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

Echo ordered Starlight 3 down outside of the semi-circle the Rangers had created when they saw her, and the winged horse settled gracefully down, stepping a couple of steps forward before folding its wings against its body.  The Elf swung her leg over the back of the Pegasus and dropped down, before untying the special bow and quiver from the strap wrapped around the neck of her mount.  She nodded to Kelerim to indicate he should get down too, and luckily he understood what she wanted.

“Elder, fellow Rangers, I bring important news,” she said, approaching the ring of her people blocking her from the Elder.  They had finally put away their weapons when she obviously wasn’t bringing any immediate trouble; as unique as Kelerim appeared, one thing he certainly wasn’t was a threat.

“Did you bring more of those Energy Orbs?  You didn’t stop by yesterday, so I figure you have a large shipment of them now,” the Elder replied, looking a bit perturbed.  “And what—who is this?” she continued, gesturing to Kelerim behind her.

That made Echo a bit perturbed, too.  “This is Kelerim; he’s a Half-Dwarf/Half-Orc that has connections to the dungeon heart, whose name is Sandra, and I thought I’d bring him with me to visit.  He’s a bit of an outcast because of his parentage, and the Orcs want to kill him.”  She didn’t bother trying to explain why, because fratricide was a bit of a big deal in Elvish society.

Elder Herrlot spoke something out in the same guttural language that Kelerim spoke, though she barely recognized it coming from an Elvish throat.  She looked behind her at Kelerim to see him wide-eyed and blushing for some reason before he answered haltingly in the same Orcish language while glancing at Echo.  Great; I’m not sure I want to know what that conversation is about.  And now I’m jealous of the Elder because she can speak to him and I can’t without Sandra’s help; speaking of Sandra, why can’t she be helping me translate, especially at a time like this?

Regardless of why Sandra couldn’t participate, Echo had an important job to do.  She cleared her throat, trying to gain back control of the situation.  “Elder, I’m sorry I don’t have any more Energy Orbs with me; that’s actually what I came to talk—”

“WHAT?  You can’t be serious!  We had a deal with the dungeon, and I’m already getting pressure back home about increasing the small amount we’re barely receiving as it is.  I will not be made to look a fool for all the Orbs I’ve promised—”

“Elder!  This is more important than that—”

“Don’t you dare interrupt me, child; don’t you have any idea who you’re talking to…”

 Echo looked around for help, but as the Elder droned on about who she was and how much trouble the young Elf would be in if she didn’t deliver on the dungeon’s promises, none of the Rangers would look at her.  She couldn’t really blame them; the Elder was the Elder for a reason.  No one would argue or interrupt her like she just did because it was highly disrespectful.  Those others I’ve been hanging out with must be starting to rub off on me.

She couldn’t hold it in any longer, so she practically shouted over the Elder’s diatribe directed toward her.  “Elder!  There have been four dungeons around here that have been destroyed!”

Elder Herrlot looked ready to blow for just a moment at Echo’s new interruption, before her face lost all color – not that there was a lot there to begin with.  The other Rangers just stared at her with their mouths hanging open, obviously unbelieving of her words.

“Well…that changes things.  Why didn’t you lead with that, girl?  It would’ve saved you a whole lot of tongue-lashing and time,” the Elder said slowly, regaining her composure.  “Now, who was stupid enough to do that?  And how do you know this?”

“Elder, if I may,” said one of the Rangers, Chryla, interjected.  At the Elder’s nod, the Ranger continued.  “We’ve all noticed that the number of beasts and slimes roaming through the forests has increased over the last few days; we didn’t think much of it, but it was certainly noticeable.  If this is true, there will probably be even more today.”

“It will only get worse, as well.  Sandra told me exactly how much the other Cores have benefited—” Echo began, before being cut off.

“Was this some sort of scheme hatched by your dungeon?” the Elder accused.  “Is this some sort of plan to destroy the others around here and gain control of their territories?  Or whatever these dungeons have?  It probably got stronger as a result, didn’t it?”  The much older Elf appeared to be placing all of the blame on Echo, which was entirely unfair – even if she did have something to do with what was going on.

“No, the dungeon didn’t benefit from the destruction of the other Cores; on the contrary, because it was directly responsible for destroying at least one of them, Sandra received nothing as a result.”

As Echo had expected, Elder Herrlot didn’t believe her.  “That seems far-fetched, child.  This dungeon must be deceiving you – because otherwise why would it destroy more of its kind?”

Echo explained that Sandra – and she stressed the name, as it felt…wrong…to call the dungeon core an “it” – hadn’t been responsible for the destruction of the two in the Orcs’ territory, since it was the Orcs themselves that did that.  Unfortunately, that just caused the Elder to focus her attention on Kelerim and start bombarding him with questions in his own language.  She didn’t dare interrupt again, due to the fact that she was already on the esteemed Elf’s bad side, though she prayed that the Half-Dwarf/Half-Orc didn’t reveal exactly why he had