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

Lapis seemed to be rambling for some reason, but the Council Leader thought it was probably because the Head Instructor was excited to have found out some useful information.

“Regardless, nearly all of them were located near the center of the continent, with the outliers sitting a bit further away – but close enough that they could easily fit into the same subset.” As he described his findings, Lapis floated over to the map and started gesturing to the general area where most of them had been found.  Malachite lifted up a little higher and he could definitely see what the Head Instructor was talking about.  The continent of Abenlure was a bit flared to the north and south, and it narrowed towards the center – which was where at least 70% of the mortal races on the continent lived.  It was also where quite a few dungeons were located, more so than other areas, so that didn’t necessarily mean anything.

“Yes, but—” the Council Leader tried to bring that point up, but was interrupted again – to his extreme displeasure.  Having two leaders in the same building working on the same project isn’t healthy for our relationship.  Or his own health for that matter – because I’m this close to strangling him.

“I know what you’re going to say, but if you look at the data from the non-surviving Assistants – and their Cores, of course – you’ll find that all but 1 of them completely avoided the ‘Girdle’ altogether.  They are scattered all over the continent in no discernable pattern, in all different locales, and—oh, no,” Lapis said suddenly, pointing to the southern part of the map.

There was a relatively faint light on the northern edge of the Wentrylock Mountain Range – and it was starting to blink.  Not another one!  He remembered when that one had appeared a little over 2 years ago, and it had caused a little bit of a stir since no one could remember any Dungeon Cores ever being located in either the northern or southern mountain ranges before.  It wasn’t out of the ordinary for a Core to show up someplace odd like that, though, as there had been some that showed up in the middle of the ocean before, but this had been recent enough that he remembered it.

“There goes your theory, Lapis.  That Core there is very new; in fact, it took almost a year for a Dungeon Assistant to actually stay Bonded with it for more than a few seconds, because it remained entirely uncooperative and kept dissolving the Bond over and over.  Actually, if I remember correctly, Lily had sent our little helper there…” He trailed off as he thought about the whole situation.

“What helper are you talking about?”

Malachite shook his head as he watched the light of the Core blink faster and faster…before it disappeared completely.  “Huh?  Oh, uh, Tacca, obviously.”  Is that just coincidence?  Is it possible that some of these Cores that were destroyed had some sort of connection with Tacca GloomLily?

“I can see you thinking exactly what I’m thinking, Malachite.  But…how?  Why?  What exactly is going on?” the Head Instructor asked.  The Council Leader just shook his head again, as he had no answers.

Both of them fluttered over the map for a while, silently contemplating whether they had missed something.  They had already gone through all of the records concerning who their little helper had contact with, and apart from this one that had just been destroyed, they couldn’t find any sort of correlation or connection.  Tacca hadn’t ever visited the Cores herself as far as they could tell, she hadn’t ever met the Dungeon Assistants that were helping those Cores, and the very few times she had a run-in with any Fairies near the DPRC were with Assistants that were still alive and with their Cores.  Other than Lily, unfortunately, but she had disappeared with every other Council member and DPRC employee at the same time.

There was a commotion at the entryway of the Council chambers and one of the Instructors that had come with Lapis poked her head in.  “Council Leader?  There’s someone here who insists on speaking to Lily.  I tried to tell him that she’s away at the moment, but he is insistent.  He says it has to do with something about his Core in the southern mountains.”

Malachite glanced down at the map at the same time as the Head Instructor.  Lapis beat him to it, however.  “Send him in.”  The Council Leader nodded his approval towards the Instructor at the door, before he turned back to Lapis, who was already mumbling under his breath.  “Well, it’s another outlier…still fits within my theory…survivors were Bonded to a Core under a certain Core Improvement Level….”

Out of the corner of his eye, Malachite saw a Fairy fly inside, his dark-gray hair in complete contrast with his Mood Clothes, which were such a jumble of different colors that it was hard to tell what the frantic-looking Dungeon Assistant was feeling at that moment.  Probably a result of his Bond being dissolved and the loss and confusion that comes with it. 

“Hello!  Where is Lily?  I need some help!” the Fairy started to shout, and both Malachite and the Head Instructor waved him over.

“Shale?  Is that you?” Lapis asked as soon as the obviously exhausted Fairy flew closer.

“Head Instructor Lapis?  What are you doing here?  Never mind, it’s not important; I need help—”

“Calm down, calm down; we already know.  Now, this might be a shock to you, but your Core was destroyed.”  The Head Instructor had his hands around the young Assistant’s shoulders in a comforting manner, providing much needed sympathy that Lapis was much better at conveying than Malachite ever had been.

“Wait, what—?”

“Now, I need to ask you some questions so we can try to figure out what happened.  Did your Core