She had her Ape – which had directed the Dwarven citizens down below, where they met up with the villagers with great relief, rejoicing, and sorrow as they recounted their tales – pick up the King and bring him below with Gerold and Jespin. Before long, the two of them were eating in the kitchen, scarfing down food as if they hadn’t eaten in days, which she realized was quite possible as she listened to the story of what was going on in the strongholds that the civilians described. Neither Gerold or the Master Blacksmith mentioned anything, but she suspected they had been in the middle of all of that, and would probably also account for the fact that the Deep Diver that had gone with Gerold was nowhere to be seen. Which reminded her—
Gerold, I have a question for you.
He was just finishing up his meal, appearing extremely full by that time, but he paused as she spoke. “Absolutely. Anything you need.” Sandra made sure that Jespin was listening in as well, because she wanted to make sure he understood what her plans were.
I’m hopefully going to learn how to manipulate this new alloy using Earth energy, so I’d thought I would ask you what you’d like. I told you that I would replace the armor I accidentally destroyed, and I intend to keep that promise.
There were tears in his eyes, though he blinked them away quickly. “Thank you, Sandra.” He paused in confusion. “But what do you mean about what I want?”
Well, I could make you another set of armor like you had before, but it probably won’t be as finely made as the one Master Blacksmith Jespin made for you. Or…I could make you another Deep Diver suit with the alloy, since you seemed to enjoy using it. What’s even better, with the way it is constructed, you should be able to manipulate your energy like you would with the armor and weapons you’ve done in the past, giving you much more versatility. And I’m sure having the suit not buckle under the blows of the Golems would be nice.
Gerold smiled at that – and Sandra had her answer.
Chapter 39
The process of manipulating Earth energy to shape and bend a Steel-Mithril alloy was both easy and complicated. Sandra had to ask Master Blacksmith Jespin to slow down his process, in fact, because it was done so quickly and simply that she couldn’t follow it at first. Once she understood it, she created a brand-new Stabilized Shapeshifter and asked if she could prick Jespin to gain access to his form; he was a bit wary of the multi-colored blob at first, and even more after he saw it turn into a copy of himself, but after Sandra had it travel down to her own personal forge, he promptly forgot about it while he busied himself with the King’s new armor.
As for Gerold, he eschewed sleeping down below with the villagers in favor of a room that was empty at the moment, higher up near the crafting rooms. He said it wasn’t because he didn’t want to see those he had helped to save before, but because he was so exhausted that he didn’t want to walk any further. By his appearance, and a feeling that he had been under a bit of stress lately, she could entirely understand. Therefore, he joined Violet and Princess Celeste, Echo and the Elven King and Queen, and King Mynag in the collection of bedrooms she had first put together when the larger party of Gnomes had been visiting. From there, it had expanded to encompass 5 large rooms that were suitable for relatively small groups of different people – which would have to do at the moment for the Royal delegations.
Before he went to sleep, he supplied a large amount of his own blood for Sandra to use in making his Deep Diver suit, as well as helping Jespin acquire blood from the King. Once he was done, he flopped down on the bed he chose and was asleep within a few seconds. Night-time had fallen over the world outside by that time, though that didn’t mean that the attacks from the other Dungeon Cores had stopped. Within the first 2 hours of the new Shieldmen reinforcements, as well as the continued construct creation Sandra was providing, things were starting to become a lot more controlled, and they were finally able to push the Golems back to the two entrances. The Goblins and Beasts had yet to break out with anything significant, which was entirely because the Elves, Orc mercenaries, and Delarthe’s original team of Shieldmen were doing spectacularly well.
After 4 hours of diligently destroying everything that emerged from the 3 dungeons (she still had yet to see any movement from the Slime-Classification Core), everything…stopped. There were no more Monsters of any kinds streaming out from any of the dungeons nearby, either aboveground or below in the tunnels. In effect, it was quiet—too quiet—and Sandra wondered if they were currently upgrading their Core Sizes again.
“Highly doubtful,” Winxa mentioned, when asked. “Unless they had expended every little bit of Mana they accumulated since the last upgrade on finishing the stages required to upgrade their Core Size, they wouldn’t have enough. And they obviously had been spending large amounts of Mana, otherwise they wouldn’t have been trying to assault either your tunnels or above the ground.”
Even with the enhancements they are taking advantage of right now? If I remember correctly, their upgrades cost 25% less now.
The Dungeon Fairy just shook her head. “Yes, I took that into account, believe me. There is very little chance that they have managed to accumulate enough Mana to do that quite yet – so they must be up to something else.”
That was what Sandra was afraid of. It was hard to predict what was going to happen next, though she suspected something in particular. Namely, she hadn’t seen any evidence of new Dungeon Monsters from any of the Cores as a result of their upgrade – so she figured that was coming next. What exactly that meant was anyone’s guess, though she continued to produce constructs and even the new Shadow Wyvines for the Elven Rangers. Similar to the other non-construct Monsters that she had access to, the Advancement Level increase had made the Wyvines much bigger. They were stronger and deadlier as a result, but she was a little disappointed that they hadn’t acquired any more Special Abilities than they already had; regardless, the Rangers were extremely happy to have the extra help.
While the ceasefire was suspect and worrying, it also allowed those that had been fighting a chance to rest and recover. The Orc mercenaries went back to Grongbak, leaving only a few behind; all but 3 Elven Rangers (including Chryla) went back to Avensglen to rest for the night; and every one of the Shieldmen trudged back to the dungeon to get some much-needed sleep. The new Shieldmen following orders under First-shield Parten were the most exhausted, as they had been awake and apparently fighting for days already.
Speaking of Parten, when he arrived back at the dungeon, Delarthe showed him down to where the villagers and new citizens were holed up, but he insisted on seeing King Mynag. That only made sense, and Delarthe showed him the way after some instructions by Sandra, leaving him to argue with Jespin.
“What are you doing? We need to get out of here and back to Grandhall.”
The Master Blacksmith just *hmphed* and didn’t even look at the Shieldman as he was busy working on the King’s armor. “Not right now, Parten. There’s no sense in going back until I make this for him, anyway. Besides, we need Sandra’s help to accumulate enough of the mithril that we need to outfit as many Shieldmen as we can.”
“You can’t seriously think it is a good idea to trust a dungeon—”
“She can hear you, you know.” Jespin laughed when he saw the color drain from the Shieldman’s face. “Parten, you need to relax a little bit and think things through. If this dungeon wanted to kill us, Sandra would’ve done it the moment we stepped through the entrance. Not only that, even if you don’t trust her, this—” the Master Blacksmith held up the massive chunk of mithril next to his workstation— “is the only thing that will save us. Unless there is some hidden plan I was not aware of to push back the dungeon monsters slowly encroaching on our strongholds? No? Then we need to be able to outfit our Shieldmen for the future, and without mithril we can’t do that. So, whether or not you trust her is irrelevant; this dungeon and the Core that runs it are the only hope we have.”
Parten was fuming, but even he could see what the Master Blacksm
ith was saying was correct – or at least correct for the time being.
“Besides, First-shield – it isn’t your call to make. Once I get this done, and we’re lucky, the King will be up and around and can decide when it is time to leave. Sandra has already promised to send us on our way with enough mithril to last a hundred years, especially after she got what she wanted.”
“And what was that?” Parten asked suspiciously, which prompted Sandra to finally chime in.
The one thing that your people hold secret over everything else, First-shield Parten. The knowledge of how to create your special armor for your Shieldmen.
Parten sucked in his breath, looking shocked and angry. “How could you—”
That was the price for my help, First-shield. Both for saving who I could from the nearby village, as well as providing them sanctuary and a way to produce the same crops they were cultivating in the village – only more expeditiously. And for all of the mithril your people would ever need, as long as I’m around. But don’t worry, Parten – I’m not going to be spreading the secret around to everyone; this is for my own use.
“Your own use? So you can use it against us? Is that the game you’re playing? To conquer us and fold our people into your dominion?” The Master Blacksmith could only shake his head at the armored Dwarf’s accusations, but Sandra had already heard that and more from most of the other races, so it flowed right off of her.
I think that if you talked to anyone around here, you’ll see that the thought of anything remotely like that is sickening to me, and I’ve done all I could possibly do to mitigate the damage my presence has caused. But I will admit that everything I do is for selfish reasons.
“Aha!” Parten shouted, as if he had won the argument. Sandra couldn’t tell if all of his power, strength, and responsibility had gone to his head, or if he was just naturally dense, but it was more amusing to her than annoying. “Wait—what selfish reasons are you talking about?”
The one thing I want to do more than anything else. It isn’t to expand my dungeon, kill people indiscriminately, or become powerful for power’s sake – which is how most Cores tend to operate. No, all I want is peace around this area so that I can concentrate on one singular thing: crafting.
“Crafting? What—?”
Yes, crafting. She was tempted to explain in more detail, but she quickly realized that it probably wouldn’t be worth her time. Whether you believe me or not is – as Jespin mentioned – irrelevant. Right now, we both have something that each other wants: I need help keeping these local Dungeon Cores in line while I think up a proper strategy to ensure the safety of everyone around here; you need mithril, which I can certainly provide. Oh, and to sweeten the deal, there’s a little something down below that you’ll probably be happy to hear.
“What could you possibly have that—”
Jespin interrupted him, still working on his own crafting without much of a stop. “Ale, Parten. And, better yet, whiskey. Or so Sandra mentioned at one point.”
That seemed to give him pause. “Truly? How—oh, never mind. I don’t even want to know….” The Shieldman stood there, at war within himself; Sandra was only slightly worried about him, because if he decided to go crazy and try to kill her, she had some things lined up that would protect her Core. She hoped that wasn’t going to be needed, however, because it could end up hurting some of the others in the dungeon as well. “Fine, I agree that we can work together up to a point—but that doesn’t mean I trust you! I will do it for my people, if that is what it takes.”
He stomped away after that, following the pathway down to the Dwarven community below.
“Don’t worry about him too much; he’ll fall in line soon enough. He takes his responsibility very seriously, and he wouldn’t want to risk the lives of others without cause.” The Master Blacksmith was silent for a few moments while he worked. “He’s endured a lot of loss over the years for someone in his position, and it’s hard for him to trust something that embodies what has taken away many of his loved ones.”
I can’t say I blame him – it would be difficult to just accept me as a benevolent dungeon, when all he has known is what all of the others have done to those he cared for, either personally or through his line of work. As long as he doesn’t do anything to jeopardize what I’ve built here, he can think and believe whatever he wants.
Jespin just nodded, not saying anything more on the matter.
It wasn’t long before everything settled back down inside and outside of her dungeon, as the attacks had still ceased and nearly everyone was asleep, exhausted from whatever they had endured over the last day. Only Master Blacksmith Jespin was still awake, working on the King’s armor, of course, and even Kelerim hadn’t woken up despite the noise the Master Blacksmith was making. That left Sandra to concentrate on her own project: manipulating the Titanium-Mithril alloy she decided to use for Gerold’s Deep Diver suit.
The black and blue-tinted metal was extremely difficult to work with; she hadn’t really understood how difficult it would be, mainly because it was highly resistant to heat. Sandra was used to being able to heat metal up in the forge so that it could be softened and shaped into whatever she desired, but this new alloy defied all of the rules. At its highest temperature, even her forge couldn’t soften the metal up enough to manipulate “normally”; it would heat up, even glowing with the sheer amount of heat pumped through it, but it didn’t soften at all. Everything had to be done with Earth elemental energy at that point.
The basic concept was to bring forth a quantity of Earth energy from the body and transfer it to the metal through the fingers of said body. The energy would then infuse a small section of the alloy, “softening” it up just like heat would do, allowing it to be manipulated either by hand or through the use of tools. Different metals required different amounts of Earth energy to work with it; Jespin’s demonstration with the Copper-Mithril alloy demonstrated how little was needed for that metal, and the area that was affected by the energy was quite large. The Steel-Mithril alloy that the Master Blacksmith was working with was quite different, however; from what she could see, the area that he could “work” with his application of energy was approximately the size of his hand, and it only lasted for a limited time before the energy pumped into the metal ran out.
The amount of energy that each little section required was quite significant, and Sandra could see why it would take the Master Blacksmiths days or weeks to complete a single set of armor and a weapon for Shieldmen. Jespin, for instance, would’ve been completely out of energy within the first half-hour of his crafting if it hadn’t been for the constant replenishment from the Energy Orb embedded in his palm.
It turned out that the Titanium-Mithril alloy that Sandra chose was even more of an energy suck than Steel. Not only that, but since the Titanium was even stronger than Steel normally, it was harder to shape even with Earth elemental energy applied to it. Sandra was forced to have the Shapeshifter in the guise of Jespin wear the new permanent PEE necklace she had recently finished just to be able to have enough strength to hammer the metal into the shape she wanted. Even with the constant regeneration from a pair of Earth Energy Orbs to replenish the energy used in the process, Sandra could tell the entire project would take days to finish at the rate she was going.
It’s too bad that I can only use one—
She was about to think she could only use one Shifter, but a thought occurred to her. The Master Blacksmith had mentioned that the alloy “recognized” only a single signature of Earth elemental energy being used to manipulate it, but would that apply to her Shifters? Theoretically, when they shifted into another form, they took on the same properties as the original sample – so would multiple Shifters be exactly the same, or just similar. There was only one way to find out.
Creating another Stabilized Shapeshifter, she sent it inside her forge where the other one was currently hammering away at the metal alloy. With a quick transfer of the “Jespin” sample form, Sandra
now had 2 copies of the Master Blacksmith inside of the room. With more than a little trepidation at what she was trying, she instructed her new Jespin copy to start manipulating the Titanium-Mithril alloy…and it worked! She immediately started to whip up another permanent enhancement necklace, though this time she unlocked and produced the “Small” size of the Generator she needed, to see if there was a difference.
The Small Elemental Generator was twice the size of the Tiny one, which required a modification of the cage that contained it on the Gold necklace, but that didn’t take that long to achieve with her Goblin Crafter. Luckily, she didn’t need to change the size of the Tiny Spirit Energy Orb used for the Limiter rune sequence, because it was more than enough to regulate the amount of energy flowing through no matter how large of a Generator was placed beside it.
Once she had it done, the difference was noticeable, but not dramatic. While it wasn’t “double” the strength as the Tiny size, Sandra estimated that there was at least a 50% increase in speed and strength – which helped significantly in the alloy-shaping process.
Seeing the success of her experiment, and how she could use more than one Shifter as Jespin on her project, the Dungeon Core created another Shifter, and then another, and finally a fifth one to help complete the Deep Diver suit for Gerold. She also experimented with an Average size of Generator for the next piece of permanent PEE jewelry, which barely fit on the disk of the Gold necklace itself. She was hoping for an even greater increase in magnitude, but this time the increase she estimated was only 25% better than the Small size – the diminishing returns that she had expected were finally being seen. Figuring that the increase to a Large Generator would only yield a small increase in magnitude, she didn’t bother to figure out a way to fit it on the necklace.
With 5 Shapeshifters working on the suit at the same time, she reached the limit of what was viable without them getting in each other’s way. While the suit was larger than the Jespin copies by a large degree, it wasn’t nearly the size of a War Machine. Added to the fact that everything needed to be shaped “by hand”, she couldn’t even cheat and use her Mana to fix anything or connect anything together – all for one simple reason: Sandra never acquired the alloy for use as an Origination Material.
The Crafter's Dominion: A Dungeon Core Novel (Dungeon Crafting Book 5) Page 39