Getting enough Raw Materials wouldn’t be difficult, since she was still hollowing out additional rooms so that she could accumulate the AP from them; however, doing so also took a bit of Mana as well. Right now, she was accumulating approximately 175 ambient Mana every minute – which sounded like a lot – and compared to many other Dungeon Cores in the world, it probably was. When she factored in the cost of around 20 Mana per minute to carve the dirt and stone out of the ground to make more rooms, Sandra only had enough Mana to produce a bit under 3 of her new Reinforced Animated Shears, compared to the 10 or more pre-Advancement Animated Shears with the same amount.
Using some mental math, Sandra estimated that in about 6 hours she could create and send out just over 1,000 of the new Shears, which was a severe drop in her previous production but was manageable. As time went on – and with every 1,000 Shears in her AMANS adding another 33 Mana or so to her per minute total – she would be able to add even more; by the end of a full day, she could be near her original amount of 10,000...if she didn’t spend Mana on anything else.
Unfortunately, because there were other things she needed to work on with both her Visitors and to continue to recover her dungeon from the last few days. The situation with Echo was going to be simple, at least, because Sandra was planning on sending her back to the Elven village with the first shipment of Energy Orbs. While her inner Dungeon Core screamed at her that it was a risk to arm the nearby Elves with weapons that could be used against her, she knew she had to start somewhere. On the other side of the coin, it was also a risk to let Echo leave when Sandra needed her so much as a liaison between her dungeon and her race – but she wasn’t a prisoner. If she left and never came back, so be it; if the Elf didn’t choose to help her and her people, that was her decision.
As for Violet, there were a few things that Sandra wanted her to help with on a few—safe—experiments; with Felbar, the Dungeon Core wanted to pick his brain and play around with designing some of the War Machines he used to pilot. From a few conversations with Violet, she was pretty sure he didn’t know how they were created, exactly, but there was a good chance he could describe what they looked like.
Those experiments and designs were going to require Mana – which would cut into what she could use for strengthening her AMANS. Her treasury behind her Home had been essentially wiped out during the invasion of the Elite Elves a few days ago, with only a few piles of Elemental Orbs left over that had since been used. Some of them went towards the Visitor bonding of those same Elves, while the rest went towards creating various Energy Orbs. If she wanted to continue creating those new enchanted Orbs, she was going to have to make more of the Elemental Orbs, which would be another drain on her limited mana.
As much as she wanted to do everything right now, Sandra knew she was going to have to be patient – and to have to split her focus between four different things: building up her AMANS, excavating underground rooms, creating more Energy Orbs, and learning what she could from the two Gnomes. Fortunately, her perusal of the wastelands and surrounding areas had shown no emergencies that she needed to take care of, so she figured she had some time to get what she wanted done.
Therefore, she went ahead and started the process of adding more Shears outside her dungeon; as the first large pairs of Reinforced Animated Shears – they were nearly twice the size of the original and were made of sturdier metal (not quite Iron, but something similar and just about as durable) – hit the air above the Wasteland, Sandra was surprised to find an unexpected benefit. Not only were they stronger and likely deadlier as constructs, but they could also “see” farther than the originals.
Farther, though, wasn’t quite the right word; while they could see approximately the same distance, the clarity of what they saw was much higher. When comparing the two, a small Desolate Spider at 1,000 feet away was much easier to see with the Reinforced Shears than the previous incarnation; Sandra wasn’t sure why that made the difference, but she wasn’t going to complain.
In fact, by shuffling some things around, she used that advantage of “seeing clearer” by placing all of the new Shears along the outside of the AMANS, to better make out threats that might be heading towards her dungeon. Not only that, but she took a dozen of them and sent them in a route that roamed around the entire border of the wastelands in a constant circuit, looking for anything out of the ordinary; they absorbed a bit less Mana at that distance, but having eyes on the surrounding villages and forest edges made her feel a little safer – for herself and the people she wanted to help, unbeknownst to them or not.
Sandra’s Visitors slept for almost half a day, which allowed her to get a lot of work done. At full production, her AMANS would’ve likely been increased by 2,000 or more of the newer Shears, but she was also contributing to her other projects at the same time. As a result, only about 900 Shears were produced – but at the same time three full rooms were complete, she produced an additional 32 Large Elemental Orbs of different elements, and she was also able to enchant them into Energy Orbs using her Unstable Shapeshifters. She could’ve produced even more Orbs towards the end of that time, but she decided to start stockpiling some extra Mana for some experiments.
As soon as Echo was up, she was eager to return to her village; after Sandra made sure the Elf was fed, she had over four dozen of the Energy Orbs packed up in a makeshift Cotton cloth bag ready for transport. She also volunteered her Mechanical Jaguar Queen to help with transport, but Echo refused, saying she wanted to be able to return on her own. Sandra was a little hesitant about letting her go all alone after seeing what was really out there in the wastelands – as well as noticing that the Elf wasn’t completely recovered from her coma – but she wasn’t going to insist.
So, just over two days after the Elites had saved the village from an army of reptilian Dungeon Monsters, Echo left to rejoin her people…hopefully only temporarily.
* * *
Dawn was just breaking over the horizon as Echo left the dungeon for the first time since she woke up from her healing coma. She had honestly been expecting Sandra to offer some sort of other excuse to keep her trapped inside for some reason and had been pleasantly surprised that she was politely but firmly urged to leave. Not that she had a problem with that, of course, since she wanted to get back to her people – but she was not expecting to be given a simple cloth bag full of Energy Orbs and sent on her way. Holding such valuable items in her hands made her a little on edge, truth be told, because such things were likely worth a fortune back in the capital.
Not that she believed that they would actually be sold; Echo knew that those in charge would see that they would be distributed to those who needed it most for the defense of their lands, and not for those with the most influence or deepest pockets. Obviously, since she was in charge of them, she would make sure those in the village got the first choice – because they were an important part to maintaining their people’s presence on the border. They were also her friends, of course, and she didn’t feel bad about making sure they got some preferential treatment.
Echo was entirely conscious that she hadn’t fully physically recovered from her experience, but she felt like she was strong enough to at least run back to the village on her own, so she had eschewed using one of the dungeon’s monsters to help her back there. It wasn’t only for that reason, however; she reached toward her shirt where the Holy and Air Energy Orbs were nestled against her chest, constantly sending additional elemental energy her way. A few minor experiments with them proved that they needed to have actual skin-on-Orb contact to replenish her energy, so they were pressed tightly against the center of her chest where they wouldn’t fall out when she was running.
I’m really going to have to find some sort of necklace like the one that Gnome woman, Violet, had. At the moment they were too easy to lose if she got into some sort of altercation with a beast or dungeon monster, and she didn’t want to have to carry them in her hands; while Echo didn’t have her bow – which made her fee
l almost naked without her go-to weapon – she knew that she would eventually need her hands free once she acquired one again. She was hoping that Wyrlin – who she was told had picked up her bow after she was bitten by the snake outside Sandra’s dungeon – still had it in his possession; apart from seeing her people again and passing out a few of the Energy Orbs to them, getting her hands back on her beloved long-range weapon was what she was most looking forward to.
With a deep breath – and an internal prayer that she wouldn’t run out of stamina and collapse as soon as she got to the village – Echo started to run, using her Air-based elemental energy to thin out the air in front of her and push her from behind. Within moments, she was racing away from the dungeon entrance, moving a little more than twice as fast as she could run without elemental assistance; she could’ve run even faster, but there was no reason to push herself that much if she didn’t need to.
Along with increasing her speed, she also initiated her active camouflage, making her form disappear to those who relied on vision to locate targets; it never worked well against those who used other senses to locate her, but it was better than nothing. After about a minute of running, she could feel a slight drain on her elemental energy as she used it, but it wasn’t nearly as much as it used to be – the Air and Holy Energy Orbs were greatly slowing down the consumption. Echo smiled as she increased her speed just a little more, enjoying being able to stretch her legs after being inside the confines of the dungeon for so long – even if she wasn’t awake for most of her stay.
She took the same route she had used while she had been keeping an eye on the dungeon earlier; it was fairly straight-forward and free from danger – or at least it was a few weeks ago. Echo was still slightly skeptical about all that had happened with the lizards, snakes, and other reptiles that reportedly attacked her village, but she was cautious enough in her surroundings not to completely disregard it. The last thing I want is to be bitten by another snake, she thought, which made her shudder mid-run.
Luckily, the journey toward her village through the barren landscape was uneventful; as she got near enough to her home that she could actually see it in the distance, she found that her physical energy was starting to wane dangerously low, so she deactivated all use of her elemental energy usage and walked the last half mile. By the time she was close enough to be spotted by the lookout watching the direction she was coming from – which was relatively new, as they normally hadn’t kept a guard on the wasteland’s comings and goings in the past – she had somewhat recovered. In fact, she wasn’t even breathing hard by that point, but she was still tired.
Her fellow ranger – Wyrlin – was, for a wonder, the one keeping watch; it was nice to see a friendly face after being around strange people in a strange environment. Instead of waiting for her to arrive, the other Elf bounded forward with relief and some unidentifiable expression on his face.
“Echo! You’re alive! Porthel told us that you likely were, but I didn’t believe him until I saw you walking out from the wastelands like some sort of wraith,” Wyrlin told her with a catch in his throat, before enveloping her in a hug that felt like he was trying to squeeze her insides out. To say she was surprised was an understatement; she was glad to see her fellow Ranger, but she didn’t think she deserved that kind of response from him. He had never seemed particularly emotional in the past and what he was acting like set warning bells off even in her tired mind.
“It…ugh…good to…see you too,” she managed to squeeze out. One of the elemental energies he could manipulate was Earth, and though it wasn’t typically used to enhance one’s physical body, it certainly felt like it with his sheer strength. “Can you…let me…go?”
Wyrlin immediately released her and stepped back. “Oh! I’m so sorry; I was just happy to have you back. How did you escape—?” he started to ask, but then he stopped when he looked at her face.
“What are you looking at? It’s really me – not some sort of imposter.” She thought that it was a valid concern, especially after hearing – but not yet seeing – how one of Sandra’s monsters could take the shape of anything it came into contact with. Violet had mentioned that it couldn’t talk, at least, otherwise Echo would’ve been worried about a flood of them appearing in the night and taking the place of everyone in her village. Such thoughts were patently absurd, but so was everything else she had seen in that dungeon – which made her shiver at the thought of something like that actually happening, despite the growing heat of the day.
“You…you’ve changed. What are those marks on your face?” he asked, taking a deliberate step back from her.
“What? What are you talking about?” she asked, now thoroughly confused. She reached up to her face and started to feel around her cheeks and forehead but couldn’t feel anything.
“Here – take a look,” he said, before a shiny, oval-shaped, vertically placed sheet of water appeared before her face, casting her reflection back at her. She stepped back in surprise at its appearance before she remembered that Wyrlin also had access to Water elemental energy in addition to Earth. Not everyone had multiple elements at their disposal, and the number that did was falling year-by-year; that was one of the reasons she wanted to be an Elite, because they only allowed those with multiple elements into their ranks. She didn’t know for certain, but she was fairly confident that Wyrlin also had those same aspirations, though he had never mentioned it before.
Recovering from her surprise, she stared at the reflection in the flat oval of water – and she could finally understand the other Elf’s question. On each of her cheeks was a bronze-colored gear that appeared to have some white and yellow accents to them; where did those come from? They looked familiar for some reason and it took a few moments of staring at them before she remembered where she had seen them before: on the palms of the Gnome, Violet. Echo hadn’t really been too curious about them before, because she thought it was a “Gnome” thing; gears and things like that seemed to be a part of their race, if what she had heard and seen of their war machines was any indication.
But now it appeared as though she had them, too – and it wasn’t a coincidence. The one thing they had in common was the dungeon, so it had obviously come from there.
* I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about them, but it slipped my mind and didn’t really seem important. They are from the Visitor bonding process, and they shouldn’t have any negative effects attached to them. *
Sandra’s voice in her head startled her so much that she stepped backwards again and tripped over a small rock, landing on her backside with an *oof*. “But why are they on my FACE!” she shouted, partly out of outrage at their appearance, partly from the shock of having the voice of the dungeon she thought she had left behind in her head, and partly from the pain of her rear end landing on a second rock.
* Well…when I brought you into my dungeon after you were bitten by that snake, you were convulsing quite dramatically. I couldn’t lay the Elemental Orbs on your chest or have you hold them in your hands like I did with Felbar and Violet, so the only other option was to…stick them in your mouth. *
Sandra actually answered her question at the same time Wyrlin was attempting to as well; he didn’t know Echo was talking back to the voice in her head, and she realized it would perhaps be best if he didn’t find out. Of course, she didn’t hear the first part of what he was saying, but she heard the last part. “—know. Why don’t you tell me what happened down there for the last 16 days, 17 hours, and 43 minutes.”
How does he know exactly when I was taken? The answer was obvious, however; Wyrlin was a master at his craft in the forest as a Ranger, and could easily read the signs of nature, estimating how long ago something passed by within minutes. Though the fact that he had calculated her disappearance down to the minute was strange, plus the fact that he had apparently been keeping track of those minutes as time went by. On the one hand, it probably meant that he cared enough about her that he was extremely concerned for her safety; on
the other hand…it was a little creepy.
Regardless of what exactly his motivations were, Echo quickly explained what had happened and how the dungeon itself had saved her, not captured her like Wyrlin said he thought. When she was done, she looked at her fellow Ranger’s face for some sort of reaction, but his face appeared to be set in stone.
“You’re a slave to that dungeon, you know that, right? I don’t care what Porthel and the other Elites said – those are marks that it owns you,” he finally said with a harshness to his voice that Echo had never heard before. “To think, I was worried that it had tortured and killed you; instead, it did much worse – it took away who you are.”
Reaching behind his back, he pulled out a familiar bow which had been strung and looped around his shoulder; he looked at her and threw it on the ground with such force that it cracked, making her wince at the anger behind the act. “Here you go, I’m tired of carrying it around for you.”
She knew it could probably be repaired, but even using elemental energy in the mending process, it was never as good as it was when it was first constructed. That wasn’t really the most pressing issue, though – it was the fact that Wyrlin was angry at her for some reason. “What was that for—?” she had begun to ask, when the other Ranger turned away – completely ignoring her – and started to run back towards Avensglen.
What was that all about? Echo couldn’t figure out why he would’ve had such a strong reaction to the gears on her face. I was the one that almost died and was in a coma for two weeks, so what’s his problem? It didn’t make any sense to her, and she hoped that the others in the village weren’t the same way.
So, without much choice in the matter – and because she needed someplace to rest after her already-tiring morning run – Echo slowly walked towards the village she used to call home.
The Crafter's Dilemma: A Dungeon Core Novel (Dungeon Crafting Book 3) Page 5