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

allowing for the Roc to turn into another direction.  In addition, they were large enough that she could even keep a few Rocs inside of the room if they needed to be kept somewhere safe, or let one wait there if another were trying to pass by.  All the time she was creating the tunnel, however, she put her other projects on hold – including her Absorption Net expansion – but once she was done, she started those up again right away.

At about that time, all of the exhausted people that had been at the meeting the night before were waking up, so it was finally time to get moving on some plans.

*         *          *

“Wh—what is that?” Violet asked as soon as she walked into the room where Sandra’s Core was located.  The Journeyman Enchanter Gnome stood there flabbergasted – and she wasn’t the only one.  Even Felbar, who was normally the most stoic and brave of Gnomes she knew, stood beside her staring at the massive…bird…that was taking up what felt like half of the room.  She’d never seen anything that large before, even though Felbar had mentioned that there were massive monsters even larger inside of the Undead dungeon that they needed to defeat in order to escape.  For her, personally, she wasn’t accustomed to seeing something so horrifically enormous; even the giant reptiles that had attacked her village weren’t even a third as large, and at the time those were the largest living things she’d ever seen.

“I’ll tell you what that is,” Gerold said tremulously from her other side, with Sandra translating his words in her head.  She had become so accustomed to the mental communication that, at that point, it only felt weird when words weren’t translated automatically so she could understand them.  “It’s a Roc; and if it managed to get in here, then we’re in trouble—”

* There’s no need to panic, my friends.  While this is indeed an Aerie Roc, it’s also your transportation. *

“If you think I’m crazy enough to ride on the back of that thing, you’ve obviously lost your da—” the Dwarf continued angrily before the translations stopped, and Sandra spoke over him.

* I understand your reluctance, and I already talked to Delarthe about why this was a poor choice for your people; however, this is the best and only solution that I could come up with that would both get you all to your leadership quickly and be able to transport supplies. *

There seemed to be a story behind these “Rocs” and the Dwarven people, though Violet couldn’t even concentrate on that as she stared at the sheer magnificence of the beast before her.  While the gigantic bird was a bit intimidating, it had a sleek beauty in its form and coloring; hints of gold streaks running along the shafts of its feathers, and there were strange striations of different shades of light and dark brown running down its entire body.  When she stepped back and took in the entire monster, she realized that it would blend in quite well if it were perched on the side of a mountain, though the stone there would have to be brownish in color, instead of the grey she was used to seeing everywhere else.

Something out of the corner of her eye caught Violet’s attention, and she looked over to see Echo unconcernedly walking up to the dungeon monster, completely oblivious to the fact that the bird could peck down with its beak and swallow her up without difficulty.

“This could definitely work to transport us…but how are we supposed to hold on?  Unlike Starlight 3, I can’t really sit on its back securely; I have a feeling that I would start sliding off almost immediately,” the Elf said, walking up and running her hands over the Roc’s tail feathers.  Fortunately, the monster didn’t even seem to acknowledge she was there; then again, if Sandra was in charge of it, then it wouldn’t do anything she didn’t want it to do.

* You’re absolutely right, Echo.  It’s something that I’ve actually been working on while you were all waking up and getting something to eat.  In fact, it’s arriving right about…now. *

Violet heard something behind her, and she turned around; tearing her focused gaze away from the giant bird, she saw two of Sandra’s silvery-colored Apes carrying something in between them.  When she looked closer, she saw what appeared to be a jumble of stitched-together brown leather with steel loops attached to it.  It didn’t take her long to realize that it was some sort of massive harness – for the Roc, no doubt.  The two constructs dropped it next to the monstrous avian and started to spread it out on the floor.  On the whole, it looked like two loops of leather of different sizes attached on either end of a larger, wider strip of leather.  The strip in the middle had much smaller strips of leather attached to it in various places, which she assumed was for whatever or whoever was going to be riding on the humongous bird.

* Echo, Kelerim, do you think you can help carry it up and around? *

Still showing no fear or hesitation, Echo immediately grabbed the smallest loop – which was positioned at the front of the harness – before slinging it over her shoulder and climbing on the back of the Aerie Roc via its tail feathers.  Another sense of something moving around her soon showed the Half-Dwarf/Half-Orc walking quite a bit more sensibly – as in, cautiously – towards the enormous bird, though he hurried a little when he saw the Elf struggling under the weight of the harness as she dragged it onto the Roc.

Fortunately for the two, the bird slowly tilted forward so that they weren’t having to walk at an angle; with Kelerim’s help to support the weight of the contraption, Echo soon had the forward loop