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

sliced-up pieces of the steak.  He was disappointed that he couldn’t eat more, but his belly was already uncomfortably full; a thin soup or stew was usually better as a first meal after a prolonged period of starvation, but he was happily satisfied, nonetheless.

Kelerim sat back and put the tiny trident down, looking around the room with fresh eyes.  Apart from the table and single chair, he could see a low slab of stone across the room, and next to it stood another stone box with a sheet of copper lining the top of it.  And right next to that, a strange stone pedestal was standing with an odd extension over the top of it.  What was the weirdest part of the whole arrangement was the fact that it was all low to the ground, as if whatever it was intended for was short-statured.  Maybe there are Gnomes here after all – or maybe even Dwarves.

The real reason made itself known a moment later, as a foot-and-a-half-tall metal “person” moved off to the side, where Kelerim hadn’t even noticed it because it was standing completely still.  It had the general shape of a person, but it was completely made of metal, though not iron like the Ape he had seen – which, now that he looked around, he found that the metal monkey was gone.  As the little metal person walked to the stone pedestal, another stone cup appeared in its hand; after touching the upper extended portion of the column, water appeared and flowed down into a bowl-shaped reservoir below, which was interrupted as the cup was introduced to the stream.

The next thing he knew, since he lost track of the metal person as he watched astonished with his mouth hanging open – after everything else he had seen, water appearing from thin air was oddly the most impactful – he was being handed another cup of cool, refreshing water, even though his previous one was still—

Gone, apparently.

The place where it stood was empty, so he placed his new one on the table where it had been.  It was quite bizarre, but he was starting to get used to the bizarre.  The “construct” – if he remembered what the woman called it correctly – walked back to the other side of the room, where it stood unmoving, apparently waiting for some sort of instructions.

* Alright, I hope you enjoyed your meal, though it looks like you didn’t eat much; I hope it wasn’t because it didn’t taste good. *

“Not at all – it was delicious.  I just can’t fit a lot in my stomach until I can start eating regularly,” Kelerim responded, his throat now soothed and feeling much better after having some water.  “You were going to explain—”

* Yes, now that you’ve eaten, you’ll probably be a little more receptive to learning a little bit more about me and where you are… *

Chapter 32

Sandra hadn’t realized how much she missed being able to talk with someone.  Winxa was around, of course, but she was in the role of a mentor more than anything, but she still considered the Dungeon Fairy a friend.  However, it was hard to relate to the small figure because she was so different from the other races; she was more akin to a talking creature than anything else.  Not that she thought of the Fairy like that, but it was the closest comparison she could think of.

The Dungeon Core had been glad that Kelerim had finally woken up, as she was starting to think he was going to eventually waste away and die – and there was nothing she could do to prevent it.  Sandra’s Repair Drone was able to fix some of the damage that the lack of sustenance in his body caused, but it could only do so much; eventually, he was going to have to eat and drink something, and she was happy that she was able to provide it for him.

Kelerim was remarkably accepting of what she had to tell him about her dungeon and her current driving purpose – crafting, of course.  Either that, or he was still in shock over what had happened to him, or the seemingly frightening descent down the VATS.  She was glad she hadn’t told him the details of numerous constructs she ended up smashing against the floor and ceilings in her attempts to get the Air-based traps to work correctly.  She had a feeling he wouldn’t have taken that first step and would’ve starved to death up top; though, in all honesty, she would’ve found a way to feed him, but it was strangely encouraging to see him willing to risk potential death for a meal.

After she was almost done, she realized she hadn’t even told him her name.

* …and so I spend most of my days crafting.  Hmm…what else?  Oh, it just occurred to me that I haven’t told you my name!  It’s Sandra, by the way.  I don’t know if I’ve told you before, but I used to be Human before I was reincarnated inside a Dungeon Core. *

Kelerim finally stirred from the exhausted-looking, blank-faced expression he had been wearing while she had been talking.  “It’s nice to…talk to you, Sandra.  Thank you again for saving me from those Bearlings and keeping me alive while I was asleep – though I still don’t know why I was out for that long.  I’m Kelerim, and I’m a—”

* Half-Orc/Half-Dwarf, I know.  I learned all of that when I created the bond with you.  Winxa told me that your prolonged sleep was probably my fault, because I formed the bond while you were unconscious.  Of course, she had never seen anything like what I did before, but it isn’t unreasonable to think her assumption was correct. *

He looked confused, which was understandable because the Dungeon Visitor’s Bond wasn’t something he could necessarily feel or even see