With that set up, she moved on to the next room…and then paused. Something was wrong; she sent her viewpoint back up to the surface and her AMANS, to try to see what was going on. When she looked around and saw what was causing the commotion in the far distance, she zipped back to her Home room and Winxa, who had been listening to Sandra absently describing her latest room design.
When you said they might have access to my Area of Influence because of our shared element, you meant all of it, didn’t you? Not just as a pathway to my dungeon? Sandra asked, panicking a little.
“Yes, why do you ask—never mind, I think I know. It’s the Elven village, isn’t it?”
Sandra didn’t even think of that, as she was distracted by somewhere else; after sending one of her Small Animated Shears zipping towards the Elven village to check it out, she turned her attention back to the Dungeon Fairy. No, not there, but I’m checking up on it. It’s the Gnome village to the southeast; I’m also sending some Shears there to confirm what I can see from a distance, but it looks like it’s under attack.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t even think of that. I was more concerned about your welfare that it didn’t even occur to me that they would attack the villages nearby.”
Sandra barely heard her because she was splitting her concentration between two rapidly flying Shears that were approaching either village. The Elven village was first and she frantically searched around, looking for any threats; after a few moments, she didn’t see any monsters streaming out of the forests on either side, so it appeared they were safe – at least for the moment. She couldn’t help but think that either the Cores her Area of Influence was touching hadn’t noticed the difference yet, or – what she hoped was the reason – they were a higher Core Size than her and didn’t have access to it. If that were the case, then it was likely that the ability to share their Area of Influence with a smaller same-elemental Dungeon Core was only for “contracted” Cores like Winxa said.
Moments after confirming that the Elves were at least safe, she sent other Shears towards the Orcs and the Dwarves, though from a distance they looked okay. She didn’t have a chance to follow up with them, however, because her Gnomish-land-heading pair of Shears arrived seconds later.
And it was a scene out of a nightmare – at least for the small Gnome village there being attacked by monsters.
Sandra now figured out what had caught her attention: the rapid influx of Mana from the deaths of sentient beings. Normally, when something died in her Area of Influence – especially aboveground – she had to physically have one of her constructs there to absorb it; in this case, however, the special circumstances with the same-element Cores sharing an Area of Influence automatically split anything picked up by either Core. It was those large infusions of Mana that alerted her that something was wrong.
And it just kept rolling in as villagers caught outside the semi-fortified village were swarmed and killed by all forms of reptile-based Dungeon Monsters. The Gnomes by themselves were, in general, only about 3 feet tall and weren’t necessarily “fighters” by nature; they had no chance against the surprise attack and viciousness of the larger monsters. Based on the bodies left behind on the plowed field outside of the village, at least two dozen of them had been slain and their corpses left without another look. The Dungeon Monsters weren’t attacking because they were hungry; they were attacking because all they wanted to do was kill.
As much as Sandra despised and was disgusted by what she was seeing, she could experience first-hand the nearly insane amount of Mana flowing into her; the rapid influx of the precious resource was exciting and almost euphoric-feeling, leaving her wanting more despite knowing where it was coming from. She had experienced it before when the Orcs had attacked, but she had also taken her time absorbing the Mana they left behind so that she could properly utilize it – it hadn’t been coming in so quickly and almost incessantly.
Rather than waste it – because there was nothing she could do about what had already happened – she fed all of that Mana into her Core Size Upgrade stages. Even though it was only half of what was collected from the dead Gnomes, it was soon more than enough to completely finish off all but the last of the 12 stages that were needed for the next upgrade. The flood of Mana stopped shortly afterwards, as the monsters were temporarily stymied by the village’s defenses.
Large crocodiles, giant turtles, 30-foot snakes, and even smaller-but-quicker lizards surrounded the village, which – unlike the Elven and Orc villages – was protected by a low wall that filled in the spaces in between the squat-looking houses. It was only about 6 feet tall, but it was enough to hold back the majority of the reptiles coming to kill them; in fact, the only monsters that could get past the sturdy-appearing bricked-stone walls were some lizards who could climb vertically using their sticky feet. Fortunately, they were held back by the Gnomes’ other defenses.
Large crossbows attached to a tripod were brought to the flat roofs of the houses and hastily set up. The Gnomes were efficient and worked as a well-oiled team to place the weapons; they aimed, fired, and reloaded them with stacks of deadly-looking 4-foot-long bolts with great effectiveness. The penetration power behind the crossbows were impressive, as whenever they hit one of the large crocodiles, it would practically slide all the way through their bodies – and even occasionally pinning them to the ground.
The only downside, however, was that they took a while to reload; they had to wind up a ratcheting system that would pull the taut string back into position, which could take up to 30 seconds per bolt. With a dozen crossbows in place on top of the houses, they were still doing quite a bit of damage, however – but it wasn’t enough. There were…hundreds of different reptiles out there, and more seemed to stream out from the distant forest constantly. It almost appeared as though the nearby Core had emptied its entire dungeon in the hopes that a swarm would get the job done.
And it might just work; there were now so many surrounding the walls that they were starting to somehow get organized and climb on top of each other, using their fellow turtles and crocodiles as a stairway to the top of the wall. They hadn’t succeeded quite yet in reaching the top, but Sandra could see that it was only a matter of time.
“What are you going to do?” Winxa asked hesitatingly after she heard a brief description of what was happening. Her facial expression was somehow a combination of fear mixed with hope.
I think you know the answer to that.
Chapter 13
Echo crouched comfortably against the side of the small hill and leaned up against the dry, rough rock to support a little of her weight. An oddly shaped outcropping above her thankfully threw some shade on her hiding spot, which helped to keep her a little cool even in her light, light-brown outfit she was wearing that day. The first day had been miserable as she had worn her leathers and was almost cooked alive during the heat of the day; after that, though, she had borrowed some light and airy cotton pants and blouse from one of the growers back in Avensglen. It would do absolutely nothing to protect her if she was attacked, but she’d rather not die from heat exhaustion in the noonday sun.
She was fairly well hidden behind some other rocks as she kept an eye on the entrance of the dungeon she had found just under a week ago, so she didn’t keep her camouflage active the entire time. Echo couldn’t possibly do that, of course, even if she wanted to; her capacity for Holy elemental energy wasn’t enough to sustain it that long. She knew that as she grew older and learned some of the techniques that the Elites employed, she would be able to expand both her capacity and even find new ways to employ her energy, but for the moment she was stuck where she was. The miniscule energy increases she received from hunting the local monster population just didn’t do much for her.
She knew that the stronger the beast – or slime, or whatever the dungeon’s monsters were – the more you would absorb a portion of their “soul” when you killed them. It wasn’t necessarily a “soul”, of course, because everyone knew that those mon
sters didn’t have anything even resembling a soul, but it was named that because it was the easiest way to explain what happened. It wasn’t visible or tangible, but whenever you slew a monster, you received a small portion of its life force as a kind of reward; it was what made the Elites so powerful compared to those who didn’t fight back the dungeon’s expansions for a living.
That life force or “soul” was automatically converted into additional capacity for holding energy, though killing easy beasts like she had been for the last decade and more didn’t do much for her. There wasn’t necessarily a number associated with how much elemental energy someone could hold, it was more of a feeling; even given that, however, she estimated that she had only improved her capacity by…maybe 5%?...since she started hunting in the nearby forest. It wasn’t much, but it was an improvement.
Therefore, she tried to conserve her energy as much as she could; it would regenerate from the nearby environment slowly, though it wasn’t nearly enough to sustain her active camouflage all the time. It would fill up completely after a few hours of sleep, fortunately, but that wasn’t a luxury she could afford to take advantage of while deep into enemy territory.
After watching for almost five days without seeing much of anything happening outside the dungeon, however, she was reevaluating how much of an enemy it was. There weren’t any outward signs of aggression, and even the few times she knew she had been spotted when she wasn’t in her active camouflage – she wasn’t attacked. She was ready to flee and use her Holy energy to hide herself, but it wasn’t needed. In fact, she thought that the strange undead monsters were entirely aware of her presence but didn’t care for some reason.
That fact alone was enough to raise the hair on the back of her neck.
What is going on in there that is more important than attacking? It was extremely strange, and nothing seemed to make any sense; while the monsters themselves were unusual, none of the other characteristics of a dungeon were making themselves known. The strange, metal-looking skeletons weren’t roaming around looking for something to kill – they appeared more as some sort of scouts or defenders more than anything; the strange metal objects in the sky floated around in pre-arranged patterns with precise movements that were unnatural and strangely non-threatening; and not once had she seen an additional monster leave from the dungeon’s entrance to join those outside.
That last aspect of the strange dungeon…worried her. Echo had seen the entrance to the nearby beast dungeon many times in her journeys through it and almost every single time she saw it there was another monster emerging from it. That was one of the main reasons she was out there in the first place – to keep the constantly renewing population of monsters down to a manageable level, along with accumulating the loot they left behind when they were killed.
If it isn’t sending out more monsters…then what is it doing? Echo didn’t know the answer to that, which was why it worried her. She wasn’t knowledgeable enough about the dungeons themselves to know what it was capable of, so she had passed on her concerns to the Elder back in Avensglen.
“As long as it doesn’t seem to be expanding or sending any monsters in our direction, just keep doing what you’re doing and keep an eye on it. I haven’t received back a reply from my request for aid yet, but I suspect it will be soon,” was what she was told in response to her worry.
She understood it, of course; even if she had known what was going on, there wasn’t much that they could do about it. It was the same reason they didn’t try to destroy the dungeon themselves – because it was much too dangerous. Therefore, she did as she was instructed and just…watched.
Echo was shocked out of her lazy crouch and lean when she saw something finally emerge from the entrance of the dungeon. Her legs slid out beneath her in surprise – depositing her ungracefully on the ground of the barren wasteland – and she hastily scrambled to her feet as she initiated her active camouflage. She slipped her bow off of her back and nocked an arrow – one of the remaining Ironwood ones she possessed – as she got her first glimpse of the monster that emerged.
It was unlike anything she had seen before; essentially, it was a thick pole made of dull metal that had big, beefy arms emerging from its sides ending with closed fists. There was no visible head or feet – it seemed to just float above the ground with no obvious means of locomotion. The monster immediately zoomed off towards the southeast; she briefly thought it was heading straight towards her village, but the angle was all wrong. In effect, unless it turned or stopped at some point, it was aiming directly towards the Gnome homeland.
That wasn’t the end, however. More of the strange poles with arms and fists emerged and joined the first in its journey to the southeast, followed by other monsters who were spitting out from the entrance. Large beast-like undead – made from what appeared to be weirdly flexible metal as well – came out next, looking like some sort of large monkeys. They used their powerful-appearing arms as almost another set of legs as they bent over and loped quickly in the wake of the first monsters.
Next came long, thin poles that floated through the air – again without any visible means of movement – which were draped with something hanging off of them. Echo wasn’t sure exactly what it was, but she didn’t think it was decorative. They moved quickly through the air and easily caught up with the first groups, who were remarkably far away already.
Soon after that, a half-dozen long, shiny, metallic snakes shot out of the entrance and slithered after the others with surprising speed. They undulated back and forth, gliding over the surface of the dried and cracked ground with insane speed, moving so quickly that Echo thought she might have trouble running from them even with an application of her Air elemental energy.
They were swiftly lost to the distance as more of the skeleton-like wolves and cats emerged from the entrance – dozens of them – and joined the race towards something to the southeast. A noise behind her startled her and she spun around in panic. One of the undead cats already outside jumped down from above her head and landed five feet behind her camouflaged form. She braced for an attack and readied to fire as she turned back around to the new threat, but the cat only stared directly at her for a few seconds before it raced to join the others. Looking around, she discovered that the hills were emptying of even more of the cats, and the wolves that had been roaming outside joined them on the run as well.
Her heart was beating rapidly in her chest as realization dawned on her. Those undead cats were above me the entire time! They obviously knew I was here, because I was out of my camouflage for hours. …But why didn’t they attack?
Seeing the different monsters that had emerged from the dungeon, she realized that if they were all made of some sort of metal like she suspected, then she wouldn’t have much chance against them. Her Holy energy hadn’t seemed to do much against them, and arrows wouldn’t necessarily have anything they could impact and penetrate. So, obviously, they didn’t really consider her a threat, nor were they concerned with what she was doing there; it was almost as if she didn’t exist.
If they don’t care about me being here, then what do they care about? She emerged from her shadowed hiding place and turned towards the southeast; she took a step to follow them when a swarm of metal objects flew out of the dungeon and shot quickly in the same direction of the previous monsters. They were moving so quickly that she barely got a glimpse of them, but from what she could see, they appeared to be some sort of scissors or even shears. What the…?
Before she could finish that thought, a half-dozen white cylinders floated – seems to be a common theme with these monsters – out and started their journey to the southeast as well, though they didn’t move nearly as quickly as the others. Echo waited a few heartbeats for anything else to emerge before she followed slowly after the odd-looking white cylinders. Climbing up a short hill for a better vantage point, she could see the farthest of the monsters were definitely not heading towards her own homeland; on the contrary, they were definite
ly heading towards the Gnomes. With the kind of monster army that had departed for the southeast, she briefly considered trying to investigate the likely-empty dungeon for additional information.
However, not knowing what was left behind stayed her feet from heading in that direction. Echo was curious – not stupid. She almost headed toward her village to warn them that the dungeon was finally making a move – but she wasn’t exactly sure what that move was yet. Are they heading towards the Gnomes to destroy them? If that was the case, then it was plain that the dungeon had expanded more than enough to reach Avensglen, as well as the other races’ villages that were lined up near the perimeter of the Wastelands. Although she had never visited them, she knew they were there because she could vaguely see them sometimes from afar when she climbed a tall enough mini-mountain in the Wastelands.
Why hadn’t they attacked before that then? That was just another question she didn’t have an answer to. With quick feet aided by her Air elemental energy, Echo chased after the dungeon’s monster army, determined to discover the answers to some of those questions.
Chapter 14
Sandra emptied out half of the constructs in her dungeon, leaving only the smaller and slower Dungeon Monsters in her defensive rooms. She also quickly created a half-dozen Repair Drones and sent them along at the tail end of her force, because she thought she might need them later.
The most-recent rooms that she had filled with deadly traps and constructs she left largely alone, though she did steal away some of the Mechanical Wolves and Jaguars from her latest creation – because they were quick enough to get through her dungeon to join those already leaving. Those Wolves and Jaguars already aboveground joined them as well, and she chuckled a little bit when one of her cat constructs startled Echo, who had been watching her entrance since the morning after the meeting in the village Sandra had witnessed.
The Crafter's Defense: A Dungeon Core Novel (Dungeon Crafting Book 2) Page 11
