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

but he was getting a little bored just sitting around waiting for his best friend to wake up.

Therefore, with his sword held out in front of him and almost shuffling forward as he tried to detect any traps, he left Gwenda and explored the third room.  He quickly found the six piles of rewards left from the horrible dog-wolf thingies and picked them up before rushing back to where he had left the unconscious form of his best friend.  His eyes went right to her as soon as he entered and found that she was unchanged, so he dumped what he had acquired next to her and counted how many coins they had earned – and they had earned them, alright.

Four of the beasts they had slain had dropped six copper coins each, giving them 24 more to add to their previous 23 – which was almost equal to five silver; five silver was enough to purchase that new – well, used, but new to him – wheeled plow for his fields.  Two other beasts hadn’t dropped coins, though; instead, they dropped what appeared to be some sort of weapon and a pair of leather vambraces for his upper arms.  The leather armor pieces, despite looking really worn and used, were actually in better shape than his own – especially with the puncture marks in them – so he replaced his old ones, feeling better protected already.

The weapon, which was made of rusted iron, appeared to be some sort of stick with a ridged ball on the end, topped with a slightly blunted spear-tip.  The ridges on the slightly larger than fist-sized ball looked to have been sharp at one time in the past, but now they were all deformed and smashed – which pretty much told the tale of what the weapon was used for. He noticed that the ball was a lot heavier than the rest of the weapon, which meant it wasn’t hollow – and being hit by it would hurt…a lot.  Fortunately, years of farm work had built his strength up enough that he was able to wield it well enough, though it was a little long for his tastes.  Nevertheless, he practiced with it by smashing a bunch of flowers into the ground – which grew back minutes later – and found that he was much happier with it in his hand than the shortsword for some reason.

Right around when he estimated the hour mark had passed since he had been healed, Sterge decided that he had waited long enough; he slid the stick and ball into his belt – even though it felt awkward, he didn’t have any other way to carry it – and bent down next to Gwenda to gently pick her up.  It was time to go, and he couldn’t wait all day for her to wake up; she’d probably be the same back in their village as she was in the dungeon, and he had to take a risk that the beginning of the dungeon was still free of traps and beasts.

He picked her up and held her body against him…and then she woke up screaming and thrashing her arms and legs around so much that he couldn’t keep hold of her.  She hit the ground for just a moment before she leapt to her feet and stared around her with wild eyes.  “Where are they?  What happened?” she screeched out hysterically.

It took him a couple of minutes to calm her down as he explained what happened in the third room – though he didn’t mention his rage at seeing her hurt (he felt a little embarrassed about it) – and about what happened inside this flower-covered fourth room.  She looked astonished as he recounted how their injuries healed magically because of the strange trap and then he showed off what he had found from killing those dog-wolf thingies.

“But I think that it’s time to go; you almost died, and I was so hurt I honestly thought I wouldn’t be able to carry you out.  It’s only luck that I managed to stumble into this room by accident, but I think we’ll be pressing that same luck if we keep going.  Now that you’re awake, we—”

“Are you really committed to leaving now?” Gwenda asked as she cut him off.

Sterge felt his mouth drop open in shock.  “Y-you can’t be serious!  What part of you almost died did you not understand?  That’s not even mentioning your hour of forced sleep that overtook you; if that happens in the middle of a fight again, I don’t know if I can protect you.”

“Yes, I understand all of that…but have you taken a look at how much Power we received from those beasts?  As well as all of the Skill percentage increases?  I think if we keep going, we can get to Raider Level 2, which will make us even stronger!”

He hadn’t in fact looked at his Raider Status yet, because it didn’t really seem important.  At her suggestion, though, he pulled it up.

Raider Status

Name:

Sterge Stonewell

Class:

Melee

Raider Level:

1

Power:

47/100

Physical Attack:

1 (4)

Physical Defense:

1 (5)

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 (24%)

Blunt 1 (1%)

Two-handed 1 (0%)

Block 1 (10%)

Light Armor 1 (27%)

Heavy Armor 1 (0%)

Abilities:

None

There were some definite changes upon it that made him a little excited; for one, he was almost halfway to the 100 Power he needed to…increase his Raider Level?  He still wasn’t sure how that was supposed to work, but it was something they could definitely build upon in the future.  Sterge’s Physical Attack and Defense had also increased slightly, which he assumed was due to his new weapon, leather vambraces, and