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

by Jonathan Brooks

  She looked around and said in the same tone of voice, as if she was still communicating what was happening, “Don’t hand over your weapons, though; that shouldn’t be too hard, because Orcs disdain the use of most ranged weapons, so they may not consider your bows too much of a threat. If for some reason it appears as though this is some sort of trap, don’t hesitate to fight for your lives. We have a higher purpose now, so whatever it takes to get it done, we need to keep that in mind.”

  Fyola spoke back in the same guttural language that the Orc had spoken in, and soon they were contained within the literal army of Orcs and being marched out of the forest. As soon as he emerged, Wyrlin noticed a small rundown Orcish village off in the distance to the west, which may or may not explain how they were spotted last night. He was almost positive that Fyola had given them away with her use of the Fire elemental energy the night before, so it was all on her head if they ended up failing their mission because of her need for physical comforts. Just another reason to want her dead.

  None of the Orcs appeared ready to take his bow or quiver, though they did take a few swords from the Elites who had them at their sides. Still, because their most effective attacks came from the energy inside of them, they weren’t necessarily defenseless.

  Wyrlin just hoped it was enough as he was surrounded by a sea of green flesh and inadequately cured brown leather being worn by hundreds of Orcs. Once he was able to look around at them when trees weren’t blocking the way, his original estimate of 300 rose to at least 500; there certainly wasn’t anything they could’ve done against that many, and the Elite leader’s decision to surrender was the only one that would’ve allowed them to survive for the next five minutes. And I hate her for it.

  The anger simmered in his chest as he walked with his fellow Elves into the heart of Orcrim, and farther away from their goal.

  Chapter 18

  Rather than being a chore and a horrible ordeal, the solitude enforced on her from the Core Size upgrade was rather pleasant for Sandra. She was able to come up with a plan for the coming days, both in terms of what she wanted to do within her dungeon and for what needed to be done in the nearby lands. She was hoping that Violet, Felbar, Echo, and Gerold would all be back soon, so that they could start the process of shifting resources around to protect everyone – instead of just those in the immediate area. Not only that, but she really wanted to get back to crafting, because everything going on had negatively impacted the one thing that she wanted to do. There were still so many things that she wanted to try her “hand” at, and lately that had gone a bit by the wayside in favor of saving everyone’s lives.

  True, it was selfish to want to experiment with mundane crafts when there were lives at stake, but she was who she was – a crafter at heart – and not even being a Dungeon Core could change that. Nor would she want it to because she gained tremendous amounts of enjoyment from it.

  Because of all these thoughts running through her mind, the time during her upgrade seemed to pass rather quickly. Winxa, bless her winged heart, continued to keep her company, and tell her stories; Sandra blocked most of her chatter out so that she could concentrate on her own thoughts and worries. If she could’ve communicated with the Dungeon Fairy, she would’ve politely asked her to stop – even though she appreciated the gesture; as it was, she felt a little bad for ignoring her.

  Her internal thoughts were running so rapidly that when the upgrade ended, it took her a few minutes to register that it was done. When she pulled herself away, she found the notification screen about her new Core Size – and felt an increase in her awareness of the world around her.

  Core Size Upgrade Stage complete!

  13/13 Completed

  Your Core has grown!

  Current Size: 21

  Mana Capacity increased!

  Raw Material Capacity increased!

  New Constructs option!

  The first thing she did, after getting rid of the notification about her Core Size increasing, was to check on the status of everything around her. Her dungeon seemed as normal as ever, and the Dwarves were…sleeping. Since she had gone through the upgrade a little past noon, and with it taking approximately a day according to Winxa, she was expecting to come out of the process while it was still daytime. That was worrisome, since it probably meant that she was out for more than a day.

  Winxa – how long was I down this time?

  It was only after she communicated with the Dungeon Fairy that Sandra realized Winxa was in the middle of reciting another story, lying comfortably on top of her Core while she did it. “—and then she said—what?!” Sandra took the Fairy by such surprise that Winxa fell off of her Core and started to plummet, before catching herself with her wings before she made it too far. “How are you done already? Did something go wrong?”

  What do you mean? I got my notification that everything was completed and now I’m Core Size 21; let me check my Core Selection Menu to see if something is wrong.

  Core Selection Menu

  Dungeon Classification:

  Constructs (Adv. Level 1)

  Core Size:

  21

  Available Mana:

  6215/24447

  Ambient Mana Absorption:

  10/hour

  Available Raw Material (RM):

  35400/59916

  Convert Raw Material to Mana?

  35400 RM -- > 1416 Mana

  Current Dungeon Monsters:

  24587

  Constructs Creation Options:

  18

  Advancement Creation Options:

  7

  Monster Seed Schematics:

  516 (31)

  Current Traps:

  45

  Trap Construction Options:

  All

  Core-specific Skills:

  5

  Current Visitors:

  62

  Nope, everything looks normal here. Sandra wasn’t sure what was going on or why Winxa seemed so shocked, because after checking her Menu everything looked just the way it was supposed to. However, the Dungeon Core was a little worried about the Fairy’s response, so she checked her Area of Influence, just in case that was the problem.

  Even that looked as normal as it could be; in fact, it was even better than she was hoping for. Estimating the distance underground was a little difficult, but she calculated that she had expanded her AOI by at least 3 miles, letting her see a total of approximately 14 miles in every direction from her Core. Best of all, she had extended far enough to entirely encompass the AOI of the Golem, Goblin, Beast, and Slime-Classification Cores nearby, which was a great relief. She would have to investigate them aboveground with some Shears later to see if there were any surprises, but for the moment she was happy enough to see that she extended that far.

  Another quick look around the forests and the dungeons showed nothing out of the ordinary, and she found the Shieldmen camped inside of their village with a few Steelclad Ape Warriors and Mechanical Dire Wolves standing sentry. The rest of the constructs were still hunting additional dungeon monsters, though from what Sandra could see, the number of them was rapidly decreasing. That told her that the two Cores had accumulated enough Mana to upgrade again, as nothing else seemed to be coming out of their dungeon entrances.

  What’s worrying you, Winxa? Everything looks fine here on my part.

  “What’s worrying me? Oh, only that instead of taking a little bit over a day to upgrade, you finished in 10 hours!”

  What? I thought it seemed short, but I thought it was due to all the thinking I was doing. 10 hours? Are you sure?

  “Yes, I’m sure – or at least near there, anyway. How did you do that?”

  I…have no idea. I wish I knew, honestly.

  It was a mystery, and if the Dungeon Fairy – the one being in the entire world that might have those kinds of answers – didn’t know, then there wasn’t really anything else she could do. Well, other than to thank the Creator for shortening her upgrade, for whate
ver reason it might have been done. As her father had been fond of saying, “Don’t try to pay for something freely given,” which was exactly what she was going to do.

  Regardless of the actual reason, the fact of the matter was that she was done much faster than she had planned, so she knew she had to let all of the Dwarves know she was back from her isolation – as soon as they woke up, of course. In the meantime, she had noticed that not only had her Maximum Mana and Raw Materials increased – which was something she had been needing for a while – but she had also acquired another construct option.

  Constructs Creation Options

  Name:

  Mana Cost: (45% Reduction)

  Clockwork Tarantula

  14

  Reinforced Animated Shears

  28

  Hyper Automaton

  55

  Dividing Rolling Force

  69

  Lengthy Segmented Millipede

  275

  Iron-banded Articulated Clockwork Golem

  413

  Roaring Blademaster

  825

  Large Armored Sentinel

  1100

  Mechanical Jaguar Queen

  2200

  Mechanical Dire Wolf

  2750

  Martial Totem

  4400

  Automated Sharp-bladed Digger

  5500

  Multi-access Repair Drone

  8800

  Steelclad Ape Warrior

  13200

  Titanium Anaconda

  17600

  Steel-plated Behemoth

  22000

  Mobile Fortification

  27500

  Gravitational Devastation Sphere*

  15000

  Advancement Creation Options

  Name:

  Mana Cost: (45% Reduction)

  Goblin Foreman

  44

  Radiant Pegasus

  5500

  Rising Phoenix

  8250

  Unstable Shapeshifter

  8800

  Celestial Authority

  9900

  Animated Slab

  13750

  Aerie Roc

  19250

  Sandra saw the addition of something called a Mobile Fortification, though it was too expensive in terms of Mana to check it out quite yet. She wondered what it would’ve been before she advanced her Classification via the Advancement Options; the only thing she could think of was that it might have been a Stationary Fortification instead of a Mobile one. It didn’t really explain what it was, but for the original 50,000 Mana price tag (which was significantly reduced down to 27,500 due to her Advancements) she was sure it was impressive. If she were doing her calculations right based on the historical increases in her Maximum Mana after every upgrade, she was confident she would be able to afford it soon.

  There was always the possibility that she could purchase another Advancement that would reduce the cost even more, but after checking on her available Advancement Points, she found that – even after bonding 43 more Elves – she was only at a total of 65 AP. Not that she thought that was the best idea anyway, as there were much better things that she might spend those points on; the 120 AP that would be required to up the Mana Cost reduction to 60% would be better utilized elsewhere.

  She held off on using any of her Advancement Points until she needed something, as that had worked fairly well for her in the past in an emergency. Instead, she concentrated on starting some of the things she had planned while she had been isolated during her upgrade. First and foremost, she checked on the progress of her Hyper Automatons looting the collapsed Undead-Classification dungeon; thankfully, despite a lot more for them to search through compared to the Reptile-Classification, her little constructs were just minutes from finishing up with the tasks she had given them.

  In some of the upper rooms of the collapsed dungeon were some scattered Monster Seeds of various lower-grade metals, which she ignored for the moment; it would cost more in terms of Mana to acquire them than she would gain in benefit, and the new Core that was quickly expanding far enough to plunder the Undead Core’s former location would only get a small benefit from searching through and absorbing them all. Therefore, as soon as they finished, she tasked a few of the Automatons with carrying back the more valuable Seeds to her treasury – including the shards of the destroyed black-colored Core – while she started on a tiny tunnel towards the northwest. She was planning on hitting the destroyed Avian-Classification dungeon first, and then the Unicorn one based on the Seeds she saw inside.

  However, it was when she was absently observing the placement of Monster Seeds and the Undead Core shards in her treasury that she discovered something she couldn’t explain.

  Winxa, did anyone come in and take some of the Reptile-Classification Dungeon Core shards while I was undergoing the upgrade? I’d say that about half of them are missing.

  “Uh, no – no one even approached the entrance of your Home room and I haven’t seen anyone at all in a while. Are you sure you didn’t just place them somewhere else?”

  I’m quite sure; there are some left where I had placed them initially, and I would have no reason to move them from that spot until I had a chance to experiment with them.

  At that thought, Sandra tried to absorb another shard of the Reptile-Classification Core – and it worked! Just…it wasn’t exactly what she was expecting.

  50% of your next Core Size Upgrade Stage has been fulfilled!

  Note: This only takes effect if you currently have less than 50% of a remaining Upgrade Stage to fulfill.

  In addition, this notification is only available if you have previously used a destroyed Dungeon Core to increase your Upgrade speed. This will happen automatically if the pieces of a destroyed Core are within your Area of Influence.

  That was more than a surprise. Sandra told Winxa what the notification said, and the Dungeon Fairy looked perplexed for a moment before she had a thoughtful look on her face.

  “I…can see why this may not have been discovered before now. Most Dungeon Cores would absorb the shards of a destroyed Core right away, and it is unlikely that they would’ve fulfilled most of their Upgrade Stages and held off the process for so long like you had. Therefore, I doubt any of them had left the pieces alone long enough to take advantage of the speed increase. Even if they did, most newer Cores find the collapsed dungeons and the broken pieces of their predecessors early enough that a speed increase probably wouldn’t have been noticed all that much.”

  You know what that means, don’t you?

  “Yes – you definitely need to acquire those other broken Cores before the new Cores do,” Winxa said excitedly.

  Exactly.

  She was already starting the tunnel that would lead off to the northwest towards the Avian dungeon, of course, but now Sandra knew that she couldn’t afford to wait on the Unicorn-Classification dungeon. As a result, when the tunnel extended far enough towards the Orcish lands, she forked the tunnel so that it would go to both collapsed dungeons at the same time. It required a bit more Mana and she had to create more Hyper Automatons and square-shaped steel tubing, but the expense was well worth it if she was able to acquire more broken pieces of Dungeon Cores.

  I need to have them! They’re mine! I need to destroy even more Dungeon Cores and use their pieces to upgrade faster!

  Her greedy and disturbing thoughts made Sandra pause for more than a moment because they were so foreign that it caught her off guard.

  “You can’t mean that, can you?”

  She didn’t realize she had projected her thoughts until Winxa responded.

  No, not at all. In fact, I don’t even know why I thought that; it’s not like me at all. Truth be told, the fact that I’m even contemplating consuming the carcasses of my kind for my own benefit is a bit disturbing. Do you think something of the Core I absorbed has…I don’t know…infected me?

  The Dungeon Fairy only looked partially relie
ved upon hearing that Sandra wasn’t about to go crazy and start invading other dungeons to obtain their Cores. “It’s possible, though I would think that any lingering traces of the soul inside of the Dungeon Cores would be minor. Still, I would avoid absorbing them for Mana and instead apply them to help you upgrade faster.”

  Good idea. If I start doing something out of the ordinary, let me know; those thoughts scared me a little.

  It was like there was the faint presence of a dark stain upon her mind, as if she had dipped her toe into tainted water and pulled it out before it could entirely infect her. She wasn’t sure exactly how deeply the stain was going to affect her, but with Winxa agreeing to watch her and the knowledge that it existed, Sandra was fairly certain she could ignore it for the most part. The taint didn’t feel like it was permanent, and she hoped that it would fade over time, so now all she had to do was wait it out.

  Regardless of her strange feelings – which were already fading – Sandra kept with her plan to acquire the broken Cores as soon as she could. Having them in her possession rather than leaving them for the new Cores to acquire was the best outcome as far as she could see.

  Sandra absorbed some of the plundered Monster Seeds for the Mana – which were piled up in her Roc tunnel – to help with the expansion of the tiny passageways towards the two collapsed dungeons. For the rest, which was actually a lot compared to what she had acquired from the Reptile-Classification dungeon, she absorbed and used about half of them to complete 224,000 Mana worth of her next stages, which was nearly 2/3 of the way towards the 342,000 total Mana she needed to complete the next upgrade.