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

An Air Core was used to both increase the rotation of the Cone and to keep it stable while rotating; if a chain broke or something slammed into its side, the Shredder would wobble and eventually tear itself apart.  The Air-based enchantment took a basic Stabilize rune and simply enhanced it multiple times.

Lastly, a Spirit Orb was used to connect everything together, lending itself to the connections that existed between all of the different enchantments.   This one was activated immediately upon the initiation of any rotation, and fortunately didn’t have to be adjusted at any point after that.

The result was a mighty Weapon of destruction.  Remembering the Golems that had been near the Dwarven village, Felbar recommended putting a heavy solid ball of iron on the end of some of the chains, where they could be used to demolish monsters that were made of material stronger than flesh and blood.  When one of them was briefly tested against a small stand of pine trees, the Shredder literally shredded the thick trunks into small scraps and sawdust, earning them their nickname.

Another of the remaining Haulers was bringing their last creation along, which was meant as a purely defensive Weapon; when it was set up somewhere, they could feel reasonably protected against anything on the ground.  There were 6 of their “Burning Darkness” Weapons, which were inspired by a few of Sandra’s traps inside of her dungeon.  They were fairly unassuming-looking, as they were basically a box filled with thin strips of iron connected to each other via simple wire.  The enchantment sequences were placed on the long length of the strips, which were then rolled up in two rolls and placed within the box; as a place was found where the Weapon was needed for defense, the strips could be rolled out within seconds to either side of the box, lying flat against the ground.

When the box was activated, the Weapon would extend a barrier of darkness upwards, (powered by a Nether Orb) which was 10 feet tall and 50 feet wide – though it was only 2 feet deep.  The darkness didn’t do anything by itself, other than to obscure defenders behind it and to hide the two other effects that existed within the fence of Nether energy.  One side of the box held strips that – when the iron strips detected something passing over it – an Activation rune was triggered and a burst of extremely hot flames would erupt upwards in one of 3 different sections, obliterating anything made of flesh and bones almost instantly.  The duration lasted only a second so as to save energy, but it was enough to get the job done.

On the other side of the box, the complete opposite happened.  Instead of extremely hot flames, there was a spray of water vapor that would coat anything passing through, before freezing it to extraordinarily cold temperatures.  That might not seem that bad, but testing proved that the cold was so frigid that it literally froze objects enough that they would shatter if hit with enough force.

The last 2 Haulers were pulling two massive wagons filled with 3 War Machines each – all that could be spared – including Felbar’s.  Saving their energy was important for the fights ahead, and making them run the distance would only deplete it unnecessarily.  Besides, they couldn’t keep up with the sheer speed the new Haulers could put out, as they raced across the countryside, shaking so much that Violet thought her stomach was going to empty itself every minute.  No one complained, however, because they realized that there was a price to pay for their incredible acceleration.

They traveled through the entire day without stopping, journeying through the night with the aid of Holy-enchanted poles with an Illuminate rune to light the way.  Towards dawn, they started to approach what the leadership – including Felbar – was calling the “danger zone”; this was the border where they expected to experience an attack at any moment, as it was slightly past the last known reach of the nearby dungeons.  As a result of passing into the location, the entire group slowed down to a near crawl, unpacked Weapons, armed themselves, and prepared for any sort of surprises that might come their way.

Fortunately, nothing assaulted them right away.  If they had, then that would’ve meant that they were waiting for us, and that the area is so overrun that we would have no chance of fighting back.  It meant that they had to go searching for the enemy, but that wasn’t too much of a hardship.

“How far do you think we are from the wastelands?”

Felbar jumped at Violet’s whispered question near the Warmaster’s ear, as everyone was trying to stay as silent as possible while they searched the pre-dawn light for hostile monsters.  He shook his head slowly, before replying, “I don’t know – maybe 100 miles or so?  Well within range of what Sandra said about those ‘enhancements’ – and how they are affecting the dungeons around here.”

She figured that was the case.  The King’s large group had traveled nearly 4 days to get to this point, and that was with the use of some of the Kingdom’s faster transportation.  Speaking of the King, the ambush site was just ahead, though by all reports it had been cleaned up.  Not by the Gnomes, however, but the dungeons themselves; she remembered all too well how Glimmerton had been raided for the stores of dungeon loot that the Gnomes had accumulated from culling.  All of the material from their equipment – and even bodies – could be beneficial, as sad and disgusting as the mere contemplation of such an act was to Violet.

The sun finally broke over the horizon, revealing the landscape in the early morning light.  For the most part, Gnomeria was filled with gently