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

“Shale, this isn’t a request – it’s an order of grave importance.  And Tacca is her name, not this ‘Deliverer’ crud I keep hearing…how in the world did you hear about that, anyway?” Lily, the Lead Placement Council Member, asked.

“That kind of stuff gets around, even when we’re stuck in a dungeon most of the time.  When there’s a Dungeon Assistant that goes around delivering Cores to their deaths—”

“Tacca doesn’t deliver anything – she’s a valuable asset to our organization, and I won’t have you judging her harshly for what she does for us.  I don’t know how this nickname even started, but I suggest you keep this to yourself when you go fetch her,” she said with a look that promised harsh consequences if he messed up.

“I’m just supposed to bring her back…and that’s it?”

“Initially, yes.  It depends on whether she’s managed to get the Dungeon Core she was placed with to communicate with her or not; we know that it’s still there, so the possibility that she was successful is a good one.”

Why would a Core not communicate?  The idea of a Core not responding to a Bonded Dungeon Assistant was foreign to him, and nothing in his schooling had mentioned anything like that happening before.  Granted, he graduated at the same time as The Deliverer—Tacca—so he wasn’t as knowledgeable about those types of things, but he was pretty sure he would’ve learned about something like that.  “Why was she placed with an unresponsive Dungeon Core if she’s so valuable—?”

“It’s not your place to question our decisions,” Lily said sharply, before her face and tone softened…slightly.  “For just this once, however, I’ll explain a little.  Tacca is…unique…as I’m sure you know, and she helps us with…difficult…Dungeon Cores like the one she’s placed with now.  It’s because of her that relatively new Assistants – like yourself – aren’t assigned to a Core that could be detrimental to your personal growth.  I’m not going to go further into it, but you should be thanking Tacca, not treating her as some sort of scourge.”

Huh.  Shale IronSchist had difficulty reconciling his memories of Tacca GloomLily from DAPS and this supposed “importance” she had with the Council.  While he had never really joined in on the ridicule and derision towards the young, black-haired, pale, and “gloomy” Fairy, he shared many of the prejudices towards her.  It was probably because he himself had some different features than normal – with his dark grey hair and ruddy complexion due to his birth near shale stone in the Irontooth Mountains – but at least his origins weren’t portentous…just unusual.  Maybe we’re all wrong about her and her “bad luck” she supposedly possesses because of her birth.  Then again, maybe it’s this luck that causes so many Cores to be destroyed when she gets near them.

Regardless of his own thoughts on the strange Fairy, he didn’t argue with the Council Member and nodded his acceptance.  “I apologize…I will do as you ask.”

“Very good!  And if Tacca was able to get the Core up and running, I’d like you to take over while she’s placed elsewhere.  It’ll likely mean that you weren’t there for the initial selections, but I doubt the Core has progressed much from that point.”

That doesn’t make sense.  “Why would you take her away, then?  I was taught that the Bond between a Core and their Dungeon Assistant is stronger when it was created from the very beginning.  If she’s managed to do that, it seems unfair—”

“Again, it’s not your place to question our decisions.  Suffice it to say that her presence is more valuable to us somewhere else for the moment, and that you’ll be placed with a semi-new Dungeon Core that is likely set up for success.  Despite what you and everyone else seems to think about Tacca, she’s smarter than almost any other Assistant I’ve ever met, so I can guarantee that she would’ve done her best to develop the Core to the best of her abilities.  Of course, that all hinges on the potential that she was able to get it to communicate with her in the first place.”

“Ok, ok – I get it.  When do I leave?”  Shale was hoping to have a little time off after being prematurely pulled from his Mentor training, even though it hadn’t been that stressful of an experience.  The skeletons and zombies in the undead swamp-themed dungeon he had trained in were extremely well set-up by the Dungeon Core there, and Chrys (short for Chrysanthemum) was an excellent Mentor.

He had watched as she gave advice on how to expand the dungeon, and saw how successful the creatures and traps were as they worked together to challenge the Raiders as they invaded; he even was able to perceive the balance that every dungeon was supposed to achieve between danger and reward. That was made clear when three Raiders (who were obviously underpowered for the latter part of the dungeon) died from a combination of a wall-based spike trap and Skeleton Archer ambush.

“Right away, we need Tacca back as soon as possible.  You’ll have to have Tacca convince the Core to dissolve her Bond – if there is one – before she leaves, and then you can take over.  If it refuses, she can come back here and we’ll be able to do it, but it’ll be much easier and faster if she’s able to have it done herself.”

So, no vacation and I have to convince another Assistant to have her Bond broken with a Core she probably worked hard to even communicate with her in the first place.  This is going to be fun.  There was no point in arguing, so he told Lily that he would do it and mentally received his visual of the place he