The Crafter's Defense: A Dungeon Core Novel (Dungeon Crafting Book 2)

by Jonathan Brooks

  Based on what happened next, Sandra easily understood why they were so confident in their dungeon-destroying job – because they were frightening. The first behemoth that charged them got a beam of super-hot flames boosted with a swirl of white Holy light, which was more than enough to carve a line through her construct as the Iron covering its outer shell literally melted off. It was destroyed within seconds, but not without a cost to Alanthia; she fell to her knees and panted heavily. She waved the others on as she said, “Go on, I just need to catch my breath after that…I’ll catch up.”

  In the next hallway, the leather-clad archer with the grey and green accents on his armor stepped up to the plate and used a spell on his arrow before he released. The sheer amount of energy used in the greyish-green spell was so bright that Sandra couldn’t even look at it before it was released; as it left the Elf’s bow, however, the glow faded a bit and she could see massive vines expand out from the arrow, which fully enveloped the charging Behemoth. Her construct crashed to the ground as it was tripped up and the vines began to tighten, making the Iron plates of the Behemoth start to screech in protest. But even that didn’t actually kill her construct – it just immobilized it.

  The man didn’t fall to his knees, but he did bend over like he wanted to throw up. “I’m fine – let’s get going,” he said, following – slowly – after the others as they easily climbed the feebly struggling construct all wrapped up in nature’s rope. Looking back at the previous hallway, Sandra could see Alanthia had recovered somewhat and got back up, though she didn’t rush forward. By the time she caught up with the others, Clovera – the other woman in black-and-green robes – was just finishing up flinging a roiling green-and-black spell that rapidly aged the Iron metal of the Behemoth heading their way, until it rusted and fell apart. Just as the others had been affected, so too was Clovera; she fell to her knees but ended up on her side as her strength momentarily gave out. The others looked at her in concern, but she waved them on as well, stating that she’d be along in a moment.

  The archer who hadn’t attacked yet led the way into the final section of the room where five behemoths awaited them. Without pausing, the man who could control Water and Holy energy charged the arrow he pulled back on his bow with a spinning vortex of blue and white. Sandra could see him shaking from the strain of putting so much energy into it, and he sighed in relief – and likely more than a bit of exhaustion – as he released the arrow into the closest construct. As soon as it left his bow a massive glowing icicle essentially enveloped his arrow and it spun around so quickly it was a blur as it impacted the Behemoth like a giant drill. Sandra’s construct rapidly had a hole five feet wide drilled through it, which made it collapse and disappear in less than a second afterward.

  There were still four of the Behemoths, however, and they immediately attacked following the destruction of the first. What followed was a chaotic maelstrom of spells being flung at the constructs from the three Elves, as they worked together to destroy them one after another. Clovera joined in after a few seconds and added her flagging energy to the fight, which helped them destroy three more in rapid succession. Sandra couldn’t help but notice that all of their subsequent spells were only a fraction of what they had initially started with, and by the time the third Behemoth went down they were all practically lying on the floor.

  The very last construct, the final obstacle in between the Elves and Sandra’s Core bore down on the worn-out figures without pause. The Elite group was able to struggle to their knees at least, where they threw everything they had at the Behemoth; a large icicle “arrow” impacted its side, breaking apart a small chunk of the Iron-plating but ultimately not doing fatal damage; another arrow landed on the stone floor in front of the construct, and two sharp tree trunks sprouted pointing in the direction of the charging Behemoth – but were destroyed when they were crushed under the weight of the metal monstrosity; bands of black and green twined together wrapped around the construct’s two “front” legs, which caused them to rapidly rust and lock up – but then the Behemoth just turned itself around and kept moving using its back legs as its new front legs, dragging the stiff and locked-up rusted legs behind it; finally, Alanthia pulled deep from her reserves of energy and blasted out another super-heated beam of Fire and Holy energy, which severed the front-facing flail-tail – but ultimately ended up doing nothing to stop the construct.

  All of them fell down afterwards, too weak from the rapid expenditure of elemental energy to fight their impending doom. They weren’t unconscious or half-asleep like Porthel still was in the other room – which may or may not be a bad thing for them; if Sandra was in their place, she wouldn’t want to see her death coming. A few more minor spells shot out from the prone forms but ultimately did no damage to the Behemoth, as it was too durable for the minor uses of energy that would’ve likely killed something flesh-and-blood.

  The metal nature of Sandra’s constructs was ultimately the Elves’ downfall; while they could’ve theoretically helped throughout the rest of the dungeon – freeing their leader up from having to expend all of his elemental energy to tear through her Dungeon Monsters – only the strongest (and therefore the most expensive energy-wise) of their spells could have any type of lasting effect or end up damaging them. Sandra could well see how effective they would be working as a team in any other dungeon, but she still couldn’t help but think that there was still something lacking with their setup, nonetheless.

  With them essentially out of elemental energy – or so depleted that most of their spells didn’t really do anything effective – the Elite Elves could only wait for their doom. Sandra’s Behemoth dragged itself forward and raised its massively heavy Iron-plated foot above the prone form of Alanthia and stomped down—

  “STOP!” a voice shouted from the exit leading to Sandra’s Home room.

  And with that simple word, the foot of the Behemoth stopped an inch away from making an Elven pancake.

  Chapter 46

  Violet woke up with a jolt and sat up in her smelly-yet-comfortable bed and blinked away sleep. She had gone from what felt like a dead sleep to fully awake – and she couldn’t figure out why. Was it a bad dream? She couldn’t remember dreaming about anything, in fact – it was like she was so tired she didn’t have any energy left to dream with.

  * Violet? Oh good, you’re up! I need your help with something. *

  So that’s what it was – mystery solved. She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and immediately wished that she had slept longer, but she had at least gotten enough to feel relatively rested. More importantly, however, was that her elemental energy reserves were at least mostly recovered.

  “What’s so important that you had to wake me up?” she asked, slightly irritated – but who wouldn’t be after being woken up so abruptly?

  * Sorry about that, but it’s a bit of an emergency. The Elite Elves arrived already and are attacking my dungeon with the intent to kill me. *

  “What? I thought you said they weren’t due for at least a couple of days?” Violet said, throwing herself off the bed and steadying herself before she fell on her face – because she wasn’t fully coordinated yet. If Sandra’s dungeon really was under attack, then she could be in danger herself – not to mention Felbar.

  * They apparently decided that I was quite the threat and quickened their pace to reach here ahead of schedule – and then didn’t have the decency to wait until morning. It’s not going so well, by the way. *

  Now that didn’t sound good. “Why? I’ve seen your…constructs…and they seem quite formidable to me.” If the Elves were able to easily tear through Sandra’s monsters as it seemed they were, then that didn’t bode well for Violet’s own safety.

  * Well…about that… *

  Sandra proceeded to tell her what had happened with the dungeon that had attacked and destroyed her own village, how it had expanded enough to find the Elves, and then what she did to try to stop them. Violet actually agreed with her decision to dest
roy the other Core, as she didn’t want the same thing to happen to the Elven village as what happened to Glimmerton; unfortunately, many of the monsters that Sandra could’ve used to defend the dungeon were no longer present to do their jobs as a result.

  “As much as I applaud your efforts, it sounds like you’ve dug yourself a hole here. I’ve come to appreciate your decisions to help save us, but it looks like I need to take Felbar and get out of here. No disrespect intended, but if you’re going down, I don’t want to be brought down with you,” she said with slight regret. She really did appreciate all that Sandra had done to save their lives and provide them with supplies, but she still couldn’t quite forgive the dungeon for the role she played in the deaths of her friend. Nevertheless, things didn’t sound good for Sandra’s survival.

  * Hold on – don’t give up on me yet. I have an idea that might work to prevent them from destroying me, but I’m going to need your help. I promise that if things are looking bad, I’ll get you out safely. In fact, I’ve already moved Felbar up to the Assembly and Storage room up above, with one of my constructs there to help get him to safety if things don’t work out. *

  Violet thought about that for a few seconds. If Felbar is at least safe, then all I have to do is worry about myself. I’ve trusted Sandra this far, so I might as well see what this is all about. She had stayed behind out of an obligation to make sure Felbar was taken care of; with him assured of safety – if the dungeon was to be believed – then she thought it was worth the risk to herself to see what Sandra had in mind.

  “Fine, but if it looks like we’re all going to die, I’m out of here. Where do you want me to go?” she asked, finally interested in what was actually happening instead of just wanting to escape.

  * Just head back down to where you saw my Core and I’ll explain it upon the way. *

  So, that’s what Violet did; she stopped off by where the trees had been grown and pulled off an orange for a little late-night snack – because it was apparently still night-time, according to Sandra. She couldn’t tell that herself, of course, because she hadn’t seen the sky in nearly two weeks.

  * So, I realized that I was going about this situation with the Elves, and perhaps every other race, all wrong. I was thinking of everything going on – and reasonably so, given my current form – in terms of Dungeon Cores and Dungeon Monsters versus Heroes or Elites or Warbands or Warmasters; I was so worried about trying to prove that I wasn’t going to harm them and I only wanted to help that it blinded me to other avenues. What I should’ve been concentrating on all along was my background, my knowledge of crafting, and, above all, the one thing I have the most actual experience in. *

  “And what is that?” Violet asked, interested in spite of the situation about where Sandra was going with all of this.

  * My parents were merchants most of their lives, so naturally I joined the family business. It may not have been my choice of professions, necessarily, but to say I didn’t learn from them would be a lie. It was only when I looked at this situation from that perspective, using the knowledge I learned from my father from a young age, that I came up with a solution. Tell me, what would be the biggest obstacle keeping you from becoming a Master Enchanter – if, say, you were given the knowledge you needed? *

  “Well…if I had the knowledge I needed, then I’d say that the biggest issue would be having enough elemental energy to even attempt some of the master-level enchantments and rune sequences,” Violet answered. “Even if I had the knowledge of how to do it perfectly right now, most of them would require more energy to enchant than I currently have access to.” She was more than halfway down to the bottom where Sandra’s strange-looking crystal body floated in the middle of the room – but she was also fully confused at where the Core was going with her questions.

  * And what is preventing you from acquiring more elemental energy reserves? *

  She had to think about that for a moment. Everyone knew that killing a dungeon’s monsters was the fastest way to increase your available pool of elemental energy; there was something about killing them that released some sort of power that was absorbed by anyone nearby. However, her people had also learned over centuries of testing that you could also hone your energy use by months of endless repetition and increase your actual energy reserves by using vast quantities of energy over a short period of time.

  This was dangerous, however, as it could potentially damage your ability to manipulate the energy if you consistently “bottomed-out” – which meant essentially using every last drop of your supply. You usually passed out before that happened if you did it too fast, though, but it was possible to push through and do it. It was still extremely dangerous.

  She had heard a rumor that the other races could get stronger like that as well, though they rarely – or never – used their elemental energy to create enchantments. They used them in different ways, which was fine for them; Violet was much more inclined to trust in enchantments than by flinging dangerous elements around willy-nilly like the Elves or enhance her body like the Orcs reportedly did.

  “Time and ability, mostly. I don’t have time to repeatedly create one enchantment over and over, honing my skills in enchanting and maybe increasing my energy reserves by a small fraction. And I don’t have the ability to take on and kill monsters, which would help but would still take a while. That, and draining myself completely is way too dangerous, because we’re not meant to live for long without some sort of elemental energy in our body,” she finally replied honestly. That was the main reason people either damaged their ability to manipulate elemental energy or even died when pushing themselves too hard; the energy was a vital part of your body and being without it was akin to being severely dehydrated or starved for days on end.

  It was a shame that the only way to fill it up again was to rest and sleep; if there were some other way to fill it up quickly, she would do almost anything to find it.

  * What if there was a way to regenerate that energy without having to sleep? *

  Is she reading my mind? Violet wouldn’t have put it past the Core, given that the Gnome didn’t know exactly what the strange “bond” she had agreed to actually did. Then the import of what Sandra said hit her and she stopped in her tracks. “You’ve got to be kidding…that’s what this is about? Everyone knows that it can’t be done; other than a few fruits and other edible items like that impossibly rare Ambrosia you and Jortor were talking about – that can temporarily boost your energy reserve – there is nothing that has ever been found that can actually restore energy other than rest and sleep.”

  * Ah, but what if there was? How valuable would something like that be? *

  “I don’t think you’d even be able to put a price on something like that—wait a minute, you’re serious, aren’t you?”

  * Absolutely. Which is why I need your help. I’m still not quite practiced enough to do as intricate an enchantment as I need, so I need you to do it for me. *

  Violet couldn’t believe what she was hearing, but she picked up her pace in her descent towards Sandra’s room – just in case it wasn’t too good to be true. Sandra wouldn’t explain any more until the Gnome got there. When she finally arrived, she found that the room was partially filled with about two dozen of Sandra’s larger constructs, though they were congregated near the other, larger entrance. She asked about it earlier and was told that it led to the actual defensive dungeon rooms, so she assumed that they were gathered there as some sort of final defense of the Core.

  Directly below the glowing crystal that was Sandra was her old friend the crazy multi-colored shapeshifter. And near that was a pile of colored orbs that looked awfully familiar. As she moved towards them, she heard the sounds of metal banging around and other unfamiliar noises coming from the tunnel leading to the defensive dungeon rooms.

  * We’re going to have to hurry – they are almost here. Though, I’m going to have to change my plans with them a little bit; don’t worry, though, I think it will be for the
better. *

  Violet had no idea what Sandra was talking about, but that didn’t matter because she had finally recognized the colored orbs in a haphazard pile. They were representative of all of the elements and what had been used to bond with the Core nearly two weeks ago – and the grey and green ones still called to her.

  She looked over at the shapeshifter to see that it wasn’t there anymore; instead she was looking at a copy of her naked self again.

  * I apologize, but this will only be temporary until I can show you the enchantments I need. *

  She bit back her anger at the appearance of her naked copy as she watched the shapeshifter make some complicated and not-so-complicated runes in the air, though no energy was sent into them. Which was a good thing, as they likely would’ve exploded with how poorly they were executed.

  She recognized some of the runes, but she could sort of understand what the other ones were; regardless, she soon started to divine what she was looking at. “That’s…that’s…genius! But do you think it will work?”

  * Honestly, I have no idea – but at this point I don’t think it will hurt to try. Now, excuse my poor enchanting skills – I’ve only been technically doing it for less than a day, you know – but this is how I think they should be strung together… *

  Chapter 47

  When Sandra looked back on that last half-hour when the group of Elite Elves were tearing through her dungeon like it was a leisurely stroll through the streets of their capital, she honestly thought that she was going to be on the defensive side of the upcoming negotiation. Fortunately – for Sandra, at least – the sheer ferocity, mass, and defense of her Iron-plated Behemoths turned the tide.