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

by Jonathan Brooks

  “It’s my Magistrike spell, not ‘blue light thingies’, you silly,” she giggled happily, before she turned serious. “Again, you’re right; I will stick to those unless absolutely necessary, and I’ll try to stay behind you. I think you’re the one that should be up front because you have the armor and dangerous weapon to keep me safe, so that seems like the best idea.”

  Sterge grunted in acknowledgement, mainly because he had been thinking the same thing. He looked at Gwenda again, and seeing that she looked as “normal” as she ever was, he pressed on, his sword still out in front of him as he entered the tunnel sloping gradually downwards and turning off to the right ever so slightly. It was dark inside the tunnel, but not blindingly dark; he could still see just fine, as there was a very faint ambient light that infused the stone walls and made it navigable.

  Eventually, it opened up into another room, though this one wasn’t nearly as bright as the first – Sterge thought it was about half as bright. He couldn’t even see the end of this room, however, though it wasn’t because of the dim light; no, it was because the whole room seemed to be filled with ferns. Their long fronds reached about a foot above his head, which really wasn’t that tall when he considered his height; a Human or an Elf would have no problem seeing over them, but Hill Dwarves like himself or even Gnomes (who were even smaller) would have some issues.

  Standing on his tiptoes, he tried to see if there was anything else in the room, but there only seemed to be ferns; no trees, bushes, or flowers like the first room. Not only that, but there were so many fern fronds filling the space that it almost seemed like a wall of green in front of him, though looking at the ones closer to him he could certainly see that there was room enough to easily pass between each fern plant. Though, I suppose that I could always…

  “Do you think I should chop all of these down as we pass through? Walking through all of these might be a little dangerous, because I won’t be able to see very far if we’re attacked.”

  Gwenda thought for a moment before nodding. “Yes, that’s probably a good idea; although there looks like enough space to fight in between each fern, I’m not sure how easy it will be to see threats coming.”

  Without waiting any longer, Sterge stepped up to the first fern and started hacking away at the base of the plant; he had found that it was easier to remove foliage you didn’t want if you started on the base, because otherwise it could take forever to get rid of all of the branches – or in this case fronds. Of course, he soon discovered that it didn’t really matter where he started, because his weapon wasn’t really suited to destroying plants; either the weapon was beginning to dull – I should’ve brought a whetstone – or the fern was extra durable. He eventually chopped it down and threw all of the fronds to the side, but it took him nearly five minutes to do so.

  Looking at how many more the room held – even if he were to remove them in a straight line, he was looking at hours of work. “I don’t think this is going to work,” he said in disappointment. His statement was only confirmed when the fern he had just chopped down started to grow again at a tremendous rate, until less than a minute later the plant was back the way it was before he started. “Ok, I really don’t think this is going to work.”

  “I guess that means we’re supposed to go through without being able to see very well. I can start to see how these dungeons can get dangerous quickly. Lead the way, noble protector!” Gwenda said, gesturing with her stick-staff towards the ferns ahead of them.

  Sterge walked ahead slowly, brushing past the newly regrown plant as he ducked down enough not to get smacked in the face by other fronds. Moving at a crouch was tiring, but actually helped a bit; while his view was still blocked by the bases of the fern plants, he was able to see around him remarkably well. In fact, as he traveled approximately a dozen feet into the room, his crouch was probably the only reason he saw the form of something moving towards him. Actually, two somethings, approaching from opposite directions through the foliage.

  The beasts were hard to pinpoint, because they were brown with green stripes, and they almost looked like wolves – but were smaller than the ones he’d seen before (at a distance, of course). Still, their teeth looked like they were sharp enough to tear him apart, so the fact that they weren’t actual wolves didn’t really make much of a difference. As they slunk near-silently through the plants, he glanced behind him at Gwenda and whispered, “Two…things…incoming.” He didn’t know what to call them, so he went back to his fallback of calling them “things”.

  As he stepped forward between three ferns in an abnormal-looking open space, his sword waving back and forth between the two stalkers, his foot passed through something invisible that caused his leg to tingle briefly. He tried to pull it back, but it was already too late; a red haze dropped over his vision as unexplainable rage tore through his mind. He lost all control of his actions as he shot forward with a primal yell, zeroing in on the nearest movement – which just so happened to be the closest green striped not-wolf beast.

  Using absolutely no skill at all in his enraged state, Sterge practically threw himself at the creature and he just started swinging. Blood flew out from where he struck the beast, though he barely even paid attention; he was trying to gain control of his actions again, but it was like he was just an observer in his body instead of an active participant. He distantly felt a bite land on his right arm, trapping it in place so that he couldn’t swing anymore; whether it actually hurt was a bit beyond him at the moment, however, as he watched himself pull the iron knife on his belt off and stab it right through the eye of the beast holding onto him and not letting go.

  He needed it to let go, because he was so angry for some reason. The jaws of the green-striped creature loosened as his knife went up and into its brain, and it dropped down at his feet. Sterge watched as his body didn’t even stop, as it turned around to find another victim to sate its rage on. Just as his frame whipped around at a noise behind him, he was hit by a great weight as something smashed into him; luckily, whatever hit him with a set of sharp-toothed jaws aiming for his face didn’t impact him straight on, but it appeared to be another one of the beasts he had just slain being flung sideways into him.

  As soon as he hit the ground, he instantly tried to fling the weight of the body off of him, though it was initially hard to do; apparently, he had his sword pointing straight out from him when he was hit, and the not-wolf thing had been impaled. A second later, his struggle ceased as the beast disappeared and he felt an object fall on his leather chestpiece. His raging mind and body didn’t care about that, though, as it picked itself and looked for another victim.

  He heard another noise that his internal mind registered as Gwenda talking, but his body only saw a threat to vent his rage upon. He turned towards the small Hill Dwarf in her blue robe and stepped forward to attack…and then promptly fell on his face as every ounce of anger and rage left his body in an instant.

  “Sterge! What happened? Are you okay?” Gwenda sounded panicked as she rushed over to his side. Sterge felt her hands on him as she helped him get up, and a groan escaped his lips as he felt the soreness and slight pain in his right arm. As soon as he was standing again – a little wobbly from the after effects from his uncontrolled rage episode – he looked at his arm, expecting it to be mangled. He breathed a sigh of relief as all he saw were deep bite marks in the leather sleeve and no sign of blood; that’s going to be one heck of a bruise later, though. It felt that he was going to be a mass of bruises tomorrow if things kept going like this.

  “I…don’t know what that just was. All I know is that I stepped forward, felt my foot pass through something invisible and tingle momentarily, and then…I had no control. I just felt a rage I’ve never felt before and all my body wanted to do was kill anything that moved. If it hadn’t ended when it did, I might have…hurt you too,” he said with rising horror in his voice. He couldn’t even look at her because he didn’t even want to think about what would’ve happened if hi
s extreme anger hadn’t disappeared. “I don’t know what came over me.”

  “It’s ok, though – you didn’t hurt me,” Gwenda said, taking his face in between her hands to force him to look at her. “And it wasn’t your fault; you’d never hurt me like that if you weren’t under some sort of spell. I think from your description that it was some sort of trap that you triggered; I know they exist in dungeons, though I don’t really know much about them. I thought they were more like falling rocks or pit traps or things like that, but obviously this one has things that will affect your mind. We just need to be careful from here on out.”

  Sterge could barely comprehend what she was saying. “Wait a moment. Are you seriously saying we should keep going? After I almost killed you?”

  “You didn’t almost kill me, so stop thinking about it like that. You fell victim to a trap and survived, and now that we know about them maybe we can avoid more in the future. I’m still eager to keep going if you’re willing – and able, of course. How is your arm?” Gwenda asked concernedly, taking it in her hands as she spoke.

  “It’s relatively fine, though I think it’ll be stiff and sore tomorrow. If you really want to keep going…I think I can manage.” Things were getting quite a bit more dangerous now that they had to watch out for traps, though how they were supposed to avoid them since they were invisible was beyond him. Regardless, if Gwenda wanted to keep going, he was more than willing to satisfy her curiosity.

  “Good; before we go, though, I have a surprise for you!” his best friend said excitedly. She asked him to close his eyes for a moment and hold out his left hand – which was now empty as he had sheathed his iron knife. A few seconds later, Sterge felt something slide a little up his left arm, before something else wooden pressed up against his palm.

  Opening his eyes, he looked down to see a shield with a ragged leather strap hooked around his arm and a wooden handle inside his palm, which his hand automatically tightened upon almost naturally. The shield itself was a circular collection of thick, battered oak planks nailed together, though despite its look the shield appeared sturdy enough to withstand quite a few hits before it fell apart. Kind of like his armor, though perhaps a bit more durable.

  “Wha—? Where did this come from?”

  “One of those beasts dropped it when it was killed, but I figured you didn’t even see it in your altered…state,” Gwenda responded hesitantly when she mentioned his rage incident. “The other one dropped 5 copper coins, as well, so we’re making quite a lot from this dungeon!” she added with more enthusiasm.

  Sterge swung around the shield on his arm a few times to get a feel for it, and he immediately determined that it would take some getting used to. For one, it was heavy; not so heavy that he couldn’t handle it (he was actually quite strong and fit from working the village fields all day), but because he thought it might unbalance him if he wasn’t careful. Second, he had no idea how to actually use it in a fight.

  Obviously, he could use it to block attacks – his Raider Status even had a skill called “Block” – but how he was supposed to do that he had no clue. His thinking about his Status of course made it appear in his mind, and he noticed that he had received three Power from killing each of those green-striped beasts, instead of just one like those foxes – bringing him to a total of 10/100. In addition, his Blade and Light Armor Skills had also increased their percentage by another 2%, but again he wasn’t sure what that actually meant.

  “Ok, let’s go then; however, you have to promise me that if you see me going crazy like that again, you’ll run if it looks like I’m heading your way,” Sterge said before he started moving. “I don’t think I could live with myself if I inadvertently hurt you.”

  “I will, Sterge; I don’t want to be chopped in half either, believe me.” She smiled, gesturing again with her stick for him to lead the way.

  He crouched again as he cautiously made his way through the ferns, testing each step – just in case he felt anything strange. Though he thought it was unlikely that he’d be able to tell if there was a trap ahead of him, he did it anyway. I really don’t like being out of control like that; I hope there isn’t anything even worse in here…

  Chapter 23

  Tacca was amused how the two Hill Dwarf Raiders managed to survive with very little actual skill and a whole lot of luck. It was the complete opposite of her own luck that she was a little jealous, though whether or not her “bad luck” really still applied had yet to be seen. Regardless, she was happy that they were getting through relatively unscathed despite the trap and Frond Coyotes that had attacked them, and it was also nice to see that nothing had changed about the automatic Environmental Object regeneration because of her unusual situation.

  The second room was originally designed with taller Raiders in mind, so she wasn’t sure if it was luck or happenstance that the Hill Dwarves were short enough to take advantage of that oversight. Normally, the presence of so many fern fronds would’ve made it difficult to see any of the Frond Coyotes near the ground and Raiders would likely only see them as they sprung from their hiding places to attack the invaders. When you added in the strong Rage Enchantment that lasted for 30 seconds, when there weren’t any other “victims” in sight, whatever Raider was affected by the Enchantment would likely attack their other group members.

  The leather-armored Hill Dwarf was able to avoid that because he was short enough to see underneath the fronds and pinpoint her Coyotes, which made his rage state actually effective instead of a detriment. Added to that, her creatures couldn’t really spring forward with their superior jumping power so close to the ground, which made their main attack a bit less effective. It was something that she would probably address in the future, but there wasn’t anything that could be done about it now – especially with the two still pressing ahead despite the added danger. If Tacca hadn’t removed the additional pair beforehand that would’ve attacked them at first, then it was more than likely they would’ve turned around…if they had even survived the encounter.

  Tacca watched them take down the other pair of Frond Coyotes inside the room with a little more difficulty than before, though the added Small Battered Oak Shield reward that the leather armor-wearing Raider was using helped…a little. It was obvious that he had never used it before, so when he went to block a lunge by one of her creatures he ended up smacking himself in the head with the shield from the impact. It prevented him from being bit by her creature, at least, but he did end up with a big red mark on his face, which would probably bruise something awful.

  That was okay, though, because there was a surprise for them both if they managed to survive the next room – which was looking quite likely. Whether or not they would survive unscathed was something else entirely…

  * * *

  Shale was following along with the two Hill Dwarf Raiders as they finished up with the second room full of ferns and now-dead Frond Coyotes; he had his Invisibility and Repellant Shield in place, of course, so no one could see him above – though he had to be a little more cautious about moving through the tighter tunnels so as not to call attention to himself. He knew the layout of the dungeon fairly well by that point, however, so it was quite easy to maneuver through it all without too much difficulty.

  That familiarity also brought the layout of all the different traps and creatures throughout the dungeon with it, obviously. What he had seen in the first – and now the second room – indicated that it had been changed since he last saw it less than an hour ago. “Did you remove some of your creatures in here?” Shale mentally asked Tamara through their Bond.

  There was silence for a few seconds before she answered. “Yes…yes, I did. I don’t want these two to die, because I need them to go back and report on my location.”

  Shale was shocked. “You’re…not supposed to do that. Your dungeon should be what it is and not adjusted for the Raiders invading it. If they go back to the other and tell them what they encountered, and it’s different from what the
y were told when they come here, then you could anger those in charge of the local Raiders. Change should be extremely gradual or not at all, except to add more rooms deeper down.” It was one of the underlying principles that Dungeon Cores were instructed to abide by to survive as long as they could; it only made sense to keep things normal and regular for the Raiders, after all.

  “I’m doing things a little differently, is all. Most of this will be the same…for the near future, at least…so it won’t be too different. Keeping things ‘normal and regular’ for the Raiders is all well and good, but I think this way might work better in the long run.”

  To hear his thoughts echoed back to him was a little startling. Can she read my mind, or was that just a lucky guess? So many things about this Dungeon Core were abnormal, and he was seriously considering Translocating back to the DPRC council to report everything he had observed so far. Maybe it will be better for them to figure this all out, rather than waste my time on a Core that is almost guaranteed to fail.

  Regardless if he decided to do that, it wasn’t going to happen until the Raiders were gone, at least. Shale still hadn’t made up his mind if all that he had seen and heard actually was a bad idea; for all he knew, it could be genius on a level that he couldn’t quite comprehend. He had already admitted to himself that the previous Assistant, Tacca, was smarter than he was – which was obvious in how much Tamara seemed to know – so it was entirely possible that he was wrong about everything. That thought didn’t sit too well with him because it hurt his pride as a Dungeon Assistant, but he was also confident enough in himself to acknowledge that he didn’t know everything.

  Shale turned his attention back to what was going on in the dungeon and didn’t bother to respond to Tamara, because he didn’t want to think about her anymore for the moment. He didn’t want to be distracted from watching the Raiders invade what he was quickly thinking of as his dungeon, despite the fact that he had very little to do with its layout and construction. Still, because he was Bonded to Tamara – and it was her dungeon – it felt like an extension of himself as well.