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

able to use their abilities to heat things up, including the multitude of ovens and stoves throughout the room, which was realistically the only way they could cook or bake anything.  Using wood to fuel a cookfire was both impractical because they didn’t have nearly enough wood for more than a few days of keeping them going, and because the smoke inside of an enclosed space would likely kill people before long.  It was quite possible that the dungeon presence would clean the air automatically like it did through its other dungeons, but they couldn’t guarantee that.

Therefore, magically created heat was the best alternative.  The Elementalists as well as the rest of the staff, who were non-Raiders that had journeyed south to escape the problems up north, were being paid by Sterge and Gwenda for their work, though admittedly it was a small amount.  However, it was one of the few jobs they had inside of the mountain, and it wasn’t like they had to worry about expenses right now in any other form.

When they had gotten their food and brought it out to the main Hall to eat on the floor – the 20-odd tables that they had managed to bring with them being full of people already – Sterge estimated that it had been just about 12 hours already.  He wasn’t sure how he knew, because inside of the stone cave there was no way to safely tell time, and looking outside was a bit dangerous unless he was fully bundled up; the snow was likely already piling up out there.  Regardless, it just felt like enough time had passed, as if some internal clock of his was keeping track of time even if he couldn’t visually mark time’s passing.

Sure enough, as soon as they started walking towards where his and Gwenda’s cut-outs were still relatively visible in the wall, large chunks of the stone blocking them from the massive tunnel began to be removed, prompting those nearby to scurry away in a mixture of caution and fear.  While they knew that they were technically inside of a dungeon, it was quite a difference actually seeing physical evidence of that knowledge.

By the time Sterge and his group arrived, all of the stone blocking the passageway was gone, leaving it fully open for anyone to enter.  He looked inside for some evidence of the plaque that had given them some information, but there was no sign of it ever being there.

Gwenda turned to the awaiting crowd, which was getting larger by the moment as Raiders saw the sudden opening of a brand-new tunnel and gathered their gear.  Thankfully, there was but a hushed murmur throughout the audience as Gwenda began to speak.

“We don’t necessarily know what we will find, but we believe it is something that will be beneficial to us!” she shouted, to be heard over the entire crowd, a few hundred strong by that point and growing.  “That doesn’t mean it isn’t dangerous, so we need to keep our eyes open and be prepared for anything.  From what little we do know, this tunnel will lead to the west, where the dungeon is located – so keep that in mind.”  Without further word, she led the march into the tunnel, followed by a veritable army of Raiders armed to the teeth and ready for any type of threat that might occur.

The walk was long, probably because they had a few Scout Classes out front checking for traps, but overall it wasn’t a horrible walk.  The temperature inside of the tunnel, like everywhere else in the cave, was steady – not too cold nor too hot – so to Sterge the walk felt more leisurely than anything.  Finally, after about an hour of the tunnel curving and winding just enough that they couldn’t see too far ahead, they came to what appeared to be their destination.

Walking into the room, Sterge immediately felt smaller than normal, as if he had been shrunk down to insect size.  Not through any magical means, naturally, but by the sheer size of the gigantic space they entered.  The ceilings were hundreds of feet above their heads, taller than even the Hall where they were currently staying, and from what he could see the walls were hundreds of feet apart, nearly the length of the Hall or perhaps longer.  It was a little hard to see, honestly, because there were large, angled stone walls blocking his view to the left (which was colored blue) and right (which was colored green), as well as an impressively huge column wrapped in what appeared to be cloudy glass blocking his sight of anything ahead.  What was even more impressive was the ceiling, which had a light-blue color to it with streaks of white scattered throughout; it nearly looked like they were outside, with the room open to the sky.

Stairs were cut into the left and right walls, however, as well as there being a small pathway that led around the stone column.  While Sterge and his group cautiously worked their way up the stairway leading up one of the walls, he looked back to see other Raider groups doing the same behind him and on the other wall.  One of the stronger groups he recognized, led by Anton – an interesting Level 20 Melee Raider that had chosen to be a Bulwark Class, protected from head to toe in steel armor – decided to see what was around the column.

As soon as Sterge got to the top of the stairs, he joined the rest of his group in looking out into the room, seeing that there were two other sections of the room with colored stone in addition to the green one he was standing on and the blue one near the entrance, in red and yellow.  In the center of the room, below the colored stone sections that had what appeared to be tiered stairs cut