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

But—

“No, I’ve made my decision.  If you’re dead set on doing this, then I’m going to be along for the ride – no matter what happens.”

Figurative warmth suffused her Core at his words, and Tacca couldn’t help but feel privileged that she had ended up with such a wonderful Assistant.

Ride or die, Shale.  Ride or die.

“Huh?”

Just something a Core once said to me when I refused to leave them when they were under attack.  Basically, it means sticking with someone till the end, no matter what.

He chuckled at the explanation.  “Well then – ride or die, Tacca.  Ride or die.”

Chapter 19

It turned out that none of the Cores were willing to risk themselves in such a dangerous venture…yet.  She had a feeling they would soon change their minds once they realized how isolated they were, which had been done on purpose to protect them from the invaders; since it had only been a few days or weeks in a few of their cases, the longer they went without any external stimulation, the more likely that they would be willing to risk their Cores for the chance of having some sort of interaction with others, Raiders or otherwise.

Therefore, it was left to Tacca to continue creating the new space for the people to survive the winter.  Her massive room was soon finished at 500 feet in depth, and she looked at it with a discerning eye, seeing it as she had imagined: a grand entrance Hall.  Starting on the bottom of the side walls, she began making small hallways that led to modest-sized rooms 10 feet in width and 30 in depth, with 10-foot ceilings.  Each of these were going to be spaces where people could live, though she wasn’t exactly able to furnish them with what she could create.  Separate, private areas were about the best she could accomplish at this point.

After placing 46 of these rooms on either side of the Hall, for a total of 92 (which she thought might comfortably hold 6 people per room), she used her ability to create stone to fashion some stairs in two separate areas along both walls, which led 12 feet up to a stone landing she created and which ran the length of each wall.  The platforms, supported by small columns underneath and attached to the wall itself, was 8 feet wide, with a short stone railing about 4 feet high running along the side jutting out into the Hall – so that no one would fall off accidentally.

Along these platforms, she copied what she had done on the ground floor and created another 92 rooms (46 on each side again).  Then it was just a matter of building upwards, extending the staircase out into the Hall a little so that she could make a set of stairs that switch-backed upon itself and rose all the way to the ceiling.  As an afterthought, she also added a short wall to the stairs, so that no one would fall off of them, the same as the platforms she was creating along the walls.

By the time she was done, she had 7 platforms, all with rooms that people could use to live within.  Including the ground floor, there were a total of 736 modest-sized rooms, holding 6 people each, for a total capacity of 4,416 people.  She wasn’t sure if there would be that many staying inside of the large space, but at least it was there if they needed it.

That took care of the living arrangements, and now it was time for how to feed them.  While she couldn’t actually grow food, and the plants that she had access to weren’t really edible, she could provide the space and dirt for the people to grow their own.  Also, if she was right, then her Dungeon Force-created soil would help them grow their food even faster.  All they needed was space.

Instead of one huge room, Tacca decided on multiple rooms that could be farmed a little better than one massive field.  Therefore, at the backside of the Hall, she created a wide doorway that led to a long tunnel, which then branched off 3 times into junctions, leading to the left and right, as well as continuing straight ahead.  At the end of the 6 tunnels she created to the left and right, she started hollowing out 10-foot-high rooms that were 100 feet wide and 200 feet long, before filling them with dirt that was 1 foot deep.  A 3-foot-wide stone walkway along the center of the room going all the way to the back finished it off, allowing people to walk through the room in order to access everything.

In the 7th room, which was at the end of the main tunnel, she created a large storeroom that was 200 feet wide and long, with stone walls that shot out from the walls, allowing there to be some sort of separation for the different crops that they could grow.  When that was done, her concentration left her project as she figuratively stepped back and saw what she had accomplished.

Better yet, it had only been 1 week and 6 days!  When she was determined, she could certainly accomplish a lot, she found; not only that, but if she applied Carve Earth in multiple sections, she could remove the dirt and stone at quite accelerated speeds.

What do you think, Shale?

Her Dungeon Assistant popped over via his Translocation and looked at everything, making pleased noises as he saw all of the rooms Tacca had carved out of the mountain, as well as the makeshift farms and storeroom.

“It looks great, Tacca, and I think it’ll work for them, at least for a month.” Shale hesitated for a moment.  “However….”

What?

“Don’t you think you’re forgetting something?”

Tacca looked around the entire complex she had constructed, trying to figure out