The Crafter's Dungeon: A Dungeon Core Novel (Dungeon Crafting Book 1)

by Jonathan Brooks

  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 war
mth 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.