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

resource.  The time for that hesitation was over, though, because things were already out of control; the consequences for their introduction would have to be borne at some point, and the circumstances were dire enough for it to be necessary right now.

There was no way she could afford those costs with her current Mana intake, however.  Despite the nearly 15,000 Shears she still had floating around, as well as the thousands of Clockwork Tarantulas roaming around the wasteland, it wasn’t nearly enough to do what she needed to do.  Therefore, it was time to upgrade her absorption rate again.

But how?  The least expensive construct I have is still 20 Mana – the Powered Arachnid – but how many can I make?  A little under 1,500 before running out of Mana because the Monster Seed is more expensive?  That amount really won’t make that much of a difference, even if I pumped out another batch every hour; granted, it will help, but it isn’t the boost I was hoping for.  Sandra couldn’t help but wish that she still had access to the less-expensive Animated Shears she had before increasing her Advancement Level, because then she could pump those out quite quickly.

Actually, maybe I still can…

She did have a new skill to look at, after all.  Her Mana was already nearing the maximum of 47,748 after she upgraded, so a part of her mind was devoted to creating Powered Arachnids, using the few scant Raw Materials she had in reserve; she would make 10 of them and then send them outside, before waiting for her Mana to tick back up, where she would make some more.  No reason to let the Mana go to waste while I play around with a better solution, because every bit will help.

With her hopes up that a solution could be found for her Mana absorption issue, Sandra concentrated on her Dungeon Monster Creation skill.

Dungeon Monster Creation

Dungeon Monster

Origination Material

Monster Seed(s)

Binding Agent

(Select or New)

(Select)

(Select)

(Select)

Potential Viability

0%

Initial Skill Mana Cost

0

Initial Raw Materials Cost

0

Dungeon Monster Mana Cost

0

New Dungeon Monster Name

N/A

The window didn’t really explain a lot, but Sandra understood how it worked for the most part.  Theoretically, all she had to do was select some things and the Dungeon Monster Creation Skill would do the rest. Since she wanted something “cheaper” in terms of Mana Cost and Raw Materials, Sandra selected her Powered Arachnid and then the least expensive Monster Seed she had available: Tiny Salt Cube.  At only 20 Raw Materials and 5 Mana, if that didn’t do something to bring down the cost, then she would have to experiment some more.

Dungeon Monster Creation

Dungeon Monster

Origination Material

Monster Seed(s)

Binding Agent

Powered Arachnid

None

Tiny Salt Cube

Fairy Tear

Potential Viability

20%

Initial Skill Mana Cost

1000

Initial Raw Materials Cost

100

Dungeon Monster Mana Cost

10

New Dungeon Monster Name

Salt Strider

Success!  Sort of.  It appeared as though the Tiny Salt Cube brought down the Mana Cost of something called a Salt Strider from the original 20 to only 10.  The Mana Cost of activating the Skill was a bit high at 1,000, but if it worked, then that could make up for the cost quite quickly.  The 20% Potential Viability was a bit of a concern, but Sandra didn’t have any idea what that meant – other than it was low.

Throwing caution to the wind, she mentally confirmed the skill and felt the required resources flow out of her; she waited a few seconds for something to appear, but nothing seemed to materialize.  Suddenly, she received another notification.

New Custom Creation unlocked through Dungeon Monster Creation Skill!

 

Constructs (All):

Salt Strider now available!

 

Salt Strider

Mana Cost: 10 Mana

Ah!  So that’s how it works.  Pulling up her Core Selection Menu, she found that there was a “1” in the Custom Creation Options list; sure enough, Salt Strider was available.  Without waiting any longer, Sandra created a Tiny Copper Orb for a Monster Seed and used it to create the new Monster.  A second or so later, the new Custom-made Dungeon Monster was revealed in all its…glory.

Similar in size to the original Clockwork Spider, the Salt Strider was anything but a Clockwork construct.  Instead, as she probably should’ve assumed but didn’t consider, the Strider was made almost entirely of salt.  White and clear-colored salt.  It was animated without the need for internal “gears”, so locomotion wasn’t really an issue; what was an issue, however, was that every time it took a step, cracks formed within the salt of its long legs.  After a dozen steps, large pieces of its legs and even its body started to break and fall off, causing the Strider to stumble and finally fall on its side, shattering the rest of its body parts in the process.  Needless to say, it disappeared and left behind a Tiny Copper Orb, a sad symbol of the failure behind its design.

Chapter 13

“What…was…that?!”

In all her excitement and hurry over playing—experimenting—with her new Skill, Sandra had neglected to tell the Dungeon Fairy about what it was and what she was doing.  She remedied this by informing Winxa of the Skill’s details and her disastrous results, lamenting over the loss of a little over 1,000 Mana for an essentially useless Dungeon Monster.  Unless some attacking Monster was allergic to salt or perhaps a giant slug, Sandra couldn’t see a real use for something that would destroy itself after taking a few steps.

So, obviously, that 20% Potential Viability was an indicator of how “viable” it would be as a Dungeon Monster; in this case, not very viable.

“Yes, I can see that.  Please tell me you’re doing this for a reason and not just for fun, Sandra,” Winxa chided, waving her finger as if she was scolding a misbehaving child.

The Dungeon Core