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

been chased out of the Orc’s homeland.  When the Elder only looked annoyed after a while but not angry, she managed to hide a sigh of relief.

“Ok, that explains – in part – how two more dungeons were destroyed, but what of the last.  Is this dungeon starting to lose it and is destroying its competition when it has a chance?”

Now Echo was starting to lose her temper.  “Seriously?  After everything that this dungeon has done for—”

The Elder cut her off again.  “For us?  Is that what you were going to say?  This dungeon hasn’t done anything for us other than cause trouble.  This new development is going to cause some massive problems relatively soon, and I don’t know if we’ll even be able to recover from it.  This is the last thing we needed right now.  What could’ve possessed this cursed dungeon to want to destroy another of its kind?”

Echo took a deep breath before she answered.  “Sandra technically didn’t destroy the Undead dungeon near the Gnome’s territory.  I’m the one that fired the shot that shattered its Core.”

To the young Elf Ranger, standing surrounded by her fellow Rangers and one irate Elder, the world seemed to pause and take a collective breath at her revelation.  She waited for the proverbial axe to fall on her head at the announcement, so she closed her eyes and swallowed nervously, waiting for some sort of punishment to be doled out.  Destroying a dungeon was sometimes necessary when they became too powerful, but they were usually done by Elites under the authority of the King and Queen; to do otherwise was to invite retribution upon yourself.

“Oh…well, I guess you can’t be all bad if you helped to erase that scourge from the world,” the Elder said, slightly more accepting of her role in the destruction of a dungeon than she expected.  It’s probably because it was an Undead dungeon; a lot can be forgiven when one of those are involved.  The older Elf turned to Kelerim and asked him something else in Orcish, which she assumed was about whether or not Echo was telling the truth, and seemed satisfied at the shorter man’s answer.

“Come; you must tell me all about what happened, where it happened, and why it was necessary to happen – though with it being an Undead-based dungeon, we can forgive any explanations there,” Elder Herrlot said, beckoning them forward and turning toward the center of the village where her home was located.  “Everyone else, keep on high alert and travel in pairs if you can; there’s no telling what has happened overnight with this news.  Even I may be forced to venture into the forests to help cull their numbers if it is as bad as I fear.”  Dismissed, the Rangers took off for the forests to start for the day, running in pairs as advised by their local authority.

Echo backed up and put her hand on Kelerim’s arm, pulling him forward so that they could follow the Elder.  He allowed her to guide him forward, though she could see a blush forming on his ruddy-colored cheeks as he stole a glance at her that he wasn’t particularly good at hiding.  What did Herrlot say to him?  The communication barrier was frustrating, which prompted Echo to resolve to learn as much Orcish – as well as Dwarven and Gnomish – as she could in the future.

It didn’t take long for them to arrive at the Elder’s arborent, which looked almost identical to every other dwelling in Avensglen.  They didn’t follow the older Elf into her home, though, but instead spoke with her just outside, where the other villagers were looking at them both curiously as they went about their daily tasks – as well as listening to Echo describe all that had happened over the last few days in greater detail.

Two hours later, and after countless questions from the Elder – which both she and Kelerim answered, even though he didn’t have quite as much knowledge of events because he arrived later – she had finally explained everything she could without revealing too much about Sandra herself.  While she had no particular overwhelming loyalty to the dungeon core or requirement to hold certain information back, Echo felt a bit protective of the dungeon that had done so much for them – for her, especially.  Since Elder Herrlot had already shown signs that she didn’t trust the dungeon all that much, Echo didn’t want anything to happen to Sandra and consequently hurt everyone’s chances of surviving the threat that the other nearby dungeons now represented.

“—and now I’m going to be heading to the capital soon, to inform them of this situation and to negotiate on the behalf of Sandra for help.  She said that the Elites that she had let go after they had invaded her dungeon had promised to cooperate with her in the future, and now is that time.”

The Elder was abnormally quiet after Echo mentioned that she would be visiting the capital.  “How are you getting there?  On one of those Pegasi you were riding when you arrived?” she finally asked.

“No; Sandra has been able to create a massive bird, an Aerie Roc, I believe she said—”

“An Aerie Roc?  My, this dungeon of yours has grown quite strong, hasn’t it?”

“For the last time—” Echo said, exasperated— “Sandra isn’t my dungeon.  She used to be a Human and now she’s a dungeon core; she still has the thoughts and memories of who she was before, and the way that you’re talking about Sandra like she’s a…a…possession or object is demeaning.”

Rather than angry, the Elder just looked amused.  “Human?  That explains a lot.”

Echo wasn’t exactly sure what that was supposed to mean, and she didn’t bother to find out.  Just like she was struggling to move past her own prejudices against Gnomes, Dwarves, and Orcs, it seemed as though the Elder had