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

But the last two were completely blank when she concentrated on them: Omen Charge and Shared Risk.  Omen Charge was an instant-use ability with the potential for multiple targets based on distance, starting at 10 FM; Shared Risk, on the other hand, was a type of ability she’d never heard of before – Automatic.  It cost her nothing to use, fortunately, but it appeared that it was always activated.  Unfortunately, she had no idea what it actually did.

Well, Shale, it appears as though I’m a bit stronger now as a “Fairy”, but I don’t know exactly how.

Tacca explained the different abilities she had gained, also noticing that her “Locked” abilities had been reduced from 17 to 11.  If she was looking at things right, then it was most likely that 6 of the abilities she had received had been from the ones that Malachite had originally possessed and she obtained through her Bond with him, while 2 of them were entirely hers.  She didn’t have to think long on which 2 abilities those would be, seeing as she couldn’t fathom what 2 of them did.

“Maybe the Shared Risk ability means you share the risk of existing with…me?” Shale ventured after hearing about the strange ability.  After a few seconds he shook his head.  “No, that doesn’t make sense, especially considering that I’m already at risk if you were to get hurt.”

Yeah, I’m not exactly sure, either.  Regardless, I have to admit that the pain of going through that Rank up was worth it.

“What?  Why?  Because you have more Fairy Mana now?”

No, because it kicked me out of the funk I was in after witnessing…what we did.

Shale just stared at her Core for a moment, before smiling half-heartedly.  “I have to admit that my concern for you did sort of push everything else to the side.  I’m not quite over it yet, but I can think of other things now, I guess.”

True, there’s no forgetting what’s out there, but that doesn’t mean we have to give up just yet.  A solution to the problem could present itself at any time.  Tacca was ready to get moving again, and she remembered with some excitement the new section she was going to show her Dungeon Assistant.  Sadly, its importance paled in comparison to the danger looming towards the north, but there really wasn’t anything she could do about that.  What she could do, though, was try build the best darn dungeon anyone had ever seen.

A lofty goal, yes, but one she wished to strive for.

In fact, would you be able to invite the other Assistants in the Nursery?  I’d really like to show them this, as well as the Hall and farms.  It’s a bit busy in there at the moment, as they are already starting to move in, but it might help them change their minds.  Or at least change their Cores’ minds.

“Sure, we’ll meet you in the Hall, and then we can check out your new…project.”  He smiled again as he disappeared, the shock and horror of earlier in the day starting to fade.  Five minutes later, all of the Fairies were near the ceiling of the Hall, looking down on the hustle and bustle going on down below them.

They’re finishing up the preparations now, and from what I’ve overheard they expect everyone to be in here tomorrow.  Shortly after that, the first of the snows and freezing cold should be coming, which will keep them all trapped inside of here for a little over a month – at least until the ice melts.

“I’ll say it again, this is crazy,” Tulip said, but Tacca could see that she was intrigued by everything she saw.  The others were in similar states, and she just hoped that meant that they would go back and convince at least one of their Cores to attempt connecting to the Hall.  As sad as it seemed, after witnessing the deaths of so many Raiders in their attempt to stop the invading people, risking herself in such an endeavor wasn’t nearly as scary of a risk as it used to be.

The Dungeon Assistants looked around for a time while invisible, amazed that there were so many people inside of a dungeon, even if it didn’t look like any dungeon they’d ever seen before.  When they were done, she invited them to see the project she had planned for when the snows came, a way to entertain the masses, so to speak.

“You built…what…an arena?”

Precisely.  It isn’t just enough to allow a dozen or two groups of Raiders to venture through my other dungeon sections every day, because there are too many that are going to be living here for that to be satisfactory.  Instead, I think I found a way to occupy more than just a few at a time – but instead thousands.

The giant room, basically a 500-foot-wide circular room with 4 giant columns of stone supporting the ceiling, had been built out along the edges with tiered stands made from multi-colored stone.  There were four main sections, which corresponded with north, south, east, and west, and each section was colored with a different stone; red sandstone for the north, blue banded gneiss for the south, green epidote for the east, and yellow carnotite for the west.  This gave it a very vibrant feel to the room, which was further decorated with painstakingly formed smoky quartz sheathings around the stone columns.  A light-blue gemstone called larimar was used to decorate the ceiling, creating a cloudy sky-like texture that Tacca hoped made the room she created feel like it was outside.

As for the giant columns holding up that light-blue ceiling, they were positioned at the four corners of the arena floor, located at the northeast, northwest, southeast, and southwest corners, meaning that the multi-colored stands were basically separated from each other.  A lot of floor space was needed, as well, so