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

made ready to leave, Furbrea had one more question.  “If—When the Warbands come and make this deal, where do I send the…payment?”  That was basically what the voluntold mercenaries were, as strange as it seemed.

More gesture interpretations indicated that Echo would send the platform for them, and that she would somehow know when they were there and ready to be picked up.  Furbrea didn’t bother to ask exactly how she would know, because it was probably something that couldn’t be explained through hand-waving.

Soon enough, the Elf was on her platform and moving off into the wastelands again, heading in a south-southwesterly direction towards the Elven lands.  She turned to the others, who were looking stunned – but happy.

“Tonight…we feast!”  The others looked ecstatic, and started talking animatedly about what they would eat first.

She, for one, was looking forward to eating something that wasn’t stale or dried; fresh meat sounded the best of all.  Oh, and she didn’t forget the fruit, either.  She had spotted some apples that appeared freshly picked off a tree, and she was excited to try one that wasn’t half-rotten by the time she got to it.

They were going to eat like Warchiefs tonight!

Chapter 24

The delivery of supplies to the Orc village had gone better than expected.  The older Orc woman, Furbrea, had been remarkably intuitive and figured out the meaning behind the hand gestures that Sandra had performed via her Echo-copy.  It wasn’t a foolproof method of communication, because while she couldn’t explain specifics – like what material the Titanium swords were made from – but the point was gotten across well enough.  It felt good to Sandra that she was able to provide supplies to the near-starving Orcs, and now she just hoped that their plans came to fruition relatively soon.

The rest of the day and into the evening, the Dungeon Core spent her time creating more Brewing and Distilling crafting stations for Teving and Glencha.  Each one required approximately 18,000 Mana to create; between the Energy Orbs used to regulate the temperature, the traps placed inside, and what was used to create the materials for the crafting stations themselves, the Mana really added up.  She was also consuming a lot of Raw Materials – so much, in fact, that her condensed Sphere was nearly gone.

Each one took a little less than an hour to complete because the large copper walls of the containers had to be shaped into position by some of her constructs, where she was able to seal them completely using her Mana; then the traps and enchantments had to be placed carefully inside and outside, and then the Energy Orbs had to be created and enchanted precisely themselves.  It was worth the effort and concentration, however, because by the time she had finished 5 more Breweries and 2 more Distilleries (Glencha said she didn’t need quite as many as Teving did, which made sense), night had fallen.

She hadn’t been idle with the rest of her Mana during that time; only half of it was being consumed by the creation of the two crafting stations.  The rest of her incoming Mana she split up between creating more small constructs for her Net (she was hoping to soon get to 1,000,000 Mana absorption every day); making more Elemental Orbs and enchanting them into Energy Orbs; creating more Apes with Titanium warhammers, Dire Wolves, Jaguar Queens, and a single Titanium Anaconda for the Dwarven Shieldmen, and more of the Wyvines for the Elves.  She also included a pair of Fire and Nether Energy Orbs with each of the Shadow Beasts she sent out, so that they could get their elemental energy regenerated when needed.  Chryla had helpfully met up with a few of the other Rangers and showed off her new beast companion, so it made it much easier for Sandra to get the rest of the Elves hunting through the forest up to speed on how to successfully use their new assistants.

When the Shieldmen came back, leaving their constructs out roaming the forests, they brought back with them a bounty of Monster Seeds.

“What are you doing with all of these, by the way?” Delarthe asked as soon as he and the others dumped a large pile of various Seeds inside of the Workshop.  None of it was unique or new, but it was all valuable to the Dungeon Core.  The Shieldmen looked exhausted, sweaty, and in dire need of sleep – and a bath; all of which reminded Sandra that she was going to make another bath room down below where the Dwarves could use it.  It would have to be larger to accommodate their larger population, but that wasn’t too hard now that she had access to more Mana.

* I’ve been absorbing them for their Mana mostly, or otherwise reusing them to create more constructs for you.  I appreciate you bringing them. *

“So…the more of this dungeon loot we bring, the more help we’ll have?”

* Essentially, yes.  It’s not a fully equal exchange, because I only receive about half of the Mana from absorbing the Seeds—loot—that was used to create it, and the Mana that was used to create the Dungeon Monster is lost; nevertheless, it greatly contributes to how much I can produce myself. *

“I’m glad we brought them, then; we had so many this time from two days of constant culling that we almost left some behind.  It’s good to know that these are being used to help us directly, almost like a…” Delarthe seemed to be searching for the word to use.

* Like…an exchange system? *

The thought hadn’t really occurred to her before then that she could set up some sort of monetary/bartering system that could act as a way to exchange Monster Seeds—loot—for…constructs and Dungeon Monsters?  Crafted items?  Enchantments?  Food?  The list wasn’t quite endless, because it was limited by what she could create inside of her dungeon, but