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

she was doing, as much as it seemed strange to Shale, was for the future – and not necessarily now.  That wasn’t to say that what she did now wasn’t important, because it was; she needed to have a steady foundation, after all, and that was what she was building.

“Fine, do what you want.  You seem to have this all in hand like you said, though don’t go blaming me when the Raiders invade and barely look around at what you’re decorating with.  From what I’ve heard, they’re more interested in killing creatures and collecting rewards than looking at trees,” Shale said sullenly.  Tacca could tell he was a bit perturbed that the Dungeon Core wasn’t taking his advice, and he was probably feeling a bit useless; she could understand that better than almost anyone else, especially based on her recent experiences with her own “problem” Cores.

“I appreciate your advice, but I’ve got this first part planned out fairly well.  I may need help in the future on the next stage of my plan, if you don’t mind helping me with getting all of the details settled,” she offered, trying to placate him a bit.  It worked.

“I would love to; I’m feeling kind of unneeded here, and I’d like to help out where I can.”

Of course, the next stage of her plan was a bit of a ways away; she was telling the truth, though – she really hadn’t worked it out except for a few general ideas.  It all hinged on whether this first part worked.

Using a constant stream of Dungeon Force with Carve Earth was even safer now that her Core was basically all repaired; she upped the amount of time she spent using it from three hours to twelve, before giving it a rest for an hour.  Even then, Tacca was confident she could constantly use it for even longer, but she was still being a little cautious – she didn’t want to stupidly crack her Core again.  That all changed when it came time to fill her dungeon with Environmental Objects, as she spent more Force at one time than she had previously.

First, she spent 2 DF per cubic foot of soil to fill in each of her rooms, though she did it slowly, so as not to stress the amount of Force streaming out of her Core.  It was interesting to watch the creation of Environmental Objects, because – unlike creatures and traps – the time it took to create them wasn’t measured in minutes or hours, but seconds.  As soon as she directed her Dungeon Force to create soil, for example, it shot through her tunnels and rooms in a flash, pooling in the spot she selected; after a few seconds, fresh loamy soil appeared in relatively stable blocks.  If she left them alone for a few minutes they would collapse and fall apart, but if she kept the process going – by adding another block a little bit of time after one finished – she was able to keep it going until she filled up the entire room.

All in all, her seven rooms required a lot of soil to fill completely.  After it took 2,500 cubic feet of just plain dirt – totaling 5,000 Dungeon Force and 7 hours of constantly creating another block every 10 seconds – she began to understand a little of what Shale was talking about.  The amount of Dungeon Force and time she spent making Objects that didn’t add any Core Improvement Points, weren’t necessary to defend her dungeon rooms, and were usually applied for aesthetic purposes was staggering.  Finally, after three days of placing dirt everywhere – except her Core Room and connecting tunnels – she was done.

Then came the next part that made the Forest Environment a forest: trees.  Not just trees, but ferns, shrubs, lichen, moss, and Tacca’s favorite – wildflowers.  There was one room that was completely full of ferns, one full of the wider and fuller shrubs, another that had hundreds of wildflowers, and still others that had combinations of all of them.  Where she ran into trouble, however, was when she filled her Boss Room with trees stretching up to the ceiling; as it was her largest room with 50ft ceilings, each tree cost 50 Dungeon Force to create – the most expensive single item she had made so far.

After creating a dozen of them in way too short of time, she felt that same “knife-stabbing” feeling in her Core and heard a sharp cracking noise coming from her Core Room.  Looking at it from the outside, she saw a large crack running from the top to halfway down her fragile form.

“Whoa – what happened, Tamara?  Did something hit you?  I didn’t see anything in here – is your dungeon under attack?” Shale asked as he panicked and fluttered around the Core Room.

“No, we’re fine – I’m just stupid.  I spent too much Dungeon Force too quickly, mainly because I was eager to get the placement of all my Environmental Objects done.”

Her Dungeon Assistant flew closer and got a better look at her Core.  “Is that…why you had so many cracks in your Core before?  I’ve never heard of something like that happening before; as far as I know, you should be able to freely use your Dungeon Force however you want,” he stated, sounding extremely confused.

“Well, I guess I’m just special or something, because my form here seems to get stressed if I use too much Force or for too long.  Maybe it has something to do with my Special Characteristics?”

Tacca didn’t even want to attempt to explain what she thought the real reason was – having a Dungeon and Assistant soul in the Core at the same time – so she figured one explanation was as good as another.  “Hmm…I guess that could explain it.  I’ve never heard of any dungeons taking those negative Characteristics before,