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

I’m trying to design my own creatures; I know that it can be done, but the actual method of doing it escapes me.  There’s something that I’m missing here, and I don’t know what it is.

“Why are you even doing that?  Don’t you already have access to more creatures and Variants than probably any other Core in history?”  The Dungeon Fairy smiled at her, shaking his head at what he probably perceived as foolish.

That’s not the point.  I thought that, given the opportunity to be in charge of a Dungeon Core, I might be able to figure it out.  It…doesn’t feel good to fail at something like this.  Tacca had been so confident that she would figure it out right away that it was a real blow to her ego when nothing seemed to work.  The former Dungeon Fairy had almost always excelled at these kinds of things, at least while studying at DAPS, and the fact that the trick with unlocking the entire Canine Family had worked gave her a boost of confidence.  A confidence that was rapidly eroding as time went on without any results.

Shale sighed, before leaning up against her Core.  “I can understand what you’re trying to do, but maybe it isn’t possible.  I’m sure we were taught the same thing about how the creatures and their Variants were all created in the past; while our instructors didn’t expressly say it was impossible, the fact that none of the Cores over the past 20 or 30 millennia have figured out how to do it is telling,” he said softly, before holding up his hands.  “Now, I’m not saying that you can’t figure it out, because you’ve already proved to be quite clever at things like that. Even with that, you also have to realize that you’re not at the pinnacle of Dungeon Core development.  To most Assistants, you’d still be considered a ‘baby’ Core – you haven’t even existed for a year yet!  Give it some time, and perhaps the solution will come to you.”

When did you get so wise? Tacca couldn’t help but laugh at her frustration, especially considering that what he said was basically true.  She was still in the “baby” stages of her development and couldn’t be expected to know it all.  For all she knew, her Core Improvement Level needed to be 20, or 30, or even 50 before any of her experiments worked.  She didn’t know enough about the limitations, requirements, or procedures of how creatures were manipulated into being different, and it was likely that she wouldn’t know until she finally succeeded.  That she would eventually succeed wasn’t in doubt, because she was determined to figure it out…but it might take a while.

Her Dungeon Assistant stretched his hands above his head and smiled mischievously.  “I’ve always been this wise!  I just needed a long nap for it to come out.”  The mischievousness in his smile faded when he asked, “So, what did I miss?”

Having Shale back and awake was a balm to her bruised ego, and Tacca almost immediately felt better.  She explained what had happened inside of her dungeon with the Raiders delving through, including the visit by the two Hill Dwarves and their new group (though she purposely neglected to tell him about her communication with them…again), and more details about what she had done to try to design new creatures.

“Why didn’t you wake me up?  I would’ve liked to have seen those two again, if only to see if I could witness this ‘Dungeon Sight’ in action like you can.”

Sorry about that; I was going to, but it looked like you needed to rest even more.  I promise I’ll wake you up the next time they delve through.  Tacca was sure they would return, even if it were only once a month, because they seemed to enjoy fighting against her creatures this time; she wasn’t sure if it were due to it being easier and less dangerous or because they had a full group, though.  Regardless, she knew they’d be back.

The rest of the week was relatively uneventful, other than the fact that they started to see more of the “Merchant” Raiders delving through.  Tacca explained what she had overheard from the two Bonded Hill Dwarves regarding this other faction of Raiders, and he was as ignorant about them as she was.  “I agree with you, though. It sounds as though, if they were able to gain control of the land outside the dungeon, they might stifle the constant flow of Raiders visiting here.  I’m not sure what we can do about that, however, or even if we should do anything about it.”

That was absolutely true; Tacca had already stepped over the boundaries of what was normally allowed by communicating with them in the first (and second) place, and doing anything overt outside of her dungeon might have destructive consequences.  As in, her Core might be destroyed if she attempted to alter events out of her normal sphere of influence.

Other than the reappearance of the Merchant Raiders, which consumed most of her attention as she watched them more than the other Raiders (but not obsessively, like she had done before), the days and nights were relatively boring.  Having Shale awake and keeping her company helped, but she was still getting bored.

Shale? A thought had occurred to her nearly a week after he had woken up from his Hibernation.  Tacca was about halfway through the month towards her next Countdown, and while she calculated that she was on track to achieve two-thirds of the required CIPs to improve her CI Level, she also figured she might as well see if she could add to that total somehow.  What will happen if I change things in my dungeon?

“You know the answer to that more than anyone, Tacca.  Changes within a dungeon should only be performed during transitional