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

and turned to Furbrea.  “Sorry for the damage to your supply hut.  Here, take this sword as recompense, because this honor-less thief trash that can’t follow simple orders doesn’t need it anymore.  And, if you would, could you take care of his disposal?  I don’t even want to look at him,” he said as he handed the sword over to her and walked away.

Before he walked more than a few steps, he turned and said, “Though I do appreciate him doing me the kindness of demonstrating how important good armor is.  I’m happy to wear mine now.”  The rest of the Warband followed him back to the barracks, none of them looking back at their fallen member.

Hmph.  I think I’ll take care of that in the morning.  Darn thief interrupted my sleep.  She did grab the dead Orc’s arms and dragged him around the side of the supply hut and out of visible range, but the rest of the work she would do the next day.  She had a feeling she was going to need sleep over the next few days, especially as Palzerk and his Warband shared the news of their deal.

It didn’t take long for her to get back to sleep, with a smile on her face at how well everything had worked out.

Chapter 34

Finally, after what felt like weeks – but was instead short of a week, in fact – the Orcs had finally come through and some had taken the deal she had set up earlier.  True, it was only 7 of them in total, but that was a good start to building up her force of mercenaries that could be used in a variety of situations.  Sandra was also proud of the way Furbrea handled the situation, laying everything out so that they could choose for themselves.  It probably also helped that their Leader seemed a decent sort, entirely unlike Kelerim’s half-brother, Razochek – who was more than a bit of a hothead.

Before they even finished talking and getting acquainted with their new weapons and armor (which she was glad to see that they appreciated the chest protection, even if it felt awkward to them at first), Sandra was already assembling a care package of sorts for the Warband for when they left in the morning.  She put together a bunch of bread that the Dwarves had left over from the day’s baking (which they stored in a separate Stasis Field container they asked her to create) and some more fruit, including apples, peaches, and oranges.

She then cooked up some meat and then created another container of wood that was basically a cube that was 2 feet wide on each side, placed the still-warm meat inside and then enchanted it with two of her Violet copies, pumping most of their Spirit energy into a Stasis Field.  It would only last for a couple of weeks with the energy inside of the enchantment because she didn’t want to include any Energy Orbs along with it.  For now, until she had some way to regulate who received them in Orcrim, it was safer that they didn’t have them; she had learned and seen for herself that life wasn’t necessarily a priority for many of the Orcs, and Energy Orbs were something that might cause others to covet – and kill for them, as well.  There was a slight risk of that happening with the swords she was trading away, but they were a known commodity compared to the “mysterious” power of the Energy Orbs.

She also crafted some more chest armor to replace those that were taken, and then included – from Kelerim’s stack of finished Steel swords – additional weapons to her care package and loaded it all onto her Animated Slab.  Sandra also created two more Steelclad Apes with normal warhammers to stand guard over the supply transport, as additional security; she still wanted to be safe, and having some visual evidence of her (or the “Elves’”) power was paramount.

Before night even fell completely, the Slab was on the way, floating slowly over the wasteland towards the town of Grongbak.  It would get there far before morning – before midnight in fact – but she was prepared to park it right outside the village and wait until everyone rose for the day before going inside to drop the supplies off and pick up her new mercenaries.  Thinking of them coming, Sandra became exceedingly excited; these were the first people that were coming to her dungeon that she would be able to “customize” how she wanted.  It sounded silly in a way, and skeeved her out a little thinking them as hers – because they weren’t her slaves or anything like that – but the fact remained was that they were coming to her with essentially nothing, and no previous method of using their elemental energy that would hamper her equipping of them.

The Gnomes were practically useless by themselves in battle, though she did witness them using temporary enchantments to aid them; still, in a one-on-one fight against most of the dangerous Dungeon Monsters around the area, they didn’t stand a chance without some sort of enchanted gadgetry like the War Machine or Deep Diver.  Then, of course, they were extremely formidable.

The Elves preferred to primarily attack from long range or use their elemental energy to cast spells, which was fine and worked well for them.  She was able to at least improve upon their bows and their arrows/bolts, as well as giving them a Monster to assist them, but she would have difficulty molding them to do something else.  For instance, while Porthel – the Elite Leader that had invaded her dungeon – attacked with a Titanium sword, he seemed to be in the minority and Sandra couldn’t think of a single Ranger that would be suited to doing that.

 The Dwarves had their own superbly crafted weapons and armor (other than Gerold, unfortunately),