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

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