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

come up with using the Freeze and Shape enchantment runes she knew.  Given some more time, she could probably perfect it until it looked prettier – but Gerold didn’t seem to care.

“Sandra…this is beautiful.  But won’t it shatter?”

* Yes, if you hit something hard enough with it that doesn’t give very easily like stone or metal, but it will still do quite a bit of damage, nonetheless.  For flesh-and-bone Monsters, it should work remarkably well.  Also, it will reform quickly if you do manage to shatter it. *

 

With only the slightest hesitation, Gerold looked at a large rock sticking out of the dirt of the wasteland and swung his new frozen axe down on it.  As predicted, it shattered into dozens of pieces upon impact; however, as Sandra had also predicted, there was a 2-inch-deep gouge in the rock where it had been struck.  The shards of ice from the shattered weapon quickly melted where they landed and disappeared, but in less than three seconds there was a brand-new axe head on the ice pole Gerold’s Deep Diver was still holding.

“That’s incredible,” the Dwarf said, with awe and a little something else in his voice she couldn’t identify.  “What is this other one here?”

* You can activate it and I’ll explain, since it’ll be hard for you to test it right now.  Instead of a light shield that blocks attacks, what you have in the other arm activates an enchantment that creates a fog of Nether energy that sort of muffles anything trying to harm you.  It doesn’t block it entirely, but it reduces the impact of anything trying to hit your Deep Diver suit and does a whole lot less damage to you and the suit.  I got the idea after hearing how you had taken some rough blows from the Golems the other day; it won’t prevent you from getting hit, but hopefully you won’t be tossed 100 feet through the air and impact another tree again.  That, and it’ll make you a little bit harder to see and target, except in direct sunlight. *

The Muffle and Obscure runes were easy enough to put together in an enchantment chain, though it was a little difficult to see exactly how efficiently they worked.  As it turned out – it was too efficient; as soon as Gerold activated it, he was covered in a black fog that seemed to almost suck in the sunlight.  He didn’t get a chance to test its impact-reducing effects, unfortunately, because he was having difficulty even seeing.

“Ack!  I can’t see a thing!  How is this supposed to help?”

* Hmm…I think there’s too much energy being fed into the enchantment; it’s supposed to allow you to see still even if nothing can spot you in that fog.  Given enough time and experimentation, I could probably fix it, but we don’t have the time – your ride is here. *

Gerold immediately turned the Nether-based enchantment off and the black fog dissipated quickly.  He looked around with obvious pleasure at being able to see again, only to step back at the sight of the enormous Aerie Roc that appeared as if by magic in front of him. When he recovered from his momentary fright, he turned towards her exposed workshop and did as much of a bow as his suit could allow.

“Thank you, Sandra,” he said abruptly, with a little hitch in his voice.  “I barely know what to say; I can tell that you made these enchantments just for me because of what elements I have access to, and I greatly appreciate it.  It might not be armor and a battleaxe forged by our Master Blacksmiths, but in some ways it’s even better.”

* You’re welcome, Gerold.  Now, just imagine what I could do if I learned how to make the same armor and weapons your Master Blacksmiths can create. *

“I…can barely even comprehend what you’d be able to do at that point.  I’ll do my best to fulfill my promise and get you that knowledge.  So…err…how do I get on this thing,” Gerold asked, pointing towards the Aerie Roc.

Sandra explained how to climb up and had him get out of the Deep Diver where the cargo straps were on the bottom portion of the harness, where he then strapped it in securely.  After fastening himself in on the section of the leather harness designed for him, Sandra gave him general instructions of how to fly.  He didn’t sound overly eager, and it was obvious that he was a bit afraid of heights – though not nearly as frightened as Violet had been.  With another sigh, he practiced controlling the Roc by running it around a little; that turned out to be fairly easy since he was already accustomed to controlling the constructs that he had been hunting and culling Golems with.  When he looked like he had enough practice, Sandra prodded him to stop wasting time and take off already.

“Alright, I’m going.  See you later,” he said, as he got ready for the Roc to lift off.  “And take care of my people!”

* Of course.  Be safe. *

Despite his reluctance, Gerold performed like an expert as he ordered the Roc up into the air and within minutes he was gone from her perception.  Sandra put it down to the fact that he didn’t try to control every little part of the massive bird and what it did, instead just telling what he wanted it to do and let it figure out how to do it; it was basically the same thing he did when battling Golems, because he couldn’t fight and specifically try to dictate the actions of half a dozen constructs at the same time.

With his absence, there wasn’t anything left she could realistically do about obtaining the help from the other races’ leadership.  Therefore, she turned inward again and finished up her preparations for a Core