That was about it. She was told that when the fermentation was complete, the remaining yeast inside could be removed and reused on the next batch. Then, the Ale could be extracted through a small hole with a little pipe attached to allow the alcoholic liquid to flow out in measured amounts. A little ingenuity and suggestion from Glencha caused Sandra to figure out a way to have the pipe move one way to allow liquid to flow out from it, while moving it back would stop the flow – which Teving was happy about, since it allowed him to easily taste test the Ale while it was at each stage of the process.
Now all that needed to be done was for Teving to start that entire process – and for Sandra to work with Glencha and her distillery.
The initial process was amazingly similar to brewing at least in the first stages, so all Sandra had to do was duplicate what she had made for Teving. The biggest difference was that instead of removing the malted mixture after the wort was produced, it was kept inside the main container of the still even through the fermentation process. Once the fermentation process was complete, however, the main difference in the extraction of the alcohol could be seen; this was where the liquid that would be Whiskey was produced that was a whole lot stronger than Ale.
Similar to her still she had created for extracting Cedar Oil, a small copper tube ran from the top of the container, had a cooling system set up via frigid water (which was tied to the Water trap that already existed) that converted vapor into liquid again, and ended up in a smaller vessel nearby. Once the fermentation was complete, the mixture was heated up to the point where the alcohol became vapor, which flowed through the tube, was cooled down, and collected as pure Whiskey in the smaller container.
Glencha had her own opinions on the best way to make her spirit of choice, and she was as into it as Teving was into Ale. “There are different recipes for making whiskey as well, that depends on the types of grains used – I prefer a primarily wheat-based malt – and differing temperatures at certain times, but the nice part is that it doesn’t take nearly as long to produce as Ale does. I think the first batch can be done in just a few days. After that, I can probably experiment with different tastes to see what works – and tastes – best.”
That was more like it! While she wouldn’t be drinking it, Sandra was happy to hear that they would get results fairly soon.
By the time she had finished creating the first Brewery and Distillery, it was nearly midday. Looking over the horizon from far above through her Shears, she was hoping to see enormous Rocs coming from three different directions…but there was nothing. Where are they? I hope they haven’t run into any trouble. If they did run into trouble, then there wasn’t really anything that Sandra could do at that point. Possibly send another of the Shieldmen for the Dwarves or one of the Rangers for the Elves, but she didn’t have anyone for the Gnomes. Regardless, she told herself to be patient; they would return when they could. Right?
Unless…they’ve abandoned me? Do they not want to come back? Have they left me here alone to see to their people, and yet won’t even deign to tell me that they don’t want anything more to do with me?
“Why all these dark thoughts, Sandra?” Winxa suddenly asked, which made the Dungeon Core realize that she had inadvertently projected her thoughts again. Luckily, it seemed as though she only sent those thoughts toward the Dungeon Fairy, as none of the Dwarves seemed to react.
I…I don’t know. Perhaps it’s a remnant of that piece of Dungeon Core I absorbed. Thanks for looking out for me.
“No problem, Sandra,” Winxa said, before patting her Core on the top with a calming gesture. “Don’t worry, they’ll be back before you know it – and then you’ll probably have a whole new set of problems to take care of.”
Sandra inwardly chuckled, which helped to ease some of the morose attitude that had suddenly struck her. You’re probably right, Winxa. Maybe it’s a good thing they haven’t come back yet, because I’m still trying to get a handle on everything around here.
Speaking of that, a brief look at the Orc village of Grongbak indicated that it was about time she made her first delivery of supplies to them. She didn’t see any sign of a Warband for a few miles past the small border village, but she knew it would only be a matter of time. At least, she hoped it was only a matter of time; if this plan didn’t work, Sandra wasn’t sure what she would do.
Time to get back to work.
Chapter 21
To maintain the foodstuffs she was transporting as long as she could, Sandra created a series of stone storage boxes that were similar in design to the ones she had created for the Dwarves’ meat storage – though about a third of the size. It used a smaller Stasis Field than the large ones down there, which meant that she only needed to use one Shapeshifter for the work; once the runes were in place, she placed Small Energy Orbs with the Limiter rune and attached them to the enchantments there, prolonging their longevity. As far as she could determine, she estimated that the Fields would last a decade or more because of their smaller size.
In these new Stasis boxes, Sandra filled one to the brim with raw Bearling meat, which she was sure that the Orcs would appreciate; she still remembered Razochek and his Warband hunting Bearlings out in the wastelands, which was what led to them discovering her dungeon entrance. She also filled two others with a mixture of apples, oranges, peaches, and pears – after asking Kelerim if they would be appreciated.
“Of course. They aren’t grown and cultivated very many places in Orcrim, and they are usually maintained by Warchiefs like my father; in other words, common Warband members would rarely – if ever – eat them.”
So, a nice treat, she assumed. A fourth box was filled with day-old loaves of bread that the Dwarves had baked and were extra; even though they were a day old, their hard crust protected them enough from exposure to the air that they were still light and fluffy on their inside. A fifth and sixth box were filled with potatoes, which the Dwarves had grown entirely too many of to eat. That was enough food to feed the residents of the Orc village for months, especially since their population had been much reduced. Of course, if they managed to catch the attention of some nearby Warbands, the amount she was planning on sending could be consumed quite quickly; that was why she was planning on making deliveries at least once a week, if not more as needed.
Along with the food supplies, she was also sending all of the swords and chest armor that she had created by that time – which she hoped enough for a start. Her constructs, through her “automatic” crafting portion of her mind (along with Kelerim’s contribution), had brought their total up to 90 Steel swords and 8 Titanium swords, as well as 75 leather chest pieces. Using a half-dozen of her Steelclad Ape Warriors in her Home room, Sandra loaded up her Animated Slab Dungeon Monster with all of the supplies, which had been converted to a flat platform with slightly raised sides. Along with the boxes of supplies, weapons, and armor, there were two other things she was sending.
Two of the Steelclad Ape Warriors were coming along, with normal – as in unenchanted – Steel warhammers to act as guards. She wasn’t worried about the villagers because they were the ones she was giving the supplies to; no, it was the villagers she was sending the Apes along to protect. Kelerim informed her that the Warbands sometimes treated everything they saw as their possessions, and weren’t afraid to take what they wanted. While her constructs weren’t all-powerful, they were a good deterrent from a group of orcs trying to take what wasn’t theirs. That, and she had already stationed over 1,000 of her Reinforced Animated Shears a mile above the village; if the worst happened and a Warband started to threaten the villagers there, she could bring the flying constructs down with incredible speed – and anything they hit would suffer some serious, if not fatal, damage.
The second thing non-supply-related she was sending along was one of her Unstable Shapeshifters. She created one specifically for the purpose of being sent out, and if it were destroyed (which hopefully wouldn’t happen) it wouldn’t affect the number of them she still
had in her dungeon. When it approached the village, she would have it shift into the shape of Echo; along with a set of clothes identical to what the young Ranger wore, the Shifter would be the “Elven” representative there to drop off the supplies. Since there was no verbal communication possible between them, she would have to get creative in how she relayed the messages she would need to get across.
In order to get the entire Slab out of her dungeon without having to carry everything up to the top, Sandra simply unblocked a portion of the 30-foot-thick stone wall covering the entrance to her Roc tunnel. From there, it was easy enough for her stone Slab to journey slowly through the miles-long tunnel to emerge in the wastelands, where it then floated steadily yet leisurely towards Grongbak with its passengers and supplies on board.
While she waited for that to happen, which she estimated would take about an hour, Sandra busied herself with finishing up the plundering of the two collapsed dungeons in Orcish territory. After her Hyper Automatons brought everything useful back to the large tunnel and therefore part of her dungeon, she was able to see what kind of haul they had unearthed.
She was happy to see fragments of the two Cores that were destroyed, which appeared to be similar in size to the Reptile-Classification Core she had already salvaged. The Undead Core was the odd one out with the size of its shards and pieces, but that made sense; it had upgraded its Core Size quite a few more times than the others, therefore it was larger. In addition, the number of Monster Seeds that were recovered was only in total as much as she had plundered from the collapsed Undead dungeon – but that was fine, because once she absorbed all of the smaller Seeds, she estimated that it was worth about 400,000 Mana.
There were some surprises, however; instead of there being any gemstones like Sapphires or Onyx, neither the Avian nor the Unicorn-Classification dungeons had anything like that. Instead, they had something else that they were using for their high Mana-cost Dungeon Monsters; she wasn’t sure where the two Cores had gotten them, but Sandra didn’t hesitate to absorb them to add to her available Monster Seeds – and materials.
New Monster Seed and Origination Material found!
Sulfur
While Sulfur can be directly used as a Monster Seed, it can also be used as a material for use in the dungeon or other purposes.
You now have access to:
Tiny Sulfur Cube
Origination Raw Material Cost: 1000
Origination Mana Cost: 400
Monster Min. Mana: 400
Monster Max. Mana: 800
New Monster Seed and Origination Material found!
Magnetite
While Magnetite can be directly used as a Monster Seed, it can also be used as a material for use in the dungeon or other purposes.
You now have access to:
Tiny Magnetite Cube
Origination Raw Material Cost: 1200
Origination Mana Cost: 600
Monster Min. Mana: 600
Monster Max. Mana: 1000
She was glad that she only absorbed the smallest version of the two new Monster Seeds, because she also ended up unlocking the Small and Average sizes since she had those inside the pile of Seeds plundered from the other dungeons; no Large yet, but what she had acquired was more than she had before – so she was happy. Sandra wasn’t exactly sure what she wanted to do with Sulfur and Magnetite quite yet, but she had some ideas for the future.
After unlocking those Seeds, she realized that she had been neglecting finishing off the rest of what she could unlock through her Transmutation Menu. Things had been so hectic with dealing with the Undead-Classification Dungeon Core and the aftermath that she had barely given it any thought; after looking at it, she wished she hadn’t ignored it for the last week or so. Not only that, but she also saw that the two Seeds she had just acquired brought up a brand-new category: Assorted Minerals.
Organic/Inorganic Material Elemental Transmutation Menu
Transmutation Options
Elemental Source Required (Size/Qty)
Mana Required
Additional Seed Material (Size/Qty)
Unlocked (Y/N)
Metals
Platinum
Spirit Cube (Average/3)
0/5000000
Fire Clay (Large/6)
N
Orichalcum
Nether Cube (Large/7),
Water Cube (Large/7),
Earth Cube (Large/7),
Fire Cube (Large/7)
0/20000000
Ball Clay (Large/5),
Fire Clay (Large/5),
Kaolin Clay (Large/5)
N
Mithril
?????
0/50000000
?????
N
Fibrous Plant Seeds
Bamboo Seed
Natural Cube (Small/3)
0/75000
Yew (Average/2)
N
Ramie Seed
Natural Cube (Average/3)
0/100000
Ironwood (Large/3)
N
Clays
Ball Clay
Earth Cube (Tiny/3)
0/25000
Steel (Small/3)
N
Fire Clay
Earth Cube (Small/3)
0/40000
Steel (Average/3)
N
Kaolin Clay
Earth Cube (Average/3)
0/50000
Steel (Large/4)
N
Non-Fruit-Producing Tree Seeds
Elderoak Seed
Natural Cube (Large/4),
Holy Cube (Large/4),
Spirit Cube (Large/4),
Air Cube (Large/4)
0/1500000
Steel (Large/10),
Gold (Large/10),
Titanium (Large/10),
Platinum (Large/10)
N
Magewood Seed
?????
0/5000000
?????
N
Ancient Silverpine Seed
?????
0/10000000
?????
N
Precious Gemstones
Ruby
Fire Orb (Large/6)
268000/500000
Copper (Large/5)
N
Emerald
Natural Orb (Large/6)
0/1000000
Bronze (Large/5)
N
Diamond
Holy Orb (Large/6)
0/10000000
Steel (Large/5)
N
Moonstone
Spirit Cube (Large/5),
Air Cube (Large/3),
Holy Cube (Large/3)
0/20000000
Titanium (Large/15)
Platinum (Large/15)
N
Dragon’s Eye
Fire Cube (Large/8),
Earth Cube (Large/6),
Nether Cube (Large/4),
Natural Cube (Large/2)
0/50000000
Dragon Glass (Average/5)
Platinum (Large/20)
Orichalcum (Average/10)
N
Magistone
?????
0/100000000
?????
N
Fruit-producing Tree Seeds
Coconut
Spirit Cube (Small/4)
0/100000
Ironwood (Large/6)
N
Elderfruit
Natural Cube (Large/5),
Holy Cube (Large/5),
Spirit Cube (Large/5),
Air Cube (Large/5)
0/1000000
Elderoak (Large/10)
N
Ambrosia
?????
0/25000000
?????
N
Assorted Minerals
Sulfur
N/A
N/A
N/A
Y
Magnetite
N/A
/> N/A
N/A
Y
Quartz Sand
Earth Orb (Average/4)
0/10000
Nickel (Average/3)
N
Jade
Natural Orb (Large/6)
0/150000
Lead (Large/3)
N
Obsidian
Nether Orb (Large/8)
0/200000
Iron (Large/4)
N
Cinnabar
Fire Orb (Large/10)
0/300000
Bronze (Large/6)
Soulstone
Spirit Cube (Large/10)
Nether Cube (Large/8)
Earth Cube (Large/6)
0/10000000
Steel (Large/5)
Titanium (Large/8)
Platinum (Large/10)
N
Weightonite
?????
0/50000000
?????
N
Right away, she knew she wanted Quartz Sand unlocked for her use. Quartz Sand could be heated up to extremely high temperatures and turned into glass. Unlike Dragon Glass – which wasn’t technically glass and was hard to work with – she could think of hundreds of uses for using glass made from Sand in crafting.
Before something else came up to change her mind, Sandra used some of the Mana from the plundered Monster Seeds to unlock the Quartz Sand, fulfilling the requirements easily. The other options under the new category on her Transmutation Menu would take a little bit longer to unlock, and the appearance of something called Soulstone and Weightonite were unknown to her. Regardless, there were other, more important options to consider when she had the extra Mana.
The Crafter's Darkness: A Dungeon Core Novel (Dungeon Crafting Book 4) Page 23
