The Dungeon Fairy: Three Lives: A Dungeon Core Escapade (The Hapless Dungeon Fairy Book 3) Jonathan Brooks (read me like a book .txt) 📖

Cost (Level 12): 900 DF

Control Requirement (Level 12): 95

Creation Time (Level 12): 2 Hours

Equipment: None

Physical Attack: 35 (50)

Ranged Attack: 0 (0)

Physical Defense: 30 (40)

Ranged Defense: 10 (15)

Elemental Resistance: 50% Nature, 10% Death

Specials: Howl of the Moon

Pack Hunter: Bonus to physical attack if in conjunction with others in the Canine family

Synergy Addition (+): Adds a bonus to Physical and Ranged Attack and Defense when paired with unevolved creature form; this bonus lasts for up to 30 seconds even after paired form is killed

It was, to put it plainly, a powerhouse.  Not only did it have a Pack Hunter trait, but it also had a special ability called “Howl of the Moon”. From her schooling, she knew that – when activated – it would increase the speed of all Werewolves; while it didn’t explicitly say it, she had a feeling that it would also work on any Wolves that were around.  Even if it didn’t she was still planning on having quite a few lower-Level Steppe Wolves in the room.

“Don’t you think that’s a little too powerful for this section?  Especially considering that ‘synergy’ bonus you discovered?” Shale asked as she described what she was going to create.

At first, yes, but I want this section to be viable for Raider Levels 6 through 15.  Initially, not many groups will be able to progress through more than a handful of the rooms before it becomes too dangerous, but they will also earn a lot of Rewards and the Power they require to increase their Levels.  I don’t necessarily want to kill them, remember, but if it isn’t a challenge, then it won’t be seen as worthwhile. 

“I guess that is true.” Her Dungeon Assistant nodded.  “By the time they can actually tackle the Werewolf, they’ll have had to fight through everything else – which is quite an accomplishment.”  He paused.  “Now what?”

That was a good question.  She was at a bit of a standstill right now, with no one visiting her dungeon and being basically out of creatures she could create because of her Control Limit.  Fortunately, there were only 3 days left until her Core Improvement Level increased, so there was time to do some mind-numbingly mundane digging.

I’m going to dig out an exit to all of these rooms down here, as well as create a way for new groups to bypass the original section altogether. 

“How?  Steps leading all the way down?”

No, I have a better idea.

Which was how she ended up with a massive, corkscrewing slide that descended hundreds of feet into the mountain, ending up in a small extension to the very first room of her new section, with the 5 branching tunnels.  She didn’t fully open it up yet, leaving about 5 feet of pure stone untouched between the face of the mountain and her new entrance, but once everything was ready she could do it quite easily.  The exit tunnel, however, was completed, as she ate her way horizontally out of the mountain, after spending some time connecting every room exit to the same tunnel.  Lastly, Tacca made sure all of the Rotating Stone Bridges were in place on all of the passageways, either as exits or as a way to block off access to some rooms in the second section.

By the time she was done, she only had half a day left to wait.

Chapter 5

It was nearly incomprehensible to Tacca how many Core Improvement Points she had accumulated, most of which came from killing the blue-skinned invaders in her dungeon.  Not to be completely outdone, the former Fairy-turned-Dungeon-Core had also contributed a healthy amount with the reconstruction and repopulation of her two sections – which was much more than she had gained before, mainly because she didn’t have the same stranglehold over her gains without the 95% reduction in earned CIPs.

Core Improvement Point Awards

Type

Variable Conditions

Potential CIP

Current

Rooms Constructed

Size

1 – 50

9

Traps Installed

Complexity

1 – 20

2245

Monsters Created

Levels

1 – 20

248

Rewards Placed

Valuation

1 – 50

189

Raider Presence

Time

1 – 5

258

Raider Deaths

Quality

100 – 10000

26600

Most of the extra CIPs came from the massive quantity of traps she had installed down below in her defensive room, though she did earn a respectable amount from the creatures and rewards she had placed.  Unfortunately, none of the tunnels she had made for her entrance and exit counted as rooms for the “Rooms Constructed”, but that didn’t really matter – she had plenty of Points already coming her way.

As the time ticked down in the last few seconds, Shale chimed in at the last few moments.  “Tacca, I don’t mean to worry you, but I just had a thought.”

Uh, oh.  What?

“Well, it seems to me as though your Core is a bit more fragile since…you know…and I was wondering how your Core would handle—”

It was too late for him to finish his question, as the timer for the countdown period hit zero.  All of a sudden, Tacca went from feeling nothing to experiencing a sensation not unlike her Core shattering again.  So many accumulated CIPs were pumped into her fragile form, abruptly transforming and making her Core larger than it was just a moment ago that it felt like she had exploded. Her perceptions of the world around her faded, and she was lost in a familiar limbo-like state; this time, however, there was no pain as her consciousness floated in a sludge-like nothingness.

The view of her world rapidly came crashing back into her, flooding her mind with thousands of small details from around her dungeon.  As soon as she could adjust to her surroundings again, she was relieved to be free of pain – and to immediately see that her dungeon was still there.  Every single environmental object