Its feathers lying down its back appeared coarse and thick, which likely helped protect it from attacks, as well as warmth as it flew through the colder air far above the surface. Two beady black eyes were located on the front of its head marking it as a predator, which was further confirmed by the sight of its beak. While the talons on the Roc weren’t all that impressive, the sharp, serrated, curved beak that it possessed were quite the opposite; Sandra didn’t even have to experiment with her new Monster to know that the beak was its main form of attack, and that it could probably snap up an Orc and chew through the poor, unfortunate person in seconds. She even doubted that many of her constructs could withstand such abuse for long, especially some of the softer-metaled ones she possessed.
Sandra took a little closer look at it and its special abilities, and she was impressed. She wasn’t exactly sure what they all did, but that it had not just one or two abilities – but three – likely meant that it was quite formidable.
Aerie Roc
Current Elemental Energy:
Air – 35000 energy
Special Ability:
Shattering Screech: 5000 Air energy
Sonic Dive: 2000 Air energy
Beak Extraction: 200 Air energy
Out of curiosity, Sandra had her new Aerie Roc extend its wings; with an audible *whoosh*, its wings spread out on either side of it and knocked into a few unlucky Shears randomly floating around. Her smaller constructs were smacked so hard that they smashed against the far wall, where they crumpled up and were destroyed – all because of a simple spreading of some wings that didn’t even affect the massive bird. The wingspan of the Roc was even wider than it was long, though the wingtips still didn’t reach the walls…but it was close. The Dungeon Core estimated that it spread nearly 180 feet, which frankly boggled her mind a little. Sure, she had seen some impressive displays of massive Monsters from both the Reptile Dungeon and the large abomination created by the Undead dungeon, but seeing something of that size that she created was hard to fathom.
Naturally, when the gigantic Aerie Roc had its wings spread and appeared as threatening as it could, that was when one of the Dwarven villagers that had taken refuge in her dungeon decided to peek into her Home room.
“What--? AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!” The Dwarven woman (that Sandra vaguely remembered from the Visitor’s Bonding was named Glencha) screamed upon seeing the Roc in what appeared to be attack mode, before she ran back inside the long series of rooms that led to their residences. Of course, Glencha kept up her screaming as she ran, and no words or assurances that Sandra tried to convey to her via their Bond seemed to calm her down. Eventually, the entire Dwarven community was alerted because of her screams, including the Shieldmen near the end of the line of rooms. Gerold, fortunately, was so exhausted that he barely stirred through all the screaming and commotion – which just went to show how tired he had been before he collapsed into bed.
Uh…so, what were you going to say, Winxa?
The question seemed to startle the Dungeon Fairy, and she shook herself as she looked between the still-wing-extended Roc and her Core. Taking the hint, Sandra instructed the Aerie Roc to collapse its wings, making it seem a lot smaller than it had been just a moment ago.
“Well…two things, actually. First, I was going to warn you about the Roc’s size, because I wasn’t sure if it would even fit. I spoke with a few other Fairies with a little more knowledge of these types of Avian Dungeon Monsters, and discovered that this variety was huge.”
And the second thing?
“Huh?” Winxa asked, distracted by staring at the magnificently large bird in the room. “Oh, yes; the second thing has to do with the Dwarves. Apparently, Aerie Rocs are sometimes found in the wild, and are most commonly found on top of or around the large mountain strongholds of the Dwarves. It seems as though these giant birds consider Dwarves to be a bit of a nice snack.”
Oh. I guess that explains the reaction.
The five remaining Shieldmen quickly rushed through the Dwarven residences, armed like they usually were with their special elemental power-fueled armor and battle axes, looking quite determined to protect the villagers at the expense of their lives. Before they could arrive, Sandra spoke to them all before they could do something rash.
* Calm down, calm down. The Roc in my Home room will not hurt any of your people; I didn’t know before I created it that Dwarves would have such a…visceral reaction to seeing it.
Her words barely even slowed the Shieldmen, though they did approach the tunnel leading into where her Core and the Roc were located with a little less visible panic than they showed before.
“You…tamed an Aerie Roc?” the Shieldmen out front that she recognized as Delarthe asked, as he cautiously stepped into the room, followed closely by the others, with weapons still in their hands.
* Not exactly – I created it like I do with all of my other Monsters in my dungeon. It’s completely under my control and won’t hurt you, even if you were to attack it. Please don’t attack it, though; I need it for transporting people and supplies. *
“You…what? Transportation? Like…ride on one of these hellish beasts?” Delarthe seemed affronted that Sandra would even think of something like that. At the same time, though, she thought she heard a small tinge of curiosity or perhaps satisfaction in his voice.
* Yes, precisely. I needed something that could transport more than one person, could fly fast, and could transport some cargo if that were needed. This Roc seemed like the perfect solution, but I can perhaps look for something else if it is going to cause some major problems with my guests. *
“That would probably be best—” Delarthe started to say, before one of the other Shieldmen spoke up from behind him. Sandra searched her memory for his name, but it escaped her before she could focus on it.
“Wait a minute, Delarthe. Can you imagine the impact it would make on the other Shieldmen back home if they saw you riding on the back of a tamed Roc? To have done something that every one of us had always wished we could do? By my beard, I bet even Angulta would finally give in to your offer and agree to—”
“Enough, Thelon,” Delarthe said, cutting off whatever the other Shieldmen was about to say. The apparent leader of the remaining Shieldmen – unless Gerold held that honor, but Sandra wasn’t sure – stood there looking at the non-moving Aerie Roc for a few moments, before he finally relaxed his stance, which led the others to do so as well. “I have to admit, you do have a point; if we were in control of these, it could help us protect our farmers and gatherers in the mountain valleys that are becoming more and more afraid of venturing out near our strongholds…
“Alright, dungeon. I think that you can continue to use these if you want, as long as you can prove that they are safe. And as long as Gerold says it’s okay, of course.”
It wasn’t as though she needed their expressed permission to create whatever Dungeon Monsters she wanted to use, but it was important to make the Dwarves comfortable while they were inside her dungeon. Even if they had objected, she was pretty sure she still would’ve used the Aerie Rocs – though she would endeavor to keep them far away from her guests. This just made the whole situation a lot easier.
Or so she thought.
Delarthe seemed to consider the massive bird and cocked his head to the side, looking around the room. “One question, though; how are you going to get this monstrosity out of here?”
Oh. Good point.
Chapter 6
Sandra had been so excited to have finally found a potential transportation candidate that she hadn’t even thought about how she was going to get it out from her dungeon. Unlike her previous Dungeon Monster that was quite large – the Rising Phoenix – there was no way this Aerie Roc was going to be able to fit through the tunnels or even just about any room she had built throughout the dungeon. In reality, it barely even fit in her Home room, and that was the largest space she had available – by far. There wasn’t any help for it; the Dungeon Core was going
to have to create a giant tunnel leading down into her Home.
She’d seen it done in both the Reptile-based and Undead-based dungeons, but hadn’t seriously thought about it for her own – because she hadn’t needed it. Now, though, it was a necessity; getting her new Dungeon Monsters (she included her Animated Slab in that accounting) out into the world wasn’t going to happen any other way. Sandra knew that it would create a serious vulnerability, however, though it was possible that she might be able to seal it up afterwards. After all, it wasn’t her first and primary entrance, so just like the former Reptile Dungeon she could cover it up with stone to protect her Core.
The Dwarven Shieldmen left soon afterwards, and they calmed the villagers better than Sandra could’ve done. None of the Dwarves – other than the Shieldmen – had become accustomed to hearing a dungeon’s voice in their head, so the reluctance to believe her when she tried to explain what was happening was understandable. In time, hopefully, they would grow used to the strange situation, and be more accepting of her presence in their minds. The thought of them being there long enough for that to happen was a new and different one…but it was also something that she could wait to contemplate at another time.
Looking through the ground around her Home Room, she found that there was only one place that she could start a massive tunnel that would lead outside. To the northern part of her room, she had the small tunnel entrance that led to all of her crafting rooms and the internal VATS; to the west she had the much larger entrance to her defensive dungeon proper, where her Animated Slab was hanging around with her last Iron-plated Behemoth. In the southeast corner of the room was her relatively small treasury, where she stored most of her created supplies (like wood and metal ingots) for use in her crafting or for converting into Raw Materials if she needed it. The south-southwest portion of the room was the tunnel leading to where the Dwarven villagers were working and the growing fields were in production at the moment.
That left the eastern part of the room for her tunnel, though there was one big problem with that direction; if she were to build it out from her Home room at an angle going up to the surface, it would run right into the VATS section that marked the large open column in the middle of her dungeon. Therefore, she would either have to try to completely rework one of the other tunnels and rooms leading to where her Dungeon Core was located – which would be a bit of a nightmare to manage, not to mention practically impossible to redo the defensive rooms since they needed to remain completely open and functional the entire time – or she would have to go down.
In effect, her Home room was parallel with the bottom portion of the VATS, so she would need to dig underneath that section; once the tunnel was past the VATS, then there wasn’t anything preventing her from angling up to the surface. Mapping it out in her mind and looking at the underground portion, while measuring angles and determining how steep she could make the incline, she realized that if she kept it at a gradual angle it would eventually come out extremely near the orc village of Grongbak. Not quite inside of the village, thankfully, but within 1,000 feet or less away from its perimeter.
All of which meant that she would need to gradually curve it at the same time it was angling upwards, which just added another complexity to the entire endeavor. She was originally going to make the tunnel just barely wide enough for the Aerie Roc to squeeze through, but if there was a curve, it needed to be just slightly bigger to accommodate the curvature. Curved tunnels – at least from her experience with small-scale ones throughout the rest of her dungeon – were a bit tricky to keep accurate with sizing, because it wasn’t a straight shot from one room to the next. There has to be a better way.
The answer was a simple one, when she finally thought about it. She figured she could always have the tunnel dug out just a little way, create a large space where the Roc could turn towards a completely different direction, and then go that way. Simple and easy enough; to top it off, she could use straight tunnels which were a lot easier to excavate and firm up through her special Dungeon Core abilities. Thinking about it a little more, she thought she might even be able to make a second room inside of the tunnel, which would eventually head off to the east – where it could potentially come out near the middle of the wastelands.
All in all, even though she had a plan, it was an enormous undertaking. Creating a tunnel that was 120 feet tall and 30 feet wide, that would span at least 2 miles long, wasn’t something that was done overnight. At least, not for a normal Dungeon Core; fortunately, she had some constructs at her disposal that would help with the excavation, and a wealth of enchanting knowledge in her mind of things that might help as well. Even with all of that, though, it wasn’t likely to be done for a few days if she was lucky. Unless, of course, Winxa had some special method she knew about that would speed the process up…
Winxa? Are there any techniques that the other Cores used to create such large entrances?
The Dungeon Fairy had been staying as far away from the massive Aerie Roc as she could and still be inside of the room. Although Sandra would never let it attack her – and the Dungeon Core didn’t even know if the diminutive Fairy could even be harmed by it – there was probably some instinctive reaction by Winxa that made her want to avoid even touching it. Nevertheless, she stayed in the room instead of creating a portal and fleeing, for which Sandra was appreciative – even if the Fairy had been a bit…flaky as of late.
“Well, yes – of course,” she said matter-of-factly, putting her hands on her hips while she looked at Sandra’s Core with confusion. “All you need to do is—wait; are you telling me you haven’t been using the Bulk Elimination technique all this time?”
Uh…no; I have no idea what you’re talking about.
Winxa seemed to crumple in on herself, and Sandra could’ve sworn she saw tears starting to form in the Fairy’s eyes. “I’m so stupid! I’m the worst Dungeon Fairy, ever! I can’t believe I didn’t tell you the most basic of things,” she said, shaking her head in what looked like denial or despair. “First, I forgot to tell you about the benefits for other Cores when more than one is destroyed, and now this!” She threw her hands up in disgust.
Now, listen; you’re not the worst Dungeon Fairy ever. You’ve made some poor judgements in the past regarding informing me of things that you really should’ve, but that doesn’t make you bad, she tried to console the Dungeon Fairy – though Sandra was starting to question how many things she should know, and didn’t. With that questioning came annoyance and a hint of anger, but she squashed those emotions as soon as they reared their ugly heads; now was not the time to berate and alienate one of the few friends that she knew – or was fairly confident – was on her side. Now, just tell me about this…uh…Bulk—
“—Elimination. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about that earlier, I thought you were using it based on how quickly you were excavating the nearest rooms.”
Fair enough – but what is it? I need to get moving, otherwise this will take days or weeks to accomplish.
Winxa still seemed upset, but she got herself together enough to explain. “Okay, well, you know how you apply Mana to eliminate the dirt and stone around your dungeon, clearing space to make rooms and tunnels? This process converts all of what you get rid of into Raw Materials, so that you can use them later. This can be time-consuming and inefficient when you need to clear out a lot at once; for instance, those massive tunnels you’ve seen the other Cores possess. By using the Bulk Elimination method, you can clear out large areas of your underground world here with just an application of a little bit more Mana than it would normally cost to do the same amount.”
Okay…what’s the catch? Why wouldn’t you have told me about this at the beginning, when I was struggling to build my dungeon? It should’ve been obvious at that point.
“The catch? Oh, like, what’s the downside? There are a few, actually, which is why most Cores don’t apply the technique unless they are creating a massive tunnel like you’re contemplating. Firs
t, the amount of Mana to do a section costs approximately 5 times what you would normally spend to do it slower. That’s not that big of a deal, because at this point – with your absorption in your dungeon and from your Dungeon Monsters outside, you could probably do it every few minutes and wouldn’t see too much effect on your reserves.
“Second, you can only eliminate a fixed amount, which equates to a cube with 50-foot-long sides – no more, no less. It will also be perfectly square, so if you want to create any type of arched or natural effect on the walls, you’ll have to do that yourself afterwards. In addition, you can’t rotate the Bulk Elimination in any direction, so trying to angle it upwards will be impossible; again, you’ll have to smooth it out manually after you’re done.”
That all seems reasonable.
“True – that’s not so bad. The third, and most important downside, is that eliminating anything in this manner will not provide any Raw Materials. Again, though, this really wouldn’t affect you all that much because Materials aren’t something that you’re short of, but most dungeons don’t have your condensed Gravitational Sphere, or your aptitude for keeping materials in a handy form which you can access for material at any time. Most dungeons need to constantly expand to have enough Raw Materials ‘on hand’ to create their Seeds, and spending Mana to expand without getting those Materials is problematic to them.”
I guess I’m lucky in that respect. Thank you, Winxa; if you remember anything else that you think I should know, no matter how mundane, please don’t hesitate to tell me.
Now that she had a technique that would assist in the excavation of her new tunnel, Sandra got to work. After a brief training session with Winxa on how to do the Bulk Elimination – which was easier than she thought it would be – she concentrated on a large block of solid dirt and stone along the eastern side of her Home room, located halfway above and below the floor there, and then pictured making an invisible box around it. Normally, it was her Mana sort of infusing the earthen substances and then converting it to Raw Materials; now, though, she wasn’t converting it so much as cutting it out.
The Crafter's Darkness: A Dungeon Core Novel (Dungeon Crafting Book 4) Page 7
