll see; I’ll take that deal – but only if I get first choice in whatever we find.”
“Fair enough – lead the way.”
Not again… Why can’t I catch a break?
Tacca quickly mentally relayed the conversation back to Darlene in her Core Room, and the Dungeon Assistant was glad that the Bond allowed for communication no matter the distance; she could theoretically be on the other side of the world and they’d still be able speak.
“What do I do?! I’ve always had traps and my Panthers guarding my dungeon before this, but I don’t have anything now! I have enough Dungeon Force to create a single Panther, but I’m not sure what that would do against all seven of them,” Darlene asked in a panic.
“Go ahead and create it and start absorbing your rewards to make some more—”
“B-but it’s my treasure—”
Tacca wasn’t having any of that nonsense. “If you don’t do it, you’re not going to have any treasure left in about a half hour.” She was being generous with that timeline, because as soon as the group that had just entered stopped being careful while checking for traps – which they were initially doing thoroughly and methodically, despite thinking that the dungeon was empty – they would begin to travel through the dungeon much faster.
There was grumbling involved, but the Dungeon Core took her advice and started to absorb large chunks of her rewards; just like what happened with Jeremy, however, Tacca had a feeling that it wouldn’t be in time. It took entirely too much time to absorb anything in a dungeon for Force, which only made sense; it would make it unfair for the Raiders if everything changed while they were inside – and “fairness” was the most important factor that basically ruled everything concerning a dungeon.
If it was impossible to progress further into a dungeon, that was unfair; if traps were unable to be bypassed or deactivated, that was unfair; if you had creatures that had no weaknesses and couldn’t be killed, that was unfair; if there were no rewards for killing creatures or exploring the dungeon, that was unfair; if you killed every Raider that entered your dungeon and didn’t allow any
to leave when they wanted to, that was unfair. Any or all of those things could certainly be done, but the consequences of such an action were dire; again, punishment for those things didn’t come from the DPRC, but from the Raiders themselves.
There were extremely powerful Raiders out there that couldn’t be stopped from getting to nearly any Dungeon Core if they chose to do so. If they decided that a dungeon was being blatantly unfair, they would be sent in to destroy the Core with very few questions asked. There was a singular reason for that, too – additional dungeons in the area wouldn’t appear until there was a “vacancy”. This prevented the land from being overrun with dungeons every couple of hundred feet from each other and destroying an “unproductive” Core would allow another, fairer one to crop up. It was a strange relationship between Dungeon Cores and Raiders that had been around since the beginning, where both sides benefited from each other – as long as everyone was playing by the rules.
The destruction of her Mentor’s Core and his subsequent death was strange, but not entirely uncommon. From what she had overheard, she suspected that some important Raider had hired the others to clear out the dungeon for reasons of their own, but Tacca had no idea what those reasons might be. Maybe they didn’t like Goblins or something – who knows?
The Dungeon Assistant followed the group of what appeared to be Brigand-type Raiders by their outfits, while Darlene informed her of her progress – which wasn’t much. Some of the smaller rewards were able to be converted relatively quickly to Dungeon Force, but the more valuable ones – of which there were quite a few – took more Force to create, and therefore took longer to absorb. Nevertheless, Tacca was impressed at how much the Core was able to accumulate in such a short period of time; it was enough to create another half-dozen Panthers, which joined the first one created in the room just before the Core Room.
Unfortunately, building a trap – even the least complicated and deadly ones – took at least an hour to form, so those were out of the question. It appeared as though the seven black Panthers that blended into the shadowy recesses of the final room was going to be what they had to work with. The large cats were about four feet tall and twice as long, with powerful muscles that allowed them to pounce from quite a long distance away and strike with potent strength behind them – but they were best used in stealthy situations, as they didn’t have a tough exterior for a lengthy fight. Their deadly claws would easily be able to shred the leather armor of the Raiders making their way cautiously through the dungeon, but would quickly fall to the short swords and daggers being wielded by the Brigands.
Fortunately for Darlene and Tacca, the previous Dungeon Assistant had coached the Core well in the tactical construction of the dungeon’s rooms; it was a shame that Darlene had lost her focus and started hoarding rewards, because it was actually a nice set-up. The final room before the Core Room had dozens of small alcoves cleverly hidden in the walls, where the Panthers could hide and pounce from above, and the available space for the Raiders to defend themselves was small – but fair. This meant that they could be surrounded on essentially all sides by holes that may or may not contain a deadly creature ready to pounce on them, which would make it difficult to defend everyone in the group effectively – especially the less-protected members like spell-slingers or healing-types.
With an almost equal number of Raiders and Panthers, however, it was unknown whether even surprise would be enough to dissuade the invaders from progressing further. Tacca felt even worse about their chances as she overheard them talking just before entering the last room.
“Well, Marvus – I have to give it to you; even I can sense the massive treasure nearby, though I wonder if it’s hidden somewhere if it hasn’t been found before now. We may need to head back to town and discreetly pick up some mining equipment, because it’s entirely possible that it might be buried. Regardless, the fact that I can sense it now means that there is something here, and we could get lucky and find it without having to come back.”
“I told you! It also feels to me like it’s really near, so let’s stop all this checking for traps nonsense and go get it! This place is completely empty, and we haven’t seen any sign of anything dangerous yet, and I highly doubt there will be; this place is deserted, which I guess is why this treasure was never found,” the Raider named Marvus said, to which gained support from the others.
The apparent leader was a bit more cautious, though. “I agree, though there could be something protecting the treasure – which is why no one has found it. We can move a little quicker but keep an eye out for anything strange.”
They were carrying two torches for light, which helped to dispel the darkness of the room; the fact that they didn’t even have an Amulet of Illumination between them gave her hope that they weren’t very powerful, but she knew that looks could be deceiving. I guess we’re about to find out.
They walked slowly through the tunnel leading to the room where the Panthers were lying in wait in their alcoves, and the Raiders dispensed with checking for traps – though they kept a lookout for anything out of the ordinary. They entered the room without even pausing, though they were experienced enough that they kept an eye on almost every corner of the room as they passed through. Just after passing through the center of the room, Darlene’s dungeon creatures attacked.
They were all located along the wall above the Raiders’ heads, so none saw them actually emerge; the Panthers’ padded feet were silent as they rushed out of the alcoves and pounced, their claws outstretched to inflict horrendous damage on the unsuspecting invaders. Tacca cheered as they fell through the air, but while they were still descending one of the Brigands noticed one and shouted, “Above!”
The Raiders reacted faster than she would’ve thought; hearing about some of the physical abilities that the Raiders had and seeing them herself were two different things. Half of them managed to raise their short swords up to stab the Panthers as they descended, though they were still bowled over by the sheer weight of the creatures. Two lucky strikes managed to kill an equal number of the large cats immediately with sharp pieces of metal through their hearts, while a third was thoroughly wounded – but still in the fight.
Four of the Panthers struck relatively unopposed with horrendous savagery, knocking down their victims and mauling them with their claws, and one even managed to snap down on one of the Raiders’ necks and tear out their throat with a ferocious growl at the same time. The other three that were being mauled fought back and managed to get in a glancing stab or two before they succumbed to their injuries, but overall the dying Raiders didn’t do much damage to the deadly black cats.
The Raiders fought back with equal violence, as the three surviving Raiders picked themselves up with amazing speed, quickly dispatched the thoroughly wounded Panther before it could strike, and then headed towards the four Panthers that had succeeded in killing their group mates. Now that they were prepared, and the element of surprise had been used – rather effectively – the following fight was a bit more evenly matched.
Two of the Panthers pounced on a single Raider, and though one was stabbed through the heart and killed, the other creature managed to lock its jaws around the Brigand’s head and twisted it; Tacca could hear some wet-sounding pops coming from the Raider as his neck was broken in multiple places. Once that was done, the surviving Panther joined its companions – which hadn’t fared as well.
Marvus – the one that managed to sniff out the treasure in Darlene’s Core Room even from outside the dungeon entrance – got a lucky strike into the Panther aiming for him, stabbing deep into its neck; blood squirted from the wound in a massive spray, but before it got too weak the Panther was able to shred his dark leather jerkin and wound him – though how badly, Tacca couldn’t tell from her position near the ceiling.
The supposed leader of the Raiders was the other still standing, though he got knocked down when the Panther pounced on him. A stab to its gut wounded the creature horribly, but it was still able to
swipe a few times at the Brigand’s chest, tearing through the leather like it was thin paper; it didn’t last long, however, as the leader – in a great show of strength – tossed the Panther, sword and all, away from him.
That was when Darlene’s defender that had snapped the neck of the other Raider arrived in another pounce, landing on the unbalanced and unsuspecting leader and knocking him down again as he tried to get up. A single swipe of a sharp claw-tipped paw was all that it managed to get off before a dagger was shoved into the eye of the Panther and it collapsed on top of the Brigand, before disappearing.
That one swipe, however, was enough to do him in – because it was straight across his throat. The Raider held a hand up to his mortal wound, trying to stem the loss of blood, while also trying to reach a pouch on his waist. Fumbling fingers managed to reach inside and grasp what Tacca immediately identified as a healing potion; if he managed to get the relatively expensive potion to his lips, his neck wound would start to heal, and he might even fully recover.
Meanwhile the Panther that had been stabbed through the gut managed to get up and unsteadily make its way back to the leader – now with the sword completely through its back. It stumbled into the Raider as it collapsed in death, knocking his arm as he tried to bring the glass potion to his mouth to uncork the stopper and the healing potion was knocked from his hand. It went rolling away – miraculously not breaking – only to be stopped underfoot by Marvus.
“Oh, was this yours? You were holding back on us, but I guess I can forgive hiding such a valuable item…especially as you’re sharing it with me. That’s very generous of you,” the upright and obviously only slightly wounded Raider said. He picked up the dark-red-colored healing potion and uncorked it, before drinking it down immediately.
The leader could only look with wild eyes, and gurgles came from his mouth as he tried to speak. “What was that? You wanted to tell me something?” Marvus said as he stretched his chest a little as the wounds he had endured healed themselves rather quickly. “Oh, I know – you wanted to ask me to end your suffering. You’re in luck; since you were so generous with me, I guess I can return the favor.”
The Dungeon Fairy: A Dungeon Core Escapade (The Hapless Dungeon Fairy Book 1) Page 6