The Crafter's Dominion: A Dungeon Core Novel (Dungeon Crafting Book 5) by Jonathan Brooks (e ink epub reader .txt) 📕

create Dungeon Monsters, right?  But as she read through the description, the Dungeon Core finally understood what a boon it could be to be able to create or alter Dungeon Monsters.  It was something she had thought about from the beginning, but never had a way to do it before this skill dropped into her lap.

“What?  What is it?” Winxa asked worriedly, fluttering in front of her Core as if to catch her attention before she lost control.  “You went quiet all of a sudden.”

Sorry; there’s this new skill I just acquired, but I’m torn as to what I should do now.  Should I pursue what this skill can grant me, or concentrate on getting out of this mess I got myself in?

The Fairy thought about it for a moment.  “Well, will this new skill of yours help you to accomplish your other goal?”

Uh…maybe?  If I can figure it out in time, then it’s entirely possible; then again, if it’s something that consumes a lot of resources, it could end up being a total waste of time and put me further behind. 

“I don’t even know what it is, but I can hear the excitement in your voice; that tells me it has to do with crafting or something similar, which means that you have to decide if pursuing this will benefit you now.”

That was some good non-advice from Winxa, even if it didn’t initially sound beneficial.  Even if all she said was essentially “figure it out yourself”, that was precisely what Sandra needed to hear.  As much as she wanted to indulge herself in exploring her new Skill, she couldn’t guarantee that it would solve her problem – as in, 4 dangerous nearby Dungeon Cores bent on her destruction.  That, and figuring out how to keep the insane Core shard in her mind at bay while she tried to survive.

What I need is some way to ensure that there isn’t any more threat from those Cores.  I could seal up the tunnels with large plugs of Steel or Titanium, thereby making it fairly impossible to dig through; those could be circumvented by just digging around them, however.

I could concentrate on one single dungeon and attack it, wiping out everything they have inside so it isn’t a threat later; I have a feeling that kind of action would bring my unhinged passenger to the forefront, though.

  What if I just destroy the other Cores and then deal with the fallout afterwards?  Just thinking about what enhancements other nearby Cores would gain in the process made that consideration lose its appeal immediately.

Or…I can work entirely on defense, strengthening the constructs and Dungeon Monsters I already have inside the tunnels.  They are clear right now, which means that I can do just about anything I want with them.  But what is my end goal?

That was the biggest problem as she saw it.  Sandra was fairly confident that she could eventually overcome all 4 of the other dungeons, given enough time and resources, as well as help from the nearby races – if those she sent out ever returned!  Loud grumbling and raving could be heard in the back of her mind as she thought about the three groups she had sent back to their homelands to get help; none of them had returned by that point, and it wasn’t just the Core shard that was angry at the lack of progress.  It had been a little over 2 weeks since they had left, and surely one of them could’ve made it back with at least some sort of progress report.

Before she could work herself up needlessly about them, Sandra wisely shut off thinking about Violet, Felbar, Echo, and Gerold and concentrated on the matter at hand: a solution to the overarching problem.  She couldn’t very well defend indefinitely, because although her Core and the nearby population might be fine, there were bigger problems over a hundred miles in every direction.  Dozens of Cores were taking advantage of these enhancements, and while most of them had not gained any benefit from the massacre of Orcs as the 4 nearest ones had, they would start to become a problem soon – if they weren’t already.  Maybe not for her, but the Dwarven, Elven, Gnomish, and Orcish homelands would all be in danger.

In fact, as she had upgraded just a short time ago, a quick check of her newly expanded Area of Influence showed that it had extended by another 15 miles in every direction!  Previously, she hadn’t been able to actually see any new dungeons, though she had overlapped their AOIs; now, she could see the void that indicated where the other new Dungeon Cores had made their dungeons, and she was relieved to see that they weren’t huge.

Large enough to defend themselves in case of external attack, of course, but not as large as the 4 surrounding the wasteland.  How long that would last was hard to say; it depended upon how well-defended the nearby areas were with the people living there.  Needless to say, since the Dwarves had all but retreated to their mountain strongholds, dungeons in Dwarven areas had already amassed the largest AOIs, as they had already been allowed to expand out of control.

Regardless, Sandra needed to stop solely defending and reacting to what the others were doing, and start initiating proactive steps to stop them.  It would likely require another half-dozen upgrades to get to the point where she could see all of the Cores affected by the enhancements, but that would come, in time.  The prospect of requiring so many additional upgrades frightened Sandra more than anything else, as recent upgrades had been more frightening than usual; she’d have to figure out what to do before that, though.

Unfortunately, she was running out of time, resources, and…ideas.  Destroying the Cores was out of the question (as much as the Core shard mumbling in