The Crafter's Darkness: A Dungeon Core Novel (Dungeon Crafting Book 4)

by Jonathan Brooks

  The others slowly nodded, agreeing with him; Sandra couldn’t help but feel proud that they finally understood what she had figured out long ago. Sandra was powerful, with a greater ability to access Mana and do things that no other Core could do, but she couldn’t do it all herself; this was going to be a group effort, and only when all the races could work together would they all survive.

  Kelerim looked a bit depressed, though. “I feel like I’m the weakest link here; if we all need to work together, I’m not sure how to go about that with my people. I’m basically kill-on-sight to whoever matters or has influence.”

  * I’ve had some time to think about that and I think I may have a solution; I’ll get with you later on about that, however. We’ll figure it out, don’t worry. *

  Sandra really did have a chance to think about it, and thought she might have a solution; it would have to wait until the other races were on board with joint cooperation, though. For now, her focus was on getting the Gnomes out of her dungeon and back to their capital, so they could get started with that process there.

  * Echo? While I’m outfitting Violet and Felbar for their journey, do you think you’d be able to let your people nearby in your village know about what’s happening? *

  “Absolutely. I was just about to suggest that, actually; I’ll take Starlight 3, so I don’t have to run the entire way,” she responded instantly, as if she was eager to get moving. “Kelerim – do you want to come with me?”

  The Half-Dwarf/Half-Orc looked confused – and it was obvious that he was still entirely oblivious to the attention Echo was paying to him. “Uh…why? I can’t even speak your language.”

  The Elf looked slightly exasperated, as if she couldn’t believe he was that dense. “What – do you have something better to do?”

  “Ummm….no?”

  “Well then, it’ll be good to get out – and you can fly on the back of a Pegasus, so what could be better than that?” she said, smiling and taking his arm while she directed him out of Sandra’s Home room.

  Kelerim looked like he had been hit between the eyes as he stumbled along with her. “Wait—what?”

  Sandra smiled to herself, knowing the poor Blacksmith was in way over his head – and he didn’t even know it. When they were gone from the room, her attention went back to the two Gnomes who still looked completely unsure about the whole flying process.

  * Alright, are you two ready to go? Do you need anything before you leave? *

  “Wha—right now?” Violet asked, uncertainty in her voice. It probably did seem abrupt, but for the most part everything was already set up above – it was just waiting for the two Gnomes.

  * Yes. I have supplies for your journey if you need them up top, and it looks like you already have everything personal with you right now, so it would probably be good to get started before it gets too late in the day. *

  “Uh…okay. How do we—?”

  * It’s fairly straightforward. Just climb up the back of the Roc, place your legs here and here, tie them with the straps and simple buckles there, place another around your waist here, and then hold on with these two straps for your hands and that should be secure. In the future, I may be able to improve on the whole system, but for now this should work well enough. *

  While she was telling them what to do, she had one of her Animated Shears come down and point out exactly where she was talking about with the straps on the wide leather strip. She had a spot for a total of 4 people as well as a larger system of straps on the bottom for carrying supplies, which could be altered temporarily if other people needed to fly along. Right now, it was empty, but it would soon be filled once they all arrived above her dungeon entrance and near the workroom up there.

  Neither of the Gnomes protested, though Violet was more than a bit hesitant. “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure these straps are secure enough for us, and I’ll make sure you’re safe. I won’t let anything happen to you.” Felbar herded the young Journeyman Enchanter up to the giant Aerie Roc, where he helped her climb up the rear tail feathers to where she was going to be strapped in.

  It was a unique and secure system Sandra had designed in a hurry, but she thought it would work well enough. Lying flat against the wide leather harness, a person would first strap their lower legs in two spots to the harness, placing their feet into two deep indentations in the leather specifically for that purpose. It would give them extra support so that the leather straps holding them down weren’t supporting their entire weight, but acted more as a means to keep them flat. Then there was a looser strap that wound around their waist and allowed them a modicum of movement, so that they could basically sit on their knees and look around, and also stay secured to the harness.

  Finally, two more straps were placed in easy reach of the hands, where they could be looped around the wrists, securing them in place from yet another position. Every strap and loop could be easily adjusted to fit just about any person; it would only be veritable giants that would have a bit of difficulty.

  Felbar convinced Violet to lie down so that he could secure her to the harness, with the poor girl visibly shaking the entire time. The grizzled old Gnome comforted her and got her fully strapped in, nodding his approval at the safety measures Sandra had provided to keep them both secure.

  “This looks good, though after using it I’m sure I’ll have some suggestions on how to improve it,” he said. “What I’m worried about, though, is the cold, rushing air up in the sky; my brief experience on the back of a Pegasus was traumatic enough to know that will likely be an issue, especially if this thing manages to go faster.”

  Sandra was positive that the Aerie Roc would go much faster than her Pegasi, and she had already been working on that. It was one of the reasons she didn’t have a chance to enchant the harness, because her Unstable Shapeshifters were finishing up the solution to that now. She told Felbar and Violet that she had that covered, and when Felbar had strapped himself in, she finally got a chance to see if both her tunnel and her new Dungeon Monster were going to work as well as she hoped they would.

  * Alright, hold on! We’re not going up to the sky yet, but we need to get this Roc up to ground level. *

  Technically, she probably hadn’t needed to have the two Gnomes strapped into the harness right then (they could’ve met the Aerie Roc up above by traveling through the dungeon normally); nevertheless, it was a good opportunity to see if everything was working in the relatively safe environment of the large access tunnel instead of up in the sky. She didn’t tell them that, though, but she was sure that one or even both of them would get that before too long.

  Sandra directed the Roc to the hole to the long tunnel she had made, and she watched as it moved quickly to the access point. Its abrupt movement caused a startled yelp to emerge from Violet, but it came and went so fast that the Dungeon Core almost missed it. The young Gnome’s eyes were open as wide as they could go, and her hands were gripping the straps so hard that they were practically white from the strain. Sandra felt a little bad about that, though she hoped that time and experience riding on the back of the giant bird would help her ease up a little bit.

  As soon as the Roc was above the hole, it crouched down a little and tipped itself forward, pulling its legs up so that they were lying against its body. Past the tipping point, the humongous avian smoothly fell into the hole – and started sliding down the relatively steep incline.

  “Whaaaaaaaaa—!” Violet screamed out as the Roc practically rocketed down the slide, picking up speed quickly. It was short-lived, however, as the tunnel gently bottomed out before too long and started to gradually rise, slowing the slide until they came to a complete stop. With their momentum halted, the Aerie Roc got back to its feet and started to quickly run up the tunnel, arriving at the first junction that allowed it to turn left, going south. In what felt like no time, another large junction room led to the east, heading further into the wasteland. Then there was the longest tunnel section of them all, which eventually rose
enough to emerge a bit south and east from her dungeon entrance.

  She was pleased to see that the harness didn’t shift even a little bit in all of the running the Roc did, and the two Gnomes were still very secure; Violet was still freaked out, of course, but she also seemed to relax her grip a little when they finally emerged from the tunnel out into the bright sunlight. Felbar looked like he rode on the back of a 100-foot Monster every day, as his expression hadn’t changed one bit; well, other than to look a little concerned over Violet’s well-being.

  While they walked over to her dungeon entrance, Sandra started getting everything ready that needed to go with them. Basically, as soon as the tunnel had been completed, she had started on the process of packing up most of the supplies that were originally going to go with the two Gnomes via a Hauler and a wagon. With the creation of simple wooden crates, she included some samples of pure Copper, Iron, Gold, Steel, and Titanium metals, Ironwood and Yew planks, and – naturally – a cache of Energy Orbs of different elements. It was a bit diminished from when it was originally loaded onto the wagon, as Sandra had needed to use more than half of it for different emergency projects when combating the Undead Core, but it was still enough to offer a good selection.

  She also had a few smaller crates that contained food such as thin meat strips and fruit, which was easy enough to pack and store inside of another plain wooden box that had a simple lid that just nestled into the top of the box without being secured. Some water to take along was a bit harder, especially as it was going to be traveling at high speeds and had the potential to spill. She thought about just making some oiled leather pouches that would contain it, but that still had the potential to jostle around enough to spill everywhere. Instead, she came up with a different solution that was simple in design and required the minimum of crafting to accomplish.

  As the Roc arrived and backed up to the ramp that her constructs had recently hammered out that went from the workroom to the above wasteland, through the hole in the ceiling that the Gravitational Devastation Sphere had exposed, she explained how to get water from her new containers to both Felbar and Violet.

  * My constructs are loading up the Roc with crates of metals and wood, as well as some Energy Orbs. Once they’re secured to the rear of the wide leather strip you’re attached to, they’re going to bring you some small boxes which will be tied next to you; this contains some foodstuffs for your journey, as well as water in a wooden container. To break it open to drink, all you have to do is pull sharply on the top stone tab and it will break off the very thin covering of wood keeping it closed. I haven’t figured out how to close it from there, so you should just drink it all right then if you can. There should be three of those for each of you, but you may not even need them all if you get to where you’re going quickly. *

  They nodded their understanding, and although Violet had calmed down somewhat, the closer they came to actually leaving, the more nervous she became. Sandra couldn’t blame her too much, because just riding on the back of the Roc and actually lifting up and flying through the air were two different things. Finally, when everything was loaded, the Dungeon Core brought out something entirely different.

  * And this, my friends, is a brand-new enchantment that will help with your flying. *

  Chapter 8

  Violet was barely containing the scream that threatened to erupt out of her throat at the thought of flying through the air on the back of a giant monster. It hadn’t been so bad riding on the back of the beautiful brown bird through the tunnel below; in fact, other than the initial surprise of the Roc sliding down a sloped section of the enormous passageway, it wasn’t that bad. When they had emerged into the sunlight after a few minutes, the gently rocking movement of the avian was nearly pleasant and soothing. But now, when they seemed to be even closer to flying in the air hundreds or thousands of feet above the surface, she was starting to lose any sense of composure that she previously had.

  The mention of a new enchantment was just distracting enough that it took her mind off her thoughts of impending doom. At least, for a little bit.

  * I applied the Fire-based enchantment sequence that Felbar used to heat up the surrounding air around him to this small plaque, using the Ambient Warmth and Modulate rune chain. Then, applying something I’ve seen Echo do to speed herself up, I added Cleave, Directional, and Expand runes to a separate section of the plaque, and then powered both enchantments using a set of Fire-Spirit and Air-Spirit Limiter and Activate/Deactivate sequences with the accompanying Small Energy Orbs.

  *I’m having my Shapeshifters attach them to the space above your heads, which you should be able to reach in case you need to turn them off for some reason. When you’re not flying, you can deactivate them so that you don’t use all of the energy in the Orbs, but even running at full power without being shut off, they should both last for a couple of weeks before the Orbs run dry. *

  Violet watched as a naked Echo came up next to her and started to strap something to a spot just above her head, using the straps there to feed through some holes in what appeared to be some sort of metal disk. The sight of an unclothed Elf didn’t bother her anymore, as she was used to Sandra using her Shapeshifters to enchant different things inside of the workshop. What did bother her, however, was that she saw a naked double of herself attaching a similar-looking metal disk above Felbar’s head. Fortunately, the grizzled Gnome was looking away while that was happening, because otherwise Violet would’ve been extremely mortified.

  I thought I told Sandra I didn’t want a naked me running around here.

  It didn’t take long for the metal disks to be tied to the harness, and the naked Shapeshifted figures left, giving Violet a chance to really look at what was just installed. While she couldn’t see many of the actual runes inscribed on the thin silvery metal plaque because most were Fire and Air as opposed to the Natural and Spirit elements she could see and wield, she saw the Spirit connection of the two sets of Energy Orbs embedded along the rim of the plaque and covered almost completely with a thin sheet of metal keeping them in place. There were also two plain and obvious engravings on the metal disk, one a big O and the other a big X.

  “I’m assuming that if I press on the O it will activate the enchantment and the X will shut it off?” she asked, losing some of her fear at the upcoming flight at the introduction of something new for her to learn about.

  * Precisely. Before you go, I want you both to practice controlling your transportation so that it won’t be a shock when you need to take over outside of my Area of Influence. Felbar already has a little experience from directing some of my constructs inside of the Undead dungeon, or so I hear, so why don’t you start first, Violet. All you need to do is focus on the Aerie Roc and mentally tell it where to go; from what Felbar and Echo told me, they needed to use some sort of verbal cue to help them with the control, but it shouldn’t actually be necessary. *

  “Wait…me? You want me to control this…thing?” Violet had been originally letting Felbar direct the massive bird, because he seemed a bit more comfortable with the whole riding-on-the-back-of-an-enormous-monster-thing. However, a brief thought of actually doing it herself brought with it a sudden thrill of excitement. Maybe it won’t be as scary if I’m controlling it myself.

  Doing what Sandra suggested, Violet focused on the behemoth beneath her and tried to give it a command to walk forward. Nothing happened. She tried saying “forward” while focusing on it. Still nothing happened. Maybe I’m not cut out for this? The young Journeyman Enchanter started to get frustrated and practically shouted in her mind towards the Roc, when she felt a tenuous shift of something in her mind. She wasn’t sure what it was at first, until she thought about the bird running forward – and it shot off going from a standstill to running full speed in less than 2 seconds.

  I did it!

  She could feel the subtle connection she now had with the Roc in her head; it wasn’t invasive or annoying, at least, but it was also plainly there. As
she thought about what she wanted the bird to do, making it stop, turn around, and then run back to Sandra’s dungeon entrance, Violet felt a lot of the fear she had been experiencing riding on the Roc’s back start to evaporate.

  * Very nice, Violet. Now, take it into the air. *

  The fear that had been evaporating slammed back into her just that quickly. However, instead of letting it take control of her, she instead focused on doing what was asked of her. The concentration needed to instruct the enormous Roc was enough to mute the fear a little, though she almost lost it again when the bird’s wings snapped open as it began to run. After a dozen steps, she felt something in her stomach drop as they left the ground and the Roc started to flap its wings frantically, gaining altitude every second. She didn’t even try to control it anymore as her mind gibbered away in her head, but that didn’t seem to matter as the bird continued to rise higher and higher into the air.

  Air screamed by her, deafening most sounds and she was also forced to close her eyes from the wind buffeting her face. She started to panic as she began to freeze, the cold air high above the ground numbing her fingers still desperately clinging to the loops around her wrists.

  * Activate the enchantment, Violet. *

  Her thoughts were a bit sluggish, but fortunately Sandra’s voice was crystal clear inside of her head. Reaching up with her hand without looking, she fumbled around before finding the metal disk where the enchantments were placed, her hands with barely enough feeling to recognize it. Where is—? There!