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

body.  Malachite had even apologized for what they had done in placing her with Cores they wanted removed, even though she had her doubts if he had even been directly responsible for what had been done to her.

She was, in no way, ready to forgive the Head Instructor for the emotional abuse he propagated during her schooling.

“Fine; I suppose I can understand.”  Shale sighed.  “I suppose you want me to gather up the other Assistants?”

Yes, please.  We have a lot we need to go over, and without Malachite heading up our leadership, we’re basically on our own here.

Her Dungeon Assistant disappeared a few moments later using his Translocation ability, and Tacca busied herself in continuing her excavation of the giant room she was working on.  No more than 15 minutes later, Shale returned with 6 other Fairies in tow, none of whom she recognized – though she knew that these were the Dungeon Assistants assigned to the Cores in her Nursery.

One after another, Tacca used her Bond to connect with all of them, which provided them with the Core Communication ability so she could speak with them.  Sadly, she didn’t receive anything in return, like she had with Malachite or Lapis; she figured this was because she still had 17 “Locked” abilities she had yet to see, and whatever she would’ve gotten from these Fairies were likely duplicates.

When the 4 female and 2 male Fairies had been Bonded, the process of which clearly surprised the heck out of them, she spoke to all of them at the same time.

Welcome!  Sorry for the abrupt Bonding, but I needed to be able to speak with you all, especially if we’re going to be working together in the very near future.

“What did you just do!  How is this possible?” one of the female Fairies asked, which reminded Tacca that she really needed to learn their names.

“You’ll find that Tacca’s Core is a bit unique, and this is just one of the unique abilities she has,” Shale offered before Tacca could speak.  “Because it would be better for everyone involved to know the exact situation here, I feel it is better if some truths were let out in the open before we get started.”

Do you really think that is a good idea—? Tacca asked him privately.

He replied mentally, keeping the communication solely to her.  “Yes, otherwise this won’t work.  Trust me, it’s better this way.”

She did trust him, so she let him have his way.  Besides, he was much better suited to interacting with other Dungeon Assistants than she was, mainly because Tacca had avoided any type of social interaction when she was in school.

While Tacca tried not to cringe every other moment, Shale started a lengthy explanation of what had happened to her and how she ended up in a Core, though she was thankful that he left out the majority of her experiences before that happened. Then again, it was quite possible that they knew who she was and about her reputation as “The Deliverer”, but none of them showed any type of visible reaction to her name.

Shale also described what had happened since she had become a Core, how she built her dungeon, and the improvements she had made.  That definitely had a reaction, and before she could stop them, they asked Tacca’s Dungeon Assistant for a tour of her dungeon.  They were practically gushing over the Rotating Stone Bridges used as exit doorways, the exit tunnels themselves, and the way she used a creature at the entrance to signal when the next group of Raiders could enter.  But what they especially liked, over all of that, was how she had such a wide variety of creatures.

“…and let me tell you, it was crazy how many Core Improvement Points she missed out on until she was able to remove those negative Special Characteristics, but you can see that it was worth it.  This is something that you can advise your Cores to consider – once they increase their Level enough to afford so many SCPs, of course.  Now that we know that a family of creatures will work as a choice, the ‘All Variants’ Characteristic is very powerful.”

Hearing Shale tell the others about her exploits with pride in his voice made her feel all warm and fuzzy inside, and she had to admit that it felt good being able to pass on the knowledge she had acquired – even if it were through an intermediary like her Assistant.

“But how did she accomplish so much in so little time?” one of the new Fairies asked.

“Well, that is another unique part of her Core. Her Point countdowns had been shrunk from 1 year to 1 month for the first 20 Core Improvement Levels, which made her advancement quite rapid.”

“That’s…that’s unbelievable!  How did she get so lucky?”

Shale chuckled, shaking his head.  “That’s what I was trying to tell her, as well, but she didn’t seem to believe me.  Then again, it wasn’t all beneficial for her….”

Her Dungeon Assistant then explained how fragile her Core was, how she had been limited on what she could create, and how her initial starting statistics had been less than a normal Core would have access to.  Then came another description of how she had been attacked, including more detailed depictions of the blue-skinned, 6-armed invaders than any of the other Fairies had heard by that point.  Finally, he arrived at the current day, choking up a little as he told them about Malachite being missing and possibly dead, though he did mention that he might still be alive somewhere – but no one knew for sure.

“So, that’s the current state of affairs.  From what I’ve been told, the Council Leader mentioned to all of your Cores that he would move them again once this whole business with these monstrous people is taken care of, but we