The Crafter's Defense: A Dungeon Core Novel (Dungeon Crafting Book 2) Read online

  The Crafter’s Defense

  A Dungeon Core Novel

  Dungeon Crafting – Book 2

  Jonathan Brooks

  Cover Design: Yvonne Less, Art 4 Artists

  Edited by: Celestian Rince

  Copyright ©2019 Jonathan Brooks

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

  The following is a work of fiction. Any names, characters, businesses, corporations, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to any actual persons, places, or events is purely coincidental.

  Cover Design Copyright ©2019 Yvonne Less, Art 4 Artists

  Acknowledgements

  I would like to thank all my friends and family who have supported me on my writer’s journey, as well as providing much-needed encouragement. You’re the best!

  This book wouldn’t be as wonderful as it is without the support and assistance of my beta-readers, in addition to Patreon comments as it was being written. Your feedback and comments helped to develop and shape the story to where it is today!

  Aaron Wiley

  Alexander Canavan

  Brian O’Neil

  Dakota Lee Manchette

  Damion Spearman

  Dann Douglas

  Emerald

  Emma Baker

  Gary York

  Grant Harrell

  James Carter

  Kelly Padgett

  Michael Harrington

  Michael Katz

  Nate Martin

  Neil Stalker

  Ryan Adams

  Sean Hall

  Steven Genskay

  Table of Contents

  Acknowledgements

  Recap

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Author’s Note

  Books by Jonathan Brooks

  Recap

  Sandra was born a merchant and died a merchant – but that wasn’t the end of her existence. She was born with crippled hands that prevented her from crafting all but the most basic materials; because of this – and the ability to see but not manipulate all of the elements – she spent most of her life learning everything she could about her fascination with crafting. After indulging in her hobby a little too much, she over-reached and ended up being sacrificed to fuel an enchantment from the very person she was hoping to learn it from.

  Reborn as a Dungeon Core – centuries in the future – in a place uninhabited by Humans, Sandra was thrust into an underground space without a clue of what she was and why she was there. With the help of a Dungeon Fairy named Winxa, however, she was able to learn how to create Monster Seeds, Dungeon Monsters, rooms, tunnels, and even traps.

  Her new incarnation wasn’t without its own dangers, however. Soon after she started to increase her Core Size, she was incessantly attacked by Territory Ants that tried to destroy her Core. Without another option, she was forced to use her Constructs-based Dungeon Monsters to completely eliminate the threat.

  From then on, though, Sandra was able to expand her dungeon all the way to the surface, filling a dozen rooms with traps and increasingly powerful Dungeon Monsters to protect herself from the outside world. Not only that, but she was able to finally do what she had never been able to do when she was a Human: Craft. Using her abilities as a Dungeon Core, she created multiple rooms for different crafting trades, including a forge, a textile shop, leatherworking workshop, and even a jeweler’s station. Unfortunately, she didn’t have the correct materials to make many of the things she wanted, but she had plenty to occupy her time.

  Although, that time rapidly disappeared when a Half-Orc/Half-Dwarf named Kelerim appeared at her entrance chased by huge Bearlings. Sandra ended up killing a few of the monstrous beasts before they retreated, and she saved the person who had inadvertently brought them inside. With some application of her Core abilities, she was able to designate Kelerim as a “Visitor” and started to teach him the correct way to blacksmith, fixing and improving his meager skills so that he could go back and help the land of Orcrim against the pervasive attacks of the nearby “normal” dungeons.

  Fate had other plans as Kelerim’s previously unknown half-brother Razochek Bloodskull stumbled upon Sandra’s dungeon while hunting the Bearlings. Not willing to risk letting the new dungeon expand and threaten the village of Grongbak and – eventually – the entire Orc homeland of Orcrim, the Warband Leader fought his way through the dungeon with the intent to destroy Sandra’s Dungeon Core. Kelerim wouldn’t allow his half-brother to destroy what he saw as Orcrim’s salvation, however, and fought against Razochek, killing him with some help from more of Sandra’s Dungeon Monsters.

  Affected by the slaying of his own flesh and blood, Kelerim set off to find his father and to start his own smithy, bringing much-needed quality to the progressively poor work done by the existing Orcish blacksmiths. This, of course, left Sandra all alone – with just Winxa as company…

  Chapter 1

  Saving the world not only takes work, but it’s rather boring, too, Sandra thought.

  It had only been a couple of hours since Kelerim had left, and the loneliness brought on by his absence was in no way filled by Winxa, her Dungeon Fairy. It was nothing against her frequently absent friend who was forbidden to give her advice for some reason by The Creator; on the contrary, Winxa was a vital reason Sandra hadn’t gone crazy from her new existence as a Dungeon Core over the last few months. In fact, she didn’t know what would’ve happened if the diminutive fairy hadn’t been there; she thought it likely that she’d be as crazy and murderous as the other dungeon cores in the world without Winxa’s help to keep her sane.

  Crushing loneliness was nothing new to her, however. Growing up constantly on the move and possessing her crippled, disfigured hands hadn’t lent to having many friends (none, really) – so she should have been used to it by then. Of course, it was the fact that she had a real-life person as a friend and then lost him that hurt the most; she almost regretted letting him walk away, but she realized that if she forced him to stay against his wishes, she would be just as bad – or worse – as the other Dungeon Cores in the world. They only wanted to k
ill people; if she gave into her selfishness and kept him there, it would’ve been akin to slavery – which was somehow a whole lot worse in her opinion.

  Therefore, she loaded him up with some of the things that he might need on his journey and let him go. It was necessary, but that didn’t mean she didn’t wish it were otherwise.

  Shortly after the fight through her dungeon and the consequential deaths of the Orcs – including Razochek, Kelerim’s previously unknown half-brother – Sandra let the Half-Orc/Half-Dwarf figure himself out while she did what she could to return her dungeon to the way it was before the attack against her Dungeon Monsters. Massacre would probably be more accurate, as most of her defending Monsters had been utterly destroyed. In fact, the only ones left in her dungeon at all were most of the smaller ones she had roaming through her workrooms absorbing ambient energy. She still had her Mechanical Wolf and Jaguar outside roaming around, of course, but she didn’t really count those – especially when she was considering her defense.

  Sandra had cancelled her flame wall trap in the Home room where her Core was located, before she sent as many of the smaller constructs as she could spare to gather up all of the left-behind Monster Seeds dropped by her slain defenders. When they were brought back to her Core, she had absorbed the corpses of the Orcs for Raw Materials and used the massive amounts of Mana they dropped upon their deaths to rebuild her small army of Dungeon Monsters. There was so much Mana, though, that she ended up adding in four extra Ironclad Apes and Steel Pythons to her defense in the first few rooms; it was a bit of a stopgap measure until she figured something else out, of course – because it was obvious that her current setup wasn’t quite prepared to withstand an assault by a determined group of Heroes. Or an Orcish Warband for that matter.

  In the end, all of that Mana had been enough to complete everything she needed to replenish her Monster room defenders, as well as providing six more Mechanical Wolves and 6 additional Jaguars that could roam around aboveground, collecting ambient Mana. She had found that those two constructs were the most agile and fastest over rough terrain, which the wastelands surrounding her dungeon had plenty of. That wasn’t the only benefit, however; they were her eyes and ears in that dry, blasted land – which was desperately needed so that there weren’t any more surprises.

  They were, in fact, what had let her know far in advance that the Warband came back after Razochek and the others disappeared – but they had fortunately not seen the faint tracks leading to her dungeon entrance. Sandra kept them roaming around as they wished, only stressing upon them the importance that they stay as hidden as possible if they sensed a living being nearby – be it an Orc or otherwise. And, if they were spotted, they were to run in the complete opposite direction of her dungeon entrance; she would gladly take their loss if they were caught or left her Area of Influence altogether, rather than lead whatever it was to her dungeon again. Being invaded by something else right then was the last thing she needed.

  Sandra had managed to use all but the tiniest amount of Mana that was provided from the deaths of the Orcs inside her dungeon before it faded away, which she still felt somewhat bad about. Although she had been justified in defending herself, she wished that Kelerim had been successful in convincing them to leave without more bloodshed; barring that, she had hoped that – after a few of them had died – they would’ve left and never come back. It was only with a heavy reluctance that she acknowledged the best outcome (in her own case) had actually occurred; if they had left, they might’ve come back with even more Warriors – which may have spelled her doom.

  She had held off on upgrading her Core Size until Kelerim left, because he had been acting very strange – which she later found was because he wanted to leave. Only a few hours after he had left, however, she used her full Mana to finish off the last of her stages to become Core Size 17. The same reduced awareness affected her like it did with every upgrade, but fortunately Winxa was there to help keep her company – like usual. The Dungeon Fairy offered tentative suggestions on how to improve her traps – cautious all the while because she didn’t want to end up being punished by The Creator for “giving advice” – and also evaluated how well her Dungeon Monsters worked against the Orcs.

  It was enlightening, to say the least, because it just emphasized the point that her dungeon had been barely adequate in her defense. As much as Sandra didn’t like killing living beings, she now knew that it was inevitable if someone or something decided they wanted to destroy her Core. She resolved to greatly improve her defenses; to do that, though, she was going to need a lot more Mana.

  Winxa— Sandra thought towards the Dungeon Fairy, as soon as her Core Size upgrade was complete— what’s the best way to increase my Mana flow? She was pretty sure she knew the answer, but she wanted to see if there were any other options.

  Winxa jumped in surprise as that was the first thing Sandra had said for almost a day and a half. “Are you talking about the fastest way, or just the most efficient way?” the Dungeon Fairy asked with a little wariness in her voice.

  Uh…the most efficient way. I can guess that the fastest way is what I’ve just experienced, but I would like to avoid that if possible.

  The diminutive Fairy breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank the Creator; I was worried that a taste of the Mana you can get from killing sentients had turned you into the same bloodthirsty murderers that the other Cores always seem to be,” she said as she smiled. “To answer your question, though, the most efficient – but more time-consuming – method of increasing the amount of Mana you’re acquiring is to do the same thing outside that you’re doing inside. What that essentially means is to blanket everything aboveground with Dungeon Monsters, which will absorb and funnel the ambient Mana to you. It will take a hefty initial investment, but it will pay off in the long run.

  “If you’re efficient enough, and avoid detection for a long period of time, your Monsters can eventually absorb every available drop of Mana out there. This rarely happens with other dungeons, however, because all they are concerned about is expanding as quickly as they can so that they can reach their victims. Which, to be fair, is essentially what The Creator had envisioned for them, but their crazed single-mindedness doesn’t often lend itself to strategic planning.”

  I can only imagine. So, does the ambient Mana extend…upwards?

  Winxa looked confused for a moment, before comprehension dawned on her. “Yes, your Area of Influence extends as far up above the ground as it does belowground, though the concentration of ambient Mana tends to reduce dramatically the farther up you go. Up to approximately 200 feet above the surface, the intake of ambient Mana is essentially the same as ground level, which gives any Cores that have flying Dungeon Monsters a bit of an advantage – because there is a whole lot more that they can absorb—” the Dungeon Fairy said, before muttering under her breath— “though it’s not like they take advantage of it.”

  That was exactly what Sandra was hoping for. She was reluctant to “blanket” the wasteland with Dungeon Monsters, especially since it would cause way too much attention. Other dungeons didn’t care about being seen, as they wanted people to come attack them – so that they could acquire the Mana from the sentients’ deaths. Sandra, on the other hand, wanted to stay as hidden as possible – at least for the time being. The less people who knew about her presence and location, the better.

  With a potential solution to her ambient Mana acquisition problem rolling around in her mind, Sandra finally concentrated on the screens that had popped up in her vision.

  Core Size Upgrade Stage complete!

  9/9 Completed

  Your Core has grown!

  Current Size: 17

  Mana Capacity increased!

  Ambient Mana Absorption increased!

  Raw Material Capacity increased!

  New Constructs option!

  Core Selection Menu

  Dungeon Classification:

  Constructs

  Core Size:


  17

  Available Mana:

  32/10014

  Ambient Mana Absorption:

  10/hour

  Available Raw Material (RM):

  16500/28895

  Convert Raw Material to Mana?

  16500 RM -- > 660 Mana

  Current Dungeon Monsters:

  684

  Constructs Creation Options:

  16

  Monster Seed Schematics:

  70 (18)

  Current Traps:

  27

  Trap Construction Options:

  All

  Core-specific Skills:

  4

  Current Visitors:

  1

  All in all, Sandra had ended up using 72,000 Mana in order to upgrade her Core Size. It didn’t seem like that much, though, because more than half of it had been supplied to her within a couple of minutes from the deaths of the Orcs fighting the Bearlings almost a week before. In order for her to continue to grow, however, she was going to have to concentrate on the other methods at her disposal.

  She was currently up to 684 Dungeon Monsters, although 60% of them were the smaller constructs that roamed through the lower rooms absorbing the ambient Mana inside her dungeon. The rest were comprised of the hundreds filling up her uppermost rooms, defending her entrance from any invaders that might come along. To add to that number, however, she had acquired a brand-new Construct with her Core Size upgrade – but it was going to be extremely expensive to produce.

  Constructs Creation Options

  Name:

  Mana Cost:

  Clockwork Spider

  5

  Small Animated Shears