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

– couldn’t do was get rid of another Core’s creatures, traps, or Environmental objects.  Once they were placed, only the Core that had placed it could absorb or even activate it, which Tacca was thankful for, because then she didn’t have to worry about the 6 new Cores now participating in her dungeon wiping out her defensive room traps for some reason, or altering what she had already painstakingly created.

Of course, even with all of those benefits, there were still the drawbacks that the others had to deal with: less Dungeon Force and Regeneration (though the 25% extra from a Special Characteristic did help), as well as the fragility they now shared with Tacca’s Core.  It wasn’t as significant when compared to the other benefits, but it was still something they had to worry about.

Plus, there was the abrupt feeling that they all shared, once they recognized it, that if only one of them was destroyed, then all of them would suffer for it.  Whether that meant they would be shattered as well, or if they only lost some of the shared Characteristics, none of them were quite sure.  All Tacca knew was that she now had even more reason to want to protect and nurture these Cores, until they grew strong enough to protect themselves.

The next day, when the arena opened back up, Tacca watched the fights alongside the other Cores, whom she couldn’t actually “see” in the room, but she could tangentially sense where their focus was.  All of the Dungeon Assistants were watching as well, far up above the arena near the ceiling in their invisible states, chatting softly enough that no one could hear them down below.

For the first time in her life, she felt like she was finally with family and friends – two things she had been sorely lacking ever since her parents had died not long after she was born.  Shale was a friend of sorts, but was also a Dungeon Assistant, which meant that he had technically been assigned to be her “friend”; that didn’t mean he didn’t achieve that status eventually, especially with all that they had gone through together, but it wasn’t quite the same.

But listening to him interact in friendly and familiar terms with the other Assistant Fairies, who all were very grateful for Tacca for connecting with their respective Cores (and who respected and admired Tacca’s dungeon, which – though it was vain – made her feel proud about), it seemed as if they might just be friends one day, working towards the same goals.  As for the 6 Cores that were now inextricably part of her life now, they felt like the family she had never had.

A slightly dysfunctional, unique family with their little quirks and odd opinions, but a family, nonetheless.

Tacca was again thankful that she’d had some experience with odd personalities when it came to Dungeon Cores, because although her new family was weird in their own ways, none of them were as odd or downright psychotic as her former Bonded Cores.  Brandon really liked movies – which she quickly discovered were “moving pictures”, an odd concept – and enjoyed quoting them, which all meant absolutely nothing to her, and something to only a few of the others who recognized only 1 out of 10 of his references.

Mackenzie, or Kenzie as she liked to be called, had been some sort of singer in her last life and enjoyed music.  Again, every “band” she referenced meant nothing to Tacca, and were either obscure or out of time with most of the others, but that didn’t seem to matter.  Every once in a while, Tacca could hear Kenzie either singing or humming something unrecognizable, but the other Core had a nice tone, regardless.

Karen was odd in the way she liked to complain about everything, though Tacca felt as if she wasn’t really serious about being annoyed by even big things.  After an hour, she ignored the complaints about the arena’s aesthetic, the way her creatures were just a little too ugly, how the tunnel to her own dungeon was just a tad too narrow, and 50 other things that weren’t really problems.  Before long, the droning of her complaining voice faded into the background, and she could tell the others had started to ignore her as well.

Patrick was apparently a huge sports fan, so he was right at home with the arena and the intense fights.  He kept wanting to bet with the others on how quickly the creatures would be defeated, or on which one would get killed first…or last…or even which one would be killed 4th.  Not that they had anything to bet with, granted, but he kept trying anyway without any takers.

Regina had been some sort of merchant back when she was in the other world, or what she expressed was a Financial Analyst.  She spoke in clipped sentences, had a rather strange vocabulary, and preferred evaluating and recommending ways for Tacca to decrease her resource expenditures while still gaining the same results.  There were likely some interesting theories in all that Regina said, but it was wrapped in so many words she didn’t understand that it would take some time to decipher it.  Being how she was, of course, Tacca planned on talking more with the number-centric Core in the future, because she was always eager to learn.

Lastly, David had been some kind of “gamer” back when he was walking around and alive, but Tacca wasn’t exactly sure what that meant.  He was rather quiet and didn’t seem to have much of an outgoing personality, unlike the others, but the times that Tacca did get him to speak he expressed that he thought he had been transported to this world after death because of his “mad skills”.  Actually, as he corrected as soon as he said it, it was “skillz” with a z…because, well, it just was.

“Are you serious?  That