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

by Jonathan Brooks

  Sandra’s original dungeon entrance would remain as a deterrent if she was attacked by another group of people again from the outside, or a small horde of Dungeon Monsters that happened to make it there; her Roc tunnel would act as a defense against larger Dungeon Monsters that managed to make the trek. With the upgrade to the Core Size of the other Cores coming up, it was quite possible that some powerful, giant Monsters would make their appearance aboveground. While she would do what she could to protect the villages nearby, Sandra had the feeling that she had annoyed the other Cores enough that she would be the target.

  Plus, using the existing tunnels dug out by the other Cores meant that there would be no reason for them to look for another avenue of attack. Sandra could block any other attempts at creating another tunnel if given enough warning, if only by tunneling into their path by using the existing passageways. It wasn’t foolproof, granted, because there were ways around her blockages if given enough time – though it would likely take weeks or months of work on their end, spending Mana that would take away from their constant attacks. Therefore, if Sandra organized things correctly, there would only be two options for the Cores to attack: through the existing tunnels that they created and Sandra was preparing to stock with more permanent defenses, or from above.

  With luck and a lot of work, the second option would be taken care of after she talked to Palzerk; in the meantime, she needed to work on the first.

  Tackling the Beast-Classification dungeon first, she found the dozen Sonic Blademasters she had stationed there, floating in the air without even the slightest sign of movement. A single Titanium Anaconda and Steel-plated Behemoth were still there as well, bolstering the defense of the area by attacking anything that got through the Blademasters’ powerful sonic attacks, as well as attempting to block anything thrown towards the floating constructs. Right now, of course, they were immobile as they waited for another attack to come or other orders.

  All-in-all, they had a fairly good defense, if she was being truthful. Not great for the long-term, though, because one stray rock or corpse thrown at the deadly Blademasters could tear one of the constructs apart, which could potentially impact the others nearby as they exploded. Spreading them out a little was an option, but Sandra had a feeling that concentrated fire was almost always better than individual attacks. Regardless, it was a good place to start expanding on what was already there.

  Using her mana to absorb the sides and ceiling of the surrounding tunnel, expanding it in size to create a room that was approximately 30 feet wide, 30 feet deep, and 15 high, thereby making it an official “room” as classified by her Dungeon Core system, she considered what would be the best defense against the Beasts. The Sonic Blademasters were excellent choices against the Beast-types because their targets were flesh-and-blood, which seemed to be thoroughly affected by the constructs’ attacks. Sandra doubted they would be effective against Golems, for instance, or even Slimes; the gelatinous nature of the gooey Slimes would probably just absorb the attack and move on, not to mention that neither the Golems or Slimes had “ears” that would hurt and bleed from the sound they made when they spun. Goblins would probably be slaughtered by the dozen if they stood still, but they were usually so numerous and quick that keeping them in the line of fire would be difficult.

  So, Sandra had to utilize the same sort of effective tactics against the Beasts that the Sonic Blademasters employed. While she wasn’t an expert in battle tactics by any means, she had learned enough since she had become a Dungeon Core that she wasn’t exactly helpless. Just like in crafting, you had to use the right tools and materials to produce what you wanted; you could use inferior products, but the craft might not be the best that it could be, or take twice as long as it should to produce.

  Replicating the same “sonic” attack in a separate traps was relatively impossible, she’d noted from some brief small-scale experiments, so she decided to use defenses that were best used against a flesh-and-blood creature. Since she didn’t have to worry about there being any Slimes, Golems, or relatively intelligent monsters going through the room, that made narrowing down what she placed inside much simpler. Given that Beasts was a Classification that came from a Fire-based Dungeon Core, she ruled out any type of heat or flames as a solution; while they certainly weren’t immune, the fact that there were so many flame-based traps inside of the other dungeon was a sign that they wouldn’t be as effective against the Beasts.

  Given that the opposite element of Fire was Water, it seemed reasonable enough to apply it to her traps – though she didn’t stop there. Air was the likely candidate in what the Sonic Blademasters used to devastating effect, so she combined the two in a dual-element trap that she was hoping would be just as effective.

  First was a pool of water that she created by digging out 2 feet more of the room below the level of the tunnel itself; it wasn’t enough of a deterrent near the exit to make those entering Monsters hesitate and try another avenue of attack, which was the whole point of the defenses she was putting together. She wanted them to keep moving forward, attacking in a constant stream, while getting slaughtered one after another – but she also wanted to give them the appearance of a chance to succeed.

  When the attacking Beasts would jump down into the water, nothing would happen. It was only when they passed the trigger halfway through the room that the actual trap would activate. Utilizing the Water-element portion of the trap, she would make the entire pool of water freeze, catching whatever was wading through it in its grip. Strong enough Beasts, such as those monkey-bear creatures or a Crocatile, could break out within seconds and progress as if nothing happened; others would be trapped for longer, as they wouldn’t be strong enough to get themselves free.

  That was all perfectly fine, because freezing them in place was only a temporary measure, and the ice would melt back to water in 5 seconds anyway. It was while they were frozen in place that two different things would happen. One, 3 Sonic Blademasters would emerge from behind outcroppings, revving up their rotations in anticipation of attack. Two, the Air-based portion of the trap would activate for all of 2 seconds – more than enough to do some serious damage.

  A giant, 14-foot-long pole of hardened Air 6 inches wide would invisibly materialize in the middle of the room, positioned horizontally a foot above the frozen pool. On one side of the pole, a coating of ice would flash freeze, creating a massive blade that stretched almost the entire width of the room; she had gotten the idea from the battleaxe she had created for Gerold’s Deep Diver suit.

  All of that took exactly a second to form; the next second, the now ice-blade-coated pole of air would rotate around the room faster than the eye could see, slicing through everything in its path. The carnage it would create was impressive, as the ice was extremely durable and the strength of the Air pole underneath was powered with so much Mana that nothing much would keep it from rotating. In all, it took nearly 5,000 Mana to create that trap, which was a lot considering that it only lasted a total of 5 seconds, but its effectiveness relied on its simple design.

  There were ways to beat it, of course; if a Beast was able to lie down as they froze and were under 3 feet, then they would pass through unscathed; if they went to the corners of the room, there was a small space where the rotating blade wouldn’t pass through, as it created a circular pattern as it rotated; two Monsters could theoretically work together, with one on top of the other, where one would survive and the other wouldn’t; or a half-dozen other ways that she could vaguely think of, plus those she hadn’t even thought of. The point of the trap wasn’t to kill everything that walked inside, but to slow the tide of attackers down.

  If they were more intelligent than they were insane, the Cores would begin to become cautious of what they sent into the room, knowing that whatever walked through would likely die. So, they might only send in a single Beast cautiously, to see if the trap was active; if it was, then only a single Monster might die. If not, then they could send in larger groups; the
catching point was that with only 5,000 Mana invested into the trap, it only took between 20 and 30 minutes for it to reset itself, depending on how thick the ambient Mana was in the room. Therefore, a single Monster might make it through, but as soon as a larger group went, the trap could activate as it was reset.

  Of course, that wasn’t the only room that Sandra made, nor was it the only trap. Using variations of Water and Air, which she thought would be particularly effective against the Fire-based Beasts, she created 15 additional rooms and traps throughout the 4-mile-long tunnel leading to her dungeon. Some rooms had constructs, some didn’t; others had only constructs that were to act as a defense, but could retreat into an adjacent room she constructed in case they were being overrun. All of the traps she created were deadly, but were usually only single use, like the first.

  The point of her defenses wasn’t to make a kill-them-all-instantly trap or series of traps, but to last long enough to win the war of attrition. Traps, as long as the catalyst she used to tie them to a room wasn’t destroyed, were automatically replenished; the Beasts that would be attacking could constantly be reinforced by the Beast-Classification Core, but it would cost Mana, again and again and again. No matter what, even if Sandra were forced to replace a trap here and there, or her defending constructs were annihilated, she would still come out ahead.

  The Beast tunnel, as she was thinking of it now, took just over an hour and a half to complete; most of that time was spent waiting for more Mana to flow into her Core from her constructs up in the wider world, which was slowly but inevitably increasing every hour as her Titanic Territory Arachnid Queens continued to make little leaf-and-stick spiderlings.

  She spent the next 4 hours working on the other 3 tunnels, applying what she had learned from the defenses in the Beast tunnel on the others. Against the Golems, she applied traps based in a combination Nether and Fire – to seal any wounds inflicted on them, so they couldn’t regenerate. She had witnessed firsthand what the Undead dungeon, especially the Liches that it employed among its Dungeon Monsters, had done to her constructs using their Nether-based spells. In short, they had practically disintegrated as their metal forms were eaten away, so that was what she wanted to employ against the tougher Iron and Steel Golems.

  The Goblin tunnel employed mainly Natural-based traps, including poison clouds, strangling vines, and thorny pit traps. The Powered Arachnids were also going to help out, hiding in a whole bunch of different forest-like environments she created specifically for this tunnel, including the tunnels themselves. She would use them on hit-and-run attacks, so that she hopefully wouldn’t lose as many, and her Animated Iron Shears could camouflage themselves inside foliage quite well. In all, she had traps that were designed for large groups of Goblins, which was typically how they advanced together.

  Finally, the Slime tunnel was the easiest to set up. While still employing her new Platinum-banded Wyrm and Unobtrusive Multi-access Repair Drone in different sections of the long passageway, she also used her new Hardened Animated Slab and Earth-based traps. The new Slab was only slightly larger than its predecessor, but the main differences were its thickness and durability. Instead of a simple slab of stone that could shift around in different ways, the new Slab had bars of Steel running through its entire structure, strengthening it by adding a “skeleton” of sorts to its form. In addition, it could change shapes faster than it could before, though not quite as fast as she would’ve liked.

  The Earth-based traps and the Slab were used because she discovered that stone was a bit more resistant to the acidic nature of the Slimes than any of the metal from which her constructs were created. Squishing Slimes between two hard shapes, such as a large rock falling on them from the ceiling, slamming them into the floor, was enough to destroy the little nucleus they had inside of them, killing them instantly. After seeing how effective the Slabs had been against the Orcs when they had attacked, she was excited to see how well they would work against something squishier.

  It was only toward the end of her defense preparations that she realized she hadn’t heard from Owchet or Kelerim since they left. They should’ve arrived where Palzerk was located hours ago, and the fact that they weren’t back yet was worrying.

  At a thought, she transferred her attention to where she had last seen the Warband Leader and concentrated on the Shears she had been observing slightly overhead. One part of her mind had been monitoring them without her attention, looking out for any particular danger or waiting for someone to call her name to get her attention, but nothing had bothered her while she had been preparing her tunnel defenses.

  * Kelerim? Is there something wrong? *

  For once, her voice didn’t startle the half-Dwarf/half-Orc Blacksmith, as his attention was elsewhere. She found him in the middle of the Warband she had sent him to find, and she saw Owchet and Palzerk nearby, as well as the High Peak Roc about 100 feet away. The Warriors of the Warband looked at the Dungeon Monster warily out of the corner of their eyes, but their attention was also elsewhere.

  “Yes, Sandra, I believe we have a problem.”

  Sure enough, when she shifted her viewpoint away from the group and looked off into the distance towards the forest border, Sandra saw a small army of wolves, at least 400 strong, heading in the Warband’s direction.

  * I’d say so, Kel. I’d say so. *

  Chapter 21

  * Why are you even still here? Wouldn’t Palzerk come with you? *

  “Sandra, this isn’t really the time. Suffice it to say that he wouldn’t leave his Warband behind, so we had been making our way to you instead.”

  Now that she looked, she saw that the entire Warband was now a few miles east of where it had been earlier. Even if they traveled non-stop, they wouldn’t be there until the next day – way too late for Sandra’s plans.

  The Dungeon Core turned her attention to the Dungeon Fairy, describing what she was seeing. Is there such a thing as a Wolf Classification? I thought they were a bit more broad than that. Then again, there was a Unicorn-Classification dungeon, so she could be wrong.

  Winxa shook her head. “No, not that I’m aware of. Some Core-specific skills can make creating a certain type much less expensive than other Dungeon Monsters, however.”

  Great. What that meant was that this Core, with its enhancements, was obviously capable of producing massive numbers of wolves, which would overwhelm even the Warbands with Sandra’s upgraded weapons and armor. That wasn’t a good sign, and it made what she was trying to do even more important.

  A closer look at the wolves from the benefit of her Shears above showed that things were even worse. The ferocious canines weren’t just normal Grey Wolves, which were about the size of Sandra’s original Mechanical Wolves; these ones were nearly the size of her Mechanical Dire Wolves. From her distance, she had been unable to discern their size, given their quantity.

  Kelerim? I would suggest you leave; those are Dire Wolves, and the Warband is not going to be able to beat them. She hated to say it, but she’d rather not lose the Blacksmith, nor Owchet, if she could help it.

  Kelerim looked over at the giant bird, before shaking his head. “I can’t abandon them, and they won’t leave. Besides,” he said sadly, pointing off to the east, “if the Warband doesn’t try to stop them, that village is doomed.”

  He was right; there was a village not a mile up the patrol road over which the Warbands had traveled in their routes through the forest’s border. Changing her perception, Sandra could see that the Orc village was now within this Core’s Area of Influence, so the Dire Wolves could reach it easily; either it had just expanded its Core Size, or it had been biding its time until it had a sizeable enough force to wipe out anything standing in its way.

  The strange part, though, was that the Dungeon Monsters weren’t heading for the village, which could easily be seen by the Wolves’ position; instead, they were making straight for Kelerim and Palzerk’s Warband. Winxa…do you think the sight of the Roc has caused this attac
k? Do you think they know it’s mine?

  “Hard to tell; the way these others have been seeming to communicate with each other, I wouldn’t deny the possibility.”

  Things were getting worse and worse, it seemed – and Sandra was running out of time. There were only about 10 hours or so until the first of the Cores emerged from their upgrade, if she was lucky, and this was the last thing she needed. Some of the anger and rage that she had shoved down inside of her mind boiled to the surface, and she struggled with controlling her actions. How dare they attack my people! They must pay—

  With an enormous force of will, she managed to pry back the control that was slipping from her grasp, though she couldn’t banish the insane Core shard back to its hole. It seemed as though any type of attack on her people – likely caused by Sandra’s obvious presence – was enough of a spark to light the flames of fury. Whether it was guilt over putting them in danger or just a general need to destroy anything standing in her way was hard to determine…but it was something that she thought she could use.

  Because as the Core shard entity tried to take control again, she could glimpse the actions it wanted to take. Even now, detailed plans were leaking through its insanity, meshing with her mind until they strangely made sense. An epiphany flowed over Sandra as she finally realized what that meant; the shard was not necessarily insane, though her mind processed it that way. Instead, it was – in reality – filled with the ruthless, strategic drive to kill and expand under which other Cores operated due to their contract with the Creator, and it was clashing with her own, non-contracted mind. When it was in control, it used that ruthless, strategic drive to dictate its actions; but on the whole, Sandra’s mind was still there. That was why it hadn’t just killed everyone around the dungeon, including the Dwarves inside, because that was the “core” of who she was.