The Dungeon Fairy: Three Lives: A Dungeon Core Escapade (The Hapless Dungeon Fairy Book 3) by Jonathan Brooks (the false prince TXT) 📕

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 for long enough.  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