The Dungeon Fairy: A Dungeon Core Escapade (The Hapless Dungeon Fairy Book 1) Jonathan Brooks (the dot read aloud TXT) 📖

the Dungeon Cores came from some sort of other dimension, where their original forms had either been wrongfully killed or perished before their time; their rebirth in the form of a Core was supposed to be some sort of “second chance”.  No one reportedly knew why or when it first started happening, only that dungeons were around so long that it was quite possible that Cores were present before there were any mortal races in the world.

As time went on, more and more Dungeon Cores sprung up around the world as the population of mortal races increased, though no one could say whether or not there was a direct correlation.  All she was taught was that there were so many now that they barely had enough Dungeon Assistant Fairies to go around; that fact was probably the only reason Tacca hadn’t been immediately fired after her disastrous Mentor training, because trained Assistants without a current assignment to a Bonded Core were hard to find.  I suppose that’s why the DPRC building was so empty.

Since the Council’s policy was to ensure that all Dungeon Cores have a Bonded Assistant through at least half of their existence, it also explained why she was there.  They expected her to fail, but they also probably wanted to ensure their Policies were upheld – they were certainly sticklers for rules and regulations, after all.  What should’ve been a joyous occasion for Tacca – bonding with a Dungeon Core was indeed a spiritual experience – was tainted by the knowledge that she was set up to fail…and now she was having serious doubts about whether she would be able to actually succeed in keeping Jeremy alive for much longer.

“Look, I get that you’re scared about being underground, but it will be extremely dangerous out there.  Your Core is very fragile, and you’ve done nothing to protect yourself from invaders or placed any rewards to distract them.  If they see you so close to the surface, they’ll destroy you – because you’ll likely be thought of as another dungeon creature like the Oozes you have here.”  She paused for a moment as she had to ask the question that was bothering her since she first saw the creature in Jeremy’s dungeon.  “By the way, why did you choose an Ooze for your initial creature.”

“Aaaahhhh!  Let me ooooout!  I have no idea.  As soon as I saw that I was trapped in a small space, I just started picking things in a panic.  Oh, that was a horrible time…but I can feel that the end is near!  Help meeeee!”

All Tacca could do was shake her head.  He picked one of the most important choices at random?  I wonder what else he chose…  It was this initial selection process that was so important for Assistants to be nearby for, because newly created and awakened Dungeon Cores couldn’t be trusted to think rationally.  It was more than likely that there actually had been a Fairy nearby at the beginning, but when Jeremy freaked out and just started picking things without looking or listening to his Assistant, it was determined that he was a lost cause.  I guess that’s what they see me as – a lost cause.

Tacca tried to convince Jeremy to stop, to retreat back down at least a room or two while he kept digging, but nothing seemed to get through to him.  The Core eventually started to ignore her completely and didn’t bother to respond; she even asked him to dissolve the Bond so that she could go back to Lily at the DPRC in defeat, but he ignored that as well.  Unfortunately, only the Dungeon Core and a special process done by the Council could release her from the Bond, though it wasn’t necessarily restrictive; she could leave at any time and distance wasn’t an issue, but while she was Bonded to one dungeon she couldn’t Bond to another.

All she could do at that point was wait and see if he snapped out of his crazed state.

Chapter 4

It was less than 20 minutes later when Jeremy started to frantically eat away at the tunnel and his Core’s glow started to fade as he expended nearly every drop of Dungeon Force he currently possessed in his efforts to get outside.  Of course, Tacca tried to warn him of the danger, but he was too involved to listen to her. She wasn’t sure if it was a good thing or not when he finally broke through to the surface and sunlight shone through the hole he made.  His glow stabilized and started to gradually brighten over the next few minutes as his incessant digging came to a stop, and even the mental assault calmed down.

“There it is!  I did it!  I’m free!  I feel much better now…”  Tacca swore she heard him sigh in pleasure at the sight of the sun beaming down and slightly into the entrance he had just made.

“Ok, so now that you’ve seen it, can we get you back to the Core Room and start protecting your dungeon?”

“Dungeon?  Is that where I am?  Better question: what am I and what are you?  The last thing I remember was crossing the street and then the sound of a car horn next to me and…then all I remember is panicking about being trapped underground.  The rest of everything is a little fuzzy…”

Jeremy sounded extremely confused, as if the last few days – or perhaps weeks – of digging was a blurry dream.  Tacca couldn’t even imagine not being in control of herself like he evidently had been, and she felt a little sorry for wanting to break her Bond with him.  He had been just so scared that he couldn’t do anything other than open up his dungeon, and now that he had done so he was sounding…normal.  Maybe this will work out after all—

The sound of dirt falling near