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

when the Raider group followed the tunnel back out – only to find that their way was blocked.  The Stone Bridge trap had shut, and there was no way out; while they were still journeying their way down to the bottom of her dungeon, she had disconnected the exit staircase from this tunnel she had hastily dug out by filling it with 10 feet of solid stone.  Normally, having a trap like this with no way to get out would be highly frowned upon, because it went against the Rules set out by the DPRC; it was a “no-win” situation that a Raider or group of Raiders might stumble into, which was a no-no.  For this particular incident, however, neither Shale nor Tacca thought that anyone on the Council would have any objection.  As long as she got rid of it afterward, then it was possible that no one would ever know, in fact.

“Hey, what gives?  Let us out!” the leader of the Raider group yelled, beating his fists against the closed trap, before slicing into it with his sword.  Tacca grew a little alarmed as his weapon actually started to take some slivers of stone off, which disappeared as soon as they hit the floor, being part of the “trap” and not actually able to exist as a separate object.  To combat this, she created another stone wall blocking the trap from inside of the room she was in, effectively sealing the exit; while she couldn’t directly affect anything inside of the tunnel they were doing their darndest to attack and carve their way out of, that in no way prevented her from doing things inside of the previous room they were in.

It was probably a blessing, in a way, that she created the thick wall, completely sealing them inside; she was going to have to wait for them to starve and die before she could officially get rid of them, which could be a while depending on whether they had any food and water in their bottomless bags.  Now, though, she had sealed off even the slight crack at the bottom of the Stone Bridge trap that was letting in the slightest bit of air.

Now all she had to do was wait for them to suffocate.

That’ll teach you to try and destroy my Core…

Chapter 10

Things were a little rocky for the first few days around The Village after Falaern Whiteoak, the Minister of Merchants, arrived with his entourage.  It seemed as though there was a mutual distaste between what the Hill Dwarf would classify as “normal” Raiders and the Raiders that originated from the social world of the Merchants.  At least, that was the vibe that Sterge got from watching the interactions between the two groups.

Tensions rose almost immediately after their arrival, and within a day there were multiple fights between groups of the different factions.  From Sterge’s point of view as a bit of an outsider to the politics that seemed to shape their attitudes towards each other – not that he was an expert or anything – the Merchants appeared to consider the other, poorer, Raiders as beneath them and held themselves superior, even when they were the exact same Raider Level.

He could see a little bit of merit to their assumption that they were better, though not because of them personally; their gear, as he had seen when they had arrived, was many times stronger or more protective than nearly everyone else near The Village, which would help them survive much longer in a fight and allow them to take on harder monsters without dying.  Some few, he had heard rumored, even had enchantments on their armor or weapons – which he knew was prohibitively expensive.  A few utility enchantments, like what was used to create a relatively inexpensive Amulet of Illumination, were common loot drops from dungeons; others, like the boosts and enhancements to armor or weapons, were anything but commonplace.

But superior gear couldn’t quite make up for the horrid, self-entitled attitudes which made them personally seem inferior to Sterge.  They were so disruptive to the previously relaxed atmosphere that had encompassed The Village that the Hill Dwarf wanted them gone – especially after they had begun to harass the villagers, including Gwenda and himself.

“Hey!  Move – those are our seats,” one of them said to him two evenings after they arrived, as he and Gwenda had been enjoying a well-deserved meal in one of their Inns.  It was crowded, as had been usual, because there just wasn’t enough room to put the massive mob of Raiders that had come; it was one of the reasons Sterge and Gwenda were enjoying their meal, in fact. They had both spent most of the day either constructing yet another Inn or handling the hundreds of questions and problems that seemed to pop up every few minutes, and needed the reprieve.

Which made the confrontation with a group of the Merchants and their sneering and overbearing Elven leader in an extremely fine, tailored black-and-blue-accented suit all the much more unwelcome.

“Uh…no.  We are still eating; as soon as we are done, you may have these seats,” he responded automatically, trying to be as courteous as possible without giving into the Elf’s demands.  He knew from experience with the Raiders – after some swift lessons after they had arrived at The Village – that if he gave in and showed weakness, they would walk all over him.

He turned back to his food, trying to ignore them all entirely, but the Elf wasn’t having anything of it.  A hand darted out quickly and smacked into the bowl of delicious stew he had just barely begun to eat, scattering its contents all over the floor, including a small portion of it on his work clothes.  “Looks like you’re done; you can leave now,” the Elf snidely remarked, to the laughter of his friends behind him.

The disturbance,