The Durability rune enhanced the outer surface of the Leather, preventing it from taking as much visible damage if it were, for instance, sliced at with a knife; the rune wouldn’t protect it from being sliced apart entirely if something attacked it with strength and determination. It was a common enchantment for leather or hide-based armor used by Heroes, though there were different enchantments that did basically the same thing for other materials used in clothing and armor.
The Fusion enchantment was usually applied to materials that needed to be joined together; it was an expensive energy-intensive enchantment, however, which was commonly used on hard materials such as two different types of stone that were difficult to join using Earth-based elemental energy. On her harness, however, it would only activate if the Leather were damaged in some way and would work to fuse the sliced or broken pieces back together.
Once she made one harness, she created a second one, because she knew she was going to need it for future Aerie Rocs – such as a third one she was going to have to create soon that would transport Gerold back to the mountain fortresses of the Dwarves. That wasn’t going to happen until the situation around the Dwarven village of Nurboldar was a little more under control, of course, which would hopefully be the case in the next few days. In fact, despite it being night out, the two teams of Dwarves and Sandra’s constructs were still going strong, with two of the Shieldmen constantly using their Fire or Holy elemental energy to light up enough of the forest to see. Another portion of her concentration was working to find additional targets for them via her Shears, though that was relatively easy and didn’t require much focus on her part.
An additional 10% of her Mana was focused on the creation of the new bows that Sandra had promised the Elven Rangers that were coming in the morning. Not only did she have to create 4 Tiny Energy Orbs per bow to power the enchantments on them, she also needed two Tiny Energy Orbs – one Fire and one Spirit – per Fireburst-enchanted bolt she was creating for the bows. The materials for normal bolts and the enchanted bolts were easy enough to supply, but everything took time to craft together and enchant, which was where most of her focus was with everything going on around her.
The last 10% of her incoming Mana was used on the purpose she was speaking with Winxa about: she was going treasure hunting. Although, because she could observe everything within her Area of Influence as long as it was underground, it wasn’t really hunting; rather, she spent her time digging through the dirt and stone of the wastelands, and later underneath the forest where the Reptile-Classification dungeon had been located.
Starting from inside of the entrance of her massive tunnel she created for the Aerie Roc, Sandra used her Mana to remove enough of the dirt and stone near the floor to create an exceedingly small tunnel that was just barely large enough to fit one of her Hyper Automatons inside. Her plan was for it to be only 4 inches tall and 4 inches wide, which would allow her Automatons to run down and was large enough to transport anything they were able to pick up. That was the key and the entire point to the whole thing, after all; only by absorbing the Monster Seeds inside of her dungeon would she be able to gain a portion of the Mana and Raw Materials used in their formation.
Unfortunately, her tiny tunnel didn’t count as being part of her dungeon; there were certain requirements that had to be met before a tunnel or a room could be considered a part of it. That also, it turned out, meant that the tunnel itself wasn’t very stable; not being infused with the Mana that permeated her normal dungeon, the walls were wont to collapse entirely. This also meant that she couldn’t create stone to cover the walls, because they were outside of where she could use her Mana to create…well, anything. She could eliminate the dirt and stone already in the ground to make the tunnel, but creation was entirely different from destruction.
Sandra realized that she needed to get creative. After the fourth collapse of a tunnel section within the first 200 feet, she figured out what she needed to do: craft something that would keep it intact. Without being able to coat the walls with stone to maintain its shape, the Dungeon Core used the next best thing that was more than strong enough and relatively easy for her to work with: Steel. Luckily for her, what she ended up making didn’t require forcing or a crafting station, and could therefore be made right there in the large Roc tunnel.
Creating thin plates of Steel using her Mundane Object Creation Skill, she used her Mana to cut them into 3-foot-long and 4-inch-wide strips; using some Hyper Automatons she was already gathering to send down the tunnel, she had them hold the strips together along the edges perpendicular to each other, while Sandra “welded” the two plates together using a tiny bit of Mana and an additional use of her Creation Skill. When those were together, she did the same with two more strips, and then connected those two L-shaped pieces together until they made a simple, open-ended, square tube of Steel.
From there, it was easy enough to have one of the Hyper Automations push the square tube inside of the passageway and bring it to the end, followed by another construct that would push another tube that she was rapidly crafting back in the Roc tunnel. It took about an hour to really get going and pick up a good rhythm, but after that time she was able to rapidly create more Steel tubes and even more constructs from her Home room that would run all the way there to keep the process going. Each time she would dig another few feet, all of the constructs inside the tunnel would push their section of the tubing forward, stabilizing the passageway for all the rest behind them.
After a while, it was becoming a bit expensive to keep creating Automatons, even at only a total of 70 Mana for each one when she considered how much it cost to create the construct itself and the Monster Seed required for it. In this case it was a Tiny Clay Cube – which cost 15 Mana to produce – but those all added up after a while. Sandra was only saved initially because she had over 250 Hyper Automatons that she had created originally for funneling back Undead Monster Seeds to her dungeon from her campaign against them; after that, she needed to use most of the Mana she had allocated for the small tunnel to create more of the constructs.
The result was that the expansion of the small tunnel slowed down a little bit, but not enough to make much of a difference. The whole process, while relatively expensive in materials, Mana, and constructs was still much faster and cost less than if she were to create a regularly sized tunnel all the way to the collapsed dungeon. That, and if another Dungeon Core stumbled upon her little tunnel – which was bound to happen – they couldn’t use it to send hordes of Monsters towards her dungeon. Once she was done with it, she was planning on collapsing it anyway, to prevent it from being a vulnerability in the future.
When she was thinking of vulnerabilities, she also had to consider the Roc tunnel, as it was wide open all the way to her Home room without anything preventing an enemy from walking right inside. She was already planning on some defenses for it, as well as rigging it up so that portions of the tunnel would collapse as a fallback; if there was anything she had learned from the nearly botched attack on the Undead Core, it was that she needed to be willing to demolish all of her hard work and expense if she were truly threatened.
That would come later, however, and was something that she would probably work on once Echo left in the morning. The morning of which was rapidly approaching; the sky was just barely starting to lighten in the east, meaning that dawn was at most an hour off. Fortunately, everything was starting to come together both inside and outside of her dungeon.
Sandra created another 20 bows – that still needed to be adjusted, of course – and 50 of the explosive Fireburst-enchanted bolts to go with them. Added to that, she also included 100 normal unenchanted bolts to go with each bow, meaning that she had a large bundle of equipment that would be going with the Elven Rangers. She cleared out a space in her workshop for them to pick them up, and that would also conveniently be where she could Bond with them.
Another Aerie Roc sprung into existence in her Home room, and this time Sandra wasn’t
shocked by its appearance. Using two of her Unstable Shapeshifters, she was able to get the harness on it without any outside help, and some food supplies – very similar to what was packed for the Gnomes – were strapped into place, so it was ready to go; when Echo woke up and was prepared to leave, she could immediately go down to where it was waiting and climb aboard. It would then pick up the Elder outside of the dungeon and they could make their way to their capital – and hopeful cooperation.
There was now an open box of Large Energy Orbs filled with 20 of each element; at a cost of 800 Mana apiece to create the Elemental Orbs, that was the result of 128,000 total Mana – not to mention all the work that went into enchanting them so that they were now Energy Orbs. She hoped it was enough for the Rangers that were coming for their Bonds, otherwise she would have to make more if they were needed.
Gerold, the Shieldmen, and their constructs all returned triumphant and exhausted just before dawn to Sandra’s dungeon. A few of them had been hurt during the culling of the Goblins and Golems; fortunately, they had also been healed by the Repair Drone she had sent with them, so no one needed anything but sleep – which couldn’t be said for Gerold’s Deep Diver suit.
“As powerful and unique as it is, it just can’t compare to the armor that the other Shieldmen are using,” Gerold commented as he pulled himself out of the thoroughly dented suit, sweat running down his body and practically soaking his clothes. “While they use their elemental energy to prevent any damage from occurring, once I get a dent in my suit it stays that way until you can get a chance to repair it. I even think something is wrong with the left arm, which stopped working intermittently over the last hour.”
Indeed, when Sandra looked at it, she saw that the outside of the left of the metal Deep Diver suit was practically caved in; if something had hit it a little bit harder, it might’ve sheared through it completely and broken Gerold’s arm, if not doing something worse. The enchantment running through that section was also partially damaged from the heavy impact, which was probably why the Dwarf had been having trouble with it.
* Wow! What hit you? *
Sandra had only been paying the barest attention to the Dwarves as they fought through the forest – just enough to make sure they weren’t in trouble and to point them towards their next targets – so she hadn’t actually seen what happened.
“Uh…well, I wasn’t paying enough attention and got slammed by a Stone Golem from the side and sent flying into a tree,” Gerold admitted, scratching the back of his neck, and looking a bit shamefaced. “I think I was just getting tired from the night of running around and fighting, though that’s not really a good excuse. Regardless, the impact with the tree was enough to crack its trunk and break my back in the process; your healing construct helped to put me back together, at least, so thank you for that.”
That was a surprise; she hadn’t known he had been that hurt. Gerold was right, though; none of the other Shieldmen showed even the slightest bit of damage to their armor, despite her seeing them take some hits.
“I heard you flew at least 100 feet before hitting that tree,” Delarthe said seriously…before cracking a smile. “Nice distance, sir!”
“Ha ha, laugh it up. Tomorrow will be different – you’ll see!” Gerold good-naturedly slapped Delarthe on the shoulder and gestured them all to go further into the dungeon. “We just need to get some sleep…but first, a bath!”
“Wait…we can use that? I thought that was only for certain people…” Delarthe asked interestedly.
* Any of you can use the baths, including any of the villagers down below. In fact, when I get enough time, I might even make one down there for them; it’ll be a while, though, as I have a lot of other projects I’m working on. *
“Ooh, that’s good to know. I could use a bath as well after that night of glorious butchery,” Delarthe mentioned, before murmuring something else under his breath. “I could really use a drink, though.”
* That’s one of the things I’ll actually be working on. Another day or two should hopefully see some progress there. *
“Ah, very good!” All of the Dwarves smiled at that, and Sandra watched them head down to the baths and from there to bed for a long nap. They were planning on getting an earlier start than the day before, but they also needed to rest a little bit.
In other areas, the two Nets above her dungeon (the AMANS and GMANT) had both increased by another 400 constructs, which brought her daily influx of Mana to just over 500,000 – a small improvement, but an improvement, nonetheless. Not only that, but she also discovered that her Hyper Automatons who were technically “outside” of her dungeon, were also providing Mana as they worked to stabilize her tunnel. It was just a trickle, however, because they weren’t moving all that much at the moment and the opening to her actual dungeon was small, but it was better than nothing – and it opened up the potential to create some Nets underground later. She’d have to experiment to see if they would be worth it or not, though.
The tunnel to the collapsed Core room was a success; as soon as she got to where all of the Monster Seeds were buried, she started eliminating all of the excess dirt and stone that had fallen on top of it. Since she was where she needed to be and it didn’t matter how much she got rid of, Sandra used her Bulk Elimination ability and got rid of whole chunks of material that was sitting on top of the treasure hoard of seeds. It caused the roof to collapse a half dozen times, but eventually she had eliminated enough that it was nearly clear in a cubic space all the way up to the surface.
It didn’t take long for her Hyper Automatons to get to work, digging through the dirt and running back to Sandra’s dungeon with their prizes. She estimated that it would require about half of what was inside of the collapsed dungeon to recoup the cost of reaching the Core room, but she also had extra constructs and material in the shape of square-shaped steel tubing along with it. All of which she was planning on using again to reach the other 3 collapsed dungeons – and the Undead Classification one was the next on the list. Although it had been destroyed last, it was probably the richest out of all of them, and she didn’t want the new Dungeon Core that had cropped up nearby to get to it first.
The merchant in her felt that was like leaving valuable merchandise on display and then walking away; she had to secure it before she could move on.
Dawn broke shortly after everything she had going on was either wrapped up or was still in progress (it would take at least half a day for the Automatons to finish up), and with it brought a group of Elves cautiously making their way towards her dungeon from the direction of Avensglen. They had moved so quickly and efficiently from the village that Sandra missed seeing them at first, and after a momentary flash of panic, she saw the Elder at the front of the pack; and luckily, there were only a dozen Rangers behind her, which meant that she had more than enough Energy Orbs to complete the Bonding process – as well as enough Mana saved up. Now all she had to do was wait for them to arrive.
Chapter 14
About 5 minutes before they were set to arrive, Sandra sent out one of her Pegasi waiting in the workshop to show the Elder and accompanying Rangers to the secondary entrance where the Bearling lair used to reside. When they arrived at the large bowl carved into the landscape left by the Dungeon Core’s Gravitational Devastation Sphere, however, the Elder stopped in shock at the sight.
“What…what did this?”
Sandra had no way of communicating that, unfortunately, because Echo was just barely waking up down below. The Dungeon Core thought that it was prudent that the young Elf get as much sleep as possible, especially since it had been Sandra that had kept her up so late with the meeting in the Orcish village. That might’ve been a mistake, but there was nothing she could do about it at the moment. Instead of trying to find a way to answer, she just had her Pegasi walk through the workshop entrance; as she had hoped, the response was taken as an invitation and the Elves followed after it. Bows at the ready and prepared to defend the Elder with their li
ves, naturally, but they walked inside, nonetheless.
As soon as they passed over the threshold, the familiar muting of capabilities fell over her Core, and she felt cut off from being able to alter anything inside of her dungeon. That was the main reason she had worked so hard to finish all of her projects in the first place, because she knew that would happen; she was limited to giving orders to her Dungeon Monsters and creating new ones near her Core, but that was about it. Well, except for forming Bonds, of course.
She was prepared in other ways, as well – just in case the Elder turned out to be not on the up-and-up. Her traps were all armed and ready to go, every room was fully stocked with constructs, and there was even a quickly constructed – and thin – stone wall over the entrance to the Roc Tunnel. It wouldn’t stop anyone determined to get inside, but it would deter them for long enough for Sandra to prepare additional defenses. Either way, without creating brand-new rooms with which to add more traps and constructs or Dungeon Monsters, she was as prepared as she could be.
Still walking cautiously through the tunnel leading to the workshop (though the last half was basically open to the air now because of the Sphere), the Rangers fanned out and pointed their arrows towards anything and everything. Sandra couldn’t blame them overly much, because there was a lot that they could consider threatening; all of the constructs that had just come back with the Dwarves – which included the Mechanical Dire Wolves and Jaguar Queens, as well as the Steelclad Ape Warriors and Multi-access Repair Drones – were completely stationary, and lined up against one wall. The Deep Diver suit that Gerold had been using was standing on its own next to the wall, which looked threatening but was relatively harmless without someone inside. Added to all that, there were also 7 Radiant Pegasi standing stock still along the opposite wall, looking a lot more friendly than everything else, at least.
The Crafter's Darkness: A Dungeon Core Novel (Dungeon Crafting Book 4) Page 15