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

by Jonathan Brooks

  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 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 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 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 had the same crafting knowledge she possessed – and had 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 unlocke
d!

  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.