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

for the day.  The others will wait with you until they get their bonds and then return.  Thanks for the warning,” she said, before they all started running faster towards Sandra’s dungeon entrance.

It only took a little under an hour and a half for the whole process to be complete with the Elves and they were either heading back to their village or already fighting Monsters in the forest.  The newly Bonded Rangers were adjusting their new bows on the fly, fixing them up after they started to get a feel for them during their brief hunts.  It seemed a little dangerous to Sandra for the Elves to test them out in a life-or-death situation, but they corrected their shots fairly quickly as they caught up with those Beasts or Slimes they hadn’t gotten to the day before, as well as tackling the new ones periodically exiting from the two dungeon entrances.

By the time that the Elves were all taken care of, it was time to wake up Gerold and get him moving.  The sooner he got moving, the better – especially since he was the last of the races (excluding the Orcs, of course) that had someone contacting their leadership, and honestly would probably need the most help getting their lands back in order after having neglected them so long by staying in their strongholds.  It took an hour for the tired Dwarf to wake up and get ready to go, though there was some initial balking when Sandra finally revealed to him that he was leaving.

“Are you absolutely sure this is a good idea?  I think they need me here to help with the culling—”

* Don’t be ridiculous – they’ll be fine.  In fact, the constructs out there are still working to contain the Dungeon Monsters and while they aren’t as much of a cohesive unit as they are when you or the Shieldmen are directing them, they are holding their own.  It’s more important that you get the help we need for all of your people, because things are going to start getting increasingly dangerous all over. *

“Yes, well, I still—”

* Are you afraid to fly?  Is that it? *

“What?  Of course not; I’m just concerned with everyone here.  It seems like too much responsibility to leave behind, and they look at me like some kind of leader now, so…”  For some reason, Gerold looked like he had been caught trying to steal sweetbreads from a baker’s shop and tried to pass it off as nothing.  Sandra thought at first that it was a fear of heights that was affecting him similar to what Violet suffered from, but then she realized what it was: he didn’t want to go back without his armor.

* Don’t worry about your people here; Delarthe and the other Shieldmen will take care of them, and I’ll continue to make the villagers’ stay as pleasant as possible.  I’m not sure if you’ve seen yet, but we’ve made significant progress in getting everything up and running like it was in the fields near Nurboldar.  There’s still a bit to work on, including brewing and distilling, but we will soon have the raw materials needed for producing your alcohol that can be sent back to your people.  In addition, I want you to take the Deep Diver suit back with you to show them all that despite your armor being gone, you’ve done a remarkable job of leading your people. *

Sandra was hoping that he understood what she was trying to say.  Gerold’s armor didn’t define who he was; it was how he overcame its loss and was able to still succeed that showed what kind of person he was.  She wasn’t sure if he really comprehended that quite yet, as his whole world before she met him had been consumed by the armor that was crafted specifically for him and being part of the Shieldmen; regardless, she just hoped that he was starting to see that just because he didn’t have the armor anymore didn’t make him any less of a person for it.

Gerold was silent for a few awkward moments, before he sighed and gave in.  “Fine, let’s do this.”  Sandra told him that the Roc would meet him up top near the workshop, so that he could direct the Deep Diver suit into the harness.  When he got there, he found a surprise that Sandra had slipped into the Gnomish construct at some point during the night.

“What’s this?”

* Since I wasn’t able to add any other enchantments to it because of time and resources earlier, I gave the Deep Diver an…upgrade…and replaced the Cubes powering its normal movement enchantments with fresh ones.  Instead of being able to throw flames from your hands or create a shield made of light, I did a little something different.  Why don’t you bring it up above and try it out? *

Eager to test the new “upgrade”, Gerold climbed into the suit and brought the Deep Diver out through the old Bearling lair so that he was free to test it out.  Sandra hadn’t gotten a chance to test it out yet, so she was hoping that it worked and wasn’t too powerful; she had a lot of experience working with the Limiter rune lately, even if it was through repetition, and she thought she had a good handle on it.

“So, I just do…this—?” Gerold asked, before he activated the enchantment located in the right arm while holding it straight out.

The metal “hand” that comprised the end of the Deep Diver’s arm was suddenly holding a thick pole made from extremely cold ice, perfectly frozen without a single flaw.  On the end of the 3-foot-long pole was a facsimile of a crude single-bladed axe head of the same substance, its edge tremendously sharp; it wasn’t the best representation of an actual axe, but it was the best that she was able to