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

by Jonathan Brooks

  An unexpected pain came from his hands and traveled all the way up his arms, before suffusing the rest of his body; it was so great that he screamed out and dropped to his knees as a bright light coming from his hands nearly blinded him. The pain then ramped up to heights he had no idea it could reach, causing him to start to black out…but then everything stopped abruptly.

  The cessation and lack of lingering pain made him fall to his hands as he tried to make sense of what had just happened. Gerold realized he was breathing heavy as he hung his head, so he tried to slow his breathing down and take stock of the rest of his body.

  * Well, now…that was new. *

  Gerold whipped his head up and looked around at who had spoken to him – and in his own language, at that. It was a distinctly female voice and it didn’t match what he had heard the Gnome say before, so he looked for someone – or something – else.

  “Who said that?” he asked, quickly getting to his feet – and was amazed to find that all traces of the unimaginable pain he had just experienced was completely gone, now just a fading memory that he had trouble believing was real.

  * I’m sorry for the pain, it really shouldn’t have been that…intense. I’m not sure exactly what happened—actually, that might explain it. *

  As the voice was talking, Gerold realized he didn’t hear it with his ears – he heard it in his mind. He brought his hands up to his head in an automatic response, but before he could touch it he paused; looking at his palms, he saw the same bronze-colored tattoo on each hand, though one had black flakes and one had blue flakes. Not only that, but the orbs he had initially been holding were no longer being held – but were instead embedded inside his palms in the center of the bronze gear.

  He opened and closed his hand over and over, expecting some sort of resistance, but despite most of the orb being in the middle of his palm with just the top showing, it didn’t seem to hinder any of his finger or hand motion. He could still feel the slow regeneration of his elemental energy coming from them, though he had to admit that it felt more…natural? Almost like he was missing a part of himself and was now…complete.

  * That is interesting; I can see a very small trickle of my Mana being fed through the Visitor’s Bond into the Energy Orbs, somehow replenishing them as they transfer you some elemental energy. It’s barely even noticeable to my natural ambient Mana regeneration, and I would doubt it would consume more than a single point of Mana over a whole day; if it’s doing what I think it’s doing, I think as long as you’re within my Area of Influence, those Energy Orbs embedded in your palms will continue to supply energy for as long as I exist.

  *Violet, are you getting this? I don’t know how this happened, but if we can harness this for other applications, we might be able to—*

  “WHAT IS GOING ON?! WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME?!” Gerold shouted, which immediately silenced the voice in his head and even made the old Gnome take a step back. Everything was silent for a few moments, before the voice came back, though instead of the former excitement it instead sounded apologetic.

  * I’m sorry, that was very rude of me, especially after all that you went through. Again, I apologize for the unexpected pain and I assure you that I didn’t intend for all that to happen.

  * Anyway, my name is Sandra and you’re standing in the workshop attached to my dungeon. I know, I know, it’s probably hard to believe – but it’s true, and I’ll take you on a tour later if you want it. In the meantime, I want you to know that you’re not a prisoner and the Visitor’s Bond – the tattoos on your palms – only allows me to talk to you and prevents my Dungeon Monsters from attacking you and the traps I have set up throughout from activating accidentally. You’re free to go at any time, but I do have some questions for you if you don’t mind. *

  “Free to go? Go where? If I go back to my village I’ll be shunned and sent back to the mountains as a failure; having lost my weapon, shield, and armor on my first solo day of culling the Golems, I can’t show my face back there. And all because of whatever it was that you apparently did, it will be better if they just think I died – that way my family will be able to remember me as brave in falling in the line of duty instead of being incompetent,” Gerold angrily muttered, his voice rising gradually so that it was practically a shout by the end. The fact that he was talking to a voice in his head that was purporting to be a dungeon had barely penetrated enough after he realized it was most likely its—her?—fault that he had lost everything, been nearly killed, and then had the most horrific pain go through his hands and body.

  * I’m also sorry that you lost your armor and axe – but what were you doing here in the first place? This place is so far from your lands that you couldn’t possibly have seen what was going on from there. As much as I tend to take responsibility for a lot of things around here that may or may not actually be my fault, there was no way I could’ve planned for your presence here so close to my dungeon. *

  That question made Gerold’s anger subside as the real reason most of that had happened became clear: it was his fault that most of what had been done to him because his curiosity forced him to follow his sensitive Nether sense. The pain and “bonding” or whatever it was came directly from the dungeon, obviously, but he probably wouldn’t have even been in that situation if he hadn’t made the conscious choice to venture out into the wastelands. As his mind cleared a little, he felt himself telling the voice – whether it was a dungeon or not was still yet to be determined – about what led him to be on top of that hill and watching the battle play out.

  She—Sandra, she said her name was—seemed interested in his claim to be able to sense Nether energy even from a distance and asked a few more questions about what he was doing in the forest before he made his way to where he was now. She also expressed concern that he had seen one of those skeletal rats so close to the forest’s border.

  * I’m concerned because it means that the Undead Core knows about the existence of your people, whereas it was likely that it had no previous knowledge of the Dwarves at all. From what I can see of its Area of Influence, I doubt that it knows your exact location, but if it isn’t stopped soon it’ll expand far enough to either reach your village or else be so close that it will be difficult for your people to move around the land anymore. *

  “Even if I was there, we don’t have the Shieldmen to fight something like that; the few reinforcements we have from the stronghold might be enough if they could make it here in time, though it would probably end up with more casualties than we can afford to destroy the dungeon. I have a feeling that they’d rather just abandon Nurboldar and try to find someplace else to farm,” Gerold said with a touch of melancholy. He had just barely started on his duty to the village and the Dwarven Kingdom, and already it looked like it was over for the relatively quiet existence of everybody there. He knew Second-shield Bregan would be disappointed, because the village was supposed to be a place he could train newcomers and semi-retire in a place that didn’t see much fighting. Heavy fighting, that is.

  * I’m working towards destroying it myself, but I’ve had a few setbacks lately; the use of the Gravitational Devastation Sphere – while definitely being more destructive than I had originally thought it would be – has actually given me an opportunity to fight back. It’s going to take some time and constant attrition against the other Core to get to the point where I can eliminate it, though, so it might not be in time to stop it from reaching your people.

  * On that note, however, I have some ideas…*

  Gerold listened to Sandra talk, growing more incredulous as the minutes rolled by and the dungeon mentioned some unbelievable things – as well as an invitation. “Before I commit to something like what you’re proposing, I want to see exactly what you’re talking about. Let’s go on this tour you mentioned before; I think I trust you enough not to kill me outright by this point, but what you’ve said is too hard to believe without seeing it with my own two eyes.”

  Less than a min
ute later, Gerold found himself following one of the strange steel-made apes that he had seen before, hoping he hadn’t been too trusting and made a poor decision. Who would’ve thought I’d ask to go deeper into a dungeon, especially since I’m unarmed and unarmored. Regardless of the craziness of it, he found himself looking forward to seeing if everything the voice said was true.

  Chapter 22

  The Dwarf was surprisingly receptive to the whole situation of Sandra being a dungeon, considering what had just been done to him. The tour that the Dungeon Core brought him on went even further to impress upon him her intentions towards the races surrounding the wastelands, as well as her desire to help them where she could.

  Sandra technically didn’t have time for the whole sight-seeing thing with the newly Visitor-bonded Gerold, but she knew it was going to be imperative that she establish the correct type of relationship with him – and by extension, his people – right from the start. Fortunately, even though most of her focus was on showing him her crafting stations, the Growing Room, the Enchantment Repository Room, and even – with plenty of personal protection in the form of nearby constructs – her Home room, she was able to split her attention to more…important matters.

  Like maintaining her current Mana advantage over the Undead Core.

  Her Rolling Force constructs were already “rolling” over the scattered skeleton rats, destroying dozens of them every minute. The number of her own were still building little by little, and they were already topping 800 scattered everywhere over a portion of the wasteland and the open land near the Gnome village. While they were making fairly good progress wiping out every rat they found, she had to have her rolling constructs come together in groups of 20 to take out the larger walking skeletons they were starting to encounter. Eventually, she upped that number to 50 when some of the weaker zombies started to make an appearance closer to the forest, and anything venturing into the forest had at least 100 grouped together.

  Having that many together was a risk, but they were also able to work together to destroy all but the most powerful zombie beasts that occasionally made an appearance. The Ogre Skeletons were the only ones of that kind that she avoided entirely, but everything else fell under the onslaught of her constructs. As time went on, she planned to send the larger groups into the forest, sweeping through it to destroy all of the weaker Undead they could find, only leaving the stronger ones alone.

  She knew from personal experience that it really didn’t matter how strong or powerful one of her Dungeon Monsters were, because they all essentially funneled the same amount of ambient Mana to her. Now, something like that gigantic abomination of jumbled-up corpses that had joined the Undead forces around her dungeon might be able to reach more because of its size, but she didn’t think it was that significant of a difference. It was why her Shears – and in comparison, the skeletal rats – worked so well because they accumulated nearly as much as a Monster that was 10 or 100 times the Mana cost. So, the other Core might have 50 or so powerful Undead that were slowly accumulating Mana, but without the smaller, cheaper ones running around, its overall growth would be slower.

  Over time, of course, those powerful Undead could multiply until that was all there was out roaming around the Undead dungeon’s AOI, but Sandra was banking on that not happening for a while. She had the advantage now – but she had to make sure she maintained it.

  To that effect, she had already emptied out about 2/3 of her treasury, keeping the Rolling Force and Shears production going, while also trying to replace the constructs – and Unstable Shapeshifters – she had lost during that chaotic battle above her dungeon. The problem she was quickly running into, however, was a lack of Raw Materials. She was seriously considering cannibalizing the wagon of Gnome supplies for more, but while she was looking at it she remembered the heavy sphere that Felbar had helped to bring into her workshop – and therefore into her dungeon.

  Without thinking, she tried to absorb it – but nothing happened. At least, she thought that nothing happened, but when she looked at her available Raw Materials…she was completely full. Peering back as the sphere stuck in the hole it had made in the floor, she saw that a sliver of it had been carved out from the top, exactly where she had been looking at it in her effort to absorb it. What the…? How is that possible?

  Winxa, disregarding for her own safety, created a portal that led from her home to the workshop, where she peered down at the sphere and her mouth opened in a “O” shape as she took it in. “Wow, you’ve really got something here.”

  What are you talking about? What is this material?

  Sandra still had no idea what it was and absorbing that little sliver’s worth of Raw Materials revealed no new type of material – which she had been half-expecting.

  “Well, keeping in mind that I’m not an expert in gravitational physics—” the Dungeon Fairy began.

  Uh…what?

  “—I’d say that this strange ball consists of everything that was sucked up into your Sphere construct when you activated it,” she continued. “No wonder you’re limited to only using this every 60 days and within a few hundred feet of your entrance; if something like this was able to be used by a Dungeon Core of a less…hospitable…nature and able to be brought near a village or fortified town…well, I don’t think I need to tell you what would happen.”

  How is that even possible? That vortex thingy sucked up so much dirt and massive rocks, not to mention all of the undead and constructs I had out there, that there’s no way that it would fit in there.

  “Well, consider if that material was like your Mana in a way; when you created your Elemental Orbs, you took a large quantity of it and then condensed it down until it was much smaller. This is essentially the same thing, though the force used to condense this material was at a hard-to-imagine level compared to what you used on that Mana. What you see here is the result of so much material smashed together that it obviously made it really heavy, as I can see by the hole it made,” she further explained.

  Logically, what Winxa said made a lot of sense; in reality, Sandra had a hard time picturing how such a thing was possible. Nevertheless, it would definitely explain how just a little sliver of it could give her approximately 50,000 Raw Material, as well as being the reason why it hadn’t been a “new” material. If she was right, then the strange sphere was made from dirt, stone, desiccated branches, a whole assortment of metal-based Monster Seeds, and some Sapphire and Onyx gemstones. There was always a possibility that there was something different in there, but it would require eating away at the multi-colored ball for a while to discover it.

  Thanks, Winxa, she told her, before said Fairy opened another portal and disappeared back down near Sandra’s Core.

  “You’re welcome,” she said when she appeared. “Whew, that’s the last time I go near the surface – it’s way too dangerous. You should warn a girl,” she muttered, smiling at Sandra’s Core.

  Rather than wasting her time arguing with Winxa and telling her that she had nothing to do with the Fairy going up there in the first place, Sandra used her time more wisely and started to make enough Monster Seeds with the new source of Raw Materials to last a while. With her Rolling Forces adding to the amount of ambient Mana she was receiving from her AMANS already (which was also growing slowly back up to the level it was before) she was flush with that particular resource – so she spent it on building up another force that she hoped would eventually be sent to start destroying the Undead outside of the other dungeon. From there, with some additional reinforcements, it would be on to the dungeon and Dungeon Core itself – to end the threat once and for all.

  There was still going to be a bit of time before that happened, of course, and some other preparations that had to be made – which would hopefully start the next day. Now that the War Machine was finished and working excellently – I still have to fix the mostly cosmetic damage tonight, though – Violet was going to be free to help with designing some more enchantments that were
sure to be useful.

  For the moment, though, she was still resting and Felbar had joined her and Echo down in the dining area for a late lunch/early dinner. From their conversation, the two Gnomes were talking about turning in early and getting a fresh start in the morning. As for the Elf, Sandra could see she was restless and itching to do something; unfortunately, it was still a little dangerous to go outside because it was always possible the Undead would come back – though it was unlikely. She’d have to figure out if there were something she could have Echo help with, though she said she might go back down to the Enchantment Repository and study the enchantments there some more.

  By that time, the grand tour of the dungeon was almost done with Gerold; she made sure everything else was running as smoothly as they could be before she turned her full attention back to the Dwarf. Earlier, he had met the others – Violet and Echo – in the kitchen they were still lounging around in and had seemed a bit disconcerted with the Elf for some reason; Sandra thought at first it was because he had some sort of racial prejudice against Elves – which seemed all too prevalent – but when she saw the brief blush on his face the Dungeon Core knew exactly why. Seeing nearly 20 naked “Echos” outside fighting against the undead must’ve been a little much for him.

  It’s a good thing that they can’t really communicate verbally – the last thing we need is for him to say something about that. Clothing for her Shapeshifters had seemed like a waste since she figured many of them would die anyway; she wasn’t expecting all of them that she sent out to die, of course, but she didn’t think modesty had any place out there in a battle between Dungeon Monsters.