The Crafter's Darkness: A Dungeon Core Novel (Dungeon Crafting Book 4) by Jonathan Brooks (e book reading free txt) 📕

Time…time…huh…I wonder…

“What are you thinking of, Sandra?” Winxa asked, after hearing her unfocused thoughts.

Well, it’s like this….  The Dungeon Core explained the problem and her thoughts on a potential solution.

“It sounds plausible, but enchantments are your thing, not mine.”  Sandra considered the possibilities of success while she started to make a few dozen small barrels made of Oak Wood for Glencha and then helped her char them to her specifications, and then a few dozen larger barrels for Teving.  The Brewer didn’t really need them yet, but he approved of the size, which was small enough that he could move them himself, while still large enough to hold what he needed.

She found that she could make the barrels using her Mundane Object Creation skill, which ended up being one solid piece with a hole on top.  The hole was plugged up by a simple ridged wedge of wood that was hammered inside, stopping any liquid from coming out.  The charring was done in a separate room that had basic Fire and Water traps inside, where Glencha could activate a hot flame for the length of time she needed and then quench it with the water.  The smoke produced by the process she absorbed automatically, so that it didn’t suffocate everyone inside her dungeon.  She briefly thought about taking the time to actually craft the barrels herself – and she certainly would attempt to later if she had time – but for now she wanted to test out her other idea.

* I think I have an idea of how to age these faster, and since there isn’t any fermentation going on, it shouldn’t explode, right? *

Glencha seemed dubious.  “Well, no, but the aging has to be done over time so that it can soak up the flavor of the oak barrel – which should be charred slightly on the inside; this also smooths out the harshness inherent in the liquor.  I don’t think you can replicate that.”

* Let me try my idea on a barrel or two, and if it doesn’t work then we can age it naturally. *

She still seemed unconvinced, but Glencha shrugged anyway.  “Go ahead and use as many barrels as you need; we wouldn’t even have this without your help, so it’s as much yours as it is ours.”

With her permission, and after she filled up a half-dozen barrels of perfectly clear, amber liquid from the Distillery, Sandra brought in an Unstable Shapeshifter in the form of Violet – though the Gnome copy was clothed this time.  The Core had gotten a bit of experience over the last few days creating Stasis Fields, which was exactly what she wanted to do here.  Except, instead of freezing time inside the field, she wanted to speed it up.

So, she created the normal Stasis Field enchantment using a trickle of Spirit energy, but instead of it looking normal, she inverted the entire enchantment sequence.  She had practice doing it a couple of times before she thought she had it right, but even then it looked…off somehow.  The normal sequence wasn’t intended to be inverted, obviously, so no matter what she did it just appeared wrong; after triple-checking that she had it right, she infused it with a bit more Spirit energy to complete the enchantment.  Thankfully, it didn’t blow up or anything else horrible, though it likely wouldn’t have done too much damage because there was just enough energy in there to establish the enchantment and not much more.

Then, she took a pair of Spirit Energy Orbs she had brought with her and enchanted them so that they could be used to power the inverted Stasis Field—or she could call it an Aging Field, if it worked—and took an educated guess on how to adjust the Limiter rune connecting the Orbs.  She’d had some experience by that time with figuring out how the convenient rune worked, so she was fairly confident that it would be successful as she placed the small barrel of Whiskey inside the Field.

Or…she could be wrong.  It had happened before.

The Aging Field worked, alright – just a little too well.  Within seconds of being placed inside, the wood started to age rapidly, first with small cracks along the outside as it dried out, turning grey as “time” moved on, before a major leak was sprung and the Whiskey poured out, only to evaporate into nothing as soon as it touched the air.  Another few seconds went by and the wood started to crumble apart, turning to a big pile of dust before 30 seconds passed.

* Ok, so that wasn’t calibrated quite right, but the concept is sound.  Let me make some adjustments. *

The look of shock and horror on Glencha’s and Teving’s faces made her laugh a little inside her mind, but it was more laughing at herself than anything.  She had forgotten that because the enchantment was inverted, she had inadvertently turned the energy transfer up instead of keeping it down low.  In fact, the Tiny Spirit Orbs she had used were half the size they started at and were still shrinking by the time she pulled them away with her Violet copy.

It took nearly an hour and a dozen different tests to get it right, but after that time she thought she had calibrated it accurately.  The Limiter rune was now set so that for every second that passed with the Orbs connected to the Aging Field, 1 month would pass.  All they had to do was place the barrel inside the Field area (she made a larger one for Teving in the Brewery rooms) and then step back, place the Orbs so that they were touching the enchantment (she also carved a circle into the stone to show where it was located) and then count out how long they