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

Of course, Sandra wasn’t like all of the other Cores and her curiosity was piqued.  While she hadn’t yet figured out how to use the various components of the natural creatures she had killed – such as the Crag Hound Stone Carapace from the Crag Hounds inside of the wastelands – the prospect of collecting more of those components was intriguing.  Not only that, but there were a few creatures that she thought might be beneficial in other ways…as in beneficial for crafting.

It was something she was hoping to explore soon, however, because there were some other things that she needed to take care of.  Since it was now night, Sandra started to create some more constructs to help with the culling in the Elven forests when the Rangers were asleep; she was still going to have the Wyvines out in force, but had them stick to the easier Dungeon Monsters they came up against.  She didn’t want to have to replace them if it wasn’t necessary.

For the Slimes, she created 2 Titanium Anacondas with a small force of Hyper Automatons that would follow after them, collecting Monster Seeds that were left behind after the Monsters were killed.  The Slimes were probably the easiest of the two types of Dungeon Monsters for Sandra’s constructs to kill, because their normally highly acidic gelatinous bodies did truly little to the Titanium forms of the Anacondas; other metals, like Iron or even Steel, were eaten away by the Slime at differing speeds.  The metal snakes, on the other hand, were—nearly—immune to the slimy bodies and immediately dived in, snatching up and crushing the Slime’s nucleus in seconds.

That wasn’t to say that they didn’t have any difficulty.  After a few smaller Slimes were killed, Sandra began to see obvious damage done to the Anacondas as the Titanium on their heads was pitted and scarred – but not enough to hamper them.  It was when they started to tackle some of the larger Slimes, which were at least 5 feet tall and just as wide, that the potency of the acidic bodies started to really affect them.  After one Anaconda had its entire head almost eaten away, Sandra was forced to create a Repair Drone that she had camped in a central location that could heal them up after such a fight.  It wasn’t ideal, but after thinking about what she had available to combat the Slimes, it was the best choice.

The Beasts in the other forest were a different matter.  Because they varied somewhat in size, shape, and type – because they could range between boars, bears, wolves, large cats, and even strange hybrids like those Crocatiles – she decided to go with something a little different.  She briefly thought about the Steel-plated Behemoths because they were strong enough to withstand a lot of damage while dishing it out with equal fervor, but they were extremely slow.

She had created one the day before to replace one of the Iron-plated Behemoths in her final room of her dungeon, and while they were at least 4 feet taller and wider than their predecessors and with thicker Steel plates, they moved rather slowly.  The Dungeon Monsters roaming the forests were still doing their best to avoid conflict and would escape from the Behemoths without much trouble.  Plus, Sandra only had a total of 12 (11 now) Monster Seeds that were capable of even holding the Behemoth that she had plundered from the collapsed dungeons in the form of Average and Large Faceted Onyx and Sapphire Spheres.  To make them herself, she would need to invest in another two advancements to reduce the cost of Raw Materials per Seed by 30% – which she wasn’t quite prepared to do quite yet.

Therefore, she would need something that could catch them while still doing enormous damage. The one thing that all of the Beasts had in common was that they were flesh and blood, unlike the Slimes or the Golems on the Dwarven side.  The Mechanical Dire Wolves and Jaguar Queens immediately came to mind, because they were effective against the Goblins, but the difference here was that the beasts they were going to be facing were, in general, powerful.  As in, they could swipe or charge at one of the Mechanical constructs and smash it apart, if not cut it into pieces with their deadly claws.  Granted, they would probably still be effective, but there might be more than a few losses that would make it hard to countenance such an expenditure.

Her Steel-clad Ape Warriors were great at blunt-force attacks, which would undoubtedly be effective but not ideal.  With enough of them gathered together, they could certainly be deadly to the Beasts, but it was also an investment that might not pay off if one or two were destroyed – because they were expensive to produce.  The same went for her Martial Totems; they were great at pummeling their foes to death, but they weren’t great at maneuvering around quickly and could probably be smacked around by a large bear or Crocatile with ease.

Out of all her options, she decided on something that was quite the opposite of what the Elves would normally use, and because of that she made sure to warn the Rangers before they all fell asleep for the night.  The sound of 15 Roaring Blademasters chasing down and shredding beasts in the normally quiet woods would probably be disturbing, otherwise.  The noise was blocked out for the most part by the density of the trees, but Sandra was sure that at least a little bit of the sound carried to the village.

It was pure carnage, to tell the truth.  Her spinning, bladed, and floating constructs were as deadly as they were loud when they attacked.  When chasing down their prey, they were able to fly along without having to spin, which also helped to speed