In the seventh room, she created a Textile shop, complete with spinning wheels, thread winders, looms, and other assorted tools used in making cloth material and clothing. Most of the tools that required motion were lined up next to each other, along with a trap trigger which would move all the moving parts in the room; it was too hard and too expensive to make them with separate triggers, so it was the best she could do.
In the eighth room, Sandra created a large vat that contained a boiling water trap. In that room, she designed a Leatherworking station, which would utilize the vats to clean and boil away all of the organic material on the hides. It also contained a few smaller vats that were connected to the larger one, which would aid in the cloth making process from the room before.
In the ninth room, she extended the theme from the previous room and built a worktable that contained various tools – and even some of her crafted Steel knives – that were used in Leatherworking, as well as racks with a separate always-on trap that contained heated air that would help to dry the wet hides in the normally cool air of the dungeon.
In the tenth room, she created another small forge, though this was even smaller than the first. Here, she planned to make a gold/silversmithing station in which she could make jewelry, complete with another low worktable that contained very tiny tools frequently used in the process. Fortunately, her Mundane Object Creation skill was able to make the intricate tools, otherwise they probably would’ve been beyond her current crafting capabilities.
In the eleventh room, she created more grinding wheels, but again, these were smaller than the first ones she made. They also contained grinding stones that were even finer, as she intended them for use in Gem-cutting and for much finer work than the relatively crude finishing process used in blacksmithing.
The last room she left empty for the moment, as she needed to make sure that she could place “deadly” traps inside them in case she saw an incoming threat. Well, not only that, but there wasn’t much else that needed to be built as far as crafting stations, because the majority of crafting professions that she had learned while still alive were covered. The only thing she was missing were the materials she would need to actually do anything other than blacksmithing.
Everything except Enchanting, of course – but that would hopefully come later.
Chapter 20
Through those three weeks of constant expansion, creating new workshops, and crafting, Sandra wasn’t idle in upgrading her Core Size. It didn’t take long for her to realize that the more Mana she had access to, and the larger her capacity to hold the dirt and stone that she “ate”, the faster she would progress. It was the downtime and relative “nothingness” that prevented her from doing it one right after another.
Despite her degree of awareness during those times enlarging to the point where she was able to see more of her Home – and the constructs therein collecting ambient Mana – it was still extremely stressful. Even Winxa talking to her while she was captive inside her Core wasn’t enough to beat back the encroaching depression she fell into when she increased her Size – the lengthier times it took to upgrade didn’t help, either.
Spacing the upgrades out by five or six days helped, though. She would’ve rather waited a year or more, but some innate nature inside of her Core drove her to expand as soon as possible. From what Winxa said, other Dungeon Cores couldn’t really ignore the impulse to upgrade and expand through whatever means necessary; luckily for Sandra, she could resist that driving force enough that she could delay it as long as she wanted – but the need was still there.
At Core Size 8, her new Mana capacity was 1,120 and she could hold up to 5,600 units of Raw Materials. Those new maximums unlocked the ability increase her repertoire of additional Monster Seeds, as well as a new Construct.
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
Tiny Bronze Orb
500
50
50
200
Tiny Iron Orb
500
50
50
200
Tiny Steel Orb
2000
200
500
1000
Tiny Dragon Glass Flake
20000
7000
5000
10000
Small Copper Orb
100
10
5
25
Small Tin Orb
100
10
5
25
Small Bronze Orb
1000
100
50
400
Small Iron Orb
1000
100
50
400
Small Steel Orb
4000
400
500
2000
Average Copper Orb
400
40
5
100
Average Tin Orb
400
40
5
100
Average Bronze Orb
4000
400
50
1600
Average Iron Orb
4000
400
50
1600
Large Copper Orb
800
80
5
200
Large Tin Orb
800
80
5
200
Large Bronze Orb
8000
800
50
3200
Large Iron Orb
8000
800
50
3200
Constructs Creation Options
Name:
Mana Cost:
Clockwork Spider
5
Small Animated Shears
10
Tiny Automaton
20
Rolling Force
25
Segmented Centipede
100
Articulated Clockwork Golem
150
Singing Blademaster
300
Small Armored Sentinel
400
Mechanical Jaguar
800
Mechanical Wolf
1000
She went ahead and unlocked every Seed she had access to, even though she couldn’t actually afford to make any of the Large Bronze or Iron Orbs. She knew she would be able to afford them in terms of her RM soon, so she didn’t feel bad about doing it while she had the resources and the time.
As for her new monsters, she was disappointed that she didn’t get any new humanoid constructs that might make crafting easier, but they were nevertheless interesting. The Mechanical Jaguar and Wolf were similar in appearance to their real-life cousins, but they didn’t quite have the same level of detail. The best way she could think of to describe them was if you killed a real one, stripped away all the flesh until they were just bone, and then turned those bones to metal and then thickened them until they were about twice their original size. So, essentially, they were metal skeletons in a general shape of a jaguar and a wolf – which kind of creeped her out when she stared at their eye-sockets that glowed with an eerie reddish glow.
Still, she kept them around because it was almost like she now had pets of her own, which she had never had the opportunity to experience when she was younger – and alive. Sure, they were creepy, metal pets – but they were similar enough to a cat and a dog that she did her best to ignore their obvious differences. Bes
ides, she was sure they would come in great use when she finally reached the surface, as they appeared to be able to move much faster than any of her other constructs.
At Core Size 9, there wasn’t much to note other than a marked decrease in the rise of her capacities. Sandra’s max Mana was brought up to 1,680, and her RM capacity was raised to 6,720 – which helped with her expansion of the dungeon, but not much else. She didn’t even receive another Dungeon Monster for her trouble.
Core Size 10 was the first time she had to complete stages in order to upgrade her Core Size. Since her Mana capacity was 1,680, she ended up having to pay twice the amount in order to grow, and it amounted to a whopping 3,360 – which took her about two weeks to generate. It was difficult to accumulate that much, especially after she had been spending Mana like crazy while she was crafting, expanding her dungeon, and creating workshops complete with traps; nevertheless, she persevered and finally accomplished it.
Core Size Upgrade Stage complete!
2/2 Completed
Your Core has grown!
Current Size: 10
Mana Capacity increased!
Ambient Mana Absorption increased!
Raw Material Capacity increased!
New Constructs option!
Through your use of the intuitive Dungeon Core interface, you have also learned the Elemental Monster Seed Origination skill!
Core Selection Menu
Dungeon Classification:
Constructs
Core Size:
10
Available Mana:
14/2100
Ambient Mana Absorption:
2.1/hour
Available Raw Material (RM):
3550/8064
Convert Raw Material to Mana?
3550 RM -- > 142 Mana
Current Dungeon Monsters:
185
Constructs Creation Options:
10
Monster Seed Schematics:
19 (5)
Current Traps:
11
Trap Construction Options:
All
Core-specific Skills:
3
Elemental Monster Seed Origination
(Core-specific Skill)
The Elemental Monster Seed Origination skill allows the Dungeon Core to condense Elemental Mana into small, condensed orbs of a single element. These Elemental orbs can be used as Monster Seeds or in other unique applications. Requirements: Mana. (Skills are permanent and remain even after a Classification change)
It was worth the extra expenditure of Mana, though. Not only did she increase her capacities, but she also received another skill – one which she wasn’t exactly sure what she was going to do with yet.
Winxa came to her rescue. “That’s another new one for me, Sandra. However, I think you should be able to do something similar to how you form Mundane Objects or even traps; just think about condensing a single element down into a small ball and it should work.”
Despite the entire Dungeon Core experience so far being strange, all of the Monster Seeds she had seen so far were at least familiar-ish. Granted, she had never heard of Dragon Glass before, but it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility that the rare substance existed even if she hadn’t heard of it before she had accidentally created it.
Small little Elemental Orbs, on the other hand, were completely out of her experience. The only knowledge she really had of the elements dealt with Enchanting, though that was more about applying elemental energies to positively (or negatively) affect objects using the Enchanter’s innate resources. But this…this was like handling the raw energy itself, which seemed almost impossible to Sandra, even though she had been using the equally powerful Mana substance for almost two months.
Regardless of her hesitation, she was excited to try. Taking Winxa’s instructions to heart, she imagined the same reddish Fire Elemental Mana she used to make her forge trap forming in front of her Core, on top of the – now that she really looked at it – massive mound of Copper, Bronze, and Steel orbs piling on the ground like some sort of treasure hoard. The production of so many rooms had a lot of excess Raw Materials, and it was much easier to make another Seed Orb than to try to figure out how to use it inside the dungeon itself.
She was receiving quite a bit of Mana per minute from all of her constructs throughout the dungeon, which was nearly reaching the limit of what she thought she might earn from her dungeon. The amounts had been going up very slightly with each additional room, but not significantly enough to be noticeable; nevertheless, by the time she wanted to test out her new skill, she had just over 50 Mana at her disposal – which she pumped straight into the Fire Elemental Orb she was trying to create.
The raw Fire Elemental Mana was a swirling mass about the size of one of her Large Bronze Orbs, but it just sat there while she looked at it, doing nothing. She remembered from the description of the Orbs that they needed to be condensed down, so she imagined the Fire elemental mass condensing smaller and smaller, before the Fire Mana started to struggle in her mental grasp. With a final push, she shoved it together even further, until it was smaller than even a Tiny Copper Orb. Suddenly, all resistance against her control evaporated and Sandra mentally stumbled at the abrupt cessation.
New Monster Seed created using your Elemental Monster Seed Origination
skill!
You now have access to:
Tiny Fire Elemental Orb
Origination Raw Material Cost: 0
Origination Mana Cost: 50
Monster Min. Mana: 5
Monster Max. Mana: 25
Currently locked:
Small Fire Elemental Orb
Average Fire Elemental Orb
Large Fire Elemental Orb
She had no idea what the Fire Elemental Orbs could be used for, but that didn’t matter to her – she wanted to create them all. However, before she went crazy and spent the next day or so creating Elemental Orbs from every element that she had access to, she remembered that she had also unlocked a new Dungeon Monster after upgrading to Core Size 10.
Another…interesting construct, but still not one that was going to help her craft anything. For 2,000 Mana, she could create a Basher Totem, a four-foot-tall, upright hulk that was essentially four massive arms with closed fists on a large pole. The arms could swing up and down and twist left and right, but its closed fists couldn’t hold anything – making it useless as a crafter. It didn’t even have legs; it glided along the ground with no discernable form of momentum.
What it did do, however, was a lot of damage. She brought it to her most recent room and let it beat on the stone wall there; after only two hits, the Basher had cracked the normally sturdy stone. After a dozen, the wall started to crumble around her construct, and it was only her innate Dungeon Core properties that kept the room from collapsing completely. The Totem took a bit of damage itself in the form of bent and scratched fists, but on the whole, it was still largely intact. In light of its crazy power, Sandra placed it – and her Singing Blademaster – in the eleventh room as a deterrent against anything trying to get into her dungeon.
The only thing left she had to check before she got back to creating more Elemental Orbs and discovering possible applications for them was to explore her new Area of Influence. Over the last few upgrades to her Core Size, nothing really interesting appeared to her senses other than more dirt and stone. Since she couldn’t see anything aboveground, the nearly 1,000 feet she could now see wasn’t that exciting; but that all changed when she saw more than a dozen creatures at the farthest reaches of her senses.
They were four-legged beasts that appeared similar to a large forest bear, except for the fact that their faces had tusks like a boar. She also noticed that they had claws that were extremely sharp, long, and looked to be straight out of a nightmare. She estimated their forms to be about seven feet long from snub nose to stub tail, and from what she could tell, weighed about eight or nine hundred pounds. Their coarse black
and brown fur sat flat against their bodies like a layer of armor, and their jaws were so large that she thought she could’ve shoved the upper half of her old body inside them without much trouble.
Because they were technically underground, if only in a cave near the surface, she could see all those details; however, as soon as one got up and left, she lost all sense of it as soon as it passed through some invisible threshold that she presumed led to the surface. Luckily, they didn’t seem to be aware of her presence, or it could be that they didn’t care about her like the Territory Ants did. Either way, it didn’t appear as if they were wanting to surge toward her dungeon, though she was sure those claws could dig quite well if they were determined enough.
“Those sound like Bearlings – nasty pieces of work there. They might not care about you now, but as soon as you break through to the surface, they’re close enough to your dungeon that they might be a problem. While they aren’t as territorial as your little ant problem from before, it’s my understanding that they don’t care for neighbors.”
After an hour of continuing her normal operations of crafting and expanding, Sandra had to agree with Winxa, as the Bearlings were still in the same place without any outward reaction. Without having to worry about them, Sandra went back to her business at hand: expanding her Monster Seed repertoire. Again, she wasn’t exactly sure what to do with the Elemental Orbs other than use them as an actual Seed – which she briefly tried with success – but the fact that she didn’t have to supply any RM to create them was a big deal. If there were ever a time when she didn’t have access to anything to absorb, being able to make a Dungeon Monster from pure Mana was sure to be invaluable.
The Crafter's Dungeon: A Dungeon Core Novel (Dungeon Crafting Book 1) Page 16