The Crafter's Dilemma: A Dungeon Core Novel (Dungeon Crafting Book 3)

by Jonathan Brooks

  Not only that, but the bears and behemoths seemed to be physically much, much stronger and faster than she would’ve thought; a quick backhanded swipe by the bear tossed one of her Queens away so hard that it smashed up against a distant tree, snapping its spine and killing it in the process. The behemoth wasn’t quite as quick, but a speedy shuffle-step by its enormous legs caught a Dire Wolf or two underneath its feet, pinning them in place while at the same time deforming the metal of her Mechanical construct like it was clay. Overall, her Jaguar and Wolf constructs were doing quite a bit of damage to the larger zombie creatures, but it was going to take some time for their constant attacks to do enough to take one of them down.

  Time, however, wasn’t something that they were going to have a lot of – especially when she considered the rest of the battle. Her Steelclad Ape Warriors had jumped straight into the fray against the two Ogre Skeletons – backed up by the Martial Totems she had just recently added to her forces – and started to smash apart the enemy Dungeon Monsters with great success. Even after the hazy dark cloud enveloped both Ogres and sped them up, her Apes managed to break quite a few of their vital bones, while only taking minimal casualties. The Totems were exceptionally well-suited for cracking and pulverizing the hard and thick bone of the massive Skeletons, though one of them practically folded in half – despite being made of something similar to Iron – when it was hit by an oversized bone club.

  If it were just a matchup between her Apes/Totems and the Ogres, her constructs would’ve won handily; unfortunately, there were other Undead in the small clearing that negated any advantage they had. While her constructs were attacking the skeletons and zombies – probably because Sandra had prior experience fighting them and they ultimately took their cues from her – they were in turn attacked by the new Undead she hadn’t fought before.

  In the end, it was a slaughter…and it was an unusual – and disheartening – experience being on the receiving end of such an outcome.

  The undead she thought were Ghouls of some sort jumped on the backs of some of her Apes and latched on with their ferocious strength; they immediately went to work scoring rents into the Steel forms of her constructs with their claws and teeth. Given enough time, it appeared as though they would be able to tear through and get to her Steelclad Dungeon Monsters’ “power sources” to kill them – but her Apes didn’t even survive that long. While a few Ghouls were punched off by the powerful fists of the nearby Martial Totems or a swing of a nearby warhammer wielded by other Ape Warriors, they were not the only threat.

  The faceless undead that were wearing full suits of armor stomped up next, swinging their enormous claymores with deadly efficiency. One massive sword swipe was enough to lop off an Ape arm or leg – or if they were really lucky, a head – or even partway shear through one of her Martial Totems. Within a minute of the fight starting, half of her Apes and Totems that she had brought were down if not out from the unexpected assault…though they didn’t give up easily.

  The undead inside the armor were just as susceptible to impact damage as anything else, perhaps even more so; half of them were destroyed in her constructs’ counterattack as powerfully swung warhammers and Totem fists slammed into the – remarkably sturdy, Sandra couldn’t help but notice – black-colored armor, breaking the bones of the undead creature inhabiting it, even if the armor wasn’t damaged overly much. In fact, it almost looked like they were turning things around, when the last two unknown Undead entered the battle and took their toll on her forces in new and unexpected ways.

  First, the mist-like Dungeon Monsters floating through the air descended on the combatants, primarily targeting her Ape Warriors. Sandra wasn’t exactly sure what they would or could do, though; they didn’t seem to have any real form, so she didn’t think that they had any way to inflict damage on her constructs. Her assumption was proven right as they came into contact with her Steelclad constructs and didn’t seem to do anything with their touch; in fact, upon the first contact, the mist seemed to recoil in pain. A rime of frost appeared on her Dungeon Monsters where the mist creatures touched them momentarily, but even that didn’t seem to slow them down.

  It was only when the Undead mist floated around her Apes for a moment and then stopped when it seemed to find something of interest that she became a little worried. Quicker than she had seen them move before, Sandra watched the strange mist creatures condense their forms and shoot forward into the tiny joins of her Ape Warriors’ bodies; in less than a second, they were inside and gone from view – and then her Steelclad constructs started to fall to the ground one-by-one, like a puppet that had its strings cut. As they dissolved into the ground, leaving behind their Monster Seeds, she saw the mists appear where her constructs died – though they were severely reduced in size, or else gone completely.

  The loss of her 8 remaining Apes in the matter of seconds was bad enough, but the introduction to the last Undead Dungeon Monster was what put the final nail on the coffin of her eradication force’s destruction. The shadowy hooded figures hadn’t done anything so far during the battle, but now that her constructs were being wiped out they apparently decided to join in. Raising arms out to their sides, Sandra saw their robes slip off of their hands, revealing dry-looking, desiccated skin – though not rotting like a zombie’s flesh – tightly covering thin, fragile-appearing bones. From what she could see, its physical appearance looked more like a dried-out animated corpse without much strength behind it, but she quickly found that it wasn’t there to get into a fistfight.

  Billows of pure darkness emanated from their hands until there was a growing cloud of…whatever it was…floating in front of each of them, darker than even the current night-time environment of the forest. They blocked out Sandra’s view of the hooded figures, in fact, but other than that the dark fog-like substance didn’t look very threatening; if it was designed to blind her constructs, she doubted it would have any major effect on them – because many of them didn’t use physical eyes to see. It was also why the darkness of night didn’t really affect them, because they didn’t necessarily need light to see by.

  After 20 excruciating seconds of her remaining constructs getting slowly destroyed by the other Undead, the now-significantly larger clouds shot forwards in the blink of an eye, splitting up and surrounding all of her remaining Martial Totems, half of her Jaguars and Wolves, and even two of her Repair Drones that were trying to fix some Apes that had been smashed across the clearing either by an Ogre’s bone club or the flat of one of the armored Undeads’ claymores.

  She couldn’t see what the clouds did – even when she ineffectively tried to look through the “eyes” of one of her Mechanical Dire Wolves surrounded by one – but she didn’t have to wonder long. After 15 seconds of total obscurity, the dark clouds dissipated, leaving behind her constructs – or what was left of them.

  The best she could guess from the holey and weak sections of metal she saw on her Dungeon Monsters, the robed Undead figures had manipulated Nether-based elemental energy and sent a devastating spell towards her constructs – not unlike what many Human Heroes and Elves did. The difference was that the spell they cast was extremely potent, much more potent than anything she had heard of or seen before; she wasn’t sure if it was designed to eat away at metal specifically, or if it just sped up the aging of whatever was inside of the cloud, but the results were essentially the same. Those constructs that were enveloped in the dark fog spell were practically falling apart and collapsing in on themselves as they tried to continue fighting.

  With that final blow to the formerly cohesive and powerful eradication force Sandra had assembled, she knew the battle was lost – though she doubted she would’ve “won” even if those last two Undead hadn’t been there. The fight wasn’t going her way almost from the beginning; she thought she had a group of constructs that could tackle virtually anything and prevail – but she was sadly mistaken.

  As the spell-weakened constructs were quickly finished off, the last f
ew Jaguars and Wolves were surrounded and systematically destroyed. Sandra tried to save her remaining Repair Drones by having them flee, but they weren’t very fast compared to the surviving Undead Ghouls; they were quickly hunted down by the fast-moving creatures and literally ripped apart – only for the Undead to be brutally killed themselves when her constructs exploded in a fiery conflagration of metal shards. Hmm…I forgot about that.

  Brief thoughts of the damage her Repair Drones could do if they had been destroyed in the middle of the Undead army flashed through her mind as she watched the destruction of her last constructs. Even one of the two Reinforced Animated Shears she had watching the battle from above was caught by one of the mist-like Undead. It didn’t have a “power source” like her Apes, but that didn’t seem to matter; it was almost like the Mana involved in her construct’s creation was eaten away rapidly and it was done so quickly that it didn’t have a chance to fly away before it dissolved in the middle of the air.

  Watching that happen from her other pair of Shears – which she had flee as soon as she could – she saw the already smaller-sized mist creature shrink even smaller as a result of the attack on her construct; she could only assume that some of the mist was consumed in the attack, but she still didn’t have enough information about them to know for sure.

  With disappointment and frustration mounting, she brought the only surviving construct from her eradication force out of the forest and set it to watch the trees, waiting for the Undead to come pouring out and head towards her dungeon. After a few minutes, however, none of them showed; Sandra realized that there was no point for them to come out from the safety of the trees, because the Undead Core’s Area of Influence only reached about a half-mile into the barren wasteland she called home.

  But that won’t last long.

  While the Undead Dungeon Core had lost quite a few Dungeon Monsters before and during the battle, it was nothing compared to the constructs that Sandra had lost. Not just in terms of the Mana used in their actual creation, but more importantly the Monster Seeds they had left behind. While contracts normally prevented Cores from attacking each other’s Dungeon Monsters for the sake of looting their Seeds, that didn’t apply to Sandra and her unique situation; therefore, all of the Monster Seeds dropped by her constructs were now in the possession of the Undead Core.

  After doing some quick estimations of how much those Seeds would be worth if the Dungeon Core decided to absorb them all for their Mana and Raw Materials, she figured that it might be enough to pay for another Core Size upgrade – depending on what their current size was, of course. Sandra had no way of actually knowing, of course, but she figured that it was probably only a few Sizes larger than her own; if that was the case, then the Mana from those Seeds was more than enough to provide for an upgrade. Even if it was already a much higher size, they would still contribute quite a bit towards that goal.

  What have I done? In trying to prevent the Undead Dungeon Core from growing and expanding its influence, thereby threatening more people, Sandra had inadvertently helped it do just that. Every time that I try to help, it just seems like I make things worse.

  With that depressing thought on her mind, she turned her attention back to her dungeon to inform Winxa about her failure – and the repercussions that would likely stem from it.

  Chapter 13

  “So, you’re telling me that you made it worse?” Echo heard the small female Gnome—Violet—say as soon as she walked into Sandra’s “workshop” near the surface, which the Dungeon Core automatically translated for her. It was strange to hear the Gnome speak something that sounded completely foreign to her and then hear a translation that Sandra provided for it in her mind, but she was growing used to it.

  The Elf was coming back for the day to pick up another shipment of Energy Orbs for her people; though, as soon as she walked into the dungeon she was curtly told by Sandra that it was going to be a little bit. Apparently, something had happened to slow down production – which was honestly fine with her; she was getting tired of the looks the other villagers were throwing her way when they thought she wasn’t paying attention. She wasn’t sure if it was because some of them held the same views about her as Wyrlin did or if it was for some other reason – either way it was…uncomfortable.

  It’s strange to think that I’m more comfortable here than with my own people. She knew that what the dungeon was providing to her people – Energy Orbs, to be exact – was literally life-changing, and in spite of the danger to the Dungeon Heart/Core, she appreciated what Sandra was trying to do. Echo just wished that she wasn’t the one in the middle handling all of the deliveries and negotiations between her people and the dungeon. As far as she was concerned, she wasn’t cut out to be any type of negotiator or political liaison – she’d much rather be out in the forest hunting down beasts for food or culling Dungeon Monsters to protect the village.

  However, after the first day or two of hunting with her mended bow – which took some getting used to in order to shoot semi-accurately – she was advised by Elder Herrlot not to endanger herself in the forest when there were other hunters that could do the job perfectly fine, especially since they all now had Energy Orbs of their own. It was painfully obvious that her duty was to be a delivery woman/dungeon contact and not a Ranger anymore, which irked her to no end; her present circumstances didn’t particularly lend itself to becoming an Elite in the future, which was what she always hoped to become. Regardless of her feelings, however, she knew she wouldn’t shirk her duties even if it wasn’t ideal to her own personal development.

  To get away from such depressing thoughts, Echo left the village as soon as the sky was light enough to easily see her way through the wastelands, which was why she was back at the dungeon only shortly after the sun had come up. Even though Sandra had said that the area was clear of any threats – which was remarkable in and of itself – she had no desire to travel by the darkness brought on by night-time; she’d rather be able to spot any danger way before she actually encountered it, which was always made much easier if she could actually see clearly.

  “What are you talking about, Violet? What did Sandra do this time?” Echo asked half-jokingly. Despite the “righteous” attitude that the dungeon seemed to affect most of the time, the Elf was more than aware that some – or possibly most – of her activities seemed to come with serious repercussions. The issues that would eventually arise from her production of the Energy Orbs aside, she also was informed that the destruction of the nearby Gnome village was caused by something the Core had inadvertently done – even if Sandra wasn’t directly responsible.

  The Gnome whipped around at the sound of Echo’s voice, her eyes wide in surprise. Just past her, the Elf could see Felbar leaning against the nearby wall showing no sense of surprise at her appearance; it was plain to see that she had already been noticed by the grizzled older Gnome, so her question hadn’t startled him.

  “Whoa! Where did you come from?” Violet asked, before waving off her own question. “Never mind, I’m assuming you came for more of the Energy Orbs, but we only have a dozen or so ready for you. We’ve been busy with other…projects,” she explained distractedly, her vision looking off into the distance like she was thinking of something.

  “What other projects are you talking about? And what was it that Sandra did?” Echo was half-expecting the dungeon to explain it for the Gnome, but the Core was uncharacteristically silent other than the automatic translations in her mind.

  “We were working on improving the Fields on the enchantment pillars down below, but that isn’t really important right now,” Felbar chimed in. “What is important, though, is that Sandra ‘accidentally’ just gave the Nether dungeon near Glimmerton a whole bunch of dungeon loot that it can use to…expand itself, or whatever it is that it does. While the nearest Gnome town is likely safe – as it’s a few days of quick travel away – it’s going to start to threaten the Dwarves to the northeast of here. Not that I care overly much about t
hem, but when I was assigned to our village I was put in charge of culling the monsters around there – and this feels like an extreme failure on our part.”

  “Yes, just like those reptiles attacked your village, the undead monsters from the dungeon will be attacking the Dwarves within the next month or two, if what Sandra said is correct,” Violet added.

  Now that got Echo’s attention; just like Felbar had said, she didn’t particularly care about the Dwarves – other than the fact that she didn’t want anyone to necessarily die from monster attacks like the Gnomes had – but the mention of the Nether dungeon was something else entirely. As it wasn’t just any sort of a Nether dungeon, but an undead dungeon to boot, she felt her natural instincts flare up and all she could think about was destroying it. It was the same reason she had been so adamant about getting help to destroy Sandra’s dungeon, because she thought they were undead monsters at first.

  The Elven people had an instinctive hatred of the undead, and many Elites had been lost over the years when they dropped everything else to destroy their particular dungeons when they were found. Echo couldn’t explain what it was that drove her or her people to do such a thing, mainly because it was so ingrained in her psyche that it was almost normal and natural to think that way. She wasn’t aware that there was an undead dungeon so close to her village; she was pretty sure that if she or the others were aware of it, they would’ve sent a team to try to destroy it as soon as they could – even if they trespassed on Gnome lands.