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

was present, as well as the creatures and traps she had set up around each section, including her defensive room.  She even looked at her Core and saw that it was…larger, but essentially exactly the same.

If anything, she saw even more etchings around her entire form, though none of them appeared to hide any actual cracks underneath.  Instead, now that there were more of the etchings and they were more defined, she could see that they were geometric in design, with straight lines running all over her Core.  They crisscrossed each other at different intervals, sometimes just a little distance, while others ran all the way around her shape.  None of it made any sense to Tacca, though for some reason it seemed familiar; looking at it for a few minutes, trying to figure it out, produced no sudden epiphany.

It was only when she tore her focus away from her Core that she realized that something was missing.  To put it more precisely, it wasn’t something, but someone: Shale was nowhere to be found inside of her dungeon.

Shale?  Where are you?

“Tacca?  You’re back!  Are you okay?”  Her Dungeon Assistant sounded far away, but distance fortunately didn’t break the connection, only dimming it somewhat so that you could sometimes tell how far away they were.  “Hold on, I’m Translocating back to your Core Room now.”

The next moment, there was a small *pop* as Shale appeared in the corner of her room, looking a little windblown, as if he had been flying around outside.  “There you are!  I was beginning to become really worried.”

Worried?  Why?

“Because you were non-responsive for nearly 6 weeks, that’s why!”  Her Assistant looked at her Core and crossed his arms over his chest, his Mood Clothes shifting to a bit of a black and red color.  What that told her was that he was both angry and possibly a little despondent.

I was out for 6 weeks!  It didn’t feel like that long….

“Well, it was.”  A lot of the hostile color faded from his clothes as he seemed to relax, now that she was back.  “Worst of all, everything seemed to pause while you were gone, so that my increase in my Assistant Rank didn’t progress at all!  I still have a little over a month to go.”

It was all very strange, but now Tacca could sort of understand why he had been mad.  She had basically abandoned him again, as well as delaying the increase in his Assistant Ranking – which would be very significant at that point, based on all of the Points his Core had accumulated.  In fact, if she calculated it correctly, he could potentially be a high-Staged Expert Rank – nearly Master Rank!

Sorry I left you again – I didn’t know it would do that.

“Yes, well, it was something that I was afraid of.  I tried to mention it before it happened, but I think the increase in your Core Improvement Level happened before I could finish.  I’m just glad all of your work hadn’t been reset like last time.”

Me too.  And I’m hoping that something like that doesn’t happen again; I think it only did it this time because I had so many pending CIPs.

Congratulations, Tacca GloomLily!

You have reached Core Improvement Level: 20

Current CIP Countdown: 2989/5400 in 30 days

Core Improvement Points earned: 28300 (28300)

Special Characteristic Points earned: 175 (225)

The thought of those CIPs made her pull up her options – and if she could’ve salivated in her Core form, she would’ve been drooling at the possibilities.

Core Improvements

Available Core Improvement Points (CIP)

28300

2989 in 30 days

Improvement Name

Value

Cost (CIP)

Maximum Dungeon Force Increase

+500 DF

750

Dungeon Force Regeneration Increase

+10 DF per minute

1000

Control Limit Increase

+100

800

Select Additional Creature

1

550

Select Additional Creature Variant

1

25

Select Additional Trap Specialization

1

600

Select Additional Environment Access

1

800

Reward Tier Increase

1

400

Convert CIPs to SCPs

1 SCP

12

Not only did she have more than 28,000 CIPs to spend, but she also shot all the way up to Core Improvement Level 20 from her previous Level 12!  No wonder I basically exploded when all that happened all at once.  During the first year of a Core’s existence, it was common for them to acquire enough Points to advance 5 to 10 Levels (and even more) when their countdown was up, but after the first year it was much harder to gain more than a few Levels per countdown period.  When Tacca considered that her Core was a lot more fragile than others, it made more sense about what happened.  Of course, she still didn’t exactly know why she was so fragile or even how to fix it.

Now that I’m back, everything seems fine – better than fine, in fact.  I have a lot of Points to spend, but I’m not sure what I should purchase.  I never really considered this rapid of an advancement in my Levels.

Shale appeared to be returning to normal, the annoyance of the delay in his own advancement overshadowed by his position as a Dungeon Assistant.  Tacca did need his help, honestly, because while she knew of a couple things she wanted to purchase right away – such as an increase in her maximum Dungeon Force and Control Limit – that would still leave thousands of CIPs unaccounted for.

“Well, I’m sure you already have an idea what you need—” which she did— “so why don’t you purchase those first, and we’ll see what is left, afterwards.”

Simple advice, but it was what she needed.  Having too many choices being a bad thing never would’ve occurred to her before this, as she had been concentrating on what she needed at the moment or very near future; now, though, she instantly had access to the Points that she would’ve likely earned over another year or so, which