The grains of both the Wheat and Barley had to dry after they were harvested and threshed, because they had too much moisture to make proper use of them. That required additional rooms – created with her Bulk Elimination ability – that would each serve as both a storage and rapid drying facility. Her constructs separated each type of grain and transported them to the different storage rooms using simple stone buckets where they would dump them inside. The drying function was added using a variation of the heated drying air in the bath room Sandra had created higher up in her dungeon. In the Wheat room she made the Air and Fire-based trap in there heat up the air so that it was quite hot while circulating rapidly. The Barley room had the same circulation, but she set the temperature of the air much lower after being informed by the Dwarves that low-heat drying produced better Barley grains.
While they were drying, Sandra created another room that would do the milling of the wheat grains into flour. The Dwarves only had a small millstone that they used to feed their village; they shipped the rest of the grains that were originally grown in the village back to their mountain strongholds instead of milling it beforehand because the grains traveled better and lasted longer in their original form. The millstone they used in their village was similar to ones Sandra had seen before, which was basically two circular-cut stones on top of each other that would be turned by hand, grinding the grains into flour as it gradually pushed the powder out to the edges of the stones. From there, it usually fell into some sort of box or container where it could be collected.
She’d seen larger stones that were turned by harnessed beasts or by a waterwheel if the millhouse were on the edge of a river, but all of them used basically the same principle. Regardless of how large or heavy the stone was, though, the ground-up grains were almost always coarse after the first pass through the millstones and had to be re-fed through at least once – or sometimes three or four times – through the hole in the middle of the top stone, where it would fall down again between the stones and become finer.
Fortunately, she had something else in mind; Mana-fueled traps that could do the work without having to turn them manually.
She started with creating a large smooth stone basin that was 10 feet across and had a steep slanted base to it, so that any flour falling into the basin would automatically funnel itself down to a point on the front where it could be collected. In the middle of the basin, she placed a set of circular millstones one on top of each other, with a hole in the middle of the top stone; the stones themselves were approximately 3 feet wide and 6 inches thick, which gave them some hefty weight – perfect for milling. Above that set of millstones, she created a circular smooth stone funnel attached to the wall, of the same dimensions as the basin down below; this would concentrate anything that fell into it through the central point of the funnel, so that it would fall down into the millstones below.
Above this stone funnel, Sandra placed another set of millstones, which was a difficult process in and of itself. She had to first attach six long Steel poles through the stone of the nearby wall, which extended out above the funnel; to the point where they all intersected, she fused them all together using her Mana and created a platform where she could place the millstones. These ones were a little thinner than the ones on the bottom, but they were still more than heavy enough to get the job done.
Then, she just repeated all that she had done three more times until they stretched almost to the ceiling. In order to reach the top, she removed a portion of the nearby wall behind the milling station and created a set of stone steps that wound up and behind it, where a short ramp fed right into a large funnel-shaped hole in the top millstone. All that anyone or anything had to do to deposit grain in there would be to tip their bucket or whatever into the short ramp, and the rest would take care of itself – especially once she added the Earth-based trap to the millstones.
The Wheat grains were finished long before the Barley grains, because those would take a day or more to dry out to where they could be used; as a result, a few hours before mid-day Sandra had the first of the loads of dried Wheat grains brought into the milling room and deposited into the top set of millstones. The grains fell into the hole, which activated the trap Sandra had placed earlier; all of the stones began to rotate in place, including the bottom stones of each pair, though they rotated the opposite direction from the one on top. Unlike the smooth stone of the funnels and collecting basin down below, the millstones had a rougher texture, so that they could really dig into and grind the grains down to a fine flour.
It took about 10 minutes for the first bit of Wheat to fully pass through every millstone, and started to collect on the bottom basin. By that time, the once-coarse grains were now a fine whitish-beige powder, which would be perfect for being made into breads for baking – or for whatever else the Dwarves wanted to use it for.
Thankfully, one enterprising villager had thought to bring some dough starter from their village as they fled, which had the necessary yeast inside of it to allow the bread to rise. Sandra had an idea where to get more yeast if it were necessary – from the outside rind of older fruit left out to decompose – but thankfully that wasn’t required. With the Wheat flour and starter – and with the Wheat and Barley fields completely harvested – some of the villagers came to help with the preparing and proofing of the dough, which meant letting it sit and start to expand and rise from the yeast. Once it had risen enough, they would bake it, but that would be at least a few hours.
Meanwhile, the Hops were harvested by hand—Shear, actually. The way Hops were grown, the Rhizome was planted under the ground with a tall rough wooden pole sticking straight up from the ground; when the bines grew from the Rhizome, it would wrap itself around the wooden pole and grow all the way up to the top, twisting around and around while securing itself into place using tiny little hairs on the bine against the pole. When they were ready to be harvested, little green pinecone-looking berries were grown and had to be plucked off one by one – which was where two dozen Shears came into play.
Sandra instructed her flying constructs to go around the upright bines of Hops and start snipping the buds off. When they hit the ground, she had more Automatons there to pick up and gather them, where they were able to be placed in a separate storage area until they would be ready to be used. She was told that she could dry them first, but was also informed that they worked best when they were relatively fresh.
Lastly, the potatoes that were grown were a different plant altogether. Instead of there being a visible sign of their being finished growing above the ground, the potatoes were grown completely below ground with just a flowering plant that emerged to soak in the light from her growing room. Fortunately, Sandra’s Natural Mana in the trap she had designed was able to mature the potato plants enough that their potato tubers underneath the soil were large and relatively uniform in shape. The problem was the harvesting, because it required digging up the entire plant to get to the roots and potatoes down below the dirt. Luckily, Sandra had a solution to that as well.
Three Automated Sharp-bladed Diggers were put to task digging up the rows of potatoes that were ready to be harvested. They were able to dig down far enough into the soil that they could pull out entire plants with everything below attached to them, where they then deposited them in a pile where more Sentinels were there to pluck the potatoes from the uprooted plant. The excess dirt was then eliminated by Sandra and replaced in the rows using her Mana, and some of the potatoes harvested were then replanted to grow again. The rest of the potatoes harvested – and there were a lot – were placed in another large room that had very low ambient light and moisture, which would hopefully prevent the produce from going bad for quite a while. None of the Dwarves were needed for the entire operation, though they were glad to have potatoes that they could prepare and eat right away.
By the time all of the harvesting and preparation was finished, the bread was ready to be baked; the first scents of freshly baked loaves of bread f
rom the oven in the Dwarves’ kitchen must have been glorious, because it didn’t take long for Gerold and the Shieldmen to wake up and make their way to the adjacent dining room, led by their stomachs. Not for the first time, Sandra wished that she still had a body that could smell and eat, because she vividly remembered those smells from when she was alive, and watching the steaming loaves coming out of the makeshift oven she had created for the Dwarves made her imaginative stomach rumble.
While she had overseen the harvesting and milling all morning, Sandra hadn’t been idle. In addition to the various extra constructs needed for the process, the milling room, and the creation of additional storage rooms for each of the harvested items, the Core had also been using her Mana to increase her Nets above her dungeon and on additional constructs for the Dwarves. While her absorption of ambient Mana outside of her dungeon was steadily increasing with additional Shears and Tarantulas, Sandra was starting to see a significant jump in the amount of Mana she was receiving from her Hyper Automatons bringing back the Monster Seeds from the collapsed Reptile dungeon.
She was automatically absorbing all of the smaller Seeds that were created from Copper, Iron, and even Clay – which added up to a lot of Mana over a few hours – but was having anything larger or worth more Mana brought back to her treasury so that she could use them to create more Dungeon Monsters. These Seeds mainly ranged from Tiny Faceted Sapphire Spheres to the Large Faceted Sapphire Sphere that the massive hydra protecting the Water-based Reptile Classification Core had dropped. She found that, because she had unlocked the smaller sizes of the Spheres, all it took was an example of them being inside of her dungeon to unlock the larger sizes…not that she’d be able to create anything larger than the small size anytime soon.
Monster Seed Origination
Name:
Raw Material Cost:
Mana Cost (30% Reduction):
Min. Mana:
Max. Mana:
Tiny Faceted Sapphire Sphere
12000
2450
3500
8500
Small Faceted Sapphire Sphere
24000
4900
3500
17000
Average Faceted Sapphire Sphere
96000
19600
3500
68000
Large Faceted Sapphire Sphere
192000
39200
3500
136000
The Large Faceted Sapphire Sphere was almost impossibly expensive both in terms of Raw Materials and Mana, which seemed strange that the theoretically less-powerful Dungeon Core would’ve been able to create it in the first place. However, Sandra also remembered that Winxa had mentioned that some dungeons acquired the ability to create element-aligned Monster Seeds at a much-reduced cost.
This was obviously evidence of that, as it would likely prove to be inside of the Undead dungeon when she plundered that next; the massive Undead that were in the final room next to the Nether Core’s room had to have similar Seeds when they dropped. There was so much down there that it was hard to pinpoint exactly what was what, however, so it would have to wait until it was excavated.
Therefore, with all of the Mana coming in, she had enough to add an additional 4 Mechanical Dire Wolves and Jaguar Queens (2 of each), and 2 more Steelclad Ape Warriors to the team of Dwarves that were quickly eating and preparing to go back out to cull some more Dungeon Monsters. They were getting an earlier start than the day before, which should hopefully allow them to eliminate every remaining Dungeon Monster that was within range of the two dungeons. There weren’t any more added to what was out there before, so it shouldn’t be too difficult; the Cores hadn’t finished their Core Size upgrades, obviously, so they weren’t creating any more to replace what had been lost already.
I have got to stop doing that.
Almost as if the Goblin and Golem-Classification Dungeon Cores were waiting for Sandra to think about them, she felt a change in their Area of Influence within minutes of each other. She was hoping that it was just coincidence that they finished their Core Size upgrades instead of some devious plan hatched by the two Cores; if they were working together already, despite their AOIs not even overlapping yet, then she might be in trouble. As it was, their Areas of Influence had expanded at least 400 feet in all directions from their dungeons, which brought them both to the edge of the forest. Another Core Size upgrade (or possibly two) would likely bring them butting up against each other, which would also swallow up the Dwarven village of Nurboldar at that time.
* Gerold – the dungeon’s Area of Influence just expanded, so now they can come right up to the edge of the forest. There is even more territory to the north and west that I cannot reach, so all of you will be on your own clearing those sections out with the constructs. Be careful; I can already see a scattering of new Goblins and Golems leaving the dungeon entrances. *
All of the Shieldmen including Gerold had just left her dungeon, so if they hurried they could still stay ahead of everything. The extra constructs she was supplying to them would certainly help at least, though it would take constant vigilance on their part to maintain low enough levels of Dungeon Monsters to prevent further expansion.
“Thanks, Sandra; we’ll show them that we can take care of whatever they throw at us.”
Gerold’s words were confident, as they should be; he and the others had done an excellent job of culling the Monsters there the evening and night before, and they would do more of the same today. She just hoped they didn’t grow overconfident and make mistakes, or that the dungeons wised up and switched tactics, or sent out some Monsters that the two groups couldn’t handle, or any number of other issues that might arise that she hadn’t thought of yet.
As it was, there wasn’t much more that Sandra could do because her resources were already stretched a little thin with trying to supply the Dwarves living inside her dungeon with what they needed, creating more Energy Orbs and weapons for the Elves, and adding more constructs to what the Shieldmen were using to cull the nearby forests of Monsters. Not to mention that she had to make another Aerie Roc for Gerold to travel to his people’s mountain strongholds in the morning. Oh, and she also had to prepare for the Orcs and the mercenaries that would be coming, as well as crafting more weapons and Energy Orbs for the Warbands.
Still, with all those things that she had to do, things were looking fairly good around the wastelands. The Elves and Dwarves were handling themselves well and the assistance Sandra was giving them was making a real difference. Glancing around the forests near Avensglen, she could see that all of the Rangers with the new bows had taken the time to adjust them, and they were using those weapons and an increased amount of their elemental energies on spells that assisted them in their hunts. While the ones that had been bonded already had Energy Orbs provided to them previously, the additional Orbs in their palms were doubling their energy regeneration – and they were taking advantage of the increase with controlled abandon. Sandra even caught a few of them smiling as if they had acquired a new toy…which she guessed was kind of the case.
However, despite all of that going well, she was worried. It wasn’t necessarily about the wastelands because she thought she could react quickly enough to hopefully prevent any disasters from happening; no, she was worried about the rest of the Dungeon Cores that were out of her range. That was why she was so adamant about getting help from the larger population of races and their leadership, because she couldn’t do everything. With Gerold leaving the next morning (which he didn’t actually know about yet), she was confident she had done everything she could to secure that help, while still maintaining the safety of those in and around her dungeon.
Because of her presence there and her actions, even if what happened wasn’t all her fault, she still felt the responsibility to help everyone. There were still some things that she could do, of course, which she was planning on doing soon: like upgrading her own Core Size now that
she didn’t have to worry about “mentoring” benefits. It would allow her to extend her own reach significantly, which would allow her to see more of what was happening outside of her little corner of the world. But until she got everything as under control as she could, shutting herself down while she upgraded her Core Size was a bit dangerous.
It needed to happen soon, though, or it might be too late. For all she knew, it might be too late already.
Chapter 16
Sandra spent the rest of the day and night working on getting to the point where she thought she would be safe to upgrade. Looking at the Orcs, she saw that they were making no progress quite yet – not that she expected anything so soon. They were still adequate on supplies for the time being, but within the next few days she was planning on making a delivery with foodstuffs and weapons; until that time, she was concentrating on wrapping everything else up.
Reducing her Net expansion to just 10% of her incoming Mana again, she ramped up production of Energy Orbs of different sizes, both to be distributed as is and for use in more composite bows that the Elves were using. She crafted two dozen more of those bows along with their normal bolts and explosive bolts (which would easily equip all of the Rangers in the village). She also finished the plundering of the collapsed Reptile dungeon and started the tunnel towards the Undead dungeon with her Hyper Automatons, which was much easier now that she had most of the materials already at hand; she was also happy to see that the Reptile tunnel collapsed on its own once the Steel tubing was removed, so she didn’t have to worry about it being another access point.
The Crafter's Darkness: A Dungeon Core Novel (Dungeon Crafting Book 4) Page 17