The Mountain Grotto Dungeon, Slopes of Mount Gursway, 18th day of Sol, 1661

Later that day, Jeremy got another call from Fancy, letting him know that all three members of the kill team were dead. Fancy dropped over a couple of hours later with a present for Monty.

“Monty, I, Fancy, Dungeon Assistant to Jessica, Dungeon Core of the Jungle Rocks Dungeon, have been charged by my Dungeon with delivering this thank you. Jessica has been humbled by your heart-felt desire to help her in these trying times, so wanted to officially recognise that she is in your debt. Separate to this, Jessica also grants you this Dungeon Shard. On it is a complete record of her first level as of today. She hopes that this symbol of cooperation will become a regular thing between her and her two sorely missed siblings. It is also to officially notify you that Jessica’s Dungeon, the Dungeon Rocks Dungeon has been reviewed by representatives of a certified Adventurer’s Guild team and has been awarded the rank of A-3.

“On a more personal note, Jessica wanted me to let you know that we’ve picked up a tribe of Goblins as contracted servants and will be using them to open food vendors, among other things.”

*This seems very formal, is this ‘a thing’?*

Jeremy thought for a moment and replied, *Yes. It is a thing. Jessica has just honoured you, effectively saying that she owes you ‘one favour’. Depending on how your relationship is between Dungeons, that could be incredibly valuable, or ridiculously useless.*

*Please pass on my thanks, and that I found the whole thing quite ‘Fancy’.*

Giving Monty the ‘stink-eye’, Jeremy delivered the message. Fortunately, Jeremy could see the corners of Fancy’s mouth twitching, so she took it well. Monty encouraged Jeremy to talk to Fancy, getting the story behind the Dungeon Raiders, at least as much as Fancy wanted to share.

Meanwhile, Monty started to examine the Dungeon Shard. As soon as he linked to it, he became aware of what it was. It had been spawned from Jessica’s Dungeon Core and was like a memory. There were a couple of private messages from Jessica to himself, a three-dimensional image of her complete first floor, well, more like a walk through, or interactive model. Monty found he could use it to basically do a virtual tour. Also was a complete list of all of the resources that Jessica knew how to make, and some comments about some things that have been dropped in her Dungeon, but that she wasn’t powerful enough to appraise yet.

Lastly, was a set of notes. These were the things that she had discovered and the techniques that she had found useful. The note with it said that she hoped that they could work together, ‘just like old times.’

Monty read between the lines and felt how lonely Jessica had been without them. He didn’t know if it would work, but he tried the old trick that the three of them use to do, to send the feelings of a hug when for whatever reason they could not physically give one.

He felt an echo back from both of his sisters. Good, it still worked.

*Jeremy, if you want, go along with Fancy and see Mercy. It’ll take a while to go through all of the things that Jessica has sent me. Is there some trading rules or clearing houses that are supposed to be used between Dungeons?*

*No, it is up to each Dungeon to decide how they deal with other Dungeons, if at all.*

*Could you discuss this between the three assistants? I’d appreciate your recommendations, even if we chose not to follow them. Especially, if you have any cautionary tales, it would be wonderful to hear them.*

“Sure, Monty. Fancy, all right if I tag along when you go and see Sara and Mercy?”

“That will not be a problem. So, you are being kicked out of here already? Farted in the Core room again?”

Jeremy said, “Har, har, har. Laugh it up.”

“Actually, Jessica was sure that Monty would set it up so that so that every time any of the monsters were hit, they would fart.”

“Brilliant!”

*Brilliant!*

*It should be only when a monster is hit with a ‘blunt’ blow.*

“Maybe on a rewards table, so the better the hit, the smellier the fart?”

*We can do that?*

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

“Should be able to be done. What do you think Fancy, you should be able to set up a rewards table so that the fart smell is linked to how good a shot it was?”

Fancy paused, shocked at how far this conversation had descended in a matter of seconds. “Yes, you can link tables that way. It is usually used in really blood-thirsty dungeons, tying hits to arterial blood spurts, audience reactions and things like that.”

*Audience reactions?*

Jeremy handled this one. “Some Dungeons make rooms that look like Gladiatorial Arenas. They can use these sorts of links to sync audience reactions to the action. I had never thought to link them to smell.”

Fancy snorted and said, “So, everything right for your opening tomorrow?”

“Yes, we have a couple of last minute items to deal with tonight, then we will activate the dungeon. I am right to leave whenever you are ready.”

Fancy nodded and mentally gave Jeremy the co-ordinates for Sara and Mercy and teleported.

“Hi, all. Everything is now OK. The Dungeon Raiders have been dealt with. Jeremy, Monty’s Assistant, will be joining us.”

Just after she had finished speaking, there was another pop and Jeremy appeared in Sara’s Core Room.

Fancy went through the same spiel, except any mention of anyone owing anyone else a favour. Mercy also gave Sara a shard from Jessica and then brought everyone up to date.

As this was the first time that Jeremy had ever met Mercy, he was interested to see what she was like.

Between the three of them, they did represent the three main Assistant races, and unlike Fancy and Jeremy, Mercy was from the other main Dungeon Assistant School on this continent, Poirot’s School of Dungeon Mastery.

Jeremy was a sprite, so had that ‘angular’ look you so often found with sprites. It was not that they were related to insecta, it was just that (especially their faces) had a look like they had been fashioned out of a block of rock crystal.

Seeing Fancy and Mercy next to each other just highlighted the differences between Mercy (a pixie) and Fancy (a fairy).

While his own wings were transparent and beetle-like, Mercy’s wings were more like a moth’s. Like his own, they folded flat against his back, but had a fine coating of down over them. Fancy’s more closely resembled butterfly wings, tending to stick out at right-angled to her body, but were also more translucent, while still being coated with a fine down. He knew from working with other fairies that the wings would lay flat if required, but it involved a complicated bit of ‘folding’ to achieve.

From talking to Fancy, Jeremy knew that Jessica’s crystal was a yellow colour, and that this lined up with her pre-dungeon magical strengths. He also knew that Monty’s turquoise colour reflected his affinities, as well, but was confused by Sara’s clear, diamond-like crystal.

“Sara, can I ask you a question?”

Mercy laughed. “Sara said, that’s ‘one’.”

Jeremy was confused for a moment, until he realised that Sara meant that he had asked one question. With a laugh himself, he replied, “I know that there seems to be a theme with the Core colour and pre-existing affinities for both Monty and Jessica, I was wondering about you with your clear core crystal?”

Mercy said, “There is? A relationship, I mean?”

Fancy said, “Well, I’d only ever come across a couple of notes about pre-existing affinities, but I noticed that Jessica has a yellow, topaz sort of core crystal colour. She mentioned that her affinities prior to becoming a Core was fire and air – and I could see how you could get to yellow from that combination. I knew that all cores would end up with access to all the areas of magic, but pre-existing affinities would translate to a slight advantage in that sphere.”

Mercy nodded and Jeremy took up the narration. “From talking to Monty, I knew that his pre-existing affinities lined up with this as well, since they were Life and Water, so a blue/green turquoise would fit. But I noticed that your core was clear, so I wondered how that had worked out?”

Mercy said, “You commented to me that you didn’t have any specific affinity but wait a minute. You definitely had magic with your extra 152 mana, so from my understanding you had to have an affinity.”

Jeremy said, “152 mana, not bad. I suppose I could see a number of secondary affinities cause a mana of 52.”

Fancy had a puzzled look on her face. “But it is not 152, is it? Mercy said an ‘extra 152’, so that would make your current mana maximum to be 252. As Jessica would say, ‘Come on, girl, give up the gos, what is happening?’”

Mercy said, “Gos?”

“Gossip, rumour, start talking, that sort of thing. It is one of her many sayings.”

Mercy went up to Sara and gave her crystal a hug. “It is OK, Sara. We are all on your side, completely, 100%, totally. The nature of the Assistant-Core bond becomes stronger than all other bonds, even towards mates and children.”

After a pause, Sarah said *Umm, what I said is true, but perhaps not the full story. I have a full, primary affinity to every type of magic, not any one specifically.*

Silance reigned in Sara’s Core room for a full minute before Mercy started to laugh, uncontrollably. Fancy joined in, the pair of them half leaning on each other, holding their stomach muscles as they slipped slowly to the ground, consumed by laughter.

“What my fine, fluffy friends here would say, if they were capable of speech, would be something like, ‘That is amazing!’. The three of you dungeons are really going to be unstoppable. You are going to rock the world and we have the honour of front-row seats while you do it! Wait a minute.” Jeremy turned to Sara; his voice suddenly very serious. “How was I able to hear you then?”

The laughter stopped immediately as all three Assistants focused on Sara. “Because I was sort of able to piggy back on the communications I can see between each of you and my brother or sister?”

“Can you listen in on those conversations?” Asked Fancy.

“No, definitely not. There seems to be some, I don’t know, may be cypher? Yes, cypher, so it is just meaningless noise.”

Fancy continued, with more than a little sarcasm, “Meaningless noise. Well at least you can’t do the things that are taught as impossible for Dungeons to do, at least yet. It is good that after being a dungeon for less than a week, you are limiting yourself to things that we are taught can possibly be done by ancient, millennia old dungeons. It is important to limit yourself when you first start out.”

All three of the Assistants lost it at Fancy’s pontification.

Mercy looked up at Sara’s crystal and winked.

Sara thought that maybe things would work out.