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

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