The little that Jespin had shared about the process was probably more than had been shared in their whole history to those not a Master Blacksmith, but it wasn’t nearly enough for someone to actually figure out how everything was done. Only one of their esteemed Blacksmiths could impart the correct procedures and recipes and know-how to create the armor, though it was possible that Sandra could eventually figure it out if given enough time. Knowing that mithril was involved would certainly help with that, but they didn’t have years or even months for the Dungeon Core to experiment to find the solution. Still, it’s a starting point for her; if I could only find a way back to her, I can at least do that much.
A sudden noise startled him, as he wasn’t expecting to be fed for another few hours at least. The sound of a door opening was quickly followed by the appearance of the Master Blacksmith again, looking determined.
“The others will not understand and will forbid the sharing of our secret, but most of them are much younger and short-sighted,” Jespin started without any other discussion. “My years have afforded me a better perspective of how things have been and where we are headed, and I can’t let our people die hiding in our strongholds without doing something about it. We have to get you out of here to bring us back to this dungeon of yours, where I will do whatever is necessary to secure the material we need to survive. Even if it means betraying the oath I made when I became a Master to never reveal our secret upon pain of death for not only me, but my entire family. It is a worthy price to pay.”
Hope shot into Gerold’s entire body as he heard the Blacksmith’s words. Did I actually convince him? I can’t believe it – is this some sort of trick? He didn’t think so, because Jespin seemed very determined to do what he said, no matter the ramifications. “Hopefully, it won’t come to that, Master.”
“I hope not, either, but I’m willing to die to save our people, just like you and all of the Shieldmen over the years have dedicated themselves to their protection.”
Even though he wasn’t “technically” a Shieldman anymore since he lost his gear, Gerold knew exactly what he meant. That was one of the reasons he had wanted to become part of their number, because he wanted to be both useful and to do everything he could to protect the people of their Kingdom. Even though Jespin wasn’t on the front lines, he was as much or more part of that defense by supplying them the tools to get the job done.
“Now, I’ve got to go; I think I’ve already attracted too much attention to my activities down here, and it’s only a matter of time before someone starts to get curious why I’m visiting the Shieldman that destroyed one of my last works of art,” the Master Blacksmith said, winking at Gerold before he turned to leave. “I’m going to devise a plan to get you out of here, but you won’t see me until it’s time to implement it. Just be ready.”
Gerold laughed, feeling good for the first time since he arrived back home. I’m getting out of here! “I’ll be ready, it’s not like I have any pressing matters or places I need to go right now,” he said with not a little bit of humor in his tone. “How long?”
He didn’t have to explain what he meant, because Jespin answered as he was walking out the door. “No idea. It will have to be during the next attack by dungeon monsters on the Hall, because otherwise the surveillance of your cell is too thick. My renown as a Master Blacksmith will only go so far; breaking you out of here with witnesses would not go over well.”
“Understandable. I’ll be ready,” Gerold said confidently, though he wasn’t sure exactly how he should prepare. Since he didn’t know when it would happen, and he didn’t want to be on edge the whole time, he laid himself down and got some sleep. He figured it would probably be prudent to get some rest when he could.
Now all he had to do was wait.
Chapter 10
The sudden cessation of constant attacks was so surprising that Sandra had to watch and wait for nearly 10 minutes before she realized it was true. It wasn’t just one of the dungeons arrayed against her, either, but all 4 of them at the same time.
Goblins, Golems, Beasts, and Slimes were all pulled back into their respective dungeons, the seemingly perpetual outpouring of monsters stopping at the exact same moment. Her own forces were starting to gain a bit of an upper hand in the war for the tunnels connecting her dungeon with the others, but it was only a slight advantage. Sandra was sure that, if given enough time, she would prevail and could finally assail the dungeons themselves, but it was extremely slow-going and would likely require a month or more to get to the point where she was comfortable with a push.
But the other Cores apparently had other things on their minds.
A tentative push into the tunnel endings leading inside the other dungeons revealed that trying to assault it without a much bigger force was unlikely to work. In each of the initial dungeon rooms, there were so many monsters packed inside that even a slight push made by her own constructs was quickly wiped out. She had no doubt that powerful traps were lying in wait where she couldn’t see as well, and risking an assault could result in losses she would have difficulty quickly recovering from.
Is this some sort of trick to draw me in? The rage biting at her mind wanted her to ignore the danger and draw all of her not-insignificant army of constructs and Dungeon Monsters together to attack a single dungeon, but common sense somehow prevailed and stopped her before she could do something else foolish. Observing the area aboveground where her airborne Shears were keeping an eye on the dungeons’ entrances, she also noticed that there were no longer any constant trickles of monsters venturing out (only to be slaughtered by the joint forces of Sandra’s constructs, Monsters, Elves, Dwarves, and Orcish mercenaries).
An instinctual part of her mind knew exactly what that meant; there was only one reason that she could think of that they wouldn’t continue to at least try to expand their ambient Mana collection up there. They were keeping all of their Dungeon Monsters close for protection, and why would they need that? Because they were Upgrading their Cores.
That furious urge to attack while they weren’t paying attention reared its head at the thought of how vulnerable they were; again, some part of her mind pushed those thoughts back down, where they simmered with righteous anger under the surface. Coldly calculating her chances of success, she reasoned that while it might be possible to attack a single dungeon and fight her way to a Core, the losses she would sustain would likely be significant. Still, with only 3 Cores to concentrate on destroying after that, it might be worth it.
But if those 3 had upgraded their Cores, then they would have an advantage over her. Right now, they were nearly at a stalemate of what they could produce, but as she well knew, there was frequently a new Dungeon Monster right around the corner. The next upgrade might provide them with a new threat that could quickly overwhelm her, and she wouldn’t be able to keep up.
Cold logic extinguished much of the anger and vehemence towards the other Cores, but not enough to break her out of her revenge-driven purpose. All it ended up doing was to help her decide that the only way she could compete with them was if she kept up with them – or even progressed past them. Therefore, with a quick use of her dwindling resources, she sealed up the ends of each tunnel – keeping her forces there just in case it was a trick – and then turned to one of the few things she hadn’t absorbed in her treasury yet.
Broken Dungeon Core shards.
From what she remembered, the speed increase from consuming the Core shards during her upgrade would continue to be a benefit as long as there were shards left, so she had left them alone during her search for more resources earlier. The only thing they were good for was increasing her Core Stage in an effort to upgrade her Core, as well as speeding up the actual upgrade process; since she was already at her max Stage and had put off upgrading in favor of defending her dungeon, there really wasn’t a lot she had to consider before finally accepting her upgrade.
A second before she initiated the upgrade, a tiny voice in the back of her m
ind screamed out in terror, but Sandra ignored it as she confirmed what she was planning on doing. As soon as the world seemed to shrink down to her Home room and slightly beyond, that tiny voice erupted into full-blown hysterics. High-pitched internal screaming pierced through her concentration, and all she could do was yell right back. Shut up! Why are you screaming? We need to do this to get stronger so we can eliminate everything in our way!
As soon as she finished, the screaming seemed to stop, for which she was thankful. It was replaced soon after by confusion, curiosity, joy, and finally…horror.
* * *
Sandra screamed out in terror as the all-encompassing isolation fell over her Core again, made worse by the fact that her recent state made it difficult to perceive things outside of her mind. While she wasn’t exactly sure how or why this kernel of her soul had been shunted off to a corner of her Core, she knew it was a result of Perceine being killed inside of her dungeon. The Visitor’s Bond she had with the Orc Mercenary was largely an insubstantial connection, barely even noticeable most of the time. Yet, when that Bond had been broken at the Orc’s death, something seemed to have shattered inside of Sandra’s mind as well.
The death of a mercenary wasn’t something new, of course, because she had lost a few outside her dungeon while they fought against the Dungeon Monsters coming from the other Cores. This death was different, however, as it had occurred inside of her dungeon; it was more real, more substantial, and the whiplash of the broken Bond was a lot more powerful. The insane remnants of the Core shards that she had absorbed – which had plagued her during her recent upgrade, and which she had subsequently tried to lock away – had broken free and wormed their way into her main consciousness. The part of her mind that was currently screaming in terror at the initiation of another upgrade – Sandra’s soul – was slowly pushed to the side, shut off from nearly everything going on in the outside world.
With only glimpses of what was going on, she could only react to stimuli that were more internal than anything else. For example, she could perceive the main part of her consciousness using all of the Advancement Points – but Sandra could do nothing but freak out as that consciousness component decided to bump up her Advancement Level. Afterwards, following when everything blacked out while the increase in the Advancement Level took place, she could sense this part of her mind starting to integrate back into the main consciousness, but it didn’t last long enough to fully recover from her break.
When she was shunted back into her current position in the corner of her Core, trapped and basically helpless, it felt like a perpetual upgrade. She was wrong, though, because when the actual upgrade started, it was worse than she had ever experienced before. It was only when her screaming was interrupted by a familiar voice – her own voice – that she started worrying less about what she couldn’t perceive outside, and started to look at what was going on inside.
Curious and confused at what was happening, she turned all of her meager mind to the voice that had spoken to her, perceiving something interesting for the first time. Elements of her consciousness and her Dungeon Core were spread out in front of her perception with representations of its different parts. She saw a floating bubble filled with an anvil and blacksmithing tools that she intuitively knew represented all of her crafting knowledge; another bubble filled with a Clockwork Spider stood for all of her Dungeon Monsters; and a third was full of 4 different sizes of Copper Orbs, the very first Monster Seeds she had acquired. There were additional bubbles as well; there was one that she thought might be a repository for all of her available materials, one that was a list of the different crafts she had produced over the last few months, a different one that had Winxa represented as a compilation of all of her Visitor’s Bonds, and even one that held all of the traps she had created or could create (which she wanted to check out further at some point).
While it was fascinating, what drew her attention the most was the center of all of these “bubbles”. Floating in the middle of everything was a much larger bubble, with a life-like representation of Sandra inside. Not Sandra as she was right now, as a Dungeon Core, but Sandra as she remembered herself as a Human woman; she looked like she was ready to start selling merchandise at her family’s portable booth, her long black hair tied back and ready for business. The strange thing about the representation of herself, however, was that her hands weren’t deformed and practically useless; she almost cried out in joy as she saw her hands as she always imagined they would look, if only they had been normal. Beautiful, non-deformed hands with subtle indications that she used them daily in the pursuit of crafting, where she could produce thousands of different crafts by simply applying herself.
The joy she experienced in seeing “normal”, usable hands on her old body was quickly overshadowed as she looked at the rest of her. Horror overcame her mind as she witnessed what appeared to be some sort of withering shadow slowly creeping up her body, starting at her feet. Where it flowed, her dress fell apart as if it had been left out in the sun for years and was brittle to the touch; her skin and muscle rotted away, revealing the bleached-white bones of her feet and legs; and lastly the bones seemed to condense together into one shapeless mass.
That’s not a shapeless mass! That crystalline sphere looks very familiar…like a Dungeon Core.
Sandra could only assume that the insidious invasion – by whatever had been absorbed from those shattered Core shards – was in the process of taking over what made Sandra…well, herself. Her previous life’s memories had helped her hold onto her sanity even through her isolation in the expanse after her death, and she deduced that she still instinctively pictured herself as a Human. The other Cores, like the one she had absorbed, had likely given in to their new existences and fully embraced the attitude and perception of a Core, bringing their insanity from their isolation with them.
She could only assume that the insubstantial entity invading her mind was trying to enact the same change in Sandra. No, I’m wrong; that entity isn’t quite insubstantial.
While the withering shadow slowly eating away at her Human form wasn’t any type of recognizable object, she could sense that it had a rudimentary intelligence bent on consuming everything within its reach. What will happen if it succeeds in changing my internal self into a Dungeon Core? Will it…take over? Will I cease to be me? Or will it even matter by that point, since the insanity infecting me will have taken over completely?
Sandra thought she had a reason to be worried, because while she was technically a Dungeon Core, that did not define who she was. She was a person – not an object; she was a crafter; she was a protector; and she was a friend to those under her care. If she internally became a Dungeon Core, in her mind, she was confident that her principles, values, and desires would not be the same. Sandra would become what she had been fighting against: A blood-thirsty killer out to kill anything that moves, without conscience.
Perhaps that was the main difference. Sure, the other Cores were constrained by contracts with the Creator, to commit the unconscionable acts they did – but their insanity seemingly prevented them from fighting against those constraints in every possible way. From what Winxa had mentioned about the contracts, Sandra didn’t think that unbridled slaughter was actually a part of it – but the lack of conscience didn’t allow most Cores to go about their development in any other way. Perhaps that’s what this part of my mind is…my conscience.
Regardless of what the seemingly “sane” part of her mind was, she knew she needed to do whatever she could to stop the eradication of her self.
What are you?! You shouldn’t even be here; in fact, everything you used to be should be gone. I must fix this so that I can get back to destroying these upstart Cores working together to destroy me! The main voice of her mind screamed at her, and the tiny part that had come out of hiding reeled back in fright. The withering darkness increased its speed as it destroyed her Human form, and it was almost painful to watch. Freed of its normal constraints – of h
aving to concentrate on matters outside of the Core – the insanity-infected Sandra could concentrate on remaking the mind into what it wanted.
But the insane entity wasn’t the only one freed from restraints.
STOP!
Her conscience fought back with extreme force, her word filled with powerful conviction and determination. The withering shadow paused, shrinking back down slightly in its efforts to change her inner self. What is this? Go away—
NO! YOU WILL NOT DO THIS!
This time, there was no shrinkage of the shadow’s efforts, and there was only a slight pausing of its advancement. After a short amount of time, the withering effect started creeping back up. I know what is best for us – we need to do this in order to fully destroy our enemies! No longer will they dare to attack us; once I harvest the Mana from these fools staying in this dungeon, nothing should be able to stand in our way!
It was a bit disconcerting hearing her mind talking to itself, but not quite as disconcerting as the prospect that the people she had given sanctuary to, the Dwarven villagers, were in danger if this entity succeeded. From what she could tell, it was only her inner self that had managed to keep them – as well as the Elves nearby and the Orcish mercenaries providing assistance – off limits. That would all change if insane-Sandra succeeded in converting her Human form into a Dungeon Core.
The Crafter's Dominion: A Dungeon Core Novel (Dungeon Crafting Book 5) Page 11
