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

Moments later, the creature disappeared and dropped some more copper coins, but Sterge hadn’t forgotten about the first one he had hit like the first fight.  I guess that means I’m learning.  He saw it crawling towards him – its back still broken from his hit earlier – surprisingly quickly despite not having any working hind legs, but it wasn’t fast enough to dodge the next strike he aimed towards its head with his bladed weapon.  When it disappeared just like the first, he picked up both sets of coins and looked around to see if there were any other threats.

“Sorry, Sterge, you’re absolutely right.  I should have told you about my spells, but I was just so eager to use them that I wasn’t thinking straight; it won’t happen again,” Gwenda apologized, her recovery from casting the slowing spell helping her to stand up straight again.  “Though, that’s pretty much all that I have in my current repertoire of spells, but like I said earlier I assume I’ll access more when I increase my Raider Level.”  Her face really was apologetic, so he told her there was nothing to forgive.

“That’s ok, Gwenda; next time, maybe you can call out what spell you’re going to cast so I have a better idea what to do.  I can only react so fast, after all.”

She nodded in acknowledgement, before asking, “Are you ready to go on?”

“Are you recovered enough, though?  We can wait a little bit if you need more time; that spell seemed to take a lot more out of you than the first one, even if you did use it twice.”

“Yes, I’m just about fully recovered.  I think that Sapping Fog takes a lot more of my…magical energy…because it affected a large area instead of just a single target.  I don’t think I should use that unless absolutely necessary, though, because I’m practically useless afterwards.”

“Probably a good idea,” Sterge agreed.  “You should probably stick to those blue light thingies you used first.”

“It’s my Magistrike spell, not ‘blue light thingies’, you silly,” she giggled happily, before she turned serious.  “Again, you’re right; I will stick to those unless absolutely necessary, and I’ll try to stay behind you.  I think you’re the one that should be up front because you have the armor and dangerous weapon to keep me safe, so that seems like the best idea.”

Sterge grunted in acknowledgement, mainly because he had been thinking the same thing.  He looked at Gwenda again, and seeing that she looked as “normal” as she ever was, he pressed on, his sword still out in front of him as he entered the tunnel sloping gradually downwards and turning off to the right ever so slightly.  It was dark inside the tunnel, but not blindingly dark; he could still see just fine, as there was a very faint ambient light that infused the stone walls and made it navigable.

Eventually, it opened up into another room, though this one wasn’t nearly as bright as the first – Sterge thought it was about half as bright.  He couldn’t even see the end of this room, however, though it wasn’t because of the dim light; no, it was because the whole room seemed to be filled with ferns.  Their long fronds reached about a foot above his head, which really wasn’t that tall when he considered his height; a Human or an Elf would have no problem seeing over them, but Hill Dwarves like himself or even Gnomes (who were even smaller) would have some issues.

Standing on his tiptoes, he tried to see if there was anything else in the room, but there only seemed to be ferns; no trees, bushes, or flowers like the first room.  Not only that, but there were so many fern fronds filling the space that it almost seemed like a wall of green in front of him, though looking at the ones closer to him he could certainly see that there was room enough to easily pass between each fern plant.  Though, I suppose that I could always…

“Do you think I should chop all of these down as we pass through?  Walking through all of these might be a little dangerous, because I won’t be able to see very far if we’re attacked.”

Gwenda thought for a moment before nodding.  “Yes, that’s probably a good idea; although there looks like enough space to fight in between each fern, I’m not sure how easy it will be to see threats coming.”

Without waiting any longer, Sterge stepped up to the first fern and started hacking away at the base of the plant; he had found that it was easier to remove foliage you didn’t want if you started on the base, because otherwise it could take forever to get rid of all of the branches – or in this case fronds.  Of course, he soon discovered that it didn’t really matter where he started, because his weapon wasn’t really suited to destroying plants; either the weapon was beginning to dull – I should’ve brought a whetstone – or the fern was extra durable.  He eventually chopped it down and threw all of the fronds to the side, but it took him nearly five minutes to do so.

Looking at how many more the room held – even if he were to remove them in a straight line, he was looking at hours of work.  “I don’t think this is going to work,” he said in disappointment.  His statement was only confirmed when the fern he had just chopped down started to grow again at a tremendous rate, until less than a minute later the plant was back the way it was before he started.  “Ok, I really don’t think this is going to work.”

“I guess that means we’re supposed to go through without being