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

originally protested creating a building that was to be used exclusively for the “leadership” of The Village, especially when there were so many visitors that needed somewhere to stay.  It was why he had been so adamant about constructing the Inns, because the more Raiders that stayed inside their walls, the less there would be camping outside at night, creating somewhat of a dirty tent city in an empty field left unplanted for them.  Even with 18 Inns, though, their capacity wasn’t enough to fulfill the need; they couldn’t really create any more, however, because they were essentially out of room.  Unless they started to eliminate more farmland, which was the last thing anyone in The Village wanted to do.

Hence, he initially hadn’t agreed to the construction of The Village’s governmental building, because it had taken up too much space – space that could be used to build another Inn.  Later, though, it had been explained to him that they really needed a specific place where the authority in the area could be reliably found, and which could be used to house those connected to the running of the whole operation.  Not only would he – as the “Chief” – and Gwenda be living there now, but Jesper and his crew of Raider organizers would live in the building, freeing up room from one of the Inns nearby.

This was beneficial, of course, but it was the real reason they needed to build the structure that convinced him.

“We need somewhere to store our income; it’s as plain and simple as that,” Gwenda had told him when he originally questioned the need for the building.

“What do you mean?”

She had just smiled at him.  “You do realize that we’re making a bit of money here, don’t you?” she asked, before explaining further.  “Granted, most of the income from the Inns and the Supply Store has gone right back into paying for food, wages for those we’ve hired for help, more supplies, and towards constructing additional Inns.  Even with those expenses, there’s still a sizable chunk left over.  It’ll be split between every one of the original villagers, of course, but right now it’s more than any of them want to store either on themselves or in their homes.  We need somewhere secure where we won’t have to worry about keeping track of it – that’s where this building comes in.”

Sterge hadn’t realized they had been doing so well, so with Gwenda’s explanation he had felt a little better about constructing the governmental building.  Unlike the others, this one had a basement vault of sorts, though until they were able to find material to make it even more secure it was basically just a stone-brick box with a metal door secured in the entryway.  Someone with enough time and strength could break into it by physically destroying the structure, but it was still much more secure than trying to stash hundreds of copper and silver coins throughout everyone’s houses.

The Hill Dwarf finished up a few more details along the outside of the Inn that was just finished, leaving the furnishing and minimal decoration along the inside to those assigned the tasks.  As far as Sterge was concerned, he was done with the project – and what a project it was.  This last Inn was by far the biggest, tallest, and most impressive building in The Village; after quite a bit of practice constructing them, he and his core group of construction workers had decided to make their last Inn a bit fancier than the rest.  It stretched up 4 floors, had a wider bottom floor and common room than the others, and each bedroom was just slightly larger than the others they had created.  It wasn’t “luxury” by any means, but it certainly was going to be nicer than the others.

Since it wasn’t quite done yet on the inside as far as the kitchen and common room (though the lower half of the Inn already had residents renting rooms), Sterge went to his favorite Inn for dinner.  The Farmer’s Hope was the first Inn that they had constructed, and though he looked at it with a more scrutinizing eye now that he had much more experience perfecting his construction techniques, the comparatively ramshackle Inn held a place in his heart.

He wasn’t surprised to see Gwenda arriving just before him, saving him a seat in the busy common room after she acquired her own.  She was lucky to have found a place to sit, in fact, as occasionally it was standing room only around dinner time; a few times they had been forced to eat holding their food in their hands, though it wasn’t that much of a hardship.

Sterge sat next to her and relayed his thanks for saving him a seat, nodding to the 3 other people sharing their wooden table before looking around for a server.  It appeared as though the real rush hadn’t started for dinner quite yet, though that didn’t mean that those working in the Inn weren’t being run ragged already. He caught the eye of one of the Elven servers and held up 2 fingers, indicating they wanted meals for the both of them, before he hesitated and looked back at the others at the table.

They were three Raiders by the look of them, which wasn’t surprising since 98% of the people visiting their village were part of the Clan.  Unlike most of the Raiders they saw, however, these three were staring down at their drinks – which appeared to be water, from what he could tell – with morose expressions on their faces and not the usual excitement and bravado he normally saw.  Not only that, but they looked malnourished with their skinny bodies and exhausted postures.  Seeing that, Sterge caught the eye of the server again and held up all 5 fingers, before turning to Gwenda.

“How was your day today?” she suddenly asked before