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

a manifestation of her “bad luck” striking her down?  He was beginning to question that – along with the Dungeon Core he was Bonded to.

It wasn’t anything major that caused Shale to wonder about Tamara – it was just a lot of little things that were starting to add up.  First was the knowledge she possessed that seemed very specific and detailed…but that could be explained by Tacca conveying that information, of course.  Then there were the cracks that she caused on the surface of her Core whenever she used too much Dungeon Force – something that he’d never heard of except in extreme cases of undue stress; the fact that it was happening to her, with what should be the “normal” operations of a dungeon, was more than strange.  Again, that could be explained by the negative Characteristics she had chosen – he still couldn’t believe she had made those selections, which were unheard of for any Core to choose – but it seemed too convenient.

Next were the inconsistencies in her Core Improvement Points that she spent to raise her Dungeon Force maximum and regeneration, as well as her Control Limit.  He might not be the brightest Dungeon Assistant, but he was fairly good at math; based on what she said she had acquired during her Level increase, it almost seemed like she was missing at least 100 Points somewhere.  He couldn’t see anything about Tamara’s Core that she didn’t share, of course, but he had the feeling that something was different from the “normal” breakdown of how much Dungeon Force she had access to.

There were other little things – like how she refused to talk about her life before she became a Dungeon Core – but they could all be explained away quite easily.  However, it was all starting to add up enough that he was beginning to question exactly what or who he was Bonded with.  Ever since the outer world had opened up, though, he had been busy exploring and enjoying being outside of the stone walls of the dungeon enough that he put all of his misgivings aside and attributed it to the nervousness of his first real assignment – that hadn’t really gone to plan quite yet.

But now things were starting to look up.  After just over three weeks, the snows had almost completely melted from the mountain range around them (he had earlier identified that they were indeed in the southern part of the continent) and Shale had been on a constant lookout for any Raiders.  He had flown a little north and recognized a village full of Humans, Elves, Gnomes, and even some Hill Dwarves, but they didn’t really seem like they were the “Raider” type; instead it appeared that their entire purpose was to grow food for themselves and others, and it wasn’t likely that they would be invading Tamara’s dungeon anytime soon.

He went a little farther north and identified a larger town full of people, though he only saw a sparse amount of actual Raiders; he took a risk – even in his invisible state – to flutter a little closer and identified the Raider symbol on one of the buildings, but those he saw going in and out were mainly just lounging around or heading north.  No one was even looking towards the south where his Bonded Core’s dungeon was, nor did it appear as though they even knew about its location.

Shale was confident that eventually someone would find them, because they weren’t completely inaccessible and were located approximately only five miles from the farming village.  Still, Tamara had somehow known that historically no dungeons were in either the northern or southern mountain ranges – which he had, for a change, actually remembered from school – so it could take a while for them to be found.

He was worried that his time would be up before they even saw any Raiders, until what were obviously a pair of them arrived when the pass leading up to the dungeon entrance was almost entirely clear of snow and other obstacles.  Shale had never seen two Raiders appear so new and…incompetent-looking before; he was used to seeing experienced – if not necessarily overly powerful – Raiders battling through his Mentor’s dungeon with sharp-looking armor and weapons, as well as an air of confidence in their own abilities.  Contrary to that, the two Hill Dwarves that slowly climbed their way towards Tamara’s dungeon entrance – following what appeared to be some sort of hand-drawn map (where did they get that?) – were wearing armor that was threadbare and looking like it would fall apart if they were poked and prodded too hard.

In short, they looked like they were brand-new Raiders without a copper to their names and would likely die within the first five minutes inside Tamara’s domain.  Despite one Hill Dwarf that was obviously some sort of melee class and the other a spellcaster of some sort, they really needed a full group to survive for long against what was arrayed against them.  Shale had honestly thought that Tamara – and Tacca, by extension – had made a massive mistake in picking Canines as her initial creature family (which was still an insane risk that he couldn’t believe worked), but the Core had explained just how wrong he was.  Of course, if there were any experienced and a little more powerful Raiders around, the inability to bring even a single Level 2 version of them around would severely hinder her effectiveness.

That didn’t really apply here, though – because he doubted these two Hill Dwarves would require anything more powerful than what was already in there to kill them.

Shale listened to them talk just outside of the entrance using Common Tradespeak, and when they were done and seemed to want to explore a little of the dungeon, he mentally contacted Tamara – which he’d only remembered he could do when he started to