While Luke and the others stood around wondering what to do about the tiny staircase, the fairy cackled to herself on the lowest floor.
“Bwa ha ha! Oh em gee, that worked, like, waaay too perfectly! No chance they’re getting down here now, L-O-L! Honestly, I might be, like, a total genius or whatever!”
She thought their arrival had been completely random. Her dungeon had been all but abandoned due to its remote location. Hardly anyone had ever shown up, starving her of the Dungeon Points she needed to do any real dungeon building.
But then this mystery party showed up out of nowhere.
They’d breezed past the traps, the monsters, and the labyrinth-like layout, reaching the boss room in no time flat. Worst of all, she’d burned through her limited Dungeon Points so quickly that she couldn’t even prep a decent boss or reward that matched the difficulty.
They’d been considering coming all the way down here after refusing the reward, so she’d skirted the rules with one last-ditch, borderline illegal trick.
“Um? You’re sayin’ it’s gotta be, like, some boring staircase they can actually walk down? Ughhh, so lame. But, like, I can totally use it, so it’s not breakin’ the rules or anything, riiiight?”
She’d exploited her own tiny size to pull it off. It was pretty underhanded.
For a moment, it looked like she’d managed to dodge a bullet.
Then the wall behind her cracked open with a sharp crunch!
“Huh?”
She turned around to see a staircase begin forming out of a new hole in the wall, spiraling upward.
“They, like, made their own staircase?! Lawl, what the actual heck?!”
✦ ✦ ✦
No stairs, no problem. Now that I’d absorbed this place into our territory, modifying the dungeon’s interior was a piece of cake.
Seren gave me an exasperated look. “So we could’ve done this at any point to move between floors?”
“To go down, yeah. But it probably wouldn’t work for going up.”
I hadn’t used it earlier because it felt kind of cheap. But now that the dungeon master had blatantly created a staircase we couldn’t even use, I figured the gloves were off.
We headed down and eventually reached a small chamber.
“Is that—” I started to say, spotting a large spherical crystalline object floating in the back of the room. It pulsed faintly, almost as if it were alive.
“That’s the dungeon core,” Philia said as she stepped beside me. “It’s the heart of this place and the dungeon master’s lifeline. If it’s destroyed, the dungeon disappears and its master dies with it.”
Just then, something zipped toward us, leaving a glittering trail of dust in its wake.
“Ughhh, like, I seriously do not wanna die yet, okay?! Pleaaase, pleaaase don’t smash the core! I’m, like, totally begging youuu!”
“A fairy?”
I realized that the tiny something was an adorable, palm-sized girl who looked like a fairy straight out of the fables I’d always heard about. She hovered in the air using her wings, then “dropped” to her knees and bowed her head, tears brimming in her eyes.
“Wait, are you the dungeon master?”
“Yes, that’s me! My name is Ally!”
Apparently, she was the one running this whole dungeon.
“And if you destroy that thing, then I die too! So like, pretty please, have mercy!”
“I mean, I wasn’t planning on destroying it...”
“For real?! Oh em gee, thaaank you! Now that I, like, got a better look...you’re, like, a suuuper cute human boyyy!”
She went from sobbing to sparkly eyed in an instant. I could practically see the hearts in her eyes.
She was certainly a busy little fairy.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Are you sure about this, Lord Luke? There are rumors that destroying a dungeon core grants special powers,” Philia said.
“What kind of powers?”
“I’m not totally sure, but they’re said to be similar in nature to Gifts. That’s why many adventurers refuse the regular reward and go for the Core instead. It’s that valuable.”
“Can you, like, not?!” Ally groaned. “I meaaaan, okay, like maybe the rewards are kinda lame right now ’cuz this dungeon’s still, like, suuuper empty! But someday I’ll totes have way better stuff, promise! So pleaaase just let me off the hook this one time, ’kayyy?”
She was back to teary-eyed pleading again.
“How does a dungeon even grow in the first place?” I asked.
“W-Well, like, if more peeps come visit, then the dungeon, y’know, earns more Dungeon Points!”
“Dungeon Points?”
She explained once she calmed down a bit. Apparently, dungeon masters created things like traps, monsters, and expansions using Dungeon Points, which gradually accumulated as people explored the dungeon. The more intruders you had at once, the quicker the points piled up.
Of course, more traffic also meant a higher risk of being conquered, so it was a double-edged sword.
“Huh. They sound a lot like my Village Points.”
“Village Points? Never heard of ’em,” Ally said with a shrug.
“I use Village Points to build new facilities and stuff,” I said.
“Facilities?” Ally tipped her head to the side, then suddenly froze like she’d realized something horrifying. “Um, wait! So you’re the one sneakin’ into my dungeon and, like, building all this random stuff everywhere without even asking?! Ugh, seriouslyyy?!”
The scream that followed was loud enough to shake the walls. I definitely hadn’t expected that from a tiny fairy.
“Oh, you knew that was happening?”
“Of course I did!”
“Understood.”
When I claimed someone else’s territory, the original owner didn’t get any sort of big flashing light or warning bell to alert them. It wasn’t like anything visibly changed right away either.
But apparently, dungeons were different.
“Um, hellooo—my dungeon and me are, like, one and the same, okay?! Body and soul vibes! If someone just, y’know, randomly takes control of part of my body, obvi I’d notice! I was soooo freaked!”
Fair point. That does sound pretty scary.
“So does that mean you lose control over those parts?”
“Mmm, don’t think so,” she hummed, thinking. “Looks like they still listen to my commands!”
So she hadn’t lost her dungeon master privileges entirely.
“In that case, we can just leave it like this, right?”
“No way! That is so not okay!”
“Sorry. Once I’ve added something to my territory, I don’t think I can undo it.”
“Hold up, hold up! That’s, like, a huge proble—but wait. Maybe it’s, like, not, though?”
“I promise I won’t build anything without asking you.”
“Wellll, I guess I’m, like, totally fine with it if that’s how it is...”
She was more reasonable than I’d expected.
“Buuut, like, I do have one li’l favor to ask in exchange, though,” Ally said.
“A favor?”
“So, like, I totally need you to help me get some peeps into the dungeon, okay? Ever since this place got made, like, nobody’s ever come! So it never, y’know, develops, and I’m just stuck here, bored outta my mind every single dayyy!”
“Well, this dungeon is in the middle of nowhere.”
“That explains, like, so much!”
Ally clutched her head in despair. It looked like dungeon masters couldn’t see the outside world.
“But if people start coming, wouldn’t that make it more likely someone destroys the core?” I asked.
“That’s true, which is why most dungeons managed by kingdoms or lords have strict access rules. Dungeons are a huge economic asset. If someone destroys the core, it’s a massive loss. So most places require visitors to sign a contract beforehand, which forbids them from touching the core,” Seren said.
“Oh, that would actually be super helpful, y’know?!”
“But even then, you still get the occasional lunatic who breaks the contract and destroys it anyway,” Philia said.
“That’s not very helpful!” Ally said.
If this dungeon started to grow and began producing valuable materials or rare items, it’d be a huge benefit to our village too. If I started spreading the word too early, however, some people might come intending to smash the core and claim the power for themselves. We needed to wait until the dungeon had developed more. Right now, anyone could breeze through in a single day just like we did.
Although, to be fair, the rigged staircase would stop most people.
“Oh, I’ve got an idea! We just need people inside the dungeon, right?”