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

need to know about—”  She didn’t finish her warning, though, as a gigantic shape started to coalesce beneath her Core.  The Dungeon Fairy abruptly shot up towards the ceiling as if to avoid something – and for good reason.

To say the Aerie Roc was large was a vast understatement.  Her Home room – which she had previously expanded to 100 feet tall and twice that wide – suddenly felt cramped as the Roc materialized beneath her.  In fact, the back of the massive bird (and what a bird it was) nearly touched her Core which floated in the middle of the room, 50 feet of the floor.  It took her a moment to really take in exactly what she was seeing, and when she finally saw it she mentally smiled, figurative ear to figurative ear.

The Aerie Roc was a dirty brown-colored hawk-like bird that was at least 100 feet long from beak to tail feathers as well as 30 feet wide, and its eyes were level with her Core when it turned around towards her.  Two large feet were on the end of thin, feather-down-covered legs, though their talons didn’t look particularly powerful or deadly.  In fact, they appeared almost blunted, as if they had been filed down for some reason; still, being picked up by the Roc and squeezed by those enormous feet probably wouldn’t feel all that great.

Its feathers lying down its back appeared coarse and thick, which likely helped protect it from attacks, as well as warmth as it flew through the colder air far above the surface.  Two beady black eyes were located on the front of its head marking it as a predator, which was further confirmed by the sight of its beak.  While the talons on the Roc weren’t all that impressive, the sharp, serrated, curved beak that it possessed were quite the opposite; Sandra didn’t even have to experiment with her new Monster to know that the beak was its main form of attack, and that it could probably snap up an Orc and chew through the poor, unfortunate person in seconds.  She even doubted that many of her constructs could withstand such abuse for long, especially some of the softer-metaled ones she possessed.

Sandra took a little closer look at it and its special abilities, and she was impressed.  She wasn’t exactly sure what they all did, but that it had not just one or two abilities – but three – likely meant that it was quite formidable.

Aerie Roc

 

Current Elemental Energy:

Air – 35000 energy

 

Special Ability:

Shattering Screech: 5000 Air energy

Sonic Dive: 2000 Air energy

Beak Extraction: 200 Air energy

Out of curiosity, Sandra had her new Aerie Roc extend its wings; with an audible *whoosh*, its wings spread out on either side of it and knocked into a few unlucky Shears randomly floating around.  Her smaller constructs were smacked so hard that they smashed against the far wall, where they crumpled up and were destroyed – all because of a simple spreading of some wings that didn’t even affect the massive bird.  The wingspan of the Roc was even wider than it was long, though the wingtips still didn’t reach the walls…but it was close.  The Dungeon Core estimated that it spread nearly 180 feet, which frankly boggled her mind a little.  Sure, she had seen some impressive displays of massive Monsters from both the Reptile Dungeon and the large abomination created by the Undead dungeon, but seeing something of that size that she created was hard to fathom.

Naturally, when the gigantic Aerie Roc had its wings spread and appeared as threatening as it could, that was when one of the Dwarven villagers that had taken refuge in her dungeon decided to peek into her Home room.

“What--?  AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!” The Dwarven woman (that Sandra vaguely remembered from the Visitor’s Bonding was named Glencha) screamed upon seeing the Roc in what appeared to be attack mode, before she ran back inside the long series of rooms that led to their residences.  Of course, Glencha kept up her screaming as she ran, and no words or assurances that Sandra tried to convey to her via their Bond seemed to calm her down.  Eventually, the entire Dwarven community was alerted because of her screams, including the Shieldmen near the end of the line of rooms.  Gerold, fortunately, was so exhausted that he barely stirred through all the screaming and commotion – which just went to show how tired he had been before he collapsed into bed.

Uh…so, what were you going to say, Winxa?

The question seemed to startle the Dungeon Fairy, and she shook herself as she looked between the still-wing-extended Roc and her Core.  Taking the hint, Sandra instructed the Aerie Roc to collapse its wings, making it seem a lot smaller than it had been just a moment ago.

“Well…two things, actually.  First, I was going to warn you about the Roc’s size, because I wasn’t sure if it would even fit.  I spoke with a few other Fairies with a little more knowledge of these types of Avian Dungeon Monsters, and discovered that this variety was huge.”

And the second thing?

“Huh?” Winxa asked, distracted by staring at the magnificently large bird in the room.  “Oh, yes; the second thing has to do with the Dwarves.  Apparently, Aerie Rocs are sometimes found in the wild, and are most commonly found on top of or around the large mountain strongholds of the Dwarves.  It seems as though these giant birds consider Dwarves to be a bit of a nice snack.”

Oh.  I guess that explains the reaction.

The five remaining Shieldmen quickly rushed through the Dwarven residences, armed like they usually were with their special elemental power-fueled armor and battle axes, looking quite determined to protect the villagers at the expense of their lives.  Before they could arrive, Sandra spoke to them all before they could do something