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

they would die from it.  It was profoundly unsettling listening to someone screaming like that, though it fortunately only lasted a few seconds.

The man was on his knees, panting hard.  “That…was much more intense than I thought it would be.”  He slowly got to his feet and Perceine saw that the colored balls that were on his palms were now in his palms.  They appeared as though they were now just a part of his body, and didn’t seem to be sticking out enough to mess with anything he might grip.  “Ok, so who’s first.”

Despite their bravery, their honor, and their strength in battle, none of the others volunteered to go first after witnessing that.  Perceine sighed and stepped forward.  “I’ll go first.  I started us on this path, so I might as well sacrifice myself first.”

“It’s not a sacrifice, it’s more of…an honor.  You’ll see.  Now, walk over to the box and pick out whatever colors call out to you.”  She didn’t really understand what he meant, but as soon as she got within a few steps of the box, she could immediately feel what he was talking about.  All of the yellow glowing balls were drawing her in, and she immediately picked one up and felt a rush of energy flowing through her.  She could sense that the small amount of Air elemental energy that she had used instinctively a little earlier to jump out of the way when she was startled was replenished.

“This is incredible,” she said out loud, wonder infusing her mind.  She turned to the others and tried to relay what she was feeling.  “My energy is being restored—”

The next moment, all thoughts of the world were blocked out as an incredible pain washed through her body, making her feel like she had been dipped in flesh-eating acid, her bones broken by some sort of giant, and her mind was being wrenched out of her head with a rusty sword.  She didn’t even feel it when her knees hit the floor, and she was practically deafened by her own scream.

Then, just as abruptly as it had come, the pain stopped and faded to nothing in less than two seconds.  She looked up, surprised to find herself on her knees, and then looked at her hand.  The yellow ball was now in her hand and she flexed it a couple of times to test the feeling of it; while she could sort of feel it there, it didn’t seem to hinder her movements at all.

* Welcome, Perceine.  Congratulations on being the first of my new mercenaries. *

Before she could strike out at the unknown voice seemingly coming from everywhere, the man spoke again.  “Calm down, that’s Sandra talking in your head.  She is the voice of the dungeon and she’s here to make you better fighters.  To help with that, she has assembled a…wow…uh, a large quantity of weapons for you to choose from, as well as armor to keep you safe.”

Perceine was in a bit of a daze as she followed the strange man to a collection of metal weapons on the floor further back into the room, and she was amazed at what she saw.  There were swords, of course, but there were also dozens of things she had never seen before or had only heard about.  Axes, hammers, knives, and a collection of other instruments of death greeted her, and all of them shone with the polished look of steel – or even titanium, which she had heard Palzerk mention the night before in the sword that he had received.

* Just look around and pick out what calls to you; keep in mind that you’re not limited to one weapon if you want more.  We’ll work it out from there. *

The voice only startled her for a moment, and she looked over everything, immediately looking at the swords because those were what she was accustomed to using.  As opposed to many others in her Warband, her own weapons rarely broke, because she used her Air energy to speed herself up enough to take advantage of its cutting edge to slice monsters apart.  She didn’t have quite the same sort of strength to slice them apart with powerful strikes, so she relied on speed and precision to get the job done.

With so many things to choose from, however, she looked them all over and – while they looked excellently crafted – none of them really called out to her.  Neither did the axes, hammers, and clubs she saw; there was a spear that looked intriguing, but she bypassed that as well because she imagined it would be harder to use with her speed.  It was only when she got to a collection of unusual weapons that she’d never even heard of – but could see the potential in – that she saw something that finally called out to her.

She picked it up and it immediately felt perfect for her.  It was what was essentially a double-bladed sword with extremely sharp blades on either end of a leather-wrapped grip; it felt perfectly balanced and she turned it in her hands so that it spun around a few times.  She had to use her Air energy to speed her hands up a little so as to not drop it, but it felt natural – and her energy automatically regenerated after she used it.

She smiled as she looked around, only to hear another primal scream coming from one of the others that came with her.  I think this might actually work out. 

Chapter 35

The next week was a blur of activity for Sandra, but it was a good blur.  After the initial group of Orcish mercenaries arrived and were Bonded, they chose surprisingly different weapons, but each of them seemed to suit their style.  The Orc that Bonded first chose a double-bladed sword of all things, which seemed to work