The Dungeon Fairy: A Dungeon Core Escapade (The Hapless Dungeon Fairy Book 1)

by Jonathan Brooks

  He looked up from his fall to see the injured fox racing awkwardly towards him, so he scrambled up on both knees and rose enough to swing his sword with his right hand like he had just a moment ago, though this time he made sure the sharp part of the weapon was facing towards the fox. Through some miracle, he managed to hit the fox in the air as it leapt towards him and he felt the blade slide deep into its side; he was unprepared for his success, though, and despite the light weight of the fox’s body, its momentum caused his sword to be yanked from his hand as it was knocked off to his left.

  “Sterge, get down!” Gwenda cried from behind him, so without questioning he awkwardly flopped down on his side. He managed to glance above him as he fell to see the first brown beast sailing over where his body just was, before it was hit in midair by a small streak of something bright and blue. Whatever hit the fox hit it with enough force to send it flying off into a nearby bush where it disappeared from sight.

  Sterge sighed in relief before remembering the other creature that had ripped the sword out of his hand. He quickly looked around for it just as it crawled the last few inches – his sword still stuck halfway into it – to chomp down on his left calf. He felt a little spike of pain from the force of the bite, but it didn’t actually pierce through the tough leather pants he was wearing. He immediately kicked it away and the fox tore a chunk of his armor with its teeth in the process; when it landed a few feet away, the beast landed partly on the shortsword and sent the blade further inside of its body. A moment later, the tough-furred creature twitched once and then seemed to melt away, leaving his sword to fall in the dirt alone.

  The rustling of bushes on his opposite side made him look over to where the other fox had been thrown, and he saw it emerge looking a bit worse for wear but still alive. Before it could take more than a few steps in their direction, he saw Gwenda raise her wooden stick up and point it towards the beast; less than a second later, a bright flash of blue seemed to shoot out the end of the stick and smash into the fox, which got launched backwards into the edge of the bush it just walked out from behind. As soon as it hit, the fox disappeared as it was killed by whatever it was that his best friend had done.

  Sterge saw Gwenda sag a bit and lean on her…staff…and he worried that she had been hurt; before he could ask, the soft sound of metal clinking together caught his attention from where the last brown beast had been slain. As he picked himself up and walked over to where it had disappeared, he found two shiny copper coins sitting in the dirt.

  “I guess that proves that this is a dungeon,” Gwenda said tiredly as she watched him pick them up and inspect the coins. “I don’t know much about dungeons in general, of course, but I can’t think of any other beasts disappearing and leaving behind coins when they’re killed.”

  His fascination with the coins forgotten when he heard her voice, Sterge rushed over to Gwenda’s side. “Are you alright? Are you hurt? What was it that you did there?” he asked in a rush.

  “Yes, I’m fine – just a little drained. As a Caster, I can use the…magic energy…inside of me to cast spells like that Magistrike you just saw; when I chose this Class, the knowledge of how to produce that spell – as well as one other – entered my mind,” she explained. “What it didn’t tell me, however, was that casting those in quick succession would tire me out so much. I’m assuming that when I get stronger I can cast more and even stronger spells before getting tired, but this is all I can do for now.”

  What she said didn’t really penetrate Sterge’s mind until he walked over to grab his sword and found another two copper coins in the dirt. “Wait…that sounds like you’re planning on continuing with this whole Raider thing after we get our reward,” he said as he turned around and looked at his best friend. The sheepish look was on Gwenda’s face again and Sterge knew he was right.

  “Well…didn’t you feel the small surge of Power when those…things…died? It was like nothing I’ve ever felt before,” she said with a dreamy-sounding tone to her voice.

  When Sterge thought back to the frantic fight, he had to admit that he did recall some sort of energizing influx of…something…that ran through him, but he had been too concerned with making sure Gwenda wasn’t hurt to really pay attention to it. Some sort of intuition caused him to purposefully open the strange notification in his mind again – while at the same time being thankful that it hadn’t randomly shown up during the battle to distract him.

  Raider Status

  Name:

  Sterge Stonewell

  Class:

  Melee

  Raider Level:

  1

  Power:

  2/100

  Physical Attack:

  1 (3)

  Physical Defense:

  1 (3)

  Ranged Attack:

  0

  Ranged Defense:

  1

  Magical Attack:

  0

  Magical Defense:

  1

  Resistances:

  Physical 1

  Mental 1

  Earth 1

  Fire 0

  Water 0

  Air 0

  Nature 0

  Life 0

  Death 0

  Skills:

  Blade 1 (2%)

  Blunt 1 (0%)

  Two-handed 1 (0%)

  Block 1 (1%)

  Light Armor 1 (1%)

  Heavy Armor 1 (0%)

  Abilities:

  None

  “Huh…I’m guessing I received two ‘Power’ for killing those two brown foxes. I wonder if that’s what we felt afterward?” Sterge asked, acknowledging that he did feel what Gwenda had at the same time. He also noticed that some of his skills had increased by either 1% or 2%, though what that actually meant was anyone’s guess.

  “Probably. I see the exact same thing on my Status; I’m assuming that when we reach 100 Power we might increase our Raider Level. Of course, I’m not sure what that would do…though I have to admit that I’m eager to find out,” Gwenda said with a smile. She was standing up straight again and the previous exhaustion that had overtaken her seemed to have completely disappeared.

  “So…I’m guessing that means you want to keep going? From what little I know about dungeons and the beasts that inhabit them these things will only get stronger the farther we travel down them. I’m not sure I can handle killing another…uh…90-something of those foxes in order to see what Raider Level 2 is all about.”

  She shook her head. “No, I don’t mean today, I mean eventually. We don’t have to rush this, especially as this is our first dungeon…but yes, I would like to keep going if you’re up to it.”

  Sterge wasn’t seriously hurt – though he thought he might have a bruise later where that fox bit him – so he didn’t really have a major reason for stopping. If that’s what she wants, then I think we can venture in a little more. “Fine, but at the first sign of serious danger, we’re turning back and fleeing. We can maybe come back later when we’re a bit better prepared; though, I want to make sure we report this place to get our reward. The last thing we need is for someone else to find it and claim the reward ahead of us.”

  “Fair enough…now onward, my fair protector!” Gwenda said, pointing towards the far exit with her stick.

  He chuckled as he obeyed his best friend by walking down the flower-strewn pathway cautiously, and he made sure to stay away from where she was pointing her wooden weapon. I’m not sure I want to get hit by one of those “Magistrike” spells – they look like they hurt. He laughed internally as he considered how much of a difference a day could make; just yesterday, the biggest threat to his livelihood was a bunch of rabbits eating their produce in their fields. Today, however, he was fighting brown foxes with bark-like fur that wanted to bite and scratch him to death.

  Quite the change of pace, I must say. Sterge never imagined he’d be doing something like this, but he had to admit that he kind of liked it – at least for a side job. He had his fields and lives
tock to take care of, after all…

  Chapter 22

  Tacca was fully aware she slipped up again when Shale relayed what the two Hill Dwarves were talking about outside of her dungeon. She had been distracted at the time because she had heard it all as she observed them from the entrance, and she wasn’t thinking straight; the former Dungeon Assistant had remembered too late that she shouldn’t be able to understand Common Tradespeak as a new Core. Regardless, she tried to move on as if nothing had happened and Shale hadn’t brought it up, so she concentrated on the two Raiders entering her dungeon.

  Though, “Raiders” might not be the right word for them; even though they were Hill Dwarves and their height was normal to them, to Tacca they still looked like children who had put on their parents’ mismatched clothing and armor to play around in. It was obvious even before seeing them almost get hurt from her two Root Foxes near the entrance that they were as brand-new as could be. Especially when the male one in leather ineffectually used the flat of his sword blade to knock one of her creatures off the female caster-type, and then lost his weapon completely when it attacked again.

  The robe-wearing Hill Dwarf seemed more capable to Tacca, at least, though if the caster’s spell-casting energy was drained after only two spells, then that meant that they were extremely raw at their profession. From what she had learned, most Raiders went through at least some sort of training before they even attempted to invade a dungeon; what exactly that entailed, no one at DAPS had known, however. From what she overheard them saying after the fight only confirmed that they were woefully unprepared for what they were doing.

  Not only that, but she also learned that those two were the only ones that even knew she existed. They had mentioned that someone would probably come along and find her dungeon eventually, but what length of time that might be was a mystery. What wasn’t a mystery, though, was the fact that she couldn’t allow these two to die; she needed to get word out about her presence and keeping them alive would be the easiest way to do that.

  All of which meant that she had to make a couple of…alterations. Nothing too great, of course, because she didn’t want it to seem too easy, but enough that they hopefully wouldn’t get killed within the first few minutes. Ideally, she’d love for them to be inside her dungeon for at least an hour, because that meant she would receive 1 Core Improvement Point; it was cumulative, fortunately, meaning that if they spent 59 minutes inside and then left, the next person to step inside for at least a minute would bump it up to an hour. When that would actually be she didn’t know, so she’d rather get at least a single Point out of their presence there than nothing at all. At least it doesn’t matter that there are only 2 of them; at their obviously low strength, the number of Points I would receive from them would only matter if there were a dozen or more in their group. Then again, with my 95% reduction of CIPs, I doubt even that would make a difference.

  The reason she needed to tone down the deadliness of her dungeon was for one particular reason: it was made for a full group of at least five Raiders. While it would still be dangerous and extremely challenging for even that full group if they were just starting out – like these two Hill Dwarves obviously were – she thought that it was still fair enough to be considered a good place to invade.

  Fortunately, there were only the two deliberately deadly traps she had in her dungeon – the Spiked Pit Traps – so she immediately started to absorb them; the traps were in the fifth room but judging on how slow the Hill Dwarf Raiders were progressing, the deadly obstacles would disappear before they arrived – if they even ventured that far. Tacca doubted either of the two would survive the fall, let alone being impaled on spikes, so they had to go – but she left all of the others.

  She also reduced the number of creatures in all but the final boss room; if they pushed on all the way to there and refused to turn back, then she wasn’t going to stop them – but she made sure her creatures were visible in that room, so they’d know what they were going up against.

  With those changes, she thought that the two Raiders would probably survive, unless they were extraordinarily stupid or inept. Sure, they appeared very new and obviously inexperienced, but they didn’t seem reckless or suicidal; normally Tacca would be all for that, because the chance they would die would be increased significantly. Again, though, that wasn’t something she wanted right now.

  There was nothing else she wanted to do to ensure their safety, though there was plenty that she could do; it was a dungeon after all, and it wasn’t meant to be too safe. Satisfied that she’d done her part, Tacca watched everything happen from the safety of her Core Room…and she figuratively crossed her fingers in the hopes that she wasn’t making a mistake.

  * * *

  Sterge was feeling a little better about their chances of survival after a quick fight with two more of the brown foxes that emerged from the trees near the tunnel leading further inside. Nothing else had attacked them throughout the entire first room until they had approached the two trees flanking the passageway sloping downwards, which helped to alleviate some of the worry the Hill Dwarf built up regarding the dungeon. He had heard that Raiders frequently died because they were so dangerous, but so far this one wasn’t too tough.

  It also helped that they were better prepared for an attack than they were at first, even if he still wasn’t very adept at using his weapon yet. Sterge and Gwenda had both seen the beasts emerge from the roots of the flanking trees, and as he stepped forward he saw his best friend raise her stick up at the same time. Instead of the bright-blue streak of light he was expecting, though, a transparent-like orange mist shot out and covered both creatures.

  The foxes bounded forward from their hiding places at full speed, but as soon as they hit the mist they slowed down; what was previously a run towards the two Hill Dwarves turned into a slow walk, and it appeared as though they were trying to move through sap of some kind.

  “Hurry! My Sapping Fog will only slow them for about 10 seconds!” Gwenda shouted as she leaned on her stick and seemed to wilt like a stalk of wheat that hadn’t been watered in weeks.

  “We should probably talk about what you can do before we get attacked next time!” he shouted back to her as he stepped up to the “walking” foxes. He wasn’t really mad at her, but he really would’ve appreciated some sort of indication of what she could do beforehand.

  Using a two-handed grip on his shortsword, he chopped straight down with all of his power on the rightmost beast; even though it was slowed considerably, it still tried to dodge out of the way of his attack. Instead of it hitting the fox in the head (where he was aiming), his sword smashed right in the middle of its back. Because of its tough fur – and the fact that he used the flat of the blade again – he didn’t cut into the beast, but he did hear a muted *crack* as the power of his strike broke its back. It fell to the ground immediately and kicked its front paws out, but the back half was immobile.

  With it much less of a threat, he turned to the other, only to see that it had started to jump towards Gwenda; it looked funny because it was still moving slowly through the air, but he didn’t take time to watch because he needed to protect his friend. Sterge shifted his grip on the sword in his hand so that the edge of the blade was on the top and the bottom this time and he chopped down on the slowly floating fox, aiming for its neck.

  Just before he hit it, though, whatever spell Gwenda had used ended and the fox shot forward at normal speed. Instead of hitting its neck, he ended up slicing into its back end just above its tail; he had hit the beast with so much force that his weapon bit deep – and then the momentum of the strike caused the fox to flip backwards through the air, over and over and over as it continued its normal flight path. It flew through where his friend was just a moment ago – as she stumbled weakly out of its way – before landing awkwardly with a crunch of its neck as the beast hit the dirt with surprising force.

  Moments later, the creature disappeared and dropped some more copper coins, but St
erge hadn’t forgotten about the first one he had hit like the first fight. I guess that means I’m learning. He saw it crawling towards him – its back still broken from his hit earlier – surprisingly quickly despite not having any working hind legs, but it wasn’t fast enough to dodge the next strike he aimed towards its head with his bladed weapon. When it disappeared just like the first, he picked up both sets of coins and looked around to see if there were any other threats.

  “Sorry, Sterge, you’re absolutely right. I should have told you about my spells, but I was just so eager to use them that I wasn’t thinking straight; it won’t happen again,” Gwenda apologized, her recovery from casting the slowing spell helping her to stand up straight again. “Though, that’s pretty much all that I have in my current repertoire of spells, but like I said earlier I assume I’ll access more when I increase my Raider Level.” Her face really was apologetic, so he told her there was nothing to forgive.

  “That’s ok, Gwenda; next time, maybe you can call out what spell you’re going to cast so I have a better idea what to do. I can only react so fast, after all.”

  She nodded in acknowledgement, before asking, “Are you ready to go on?”

  “Are you recovered enough, though? We can wait a little bit if you need more time; that spell seemed to take a lot more out of you than the first one, even if you did use it twice.”

  “Yes, I’m just about fully recovered. I think that Sapping Fog takes a lot more of my…magical energy…because it affected a large area instead of just a single target. I don’t think I should use that unless absolutely necessary, though, because I’m practically useless afterwards.”

  “Probably a good idea,” Sterge agreed. “You should probably stick to those blue light thingies you used first.”