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

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 enforced 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