She was just glad that she had been prepared for any eventuality.
If they had broken through her massive constructs and made it to her Home, she had some reinforcements that she had managed to scramble together from the constructs that had been destroyed on the Elves’ descent through her dungeon. One strange thing she noted – and asked Winxa about – was that she couldn’t absorb any of the Monster Seeds while the Elves were still in the room.
“It allows the sentient races to collect them if they wish to, though these intruders have something other than acquiring ‘loot’ in mind, as you call it. As for why the other Core was able to absorb it almost instantly when you attacked its dungeon, it’s because Dungeon Monsters aren’t classified as sentient intruders, so the restriction was negated.” As strange as that sounded, it made sense. Otherwise there would be no reason to enter a dungeon – from the people’s perspective – unless they were there to destroy the Core.
Just minutes before the Elves entered the final section of the last defensive room, Violet had finally succeeded in enchanting what Sandra was thinking would be her ticket to survival. And, she secretly hoped, another step in the goal she had made for herself; even though it now felt like it was being pushed on her by the Creator, she still personally desired to help all of the sentient races nearby. Whether it was through destroying nearby Cores or through her crafting, there were multiple avenues to success that she could see.
She just had to share that vision with those she was hoping to save.
The issue she had been having before with trying to convince the Elves that she wasn’t a danger – and that she was only trying to help – had one major flaw that she only just recognized through her experience as a merchant. Very few people (or Dungeon Cores, for that matter) did things for free – it was as simple as that.
Sure, there were good Samaritans out there that genuinely helped people that needed help, asking for nothing in return. But even most of them – but not all, of course (she did believe that some were actually entirely altruistic) – basked in the feeling that helping other people gave them, or the fame that came with it, or just secretly hoped that what they were doing would come around again and benefit them somehow in the future. This couldn’t be truer of the merchants she and her father had associated with over the years.
She wanted to help the people for multiple reasons, and not all of them were altruistic. For one, she felt somehow guilty by being associated with the other Dungeon Cores that murdered and slaughtered hundreds or thousands of the races every year. Two, she wanted to be left alone to do her crafting, and the best way to do that would be to eliminate the threat of the nearby dungeons so that they wouldn’t try to attack her. Three, she wanted her crafting to make a difference – and all the feelings that went along with that. And four (and probably the most selfish reason), was that she wanted to be looked on with appreciation and perhaps even a little envy from those around her – which were two traits she had rarely experienced when she was Human.
But nobody else needed to know those reasons, as they may or may not understand them. What most people understood, however, were the reasons most people did what they did – at least back in Muriel: to make life better. It could be accumulating money that made life better, or building a larger house, or eating delicious foods; in the case of those lands surrounding her wastelands, it was safety. Safety against the nearby Dungeon Monster attacks, safety for their family, safety for their people – it was essentially all the same.
Therefore, Sandra was going to start selling that safety.
Selling wasn’t quite the right word, as she didn’t necessarily need anything they could provide – except maybe some rare materials. Other than that, what Sandra really needed was their Cooperation.
Violet had done a superb job, but even when she was done with the enchantment, Sandra could see some improvements that could be made. Regardless, the glowing Elemental orb of Spirit Mana was a sight to behold – and it worked!
Using the nearly invisible “cage” surrounding her Core as inspiration, Sandra had devised a way to apply parts of that enchantment to create something that would act in a similar manner – but basically in reverse. Whereas the enchantment and rune sequences on the “cage” around her were designed to absorb both the ambient Mana and the Mana from the deaths of living beings that were funneled to her, the much smaller enchantment “cage” on the Large Spirit Elemental Orb Violet was holding did the opposite.
By inverting the most important runes she had identified, Absorb and Convert, instead of absorbing and converting ambient Mana, it would absorb Mana from the Elemental Orb and convert it to elemental energy. By inserting another rune in the sequence, Transfer, it would transfer that energy to anything that came into contact with it – which was exactly what had happened to Violet when she held it after the enchantment was complete.
Sandra hadn’t needed her to say anything; the look of wonder on her face had been enough to prove that it was working. And with that glorious piece done, proven, and working exactly how she had imagined it would, the last piece of the puzzle was complete.
“STOP!” Violet yelled out as she stood on the edge of the tunnel leading to the last defensive room. It was entirely unnecessary, of course, because Sandra completely controlled her constructs, but it hopefully gave Violet a little more authority in the eyes of the Elves. Since Sandra couldn’t communicate with them, she had to hope that at least one of the exhausted Elites could speak at least a little bit of Gnome.
“Is that…a goblin? What’s a goblin…doing in here?” the archer in grey and green wheezed out.
“No, that’s not a goblin, that’s a Gnome,” Clovera spoke up from the ground as she struggled to rise.
Alanthia had even gained a little strength back by that time and was able to scramble on all fours out of the way of the stopped Behemoth foot that was hovering over her body like a death sentence. “She’s right – don’t any of you speak Gnomish? I clearly heard her say ‘Stop’, despite the fact that I haven’t heard it spoken in many, many years,” the white-and-red-robed Elf remarked.
Sandra and Violet were in luck. She translated that last part for the Gnome to indicate that Alanthia was the one to talk to but avoided mentioning anything about goblins – there was no need to make her annoyed at that point. Then she fed to Violet what she wanted her to say, though she left it up to the Gnome in how she wanted to go about it.
“Do you yield?” Violet asked Alanthia, walking up confidently even though Sandra knew the Gnome was fairly intimidated by the Elite Elf. Fortunately, she was still holding onto the…hmm, what to call it…Mana Converter? Elemental Energy Recharger? Miracle Energy Source? Regardless of the name, Violet gained a bit of confidence from the enchanted Elemental Orb as she siphoned off the Mana inside of it. The conversion process from Mana to the energy that she – or any other sentient – could use wasn’t instantaneous; it slowly refilled the Gnome’s energy over time instead of all at once, but it was still a whole heck of a lot faster than refilling it while sleeping.
And it didn’t appear to be a 1-to-1 ratio, either; while she couldn’t see exactly how much energy Violet was gaining from the enchanted item, she could vaguely sense the Mana level in the Orb had only fallen by a small amount. She thought about a way to possibly recharge the Orb through the ambient Mana around it sort of like how her own Core functioned, but for the moment that wasn’t part of the enchantment; as a result, it was finite, but hopefully it would last a while before the Mana ran out.
“Yield?” Alanthia spoke back to her in stilted Gnomish as she struggled to get to her feet – and failed. The Elf was too drained from her energy expenditure to get past her knees. “What are you talking about? And what is a Gnome doing in a dungeon?”
Sandra was glad she didn’t have to translate, otherwise the delay in the conversation would eventually get annoying. “I’m speaking for the Core of this dungeon and she has an offer for you.”
“She?
Offer? I have no idea what you’re talking about, but even the Gnomes have to know about the danger a dungeon like this would impose on us all.” The Elite Elf looked confused, and so did the others; obviously none of them spoke Gnomish, so they didn’t know what the conversation was about.
“As hard as it is to believe, Sandra – the dungeon here – isn’t a threat to any of you. In fact, it’s just the opposite – she wants to help. It sounds crazy, I know, but as far as I can tell it’s true,” Violet continued, to Sandra’s consternation. Crazy?
“I don’t believe you – the dungeon must have done something to your mind to make you think that way. I’ve seen entirely too many of my friends die over the years from a dungeon’s monsters or traps to know better,” Alanthia retorted grimly.
“Believe me or not, it doesn’t really matter to me. What matters is that you were about to die before the monsters of this dungeon were stopped – or do you believe you would’ve lived another minute or two? It appears as though you’ve used almost all of your elemental energy reserve to get even this far.”
The Elf appeared as though she wanted to protest – but she literally didn’t have a leg to stand on. “You…may have a point. If I had just a little more energy, I would’ve torn through this last metal monster and then would’ve destroyed the heart of this dungeon.”
Sandra ushered in her constructs she had created as reinforcements through the tunnel, and their appearance made the faces of all the Elves drop in resignation – and a little fear. That wasn’t exactly her plan, as it was just to show that fighting would prove fruitless, but it served her purposes – for the negotiation, at least. And this was a negotiation, even if the Elves – and Violet – didn’t realize it yet.
“Okay…so maybe not. So, what is it that this dungeon wants?” Alanthia asked bitterly.
“Like I said, she wants to help. But she also needs something in return.”
“What could we possibly have that a dungeon could want?” The Elf looked both confused and wary.
“She needs to…bond with you. As well as agreeing to help in the future in a joint project of cooperation between the different races?” Violet said, a questioning tone in her own voice as she repeated what Sandra was telling her.
“I won’t be some sort of slave to a dungeon!” Alanthia practically shouted – or as much of a shout as she could with her exhaustion.
“It’s not any sort of slave bond, it’s something else entirely. First, it will allow Sandra to talk to you—”
“And control my mind, apparently,” Alanthia rudely interrupted her. Sandra could see Violet starting to lose any intimidation she felt from the Elves and was starting to get a little angry.
“Fine, believe what you will. If it were up to me, I’d have let you all die here, because I’m pretty sure you all thought I was a goblin when you first saw me, didn’t you?” Alanthia didn’t have the presence of mind to mask her guilty expression. “That’s what I thought. But the fact of the matter is, your people need you, and I don’t want another innocent village to be destroyed.”
The Elite Elf tensed up at that. “Are you telling me this dungeon will destroy our village if we don’t agree with this ‘bond’ thing?”
“No, not at all. In fact, Sandra saved some of us from a full-scale attack against our own village by an army of monster lizards and crocodiles and turtles. And while she ended up very recently destroying the dungeon responsible for it, there is another army of them headed for your people’s village right now.” Sandra was glad Violet didn’t mention how the reptiles had been able to attack them in the first place.
“What?” Alanthia asked, shocked. “That’s impossible!”
“Again, believe what you will. I’m sure your people need your help, because if it was anything like what attacked us, they won’t survive for long. And since you destroyed most of Sandra’s monsters, there’s no army of constructs to help defend them – if your people even allowed them to.”
Alanthia was silent for almost a minute before she finally translated all that was said in Gnomish to the other Elves. Their expressions ran the gamut between confusion, anger, and finally fear – though it was obviously fear for the villagers, and not necessarily themselves. Sandra was glad to see that they cared for their people that way; from what she could tell, they didn’t enjoy delving through dungeons and destroying their Cores – it was only done to ensure the safety of their people.
Silence reigned over the room for a few minutes before, finally, she saw resignation on all of the Elves’ faces. “I hope we don’t regret it, but if what you say is true – and we can’t afford to lose any more of our people – then we…agree to this bond. But even if you let us leave, we’re essentially all out of energy. We won’t be much use in defending the village.”
“And that’s where the help Sandra said would come in. She has developed something…unique and wonderful…to help you with your problem.” Sandra told her which one of the archers to go to, as it wasn’t completely obvious which one would be the most receptive. As she approached the man, she held out her hand with the enchanted Elemental Orb.
“I…can feel something within that thing…what is it?” the archer said, getting to his knees from his previous semi-prone position.
“It’s something called a…Spirit Energy Orb, and it will help,” Violet said, naming the enchanted Orb. Sandra thought it was a good name, as it was simple and fairly described what it functionally was. With obvious reluctance, she passed it to the archer and instantly Sandra could see a change pass over him.
“I can feel my Spirit energy returning! How is this possible?” he exclaimed in wonder as he held onto the Spirit Energy Orb. Some of the color that Sandra didn’t even realize had faded from his skin started to return, like he was quickly recovering from some kind of convalescence. And, in general, that’s pretty much what the rapid expenditure of elemental energy was.
“It’s something that the dungeon came up with just recently, and she has plans to give you all one once you’ve bonded with her. It’s a relatively slow recharge to your elemental energy, but by the time we’re done here and get you back to the village, I imagine you’ll be ready to put the hurt on those massive lizards. The only problem, however, is that in order to create one of these Energy Orbs for each of the elements, Sandra needs to do something…strange,” Violet told them hesitatingly.
“Strange how?” Alanthia said.
Her question was answered when Sandra had her Unstable Shapeshifter enter the room in all its multi-colored glory.
“Don’t worry, it’s only a little blood,” the Gnome said, smiling innocently.
Chapter 48
The next hour was a whirlwind of activity. Sandra acquired a sample of each of the Elves’ blood – including their fallen leader’s in the earlier part of the room – and then retreated with her Shapeshifter back to her Home room while the others stayed where they were. Not that they could move much from where they were, other than the archer that was holding onto the Spirit Energy Orb and looked to have no intention of letting it go. The Elf archer had already recovered enough to stand up and, although he wasn’t quite back into fighting shape, he was much better than just a short time ago.
Now that she had seen the complete enchantment with its rune sequence, Sandra was able to copy it using the copies of each Elf with their specific elements. She previously reasoned that the “unstable” part of the Shapeshifter – where it was impossible to shift for a period of time – only kicked in after a set amount of total time in Shifted forms passed; she worked it out when she had originally copied Violet and then Echo earlier in the day. Even given that, she had to work very quickly to finish with all of the Elemental Orbs before it kicked in.
Fortunately, the energy cost of the enchantment was very small – probably both in relation to its actual size and the fact that it didn’t do anything really…flashy. Most of the runes were basic utility enchantments, and those rarely cost a lot of energy to produce – a
t least from the information she had learned while she was still Human. That low energy cost was a good thing, because the first two Sandra tried to make failed miserably – but at least there wasn’t an explosion. The rune sequences weren’t even fully-developed, so it didn’t even pull any energy from the Shapeshifter before they just fizzled away.
When she finally completed one, however, she was elated. Of course, it was fairly crude compared to the one Violet had made, but it would work; how well, she wasn’t sure, but it was better than nothing. Subsequent enchantments were marginally better, however, so she knew she could improve – it would just take time.
While she was doing that, she was also using some of her smaller constructs to deliver normal Elemental Orbs to the Elves to start the bonding process. As hesitant as they were, they all still agreed to it, and the process used only twice the amount of resources as it did with the Gnomes. Obviously, it’s based on size or some other metric I don’t understand.
Before she bonded with Porthel, however, she made sure the Elven Elite leader had possession of the Earth and Air Energy Orbs to help restore his energy levels a little – enough to wake him up. The others had to be there to calm him down, though even when they did he was against the whole bonding process – until he really looked at the Energy Orbs he was holding. Eventually, with the others already bonded to Sandra – and the “gift” of the Orbs already in his possession – he agreed to it reluctantly.
“But what about the Elf that was captured and killed by you? Are we supposed to forget that?” he asked, still unsure about everything that had been decided without his knowledge.
The Crafter's Defense: A Dungeon Core Novel (Dungeon Crafting Book 2) Page 37
