The Crafter's Dungeon: A Dungeon Core Novel (Dungeon Crafting Book 1) by Jonathan Brooks (literature books to read TXT) 📕

and were definitely unique – weren’t quite suited to the intricate hand movements that only a living, breathing being could demonstrate. In fact, while her Golem could actually grab things unlike her old body’s hands, they were just about as useless for anything else.

Sandra thought that it was always possible that the more powerful monsters that she was sure to unlock as she upgraded her Core Size would be able to have finer control, but she didn’t hold out hope.  She’d have to think about it for a while, but it might be time to look into changing her Classification.  Still, though, she was excited that she had done what she had set out to do: craft using her own two…clamp-hands.

I can’t believe it actually worked!

“What actually worked?”

Chapter 16

If Sandra had been capable of holding something, she was sure she would’ve thrown it up in the air in surprise.  Whoa!  When did you get back?

Winxa was hovering in front of her Core, looking surprised.  “You weren’t waiting for me?  I was all set to apologize for being a little later than I had promised, and here you are not even noticing I was gone,” the Fairy said as she pouted, though Sandra could tell it was all for show.

Has it already been 24 hours?

“Yes, though it was actually slightly longer than that.  I got caught up with looking for any more information and lost track of time – and it looks like the same thing happened to you.  What have you been working on, and what was it that ‘actually worked’?” the Dungeon Fairy asked.

Come to the next room and I’ll show you.

Winxa hovered over the pit trap, drifted through the tunnel, and came to a stop when she saw Sandra’s forge.  “What in the world is that?”

The Dungeon Core explained how her new creation worked, and how she had utilized a trap to provide the heat necessary for her forge to operate properly.  She felt extraordinarily proud of what she had accomplished, even if all of it was on a relatively small scale.  She even showed the brand-new Bronze block still sitting on the floor near the forge.

“That’s amazing, Sandra!  Normally, Cores need to wait until they find either a natural source of a Monster Seed, like you did with the Tin Ore you just told me about, or from absorbing items left behind by sentient races who have perished in their dungeon.  Never before have I seen or heard of any developing their own!” Winxa squealed excitedly.

Sandra’s mood dropped a little at the mention of her “cousins” killing off people as a natural part of their development.  While she was a little more used to the idea of the need to kill wild creatures that threatened her Core, she didn’t know how she would react if one of the nearby races entered her dungeon with the intent of destroying her.  Fortunately, she didn’t think she had to worry about that for a while, since she was still a ways away from even reaching the surface, let alone expanding enough to garner the attention of the nearby people.

Thanks, it’s this new skill of mine.  I think it’s going to help immensely when it comes to figuring out exactly what I want to do with my dungeon.

“Well, I’m excited to see what you do next,” the Fairy responded honestly.  “I didn’t have much luck with my information gathering, but it was good getting back to my realm for a while.”

I’m glad it was a good trip.  If you could stick around for a little while, I might have some more questions for you.

Winxa agreed, and her winged friend started looking closer at the glossy black stone that her forge was now made of.  Leaving the Dungeon Fairy to investigate by herself, Sandra got back to the project she was working on.  First, she created a Tiny Bronze Orb Monster Seed; a shiny, almost gold-colored sphere appeared next to her other Copper Orbs.  She had quite a bit of Mana saved up since she hadn’t really been using it for a while, so she used that – and the Raw Materials from her continued absorption of the new room – to create and unlock an additional Bronze Orb.

New Monster Seed unlocked!

Small Bronze Orb

Origination Raw Material Cost: 1000

Origination Mana Cost: 100

Monster Min. Mana: 50

Monster Max. Mana: 400

Monster Seed Origination

Locked Seeds:

Unlock Requirements:

Mana Cost to Unlock:

Min. Mana:

Max. Mana:

Average Bronze Orb

4 Small Bronze Orbs

400

50

1600

Large Bronze Orb

2 Average Bronze Orbs

800

50

3200

When she looked into unlocking the Average and Large-sized Bronze Orbs, however, the Mana costs were above her max capacity.  Although she could technically produce the four Small Orbs required, the Average Bronze Orb needed 400 Mana and the Large 800 to actually create – almost three times her max capacity.  The benefit of having those Orbs in the future meant that she could likely create better monsters, but they weren’t as important right now as just having access to the Bronze metal as a material for creating objects.  Some things were much better suited as metal items than stone, and she could theoretically craft other non-mundane objects using the forge she just built.

Of course, that was all dependent upon whether she obtained access to better constructs or other monsters that had finer control of their hands.

Even though she was still expanding and had barely scratched the surface of her new Area of Influence, Sandra thought about upgrading her Core Size again.  Not only would it provide her with better Mana and Raw Material capacity, but she was hoping that some additional, stronger, and more “dexterous” constructs would start to become available.

Before she could finalize that decision, Winxa shouted out in surprise.  “This is Dragon Glass!  Where did it come from?  Better