The quick blip of a screen that popped up in her vision was a surprise. It seemed as though she could see how much elemental energy the Goblin Worker possessed; it had Spirit and Fire energy, which corresponded to its base Classification of Goblinoids. However, the 25 in each type was confusing, until she realized that the entire cost of the Worker was 50 Mana; if she considered that it was split in half, then it made sense in a way.
She also saw a “Special Ability”, which she hadn’t even known existed for Dungeon Monsters. A quick question to Winxa revealed that almost all Monsters that Cores had access to had some sort of Special Ability that used their inherent elemental energy, though like she had explained to Sandra before, her constructs couldn’t use any energy – and therefore didn’t have any. That was interesting news, and it was something she might try out later, but for now it didn’t really matter to her too much.
Concentrating on the elemental energy, she started to siphon it out though the Goblin’s finger like she had seen Violet do, which seemed the best way to try it out; she had seen enchanters use different implements to help with precise rune-carving, but it wasn’t going to be needed in this instance. The enchantment she wanted to create was a simple yet effective one, which wouldn’t need any fancy equipment.
Lifeburn was a useful enchantment for weapons, and it just happened to use the two elements that the Goblin had access to. Using her Worker’s right finger to trace small runes that looked like a series of hashmarks with a line running through them onto the blade near the sharp edge, she watched as a red light emerged from her fingertip and seemed to float in place before settling loosely on one side of the knife. Keeping the Fire-based enchantment in place with a little more concentration, she flipped the knife over and used the same finger to create a series of swirls that were connected together.
When she was done – but before she let the enchantment finish – she looked at her handiwork. The shape of the runes was extremely sloppy, but the main form was there; she also saw that a few sections were thicker than others, meaning she had accidentally kept her finger there too long as she hesitated. There were a few other minor mistakes that she noticed, but she didn’t think it would prevent the enchantment from completing; it would likely not be as effective as it would be if she had done it perfectly, but for a first attempt, it was crude but not horrible. Kind of like the first knife she had ever made in her forge.
Enchanting is much harder than I thought it would be. The masters I learned from made it seem so easy, but I guess that’s why they were masters. I’m going to have to practice quite a bit to get to that level.
Before the enchantment was complete, it needed a catalyst; just like her dual-element traps Sandra had made in her dungeon, it needed something to connect them together to make them work. In the case of Lifeburn, it was an enchantment that temporarily heated the edge of the Steel knife up when it came into contact with something “alive” – which included Dungeon Monsters; therefore, the best catalyst to use was just a tiny drop of blood to signify how it would be activated. Using the tip of the knife, Sandra poked the fingertip of her Goblin’s left thumb and felt the jab of pain that accompanied it.
Ignoring the pain, she smeared the tiny drop of greenish-colored blood – that somehow smelled even worse than the outside of the Goblin – along each edge of the blade in a very thin coating. It didn’t require a lot, and that one drop of blood appeared to do the trick, because when Sandra let the enchantment complete, she felt the elemental energy flow out of her Goblin’s body and fill the runes she had made.
I did it! I enchanted something! I can’t wait—
The energy didn’t stop flowing, however; the runes only appeared to be about halfway filled when the Goblin Worker’s energy bottomed out…and then her connection with it was instantly severed as it dissolved into nothing and left behind its Monster Seed. Using her awareness of her dungeon, though, she was able to see the results of the failed enchantment on the knife that was now lying on the floor.
With the runes only just over half-powered, the resulting enchantment fizzled for a second before collapsing in on itself, which caused a minor explosion that shattered the Steel knife into three pieces. Fortunately, no damage was done to anything else in the room, as the explosion was fairly limited in scope; if her Goblin Worker was still there, however, it probably would’ve been killed outright or at least fatally wounded and wouldn’t last long afterward.
Why…?
“I’ve never heard of a Dungeon Core even attempting to enchant something before, so I don’t have any prior experience to pull from; however, based on what I overheard you thinking about its elemental energy, I believe it is directly tied to the Mana you spent on creating it. Unlike a member of a sentient race – for instance, Violet – when it pulled all of that energy out of its body, it didn’t have anything to sustain it anymore; as a result, it essentially killed itself when it ran out of energy. I’m not sure what enchantment you were trying to do, but it must’ve required more energy than it could supply,” the Dungeon Fairy answered her internal question.
That makes sense, though now I’m really worried. That was one of the least-complicated enchantments I know that utilizes both elements; there are some that I could try that are even easier that only use one or the other, but that just means I am severely limited in what I can enchant. And even if it does work, will it recover that elemental energy on its own? I know that rest and sleep usually recovers it – at least in Humans and Gnomes – but would that work the same in a Dungeon Monster?
“That is something I can answer with certainty: Yes, but very, very slowly. I know for a fact that when a Dungeon Monster uses a Special Ability, that energy is used up and can take weeks, months, or even years to recover – depending upon how much energy is used. For instance, that Ancient Saurian probably used its Special Ability to move much faster during that battle at the Gnome village, but for something of that size to use it so sparingly meant that it could take years for it to be able to do that again.”
That was bad news to Sandra, as all her hopes of being able to enchant whatever she wanted disappeared as quickly as her Goblin Worker had when all its energy had been sucked out from it. True, the Worker was relatively cheap to produce, but if it could only do extremely basic and simple rune enchantments, then it was extremely limited in its usefulness. One or two enchantments before it was essentially useless made the whole enchanting process one of using up the Goblin and then just throwing it away like garbage; as much as she was disgusted and repulsed by the Monster, it seemed wrong to use the “living” creature that way. Sandra’s constructs felt different to her, as they were like machines and weren’t really “alive” to her way of thinking – so she didn’t feel the same way about them.
It looks like I’ve got to rethink this whole enchanting situation. If the Mana spent to create the Dungeon Monster affects how much elemental energy it has, then I’m going to need something that requires quite a bit of Mana to create. And that probably means I’m going to have to end up spending quite a bit of AP to get those Monsters.
“You’ve got to spend money to make money,” was something her father used to say all the time. Of course, he was referring to paying for merchandise in one place to sell somewhere else for a markup, but she supposed it applied in her current situation. With a sigh, she turned back to the Advancement options she had…
Chapter 37
Obviously, to get what she wanted – no, needed – Sandra was going to have to Advance her Classification.
“I’m not sure exactly what it will do to your existing construct options, but I do know that in the future it will provide you with more selection when you upgrade your Core Size. In the past, advancing your Classification meant that you’d have access to Monsters that wouldn’t normally be something you’d see, and they only get better the more advanced it is,” Winxa explained when Sandra asked more about it. “Though, with what you’re looking for, I doubt that any changes to your c
urrent Monsters will matter to you, as they likely still won’t be able to enchant anything.”
Regardless of what it did to her current Classification, Sandra decided that it needed to be done to get access to other Dungeon Monsters that would be what she was looking for. Therefore, with just a few moments of hesitation, she spent the 75 AP on advancing her Classification one level; the Advancement Option menu showed the Classification advancement option change from costing 75 AP to 750 AP, which meant it would be quite a while before she upped it again. She felt the same internal shifting of something inside her Core as it did when she spent 5 AP on acquiring the Goblin Worker, but it was much stronger.
It was so intense, in fact, that she…blacked out…for a second and her mind came to a screeching halt. It wasn’t the same as being in the featureless grey void of death or the limited awareness of her Core Size upgrades. Those existences at least allowed her to think; her blacked-out state wouldn’t allow her to do even that, which was probably good because she couldn’t even worry or freak out about it. Sandra had no way of telling how long it took – mainly because she couldn’t think enough about it to care – and when she came back to awareness it was with a sudden jolt; one second she was carelessly floating in a black void without direction or thought, the next she was back in her Core with menus scrambling for her attention.
Congratulations on your Classification Advancement!
Current Classification: Constructs (Advancement Level 1)
Your current Constructs Creation Options have been upgraded!
Your current Advancement Creation Options have been upgraded!
(Attention! Your existing Dungeon Monsters will not be automatically upgraded. Upgrades will only take place when a new Dungeon Monster is created. Mana requirements may have increased as a result of this advancement.)
You can now purchase Advancement Level 1 Dungeon Monsters from the Advancement Options Menu.
Constructs Creation Options
Name:
Mana Cost:
Clockwork Tarantula
25
Reinforced Animated Shears
50
Hyper Automaton
100
Dividing Rolling Force
125
Lengthy Segmented Millipede
500
Iron-banded Articulated Clockwork Golem
750
Roaring Blademaster
1500
Large Armored Sentinel
2000
Mechanical Jaguar Queen
4000
Mechanical Dire Wolf
5000
Martial Totem
8000
Automated Sharp-bladed Digger
10000
Multi-access Repair Drone
16000
Steelclad Ape Warrior
24000
Titanium Anaconda
32000
Steel-plated Behemoth
40000
Gravitational Devastation Sphere*
15000
Advancement Creation Options
Name:
Mana Cost:
Goblin Foreman
80
Uh…what just happened? Being bombarded by all of that information right when she came back to awareness was unexpected, but not as unexpected as the Mana Cost of her constructs being four to five times what they were before! The Goblin Worker – now Goblin Foreman – was only increased by a little bit, which was strange—
“There you are! It’s been almost a week since you started that advancement to your Classification, and I was starting to get worried!” Sandra heard Winxa’s anxious voice and looked around to see her hovering nearby with an equally anxious look on her face.
I’m sorry, I didn’t know it would do that – why didn’t you warn me?
The anxious look didn’t disappear from the Fairy’s face; in fact, it looked to be even worse than it was when Sandra had first seen her. “From the little I remember, it wasn’t supposed to do that. It should’ve been like a super-quick upgrade that wouldn’t have lasted more than a few minutes – not an entire week!” she exclaimed. “But that’s not everything – you’ve got a visitor.”
Huh? What visitor? Experimenting quickly by trying to eat at a nearby wall, Sandra found that she was still able to do it – which meant it wasn’t an intruder, at least. Winxa sensed her confusion and pointed down below her, so she switched her attention to the floor beneath her Core. Violet stood there looking up at Sandra both in wonder and consternation, if such a thing were possible. She looked very impatient and appeared to have been there for a while.
* Violet? What are you doing here? And how did you get past my trap— *
Sandra realized before she even finished the thought how that had happened; she had taken down the trap while she was experimenting with the Goblin Worker and enchanting and hadn’t even considered setting it back up before she had advanced her Classification.
“You’re back! I’ve been trying to communicate with you forever, it seems; I thought you said you were only going to be gone for a few days at most,” the Gnome said with her hands on her hips as if she was trying to admonish Sandra for her lack of communication.
* I’m sorry about that; something unexpected happened and it took much longer than I had known it would. Are you ok? Did you run out of food? *
“No, I’m fine – but I finished setting up the Stasis Fields on those enchantment pillars you have in that room above and there wasn’t really anything else for me to do. Felbar and that Elf are still unconscious, though I’ve at least seen Felbar shifting around a little. I came to see if something had happened to you and whether you can tell if one of the others will be waking up soon,” Violet responded.
A quick look at the Enchantment Repository showed that Violet had indeed finished setting up the Fields on Sandra’s RRPs, and that another twenty or so smaller enchantments had been added here and there, which was likely a good portion of what the Gnome had knowledge of. She was glad to see that the Gnome had kept herself busy, though she couldn’t blame her for wanting to explore and find out what happened to Sandra – she was also glad that the flame wall trap had been taken down, otherwise there was a good chance Violet would’ve gotten burnt to ashes within seconds.
Another look at Felbar and Echo showed no outward change in them, but Sandra had a distinct feeling that they wouldn’t stay that way for long. Especially since it had only been about two weeks before Kelerim had woken up, and if she added the time she was blacked out to her upgrade, then—
Wait a minute, Winxa – did you say I was down a week?
“Yes, and quite a boring week it was, too. I didn’t leave for fear that you would come back when I was gone, and I wanted to make sure I was here—”
Sandra blocked out the rest of what the Dungeon Fairy was saying as she sent her awareness out to the borders of her Area of Influence, connecting with the Small Animated Shears she had out keeping watch on all of the villages and dungeons (where they were hiding in safe spots and weren’t in a position to be attacked by some of the flight-capable Dungeon Monsters). She mentally exhaled a giant sigh of relief as nothing seemed too much out of the ordinary. Even paying special attention to the Elven village – and the area around it – didn’t show any signs of the Elites that were coming to destroy her; she still wasn’t sure what she was going to do about them, though she had thought she was going to have some more time to come up with something. I guess I’ll just have to hope that they stay away until Echo wakes up.
Other than their visit looming over her head like an axe poised to strike her figurative head off, the only thing that worried her was the new Area of Influence that Sandra could perceive from the reptilian-based Core. It had expanded significantly since she had last seen it, until it extended just past the edge of the forest nearest the Elves. It wasn’t yet a significant danger to them, fortunately, but it was something that could potentially be a problem in the future.
Pulling her attention back to her Home room, she realized that both Violet and Winxa had been trying to talk to her.
* I didn’t hear anything of what you were saying; I was checking the borders of my Area of Influence, making sure that none of the villages nearest the wastelands were in danger. Being gone so long made me worried for their welfare from the other Dungeon Cores, especially the reptile one that attacked your village, Violet. *
She communicated that to both of them, trying to apologize for ignoring them but explaining that it was for a better cause. Winxa understood right away, of course, but Violet looked confused.
“What do you mean the…reptile one? It already destroyed my village and it is way too far away from the nearest town deep inside Gnomeria,” the Gnome stated, which was actually the first time Sandra had heard what their land was named.
* To be blunt, I’m not too concerned about…Gnomeria for the moment. It’s the Elves that are in danger; the Core that attacked your village gained a lot of resources and expanded where it could reach quite a bit since then and is almost able to reach the nearby Elven village. They can’t reach it yet, but it might only be a matter of time. If they were to expand again – which could take anywhere from a few months to a few years – then they could wipe out that village just as quickly. And if that were to happen, they would gain even more resources to expand again and again, until they could finally reach far enough into your land to attack another town. Do you understand why I’m worried, now? *
The Crafter's Defense: A Dungeon Core Novel (Dungeon Crafting Book 2) Page 29
