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

that Sandra didn’t understand.  Regardless, he showed the Distilling enthusiast how to precisely place the different Energy Orbs pairs so that she could maintain a constant relatively cool temperature inside of the containers so that it didn’t get too hot or too cold.  While he was explaining, he held his hand up against the side of the vessel, which directly replicated what was going on inside temperature-wise; it didn’t radiate heat so much as allow one to get an indication of what was going on, fortunately, otherwise the rooms would probably be like ovens after a while.

I wonder if I could make some sort of Feedback enchantment that would give a more accurate measurement?  It was something she had overlooked before, but she thought it might be possible with a little experimentation.

“That was…amazingly simple!  How come I didn’t think of that?” Glencha finally asked, placing her hand on Teving’s arm as if to say thank you.  “Now that that’s done, shall we check out this bath you were talking about?”

Huh.  Okay.

“Well, I already had one earlier—” Teving started, before he looked at the hopeful look on the other Dwarf’s face— “but it’s worth checking out a second time.”  He smiled again and said, “Let’s go!”

They both left and Sandra lost her visual entertainment, but Winxa was fortunately still recounting some stories – for which she seemed to have an endless supply of.  Either that, or she was making things up as she went along; regardless, it was a nice accompaniment for the last space of time before her upgrade completed.

Core Size Upgrade Stage complete!

14/14 Completed

Your Core has grown!

Current Size: 22

Mana Capacity increased!

Raw Material Capacity increased!

How long was I out this time?

Winxa didn’t seem surprised to hear her communicate with her this time, as she answered right away without hesitating.  “I’d say it was a few minutes longer than your last upgrade, but not too noticeable – still just over 10 hours.”

Excellent!  Let me check on the Core pieces…it looks like the rest of the Reptile Core was consumed, but the others are still there!

That was awesome to find out because that meant that she would be able to upgrade at least 6 more times if the consumption rate stayed at the same rate in the future.  What wasn’t so awesome was that she didn’t receive anything special from her upgrade: no new constructs or skills.  She did increase her maximum Mana up to over 30,000 from the just over 24,000 it had been before, as well as increasing her maximum RM to nearly 72,000.

Available Mana:

12460/30559

Available Raw Material (RM):

39825/71899

That was it though…except for the expansion of her Area of Influence, of course.  When she looked at what she could see underground, she was shocked – to say the least.

Winxa, is there an average amount that a Core’s Area of Influence will increase after every Core Size upgrade?  I know that I was a bit unique with my rapid expansion from the beginning, but my recent increase is nothing short of shocking.

“I’ve definitely noticed that, and I had mentioned it before,” the Dungeon Fairy responded, her head tilted to the side in contemplation.  “If I remember correctly, after Core Size 20, the typical Core increases by about 20% of their current AOI, though that isn’t a fixed number.  A variety of variables can affect that either way—”

Her voice was abruptly cut off and her eyes grew wide as she started to breathe heavily.  It was almost a minute before she was able to say, “And that’s all I can say about that.  Why don’t you tell me what changed for you.”  Luckily, Winxa hadn’t said anything she shouldn’t have – at least Sandra didn’t think so – but it was also disappointing to see that the restrictions put on her by the Creator were still there.  Still, it gave her an idea that what she was experiencing wasn’t normal.

Well, when I reached Core Size 21, I believe I increased my AOI by nearly 30% as it expanded by 3 miles.  Keeping on that trend – and beyond – I think I can reach nearly 7 miles more, which is approximately a 50% increase since last time. 

“That is…unheard of, which is something I say a lot around you.  In fact, I’ve seen so many things I didn’t think was possible from you in just the last few months that I haven’t wanted to leave.”

Now that Sandra thought about it, she realized what Winxa said was true.  There were only a few times over the last few weeks that the Dungeon Fairy had gone back to her own realm using the portals she could create; the rest of the time, she had been inside her Home room or nosing around Sandra’s dungeon if she were bored.  She had also taken a liking to watching the Dwarves go about their lives underground, and it provided her with hours of entertainment.

Well, before I check it out fully, I need to see how everything else is doing.

The answer to that was…remarkably well. Dusk was falling and both the Dwarven Shieldmen and Elven Rangers were wrapping it up for the day.  Sandra immediately told Delarthe and the others that she was back and that they could run back to the dungeon where they could spend the night in comfort, instead of out where it wasn’t safe anymore.  They had previously camped out in their former village, now that the Golem and Goblin Cores’ AOIs could reach it now, it wasn’t safe anymore.

The Orc village looked normal – as in they didn’t have any visitors yet – and the Dwarven villagers inside her dungeon were doing what they normally did that time of night: getting ready for the night.  Granted, there were quite a few that were still up and enjoying the new baths she had created