The Crafter’s Dungeon

A Dungeon Core Novel

Dungeon Crafting – Book 1

Jonathan Brooks

Cover Design: Yvonne Less, Art 4 Artists

Copyright ©2019 Jonathan Brooks

All rights reserved.  No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

The following is a work of fiction.  Any names, characters, businesses, corporations, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner.  Any resemblance to any actual persons, places, or events is purely coincidental.

Cover Design Copyright ©2019 Yvonne Less, Art 4 Artists

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank all my friends and family who have supported me on my writer’s journey, as well as providing much-needed encouragement.  You’re the best!

I would also like to thank all of the beta-readers who did such a great job with their suggestions and corrections!

Aaron Wiley

Grant Harrell

Jeffrey McDaniel

Ross Kitchen

Sean Hall

Steve Spence

Steven Gene Mills

Zak Schamell

A special thank you is also in order for Brian O’Neil, who helped immensely with edits and development!

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Chapter 39

Author’s Note

Books by Jonathan Brooks

Chapter 1

Sandra cursed her fumbling fingers as she caught the small jewel-encrusted knife – by the handle, fortunately – before it could hit the ground, though she stumbled a bit and had to collapse to her knees to keep from ending up with a face-full of dirt.  Sighing in relief, she ignored the sting of a cut in her left knee; the last thing she needed was to damage some of their merchandise before the day even started.

“Are you ok?” her father asked, looking over his shoulder in concern at his daughter.

“Yes, I’m fine – I just stumbled a little,” she replied, picking herself up – while favoring her left leg – and gently placing the ornate (though still deadly) weapon on the nearby display table.

Ardling put down what he was working on and stooped by her side; without asking, he pulled up her skirt and looked at her scraped knee.

Sandra yanked her skirt out of his hands, a blush creeping up her face.  Luckily, the pair in the merchant’s booth had been blocked from anyone outside seeing her bare legs, but she was still mortified.  “Stop that!  I’m fine – it’s just a little scrape, is all.  I’m not eight years-old anymore, father.”

He stood up straight after making sure she was indeed fine, but he still looked worried.  “I know that, Sandy, but you can’t be too careful.  Even a small scratch can grow much worse if not treated…”  Ardling trailed off, his vision now looking through her as if he was remembering something.

Or someone.

Her mother had passed away when she was a small girl of four from something as innocuous as a small scratch from a normally harmless rat.  Never one to complain, the wound on her mother’s leg had festered over the course of a couple of days; Sandra and her family had been traveling on the road – in between towns – when the fever started.  Although her father had rushed to the next town on his fastest mount, he was too late to save her.

Sandra barely even remembered her face; in fact, she didn’t even remember her name because her father refused to talk about her, as if he wanted to forget she ever existed.  It wasn’t out of malice, however – it was just the opposite.  Ardling had loved her mother so much that it was obviously painful to think about what he had lost.

And Sandra knew that because her father once told her that she was a splitting image of his late wife.  She couldn’t imagine what kind of suffering he had to go through everyday just by looking at her, though she could see the haunted look in his eyes whenever he glanced in her direction.  It was this reason, and this reason alone, that she tolerated his overprotectiveness – but she had to draw the line somewhere.

“I’ll take care of it right now, father, so please don’t worry,” she told him.  “Go on and keep setting up and I’ll be right back.”

She went to one of the closest wagons behind the merchant’s stall and pulled out a small box of medical supplies.  It didn’t matter which wagon it was, as Ardling made sure that every one of their transport vehicles had more than adequate supplies to help with any type of accident.  There was even an ultra-expensive high-quality Health Potion in each box, which would heal and fix almost any non-fatal injury.  Her father’s paranoia about wounds did come in handy sometimes.

Though, “handy”, wasn’t quite the word either of them would normally use.

Born with a defect in both of her hands that made them practically deformed, Sandra had difficulty gripping, squeezing, and holding anything heavier than the knife she had fumbled earlier and moving her fingers in any complicated motions was next to impossible.  In fact, they were shaped more like monster claws than normal hands and had an almost permanent curl to them.  However, after twenty-six years of living with it, she could manage most common things with a little effort.

After spreading a little low-grade healing ointment on her scrape from an easy-to-open jar, she wound a small clean bandage around it and secured it into place with a simple tie.  Sandra thought it would stay on okay unless she started doing something strenuous like running but securing it any other way would require help from her father.  He had enough on his plate that she didn’t want or need to add to it.

Ardling had set up their stall so many times over the years that he was practically finished by the time she returned.  Specialty swords, knives, armor pieces, and rare items were their bread-and-butter and her father had been successful enough to make their family fairly well-off.  Not enough yet to retire, she knew, but she was hoping that would change after another year of traveling across the far reaches of the land.  Her father had been buying and selling merchandise in every village, town, and city they came across for more than forty years, and he deserved a break.  And, although she hadn’t technically been at it as long, she needed a break as well.

Being on the road was what Sandra knew; buying and selling merchandise to multitudes of both Heroes that culled nearby dungeons and regular people over the years had made the business second-nature to her.  Unlike her father, though – and from the little bit she remembered of her mother – the merchant life wasn’t for her. No, her passion was something else entirely.

She was so excited that they had finally visited the small mountain village of Shardenvale, because it was where her hard-earned information led her. According to her contacts, the source of the Vampiric Siphon technique was located nearby.  In all actuality, the one who had discovered it might be standing only a short distance away and she wouldn’t even know it.  Because all she had was a name: Dramien.

That was it: Dramien in the village of Shardenvale.

Sandra had had less to go on when tracking down her targets, but she thought this one might be tricky.  There was no description of the source whatsoever and it was only vague mutterings that had been heard through her father’s merchant contacts that led her to this place.  She wasn’t dissuaded, though, because this was one of the last techniques that she had yet to learn.

“I’ll be back, father.  I’m just going to look around for a little bit – this place is so enchanting, isn’t it,” Sandra told Ardling when he was finished putting the last item out.  It was the same ornate knife that she had almost dropped earlier, but now it was displayed precisely next to another one just like it on the short wooden counter he had placed at the front of the stall.

“Ok, but don’t take too long because I need your help to close whatever sales come our way.  I don’t know how I let you convince me to come to this backwater…” he mumbled in reply.

Normally, they would’ve bypassed the small village in the mountains, as it didn’t really support the population for making great sales, but Sandra had convinced him to come so that she could do her investigations.  There was very little that he would deny her – and she knew that – so she rarely asked for anything. Since they were still going to sell their merchandise, she didn’t think it was that much of a hardship to journey there.

As for closing the sale, Sandra was more than aware that she was considered attractive – as long as she didn’t display her hands.  Some men liked her long black hair, or blemish-free skin, or thin, athletic body with a bit of perkiness to it…but it was rare to find someone that could look past her deformed hands and not be turned off because of them.  Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on how you looked at it), she had gotten fairly used to the looks over the years and it didn’t bother her…much.

Regardless, she told her father that she wouldn’t be too long and left the relatively small marketplace quickly, heading for the one place she knew she could gather some information: the local tavern.

The village was comprised of no more than 30 buildings – half of which were small houses – so it didn’t take long to find the tavern.  A sign above the doorway read, “The Stinking Goathoof”, which didn’t sound appetizing – but she wasn’t exactly there to eat.  As soon as she walked through the door, however, she was surprised to see that the inside appeared entirely different from what she had expected a “Stinking Goathoof” to look like.

A long, well-kept bar ran across the entire right-side of the room, with sturdy-looking stools lined up neatly in front.  Equally hefty-appearing tables and chairs filled the rest of the room, and a small stage at the left-side corner (opposite of the entrance) hinted that the small village apparently got more business than she thought if they had a place for entertainment.  The wood-plank floors were clean and virtually spotless, which was definitely not the norm; she had been in a lot of taverns, inns, and common rooms in her life and it was a rare sight indeed.

It was still early in the morning and there weren’t very many people in the tavern, which made sense – most of their business usually came later in the day and when the sun went down.  The only ones who frequented the tavern that early were travelers like her, Heroes, or drunks.  From the smell as she walked by, the two men she saw sitting/sleeping at a corner table were most likely the latter.

“What can I do for you this morning, lass?” the bartender asked as Sandra walked up and comfortably sat at the bar.  While she didn’t drink (her father said it was just expensive poison and wouldn’t let her touch it), she had been in enough seedy places looking for information that the current, well-tended place she now found herself in was almost a paradise in comparison.

She surreptitiously slid a gold piece out of her pocket and placed it on the bar, deliberately only covering up half of it with her hand.  She looked around at the sleeping drunks behind her at the far table, before she said in a low voice, “I was looking for a little information.”

The bartender smiled at her, which faded just a little as he took in her crippled hand, but he maintained his demeanor quite convincingly.  “I’ll do what I can, but there’s not much that happens around here.  I doubt that I’d know anything that you don’t, since I can see from your appearance that you’re a little more worldly than I am. Either way, though, I’m at your disposal – especially as it seems you’re my only customer,” he said, before glancing at his drunk patrons in the corner.  “Well, my only paying customer,” he amended.  “The name’s Marth – now what can I help you with?”

Well, here goes nothing…  “It’s nice to meet you, Marth.  It’s actually a fairly simple question, actually.  I was wondering if you could tell me if you’ve ever heard of a man named Dramien?” she asked, hoping that she was in the right place and her information was correct.  She pushed the gold piece over to him and took her hand away.

Marth’s smile instantly dropped away at the mention of Dramien’s name, and he pushed the gold piece back across to her.  “Keep your money.  I don’t want anything to do with that man up in the hills.  And a pretty little thing like you shouldn’t either; now, please leave – you’re taking up valuable space.”

At least he was lying politely about it.  Rather than argue, Sandra got up and left; she knew from experience that she wasn’t going to get any information out of the bartender, no matter how much she asked or offered.  As she exited, she was too preoccupied to notice that one of the “drunks” in the corner got up and followed her out.

Sandra walked aimlessly through the few streets of the village, though calling them streets was a misnomer – they were more like random pathways between buildings.  Well, I know he’s around here in the hills at least, but how do I find—?

A scuff behind her caused Sandra to pause in confusion, which turned out to not be a great idea.  A sharp blow to the back of her head caused her to fall to her knees as her vision swam before her eyes; a rock dug into the bandage she had placed there earlier, which elicited an equally sharp yelp of pain.  Before she could do anything else, a second blow smacked her in the head again – and she fell into a deep pool of unconsciousness.

Chapter 2

Blinding pain woke Sandra up, though it wasn’t necessarily all from the back of her head.  That certainly did hurt, of course, but what was worse was what felt like her arms and legs being ripped off of her body.  Her eyes shot open and it took a moment for them to adjust to the dim light.  When her vision stopped swimming and she was able to focus through the pain, she was finally able to look around her.

The first thing Sandra noticed was that she was looking straight down onto a large, dark-colored stone worktable, though the sides were raised enough that it almost appeared to be a small pool or a bath of some kind.  However, unlike a bath or a pool, this one was completely devoid of any water.

Lethargically moving her head to the sides, she was able to see that her hands and feet were tied with rope to a large metal grate that was suspended parallel over the table.  In fact, the ropes were so tight that when she tried to flex her fingers and toes, she couldn’t even feel them.  And since there was nothing keeping her body flat against the grate, Sandra hung down, the weight of her own body pulling at her restraints and making it feel like her appendages were going to be ripped out at any moment.

She tried to move, to loosen up the ropes enough to escape, but the best she could do was slightly shake the entire grate, which caused some of the chains holding it up to rattle and creak.  Even that much movement tired her out and caused the pain in her shoulders and hips to flare up – it took all of her concentration not to scream.  She might be helpless at the moment, but she wasn’t stupid; calling out for help or screaming in pain would only call attention to herself.  Unfortunately, her vocal restraint didn’t matter in the end.

“I see you’re awake.  I’m sorry that my associate had to hit you so hard, but you ended up being a tad more resilient than he had guessed.  Anyway…welcome to my workshop.  I heard you’ve been looking for me.”

A smooth, silky voice seemed to come from the shadows toward one end of the room.  Who?  What?  Sandra still wasn’t quite “all there” yet, and it took a moment for her to piece together what the voice was talking about.

“Dra…Dramien?” she rasped out; her voice was barely able to be heard over the dryness of her throat.

“The one and only.  Now, why don’t you tell me why you were looking for me.”

Sandra swallowed a few times, trying to get some saliva to wet her mouth a little so she could speak.  It was only then that she realized that the room was stifling, the heat so oppressive that sweat was rolling off of her in waves.  A few drops made their way over her face and into her mouth, and despite the saltiness of them she greedily used them to make her voice a little stronger.  “I was trying to find out where you were so that I could learn about the Vampiric Siphon technique.  You’re the only one I know of that can do it, and I’ve made it my mission to learn everything I can about crafting techniques.”

Dramien was silent for a few moments as he supposedly absorbed what she had said.  “You…wanted to know how the technique works?  So that you could…what?  Perform it yourself?  Sell it to the highest bidder?  Bring the Order down on my head?”

What does the Order of Heroes have to do with anything?  As far as she knew, the Order was responsible for culling the monsters that spawned from the numerous dungeons across the land, reducing their power and threat level until it built back up again.  Many of her father’s weapons and armor were purchased by these same Heroes in those endeavors, so she knew them pretty well.  At least, she thought she did; apparently, though, they must’ve had something to do with this creepy Dramien fellow.

“No, nothing like that.  As you probably saw, my hands aren’t really suitable for any type of crafting, and I don’t have a lick of magical power inside of me.  I…learn these crafting techniques as more of a hobby, I guess.  I don’t sell the techniques and recipes I learn, I just enjoy the knowledge,” she finally replied after she worked on getting enough moisture on her tongue.

Sandra had been practically obsessed with crafting since she was eight years old. Which was the first time that she had watched, fascinated, as a blacksmith turned a small bar of iron into a knife, which he then gave to her as a gift.  Her father promptly took it away – because she was a child – but it was the gift of the knowledge that mattered to her anyway.  From there, she spent the next eighteen years searching out different techniques used in the making of weapons, armor, potions, salves, and other items – all without being able to utilize them herself.

She tried repeatedly to craft, but soon realized that all but the simplest tasks were beyond her ability to handle with her deformed hands.  Sandra couldn’t even create things that didn’t require manual dexterity, like magical enchantments, because she didn’t have any magical power to tap inside of her.  However, she learned them anyway, as she could still see how the different secret techniques were performed; she could now identify an enchantment based upon the color/shade of the magic, the intensity, and even the placement of the effect on the item it was attached to, even if she couldn’t do it herself.

The only thing she could do was make low-grade alchemical potions and salves, as they didn’t need much in the way of dexterity or strength.  In fact, the low-grade healing salve that she had put on her wound earlier was crafted by her, though she had some help from her father to place it in the jars.  Anything more powerful than that usually needed some sort of magical component to it, which she couldn’t supply.

Dramien made a noise that sounded like he was choking.  After a moment, he made it again – though louder that time – which was quickly followed by another.  Is he laughing?  Soon, it was all too obvious that it was indeed what the mysterious man was doing as a full-fledged chuckle escaped his lips – and then he continued with a deep-voiced laughter that seemed to cut through the pain in Sandra’s limbs and vibrated her insides.

“You…you were looking for me because of a…a hobby?” he managed to ask in between laughs.  “A…a hobby?” Dramien laughed out loud for another minute before he abruptly cut it off.  Silence reigned over the room as Sandra strained herself to get a look at him, but all she could see was a dark-colored robe covering what she thought were his feet.

“Please, I didn’t mean any harm by it.  Just let me go and I will forget I ever knew your name – and you can trust me not to tell anybody anything!  I haven’t shared a single secret technique to—” Sandra begged and pleaded, before being interrupted by a sharp knife blade against her throat.  She hadn’t even heard or seen him move; one moment he was across the room, and the next he was by her side.  She didn’t dare try to get a better look at him now, though, because she had a feeling that one wrong move would end up with her slitting her own throat.

“As strange as your story sounds, I actually believe you.  I have a feeling that you really wouldn’t tell anyone about me and what I do here.”

Sandra let out a long sigh of relief, though she was careful to not disturb the knife at her throat.  She relaxed even more when said knife was removed…but then she heard a sword sliding free of a sheath.  Her father had removed countless swords and knives from their sheathes in order to show prospective buyers over the years – the sound was unmistakable to her ears.

“What are you doing?” she asked, as the sword flashed in front of her face.

“Hmm?  Oh, this?  I just wanted to show you my ‘hobby’,” Dramien told her, as he placed the sword in the middle of the stone “bath” below with a gloved hand.  “And, as a bonus, you’ll be able to say you’ve learned how to do my special Vampiric Siphon technique.”

Suddenly, a stream of magic flowed from his gloved hand and encircled the exquisite-looking sword, which was likely forged by a master blacksmith.  It was too dim in the room to make out many details, but she almost thought she recognized the maker’s mark on the hilt…before it was swallowed up in what appeared to be the dark reddish-black of Nether energy.

Despite her situation, Sandra’s continued infatuation with crafting in any shape or form made her visually memorize the different patterns the light made over the surface of the blade.  She was momentarily confused when he left a void in the enchantment on the hilt of the sword, but her confusion was short-lived as she saw another magical essence emit from Dramien and concentrate on the void.

To her astonishment, instead of more Nether energy, Holy energy flowed out from his hand and pooled near the hilt.  Sandra could only stare open-mouthed as the two energies naturally fought each other, pushing each other out of the way and causing sparks of magical residue to snap off.

“As you may know, Nether energy isn’t usually very good at healing.  Adding the Holy energy to the Vampiric Siphon, however, turns the blood coating the sword from your enemies into healing energy.  Of course, these two elemental energies are quite resistant to working with each other, so sometimes a catalyst is needed to…bond them together.”

Quicker than she could blink, the knife was at her throat again – but this time it continued its journey and sliced completely through her neck.  Blood poured out from her open neck, cascading down into the “bath” below; a few droplets splashed outside the worktable, but the majority of it stayed inside.  As soon as her lifeblood spilled over the sword and the fighting opposite energies, she could see that it was slowly calming the volatile nature of the enchantment.

That was about all she saw, though, as her vision started to fade from the lack of blood and oxygen to her brain.  The pain in her shoulders and hip started to fade as well, as most of her injuries weren’t even noticeable anymore from the rapid draining of blood from her body.

“Thanks for your help.  It’s so hard finding good subjects to power this enchantment.  Usually I have to find vagrant travelers or whores shipped in from elsewhere, but it was my good fortune that you came to me instead.  It’s a good thing you weren’t a virgin, otherwise the reaction with the Holy energy would be quite severe—”

A bright flash managed to pierce through her closed eyelids and she barely felt the intense heat that flared up beneath her.  Her last thought before her body turned to ash was, I guess nobody wanting to touch me came in “handy” after all…

Chapter 3

Sandra thought about what her father would do when he found out that she died; he made it no secret that his sole purpose in life and everything he worked for was to make his daughter safe and secure.  While he hadn’t exactly said that out loud, it was obvious from the way he protected her and was paranoid about the smallest things that he was more concerned with her well-being than even his own.  Now that he had lost not only his wife, but his daughter—

Wait a minute…how am I thinking these thoughts at all?  Aren’t I dead?  Is this the Afterlife?

A dark blankness enfolded around her, which cutoff all types of visual stimulation.  Not only could she not see anything, but she couldn’t hear nor feel anything; she tried to move something, but she didn’t seem to possess anything that indicated she even had a body.  Am I just a mind floating around in a featureless expanse?  Or am I now a spirit of some kind?

She didn’t know what was going on; the only thing she knew was that this was completely unlike anything she had heard about the Afterlife.  Then again, no one had ever actually been to the Afterlife and come back, so it was unlikely that the descriptions of an endless paradise were accurate or truthful.  If this was indeed the Afterlife, it was going to be a mind-numbingly boring existence if all she had were her thoughts for eternity.

Sandra…“floated”…in the featureless void of nothing for an indeterminate amount of time.  Since there was no external stimulation, it was hard to tell how long it had been since she had been killed; it could’ve been a day or 100 years – and she had no way of knowing if the passage of time even occurred at the same pace.

Regardless of how long she was there, Sandra knew she had to do something to stave off both boredom and possible insanity.  She was starting to feel the hopelessness at her situation start to set in quickly; knowing that she had a possible eternity alone with her thoughts, she started to review her life in the hopes that it would keep her mind intact.

Regret, remorse, and guilt were the prevalent emotions she felt over her recent actions.  Even though she was the one that had died, Sandra knew that her father would take the news of her death hard.  While Ardling was still a robust, driven older man, with her out of the picture she didn’t know if he had it in him to continue his business.  In her travels, she had seen countless people over the years succumb to the ravages of family tragedy, and she was afraid that her father would be one of them.  She could almost picture him giving up his merchant life, settling down somewhere and wasting away in despair.  As such, Sandra believed that she had essentially killed her father.

She beat herself up about it for a good hour or century (she still couldn’t tell time very well) and thought about the mistakes she made that led to her current predicament.  If I had only been more cautious in my questioning of the whereabouts of Dramien, if I hadn’t convinced my father to travel to Shardenvale, if I hadn’t been obsessed with completing my quest to learn everything I could about crafting, if I hadn’t started down that path in the first place – my father and I would probably still be alive.

Even though she didn’t know for sure her father was going to waste away and die at the news of her death, she knew him well enough to make it nearly a certainty.  The guilt of pursuing knowledge for selfish reasons which led to both their deaths ate away at her for minutes or eons, until she was just a hollow shell of herself.

Strangely enough, though, she couldn’t summon up much in the way of anger towards Dramien and what he had done to her.  Oh, Sandra was plenty furious – but most of that anger was directed toward herself.  While she didn’t know specifically how dangerous the man was, she knew enough from her information-gathering that Dramien was secretive and didn’t want to be found.  Yet…she pressed on, confident that she could get him to teach her his technique if she could only speak with him – it had worked countless times before, so why not again?

Yes, he was an evil person and deserved to die a million times for what he did to her – and from what he hinted at, many innocent victims before her – but Sandra couldn’t hold onto any rage, fury, or anger toward him.  As far as she was concerned, she had unwarily stepped into a monster’s den and gotten killed for invading its territory.  It all came about because of her own choices – not that she deserved to die or considered his actions appropriate, of course.  Quite the opposite, actually, but there was nothing she could do about it now.  It was done; she had paid for overreaching and digging into things that should’ve been left alone, and Dramien had gotten his justice in the form of a powerful enchantment explosion.

After countless minutes/hours/days/years of a despondent and guilt-ridden consciousness, Sandra decided that there was only so long she could dwell on the recent developments before she actually did go insane.  Therefore, to put those thoughts aside, she instead recounted the various procedures, secrets, tricks, techniques, and recipes she had picked up after 18 years of learning about crafting.

Her mind had been like a sponge as she soaked up the information over the years.  She could still picture the proper way to create all manner of weapons in a blacksmith’s forge, the special techniques to increase their durability using different materials, and the various secrets of finishing them off to increase the sharpness of their edges while not sacrificing their strength.  She thought about the bowyers and fletchers she had watched over the years making specialty bows and arrows, about the best type of material to use, and how to take advantage of the natural grain in the wood.

She had watched alchemists, basket-weavers, leatherworkers, glassworkers, carpenters, tailors, potters, masons, cobblers, bookbinders, cooks, jewelers, and even florists ply their crafts.  While she hadn’t been able to replicate their crafting herself, she could still recall how it was done; and each time she learned about a craft, there always seemed to be something else to learn.  For instance – Enchanting.

This was the most frustrating thing for her to learn, because the procedure was so far beyond her that she couldn’t even begin to attempt it.  Everyone had at least a small reservoir of magical power inside of them; those that had a greater quantity usually became Heroes or Enchanters.  Sandra, on the other hand, was unique in being completely devoid of magical power – which she was both disappointed about and thankful for.  She was confident that if it hadn’t been for her inability to personally replicate the enchantments she begged and pleaded to learn from Enchanters over the years, that she wouldn’t have learned even half of their secret techniques.

It was next to impossible to teach someone how to do an enchantment without a visual representation, because being able to describe or even draw a certain design was not the same as seeing it in person.  As a result, other than some very basic rudimentary enchantments that every Enchanter usually learned, there were very few instruction books regarding the craft.

Even the greatest and most-accomplished Enchanters across the land of Muriel only had access to – and could actually visually see – two or (in rare cases) three elements, and never before had she seen one with opposing elements – such as Fire and Water.  Until she had seen Dramien, at least – which was why Sandra had been so surprised that he had used both Nether and Holy elemental energy in his enchantment.

She wasn’t sure if it was a side effect of not being able to manipulate any innate magical power or energy, but Sandra was able to see every element and how they were used in enchantments.  In theory, if she had been physically able to create an enchantment, she could’ve been the most powerful Enchanter the land of Muriel had ever known!

Alas, it wasn’t meant to be.  Without any way to make or teach enchantments to other people (even if she wanted to), Sandra had to settle with just learning about them.  She didn’t think it was quite as fulfilling as it would’ve been to create an actual enchantment, but she lived with the satisfaction of at least gaining the knowledge.

Another indeterminate amount of time later, Sandra had gone through everything she could remember about crafting swords, knives, shields, leather armor, clothing, shoes, woven baskets, books, different regional meals, necklaces and rings, tableware, stone blocks, and every enchantment in her vast repertoire.  And then she went through it again and again and again; eventually, it all seemed to blend together into a vast mishmash until she could barely separate one thing from another…so she stopped before her knowledge became useless.

Not that she foresaw a use for it, but she didn’t want two-thirds of her life to go to waste because of boredom.

Fortunately – depending upon how you looked at it – as soon as she stopped recounting her enormous collection of crafting recipes for the umpteenth time, there was a massive spike of pain that injected itself directly into her consciousness.  She wasn’t exactly sure how her thoughts could be “hurt”, but she didn’t have to contemplate it for more than a moment before even her awareness was swallowed up into the vast expanse of nothingness.

Chapter 4

Her unconsciousness didn’t last long.  The transition from nothingness to full awareness was abrupt; Sandra suddenly went from feeling and thinking nothing at all to being fully aware of her surroundings in less than the blink of an eye.  The experience was jarring to say the least, and it took a few moments for her to get her bearings and figure out what was going on.

The first thing she noticed once she finally focused on it was that she could see.  However, it wasn’t quite the same as looking through two eyes – it was more like looking through hundreds or thousands of eyes at the same time in all directions.  Fortunately, there was no difficulty in taking in all of the information.  Somehow, for some reason she didn’t quite know yet, it felt…normal.

Not that there was a lot to see, of course.  A steady white glow illuminated what appeared to be a small dirt and stone cave all around her, and Sandra could see the same material along the relatively flat surface of the floor.  Just as that fact occurred to her, she realized that whatever she was looking out of was suspended in the middle of the air with no identifiable means of levitation.

But that was it – there was nothing else to see, nor did anything stand out to her as unusual (other than her presence there in the first place).  She tried to move, and nothing happened as far as motion went; however, she discovered that she could extend out a tendril of her thoughts and “touch” the nearby wall.  It wasn’t the same as touching it with her hand would likely be, but it was somehow better – she could feel the elements of the material under her touch.  It was almost as if she could see through it to its basic building blocks; the dust-like particles that fit together to form the dirt and stone in her vision suddenly made sense to her mind and she instinctively knew how to manipulate it.

Without conscious thought, Sandra “ate” away at a portion of the cave wall and within moments she saw the part she was “eating” de-materialize into those small particles and flow invisibly into her in a steady stream.  And it “tasted” delicious – which freaked her out for a moment, but her hunger for the cave wall far outweighed any other concern.  She scooped away a little more and she suddenly felt full.  The glow that had illuminated the cave started to dim until it was just a slow flicker of light, and she started to become concerned.  The uncomfortable fullness in her new…whatever she was now…started to fade after gorging herself on dirt and stone, but she was disinclined to try “eating” any more.

“…know, I know – I’ll probably be back soon, though.  Tell Darxie not to take my spot – I’ve waited nearly two centuries for the chance to—”

Sandra was still uncomfortably full, so she watched lethargically as a circular rip in the air appeared halfway from her position and the chunk she had torn out from the wall.  The voice had come through the circular portal and was soon followed by the speaker herself.  A winged fairy-looking creature flew through and stopped her conversation short as she looked at Sandra.  At least, she looked like what the descriptions of a fairy were (she had never actually seen one), but the proportions were all wrong – she was a giant.

With short purple hair, dark-brown skin, and a sleek green dress made from what appeared to be some sort of cloth that was designed to look like actual leaves, the “fairy” was nearly the exact thing she pictured when she had first learned about them as a child.  Even the two pair of wings fluttering so quickly she could barely see them completed the picture, though the glowing purple eyes that matched her hair color were a surprise – and the fact that she was the same height as a human.

“—I’ll see you later,” the fairy changed what she was going to say after looking at Sandra and turned to speak into the rip in the air before it collapsed in on itself.  She couldn’t see anything but a mirror-like shimmer from the portal, but apparently there was someone on the other side of it that she couldn’t see.  “I’m sorry about the delay, but we weren’t expecting any Dungeon Cores to be born around here, particularly because we thought the quota for this year had already been met.”

Delay?  Dungeon Cores?  Quota? Nothing the giant fairy was saying was making sense to her, but it also could be because she was still recovering from her rock-filled meal.

“Hey!  I’ll have you know that I’m perfectly sized for my age.  None of this ‘giant fairy’ nonsense, you hear me?  Otherwise, I’ll just leave you and let you figure all this out on your own,” the gi—fairy said with heat in her voice.

What the…?  Can she hear me?

“Of course I can hear you!  I’m your assigned Dungeon Fairy, and I’ll be here until you want to get rid of me,” the fairy reacted to Sandra’s thoughts as if she was speaking out loud.  “Which shouldn’t be long, as every Core I’ve ever had the pleasure of assisting wanted to eat me within a day or two.”

Uh…what?

“Yeah, you wouldn’t think that creating Dungeon Cores from the insane and nearly incoherent souls pulled from their lonely existence in eternity’s abyss would be vengeful, homicidal, and – to put it frankly, crazy – would you?  I keep telling the Powers That Be that they shouldn’t let those poor souls spend decades stewing in their own minds before contracting them to be a Dungeon Core, but do they listen to me?  No, of course not – I’m just the one that has to deal with them trying to eat my precious self even though they can’t actually touch me.”

Sandra didn’t know what to say, as she was still processing everything that she had just heard.  That was fine, though, as the Fairy continued to talk like she was just trying to get through a sales pitch and didn’t care if she sold anything or not.  As she spoke, the life-sized flying creature drifted around Sandra and took in her surroundings.

“Anyway, my name is Winxa and I’m here to fulfill my requirements for the contract you agreed to when you were offered the position as a Dungeon Core.  In short, I’m here to teach you everything you need to know about being a Core, how to absorb the nearby ambient mana, how to create your monsters, how to expand your dungeon, and even how to avoid calling too much attention to yourself – which could end up with the nearby sentient races trying to destroy you instead of limiting your expansion.  Not that any of you ever listen…” Winxa muttered under her breath.

Shaking her head, the floating fairy continued.  “First, I can see that you’ve already learned how to convert and absorb the material your small cave is made of.  However, judging by the look of your Core, you’ve absorbed a bit too much,” Winxa said as she stared at Sandra.  She then took on a lecturing tone.  “When converting natural material, there is a limited amount that you can absorb before your Core reaches its maximum capacity.  Try to avoid this by knowing your limits; if you fill yourself up to your full capacity, your Core will automatically convert this material to mana, leaving you without access to that material for use in expanding your Area of Influence. The key is to ride just on the edge of your capacity, that way you can change only a certain portion of it into usable mana or use it to build up your defenses.

“Try to keep the majority of your material around in one shape or another, because it’s a finite resource.  Ambient mana, however, is practically limitless – but you’ll need to have your dungeon monsters accumulate it for you.  While you can absorb the ambient mana around your Core, its reach only extends so far.  Your dungeon monsters – which you’ll be able to create with your Mana – can range much farther and gather it much faster and more efficiently.  Which, as I’m sure you remember from your previous life as a…what race were you again?”

Um…human?  Finally, a question which she halfway understood.

“Ah, yes – humans.  Quite a meddlesome bunch they are.  Anyway, as a human, I’m hoping you remember – some souls are too far gone and don’t, unfortunately – that Heroes are employed to cull the monsters around a dungeon, thereby limiting their ‘territory’, which is what they called it,” she snorted derisively.  “In reality, dungeons use their monsters to expand their Area of Influence to be able to gather more ambient mana, which slowly regenerates in any given place.  With a wider-ranging Area of Influence, there is much more space to cover – and consequently more mana.

“When your monsters are destroyed, however, you lose the mana that you invested inside of them, which in turn will hinder your expansion of your Area of Influence.  It’s a vicious battle between Heroes destroying a Dungeon’s monsters, and a Core’s creation of more to expand their Area of Influence.  However, as long as you continue to play it safe and use most of your accumulated mana to strengthen and develop your Core, you’ll usually be left alone.  Centuries down the road, if you handle things correctly, you’ll be powerful enough to do almost anything you please.”

Winxa turned directly toward Sandra and spoke more seriously than her previous lecturing tone.  “Now, this next part I’m going to tell you about is where most – if not all – of the Dungeon Cores I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting get into trouble.  Some of them try eating me right after, while others wait a day or two, but all of them inevitably try it; and as soon as that happens, I’m free of any more obligations and I can be on my way.”

The Dungeon Fairy cleared her throat before continuing.  “A bit of history for you, first.  Dungeon Cores were originally formed by the Creator to assist in regulating the sentient races upon the planet that he had designed.  After many centuries of living peacefully in the numerous lands around the world, the seven major races weren’t satisfied with what they possessed and had vastly over-populated their homelands, as well.  As a result, they went to war with each other, scattering atrocities across the world as each race strived to destroy the others in an effort to possess the most land and expand their civilization.

“The Creator didn’t want any of the races that had been made to be destroyed in the process, so the all-powerful being contracted the damned souls of murderers, rapists, and other unsavory characters to create Dungeon Cores.  With the power at their disposal, they were designed to pull the focus of the races back towards protecting their own lands instead of expansion.  And in the process, fighting against the Cores’ monsters would improve them as well, which is how Heroes and those like them became so powerful over time.

“As crazy as it sounds, it worked.  However, there was a constant need to create even more Dungeon Cores because the races kept destroying them.  Thus, the need for another, extremely long-lived and isolated race – the Dungeon Fairies – were created to stay with them and teach them what they needed to know to survive longer.  Unfortunately, the same reason so many Cores were being destroyed led to very few Fairies sticking around for long.”

Sandra was fascinated at the story, even though she was still thoroughly confused about almost everything.  What reason was that? she thought, when Winxa paused for a moment.

The Fairy continued without indicating that she had heard Sandra.  “That reason was this: while the ambient Mana found around your Area of Influence is a consistent and reliable source of Mana, it’s definitely not the fastest way to grow stronger.  Wild beasts, creatures, and even insects – when killed by your dungeon monsters – will provide a larger boost to your available Mana, which will then allow you to create additional and more powerful monsters.  That alone would be reason enough to cause the Dungeon Cores to go on a rampage and slaughter everything in sight; however, with the knowledge that killing anyone from a sentient race will multiply that mana boost by nearly ten times, it usually leads Cores on a mission to find the closest village or town and expand their Area of Influence far enough to send their monsters inside to kill everyone nearby.

“As you can guess, Heroes don’t care for this outcome and will do everything they can to stop a Core that is threatening their friends and families.  Thus, thousands upon thousands of Dungeon Cores have been destroyed over the last millennium – all because of the murderous, power-hungry, homicidal souls infused inside the Cores.”  Winxa paused.  “No offense.”

Although Sandra could tell the Dungeon Fairy didn’t actually mean that last part – because she obviously didn’t care for Dungeon Cores – it didn’t really bother her because she wasn’t sure she even belonged there.

“And now you know why I probably won’t be here long, because it’s inevitable that you’ll get ‘hungry’ and want to kill and absorb me – and no matter how many times I tell a Core that I literally cannot be harmed by them, they still try it anyway,” Winxa tiredly added.  “But, while I’m still here and you’re still on my good side – do you have any questions before I continue?”

Sandra didn’t know where to start, as she felt like she had millions of questions just waiting to come out.  However, she thought there was one that was most pressing at the moment.

What contract are you talking about?

Winxa was so shocked at the question that her wings actually stopped fluttering and she fell to the ground with legs that had turned to jelly.  She fell on her rear end and sat there looking at Sandra as if she had grown another head.

What?  What did I say?

Chapter 5

“Wh-what do you mean?  Every Dungeon Core – even if they are so insane that I can barely communicate with them – know about the contract; it’s literally written into the structure of their core!  There’s no way you couldn’t know about it – it’s impossible,” Winxa stated, still sitting down and staring at Sandra.

I don’t know what to tell you, but I’ve never seen any contract regarding “Dungeon Cores” before.  I’ve seen sales contracts that my father used to set up with suppliers, but I’ve never seen anything like what you’re describing.

“Your father was a merchant?  That seems so…normal.  Tell me, how did you die?”

Sandra dredged up the story from her memories, which was difficult given that it seemed like such a long time ago.  However, after a few false starts, she was able to relay the story to the fairy; though, as she did, the anger that hadn’t fully manifested while she was in that featureless expanse of nothingness started to come to the forefront of her mind.  By the end of her tale, she was so furious that she wanted to hunt down the bastard that had killed her and strew his entrails all over the land of Muriel.

Unconsciously, she lashed out with her senses and “ate” another portion of the cave wall near the Fairy.  “Whoa!  Watch where you’re doing that!” Winxa exclaimed, fluttering out of the way of Sandra’s “attack” on the wall.

Sorry.  It’s just that thoughts of what that man did to me make me so angry!

“Hmm…Righteous Anger…that’s not something you see every day in a Dungeon Core.  Or ever, for that matter. If you’re indeed telling the truth, you shouldn’t even be here.  The Creator only makes contracts with those that deserve to be imprisoned in a Core – like murderers and rapists.  Also, while female Dungeon Cores aren’t exactly unknown, they are few and far between.”

Winxa was floating again, which Sandra assumed was just in case the angry Core decided to eat some more of the wall.  That thought lessened some of the rage she felt at remembering her death; she had no intention of harming the fairy, who had – despite her attitude towards Dungeon Cores in general – only been trying to help.

“So…either the Creator made a mistake – which I highly doubt – or you were brought here for a reason.  Why you were set down in between the borders of four different races, I don’t know – but there has to be a reason.”

Which four races are you talking about?  Sandra had only met a few elves and one dwarf in her previous life; they were a rarity because travel between the racial homelands was difficult.  A series of massive dungeons blocked most travel access points around the borders of Muriel.

“Oh, I forgot – you probably weren’t informed of your location when you signed the contract.  Or not signed, or whatever.  Anyway, you’re right at the northeastern corner of Elvish-controlled land, the northwestern corner of Gnomish-controlled territory, the southeastern side of Orcish-controlled area, and the southwestern edge of the Dwarven homeland.  This area has been all but abandoned, as from what I know, all of the different races have concentrated more on securing their borders against the dungeons as opposed to expansion.  As a result, there are very few sentients around – which might be good for you, as there aren’t many that would attack you nearby.”

There aren’t any Humans nearby?  I’m really worried about how my father took my death.

Winxa was silent for a few moments with a sad expression on her face.  “I’m sorry…what was your name again?”

Sandra.

“I’m sorry, Sandra.  Even if I could convince the Creator that a mistake was made and brought your body back to life – which is just about as likely as another Core other than you not trying to eat me – there is no changing the passage of time.  What was the last date you remember?”

For some reason Sandra couldn’t remember the exact day, but she at least remembered the month and year – which she promptly told the Fairy.

“Wow.  I’m actually surprised you aren’t insane; 252 years is a long time to be by yourself with only your thoughts to support you.  You must have a strong mind to be able to even speak at all.  Most of the souls that end up contracted only stay in limbo for a maximum of 100 years before they’re brought back, and even the majority of those have had their minds broken from the torturous expanse.”

Yeah, I’m special alright.  And also about 250 years too late to try to stop her father from wasting away.  She felt disappointment and sorrow at not being able to contact him and let him know that she was…alive?  Although she wasn’t quite sure her current existence as a Dungeon core qualified as “life”, it was as close as she was going to get.

“Regardless of how you did it, the fact that you are able to speak intelligently for this long shows me that your mind somehow survived largely intact.  Which also means that the Creator did put you here deliberately, but I still have no idea why,” Winxa sighed dramatically and put her chin in her hand as she stared at Sandra.

What?

“Oh, nothing.  Anyways…I guess I better do my job and keep teaching you, otherwise we’ll never find out why you’re here.”  Sandra thought it was nice to hear Winxa say “we”; she hadn’t really had any friends as she was growing up because they were on the road constantly.  For almost as long as she could remember, her father had been the only one she could really count on to be there for her.  While she appreciated his support wholeheartedly, in the end, he was more family than friend.

“Let’s see, the next thing I should probably teach you about is the process behind creating a dungeon monster so that you can start accumulating ambient Mana.  While you can slowly leach the ambient Mana around your Core, it only reaches a short way.  In fact, I wouldn’t hesitate to say that it probably doesn’t even reach past your cave.  And don’t even bother trying to do it now, because your initial Core creation used it all up.  The only way you can get it now is from your monsters or through absorbing the small amounts in the nearby cave wall that you already converted.  In fact, let’s do that now so that you’ll have enough to create your first monster.”  She paused and looked expectantly at Sandra, as if waiting for her to do something.

Uh…how do I do that?

Winxa started giggling at her for some reason.  Why are you laughing at me?  Aren’t you supposed to be teaching me how to do this?

That sobered her up really quick.  “Oh – you were serious?  All you have to do is open up your Core Selection Menu and—” she stopped and tilted her head at Sandra, as if she was trying to figure her out.  “—and you have no idea what I’m talking about do you?  You really didn’t sign a contract, did you?”

No, I did not, and I’ve told you that already.

“I know, I know – but it’s still hard to believe.  I’ve never done this, so bear with me; normally, once a soul signs a contract, they are automatically infused with the knowledge of how to operate their Core Selection Menu.  It’s difficult to relay the kind of information and concepts that the Dungeon Fairies impart, as well as demonstrating practical applications – which is why we exist in the first place; the Core Selection Menu, on the other hand, is like…knowing how to breathe or blink your eyes, if that makes any sense.  It should already be automatic, so I’m going to have to figure this out with you.”

Sandra supposed that made sense, and it wasn’t like she had anything better to do.  Everyone she knew had been dead for more than two centuries at least, and even if they weren’t, they were reportedly halfway across the world.  She didn’t remember hearing much about the lands of the Orcs or Gnomes, so she supposed they were so far away that it was possible that they didn’t know much about Humans.  So, what do I do first?

Winxa scratched her head and thought about it.  “Well…I guess the best thing to do is to see if you can access your Core Selection Menu.  Despite not having the infused knowledge, you’re still a Dungeon Core, so it should work the same way.  Uh…maybe think ‘Core Selection Menu’ and hopefully it’ll come up.”

Warning!

You have not selected your base Dungeon Classification yet!  Only after choosing your base Dungeon Classification will you be able to proceed to your Core Selection Menu.

Choose a base Dungeon Classification? Yes/No

Caution: While you are not permanently locked into a base Dungeon Classification, changing it in the future will mean any progress towards or achieved advanced Classifications are eliminated.  In addition, all accumulated Core Mana – as well as any non-permanent objects containing Mana or is fueled by it – will be sacrificed to fuel the change.

Suddenly, a semi-transparent red screen popped up and displayed in front of every single viewpoint Sandra possessed.  She could still see vaguely through it to the cave and Winxa beyond, but it was quite distracting.  After reading it, she directed her thoughts toward the Dungeon Fairy.  It says I have to select a “Dungeon Classification” first and is asking if I would like to choose one.

“You don’t have a—of course not.  Ok, that should hopefully be easy, as even an insane mind can make that kind of decision.  From what I understand, when you select your Classification, your options are limited to what elements you were able to see and/or access while you were alive.  It doesn’t even matter if you know what they were or not, as the Dungeon Core system knows what they are automatically.  Go ahead and think Yes, and it will hopefully bring you to a screen where you can choose from two or possibly three choices.”

Class Selection (Base)

Air Elemental (Air)

Avian (Air)

Dragonlings (Air/Fire)

Earth Elemental (Earth)

Golems (Earth)

Giants (Earth/Fire)

Fire Elemental (Fire)

Beasts (Fire)

Bipedal (Fire/Natural)

Water Elemental (Water)

Reptiles (Water)

Leviathan (Water/Earth)

Holy Elemental (Holy)

Unicorns (Holy)

Phoenix (Holy/Fire)

Nether Elemental (Nether)

Undead (Nether)

Corrupted (Nether/Natural)

Natural Elemental (Natural)

Fungal (Natural)

Slimes (Natural/Water)

Spirit Elemental (Spirit)

Fey (Spirit)

Goblinoids (Spirit/Fire)

Prismatic Elemental (All)

Constructs (All)

Primordial (All)

Just like before, a screen appeared in her vision, but instead of an angry red color, the screen was a pleasant blue.  And unlike what her Dungeon Fairy had said, she had more than just two or three choices.  She could see all of the different elements she knew of and had learned about during her studies of enchanting; she figured her expanded choice list had something to do with her ability to see every different elemental energy, even if she had none accessible to herself.

Looking down the list, there were a few that she knew right off that she didn’t want, like any of the ones that involved primarily Nether or even Holy elemental energy – the fact that those two elements were involved in her demise probably had something to do with that.  Other than those, though, the rest were possibilities that she needed to consider.

Uh…what do I do if there are too many choices?

“What do you mean?  Were you lucky enough in your past life to be able to manipulate more than one?  I thought you were just a merchant.”

I was just a merchant, but I liked to learn all I could about crafting – which included enchanting.  I wasn’t able to access or manipulate any element even in the slightest, however.  Despite that, I was able to at least see them all.

“What are you talking about?  No one can see them all – the Creator specifically designed every sentient to only have a limited…number of…” Winxa trailed off as she cocked her head to the side again, like she just had a thought.  “The Creator did this.  I don’t know what the plan is quite yet, but all the pieces are starting to come together.”

What do you mean?

Winxa ticked off the items on her fingers as she talked.  “For one, you obviously aren’t the typical candidate for a Dungeon Core.  Two, you aren’t constrained by a contract.  Three, you were born with the ability to access all of the elements, but not actually use them.  Four, the placement of your dungeon here is unusual and doesn’t really serve any obvious purpose.  Five, the timing of your appearance is impeccable – I thought it was just coincidence that I was next in line to be assigned to a Core, but now I’m not so sure.”

Sandra could see the Dungeon Fairy’s reasoning, but like Winxa, she couldn’t see what the main purpose behind her being stuck into a dungeon core was.  Why was your being next in line important?

Her question snapped the Fairy out of whatever she was contemplating.  Her expression went from curious to serious in an instant.  “Because I’m the only Dungeon Fairy that has taught a Dungeon Core that had access to more than three elements.  Only once in our history has a Core had access to all of the basic elements of Air, Earth, Fire, and Water – and it almost destroyed an entire race.”

Chapter 6

With that ominous announcement, Sandra felt a little worried.  What…happened?

“I don’t really like to talk about it.  It took me decades to get over the guilt of being instrumental in the deaths of countless sentients – far, far more than a normal dungeon should ever have the ability to accomplish.  Suffice it to say, it was only through the temporary intervention of the Elves, Orcs, and Dwarves that the Gnomish race was saved from extinction.  Fortunately, it was early on in the Creator’s Dungeon Core experience, and there hasn’t been any more like that.”

Is that what’s going to happen to me?  I don’t want to destroy a race – in fact, I don’t want to hurt anything!  Maybe sending me back to that plane of oblivion would be better for everyone…

“No, there’s no going back to that place for you.  The transition to a Dungeon Core is a one-way journey for your existence; if your Core is destroyed, your soul will be lost.  I think your best chance of surviving is to lay low and take it easy – which should be fairly easy as I doubt there is a sentient within a day’s journey or more.  I’ll have to see if I can investigate a little, since I haven’t seen this area in about half a millennium, but it can’t have changed that much.

“For now, though, you still need to make a choice of what kind of dungeon you’d like to be.  I’m forbidden for giving specific advice on what choices you should make; the sole purpose of a Dungeon Fairy is to teach and not necessarily to advise.  So, unfortunately, you’ll have to make the decision on your own,” Winxa said regretfully.  The Fairy hesitated a moment before adding, “But I can tell you this, at least: if you are serious about not wanting to hurt anything – which flies in opposition to some of the constraints a contract would impose – then think about what you want to do instead.”

What I want to do instead? I…have no idea.  All of Sandra’s previous life had been consumed with either traveling the land with her father, selling merchandise to everyone who had coin, or her own hobby of learning about crafting.  None of which seemed like something she could do now, though she was still so new at this Dungeon Core thing that she wasn’t so sure of that.

She looked over the list of available Classifications again and started crossing things off that didn’t interest her.  Beasts, Dragonlings, Reptiles, Giants, Golems, Leviathan, and even Avian monsters sounded like they were more suited for killing and destruction than she wanted.  And since she already knew she didn’t want anything to do with Nether and Holy elemental energy, there were only a few choices that she really considered.

In the Natural realm of choices, she liked the idea of slimes or some sort of fungal monsters, but in the end, they didn’t sound very exciting.  If the area she was in was indeed not overly populated, then she couldn’t imagine staring at a mushroom or a blob of slime for the next few years or centuries.  There was nothing wrong with them, but they just weren’t for her.

Bipedal and Goblinoids were another choice, as they were at least similar in shape to a human, but she wasn’t exactly sure how similar they were.  Fortunately, when Sandra concentrated on both options, she was able to get a better understanding of them.

Bipedal

(Fire/Natural)

The Bipedal Dungeon Classification includes access to monsters including, but not limited to: Gnolls, Kobolds, Ogres, and Trolls

Goblinoids

(Spirit/Fire)

The Goblinoid Dungeon Classification includes access to monsters including, but not limited to: Goblins, Hobgoblins, and Bugbears

As much as those seemed interesting, Sandra…didn’t like them.  In fact, even though they were humanoid in shape at least, their monstrous appearance led her to dismiss them as a possibility.  Which left the options that were most likely unique to her, since she had access to every element.

Constructs

(All)

The Constructs Dungeon Classification includes access to monsters including, but not limited to: Clockworks, Animated Objects, and Automatons

Primordial

(All)

The Primordial Dungeon Classification includes access to monsters including, but not limited to: Prismatic Beasts, Shifters

Now, these were much more interesting.  While she wasn’t sure she cared about the Beasts that the Prismatic Classification had available, the Shifter option was intriguing.  Sandra was tempted to choose that one just to try it out, but it didn’t quite call to her like the other one did.

The Construct Classification seemed much more suited to her personality.  While not “crafted” in the traditional sense, they seemed more like inventions and designs than actual “monsters” – which is exactly why it appealed to her.

With just the barest hesitation, Sandra selected Constructs for her Classification and felt a sort of wrenching inside her mind.  Fortunately, it wasn’t painful and didn’t last long, but as soon as whatever it was finished, she felt different than before.  Not bad, necessarily – just… “whole” would probably be the most accurate word.

“So, what did you choose?”

Sandra told Winxa what she had selected, and the Dungeon Fairy looked confused.  “Constructs?  I’ve never heard of them before – but I’m excited to see what you can do.”

Same here.

“Ok, now getting back to where we were before, try to bring your Core Selection Menu up and then we can get to work.”

Sandra did as she was told and attempted to bring it up again – and it wasn’t blocked by an angry red warning box this time.

Core Selection Menu

Dungeon Classification:

Constructs

Core Size:

1

Available Mana:

4/10

Ambient Mana Absorption:

.01/hour

Available Raw Material (RM):

75/100

Convert Raw Material to Mana?

75 RM -- > 3 Mana

Ok, I got it up.

“Now, you should be able to convert what you had absorbed from the wall to Mana; if you remember, I told you that your core automatically converted your previous ‘meal’ to Mana when you were completely full, so you should already have a little bit in reserve.  Go ahead and convert the rest of what you have and while it’s doing that, I’ll explain the next part.”

Sandra selected the option to convert her Raw Material into Mana – which didn’t seem like a great conversion rate when she was able to look at it closer – and she felt herself dim like she had before.  What the…?

“Don’t be alarmed – while your Core is converting what you ‘ate’, the process takes most of its attention and you’ll not be able to do anything else.  Fortunately, you don’t have to worry about being attacked right now – as you’re practically invisible to the outside world – but keep that information in mind later on when you’re more vulnerable.  There’s a reason why almost all dungeons rely on their monsters to accumulate Ambient Mana as opposed to ‘eating’ it from their nearby surroundings – the transfer of Mana from your creatures is nearly instantaneous and you can do other things while it’s happening.”

Sandra thought that made sense; if Cores were vulnerable every time that they tried to acquire more Mana, then they probably wouldn’t last that long.

“Like I said, we’ll use this time to teach you about your monsters, how they’re created, and about your monster seeds,” Winxa continued her lesson.

Monster “seeds”?  It sounds like I should know it, but I’ve never heard that term before.

“You probably wouldn’t, as it’s a term that’s only really used if you’re in the business of Dungeons like I am.  You might know it better as ‘dungeon loot’ – the various objects left behind after a dungeon monster is killed.”

Now that was a term she’d heard before!  In fact, “dungeon loot” was a big business throughout the land of Muriel; depending upon what it was, the loot that Heroes brought back from even one of their expeditions could feed a small village for a year or more.  And that was just some of the less-sought-after loot.

The reason for that was that the material acquired from the culled monsters was pure – through and through.  A chunk of “dungeon loot” iron the size of her fist was stronger, denser, and easier to craft with than another chunk pulled out of the ground – by exponential degrees.  Loot brought back from Heroes produced higher-quality products, held enchantments better, and were much more durable than their “natural” counterparts.  For instance, that same “dungeon loot” chunk of iron could be forged into a simple knife that could take much more abuse before breaking and would keep an edge ten times longer than its “natural” cousin – and would enhance any enchantments placed upon it five-fold.

Yes, Sandra knew dungeon loot material very well; if her father wasn’t buying and selling the raw material, he was dealing with weapons and armor made from the valuable resource.  And it wasn’t just different types of metal that could be found from killing dungeon monsters; special woods, plants, gems, hides, and any number of other items used in crafting could be found.  The loot gathered from the culling or “farming” dungeons and the monsters surrounding them was one of the reasons that members of the Order of Heroes were so important.  They not only supplied many of the crafting professions with valuable material, but they held back the dungeons who constantly encroached on nearby towns and villages.

That didn’t mean that a dungeon was immune from destruction just because they had some valuable loot, however.  Although the Order did their best to keep up with the constant need to cull the nearby dungeon monsters, there always seemed to be more than they could handle; as a result, elite teams of Heroes were sent out to destroy dungeons that caused the most problems or were encroaching on nearby settlements.  It made sense in the long run to protect the lives of normal citizens, but sometimes the shortage of material from a certain dungeon could put a pinch on the local economy.

Years of buying, selling, and bartering throughout the land of Muriel had taught Sandra all that and more, which made her interested to see what how the “dungeon loot” or monster “seeds” system worked.

Winxa pulled out from a pouch at her side a spherical object that she held in the palm of her hand.  When Sandra got a good look at it, she was slightly disappointed because it wasn’t quite what she had hoped for.  Oh, well – have to start somewhere, I guess.

“That’s right, this is what you have to start with.  I can see those thoughts flickering through that Core of yours, and as much as you’d like to have something more impressive like steel or mithril or emerald oak, the mana requirements for creating even your smallest monster using a ‘seed’ like that is astronomical.  As your Core grows larger and your Mana Capacity increases, you’ll be able to move on from this tiny copper orb.”

The Dungeon Fairy placed the small copper bead on the floor of Sandra’s cave and walked back from it.  Winxa rubbed her hands together in anticipation.  “Alright, let’s do this!” she said excitedly.  Then she looked at the Dungeon Core and frowned, before saying, “Well…as soon as you’re done.”

Sandra could sense that the Raw Material was almost finished converting, and she was almost as eager to get started as the Dungeon Fairy.  After another minute, she felt the last of it convert and her natural glow brightened the cave once again.

Let’s do this!

Chapter 7

Making a dungeon monster was easier said than done, especially with Winxa trying to explain how to do something that should’ve been second nature to a Core, but they managed somehow.

“Ok, now pull up your Core Selection Menu again and…look for something that says Monster Creation?  Or Dungeon Monster Selection?  Something like that.”

Core Selection Menu

Dungeon Classification:

Constructs

Core Size:

1

Available Mana:

7/10

Ambient Mana Absorption:

.01/hour

Available Raw Material (RM):

0/100

Convert Raw Material to Mana?

N/A

Constructs Creation Options:

2

Monster Seed Schematics:

1

There were two new things on her Menu that either weren’t there before or were overlooked: Constructs Creation Options and Monster Seed Schematics.  Figuring that was what she wanted, Sandra focused on the Constructs Creation Options, and another screen – greenish this time – popped up in place of the Core Selection Menu.

Constructs Creation Options

Name:

Mana Cost:

Clockwork Spider

5

Small Animated Shears

10

There were only two options available for her, and only one of them that Sandra could afford with her present Mana total.  She supposed that she could always “eat” a little more of the nearby cave wall, but she didn’t want to wait to convert it to more Mana.  Therefore, she mentally selected the Clockwork Spider option.

Select Monster Seed

Name:

Quantity:

Min. Mana:

Max. Mana:

Tiny Copper Orb

1

5

10

Now with just the one option, Sandra chose the Tiny Copper Orb and every screen disappeared from her view.  That was fortunate, because otherwise she wouldn’t have been able to see the transformation of the small monster “seed”; even though the screens were semi-transparent, she didn’t want to miss even a moment of what was to be her first creation.

A large, transparent, multi-colored fog about half the size of Winxa immediately surrounded the copper bead.  At the same time, Sandra felt a small “tug” at her consciousness and as she watched, a forceful stream of nearly-invisible energy flowed out from her and entered the multi-colored fog.  The Mana she had provided the swirling cloud appeared to thicken it in certain places, while at the same time it condensed down into an eight-legged form with a large central body.

Within seconds, much faster than she had anticipated, a Clockwork Spider sat staring at her from the middle of the cave floor.  Well, staring wasn’t quite right, as the two multi-faceted “eyes” on the front of its face appeared as if it weren’t really looking at anything in general.

Her spider was huge, though – much larger than she thought she could create with just a tiny little copper bead.  Its body was almost completely encased in a dark-colored metal shell, with slits along the sides where the eight leg bases were attached.  Inside those slits, Sandra could see and hear small clockwork gears turning and whirring, somehow magically running through the Mana she had provided it.  The spider’s legs appeared to be made of a mixture of wood and metal; from their base near the bottom of its body, they shot upwards before coming back down to the floor, creating an inverted V shape.

It didn’t look highly maneuverable, but her Clockwork Spider certainly seemed deadly.  Each of its legs were tipped in a sharp spike, which looked like they could do some damage against anything it came across.  In addition, it had a large mouth with razor sharp fangs just waiting to bite someone.

Not that she cared about all that – because she had just crafted her first dungeon monster!

Ok, so it wasn’t much in the way of “crafting”, but she had used her abilities to create something; and unlike the basic healing ointments she had made in the past, her new creation was an impressive machine made from different elements and essentially enchanted to run by itself!  Sandra was inordinately proud of herself.

Isn’t it beautiful?  And it’s so massive – I didn’t think I’d be able to make something this large already!

Winxa was busy admiring the Clockwork Spider as well, though she laughed out loud at Sandra’s exclamation.  “How…how large do you think this spider is?” the Dungeon Fairy asked in between laughing fits.

The former merchant was confused.  What do you mean?  Based in comparison to you, It must be at least four feet tall at the highest point of its legs, and nearly that wide.

“Ah, I see what the problem is.  Sorry to burst your bubble, Sandra, but you’re having an issue with your perspective,” Winxa said once she got ahold of her amusement, though she still smiled at the Dungeon Core.  “How tall do you think I am?” she finally asked.

Well, I first thought you were a giant Fairy, because you’ve got to be at least six feet tall.  The myths always described Fairies as being tiny, but I suppose Dungeon Fairies are an exception because you have to deal with Cores all day long.

“Your myths are surprisingly correct, though I will admit that us Dungeon Fairies are larger than our more common cousins found in the wild.  In fact, we’re about 50% bigger than they are; whereas most Forest Fairies are only about two inches tall, the Dungeon variety frequently tops a whopping three inches.  And I’m about average for my race, as I’m just barely over three inches tall.  Hopefully that will help put things into perspective for you.  Better yet, you should try looking through your spider’s eyes.”

Three…inches?  But that would mean…

Sandra instinctively connected with her new Clockwork Spider and tried to look through its eyes.  She was bombarded with multiple views again, but it only took her a moment to acclimate herself to the multi-faceted eyes of her dungeon monster.  When she was able to focus, she saw a very small, white-glowing crystal floating in the middle of the cave.  Comparing it to the Dungeon Fairy that she could see out of the corner of one of the Clockwork Spider’s eyes, she estimated that it was just barely larger than Winxa’s head.

Is that…me?  I’m so…little…

“Yes, that’s you alright.  Don’t worry, though, as you get stronger and accumulate more Mana, you’ll grow larger.  When you’re larger, you’ll be able to hold more Mana, absorb more Raw Materials, and consequently make stronger Dungeon Monsters.  Think of yourself as a newborn baby right now; you need to feed to grow healthy and strong, so by the time you’re an ‘adult’, you’ll be able to do almost anything you want to.”

How do I get stronger and larger? Sandra asked, curious despite the strangeness of looking at her new form.  She had to admit that it was a surprise that “vile and destructive” Dungeon Cores were actually quite pretty when it came down to it – like an enchanted diamond she had seen before at a different merchant’s stall.  Though, without being modest, she thought she looked even better.

“At first, it’s quite easy; all you need to do is fill up your Mana Capacity and…somehow…use every unit of it to upgrade your Core Size,” Winxa started confidently, before apparently realizing she didn’t know the exact process.  “I’ve never had to lead a Dungeon Core through the process, since it was ingrained knowledge granted to the Core through the contract,” the Fairy admitted.

“Anyway, I’m sure it will be self-explanatory when you get to that point, which, like I said, is pretty quick at these lower sizes.  Once you get larger, the amount of Mana to upgrade your Core increases, of course, until it gets to a point where it’s difficult to completely fill up your Capacity without wanting to spend most of it.  Most dungeons struggle to balance growth with the need for creating more dungeon monsters to get more, which is why a lot of them resort to attacking nearby wildlife and sentients to get that extra boost in order to increase their size.”

Sandra could understand that.  Just being able to create her own dungeon monsters was like a miracle to her, and all she wanted to do was keep making them for some reason.  She figured it was some innate “need” inside of a Core that made them want to keep producing more and expanding their reach, but fortunately she wasn’t dominated by that need.  While she could feel it strongly, she could also ignore it pretty easily.

What’s next?

Now that she had reevaluated her size with a new perspective, the newborn Dungeon Core realized she was barely a tiny speck in the middle of some sort of underground structure.  In fact, if Winxa was being truthful about her height (and Sandra had very little reason to doubt her), then her “cave” was probably no more than a foot or a foot-and-a-half in diameter where she had eaten away at the wall.

“Well, now comes a lot of boring digging, some more digging, and then you sprinkle in some dungeon/Core development.  Let me go over a few things to get you started and then you can get to it.

“First, while I don’t have an exact location of where you are in relation to the land aboveground, I can tell you that you are at least 300 feet from the surface – possibly more.  It is standard, even in your special case, for new Dungeon Cores to be far underground to keep them safe while they are developing, otherwise they could be destroyed by something as innocuous as a bunny.”

Winxa must’ve sensed some sort of incredulity in Sandra’s mind, because she added, “And I’m not kidding.  While you look like an ‘enchanted diamond’ like I heard you thinking earlier, you’re actually more like fragile glass than one of the hardest gemstones around.  If a cute little bunny rabbit were to kick you with its hind legs, you could shatter and then that would be it.

“Which brings me to my second tidbit of information: protect your Core!  It’s not extremely vital right now, but you’re going to want to have some sort of defenses in place once you break free to the surface.  And I know I mentioned that it’s doubtful that any of the sentient races might be around here, but keep in mind that wild animals abound everywhere – and remember what I said about bunny rabbits,” the Dungeon Fairy added, with a small smile on her face.

Ok, that makes sense, but how—

“Don’t worry, by the time you need to set up some traps around this place, I’ll be back to help guide you through that part.”

Wait, are you leaving—

“Yes, but it’s only because I want to look into your situation and try to find out more about what’s going on with you.  Don’t worry, you’ll be fine while I’m gone, and I’ll be back in no time.

“Ok, where was I…oh, yeah.  Third, I want to show you how to create more Monster ‘seeds’ so that you can have more than one monster at a time, as well as increasing the size and strength of your current options.  As you no doubt can see, the Tiny Copper Orb I gave you was essentially ‘consumed’ by the creation of your spider here.”

Her Dungeon Fairy seemed to be flitting from subject to subject, as if something had gotten into Winxa’s head that was forcing her to speed through all of the information she was supposed to impart.  Instead of interrupting, however, Sandra just let her go because she was actually interested to see what she could figure out on her own.  Years of watching crafters of all types perform their little miracles made her itch to create something herself, and as a Dungeon Core she didn’t have to worry about crippled and deformed hands preventing it.

“So, you’re going to create another Tiny Copper Orb, but to do that you’re going to need more Raw Material and Mana.  Do you see why Mana is so important now?” Winxa asked, a smile still on her face.  “Now, the amount of ambient Mana that you can absorb around your Core is probably still quite low, and that will only increase by a tiny amount even if you increase your Core Size.  But,” she said while holding up a finger like she was trying to make a point, before pointing at her Clockwork Spider, “you have an additional means of gathering it up.  Go ahead and take control of your dungeon monster and have it walk around your little room here.”

Since she was already lightly connected to the Spider while she was looking through its eyes, Sandra delved inside again. Once she was firmly inside her construct, she tried to directly move each of its legs to walk…but nothing happened.  Not even a twitch.

What’s going on?  Why can’t I get it to move?

“Uh…try to just direct it where you want it to go instead of trying to move it yourself.  Your…hmm…‘minds’ aren’t quite compatible, so you aren’t able to control it directly.  With a more humanoid-looking monster, you’d most likely have more control,” Winxa explained.

Sandra did what the Dungeon Fairy recommended, stepping back from trying to do it herself and just sent her thoughts toward her monster.  Almost before she finished the thought, her Clockwork Spider began to move.  Each time one of its legs moved forward and struck the ground, a small *tink* noise sounded from it striking the mostly stone surface of the cave floor.  Definitely not going to sneak up on anybody.

Without much room to roam, the newborn Dungeon Core directed her construct to move around the room, taking care to avoid running into the Fairy when it made a full circuit.  Judging by the way it ponderously made its way around the cave, Sandra doubted it had the flexibility to do everything a “normal” spider could do.  That didn’t matter too much to her, though, because she was just fascinated to see how its clockwork mechanisms enabled it to get around in the first place.

Little-by-little, Sandra noticed that she was starting to feel something being funneled into her from the Spider.  It wasn’t visible or tangible, but she could nevertheless sense the ambient Mana from the air being absorbed and sent directly toward her.  A quick look at her Core Selection Menu showed her Available Mana – which used to be at 2 after creating the construct – was slowly ticking upwards.  It slowed even more after about five minutes, but it managed to tick over to 5 before it stopped completely.

As if she could sense it – which Sandra thought was entirely possible because she still didn’t know much about Dungeon Fairies – Winxa said, “The ambient Mana in here is just about depleted now, so I’m hoping that you have at least five Mana available.”  With a quick affirmation from Sandra, she continued.  “Now, I want you to extend your senses out and ‘eat’ some of the wall again until you have at least 50 units of Raw Material available.  And don’t worry about the room collapsing, or the walls caving in; your natural presence alone will automatically stabilize anything that you have direct access to.  This is especially important once you start expanding your dungeon, because otherwise you might have issues keeping your construction intact.”

Sandra paused in the act of ‘eating’ more of the nearby cave wall.  I didn’t even think of that!  She had watched carpenters and stonemasons plying their trade to construct buildings before, but nothing in her previous life had prepared her for a life underground and the dangers therein.  Fortunately, it didn’t seem that she had to worry about burying and damaging herself from a cave-in.

She quickly absorbed the Raw Material from the nearest wall until she had 61 units – more than was needed, but she had been…hungry.  Either way, she apparently now had what she needed to create another monster seed.  Without prompting, Sandra opened her Core Selection Menu again and focused on the Monster Seed Schematics option.  I think I’m getting the hang of this.

Monster Seed Origination

Name:

Raw Material Cost:

Mana Cost:

Min. Mana:

Max. Mana:

Tiny Copper Orb

50

5

5

10

Easy enough to understand.  Sandra mentally selected the Tiny Copper Orb and she felt the same siphon of Mana from her core like she had when she made the Clockwork Spider, but this time it was accompanied by some Raw Material.  All of it flowed towards a spot on the floor, which soon showed a small misty fog that quickly compressed into an orb-like shape.  Less than ten seconds after she had chosen to create the “seed”, it was done.

The Tiny Copper Orb looked identical to the previous one; the only difference between the two that Sandra could identify was…that she had made it!

“Very nice, Sandra!  I should’ve known that you’d figure this out pretty quickly, especially based on your previous hobby.  You’ll be able to find more types of seeds as you explore and expand, which will give you access to even more powerful monsters.  And that’s about all I can teach you right now until you get a little bigger and stronger.  You should be safe in here for quite a while, so you shouldn’t have to worry about any danger to your core for…probably months or more.  Now, like I said, I’ll be back – so don’t have too much fun without me!”

Wait!  What do I do now?!

Winxa was already opening another hole in the middle of the air with a negligent wave of her hand, but she took the time to turn back to the new Dungeon Core.  “Why, expand and grow – what else would you want to do?”

With that, Sandra’s Dungeon Fairy – the only source of information and socialization – walked through the circular portal and left her all alone.

Well, that sucks.

Chapter 8

Left to her own devices and without anyone to tell her what to do for the first time in her life – or “afterlife”, as it were – Sandra was frozen in indecision.  Always before, she had a definitive plan that she followed; if it wasn’t traveling around the land of Muriel selling merchandise, it was tracking down an elusive crafter that she wished to learn from.  It was familiar and safe, and yet a bit confining at the same time.

And now she was free.

Sandra now had no obligations to anyone, not even to herself; she didn’t need to earn money to make a living, she didn’t need to sell weapons or other items to feed herself and her father – in fact, she didn’t even need to eat anymore.  Or, at least, she assumed she didn’t need to eat; Winxa didn’t really explain much other than the basics to her.

So, with her newfound freedom from responsibility and time on her hands, Sandra was ready to do…what?  She honestly didn’t know.  The merchant life she had led before was really no more than a job to her, it was more of a means to an end.  She stuck with her father because the two of them were all the family they had in the world and she loved him, but she didn’t love the profession he had chosen to pursue.

Crafting, on the other hand, was something that she enjoyed – even if it was just learning about it.  The Dungeon Fairy hadn’t been too far off, however, calling it her hobby; without the chance to perform nearly all of the crafting she had learned about with her own two hands or innate magical ability, it was more of a spectator activity than anything else.  But that didn’t lessen her enthusiasm one bit.

And now that she had some time, options, and unique abilities, Sandra decided to see if she could make her dream of doing her own crafting a reality.  Of course, she was a long way off from that; now that she had a goal in mind, however, she worked single-mindedly on accomplishing it.

The first thing she did was instruct her existing Clockwork Spider to continue roaming around her small little cave.  Although there was very little benefit from doing so in the beginning – since most of the ambient Mana had already been absorbed – Sandra noticed that it slowly returned, only to be sucked up immediately and funneled to her Core.  It wasn’t a large amount, but it was at least steady.

While her dungeon monster did that, she concentrated on what the Dungeon Fairy had told her to do – expansion.  Although she didn’t consider herself like most of the other Cores that Winxa had told her about (with their insanity and homicidal tendencies), Sandra knew that they had at least one thing in common: the need to grow larger and expand their Area of Influence.

This was made abundantly clear as soon as she started to eat away at the nearby cavern walls, converting the Raw Material into Mana as she went.  Soon, though, she started to feel like her tendrils of thought that were seeking out the Raw Materials inherent in the walls were starting to reach their limit.  She could still “eat” away at the floor and ceiling, of course, but luckily, she didn’t have to.

Because she was now completely full of Mana.

Warning!

Upgrading your Core Size will deplete all of your Mana and leave you unable to perform any other action until the upgrade is complete.  However, any previous orders given to your dungeon monsters will continue to be in effect, and any traps set up through your dungeon will still operate normally.

Upgrade your Core Size? Yes/No

As soon as she had reached full Mana Capacity, she found a blinking option on her Core Selection Menu that said, Upgrade Core Size?, so she of course selected it.  The warning was good to know for the future, but as there was no discernable risk to her right now, there was no reason to delay.  She selected Yes, and her vision immediately dimmed so that she couldn’t see more than a tiny bit away from her Core.

She started to freak out a little bit when she felt her senses dulled; she couldn’t “feel” her Clockwork Spider or hear its strangely comforting *tink-tink* as it roamed around – and trying to reach out with her invisible sensing “tendrils” was a no-go either.  She was essentially trapped in her own mind again, and that scared her more than a little bit.

Although she had survived the featureless void where her soul found itself after she had died, the experience wasn’t a pleasant one.  She well understood how most of the Dungeon Cores that were taken from there went insane; Sandra thought that the only reason she hadn’t lost her mind was that she had so much knowledge to remember from her life and reviewing it had helped her hold on to her sanity.  At the same time, she acknowledged that toward the end of her existence in there, even her constant recitation of the various crafting recipes and techniques she had learned wasn’t as effective as it had been at first.  Although it was hard to accurately tell, she thought that another decade or more in that place would’ve had the same result of insanity as every other soul that emerged.

Therefore, to be thrust back into a space where she was stuck with just her thoughts again was difficult.  Fortunately, Sandra had two things going for her; one, she could still vaguely sense the area directly around her Core – which was admittedly not much, but it was something, at least; and two, the time she was stuck like that was blessedly short.  At least, it didn’t feel like a long time – she had no real reference of passing time down in the deep recesses of her cave, but she figured it didn’t take any longer than an hour or so.

As soon as her Core Size upgrade was done, she felt an explosion of information assault her senses.  After no more than a second or two, however, Sandra acclimated to the new sensations and was able to look around with what felt like “new eyes”.

She could literally “see” through the walls of her small cave and felt the dirt and stone it was comprised of.  Her range didn’t extend far, though, but she estimated that it was nearly four times farther than her current two-foot diameter cave – so it was still a significant improvement.

Her Clockwork Spider was still roaming around her cave, so Sandra grabbed ahold of its attention and directed it to look towards her Core.  She gasped inwardly when she saw herself – I’m twice the size I was before!  Apparently, the Core Size upgrade was literal: she had literally doubled in size.  Now that her Core was larger, she could make out the perfect facets around her structure and was fascinated in the way the internal glow emitted from the center, only to be broken up into a beautiful array of light along the cavern walls.

Your Core has grown!

Current Size: 2

Mana Capacity increased!

Ambient Mana Absorption increased!

Raw Material Capacity increased!

New Construct options!

New Monster Seed Schematic available!

Core Selection Menu

Dungeon Classification:

Constructs

Core Size:

2

Available Mana:

1/20

Ambient Mana Absorption:

.02/hour

Available Raw Material (RM):

25/200

Convert Raw Material to Mana?

25 RM -- > 1 Mana

Current Dungeon Monsters:

1

Constructs Creation Options:

2 (1)

Monster Seed Schematics:

1 (1)

After the shock of a random purple-colored screen temporarily popping up in her vision faded away, Sandra looked at her Core Selection Menu.  She noticed that, just like her physical size, almost everything had doubled.  Her maximum Mana was now 20, she could hold up to 200 units of Raw Material, and her Ambient Mana Absorption was now .02/hour – which still wasn’t very impressive, but she had other means of gathering Mana at least.

Not only that, but her Constructs and Seeds options looked…odd.  The notification screen earlier said something about new constructs and seeds available, but it wasn’t exactly reflected in the totals.  Pulling up her Constructs menu first, she discovered what the issue was.

Constructs Creation Options

Name:

Mana Cost:

Clockwork Spider

5

Small Animated Shears

10

Tiny Automaton

20 (Seed Unavailable)

So, while she had the ability to theoretically create another dungeon monster – a Tiny Automaton this time – she didn’t have the seed available for it.  Which made sense, because if she remembered correctly, the Tiny Copper Orb could only hold a maximum of 10 Mana, whereas her new construct needed twice that.

Monster Seed Origination

Name:

Raw Material Cost:

Mana Cost:

Min. Mana:

Max. Mana:

Tiny Copper Orb

50

5

5

10

Locked Seeds:

Unlock Requirements:

Mana Cost to Unlock:

Min. Mana:

Max. Mana:

Small Copper Orb

2 Tiny Copper Orbs

10

5

25

She was glad that she hadn’t made another Clockwork Spider earlier from the Tiny Copper Orb that Winxa had helped her with, because it appeared as though she was going to need not only that one, but a second one in order to “unlock” the ability to make a Small Copper Orb.  She assumed that, since “small” was probably larger than “tiny”, that the new monster seed was going to be large enough to make her Tiny Automaton.

The Dungeon Fairy had been absolutely right – digging and expansion was rather boring.  Sandra didn’t care overly much, however, because at least she had something to do rather than floating as an unbodied mind in a vast void of nothingness.  Almost anything beat that.

She ate away at the cave walls and even expanded the ceiling upwards, which was a unique experience.  When she absorbed the material from above, Sandra could feel her vision shift slightly as her Core adjusted itself so that she was constantly in the vertical center of her cavern.  Fortunately, it was automatic, so she didn’t have to do it herself; nevertheless, the shock of suddenly moving made her pause in her “meal”.

Once she knew what had happened – with a quick look from her Spider monster – she calmed down and continued expanding her cozy little home.  Eventually, after expanding her cave to nearly twice its size after her Core upgrade, her construct was able roam farther and funnel the ambient Mana that it hadn’t been able to reach before.  That Mana, combined with her natural nearby absorption and the Mana she was gaining from her conversion of Raw Material, allowed her to gain enough not only to make a second Tiny Copper Orb, but enough to unlock the Small one as well.  She had already made the other Tiny seed and it had appeared right next to the one she had created before, so without further ado, she activated the unlock process by selecting it from the Monster Seed Origination screen.

New Monster Seed unlocked!

Small Copper Orb

Origination Raw Material Cost: 100

Origination Mana Cost: 10

Monster Min. Mana: 5

Monster Max. Mana: 25

Invisible Mana flowed out from her Core just like it had when creating the previous orbs, but this time when it touched the two Tiny Orbs on the floor of her cave, she could see the energy turn the same copper color as the seeds.  That same copper-colored Mana grabbed onto both orbs and forced them together in a minor explosion of blinding light; when the light (and her vision) cleared, Sandra could see only one orb remaining – a much larger Small Copper Orb.

Now that she had “unlocked” it, she smiled inwardly to see that it was now available on her Monster Seed Origination menu – for 100 RM and 10 Mana like the notification screen had said earlier. Thankfully, the unlocking process left the new orb behind to be used, since she wanted to test it out.  When she checked her Constructs Creation Options menu again, she saw that the Tiny Automaton now had the necessary seed available to create it.

Which is exactly what she ended up doing.  While she had to accumulate enough mana that she hit her capacity and could theoretically upgrade her Core Size again, Sandra wasn’t eager to be shoved back into a void of nothingness again.  She figured she had plenty of time to do that later and that spreading out those experiences was a good way to maintain her sanity.

Therefore, after her Spider funneled more ambient Mana to her and she ate away at her expanding cave to convert the Raw Materials into even more Mana, she finally had enough to bring forth a Tiny Automaton.  The Mana shot out of her Core like before, though it was certainly more than she was used to, and the same foggy cloud coalesced around the Small Copper Orb on the ground.  Within seconds, it had condensed into a tall pillar that matched the size of Winxa; a few moments after that, the cloud contracted even further, forming the shape of a…human?

On a second look, once the process was complete, she re-evaluated her first impression.  While it had the general shape of a human – with a head, two arms, and two legs – it was a completely featureless amalgamation of mechanical metal parts that could’ve been a representation of any race.  There was a metal skin-like shell covering its head, upper torso, and lower waist, but that was about the extent of coverage; everything else was open and she could see an array of different metal parts that comprised its extremities.

Unlike the Clockwork Spider, however, it wasn’t operated by gears and the like; in fact, she couldn’t see any obvious way it was powered and controlled.  Must be special Dungeon Core magic or something.  The one thing it did have, that strangely made it look more “alive”, were two round holes in its head where its eyes should be.  Two small colorless crystals sat in those holes, eerily similar to the Spider’s multi-faceted eyes.

Regardless of how everything worked, the fact that her Spider construct was still going without any signs of stopping or slowing down hinted that she probably shouldn’t worry too much on how they operated, and more on what they could do for her.

Alright little man…thing…let’s see what you can do!

Chapter 9

Sandra quickly discovered that she could do a lot more with her new Automaton than her other construct.  While her Clockwork Spider’s anatomy was foreign enough that she had difficulty directly controlling it, her Tiny Automaton didn’t have that limitation.  It was a little awkward at first, because it didn’t have the same range of movement that she was used to; actually, it almost felt like the time she had injured her leg when she was 12 years-old, and had to wear a splint to keep it largely immobile while it healed.  When she walked around with her Automaton, it was more like trying to walk with relatively stiff-but-flexible legs, and although the arm had an elbow, the entire limb couldn’t move more than up and down in a straight motion.

One fortunate thing she found, though, was the fact that it had fingers that weren’t deformed!  While Sandra doubted it could do much more than hold a stick and bash away at things, it was still an improvement over what she had when she was alive.  Back then, she could theoretically hold a hammer in her hand; if she tried to hit anything with it, though, the tool would fly away when she couldn’t maintain her grip on it.  With the rudimentary fingers on the stiff-armed and legged Tiny Automaton, however, it could bang away all day and be fine.

The possibilities of the future only made her more excited.  If she continued to get larger and stronger, she could only imagine what kinds of constructs she’d have access to – perhaps even one that could do some crafting!  To make and create something with her own two hands – even if it was through an intermediary such as one of her Dungeon Monsters – was a worthwhile goal that she wanted to pursue.

With renewed purpose, Sandra practically attacked the cave walls and expanded her home until it was nearly eight feet in diameter.  She ate away at the reach of her senses, or Area of Influence as Winxa had called it, and created an almost perfect half-sphere with a four-foot-tall ceiling.  The floor she left relatively flat underneath her Core, because after a small amount of experimentation with her Automaton, she found that it had difficulty navigating over rough terrain.  As a result, she kept her humanoid construct near her and let the Clockwork Spider roam everywhere else.

She discovered that with the expanded cave, there was an overabundance of available ambient Mana that wasn’t being absorbed quickly enough by just her two constructs.  As a result, Sandra decided to create three more Clockwork Spiders and sent them to patrol throughout the room in different areas.  Even that expenditure wasn’t enough to impact the amount of Mana she was being funneled by her constructs, which was a little less than 1 whole unit per minute at that point, so she also created an additional 5 Small Copper Orbs and left them alone until she needed them.

After an indeterminate amount of time chipping away at the cave walls, creating the additional constructs and orbs, and in general enjoying her newly expanded room, she finally reached the limits of the range she could reach.  That, and she was full of Mana again and had to make a choice between creating more orbs and increasing her Core Size.  With a deep mental breath, Sandra decided to just go for it and bear the temporary void of nothingness again.  She activated the Core Size Upgrade and braced for the uncomfortableness of isolation.

Amazingly, the experience wasn’t so bad this time.  She wasn’t sure if the knowledge that it was coming somehow helped, or that she would eventually break free from it, but she didn’t panic (as much) as she did the first time.  Actually, when she really looked back on it, the real reason was probably because her awareness of her immediate surroundings had expanded; at just the edge of her perception, she could hear the sharp *clunk* of her Automaton walking in a set pattern beneath her Core.  That “lifeline” of normal sound anchored her sanity firmly in place.

Your Core has grown!

Current Size: 3

Mana Capacity increased!

Ambient Mana Absorption increased!

Raw Material Capacity increased!

New Constructs options!

Core Selection Menu

Dungeon Classification:

Constructs

Core Size:

3

Available Mana:

1/40

Ambient Mana Absorption:

.04/hour

Available Raw Material (RM):

0/400

Convert Raw Material to Mana?

N/A

Current Dungeon Monsters:

5

Constructs Creation Options:

4 (1)

Monster Seed Schematics:

2

And with that, her maximum capacities in Mana and Raw Materials doubled again – as well as her Ambient Mana Absorption.  Additionally, like before, Sandra could sense even farther out from her Core…and she got a surprise.

She wasn’t quite alone down there.

About 15 feet above and towards what she had been considering the front of her Core – and nearer what she assumed was the surface – was the beginning of a large colony of Territory Ants.  They were only about an inch long in length and half as wide, but what they lacked in size they more than made up with their deadliness.  Individually, they weren’t much of a threat, but they rarely attacked anyone by themselves; instead, whenever a foreign entity entered their territory, they attacked together as an entire colony and swarmed the enemy with seemingly endless numbers – and their piercing mandibles.

They were bad enough while she was still alive; during her travels with her father, they had lost three horses over the years when the poor animals had unknowingly stumbled across a few colonies.  Sandra and her father only escaped harm themselves because, while the Territory Ants were vicious if they got ahold of you, they were relatively slow in comparison to a running person and didn’t care to venture far from their territory to pursue threats.

All of which was going to be an issue if Sandra kept expanding upwards.  Fortunately, at least for now, the few tunnels she saw on the edge of her Area of Influence were self-contained and didn’t show any signs of digging in her direction.  She had to be cautious of what she did now, because if she accidentally opened up a pathway down to her Core, there was very little her dungeon monsters could do to prevent her constructs being overrun and killed.

Now that she had seen them and determined that she wasn’t in any immediate danger, Sandra looked at what else had come from her Core Size upgrade.

Constructs Creation Options

Name:

Mana Cost:

Clockwork Spider

5

Small Animated Shears

10

Tiny Automaton

20

Rolling Force

25

Segmented Centipede

100 (Mana and Seed Unavailable)

She wasn’t sure exactly what a “Rolling Force” monster would be, but it was at least available for her to create.  Not so with the Segmented Centipede, which not only cost more than twice the amount of Mana she could now hold, but she didn’t even have a seed capable of inhabiting it.  And, unlike the last Core Size increase, she didn’t have access to any new seeds which would make that possible.

Regardless of those disappointments, Sandra continued to expand – in the opposite direction of the Territory Ant colony.  Because she couldn’t see farther than an estimated 16 feet, she didn’t know what was in that direction or even if it would lead aboveground, but she didn’t really have much choice.  She had some options to go a little more left or right, but if that didn’t pan out, she’d have to go down – a choice she’d rather not have to make.  As much as she enjoyed the security of being inside a relatively safe hole in the ground, she realized she missed the sun and sky, trees and…people.

She and her father hadn’t stayed in one place for more than a week essentially since she was born, so she was used to being outdoors.  She was comfortable in nature; she had spent many a night camped among the forests of the eastern part of Muriel, holed up in a way-cave in the mountainous north, or even spent an evening or two huddling together with him to stay warm during the cold desert nights in the south.  To be confined underground in a – granted, it was getting bigger – small underground cave was…unnatural to her.

Not only that, but not having anyone to talk to – now that Winxa the absentee Dungeon Fairy had abandoned her – was making her a little lonely.  Even if she were just able to see and observe someone from afar, she thought that might be enough to scratch the socialization itch that was starting to make itself known.

With a mental sigh, Sandra got back to work digging out and converting the newly accessible walls into Mana.

*        *        *

It took approximately two weeks of digging out the back, sides, and some of the floor of her cave before she finally reached her limit.  While the ceiling was still only about 8 feet tall – because she didn’t want to dig down too far – all but the front wall was extended out to 16 feet.  The room was feeling enormous by that time, especially when she considered how small her dungeon monsters were in relation to it now.

Sandra’s inch-and-a-half tall Clockwork Spiders appeared almost the size of a real-life spider now that she had some height and a better perspective.  The Tiny Automaton didn’t look much better at three inches tall, but it still continued to maintain its plodding (and somehow soothing) pace around her core.

And because she had a plethora of resources now (both Mana and RM), she had experimented with creating the two constructs she hadn’t seen yet.

The Small Animated Shears were strange, but awesome at the same time.  When they formed from a Tiny Copper Orb, they were literally a small pair of razor-sharp-looking shears about 3 inches long from tip to handle.  That was interesting enough, but the best part about them was the fact that they moved by flying through the air.

Soon, Sandra had created an entire flock of flying Shears that swooped through the air and accumulated much of the ambient Mana that she had been missing up to that point.  While her Spiders and Automaton had siphoned up the Mana on the floor pretty well, there was as much or more that they couldn’t reach because it was above their heads.  With a full dozen of the Small Animated Shears, however, they were easily able to acquire most of it.

She also discovered what “Rolling Force” meant.  It was literally a ball about 5 inches in diameter that rolled; she wasn’t sure exactly what metal it was made of, or if it had some sort of extra weight in the middle of its form, but it was heavy.  After discovering that she couldn’t control it directly, Sandra accidentally sent it careening around the room when she told it to move, and it crushed one of her Spiders like it wasn’t even there.

It was a happy accident, fortunately, because she learned what happened to one of her dungeon monsters when it was destroyed.  Even though she wasn’t fully “connected” to her Spider, she nonetheless felt a temporary loss when it ceased moving, but it was gone so quickly that she barely felt it.  It was good knowing that she could tell when one of her constructs “died”, as she couldn’t be connected to every single one all the time – especially the flying Shears, as they made her a little uncomfortable in the middle of their flight.  That, and they didn’t have eyes, so she wasn’t sure where she was looking at things from.

Also as a result of her “accident”, the Clockwork Spider that had been destroyed evaporated into nothing, leaving behind the Tiny Copper Orb Seed loot.  Since it was near the edge of her Area of Influence at the time and not near her Core, when Sandra tried to use it to create another Spider, it was almost as if whatever governed the operations of a Dungeon Core couldn’t “see” it.  It was only when she had her Tiny Automaton walk over, pick it up, and then bring it close to where the other Orbs originated near her Core, was she able to use it again.  Good to know that I can reuse them, even if I have to bring them close.

All in all, she ended up losing 10 Mana from her Spider’s demise (the original 5 and another 5 to bring forth another one), but it was a valuable exchange because of the information she gained from it.  She could now see why dungeons sent their monsters out far and wide; the amount of ambient Mana that that one Spider had funneled to her over the last few weeks had to be at least 40 to 50 times what it cost her to create it.

After that, Sandra made a half-dozen more Rolling Forces because they were able to move around faster, but only after she had learned to control them properly without endangering any of her other constructs.  They were now much more efficient in getting around her new Area of Influence, and she thought they would make great defenders if they ever were invaded by something.

Speaking of potential invaders, the nearby Territory Ants had maintained their distance and showed no sign of being aware of her presence – for which she was grateful.

With her now basically at the limit of what she could excavate within her Area of Influence – as well as having about a dozen extra Small Copper Orbs placed on the floor around her Core – Sandra decided that it was about time she “Sized-up” again.  When she was full of Mana, she initiated the upgrade to Size 4 and suffered through the period of inactivity, once again with her sanity maintained by the presence of her nearby constructs.  This time she could even sense a few flying Shears as they drifted by in addition to the clomping of her Tiny Automaton.

When everything came back into focus, Sandra found that her capacities and absorption had doubled again, though she didn’t receive any new constructs.  She did receive a new monster “seed” in the shape of a locked Average Copper Orb, which looked like it was going to be a combination of four Small Copper Orbs to unlock it.  Seeing everything in order, she looked around her new expanded Area of Influence, but her concentration froze in fright above her.

The Territory Ants were on the move.

Chapter 10

The Core Size upgrade must’ve taken longer than I had thought.  Despite it only feeling like a couple of hours had passed, the progress the Territory Ants had made since she last saw them was staggering.  They were only about a foot away now and were continuing to extend their tunnels in a downward spiral.  The farther they journeyed down, the longer it took them to dispose of the dirt and stone they were dislodging. After watching them work for a minute in horrified stillness, Sandra estimated that she had less than an hour before they punched through her ceiling – and she was far from prepared for that.

The one good thing she picked up from her observations was that the Ants weren’t digging through the harder rocks in their way; rather, they either utilized a small group of their kind to pick up and move the smaller ones or just bypassed them completely by making a detour.  Regardless of the choice they made, it was obvious that they weren’t strong enough to punch through the harder stone – which was something that Sandra thought she could take advantage of.

Remembering her initial conversation with Winxa, she recalled that the Dungeon Fairy had mentioned using her Raw Materials for shoring up her defenses.  Therefore, Sandra figured there must be a way to use what she pulled out from the walls in a different way than just creating monster seeds.  She realized that what she needed to do was protect her core from above.

Almost as if they were homing in on her Dungeon Core, she could see that the Ants’ final destination was going to end up directly above her.  If they broke through at that point, there was a possibility that they could drop right on top of her and destroy her Core as they dropped down.  Her relative safety floating in the middle of the air wouldn’t help in that situation.

Winxa!  Where are you when I need you?

Sandra’s plea went unanswered.  After about a minute of waiting for the nonexistent help from her Dungeon Fairy, she decided to improvise and try to do it herself.  Looking into the ceiling above her, she again observed its composition and saw that if she didn’t do something soon, the primarily dirt and tiny stones in between her and the Territory Ants would be essentially useless.

Can I turn it into a big slab of stone, maybe?

She wasn’t sure if she could do all that, but she could certainly try.  Reaching out to her Core while concentrating on the space above her, Sandra “grabbed” a few units of Raw Materials she had left over and shoved it toward the ceiling, all the while thinking about turning it to hard stone.  Against her not-so-confident expectations, it actually worked!

A circle of dull grey stone approximately an inch wide and half that deep appeared on the dirt ceiling, directly above her Dungeon Core.  Sandra thought it might have been larger if she had more Mana, because as soon as she felt the dirt change to stone, her 2 units of Mana were siphoned off and infused into stone.

So, apparently, I need both Raw Materials and Mana to create the stone; it actually makes sense, though, because when I make Monster Seeds it takes both as well – though the seeds are certainly smaller.

Because Copper was a more valuable resource as opposed to stone, it made sense that she could make a larger amount of stone when compared the same amount of material and Mana used in the creation of a Copper Orb.  Despite the better conversion ratio, it still meant that she was going to have to race to get a proper overhead shield of stone in place before the Ants arrived.

Sandra spent the next hour absorbing material from the farther sections of her cave, converting some to Mana, and then using the 2 Mana/minute amount she was gaining from her roaming constructs to extend the stone shield.  She could’ve made more of her dungeon monsters earlier – before she “Sized-up” – but what she had constructed previously was more than enough to siphon the ambient Mana in her cave.  Now, with it expanding bit-by-bit, she wished she had made at least a couple more to take advantage of the additional space.

Regrets weren’t going to help her now, and neither was making any additional constructs; she spent all her accumulated Mana on creating a large stone dome above her head, which was costly but not terribly so.  At any other time, Sandra thought she could turn her entire cave – and further areas she excavated – to stone within a day or less, but with the advancement of the Territory Ants, she didn’t have that kind of time.

Why are they heading toward me in the first place? she wondered for the hundredth time while she was creating the overhead stone shield.  The only explanation she could come up with – especially when she started looking at the Ant colony itself – was the fact that her Area of Influence had extended up and past the area where the Territory Ant Queen was busy pushing out eggs.  Maybe they can sense that I can “see” them now and they felt threatened by it.

Regardless of the reason, the fact that they were only minutes away from breaching her dungeon cave wall was worrisome.  Sandra now had a stone dome that extended approximately 12 feet out from directly above her Core in every direction, which would help to prevent the Ants from dropping straight down onto her.  Another few hours would encapsulate the entire room, but at the moment that was the best she could do.

The Territory Ants reached her stone shield and immediately turned in four different directions, with lines of workers quickly digging and removing the dirt from their explorations.  Sandra was half-hoping that they would give up after they couldn’t find an easy access point, but they continued on their excavations with no indication of being frustrated.  As a result, within five minutes of first reaching her stone dome, four tunnels were dug by the industrious Ants in four places at the edge of her protection.

Although her dome was curved slightly according to the shape of her ceiling, they still ended far above the floor; Sandra thought that the insects would just drop in and hit the floor.  Unfortunately, she forgot that these Ants were adept at navigating through underground environs.

Seriously?  That’s not fair.  As soon as they broke through, the Territory Ants started to crawl along the underside of the dome, as if crawling and hanging off stone upside down was an everyday occurrence.  Sandra immediately sent her Animated Shears towards the tenacious insects converging on the center of the stone ceiling.  She knew that if she didn’t hurry, they would reach the spot where they could easily drop down and destroy her.

In just a few seconds, dozens of Ants were already making their way across the underside of the stone dome, but she had a dozen Animated Shears there to prevent them from getting any closer.  Fortunately, despite their ability to stick upside down to her dome, Sandra was pleased to see that they weren’t gripping on with much force.  With each slice of her Shears, another Ant was knocked off, landing on the floor of the cave with a heavy impact – but failing to do any lasting damage.

Unlike a typical dungeon core, Sandra wasn’t particularly interested in killing any beasts or sentient races for their Mana.  An exception to that, however, were insects; she didn’t really care for them and felt no compunction in eliminating them.  Still, she didn’t want to have to – she’d rather find some way to block them from entering her dungeon in the first place.

Warning!

While dungeon monsters can still be created from monster seeds, any physical changes to your dungeon while there are invaders inside is prohibited.  Please wait until all invaders have been eliminated either through death or voluntary removal.

Sandra had tried to plug up the tunnels’ exits with more stone, but she received a notification shutting that idea down.  It would’ve only been a temporary measure until she could fully seal off her cave, but now there wasn’t a likelihood of that happening at all.

The Ants that landed unhurt on the floor quickly righted themselves and skittered toward her Dungeon Core.  Although she was floating four feet above, she felt a spike of fear go through her when the first dozen Ants stopped directly underneath her.  She couldn’t tell exactly what they were doing at first, but it didn’t take long to see that they were climbing on top of each other, creating a rudimentary pyramid.

A pyramid of incensed Territory Ants that was growing taller by the moment.

Before it could grow taller than a foot, four of Sandra’s Rolling Forces smashed into the formation in a large explosion of smashed Ant and construct parts.  Although they were tiny insects in comparison to her metal balls of destruction, the Territory Ants had a surprisingly tough exterior and their digging mandibles were particularly sharp.  As a result, even though her dungeon monsters had squashed or otherwise killed dozens of the invading Ants, her Rolling Forces took quite a bit of damage as well.

One of her metal balls ended up being split in half, falling apart as some unlucky impacts against the sharp “weapons” of the Ants carved it up.  As it fell apart, Sandra could see what appeared to be some clockwork parts inside, though they were centered around a central core of an amorphous substance that glowed a dull blue color.  Of course, seconds after it fell apart, the entire construct disappeared, leaving behind the Small Copper Orb seed it was made from.

The other three survived but were gouged and dented in multiple places; despite the damage, they were still able to move, though one had a definite wobble to it.  She still had another three that hadn’t been involved in the attack, but now half of her rolling metal balls were damaged and wouldn’t fare well in another maneuver like that.

Then again, her forces had killed around three dozen of the Ants; it wasn’t quite an even trade-off, but it was better than her Clockwork Spiders.  Sandra’s original constructs moved surprisingly fast once she sent them to attack the falling Ants from above, but except for a lucky break where one was able to stab its leg into the neck of an attacking insect – decapitating it in the process – the rest were quickly overwhelmed and taken apart by the super-sharp mandibles of the Territory Ants.

Her Tiny Automaton performed remarkably well considering it couldn’t move quickly. Its strong, hammer-like arms nevertheless caved in a half-dozen Ant heads before it was eventually surrounded and picked apart.

New lines of Territory Ants were already heading for the smooshed graveyard of their brethren underneath Sandra’s Core, so she sent her Rolling Forces to disrupt anything they tried to create and roll over individual ones as they made for the center of the cave.  One-by-one, though, the self-inflicted damage caused by impacting the durable exoskeletons and deadly mandibles of the Ants were destroying her monsters.  Not only that, but her flock of Small Animated Shears had lost two of their number from attempting to slice into the ants and mistakenly hitting their sharp head weapons, which blunted their edge and caused them to fall apart within a few hits.

Sandra wasn’t idle, however.  She began to see how the other dungeons fell into the trap of wanting to kill everything they saw; Mana flowed into her faster than it ever had before from the deaths of the Ants.  Every second, her Mana ticked up another point or two – and sometimes even three.  From the initial destruction of the insect pyramid, she absorbed nearly twenty Mana in little more than a second.

Sandra immediately started to use that Mana to replace her destroyed Rolling constructs and even using the remainder of her Raw Materials to create a few Tiny Copper Orbs so that she could make more Animated Shears.  In less than five minutes, she had replaced and expanded her current constructs, though the constant influx of Territory Ants was making it difficult to get any breathing room.

Eventually, she had to create three more Tiny Automatons.  They weren’t there to attack or defend, but to retrieve the fallen Copper Orbs that were now littering the cave so that she could make more defenders.  The issue she was running into, unfortunately, was the lack of Raw Materials.  Since she couldn’t physically change her one-room dungeon, she couldn’t absorb the dirt and stone from the walls to accumulate more.

Fortunately, that limitation didn’t extend to absorbing the corpses of hundreds of insects now littering the cave floor.  It was very strange at first, as the sensation in her Core was quite different from “eating” dirt. Somehow, despite the disgust she felt at consuming bugs, it was much more fulfilling – like a treat of some sort.  Although it “tasted” better, it took nearly twice the volume of insect bodies to equal the same amount of dirt wall; she wasn’t sure if it was because of its density or for some other reason.  However, since the supply was constantly arriving, Sandra didn’t care overly much about the conversion efficiency.

With access to both Mana and Raw Materials in a fairly constant stream, Sandra was able to finally get ahead and produce more than enough Rolling Forces to wipe out anything that hit the floor within seconds, and her flock of Shears had multiplied to three times their original number.  Two hours after the start of the attack by the Territory Ants, Sandra felt safe enough to look for a way to end the stalemate.  They should be running out of Ants soon, right?

The stream of insects seemed to be endless, and the confused Dungeon Core was beginning to wonder why.  Granted, she had initially seen thousands of the Ants roaming through the colony tunnels, but she estimated that her constructs had wiped out nearly 10,000 of them, so there couldn’t be that many left.

When Sandra focused on the Territory Ant colony, she discovered why they weren’t stopping.  The Ant Queen was frantically laying eggs by the dozen around the central colony room, which would harden, grow, and hatch within less than a minute, supplying a constant stream of brand-new Ants for the assault.  She hadn’t known they could do that, but she wasn’t an expert on insects.  Regardless, it meant that unless she found some way to stop the Queen – who showed no signs of stopping anytime soon – she was going to be fighting this territory war indefinitely.

A circular portal appeared in the air about two feet in front of her Core unexpectedly, and Winxa emerged with a frustrated look on her face.  The portal collapsed and disappeared as soon as the Dungeon Fairy was completely out, closing with a near silent *pop* that she hadn’t noticed before.

“You would not believe—what is going on!?”

Impeccable timing, Winxa.

Chapter 11

“Sandra, what did you do?” Winxa asked, shocked at the constant battle being waged against the invading Territory Ants.

It’s not my fault.  These Ants were directly above me and as soon as I upgraded my Core Size, they dug down here while I was helpless.

“Well, why haven’t you stopped them yet?”

First, I don’t know how, and second, they keep coming and there is no let-up.  Third, I am very limited in what I can do while they are attacking so constantly.

The Dungeon Fairy looked around at the defenses and defenders Sandra had set up, noticing the stone dome above.  “I can see that, and that was a good idea to create a stone barrier.  I would suggest doing that for your entire dungeon when you get a chance, though of course that will have to wait until it’s safe.  Which should be soon, as there should be an end of these insects soon.  How long have they been attacking?  A few minutes?”

Two hours, give or take a few minutes.

“Two…hours?  Wait…” Winxa said, shocked and confused, before looking closer at one of the Ants before it died and was absorbed by the Dungeon Core.  “Oh…well, you didn’t say these were Territory Ants – that’s a whole other situation.  They have the ability to reproduce non-stop until the threat to their territory is either dead or has vacated the area.  Neither of which will help you in this instance.”

I noticed.

“Well, then that just means that you’ll have to kill the Queen and then you’ll be fine.  Normally, your new unlocks at Core Size 5 should be more than enough to take care of the situation – so, what did you get?”

It felt like it had been days since she had “Sized-up” instead of just hours, which meant that she couldn’t even remember what she had upgraded to.  In fact, she realized she hadn’t even opened up her menu lately, as everything she had been done while creating new constructs and seeds was all performed intuitively when she thought about it.  Her instincts told her that it was probably supposed to be that way, and that the menu was just a way to get started.

Core Selection Menu

Dungeon Classification:

Constructs

Core Size:

4

Available Mana:

74/80

Ambient Mana Absorption:

.08/hour

Available Raw Material (RM):

250/400

Convert Raw Material to Mana?

150 RM -- > 6 Mana

Current Dungeon Monsters:

59

Constructs Creation Options:

4 (1)

Monster Seed Schematics:

2 (1)

Uh…I’m only at Core Size 4.

“Core Size 4?  Based on the size of your cave, and the number of monsters you have, you should’ve been at least Core Size 5 by now, or more likely Size 6.  I was gone for almost a month and—”

I didn’t want to go back to that empty place when I upgrade my Core, so I kept putting it off until I didn’t have anything else that I could do.  And most of my constructs you see were made after the attack, as I’ve been inundated with so much Mana that I had to use it on something.

“I guess that I can understand that.  The insane Dungeon Cores that I usually deal with aren’t bothered by the isolation that upgrading brings, so I didn’t look at it from your perspective.  However, Core Size 5 usually has beneficial upgrades, which you might be able to use to beat back these stupid Ants and get on with your dungeon expansion.”

But I’ll be completely vulnerable—
“That’s true, but remember, you have your Dungeon Monsters here and you can easily set them to keep doing what they’ve been doing.  That is their job, you know; although they are there to help you accumulate ambient Mana, their primary purpose is to defend your Dungeon Core.”

What Winxa said made sense to Sandra, although she was still hesitant to commence with the upgrade to Size 5.  Looking for another answer afforded no other solutions, unfortunately, so she gave in and decided to do it when she was ready.

Only after another hour of constant battle against the tenacious insects – and after creating an additional dozen Rolling Forces and Animated Shears – was she satisfied that she would be safe.  It had been at least a half an hour since one of her constructs had broken in “death”, so she was fairly confident they could last until she was done upgrading again.

With her figurative fingers crossed in an ancient symbol of good luck, she activated her Core Size upgrade and felt the sensations of the world around her fade.  The space she could still see and hear things was a little larger than last time, but she couldn’t detect much; a few sounds from farther away constructs killing Ants were all she could hear.  They were away from her Core trying to destroy the invaders near where they were entering her cave, which meant they were blessedly away from her vulnerable self.

Sandra was saved from mind-numbing emptiness when Winxa flew up and perched on top of her Core.  The Dungeon Fairy sat up there and watched whatever was happening outside of the Dungeon Core’s senses for what felt like hours, but in reality, it was probably no more than a few minutes.

“I…want to apologize for abandoning you for so long.  I honestly thought that you were safe from any dangers here and I wanted to do as much research as possible into your situation here before I came back.  That doesn’t excuse leaving my charge for so long, of course, and I hope you’ll forgive me for leaving.”

Winxa was silent for another couple of minutes, before she continued.  “It’s been a long time since I’ve spent more than a few days with a Dungeon Core before they tried to ‘eat’ me,” she started, flashing a grin down at Sandra, “and it’s been even longer since I’ve touched a Core.  Not that anything bad would happen, but none of them had felt…safe…or at least normal enough for me to want to touch or get close to in any way.  With you, though – and considering what you might be up against – I feel like I could be your friend instead of just a snack.”

The Fairy abruptly stood up and looked off into the distance, before sitting back down cautiously.  “You just lost another pair of your flying scissors, but you still have plenty there taking its place.  Anyway, I wanted to tell you what I found out now that I’ve got a captive audience,” Winxa said, flashing another smile in Sandra’s direction.  “I unfortunately didn’t find out anything official, and all communication – which is rare to begin with – with The Creator has essentially ceased.  That doesn’t mean it won’t pick back up, but I can’t get anything definite from that source.

“As for your location, I have a little bit better understanding of it now.  You see,” the Dungeon Fairy began, settling herself more comfortably on top of Sandra’s Core as if she was preparing to tell a story, “I’ve spent the last 150 years or so working with new Dungeon Cores located in or near the Human land of Muriel.  As a result, I’ve lost track of the state of all but the Merfolk, who live in the ocean and nearby islands close to Muriel.

“I knew this place from centuries ago, however, though it has certainly changed since then.  Previously, the Orcs, Elves, Dwarves, and Gnomes had been easily holding back the advance of their surrounding dungeons and were even using them much as the Humans still do – as a source of excellent seed loot that they could turn into weapons and armor to help combat the dungeons in a cyclical relationship.  While the Merfolk, Humans, and Beastmen far to the south are still doing fine – in fact, they are practically thriving – those races that you’re currently near haven’t had the same kind of luck.

“The Elves were always a long-lived race, but they also reproduce slowly.  Over the years, attrition in the ranks of their ‘Elite’ – which is what they call their ‘Heroes’ – have led to a diminished population.  They have abandoned many of their primary holdings along the border of their lands and have retreated to where there are no current dungeons, such as their capital city of Lyringlade.  With them not thinning out the ranks of the dungeon monsters anymore, the border dungeons are starting to get extremely powerful and are expanding their Area of Influence closer and closer to the remaining Elven population.  I give them no more than a century before they’re wiped out.

“The Orcs to the northwest were always a warlike people and used that confidence in battle to devastate nearby dungeon monsters.  However, over time they have concentrated more on being the strongest and bravest ‘Warriors’ and look down on anyone who wants to be a weakling like a craftsman.  As a result, many of their strongest weapons and armor from the past are breaking down and they are left with the basic swords, axes, and other armaments they can manage to produce from their craftsmen who barely know what they’re doing anymore.  Most of their knowledge they used to have in crafting beautiful weapons of war have been lost, so their civilization is in decline.  Because they have no reproduction issues like the Elves – the opposite in fact – they have plenty of bodies to throw at the dungeons, but not the weapons in which to do it.  I give them…oh, maybe two centuries before they’re completely destroyed.

“The Dwarves are a strong, hearty bunch; they also make some of the most detailed and powerful weapons and armor in the world.  However, due to staggering losses in their ‘Shieldmen’ over the last century, they’ve apparently holed up in their homes located in the nearby mountains and have let a portion of the countryside around them get overrun by the dungeons.  Unfortunately, this means that the farms they still rely largely on for food are at risk of being wiped out – and like the Elves, I give them about a century before they starve to death in their mountain strongholds.

“Lastly, the Gnomes aren’t doing too badly right now, but a recent Dungeon Monster overrun of their Enchantment Learning Academy has wiped out many of the smartest and most knowledgeable Enchanters.  They rely on both those Enchanters and their War Machine manufacturers to defend them from the dungeons, and with one element of that disappearing, they will be in trouble in the future.  Without something to help them, I give them the best odds of surviving the longest if it were just a matter of their own dungeons they have to deal with – at about three centuries – but if the other races fall, they will go down quickly not too long afterward.

“Therefore, you can see that this portion of the world is slowly going downhill.  If these races fall, it is only a matter of time before these dungeons here get so powerful that they can extend their range to the lands of the Humans, Merfolk, and the Beastmen down south.  In less than half a millennium, I estimate that there will be only a few pockets of sentient life left in the world.”

After that proclamation, Winxa was silent again, though this time it was for much longer.  Sandra didn’t have that great of an ability to judge the passage of time when all she had to go on was a few faint sounds coming from the edge of her awareness, but she estimated that it was nearly an hour before the Dungeon Fairy spoke again.

“I know you can’t speak to me during your Core Size upgrade, but I can almost hear you screaming out questions in my direction.  The most obvious one is probably, ‘If The Creator made all the dungeons, why can’t they be uncreated?’  That’s an easy one, at least – they can’t.  The Creator only does one thing: create.  Taking away the dungeons already here is akin to destruction, and that is something that is completely impossible for The Creator to accomplish.

“An adjacent question to that one that you probably have is, ‘Then why can’t The Creator just create a new set of rules for the dungeons to follow?  Maybe one that makes them not kill all the sentient races?’  A very good question, though it is one that is a little harder for you to understand since you aren’t constrained by a contract.

“When the contract is agreed upon with the soul to inhabit the Dungeon Core and The Creator, there is a distinct hands-off clause in there that prevents The Creator from altering or inhibiting the Cores in any way once they are ‘born’.  It also prevents any type of interfering directly with the operation of the dungeons, like creating something nearby that would directly oppose a particular Core or Cores.  So, in short, The Creator’s hands are tied when it comes to saving the seven sentient races.”

Sandra couldn’t help but think that answered some of her questions, but the most important one still—

“That brings us to you, and what is likely your most pressing question, ‘What am I doing here?’  I think I have an answer, but not in an official…proclamation, so to say.  In fact, I’m not even sure if I can tell you this much without violating my own contract with The Creator, but I might as well try.  I think you’re here to—” Winxa abruptly cut off, her voice sounding like she was choking on something for a moment.  When she stopped coughing from whatever was in her throat, she tried again.  “You’re here to—” she started, only to once again choke on something and start coughing.

“I guess I can’t tell you.  Hmm…well, I assume what you choose to do is your own choice and telling you what to do or what I think you should do would be akin to advice, which is a no-no in my profession.  Oh well, not much I can do to get around that, but I will at least stick around for any other questions about your dungeon that you might have.  It’s a bit above and beyond what I’m usually asked to do, but there’s nothing in my contract stating I can’t do it.  Besides, I’m eager to see what you eventually choose to do.

“There is some more information I can give you that might interest you, and it is completely for informational purposes only and I am not suggesting a lick of advice with it.  Just so you are aware, there are four nearby villages, one in each of the races’ lands; they each have different needs that—” Winxa started choking again, though this time it was so violent that she actually fell off the top of Sandra’s Core when she couldn’t breathe.  Fortunately, the Dungeon Fairy was able to catch herself in the air before she hit the ground; a few seconds later, Winxa settled back down on the top of the Dungeon Core and held her hands up in defeat.

“Ok, ok – I get it, I get it.  Sorry, Sandra, but I have a feeling if I try to skirt the rules again it could kill me.  You’re on your own as far as that goes, but I will still be here as long as you need me to answer…dungeon construction and operation questions.”

Sandra couldn’t see the Dungeon Fairy’s face well from where she sat on top of her Core, but her voice sounded strained and defeated.  It was another chunk of time before Winxa spoke again – sounding a little better in the process – as she described how the fight against the Territory Ants was going.  Over the course of – Winxa later informed her it was 16 hours – her upgrade, Sandra had lost two-thirds of her construct force, but since she had increased it beforehand, she was still doing okay.  Another few hours, however, would’ve seen more and more Ants coming through to threaten her Core.

Your Core has grown!

Current Size: 5

Mana Capacity increased!

Ambient Mana Absorption increased!

Raw Material Capacity increased!

New Constructs option!

New Monster Seed Schematic available!

Trap Construction Options unlocked!

Through your use of the intuitive Dungeon Core interface, you have also learned the Mundane Object Creation skill!

Through your use of the intuitive Dungeon Core interface, you have also learned the Monster Seed Origination Adaptability skill!

Core Selection Menu

Dungeon Classification:

Constructs

Core Size:

5

Available Mana:

3/160

Ambient Mana Absorption:

.16/hour

Available Raw Material (RM):

125/800

Convert Raw Material to Mana?

125 RM -- > 5 Mana

Current Dungeon Monsters:

31

Constructs Creation Options:

4 (2)

Monster Seed Schematics:

2 (2)

Current Traps:

0

Trap Construction Options:

All

Core-specific Skills:

2

Mundane Object Creation?  Monster Seed Origination Adaptability?  None of that made any sense to her, but that wasn’t important right now.  She would look into everything she just received in a moment – including her new expanded awareness of her surroundings – but she wanted to make sure she was fully protected first.

Sandra’s Available Mana started to fill again from the deaths of the Ants and her Constructs funneling ambient Mana her way, and she ignored everything else as she rebuilt Animated Shears and Rolling Forces as soon as she accumulated enough of the precious resource.  There were plenty of monster seeds that she had made before she upgraded available, at least, so in less than ten minutes she had almost doubled her current construct force.  She breathed an imaginary breath of relief when she was no longer in danger of being overrun anytime soon.

So, what was that you were saying while I was upgrading my Core Size?  I couldn’t really hear you all that well.

The Fairy looked shocked, and then angry, though at who Sandra couldn’t really tell.  As Winxa looked ready to speak again, the Dungeon Core cut her off.

I’m just messing with you!  Now, where do we begin…

Sandra wasn’t aware that Dungeon Fairies flapped their wings faster when they were angry – who knew?

Chapter 12

Fortunately, Winxa got over her anger fairly quickly, especially when Sandra was enthusiastic to start getting rid of her “pest” problem.

“First, you hit the threshold Core Size of 5, didn’t you?  And you mentioned Mundane Object Creation and Monster Seed Origination Adaptability?  I’ve never heard of those before, but that’s not surprising. Can you try to dig into them to see what they are in detail?”

I can try that, hold on.

Sandra wasn’t really scared of the Ants anymore since her forces had held up remarkably well after two-thirds of a day of fighting.  With the reinforcements, she was happy to look into anything that would help eliminate her issue with volatile neighbors.  She pulled up her Core Selection Menu and went down to the Core-specific Skills section, where she found the two new skills she had received.  Fortunately, when she concentrated on each one, she was able to get a little more information on them – which she was thankful for, since trying to figure it out on her own didn’t always work well.

Mundane Object Creation

(Core-specific Skill)

Mundane Object Creation allows the Dungeon Core to create mundane objects such as furniture, tableware, writing instruments, and even tools.  This skill does not allow for the creation of anything that requires moving parts or elemental energy, nor will it be able to create anything intending to be used as a weapon or protective armor.  All Mundane Objects can only be created from dirt, stone, or any Monster Seed material.  Mundane Objects can only be created when no invaders are present.  Requirements: Mana and Raw Materials in a quantity specific to the Mundane Object being created.  (Skills are permanent and remain even after a Classification change)

Monster Seed Origination Adaptability

(Core-specific Skill)

Monster Seed Origination Adaptability allows the Dungeon Core to adapt special techniques to create otherwise un-accessible Monster Seeds for use in either Dungeon Monster creation or otherwise. Monster Seeds can only be created when no invaders are present. Requirements: Unknown.  (Skills are permanent and remain even after a Classification change)

As Sandra explained the two different skills to Winxa, she was slightly disappointed that they didn’t appear that useful in her current situation.  That wasn’t to say she wasn’t excited for the future, as she thought the Mundane Object Creation skill would likely prove invaluable; however, as she couldn’t use either of her new skills, they were essentially useless right now.

Her notification also mentioned access to new Trap Construction Options, but she got another angry red warning notification saying she couldn’t make changes to her dungeon while there were invaders.  Upgrading to Size 5 hasn’t seemed to give me anything I can use.

“Yes, it seems that way.”  Winxa overheard Sandra’s internal comment and answered unnecessarily.  “I’ve never heard of anything remotely like those two skills you received, though, so it will be interesting what you do with them later.  And what does it mean about a Classification change?  It’s impossible to change your Classification after it’s chosen—” the Dungeon Fairy stated but stopped when she looked over at Sandra again.  “Never mind, you seem to thrive on doing the impossible, so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.”

Sorry, I thought I told you about that when I was choosing my Classification in the first place; it said while I wasn’t locked into whatever I chose, all my Mana and Dungeon Monsters would be utilized to help with the change.

“That’s just crazy…but it makes sense.  If you aren’t constrained by contract, you shouldn’t be locked into a Classification either.  Hmm…” Winxa mused, before shaking her head and continuing.  “Anyway, none of that helps you right now.  If you don’t have skills or traps, and you can’t create a physical barrier, you don’t really have any other option other than bringing the fight to the source of your problem.  You’re going to have to kill the Queen with one of your Dungeon Monsters.”

How?  None of my Rolling Forces or Tiny Automatons could fit through a tunnel – even if they could get to them – and my Animated Shears will be destroyed within moments.  My Clockwork Spiders might be able to climb up a wall, but they’ll be dismantled almost as quickly.  I don’t have…

But she did have something she could use, once she thought about it.  Now that her Core had been upgraded, she could hopefully afford to make it, too.

Constructs Creation Options

Name:

Mana Cost:

Clockwork Spider

5

Small Animated Shears

10

Tiny Automaton

20

Rolling Force

25

Segmented Centipede

100 (Seed Unavailable)

Articulated Clockwork Golem

150 (Seed Unavailable)

Not only could she afford – Mana-wise – to create the Segmented Centipede, but she also had enough to make an Articulated Clockwork Golem.  Of course, it depended upon whether she had the right Monster Seeds.

Monster Seed Origination

Name:

Raw Material Cost:

Mana Cost:

Min. Mana:

Max. Mana:

Tiny Copper Orb

50

5

5

10

Small Copper Orb

100

10

5

25

Locked Seeds:

Unlock Requirements:

Mana Cost to Unlock:

Min. Mana:

Max. Mana:

Average Copper Orb

4 Small Copper Orbs

40

5

100

Large Copper Orb

2 Average Copper Orbs

80

5

200

Well, I can make some new Monsters, at least – so I’ll probably start there, Sandra thought resignedly.  She hoped that one of her new creations could take care of the problem, because otherwise she was at a stalemate again.

“Go for it!  There’s not really any other choice now,” the Dungeon Fairy told her.  “Oh, and by the way, you can absorb your Monster Seeds for half the cost of Mana spent on them, as well as the full cost of the Raw Materials if you don’t want to wait.”

What?!  That was information I could’ve used weeks ago, Winxa.

“Whoops, sorry – I thought I told you.  I…was a little derelict in my teaching duties, unfortunately, and I apologize.  It won’t happen again,” the Dungeon Fairy replied, looking sincerely apologetic.

You’re forgiven – but if you think of anything else that I should know, do try to tell me before it’s too late.

Winxa agreed whole-heartedly and Sandra absorbed a few of her Tiny Copper Orbs for their Mana; after waiting another minute or so for enough ambient Mana to be funneled from her existing Dungeon Monsters and Ant deaths, she was able to start unlocking more seeds.

New Monster Seed unlocked!

Average Copper Orb

Origination Raw Material Cost: 400

Origination Mana Cost: 40

Monster Min. Mana: 5

Monster Max. Mana: 100

New Monster Seed unlocked!

Large Copper Orb

Origination Raw Material Cost: 800

Origination Mana Cost: 80

Monster Min. Mana: 5

Monster Max. Mana: 200

In terms of relative size, her new Monster Seeds were massive compared to her original Tiny Copper Orb.  Strangely enough, even though the Large Copper Orb was nearly the size of one of her Clockwork Spiders, Sandra could still use it to make one.  She wasn’t sure how that worked, but the entire process of spawning her constructs in the first place was unusual.

A thought occurred to her when she looked at the different seeds she could make, so she asked Winxa.  Will using different size seeds make any difference to my constructs?

“Nope.  Even when you find other types of seeds, it does nothing to affect your Dungeon Monsters. You could use the most powerful seed in the world to create one of your tiny spiders, but it wouldn’t change anything about your construct at all.  Though, that scenario isn’t likely to happen, as there are usually minimum Mana amounts on the seeds,” the Dungeon Fairy answered her.

Sandra had seen indeed seen that minimum on her menu, so what Winxa had said made sense.  When she thought about what else the Fairy had said, she didn’t ever remember hearing from Heroes that the dungeon monsters were ever changed by the “loot” they carried, so Winxa was likely right.

After another couple of minutes of waiting for her Mana and Raw Materials to refill from the continued Territory Ant assault, she was finally able to construct her new monsters.

The Articulated Clockwork Golem was practically a giant in comparison to her other constructs.  It was humanoid in appearance – similar to her Tiny Automaton – but instead of a head on top of its shoulders, it instead contained two “eyes” on the front of its chest.  They were located nearly where the collarbone on a human would be, though they were about three times bigger than what she would consider “normal”.

Topping out at a whopping one foot tall, Sandra’s new Golem looked almost as wide, with its bulky torso and shoulders appearing like a large barrel on top of two stick-like legs with wide flat feet.  Its arms were three times the width of its legs and had multiple joints along their length which allowed it to move its upper appendages in multiple directions.  The arms also ended in two clamps, which would allow it to grasp something in its “hands”, which was helpful, but it also wouldn’t be doing anything intricate with them.  Compared to the Tiny Automaton’s simple up and down movement restrictions, however, the relatively free movement of her Golem was extraordinary.

Her large construct was also covered in a very thin plate of an unknown metal, which enclosed the majority of its clockwork innards; it appeared to be the same pliable metal that most of her other monsters were made of, which meant that after enough abuse it could get damaged and fall apart just as quickly.  It was an impressive addition to her arsenal of defenders, but it probably wouldn’t do anything to solve her immediate problem.

It was too big to fit inside the Ant tunnels, nor could it reach them.  Sandra tried to see if it could dig its own way up to the Queen, but after only a minute of scraping at a nearby wall, her Golem had only managed to carve away about three inches of the dirt and stone – and managed to damage one of its claw-like hands in the process.  She scrapped that idea and instead used it to smash and stomp any of the Ants that fell from the tunnels above.

Her Segmented Centipede, on the other hand, seemed like it was going to be the perfect solution.  Only slightly bigger than the Territory Ants in terms of fitting through the tunnels, her new construct boasted a long, sinuous body that was made up of 25 separate “segments” with 4 legs on each part, giving it a total of 100 legs.  On the front part of the lead segment, Sandra could see a deadly looking set of double pincers perpendicular to each other, which allowed the Centipede to clamp down on anything in its path with gripping force.  It looked like a large plus sign and would hopefully work extremely well slicing through the Ants with ease.

As Sandra was inspecting her new monster, she noticed that each segment slotted into the half-open backs of the one in front of it snugly.  From what she could see, they all had pinchers like the lead segment, and were using them to grip onto something inside the spherical body of each part of the Centipede.  After a little experimentation, Sandra saw that it was able to move around with great dexterity and could contort itself into tight places.  Although they worked as a whole to form the largely metal construct, each part of the Segmented Centipede was almost independent of each other – which meant that if one of them was destroyed, the rest could stay together to keep going.

The best part of her new Centipede, though, was the fact that it could mimic the way the Ants stuck to the ceiling and fit through the tunnels!  While her existing monsters continued to dish out damage and devastate the incoming Territory Ants, Sandra accumulated enough resources to create three more of the Segmented Centipedes.  When all four of her new constructs were ready to go, she sent them to the tunnels.

“Remember, you just need to kill the Queen – everything else will fall after she’s dead,” the Dungeon Fairy told her, after seeing how effective her new monsters would likely be.

Sandra felt a little sad when Winxa put it like that; as much as she wanted to deny that any of this was her fault, the fact that she did actually invade the Ants’ territory made her feel like the “evil” one in the situation.  Although she didn’t want to wipe out the entire colony, there was no way she could stop them otherwise, and setting up some sort of peaceful negotiation seemed unlikely – the two sides of the conflict couldn’t even communicate with each other.

So, it was with a heavy figurative heart that she watched her Centipedes first enter the tunnels.  As Sandra had thought, the heavy-duty pincers of her constructs were able to grip onto the heads of the Territory Ants when they came into range and essentially crush them with extraordinary force.  As the rest of their “bodies” followed after the lead segment, her Centipedes made encouraging progress up the tunnel, leaving bodies in their wake as they slowly-but-steadily fought against the tide of Ants.  Fortunately, the entire colony tunnel system was inside her Area of Influence, so she was able to absorb the bodies as her constructs progressed, freeing up room for them to move easier.

Damage to her monsters was inevitable, unfortunately.  The mandibles of the Ants still cut through the metal shells of the Centipedes in places before they died, and a few pincers were sliced apart as well.  By the time her constructs fought their way up to the wider main tunnel, each of them had lost at least two of their segments, with an unlucky one losing a total of four.

Sandra wasn’t idle, though, and was at work building even more of her Segmented Centipedes.  And, now that there were no more invaders inside her actual dungeon, she was able to accumulate more ambient Mana by having her former defenders roam throughout her room again, picking up all of the Mana just waiting for them to pass by.  Additionally, she was finally able to resume eating away at the walls, which gave her even more Raw Materials to make more Monster Seeds.

Sandra felt the tension that had been unknowingly settled on her Core start to fade away as the fight ranged farther away.  Now that she was fighting back – and effectively at that – she felt more confident that she was going to survive and thrive.

I think I can do this, she thought, as she sent another half-dozen Centipedes up through the tunnels.

Chapter 13

Fortunately, Sandra’s efforts paid off.  It took another two hours of the constant destruction of the Ants sent against them, but her Centipedes finally managed to reach the center of the colony where the Queen continued to frantically lay eggs by the dozens.  They were aided by the fact that the upper tunnels were a bit wider than the ones nearest her dungeon, allowing her constructs to fight two (or sometimes three) across, which turned out to be necessary.

She was glad that she had sent additional forces, because the initial four that she had created were already destroyed.  As her army of constructs got closer to the Queen, the already overworked Ant in charge started to desperately lay even more eggs somehow; the resulting waves of Territory Ants swarmed over her lead constructs with suicidal abandon, but luckily the flood was short-lived.  After two minutes of progressively larger waves of Ants destroying her Centipedes, the Queen went back to laying them at the same pace as before.

“Most wild creatures can use their innate energy to perform special attacks or skills, which is likely what that Queen just did to increase production.  Fortunately for you, that last-ditch effort probably used up the last of her reserve – it should be normal for you from now on,” Winxa told Sandra after she asked about the sudden increase in Ants.

Can my Dungeon Monsters do that too?

“Normally, yes.  In fact, most of the skills that dungeon cores receive after they hit certain thresholds deal with increasing the effectiveness of either their Monsters or their traps inside their dungeon.  Usually, a dungeon’s Monsters use their innate energy based upon their Core’s Classification to perform their special attacks, but your…constructs…don’t seem to have any.  Yes, they are magically animated and use every element to make them work, but they don’t have a reserve of magical energy to tap into.  This makes them actually stronger by themselves, but they don’t have any special attacks to speak of,” the Dungeon Fairy replied matter-of-factly.

That was slightly concerning, but it wasn’t something Sandra had to worry about right now, however, as her Centipedes were doing a great job despite not having any “special attacks”.  As the four remaining, partially damaged constructs entered the large birthing chamber, a dozen Territory Ants seemed to spawn out of nowhere and attack her Centipedes.  They were three times the size of a normal Ant, which meant they would have difficulty moving down the lower tunnels, but they appeared to be there only for the purpose of defending the Queen.

Their larger heads and bodies made it difficult for her constructs to effectively attack them, while the Ants’ bigger and sharper mandibles sliced massive furrows into the sides of her Centipedes.  Two of her constructs went down quickly within the first minute, but not without inflicting their own casualties; half of the dozen that had attacked were crippled when the Centipedes switched from trying to attack the bodies of the Ants to their legs – which were much easier to reach and amputate.

The two remaining constructs used the same tactic and their superior agility (and dozens of legs) to maneuver away from the deadly sharp mandibles to cripple the last few guard Ants.  Unfortunately, in the process, one of Sandra’s Centipedes got hacked apart when one of them was set upon from three sides, leaving only a single segment left over when all was said and done.  The remaining, mostly whole construct was able to take advantage of the Ants’ attention on its unfortunate brethren and managed to snap through dozens of Ant legs, removing their threat once and for all.

The fight also allowed more generic Territory Ants to birth in time to attack in a large wave, which swamped the biggest threat to their existence: the 21-segment Centipede still standing.  Sandra instructed her other construct that only had one segment to retreat for a moment and start making its way to the Queen.  From her constant surveillance of it over the last day, she had seen that the massive insect didn’t seem to have any real offensive or defensive weapons; although it was at least ten times the size of the Ants it birthed, it didn’t have any mandibles and its body was so big that it couldn’t move quicker than it needed to in order to lay eggs around the room.

Therefore, as Sandra’s larger Centipede was being slowly whittled down by the spawning Ants, her single-segment construct quickly rushed the Queen.  Two Ants tried to intercept it from the cluster surrounding her other force in the room, but her monster was surprisingly fast now that it didn’t have to transport twenty-four other segments.

It reached the Queen at least two Ant-lengths ahead of them and immediately attacked the head of the oblivious matriarch, clamping down and slicing through its right eye and upper antennae.  The massive Ant reacted by rearing up in pain and eliciting a horrendous shriek out of its huge mouth that Sandra wasn’t even aware the insects could make; her segment was fortunately able to hang on as it had clamped down with its pincers and was lifted into the air.

Seeing an opportunity, Sandra had her construct release its hold on the side of the large Ant’s head, while she watched the Queen’s scream of pain immediately call over the remaining Ants that were finishing off her other Centipede.  They rushed to her aid, but they were too late: her single-segment construct fell off towards the mouth of the humongous insect and easily slipped inside.

Less than a minute later – and after more screams and massive internal damage – the Territory Ant Queen fell to the ground with a loud *thump*, squishing a couple of smaller Ants that were swarming around trying to find some way to help.  Everything in the central birthing chamber was silent for a few moments, before her remaining segment started to cut through the side of the now-dead Queen’s head with disgusting squishing noises.

The Ants quickly attacked and destroyed Sandra’s remaining construct, before turning to leave.  She wasn’t sure if they were planning to mindlessly attack her dungeon like they had been doing, but she wasn’t taking any chances.  Three more Centipedes that she was able to produce before the attack in the Queen’s chamber finally arrived and were quickly able to wipe out the remaining Ants in less than a minute.

There were still dozens of eggs around the room, however, but Sandra was hesitant to destroy them before they hatched.  For some reason, even though her constructs had killed thousands of the Ants before that – as well as disemboweling their Queen – the thought of killing them in egg form was abhorrent to her.  Still, she didn’t want to leave anything behind that might be able to attack her unexpectedly again. As a compromise, she chose to wait until they hatched and attacked her Centipedes before she would decide what to do about them.

But they never hatched.  Sandra waited for over five minutes for anything to happen, but their previous accelerated spawning seemed to have come to a halt.

What’s going on?  Why aren’t the eggs hatching?

Sandra actually forgot the Fairy was there for a moment because all of her focus had been elsewhere.  “Now that the Queen is no more, they won’t react the same way.  Most likely they will stay inert until either another Queen arrives, or another colony moves in.”

When she looked at them closer, Sandra could see that Winxa was right.  They didn’t seem to be growing or moving at all, and none of them appeared to be as “active” as they were before – if that was the right word.  In fact, they almost felt similar to the corpses of the thousands of Ants that were killed and absorbed; going even further, they almost felt like…

New Monster Seed Origination Material found!

Territory Ant Egg

While the Territory Ant Egg cannot be directly used as a Monster Seed, it can be combined with specific other materials to create a whole new Monster Seed.

What!?  She had instinctively tried to absorb one of the eggs like she would with almost anything else she found in her Area of Influence, and the result shocked her.

“What?  What happened?”

Sandra explained to Winxa the results of her absorption, to which the Dungeon Fairy looked almost as confused as she was.  What does that even mean?

“I have no idea what that means.  Your situation is unique and seems to break all the rules, making a good chunk of my previous knowledge unreliable at best, so your guess is as good as mine.”

Putting it out of her mind for the moment, Sandra absorbed the rest of the Ant eggs in the chamber and saw that they also provided a small amount of Raw Materials in addition to whatever had happened before.  She felt a little better about absorbing them rather than destroying them outright, so she left the colony behind knowing that – despite the complete destruction of everything living in the colony’s territory – they would live on in another form…somehow.

With the threat to her survival and expansion finally eliminated, Sandra could finally get back to what she was doing before the Ants had attacked.  But this time, she had someone who could help guide her – because she still had very little idea of what she was doing.

*        *        *

“Had you ever been in a dungeon before this?” Winxa asked plainly.

Can’t say that I have.

“Well, the idea is not to have one gigantic room; if there is just one obstacle between you and anyone wishing to do you harm, then it really defeats the purpose of having a dungeon in the first place.”

The Dungeon Core in her wanted to get right back into expanding her dungeon, accumulating Mana, and increasing her Core Size, but now that she was out of immediate danger, she needed to have a better end goal in mind.  Since the Dungeon Fairy was prohibited from giving direct advice, Sandra instead just asked questions about dungeons in general.

So I need to do what, exactly?  Build more rooms?

Winxa thought about it for a moment before answering.  “Again, I can’t give you specific advice, but I can tell you how some of the dungeon rules and properties work.  And—” she held up her hand as if to stop Sandra from interrupting— “these rules are universal to all dungeons, which means that not even your seemingly impossible existence will let you get around them.  The main thing that the contract enforces is the driving need for dungeons to expand – everything else just stems from that.  Their habit to kill other creatures and sentient races comes from their need for Mana and expansion, which has worked as intended for hundreds of years.  Of course, there are some issues now, but it is still working elsewhere…”

The Fairy looked a little pensive for a moment, before she continued.  “Anyway, back to the matter at hand.  Dungeon Cores don’t just employ monsters to defend them, but traps as well.  These traps are usually dependent upon your Classification; for instance, a Fire-based Classification dungeon can use defenses such as flame jets that shoot out of a wall, pools of lava under unstable bridges, and pit traps filled with ever-burning flames.  Your imagination is the essentially the limit when it comes to creating them, though the larger and more complex they are, the more they will cost in terms of Mana.

“Once you have them set up, they will continue to spring and reset with nothing other than the initial investment – though they use the nearby ambient Mana to recharge them if they use an extraordinary amount of Mana when triggered.  The larger and more complicated the trap, the more ambient Mana around it is absorbed.  In my earlier example, if you had a room full of lava, it would be likely that the entire room’s ambient Mana would be used to fuel the persistent state of the trap – but that is an extreme example.

“Also, if you decide that you don’t want them there or would like them moved, you’ll lose all the Mana you put into the traps if you choose to remove it.  Luckily, unlike the Raw Materials needed to create Monster Seeds, you need absolutely nothing for your traps – they are all creations of Mana.

“The major limitation of traps, however, is that you can only place one per room, which means that even if you make a giant room the size of a mountain, you can still only put one of the Mana-formed defenses inside there.  On the other side of the spectrum, a room has to be a minimum size to be eligible for a trap, so you can’t make a hundred tiny rooms and place traps inside each one.  A good rule of thumb in room creation, therefore, is that if you can’t place a trap inside, it’s too small.  Anyway, like I was saying, most dungeons tend to create a bunch of average-sized rooms in between them and surface, so that they can utilize as many traps as possible.”

Sandra thought about that for a few minutes, knowing that the information she was being given wasn’t necessarily advice, but she considered it valuable anyway.  While she didn’t want to be “like most dungeons”, the overall theory behind the defense was a good one and was something she felt she had to consider.

After having her “second life” threatened by the Territory Ants, Sandra could see the importance of defense.  If she had known beforehand of the ability to create stone using Mana and Raw Materials, she would’ve completely encapsulated her dungeon in the hard surface, preventing the invasion in the first place.  She couldn’t guarantee the Ants wouldn’t have still tried to attack, but the entire thing would’ve been quite a bit more manageable.

Prevention was obviously the key.  Sandra knew that she would eventually get to the surface – and was looking forward to seeing the sun again, even if it was through the eyes of her monsters – and she had to be ready.  Not only that, but it was entirely possible that another colony of Territory Ants could be underground, or even something worse.  She didn’t have as much knowledge about creatures, beasts, and other wild animals as she would’ve liked, and there was every possibility that there were things she had never heard of in this part of the world she hadn’t ever visited before.

Therefore, before she did anything else, Sandra used her resources to finish the stone covering she had started before the Ant attack.  She had to borrow some more Raw Materials from the walls she was intending to expand a little, but in a short time she had completely finished her main cave, which Winxa mentioned was normally called the “Core Room”.

Makes sense, I guess.

“Yeah, most of the names for things are simple, otherwise many of the insane Dungeon Cores couldn’t understand it very well.  Of course, you can call it whatever you like,” Winxa commented.

It works for now.  I’ll give it some thought, though.

Once the stone covering was complete – with just a single area where she wanted to expand, Sandra looked through one of her slowly drifting Animated Shears at her new place for a different perspective.  She had evened off the “dome” so that the corners and edges ended in a straight line and she had four relatively even walls.  It suited her more than the curved look it had before, so that it almost looked like a room inside of a building – with a brightly-glowing rock suspended in the middle of it.

Overall, the room wasn’t very attractive, with just a grey stone color nearly everywhere she looked; however, she was happy with her work and was proud to call it…dare she say it?...home.

“I like that name.  Home.”

Me too.

Chapter 14

Over the next few weeks, Sandra concentrated on expanding and making rooms.  Starting from the open end that she had left stone-less for that purpose, she created a tunnel 5 feet tall and 4 wide, which led to a large, square, open room with 20-foot ceilings and walls that were 50 feet across.  She then covered all of that in stone, leaving it relatively impenetrable from the outside.

She converted the Raw Materials she absorbed from creating the room into Monster Seeds, which let her create a small army of Animated Shears, Rolling Forces, and Segmented Centipedes.  The Shears gathered up all of the ambient Mana from the middle of the room, the Rolling metal balls covered the floor, and the Centipedes were able to roam all over the walls and ceiling.  After a little experimentation, she found that she needed to maintain about a dozen of her flying Shears, six Rolling Forces, and eight Centipedes to maintain the gathering of ambient Mana throughout the room.

When she looked back “Home”, the number of constructs still inside was a little overkill as far as gathering up ambient Mana, but she was reluctant to part with them.  She kept them close by because they helped her feel a little more protected, even though nothing could get to her now (or at least she hoped).

Obviously, even after creating 26 monsters for her new room, she still had an overabundance of resources.  As a result, Sandra was slowly accumulating a giant pile of Copper Orbs of different sizes around the floor near her Core.  Since she knew she could get some of that back if she needed to absorb them, they acted almost like currency and the floor a bank that she could withdraw from, though it came with a not-so-small fee of half of the mana that she used to create them.

With her expanded Area of Influence, she could see that the territory she now controlled extended up to about 120 feet in every direction.  Given that her two rooms were already pushing that limit, she decided that it was time to upgrade her Core Size again.  After 24 hours of Winxa regaling her with inane stories about her fellow Dungeon Fairies – which Sandra was honestly happy for, since it helped pass the time when she was relatively helpless – she finally achieved Core Size 6.

Your Core has grown!

Current Size: 6

Mana Capacity increased!

Ambient Mana Absorption increased!

Raw Material Capacity increased!

Core Selection Menu

Dungeon Classification:

Constructs

Core Size:

6

Available Mana:

2/320

Ambient Mana Absorption:

.32/hour

Available Raw Material (RM):

800/1600

Convert Raw Material to Mana?

800 RM -- > 32 Mana

Current Dungeon Monsters:

85

Constructs Creation Options:

6

Monster Seed Schematics:

4

Current Traps:

0

Trap Construction Options:

All

Core-specific Skills:

2

It wasn’t nearly as impressive of an upgrade as her other ones, but at least she could handle more Mana and Raw Materials.  Her Ambient Mana Absorption was still pitiful, but she guessed it was good to have that kind of fallback option if she lost all of her mobile ambient Mana collectors, otherwise known as her Dungeon Monsters.

What excited her the most about her upgraded Core Size was the expansion of her Area of Influence.  Being able to see through the dirt and stone for nearly 250 feet in every direction was amazing, and she was eager to keep that going.  She couldn’t see the surface quite yet, but from the few tunnels leading up from the now empty Territory Ant colony, Sandra could sense that it was probably close – but she figured it would take at least another upgrade in order to see it.

As she started to absorb material from the tunnel leading to the next room, Sandra thought about what kind of traps to put in her finished rooms.  Although she was “sealed” right now, that didn’t mean something couldn’t try to sneak in when she wasn’t looking.  The only place they could easily come through was the section she was currently working on, so all she really needed to do was ensure anything coming through that direction was properly handled.  She briefly thought about the possibility of something cracking their way through her seamless stone walls; however, if there was something powerful enough to do that, then a simple trap probably wouldn’t prevent them from getting to her if they really wanted to.

It turned out that traps were quite expensive Mana-wise.  She now knew why the option to even build them wasn’t even available until she hit Core Size 5, because she wouldn’t have been able to afford to build a single one.  She was hoping for some sort of list through her Core Selection Menu, but Winxa reminded her that they were entirely created through her imagination and the costs were based on whatever she decided to build.

The good thing was, though, if she didn’t have enough Mana, she didn’t lose anything when she tried to imagine and place a trap.  The only thing that happened was…nothing.  It was only when she accumulated 250 Mana did her first trap spring to life in her Home.

Since she wasn’t exactly sure what she was going up against, the only thing she could think of to build – and that wasn’t too complex, based on Winxa’s explanation that the more complicated the trap meant it was more expensive – was a simple pit trap right in front of the entrance that had a thin film of rigid dirt camouflaging it.  Ideally, anything crossing it would break through the thin film and fall several feet onto a bunch of sharp stone spikes a foot long.  Simple, yet hopefully effective – and cheap.  Anything more complicated than that was probably going to be much more expensive.

Even if she was able to store and use more Mana, she had trouble imagining ways to kill other creatures or people – even if they were trying to harm her.  She didn’t really have a choice when it came to the Territory Ants, but she would rather try to dissuade anything that came looking for her rather than have to permanently deal with them like she was forced to with those annoying insects. Sandra resolved to do whatever it took to ensure she survived, but she wasn’t looking to deliberately seek out enemies – she imagined she’d have plenty of those in the future without looking for more.

With at least one trap in place, she felt a little better about forging ahead.  It wasn’t a lot of extra protection, but hopefully it would be enough to deter anything that forced its way inside.

She built another short, stone-covered tunnel leading to the next room, and was determined to spend the next day clearing out the dirt and stone inside where she planned to build a smaller room.  It was repetitive and monotonous, but she didn’t care; the work kept her busy and she had a goal she was working toward.  Winxa, on the other hand, got really tired of waiting around – especially since Sandra was concentrating on what she was doing and couldn’t hold up her end of a conversation.

“I’d forgotten how boring being a Dungeon Fairy could be.  Lately, I’m usually in a dungeon for less than a few days, and those days are blessedly quick with all the teaching I have to do with a new Core.  But this—” she waved her hand around at the slowly developing room, where she had been watching her absorb and convert the new walls to stone— “is mind-numbing.  If you’re ok with it, I’m going to go back to my own realm and see if I can find out any other information that I might have missed by talking with the other Dungeon Fairies there.  I promise to come back at least once a day to check up on you.”

Your own “realm”?

“Of course!  Since Dungeon Fairies aren’t technically one of the seven sentient races in the world, we have our own alternate realm where we live.  It’s not very large, but there aren’t very many of us and we don’t need much.  Despite that, it’s…home.  I’m sure you can understand.”

Sandra did, and gave permission to the Fairy even if it wasn’t required.  Before she left, Winxa flew over to her Core and placed her hand briefly along the outside.  For the first time since she had been reborn into her new existence as a floating piece of glowing rock, she thought she could physically “feel” something.  A soothing warmth spread though her Core, evoking a feeling of joy and contentment.  All too soon, Winxa took her hand away and the feeling largely disappeared, though she could feel a lingering tingle when she concentrated on it.

“I’ve never done that before, but I felt like it was necessary,” the Dungeon Fairy explained.  “A little part of my soul is now inside your Core, which you can tap into to call me – no matter what realm I’m in.  I’ll still check in with you every day, though if you run into an emergency, don’t hesitate to reach out.  Alright, I’ll be going now, but I’ll be back tomorrow – unless you have any questions?”

Sandra couldn’t think of anything at that moment, especially since she was still in awe at being able to physically feel something after so long.  I’ll be fine, you go ahead and go.  I’ll contact you if I need you.

As soon as the Dungeon Fairy left through another portal, Sandra felt the loneliness creep back into her mind.  Even though she hadn’t been technically talking to the Fairy – digging out her new room had taken most of her attention – it still felt comforting knowing Winxa was there.  Fortunately, the lingering warmth that suffused her Core eased that loneliness so that she could continue to work without too many issues.

After a few more hours of absorbing material, she was surprised by another notification that popped up in her vision.

New Monster Seed and Origination Material found!

Tin Ore

While Tin Ore can be directly used as a Monster Seed, it can also be combined with specific other materials to create a whole new Monster Seed.

Tin Ore?  Tin Ore…Tin Ore…why does that stir one of my memories…

There was something there at the edge of her mind, but the more she worried at it, the harder it was to grasp.  Sandra let it go for a moment, hoping that something later would help jog her memory.  She instead excitedly looked at what kind of Monster Seed she had found…and was disappointed.

It seemed that Tin Ore translated into a Tiny Tin Orb seed that was virtually identical to the Tiny Copper Orb.  The larger sizes were locked, but with a little application of Raw Materials and Mana, she was able to unlock the larger sizes through melding them together.

Monster Seed Origination

Name:

Raw Material Cost:

Mana Cost:

Min. Mana:

Max. Mana:

Tiny Copper Orb

50

5

5

10

Tiny Tin Orb

50

5

5

10

Small Copper Orb

100

10

5

25

Small Tin Orb

100

10

5

25

Average Copper Orb

400

40

5

100

Average Tin Orb

400

40

5

100

Large Copper Orb

800

80

5

200

Large Tin Orb

800

80

5

200

It was when she was watching two Average Tin Orbs combine together to create the Large version of the Monster Seed that the memory that she was trying to track down popped into her head.

When Sandra was 11 years old, she remembered watching a blacksmith in a small village to the far south of Muriel melt some locally mined ores down in a forge.  She was eagerly awaiting the chance to see him make some unusual triple-edged knives called a Cyclon; however, she ended up learning more than that during her visit.

Normally, she had seen blacksmiths plying their crafts with already-prepared resources, but the village she was visiting – she forgot the name, but she vividly remembered the crafting demonstration – didn’t have access to certain materials.  Because he was intending to use something a little harder and durable than the readily available copper and tin ore from nearby, the blacksmith needed to craft a new material.

By combining a small amount of melted Tin to a large quantity of melted Copper, he was able to make a Bronze alloy from the two metals.  If she remembered correctly, it was about 10% Tin to 90% Copper, which made a Bronze metal that was quite a bit stronger than either of the two base metals by themselves.  She was fascinated by the process, as she didn’t realize that creating the materials themselves could be a type of crafting.

Using this knowledge, Sandra created a Tiny Tin Orb and a Large Copper Orb and placed them next to each other separate from her hoard of Copper Orbs.  Concentrating on them intently, she attempted to infuse them with Mana like she did when she turned the walls to stone, imagining the two orbs fusing together.  She could picture it vividly in her mind – both the way they would meld/mix together and the different properties of the resultant Bronze metal; she grew excited when the two different metallic orbs started to glow with the infused Mana.

And, miraculously……….it didn’t work.

What am I doing wrong?  Does it need to be exact proportions?

Sandra used her new Mundane Object Creation skill to produce what appeared (to her mind at least) to be perfectly proportioned blocks of both Tin and Copper.  It was actually easier than she thought it would be; all she had to do was use her imagination to picture exactly what she wanted, and her skill automatically pulled the required Mana and Raw Materials.  What surprised her, however, was that the cost to produce non-Monster-Seed-blocks of the metals that were approximately the same size was significantly less.  It’s probably because I can’t use these skill-made blocks as seeds.  After a quick experimentation where she tried to use the larger Copper block to create a new construct, her theory was proved correct when it didn’t work.

Trying again with a better-proportioned quantity of the two metals, Sandra tried for over an hour and wasted at least 500 total Mana over that time trying to get it to work.  Unfortunately, nothing proved to be successful and she was ready to give up – when she suddenly had a thought.

What if I’m going about this the wrong way?

The blacksmith she had watched as a child hadn’t taken the easy route to create the Bronze he needed.  He didn’t have Mana like she did to help meld the two metals together; instead, he used his forge to melt the Tin and Copper down and mix them together with the tools at his disposal.

If I’m going to craft, I might as well start now.

After all, Sandra didn’t want to be just any old ordinary dungeon.  No, what she wanted to create was a crafter’s paradise.  A place with a vast variety of materials and tools available in order to create anything one could imagine.

A true Crafter’s Dungeon!

Yeah, I think that sounds good.

Chapter 15

Sandra split her attention from the expansion of her new room and her new project.  It was difficult at first, because she could only concentrate on one thing at a time; she was either absorbing new Raw Material and converting the walls of the new room to stone – or she was inside her Home, working on developing a way to start crafting.  After a frustrating hour of going back and forth, with neither of them progressing as fast as she wanted, she was wishing she could just split her mind in two places when something finally *clicked* in her head.

Suddenly, her concentration was split in two; one part was using her senses to look at the new, smaller room she was excavating, while the other part was in the second room, looking at the small forge she was starting to build.  Sandra froze in concern for a moment, worried that she had somehow fractured her mind and was starting to go insane after all that time.  Almost a minute later of cautious experimentation, however, she found that she could control things in both viewpoints, though it was somewhat cumbersome.  With a bit more practice, she got used to her split mind, and it became easier to handle what she was doing in each place.

Instead of using the majority of the Raw Materials that she was absorbing from the new room on additional Monster Seeds, Sandra instead used it – along with the ambient Mana that her constructs were funneling to her – to create a small forge for her crafting endeavors.  She decided to place it in the second room away from her Core; although she had quite a bit of knowledge in her mind, she had never actually crafted anything before and didn’t want a potential accident to destroy her fragile physical shell.

Off in the corner away from the tunnel leading out, Sandra used her resources to construct a very small stone forge; it wasn’t large because the only construct that had any hope of using it was her Golem – which was only a foot tall.  Luckily, what she wanted to accomplish with that initial forge wasn’t too complex, so it didn’t need to be that large or complicated.

Normally, a forge was constructed with a few necessary parts: a hearth where the burning fuel is placed, a bellows of some type to provide air, and an external pipe where that air can be pumped into the hearth to make the fuel burn hotter.  Sandra, though, didn’t have need of any of those – because her heat was going to be produced by her Dungeon Core Mana.

She did, however, need a place to contain the heat in a specific place.  With that in mind, she created a small, square, enclosed stone box two feet tall, with a six-inch square opening on one side.  In the middle of the box she created a thick stone grate with crisscrossing slats that formed holes about a half-inch wide, which would allow the heat to transfer all around whatever was placed inside.  It was very basic, but that was all she really needed.

For her heat source, she needed to create a trap on the inside of her new forge.  At first, she thought she should just put lots of flames that would shoot out and hope for the best; after more consideration, she realized she needed to be able to regulate the temperature inside.  If she wanted to do any type of crafting other than melting two metals together, she needed to be able to tone it down so that whatever was placed inside wouldn’t quickly melt into a puddle.

Sandra ended up creating six super-hot flame jets on the bottom of the forge that would shoot upwards, mirrored by six additional flame jets on the top that would shoot downwards.  With the small, enclosed space, the heat provided by those flames would likely be able to melt just about anything she could place inside.

However, with a dozen different sources of heat, she needed a way to be able to only turn on what she needed.  The simplest solution turned out to be the best; depending on the placement of whatever was set on the stone grate (she placed tiny numbers on different spots, so that she wouldn’t forget), a certain number of flame jets would ignite and stay lit for as long as whatever was inside stayed there.  Once it was removed, the fires would go out, only to be retriggered when something else was placed inside.

Since the area she wanted to place her trap wasn’t very big, she didn’t think the Mana cost would be that large, but the quantity, intensity of the flames, and the triggering mechanisms jacked up the expenditure.  Fortunately, she was able to get everything she wanted for the low price of 300 Mana – practically a steal for limitless free heat production.

And now it was time to test it out.

She moved her Articulated Clockwork Golem to the second room, though she almost lost it when she forgot about her spike-filled pit trap near the tunnel entrance.  Fortunately, since it was relatively slow, she was able to stop it before it did more than trigger the collapsing film of flooring above it.  She quickly built a small stone bridge over the trap which allowed her one-foot-tall construct to safely cross, and it was on its way.

When it finally arrived near her forge, Sandra had already prepared everything it was going to need.  Since she didn’t have access to a wide variety of materials, she used her Mundane Object Creation skill to create some stone tools which would assist her in the forging process.  First, she created a large stone crucible in the shape of a flat-bottomed bowl, in which she placed a small block of Tin and a much larger block of Copper.  The crucible was the object which would go directly into the forge, and it had two thick circular rings permanently attached to the sides of it.

Next, she formed a stone mold in the shape of a large brick, in which she would pour the melted metal contents of the crucible once it was done in the forge.  Lastly, she formed two stone rods about a foot in length, the purpose of which was to slide through the crucible’s circular rings to lift it into and out from the forge in relative safely.  Not that she was worrying about burning herself, but she didn’t want to destroy her construct unnecessarily.

With everything as set as it was going to be, Sandra checked everything else going on with the excavation and development of the other room.  Her partitioned mind seemed to be functioning how it was supposed to, but she put an extra task for it to complete – create more Monster Seeds when her resources started to reach maximum capacities.  Her Mana was actually increasing fast enough that it would hit her limit of 320 within an hour if she left it alone, so she also wanted to start creating more constructs for the new room from her existing seeds.

Now that she didn’t have anything else to take care of, the Dungeon Core-turned-crafter could concentrate on the task at hand.  Sandra took direct control of her Articulated Clockwork Golem for the first time – and promptly toppled over on her construct’s face when she tried to take a step.  This thing seems top-heavier than I was expecting.  Fortunately, the basic shape of the Golem was familiar to her with two legs and two arms; it just took her a few minutes to get used to the wide stance and skinny legs of her construct.

When she practiced moving around a little, Sandra quickly gained enough confidence that she didn’t think she’d faceplant again if she took her time.  What she was most glad of, though, was the freer range of movement of its arms in comparison to her Tiny Automaton; she could move each arm in multiple directions, bend two different joints to angle them in different ways, and even cross her arms if she wanted to.  The main limitation was her clamp-hands, which could only do one real thing – clamp down tightly on something.  Fortunately, that was all she really needed it to do right now.

She was glad to see that the damage that had been done to her Golem while it was trying to dig through the wall a few days ago had been repaired.  I wonder how and when that happened?  Sandra didn’t think about it long, because she thought the answer was obvious: it was a Mana-formed Monster and used nearby ambient Mana to repair itself.  She wasn’t sure how fast those repairs were, but when she looked around at the other constructs in her Home, they had all been fully repaired since the battle as well.

Without wasting any more time, Sandra picked up the two strong-but-thin stone rods with her clamp-hands and inserted them into the side rings of the crucible.  It was far more difficult than she expected, because despite the many improvements over her previous Golem, it still didn’t have any wrists.  She thought it was interesting that a single joint in the body could make such a difference in completing tasks – especially when she was only trying to place a long pole in a tiny hole.  After much patience and not a little frustration, she was finally able to push the two rods through.

Now more confident that her plan was going to work, she picked up the crucible using the stone rods and brought it to her new trap-fueled forge.  She didn’t have exact knowledge of how hot the flames were going to be or how much she was going to need to activate at the same time to melt the contents of the crucible, so she started by placing the crucible in the spot where three of the flame jets were supposed to trigger.

Despite not having the ability to test her design before, it worked just as she had imagined it.  Two flaming jets emerged from the bottom of the forge and shot upwards, the flames licking underneath the stone grate.  A similar flame jet shot down near the crucible from the inside roof, adding another layer of heat to the stone oven.  After only about 15 seconds, she could see the Copper block inside her container start to glow with the added heat, but the Tin was already starting to melt.

When Sandra moved it two spaces over so that there were now 5 flame jets heating up both the crucible and the Tin and Copper metals inside.  Because observing things in her Area of Influence didn’t transfer physical sensations like heat, she was able to move her viewpoint to right above the crucible; as a result, she could see that the Tin was completely melted and was hiding underneath the other metal block.  Meanwhile the Copper was starting to get soft like putty and was fully covering the Tin after a few moments.  If she remembered correctly, the two metals had wildly different melting points, which meant that another flame should probably do the trick.

Unfortunately, there was a side-effect to her efficient heating system.  In addition to the material she placed inside, her flame jets began to heat up the surrounding stone to dangerous levels.  A loud *crack* resounded through the small forge, which was quickly followed up by a large visible crack in the stone grating next to her crucible.  Thinking fast, and desperate to save her forge from the heat that it wasn’t designed to withstand, Sandra poured all her available Mana and Raw Materials – which were nearly at maximum capacity by that point – into all of the stone inside the forge and within a few inches of it.  She envisioned giving it a major boost to its heat resistance and changing it enough that it could withstand even the full brunt of the flames and heat that the forge could put out.

All the stone she had been targeting started to glow brightly to her senses, as the Mana she infused in it did…something.  She wasn’t sure if it was working the way she wanted, but she also didn’t hear any more cracking from inside the forge.  After only a couple of seconds, the glow surrounding the stone faded, leaving behind a drastically changed forge.

The previously dull-grey stone of the forge and the surrounding flooring and walls were now a shiny black color, almost like dark glass.  When she looked inside the forge again, the grate was repaired and was the same dark-colored stone as the rest.  As for her crucible and two rods, they were fused together with the same black substance, making one complete tool.  It wasn’t what she had originally intended, as she wanted the poles to be able to be detached so that they didn’t heat up too much while the crucible was inside the forge, but hopefully with the new stone it wouldn’t be too hot to hold.  Considering the difficulty her Golem had manipulating the rods in the first place, that might even work out better for her plans.

Sandra saw that the two metals inside the container were still there, completely untouched from what she had done with the surrounding stone.  She waited another minute to see if the five flames were going to cause any more damage to the forge, but it didn’t seem to be doing anything.

Although she couldn’t feel pain from excessive heat, Sandra was still cautious with her Golem as she grabbed onto the ends of the crucible poles.  While her construct didn’t have skin that could get burnt and blistered by grabbing onto hot stone, the heat could still damage and melt the relatively thin metal its claws were made from.  Luckily, there didn’t seem to be any damaging heat emanating from the rods, so she was easily able to move the entire crucible contraption over to the spot where six flame jets – three each on top and bottom – would bathe the metal in even more heat.

And that seemed to be the trick.  The Copper blocks started to melt and run together with the Tin underneath; she left it inside the forge for another few minutes as the Copper block completely melted.  When she thought it was about ready, she pulled the darkened Copper-colored liquid out of the fire and brought it over to the stone mold she had set up previously.  The mold, unlike the rest of the stone around the forge, hadn’t been included in the heat conversion like the rest – and Sandra worried that it would crack as soon as the hot liquid metal touched it.

Fortunately, she needn’t have worried as she slowly and deliberately tilted the crucible’s contents into the mold, watching the new Bronze alloy flow into the shape of a rectangular brick.  It was a little difficult for the Golem to maneuver the crucible with any type of fine control, but she managed to bend its arm joints in such a way that she ended up only splashing out a dozen drops or so of molten liquid onto the nearby floor.

Sandra knew the – hopefully – Bronze alloy still had to cool inside the mold, so Sandra went back to the forge, which was quiet and dark now that the flames inside had stopped.  Because she had done…something to the stone, she wanted to know how durable and heat resistant it really was.  She placed the crucible back inside and started to incrementally increase the amount of flame jets being shot out, looking to see if there was a point where the entire thing would fall apart.

By some miracle, even at a full dozen flames raging through the forge, the stone appeared not to suffer in the slightest.  It was almost as if it was not only resistant, but nearly immune; she couldn’t see a single thing affected by the heat inside the forge the surrounding walls and floor.

Her Articulated Clockwork Golem, however, didn’t do so well.  After she had left the crucible inside the forge for nearly five minutes to test the durability of the stone, she walked up to the two poles sticking out, grabbed them both with her clamp-hands, and promptly fell forward as her construct’s body practically melted from the sheer heat the forge was putting out.  Luckily, her falling Golem managed to keep its grip on the crucible just long enough to pull it out of the forge as it fell, though the momentum caused it to be flung a few feet away as her expensive construct was destroyed.

Well…I guess it works?

Sandra was disappointed that her Golem was “killed”, leaving behind a Large Copper Orb, but her test had been a success.  Not only that, but after another couple of minutes her Bronze alloy appeared cool enough to remove from the stone mold.  She wasn’t exactly sure how she was going to extract it, because she had intended to use her Golem construct to do it…somehow.  It was a step in the process she hadn’t thought about, because most molds were made from clay, which was relatively easy to break apart.

What am I thinking?  I don’t need to physically break the stone!

With just a thought, Sandra “ate” the stone around the Bronze block, and it hit the floor with a *clank* once the mold underneath it was gone.

New Monster Seed created using your Monster Seed Origination Adaptability skill!

You now have access to:

Tiny Bronze Orb

Origination Raw Material Cost: 500

Origination Mana Cost: 50

Monster Min. Mana: 50

Monster Max. Mana: 200

Currently locked:

Small Bronze Orb

Average Bronze Orb

Large Bronze Orb

I did it!  I did it!  I crafted this all by myself!

She finally understood the way her new skill worked.  The “special techniques” that needed to be used to discover new Monster Seeds weren’t necessarily “special” – they were crafting techniques that she had extensive knowledge of.  She doubted any other Dungeon Core could figure out how to do it without either being extraordinarily lucky or having the same crafting knowledge she possessed – and having the special skill in the first place.  And now that she knew – at least a little bit – what she was doing, she was excited to continue making things.

The biggest issue she was seeing, however, was that her constructs – while being neat to look at and were definitely unique – weren’t quite suited to the intricate hand movements that only a living, breathing being could demonstrate. In fact, while her Golem could actually grab things unlike her old body’s hands, they were just about as useless for anything else.

Sandra thought that it was always possible that the more powerful monsters that she was sure to unlock as she upgraded her Core Size would be able to have finer control, but she didn’t hold out hope.  She’d have to think about it for a while, but it might be time to look into changing her Classification.  Still, though, she was excited that she had done what she had set out to do: craft using her own two…clamp-hands.

I can’t believe it actually worked!

“What actually worked?”

Chapter 16

If Sandra had been capable of holding something, she was sure she would’ve thrown it up in the air in surprise.  Whoa!  When did you get back?

Winxa was hovering in front of her Core, looking surprised.  “You weren’t waiting for me?  I was all set to apologize for being a little later than I had promised, and here you are not even noticing I was gone,” the Fairy said as she pouted, though Sandra could tell it was all for show.

Has it already been 24 hours?

“Yes, though it was actually slightly longer than that.  I got caught up with looking for any more information and lost track of time – and it looks like the same thing happened to you.  What have you been working on, and what was it that ‘actually worked’?” the Dungeon Fairy asked.

Come to the next room and I’ll show you.

Winxa hovered over the pit trap, drifted through the tunnel, and came to a stop when she saw Sandra’s forge.  “What in the world is that?”

The Dungeon Core explained how her new creation worked, and how she had utilized a trap to provide the heat necessary for her forge to operate properly.  She felt extraordinarily proud of what she had accomplished, even if all of it was on a relatively small scale.  She even showed the brand-new Bronze block still sitting on the floor near the forge.

“That’s amazing, Sandra!  Normally, Cores need to wait until they find either a natural source of a Monster Seed, like you did with the Tin Ore you just told me about, or from absorbing items left behind by sentient races who have perished in their dungeon.  Never before have I seen or heard of any developing their own!” Winxa squealed excitedly.

Sandra’s mood dropped a little at the mention of her “cousins” killing off people as a natural part of their development.  While she was a little more used to the idea of the need to kill wild creatures that threatened her Core, she didn’t know how she would react if one of the nearby races entered her dungeon with the intent of destroying her.  Fortunately, she didn’t think she had to worry about that for a while, since she was still a ways away from even reaching the surface, let alone expanding enough to garner the attention of the nearby people.

Thanks, it’s this new skill of mine.  I think it’s going to help immensely when it comes to figuring out exactly what I want to do with my dungeon.

“Well, I’m excited to see what you do next,” the Fairy responded honestly.  “I didn’t have much luck with my information gathering, but it was good getting back to my realm for a while.”

I’m glad it was a good trip.  If you could stick around for a little while, I might have some more questions for you.

Winxa agreed, and her winged friend started looking closer at the glossy black stone that her forge was now made of.  Leaving the Dungeon Fairy to investigate by herself, Sandra got back to the project she was working on.  First, she created a Tiny Bronze Orb Monster Seed; a shiny, almost gold-colored sphere appeared next to her other Copper Orbs.  She had quite a bit of Mana saved up since she hadn’t really been using it for a while, so she used that – and the Raw Materials from her continued absorption of the new room – to create and unlock an additional Bronze Orb.

New Monster Seed unlocked!

Small Bronze Orb

Origination Raw Material Cost: 1000

Origination Mana Cost: 100

Monster Min. Mana: 50

Monster Max. Mana: 400

Monster Seed Origination

Locked Seeds:

Unlock Requirements:

Mana Cost to Unlock:

Min. Mana:

Max. Mana:

Average Bronze Orb

4 Small Bronze Orbs

400

50

1600

Large Bronze Orb

2 Average Bronze Orbs

800

50

3200

When she looked into unlocking the Average and Large-sized Bronze Orbs, however, the Mana costs were above her max capacity.  Although she could technically produce the four Small Orbs required, the Average Bronze Orb needed 400 Mana and the Large 800 to actually create – almost three times her max capacity.  The benefit of having those Orbs in the future meant that she could likely create better monsters, but they weren’t as important right now as just having access to the Bronze metal as a material for creating objects.  Some things were much better suited as metal items than stone, and she could theoretically craft other non-mundane objects using the forge she just built.

Of course, that was all dependent upon whether she obtained access to better constructs or other monsters that had finer control of their hands.

Even though she was still expanding and had barely scratched the surface of her new Area of Influence, Sandra thought about upgrading her Core Size again.  Not only would it provide her with better Mana and Raw Material capacity, but she was hoping that some additional, stronger, and more “dexterous” constructs would start to become available.

Before she could finalize that decision, Winxa shouted out in surprise.  “This is Dragon Glass!  Where did it come from?  Better yet, how did you shape it?  It’s supposed to be impossible!”

New Monster Seed identified!

You now have access to:

Tiny Dragon Glass Flake

Origination Raw Material Cost: 20000

Origination Mana Cost: 7000

Monster Min. Mana: 5000

Monster Max. Mana: 10000

Currently locked:

Small Dragon Glass Sliver

Average Dragon Glass Shard

Large Dragon Glass Chunk

That was unexpected.

“What?  What did I say?”

When you identified that black stone, it became accessible as a new Monster Seed, which also means that I can use it as a material.  Apparently, only material that has been identified can be used as a Monster Seed.

Thinking back at her discovery of both the Territory Ant Egg and the Tin Ore, she realized that she knew what both of them were when they were found.  The Eggs were self-explanatory, and though she had never seen raw Tin Ore in the ground before, she had at least seen it when it had been used in crafting recipes.  And now that the “Dragon Glass” had been identified by the Dungeon Fairy, it was available to be used as a Monster Seed – though it was going to be far into the future based upon the sheer cost of resources.

“That’s unbelievable!  Only a few of the largest, most powerful dungeons get access to Seeds like that!  Though I doubt you’ll be able to use it anytime soon, since it’s normally used for really powerful Dungeon Monsters,” the Dungeon Fairy said, as her face expressed a genuine wonder at Sandra’s discovery.

Thanks – and you’re right.  It will be a long time until I can actually use it for a monster, though I may be able to use it as material inside my dungeon.

To demonstrate her theory, Sandra concentrated on a one-foot-square piece of stone flooring near – but separate from – her small forge, and pictured it turning into the same Dragon Glass that had been formed earlier.  The process was actually easier, somehow; now that it was an “official” material that she could use, the Mana and Raw Materials flowed out of her Core and infused the stone without hesitation – though it used quite a bit more than just turning dirt walls into stone.  For that one-foot-square piece of flooring to turn into the glossy black stone, it took 180 Mana and 900 RM, as opposed to the 9 Mana and 45 RM the normal grey stone required for the same amount – a significant increase in cost.

“That’s just plain amazing!  Dragon Glass is very rare and is usually formed by – what else – the world’s few remaining dragons for their lairs.  They are in danger of being completely wiped out because of the expanding dungeons all over the world, who hunt down the massive beasts just as they do everything else.

“As you probably noticed, it is virtually immune to any type of heat, so it is the perfect choice for your forge.  The downside of the Dragon Glass is that it can’t be worked into different shapes; it can’t be melted down and reshaped – for obvious reasons – but it can be smashed into smaller pieces, filed down, and even sharpened.  Although it’s not nearly as brittle as normal glass, it can still be broken down if enough force is used.  The only ones I’ve seen work with it were the Dwarves, though it’s been a long time since they crafted anything with the few rare pieces that are found every once in a while.”

Hmm…a new crafting material is always welcome.  Sandra didn’t have much to work with at the moment, but she envisioned having access to more in the future.  Which reminded her – she was thinking of upgrading her Core Size; however, she wanted to see if that was the best idea, so she asked Winxa a few questions first about the whole process.  She was curious about the increases she could expect when she upgraded in the future, as well as if she would eventually get the constructs she wanted – and whether she should switch her Classification.

“Well, as to your first question, from what I remember – since it’s been a long time since I’ve stuck around this long with a Dungeon Core – starting at Core Size 8, the increase in your resource capacities and Area of Influence (AOI) stops being double.  At Size 8, you’ll receive a 75% increase; at Size 9, you’ll receive a 50% increase.  From there, it tapers down to a fixed rate of 25% for Available Mana, Ambient Mana Absorption, and AOI, and then a 20% increase for your Raw Materials.  The first 9 Core Sizes are thought of more as the “learning” stages, where you receive big gains for your efforts to get you started in your endeavors faster.

“Starting at Size 10, however, it will take substantially more to upgrade your Core.  Since you cannot accumulate more Mana than your maximum capacity, the upgrades are done in ‘stages’, and each of the stages requires your maximum Mana to progress. To reach Core Size 10, for example, there are two stages, which means that you’ll need twice the amount of your max capacity to complete the upgrade.  It sounds like a lot, but I think you’ve seen how quickly you can accumulate Mana if that is all you concentrate on.  From there, however, the amount of stages increases by one for each complete upgrade.”

I can see why the other Dungeon Cores are obsessed with getting more Mana now; the Mana requirement for the some of the higher Sizes must be in the tens of thousands!

“Actually, once they pass Size 24, they’re looking at millions of points of Mana to upgrade their Core.  Sometimes it can take years of work to accumulate enough to complete even one stage, especially if their Dungeon Monsters are being constantly culled by the nearby sentient races.

“Now, for your next question – I honestly don’t know.  Your Constructs Classification is a new one for me, and I have no idea if your monsters will be able to do the crafting you want.  By nature, constructs are artificial recreations of things in the natural world; they are stronger in some respects, and weaker in others.  For instance, your Golem…where is it, by the way?”

It got melted by the heat of the forge.

“Uh, ok…anyway, your former Golem was probably ten times physically stronger and tougher than most creatures of the same size, but it also couldn’t move very fast and had the finger dexterity of a rock.  There is always a trade-off when it comes to Dungeon Monsters, and even though you have a unique assortment of constructs, they have their weaknesses like any other Classification.

“For your last question, I cannot answer that, as it would likely be considered as giving advice.  Only you can choose whether you’d like to switch your Classification or not; however, I can tell you that, based upon what it requires from you to sacrifice to effect a change, if you do decide to do it, the earlier you do it, the better.  If you decide to change later, you’ll end up being vulnerable for longer.”

It was some good information, but Sandra didn’t think it really helped her to make a final decision.  She knew that crafting was the way she wanted to go in the future, but whether her Classification would ever become suited for it was a worry.  Thinking about it for the next few hours while her third room was nearing completion – which progressed faster when she devoted all of her attention to it – she decided to wait until she had increased her Core Size one more time.

Sandra wasn’t sure if seeing what she unlocked would help, but she wasn’t in a huge hurry; if it didn’t look like it would work out, she would switch to something else.  She just hoped it didn’t cost her too much.

When the third room finally finished up, she completely sealed it off with stone and informed Winxa that she was going to upgrade again.  With another set of her constructs inside the newest room, she was accumulating even more Mana – though it wasn’t quite as much as she expected it to increase.

The Dungeon Fairy had an easy answer for that.  “As your Dungeon Monsters range farther from your Core, the ambient Mana they transfer is lessened by distance.  It’s not a large amount while it’s inside your dungeon, but once your monsters start roaming aboveground, you’ll see it decrease even further.  That’s why Cores tend to protect their dungeons with deadly traps and monsters, because it’s their main source of the abundant resource.  However, there will eventually be a finite amount of ambient Mana that an entire dungeon can provide, which is why roaming ‘ambient Mana collectors’ in the form of monsters are so important.  Though they don’t accumulate the same amount of concentrated Mana like your dungeon, they can reach much farther and can make up for the decrease by an extended range.”

Ok, that makes sense.  Alright, are you ready to keep me company?

“Sure, go ahead.”

Sandra’s Mana was already full again by that time, so she activated the upgrade to her Core Size.  Her awareness shrunk down until it only encompassed a small section of her Home room, and Winxa plopped herself down on the top of her Core like the last time.

For the next 24 hours, the Dungeon Fairy regaled her with even more stories about her fellow Fairies.  Sandra ended up ignoring most of it, though, because she was more interested in thinking about her plans for the future.

Chapter 17

Your Core has grown!

Current Size: 7

Mana Capacity increased!

Ambient Mana Absorption increased!

Raw Material Capacity increased!

New Constructs options!

Finally!  Sandra eagerly opened her Core Selection Menu to see what new constructs she had access to.

Constructs Creation Options

Name:

Mana Cost:

Clockwork Spider

5

Small Animated Shears

10

Tiny Automaton

20

Rolling Force

25

Segmented Centipede

100

Articulated Clockwork Golem

150

Singing Blademaster

300

Small Armored Sentinel

400

She already had a single Small Bronze Orb from unlocking it earlier and she didn’t want to wait until her Mana filled up again from her roaming constructs; instead, Sandra absorbed a dozen of the nearly 100 Copper Orbs she still had around her Core.  The Mana and Raw Materials they provided were more than enough to fill up her new capacities of 640 and 3,200, respectively.  She then used those resources to produce another Small Bronze Orb monster seed and created both of her new Dungeon Monsters.

The Singing Blademaster turned out to be a confusing name.  When it was done forming, a two-foot-long metal pole floated a foot off of the ground.  Attached to the pole were twelve sharp, horizontal, curved blades separated along its length by 2 inches and staggered so that they weren’t all on the same side.  The result was something that looked like a deadly, tarnished silver-colored, metal tree hovering in the air.  It appeared fairly dangerous if it were to run into someone, but she thought it would’ve been scarier if the blades had been straight so that it could stab into enemies.  As it was, the effectiveness of the blade “tree” seemed limited and she couldn’t detect any singing—

But then it started spinning.  Really fast.

A high-pitched whine screeched through her Home; the Singing Blademaster was spinning so fast it almost appeared to be all one solid piece, with a pole that had a dozen metal circles attached to it.  Sandra directed it to move around her Home at a very slow pace, and as it tilted its upper section heading away from her Core, she could hear the tone of the whine alter slightly.  Ah…that’s why it’s a “Singing” Blademaster.

“That’s quite impressive.  I would not want to be on the receiving end of an attack by that…what did you call it?  Singing Blademaster?  An apt name,” Winxa commented when she saw and heard Sandra’s new construct moving around.

It was impressive…but it did absolutely nothing for Sandra.  The Blademaster was made entirely for hurting and killing things, which was the opposite of what Sandra wanted to do.  She supposed that it would be of use defending her dungeon, but as she was hoping to avoid a direct confrontation with anything or anyone, her new construct didn’t really excite her.

The Small Armored Sentinel, on the other hand, was a different matter altogether.  Similar in shape to her Tiny Automaton, it was humanoid in shape with a head, torso, and four limbs. Unlike its three-inch-tall little brother, though, the Sentinel was a foot and a half tall.  While that was only around six inches taller than her old Golem, it more than made up for the extra expense with thick, armored plates covering its every extremity.  The best part about it, though, was the fact that it had hands – and fingers!

They were crude-looking little digits, but after a little experimentation, Sandra found that they could grip things similar to a “normal” hand (she didn’t classify her old body’s hands as “normal”), though intricate work was likely beyond it.  Additionally, to her great pleasure, it had a wrist-like mechanism that allowed the hand to turn. While it couldn’t move in many directions, it could at least rotate the entire hand in a circle.

Excited, but not willing to delay the progress and growth of her dungeon, Sandra partitioned her mind again.  She set one half of it towards digging out another room, which involved absorbing a section of the stone wall in the third room and excavating another tunnel.  Once the process of absorbing and then firming up the new tunnel wall with stone was well underway, the main focus of her mind turned to something else.

Her anticipation and discovery of new constructs completely blinded Sandra to anything else, which was why the discovery that she could vaguely sense the outer world above now came as such a shock to her.  Unfortunately, she couldn’t actually see up there; it was as if a fog descended over her sight when she tried to go past the dirt and stone.  What gives?  Why can’t I see aboveground?  She was really looking forward to seeing the sun again, after being stuck looking at caves non-stop.

“Nice!  It’s good that you can sense it now, as it will give you a good indication of how much space you have until you reach the top.  If you start giving your tunnels a gradual rise to their slope, you can eventually make your way out.  You could, of course, make a tunnel straight to the surface, but it is not recommended – because then anything up there could make it quickly to your Dungeon Core if it wanted to.

“As to why you can’t see up there, it’s because no Dungeon Cores can actually sense anything outside of their dungeon proper.  All sights and information of the world above is sent to you through the use of your Dungeon Monsters, which is yet another reason to have many roaming monsters above.  They’ll give you advanced warning if anything approaches that means you harm and gives you more Mana in the process – it’s what we call a ‘Win-Win’ in the business,” Winxa said matter-of-factly.

The business?

“The Dungeon Core business, of course.  Anyway, you still have a long way yet until you get there, but now that you can see it, you can better plan the layout of your dungeon,” Winxa said, before following it up with a quick disclaimer.  “Or not – the choice is up to you.”

The disappointment of not being able to see the sky or sun quite yet was quickly overshadowed by the anticipation she felt toward what she wanted to do next.  Working with the resources she was accumulating through her constructs’ roaming and tunneling through to the next room (which she ended up adding a slight upward slope to and made it a bit longer than usual), Sandra started to make the tools she needed to get started.

The Land of Muriel had been a relatively safe place for her and her father, but that was mostly due to the fact that they had great Heroes working to make it safe against the nearby dungeons.  As a result, many of the crafts that were made – and that she observed and learned in turn – were designed to keep the Heroes properly doing their job: namely, weapons and armor.  There were other things that she learned, of course, but she was primarily fascinated by the creation of instruments of war designed for the seemingly eternal war against dungeon expansion.

Therefore, what she wanted to do first with her new construct (with hands that looked like they would work properly, nonetheless) and her forge was to make the first thing she had ever seen crafted before: a simple knife.  Granted, the knife the blacksmith had given her when she was eight years old was made of iron, but as she didn’t have that metal yet, she decided to use her new Bronze alloy instead.

To make it, the bare minimum of things she needed were a pair of tongs, a hammer, a file, and, of course, an anvil.  The best metal for making those things was iron or steel, but she had to settle for making it out of Bronze, as that was the hardest metal that she had that wouldn’t bend or break right away. Fortunately, her Mundane Object Creation skill allowed her to make the bronze tools with just an application of her resources.

She briefly tried to make the knife with her skill, but as it was a weapon, nothing happened.  Luckily, the failed attempt didn’t use up any of her resources; since she had the opportunity to test the skill out, she tried to make a large kitchen knife – which did nothing as well.  In fact, any type of bladed implement she tried to create, whether it was for mundane purposes or not, accomplished nothing.  Sandra even tried to make a small representation of a warhammer that she had seen before – with a spike on one side – but that didn’t work either.

Running through her memories for nearly every type of weapon or armor she could think of, nothing materialized when she attempted to create each one.  She figured that the skill must’ve automatically known if it was something that could be used as a weapon or armor and negated the creation of it instantly.  Although the small blacksmithing hammers and even the tongs she was able to make could theoretically hurt someone, the thought of using them for that purpose never crossed her mind.  As for the kitchen knife – as well as some types of skinning knives that she tried to make – while they were tools for crafting, she knew in her mind that they could be used as a weapon; as a result, her skill wouldn’t allow them to be created.

Her block of Bronze was still near the forge, mainly because Sandra hadn’t seen the need to absorb it yet; that, and it was almost like a symbol of her success in discovering a new Monster Seed material.  But now, with the aid of her new Armored Sentinel, she was going to turn that symbol into her first actual crafting piece.

The block, though, was a little large for what she was intending.  Therefore, she split the 4inX2inX2in chunk of bronze in half by eating away at it lengthwise, leaving two equal blocks that were now only an inch wide.  Controlling her new Sentinel construct was much easier to get used to – mainly because it was even more humanoid than the Clockwork Golem – so she was easily able to use the tongs to grab the block of Bronze and placed the front half of it in the forge.

Based on how the Copper had completely melted at six flame jets, Sandra avoided activating that many and instead went for three.  Based on her memories, she remembered that the Bronze alloy had a lower melting point than Copper because of the introduction of the Tin, and she didn’t want to melt the bar. She was hoping that the heat from three flame jets – half as many as she used to create the material in the first place – would just soften the metal up enough so that it could be shaped.

Her estimation was fairly accurate, and as soon as the Bronze was a nice soft-red color in the area closest to the flames, she pulled it out of the forge with her tongs and set it on her new anvil.  Still holding the edge with her tongs, she grabbed her hammer and started to beat on the glowing hot bar of metal, steadily shaping it the best she could with her strikes.  It was a little difficult to do because she couldn’t bend her construct’s wrist – only rotate it – but most of the pounding she had to do was a simple up and down motion.  The rotating wrist came in handy when she needed to strike the opposite side of the bar, as all she needed to do was twist it and it flipped over effortlessly.

It took a few times in and out of the forge to complete the basic shape of the knife, which essentially was only tapered on one side, where it would be filed and sharpened later.  The whole process was a lot more difficult than she thought it would be; while she had the knowledge of what needed to be done, she didn’t have the experience.  She hadn’t realized how much of a difference it would make actually doing it herself rather than just watching; by the time she was done and considered that the forging process was as complete as it was going to be, she figured that she would need a lot of practice to get it looking the way it should.

Nevertheless, as the crudely shaped Bronze knife cooled, Sandra was proud of her creation.  It wasn’t by any means great, but it was still progress.  Her construct had worked fairly well, though some of the more advanced techniques she knew about required a bit more finesse than it was capable of.  Regardless, the fact that she was only Core Size 7 and had access to the Armored Sentinel made her hopeful that an even better construct would be available in the future.

Filing and sharpening the knife didn’t work as great, as it required that finesse she was thinking about earlier.  Simple adjustments to a wrist would’ve been enough to get an adequate edge on the weapon, but without that, all she was able to do was clean it up a little.  The cutting edge was essentially blunt, the handle was a hammer-marked circular cylinder, and the tip was more a dull spike than a point, but it was her first crafting success.

Success might be a bit strong of a word, though, but it was at least recognizable as a knife.

As Sandra looked at it laid out on her anvil, a swelling of pride suffused her mind.  I did it!  I crafted my first weapon!

“Nice job, Sandra!  Though, it does look a little…shall we say…crude.  No offense, but I thought you were some sort of crafting master or something, by the way you spoke about it,” Winxa broke into the Dungeon Core’s reverie.

Honestly, Sandra forgot the Dungeon Fairy was even there while she had been working, as she had been so absorbed in her project that everything else essentially faded out around her.  Thankfully, the partitioned part of her mind was still at work excavating the other tunnel…room now, actually.  She must’ve been doing that longer than she thought; after looking at the extra Tiny and Small Bronze Orbs around her Core, she estimated that she had been crafting for at least a few hours.

Well, I have the knowledge, just not the experience.  Plus, while this new construct’s hands work much better than the Golem’s clamps, it doesn’t really have full range of motion.  I’m sure it’ll get better in the future.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to disparage your efforts,” Winxa sincerely apologized.  “I’m actually quite impressed with what your done so far.  So…what’s your next plan?”

Sandra pretended to think about it for a few seconds, but she already knew exactly what she wanted to do.  While physical crafting like blacksmithing was something she enjoyed learning about, the craft that held the dearest place in her heart was Enchanting.  The way the different elements were combined together to affect the characteristics of everyday items was intoxicating; it was that kind of power that she had been looking forward to trying out herself, though she hadn’t had the chance to until now.

It was different from the way she infused things with Mana or Raw Materials like when she made the stone walls or even Dragon Glass.  Enchanting was more subtle and followed rigid guidelines to set up the enchantment correctly on an object; her Dungeon Core method of forcing Mana into substances physically changed the material and not the properties of the object.  It was a subtle difference, but it was also one that differentiated it from actual Enchanting.

Sandra knew she had access to all of the elements now through her abilities as a Dungeon Core, so she eagerly wanted to test them out.  Picking out the easiest enchantment that she could think of, she concentrated on the knife and imagined a small stream of Earth forming on the blade, tracing out simple a simple Rune that would permanently strengthen the metal, while also making it flexible enough to bend instead of breaking when force was applied to it – up to a point.  There were more complicated enchantments that would make any weapon or armor nearly indestructible, but this one wasn’t that powerful.

She waited for a few moments for the Earth elemental energy to appear, but nothing happened.  Since Sandra had never actually accessed it before in her previous life, she didn’t know the exact feeling of manipulating the elements, but she had seen it done literally thousands of times; nevertheless, everything she tried to get it to manifest ended in failure.  Giving up with Earth, she also tried every other element she could think of, and even all of them at the same time, but nothing worked.

What’s going on?  Why isn’t this working?

“What are you trying to do?” Winxa asked worryingly.

Sandra told her what she was trying to do in a panicked voice.  “Ah, I see.  I think that there might be a misunderstanding,” the Dungeon Fairy said in a calming voice – though it didn’t really do much to calm the Dungeon Core’s mounting anxiety.  “While you, as a Core, have access to all of the elements in terms of a Classification, you can’t actually manipulate the energy the same way living creatures and sentient races can.  You have an entirely different resource to use: your Mana.  The two are similar, but they are incompatible with each other.”

So that means I’ll never be able to Enchant anything?

Winxa thought about it for a few seconds before responding.  “Well…I wouldn’t necessarily say that.  Most living creatures can manipulate elemental energies, and Dungeon Monsters are no exception.  If you were to use one to complete the enchantment, that might work.”

Sandra was all set to jump into her Sentinel again and try working through it, but she was cut off by the Fairy.  “However, before you try using your constructs to do it, keep in mind that I said, ‘living’.  While they are certainly lifelike, they don’t have the ability to manipulate elemental energies.”

Well, I guess I’ll need to decide whether or not to change my Classification sooner than I thought.

Chapter 18

Sandra wasn’t quite sure what to do about her dilemma.

While she wanted to be able to enchant things, she was growing rather fond of her constructs; if she were to change her Classification, she would lose access to monsters like her Sentinel and even her Animated Shears.  The first one was very useful in crafting metals and handling hot materials, as it didn’t get tired and could marginally withstand the intense heat the small forge gave off.  Of course, if it got too close to the enclosed oven, it would start to melt – like her poor Golem – but it was likely that it was more resistant than most other monsters to the high temperatures.

Her flying Animated Shears, on the other hand, were very useful in collecting ambient Mana from above the ground where her other constructs couldn’t reach.  If she changed Classifications, there was no guarantee that there would be something available that could take its place.  That wasn’t reason enough to delay changing her Classification, but it was definitely a factor in her decision.

“I understand, Sandra.  I’ve never seen a Dungeon Core able to change their Classification before, so I’m unsure of the proper way to go about it,” Winxa told her in a weirdly monotone voice.

I’ll just play around with my Core Selection Menu and see what I can find.

There was no obvious, “Change my Classification” section on the main menu, so Sandra tried to mentally think about the process…and nothing happened.  When that didn’t work, she started looking through every obvious option she had; skills, traps, seeds, monsters – they were all there, but she didn’t see anything extra that hinted at changing her Classification.

It was, of course, the last thing she tried that did the trick – and she felt a little ridiculous for not trying it first.  She reconciled her ignorance with the fact that the Dungeon Classification: and Constructs sections didn’t appear as if she could dig further into them like the others.  However, when she concentrated on them for more than a few moments, a Classification Menu popped up.

Classification Menu

Current Dungeon Classification:

Constructs

Elemental Proclivities:

All

Change Classification?

Warning:  Changing your Classification will result in the elimination of any progress towards or achieved advanced Classifications.  In addition, all accumulated Core Mana – as well as any non-permanent objects containing Mana or is fueled by it – will be sacrificed to fuel the change.

Accumulated Advancement Points:

14 AP

Available Advancement Options:

2

Current Advancements:

0

Sandra looked at the Classification Menu in confusion.  While she knew that changing her classification would use all her accumulated Mana, she forgot about the mention of advanced Classifications.  It wasn’t really important at the time when she was initially selecting her Classification, so it had slipped her mind.  Now that she had seen the new menu, however, the existence of these “advancements” was brought to the forefront.

Winxa, what are these advancements?  And why didn’t you tell me about these before?

Almost as if the Dungeon Fairy broke out from a spell, Winxa seemed to relax and a relieved sigh escaped her lips.  “Phew, finally – I thought you’d never ask me about that.  The Advancements are purchasable enhancements to your Core Classification that can range from increasing the innate strength and deadliness of your monsters, to adding additional Elemental Proclivities (not that you need that), to – and this might be the answer to your issue – incorporating monsters from different accessible Classifications.  Not only that, but you’ll likely be able to advance your Constructs Classification to the point where you can create larger, more “advanced” monsters.  You can even, with enough accumulated Advancement Points – hybridize your Core with multiple Classifications,” the Fairy spat out quickly, as if she couldn’t get it out fast enough.

Sandra was speechless for a moment as she took in what she was told. Is this a way to gain additional monsters?  That doesn’t make sense – why didn’t you tell me about this before? Sandra asked, after realizing Winxa hadn’t answered her other question.

The Dungeon Fairy sighed again, though this time it sounded more like regret than relief.  “I’m sorry, I couldn’t tell you about it before this.  It is an amendment to all Dungeon Fairies’ contracts now; we literally cannot mention it unless we are specifically asked about it,” Winxa said.  Then she added, in a quieter voice, “And it’s all because of me…”

What?  What do you mean?  Again, none of that makes any sense.

“Do you remember when I told you I was the only one to teach a Dungeon Core that had four elements?”  Sandra mentally indicated that she did.  “Well, even though it was a long time ago, the repercussions of its rise to power is still felt today in the Dungeon Core community, even if most Cores don’t realize it.

“You see, centuries ago, us Dungeon Fairies were more enthusiastic about our jobs; as a result, we were inclined to share every little piece of information if it helped our charges make decisions on how to become more powerful.  This included our knowledge of the Advancement system and how it could be used to significantly increase the power of a Dungeon Core.  And it was this information that allowed Wester to almost destroy the Gnomish race.

“I was never quite sure why Wester wasn’t as addle-minded as the majority of the other Cores, but after hearing your story, I suspect it was because he had access to four of the major elements.  Regardless of the reason, using the Advancements available to him, he was able to shrewdly use them to unlock monsters from a variety of different Classifications, though he never hybridized from his original Dragonling Classification.

“I won’t bore you with the details, but by the end of his reign of terror, Wester had advanced his original Classification to be able to create giant Dragons; with his proclivities with different elements, he was able to make various Elemental Dragons that laid waste to a good portion of the Gnomish landscape.”

And then the Elves, Dwarves, and Orcish peoples helped to destroy him?  Sandra remembered the Fairy mentioning that weeks ago.

“Yes, because they knew if they didn’t act soon, they’d likely be next.  After a bloody war that lasted of nearly a year of constant battles against massive dragons, the Creator put an amendment in the Dungeon Fairies’ contracts that forbid us from mentioning the Advancement system unless directly asked about it.  The Creator also took out the knowledge of its existence from the Cores themselves, though if any of them did what you just did, they would still find it available.  Fortunately, none of them could change their Classification before, so 99% of the dungeons in the world haven’t been curious enough to investigate its existence.”

Both were silent for a nearly a minute, before Sandra asked, Ok…I could understand that…a little, at least.  But why didn’t the Creator just get rid of the Advancements if it led to such overwhelming devastation for one of the races?

Winxa looked at Sandra’s Core with an expression that said, “You should know the answer to that.”  And, after a second’s contemplation, she did.

Ah…because that would be “destruction” and the Creator is all about “creating”.  I get it.

“Absolutely.  Now, I could explain the whole Advancement system in more detail, but it will be faster and easier if you take a look at it yourself.  One thing I will tell you is that you won’t be able to fully utilize it until you are quite a bit bigger, but you’ll at least be able to see what is possible.  I’ll be here if you have any other questions.”

Fair enough.

Sandra wanted to know exactly what these points were and how she had received 14 of them without even knowing it.  She mentally selected the Accumulated Advancement Points, hoping that there would be a better explanation or breakdown.

Advancement Points (AP)

Source

Criteria

Point Value

Lifetime Earned Points

Lifetime Spent Points

Core Size

Receive AP upon Core Size upgrade (does not count for Core Size 1 nor upgrade stages)

1 per Core Size upgrade

6 AP

(6X Core Size Upgrades)

0 AP

Number of Rooms

Receive AP for each distinct dungeon room at least 4,000 cubic feet in size (20ftx20ftx10ft minimum)

1 AP per qualified room

3 AP

(2X Qualifying Rooms)

0 AP

Unique Dungeon Fixtures

Receive AP for each never-before-seen fixture in your dungeon

2 AP per fixture

2 AP

(1X Small Dragon Glass Forge)

0 AP

Creature Eradication

Eradicate sources of nearby creatures (i.e. lairs and spawning areas)

3 AP per eradication

3 AP

(1X Territory Ant Colony)

0 AP

Sentient Race Elimination

Eliminate members of sentient races

1 AP per 10 eliminations

0 AP

0 AP

?????

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

?????

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

?????

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

(?????) Denotes an unknown, unique Source of Advancement Points.  Perform this unknown action to unlock more information.

And so there it was.  Even though she hadn’t necessarily wanted to completely eradicate the Territory Ant Colony, she had earned 3 Advancement Points for that alone.  She also received 1 AP per Core Size upgrade, which seemed easy in comparison to everything else.  Though, when she thought about it, the difficulty in upgrading her Core later meant that those points would be hard to come by with that method.

She had no desire to earn AP from killing sentient races, nor any more from eradicating creatures – unless they attacked her first with the intent of destroying her Core.  She wasn’t opposed to defending herself, but she wasn’t about to go out and start a fight.  Honestly, she just wanted to be left alone to craft in peace, without having to watch her back every moment in case something else was aiming to destroy her.

The Unique Dungeon Fixtures category was a surprise, however.  Apparently, her Dragon Glass Forge was a one-of-a-kind build that earned her some AP; she briefly wondered what else she could think of that might qualify for its uniqueness as well.

The three ?????’s toward the bottom were confusing, though when she looked at them closer, she could’ve sworn that she could almost understand what they were.  She told Winxa about them after pondering them for a moment, and the Dungeon Fairy appeared confused as well.

“I’ve never heard of that before, though those other sources of Advancement Points are familiar.  If what you said about their description is true, they might be sources that are only accessible to you.  Whatever plans the Creator has for you—” Winxa abruptly stopped and put her hands up in surrender when her voice started to choke up.  “Ok, ok – I won’t say any more about that.”

Sandra wasn’t going to stress about the unknown right now, as there wasn’t any point in worrying about something that she had no control over.  What she did have control over, though, was what she could eventually do with her Advancement Points.  After concentrating on the Available Advancement Options, she got a small glance of what was possible.

Advancement Options (Purchasable at Core Size 20)

Current Advancement Points

14

Advancement:

Cost:

Choose 1 Dungeon Monster from another available Classification (Repeatable)

5

Give your Dungeon Monsters the option of having a chosen accessible elemental attribute in addition to their base element – Cost increases with each purchase (only works on Monsters capable of using/applying their element) (Repeatable)

10

Reduce the Mana cost of Dungeon Seeds by 15% – Cost increases with each purchase (Advancement 0/4)

15

Reduce the Mana cost of Dungeon Monsters by 15% – Cost increases with each purchase (Advancement 0/4)

15

Reduce the Raw Material cost of Dungeon Seeds by 15% – Cost increases with each purchase (Advancement 0/4)

15

Reduce the Mana cost of Dungeon Traps by 15% – Cost increases with each purchase (Advancement 0/4)

15

Extend your Area of Influence by 10% – Cost increases with each purchase (Advancement 0/10)

50

Advance a current Classification 1 level to acquire access to stronger and larger Dungeon Monsters – this also includes any “Advancement Unlocked” Monsters – Cost increases with each purchase (Advancement 0/3)

75

Select a second available Classification to hybridize your Core (This option is only available once)

150

Sandra looked at the options she would have access to eventually and started to understand why the Creator wanted to keep the Advancement system a bit of a secret.  With enough AP, a dungeon could potentially become so powerful that it could take the combined armies of…multiple…races…

Aren’t you afraid that I’ll become like that Core you were talking about earlier?  I can see the potential of this Advancement stuff.  It’s…quite overwhelming, actually.

“No…and yes.  It’s always a risk if a Dungeon Core learns of the existence of Advancements, but I…believe that you are here for a reason other than to destroy everyone.  I have a feeling that if the Creator really didn’t want you to use it, you would’ve been subjected to a contract in the first place,” Winxa said slowly and deliberately, as if she was testing the words in her head before they came out.

Well, you were right – this changes things dramatically.  For now, since I can’t purchase anything until Core Size 20, I’ll just keep these things in the back of my mind and hold off on changing my Classification – and I can always change my mind later.  In the meantime, I’ve got some expansion to do, as well as practice.

“Practice?  What do you need to practice?”

Crafting, of course.

Chapter 19

New Monster Seed and Origination Material found!

Iron Ore

While Iron Ore can be directly used as a Monster Seed, it can also be combined with specific other materials to create a whole new Monster Seed.

You now have access to:

Tiny Iron Orb

Origination Raw Material Cost: 500

Origination Mana Cost: 50

Monster Min. Mana: 50

Monster Max. Mana: 400

Less than a day after learning about the Advancement system, Sandra found a small pocket of Iron Ore while she was excavating her fifth room.  The fourth room had easily been finished the day before, and the progress she was able to make with a higher Mana and RM capacity being Core Size 7 was significant.  When she was able to stock her fourth room with more of her constructs to absorb the ambient Mana, the constant stream of Mana increased – but not as much as she would’ve expected.

She remembered that Winxa had mentioned that there was a threshold of how much her dungeon could supply in terms of ambient Mana; she wasn’t sure if she was hitting that point yet, but she was definitely seeing diminishing returns as she expanded.  Nevertheless, the influx of Mana was still great enough to do almost anything she wanted – including crafting.

While she was expanding her dungeon, she had been working with her Armored Sentinel to produce more Bronze knives.  She still wanted to create other items, but she also knew that she should probably master one of the simplest items first before she moved on to other things.  With essentially unlimited materials, a vessel that could craft non-stop without tiring, and hours of constant practice, Sandra became much more efficient at using the limited mobility of her construct.  Whereas the first Bronze knife took at least an hour to heat up and shape into a crude representation of a weapon, she was soon churning out nearly a dozen in that same time.

That was her limit for the moment, however.  While she could make more, it was a waste of resources to have hundreds of Bronze knives just sitting around doing nothing.  So, after building a dozen molds that would help her cast the basic shape of the knife, Sandra would then heat them up again and use her hammer to refine them further.  Once they had taken on the basic form she wanted, she set them aside for finishing.

Now that she had another room to play with – namely, the third room that was finished earlier (she wanted to leave the fourth room as a kind of buffer between what she was excavating and the rest of her dungeon) – Sandra made what she imagined to be a finishing and refining station.  A low stone table lined one wall, where she would be able to place her tools and unfinished/finished crafts.  Within easy reach of the table, she utilized a “trap” to create multiple grinding wheels to help with the crafting process.

With her experience she had making her forge, the process of making the grinding wheels was quite simple in comparison.  Using her significantly larger store of Mana, she created a metal pole just over eight feet long, with seven varying degrees of small coarse stone wheels attached to them with a foot distance in between them.  It was set up horizontally on two stone pillars that she created independent of the trap, with smooth polished holes a foot off the floor, allowing the pole to fit inside and able to rotate.

Sandra placed invisible activation triggers in front of each wheel, which would turn the entire trap at the same time.  She wanted to create each wheel independent of each other at first, but in order for the whole thing to be considered as a single trap, she had to live with them all going at the same time.  Which was fine, as it didn’t really matter in the long run.

In front of the grinding wheels, she also made a low stone wall with a Bronze top that butted up almost against the line of grinding wheels, which would allow her to hold whatever she was grinding steady.  The top ended just under the halfway point of each wheel, and when the grinders were rotating towards her, they would effectively hold the weapon or other item she was grinding down while she worked.

Normally, these grinding wheels were operated by foot petals, where the blacksmith or other crafter would have to constantly keep it rotating as they worked.  Sandra’s Mana that was infused in her trap fortunately made that unnecessary, as it could rotate indefinitely without anything other than a trigger from her.  Also, grinding wheels normally wore down over time and had to be replaced, but she didn’t need to worry about that.  Just like her constructs, her Mana would keep them in proper working condition no matter how much they were used.

Now that she had this finishing station set up, she could use it to work on her Bronze knives when they were done with the forging process. It took some creative thinking and a little experimentation with how to hold the knives while they were grinding because she didn’t have wrists.  Eventually, she discovered that with a little patience and by moving her entire construct’s body, she could do a fairly good job.  With a bit of practice, she was able to smooth them out and sharpen the edges with the grinding wheels.

When she was done with all of her knives…she melted them down and started over again, this time with a new material.

Sandra already knew that Iron was a good metal for certain applications, but it was nearly the same in terms of material strength as Bronze when it came to weapons.  The major difference was that Iron would be more likely to bend and chip when subjected to stress, while Bronze was more likely to shatter.  It was for this reason that there weren’t as many Bronze swords (without enchantment, of course) as there were Iron, because they were more likely to break the longer that they were used.  The scarcity of materials in comparison was a factor as well, as Iron was more prevalent and dropped as Dungeon Loot more often.

However, there was something that could change that all significantly – but she just had to find it.  She wasn’t an expert on materials in their natural shape; while she could “see” through all of the dirt and rock around her, if there was anything different about what she was looking at, she couldn’t tell right away what it was.  Things that she had already identified and could use, like Iron or Tin, she recognized whenever she came across it, but anything else was a bit more difficult.

Given that, she knew in general what she was looking for and what it looked like; that, and she could see things that were “unrecognizable”, so that she could pinpoint anomalies.  Therefore, after a few hours of searching, she finally found a good prospect – about 150 feet underneath her Home.  Fortunately, she didn’t need to dig out a huge tunnel, as she only needed to make a small hole towards what she was looking for; she tried to directly “mine” it, but she apparently needed to have direct access to it in order to touch it.  Less than an hour later, she got to her destination and found exactly what she was looking for.

New Origination Material found!

Coal

While Coal cannot be used directly as a Monster Seed, it can be combined with specific other materials to create a whole new Monster Seed.

Perfect!  With the addition of Coal, Sandra was able to make something that would make all the difference in the strength of her materials: Steel.  Unfortunately, it wasn’t as easy as she had expected.

By melting Iron inside her forge – which took a whopping 9 of her flame-jets to accomplish, since the melting point for Iron was much higher than even Copper – she needed to add a very small amount of Coal to the melted dark-grey metal.  The precise amount was unknown to her, as she had never had the chance to see Steel being made in all her time learning about crafting; nevertheless, she knew it was only a small amount of the substance inside the Coal that was needed to accomplish the change.

One thing she had in her favor, though, was the fact that her Iron and Coal materials were pure when she created them; from what she remembered, additional materials were needed to purify natural Iron ore in the Steel-making process – and she didn’t know what they were.  Her dungeon-made materials were already as pure as they could get, so it was fortunately unnecessary.

It took nearly a day, and more than 50 attempts, but she finally came upon the right combination of Iron and Coal.  Luckily, she didn’t have to remember the exact amount she used, because the new material was now available to her.

New Monster Seed created using your Monster Seed Origination Adaptability skill!

Steel Ore

You now have access to:

Tiny Steel Orb

Origination Raw Material Cost: 2000

Origination Mana Cost: 200

Monster Min. Mana: 500

Monster Max. Mana: 1000

Currently locked:

Small Steel Orb

Average Steel Orb

Large Steel Orb

Success!  At her current Core Size, she could barely afford to unlock the Small Steel Orb – which took 400 of her 640 maximum Mana – but she couldn’t even make one afterward.  Although she had a RM capacity of 3,200, the cost to make a Small Steel Orb was 4,000 – more than she could currently hold at one time.

Nevertheless, she didn’t care too much about that, as the most important part was that she could now use Steel as a material in her crafting.  After mastering the crafting of Bronze knives, followed by Iron – which handled differently than hot Bronze on her anvil – Sandra moved on to making them from Steel.  Not only that, but she started to replace each of her tools with her new material, as Steel was much stronger, durable, and less likely to melt when it was up against the hot temperatures near the forge.

She started to experiment with making different weapons but she was limited in size because of the dimensions of her forge; she couldn’t place a longsword in there because of the length alone, and if she couldn’t heat up certain points when she needed it, it was nearly impossible to forge the weapon correctly.  She wanted to make a larger one but didn’t want to waste the resources on it quite yet; instead, she settled for making significantly smaller versions that were easily handled by her Armored Sentinel.

While she was doing all of that crafting, she continued her expansion.  Rooms five, then six, and then seven were finished in no time at all, so she kept going until she had completed a total of a dozen rooms.  Not only was her dungeon almost 400 feet in length now, but Sandra was getting much closer to seeing sunlight again; another dozen rooms would bring her to the surface if she had planned it correctly.

While she went, Sandra also made sure to keep her dungeon and Core safe.  She didn’t place any traps in the new rooms, per se; since her goal wasn’t to kill things, and she needed to reserve the trap limit for what were going to be additional workshops.  However, she was conscious of the need of some sort of defense, so she kept the tunnel nearest where she was expanding very narrow; she added a trap that utilized the Earth element, which would smash the two sides of the tunnel closed within half a second if anything passed between the walls.

An interesting fact also presented itself when she tested the trap out with a sacrificial Animated Shears construct; when the walls were completely shut during the trap, she couldn’t affect anything beyond it until the trap was either reset or removed completely.

“It’s because – just like you can’t absorb material in your Area of Influence that are not directly connected to your dungeon – when you shut off that next room, it is effectively no longer part of your dungeon.  This is the main reason why you need to have an open passageway throughout your entire dungeon, as any of your Dungeon Monsters left outside are instantly destroyed and no Mana can be funneled to you.  In addition, the opening needs to be a certain size – which you have done instinctively with your normal tunnels – in order for Mana to be passed through to you,” the Dungeon Fairy answered when Sandra asked her about the strange occurrence.

All that meant was that she was free to excavate, build rooms, and expand her dungeon – as long as that was the only things she was doing through those narrow tunnels.  As soon as a room was complete, she widened the tunnel to normal levels, eliminated the trap, and sent in her constructs to gather more ambient Mana – which was still decreasing in the amount per room as she went on.

Again, that was alright, because Sandra was having the time of her life crafting weapons and building even more workshops.  In the fourth room, she created a display area where she could keep her completed crafts – or at least the ones that she was most proud of.  She also had plans to store anything she thought she might need larger quantities of, though she wasn’t exactly sure what that was going to be yet.

In the fifth room, she created a Woodworking/Bowyer/Fletcher workshop, which contain a giant, low, flat table with a trap that contained three Steel saw blades connected to a central pole, which would aid in cutting wood planks and sheets for different projects.  There was also a small lathe on the extended pole end that would help shape the wood for poles and other cylindrical products.

In the sixth room, she constructed another worktable and a furnace/kiln that used a connected flame trap, though it was on a much smaller scale than the forge.  Sandra planned that room for use in alchemical crafting, as well as a Pottery, which would utilize her trapped furnace/kiln to finish off her creations.

In the seventh room, she created a Textile shop, complete with spinning wheels, thread winders, looms, and other assorted tools used in making cloth material and clothing.  Most of the tools that required motion were lined up next to each other, along with a trap trigger which would move all the moving parts in the room; it was too hard and too expensive to make them with separate triggers, so it was the best she could do.

In the eighth room, Sandra created a large vat that contained a boiling water trap.  In that room, she designed a Leatherworking station, which would utilize the vats to clean and boil away all of the organic material on the hides.  It also contained a few smaller vats that were connected to the larger one, which would aid in the cloth making process from the room before.

In the ninth room, she extended the theme from the previous room and built a worktable that contained various tools – and even some of her crafted Steel knives – that were used in Leatherworking, as well as racks with a separate always-on trap that contained heated air that would help to dry the wet hides in the normally cool air of the dungeon.

In the tenth room, she created another small forge, though this was even smaller than the first.  Here, she planned to make a gold/silversmithing station in which she could make jewelry, complete with another low worktable that contained very tiny tools frequently used in the process.  Fortunately, her Mundane Object Creation skill was able to make the intricate tools, otherwise they probably would’ve been beyond her current crafting capabilities.

In the eleventh room, she created more grinding wheels, but again, these were smaller than the first ones she made.  They also contained grinding stones that were even finer, as she intended them for use in Gem-cutting and for much finer work than the relatively crude finishing process used in blacksmithing.

The last room she left empty for the moment, as she needed to make sure that she could place “deadly” traps inside them in case she saw an incoming threat.  Well, not only that, but there wasn’t much else that needed to be built as far as crafting stations, because the majority of crafting professions that she had learned while still alive were covered.  The only thing she was missing were the materials she would need to actually do anything other than blacksmithing.

Everything except Enchanting, of course – but that would hopefully come later.

Chapter 20

Through those three weeks of constant expansion, creating new workshops, and crafting, Sandra wasn’t idle in upgrading her Core Size.  It didn’t take long for her to realize that the more Mana she had access to, and the larger her capacity to hold the dirt and stone that she “ate”, the faster she would progress.  It was the downtime and relative “nothingness” that prevented her from doing it one right after another.

Despite her degree of awareness during those times enlarging to the point where she was able to see more of her Home – and the constructs therein collecting ambient Mana – it was still extremely stressful.  Even Winxa talking to her while she was captive inside her Core wasn’t enough to beat back the encroaching depression she fell into when she increased her Size – the lengthier times it took to upgrade didn’t help, either.

Spacing the upgrades out by five or six days helped, though.  She would’ve rather waited a year or more, but some innate nature inside of her Core drove her to expand as soon as possible.  From what Winxa said, other Dungeon Cores couldn’t really ignore the impulse to upgrade and expand through whatever means necessary; luckily for Sandra, she could resist that driving force enough that she could delay it as long as she wanted – but the need was still there.

At Core Size 8, her new Mana capacity was 1,120 and she could hold up to 5,600 units of Raw Materials.  Those new maximums unlocked the ability increase her repertoire of additional Monster Seeds, as well as a new Construct.

Monster Seed Origination

Name:

Raw Material Cost:

Mana Cost:

Min. Mana:

Max. Mana:

Tiny Copper Orb

50

5

5

10

Tiny Tin Orb

50

5

5

10

Tiny Bronze Orb

500

50

50

200

Tiny Iron Orb

500

50

50

200

Tiny Steel Orb

2000

200

500

1000

Tiny Dragon Glass Flake

20000

7000

5000

10000

Small Copper Orb

100

10

5

25

Small Tin Orb

100

10

5

25

Small Bronze Orb

1000

100

50

400

Small Iron Orb

1000

100

50

400

Small Steel Orb

4000

400

500

2000

Average Copper Orb

400

40

5

100

Average Tin Orb

400

40

5

100

Average Bronze Orb

4000

400

50

1600

Average Iron Orb

4000

400

50

1600

Large Copper Orb

800

80

5

200

Large Tin Orb

800

80

5

200

Large Bronze Orb

8000

800

50

3200

Large Iron Orb

8000

800

50

3200

Constructs Creation Options

Name:

Mana Cost:

Clockwork Spider

5

Small Animated Shears

10

Tiny Automaton

20

Rolling Force

25

Segmented Centipede

100

Articulated Clockwork Golem

150

Singing Blademaster

300

Small Armored Sentinel

400

Mechanical Jaguar

800

Mechanical Wolf

1000

She went ahead and unlocked every Seed she had access to, even though she couldn’t actually afford to make any of the Large Bronze or Iron Orbs.  She knew she would be able to afford them in terms of her RM soon, so she didn’t feel bad about doing it while she had the resources and the time.

As for her new monsters, she was disappointed that she didn’t get any new humanoid constructs that might make crafting easier, but they were nevertheless interesting.  The Mechanical Jaguar and Wolf were similar in appearance to their real-life cousins, but they didn’t quite have the same level of detail.  The best way she could think of to describe them was if you killed a real one, stripped away all the flesh until they were just bone, and then turned those bones to metal and then thickened them until they were about twice their original size.  So, essentially, they were metal skeletons in a general shape of a jaguar and a wolf – which kind of creeped her out when she stared at their eye-sockets that glowed with an eerie reddish glow.

Still, she kept them around because it was almost like she now had pets of her own, which she had never had the opportunity to experience when she was younger – and alive.  Sure, they were creepy, metal pets – but they were similar enough to a cat and a dog that she did her best to ignore their obvious differences.  Besides, she was sure they would come in great use when she finally reached the surface, as they appeared to be able to move much faster than any of her other constructs.

At Core Size 9, there wasn’t much to note other than a marked decrease in the rise of her capacities.  Sandra’s max Mana was brought up to 1,680, and her RM capacity was raised to 6,720 – which helped with her expansion of the dungeon, but not much else.  She didn’t even receive another Dungeon Monster for her trouble.

Core Size 10 was the first time she had to complete stages in order to upgrade her Core Size.  Since her Mana capacity was 1,680, she ended up having to pay twice the amount in order to grow, and it amounted to a whopping 3,360 – which took her about two weeks to generate.  It was difficult to accumulate that much, especially after she had been spending Mana like crazy while she was crafting, expanding her dungeon, and creating workshops complete with traps; nevertheless, she persevered and finally accomplished it.

Core Size Upgrade Stage complete!

2/2 Completed

Your Core has grown!

Current Size: 10

Mana Capacity increased!

Ambient Mana Absorption increased!

Raw Material Capacity increased!

New Constructs option!

Through your use of the intuitive Dungeon Core interface, you have also learned the Elemental Monster Seed Origination skill!

Core Selection Menu

Dungeon Classification:

Constructs

Core Size:

10

Available Mana:

14/2100

Ambient Mana Absorption:

2.1/hour

Available Raw Material (RM):

3550/8064

Convert Raw Material to Mana?

3550 RM -- > 142 Mana

Current Dungeon Monsters:

185

Constructs Creation Options:

10

Monster Seed Schematics:

19 (5)

Current Traps:

11

Trap Construction Options:

All

Core-specific Skills:

3

Elemental Monster Seed Origination

(Core-specific Skill)

The Elemental Monster Seed Origination skill allows the Dungeon Core to condense Elemental Mana into small, condensed orbs of a single element.  These Elemental orbs can be used as Monster Seeds or in other unique applications.  Requirements: Mana.  (Skills are permanent and remain even after a Classification change)

It was worth the extra expenditure of Mana, though.  Not only did she increase her capacities, but she also received another skill – one which she wasn’t exactly sure what she was going to do with yet.

Winxa came to her rescue.  “That’s another new one for me, Sandra.  However, I think you should be able to do something similar to how you form Mundane Objects or even traps; just think about condensing a single element down into a small ball and it should work.”

Despite the entire Dungeon Core experience so far being strange, all of the Monster Seeds she had seen so far were at least familiar-ish.  Granted, she had never heard of Dragon Glass before, but it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility that the rare substance existed even if she hadn’t heard of it before she had accidentally created it.

Small little Elemental Orbs, on the other hand, were completely out of her experience.  The only knowledge she really had of the elements dealt with Enchanting, though that was more about applying elemental energies to positively (or negatively) affect objects using the Enchanter’s innate resources.  But this…this was like handling the raw energy itself, which seemed almost impossible to Sandra, even though she had been using the equally powerful Mana substance for almost two months.

Regardless of her hesitation, she was excited to try.  Taking Winxa’s instructions to heart, she imagined the same reddish Fire Elemental Mana she used to make her forge trap forming in front of her Core, on top of the – now that she really looked at it – massive mound of Copper, Bronze, and Steel orbs piling on the ground like some sort of treasure hoard.  The production of so many rooms had a lot of excess Raw Materials, and it was much easier to make another Seed Orb than to try to figure out how to use it inside the dungeon itself.

She was receiving quite a bit of Mana per minute from all of her constructs throughout the dungeon, which was nearly reaching the limit of what she thought she might earn from her dungeon.  The amounts had been going up very slightly with each additional room, but not significantly enough to be noticeable; nevertheless, by the time she wanted to test out her new skill, she had just over 50 Mana at her disposal – which she pumped straight into the Fire Elemental Orb she was trying to create.

The raw Fire Elemental Mana was a swirling mass about the size of one of her Large Bronze Orbs, but it just sat there while she looked at it, doing nothing.  She remembered from the description of the Orbs that they needed to be condensed down, so she imagined the Fire elemental mass condensing smaller and smaller, before the Fire Mana started to struggle in her mental grasp.  With a final push, she shoved it together even further, until it was smaller than even a Tiny Copper Orb.  Suddenly, all resistance against her control evaporated and Sandra mentally stumbled at the abrupt cessation.

New Monster Seed created using your Elemental Monster Seed Origination

skill!

You now have access to:

Tiny Fire Elemental Orb

Origination Raw Material Cost: 0

Origination Mana Cost: 50

Monster Min. Mana: 5

Monster Max. Mana: 25

Currently locked:

Small Fire Elemental Orb

Average Fire Elemental Orb

Large Fire Elemental Orb

She had no idea what the Fire Elemental Orbs could be used for, but that didn’t matter to her – she wanted to create them all.  However, before she went crazy and spent the next day or so creating Elemental Orbs from every element that she had access to, she remembered that she had also unlocked a new Dungeon Monster after upgrading to Core Size 10.

Another…interesting construct, but still not one that was going to help her craft anything.  For 2,000 Mana, she could create a Basher Totem, a four-foot-tall, upright hulk that was essentially four massive arms with closed fists on a large pole.  The arms could swing up and down and twist left and right, but its closed fists couldn’t hold anything – making it useless as a crafter.  It didn’t even have legs; it glided along the ground with no discernable form of momentum.

What it did do, however, was a lot of damage.  She brought it to her most recent room and let it beat on the stone wall there; after only two hits, the Basher had cracked the normally sturdy stone.  After a dozen, the wall started to crumble around her construct, and it was only her innate Dungeon Core properties that kept the room from collapsing completely.  The Totem took a bit of damage itself in the form of bent and scratched fists, but on the whole, it was still largely intact.  In light of its crazy power, Sandra placed it – and her Singing Blademaster – in the eleventh room as a deterrent against anything trying to get into her dungeon.

The only thing left she had to check before she got back to creating more Elemental Orbs and discovering possible applications for them was to explore her new Area of Influence.  Over the last few upgrades to her Core Size, nothing really interesting appeared to her senses other than more dirt and stone.  Since she couldn’t see anything aboveground, the nearly 1,000 feet she could now see wasn’t that exciting; but that all changed when she saw more than a dozen creatures at the farthest reaches of her senses.

They were four-legged beasts that appeared similar to a large forest bear, except for the fact that their faces had tusks like a boar.  She also noticed that they had claws that were extremely sharp, long, and looked to be straight out of a nightmare.    She estimated their forms to be about seven feet long from snub nose to stub tail, and from what she could tell, weighed about eight or nine hundred pounds.  Their coarse black and brown fur sat flat against their bodies like a layer of armor, and their jaws were so large that she thought she could’ve shoved the upper half of her old body inside them without much trouble.

Because they were technically underground, if only in a cave near the surface, she could see all those details; however, as soon as one got up and left, she lost all sense of it as soon as it passed through some invisible threshold that she presumed led to the surface.  Luckily, they didn’t seem to be aware of her presence, or it could be that they didn’t care about her like the Territory Ants did.  Either way, it didn’t appear as if they were wanting to surge toward her dungeon, though she was sure those claws could dig quite well if they were determined enough.

“Those sound like Bearlings – nasty pieces of work there.  They might not care about you now, but as soon as you break through to the surface, they’re close enough to your dungeon that they might be a problem.  While they aren’t as territorial as your little ant problem from before, it’s my understanding that they don’t care for neighbors.”

After an hour of continuing her normal operations of crafting and expanding, Sandra had to agree with Winxa, as the Bearlings were still in the same place without any outward reaction.  Without having to worry about them, Sandra went back to her business at hand: expanding her Monster Seed repertoire.  Again, she wasn’t exactly sure what to do with the Elemental Orbs other than use them as an actual Seed – which she briefly tried with success – but the fact that she didn’t have to supply any RM to create them was a big deal.  If there were ever a time when she didn’t have access to anything to absorb, being able to make a Dungeon Monster from pure Mana was sure to be invaluable.

As she waited for her Mana to refill as it was funneled from her constructs, Sandra finally had time to think about the lack of variety in her resources.  Sure, she had plenty of metal for making weapons, but she didn’t have wood, clay, sand, herbs, hides, or any other materials she would need to craft other items.  It appeared as if she was going to need to visit the surface soon in order to find some other material sources somewhere.

She just wasn’t looking forward to having to defend against those Bearlings…

Chapter 21

Kelerim Hafanorc pounded on the red-hot metal bar, wincing slightly as his hammer strike missed his target – again – and the very tip of the sword he was forging broke and flew off.  A *clink* sounded as the super-heated iron rebounded off the crude stone construction of his forge, falling to the dirt below.  Unfortunately, this wasn’t the first time he had made a mistake like that over the last year, which was why he didn’t have anything flammable anywhere near his workstation.

He set his hammer down and placed the half-finished sword on the anvil so that it wouldn’t fall on the floor as well, then he used his tongs to pick up the quickly cooling metal shard up and put it in a small stone box he had nearby for his scraps.  Kelerim didn’t care if it was still hot – it wouldn’t hurt anything in there, and it wasn’t like he could use it again.

Oh, he had tried to fix or reattach some of the mistakes he had made over the last few months but was met with very limited success.  If it was a minor error on his part, reheating the metal and hammering it out was more than possible; for things like the piece of sword that had broken off, there wasn’t any way to put it back on without melting down the metal and creating it all anew.  At least, he didn’t know of a way – but it wasn’t like he had much training in the first place.

I guess they’ll just have to live with a shorter sword.  He had already spent more than an hour hammering and shaping his current project, which made him hesitate to start over.  He still had over a dozen of the iron weapons to make before the warband was back tomorrow night, and he was likely only going to finish them all if he managed to cut his sleep down to a couple of hours as it was.

Those stupid brutes probably won’t even notice, anyway.  That wasn’t fair of him, he knew; they were raised to look down on the weak and unaccomplished, and for a half-blood like him, it was doubly worse.  Half Orc and half Dwarf, he was relegated to the bottom of Orcish society, and given jobs like his current one that no self-respecting Orc Warrior would ever stoop so low as to do.

It was only fair, he supposed.  Kelerim was a mixture of the two races; stuck height-wise halfway between the 7-foot Orcish people and the 4-foot Dwarvenfolk, he wasn’t really accepted with open arms in either society with his 5-and-a-half-foot frame.  The Dwarves didn’t trust foreigners to the point of chasing them off, and the Orcs didn’t respect his “small” size; fortunately, the Orcs could marginally overlook his birth and make use of him to do menial jobs like blacksmithing.

He finished up with the sword he was working on – amazingly with no more major mistakes – and he placed it in the water-filled quenching tub to cool it down that much quicker.  Clouds of steam rose into the air for nearly a minute before it stopped, the metal cool enough for him to physically pick up and place on the rack next to the ones he had made earlier.

I need a break, he thought, wiping the sweat from his brow.  It was extremely hot even in the open-sided smithy, and he needed to sit down before he passed out.  Before he did anything else, though, he made sure to place all of his tools back on the workbench nearby. He arranged them exactly where he needed them and would be able to instantly see if anything was missing – the Orcish children in the small border village would often mess with him by hiding or moving the tools he needed.

Scooping out some water with a small iron ladle – that he made himself – from the quenching tub near the forge, Kelerim drank deeply, grimacing a little from the highly metallic taste.  When he was done drinking his fill, he put the ladle back and dunked his whole head inside the tub.  The water was refreshing as it helped him to scrub away a bit of the soot and sweat that his whole body felt covered with.  He grabbed a relatively clean rag from nearby and dried his face off, before looking in the small polished sheet of steel he had nearby.

It’s no wonder the Orcs look down on me, he thought, as he looked at his reflection in his highly prized possession.  While most of the Orcish race had slightly snubbed noses, bald heads, rough greenish-colored skin, beady black eyes, and short mouth tusks, Kelerim took after his other parentage more.  The face that stared back at him had a full head of brown hair – a bit dirty and stringy at the moment – dark russet-colored skin, trimmed beard, and very small nubs where some mouth tusks would be if they ever grew out.  In fact, some of the elder Orcs he had met in his short 11 years living in Orcrim – the land of the Orcs – said that he looked more like a “Human” than either one of the races he was spawned from.  He wouldn’t know, though, as there hadn’t been any Humans nearby for decades, apparently.

Kelerim took the small Dwarven steel sheet off the wall and put it in his burnt and holey leather apron’s pocket, as he left the smithy and headed off to get a brief bite to eat.  The steel mirror was the only thing he had from his mother, who had apparently died not long after he was born.  He didn’t know the complete details of how his mother came to be impregnated by an Orc, but he figured it was probably best that he didn’t know.  As it was, he didn’t know who his father was, and he doubted his father even knew about him anyway.

He was raised by his mother’s family in relative secrecy until he was about 8 years old, when he was revealed to be obviously not fully Dwarven because he had already shot up in height so that he was taller than anyone else under the mountain.  When his ancestry was made public, he was forced out by the community and eventually made his way to Orcrim, where he was eventually taken in and made to work menial tasks even as a child.  There was no actual slavery in the Orcish lands, but to Kelerim his situation was close enough that he could barely tell a difference.

Regardless of the rough life he had led, the half-blood Orc/Dwarf had survived.  Shunned by his mother’s family and held in high disregard from his father’s people, he nevertheless showed them that he was able to work hard, even if they didn’t consider him to be fully one of them.  Which, unfortunately, was how he got the Blacksmithing position he now held.

Kelerim went to the communal fire in the middle of the village of Grongbak, where the Orcish cooks kept what little food there was available.  At first, his arrival a year ago had led to a few hungry days when they refused to serve “Hafanorc”; the word was a derogatory term for a half-blood that had stuck with him over the years – but now he embraced it so that it wasn’t as hurtful as it used to be. Despite their blatant disgust for him, though, they soon learned that, as the only Blacksmith within 50 miles, he was too valuable to let starve to death.  Now, they barely blinked an eye at his presence, as they were accustomed to seeing him around.

“Food” was a bit of an over-exaggeration for the meal he received.  Meat would probably be more accurate, as normal Orcish cuisine consisted primarily of whatever the hunters could locate nearby, and any vegetables other than natural root-based selections like potatoes were hard to come by.  Mainly because there were very few Orcs that degraded themselves enough to become farmers.

Stringy as the meat was, the small meal easily filled Kelerim up as he sat on one of the nearby logs, and when he was finished, he headed back to his forge to continue his work.  When he got there, however, he could see that he had a visitor – and an unpleasant one at that.

“There’s the lazy half-blood now!  What are you doing, Hafanorc?  Why aren’t our weapons done yet?” the tallest of the three Orcs inside his smithy unnecessarily shouted at Kelerim when he was within eyesight.  The gruff, scratchy voice of the local warband’s leader always grated on his nerves when he heard it, and this time was no exception.

“Your order isn’t due until tomorrow, Razochek.  Come back then and I’ll have them ready,” Kelerim responded with a little more heat in his voice than he should’ve had.  He was annoyed that the warband leader was bothering him today, when it was common knowledge that the shipments always went out at the end of the week.

The little village of Grongbak was one of the few places in Orcrim where iron was plentiful; it was near the edge of a relatively easy dungeon – or so he was told – that supplied them with loads of the precious ore.  While more than half of what was collected was sent back to the major towns and cities in the interior of their land, Kelerim turned quite a few of the small dungeon loot orbs into weapons.  Some of the swords stayed in town to help arm the local warbands, while most went back with the shipments of the raw ore.

“Well, we need them today, you worthless weakling!  We have more reinforcements coming in later this evening, and they need swords to kill things – not that you would know anything about that,” Razochek sneered at him, the derision that he – and almost every other member of the Orcish race – showed toward those they thought weaker than them obvious on his face.  Though, for some reason he didn’t fully understand, the warband leader seemed to hate him rather than just look down on him.

More reinforcements?  I wonder if something happened that I don’t know about.  Regardless of what was going on, Kelerim didn’t have the swords ready yet.  “I’m not done yet, but you can take the few that I’ve finished already—”

“What, like this junk?” Razochek interrupted him, as he picked up the sword that Kelerim had just finished before he took a break.  “This worthless piece of crap is shorter than all the rest, not that those others are any better.  These things will barely be able to cut a potato, let alone hold up against some of the monsters that real Orcs face in the dungeon,” the warband leader continued, as he tossed the sword to the ground as if to emphasize his point.

“That’s because those haven’t been sharpened yet.  I do have about a dozen that are—” Kelerim began, before he was interrupted again.

“Not good enough.  In fact, nothing you do is good enough; I don’t know why they didn’t strangle you as an infant, like we do with all the other deformed brats that are born,” the warband leader said seriously, with an intense look upon his face.

Kelerim had heard the same thing many times over the years, so after a while it didn’t bother him; however, the sheer hatred and restrained violence on the Orc’s face was a bit unnerving.  While insults and hurtful words had haunted him for the many years that he had spent inside the land of Orcrim, this was the first time he felt as though it could be backed up by a physical threat.

But the half-blood Blacksmith was tired of all of it.  “Look, Razochek, what do you want me to say or do?  There was no one to train me how to do this, and it’s not like the work that other Orcish Blacksmiths do is any better – I’ve seen the hunks of metal they pass off as weapons—”

Before he knew what was going on, Kelerim was on the ground, reeling from a backhand from the giant warband leader that he didn’t even see coming.  “Don’t you dare speak of your betters like that, half-blood.  Those ‘Blacksmiths’ are better than you’ll ever be, because they are proud, full-blooded Orcs – unlike your tainted trash blood.  You’ll never become anything and never accomplish anything, for one reason: you don’t have the heart of a Warrior inside of you.  You’re worthless,” Razochek practically snarled as he stared at Kelerim on the ground, still recovering from the unexpected blow.

Before the Blacksmith could retort in any way, the warband leader continued.  “I’m done with you.  There’s another who can work the metal that arrived with the new reinforcements, so you’re out.  Your ‘services’ are no longer needed.”  When Kelerim didn’t move, as the shock of the backhand and the statement were still trying to process in his mind, Razochek kicked him hard in the side.  The Blacksmith was flung bodily out of the smithy, landing nearly 20 feet away in a jumble of limbs.  “You are no longer needed here; leave and never come back, half-blood.  You have until the count of ten to get out of my sight, or I’ll hunt you down and I’ll see what you’re really made of.  Like, your insides and stuff.”

As articulate as always, Kelerim couldn’t help but think – at least before the import of what the warband leader said hit him.  He scrambled to his feet, and instantly doubled over as what was sure to be a massive bruise to his side made itself known.  He groaned in pain, glad that his sturdy frame made it likely that he wouldn’t have to worry too much about broken bones from the impact of the Orc’s foot.

It still hurt though.

“Three!”  The pain of his injury must’ve deafened him to the first two numbers, because the third number was the first that he actually heard.  Either that, or Razochek was being a bastard and started the count at the advanced number.

“Four!”

Kelerim took off at a shambling run, holding his side as every step shot pain through his body.  He ran blindly, knowing that he had better get out of sight before the warband leader or his cronies decided they needed to hunt him down; it wasn’t an idle threat, either – he’d seen full-blooded Orcs killed out of hand for seemingly minor infractions before in other cities and towns.  It didn’t happen much out on the border – as they needed nearly every member of their small village to operate properly – but since there was already a “replacement” for him, he wouldn’t be missed.

Which was sad, when he thought about it; there wasn’t a single person, Orc or Dwarf, that would miss him if he died.  He thought his mother’s family might have at least cared for him at one time, but they had abandoned him to the wild as soon as any type of dissension happened in their community.  True, they gave him a pack that contained some extra clothes and enough food to last for a couple of weeks, but he thought that family shouldn’t abandon children like that.  He wasn’t sure what they could’ve done, but something would’ve been better than what they did; as a result, he lost all respect that he had for them – as he was sure they had lost all love or caring for him.

But that was neither here nor there – he needed to get away as fast as he could.

“Five!”

Kelerim could hear the next count a little further away, but not as far as he was expecting.  They must be following me.  Regardless, he kept running, knowing that if he stopped, he would definitely be killed; this way, at least, he had a chance of getting away.  By the time he heard, “Six!” ring out behind him, he was passing through the last of the mostly stone-made buildings of the village.  He exhaled explosively in relief – which pained his side even more – and ran another 100 feet before he looked around for the first time and realized he was going the wrong way.

Grongbak was located on the border of the wastelands, an area of dirt, rocks, and more dirt that stretched as far as the eye could see.  He knew firsthand that it didn’t go on forever, as the Dwarven lands where he was born were to the east, and he had traveled through the wastelands by himself and somehow survived long enough to be picked up by a passing Orc warband.  Rumor said that the Elven lands were located somewhere to the south, and that Gnomes lived to the southeast – but no one had seen nor heard from them in years, if not decades.

And it was in this wasteland that Kelerim now found himself.

Chapter 22

Kelerim immediately turned around to see if he could circle around the village and head back into Orcrim.  He briefly thought about trying to ply his new Blacksmithing trade in another town or village; he realized that it would be an uphill battle getting another place to accept him into their community, but at least he had a skill of sorts to offer.  He wasn’t great at it by any means, but he had gotten incrementally better over the last year of constant practice.

Those hopes were dashed as he saw Razochek and his two subordinates spread out on the edge of the village.  The warband leader had stopped counting, but he had drawn his sword and held it out, pointing directly towards Kelerim.

“We better not find you trying to sneak back in here, or any of my warband will kill you without hesitation.  And—” Razochek said loudly, signaling the rest of his warband that had been previously out of sight to make an appearance along the outskirts of the village— “don’t even think about circling the village and making your way deeper into Orcrim.  You aren’t wanted here anymore, so it’s time for you to go back to where you belong.  From the wasteland you came, so to it you return.”

That was surprisingly…well-spoken.  I have to give it to him – he knows how to make a scene.  The rest of the Orcish warband looked on threateningly, fingering their weapons if not outright drawing them.  “Why…why are you doing this?” Kelerim managed to wheeze out between the slowly lessening pain in his side.

“I told you already, Hafanorc.  You’re worthless and don’t belong here.  I should just kill you, but I don’t want to soil my blade with your filthy half-blood.  But I will do it if I catch you anywhere near here.”

And that was all Razochek would say as he and the others stared at him, daring him to try anything.  Why didn’t he just kill me, if he hates me that much?  I doubt anyone would’ve lifted a finger to stop him, and he probably wouldn’t even get in trouble.

Kelerim didn’t have an answer for that – and he wasn’t about to ask.  He still had his life and wanted to grasp the small chance of prolonging that life a little longer.  Though, faced with the prospect of starving to death in the wasteland, he briefly considered a quick death to be a better alternative – but abandoned that line of thought as it would be akin to giving up.  And despite everything that life had thrown at him in his 19 years on this world, he wasn’t a quitter.

So he turned around and headed farther into the wasteland, the spot between his shoulder blades tingling at the thought of an attack from behind.  It wasn’t likely, as any type of ranged weapon in Orcish society was frowned upon as something only a coward would use, but he wouldn’t put it past one of them to throw their sword at him from a distance.  Smartly – for once – they didn’t throw their weapons away and he was able to escape without harm.  Well, more harm; his side injury was still painful, but he knew it would heal eventually.

Whether or not he lived long enough for it to fully heal, however, was another question entirely.  He had no provisions, no weapons (not that he knew how to use one), and very thin clothing that was suitable for working in his smithy.  From prior experience, he knew that the wasteland got really cold at night; when he traveled before, his traitorous “family” had at least provided warm clothing for him to survive longer, but now he didn’t even have that.  He had his leather apron, of course, but it was a poor alternative for a warm blanket or coat.

Fortunately, if anything could be considered fortunate in his circumstances, Kelerim had eaten a hearty meal before he had been chased out of the village, so his priority wasn’t finding his next meal – it was finding some sort of shelter to hole up in and survive the coming cold night.  If he could find a place that he could somehow insulate against the freezing temperatures, he might be able to live long enough to worry about food…and water…and plans for the future.

Luckily, the barren landscape was rife with hills and valleys, including a few places where tiny mountains protruded out from the earth like goosebumps dotting the wasteland’s
skin.  Kelerim vaguely remembered finding a few caves on his week-and-a-half-long journey when he was 8 years old, but it felt like so long ago that he couldn’t remember exactly where they were – or even what they looked like.  Besides, I think that was at least 10 or 15 miles north from here, possibly farther.

No one really knew how big the wasteland was, but from what he heard after he was found, he had gotten lucky and passed through one of the narrowest parts.  With the village he had spent the last year in right on the border, that meant that…well…honestly, he didn’t know exactly what that meant.  Other than that he was screwed if he didn’t get out of the wasteland as soon as he could.

He spent the next three hours just walking, searching for some sort of place he could either burrow into or wedge himself, if not a full-on cave where he could hole up.  While he wasn’t sure how long it had been since there were live trees in those parts, the dried-out remains of what used to grow there were scattered everywhere, which meant that he at least had access to wood.  As for a way to ignite the dried wood, Kelerim luckily had access to – and could manipulate – Fire elemental energy within him.

Everyone had at least a small amount of elemental energy that they could manipulate within the small “storage place” inside of them.  Most called this internal storage place a “Well”, where they could tap into and use the element that they had an affinity with.  He didn’t learn much about it when he lived with his Dwarven family, and his exposure to it while he lived – was living – with the Orcs was limited, but he knew enough about it that he could spark a fire.

The issue with Orcish society was that they preferred martial prowess over anything they thought cowardly – for instance, ranged weapons.  Utilizing something that was largely intangible like elemental energy fell into that category as well, though that didn’t mean they didn’t use it at all.  On the contrary, they used their energy to enhance their ability to fight with weapons, instead of using them externally in ways like Kelerim had heard other races would do.

For instance, an Orc with Earth elemental energy could strengthen their skin in a way to make it more durable or add it to their muscles so that they could hit harder.  Someone from another race might be able to manipulate the ground underneath the enemy and shoot earthen spikes up from below to impale them or form a small stone and launch it at their target.  This was, of course, an extreme example, but it demonstrated the Orcs’ preferred method of fighting.  Despite how he felt about Orcs in general, Kelerim privately admitted that they were good at it.

They didn’t like to extend that knowledge to outsiders or half-bloods, however, so he was forced to learn about it by himself.  He wasn’t prepared to use the Fire energy on his body to enhance it in any way and risk burning himself alive – though he knew it could be done safely…somehow – so instead he concentrated on learning how to utilize the small spark of elemental power he possessed on applications outside of his precious self.  The most he could accomplish even after years of experimentation was to provide a very small flame, almost a spark, that could be used to light flammable material.  He used it every morning inside his forge to light it for the workday, but lately he hadn’t had the time to devote to improving it.  Regardless, he at least had a way to light a fire; now all he needed was a shelter and place to hole up for the night.

The sun was starting to touch the horizon when he literally stumbled into a small cave located in the side of one of the tiny mountains.  Kelerim called them tiny, but it was only relative to the massive mountains he had spent the first half of his life in, so anything compared to them was considered small to his view.

After cautiously inspecting it for any sort of creature that might be calling it home, he went to gather some of the dry and brittle wood around the area to start a fire.  He hadn’t actually seen any type of creature or beast on his trek to his shelter, but he did catch glimpses of small figures moving at the edge of his vision multiple times.  Every time he looked at where he swore he saw something, there was nothing there; he knew that the relative safety of walking through the wasteland during the day didn’t necessarily apply to the nighttime, however, so he hurried back to his cave as soon as he had collected a half-dozen armfuls of wood.  He didn’t want to run out before morning, so he may have overdone it…a little.

The cave itself wasn’t very large – only about 10 feet deep and high and half that wide – but it had a sloped roof that led outward, which was good because he had a feeling his wood was going to create a lot of smoke and he didn’t want to suffocate in the middle of the night.  He didn’t have time to insulate the cave from the slowly creeping cold of the evening, but once he got the fire going in front of the entrance – to also hopefully block any curious beasts looking to make of him a snack – it ended up doing a great job of keeping his little space fairly warm.

Kelerim woke up multiple times during the night when the temperature started to drop, only to find that his fire was in danger of burning out.  Adding his extra supply of wood helped to keep it going, but he slept unsettled for the rest of the night until morning.  Nothing bothered him, and he didn’t hear anything outside his cave all night – not that he was awake enough to listen.

He briefly thought about trying to stay awake the night before to ensure his safety, but after the already exhausting workday, followed by the “fight”, being chased out of the village, and his long journey to find shelter, Kelerim could barely keep his eyes open.  Luckily, he didn’t freeze to death or get eaten by the wasteland’s denizens of the night, though when he woke up, he was very stiff and sore along his side.

Once he walked outside to the early dawn light, he finally had the chance to think about the future.  His first priority was to satisfy his belly, as it was starting to growl in hunger.  Of course, he didn’t have any idea where to find something to eat out in the wasteland; it was pretty obvious by the name of the place alone that there wasn’t likely to be much in the way of food anywhere near.  From what he understood of the local Orcish warbands, they ventured into the wasteland for brief periods to hunt what they called Bearlings – which lived along the border of the wasteland nearest the forest located in Orcrim – but even if he had a weapon, he didn’t think he would be very effective against them.

They also mentioned some small lizard-like creatures that were a nuisance, but he didn’t have any idea where to find them – and again, he didn’t have a weapon.  Nonetheless, he needed to eat soon if he was going to survive long enough to go…somewhere.

As he started to pick up jagged pieces of stone and some sturdier branches that didn’t look like they would crumble to dust when he touched them, he thought about what he wanted to do after he was able to find something to eat.  Really, that was the determining factor on whether he wanted to try heading to another land entirely, or risk hiding out in Orcrim where he would at least be able to find something to eat.  Both prospects didn’t sound great, but neither did living out the rest of his days in the wasteland.

He immediately dismissed the Dwarves, as he didn’t believe he would be well-received, and his family’s betrayal had left a bad taste in his mouth when it came to the whole race.  The Elves to the south were another prospect, but from the little bit known about them in Orcish society, they were even more distrustful of outsiders than even the Dwarves.  Without any other viable options, he decided that – if he did, indeed, seek out another land – he would need to head in a southeastern direction toward the Gnomes.

With an eventual destination set – hopefully – Kelerim finished up his makeshift spear.  He started by using the sharp edges of a stone to cut off the ties to his leather Blacksmith’s apron; with those, he was able to wedge another stone into one of his sturdier pieces of wood and secure it with the ties.  It was crude even by his own low standards of crafting, but it would hopefully work well enough – even if he had no idea how to use it.

He had some leather ties leftover, so he also made a small hatchet using the same materials, which might be useful if his spear broke, which, in all honesty, was bound to happen quickly if he was forced to use it for more than a single strike – or against something that had thick skin.  Either way, he was now as armed as he was going to get, but he still had to find something to kill so that he could eat.

*          *          *

The sun was at its peak in the sky when Kelerim started to despair on ever finding anything to eat.  Not only that, but he couldn’t find any water in that desolate place, as everything seemed to have dried up – like his hopes of having some sort of dinner for later that night.  With the lack of hydration and the heat from the day scorching his skin, he started to stumble around aimlessly; he had traveled so far from the cave that he had stayed in the night before that he didn’t think he had a hope of finding it again even if he was in the right mind to.

Added to that, his sense of direction was failing him as hunger, pain, and thirst battled within his body for attention.  In short, he was lost, hopeless, and highly disoriented; which was why he didn’t notice right away the group of massive Bearlings emerging from a cave along a mountain to his left.  By the time he saw them, a few short of a dozen of them were staring him down from outside their cave entrance.

Kelerim froze after he turned toward them, immediately knowing what they were from the descriptions he’d overheard from some of the warband members.  The imminent danger of now more than a dozen scary beasts – some were even still emerging from a cave behind them – looking menacingly in his direction cleared the fog he had been traveling under in a flash.  He thought that there was nothing like a life-or-death situation to snap you out of a stupor.

Since he was already facing them, he started to slowly back up, trying not to appear threatening as he put a little distance between him and the Bearlings.  He even placed his makeshift spear on the ground as a show of good faith – even though he was positive that they wouldn’t understand the gesture, but he did it anyway.  It wasn’t like it would do much good against them, anyway, because it was said that their fur was like hard leather armor around their bodies.  Besides, he still had his hatchet on the side of his belt – so he was all good.

The Bearlings thankfully didn’t move as he put nearly 300 feet in between them over the next five minutes, still backing up as slowly as he possibly could.  He didn’t know what else to do, but his method of retreat seemed to be working – and he wasn’t going to stop until he was miles away if he could help it.

Even though he was walking slowly, the weakness in his body from the lack of recent nourishment caused his back leg to buckle as he stepped on a rocky protrusion, sending him crashing to his injured side in an ungraceful heap.  A cry of pain involuntarily left his lips as the ground hit his still painfully bruised torso, and that’s when things went sideways.

The roar that erupted from the throats of the Bearlings was so loud that Kelerim immediately turned toward the noise, expecting the massive beasts to be on him already.  He was momentarily surprised to see that they were still at the cave entrance. As soon as their deafening roar ended, however, they charged toward him in a giant wave of deadly claws, sharp teeth, and stiff brown and black fur.

He immediately got up and started running, heading for another tiny mountain he could see in the distance.  Maybe I can climb up there and they won’t be able to get to me!  Or, maybe there is a really narrow cave that I can squeeze into and wait until they go away.  He knew that neither of these were likely, but he didn’t have any other choice but to try.

Something small flashed by the corner of Kelerim’s vision, a small animal he thought, though for some reason it shone in the sun as if it were metallic.  He could vaguely see it rushing ahead of him, dipping down and over a few small hills and valleys so quickly that he couldn’t get a good proper look at it; however, when he was able to focus on it for more than a second as he navigated his own way through the barren terrain, he thought it looked like some sort of dog.  Or maybe even a wolf.

Either way, it appeared to be running from the Bearlings as well, and if it knew of some sort of safe haven, he was all for following it.  He might regret it if it was indeed a wolf that turned on him, or it led him into an entire den of wolves, but he was willing to take that chance over the certain death that was inexorably getting closer and closer behind him.

He could practically feel the breath of the massive beasts chasing him by the time he arrived at the other tiny mountain, and he watched the blur that was the metallic dog/wolf shoot into a hole along the side.  Unfortunately, it still looked big enough to fit the Bearlings, but as Kelerim didn’t have any other choice, he followed the mystery animal inside…and promptly couldn’t see as it was nearly pitch-dark inside compared the light of the noonday sun.

He kept running, however, because he didn’t want to stop now – and proceeded to bump his head into something unseen, sending him to the ground, unconscious.

Chapter 23

Over the last month, Sandra kept expanding her dungeon, upgrading her Core, and crafting countless items in her forge.  She slowly perfected – as much as she could perfect it with her current selection of constructs – crafting knives, daggers, short swords, hatchets, single-bladed axes, double-bladed axes, sickles, maces, spear points, throwing knives, throwing axes, and even arrowheads. On the whole, however, they were all made scaled-down because of both the size of her current forge and her Small Armored Sentinel.

As she practiced making each type of weapon, the process got easier and easier as she gained the experience that only making hundreds of the same product over and over again could bring.  As she transitioned from knives to daggers to swords, she could apply that experience so that her first attempts were nowhere near the crude piece of junk her first knife had ended up being.  In fact, while she looked back at that initial crafting success with pride at what she had accomplished, she was also embarrassed by how ridiculous it looked compared to what she could craft now.

Even when she created completely different types of weapons, that same experience carried over; she just applied the knowledge she had in her mind with the near-unending practice she had completed over the last two months.  She was running out of what she could think of to craft miniaturized weapon-wise, though, so she was thinking about either making her Dragon Glass forge larger or switching up completely and trying her hand on something similar but different at the same time.  In short – armor.

However, Sandra had just upgraded to Core Size 15 – after 7 stages and nearly 36,000 Mana – and she finally received a new Dungeon Monster that she thought could replace her current beloved Sentinel for crafting. When she got enough time to practice enough with it, at least.

Core Selection Menu

Dungeon Classification:

Constructs

Core Size:

15

Available Mana:

425/6409

Ambient Mana Absorption:

6.4/hour

Available Raw Material (RM):

11200/20066

Convert Raw Material to Mana?

11200 RM -- > 448 Mana

Current Dungeon Monsters:

295

Constructs Creation Options:

14

Monster Seed Schematics:

52 (4)

Current Traps:

11

Trap Construction Options:

All

Core-specific Skills:

3

Constructs Creation Options

Name:

Mana Cost:

----------

------

Mechanical Jaguar

800

Mechanical Wolf

1000

Basher Totem

2000

Automated Digger

2500

Repair Drone

4000

Ironclad Ape

6000

Monster Seed Origination

Name:

Raw Material Cost:

Mana Cost:

Min. Mana:

Max. Mana:

Tiny Dragon Glass Flake

20000

7000

5000

10000

Large Copper Orb

800

80

5

200

Large Tin Orb

800

80

5

200

Large Bronze Orb

8000

800

50

3200

Large Iron Orb

8000

800

50

3200

Average Steel Orb

16000

1600

500

8000

Large Steel Orb

32000

3200

5000

16000

Large Air Elemental Orb

0

800

5

400

Large Earth Elemental Orb

0

800

5

400

Large Fire Elemental Orb

0

800

5

400

Large Water Elemental Orb

0

800

5

400

Large Holy Elemental Orb

0

800

5

400

Large Nether Elemental Orb

0

800

5

400

Large Natural Elemental Orb

0

800

5

400

Large Spirit Elemental Orb

0

800

5

400

Locked Seeds:

Unlock Requirements:

Mana Cost to Unlock:

Min. Mana:

Max. Mana:

Small Dragon Glass Sliver

2 Tiny Dragon Glass Flakes

14000

5000

20000

Average Dragon Glass Shard

4 Small Dragon Glass Slivers

56000

5000

80000

Large Dragon Glass Chunk

2 Average Dragon Glass Shards

112000

5000

160000

Sandra had also unlocked the Average and Large Steel Orbs, as well as all of the Elemental Orb sizes, which gave her a whopping 53 choices of Monster Seeds to use.  The only ones she still had to unlock were the larger sizes of Dragon Glass – but creating even a single Tiny Dragon Glass Flake was still beyond her.  Regardless, she had plenty to choose from and had access to seeds that could be used for any of her constructs.

Speaking of that, although she didn’t receive much of anything other than a resource capacity increase for upgrading to Core Sizes 12 and 14, she unlocked a new construct at Size 11, 13, and – just recently – 15.  At each upgrade, the new constructs were right on the edge of her maximum Mana capacity, which meant that they took a little bit to save up for; even though she had some – ok, a lot – of extra Orbs piled around her core, she was planning on keeping those for an emergency.

The first one was an Automated Digger, which was essentially a floating wheel 2 feet wide and 4 feet long with buckets attached to it, similar in shape to a water wheel she had seen used in a grain mill by a river before – though on a much smaller scale.  It rotated around a central axis that also turned in any direction it wanted, giving it a full capacity to reach just about anywhere; when she experimented with it, the digging wheel tore up dirt and stone faster than she could absorb it.  The Digger deposited the material behind it in neat piles, so she ended up using it to start hollowing out her new rooms and using some of her smaller constructs to move the dirt into piles arranged along the edges, where she could use it later if she needed it.

As great as her Automated Digger construct was at digging, it wasn’t really useful for crafting or even defensive purposes; it floated where she wanted it to go slowly, and rotated just as lethargically, so it obviously wasn’t designed to attack or defend.  Which was fine with her, because she already had plenty of things that could do that – and they would hopefully do it well.

At Core Size 13, the non-combat construct trend continued, as she acquired access to something called a Repair Drone.  When she was able to create it, she found that it was an unassuming-looking, white-colored, apparently seamless metal cylinder two feet high that floated an inch off of the floor.  And it did nothing.

Well, nothing until Sandra brought it near her Small Armored Sentinel, which was starting to look a little worse-for-wear after spending countless hours near a super-hot forge.  It was actually her seventh Sentinel, as the others had their joints and vital areas melted from the intense heat; even the slow self-regeneration her constructs enjoyed wasn’t enough to keep up with the constant damage.  Fortunately, they were inexpensive enough Mana-wise that she didn’t mind having to replace them periodically, especially as they always dropped their Seed when they stopped functioning.

When her Repair Drone got near the Sentinel, however, two thin, single-jointed arms with small metal pads on the end seemed to emerge from nowhere on the floating cylinder.  The metal pads immediately pressed up against her little melted crafter and the construct froze in the middle of hammering a double-bladed axe on the anvil.  Sandra saw lightning-shaped streaks of every elemental color flow from inside the Drone’s body, down its arms, and into the Armored Sentinel.  Within seconds, the melted parts of her handy Dungeon Monster started to form itself back together; to Sandra, it was like looking at all the damage over hours of intense heat reverse itself right before her eyes.  In less than a minute, her Sentinel was back to looking brand-new, as if there had never been any damage in the first place.

She watched, amazed, as the Repair Drone’s metal pads released the other construct, before retracting its arms back inside its shell, sealing up the slits on the outside of its cylindrical body as if they never existed.  And then it just sat there, waiting for…something to happen, Sandra guessed.

Curious, she took control of her Sentinel and deliberately placed its arm and hand inside the forge – though only for about five seconds.  Still, the powerful heat from a dozen flame-jets heating up its appendage was enough to almost completely melt it away, along with a good portion of its side closest to the forge.

Normally, that kind of damage would make it nearly unusable, and Sandra would just finish the job and deliberately melt it more so that it would be destroyed – where she would then create another.  This time, however, her Repair Drone went back to work, placing its metal pads on the sides of the heavily damaged Sentinel and doing its healing work.  It took about five times longer than the first repair, but she thought it was probably because the damage had been much more extensive, and its arm had to be almost completely rebuilt.

Her experiment had been a success!  But it also raised some questions.

I thought you said that my constructs couldn’t use elemental energies because they weren’t alive; I’m pretty sure that’s what I just saw, she mentally asked Winxa, who was watching as amazed as Sandra was as her Repair Drone finished repairing her Sentinel.

“That’s…not precisely what I said.  I said they can’t control the elemental energies they are made from to craft the Enchantments that only living creatures can create.  As crazy as that was watching all of the energy emerging from it, that show of power was essentially the same as watching one of your other constructs use their innate energy to float or rotate with seemingly no power source – but that energy is the power source; you just don’t normally see it working.”

It was a pretty simplified explanation, but it made sense, she thought.  Regardless of the validity of the explanation, Sandra still tried to take control of the Repair Drone and use it to craft an enchantment on the double-bladed axe her Sentinel had just finished making.  After ten frustrating minutes of not even being able to get her construct to extend its arms from its pristine white shell, she gave it up as a bust.  There’s got to be a way!  Nevertheless, she gave it up and kept the Repair Drone near the forge, where it would periodically fix the slowly melting parts of the Sentinel as it got too near the heat.

The one downside of doing that, however, was that whenever her little crafter needed “healing”, it would pause as the Repair Drone did its work.  She tried to force it to continue but found that it was completely frozen in place for the duration.  Fortunately, as they were usually minor fixes, the process would only take a few seconds, but the interruption made the movement of hot metal from the forge to the nearby anvil sometimes inconvenient.

Eventually, Sandra gave the Drone instructions to do the same thing most of her other constructs were doing – gathering ambient Mana.  She didn’t really need it in the room to do that, of course, but the slow path she set it on brought it near the forge – and her Sentinel – only once every hour or so, which made the interruption a little longer for the repairs, but much less frequent.

As for the Dungeon Monster construct that had the potential for replacing her constantly repaired Sentinel, at Core Size 15 Sandra received access to something called an Ironclad Ape.  As soon as she could afford to produce the Ape, which cost 6,000 Mana – almost her new Mana capacity – and required an Average Steel Orb, the largest Monster Seed that she could actually originate, she was overjoyed and couldn’t wait to see what it could do.

Made entirely of Iron – as opposed to the other constructs’ softer, unidentifiable metal – the Ironclad Ape stood only 4 feet high when it stood on its back legs; despite not being that tall, the new construct had solid iron plates of thick “skin”, in addition to a complete iron skeleton.  It was more animated than her clockwork or mechanical constructs, because when she was able to see through some of the gaps in its outer “armor”, she could see a faint glowing bluish light right in the middle of its body.  Since it didn’t have any obvious weak points along the outside, Sandra figured this light was what animated it and was its vulnerability.

The sheer weight of the construct was staggering; she estimated that it weighed nearly 2,000 pounds, which was evidenced when it simply walked/stomped around and started to leave cracks in the stone beneath it.  Sandra spent the next few hours using every drop of Mana repairing the cracks and then strengthening the stone flooring, hopefully preventing her from having to repair it in the future.  By the time she had finished all 24 rooms she now had in her dungeon, she had spent almost 5,000 Mana on the project.

The best part of the Ironclad Ape, however, wasn’t its weight or shape – it was the fact that it was animated and could move its arms (and fingers) in any direction it wanted.  Not only that, but as it was larger and stronger than her Sentinel, it could finish projects faster; where her little Armored crafter would need five or six strikes to flatten out a section of red-hot metal, she figured that her new construct could probably do the same in one or two – if the strike was precise enough, of course.  And with her practice lately, Sandra thought she could quickly adjust herself to the different “feel” of the Ape and make that preciseness a reality.

Another added benefit was that fact that it was made of Iron, which wouldn’t melt nearly as easily as her Sentinel did when it was near the forge.  It would likely still get damaged if it stayed there for too long, but as there wasn’t any real point to doing that, Sandra thought it would be safe.  Overall, her new construct was larger, stronger, and could handle higher temperatures for longer – which meant that she could build a bigger forge and start crafting larger pieces.

However, all of her upgrades and expansion meant that she was extremely close to the surface.  The desire to see the sun again was almost overwhelming; in her previous life, she had spent so much time outside that being trapped inside her dungeon felt uncomfortable and foreign.  Sandra didn’t have the same kind of semi-claustrophobic tendencies she had when she was alive as a human, but her Core still desired to reach out from its confines.

Therefore, before she did any more building of forges, crafting of new items like armor, or even gathering enough Mana to upgrade herself again – which was going to take something like 50,000 Mana when she thought about it – she decided to throw caution to the wind and invite the outside world in.

Chapter 24

Sandra wasn’t stupid, though.  Despite resolving to throw caution to the wind, she listened to the information her Dungeon Fairy provided before she committed to the act.

“For completely informational purposes only, I need to tell you about what you will likely face up there.  I don’t have any specific knowledge of what it looks like aboveground, but as you are near the spot where the final battle between the races and Wester was held all those years ago, the landscape has probably drastically changed.  From what I remember hearing of it – since I wasn’t there with him at that point anymore – the war wasn’t exactly delicate on the surrounding land.

“That being said, whenever a dungeon breaks through to the surface, they usually have already made sure that they are fully defended in case they pop up in the middle of a group of hostile figures.  This includes having a good supply of Dungeon Monsters at the ready, and traps set up and prepared for almost anything.  Typically, dungeons start off with weak Dungeon Monsters and traps first, and then increase their strength as they progress further – but it’s entirely up to the Core doing the defense.  You already know about those Bearlings, but there could be something different – either more or less powerful for you to worry about.

“Also, keep in mind that you won’t be able to absorb anything up there that isn’t connected to your dungeon.  You might be able to see and funnel ambient Mana through your constructs, but you can’t affect much more than that.  And lastly, once the entrance to the surface is created, the standard tunnels and rooms cannot be changed to be made smaller – only larger,” Winxa told Sandra when the Dungeon Core announced her intention to break through to the surface.  The Dungeon Fairy seemed to want to say more than that, but she was likely constrained by whatever force prevented her from giving advice.

Sandra got what she was trying to say, though; she needed to make sure she was properly defended in case those Bearlings decided to attack right away when she arrived on the scene.  As things currently stood, all she had was the small little pit trap near her Home, and a single wall-slamming trap in the narrow tunnel just before the last room.

That last room was inside a jutting earthen and stone hill that she assumed rose above the normal ground level, as it was just as high as the hill that the Bearlings were currently sleeping comfortably in.  As her Area of Influence expanded, she could see more of the jutting hills piercing upwards all over, and the “normal” ground level was a series of small bumps and valleys – like it was a torn-up planting field that the earth decided to rise up from underneath and destroy.

As it would only take at most an hour to dig a good-sized tunnel through the side of the small mountain, Sandra left that step until the very last.  Instead, she did something that she had been putting off, as she wasn’t really fond of crafting traps that would kill something.  Though, when she really thought about it, she was kind of doing the same thing when she crafted weapons; considering trap construction in that different light, she realized that they were almost one and the same.

The issue was that it would be her doing the killing, even if it was in the form of a trap.  With weapons, they were made for other people to use, but her traps seemed more…personal.  Sandra briefly thought about the whole Territory Ant massacre she had been forced to commit; although she didn’t like bugs and the Ants had attacked her without (at least what she considered) provocation, the whole situation left a bad taste in her figurative mouth.  To deliberately plan for the killing of beasts – or worse yet, someone of a sentient race – was something she was having a hard time with.

Fortunately – or unfortunately, depending on how one looked at it – she had the Bearlings constantly making themselves aware at the edge of her attention.  They weren’t making any threatening moves, or even acknowledging her existence, but Winxa had mentioned that they might not stay that way once she broke through to the surface.  As much as she didn’t want to kill them if they attacked her dungeon, she would be prepared to defend herself when it came to that.

Therefore, with that mindset that she was purely doing it “just in case”, she started to place traps throughout the last rooms in her dungeon closest to the surface.  Instead of following the same plan that other dungeons seemed to take – with having weaker Monsters and traps at first – Sandra went the opposite direction and put most of her strongest constructs and traps first.  It didn’t make any sense to her why it would be done the other way; she thought that having the best stuff first would be better for eliminating the problem quicker.

She also used every extra scrap of Mana she had to create more constructs, though she limited it to ones that weren’t very expensive because the traps that she wanted weren’t cheap.  All in all, she spent five full days constantly low on Mana from her expenditures, as it was used on nothing but defense.  It pained her to put crafting on hold for that long, but she knew it was for a good cause: her continued safe existence.

Sandra also dug into her “treasure hoard” of orbs piled up around her Core for their contained Mana, as well as converting many of the dirt piles her Automated Digger had created in its excavations.  She thought it was worth it to use nearly 150 of her smaller Orbs for the project, otherwise she expected that it would’ve taken another day or two to finish – which was a day or two longer than she wanted to be away from her crafting and ultimately delaying her first glimpse of the outside.

She leaned on all her knowledge of the elements to make her traps, though she had to admit that she wasn’t great in the practical use category.  Her expertise lent itself to using elemental energy on enchantments, and not how Heroes used it in battle against dungeon monsters.  She knew they could do things like throw fireballs, shoot sharp icicles, create damaging whirlwinds, and even cause isolated earthquakes; however, she never paid attention to that because they never did those things when she was around.

Nevertheless, Sandra based her traps off of stories that Heroes inevitably recited of their own prowess, and merchants acquired those stories as just another form of information.  The only real issue she encountered was the strength and duration of the traps; most of the traps that she set up could only be so strong before their Mana cost was unreachable at her current Core Size, and when she was able to set them up, they wouldn’t last that long.  For instance, the longest duration for any of her traps was just over a minute, while there were others that were much less than that.

In the room closest to the surface, she got rid of the slamming tunnel trap and instead infused a thin film to the walls, ceiling, and floor filled with Nether energy; her idea was to give the advantage right to her constructs by sucking out all the light, allowing her Dungeon Monsters to see where the intruders could not.  She had noticed that a natural glow permeated her dungeon whenever she excavated, giving plenty of light to see by – if she had needed it.  When asked, Winxa told her it was standard for all parts of all dungeons to be lit up with enough light for anything to at least marginally see.

That doesn’t seem smart to make it like that, especially if the Creator wanted the Dungeon Cores to survive…

“The Creator made it so that, in the cases where the Dungeon Core was too much of a danger to the survival of the nearby sentient races, they could send down people to find the Core and destroy it if the need arose.  Keep in mind that the Creator created dungeons in the first place to ensure the survival of the seven races, even if it sounds strange thinking about it that way.”

It definitely sounds strange.

Regardless, her Nether elemental energy trap would negate that “standard” light, so that only her constructs could see – since they didn’t need light to see in the traditional sense.  She also placed four Basher Totems inside the room, which would hopefully pulverize the blinded invaders before they could fight back.

In the event that they got through, Sandra did the exact opposite in the next room.  A thin film of Holy elemental energy was enough to light the room up so bright that anything would be blinded, especially coming from the insanely dark room before.  She placed a dozen Singing Blademasters, which would hopefully confuse and disorient those blinded by the intense light.  She also placed her Ironclad Ape inside the room, which would use its fists to pound into whatever got past her twirling blade poles.

In the third room, she created a trap that would produce a thin, half-inch pool of water that covered the entire floor, using Water elemental energy.  In different triggering sections in the room, the water would form sharp icicle spikes that would jut upward in the blink of an eye, impaling anything passing by.  Small Armored Sentinels roamed throughout the room, careful to avoid triggering the icicle spike traps – but should be more than capable of forcing any invaders into them with their Steel short swords (one per hand) that were made before she had stopped crafting.

In the fourth room, she actually ended up using the most Mana of all of the rooms to create her trap.  Sandra turned up the heat and essentially made a large forge filled with Fire elemental energy; sixteen flame-jets would shoot from the ground in unison, quickly raising the temperature to a dangerous-for-living-creatures level.  The downside, unfortunately, was that because of the sheer size of the flames in comparison to her little forge, the flames would only stay lit for ten seconds before they had to recharge from ambient Mana for more than a minute.  Still, it was sure to be deadly – and not just for living creatures – which was why she didn’t have any constructs in there.

In the fifth room, she used her Natural elemental energy and went with a green poisonous cloud that would seep into the room as soon as anything crossed the threshold.  The poison was fatal in concentrated amounts, but because of the expense in making it, Sandra was only able to create a trap that made it highly irritating to the bare skin, eyes, and lungs of anything passing through it.  With a little construction work, she built three walls that were four-feet high that crossed the room, forcing whatever invaders that were left to have to waste time climbing over them, and breathing in the poisonous cloud longer.

She also created little ledges on the ceiling that held a dozen Segmented Centipedes, which would drop from above and land on the distracted – and hopefully coughing, itching, and blinded – enemies.  They worked well against the Territory Ants, so Sandra was hoping they would be just as effective if they could get close enough to do some serious damage, even with their small size.

In the sixth room, Sandra used an Air elemental energy trap similar to the ones she had with Nether and Holy energy; the thin film lining the walls created something like a large bubble that would suck all the air out of the room, leaving it an airless void that would suffocate anything living.  Similar to her flame-jet trap, however, it wouldn’t last very long, but 30 seconds was likely enough to send whatever was in there into a panic, even if hit didn’t kill them.  Since her constructs didn’t breathe and didn’t care about the lack of air, she was able to place 20 Articulated Clockwork Golems inside, armed with double-bladed axes that were specially made so that they could be easily held by their clamp-hands.  Crafting those axes was the last thing she did, however, because it was more important to ensure all the traps were set properly first.

In the seventh room, Sandra created something right out of a nightmare – or at least a nightmare to someone who didn’t like bugs.  Using Spirit-based elemental energy, she formed a trap that would trigger when something passed the halfway mark in the room, which created a life-like illusion of the invaders being isolated and trapped in a maze of massive spiderwebs.  It didn’t hurt or do anything other than project the vision, but it was accompanied by 100 Clockwork Spiders that would drop from hidden niches in the ceiling (similar to the Segmented Centipedes) or scurry out from little alcoves along the sides of the room.  By themselves, she didn’t think they would do much, but attacking as a group would hopefully make a difference.

Room eight took advantage of Earth elemental energy; by infusing the stone walls with the Earth trap, she was able to have sharp stone spikes extend out from the walls a couple of feet, piercing anything that came close enough to them.  To ensure that any invaders that survived to that point actually got near the walls, Sandra placed 60 Animated Shears near the middle of the room.  They were instructed to rotate around a central point, creating a whirlwind of flying sharp implements that most – if not all – semi-intelligent creatures would try to avoid.

And those were all the traps she created, though she filled up the next five rooms with the smaller constructs that she could spare from her rooms closest to her Core.  She could’ve spent weeks improving everything, but she was anxious to break free from her confines and her caution only went so far.

Therefore, with things as good as they could get in the time that she allotted herself, she started to eat away at the wall blocking her from the world above.

Chapter 25

It took less than the hour that Sandra had predicted, but that could probably be attributed to how excited she felt in finally getting to see the sky and sun again.  She put all other activity in her dungeon on hold – and just let the ambient Mana start to accumulate – because she wanted to be able to react quickly with enough resources if she needed to set something up in reaction to what was up there.

Sunlight streamed through her entrance, illuminating it even more than it already was.  It was strange, actually, because Sandra could see the light coming in, but when she tried to peer outside, the same blank “wall” impeded her vision.  That didn’t deter her, however, because she was still planning on investigating with some Dungeon Monsters.

After widening the tunnel leading outside until it was the “standard” height, she split her focus – which she had acquired a lot of practice at over the last two months – between her Mechanical Jaguar and Mechanical Wolf and sent them outside.  They were her fastest constructs – even passing her Rolling Force in terms of speed – and would be able to hopefully run from anything that appeared to be a threat.

Fortunately, nothing appeared to be waiting for her when she emerged into the early morning daylight.  Lightly using her influence to give them orders, she instructed her Jaguar and Wolf to venture cautiously outside and explore, while she watched through their “eyesight”.  The entrance to her dungeon was clear of almost anything, in fact, but it was the area beyond the entrance that she was more interested in.

Sandra’s Area of Influence extended approximately 3,000 feet in every direction around her Core, which mean that she had quite a bit of room to explore.  Unfortunately, there didn’t seem to be much of interest.  She had been hoping that she would end up inside a forest of some kind, where she would be able to send out her little constructs to bring back things like wood, plants, and other interesting things that she would hopefully be able to absorb and use as materials.  Wood, especially, was a vital ingredient to many of the crafts she wanted to make, including bows, arrows, and even handles to other weapons.  She had improvised by using metal hafts for many of the traditionally wooden ones, but it also made the weapons heavier and at times unwieldy.

Sadly, the world above was a virtually barren wasteland.  Stone hills – not unlike where her dungeon entrance was located – dotted the landscape, and the rest appeared to be more dirt and rock for as far as the eye could see.  Everywhere she looked, the world was…dead – that was the best word she had for it.  She couldn’t see anything living, anywhere; no wild animals, no plants, no trees – nothing.  Even the Bearlings holed up in their cave approximately 1,000 feet away weren’t moving, which Sandra was thankful of.

Her Jaguar started to explore the hill – or very small mountain – that held her dungeon entrance, as it was easily able to navigate its way up and down the rocky exterior.  Her Wolf, on the other hand, moved along the ground, keeping low and out of sight of the distant mountain and cave filled with Bearlings that Sandra could see when her construct looked in that direction.

It wasn’t long before her Mechanical Wolf came across what appeared to be very old, dried-out sticks and branches scattered around.  Obviously, something used to live here, but it’s been a while.  Picking a large piece of dried wood up delicately in its metal jaws, her Wolf brought it back to the dungeon and she waited in anticipation.  As soon as her construct got back inside the dungeon, it dropped the desiccated stick of wood on the floor and Sandra immediately absorbed it.

She waited several moments in anticipation, but nothing happened.

“You’re probably going to need a fresher source of wood in order to be able to use it in your dungeon.  Most of what made that stick wood has been lost over time, which makes it a less-than-ideal representative of the material.  My guess is that any wood that is freshly taken from a tree – and by freshly, I mean at least in the last few days – would probably do the trick for you,” Winxa told her in a monotone voice after Sandra explained her dilemma.

What’s wrong?

The Dungeon Fairy was silent for nearly a minute before she responded.  “It’s…this place used to be beautiful.  A lush, green valley filled with grass and wildflowers, towering trees and gently rolling hills; now it’s a ruined, barren wasteland where nothing lives.  And all because of Wester…and me.”

Sandra could tell that her friend was feeling guilty about her role in everything.  Hey, it’s not your fault.  You couldn’t have predicted this would happen – you were just doing your job.  If it’s anyone’s fault, it’s the Creator’s.

Winxa appeared lost in thought for a few minutes, before she broke the uncomfortable silence.  “Don’t talk about the Creator that way,” she finally said, albeit half-heartedly.  “I know it wasn’t me that did all this, but I can’t help but still feel responsible for it.”

Well, get over it.  I still need your help if I’m going to survive, Sandra thought toward the Dungeon Fairy, realizing that a tough-love approach in this situation was probably best.  Her father had done the same thing when she was younger, when Sandra would despair over the state of her hands and her inability to do anything useful.  She didn’t need someone feeling sorry for her or pitying her – she was doing enough of that herself.  She had responded much better to her father telling her to essentially “Suck it up” and get back to work.  It was still too early to tell whether it would work on Winxa, but the slow, silent nod Sandra received in response was encouraging.

Sandra tried again with various scraps of wood that her Mechanical Wolf found outside, but as they were all just different degrees of crumbling sticks and branches, she didn’t have any more luck.  For nearly half the day, her two constructs outside roamed cautiously over her Area of Influence, searching out anything that might be of use.  The sun was high overhead, and the environment appeared to be heating up, though she couldn’t “feel” anything, and her Mechanical Monsters weren’t really affected by it.

She wasn’t sure if it was the heat of the day that prevented her from seeing any wild creatures, or whether there really wasn’t anything other alive out there other than the Bearlings – which she made sure to avoid with her constructs, while keeping an eye on them.  Regardless, there was very little of interest that she found, though with the slow approach she had been taking, she hadn’t even explored a quarter of what was accessible to her.

Seeing the sky and sun again was nice; however, it wasn’t as good as she had hoped. Not being able to feel the heat of the sun against her skin, to smell the fresh air (even in a wasteland, she suspected it was fresher than the air below the surface), and even experiencing the feeling of insignificance when she gazed at the vastness of the wide-open sky made the whole event a bit of a letdown.  Nevertheless, the freedom of having a larger area to roam and explore was beneficial for her sanity, if nothing else – though she did see a small uptick in the amount of ambient Mana funneling into her Core from outside.

Hmm…if I can fill the outside with as many constructs as I have in my dungeon, I could get a whole lot more Mana, which will allow me to upgrade my Core and extend my Influence.  Eventually, I might be able to reach a place that isn’t destroyed and finally acquire more materials for crafting.

“That’s the main idea, Sandra.  It’s the primary motivating factor for most Dungeon Cores: upgrade and expand their Area of Influence.  Of course, you have a different reason – crafting materials, apparently – but the goal is the same,” Winxa responded unprompted to Sandra’s internal monologue, sounding livelier than she had before.  Not chipper, by any means, but not necessarily depressed and morose.

Well then, I guess I’ve got more Mana collecting to do.  She looked into creating some more Animated Shears, as she thought those would be the most cost-effective flyers that she had that could spread out from her dungeon like a plague of locusts, gobbling up all the nearby ambient Mana.  However, before she could start the process, her Mechanical Wolf aboveground saw something that made her – figuratively – tense up in surprise.

Somehow, despite her dungeon’s relative isolation inside the barren wasteland, there was someone walking around up there.

*          *          *

At first, Sandra thought it was a human stumbling his way through the landscape with little regard for his surroundings, but as she crept her Wolf closer to the person, she could see some definite differences.  For one, although he was probably five feet and some inches tall, he was much stockier than she had ever seen a human look like before – and she had met many, many people over the years of being a merchant with her father.  Not fat, though – just more compact and sturdier; in fact, she could barely see an ounce of fat on him, mainly because he wasn’t wearing very many clothes.  A threadbare linen shirt that was probably beige at one point – but was now soot-stained with small holes dotting the short sleeves – was covered up from behind by a leather apron that appeared similar to a Blacksmith’s.  It also was soot-stained and holey, was missing any sort of ties to keep it close to his body and was draped behind him like some sort of cape – which made sense because it would probably interfere with what he was holding.

A crudely made spear – though she hesitated to even call it that – that was made from a jagged piece of rock and a relatively sturdy-looking stick, bound together with the apron’s missing ties, was being held negligently in the person’s left hand, though he seemed to be using it more as a walking stick than a weapon.  On his hip, she could see another crude weapon – a hatchet, she supposed – stuck through the belt on his equally threadbare brown pants.

When he got closer to her Wolf that crouched behind a small stone projection, she could see the differences between him and a human even more.  Two small nubs were trying to jut out from around his mouth, which looked like the beginning of a pair of tusks; she could barely see them, however, as they were almost covered up by the long, full brown-colored beard the person possessed.  His skin was a deep russet color, though she didn’t think it was necessarily tanned over years and years being out in the sun; instead, she thought it was just his natural coloring, as he looked too young to have gained it through constant exposure to the outdoors.

What is he doing out there?  Sandra could obviously see that he wasn’t prepared to be out in that wasteland, though she couldn’t figure out why he appeared to just be wandering around.  On a second look, however, she noticed that his eyes were unfocused, and his stumbling walk was probably due to weakness, instead of intoxication (which was what she thought it might be at first).  With no visible means to carry food or water, she concluded that he was probably hungry and dehydrated.

“What do you mean?  Who’s out there?” Winxa asked, after hearing Sandra’s thoughts.

The Dungeon Core explained what she saw, and the Fairy uncharacteristically grunted in response.  Sandra thought Winxa wanted to give her some advice but couldn’t because of her restrictions.  Regardless, she was already planning on staying far away from the strange man, because she didn’t really understand what his presence there meant.  If he was part of a larger party of people, she didn’t want to invite trouble by alerting them to her presence.

Sandra was fairly confident that her traps and constructs inside her dungeon could protect her against a small party of whoever this man’s people were, but she didn’t want to hurt them in the first place.  Of course, if there were many of them – and they were determined to kill her for some reason – there might not be anything she could do to stop them.

So she watched from the comfort of her Mechanical Wolf’s vision as the man wandered within twenty feet of her entrance, oblivious to his surroundings.  She felt a faint urge to help him, but quickly decided against it – mainly because she didn’t have any food or water to give him.  Well, she might be able to rig a trap to give him fresh water to drink, but that didn’t help his food situation.  Either way, she didn’t want to get involved when she didn’t know what the risks were.

That decision was taken from her as the man apparently got a little too close to the Bearlings’ cave.  One-by-one they started to emerge, staring at the man with dangerous, feral eyes; somehow, he must’ve felt the weight of their gazes on him, because the man turned toward the large beasts and paused his shambling walk in shock.  He stood there frozen for a moment, before placing his spear-like weapon – she still had trouble considering that ridiculous implement a spear of any kind – on the ground slowly.  Walking slowly backwards, the man seemed to be trying to be as unthreatening as possible, while the Bearlings miraculously stayed where they were while they watched him.

Sandra instructed the Wolf to slink away and to attempt to stay as hidden as possible – she didn’t want to call any attention to herself or her constructs at all.  It was successful in retreating quite a ways back towards safety, when her Jaguar – who Sandra had moved to the mountain above her dungeon as soon as the man was sighted – saw the man trip over something behind him and fall flat on his back.

That was all it apparently took to break the spell holding the Bearlings in place, because they started to surge forward.  Sandra saw the man get up and start running – almost directly toward her dungeon!  If he kept on his current heading, he would probably miss it by 20 feet, but it was close enough that if the Bearlings caught him there, they would easily be able to find her entrance.

She made a decision that she hoped she wasn’t going to regret.  Sending her Wolf out in front of the running man, she watched as it raced towards her dungeon’s entrance.  Thankfully, Sandra saw that he noticed her construct and was instinctively following it – though from what she could see of his eyes, he barely seemed to know what he was doing.

The Bearlings moved fast, but panic and fright are excellent motivators; the man tore up the distance between him and the dungeon entrance faster than she thought possible, so she wasn’t quite prepared when he entered the tunnel leading to her first room.  Her Mechanical Wolf had entered first and activated the trap, which meant that the man ran blindly into the room and promptly smacked his head on one of the nearby Basher Totem’s arms, knocking him roughly to the floor and unconscious at the same time.

At least, she hoped he was just unconscious.

Chapter 26

Fortunately, Sandra had a short amount of time before the Bearlings arrived.  She directed her Ironclad Ape up from the second room to the first, where it grabbed the unconscious (as a quick experiment, she tried to absorb his body, but it wouldn’t work – so she knew he wasn’t dead) man and dragged him back to the second room.  There wasn’t anything inherently dangerous in there, so it was safest for the time being; she hesitated to bring him any further, as the traps would likely do the Bearlings’ work for them.

She had also accumulated more than enough Mana over the time she was exploring aboveground and not doing anything else, so she was able to spend it on creating another Ironclad Ape.  As soon as it materialized from her last Average Steel Orb, she sent it to help defend the man if the Bearlings managed to make it that far.  Fortunately, she knew where all of the traps triggered in the rooms, and therefore her constructs did too; for those triggers that couldn’t be avoided, the Ape wouldn’t be harmed from them (i.e. lack of air in a room or poisonous gas).

Her new construct was only halfway through her dungeon by the time the first Bearling arrived, squeezing its large frame through the tunnel.  Luckily, the beast was such a tight fit that it had to wiggle its body just to get inside, which of course meant that only one was able to enter at a time – and slowly at that.  As the first tusked bear face stuck its head out of the tunnel, the light that had been illuminating the seemingly empty room went completely dark as the Nether trap activated.

Her Basher Totems were placed to the side out of view, and the two closest took advantage of the surprise darkness to take turns smashing the Bearling’s face with their powerful fists, alternating their blows so that they didn’t get in each other’s way.  Sandra could almost physically feel the force of the roar that shook the room as the beast cried out in surprise and pain, before it managed to wiggle through the last part of the tunnel.

Unfortunately for the Bearling, it still couldn’t see, so when the other two Totems joined in by smashing into its sides, it was in such pain from the devastating damage and disoriented enough from the blows to its head that it had trouble fighting back.  Within seconds, the same fists that had cracked her stone walls completely devastated the skull of the larger beast in a disgusting explosion of blood, bone, and brains.

It hadn’t been long since she had just spent most of her resources on creating another Ironclad Ape, so Sandra was surprised to feel herself rapidly fill up with Mana.  In less than a second, she had gained back all that she had spent and was completely full again.  She didn’t know what else to do with it and couldn’t quite think straight, so she spent it on completing one of the stages she needed toward upgrading to Core Size 16.  From previous experience, she knew that the “stage” process wouldn’t put her under like the actual upgrading did; all she felt was a small infusion to her Core like she had just taken a breath and kept the air inside her lungs.  It was only when she completed the upgrade would she “exhale”.

The next Bearling was already entering the room and struck out blindly over the top of the first dead beast, hoping to hit whatever had killed its friend.  The first swipe missed hitting anything, but a return swing managed to carve inch-deep furrows into the totem part of one of Sandra’s Bashers.  Fortunately, the strike wasn’t debilitating, but it was more evidence that the claws could deal out some serious damage.

After that one lucky hit, her Basher Totems quickly took the Bearling down with a flurry of smashing fists to its face and head.  Sandra felt another infusion of Mana from the death and put it toward completing another stage, before she got back to her dungeon invasion.

The devastating blows weren’t without their own side effects; her Totems’ hands were getting severely banged up and damaged, with even a few chips in their closed “fists”.  Not enough to put them out of the fight, but worrisome, nonetheless.

Sandra had her Repair Drone in the second room, but she didn’t want to bring it up and potentially freeze one of the Bashers in the middle of a fight – so she left it where it was.  The third Bearling attempted to push the corpses of the two others out of its way to try to wriggle its way inside, but the sheer weight of the bodies was hindering it.  Her Totems couldn’t get to the beast either, which caused a sort of stalemate – until the Bearling started to slice into the stone-walled tunnel, breaking off chunks with its powerful claws.

No!  They’re destroying my dungeon!  Sandra knew she could always repair it later, but if it kept it up, the Bearling might widen up the entire tunnel, allowing more than one of the beasts to enter at the same time – which would cause some issues.  If it had been just the one inside the tunnel doing it, she thought she could find a way to stop it, but a look from her Mechanical Jaguar outside showed that the dozen or more still outside were starting to tear at the stone outside as well, widening the entrance little-by-little.

The only way she could think to stop it was to start absorbing the dead Bearlings, giving them free access to enter once again.  Before her dungeon was sliced apart and opened to the entire force of Bearlings, Sandra went ahead and started to absorb the bodies of the slain beasts, though their massive size meant it took a good twenty seconds for them to dissolve and be converted into Raw Material.

There was so much material in their bodies that Sandra was forced to create a few Orbs in the process, as she didn’t want to “overeat” and be forced to convert it all into Mana.  In addition, a few notifications popped up in her vision, but she pushed them to the side without even looking at them; she couldn’t afford the distraction, and from experience she knew she could read them later when she had more time – if she survived, of course.

With the way now unblocked, the third Bearling gave up tearing up the tunnel (which had been widened nearly a foot on either side toward the bottom) and rushed inside – only to be met by Sandra’s Bashers, who were ready for it.  They easily smashed its head to bits just like the last two within ten seconds, but that was when the Nether trap ran out of charge and shut off.

When the next Bearling entered – faster than the others because of the slight widening of the tunnel, it wasn’t hampered by a lack of sight; with room to maneuver and targets in sight, it took a couple blows to the face but retaliated by swiping a claw through one of Sandra’s Basher Totems, shearing through one of its arms and the majority of the way through its totem-shaped body.  Her construct quickly hit the ground – damaged beyond repair – and dissolved into thin air, leaving behind a Large Bronze Orb in the process.

The other three retaliated by striking rapidly in succession, pulverizing the Bearling into a pulp; however, another lucky shot ripped off a second Totem’s arm, leaving it still able to fight but severely hampered by a missing limb.  The time needed to finish it off, unfortunately, allowed two more Bearlings to enter, leaving about a dozen still trying to push themselves inside.

Her newest Ironclad Ape arrived at the second room after navigating its way through the traps throughout the last few rooms, and immediately ran through it into the first, leaving the “older” Ape to watch over the unconscious man.  As soon as it rushed into the room, the Nether trap had finally accumulated enough ambient Mana to activate again, but not before Bearlings five, six, and seven (who were just entering the fight) managed to slice her remaining Bashers apart.

Iron was much harder and denser than the softer metal that her Bashers were made of, however.  As soon as the lights went out and the Bearlings became disoriented, her Ape went to work, using the heavier and more durable material it was made from effectively.  Jumping over the last of the dissolving Bashers, her Ironclad construct landed on top of the nearest beast’s head, smashing it into the stone floor with nearly a ton of weight behind it.

The Bearlings were tough, though, and the one that her construct landed on didn’t instantly have its head popped like a grape like she had expected.  A double-armed pound from the Ape’s fists directly to its skull did the trick, though – nothing like a sledgehammer to the brain to seal the deal.

A second leap from the back of the now-dead Bearling brought her Ape towards the next Bearling in line, but the sheer weight of her construct prevented it from reaching it completely.  It landed with a crash against the floor (that ended up damaging even the reinforced stone) a foot away and swung at the beast’s head, but the Bearling had heard it land and bit down with its enormous jaws right as the Ape’s hand entered its mouth.  Teeth broke and blood spurt out from bloody gums, but the enormous beast held on despite the obvious pain and wouldn’t let go.

A half-dozen hammer blows from the Ape’s other arm caved in the Bearling’s head, but directly after the killing blow, the seventh beast had arrived and swiped at her construct.  The attack didn’t cut through the Iron like it did the softer metal of her Bashers, but it did leave deep gashes along its body; the powerful impact, on the other hand, flung the heavy Ape away to crash against the nearest wall, leaving its right arm in the jaws of the sixth – dead – Bearling.

Her construct was far from done, fortunately, and was able to get back up and into the fight, but now it was at a disadvantage.  The eighth and ninth Bearlings were able to get inside while it recovered, with the tenth poking its head through.  Seeing the overwhelming odds against her Ape – and despite the Nether trap still active – Sandra ordered her missing-limbed construct to retreat.

Her Repair Drone instantly went to work on the damaged Ironclad Ape once it shuffled toward the back of the blindingly bright room.  She still had her undamaged Ape and Mechanical Wolf watching over the prone body of the man, fortunately, and she wouldn’t hesitate to utilize them if she had need – which she was pretty sure was a great possibility.

Sandra watched as her damaged Ape had its foot repaired – she hadn’t even realized it had been bent in an unnatural angle – and its arm was just starting to barely regrow when the Nether trap ran out again and the Bearlings could see enough to advance farther into her dungeon.  The Holy trap had luckily turned off seconds after the Ape had arrived; she had set it up to trigger when something passed the threshold and stayed active as long as whatever had triggered it was in the first two-thirds of the room.

When the first Bearling looked into the room from the tunnel, all it could see was an Ape frozen in repair mode near the exit to the third room, another Ironclad Ape and a Wolf standing guard over the inert body of the man, and a bunch of metal poles scattered along the floor.  Seeing easy prey, the Bearling rushed inside, followed closely by another – and that’s when everything went wrong for the invaders.

An intense light temporarily blinded the beast – and the one directly behind it – and it stumbled forward as stabbing pain to its low-light-accustomed eyes made it additionally disoriented.  And then, out of nowhere, a shockingly loud whining noise assaulted its ears, the sound of a dozen different Singing Blademasters echoing and reverberating around the room until it was magnified so much that it physically damaged the sensitive ears of the Bearlings.

Blinded, deafened, and in pain from unknown sources that they couldn’t even see to fight and stop, the lead beasts roared out in retreat.  The two inside the second room turned around and started shoving their way back out the tunnel (after running into the walls a few times, of course).  The ones behind were confused, but they could also hear the sound of Sandra’s Blademasters; after seeing the remains of at least four of their number (since Sandra had absorbed two already) inside the first room, and the panicked roaring of their lead elements, the rest beat a hasty retreat as well.

The Singing Blademasters stopped their rotation when the Bearlings were halfway to their cave, a third of their number having lost their lives in her dungeon.  Silence reigned over everything and Sandra watched in numb fascination as – over the next 20 minutes – the arm of her damaged Ironclad Ape slowly rebuilt itself.

She had done it.  Against the odds – and with a bit of luck, maybe – she had been successful.

Sandra tried to repair the damage that had been done to the entrance tunnel – just in case the Bearlings decided to come back within the next few minutes – but she got a message stating that she couldn’t do it while there were invaders inside her dungeon.  She looked at the first room, verifying that the ones in there were all dead and started to get worried.  Did something else invade while I was distracted?

A frantic search around her the rooms of her dungeon showed nothing out of the ordinary; it was only when she returned to the second room that it hit her – the man she had saved.  She looked at him closer, seeing that he was still unconscious, and she wasn’t sure when he would wake up.  Or if he ever would.

Now…what the heck do I do with you?

Chapter 27

Sandra wasn’t quite sure what to do with the strange-looking man, so she ignored him for the moment while she dealt with some other issues.  The first issue – though it was a good problem to have – was that she was full of Mana again from the deaths of the Bearlings inside of her dungeon.  She felt a little bad for needing to kill them because it hadn’t been her intention to seek their deaths, but she was hoping they had learned their lesson and would leave her, the man, and her dungeon alone now.

While she had already used the Mana from the first two Bearlings who lost their lives on her Core Size stages, after that point she had been too preoccupied with the battle to pay attention to her Mana levels.  Although she was full now, she figured that she had lost all the rest of the Mana from the other four Bearlings that had died.  Oh well, it’s not like I was seeking Mana out in the first place.

“That Mana is still there, you know.  Since you can only absorb so much at once, the rest sticks around the area where the Bearlings died so that you can still grab it later with one of your Dungeon Monsters.  It will eventually disperse into the surrounding environment after a few hours or so, but you’ve got a little bit of time before that happens,” Winxa told her after hearing her thoughts again.

Thanks, I didn’t know that.  Sandra was briefly annoyed that the Dungeon Fairy hadn’t told her that before – because it meant that she didn’t have to spend it on her Core Size stages if she hadn’t wanted to – but she realized that the issue hadn’t really come up before.  The Territory Ant attack had been already ongoing when she had arrived, and the total amount of Mana the unending stream of insects had provided hadn’t been all that much in the first place – especially in comparison to the Bearlings.

Regardless, now that she knew about it, she could spend the Mana however she wanted.  She was also nearly full of Raw Materials from absorbing the bodies of the two Bearlings, so Sandra immediately recreated the fallen Basher Totems at 2,000 Mana a piece, using some Large Bronze Orbs she had lying around – a few of which she had been forced to make during the battle to ensure she didn’t fill up her Raw Material capacity.  She even made enough to add another four of the Totems to the room; they did very well against the Bearlings, and more was always better.

She also made another Ironclad Ape, which brought her total up to three; she planned to keep them all in the second room as a backup force, and she thought they would work very well as a team – along with the Singing Blademasters.  Overall, she had been pleased with how well her defenses had held against the scary beasts, though she could see some ways to improve in the future.

But that was for later – she still had quite a bit of Mana left over even after restocking the first room with her constructs.  Since she couldn’t rebuild, expand, or otherwise change her dungeon while the man was lying unconscious in her dungeon, she used the bodies of the other Bearlings to create more Average Steel Orbs, and even had enough remaining to advance a stage in her Core Size again.  By the end, she estimated that she had received somewhere around 60,000 Mana from the deaths of the six invading beasts, which equated to about 10,000 Mana per Bearling.

I could see it a little before when I was defending against those Ants, but the amount of Mana I receive from killing other creatures is just…ridiculous.

“Yes, and now do you see why other Dungeon Cores are so obsessed with killing everything in their path?  The speed at which they could raise their Core Sizes is scary, especially if they find a lot of beasts to kill.  And you haven’t even seen what you get from the deaths of a sentient race – it’s actually quite a bit more.”

Sandra never wanted to find out, because killing people was the last thing she wanted to do.  She couldn’t even imagine getting even more Mana, because what she had received from just the six Bearlings was enough to completely push her up to the next Core Size if she had spent most of it on upgrading.  To get to Size 16, it required over 50,000 Mana all told, which probably would’ve taken weeks or months to accumulate if she kept on with her crafting and dungeon expansion regimen; instead, she had received more than enough to finish the entire upgrade in less than an hour.

A quick check on the mysterious man showed that he was still unconscious, so Sandra left him there while she looked at the notifications that she had received during the battle that she had ignored.

New Monster Seed found!

Raw Bearling Meat

You now have access to:

Slice of Raw Bearling Meat

Origination Raw Material Cost: 200

Origination Mana Cost: 20

Monster Min. Mana: 30

Monster Max. Mana: 180

New Monster Seed and Origination Material found!

Raw Bearling Hide

While Raw Bearling Hide can be directly used as a Monster Seed, it can also be combined with specific other materials to create a whole new Monster Seed.

You now have access to:

Scrap of Raw Bearling Hide

Origination Raw Material Cost: 150

Origination Mana Cost: 15

Monster Min. Mana: 20

Monster Max. Mana: 120

Woohoo!  Finally, some hide that I can turn into Leather!  Leather was an important crafting material, but it was also a “finished product”, which meant that she couldn’t just create it through her Mundane Object Creation skill.  There were different techniques in the curing and tanning process to produce different kinds of Leather, which were used in a variety of applications.  Not only could she produce full-on Leather armor, but she also needed it to finish off many of the metal-based armors; straps, padding, and other accents were needed to properly complete them.  It was one of the reasons she hadn’t yet started to make them, as she knew she couldn’t finish them completely.

Leather would also add some finishing touches to the weapons she had been making, as there were a variety of ways to apply it to handle grips, not to mention scabbards and belts for holding them.  It was an all-purpose material, and she was glad that she finally had some access to it; unfortunately, she was still missing some components for certain variations of the tanning process to craft certain kinds of Leather, but she had enough to craft some basic things for use in other applications.

As far as the Raw Bearling Meat, she hadn’t thought about cooking – which was a craft in and of itself.  With many of the other products she could create, she could physically see the effectiveness of her work in the sharpness of a knife, or even the durability of an armor chestpiece, but with cooking, more than half of the process was tasting the end product.  Since she herself couldn’t eat (and therefore taste) – nor could her constructs – she hadn’t even considered it; now, however, she had the materials to at least cook something, even if she didn’t have anything to season it with.  And given that there was a man inside her dungeon that had obviously been hungry before he even arrived, she was starting to think she needed some way to cook.

Unfortunately, she still couldn’t do anything to change much inside her dungeon to build any type of kitchen.  Sandra briefly thought about trying to cook some meat on the forge far down below, but it wasn’t really wasn’t designed for cooking.  She supposed she could alter it a little, but again, she couldn’t really do that while the man was still unconscious up above.

Now that she had taken care of her other pressing matters, she figured she might as well decide what to do about him.  Winxa…what do you think I should do about him?

“Well, I can’t give you any advice – as you know – but I shouldn’t have to tell you that having a member of the sentient race nearby can be extremely dangerous.  In fact, he could be more dangerous than those Bearlings, as the races – even this…hmm…he appears to be some sort of mixture of maybe an Orc and a Dwarf – tend to be much more powerful than most wild beasts.  Like you, I don’t know why he was out here in the wasteland you described above, but he probably didn’t come by to say ‘Hello’.  Given all that, it’s your choice: kill him right now, see if he dies on his own, help him recover somehow, or just drag his body back outside.  There are probably more options, but those are the most prominent ones I can think of,” the Dungeon Fairy told her.  Winxa had created another one of her small portals; instead of it leading back to her little Fairy World, or whatever, it went to the room where the man was lying down, so she could see him with her own two eyes.

A half-Orc, half-Dwarf?  That sounds like an interesting story.  Sandra knew she didn’t want to kill him nor let him die, given that she had done her best to keep him alive.  She was still curious why he had what looked like a blacksmith’s apron on him, and she wouldn’t get those answers if he died.  Besides, even though he had little nubs on his jaw that appeared to be stunted tusks, he was kind of…cute.  Or it could’ve been that she was desperate for some company other than her constructs and the Fairy; having someone to talk to that could give their opinion and advice would be nice—

If he recovered, would I be able to talk to him?

Winxa was taken aback for some reason, before she started laughing.  “Of course not!  Only Dungeon Fairies can talk to Dungeon Cores; being able to talk to your prey would completely defeat the purpose behind your existence,” the Fairy explained between giggles.  Then she stopped as something occurred to her.  “Then again, that might not be the purpose of your exist—Urgh!” Winxa started, before something started to choke her.

After a moment, she started to breathe normally again.  “Ok, ok – I get it.  None of that stuff.  Anyway, to answer your question more completely, I don’t think there is any way to communicate with him.”

Sandra waited to see if there was any more that the Fairy wanted to share, but Winxa had shut up after that – which the Dungeon Core completely understood.  If something started to choke her out whenever she mentioned something in particular, then Sandra would be a little hesitant to talk as well.  And why is it that you can talk to me?  Is it specifically because you are a Dungeon Fairy?

Winxa thought about it for a few moments before slowly answering, as if she was trying to puzzle it out herself.  “No…I don’t believe I can hear you because I’m a Fairy.  I don’t know for sure, but I think it’s because I was somehow bonded to your Core when I was chosen to help instruct you.  It’s also why your dungeon senses don’t consider me an invader, as I’m considered part of…you, I guess.  It isn’t the same with any other Fairy, for instance – they haven’t bonded to your Core, so your Dungeon Monsters would automatically attack them if they came here – unless you stopped them.”

Wait – so my constructs will attack this man if I wasn’t keeping a rein on them?

“Yes, most likely.  The ones nearest him have your specific orders to protect him, I’m assuming, but if you didn’t give those orders to ones further inside, they would probably attack him.  You could always stop it in time, of course, but you’d have to be on a constant lookout for your constructs attacking him.  I think the same would happen if he were to leave your dungeon and come back even right away – they would attack unless given specific orders not to.  And upgrading your Core Size might negate all those orders, so you’d probably come back to find him dead.”

So you’re saying I’m essentially stuck progressing any further until he either dies or leaves?

“To put it simply – yes.”

Sandra thought about it for a moment, but then she asked something that had been worming its way into her mind since they started their conversation.  So…how do I imprint him on my Core, putting him on the “friendly list”, so to say.

Instead of laughing, which Sandra had thought the Dungeon Fairy might do, Winxa tapped her finger to her lips in thoughtful contemplation.  “I…haven’t a clue.  Usually, I have some sort of idea about these things, but this situation has never come up before.  It may or may not be possible; I literally have no idea how to help you.  However, I’m sure that if it is possible, you’ll be able to figure it out.”

So…no help from that quarter.  Sandra figured it might be something like that, since the Fairy didn’t mention it before in her list of options.  In the end, it was going to fall to her to figure it out, like most of the things she had to learn lately; she couldn’t fault Winxa, though, because Sandra was a bit of a special case when it came to Dungeon Cores – and she was okay with that.  It almost felt better to discover these kinds of things by herself; she thought it was similar to the feeling of satisfaction and pleasure that the crafters – the ones that she used to watch all the time – supposedly experienced when they created something new.

Looking down on the unconscious man lying in her dungeon, Sandra perused her menus for a way to accomplish what she wanted.  She wasn’t surprised that she didn’t find anything there, otherwise it would’ve been self-explanatory; pushing those away, she instead wracked her mind for another answer.

After almost an hour of silent contemplation – and watching the steady breathing of the man as he slept in the vestiges of unconsciousness – she suddenly stumbled on a clue towards the solution.

Chapter 28

Sandra had been keeping an eye on the Bearlings through the use of her Mechanical Jaguar aboveground, just in case they showed a sign of coming back; fortunately, most of the fourteen remaining beasts were staying in their cave.  A few were wandering off in different directions – for food, she figured – but they luckily stayed far away from her entrance.

She also didn’t see anything else up there, but she was keeping her construct close to her entrance; she wanted ample warning in case the man’s friends – assuming he had any – came looking for him.  Her Mechanical Wolf soon joined her Jaguar in scouting around for any threats, again keeping close and only venturing far enough to still be close enough to escape back to the dungeon if the need arose.

With that taken care of as much as she could at the moment, she focused most of her concentration on the man in her care.  As much as she didn’t want to be responsible for his well-being, her instinctual “human” actions – instead of her Dungeon Core ones – had led her down that path.  And now she was attempting to up that responsibility, even if it meant putting herself into danger; the risk of allowing the mysterious half-Orc/half-Dwarf to live and have immunity from her Dungeon Monsters automatically attacking him was huge.

However, Sandra didn’t want to keep existing if she never had the opportunity to interact with anyone other than Winxa ever again.  Don’t get her wrong, she liked the Dungeon Fairy well enough, but there was only so much they could talk about; added to that, Winxa still liked to disappear for hours or days at a time, when the “boring” things were going on in the dungeon.  She could understand it, though; that was one of the reasons she was happy that she had discovered how to split her concentration so she could do exciting stuff like craft, while still doing the boring expansion needed for her dungeon at the same time.

Therefore, the plan she had to put the man on the “friendly list” was a little bit selfish, but she balanced it with the fact that it would hopefully save his life as well.  If something as little as a momentary inattention on her part could cause his death by some nearby constructs, then doing what she was going to do was for his benefit.

Just thinking, “put this man on the friendly list” or any other variation of that wasn’t working; she needed something more…permanent.  Sandra was thinking of putting some sort of mark on him that would identify him as friendly, but she hadn’t exactly figured out what it should be or even how to go about it.  Some surreptitious peering at Winxa to see if she had any identifying marks proved fruitless, so she had to think of something new.

Hmm…what would shout, “I’m friendly” to my constructs here, as well as my own Core – turning him from an invader to just a…visitor.  And it was that thought, more than anything else she had thought of, that led her in the first step towards achieving what she wanted.

Non-threat Visitors List

Name

Race

Elemental Access

Winxa Flamerider

Dungeon Fairy

Spirit

A non-threat visitors list?  Hey, Winxa – is your last name Flamerider?  And do you have access to the Spirit element?

The Dungeon Fairy was looking around in wide-eyed surprise, her mouth wide open in shock.  “H—How did you know that?  N—No one knows my last name, not even my friends.  What’s going on?  What did you find?”

Sandra told her about the list, and Winxa continued to be shocked at the revelation.  “I never knew that existed.  In fact, it probably shouldn’t exist; I think—” before she could finish her thought, the Fairy shut her mouth with a snap as her throat visibly tightened just a little bit.  “Never mind, forget I said anything,” she said when she could talk again.

Regardless of Winxa’s inability to expound of the presence of the list, Sandra knew it was the solution she was looking for.  Now she just needed to figure out how to add the unconscious man to it, without even knowing his name.

It was both harder and easier than she thought it would be.  The simple part to the entire process was that all she had to do was concentrate on both the Non-threat Visitors List and the figure of the man lying in her dungeon at the same time.  She visualized putting him on the list – even though, like she thought about before, she didn’t know his name – and it…kind of worked.

Warning!

Dungeon Visitor Bond unable to complete without the placement of a specific combination of elemental energies.

So I’m creating a bond?  And what does it mean about elemental energy?  She had her Mana, which could apply elemental properties to things like her traps but wasn’t quite the same as what a person could use to, say, Enchant something.  She reasoned that it was this “racial” elemental energy that it was talking about, but she nevertheless tried to visualize placing some of her Mana in the shape of Spiritual elemental energy on his chest, since that was what Winxa had access to.  Other than rippling his apron a little like a strong breeze had passed by, it did nothing.  She tried the other elements, and only ended up damaging the Leather apron with little tears and even a burn mark left from her application of Fire.

This doesn’t look like it’s working.  Sandra noticed that she didn’t even get that warning again, as if what she was doing was so wrong that it didn’t even register as an attempt.  But what other elemental energy do I have—

The Elemental Orbs.

How could I have forgotten those?  Sandra had at least one Large Orb of each element, which were thrown around haphazardly near her Core.  She had her Tiny Automatons search for them while she had her Small Armored Sentinel that usually did her crafting venture inside her Home room and grab them once they were all found.  Then came a lengthy process of the construct needing to travel to the top of the dungeon – I really need to make some sort of shortcut for my dungeon monsters to use – until it finally deposited the Orbs near the body of the man.

She instructed her Sentinel to place a Large Spirit Orb on the man’s chest, before moving away.  When she tried to create the bond again…she got the same warning she had received before – which felt like a success!  She thought she was on the right track, at least.

However, after placing the Orbs on the man one by one, nothing more happened.  She then thought that it might be all of them, since Sandra was a Core that had access to them all…but nothing happened.  She was stumped, until she looked at the warning again.  Specific combination?  Maybe she was looking at it all wrong; what if it didn’t refer to her elemental access, but his?  She thought that, since it was her making the bond, it needed to mirror something in her own makeup or the nature of the bond itself – but now she suspected that it was all about the subject of the bond: the man.

With renewed purpose, Sandra had her Sentinel place different combinations of Orbs on the man’s chest while she tried to create the bond.  There were quite a few possibilities, which worried her if the man had access to three, four, or even five elements – because it would take a while to try them all.  Fortunately, after only about 30 failures, she finally hit upon the combination that worked.

Fire and Earth.

As soon as she thought of forming the Dungeon Visitor Bond with him, she felt a draining on her Core, similar to the effect it had when she was creating something permanent like a stone wall or a crafting station.  Exactly 1,000 units of Mana and 5,000 units of Raw Materials flowed invisibly out from her Core, until the two resources swirled around the man and became visible for the first time.  A bright golden glow started to encompass the man’s entire chest, before fading somewhat and taking on a hue of bright red and deep brown – the colors of the two elements that the man apparently had access to.

The glow became brighter and brighter, which didn’t really affect her constructs, but Sandra had to avert her direct gaze; for the first time since she became a Dungeon Core, her vision caused her a bit of discomfort.  It wasn’t pain, per se, but it was uncomfortable enough that she couldn’t keep watching.

The glow started to quickly fade, and whatever the process had been doing sucked the light into the man’s chest.  When Sandra could see him clearly again, she saw that a massive hole in his shirt and apron had been either burned away or consumed by the bond, leaving his scarred chest bared to the world.  She recognized burn marks from careless blacksmithing work; it was common enough among apprentices to forget to wear an apron while they were working, and when they struck hot metal, they would frequently get burned by the sparks given off.

But those scars weren’t what she was most interested in; spread over the entire front of his torso was a glowing, bronze-colored clockwork gear that appeared like some sort of strange tattoo.  As she watched, the glow faded even more until it disappeared completely; however, the gear tattoo still glittered with a shiny polished appearance.  She found that if she looked at it the right way, she could see tiny flecks of red and brown here and there.

Non-threat Visitors List

Name

Race

Elemental Access

Winxa Flamerider

Dungeon Fairy

Spirit

Kelerim Bloodskull

Half-Orc/Half-Dwarf

Fire, Earth

She watched as the name Kelerim Bloodskull slowly appeared on the Visitors List, along with his race as a half-Orc and half-Dwarf – just like Winxa had guessed.  Also, the Fire and Earth elements were under the Elemental Access heading, which matched up with the two Orbs that were placed on his chest.  Speaking of which, the Orbs had disappeared, just the same as the Mana and Raw Materials that were used in the bonding.

“What the—” Winxa was asking something, but Sandra wasn’t listening – another notification grabbed her attention.

Advancement Source Identified!

Sentient Race Bonding

Criteria: Form a new Dungeon Visitor Bond with a member of a sentient race

Point Value: 1 per bonded sentient

Lifetime Points Earned: 1 (Kelerim Bloodskull)

Points Spent: 0

Dungeon Visitor Bond (Core-specific skill)

The Dungeon Visitor Bond is created between the Dungeon Core and an individual, allowing that specific individual certain protections inside the Core’s dungeon.  This includes, but is not limited to, immunity to automatic attack from the Core’s Dungeon Monsters.  Requirements: Mana, Raw Material, and specific Elemental Orbs.  (Skills are permanent and remain even after a Classification change)

“—idea what that was, but I’ve never seen anything like that before—”

Winxa!

“—and…what?” Winxa cut off what she was saying at Sandra’s mental shout.

I unlocked another Advancement Source and another skill!  The Dungeon Core excitedly told the Fairy about it, and Winxa smiled in satisfaction.

“I knew it!  This means that the plan the Creator has for you—” Winxa started, before she collapsed to the ground in another choking fit, which lasted longer than the other ones lately.  “Never…mind,” she gasped out when she could breathe again.

You should just keep your theories to yourself – I don’t want you to die because you’re trying to help me.  I appreciate your excitement, but I’d rather figure it out on my own.

The Dungeon Fairy was on the ground now, gulping in breaths one after another; when she heard Sandra, all she did was nod in agreement.

While she was distracted by the notification and Winxa’s choking fit, her Repair Drone had hovered over to the man – Kelerim, he has a name now – and its two arms with metal pads emerged from its cylindrical body.  She briefly thought about stopping her construct, but something in her told her to leave it alone and just observe.

The Drone’s metal pad-hands were gently placed on Kelerim’s forehead, and Sandra could see Mana streaming down its arms and into the unconscious man.  The difference, however, was that only the red of Fire and the brown of Earth were represented, instead of every single element.  Regardless of the change, the result was the same; a large bruise that Sandra only now realized existed on Kelerim’s side started to fade as it was repaired, as well as the dark bruise mark on his head, where he had blindly run into her Basher Totem when he entered.

Going even further, the burn scars on his chest and on his arms slowly faded, only to be replaced by healthy skin.  There might’ve been other wounds that she couldn’t see, because the Repair Drone kept going for another minute once all the outer wounds and scars were healed.  Eventually, her construct pulled its pads away and pulled its arms back into its body; all done with its work, the Drone retreated to the corner of the room and hovered there.

Sandra was hoping that being healed would wake Kelerim up, but he stayed unconscious for some reason.  She waited for about an hour, to see if he would show any other signs of alertness, but he appeared to be just the same as he was before.

With nothing else should could do, having bonded him to the dungeon to save him from her own Dungeon Monsters, and with extra healing as well, Sandra turned her attention to other matters – like repairing her entrance and the first room, as well as other projects.

But she split her concentration just enough to keep an eye on the bonded man still unconscious in her dungeon.

Chapter 29

The repair to the front entrance was fairly easy, so Sandra split her mind in two and had that “boring” task handled by one half – as well as fixing the floor where her Ironclad Ape had broken it.  When that was done, she had it work on another major project, which was fairly straightforward yet time-consuming.

Using her awareness of her Area of Influence, Sandra looked at her dungeon as a whole.  When she looked at it from far away, she realized that the separate rooms spiraled upwards in a consistent curve, leaving a fairly sizable column that was completely unutilized in the center of her dungeon that spanned from the top to the bottom near her first few rooms.  It was a waste of space, as far as she was concerned, and could easily be utilized for something else.

To that end, Sandra decided to make a trap-based fast-transportation system.  She was tired of creating a Dungeon Monster and having it traverse her entire dungeon just to get to the top; even though they were “aware” of the traps she had placed in the upper rooms, there were a few times they had been activated and damaged her Basher Totems on the way up.  It wasn’t enough to destroy them, but they had needed to be fixed by her Repair Drone once they had arrived.  And just recently, she had to have her Sentinel bring all of those Elemental Orbs to the second room, which seemed to take forever when she was anxious for it to arrive.

Starting from the small tunnel connecting her Home room to the Forge room, she gave plans to one half of her mind to intersect that tunnel with another that would continue towards the center “column” of her dungeon.  Once it got there, it would hollow out a cylindrical room that was about 45 feet tall and 30 feet wide; in the ceiling, two short-but-wide tunnels 5 feet wide were to be made leading upwards, where another room of similar size would be made.  From there, more tunnels would be made in the ceiling, though at a different placement, so that there wasn’t a straight tunnel leading all the way up – or all the way down.

Each room would tunnel out to the dungeon, leading to a specific dungeon room.  All told, she planned for there to be seven of these unique rooms total, placed on top of each other, until they ended near the tunnel connecting the second and third rooms above.  The top room didn’t need to be as tall, so it only ended up being about 15 feet high.

There were other things she was planning on doing there, but it needed to wait until everything was built – which was going to take a while.  In fact, with the amount being done, it might take almost as much time as the original dungeon, though it wasn’t nearly as complicated.  Fortunately, she had the time, and the resources supplied by hollowing out the large rooms were going to fund her next project.

With the future transportation system being worked on by one half of her mind, the other half worked on another project.  Since she now had access to Raw Bearling Meat, she wanted a place where she could do some cooking.  Again, she wasn’t expecting to make any superior cuisine, but if Kelerim ever woke up, he was bound to be hungry.

Sandra wanted to make a kitchen/dining room, but the problem with that was she couldn’t do two things at once.  She wanted to be able to cook, which needed fire, but she would also need access to water if he was to stay hydrated.  She could always make a trap in the next room which would provide some ice-cold water to drink, but it defeated the purpose of having a kitchen; besides, if she ever got other ingredients, it would be a pain to fill up a pot with water from the next room and then bring it back to the kitchen just so she could make a stew.

No, she needed them in the same place, but how was she going to do that?  She hadn’t experimented with combining two different elements together yet; even her boiling water vats for the tanning/clothmaking process were just changing the temperature of the Water trap inside them – same as up above when she made icicle spikes shoot up from the pool of water in the third defensive room.  Therefore, combining two different elements together would be an obstacle; fortunately, she had the time and inclination to overcome that challenge.

First, she created a stone table and a bench for Kelerim to eat at for a simple “dining room”, which was easy enough, but then she moved on to the kitchen.  She created a simple stone platform that was low to the ground – about a foot and a half high, two feet wide and six feet long.  It was short because she expected to have one of her Small Armored Sentinels doing the cooking, mainly because most of the preparation needed for cooking didn’t need the advanced dexterity that her newer Ironclad Apes possessed.

For the rest of the kitchen, she needed two things: an oven/cooking surface, and water of some sort.  Both by themselves were fairly easy – it was combining them both into one trap that was going to be the hardest part.

For the oven cooking surface, she pictured the different ways she had seen people cooking before; the best-kept secret she had learned through the years was from a little town called Copper Hollow, who was near a dungeon that had an over-abundance of Copper dungeon loot.  The residents used it for a lot of things, but the best use of it was in their cooking – and their ovens.  Copper was an excellent conductor of heat and did wonders for cooking meals quickly and evenly.

To get started, she first created a hollow stone box that was two feet long on each side, and then lined the entire inside with Copper, leaving a slot six inches wide and the same tall on the bottom of the box that would allow access to the inside.  On top of the stone box, she placed a thicker sheet of Copper so that it covered the entire surface.

Next to her new oven and cooking surface, Sandra made a solid stone pedestal a foot-and-a-half tall, and then hollowed out the top so that it created a concave bowl shape on the top of the small column.  From there, she placed a stone spigot attached to the back of the pedestal that was similar to a well pump she had seen before, and had it arch over the back of the new reservoir until it was pointing down.

With the basic structures in place, she started experimenting with getting the traps to work.  She used just the barest amount of Mana in her tests, so that she wouldn’t end up wasting more than she wanted to spend on the kitchen.

First, she made examples of each trap she wanted to place in there.  For her oven, she first hollowed out eight large channels in the stone on the top of the box, in between the top Copper cooking surface and the oven’s top portion of its Copper lining.  Then, she carved even more lines in the stone underneath the lining, so that there were channels on every single side – including the bottom.

To create the trap that would heat the entire contraption, she imagined small lines of condensed flame that would run down those channels, heating up the Copper lining the inside.  Each flame wasn’t hot enough to negatively affect the stone box, but just in case she spent a significant amount of resources to thinly line the channels with Dragon Glass.  It took a few hours to accumulate enough Mana to do that, but it was worth it to make sure the entire thing didn’t fall apart when it was used.  The channels lining the top portion of the oven lining would also heat up the Copper cooking surface.

To help regulate the temperature inside and out of the box – since if it was on full all the time, the heat might end up cooking things too quickly, thereby ruining the food – she placed trap triggers along the bottom right side of the box.  These triggers only required something to be placed on it – like a piece of stone – and depending on which one was activated, that many channels would turn on.  She numbered them 1 through 8, and they would start activating from the center and alternately turn on more channels as they made their way to the edges.

It took about 100 Mana to do a test of the oven, which worked perfectly when she had her Small Armored Sentinel come back down from the second room where Kelerim was still lying unconscious with no signs of waking up.  With that small amount of Mana, though, the heat was just barely noticeable when she created a small a little hunk of Raw Bearling Meat and placed it on the surface even on full heat.  Fortunately, it was just a test, and the meat didn’t even cost that much in terms of resources; since she didn’t want to use it as a Monster Seed, it was much less expensive than the Seed version.

Everything she could create cost much less than the Monster Seed version, of course – which was thoroughly demonstrated by the fact that she could convert stone to Dragon Glass at all.  The only thing that didn’t work as another material, unfortunately, was her Elemental Orbs; she had thought to use them in her blacksmith crafting somehow, but whenever she tried to combine the metal and the Orbs, it did a whole lot of nothing.  She couldn’t even create a non-Monster Seed version of it; her skill that allowed her to create them negated that possibility from the get-go.

So, now that she knew that the trap for her oven/cooking surface was working, she got rid of that Fire-based one and toyed with a Water-based trap.  With her pedestal and reservoir, she placed a trigger on the top of the spigot-looking protrusion, which would cause fresh, ice-cold water to spill from the end, falling the short distance to the reservoir below.  It would continue to run until the trigger was activated again; to prevent the hollowed-out top of the pedestal from overflowing from the spilling water, the stone automatically absorbed the water after a few seconds.  When the spigot was deactivated, there was another trigger on the side of the reservoir that could be activated to get rid of any other water left inside.

As each of them tested perfectly, she now had to figure out how to combine the two so that they both counted as just one.  She first struggled to visualize them both at the same time, keeping them separate from each other and yet together – which was much harder than it sounded.  Eventually, she thought she achieved success when 500 Mana flowed out of her – which was actually not a large amount, because she was still trying to experiment with the weakest traps as possible.

She was glad that she had kept them weak, because nothing went right when she attempted to turn them on.  The spigot started spitting out boiling water interspersed with flames, almost as if it was trying to burn the water away before it hit the reservoir.  It didn’t really do any damage to anything, but it was essentially unusable.

The oven/cooking surface was an entirely different story.  If you’ve ever thrown cold water on super-heated stone, or vice-versa, you can imagine what happened to the stone of the oven box.  The Dragon Glass helped to mitigate the damage a little, but the entire thing was left with cracks and the copper had actually warped in a few places.  Fortunately, it only took about 10 minutes to repair the damage, but it was also frustrating to say the least.

Before she tried anything else, and risk destroying her hard work that went into creating the two contraptions, she stepped back and tried to think it through a little more.  Obviously, she was missing some key component; she knew that it should work, but she wasn’t exactly sure how to go about it.

Sandra looked around her dungeon after she gazed at her non-working kitchen for a while – looking for inspiration somewhere – but nothing sprung out to her as a solution.  She eventually gravitated to Kelerim again, and she vacantly stared at him while the other half of her mind toiled away at its task to hollow out the large middle column of her dungeon.  The flecks of red and brown on his gear “tattoo” stirred a memory in her mind.

Sandra and her father had been in one of the larger towns – Vardifil, if she remembered correctly – where she was learning from an Enchanter that had access to two different elements.  That wasn’t unusual, as most of the people who employed Enchanting as their primary profession tended to have more than one element; what made this particular one prevalent in her mind was the similarity to Kelerim’s elements – Fire and Earth.

The enchantment itself was a relatively straightforward one; the Fire portion of the enchantment super-heated the edge of a sword so that it could slice through practically anything, while the Earth enchantment maintained the structure of the sword so that it wouldn’t melt, while strengthening it at the same time.  The placement of the runic inscriptions on the blade were simple yet elegant, but the key to it – as to almost every enchantment that contained more than one element – was that it required a catalyst for it to mesh together—

That’s it!

“What’s it?  What did you figure out?”  Winxa had been uncharacteristically silent for the last half a day, but Sandra couldn’t blame her; the last choking fit probably scared her enough that she was hesitant to speak in the fear that those words would be her last.

I think I figured out how to combine the two elemental traps together!  All I need is a catalyst to meld them together, just like an enchantment.  For instance, for a Fire and Earth enchantment, a good catalyst would be powdered lava rock, which is a representation of both elements.  Now all I need is something that will do the same with what I’m trying to do in the kitchen.

“Sounds interesting!  Again, it’s something I’ve never heard working before, so I’m excited to see if you can get it to work.”

Sandra excitedly turned her attention back to the kitchen and concentrated on what the best way to combine the two elements of Fire and Water together.  It didn’t necessarily have to be something that represented the melding of elements; the blood from her body – where Dramien had used it on his Holy/Nether enchantment in which she had ended up dying – was a perfect example of that.  In this case, fortunately, she didn’t need the two enchantments to work together to perform an action – they just needed to coexist without interfering with each other.

It was a rather simple solution she came up with, actually.  Contrary to what most people believed with enchantments, any catalyst could be used; though, to be fair, there were certain ones that worked much better for specific enchantments.  In this case, the catalyst for the kitchen revolved around its main purpose: cooking.  And who does the cooking?  The chef, of course.

In this case, the “chef” was her Small Armored Sentinel.  Sandra placed her construct in between the two contraptions she had created, and then got to work re-imagining her traps.  By that time, her Mana had filled up considerably since she hadn’t been using it on anything but the transportation column, so she was already up over 5,000; she was more than glad that she had that much, because when she completed the two traps, she put it to full-strength, since she was confident that she had it right that time.

Almost every unit of Mana that she had accumulated was consumed in the process of completing the kitchen’s traps.  She could almost see the melding of the Fire in her oven, along with the Water in her spigot, as it connected to her Sentinel that was standing in between the two separate traps.  There was no big flash of light, or any other indication that it was a success for that matter, but when it was done, it felt…right.  Sandra controlled the Sentinel again when everything seemed to be in place, and then tested both of her creations out.

They worked as perfectly as they were intended.

“Wow!  I’m impressed!  The other Fairies are not going to believe me when I tell them about this.”  Winxa had been watching from the edge of the room, wary lest the trap become a failure and accidentally explode.  Which, when Sandra thought about it, was a real possibility.

Thanks!  Now all I have to do is finish my transportation system, and I’ll be all ready to start crafting again.

There was so much she wanted to do, but she wanted to make sure that her current projects were finished up before she started anything else big.  To that end, she focused all her efforts in finishing up her central transportation column, as boring as it was.  All the while, though, she kept an eye on the second room, watching and waiting for Kelerim to finally wake up.

Chapter 30

Kelerim startled awake, the thought of being crushed in the jaws of a massive beast at the forefront of his thoughts.  Fortunately, he managed to hold his scream inside as his eyes opened and stared ahead at a plain stone surface, the joins between the blocks so smooth that they were indecipherable.  Or…there weren’t any joins keeping the stone blocks together, and the entire surface he was looking at was one whole piece.  Either way, he was somewhere he had never been before and obviously didn’t recognize, which meant…he wasn’t quite sure what that meant.

The last thing the former Blacksmith remembered was being chased into the wasteland by Razochek and his warband for nothing other than existing, where he then found shelter of sorts for the night.  The next morning was a little fuzzy, but he remembered being extremely hungry and thirsty, and he started wandering through the wasteland on a mission to find food and water.  Then there were some scary-looking beasts that he had stumbled across, followed by running for his life, and then chasing after a weird…something into a cave.  Anything after that was all darkness – he couldn’t remember what happened next.

Kelerim was a little worried that the beasts – Bearlings, he suddenly remembered what they were called – had caught him and dragged him back to their cave and were holding him as a meal for later.  He wasn’t sure if they even did that, but he couldn’t think of any reason why he was still alive.  And – staying as still as he could to prevent the aforementioned Bearlings from seeing that he was awake – he realized that his side didn’t hurt anymore when he breathed.

The room was lit with a gentle glow that illuminated everything just enough that he could see slight details using his eyes, but he couldn’t see the source from his prone position staring upwards.  Before he moved and alerted whatever was nearby, Kelerim waited for a while to see if he could hear anything; the silence was instead so great that he swore he could hear his heartbeat in his chest.  Another minute or two passed by as he strained his ears for anything, when he finally heard the very faint sound of metal striking metal.

At first, he thought it might just be some sort of hallucination, which he had heard that those who hadn’t had anything to drink in days suffered from, but the more he listened, he was convinced that the sound was someone striking metal at a forge.  The sound was quite unmistakable, as was the repetitiveness of it, and he recognized it from his many hours and days working at his own smithy.  Well, not my smithy – at least, not anymore since Razochek chased me off.  Blast him!

Kelerim was still angry at the warband leader for doing that to him, but he buried those feelings down as he started to take stock of his situation.  With nothing living nearby that he could hear or otherwise sense, he took the chance to move his head to the left.  Unsurprisingly, he was looking at another stone wall very similar to the ceiling, though when it connected to the floor, he could see that it indeed appeared to be all of one piece.  What…how?

He figured that he would puzzle it out later – if there was a later, of course.  He turned his head the other way and saw more of the same stone walls, but he could see a tunnel of some sort leading somewhere else.  Where am I?  He hadn’t heard of any place near the Orc village where he had spent the last year that had any place like what he was seeing, nor did he remember stonework this well-done during his time with the Dwarves.  Even the larger Orc cities toward the interior of Orcrim didn’t have anything remotely like the strange room he found himself in.

On the floor, Kelerim could see some two-foot long metal poles with blades scattered haphazardly around, as if someone had dropped them and would come back to fetch them when they had time.  Is that what woke me up?  Did someone – or something – drop those poles and is coming back for them?  Everything was confusing and just invited even more questions, but the main thing he wanted to know was how – and why – was he still alive?

Although he wanted to find out the answer to that, he thought it would be more prudent to get out of wherever he was before something came back for him.  He was lucky he hadn’t been killed or eaten while he had been…he assumed “sleeping”…in that room, but that luck would only go so far.  Kelerim needed to take control of the situation now, and escape before something stopped him.

He sat up cautiously, the previous pain in his side indeed completely gone – how long was I out? – but once he pushed up to a sitting position, a weakness hit him like nothing he’d ever felt before.  Thirst and hunger ate away at his throat and stomach, as the need for sustenance hit him harder than Razochek’s kick to his side.  His vision swam a little once he was upright, but when he could see again, he looked around at the rest of the room.

A white, cylindrical shape was stuck in the corner across from him, which he couldn’t see before because his feet were pointing toward it.  It appeared to be made all of one piece of whatever it was made of, but the strangest part was that it seemed to be hovering an inch off of the floor.  It didn’t take any notice of his movements, so he assumed it was harmless.

On his left, now that he could see it better, he could see another entrance to a tunnel leading off somewhere, directly opposite of the previous one he could see.  The presence of another direction to go made his eventual escape a little more difficult, as he didn’t know which way was out.  The rest of the room was rather plain, just stone walls, floors, and ceiling; other than the metal poles and the cylindrical white thing in the corner, there wasn’t anything of note.

It took him a little bit of work to force his weak body to get to his feet, but Kelerim eventually succeeded in balancing well enough that he didn’t think he would fall flat on his face.  He did move enough that he could see down the tunnel nearest him, which made him freeze as he saw a shape standing there, completely unmoving – and not showing any signs of breathing either.  It was shorter than himself, but it appeared to be some sort of monkey that he had heard of but never seen before; that would be weird enough, but it also appeared to be completely made out of iron – which was a material that he was thoroughly familiar with.

It’s just a statue of some sort, he thought, chastising himself for freaking out over a silly piece of art.  Maybe I made it all the way to the Gnome homeland – I’ve heard they like to make things like this, as silly as it seems.  That seemed like the best explanation, because the only other thing he had vaguely heard was similar to this place was a dungeon, and there weren’t any of those close enough to the wasteland—

A faint screech of metal rubbing on metal brought him back to the present; Kelerim jumped as the sound reached his ears, and he looked to where he thought the screech came from.  He didn’t see anything behind the metal monkey statue, but he could’ve sworn it came from that direction.  Then the former Blacksmith looked closer at the statue – and quickly noticed that its head was tilted in a slightly different angle than it was before.

Kelerim started to back away from the statue – moving statue – and stepped cautiously backwards, using the same method he just remembered he used against the Bearlings.  This time, though, he made sure to look behind him and avoid anything that he might trip over, including the scattered metal poles.

* Hmm…I wouldn’t do that if I were you. *

The sudden introduction of a voice in his head shocked him so much that he stumbled backwards anyway, landing hard on his back – and then the whole world went white.  He didn’t close his eyes fast enough against the blindingly bright light, and as a result, he felt a sharp pain jabbing into his head through his eye sockets.  Darkness descended on him – a stark contrast to the bright white light from before – as he squeezed his eyes closed; belatedly, he realized that it probably wouldn’t make a difference, as no light tried to peek through his eyelids.  A few blinks proved his theory correct – he had been rendered completely blind.

* Oh, good!  You can hear me!  I was hoping the bond would help with communication, but I wasn’t counting on it.  Anyway, sorry about all that – I didn’t feel like taking that Holy trap down, because it worked so well before as a defense.  Experimental distractions kept me from seeing you were awake, and it was only my Ironclad Ape that informed me of your situation.  It’s good to see that you recovered alright. *

“What?  Who are you?  Where are you?  Never mind, it doesn’t matter – because I’m blind!” Kelerim shouted out, as he struggled to his feet, when he promptly fell back down from his weakness.  It was hard enough standing before, but without his sight, he couldn’t visually focus on anything to regain his balance.

* Don’t worry, the white light will go away soon, I can’t keep it going for long before it has to recharge the Mana powering it.  Just wait for another thirty seconds or so and then you’ll be able to see again. *

“What white light!?  I have my eyes wide open and I can’t see anything!”

* Oh…I guess the light was more powerful than I thought if you were completely blinded by it.  No worries, I’ll have my Repair Drone fix you right up. *

Literally none of that made any sense to Kelerim, but as he was practically as helpless as a newborn baby right now, he had to take…her?...word for it.  He collapsed back on the ground after futilely trying to stand up for the third time, when he heard more rubbing of metal against metal, though this time it was much more than just a faint screech.

* Okay, now don’t panic. My Ironclad Ape needs to remove you from the trap triggering section so that you don’t go blind again. *

“Wait, what—” he started to say, before he felt a strong, cool-metal hand wrap around his ankle.  He screamed out incoherently in surprise; before he could think of trying to fight it, he was dragged by his left leg for a short distance before he was released, his leg falling back down to the floor unexpectedly.  He briefly considered trying to scramble backwards in an attempt to flee, but he decided that it would be more prudent to see what was going to happen rather than fight it.  Whoever was in the room – and in his head somehow – could’ve killed him at any time over the last minute or so, not to mention when he was asleep for however long it had been.

Kelerim propped himself up on his elbows as if he was trying to get a look at what was around him, though it was for naught as he still couldn’t see anything from his light-blinded eyes.  He heard a faint noise behind his head, but before he could react, two cool metal somethings pressed up against his temples – and he was frozen into place.  It definitely wasn’t voluntary, however; it was as if he was locked out from his entire body – he couldn’t move or even twitch a muscle.

It didn’t last long, thankfully.  Within seconds, he could feel an itchy tingling behind his eyes, and the room started to come back into focus.  In almost less time than it took to be blinded in the first place, he could see again!  It was as if it had never happened; if he hadn’t turned around quickly to see the white, cylindrical-shaped…thing…behind him, he would’ve thought it was some kind of miracle.

“Wh-what happened?  Where am I?  Who are you?  What are you going to do with me?  Am I a prisoner here?”  The questions just spilled out of him, because now he was thoroughly confused.  The womanly voice had been talking about “traps” as if it was some sort of normal thing for her, but the only traps he knew about were in dungeons.  He hadn’t ever seen any himself, but there were many stories from various warbands who were tasked with destroying dangerous dungeons; granted, the number of dungeons that were actually able to be destroyed over the last few decades had greatly diminished, but it still happened every now and then.

But if he were in a dungeon, why was he still alive?  And why had it gone out of its way to save him from the Bearlings?  He started to put some of the few pieces together that he had; he realized that he was only alive because the dungeon – if indeed that was where he was – had protected him.  Of course, he could be all wrong and he was in a Gnome stronghold like he had considered before, but for some reason he didn’t think that was correct.  Regardless, things still weren’t making any sense.

* I’ll try to explain it a little, but the first thing you need to know is that you are free to go at any time.  You’re not a prisoner here, though now that I’ve created a bond with you, I hope you’ll stay for at least a little bit. *

That didn’t explain anything; on the contrary, it only raised more questions.  However, Kelerim didn’t get a chance to say anything, because the woman continued talking in his head, with no explanation of how she did that, either.

* Ok, so this might be a little hard to believe, but I’m what you would call a Dungeon Core and you’re in my dungeon.  Now, don’t freak out – I’m not like other dungeons because I don’t want to kill you.  In fact, I don’t want to kill anyone, or anything if I can help it.  Before I go any further, though, I’m willing to bet you’re practically starving, as it’s been nearly two weeks since you arrived at my doorstep.”

I’ve been here TWO WEEKS!  How he wasn’t dead already was a mystery to him, but it also explained the extreme hunger and thirst he was experiencing.  He looked over at the white cylinder thing that he assumed just healed him, and he thought he had his answer of how he had survived that long without food or water; if it could completely heal blindness in seconds, he was sure it could keep him alive despite the lack of sustenance.

He absently nodded his affirmation of his hunger, though he wasn’t sure if she could see that or not; he hesitated to talk anymore because his throat was so dry.  He belatedly realized that his screaming earlier had pained him severely, but it had been overshadowed by the shock of his blindness.  Whatever the metal healer thing had done to him, it had obviously fixed his torn-up throat; he wanted to keep it healthy, though, because he wasn’t counting on it to heal him again.

* Excellent!  I spent almost a day making a kitchen down below and I’m eager to show off my cooking skills; don’t expect too much, though, because all I really have access to material-wise is Raw Bearling Meat.  If only I had some spices…

* Anyway, if you can follow the Ironclad Ape here, it’ll show you down to the dining area.  You’ll be the first to really try out my new Vertical Air-trap Transportation System, or VATS for short.  I’m pretty sure I worked out all the problems I had earlier, so it should be safe.  I’ll tell you a little more about this place on your way, but I’ll save most of it for after you’ve had your fill from the kitchen. *

He couldn’t really object, since he knew going the other direction might blind him again; besides, he was literally starving, and he’d rather have the chance at something to eat, even if he wasn’t sure what plans the dungeon had for him.  The fact that he hadn’t been killed yet was encouraging, but his luck lately hadn’t been the best.  Still, he was holding out hope that he’d be able to survive long enough to escape before he was trapped there forever.

The “Ironclad Ape” – or at least that was what he thought the voice called it – turned into the tunnel and quickly moved down it a short distance.  Kelerim couldn’t move that fast, though, so he only arrived as a portion of the tunnel swung outward, revealing another tunnel intersecting it.  The Ape loped inside without hesitation, with the Iron metal parts that it was entirely comprised of rubbing against each other, creating a very odd combination of screeches and squeals.

With only a slight hesitation on his own part, he followed the Ape further into the dungeon.

Chapter 31

The door swung back into place after Kelerim entered, closing so softly that all he heard was a little click as it settled into place.  He looked over his shoulder to see his way out blocked by seemingly solid stone, and it was only when he looked closer that he saw the miniscule lines that indicated where the door once existed.

Movement above his head made him jerk back in surprise, as he saw what appeared to be a pair of small shears floating near the doorway.  It didn’t make any threatening move in his direction, so he tried to ignore the sharp implement poised above his head and continued after the Ape.

* Those doors were a pain to make, but I’d say the entire day I worked on them was worth it.  Multiple Steel hinges support the reinforced hollow stone door shells, making them super lightweight – and practically invisible from the outside tunnel!  In fact, my Small Animated Shears are able to open and close the doors all by themselves, as well as being able to lock them so that no one can get in here if I don’t want them to. *

Animated Shears?  He supposed that was a good name for the implement floating above the doorway, but everything he saw just engendered more questions.  One of the new ones had to do with the different “monsters” he had seen already; he had never heard of anything remotely like them, though he had to admit that he wasn’t an expert or anything.  Still, he would’ve thought the knowledge of seeing a metal monkey roaming around would’ve spread around a little.

He slowly followed his guide down a short tunnel, before he arrived at a room with curved walls, making another cylindrical shape.  What’s with the cylinders in this place?  There were two holes in the floor – each of them approximately 5 feet across – but what they were there for was a mystery.

At least until he watched the Ape that he was following jump down one.

Kelerim rushed over – as much as his body would let him – to the hole and looked down, expecting to see the metal monkey in pieces down below; unexpectedly, he watched as the Ape gently slowed down the closer it got to the ground, alighting with barely a bump as it touched down into a similar-seeming room below.  The former Blacksmith’s beard and hair were rustled by a rush of air from down below, before it died away.

* Okay.  I realize it might look a little…unsafe…but I assure you I’ve tested it with as many different weights as I could reasonably find, and everything has worked perfectly since I made the necessary changes.  There shouldn’t be any reason to think that it wouldn’t work for a living, breathing creature the same as it does for my constructs. *

The phrasing of that last statement caused him to step back in trepidation.  Is she saying that she hasn’t tried this on a “living” creature before?  The fact that he was not only the first person, but the first thing that was actually alive made him take a few more steps backwards.  The distance appeared to be at least 40 feet down, and while that might not kill him outright, it would certainly hurt – as well as do some serious damage to his body.

* Go on, it will be okay. I told you, it should be perfectly safe. *

When he still hesitated, her voice took on a bit of an edge to it.

* Believe me, if I wanted to kill you, I’ve had plenty of chances before this.  Jump in now, or you’ll starve to death up here. *

Ugh…that’s not much of a choice.  It was either a slow death by dehydration and starvation, or a quick death from impact – or possibly an excruciatingly painful impact followed by hours of suffering from broken bones.  He had a fairly hardy constitution, thanks to his Dwarven parentage, but something like that would be hard to walk away from.

It was an easy choice, because he hated being hungry; he had been a day or two away from complete starvation too many times to count during his early years living in Orcrim.  If he was going to choose the way he was going out, it was going to be (hopefully) the quick way.  Kelerim only hesitated another few moments before he resolutely walked toward the hole the Ape had jumped down.  Instead of stopping at the edge and losing his nerve, he continued walking until he felt his foot hit dead air and he dropped through the hole.

The first few feet down through the hole was enclosed on all sides, like he was going through a tunnel, and he fell without any resistance.  As soon as he passed through into the room below, however, he felt some air pushing up against him from below.  The air pushing up against him soon became powerful enough that he had to close his eyes – lest they painfully dry out – which actually helped push down the scream that threatened to emerge from his throat.  Kelerim expected to feel a bone-crunching impact at any time, but after a certain length of time, he realized that if he was going to hit, it would’ve happened already.

He kept his eyes closed, however, so it was a shock when the air buoying him up suddenly ceased, and he fell – three inches.  The surprise landing was enough to make him open his eyes as his weak body stumbled and went to his knees, but he caught himself before he kissed the stone with his face.  But he did it anyway, as he thanked the Creator over and over that he was alive.

* See, what did I tell you?  Perfectly safe!  Now, follow my Ape again, because you’re not done yet. *

Not done yet?  What does she— His question was answered before he even thought it, as he looked up to see the metal monkey falling down another hole, which he noticed had a small stone plaque nearby with a down arrow carved into it.  He looked around to see another hole with nothing next to it, as well as a denoted circular carving in the floor that had an up arrow on another plaque.  He seemed to remember a similar stone sign next to the hole he just jumped down, but he hadn’t paid much attention to it because there were more pressing concerns at the time.

Kelerim slowly got to his feet, wincing at a slight pain in his knee from his fall.  He resolutely walked over to the hole the Ape fell down and without hesitation he threw himself in.  Whatever nerves he still had left were completely numb, so freefalling a couple of feet and then getting picked up by strong wind currents barely fazed him anymore.  Everything that had happened to him since he woke up in the dungeon had been so far out of the realm of normal, that he was beginning to think he really was hallucinating.

He kept his eyes slit against the wind, so he was able to estimate a little better when he was approaching the floor.  The sudden cutoff still made Kelerim stumble a little, but he caught himself before he fell to his knees again.  Looking around, the room appeared almost exactly like the previous one, and he somehow wasn’t surprised to see the metal monkey jumping down another hole.  He’d gone that far already, so it didn’t take much motivation to follow after, though he did pride himself on staying fairly steady on the next landing.

Instead of going down another hole (which he did notice existed), Kelerim instead followed the Ape toward an exit tunnel.  It appeared almost exactly the same as the one he had come through up above; in fact, it could’ve been the same one except for the fact that he knew he had descended somewhere around 150 feet, so the likelihood of that being true was very small.  He considered that it was still possible that everything he saw was all a hallucination, but he was beginning to think that everything he had experienced was all real – he just didn’t have that good of an imagination.

The smell of cooking meat wafting through the doorway leading to another tunnel almost brought him to his knees again, but the thought of food kept him moving.  He followed the Ape into another room in a blur, as he sought out the source of the delicious smell, which he quickly found on a stone plate placed on a stone table close by.  Lots of stone around here, he couldn’t help but think inanely, as he sat on – what else – a stone chair.

Steam still rose from a slab of meat on the plate and Kelerim wanted to just shove it in his mouth, but he also noticed a stone cup of what appeared to be water next to the plate – and he practically dove for that first.  Fresh, cool water soothed his parched throat, only to form a heavy pool of the liquid inside his stomach that started to fill him up.  He stopped before he wanted to, because he knew from experience that his stomach couldn’t hold much after a prolonged period of near-starvation – and he wanted to fit some food inside.

* Oh!  I forgot to get you a fork, hold on a moment.  I’d get you a knife, but I can’t create one of those; I’ll cut it up for you, though. *

Kelerim was about to pick up the meat and start tearing at it, but a stone implement started to materialize out of thin air next to the plate.  It looked like a very short trident, which he had seen a few members of a warband use before, though it was rare; other than the resemblance to the weapon, he had no idea what it was or what it was used for.  Strangely enough, the sudden appearance of it didn’t startle him as much as he thought it probably should.  I really am growing numb to all of this.

His food was then manipulated in the same manner, but instead of something appearing, it was taken away.  Thin lines were removed from the round-shaped hunk of delicious-smelling steak, until he was left with over a dozen bite-sized pieces that he wanted to shove into his mouth.  Instead of using his fingers, however, Kelerim was conscious of the new stone trident next to his plate, and his tired mind finally caught on to its probable intended purpose.  He picked it up and used it to stab a piece of steak, lifting it to his mouth.

The chunk of meat was cooked perfectly, and though it didn’t have any extra seasonings, it was probably the best bite of food he had ever had in his life.  He quickly ate another three bites, barely stopping to savor the taste, but had to stop after only eating a total of four sliced-up pieces of the steak.  He was disappointed that he couldn’t eat more, but his belly was already uncomfortably full; a thin soup or stew was usually better as a first meal after a prolonged period of starvation, but he was happily satisfied, nonetheless.

Kelerim sat back and put the tiny trident down, looking around the room with fresh eyes.  Apart from the table and single chair, he could see a low slab of stone across the room, and next to it stood another stone box with a sheet of copper lining the top of it.  And right next to that, a strange stone pedestal was standing with an odd extension over the top of it.  What was the weirdest part of the whole arrangement was the fact that it was all low to the ground, as if whatever it was intended for was short-statured.  Maybe there are Gnomes here after all – or maybe even Dwarves.

The real reason made itself known a moment later, as a foot-and-a-half-tall metal “person” moved off to the side, where Kelerim hadn’t even noticed it because it was standing completely still.  It had the general shape of a person, but it was completely made of metal, though not iron like the Ape he had seen – which, now that he looked around, he found that the metal monkey was gone.  As the little metal person walked to the stone pedestal, another stone cup appeared in its hand; after touching the upper extended portion of the column, water appeared and flowed down into a bowl-shaped reservoir below, which was interrupted as the cup was introduced to the stream.

The next thing he knew, since he lost track of the metal person as he watched astonished with his mouth hanging open – after everything else he had seen, water appearing from thin air was oddly the most impactful – he was being handed another cup of cool, refreshing water, even though his previous one was still—

Gone, apparently.

The place where it stood was empty, so he placed his new one on the table where it had been.  It was quite bizarre, but he was starting to get used to the bizarre.  The “construct” – if he remembered what the woman called it correctly – walked back to the other side of the room, where it stood unmoving, apparently waiting for some sort of instructions.

* Alright, I hope you enjoyed your meal, though it looks like you didn’t eat much; I hope it wasn’t because it didn’t taste good. *

“Not at all – it was delicious.  I just can’t fit a lot in my stomach until I can start eating regularly,” Kelerim responded, his throat now soothed and feeling much better after having some water.  “You were going to explain—”

* Yes, now that you’ve eaten, you’ll probably be a little more receptive to learning a little bit more about me and where you are… *

Chapter 32

Sandra hadn’t realized how much she missed being able to talk with someone.  Winxa was around, of course, but she was in the role of a mentor more than anything, but she still considered the Dungeon Fairy a friend.  However, it was hard to relate to the small figure because she was so different from the other races; she was more akin to a talking creature than anything else.  Not that she thought of the Fairy like that, but it was the closest comparison she could think of.

The Dungeon Core had been glad that Kelerim had finally woken up, as she was starting to think he was going to eventually waste away and die – and there was nothing she could do to prevent it.  Sandra’s Repair Drone was able to fix some of the damage that the lack of sustenance in his body caused, but it could only do so much; eventually, he was going to have to eat and drink something, and she was happy that she was able to provide it for him.

Kelerim was remarkably accepting of what she had to tell him about her dungeon and her current driving purpose – crafting, of course.  Either that, or he was still in shock over what had happened to him, or the seemingly frightening descent down the VATS.  She was glad she hadn’t told him the details of numerous constructs she ended up smashing against the floor and ceilings in her attempts to get the Air-based traps to work correctly.  She had a feeling he wouldn’t have taken that first step and would’ve starved to death up top; though, in all honesty, she would’ve found a way to feed him, but it was strangely encouraging to see him willing to risk potential death for a meal.

After she was almost done, she realized she hadn’t even told him her name.

* …and so I spend most of my days crafting.  Hmm…what else?  Oh, it just occurred to me that I haven’t told you my name!  It’s Sandra, by the way.  I don’t know if I’ve told you before, but I used to be Human before I was reincarnated inside a Dungeon Core. *

Kelerim finally stirred from the exhausted-looking, blank-faced expression he had been wearing while she had been talking.  “It’s nice to…talk to you, Sandra.  Thank you again for saving me from those Bearlings and keeping me alive while I was asleep – though I still don’t know why I was out for that long.  I’m Kelerim, and I’m a—”

* Half-Orc/Half-Dwarf, I know.  I learned all of that when I created the bond with you.  Winxa told me that your prolonged sleep was probably my fault, because I formed the bond while you were unconscious.  Of course, she had never seen anything like what I did before, but it isn’t unreasonable to think her assumption was correct. *

He looked confused, which was understandable because the Dungeon Visitor’s Bond wasn’t something he could necessarily feel or even see – unless he looked down at his chest.  He hadn’t mentioned the massive bronze-colored gear tattoo yet, so Sandra hadn’t brought it up either.  “What bond are you talking about?  Is that like a slave bond or something?”

Oh dear, she hoped not.  The thought hadn’t even occurred to her that Kelerim might think she marked him on purpose, as if he was her property.  From what she could tell, the bond allowed communication between them – for which she was thankful for – and told her Dungeon Monsters not to attack him; she hadn’t really dug into it any further, though.

* Not at all!  I created the bond as a means to get around the fact that you were formerly considered an invader, so that I could keep working on my dungeon while you were here and preventing my constructs from automatically attacking you.  It also had the benefit of allowing me to talk to you as well as giving my Repair Drone the ability to heal you, nothing else.  Well, other than the tattoo on your chest. *

He obviously hadn’t seen it before, because his confused look was back for a moment, but then he finally looked down at himself.  “What the heck is this!” Kelerim screamed out and got up out of his chair in a flash, staring down at the glittering gear and the now-ragged hole that was made in his clothes.  Sandra was surprised he hadn’t seen it previously, as it was hard to miss; nevertheless, his reaction wasn’t entirely unexpected – she did permanently mark him without his permission.  Then again, she couldn’t really obtain permission, but she did save his life – so she considered it an even trade.

* That’s the representation of the Dungeon Visitor’s Bond I had to create with you.  Don’t worry, it shouldn’t have any adverse effects…I hope. *

“You hope?!  What, you haven’t done this before?” Kelerim asked, rubbing at his mark with his hands as if he was trying to rub it off.

* Nope.  You’re the first official visitor I’ve had that wasn’t trying to overtly destroy me, so I had to experiment on you to get the bond to work in the first place.  I wasn’t expecting that tattoo to happen, though – and especially not that big.  I apologize for the mark, but there wasn’t anything else I could do. *

Kelerim rubbed ineffectually at his new tattoo for another moment or two, before he gave a big sigh and put his hands down.  He must’ve heard the sincerity in her voice, because he said, “It’s ok.  I appreciate what you did for me, and if this is the price I have to pay for my life, I’d be willing to give it again.”  He paused for a moment, before continuing.  “Thank you for everything, actually.  I’ve never really had someone do something nice for me before, without looking for something in return…unless you’re planning on using me for something?” he asked cautiously.

* Now that you mention it…No, I’m just kidding.  Like I said, you’re free to go home if you want, I’m not going to keep you here against your will.  The only thing I ask is that you don’t mention my presence, as I like my privacy and I don’t want to be invaded by people trying to kill me every other day. *

Kelerim’s face fell at her statement for some reason, and he sat back down.  “I…don’t have any home to go back to.”  In a monotone voice, the half-Orc/half-Dwarf started telling Sandra his life story, which was full of disheartening hardships and unfairness.  He had been essentially abandoned by both his races and didn’t have anything else to fall back on.

“…and I just don’t understand why Razochek chased me out of the village.  I know he doesn’t like me, but I was a decent Blacksmith and could churn out iron swords faster than almost any other Orc.  The way it’s going, there won’t be anyone left that knows how to forge a knife in a few years, let alone a sword.”

* What do you mean by that? *

“What?  Oh, I forgot that, as a former Human, you wouldn’t know.  Orcs look down on anyone that primarily does any crafting work, as they value fighters and Warriors more than anything.  As a result, fewer and fewer of them have any desire to take up things like Blacksmithing, which means that the quality and quantity of iron swords that are made has diminished greatly over the last few decades.  The blasted dungeons – no offense – nearby are expanding farther and farther into Orcrim, and there are few that can stand up to them for long, especially when the shoddy work put out by other Blacksmiths breaks in their hands.”

*  Why don’t you make steel swords and Enchant them for strength then?  That way, they would last hundreds of times longer and help the…warbands?...push the dungeons back. *

“I’m sure they would if we could, but as far as I know, the secret of making steel has been lost to the Orcs.  I’ve heard that a few of the most powerful Orcish families have some older steel weapons in their possession, but they are few and far between,” Kelerim replied, before rummaging in his pants pocket, looking for something.  After a few seconds, he pulled out a small, polished Steel mirror-like object and held it up.  “My mother’s family gave this to me before I left, and it’s the only piece of Steel I’ve seen up close.  It’s also the only thing I have to remember her by, which is why I’ve kept it nearby all these years and refused to sell it.”

He stared at the mirror for almost a minute, before continuing.  “As for Enchanting, I’ve heard of a few Orcs that can do some minor Enchantments, but they are rare as well.  I’ve never personally met anyone who could do it or seen any Enchantments in person; I honestly barely even know what they are.”

Sandra felt bad for Kelerim; he sounded like he had a hard life living amongst the Orcs, but it wasn’t his fault.  She wanted to blame the entire race for his misfortunes, but she had felt some of the same ridicule and shunning in her previous life because of her deformed, claw-like hands.  Fortunately for her, she had her father to help get her through, but the beaten-down man before her didn’t have the same support that she had.

The Orcs were just…different to what she was used to as a Human, but it didn’t necessarily mean that they were wrong in their thinking.  The way they treated Kelerim was wrong in her opinion, but their society as a whole had survived this long because it worked for them.  Something along the line must’ve broken down, however, and it was just as Winxa had said: the Orcs, along with the other nearby races, were slowly getting to the point where they would be wiped out by the nearby dungeons unless something was done to help them.

But what could she do to help?

Sandra couldn’t believe she even thought about helping the Orcs after hearing what they did to Kelerim, but she had trouble blaming the entire race.  Regardless of how they treated him, she felt a sudden urge to lend aid to the Orcish people – and to the other beleaguered races as well.  She wasn’t sure how she could help, but the need to do something was there.  I wonder…is this part of the Creator’s plan?

She didn’t realize she had projected this thought out, but both Winxa and Kelerim responded almost in unison, “What plan?”  She was just glad that she had learned how to direct her thoughts toward one or the other, because having a simultaneous conversation with both at the same time would get highly confusing.  The Dungeon Fairy was hanging out in Sandra’s Home room, but the Core had been updating her on the details of Kelerim’s “visit”.

* I think I may have a way to help the Orcs, as well as the other nearby races – I just haven’t completely figured it out yet.  It seems crazy, I know, but it seems…right.  Like it’s my purpose for being here in the first place, even though it’s still a guess on my part. *

Sandra projected that thought out to both individuals for their benefit, before turning her attention back to Kelerim.  She wasn’t intentionally trying to ignore Winxa, but she didn’t want to give the Fairy any cause to try to add her opinion, because of the possible consequences of inadvertently giving advice.

“How in the world could you help the Orcs?  And why would you – a dungeon, after all – help them in the first place?” Kelerim asked with all sincerity.

* There are circumstances about my appearance in this location that I won’t go into right now, but suffice it to say, I have reason to believe that my presence here may be part of a bigger plan.  And the fact that I received a…reward of sorts…for bonding you to the dungeon only proves my theory more.  I think I was put here to help the races effectively fight against the dungeons, so that they can survive and thrive like they used to.  There are other races out there, like the Humans, that have actually gotten better as a result of the dungeons nearby, but something…I guess the best way to say it is that a mistake was made that the Creator is trying to fix.  And I think I am that fix.”

“I don’t get it.  I admit, the ‘monsters’ I have seen so far appear plenty powerful, but I doubt that they alone will be able to beat back the thousands of other dungeon monsters roaming around.  Unless you have a massive army hiding in here somewhere?” Kelerim asked, still confused.

* My constructs are unique, I do have to say, but they aren’t what I meant.  My strength lies elsewhere; I’m not an expert in fighting, I’d never even killed anything before I became a Dungeon Core, and the only monster or wild beast I’ve seen larger than a dog was the Bearlings that attacked two weeks ago.  Despite that, I have something that is quite different from the other dungeons in the world – knowledge.  And it’s that knowledge that can help the Orcs, as well as the other races in danger of extinction.

* As you may have guessed by now, I’m not an ordinary dungeon – I’m a Crafter’s Dungeon. *

Chapter 33

“So where do I fit into all of this?” Kelerim asked, curious as to his role in everything she had just said.

He had to admit that he was a little on the fence when it came to the “rescue” of the Orcish race.  On the one hand, they had taken him in when he was exiled from the Dwarves; on the other, they had treated him horribly, even going so far as to chase him out into the wasteland to die.  When he looked at it objectively, though, he realized that those actions by the few that had wanted him dead were in the minority; the rest were too beaten down by their own circumstances to care much about him.  In fact, there were plenty of times when an individual had shown him a little kindness, even if it were just sharing a bit of food with him now and then.

Unbeknownst to him, he agreed with Sandra – a Dungeon Core of all things – about the situation within the land of Orcrim: he couldn’t blame the entire race for the actions of a few.  He felt a small obligation to do what he could to help, though he couldn’t guarantee it would extend to the Dwarves who had kicked him out of their land.  Regardless, it wasn’t them at first who needed their help, it was the Orcs – his father’s people, whether he liked it or not.

* I’m glad you asked!  Initially, the only thing I want you to do is learn; I have a lot to teach you if you want to become the greatest Blacksmith in all of Orcrim. *

“What are you talking about?  I can’t ever go back there – they’ll kill me on sight.”

* Yes…that’s an issue we’ll have to deal with later.  In the meantime, we need to see what we can do to make you so invaluable that they won’t touch you. *

Kelerim wasn’t so sure he’d ever be too invaluable to not kill outright, but he went along with it anyway.  It wasn’t like he had anything else to do, or anywhere else to go, so he figured he might as well see what she was talking about.

Another Ironclad Ape appeared at the opposite tunnel of where he had entered the “dining room”, and with a mental urging from Sandra, he followed it through another tunnel.  The tunnel itself sloped gently upwards, and he guessed it would eventually lead out from the dungeon; the thought of trying to escape again briefly flitted through his mind, but after talking with the Dungeon Core, he realized that he didn’t have anywhere to go.

Although he was told he wasn’t a prisoner of the dungeon, he was basically a prisoner to his circumstances; he could leave at any time, but without a firm destination in mind, he was essentially lost.  Even if he traveled to the land of the Gnomes – which was his initial thought when he was wandering the wasteland above – he didn’t have any prospects there and would be at the mercy of the Gnomish people.  And after Sandra told him that those Bearlings were still up there somewhere, he doubted he would even make it that far.

So his best bet was to stay in the dungeon – as strange as that sounded – until he could come up with a better plan.  There was guaranteed food and water, at least, and that hadn’t always been the case when he was living in Orcrim.  In fact, it had only been over the last year as a Blacksmith that meals occurred regularly, as it was his payment for his work.  That, and the small shack he called his home – which was little more than a place barely large enough to lie down in.

Kelerim arrived at another room, which was nearly twice as large as the dining room, and he instantly felt at home.  A decent-sized forge – though it was barely recognizable as one, because it looked so different from what he was used to – sat off to one side of the room, and nearby he saw an iron anvil, a long stone workbench, a full set of grinding wheels of different textures, and along the wall…the tools of the Blacksmithing trade, hung up on little stone protrusions embedded into the wall itself.  Tongs, chisels, hammers, files – everything he had used before, and even a few that he was unfamiliar with – were there, just waiting for him to pick them up.

As much as he was forced into the profession, after a while he had realized that he had enjoyed the work.  The long hours and weapon quotas he could’ve done without, of course; regardless, he felt a sense of pride and accomplishment whenever he finished a blade.  And here, as if it were waiting for him, was a forge all his own.  At least, he assumed so, since it didn’t look like it had been used before.

* This is your forge, though I haven’t had a chance to set the traps up that will operate it all yet.  I built the rest of this over the last week, in the hopes that you would want to stay, but if you decided against it, I would’ve had my Ironclad Ape in here crafting instead.  It will still be present to teach you some new techniques, but I will essentially have this room keyed to you.

* I needed a catalyst to tie the two main trap elements needed for this together – Fire and Earth – and you are the perfect choice.  Once I do that, anytime you’re in the room, the forge fires will work and the grinding wheels will spin for you, but I’ll show you how that will work a little later. *

“Why am I, what did you call it, ‘the perfect choice’?”  Kelerim didn’t really know what she meant by traps.

* What?  Oh, sorry, it’s because of the two elements you have access to – Fire and Earth.  Since you have a bit of an affinity with them, tying these two traps into you will work, like I said, perfectly. *

What is she talking about?  I can only use Fire, and only a little bit at that.  He told her as much, and her voice faded from his head for a moment.  When it came back, she seemed as confused as he was.

* It must be some sort of untapped potential you have inside you.  I doubt my bonding would be wrong, as it somehow knew what you had access to, despite your lack of knowledge of the ability.  Anyway, it shouldn’t affect what I’m going to do, so hold on. *

Kelerim stood in the middle of the room, his mind whirling at the new information he had received.  I have access to Earth elemental energy?  He wished he had been born in a place that knew more about the different elemental energies, or at least in a place that shared that knowledge more than in Orcrim.  Although he didn’t know what difference it would’ve made, he couldn’t help but think that being able to use it during his whole adult life might have helped a bit.

He felt a slightly familiar tingling sensation run over his skin, the same thing he felt when he was trying to spark a fire to life.  This particular feeling didn’t come from him, however; he instinctively knew it was coming from the direction of the forge.  A second, rougher, sensation rolled over his skin as well, but he didn’t recognize it; nevertheless, he could tell it was coming from the grinding stones on the other side of the room.

The familiar and strange sensations lasted for nearly a minute, before he felt them intensify in less than a second, almost as if something was rushing toward him.  A brief spark of pain infused his whole body, but it was blessedly gone as if it had never existed before he could even cry out.  And then all the different feelings faded until he was left shaking and confused in the middle of the room.

* Sorry about that, I didn’t know it would feel strange.  I had only done that with my constructs before, and they can’t really experience any physical sensations.  Anyway, it’s done and it’s time to get started! *

Sandra started to show him how the unique, black glass-plated forge worked, and how to regulate the temperature inside by the placement of whatever he was working on.  It was strange not seeing a place for fuel and air circulation, but he had to admit that it was much easier not having to worry about it.  The grinding wheels were even easier to understand, and the fact that they wouldn’t wear down and have to be replaced was an even better tidbit of information.

The only problem was, he didn’t see anything for him to work with: no iron or even copper.  He figured he wasn’t going to learn much by working with stone, so he raised his concern to Sandra.

* Don’t worry about that, I’ve got you covered.  We’ll be working with all sorts of different metals, but I usually only create them when I need them. *

“Wait, you create the metal?”

* Of course, I am a dungeon after all.  I can’t create anything other than basic materials and tools, however, so weapons, armor, and even other finished goods like leather need to be crafted.  Which reminds me, I spent a little time making you something to replace the one I damaged with the bonding. *

Kelerim looked toward another wall where the Ape was pointing and saw another leather apron hanging up.  Looking down, he realized that the apron he had been wearing was essentially just scrap now and was barely hanging off of him, so he took it off and threw it into the corner, where it almost immediately started to dissolve and disappear.  Shaking his head at yet another strangeness of the dungeon, he picked the new supple leather apron off the hook and tied it around him, unsurprised that it fit him perfectly.  He had never had anything new before; his old apron had been the previous Blacksmith’s which he inherited when he took over the smithy.

* Clothes will have to wait until I have access to the raw materials to craft it.  I tried absorbing a scrap of your shirt I found up above, but it lacked the base ingredients I needed to even begin.  In the meantime, let’s get to it! *

A small block of pure iron appeared on the workbench and Kelerim smiled at the familiar sight.  Now this I can do.

Chapter 34

Over the last nearly three months of her life as a Dungeon Core, Sandra had forgotten about the physical limitations of Humans, Orcs, Dwarves, or any other race out in the world.  Her constructs needed no rest, could accurately strike over and over at a single spot without fail, and were – in comparison to their size, at least – fairly strong.

Kelerim, while not necessarily a weakling, was not.

To be fair, he had obviously been malnourished before he even arrived at her dungeon, and the two weeks of unconsciousness only exacerbated the issues.  However, with a steady diet of as much food as he wanted, his muscles started to fill out; she wished she had some variety to give him, but for the moment “meat” and water were the only things on the menu.  Fortunately, the singular source of nourishment didn’t seem to negatively affect him, so she wasn’t too worried.  Two weeks after he woke up, his muscles and stamina had already started to show improvement with his new diet and constant exercise.

That first day, though, the weakened state of his body forced him to give up any pretense of work within a half hour.  Luckily, she had already started hollowing out another small room that was located right off from Kelerim’s new smithy, with the thought that it would be his living quarters.  She hadn’t actually started making any furniture inside the room yet, but he didn’t care – he ended up just collapsing on the floor in exhaustion and slept the night away.

A bed was going to be hard to make, however; well, the bedframe would be easy, but the softest thing she could make was dirt, and that wasn’t much better than stone.  The only material she had any type of access to was Raw Bearling Hide, which she had successfully been able to make into Leather for his new apron.  She supposed it was the best alternative to bare stone, so she ended up making a thin mattress that was essentially just 5 layers of thick Leather piled on top of each other.

Leathermaking was fairly easy, though time-consuming.  And, unfortunately, she didn’t possess all the materials like salts which would help with the initial cleaning of it, but she could still do the best she was able to.  First, she had to boil the raw hide, which would both clean it of any leftover blood, dirt, or fats (which wasn’t really too much of an issue since it was created by Sandra), but it also made it softer and easier to remove the stiff hair attached to it.  Then came lots of scraping, shaving, and trimming of the hides, which was then placed on a rack to dry.

However, during the drying process, she needed to keep it supple, which required a liberal use of animal fat to prevent it from drying out and cracking – which she was conveniently able to procure from her Raw Bearling Meat.  The resulting end product was probably a little smelly – and would eventually become slightly rancid if the fat was left to sit on it – but she didn’t have the necessary oils and other ingredients which would help protect the leather as well as make it last longer.  After a few hours of tanning, she was able to scrape off most of the fat and stretch and shape it, which helped to loosen it up a little so that it was flexible.

Once it was tanned completely, Sandra brought it to her Leatherworking shop and cut, molded, and shaped it into what she wanted.  For the apron, a few simple cuts to the larger piece of Leather was all that was needed, and she turned the scraps into its string-like ties.  Using an awl, she was able to make holes in the Leather, which allowed her to feed the ties through and secure into place.

For other types of products like armor it was easier to use a pattern, which she didn’t have but could make if she wanted, but she didn’t work on any of that yet.  In her free time away from teaching Kelerim, she concentrated on creating as many Steel weapons as she could, from swords to knives to war-axes.  She also replaced her very first forge with a larger one which an Ironclad Ape could use, because foot-long swords probably wouldn’t be much use to the Orcs.

Her plan to help the Orcs – at least initially – was to provide them with superior weapons compared to what they currently had.  She was also thinking of supplying them with armor, though that was a little harder without an auto-fit Enchantment.  In fact, she wished she could do any sort of Enchantment on her weapons, because that would exponentially increase the effectiveness of her crafting endeavors, but she was going to have to do without it for now.

The one time she tried to have Kelerim learn an Enchantment ended up as a failure, because she couldn’t demonstrate what it was supposed to look like.  His own inexperience with manipulating elemental energy didn’t help, as he could barely light a small spark and had no idea how to touch the Earth-based potential she knew was inside of him.  Sandra couldn’t help him on that front, either, as she had never had experience handling any elemental energy other than in the form of Dungeon-based Mana, which Winxa had explained was entirely different.

To hopefully rectify her Enchanting problem, she started working toward upgrading her Core Size with the goal of hitting Size 20 so that she could access the Advancement system.  She had completely ignored it while she was building the VATS, as well as the whole new forges; most of her Mana went toward those two projects, as the traps in both were highly Mana-intensive and needed most of her maximum capacity to finish each room off.  The trial-and-error period working with Air-traps for the VATS took almost an entire week of constantly draining her Mana, but it was worth it in the end.

The issue with upgrading her Core Size was the time she was going to be “down”, which meant that she wouldn’t be able to do any cooking for Kelerim.  Luckily, she discovered that he could use the oven and cooking surface, as well as the water spigot, as long as her Sentinel was nearby.  She was able to leave a large quantity of raw meat for him to cook when he needed it, as well as a sizable collection of Copper, Bronze, Iron, and Steel bars for him to work as he wanted them.

The other issue was one of security.  While she “trusted” that Kelerim wasn’t there to hurt her, she couldn’t rely on her constructs protecting her if he wished her harm.  To that end, she got rid of her original little spiked pit trap (which had been rendered ineffective because she had built a bridge over it for her Dungeon Monsters to traverse) and set up a deadly-yet-simple trap in its place.

First, she built a wall of stone in the room, blocking off her sight from the entrance tunnel, but it also had the added benefit of blocking most of the heat from a giant wall of flames that would emerge from her new trap.  She pumped almost her full capacity of Mana into it, which made a flame wall six inches thick spring up when it was triggered; it covered the entire entrance near the tunnel, so there was no way to bypass it.  It was so hot, in fact, that her nearby constructs melted within a few seconds when she tested it out.  Although it wouldn’t stay active for long, if anyone walked through it, she estimated it would be like walking through lava – only worse.

Eventually – a week and a half after Kelerim started learning (re-learning would probably be the more accurate term) how to be a proper Blacksmith – she was ready to upgrade her Core Size.  Winxa had been in and out between her Home room and her own Fairy world, but she made it plain she was uneasy with Sandra being left practically defenseless while she was upgrading.

“It’s completely your choice, of course, but keep in mind that all it would take is one good thwack with a sword or knife and you’re a goner.  I don’t know this Kelerim enough to trust him, so I will be here to keep you company while you’re undergoing the process.”

Sandra wouldn’t have it any other way.  She had already informed Kelerim that she was going to be unavailable for the next day and to not go exploring – since there were many traps still in place – so she thanked the Dungeon Fairy and used her filled-up Mana to complete the 8th and final stage needed to upgrade to Core Size 16.

It was boring as usual, thankfully.  It took a little bit over a day and a half, but fortunately that seemed to be the norm lately when she was upgrading.  She was glad that the downtime wasn’t dramatically increasing as it had when she was new, otherwise it probably would’ve taken a week or more by that time.  When she finally recovered from her upgrade, she looked inside and outside of her dungeon (where her Mechanical Wolf and Jaguar were roaming around), looking for any major issues.  Kelerim was in his room sleeping on his Leather-padded bed, and everything else looked quiet.  Even the Bearlings were still keeping their distance, for which she was thankful.

When everything looked normal, she relaxed and finally looked at her upgrade notifications.

Core Size Upgrade Stage complete!

8/8 Completed

Your Core has grown!

Current Size: 16

Mana Capacity increased!

Ambient Mana Absorption increased!

Raw Material Capacity increased!

New Constructs option!

Core Selection Menu

Dungeon Classification:

Constructs

Core Size:

16

Available Mana:

12/8011

Ambient Mana Absorption:

8/hour

Available Raw Material (RM):

8500/24079

Convert Raw Material to Mana?

8500 RM -- > 340 Mana

Current Dungeon Monsters:

654

Constructs Creation Options:

15

Monster Seed Schematics:

60 (4)

Current Traps:

27

Trap Construction Options:

All

Core-specific Skills:

4

Current Visitors:

2

Constructs Creation Options

Name:

Mana Cost:

----------

------

Automated Digger

2500

Repair Drone

4000

Ironclad Ape

6000

Steel Python

8000

Overall, there wasn’t anything Core-changing about the upgrade, but the extra capacity for her resources was nice.  Not to mention that she unlocked another construct: a Steel Python.  It took her almost a day after she upgraded to finally get the chance to see it, because she needed to create another Average Steel Orb, which was one of only two Monster Seeds she had capable of containing it – the other being the ultra-expensive Flake of Dragon Glass (which she could theoretically create now with her new upgrade).  Added to that expense was the Mana cost of the Python itself, which was nearly her maximum, and it added up.

When she finally had enough to create it, she was slightly disappointed at her first sight of it.  She had been expecting a giant snake that might fill up half the room because of the sheer expense of it, but it was much smaller than that.  At five feet long and six inches around, it was still large, but she didn’t think it was worth the cost; it was only when she had it move that she saw its worth.

Because it was fast.

It slithered across the room faster than any of her other constructs, as the smooth – and somehow flexible – steel skin along its outside allowed it to glide effortlessly over the stone.  As an experiment, she had it wrap around one of her Tiny Automatons that were still wandering around her Home, and she watched it squeeze the little construct so hard it crumpled under the pressure.  A quick strike of her Python’s razor-sharp fangs practically ripped the Automaton apart, before it dissolved and melted away, leaving behind a Tiny Copper Orb.

Definitely effective, that was for sure.  Although it was expensive, she could see the worth in having the Steel Python as a defender, not in the least because it would be much harder to destroy than anything else that she had access to.  However, because it wasn’t as versatile as her Ironclad Ape – in terms of crafting ability – she left off with just the one.  Before it left her room, she made sure to cancel her Fire wall trap; she saw no reason for it to be destroyed so soon after it was created.

And now it was back to training her new apprentice – and eventually a little excursion for her new friend.

Chapter 35

“I really don’t think this is a good idea; I’ve told you already that if any of Razochek’s warband sees me, they’ll kill me.  There has to be a better way,” Kelerim spoke toward the metal monkey next to him.  He knew it wasn’t actually her inside the Ironclad Ape – and that he could just talk to the empty air and she would hear him – but it felt more “normal” to speak to something.  Otherwise, he felt like he was losing his mind and talking to imaginary voices in his head.

Oh, there was a voice in his head – but it certainly wasn’t imaginary.

He had gotten to know Sandra over the last few weeks and he was enjoying himself for the first time in…well, forever.  He had as much food as he wanted, he could craft without having to worry about quotas and deadlines, and he had someone who actually listened to him instead of looking down on his parentage.  She was encouraging yet firm, and she demanded perfection – which was frustrating, but also motivational.

Kelerim had needed to grit his teeth at first in anger after he had been told he was doing everything wrong, but he calmed himself with the knowledge that he was self-taught and didn’t actually know the best way.  It turned out to be the right attitude, because when he learned something as simple as holding the hammer the right way, it made a world of difference.  Within a day and a half – and after many other lessons drilled into him while watching the Ironclad Ape at work at the forge – he was able to make an Iron sword that was practically a masterpiece compared to the ones he used to churn out.

He knew he still had a lot to learn, though, especially with other materials and weapon types.  When Kelerim was the village Blacksmith, he had experimented with making knives, but as they weren’t in demand, he never had enough practice to make a good one.  Sandra fixed his lack of knowledge and education, however, and he was soon churning out one decent one after another.  They weren’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but with a few fixes to their finishing and balance that she pointed out, he was able to make them much better.

Copper was a medium he had used occasionally when he was out of iron, but it was typically only used for everyday items like cooking pots.  Working with it was easier than iron – he thought at first – but it presented its own challenges with strength and form.  He ended up remaking more than a few weapons because he couldn’t use the same techniques to produce a copper knife as an iron knife and ended up ruining them.

And don’t even get him started on the difficulties of bronze and steel.

Regardless of the initial steep learning curve, he was starting to get into a good rhythm; he figured that with the month’s learning and practice he had already experienced, he was probably already the best Blacksmith in Orcrim.  And now Sandra wanted to send him out of the dungeon.

* You’ll be fine, Kel.  If what you told me of the approximate distance to your old village is true, my Area of Influence should reach all the way there.  I’m sending six of my Ironclad Apes with you, so you should be more than safe. *

Not only was she sending six of the dangerous-looking metal monkeys, but they were also going to be bringing a few of what had to be Masterwork-quality steel swords that Sandra had made.  He was in awe of them, actually; he hoped that he would be able to make one even remotely as beautiful as they looked one day, but he knew that day was probably a long day off.  And what did she want for what he considered to be near-priceless works of art?

Small quantities of freshly cut wood, various other metals, salt, cotton or flax seeds, and clay.  There was more she wanted, but she kept the list short so that he could minimize his time inside the village.

“And what do you think will happen when I walk into the village of Grongbak with six scary-looking Iron Apes at my back.  If I get lucky and end up not scaring off the village folk, the few guards that are always around will still attack immediately.  And killing Orcs is the opposite of what I’m guessing you’d like to achieve here,” he responded, regurgitating the same thing he had said numerous times.

She was silent for a while and withdrew from his attention, which he had quickly learned was an indication she was thinking about something.

* I hear your concerns, and I have to agree they are valid.  However, if you don’t go, I’ll never be able to fully help as much as I would like.  We’ve got to start somewhere if we’re ever to get you back and established in your own smithy.  Hopefully, this will be a nice gesture of good-faith trading that will make them rethink about the order to kill you.

* And if you’re so concerned with my Apes being inside the village, I can try to keep them relatively hidden in the outskirts so that they won’t be seen with you.  There’s more danger to you that way, so it would be up to you to decide if that’s the way you want to work this. *

Kelerim thought about what she said and had to admit that she had a point.  However, the one thing he was starting to rethink himself was ever going back to being just a Blacksmith in Orcrim, even if he was the best they ever had.  He knew the Orcish people well enough that even if he could craft the same Masterwork Steel swords that Sandra could make, they would still look at him as something…inadequate.  He never felt that way inside the dungeon working with Sandra, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to go back to that day in and day out, even if it ended up helping the entire race.

Sure, it was selfish, but he also knew what he wanted.  And he wanted to stay in the dungeon and learn from Sandra.

Perhaps they could make all the weapons and armor there and then deliver it to the Orcish people from the dungeon’s location.  Kelerim liked that idea much more, but he had been hesitant to broach the subject just in case Sandra disagreed and kicked him out.  He knew that she had mentioned providing some initial assistance in the form of large quantities of crafted items that she had made, but she was pushing for him to go back as a Master Blacksmith and take over the crafting duties inside Orcrim itself.  As that was beginning to be the last thing on his mind, he knew it would be better if he just stayed inside the dungeon and helped craft there; to further that idea in his head, though, someone would have to initiate contact in the first place, and he was the only one really capable of doing it.

With the thought that he was going to have to make that first step eventually, he told the Dungeon Core, “Fine.  Let’s do it.”  And less than a day later, all the preparations were complete, and he was topside again – in the middle of the hot wasteland.

*         *         *

The sun was beating down on the back of Kelerim and he started to sweat in his full tanned Leather outfit.  It wasn’t the most comfortable, but it was all he had; his cloth shirt had essentially been destroyed when Sandra had “bonded” with him and he had gotten a massive bronze-colored gear burned into his chest, and his pants had been practically threadbare before he ever left the village.  Cloth, she couldn’t make; Leather, on the other hand, was plentiful.

Although it wasn’t the best for traveling during the heat of the day, it would offer a little bit of protection if he was attacked – either in the wasteland or in the village of Grongbak.  He wasn’t too scared of being waylaid on his journey, though, because he was traveling with some powerful allies on his side.  Not only that, but the Ironclad Apes moved quickly and tirelessly over the barren landscape, which sped up travel exponentially.

He felt a little foolish sitting on top of one of them, with his legs wrapped around its barrel-shaped torso, but if it meant he didn’t have to walk the entire way, then he was willing to look silly for the sake of expedience.  Which made a big difference, because they approached the village’s outskirts even quicker than he expected.

It turned out that Sandra’s dungeon was much closer to the village than he had realized.  During Kelerim’s exhausted and thirst-ridden wanderings, he thought that he had traveled tens of miles, but the reality was that it was just over two miles away.  He had to admit that he didn’t have the best sense of direction, so it was more than possible that he had turned in circles while he had been out there before.

All of which meant that they arrived within an hour; it only took that long because he hadn’t been entirely sure of the right heading, so they had needed to search around for the village for a while before they found it.  Fortunately, riding on the back of tireless runners made the distance seem insignificant when you didn’t have to run it yourself.  They hadn’t seen anything on their way, or at least nothing thought them easy enough prey to bother them, so Kelerim was encouraged.  Maybe this won’t be so bad.

About 500 feet away from the village and just out of sight behind a small hill, he jumped off the back of his Ape-based transport and crawled up the stone and dirt mound, looking at the village at the edge of his vision.  He couldn’t see any of the guards on the wasteland side, but it was probably because nothing threatening ever came out of there; most of the danger they might encounter would come from the dungeons located a dozen miles out to the northeast and southwest.  With the wasteland to the southeast and the relatively safer rest of Orcrim to the northwest, they only had to worry about two directions.

Fortunately, at least in his time there, the closest dungeons were small enough that they never saw any dungeon-based monsters near the village of Grongbak.  After talking with Sandra and learning a little about how her “Area of Influence” increased and how “Upgrading Core Sizes” worked, he now knew that it could be just a matter of time before they expanded enough to reach it.  Just like Sandra’s dungeon was now within range.

Kelerim felt a little bad about thinking that this whole thing was just an elaborate ploy by Sandra to kill everyone inside his old village just like a normal dungeon did; however, after looking at the situation, if that really was her objective, she could’ve explored the wasteland herself with her constructs, found the village, waited until dark, and then sent in a dozen of her Apes to slaughter everyone.

The fact that he was there and alive in the first place lent credence to her story, as well as her superior crafting knowledge and the appearance of her dungeon.  It was unlike any other that he had ever heard of – and he doubted the world had ever heard of – and he was willing to take the risk of allying himself with her in her supposed “purpose”.  He thought that it was a worthy endeavor and would potentially save many lives, but it was still a dangerous proposition overall.

And it all started right here.

One of the metal monkeys handed him the leather-wrapped bundle of steel swords, complete with sheaths, and he nervously walked toward the village.  He looked down at his leather chestpiece and saw one of Sandra’s Animated Shears sticking out from his one pocket that he possessed.  It was the only thing that looked “normal” enough not to cause a stir, so it would allow her to keep any eye on things.  Plus, it could help defend him if it were necessary.

* Are you sure you want me to keep the Apes so far back?  It will take at least a minute for them to reach the village if you’re in trouble. *

“Yes, it’s better to risk potential danger for myself at first than to incite the entire village at the appearance of your constructs.  Don’t worry, at the first sign that things are going to go bad, I’m getting out of there,” Kelerim whispered to the Shears in his pocket.

She didn’t respond, but he wasn’t really expecting her to; they had discussed many times what was going to happen, though he was still nervous despite the planning.  Walking back into the village as if nothing was different was going to be hard, but he steeled himself and tried to affect a casual walk as he crossed the distance to Grongbak.  Sandra had told him that, from her experience as a Human while she was alive, the best way to blend in was to act like he belonged there.

Of course, it was hard to blend in when he was shorter than everyone, had hair all over his head and face, and his skin was a different color.

Nevertheless, he did what he could to walk into the village like he had every right to be there.  The first villagers he saw did a double take when they saw him, but they didn’t run away to the guards, which was a promising sign.  He heard some mutterings, but nothing alarming; they either didn’t know why he was chased off in the first place or didn’t care enough to worry why he was back.  Regardless of the reason, their indifference worked in his favor.

Kelerim avoided his old smithy, because he didn’t want to meet the new Blacksmith – though he could hear the sound of a hammer ineffectually banging against metal and cursing coming from that direction even halfway across the village.  He was also in luck, because when he looked around on his way to his destination, he didn’t see any members of Razochek’s warband, which meant that they were still out hunting.

The village didn’t really have a general store or anything as fancy as that, but there was a small hut where the supplies they received from the interior of Orcrim were kept and overseen for distribution.  It was there that he went, as it was the most likely place to find the things on Sandra’s list, though it ran the risk of having a guard nearby.  His luck held, though, because when he arrived there was just old Furbrea inside, sitting bored in her rickety chair in the corner.

“Kelerim, is that you?  I was told you went crazy and ran out into the wasteland.  I never thought I’d see you again,” the old Orcish woman said when she saw him enter.  “And what are you wearing, boy?  I didn’t take you for the Warrior type.”

He was thankful it was just her here, as her assistant was a nosy, snobbish young Orc who liked to throw his authority around – especially when it came to Kelerim.  Being the Blacksmith didn’t come with a lot of extras, but he was usually allotted clothing and luxuries every once in a while; there were a few times he was stopped from getting what he needed by the assistant because of Kelerim’s parentage.

Furbrea was a different matter, altogether.  While she didn’t exactly like him, she didn’t dislike him.  In fact, she didn’t really like anybody, so he felt he was on equal footing when it came to dealing with her.

“Oh, you know how rumors start in a place like this.  Actually, what happened was that I was sent away to try to work out a trade with some ‘foreign powers’ for better weapons, since I was the resident expert in their manufacture – and also due to my birth.  I’ve just arrived and need to get back there, so I need to make a small trade with you, if you have the time,” he lied smoothly, after having practiced countless times over the last few hours.  It wasn’t a complete lie, so it helped sell the story.

The old Orc got up from her chair with a grunt, her towering form that was stooped from age still head and shoulders above him.  The wrinkles on her face grew more pronounced as she concentrated and stared into his eyes, likely looking for the truth of his words in them.  He started to sweat a little more as she kept looking at him, before turning away towards the table at the side of the room.  He held in his sigh as she turned, as relief spread throughout his body, making him feel weak from the released tension he hadn’t realized was locking his body up tight.

“Alright, let’s see what you’ve got.  Put it down here.”

Furbrea obviously saw the leather-wrapped bundle in his arms, so he immediately put it down and unwrapped it, displaying the pair of Masterwork-quality Steel swords in their sheaths.  The Orc immediately inspected them, and he could see the surprise reflected in her face, which smoothed out her wrinkles and made her appear younger at the same time.

“Boy, these are magnificent!  I could give you everything here and it still wouldn’t cover the cost of these – they’re made from steel, aren’t they?  I remember seeing a steel sword in my youth, but it’s been a long time…where did you say you got these?” Furbrea asked as she slid out the other sword and tested the edge against her thumb – which immediately drew blood.

“Oh, I found a source not too far from here, but it isn’t in Orcrim.  I’m really just here as an intermediary, as the source wouldn’t necessarily be welcome here.  And all they really need are some basic supplies, as they are unavailable in their location; you know, as a sample of future trade deals.  There will be many more such in the future,” Kelerim quickly told the old Orc woman.  It wasn’t quite what he was originally going to say, but the words just spilled out of his mouth without thought to the consequences.

* Uh, Kelerim, what are you doing?  This wasn’t part of the plan— *

“I can do that, boy.  Just tell me what you need, and I’ll scrounge it up for you.”

Kelerim ignored Sandra, knowing that he would have to explain later his motivations to the Dungeon Core.  In the meantime, he recited the things Sandra had wanted, which was still a ridiculously short list.  Furbrea showed surprising swiftness as she gathered up small quantities of everything he asked for, before putting them in a cloth bag and tying it closed with a leather strap.  In less than five minutes, she was done and started to hand the bag to Kelerim.

She hesitated, however.  “Are you sure this is all that you want?  I can’t say I’ve ever liked you, but even I know this is a bad trade,” the old Orc asked with confusion.

“Absolutely.  This will work as a representation of larger quantities that can be found here.  Thank you so much, Furbrea – I appreciate this more than you know,” Kelerim responded, taking the proffered bag.  The bag itself wasn’t large, so he tied it to his leather belt and walked out the door.

* Phew, I’m glad that worked, but you’ve got some explaining to do when you get back here— *

Sandra stopped talking in his head as he walked out the door and saw the same thing he did.  Unbeknownst to both of them, the warband had come back to the village, out of view of her Ironclad Apes who were keeping watch.

Chapter 36

Luckily, none of them seemed to be looking for him or even in his direction, but the majority of the 40-strong warband were drifting toward the central cookfires, where they were likely hungry after traveling for the last few days.  Kelerim shrunk back into the storage hut’s doorway, but he didn’t go back inside; while it might temporarily hide him from the eyes of the Warriors streaming through village, other than the promise of more swords coming her way, there was very little preventing Furbrea from pointing him out.  Well, that, and when he tried to open the door again, it was locked from the inside.

* You better get moving – it won’t take them long to see you.  Slink around the back of the building and head toward Orcrim; I’ll have my Apes meet you there. *

What followed was the most nerve-wracking experience in his life.  He had been beaten, starved, and ridiculed before, but the anticipation of being spotted by the warband was like someone was holding a knife blade to the back of his neck.  He wasn’t sure if he was just skilled at evading notice, or if it had been so long since anyone had seen him that they had forgotten what he looked like, but he managed to sneak around the back of the building and made it safely through the village unnoticed by everyone.  Including the normal villagers, who were pre-occupied with the return of the warband to care about his presence.

He kept walking steadily out of the village and kept going toward Orcrim, as he fought against the urge to run.  He knew from experience that running almost always garnered attention, even if he were running for innocuous reasons; he knew this, but he still almost did it anyway.  He estimated that he was nearly a half-mile away before he heard a metallic grinding noise coming from behind him.

* You certainly move fast when you’re motivated.  My Apes are almost there, hold for a moment while they catch up. *

Kelerim’s knees were weak as he stopped and turned around, and the tension he had been unconsciously holding in his shoulders eased as he saw the Apes coming.  Once they arrived, he gladly jumped back up on the back of what looked like the same one he had ridden to the village, though they all looked so similar it was hard to tell.

* I’m taking the long way back, as I want to stay as far away from the village as possible.  Hold on tight! *

Sandra was right – it took longer to get back to the dungeon than it had to get there in the first place, though he agreed that it was probably the best idea.  They swung far wide, so far that he couldn’t even see the village anymore; passing through the greener lands of Orcrim only made the stark barrenness of the wasteland even more apparent when they finally arrived.

The Bearlings were out in force in front of their cave, unlike when they left – the beasts either hadn’t see them or hadn’t cared about them earlier.  Fortunately, they didn’t make any move to attack, which probably meant they still remembered the futility of it from their previous assault.  Sandra told him a little about what happened, and he was doubly thankful that the dungeon that he had inadvertently run into ended up being a friendly one.

Sandra was ecstatic when he finally arrived back “home” to his forge and small room located right next to it.  He emptied the contents of the bag on the ground and it was immediately absorbed by the dungeon; he had seen both the absorption and creation of objects so many times over the last few weeks that it didn’t even faze him anymore.  After a few minutes of silence, he could hear the excitement in the Dungeon Core’s tone when she spoke to him.

* Ooh, this is good.  This is exactly what I needed— *

Kelerim smiled to hear the satisfaction in her voice, though he got a little worried when she abruptly cut off her communication.  “Sandra, what’s wrong.  Sandra?” he asked to the empty air of his forge.  She didn’t respond, but it wasn’t the first time something had caught her attention and she left him hanging; as a result, he went down to the kitchen to see if she had prepared any food for him while he was gone.  There wasn’t anything ready for him or even raw meat available for him to cook, so he picked up a stone cup from the table and got himself some cool, fresh water from the spigot.

His parched throat was instantly soothed as he started gulping the refreshing liquid, but he choked on it when Sandra’s voice came back.

* We’ve got a problem – you were followed. *

Well, that’s just great.

*         *        *

Sandra closed out the last of the notification screens she had received when she absorbed everything that Kelerim had brought back with him from his old village.  She now had access to some new Seeds, though it was going to take a little while to unlock some of the larger sizes.

Monster Seed Origination (New)

Name:

Raw Material Cost:

Mana Cost:

Min. Mana:

Max. Mana:

Tiny Salt Cube

20

5

5

10

Tiny Clay Cube

80

15

15

150

Tiny Nickel Orb

200

20

20

200

Tiny Silver Orb

3000

300

40

400

Tiny Gold Orb

4000

400

50

500

She also now had access to Flax Seed as a material, which she was hoping would eventually let her make linen.  It didn’t qualify as a Monster Seed, and it appeared as if she was going to have to grow the Flax plant in order to harvest it for the fibers inside of its stalks, but she had plans on how to do that quickly – she had access to Nature elemental Mana, after all.

The biggest disappointment was the complete and utter failure of wood being absorbed for use as either a Seed or material. Sandra supposed she was going to need a tree of some sort that she could harvest; she realized that everything else that she had acquired access to she had either found in its raw state or created herself.  The next time she sent out her Mechanical Wolf to scout, she thought she might see if her range extended to the forests that she could just barely see on the horizon to the northwest and southeast.

But that was for later, as she now had plenty of things to occupy her time.  She needed to build a place where she could grow different plants, get started on her Pottery, and a number of other crafts she was excited to get started on.

* Ooh, this is good.  This is exactly what I needed— *

Something tickled at the edge of her awareness.  Curious, she found her Mechanical Jaguar alerting her to something aboveground; she wasn’t sure why it worked that way, but if she didn’t give her cat-like construct specific instructions, it tended to like to bask in the sun on the small hill above her dungeon.  That didn’t bother her, because it also kept a lookout for any approaching danger – which was exactly what it saw now.

She found her Mechanical Wolf, which was even now only about 50 feet away from the Orcish warband that had appeared seemingly out of nowhere, though it appeared to be only half of the 40-strong group that had been in the village.  Sandra’s Wolf was lying completely still under an overhang nearby, which made it extremely hard to spot unless you knew what you were looking for.  Because they didn’t see her construct, she was able to hear the tail-end of their conversation.

“…told you, Razochek.  Those prints looked just like a Bearling’s; if there are lairs of them out in the wasteland, we can save days off of our hunts!  See, look here…and here…and here…it looks like we’re getting close to their location,” a smaller Orc was walking in front of the biggest of the bunch, pointing at the ground as he saw something Sandra couldn’t see from her location.  I wonder if he’s seeing the prints left from my Apes?  They are pretty heavy, and I didn’t even think about what kind of trail they probably left behind them.

“Those aren’t like any Bearling I’ve seen before,” the leader of the warband – Razochek she assumed – smacked the smaller Orc on the back of the head as he responded.  “But I agree, we should check it out in case there is something else out here that might pose a danger to Grongbak.  Those worthless villagers couldn’t kill a cat, let alone a Bearling or whatever else is out here.”

She watched for another minute or so to see where they were going, and her figurative heart dropped when she saw them start to follow her Ironclad Apes’ tracks toward her dungeon entrance.

* We’ve got a problem – you were followed. *

Sandra let both Kelerim and Winxa know about the incoming danger, while she started to panic a little.  What am I going to do?  What am I going to do?!  It was one thing defending herself against wild beasts like the Bearlings who wanted to do her harm, but it was something else entirely to hurt or possibly kill the Orcs heading in her direction.  She kept thinking how much of a disaster this was going to be, when Winxa shouted and knocked on her Core.

“Hey!  Listen up!  Don’t panic in there – this is literally what you were made for.  You might not want to do it, but you have the tools necessary to defend yourself.  Just remember, if they get down here, they will destroy you!  You may have made a friend of one of them, but the rest don’t care about anything but killing – unless there is a reason to keep you alive, of course.”

She calmed down a little, as what Winxa said made sense – as much as she didn’t want to believe it. The mention of an ally made her check in with Kelerim, who was busy strapping on the few pieces of thin Steel armor that she had felt like making for him, though they were highly mismatched.  One greave for his shin, a single vambrace for his forearm, and a solitary pauldron for his shoulder; she had just been experimenting with the Leather that she had recently had access to and was starting to move her personal crafting focus from primarily weapons to armor.

* What are you doing?  You said that you don’t know how to fight. *

“I don’t, but I’m not going to let my friend do this all alone.  This is my home now, and I’m not letting it go without putting up a fight,” Kelerim replied, as he finished strapping the pauldron on his shoulder all wrong.  She absently told him the correct way to put it on, while she thought about what he said.  His statement that he would fight for his friend made Sandra think back to the circumstances of how their strange friendship came about.  She could picture the time that she first saw him – walking aimlessly through the wasteland above – and she remembered she thought he looked drunk.  And then the Bearlings attacked, which prompted him to run into her—

The Bearlings!

Looking through her Jaguar, she saw that the Bearlings were still out in force, though none of the Orcs were looking in their direction; instead, they were blindly following the one tracking her Apes’ footprints.  She thought it might be about time to change that.

She gave orders to her Wolf – which she usually let operate by itself, because she wasn’t adept at running on all fours – and she watched it break from cover.  It ran almost directly at the warband, which quickly prepared their weapons at the sight of it, before it cut off towards a different direction.  Directly towards the Bearlings, in fact.

The Orcs obviously didn’t know what her Wolf was, but they knew prey when they saw it.  They immediately chased after her construct; her Mechanical Wolf was fast, but there were a couple of members of the Warband that were just as fast – or perhaps even faster.  The distance between her Dungeon Monster and the closest Orc giving chase narrowed from 50 feet to 10 within a few seconds, but by that time the damage had been done.

Because no one other than Sandra had been paying attention to where they were running.

A massive roar echoed through the wasteland and finally got the Orcs’ attention.  The lead Orc had almost reached her Wolf, but he stopped abruptly when he heard the roar and the scared look on his face was the last thing she saw from her Wolf’s perspective before his abrupt stop caused him to pitch forward.  There were 14 Bearlings arranged less than 20 feet ahead of him; when they saw him fall, they immediately charged forward and fell upon the Orc, who was just barely getting to his feet.  He got a single strike in before multiple claws sliced into him, literally tearing him apart into at least six pieces.

The others weren’t far behind, however, and the strung-out Orcs regrouped and took the fight to the Bearlings.  Kelerim had mentioned that the Warband frequently hunted the beasts, and it showed in their calm demeanor and group tactics; for Sandra, however, it was the first time she had seen Heroes – or in the Orcs’ case, Warriors – in action.

Human Heroes were more about the flashy manipulation of elemental energy in their attacks – or so she heard – as they formed attacks that targeted their enemies.  Orc Warriors, as she was beginning to learn, used most of their elemental energy to enhance themselves.  She saw lightning-quick reflexes narrowly avoid claw swipes, sword strikes that left a line of fire in their wake, and even someone who jumped back from an attack so gracefully that it looked like he was flying.  She even saw a slow-looking Orc take a full-on strike from a claw and survive with just a few scratches.

But the leader – Razochek, if she remembered right – was a powerhouse.  Each of his strikes hit with precision and strength; they were so powerful, in fact, that within a few swings he had killed two Bearlings – but it also broke his sword off at a point where she could easily see a flaw in the metal-crafting.  Shoddy work, that.

Razochek still used the remnants of the sword to do damage, though, but he had lost his reach advantage.  He took a razor-sharp claw to the top of his thigh, which easily cut through the Leather armor and at least an inch of skin underneath.  The pain that came with it also brought forth some sort of berserk state, as the warband leader grabbed another sword from a fallen comrade and went crazy as he helped finish off the rest of the Bearlings.

Sandra watched Razochek breathing heavily as he looked around wildly for any more Bearlings to slay, but he slowly calmed down enough to take stock of the situation.  They had taken casualties from their victory: 3 dead (including the unlucky one that had almost caught her Wolf), and another eight wounded in some way, half of which looked serious.

“Rynehorn!  Stabilize the worst and bring them back to the village; the rest of us will clean up here and we’ll bring the meat back when we’re done.  And then we’ll feast!”  A loud cheer erupted from the survivors, including the wounded Warriors.  Sandra watched as one of the unhurt Orcs started going from one wounded warband member to the next, a faint whitish glow emanating from his – on a second look, it was actually a female – hands as those hurt the most relaxed a little as their wounds stopped bleeding.  They weren’t completely healed, but they weren’t in danger of dying anymore.

She must be using Holy elemental energy to heal them, but she must not be that great at it if that is all she could do.  Sandra had seen Human Holy energy users heal some wounds that were practically fatal, so she was well aware of what the potential was for healing.  She had been seen by quite a few in her youthful years when she was a merchant, but none of them could do anything to fix her defective hands; because they were that way when she was born, there was nothing for them to “fix”.

Eight Orcs slowly walked away from the battlefield above her dungeon, which included the healer and seven wounded Warriors.  The eighth wounded Orc was Razochek himself, but he refused to go back because of a little scratch.  Instead, he spent an hour or so with the remaining eight members of his warband skinning, gutting, and chopping up the corpses of the Bearlings with practiced efficiency.

When they were done, they wrapped the meat up in the skins and then picked them up like large sacks, two to a person – other than Razochek himself.  He instead grabbed all of the personal effects of the three warband members that had fallen in battle, muttering something that Sandra couldn’t hear from her Wolf’s position hidden behind a small hill about 100 feet away.

He followed behind the rest of his warband as they made their way back towards the village, and Sandra started to relax.  Not only had they avoided detection, but their Bearling threat had been eliminated.  Granted, she wasn’t excited to see the deaths of so many – Orc or Bearling – above her dungeon, but at least the meat and skins of the beasts wouldn’t go to waste.

They were just passing the point where her Wolf had led them the other way when he stopped and looked at the ground.  “Hold up!  These prints lead in the other direction.  We’re going to check it out before we head back.”

Uh, oh.

Chapter 37

Sandra had been keeping her two visitors apprised of what was happening, so Kelerim for one was ready when she told him about the incoming Orcs.  Winxa was relatively indifferent, as she just repeated her little pep-talk from earlier.  The Dungeon Core appreciated her loyalty and confidence, but as she wasn’t in as much danger from the leftover warband as Sandra and Kelerim, she didn’t have as much at stake.  The ability to create a portal in the middle of the air and leave anytime she wanted meant that she had a lot more freedom.

She belatedly realized that she had been completely idle during the battle aboveground and the subsequent butchering of the Bearling corpses.  What she should’ve been doing was increase the number of constructs in her dungeon, add another trap or two, or even craft some more armor for Kelerim, but now it was too late.  She even realized that she was completely full of mana, because her Wolf had been just barely close enough to the battlefield to absorb a portion of the Mana from the deaths of 14 Bearlings and 3 Orcs – the sheer amount of which was staggering.

She couldn’t see it to quantify it, but by putting herself in her Mechanical construct’s body, she could almost feel that it was more than enough to finish off the last 5 of the 9 stages she needed to get to Core Size 17 – and maybe even to 18 when it came down to it.  Of course, from what Winxa told her, the ambient Mana from their deaths would dissipate within a few hours, so she wouldn’t necessarily be able to take advantage of it.

In fact, it already seemed to be slowly disappearing, so she quickly had her Wolf run over and start soaking up as much as it could, while the Orcs were closing in on her entrance.  She immediately funneled all that Mana into finishing all but the last stage of her Core Size upgrade, and then spent some more on making sure her Flame Wall trap in her Home room was set back up, since she had taken it down while she had some constructs going in and out.  It meant that she wouldn’t be able to make any new Dungeon Monsters while it was active, but it was almost guaranteed to stop anyone from getting to her.

By the time she was done with all that, Razochek and the seven members of his warband had arrived at her dungeon.  The moment the one in the lead put his foot inside her tunnel entrance, she felt her ability to change much of anything in the dungeon relatively muted.  She felt as if she could remove traps if she felt like it, but putting them back was a no-go, as well as absorbing any new material from the area – other than dead bodies, of course.

There was one advantage, though: she could hear and sense them as well as anything in her dungeon now.  She didn’t have any constructs close enough to hear them after they turned toward her dungeon, though she was at least able to see them from her Mechanical Jaguar perched up above on the hill.  But now she could hear everything.

“…don’t like this.  This cave is carved out too regularly, even when you ignore what are obviously Bearling claw marks on the outside.  See, it appears as if these walls are made entirely of stone, and the surface is too flat to be natural.  If I didn’t know any better, I’d say this is the entrance to a dungeon,” the same tracker from before was explaining to the warband leader.

“But there aren’t any dungeons out in the wasteland, and we didn’t see any monsters outside.  Those Bearlings certainly weren’t part of any dungeon, as they didn’t drop any loot when they died – and they didn’t disappear.  Those were definitely real; this, however, is something that shouldn’t exist.  Unless this is an old one that was abandoned for some reason…” Razochek muttered as he followed behind.

It didn’t take long for the leader to be dissuaded from that notion, because as soon as the tracker stepped cautiously into the first room, the lights went completely out, and Sandra’s Basher Totems went to work on the lead Orc’s face and upper body.  Unlike the Bearlings that had attacked when Kelerim had first arrived, however, the Orcs had a better sense of self-preservation; as soon as the tracker started taking a few powerful hits from the Totems, he fell back into the tunnel with a yell, hurt with possibly a broken rib or two – yet alive.

“What was it?  What attacked you, Thornhix?” Razochek asked, trying to peer ahead into the darkened room and failing.

“I…have no idea.  I couldn’t…see anything,” Thornhix replied, his injuries making it hard for him to talk.  Within a second, though, the Nether trap from the room disappeared and the room – and her Basher Totems were visible.  One interesting aspect of her trap was that it required someone to trigger it by stepping over the threshold into the room – and then staying inside; if they left, however, it reset after 5 seconds so that it wouldn’t use all of its accumulated Mana up all at once.  Her initial thought when she made it was to prevent someone from sticking their foot over the trigger and then stepping back, waiting for it to run itself out – but all her precaution brought now was the sight of her 8 Totems in plain view for the assembled Orcs.

“This dungeon shouldn’t be here, but I can see now that it is exactly what this is.  We need to destroy it before it becomes larger; leaving it for even a couple of days might make it too powerful to take down later.  And allowing it to stay here is out of the question, as we can’t afford to maintain this dungeon’s monster population in addition to the ones we are already doing.  This should be pretty easy, though, because it appears as though this is a newly opened dungeon,” Razochek told his warband.

This isn’t good – why won’t they just go away?

“Why do you think it’s newly opened?” one of the Orcs Sandra hadn’t heard speak before asked from the back of the group.

“Because we didn’t see any type of dungeon monsters aboveground.  They always attack when you get near their entrance, and those Bearlings were definitely not part of this dungeon.  My guess is that it just recently opened up to the outside and hasn’t been able to spawn any monsters capable of taking out those beasts we just slaughtered.  If that’s the case – and I believe it is – then other than a few tricks inside here, we won’t find much resistance,” the Orcish warband leader stated confidently, before urging his subordinates on.  “Alright, we’re pushing ahead – standard formation, but give yourself some room to swing; I don’t want anyone hitting each other.  Thornhix, you stay back until this room is cleared, as you’re injured.  And…go!”

And just like that, the Orcs rushed into the first room, which triggered the Nether trap again, and started swinging wildly around at what they couldn’t see.  Three of her Basher Totems were destroyed within the first three seconds, but the rest managed to regroup and focus their efforts on a single Orc.  Powerful blows rocked the unlucky and blind warband member, hitting him mainly in the sides because it was the easiest to reach, but the Orc withstood the majority of the blows with only minor damage.  He must be utilizing his elemental energy to make his body tougher.

With twenty arms bashing away at his defenses, though, the strong Orc couldn’t hold up his defense forever; in less than 10 seconds, his ribs had taken one too many blows and his defense cracked, along with a large portion of his ribcage.  He collapsed on the floor and the Bashers followed up their advantage and beat the rest of his life out of him.

Sandra hated watching her constructs take a life of one of the sentient races; she wanted to help them all against the dungeons and killing them quite defeated the purpose.  She wished she could just speak to them and tell them to stop, but there was no way to communicate with them – except through an intermediary.  Kelerim was slightly hesitant to throw himself into the thick of battle, though, despite his insistence that he help protect the dungeon.

“You want me to what?  I doubt that they’d listen to me, especially if Razochek is there – I’m the last one he’d listen to.  However, if that’s what you want me to do, I’ll do it,” he told her.

Sandra hesitated for only a moment as she watched the Orcs descend on the Basher Totems that had just killed one of the warband members.  They swung blindly but effectively, as they homed in on the sounds they had been making; as a result, they managed to destroy the rest of her constructs without suffering any more casualties or even injuries.  When it was obvious that they were going to keep going even after the death of their comrade, she sent Kelerim up.

He ran to the VATS and shot upward fairly quickly; the Air traps sent him aloft through a similar hole to the ones that allowed him to descend, and another one would catch him when he passed through to the other room and gently deposit him off to the side.  It was those traps that she had the hardest time designing, because the force needed to propel him upwards was tricky to get right; she had ended up smashing dozens of constructs against the upper ceiling until she learned how to regulate the force dependent upon the weight of whatever was being lifted.

Kelerim moved so quickly that he arrived at the top just moments after the Nether trap in the first room ran out of Mana and had to recharge.  He arrived at the second room as Razochek and his diminished warband entered the tunnel leading from the first room.  Sandra could tell he was nervous, but her friend stood as confidently as he could as the Orcs got closer.

“Kelerim!  What are you doing here in a dungeon?” Razochek stopped before entering the room, his surprise at seeing the one he had chased out of the village obvious on his green face.  “And how are you still alive?”

Kelerim nervously cleared his throat, but then spoke confidently.  “Go back before it’s too late.  This dungeon isn’t like the others you know, she only wants to help—”

“SHE?  The wasteland must have cooked your brains, Hafanorc.  Dungeons are mindless killers and don’t want to help us.  I don’t know how you survived this long, or why it hasn’t killed you yet, but I can’t allow this dungeon to stay here – and killing you will just be a bonus,” Razochek cut Kelerim off.

“You don’t understand, this dungeon—”

“No, it’s you who don’t understand!  We’re losing, Hafanorc, and it doesn’t look good for the future.  We are barely keeping back the nearby dungeons’ monsters as it is and having another one so near to Grongbak will doom everyone there.  Is that what you want?” the warband leader asked but didn’t allow Kelerim to respond.  “I for one won’t allow that.  Once we destroy this one, they’ll be safe for a time, but now that we know there are dungeons out here, we’ll have to be more vigilant in our patrols.  Now, either get out of the way and let us do our job or stand there and die like the worthless excuse for a Hafanorc you are.”

Sandra watched the two of them stare each other down, before Kelerim broke first and retreated back down the tunnel behind him.  She quickly opened the doorway to the VATS and closed it just as quickly when he was inside.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t stop them, but I did warn you that Razochek doesn’t like me,” Kelerim spoke to the empty air once he was safely inside.

* I appreciate your trying.  I really don’t want to have to kill them if I can help it, and your talking to them seemed like the best way to avoid more bloodshed.  Now…well, I guess I’ll have to do what I need to do. *

It was the last thing she wanted, but as they seemed intent on destroying her, she was going to let the defenses she had put into place do their jobs.  She didn’t intentionally invite their wrath, but she would be darned if she was going to let them kill her – and her new friend – if she could help it.

Chapter 38

After Kelerim left, Razochek and his warband didn’t hesitate.  Just like the first room, they rushed in – but then screamed in pain when the intense brightness from the Holy trap seared their eyes.  Luckily for them – and unluckily for Sandra – they were prepared for some sort of attack and closed their eyes fast enough to probably save their vision; still, they were effectively blind as her Singing Blademasters started up and converged on of the wildly swinging Orcs.

Even hardened skin couldn’t fully suppress the efforts of spinning blades of death, and the tracker that had taken a beating from the room before fell after being inflicted with thousands of tiny cuts that ripped his Leather armor to shreds and turned his skin red from an overabundance of blood leaking from countless wounds.  The fallen Orc managed to take out two of the spinning blade poles with powerful strikes of his Iron sword, because although her constructs were deadly, they were still made from the softer metal material that the majority of her Dungeon Monsters were made from.

The remaining nine Blademasters inflicted their own damage on Razochek and the five other warband members still alive, though none of their wounds appeared life-threatening.  A single strike from a sword was enough to take out one of her constructs, but they did manage to break another weapon before they were completely destroyed.  The Orc that had his sword damaged from the impact with her spinning blade monster picked up the still-intact weapon from the dead warband member and they continued resolutely on.

The standing pool of water confused the Orcs at first, but the Small Armored Sentinels armed with Steel swords were plain enough for them to see.  Being able to see their opponents helped increase the warband’s deadliness, but it also increased their bloodlust.  Unable to see their friends dying in the previous two rooms made them desire revenge, so they were unconcerned about any other traps when they saw something they could easily fight against.

A third Orc that was in the lead lost his life as he rushed towards one of the Sentinels, only to trigger an icicle that shot up through his calf muscle.  That didn’t kill him, of course, but his momentum cracked the frozen spike and he lost his balance, falling face first on another trigger that impaled him right through the throat.  The Sentinel he was heading for finished him off so that he wouldn’t suffer more than necessary.

Seeing another one of their number go down, the rest of the warband were more cautious in their approach.  Despite that caution, two more Orc managed to have an icicle speared through one of their feet as they triggered the seemingly randomly placed activation points in the water.  As far as battling the Sentinels, her constructs had no great fighting experience – especially against hardened Orc Warriors – and only managed to score a single shallow slice along the thigh of another Orc.

“What do we have here?” Razochek said, as he picked up one of the short Steel swords her Sentinels dropped.  The dungeon invaders had largely ignored the seeds or “dungeon loot” that were left behind after her constructs dissolved upon destruction, but the swords were not a part of the original Sentinel.  They were ones that Sandra had made.

One of the remaining four Orcs spoke up.  “Those look like Steel, though how these strange monsters got ahold of them, I have no idea.”

“These are very finely made; I daresay even my father would be impressed by this, and he has two old Steel swords in his collection.  It’s too bad they’re so short and almost look like knives in my hands, but if we bring enough back, we can see if we can have a competent Blacksmith forge them into some longswords for us.”  That last comment from Razochek was likely meant for Kelerim’s ears, but luckily her friend wasn’t around to hear him.  In fact, he was waiting in his forge impatiently for word of what was happening.

* They’re coming, Kelerim, and I don’t think I can stop them all from getting to you.  Why don’t you hide in one of the VATS rooms; I have a trap that should hopefully stop them from getting to me, so there’s no reason for you to fight. *

“No, I’m staying here.  I have a bone to pick with Razochek Bloodskull for kicking me out of that village; besides, if your trap doesn’t work, I couldn’t live knowing that I didn’t help,” Sandra’s friend said with obvious false-confidence.

If I’m destroyed, you wouldn’t live anyway, she couldn’t help but think – but she didn’t tell him that.  If he hid near the VATS, there wouldn’t be anything that could open the doors, meaning that he would end up starving to death.  She was confident in her final trap’s ability to stop anything coming for her, but she appreciated Kelerim’s show of support.  Though something else he mentioned tickled her mind and she searched for the reason behind it.

Unfortunately, she was distracted as the Orcs arrived at the fourth room, and they approached even more cautiously than before.  Every single one of the five were injured in some way or another, though two of them were seriously hurt in one of their feet, where an ice spike had impaled it.  They were brave Warriors, though, and they pushed on – with a limp, at least.

Razochek sent one of the less injured Orcs to investigate the room; the warband member almost tiptoed inside and watched where he put his feet, as if he could see where the triggers were for the trap Sandra had placed inside.  She didn’t think they could see it, but she wouldn’t have put it past them to be able to; it didn’t really matter, though, as the trigger was a long line that bisected the entire room two steps inside.

Intensely hot flames erupted from the ground throughout the entire room, one of which missed hitting the cautious Orc by only a few inches.  The heat was enough to start to burn though most of the Leather on his right side, however, but he was saved from being burnt to a crisp when Razochek reached in and yanked him back into the tunnel.  The temperature was so hot, in fact, that they all retreated back up the tunnel and stopped right at the edge of the water pool.

“Did anyone see any monsters in there?” Razochek asked the others.  When they all denied seeing any, the warband leader grunted.  “This dungeon is odd; in my experience and from the stories of others that have participated in the destruction of a dungeon, there’s usually only a few kinds of traps inside a dungeon, and they’re usually restricted to one or two elemental energy types.  But these flames make four that we’ve seen so far, which means it is even more important that we take this dungeon down before it gets any more powerful.”

Sandra could see the agreement in the other Orcs’ eyes, as if they instinctively knew the importance of their endeavor.  I wonder if the story of the dungeon that ended up creating this wasteland is handed down from generation to generation?  She didn’t have the answer to that, but she supposed it didn’t matter – because the Orcs again charged ahead.

This time, they had put their weapons away and ran at a full sprint toward the exit they could plainly see nearly 25 feet across from where they entered.  Most of them were quick enough to avoid being burned too badly – with only superficial wounds and some charred Leather armor, but one of the Orcs that had a damaged foot couldn’t keep up.  As a result of his extreme limp, he accidentally fell and landed right on a flame jet shooting straight up, which quickly burnt his upper torso and head beyond recognition.

The flames didn’t last long after that – needing to recharge the Mana inside of the Fire trap – but the damage had been done.  Razochek looked back at another lost member of his warband and Sandra could see him grit his teeth in apparent frustration.  Of them all, he had taken the least amount of injury, but even she could see him starting to slow down from all the activity over the last few hours – which included the battle with the Bearlings aboveground.

With only three members of his warband left other than himself, the leader pushed on to the fifth room, where he was initially met with yet another seemingly empty room with short walls that needed to be navigated.  His warband’s cautiousness was met with a poison cloud that started them all choking, coughing, and rubbing their eyes in an effort to get it out of their bodies.  They ran for the exit – quickly climbing or jumping over the short walls – but the other Orc with the limp lagged behind; when he passed through a certain point, Segmented Centipedes fell onto him from the ceiling and hit the ground around his feet.

They immediately crawled all over him and sliced apart his Leather armor with their sharp mandibles.  A few even managed to crawl under his Leather chestpiece and started to burrow their way into his skin.

The Orc fought back, of course; a few slaps with his powerful hands were enough to crush the lightweight and malleable metal of Sandra’s constructs, but there were too many of them and they kept going even when the majority of their segments had been destroyed.  Razochek and the others bravely ran back, suffering the poison gas again as a result, and managed to get most of the Centipedes off of him before they did too much damage.

They all left the room, coughing and spitting up blood from the poison inside the exit tunnel, when the Orc that had been attacked by the Segmented Centipedes collapsed, dead before he even hit the floor.  “What the…?  Horncke, are you alright?” Razochek looked back at the fallen Orc and turned his body over to see what the issue was.

As soon as he flipped the dead Orc over, a Segmented Centipede crawled out of – Horncke, Sandra supposed his name was – his mouth, having just finished its burrowing inside and destruction of the larger being’s heart.  With disgust, Razochek stomped down on the metallic insect construct, and managed to destroy it within two separate stomps.

The warband was down to just the leader and two others, but none of them seemed to hesitate when they approached the sixth room.  A part of Sandra admired their determination, while the other part despaired at her necessity of doing what she had to in order to snuff out that same drive.  And the killing was somehow worse when she knew their names; she almost stopped her Centipede from killing Horncke, but at that point she was more than aware that the situation had degenerated into one of kill or be killed.

And she didn’t want to die – again.

The sixth room was essentially a vacuum inside of a bubble, which made the fight between the Orcs and her Articulated Clockwork Golems more difficult, but not overly so.  The remaining warband members were too determined to let a little thing like lack of air bother them, and they ruthlessly slaughtered her constructs, though all three of them broke their Iron swords against the double-bladed axes her little Golems carried.  They were forced to use some of the Steel short swords against her defenders, but their reach still far outweighed her constructs’.

As much as Sandra saw they wanted to collect the fallen axes after the Golems dissolved, they pushed on and gasped for breath when they made it to the next tunnel.  No words were spoken as they entered the seventh room, a Steel short sword in each of their hands at the ready.  Razochek was in the lead now – whether as a sign of impatience or leadership, Sandra wasn’t sure – and he was the one that ended up triggering the Spirit trap in the middle of the room.

She couldn’t see what they saw, unfortunately, but she could definitely see them all struggling to “free” themselves from the illusionary webs her trap made them think was keeping them stuck in place.  And not only that, but she could see the 100 Clockwork Spiders hiding near the ceiling drop down on or near them.

The panic they showed was in direct contrast to the bravery they had shown earlier, and all three of them started wildly hacking away at illusionary webbing and real Spider constructs without caring about what they hit.  Unfortunately for one of the other members of the warband, Razochek accidentally sliced cleanly through the arm of one of his subordinates with an uncoordinated swing, though neither of them really knew how it had happened.  The Orc with a missing arm collapsed to the ground, where every surviving Clockwork Spider converged and poked and bit at the fallen warband Warrior on every exposed shred of skin, until he screamed out in terror.

They didn’t do much damage by themselves, but by the time the Spirit trap illusion ended, the Orc was already half-dead from blood loss from his severed arm.  Freed from the “webbing”, the other two easily managed to kick, slice, or otherwise dispose of the remaining Spiders still attacking their friend.  Alas, it was too late, as he had expired from his wounds before they had finished.

Razochek looked crestfallen as he realized what had happened.  The blood on the edge of his sword was a clear indication that he had been the one to sever his subordinate’s arm, as none of Sandra’s constructs bled; for the first time that they had been in the dungeon, the warband leader bent down and closed the deceased Orc’s eyes, murmuring “I’m sorry, friend,” as he did so.  Sandra thought that the care that he showed for his warband was touching, even if it was completely at odds of what she knew of him through Kelerim.

The eighth room took out the last of the warband members, when a stone spike shot out of the wall, impaling the unlucky Orc as he tried to squeeze his way past the swirling tornado of Animated Shears.  Razochek ended up taking hundreds of small cuts over his face and hands as he elected to brave the rotating mass of constructs, but he made it to the ninth room with only superficial wounds, leaving the rest of his warband dead behind him.

And waiting for him was Kelerim – along with seven Ironclad Apes and one super-quick Steel Python.

Chapter 39

“You just couldn’t leave me alone, could you, Razochek?  What’s your deal, anyway?  I could never understand why you had it out for me in particular,” Sandra heard Kelerim ask as soon as the warband leader walked through the tunnel.  He obviously still couldn’t figure it out after all his time inside the dungeon, and he just as obviously had to know.

“Out of my way, Hafanorc, this is much more serious than what’s between you and me.  I’ve seen the different types of elements this dungeon seems to possess, and this kind of thing can’t be allowed to exist; it could potentially be strong enough to wipe us out if it’s allowed to grow stronger.  You don’t know what you’re doing—”

Now it was Kelerim’s chance to interrupt the warband leader.  “No!  It’s you who doesn’t know what you’re doing!  This dungeon is our only chance of surviving!  With the weapons and armor this place can make, we can finally fight effectively and push the throngs of roaming monsters back to their dungeons!”

“What are you talking about, boy?  I told you, dungeons only exist to kill us, not help us.  Come, help me destroy this dungeon and you’ll see that I’m right; I’ll even let you live, because then you’ll have proven that you’re not completely useless,” Razochek countered.

They stared at each other for a moment, neither side giving into the other.  Finally, Kelerim glanced at the swords in the warband leader’s hands.  “You’re holding the proof of my claims right there, Razochek Bloodskull.  Where do you think those steel swords came from?  Right here, is where – from the dungeon that made them.  We have plans to provide enough quality swords to arm every Orcish Warrior in Orcrim; not only that, but we can produce armor and other crafts as well, making our survival a much more likely outcome.  And from there, we can help the other races fight against—”

“I see now.  You’ve been sucked into this dungeon’s conspiracy to reach all the races, where it can kill all of us and take over.  I don’t know how it’s managed to brainwash you, but I suspect it means to make slaves of all of us to do its bidding.  Do you think it would just give us weapons out of the goodness of its own nature?  I know dungeons, and a dungeon’s nature is to kill and get more powerful; this one also seems to have figured out how to lie to you and turn you against your own people!” Razochek shouted back.

Confusion and worry crossed Kelerim’s face, but Sandra was back in her head as something finally clicked.  Bloodskull!  That was the name her friend used for the warband leader, but why did it seem so familiar?  It only took a few moments of contemplation, when she remembered it from the Dungeon Visitors List where Kelerim’s name was added.

Kelerim Bloodskull.

* Why does he share your same surname? *

The confusion replaced any sense of worry on Kelerim’s face.  “Umm…what?”

“I said that you’ve been brain-washed—” the warband leader repeated, before being interrupted.

“I wasn’t talking to you; I was talking to—you know what?  Never mind.”

* You both have Bloodskull as your surname.  I can see it plain as day on my Visitors List, and it seems to know things that I wouldn’t have any clue about. *

“If you’re done talking to yourself, then get out of my way—”

Kelerim seemed to enjoy cutting the larger Orc off in their conversation.  “Are you related to me?  You’re entirely too young to be my father, so that must mean you’re my…what?  Brother?”

The look of shock on Razochek’s face was all the confirmation that Sandra needed, and she could see that same shock soon reflected on Kelerim’s face.  “…Why?  Why did you do all this to me?”

The warband leader recovered from his shock quickly.  “Because you never should’ve been born!  You’re an abomination, and our father falling in love with a weak Dwarf woman goes against everything our family stands for.  It’s only out of respect for him that I didn’t kill you as soon as I learned of your existence, but you don’t deserve to live in the same land as his greatness.  At the first opportunity, I ensured that you were pushed back out to the wasteland where you came from – but without the stigma of fratricide stuck to me.”

Sandra was speechless, and so was Kelerim.  To do that to your own brother was something she just couldn’t understand.  She had always wished to have a sibling, but her mother died before it could happen; and now Razochek was talking about essentially sending his brother out to the wasteland to die – it was unfathomable to her.  And all because of who his mother was.

“But now…I don’t think I care about any such stigmas.  You’re in my way and intentionally keeping me from destroying this dangerous dungeon!” Razochek shouted, before he sprang forward, aiming directly for Kelerim.

The warband leader was intercepted by her Ironclad Apes, however, and he stopped to face them as they got in his way of his objective.  Despite being wounded earlier, Razochek practically danced around the clumsy-looking swipes of her constructs, and the two Steel short swords in his hands – which looked like knives in proportion to him – flicked out with elemental energy-enhanced strength, which used the weapon’s superior material to cut through the joints of her Apes’ arms, knees, and necks.  None of that actually destroyed her constructs, but a veteran of as many battles as he seemed to be learned quickly the vulnerabilities of his opponents.

The glowing energy source inside her Ironclad Apes were what animated their heavy metallic appendages, and Razochek quickly learned that if he struck that glowing light, it would stop them from moving, and they would collapse and dissolve soon thereafter.  Her constructs fell one after another, and the ease at which he survived the brutal assault was astonishing.

Of course, it was still seven against the solitary warband leader, and he didn’t get through the fight unscathed.  A blow to the side of his right knee that he couldn’t avoid practically crippled the joint, and his left forearm had crumpled under a joint attack by two of the Apes before their internal glowing energy source was stabbed.  Down to only one hand that could hold a sword, and favoring one of his knees, he still managed to come up on top.

That was when Kelerim finally entered the fray, but his inexperience immediately showed.  He had a long Steel sword with a better reach, so he should’ve had an advantage over the marginally crippled warband leader, but on his first strike he missed and over-extended, bringing him in range of Razochek’s shorter Steel sword.

Kelerim’s life was saved by the vambrace on his arm, which the Blacksmith raised by happenstance as he was falling forward from his over-extension.  The strike he unknowingly blocked was so powerful, though, that it bent the Steel armor and sent Kelerim’s arm into his face and shoving him to the side and slightly backwards.  Razochek took advantage of the situation and jumped off his good leg towards the stumbling Blacksmith, knocking him to the ground and landing on top of him.

Sandra held her figurative breath as the warband leader raised himself off Kelerim far enough to bring his Steel short sword up in preparation to strike.  As he brought his hand down to end her friend’s life, her Steel Python shot out like a blur from across the room and wrapped itself around both Razochek’s neck and descending arm, preventing it from completing its fateful arc.  Sandra could see the strain as the Orc strained to move his arm, and her Python started to stretch unnaturally (as much as a metal snake is natural) as he forced his hand downwards.

Kelerim wasn’t taking the threat to his life lying down – other than lying down underneath the larger warband leader, of course.  He pulled out a simple Iron knife from the side of his belt, the first he had ever completed in his new forge inside the dungeon.  It wasn’t as sharp or as balanced as the ones he had eventually learned to make, but it was sharp enough to punch through the armpit of the Orc holding him down and just long enough to pierce his brother’s right lung and heart.

Razochek’s eyes opened in surprise, and as he looked down at the knife sticking out of his armpit, blood started to froth out of his mouth.  He coughed up more blood as he mumbled, “A coward’s weapon…I should’ve known…” before he slumped to the side, all strength leaving his body as his eyes closed in death.

Kelerim had tears in his own eyes as he struggled to push the heavy body of his hate-filled brother off of him and to the side.  With the warband leader’s death, Sandra could feel the restrictions put in place by the invader’s presence disappear, though she didn’t do anything immediately.  She was more concerned about her friend; he was still lying there on the floor with tears silently streaming down his face.

Sandra couldn’t even imagine how he felt.  After learning who his father was – and that he had a brother – he had been forced to choose between family and…her.  And it wasn’t only that difficult choice that he had to make, but he had to kill his new-found brother – which made everything even worse.

A portal opened up in the room above Kelerim and Winxa popped out unexpectedly.  Sandra looked around her Home and noticed that the Dungeon Fairy had left her room unnoticed, only to appear looking down at the Blacksmith in contemplation.

“Ok…I think I trust him now.”

*         *         *

* Are you sure you have to leave?  Are you coming back? *

Kelerim started to nod automatically, before he stopped himself as he considered it.  Am I coming back?  Do I want to?  Honestly, he didn’t know – and that was what he told Sandra.

“I don’t know, Sandra.  All I know is that the last few days here since Razochek…died… haven’t been the same.  I appreciate all that you’ve done for me, but I need to find my father.  I need to tell him about…you know.”  He didn’t like thinking about what he had been forced to do, but he knew that he would have to face the consequences of it when he finally met the Orc that sired him.  Hearing from his brother that his father had actually been in love with his Dwarven mother was welcome news, as it was likely that the head of the powerful Bloodskull family wasn’t as prejudiced against other races as most everyone else was.

He tried to go on like nothing had happened, but the urge to go back to Orcrim was too strong.  True to her word, Sandra wasn’t going to keep him in the dungeon, and she even went out of her way to provide as many supplies as she could for his journey.  He now had as much gold and silver coins as he could carry – which were copied by Sandra from the few examples the Orcs had in their pockets – so he wasn’t worried about buying what he needed along the way.  He’d never actually handled any money before, as growing up he had had to rely on handouts and working odd jobs for a place to stay and something to eat.

He had also explained to Sandra his original thoughts about just staying in the dungeon and helping her craft and supply all sorts of weapons and armor for the people of Orcrim, as she deserved to know why he had acted the way he had at the village.  However, it wasn’t long before he realized that he didn’t want to stay anymore, at least not at the moment; which was one of the reasons he was leaving.  He would like to come back to learn some more, but he had other things on his mind now.

* I…understand.  Getting to know your father is important; I know I wouldn’t be the woman – or Dungeon Core – I am today without the love and support of my own, so I respect your choice.  Just know that you are always welcome here, and I hope you at least come back to visit!  There is still a lot that I can teach you, but I think you’ll do well when you start your own smithy.  Maybe we can still do that supplying the Orcish race with weapons and armor thing from here, but you’ll have to set that up for me.  As you know, I’m kind of stuck here and my constructs aren’t the most talkative. *

She had a point; he still wanted to help her out with saving the Orcish race, and she couldn’t do it on her own.  He only had a singular contact in the village of Grongbak, however, and there was no way he was going back there right now because Razochek’s old warband were probably still there.  They had come to investigate his disappearance when he didn’t arrive and found the skins and quickly rotting meat left outside, but they hadn’t found the entrance to the dungeon – thankfully.  Kelerim didn’t want any more deaths on his conscience as it was.

“I’ll do what I can, Sandra.  I want to thank you again for everything you’ve done for me, and not just for saving my life.  This was the first time I ever felt like I fit in somewhere and had my work valued at the same time.  I appreciate the time you took to teach me, and…maybe someday I’ll be back to learn some more from you,” he told the empty air near the dungeon entrance tunnel.

* I’ll look forward to that day.  Goodbye, Kelerim. *

He waved to the air and said, “Goodbye, Sandra.”  Kelerim hitched the leather pack higher on his back, the sheer weight of everything inside weighing him down a little.  He didn’t mind, though, because he needed everything in there if he was going to succeed in his quest to find his father.

And with a final look back into the dungeon that changed his life, he set off to make his way in the world.

*        *        *

Sandra watched as Kelerim walked out the entrance, where she lost him until he showed up in her Mechanical Jaguar’s sight up above.  She saw him travel back towards Orcrim, and his step was surprisingly sprightly for someone heading into a relatively unknown situation.  After only about 20 minutes, his figure was lost to the horizon as the heat from the day blurred his shape.

“It’s a shame that he left; he was just starting to grow on me.  What are you going to do now?” Winxa hesitantly asked after Sandra told her Kelerim was gone.

I’m sure I’ll see him again.  In the meantime, though, I have some projects to see to – saving the world takes work, you know!

The Dungeon Fairy smiled, the expression on her face plainly one of relief.

End of Book 1

Author’s Note

Thank you for reading The Crafter’s Dungeon!

I wrote this book because I love to read about two things: dungeon cores and crafting.  Most books about dungeon cores have a bit of crafting in them, of course, even if it’s just the core creating rooms in their dungeon or putting together traps and monsters – but I wanted more than that.  I enjoy digging deeper into the normal “player” or “hero” crafting process, and I’m fascinated on how many things can be made with just basic materials.

In the future, Sandra will be crafting some unique things as well, including when she finally achieves Core Size 20 and can access the Advancement system – and then all bets are off!

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!

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Books by Jonathan Brooks

Glendaria Awakens Trilogy

Dungeon Player

Dungeon Crisis

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

The Quizard Mountains

The Guardian Guild

The Kingdom Rises

Spirit Cores Series

Core of Fear

Dungeon World Series

Dungeon World

Dungeon World 2

Dungeon Crafting

The Crafter’s Dungeon