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

that the dungeon will help, only that there will be an answer to the east in 2 weeks.  Will that answer be yes or no?” Mordecai asked.

“I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.”

You certainly will see…something.  Now I’ve got to get on it, before I run out of time.  There were only about 2 months left before the first vestiges of winter hit, so she had to get moving.

As soon as they left, passing through her exit tunnel to the outside, Shale professed his doubts.  “This is a major undertaking, Tacca.  And I’m not sure you should be doing it in the first place.  It could be extremely dangerous.”

I know, but it could also be a nice solution, too.  In fact, you should probably let Malachite know about what I’m planning, so that there is some transparency here.

“Are you sure?  I can keep it a secret if you want.”

Yes, I’m sure.  Besides, this’ll be just like the Nursery he had me build, so it’s only fair.

Her Dungeon Assistant looked skeptical.  “I’m not sure you can compare the two, but I see what you’re getting at.”  Shale sighed heavily.  “Fine, I’ll tell him tomorrow, when I can see what exactly you have in mind.  I would like to make it plain, though, that I’m not fully on board with this, though I could change my mind once I’ve seen the sorts of precautions you put in place.”

Don’t worry, it’ll be safe.  I’m not reckless, just unlucky.

“I wouldn’t say you’re all that unlucky, Tacca.”

What do you mean?  Of course I am.

“Well, you somehow miraculously survived being destroyed, you’ve developed your Core faster than any other Core in the history of the world, and you have thousands of Raiders wanting to delve through your dungeon.  Plus, there’s one other thing you have that disproves your theory.”

And what’s that?

“You have an awesome Dungeon Assistant, that’s what.  I’d say you’re pretty lucky.”  He smiled at her Core innocently, and she couldn’t help but be affected by it.

You sure are the modest type, aren’t you?

“You know it.  Anyway, quit talking and get to work, especially if you’re going to get these highly dangerous, unpredictable, and potentially world-shaping changes done in the two weeks you’ve allotted for it.”

Yes, yes – I’m working on it as we speak. 

This was either going to be the greatest thing a Dungeon Core had ever tried…or it was going to blow up in her figurative face.  Either way, it was an exciting time to be a Core.

Chapter 18

Tacca started the project off to the east, near where she had created some of the first Nursery spaces, though much nearer to the surface.  Digging a 3-inch-wide tunnel was easy enough to do to get there, and once she was where she wanted to start – approximately 100 feet away from the hillside surface at the bottom of the Wentrylock mountain range – Tacca began by making a massive room.  It was slow-going, since she could only remove so much dirt and rock at a time, but it was still worlds faster now that she was CI Level 21 compared to when she had first constructed her original dungeon over a year ago.  The Dungeon Force required to Carve Earth was fairly negligible, too – at only 5 DF per minute – which was easily supplemented by Shale with his Transmutation ability, or even at the expense of making those Raiders outside wait for an extra couple of minutes before their turn was up.

By the time night rolled around, she had managed to Carve out a rectangular-shaped room, 100 feet tall, 50 wide, and 10 feet deep.  It was the height and width she wanted, now all she needed to do was deepen it further into the mountains, until it was at least 500 feet deep.  In order to support all of the weight above, she had learned through experimentation that she needed some columns in the middle of the room, which she started building out of the stone that most of her dungeon was composed of.  Thick, 5-foot-square pillars reached up to the ceiling, holding up the roof of the room with preternatural strength, until nothing short of the mountain collapsing would shift even the slightest portion of her creation.

Even though it took a little concentration, and she wasn’t technically doing it for herself, she had to admit that she was having fun with the scope of her objective.  The next 12 hours were spent deepening the room, until it was 50 feet deep, then 100, and finally 150 feet; a column every 30 feet was required for support, but otherwise the rest of the space was basically empty – though it wouldn’t be for long.

“Tacca, are you okay if I skip out for a moment and let the Council Leader know what’s going on?  I think it’s about time, especially if you’re still thinking about…you know.”

Sure, Shale – I’ll just be here building.

Her Dungeon Assistant Translocated out from her Core Room, and Tacca immediately felt the loss of the Energy Transmutation he had been providing.  Focusing on who was going through her two dungeon sections, however, she thought she would be fine right now even without it.  Her original dungeon was fairly negligible when it came to the DF required to restock everything, but her newest one was only resource intensive when she had multiple groups going through the more difficult part one after another.  Right now there was only a low-Level Raider group going through the easier part, taking their time; she was already automatically replacing what they had killed behind them, so it was easy enough to manage her DF flow.

She was an hour into the continued Carving of her project when she suddenly heard from Shale.

“Tacca, we’ve got a problem!”

What’s wrong?

There was silence for a little bit, before