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

His Skills had also improved significantly, with his Light Armor having the largest boost; he assumed it was because he got chewed on quite a bit from the last fight, and these percentages reflected that.  Strangely, he also had a single percentage point in his Blunt skill, despite not having anything that was blunt—wait.  His new stick and ball could probably be classified as a blunt weapon, but all he had done with it was swing it at some flowers.

I wonder if just practicing with it can increase those percentages?  Obviously, it wouldn’t be nearly as fast or effective as using it to kill beasts that are trying to kill me, but it might work.

“Ok, I can definitely see the benefit of doing this…I think…but are you sure we should go on?”

She was already nodding before he finished.  “Yes – at least to check out the next room.  What I might do is hang back towards the tunnel instead of following so close behind this time; I think we were caught in that last trap because we were both within range of it.  I can attack from a longer distance away anyways, so that sounds like a good strategy.”

He couldn’t help but nod himself at the plan, but then he stopped when he realized she had somehow convinced him to keep going into further danger.  “Wait…so you want me to be…what?  The bait?  Or the one that should take all of the attacks for you.”

Gwenda was smiling prettily now, which she always did when she wanted something.  “Of course, you’re my protector after all.  With your new shield, armor, and that neat new weapon, I think you can handle it.”

Sterge was silent for almost a minute as he tried to think of a better excuse other than we could die, but that obviously wasn’t something that would sway her.  Finally, he sighed loudly and then grunted – he had no words he wanted to say.  Instead, he led the way towards the tunnel leading to the next room (he had already identified which one it was earlier, so he wouldn’t make another mistake) as he shook his head.

This is not a good idea…

Chapter 25

Tacca was honestly surprised that the two Raiders continued on despite the danger, though she had to admit that she was glad; in fact, she was sort of rooting for them by that point.  It had to be frightening when tackling a brand-new dungeon – and even more so when it was apparently their first day as Raiders.  They were so ignorant about practically everything that it shocked her; what are they teaching them these days?

Some of the things they had no clue about had to do with Raider-specific things like the Skills and Power they were talking about, which could be put down to negligent teachers from…wherever they became Raiders.  She had heard they had a Clan of some sort, but wider knowledge about them was either a secret or relatively unknown; Tacca herself had actually learned a little more about the intricacies of how Raiders got stronger from the curious conversations the two Hill Dwarves were having between themselves than her entire learning experience at DAPS.

On the other hand, there were other things like the leather-armored Raider not even knowing what a mace was – or “stick and ball”, as he called it when showing it off to the spell-casting Raider – or not knowing that using too much of their magical power too quickly could result in knocking them unconscious; both of those things should’ve been common knowledge in her opinion, so she was surprised that they had lived that long.  She figured that their lack of knowledge was because she’d heard that they were farmers, so they might not be expected to know about some things, but…there was something else she had heard that caught her attention even more.

Luck.

She hadn’t deliberately made the entrance and exit tunnels to the third room look identical – it just made the most sense and she appreciated the aesthetic symmetry of the tree arrangements.  Nevertheless, it was that symmetry that led the sword-wielding Raider to accidentally go farther into the dungeon when it was obvious that he was trying to leave.  Tacca had originally been counting on them moving on, and healing some of their wounds with her Healing Paralysis Enchantment Trap as a surprise, but she hadn’t been expecting them to get so injured from her Branch Jackals.  She had underestimated how much damage her creatures could do, as well as overestimating what the two Raiders could handle; she could only blame her past experiences with other Cores that had faced much tougher Raiders and wouldn’t have been fazed by them in the least.

Was it just a happy accident…or was it my “bad luck” working in their favor as “good luck”?

“I have to admit, I thought you were crazy when you wanted to put a trap that would heal the Raiders inside one of your rooms…but I was wrong,” Shale communicated mentally to her.  “Not only did it save them from dying inside your dungeon, which is normally a good thing, but I can understand why you want these to survive to spread the word, it also had such an impact on them that they want to keep going.

“I can see this working in the future to keep groups of Raiders inside your dungeon longer when they would normally turn back, which would give you more Core Improvement Points…and maybe even convince them to push on past where they should probably stop.  This could lead them to overconfidence as they tackle harder rooms, resulting in more deaths that are perfectly legit and fair.

“I learned of other dungeons using a slight variation of this by increasing the prevalence of Healing Potions of various degrees as part of their Rewards, but this…this is genius!”

Tacca couldn’t