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

a frozen wasteland that didn’t hold any people…well, then she was screwed.  Based on the sun coming out, however, she doubted that she was stuck there to live her life in eternal boredom and stagnation – because the sun never shone there.

She felt a little bit better about the whole situation when she determined that, so she turned back to her Points – and where to spend them.

Core Improvements

Available Core Improvement Points (CIP)

1000

0 in 30 days

Improvement Name

Value

Cost (CIP)

Maximum Dungeon Force Increase

+500 DF

500

Dungeon Force Regeneration Increase

+5 DF per minute

500

Control Limit Increase

+50

400

Select Additional Creature

1

250

Select Additional Creature Variant

1

25

Select Additional Trap Specialization

1

300

Select Additional Environment Access

1

400

Reward Tier Increase

1

100

Convert CIPs to SCPs

1 SCP

4

It was a hard decision, made harder by the fact that she didn’t really know where she was; Shale offered to go explore now that the blizzard had stopped, but as soon as he got close to the entrance he had to turn back.  “It’s too cold out there still; my wings were starting to freeze before I even got within ten feet,” the Assistant said when he attempted to leave.  Tacca honestly didn’t think it would really matter, because she had no real knowledge of the local areas far to the north or south of the main Raider continent.

  She had enough CIPs to convert into 250 Special Characteristic Points, but even with the 125 she currently had it wasn’t nearly enough to get rid of one of her negative Characteristics yet.  She could always save what she had right now to use towards getting rid of them in the far future, but the near future was of a bigger concern.  Unless Raiders started showing up soon – and in big numbers – then these Core Improvement Points were likely going to be the last she’d see in a while.  The SCPs that she’d accumulated – all 125 of them – she was certainly going to save, but in her opinion there was no good reason to save the 1,000 CIPs that were available now for a later time.

The “normal” thing to do with her Points was to increase her maximum Dungeon Force and regeneration, but Tacca was finding that she wasn’t exactly “normal” as a Core.  While having more Dungeon Force would be beneficial in creating stronger traps, higher-Level creatures, and would help to replenish her dungeon after it was invaded, she felt that she couldn’t really use more than 1,000 or so at a time without straining her Core too much.  It was possible that may have changed a bit with her recent Level increases, but it still likely wouldn’t be more than her current maximum.  The whole point in having more Force overall was to be able to create stronger components for her dungeon – which she couldn’t do at the moment.

Therefore, increasing her maximum was out – but she could always use more regeneration.  Selecting that as the first Core Improvement for 500 CIPs, she was left with another 500 to spend; after eliminating the only other thing that cost that much already, that made her other decisions even easier.  First, having the ability to have more creatures in her dungeon was always a good thing, even with the special circumstances revolving around her Dungeon Force use.  For 400 CIPs, upping her Control Limit by 50 for a total of 200 was the smartest move she could make.

Everything else was too expensive, nor did she want them at the moment. Having another creature family to utilize would be beneficial in diversifying her dungeon, but she hadn’t even seen how her current creatures worked.  Picking something that would mesh well with what she already had was hard because she didn’t know what kind of Raiders she’d be likely to see, so that had to wait at least until her next Level increase.  Additional Trap Specializations would also be nice, but it wasn’t really needed for the same reasons she didn’t want another creature.  Having Access to another Environment was also tempting, but until she had a bigger dungeon it wasn’t really viable right now.

Her only other options were either saving her Points or unlocking the next Rewards Tier.  While she wasn’t sure how beneficial it would be right now, having access to more rewards would certainly help her grow in the future by tempting more Raiders to invade her dungeon.  She decided to go ahead and purchase the upgrade now, so that the option for better rewards would be available to her when she did end up needing it.

With those all chosen, there really wasn’t anything else for her to do but wait…and figure out where she wanted to place her extra creatures with her upgraded Control Limit…

*         *         *

Sterge felt like he was doing something wrong by abandoning his fields, even though Gwenda and he had worked tirelessly over the last three weeks to ensure that everything was taken care of and wouldn’t be missed if they left for a day or two.  He hoped it wasn’t any longer than that, however, because he had to make sure Gussie and the other livestock were fed and maintained – even if they did a pretty good job of doing that for themselves.  Still, sometimes he worried that they needed his help; he really couldn’t help it, though, as protecting them was just part of his personality.

He stepped around another large boulder blocking their path up the mountain, as he reflected on what brought him to climb into the Wentrylock Mountains on a warm, calm morning…when he’d normally be getting up to tend to his farm.  Looking behind him, Sterge could see Gwenda following close after him, wearing a not-suitable-for-farming dark-blue cheap linen robe cinched at the waist with a simple everyday rope.  It was