The Crafter's Dominion: A Dungeon Core Novel (Dungeon Crafting Book 5)

by Jonathan Brooks

  “While she would undoubtedly help us do that, there’s a problem with logistics,” Felbar countered. “We need to find people who can pilot the new War Machines, train them, and then somehow bring them to the wasteland in order to bring them here.” He held up his hand to stop her words. “Yes, I know, we can ferry some volunteers back with us, but only so many can fit on the back of that Roc. And even if we were successful at bringing a dozen or so there over the next few days, can you honestly say you’d be able to help create a dozen War Machines all by yourself?”

  The thought of that made her pause. Sandra was becoming much better at handling enchantments via her creepy shapeshifting monsters, but she didn’t quite have the expertise that went into coordinating Spirit and Natural elemental energies in the complicated arrangement needed for each War Machine. Violet, despite only achieving Journeyman Enchanter status, had just enough focus and knowledge to do it, but when she had participated in the creation of the new Energy Cube-powered War Machine, it had taken hours of concentration and drained her so much that she had needed to rest for the remainder of the day to recover. It wasn’t the expenditure of her own Spirit and Natural energy, either, because the Energy Orbs that she still carried around her neck helped it to regenerate; instead, it was the sheer complexity and scope of the project that had worn her out.

  Violet was sure that the next one would be a little easier, since she had some experience, but her mind balked at the thought of trying to create more than one a day. One a day is actually quite impressive, I have to acknowledge, but it will take forever to create enough to make a difference. What she needed was someone to help create them, but the level of complexity the enchantments required was nearly Master-level; almost all of the Master Enchanters were gone now, however, having been killed in the ambush against the King’s forces. There were a few left, but she doubted she could convince them to fly back to Sandra’s dungeon, nor did she believe the council would allow that. They had just lost the other Masters, and taking a risk of losing what expertise they had left wasn’t likely to happen.

  From what she remembered, there were dozens or even hundreds of Journeyman Enchanters, which could be a solution – but Felbar had to throw in something else which made her realize the whole thought was a fool’s errand. “Even if you somehow managed to get some help, and were able to teach enough Enchanters to do what you do, there is one other obstacle that you may not have thought of quite yet.” He paused for a moment, as to emphasize his point. “How are they supposed to be transported back here?”

  “Well, the same way that we brought—oh. I see.” Yes, if she could somehow figure out how to make more than one a day, they only had one Roc to use; if it took a little less than a day to make a round trip between the capital and Sandra’s dungeon, then it would still take weeks of constant transportation to bring in enough War Machines to make a difference. Maybe she could create more Rocs? That was always an option, but from what Violet remembered, there had been times in which Sandra had been limited in what she could create, due to scant resources.

  That was another stumbling block she hadn’t even considered. Violet had been thinking about devoting Sandra’s full resources to War Machine production, but that may not even be possible. With the sheer quantity of monsters she had to create just to maintain the culling of the nearby dungeons, the state of which was a bit of a mystery at that point, there may not be much to go around. That was why Violet and Felbar were there in the first place, in order to gain help from her people; Sandra had been more than cognizant that she couldn’t do it all herself, and sending help to alleviate some of the nearby pressure would allow her to do things like make War Machines.

  If the Gnome people couldn’t provide that relief, then there wouldn’t be any resources available to help them – they would instead be used to maintain and contain the other nearby dungeons. As much as Sandra had an altruistic bent to her personality that wanted to help everyone, this was a matter of needing to give aid in order to get aid in return. Right now, the problem was that they didn’t have any aid to give.

  “I…see,” she repeated, now that she had really thought things over. From his face, Felbar had already divined all of the information she was just now processing, so his despondent expression made a whole lot more sense now. “So, what do we do?”

  He sat back and looked at the ceiling, letting out a big sigh as he appeared to be at a loss. She couldn’t blame him, because they were in real trouble if they couldn’t figure out something soon; it wasn’t as if Gnomeria would be overrun in the next few months if they didn’t figure out a solution, but she could already see this as the turning point toward the end. But just like she had helped defend Glimmerton with everything she had, Violet wasn’t going to give up without a fight.

  She just hoped her people didn’t end up like her village.

  The Journeyman Enchanter in her tried to come up with a solution to their problem with enchantments, but since greater minds than hers hadn’t figured out how to save their people after the attack that left many of their Master Enchanters – and her parents – dead, she doubted it was something she could figure out. Then again, Violet had learned quite a bit from Sandra and had helped to create some interesting enchantment designs while she was in the dungeon. Not that any of that would help them now.

  She sat there in silence as she listened to the continued murmur of the council members discussing defense placements in every place other than the northwest. Time passed as she wracked her mind for a solution, as she idly watched the light from the setting sun shining through a window at the far side of the room, reflecting off the glass pane in such a way that it created a beam that moved across the room. For some reason, the beam of light reminded her of the spells that she watched Echo try to teach Sandra; thinking of that led her to speculate on what was going on there at the moment, and how much she strangely missed being there. It’s too bad that we don’t have the kinds of resources here that we’d have in her dungeon. Especially those Energy Orbs; I can only imagine what the great minds of my people could come up with if they have access to a portable elemental energy source—

  Wait.

  “Felbar? Do you happen to know if that giant bird is still around?”

  He looked down at her with a confused expression on his face. “Yes, I believe I heard that it has been circling the palace at a great height for 3 straight days.”

  What? “We’ve only been here for 3 days? It felt like much longer inside of that room.”

  “Yes; a little bit more than that, but that’s fairly close,” he said matter-of-factly. “Anyway, I don’t think that even using the Aerie Roc will help us clear out the problems in the northwest.”

  “You’re right about that, and it would only be a temporary solution, anyway,” she agreed. “But the main thing that we need to consider is how to accomplish what Sandra tasked us with.”

  “What task? Bring all our people to the wasteland, ready to lend whatever aid we can? I don’t know how we would accomplish that, and not leave the rest of our land vulnerable to monster attacks.”

  Violet shook her head. “No, we don’t need to bring everyone there, nor would we need to deplete the few defenses we have stationed around the forest borders, keeping the rest of us safe. All we need to do is to cull the dungeons already affected by these enhancements Sandra told us about, in order to free her up to help us.”

  “Yes, obviously – but we don’t have the War Machines and effective weaponry to do that without taking them from where they are also needed.”

  “True, we don’t have the weapons right now, but give me and the other Journeyman Enchanters a few days, and we just might.”

  Felbar looked skeptical. “Not that I’m disparaging your abilities, but how do you propose to do that? And why were you asking about that Roc—oh.”

  “Exactly. Don’t tell me you forgot there is a figurative treasure chest of exactly what we need strapped to the back of that magnificent bird.”
<
br />   He chuckled a little at that description of the Aerie Roc. “Magnificent, is it? I seem to remember you having a bit of trouble even—”

  “No need to remind me,” Violet said, holding up her hand for him to stop. “That’s old news; for now, what that bird possesses is worth a thousand rides on the back of a frightening monster flying at heights that only the Creator would appreciate, especially if it allows us to save our people.”

  Felbar immediately got up and started jogging towards the door. “What are you waiting for, Violet? Tell the council your plan.”

  “But—where are you going?” His words caused the important council members to turn in her direction, and she shrunk back at their stares. Being underneath their scrutiny made her shrink upon herself as the thought of trying to convince them of her ideas made her freeze up.

  “Someone’s got to get that magnificent bird down here, right?” For the first time since they had been back, a hint of a smile crossed his face as he disappeared through the open door.

  Great; he left me all alone. Giving a little huff, she got up and squared her shoulders, trying to find the confidence deep down inside her to convince the council of her plan. As she moved, the pair of Energy Orbs strung around her neck gave her an idea, as well as the opening she needed.

  Pulling the strung Orbs from around her neck, she brought them out for the council members to see. Immediately, she saw two of them react as she got closer to them, one of whom was Council Leader Brinda. Handing the simple necklace to the most important person in the room she needed to convince, Violet wasn’t surprised to see Brinda touch and hold the Spirit Orb in her hand in open-mouthed fascination. “I don’t know if Felbar mentioned these Energy Orbs or not, but I’ll try to explain exactly what they are. Not only that, but it is my belief that these Orbs will end up saving us.”

  “What? These two?”

  Violet laughed shortly, before continuing. “Oh, no – we have quite a few more of these. A…friend…is holding them for us, which Felbar just left to fetch.”

  “These are amazing and impossible at the same time,” Brinda admitted, reluctantly passing the necklace around to the other council members so that they could check them out as well. “But how can these, uh, ‘Energy Orbs’ – as wonderful as they are – help us? I’m sure it will help our Enchanters create many more enchantments, which will be a great benefit – don’t get me wrong – but that might only delay the inevitable.”

  “That might be true, but I wasn’t thinking of these as being used for our Enchanters, except perhaps initially. Instead, we’re going to utilize these in a wholly different way I learned about while inside of Sandra’s dungeon.”

  A dark cloud eclipsed the faces of the council, but they were curious enough to want to know what she was talking about to not flat-out dismiss any ideas; even if those ideas came from the dungeon that inevitably led to the death of the King and so many others. “And what is that?”

  “As weapons, of course. We’re going to use our Gnomish ingenuity to create an arsenal of weapons that will solve all our problems. Better yet, anyone will be able to use these weapons, so we don’t need those trained specifically as part of our defense corps to wield them.”

  The council stood in shocked silence for a moment, before Brinda broke the tension in the room. “What exactly do you have in mind?”

  I think I did it; I convinced them. Now it’s time to put my skills to the test, so I can prove that this can work. “I thought you’d never ask….”

  Chapter 6

  I wonder what Kelerim is doing right now…. I hope he’s staying out of trouble.

  Echo’s stray thoughts were interrupted as she suddenly felt a subtle shifting in the great tree she was held prisoner within, which made her sit up quickly from where she had been lounging. What’s going on? The hollowed-out room in the Royal Family Tree was starting to flex and warp, and the branches making up the roof were starting to writhe like snakes – which understandably caused Echo to shrink back in horror. Her near-death experience after being bitten by a snake from that Reptile-monster dungeon was enough to make her tense up in momentary fright at the appearance of one of the slithering serpents.

  Her attention was pulled away from the frightening scene happening above her head as she heard something occurring outside of her door. The sounds of heavy thuds hitting the wooden wall that encompassed her room, followed by a cut-off scream, made her instinctively reach behind her back to unsling her bow. It was only when her hands met nothing that she remembered that she was weaponless; ever since she had been placed in her current confinement “for her own safety”, she had been relatively defenseless.

  Well, not entirely defenseless.

  Using her Holy elemental energy, she wrapped a light-bending field around her form and retreated to the corner. Wary of the still-writhing branches above her head, she crouched down and made herself as small and unassuming as possible. This can’t be good.

  The door suddenly slammed open, cracking its painstakingly nurtured façade in the process. Whispered voices preceded the entrance of four figures, their appearance darkened, blurry, and mostly obscured by some sort of magical or elemental effect. If I had my guess, I would say that is Nether elemental energy being used; like I thought, this doesn’t bode well.

  After a brief inspection of the room, the first to arrive therein fiercely whispered to the others, “She’s not here.” At least, that was what she thought the figure had done, since all Echo could see was a blurry shadow. Whatever effect had been deployed on the figure’s appearance, however, didn’t extend to his voice, because it came out clear and precise – if whispered. She didn’t recognize it, but then again she didn’t know many people in the capital, so it wasn’t surprising.

  I wonder if this is who I was being kept safe against? Are these people assassins? If so, why are they trying to kill me? Those questions quickly shot through her mind as she crouched in invisible safety, only to realize that she already knew part of the answer. They know I’m connected with Sandra’s dungeon somehow. That begged the next question, of course. Who exactly would benefit from killing me, and would know exactly who I am to the dungeon? It didn’t take long for her to come to an answer. Elder Herrlot. I knew there was something insidious going on there. But why would—?

  As if thinking about the Elder conjured her into existence, Echo heard her voice, which caused her to tense up. “Echo, stop hiding. We’re here to get you out. Come with us if you want to see your precious dungeon again.”

  Elder Herrlot suddenly appeared where one of the blurry darkness smudges was standing, as whatever magical effect had hidden her was dropped. She was dressed in a tight-fitting, supple black leather outfit – completely at odds with how Echo had been used to seeing her dress – and had a staff strapped to her back. An odd green glow came from the haft of the staff, which the Ranger immediately identified as an Energy Orb. Did she find a way to use the Orb in a weapon? Or is it only there as a means of contact? Her thoughts were rambling, focusing on anything but the situation.

  Because as inviting as the Elder’s words were, Echo took them more as a threat. There was no way she was going anywhere with the other woman – especially since they had obviously killed the guards keeping her safe inside the room. Safe against the Elder.

  “We don’t have time for this,” the older Elf muttered, before she swiftly grasped the staff from her back, gripped it tightly, and then gestured upwards. Uh, oh…

  The undulating branches that comprised the roof suddenly shot down from their relatively horizontal positions, sweeping over the floor of the room as well as the sparse furniture. One came so close to Echo’s crouched form that she twitched in response, its resemblance to a deadly snake too much for her to stay still.

  “There!” one of the other dark blurs whispered loudly, and a shadowy blob she took for a hand pointed in her direction. Her presence betrayed by her brief-yet-obvious movement, Echo tried to avoid the branches that swung in her di
rection by using her Air elemental energy to sprint away and out of the door, but she only made it two steps before a rough wooden “snake” wrapped around her ankle, causing her to faceplant as she was tripped up.

  “No, no! Why are you doing this?” she screamed out, hoping that some of the Royal Guards would hear her as she dropped her invisibility. “Help! H—mph…” A thick branch abruptly wrapped around her mouth, completely cutting off her pleas for help. The next moment, the rest of her body was likewise wrapped up in rough, wooden tree limbs, until she couldn’t move no matter how hard she struggled. At that point, the only things she could move were her eyes, which frantically roamed over the 4 blurred figures as they turned her over; of those present, she couldn’t be certain which one was Herrlot.

  “Are you sure we even need her? This seems like an unnecessary risk. Plus, I’m sure her screams alerted someone higher up—”

  The Elder’s voice interrupted the one that had whispered when they had first come into her room. “Yes, and we’re not having this argument now. All I need is for you to follow orders, and we’ll discuss this when it’s safe.” It was hard to tell where the voice was coming from, but a blurry gesture from the one nearest her right side was enough to tell her which one was the Elder. “Pick her up.”

  “Yes, Elder.”

  Strong hands lifted her up off of the floor and hoisted her along someone’s shoulder, her head face-down. Normally, that would’ve been uncomfortable with her abdomen in the bony shoulder of her captor, but there were so many branches around her that she was more like a log of wood than anything else. As a result, she was only uncomfortable for the fact that she was confined and looking downwards as the blurry forms sprinted out of the doorway. Her weight combined with the wooden bands keeping her locked up didn’t seem to weigh down the one carrying her, however, as he was able to keep up with the others quite easily.