The Dungeon Fairy: Three Lives: A Dungeon Core Escapade
Date: 2021-02-18 05:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Fantasy
Description: “You only live thrice, am I right?” Tacca GloomLily wasn’t sure how she had barely survived a sudden invasion by the mysterious and deadly six-armed, blue-skinned figures…but survive, she did. After the synergy explosion that destroyed her Core, the Dungeon Fairy-turned-Dungeon Core needs to rebuild everything from the ground up. Thankfully, with no nearby Raider presence, she’ll not only be able to reconstruct her original dungeon section, but she’ll also be able to finish the new section she had been working on when she had been so rudely interrupted. The attack by the mysterious people insi
Publisher: Independently published

The Dungeon Fairy: Three Lives

A Dungeon Core Escapade

The Hapless Dungeon Fairy Series

Book 3

Jonathan Brooks

Cover Design: Yvonne Less, Art 4 Artists

Edited by: Celestian Rince

Copyright ©2021 Jonathan Brooks

All rights reserved.  No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

The following is a work of fiction.  Any names, characters, businesses, corporations, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner.  Any resemblance to any actual persons, places, or events is purely coincidental.

Cover Design Copyright ©2021 Yvonne Less, Art 4 Artists

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank all my Patrons on Patreon who are supporting me through my writing endeavors, while also giving me valuable feedback on my works-in-progress!

In addition, I want to thank my beta-readers, who have shape this book to what it is today:

Aaron Connelly

Aaron Wiley

Alex Canavan

Alex Sawatzky

Brian O’Neil

Brian Oles

Gevan Eldredge

Grant Harrell

Nate Martin

Rea Semei Solomon

Rickie Brown

Tyler Giesel

Zack Devney

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Recap

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Final Stats

Author’s Note

Books by Jonathan Brooks

Recap

Tacca GloomLily was born under unusual and negatively portentous circumstances, leading the young Dungeon Fairy to suffer from prejudices and distrust due to the disastrous omens centered around her.  Most of her life she had discounted what people said about her as fictitious nonsense, but it turned out that the “bad luck” associated with her mere presence was in fact entirely true.  Fortunately for her, the adverse effects of her birth weren’t necessarily detrimental to her; unfortunately, the same couldn’t be said for the Dungeon Cores she was trained at the Dungeon Assistant Preparatory School (DAPS) to help guide as they entered the world.

After some orchestration by the Dungeon Placement and Regulatory Council (DPRC), Tacca was sent to dozens of “misbehaving” Dungeon Cores; her bad luck was used as a weapon to assassinate these Cores so that they could be replaced with another that would follow the rules.  Such acts weren’t only hard for the Dungeon Cores themselves, however – the poor Dungeon Assistant assigned to see them on their way suffered from the Bond between them being broken every single time.  The severing of their connection wasn’t fatal, though at times it hurt Tacca so much that she almost wished she had died.

Then came an assignment unlike the others.  A non-responsive Dungeon Core that wouldn’t talk to any of the Assistants sent to it, who would break the Bond between them as soon as it was established.  Her determination and persistence in trying to maintain the connection between them paid off in the end – but it resulted in the soul inhabiting the Core being destroyed.  At the same time, Tacca’s soul was sucked into the void left by the departure of the previous tenant inside the Dungeon Core, and her Fairy body was killed as a result.

Now a Dungeon Core, the former Dungeon Fairy – and still technically Dungeon Assistant – made the best of the situation by using her vast knowledge to create an unusual dungeon.  By using some tricks to allow her to have all the Variants of the creatures she chose to inhabit her dungeon, she was given a wide selection of Canines to choose from: Foxes, Dogs, Jackals, Coyotes, and even Wolves.  On the flip side, those advantages came with some serious detriments to her overall growth, with a 95% decrease in the Core Improvement Points she would normally receive and the inability to create higher-Leveled creatures without paying exorbitantly high Dungeon Force costs.

Added to those complications, the DPRC sent another Dungeon Assistant to find out what happened to Tacca when she didn’t report back.  Shale IronSchist eventually became Tacca’s new Assistant, though he only knew her as “Tamara” and the Core didn’t inform him of her actual identity until later.

Opening up to the outside world, Tacca discovered that she was far to the south in the Wentrylock Mountains on the continent of Abenlure – where no Dungeon Cores had ever existed before.  It took until the heavy snows melted before her dungeon was located and her first visitors were two farmers-turned-Raiders from a nearby village.  Despite their obvious inexperience – and aided by a deliberate decrease of the difficulty of her dungeon – the two Hill Dwarves, Sterge and Gwenda, managed to somehow survive until they reached the last room.  Instead of turning back right away, however, Sterge accidentally fell inside the room and caused all of the Canine creatures inside to attack.

Tacca was torn on whether to help them. She had already done a lot to ensure their survival to that point, her justification being that she needed them to live and leave her dungeon, if only to spread the word of her presence there in the mountains.  Ultimately deciding that she needed to stop them from dying with whatever she had at her disposal, the Dungeon Core resorted to Bonding with them so that she could heal them of their injuries – which had unintended results.

For one, Tacca now had access to create Hill Dwarves in the Melee and Caster Variants, as well as being able to assign Abilities to her creatures that matched what Sterge and Gwenda had available.  In return, the two Hill Dwarves acquired an Ability called Dungeon Sight that allowed them to temporarily pinpoint the locations of nearby creatures, traps, and environmental objects inside of a room at the expense of large amounts of stamina.  In addition, they also received a Power Boost +50%, which essentially increased the Power they would receive from killing creatures inside of a dungeon by 50% – a huge boon for any Raider.

Sterge and Gwenda, upon their return, decided to let the Raider Clan outpost know about the new dungeon – and collect their finder’s fee.  Even though the fee was much less than they were told, the two Hill Dwarves – along with the rest of the villagers back home – used the money on construction materials because, as they were warned, news about a brand-new dungeon would bring in hordes of new Raiders eager to improve themselves.

From the beginning of their construction of 18 inns, 2 warehouses, a “Town” Hall, and a Delver Supply Store run by a traveling merchant, they were indeed inundated with Raiders wanting to delve through the new dungeon to increase their Raider Levels and to acquire loot.  Fortunately for the beleaguered Sterge and Gwenda, Jesper Whittle – a representative of the Raider Delving Clan with some authority – stepped in to help regulate the influx of people into their small corner of the world.

If that was all they had to worry about, that would’ve been enough.  Sadly, a merchant from the Ministry of Merchants arrived, wanting to take over the whole situation by buying the land from The Village; when none of the villagers would sell their lease on the land, the Minister used underhanded tactics in an attempt to destroy the dungeon and stifle the business the village was operating.

Meanwhile, in the dungeon that was such a subject of attention, Tacca was finally open for her own business.  After an initial group of higher-Level Raiders arrived to evaluate her premises, she designed a way for groups to exit her dungeon from nearly every room, using a staircase leading to the surface that was cleverly hidden behind a Rotating Stone Bridge trap.  After realizing that most of her Core Improvement Points would come from Raider presence inside of her dungeon as opposed to Raider deaths, maximizing their time inside was important.

To this effort, she also designed a way to indicate when the next group could enter her dungeon: by having one of her Root Foxes appear at the entrance as an invitation to come inside.  By doing this, there were very few times when there wasn’t someone inside of her dungeon, allowing her to rapidly increase her own Core Improvement Levels and progress faster than she thought possible.  In addition, she also learned that if she Bonded with Raiders as they were about to die, she could acquire additional “creature” types and Variants, expanding her repertoire substantially.

After a failed attempt by the Ministry of Merchants to destroy her with some prohibitively expensive, over-enchanted, and powerfully protected new Merchant-Raiders to destroy her Core, Tacca was forced to retreat far underground.  The development of highly-concentrated and potent Enchantment traps were beneficial in her defense – including access to a new Life-based trap – as were her “guards”, which were equipped with the enchanted gear dropped by the Merchant-Raiders that had failed to kill her.

Tacca eventually acquired enough Points to increase her Core Improvement Level, and as a result was able to convert many of those CIPs into Special Characteristic Points in order to buy her way out of the negative Special Characteristics.  In far less than a year, she was able to eliminate her 95% reduction in CIPs earned as well as the reduction in her creatures’ levels, meaning she could start to grow and expand into a harder section for the Raiders to delve through.  She was finally on track for where she wanted to be, free from the restrictions that had held her back for what felt like forever.

All wasn’t as right in the wider world, however.  Back at the DPRC, it was discovered that all over the continent, Dungeon Cores were arbitrarily being destroyed despite having no reason to be destroyed.  The balance of primordial forces was slowly tilting towards the intelligent races of the world with every Core’s destruction – which was a nightmare scenario for the survival of the world.  If the forces became wildly out of balance, then the entire planet could be utterly destroyed.  As a last-ditch effort, the leader of the Council, Malachite, decided to go find out what the problem was by visiting with something called the Conclave of Sages.

When he arrived at the Conclave chambers, however, he found that the Sages – the most powerful Raiders in the world – had been brutally slaughtered, leaving no survivors.  Worse yet, it seemed as though they had barely even been able to put up a fight, and that who or whatever had killed them hadn’t arrived or left through the chamber’s doors…but by some method unknown to the Council Leader.  When he Translocated back to the DPRC only an hour later, he found that the rest of the Council Leadership had also disappeared, along with everyone else that had worked there.

By utilizing the investigative capabilities of Lapis, the Head Instructor of DAPS, to discover what was happening to the Dungeon Cores of the world, Malachite discovered that there were two types of destruction happening.  One type involved Cores being destroyed but their Fairies were set free; these were almost always accompanied by reports that Raiders of some type were the ones responsible.  The other type had no survivors at all, as well as having no reports of who exactly the culprits were.

Unfortunately, Tacca and dozens of Raiders waiting outside of her dungeon potentially discovered these culprits.  Blue and purple-skinned, 8-foot-tall, six-armed monster people arrived out of nowhere, slaughtering everything they came up against with impunity.  Strange glowing shields seemed to protect them from any damage either from spells or weapons, and a small metal contraption also prevented Shale from translocating away.  Not only that, but it muted Tacca’s sense of her own dungeon the further they progressed.

Through her Dungeon Assistant’s help and her powerful Enchantment traps protecting her Core Room, Tacca was able to not only delay these mysterious invaders, but to kill all but 1 of them.  That last one made it to her Core room and tried to destroy her, only to be paralyzed by one of the Core’s Fairy abilities, giving her last-second plan time to succeed.  By utilizing the initial “synergy” explosion caused by pairing an evolved creature and its unevolved forms together, she was able to create a powerful shockwave – along with the release of the forces inside of the pair of Raider’s bottomless bags she had acquired – that destroyed the purple-skinned leader of the invaders.

The shockwave was too fast, however, and as Tacca attempted to Teleport away to safety further up her dungeon, she was caught in mid-transition.  While the rest of her dungeon was destroyed, including all of her creatures, traps, and environmental objects, somehow the Dungeon Core survived, only to be trapped in some sort of dimensional “bubble” for months.  When she finally emerged from the “bubble” back into the world, she found that she was changed, her Core etched all over almost as if she had been shattered and then put back together.

With The Village nearby evacuated and no one coming to visit her dungeon, Tacca used the time after she recovered from her experience to rebuild her dungeon, as well as finishing her newer section.  However, the unexplained circumstances of the mysterious blue-skinned invaders still haunted her as she struggled to make sense of everything that happened…and she wasn’t the only one.

Chapter 1

“I don’t understand; where did these things even come from?”

Council Leader Malachite didn’t have an answer for the other Fairy, just as he hadn’t had one since they had gotten back from visiting Tacca’s dungeon.  That still seems strange even thinking about the circumstances that led to a Dungeon Assistant being sucked into a Core; such a thing shouldn’t even be possible.

Head Instructor Lapis didn’t even acknowledge the silence from the Council Leader – probably because he never really listened to Malachite unless he felt like it.  That’s not really fair; he listens, but it feels like he doesn’t even care what I say sometimes.  It had been extremely annoying at first, but the head of the Dungeon Placement and Regulatory Council was starting not to care so much anymore.  He chose to ignore the self-important Head Instructor as he concentrated on what he did know.

The Conclave of Sages, composed of the strongest Raiders in the world, had all been slaughtered in their chambers.

Every member of the DPRC except for Malachite was missing (not killed like the Sages, as far as he could tell), with no indication of where they fled or were taken to.

For more than a year, there had been a steady destruction of Dungeon Cores, along with their Dungeon Assistant Fairies.

The Balance Bar floating above the map in the Council room was tipping dangerously towards the intelligent races of Gairth.

Lastly, and the most concerning, was the sudden knowledge that some force other than Raiders was taking part in the destruction of Dungeon Cores.

It was this last one that Lapis was speaking of when he questioned what the monstrous, six-armed, blue-skinned people were that Tacca and her Dungeon Assistant, Shale IronSchist, described.  They had appeared out of nowhere, killed dozens of Raiders that had been queuing up outside for the dungeon without difficulty, and had invaded the former Assistant’s dungeon, killing another group of Raiders within, as well.  Not only that, but somehow they were able to suppress the accumulation of Tacca’s Dungeon Force, and later her use of Fairy Mana; again, something that should be impossible.  Dungeon Force originated from the primordial energy that permeated the planet, taken in and used/manipulated by both the intelligent races and Dungeon Cores – though in completely different ways.  It was this use of the primordial energy by both sides that led to the balance that kept the world from tearing itself apart; if one side, such as the current situation with the intelligent races they were finding themselves in, had more power, they would use more of this energy in a certain way that would cause an imbalance.  It was only when everything was in balance that the world would exist in harmony.

Something was upsetting that balance in favor of the Raiders, and it wasn’t something that Malachite knew enough about to reverse the trend.  Neither did Head Instructor Lapis, which was why the other Fairy was practically ripping his hair out trying to understand.  The head of the Dungeon Assistant Preparatory School didn’t like the ignorance he was suddenly plagued with.

“The way I see it, there are two possible explanations,” Lapis went on, speaking to himself as much as he was the Council chambers.  “One, these blue-skinned individuals are from a previously unknown and undiscovered race of intelligent people living – again, somehow unknown – somewhere on Gairth.  How they had gotten so strong by using magically superior enhancements without having visited any of the dungeons around here is a mystery, as well as the reason why they have waited this long to reveal their presence in such an unorthodox way.”

The way Lapis spoke about the deaths of numerous Dungeon Fairies and the destruction of their Cores sounded as if he didn’t care about them, but Malachite knew he cared deeply.  It was just his way of distancing himself from the situation so that he could think clearly, without emotional attachments.

“Or, what I think is more likely, is that they are not from Gairth at all.”

That got the Council Leader’s attention – it was something he hadn’t even contemplated before now.  That’s probably because such a thing is almost as inconceivable as a Fairy being turned into a Dungeon Core.

“Where do you think they’re from, Lapis?  Another world?  Another dimension?  I can’t say that I’ve heard of anything like this before.”

The Head Instructor thankfully had been listening, as opposed to lately when he seemed to be lost within his own thoughts and appeared to block out the world around him.  “No idea, unfortunately.” He shrugged.  “Without more information, it would be premature to promote any assumptions.”

Malachite just sighed, sensing that they were still lost in their cycle of mystery surrounding these six-armed people.  “Fair enough.  It’s a moot point, anyway, because it really doesn’t matter where they are coming from.  What matters to me more is why they are doing what they’re doing.  That’s what doesn’t make sense.”

From the Council Leader’s conversations with Shale while he was frantically looking for his Core that he believed was still alive – and which wondrously ended up being true – Malachite had gotten a better understanding of the current social and economic environment on the continent of Abenlure.  At least, he had gotten as much information as the rattled Dungeon Assistant had managed to gather without endangering himself unnecessarily.  It was something that Malachite realized he had been neglectful of over the last few millennia; he had so rarely involved himself in anything other than the regulation and operation of Dungeon Cores that a bit of it came as a surprise to him.

Namely, that there were now 2 major factions inhabiting the continent, though on the surface they were both Raiders.  One faction was the same sort of organization he had been dealing with for thousands of years, ever since he had been appointed Council Leader: the Raider Delving Clan.  These were who he was used to hearing about or seeing, and was what the ruling Conclave of Sages had consisted of; they were the typical individuals who rose from the ranks of nothing to become the most powerful of all, delving through dungeons tens of thousands of times over the years.  They were a rough lot for the most part, but that was to be expected based on the experiences and hardships they had gone through to get to where they were.

The other faction, however, was a relatively new power in the world.  While their origins weren’t exactly new, the Ministry of Merchants had obviously risen quite a bit in power and influence over the last few centuries.  The description of the group of low-Level Merchant-Raiders that had come into Tacca’s dungeon, equipped with gear that was enchanted with resistances that should’ve been far out of their ability to acquire, was worrying.  The fact that Tacca had summarily trapped them in a room they couldn’t get out of was also disturbing, but he also couldn’t fault the former Dungeon Assistant for defending herself.  That was technically what Dungeon Cores were all about, after all.

If that had been all, he wouldn’t have been all that concerned.  Rises and falls in power were typical of the mortal races, and such occurrences usually didn’t matter in the long run; what the Raiders and those like them did outside of the dungeons that Malachite was responsible for was their own business.  It was only when they involved themselves in his business that it became an issue, and the last year and a half had shown that it was rapidly becoming a problem.

Based on information gathered by Head Instructor Lapis and Dungeon Assistant Shale, from interviews with Assistant survivors and through safe observation, it was proving likely that the Raiders and Ministry of Merchants were at war.  Not an open battle, as if they were on a large field and were charging at each other, but a war of attrition – and the Dungeon Cores and Fairies that were their targets were the victims.

What better way to weaken the enemy but to remove their support?  It’s a known aspect of delving through a dungeon, after all: A group was only as strong as their supporting members.  Whether it was in the form of a healer or any of the myriad of other supporting Raider Classes, those that did all of the creature killing wouldn’t be able to survive for long without their help.

In this case, the “support” that both the Raiders and the Ministry of Merchants was undermining with their clandestine efforts were the dungeons under the control of the other faction.  That was a bit of an abstract concept, of course, because no one actually controlled the dungeons other than the Cores themselves, but access to a dungeon from the outside could certainly be regulated.

The fools don’t understand what they’re doing!  And without the Conclave of Sages to stop them, they are going to keep eliminating the dungeons that are allowing them to stay powerful, as well as providing a means of wealth.  The Sages certainly could’ve stopped both factions if they had learned about it in time, but with them all dead…there was nothing stopping the slaughter.

Except, thankfully, the Core destruction from sources that could be identified as coming from either faction had essentially died off after the attack on Tacca’s dungeon.  Malachite wasn’t exactly sure why, but he suspected that word traveled fast about the attack that led to the deaths of both Raiders and Merchants, as well as the Core – as far as they knew – and a shaky ceasefire was called.  The Council Leader had hoped that the situation would stay that way, as there hadn’t been any other deaths since the occurrence; a few weeks ago, however, a week before Tacca in her Core reappeared, another dungeon was destroyed, along with its Dungeon Assistant.

Since the former Assistant-turned-Dungeon-Core had come back, the destruction was only increasing.

“Do you think it will continue like this?  Do we have any eyes up there?” Lapis asked him, and Malachite had to think for a moment.

In the end, all he could do was shrug.  “I have no idea, but if the pattern over the last few weeks continues, then it’s more than likely,” the Council Leader said sadly, looking at the northern part of the continent of Abenlure.  While the attacks seemed nearly random when they started a year and a half ago – despite Lapis discovering a correlation – there was nothing random about this new series of attacks.  The northern Dungeon Cores were being systematically invaded and destroyed, with no survivors or witnesses.  “We have no other sightings of these blue-skinned people whatsoever, and if there were any type of representative of the mortal races near or in the dungeons, they were killed.  It was as if they were silenced to prevent knowledge of who perpetrated the attacks from spreading.”

Lapis looked at the map as well, before turning to Malachite and giving him his full attention for the first time in weeks.  “Can we start pulling them out now?”

The Council Leader gave the question more consideration this time than the first 50 times he had heard it from the Head Instructor.  The DAPS Leader was a softy at heart, which made his question more a demanding request than a gentle inquiry – but it was understandable when it came down to those that used to be his charges.  What he was asking would be unprecedented in the history of Gairth, even dozens of millennia ago when the overall world situation was a bit more chaotic.

Pulling out hundreds of Dungeon Assistants from their positions was certainly something that Malachite never thought he would have to do.

It wasn’t all of them, of course, only those in the northern part of the continent.  Every dungeon located above the “Girdle” – the middle part of the continent – would be evacuated of their Fairy Assistants, so that there wouldn’t be any more loss on their part.  If the Cores didn’t break the Bond between them on their own, then Malachite and those helping him in the DPRC, such as Lapis, could manually break the Bond – though it usually took a few hours to complete.  Which was why they were thinking about preemptively moving them all out before an attack, where they could still manage to enact a Bond-severing before it was too late.

All because they couldn’t see any other way to save them.

Malachite, in a desperate attempt to Translocate into range to see if he could help the Assistant escape when one of the lights started to flash, discovered that there was some sort of protection around the entire area; his Translocation started, but almost immediately shut down, which was something he had never encountered before.  He knew from Shale’s report that the distraught Dungeon Assistant hadn’t been able to Translocate away when the blue-skinned monster people had arrived, and it seemed as though this applied to Translocating in, as well.

Every Fairy in an Assistant position had been informed of the sudden attacks, and to be on the watch out for them – not that it had done much good to those that had been killed in the last few weeks.  Recalling every single Assistant from every dungeon was a drastic choice, as it would leave every Core without their valuable assistance, but it had been one that he had been considering over the last few days, especially with Lapis questioning him about it every other hour.  Now that there seemed to be a pattern, and an obvious one at that, Malachite knew it was time to implement some sort of evacuation plan – within reason.

“Yes, Lapis,” he finally said, but stopped the other Fairy from running off right away with a hand on his shoulder.  “But not all of them; I only want regions 22 through 35 recalled, as those are in the sweeping pathway of these mysterious invaders.  If there are any changes in the pattern, we’ll deal with it then.”

“But—”

The Council Leader firmly squeezed the shoulder of the Head Instructor, cutting him off.  “I know you want them all brought back safe and sound, but we also have a responsibility here.  As it is, there are going to be nearly 200 Cores in those regions that won’t have an Assistant for however long this lasts, and even asking those ones to break their Bonds with their Fairy will be difficult.  Leaving them unsupervised at this point in time is a big risk, as you well know, but I’m going to do everything I can to save as many Fairies as I can.”

He made no mention of the fate of the Dungeon Cores, because there was nothing they could do to save them if these invaders attacked.  They couldn’t move the Cores from their dungeons, after all, nor could they relocate somewhere else.  Abandoning them to their destruction made Malachite physically sick, because it felt like a dereliction of his duty and responsibilities; however, he also had a responsibility for the Fairies under his charge, and they were something he could save.

“…Understood.  I’ll see to it, using my students from DAPS again to relay the messages.”

The Council Leader only nodded as he turned back to the map, noticing another light starting to flicker and dim to the north.  He was about to mention it to Lapis, but the Head Instructor was already frowning and scribbling something in his notebook.  As the leader of the Dungeon Assistant Preparatory School finished, Malachite saw him wipe a tear away from his cheek as he called out to some of the other Instructors from his school.

I know just how you feel, Lapis.  He still hadn’t had any clue yet as to where the rest of the Council had disappeared to, and their absence made him want to cry and rage in frustration at the same time.  He felt more helpless now than he had since…well, ever.  There just wasn’t anything he could do, despite searching in his free time all over the world for any sign of their presence.  Or their corpses, even if that wasn’t the ideal situation; the not-knowing was somehow worse than if he had come back to find them all slaughtered as horridly as the Conclave of Sages.

It’s like they completely vanished….  Looking down at the map again, he couldn’t help but glance to the far south in the Wentrylock Mountains.  There, farther south than any other dungeon by dozens of miles, was a single light nestled near the edge of the mountain range.  A few months ago, the light had disappeared, vanishing as Tacca’s Core had been destroyed in an attack.  Or so he thought, as it had reappeared shortly afterwards, dim—but alive.  Now, it was bright and seemingly getting larger by the day.

I wonder – will we find the Council alive somewhere as well?

Chapter 2

Tacca watched Sterge and Gwenda, the pair of Hill Dwarves that the former Fairy had Bonded, walking up the hill leading to her dungeon entrance.  Entrances, actually.  There were now two of them, each one leading to a separate section of her dungeon, marked with some fancy-looking skulls carved into the outer façade of the mountain where her Core was located.  The original entrance, denoted by a single skull as her system for identifying the easiest difficulty, still had a Root Fox stationed just inside the passageway to indicate that it was ready for another group of Raiders to enter.  The second entrance was a little further down the face of the mountainous slope, this one with 2 skulls (because it was more difficult) and a Gnoll Scout standing there casually, again waiting for the next group of Raiders to enter.

They had both been waiting there for months.  Just like Tacca had been.

“You can’t really complain, though, can you?  You certainly needed the time to get your dungeon back in shape.”

Yeah, I can’t say the time went to waste.  Shale IronSchist watched, along with Tacca, as their first visitors observed the remains of the Raiders that had perished outside of her dungeon.  Since they weren’t inside her influence, she couldn’t absorb them to clean up, and no one had visited since the events that nearly led to her destruction.  In fact, with her Dungeon Assistant’s help and information-gathering trips, there hadn’t been any people within at least 15 miles of her dungeon over the last 6 and a half months.  Of course, she had only been present for the last 2 and a half months, as she had been in a kind of “limbo” for the first 4, but it sure seemed like longer to Tacca GloomLily.

“You’re not really going to let them delve through your newest section, are you?  I mean, there are only 2 of them – and they don’t appear to be much stronger than they were when we last saw them.”  Her Bonded Assistant had a point, but she was already way ahead of him.

I had hoped that they would be the first ones back, but I couldn’t be sure.  Now that they are here, and there is more at stake than just obeying some rules and regulations, I’m taking matters to the next level.  As the pair of Hill Dwarves discussed their plans to enter her newest section, she prompted her Gnoll Scout to gesture invitingly to them with its paws.  She couldn’t communicate with them very well out there, so it was imperative that they be inside before she did anything else.

“I…don’t disagree, actually,” Shale said after she explained what she was doing, as she was doing it.  “Whether or not they believe you is something to be considered, however.”

If anyone is going to believe me, then it’ll be these two.

Tacca worked furiously to finish what she was working on before they arrived, and managed to complete it just as Sterge took his first step into her dungeon.  For the first time in what felt like forever, the Dungeon Core experienced the small “tingle” of pleasure from their presence; it wasn’t actually their presence that was pleasurable, but instead it was the knowledge that she was finally gaining Core Improvement Points from a source outside of what she could create internally.  Strangely, I’ve missed having Raiders in my dungeon.

“Are you absolutely sure about this, Gwenda?” Sterge asked as soon as he cautiously walked inside, the Gnoll Scout stopping 20 feet in front of him when he didn’t progress more than a few steps.  “We have no idea what this entrance is, after all.”  The Hill Dwarf in the lead looked at the Gnoll further ahead of them and frowned.  “And why is that thing just standing there?”

“I have no idea, Sterge; it’s probably just showing us the way or something.”  Gwenda shrugged, before continuing, slapping the Melee-focused Hill Dwarf on the back.  “As far as this dungeon, I think we did pretty good the first time we ventured into the unknown, don’t you?”

Sterge sighed, looking at the other Raider with a put-on expression on his face.  “Uh, we almost died, Gwenda – or don’t you remember that?”

“Oh, I remember.  But we’re much stronger than we were back then, and it’s important to check out this new entrance.”

You’re definitely not strong enough to face what’s down here.  She wished that she could communicate with the two Hill Dwarves mentally like she could with Shale or even the Council Leader – she refused to even think of Head Instructor Lapis, since she still hated him for what he had done to her at DAPS – but that wasn’t to be.  She wanted to let them know that without a full group of Raiders tackling the second section, or at least more powerful (in terms of Raider Levels) individuals, there was a much larger risk of death than anything in the original section.  Alas, that wasn’t to be, but she had something else planned just a little further inside.

Sterge sighed again, and Tacca could tell he had given up on trying to change Gwenda’s mind.  “Fine; I do agree that we should check it out, but at the first sign that it is too much for us, we leave.”

“Sure.  Absolutely.”

They continued walking cautiously down the tunnel leading further into the mountain, the Gnoll Scout staying the same distance away from them, when her creature suddenly dropped from their view.

“Whoa!  Where’d it go?”  The leather-armored Hill Dwarf advanced cautiously, obviously expecting some sort of trap, but there wasn’t anything dangerous ahead.  Dangerously fun, maybe, but it wouldn’t hurt him.  “There’s a drop-off here, though it appears sloped instead of straight down.  What do you think it is?”

“I think it’s pretty obvious, especially if you consider that this might be an additional section of the dungeon.  If I’m not too far off, the first few rooms we’re familiar with are over that way,” Gwenda said, flicking her hands off to her right and a little ahead, indicating that she was referring to behind the stone walls.  “That being said, unless everything has changed drastically, there’s really no other place to put some new rooms…other than down below.”  With that, and before Sterge could stop her, Gwenda stepped off of the edge and promptly slipped onto her butt when her foot hit the polished and slick stone surface of the wide chute leading downwards.

Sterge just stood there with his mouth open, shocked as the other Hill Dwarf immediately disappeared out of sight as she slid down the curving shaft.  Gwenda screamed in fright at first, but Tacca could hear its tone change from fear to excitement in just a few seconds.  The slope gradually steepened from the gentle decline to one that sped her up even further, as she practically flew down the stone-made slide at nearly insane speeds.  Eventually, the slope leveled out little by little, becoming nearly horizontal; when Gwenda finally stopped, 20 feet before the end of the chute that ended in a blank wall, she was practically laughing.

Sterge, on the other hand, was screaming in worry and fright as he plummeted after the female Hill Dwarf, banging his face a few times with the shield he held on his left arm when it would smack against the side of the slide.  Tacca felt a little sorry for him, but if he had just relaxed he would’ve been fine.

That worked better than I had hoped.

“Gwenda!” Sterge immediately called out when he came to a stop and picked himself up.  “Where are—oh.”

The Gnoll Scout that had gone first was nowhere to be found, as Tacca had it slide down and disappear down one of the other rooms almost before Gwenda had taken the plunge.  While she could control the Gnoll somewhat near the entrance if it kept a certain distance away from the Raiders, as soon as the pair of Hill Dwarves were inside a room with any of her creatures, it would be difficult – if not impossible – to prevent an attack from happening.

“That was one of the dumbest—”

“Sterge—look!”

Gwenda clearly ignored Sterge’s admonition as she took in the sight of the placard in front of her.  In reality, it was a thin, 8-foot-wide and tall wall that Tacca had hastily constructed when she first saw the pair walking up the mountain, and the Dungeon Core had finished carving words into it just as the Hill Dwarves had entered her dungeon.

“I knew it!  I was certain that the dungeon didn’t have anything to do with what happened!” the female Raider exclaimed after a few seconds.

“What are you talking about?”

Gwenda waved at the large carved placard that Tacca had constructed.  “This is describing the attack on the other Raiders in detail, describing the ones that did it as ‘blue-skinned, six-armed, monstrous people’ that had some sort of magical shield that prevented them from being hurt.  The dungeon, the ‘Core’ it says, was damaged in the process of defending itself and took months to repair back to normal.  It ended up killing the invaders, but—oh, that’s not good.”

Tacca could see Sterge reading through the information the Core had placed on the large sheet of stone, though he was much slower at it than the Caster.  “What?  What’s wrong?”

“Here—do you see?” Gwenda said with a shaky voice, pointing to a particular part towards the end.  “It says that while the invaders were destroyed, they weren’t the only ones.  Towards the north of Abenlure, supposedly, these ‘monstrous people’ are attacking and destroying dungeons.”

“So?  That’s a long way from here; why does that matter?”

Gwenda put her hands on her hips and turned to Sterge.  “Don’t you remember what they did here?  Did you suddenly forget the corpses of the Raiders that were killed just outside of the dungeon?”

Tacca, for one, couldn’t forget the frightening scene of slaughter outside of her entrance.  The 5 invaders that had arrived seemingly out of nowhere outmatched even the strongest Raiders that had been nearby, though the majority of them had been low Level.  That didn’t mean that they were invulnerable, but it took literally everything that the Dungeon Core had at her disposal to destroy them, and she had barely made it out of it in one piece.  In fact, it was quite possible that she hadn’t made it out unscathed, as she was still stumped by the etchings all over her Core, as if she had been shattered and pieced back together.

“No, I’ve not forgotten.  But how do we know, uh, this—” Sterge pointed his finger at the placard— “is even telling the truth?  This could be some sort of trick—”

Gwenda, thankfully, just shook her head.  “I don’t think so, Sterge.  I also remember what happened to the dungeon when we were inside of it, how everything seemed to just disappear after that shockwave blasted us against the walls.  Even those more experienced Raiders with us, such as Jesper, knew that the dungeon had been destroyed; it’s kind of hard to fake that sort of thing, I would think.”

“Then how do you explain the fact that it wasn’t destroyed?”

“I…don’t know.  But I don’t really think that this is some sort of trick, or at least I hope not.”

“Why?”

“Because of this right here,” Gwenda responded, pointing at the very last part.

…your current strength, only death will find you if you continue to delve without a group.  Leave the dungeon now, and spread this information as far and wide as you can.  Prepare yourselves, as the invasion is coming.

In addition, take these to help with your endeavors, as you will likely need help communicating with the rest of the continent.  Be safe.

It was a little heavy-handed, granted, but it was for a good cause.  Through Shale, who had been assisting Council Leader Malachite and Lapis in investigating what was going on (especially lately, as there really wasn’t anything going on in her dungeon), Tacca knew only too well the situation with the loss of both Dungeon Cores and Dungeon Assistants to the north.  While her words sounded as if she was concerned about the intelligent races living around the continent – and in partiality, she was – the former Fairy was hoping that they would be able to help stem the tide of destruction by attacking these invaders directly. They just had to know about them first.

True, it was a bit selfish that she wanted to save the Cores and Assistants instead of the intelligent races, but who knew what would happen to them if all of the dungeons were destroyed?  The Council Leader had mentioned something to Shale about all of this upsetting the “balance”, but it wasn’t something of which Tacca was aware.  All she knew was that her people were dying, and she was currently helpless to prevent it.  Except what she was doing by relaying this information, of course.

“It wants us to leave?  B-but that’s crazy!” Sterge shouted.

Normally, yes – that would be crazy.  But this isn’t just about me anymore.

“I really think the dungeon means it—look!”  Gwenda pointed to the two small stacks of things on the floor near the placard.

One was a stack of pure gold nuggets, each the size of a fist; the other, a much smaller stack of spherical gemstones of different kinds, uncut and raw.  Both of them were possible for her to create due to her Mountain Environmental Access, though she didn’t try to shape them into coins or cut gems.  It was a literal fortune, but Tacca didn’t think it was time to mess around.

“What?  Why?”

Despite the riches waiting for them, neither of them moved to pick up the gold or gemstones.  Tacca didn’t understand it.

“Like I said, I think it’s because the message here is serious.  Why else would it offer more wealth than either of us has ever seen before in an effort to shoo us on our way?”  Gwenda finally moved, picking up two of the gold chunks and putting them into a bottomless bag she now had on her hip.

“Just two?”

The female Hill Dwarf nodded.  “Yes; any more and things will start looking suspicious.  I think we can melt these down in Heftington without too much trouble and exchange them in Fiona’s shop without drawing too much attention.  Come on, let’s go.”

Without another word, Gwenda took off at a run for the recognizable exit passage located on the wall next to the bottom of the slide, completely ignoring the rest of the large room, with its mountainous terrain and different exits branching off to different pathways.  “Just like that?  You’re not going to explore?” Sterge asked.

“What?  No, not after everything we’ve learned.  There is one thing we still need to do, though.”

Sterge caught up to the other Hill Dwarf in a few seconds, running with her as they exited out the straight pathway leading outward.  Tacca hadn’t wanted anyone exiting to have to walk all the way back up, as she had originally intended for the exits to join up with the original exit staircase, because it was a long walk up thousands of steps.  Instead, she had the main exit heading straight out from down below, where it would eventually let out about 300 feet below her entrances.  Technically, it was a little bit longer distance to walk, but there wasn’t nearly as much vertical movement this way.

“And what else, pray tell, do we need to do?”

Tacca watched Gwenda slowly smile as she answered.  “Why, we need to go down that slide again, of course.  That was the most fun I’ve had in a long time!”

Chapter 3

The silence once the two Hill Dwarves finally left – after sliding down the chute again – was a bit disheartening, because it meant that Tacca was all alone with her thoughts…and Shale, of course.

“You made the right choice, even if it isn’t the most beneficial to you right now.”  The Dungeon Core knew her Assistant was right, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t disappointing.

Unfortunately, that is true.  I’ve already been unlucky enough to get to this point, so I guess there’s no sense in borrowing trouble.

“Unlucky?  What are you talking about?  You’re still here, aren’t you?”  Shale appeared confused, which was reflected in the changing colors of his Mood Clothes.

Obviously, but I’m talking about the invasion by those six-armed people.

“How so?”

You should know, after having worked with the Council Leader and…others…concerning these attacks.  I’m pretty sure it was you that had mentioned that my attack was more than a bit of an outlier compared to those Malachite suspected were instigated by these invaders.  If that isn’t bad luck, then I don’t know what is.

Shale seemed to think about it for a while, hovering in front of her Core.  “Or you could consider it good luck – on the behalf of the people of this world.”

Now it was Tacca’s turn to be confused.  I don’t understand – how is what happened to me lucky?

He spoke slowly, as if he were still working it out in his mind.  “Well, if you hadn’t been attacked – and somehow survived – then we might not have known what was happening.  If you hadn’t figured out a way to kill them, then it might be suspected that they were entirely invulnerable.  If you hadn’t Bonded with those two Hill Dwarves, then the mortal races wouldn’t have the knowledge of what they are up against.  If—”

Ok, ok – I see what you’re saying, but that just reaffirms my original statement.  Just as luck seemed to be on the Raiders’ sides when they delved through my dungeon, it also hindered my development because of the lack of deaths after a while.  She thought about it for a second, before mentally shrugging.  It’s not like I’m not used to it by now; I guess I have to take the good with the bad.

Shale huffed in response.  “Tacca, that’s life.  Sometimes you take the good, other times you take the bad, but when you take them both, then you have—"

I know, I know – but it seems like my good and bad are one and the same for me.  It took Tacca a few minutes to really drag herself out of her sudden rut after her Bonded had left, so she busied herself with looking over her dungeon again.  Not that there was much she wanted to mess with, since her recent additions hadn’t been tested yet, but she could at least evaluate her choices since she had recovered from the invasion by the frighteningly powerful blue-skinned people….

*          *          *

“So, what’s the plan?”

Plan?  Well, I guess it’s time to rebuild.  Maybe make a few improvements on what I had already, but I think the basic structure I already had in place worked well enough.

“What are you going to do with all of those CIPs you acquired?”

I’ll probably save most of them until I can figure out what I’m going to do after the section I was working on is done.  Just using enough of it to fully stock and maintain everything without too much difficulty.

“Sounds good.  When do we start?”

I guess now is as good a time as any.

There was no reason to wait, of course, but she had to prioritize what she wanted to work on first.  Did you mention earlier that there are no Raiders around?  They think I was destroyed, right?

Shale nodded, relief still on his face that she hadn’t been destroyed – at least not permanently.  Tacca still didn’t know exactly what had happened or what might be different, but only time would tell, she supposed.

“Yes, and from my wanderings and investigations of the nearby area, I’ve learned that the village down below was evacuated and there aren’t any people for miles.  Though, from some distant observation, I believe those two Hill Dwarves of yours are staying in the closest town; it seems as though there is some sort of ban on anyone visiting.”

So I guess that means that it’ll be a while until someone comes back here.  It might even be a long time – months, perhaps.  Is that what you suspect as well?

Her Dungeon Assistant just shrugged.  “Eh…maybe?  Honestly, unless someone comes to clean up the corpses of the Raiders outside and happens to look in on your dungeon, it could be years before your dungeon is found again.  You can’t really blame anyone for not wanting to investigate, after what happened – can you?”

Sadly, she couldn’t.  Tacca hoped that it wasn’t years before someone came back to her dungeon, but she would wait if she had to.  Or try to use her Dungeon Assistant ability to Hibernate during that period of time, hoping that she could wake up if someone got close to detecting her presence again.

What it ultimately meant was that she could do something other than fully restore her dungeon first; something that took priority in her mind over everything else: Protection.  You’re right; it could be longer than I would like, but that gives me an opportunity to protect my Core as much as I can before that.

“How are you going to do that?  I have severe doubts that you’ll be able to withstand another explosion like the one that both saved you and destroyed your Core.”

Naturally, I wasn’t thinking about trying that again.  But I did have some success before the explosion in killing them with my traps.  So that will be my priority before I do anything else.

The room she had been using as her primary defense, filled with concentrated Enchantment and Life traps as well as her creatures with powerful gear, was technically no longer there; the explosion not only killed everything in her dungeon, but it had also created a 200-foot-wide spherical hole from its origin point.  As a result, her “Core Room” was now huge, but she had lost her entire defensive room and the hallway connecting to it from her Boss room. With a straight shot down her entrance to her Core room, as all of her Rotating Stone Bridge traps that had been blocking off access to different connecting tunnels in her second section had disappeared along with everything else, Tacca was feeling more than a little vulnerable.

Dungeon Core Status

Dungeon Core Name:

Tacca GloomLily

Core Improvement (CI) Level:

12

Core Improvement Points (CIP):

1749/2300

Core Improvement Pending/Countdown:

26600 in 15 days

Special Characteristic Points (SCP):

50

Current Primary Assistant Bond:

Shale IronSchist

Dungeon Force (DF):

2000/2000

Dungeon Force Regeneration:

28 per minute

Reward Tier:

2

Control Limit:

0/400

Core Options:

Carve Earth

Targetable

5 DF per minute

Place Environmental Object

Targetable

Variable

Teleport

Instant

40 DF

Dissolve Assistant Bond

Instant

1 DF

Create Creature

Targetable

Variable

Create Trap

Targetable

Variable

Core Access:

Creature(s):

Canine Family, Feline Family, Semi-human Family, Hill Dwarves, Humans, Elves, Gnomes, Orcs, Dungeon Fairy

Variant(s):

All

Trap Specialization(s):

Enchantment, Life

Environmental Access:

Forest, Mountain

Permanent Assistant Sub-bond:

Tacca GloomLily

Special Characteristics:

Access all Variants for available dungeon creatures

All

After checking to make sure she had enough Dungeon Force – which she did, as it was full at 2,000 – Tacca started to fill in the curved walls of her Core Room with stone, while also digging out another tunnel opposite from the entrance.  Her plan was to create a whole new Core room a little further down and to use her current one as her new defensive room, though it was going to look a little different than before.

It took a few hours to complete using her Carve Earth ability to dig a long tunnel and a 30ft X 30ft X 30ft room for her new Core Room, while at the same time filling in the previous room with the same stone that made up the mountain range that housed her dungeon.  When that was done, she Teleported into her new “home” – and instantly felt better, even if there were no defenses in place as of yet.  It was almost as if being in that room was suffocating me.  The memories of the attack, the explosion, and the resulting pain as she was shattered—I was shattered, wasn’t I?—haunted her a bit in her former refuge, and getting out of there was like taking a deep breath of fresh air.

As for her new defensive room, she tightened its dimensions up so that it lost its status as a “room”, being closer to a tunnel than anything.  Widening it up some more, she finally ended up with a space that was 200 feet long and 10 feet high and wide; at that point, it counted as a new room – at least according to her CI Point Awards menu.

Core Improvement Point Awards

Type

Variable Conditions

Potential CIP

Current

Rooms Constructed

Size

1 – 50

9

Traps Installed

Complexity

1 – 20

0

Monsters Created

Levels

1 – 20

0

Rewards Placed

Valuation

1 – 50

0

Raider Presence

Time

1 – 5

258

Raider Deaths

Quality

100 – 10000

26600

Looking over her upcoming Point Awards, Tacca found that – for the most part – any progress she had made before her dungeon was attacked by those monstrous people had been wiped out, other than “Raider Presence” and the deaths of those inside of her dungeon.  Neither of those totals would likely increase over the next few weeks, unless she was extremely fortunate and someone wanted to visit, but she could certainly add to the rest.  Regardless, it wasn’t necessarily her priority right now, mainly because she already had quite a few Points pending.

At that point, Tacca spent the next 6 days using all of her available Dungeon Force on traps.  Learning from her previous defensive room, where the six-armed invaders had been able to spread out and bypass many of her concentrated Enchantment and Life traps, the narrower width of the new space would ensure that anything else that intended to destroy her Core would have to pass through most of them on the way.  She also included quite a few traps – 500 to be exact – that were a bit different from what she had done before.

Instead of a 1ft X 1ft X 1ft square with concentrated effects, most of them she made were a little bit bigger and were about 25% less effective.

Strength Boost Life Trap

The Strength Boost Life Trap can be placed on any surface and is triggered by proximity.  Any living being passing through the activation range will experience a boost in their Physical attributes – determined by the strength of the trap – for a limited duration of time.  Beneficiaries blessed by the Strength Boost Life Trap cannot retrigger additional Strength Boost Life Traps until the duration has expired.  All traps can be disabled with high enough Disarm Trap skills.

Cost: 500 DF (-60% Life Specialization)

Replacement Cost: 125 (-75% off current cost/Life Specialization)

Creation Time: 2.5 Hours

Disarm Trap Resistance: 13

Activation Range: 0.5ft X 8.0ft X 1.0ft

Trigger Proximity: 0.2 ft

Physical Attributes Increase: 1500.0%

Duration: 5.0 seconds

Resistance Category: Life

Special Effects: Causes a temporary increase in the physical size and strength of the beneficiaries’ muscles

This might seem counter-intuitive, but there were a few things that she had learned during the assault on her dungeon by those scary individuals.  First, the blue-skinned invaders had long legs – and therefore long strides; they ended up bypassing many of the traps by the simple method of stepping over them.  To counteract this, she placed the 0.5ft X 8ft traps running the length of the 200ft-long room, so that they would need to have more than an 8ft stride in order to bypass any.  When they were arranged next to each other, lining the 10ft width of the room, there were 20 of them every 8 feet, and with large enough feet, it was quite possible that an individual might trigger 2 of them at a time.

Secondly, the extreme strength of the traps had been such that, even with the powerful builds of the invaders, they were overkill.  By reducing the amount of the Physical Attribute increase, the expense of the trap dropped dramatically; now at only 500 Dungeon Force, instead of 1300 like the ones before, they were much more affordable.

That was the last reason she changed the elements of the traps: Dungeon Force.  After initially creating another 1300 DF trap at the start, Tacca discovered that the previous drain on her Core – as in, the strain and cracking – when she used too much Force at once was now even worse.

Do you think this is because of what happened to me?

“I don’t know, but it’s quite possible.”  Shale just shrugged, unable to provide an answer for her.  “I know that you used to have to rest after placing one of your traps that cost 1,300 Dungeon Force, so it could be that you are still recovering and it will return.”

That wasn’t too reassuring, considering that when she approached using half of her maximum DF at a single time – which was sitting at a total of 2,000 – she felt her Core start to shudder from the process.  Thankfully, no cracks had appeared, but that was probably only because of her caution as she began to feel the strain earlier than normal.

At least, what had been her normal, which was still different from every other Dungeon Core out there.

Therefore, with that in mind, she was limited in what she could create.  Spending 500 DF at a time wasn’t that much of an exertion – none, really – so placing trap after trap in her new defensive room wasn’t that big of a deal.  It was a compromise that was necessary, but Tacca thought that the workaround with the altered traps would work well enough.  She also had plans to add even more traps of different types, but that would come in time; for the moment, nearly a week of doing nothing but creating defenses was making her itch to do something else.

When she was finally able to tackle her upper dungeon again, she was relieved.  Despite Shale being out and about, surveying the area in order to see if anyone was approaching – and finding no one, some Core-ish instinct screamed out to Tacca to get ready for the non-existent Raiders.  It took her no more than a day to fully replace and restock the original section of her dungeon, placing the dirt, ferns, wildflowers, trees, creatures, and traps that had served her so well.  She was accustomed to its layout and decided not to change anything, because it really had worked out well enough that she didn’t think it needed any major changes – other than one set of traps in particular: the pits.

The Soil-covered Pit Traps cost 1,200 Dungeon Force to initially set up, which was currently past her threshold at the moment.  Instead of replacing them with something else, she decided to hold off on them altogether – at least until she had a chance to increase her maximum Dungeon Force.  While she wasn’t positive that it would make a difference, she certainly hoped it would.

Everything else, though, was easy enough to put back the way it had been before she had suffered her unfortunate destruction.  Once that was done, she turned her attention to the newer section, from which she had been rudely interrupted before she could finish.

That was where the fun began.

Chapter 4

The rooms that she had initially decorated and filled were still valid enough that she didn’t really change them too much, other than to increase the creatures’ Levels a little to make them a bit more difficult.  Tacca filled the first room with another mountain range, copying what she had before, which had 5 tunnels leading off in different directions. The next room took advantage of her Mountain Environment with a cliff face that required Raiders to wind back and forth up the 100-foot-tall mountain, all the while having to avoid the Enchantment traps that induced severe dizziness, as well as the 5 Level 6 Cliff Lynxes hiding among the rocky outcrops of the cliff.

The second room consisted of two hills made entirely of a multi-shaded brown rock that flanked the left and right walls; the valley in between them had close-set trees, stretching off to the exit.  On the hills, 4 Level 6 Mountain Cougars (2 on each side) waited to pounce down on unsuspecting Raiders as they worked their way through the room; hidden inside the mini-forest, 3 Level 6 Forest Wolves were waiting in ambush for their prey.

Even just those two rooms being filled with creatures started to eat into her Control Limit.  While she had a total of 400 for her Control Limit, the original section required 170 to fully stock it, leaving her only 230 to play with for the next section; she already knew that she was going to have to wait until she could purchase another increase in the Limit to fully fill at least one route through the section, but she could at least do what she could right now – but it wasn’t going to be too much more.

- 5 Cliff Lynx (Level 6) @ 7CL each = 35CL

- 4 Mountain Cougar (Level 6) @ 8CL each = 32CL

- 3 Forest Wolf (Level 6) @ 20CL each = 60CL

With the rewards assigned to them, she had already spent 143 of her available 230 Control Limit – and that was only with 2 rooms!  That was okay, though, because she knew she would be able to supply enough Control Limit when she went through another Core Improvement increase.  Plus, using the Forest Wolves was a bit expensive when it came to the Control Limit, and it would be one of the last times she would use the Wolves…by themselves, at least.

The next room was her maze, with high, completely smooth walls that wound through the space, with a 5-foot-wide pathway leading through it.  There were 2 dead-ends, two exits (one of which would be closed, depending on the route through the section at that time), and a dimly lit interior.  This was where she placed 2 powerful fear-inducing Enchantment-based traps, as well as a Level 7 Echoing Hyena and a Level 7 Gnoll Assassin.  As their performance during the invasion by the blue-skinned people had been a success, if ineffective, Tacca wanted to see how they could perform against less-powerful Raiders.  She was planning on adding another pair, but at 12CL and 22CL for the Hyena and Gnoll, respectively, it was going to have to wait.

The fourth room was the first of those during her reconstruction period that she decided to change.  Whereas it had been, at first, a dense fern-and-bush-filled area where Scrub Lions and Frond Coyotes could ambush the Raiders as they navigated their way through the room, with some of the new synergies she had unlocked during the recent attack, she wanted to test them out.  One of them, the synergy between a Wolf and a Werewolf, was something she wanted to test out later; the other, a Fox and a Kitsune, was something she wanted to experiment with.

Eschewing the scrubland she was originally going to create, Tacca filled the room with trees.  Adding 20 of them was about the limit, which allowed there to be plenty of space to walk in between…and to be targeted by the half-dozen Level 8 Kitsune Archers she was planning on stationing in the trees’ branches.  As opposed to the Level 1 Kitsune she had created before, the Level 8 Archers had upgraded equipment; no longer wielding a Flimsy Pine Bow, the Yew Bow it was holding would do quite a bit more damage.  When she added in the synergy bonuses from placing at least 10 Level 8 Root Foxes hidden amongst the roots – again, when she had the Control Limit available – they would be formidable, indeed.

That wasn’t all, however.  Hidden in the pathways between the trees, Tacca placed 5 separate traps, 2 of them positive and 3 negative.  Tacca figured she could switch them up between each Raider group so that no one would be able to memorize which one was which; that was important, because 2 of the traps would be extremely beneficial in defeating the denizens of the room.

The Life-based traps that she had a specialization for were fairly versatile. Whereas she had utilized them down below in her defensive room by greatly increasing the strength of whoever triggered it so that they basically imploded, they were most commonly used as a way to give Raiders an advantage they wouldn’t necessarily have.  In this case, she was going to rapidly increase the jumping ability of whoever triggered one of the beneficial traps.

Vertical Jump Boost Life Trap

The Vertical Jump Boost Life Trap can be placed on any surface and is triggered by proximity.  Any living being passing through the activation range will experience a boost in their Physical attributes – determined by the strength of the trap – for a limited duration of time.  Beneficiaries blessed by the Vertical Jump Boost Life Trap cannot retrigger additional Vertical Jump Boost Life Traps until the duration has expired.  All traps can be disabled with high enough Disarm Trap skills.

Cost: 400 DF (-60% Life Specialization)

Replacement Cost: 100 DF (-75% off current cost/Life Specialization)

Creation Time: 0.5 Hours

Disarm Trap Resistance: 3

Activation Range: 3ft X 3ft X 3ft

Trigger Proximity: 0.5 ft

Physical Attributes Increase: 600.0%

Duration: 30.0 seconds

Resistance Category: Life

Special Effects: Causes a temporary increase in the vertical jump ability of anyone affected by the trap

With the ability to jump 6X higher than they would normally, any Raider affected by one of these Life traps would be able to reach the branches and attack the Kitsune directly.  This would be important, because if there was one thing she knew about Kitsune, it was that they were extremely agile; being able to avoid projectiles like arrows or spells thrown out by the Raiders on the ground would be relatively simple for them.  Not that they couldn’t be overwhelmed by multiple attacks, but it would be difficult to pin them down; physically jumping up into the trees’ branches would help the Raiders immensely.

Of course, only 2 of the 5 traps she was placing in the room would be beneficial.  The remaining traps would be Enchantment-based, with an assortment of fear, disorientation, and confusion-based effects, strong enough that they would sincerely hinder the capabilities of anyone afflicted with their effects.

The last thing she did with them was to make all of the traps obvious to anyone passing through.  Giving the Raiders a choice of whether to risk activating the traps was the entire goal of the room, and creating noticeable squares free of any foliage in the dirt pathways between the trees was a way for them to choose without it being a mystery of where they were located.

Subsequent rooms were filled with environmental objects and traps but no creatures at the moment, because she had all but hit her Control Limit already.  Tacca concentrated on her final room, her Boss Room, which she was planning on making quite difficult for anyone that made it that far. It was here that she wanted to utilize a Werewolf / Wolf synergy, but it wasn’t going to be filled with Forest Wolves.  Instead, she was going to use the Steppe Wolf, which was a Variant that was at home in a mountainous environment.  While not as agile as a Mountain Cougar or a Cliff Lynx, the Steppe Wolf was able to blend into the dark stone of the mountain range she created in the new section’s final room.

As for the Level 12 Werewolf Warrior she wanted to create, the powerful creature would be the real challenge of the room.

Werewolf Warrior

Werewolves aren’t just wolves walking on their hind legs; instead, they are frightening combinations of what makes bipedal hybrids utilizing powerful base creatures so effective.  Standing quite tall, Werewolves possess the speed and cunning of their smaller brethren, have a superb sense of smell, and can expertly track prey through the most difficult of circumstances.  Unlike many other semi-humans, the nature of the Werewolf typically prevents most weapons from being handled, and armor of any kind is generally unneeded because of its tough fur covering.  Instead, the sharp teeth and claws of the creature are utilized to great efficiency, especially in the Warrior Variant; stronger physical attacks and physical defenses are the hallmarks of this Variant, which makes it both deadly and increases its survivability.

Cost (Level 12): 900 DF

Control Requirement (Level 12): 95

Creation Time (Level 12): 2 Hours

Equipment: None

Physical Attack: 35 (50)

Ranged Attack: 0 (0)

Physical Defense: 30 (40)

Ranged Defense: 10 (15)

Elemental Resistance: 50% Nature, 10% Death

Specials: Howl of the Moon

Pack Hunter: Bonus to physical attack if in conjunction with others in the Canine family

Synergy Addition (+): Adds a bonus to Physical and Ranged Attack and Defense when paired with unevolved creature form; this bonus lasts for up to 30 seconds even after paired form is killed

It was, to put it plainly, a powerhouse.  Not only did it have a Pack Hunter trait, but it also had a special ability called “Howl of the Moon”. From her schooling, she knew that – when activated – it would increase the speed of all Werewolves; while it didn’t explicitly say it, she had a feeling that it would also work on any Wolves that were around.  Even if it didn’t she was still planning on having quite a few lower-Level Steppe Wolves in the room.

“Don’t you think that’s a little too powerful for this section?  Especially considering that ‘synergy’ bonus you discovered?” Shale asked as she described what she was going to create.

At first, yes, but I want this section to be viable for Raider Levels 6 through 15.  Initially, not many groups will be able to progress through more than a handful of the rooms before it becomes too dangerous, but they will also earn a lot of Rewards and the Power they require to increase their Levels.  I don’t necessarily want to kill them, remember, but if it isn’t a challenge, then it won’t be seen as worthwhile.

“I guess that is true.” Her Dungeon Assistant nodded.  “By the time they can actually tackle the Werewolf, they’ll have had to fight through everything else – which is quite an accomplishment.”  He paused.  “Now what?”

That was a good question.  She was at a bit of a standstill right now, with no one visiting her dungeon and being basically out of creatures she could create because of her Control Limit.  Fortunately, there were only 3 days left until her Core Improvement Level increased, so there was time to do some mind-numbingly mundane digging.

I’m going to dig out an exit to all of these rooms down here, as well as create a way for new groups to bypass the original section altogether.

“How?  Steps leading all the way down?”

No, I have a better idea.

Which was how she ended up with a massive, corkscrewing slide that descended hundreds of feet into the mountain, ending up in a small extension to the very first room of her new section, with the 5 branching tunnels.  She didn’t fully open it up yet, leaving about 5 feet of pure stone untouched between the face of the mountain and her new entrance, but once everything was ready she could do it quite easily.  The exit tunnel, however, was completed, as she ate her way horizontally out of the mountain, after spending some time connecting every room exit to the same tunnel.  Lastly, Tacca made sure all of the Rotating Stone Bridges were in place on all of the passageways, either as exits or as a way to block off access to some rooms in the second section.

By the time she was done, she only had half a day left to wait.

Chapter 5

It was nearly incomprehensible to Tacca how many Core Improvement Points she had accumulated, most of which came from killing the blue-skinned invaders in her dungeon.  Not to be completely outdone, the former Fairy-turned-Dungeon-Core had also contributed a healthy amount with the reconstruction and repopulation of her two sections – which was much more than she had gained before, mainly because she didn’t have the same stranglehold over her gains without the 95% reduction in earned CIPs.

Core Improvement Point Awards

Type

Variable Conditions

Potential CIP

Current

Rooms Constructed

Size

1 – 50

9

Traps Installed

Complexity

1 – 20

2245

Monsters Created

Levels

1 – 20

248

Rewards Placed

Valuation

1 – 50

189

Raider Presence

Time

1 – 5

258

Raider Deaths

Quality

100 – 10000

26600

Most of the extra CIPs came from the massive quantity of traps she had installed down below in her defensive room, though she did earn a respectable amount from the creatures and rewards she had placed.  Unfortunately, none of the tunnels she had made for her entrance and exit counted as rooms for the “Rooms Constructed”, but that didn’t really matter – she had plenty of Points already coming her way.

As the time ticked down in the last few seconds, Shale chimed in at the last few moments.  “Tacca, I don’t mean to worry you, but I just had a thought.”

Uh, oh.  What?

“Well, it seems to me as though your Core is a bit more fragile since…you know…and I was wondering how your Core would handle—”

It was too late for him to finish his question, as the timer for the countdown period hit zero.  All of a sudden, Tacca went from feeling nothing to experiencing a sensation not unlike her Core shattering again.  So many accumulated CIPs were pumped into her fragile form, abruptly transforming and making her Core larger than it was just a moment ago that it felt like she had exploded. Her perceptions of the world around her faded, and she was lost in a familiar limbo-like state; this time, however, there was no pain as her consciousness floated in a sludge-like nothingness.

The view of her world rapidly came crashing back into her, flooding her mind with thousands of small details from around her dungeon.  As soon as she could adjust to her surroundings again, she was relieved to be free of pain – and to immediately see that her dungeon was still there.  Every single environmental object was present, as well as the creatures and traps she had set up around each section, including her defensive room.  She even looked at her Core and saw that it was…larger, but essentially exactly the same.

If anything, she saw even more etchings around her entire form, though none of them appeared to hide any actual cracks underneath.  Instead, now that there were more of the etchings and they were more defined, she could see that they were geometric in design, with straight lines running all over her Core.  They crisscrossed each other at different intervals, sometimes just a little distance, while others ran all the way around her shape.  None of it made any sense to Tacca, though for some reason it seemed familiar; looking at it for a few minutes, trying to figure it out, produced no sudden epiphany.

It was only when she tore her focus away from her Core that she realized that something was missing.  To put it more precisely, it wasn’t something, but someone: Shale was nowhere to be found inside of her dungeon.

Shale?  Where are you?

“Tacca?  You’re back!  Are you okay?”  Her Dungeon Assistant sounded far away, but distance fortunately didn’t break the connection, only dimming it somewhat so that you could sometimes tell how far away they were.  “Hold on, I’m Translocating back to your Core Room now.”

The next moment, there was a small *pop* as Shale appeared in the corner of her room, looking a little windblown, as if he had been flying around outside.  “There you are!  I was beginning to become really worried.”

Worried?  Why?

“Because you were non-responsive for nearly 6 weeks, that’s why!”  Her Assistant looked at her Core and crossed his arms over his chest, his Mood Clothes shifting to a bit of a black and red color.  What that told her was that he was both angry and possibly a little despondent.

I was out for 6 weeks!  It didn’t feel like that long….

“Well, it was.”  A lot of the hostile color faded from his clothes as he seemed to relax, now that she was back.  “Worst of all, everything seemed to pause while you were gone, so that my increase in my Assistant Rank didn’t progress at all!  I still have a little over a month to go.”

It was all very strange, but now Tacca could sort of understand why he had been mad.  She had basically abandoned him again, as well as delaying the increase in his Assistant Ranking – which would be very significant at that point, based on all of the Points his Core had accumulated.  In fact, if she calculated it correctly, he could potentially be a high-Staged Expert Rank – nearly Master Rank!

Sorry I left you again – I didn’t know it would do that.

“Yes, well, it was something that I was afraid of.  I tried to mention it before it happened, but I think the increase in your Core Improvement Level happened before I could finish.  I’m just glad all of your work hadn’t been reset like last time.”

Me too.  And I’m hoping that something like that doesn’t happen again; I think it only did it this time because I had so many pending CIPs.

Congratulations, Tacca GloomLily!

You have reached Core Improvement Level: 20

Current CIP Countdown: 2989/5400 in 30 days

Core Improvement Points earned: 28300 (28300)

Special Characteristic Points earned: 175 (225)

The thought of those CIPs made her pull up her options – and if she could’ve salivated in her Core form, she would’ve been drooling at the possibilities.

Core Improvements

Available Core Improvement Points (CIP)

28300

2989 in 30 days

Improvement Name

Value

Cost (CIP)

Maximum Dungeon Force Increase

+500 DF

750

Dungeon Force Regeneration Increase

+10 DF per minute

1000

Control Limit Increase

+100

800

Select Additional Creature

1

550

Select Additional Creature Variant

1

25

Select Additional Trap Specialization

1

600

Select Additional Environment Access

1

800

Reward Tier Increase

1

400

Convert CIPs to SCPs

1 SCP

12

Not only did she have more than 28,000 CIPs to spend, but she also shot all the way up to Core Improvement Level 20 from her previous Level 12!  No wonder I basically exploded when all that happened all at once.  During the first year of a Core’s existence, it was common for them to acquire enough Points to advance 5 to 10 Levels (and even more) when their countdown was up, but after the first year it was much harder to gain more than a few Levels per countdown period.  When Tacca considered that her Core was a lot more fragile than others, it made more sense about what happened.  Of course, she still didn’t exactly know why she was so fragile or even how to fix it.

Now that I’m back, everything seems fine – better than fine, in fact.  I have a lot of Points to spend, but I’m not sure what I should purchase.  I never really considered this rapid of an advancement in my Levels.

Shale appeared to be returning to normal, the annoyance of the delay in his own advancement overshadowed by his position as a Dungeon Assistant.  Tacca did need his help, honestly, because while she knew of a couple things she wanted to purchase right away – such as an increase in her maximum Dungeon Force and Control Limit – that would still leave thousands of CIPs unaccounted for.

“Well, I’m sure you already have an idea what you need—” which she did— “so why don’t you purchase those first, and we’ll see what is left, afterwards.”

Simple advice, but it was what she needed.  Having too many choices being a bad thing never would’ve occurred to her before this, as she had been concentrating on what she needed at the moment or very near future; now, though, she instantly had access to the Points that she would’ve likely earned over another year or so, which would’ve come with more experience and knowledge of what would be needed to be most effective.

Therefore, she dug into what she needed most, purchasing one item after another – including multiples of the same selection.  In total, Tacca spent over 14,000 of her Points, greatly increasing her versatility.

Improvement Name

Total Increase

Total Cost (CIP)

Maximum Dungeon Force Increase

+2000 DF

4500

Dungeon Force Regeneration Increase

+20 DF per minute

2250

Control Limit Increase

+800

6200

Reward Tier Increase

2

1200

She now had 4,000 Dungeon Force at her disposal, regenerating at 48 DF per minute, and her Control Limit had tripled from 400 to 1200.  In addition to those purchases, which would help immensely, she also acquired the next 2 Reward Tiers.  Having better Rewards for killing her creatures, making the Raiders better equipped as a result, was a good way to keep them coming; not only that, but she finally had some things that she knew were valuable trade goods, which could potentially bring in even stronger groups of Raiders.

“That doesn’t make sense – why would they come here if they don’t get the Power they need to increase their Raider Levels?”

Tacca answered Shale easily, having both learned about it in her time at DAPS and from simple observation.

While Raiders want to increase their strength through delving through harder and more difficult dungeons, the risk of death also increases.  From my understanding, once they reach a certain Raider Level, unless they are wealthy and can afford to equip themselves with powerful gear, they need to acquire wealth from somewhere.  Sure, they will acquire some coinage and simple gear from the Rewards they gained to get to that point, but it is usually only enough to sustain them and keep them alive – if perhaps a little more.

But for those that are, say, Raider Level 23 and the next dungeon they have access to readily enough is a bit too strong for them, then delving through some easier dungeons to acquire trade goods can be the way to afford their next delve.  You remember those merchants that came here intending to destroy me?  The same thing applies to these Raiders when they need to acquire better armor or weapons, usually with enchantments, though definitely to a lesser extent than we saw.

Then there are those Raiders, so I’ve learned, that prefer to get to a certain threshold and then spend all of their days acquiring trade goods, becoming wealthy for the sole purpose of being wealthy.  They never advance in Raider Level, but their efforts also help the rest of the Raider community by supplying them with much-needed items.

Her Dungeon Assistant seemed to consider this and then nodded.  “I guess I can see that.  I never really thought about how the, uh, economy worked outside of the dungeon.”

Truthfully, I don’t have all the knowledge I’d like about it, but what I do know I’ve learned or worked out on my own.  Enough to know that providing the right types of Rewards is important.

Tacca pulled up her new Reward Tiers – Tiers 3 and 4 – and pointed out a few examples for him.

Reward Tier 3

Reward

Cost

Minor Healing Potion

50 DF

Steel-banded Oak Shield

60 DF

Sturdy Leather Chestpiece

35 DF

Sturdy Leather Leggings

35 DF

Sturdy Leather Vambraces

35 DF

Sturdy Leather Boots

35 DF

Sturdy Leather Helmet

35 DF

Sturdy Leather Gloves

35 DF

Simple Bronze Chestpiece

60 DF

Simple Bronze Leggings

60 DF

Simple Bronze Vambraces

60 DF

Simple Bronze Helmet

60 DF

Simple Bronze Gloves

60 DF

Fine Cloth Robe

10 DF

Fine Cloth Tunic

10 DF

Fine Cloth Trousers

10 DF

Reward Tier 4

Reward

Cost

Illumination Enchantment Scroll

75 DF

Minor Physical Resistance Enchantment Scroll

250 DF

Minor Mental Resistance Increase Enchantment Scroll

250 DF

Minor Fire Elemental Resistance Enchantment Scroll

250 DF

Minor Water Elemental Resistance Enchantment Scroll

250 DF

Minor Earth Elemental Resistance Enchantment Scroll

250 DF

Minor Air Elemental Resistance Enchantment Scroll

250 DF

Functional Steel Dagger

80 DF

Functional Steel Shortsword

80 DF

Functional Steel Mace

80 DF

Functional Steel Axe

80 DF

Fine Pine Bow

80 DF

Exquisite Maple Staff

80 DF

From Tier 3, the most important item is the Minor Healing Potion.  Raiders all over the continent use them to heal themselves, and I know you’ve seen even the weakest groups consuming them in my first section.  Where do they get them?  From dungeons that drop them as Rewards in large quantities, that’s where.

The 4th Tier, on the other hand, is where you start seeing Enchantment Scrolls.  They are a bit more expensive to produce compared to anything but Gold Coins, but they can be very beneficial for Raiders.  Even a minor increase in their Resistances can make a huge difference, which makes these scrolls fairly valuable.

Enchantment Scrolls were a big draw for Rewards, because they could enchant gear or other worn items, such as an Amulet of Illumination – the Scroll of which was less in terms of cost and therefore more common than others.  As such, Tacca was planning on making the Illumination Enchantment Scroll be a more common Reward, while the others would be something much more rare, such as from her Boss Werewolf or some reward chests she was planning on placing in different places.

As for the rest of the rewards, the armor and weapon upgrades were excellent, as they would also help the Raiders survive longer.  Not only that, but she could also equip both her Kitsune and Gnoll creatures with better gear; not all of them would need it, but 1 or 2 per room might be a nice challenge to the groups going through her new section.

Overall, Tacca spent exactly half of her 28,300 CIPs to acquire all she needed to not only finish her new dungeon section, but to keep it running without problems.  That still left her with 14,150 Points to spend, and the decision of where to spend them was where she needed help.

“Very nice selections, Tacca.  Though, I’d probably say that you’re at the bare minimum of what you need to keep both sections running smoothly.”

You’re right, but I didn’t want to spend needlessly unless absolutely necessary.  Having more Dungeon Force or regeneration would always be helpful, as well as the Control Limit, but is there something else I should be looking towards?

“That really depends on your plans, I guess.  What are you planning to do when you finish filling this section?”  Shale likely had an inkling of what she had planned, but she hadn’t shared everything with him quite yet – which meant that he was asking an important question: What did she plan on doing next?

Simple enough – expand and grow her dungeon.  While at the same time, keeping each section intact.

The problem with that, of course, was that if she kept the first section the same, and then the second section, the Dungeon Force and Control Limit she currently possessed would be consumed with keeping those running.  Unless, naturally, visits by Raiders were slow and she had a lot of time to restock and change things around, but that would be the opposite of what Tacca wanted; she had enjoyed having groups running through her dungeon almost constantly, and she wouldn’t want to have to adapt the methods that other Cores needed to use, with having to wait half a day or so before the next group could enter.

That was the main reason that when Cores increased their CI Levels, they typically eliminated the weaker parts of their dungeons so that they could create something more difficult, losing those Raiders at the bottom rung of their careers but gaining stronger visitors at the same time.  It was also the reason why Tacca was so popular, at least according to her instruction at DAPS, because entry-Level dungeons didn’t stay that way for long.  They increased in difficulty quickly, as it was much easier to get stronger within the first 5 years of their existence, and Dungeon Assistants were taught to encourage change to make dungeons more appealing and challenging.

It made sense, most of the time, but Tacca was really hoping to keep everything running, so that she had many Raiders running through her rooms at the same time.  With the unique way she created the exits, as well as the two separate entrances she had planned, it was possible to have more than 1 group in her dungeon at a time – a feat that was near impossible for most older Dungeon Cores she had learned about.

So…what do I do?

Whether it was her still trying to adjust to being in the world again, or she ended up damaging her mind when her Level increased so much, but Tacca was having difficulty planning ahead – something that she’d always been great at.  She didn’t think it was permanent, thankfully, but for now she was just a bit overwhelmed.

Fortunately, she had an Assistant that was there to help for exactly this reason.

Chapter 6

The solution had been a simple one, and Tacca hadn’t even seen it.  Fortunately, Shale had considered it a bit, his mind working on a different wavelength than the Dungeon Core entirely.  Simply put, the answer lay in the Special Characteristic menu, which she had basically all but ignored once she had paid back the Points to get rid of her negative Characteristics.  They had served their purpose, getting her access to all of the Variants for her creatures, but for some reason purchasing more Special Characteristics[1] hadn’t occurred to her.

From her increase in Level, she had already acquired an extra 175 SCPs – 25 per Level – for a total of 225 SCPs.  Now at Level 20, this was the last opportunity she would get to acquire more SCPs at a rate of 12 CIPs to 1.  It was certainly more expensive compared to the old 4 to 1 ratio she enjoyed all the way through CI Level 10, but if she waited until she was Level 21, the rate would go up to 36 to 1.  In addition, the next time she went through another Level increase, she would end up having to wait for another year for her countdown to end, similar to how her Dungeon Assistant status was right now.  At least until Level 41, when the countdown would increase to 5 years.

For a total of 14,100 of her CIPs, she could convert them into 1,175 SCPs; added to her previous total of 225, she could have 1,400 Points to spend on Characteristics.  If she didn’t convert them, then she could increase her Dungeon Force maximum by another 1,000, her regeneration by another 20 per minute, and add another 900 to her Control Limit – with a handful of Points left over.  It was a hard decision, and one that would affect the rest of her life as a Dungeon Core, because if she messed up it could have dire consequences.

Fortunately, she wasn’t one to take the easy route.  Looking at my original choices for Special Characteristics just emphasizes that point.

Crossing her non-existent fingers in her mind, Tacca converted nearly all of her remaining CIPs and brought her total up to 1,400 SCPs.  Before she had committed to this endeavor, she had already perused her options and knew exactly what she was going to purchase.

For exactly half of her available Points, she acquired Decreased Dungeon Force cost for all creatures and traps: 40%.  As soon as she confirmed her purchase, she felt an immediate shaking in her Core, as if something large had smacked it like a bell with the flat of its fleshy hand.  When she stopped reverberating, she was thankful that she didn’t feel that any cracks had formed as a result of acquiring the Characteristic. Instead, Tacca’s Core felt…freer, somehow.

Getting rid of her negative characteristics had been like snapping the chains weighing down her development, making her feel lighter as a result.  Being “freer” felt like additional possibilities suddenly opened up for her; it was as if she had previously been hindered by such excessive Dungeon Force costs in her creatures and traps, and with a decrease in that cost, she could do so much more.

“Are you alright, Tacca?  You seemed a bit strange there for a moment?”

Yes, I’m fine – that was just unexpected.  It was true, she did feel quite good.  Almost like she was on the right track.

With the remaining 700 of her SCPs, Tacca used them on another Characteristic that cost quite a bit: Decreased Control Limit for all creatures: 60%.  This was the second of the two limitations that had been concerning her with her future expansion plans.  With the new Characteristic, she now felt even more free to do what she wanted.  It wasn’t a complete elimination of costs and limitations, but she was absolutely convinced her new acquisitions were going to be the best of any of her purchases.

Just like that, all but 50 of her CIPs were used up, purchasing increases in Dungeon Force, DF regeneration, Control Limit, and converting into new Special Characteristics.  Using 28,300 Points that quickly was a rush, and she felt better about her future – and the future of her dungeon.  When the heady feeling of gaining so much in such a small space of time finally faded, Tacca got to work.

Within seconds of starting to fill her new section up with creatures, she noticed the difference in costs.  For instance, her Werewolf Warrior in her Boss Room, which previously cost 900 DF and had a Control Limit requirement of 95 (which was a little less than a tenth of her total Control Limit), now only cost 540 DF and had a requirement of 38 CL.  Her entire first section now required a measly 76 of her Control Limit to operate creature-wise, and her second section – once she finished filling it – only required 413.  She now had a little over 700 CL to spend, which would go a long way towards a new section once she decided to work on it.

What her new acquisitions had the most impact upon, as far as she was concerned, were her traps.  For her Trap Specializations, her Enchanting and Life traps, they cost 40% less than the previous discounted cost; unfortunately, the 60% reduction didn’t stack with the 40% to make them 100% less – otherwise known as free.  Still, when each reduction was taken one after another, it amounted to a total of 76%!  Better yet, the automatic replacement of them was 75% off of that cost, which equated to a measly 6% of its original cost before reductions.

The only thing that the new Characteristics didn’t affect were the Rewards she placed inside of each creature, but with the reduction of their Dungeon Force costs, it didn’t matter all that much.  Most of the time, the additional DF spent on Rewards was relatively negligible, other than for some of the Enchantment Scrolls – and most of those were reserved for hard-to-acquire treasure chests or as Rewards for defeating her Werewolf Boss.

Overall, she was extremely happy with how things had turned out, and she was glad she had listened to Shale about how to use her Core Improvement Points.  With the second section completely done, with traps placed, creatures ready, Rewards placed (as well as a few hidden treasure chests full of goodies), and Rotating Stone Bridges set up correctly, Tacca opened up the rest of the tunnel leading to the surface.  Once she was open for business again, she spent some time etching some stylized skulls outside of each entrance – 1 for the original section, and 2 for the new section.

It was actually Shale’s idea on how to indicate which one was which.  At first, she wanted to put a literal inscription detailing that the easier dungeon was for Raider Levels 1 – 5 and the newer dungeon was for Raider Levels 6 – 20, but that just seemed like too blatant of a communication.

“I know you already used this method to talk to those you Bonded with,” he had said disapprovingly, “but for the rest of the world, I would recommend not advertising exactly how ‘intelligent’ you are.”  He gave it some consideration, before offering a solution.  “Why don’t you use some sort of picture like the exits to indicate the difficulty.  Like…maybe a skull?  The more skulls, the more chance of death, perhaps?”

So that was how it came about.  After that, there really wasn’t much that Tacca could do, especially when there weren’t any Raiders coming to visit her.  As she idly spent some time and her constantly regenerating Dungeon Force carving out even more of the massive mountain where she made her home – in anticipation of designing a new section – Shale spent more and more time working with Malachite and the Head Instructor from DAPS.  Mostly, he used his free time to scout out what was happening around the continent, which was growing more worrisome as time went on.

By the time her two Bonded Hill Dwarves arrived, Tacca had learned a lot from Shale regarding the state of affairs – and about the blue-skinned, 6-armed invaders and their systematic destruction of Dungeon Cores up north.  Which was why she had sent them away with her messages, because as much as she wanted them to delve through her dungeon again, bringing other Raiders, it would be extremely selfish of her if she didn’t do whatever was in her power to help everyone.

As she was essentially the only real point of contact the Fairies and Dungeon Cores had with the mortal races, now that the Conclave of Sages had been wiped out (that took a little bit of explanation from Malachite when Shale asked about it), it was the least she could do.  She wanted to do more, to strike back at those killing her kind – both her current and former forms – but there really wasn’t anything she could do.  Unless they came back, which she fervently hoped they wouldn’t, they were essentially out of reach.

Two days after Sterge and Gwenda left, a few important things happened.  The first, which she was slightly trepidatious about, was that Tacca improved her Core to CI Level 21.  A month after she had woken up from her last improvement, she had accumulated just enough CIPs to advance to the next Level from the addition of more creatures and Rewards, as well as the replacement of about half of her traps in her defensive room for a little bit stronger ones.  Now that traps cost less, as well as having an increased Dungeon Force maximum, she could place traps that used to cost a base of 4,000 DF for 1,000 DF, which still seemed to be near her limit of 25% of her maximum.

Not only that, but she also added a few other traps inside of her defensive room along the ceiling and walls.  While she didn’t have a specialization in them, the Poison-type traps she had reaching down from the ceiling interspersed within the room would expel a strong hallucinogenic poison in a large area, blanketing everything within the 10-foot width quite easily.  It wouldn’t really do any damage to any interlopers, nor was it particularly strong because it wasn’t her specialization, but her hope was that the constant attack would whittle down those pesky, glowing shields the invaders possessed so that her other traps could do their work.

In addition to the Poison-based traps on the ceiling, the walls of the room were now dotted with Projectile traps.  There were quite a few options when it came to the type of projectile, as well as placement, count, size, and speed – it all really depended on what you wanted the trap to accomplish.  In this instance, as she wasn’t expecting many – or any at all, perhaps – of the projectiles to actually reach the bodies of the monstrous invaders, she chose to go for quantity over quality.  Whenever one of the traps were triggered, the activation area of which extended across the entire width of the room at what she figured was approximately waist-height on one of them, 50 small barbed darts 3 inches long would erupt at high velocity from small holes in the wall, peppering the victim.  Again, they weren’t designed to kill, but to wear down defenses over anything else.

Of course, when she was done, she realized that there was a flaw in her defenses. If those people invaded her inner sanctum again and braved her defensive traps, they could potentially activate one trap, wait for the effects to disperse and for their own defenses to recover, and then keep going.  It would be much slower than she had seen those 6-armed people advance before, but if they understood how it worked, they could certainly survive through every trap in the room within a half-hour or so.  It was a sobering thought, and one which she (nor Shale) couldn’t figure out the solution to, but she resolved to work on it in the future.

Because for now, she had improved her CI Level!  Tacca had an additional 5400 CIPs to use on anything she wanted, but she held off on using them right away.  She wouldn’t be getting any more Points for over a year, because at CI Level 21 through 40 the countdown extended to that time period.  Therefore, she wanted to save it for the moment, only using it when she decided what direction she wanted to take next.  That, and there was something else that happened that was even more exciting.

Shale had finally hit one year of Bonding with her!  Of course, it was technically more than a year, but because of her times “away”, the countdown had frozen in place for nearly a half a year.  Still, it was something to celebrate!

Dungeon Assistant Information

Assistant Name:

Shale IronSchist

Assistant Rank:

Expert

Assistant Stage:

5/5

Experience:

8623/27800

Experience Pending/Countdown:

0 in 50 years

Fairy Mana (FM):

2000/2000

Fairy Mana Regeneration:

80 per minute

Abilities:

Core Bond

Instant

50 FM

Translocation

Instant

70 FM

Forceful Repulse

Instant

400 FM

Mass Ejection

Instant

2000 FM

Energy Transmutation

Instant Transfer

0 FM

Hibernate

Sustainable

1 FM per minute

Electrified Pacification

Sustainable

250 FM per minute

Healing Aura

Sustainable

20 FM per minute

Creature Boost

Sustainable

40 FM per minute

Perception Link

Sustainable

5 FM per minute

Invisibility

Sustainable

3 FM per minute

Projectile Shield

Sustainable

500 FM per minute

Repellant Shield

Sustainable

2 FM per minute

After accumulating nearly 60,000 Experience, Shale not only blasted through all of the Novice Stages, but he also shot through the entire Adept Rank.  He was now an Expert Stage 5, which meant that he had nearly become Master Rank in a single year.  That was unheard of and she would’ve considered it an impossibility, even with the best dungeon build and perfect conditions; with all that had happened to Tacca, however, it wasn’t surprising.  As for her own Assistant Ranking, she still had about 3 months to go before her own year was up, and it would also end up being a significant increase when that time came.

“These…are…amazing!” Shale exclaimed in wonder after recovering from his increase in Rank.  Fortunately for him, he didn’t suffer like she had when she had improved her Core, but when it happened he appeared as if he had been shocked and his body spasmed for a few seconds as it adjusted to the changes.  There didn’t seem to be any lingering effects, however.

What do you mean?

Tacca could see his Dungeon Assistant Information Sheet, and recognized a few of the Abilities that he had, such as Electrified Pacification and Healing Aura.  The rest, however, were new.

“Well, the Projectile Shield ability is a sustainable shield that can protect me from any projectile as long as it’s active.  It’s expensive at 500 Fairy Mana per minute, but I think that is well worth the cost.

“Then there’s something called Creature Boost, which allows me to connect with one of your creatures to provide a boost to its physical abilities, effectively doubling its deadliness.  The only problem is that I have to be in the same room as the creature, and I can only Boost one creature at a time.

“Forceful Repulse is an instant ability, which sends out a shockwave of magical force that can push everything away from my location.  It is powerful enough that I think I can actually hurt someone if they slam into a wall or something – or perhaps into a trap?

“Then there’s Mass Ejection, which is something I’ve never heard of before,” he continued excitedly.  Tacca had to agree – she hadn’t heard of it, either.  “It requires all of my Fairy Mana, but it basically opens up a portal inside of one of your rooms and ejects everything living it touches out of your dungeon, just outside of the entrance above.  This, unfortunately, also includes any of your creatures in the room, as well as any Environmental Objects such as your plants and trees.”

That certainly is powerful!  The ability would’ve been extremely helpful when those merchant Raiders with the powerfully enchanted armor had attacked, for instance.  Against those blue-skinned invaders, though, it would’ve been useless because Shale had been unable to use any of his abilities.

But her Dungeon Assistant wasn’t even done yet.  “Then there are two more abilities, both of which will help you immensely.  One, the Perception Link, should allow me to share with you what I’m seeing and hearing – even outside of your dungeon.”

That is amazing!  Now I can finally see what it looks like in the village down below.  Is there a range limit on it?

Shale shook his head.  “Not that I’m aware of.  It should work just about anywhere, as far as I can tell.”  His face brightened up as he explained his last ability.  “Lastly, and this is another ability I’ve never heard of, is Energy Transmutation.”

What in the world is that?  Although many of the abilities that Dungeon Assistants gained from working with a Core were common, there were quite a few that were unique – but even those abilities were documented.  As she had studied everything she could at DAPS, she had knowledge of most – if not all – of the abilities a Fairy could gain from their increase in Ranking; this Energy Transmutation was not one of them.

“From what I understand, I can use the ability to…transmute?...my Fairy Mana into Dungeon Force, and then transfer it to you.”  There was silence in her Core Room as they both processed that for a moment.

That is…insane!  How?  What?  Why?

For a wonder, Shale actually had some sort of explanation, while Tacca was floundering in shock.  “I think it’s because of our connection, and because of your unique situation,” he explained slowly, working it out as he spoke.  “You are both Fairy and Dungeon Core, so it makes sense that I would gain an ability that would take advantage of both aspects.”

It did make sense, in a way, but the ability was extremely powerful.  Since the ability didn’t cost anything, it essentially meant that – with Shale’s natural FM regeneration – he was essentially an extra 80 DF per minute.  Unless he was using his FM for something else, of course, which would cut that down extensively, but otherwise he was like a portable power source.

In short, it was awesome.

She took advantage of that immediately, as she continued to hollow out a new room in a new section, directing her Carve Earth ability in 20 different areas, each of them consuming 5 DF per minute – which made the entire process so much faster.  Tacca also found that it was much easier to split her concentration in so many different places than it had before, which she attributed to her recent Core Improvement increases.

Shale flew out of her dungeon, with both of them eager to test out if his Perception Link would actually work, and she found the downside to his Energy Transmutation: it stopped as soon as her Dungeon Assistant crossed the entrance threshold.  That wasn’t too much of a bother, though, because when she really needed his help, he usually wasn’t too far away.

For the first time since she had become a Dungeon Core against her will, she once again experienced the freedom of flying through the air, of being able to bathe in the morning light of the sun, and feel the wind whipping through rapidly fluttering wings.  They weren’t her own, of course, but the Perception Link that Shale now had was much more than just seeing and hearing; it was as though every sensation he experienced was passed through to Tacca’s mind.  It was both wonderful and made her a bit sad, as she missed experiencing these sensations herself, in her own Fairy body.

Regardless, even a taste of it was better than nothing, and she refused to let disappointment that it wasn’t her body’s sensations that she was feeling right now get her down.  Instead, she focused fully on what Shale was physically feeling, drinking in the ease with which he flew through the air like a dehydrated wanderer in the desert.  That might also explain how she was able to see movement below Shale before her Assistant even registered it.

Shale, there’s someone climbing up the mountain pathway.

Her Dungeon Assistant immediately focused on the movement, acknowledging her communication.  “This…could be interesting.”  With that thought sent to her, he swooped down lower, hoping to overhear any conversation between the ragtag group of people coming up the mountain – heading straight for her dungeon entrances.

Chapter 7

“See, I was right!”

Squab pointed towards the small cave opening on the cliff face in the distance, seeing what appeared to be some sort of small animal at the entrance.  Right where it was reportedly supposed to be.

“Yeah, but that doesn’t exactly mean anything,” Marvus remarked sarcastically.  However, now that he was close, his Valuation Sense was telling him that there was something nearby.  It wasn’t nearly as much as what he had felt back in Heftington, but whether or not it had yet to be mined could make a huge difference.  His Sense typically only pinpointed finished products with set values, and chunks of gold ore inside of the walls of a mountain were anything but finished products.  Quite valuable, naturally, but nearly impossible to locate using his ability.  “Wasn’t this dungeon supposed to be destroyed—?”

He cut his own question off as they neared the flatter portion of the trail leading upwards, where he saw the scraps and bones of dozens of Raiders that had reportedly been massacred outside of the entrance.  Those same reports also said that the dungeon itself hadn’t been responsible, and had been destroyed by whatever had killed so many of the Clan.  As a result, the area had been off-limits for nearly half a year.

Not that he overly cared, as he hadn’t really followed most laws or orders for a long time, especially once he joined the Pilfering Cohort, a sub-branch of the Raider Delving Clan.  However, he hadn’t been willing to risk going into danger if whatever had done this was still around, but it had been extremely quiet this far down south.  When he heard that the two Hill Dwarves had recently visited and returned whole and healthy, he was fairly certain it was safe; as a result, he had already been planning on visiting with his own group, if only to loot the bodies that were said to have been left rotting in the sun after the sudden attack.

That was before his Valuation Sense started going crazy while he was getting his group ready in the nearby town.  Not the relatively small village down at the bottom of the mountain range – as that had been empty of anyone since the night of the massacre – but in Heftington, which was also the nearest outpost of the Clan.  While there was wealth inside of the town, there wasn’t a lot except inside the coffers of the outpost, which was heavily guarded.  Neither he nor anyone else in the cohort would steal from the Clan, though, because it would almost be like stealing from their siblings; there were some that would do even that if it netted them some money, but even they would follow the rules.

Even thieves had some honor, after all.

The sudden appearance of large amounts of wealth apart from the Clan’s coffers was a curious-enough happening that Marvus was almost forced to investigate.  What he found was both interesting and exciting: Sterge and Gwenda, the two Hill Dwarves that used to run the village further south, had somehow obtained large chunks of raw gold, which they were turning into coinage.  It was these gold coins that he suddenly detected, but that wasn’t all; his Sense told him they had more than just gold, though it wasn’t quite finished product – but it was strong.

From experience, the only thing he could think of that would cause that kind of reaction to his Valuation Sense was an uncut gemstone of some kind.  He’d Sensed a small uncut emerald hunk before, though he’d had to be within 5 feet of it to detect it.  As he had recognized the particular feel of uncut gemstones from nearly 50 feet away while he observed them in the small-town marketplace, he knew that they were likely carrying more than a small uncut gemstone.

Unfortunately, almost as soon as they arrived back in town, they were under the watchful eye of the outpost leader, Trevelyan.  The Elf was extraordinarily powerful – not to mention influential – and getting on her bad side would be a death sentence; it was for that reason, and that reason alone, that he had made the trek with 19 others of the Cohort to see if they could find where the two Hill Dwarves may have obtained the raw materials.  Stealing from those two would’ve been so easy that he could’ve done it blindfolded, but risking the wrath of the outpost leader was something all of the Cohort would like to avoid.

“Check the bodies; see if there’s anything left of value.”  From the information he had dug up, he was fairly certain that no one had looted the corpses of those that had fallen to whatever it was that attacked; the only ones that had been up since the evacuation were Sterge and Gwenda, but they didn’t seem the type to go rooting around dead bodies.  Besides, they had come back with raw gold and gemstones, which were certainly not being held by the bones and scraps of clothing he saw littering the mountainside.

Marvus didn’t bother to check any of the corpses himself, as he was after a larger payday, but he did notice that none of them looked particularly disturbed.  The accuracy of which was proven moments later when the Cohort members started finding caches of coinage, as well as over a dozen bottomless bags that had been abandoned.  Re-keying them so that they could be opened was an expensive operation, but the rewards were almost always worth it.

“Your cut, sir.”  Squab held out a pouch to Marvus, which he took absently, not bothering to count.  Most likely he was being cheated out of his fair share, but he didn’t really care at the moment.  Instead, his focus was on the dungeon entrance; correction, on the dungeon entrances.

“Squab?  Since you’re the only one that has been here, what do you know about that?” he asked.  Squab was the most junior member of the Cohort with them today, at only Raider Level 12, and he had visited the dungeon once before it had been destroyed.  Or supposedly destroyed.  The rest of those with them ranged between Level 18 and 23, with Marvus being the most powerful at Level 25; none of them had any reason to visit a dungeon that was meant for Raiders just starting out.

“Uh…that wasn’t here when I visited before,” Squab said uncertainly.

I wonder if that is another entrance?  But why would there be two?  Marvus had been in his fair share of dungeons over the last decade or so, but this one was the most unusual one he’d ever heard of – and it became even more unusual at his first sight of it.  He had already heard about the dungeon’s ability to put one of their monsters in the tunnel leading inside, letting the next group know that it was ready for them, but a second entrance?  Not only that, but there appeared to be some sort of animal person waiting inside of the tunnel for them, which he quickly recognized as some sort of Gnoll.

Something new could potentially be good or bad.  As Sterge and Gwenda hadn’t been spreading the news that the dungeon was still operational, he tended to think that this was something good.  “I have a feeling we’ll find what we’re looking for in there.  If those two weaklings can come out with riches, then we’ll probably be able to find even more.”

Marvus refused to think of his last score, a previously thought defunct dungeon full of big cats, and a treasure room full of hundreds of thousands’ worth of gold.  He had destroyed the Core because he didn’t want anyone else knowing about his find, but in the end it hadn’t mattered.  It turned out that the Ministry of Merchants had caught wind of his activities there and had ambushed him one night as he was moving more of his treasure out.  Left for dead, they had cleaned out the entire cave while he was unconscious and severely hurt, and it was only by luck that they hadn’t finished him off.

Truthfully, at the time he thought it would’ve been a blessing to have died, because after he woke up and found himself stripped of anything of worth, he almost let his wounds take him to the afterlife.  His depression didn’t last long, and he managed to pop out the Minor Healing Potion he kept in his boot; fueled by a desire for revenge, he healed himself up and had been working to build up enough wealth to destroy the Ministry.  It was a lofty goal, but it was also something he felt driven to strive for; if anything, it gave his life purpose.

“Let’s head in,” he ordered, waving the Cohort members inside.  “This shouldn’t be too difficult; that other entrance was for beginners, after all.  I dare say that Squab could probably defeat whatever is in this new place all by himself,” he joked, taking pleasure in the horrified look on their junior member’s face.

As soon as they got close to the entrance, the Gnoll disappeared inside.  Emboldened by their numbers, the Cohort ran after it, intending to dispatch it before it could raise a warning – or whatever it was designed to do.  Enhanced by the speed of their Class choices, which most of them had chosen as Thief or Brigand when they hit Level 10, they were actually able to catch up before the Gnoll could get away.  Just as Marvus walked inside the entrance tunnel, he watched as the monster was practically decapitated from a powerful cross slice coming from one of their Assassin Classes, Gerthin, who had changed from his previous Thief Class at Level 20.

As for Marvus, he had chosen to become a Plunderer, which really helped to enhance his Valuation Sense ability.  Less about speed and staying hidden, the Plunderer Class was more melee-focused and had better defensive abilities – something that he found paramount when it came to avoiding the same fate as had happened before.  He was confident that if he hadn’t been just a lowly Brigand when he had lost his big score, he could’ve fought back against those Ministry cronies that took his stuff.  Stuff that he had earned fair and square after finishing off the rest of the Cohort that Marvus had led there.

He couldn’t help but recognize the parallel between then and now, as he was the leader and Squab was the lowly Thief leading them to the dungeon.  This time, though, he was watching out for any treachery that might arise; he didn’t want what happened back then to happen to himself, after all.

“There’s some sort of sloped hallway here,” he heard called back to him from up front, after the Gnoll’s body disappeared, leaving behind a single silver coin – which was promptly snatched up and squirreled away by Gerthin.

“Do you see another way?  No?  Then start walking.”  None of them had sensed any traps, obviously, but they were hesitant to investigate this hallway.  Eventually, a few started walking, only to slip and fall, sliding down the hallway without the ability to stop themselves.  Marvus and the remaining 15 waited for any type of scream to indicate that this was some sort of elaborate trap.

There were screams, but not of pain – more of fright at what they were probably anticipating.  In less than a minute, however, the screaming stopped, only to be replaced by vague echoes that sounded like, “Okay.”

“Alright, let’s go.”  When no one moved, Marvus pushed through them and flung himself down, leading by example.  He didn’t want to be there all day finding the riches he felt were down below, as his desire was to get in and out.  It was his inability to move all of the treasure from his previous score in a timely manner that led to his tragedy, so it was only prudent to get this done in less than a day if at all possible.

After sliding down a very long passageway, which wasn’t scary in the least (meaning that the others were being frightened little babies), he ended up slowing down in a very large room, and it took him a moment to realize that it was still inside as opposed to having exited the dungeon.  A miniature mountain range spanned across the back of the room, the blue “sky” behind and above some sort of bluish-white stone flawlessly covering the bare stone of the otherwise austere walls that he normally saw in dungeons.  A fake “sun” sat off to one corner of the room, another bright-colored yellow-white stone that he couldn’t identify.  He was positive that they weren’t precious gemstones, however, and likely more of a rare-colored granite or marble.  Rare didn’t always mean it had value, however, unless he was somehow able to carve out massive slabs of the stuff – and someone was interested in blueish stone, of course.

He wasn’t here to gather that kind of stuff, though they all had mining tools to extract ores or gemstones, which Marvus was now increasingly sure was what happened.  This first room, with the unique mountain range and colored stone just screamed literal “goldmine”, and those were few and far between.  Heck, a dungeon that provided anything other than iron and copper ores was almost unheard of, and those that had gemstones or gold ore were usually much more dangerous.  As in, Level 70 or 80-type dangerous, but by that point most Raiders weren’t as concerned about wealth as they were about increasing their own power.

At the base of the mountain range, behind some miniature foothills, were 5 obvious passageways, with nothing to indicate where they were supposed to go.

“Teams of 4!” Marvus called out.  “Check it out for traps first, then take a safe peek to see if you found the way forward.”  While he wasn’t too concerned about the difficulty of this dungeon, stupid mistakes could and did happen for those who were overconfident.

While they all broke off into teams of 4, he joined a trio of the Cohort as they cautiously approached the tunnel leading to the far right of the room, and he pulsed his own Detect Traps ability. Although it wasn’t as developed as his Valuation Sense, it was still adequate enough to handle whatever he found inside this dungeon.

Strangely, there wasn’t a single trap that he could detect.  Nor did anyone else, which was a good sign.  Walking into the tunnel, he noticed that it was dark towards the end; he wasn’t the only one that brought out an Amulet of Illumination and held it up, lighting the corridor until it was as bright as day.

“Looks like it turns to the left, though for how long I’m not sure,” Gerthin, one of those that had joined him in investigating this direction, remarked as they looked down the tunnel.  Without direction, the Assassin inched his way through the passageway, checking for traps the entire way, and Gerthin watched him disappear around the corner.  The next moment, he saw a hand appear, gesturing them forward.

The rest of the hallway was equally empty of any threats, but it was also where their progress stopped.  The tunnel ended with a blank stone wall, with no obvious way through.  “Guess this isn’t it.”

They made their way back out to the main room, only to find 3 other teams waiting for them as well.  “Nothing?”

All of them answered in the negative, but there was one team that wasn’t back yet: the one that had gone to the left.  With only the slightest hesitation, he gathered everyone up and headed for the entranceway, only to see Squab emerge from the left tunnel and nod in his direction.  “Looks like this could be the way through.”

It certainly did, and it was unlike anything he’d seen before in a dungeon – which was becoming a bit old by that point.  Marvus didn’t like surprises because they were too hard to plan for.

A large cliffside at least 100 feet tall greeted them, with an obvious switchback path up the face of it.  While they fortunately didn’t have to climb it, there was always a risk of falling if they weren’t careful; luckily, each and every one of them was quite agile and had a superb sense of balance, all benefits from their Class selections.

“Trap!  I can’t tell what kind it is, but if the rumors about this place were true, it’s probably some sort of enchantment that’ll mess with us,” Gerthin called out to the rest as they were walking up the switchback, and it was easy enough to pinpoint once Marvus got close enough with his Detect Traps ability.  There was a foot-wide strip near the edge of the pathway that wasn’t included in the trap, which made it the obvious choice for where they could bypass it altogether.  Too obvious.  One didn’t survive for years delving through dungeons without learning some of the tricks these nasty places liked to pull to take advantage of the unwary.

Marvus wasn’t the only one that thought so, and everyone prepared for the inevitable surprise.  Gerthin easily walked to the side of the trap, avoiding it altogether, but when the attack came no one was caught off guard.  Despite the fact that a large cat the same color as the cliff suddenly appeared no more than 10 feet above Gerthin, the Assassin managed to avoid all but a few cosmetic scratches along his dark leather jerkin as it flew past him.  If he hadn’t been prepared, he might have been knocked off the cliff itself, injuring him severely.

The greyish-brown cat – some sort of Lynx if he wasn’t mistaken – agilely landed below the switchback on the cliff, before bounding back upwards, intent on attacking Gerthin again.  It was met with a pair of swords wielded by the Cohort member that moved so quickly that they sliced the cat apart in the middle of the air; the monster was dead before it even hit the ground.

Now knowing what to look out for, the journey up the cliff face went a lot more smoothly.  It was still hard to pick out the Lynxes when they sat perfectly still along the rocky outcroppings of the cliff face, but after a while it was possible to pick out their eyes – which were the only things that didn’t blend in with the surroundings.  Bombarding them with expertly tossed throwing knives was enough for the Cohort to take them out before they could even attack.  From that point on, making their way up to the top of the cliff was easy enough.

The journey down the backside of the vertical mountain was even easier, as there didn’t seem to be any monsters to kill or traps to avoid.  At the bottom, there were two more options of where to go next, but one of them was quickly investigated and ruled out, as it was closed off at the end.

The next room was their first glimpse of the forest-like environment that Squab had described the previous dungeon as full of.  There were trees lining the middle of the room, with small hills of even more stone along the sides, combining the two environments seamlessly.

Spreading out, so as not to present a tempting target for an attack, the Cohort moved forward cautiously, using their Detect Traps to verify the safety of their steps.  Just before the tree line, a long trap suddenly filled Marvus’ vision, running the entire distance from hillside to hillside. While they might be able to jump over it with no ill effects, leaving a trap that couldn’t easily be avoided at their backs was never a good idea, especially if they needed to flee. “Derf – Disarm it while we watch your back.”

Derf, their Disarm Trap specialist, got to work immediately.  A billowy mist flowed out of his hands, covering the entire trap within seconds as it did its work.  It would take a minute or two for it to fully finish, which was why they needed to watch his back while he was otherwise occupied.

It was good that they were, too, because almost as soon as Derf got to work, some unheard signal started an attack from 3 sides.  Large cats, larger than the Lynx in the last room, seemed to materialize from the hillsides, jumping down towards the assembled Cohort, narrowly missing their targets as they dodged out of the way.  Knives flashed out in counterattack as the cats landed, swift and deadly strikes and stabs that made short work of the dungeon-created monsters, even as howls coming from the forest of trees made Marvus shiver slightly at their sound.

A handful of large wolves emerged from the trees at a run, attacking those closest to the forest, but again their targets were too swift to fall prey to their assault.  Dodging, rolling, and even jumping out of the way of danger was easy enough to accomplish with their Classes, though facing an enemy head-on was always a bit risky.  Marvus joined in and held the attention of 2 of the wolves with his Provoke ability, and the others took advantage with stealthy backstabs and swift shanks into their flanks as he practically danced out of the way of the monsters’ deadly bites.

Soon enough, the big cats and wolves lay dead, disappearing into loot – more silver coins and what appeared to be some shoddy leather armor.  It was nothing that any of them would want to use, even Squab, but they could sell it for a small profit in Heftington.  A minute later, the trap was completely disarmed and harmless, and they made their cautious way through the forest, finding the entrance to the next room.

That was where things started to get a little strange.

Chapter 8

Tacca had recognized Marvus immediately, leading a large group of Scout-classed Thieves and Brigands up towards her dungeon entrances.  It was hard to forget any of the people that had participated in the destruction of one of her past Bonded Cores; in this case, it had been Darlene, one of the first Cores with which she had Bonded.  The misguided Dungeon Core had essentially shut down her dungeon in the hopes of hiding from everyone, hoarding heaps of Rewards in her Core Room.

That was, of course, when Tacca showed up and her bad luck led to her destruction.  The former Dungeon Assistant still hadn’t fully come to terms with her role in any of the fates of her former Cores, even if she hadn’t been the one to actually end their lives.

No, that had been the act of those like Marvus.

He had shown up with other Brigands, using his Valuation Sense ability to sniff out the massive hoard of gold coins and enchantment scrolls (as well as a myriad of other things) in Darlene’s Core Room.  Without any traps or creatures defending her many rooms, as they had been removed previously, even the Core’s desperate additions of Panthers had been only partially successful.  Marvus, having killed the leader of his thieving group, had taken it upon himself to destroy Darlene, so that there wasn’t a chance that anyone would find his massive treasure.

I WILL KILL HIM!

Shale was taken aback by her vehemence and nearly dropped his Invisibility in surprise.  “What?  Who?  Why?”

Marvus – the one that appears to be leading this group.  He destroyed one of my previous Cores before all this happened.

“Which one?”

While Tacca explained what had happened, she listened to the group talking via the Link with Shale, as well as watched them loot the bodies of the corpses that had been killed by the invaders outside of her entrance.  To see them uncaringly desecrate their fellow Raiders like that, without any visible sign of caring that they used to be their own, only indicated to her that these were not the most savory of characters.  The rage she felt only increased.

“Tacca…don’t take this the wrong way, because I don’t want to make light of what you went through, but…you can’t take revenge on him as a personal vendetta.”

That wasn’t what she wanted to hear.  What?  Why not?

“Because he was justified in what he had done.”

No; it’s never justified destroying a Dungeon Core, especially because of greed.

“So you say, but I think you’re thinking of it as a Core, and not as a Fairy anymore.”

What does that have to do with—  Tacca stopped her rebuttal and stepped back for a moment, trying to wade through the fury she felt upon seeing the Brigand again.  It took a few minutes to let her mind clear enough to understand what her Assistant was saying.  In those precious few minutes, the Gnoll Scout she had in her new section entrance was chased and cut down before he could escape.

I…see what you’re saying, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to take it easy on these Raiders.  They are coming in with way more people than they should, so I’m going to up the challenge a bit.

Tacca really did understand what Shale was saying: Darlene had been breaking the rules and had to be destroyed.  It wasn’t just an accidental breaking of the rules, but a deliberate act that was detrimental to the entire world; when Darlene wasn’t acting as a functioning dungeon, she wasn’t actively participating in regulating the “balance” – something she was starting to learn more of over the past few weeks, as Shale had spent more and more time helping Malachite and the Council.  She didn’t comprehend all of it, but she did understand her role in “pruning” those dungeons that were hindering the maintenance of that balance.

That did not mean that she liked it.  Nope, not one bit.

Regardless, she could see Marvus in a new light.  She still didn’t like the Brigand – or whatever Raider Class he was now – and wanted him to die, but ultimately he had played a role in Darlene’s destruction just as Tacca had.  While she still could – and did – blame him for the Core’s ending, it was quite likely that if it hadn’t been him, it would’ve been someone else. For that reason, she wasn’t going to specifically target him in an attempt to kill him, but she was serious about making things a little more difficult for the entire group.

“That’s only fair, I suppose, seeing as they have much greater numbers.  And while I don’t know their Raider Levels, from their actions so far, I would put most of them at the limit of your new section or beyond.”

With tacit approval for her actions, Tacca started adding more creatures to her new section.  Using all of her Dungeon Force, bolstered by Shale’s Energy Transmutation and her own regeneration, dozens of new creatures joined their brethren already prepared for the upcoming group. Because of time constraints, as it took a little while for her new additions to fully materialize, she skipped over adding anything to the first two rooms, as they wouldn’t appear in time; for the others, though, they were getting a slight increase in their number.

Unfortunately, she didn’t have nearly enough time to place additional traps, as those usually took longer to set up and more DF to create.

“Not that they would matter, anyway, as these Raiders will just be able to detect and disarm them with ease.”

Her Dungeon Assistant was correct, as those that had just invaded her dungeon were all specialized in trap detection and disarming them – which was why a balanced group of Raiders usually contained at least one Scout-type Class.  Fortunately, unless there were some hidden very high-Level Raiders in the bunch, the traps in her defensive section outside of her Core Room would be too difficult for any of them to disarm.

Not one to take a chance, though, especially if she could do something to prevent a disaster, once she had initiated the placement of additional creatures throughout the majority of the rooms, she started on something new.  Moving her Core to the 3rd section, which was currently under construction, she added a new creature to her Core Room – along with some smaller friends for some synergy action.

Gnoll Archmage

If Gnolls are the evolved versions of hyenas, then the Gnoll Archmage is the evolved version of a Mage.  Wielding powerful spells, the Archmage can absolutely devastate its enemies and only the stoutest of individuals can withstand their onslaught.  The downside to this Variant of Gnoll is their severe weakness to physical attacks, though that weakness can be shored up by the activation of defensive spells.

Cost (Level 25): 1200 DF

Control Requirement (Level 25): 190

Creation Time (Level 25): 3.5 Hours

Equipment: Carved Elderoak Staff (Magical Attack +20, Physical Attack +2), Fine Magisilk Robe (Physical Defense +5)

Physical Attack: 5 (9)

Magical Attack: 80 (120)

Physical Defense: 8 (12)

Ranged Defense: 4 (6)

Elemental Resistance: 80% Earth, 80% Fire, 80% Water, 80% Air

Specials: Bonus to sensing those hidden by Invisibility spells and effects

Abilities: (select for list of available spells)

Synergy Addition (+): Adds a bonus to Physical and Ranged Attack and Defense when paired with unevolved creature form; this bonus lasts for up to 30 seconds even after paired form is killed

It was a bit of a strain on her Core, as it still didn’t like her using more than 25% of her maximum Dungeon Force on a single creation, but although it nearly felt like she was going to cause some cracks in her form, nothing happened.  She thought she might be able to push it another 100 or 200 DF before something bad happened, but she didn’t want to push it.  As it was, it was already going to take 3.5 hours for the Gnoll Archmage to fully appear, which she hoped the rest of her rooms would delay the group long enough for.  Actually, she really hoped that she wasn’t going to have to utilize the Archmage at all, and that the group would just leave after a while.

Tacca didn’t think she’d be that lucky.

The Dungeon Core watched as the large group made their way down the slide, investigated the first room quickly – they’re lucky that they had so many people to check all of the different passageways – and then blow through the first two rooms without any difficulty at all.  Not that she expected them to, but she was at least hoping that her creatures would be at least partially effective.  That just wasn’t to be, unfortunately.

It was in the third room, where she had made some additions, that she finally had some success.

*          *          *

Marvus didn’t have to instruct everyone to bring forth whatever kind of light they had, because they did it automatically as they ventured into the next room.  The ambience of the new area was dark, much darker than the previous rooms had been, but it wasn’t something that they were unused to when traipsing through dungeons.  It was why they were prepared with Amulets of Illumination or gear equipped with Darkvision enchantments, though those were relatively expensive and didn’t work the best when the rest of the group was lighting up the place with so much light.

A few steps inside of the room made the leading edge of the Cohort pause, as insane laughter echoed through glossy, smooth, and narrow hallways that indicated some sort of maze they needed to navigate their way through.  This wasn’t the first maze most of them had seen in a dungeon, of course, but it was the first time that Marvus had heard something like that.

“What is it?  What is making that noise?”

“Is this place haunted by the spirits of those that died up above?”

“I don’t like this – we should turn around and get out of here.”

Marvus heard the whisperings of his crew as they listened to the incessant laughter that seemed to sink into his bones, and he was this close to agreeing with them.  However, he wasn’t going to let something as stupid as laughter keep him from scoring another payday.

“Knock it off!” he yelled, making his voice carry over the creepy giggling.  “Keep moving; there’s nothing to be afraid of here.  This is just a ploy by the dungeon to scare us.”

As if in answer to that, the sheer volume of the laughter increased, until a cacophony of giggles and cackles echoed through the hallways.  Even if they got over the fear that the sound caused, it was so loud that they would have difficulty hearing if there was danger about.

Thankfully, the group started moving again, either bolstered by his words or determined not to give into their fear.  Before too long, the hallway ended in a T-junction, giving them two choices of where to go; it only confirmed that this was indeed some sort of maze.  “Two teams, one left and one right!” Marvus immediately shouted, still needing to raise his voice significantly to be heard over the laughter.  Without too much trouble, the entire group split in half, and he joined with 9 others as they turned to the right.

Within 2 turnings, they detected another trap, which was immediately disarmed with a minimum of difficulty.  This dungeon is a whole lot easier than I expected; no wonder those two Hill Dwarves made it through.  A few feet past where the trap was disarmed, however, Marvus heard a cry come from behind them, barely audible over the annoying giggling.

The smaller Cohort group turned around with him, only to see Yates – a Level 19 Thief – on his knees, his knife barely holding off the attacks from another Gnoll.  There was a shiny wetness to the back of his leather Cuirass, and Marvus instantly knew what it was.

“Assassin!  It backstabbed Yates!” he called out, moving into position to block another underhanded slice by the Gnoll.  Yates had been hurt pretty badly, it seemed, which was unfortunate; he slumped over on his side as Marvus took the attention of the creature, blocking one strike after another with ease.  Within a few seconds of quick knifework, he managed to stab the monster in the throat, shoving his weapon into its brain, killing it instantly.  “Got it.  See to Yates—”

The sounds of fighting crashed into him as he turned, only to see most of his people fighting against what appeared to be Hyenas, though the creatures were extremely outmatched.  It didn’t take long to put them down, but that wasn’t the only thing that had attacked.  Another Gnoll Assassin had apparently ambushed the front of the group when they turned to help Yates, and Burns got his throat cut for his inattention.

“What in the world is happening to you all?” he asked, exasperated.  Burns – a Level 18 Brigand – was dead, but Yates had survived by virtue of a couple of Minor Healing Potions he had carried with him.  “We are supposed to be the ones surprising and attacking monsters, not the other way around.”  He could only put their inattention down to the atmosphere, but he was still severely disappointed in them.

“Boss, we should get out of here,” Squab said suddenly, which just annoyed Marvus even more.  “I think that you might be wrong about what we might find here.”

Without even thinking about it, he backhanded the worthless Level 12 Thief, sending Squab sprawling after he slammed into the nearest wall.  “Strip him of anything of value; we don’t condone cowardice in the Cohort.”  The organization was a hard bunch, having done some more-than-questionable things in the past, but the few things they couldn’t handle were cowards or those that couldn’t follow orders.  As for Marvus, he couldn’t abide by others disparaging his abilities.

The others leapt to obey, stripping the protesting Thief of everything but his clothes.  “Get out of here, you fool.  You had better disappear, too, because if I see your face again, you’ll only live long enough to regret crossing me.”  Marvus kicked him hard in the side, before turning his back on the disgraced Cohort member. He heard Squab get up painfully and retreat, going back the way they came.

“Alright, lead on.”

Now knowing that there were Assassins in the maze, they took their time and watched out for any more threats.  They were quickly joined by the other team, who had run into a dead end a little earlier, and they made their way through the rest of the maze without taking any other casualties.  Of all the Raider Classes out there, they were the most prepared to counter an enemy Assassin-type, especially as the Gnolls were particularly weak when they didn’t get a surprise cheap-shot in.

The next room was a complete change from the last couple, as it was full of trees.  Since Squab wasn’t there anymore, Marvus couldn’t ask if this was how the other dungeon looked, but he had to assume that it was.  There didn’t seem to be any dangerous monsters inside the room, however, or at least none that they could see.  They did find some traps that were so obvious in their placement and easy to bypass that they barely even needed to Detect them, but they Disarmed them anyway.

“Hey, that is one fine-looking woma—ahh!” Marvus suddenly heard next to him, only to see Derf looking up into the trees, an arrow embedded in his shoulder.  A second one slammed into his other shoulder as he tried to avoid it, and then chaos figuratively rained down on the entire group.

“Take cover!  Counterattack!”  His words were unneeded, as everyone scattered and hid behind trees, blocking them from the line of fire from above.  Marvus caught sight of their attackers, which seemed to be women with fiery red hair holding bows, which didn’t make sense to him; when he saw the bushy tail behind one of them, he knew what they were: Kitsune.

The Cohort leader dragged Derf away under a hail of arrows, taking one in his upper left arm as a reward.  He wasn’t giving up their trap specialist without a fight, however.  When he was back behind the safety of the nearest tree, Marvus pulled out some of his throwing knives and took aim around the trunk of the tree, tossing his projectile weapon straight for the throat of the Kitsune across from him.  His knife flew true, only to have the humanoid-fox creature dodge it at the last moment, barely nicking its cheek as it pulled away.

How?  It turned out that the archers in the trees were fast and quite agile, bounding from tree branch to tree branch in an effort to avoid more projectiles, as well as moving into a better position from which to fire onto those below.  They weren’t the only ones that were agile and at home upon the branches of a tree, however.

Half of the Cohort started to climb the trees, nimbly pulling themselves up, and started to chase the Kitsune around.  While they were occupied, the others of the Cohort continued to throw knives above themselves, hoping to strike the fleeing archers while they were distracted.  Just as Marvus managed to hit one in the knee, he felt a pain in his own knee, which nearly caused him to collapse.

Looking down, he stared right into the eyes of a brown fox, which blended into the roots of the tree he was hiding behind so well that he could barely distinguish between the two.  The dungeon monster was currently trying to bite through his leather pants, and he could feel a trickle of blood coming from where it had managed to penetrate the tough material.

“Get off!” he shouted, slamming his knee – fox and all – against the tree, where he heard the crunching and hollow *pop* of bones.  Fortunately, it wasn’t his own bones, but the body of the fox, which crumpled to the ground, disappearing moments later.

An impact from behind threw him forward and he slammed his head hard against the trunk of the tree.  When he recovered a moment later, he looked over his shoulder to see an arrow sticking out of the flesh of his upper back, though it didn’t penetrate far because of his natural resistance.  Yanking it out, he looked around him to see that those that had stayed on the ground were nursing wounds by even more foxes that had attacked, and a few fighting on with arrows stuck in them in various places.

Fortunately, all of those foxes appeared to have been slain, and the Kitsune in the trees were quickly being corralled together, where they couldn’t withstand the speed and deadliness of Raiders on a mission.  In less than a minute after he slammed the fox on his knee into the tree trunk, the last of the attackers were dead, allowing them to recover and move on.  Half of those that had accompanied Marvus needed to be healed using Potions, but there was a silver lining: 4 Minor Healing Potions dropped as loot from the Kitsune up in the trees.

If I had more of a legal bent to my life, I might consider this place good for farming these Potions and selling them.  As it is, I’ll think I’ll have to pass.

When everyone had recovered, he was pleased to see that no one else had died, though a few had been severely hurt.  It was a shame that they didn’t have any Healers with them, but the Cohort was a bit of an exclusive club; besides, they had more than enough Potions to keep them alive.

“On to the next!  We’ve got to be getting close now!”

Chapter 9

She’d learned about it at DAPS, had some higher-Level Raiders test her dungeon, and heard about how powerful Scouts could be when they gained some experience, but this was her first time really seeing it in action.  At least, seeing it in multiple, because most groups that had come through her dungeon thus far had been much smaller – as in 5 or less.  Now, though, she was witnessing 18 Thieves, Brigands, and Assassins make their way through her second section without too much danger to themselves.

After one of her Gnoll Assassins managed to slit the throat of one of her guests, it was like a switch had been flipped.  All of the luck had been against her again, even when they unknowingly stepped into her defenses.

For instance, take the room with her Kitsune Archers, whose number she had added to before they arrived.  The traps in the room had been Disarmed, but none of them had been expecting an attack from above – and yet her creature had only wounded the initial target!  All because of a leaf, too; she had been watching the Kitsune release the first arrow, and a leaf – which shouldn’t fall from her trees, yet inexplicably did somehow – fell into her face, causing her to miss her first shot.

Surprise was the only thing on their side, unfortunately, and once that was wasted, the fight went poorly.  The thieving Raiders were just too quick, too agile, and too strong to fall to creatures 10 Levels or more below their own.  Even when her Root Foxes managed to surprise the heck out of every attacker, they just couldn’t do enough damage to really bother them; their Physical and Ranged Defense was just too great.

Tacca couldn’t really blame her creatures, either, because that was how she had designed them.  They really shouldn’t be able to harm such powerful Raiders, because then that would mean her defenses were overpowered for what she had planned; if a “normal” group had tackled them, then the lower-Level Raiders would’ve been wiped out without a chance.

Marvus and the other Raiders didn’t appear to be dissuaded from their objective, as they continued to push on.  The room after the Kitsune saw the introduction of Scrub Lions, along with Frond Coyotes and Bush Jackals, in a room with densely packed foliage, including ferns, bushes, and other plant life that allowed them to hide extremely well.  Unfortunately, Thieves and their ilk tended to hide quite well themselves, so the Raiders were either able to spot them beforehand, sneak by without alerting Tacca’s creatures, or attack from range with a seemingly endless supply of throwing knives.

The same “luck” went in the next room, which was an uphill climb up a mountain, though it was flatter than the cliff had been with the Cliff Lynxes earlier.  Instead, large boulders were stationed along the hillside, where Gnoll Scouts were able to utilize the bows she provided for them, firing from cover.  When the Raiders advanced too far, they were able to push and tip over the large stones, which were perched precariously and only required a firm shove to topple over.  The boulders would then roll down the hill, crushing anyone that got in their way.

Unfortunately, the Raiders were too quick to stay in line of the rolling boulders, and the few times they were actually shot, the wounds were superficial.  They slaughtered the Scouts with ease, while other Raiders Disarmed the Obscured Vision Enchantment traps she had placed over the hillside. The traps were designed to blur the sight of anyone affected by them, which would theoretically let them fall victim to a rolling boulder, but she never got the chance to see their effect.

She had high hopes after that in her next room, which she had designed as a long bridge over deep pits on either side.  Tacca had broken up the bridge so that there were 2 large gaps of 10 feet between the sections, and then placed Life-based traps that were similar to the ones in the Kitsune Archer room – which would enhance their jumping ability.  She figured the Raiders would Disarm them automatically, thereby not allowing them to continue on.

Of course, she forgot how acrobatic these Scout Classes could be.  Each of them were easily able to clear the gap with just a simple leap, looking as if they did that all of the time.

With the gaps cleared, her creatures didn’t do much better.  Originally, she had placed 2 Crag Harpies in the room – part woman and part bird-like creatures – but she had upped it to 6 when these Raiders invaded.  Ultimately, it didn’t matter, because throwing knives took them out easily from a distance before they could swoop down and attack, thus failing to knock any of the Raiders off of the bridge.  Tacca had to admit that she took some satisfaction that half of the impaled Harpies fell down into the spiked pits, where their Reward was lost along with their knives.

Also placed on the bridge were 8 Mastiffs, the massive dogs from her Boss Room in her original section.  This time, though, they were Level 10, which made them quite a bit bigger and stronger.  Tacca’s thought on their purpose was to literally slam into the Raiders, hitting them so hard that they knocked the attackers off of the stone bridge.  Naturally, that didn’t happen, as these Raiders were swift enough to avoid being hit, and sometimes even jumping over the Mastiffs as they charged.  The dogs either ended up running off the side of the bridge themselves, or succumbed to the knifework of multiple Raiders, leaving their true potential largely untested.

Subsequent rooms fared no better against the infiltrators, no matter what stood in their way.  Since most of her traps were Enchantment-based, with clear access to Disarm them, they basically did her no good; her creatures were then forced to take on the role of the sole defense, which they weren’t capable of doing against such adept opponents.  As they got closer to the Boss Room, however, the Level difference between the two groups started to shrink, which meant that her creatures were finally able to do significant damage.

*         *         *

This is one of the strangest dungeons I’ve ever seen.

Marvus nimbly dodged a vicious swipe from what appeared to be a green-striped tiger as it emerged from behind a fern, hoping to catch him unawares.  Unfortunately for the monster, the Plunderer had seen it crouched behind the plant, so he wasn’t surprised when it attacked; it took a lot more than that to surprise him, and the monsters within this dungeon were comparatively weak.  As he slashed with his knife at the large cat, which came up to his chest in terms of height, scoring a direct hit on its jugular, he quickly found out that things weren’t quite so one-sided anymore.

His attack only injured the beast; he didn’t kill it like he expected.  It was severely wounded, yes, but far from dead.

It was unexpected, to say the least, which was probably why he failed to avoid another swipe by a huge tiger paw.  Marvus was hit so hard that he was flung sideways, landing in a sprawl of limbs; he was in such shock that it took him a second to gather his wits – which was when an abrupt shot of pain careened into him.  Looking down, he saw that his leather chestpiece had been shredded, and there were deep furrows raked across his side, bleeding profusely.

Luckily, before the tiger could take advantage of his fallen state, two of the Cohort jumped in and finished off the beast.  Taking a Minor Healing Potion from his bottomless bag, he popped the cork and took a swig, thankful that his injury didn’t seem too serious, mainly just a flesh wound.  A deep flesh wound, but he didn’t think there were any broken bones or internal damage.

“You alright, boss?” Gerthin asked, extending his hand to help Marvus back up.  The Cohort leader ignored it, instead getting to his feet on his own – he didn’t need anyone thinking he needed help, after all.

“Perfectly fine.  We all clear?”

His side was still a little painful, but the wounds had closed up and stopped bleeding.  He realized that he really should use another Potion, but he also figured he could wait until he wouldn’t seem weak to the others.  Marvus had learned that half of the secret of leading a crew of the Cohort successfully was showing strength, never letting those you led see you struggle.  Everyone got hurt every once in a while, but as long as you didn’t let it seem worse than it was, your subordinates would think you were unbeatable.

The other half of the secret was understanding the motivations of the crew.  In this case, it was fairly easy to understand what motivated the Cohort: Greed, plain and simple.

“It’s clear, but we lost Yates.  One of them tigers practically tore his head off his shoulders.”

On the one hand, another death meant that there was more wealth for each of them when they found their payload; on the other, there were fewer hands to fight against the increasingly difficult rooms of the dungeon.  That, and there would be fewer people to do any mining – a chore that always went better when there were more to do it.

“Grab whatever valuables he had on him and then move on; I can feel that we are getting closer.  It shouldn’t be long now.”

It had already been a profitable trip to this dungeon, despite the Potions they were forced to consume.  His Valuation Sense had sniffed out a hidden treasure chest, secreted behind a wall in the last room; it hadn’t been hard to find once he knew where to look, as it was simply behind an outcropping of stone on the eastern wall, but if he didn’t Sense that it was there, they would’ve missed it.  It had contained a Minor Physical Resistance Enchantment Scroll, which usually sold for a gold or two, as well as a handful of silver coins; even split 18 ways – 17 now – each person had already made a small profit, especially with all of the loot from killing so many creatures.

But they weren’t here for a small profit – they were here for a huge profit.  A profit which was suddenly on the horizon, Marvus realized, because his Valuation Sense suddenly went wild.  Either they had progressed far enough to get a better read on what they were after, or…that’s it!  Looking at his Raider Status, he saw that his ability had increased to Level 30, breaking through to the next threshold; from what he had learned from others in the Cohort, at this Level, his Sense could now detect valuable materials that weren’t finished products.  He wasn’t sure what it was, quite yet, but he knew there was a lot of something down below – and it was relatively close.

Excitement rushed through Marvus as he followed the others to the next room, which took him back a little.  It was a large space, at least 100 feet wide and long, and it had a…castle?...along what he considered was the southern wall.  It wasn’t really a castle, more of the front wall of a castle, with ramparts up above complete with merlons, a portal leading inwards down below – and defenders.  A stone pathway led up to the castle façade, with perfectly trimmed green grass to either side of it, along with a small tree in the precise middle of the lawns.

The ceiling of the room had some familiar blue-colored stone, which he had seen in the very first room of the dungeon, along with streaks of white, giving it the appearance of a sky.  The walls were another colored stone, this time dark green that lightened in hue the closer it got to the ceiling, ending with the same color blue, making it appear as if the boundaries of the space went off into the distance. It was remarkably done, in fact, and it was seamless in its construction – something that he hadn’t expected to see in a dungeon.

Better still, his Valuation Sense was tingling when he looked at some of the lighter green stone; it wasn’t a sought-after gemstone, but he thought it could be a semi-precious stone worth something to someone.  All he knew was that this wasn’t what he was searching for, because it didn’t scream out to him like whatever it was down below, but it could be a potential source of income.  I’ll come back after I find the rest.

He was so distracted by looking at the walls that he hadn’t even looked over the dangers of the room yet.  When he finally focused on them, he also realized why the Cohort hadn’t moved from their position near the tunnel entrance.

Marvus Detected no traps, which was unusual because there had been traps in all of the other rooms so far, but the obstacle in front of them was a bit more significant.  Up on the ramparts of the “castle” wall, 8 Kitsune were poised with bows, and something told him that they were stronger than the ones they had faced before.  Reaching them would be a bit of a problem, because the wall was fairly smooth and couldn’t be climbed easily, as well as being 20 feet high.  That wasn’t to be said that it couldn’t be done, but it would take a bit longer to figure out a way up there without being shot off of the climb.

Down below, 6 Gnolls equipped with iron-like armor were arrayed across from the exit to the next room, wielding sturdy wooden shields and basic iron swords.  Melee Classes; one of the few things we’re not really suited to fighting against.  The variety of different monster types – not just Class-wise, but different species – was what made this dungeon so strange.  Normally, dungeons that he frequented and were suitable for his Raider Level had at most 2 different types of monsters, with perhaps a few varieties; this one, however, he had lost count of how many different types of opponents they had gone up against.  Now they were up against a melee-Class, of all things.

It was time for him to earn his keep, he supposed.  As the only Class in this Cohort that was suited to more of a melee role, it was going to be his job to keep the Gnolls busy, while the others took out the threats.  Marvus looked around at Gerthin and the rest of the Cohort, silently encouraging them; they had been around long enough to know what was needed even without words.

“On my go.  1…2…3…GO!”

Marvus sprinted forward, using his Rush ability to slide up next to the lead Gnoll of the pack, sliding his long steel dagger into a gap along the side of its breastplate.  He felt it pierce the tough skin of the monster, penetrating all the way to the hilt, before pulling it back out.  All of that occurred in less than a second, and the Gnoll dropped to the ground, dead before it even knew what had hit it.

A sudden instinctual flip backwards saved him from being decapitated by the Gnoll next in line, and by the time he straightened back up, Marvus was forced to fend for his life.  He wasn’t an expert fighter – he had other skills – but he could sure annoy the Gnolls enough to keep their attention on him; weaving back and forth, he either avoided most attacks against him or blocked them with his long dagger, which he typically used when facing harder opponents.  It was going well until an arrow shot by one of the Kitsune up on the wall slammed into his left shoulder, penetrating deep enough that he quickly lost most sensation in his left arm.

“HURRY UP!” Marvus shouted, barely deflecting another slice at his head, nimbly dancing out of the way.  He pulled the arrow out of his shoulder and flung it away, before grabbing another Potion out of his bag while he rolled forward, avoiding 4 more strikes that whooshed through the air right where he had been.  Swallowing the life-saving liquid, he felt his shoulder knit itself together again, giving him feeling back in his limb.

Springing up, he managed to slice his dagger along the back of the knee of the nearest Gnoll, cutting through its tendons.  It collapsed to a knee, unable to bear any weight on its leg, and Marvus went to finish it off – but was forced to retreat as its buddies interrupted him.  C’mon, where’s my backup?  Another pair of arrows shot through where he had just been, narrowly missing him, and he began to suspect that he had been abandoned.

Fortunately for him, the Cohort was only getting into position.  As soon as he had Rushed the first Gnoll, the rest of the Cohort had disappeared, using their Stealth to camouflage themselves.  This, of course, brought the entire room’s attention on Marvus – which was a bit disconcerting – but it was necessary for them to be able to move freely and get into position.

The first of them reappeared behind the kneeling Gnoll, slicing deeply into the back of his neck with a knife; the attack didn’t kill the monster, unfortunately, but the appearance of another Cohort member next to the first followed up with another attack in less than a second, severing its spinal cord in the process.  Behind the others, more Cohort seemed to materialize out of thin air, directing their own attacks at the armored Gnolls.  Most were successful, but one pair had gotten into position late, and the monster – after seeing what happened to its fellows – immediately swung its sword around in an arc, blindly slicing the air.

Two Cohort members suddenly appeared, their throats slit cleanly through from the attack.  They collapsed to their knees, one hand dropping to their bottomless bags to grab a Potion, while the other attempted to stem the flow of blood.  Marvus knew there was no hope for them, though; not because of the Gnoll, which had been quickly swarmed by the other Cohort members that had appeared, but because they wouldn’t be able to drink the Potion itself.

Gerthin, their resident Assassin, told him once that without a Healer-Class to help them, slit throats were the worst type of wound and usually meant death.  Even if they splashed some of the Healing Potion on their wounds, regardless of its strength, all it would do was close up the external portion of the wound.  It would continue bleeding inside, and it was a very rare person that could swallow liquid at that point, especially when their windpipe had been severed – as these two had been.

Within seconds, the two had bled out so much that there was no hope of saving them, even if they had the means.  However, the danger in the room had been eliminated, including the Kitsune up above, as a half dozen Cohort had managed to climb up and dispatch them all.  Sadly, one of them got a point-blank shot from an arrow into his eye, killing him instantly, so they ended up losing a total of 3 in their endeavors.

It wasn’t the first time Marvus wished they had some Melee and Casters in their Cohort, but they were few and far between.  There were some much higher-Level members of different Classes in their Raider sub-group, but none that were willing to work under Marvus – he’d have to work under them, which was something he’d rather avoid.  Still, it would’ve helped a lot during this battle, because spell-casting was much more effective in taking out ranged-based monsters, and having someone other than him hold the attention of the Gnolls would’ve prevented him from losing the attention of the one that had killed two of his crew.

Looking around at his now 14-strong Cohort, he saw that morale had taken a big hit because of the deaths.  “Nice execution, everyone.  If I’m correct – which I think I am, based on how close our payday feels – this next room should be the Boss of this dungeon.  Once that’s dead, we can collect our spoils!”

Ragged cheers rang out, not quite enthusiastic, but determined, nonetheless.  Greed – it’s always a great motivator.  With that, they collected the loot from the slain Gnolls and Kitsune – which included a few much-needed Minor Healing Potions and 25 silver coins – as well as their own dead, and moved on.

Nothing can stop us now.

Chapter 10

This isn’t good.

The Boss Room appeared innocuous enough, even though it was quite dark.  Just a bunch of trees – what could be scary about that?  A quick look up into the branches revealed no Kitsune waiting to rain death down on them, and there didn’t seem to be any of those annoying foxes hidden in the tree roots.  There were a few traps that they had identified, though it took Derf and a few others that had higher Disarm Trap skills to eliminate them.  After that…nothing.

At least until they ventured near the middle of the room – or so he estimated – which was when the howling started.  A deep-rooted instinct of Marvus, some primal warning, took hold and caused him to freeze in his tracks involuntarily.  Moving just his eyes, he could also see that everyone else with him had frozen as well, a few of them actually shivering – and he couldn’t blame them.  The sound of a hundred howls coming at them from every side was deafening, and all he wanted to do was cover his ears and curl up in a ball on the ground.

NO!  These are just wolves!

Marvus shook himself out of his frozen state, his knees feeling like jelly after being locked into rigidity.  When he caught his balance and recovered, he immediately slapped Gerthin across the face, hard enough to leave a mark but not actually injure him.  The Assassin’s eyes cleared and he looked at Marvus, nodding his head.

The next moment, the Cohort leader and Gerthin were slapping the faces of the rest of the crew, snapping them out of their sudden fear.  None of them said anything – though they all acknowledged their thanks with a nod of their head or by mouthing the words – mainly because the howls were so loud that Marvus could barely hear his own thoughts.

Abruptly, as if they were waiting for them to all recover from their initial fear, the howling stopped.  Strangely, the sudden silence was even more frightening than the deafening howls.

“Get ready, I think they’re co—”

The first of the wolves entered the ring of light around the Cohort crew – which was created by their Amulets of Illumination – and immediately attacked, jumping or charging ahead, teeth bared in snarls of hungry anticipation.  One of them hopped straight for Marvus, and he turned to the side to avoid its snapping jaws, slicing with his long dagger in one swift movement.  The fur and flesh parted easily, cutting the side and even the bones of the wolf with remarkable effectiveness.  In fact, by the amount of damage he had done, he would say that these wolves were weaker than the ones they had fought…6 rooms ago?  8?  He had lost track of how many rooms they had gone through by that point.

He didn’t have time to ponder any more, though, because there was another wolf behind the one he just killed, and another behind that.  Maybe this Boss Room is one of endurance?  Just waves and waves of a single monster, though weaker than ones we’d seen before?  He’d heard of such things happening in a dungeon, though he hadn’t seen it before; even then, he’d never heard of it being in a Boss Room.

Another howl seemed to shake the room, a singular source that seemed even louder than the hundreds of lupine voices they’d heard earlier.  A glow suddenly surrounded the wolves racing towards them, and Marvus only had a moment before a trio of them were upon him.  One of them lunged towards the Plunderer, intent on biting his leg, and Marvus danced to the side; when he went to execute a counterattack with his dagger, the wolf was suddenly gone, having moved as fast or faster than Marvus himself.

Not good at all.

A crunch on his left distracted him for a moment, and he looked over to see that one of his Cohort had found out the hard way that the onslaught of wolves was suddenly faster; his knee got crunched badly, and he was practically yanked off of his feet.  Marvus went to help him, but he rapidly discovered that he had some problems of his own – such as the 5 wolves now arrayed against him, appearing out of nowhere it seemed.

They struck nearly as one, and not even their superior speed could prevent one of them from being impaled through the throat by his dagger; unfortunately, this left him open to attack, and while he avoided 3 of their vicious sets of jaws, the 4th clamped onto his right arm, yanking it off the hilt of his dagger.  He could feel the pressure of the teeth against his skin, and the tearing as his flesh parted, but it wasn’t as bad as he feared.  Ripping it out of the wolf’s grip was impossible by itself, but a quickly grabbed knife from his waist into its left eye was enough to make it let go – in addition to killing it.

They aren’t really that powerful, just fast.  Screams and cries from his Cohort seemed to want to put the lie to that thought, because they were suffering and dying to the wolf horde.  None of them had as much physical resistance as Marvus had, however, so even a Level 5 wolf would do some damage to their bodies if they couldn’t avoid it.  Some tried to disappear into the shadows, but were hunted down by the wolves, able to sniff them out – an unfortunate ability that the feral canines seemed to possess.

This isn’t going our way; time to break out the secret weapon.  If there was one thing that Marvus loved, it was money.  Not always for wealth’s sake, but because of one of his abilities as a Plunderer; it was expensive, both in terms of his stamina, but also in relation to his wallet.

Plunging his hand into his bottomless bag, he pulled out a handful of silver coins, activated his Splurge ability, and flung his hand outwards at tremendous speed.  Two dozen silver coins flew out of his hand, shooting so fast that they were a blur as they smashed into and through the skulls of the wolves attacking him.  And not only the wolves attacking him, but also through every wolf surrounding their group, killing them instantly, where they dropped down to the ground and dissolved straight away.

With that one ability, he had killed perhaps 30 of the wolves attacking them, as some of his coins went through multiple targets before slowing down, but there was a price.  Marvus slumped in place, most of his energy having been spent performing his Splurge skill, and looked around at his Cohort.  Half of them lay dead, their throats ripped out when they were overwhelmed, and the others ranged from slightly injured to severely – though a Potion or two would fix them right up.  In fact, that was immediately what they did, using the break in the tide of wolves to heal themselves up as much as they could.

They had more time than he expected, as the remaining wolves quickly disappeared into the forest of trees, now completely hidden by the darkness.  That was just fine for Marvus and the others, however, because it meant that they could recover and strategize before they came back.  Or, what he sincerely hoped but highly doubted, they had all been defeated and they were free to claim their prize.

Howls once again shattered the silence around the still-living Cohort members, though their intensity was so much less now.  Good; maybe they’ll think twice about attacking us.  A moment later, however, the howls were joined by the singularly powerful howl he had heard earlier, though this time it didn’t seem as infused with power.  Nevertheless, it was frightening enough.

Is that a really big wolf? he couldn’t help but think.

Nope.  Not a wolf at all.

A noise that sounded and felt like pounding along the ground reverberated through the trees, followed by cracks as trunks were apparently pushed aside.  Marvus stood up straight, some of his physical energy and stamina refilling from the use of his Splurge ability, and held onto his dagger with a vise-like grip.  He nearly dropped it when the monstrosity thundered into the light, all 10 feet of heavily muscled werewolf stepping towards them intimidatingly.  A tiny bit of wetness soiled his pants before the Plunderer gathered his courage and charged the massive monster.

The next moment, Marvus found himself hurtling through the air before slamming bodily into the side of a tree.  He collapsed in an ungainly pile at its base, shocked at how powerful the werewolf was.  The strike hadn’t been all that fast, but for some stupid reason the Cohort leader thought it would be smart to block the horrific claw coming towards him with his large dagger.  Needless to say, it wasn’t one of his finest decisions, as the blow had so much power behind it that it sent Marvus flying.

As he picked himself up, feeling a stitch in his side that indicated that something was probably broken, he saw the dangerous beast-man eviscerating another one of his Cohort, before the others stayed far away from it.  They were much faster than it was, and though it was strong, the werewolf couldn’t catch them.  My turn again; this time, don’t be an idiot.

He rushed over, ignoring the pain even as he downed another Potion, tumbling past the behemoth with his dagger extended to the side.  A superficial slice appeared on the upper thigh of the werewolf, not really enough to hurt it, but enough to focus its attention solely on Marvus.  As the upright beast turned its eyes on him, the Plunderer gulped as he saw an impossibly intelligent hatred staring back at him.  He’d never fought a werewolf before, and the sight of it fully concentrating on him made more frightened than he’d like to admit.

This time Marvus ducked and rolled instead of trying to block one of the strikes aimed at him, which was harder than it looked.  The reach on the werewolf was such that it was nearly impossible to duck out of the way entirely, and he got more than a few scratches along his leather armor as a result; luckily, only once did the beast-man actually draw blood along his back, which stung but didn’t incapacitate him in any way.

Another howl from the trees startled him, and he quickly glanced around to see where his Cohort was.  They were nowhere to be seen.  Good.

“You better hurry!  They’re coming.”

As he rolled backwards to dodge another attack, he saw all 7 of his Cohort members appear behind the werewolf and stab it in its back, the skills of their Classes enhancing the damage they did to a target unaware of their location.  The werewolf howled again – in pain, this time – and turned on the surprise attackers with a vicious swipe of its claws, smacking two of the Thieves in the process, sending them flying backwards.  Marvus watched them land in a heap, injured but not dead – right in the path of the returning wolves.

Before the werewolf could recover, the Cohort leader yelled and used his Rush ability again, appearing next to the monstrous beast, where he stabbed upwards into its chest, hoping to pierce its heart.  His dagger just wasn’t long enough, though, even when it was nearly hidden inside of the walking wolf’s chest cavity, and he sprang away, abandoning his weapon as he narrowly avoided having his face torn off by a savage claw.

Unfortunately, he tripped over the corpse of one of his Cohort and sprawled onto his back.  The werewolf stomped over, obviously injured but ignoring those wounds as it strove to kill Marvus.  He tried to scramble to his feet, but it was too late; unbalanced, he couldn’t spring or roll away to avoid the hit.  He winced preemptively as he anticipated the blow that would tear his head from his body…but it never came.

Gerthin suddenly jumped onto the back of the werewolf, causing the monster to pause in confusion, and then his twin blades stabbed into its neck.  With a practiced yank and a twist, the walking nightmare’s head popped off, and the Assassin rode its body to the ground as it collapsed in death.

Howls erupted into the air as the werewolf’s body disappeared, and the wave of remaining wolves bounded into them.  Fortunately, there was no longer a glow around them, and Marvus – along with the other Cohort members – were able to dispatch them with only a minimum of hassle.  In the end, there were only 6 people left of their original 20: Marvus, Gerthin, Derf, and three Level 19 Thieves.

Not a good result, but they were alive.

In the middle of their battlefield, strewn with the corpses of their dead and the loot left behind by the multitudes of monsters they had slain, appeared a treasure chest.  Marvus walked over and lifted the top, surprised at what he saw inside.  Not just one, but 2 Enchantment Scrolls, along with 5 Minor Healing Potions…and 2 gold coins!  Added to the single gold coin that the werewolf had dropped, as well as the loot from the rest of the dungeon, he calculated that every single surviving member of the Cohort would end up with 2 or 3 gold apiece, a veritable fortune for their Levels.

But, it still wasn’t what he had come here for – and the others knew it, too.

“Where is this treasure you promised us?  This massive payday you were talking about – where is it?  Because, this—” Gerthin pointed to the chest, which was already disappearing after they had removed all of the items— “is definitely not it.”

“It’s that way; can’t you all feel it with your Valuation Sense?”  Marvus pointed towards one of the far walls, which he couldn’t actually see since it was so dark, but he instinctively knew it was there.

“No we can’t – you should know that.”

That was true, he did know that, but he had forgotten for a moment that they hadn’t trained the skill like he had.  Honestly, he probably wouldn’t have felt it before he had hit Level 30 in his Valuation Sense skill, so he could understand.  He explained all of that to the others, who begrudgingly agreed to investigate a little more.

His Sense led him and the others to the wall, where they couldn’t see any opening; however, after a bit of searching, they found another cleverly hidden access to a new passageway, similar to the one where he found the treasure chest a few rooms back.  It made him feel even more like he was on the right track.

The passageway led to a largeish room, though it was only large because it was so long; he estimated that it was around 200 feet in length, and there didn’t appear to be anything inside defending the tunnel.  On a second look, he saw small holes along the left and right walls, which he suspected had some sort of arrow or bolt trap, just waiting to strike out at them as they passed by.  Further investigation showed some peculiar bulges in the ceiling, spaced out evenly along the room.

“Uh, boss?  I’d turn your Detect Traps on if I were you,” Derf said, sounding a bit strangled for some reason.

Using his skill, the hallway was immediately flooded with light as traps were lit up all over the place.  He tried to differentiate them but couldn’t, as they all blended into each other until they were all one giant mass.  “Whoa!  It’s too much, I can’t see them all.”  Marvus deactivated the skill and everything went back to normal.

“I can see them, but it’s probably only because my Detect skill is so high, sort of like your Valuation Sense.  I think my Disarm Trap skill is high enough to deactivate most of them, but that’s not the problem.”

Marvus looked at Derf, not liking to hear about problems at this stage.  “What’s the problem?”

The trap-specializing Cohort member scratched the back of his head as he looked down the hallway.  “Well, like I said, I can probably Disarm these, but it will take hours.”

Hours?  We’ve already been here for 3 or 4 hours; any longer and we risk someone else finding out about this place and stealing my treasure.  If that’s what it takes, though, we’ve already come this far.  Besides, the last time he had gotten close to a Core, he had found a treasure trove of magnificent proportions.  He said the same thing to the crew – leaving out details of what exactly happened – who all just shrugged in response.  “I suppose we can wait a few more hours.  Do your thing.”

Derf just sighed and got to work, getting on his knees and inching forward, with his hand outstretched.  Marvus knew from experience that more difficult traps required a delicate touch as well as proximity, so it was dangerous to try disarming something that was powerful.  Higher Levels in the Disarm Traps skill would allow disarming both quicker and from farther away, but these traps were apparently right at or near the top of the difficulty scale.

Now there wasn’t anything else to do but wait.

Chapter 11

Tacca was wrong.

“Expect the unexpected, I guess,” her Dungeon Assistant said, unhelpfully.

That didn’t make her feel any better, but he was right; she should’ve expected the group of Thieves and Brigands to have a specialist in trap detection and disarmament.  Her previous thought that they would be too high of a Level to Disarm was a mistake, and it was one that she wouldn’t be making again.  She would replace each of them one at a time, using both her larger Dungeon Force pool and the 40% reduction of trap costs to make them even more powerful, upping the requirement to Disarm them by a significant amount.  It wouldn’t stop the extremely high-Level Raiders out there, but ones like those currently in her dungeon would have a difficult time Disarming even one of them. She couldn’t wait to enhance her security, after seeing the flaws in them.

Of course, she needed to get rid of these pesky pests first.

“I’m actually surprised they survived your Boss Room.  I thought you had gone a little overboard, but in that case I was mistaken.”

She answered Shale with a low chuckle.  No, you were right – I did go a bit far there with the amount of Wolves I created, but I really couldn’t hide my dislike of them all, especially that Marvus character.  It was more than a bit wrong of me, I will freely acknowledge, and I shouldn’t let my emotions affect me like that.  She felt bad that so many of the group had died, because she didn’t really have anything against them – only their leader.  They had taken the brunt of her anger, however, and while they seemed as greedy as Marvus, she could tell that the now-dead Raiders were only following orders.

“That’s…quite astute of you to recognize that,” Shale said slowly, watching the Raiders working to slowly Disarm the traps in her defensive room from behind them.  He had his Invisibility up, so they couldn’t see him – just like he had the entire time the Raiders had been inside of Tacca’s dungeon – but he had to be careful not to get too close or they might sense him.  She wouldn’t put it past these people to have something that would allow them to do that, especially since she had underestimated them already.  “But I think you’re being too hard on yourself,” he continued.  “Based on their strength and numbers, a well-balanced group of 15 Raiders – let alone the 20 that they arrived with – would’ve been able to defeat everything you threw at them without casualties.  It was only their lack of diversity that caused them to lose so many.”

Tacca had to admit that was true.  The Boss Room was meant to be just barely beatable by a balanced group of 5 Raiders around Level 15, but even that was pushing it.  Higher Levels would have a much easier time, and a group of Level 20s should have no trouble at all.  Of course, everything was a little skewed by how many additional creatures she had added, including the 80 Level 3 Forest Wolves she had added to the Boss Room, after some of her Control Limit was freed up as the dungeon was cleared.  Obviously, it was hard to judge whether or not her dungeon was suitable to those levels without an accurate test run.

Yes, I can see your point.  But now that they have pushed on and deliberately sought after my Core Room—

“—all restrictions have been lifted,” Shale finished for her with a smile in the tone of his voice.  “As Marvus said not long ago: Do your thing.”

Do her thing she would, too.  The Gnoll Archmage was just now materializing in her Core Room, as it had taken the group a long time to get to this point, and she estimated that she had at least a couple of hours before she could expect the infiltrators to arrive, so she used some of her now-significant available Control Limit to add some helpers.  She didn’t have enough time to create additional Archmages, but another Werewolf Warrior or two would probably go over well.  Oh, and another 40 Forest Wolves and 40 Echoing Hyenas would only add to the party.  Finally, to top it all off and ensure victory, Tacca also added in 6 Life-based traps inside of the room, where they would be impossible to Disarm without walking inside the room and suffering the full force of her onslaught.

Now, there was always the possibility that they would look inside of the room from the tunnel entrance and change their minds, for which she certainly couldn’t blame them.  However, they had gone too far in what they were doing for Tacca to want them to leave, no harm no foul; they had violated her inner sanctum, and while she might let others get away – this was Marvus, one of those that had caused her unimaginable pain by destroying a Core she was Bonded to.  There was no way she was letting him get away, as he had made his decision and was going to have to live with it.

She had tried to avoid the situation by filling the treasure chest that appeared after the Boss Room was cleared with superior rewards, but his greed was going to be his undoing.  If she could avoid killing the others, as they didn’t necessarily deserve the same fate for following orders, she would; however, if they persisted even after seeing what was arrayed against them, then she would end them just as quickly as their leader.

To ensure – or at least increase the chance – that Marvus would want to fight, she started placing large veins of gold ore along the back of the Core Room, along with pockets of gemstones, including diamonds, interspersed along the stone surface. It took her nearly two hours before she was satisfied, and when she was done she was quite proud of herself.  The wall, including a bit of the floor and ceiling nearby, was practically covered in shiny yellow ore, and the fragments of gems sticking out were particularly pleasing to the eye, sure to draw anyone in just to look at such a display – let alone be driven to possess it for themselves.

Shortly thereafter, the efforts of Marvus and the trap specialist led to their arrival at the end of the defensive room, with Derf? especially exhausted from his almost constant use of his Disarm Trap skill.  There was a slight curve to the tunnel leading to her Core Room, which obscured what was ahead of them; as a result, they didn’t hesitate to move forward, until they came to the last few feet of the passageway, where they were able to view the defenses she had in place.

Her Gnoll Archmage was in the middle of the room, a figure with a deep-red robe, its face hidden by a hood; it was around the same height as the Thieves looking into the room, but the staff it held in its right hand was a little bit taller.  Overall, it was relatively unassuming – but the two Werewolf Warriors to its left and right were more than enough of a frightening view for them.  As for the 80 Wolves and Hyenas she had in the room, they were stationed slightly out of view to the left and right of the entrance, though if they peeked inside they could see them.

However, they only had eyes for the gold and gemstones filling up the back wall.

“Look!  I told you that this was our big payday!  This is even more than I had Sensed!” Marvus shouted in wonder, his eyes practically glossing over at the sight of so much wealth.  Tacca wasn’t sure how he knew it was there through his Valuation Sense, because she thought it was only good for finished products – nor why he had Sensed something below before she had placed the gold and gemstones – but she guessed it didn’t really matter at this point.

“Yeah, boss – but look at what’s in the room.”

“I am looking at what’s in the room—oh,” the group leader said, seeing the creatures arrayed against them seemingly for the first time.  He just shrugged them off, however.  “Well, that shouldn’t be a problem; you need to spend money to make money, right?”  He stepped into the room, put his hand inside of his bottomless bag, and then used the same skill he had used before to toss coins at Tacca’s creatures.  This time, it wasn’t just silver, but gold that was flung out, and a massive handful to boot.

Yelps and yips of pain were suddenly cut off as dozens of Wolves and Hyenas were hit by the powerful attack, killing them instantly off to the sides of the room, which seemed to surprise Marvus; he obviously hadn’t planned for his skill to spread out so far hitting multiple targets, reducing its effectiveness.  Luckily for him, the gold coins that he sent flying impacted the two Werewolves, which did a whole lot more damage than the silver; holes were blasted clean through their torsos, incapacitating – if not killing – them almost instantly.

A devastating attack, to be sure, though it apparently took almost everything out of Marvus, as he collapsed to his knees.  The others filed in behind him to help kill the rest of the Wolves and Hyenas, which they immediately fell upon, their greed-lust giving them the determination to kill everything with abandon.  The sheer destruction they caused among her creatures was astounding, but their sudden lack of self-preservation and defense led to horrendous wounds that they fought through.  By some happenstance, they also managed to completely avoid the traps Tacca had placed on the floor; in short, they were taking advantage of the “good luck” that seemed to occur for Raiders in her dungeon.

What none of them seemed to recognize, however, was that the Gnoll Archmage stood in the center of the room, completely unscathed by the skill Marvus had used earlier, as a magical barrier had prevented anything from making an impact.  As the 5 Thieves with Marvus started to slaughter the less-powerful creatures, the Gnoll raised its staff and pointed at one of the Raiders.  A small ball of roiling flames appeared at the staff’s tip, before growing to 10 times its original size in no more than 2 seconds – and then it shot across the room with tremendous speed, slamming into the Thief and sending him flying into the wall, flames burning his clothes and his skin.

His screams were drowned out by the rest of the battle going on, and no one but Marvus saw it happen.  Still on his knees, but slowly recovering by the second, Marvus shouted, “Gerthin!  Take out that thing in the middle!”

The Assassin turned from killing Wolves to the middle of the room, and he disappeared from Tacca’s view.  A few seconds later, however, he suddenly appeared – right in the middle of one of her traps.  The surprised look on his face would’ve been comical if his body hadn’t suddenly expanded and then imploded, bursting apart as he collapsed in on himself.

Marvus’ reaction was priceless, though.  He had his mouth open wide in shock as he got to his feet, looked around the room even as another fireball slammed into another one of his group, while a third Raider was suddenly overwhelmed by the remaining Wolves and Hyenas.  At that point, the only ones left alive were Marvus and Derf, the trap specialist, and another fireball by the hooded figure took care of the latter.

Marvus, outnumbered and alone, stumbled as he turned to run, a fireball from the Archmage just missing him as it slammed into the tunnel wall he ducked around.  Howls and echoing laughs from the 20-odd Wolves and Hyenas precipitated the chase as they went after him, but the Raider leader had finally got his strength and speed back, racing far ahead of the creatures chasing him.

“You’re just going to let him get away?” Shale asked.

No, of course not.  Watch.

Marvus was halfway down the defensive room before he hit the first trap, a Disorientation Enchantment trap, which had reset itself after it had been Disarmed an hour and a half ago.  At a run, the disorientation hit the Raider hard, and he stumbled and fell, right into a strong Fear Enchantment trap, which caused him to start screaming.  Scared out of his wits and basically blind from his disorientation, he got up and started running, triggering one of the Poison traps on the ceiling.  Stumbling through a cloud of dangerous poison, he started coughing up blood immediately, even as he accidentally stepped on another trap activation – this time one of the wall-mounted projectile traps.

Dozens of small needles shot out of the wall, piercing through his leather armor and impaling themselves an inch or two into the Raider’s flesh.  The sudden attack disoriented Marvus even further, which caused him to turn around and flee in the other direction – right into the approaching group of Tacca’s creatures.  Poisoned and bleeding from multiple wounds, he was knocked down as one of her Forest Wolves jumped and slammed into him. Even though he was on the ground, unable to breathe from the blood choking his throat, the Raider still had enough presence of mind to draw his long dagger and stab blindly outward, killing one of the Hyenas trying to get to him…but that was his last victory.

Two different Wolves clamped down on his arm and hand, causing him to drop his weapon.  Marvus tried to extricate his limb, but it was no use; the blood loss was already weakening him, and after a few tugs that proved ineffective, he collapsed back in defeat.  Tacca turned away as he was literally ripped apart, the savagery of her creatures a bit much, even if it was against the one that had wronged her.

Well now.  That was quite the ordeal.

“I’d say,” Shale responded, also ignoring what was happening to Marvus as he flew to meet up with Tacca’s Core.  “What are your plans now?”

I’m not exactly sure.  After I clean up and reset everything, I’m going to start replacing some of these traps with more-powerful ones, because these ones just didn’t cut it.  After that, well, I have a feeling we’ll be seeing some action soon.

“How so?  Those 2 Hill Dwarves are supposed to be concentrating on getting the word out about the threats up north, remember?”  Shale had better information than almost anyone about what was going on with the invaders destroying Cores and killing Raiders, so he was particularly invested in what the two Bonded Raiders were doing.

True, but it probably won’t be for long.  Word will certainly get out about my dungeon being open again.

“From whom?  Oh.”

The Thief that Marvus had backhanded, stolen from, and then sent away in disgrace had managed to find one of her exits hours ago, and he had left her dungeon not long after.  She wouldn’t be surprised if he spread the news of her reemergence, especially since he looked somewhat familiar; from the conversations she had overheard, he had been to her dungeon before when it was just the one section.  It was quite possible that the information on her presence was quite lucrative, so it wasn’t beyond reasonable doubt that he would sell that knowledge for a tidy profit.

Exactly.  While they really should be concentrating on the threat steadily making its way from the north, I have a feeling most Raiders will ignore it in favor of delving through a dungeon their Level.  That seemed to be particularly true for these latest Raiders, who only seemed to be looking for the next score.

“So, I guess we wait.  Build a new dungeon section, and they will come.  It’s only a matter of time.”

Chapter 12

Sterge shook his head at the Raider Delving Clan outpost leader, Trevelyan, before shrugging.  “No, we haven’t said a word.  You know as much as we do.”

The extremely high-Leveled Elf put her hands on her hips as she looked outside the outpost window.  “Well, somehow the information got out about the dungeon being opened again, and it’s going to quickly get out of hand here if we don’t do something about it.”

“What can we do?  It’s not like those that will be coming here can really help, right?” Gwenda asked, looking out the window along with the outpost leader.  There was a gathering crowd of Raiders out there, which had been growing since that morning.

Four days ago, Sterge and Gwenda had come back to Heftington to meet with Trevelyan, to inform the outpost leader of all the information they had learned about the attacks up north, as well as who—or is it what?—had killed those near the dungeon south of The Village.  After some deliberation, the two Hill Dwarves had agreed that sharing knowledge about their peculiar connection to the dungeon was warranted, as there were more worrying problems at the moment.  That, and after the powerful Elf asked where they had obtained such information, it was the only way they could think of to convince her that they were telling the truth.

That, and the sudden revelation of pure gold ore and gems did the trick.  Especially when they gave much of it up to expedite the warnings.  “This seems a bit suspect, I have to tell you,” she had said.  “However, it does explain a lot.”

“What do you mean?”

She had just smiled, before admitting that she had Analyzed their Statuses and saw that they had some obscured skills, which she hadn’t been able to explain at the time.  “In addition, the unique way this dungeon operates gives some credence to your story.  And even down here in the middle of nowhere, I’ve heard some disturbing reports of whole Raider groups going missing, towns where everyone disappeared, and dungeons being destroyed.  I wasn’t aware of how bad it had gotten, but if it’s what this…Dungeon Core…says it is, then we’ve got some planning and preparation to do to hold back these sudden attacks.  We need to band together and fight; now is not the time to squabble amongst ourselves with this threat looming over us.”

At the time, Sterge didn’t really know what she meant.  Since then, however, after the outpost leader had spent days – and some nights – sending out messages to all over the continent, the Hill Dwarves had learned that there had been some eruptions of conflict between the Ministry of Merchants and the Raider Delving Clan.  Not full-scale battles or anything like direct confrontations, but clashes that resulted in a reduction in resources.  Resources such as access to dungeons or even the complete destruction of their Cores, eliminating them altogether.

It was…incomprehensible to Sterge.  To destroy a dungeon, not because it was a threat to people or was killing people unfairly, but only because someone from another faction was simply delving through it was just crazy.  He didn’t think such a thing must be true, but then he remembered their own experience.  That Minister wanted to destroy our nearby dungeon because he couldn’t control it, so maybe it’s true, after all.

While the outpost leader sent out messages, Sterge and Gwenda worked on melting down the gold ore they had and creating coins, so that they could be sent along with the messages.  Bribes were what Trevelyan called them, and they were necessary to ensure their warnings were taken seriously by those with influence; even the King, who ruled over the entire continent, needed some sort of incentive to understand that the information she sent along was considered instead of disregarded out of hand.

“You have to admit, if you had heard about this a year ago, would you have taken it seriously?  A force of people that could defeat even the strongest of Raiders, slowly taking over the world?  Most people haven’t even heard of the Conclave of Sages, other than as a myth, you know.”

Sterge thought that was a little extreme about these people aiming to take over the world, but he understood what the outpost leader was saying.  The story they told was outrageous, so these “bribes” – though comparatively small – were a way of getting attention to this instead of being ignored.

Despite some arguments over it, Trevelyan also sent out warnings to every Minister from the Ministry of Merchants, along with every outpost and the Clan Headquarters – which just went to impress the urgency and risk involved if they weren’t taken seriously.  It was a lot of work, but it would be worth it if they could get everyone focused to the north, so that they could start preparing to fight back against these sudden incursions.

But now, it seemed as though word had gotten out about the dungeon being reopened, which was going to pull attention away from the real threat.

A sudden change in the room made Sterge shiver, and he looked up to the outpost leader to see her looking intently at both of the Hill Dwarves.  It was a bit unnerving to be the object of her focus, and he suddenly knew that he didn’t want to cross her.  Like, ever.  Such a thing would almost guarantee a short life.

“I need you two to go back to your village, hire whoever you can from this town and the ones nearby to help, and get things going again.  I’m going to send Jesper again to arrange things with the Raiders that’ll be coming, but it’ll be a few days until he’s able to arrive.  I think you’ll be fine until then, but in the meantime concentrate on putting all of the accommodations back together.”

“What?  Just like that?  And why us?” Gwenda asked, obviously confused by the sudden decision.

“Because you’re not only still leasing the land from the crown, but you have experience running your little village,” Trevelyan said, before she chuckled.  “Though, from what I’ve heard, it’s not so little anymore.”

“How—?” Sterge started to ask, but was cut off.

“I’m going to convert your gemstones into gold at a reasonably fair price from my own reserve, and I want you to use that to build up what you already have in place.  Hire whoever you need to get things rolling, sparing no expense, because this is almost as important as what is going on in the north.”

Both of them were silent as they stared at the outpost leader.

“We have many more lower-Leveled Raiders than ones that would be effective against these six-armed people your dungeon warned us against.  It would probably be suicide to send anyone below Level 10 that haven’t even unlocked a new Class, for instance, so perhaps this could allow them to get stronger and therefore be more of use.”

Sterge hadn’t thought of that, but it made sense.  If someone like him or Gwenda went up against these powerful individuals, it would be like asking a toddler to fight a full-grown person; naturally, the outcome would be fairly certain.  By allowing them to “grow up”, even a bit, their chances of survival dramatically increased.

“Therefore, as this place is as far south as you can get from the conflict up there, I’m putting you both in charge of operations down here.  This will be our ‘safe area’ where we can train our people and help them grow into fighters, because I have a feeling we’re going to need all that we can get.”  She paused for a moment.  “Treat this as a farm, which I know you have some experience with.  These Raiders are your seeds, the dungeon is the field, and as they are planted in the field they’ll begin to grow.  Sunshine and water are needed, of course, which is where you, the village, and Jesper come in.  The dungeon will also ‘weed’ out all of the bad crops, allowing only the best to be harvested for the coming war.”

It was strange hearing the current situation with Raiders coming to the village being compared to farming, but he had to admit that it made sense.  “War?  What do you mean?  And why won’t you be in charge of everything here?”

“I…don’t readily know, exactly, but I feel it in my bones that this isn’t just a handful of isolated incidents.  I could be wrong and there is no war coming, but something tells me I’m not.”  Trevelyan sighed, looking tired.  “As for why I won’t be in charge, it’s because I won’t be here.  If things are as dire as they sound, I’ll be needed up north, to defend against the advance of these monstrous ‘people’ you learned about.”

That was worrisome, especially if it meant losing their biggest supporter.  Sterge had been happy enough to pass on the information they had learned to someone with more authority, but with the outpost leader gone, who would they turn to for help?  “Who will be in charge here, then?”

The outpost leader was silent for a moment, obviously deep in thought.  “I’m not sure.  Ideally, I would love to have Jesper fill the post, but as he’ll be helping you organize things in your village, that really won’t work.  I know!” she said excitedly, before turning on Gwenda with a serious expression.  “This is asking a lot, and could cause some trouble with the Ministry, but would you be amenable to moving this outpost down to your village?”

That was asking a lot, especially as it would seem as though they were playing favorites.  Regardless, it seemed like the right thing to do, considering that they really did favor the Raider Delving Clan over the Merchants.

Gwenda negotiated with the outpost leader, who started writing up the Writ of Transference as they spoke.  Sterge tuned out most of it, since it was a bit boring and over his head, but in the end both seemed satisfied.

“Since I’m pretty sure you didn’t catch most of that, Sterge,” Gwenda said to him when they were done, “I’ll explain it to you in simpler terms.  First, we pay to operate the outpost since it is out of their jurisdiction; meaning, they don’t own the land around the outpost, so they won’t pay to maintain it.  In return, we owe nothing to the Clan other than the simple upkeep of the building and those that maintain the outpost, as well as an annual fee of 5 gold.  This includes, and get ready for this,” she appeared excited as she spoke, “the loot tax.  Since there was an agreement before that the Raiders operated from this outpost, which is in Clan territory, they owed a tax; now that it is in our territory, we aren’t required to pay a loot tax. This will help those that are just starting out, because their take is usually much less.

“Of course, this means that we won’t be gaining anything from them either through the taxes, but we can sustain our income from the inns in the village, as well as the store.  In addition, with the outpost there, while it doesn’t signify control over everything, it will make that Minister or any others think twice about trying to squeeze out our business interests like he did last time.”

That was still a bit much for him to understand, but what he did comprehend was that it was a good thing for everyone all around.  Except for the Ministry of Merchants, of course, but they weren’t going to keep them out; they were instead going to ensure that nothing like what occurred previously happened again, as well as giving them a bit more stability over the situation.  A win-win-win for everybody.

“Alright, we’ll get this finalized and you can look it over.  After that, we all have a lot of work to do.”  That was quite accurate, and Sterge was looking forward to it.  He had missed living in The Village and it would be good to get back there.  Speaking of things he missed….

“Is there any way we can—?”

It was Gwenda this time that cut him off.  “I’m already on it, Sterge, but there’s no guarantee they’ll come back – if we can even find them.  I had a feeling we’d be going back to the dungeon at some point, so I already sent some messages out to Evy, Mordecai, and William.  If fate is willing, we’ll be getting the group back together.”

Awesome.  That’s the best thing I’ve heard all day.  With that thought, Sterge marched out of the Clan outpost with a little bounce to his step, ready to work on putting The Village to work growing the next “crop” of Raiders.

Chapter 13

The hordes started coming two days later.  At first, it had been a bare trickle compared to how many had visited her dungeon before, but after a week that trickle had turned into a flood.  Sterge and Gwenda had come back to the village at the bottom of the mountain range, bringing with them quite a few helpers, who were hard at work constructing even more buildings, and it appeared as if they were sorely needed, because word had apparently gotten out regarding the new section in the dungeon.  As a result, an entire fallow field that had previously grown food had been commandeered for the new expansion, turning it from dirt to the beginnings of an actual town almost overnight.

Tacca had to admit that she was enjoying watching all of the activity through Shale’s eyes, and she was extremely glad that her Dungeon Assistant had gained the new ability. It wasn’t quite like flying through the fresh, crisp mountain air as she would in her Fairy form, but it was the next best thing.

The initial action that the incoming Raiders performed, other than to help get the village situated the first day, was to gather up the bones and belongings (what there was left of them, anyway) and bury them off to the side in a mass grave.  By that time, animals had gotten to the corpses, and bones were scattered everywhere, not to mention their rough handling by the thieving Raiders that had looted them, so it was near impossible to match them all together.  A simple stone headstone was erected over the grave and Sterge, himself, came up to chisel in a simple epitaph that read, “Rest In Peace”.

Whatever that was supposed to mean.  Tacca thought that it would’ve been better saying, “Rest in Pieces”, since they were so scattered up.

Regardless, life quickly went back to “normal”, or as normal as it had been before the invading 6-armed, blue-skinned, monster people made an appearance.  There was the usual influx of new Raiders tackling her original dungeon, which practically ran itself; she still took the time to subtly adjust some of the environmental objects around, as well as the creature and trap placements, but on the whole it hadn’t changed all that much.  In truth, it was something that was so ingrained in her routine that she barely even registered that she was doing anything, and within a day it felt as if there hadn’t even been a stoppage in the crowds coming to visit her dungeon.

The second, newer section, though, took a little adjustment to get right.  She attributed the difference to the wide range of different Raider Levels that visited her dungeon.  For instance, a group that were all around Raider Level 12 were more likely to advance 7 or 8 rooms deep into the new section, while those that were only Level 6 or 7 might only get through 2 rooms.

Because she didn’t want to waste the time of the groups that wanted to delve through her dungeon, as there were already waiting lists after only a few days of the Raiders being back, she decided to adjust the difficulty.  It was like Tacca had been thinking before: she couldn’t really see if it would be suitable until she had some test runs.  The result was a decrease in the Levels of the creatures in each room by a total of 2, which didn’t sound like a lot, but it made a huge difference.

Shale was a little unconvinced.  “Won’t that just make the dungeon easier for the higher-Level Raiders?  Will it even be worth it for them going through the first half of the new section if they are, say, Level 15?”

That is definitely true.  What if I…hmm…that might just work.

“What?”

Some quick thinking and calculations led her to believe that she was correct.  Well, since I have so much Control Limit at my disposal, I really don’t have to leave so many of my rooms unfilled, do I?  Because of the Special Characteristics she had obtained, she now had a little over 600 of her Control Limit not being used at the moment.  She had been planning on using it in the next section she had started, but that was probably months away from being complete.  Essentially, her options were being underutilized.

Overnight on the 4th day that the Raiders had returned, which was still slow because the scheduling hadn’t needed to be extended to nighttime delving yet, Tacca made some changes.  Nothing of the environment or traps were changed, but the routes through the second section were redone with differing Raider Levels in mind.  The first route, which was for the lower-Level groups that challenged her second section, would be led through a series of rooms where the creature Levels ranged from 3 all the way up to 10, which was a new Werewolf Warrior – essentially the same, just easier.

The second route through the new section would be a bit harder, with creature Levels ranging from 8 through 17, which would challenge the stronger, higher-Level groups that delved through her dungeon.  It would be slightly more difficult than she had originally planned, but would offer more Rewards for those who chose to brave the increased difficulty.  Fortunately, as she had essentially made mirrored copies of the rooms on either side of the new section, it was easy enough to differentiate the two without them overlapping – except for her Boss Room.

Solving that problem was a little more involved, but it was eventually solved by hollowing out 2 small rooms adjacent to the large, tree-filled Boss Room, placing one of the Werewolf Bosses with their respective Wolves inside, and then closing it off from the main room with a Rotating Stone Bridge.  When it was decided which difficulty it was going to be, Tacca would open up the trap and allow the correct team inside.

So how was she supposed to figure out which difficulty it was going to be?  Well, that was the tough part; she couldn’t determine the Raiders’ Levels beforehand, obviously, so there had to be another way.

“Why don’t you offer them a choice?  You already did it outside the entrances, so why not do the same thing down here?”

Simple and easy – I like that.  In the first room at the bottom of the entrance slide, she carved a single stylized skull over two of the left-most entrances leading to the easier part of the new section, and 2 skulls over the two right-most entrances leading to the harder part of the section.  Simple, elegant…yet it left one entrance right down the middle that she had as of yet left alone.  Before, it had been just a relatively empty room acting as another route to get to either the left or right halves of the mirrored dungeon sections, but when they were split, it belonged to neither.

“Maybe you can just close it off for now, because you really don’t need it.”

Shale was probably right, but Tacca felt as if it was a waste – it was a room she created to use, after all.  What to do, what to do?  She thought about putting a Healing Paralysis trap inside, sort of a safe room that Raiders could backtrack and visit if they needed it, but vetoed that quickly as it would be quite inefficient and a waste of time.

Then she figured it could be used as a display of some kind, where she could show off her burgeoning artistic prowess with a variety of pretty metals and gemstones set into the walls, giving it a look that would wow and amaze.  She quite liked the job she had done with her Core Room with all of the gold ore and gems, and thought it might be fun to play with that a little more.

“Yeah, and then you’d have hordes of people rushing in here to destroy it and then steal it all away.”

Tacca couldn’t refute that, sadly.

She was about to simply close it off, leaving it unused, but a quick look at her available Control Limit gave her an idea.  How about I give them a little taste of what’s to come?  A practice room, if you will.

“What do you mean?  Practice against what?”

Against the creatures I have inside of my new section.  That way, they could have an idea of what they are up against without it being too dangerous.

She was waiting for Shale to say it was a bad idea, because it just wasn’t what dungeons did, but he surprised her with a head tilt.  “I’ve never really thought of that before, but I can see it working out pretty well.  Since your goal isn’t really for them to die, rather to spend as much time as they can within your dungeon, it does two things; keeps them here even longer, while also giving them a leg up on what they will be fighting against.  I like it.”

Therefore, the practice rooms were born.  She divided the room up into 6 different portions separated by a simple stone barrier, easily accessed by a central corridor, and then she placed Level 1 creatures inside those portions, representing everything they would see inside.  Most sectioned-off portions had 2 or 3 different creatures, including those with their “synergy” partners.  They would be dangerous only to those who shouldn’t even be in that section of her dungeon, and provided a glimpse into what they could expect going forth.

With that, she was done.  Or as done as she could be at the moment.

That didn’t mean she could just take a figurative step back and relax, though; managing the new section, making sure everything was operating properly, ensuring that the creatures and traps she had placed were balanced for their intended Raider Levels, was a whole new process.  Then there was the initial assessment of her changes, which took a little time for the Raiders to figure out, but after a day they had figured it out.

This time, from both the reinitialization of groups of Raiders running through her dungeon and her recent changes, there weren’t any powerful teams to actually assess her dungeon for difficulty and to map it out.  From conversations overheard just outside of her entrances, as well as Shale literally eavesdropping on those in the village, she gathered that nearly anyone over Raider Level 30 or so was absent.  Which meant – hopefully – that they were up north, dealing with the situation that was gradually becoming a major problem.

Therefore, the groups of Raiders had to discover what lay ahead on their own, without someone to hold their hands.  This meant that there were some unnecessary deaths within the first week as information was gained from those exploring her new section, and later when she divided it up into 2 difficulties, but the casualties were generally from people Tacca thought would’ve perished even if they had warning.  She had discovered that there was a look to them that heralded either incompetence or an inability to work well within a group setting, and these Raiders were typically the ones to come up short when it came to survival.  Occasionally, their incompetence got others killed along with themselves, which only reinforced the assertion that they needed to be eliminated.

Tacca wasn’t always so cold when it came to Raider deaths, but the recent invasion of her dungeon by powerful beings – who were now ravaging other parts of the continent – showed her that the relationship between Dungeon Cores and Raiders was more important than she knew.  They helped each other improve, to get stronger – and they needed that strength in order to survive against this mysterious threat.  Whether or not she would ever know why they had attacked in the first place was still up in the air, but Tacca knew that she had to do her part to help nurture those Raiders that would be needed in the future.

If only to act as a buffer between her dungeon and those monstrous people; she’d rather not have to deal with them and potentially have her Core destroyed…again.

After two full weeks since the Raiders’ return, with subtle changes here and there throughout both of her dungeon sections, Tacca finally had a handle on everything.  The incoming delvers had finally adjusted to the new layout with different difficulties, and the “practice” room was a big hit – especially with newer or lower-Level groups braving her new section for the first time.  Information passed on from other Raiders was invaluable, of course, but actually seeing and fighting the new creatures she provided was something else entirely.

“No one seems to be curious about the diversity in your dungeon, which I was sure they would be,” Shale said after some time watching and listening to the Raider groups come through.  “Your original dungeon could be explained because they were technically all the same kind of creatures, but now you have big cats of different kinds, Gnolls, Kitsune, Harpies, and even a Werewolf!”

Tacca thought it strange at first, as well, but she figured it was due to inexperience more than anything.  To new Raiders that haven’t delved through many dungeons, they probably don’t know that anything is strange about my own.  To them, this could be the norm, and not every other dungeon.

“Good point,” he conceded.

By that point, Tacca had started to automate things to the point where she could perform the tasks she needed to, while freeing up some of her concentration.  She started moving around creatures and traps within the second section’s rooms like she did with the first, and the results got some grumbles like they had originally, but everyone seemed to take it in stride.  By the end of the first month, things were running smoothly enough that she wanted to start looking into expanding again.  She had already started on some new rooms in a new section, of course, but it had stalled when the crowds had begun showing up.

She suddenly missed her 1-month countdown for her Core Improvement Point accounting, because she had already amassed quite a bit in the last month – and she was going to have to wait another 11 months before any of it was “counted”.  Then again, she had been spoiled by the shortened countdown, and it was the only reason she had expanded and accomplished as much as she had.

Core Improvement Point Awards

Type

Variable Conditions

Potential CIP

Current

Rooms Constructed

Size

1 – 50

153

Traps Installed

Complexity

1 – 20

1892

Monsters Created

Levels

1 – 20

796

Rewards Placed

Valuation

1 – 50

865

Raider Presence

Time

1 – 5

1380

Raider Deaths

Quality

100 – 10000

6650

It wasn’t as many Points as she had obtained from killing those invaders, but it was still quite significant.  A little more than 5,000 CIPs had been gained from the ill-advised incursion by Marvus and his thieves, though she had added quite a bit from other things she had created.  For one, the additional creatures she had placed in the second section to separate it into two areas with different difficulties counted towards the total, as well as the Rewards that went with them.  Another major addition were the traps she replaced in her defensive room, which were much stronger than they were before, as a result of what had happened with that group, as well.

Going forth, however, whatever changes she made to her dungeon would only really contribute to the Rooms Constructed and Traps Installed categories.  The reason for this was the simple fact that she had already hit her Control Limit, so either she had to increase it by purchasing more with her earned CIPs, or by eliminating some creatures from her dungeon to free up some of that Limit.  If she did that, then the Points she had accumulated already for their creation (and the Rewards assigned to them) would be subtracted, since they didn’t exist anymore.  It was what made her monthly countdown so helpful, because she could change things around every month and gain masses of Points that way, but with her yearly countdown she was a bit more restricted.

In fact, if it wasn’t for Raider Presence adding up, she wouldn’t be adding much more than what she had already.  Raider Deaths had nearly dried up after the first 2 weeks, so that there might be one every few days; as her dungeon layout and difficulty was better understood over time, there would be fewer and fewer Raiders dying in her dungeon – which was perfectly fine with Tacca.  She was making it up with their presence alone, which was adding up quickly.  At an average of 22 hours per day in her dungeon, she normally would’ve accumulated around 660 Points in a month when there were groups of 5 Raiders delving through; with essentially 2 dungeons open at the same time, the amount doubled!

All of those things were just some of the reasons that other Dungeon Cores took so many years, decades, and centuries to increase their Core Improvement Level, especially the higher the Level they obtained.  First, they didn’t have the same system of rotating out groups through the exit traps she had developed, to maximize Raider Presence; second, they weren’t necessarily as busy as her dungeon (which had groups delving through at all times of the day and night); lastly, while their countdowns for their first 20 CI Levels was only a year, it jumped to 5 years for the next 20, then 50 years for the next 20, and finally 500 years for any Cores Level 61 and over.  Dungeon Assistant Ranks mirrored this as well, which was why it was going to take Shale 50 years before he could Rank up again.

She really wanted to expand again, in order to open up a whole new section that could potentially cater to Raiders of higher Levels.  The problem, other than her Control Limit being maxed out, was that the constant use of Dungeon Force to regularly replace creatures and traps that were being triggered or Disarmed through both sections was draining most of what she regenerated.  Even with Shale supplying Force through his Energy Transmutation ability, turning his Fairy Mana into something she could use, she wouldn’t be able to sustain an entire third section.

There has to be something I can do, though.  Yes, I can increase my Maximum Dungeon Force and its regeneration, as well as upping my Control Limit using my CIPs – but will that be enough?

She technically had 5,400 Points to spend, which would allow her to increase all of those attributes a little bit.  Ideally, that would be the way to go, but was that what she wanted?

Core Improvements

Available Core Improvement Points (CIP)

5400

11736 in 323 days

Improvement Name

Value

Cost (CIP)

Maximum Dungeon Force Increase

+500 DF

2000

Dungeon Force Regeneration Increase

+10 DF per minute

1500

Control Limit Increase

+300

1800

Select Additional Creature

1

550

Select Additional Creature Variant

1

25

Select Additional Trap Specialization

1

600

Select Additional Environment Access

1

800

Reward Tier Increase

1

1200

Convert CIPs to SCPs

1 SCP

36

Alternatively, she could convert them to Special Characteristic Points, but that would only give her 150 more to add to her 25 she earned from reaching CI Level 21.  175 SCPs would be useful, though she didn’t think it would be of enough use to make a difference for the future.  Tacca had some vague plans, of course, but those all hinged on being able to both create and maintain them; therefore, all she had really done was create a few small rooms and one massive space that was approximately a 500-foot-wide cube. She wasn’t sure what she wanted to do with it yet, but she had been gradually expanding it over the last few weeks when she had some spare Dungeon Force.

“I’m not sure of the best solution here, to be honest.  What you should do is eliminate one of the difficulties in your second section, thereby freeing up what you used to essentially create two different dungeons there.”

He had a point, but….  That would feel like taking a step back, and I think it’s working out so far, even if it does consume a lot of my resources.  I’ll have to think about it.

Shale just shrugged.  “Up to you, really.  I think the Raiders would get used to the change if you were to open up a whole new section for them to delve through.”

That was true, but in order to arrange all of that, she would have to shut down at least her second section for a day or two to make those changes.  The changeover would require a shift in the creatures and traps there, as well making sure everything was balanced again; then there was the introduction of the third section once she built it, which would take a while to fully stock once she freed up the necessary Control Limit.

Communication with the Raiders was a bit difficult, however.  Since Sterge and Gwenda’s visit over a month ago, they hadn’t stepped inside of her dungeon.  The crowds surging into the small village – now town-like in size – weren’t getting any smaller, which obviously made their work in organizing everything even more important; in fact, the influx of people migrating to the south practically exploded.  It didn’t take long to figure out why.

Chapter 14

An evacuation was underway in the north, one that Malachite wished he could participate in.  The last month had been a little better than the previous half a year, with only another dozen Cores being destroyed in that time, but the fact that they were still being shattered was a point of contention in the Council chambers.

“No!  I know of no way to move the Cores that are still in the conflict zone, so there isn’t any point in even talking about it.”  Head Instructor Lapis had been dismissive of the thought, especially after he got what he wanted already.

His charges, the Dungeon Assistant Fairies that were assigned to every Core in the upper third of the continent of Abenlure, had all been removed from their dungeons; some hadn’t wanted to leave and needed to be ordered to, which the Council Leader could understand, because they had been Bonded to their Cores for centuries in some cases.  Despite their reluctance, they left and had their Bonds dissolved either by the Core or back at the DPRC shortly thereafter.

However, that still left Malachite’s “charges”: the Dungeon Cores themselves.  While the Council placed Dungeon Assistants with their Cores, ultimately their job was to regulate the dungeons that dotted the world; sometimes that meant “culling” some that didn’t want to conform to the rules, but in the end it was all towards a singular goal.

In effect, it was to keep them all alive so that they could maintain the balance of primordial energy in the world.  Abandoning the Cores in the north to their fates was certainly counter to what he and the Council – and all Fairy-kind – strove to control.  It was encouraging – and confusing – that the rate at which the Cores were being destroyed had fallen once their Dungeon Assistants had been removed…but it was still happening, nonetheless.  There had to be something they could do about it, and unfortunately that probably meant taking a risk.

“Lapis, the discussion isn’t over.”  The Head Instructor had been in the middle of flying away – obviously intent on finishing up the reassignment of Assistants, now that they had so many without a Core – but he turned back at Malachite’s tone.

“What is there to talk about?  We can’t help them, so there’s no reason to—”

“And if there was a way to help them?  What about then?”

The Head Instructor stopped talking but his mouth remained open in mid-speech, his eyes searching Malachite’s for some sort of answer.  “What are you implying?”

This was it, the moment he had been dreading – because it would put the Council Leader at great risk.  “I’m implying that there might be a way to move the Dungeon Cores away from their locations.”

“How?  That’s impossible,” Lapis stated firmly.  “They are tied to specific points where the upwelling of energy is the strongest.  In short, they cannot be moved.”

Malachite hesitated, before forging ahead.  “All true—normally.  But I think I have a way to move them.”  He took a deep breath, nervous about admitting this next part for some reason.  “I received something else in addition to being able to speak with Tacca’s new Dungeon Core form when she Bonded with me.”

“Received something?  What are you talking about?”

Malachite pulled up his Dungeon Assistant Information, seeing the ability on the list that had been unlocked when Tacca Bonded with him – the process of which he was still a bit confused about.  “Over 5,000 years ago, after I became a Supreme-Rank Dungeon Assistant, I received a ‘Locked’ ability that I could never figure out what it was or what it did.  Nothing and no one could tell me how to unlock it, so I had completely forgotten about it.  However, after the Bonding with Tacca, it seemed as though she had somehow unlocked it into something called ‘Core Translocation’.  What it does is a little muddled, as I can’t get a clear picture of what exactly it will do.  What I can tell you, though, is that it might be the only way to move any of the Cores that are in the path of destruction left behind by these mysterious six-armed people.”

Head Instructor Lapis was silent as he stared at the Council Leader – along with the half-dozen Fairies in the Council chambers, who were working on various projects.  “…What?”

“There’s a bit of a risk, however, as it requires my full capacity of Fairy Mana to activate,” Malachite continued.

“Well, then, you cannot do this; if you use that much Mana all at once, you’ll be—”

“Yes, yes – I know; I’ll be drained and will be highly vulnerable for a short time until my regeneration kicks back in.”  The Council Leader knew the risks, not just to the Core (because he wasn’t exactly sure what would happen) but to himself.

Draining that much Fairy Mana from his body in one go would leave him incapacitated for at least an hour.  It was one of the downsides of living so long and becoming a Supreme-Ranked Dungeon Assistant; his body was now so wholly dependent upon the Fairy Mana inside of his body that expending it all so suddenly was detrimental.  It wouldn’t kill him, thankfully, instead just shutting down his mind and body to a state not unlike a coma.  Any regenerating Mana over the next hour would be used to revitalize him, and he would be back to normal; that would also be when he could use any available Mana to use on other abilities – like his own personal Translocation so that he could leave from wherever he had collapsed.

It would not be a fun time and it could be extremely dangerous, but it would be worth it if he could save some of these Cores.  The balance bar above their map was steadily tilting in favor of the mortal races; it had been relatively stable over the last few months, even with all of the destruction, because many Raiders – and even non-Raiders inside of a few villages and towns that had been attacked and wiped out – had been killed along with the nearby dungeons.  However, now that most of the people had been evacuated before they could get caught and die, the balance was being upset again.

“You can’t risk yourself like that, Council Leader,” Lapis pleaded.  “Besides, you don’t even know if it would work.  Plus, where would they go?  Would they even be able to function normally somewhere else?  There are too many questions and not enough answers here.”

“Yeah, well, if I don’t try, who will?  Besides, if I’m able to save some of these Cores, then perhaps their Dungeon Assistants could re-Bond with them when they are in a safer place.”

That certainly got the attention of the Head Instructor.  “You think they could?  I am having trouble finding places for many of them, so perhaps that might be the best solution.”  Of course, when it came to the well-being and happiness of his charges, Lapis was quite conciliatory.  “Of course, that still doesn’t solve the problem of where to put them, does it?”

“Yes, that’s one thing that I haven’t quite worked out yet…but I think I have an idea.”

“What idea is that?”

“Let me see if this ability will work in the first place, and then we’ll figure out where to stash them.”  He gave the Head Instructor a wink, but Lapis completely ignored it.

“Well, I still think this is too dangerous, but if you’re determined to put yourself at risk, I’m not going to stop you.  I do think you should take some help, though, if you’re going to be vulnerable.”

That was how he ended up a few hours later inside of a dungeon’s Core Room with Aster and Begonia, two Dungeon Assistants who had been formerly Bonded with Cores but had been removed.  The Core was located south of the northernmost Cores that were still intact, out of the direct path of the terrifying destruction caused by the mysterious people; since he wasn’t exactly sure what this ability entailed, or how long it would take, he wanted to be a little more cautious for this experiment.

He initiated the Core Bond with the Dungeon Core, and when the connection established he felt an enormous sense of relief pass over him.  It had been decades since he had last actually Bonded with a Core, and he realized that he missed being part of a team that wholly relied on and respected each other naturally – and where he didn’t have to deal with uptight Head Instructors that thought they knew everything.

“What is going on?  First, I had to dissolve the Bond I had with that hot flying chick Dahlia, and now you show up looking all official ‘n stuff – like when I got sent to the principal’s office in fourth grade.  All because I stole Jennifer’s cell from her desk – but she shouldn’t have had a phone at school, anyway, you know?  Besides, I was just holding it for her because Mrs. Elsasser was checking stashes and—”

“Whoa, whoa – too much information.  I’m not a…principal…nor do I know what a phone is, but that’s not important.  You’re Joshua, correct?”

“Yep, born and raised in good ol’ Colorado, you know?  I mean, those Donkeys sucked almost every year I was alive, but when you live there you gotta rep the orange and blue, am I right?”

The one thing Malachite had forgotten about Bonding with a new Core were all of the strange colloquialisms and obtuse references from another dimension mentioned by those inhabiting their new forms.  Granted, sometimes it was interesting hearing about strange “technology” and other forms of entertainment, but most of the time it was just plain confusing; luckily, these types of rambling conversations usually faded over time as the new Core got adjusted to the world.  Joshua, however, seemed to have grown highly bored in the time between being un-Bonded with his Dungeon Assistant and now and was apparently happy for some sort of conversation.  It probably didn’t help that his dungeon had been essentially abandoned and he hadn’t had any Raiders visit in weeks.

“My name is Malachite and I have a proposition for you—”

“Whoa!  I’m gonna stop you right there; I don’t swing that way, man.  I mean, there’s nothing wrong with it, of course, but it’s not something I’m into, you know?”

The Council Leader closed his eyes and leaned his head back, letting out a big sigh.  “Look, I don’t have time to play around here,” he finally said, exasperated, cutting off anything else the Core was going to say.  “I know you heard about the threat coming from the north, which isn’t too far from here.  If we don’t do anything, you’re going to be destroyed.”

“Are you threatening me, mother—”

“I have no need to threaten you, Joshua, this is just how it is.  Now, I’m here to help you, but I want your permission first.”

There was silence for a moment as the Core obviously thought about what he was saying.

“Help, how?  Are you going to kill these things destroying us?”

“I’m working on that, Joshua, but for the time being, what I want to do is move you.”

“What?!  You can do that?”

“That’s what I’m here to find out.”  Malachite went on to explain what he had in mind, and he could tell right away that Joshua was skeptical.

“How do you know this will work?  And is it safe?”

“I have no idea; this is a first for me, too.  All I can tell you is that this could be your only chance of surviving.  Now, what do you say?  Are you in?”

There was a 2-second delay, before Joshua said, “Shoot, dog – count me in.  You only die twice, right?”

The Council Leader was confused why he would want to shoot a dog, but he got the gist of the statement.  The Dungeon Core was willing to try it.  “Alright, here we go….”

Malachite pictured in his mind where he wanted the Core to Translocate to; it was one of the empty dungeons where a Core had been destroyed about half a year ago, though it hadn’t been caused by these mysterious people.  Instead, the culprits had been Raiders, at least according to the Dungeon Assistant that had thankfully been able to escape before she had been slaughtered along with her Core.  Just before he arrived at Joshua’s dungeon, he had made sure that it was still empty and no new Dungeon Cores had arrived nearby – and found that they were good to go.  It was also to the south of the continent’s “girdle”, meaning that it would be a while before it was in the danger zone (as long as the monstrous people didn’t change up their strategy, of course).

With that image of the defunct Core Room in his mind, he reached out to the Core and laid his hands on Joshua’s form.  It was a relatively small spheroid crystal, as Joshua had only been around for a few decades and was in his mid-20s in his CI Level, which was quite respectable, all things given.  When he had his hands firmly on the Core, he looked back at Aster and Begonia – his “helpers” – as he activated his new, untested ability: Core Translocation.

At first, Malachite didn’t think it was working because nothing happened.  A few seconds of keeping everything steady, however, saw a gradual change.  Energy—Fairy Mana—started to flow out of his hands to surround the Core in pulsing layers of glowing power, like he was wrapping the crystal object up in multiple blankets.  The “blankets” started to merge together as more and more Mana flowed out of him, until he felt like he was being drained dry of all of his life force.  In a panic, he nearly let his hands leave the Core – but he knew this would happen, so he left them where they were as he concentrated on staying conscious for as long as possible.

“Malachite?  Malachite!  I feel like the connection to my dungeon is fading; I can barely see anything but what’s around me right now!  What is happen—”

With a last pulse of Fairy Mana, the glowing layers solidified with a *clink*, sounding almost as if it was a thin glass that had just crystalized. As his vision started to fade, Malachite watched the blanket of energy surrounding the Core start to forcefully shrink, and he heard a hollow *crunch* as the crystal form inside was shattered.

That wasn’t the only thing that had broken, as he immediately felt the backlash of a Bond being broken and pain suffused his entire body.  Just as he started to fade into unconsciousness from the severe drain on his Fairy Mana and the backlash, his hands were flung off of the object he was touching. As he was knocked backwards through the air, where he had been hovering in front of the Dungeon Core, the pseudo-Core vibrated violently for less than a second and then a *pop* signified its sudden disappearance.

Malachite felt arms holding on to him as his mind and body finally gave in to the siren call of unconsciousness.

When he woke up later, lying comfortably on his bed in the DPRC, he expected to still feel the effects of the severed Bond.  However, sitting up, he felt a little weak – but that was all; it was to be expected after draining all of his Fairy Mana in one go.

“Council Leader?”

He looked to his right to see Begonia, who had likely been the one to bring him back after he had been sent into his coma-like state.  “Begonia – thank you for helping me back,” he said sincerely, before remembering all that had happened.  It was like a bucket of cold ice had been just flung in his face.  “I guess that option is out.  I can’t believe it would just destroy a Core like that.”

“Sir?  It worked.”

He thought he hadn’t heard her right, so Malachite asked her to repeat herself.

“Yes, it worked…sort of.”

“But I heard, saw, and felt the Core being destroyed, and my Bond was forcibly broken,” he insisted.  “Wait…what do you mean, ‘sort of’?”

The young Dungeon Assistant hesitated.  “Well, the Core was Translocated into the empty dungeon, right where you had pictured it would go.  Except…it isn’t quite the same.”

I can only imagine.  I mean, I shattered it!  “What does that mean?  Is it…empty?  Is Joshua not there anymore?”

“Oh, no, no – Joshua is fine.  Or at least, Joshua is still there.  But,” she hesitated again, “his Core isn’t the same as it was before.  Where he was Core Improvement Level 26 before, now he’s…not.”

“Well, out with it – what Level is his Core now?”

“One, sir.  Level one.”

Great.  That’s not good.

Begonia wasn’t done yet.  “But that’s not all.”

Malachite just looked at her.

“His Core was…reset.  He had to go through the entire initial choosing process again.  It was almost as if he was literally reborn into this world.  Again.”

Well, that’s not all bad, I guess.  Beats being destroyed, I guess.

“Thank you, Begonia.  This is something that we’ll have to think about going forward.”

As she fluttered out the door to his room at his unspoken dismissal, Malachite sat on the edge of his bed and put his head in his hands.  What in the world are we going to do?  Is this the solution we needed?  Better yet, where are we going to put all of these Cores if we do end up Translocating them all?  There’s only so many empty dungeons, after all.

He didn’t have the answers, but he thought he may know who might.

Chapter 15

“It appears as though the word is out, Tacca.”

The Dungeon Core watched through Shale’s eyes as he flew back towards the dungeon, the Assistant watching the random groups of Raiders either heading up or coming down the well-worn pathway up the mountain to her dungeon.  He had been listening in on conversations throughout the bustling town that was still nicknamed, “The Village” by its inhabitants and visitors – which meant that Tacca was hearing them all, too, thanks to the Perception Link.

When her Dungeon Assistant flew all the way back up the mountain, surveyed the dual-line system they had set up there (one for each of Tacca’s entrances), and determined that everything was still running smoothly, he flew high up in the air before he Translocated into her Core Room.

I heard.  What worries me is that this is just the beginning; according to what we heard, we’ve only seen the leading edges of the evacuation up north.  It’ll take weeks or months for most to travel down this far – and only a small portion of them will be Raiders.

“Yes, though even that small portion could be tens of thousands of them, which the town below certainly cannot support,” Shale said from closer by, continuing the discussion now that he was next to her Core.  “It’s not quite overcrowded yet, but I can certainly see it heading that way.”

It wasn’t necessarily a bad thing for her, because it meant that she would be quite busy, though the demand for access to her dungeons would increase as a result.  It was fairly organized right now and the wait of a few weeks wasn’t horrible, but she could barely even fathom what it would be like in the future.

We should really see about talking with Sterge and—

Another *pop* inside of her Core Room precipitated the arrival of someone, followed by two others in rapid succession.  Her visitors were an abrupt surprise.

Malachite.  This is unexpected.

While she was Bonded to the DPRC leader, she couldn’t communicate with him at long distances like she could her actual Dungeon Assistant through their primary Bond; while inside of the dungeon, though, she could speak with him.  That being said, most of the information she had gained from Malachite lately had been through Shale, who could pass on the knowledge of the current situation in the north quite easily – which made his presence in her dungeon not exactly necessary.  As it was, this was the first time she had actually seen him in the flesh since she had “come back”.

“Tacca.  Shale.  How are things going here?”

It certainly wasn’t like the Council Leader to just stop by and see how things were going; Shale made quick daily reports to update them on their situation, usually when things were slow in her dungeon, so there was no need.

Things are fine here, but you should know that already.  Who are these others with you?

Malachite waved to the two female Fairies with him that had Translocated shortly after he arrived.  “This is Aster and Begonia, my…helpers…for the moment.  As you know, we have a surplus of Dungeon Assistants because of the recall, and without a Core to Assist, they’ve been helping me out with something else.”

Something else?  Like what?

“Oh, you know, something like Translocating Cores from their dungeons up north to somewhere safer,” Malachite responded nonchalantly, as if it was a common occurrence.

That’s ridiculous; you can’t Translocate Cores—

Tacca stopped herself, because she just remembered her own abilities as a Dungeon Assistant, which still listed Translocation as something she could do.  She hadn’t even considered trying it, though, mainly because it cost 1,000 Fairy Mana, and her maximum FM right now was 350.

How?

“Well, it seems as though I received something unexpected from our Bond; you somehow unlocked an ability that had been locked to me for 5,000 years.  It’s called Core Translocation – does that sound familiar?”

It didn’t, and it also didn’t explain how she had ended up unlocking it for the Council Leader.  If Tacca remembered correctly, the only ability she had granted to Malachite was Core Communication, not something like Core Translocation.

I have no idea what you are talking about, but I do still have Translocation as part of my own abilities.

“Well, then, I’m not exactly sure what is going on.  Perhaps it was something that unlocked for me as a result of our Bond on my end?  Regardless, I need your help.”

Help how?

“Well, there are only so many empty dungeons available for the Cores that I have to move out of the way of these monstrous people, and I need a place I can safely keep them until this threat has been dealt with.  As this is the southernmost part of the continent, I figured this would be as good of a place as any.”

But there aren’t any empty dungeons down here—oh.  I get it.  You want me to make some for them to inhabit?

“Precisely.  Now, I know that I’m asking a lot from you, but this will help us greatly.  We can’t afford to lose any more Dungeon Cores, or else the balance will start to weigh heavily in the wrong direction.”

No, it’s fine; I was actually in the middle of trying to figure out what my next step was, anyway, and this will give me a goal.  How many do you need?  A dozen or so?

Malachite was silent for a moment, before he hesitantly said, “Uh, well, 132, actually.”

132!  Are you out of your mind?!

“That’s how many are in the direct path of these monsters, and that is what is left after I fill in any vacant dungeons out there.  And they don’t have to be that large; a small room will do, deep down, in order to keep them safe.”

Why?  They’ll just be able to bust out in a few days, putting them back in danger.

“Well…not precisely.”  Malachite stopped and cleared his throat while he looked away from her Core, as if he was embarrassed about something.  “Something happens to the Cores that I’m able to Translocate from their current positions.  They…well, they get reset back down to Core Improvement Level 1 and have to go through the selection process again.”

Ha ha – very funny.  Wait…you’re serious, aren’t you?

“Deadly serious, I’m afraid.  It’s either move them now or let them get destroyed – though I’m at least giving them a choice first; it’s quite possible that some may not choose to start all over.  I won’t force them, though, and something tells me that I couldn’t do it, anyway; I need to stay Bonded to them for it to work, and if they severed the Bond in the middle of the process, I can’t even imagine what the backlash would be from the forces in play.”

So…what?  You want me to make little rooms for up to 132 Dungeon Cores, as a place to keep them safe until they can be installed somewhere else.  Like…a nursery?

“I hadn’t thought about it that way, but I suppose that’s an apt description for it.  Once I fill all of the vacant dungeons first, I’ll send the others to wherever you create for them.”

Tacca could certainly do that.  All it would take would be carving out a very small tunnel deep into the stone of the mountain, hollow out a 5-foot-wide room to hold the Core, and then seal up the tunnel.  Since the tunnel and room weren’t integral to the operation of her dungeon, it would be quite easy to close it off – though she wasn’t sure what would actually happen if she and another Core interacted with each other.  Even with some of the largest dungeons in the past that spanned for miles underground, no 2 Dungeon Cores had ever been close enough to interact before.

Fine, I’ll start making them now.  The first of them should be ready within the next few hours, with more after that every 2 hours.

“That’s perfectly fine.  It won’t be much faster than that, anyway, since using the ability knocks me out for over an hour.  I’ll be in touch.”

That was news to her; Tacca didn’t think there was anything that could affect the powerful Council Leader, but if it sent him into unconsciousness, then the Fairy Mana he must be able to wield and expend so suddenly must have been incredible.

With another triple *pop*, the three visiting Fairies disappeared.  Tacca turned her attention to Shale, who had been silent through the entire exchange.

What do you think about all of this?

He just shrugged.  “I think it’s good of the Council Leader to want to save as many Cores as he can, rather than let them be destroyed.  However, I have a feeling that after they know the consequences, he’s not going to have very many takers.”

You’re probably right; I have to admit that if I had been doing this for decades or centuries, starting over from the bottom would be the last thing I’d care to do.  It’s possible that some of the “younger” Cores will end up wanting to move, but I’ll bet that only a handful of those that have been around for more than 200 years will want to uproot and go.

“I’m not taking that bet, because I’m pretty sure you’re right.  Regardless, you should make all of those little rooms for them, just in case.”

Will do.

Tacca got moving on making the first tunnel leading out of her defensive room – because she didn’t want anything external linking up with her Core Room, even if it were collapsed – and it was much quicker going than she thought.  Because she wasn’t making a “regulation” tunnel, and didn’t actually need to transport anything down it, it only had to be 3 inches wide; she tried to make it even smaller, but for some reason she couldn’t send her viewpoint down a tunnel any smaller, which kind of defeated the purpose of it in the first place.

In far less than an hour, she had amazingly shot over a mile away through the new micro tunnel, heading downwards and in an easterly direction.  Tacca didn’t want over 100 little rooms beneath her own dungeon, even if it was a mile below, because she wanted them away from her little sphere of influence—just in case.  Once she was 2 miles out, which ended up being nearly 2,000 feet beneath the surface at the same time, she took about 20 minutes to create the small 5-foot-wide spherical room that would house another Dungeon Core.  They probably wouldn’t appreciate being so far from the surface, but it was for their own good, she supposed.

Before she spent the next hour filling in the micro-tunnel with stone, effectively cutting it off completely from her awareness, she carved a “1” into one wall of the room, so that she could differentiate it from the others she would make.  When the entire process was done, about 2 and a half hours had passed, which wasn’t too bad if she did say so herself.  Then she started on the next one, angling the tunnel off into a direction just to the south of where the first room was located, eventually carving a “2” into the wall of that one before sealing it off.

From there, it became kind of monotonous, but at least it was something she could do while still maintaining the rest of her dungeon, as it didn’t really take a lot of concentration.  By the time she had finished 40 of the 132 rooms Malachite had requested, the Council Leader finally popped back into her Core Room, looking more exhausted than he’d been before.  Seconds after he arrived, the two Fairies arrived as well, looking a bit exasperated.

“I’ve finally got one for you, is it ready?” he asked immediately, his voice a bit weak.

They are; I have 40 of them ready to go.  This is the first one, marked with a “1”…are you okay?  And what did you do to annoy your helpers?

She sent the image of the first room to Malachite, and he nodded in confirmation even as he answered.  “I’m okay.  I managed to convince 10 of the Cores to vacate the north, and moved them into the remaining vacancies; what I didn’t take into account was how detrimental the whole process is on my mind and body, with so many broken Bonds in such a short time.  Aster and Begonia are fuming that I’m not taking it easy.”

Normally, she might be sympathetic toward the Council Leader, but after she essentially went through the same thing for months, at the direction of the Council, she felt it was only justice rearing its ugly head.  While she didn’t wish the pain and suffering on him, she also knew it was for a good cause – just like hers had been.

Well, don’t kill yourself, but keep doing what you’re doing.  Believe me, you become numb to it after a while.

“Yes, that’s right, you probably would know.”  Malachite was silent for a few moments, before saying something that surprised the former Dungeon Assistant.  “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry that you had to go through all of that.  I don’t think Lily really understood what she was putting you through when she assigned you all of those Cores, especially one right after another.  It was a mistake, and I wish we could take it back,” he said sincerely.

Apology accepted.  I know now that it was for a purpose, but to be treated so poorly was…well, I’m sure you can commiserate, feeling how you do right now.

“I can, I assure you.”  He turned to the others he had brought with him, and nodded.  “Let’s go; I have the location.  After that, I’ll probably sleep for a full day, because I don’t want to kill myself.”  Aster and Begonia looked somewhat mollified at that, though Tacca doubted a day would be more than a temporary salve on his pain and mental abuse.  She remembered having to rest for weeks in between some of her first painful Bond severings so that she was able to function again.

After they left, Shale spoke up with a smirk on his face.  “Well, maybe I should’ve taken that bet; it looks like we were wrong, and that you’ll be seeing a lot more of him.”

You could be right, but we’ll see.  I’d still be surprised if he finds more willing participants than not.  With that, she got back to work.

It took nearly 2 and a half weeks to finish all of the rooms, and in all of that time Malachite only showed up a handful of times to request another room after the first was delivered.  As in, a literal hand with 5 fingers, because that was all of the volunteers he got from those Dungeon Cores he approached.  In all, only 16 Cores (10 in vacant dungeons and 6 in the rooms she had dug out) had agreed to be reset back to CI Level 1 and start over, out of only 100 or so that the Council Leader had talked to and tried to convince to leave.

“There are still a few dozen on the upper edge of the area that I haven’t had a chance to speak with, but I’ll be heading there next.  I’ve been putting it off because it seemed as though the attacks have stopped, and I’m not sure where they will strike next,” Malachite reported shortly after delivering his latest volunteer.  It was strange knowing that there were 6 other Cores within a few miles of her location, but she couldn’t even sense them at all.  Fortunately, she knew they all had their previous Dungeon Assistants Bonded to them again, so they weren’t by themselves; from what Shale had discovered, they were slowly expanding and growing, if only to pass the time.

Isn’t that a good thing?  That they’ve stopped attacking?

“Normally, I’d say yes, but these monstrous people are far from normal.  I’m more worried about why they stopped attacking, though I suppose it could be in reaction to the mass evacuation of the mortal races, the departure of so many Dungeon Assistant Fairies, or even the relocation of those Dungeon Cores I was able to convince,” he responded bitterly.  He was certainly taking the inability to convince the others to leave as a personal failure, and she didn’t have the desire to explain to him that it wasn’t his fault.

Or they could be just done with what they wanted to accomplish and have decided to disappear for good? We can hope, can’t we?

He chuckled tiredly.  “Hope.  Yes, we can hope, but I thoroughly doubt this is the case.  Regardless, I appreciate everything you’ve done to help secure these Cores, which I have no doubt will be instrumental in repopulating the different sites across the continent.  Anyway, I wanted to give you an update, and now I need to get some rest before I work on those last 30 or so.  Wish me luck!”

Uh…yeah, you probably don’t want me to do that.  But good luck, anyway.

His tired smile looked forced as he disappeared, his helper shadows Translocating away just after.

Well, now; I guess I can get back to what I was doing before all of this happened.

“Sounds like a plan,” Shale said, lifting his arms above his head in a stretch.  Her Dungeon Assistant had been sticking around her dungeon the majority of the time she had been working on the rooms – which seemed like a waste now, because less than 5% of them were currently filled – so that she would have access to more Dungeon Force; now that she was done, he could spend an hour or two investigating the outside world while she started to plan out her newest section.  “I’m heading out.”

A few minutes later, he initiated the Perception Link, and instantly she could feel that he was excited.

What is—?

It didn’t take her long to focus on what he was seeing, which was the familiar sight of two particular Hill Dwarves coming up the mountainside.

Finally!  It’s been way too long.

“Yes; yes, it has.  It’ll be good to see them inside of your dungeon again.”

Chapter 16

It felt good getting out of The Village for a change, and away from so many people.  Sterge was glad that everything seemed to be working out for him and Gwenda, but being in charge wasn’t as fun as he thought it might be.  Not only were the massive numbers of Raiders flowing into their little village wanting answers to questions he didn’t know the answer to, but there were dozens of families that had arrived, looking for a place to put down some roots.  Thankfully, they were always in need of helping hands, especially with all of the farms working right now, and they had even expanded into a few fields that hadn’t even been touched further out from The Village, but which remained in the land space they had leased.

Though, calling it The Village is a bit of a misnomer, now.  The tiny village that less than a year ago had been just a few buildings, including two warehouses for storing food, now comprised so much more than that.  Hiring construction crews, help for the farms, and all sorts of other positions throughout the Inns they had previously built and the ones that had gone up after they arrived was Gwenda’s responsibility.  Sterge continued to be the “Chief” of their new town-sized village, and helping out wherever he could by trying to answer questions, working on construction along the crews, and directing people where they could find accommodations and food and any number of other necessities was a full-time job.

They barely had a moment to themselves, which had been great up to a point, because they both felt like they were making a difference – as well as a sizable amount of money.  They didn’t necessarily need or want all of the proceeds from the Inns, the two Delving Supply stores that now existed, and any number of other income-producing projects in and around town.  Therefore, most of it went back into the town or into creating an ever-growing residential area a mile out from The Village center, off-set from most of the Raiders flowing through the area.

It was expensive in terms of the construction materials and contracting the crews to build the multi-family homes, but it was worth it.  They charged a pittance in rent to them, if only to pay for the upkeep of the buildings, though most of it went right back into buying food for so many people.  There were merchants traveling in large caravans nearly every day, selling much-needed goods to their stores, as well as food to supplement what they hadn’t been able to finish growing yet – though they hadn’t seen any actual representatives from the Ministry of Merchants.  Oh, there were multiple caravans from them, as they were taking advantage of the new market, but for the most part they were polite and unintrusive, preferring to do swift business rather than cause any trouble.

For which they all were extremely happy about.

The problem, if there was any to complain about, was that the surge of people into their locale wasn’t stopping.  Every day, another 100 to 200 people – a mixture of Raiders and non-Raiders – appeared, either after hearing about the dungeon opening up again or fleeing from the north.  Though there hadn’t been many from far to the north, as the distance would take a normal person months of travel time, most of those that came had heard about the mass evacuation and were running for safety before it was too late.  It was one of the reasons there were so many families showing up with few belongings, though the majority of them brought enough money to last them a while if they didn’t spend it outlandishly; they wanted to establish themselves somewhere safe, as well as beating the crowds.

Sterge couldn’t blame them, and since they were in a position to help, Sterge and Gwenda felt duty-bound to help them at least find someplace to live.  After that, there were some jobs they needed help with, but designing an economy from the ground up with so many new people was difficult at the best of times, or nearly impossible with everything going on right now.  Therefore, many of them were unemployed with no way to sustain their lives after their savings ran out.

The feeling of responsibility for so many people was wearing on The Village’s leadership: namely, Sterge and Gwenda.  Taking a brief “vacation” from so many responsibilities was one of the reasons they were heading up to the dungeon today.  Killing dungeon monsters and delving through the new section, which had been met with particularly pleasant reviews from those groups of Raiders that had gone through it, was something that they felt like they needed in order to loosen up a little bit.  But that was only one of the reasons they were heading into the dungeon again.

After talking with everyone that ran the Inns, traders that brought in goods, those that operated the Supply Stores, and Jesper – whom they were particularly grateful for because he ran the new Raider Delving Clan outpost with a firm-yet-fair attitude – they had determined that they were soon going to have a number of problems on their hands.  The first of them, which wasn’t that much of a surprise, was the shortage of food that would soon occur unless they did something about it.

While they had expanded their farming operation out to the boundaries of their leased land, it wasn’t nearly enough to feed everyone who was surging into their domain.  Importing food wasn’t something new, as they had done it before and were currently doing it, but eventually demand would outweigh supply.  The main reason for that was the abandonment of the farming operations up north, which was not an insignificant portion of the continent’s food sources.  Reserves were fine right now, but come the short winter month that was rapidly approaching, starvation was entirely possible.

As much as food being scarce during winter was an issue, it was secondary to the lack of effective shelter in the area.  The freezing temperatures were enough to kill even the hardiest, warmly clothed people if they stayed outside for more than a few minutes at a time.  Right now, there were thousands of Raiders and even non-Raiders sleeping outside in nothing more than tents – and sometimes not even that.

As soon as winter fully hit the area, all of the inns and residences they had built wouldn’t contain them all, even if they were shoved inside with no more than a space to lie down.  Being who the Raiders were, with tempers that were at best a little cranky to at worst thoroughly volatile, keeping them trapped and packed in a building for a month could only spell disaster.

Ideally, it would be best if everyone went back up north for the season, as it was horrible during the winter month, but not everyone comprehended the danger they were in; the winters were much more mild anywhere else on the continent of Abenlure, other than in the far north, which were similar in extremities as their current location.  Not only that, but many of them didn’t have another place they could stay, as most villages and towns couldn’t sustain their numbers, either.  As a result of all of those different factors, it was quite likely that they would stay, disbelieving of the danger, and be found dead one morning because the very blood inside of their bodies seemed to freeze from the extreme cold.

“Do you truly believe this dungeon will help?  It seems both far-fetched and risky, you know.”  William was against the plan from the start, if only because he was a lot more cautious than any of the others.  Speaking of the others, they followed Sterge and Gwenda up the mountain, having just arrived about a week ago from other parts of Abenlure.

I’m very glad they got our messages; it’s a shame that we hadn’t been able to do anything together until now, though.  Sterge glanced back at Evy, Mordecai, and William, smiling at them in reassurance.  “We can but try; I’m hoping that it can and will, because otherwise we’ll have a lot of needless deaths coming up.”

Their Healer, William – now a Battle Medic – just shrugged and didn’t say anything else.  All three of their returned group members had been a little quiet since they had arrived, but Sterge had learned from them why that was.

They had joined up with another pair of Raiders after they had left The Village, progressing steadily until they reached Raider Level 10, where they had obtained the ability to choose another Class.  William chose to become a Battle Medic, which had more healing spells that were designed for quicker casting, though lesser effectiveness.  He also mentioned that he had a spell that could be used offensively, which would allow him to poison the blood of anyone he touched with his hand – but that would likely only be used as a last resort, because if their healer was that close to a monster, then they were all in trouble.

Evy, their other Melee Class, was now a Sword Dancer, who used her inherent speed as an Elf to “dance” around her opponents and strike out with her sword with deadly efficiency.  Unfortunately, she lost some of the rugged physical defensiveness that a Melee Class usually had (which Sterge still possessed), so she wasn’t necessarily what could be classified as a “tank” anymore, but she still had some lightweight leather armor that provided some protection.

Mordecai the Gnome, their knife-throwing Scout Class, was now a Trickster.  Sterge still wasn’t exactly sure what this meant, but apparently it helped him with his knife-throwing skills, and he had some interesting abilities to stay hidden or “trick” the enemy into attacking someone other than himself.  Either way, it seemed to fit the Gnome quite well, and Sterge was fairly certain his skills would come in handy.

Unfortunately, after they had all acquired their new Classes (including their two new group members), their confidence grew entirely out of proportion to their Raider Level.  Emboldened by their new skills, they had attempted a dungeon that was way too hard for them, and their new partners had sadly lost their lives as a result.  Since then, they had been wandering around, beating themselves up over their failure, and were unable to find a new group without breaking themselves up to go alone.  They were just about on the verge of doing that, apparently, when the message Trevelyan wrote for Sterge and Gwenda reached them.

So, Sterge could empathize with Evy and the others, and he understood why they were quiet.  He had personally seen – from all of the Raiders in The Village – how the loss of a member could affect the morale of a group, and the fact that they hadn’t been inside of a dungeon since that day seemed to weigh on them quite a bit.

They eventually arrived at the gathering place in front of the two entrances, where there were a little more than 50 Raiders arranged in two main groups. One group of 25 (comprised of 5 parties of 5 Raiders each) was lined up in front of the easier dungeon entrance, which Sterge was the most familiar with, and they were visually the weaker of the two groups.  The second, which Sterge and the others were heading for, were better armed and armored, and there was an air of confidence about them that said that they had some experience with delving through dungeons.

“Hey there, Yervan.  We’re here for our delve we cleared with Jesper last night.”

Yervan, one of Jesper’s helpers in charge of regulating the groups going inside the dungeon, checked her list after Gwenda spoke to her and marked something off.  “That’s fine, you’ll be the next up.  The previous group went in about an hour ago, and judging by their higher Levels, it shouldn’t be too long.”

Sterge and the others went towards the front of the line, eliciting a few grumbles from those further back.  He could understand it, though, because the wait was a bit longer for the new section than the original one the Hill Dwarf was used to; it was both more dangerous and longer, which took a lot more time.

“Hey!  You can’t just cut in line!  We’ve been here for hours already waiting for our turn.”

Sterge and the others were physically stopped by the presence of the group at the front of the line, who saw them coming and stepped in to intercept them.  From their appearance and attitudes, the Hill Dwarf thought they were likely to be heading into the harder portion of the new dungeon, whereas he and his friends were going to tackle the easier portion.  Meaning, obviously, that Sterge did not want to tussle with these people, because they were all much higher Levels than his own party.

“We’ve secured this spot already from Jesper, so if you want to take it up with someone, take it up with him,” Evy responded, stepping in front of Sterge protectively.  He didn’t really desire her protection, but given the situation, he let her do as she would because hopefully it would be enough to diffuse the mounting hostilities.

It wasn’t.

“I don’t care; you weren’t on the schedule yesterday afternoon – I know, because I’ve been keeping up with it every single day in order to determine how quickly our turn would come – so the only way you could’ve gotten on the list was some sort of bribe,” the angry Raider spit out at them, plainly disgusted.  “What did you give him?  I wasn’t aware that the Clan rep was so corruptible, but I guess the right thing hadn’t been offered yet.  Does he like Elves, perhaps?”

Sterge had to hold Evy back from attacking the other Raider, which was actually quite tough; their Level difference made her quite strong, and it was only with Mordecai’s help that they were able to prevent her from attacking.  This is getting way out of hand; maybe if I step in and explain—

“That’s enough!  Do you even know who this is?” Yervan strode up, getting in between the two groups.  She was one of the few higher-Level Raiders in the area at Level 32, as most of them were up north, so she commanded some respect.  Especially since – as a Barbarian Class – she was large and powerful enough to pound any one of them into the ground with just her fists.

“Doesn’t matter, unless they’re some sort of royalty—”

“Which is precisely who they are, at least as far as you’re concerned.”

Sterge wanted to fade unobtrusively into the background, because he didn’t like where this was going.

“…What?”

“Do you know who built all of those inns, stores, and residences down the mountain?  These two—” Yervan pointed towards Sterge and Gwenda— “that’s who.  More than that, they were the ones who found this dungeon, and you should know what that means.  As this is the first time they have been here since it reopened, I think you should be a little more patient and respectful of who you talk to.  If you can’t, I can and will remove your group from the list and you can reapply.”

“You don’t have the authority!”

“Oh, yes, I do.  I’ve never had to exert that authority, thankfully, but I certainly possess the ability.  So, be good, and don’t test me.”

There was some very uncomfortable staring after that, as Yervan attempted to cow the belligerent group with her presence and authority.  Sterge wanted to disappear, as he was feeling a bit out of his depth here; it was one thing when he and his group had been cutting in line in front of the weaker Raider groups, but this was something else.  At his strength and Level, he almost felt like some sort of child waiting for his parents to stop arguing about whether or not he was allowed to do something, and the pretentious feeling of being called “royalty” only made the matter worse.  Neither he nor Gwenda were ones to take advantage of their privileges of being in charge of The Village very often (other than to help run everything), and the situation dealing with the dungeon only made them feel even more uncomfortable.

“Fine, they can go in.  I’ll be speaking with Jesper after this, though,” the angry Raider snarled, before stepping out of the way, pulling his group with him.  They also looked a bit disgruntled, though not at the same level as the instigator.

I have to learn his name later – and make sure we all avoid him and his group in the future.

Thankfully, their wait for their chance to go inside wasn’t that long, as 5 minutes later they were able to leave the stares of hatred coming from those behind Sterge’s group.  They followed the Gnoll that had appeared to let them know the dungeon was ready, and then slid down the long slide to the bottom.  As before, Gwenda loved it and wanted to go again, as did Evy for some reason, but that would have to wait until the next time.  Though, with the response that we had this time, I think we should just add our names to the list normally, instead of taking advantage of our status.

There was no large stone placard this time, which made sense, though Sterge had to admit that he was a little disappointed.  He could see that Gwenda was also eagerly looking forward to another communication with the dungeon, and when it wasn’t there she appeared a little down.  Regardless, that wasn’t really what they were there for.

At least, not yet.

Chapter 17

The advantages that Sterge and Gwenda possessed were quite powerful, especially now that Tacca could see them in action against a dungeon that was much more difficult than her previous section.  Not their Class skills, of course, because they were relatively basic – being low-Level Raiders without any Specialized Class – but the ones they had gained from her Bonding were proving themselves quite useful.

In her original section, activating a trap would be detrimental, but it wouldn’t necessarily kill someone – other than her Spiked Pit Traps, naturally.  In her new section, the traps were stronger and certainly could result in death, especially if they were on the side of a cliff face or stone bridge, where falling off and plummeting to their death – if they were, for example, extremely dizzy – was a distinct possibility.  Combined with the presence of her creatures, who would take advantage of those sorts of situations, the risks were certainly heightened.

Not that many who delved through now succumbed to her traps, as the majority of them “luckily” avoided the worst of the results, but a few certainly did.  Most of the time, though, even if they accidentally activated a detrimental trap, they miraculously fell down against a cliff face instead of off of it, or ran scared as a result of a Fear-inducing trap in the opposite direction where danger lurked, or even bent over from extreme nausea, right when an arrow would’ve skewered them in the throat.

Sterge, Gwenda, and their group didn’t have to worry about any of that, however.  The pulse from their Dungeon Sight ability allowed them to not only see the traps Tacca had placed around her dungeon, but the creatures as well.  Therefore, in the first room with the Cliff Lynxes hiding along the cliff face, they were able to start picking off her creatures from a long distance away, either from thrown knives sent out by their Scout Class or from some simple spells coming from Gwenda.  While they didn’t necessarily kill any of the Lynxes immediately with one shot, like the group of strong Thieves led by Marvus had accomplished a while ago, they were usually able to follow it up with a 2nd or 3rd knife or spell before they could even get close.  By that point, all they had to do was carefully navigate their way around her traps – and they were done.

The second room was nearly a repeat of the first, as knowing where all of the threats were located was proving to be most advantageous.  It required a bit more melee action against the Wolves and Cougars than the previous room, but the 3 other group members showed that they were a bit more powerful than they had been the last time they were inside of her dungeon.  Her Bonded, having spent most of the time Tacca had been “gone” in the nearby town, had stagnated in terms of their Levels, while their groupmates had obviously improved somewhat.

“I must say, having experienced going through a few dungeons without your…abilities…you two are more powerful than you realize,” the Elf, who Tacca remembered was named Evy, said after they had slaughtered their way through the maze in the third room.

Gwenda was the one to answer.  “How so?”

“Because,” Evy said with exasperation, “while there are Scout types that detect and disarm traps, it isn’t always foolproof.”

“Yes, and it takes a lot of practice and building up of the skill in order for them to be useful for anything but the weakest of traps,” Mordecai, the Gnome, added.

Tacca knew that for a fact, both from her schooling and from witnessing the 20-strong group of Thieving Raiders in action.  In fact, in her defensive room, only one of those that had come with them could accurately differentiate between all of her traps, let alone disarm them.

“And then there’s your ability to see where all of the monsters are located, which is something I’ve never heard of before for any Class.  There are some that can detect the general area of life forces, and others that can detect sounds and movement nearby, but there’s nothing like what you two can do.  When you add them together, it’s almost like…cheating, if I’m being honest.”

“Not that we’re complaining, of course, because it makes it much safer for us,” their healer, William, said hastily.  “But I couldn’t help but wonder if Ricardo and Evonne would’ve been alive if we’d had access to something like that.”  Tacca had no idea who Ricardo and Evonne were, but the three higher-Level group members looked quite melancholy at the mention of their names.

Gwenda said softly, “I’m sorry about them, and I too wish we could’ve been there with you, but…well…we had some responsibilities.”

“Oh, we know, and we don’t hold it against you.  Frankly, we’re just glad to be back.  To put it lightly, it was difficult out there to live and survive, never knowing if you’re going to be alive to stay at the inn where you just rented a room, or if you would be able to find more group members to visit a dungeon that is too strong for your current Level.  This, though…this feels like home, somehow, despite it being a dungeon.”

The others nodded their agreement – and Tacca was honestly confounded.  Home?  Here?  What does that even mean?

The Dungeon Core didn’t get any more answers to that as she watched them steadily progress through her dungeon, as they had all gone relatively silent throughout the rest of the rooms.  There were a few close calls where one or another became injured through the sheer numbers of creatures arrayed against them, such as an arrow through an arm or leg from a Kitsune Archer or scratches from a large Feline, but overall they performed remarkably well – as if they hadn’t been away for as long as they had been.

When they finally approached the Boss Room, Tacca became worried for them for the first time.  The Werewolf Warrior inside was nearly twice the Hill Dwarves’ Level, as Sterge and Gwenda had increased theirs to Level 7 from all of the creatures that had been killed up to that point, and had proven to be quite formidable.  Alone, her Boss was responsible for approximately 75% of all the Raider deaths since the section had been fully explored – but the Rewards were too great for many to pass up without at least trying.

She needn’t have worried, however.  The three others in the group – who she now learned were Raider Level 11 after they too went up a Level during their foray into her dungeon – were more than a match for the room.  While Sterge did his best to defend against the Werewolf, getting essentially beat up in the process from her creature’s enormous strength, the Elf and Gnome systematically destroyed the individual Forest Wolves swarming around them.  The healer kept Sterge alive with short bursts of healing, which nearly proved the Human’s undoing as he ticked off the Werewolf, but Gwenda kept him alive with her Magibarrier spell and slowed it down with her Sapping Fog.  Once all of the smaller Wolves were dead, they concentrated on taking down the upright wolf hybrid without too much trouble.

Still, almost everyone had been wounded in one way or another, and were exhausted from the fight.  The Rewards they gained from defeating the entire section were obviously appreciated, but they didn’t leave right away.

“Dungeon?  I’m not sure if you can hear us, but we’ve come to you for some help.”

Tacca had overheard them mention something about needing some help when they had been outside – thanks to Shale spying on them – but had forgotten it while she enjoyed herself watching them delve through her dungeon.  Now she was intrigued and wished she could answer, but doing anything inside of the room they were in was relatively impossible.  Thankfully, she didn’t have to communicate with Gwenda for the Hill Dwarf to go on.

“You see, with the arrival of so many people down here, we’re worried about the future….”

Tacca listened to the small Caster explain the problems they were going to be facing soon, as far as food and shelter for so many people during the winter month coming up.  The Dungeon Core knew exactly what the Hill Dwarf was talking about, because it was something that Tacca knew all too well.  She vividly remembered opening up her dungeon to the outside world almost a year ago, and the sight of snow covering the mountains was incredible.  She also knew that the temperature out there was so low that anyone caught outside for more than a short amount of time would freeze to death.

But what am I supposed to do about that?

“I don’t know, Tacca.  Technically, you shouldn’t do anything about it, as a Dungeon Core.”  Shale was right, she knew, because that would be like trying to manipulate things outside of her dungeon, which was a definite no-no.  It was bad enough that she was communicating with some of the mortal races, Raiders no less, but to actively engage in helping them?  She supposed that it was better than actively engaging in trying to kill them, but having that kind of influence outside of a dungeon was not only bad, but was impossible as well.

She couldn’t provide food as an environmental object, or even as a Reward, and while living off of Minor Healing Potions was an option – which she thought was technically possible – she wasn’t prepared to make thousands of them every day in order to keep everyone alive.  Nor did she have the available Dungeon Force to do that, even if she wanted to.

Tacca was about to dismiss their call for help as impossible, etching a note on the floor of the exit as they left to that effect, but she suddenly remembered how enamored Sterge had been of the dirt when he had first stepped into her dungeon.  It was almost as if he was more fascinated by its rich texture than anything else in the room, and she had wondered why at the time.  Now, though, after everything she had learned about the two Hill Dwarves and the surrounding area at the bottom of the mountain, she knew why: He was a farmer before he became a Raider.

Was he looking at the dirt because it was perfect for farming?  Or was that just my imagination?

“Well, your environmental objects are certainly full of Dungeon Force, which allows them to hold onto and grow your plants so quickly, even after they are destroyed,” her Dungeon Assistant mentioned.  “But I don’t see how that could possibly matter—”

Shale couldn’t see it, but Tacca could.  I think I have a plan.  You’re definitely not going to like it, but I think it could be beneficial not only to me, but to the other Dungeon Cores in the nursery, as well.

“Oh, no – what are you planning?”  She briefly told him her thoughts even as Gwenda and the others started looking for the exit.  As she had thought, he wasn’t pleased.  “You are out of your mind, you know that?”

I know, but you love it.  Makes things interesting, doesn’t it?

“Interesting?  Maybe.  Dangerous?  Absolutely.”

Tacca couldn’t help but giggle as she quickly etched a note on the floor of the exit tunnel, where the Raider group would see it on their way out.

Look towards the east in two weeks’ time,

Where you’ll find the answer at Wentrylock’s base.

That was it.  She wanted to add more, but she ran out of time as they activated the Rotating Stone Bridge trap blocking the exit tunnel and entered.  They stared at the two lines of text she had placed on the floor, shrugging at each other when they were done.

“That…doesn’t really tell us much, does it?  I mean, it doesn’t actually say that the dungeon will help, only that there will be an answer to the east in 2 weeks.  Will that answer be yes or no?” Mordecai asked.

“I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.”

You certainly will see…something.  Now I’ve got to get on it, before I run out of time.  There were only about 2 months left before the first vestiges of winter hit, so she had to get moving.

As soon as they left, passing through her exit tunnel to the outside, Shale professed his doubts.  “This is a major undertaking, Tacca.  And I’m not sure you should be doing it in the first place.  It could be extremely dangerous.”

I know, but it could also be a nice solution, too.  In fact, you should probably let Malachite know about what I’m planning, so that there is some transparency here.

“Are you sure?  I can keep it a secret if you want.”

Yes, I’m sure.  Besides, this’ll be just like the Nursery he had me build, so it’s only fair.

Her Dungeon Assistant looked skeptical.  “I’m not sure you can compare the two, but I see what you’re getting at.”  Shale sighed heavily.  “Fine, I’ll tell him tomorrow, when I can see what exactly you have in mind.  I would like to make it plain, though, that I’m not fully on board with this, though I could change my mind once I’ve seen the sorts of precautions you put in place.”

Don’t worry, it’ll be safe.  I’m not reckless, just unlucky.

“I wouldn’t say you’re all that unlucky, Tacca.”

What do you mean?  Of course I am.

“Well, you somehow miraculously survived being destroyed, you’ve developed your Core faster than any other Core in the history of the world, and you have thousands of Raiders wanting to delve through your dungeon.  Plus, there’s one other thing you have that disproves your theory.”

And what’s that?

“You have an awesome Dungeon Assistant, that’s what.  I’d say you’re pretty lucky.”  He smiled at her Core innocently, and she couldn’t help but be affected by it.

You sure are the modest type, aren’t you?

“You know it.  Anyway, quit talking and get to work, especially if you’re going to get these highly dangerous, unpredictable, and potentially world-shaping changes done in the two weeks you’ve allotted for it.”

Yes, yes – I’m working on it as we speak.

This was either going to be the greatest thing a Dungeon Core had ever tried…or it was going to blow up in her figurative face.  Either way, it was an exciting time to be a Core.

Chapter 18

Tacca started the project off to the east, near where she had created some of the first Nursery spaces, though much nearer to the surface.  Digging a 3-inch-wide tunnel was easy enough to do to get there, and once she was where she wanted to start – approximately 100 feet away from the hillside surface at the bottom of the Wentrylock mountain range – Tacca began by making a massive room.  It was slow-going, since she could only remove so much dirt and rock at a time, but it was still worlds faster now that she was CI Level 21 compared to when she had first constructed her original dungeon over a year ago.  The Dungeon Force required to Carve Earth was fairly negligible, too – at only 5 DF per minute – which was easily supplemented by Shale with his Transmutation ability, or even at the expense of making those Raiders outside wait for an extra couple of minutes before their turn was up.

By the time night rolled around, she had managed to Carve out a rectangular-shaped room, 100 feet tall, 50 wide, and 10 feet deep.  It was the height and width she wanted, now all she needed to do was deepen it further into the mountains, until it was at least 500 feet deep.  In order to support all of the weight above, she had learned through experimentation that she needed some columns in the middle of the room, which she started building out of the stone that most of her dungeon was composed of.  Thick, 5-foot-square pillars reached up to the ceiling, holding up the roof of the room with preternatural strength, until nothing short of the mountain collapsing would shift even the slightest portion of her creation.

Even though it took a little concentration, and she wasn’t technically doing it for herself, she had to admit that she was having fun with the scope of her objective.  The next 12 hours were spent deepening the room, until it was 50 feet deep, then 100, and finally 150 feet; a column every 30 feet was required for support, but otherwise the rest of the space was basically empty – though it wouldn’t be for long.

“Tacca, are you okay if I skip out for a moment and let the Council Leader know what’s going on?  I think it’s about time, especially if you’re still thinking about…you know.”

Sure, Shale – I’ll just be here building.

Her Dungeon Assistant Translocated out from her Core Room, and Tacca immediately felt the loss of the Energy Transmutation he had been providing.  Focusing on who was going through her two dungeon sections, however, she thought she would be fine right now even without it.  Her original dungeon was fairly negligible when it came to the DF required to restock everything, but her newest one was only resource intensive when she had multiple groups going through the more difficult part one after another.  Right now there was only a low-Level Raider group going through the easier part, taking their time; she was already automatically replacing what they had killed behind them, so it was easy enough to manage her DF flow.

She was an hour into the continued Carving of her project when she suddenly heard from Shale.

“Tacca, we’ve got a problem!”

What’s wrong?

There was silence for a little bit, before she was suddenly connected to his mind and saw what he was seeing and experiencing through his Perception Link.  She was confused for a moment at what she was looking at, as the change was a bit abrupt, but the next second she figured it out: it was a dungeon entrance.  Shale flew inside, passing over the threshold…and she felt nothing through his Link.

She had learned over her multiple Bondings when she was a Dungeon Assistant that there was a subtle “tingle” in her senses when entering a dungeon that made each one of them unique.  It was hard to feel it when Translocating inside, but when flying in from outside, that “tingle” was more than obvious.  When Shale flew inside this dungeon, there was no “tingle”; needless to say, the dungeon was dead – and so was the Dungeon Core.

Shale, the Core has been destroyed?

“Yes.  Hold on, I’ll show you.”  Her Dungeon Assistant flew through the multiple rooms quite quickly, as there was nothing impeding his flight: no traps to avoid, no creatures to watch out for, and no environmental objects to weave around.  In less than a minute, he was inside of the Core Room, where she saw the remnants of a Dungeon Core, the shattered shards of it on the floor.

This…is horrible, Shale.  But why are you showing me this?  Have those invaders started destroying Cores again?

He physically nodded his head, and Tacca could feel his heart beating faster in his chest as he started to panic.  “Yes, they’ve started again, though I’m not sure how many have been destroyed before this one.  The reason I’m showing you this one, however, is because this is the last dungeon the Council Leader visited…before he disappeared.”

He’s gone?  What do you mean?

“I mean exactly that – he hasn’t shown up anywhere in the last few hours, despite a veritable army of Fairies out looking.  I talked to the Head Instructor right before I contacted you, and he gave me some disturbing news.”

More disturbing than Malachite vanishing?

Another nod.  “It seems that in 82% – Lapis’ numbers, not mine – of those Cores thought to or known to be destroyed by these 6-armed monster people, the bodies of their Dungeon Assistants were never found.  Some had been killed around the same time as their Cores and their remains were discovered later in the dungeon, but the rest were missing.”

How was this not seen before?  And what exactly does it mean?

“Well, the Head Instructor blames himself.  Some of his data concerning the lack of bodies had been combined with the other attacks committed by Raiders, where their Fairies were stolen away after being killed, so it wasn’t until he looked through everything again that he found it.”

Tacca could see how that might be a little confusing, especially when she thought back to what happened with her Mentor, Cobalt.  Those Raiders had destroyed the Core, which killed Cobalt as he was still Bonded to her; afterwards, they had picked up his body while she hid in a crack in a wall, saying something about it being a big payday.  She wasn’t sure what they were doing with it, but she could only assume that there was some sort of bounty regarding Dungeon Assistant Fairies – the thought of which made her want to shudder in revulsion.

“As for what it means, Lapis thought it might mean a few things.  One, they are doing something with their remains, of which the Head Instructor has no clue what that could be.  Or two, which he thought more likely, is that those who are missing are still alive.  Why, and in what state they are in, no one knows.”

Tacca’s mind reeled at the possibilities.  It didn’t take her long to connect it to what happened at the DPRC.  And if that is the case, then the rest of the Council might still be alive, as well.

“That’s what the Head Instructor considered, but he didn’t have enough information to know for sure.”  Shale was quiet again, as the panic he had been experiencing began to subside.  “What are we going to do?”

Tacca had no answer for him – at least not one that he wanted.  I don’t know, Shale, I really don’t.  All we can do is keep things running here, and hope that Malachite shows up soon, or else the Head Instructor finds some way to combat these monsters.  Now, get yourself safely back here before they decide to show up again.  She doubted they would, but she didn’t really know enough about them to know for sure.

“On my way.”

A few seconds later, Shale popped into her Core Room, looking frightened out of his wits.  Tacca couldn’t really blame him, though, especially after learning that the most powerful Fairy on the planet had likely just been taken.

Calm down; it will be okay, Shale.  Now, since we don’t have the Council Leader to consult, we’re going to have to do this without permission.  Not that we wouldn’t attempt it anyway, but I’d prefer to have someone at least a little more knowledgeable approving something like this before we did it.

“We could always ask Head Instructor Lapis—”

Nope, no, don’t think so.  I still don’t like him, so the less I have to deal with him, the better; he’d probably want to come here, and I really can’t stand him any more than I could months ago.

She was well aware that it was highly irrational to have such hatred toward the Head Instructor of DAPS, but that was how it was; he had based his prejudice against her because of her birth, not for any other reason.  She had felt a similar hatred toward Lily and even the Council Leader at one point, though that had subsided somewhat after learning why they had done what they had done – even if it was torture on Tacca’s mind and body.  Malachite had even apologized for what they had done in placing her with Cores they wanted removed, even though she had her doubts if he had even been directly responsible for what had been done to her.

She was, in no way, ready to forgive the Head Instructor for the emotional abuse he propagated during her schooling.

“Fine; I suppose I can understand.”  Shale sighed.  “I suppose you want me to gather up the other Assistants?”

Yes, please.  We have a lot we need to go over, and without Malachite heading up our leadership, we’re basically on our own here.

Her Dungeon Assistant disappeared a few moments later using his Translocation ability, and Tacca busied herself in continuing her excavation of the giant room she was working on.  No more than 15 minutes later, Shale returned with 6 other Fairies in tow, none of whom she recognized – though she knew that these were the Dungeon Assistants assigned to the Cores in her Nursery.

One after another, Tacca used her Bond to connect with all of them, which provided them with the Core Communication ability so she could speak with them.  Sadly, she didn’t receive anything in return, like she had with Malachite or Lapis; she figured this was because she still had 17 “Locked” abilities she had yet to see, and whatever she would’ve gotten from these Fairies were likely duplicates.

When the 4 female and 2 male Fairies had been Bonded, the process of which clearly surprised the heck out of them, she spoke to all of them at the same time.

Welcome!  Sorry for the abrupt Bonding, but I needed to be able to speak with you all, especially if we’re going to be working together in the very near future.

“What did you just do!  How is this possible?” one of the female Fairies asked, which reminded Tacca that she really needed to learn their names.

“You’ll find that Tacca’s Core is a bit unique, and this is just one of the unique abilities she has,” Shale offered before Tacca could speak.  “Because it would be better for everyone involved to know the exact situation here, I feel it is better if some truths were let out in the open before we get started.”

Do you really think that is a good idea—? Tacca asked him privately.

He replied mentally, keeping the communication solely to her.  “Yes, otherwise this won’t work.  Trust me, it’s better this way.”

She did trust him, so she let him have his way.  Besides, he was much better suited to interacting with other Dungeon Assistants than she was, mainly because Tacca had avoided any type of social interaction when she was in school.

While Tacca tried not to cringe every other moment, Shale started a lengthy explanation of what had happened to her and how she ended up in a Core, though she was thankful that he left out the majority of her experiences before that happened. Then again, it was quite possible that they knew who she was and about her reputation as “The Deliverer”, but none of them showed any type of visible reaction to her name.

Shale also described what had happened since she had become a Core, how she built her dungeon, and the improvements she had made.  That definitely had a reaction, and before she could stop them, they asked Tacca’s Dungeon Assistant for a tour of her dungeon.  They were practically gushing over the Rotating Stone Bridges used as exit doorways, the exit tunnels themselves, and the way she used a creature at the entrance to signal when the next group of Raiders could enter.  But what they especially liked, over all of that, was how she had such a wide variety of creatures.

“…and let me tell you, it was crazy how many Core Improvement Points she missed out on until she was able to remove those negative Special Characteristics, but you can see that it was worth it.  This is something that you can advise your Cores to consider – once they increase their Level enough to afford so many SCPs, of course.  Now that we know that a family of creatures will work as a choice, the ‘All Variants’ Characteristic is very powerful.”

Hearing Shale tell the others about her exploits with pride in his voice made her feel all warm and fuzzy inside, and she had to admit that it felt good being able to pass on the knowledge she had acquired – even if it were through an intermediary like her Assistant.

“But how did she accomplish so much in so little time?” one of the new Fairies asked.

“Well, that is another unique part of her Core. Her Point countdowns had been shrunk from 1 year to 1 month for the first 20 Core Improvement Levels, which made her advancement quite rapid.”

“That’s…that’s unbelievable!  How did she get so lucky?”

Shale chuckled, shaking his head.  “That’s what I was trying to tell her, as well, but she didn’t seem to believe me.  Then again, it wasn’t all beneficial for her….”

Her Dungeon Assistant then explained how fragile her Core was, how she had been limited on what she could create, and how her initial starting statistics had been less than a normal Core would have access to.  Then came another description of how she had been attacked, including more detailed depictions of the blue-skinned, 6-armed invaders than any of the other Fairies had heard by that point.  Finally, he arrived at the current day, choking up a little as he told them about Malachite being missing and possibly dead, though he did mention that he might still be alive somewhere – but no one knew for sure.

“So, that’s the current state of affairs.  From what I’ve been told, the Council Leader mentioned to all of your Cores that he would move them again once this whole business with these monstrous people is taken care of, but we don’t know if either of those things will happen.  Does that sound about right?”  Shale had taken charge of the explanation magnificently and Tacca just let him go, as he was getting much more engagement than she probably would have.

They all nodded, and he went on.  “That’s what I thought, which brings me to why you’re all here.  From our tour earlier, you all saw the crowds of Raiders outside, including the town a little out from the base of the mountain range.  Tacca has some…contacts…with some of the Raiders, through the same Bond that allows you to hear her, and they are worried about having enough shelter and food for everyone that is fleeing here from the north.  I don’t have to explain to you what’s happening up there, as you wouldn’t be here if you didn’t know, but that’s the current situation.”

“So…what does that have to do with us?”

I’ll take over from here, Shale.  Thank you for the explanation, by the way.  Tacca focused her thoughts, trying to figure out how she wanted to describe the scope of what she had planned.  First, let me tell you what I’m currently working on.  Near your Cores’ locations, closer to the surface, I’m creating a space for the Raiders and even non-Raiders to live, as well as provide them a place where they can grow food to get them through the winter month.

“What?  Why?”

That’s the best part, I believe.  Tell me, what do you think will happen if I were to, say, connect my dungeon with those spaces?

It didn’t take more than a confused second for them to realize what Tacca was talking about.  “That’s…insane, you know that.  I’ve never heard of anything like that being done before.”

As far as I know, you’re correct.  But I might as well take advantage of the Raider Presence inside of my dungeon if they’re stuck inside the entire time, right?

“That’s quite devious; you’re creating a space for them to live, but you’re also going to get stronger because they’re living there.  Genius even,” one of the male Fairies, who she had learned was named Gneiss during Shale’s tour, stated with wonder on his face.  “But that still doesn’t explain what that has to do with us.”

That’s what I want to find out, as well.  My proposal is an experiment, because it is something that hasn’t been done before – as far as I can tell – and it could potentially be dangerous.  However, if it works, then it could be beneficial for all of the Cores in the Nursery.

“The Nursery?  Is that what you’re calling where our Dungeon Cores are located?” asked Tulip with amusement in her voice, who was one of the female Assistants.  “It fits, I suppose.”

Sorry about the nickname, but it made it easier to describe them in their current state.  Anyway, what I want to do is try to connect one of your Cores to the space, as well, to see what would happen.  My hope is that they will be able to share in the Points being accumulated through Raider Presence.

They were all silent as they looked at each other with hesitation in their body language.  “That seems extremely dangerous,” Gneiss finally spoke up.  “We don’t know what will happen; it could theoretically destroy both Cores.  Are you sure you would want to risk that?”

Tacca knew the risks, but she also knew that she had to do something to help the Cores in the Nursery, especially if they never found Malachite.  If that was the case, then they would be stuck there indefinitely, destined to try and eke out an existence in the Wentrylock Mountains buried thousands of feet under the surface.  If she could give them some sort of head start, it would benefit everyone in the long run.

I’m sure.  The question is, do you think any of your Cores would be willing to risk it?  If it works, then the rest can certainly connect together and we can all benefit.

“I’ll ask, but I can’t guarantee anything,” Tulip answered first, which was followed by the others.

That’s all I can ask.  If you have any other questions, please let me know; you can pop in here any time and speak to me.  Once we’re connected, if that is what your Cores wish to do, then we can communicate at any time.

They all had a few more questions, mainly about her dungeon – which she thoroughly enjoyed talking about – before they left, *popping* out of her Core Room via their Translocation, and she was left with Shale.

Do you think any of them will want to try?

“I don’t know.  Maybe?  We’ll just have to wait and see, I guess.”

Regardless, I’ve got to get this done.  I hope one of them is willing to risk themselves, because I’m really curious if it will work.

“Are you sure you want to risk yourself?  They were right, you know – it could be extremely dangerous.”

I know, I know.  The way I figure it, I’ve already cheated death a few times, so what’s another?

“You do know that you’re not just gambling with your own life, but mine, also?”

Her mind froze at his question.  She had forgotten that he had just passed his year with her, and the probability of him dying was almost certain if she ended up being destroyed in the process.  Those that had been Bonded that long were nearly guaranteed to die if the Core was shattered, though there were a few cases in the past where the Assistant survived if the Bond was just barely over the year threshold.

I’m sorry, Shale, I didn’t even think about that.  I can certainly break our Bond before it comes to that, if you wish.

“No, I’ll see this through with you – no matter what.  I already told you that I wouldn’t leave you, even when those monstrous people were attacking, and I’m not leaving now.”

But—

“No, I’ve made my decision.  If you’re dead set on doing this, then I’m going to be along for the ride – no matter what happens.”

Figurative warmth suffused her Core at his words, and Tacca couldn’t help but feel privileged that she had ended up with such a wonderful Assistant.

Ride or die, Shale.  Ride or die.

“Huh?”

Just something a Core once said to me when I refused to leave them when they were under attack.  Basically, it means sticking with someone till the end, no matter what.

He chuckled at the explanation.  “Well then – ride or die, Tacca.  Ride or die.”

Chapter 19

It turned out that none of the Cores were willing to risk themselves in such a dangerous venture…yet.  She had a feeling they would soon change their minds once they realized how isolated they were, which had been done on purpose to protect them from the invaders; since it had only been a few days or weeks in a few of their cases, the longer they went without any external stimulation, the more likely that they would be willing to risk their Cores for the chance of having some sort of interaction with others, Raiders or otherwise.

Therefore, it was left to Tacca to continue creating the new space for the people to survive the winter.  Her massive room was soon finished at 500 feet in depth, and she looked at it with a discerning eye, seeing it as she had imagined: a grand entrance Hall.  Starting on the bottom of the side walls, she began making small hallways that led to modest-sized rooms 10 feet in width and 30 in depth, with 10-foot ceilings.  Each of these was going to be a space where people could live, though she wasn’t exactly able to furnish them with what she could create.  Separate, private areas were about the best she could accomplish at this point.

After placing 46 of these rooms on either side of the Hall, for a total of 92 (which she thought might comfortably hold 6 people per room), she used her ability to create stone to fashion some stairs in two separate areas along both walls, which led 12 feet up to a stone landing she created and which ran the length of each wall.  The platforms, supported by small columns underneath and attached to the wall itself, were 8 feet wide, with a short stone railing about 4 feet high running along the side jutting out into the Hall – so that no one would fall off accidentally.

Along these platforms, she copied what she had done on the ground floor and created another 92 rooms (46 on each side again).  Then it was just a matter of building upwards, extending the staircase out into the Hall a little so that she could make a set of stairs that switch-backed upon itself and rose all the way to the ceiling.  As an afterthought, she also added a short wall to the stairs, so that no one would fall off of them, the same as the platforms she was creating along the walls.

By the time she was done, she had 7 platforms, all with rooms that people could use to live within.  Including the ground floor, there were a total of 736 modest-sized rooms, holding 6 people each, for a total capacity of 4,416 people.  She wasn’t sure if there would be that many staying inside of the large space, but at least it was there if they needed it.

That took care of the living arrangements, and now it was time for how to feed them.  While she couldn’t actually grow food, and the plants that she had access to weren’t really edible, she could provide the space and dirt for the people to grow their own.  Also, if she was right, then her Dungeon Force-created soil would help them grow their food even faster.  All they needed was space.

Instead of one huge room, Tacca decided on multiple rooms that could be farmed a little better than one massive field.  Therefore, at the backside of the Hall, she created a wide doorway that led to a long tunnel, which then branched off 3 times into junctions, leading to the left and right, as well as continuing straight ahead.  At the end of the 6 tunnels she created to the left and right, she started hollowing out 10-foot-high rooms that were 100 feet wide and 200 feet long, before filling them with dirt that was 1 foot deep.  A 3-foot-wide stone walkway along the center of the room going all the way to the back finished it off, allowing people to walk through the room in order to access everything.

In the 7th room, which was at the end of the main tunnel, she created a large storeroom that was 200 feet wide and long, with stone walls that shot out from the walls, allowing there to be some sort of separation for the different crops that they could grow.  When that was done, her concentration left her project as she figuratively stepped back and saw what she had accomplished.

Better yet, it had only been 1 week and 6 days!  When she was determined, she could certainly accomplish a lot, she found; not only that, but if she applied Carve Earth in multiple sections, she could remove the dirt and stone at quite accelerated speeds.

What do you think, Shale?

Her Dungeon Assistant popped over via his Translocation and looked at everything, making pleased noises as he saw all of the rooms Tacca had carved out of the mountain, as well as the makeshift farms and storeroom.

“It looks great, Tacca, and I think it’ll work for them, at least for a month.” Shale hesitated for a moment.  “However….”

What?

“Don’t you think you’re forgetting something?”

Tacca looked around the entire complex she had constructed, trying to figure out what he was talking about.  There were rooms the people could sleep in, farms where they could grow food – what more could they want?  She knew that the light inside of the rooms was more than capable of growing plants, so sunlight wasn’t the issue, and since that was all they needed—

Water!

“Exactly,” her Dungeon Assistant confirmed.  “Not only will they need water to grow their food, but there’s no place for them to get water here, especially if they’re holed up for a month.  Sure, I guess they could brave the entrance and gather up some snow to melt, but that isn’t really a viable method of getting water, especially if there are 1,000 or more people living here.”

He had a point, but she wasn’t sure of the correct solution, either.  For one, water wasn’t something she could just create.  Plants, trees, and thousands of different kinds of rocks, ores, and gemstones – absolutely.  Something as simple as water – not so much.

There were three possible sources of water, as far as she could fathom.  One, which wasn’t exactly practical but might work, was to hollow out holes through the ceiling of her rooms, running through 3-inch-wide tunnels that led to the surface, where they would be exposed to the coming snow, which would melt after coming in contact with what was “technically” her dungeon, and then trickle downwards to the people living inside of the space she had constructed.  This was the “natural” solution, but it was a bit unreliable, especially if the holes on the surface got frozen over and wouldn’t melt, and the time it would take to set all that up could require a week or so.

She didn’t have that much time.

Another source of water was through an Environment, namely the Aquatic Environment.  She would have access to water then as an Environmental Object, and she could place it anywhere she chose, and just like her plants when they were cut down, it would automatically be replaced if some of it was consumed through the ambient Dungeon Force running through her dungeon.  This was the easiest solution for Tacca, though it would require using some of her Core Improvement Points to unlock the Environmental Access.  It was also the least versatile, as it would be difficult to direct where the water was needed without a lot of preparation and time, which she didn’t have, so it would likely just end up being large pools of water that the people would have to move to where they wanted it.

The last possible source of water was through Water-based traps.  They could be activated by someone simply walking or touching in a certain spot, and water would appear in whatever “trap” Tacca designed.  This was the harder of the two “magical” solutions, because of the expense of Dungeon Force to set them up, as well as the expense when they needed to be reset after use.  That could be reduced if she were to purchase a Water trap specialization, but it would still be expensive to maintain – though it really did depend on how she utilized the traps she did set up.

Environment or traps?  Water-based traps or Environmental Objects?  Which one is better?

“Why not both?”

Both?  Isn’t that a little excessive?

Shale chuckled, shaking his head.  “Excessive?  No, I don’t think you’re looking at it in the right way.  Water, for lack of a better word, is the lifeblood of the mortal races.  They can’t live without it, and they will take it however they can get it.  It will cost you a little more in terms of Points spent to acquire the Environmental Access and specialization, about 1,400 total if I’m not mistaken, but it will also make their lives much easier.  And easier, and therefore happier, is what you want here.”

What do you mean?  They won’t freeze to death or starve, so they should be happy.

“You forget that I’ve been watching all of these Raiders in the town down below,” her Dungeon Assistant said matter-of-factly.  “Did you know that one of the reasons those people want to delve through your dungeon is because of their need to get away from everyone else?”

That doesn’t make any sense.

“It’s true, I’ve been listening in and observing over the last few weeks, and I’ve learned a lot about the mortal races – more than I learned at DAPS, anyway,” he continued.  “With so many people gathered in one place, there have been arguments over inconsequential things, fights, and even a few killings, though those are rare.”

Why?

“Boredom, mostly, but also because they’re not happy.  Many of them don’t have a place to stay, they may or may not be able to afford food, or they have to wait for a month to see your dungeon – and for quite a few, all three of those things at once.  But you should see the smiles on their faces when they finally get a chance to delve through your rooms, or if something finally goes right for them in town – like getting a room to themselves – or having enough to eat.  Those happy people don’t argue, don’t fight, and don’t kill their fellow Raiders, behaviors which I’m sure you’d prefer to maintain while they’re inside an enclosed space like the one you’re creating.”

Tacca could certainly see the potential disaster that could create, with disgruntled Raiders trapped inside of a mountain, unable to leave or have any other outlet.  Which gave her an idea of sorts of what to do with her new section….

But there wasn’t time to dwell on that, because she had less than 24 hours to finish her grand project.  Taking Shale’s advice, Tacca spent 1,400 CIPs; 600 went toward a Water trap specialization, while 800 was used for an Aquatic Environmental Access.

Aquatic – Environmental Access

The Aquatic Environment allows the creation of water, water-based plants, corals, shells, and a variety of rocks within the dungeon.

Access Costs:

Fresh Water: 1 DF per cubic foot

Saltwater: 2 DF per cubic foot

Kelp: 1 – 5 DF depending upon size

Seaweed: 1 – 5 DF depending upon size

Seagrass: 1 – 5 DF depending upon size

Algae: 1 – 5 DF depending upon size

Coral: 2 – 10 DF depending upon size

Shells: 3 – 20 DF depending upon size

Rock: 1 – 100 DF depending upon size

Water – Trap Specialization

Water-based traps can range from mildly annoying to fully lethal, depending on how they are applied.  Producing voluminous amounts of water is a sure way to drown unsuspecting victims, but Water-based traps can also be adjusted through temperature changes, creating different states of matter.

Specialization Benefits:

Water-based traps require 60% less Dungeon Force to create

Water-based traps require 75% less Dungeon Force to replace when used

Overall, they were excellent purchases.  She had forgotten about the extra benefits of the Aquatic Environment, especially the plants she could create.  The Kelp and Seaweed she could place as an Environmental Object could be harvested, dried, and consumed if it came down to it in order to feed a population; using it to actually feed a population hadn’t ever occurred to her or anyone at DAPS, so she hadn’t even considered it.  Thinking about the other Environments she could gain access to, she tried to think of any others that might be utilized like that…and couldn’t remember any immediately.  That didn’t mean that there weren’t any, but she didn’t have time to consider anything else at the moment.

The Water trap specialization was a fun one, mainly because liquid water was just the medium by which the traps functioned, and their effectiveness was in how that water was applied.  For instance, water could be used directly as a way to drown an unlucky victim that fell into a small enclosed room; it could be projected out from a central source or sources, slamming into another victim or victims with powerful jets of force; or it could be used as an obstacle between one area and another, requiring Raiders to either find another way across or swim for it.

But Water traps could also be quite versatile when temperature became a factor.  Heating up water until it became boiling steam, burning anything it touched was one way to take advantage of it, or else just increasing the temperature of an entire room to a sweltering humid heat.  Cold temperatures, on the other hand, were much more versatile because they produced an excellent product: Ice.  Dropping sharp icicles from the ceiling on unsuspecting Raiders; icing up the floor, or ramp, or stairs so that it was slippery could prove exceedingly dangerous; and even freezing the top layer of a pool of water if someone were to fall into it were some of the different ways the Water-based traps could be applied.

Of course, none of these methods were ones that Tacca wanted to use, because she wasn’t going to be placing them in order to kill people, but to save them.  The sheer ridiculousness of that occurred to her as she started placing large traps on the ceiling of the farms, a variation of the Deluge Water Trap – though far, far weaker than what they were intended for.

Deluge Water Trap

The Deluge Water Trap can be placed on the ceiling of a room and is triggered by directional proximity.  When activated, specified amounts of water are expelled from the ceiling, drenching anyone and anything beneath the trap.  The Deluge Water Trap can be adjusted for duration, strength, water type, and temperature.  All traps can be disabled with high enough Disarm Trap skills.

Cost: 100 DF (-60% Water Specialization, -40% Special Characteristic)

Replacement Cost: 25 DF (-75% off current cost/Water Specialization)

Creation Time: 0.25 Hours

Disarm Trap Resistance: 2

Activation Range: 100ft X 200ft

Trigger Proximity: 10ft below

Strength: 0.3%

Duration: 300.0 seconds

Water Type: Fresh

Temperature: Cool

Resistance Category: Water

Normally, a trap of that size – 100ft by 200ft – would be extremely costly to create, as well as keeping it activated for 300 seconds.  However, to keep the cost down to 100 DF (and because she wasn’t needing to drown anyone), the strength of the trap was at only 0.3%.  In comparison, a trap like this at 100% would be like dropping a waterfall on someone, slamming them into the ground; at 0.3%, water droplets would trickle out of the ceiling, hydrating the plants below without drowning them.  She also could direct the trap to activate if someone walked onto a specific part of the walkway, which she changed out to a bluish quartz stone, so that it wouldn’t activate every time someone walked inside the room.

As for drinking water – and sanitation! Can’t believe I forgot about that – she created a few large stone basins in the Hall, which she filled with Fresh Water as an Environmental Object.  While it wouldn’t stagnate and become unhealthy even if it sat there for years, to add a little touch of her ingenuity and knowledge she created a fountain of sorts.

“It looks more like a dribble than a fountain, Tacca.”

Shush.  It’s better than nothing.

What he said was true, but it was a unique function of the regenerating Environmental Objects, nonetheless.  What Tacca did was create a flat-topped pyramid of stone in the center of the basin, and then placed 1 cubic foot of Fresh Water on top.  The water immediately flowed down the sides of the pyramid and down into the basin, but the automatically regenerating Object wanted to keep the water on top, so more water was created; it then flowed down to the basin, and the cycle repeated itself.

It was all about keeping an equilibrium in the space she allotted for the Objects she placed, which was also why the basin didn’t overflow.  Once it reached a certain level, it wanted to always stay at that level.  As water was taken away, the Object would automatically fill the basin back up.  It was quite pretty and soothing to watch it in action, completely unlike the mayhem going on in her dungeons at the moment – all full of blood, cries of pain, and the slaughtering of her creatures.  Typical, normal, everyday dungeon stuff.

As for sanitation, she turned one of the rooms on each “floor” of the Hall into a bathroom of sorts, where people could both bathe and do their nasty business.  I’m so glad that we don’t have to do that, Shale.

“I agree.”

One more Water-based trap in each bathroom room was needed to solve the problem of waste disposal, which was a water jet trap that could be activated to “flush” everything through a series of pipes she had to carve out of the walls and floors, where it would all drain back out into the foothills.  She couldn’t control exactly what happened to it after it left her control, but it was far enough away from everything that she hoped it would be fine.

As for the bath, that was probably the easiest of everything.  A simple stone tub filled with very warm water, which would automatically replace itself after use, eliminating any dirt and anything non-living inside the water.  Simple, easy – because it was a common use of water in aquatic dungeons, because if a Raider died in the water, they would automatically be disposed of when the rest of the group was gone.  Anything that didn’t belong there was eliminated, essentially.

Now she was done – or as done as she could be.  Just in time, too, because it was just hitting the deadline.  The last thing she did was create a tunnel leading to the outside world, though it wasn’t a straight shot out.  She knew that it would eventually be extremely cold out there, so she made the wide tunnel take a few turns before it reached outside, to block much of the wind, snow, and cold from coming inside.  It wouldn’t block it all, but it would help a lot.

As Tacca Carved through the rest of the dirt and rock separating her new creation from the outside world, she glimpsed a group in the distance coming towards the new entrance to her dungeon.

Chapter 20

“Is that what we’re looking for?”

Sterge looked into the distance at Mordecai’s shout, sweat pouring down his face despite the cool air of pre-winter.  While it was still a little over a month away, it was already starting to cool down a little bit; granted, it never really got cold until the winter month hit – and then it got really cold – but it was a little chilly in the morning.

They had been walking all morning, at least 3 hours up and down the mountain range to the east of The Village, but this was the first sign of anything actually being what they were looking for.  Even as he looked at the small opening at the base of the mountain range, just up from the smaller foothills, he saw some more of the mountain face disappear, as if something were taking big bites out of it.

“Judging by your open mouth, I’m sure you saw that, too,” Gwenda said from his right, nudging him with her elbow.

“I…I certainly did.”  This was the first time he’d actually seen evidence that the dungeon could do things he could only imagine, despite seeing the aftereffects.  It was one thing knowing monsters could appear out of nowhere, or rooms could be constructed out of solid rock, but it was something altogether amazing about seeing it happen in front of his eyes.

“Shall we go visit?  I’m pretty sure we’ve been invited already,” Evy said from his left.  The Sword Dancer was shading her eyes with her hand, trying to make out what she was looking at, which Sterge had been unconsciously mimicking.  All he could make out from this distance was a dark portal that had opened up on the side of the mountain ahead, and he sincerely hoped it was what had been mentioned to them, instead of a new dungeon or something.

“Let’s go; I sure hope it’s a little cooler in there.”

William chuckled at that.  “If what you said the winters are like here is true, you’ll be wishing the opposite when the snow rolls in.”

Sterge just nodded, knowing their Combat Medic was entirely correct.  But he was hot from all of the running around now, and winter certainly hadn’t hit yet.

It took them only about 15 minutes to make it to the entrance of this new opening in the mountain, and they discovered that it was much larger than they expected.  While the dungeon entrances further up the mountain were large enough for a really tall and wide person to pass through, probably 9 to 10 feet high and 6 feet wide, this entrance was large enough to pass a team of horses and a covered wagon into.  Sterge thought that an entire trade caravan could enter it, in fact, which was a bit surprising.

They stood on the threshold looking inside, and it was light enough to see that the tunnel leading in took a sharp turn to the right; from there it was impossible to see any more without actually entering.  Evy and the others just stood there looking at Sterge and Gwenda with impatient looks on their faces.

“Well?  Are you going in?  You are the ones that are all cozy with the dungeon, aren’t you?” Mordecai joked, gently pushing Sterge forward.  Rather than fight it, he walked inside and immediately felt cooler, though not too cold; rather, it felt…temperate…like it was an average temperature.

The others followed him as he walked through the strangely turning tunnel, still as wide as it had been in the beginning, until they finally came to an end.  Sterge stood with his mouth open again, uncaring, as he took a look inside the massive room.  It went back far enough that he had trouble making out details at the end, and there were columns spaced out at equal distances, which he thought were probably holding up the ceiling.  It was all stark grey stone, plain and unadorned – utilitarian, even – but it had a grand majesty of its own.

The sounds of running water turned his attention to a trio of stone basins in the middle of this great space, where he saw water running down a strange stone pyramid in the center of the basins.  The water seemed to spring from nowhere, but it appeared clear and fresh – and likely cool.  His dry throat practically ached to get a drink of it.

“How?  There’s no way this was just built; this place must have been buried for centuries or something, because this is…magnificent,” Gwenda said in wonder.

“I have no idea, but we should probably check it out.”  Sterge led the way, and the others followed after him in a group.  The first stop was the first water-filled stone basin nearest the entrance, which the Hill Dwarf immediately scooped up and practically inhaled in his efforts to slake his thirst, to the horrified expressions on all but Gwenda’s faces.

“Uh…what?”

“How do you know that isn’t poisoned?” Mordecai asked.

Poison?  I never even thought about that.  He started to empty his hands, but he stopped when – after a moment – he felt fine.  “I think if this water is poisoned or unsafe, then the dungeon wouldn’t go through all the trouble of making everything else you see in here.  I’m pretty sure it’s fine – and some of the purest water I’ve ever tasted.”

Gwenda smiled and copied him, scooping up the cool water in her hands and slurping it up, still smiling as she said, “Ahhh!  That’s the stuff.  Come on; it’s safe.”  She motioned to the others, who hesitatingly did the same, suspicious looks on their faces.

“This is just too good to be true, you have to admit,” Evy said after she got her fill of the water.  Sterge could tell she thought it was delicious, as well.

He just shrugged, not sure what else to say.  “It is a miracle, I will admit, but we still have a lot to check out.  We’ll see if it will work for us, especially with the numbers we’re still seeing traveling down here.”  The living situation near The Village was getting more and more out of hand, with nearly 4,000 Raiders and non-Raiders unable to find a place to sleep other than outside.  They were still frantically building Inns (they were up to 42 now), as well as residences, but it was impossible to keep up with the demand.  Worse than that, they were starting to have shortages of food shipments, though it wasn’t through any sort of Ministry manipulation – they were simply having trouble transporting what was available elsewhere.

After they had all gotten their fill of water and felt revitalized, they started searching the rooms they could see all along the sides of the grand room, which proved to look all the same: large but empty.  That was fine, because they would work well enough for large families, and potentially even 2 groups of Raiders per room if it came down to it.  There weren’t any doors, but they could probably figure out something to allow for more privacy.

“There’s some sort of bathing room!  Come check it out,” Gwenda said excitedly.  The room she was pointing inside was towards the end of the massive space, and it took a second for Sterge to arrive.  Once he did, he saw that everyone else was inside, looking at the large stone tub on one end, with steam coming off of it.

“It’s really warm, but not too hot; it won’t burn you, but it’ll feel good to soak in it,” Evy said, and he could see her eyes grow wide as saucers as she stared at the bath.  Sterge could take it or leave it; he couldn’t remember the last full bath he’d taken.

“What’s this—”

Sterge turned around to see Mordecai reaching above a hole in the ground, where there was a square piece of blue stone on the wall, the first bit of color they’d seen so far.  Just before he touched it, though, he snatched his hand back.

“It’s a trap!  It’s very subtle, but I can sense it.”

Sterge looked at the hole in the ground, looked back at the bath, and then looked at the blue square again.  Then he did it again, a thought tickling the back of his mind about all of it, but Gwenda beat him to the punch.

She walked over without hesitation and slapped her hand across the blue square, jumping back with everyone else as a powerful jet of water appeared out of nowhere above the hole and shot down it, before it disappeared moments later as if nothing had happened.

“It’s a waste disposal system.”

Waste disposal?  What…oh.

William was the first to speak after that revelation.  “That’s incredible, and will help with keeping everyone healthy.  But where does it go?”

Good question, and not one that he wanted to investigate.  As long as it wasn’t dumping into the stone basins full of water out in the main room, the Hall he supposed he should call it, then it didn’t really matter to him.

They explored briefly up the stairs to the next landing, only to discover more of the same: Empty rooms and another bathing space.  Rather than explore every landing, they moved off to the back of the Hall, where another tunnel led deeper into the mountain.  Now that they were a little more confident that the place wasn’t a deathtrap, they moved more quickly – though at the first intersection they hesitated before making a decision.

“Let’s go left first, then right, then we’ll go further down this main tunnel.”  No one argued with Gwenda, as they didn’t have anything better to suggest, and that was when they found their first farm.

At least, that’s what it looked like to Sterge, even if the sizable plots of rich soil were empty of any type of growing food.  He knelt down in the dirt and scooped up a handful, sniffing it and letting it run through his fingers.  “This is spectacular soil; I noticed it the first time we entered the dungeon, and it’s still the best dirt I’ve seen for growing.  But why isn’t there anything already growing?  The dungeon had plenty of plants and trees, didn’t it?”

“I’m assuming that it may not be able to create food-worthy plants; I can’t imagine eating anything I’ve seen so far throughout all of the dungeon rooms,” Evy reasoned.

“Well, if the ambient light in here works as well as the sun, the only thing we’re missing is—”

“—water,” Gwenda said from behind him, and he swirled around to see her stepping on another blue square on the stone walkway.  Sterge braced himself for a blast of water like they’d seen in the bathing room, but was pleasantly surprised when a gentle rain poured out of the ceiling, sinking into the soil and watering it calmly instead of with a torrential downpour.  In moments he was starting to get rather wet, however, and he ran outside of the room to get dry along with the others.

“Rain on command; who’d have thought something like that was possible,” Sterge whispered to himself.  They all watched for a few minutes until the gentle rain stopped abruptly.  Amazingly, while the soil stayed a bit damp, the water along the pathway quickly dried up and disappeared; unfortunately, the same couldn’t be said for the water on all of their clothes.

The next half hour was exploring the other tunnels, only to find 5 more “farms” like the first, but the last room was a surprise.  It wasn’t like anything he’d seen before, but he instinctively knew it was some sort of large storeroom or warehouse, so they could store the food they grew and harvested.  That would be important if they were to house thousands of people inside of the mountain, especially if they were able to fill it with enough food to last them until after the snows melted in the spring.

“Was that everything?  Did we miss anything?” William asked.

Sterge thought about what they had just seen throughout all of the different rooms, trying to remember if there was anything that they had overlooked in their exploration.  With a nod, he said, “I think that was everything.  Why?  Wasn’t this enough?”

“Oh, more than enough – and I’m sure it’s more than we expected.  I was just wondering when we can start moving things in, because there is a lot that still needs to be done to get this place habitable.  Plus, I’m no expert on farming, but I’m sure you need to plant something in order for it to grow.”

“We’ve got plenty of seeds,” Gwenda mentioned.  “The problem had been space for our crops, as well as the time it takes to grow and harvest each crop.  I’m not sure how well they’ll grow in here, but we can only try it out and see what happens.  The construction crews and those we’ve contracted for handling our farms are super busy right now, getting the last of the harvests in, so we’ll need some other hands to get this place in shape before it gets too late in the season.”

Sterge knew exactly who they were going to use.  Looking around at the others, the Hill Dwarf saw that they were thinking the same thing.

“Let’s get moving then,” he said.  “We don’t have a lot of time, and we need to get some seeds in the ground if we’re going to have enough to eat in a month’s time.”

As they made their way out of the magnificent cave, Sterge stopped and turned to the great Hall.  “Thank you,” he whispered, only to be echoed by the rest of his group.

Now the only obstacle I can foresee is convincing thousands of Raiders to volunteer to stay inside of a dungeon’s creation for a month, without being able to leave.  Should be quite easy, right?

Chapter 21

Tacca was pleased at how her project had turned out, and the reception from her two Bonded Hill Dwarves (along with their Raider group) had been overwhelmingly positive.  She briefly thought about adding some additional rooms with some Saltwater and Seaweed, so that they might have another source of food, but she wanted to wait to see if they managed to produce what they needed on their own.  Thinking about it, she had done a lot to help them survive already, and if they couldn’t figure it out by that point, then they had more problems than she alone could solve.

The countdown to winter had begun, as she estimated that it was now less than a month away.  While her dungeon with its two sections continued to operate, she watched as her Bonded organized a massive campaign to make the Hall and its rooms habitable, as well as starting to grow crops in the farms.

Hundreds of Raiders were in and out of her creation, after some more than obvious hesitation by the majority of them, carrying supplies that were either brought down to the storeroom Tacca had created or delivering them to the various living spaces.  Simple cots were placed rather than large beds, which she quickly learned was because they didn’t actually have that many beds; the same went with many other fundamentals that most people used to live, as they had a scarcity of quite a few products.  That didn’t seem to be too much of a bother, though, because most of them knew they would only be forced to live inside of the mountain for a month, and “roughing it” was much easier inside than sleeping on the ground outside of the town like the Dungeon Core had seen through Shale’s eyes.

However, as far as food went, it was how well the farming was going that surprised both Tacca and her two Bonded Hill Dwarves.  The first plot of dirt they planted with seeds grew substantially faster than either of them had supposed, with sprouts shooting up within minutes of being planted and watered.  In 24 hours, the stalks of wheat, corn, and a small variety of other edible foodstuffs had matured and were ready for harvest.  From what she learned from listening in to conversations, this was much faster than anything they could grow outside.

In short, they were pleased – and they would survive.

With the revelation of the fast-growing plots of soil, there was a massive operation set up to plant, harvest, store, and even transport the newly grown crops out of Tacca’s dungeon to help feed the town and those living thereabouts.  After a week, they had grown enough to easily feed the entire nearby population, with at least a little to spare – which didn’t even count the fields of food growing outside of the mountain.

All of that was perfectly fine for Tacca, though, because she was getting plenty in return.  At first it had been a trickle of earned Core Improvement Points, but as such a large quantity of Raiders moved in and out of what was technically her dungeon – despite the only connection being a 3-inch-wide tunnel in an unobtrusive section of the Hall – she began to see major gains.  Where she might earn a little less than 50 Points a day with her regular dungeon sections, she was soon gaining 400 to 500 a day from visitors to her new creation!  Even the non-Raiders provided some points, though Tacca estimated that it was something like a 5-to-1 conversion for them, where 5 non-Raiders equaled 1 low-Level Raider; it was better than nothing, she supposed.

The weeks passed, and it became a little colder every day outside, which she only gathered because of Shale listening in to conversations.  It wasn’t quite winter yet…but it was coming.

While all of that was going on, with the Raiders turning what she had created into something they would be able to inhabit in the coming month, Tacca was hard at work on her newest section.  It would be quite different from anything she’d either constructed already or had ever heard of, but she thought it would be suitable for the situation.

“What exactly is this?  This doesn’t look…right,” Shale asked, after seeing her creation.

Tacca had previously carved out a massive room before everything lately had happened, mostly as an idle thought and something to do, but she finally figured out what she could use it for – all thanks to her Dungeon Assistant’s suggestion, even if he didn’t know it at the time.  The majority of the time and resources she’d had access to over the last few weeks were spent on perfecting her new section, though it was more of a new room than an entire section.

Well, it all stems from what you told me about the town below and how I needed to keep them happy.  Having somewhere to sleep, as well as enough food and water to survive is one thing – but you also mentioned boredom being a problem, didn’t you?

“Yes, I did.  But I figured you might just connect your dungeon sections to this place somehow, so they could continue to delve even in the middle of winter.”

I had thought about that, and even started widening a tunnel toward the Hall, but changed my mind.

“Why?”

Because that would only help a few Raiders at a time.  With the thousands that will be living in here, it’s doubtful that all of them would even be able to go through my sections once in the month that they’ll be trapped here, which won’t really erase the boredom.  While in-fighting and the subsequent deaths might be good for me in terms of gaining Points, it takes away from the whole reason I agreed to help out in the first place.

“Ok, I can see that, but what does that have to do with—”  Shale hovered in the middle of her newest section, looking around at it again with wide eyes.  “Ahh, I see.  You really don’t do these things halfway, do you?”

Of course not.  That’s not who I am.

“How is this going to work?”

Here, let me explain—

But she never got the opportunity to go into detail, because someone popped up into her Core Room.  Someone she didn’t want there, but one look at Head Instructor Lapis’ face caused her to hold her tongue.

“Tacca!  I have news that you will want to hear, and though I know you don’t like me, I thought it would be better if you hear it firsthand.  Where’s Shale?”

Tacca mentally told Shale what was happening, and her Dungeon Assistant Translocated the next moment into her Core Room, as well.

“What’s going on, Head Instructor?”

Lapis was now nervously fluttering around the room, flying back and forth in obvious nervousness.  Throughout all of the years that Tacca had known him, as well as the brief interactions she’d had with him after the invasion and attack, this was the first time he’d ever appeared flustered.

The Head Instructor finally stopped and turned to them both, sighing heavily once before he said anything, still obviously bothered by something.  “Well, as you’ve been informed, after Malachite disappeared – taken or otherwise – the attacks on the northern Dungeon Cores increased in frequency.”

Tacca was well aware.  While she didn’t want any contact with Lapis, Shale had been keeping abreast of the news over the last few months, passing along the information he had gained.  It had been so busy over the last few days, though, that she needed her Assistant nearby to help; as a result, it had been nearly a week since he had checked in.

“Recently, the Raiders finally decided to strike back at these mysterious people, sending a force to stop the destruction from happening as well as to take revenge for their own fallen, which they had been informed of by their own methods.  Today, from all the sources I can gather, will be the confrontation – and I fear it will not bode well for them.  I have about a dozen free Assistants watching the inevitable clash, and I thought it would be prudent for someone who has seen these things and lived to tell the tale to watch.  I’m told you can perceive what Shale is seeing and experiencing, even from a distance?”

Tacca was a bit perturbed that Shale had been sharing information about their Bond to the Head Instructor, but she let that pass as the import of what the stuffy old Fairy was saying finally hit her.  Yes, that’s true.  You say it’s happening right now?

“We believe so, or it will within a few minutes.  Shale, if you’ll come with me?”

Go.  I’ll watch from our Link – if it works, that is.

“I’ll do what I can.  Let’s go, Head Instructor.”

The next moment, both of them disappeared, and Tacca felt the Perception Link enabled moments later.  It took her a moment to fully comprehend where Shale was, but when she did she listened in and watched what was happening.

“…about as close as we can get before whatever effect these murderous people are employing will affect us.  Not being able to Translocate out or keep our Invisibility up is dangerous, and we don’t want to be caught by them,” she heard Lapis explain.

Shale looked around, sensing that there were about a dozen other Fairies nearby, though they were using their Invisibility to hide themselves.  When he turned back to what was going on about 500 feet below them, Tacca was awestruck at what she was witnessing.

Thousands of Raiders were charging towards a line of approximately 50 blue-skinned, 6-armed figures, all holding various weapons like she’d seen before.  Tacca figuratively shivered as she remembered those same weapons slaughtering the Raiders outside of her dungeon with ease, and how the monstrous people had managed to ignore almost everything she had thrown at them in her dungeon, from creatures to traps.  They had shrugged off any type of damage because of a white glow surrounding each of them, some sort of shield that was invisible until it was forced to block that damage.

This time, though, for some reason Tacca could see the hazy white glow of their shields even before they were attacked.  That’s strange.  Shale, why can I see their glow already?

“What are you talking about?  What glow?”

The shield that protects them, Shale.  You know, that’s why they’re glowing?

“I don’t see anything, Tacca.”

It was extremely obvious to Tacca that they were there, and it was like Shale was being deliberately obtuse.  Regardless, she didn’t argue with him, because the leading edge of the Raiders was already within range of the blue-skinned line.  Spells flew through the air from behind those in front of the charge, slamming into the six-armed people in a maelstrom of multicolored death, knocking them back and causing their shields to flare up and then fade a little.  A second wave of casted spells impacted them with even more force, sending one of them flying, its shield collapsing as it was forced to block too much damage.  It didn’t seem to be hurt, though, as it tumbled to a stop 40 feet back from the rest of the group, though it did appear to be startled and disoriented when it quickly got back to its feet.

Yes!  That’s exactly what they need to do!

In her message to the two Hill Dwarves, she had mentioned a way that the invaders could be defeated, with overwhelming attacks that could bring down their defenses, and it seemed as though they had passed on the word to those that could take advantage of that knowledge.

She saw a second and third blue-skinned invader lose their shields as they grunted in pain and fell back a few steps, but they quickly got back into formation moments later.  A few seconds after that, Tacca saw the hazy glow start up again around their bodies, as if the shield was being automatically replaced after it had been used up.

Almost like one of Tacca’s traps that had been triggered; it took a little while for them to “recharge” with Dungeon Force taken from her Core, where it would become active.  This was similar, but instead of taking minutes or hours, these shields were doing it in seconds.  Not only that, but they didn’t wait until they were fully “recharged” to be of use, but would be functional at a limited capacity in a very short amount of time.

What that essentially meant was that when the first ranks of Raiders finally approached them, most of their glowing protection fields had at least partially recovered from the first two waves of spells thrown at them; a third wave was held off as their fellows got too close, where the risk of hurting them as well increased.  That proved to be a costly mistake, though they didn’t know it at the time.

Dozens of different Classes of Melee fighters clashed with the blue-skinned people, using abilities that allowed them to do more damage, to approach their opponents with speed, or bash them with their shields.  Powerful flashes of different-colored light streamed out from the Melee Class’ weapons, as special techniques were used to inflict various effects or for attacking faster than the eye could see.  Some wielded two weapons, slashing and hacking with abandon, dancing around their opponents and looking for an opening.

Hundreds of arrows flew through the air, shot by all sorts of Archers, Scouts, Rangers, Elemental Archers, Snipers, and other high-Level Classes.  Sneaky Assassins, Thieves, Brigands, and other stealthy Classes appeared behind the enemy, stabbing with swords and knives – really anything they could get their hands on.  Additional spells also shot out from the Caster types, in a variety of shapes and colors as individual targets were identified and focused upon, while even the Healer Classes sent out what offensive abilities they had to join in on the action.

Combined together, the attacks took a toll on the glowing shields of the six-armed people, until one after another blinked out and left them vulnerable.  Wounds appeared on them as they were impaled, sliced, hacked, or had arrows or thrown knives embedded in their flesh.  Tacca saw three of the blue-skinned invaders fall to the ground in death, even as the fourth had its leg practically severed from its massive trunk of a body.

The Raiders were winning…which was when everything went wrong.

The weapons of the invaders were deadly, hacking into and through armor and shields like they weren’t even there.  Tacca couldn’t see it too well from Shale’s position so far above, but she thought she saw some sort of glow around the weapons as well, though instead of an off-white color, it was a deep red, almost crimson in appearance.  Wherever the weapons landed, limbs were hacked off, armor was ruined, faces were smashed, and even magical defenses were pierced through as though they weren’t even there.

While they did massive amounts of damage to anything they managed to hit, the six-armed people were still being overwhelmed, despite the carnage they caused.  It appeared as though thousands of strong opponents were exactly what needed to be applied against these invaders, which Tacca was relieved to see.

Unfortunately, the now-less-than 50 blue-skinned figures weren’t alone.  As though they had been hidden by some sort of Invisibility like the Fairies near Shale, 10 purple-skinned invaders appeared behind the line of the others.  Not only were they a bit larger than their blue-skinned companions, but from what she had observed of them in her own dungeon, they were also more intelligent and strategic.  While the blue-skinned ones had died in her previous defensive room, it had been the single purple-colored one that had managed to reach her Core and shatter her into hundreds of pieces even as it died.

The warning of their presence came too late, as the rear crowd of Scout-type Raiders was hit with the full might of the 10-strong purple-colored invaders.  Heads went flying as they failed to avoid being hit, and the crowd was so thick with surprised Assassins and Thieves that a few swings of a massive sword wielded by one of their 6 arms was enough to kill 2 or 3 at a time.  Within 30 seconds, despite another 5 of the blue-skinned invaders falling to the onslaught, the battle had turned into a rout.

Shale – and by extension Tacca – could hear shouts of “Retreat!” echoing through the small valley where all of this was taking place, and individual groups started to peel off and flee, flinging spells and arrows behind them as they ran.  The invaders started to slaughter all of those that were left, either abandoned by their groups or unable to flee for some reason, which helped hundreds of others get away.

Or so she thought.  “Oh, no – look!”

Shale focused in on something behind the battle lines, as another invader appeared – though this one was a bit different from the others.  Instead of blue or purple, this figure was a deep red, nearly the same color as what Tacca had seen on the monstrous peoples’ weapons.  That wasn’t the only difference, as it had eight arms along the sides of its body, which was nearly twice the size of even the large purple-skinned invaders.  The weapons it wielded were proportionally bigger, as well, with one of its swords at least 8 to 9 feet long, along with it being 2 feet wide.

A second after it suddenly appeared, it started running towards the battle line, which was still undergoing a slaughter of those Raiders that had left.  Instead of joining in, it jumped, practically flying nearly 100 feet into the air as it sailed over the remnants of the Raider army, landing at least 300 feet away from the line – and right in the middle of two Raider groups that had been fleeing.  Two quick attacks at the startled groups with all 8 of its weapons was all it took to bring them down, and the red-skinned invader started running after another group further away.

Shale…I think I’ve seen enough.  She hoped that some of the Raiders got away, but it really didn’t matter, did it?  As far as she knew, that army of Raiders had been some of the best that there were, or at least the best of who they could get together in such a short time.  There were hundreds of thousands of Raiders out there, though, but even if they were able to get them all together, it seemed an impossibility that they would be able to defeat these invaders without a lot of luck on their side.

The Perception Link disappeared after that, and she was left looking at her Core Room in concern.  A minute passed before both Shale and Lapis appeared, and for once she couldn’t find the strength to hate the Head Instructor.  She still didn’t like him, but the hatred required some effort to bring forth, and she didn’t have it in her.

“That…wasn’t good.  How could they lose like that?”  Shale was nearly breathless in shock.

“Malachite did say that they had most likely killed the entire Conclave of Sages, who were the most powerful Raiders in the world, without appearing to have too much trouble,” Lapis said matter-of-factly.  He sounded calm, but Tacca could see that his hands were shaking uncontrollably.  “It isn’t unreasonable to think that any others would have more luck, even a massive army of them like the one we just saw get wiped out.”  The Head Instructor was silent for a moment, before quietly adding, “I don’t know what to do….”

What can we do?  It’s not like we can attack them, after all.  It was only a random fluke that I was able to kill the ones that attacked my dungeon; I’m not sure I could pull that off again, especially if they came in numbers like that.  The one consolation she could see was that the red-colored monster person was too large to even fit through her tunnels, so she didn’t have to worry about it.  Granted, it wasn’t much comfort considering how dangerous the others were.

No one had an answer, and the silence inside of her Core Room quickly became oppressive.  Without saying another word, only giving out a long sigh, the Head Instructor used his Translocation ability to disappear with a *pop*.

That just left Shale and Tacca’s Core alone, and the depressive thoughts that seemed to submerge both of them in a tidal wave of disappointment.

Chapter 22

Congratulations, Tacca GloomLily!

You have reached Assistant Rank: Expert

You have reached Assistant Stage: 4

Current Experience Countdown: 7808/13900 in 5 years

Maximum Fairy Mana: +1200

Fairy Mana Regeneration: +40 per minute

Unimaginable pain abruptly ripped through her Core, so powerful that Tacca thought she was about to shatter.  The agony felt as if it lasted forever, but in reality it probably only lasted a few moments; regardless, it was the suddenness of it that took her by surprise and left her unprepared for the shock of torturous pain.

“…Tacca!  A…...ay?  …ppened?”

The world slowly came back into focus and her thoughts were sluggish, and she could barely make out a voice she recognized shouting something.  After another few minutes, she was able to fully concentrate on her Core Room, as well as her frantic Dungeon Assistant fluttering around her Core.

“Tacca?  Are you there?  What’s going on?”

I…I’m here.  I’m not sure—wait.  Give me a moment.

She concentrated on the notification she had received, which had been pushed to the corner of her mind after the horrific torment she had just endured.

I…increased my Assistant Rank?

With all of the things going on lately, what with creating a place for the Raiders to live, to working on her new section, to the disturbing battle she had witnessed between the invaders and Raiders, she had completely forgotten that her year to another increase in Dungeon Assistant Ranking was coming up.  At the back of her mind, she knew about it, but it had also been a bit overshadowed with other concerns.

She pulled up her Dungeon Assistant Information in order to see what had changed, while at the same time being glad that the pain had passed.  For now, she only felt a little uncomfortable, like she was wearing a Mood Dress that was too small for her.

Dungeon Assistant Information

Assistant Name:

Tacca GloomLily

Assistant Rank:

Expert

Assistant Stage:

4/5

Experience:

7808/13900

Experience Pending/Countdown:

0 in 5 years

Fairy Mana (FM):

435/1550

Fairy Mana Regeneration:

55 per minute

Abilities:

Bond

Instant – Multiple

50+ FM

Omen Charge

Instant – Distance

10+ FM

Translocation

Instant

1000 FM

Blinding Flash

Instant

150 FM

Shattering Icicle

Instant

600 FM

Shared Risk

Automatic

0 FM

Leadership

Sustainable

75 FM per minute

Light Cage

Sustainable

300 FM per minute

Flame Wall

Sustainable

500 FM per minute

Mass Confusion

Sustainable

700 FM per minute

Assistant Information Meld

Sustainable

1 FM per minute

Electrified Pacification

Sustainable

250 FM per minute

Healing Aura

Sustainable

20 FM per minute

Hibernate

Sustainable

1 FM per minute

Invisibility

Sustainable

3 FM per minute

Repellant Shield

Sustainable

2 FM per minute

Locked (11)

Variable

Variable

What the…?  Two of the great benefits of increasing her Rank to Expert Stage 4 was the additional Fairy Mana she had access to (1,350 FM), as well as its regeneration rate (55 FM per minute).  It was unfortunate that she hadn’t been able to reach Expert Stage 5, the same as Shale, but she knew that her 95% reduction in Core Improvement gains at the start of her existence as a Core had reduced the amount of Experience she had received as an Assistant, but Shale hadn’t suffered from that.  Now that things were more even, she would progress just as quickly in the future.

Regardless, Stage 4 still meant she could finally use her Translocation ability – which she absolutely didn’t want to try unless she had no other choice, after hearing what happened to those Cores that Malachite had moved around; in addition, she also had access to 8 new abilities!

Some of them were self-explanatory, such as the Flame Wall being able to create a wall of flames that would surround her core, the Blinding Flash which would create an extremely bright light that would blind anyone looking at it, the Light Cage which formed a large cage of pure bars of light that could trap just about any person within it for as long as her FM held out (though, she doubted it would work against those monstrous invaders), or the Shattering Icicle, which created and then exploded a chunk of ice that would be propelled out from a chosen location like little icicles.

What wasn’t so self-explanatory, however, were the other 4 abilities she had gained.  When she concentrated on Mass Confusion, she found that it was something that would affect her entire dungeon, causing—what else?—everything inside to suffer from debilitating confusion – even her own creatures.

Leadership was a sustainable ability that increased the Creature Level of any creatures within two rooms of her current location by 2 full Levels.  That could be quite useful if she needed to strengthen her Werewolf Warrior or the Forest Wolves inside her Boss Room, for instance.

But the last two were completely blank when she concentrated on them: Omen Charge and Shared Risk.  Omen Charge was an instant-use ability with the potential for multiple targets based on distance, starting at 10 FM; Shared Risk, on the other hand, was a type of ability she’d never heard of before – Automatic.  It cost her nothing to use, fortunately, but it appeared that it was always activated.  Unfortunately, she had no idea what it actually did.

Well, Shale, it appears as though I’m a bit stronger now as a “Fairy”, but I don’t know exactly how.

Tacca explained the different abilities she had gained, also noticing that her “Locked” abilities had been reduced from 17 to 11.  If she was looking at things right, then it was most likely that 6 of the abilities she had received had been from the ones that Malachite had originally possessed and she obtained through her Bond with him, while 2 of them were entirely hers.  She didn’t have to think long on which 2 abilities those would be, seeing as she couldn’t fathom what 2 of them did.

“Maybe the Shared Risk ability means you share the risk of existing with…me?” Shale ventured after hearing about the strange ability.  After a few seconds he shook his head.  “No, that doesn’t make sense, especially considering that I’m already at risk if you were to get hurt.”

Yeah, I’m not exactly sure, either.  Regardless, I have to admit that the pain of going through that Rank up was worth it.

“What?  Why?  Because you have more Fairy Mana now?”

No, because it kicked me out of the funk I was in after witnessing…what we did.

Shale just stared at her Core for a moment, before smiling half-heartedly.  “I have to admit that my concern for you did sort of push everything else to the side.  I’m not quite over it yet, but I can think of other things now, I guess.”

True, there’s no forgetting what’s out there, but that doesn’t mean we have to give up just yet.  A solution to the problem could present itself at any time.  Tacca was ready to get moving again, and she remembered with some excitement the new section she was going to show her Dungeon Assistant.  Sadly, its importance paled in comparison to the danger looming towards the north, but there really wasn’t anything she could do about that.  What she could do, though, was try to build the best darn dungeon anyone had ever seen.

A lofty goal, yes, but one she wished to strive for.

In fact, would you be able to invite the other Assistants in the Nursery?  I’d really like to show them this, as well as the Hall and farms.  It’s a bit busy in there at the moment, as they are already starting to move in, but it might help them change their minds.  Or at least change their Cores’ minds.

“Sure, we’ll meet you in the Hall, and then we can check out your new…project.”  He smiled again as he disappeared, the shock and horror of earlier in the day starting to fade.  Five minutes later, all of the Fairies were near the ceiling of the Hall, looking down on the hustle and bustle going on down below them.

They’re finishing up the preparations now, and from what I’ve overheard they expect everyone to be in here tomorrow.  Shortly after that, the first of the snows and freezing cold should be coming, which will keep them all trapped inside of here for a little over a month – at least until the ice melts.

“I’ll say it again, this is crazy,” Tulip said, but Tacca could see that she was intrigued by everything she saw.  The others were in similar states, and she just hoped that meant that they would go back and convince at least one of their Cores to attempt connecting to the Hall.  As sad as it seemed, after witnessing the deaths of so many Raiders in their attempt to stop the invading people, risking herself in such an endeavor wasn’t nearly as scary of a risk as it used to be.

The Dungeon Assistants looked around for a time while invisible, amazed that there were so many people inside of a dungeon, even if it didn’t look like any dungeon they’d ever seen before.  When they were done, she invited them to see the project she had planned for when the snows came, a way to entertain the masses, so to speak.

“You built…what…an arena?”

Precisely.  It isn’t just enough to allow a dozen or two groups of Raiders to venture through my other dungeon sections every day, because there are too many that are going to be living here for that to be satisfactory.  Instead, I think I found a way to occupy more than just a few at a time – but instead thousands.

The giant room, basically a 500-foot-wide circular room with 4 giant columns of stone supporting the ceiling, had been built out along the edges with tiered stands made from multi-colored stone.  There were four main sections, which corresponded with north, south, east, and west, and each section was colored with a different stone; red sandstone for the north, blue banded gneiss for the south, green epidote for the east, and yellow carnotite for the west.  This gave a very vibrant feel to the room, which was further decorated with painstakingly formed smoky quartz sheathings around the stone columns.  A light-blue gemstone called larimar was used to decorate the ceiling, creating a cloudy sky-like texture that Tacca hoped made the room she created feel like it was outside.

As for the giant columns holding up that light-blue ceiling, they were positioned at the four corners of the arena floor, located at the northeast, northwest, southeast, and southwest corners, meaning that the multi-colored stands were basically separated from each other.  A lot of floor space was needed, as well, so there was a 40,000 square foot area where all of the action was going to take place.  As for what that action was going to involve, that was a little more complicated.

“Where are your creatures going to come from?  I don’t see how this will work if there are thousands of people in here,” Tulip asked.  She seemed to be the spokesFairy for the group, which was fine with Tacca.

Ah, well that ended up being the most difficult part, but I borrowed an idea I had from my Boss Room.  Remember the Werewolves?

“Yes, I do, but—oh.  I see.  Very clever.”

While the stands were located on the edges of the room, they were also elevated 50 feet off of the thinly soil-covered arena floor.  Simple stone stairs were all that were needed for those watching to reach their seats, which were located behind the large stone columns.  The elevations allowed for Tacca to create tunnels that led underneath the stands and out of the room at an angle, where she placed 4 much smaller rooms in each direction, totaling 16 in all.

These rooms were unique in the fact that they were sharply angled and closed off from the tunnel by a Rotating Stone Bridge trap.  The way it worked with the two types of Werewolf Warriors was that Tacca would activate one of the traps when a particular difficulty was needed, and the creature would slide down a short tunnel when the trap rotated, spitting it out into the room.  She used the same principle here, though the slide was much longer, the angled rooms a bit bigger, and the tunnels much taller and wider.  She even designed one of the rooms and its connecting tunnel so that it was larger than all of the rest, just in case she was able to place a creature in it that required a lot of space.

Theoretically, at any given time, she would have the rooms filled with creatures of different types and difficulties, and when she wanted to release some into the arena, she would just activate the trap, it (or they) would slide down and be ejected into the fight.  As soon as they were slain, another batch of them would start to replenish itself automatically.  Easy, simple, and hopefully straightforward to maintain.

Of course, what it essentially meant to run the arena was a complete shutdown of her other dungeon sections, but she was hoping that her idea would banish the need for them.  At least, temporarily.

I also have thoughts of doing some sort of trap-based obstacle course, setting it up when fights have ended for the day, just to keep it interesting.  Anyone have any ideas?

That got the other Assistants really excited, as they started to offer suggestions, their voices trying to be heard over each other, before they trailed off after a few minutes and looked at each other.

“We have to get our Cores involved in this somehow.  You all do your best to convince them, and I’ll do the same,” Tulip said to the group.  Turning to Shale and addressing Tacca at the same time, she continued.  “Thank you for showing us all of this.  There is a lot to consider, and I hope we can convince one of our Cores to attempt connecting with this marvelous series of rooms you’ve constructed.  Hopefully, you’ll hear from us soon.”  With that, they took their leave, Translocating back to the Nursery and their respective Cores.

What do you think?  Was it a success?  And what do you think of my arena?

“I have to admit, you really thought this through.  I suppose you’re going to give rewards after the fights?”

Of course.

He nodded.  “As for whether or not you did enough to convince the other Cores, we’ll just have to see.  I really don’t think you could’ve done any more than that, to tell the truth.”

That was true, she had done everything she could.  It was just about lockdown time, though, because in approximately 24 hours the cold would descend upon the area and make travel outside extremely difficult, if not deadly.  Shortly after that, the snows would start, sealing everyone in.

While she waited for a decision, it was time to connect everything up, or at least as far as she wanted to before everything was put into motion.  Connecting the 3rd section to the start of her defensive room was easy enough, but the tunnel from her arena to the Hall was going to take a little longer.  She made it quite large and spacious, mainly because it was going to be over a mile long in length, which took a lot more time than just about anything else she had constructed.  By the time she was done, the last of the Raider groups delving through her dungeon left, and she essentially shut them down for the season.

Shortly after that, the final few people staying inside of the Hall and its environs entered, and she was glad to see that Sterge, Gwenda, and their group were among their numbers.

Chapter 23

“Wow!”

Sterge couldn’t agree with Gwenda more.  “I know, this sure is a lot of people, isn’t it?”

“For some reason, this many people didn’t seem as bad when they were camping out on the fields near The Village.”

Sterge led the others toward their room, which was thankfully on the bottom floor – though it was also nearest the bathing room.  Fortunately, some enterprising young Raider had developed and taught others how to make a handy folding screen made from thick woven grass and a minimum of wood for support to use as a privacy barrier to the room.  Not only did it block out people from seeing into their room, but it also helped to block out a good deal of noise; otherwise, they might have to listen to everyone who was using the bathing room to “eliminate their waste” while they were trying to sleep.  The process of which had been improved by some more of those folding screens, so that anyone using the hole in the ground would have some privacy.

“Are you sure you wanted to stay in here?  The Village is, like, yours; I would think you would’ve rather have stayed there,” William asked as they walked.

The truth was, he would’ve preferred that, especially after they managed to find shelter for everyone not inside the mountain there, and everyone had plenty of food to last until far past the thaw and spring rolled around – thanks to the plots of soil that had proven to be extremely potent.  Not only did anything they planted in the “magic dirt” (as many people liked to call it) grow and be ready for harvest in 24 hours – which was amazing by itself – but the soil never seemed to lose any of its potency.  Every once in a while in the fields nearest the village, they had to leave some fallow, leaving the remnants of previous harvests to decay into the ground and make it usable again.  This dirt, however, seemed to always be ready to go, with no loss of performance, no matter how many crops were planted.

It was a farmer’s dream come true.

Working around the clock, they were able to plant, periodically water (which required a lot of water for each harvest cycle), and then harvest all of the crops in a rotation, so that there were always some growing or needing to be harvested.  That had led to an almost endless line of wagons being brought into the cave system, which was brought back to The Village for the residents and Raiders staying there.  In fact, transporting so many vehicles and the nearly constant foot traffic had ended up creating first a pathway, and then a road of sorts in between the grand Hall and The Village.

Therefore, not only did both areas have more than enough food to get through the winter, but they actually had to ship some few wagons north because they realized that it would spoil before they managed to consume it.  As a result, things were going to be fine in all of the buildings, their home, which was why Sterge would’ve liked to spend the month there.  It was familiar, after all, and he liked it there.

But, unfortunately, responsibility crept up and nipped that thought in the bud.

“You know why we have to be here, William,” Gwenda said, pointing to herself and Sterge.  “But if you don’t want to stay here, there’s still room—”

“And miss out on staying inside of a dungeon for a month?  Now that’s just crazy,” Evy said with a straight face, but Sterge could hear the humor in her voice.

“Yeah, I wouldn’t miss it for 50 gold coins…100, maybe, but certainly not 50,” Mordecai joked.

Sterge had to admit that they were glad their group had decided to join them, because otherwise it would’ve been extremely boring without them.  Not only were they fun to be around, but they were also generally good people, and they had worked hard over the last month to help get their temporary home inside the mountain into shape.  The same could be said of many of the other Raiders, though for the most part they had worked because they had no choice if they wanted somewhere warm to stay when the very air seemed to freeze come winter.  Evy, Mordecai, and William, though, wanted to help, regardless of the benefit that might come from it.

As for why Sterge and Gwenda had to be there, staying in the mountain over the winter, it was more a matter of they couldn’t not stay there.  It was them that had a connection with the dungeon, and Gwenda (logically so) wasn’t sure what would happen with all of these people trapped inside without someone being able to communicate with the dungeon.  If something went wrong and they weren’t there to decipher what the dungeon’s presence wanted from them, then it could be a disaster for everyone involved.

Naturally, they weren’t going to let something like that happen if they could be there to prevent it.

As they were walking toward their room, to make sure everything was still prepared for them, something caught his attention at the end of the Hall.  A small crowd had gathered near the back wall, though it wasn’t near the tunnel leading to the plots of soil there; instead, they were looking at something that he couldn’t see from his current location.

“We better check that out.”

A quick jog down the long Hall brought them to the crowd, which had slightly grown in number.  When Sterge finally got to the front, Gwenda on his heels, he immediately saw what the commotion had been: there were a pair of small, Hill Dwarf-sized holes in the wall.  Not just the general dimensions of a Hill Dwarf, but the exact dimensions of both Sterge and Gwenda.  It literally appeared as if someone had taken the two Hill Dwarves and then smashed them through the wall.

He looked at Gwenda and nodded toward the holes, instinctively knowing what they needed to do.  Of course, having an audience wasn’t ideal, but they couldn’t really hide it now.  Fortunately, having the special designation as the ones who had found the dungeon in the first place, there were rumors abound concerning a special connection with it; normally that would be a little concerning, but ever since the “miracle in the mountains”, it helped to at least partially explain how it appeared, and why Sterge and Gwenda were there staying with them.  It wasn’t quite celebrity status, yet – which he would prefer to avoid – but this certainly wouldn’t help with his preferred anonymity.

Loudly, he stated to the crowd, “I think we need to check this out.  We’ll be right back.”

Without hesitation, he pulled Gwenda along and stepped up to the hole in the wall.  Slowly, he shuffled forward, as the outline of his body wouldn’t allow for him to pick up his feet to walk, as he squeezed through the cut-out without more than a hair’s breadth to spare.  It is uncanny how accurate this is.  Luckily, the thickness of the wall wasn’t more than a few inches, so it didn’t take long to get through.  Gwenda popped out just after him, and Sterge looked up to see a gigantic tunnel with an arched ceiling leading off in the distance, curving at some point so he couldn’t see the end.

On the wall nearest him, Sterge noticed something different from the uniform appearance of the impressive passageway.  There was another plaque similar to the one they had first seen warning them about the blue-skinned, six-armed people that had attacked the dungeon.  This one, though, wasn’t so much a warning as it was welcoming.

“Is this for real?” he couldn’t help but say out loud after he finished reading.  The message that was conveyed to them was about some sort of room at the end of the tunnel designed for entertainment, though he was a little confused about what that entertainment was supposed to be.  All the plaque said concerning the entertainment was that an appropriate opponent would be selected that would be the least challenging at first, but that a simple request could be put forth for something more difficult.  In addition, there was no limit to the number of contestants, whatever that meant, but that the reward would be much less the more contestants there were.

He scratched his head, now thoroughly confused.  At the end of the message, there was a note about how every 24 hours the room would shut down for 12 hours, so that different challenges could be arranged.  Also, that there may be a possibility of Raider-like opponents as a challenge, and not to be alarmed.

Despite the warning, he was alarmed.

“I think…I understand what this is, but I could be wrong.”  Gwenda’s response was soft, as if she was afraid her voice would carry too far.  “We’ll have to explore later, though, as this says that it will open up in approximately 12 hours.  That should give us a good night of sleep; I don’t know about you, but all of this preparation over the last month has exhausted me.  Let’s go.”

He wasn’t going to argue, because the exhaustion was deep in his bones.  They had been going since dawn that morning, finishing up the little details needed to ensure everything was taken care of before they were locked down in the mountain, and Sterge was ready for some sleep.  He followed Gwenda back to the wall and shuffled out of his cut-out to the waiting crowd outside.  Looking back, he noticed that while the hole was technically still there, it was now covered up on the opposite side by stone.

“What is it?”

“What’s in there?”

“What did you find?”

“Did the dungeon speak to you?”

“Tell us!”

Sterge held his hands up for silence, which came slowly, but he waited until it was down to a murmur.  Gwenda took over, thankfully, because Sterge really wasn’t a fan of public speaking.

“There is something that could be beneficial for us, but we’ll have to wait to find out until tomorrow; apparently, in 12 hours it will open up and we can find out more,” she started, which was met with disappointed growls and demands for more information.  “We have a few details, but it really won’t make sense until we actually see it in person.  So, for now, let’s all get a good night’s sleep and we’ll pick this up again tomorrow.”

Ignoring the calls for her to explain what those details were, Gwenda walked away and Sterge was quick to follow.  Luckily, no one impeded their progress, and they were met on their way to their room by the rest of their group.  No one said anything until they were inside and their privacy screen unfolded, but Sterge could see the questions in their eyes.

Sitting down on their cots, Gwenda softly regaled them with what little information they had, keeping her voice from carrying beyond the boundaries of their room.  It wasn’t that they were worried about the information getting out, but more about people having unreasonable expectations that they could neither confirm nor deny without seeing it themselves.

“That would be incredible if that’s indeed what it is,” Evy said, a glint in her eyes.  “If we’re to be stuck in here, having some sort of entertainment and a way to gain Power at the same time could be just the thing we need.”

Sterge hadn’t even thought of that.  He had been more focused on what the “entertainment” was than anything else, but it made sense.  Instead of them delving through a dungeon in order to find monsters to slay, the monsters would come to them.  Or at least, come to those participating in the battles.  If that was indeed what it was.

There were still too many unknowns.

Not for long, though, because Sterge fell asleep not too much later.  When he woke up, the rest of his group was waiting for him, and appearing to be as hungry as he was.  Fortunately, during their preparations over the last month, they had converted one of the rooms nearby into a “kitchen” of sorts where they could get some food.

There was a line out the door when they arrived, but they didn’t take advantage of their status to cut in line.  Instead, they spent the next half-hour waiting their turn, and when they were finally able to get inside Sterge saw that the kitchen was working better than he had thought it would.

Three Elementalists, Level 15, 16, and 19 Casters who chose the Class when they hit Level 10, were the main power behind the whole operation.  They were able to use their abilities to heat things up, including the multitude of ovens and stoves throughout the room, which was realistically the only way they could cook or bake anything.  Using wood to fuel a cookfire was both impractical because they didn’t have nearly enough wood for more than a few days of keeping them going, and because the smoke inside of an enclosed space would likely kill people before long.  It was quite possible that the dungeon presence would clean the air automatically like it did through its other dungeons, but they couldn’t guarantee that.

Therefore, magically created heat was the best alternative.  The Elementalists as well as the rest of the staff, who were non-Raiders that had journeyed south to escape the problems up north, were being paid by Sterge and Gwenda for their work, though admittedly it was a small amount.  However, it was one of the few jobs they had inside of the mountain, and it wasn’t like they had to worry about expenses right now in any other form.

When they had gotten their food and brought it out to the main Hall to eat on the floor – the 20-odd tables that they had managed to bring with them being full of people already – Sterge estimated that it had been just about 12 hours already.  He wasn’t sure how he knew, because inside of the stone cave there was no way to safely tell time, and looking outside was a bit dangerous unless he was fully bundled up; the snow was likely already piling up out there.  Regardless, it just felt like enough time had passed, as if some internal clock of his was keeping track of time even if he couldn’t visually mark time’s passing.

Sure enough, as soon as they started walking towards where his and Gwenda’s cut-outs were still relatively visible in the wall, large chunks of the stone blocking them from the massive tunnel began to be removed, prompting those nearby to scurry away in a mixture of caution and fear.  While they knew that they were technically inside of a dungeon, it was quite a difference actually seeing physical evidence of that knowledge.

By the time Sterge and his group arrived, all of the stone blocking the passageway was gone, leaving it fully open for anyone to enter.  He looked inside for some evidence of the plaque that had given them some information, but there was no sign of it ever being there.

Gwenda turned to the awaiting crowd, which was getting larger by the moment as Raiders saw the sudden opening of a brand-new tunnel and gathered their gear.  Thankfully, there was but a hushed murmur throughout the audience as Gwenda began to speak.

“We don’t necessarily know what we will find, but we believe it is something that will be beneficial to us!” she shouted, to be heard over the entire crowd, a few hundred strong by that point and growing.  “That doesn’t mean it isn’t dangerous, so we need to keep our eyes open and be prepared for anything.  From what little we do know, this tunnel will lead to the west, where the dungeon is located – so keep that in mind.”  Without further word, she led the march into the tunnel, followed by a veritable army of Raiders armed to the teeth and ready for any type of threat that might occur.

The walk was long, probably because they had a few Scout Classes out front checking for traps, but overall it wasn’t a horrible walk.  The temperature inside of the tunnel, like everywhere else in the cave, was steady – not too cold nor too hot – so to Sterge the walk felt more leisurely than anything.  Finally, after about an hour of the tunnel curving and winding just enough that they couldn’t see too far ahead, they came to what appeared to be their destination.

Walking into the room, Sterge immediately felt smaller than normal, as if he had been shrunk down to insect size.  Not through any magical means, naturally, but by the sheer size of the gigantic space they entered.  The ceilings were hundreds of feet above their heads, taller than even the Hall where they were currently staying, and from what he could see the walls were hundreds of feet apart, nearly the length of the Hall or perhaps longer.  It was a little hard to see, honestly, because there were large, angled stone walls blocking his view to the left (which was colored blue) and right (which was colored green), as well as an impressively huge column wrapped in what appeared to be cloudy glass blocking his sight of anything ahead.  What was even more impressive was the ceiling, which had a light-blue color to it with streaks of white scattered throughout; it nearly looked like they were outside, with the room open to the sky.

Stairs were cut into the left and right walls, however, as well as there being a small pathway that led around the stone column.  While Sterge and his group cautiously worked their way up the stairway leading up one of the walls, he looked back to see other Raider groups doing the same behind him and on the other wall.  One of the stronger groups he recognized, led by Anton – an interesting Level 20 Melee Raider that had chosen to be a Bulwark Class, protected from head to toe in steel armor – decided to see what was around the column.

As soon as Sterge got to the top of the stairs, he joined the rest of his group in looking out into the room, seeing that there were two other sections of the room with colored stone in addition to the green one he was standing on and the blue one near the entrance, in red and yellow.  In the center of the room, below the colored stone sections that had what appeared to be tiered stairs cut into them, was a dirt floor that encompassed at least 200 feet on each side of a huge square.  Now that he could see further, he could see that there were multiple tunnels underneath each of the multi-colored sections, though their purpose was still a mystery.

Anton and his group were the only ones that had ventured around the column, and Sterge watched the 5 of them cautiously walk out into the center of the cleared dirt space.  As soon as they passed through the center, the Hill Dwarf was startled when he suddenly felt a sudden thump underneath the large stone section he was standing on, accompanied by the sound of stone striking stone.

He wasn’t the only one that heard it, as Anton and the others with him turned towards the green section and brought their weapons to bear, looking at a spot underneath where Sterge and his group were standing.  From below, 10 shapes shot out onto the dirt, heading straight for those waiting for them, and the Hill Dwarf immediately recognized them as foxes, very similar to the ones he’d first seen when entering the dungeon for the first time.

This is some sort of trap!  An ambush!

Anton thought so as well, stepping out in front of the others as they prepared to defend themselves.  An arrow shot by one of his group found its target and instantly killed one of the foxes, followed quickly by another, and another, killing 3 of the monsters before they could even reach the group.  A spell from their Caster took out two more, meaning that more than half of them were dead before they had even gotten within 50 feet of their target.

A fourth arrow just barely missed a fox, but a second spell – which appeared to be a jet of flame that shot across the distance – burned up the sixth fox in mid-stride.  The remaining four engaged Anton as he shouted, banging on his shield, and they jumped toward him with intent to harm in their strike.  Another of Anton’s party intercepted one of the foxes in its airborne trajectory, slicing it in half with an axe, while the three remaining bounced off Anton’s shield and armor without inflicting any kind of damage.  In fact, one of them appeared to have hurt itself as it impacted the shield, as it landed awkwardly, its neck broken.

A few seconds and some simple slices by Anton and the group member wielding the axe was all it took to finish them off.  The corpses of the foxes all disappeared within moments, leaving behind some copper coins that even Sterge could see from up where he was.

Realization finally occurred to him as everyone stood in hushed silence at what they had just witnessed.  “This…this is an arena, isn’t it?” he said unconsciously loud, awe in his voice.

“That’s what I was thinking, but I couldn’t be sure until I saw it,” Gwenda replied just as loudly, so that other people could hear.  “And these different-colored sections are the stands where everyone can watch.  This is for our entertainment.”

Suddenly, the message the dungeon had written made sense.  Shouting to be heard on the arena floor, he said, “Ask for something a little harder!”  Sterge was positive that the foxes that had come out had been the “least challenging”, and that they could request something more difficult.

There was a slight hesitation from Anton, before he yelled, “Give us something a little harder!”

There was another sound of stone striking stone, and from beneath the yellow stands Sterge could see a few Gnolls and what appeared to be hyenas emerging from a slide, rushing towards the group in the middle.  The Gnolls had on basic leather armor and were wielding swords, and the hyenas were laughing as they ran, but overall they didn’t appear to be too strong for Anton and his group.

An arena, indeed.

Chapter 24

The arena idea Tacca had designed had been taken with extreme caution by the Raiders at first, but that soon changed to excitement.  As they began to explore what it was all about in the first few hours, with different groups cautiously trying it out with some of her weaker or lower-Level creatures, the Dungeon Core reviewed everything to make sure it would all run smoothly, as it would require her attention more than anything else in her dungeon had, if only so that she could respond to their requests of less or more challenge.

The message she had left for her two Bonded Hill Dwarves had been a bit obtuse, because she didn’t want to spoil the surprise.  Nevertheless, they seemed to understand it well enough, or at least well enough that they weren’t entirely shocked about what they had walked into at the end of the tunnel.

The night before, as soon as everything was settled in the Hall and the town outside, the snow had rushed in to fall in earnest.  It wasn’t particularly thick at first, but she knew that within a few days it would be so deep that no one could move, or at least move easily.  She wasn’t sure if it would be deep enough where the Hall was located to cover the entrance entirely, especially as it was at the bottom of the mountain range instead of where her own dungeon entrance was situated.  It didn’t really matter, though, because even if it were only a few feet, the cold itself could kill those unprepared for it, or if they stayed out in it for more than a few minutes.

Therefore, once she was sure everything was going well, for the first time ever, Tacca closed her dungeon down.  Sealing up both her original and her secondary entrance with stone, she was relieved to have them inaccessible until she opened them up again.  The one and only reason she did that at all was because she didn’t want to have to worry about them while her concentration was somewhere else.  Stripping them of their defenses would make them practically useless, after all.

Every creature that had been set up in both sections was absorbed, as well as every trap.  She was already feeling like she was getting to the limit of how many traps she could place, with what was inside the two sections, her defensive room, and those that she had placed in the Hall.  If she wanted to utilize any inside of the arena, for potential obstacle courses or some of the other ideas that the other Dungeon Assistants had proposed, she’d have some major trouble accomplishing that.  Knowing that they would be easy enough to replace later, once she opened back up to the world, it didn’t really bother her to undo all of her hard work.

All of that was due to needing her full Control Limit back, as she ended up spending most of it to fill the 16 rooms surrounding the arena. For 10 of the rooms, the creatures inside were familiar to the Raiders; the major differences in them were the quantity they would be up against, as well as elevated creature Levels.

- 10 Root Foxes (Level: 1)

- 7 Frond Coyotes (Level: 1) / 7 Branch Jackals (Level: 1)

- 8 Forest Wolves (Level: 2)

- 5 Savannah Lions (Level: 3) / 5 Mountain Cougars (Level: 3)

- 6 Forest Wolves (Level: 4) / 10 Echoing Hyenas (Level: 4)

- 5 Gnoll Warriors (Level: 5) / 8 Echoing Hyenas (Level: 5)

- 6 Kitsune Archers (Level: 6) / 10 Root Foxes (Level: 6)

- 5 Crag Harpies (Level: 7) / 10 Cliff Lynxes (Level: 7)

- 4 Kitsune Archer (Level: 8) / 4 Gnoll Assassins (Level: 8) / 4 Echoing Hyenas (Level: 8) / 4 Root Foxes (Level: 8)

- 2 Werewolf Warriors (Level: 10) / 20 Forest Wolves (Level: 1)

Essentially, they were all creatures that the Raiders had fought against before, though the challengers would have the advantage in this situation.  There were no environmental objects for her creations to hide within, nor were there any traps that could be triggered; not only that, but the Raiders had the opportunity to attack from a distance, before the creatures could get close to them.  That was one of the two reasons she had upped the number of them to levels they wouldn’t necessarily have to face through her normal dungeon sections; the other was because having more would offer them a better challenge.

Then there was the fact that she wasn’t limited to opening one room full of creatures at a time.  While 10 Root Foxes that were Level 1 or 8 Forest Wolves that were Level 2 might seem easy, if she was to release them both at the same time, that just upped the difficulty a few notches.  Opening up a third or fourth – or, technically, all of them – was always an option if they needed even more of a challenge, which was why she hadn’t put a limit on how many Raiders could participate.

For her 6 other creature rooms, she added something a little different.  Since there were some higher-Level Raiders that wouldn’t receive much – if any – of the “Power” they gained from killing her creatures that were much lower Levels than they were, she had filled her 5 of her other rooms with some powerful opponents – most of whom the Raiders hadn’t seen before.  The Gnoll Archmage made an appearance, though only Level 16 this time, accompanied by a handful of lower-Level Hyenas.

After that, she dug into her Semi-human family, using a pair of Minotaur Champions at Level 15.  They were nearly 10 feet tall and half that wide, looking like brownish bulls that walked on hooved feet, and wielding 7-foot-long battleaxes in their “human-like” hands.  Their horns stuck up so far that they nearly scratched the ceiling of their waiting rooms, while their furry loincloths provided the barest of protection to their bodies.  Despite the lack of defense, they were extremely powerful and could somewhat resist most types of elemental magic used against them.

A trio of Level 14 Ursinos were next, with each of them a different Variant.  One of the 8-foot-tall, black-furred, bear-like creatures was a Brawler, which meant that it primarily used its fists to attack – or more accurately, its deadly claws; it had light leather armor that protected its chest, but that was about it for protection, as it needed to move quickly and aggressively.  Another was a Guardian Variant, which was protected by an iron armor breastplate and helmet, and wielded a giant mace and a shield half of its size; despite the protection, it was rather slow and was meant for barreling through defenses and protecting its allies.

Lastly was an Ursino Shaman as part of the trio.  Unlike the Archmage, which was a veritable powerhouse of deadly magical abilities, the Shaman used handheld totems to create elemental effects.  Some of them were defensive effects, like giving the other Ursinos extra protection against magical spells, or they could be used offensively, usually through area-of-effect spells like walls of flames, icicle rain, or whirlwinds of air.  None of them were as powerful as an Archmage, however, which meant that it couldn’t really hold its own against a group of Raiders – hence, being part of a trio.

Next up was an unusual choice, but one that Tacca thought might be interesting.  The Ratunda were rather small compared to a Werewolf, Minotaur, or a Ursino, which also meant that they required much less Dungeon Force or Control Limit to create.  While the others depended on brute force for the majority of their attacks, the Ratunda – which were upright-walking rats, basically – were more adept at sneaky attacks and overwhelming with numbers.  Therefore, she created 12 of them at Level 15, which cost essentially the same as the trio of Ursinos, all of a single Variant: Sewer Strider.

The Variant essentially made them extremely fast along with possessing claws that could spread poison through anything they scratched, though they were rather weak in the defensive department.  Their swift and relatively intelligent reactions to attacks meant that they were better suited to avoiding long-range attacks, and could go toe-to-toe with some of the Scout-based Raider Classes.

With two more rooms, one being the unique-sized waiting area for something potentially extra-large, she went with something quite different for the normal-sized one.  It was an experiment, which she played around with first before she actually added it, and she was of mixed minds about it.

So was Shale.

“I’m not so sure about this.  I really don’t think I like the thought of them killing…you know…one of us.”

It isn’t one of us, Shale.  It’s a creature in my dungeon that just happens to look like you or like my previous form; it’s not really alive – you know that.

“But, it’s…I don’t know…wrong!”

Well, how do you think they’ll react to fighting against my creatures that look like their Raiders?

“Which is another thing you probably shouldn’t do, because that could have some highly negative reactions,” her Dungeon Assistant protested.  After a moment, though, he sighed.  “But if you’re dead set on it, I would advise you to keep it in reserve, as the introduction of a Human, Dwarf, Elf, Gnome, or Orc into the arena for the Raiders to fight against might be traumatic.”

But a Dungeon Fairy is off-limits?

“…Yes?”

Tacca understood, she really did; but for some reason the thought of a Dungeon Fairy creature – that she created from Dungeon Force, inside of her dungeon, which wasn’t technically alive – dying at the hands of a Raider wasn’t that big of a deal.  She really wanted to use it, too, especially after she learned that it didn’t have Variants, but was instead a Variant of its own.

Dungeon Fairy

The Dungeon Fairy is a unique creature that normally isn’t placed within a dungeon’s walls, but is typically there to help the Dungeon Core directly.  Despite that, the Dungeon Fairy can certainly be applied as a creature that can fight Raiders directly, though its abilities are limited to whatever the Core has access to – which is normally nothing.

Cost (Level 20): 60 DF

Control Requirement (Level 20): 8

Creation Time (Level 20): 10 Minutes

Equipment: Mood Clothes (Physical Defense +2)

Fairy Mana (Level 20): 750

Fairy Mana Regeneration: 50 per minute

Physical Attack: 1

Magical Attack: 20

Physical Defense: 3

Ranged Defense: 1

Elemental Resistance: 25% Death, 25% Nature, 25% Earth

Specials: Bonus to Fairy Mana regeneration (25%) if located within a dungeon

Ability Options: Invisibility – 50 FM per minute (+25 DF), Healing Aura – 200 Fairy Mana per minute (+75 DF), Electrified Pacification – 500 FM per minute (+125 DF), Blinding Flash – 250 FM (+50 DF), Light Cage – 600 FM per minute (+200 DF)

At Level 20, the Dungeon Fairies she could create had a variety of Ability Options, which were similar to what Tacca had access to.  However, while she had access to quite a few others, there were some that weren’t even available even at higher creature Levels; she did find that once she got the Dungeon Fairy past Level 30, 40, and 50, the Flame Wall, Shattering Icicle, and Mass Confusion abilities were available to be chosen – but Repellant Shield, Hibernate, Assistant Information Meld, Leadership, Shared Risk, Translocation, Omen Charge, and Bond were not.  While it might be possible they were available at even higher Levels of her creature, the cost to produce it would be too high at the moment to make trying worthwhile.

What was interesting was that, even at Level 20, the base cost of a Dungeon Fairy was only 60 DF and its Control Limit requirement was only 8; it made her feel a little sad that it didn’t require many resources to produce one of her former kind.  Regardless, it made them easier to create, even when she tacked on some of the other ability options like Invisibility for 25 extra Dungeon Force, Blinding Flash for 50 extra, or Healing Aura for an extra 75 DF.  The expense of each ability’s use was more than she or Shale would spend as far as Fairy Mana that it had access to, but it was still nice to have.

Her mind made up, she created one each of an Orc Melee, Hill Dwarf Melee, Gnome Scout, Elf Caster, and Human Healer; all of them were Level 15 and had access to all of the simplest of abilities for each Variant she had available.  She didn’t provide them with any special armor or weapons more than what they came with, however, because they automatically upgraded at higher Levels.  She was a little disappointed that she didn’t have access to any specialized Variants yet, but ever since the attack on her dungeon by those monstrous invaders, she had been extremely hesitant to leave her Core Room to Bond with dying Raiders, thereby unlocking them for her use.

In addition to the 5 “Raider-like” creatures, she also had a Level 20 Dungeon Fairy with Invisibility, Healing Aura, and Blinding Flash; depending on how it performed, she would see about giving it an upgrade later.  That was it for that room – just the 6 of them – but it would be a difficult fight for any Raider groups unprepared for them.  Even after she made them, though, Tacca knew that she would hesitate to actually deploy them, unless there was some specific condition that was met; what that condition was, she couldn’t say, but she would know it if she saw it.

For her last prepared room, which would hold something large, she had just enough Control Limit left (about 300) for something impressive.  However, everything she thought about had already been represented in some way; sure, there were some Semi-humans like the Pachyd which could become quite large as it was part elephant, but she found that even at Level 20, it was barely larger than one of her Minotaurs; wider, certainly, but not necessarily larger.  No, what she needed was something big, impressive enough on its own without being a Semi-human.

Tacca nearly went searching for the perfect creature family to unlock, spending more of her accumulated Core Improvement Points, but she held off when she realized she had forgotten one of the creatures she had used in her original dungeon: the Mastiff.  Similar in cost to the Dungeon Fairy, since it wasn’t considered necessarily dangerous as much as a Wolf was, she experimented with the massive dog to see what she could come up with.

Mastiff

The Mastiff is normally a large, cuddly, friendly companion – but it can be quite deadly if crossed.  Typically larger and weighing more than almost any other common dog breed, the Mastiff can cause considerable damage to unprepared victims getting in its way, knocking them down in the process.

Cost (Level 75): 1500 DF

Control Requirement (Level 75): 260

Creation Time (Level 75): 8 Hours

Equipment: None

Physical Attack: 75

Magical Attack: 0

Physical Defense: 60

Ranged Defense: 20

Elemental Resistance: None

Specials: Charge and knockdown – Charges ahead towards a target, with a chance of knocking it down due to its considerable weight

Pack Hunter: Bonus to physical attack if in conjunction with others in the Canine family

The Mastiff she created was pushing the boundaries of what she could spend at one time, but it was worth it.  A Level 75 dog didn’t seem all that impressive, especially looking at its information, but actually seeing it was quite an eye-opening experience.  The Physical Attack of 75 was probably a little inaccurate, because it didn’t take into account the sheer weight behind the 45-foot-tall, 70-foot-long, greyish-furred beast that eventually emerged after 8 hours of creation time.  It was hard for her to judge in her current state, but the monstrous Mastiff probably weighed 5,000 to 6,000 pounds, and if it rammed into someone (or just stepped on them), they were guaranteed to have a very bad day.

Aside from that, though, its mouth was large but its bite wasn’t technically any deadlier than its smaller form – but sharp, foot-long teeth could still inflict a bit of damage.  The same went for its claws, which weren’t enhanced in any way other than being larger, though their points were still sharp enough to cut through leather, at the least.

“That dog is certainly impressive, but I doubt any of the Raider groups in here would be able to kill it,” Shale had warned, after seeing it *pop* into existence.

You’re right, of course, which is why they will have to team up with multiple groups to take it down.  It’ll be the ultimate challenge.  And if they succeed and need something harder, then I can release some of the other rooms with Canines at the same time, making it even deadlier via the Pack Hunter trait.

“That makes sense, I suppose.  This whole concept is new to me, as having access to additional groups of Raiders to take down a difficult dungeon creature is a bit foreign to my thinking.”

Mine, too, but I think my new form of existence has broadened my mind a bit since my days at DAPS.  Seeing things from the perspective of an actual Core had only seemed to have taken her knowledge and expanded upon it, instead of limiting her thinking like she realized it had been before.  That, and bending or outright breaking some long-established rules of dungeon management had helped.

Back to the current time, everything seemed to be working quite well, though the groups of Raiders were still being quite cautious in their fights, preferring to kill the weakest of the creatures coming out from the slide tunnels rather than anything really threatening to them.

That was fine, though, because if she had learned anything about the mortal races, it was that they eventually grew bored of easy and wanted a challenge – which she was more than happy to provide.

Chapter 25

Tacca watched them have their fun for a little over a week, with groups growing bolder and bolder all the time.  Every day, the stands were packed – with barely any empty space – as group after group participated one after another in single battles.  They were taking turns, which was nice to see, but after a few days they realized that they weren’t taking advantage of what their friendly local Dungeon Core had set up for them.  It took an overheard comment from Sterge to get them moving.

“Hey, Gwenda, do I remember correctly that there isn’t a limit on how many Raiders could fight at one time?”

“Yes, I believe so – why do you ask?”

His answer wasn’t even necessary, as those sitting next to the 2 Hill Dwarves started discussing it immediately.  The information spread like wildfire, going through the stands they were sitting in like wildfire, and even jumping across to the other stands until the entire arena crowd had learned of it.  Thank you, Sterge.

While she had assigned decent rewards to all of her creatures upon their death, she had additional “bonuses” to those who participated in multi-group battles or who chose to tackle more than one creature pack at a time.  So far, those that wanted a challenge just asked for something harder, which she obliged by unleashing her Minotaur, Ursino, and her Archmage, but none of them appeared ready for multiple packs as of yet.  That changed as soon as the first dual-Raider group attempted to fight in the arena.

It was also the first death, though it wasn’t as if Tacca had intended it.

Two 5-person groups, all their members ranging between Level 7 and 9 (which she had learned from some overheard conversations), stepped out into the middle of the arena, appearing quite confident.  Composed of a total of 3 Melee, 2 Healers, 2 Casters, and 3 Scout Classes, they stood in separate groupings, divided by their normal attack formations.  She could tell that they weren’t used to working with other people, unlike what she had seen of the large army of Raiders meshing together to attack the invaders.

Since there were now more Raiders, it was time to up the stakes a little: Tacca released the two weakest of her creature packs.  10 Level 1 Root Foxes ran out of one slide tunnel on the east side of the arena, while 7 Level 2 Frond Coyotes and 7 Level 2 Branch Jackals sprinted out from a different one at the western side of the arena.

The sudden appearance of twice as many creatures surprised the two groups, and there was mass confusion as they hesitated about which to shoot towards first.  Eventually, one group of Raiders turned and focused on one group while the other concentrated on the other; by the time they figured out what they were doing, it was too late to get more than a few spells and arrows off, killing a single Root Fox and 2 Branch Jackals before they closed with the gathered Raiders.

That’s when their lack of preparation took a turn for the worse, because Tacca’s creatures didn’t differentiate between the two groups.  Their backs turned toward the Coyotes and Jackals, one group prepared to easily cut down the Foxes they were facing; unfortunately, the Coyotes and Jackals just happened to be a tad bit closer to the Fox group and attacked them from behind before the other group could intercept them.

Of course, standard strategy was to have their most vulnerable members of the group in the back, so the Healer and Caster were literally piled on as they were knocked down from behind.  The Physical Attack damage from her creatures wasn’t all that high, especially being Level 2, but the Pack Hunter trait enhanced it enough that even against a much higher-Level, they could still be deadly.  Before anyone could react and come to his rescue, the Elven Caster had his throat ripped out by three different Coyotes working together to do the deed.  The Healer also nearly had her arm ripped off by a quad of Jackals, but was saved by the quick thinking of the 3 Scouts in the large group, who jumped in when they saw what was happening, throwing themselves on Tacca’s creatures with savage abandon.

From there, it was pure chaos, but fortunate on the side of the Raiders.  Her creatures’ first attack was quickly countered, as each member of the bigger group went a bit berserk and practically ripped apart her Canines.  It didn’t take much, honestly, because her creatures were relatively weak in comparison to all of those Raiders, but in enough numbers and with surprise on their side, they could certainly be deadly.

Once the arena was clear of attackers, their corpses (or what was left of them) disappeared, leaving behind their normal rewards.  However, a treasure chest appeared 20 feet from the center of the arena to the north.  After their surprise, one of the members of the group that had lost their Caster opened it up, where they found a Minor Healing Potion as a bonus reward.

“Not really equal compensation, is it?” Shale asked.

No, not at all, but I wasn’t planning on someone dying to my weaker creatures, either.  The treasure chest inside of the arena was the only thing she could affect while there were Raiders inside, because it was a mechanic that Dungeon Cores could use to reward especially great performances.  While she normally let the chests be automatic in her Boss Rooms, here she could tailor the Reward specifically to the fight that had occurred.

The surprise “bonus” wasn’t lost on anyone that had been watching, and even though some of those watching one of their own lose their life were visibly affected by it, overall the death didn’t seem to curb their enthusiasm for the arena.  On the contrary, it seemed to vitalize the rest into wanting to push further.

Additional group pairings were attempted, with better successes, and Tacca was starting to get a feel for what the Raiders could handle.  After a few more days of this – and because she hadn’t really changed the locations of each creature pack – she was letting them dictate what they wanted to face when they pointed to the tunnel slides they wanted.  Some of the stronger multi-group pairings were even choosing 3 or 4 of the packs at times, which was daring enough that they deserved some excellent compensation.  Gold coins, Enchantment Scrolls, and steel weapons from Reward Tier 4 were slowly being accumulated by the teams.

Finally, towards the end of the first week, a pair of Raider groups that had some of the strongest members currently living there – including a fully armored behemoth she overheard was called Anton – pointed towards one of the two tunnel slides that hadn’t been used yet.  Fortunately, it was the smallest of the two, not the large one that contained the gigantic Mastiff dog, but Tacca hesitated.

I…I’m not sure I should release them.  I’m having second thoughts.

“Then don’t.  Keep them there and let them wonder,” Shale advised.

Her hesitation only seemed to make Anton and the others annoyed, and possibly angry.  “I said I want to face whatever is in that one – we can take it!”  The crowd roared in approval, deafening just about everyone in the room as the echoes reverberated over and over.  Yet, still, she hesitated.

The crowd settled down as they waited for her creatures to be delivered to them, and she began to hear some considerable grumbling from just about everyone in there.  Thankfully, she was saved by her 2 Bonded Hill Dwarves, who were at the front of the southern stands.

“Hold on, now, listen up!” Sterge shouted at the top of his voice, just loud enough to be heard by quite a few people around him.  Tacca had seen how much respect most of the other Raiders held toward the diminutive Hill Dwarf (as well as Gwenda), so the silence spread throughout that stand and through another and another, until the whole arena was nearly silent.

As she had figured based on the dynamic she had observed between the two, Gwenda took over.  “I believe there is something up there that may be a little disturbing to us, so I would offer fair warning that you might be alarmed by what you see,” she began, looking around at the crowd hanging on her every word.

“Is it some sort of horrific monstrosity?” a voice shouted out from the stands, and Tacca was too distracted to find who had asked the question.

Gwenda cocked her head to the side as if considering it.  She knows exactly what is in there; smart girl.  “In a way, you could say that.  If you consider that, at times, us Raiders can be…monstrous.”

The Hill Dwarf didn’t have to elaborate, obviously, because Tacca saw comprehension dawn on faces throughout the stands, spreading like a tidal wave as those that had caught on immediately whispered to their companions.  Very smart girl.

“You’re saying that they are what…us?  Or at least Human or Elf or whatnot?” Anton yelled to be heard over the murmur of the crowd.

“I don’t know for sure, but that is what I would assume,” Gwenda answered with a shrug.  “So, it’s up to you if you wish to face something like that.  I just wanted to give you fair warning.”

There was a conversation that Tacca listened to going on within the middle of the arena, where Anton and the others were arguing furiously over what they wanted to do.  If she was being honest with herself, the Dungeon Core would actually rather they passed on facing her creatures inside there, but as luck would have it…they chose to go ahead.

“We’ll do it.  I’ve heard about some fighting pits in some of the larger cities, and I’m sure that most of you have, too, so I can’t see this being too different.”

That was news to Tacca, as well as to her Dungeon Assistant.

“They fight each other for fun?  Or for sport?  I thought Raiders were crazy before, but this just emphasizes the crazy even more.”  She could hear him shaking his head even as he answered.  He had taken to staying invisible near the top of the arena so he could watch the fights first-hand, as it was turning out to be entertainment not just for Raiders, but Fairies, also.  He was usually joined by most of the Dungeon Assistants from the Nursery, who were still on the fence about connecting with her dungeon – but one or two of them were reportedly getting closer to giving in every day.

With the proclamation of assent, she opened up the trap for the room and the 5 “Raiders” and 1 Dungeon Fairy slid down the ramp into the room, though the Fairy started flying almost immediately after the others started moving.  As the group of Tacca’s creatures raced out to the arena, a hush fell over the crowd as they watched the strange facsimiles of their own kind rushing toward the group in the middle.  They were mostly silent as they ran; the only sound was the pounding of their footsteps and the creak and jingle of their armor as they moved.  As for the Dungeon Fairy, it had rendered itself invisible the moment it flew out of the tunnel, and Tacca doubted many had actually seen it arrive.

When they were about 50 feet away, the Elven Caster stopped, held up the Exquisite Maple Staff it carried, and a Magistrike spell erupted from the tip.  It shot across the distance to the seemingly frozen Raider groups, striking Anton in the chest and knocking him on his back.  He didn’t appear too hurt by the strike, as his armor had likely blocked most of the damage it would’ve done, but it did have another effect.

It suddenly spurred his friends to jump into action.

The other heavily armored Melee Class from the second group of Raiders sprang forward, placing himself between Tacca’s incoming creatures and Anton, who was quickly getting to his feet.  It was just in time, too, because the dungeon-created Gnome Scout stopped and fired off an arrow, only to have it bounce off of the Raider’s shield.  A second Magistrike from Tacca’s Caster slammed into his shield a moment later, causing him to stagger backwards – but he held strong.

Her Orc Melee Variant reached the line of Raiders, completely passing up the armored defender as it aimed for the closest Healer, but it was slammed into from the side by Anton, who seemed to have gained his feet.  Meanwhile, Tacca’s Hill Dwarf rammed his own shield into the off-balance Raider who had blocked the arrow and Magistrike spell, nearly knocking him down.

The rest of the Raiders immediately counterattacked, their 3 Casters flinging out spells not only towards the Melee creatures that were closer, but toward Tacca’s back line of creatures that were actively attacking from afar or sending out their own healing spells.  Injuries on both sides came fast and furious, though her dungeon group was losing to the better prepared, more numerous, and higher-Level Raiders.

Tacca’s Dungeon Fairy suddenly appeared over the heads of her creatures, though no one fighting actually saw it.  That didn’t matter too much, though, as Blinding Flash was activated, sending out a pulse of shockingly bright light that immediately caused half of the crowd in the stands to cry out in surprise, drowning out the pained reactions from those closer to the epicenter.

“Aaah!  I can’t see!  Neville, can you fix this?” Anton screamed out, and the Raider Healer stopped his own complaining to answer.

“I don’t know!  Let me try something….”

Meanwhile, Tacca’s creatures, even having known the Flash was coming, were still marginally affected by the Dungeon Fairy’s ability.  While they weren’t completely blinded, they were slow to take advantage of the situation, only reacting seconds later by attacking the nearly helpless Raider groups.  One of the Raider Casters got an arrow in her stomach, and a different Healer other than Neville got a face full of a Magiburst, sending him sprawling backwards, alive but apparently unconscious.  Two of the Scout-Classes managed to avoid being decapitated by Tacca’s Orc and Hill Dwarf, their keen hearing allowing them to partially dodge and suffer only minor slices as they backed away.

That all changed when the Raider Healer cast what Tacca figured was a Soothe spell, which cleared up the temporary blindness of everyone in the area.  The now ticked-off Raider groups, able to see again, threw everything they had at Tacca’s creatures, using their abilities liberally to overwhelm her forces.  The Dungeon Fairy used its Healing Aura ability to rapidly heal her creatures, having to drop its Invisibility in order to afford keeping it going.

As if sensing that it was helping, the Raiders noticed it for the first time, sending up arrow after arrow to kill it, but the Fairy was quite nimble in the air, dodging every shot.  Suddenly, a net woven of magic appeared above its head and dropped down on the unaware Fairy, catching it and dragging it down to the ground, where it fell with an almost audible *thud*.  The Healing Aura was cut off as the Fairy died from the impact, and suddenly the rest of the battle was a foregone conclusion.

Tacca’s Elven Caster was taken out first, cutting off the Sapping Fog it was releasing onto the Raiders, followed quickly by the Human Healer.  The Orc Melee was next, as it was surrounded by Raiders and nearly hacked apart, followed up by the Hill Dwarf Melee.  The Gnome Scout Variant proved to be quick on its feet as it avoided many of the long-range attacks sent its way, but it quickly succumbed when it was caught and surrounded by the Raider Scout Classes, ending the battle that lasted a lot longer than Tacca had expected.

There was silence as the victors stood in the middle of the arena, panting heavily, with their opponents disappearing and leaving behind a piece of armor or weapon as their Reward.  For the Dungeon Fairy, a single gold coin appeared where it had fallen.

Tacca began to worry as the rest of the arena was also silent, eerily so.  Suddenly, as if it were some sort of trap being triggered, the crowd burst into deafening exultation, screaming their praise for the victorious Raiders.  In the middle of the arena, Anton raised his arms in the air in a victory pose, strutting around and pumping his sword and shield to the rhythm of the chant that suddenly arose.

“An-ton, An-ton, An-ton!”

The Raiders had found a champion, a figure they could get behind to defeat even the strangest and most “monstrous” of enemies the dungeon could throw at them.

Of course, they hadn’t even seen her giant Mastiff yet, but that would have to be another day.

Chapter 26

“Brandon has finally decided to try a connection, despite the unknown risks.”

It was a little over a week since the Raiders had been trapped inside of the mountain, a week since the arena exhibitions had begun, and this announcement came as a complete surprise to Tacca.  She hadn’t heard anything from Tulip or the other Dungeon Assistants regarding their progress in encouraging their Cores to connect for a few days, and she had honestly thought they wouldn’t go through with it.

What made him change his mind?

Tulip, the Dungeon Assistant for the Core named Brandon, shook her head in confusion.  “It was my description of the fights in your arena, believe it or not.  He said that it reminded him of a ‘movie’ called ‘Gladiator’, whatever either of those are, and that he didn’t want to miss out on any more of the action.”  She emphasized the two mysterious words with air quotes, which was humorous to see, and she realized that Tulip probably hadn’t had as much experience with the personalities of the otherworldly souls as Tacca had.  To the Fairy-turned-Core, she had gotten over their strangeness after the first dozen Cores she Bonded to, taking their mention of weird things in stride.  “Plus, he was getting really bored with just the two small rooms he had built so far, as he wouldn’t be getting any visitors for a long time, if ever.”

That was good to hear; not that Brandon was bored, but that he was looking to do something, despite the risks.  Now all Tacca had to do was figure out the best way to go about it.

I think I’m going to start a tunnel from the corner ceiling of the arena, which hopefully won’t be noticed, and have it run all the way over to…Nursery room #3, right?  If you can point Brandon in the right direction, we can meet up somewhere along the way.

Thankfully, the arena had shut down for its “rest” period, a 12-hour break that allowed Tacca to fully recover from her Dungeon Force use and to plan for any changes for the next day.  Up to that point, she hadn’t needed to really change anything, since the Raiders were still thoroughly enjoying what they were doing – including fighting against “themselves” – and no change was needed.  They would soon grow bored of it, she knew, but she had some plans in place to spice it up a little bit for the future.

Since it was empty, it was easy enough to start a tunnel, only 3 feet wide and 6 feet tall, the bare minimum that was required for a full connection to the outside; she had gotten away with small 3-inch-wide tunnels to other places in the mountain because she already had a route to an exit that was large enough.  For this joining of her dungeon to another Core’s however, she had a feeling she needed a full connection in order for it to work.  Whatever “working” fully entailed, she wasn’t exactly sure.

“There is still time to stop if you want,” Shale mentioned.  “No one knows exactly what will happen, after all; this could destroy both Cores.”

She’d heard it countless times from both her own Dungeon Assistant and the others responsible for the Cores in the Nursery, but she was determined to take care of them the best she knew how.  This, the connection she wanted to form with them, was potentially a way to strengthen and let them grow instead of stagnating for decades or centuries underneath the mountains.  They would eventually be able to reach the surface, of course, but it could take a while; they were anywhere from a half-mile to a mile from reaching the air above, and at their current Core Improvement Level, digging out that far could take years as it was just so slow.

In addition to being slow, it was difficult for them to actually determine the correct direction of which to Carve their way out.  Tacca remembered how she was able to “feel” the surface once she was close enough, but at the start it had been more of a guess than anything.  At her current CI Level, she could sort of see through the solid rock of the mountain for nearly 500 feet in every direction – other than outside – so it made it a bit easier to find her way around, but for those Cores in the nursery, they would be digging nearly blind.

Fortunately, the Dungeon Assistants that Tacca had Bonded with could sense the direction where Tacca’s Core was located, even if they weren’t inside her dungeon.  This helped Tulip get Brandon started on a tunnel heading toward her Core, even if it wouldn’t progress very far or quickly; still, it would be enough that Tacca could find it and hook up with it.

I’ve made up my mind, Shale.  I told Malachite that I would keep them safe, and that’s what I intend to do.  You still have the option of me severing our Bond, if that’s what you wish.

There was only the slightest hesitation from Shale, before he shook his head.  “I’ve thought about it over the last month or so, and while it might save me if something bad were to happen, I don’t wish to be disconnected from you.  We’ll do this together or not at all.”

It warmed her heart to hear him say that, and she put all of her concentration on extending the new tunnel towards the east, where she had a general idea where Nursery Room #3 was located.  It took a couple of hours to progress far enough that she could begin to see some of the smallish rooms she had Carved out; most of them were still empty, but soon enough she saw a few that had expanded outward, with a few small passageways connecting some recently built rooms.

It was strange, seeing another dungeon from the perspective of a Dungeon Core.  Or more accurately, not seeing them, because even though she could sense and “see” around them with her range of view, she couldn’t penetrate their outer walls and look inside.  In effect, they were large voids in her perception that seemed to not exist as far as what she could perceive.

Of the 6 she could at least identify as Nursery Rooms 1-6, all but 1 were rather small and contained, ranging from 2 to 3 smallish rooms.  The outlier was one that was approximately the same size as the others, but it had a tunnel leading out directly toward Tacca’s Core, which made it obvious that it was the one she was looking for.  It was only about 10 feet long, which was impressive considering how slow Carving Earth at CI Level 1 was, but it was enough to aim for and connect with.

Stopping about 30 feet away from the other tunnel, she got Shale’s attention.

I’m just about ready to try this.  Can you let Tulip know we’re ready, and if Brandon is having second thoughts, now is the time to express them?

Shale disappeared after a quick nod, and Tacca could suddenly sense him nearby, though not in her own dungeon.  Focusing on the sensation, she realized that he was inside the void that was the other dungeon she was located nearest to.

A moment later, he was back.  “They’re ready.”  He paused.  “I’m not sure I’m ready, but go for it anyway.”

Without a reason to wait anymore, Tacca charged ahead with her Carve Earth ability, eating away the solid stone that separated the two tunnels in less than a minute.  When there was about an inch left separating the two, she stopped.  With a figurative deep breath, she focused on the remaining stone and activated her ability one last time, breaking through to the other side.

Unimaginable pain suffused her Core, unlike anything she had experienced before – and she had experienced a lot over the last year and a half.  It was so bad that her mind started to fray at the edges, while at the same time it felt like someone had jammed a claw into her Core, rummaged around in it for a bit, and then started yanking stuff out like she had been disemboweled.  She wasn’t sure what was happening, and the agony she was experiencing was so great that she abruptly lost all awareness of the world around her, despite the continuing pain, and her mind went completely blank.

When Tacca came to, her consciousness coming alive as if from a long, deep sleep, she immediately felt different.  A throbbing ache still permeated throughout her Core, but she could feel it fading even as she took in the world around her.

Firstly, she could sense that her dungeon had expanded, though not by a great bit.  Focusing on Nursery Room #3, she identified it as the expansion, though now she could see inside.  It was a Swamp Environment, that she could see right away, with small pools of stagnant water, surrounded by sickly-looking blackish trees, with thin branches drooping nearly to the ground.  At first, there were no signs of creatures, but suddenly she focused on the room and identified them: Giant Spiders.

Ick.

They were at least 3 feet across, when you considered their leg length, and there was a veritable nest of them hiding in the trees, camouflaged in the drooping branches.  If a Raider tried to walk under the branches, they would be in a prime spot to have one of the 8-legged arachnids fall on them, which would make for a horrible day for the delving person.  Looking further into the rooms, she could see that there were traps set up next to the pools of stagnant water, which took her a moment to understand.  Focusing on them, she saw that they were Entanglement-based traps, which would shoot out small vines from the water, wrap around a victim, and then drag them back into the pool – where they would inevitably drown unless they were cut free by some companions.

“What, you don’t like spiders?  I used to love horror movies, and I thought I’d try to recreate something like that here.”

The strange male voice in her mind made her thoughts freeze even as she looked around for the source.  It didn’t take long to figure it out: Brandon, the other Dungeon Core.

You can hear me?

“I guess so, now that you’re awake.  You were pretty out of it after our dungeons connected, what with all of that incessant screaming and all. Are you alright?”

He sounded genuinely concerned, which was comforting to hear, as she hoped it meant she wasn’t suddenly sharing her dungeon with someone like the Cores she had Bonded with as a Dungeon Assistant before.  Of course, it was still too early to tell.

I’m…okay, I think.  I’m still trying to figure out what happened.  We didn’t shatter, at least, which was certainly a concern of mine.  She thought about what she had experienced, and she had to ask, Did you experience the unbelievable pain of being disemboweled and having your mind fray at the edges, too?

“Oh, wow…uh, no?  I’m sorry that happened to you, but nothing like that happened to me.”  He started to explain.  “As soon as you broke through the last of the stone separating our tunnels, I felt a warmth infuse my Core, as well as some weird wrenching going on inside, but it was more uncomfortable rather than painful.  That, and it didn’t last for more than a minute or two.  After that, I heard you screaming in my mind, which I had to admit was a bit concerning, so I busied myself with looking over your dungeon.  Amazing job, by the way, and I love how you set up the gladiatorial arena – I can’t wait to see those fights!”

That was…unfair.  At least she was alive.

Have you noticed anything else?  Anything different?  A lot of the throbbing ache had faded from her ordeal, and she was trying to take stock of her situation herself.

“You mean aside from being able to look at your dungeon like I would my own?  Now that you mention it, I haven’t checked my Dungeon Core Status since we connected and—WHAT?  My Dungeon Force has been cut in half, and so has my Regeneration!  What have you done to me?!”

Tacca internally winced at hearing that, remembering discovering that had happened to her Core when she first came into existence.  She had put it down to being partially Fairy and partially Core, but it seemed as though she had somehow passed on that handicap to Brandon.

Is there anything else?

“Like what?  My Control Limit being cut in half, as well?  Luckily, that seems to be fine, no thanks to you.  Wait…that’s not right.”

What?

“This says that my Core Improvement Pending/Countdown is now 198 in 30 days, whereas before it was only at 89 in 323 days.  And—I have 3 additional Special Characteristics!  How is this possible?”

Tacca suddenly understood what happened, and one of her new abilities was beginning to make sense.

I’m assuming you have a reduction of 40% Dungeon Force cost to creatures and traps, a 60% reduction in your Control Limit requirements, and access to all Variants for your creatures?

“Exactly!  Wait, how did you know?”

Opening up her own Dungeon Core Status, she saw that she now had an additional Special Characteristic, as well: Increased Dungeon Force Regeneration by 25%.  If she remembered correctly, purchasing that Characteristic cost a little less than 100 SCPs, which was what most Cores started with – unlike Tacca, who started with only 50 SCPs to spend.  Obviously, this was the Special Characteristic that Brandon had chosen, and now it was also hers.

If what I think happened is true, my Shared Risk ability has forced us to share some elements of our Cores together, including the bad parts.  Sorry about the reduced Dungeon Force and Regeneration, but that was what I had to live with when I was a new Core – so I guess you got it, too.  At least my Special Characteristics you now have should offset some of that, though…would you try something for me?

“Shared Risk?  I don’t understand, but I have to admit that these Characteristics are awesome!  I now have access to all of my Giant Spider Variants, which is amazing!”  He was silent as he was likely looking through his new Variants.  “Wait, what did you want me to do?”

If you’re full of Dungeon Force, can you attempt to spend most of it to create something powerful?  Either a trap or a creature would work, though if you start to feel something when you do it, stop!

“Sure, sure, I can do that.  But what do you mean about feeling something—OUCH!”

Tacca was watching his tiny core while he attempted to create a powerful Entanglement trap in one of his rooms, and she heard and saw a tiny crack appear in his otherwise flawless form.

I guess that’s why it’s a risk.  I’m sorry, Brandon, but you’ll be a little limited on how much Dungeon Force you can use at a time before risking shattering your Core, and you’ll hit a limit of how many traps you can place in your dungeon.  Don’t worry, though, as you increase in Core Improvement Levels and are able to add to your total Dungeon Force, most of those problems will relax a bit, but won’t go away completely.

“Don’t worry?  I’ve never felt anything like that before, and you tell me not to worry?”

She heard him grumbling unintelligible noises as he practically seethed at this new information, but the only thing Tacca could do was let him work through it on his own.  While he had some beneficial Characteristics that would help now, he was handicapped in other areas.  Still, it beat being shattered, she supposed.

“I’m not happy, exactly, but I can’t say I’m disappointed.  The steady influx of Core Improvement Points from Raider Presence is astounding, and since I only have a month to wait, I’m hoping that makes up for all the rest.  Is this how you improved so rapidly?”

Tacca went on to explain first-hand what had happened to her, even though it was likely that Tulip had told him all about her.  Speaking of Tulip, she was hovering steadily next to Brandon’s Core, looking at him with a worried expression.  The sight of her suddenly made her realize she hadn’t checked on her own Dungeon Assistant since she had been back.

Shale!  Are you okay?

She found him on the floor of her Core Room, unconscious but alive.  At her words, he started to stir, until he finally sat up with his head in his hands.

“What…what happened?”

That’s what I was going to ask you?  How do you feel?

“I have a pounding headache, but it’s going away.  The last thing I remember was you screaming at anyone who could hear you, and then it felt like something was ripping out my guts, and then…nothing.  I suppose I blacked out from the pain, and landed here.”

I’m sorry about that, Shale.  I didn’t think for one moment that it would affect you like that, especially since the other issues I’ve had when I’ve increased my CI Level or Assistant Rank were only focused on me.  Thankfully, you and I both made it through alive.

He shook his head gently, the pain still obviously affecting him slightly, as he asked, “Did it work?”

Yes, yes it did.  In a way.  Let me tell you all about it….

Chapter 27

It didn’t take long to convince the other Cores in the Nursery to connect to the now 2-Core dungeon as well, now that they had a better understanding of what would happen.  Over the next few hours, Tacca extended her tunnel nearest Brandon’s dungeon out toward the other Nursery Rooms, and connected directly to their tiny dungeons as well.  Thankfully, after the first mind-breaking and extremely painful experience, each time she connected with another Core, Tacca only felt the same mild discomfort and strangeness that Brandon reported.  Soon enough, all 7 dungeons were connected together, and best of all—

—they all received the same amount of Core Improvement Points from Raider Presence, meaning that it wasn’t being split in between them all.

Not only that, but as they connected together, more and more Special Characteristics were shared with the others, including Brandon and Tacca.  By the end of the “rest” period before the arena opened up again, they all now had an impressive array of benefits.

Special Characteristics:

Access all Variants for available dungeon creatures

All

Decreased Dungeon Force cost for all creatures and traps

40%

Decreased Control Limit for all creatures

60%

Increased Dungeon Force Regeneration

25%

All creatures start with extra Levels

1

Puzzle Traps require less Dungeon Force

33%

Experience for Dungeon Assistants is increased

50%

Frozen Tundra Environmental objects require less Dungeon Force

33%

Jungle Environmental objects require less Dungeon Force

33%

Increased speed of creature creation

35%

Increased speed of trap placement

35%

All of them would be beneficial in some way or another, though the increase in all creature Levels by 1 would require some restructuring of her “easy” dungeon section, considering that all of those were supposed to be Level 1 and would now be Level 2 automatically.  It would save both Dungeon Force and her Control Limit for her second section, though, because she wouldn’t have to pay for that extra boost to their Levels.  As for her arena, the ones she currently had would stay the same as they were until they were killed and replaced, so they were fine for the moment; later, she’d have to adjust some so that they weren’t too hard, but it was always possible that they would change things up anyway.

Mainly because, working together, Tacca discovered that the other Cores could create creatures and traps throughout the entire dungeon complex, not just their own little part of it. That meant that they could place Giant Spiders (which she was a little against, because she really didn’t like them; they tended to trap wild Fairies in their webs and eat them), or Goblins, or even the Apes that one of the Cores had access to that thrived in his Jungle Environment.  They could also place their trap specializations where they wanted, though that wasn’t as big of a deal; every Core could still create those same traps, the specializations just helped to reduce the cost.

What they – and Tacca, for that matter – 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 them could absorb or even activate them, 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 to 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 guy was wide open!  Man, those wolves you have are kind of stupid, Tacca.”

Tacca sniggered through her connection with Patrick, who was taking the arena way too seriously.  They’re constructs made entirely of Dungeon Force, Patrick.  They aren’t necessarily stupid or intelligent; they just follow the instincts that are part of their forms.

“Huh.  I have to admit I never really thought of them like that.  I always thought my Dungeon Force just summoned them from some alternate dimension, or something like that.”

No, it’s all done in this dimension.  She paused as she considered Patrick’s words.  What do you know about other dimensions?

“Me?  Next to nothing, other than they supposedly exist.  I mean, I’m here, aren’t I?  Besides that rather obvious factoid, the odds are probably in favor of more than one dimension existing.  Or, that’s what that program on that Science channel said.”

“You watched the Science channel?” Brandon asked.

“Don’t judge!  It was in the middle of spring and there weren’t any games on, so…yeah, I got bored and watched some educational fluff.”

All the talk about dimensions triggered something in Tacca’s mind.  She was aware – through a lot of research at DAPS while she had been there, as well as some hints from Malachite and the Head Instructor – that there were other dimensions, a few of them other ones where Dungeon Fairies existed.  There wasn’t a lot of information about them, but the thought of them got her wondering if the invaders had come from another dimension.  I mean, it’s possible, right?

She thought she was thinking to herself, but apparently she had projected it out to the other Cores, as well as their Dungeon Assistants.

“What’s possible?” Shale asked, echoed by 4 or 5 others; it was hard to tell with so many speaking all at once both outside and inside her mind.

Those invaders that nearly killed me, and who are pushing in from the north – do you think it’s possible they are from another dimension?  I mean, even Malachite had no idea where they came from, and he’s been alive for at least 15,000 years.

“15,000 years!  Holy sh—”

—That’s the rumor, at least, Tacca said, cutting Patrick off.  She didn’t know if it was true, but it was quite likely.

“I don’t know, Tacca.  I really don’t have much knowledge of other dimensions, after all.  Still, it would make sense.”  Shale was quiet for a moment, before he continued.  “But what are they here for?  Better yet, how did they get here?  We use our Fairy Mana to Translocate, which I’m told can be used to go to other dimensions, though I’ve never heard of anyone who has other than perhaps the Council; I don’t remember those blue-skinned people using magic, do you?  I mean, they had those glowing shields, but I couldn’t detect any ‘magic’ in them.”

“Personal Force Fields.  That’s what they gotta be,” David suddenly contributed.

Wait, what?

All attention turned to David, which Tacca could tell made the introverted Core a little uncomfortable.  Regardless, he expanded on what he was saying before.

“If they’re indeed from another dimension, then it’s quite possible that they don’t have magic where they’re from.  Instead, they probably use technology to enact the same types of effects.  Hence, they have Personal Force Fields that block attacks.  Tell me, do they weaken over time until they break after repeated damage, and then come back after a while?”

Tacca didn’t have to think hard about that one.  Well, yes.

“Aha!  I knew it; it’s just like some of the first-person shooter games I used to play, especially the ones that were set in the far future.  Therefore, if they are using technology for their Fields, then they are probably using technology for their interdimensional travel.”

“This isn’t a game, David.  I can’t believe I have to listen to this,” Karen complained – which everyone ignored.

Then why do you think they’re here?  We don’t have any of this…technology.

“Are you sure?”

Yes, quite sure.  Why?

“Well, considering that your Core looks like some sort of whacked-out computer motherboard, I figured you knew something about it.”

That shocked her.  She didn’t even know how to respond, but Regina had her own opinion to offer.

“It’s highly unlikely they are here for advanced technology.  Typically, when a company initiates a hostile takeover, they work to replace the management of the target company who does not wish to be acquired.  I believe that is what is happening here.”

Tacca had very little idea of what the other Core just said, nor did anyone else.  What exactly are you saying?

Regina just *hmphed* in an annoyed tone, before she answered…slowly, as if she were talking to children.  “They are getting rid of the ones who are in charge of the defense of the planet – the Dungeon Cores and Raiders – so that they can take it over.”

“Why didn’t you just say that?” Patrick asked.

“I did, you incompetent—”

“Now, now – there’s no need for name-calling; we’re all in this together, after all,” Shale said placatingly, and Tacca was glad that all of the Dungeon Assistants had gained the ability to listen into the inter-Core conversations as part of their “joining”.

If that’s indeed the reason, then there has to be something we can—hold on, what is that?

Tacca ripped her attention away from the arena and the others, focusing on the entrance to the Hall.  Something was tingling her senses, though she couldn’t figure out what it was.  All she saw when she looked at the entrance was a wall of white; the snow hadn’t filled the passageway entirely, but there was at least 15 feet of it piled up, and she could see the swirling maelstrom of flying flakes that indicated that the winter storms were still raging.

“What is it?  What’s wrong?  I don’t sense anything.” Brandon’s question was echoed by the rest of the Cores, as well as the Dungeon Assistants, who could detect some tension coming from Tacca.  Except for Karen, of course.

“Snow is so annoyingly cold.  Is there any way you can get rid of it?” As usual, everyone ignored her.

I’m not exactly sure, but I thought I felt something.  Whatever it was, I can’t feel it—

A deluge of snow blasted in through the entrance, bringing with it a figure straight out of what would be in her nightmares, if she ever dreamed again.

“Houston, we have a problem.”

Brandon, now is not the time….

Chapter 28

Malachite had to fight to stay conscious, though he didn’t know why he bothered.  It wasn’t like he could even move, let alone escape his captivity; the sturdy clamps around his ankles, wrists, waist, and neck were more than enough to ensure he couldn’t free himself even if he had the strength.  Unfortunately, his Fairy Mana was also constantly being drained, which made him particularly woozy and light-headed.

How could I have been so stupid! It wasn’t the first time he had chastised himself over the last…however long it had been, and it certainly wouldn’t be the last.  I should’ve known I was risking it going into that dungeon to save that Core.  Except, he had been desperate to save as many as he could, and with comparatively few actually agreeing on the move – instead, they believed that they could stand against these monstrous people, rather than moving and starting over.  Malachite had been searching for any that would agree, which led him to where he fell victim to a trap.

Of course, it might not have been an intentional trap; it was entirely possible that he had just been in the wrong place at the wrong time.  Regardless, Translocating into that dungeon to speak with the Core named Christopher – which was entirely too close to the other dungeons that had been invaded and destroyed – ended up being a critical mistake.  Immediately after he *popped* into the Core room and before he could Bond with the CI Level 42 Core, Malachite abruptly felt his access to his Fairy Mana completely cut off.  It was like nothing he had ever experienced before, a feeling of helplessness that not even his younger years before he became a Dungeon Assistant could match.

Aster and Begonia had arrived moments after he had, and while they could Translocate in, none of them could Translocate out.  Panic had ensued, which again was something he wasn’t used to, and he realized what had happened.

The blue-skinned, six-armed invaders were inside the dungeon.  Not only that, it turned out, but they were close.  Malachite and his two helpers had arrived right in the middle of another Core being destroyed.

Before they could do anything, a trio of the monstrous people he had caught far away glimpses of in his investigations up north barged into the Core Room.  Malachite and his two helpers had to quickly fly up toward the ceiling to avoid the gigantic Fire trap that went off just as the invaders stepped foot in the room.  Heat washed over him as he looked back to see the flames continuing to spurt out of the trap, entirely enveloping the hostile figures wielding melee weapons in each of their hands.

Yes!  Hold on…no!

The flames didn’t hurt the six-armed figures at all, though the glow around them dimmed a little in the process. Another step into the room found a pit opening up, and the one in the lead fell into it – only to rise up as if it were floating, setting down safely past the pit.  Its glowing shield-like aspect dimmed even further when that happened, becoming nearly transparent, when a third trap caused dozens of iron spears to project out of the ceiling and nearby walls.  The spears slammed into the one in the lead and the glow disappeared entirely, and Malachite got to see one of them injured as six spears penetrated its skin, impaling its left leg, right shoulder, and a few areas around its torso.  Unfortunately, nothing seemed fatal; it fell to its knees and started to rip out the projectiles from its body, spraying blood everywhere in the process.

The other two weren’t injured at all, though, and they leapt over the pit like it was nothing, triggered a half-dozen other traps as they crossed the distance to the Core floating in the middle of the room, where they launched their weapons at it. Malachite winced as the Core was shattered into pieces, and he felt the invisible shockwave of retreating Dungeon Force start to expand throughout the dungeon.  He knew that in less than a minute, every creature, trap, and environmental object would soon be gone, as they couldn’t exist without the Core controlling them.

Looking down at the three blue-skinned monsters, he saw that the two that were uninjured had turned to help the bleeding one, and he knew it was their chance to escape.

“We have to go now while they’re distracted,” he whispered so softly to Aster and Begonia that he could barely hear himself, but they managed to catch what he was saying and nodded – despite shaking uncontrollably in fear.  He would’ve liked to give into the same fear he was feeling at that moment, but he couldn’t allow himself to pass up this opportunity to escape.

With a quick motion of his hand, he led the two Dungeon Assistants in a straight shot to the exit, passing over the heads of the three invaders, who said something in a language he couldn’t understand.  It didn’t matter, though, because they had left them far behind.

Or so he had thought.

A purple-colored invader walked through the Core Room entrance right as they were flying for it.  The figure raised its hand and Malachite saw him holding something, and the next thing he knew, a black netting was surrounding him and his helpers, trapping their wings.  He fell down to the ground hard…and the next thing he knew, he woke up to his current situation.

At least I’m upright and can sort of look around.  It was a small consolation, though, because he didn’t like what he saw.  All around him, secured just as he was, were dozens of Fairies, arranged in a grid-like pattern along one wall of a strange-looking room.  Some of them were unconscious, some were conscious but so out of it they barely moved, while others were fully conscious – and appearing as if they wished they weren’t.  None of them were able to talk, though, just like he wasn’t able; the clamp over his neck somehow prevented him from producing speech.

But the eyes he locked onto could send volumes of communication, and facial expressions were more than enough to know that despair, fear, and the desire to die were paramount in those he was able to see.  Especially in the Council members and those that worked in the DPRC that he saw.  He finally found where they had disappeared to, and he didn’t have to wonder anymore about why they hadn’t come back.

As far as Malachite could tell, in his light-headed state, he and the other Fairies weren’t there to be tortured, or held as prisoners for fun.  No, it was plainly because they were being sucked dry of the Fairy Mana that automatically regenerated into their bodies…somehow.  He didn’t think that was even possible, but it obviously was because nearly every point of Fairy Mana that flowed into him left just as quickly.  He estimated that he always had somewhere between half and three-quarters of a Mana in his body, which was why he didn’t pass out completely, but it was close; everything else, though, was gone before he could make use of it.

He quickly realized this was not the same thing that had happened in the dungeon where he and his helpers had been captured.  There, he couldn’t even access his Fairy Mana, and it had stopped regenerating altogether.  Here, though, he realized that if he just had enough Mana stay in his body, he could use it – but there was never enough.  Just the right amount to keep him and the others alive indefinitely, as they could technically live, well, forever if they had at least a tiny bit of Fairy Mana flowing through their bodies.

The prospect of being held there for eternity made the “please kill me or let me die” expressions on the faces of the Fairies around him make a whole lot more sense once he figured out what was going on.  He had to admit that the same thought had gone through his own mind, but he refused to give up.  Maybe if I knew what they were doing with our Fairy Mana, I could figure out how to stop it.

Unfortunately, whatever they were doing with it was a mystery.  As was the rest of the room past the grid-like setup holding all of the Fairies.

It was an all-metal room as far as Malachite could tell, though he couldn’t quite figure out what kind of metal it was – though it looked most like steel.  It was rather small, all things considered, especially when there were a half-dozen of the monstrous people that had captured so many Fairies inside, standing around what appeared to be some sort of long desk with multi-colored lights and images seemingly projected into the air.  As much as he hated the six-armed invaders, he had to admit that it was impressive watching them use all six hands to manipulate the projections, accomplishing…again, he didn’t know what.

Suddenly, a much larger projection appeared in front and above the heads of the invaders, and Malachite recognized it immediately.  It was their world, Gairth, though it was seen at a further distance than the map in their Council chambers.  That didn’t last long, however, as the viewpoint of the projection suddenly shot towards the northern part of the continent of Abenlure.  Various red marks were quite visible in scattered areas around the northern part of the floating map, and it only took a little jab at his memory to know they indicated the dungeons that had been destroyed.  Halfway between the “girdle” of the continent and the bottom edge of the invaders’ progress southward, there was a larger symbol that appeared to be a pair of crossed swords.

There wasn’t a dungeon there; I wonder what that means.  Some sort of battle, maybe?

With no way of knowing or deciphering the other glowing symbols that Malachite could only guess was some sort of writing, it was impossible for him to fully grasp what he was seeing.  Over the next hour or so – it was hard to tell, as time seemed to drag in his current state – there were some more symbols added to the map in the north, along with some more sections turning colors; from what he could understand, from his knowledge of the Council’s map, the blue markers represented Cores that were still in existence, while the red were ones that were already destroyed.  Over and over, the spread of the red color to the south was repeated in different ways, but always it was taking over and converting the blue.

Even in his exhaustion-addled mind, he was able to piece together that he was looking at some likely scenarios for the future, not that it was happening right now.  They were scenarios for something that meshed well with the name Tacca had applied to them, which Malachite unconsciously used as well: Invaders.  They were planning their invasion of his world, with much of their concentration on the “girdle” of the continent, where dozens or hundreds of different scenarios were obviously considered.

One thing quickly became abundantly clear, as he watched the six-armed group watching the map: They weren’t there to kill everybody.  At least, not everyone; the scenarios he watched, while they didn’t make a whole lot of sense, seemed to concentrate on sparing many of the larger cities where the mortal races lived together.  Where the majority of their residents weren’t Raiders, but “normal” people who would have no chance against these invaders.  Not that Raiders were having much luck, either, from what he’d witnessed and heard about.

Suddenly, something caught his eye on the map.  Down to the far south, a glowing blue light appeared where there hadn’t been one before.  He immediately recognized its location, and it could only be one Core that was located there: Tacca’s.  Why it hadn’t shown up before, nor why there weren’t 6 other lights near it – where Malachite had Translocated the few Dungeon Cores that agreed to leave the north – he didn’t know, but they weren’t there.

Luckily, none of the blue-skinned people seemed to see it, as their focus was concentrated to the north.  Another few hours went by as Malachite watched, while the glowing light that indicated Tacca’s Core grew brighter and brighter.  When he compared it to many of the other Cores he saw represented, it was somehow almost as bright or brighter than even some of the oldest, highest CI Level Cores in existence.  Impossible.  How?

Inevitably, one of the invaders finally saw the glow, and all discussion seemed to cease, before there were some raised voices as they pointed at the Wentrylock Mountain Range.  Malachite wasn’t sure why they cared about it so much, as they were intent on driving their invasion from the north, but a lot of what they were doing – and why they were doing it – didn’t make a lot of sense to him.  After a few minutes of obviously heated discussion, along with a few powerful-looking punches for emphasis, one of the blue-skinned people left the room through a doorway that didn’t exist until it had walked up to it.  It was almost as if a portion of the metal wall split into 4 separate sections, which were then sucked into the wall itself.

From his position, he couldn’t see through the doorway, but he got the impression that the invader had entered another room that was much larger than Malachite’s current one.  It just left him with more questions, even as the portal through the wall closed once the person was through it, disappearing as if it never existed in the first place.

A minute or so later, the map changed again, with symbols now appearing around the southernmost dungeon on the continent.  If he had learned one thing while watching the invaders plan, it was that they were now targeting a particular Core over the others.  Why, he still didn’t know, but he thought he might find out if he kept watching.

Oh, Tacca – what did you do?  You better be ready, because they’re coming for you.

Chapter 29

The snow didn’t even stick to the outside of the glowing shield that surrounded the blue-skinned invader that barreled through the winter blanket like it was nothing.  A few seconds after it appeared, another burst out of the wall of snow, followed by another and another.  Tacca didn’t stop to watch them arrive, though, because she was starting to freak out a little.

They’re here!  How did they find us?

“I think the better question is what are you going to do about them?” Regina asked, in her clipped tone.

She didn’t know, honestly.  Yes, she had some defensive traps that she was hoping would stop them, but there was a lot in between that trap-filled room and the six-armed invaders now entering the Hall.  Instead of just a few dozen Raiders, as well as her creatures and traps in between the monstrous people and her Core like last time, there were literally thousands of Raiders and hundreds of non-Raiders in potential danger.  From a quick check, she could see that there were still a few hundred in the Hall, most in their rooms, but a few of them were wandering around the hall leisurely, talking and laughing at some joke or another.  There were even a few that were in somewhat compromising positions in their rooms, which she quickly looked away from, as it wasn’t important right now.

As for the rest of the inhabitants that were staying inside of the mountain, they were in the arena.  Currently, there were three very low-Level groups tackling a veritable horde of Canines, which were the weakest three packs that Tacca had set up.  She was planning on altering a lot of them with some additions of the other Cores’ creatures, but whether or not she would have a chance to actually do that was looking quite slim at the moment.

Apart from those fighting, everyone else was in the stands, including her Bonded Hill Dwarves.  Tacca had found it strange before that they hadn’t participated in any of the fights, but for now she was quite glad because it would’ve likely resulted in them being a target if they were on the arena floor right now.

“What is happening?  I just felt all of my Dungeon Force regeneration abruptly stop.”

Tacca didn’t answer Kenzie right away, because her focus was ripped back to the entrance, where she discovered the answer.  Behind the 16 blue-skinned forms that had arrived out of the winter blizzard, was not just 1, but 4 of the slightly larger, more intelligent purple invaders.  All of them had the same odd metal object strapped to their chests, held in place by straps that looped around their right shoulders.  Whereas last time she felt as if her connection to her dungeon suddenly dimmed, behind where the purple figures ran, she didn’t feel the same here.

They, in fact, did absolutely nothing to her.  She checked her Dungeon Force regeneration and saw that it was operating normally, with no reduction in what she was receiving.

“I’m losing connection to your dungeon!  You really need to work on these things, you know,” Karen commented, letting Tacca know that while she was unaffected, the others certainly were having the same kinds of problems as the first time she had seen these invaders.

Before the assembled group of monstrous people could run further than the first turn in the entrance tunnel, something else emerged from the snow, something that had to duck a little as it strode in, flinging snow everywhere as it seemed to melt off of its glowing shield, or Personal Force Field as David had called them.  Dark-red skin accented the bulging muscles of the 8-armed monstrosity that entered, and the gigantic weapons it held gleamed prophetically with a tinge of red on their edges.  The 20-foot-tall invader barely fit inside the passageway, but it was able to move swiftly enough as it followed the others into the Hall, where it was able to stand fully erect.

“Tacca, we’ve lost our Invisibility.  I take it that means we’ve got company?” Shale abruptly asked, and the Dungeon Core looked inside the arena to see her Dungeon Assistant surrounded by 6 other frightened Fairies, all visible near the ceiling.  There wasn’t any reason to worry, though, because it was doubtful any of those down below could see them, even if they looked up.  Besides, now wasn’t really the time to worry about revealing their presence—

Shale!  I need you to fly down and talk to Sterge and Gwenda!  Tell them that the invaders are here, and they’re all in danger.

“But that would violate the most important rule we have—”

Screw the rules, Shale!  We don’t have time to play around; not only are there blue and purple-skinned invaders, but there’s one of those gigantic red-skinned ones, as well!

What little color that was in Shale’s face immediately drained at her words, and his Mood Clothes turned yellow in fear, along with black for despair.  Go!

A half-second hesitation later, Shale was zooming down toward the stands, where Tacca’s two Bonded Hill Dwarves were located, along with the rest of their group.  Tacca turned her attention away and addressed both the other Dungeon Assistants and their respective Cores.

Those invaders we were just talking about are here, and we’re all in danger.  I don’t have nearly enough traps in my defensive room to stop all of them, even if that horrendously large one can’t fit through my nearby tunnels.  You aren’t safe, either, because I’ve seen them float out of a pit before, so the tunnel in the ceiling of the arena won’t stop them because of its location. Not only that, but for you Fairies, you’ll find that you cannot use any of your abilities, as well as having your Fairy Mana regeneration stopped.

She spoke to them quickly, because she was also focused on the progress of the group of 21 invaders now in the Hall.  Screams from those few dozen Raiders also inside of the Hall echoed through the space as they ran away from the sight, especially the 20-foot-tall demon-esque visage of the red-skinned invader.  It didn’t take long for their escape to prove futile, unfortunately, as the residents inside the Hall were quickly caught and killed, slaughtered without difficulty.  A few Raiders attempted to defend themselves, only for the weapons of their adversaries to cut through any type of armor, weapon, or ability they used, severing limbs and literally cutting people in half.

Thankfully, they didn’t even inspect any of the rooms, even the ones where curious heads popped out to see what was going on.  Instead, after every victim that was fully out in the Hall was dead, they headed unerringly for the tunnel leading to the arena.  For the first time, she regretted making it so large, because the red-skinned invader fit inside, though it had to nearly crouch-walk in order to move through.  She had made it that way because she wanted there to be plenty of room for the thousands of Raiders to walk down the passageway, instead of a narrow tunnel that would’ve likely caused unnecessary bottlenecks.  Still, she needn’t have made it so tall, she supposed.

“What do we do, then?  Just wait for them to destroy us?”

I’m…not sure.  We have some time before they arrive at the arena, but it won’t be long.  Start sending all of your creatures down the connecting tunnel, and if you have any Control Limit left, create some more.  We’re going to need all the help we can get.

“Why?  Who cares if all of these Raiders die, when it’s likely that we’re going to be shattered not too soon after.”  Even though it was callous of Patrick to say that about the Raiders, he did have a point, and Tacca could tell that he wasn’t the only Core that felt that way.  What they didn’t understand was that this wasn’t just about their own well-being, but for something that she had marginally planned for, in the event it took place.

Don’t think of them as Raiders right now, can you do that?  They are people, people that us Cores are supposed to challenge so that they can get stronger, while at the same time helping us get stronger.  We’re all in this together, even if it doesn’t look like it most of the time.  That alone was reason enough to build all of this: the Hall, the farms, and the arena.  But it wasn’t the only reason.

“What do you mean?” Kenzie asked.

I desperately hoped that these invaders would stay up north and not attack my dungeon again, but I didn’t count on it.  That’s why I built my heavily trapped defensive room, which you’ve all seen – though it would be rather insignificant to a threat like this.  Which was why, when I heard from my 2 Bonded Hill Dwarves that they needed a place to stay, I jumped at the opportunity.

Because now, albeit it was only supposed to be temporary through the winter, I have some additional help against these monsters.  Like I said, don’t think of these Raiders here as Raiders; think of them as thousands of dangerous creatures that are here to help defend us.  We need to do whatever we can to support them, otherwise there is nothing preventing these things from reaching us.

There was silence as the other Cores considered what she said, while the invaders raced down the tunnel toward the arena.  They had a few minutes until they arrived at the massive room, which didn’t give them a ton of time.

“I see.  Did you happen to acquire information pertaining to an attack on your dungeon beforehand?” Regina asked.

No, but when you have the kind of luck that I have, I wanted to plan for the worst and hope for the best.  And since we’re all part of my “Shared Risk”, it wouldn’t surprise me that you all share my well-proven bad luck.

“And I told you that it isn’t necessarily bad luck, Tacca, no matter what you say,” Shale interjected, already back from his conversation with Sterge and Gwenda, which she had missed entirely.  “They’re spreading the word and will be ready.  Do you have a plan?”

Sure enough, the excitement of the crowd died down as screams of fear echoed through the arena, but they were drowned out by the sound of thousands of Raiders arming themselves and getting ready for battle.  Not that Tacca had much hope for them, being relatively low-Level and weak in comparison, but there was a strength in numbers; that had been proven by Tacca herself when her creatures had been able to overwhelm the first paired group of Raiders in the arena and managed to kill one, even if they were far below in Level.

Once they arrive, I’m going to release all of my creatures at once, giving them instructions to kill the invaders first.  After that, I will have no control over them – which, my new friends, is another little handicap that you may or may not have noticed and you’ll probably be affected by, as well.

“Great; you sold us a lemon here in this deal.  I need a refund.  I want to speak to your—"

Enough.  We need to work together in order to succeed.  Send your creatures as fast as you can, because that is the only way this will work.

Tacca just hoped that was true, because she still wasn’t sure what they could do to kill all of those arriving at the arena within a few minutes.  True, they had numbers on their side, but so did that enormous army of Raiders that had attacked to the north, and they had sadly failed to kill more than a few of the blue-skinned invaders.  When she added in the purple and red-skinned monsters, it seemed hopeless.

The other Cores grudgingly agreed, and a wide variety of creatures started to stream down the tunnel at full speed; whether or not they would arrive in time was another question, but they were moving as fast as they could.  Even if they made it in time, Tacca was more than worried that it wouldn’t be enough.

Unless she could find a way to even the playing field, they were doomed to defeat, even when every creature and Raider in the arena was there to fight against the invaders.  They had to try, though, didn’t they?

*          *          *

Sterge was enjoying the show today, just like he had enjoyed the last week of entertainment the arena had provided.  He never thought he would be one to actually enjoy watching Raiders fight against the monsters inside of a dungeon, but there was just something about witnessing a well-organized defense against odds that seemed doomed to failure.  As each group participated in their fights, ramping up the difficulty by having two separate groups work together to defeat overwhelming numbers of dangerous targets, it was exciting to see how they performed and succeeded.  In addition, while Sterge and his group didn’t participate themselves, they were learning a lot from those they watched, even if it was seeing how Melee classes blocked attacks with their shield, to how they saved their strength for the larger threats, to applications of abilities or strategies that they had never thought of before.

Take these three groups working together at the moment: while they were fighting more than twice their number of beasts, they were taking advantage of their 4 fully armored Melee classes to control where the wolves and other canine-like monsters went.  Arranged in a circle facing outwards to provide coverage, the Scouts filled in the gaps between the Melee, while the Casters and Healers were in the center, healing where they were needed or sending out various spells to hit their attackers where they could do the most damage.  They must have practiced this, because they look more like a 15-person group than 3 5-person groups.  It was that teamwork that was so impressive.

Something out of the corner of his eye caught his attention just as a small figure appeared in front of his face.  Sterge fumbled to pull out his mace attached to his side, because he recognized it immediately: it was one of those Fairies he’d seen help those monstrous creations that looked just like people that the dungeon had produced somehow.  Now that had been a crazy fight.

Suddenly, a tiny voice came from the Fairy.  “There’s no time to waste; those invaders that Tacca told you about when you first came back have found us!  They’re on their way here now!”

Who?  Tacca?  Wait…invaders?

Oh, no.

“Those six-armed monsters we warned everyone about?” Gwenda immediately asked, and Sterge turned to the side to see that it wasn’t just Gwenda that had seen the Fairy.  There were open stares as dozens of Raiders around them saw the fluttering figure, even if they couldn’t hear it over the noise of the arena.

“Yes, exactly!  You don’t have long before they arrive…” the little guy said, his tight-fitting clothes all sorts of shades of yellow, with some black streaks thrown in here and there.

Gwenda was on it before Sterge had even caught on to what was happening.  “What do you need us to do?”

“I don’t know, but you need to be prepared.  There’s…a lot of them.  I can only assume that Tacca is going to release the rest of her creatures from the rooms around here, so be aware that they will be coming.  Try not to attack them first; she can give them an order to attack these invaders, but if you interrupt that, they’ll turn on you.”

That’s just wonderful.

With the message delivered, the Fairy flew straight up toward the ceiling; Sterge looked to see where he went, only to see what appeared to be another handful of them waiting for him.  Even from so far away, he could see the fear practically radiating from their bodies in the way that they shook while trying to maintain a stable altitude.

“To arms!  Ready for battle!  The invaders to the north have found us!” Sterge immediately shouted, which was luckily taken up without any hesitation by those around him.  Sometimes it pays to have a bit of status, though normally I would rather it didn’t exist.

In less than 30 seconds, the word was out – just as the fight in the arena ended.  The confused look on their faces as hundreds of Raiders streamed out to the arena was soon erased as they understood what was going on, and they joined the waiting crowd of people getting into position.  Sterge, Gwenda, and the rest of their group joined the streaming masses, and within a few minutes half of the Raiders were on the floor while the others were spread out along the stands.

The two Hill Dwarves made sure to spread the word not to attack any of the dungeon monsters that came out to help, which everyone understood immediately; if the dungeon had built a place for them to stay, fed them, and gave them entertainment, then it surely would do whatever it could to save them.  At least, it sounded reasonable.

The next few minutes were tense, as everyone stood in separate groups, all awaiting the arrival of the invaders.  From behind him, he heard a whispered, “Are you sure there is something—” but whoever it was was cut off as the sound of multiple pounding feet could be heard in the otherwise silent arena, coming from the tunnel where they traveled from the Hall.  The sounds got louder and louder, until the echoes seemed to wash over the assembled Raiders groups, sending more than a few of them into shivers.

The first one they saw didn’t even bother to use the stairs on the side of the stands, as it jumped up the 50+ feet to the top.  Admittedly, Sterge wet himself just the tiniest bit at the first sight of the invader – and it was so much worse than he imagined.  Standing at least 8 feet tall, it had six arms like he had been told, and the horrendously disturbing eyes in their sunken eye sockets – enhanced by their shiny, blue-skinned bald heads – were enough to give him nightmares.  Though, it was what it did next that would likely prevent him from sleeping at all…if he lived long enough to sleep again, of course.

One of the Raider groups in their lower teens Level-wise engaged the first invader, and the Melee fighter immediately had his head taken off by a swift slice of a sharp-looking sword.  Multiple spells crossed the distance from the Caster of the group, who appeared to be an Elemental Mage, striking the monster perfectly in the chest – only for the spells to be absorbed by a strange bright glow that surrounded the figure.  An arrow from the Ranger in the group met the same fate, though Sterge could tell that the glow was just the tiniest fraction dimmer.  So, only about 50,000 more arrows and that should do it.

In the next few seconds, the blue-skinned monster rushed forward, its teeth-filled mouth wide open in what Sterge could only describe as glee as it proceeded to slaughter the rest of the group, taking another few hits in the process, which did absolutely nothing other than slightly dim the glowing shield around the invader.

As another one, and then another jumped up onto the stands, Sterge heard familiar *thumps* as the areas holding the dungeon monsters were unlocked, and beasts of every kind they had been watching battle the Raiders slid down their tunnels, along with some that they had only seen a few times.  Minotaurs, some walking bears, and a powerful Gnoll mage among others ran out, making a beeline for the incoming forces, going so far as to weave around the various groups of Raiders waiting on the arena floor.  At one point, an entire group of these large Rat-like things passed within inches of Sterge and his own group, and it was all he could do to stand his ground and not instinctively attack.

With things as bad as they were, he didn’t think they could get any worse – until he saw the head of something deep red cresting the side of one of the stands.  The next moment, he heard another *thump* that he thought came from the one tunnel slide they hadn’t seen anything emerge from up to that point.

When he looked to see what it was, his body abruptly decided at that time that it was better to fight with an empty bladder.

Chapter 30

Tacca was understandably nervous, but she was glad that the Raiders had assembled in time; in fact, they were so prepared that some of them appeared to be annoyed that they had to wait so long.  So, she was glad, but she was also envious that they were nominally ready for the arrival of the invaders – because Tacca certainly was not.

Considering her options, she realized that there wasn’t much she could do at that point.  Traps were basically out of the question, because they took entirely too long to appear, unless they were extremely weak – and weak ones would be a waste of time and Dungeon Force.  Not to mention that she couldn’t create any traps in the arena while any Raiders were inside, and that threw the potential for them right out the window.

Creatures were basically out as well, even if she had approximately 50 of her Control Limit left after the creatures that had just been fighting the Raiders had been killed; creating another relatively powerful creature would take too long – hours perhaps – so she left the Foxes, Coyotes, Jackals, and Wolves that were killed to recreate themselves automatically, as they would be inexpensive and fast-forming.

Looking at her options as a Dungeon Core, there really wasn’t much there to combat these invaders.  Aside from placing traps, creatures, and environmental objects, the only things she could do was Carve Earth, Dissolve Assistant Bond, and Teleport.  The first two wouldn’t do her much good, and as there wasn’t any safer place than her Core Room at the moment, Teleport was next to useless as well – though it could bring her to the arena if she dared to.  There was only reason that she might be tempted to Teleport to the arena, however: her Fairy abilities.

Almost all of her options as a Dungeon Assistant were location specific, such as the Healing Aura, Electrified Pacification, and Flame Wall.  She needed to be in the same room at least, if not closer, for them to work.  The one exception to this was the Mass Confusion ability for 700 Fairy Mana per minute, but she was hesitant to use that even though it affected her entire dungeon.  For one, she wasn’t sure if it would even affect the invaders through their Personal Force Fields; second, it would affect everything inside of the dungeon, including all of the Raiders and her creatures, which could end up with Raiders attacking Raiders, creatures attacking creatures, and creatures attacking Raiders.  Not a great idea overall, unless she had nothing else to lose, of course.

There were other abilities that didn’t require her to be in the same room, of course, like Repellant Shield, Invisibility, Assistant Information Meld, and Hibernate, but she didn’t think they would be of much use at the moment, since it seemed as though the invaders had been able to find her no matter what.  There was always Translocation, which cost 1,000 of her FM, but that was something that she would only attempt as a last resort.  While it might save her by moving her somewhere else, somewhere safe, she would abandon everyone inside of her dungeon – including the other Cores.  Not to mention that she wasn’t sure if it would even work, based on the fact that she was connected to those same Cores, and whether it would destroy her in the process if she tried to leave.

So, she was at a loss of what to do.  She would be able to contribute to the defense if she was inside of the arena, as long as she stayed safely far above everyone else and hoped that the invaders weren’t accurate enough to hit her up there – which she thought was possible, but it would be dangerous.  The problem was that if she Teleported inside the room, that was it; she wouldn’t be able to Teleport out as long as there was any type of Raider in close proximity, meaning inside of the room, itself.

“Wait, what was that other ability you gained?  What about that?” Shale asked, listening in to her internal conversation.  Since he was specifically Bonded to her Core, he had access to those kinds of things if she didn’t actively work to block them; right now, that wasn’t really a priority.

You mean Omen Charge?  I still have no idea what it does.

“Well, why don’t you find out?  You said that you’re still regenerating your Mana, so it shouldn’t be that much of a waste.”

Might as well, I guess.  The invaders were still a minute or two out from arriving at the arena, so she had a bare moment to experiment.

Thinking about activating Omen Charge, she imagined pumping 10 Fairy Mana into it.  Instantly, the outside of her Core seemed to be surrounded by some kind of lightning, crackling and undulating in strange patterns; luckily, it didn’t seem to harm her in the slightest.  If anything, it felt warming and like it was a part of her that she hadn’t realized existed before.

For 5 seconds, the lightning continued to surround her Core, before it condensed momentarily and exploded outwards in a spherical wave, dissipating approximately halfway to the walls of her Core Room, which meant that it traveled approximately 10 feet.  Not bad for 10 Fairy Mana, even if she had no idea what exactly it did.  Even pumping all 1,550 FM into it, though, she doubted that it would even reach the arena, as it was approximately a half-mile from her Core Room.  She had originally started creating it that far away so that she would have plenty of room to expand her new section, but now she regretted starting it so far away.

Tacca still hadn’t really made up her mind by the time the invaders arrived at the arena.  As she had feared, it was immediately apparent that it was going to be a slaughter.  Dozens of Raiders died within the first minute, with more dying as additional invaders managed to jump on top of the stands or make their way down to the arena floor.  Releasing her creatures to attack the monstrous six-armed people helped to stem the tide a little, giving them some breathing room, but nothing seemed to make much difference.

Not long after the battle started, creatures from the other dungeons started to appear, starting with the Giant Spiders that Brandon liked so much, which were remarkably fast.  They landed lightly on the stands, before starting to build a large web that was connected to the nearby pillar and the wall.

What are they doing?

“Well, do you want the other creatures coming to go splat?”

Good thinking.

A few seconds after the webbing was done, the Giant Spiders left to go join in the battle, as the first of the other Cores’ creatures arrived – an Ape – which fell into the web, bouncing off of it like some sort of blanket.  Tacca could tell that it was a little sticky, but not enough to stop it from rolling off and proceeding to jump into the fight as well.

Unfortunately, by that time, the red-skinned invader had arrived, after lagging behind the others because it had needed to nearly crawl through the tunnel.  After it stood up to its full height inside, it immediately jumped forward, squeezing between the quartz-covered pillar and the southern stands, landing on the arena floor with what she could only guess was a smile on its face.  As soon as she saw it appear, however, she released the last creature in her arsenal: the Level 75 Mastiff.

Those still waiting on the arena floor saw it emerge from the tunnel and ran out of its way, instinctively understanding that if they didn’t move, they would get run over.  Unfortunately, that was exactly what happened, as a Raider Healer didn’t move fast enough as the enormous dog clipped her with its paw accidentally, sending her flying.  She survived both the impact with the paw and with the ground, though whether that was a blessing or a curse was yet to be seen.

The giant dog was more than twice the height of the large invader, who seemed to wait for the beast to arrive.  As the Mastiff built up speed over a few steps, it seemed to dash forward faster than it should’ve been able, colliding with the comparatively miniscule invader, sending it flying backwards into the eastern stands, the glowing shield around it flaring brightly at first yet dimming to what Tacca estimated from previous experiences to about half of normal.

That was it?  A full-on attack and its Personal Force Field is only halfway down?  It was disappointing, but it unfortunately made sense based on what creature had done the attacking.  Her Mastiff was a bit of a “discount” boss and wasn’t meant to be the most powerful of creatures – just large.  That’s why she had made it for the current inhabitants, because they were low-Level for the most part; it would’ve been a massive challenge, but not an impossible one.

As the red-skinned invader picked itself back up and then jumped back into the arena, Tacca saw that her humongous creature hadn’t come through its own attack unscathed.  Blood dripped to the dirt-covered floor, and her dog limped a bit as it backed up, readying another attack.  It was favoring its left front leg, which seemed to have gotten a decent-sized slice in it from one – or more than one – of the invader’s weapons.

This isn’t good.  My best defense is wounded, and the Raiders are continuing to die without making much progress.  I have to do something.

“What do you think you can do—?” Shale began.

Tacca ignored him as she activated her Teleport Core option, moving her Core into the arena behind a pillar holding up the ceiling.  It wasn’t that great as far as hiding places went, but at least it wasn’t fully exposed.

The change in the room was immediate, as the 4 purple-skinned invaders immediately stopped what they were doing and turned as one in the direction of where she was hiding.  Some unintelligible shouting and pointing came next, but the other monstrous people in the room barely acknowledged the information.  Either they didn’t hear, or they were so caught up in the battle frenzy that they didn’t care.

Regardless of the reason, it allowed Tacca to do what she went there to do.

“Are you insane!  Are you trying to get yourself killed?!” Brandon shouted into her mind, which was echoed in different ways by the other Cores, as well as Shale.  She ignored them all, only responding with one thing.

Not really, but you only live thrice, am I right?

With a prayer to anything that might be listening, she activated her Omen Charge ability, pumping 500 Fairy Mana into it.  She wanted to put even more into it, to ensure that whatever it did worked, but she was cognizant enough that she needed to save at least 1,000 Mana so that she could Translocate as a last resort.

The lightning sprang up around her again, this time much more intense, powerful, and concentrated.  It was almost too intense, as she felt herself starting to vibrate along with the crackling, but she didn’t think it would cause any harm.  A few seconds later, as Raiders and creatures from 7 different dungeons continued to die below her, the lightning condensed again, before exploding out in a powerful shockwave that left her amazed that she hadn’t been shattered in the process.

She watched as the wave flowed over her creatures, the other Cores’ creatures, and the Raiders without any discernible effect – for which she was thankful.  It had been a worry that she might end up hurting them in the process, but some intuitive part of her mind told her that they would be fine; still, she didn’t relax until she saw that they were fine.

As for the invaders, when the shockwave hit them, they froze in place and spasmed a few times…but that was it.  That was severely disappointing.

“Wait—look!”  Shale pointed toward one of the blue-skinned invaders, who had been in the middle of decapitating a Raider, when it was rocked backwards as multiple spell bolts slammed into its chest. It recovered quickly, but that did nothing to disguise the fact that the glowing Personal Force Field that had protected it was…gone.  From what Tacca could tell over the next few seconds, it wasn’t coming back, either.

“Now we know how to take them out, General!  Spread the word!”

Seriously, Brandon?  Not now!

Around the arena, this discovery was made by both Raiders and invaders alike.  Strangely enough, rather than fight more cautiously, the six-armed, blue and purple-skinned monstrous people fought harder; not to be outdone, the Raiders matched their ferocity, throwing themselves into the fight.  Compared to just moments before, the revelation that those attacking them were now vulnerable gave them the morale boost they needed.

It also helped that the invaders’ weapons, previously with a special edge so powerful that they could easily cut through skin, bone, and even metal easily, now appeared to be just “normal” weapons.  Granted, they were still massive, heavy, and sharp weapons, but those fighting against them could actually block one with a shield and not end up being cut in half immediately.  The strength difference between the two types of fighters was still significant, though, so brute force was still enough to do some heavy damage.  Overall, it seemed as if everyone was on a more-level playing field; the invaders had the strength, while Tacca’s allies had numbers on their side.

Even better, she discovered something else after the first frantic seconds after she used her Omen Charge ability.

“Tacca!  I can use my abilities again!  And my Fairy Mana is regenerating—”

Then hurry, use whatever you have that might be beneficial.  To the other Dungeon Assistants, she added, And if you all have something that you’ve unlocked over the years, now would be the time to use it!

“But, shouldn’t we flee now that we can Translocate out?” Tulip asked hesitantly.

Shale shut that down quickly.  “No, our responsibility is to our Cores, and our Cores are fighting for their lives here.  Now, GET MOVING!”

Tacca saw Shale immediately use his Creature Boost ability after activating Invisibility, flying down to start affecting any and all creatures within range.  After a brief moment of obvious internal conflict, the other Assistants disappeared as well, and the Dungeon Core could sense someone activating a Healing Aura, another was using some sort of defensive ability that placed a temporary shield around some of the creatures, a third used his Fairy Mana to magically push one of the invaders off balance, while the others were using a mixture of offensive and defensive abilities.  The sucky part about it was that none of them could help the Raiders, as their abilities were tailored specifically to help the dungeon, of which the Raiders were certainly not a part.

Guess it’s up to me.

Abandoning her thought to hold some Fairy Mana in reserve in order to Translocate out in case of emergency, Tacca added her own Healing Aura, which was much more powerful than the other Fairies for some reason, and it reached every creature in the room.  Better yet, it reached her Bonded Hill Dwarves, who were in the middle of a fight.  All of the creatures in the arena, whether they were from her Core or one of the others, suddenly started to heal from their wounds at a rapid rate, extending the time they could be of use.

Knowing that just about every other ability would be detrimental to the Raiders in addition to the invaders, such as the Electrified Pacification or Blinding Flash, she instead concentrated on creating small Flame Walls that surrounded individual invaders for a few seconds while the Raiders gathered themselves and rallied.  Since it cost 500 FM per minute, and each Wall was up for a few seconds, she was only spending about 30 to 40 Fairy Mana on each Wall.  It got expensive after a while, but it helped her allies enough that it was worth it.

One by one, the invaders started to succumb to the superior numbers of the Raiders and her own creatures, though the toll they took in order to get to that point was horrific.  Bodies were strewn all around the arena, many in multiple pieces, and yet the fight still went on as a little less than a thousand surviving Raiders in the arena continued to push against the martially superior enemy.

Then, of course, there was the 20-foot-tall red-skinned invader; that was going to be a problem.

Chapter 31

Sterge went flying backwards as he blocked a hit from a mace larger than he was, feeling his arm break from the impact, and possibly something in his back as he hit the hard ground nearly 30 feet away.  The blue-colored invader couldn’t follow up on its attack to finish him off, though, because it was intercepted by a dozen other Raiders, all attempting to block other attacks – some successful, but most not.

The horrid monster was a whirlwind of blows, sending its 5 working arms out in directions that didn’t appear possible.  Still, it was vulnerable – as evidenced by the fact that one of its arms was dragging uselessly at its side – and they had to do everything they could to keep it contained while their long-range fighters, such as Gwenda and Mordecai, could hurt it enough to kill it.  He’d already seen a few of the six-armed attackers go down out of the corner of his eye in other parts of the arena, so he knew it was possible, but it was hard.

Sterge tried to get up, but a pain in his back made him seize up in pain, preventing him from moving.  Thankfully, he felt a soothing warmth flow through him as William was there a moment later, laying a hand on his shoulder, sending a healing spell through his body.

“I think you broke something important in your back, Sterge,” the Combat Medic shouted, his voice barely audible even inches away from the Hill Dwarf’s ear.  “I can block most of the pain, but I’m nearly out of energy to heal you anymore.  Perhaps I can find another Healer—”

Sterge abruptly felt something shift in his back and arm, causing him to spasm and jerk away from William’s hand.  An uncontrollable scream left his lips as a burning infused his body, the exact opposite of the Medic’s healing.  Fortunately, it only lasted a few seconds before it faded, leaving him a little winded from all of the screaming, but feeling…fine.  Better than fine, even, he felt revitalized.

“Thanks, Will.  I think I’m good to get back in there.”  He stood up, expecting some pain, but there wasn’t any.

Their Combat Medic looked confused.  “But I didn’t do anything!” he shouted.

Sterge just shrugged.  “Whatever it was, we have a few uninvited guests we need to kill.”

So saying, he ran back into the fray, only to be smacked away again, though not as far this time.  Either the invader was tiring, or Sterge only caught a glancing blow, but the hit didn’t feel nearly as strong as it was before. It still broke his arm, but somehow it healed itself by the time he picked himself up and got back into the fight. We’ve got this!  Let’s take this thing down!

It took another minute of a constant barrage of arrows, knives, and spells to finally hit something vital, as the blue-skinned monster suddenly started to spout blood from its neck.  While it had been wounded in dozens of places before and was bleeding slightly from each and every one, this wound had an immediate effect on the invader.  It suddenly swooned from loss of blood, and when it tried to strike out at the encroaching Melee-Class Raiders it stumbled, going to a knee.  Seeing wounded prey, Sterge and the others quickly took advantage, stabbing or smashing every part of the thing until it lay dead on the ground.

A quick breather was all they got as they stared around at each other with grins on their faces, sticky red and blue blood covering them from their own wounds and the fountain of blue liquid that came from the invader’s neck.  They were a gory mess – but they weren’t done yet.

Staying out of the middle of the arena by sticking to the edges, they joined up with dozens of other groups taking on a slightly larger, purple-colored monster, and their additional numbers were exactly what the beleaguered Raiders needed.  Another minute was all they needed to overwhelm the invader, though at least another dozen of their friends lay dead as a result.

Time passed in a blur of pain, exhaustion, and death, and before he knew it there were no more blue or purple monsters to slay.  A horrendous crash followed by a rumbling of the floor caused the tired Hill Dwarf to lose his footing, and he crashed down on his rear, smacking his shield against his face – which was quickly healed by whatever mysterious power was constantly fixing him back up.  He looked toward the middle of the arena, only to see the final result of why they had been avoiding the center in the first place.

The red-colored invader stood in the center, bleeding and obviously injured from multiple bite wounds, burns, cuts, and abrasions; unfortunately, he was also victorious in his battle against the dungeon’s monsters, as the gigantic axe it had been wielding was buried in the dirt and stone of the arena, having just chopped the head off of the largest dog Sterge had ever seen in his life.  Around the 8-armed figure was the loot left behind as evidence that it had completely devastated the monsters sent against it, wiping them out with deft strikes of its weapons, as well quick moves to avoid most of the injuries that it would’ve had otherwise.

At least, that was the Hill Dwarf’s impression having seen some of the colossal fight in his peripheral vision.

The invader roared, lifting its arms into the air in a challenge to everyone in the room, and the little bit that was still in Sterge’s bladder leaked out.  We can’t kill that thing…not with who is left.  Looking around, he realized that there were probably less than 500 Raiders still alive in the room, many of whom were still wounded because the Healers still alive were out of energy to do any healing spells.  Plus, everyone looked ready to drop from severe exhaustion.

Out of nowhere, bars of light suddenly flared around the invader.  They were extremely bright and made Sterge need to squint as he looked at it, but it didn’t take more than a second to see what it was: a cage.  A cage made from bars of light; who has the ability to cast that?  Not any of the Raiders, that was for sure.

The red-skinned monster attempted to break out, but was repulsed from breaking through the bars holding it captive.  While they were apparently made from pure light, they seemed to burn the invader’s skin when it attempted to shoulder its way through.  Its weapons were tried next, but they passed through the illuminated cell as if it wasn’t there; it was obvious to Sterge that the cage was only designed to hold flesh.

A familiar tiny voice could be heard above him, talking to Gwenda.  “Hurry, Tacca can only hold it for about 30 seconds before the Light Cage will disappear!  Throw everything you have at it!”  Then the tiny Fairy shot back up into the air, stopping about 50 feet above the imprisoned invader.

Sterge didn’t wait more than a second before he shouted, “Throw everything you have left at it!  Let’s kill it before it breaks free!”

At his signal, arrows and spells shot out, hitting the massive invader all over its body; since it was in a cage, it couldn’t dodge anything, though it sure tried.  Sterge could see that their attacks were causing some injuries, but nothing deep or fatal; similar to the blue and purple-skinned monstrous people, the natural thickness of its skin was so great that only extremely strong attacks or repeated strikes on the exact same spot could cause any more than minor damage.

The invader, trapped and being turned into a pincushion, went berserk.  It started throwing itself at the bars of light, which burned it badly, but it also started to bend and break the bars of light, as well; how that even worked, Sterge didn’t know, but it was happening before his eyes.  That thing isn’t going to last for 30 seconds; it’ll be lucky if it lasts half that long.

Sterge gripped his mace tightly, stepping forward as the cage began to break in earnest, dreading the moment it broke free.  Looking around, he could see the determined – and frightened – looks on every Raider face he saw, and he realized this might be their last stand.

Gwenda slumped in place next to him, all of her magical power completely spent on a last few Magistrikes sent out at the invader.  On impulse, Sterge slid his mace into his belt, turned to the wonderful Hill Dwarf next to him, lifted her drooping chin, and kissed her deeply on the lips.  He pulled away after only a few seconds, heat suffusing his cheeks, as he grabbed his mace again.

With a stunned look on her face, Gwenda asked, “What was that for?”

“In case we don’t make it out of here alive.”

On his last word, the cage made of light shattered completely, fragments of it spraying everywhere – though they seemed to disappear before the shards got more than a dozen feet.  The invader, with dozens of arrows dotting its skin and burn marks that appeared to have melted its skin in long swathes, stood triumphant with a murderous look in its disturbingly beady black eyes.  We’re screwed.

The monstrous behemoth took a step forward with another roar, its arms limbering up for some wholesale slaughter, when there was a barely audible *crack* of shattering stone from the ceiling above.  The invader obviously didn’t hear it while it was shouting, but Sterge and many of the Raiders certainly did.

As he looked up in surprise to see what it was, he saw that small fragments of the stone ceiling had been blasted out because of something, and a split second later the reason made itself abundantly clear.  A giant cube of something dark grey in appearance – around 8 feet in width – followed the stone fragments, falling quickly toward the arena floor.  What the…?

After it stopped roaring in triumph, the invader finally looked at its future victims.  Alerted by the fact that many of them were staring upwards with their mouths open, it whipped its head back on its super-thick neck, only to see its death coming for it.  Despite the surprise, the monstrous person still attempted to avoid being squished, quickly stepping forward – but it was only partially successful.

The cube of dense metal – that Sterge immediately recognized as pure iron ore – slammed into the invader’s right upper shoulder, knocking it forward enough that its right hip and leg were exposed to the falling raw material.  The unimaginably heavy cube slammed into the red-skinned figure’s lower half with speed and immense force, breaking bones on contact and trapping the invader underneath its weight.  The strike against the stone floor of the arena caused numerous cracks to spiderweb out from the point of impact, and it was such a significant force that it made Sterge and hundreds of other Raiders tumble to the ground.

Another roar came from the eight-armed monster, though Sterge could tell that this time it was from pain rather than victory.  When the Hill Dwarf had gathered himself from his fall to look, he could see that one entire leg of the invader was buried underneath the iron ore cube, likely shattered and pulverized to a pulp.  Yet, the ridiculously strong figure wasn’t done yet.

“No…that’s insane.  How powerful is this thing?”

Even lying on its back, the red-skinned invader somehow twisted its arm holding a massive battleaxe with some triple or quadruple-jointed action, until it was able to chop down on its lower half.  With three powerful blows accompanied by more roars of pain, it managed to cut its crushed leg off, freeing the rest of its body.

Dropping four of its weapons from the lower pairs on each side of its body, the nightmarish figure started to use its appendages to move, dragging behind its other leg, which was intact but appeared to be useless for some reason.  Meanwhile, blood poured out from the stump of its lost limb; Sterge was sure that unless it had some way to stop the blood loss, it was going to die.  Unfortunately, it might just take the rest of them with it.

Scrambling forward like some sort of demonic spider, the invader went to engage with the front line of Melee Raiders on the opposite side from Sterge, when he saw something move above its head.  It was the tiny Fairy again, and a small glow emerged from it—him—right before some sort of invisible force slammed into the red-skinned figure, sending it sprawling on its back.

Looking up, Sterge also saw 6 other Fairies appear above the arena, surrounding the figure struggling to pick itself back up.  More tiny glows originated from their forms, and the invader spasmed or was pushed around a little bit more, keeping it on its back.  The Hill Dwarf saw their opportunity, and knew this was their chance.  “Move!  Get it while it’s down!  Kill it!” he shouted, and all of the Raiders rushed to obey, screaming their defiance.

It was nightmarish chaos as he and the other Melee Classes, along with many of the Scouts, jumped on the struggling figure and swarmed it with their bodies.  Weapons rose and fell in frantic slashes and stabs, breaking through the tough exterior of the invader, even while attempting to avoid the wild swings of the four remaining weapons.  At one point, Sterge saw at least 5 Raiders holding onto the red-skinned arms, locking themselves in place with their legs, in an attempt to keep them restrained.  It seemed to do some good, as the flailing had lessened to the point where very few were getting hit anymore.

Looking up at a victorious yell coming from one of their own, Sterge saw Anton – missing half of his armor that at some point appeared to have been ripped off – raise his sword above his head and stab downwards with all of his strength.  From his location, he assumed he was somewhere near the invader’s neck or mouth, but there were so many people in between them that he couldn’t tell.  Wherever the disheveled Raider had struck, however, seemed to do the trick; a moment later the body underneath Sterge spasmed violently once, and then lay still.

Is it dead?  Did we kill it?  We…won?

Stunned and in shock, with some pain along his arm and ribs that apparently hadn’t been automatically healed, Sterge raised his head up and looked around at the arena and stands.  They were filled with the absolute carnage left behind by the attack, with blood, body parts, and dead invaders lying in the middle of it all.  Not exactly a victory.  But at least some of us survived.

Stumbling away from the corpse of the most frightening monster he’d ever seen, the exhaustion that he’d been trying to keep at bay while they were fighting finally caught up to him.  Falling to his knees, he felt arms surrounding him as he was gently laid on the ground, his head cradled by something soft. He smiled with his eyes closed as he felt fingers running through his beard, and he succumbed to the sleep of the thoroughly exhausted.

Chapter 32

Tacca had watched the red-skinned invader break out of the Light Cage she had placed around it with despair.  She had been hoping that she would be able to keep it contained long enough that the massive block of iron ore she frantically created high above the arena ceiling would squish the monstrous person, but her Assistant ability obviously wasn’t meant to contain something that strong.  With the help of the other Cores, they had Carved enough of a passageway for the block to be able to break through the thin covering they left over the chute they made for the cube; it had been at least partially successful, though, even if it didn’t squish the figure completely.

Still, the price had been quite high.  Thousands of Raiders had died, along with a few hundred non-Raiders, and the aftermath was horrendous to see.

“I…have no words.  I mean, I’ve seen death in my dungeon plenty of times over the last few centuries, but nothing quite on this scale or level of gruesomeness.  If I had a stomach still, I think I’d be throwing up in a corner.”

“I feel the same way, Kenzie.  I’ve watched hundreds of horror movies in my day, as well as action flicks, but nothing could prepare me for what we just witnessed.”

Tacca could agree with both Kenzie and Brandon, because she felt the same way.  If she could be physically sick, she would be; as it was, the level of gore and devastation had made her a bit overwhelmed.  During the battle, she had been focused on other things – like attempting to keep as many people as possible alive and to figure out a way to defeat the invaders – but now that she had a chance to look around, she felt like crying.

“Tacca.  Do you understand what you just did?  You defeated a small army of these things, and you didn’t even have to blow yourself up this time.”

No, Shale; we defeated them, not just me.  If it hadn’t been for the help of the Raiders, you and the other Dungeon Assistants, and the other Cores that we’re connected to, we couldn’t have succeeded in this.

She made sure to communicate with everyone that was a part of their little family, to impart her seriousness in how they all had played a part.

“What was that you used earlier?  The shockwave that seemed to short-circuit their Personal Force Fields and whatever else they had brought with them?”  David asked.

Short…circuit?  I’m not even sure what that means, but it was a special ability that I acquired from my last Core Improvement.  It’s called Omen Charge, and I wasn’t sure what it did until that moment.  It was a complete gamble, but it thankfully paid off.

“That’s my girl!” Patrick interjected, strangely pleased that Tacca had gambled on their lives for some reason.

“I think…and I could be wrong, mind you, but I think it has to do with what happened to you the last time you were attacked by them.”

“What do you mean?” Shale asked.  “What does that have anything to do with what happened?”  Tacca was curious, as well, because it was all a mystery to her; her new ability, the etching all over her Core that David said looked like something he knew, and even her miraculous survival when she blew herself up.

“Now, I’m not an expert on interdimensional physics or anything like that, but I’ve read a lot of books and played a lot of games – so I know a little bit of theory behind it.  Now, you said that when you were attacked before, you ended up blowing yourself up through a chain reaction with this ‘synergy energy’ and by rupturing the dimensional space in these bottomless bags the Raiders carry, right?”

Tacca wasn’t sure what half of what he said meant, but she had followed the last part.  Yes, that’s essentially what I did.

David seemed excited now, really getting into his explanation.  “Ok, so try to follow me on this.  I think that this ‘synergy energy’ amplified the effect of the dimensional explosion, but not only that, it also created a ‘synergy’ between your Core and anything not of this particular dimension.  Namely, the invaders.”

What?  But…I’m not all blue or purple or have 6 arms.

“Sorry, I forgot to clarify.  It wasn’t the invaders themselves that you ‘synergized’ with, but their technology.  I think you adapted the same sort of technological effects that their devices apply to their Personal Force Fields, their weapons, and whatever caused a rupture in the regeneration of Dungeon Force, Fairy Mana, and the use of those things by your Core and Dungeon Assistants.”

So, in effect that means…what, exactly?

“That your Core is now integrated with these invaders’ technology, allowing you to tap into and short-circuit – or overload – the devices they brought with them.  That is why your Core looks the way it does, because at this point you’re one third Fairy, one third Dungeon Core, and one third invader technology.”

And I survived in the first place, how?

“That I’m not as sure of, but I think it has to do with the dimensional space that was released from the bags you destroyed.  From my knowledge of particular games, these types of dimensional storage tend to want to keep the items placed inside intact, releasing them when called forth exactly how they looked when they were inserted.  My guess is that you were kicked out to an external dimensional pocket a moment before you were actually shattered, the storage space found that you weren’t quite intact; when it couldn’t hold you anymore since it didn’t technically exist from that point because its container was destroyed, it spit you back out, utilizing the ‘synergy energy’ that it absorbed at the same time to put you back together.  Simple, really,” David said matter-of-factly.

Tacca understood some of that, and what she did understand didn’t seem so simple.  Regardless, it was an explanation; whether that was what actually happened, she had no way of knowing.  Still, whatever it was allowed her to remove the Fields that had been protecting the invaders, so there was that.

“So what are we going to do, now?” Tulip asked, the fear and shakiness she and the other Assistants had displayed earlier completely gone.  Tacca was inordinately proud that all of them had enough courage to stick around and fight, rather than flee when the going got tough.  Any one of them could’ve easily abandoned their group when they were able to Translocate again, and it showed a dedication and fortitude that she wasn’t sure they had in them until now.

Well, we aren’t going to do anything until we get this place cleaned up and survive through the winter.  I think we’re also going to have to set some other defensive rooms up, working together, so that if there is another attack like this last one, we’ll be better prepared.  Now that we all know what we’re up against, we can hopefully figure out a way to fight back effectively without the brave sacrifices of so many Raiders in our defense.  Especially after they leave the mountain once winter is done, as they won’t be here to help.

“Once that is all done, though, what are your plans?” Regina questioned.

Tacca was about to respond that she didn’t know, but that wasn’t quite true.  While she didn’t know exactly what she wanted to do, she knew the end result she wanted to achieve.

Using this new knowledge and my new abilities, I want to wipe every trace of those invaders from the planet.

“Lofty goals, girl, but that seems like a lot of work—”

Almost in unison, Tacca and the other Cores shouted back, “Shut up, Karen!”

“Whatever.  As soon as I find and speak to whoever decided on transporting me here after my death, I’ll tell them about all of this abuse you’ve heaped down on me.”  Something in Karen’s voice made Tacca think that the other Core really enjoyed needling everyone else, and she was pleased she could get under their “skin”, so to say.  She didn’t seem vindictive or mean, it was just who she was as a person, or more accurately, as a Core.

“I don’t know how you plan on doing that, Tacca, considering that you’re sort of confined to this dungeon.  Unless these invaders send every single one of their kind down here, I doubt you’ll be able to wipe them all out.”

What Shale said was true, but Tacca also knew that she had to try…somehow.  Right now wasn’t the time for that, though, because they had some work to do.

The Raiders, after resting and healing their wounds after the battle, left within an hour or so of the 8-armed invader’s death.  Some were so wounded that they needed to be carried to where they would be able to heal once they had access to additional healing spells from the exhausted Healers in the group.  As they were leaving, she finally got a count of how many of them were left, as well as who had managed to avoid any type of combat still back in the Hall.

732 individuals were left.

Out of a total of 3,917 that had arrived at the Hall when winter started.

That meant that over 80% of those that had been living the day before were now dead, and the fact made Tacca more than a bit sad.  She had designed this place to save them from the harsh winter, but it had ended up being a deathtrap for most of them.  There wasn’t much that she could do about it now, though, except work to make sure the rest survived long enough to leave their temporary mountain habitation.

As soon as the room was 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 their 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 implied, other than learning what her Omen Charge ability could do, of course.

Such as?

“Well, I’m not sure if you’ve looked at your Point Awards lately, but…well, it speaks for itself, I would say.”

Tacca had been so focused on the battle that she hadn’t even registered the accumulation of Core Improvement Points from so many deaths.  Afterwards, she had been so involved in the cleanup of everything, as well as preparing some new defenses, that it had all slipped her mind; that, and there were more important things to consider at the time.

Core Improvement Point Awards

Type

Variable Conditions

Potential CIP

Current

Rooms Constructed

Size

1 – 50

565

Traps Installed

Complexity

1 – 20

1260

Monsters Created

Levels

1 – 20

985

Rewards Placed

Valuation

1 – 50

625

Raider Presence

Time

1 – 5

26560

Raider Deaths

Quality

100 – 10000

500570

Uh…what?

“I’ve done some calculations based on an average Quality rating of 122 per Raider Death, based on their approximate Levels.  I’ve determined, in addition to correlating the information you imparted about your last experience with these invaders, that each of the blue-colored ones were worth 5,000 Points, the purple were worth 6,000, and the larger red one was worth 8,000.  Naturally, there is a margin of error of approximately + or – 133.33 Points, but I’m fairly confident in my evaluation.”

The way Regina could talk about so many deaths was a little disturbing, but Tacca could understand that sometimes it was easier to deal with so much gruesome activity by considering it in the abstract, instead of putting faces to those numbers.  Regardless, if she was correct, then—

“You’re saying that there is something out there that might be even stronger than that red-skinned invader?” Shale asked, seeing the problem right away.  If it was only worth 8,000 Points…was there another invader worth 9,000?  10,000?  What would they even look like?  For all she knew, there were very few Raiders that had died inside dungeons that were ever recorded to top even 3,000; that didn’t mean they didn’t exist, of course, but only that they hadn’t died inside of a dungeon.  It hurt her mind even contemplating something more difficult than the eight-armed invader.

“Quite likely.”

Regardless of whether that was true, Tacca had to admit that the Points that she had earned seemed outrageous, but with over 3,000 Raiders dying in the dungeon – along with the invaders, of course – it made sense.  She had already earned quite a bit from Raider Presence alone, as well as from the creation of so many rooms, traps, and creatures, but earning over half a million Points from Deaths was almost sickening.  Then again, it would certainly be beneficial once she hit her yearly countdown – though that was months into the future.

The others, though, would be taking advantage of the windfall in less than a month, due to their altered countdowns from Tacca’s Shared Risk ability.  That alone could spell the difference between destruction and success in the future, as long as they were able to survive that long, of course.

Looking at her Awards from so many Raider Deaths wasn’t the only thing she had put off, though.  During the battle, as the tide had turned in favor of the Raiders, Tacca had risked taking advantage of the situation to do one more thing.

Bond Results:

Bonded Targets: 3

Abilities(s) Obtained: <error> Incompatible

Abilities(s) Granted: <error> Incompatible

Creature Type Unlocked: (Interdimensional Being) H%l#?t*^!p% <error>

Variants Unlocked: Fodder, Soldier, Elite

That was certainly unexpected.  She’d never seen an <error> before on any of her notifications.   The fact that any Abilities Obtained or Gained were “Incompatible” was likely due to the Creature Type she had unlocked: Interdimensional Being.

I guess that proves that they aren’t from our dimension, doesn’t it?

She shared what she had done with everyone else, as they already knew she could Bond with Raiders.

“What concerns me are those Variants you unlocked.  Fodder, as far as I remember from the games I’ve played in the past, usually means that they were expendable.  I’m assuming that was from one of the blue-skinned invaders?”

Yes, I Bonded with each color right before they died, including the red-skinned one – which I’m assuming is an Elite.

“Then that will probably mean that there are many more where they came from, which again is worrying.  And while the ‘Elite’ Variant meant that it was powerful, it certainly doesn’t mean that it was the most powerful Variant there is.  At least, according to my knowledge, which may or may not apply here.”

David had been relatively accurate in his guesses so far, so she had no reason to doubt him.  It was better to plan for potential threats beforehand rather than have to worry about them in the moment; if it turned out he was wrong, then it wouldn’t harm them in any way.

“This is all nearly too much for me,” Tulip abruptly whined.  “How did we go from Assisting Dungeon Cores to defending against interdimensional attacks?”

It was a good question – and one that no one had an answer to.

“I think,” Shale began, “that it’s about time to involve the Head Instructor and anyone else with experience in all of this.  What’s done is done, and it really doesn’t matter if he knows, but I believe that we’re going to need all of the help we can get in the future.”

Tacca wanted to immediately disagree, but she held her opinion.  It wasn’t just about her dislike for Lapis anymore, it was about all of them and their need for help.  What kind of help he might contribute, she wasn’t sure, but she had to reluctantly agree that it was probably best to seek out some advice.

Fine.  I guess I agree, even if I have personal feelings that make me want to say no.

She thought about the upcoming confrontation, and something about it made her feel a bit mischievous.

So, since I really don’t like speaking to him, who wants to be the one to tell Lapis that we’re all essentially Bonded together and breaking probably 50 rules and regulations in the process?

Their groaning response only served to make her chuckle.

Chapter 33

Malachite let himself drift off for a while, the exhaustion from being drained repeatedly just too much for his mind to handle for long.  There wasn’t much of interest that he could observe at that point, anyway, because the projection map that the blue invaders had been looking at disappeared and there was currently only one of the monstrous people in the room.  Since it was manipulating the panel on the long table in front of its figure, the Council Leader couldn’t see anything; after a while, he realized that all he was doing was staring at the back of the invader for no purpose.

He wasn’t sure how long he had drifted off, but a loud, annoying ringing noise woke him up.  His first sight of the room again was of three more of the blue-skinned invaders running into the room, followed by a purple-colored one, barking orders.  Orders that he couldn’t understand, since it was in no language he had ever heard before, but the tone was obvious enough that it told Malachite what was being conveyed.

Looking around as much as he could, he saw that many of the Fairies that had been captured and were imprisoned with him were awake as well, the loud alarm-like noise waking up even those that had been unconscious for as long as he had been there.

The large map projection was suddenly back up, as detailed as it was before, and he could see that the northern part looked very similar to how it appeared before.  Whatever the six-armed people were doing to the strange panel, they were able to manipulate the map so that it concentrated on the south, right where the glowing dot from earlier had been.  Correct that, where it still was.

There were 21 distinct symbols surrounding the dot, which he still assumed was Tacca’s Dungeon Core, gathered around as if they were hunting and had finally cornered their prey.  As far as Malachite could tell, from the perspective of the invaders, everything seemed to look alright; he didn’t see any reason to be alarmed.  Maybe they just want to know that their deed is done?  If those 21 symbols represent those they sent out to destroy Tacca’s Core, there’s no hope for her.

Unexpectedly, there was a blurring of those symbols, as if they were somehow being obscured.  The Council Leader could tell that something significant had just happened, because there was some frantic hand-waving and yelling, and another series of angry noises reverberated throughout the room.

Then – if he hadn’t seen it himself, he wouldn’t have believed it – the room’s walls seemed to be sucked into the floor, and the ceiling seemed to lift away as if it was some kind of hat.  Before his eyes and mind could register what was happening, Malachite’s world abruptly became so much bigger.  Whereas he had felt as if the area outside of this room had been large, it hadn’t prepared him for just how big it really was.

He looked up…and up…and up until he could barely make out the ceiling of the gigantic room he was in.  It must be at least 1,000 feet above my head, if not more.  The walls of this new room were even more impressive, as when he looked at them in the distance they were practically just a blurry image, as they were so far away.  Where am I?  What is this place?

All he could tell from his vantage point – as he couldn’t really look behind him that well – was that they seemed to be in the corner of a much larger space, made from a similar metal material as the original, smaller room.  There were lights everywhere along the walls, blinking or static, and there were strange lines running along them that he eventually worked out to be passageways behind some sort of transparent glass barrier.  There were other oddities nearly every other place he looked along the walls and the ceiling, but he was distracted by something else on the floor.

He couldn’t believe what he was looking at, as his mind couldn’t comprehend it at first.  What he originally thought was some sort of organic-looking black pillar about 50 feet away from his position, turned out to be something else entirely.  As he looked up again, he finally rearranged his brain into focus, only to realize what he was looking at: a 100-foot-tall, black-colored, 12-armed invader.  It wasn’t holding any weapons, thankfully, but Malachite was sure that if it had been armed, each weapon could destroy half of a Raider village in the blink of an eye.

It took all of his willpower not to pass out again, though this time it was from fear rather than exhaustion.

The map projection rapidly expanded, until it was so large that he couldn’t even keep it all in his current field of view.  There was a painful, deep shout that Malachite immediately knew came from the giant invader, and the focus again was on the southern Wentrylock mountain range and Tacca’s Core.  The symbols were present, though still obscured, and he saw them move around slightly, as if they were somehow tracking each movement of their people on a real-time basis; he wasn’t sure how he knew that was what he was looking at, but he instinctively knew it somehow.  Plus, it just made sense; otherwise, they wouldn’t be so intent on watching it.

Then one of the symbols, which had been blue to start with, suddenly stopped and turned red.  Another one switched to red and froze a moment later, then another, and another.  Now that he could see them better and they weren’t moving, he realized that 16 of the symbols were exactly the same though with little marks next to them that meant nothing to the Council Leader. Another 4 of them he could also classify as similar enough to be the same, while there was a unique one that seemed the most active, moving all over the place with rapid jumps.

One by one, all 20 of the other symbols stopped moving and turned red, leaving only the unique symbol still active.  Except, it didn’t appear to be moving; about 20 seconds went by before it moved, though it only seemed to jerk around a little before stopping completely and turning red like the others.

Does that mean they’re dead?  Did Tacca just defeat four times as many invaders as what had attacked her last time?  If she did, how did she do it?

There was absolute silence throughout the gigantic room, which was eerie, to say the least.  All of the invaders he saw were frozen, staring at the map projection in either shock, horror, or some other unrecognizable emotion.

Another roar from the enormous black-colored figure suddenly rang out, and the blue and purple-skinned invaders jumped into action, manipulating things on their panels, making the projection disappear as they worked.  The giant 12-armed monster took a step away from where it had been standing, freeing up his view of the rest of the room.  He sincerely wished he had remained ignorant of what he saw, though, as he saw row after row of blue-skinned invaders, hundreds or thousands of them, along with the slightly larger purple-colored ones, though in less numbers.  In addition to those, he also saw dozens of red-skinned figures, at least twice the size or more of even the purple invaders, with 8 arms instead of 6.

The next moment, the walls that had previously defined the room flowed back up from the floor, and the ceiling abruptly appeared to cap it off, shutting off the massive staging area from view.  Looking at the other captives with wide eyes, he wasn’t surprised to see that more than a few were actively weeping, having seen what appeared to be the doom for the world they had worked so diligently for hundreds and thousands of years to safely maintain.

However, what worried him the most wasn’t necessarily the fate his world had in store for it, but in the way his mind wouldn’t let up on something.  For some reason, he couldn’t help but think the last roar from the black-colored invader hadn’t been a shout of frustration, but one of amusement and laughter.

It was…excited.  There’s no other way to explain what I heard in its tone.

It seemed insane, after assumedly watching 21 of their own people die, but everything that these invaders did seemed insane – so it wasn’t that much of a surprise.

Tacca, I don’t know how you did what you did, but you better be ready; they’re coming for you.

The End of Book 3

Final Stats

Dungeon Core Status

Dungeon Core Name:

Tacca GloomLily

Core Improvement (CI) Level:

12

Core Improvement Points (CIP):

259/5900

Core Improvement Pending/Countdown:

500570 in 318 days

Special Characteristic Points (SCP):

25

Current Primary Assistant Bond:

Shale IronSchist

Dungeon Force (DF):

4000/4000

Dungeon Force Regeneration:

60 per minute

Reward Tier:

4

Control Limit:

1115/1200

Core Options:

Carve Earth

Targetable

5 DF per minute

Place Environmental Object

Targetable

Variable

Teleport

Instant

40 DF

Dissolve Assistant Bond

Instant

1 DF

Create Creature

Targetable

Variable

Create Trap

Targetable

Variable

Core Access:

Creature(s):

Canine Family, Feline Family, Semi-human Family, Hill Dwarves, Humans, Elves, Gnomes, Orcs, Dungeon Fairy, H%l#?t*^!p%

Variant(s):

All

Trap Specialization(s):

Enchantment, Life, Water

Environmental Access:

Forest, Mountain, Water

Permanent Assistant Sub-bond:

Tacca GloomLily

Special Characteristics:

Access all Variants for available dungeon creatures

All

Decreased Dungeon Force cost for all creatures and traps

40%

Decreased Control Limit for all creatures

60%

Increased Dungeon Force Regeneration

25%

All creatures start with extra Levels

1

Puzzle Traps require less Dungeon Force

33%

Experience for Dungeon Assistants is increased

50%

Frozen Tundra Environmental objects require less Dungeon Force

33%

Jungle Environmental objects require less Dungeon Force

33%

Increased speed of creature creation

35%

Dungeon Assistant Information

Assistant Name:

Tacca GloomLily

Assistant Rank:

Expert

Assistant Stage:

4/5

Experience:

7808/13900

Experience Pending/Countdown:

500750 in 5 years

Fairy Mana (FM):

1500/1550

Fairy Mana Regeneration:

55 per minute

Abilities:

Bond

Instant – Multiple

50+ FM

Omen Charge

Instant – Distance

10+ FM

Translocation

Instant

1000 FM

Blinding Flash

Instant

150 FM

Shattering Icicle

Instant

600 FM

Shared Risk

Automatic

0 FM

Leadership

Sustainable

75 FM per minute

Light Cage

Sustainable

300 FM per minute

Flame Wall

Sustainable

500 FM per minute

Mass Confusion

Sustainable

700 FM per minute

Assistant Information Meld

Sustainable

1 FM per minute

Electrified Pacification

Sustainable

250 FM per minute

Healing Aura

Sustainable

20 FM per minute

Hibernate

Sustainable

1 FM per minute

Invisibility

Sustainable

3 FM per minute

Repellant Shield

Sustainable

2 FM per minute

Locked (11)

Variable

Variable

Dungeon Assistant Information

Assistant Name:

Shale IronSchist

Assistant Rank:

Expert

Assistant Stage:

5/5

Experience:

8623/27800

Experience Pending/Countdown:

757014 in 50 years

Fairy Mana (FM):

2000/2000

Fairy Mana Regeneration:

80 per minute

Abilities:

Core Bond

Instant

50 FM

Translocation

Instant

70 FM

Forceful Repulse

Instant

400 FM

Mass Ejection

Instant

2000 FM

Energy Transmutation

Instant Transfer

0 FM

Hibernate

Sustainable

1 FM per minute

Electrified Pacification

Sustainable

250 FM per minute

Healing Aura

Sustainable

20 FM per minute

Creature Boost

Sustainable

40 FM per minute

Perception Link

Sustainable

5 FM per minute

Invisibility

Sustainable

3 FM per minute

Projectile Shield

Sustainable

500 FM per minute

Repellant Shield

Sustainable

2 FM per minute

Raider Status

Name:

Sterge Stonewell

Class:

Melee (Specialization Class Available)

Raider Level:

10

Power:

312/1100

Physical Attack:

11 (14)

Physical Defense:

10 (15)

Ranged Attack:

0

Ranged Defense:

6

Magical Attack:

0

Magical Defense:

5

Resistances:

Physical 6

Mental 5

Earth 2

Fire 0

Water 0

Air 0

Nature 0

Life 0

Death 0

Skills:

Blade 1 (32%)

Blunt 6 (15%)

Two-handed 1 (0%)

Block 8 (56%)

Light Armor 4 (65%)

Heavy Armor 1 (0%)

Abilities: (Class Specialization Pending)

Forceful Smash (Blunt)

Slam (Shield)

Analyze (Targeted)

Ignore Defense (Blunt)

Dungeon Sight (Enhancement)

Power Boost +50% (Permanent)

Raider Status

Name:

Gwenda Pebbleforge

Class:

Caster (Specialization Class Available)

Raider Level:

10

Power:

312/1100

Physical Attack:

3 (4)

Physical Defense:

2 (3)

Ranged Attack:

0

Ranged Defense:

0

Magical Attack:

5 (7)

Magical Defense:

5

Resistances:

Physical 3

Mental 7

Earth 2

Fire 0

Water 0

Air 0

Nature 0

Life 0

Death 0

Skills:

Staves 2 (92%)

Casting Focus 5 (64%)

Introspection 2 (13%)

Offensive Spells 8 (14%)

Status Effect Spells 3 (47%)

Defensive Spells 4 (96%)

Abilities: (Class Specialization Pending)

Magistrike (Staff)

Sapping Fog (Staff)

Magibarrier (Staff)

Magiburst (Staff)

Piercing Flash (Staff)

Reflection (Staff)

Analyze (Targeted)

Dungeon Sight (Enhancement)

Power Boost +50% (Permanent)

Author’s Note

Thank you for reading Book 3 of The Hapless Dungeon Fairy!

I hope you had as much fun reading it as I did writing the story!  There were some interesting developments in this volume, including some major advancements to her Core Improvement Level and Dungeon Assistant Rank – along with Shale, of course.  Not only that, but she discovered she has a way to fight back against the invaders, though how she will apply that in the future is still a mystery.

As for those invaders, I wanted to give a glimpse into who they were, and perhaps some reasons into why they are there in the first place.  There will be many more revelations in the next (and last) book in the series, which I hope to have out in early summer 2021!

Again, thank you for reading and I implore you to consider leaving a review or rating – I love 4 and 5-star ones!  Reviews make it more likely that others will pick up a good book and read it!

If you enjoy dungeon core, dungeon corps, dungeon master, dungeon lord, dungeonlit, or any other type of dungeon-themed stories and content, check out the Dungeon Corps Facebook group, where you can find all sorts of dungeon content.

If you would like to learn more about the GameLit genre, please join the GameLit Society Facebook group.

LitRPG is a growing subgenre of GameLit – if you are fond of LitRPG, Fantasy, Space Opera, and the Cyberpunk styles of books, please join the LitRPG Books Facebook group.

For another great Facebook group, visit LitRPG Rebels or LitRPG Forum.

Also, on Amazon, check out the LitRPG storefront for a large selection of LitRPG, GameLit, and Dungeon Core books from the biggest authors in the genre!

If you would like to contact me with any questions, comments, or suggestions for future books you would like to see, you can reach me at jonathanbrooksauthor@gmail.com.

Visit my Patreon page at https://www.patreon.com/jonathanbrooksauthor and become a patron for as little as $2 a month!  As a patron, you have access to my current works-in-progress, which I update with (unedited) chapters every Friday.  So, if you can’t wait to find out what happens next in one of my series, this is the place for you!

I will try to keep my blog updated on any new developments, which you can find on my Author Page on Amazon.  In addition, you can check out and like my Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/dungeoncorejonathanbrooks

To sign up for my mailing list, please visit: http://eepurl.com/dl0bK5

To learn more about LitRPG, talk to authors including myself, and just have an awesome time, please join the LitRPG Group.

Books by Jonathan Brooks

Glendaria Awakens Trilogy

Dungeon Player (Audiobook available)

Dungeon Crisis (Audiobook available)

Dungeon Guild (Audiobook available)

Glendaria Awakens Trilogy Compilation w/bonus material (Audiobook coming soon)

Uniworld Online Trilogy (2nd Edition)

The Song Maiden (Audiobook available)

The Song Mistress (Audiobook available)

The Song Matron (Audiobook coming soon)

Uniworld Online Trilogy Compilation

Station Cores Series

The Station Core (Audiobook available)

The Quizard Mountains (Audiobook available)

The Guardian Guild (Audiobook available)

The Kingdom Rises (Audiobook available)

The Other Core (Audiobook available)

Station Cores Compilation Complete: Books 1-5 (Audiobook available)

Spirit Cores Series

Core of Fear (Audiobook available)

Children of Fear (Audiobook available)

Carnival of Fear (Audiobook coming soon)

Dungeon World Series

Dungeon World (Audiobook available)

Dungeon World 2 (Audiobook available)

Dungeon World 3 (Audiobook available)

Dungeon World 4 (Audiobook available)

Dungeon World 5 (Audiobook available)

Dungeon World Box Set: Books 1-5

Dungeon Crafting Series

The Crafter’s Dungeon (Audiobook available)

The Crafter’s Defense (Audiobook available)

The Crafter’s Dilemma (Audiobook available)

The Crafter’s Darkness (Audiobook available)

The Crafter’s Dominion

The Crafter’s Dynasty – May/June 2021

Dungeon Crafting Series: Books 1 – 3 (Audiobook available)

The Hapless Dungeon Fairy Series

The Dungeon Fairy (Audiobook available)

The Dungeon Fairy: Two Choices (Audiobook available)

The Dungeon Fairy: Three Lives

Serious Probabilities Series

Dungeon of Chance: Even Odds (Audiobook available)

Dungeon of Chance Book 2 – April/May 2021

The Body’s Dungeon (with Jeffrey “Falcon” Logue)

Bio Dungeon: Symbiote (Audiobook available)

Bio Dungeon: Parasyte (Audiobook available)

Bio Dungeon: (Book 3) – March/April 2021

Tales of Dungeons Anthology

Tales of Dungeons Vol. 2

Tales of Dungeons Vol. 3

Tales of Dungeons All Hallows 2020

[1]

Special Characteristics [Partial List]

Special Characteristics

Value

Cost (SCP)

Decreased Dungeon Force cost of all creatures and traps

5%

25

Decreased Dungeon Force cost of all creatures and traps

10%

75

Decreased Dungeon Force cost of all creatures and traps

25%

350

Decreased Dungeon Force cost of all creatures and traps

40%

700

Decreased Dungeon Force cost of all creatures and traps

50%

1000

Decreased Dungeon Force cost of all creatures and traps

60%

1250

----------------

--------

--------

Decreased Control Limit for all creatures

10%

25

Decreased Control Limit for all creatures

25%

75

Decreased Control Limit for all creatures

40%

350

Decreased Control Limit for all creatures

60%

700

Decreased Control Limit for all creatures

70%

1000

Decreased Control Limit for all creatures

80%

1250