“…um…well…Sandra is the name of the dungeon that is fighting against the undead and is here to help us. She is also the one that healed me after I—”
“—became so delusional after the loss of your armor that you’re now giving a dungeon a name? There aren’t any dungeons in the wastelands, by the way, or we would’ve heard about it before now; and even if there were, if it’s fighting against the undead – which is even more far-fetched than anything else you’ve said today – then we should just let them do it and stay out of it. We have enough going on here as it is, which has just been made that much harder by your incompetence.”
“There is a dungeon out there, and she only wants to help. Where do you think this thing I’m riding came from? And then there’s Felbar in the—” Gerold began, using his hand to point to the massive machine that was standing still to the right and a little behind him. He heard a gasp come from someone he was addressing, and a quick look showed that at least one of them had seen the gear and embedded orb in his palm.
“I know what a Gnomish War Machine is, boy – I saw a couple in my youth, though I never thought I’d see one here,” Bregan said, not even bothering to look at the towering construct that could undoubtedly chop him in half. Then again…I’ve seen the old Dwarf fight before, and I’d probably put my odds on Bregan. “The more important thing that you need to explain, boy,” he said while putting particular emphasis on the word, “is what that thing on your hand is.”
He tried to explain what it was, but as he had only the barest understanding of it, it all came out a garbled mess.
* Tell him that is a simple bond between yourself and my Core, which allows you to communicate with me and not be killed by my Dungeon Monsters or traps. That’s the truth, so you should be able to communicate that. *
The sound of Sandra’s voice startled him again, mainly because she had been entirely silent during the entire exchange, though he supposed that it might be because she was translating everything that was said to the Gnome. Apparently, the reaction to her voice betrayed him, because Bregan became even more suspicious.
“Is there something wrong, Gerold? Is this…thing…on your hand some sort of brand that marks you as part of the dungeon’s property? Are you hearing voices in your head?” the older Dwarf scathingly asked. Then he shook his head slowly. “What have you gotten yourself into, boy?”
“Look, whatever you might think about me and how—” Gerold swallowed again— “incompetent I may or may not be, there is still a danger to the village! At least come and visit the dungeon or see for yourself by going through the wastelands—”
“I don’t know what was done to addle your mind, but you’re sadly mistaken if you think I’m going anywhere. I won’t fall into the same trap you did, and I won’t put the people of Nurboldar – nay, the entire Kingdom – at risk because of your foolishness. Now, begone and go back to wherever it is you found these things; I won’t have your nonsense here.”
“But I also brought some of these orbs for you to try; they’ll help regenerate—”
“We don’t want anything from you, or this supposed ‘dungeon’ of yours; as far as I’m concerned, you’re dead to us. I’ll be sure to send word back that you died doing your duty, though, so your family won’t be dishonored along with your name; that, and because I have no idea how I’m supposed to explain how imbecilic you are.”
And that was it. No matter what he said, even following after for a short distance, none of the others would even acknowledge he was even there. When he came upon the first of the farm’s fields, Bregan turned back to him and gave him a stare that made even the Jaguar Queen step back – or at least the thing controlling the monster. He knew from that look that there was nothing he could say or do to convince him or the others, so he gave up. “Fine…Sandra, take me back, if you would. I can see that they are too closed-minded and set in their ways to accept the help offered.”
There was no reaction other than the barest twitch in Bregan’s eye that said he even heard what Gerold said.
* I’m so sorry he wouldn’t listen to you. I wish there was something else I could do, but short of allowing the Undead dungeon to quickly expand to show them the error of their ways, there’s not much I can do. Maybe if Echo came to talk to them? *
“No, I doubt that would work. Thank you for trying, though.”
* Just curious; do you mind if I take a few…samples…from your farms here? *
I wonder what she means by samples? He knew she didn’t mean any harm to the Shieldmen or the villagers, so he said that was fine. “It’s not like they’re going to need it in a few weeks anyway.”
From above, he saw the same shapes that he had thought were going to impale him during the battle he observed between Sandra’s forces and the undead horde shoot down to the fields.
“Hey! What are those and what are they doing?” Bregan shouted, running towards where the nearest monster – that looked like a large pair of shears – was snipping off a few parts of a wheat stalk. It was gone from the field and up in the air with something stuck through the loop of its handle before he even got close; Gerold watched as it slowly flew back towards where he knew Sandra’s dungeon was located. In a few other places he saw more rising up with their own “samples”, including one that appeared to have impaled a potato and was wobbly flying away.
* Time to go – I don’t think that guy looks very happy. Thanks for the permission, by the way, even if he doesn’t approve; the last time I tried to take an acorn, I was set upon by a group of powerful Elite Elves, so I’ve been more than a little cautious about what I take. Now, however, I guess it doesn’t really matter; they know about me anyway because you told them. Whether they believe you or not is their problem. *
Gerold hung on as the Jaguar turned around and slunk away from the edge of the field, heading back in the direction he had first taken when he was investigating the day before. Has it only been…what…less than 24 hours? It seemed like it was much more, considering that he had lost his armor, shield, weapon, and his place in Dwarven society. As far as his parents would know, he died while fighting and culling the Golems near the village, doing his duty to his people and Kingdom. He had no home now, no place where there was someone who wanted him around…and he felt lost.
* They may yet come around, just give them time. The offer still stands for them to take refuge here if they change their minds. Meanwhile…I could use your help if you would like to contribute a little. *
He slowly nodded, knowing that he didn’t really have any other options. He could always walk away and hope to find something he could do in another land – perhaps the Gnomes would be willing to take him in – but he was curious what the dungeon needed help with. I guess home is wherever I make it…even down in the depths of a dungeon…
* * *
“Shouldn’t we have at least checked out his story, Bregan?” Marleth asked him after Gerold on the ridiculous metal cat and the Gnomish War Machine were gone.
Absurd! “Ridiculous! Are you telling me you actually believe him?”
Second-shield Bregan glanced over at Third-shield Marleth, seeing that the other Shieldman was picking his words carefully. “No, not necessarily. However, the fact that he was riding...whatever it was…sends up some warning signs to me. I’ve never seen anything like that before, so what if he was telling the truth – or something close to the truth?”
Bregan harrumphed, annoyed that he had to explain it to the Third-shield, who should know better. “Whatever it was he was riding was probably constructed by the Gnomes; the presence of that War Machine should’ve been clue enough. Most likely, Gerold felt like shirking his duties to explore the wastelands, came upon some Gnomes camped out there, and lost his armor to them in some sort of swindle. Can’t trust Gnomes, you know – they’ll steal the boots right off their mother’s feet if it benefited them in some way.”
Marleth seemed as though he wanted to protest, but he snapped his mouth shut and sa
id no more about.
“Now, it looks like I’ll have to be slotted back into formation with the unfortunate death of a Shieldman,” Bregan said, doing his best to end the matter by stressing the word. Fortunately, the other two took the hint and nodded, going about their business of culling dungeon monsters. When they were far enough away, his whole frame sagged in his armor and he sighed heavily.
Gerold, you stupid Dwarf, what have you done? I thought this was supposed to be my retirement…
Chapter 25
With the convincing of the Dwarves to come to her dungeon a bust, Sandra turned her attention back to doing what she could to minimize what damage the Undead Core could do; it was practically inevitable that it would upgrade its Core Size before she was ready for her assault. Not that she wanted to delay, but her reserves of Mana via her treasury were quickly drying up. I think I need to build a bigger vault for next time. She had previously stopped adding to her treasury because she had thought that what she was saving was more than enough for a “rainy day”, but this was turning out to be a violent downpour she hadn’t accounted for.
Regardless, she was determined to let that be her last mistake, and to strive forward with her plan. While Felbar and Gerold were heading back to the dungeon, Sandra started working with Violet on enchantments while Echo finally got the go-ahead to bring another shipment of Energy Orbs back to her village. The Dungeon Core only had the opportunity and Mana to create a few over the last day, so they had to take some from the Gnomes’ shipment; she figured that they wouldn’t be leaving until the Undead dungeon situation was taken care of anyway, and by that time they’d likely be able to make many more to replace what was “borrowed”. Plus, she was hoping to add some Cubes to the shipment, which she hadn’t had a chance to do yet since most of her Mana had been used for more important matters.
* There are a few things that I want to work on as far as enchantments are concerned. First, I need the warhammers that my Steelclad Ape Warriors will be wielding enchanted so that they provide a little extra “oomph”. Second, I’ll be working with Echo when she gets back to make a new bow for her, and I’d like both that and some arrows enchanted. Lastly – and I think Felbar will like this – I want to place some more enchantments on the War Machine. *
The Gnome was nodding along with Sandra’s words, but her face became confused at the mention of the War Machine. “What are you talking about? We already enchanted that and from what Felbar said it’s working perfectly.”
* We can talk about that when he gets back with Gerold; right now, I want to look at how we can utilize Energy Orbs for other weapon enchantments. *
Violet still seemed confused, but she was excited enough about doing some new enchantments that it didn’t seem to bother her. “What did you have in mind?”
* Well, first I want to forge all-new Titanium warhammers for my Apes, but I want to add two different enchantments to them; one will be Fire-based and the other Holy-based, so I’m going to need to work with you through my Shapeshifters to complete them. Especially as I want to incorporate those Orbs to make them stronger and last longer. *
Again, she seemed skeptical, but the Journeyman Enchanter was up for the challenge.
Most normal weapon enchantments that Sandra knew of – that weren’t the temporary ones that she knew the Gnomes favored in battle – could be quite useful but had some limitations. Most of those limitations came in the form of energy usage; for instance, it could be a powerful enchantment – like one that would cause lightning to erupt from the end of a sword when it came into contact with an enemy – that could be used maybe a score of times before the energy ran out. Or, on the other end of the spectrum, a simple enchantment that strengthened the metal so that it was less susceptible to breaking or kept the blade as sharp as a newly crafted weapon could last for years depending upon use.
Of course, there were hundreds of enchantments that were in between those two extremes, but the limiting factor was the same: elemental energy. With the new Energy Orbs, however, that would all change; by incorporating them into the enchantment with the Limiter rune, she was hoping to make powerful enchantments last a whole lot longer.
Sandra started with the crafting of the Titanium warhammer, but she made some alterations to the end of the haft; normally there was a small round pommel on the end that helped to prevent the hammer from completely slipping out of the wielder’s grasp, but the Dungeon Core changed that up a little. Instead of what was essentially just a nub, she expanded it until it could contain two Average Energy Orbs; it made the pommel a bit oversized, but the weight wouldn’t change too much – because they were going to be hollow.
Before the Orbs were inserted, Sandra used her Shapeshifter in Felbar’s form to enchant the Average Fire Energy Orb with the Limiter rune and then placed it as well as a Spirit Orb inside the hollow pommel. When that was done, she used her Steelclad Ape – that was doing all of the metal-crafting – to seal it up, containing the Orbs inside the warhammer. From there, things got a little…difficult.
The Activate rune sequence – when incorporated into an enchantment – worked the most reliably when made from Spirit elemental energy, which was why most of the best Enchanters Sandra knew of that made weapon enchantments had access to that particular element; it wasn’t as though it couldn’t be made from other elements, but they usually consumed more energy than a Spirit-made one for some reason. Sandra thought it had to do with the particular aspect of the element that worked best with “command”-driven runes, but she had never really gone that deep into enchantment theory to know if that was the real reason.
Regardless, Sandra wanted the weapon enchantment to be as efficient as possible, so a Spirit-based Activate rune sequence was the way to go. The problem with that was that Sandra had yet to master the precise way to create the Spirit-based activation sequence, despite weaving the relatively simple Fire-focused one – so she needed Violet’s help to attach them together. The obvious difficulty with that, of course, was that Violet couldn’t actually see the Fire-based enchantment Sandra was planning on adding to attach it properly. After some experimentation that left them both frustrated as Sandra tried to create a simple Minor Heating Fire enchantment on a piece of stone and Violet tried to attach an Activate rune to it, they almost gave up when they never seemed to line up and attach. However, the Gnome had an idea that seemed obvious at the time but took the frustration they were feeling to figure it out.
Since Sandra could see the Fire enchantment she was creating and also had access to the Spirit element in Felbar’s body, all Sandra had to do was place some un-powered Spirit-based enchantment indicators where the sequence had to be lined up perfectly. A simple solution it was, but it also worked.
“I’m sure that I probably would’ve learned more about working with Enchanters wielding different elements…if the Academy were still there,” Violet said sadly after she had successfully connected everything together. “But I guess there’s no substitution for working in the field, is there?” she asked wistfully.
* There is some truth to that. Now that we have this figured out, we can finish this. *
The next part seemed quite easy in comparison to their difficulties earlier. Sandra created the Fire-based enchantment, connecting it directly to the pommel and running it around the rest of the haft, before completing the simple rune sequence for the main enchantment there. Before it was completed, Violet added the Activate rune sequence where Sandra indicated it needed it to go, which she did flawlessly – even though Sandra split it so there were two activation areas.
On either side of the warhammer – the flat head and the spike on the other – there was now a spot that would activate the Fireburst enchantment, a relatively simple and basic enchantment that was normally not that powerful. Upon striking something, it would emit a small burst of flames that conveyed a bit of fire damage to a target, but it was more focused than, say, a Flame Edge enchantment – which would coat an entire blade with flames that coul
d be used repeatedly.
Fireburst, on the other hand, typically only conveyed the flames in short spurts in a concentrated area, instead of an entire slice with a sword. It wasn’t used as much because it was only activated when something came in contact with the activation portion of it, which could make it a bit hazardous to carry it around. Flame Edge and others like it could be activated and deactivated with the simple placement of hands on the hilt in a specific way, and the flames would go away when the wielder wanted it to.
With the Average Fire Energy Orb with the Limiter rune attached to the Fireburst enchantment, however, and the flow of energy turned up a bit, Sandra was hoping for some more impressive results. Once the enchantment was done, she took it outside the workshop with her Steelclad Ape Warrior and tested it.
Whoops – too much!
When the Ape swung the enchanted Titanium warhammer down to hit the dirt, there was a discharge of flames that was so powerful it blasted a large hole in the ground, partly destroyed the head of the warhammer, bent the haft of the weapon, and launched the Ape backwards through the air; when it landed, about 80 feet away, the impact deformed both of the construct’s legs and one of its arms. Fortunately, it wasn’t destroyed completely, but a Repair Drone needed about 15 minutes to get it back to normal.
“Whoa – what was that?” Gerold asked when he came running up on the Jaguar shortly after the unexpected explosion. “Are you under attack?” Felbar was right behind him, looking ready to attack anything that moved.
* No, everything is alright; I was experimenting with an enchantment that didn’t quite go the way I was expecting. Sorry for alarming you. *
The Crafter's Dilemma: A Dungeon Core Novel (Dungeon Crafting Book 3) Page 29
