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

It didn’t take long to locate Kelerim, at least; using one of the Shears she had monitoring the area around the Elven village of Avensglen, Sandra found the Blacksmith surrounded with what appeared to be some admirers.  At least four Elven women were sitting very close to him, touching him surreptitiously on the arm or on his back, and stubbornly trying to start a conversation with the poor man. The Half-Dwarf/Half-Orc didn’t seem to really understand what was happening, as he couldn’t understand them and had no way to communicate in return; Sandra brought her construct down to listen in and possibly even translate, but once she heard the subject of their quite forward questions she decided against that.

For his part, Kelerim just smiled at them with wide, trapped-looking eyes, obviously not used to such attention.  From what Sandra knew of his upbringing and life so far, that didn’t surprise her all that much; when she was human, she hadn’t had much experience with such personal attention because of her disfigured hands, but she certainly had seen enough of it throughout her days as a merchant that she recognized his naivete immediately.  What she couldn’t understand, though, was why the Elves seemed so…drawn…to the skinny, scruffy Blacksmith.

Sandra could easily concede that he was attractive enough in a unique sort of way; on the other hand, she also had to admit that the Elven men were over and above attractive in an aethereal sort of way.  Not only were they tall with flawless skin and athletic bodies, but they were also extremely talented in manipulating their elemental energies externally – which was impressive enough by itself.  Being a Dungeon Core, Sandra didn’t really have the same sort of physical reaction to seeing attractive people as she would as a human; that didn’t mean she couldn’t identify them as being attractive in the first place, though.

Then again, her father always said that beauty was subjective.  One person might value a bejeweled and richly decorated dagger as the most beautiful weapon in the world; another might value a master-crafted dagger that was plainly adorned and sleek in its design as the epitome of beauty in a weapon.  The same obviously applied to judging people because Sandra could also readily admit that she didn’t find Orcs, Gnomes, or Dwarves particularly attractive.

* Kelerim?  Do you…uh…need some help? *

The Half-Dwarf/Half-Orc suddenly jumped up in surprise at her voice, to the consternation of the Elven women hanging all over him.  “There you are!  We were wondering what had happened to you all day,” he said, plainly relieved at Sandra’s presence in his head.  “As for needing help…well, I don’t exactly know what’s going on here because I can’t understand anything they are saying.  I’ve only met Echo before this; are Elves usually this…friendly?”  After asking, he spread his hands around at the Elven women, who were looking at him as if he had lost his mind, speaking to the empty air.

Technically, he was speaking to Sandra’s Shears, which were still about 50 feet above his head; she didn’t bring it down closer, however, because she didn’t want to startle or concern the villagers.  Regardless, that was probably a good thing, because she was going to need her friends back soon so that they could help with the next stage of her plans.

* Umm…yes?  I’m not actually sure, because I haven’t known them that long.  Speaking of Echo – where is she?  And how was her message about the increased activity from the nearby dungeons taken? *

“Well, Echo left me here in the hands of these…others, while she and some important-looking woman left for the forest.”  Kelerim pointed towards the southeast and appeared to be a bit perturbed by the fact that he was left to fend for himself.  “As for how the message was received, I’m not real sure, actually.  Based on the questions that the important-looking woman was asking me – it surprised me when she started speaking in thoroughly accented Orcish! – she obviously knows about what exactly happened, though what she is going to do about it is a mystery.”

That was good news, Sandra figured.  Echo wasn’t there to take over the defenses or anything, but to let the authorities (in this case, the Elder of the village) know about the change and prepare for it.  The Bonded Elf was needed for other things – and soon.  Overnight, Sandra was hoping to have another Aerie Roc created and ready to go in the morning, where Echo would leave for the capital to let them know about the needs for cooperation.

She told Kelerim to stay there a little longer while she looked for Echo; while she could find any of the Dungeon Monsters outside of her dungeon because they were connected to her, the Bonded people were a little different.  Inside of her dungeon, she could locate them immediately and communicate with them with no trouble; outside, though, she found that she needed line-of-sight by one of her Monsters – even if that distance were miles away.  Her Shears could see just about anything out in the open flying high above the wastelands, but the forest blocked the sight of Echo.

The Blacksmith didn’t look very happy to be left alone again, though now that she was paying attention to him, she could answer if he asked another question.  Besides, it wasn’t as if the Elves would hurt him; their words implied just the opposite.  Granted, now that they had seen him talking to the air like someone not quite right in the head, they didn’t seem as eager to gain his attention.

It took about 5 minutes of zipping through the southeastern forest to find Echo and the Elder crouching behind some foliage; the Elder, despite her lofty position, appeared to be right at home slinking about the forest on the hunt.  Echo had one of the few extra bows that