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

Again, for her mercenaries, she had some thoughts about ways to really outfit them to make them even more effective.

By the time she had crafted and finished 54 swords (and Kelerim had magnificently finished 6 on his own), put together 25 reinforced chest armor pieces for the Orcs, and expanded her Nets above her dungeon by an astonishing 3,500 constructs total (giving her over 930,000 Mana per day), dawn was breaking over the horizon.  Checking around her Area of Influence, there were multiple Orcs waking up in the nearby village, Chryla and the Rangers were already stirring, and Delarthe and the other Shieldmen were waking up.

* Delarthe!  My upgrade didn’t last as long as I thought it was, so you can return anytime you like tonight.  Though, it appears as though you were safe enough in Nurboldar for the night— *

She really had to keep her mouth shut, because as soon as she mentioned that they were safe in the village, she felt the Goblin-Classification Core expand its Area of Influence – which now included the entire Dwarven village.  The Earth-based Golem-Classification Dungeon Core was still the same, but she had no doubt that it would finish its upgrade sometime soon as well.

* Never mind; one of the Cores just expanded as well, and now you’re well within their Area of Influence.  If there is anything left in that village that you need, I suggest you get it now – the Goblins will be coming for it as soon as they see that they can reach it. *

As usual, her abrupt conversation briefly startled the Shieldmen, but they quickly recovered and got ready for another day of culling.

“Thanks, Sandra.  How in the Creator’s name are we supposed to stop them from growing so much?” Delarthe asked the question with a shake of his head and a heavy, defeated sigh.

* Unfortunately, there isn’t much that we can do other than keep the number of Dungeon Monsters down.  Each Core is receiving more than enough Mana every single day to upgrade, especially if they don’t spend any of it on making more Monsters.  Since not creating any more Monsters goes against their very nature, we just have to get to the point where we can wipe out everything that emerges from their dungeon entrances. 

 

* Granted, although doing that will slow them down considerably, it won’t ultimately stop them; the only way to prevent their rapid growth is for the other new Cores around the wastelands to reach a certain Core Size.  I have some ideas on how we can speed up that process, but I want to make sure we get a handle on what we’re already dealing with before they break through to the surface. *

Sandra could see it from his perspective – they were fighting a losing battle with no end in sight.  Normally, the Shieldmen (or the Warbands or Rangers or Warmasters) maintained an equilibrium with the local dungeons, but their recent rapid growth was stopping that progress.

“As much as I don’t like to hear that, I guess that’s the best we can hope for,” Delarthe said as he stretched towards the sun, working the kinks out of his back after sleeping in his armor.  “Are we getting more help soon?”

* I’m hoping that Gerold comes back soon with some good news, but for the moment I’m going to be creating more constructs for your use.  Eventually you may have some reinforcements from another source, but I can’t guarantee that quite yet. *

She hadn’t really informed either the Elven Rangers or the Dwarves that they might be joined by some Orcish mercenaries yet; until it actually happened, she didn’t want to get their hopes up.  There was some bad blood between the races that she couldn’t do anything about, but she was also counting on the current crisis to put those things to rest…for at least a little while.  That, and bribes; those tended to ease commerce, and she was negotiating and gambling as hard as she ever did with the different races as she did as a merchant.  When in doubt and the money was flowing, she and her father had found that bribes and special considerations were usually the way to go; they never did anything illegal, but sometimes gaining access to certain areas to do their business needed a little…finagling.

In addition to those outside waking up, and despite not actually seeing the sun starting to lighten up the sky outside, the Dwarven villagers were waking up and getting started on the day.  Sandra had set up a cycle of activating the Natural traps that started growing everything inside of the growing rooms if they were planted the day before, and it seemed as though the Dwarves had gotten it ready.  Instead of equal amounts of Wheat, Barley, Hops, and Potatoes, there was significantly more Wheat and Potatoes.

* Glencha, why the change? *

The Dwarven villager jumped momentarily, but as she was looking over the newly grown plantings, she knew exactly what Sandra was talking about.

“We have plenty of barley and hops for the brewing we want to do; the rest will just go to waste if we grow too much.  We can always use more wheat for flour, which will keep quite well for long periods of time, especially as there doesn’t seem to be any type of insect penetration down here – weevils are the worst,” Glencha responded, looking disgusted at the thought of the small insects that tended to ruin flour if left unattended for too long.  Luckily, Sandra’s natural Mana infusing her entire dungeon prevented anything from entering from outside – insects included – unless they came through one of her entrances.  Of course, some of them could’ve come in with the Dwarves, but there hadn’t been anything of note that Sandra had noticed.

“Then you had mentioned the possibility of needing more food