The Crafter's Darkness: A Dungeon Core Novel (Dungeon Crafting Book 4)

by Jonathan Brooks

  In addition, there were still many different materials that she could unlock in the Organic/Inorganic Material Elemental Transmutation Menu for use in improving her crafting of a large variety of different things. Speaking of that, there was still a lot of crafting that she wanted to do and either didn’t have a chance to, didn’t have the proper materials for on hand, or didn’t have a steady enough hand to craft with. Now, while she still didn’t have a lot of time, she had many, many materials to work with; there was truly little that she couldn’t do with at least a bare minimum of supplies if she put her mind to it.

  There was so much that needed to be considered, started, and done that she barely knew where to start; almost all of it was dependent upon one thing, though: Mana. As such, that was the place to start.

  Chapter 4

  In the past, increasing her AMANS was the easiest and fastest way to ramp up her Mana absorption from the wider environment above her dungeon; in some ways, it still was, and between the 7,000 Shears and the 1,500 Rolling Forces she had moving around the wastelands, looking for potential enemies, Sandra was raking in just under 400,000 Mana every day. That wasn’t anything to sneeze at, certainly, but the other dungeons that had been affected by the enhancements were getting 384,000 Mana a day from their Core and dungeon alone. She was going to lose one of the advantages she had over the others – her ability to rake in much more Mana at a constant rate than any other Core – unless she did something about it.

  Expanding her AMANS was certainly something she was going to do, though she had to be careful about that as well. The presence and sight of them was what led the Dark, Undead-based Core to copy what she had done with small skeletal rats, sending them to travel around in circles to absorb ambient Mana; it was obvious to Sandra that her technique was the best way to acquire large amounts of Mana, but apparently none of the other Cores had thought of doing that before. Winxa had mentioned that part of the contract and natural instincts of a Dungeon Core likely prevented such an ordered, systematic approach to expansion, though seeing it done was enough for the tactically advanced Undead Core to adapt it for its own purposes.

  Therefore, she wanted to mix up her technique a little and not make it as obvious what she was doing. One glimpse at her Net up above her dungeon, moving in synchronization with each other and maximizing the amount of absorbed ambient Mana, was enough to know exactly what she was doing. With the expansion of the nearby dungeons’ Areas of Influence, it wouldn’t be long until they could see that happening for themselves. To disguise or camouflage her actions, Sandra concentrated on her Animated Shears floating above and spread them out even further than they currently were, as well as having them float even higher into the sky. When they were just over a mile above the wastelands and basically invisible from anything ground-based, she stopped them; they were small enough that even when she looked for them with some of her other constructs near her dungeon, they couldn’t be seen, even when the sun was reflected off of their forms.

  It wouldn’t prevent any airborne Monsters from seeing them, though she thought it would be rare for even bird-type Monsters to fly up that high; from what little she knew about them, she hadn’t ever heard of many flying a mile or more above the ground, though even if they did, they usually didn’t look up. Regardless, there was one more thing she could do to disguise them, at least a little. Instead of a constant pattern inside their designated spaces, Sandra instructed them to move randomly, widening their boundaries so that they had hundreds of feet to play around with instead of a 20-foot-square cube they had before. Being so high in the sky allowed them to spread out easily so they didn’t appear bunched up, so there was certainly a benefit to the larger area.

  Naturally, there was one major downside. Being so far away from Sandra’s dungeon, the amount of Mana that was absorbed and funneled back to her Core was cut by just over two-thirds; once it got past about 200 feet above the ground (which allowed them to potentially absorb the full amount of ambient Mana around the area) the amount of Mana they absorbed dropped dramatically. It was the reason why she hadn’t done it in the first place, because she needed every drop of Mana that had streamed into her before (of course, she needed even more now), and it was a significant blow to her incoming Mana. Now, though, the more important thing was to do what she could to prevent other Cores from copying what she had done, even at the expense of less Mana being funneled to her.

  Sandra wasn’t done, however; knowing that she needed to regain that lost Mana, she started a constant production of even more Shears, which she sent up to join the others, spreading them out even farther than they had ever been before. She was still only receiving a fraction of what she used to in terms of Mana from them, but they would pay for themselves in a few days and would be a semi-permanent addition to her overall Mana absorption strategy.

  In addition, in between creating and sending up more Shears, Sandra started to produce hordes of Clockwork Tarantulas, which cost approximately half of what the Shears did in terms of Mana: only 18, as opposed to 35. Now, while they weren’t as versatile – basically, they couldn’t fly – her new Tarantulas were an improvement over their original incarnation. The Clockwork Spider was small and relatively slow, and while the Tarantula was almost twice as big, it was also three times as fast. At five inches wide (from leg tip to leg tip), the Tarantulas were a bit deadlier than the older Spider version, and could scuttle over the ground with a better speed. They didn’t approach anything like what her Dividing Rolling Forces could as far as quick movement, but they didn’t plod along, either. Therefore, she sent waves of them out to randomly venture out into the wastelands, moving without any particular purpose but to wander around and absorb Mana. If any Cores saw them moving around, she hoped they would just look like they were scouting around, looking for anything to kill. She made sure to instruct them not to bunch up too much and to spread themselves all over the wastelands so that they weren’t obviously moving with an ulterior purpose. Whether or not she succeeded in that was still to be seen, of course.

  There was a third way she intended to acquire more Mana, though it was going to take a little more effort and time to achieve results. It was something for the near future, however, and not something she could afford to start on except for the beginning stages of what she had planned. Part of that was tied up with what she needed to do to start the communication process with the different lands and their people; as such, a few hours into her gradual increase of her AMANS and her GMANT (Grounded Mana Absorption Net of Tarantulas), she turned to Winxa for advice.

  What kind of Dungeon Monster do you think would be able to fly fast, carry more than a few people, and haul a decently heavy load?

  The Dungeon Fairy stared at her Core and whatever color she had in her face abruptly bled out. “Y-you can’t be serious…nonono, I won’t be a part of whatever you have planned if you’re going to involve them.”

  Now Sandra was confused. What are you talking about?

  “I told you that I didn’t want to help you if you started using Dragons, remember; Wester created and commanded Dragons, and it’s what led to this place being what it is.”

  I didn’t say anything about Dragons, Winxa. Besides, as interesting as they might be to create, those seem like the absolute last Monster I would send to the races’ leadership; if the Elves are as long-lived as I’ve been told, then some of them might even remember fighting Dragons controlled by your former Core.

  Winxa looked relieved as some of the color came back to her face as she hovered in front of Sandra’s Core. “They certainly might, at that,” she said softly. “Well, if you don’t want Dragons, what is it that you want? I imagine this has to do with transportation to and from each lands’ capitals, though – again – I haven’t heard of anything like that happening before.”

  Like I said, I need something – not a Dragon – that can fly fast, carry more than one person, and perhaps even carry a large load. The most important attribute is being able to fly fast, th
ough, and be big enough to carry more than a single person – unlike my Pegasi.

  “Ok, fair enough. There are a few places you might be able to find something like that in your Advancement Menu; just concentrate on Air-based Dungeon Monsters at first, and expand from there into dual elements. There are dozens of Monsters that I can think of – that aren’t Dragons – that might work for you, but I fear if I give you specific choices, that might be considered advice…and I’d rather not test that theory, if you don’t mind.”

  No worries, Winxa – I think I can take it from here.

  She figured that looking in Air-based Monsters would be the way to go, but she wanted to see if the Dungeon Fairy had anything specific for her to look at. Regardless of what she chose, she needed to determine how many Dungeon Monsters she could unlock in case the first one she chose didn’t work out the way she wanted.

  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

  19 AP

  (19X Core Size Upgrades)

  19/19 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

  47 AP

  (47X Qualifying Rooms)

  45/47 AP

  Unique Dungeon Fixtures

  Receive AP for each never-before-seen fixture in your dungeon

  2 AP per fixture

  32 AP

  (14X Crafting Stations, 1X Bathing Room, 1X Enchantment Repository)

  32/32 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)

  48/72 AP

  Sentient Race Elimination

  Eliminate members of sentient races

  1 AP per 10 eliminations

  12 AP (12X Orc, 71X Gnome, 42X Dwarf)

  8/12 AP

  Sentient Race Bonding

  Form a new Dungeon Visitor Bond with a member of a sentient race

  1 AP per 2 Bonds

  44 AP (1X Orc/Dwarf, 6X Elf, 9X Gnome, 73X Dwarf)

  8/44 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

  286 AP

  190 AP

  Total Advancement Points Available

  96 AP

  Sandra had plenty of Advancement Points to spend after the events over the last few days, where she received 72 Points – mainly from the destruction of the other Core, and the deaths of so many Shieldmen. She was only partially surprised that she didn’t get any Points from the deaths of the 5 Shieldmen that had perished inside of the Undead dungeon, but then again it was completely cut off from her AOI, so that made sense; not that she wanted more AP from the deaths of those brave Dwarves, because it already felt a little wrong to have them in the first place, but she wasn’t going to turn them away. However, there was something else that was odd…

  Winxa, how come I didn’t receive any AP from the destruction of the Unicorn and Avian Cores?

  “Well, because you didn’t actually directly have a hand in destroying them,” the Dungeon Fairy said matter-of-factly. “Through actions that you may have done in the past – like saving Kelerim from death – it may have resulted in their destruction, but you didn’t actually participate. I think…well, I think that if Kelerim or one of your Bonded friends here had been in those dungeons when they were destroyed, even if they didn’t actually ‘participate’, then you’d probably get credit for their destruction.”

  I guess that makes sense, then; thank you.

  Not that she was planning on destroying any more Cores, of course, because she needed to prevent that at all costs; nevertheless, she thought she could’ve easily used those potential 60 AP from their destruction. It was something she couldn’t do anything about, though, so she moved on to what she could do something about: spending Advancement Points.

  Advancement Options

  Current Advancement Points

  96

  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 2/4)

  60

  Reduce the Raw Material cost of Monster Seeds by 15% – Cost increases with each purchase (Advancement 0/4)

  15

  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

  Obviously, Advancing her Classification was out of the question based on how expensive it was, nor was she quite ready for that; selecting a second Classification wasn’t going to happen for the same reasons. Adding additional elements to her Dungeon Monsters, as well as reducing the Mana Cost of traps, still weren’t things that could help her – so they were out as well. Depending on how many points she needed to find a proper Monster that would fulfill her requirements, she could see spending the rest on a few different things (like reducing the Mana Cost of her Monsters and Seeds), but she was looking at Extending her Area of Influence.

  The additional 10% didn’t sound like a lot, but as she was going to have to try to combat Cores that were dozens or even a hundred miles or more away, she was going to need all of the extra reach she could get. Naturally, upgrading her Core Size would help with that, but she wasn’t sure how far it would reach; right now, she estimated that her Area of Influence extended nearly 11 miles in every direction from her Core, and even an extra mile at that point could make a difference.

  Regardless if she chose to do that, she needed to concentrate on the immediate problem: finding a Monster that could be used as a transport and hauler of sorts. While she automatically produced more Shears and Tarantulas to increase her ambient Mana absorption – which was fortunately fueled with Raw Materials taken from the condensed material created from her use of her Gravitational Devastation Sphere against the Undead horde outside her dungeon – Sandra perused the lists of available Dungeon Monsters she thought might help her achieve her goals. She automatically disregarded anything that was Dragon-like or Dragon-adjacent, as well as any options that required her to have a 2nd or 3rd-level Classification Advan
cement.

  When it really came down to it, there were only a handful that she thought might work; the problem she was having was that none of what she was looking at had a description, so she needed to consult Winxa on her knowledge of the many Monsters out there in the world.

  Dungeon Monster Selection (Base)

  Avians (Air)

  Swooping Crane

  Giant Eagle*

  Aerie Roc*

  Air Elementals (Air)

  Sliding Sylph

  Zipping Zephyr

  Raging Storm*

  Transitional Golems (Air/Earth)

  Grinning Gargoyle

  Dust Golem

  Animated Slab*

  Divine Beasts (Holy/Air)

  Climbing Cockatrice

  Gliding Griffin*

  Tenacious Thunderbird*

  Archaic Beasts (Air/Fire/Earth/Water/Natural)

  Ancient Flying Pterodactylus

  Ancient Flying Pteranodon

  Ancient Flying Coloborhynchus*

  *Requires Advanced Classification Level 1 (Complete)

  ** Requires larger Core Size and Advanced Classification Level 2

  *** Requires larger Core Size and Advanced Classification Level 3

  The biggest surprise of all of her searching was the discovery of Archaic Beasts, which seemed to have all sorts of different beasts she had never heard of…except for one: Ancient Saurian. It seemed as though the Archaic Beasts Classification included every single “Ancient” beast, including large “Ancient” behemoths, lizards, cats, wolves, and – she was shocked to find – some flying birds. Or at least she thought they were birds because their names didn’t really describe them other than “flying”. Winxa, unfortunately, didn’t have more than a passing knowledge about those creatures, mainly because no one had access to the Air, Fire, Earth, Water, and Natural elements all at once before.