“I can definitely see that you’ve been busy; you’re also right – the War Machine can move much faster, though the oak the body is made of won’t be able to withstand that kind of work it sounds like you want it to go through.” More than half of the Machine was made from wood to reduce the weight of the entire construct, which prevented too much stress being put on the legs and lower joints; it also prevented it from being too top-heavy, which could result in the War Machine falling over when quick movements were made.
Twisting and turning the wooden torso was important for combat, otherwise the construct would be extremely limited in how it could attack and defend itself. That was why Violet thought it was a valid concern about the oak being put under too much stress; while wood actually bent and flexed better even than Titanium, it also tended to show wear-and-tear faster because of that for some reason. As she should’ve known, however, Sandra seemed to have an answer for that, too.
* I’m going to be working on that soon; I’m planning on having access to some Ironwood within the next few days, so I should be able to replace all of the oak as well. *
That was great news, but it also meant that it would delay the completion of the War Machine and consequently their departure for home. She felt it was imperative that they get back to their lands to let everyone know the current status of everything going on near the wastelands, as well as the news they had learned about the other races. While Jortor and the others had departed and were likely already halfway back to the capital, they didn’t have all of the information. More importantly – at least to Violet – was the need to get back to a place where everything felt…normal.
Not that the Dungeon Core hadn’t done what she could to make them more comfortable, such as giving them a place to sleep and providing food to eat – even if it was a bit limited in variety (meat and fruit only went so far). Violet was starting to dream of a delectable vegetable stew served with hot, steaming bread that had a crispy outer crust and soft delicious inner portion—
Anyway, despite all that, being enclosed in what was essentially a furnished cave wasn’t something that Gnomes could get used to; she missed being able to see the sky whenever she wanted to and was tired of it being slightly cool wherever she went inside the dungeon – bundling up with some extra clothes (that Sandra also provided) wasn’t really enough to make her comfortable.
Then there was the fact that when they had to…defecate…they had to go to a private corner in another room and do their business; the ability the dungeon possessed to completely absorb and get rid of their waste was beneficial, but it was just another thing that made the whole place…strange. Violet was more than ready for some normalcy and to really step back and evaluate all that she had personally learned from her experiences so far. Not only that, but she would try to kill one of those massive lizards that attacked her village with her bare hands if it meant she could take a bath. She would even settle for a dip in a freezing cold lake at that point – and would throw Felbar in as well, because she was pretty sure he stunk more than she did…or at least that was what she was telling herself.
The Elf hadn’t appeared yet, but Violet honestly couldn’t blame her for not being eager to go in the morning. Echo was obviously frustrated by the lack of progress trying to teach Sandra how to manipulate elemental energy in order to cast spells, and after the painful blinding light from yesterday the Elf was probably reluctant to suffer through something like that again. Violet vividly remembered how much it had hurt when the light seemed to burn through her eyes and into her head – and she had been on the other side of the room; she couldn’t even imagine what Echo had experienced being so close to the light’s point of origin.
For herself, however, the Gnome was excited to get to work. They were very close to finishing the War Machine model’s enchantments and today would likely see if everything would work properly together. They still had the linking enchantment to do – which Violet had to admit intimidated her a little – and to test out if two different-element Energy Orbs could be used on the same enchantment to power. They had finished everything else the day before and Felbar had tested each enchantment individually…now they just had to put it all together.
Violet listened as Sandra communicated in detail her vision of what needed to be done to tie all of the enchantments together, and it was certainly a daunting task. Not only that, but it was going to be different from what Felbar was used to when controlling a War Machine; it was necessary that it be different because it wasn’t all on the same enchantment sequence like the Master Enchanters back home could make, but it would also take some adjustment on the veteran Warmaster’s part.
In fact, it wasn’t until she was really designing the enchantment sequence in her mind that she realized what the biggest difference was: there was no need for the pilot to supply Spirit energy at all. Instead of activating each of the rune sequences with an extremely small amount of energy from the pilot, it would all be controlled by the linking enchantment – which would in turn be powered by a Large Spirit Energy Cube. What it also meant – and what gave her a moment’s pause at the implications she suddenly saw stemming from it – was that anyone could pilot the War Machine, not just those Gnomes with access to Spirit energy. It would still require them to learn how to manipulate the new runes to get them to work, but with the improvements they were making, the training time could be drastically reduced. Even she could probably do it, though it would likely take a while to get to the point where she wouldn’t make it fall down with every step – not that she wanted to pilot it in the first place.
In short, the simplification of the overall enchantment rune sequence made it accessible to all.
“Alright, then – let me see what I can do. I don’t know if this will work, but if it does – it could change everything,” Violet said, keeping her rambling thoughts about the enchantment to herself. She could tell that Felbar noticed a change in how everything was created – how could he not – but he wasn’t entirely in the know on all the technical details; some of it was a bit advanced even from Violet’s perspective, so the differences were a slight mystery even to her.
Reaching inside of herself, Violet pulled out a trickle of Spirit and Natural energy and got to work visually designing the rune sequence. It was a trick she had learned back home from her parents to learn the structure of an enchantment without providing it with enough power to actualize. It was a good way to practice something without worrying about it exploding or backfiring in any way, but it was also energy-consuming if you did it for too long. Fortunately, her Spirit and Natural Energy Orbs around her neck in a thin leather-string cage was enough to offset the expenditure.
Violet looked down at them and was surprised to see that they were almost half the size as they were when she first made them; she had been using so much elemental energy lately that it made sense, though. She could tell that the maximum amount of energy she could hold had increased as well, though it was hard to gauge by exactly how much.
If she were to guesstimate and give her capacity a number, she would say that when she arrived at Sandra’s dungeon she could hold 500 each of Spirit and Natural energy; after just a few weeks of constant enchanting, however, she had probably doubled the amount of Spirit energy she could access (to approximately 1,000 or more) and increased her Natural energy by half (to approximately 750). The difference was because she had been using Spirit energy much more in her earlier experiments, though with the War Machine she had been primarily been using Natural elemental energy.
The hardest part of designing a brand-new enchantment sequence was that she could never be sure it would work unless she actually tried it with the required elemental energy, but the visual model she made floating in front of her allowed her to place everything just how she wanted during the design process. Whether or not it would work was something else entirely, of course, but she was slowly learning that she could feel when it would do something as she stuck specific runes in place – good or
bad, though, was up in the air.
For this linking enchantment, she designed thin sequences of simple Transfer runes with alternating Spirit and Natural elemental energy that would connected to a specific place on each existing enchantment on the model War Machine. These sequences led back to an area behind the model on the workshop’s stone floor and a nearby waist-high stone block – as well as a sturdy leather harness with a lead fused to the block – which would act as a kind of center where commands could be given; the lines linking the arm, leg, and torso enchantments almost looked like small blood vessels that led back to a heart – or perhaps a brain would be a more appropriate analogy.
It was this area – which would be in the pilot’s enclosure on the larger War Machine, but had to be separate on the smaller model – that would act as the control center; commands given from there would be transferred to the linked enchantments, which would in turn control the movements of the construct. In the Machines that she was used to, the entire system was all one enchantment, which helped to equalize the energy drain during use and made the operation of the construct “sip” at the overall energy infused into the rune sequences; this new system would practically “gulp” in comparison, but the Energy Cubes would easily provide that energy.
The way commands were given was a unique combination of Pressure Feedback, Convert, Activate, and Control rune sequences layered on top of each other with the two different elements. If that wasn’t difficult enough to deal with, there were also a total of five of these command enchantments that would control different parts of the War Machine: one for each arm and leg, and a fifth that would control the torso. The arm controls would be placed on the stone block while the legs were on the floor; the torso would be controlled by the leather harness and would mimic the movements of whoever was piloting the construct.
For the purposes of the model, the linking sequence “command center” was connected from the stone and leather materials through a series of very thin copper wires that were fused to the back of the model; the metal was remarkably flexible but it was so thin that she needed to be fairly precise with her enchantment development to ensure it infused the material. On the larger War Machine the linking enchantment would be mostly internal, fortunately, so they didn’t have to worry about that so much – but it made the testing process a little harder…but also safer.
Violet spent over two hours working on visually building the linking sequence – while blocking out everything around her – before she was satisfied that it would…do something. She let the non-powered enchantment fade from her view and looked around the workshop as she got accustomed to the world again; she felt like she was waking up from an out-of-body experience after finishing the design and she realized that she had just spent more time in that phase than she ever had before. She felt drained despite her elemental energy levels being near full from the constant regeneration from the Energy Orbs, but she had a feeling she had gone through her entire capacity more than once.
The way she was feeling was completely at odds with how the Elf looked, who had apparently shown up at some point while she was working. Echo appeared to be rested and refreshed, if a little flushed for some reason; she even had what appeared to be a genuine smile on her face, which was a little strange to see on the normally surly or sarcastic Elf. Felbar was nearby and talking to her, and he had a small grin as well.
“…I’ll be sure to let her know; she’s been working really hard to finish these enchantments on the War Machine, and I’m confident she’ll be pleased to hear about it. Truth be told, I think I need one as well—” Felbar was saying to Echo, before he saw Violet looking in their direction and cut himself off. “Ah, you’re done! There’s a pleasant surprise waiting for you when you’re ready for it,” he continued, still grinning from ear to ear.
She had no idea what he was talking about, but she wasn’t about to let herself get distracted. The design for the linking enchantment was fresh in her mind and she was ready to test it out, for better or worse. “I’ll check it out once I’m done with this – I don’t want to lose it.”
Turning her attention away from the others, she picked up the two tiny Energy Orbs with Limiter runes she had created earlier – one Spirit and one Natural – and placed them on the two little slots carved into the back of the War Machine; once they were in and secured with a simple metal flap, she started the process of creating the linking enchantment – for real this time.
After playing around with them so much during the design phase, the process went faster than she thought it would; as she quickly used her Spirit and Natural elemental energy to first create the Transfer sequences, she started to worry that she wasn’t going to have enough to complete it all despite being full. Building one control module after another, she breathed a sigh of relief as she found that she indeed had enough, though it was close with her lower quantity of available Natural energy. When she filled the last rune of the enchantment sequence, Violet started to tremble as she held it steady for a moment, before carefully connecting the entire thing to the two tiny Energy Orbs.
The entire sequence she had created – as well as the prior enchantments she had created on the model – flared brightly for a moment and she thought she had made a mistake somewhere; in less than a second, however, the light faded, and everything seemed to stabilize. Violet found that she had collapsed to her knees at some point from the strain of holding everything together, so before it could get any worse she took a deep breath…and let the enchantment finish.
The rune sequences seemed to sink into the materials she had used for them, from the stone and leather harness, to the copper wires, to the wood and metal of the model itself. The Apprentice Enchanter waited for something to happen and readied herself to scoot backwards out of the way…but nothing happened. In fact, she wasn’t even sure it actually worked, until she reached a hand over to the right arm control module and placed her fingers on it.
The arm on the model shot upwards, until it was pointing towards the ceiling with its battleaxe attached to the end of its “hand”. Violet slowly moved her fingers down the control module and watched as the arm came down and moved side to side as she continued to adjust her fingers. She felt a smile of her own slowly creep across her face as she realized what it meant.
I did it! It worked!
There was still a lot of testing that needed to be done, of course, but it was a very good sign that nothing had blown up or seemed to have any other issues so far. As she looked over to the applause of both Felbar and Echo, she felt a strange sensation pass over her.
* Congratulations, Violet! Or should I say Journeyman Enchanter Violet – at least that’s what your name says on my Visitor list now. I didn’t want to bother you before because you appeared to be determined to finish the enchantment – and what an enchantment it is – but like Felbar mentioned, there is a surprise for you I think you will like. And you deserve to take a much-needed break after that! *
“Nice job, Violet! I can’t wait to practice with it while you get washed up, and don’t worry – I’ll be partaking later,” Felbar said excitedly.
Washed up? What does he mean? Violet was so exhausted from the enchantment that she walked in a daze out of the workshop as Sandra told her where to go. She had no reason to argue, but she had enough presence of mind to let the Dungeon Core know something important. “I…don’t believe that I’ll be able to complete the enchantment on the larger War Machine by myself; that smaller model almost wiped me out all by itself, and I’m worried that the other will be impossible with my current energy levels.”
* Don’t worry about that; I had figured that it was going to require more than just one to complete it, even if it is simpler than what your Master Enchanters create. I saw what you did to put it all together, and while I’m pretty sure I couldn’t duplicate the entire thing right now with my fledgling skills, I do have some access to some more Journeyman Enchanters that can at least help with portions of it, you know. *
She unknowingly walked into a dimly lit room that felt warm for once, and she stopped when she saw a series of steps leading up. Blinking in surprise and confusion, she walked up the left-side steps at Sandra’s direction and as soon as she saw what it was she felt her smile come back full force.
* I made some crude soap from mixing up fat from Crag Hound meat and the ashes from some burnt trees and leaves, before adding in some different fruit juice scents from crushed Oranges, Peaches, and Apples; it’s pretty basic, but at least I’m hopeful that it doesn’t smell like rancid flesh – which is what Echo said the unscented soap smelled like. Enjoy and relax as long as you like…you deserve it. *
As she stripped down and slid into the almost too-hot water, feeling the air bubbles and jets shooting at her from various directions in a way that seemed to loosen up her muscles. I think I’ll even forgive Sandra for using copies of me to enchant the War Machine. Reaching for one of the square blocks of soap laid out along one edge of the hot water pool, she smelled oranges as she lathered herself up, scraping off weeks of dirt as she rinsed. When she was as clean as she thought she was going to get, she sat on one of the steps inside the water, relaxing completely for the first time since their village was attacked.
I think I could get used to this…
The Crafter's Dilemma: A Dungeon Core Novel (Dungeon Crafting Book 3) Page 19
