* They’re my friends and visitors here in my dungeon just as much as you are. Actually, Violet here played a big part in convincing the Elites to leave the other day, so you also have her to thank for keeping you alive; if I had been destroyed, it’s likely you would’ve died without ever waking up from your coma. *
Echo briefly wondered what the relatively innocent-looking Gnome had done to turn the Elites away, but then the part about “relaxing” that Sandra had mentioned finally penetrated her mind; looking down, she realized her knuckles were white as they held onto the steel knife as if her life depended upon it. With deliberate care, she relaxed her hand and placed the stone implement back on the table; out of the corner of her eye, she saw the grizzled Gnome slip his own small knife – that she hadn’t even seen him holding – back into a sheath placed at his side.
The two Gnomes took their places at the table, and it was only when they were seated that she realized that the table was originally made to accommodate those of their small stature; looking around at the area, she realized that she was the odd one of the bunch, as it seemed like everything was originally made to accommodate Gnomes – not Elves. Echo had been thinking how strange they appeared up close with their small size, but she was starting to feel like she didn’t belong there; at least the rest of the rooms seem like they’re suited towards larger people.
Most of the distrust Echo was feeling towards both the dungeon and the two Gnomes was lost as she saw the dungeon monster approaching by her side; before she could react, a stone plate filled with the larger hunk of meat she had seen cooking earlier was laid before her, looking and smelling perfectly cooked. She could see tiny granules of what appeared to be salt on top of the seared steak – of some unknown animal…at least I hope it’s an animal – though she couldn’t see any other seasoning.
Next to the steak was the source of the unique smell she noticed earlier, though it had been lost under the overwhelmingly delicious smell of cooking meat. What appeared to be apples and pears were sliced up and practically falling apart inside of some sort of sauce that smelled of citrus.
* My repertoire of cooking ingredients is sorely lacking, but I’ve been experimenting. The Bearling Meat is seasoned with Salt, after marinating for a couple of hours in a thin orange juice to tenderize it a little more – I’ve heard it can be a little chewy otherwise. I also baked some apples and pears in an orange reduction, though I wish I had access to some grains so I can bake some sort of pastries or bread. And some sort of sweetener like sugar, or a myriad of different seasonings…anyway, enjoy! *
Echo didn’t have to be told twice; while the fruits she had consumed down in the growing room had filled the gnawing hole in her stomach and reduced some of the weakness in her body, she felt like she was still starving. She tore into both the steak – which was remarkably tender – and the fruit concoction, which was also delicious; however, it only took a few bites of each before she started to fill up…and uncomfortably at that. She saw that the others were finishing up at nearly the same time, though the young Gnome woman ate quite a bit more than the older man.
* Felbar just woke up from a coma as well – or at least he did shortly before you regained consciousness. You’ll both have to wait until your bodies can handle food again after your periods of forced sleep, but this should help alleviate most of your hunger issues at the moment. *
There was also a stone cup of fresh, cool water that was brought over to the table, and Echo wanted to gulp it down as extreme thirst hit her; however, just like the steak and fruit, she could only consume a little bit before her stomach started to cramp up and hurt. I think I’m going to throw up…
Fortunately, the feeling subsided after a few minutes and she felt fine; during that time, she could see what she figured was a similar look to her own on the older Gnome’s—Felbar, I believe his name was—face. The shared discomfort made her feel strangely more comfortable with the Gnomes, and for the first time since she woke up she felt herself relax a little.
* Now that you’re all fed, it’s about time we discuss what the plan is from here on out. Now, Echo, like I told you before, you’re free to go anytime you want to. However, I would like to offer you an opportunity that I hope you’ll accept, as it will make negotiations and cooperation between myself, the Gnomes, and your people much smoother. Especially when you see and experience for yourself what I have to offer. *
Echo could see that the young Gnome woman…Violet, I think…was smiling and idly fondling two strange-looking glowing orbs fashioned around her neck in some sort of necklace. Obviously, the dungeon is talking to everyone here at the same time – good to know. “And what is that, exactly?”
* Let’s head up to the workshop up near the surface and I’ll show you. *
Now that she had eaten and most of the discomfort in her stomach had passed, Echo was eager to get moving again. If they were indeed heading towards the surface, that was all for the better; despite being saved from death by a snake bite, kept alive during her convalescence through some unusual means, treated like a guest in someone’s home, and fed a delicious meal (even if she could only eat a few bites)…she still wasn’t entirely sure she could trust the dungeon. Being near the surface in case she needed to escape would be beneficial; listening to what Sandra had to say would likely be worthwhile, because now her curiosity was piqued.
As they got up from the table, the stone plates, cups, eating utensils, and even the uneaten food disappeared as if it had never been there. She jumped when she saw that, partly startled, and smiled at the grizzled old Gnome when she saw that he did the same. Maybe we can escape together if this dungeon turns out to be deceiving us – I’d hate to leave anyone in this place if I have the means to help them.
With that thought buried in the back of her mind for the future, because she wasn’t exactly sure if being “bonded” to the dungeon meant that it—she—could read her mind, Echo followed Violet out of the room as she seemed to know where she was going. As she watched the young Gnome enter another room and walk to a delineated spot on the floor, she stepped back in surprise as a massive gust of air shot her small form upwards through a hole in the ceiling.
Echo shared an incredulous look with the old battle-hardened Gnome, who shrugged and walked without hesitation to the same spot. As he too shot upwards, the astonished Elf couldn’t help but shake her head in wonder.
This could be more interesting than I thought…
Chapter 2
Sandra was glad that her guests – despite being different races – were getting along. Well, getting along might be too strong of a phrase; tolerating each other might be better. Regardless, they didn’t appear to want to kill each other, though it could be because Felbar and Echo were both still a bit wary of Sandra and the dungeon, so they were grasping at anything living nearby that seemed normal. At least the older Gnome had Violet to help ease him into the situation, but the Elf only had Sandra’s voice in her head to explain things.
Not for the first time she wished that they could speak a common language, but even when the Elites (who were quite a bit older than many of the other Elves) were being addressed by Violet, only one of them was actually able to understand the Gnomish language; having the ability to speak foreign languages was obviously a bit of a rarity. It was too much to hope that Echo – who was reportedly much younger – would have that kind of knowledge, especially considering that there really hadn’t been much contact between most of the races for a lengthy period of time.
Regardless of the language barrier, Sandra could at least mentally communicate with everyone and translate where it was needed; there hadn’t been much need yet, but she was sure it would eventually be vital towards cooperation between the different races.
The newly awakened “Visitors” navigated their way through the Vertical Air-trap Transportation System (VATS) without too much trouble; it was only the first one that they temporarily balked at before Violet showed them that it wasn’t harmful. After a
few minutes they arrived at the large workshop located near the first couple of rooms, where Sandra had assembled – and Violet had enchanted – the Hauler and wagon a relatively short time ago. For the moment, however, it was relatively empty of projects or supplies; in fact, there was a small open-topped stone box in the corner and three of Sandra’s Dungeon Monsters in the room.
One of them was the large Mechanical Jaguar Queen lying down in another corner of the room, which had returned to the workshop after delivering the Elites to the Elven town about a day and a half ago; the other two were a pair of Unstable Shapeshifters, who waited by the edge of the room in their multi-colored amorphous shape that apparently hurt Violet’s head if she stared at it for too long.
“What is this place?” Felbar asked, as he – with only the slightest hesitation – walked over to the Jaguar Queen to take a better look at it. To Sandra it only made sense; the Warmaster was used to large constructs as part of their lands’ defense, and the large metallic cat was similar – though quite different, of course – enough that it was undoubtedly fascinating to look at. The small, battle-hardened Gnome showed no fear towards Sandra’s construct, which was likely the result of his general nature and personality; though, when she thought about it for a moment, it could also be because he knew that he was relatively safe in the dungeon. If Sandra had wanted to kill him, she had plenty of opportunity before now.
The Dungeon Core explained to everyone what the workshop had been used for previously (specifically the Hauler and wagon) – though Violet already knew, obviously – and then went on to describe what she had been using it for…and eventually her plans for the future.
* I’ve been using it lately for enchanting purposes, because it’s far enough away from my Core that I’m not too worried about harming anything vital; I’m still learning to adapt my knowledge to practical applications, and there have been a few…let’s just say, “oops” moments that likely would’ve damaged something if they weren’t inside here. *
That last statement was obvious to see – there were a few spots on the floor that she hadn’t quite yet had time to repair from an explosion of raw Mana. Sandra had gotten overconfident in her fledgling enchanting skills and had tried to change something in the new Energy Orbs she had been working on; the result was an uncontrolled explosion that practically rocked the room and vaporized one of her Shapeshifters in the process.
Sandra was just glad that Violet hadn’t been present, otherwise she would’ve likely been seriously hurt or even killed; death was something that she couldn’t heal the Gnome – or anyone – from yet, and she doubted she ever could. That was the realm of the Creator, and she had unknowingly dealt enough with the entity in the past that she didn’t want to jeopardize her existence by trying to reverse full-on death.
She was also glad that she had taken at least a minor precaution and placed her other Unstable Shapeshifter – the original one – at the opposite end of the room. It had been damaged quite a bit in the explosion but fortunately hadn’t died; a Repair Drone from the next room was able to patch it up before it succumbed to its injuries. While its death would’ve resulted in the loss of Mana Sandra had invested in it (which wasn’t that big of a deal in the long run), the reality of the situation was that the original Shapeshifter was the only one that had access to the forms of the Elite Elves.
Upon creating another Unstable Shapeshifter – after the invasion by the Elites and after the long process of placing defending Constructs through her dungeon again – she found that a brand-new Shapeshifter didn’t have the ability to shift into anything. Sandra supposed it made sense, because only the original one had actually gained samples from the living beings in her dungeon; the new one was like a blank slate, without those samples being transferred to it. Though I wonder if it could procreate and produce offspring with the same samples already inside of it…
The thought of Dungeon Monster reproduction was immediately shut down by Winxa, however. “Dungeon Monsters cannot procreate because they are formed exclusively by Mana; that Mana will not reproduce itself, as it is a finite resource inside of each Monster. I doubt even you would be able to work around that simple fact, even given your…unique status…as a Dungeon Core with access to all of the elements.”
Sandra couldn’t help but be a little glad about that, because the entire reproductive process between amorphous multicolored blobs was not something that she wanted to see. Granted, she could probably force them to change into different shapes that were likely more…suited…for the purpose, but even that thought felt wrong somehow.
Transferring those samples by having the new one touch the original Shapeshifter worked, however. Some instinct told Sandra that the transfer would only work with the one that had acquired the sample in the first place; she would have to test that later when she had a third available and try to copy those from subsequent Shifters. She wasn’t exactly sure what difference it made, but again, she had a feeling that “original” samples were the key to how the Unstable Shapeshifters functioned.
All of which made protecting the one that had acquired the samples from the Elite Elves a priority. While she was hoping to acquire more samples in the future, she was limited on what she had to work with at the moment; if those disappeared completely, then having access to all of the different elements in the future was jeopardized.
* And that brings us to the reason we’re here now. Echo, Felbar – head over to that stone box in the corner and pick out whatever…calls to you the most. *
Sandra had told Violet not to go into too much detail about the new Energy Orbs that they had created to gradually restore elemental energy; the young Gnome had agreed, as she said it was better that they experienced it themselves. Felbar shared Spirit with Violet, however, and he was instantly drawn to the Spirit Energy Orb around her neck as soon as he woke up; it was only through Sandra’s intervention that he agreed to ignore it until later. Echo, of course, didn’t have any clue what they were, so she was going into it blind to what was to come.
The two Sandra named walked over to the stone box, evidently confused; when they got nearer to it, though, they both gasped at nearly the same time. The box was filled with dozens of Energy Orbs of various types, though only the Spirit, Fire, Holy, and Air ones called out to the Gnome and the Elf. Without hesitation, they reached down and pulled out their corresponding elements, holding one of each in either hand.
“What—? Is this—?” they both asked, unable to form a complete sentence as they stared in wonder at what they were experiencing.
* Yes, Violet and I devised a way to restore elemental energy without the need for sleep. This is why— *
Before she could finish, Echo was gone from where she was standing, running around the room and activating both her light-bending invisibility and her enhanced speed by reducing the air resistance as she ran. Sandra could still sense her even as she moved because the invisibility wasn’t perfect when she ran, and she watched, amused, as the Elf made at least 20 laps around the room before she stopped.
Felbar and Violet couldn’t see her as well as Sandra could, but they could feel the wind from her passing; the older Gnome barely paid attention to it as he still stared at the Orbs in his hands, but the younger Gnome stepped back and out of the way in surprise. Luckily, she didn’t run into the racing Elf, and pressing herself against the wall seemed to calm down her surprise a little bit.
“This is amazing! I can feel my energy slowly refilling; it isn’t enough to completely replace what I consumed while I was running, but maybe…half of it? And given a few minutes or less, I think I’ll be completely full again! How did you do this?” Echo asked in between large gasps of breath, looking completely worn out from her run. Before her coma, she probably wouldn’t be tired at all, but all of the exercise following approximately two weeks of inactivity was enough to wipe her out.
Sandra tried to explain the concepts of the enchantment to Echo, but the young Elf obviously wasn’t following it. The
Elven people weren’t big on enchantments like the Gnomes were – they preferred to manipulate their elemental energy externally, and usually with devastating results; it was likely that Echo had never actually created an enchantment, in fact, so it was undoubtedly foreign to her.
* Regardless of how they work, the point is this: these Energy Orbs can greatly help all of the races here defend themselves against the dungeons surrounding their lands. It’s only the first step in my eventual plan— *
“Aha! I knew you had some sort of evil plan; are these bribes to have us lower our guard and then strike when we least expect it? Or are you planning on subjugating us and making us your slaves?” Echo asked suspiciously, taking a step toward the exit. Sandra actually chuckled internally at the accusatory tone coming from the young Elf; she could understand where she was coming from, though it was so far from what the Dungeon Core actually wanted that it was ridiculous. She just hoped that some of the amusement didn’t transfer over to her response.
* If you would let me finish, you’ll see that there is no “evil plan” here. I will admit it is a bit selfish, though it’s for the good of everyone if they allow me to help them not just survive but thrive against the dungeons threatening your very existence. *
“What do you mean?” Violet asked, curiosity in her voice. While Sandra had shared some of her ideas on how to help her people – as well as the other races – and given a bare-bones explanation as to why she wanted to help, the Dungeon Core hadn’t taken the time to explain the finer details. This is as good of a time as any.
The Crafter's Dilemma: A Dungeon Core Novel (Dungeon Crafting Book 3) Page 2
