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

clear, the Raiders leaving their dead behind in their reluctance to see any more death than they already had, Tacca used the help of the others to start absorbing bodies.  It was particularly disgusting work, mainly because she had them only absorb the bodies themselves, leaving all of the gear behind.

“Why?  It’ll be so much easier to just absorb it all.  Besides, it’s not like the others will need it,” Patrick asked.

Because I’ve noticed that the mortal races like to keep some sort of souvenir from their dead, I think in remembrance.

“Ah, I think I’ve noticed something like that from them, too.  Sort of like dog-tags, I guess.  I don’t blame them.”

Tacca wasn’t sure what dog-tags were, but the others seemed to understand.  It took a few hours to fully clean up all of the intact corpses, detached body parts, and blood everywhere, including the bodies of the invaders.  They left their weapons in case any of the Raiders could use them, even if they were oversized, because it was possible they might be able to figure out how their impossibly sharp edges worked.  In addition, the strange devices that the purple-skinned invaders had worn around their bodies were left, on the thought that some investigation could prove fruitful.

Unfortunately, none of the other Cores could make heads or tails of it.

“I was a gamer, not an engineer.  I may have some knowledge of what these things might or might not do, but as for how they work – I have no idea.  All I can say is that it is extremely advanced technology compared to what I grew up with on Earth.”

None of the others seemed to have any other ideas either, but they did learn through their conversations that not only did all of the other Cores come from Earth, but they were all from the same few decades of the timeline there – despite Regina being the oldest of them at a little over 400 years, and the youngest (Brandon) at just over a century and a half.  Not only that, but Regina was apparently from a time that occurred after Brandon had died.  It was strange, indeed, but it didn’t really help them figure out how this invader technology worked.  Other than it being completely inert, that was.  Whatever her Omen Charge ability had done, it had turned the strange device basically into a heavy brick of metal and other unidentifiable materials, unable to do a single thing.

After that was complete, they worked together to create some additional rooms along the tunnel linking her dungeon (which was strange to say, since it was technically part of them all now) to the Nursery, which they then filled in with trap after trap after trap.  Most of them were done by Tacca, though, as it was soon evident that the same handicap that had plagued her efforts when she first began also hindered the CI Level 1 Cores, meaning that they couldn’t place too many traps without stressing their Cores.

After that, Tacca added another room to the tunnel leading from the arena (which was in the ceiling, similar to the one to the Nursery) to her defensive room.  In this one, she decided to adopt what she had done to help kill the red-skinned invader, by creating large blocks of heavy iron ore high above the room, while keeping the ceiling intact using a very thin layer of stone.  She had to go in from the side of the tunnel ahead of the room in order to access the 6 different chutes that held the “handmade” traps, but it was worth it to keep the danger hidden until they were needed.  Plus, when they were needed, it was easy enough to eat away at the stone platform underneath the iron ore, though timing would be critical to make sure it fell when she needed it to.

It was something she’d never really thought about creating before, because it went contrary to the idea of traps in a dungeon.  Normally, traps that were placed would automatically be rearmed and put back to its original state as long as there was enough Dungeon Force to apply to them; their reusability and reduced cost for replacement was what made them so useful, so that brand-new traps didn’t have to be created each time they were either activated or Disarmed.  But what she made in this room – as well as the one in the arena – were single-use, meaning that they couldn’t just be reset automatically.  They went contrary to everything she had been taught such that it felt anathema to even contemplate using them, but use them she did.  Whatever she needed to do to ensure her and the others’ safety took precedence over her own reluctance.

The Raiders stayed in the Hall the entire next day, as well as the next, as they mourned their losses; Tacca mourned right along with them.  While she didn’t know many of them other than by sight, she felt responsible for them, almost as if they were her children.  Granted, they were dangerous children that delved through her dungeon and occasionally died as a result, but that couldn’t change the fact that she didn’t want to kill them.

Eventually, they came back to the arena in small groups, though none of them seemed eager to actually use it for its original purpose.  Instead, they were extremely thankful that all of their friends’ belongings had been left behind, and within a few hours they had taken all of it with them, either to be reused or as a remembrance of those that had fallen in the battle.

“I have to say, as much as all of this sucked, it did have a silver lining.”

Tacca didn’t think anything good had come from so much death like Patrick inferred, other than learning what her Omen Charge ability could do, of course.

Such as?

“Well, I’m not sure