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

somehow survived when the Core was destroyed.  At the time, we concluded that it had to do with her own bad luck rather than any outside forces – and so it proved afterward as she helped us take care of some ‘issues’.”

The Head Instructor was about to say something in response before he checked himself and scrunched up his face in thought.  “Wait…you’re not talking about Tacca GloomLily, are you?”

It took the Council leader a moment of recollection before the name came back to him.  “Yes, I believe that was her name.”

“Was?  Did something happen to her?  Because if not, we should probably talk to the one that was there when this all started.”

Malachite shook his head.  “She died some time ago, unfortunately – or maybe that was a good thing.  She single-handedly helped to eliminate nearly all of our problem Cores before she died, so there weren’t really any others that it was safe for her to Bond with.”

“Huh, that’s convenient.  And a shame; she might have been able to give us some insight into what’s going on.  While I don’t regret treating her badly because of her birth, because I was right about her, I wish we had held onto her rather than let her start Bonding with Dungeon Cores.”

That was intriguing.  “Why is that?”

“She was extremely intelligent – smarter than anyone else I’ve seen graduate from DAPS.  Even with my millennia of experience on her, I dare say she might have been smarter than me, and you, combined.  I think she read every single book, tome, and scroll in our library at least once – which isn’t something that even I have done.  She would’ve been an asset at DAPS…if it weren’t for her ominous birth.  I’m afraid that I erred by pushing her out at the first opportunity; no one could determine exactly when the bad luck associated with her birth would rear its ugly head and strike – and we didn’t want to be there when it did.”  The Council leader was looking at the Head Instructor of DAPS as he was speaking, so he saw the flash of fear in Lapis’ eyes when he mentioned the bad luck of the unfortunate Dungeon Assistant.

“I can well imagine the difficulty of that decision, but it wasn’t your fault what happened to her – nor to the Core that was destroyed along with her Mentor.  You had no way of knowing exactly what would happen, and it turned to be a boon to us in managing quite a few recalcitrant Dungeon Cores.”

“I suppose that’s true.  However, that just means that we’re no closer to knowing why all of this—” Lapis waved his hand at the map— “is happening.  I suppose we can try to contact more of the Dungeon Assistants that survived and see what they have to say?”  He didn’t seem too confident about it, but the Council leader didn’t see any harm in it.  Besides, the Head Instructor knew every Dungeon Assistant on a first-name basis – mainly because he had helped to teach many of them over the years – and he might be able to pick out some information that Lily and the others may have missed.

As he let Lapis know where to find information about those that had survived, Malachite flew over the map and looked down at the world filled with little lights indicating Dungeon Cores.  It was a little sparse compared to how he remembered it looking a little over a year ago.  There were a half-dozen new Dungeon Cores that had sprung up here and there as the ones that were destroyed (either from Tacca’s handiwork or through this mysterious cause) were replaced with new Cores.

In normal times, the destruction of a dungeon might happen once a year or even every other year, and the replacement would easily slide into place without upsetting the balance more than a nudge here and there. With the destruction of so many Cores lately, even if it stopped now, it was going to take decades to bring everything back into balance.  Thinking of that, he glanced up at the Balance Bar floating above the map.  Though, maybe not that long for the balance; to get back to normal numbers of Dungeon Cores will take decades, however.

Malachite wished he knew why the world wasn’t spiraling out of control with the disparity of primordial force – not that he was complaining.  Some of their most powerful dungeons had been destroyed lately, which was normally something to be extremely worried about when it came to the Balance.  It should’ve tipped the Bar down to worrisome levels towards the different races living on Gairth, but then he figured that the annihilation of the Conclave of Sages tipped it back up.  A little bit, at least.  He thought that it certainly helped, but for some reason it seemed like something – not of his making – was helping to maintain the balance.  Regardless, the result meant that they weren’t in danger right now of the world being ripped apart, but if this year was anything like the last one, the world might not be around to see another one.

If such a thing appeared destined to happen, he would initiate Defense Protocol 1 – complete dimensional evacuation.  There was a fallback position in one of the other dimensions they periodically did business with, ever since they had arranged to provide a few Dungeon Fairies every now and then for their dungeons.  It was a completely different branch from the DPRC, however, and Malachite rarely Translocated there – mainly because the Dungeon Fairies from different dimensions liked to stay autonomous and didn’t appreciate too much interference.  Providing a little help when it was needed wasn’t out of the question though, and the Council leader briefly thought about asking for help.

He quickly shook his head at his own thoughts as he dismissed it.  It might be