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

placing more Copper rods that were just barely held in place by a very thin connection of more Copper.  The idea was that if one of the dozen rods had enough of an impact placed upon it, it would break the thin Copper connection and be plunged inside of the ball, touching the Fire Energy Orb inside.  All she had to do after that was make sure the Fireburst enchantment sequence was connected to each of the rods, and it was ready to go.

To help achieve enough of an impact to drive the Copper rods inside, Sandra transformed the side of the second room into elevated stone platforms.  She filled them both two-thirds of the way up to the ceiling with stone, and then formed a staircase up along one side of what were going to be battlements of a sort.  This staircase allowed the Goblin Foremen she had created earlier to gain access to the top of the stone platforms.

Basically, the pathway through the middle of the room (which was the original tunnel) was still clear, only now it was flanked by the stone platforms occupied by Goblins.  Sandra wasn’t about to leave access to the exit unguarded, though, which is why she next set up some traps that were just the opposite of the room before and which fit the theme well: Fire!  When it was activated, thin streams of concentrated and superheated flames would emerge from one stone platform near the ground and stretch over the entire center of the room to the opposite platform.  The streams were likely deadly to anyone touching them, though she didn’t make it completely impassable; by alternating their placement, she would force whatever came through to duck under, jump, or squeeze through to avoid getting horribly burned.  Towards the end of the room, she even had a few of the streams move in a pre-planned route, which would make whoever wanted to get through them hesitate while they figured out the pattern.

All of which was designed to slow down invaders, so that the Goblin…bombardiers…could make use of their explosive devices.  In fact, by the time everything was set up in the room, she had a Hyper Automaton run from her workshop up above – where she cleared out everything but the Unstable Shapeshifter doing the enchanting – and brought with it the very first “bomb” she had created all the way to the entrance of the Roc tunnel and to the Goblins in the second room.  Fortunately, she didn’t have to worry about her constructs activating her traps, otherwise that could’ve been disastrous.

With a lot of excitement that she was barely able to contain, she eagerly had one of her Goblins on top of their stone platforms grab the new device and got ready to throw it…and then hesitated.

Hey, Winxa – do you want to see what I’ve been working on?  This will show you that I have a plan for these Goblins.  While Sandra was still a little annoyed that the Dungeon Fairy had questioned her choices, deep down she knew that Winxa was only trying to look out for her welfare.  Especially with all of the recent mental…issues…she had been having.

“Absolutely!  Honestly, I’ve been dying to know.”

The Dungeon Fairy opened one of her portals into the first room and saw the assembled Goblins in their chest armor, and Sandra explained what she had in mind, and depending on how they performed she might change it up.  Winxa was genuinely excited over what she had done, even if she was using a Dungeon Monster not necessarily suited to combat, but she also applauded Sandra’s use of what she had available.

Okay, now in this second room there are Fire traps creating obstacles towards the exit, which I’m particularly proud of if I do say so myself.  However, they are secondary to what I wanted to experiment with.  I would stay a bit away in the tunnel if I were you because I have no idea what this will do.

“I can do that – but what are you planning on doing?” Winxa asked curiously, but with a little fear tinging her voice.

Watch.

Winxa was at least 400 feet away inside the tunnel connecting the first and second rooms, so Sandra thought that was more than enough distance to stay safe.  Therefore, she had her Goblin finally toss the special Fire Energy Orb Fireburst bomb off of the stone platform; it sailed through the air and fell directly into the middle of the room in a spectacular toss, hitting the stone floor with a clink as one of the short copper rods was plunged into the center of the ball and into the Energy Orb.

Nothing happened for a few seconds as the ball bounced a little and started to roll and Sandra thought for a moment that she had messed something up.  However, the process obviously took a little longer for some reason, because the largest explosion she’d ever seen emerged from the bomb.  A gigantic flash of flames at least 40 feet wide filled up the middle of the room and the heat from the explosion slammed into everything, charring every single Goblin in the room.

That wasn’t the worst part, however, as the Dungeon Monsters were already dead by that point; the shockwave from the explosion hit them first, snapping their bones even as they were tossed backwards.  The heat of the flames hit them while they were still flying from the force of the shockwave, burning them up in mid-flight – and none of them survived long enough to even land or hit the wall behind them, as they dissolved into Monster Seeds that rolled along with their previous momentum.

Even Winxa, 400 feet away, tumbled through the air from the leading wave of the explosion, though fortunately she was able to right herself before she hit the ground, unhurt but shocked and confused.

“Uh…Sandra?  What was that?  I