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

She didn’t want to reduce the number of Canines stocked in her dungeon again, as she had already needed to do that to be able to afford the Control Limit needed for her armor-wearing creatures below.  What that basically left was temporarily absorbing the Human, Elf, or Gnome creatures so that she had something to play with.

However, before she could even get started, Tacca felt something strangely familiar enter her dungeon.  She didn’t panic, though, because it didn’t feel like a threat; on the contrary, when she looked, she found that it lifted her spirits and erased any shred of boredom she was suffering from.

The Hill Dwarves she had Bonded with were back – and they had brought friends.

She was tempted to wake Shale up from his hibernation, but decided against it.  He deserved his rest; even though she envied it a bit, she didn’t want to take that away from him.  Besides, this was likely to be a relatively normal delve through her dungeon, despite her strange eagerness to see her two Bonded again.  That odd feeling when she saw them made her suddenly glad that she had only later Bonded those Raiders that were already dying in her dungeon, because now she really didn’t want the two Hill Dwarves to perish while making their way through her dungeon.

“So, you said you’ve been in here before?  What was it like?” one of the new Raiders with the male Hill Dwarf said – an Elf that appeared to be some sort of Fighter Class.  From what she had been taught, and through her own observations, one of the Elven race being a front-line Class was rare, though not unheard-of.  They tended to be Casters, Healers, or Scouts because of their natural agility and affinity for magical spells, so seeing one wearing ragged leather armor and wielding a sword was…different.  Again, it wasn’t unheard of; Tacca hadn’t yet seen any Elves that had a Fighter or equivalent Class since she had opened up for delving, though.

The male Human that accompanied them was wearing a robe and was carrying an iron mace, similar to the male Hill Dwarf, though in the Human’s case the Dungeon Core thought he was a Healer, rather than a Fighter.  The smaller Gnome leading the others was obviously a Scout, though if she remembered correctly, the Raiders just called them “Ranged”; Scout was just how they were classified for her own creatures.  Instead of a bow, which seemed to be the normal weapon of choice for the class, Tacca could see a brace of throwing knives strapped to either wrist.  From what she knew, it took a little more skill to use those types of weapons, so he was obviously somewhat skilled – or overconfident.  Only time will tell, I guess.

None of them looked extraordinary, however, as they were wearing travel-stained clothing and armor that seemed to be the normal gear that the novice Raiders tended to wear, as well as using standard-issue weaponry – other than the Scout, of course.  The male Hill Dwarf still had his shield and mace he had picked up in her dungeon the last time he was there, which put him slightly apart from the other Fighter in the bunch.  I’m just glad that those two didn’t arrive with some of these “Merchant”-types; I’m not exactly sure how I would feel about that.

“It…was difficult.  We nearly died—” the male Hill Dwarf started to say, before a look from the Caster that had accompanied him last time stopped him mid-sentence.

“Yes, we were both extremely injured,” the female Hill Dwarf interrupted him, taking over the explanation.  “Fortunately, there is a room in here that heals your wounds, so we were able to fix ourselves up before we ran for our lives.”

Obviously, they took my warning not to share details about their experience in here seriously.  She had been slightly worried that they might blab about what had happened to them, which would put them in danger.  Not just them, though – but Tacca, as well; other Raiders might think that some sort of strange component of the dungeon was automatically going to help them (which would not have been entirely horrible)…or that the Core was somehow trying to infiltrate the minds of her Bonded to “possess” them or something (which would have been a very bad situation).  That they didn’t know the exact details of what happened to them probably wouldn’t matter, as the mystery would be enough to endanger Tacca as groups more powerful than she had seen might come to investigate.

That was something imperative to avoid, at least until she had a means to stop them from destroying her Core out of worry over something strange and unknown.

 “I’d heard about that room, which is like nothing I’ve ever heard of before,” the Elf continued, before looking down out of what Tacca thought might be shame.  “Though, it’s not like I’ve heard a lot; this is my—our—first delve through a dungeon,” she said, gesturing to the Human and Gnome, who nodded in response.

“I’m glad you’ve been here before, because there was no way we could afford a map.  Is that how you became the Chief of the village at the bottom of the mountains?  And how you were able to cut the line to get in here when you wanted to?” the Gnome suddenly asked, not looking at the Hill Dwarf. He was looking around for any threats instead, but he was also obviously listening to everything the others said.

“Ah…you heard about that?” the male Fighter said with a little chuckle.  “Well, there’s not much to tell, really…”  Her Bonded went on to explain in very limited detail how he and the Caster had been the ones to find Tacca’s dungeon, and their “reward” for that was a few measly gold coins that were used to start building up The Village to handle the crowds of Raiders. In