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

axes that were specially made so that they could be easily held by their clamp-hands.  Crafting those axes was the last thing she did, however, because it was more important to ensure all the traps were set properly first.

In the seventh room, Sandra created something right out of a nightmare – or at least a nightmare to someone who didn’t like bugs.  Using Spirit-based elemental energy, she formed a trap that would trigger when something passed the halfway mark in the room, which created a life-like illusion of the invaders being isolated and trapped in a maze of massive spiderwebs.  It didn’t hurt or do anything other than project the vision, but it was accompanied by 100 Clockwork Spiders that would drop from hidden niches in the ceiling (similar to the Segmented Centipedes) or scurry out from little alcoves along the sides of the room.  By themselves, she didn’t think they would do much, but attacking as a group would hopefully make a difference.

Room eight took advantage of Earth elemental energy; by infusing the stone walls with the Earth trap, she was able to have sharp stone spikes extend out from the walls a couple of feet, piercing anything that came close enough to them.  To ensure that any invaders that survived to that point actually got near the walls, Sandra placed 60 Animated Shears near the middle of the room.  They were instructed to rotate around a central point, creating a whirlwind of flying sharp implements that most – if not all – semi-intelligent creatures would try to avoid.

And those were all the traps she created, though she filled up the next five rooms with the smaller constructs that she could spare from her rooms closest to her Core.  She could’ve spent weeks improving everything, but she was anxious to break free from her confines and her caution only went so far.

Therefore, with things as good as they could get in the time that she allotted herself, she started to eat away at the wall blocking her from the world above.

Chapter 25

It took less than the hour that Sandra had predicted, but that could probably be attributed to how excited she felt in finally getting to see the sky and sun again.  She put all other activity in her dungeon on hold – and just let the ambient Mana start to accumulate – because she wanted to be able to react quickly with enough resources if she needed to set something up in reaction to what was up there.

Sunlight streamed through her entrance, illuminating it even more than it already was.  It was strange, actually, because Sandra could see the light coming in, but when she tried to peer outside, the same blank “wall” impeded her vision.  That didn’t deter her, however, because she was still planning on investigating with some Dungeon Monsters.

After widening the tunnel leading outside until it was the “standard” height, she split her focus – which she had acquired a lot of practice at over the last two months – between her Mechanical Jaguar and Mechanical Wolf and sent them outside.  They were her fastest constructs – even passing her Rolling Force in terms of speed – and would be able to hopefully run from anything that appeared to be a threat.

Fortunately, nothing appeared to be waiting for her when she emerged into the early morning daylight.  Lightly using her influence to give them orders, she instructed her Jaguar and Wolf to venture cautiously outside and explore, while she watched through their “eyesight”.  The entrance to her dungeon was clear of almost anything, in fact, but it was the area beyond the entrance that she was more interested in.

Sandra’s Area of Influence extended approximately 3,000 feet in every direction around her Core, which mean that she had quite a bit of room to explore.  Unfortunately, there didn’t seem to be much of interest.  She had been hoping that she would end up inside a forest of some kind, where she would be able to send out her little constructs to bring back things like wood, plants, and other interesting things that she would hopefully be able to absorb and use as materials.  Wood, especially, was a vital ingredient to many of the crafts she wanted to make, including bows, arrows, and even handles to other weapons.  She had improvised by using metal hafts for many of the traditionally wooden ones, but it also made the weapons heavier and at times unwieldy.

Sadly, the world above was a virtually barren wasteland.  Stone hills – not unlike where her dungeon entrance was located – dotted the landscape, and the rest appeared to be more dirt and rock for as far as the eye could see.  Everywhere she looked, the world was…dead – that was the best word she had for it.  She couldn’t see anything living, anywhere; no wild animals, no plants, no trees – nothing.  Even the Bearlings holed up in their cave approximately 1,000 feet away weren’t moving, which Sandra was thankful of.

Her Jaguar started to explore the hill – or very small mountain – that held her dungeon entrance, as it was easily able to navigate its way up and down the rocky exterior.  Her Wolf, on the other hand, moved along the ground, keeping low and out of sight of the distant mountain and cave filled with Bearlings that Sandra could see when her construct looked in that direction.

It wasn’t long before her Mechanical Wolf came across what appeared to be very old, dried-out sticks and branches scattered around.  Obviously, something used to live here, but it’s been a while.  Picking a large piece of dried wood up delicately in its metal jaws, her Wolf brought it back to the dungeon and she waited in anticipation.  As soon as her construct got back inside the dungeon, it dropped the desiccated stick of wood on the floor and Sandra immediately absorbed