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

to help with some others, so we’ve been baking bread and storing up potatoes for you to distribute.  It’s the least we could do for you after you offered to take us in.”

* Thank you, Glencha.  I was just going to give them a bunch of meat and possibly some fruit because that is all I really have access to, but bread and potatoes will go over well, I would think. *

“Now, though – we need to get to brewing and distilling if we’re going to be drinking in the next year.  You said you could help with that?” she asked, already knowing the answer.

Indeed, Sandra was already thinking about that, but she needed to talk to some experts before she got started.  She had a vague idea of what needed to be done, but since she hadn’t crafted alcohol before she was a bit lost.  Apparently, Glencha and one other villager – Teving – were the ones to talk to.

“Brewing Ale correctly can take a lot of trial and error on a new set up; for instance, regulating temperatures for boiling or fermentation is important for proper alcohol production is key,” Teving – a burly male Dwarf who seemed really excited to get started brewing – started.  “Then there are different mixtures that might work best for the size of the vessels you’re using in the process, which produce different flavors, and—”

“Okay, okay – she doesn’t need to know all about your different flavor blends you’re so proud of,” Glencha cut in, shushing the other Dwarf.  The female dwarf was a bit on the smaller side and seemed like she was a little shy – until it came to talking about distilling hard spirits.  “Let’s get everything set up before we mess with any of that; Sandra’s a dungeon, after all, and she can’t taste the Ale you’re going to be making.”

Teving just snorted and crossed his arms across his chest, though he didn’t say anything to contradict the other Dwarf.  Then…well, then came a long explanation of a seemingly simple yet complicated process.  While the two were explaining exactly what was needed, Sandra kept one part of her concentration on trying to learn all she could about brewing and distilling, while another kept crafting swords and armor, and yet a third part was observing the plundering of the two remaining collapsed dungeons.

She had reached both dungeons a few hours ago, and she was pleased to see that she had arrived before the new, replacement Cores expanded their Areas of Influence enough to reach them – though it was close.  She briefly thought that if she had waited even another 6 to 8 hours, she might have been too late for either one.  Their rapid expansion was so great that she thought that within the next few days they would likely be opening up to the world…and like she had told Delarthe, they all needed to be ready for when that happened.

Sandra also shut down production of new constructs for her Nets, as she wanted to start using the Mana going into it for other purposes; in addition to the Ape Warriors, Dire Wolves, Jaguar Queens, and even a third Titanium Anaconda she wanted to create for the Shieldmen, she knew she needed to start stockpiling Energy Orbs.  They were the one thing she could create that could benefit all of the races equally, and would be an important part of the overall strategy in the future.

Fortunately, splitting her concentration between many different projects was getting easier and easier every day.  Whether it was because she had so much practice or if it were due to her upgrading her Core Size, but ever since she emerged from her upgrading isolation it seemed as if she could handle even more going on before her focus started to suffer.  When doing routine tasks around the dungeon – such as creating more constructs for her Nets – the process was almost automatic; when she was crafting something she had a lot of practice at – for instance, the swords she was still creating for the Orcs – it was almost as automatic.  Newly created crafts, such as the chest armor she was creating for the Orcs as well, took a lot more of her focus – but after creating a few dozen of them it was getting to the point where it wasn’t a challenge to nearly automate as well.

Even the enchanting of Elemental Orbs to convert them into Energy Orbs, which had at first been extremely difficult to get right, was simple enough to complete that Sandra found she could control up to 6 Unstable Shapeshifters at a time, each doing their own enchantment on separate Orbs.  It was amazing and a little disappointing at the same time, especially considering how easy it seemed to be now; it wasn’t a challenge anymore, which was one of the things she enjoyed about crafting.

Oh, she still enjoyed the crafting process, even with every sword she hammered into shape or Orb she enchanted, but it wasn’t the same as discovering something new or trying her “hand” at a new craft.  It was the same driving force she had lived by when she was Human; the need to learn about all aspects of crafting was what kept her going, as there always seemed to be something new to learn, and she was excited by even the most mundane tasks if they related to crafting.

Therefore, with the “automatic” tasks taken care of, she had plenty of concentration left over to learn about brewing and distilling – which was exciting to learn about.  Even though, as Glencha had told Teving, she couldn’t taste what was going to be made, that didn’t bother her; it was wonderful learning about a new process, and developing solutions using her special abilities in trap-making and enchanting to do something that would normally be done manually made her excited to