Sandra used her Mana to create a big brick of pure Steel and made it appear where the Orange Tree Seeds had been, to the shock of everyone there.
* —I have to manually craft everything that is a finished product. Hence, the workshops you’ve seen on the way down here, as well as the other workshops down below. *
She saw Violet look at the large brick of Steel and to the Orange Trees – which had stopped growing when Sandra turned off the trap – but it still had plenty of fruit growing on it. “I see. We could definitely use the material now that our village has been destroyed—” the Gnome said, anger in her face and voice— “but why would you help us? And what do you want in return for all of these ‘gifts’ you want to bestow on us?”
They were fair questions, though it was hard for Sandra to answer. She knew exactly why she wanted to help them, but as far as what she wanted in return, it was something that they might not want to provide.
* I don’t want to help just you – I want to help all the races around here. And the only way to do that for you is to help you in any way I can, to gain back what was lost when your Academy fell to the dungeons. Not only that, but I think there might be a way for everyone to survive the coming dungeon monster invasion that is sure to come if something isn’t done about it. *
“How can we gain back what we lost? There are very few Master Enchanters left to teach us all, and even if they could teach what they know in time, there is a serious lack of Apprentices that could even learn how to do it.”
* That’s where you all come in. Currently, I don’t have the ability to do any enchanting, but I’m hoping that will change soon. I used to be what you would consider a Master Enchanter when I was still Human, despite having never enchanted anything at all. *
“What? That doesn’t make any sense—”
* However, I’ve never seen anything like the runes placed on the War Machines Felbar and the other two Gnomes were controlling. If you teach me how to make those, I can in turn teach others, as well as start making some of those War Machines myself. *
“But I only know a few of the runes, as I hadn’t finished—wait a minute,” Violet said, before stopping herself. “Are you seriously asking me – a Gnome – to teach you – a dungeon – how to craft and make a War Machine, the only thing that has kept our people alive all these years from the monsters coming from dungeons roaming around our borders?”
When she put it that way, it sounded ludicrous. Sandra didn’t know what she could say to convince Violet of her sincerity, so she said nothing. They were both silent as the Gnome seemed to have some sort of internal struggle in her mind.
“What guarantees can you give that you won’t use the information against us?” Violet finally asked.
The others immediately protested. “You can’t seriously be considering that, can you?” “Are you crazy? This is a dungeon we’re talking about!” “That’s a very bad idea, Violet; Felbar will kill you when he finds out!”
Violet held her hand up to shush them, which they did almost immediately, as she waited for Sandra’s response.
* There isn’t any guarantee that I can give to you that you would believe, especially coming from a dungeon. However, I hope that my actions of late and the sight of my workshops here have shown you that I’m a different kind of dungeon than you’re used to. *
The Gnome seemed to think that over for a bit, before nodding her head once. “That’ll have to do, I suppose; if you had actually tried to give me guarantees, I probably wouldn’t have believed you. I agree with your proposition, for the survival of my people, if nothing else. But, like I was saying, I only know a few of the runes; I had only begun to learn how to create the other one when my parents—I mean, the Enchanters Learning Academy was destroyed,” Violet choked out, sounding a little emotional.
There was some sort of personal story there, but Sandra didn’t pry – because it also sounded like it was private and still a bit raw. She assured the Gnome woman that with enough experimentation, she could probably figure it out if she had a starting point; she had enough instruction in Enchanting over her decades-long pursuit of crafting knowledge that she thought she could work out a solution.
* Also, I would love to learn more about your temporary enchantment runes I saw you use on your Steel knives; Humans tend to do enchantments with permanency, so I’ve never actually seen more than a few temporary enchantments before. *
Violet looked skeptical. “Are you sure you were a ‘Master Enchanter’? Even our children can use simple runes like that.” Sandra didn’t bother to answer her, as she didn’t want to explain everything about her own history. “But I’ll see what I can do to have the others teach you what they know.”
* Thank you. If you all want to head up to the Kitchen again and through there to the forge in the next room, I’ll see about converting an old room into a place where you can all sleep for the night. The sun is starting to set, and I know that today has been a bit exhausting.”
Sandra saw them file out, the exhaustion that they had been ignoring with everything that had been going on visibly hitting them as they headed up. Before Violet left the growing room, she stopped and turned to face one of the Articulated Clockwork Golems nearby. “By the way, what’s the deal with the Elf?”
* Oh, that’s right, I forgot to mention that. In a little over a week, a special party of Elven Elites are supposed to be coming here to destroy me unless I can find a way to stop them. They think I’m some sort of danger or something. *
Violet just shook her head and departed, mumbling under her breath. “What did I just get myself into…”
Chapter 25
It was easy enough for Sandra to send an Ape into Kelerim’s old room and disassemble the bed there; as soon as the leather mats were gone, she was able to manipulate the stone bed frame, add to it, and create 8 separate, smaller beds. A quick use of her dungeon ability to eat away at a portion of the crude – nearly rancid, actually (she was going to have to make some more soon) – leather mats to divide them up to fit on each bed like a hard mattress. It was a little cramped in the room now, but it was better than nothing.
The Gnomes didn’t care, however; as soon as they saw somewhere to sleep, they each picked a bed and collapsed, falling asleep within minutes of arriving. Sandra figured they would be out for quite a while, which was alright for her, since she needed to get caught up on a few things. Not only was there more crafting that she wanted to accomplish, but she needed to get some things ready for when her new Visitors all woke up. First, though, she needed some information.
Winxa, I have a couple of questions. First, the Core that had all of the reptiles; does its Core Size Upgrade take the same time as mine will? And second, will the Gnomes here be able to help me stop the Elves from attacking by speaking to them?
The Dungeon Fairy had been listening to everything Sandra had been telling her for the last couple of hours with great interest. Once the Gnomes had gone to sleep, she had even checked out Sandra’s growing room with the Orange Trees there, as well as looking over the sleeping/unconscious forms of all of Sandra’s Visitors.
“That first question is the easiest, so we’ll get that one out of the way. In general, the Core Size Upgrades take approximately the same time for each Core, though they can differ slightly depending on the kind of Core it is. The difference is barely noticeable, however; a few minutes longer or shorter when it already takes 48 hours – or more – isn’t that big of a deal. I’m assuming that you’re asking because you want to know how long you’ll have until you need to worry about them attacking you again. On the low side, I’d put them at least a day and a half out before they likely finish their Upgrade, but keep in mind they will likely be fairly depleted just like you usually are after your own upgrades.
“As for your second question…I’m not sure. Remember, just because you can understand them all and ‘speak’ to them, that doesn’t mean that the Gnomes will be able to speak Elvish. It’s more likely that at leas
t some of the older Elves will speak at least some Gnomish, but I can’t guarantee that. And before you ask, the same goes with the written language – they won’t be able to write anything that will be understood by the others, unless the Elves can read Gnomish, as well.”
What about you? Do you think you can teach them enough to communicate with the Elves?
“The same ability you possess lets me understand and talk to any race, which is how I can speak with any Dungeon Core I am supposed to be guiding; only a fraction of the Cores I’ve met personally were Human, you know. Just as you can, I can read any language – but I can’t write anything. Besides, Dungeon Fairies interacting with or helping any of the races is kind of frowned upon, though not necessarily forbidden – and I don’t want to push my luck with that right now.”
Essentially what you’re saying is that unless one of the Elves speaks Gnomish, I’m likely out of luck. I may just have to see if one of them would be willing to try, however; it can’t hurt, right?
Winxa told the Dungeon Core that it was up to her, though the Fairy didn’t hold out hope. Sandra was more positive and thought it might have a chance of working; if it did, then she wouldn’t have to worry about the arrival of an Elite team of Elves bent on her Core’s destruction. If it didn’t…well, she would worry a bit more about it after that.
That was for later, though, because right now she got started on a few crafting projects that she had been neglecting. First, she wanted to finish her plant growing and Thread-making crafts with Cotton and Jute. It felt unfinished and she didn’t like things to go unfinished once she started down a path.
In her growing room, she ate and absorbed one of the Orange Trees; just as she had hoped, it had given her access to a new type of wood.
New Monster Seed and Origination Material found!
Orangewood
While Orangewood can be directly used as a Monster Seed, it can also be used as a material for use in the dungeon or other purposes.
You now have access to:
Tiny Orangewood Chip
Origination Raw Material Cost: 500
Origination Mana Cost: 100
Monster Min. Mana: 100
Monster Max. Mana: 200
Sandra left all of the other trees alone for the moment, as she wanted to keep the fruit for the Gnomes to eat if they wanted it. She had plenty of other space in the room for growing more plants, after all – which was precisely what she did. Using her helpful little Golems, she created Jute and Cotton Seeds and planted them in two different plots. She alternated the trap triggers so that they were active for approximately five minutes for the Cotton and twice as long for the Jute, as she knew it would take longer to grow.
Rather than watch that for the hour or so that it would take for both of them to mature enough to be harvested, she spent that time seeing to some more unfinished business. As soon as her Mana had filled up to nearly full again – which only took about 50 minutes or so – she began placing traps in the rest of the rooms she had created for defense earlier; just because the threat from the reptile-based Dungeon Core was on hold and the Elven hit-squad wasn’t supposed to be there for another week or more, that didn’t mean she wanted to leave her dungeon unprotected any longer than necessary. Therefore, she finished what she had been doing before the Gnomes had been attacked.
The fifteenth room down from the surface was filled with exactly 1,000 Segmented Centipedes; she wasn’t exactly sure what she was thinking at the time when she had originally placed them all there, but she thought she had an idea on how to use them now. While the Centipedes were not too dangerous by themselves, Sandra had seen first-hand in the Gnome village attack how deadly a swarm of smaller monsters could be. By utilizing a trap that combined Nether and Spirit, she was planning on taking advantage of their greater numbers.
Unlike her tenth room that combined Holy and Spirit elements together to make victims feel euphoric while they were killed, this one would instill quite the opposite emotion: fear. Shadowy “apparitions” would float around the room that were about the size and shape of a 5-year-old Human child; when they touched someone or some creature/monster, an illusion would pop up of whatever their victim feared the most, sending them into a panic. That panic would spell their doom – or so she hoped.
The room was fairly small – only about 30 feet wide and long, and 10 feet tall – and there was a 4-foot-wide walkway running down the length of it in a straight shot to the exit tunnel. On either side of the walkway, however, Sandra created two shallow pits – only about 5 feet deep – that each contained 500 Segmented Centipedes constantly moving around in a writhing mass of potential death. If something were to fall inside while still in the throes of whatever illusionary fear they were suffering from, they would be instantly swarmed over and covered head to toe in Centipedes. It wasn’t a pleasant way to go, but Sandra wasn’t planning on it being an enjoyable experience – she was only doing it to protect herself. And better yet, she was able to tie the double-element trap to a single one of the Segmented constructs in the pits, meaning that it would probably take the destruction of almost all of them to deactivate the trap.
In the sixteenth room, Sandra went from illusionary fear to one of the real fears she held herself when she was still Human: drowning. She had never learned how to swim, and her deformed hands made that difficult in the first place, so she had tended to stay away from any bodies of water larger than a shallow bathtub. By utilizing Air and Water in a trap, she was able to make a nightmarish – at least for herself, and hopefully others – underwater maze that forced whoever entered to hold their breath for a minimum of 10 minutes on their way to the exit.
At the entrance, anyone entering would take two steps inside and activate the trigger. Thin walls of clear hardened Air would snap into place in the 50X50X20-foot room, creating narrow hallways that would meander throughout the room in different directions – including straight upwards and downwards. There were three initial entrance choices for whatever dared to attempt her labyrinth, though it was hard to tell because the “walls” of Air were invisible. All three entrances actually led towards the end, though only one of them was shorter; even if they chose the shorter one, as soon as they crossed into any of the entrances, the hallways made from invisible air would start to rapidly fill with clear water.
Whatever tried to navigate through the filled hallways would have trouble finding the walls and the way through as everything was clear; occasionally, they would need to wait for the portion of the maze they were on to fill with water to float them upwards, though of course they wouldn’t necessarily know that there was a gap they could go through. It was likely that they would think it was a dead end and turn around, not knowing that they would have to go upwards.
Within a minute, the entire labyrinth of solid Air walls would fill with water, and then it would be a race to the end – if they could find it. And even if they could navigate their way through and hold their breath, Sandra didn’t make it easy on them; a dozen Ironclad Apes were scattered throughout the maze-like labyrinth. They were easy to see through the clear Air and Water, but it was almost impossible to determine when they would actually be encountered. Since they didn’t breathe, Sandra didn’t have to worry about them running out of air as the labyrinth filled up with water. If anything survived 30 minutes within the air and water-filled maze, the trap would run out of Mana and collapse, leaving them free to get to the exit – and contend with whatever Apes were still left.
And that finally brought her to the final, massive room she had constructed to house her Iron-plated Behemoths. Nine of them were currently inside the 200X200X25-foot room, and Sandra needed something to make up for their relatively slow movement speed. While they could spin around quickly and smash apart their opponents with their flails, they couldn’t walk very fast; it was entirely possible that someone or something could literally run right by them without even engaging them. Sandra thought about Echo and the way she could increase her speed by usi
ng Air elemental energy – she’d probably run circles around my Behemoths.
To counter that, she created walls of thick stone inside the room, separating it into three distinct areas; the first was a fairly small circular space and contained a single Behemoth that was stationed in the middle. When it spun around, its flail-tails would be able to reach every edge, closing off any avenue of escape if someone just tried to avoid her construct in the first place.
Given that whoever made it that far had to have some expert survival skills, even Sandra didn’t think that was quite enough to stop them, however. Therefore, she abandoned the dual-trap theme for the last room and used pure Air – and a whole lot of it. The trap she created would thicken the air until it was so dense that it was almost – but not quite – solid. Her Behemoth even had a little trouble getting its rotation up to speed, but once it had momentum, it would cut through the air like a knife through thick porridge. Even if someone like Echo used her Air elemental energy to thin the air out enough to move at more than a walk, they would have to expend a lot of energy to make it happen.
And then they would have to go to the next space, which was essentially three long hallways that were just wide enough to hold an Iron-plated Behemoth. The same trap would thicken the air there as well, which was why her constructs were located at the end of each of the hallways; they would be able to start moving and pick up some momentum with their massive heavy bodies, until they got up to “ramming speed” – which was essentially the speed of a quick walk. Instead of trying to hit the enemy invader with a flail-tail, these three Behemoths would just run them over and smash them flat.
The Crafter's Defense: A Dungeon Core Novel (Dungeon Crafting Book 2) Page 20
