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

constructs or Dungeon Monsters running around) were bringing in 580 a minute – which was nearly unfathomable compared to what she was used to.  That meant that, in total, every hour she was receiving 35,400; every day, she was receiving just under 850,000 Mana!  As much as that was a significant amount…she wasn’t sure if it was going to be enough.

Sandra wasn’t sure if it would ever be enough; all she could do was keep adding to her constant Mana absorption and hope.  Therefore, as everyone was still asleep, Sandra got started on a couple of things she had planned during her upgrade – all while working on her plundering operation and adding to her Nets with all of the incoming mana.

Chapter 19

The first thing Sandra did was use a few of her Steelclad Apes to gather up some of the already-crafted weapons inside of her Display Room near her lower Forge.  Her first goal during the night would be to get ready to deliver supplies to the Orcs and from there the Elves, as they were going to need all the help they could get.  She knew from when Kelerim’s half-brother Razochek had invaded that Orcs preferred to use larger bladed weapons like swords and considered knives or smaller weapons as beneath them.  They tended to like doing as much damage as possible, and using a small blade just didn’t cut it for them.

Therefore, she gathered up nearly all of her well-made Steel swords she had crafted soon after she had gotten the hang of Blacksmithing with Apes, and brought them down to her Home room.  In total, she only had 15 that she considered to be of a superior quality; there were some other examples of swords that were shorter or not as well made that she kept as a sign of the progress she had made during their crafting, but she kept those in her Display Room.  She was going to have to do some more crafting to boost up those numbers, because she didn’t want to be short when the first Warband took advantage of the deal she was offering.  At least, she hoped there were some Warbands out there that would be interested in the deal.

There were technically three forges inside of her dungeon; one in her Forge room near her Home room, Kelerim’s forge, and the one inside of her workshop near the surface.  Kelerim was up at the moment for some reason and lying awake on his bed staring at the stone ceiling, so she decided to enlist his help while she worked alternately between the other two forges.

* Hey there, Kelerim.  Sorry if I’ve been neglecting you lately, but as you know it’s been a bit hectic.  Is there something bothering you? *

Sandra’s sudden voice in his head startled the Blacksmith, but Sandra was used to surprising most of those she communicated with by now; other than sending a construct to get their attention first, there was no real way to hint that she was going to speak to them.

“No…Yes…I don’t know.”  He sat up and let his legs hang over the edge of the bed as he put his head in his hands.  “My visit to that Elven village was…odd, and Echo’s behavior around me is equally odd.  Do you know what’s going on with her?”

Sandra knew exactly what was going on, but it wasn’t her place to tell.

* No idea; you’ll have to ask her about it when she gets back from her travels.  In the meantime, do you want to help me make some weapons for your people? *

He shook his head, though not in denial of her request.  “I just don’t know what’s going on with her, or those people in the village,” he said, before he huffed.  “Anyway, I can’t sleep, so I might as well help.”  Within minutes, Kelerim was up and at the forge, already heating up a large bar of Steel; she didn’t have to describe what was needed, as he had lots of practice creating Iron swords back in Grongbak – though he had vastly improved his technique from his previous stay inside the dungeon.  It wasn’t nearly masterwork, but it was of far better quality than anything the Orcs were likely to see, and would also last a whole heck of a lot longer.

Using 6 Apes, Sandra did her own crafting.  It required creating two more Iron anvils per forge, but soon enough she had three constructs per forge working on more Steel swords.  It took some creative timing to alternate the actual crafting, as she would control one of the Apes while she shaped what she needed with different Blacksmithing tools, while the others were heating up their own bars of metal.  After about a half hour, she was in a good rhythm and essentially working on 6 swords at once; most of those she made were Steel, but she also made a few Titanium swords for the Warband leaders.  She thought it would incentivize them to take her mercenary deal if there was something special in it for those in charge of the Warbands, and Titanium swords were the best alternative she could find.

Theoretically, she could make all of the swords out of Titanium, but it both cost more Mana to produce the metal and was harder to work with than Steel; that, and she didn’t have time to teach Kelerim how to work with it quite yet, though she had plans to do so in the future.  Therefore, Steel seemed like the best alternative and would be a hundred times better for the Orcs to wield than what they were currently using.

As for the mercenaries that were going to be helping Sandra and the other races out, they were getting some better weapons.  She didn’t want them to die, so the Dungeon Core was going to take care of them.

Armor was