She wasn’t sure how long she was supposed to stay confined inside the room, but she hoped that someone came for her soon. For one, she’d like to know what all this was about; two, she was aching to get back to the wastelands and Sandra for some reason. Even in their capital, in the heart of their civilization, and inside of the Royal Family Tree, Echo couldn’t help but think about how much more comfortable it was inside of a dungeon.
Or it could be because Kelerim is there….
* * *
Gerold pounded on the stone wall of his prison cell, deep within the heart of his family’s mountain stronghold. The wall didn’t really seem to care that he was frustrated and fed up with everything, as it continued to sit there staring at him like it had over the last few days. It wasn’t fair what they had done to him, and even his parents hadn’t defended him when it counted most. Tears had been shed the first day he had been confined, but now nothing seemed to want to come out when he wanted to scream and rave at the injustice heaped upon him.
“Let me out! I didn’t do anything wrong!” he screamed through the iron bars of his cell, though he knew no one was listening. While he was fairly certain that he could break out of the tiny room he had been confined within using his Nether and Water energy combined together to eat away at the door’s hinges, he didn’t do it. There were 6 more doors he’d have to do the same to in order to escape, which would severely drain his energy; without the close proximity to Sandra and her dungeon, he could already see the glowing light in his two embedded Energy Orbs starting to fade a little as he used his energy and it was automatically regenerated.
Even if he did manage to break out, he’d have to get past the King’s guards, escape through miles of their underground stronghold, and then somehow get to the surface…and then what? He had no idea if the Roc he had arrived on was even still alive, and his Deep Diver suit was…somewhere. He’d be basically useless outside of the mountain, so his only chance was to convince those in charge to let him out. Fat chance of that happening, especially when they can’t hear my yelling.
They hadn’t left him to die, at least, as they brought a single meal every day of a mash of various fungi and other ingredients he couldn’t identify. It was a far cry from what he was used to eating inside of a friendly dungeon, and not for the first time he wished he were back there. Sure, it was dangerous, but at least he would be free.
I’m sorry, Sandra; I’d come back to you if I could….
End of Book 4
Author’s Note
Thank you for reading The Crafter’s Darkness!
Wow! This is my longest book yet at just over 148,000 words, and it definitely feels like it! Believe it or not, there was even more that I wanted to fit in this book, but there didn’t seem to be a good place to stick it in. I also originally wanted to bring Violet, Felbar, Echo, and Gerold back in this book, but their stories alone I thought would make another entire book by themselves. The next book will likely be about half-full of what is happening with them in addition to the tidbit I had at the end of this volume, and what their return means to Sandra and the world. Don’t worry, though – there will be plenty more crafting that I want to include, as well as more changes in Sandra. She took a bit of a dark turn at the end of this book, so we’ll just have to see if her friends can bring her back from the edge of complete insanity.
Again, thank you for reading and I implore you to consider leaving a review – I love 4 and 5-star ones! Reviews make it more likely that others will pick up a good book and read it!
If you enjoy dungeon core, dungeon corps, dungeon master, dungeon lord, dungeonlit, or any other type of dungeon-themed stories and content, check out the Dungeon Corps Facebook group, where you can find all sorts of dungeon content.
If you would like to learn more about the GameLit genre, please join the GameLit Society Facebook group.
LitRPG is a growing subgenre of GameLit – if you are fond of LitRPG, Fantasy, Space Opera, and the Cyberpunk styles of books, please join the LitRPG Books Facebook group.
For another great Facebook group, visit LitRPG Rebels or LitRPG Forum.
If you would like to contact me with any questions, comments, or suggestions for future books you would like to see, you can reach me at [email protected].
Visit my Patreon page at https://www.patreon.com/jonathanbrooksauthor and become a patron for as little as $2 a month! As a patron, you have access to my current works-in-progress, which I update with (unedited) chapters every Friday. So, if you can’t wait to find out what happens next in one of my series, this is the place for you!
I will try to keep my blog updated on any new developments, which you can find on my Author Page on Amazon. In addition, you can check out and like my Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/dungeoncorejonathanbrooks
To sign up for my mailing list, please visit: http://eepurl.com/dl0bK5
To learn more about LitRPG, talk to authors including myself, and just have an awesome time, please join the LitRPG Group.
Books by Jonathan Brooks
Glendaria Awakens Trilogy
Dungeon Player (Audiobook available)
Dungeon Crisis (Audiobook available)
Dungeon Guild
Glendaria Awakens Trilogy Compilation w/bonus material
Uniworld Online Trilogy
The Song Maiden
The Song Mistress
The Song Matron
Uniworld Online Trilogy Compilation
Station Cores Series
The Station Core (Audiobook available)
The Quizard Mountains (Audiobook available)
The Guardian Guild (Audiobook available)
The Kingdom Rises (Audiobook available)
The Other Core (Audiobook available)
Station Cores Compilation Complete: Books 1-5
Spirit Cores Series
Core of Fear (Audiobook available)
Children of Fear
Dungeon World Series
Dungeon World (Audiobook available)
Dungeon World 2 (Audiobook available)
Dungeon World 3 (Audiobook available)
Dungeon World 4 (Audiobook available)
Dungeon World 5 (Audiobook available)
Dungeon Crafting Series
The Crafter’s Dungeon (Audiobook available)
The Crafter’s Defense (Audiobook available)
The Crafter’s Dilemma (Audiobook available)
The Crafter’s Darkness
The Hapless Dungeon Fairy Series
The Dungeon Fairy (Audiobook available)
The Body’s Dungeon (with Jeffrey “Falcon” Logue)
Bio Dungeon: Symbiote
The Crafter's Darkness: A Dungeon Core Novel (Dungeon Crafting Book 4) Page 46
