The Dungeon Fairy: A Dungeon Core Escapade (The Hapless Dungeon Fairy Book 1) by Jonathan Brooks (read novel full .txt) 📕

a strange change come over her Core form.  Pain that she didn’t even think she could experience ripped through her, blinding her to the enclosed space around her; the torture seemed to go on forever and she thought that her mind was going to start breaking if it continued any longer.  Before it got to that point, luckily, she lost all awareness of her tiny dungeon as she blacked out…again.

Chapter 12

The transition from an unconscious state to full awareness was practically instant, because Tacca didn’t remember anything in between.  One moment she was blind and unaware of the world around her; the next, she was looking around her small dungeon space with new eyes and a control she hadn’t had before.  Whereas before she could easily look around the small space and see everything, now everything felt as if it was within her figurative grasp.  Physically touching something was still beyond her capabilities, of course, but manipulating it using her mind was certainly now a possibility.

She looked with sadness towards the Fairy corpse nearby, seeing it for the first time on a fundamental level; with a thought, she was pretty sure she could make it disappear and be absorbed into her dungeon, as it was now just an inanimate object.  Something that consisted of flesh, congealed blood, bone, diaphanous wing cartilage, and Mood Dress fabric – but an inanimate object, nonetheless.  Tacca almost got rid of it because she didn’t want to see it anymore – since it brought back memories of what she had lost – though she managed to stop herself before she completed the act.

What happens if—no, when—someone comes looking for me?  She knew she had some time, of course, before that happened.  Once a year, every Dungeon Assistant was expected to report in to the DPRC, even if it was only for a few minutes – so Tacca assumed that it was at least another 11 months or so before anyone came to investigate her non-appearance.  She reevaluated her estimation, however, after looking at her corpse a little longer; based on the decay, she figured that she might only have about half of that.  I…was out for that long?

The Council had some strange way to monitor the existence of Dungeon Cores, so it could tell right away if a Core sprang into existence or was destroyed.  That was how they always ensured there was a Dungeon Assistant nearby when they first developed enough to see the world around them, and also how Lead Placement Council Member Lily had always seemed to know when Tacca was available for another assignment.

As far as she knew, there wasn’t any way for them to monitor the state of Dungeon Assistants in the same way, which was why they had to regularly check in.  There was some leeway, though, because if their Dungeon Core was in the middle of something important they could delay their appearance for a week or two, but after that the DPRC would start to grow worried – or suspicious.  It rarely ever happened, but in the past there were some Dungeon Assistants that flat-out abandoned their placements after convincing their Core to dissolve their Bond – and then disappeared as if they had never been.  Their names were known to everyone however, as they were reviled for their behavior and abandonment, even going so far as to destroy the reputation of their families.

Despite not really caring about what everyone thought of her, Tacca had no desire to tarnish the memory of her parents – who were reportedly well-known and loved in the Dungeon Assistant community.  From overheard conversations between some of her instructors, she was pretty sure that their reputation was the only thing that had kept her alive and safe when she was growing up.  Regardless of whether that was a fact or not, the last thing the former Assistant-turned-Dungeon Core wanted was to taint the vague memories she had of them.

Therefore, she left her corpse alone, though she would probably move it later and possibly cover it to keep any future Raiders away.  She’d rather be known as a failure – which, honestly, isn’t something new – than a deserter, so she needed to make sure whoever came to check on her found her body and reported back to the Council.  The whole situation was a bit macabre, though she could tell that her new form was already making things such as dead bodies a bit less impactful as they were when she was a Fairy.  It wasn’t necessarily that she was starting to become desensitized; it was more like such a thing was…normal.

I suppose it would have to be like that, because a Core that’s bothered by killing Raiders or watching their creatures be slaughtered wouldn’t last long.

Putting the existence of her former shell out of her mind was difficult, but not as difficult as she feared; within minutes, she was ignoring it as if it wasn’t even there, a blind spot that didn’t even exist for the time being.  As her mind firmed up from the trauma she had experienced and her new determination to make the best of the situation she was in, Tacca finally acquired the information she was lacking before she chose her initial starting selections.

Dungeon Core Status

Dungeon Core Name:

Tacca GloomLily

Core Improvement (CI) Level:

1

Core Improvement Points (CIP):

0/100

Core Improvement Pending/Countdown:

0 in 30 days

Special Characteristic Points (SCP):

0

Current Primary Assistant Bond:

None

Dungeon Force (DF):

500/500

Dungeon Force Regeneration:

3 per minute

Reward Tier:

1

Control Limit:

0/100

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 (select for options)

Variant(s):

All

Trap Specialization(s):

Enchantment

Environmental Access:

Forest

Permanent Assistant Sub-bond:

Tacca GloomLily

Special Characteristics:

Access all Variants for available dungeon