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

only be forced to live inside of the mountain for a month, and “roughing it” was much easier inside than sleeping on the ground outside of the town like the Dungeon Core had seen through Shale’s eyes.

However, as far as food went, it was how well the farming was going that surprised both Tacca and her two Bonded Hill Dwarves.  The first plot of dirt they planted with seeds grew substantially faster than either of them had supposed, with sprouts shooting up within minutes of being planted and watered.  In 24 hours, the stalks of wheat, corn, and a small variety of other edible foodstuffs had matured and were ready for harvest.  From what she learned from listening into conversations, this was much faster than anything they could grow outside.

In short, they were pleased – and they would survive.

With the revelation of the fast-growing plots of soil, there was a massive operation set up to plant, harvest, store, and even transport the newly grown crops out of Tacca’s dungeon to help feed the town and those living thereabouts.  After a week, they had grown enough to easily feed the entire nearby population, with at least a little to spare – which didn’t even count the fields of food growing outside of the mountain.

All of that was perfectly fine for Tacca, though, because she was getting plenty in return.  At first it had been a trickle of earned Core Improvement Points, but as such a large quantity of Raiders moved in and out of what was technically her dungeon – despite the only connection being a 3-inch-wide tunnel in an unobtrusive section of the Hall – she began to see major gains.  Where she might earn a little less than 50 Points a day with her regular dungeon sections, she was soon gaining 400 to 500 a day from visitors to her new creation!  Even the non-Raiders provided some points, though Tacca estimated that it was something like a 5-to-1 conversion for them, where 5 non-Raiders equaled 1 low-Level Raider; it was better than nothing, she supposed.

The weeks passed, and it became a little colder every day outside, which she only gathered because of Shale listening in to conversations.  It wasn’t quite winter yet…but it was coming.

While all of that was going on, with the Raiders turning what she had created into something they would be able to inhabit in the coming month, Tacca was hard at work on her newest section.  It would be quite different from anything she’d either constructed already or had ever heard of, but she thought it would be suitable for the situation.

“What exactly is this?  This doesn’t look…right,” Shale asked, after seeing her creation.

Tacca had previously carved out a massive room before everything lately had happened, mostly as an idle thought and something to do, but she finally figured out what she could use it for – all thanks to her Dungeon Assistant’s suggestion, even if he didn’t know it at the time.  The majority of the time and resources she’d had access to over the last few weeks were spent on perfecting her new section, though it was more of a new room than an entire section.

Well, it all stems from what you told me about the town below and how I needed to keep them happy.  Having somewhere to sleep, as well as enough food and water to survive is one thing – but you also mentioned boredom being a problem, didn’t you?

 “Yes, I did.  But I figured you might just connect your dungeon sections to this place somehow, so they could continue to delve even in the middle of winter.”

I had thought about that, and even started widening a tunnel toward the Hall, but changed my mind.

“Why?”

Because that would only help a few Raiders at a time.  With the thousands that will be living in here, it’s doubtful that all of them would even be able to go through my sections once in the month that they’ll be trapped here, which won’t really erase the boredom.  While in-fighting and the subsequent deaths might be good for me in terms of gaining Points, it takes away from the whole reason I agreed to help out in the first place.

“Ok, I can see that, but what does that have to do with—”  Shale hovered in the middle of her newest section, looking around at it again with wide eyes.  “Ahh, I see.  You really don’t do these things halfway, do you?”

Of course not.  That’s not who I am.

“How is this going to work?”

Here, let me explain—

But she never got the opportunity to go into detail, because someone popped up into her Core Room.  Someone she didn’t want there, but one look at Head Instructor Lapis’ face caused her to hold her tongue.

“Tacca!  I have news that you will want to hear, and though I know you don’t like me, I thought it would be better if you hear it firsthand.  Where’s Shale?”

Tacca mentally told Shale what was happening, and her Dungeon Assistant Translocated the next moment into her Core Room, as well.

“What’s going on, Head Instructor?”

Lapis was now nervously fluttering around the room, flying back and forth in obvious nervousness.  Throughout all of the years that Tacca had known him, as well as the brief interactions she’d had with him after the invasion and attack, this was the first time he’d ever appeared flustered.

The Head Instructor finally stopped and turned to them both, sighing heavily once before he said anything, still obviously bothered by something.  “Well, as you’ve been informed, after Malachite disappeared – taken or otherwise – the attacks on the northern Dungeon Cores increased in frequency.”

Tacca was well aware.  While she didn’t want any contact with Lapis, Shale had been keeping abreast of the news over the last few months, passing along the information he had gained.  It