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

I…can see that.  Doesn’t help me, though.

Sandra was thoroughly disappointed because she thought she had a winner in the Animated Slab.  She was sure she could still find a use for her new Dungeon Monster, even if transportation were out of the question.  Or, at least, long-distance travel; if she was delivering goods to the nearby villages, then the Slab might be a great way to haul literal tons of supplies.  She could sense, when she was directing it, that it would take something like the extremely heavy, condensed material created from her use of the Gravitational Devastation Sphere to really weigh it down in any significant capacity.

Regardless of its not-so-ideal use as a long-range transportation service Monster, Sandra could see a lot of potential use for the Animated Slab inside of her dungeon.  The previous thought of it being used as a Monster-based trap was obvious, but it was also fairly powerful in its own right as a formidable foe – it was made of stone after all.  Naturally, attacks that could shatter rocks and stones would be particularly effective against it, though not a lot else would be; even more than her constructs, Fire-based attacks wouldn’t harm it, nor would many other element-based spells or effects.  It wasn’t perfect, by any means, but if used in certain scenarios, the Slab could be a particularly useful addition to her defenses.

I guess I better check out what the other Monster is, before going back and seeing which one of the others might work.

Without further delay, Sandra pulled up her Advancement Menu again and purchased the Aerie Roc Dungeon Monster for use in her dungeon.

New Dungeon Monster unlocked through Advancement!

Avians (Air):

Aerie Roc now available!

Aerie Roc

Mana Cost: 35000 Mana

What?!  Noooo! 

Winxa immediately looked worried.  “What’s wrong?” she asked in a panic.

This Aerie Roc is too expensive.  I can’t afford it even with the reduction—

Sandra stopped her thoughts as she considered a potential way around that for a moment; after doing some mental calculations, as well as looking at what AP she had available, the Dungeon Core hovered back and forth over her decision.  On the one hand, she was planning on expanding her Area of Influence, so that she could begin to see a bigger picture of what was happening around her concerning the other Dungeon Cores, which would take 50 of her remaining 82 AP to accomplish.

On the other hand, she really needed to contact the leadership of the other races to help with the defense of their own people, and to do that, she needed a Dungeon Monster that could fulfill the role of transportation – and be fast about it; while she didn’t necessarily know if the Aerie Roc would be the one to do that, none of the other prospects she had looked promising.  However, to even have a chance to see if it would or not, she’d have to purchase another reduction in the Mana Cost of her Dungeon Monsters – which would require 60 AP.  It would also benefit her in the long run by being able to expand her different Absorption Nets faster, so that was a definite plus.  She was almost positive – based on past increases to her Maximum Mana – that even if she upgraded her Core Size once, she still wouldn’t be able to create an Aerie Roc with her current 30% reduction.

So, she was weighing the benefits of both; either selection would ultimately benefit the people of all the lands as well as Sandra’s own needs, but only one of her selections would help her out immediately.  The Dungeon Core hesitated all of two seconds before she went ahead and purchased the next Advancement to the Mana Cost of Dungeon Monsters reduction, making everything cost 45% less Mana, and saw that the next – and last available in that particular option – Advancement would be 120 AP.

Another, stronger wrench inside of her Core occurred as the new Advancement took effect, and when she pulled up her Advancement Creation Options again, she was relieved to see that the Aerie Roc was now only 19,250 Mana to create – which was just barely possible with her maximum Mana.  Fortunately, all of her time spent playing around with the Animated Slab had gained her a large part of that through absorption in and outside of her dungeon, so she didn’t have long to wait.

She moved her new Slab into the final defensive room in her dungeon, where her last Iron-plated Behemoth was located with some other stand-in constructs.  After the Elite Elves had attacked and killed most of the older Behemoths, because of her Advanced Classification she couldn’t replace them with the new Steel-plated Behemoths she had access to; even now, with the additional reduction in Mana Cost, Sandra couldn’t create them because they still cost 22,000 – which would be achievable during her next Core Size upgrade, at least.

Another Tiny Automaton brought out from her treasury the very last Small Dragon Glass Sliver she had available and placed it down below her Core just as before.  As she impatiently waited for her Mana to tick up to what she needed to create the new Monster, Sandra noticed that Winxa had left at some point.  Looking around and not seeing the dungeon Fairy, she mentally shrugged; she must’ve left for something important.

Finally, after just under 10 minutes of additional waiting, she had enough Mana to finally create the Aerie Roc.  A portal opened up in her Home room and Winxa came back just as Sandra was completing the infusion of Mana inside of the Shard.

“I figured I’d try to find out more about this Aerie Roc for you before you spent any more of your Advancement—wait!” Winxa shouted, as she saw the Monster Seed take the Mana and start to form the Aerie Roc.  “There’s something you