The Dungeon Fairy: Two Choices: A Dungeon Core Escapade (The Hapless Dungeon Fairy Book 2) Jonathan Brooks (online e reader TXT) 📖

Head Instructor Lapis and some of the others Malachite had brought into the Council – at least on a temporary basis, once he figured out where the rest of the normal members were – had been constantly visiting with those Dungeon Assistants who had survived the destruction of their Cores over the last few weeks, so it had been up to the Council Leader to help run things while they were away.  That had been the official reason for his supreme lack of sleep, of course, but in reality it was because he had trouble sleeping even when he was exhausted.  Worry and concern over his Dungeon Fairies, the Dungeon Cores they were assisting, and the fate of the entire world weighed on his mind.

Thankfully, over the last month, the number of Cores that were being destroyed had fallen to only 1 per week; still way too many to be comfortable with, but it was certainly an improvement.  With that good news came an equal amount of bad: Every Core that had been destroyed had taken their Assistant with them.  Of all 23 Fairies who had managed to escape being killed over the last year, every single one of them had been released from their Bond to warn the DPRC of the danger to their Core; whether the ones who had perished had either voluntarily refused to break their Bond or the Core refused to break it was still unknown.

Some other useful information came about from the investigations, or at least that was what the Head Instructor said he had compiled after listening to all of the survivors’ stories.  That was the reason he had cut his sleep short today, at least, because he was due to hear about it.

“Ah, there you are,” Lapis said from across the room, beckoning the Council Leader over as if he were some sort of servant.  Malachite pushed the anger born from utter frustration of the situation and little sleep down and away, as he flew over to the Head Instructor to see what sort of news he had.

Lapis launched into his report without so much as a hello.  “So, from what information we have gathered, here are the statistics regarding everything that could be categorized.  In all 23 of the cases, they reported that the deed was committed by groups of Raiders; this we already knew, but after some more digging we discovered that there were two main types of Raiders that destroyed these Cores.  In 9 of the cases, the culprits were groups of 8 to 10 typical Raiders, usually much stronger than what the dungeon would be suitable for.  In 13 of the cases, the murderous scoundrels were much larger groups of rough-looking individuals, usually not too powerful, but there were way too many in quantity for the Core to handle.  In one case, the Assistant was told that there were Raiders coming to destroy their Core, but they never actually saw them in person, nor through a remote viewing connection with their Core, and never got a description of them before their Bond was broken and they Translocated away.”

The way the Head Instructor was reciting all of these facts made him seem a bit impersonal about it all, but Malachite knew that he really cared about all of his students, be they survivors or those who had died.  The fact of the matter was that he had done a remarkable job, and now they had something to go on.  “Very good, Lapis; that certainly—”

“Oh, but there’s more,” the Head Instructor interrupted him unapologetically.  Malachite swallowed the anger that threatened to burst out of his mouth in a bout of verbal abuse – and he nodded, as he didn’t trust himself to speak.  “After going over all of the records of the Cores that were destroyed, all but one of them that had survivors were under Core Improvement Level 28; the original statistics were a little muddled, as they had been organized by how long each Dungeon Assistant had been in place and not by the Core’s relative CI Level.  The lone outlier there was a CI Level 37, but even that isn’t that too far off in strength from the others – especially when you compare it to those that didn’t have survivors.

“Of those, all but 2 were calculated to be over Core Improvement Level 40, though some hadn’t had reports in nearly a decade; at DAPS we teach that it’s important to check in every 5 years even if nothing significant happened, so there had been some slacking on the part of the Assistants.  I blame the Cores for that.”

Of course he does, otherwise it could be a black mark on their teaching ability if they weren’t following the proper guidelines.  It didn’t really matter, though, as any chastisement would be worthless, given that there were no survivors.

It was worrying that he and the other Council members and their own assistants had missed that vital piece of information.  That none of the Dungeon Assistants made it out alive from the more powerful dungeons was something that should’ve been alarming – though even now he had no idea what it could mean.  While it was more likely that the Assistants that were Bonded to a Core that powerful would want to stay with their Cores until the end, he couldn’t and wouldn’t believe that all of them had chosen to do that.

“Furthermore, while there was no direct correlation between the locations of those Cores that had been destroyed when viewed as a whole, when you break it up between survivors and non-survivors, a clearer picture is revealed.  All but 2 of the Cores with survivors were located within the most populous areas of the continent of Abenlure: right inside what I’ve heard is called the ‘Girdle’ by some of the Raiders.  Or at least that was what it was called over 1,000 years ago – so that might