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

be fairly reasonable if he’s in a good mood, but when he wants something badly enough he cannot be deterred.  Why would he be here in the first place?”

* Uh, well, I’m afraid that’s my fault.  His son, Razochek, decided that I needed to be destroyed as well, and though I tried to deter him, I was forced to kill him when he invaded my dungeon. *

Sandra left Kelerim out of the conversation there, because although the Half-Dwarf/Half-Orc had technically done the deed, it was all basically because of Sandra that it had happened in the first place.

“Oh, well, I guess that explains it.”  The mercenary squared her shoulders up and waited for the invaders to arrive.

Shortly after the Elven rebels, Kelerim’s father, and approximately 500 Orc Warriors entered the Roc tunnel, the 4 hostile Dungeon Cores finished their newest additions to their own tunnels and emerged onto the surface.  Whether they knew there would be a meal waiting for them up there was a moot point, because as soon as they caught sight of 3,000 Orcs slowly trying to file into the secondary entrance, they swarmed to the feast with only a few seconds of hesitation.

The Orc Warriors, despite having no warning of the attack, rallied remarkably well.  Wielding only slightly better Iron swords than the ones she saw most of the local Warbands using, they immediately counterattacked with the same sort of savagery that Sandra was accustomed to seeing in her mercenaries.  Beasts were hacked apart with wild abandon, sometimes literally ripped apart with bare hands; Goblins were swarmed in turn, delimbed and decapitated with occasional joy on the faces of the Warriors as they did it; Slimes were attacked so quickly and thoroughly that they were split into dozens of pieces as their nuclei were destroyed; most of the Golems were hacked apart as well, though the process was very rough on the Orc’s weaponry.

The casualties on the Orcs’ side were growing significantly, as well.  The slam of Mana being funneled into her shortly after the massive battle began above her dungeon staggered her mind.  Hundreds of Orcs were killed within the first few seconds, and hundreds of thousands of units of Mana were inserted into her Core nearly instantly, and it was all she could do to keep up with it.  Sandra used most of it to create more constructs – Mechanical Dire Wolves and Jaguar Queens, as well as Titanium Anacondas (which were all fast enough to reach the battle from her main entrance quickly) – and sent them to help the Orcs.  Sandra’s mercenaries, the Shieldmen with their constructs, and the Elves with their Wyvines were on their way as well, though it would take nearly 10 minutes for the first to arrive.

While the constant influx of Mana from the deaths of the Orcs wasn’t exactly unwelcome, the emotional impact on her mind certainly was.  Each death and subsequent spike in Mana was like a jab at her psyche, as she realized that people were dying and though she was taking actions to stop it, a small part of her mind wanted it to continue.  Each death made Sandra that much more powerful and that part inside her Core that encouraged the death was steadily growing stronger and louder in her mind.

She was able to hold on to her sanity, though barely, because she had to; if she let go, there was no telling what would happen.  She identified that part of her that was telling her to help the other Dungeon Monsters and sequestered it to a portion of her mind that she did her best to ignore, though it was hard.  Her only hope was that Perceine would be able to convince Kelerim’s father and the rebel Elves to help the Orcs dying outside instead of pursuing their objective of destroying her Core.

Within minutes of the battle outside starting, the group inside her Roc tunnel journeyed far enough to see Perceine and the Goblins surrounding her for protection.

Chapter 38

“Who are you?  What is a Warrior doing down here?” the Warlord immediately stepped forward and asked Perceine.

Sandra watched and concentrated on the entire exchange, while she tried to ignore the death and destruction happening up above.

“My name is unimportant; I’m a mercenary working under the direction of this dungeon.  She asks that you turn around and help our people because they are being slaughtered behind you.”

“Being slaughtered by this dungeon!  Why are you working with such an abomination?”  The Ranger known as Wyrlin asked the question with anger in his voice before he turned away and said to the others with him, “See, I told you that this dungeon seems to be able to influence people, just like they did with my Echo and our Elites sent to destroy it.  Now it seems to have made slaves of your people, too.”  The Warlord seemed to ignore the Ranger, but Sandra could tell that he was listening.

“You don’t understand!” Perceine shouted.  “Those monsters out there aren’t from this dungeon; they’re from four different dungeons surrounding the wastelands from the Elven and Dwarven lands.  I as well as nearly 50 others have been employed by Sandra to fight those dungeons, and now it’s trying to destroy her because she’s preventing them from expanding.”  Perceine pleaded with them and was sincere in her explanation, but it fell on deaf ears.

“Sandra?” Wyrlin said with a question in his voice, as if he was trying to recall something.  “That’s the name of this dungeon heart?  I seem to remember it from what Echo had mentioned, so now I’m sure that this is the right one.  It has you under its influence and you don’t even know it.  Even if those monsters are from other dungeons, I bet it summoned them when it found out we were coming to destroy it.”  The scorn in his voice was almost visible, it was so