Nevertheless, Sandra based her traps off of stories that Heroes inevitably recited of their own prowess, and merchants acquired those stories as just another form of information. The only real issue she encountered was the strength and duration of the traps; most of the traps that she set up could only be so strong before their Mana cost was unreachable at her current Core Size, and when she was able to set them up, they wouldn’t last that long. For instance, the longest duration for any of her traps was just over a minute, while there were others that were much less than that.
In the room closest to the surface, she got rid of the slamming tunnel trap and instead infused a thin film to the walls, ceiling, and floor filled with Nether energy; her idea was to give the advantage right to her constructs by sucking out all the light, allowing her Dungeon Monsters to see where the intruders could not. She had noticed that a natural glow permeated her dungeon whenever she excavated, giving plenty of light to see by – if she had needed it. When asked, Winxa told her it was standard for all parts of all dungeons to be lit up with enough light for anything to at least marginally see.
That doesn’t seem smart to make it like that, especially if the Creator wanted the Dungeon Cores to survive…
“The Creator made it so that, in the cases where the Dungeon Core was too much of a danger to the survival of the nearby sentient races, they could send down people to find the Core and destroy it if the need arose. Keep in mind that the Creator created dungeons in the first place to ensure the survival of the seven races, even if it sounds strange thinking about it that way.”
It definitely sounds strange.
Regardless, her Nether elemental energy trap would negate that “standard” light, so that only her constructs could see – since they didn’t need light to see in the traditional sense. She also placed four Basher Totems inside the room, which would hopefully pulverize the blinded invaders before they could fight back.
In the event that they got through, Sandra did the exact opposite in the next room. A thin film of Holy elemental energy was enough to light the room up so bright that anything would be blinded, especially coming from the insanely dark room before. She placed a dozen Singing Blademasters, which would hopefully confuse and disorient those blinded by the intense light. She also placed her Ironclad Ape inside the room, which would use its fists to pound into whatever got past her twirling blade poles.
In the third room, she created a trap that would produce a thin, half-inch pool of water that covered the entire floor, using Water elemental energy. In different triggering sections in the room, the water would form sharp icicle spikes that would jut upward in the blink of an eye, impaling anything passing by. Small Armored Sentinels roamed throughout the room, careful to avoid triggering the icicle spike traps – but should be more than capable of forcing any invaders into them with their Steel short swords (one per hand) that were made before she had stopped crafting.
In the fourth room, she actually ended up using the most Mana of all of the rooms to create her trap. Sandra turned up the heat and essentially made a large forge filled with Fire elemental energy; sixteen flame-jets would shoot from the ground in unison, quickly raising the temperature to a dangerous-for-living-creatures level. The downside, unfortunately, was that because of the sheer size of the flames in comparison to her little forge, the flames would only stay lit for ten seconds before they had to recharge from ambient Mana for more than a minute. Still, it was sure to be deadly – and not for just living creatures – which was why she didn’t have any constructs in there.
In the fifth room, she used her Natural elemental energy and went with a green poisonous cloud that would seep into the room as soon as anything crossed the threshold. The poison was fatal in concentrated amounts, but because of the expense in making it, Sandra was only able to create a trap that made it highly irritating to the bare skin, eyes, and lungs of anything passing through it. With a little construction work, she built three walls that were four-feet high that crossed the room, forcing whatever invaders that were left to have to waste time climbing over them, and breathing in the poisonous cloud longer.
She also created little ledges on the ceiling that held a dozen Segmented Centipedes, which would drop from above and land on the distracted – and hopefully coughing, itching, and blinded – enemies. They worked well against the Territory Ants, so Sandra was hoping they would be just as effective if they could get close enough to do some serious damage, even with their small size.
In the sixth room, Sandra used an Air elemental energy trap similar to the ones she had with Nether and Holy energy; the thin film lining the walls created a something like a large bubble that would suck all the air out of the room, leaving it an airless void that would suffocate anything living. Similar to her flame-jet trap, however, it wouldn’t last very long, but 30 seconds was likely enough to send whatever was in there into a panic, even if hit didn’t kill them. Since her constructs didn’t breathe and didn’t care about the lack of air, she was able to place 20 Articulated Clockwork Golems inside, armed with double-bladed axes that were specially made so that they could be easily held by their clamp-hands. Crafting those axes was the last thing she did, however, because it was more important to ensure all the traps were set properly first.
In the seventh room, Sandra created something right out of a nightmare – or at least a nightmare to someone who didn’t like bugs. Using Spirit-based elemental energy, she formed a trap that would trigger when something passed the halfway mark in the room, which created a life-like illusion of the invaders being isolated and trapped in a maze of massive spiderwebs. It didn’t hurt or do anything other than project the vision, but it was accompanied by 100 Clockwork Spiders that would drop from hidden niches in the ceiling (similar to the Segmented Centipedes) or scurry out from little alcoves along the sides of the room. By themselves, she didn’t think they would do much, but attacking as a group would hopefully make a difference.
Room eight took advantage of Earth elemental energy; by infusing the stone walls with the Earth trap, she was able to have sharp stone spikes extend out from the walls a couple of feet, piercing anything that came close enough to them. To ensure that any invaders that survived to that point actually got near the walls, Sandra placed 60 Animated Shears near the middle of the room. They were instructed to rotate around a central point, creating a whirlwind of flying sharp implements that most – if not all – semi-intelligent creatures would try to avoid.
And those were all the traps she created, though she filled up the next five rooms with the smaller constructs that she could spare from her rooms closest to her Core. She could’ve spent weeks improving everything, but she was anxious to break free from her confines and her caution only went so far.
Therefore, with things as good as they could get in the time that she allotted herself, she started to eat away at the wall blocking her from the world above.
Chapter 25
It took less than the hour that Sandra had predicted, but that could probably be attributed to how excited she felt in finally getting to see the sky and sun again. She put all other activity in her dungeon on hold – and just let the ambient Mana start to accumulate – because she wanted to be able to react quickly with enough resources if she needed to set something up in reaction to what was up there.
Sunlight streamed through her entrance, illuminating it even more than it already was. It was strange, actually, because Sandra could see the light coming in, but when she tried to peer outside, the same blank “wall” impeded her vision. That didn’t deter her, however, because she was still planning on investigating with some Dungeon Monsters.
After widening the tunnel leading outside until it was the “standard” height, she split her focus – which she had acquired a lot of practice at over the last two months – between her Mechanical Jaguar and Mechanical Wolf and sent them outside. They were her fastest constructs – even passing her Rolling Force in terms of speed – and would be able to hopefully run
from anything that appeared to be a threat.
Fortunately, nothing appeared to be waiting for her when she emerged into the early morning daylight. Lightly using her influence to give them orders, she instructed her Jaguar and Wolf to venture cautiously outside and explore, while she watched through their “eyesight”. The entrance to her dungeon was clear of almost anything, in fact, but it was the area beyond the entrance that she was more interested in.
Sandra’s Area of Influence extended approximately 3,000 feet in every direction around her Core, which mean that she had quite a bit of room to explore. Unfortunately, there didn’t seem to be much of interest. She had been hoping that she would end up inside a forest of some kind, where she would be able to send out her little constructs to bring back things like wood, plants, and other interesting things that she would hopefully be able to absorb and use as materials. Wood, especially, was a vital ingredient to many of the crafts she wanted to make, including bows, arrows, and even handles to other weapons. She had improvised by using metal hafts for many of the traditionally wooden ones, but it also made the weapons heavier and at times unwieldy.
Sadly, the world above was a virtually barren wasteland. Stone hills – not unlike where her dungeon entrance was located – dotted the landscape, and the rest appeared to be more dirt and rock for as far as the eye could see. Everywhere she looked, the world was…dead – that was the best word she had for it. She couldn’t see anything living, anywhere; no wild animals, no plants, no trees – nothing. Even the Bearlings holed up in their cave approximately 1,000 feet away weren’t moving, which Sandra was thankful of.
Her Jaguar started to explore the hill – or very small mountain – that held her dungeon entrance, as it was easily able to navigate its way up and down the rocky exterior. Her Wolf, on the other hand, moved along the ground, keeping low and out of sight of the distant mountain and cave filled with Bearlings that Sandra could see when her construct looked in that direction.
It wasn’t long before her Mechanical Wolf came across what appeared to be very old, dried-out sticks and branches scattered around. Obviously, something used to live here, but it’s been a while. Picking a large piece of dried wood up delicately in its metal jaws, her Wolf brought it back to the dungeon and she waited in anticipation. As soon as her construct got back inside the dungeon, it dropped the desiccated stick of wood on the floor and Sandra immediately absorbed it.
She waited several moments in anticipation, but nothing happened.
“You’re probably going to need a fresher source of wood in order to be able to use it in your dungeon. Most of what made that stick wood has been lost over time, which makes it a less-than-ideal representative of the material. My guess is that any wood that is freshly taken from a tree – and by freshly, I mean at least in the last few days – would probably do the trick for you,” Winxa told her in a monotone voice after Sandra explained her dilemma.
What’s wrong?
The Dungeon Fairy was silent for nearly a minute before she responded. “It’s…this place used to be beautiful. A lush, green valley filled with grass and wildflowers, towering trees and gently rolling hills; now it’s a ruined, barren wasteland where nothing lives. And all because of Wester…and me.”
Sandra could tell that her friend was feeling guilty about her role in everything. Hey, it’s not your fault. You couldn’t have predicted this would happen – you were just doing your job. If it’s anyone’s fault, it’s the Creator’s.
Winxa appeared lost in thought for a few minutes, before she broke the uncomfortable silence. “Don’t talk about the Creator that way,” she finally said, albeit half-heartedly. “I know it wasn’t me that did all this, but I can’t help but still feel responsible for it.”
Well, get over it. I still need your help if I’m going to survive, Sandra thought toward the Dungeon Fairy, realizing that a tough-love approach in this situation was probably best. Her father had done the same thing when she was younger, when Sandra would despair over the state of her hands and her inability to do anything useful. She didn’t need someone feeling sorry for her or pitying her – she was doing enough of that herself. She had responded much better to her father telling her to essentially “Suck it up” and get back to work. It was still too early to tell whether it would work on Winxa, but the slow, silent nod Sandra received in response was encouraging.
Sandra tried again with various scraps of wood that her Mechanical Wolf found outside, but as they were all just different degrees of crumbling sticks and branches, she didn’t have any more luck. For nearly half the day, her two constructs outside roamed cautiously over her Area of Influence, searching out anything that might be of use. The sun was high overhead, and the environment appeared to be heating up, though she couldn’t “feel” anything, and her Mechanical Monsters weren’t really affected by it.
She wasn’t sure if it was the heat of the day that prevented her from seeing any wild creatures, or whether there really wasn’t anything other alive out there other than the Bearlings – which she made sure to avoid with her constructs, while keeping an eye on them. Regardless, there was very little of interest that she found, though with the slow approach she had been taking, she hadn’t even explored a quarter of what was accessible to her.
Seeing the sky and sun again was nice; however, it wasn’t as good as she had hoped. Not being able to feel the heat of the sun against her skin, to smell the fresh air (even in a wasteland, she suspected it was fresher than the air below the surface), and even experiencing the feeling of insignificance when she gazed at the vastness of the wide-open sky made the whole event a bit of a letdown. Nevertheless, the freedom of having a larger area to roam and explore was beneficial for her sanity, if nothing else – though she did see a small uptick in the amount of ambient Mana funneling into her Core from outside.
Hmm…if I can fill the outside with as many constructs as I have in my dungeon, I could get a whole lot more Mana, which will allow me to upgrade my Core and extend my Influence. Eventually, I might be able to reach a place that isn’t destroyed and finally acquire more materials for crafting.
“That’s the main idea, Sandra. It’s the primary motivating factor for most Dungeon Cores: upgrade and expand their Area of Influence. Of course, you have a different reason – crafting materials, apparently – but the goal is the same,” Winxa responded unprompted to Sandra’s internal monologue, sounding livelier than she had before. Not chipper, by any means, but not necessarily depressed and morose.
Well then, I guess I’ve got more Mana collecting to do. She looked into creating some more Animated Shears, as she thought those would be the most cost-effective flyers that she had that could spread out from her dungeon like a plague of locusts, gobbling up all the nearby ambient Mana. However, before she could start the process, her Mechanical Wolf aboveground saw something that made her – figuratively – tense up in surprise.
Somehow, despite her dungeon’s relative isolation inside the barren wasteland, there was someone walking around up there.
* * *
At first, Sandra thought it was a human stumbling his way through the landscape with little regard for his surroundings, but as she crept her Wolf closer to the person, she could see some definite differences. For one, although he was probably five feet and some inches tall, he was much stockier than she had ever seen a human look like before – and she had met many, many people over the years of being a merchant with her father. Not fat, though – just more compact and sturdier; in fact, she could barely see an ounce of fat on him, mainly because he wasn’t wearing very many clothes. A threadbare linen shirt that was probably beige at one point – but was now soot-stained with small holes dotting the short sleeves – was covered up from behind by a leather apron that appeared similar to a Blacksmiths’. It also was soot-stained and holey, was missing any sort of ties to keep it close to his body and was draped behind him like some sort of cape – which made sense because it would probably interfere with what he was
holding.
A crudely made spear – though she hesitated to even call it that – that was made from a jagged piece of rock and a relatively sturdy-looking stick, bound together with the apron’s missing ties, was being held negligently in the person’s left hand, though he seemed to be using it more as a walking stick than a weapon. On his hip, she could see another crude weapon – a hatchet, she supposed – stuck through the belt on his equally threadbare brown pants.
When he got closer to her Wolf that crouched behind a small stone projection, she could see the differences between him and a human even more. Two small nubs were trying to jut out from around his mouth, which looked like the beginning of a pair of tusks; she could barely see them, however, as they were almost covered up by the long, full brown-colored beard the person possessed. His skin was a deep russet color, though she didn’t think it was necessarily tanned over years and years being out in the sun; instead, she thought it was just his natural coloring, as he looked too young to have gained it through constant exposure to the outdoors.
What is he doing out there? Sandra could obviously see that he wasn’t prepared to be out in that wasteland, though she couldn’t figure out why he appeared to just be wandering around. On a second look, however, she noticed that his eyes were unfocused, and his stumbling walk was probably due to weakness, instead of intoxication (which was what she thought it might be at first). With no visible means to carry food or water, she concluded that he was probably hungry and dehydrated.
“What do you mean? Who’s out there?” Winxa asked, after hearing Sandra’s thoughts.
The Dungeon Core explained what she saw, and the Fairy uncharacteristically grunted in response. Sandra thought Winxa wanted to give her some advice but couldn’t because of her restrictions. Regardless, she was already planning on staying far away from the strange man, because she didn’t really understand what his presence there meant. If he was part of a larger party of people, she didn’t want to invite trouble by alerting them to her presence.
The Crafter's Dungeon: A Dungeon Core Novel (Dungeon Crafting Book 1) Page 20