“Thanks,” Winxa said with relief. “I probably would’ve said something out of reflex, and I really don’t want to experience that again. What you do is up to you, but now you’re on a time limit. I’d give you…two weeks or so.”
Sandra thought the same thing, though apparently unlike Winxa, she hadn’t a clue of what to do about it. She had been hoping to help the Elves out in the future – somehow – but things with them hadn’t really gotten off to a good start. Though, she had to admit, it was a much better start than the one with the Orcs had been – Kelerim notwithstanding. The problem with the Elves didn’t sound like it could really be solved by anything she could craft, either, because it sounded more of a “manpower” issue than not having the best weapons or even enchantments.
One more question for you, Winxa – and hopefully it won’t be classified as advice; if you think it is, then don’t answer it.
“Okay…there’s no harm in hearing it, I guess.”
Why aren’t the different races working together to fight against the dungeons? It seems like that would be an ideal solution to the problem.
“That’s something I can answer without too much difficulty, though the answer is technically a long one – I’ll try to shorten it for you,” Winxa said happily, after hearing that it was something she could safely answer. “Now, this is some of the information that I learned after I became assigned to be your Dungeon Fairy,” she warned.
In the beginning, Sandra remembered Winxa leaving the dungeon quite a bit more looking for information than she had lately, though Sandra was never precisely sure what the Fairy had found out – but some of it she was likely to learn now.
“Basically, after the races came together to defeat Wester—” Winxa looked sad at the mention of her former Dungeon Core’s name, though whether it was because she was sorry for what he did or because she was sorry he was destroyed, Sandra couldn’t tell— “they retreated back to their respective homelands. Things were a little tense despite the cooperation, because even after the success here, they were forced to defend their respective nations against their “native” dungeons; since most of their concentration was on destroying the hugely powerful Dungeon Core that was threatening everyone, their local dungeons had also become relatively powerful as a result of inattention.
“This led to squabbling between the races as fault was passed back and forth, with accusations of the others not contributing enough to the war against Wester, and even to blaming the other races for destroying what was once a vital area of international trade and access between the different racial nations – namely, the wasteland you now find yourself in. Normally, this place had been a kind of “off-limits” area for dungeons, which fostered many to travel between the different lands – which was actually the opposite of what the Creator had planned when the Dungeon system was put into place. If you remember, it was developed to curb the conquering impulses of the races so that they would stick to and protect their own lands.
“Anyway, in comes Wester to upset the entire thing, and the resulting destruction of the area was – as crazy as it sounds – exactly what the Creator wanted, though the consequences of those decisions are still being felt today. I would never say that the Creator made a mistake—” Winxa looked up as she said this for some reason— “but some choices weren’t exactly…the best. Which was why I said that you’re likely here to fix some of that.
“So…years went by and more disagreements were had between the races, leading to a few fights, which then led to an increase in the number of dungeons bordering their lands. This led each race to concentrate on their own people rather than trying to foster any type of discourse between themselves, and so now you can see where that got them.”
That…was the short version? Sandra asked humorously at the long discourse.
“Well, yes…I could’ve added another couple hours’ worth of information, like specific information on the disagreements between the Orcs and the Elves, and the Dwarves and the Gnomes, and—well, you get the idea.”
Thank you, Winxa – I was just messing with you.
“I figured.”
Getting the races to work together didn’t seem feasible at this point, so there didn’t seem to be a solution to help the Elves right then. That didn’t mean she couldn’t still help the Orcs and the others, though to do that she was going to have to communicate with them somehow; in addition, communication might aid in convincing the Elves not to come after her – she could dream, right? Nevertheless, opening up some sort of dialogue before things escalated too far was a bit of a priority now.
The only way she could think to do that reliably, however, was if Kelerim came back to her dungeon; since she had no idea where he even was at that point – or whether he really would come back – she was at a loss of what to do. With that not an option, she tried to think of other methods of communication.
Writing out some sort of message came to mind. She thought she could eventually make some rudimentary paper from the tree that was almost done growing with a bit of work, as well as some sort of writing instrument, but Winxa shut that down immediately.
“While you can understand and even speak any language due to your status as a Dungeon Core, the system set up in place for that doesn’t extend to the written word. You could write in your common Human tongue, but it’s unlikely anyone would be able to read it.”
Sandra hadn’t really thought about being able to understand the speech of both the Orcs and the Elves – it just sounded…“normal” to her. That it was some sort of Core-based ability was news to her; regardless of the new information, she was glad that she could understand everyone – otherwise things so far might’ve gone far worse than it had already. Not being able to communicate with Kelerim or learning that her time was limited from the Elven village meeting would’ve had much different results.
So, writing a message was out, so that left…what? Pantomime? Attempt to convey her non-threatening nature by having her constructs allow themselves to be destroyed? Have them put their hands (or other appendages) up in the air in surrender? Make her Mechanical Wolves outside roll on their back in submission? None of that seemed like it would work, plus it would likely only convey that she was weak and easily taken advantage of; she had seen that kind of attitude entirely too much when she was alive as a Human to know that wasn’t a good idea. She needed to put forth a position of non-threatening strength, but with also a warning that she would defend herself lethally if she was forced to that point.
Other types of non-verbal communication through the use of body language was also out, as her constructs had relatively expressionless faces (if they had faces at all) and she didn’t know any way to convey meaning through subtle shifts in their hands, arms, legs, or bodies. That also went along with oral communication, as none of her constructs – despite a few having mouths – had any type of way to speak; that was actually one of the first things she tried when Kelerim had been in her dungeon and had been slightly disappointed when it seemed impossible. Fortunately, she had been able to mentally communicate with him through the Visitor’s Bond, so it became a non-issue.
At least, it was a non-issue until Razochek invaded with a portion of his Warband. If she had been able to actually communicate with him at the start, she might not have had to kill them all; there was nothing she could do about that now, though, but the non-communication problem was still present.
Another type of visual communication she could reasonably see being effective was through some type of artwork or even a mural that could somehow portray her desire for peace and wish to help the other races. She didn’t really have the materials for any type of painting or drawing, and even if she did, she had nothing to paint or draw on. The stone walls were a possibility, but she didn’t know if that would convey her message well enough; carving into the walls themselves was another idea, which could definitely work. It was something that she would have to consider for the future and with a bit of practice, because she
had never “sculpted” anything before, and wasn’t even sure if she could do it with any type of skill.
While she had learned many of the techniques used by painters, sculptors, and other artisans, their individual strengths didn’t lie in recipes and doing things by a specific formula over and over. True, there was some improvisation needed every once in a while – when crafting metal weapons and armor, cooking a meal, or even carving a wooden table – but it wasn’t the same as what true artists did every time that they created something. Their whole purpose was to create something new and never seen before, using their imagination and own creative mindset to do it. That was something she needed to discover if she could apply that same creative thinking to a piece.
Or, she could always make rudimentary stick figures and hope someone understood the meaning she was trying to get across. That would be a last resort, however, and she wanted to practice first – later, though.
Do any of the Dungeon Monsters from the other Classifications have the ability to speak? That was the last idea she had, though she didn’t put much hope in the question she asked her Dungeon Fairy friend.
“Hmm…I’m not actually sure – I don’t think any Dungeon Cores have ever wanted to talk to their victims before. It’s possible some of the Bipedals or even the Goblinoids might be able to, but I can’t guarantee that,” Winxa told her without much confidence.
Better than nothing, I suppose. Essentially, what that meant was that she was going to have to speed up her upgrading of her Core Size; however, the mere thought of being trapped inside her Core again – for who knew how long – gave her intense anxiety. It hadn’t really even been that long since she had increased her Size and she was hoping to have at least another week or so before she had to do it.
She had already accumulated more than enough Mana to finish all of her stages, however, and in fact her Mana was completely full after she had let it fill up while she was looking into the Elven issue. Since Winxa was fairly confident that Sandra had at least two weeks before she was threatened with destruction by a party of Elven Elites, she decided to finish some projects for a day or two before she went under again. The delay shouldn’t matter that much in the long run, and it also allowed her mind to process the upcoming shut-in experience enough that she thought she could handle it.
While she was observing the Elven village and the meeting, her Oak tree had grown tremendously. Looking at its root system, it had spread them out all along the dirt it had access to, without caring about the stone walls separating the different plots. Her plan – that was interrupted by the appearance of that Elven woman, Echo – to remove the stone so that the roots could expand was unnecessary, as it had done just fine. As for the tree itself, it was now over 20 feet tall and still growing; Sandra thought it was reaching the stage where it could be harvested for wood – because she could see some acorns growing along its branches. While it could keep growing for quite a while before it got too big for the space, she didn’t think there was any need.
Without waiting too much longer, she sent a few of her Small Animated Shears from her Home up to the growing room, where they immediately cut the acorns off the Oak tree and dropped them down to the floor. Sandra’s Golems quickly picked them up and put them into a small pile; it was still a relatively young tree in comparison to the large ones in the forest outside, which meant that it only had a small number of acorns growing on the tree at that time. As she watched, she could see a few budding up and starting to grow, but she thought she had more than enough for now.
Sandra “ate” one of the acorns and she got a satisfying Dungeon Core system message in response.
New Origination Material found!
Oak Tree Seed
While the Oak Tree Seed cannot be used directly as a Monster Seed, it can be used in specific applications to create a whole new Monster Seed.
That was the same sort of response she had gotten when she had obtained the Flax Seed by consuming some linen cloth; she assumed at the time that – because the cloth was a finished product – she had only gotten the base component and nothing else. Now, however, she was beginning to think there was some other sort of material and Monster Seed she could obtain from the Flax plant. Her suspicions were confirmed when she took a chunk out of the growing Oak tree.
New Monster Seed and Origination Material found!
Oak Wood
While Oak Wood can be directly used as a Monster Seed, it can also be used as a material for use in the dungeon or other purposes.
You now have access to:
Tiny Oak Wood Chip
Origination Raw Material Cost: 50
Origination Mana Cost: 10
Monster Min. Mana: 10
Monster Max. Mana: 50
I did it! I finally have access to wood! While Oak wasn’t necessarily the best material for certain crafts, the fact that she finally had some sort of wood that she could use was spectacular.
And it opened up a whole new level of crafting that she had been waiting for.
Chapter 10
Having access to wood of any type opened up a world of possibilities, though there were some crafts that required a certain type of wood to be more effective. For instance, Oak didn’t work too well as components for melee weapons – because they tended to be heavier than others – but they worked…fine for bows; they made a heavier bow which wasn’t always great trying to steady if you didn’t have the strength for it, and the draw was usually more – which could be a good or bad thing. For other woods such as Pine, they were almost useless because they weren’t quite strong enough and you had to make them much thicker if you didn’t want them to snap in your hands.
For making the shafts for the arrows, however, Oak was far from ideal. They were rarely straight-grained and were hard to straighten without some sort of elemental energy assistance – which wasn’t always available when crafting. Cedar or Ironwood were the ideal candidates for arrow shafts, and even Pine was acceptable if you could find it in enough straight quantities to be effective, because it was also difficult to straighten.
Fortunately, Sandra didn’t really have to worry about that; after easily unlocking the larger sizes of Monster Seeds, she found that she could create the wood in any basic shape that she needed.
Monster Seed Origination
Name:
Raw Material Cost:
Mana Cost:
Min. Mana:
Max. Mana:
Tiny Oak Wood Chip
50
10
10
50
Small Oak Wood Block
100
20
10
100
Average Oak Wood Stick
400
80
10
400
Large Oak Wood Plank
800
160
10
800
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
And by “basic”, that was essentially what it was. While she could use the materials in which she had access to create normal objects through her use of her Mundane Object Creation skill – like some tools, tableware, and even furniture – when it came to using it to craft, it only came in pre-arranged shapes. The same thing essentially happened during blacksmithing; she could create different-sized ingots of metal and even longer bars – in addition to the orb-like shapes that her Monster Seeds looked like – but anything
other than that didn’t really work.
So, with her Oak Wood, Sandra could create similar things as her Monster Seeds; tiny little wood chips, wooden cube blocks, rounded sticks, and flat boards. She had the ability to change the size – like the thickness and length of the material – but the general shape was essentially stuck in those forms. Which was fine, because when she looked at the quality of the wood – she was again struck at how pristine it was.
She had become accustomed to the “pure” form of the metals she had created for her blacksmithing; sometimes it was difficult to imagine what having impurities in them again would mean for the crafting work she did. With the wood she was able to create, however, it was obvious how different it was compared to the tree that was still growing and repairing the chunk she had taken out of it.
First of all, the graining inside was perfectly straight, which was essential to maintaining strength while granting a little bit of flexibility. There were also no flaws or cracks, no knots in the wood, and it appeared extremely smooth – as if it had been sanded with the finest sandstone wheel. She couldn’t actually “feel” it to tell, of course, because her Ironclad Ape only had so much tactile response in its form; she longed to run her fingers over the grain to feel the utter perfection the wood she created represented. It was just another reason to see what other kind of Dungeon Monster from another Classification could do for her – one that hopefully had some sort of responsive skin to it.
In her woodworking workshop, she had used an Earth trap to set up a moving bladed saw that was similar in form to a grindstone. Instead of stone, however, it was a circular piece of Steel that had little teeth cut into it like a handsaw, and it was connected to a central shaft that would turn very quickly through the use of the trap’s function. She had it sticking up from the center of a flat stone table, in which she could use her Ironclad Ape to feed and cut her wood into whatever shape she desired.
The Crafter's Defense: A Dungeon Core Novel (Dungeon Crafting Book 2) Page 8