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

knew how to handle them when you fell.  He partially broke his fall with his left hand and knee, and being a Hill Dwarf it wasn’t that far to fall anyway, so he didn’t really hurt himself, at least.

He looked up from his fall to see the injured fox racing awkwardly towards him, so he scrambled up on both knees and rose enough to swing his sword with his right hand like he had just a moment ago, though this time he made sure the sharp part of the weapon was facing towards the fox.  Through some miracle, he managed to hit the fox in the air as it leapt towards him and he felt the blade slide deep into its side; he was unprepared for his success, though, and despite the light weight of the fox’s body, its momentum caused his sword to be yanked from his hand as it was knocked off to his left.

“Sterge, get down!” Gwenda cried from behind him, so without questioning he awkwardly flopped down on his side.  He managed to glance above him as he fell to see the first brown beast sailing over where his body just was, before it was hit in midair by a small streak of something bright and blue.  Whatever hit the fox hit it with enough force to send it flying off into a nearby bush where it disappeared from sight.

Sterge sighed in relief before remembering the other creature that had ripped the sword out of his hand.  He quickly looked around for it just as it crawled the last few inches – his sword still stuck halfway into it – to chomp down on his left calf.  He felt a little spike of pain from the force of the bite, but it didn’t actually pierce through the tough leather pants he was wearing.  He immediately kicked it away and the fox tore a chunk of his armor with its teeth in the process; when it landed a few feet away, the beast landed partly on the shortsword and sent the blade further inside of its body.  A moment later, the tough-furred creature twitched once and then seemed to melt away, leaving his sword to fall in the dirt alone.

The rustling of bushes on his opposite side made him look over to where the other fox had been thrown, and he saw it emerge looking a bit worse for wear but still alive.  Before it could take more than a few steps in their direction, he saw Gwenda raise her wooden stick up and point it towards the beast; less than a second later, a bright flash of blue seemed to shoot out the end of the stick and smash into the fox, which got launched backwards into the edge of the bush it just walked out from behind.  As soon as it hit, the fox disappeared as it was killed by whatever it was that his best friend had done.

Sterge saw Gwenda sag a bit and lean on her…staff…and he worried that she had been hurt; before he could ask, the soft sound of metal clinking together caught his attention from where the last brown beast had been slain.  As he picked himself up and walked over to where it had disappeared, he found two shiny copper coins sitting in the dirt.

“I guess that proves that this is a dungeon,” Gwenda said tiredly as she watched him pick them up and inspect the coins.  “I don’t know much about dungeons in general, of course, but I can’t think of any other beasts disappearing and leaving behind coins when they’re killed.”

His fascination with the coins forgotten when he heard her voice, Sterge rushed over to Gwenda’s side.  “Are you alright?  Are you hurt?  What was it that you did there?” he asked in a rush.

“Yes, I’m fine – just a little drained.  As a Caster, I can use the…magic energy…inside of me to cast spells like that Magistrike you just saw; when I chose this Class, the knowledge of how to produce that spell – as well as one other – entered my mind,” she explained.  “What it didn’t tell me, however, was that casting those in quick succession would tire me out so much.  I’m assuming that when I get stronger I can cast more and even stronger spells before getting tired, but this is all I can do for now.”

What she said didn’t really penetrate Sterge’s mind until he walked over to grab his sword and found another two copper coins in the dirt.  “Wait…that sounds like you’re planning on continuing with this whole Raider thing after we get our reward,” he said as he turned around and looked at his best friend.  The sheepish look was on Gwenda’s face again and Sterge knew he was right.

“Well…didn’t you feel the small surge of Power when those…things…died?  It was like nothing I’ve ever felt before,” she said with a dreamy-sounding tone to her voice.

When Sterge thought back to the frantic fight, he had to admit that he did recall some sort of energizing influx of…something…that ran through him, but he had been too concerned with making sure Gwenda wasn’t hurt to really pay attention to it.  Some sort of intuition caused him to purposefully open the strange notification in his mind again – while at the same time being thankful that it hadn’t randomly shown up during the battle to distract him.

Raider Status

Name:

Sterge Stonewell

Class:

Melee

Raider Level:

1

Power:

2/100

Physical Attack:

1 (3)

Physical Defense:

1 (3)

Ranged Attack:

0

Ranged Defense:

1

Magical Attack:

0

Magical Defense:

1

Resistances:

Physical 1

Mental 1

Earth 1

Fire 0

Water 0

Air 0

Nature 0

Life 0

Death 0

Skills:

Blade 1 (2%)

Blunt 1 (0%)

Two-handed 1 (0%)

Block 1 (1%)

Light Armor 1 (1%)

Heavy Armor 1 (0%)

Abilities:

None

“Huh…I’m guessing I received two ‘Power’ for