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

one of the narrowest parts.  With the village he had spent the last year in right on the border, that meant that…well…honestly, he didn’t know exactly what that meant.  Other than that he was screwed if he didn’t get out of the wasteland as soon as he could.

He spent the next three hours just walking, searching for some sort of place he could either burrow into or wedge himself, if not a full-on cave where he could hole up.  While he wasn’t sure how long it had been since there were live trees in those parts, the dried-out remains of what used to grow there were scattered everywhere, which meant that he at least had access to wood.  As for a way to ignite the dried wood, Kelerim luckily had access to – and could manipulate – Fire elemental energy within him.

Everyone had at least a small amount of elemental energy that they could manipulate within the small “storage place” inside of them.  Most called this internal storage place a “Well”, where they could tap into and use the element that they had an affinity with.  He didn’t learn much about it when he lived with his Dwarven family, and his exposure to it while he lived – was living – with the Orcs was limited, but he knew enough about it that he could spark a fire.

The issue with Orcish society was that they preferred martial prowess over anything they thought cowardly – for instance, ranged weapons.  Utilizing something that was largely intangible like elemental energy fell into that category as well, though that didn’t mean they didn’t use it at all.  On the contrary, they used their energy to enhance their ability to fight with weapons, instead of using them externally in ways like Kelerim had heard other races would do.

For instance, an Orc with Earth elemental energy could strengthen their skin in a way to make it more durable or add it to their muscles so that they could hit harder.  Someone from another race might be able to manipulate the ground underneath the enemy and shoot earthen spikes up from below to impale them or form a small stone and launch it at their target.  This was, of course, and extreme example, but it demonstrated the Orcs’ preferred method of fighting.  Despite how he felt about Orcs in general, Kelerim privately admitted that they were good at it.

They didn’t like to extend that knowledge to outsiders or half-bloods, however, so he was forced to learn about it by himself.  He wasn’t prepared to use the Fire energy on his body to enhance it in any way and risk burning himself alive – though he knew it could be done safely…somehow – so instead he concentrated on learning how to utilize the small spark of elemental power he possessed on applications outside of his precious self.  The most he could accomplish even after years of experimentation was to provide a very small flame, almost a spark, that could be used to light flammable material.  He used it every morning inside his forge to light it for the workday, but lately he hadn’t had the time to devote to improving it.  Regardless, he at least had a way to light a fire; now all he needed was a shelter and place to hole up for the night.

The sun was starting to touch the horizon when he literally stumbled into a small cave located in the side of one of the tiny mountains.  Kelerim called them tiny, but it was only relative to the massive mountains he had spent the first half of his life in, so anything compared to them was considered small to his view.

After cautiously inspecting it for any sort of creature that might be calling it home, he went to gather some of the dry and brittle wood around the area to start a fire.  He hadn’t actually seen any type of creature or beast on his trek to his shelter, but he did catch glimpses of small figures moving at the edge of his vision multiple times.  Every time he looked at where he swore he saw something, there was nothing there; he knew that the relative safety of walking through the wasteland during the day didn’t necessarily apply to the nighttime, however, so he hurried back to his cave as soon as he had collected a half-dozen armfuls of wood.  He didn’t want to run out before morning, so he may have overdone it…a little.

The cave itself wasn’t very large – only about 10 feet deep and high and half that wide – but it had a sloped roof that led outward, which was good because he had a feeling his wood was going to create a lot of smoke and he didn’t want to suffocate in the middle of the night.  He didn’t have time to insulate the cave from the slowly creeping cold of the evening, but once he got the fire going in front of the entrance – to also hopefully block any curious beasts looking to make of him a snack – it ended up doing a great job of keeping his little space fairly warm.

Kelerim woke up multiple times during the night when the temperature started to drop, only to find that his fire was in danger of burning out.  Adding his extra supply of wood helped to keep it going, but he slept unsettled for the rest of the night until morning.  Nothing bothered him, and he didn’t hear anything outside his cave all night – not that he was awake enough to listen.

He briefly thought about trying to stay awake the night before to ensure his safety, but after the already exhausting workday, followed by the “fight”, being chased out of the village, and his long journey to find shelter, Kelerim could barely keep his eyes open.  Luckily, he didn’t freeze to death or get eaten