In the final space she made, five Behemoths were stationed in a large circular arena, where they were free to move about and attack whatever made it that far together. It was simple yet she was hoping effective, as they were her strongest Dungeon Monsters; if someone was able to get through them, then there wasn’t much more she could do to prevent her demise. Even her super-hot flame wall trap blocking the inside entrance to her Home probably wouldn’t stop someone so determined to reach her Core.
All in all, she was pretty happy with what she had created for her defense. There were 17 fully trapped and defended rooms, each one deadlier than the last. She was pretty sure that it could stop anyone or anything – but she was also hoping that she didn’t have to test that. It was one thing killing the reptiles that had tried to invade her dungeon; it was quite another to kill any sentients like the Orcs that had invaded, or the Elves that were planning on attacking her as well.
There was nothing she could do about that quite yet, though, other than prepare for the worst. Which, looking at her entire dungeon, she was pretty sure she had done. She would still strive to prevent that “worst” from ever happening in the first place, but she was prepared if it should come knocking on her door.
Chapter 26
Compared to the growth of the Orange or any of the other trees Sandra had grown in her growing room, Cotton and Jute were relatively quick to grow. She worked on harvesting them when she was in between finishing the traps in the rest of the rooms, and she was as done with them by the time she was finished with the defenses as she could be.
The Jute was the easiest of the two to handle, as it was a very similar process to the Flax plant when Sandra had been making Linen. After the large stalks were grown enough that they began to flower, she had her Golems rip them out of the ground and use their clamp-hands to cut off the roots. Then bundles of the Jute Stalks were brought into the boiling vat room to soak inside the constantly churning warm water there to start the retting process. Easy as that – the rest would come later.
Cotton, on the other hand, was something she could see through to the end right away – though it took a bit of work. Normally she would just have her Golems pick the cotton buds that bloomed on the plant, but they were a little more difficult to get to with her construct. Fortunately, she didn’t need to keep the plants around afterward; instead, the Golems just ripped the plants all out and picked the buds off when they were more accessible.
From there, Sandra used them – as well as some Segmented Centipedes she had used previously on the Flax plants – to pick out the seeds and any other foreign elements. Then – making sure she had plenty of Mana to throw it up again if she needed to – she took down her Home Fire wall trap and created 200 Clockwork Spiders, who went to help with the rest of the process. When they arrived, they used their legs to start breaking up the cotton bolls, pulling them apart and making the densely packed buds light and fluffy.
From there, it was a simple process of combining the fibers into a single strand that used the same process as the Linen thread, where they would start as large strands and be trimmed down using a spinning wheel and into a fine thread. When that was done, she finally had access to Cotton Thread to make into clothing at a later date.
New Monster Seed and Origination Material found!
Cotton Thread
While Cotton Thread 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 Cotton Thread Bobbin
Origination Raw Material Cost: 15
Origination Mana Cost: 10
Monster Min. Mana: 10
Monster Max. Mana: 20
The Jute would be done at a later time, when the retting process was complete, but she had made good progress with her crafting and advancing what she had for material. Cloth (soon to be made with the thread), leather, wood, and metal – four very important components to many of the crafting recipes she could make now. There were other materials which would help, of course, but having those four staples meant that she could make quite a bit now.
Before she used her Mana to start anything else or unlock some of the larger sizes of her new Monster Seeds (Sapphire, Orangewood, and Cotton Thread), she checked out what other new options she had in her Transmutation Menu.
Organic/Inorganic Material Elemental Transmutation Menu
Transmutation Options
Elemental Orb Required (Size/Qty)
Mana Required
Additional Seed Material (Size/Qty)
Unlocked (Y/N)
Precious Gemstones
Citrine
Air (Large/6)
0/80000
Gold (Large/5)
N
Hematite
Spirit (Large/6)
0/100000
Silver (Large/5)
N
Onyx
Nether (Large/6)
0/200000
Iron (Large/5)
N
Sapphire
N/A
N/A
N/A
Y
Topaz
Earth (Large/6)
0/400000
Tin (Large/5)
N
Ruby
Fire (Large/6)
0/500000
Copper (Large/5)
N
Emerald
Natural (Large/6)
0/1000000
Bronze (Large/5)
N
Diamond
Holy (Large/6)
0/10000000
Steel (Large/5)
N
Moonstone
?????
0/20000000
?????
N
Dragon’s Eye
?????
0/50000000
?????
N
Magistone
?????
0/100000000
?????
N
Fruit-producing Tree Seeds
Apple
Fire (Average/3)
0/10000
Oak (Large/4)
N
Pear
Natural (Large/2)
0/15000
Maple (Large/4)
N
Peach
Fire (Average/3), Holy (Small/2)
0/20000
Cedar (Large/4)
N
Plum
Nether (Large/3)
0/25000
Ash (Large/4)
N
Apricot
Fire (Large/2), Air (Small/2)
0/30000
Pine (Large/4)
N
Orange
N/A
N/A
N/A
Y
Lemon
Air (Large/5)
0/50000
Redwood (Large/4)
N
Lime
Natural (Large/5)
0/60000
Yew (Large/4)
N
Coconut
?????
0/100000
?????
N
Elderfruit
?????
0/1000000
?????
N
Ambrosia
?????
0/25000000
?????
N
Theoretically, she could unlock quite a bit of different materials using her skill, but that would require a bit of an investment of Mana. There were some gemstones and fruit that she had never heard of or only whispered as something that might exist – somewhere – but she had never actually seen them before. Dragon’s Eye and Magistone were unheard-of-before gems that seemed extremely intriguing and might have some interesting properties, while Elderfruit and Ambrosia were only rumored to exist while she had been Human. She had no idea what any of them did, but with Mana requirements to unlock them from 1 to 100 million, they had to be beneficial
for some reason.
“Sandra,” Winxa suddenly said as the Dungeon Core was about to move onto something else, feeling almost scatter-brained with the options now open to her. “I was wondering – what are your plans? I’m in no way going to give you advice – for obvious reasons – but I figure it couldn’t hurt if you want to share what you have in mind. It might help to sharpen your focus so that you can accomplish what you want to do without getting side-tracked.”
It was actually quite amazing how the Dungeon Fairy could guess that; Sandra had to admit that she was starting to get a little overwhelmed with everything going on. From the eight sleeping Gnomes and the unconscious one, the Elf that was supposed to be their watcher almost dying and then bonding with her Core, to the upcoming threat of a dangerous Elite party of Elves coming to destroy her, and of course the reptile-based Dungeon Core that could wake up from its Upgrade at any time and send another army to assault her dungeon – or worse, find another of the nearby races’ villages and slaughter them. She counted herself lucky that the other Core hadn’t already discovered them, but it was probably because it had to physically send one of its Dungeon Monsters there; for all she knew, the other Core may assume that there weren’t any other races around it if it had only seen Gnomes for countless years.
Then again, one of its snakes had almost killed Echo the Elf, so they might not be a secret anymore.
Ultimately, I want to save everyone from the dungeons everywhere, but I know that probably isn’t possible without some loss of life; the battle at the Gnome village was proof of that fact. I was also slightly underwhelmed by my constructs during the fight; I had thought that they were superior to every other type of Dungeon Monster with their all-metal bodies, but they’re just…different. Superior in some ways; weaker in others. If the other Core had been smarter and maybe not as “insane” with trying to kill the Gnomes, I’m not sure if it would’ve been the same successful outcome.
So, what I think needs to happen is to establish my presence with the sentient races one at a time as a good thing, and not something to be feared. While we’re not off to the best start with the Gnomes, they are probably the only one right now I can actually work with right now. The Orcs – barring if Kelerim suddenly changed all of their minds about me – are out at the moment, I haven’t even met a full-blooded Dwarf yet, and the Elves already want to destroy me. But now I have a chance to prove myself to the Gnomes and help them out with what they need to fight back in the future.
I’m hoping that we’ll be able to stave off an attack by the Elves with the aid of one of the Gnomes communicating with them, but if not, I’m hoping that Echo will wake up in time to stop them. Regardless of that, I’m as defended as I’m going to be, and I need to take the opportunity that has been presented with Violet and the others being here. To do that, however, I need to…hmm…
Sandra really didn’t know what she needed to do, which was why it was good to explain her plans and really think it over. She knew what she wanted – to craft and to learn more enchantments – but she had no way of learning enchantments with the present state of her constructs…or did she? There was a way of preserving even temporary enchantments, though they would have to be used on the same medium as they normally were – Sandra just hoped that Violet had learned the enchantment in her limited time as an Apprentice Enchanter. It required the use of Spirit and Natural elemental energies, so there was a good chance that she had.
Whether or not the Apprentice Gnome knew it, Sandra knew that she needed to make a room where the enchantments could be performed and even stored, until she had some way to practice them. In the future, she even thought it would be possible to preserve enchantments in stasis, so that they could be used as a sort of visual repository for teaching others. The answer was so simple to her that she didn’t know why it hadn’t been done before; then she remembered the secrecy and unwillingness to share attitudes of most of the Enchanters she had learned from when she was Human. She didn’t have to wonder too much after that.
With her plans set – at least for the moment – she told Winxa what she was planning on doing. The Dungeon Fairy seemed surprised, but also approving. “That’s a great idea, Sandra – but what are you going to do after that?” she pushed.
After that, I’m going to have to wait for all the Gnomes to wake up, because I’m going to need some questions answered.
“Fair enough,” Winxa responded, leaving Sandra to do what she was thinking about.
Using her Dungeon Core abilities, she ate away a large 200X200X10-foot room branching off from her Display and Storage Room, which was the third room up from her Home. It had been previously used as a place to display all of the weapons and armor pieces that she had practiced making over the last month or so, storing it until it was needed. She was still hoping Kelerim would come back and ask for help moving some of them out for Orcrim; if he didn’t, they’d still be there in case someone else wanted them.
The new room, however, was empty of any decoration initially. To change that, Sandra used her Mana to create large, solid cylinders – with “arms” of varying lengths and thicknesses sticking out of them like some sort of mutated porcupine, as well as one fully flat side – of different metals, woods, and clays, approximately a foot in diameter and four feet tall. She also made a smaller cylinder about 10% of the size made completely out of Sapphire and Dragon Glass; she wanted them to be the same size, but it was expensive Mana-wise to create even that much of the material. She then had some of her spare constructs she had roaming around her workshops move them into separate areas in the room, so that the types were kept together.
Some enchantment runes were best used – or could only be safely used – on certain types of metal, wood, clay, or gemstones, depending on what they were. These different areas would allow her to keep a record of what worked best on which material, as well as the shape of the rune; if the preservation/static enchantment circle rune – which Sandra prayed that Violet knew – worked the way she hoped, it would also preserve the precise way that the rune was created. That was almost as important as what it looked like, because if you were to place a line out of order, it could change or even destroy the entire enchantment.
Runes came in many different shapes and sizes, but they also didn’t always align in two dimensions. While there was a flat side on each cylinder that could take runes that were straight-up flat-formed, the arms sticking out of the Rune Repository Pillars, or RRPs (a name she decided on after looking at them for a while), were there for the three-dimensional type runes. They were common on long swords, staves, and other long objects, where the rune would “wrap” around the material being enchanted. The curved cylinder part of the RRPs would accommodate runes that were used on curved surfaces, usually found on armor and round objects like spheres.
While all of those were being adjusted, Sandra also started the process of stripping some more Raw Bearling Hides to use as leather, because she wanted to include some leather – as well as cloth – RRPs into the Enchantment Repository, because even more enchantments worked best on those materials. She had made the room large enough to hold all of the materials she already had access to – which made her realize she hadn’t made a stone one and quickly did that – and she had room to expand it when she acquired even more varieties.
Next was weaving some Cotton and Linen cloth from the Thread she had acquired earlier. She had made an extremely simple-yet-effective warp-weighted loom for the job, where the warp threads were suspended from a top bar and weighted with small Lead weights holding them taut over two heddle frames. She hadn’t figured out how to automate the process quite yet using a trap, but once she had a chance to play around with one she thought she might be able to figure it out. Currently, she was going to have to have her Ironclad Ape physically move the pick holding the weft thread back and forth to create the weave; fortunately, her construct didn’t get tired and could do the repetitive action standing up without complaint for years if she needed it.<
br />
However, before she could really get started, the sun came up and there was movement just outside her dungeon. The figure of an Elf carefully picked his way over the rocky barren wasteland, keeping to the shadows thrown over everything by the sunrise to keep as hidden as possible. Sandra vaguely recognized him from the village, though she didn’t know his name – but Echo had greeted him when she had originally returned after visiting her dungeon.
He was obviously looking for something, though he was moving very slow and was extremely careful with his movements. In fact, if it weren’t for the fact that she was watching it all from above, she wouldn’t have even known he was there – her Mechanical Wolves and Jaguars she had roaming around hadn’t made him out. She was a bit paranoid about another attack, though, which was why she had been fairly diligent in watching for any threats outside her entrance.
He crawled close to the ground and almost seemed to be sniffing like some sort of animal, which was unusual to her; whatever ability he had with the use of his elemental energies, however, seemed to be working. He honed on the spot where Echo had been attacked by the venomous snake and collapsed, and where her Ape had picked her up. He might find a little blood there, but that doesn’t mean it’s hers—
And then she saw it as soon as the male Elf did: Echo’s bow.
It had fallen away from the dying Elf woman the night before and Sandra had forgotten about it in her hurry to save Echo’s life. The Elf quickly scuttled closer while looking around for danger, and he picked up the bow and frowned as he recognized it. Sandra could see him analyzing some tracks left by her Ape when it had come out of her entrance to pick the woman up, the miniscule drops of dried blood spots on the ground from Echo’s puncture wounds, as well as the slightly deeper prints leading back to the dungeon. It didn’t take him long to come to a conclusion (however wrong it might actually be) and take off again toward his village, holding Echo’s bow tight to his body.
The Crafter's Defense: A Dungeon Core Novel (Dungeon Crafting Book 2) Page 21