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

Sterge was more than aware of what he was talking about; he might be a little slow when it came to some things, but he could certainly understand how the other Raiders might view their “cutting in line”.  However, “budging” like this was something that they could only do once a week, and he had promised their new groupmates that he would get them inside the dungeon tomorrow.

“Are you sure you want to delve tomorrow?” Jesper asked plainly, giving them a chance to back out if they wanted to.

He nodded along with Gwenda.  “Yes, we’re sure,” he replied without hesitation.

“Well, then, you’re all set.  I’m not putting you on the official list, because that could cause even more problems, but everyone involved will know you’re coming.  When you arrive, you may need to wait for the current group to finish before going in, but the wait usually isn’t that long.  Good luck, and good delve, you two.”  Jesper was already back to his paperwork by the time they were closing the door to his office.

“Well, that’s it.  We better get some sleep as well if we’re going to be any good tomorrow,” Sterge said with a yawn.  That earned him a playful punch in his shoulder.

“Speak for yourself – I’m always good,” Gwenda said with a grin, before giving him a small peck on his cheek and heading up the stairs to her personal rooms.

Sterge smiled and followed her up the stairs, turning in the direction opposite to her own. As he was falling asleep on his comfortable bed a few minutes later, he couldn’t help but think about the dungeon – and whether they would successfully complete it this time.

Chapter 16

Tacca’s planned purpose through the next few months was just to keep things running smoothly and acquire as many CIPs as she could. Whenever she hit her next Core Improvement Level and was able to get rid of the biggest obstacle holding her back, she had a feeling that the development towards her goals would be quite impressive. Unfortunately, she also knew that it wasn’t going to happen right away, and it was likely going to take at least 2 months before she accumulated the 1,133 CIPs she needed to get to CI Level 9.  Of course, that didn’t really help with the boredom.

Is there something that normal Dungeon Cores possess instinctively that prevents them from feeling bored?  Because I can’t believe that I’ve never heard of them complaining about boredom before.  She first thought that it might be something that was never mentioned because it was just something that would happen no matter what, but then she didn’t hear any mention of ways a Dungeon Assistant could help stave off that boredom.  Because, just as she had been in sort of a bored trance before and had nearly missed her countdown – as well as performing some unconscious actions – boredom could have potentially bad consequences.

Shale, for his part, could use his Hibernate ability to pass the time – which he did almost a few days after she had Leveled up, stating he was going to sleep for a week and check up on her.  She couldn’t really blame him, though, because he had been going pretty much non-stop since he had arrived, with minor naps every now and again.

Theoretically, she could also Hibernate – but that probably wouldn’t be a good idea.  For one, she wasn’t sure if she could wake up from it in time if there were a serious threat to her dungeon or her Core. Two, while the creatures and traps would (hopefully) automatically restock themselves even if she wasn’t mentally present to direct them, there was no way to be sure they would do so if she were Hibernating. Thirdly, she wouldn’t be able to dictate the order in which the creatures and traps restocked themselves, and there would be no way to alert the next Raider group that the dungeon was ready for them.  She had an excellent routine going, and she didn’t want to mess that up; “training” the Raiders to follow her directions had taken some effort, after all.

Therefore, before she let boredom get ahold of her mind again – which seemed too soon to her, since it had only been about 6 weeks since her dungeon had been found – she turned the majority of her attention to the lower part of her dungeon, where she had room to experiment and possibly expand.  She didn’t have a lot of Dungeon Force to use, since a lot of it was tied up in running the dungeon rooms the Raiders were delving through, but she still had some to play with; she had ended up using quite a bit of it before her countdown ended to create hundreds of traps, after all.

She couldn’t make more traps right now, though, as she was pretty much at the limit of what she could maintain without jeopardizing her Core.  She was sure if there were an emergency she could place a few more, but without eliminating the ones she had protecting her enchanted-gear-wearing Human, Elf, Gnome, and Hill Dwarf creatures – and her Core, of course – there wasn’t much play to with, trap-wise.  She was hesitant to remove what she had placed, as well, because she was confident they would help to protect her if she were attacked again.

That left constructing additional rooms, or environmental objects, or experimenting with creatures.  The first two were easy enough to do and didn’t really interest her, but creatures were something else entirely.  She wasn’t as free to experiment as she wanted to be, however, as every point of her Control Limit was being used to maintain her dungeon up above, as well as her protective creatures down below.