The Crafter's Dilemma: A Dungeon Core Novel (Dungeon Crafting Book 3)

by Jonathan Brooks

  Regardless of that difficulty, in less time than she had ineffectually spent on the original sphere, Sandra shrunk the Fire Mana down into a tight little box that was a little larger than twice the size of a Large Elemental Orb. The strain she had first experienced when making the Tiny Elemental Orb was there on her mind but was surprisingly a lot less than she had been expecting. She wasn’t sure if it was because her mental and Mana-manipulation capacity was a lot more than it used to be or from the new shape of her creation; nevertheless, she was very happy it wasn’t trying to rip her mind apart.

  With a final push that condensed the cube even further, Sandra felt the pressure she had been maintaining on the Mana completely disappear as what she had made locked into place and fell to the ground, her control over the mass of Fire Mana now absent. A strange…ripple…went through her mind and her Core, which was followed up by some welcome surprises.

  Skill Evolution

  Advanced Elemental Monster Seed Origination

  (Core-specific Skill)

  The Advanced Elemental Monster Seed Origination skill allows the Dungeon Core to condense Elemental Mana into condensed objects. These Elemental objects can be used as Monster Seeds or in other unique applications. Requirements: Mana. (Skills are permanent and remain even after a Classification change)

  New Monster Seed created using your Advanced Elemental Monster Seed Origination

  skill!

  You now have access to:

  Tiny Fire Elemental Cube

  Origination Raw Material Cost: 0

  Origination Mana Cost: 1600

  Monster Min. Mana: 300

  Monster Max. Mana: 800

  Currently locked:

  Small Fire Elemental Cube

  Average Fire Elemental Cube

  Large Fire Elemental Cube

  Skill Evolution?

  Winxa seemed surprised – shocked even. “I’ve only heard of that whispered around the other Dungeon Fairies as a rumor; I never thought I would hear about it firsthand!”

  Yes, but how did it happen? And what is it?

  “It comes from applying your skills in different and unique ways, stretching the bounds of what it should be capable of normally. Typically, Dungeon Cores that have Core-specific skills only use those skills as they are described; if they work the way they are supposed to, there usually isn’t any reason for the Core to experiment and try to get it to do something else – that kind of ingenuity just isn’t encouraged, especially with a contracted Core. You, on the other hand, obviously have the kind of thinking that is exactly what the Skill Evolution needs to activate.

  “As for how it works, it should work similarly to how the old skill worked, though usually with improvements. Like I said, Skill Evolutions were more of a rumor in Dungeon Fairy circles, so your guess is probably as good as mine,” Winxa said with a shrug and a smile.

  That wasn’t particularly helpful but based on the description of her Advanced Elemental Monster Seed Origination skill, she could see that instead of it just being a small “orb”, it now said “objects”. Then there was the fact that the large red cube that she had created was called a “Tiny Fire Elemental Cube” – despite the fact that it was bigger than the largest Elemental Orb she could create. Sandra was just glad that she could unlock and access the larger sizes of Cubes; while she could theoretically create them on her own, she’d rather not have to struggle with handling and condensing that much Mana all at once.

  Monster Seed Origination

  Name:

  Raw Material Cost:

  Mana Cost:

  Min. Mana:

  Max. Mana:

  Tiny Fire Elemental Cube

  0

  1600

  300

  800

  Locked Seeds:

  Unlock Requirements:

  Mana Cost to Unlock:

  Min. Mana:

  Max. Mana:

  Small Fire Elemental Cube

  2 Tiny Fire Elemental Cubes

  3200

  300

  1600

  Average Fire Elemental Cube

  4 Small Fire Elemental Cubes

  12800

  300

  6400

  Large Fire Elemental Cube

  2 Average Fire Elemental Cubes

  25600

  300

  12800

  She couldn’t quite unlock the largest of the Fire Elemental Cubes, but the others were more than easy enough to do. However, before she did that, she needed to get back to Violet with the solution to their longevity problem. By her simple calculations, if a Large Orb was going to last for a year, then with twice as much Mana inside a Tiny Cube it should last for 2 years. Following that same logic, a Small Cube would last for 4 years, and an Average Cube would last for 16 years! The Large Cube – which she of course couldn’t produce quite yet – would be even better at 32 years, but the 25,600 Mana it would take to unlock and create more of them was too expensive—

  Or…was it?

  She did have some AP to spend, and she had been going back-and-forth on what to spend it on. Some quick glances at the multitude of Dungeon Monsters she could purchase for her use hadn’t shown anything that stood out quite yet, though she had only been half-heartedly perusing the lists; Sandra would still have some left over even if she spent the Points on something else, so she could still find a few new Monsters later. The only thing that she had to reconcile in her mind was whether it was worth it to unlock the Advancements she was considering; after some consideration, she decided that it was worthwhile in the long run, not just for the project with the RRPs, but for the future as well.

  As a result, Sandra spent 45 of her AP to purchase the two Advancements that reduced the Mana Cost of her Monster Seeds by a total of 30%. After another strange alteration in her Core that felt like a small tickle that time, she pulled up the cost of her new Cubes – and mentally smiled when she saw that the Large Fire Elemental Cube now cost only 17,920 Mana – down from the previously unobtainable 25,600. Better yet, she still had 33 AP left to spend from the 78 she just had, so there was more than enough to still get 6 Dungeon Monsters if she chose to do that.

  Without hesitation, Sandra brought forth 1,600 Spirit Mana and worked to condense it into a small cube, which she found was much easier and faster than her original Fire Cube – probably because of experience and knowing what to expect. She had to wait a little to acquire enough Mana to unlock the larger sizes, which was easy enough with what she currently had and another hour of accumulation. In just under two hours since she started with her experimentation, she now had what she wanted – a way to ensure the Rune Repository Pillars and their Preservation Barriers/Stasis Fields would last for decades.

  To say that Violet was surprised was an understatement, as one of her constructs delivered a Large Spirit Elemental Cube that was half of her size – and about a third of her weight. “What? How? Where?” she asked, too shocked to form coherent questions.

  * I was able to create these Large Spirit Elemental Cubes to help provide the longevity needed to keep the Fields intact for approximately 32 years, if your guesstimates are correct. It’ll take a little bit for me to make more, but by the end of the day I’m hoping to have this entire room filled with more RRPs – and their Stasis Fields, of course. Let’s see if your theory works! *

  Sandra was excited to finally see everything they had been working on come to fruition. As much as she enjoyed crafting with materials – mundane or otherwise – she was most passionate about Enchanting, and with these final components in place her Enchantment Repository would be set up and complete! When it was, she was hoping that with enough practice, she would be able to finally transfer all of the knowledge she had in her mind to the pillars, creating a place where anyone could learn how to enchant everything she had knowledge of – as well as add new ones that were discovered.

  The process of enchanting the new Cube took a little bit for Violet to figure out because of its sheer size, but a h
alf hour later saw it finished – with a Limiter rune inserted into the enchantment sequence. As a test, Violet created a small Stasis Field and had Felbar help her move it into position; with the amount of Mana/elemental energy that the Cube possessed inside of it, an accidental overload of one of the larger Fields would be…catastrophic might be putting it a little lightly.

  Holding their breath, they pushed it up against the small Field – and nothing bad happened: no explosions, overloads, or indications that it wasn’t operating perfectly. Through her experimentations over the last few days, Violet had “attuned” herself to the flow of energy pouring out from the Energy Orbs and into the enchantments; as such, she was able to sense the tiniest trickle of energy coming from the Cube, keeping the enchantment intact – and stable, which was more important.

  Without further ado, they cautiously moved the new Cube with its accompanying Large Spirit Energy Orb (for operating the Limiter rune) next to the nearest RR and connected it to the Stasis Field there. They immediately stepped back out of the way and Sandra had one of her Steelclad Ape Warriors step up next to it; her construct was ready to remove it in a hurry if something went wrong. Fortunately for everyone, it worked exactly the way it was supposed to.

  Success!

  Now that she had a viable proof of concept in the setup around the RRPs, as soon as the Repository room was complete, it would be time to work on the War Machine sitting immobile and unenchanted up in the workshop above. Afterwards, she could work on getting the Gnomes back to their homeland and start the process of—

  As seemed usual, just as Sandra was thinking things were looking up, a new problem presented itself.

  Chapter 11

  “What did you think was going to happen if we weren’t there anymore?” Violet asked. “You may have gotten rid of one of the dungeons, but I thought you were taking over for us,” she continued, after being told of the issue that had just come up. Of course, the Gnome was still helping to enchant the Large Spirit Cubes that Sandra was providing, because that project had taken priority over almost anything else as far as the Dungeon Core was concerned – though this…development…was going to have to be addressed very soon.

  Sandra couldn’t believe she had completely forgotten about the other dungeon that was near the Gnome village that had been destroyed. While the Reptile-based Core had been destroyed in response to the attack on the Elven village, the Undead that were roaming the forest on the opposite side of the Gnome lands had been small and fairly non-threatening. At least, they were non-threatening; at some point that Sandra must have missed, the Core – which was currently allowed to create more Dungeon Monsters without fear of them being culled by the Gnomes – had upgraded its Core Size and expanded its Area of Influence. She suspected that it had happened during the whole invasion of the Reptile dungeon and subsequent attack on her own, so it had been easy to overlook.

  But now the Core and its AOI had grown again, to the point where it could reach where the ruins of the Gnome village were; in fact, with its current territory, it could fill most of the open land around the area with its Dungeon Monsters without fear of them being destroyed, bringing in more and more ambient Mana for the Undead Dungeon Core. This in turn would allow it to upgrade its Core again and again, eventually growing so large that it could start to attack the Dwarves to the north.

  Granted, it wasn’t growing nearly as fast as the Reptile-based Core had; the dungeon that Sandra had destroyed had accumulated Mana quickly from the deaths of all of the Gnomes, as well as from absorbing all of the Monster Seeds looted from the destroyed village. While it was growing slower, it would still be as much of a threat to the people near the wastelands if left unchecked – which was exactly what had happened.

  * I didn’t even think about it, in all honesty. I wasn’t made to thin out the nearby Dungeon Monsters, you know; nevertheless, I have to do what I can to stop it from expanding even farther than they already have. *

  “Can’t you just go in and destroy them like you did with the other dungeon?” Felbar asked. “With what I’ve seen you capable of, I’m sure it probably wouldn’t be that hard.”

  The older Gnome had a point; compared to where she was when she attacked the Reptile-based Core, she both had more Constructs at her disposal and they were of a better quality – stronger, faster, and deadlier. It was obvious from her eradication around the wasteland that they were more than capable of doing so – as long as she was cautious and didn’t lose them to traps inside the Undead dungeon. Sandra knew from personal experience both in her own dungeon and the one she had invaded that those types of defenses were more likely to destroy her constructs than any Monsters they went up against.

  However, she debated on whether or not that was the right move to make. The dungeon was only following its instincts and wasn’t “technically” a danger to any of the other villages, though it was slowly expanding into the territory owned by the Golems near the Dwarven lands. While it couldn’t pass through the Golems’ Area of Influence, if it expanded past them, then there wouldn’t be any stopping them from reaching the Elves.

  The Reptiles had been “lucky” that the Beast Core near the Elves had been further south, so they were able to skirt around the edges to reach the village; the same was looking to be true with the Undead-Golem area, as the Undead dungeon was further east than the other. It was so far east that Sandra saw that it was barely within her own Area of Influence, though it appeared that she would be able to have her constructs reach it and delve through its dungeon without any issues.

  Did the Creator put me here to destroy all of these Dungeon Cores in the area? If that’s true, where would it stop? If I upgrade my Core Size and reach even more dungeons, do I destroy them too?

  Sandra didn’t have an answer to that, though she could tell Winxa did – but couldn’t tell her. The Dungeon Fairy’s face was flushed, and she held her mouth forcefully shut, for all intents and purposes looking like she was about to burst with the need to vocalize her opinion. The Dungeon Core told her to calm down and breathe, all while reminding her not to say anything; Sandra was nearly positive that if Winxa tried to say something, it would probably be the end of her. While she wasn’t sure she would actually die – because the Creator didn’t destroy things – the Fairy would undoubtedly be knocked out and somehow confined to her own realm in the future, therefore unable to help Sandra out. Not only that, but it was quite possible that she would be punished as a result of that, though the Core had no idea what kind of punishment that would entail.

  With a great visible effort of willpower, Winxa managed to hold in what she was about to say and immediately opened a portal to wherever it was she lived and disappeared through it. Sandra could hear the beginning of a frustrated yell coming from the portal before it closed behind the Fairy, and she couldn’t help but chuckle a little at it – despite the fact that Winxa had almost “died”. She understood the frustration, but there was nothing she could do about it; she just had to shrug it off and hope that the Dungeon Fairy pulled herself together and came back soon. Sandra had gotten so used to her being there to answer questions – even if they weren’t always satisfactory answers – that she felt like she was missing a part of herself with the Fairy’s absence.

  As to what exactly Winxa was trying to convey to Sandra was a mystery, as there were too many things to consider. Should I just destroy this one Core, should I destroy all of them around my AOI, or should I just keep expanding and getting stronger, eventually destroying every Core I come up against? That last seemed like a daunting – yet possibly doable – task, though she was positive that solution wasn’t what she was there for in the first place. With the fact that she could receive Advancement Points from destroying other Cores, she knew that the intention was there, but…where do I stop?

  After almost an hour of contemplating it, she still didn’t have an answer – and Winxa hadn’t come back quite yet. Sandra eventually concluded that she had to take some sort of action against the
Undead dungeon one way or another, even if she hadn’t come up with a final decision. Therefore, she gathered her roaming extermination force of a dozen Steelclad Ape Warriors equipped with warhammers, 30 Mechanical Jaguar Queens, 30 Mechanical Dire Wolves, 800 Dividing Rolling Forces, and 4 Multi-access Repair Drones and sent them to the east. From her dungeon, she also sent out a small team of her Hyper Automatons to gather up any dropped Monster Seeds left behind; not for her own constructs – hopefully – but from the foreign Undead she was about to destroy.

  The first Undead Dungeon Monster they encountered was a small shuffling skeleton with glowing red orbs inside its sunken eye sockets. It was just about the size of a Gnome – or Goblin – if it was missing all of its flesh, and it seemed to be animated by some invisible force; just like her own constructs, the little skeleton was made to move because it was formed from Mana, which allowed normally inanimate objects (like her metal-made constructs and flesh-stripped bones) to move as if they had a life of their own. Which, when Sandra thought about it, they essentially did.

  As had been her strategy thus far, Sandra sent her Rolling Forces in first; as the small skeleton turned towards her forces with its hands outstretched in front of it – like it wanted to scratch and dig into her constructs with its bare hands – it was pelted by dozens of Force pieces one right after another. The divided construct slices had enough momentum and weight behind them that bones cracked underneath their impacts, demolishing the Undead before it could do more than look at the incoming force. All of her constructs came out of the mini-fight unscathed, and the few dents on her Forces weren’t even enough to disable a single one – but they were repaired by Sandra’s drones anyway.