Besides, even though their swords were of horrid quality and only made of Iron, Sandra could absorb them for a much greater quantity of Raw Materials than their corpses provided alone. Thinking of how shoddily made the weapons were led the red haze coating her vision to lighten up a little, though; as she thought of how they should’ve been crafted, reviewing the steps required to ensure the temper of the metal wasn’t such that it would snap so readily, her mind started to clear. Those periods of lucidity were all too brief, unfortunately, because they usually only lasted a few moments before the anger came back full-force.
Aside from those infrequent breaks in her rage, all of Sandra’s concentration was on the task at hand: getting her revenge on the Cores that deigned to assault her dungeon. They would pay for forcing her hand against the massive Orcish Warband that had invaded the wasteland; she was convinced that if she hadn’t been fighting a war on multiple fronts, she could have handled the whole situation with them with much less bloodshed – and Perceine wouldn’t have died unnecessarily. Don’t get her wrong, she was glad they were dead now, but that didn’t mean that they had needed to die.
She hadn’t forgotten her desire to save as many people as possible, after all; and right now, that meant eliminating the threat to both her dungeon and those people – the other Cores. By destroying them, she would keep everyone safe, so that was where she was focusing her concentration. An annoying voice at the back of her mind kept trying to warn her that doing so would be an extremely bad idea, but she kept ignoring it; the message it was relaying didn’t line up with her own objectives, so it wasn’t that important to her.
The problem with her objectives, it turned out, was that fighting a war on 4 fronts was becoming horrendously difficult. Actually, “fighting” a war was something Sandra was more than capable of; “winning” that war was the hard part. When she was on defense, it was much easier to think and strategize what she wanted to do, mainly because she intimately knew the area she was defending. When it came to assaulting the other dungeons, that ease went right out the window – and she was basically at a stalemate.
It didn’t take long for her to take complete control of the tunnels the other Cores had dug to reach her Home room. All it required was opening up the access to them by removing her own Steel-plated walls, reaching her awareness into the tunnels, and taking control of them. Since all of the other Cores had shut off direct access to them near their own dungeons, they were ripe for the taking; Sandra now had over 15 total miles of tunnels leading off in 4 different directions, all culminating right next to one of the dungeons that had dared to attack her.
At the same time, she opened the massive Aerie Roc tunnel leading out from her Home room that she had sealed off during the attack, using it as a means to ferry in and absorb the field of Orc corpses and Monster Seeds that had been dropped during the titanic battle. Using her own army of Hyper Automatons and Articulated Golems, they were slowly clearing the field and providing Raw Materials at the same time. As for Mana, even after 24 hours, there was still a sizable “cloud” of the precious resource hanging around the site of the carnage, released from the dead Orcs, though she could tell that it was slowly dissipating.
She needed the Mana to keep creating Dungeon Monsters and constructs to send against the other Cores to supplement what she already possessed, but there was a problem with that. Every time one of her Monsters absorbed and funneled the Mana to her Core, an equal amount was funneled to the other Cores. As they received Mana, they would create their own Dungeon Monsters to help defend their dungeons or to send out aboveground to start collecting even more.
Sandra had managed to break through the obstacles in her way – which were blocking off access to their dungeons via the extremely long tunnels – multiple times; using some Steel-plated Behemoths and Steelclad Ape Warriors equipped with Titanium Warhammers, her constructs were able to crush the stone and even the Iron-plate walls that had been hastily placed to cover up access to their dungeons. Every time she broke through, however, there was a massive army of Monsters there to defend the place.
Against a single dungeon Core, Sandra would’ve had more than enough to annihilate the resistance and destroy everything inside, including the Core; against all 4 at once, with having to maintain at least a minimal presence of her Monsters at the ends of the tunnels, she was at a standstill. Early on, she had attempted to rush just 1 dungeon at a time, pulling her constructs back from the other tunnels; but she’d had to abandon that idea when each tunnel she emptied was suddenly filled with enemy Dungeon Monsters. Theoretically, she could’ve sealed off her end, but then she would’ve lost her control over the tunnel – blinding her to the presence of the Dungeon Monsters inside.
Sandra was furious and out for blood—but she wasn’t stupid. She knew that when she pulled back enough of her constructs to manage a breakthrough into a single dungeon, the others had somehow been able to sense when she was vulnerable. Creating the Steel walls she had before near the connecting tunnel entrances was an option, but at the moment she was barely keeping ahead of the steady rate of attrition the other dungeons were prompting among her constructs. There just weren’t enough Raw Materials to go around, even after reducing the thickness of the Steel around the rest of her dungeon.
I’ve plundered almost my entire treasury already – leaving just a portion of my condensed sphere from my Gravitational Devastation attack for emergencies – and I dare not let my dungeon become overly vulnerable elsewhere. I’m slowly running out of quality Raw Materials from the battle, and it’s all I can do to maintain this equilibrium. Mana isn’t a problem right now, but it soon will be.
The main problem was that fighting on the other Cores’ home turfs was a losing proposition – but there wasn’t much choice. Whenever she would break through to one of the dungeons, her forces would invade and be surrounded by groups of Golems, hordes of Goblins, swarms of Beasts, and a plethora of dangerous Slimes. The worst part was that, when her constructs were destroyed inside the enemy dungeons, she would lose their Monster Seeds – and the other Cores would be able to absorb them for her own use.
Sitting back wasn’t an option, either. The single time she had convinced her endless rage to use some strategy and wait outside each dungeon while her forces built up, the Cores had eliminated the wall separating their forces inside the tunnel and attacked en masse. Unfortunately, the longer she waited before attacking and breaking through to the other dungeon, the more those dungeons had time to accumulate their own forces. Not only that, but they were all sending out additional forces up above, which thankfully her people were taking care of as soon as they emerged; it wouldn’t stay that way for long, though, because it felt like things were at a tipping point – and that it wouldn’t tip in her favor.
No! They must all die! This can’t be happening….
It had all seemed easy and straightforward at first. Sandra was sure all it would take was pushing the thousands of constructs she had created as a result of the first few minutes of battle against the Orcs against each of the dungeons, and they would fall from the fury of her righteous retribution – but she had underestimated the defensive response. Her thousands of powerful constructs had attacked from above and below in each location, but they had encountered resistance unlike anything she had seen before.
A savage melee ensued in each dungeon as her forces streamed and pushed back the swarms of defending Monsters, but the advance was short-lived. With the effectiveness of her commands being reduced because they were inside of a foreign dungeon, she had difficulty navigating them around traps set up around each dungeon. In the Beast dungeon, there was a room that had beams of superheated flames, so hot that they cut through Steel as easily as her Reinforced Animated Shears could cut through thin Linen thread. These beams were easy enough to avoid when she knew where they were, but they ended up destroying half of her mindless constructs as they walked through them blindly.
In the Goblin dungeon, a simple pit trap with
a Spirit-based illusionary projection had been enough for dozens of Apes, Jaguar Queens, Dire Wolves, and Martial Totems to fall to the bottom of a 200-foot-deep pit. Sandra had been able to eventually navigate them around the trap, but the damage had already been done.
The same sort of thing had happened to her forces in the Golem and Slime dungeons, with a massive cave-in in the former and a long shallow pit of an extremely acidic substance that literally ate away the feet of her constructs before they got all the way across. All caution had been thrown to the wind as she had rushed in to destroy the Cores in her hatred and fury, and that lack of planning had been her downfall. She had cooled somewhat since then, and she realized her mistake too late, but that didn’t really matter – there was seemingly no coming back from the error she had made already.
Unless….
Maybe it was her sudden desperation that allowed her mind to clear a little, or just because her anger receded somewhat since her vengeance hadn’t been immediate, but a sudden epiphany she had might be the solution. She had ignored everything other than gaining resources and producing constructs over the last 24 hours, so it wasn’t a surprise that something beneficial may have slipped her mind.
Advancement Points (AP)
Source
Criteria
Point Value
Lifetime Earned Points
Lifetime Spent Points
Core Size
Receive AP upon Core Size upgrade (does not count for Core Size 1 nor upgrade stages)
1 per Core Size upgrade
22 AP
(22X Core Size Upgrades)
22/22 AP
Number of Rooms
Receive AP for each distinct dungeon room at least 4,000 cubic feet in size (20ftx20ftx10ft minimum)
1 AP per qualified room
68 AP
(68X Qualifying Rooms)
65/68 AP
Unique Dungeon Fixtures
Receive AP for each never-before-seen fixture in your dungeon
2 AP per fixture
36 AP
(16X Crafting Stations, 1X Bathing Room, 1X Enchantment Repository)
32/36 AP
Creature Eradication
Eradicate sources of nearby creatures (i.e., lairs and spawning areas)
3 AP per eradication
72 AP
(5X Territory Ant Colonies, 6X Bearling Lairs, 4X Desolate Spider Clutches, 4X Crag Hound Packs, 5X Solitary Broat Spawn)
72/72 AP
Sentient Race Elimination
Eliminate members of sentient races
1 AP per 10 eliminations
353 AP (3357X Orc, 71X Gnome, 42X Dwarf, 68X Elf)
12/353 AP
Sentient Race Bonding
Form a new Dungeon Visitor Bond with a member of a sentient race
1 AP per 2 Bonds
92 AP (1X Orc/Dwarf, 49X Elf, 9X Gnome, 73X Dwarf, 52X Orc)
48/92 AP
Dungeon Core Destruction
Receive AP for eliminating another Dungeon Core
30 AP per Core
60 AP (1X Reptile Classification Core, 1X Undead Classification Core)
30/60 AP
?????
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
(?????) Denotes an unknown, unique Source of Advancement Points. Perform this unknown action to unlock more information.
Total Advancement Points Earned and Spent
701 AP
280 AP
Total Advancement Points Available
421 AP
That’s a lot of Advancement Points! Her excitement was temporary, though, as she realized that she had gained most of them from killing so many Orcs and Elves; again, she didn’t regret killing them because they had attacked her, but she would rather it hadn’t happened in the first place. Her anger came back when she remembered that it was due to the Dungeon Cores that it had happened the way it had. Her vision swam in a deep red as she looked over how many AP she had to spend, before pulling up her Advancement Options.
Advancement Options
Current Advancement Points
421
Advancement:
Cost:
Choose 1 Dungeon Monster from another available Classification (Repeatable)
5
Give your Dungeon Monsters the option of having a chosen accessible elemental attribute in addition to their base element – Cost increases with each purchase (only works on Monsters capable of using/applying their element) (Repeatable)
10
Reduce the Mana cost of Monster Seeds by 15% – Cost increases with each purchase (Advancement 2/4)
60
Reduce the Mana cost of Dungeon Monsters by 15% – Cost increases with each purchase (Advancement 3/4)
120
Reduce the Raw Material cost of Monster Seeds by 15% – Cost increases with each purchase (Advancement 1/4)
30
Reduce the Mana cost of Dungeon Traps by 15% – Cost increases with each purchase (Advancement 0/4)
15
Extend your Area of Influence by 10% – Cost increases with each purchase (Advancement 0/10)
50
Advance a current Classification 1 level to acquire access to stronger and larger Dungeon Monsters – this also includes any “Advancement Unlocked” Monsters – Cost increases with each purchase (Advancement 1/3)
150
Select a second available Classification to hybridize your Core (This option is only available once)
150
In her current state of mind, this was a very poor idea. With her need to annihilate and exact her vengeance on the Cores, her perusal of the Options she had was like going shopping for groceries at the market when hungry. Poor decisions were almost always made, and purchasing more than could possibly be consumed before the food went bad was a common occurrence. And so it was with Sandra’s decisions for purchasing, as she was hungry for death and destruction, with no thought to the costs and consequences of such destruction.
Yes! Okay, I’m slowly running out of Raw Materials, so I’m going to make my Monster Seeds cost less RM…purchased…and purchased again for a total of 90 AP. Now, eventually I’m going to run out of Mana, though I do have a stockpile of Energy Orbs I can consume…so, let’s reduce the Mana cost of my Monster Seeds and Dungeon Monsters for another 180 AP.
If that had been it, that would’ve been a well thought-out strategy. Sandra reduced the Raw Material and Mana cost of her Seeds, as well as the Mana cost of her Monsters; doing so, she could produce quite a few more constructs than she could before – all for the same resource cost – and she could likely break the stalemate by producing more attacking Monsters than the other Cores could defend against…but she wasn’t done.
What else? What will ensure my success? Ah, look, I have just enough to upgrade my Classification again! With that, they don’t stand a chance….
Using another 150 AP, bringing her down to a miserly 1 AP in reserve, she used nearly all of her Points to Advance her Classification to Level 2. She felt a vague shifting around of something in her Core as she initiated the Advancement, and a sudden worry cut through her red fury-filled vision, clearing it for the first time since…well, she couldn’t remember, honestly.
Wait! The last time I did this, I was out for nearly a week— Sudden pain ripped through her Core as she completely lost her vision, and unlike her Core Upgrades, it wasn’t just muted; she couldn’t see or hear anything, and her mind came to a complete halt. In that state, all of her anger, hatred, and insane thoughts drifted away, leaving her drained and completely unaware of anything. Her mind was so blank that she couldn’t even think about what she had done, why she had done it, or really anything at all.
With a sudden jolt to her mind, she was back in control of her Core, with a message waiting for her.
Congratulations on your Classification Advancement!
Current Classification: Constructs (Advancement Level 2)
Your current Advancement Creation Options have been upgraded!
(Attention! Your existing Dungeon Monsters will not be automatically upgraded. Upgrades will only take place when a new Dungeon Monster is created. Mana requirements may have increased as a result of this advancement.)
You can now purchase Advancement Level 2 Dungeon Monsters from the Advancement Options Menu.
Why did I do that? What was I thinking? Her mind was relatively clear as she closed the notification. As she pulled up her new Constructs and Advancement Creation Option menus to see what had changed, she was extremely worried, since the last time she had increased her Classification, she had ended up with nearly half of her available constructs being too expensive.
Constructs Creation Options
Name:
Mana Cost: (60% Reduction)
Powered Arachnid
20
Animated Iron Shears
40
Mega Automaton
80
Weighted Rolling Force
100
Iron-mandible Segmented Millipede
The Crafter's Dominion: A Dungeon Core Novel (Dungeon Crafting Book 5) Page 3