The Crafter's Dungeon: A Dungeon Core Novel (Dungeon Crafting Book 1) by Jonathan Brooks (literature books to read TXT) 📕

Sandra could understand that.  Just being able to create her own dungeon monsters was like a miracle to her, and all she wanted to do was keep making them for some reason.  She figured it was some innate “need” inside of a Core that made them want to keep producing more and expanding their reach, but fortunately she wasn’t dominated by that need.  While She could feel it strongly, she could also ignore it pretty easily.

What’s next?

Now that she had reevaluated her size with a new perspective, the newborn Dungeon Core realized she was barely a tiny speck in the middle of some sort of underground structure.  In fact, if Winxa was being truthful about her height (and Sandra had very little reason to doubt her), then her “cave” was probably no more than a foot or a foot-and-a-half in diameter where she had eaten away at the wall.

“Well, now comes a lot of boring digging, some more digging, and then you sprinkle in some dungeon/Core development.  Let me go over a few things to get you started and then you can get to it.

“First, while I don’t have an exact location of where you are in relation to the land aboveground, I can tell you that you are at least 300 feet from the surface – possibly more.  It is standard, even in your special case, for new Dungeon Cores to be far underground to keep them safe while they are developing, otherwise they could be destroyed by something as innocuous as a bunny.”

Winxa must’ve sensed some sort of incredulity in Sandra’s mind, because she added, “And I’m not kidding.  While you look like an ‘enchanted diamond’ like I heard you thinking earlier, you’re actually more like fragile glass than one of the hardest gemstones around.  If a cute little bunny rabbit were to kick you with its hind legs, you could shatter and then that would be it.

“Which brings me to my second tidbit of information: protect your Core!  It’s not extremely vital right now, but you’re going to want to have some sort of defenses in place once you break free to the surface.  And I know I mentioned that it’s doubtful that any of the sentient races might be around here, but keep in mind that wild animals abound everywhere – and remember what I said about bunny rabbits,” the Dungeon Fairy added, with a small smile on her face.

Ok, that makes sense, but how—

“Don’t worry, by the time you need to set up some traps around this place, I’ll be back to help guide you through that part.”

Wait, are you leaving—

“Yes, but it’s only because I want to look into your situation and try to find out more about what’s going on with you.  Don’t worry, you’ll be fine while I’m gone, and I’ll be back in no time.

“Ok, where was I…oh, yeah.  Third, I want to show you how to create more Monster ‘seeds’ so that you can have more than one monster at a time, as well as increasing the size and strength of your current options.  As you no doubt can see, the Tiny Copper Orb I gave you was essentially ‘consumed’ by the creation of your spider here.”

Her Dungeon Fairy seemed to be flitting from subject to subject, as if something had gotten into Winxa’s head that was forcing her to speed through all of the information she was supposed to impart.  Instead of interrupting, however, Sandra just let her go because she was actually interested to see what she could figure out on her own.  Years of watching crafters of all types perform their little miracles made her itch to create something herself, and as a Dungeon Core she didn’t have to worry about crippled and deformed hands preventing it.

“So, you’re going to create another Tiny Copper Orb, but to do that you’re going to need more Raw Material and Mana.  Do you see why Mana is so important now?” Winxa asked, a smile still on her face.  “Now, the amount of ambient Mana that you can absorb around your Core is probably still quite low, and that will only increase by a tiny amount even if you increase your Core Size.  But,” she said while holding up a finger like she was trying to make a point, before pointing at her Clockwork Spider, “you have an additional means of gathering it up.  Go ahead and take control of your dungeon monster and have it walk around your little room here.”

Since she was already lightly connected to Spider while she was looking through its eyes, Sandra delved inside again. Once she was firmly inside her construct, she tried to directly move each of its legs to walk…but nothing happened.  Not even a twitch.

What’s going on?  Why can’t I get it to move?

“Uh…try to just direct it where you want it to go instead of trying to move it yourself.  Your…hmm…‘minds’ aren’t quite compatible, so you aren’t able to control it directly.  With a more humanoid-looking monster, you’d most likely have more control,” Winxa explained.

Sandra did what the Dungeon Fairy recommended, stepping back from trying to do it herself and just sent her thoughts toward her monster.  Almost before she finished the thought, her Clockwork Spider began to move.  Each time one of its legs moved forward and struck the ground, a small *tink* noise sounded from it striking the mostly stone surface of the cave floor.  Definitely not going to sneak up on anybody.

Without much room to roam, the newborn Dungeon Core directed her construct to move around the room, taking care to avoid running into the Fairy when it made a full circuit.  Judging by the way it ponderously made its way around the cave, Sandra doubted it had the flexibility to do everything a “normal”