The Crafter’s Dominion

A Dungeon Core Novel

Dungeon Crafting – Book 5

Jonathan Brooks

Cover Design: Yvonne Less, Art 4 Artists

Edited by: Celestian Rince and Ellen Klowden

Copyright ©2021 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 ©2021 Yvonne Less, Art 4 Artists

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank all of the awesome readers that have enjoyed my books!  It’s for you that I continue to write, and I hope you enjoy them for years to come!

In addition, I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge the excellent help provided by my beta-readers!  Thank you all for providing your superb feedback to make this book even better than I thought it could be:

Aaron Wiley

Alex Canavan

Allen Davis

Brian Oles

Donald White

Edward Smith

Emma Baker

Grant Harrell

Joshua Chausse

Justin Johanson

Michael Harrington

Michael Huber

Nate Martin

Rea Semei Solomon

Rickie Brown

Ricky Kukowski

Steven Mills

Vojta Quis

Zachary Stading

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

Chapter 49

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 as much as she could about anything associated 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 a small, hollowed-out 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.

After she built her dungeon and practiced as much crafting as she could manage, a Half-Orc/Half-Dwarf appeared at her entrance, chased by huge Bearlings.  Sandra managed to save Kelerim with her dungeon, and through a unique application of her Core abilities she was able to designate Kelerim as a “Visitor”.  Over time, she taught 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 – an Orcish Warband Leader – stumbled upon Sandra’s dungeon while hunting Bearlings near the Orc village of Grongbak.  With Kelerim’s help, Sandra fought against Razochek, and the Half-Orc/Half-Dwarf killed him with some help from her unusual Dungeon Monster constructs.

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.  As soon as he left, Sandra was able to finally concentrate on crafting – or so she thought.

While she was searching for additional crafting materials – wood, specifically – her dungeon was inadvertently discovered by the nearby Elven village. When Echo, a relatively young Elf Ranger in Elven society, discovered that Sandra likely had multiple elements at her disposal, the Elven village of Avensglen called in an Elite dungeon-destroying team from the Elven capital.  With limited time until they arrived, Sandra used her resources to upgrade her Core Size, opening up additional avenues of defense – and accidentally causing problems elsewhere, at the same time.

Because of her expanded Area of Influence, one of the local Dungeon Cores was able to exploit a loophole: By possessing an identical element and having a smaller Core Size, the reptile-based Core was able to use Sandra’s Area of Influence as if it were its own.  As a result, an army of reptiles assaulted the nearby Gnome village of Glimmerton, killing most of its residents in the process.  Sandra sent her constructs to save the Gnomes and destroy the reptiles, but unfortunately only managed to save a handful of them.

In order to heal one of the wounded Gnomes, Felbar Warmaster, Sandra needed to bond with him – which placed him in a temporary coma.  In the meantime, she also bonded with the others, before sending most of them back to Gnomeria, the land of the Gnomes, with a wagon full of raw materials.  Violet, an Apprentice Enchanter, helped to enchant a Hauler with her specialized knowledge, as well as helping Sandra set up a Repository that helped preserve how enchantments were created.

Meanwhile, Echo, the Elf who first found Sandra’s dungeon and who was tasked to watch her, nearly died because of a snakebite and was only saved by a last-minute bond with Sandra and her Repair Drones. While Echo recovered in a bond-induced coma, Sandra upgraded her Core Size to 20, unlocking the Advancement System. Using the Advancement Points she had accumulated, the crafty Dungeon Core upgraded her Classification and acquired an Unstable Shapeshifter in an attempt to find something that could craft better than her Constructs – as well as being able to communicate with the Elves.  While the Shapeshifter could finally manipulate elemental energy for use in enchantments, she still wasn’t able to verbally communicate.

Unfortunately, the Reptile-based Dungeon Core that had destroyed Glimmerton had its sights set on the Elven village, Avensglen. With no way to communicate with the Elves, she couldn’t warn them of the approaching Reptile army, so Sandra decided to destroy the attacking Core herself.  She ended up sending just under half of her Constructs to assault the foreign dungeon and managed to keep enough of them alive to make it all the way through it, destroying the Core in charge – but that didn’t end the threat.  The reptile army was following its last directive, which was to kill everyone in the Elven village; there might’ve been a group strong enough to repel them, but the Elite Elves had arrived and were in the process of assaulting Sandra’s dungeon.

Using a special technique to negate the traps inside her defensive dungeon rooms, rendering them practically useless, the Elite Elves tore through her Constructs with ease.  It was only towards the last of her rooms that they started to run out of elemental energy; before they could be killed by one of Sandra’s Iron-plated Behemoths in the last room, Violet stopped them.  With Sandra and Violet offering them a compromise, as well as a newly crafted Energy Orb that gradually restored their elemental energy, the Elite Elves had their lives spared and were sent away to defend the village – on the condition that they would help in a future endeavor regarding cooperation with the other races.

Felbar and Echo finally woke from their forced comas from the Visitor’s Bonding with Sandra, only to find that their world had changed from what they remembered.  Not only were they inside a dungeon, but they had the voice of that dungeon inside of their heads. Luckily, Felbar had Violet to help with the adjustment, while the young Elf only had Sandra’s assurances that she wasn’t a prisoner and that she was safe.

Unlike the two Gnomes – whose village was destroyed – Echo was able to go back to her own people, bringing Energy Orbs with her to be distributed to those amongst her people who needed it.  Unfortunately, she was now treated as a bit of an outsider to some, or as a way to increase their own power through Echo’s association with the powerful dungeon. Not only that, but one Elf Ranger in particular, named Wyrlin, was so incensed at his belief that Echo was a “slave” to the dungeon, that he left the village altogether; it was later rumored that he was gathering like-minded individuals to his cause of seeing to an ending of Sandra’s corruptive influence.

In order to get Felbar and Violet back to their own lands, the Dungeon Core and the two Gnomes worked together to create a massive War Machine, an enchanted Gnome construct made from wood and metal.  In order to do that, however, Sandra had to make use of a special enchantment rune called a Limiter, which helped to regulate energy flow.  Discovery of how to use it effectively with Energy Orbs – and later, Energy Cubes (a larger variety) – was difficult, but not impossible, and it was quickly used to ensure years of power to the Rune Repository Pillars in her Enchantment Repository, as well as a power source for the large Gnomish construct.  The Limiter rune was also able to be used to create enchantments that could be used on weaponry, enhancing the power and force behind them, making them especially deadly.

All of those improvements were necessary – because the world didn’t stop while Sandra was having fun crafting.  Without the Gnome village working to cull the Undead-based dungeon nearby, the Nether Core quickly expanded without opposition.  By the time Sandra discovered its expansion, it was too late to contain it; her first serious battle against the Undead ended in failure, and any hope that she could pick up the duties of culling them like the Gnomes had been doing was dashed.

Especially as the Nether Core expanded enough to attack Sandra’s dungeon.

The resulting assault by a horde of Undead wasn’t so much of an attack as an attempt to keep Sandra’s own Dungeon Monsters bottled up in her dungeon so they couldn’t interfere with the Nether Core’s plans.  To counter this, Sandra utilized her Gravitational Devastation Sphere, which caused an incredible amount of damage and completely destroyed every Undead that was sent against her.  It was uncontrollable and highly dangerous, however, which was proven when a curious Dwarf Shieldman from the local Dwarven village of Nurboldar came to investigate at the wrong time – and almost got sucked up into the Sphere’s gravitational pull.

After Sandra healed him, Gerold became the latest Visitor to Sandra’s dungeon, but the Bond he obtained was a little different; by using Energy Orbs instead of just Elemental Orbs for the Bond, the Energy Orbs were absorbed into the Dwarf’s palms, where they would continuously regenerate his Water and Nether energy – for as long as he was inside of Sandra’s Area of Influence.

The Undead weren’t done with their assaults, as they soon expanded enough to attack the Dwarven village in the middle of the night.  Through the timely intervention of Felbar in his larger War Machine and Gerold in a smaller, Deep Diver construct (a substitute for his powerful armor that had been destroyed in the Devastation Sphere), they were able to save all of the villagers – though all but 10 of the Shieldmen that protected the village were killed, including their powerful leader, Bregan.  With their homes no longer safe, they retreated towards the middle of the wasteland, only discovering that they were actually inside of a dungeon after they arrived and acquired a Visitor’s Bond.

Kelerim showed up shortly afterwards, fleeing for his life from an army of Orcs sent by his father.  Sandra managed to bring him safely back to her dungeon, while preparing for the inevitable attack by the Orcish army…which never came.  Instead, the Orcs went into the two nearest dungeons near Grongbak, destroying the Unicorn-based and Avian-based Cores, respectively.

Unfortunately, such an act had unforeseen repercussions; at least, they were unforeseen by Sandra, though most of the others she had Bonded with had known about them.  It turned out that destroying too many Dungeon Cores in rapid succession would provide enhancements to the other nearby Cores, until such a time as the brand-new Cores replacing those destroyed could increase their Core Size to a certain threshold.  Because Sandra had participated in the destruction of at least one of those Cores, however, she was not entitled to any of those benefits.

Having no other choice but to destroy the Undead-based Dungeon Core, because it was already becoming a serious danger and had proven to possess a knowledge of tactics that far outstripped Sandra’s own, Echo, Felbar, and Gerold ventured towards the hostile dungeon with the intent of destroying the Core inside.  Accompanied by Advancement-unlocked Radiant Pegasi and Celestial Authorities – a type of Angel – as well as a small army of Sandra’s previous constructs, things were looking good…until the entrance collapsed, cutting off her perceptions and her control of anything inside the foreign dungeon.  Luckily for those inside, Sandra was able to pass off control of her constructs and other Dungeon Monsters to Echo and the others before she lost contact.

Through difficult traps, a maze of rooms, and increasingly powerful Undead, the Elf, Dwarf, and Gnome were able to make it to the very end of the dungeon, where they were faced with a near-impossible fight with gargantuan Undead Dungeon Monsters that appeared ready to stomp them flat.  When another horde of smaller Undead flowed in from outside of the dungeon through a separate entrance, failure was only minutes away.  It was only through strategic use of their resources and sheer blind luck that Echo was able to make it to the Core Room, where – with a little help from Sandra, who was fighting to get her constructs into the Core Room from another direction – she was able to destroy the Nether Core.

Felbar and Gerold were barely able to escape with their lives, picking up Echo on the way out as the dungeon itself collapsed, unlike the other Shieldmen who had come with them into the dungeon.  They were successful in destroying the Undead-based Nether Core, at least, even with the expensive cost in terms of lives lost.

With the destruction of the Undead-based Nether Core, though, there was a significant increase in the enhancements affecting nearby Dungeon Cores.  While the results of those enhancements wouldn’t be felt immediately, the time would soon come where their rapid development would be too much for Sandra to safely contain; therefore, it was time to ask for the help of the mortal races.

After developing a new Dungeon Monster that could quickly fly long distances and carry a heavy load – namely, the Aerie Roc – Sandra sent Violet and Felbar on their way back to their homeland of Gnomeria, Echo back to Symenora along with Elder Herrlot, and Gerold back to the Dwarven Kingdom.  Their objective was to explain what was happening in and near the wastelands, describe the danger that the enhancements posed, and enlist their peoples’ assistance in controlling the soon-to-be-dangerous expansion of nearby Dungeon Cores.

To be able to allow her new Aerie Roc to leave her dungeon, Sandra was forced to create an extremely large exit tunnel, using a newly taught technique called Bulk Elimination to remove vast amounts of material all at once.  Eventually, she was able to turn this exit tunnel into another route of rooms filled with Dungeon Monsters and traps so that she could keep it open; if necessary, however, she could collapse the tunnel at a point to prevent access to her Home room where her Core was located.

With her friends gone on their assignments to gather help, Sandra turned her attention to the one land where she didn’t have an emissary to treat with the local government: Orcrim.  Instead, she developed an idea to use volunteers from Orcish Warbands to act as her own personal mercenaries, equipping them with all the best equipment and Energy Orbs; in exchange for these volunteers, she provided the Warbands protecting the Orcish lands with improved armor and weaponry, thereby increasing their overall effectiveness at the same time.

With these mercenaries – as well as the remaining Dwarven Shieldmen, Elvish Rangers, and a plethora of her own constructs and Dungeon Monsters – Sandra was able to prevent the four closest Dungeon Cores surrounding the wastelands from blanketing their Areas of Influence with Monsters, by keeping them bottled up inside their own dungeons.  Unfortunately, this only worked for so long before the Beast and Slime dungeons near the Elvish village of Avensglen broke out of the blockade, with the application of some powerful Dungeon Monsters.

Luckily, Sandra and the Elvish village weren’t unprepared; hundreds of constructs participated in the defense alongside the Elvish people, though even that didn’t prove to be enough.  With defeat a real possibility, the craft-loving Dungeon Core employed a brand-new construct that she wasn’t sure would actually do anything: the Mobile Fortification.  When her construct expanded into a massive, deadly killing machine filled with giant swords and sawblades, the village was saved.

Meanwhile, there were two things that were working against Sandra and the others.  One was unseen, an insidious result of having absorbed some shards of the nearby Dungeon Cores that had been destroyed.  While absorbing the shards helped to fulfill the Mana requirements for her next Upgrade Stage, they were also used to significantly speed up the entire Upgrading process; quite a boon, of course, but doing so had some unforeseen consequences.  The insanity that permeated the Core shards she absorbed was somehow transferring vestiges of that mental state to Sandra, though at a much-reduced level.  During one of her subsequent Upgrades, her normal dislike and fear of the helplessness during the Upgrade was amplified, causing her to temporarily lose control of her actions after the process was complete.

From then on, Sandra had to be careful not to react too strongly to her newly raw emotions, using crafting in different forms to help stabilize her mental state.  This resulted in creating new enchantments, constructing a brewery and distillery for the Dwarves, and even developing glass and glasswork.  Winxa was also there to help monitor the crafty Dungeon Core, helpfully suggesting ways for her to keep her sanity for as long as possible.

Unfortunately, the equilibrium she had achieved with her inner mind was shattered when Wyrlin, an Elven Ranger who had spurned Echo after her experiences in Sandra’s dungeon, arrived at her dungeon – along with dozens of other Elves, a handful of Elites…and over 3,000 Orc Warriors, including Kelerim’s father.  They were there to put an end to Sandra and the threat they thought she represented, and when one of her Orcish mercenaries was killed trying to get Rothgar Bloodskull – Kelerim’s Warlord father – to see reason, the unstable Dungeon Core lost most of the stability she had been holding onto.

Her own forces participated in the slaughter of the massive army of Orcish Warriors outside of her dungeon, alongside the Monsters from the surrounding Cores – which she then turned on and destroyed.  At the same time, her large, excavated tunnel was invaded by a much smaller party of Orcs and Elven Elites; as they progressed through her dungeon, they were whittled down through the use of traps and unique applications of her Dungeon Monsters, until there were only a handful left when they arrived at her Boss Room.

Nearly all of the invaders were killed, including Wyrlin and the rest of the Elite Elves, and only Kelerim’s Warlord father was left alive as a significant threat.  Through the use of multiple Mobile Fortifications, Aerie Rocs, and a wave of Shears brought in from outside of her dungeon, Sandra was able to defeat the powerful Warlord, ending the immediate threat arrayed against her dungeon.

But not everything was a success.  Firstly, Sandra had lost most of the control over her mental faculties, even refusing to listen to her assistant, Winxa.  She had enough awareness over her dominion to prevent her from slaughtering all of the people inside her Area of Influence – including the nearby Elven village, the Orcish Mercenaries contracted to assist with the defenses, and the Dwarves operating in and out of her dungeon – but as far as she was concerned, anyone else was fair game.

Secondly, the battle against the invading Orcs outside of her dungeon was not only beneficial Mana-wise to her, but to the other nearby Dungeon Cores.  They were already striving to reach her Core, and the additional Mana could potentially provide her foes with the push they needed to finish the job.

Lastly, there was no sign of her friends – Violet, Felbar, Echo, and Gerold – who Winxa desperately hoped would arrive to bring Sandra back to normalcy.

Any one of these factors could spell disaster for the crafty Dungeon Core, but all of them together could doom the entire world….

Chapter 1

“Sandra?  What should we do?”

Winxa stared down at Delarthe, the leader of the Dwarven Shieldmen once Gerold had left for their mountain Kingdom, as he paced the floor of Sandra’s Home room.  Next to him was Chryla, the Elven Ranger that had been the Dungeon Core’s contact with the nearby Elven village and the defenders within.  Both of them, as well as the handful of other people in the room, appeared understandably worried.

As they should.

Winxa was essentially invisible to anyone that she didn’t wish to see her, so she wasn’t really worried about the small group of Dwarven Shieldmen, Elven Rangers, and Orcish Mercenaries staring up at Sandra’s non-responsive Dungeon Core spotting her hovering above.  For everything that the former merchant had done after becoming a Core, this right here went to show how special she was.  In far less than a year, she had managed to cobble together representatives from the nearby races, the Gnomes notwithstanding, to work together towards a common goal.

Granted, she had basically “purchased” volunteers via an exchange of weapons and armor from the Orcs to use as mercenaries as she saw fit, the Elves were relying on the miraculous Energy Orbs that Sandra had created to fight back against the nearby dungeons, and the Dwarves had lost their village as a result of what the Core had done and had no other place to stay – but that didn’t diminish the current circumstances.  She had brought them together to fight against common enemies, and only through her interactions with them had they come to that point.

Unfortunately, Sandra’s mental state had slipped more and more towards insanity.  The absorption of the broken shards of the nearby Dungeon Cores had likely transferred some of their former madness to her in the process, and when Kelerim’s father – along with a contingent of Elven Elites and Rangers, including Wyrlin – had attacked her dungeon and killed one of her Orcish mercenaries, she had effectively lost most of the control she had over her actions.  Fortunately, it was only most – but not all.

“She’s not answering,” Chryla said, to the nods of everyone else.

It wasn’t just the people in the room Sandra wasn’t answering, however, because Winxa was left to herself as well.  In fact, the only reactions from the Core was some sort of automatic translation that affected anyone inside of her dungeon – so that they could easily communicate with each other.

Chryla went on.  “I think, for the protection of our people, we need to maintain our vigilance outside of the dungeons.  I don’t know what happened to her, but we should continue to use the tools she provided to safeguard the surrounding lands until we hear from her.”

Winxa considered Chryla’s words and thought that was smart and it was exactly what they should be doing.  They were dedicated to that course of action before the attack, after all, and there was no reason not to re-establish that routine.  Especially given how much Sandra was already working on that very thing.

Unlike Winxa’s other experiences with deranged Dungeon Cores, Sandra had maintained her protective and nurturing instincts with her “people”; the other Cores she had helped to guide had lost all control and killed indiscriminately, indifferent about who they hurt or attacked – as long as it got them Mana and Raw Materials, which were used to upgrade their Core, making them stronger.  The anger and monstrous thoughts Winxa had received from Sandra before she had lost all contact weren’t directed to the people living near the wastelands created by Wester all those years ago, but were instead directed towards the 4 nearby Cores that had worked together to attack her dungeon.

That fact, sadly, might spell doom for the entirety of the nearby people more than if she were to target them herself.  If Sandra ended up destroying even 1 more of the Cores that had attacked her, the enhancements that the others received because of that destruction could potentially be insurmountable.  As things stood, it was going to be extraordinarily difficult to regain control over the local areas because the Dungeon Cores within 138 miles of the 4 already-destroyed Cores were experiencing a period of rapid expansion.  If Sandra did nothing to corral those dungeons, the entire situation would end up in disaster that not even the former merchant and craft master could come back from.  Not only that, but if she compounded the issue by shattering additional Cores, the entire world could suffer due to the darkness that had settled over her mind.

“I think I know what happened,” a voice abruptly spoke up from a tunnel leading farther into Sandra’s crafting rooms.  Kelerim, the half-Dwarf/half-Orc, suddenly had all eyes on him as he walked toward the group.  “Without a specific target like the Warlord attacking her dungeon, she transferred her anger to the nearby dungeons.  I think she sort of…snapped, I guess, when my father killed Perceine.”

Winxa thought that was very perceptive of the fledgling Blacksmith, because he was absolutely correct.  However, what he failed to realize was that no one happened to know that the Warlord Rothgar Bloodskull was his father.

“Wait…what?” Chryla asked, confused.  “Can you please explain that?”

Without leaving anything out, Kelerim explained his history with Sandra and how his father the Warlord managed to track him down and brought his extensive Warband with him in order to destroy the dungeon that killed Kelerim’s half-brother, Razochek.  He seemed exhausted, despondent, and resigned all at the same time; it took Winxa a moment to realize that he was expecting the others to blame him for bringing all of the trouble their way, and he was prepared to suffer the consequences.  When a small amount of grief over the last member of his family being killed during the attack was added to the mix, Kelerim was a bit of a mess.

The room was silent after the Blacksmith finished, though after about a minute, the leader of the Shieldmen cleared his throat.  “It’s not your fault.  If anything, it’s Sandra’s fault for saving you in the first place,” he concluded.  “Not that I would expect anything less from Sandra, given what I know about her and how she has made my people feel welcome here, but this whole situation seems to stem from that one decision.  A decision that, contrary to what we’ve all been taught about dungeons, was designed to save a life, rather than take it.”

“I agree,” Chryla spoke up, her previous nervousness about being the center of attention long gone.  “If Sandra has snapped, like you said, she is only that way because of what happened to one of us.”  She nodded towards the 3 Orcish mercenaries that had joined them earlier, whose facial expressions showed clear shock.  “Yes, even though you were volunteers that are here to help, she still considered you as her own people – and not in an ‘owning’ sense, but as a…family?”  The Ranger shrugged.  “I don’t know if that is the precise way she feels about you, but I think it’s accurate enough.”

They know her better than she realizes.  Winxa was surprised at the intuitiveness of these people, though she figured that she probably shouldn’t be.  Their lives had been turned a bit upside down, and having adapted so well to the changes likely meant they could start to understand where Sandra stood with her people.  The former daughter of a merchant might have been Human in her previous life, but she was fully committed to the cause of saving as many people as possible.

Of course, that didn’t necessarily correlate to the fact that she had very recently killed over 3,000 Orcs and Elves that had invaded her dungeon; then again, they had attacked her, so Winxa couldn’t really blame Sandra.

As a result of those deaths, the Dungeon Core had obtained a lot of Mana and Raw Materials; what she was using it for wasn’t that much of a mystery, however.  Every few seconds, another Monster Seed and subsequent Dungeon Monster would appear beneath her Core, before marching or running off to parts unknown.  Well, they aren’t really unknown, but I really don’t want to think about Sandra sending her Monsters through the tunnels the other Cores created to reach her Home room.

For the most part, the people in the room ignored the constant production, which seemed almost automatic at that point.  Ever since the darkness had clouded her mind, some parts of Sandra’s normal routine and operations had occurred automatically; Winxa thought that this was one of the reasons the people in the room could actually communicate amongst themselves.  Translations to each of their minds were transmitted almost as a reflex by the Dungeon Core by that point, which was how they understood each other – otherwise, they would have no way to converse.

“Is there anything we can – or should – do?” asked Brunothe, one of the Orcish mercenaries.  While he didn’t expressly describe what he was talking about, Winxa tensed up as she caught his tone.

“I can’t see that helping in the slightest,” Delarthe immediately responded.  “Even if we were able to do it – which I don’t want to and neither should you – shattering her Core would only delay the inevitable.  Like it or not, Sandra is our only chance to survive…as long as she doesn’t destroy any other dungeons, that is.  If she succeeds, then I don’t think we’ll have any chance of survival in the future.”  Winxa was sure by that point that Sandra wasn’t actually listening to the conversations while a distant part of her mind translated their words, because Delarthe’s words about shattering her Core would’ve likely garnered some sort of reaction.

“So you’re saying that we’re lost no matter what we do?” a female Orc mercenary (whose name Winxa had forgotten) expressed with irritation.

Delarthe was silent for a moment as he looked at the others with something like determination in his gaze, before it collapsed into resignation and a shrug.

“I—” Kelerim cleared his throat.  “I’ve been trying to get through to her as much as you have, and I feel like I’m close – but I also feel like she doesn’t want to talk to me.  Whether it’s because I remind her of what my father did to Perceine or some other reason, I don’t think I can convince her otherwise.”  There was a grumble through the group as the Blacksmith basically just said they were all doomed.  “However, I don’t believe all is lost quite yet.”

“What do you mean?  It sure sounds like it to me.”

Kelerim answered Chryla along with everyone else, who also seemed as interested in his answer.  “Just because none of us can get through to her, that doesn’t mean there isn’t anyone who could.”

“Who—?  Ah, I see…but where are they?”

That’s precisely what Winxa wanted to know.  She hoped Kelerim was right, because they were the only thing that the Dungeon Fairy could think of that might re-establish some sanity inside of Sandra.  When Gerold, Violet, Felbar, and Echo left for their homelands to obtain help, it was like a shadow of darkness had fallen over the Core at their departure.  When they didn’t return, Winxa could tell that Sandra was starting to lose some of her mental stability due to feelings of abandonment.

If anyone could get through to Sandra, it would be 1 or even all 4 of them – if they ever came back, that was.  What happened to them?  Winxa wasn’t sure, nor was there any way for her to find out; regardless, the Fairy resolved not to give up on the Dungeon Core while they still had a chance to return.  She just hoped that their homecoming was in time.

Meanwhile, the people in Sandra’s Home room, who essentially comprised the leadership now that the Dungeon Core was no longer “in attendance”, decided to continue on as they had been doing by protecting the nearby lands.  It was all they realistically could do, after all, unless they decided to take that step they had been referencing earlier and destroy Sandra’s Core – which Winxa fervently hoped it wouldn’t come to.  To stop the even greater expansion of the other Cores, though, that might be exactly what needed to be done.

As the group scattered to their tasks – the mercenaries with obvious enthusiasm at killing more Dungeon Monsters, while the Rangers and Shieldmen appeared simply resolute – Winxa looked down at the Core beneath her.  The bright-shining Dungeon Core was surrounded by layers of small, whirling Dungeon Monsters of different kinds, designed to act as a rotating shield of sorts for defensive purposes.  If the time came that Sandra needed to be destroyed rather than allow her to nearly guarantee the annihilation of the nearby races, it would be difficult – but not impossible – for the people who just left to do the deed.  Deep down, something told her that it wouldn’t come to that, but she had also seen too much tragedy in her day to hope too hard.

But she could hope a little.

Chapter 2

Red rage painted Sandra’s vision of almost everything she looked at, based on the anger she held toward the dungeons that had attempted to breach her Home room; it was further sustained by their annoying insistence on defending themselves.  Initially, her fury had included the entire Orcish race for sending an army to destroy her at the same time, but most of that had faded over the last day.  She still wanted to get back at them for hurting Perceine, but the one that had done the deed was dead; his punishment was enough to cool her vengeful ardor towards the rest of the Orcs, though if any other Orcs stepped foot in her wasteland without permission, she wouldn’t hesitate to throw every construct and Dungeon Monster at them until their blood stained the dry, brittle dirt and stone of the environment.

In other words, she didn’t intend for any of them to get close enough to harm her or her people – ever again.

As for those people, she felt that they were the only reason she hadn’t completely abandoned all rational thought and gone feral and insane like the other Cores.  When she looked at each of the Dwarves (both the Shieldmen and those villagers living in her actual dungeon), the Rangers moving in and out of their own village and throughout the forests to either side, and the Orcish mercenaries helping to cull the plague of Dungeon Monsters roaming around, they each were the light in an otherwise-dark world.  She thought that it was the Bond they shared that caused them to be highlighted to her vision, and it was like a lifeline to the tiny bits of sanity she could hold onto.

When she looked at the Elven and Orcish villagers, who hadn’t Bonded with her Core, she didn’t see the same “light” coming from them.  That didn’t mean they were the enemy, however, so she would leave them alone; if they stepped foot in her wasteland without being invited, though, they would join the corpses of the many interlopers already being converted to Raw Materials.  She was more than halfway done dragging the corpses of the Orcs into her dungeon so they could be absorbed, though it wasn’t just for the Raw Materials she gained from the process that she did it.  Despite her rage and fury at the dungeons nearby, leaving bloated corpses to rot in the sun was not something she could stand for.

Besides, even though their swords were of horrid quality and only made of Iron, Sandra could absorb them for a much greater quantity of Raw Materials than their corpses provided alone.  Thinking of how shoddily made the weapons were led the red haze coating her vision to lighten up a little, though; as she thought of how they should’ve been crafted, reviewing the steps required to ensure the temper of the metal wasn’t such that it would snap so readily, her mind started to clear.  Those periods of lucidity were all too brief, unfortunately, because they usually only lasted a few moments before the anger came back full-force.

Aside from those infrequent breaks in her rage, all of Sandra’s concentration was on the task at hand: getting her revenge on the Cores that deigned to assault her dungeon.  They would pay for forcing her hand against the massive Orcish Warband that had invaded the wasteland; she was convinced that if she hadn’t been fighting a war on multiple fronts, she could have handled the whole situation with them with much less bloodshed – and Perceine wouldn’t have died unnecessarily.  Don’t get her wrong, she was glad they were dead now, but that didn’t mean that they had needed to die.

She hadn’t forgotten her desire to save as many people as possible, after all; and right now, that meant eliminating the threat to both her dungeon and those people – the other Cores.  By destroying them, she would keep everyone safe, so that was where she was focusing her concentration.  An annoying voice at the back of her mind kept trying to warn her that doing so would be an extremely bad idea, but she kept ignoring it; the message it was relaying didn’t line up with her own objectives, so it wasn’t that important to her.

The problem with her objectives, it turned out, was that fighting a war on 4 fronts was becoming horrendously difficult.  Actually, “fighting” a war was something Sandra was more than capable of; “winning” that war was the hard part.  When she was on defense, it was much easier to think and strategize what she wanted to do, mainly because she intimately knew the area she was defending.  When it came to assaulting the other dungeons, that ease went right out the window – and she was basically at a stalemate.

It didn’t take long for her to take complete control of the tunnels the other Cores had dug to reach her Home room.  All it required was opening up the access to them by removing her own Steel-plated walls, reaching her awareness into the tunnels, and taking control of them.  Since all of the other Cores had shut off direct access to them near their own dungeons, they were ripe for the taking; Sandra now had over 15 total miles of tunnels leading off in 4 different directions, all culminating right next to one of the dungeons that had dared to attack her.

At the same time, she opened the massive Aerie Roc tunnel leading out from her Home room that she had sealed off during the attack, using it as a means to ferry in and absorb the field of Orc corpses and Monster Seeds that had been dropped during the titanic battle.  Using her own army of Hyper Automatons and Articulated Golems, they were slowly clearing the field and providing Raw Materials at the same time.  As for Mana, even after 24 hours, there was still a sizable “cloud” of the precious resource hanging around the site of the carnage, released from the dead Orcs, though she could tell that it was slowly dissipating.

She needed the Mana to keep creating Dungeon Monsters and constructs to send against the other Cores to supplement what she already possessed, but there was a problem with that.  Every time one of her Monsters absorbed and funneled the Mana to her Core, an equal amount was funneled to the other Cores.  As they received Mana, they would create their own Dungeon Monsters to help defend their dungeons or to send out aboveground to start collecting even more.

Sandra had managed to break through the obstacles in her way – which were blocking off access to their dungeons via the extremely long tunnels – multiple times; using some Steel-plated Behemoths and Steelclad Ape Warriors equipped with Titanium Warhammers, her constructs were able to crush the stone and even the Iron-plate walls that had been hastily placed to cover up access to their dungeons.  Every time she broke through, however, there was a massive army of Monsters there to defend the place.

Against a single dungeon Core, Sandra would’ve had more than enough to annihilate the resistance and destroy everything inside, including the Core; against all 4 at once, with having to maintain at least a minimal presence of her Monsters at the ends of the tunnels, she was at a standstill.  Early on, she had attempted to rush just 1 dungeon at a time, pulling her constructs back from the other tunnels; but she’d had to abandon that idea when each tunnel she emptied was suddenly filled with enemy Dungeon Monsters.  Theoretically, she could’ve sealed off her end, but then she would’ve lost her control over the tunnel – blinding her to the presence of the Dungeon Monsters inside.

Sandra was furious and out for blood—but she wasn’t stupid.  She knew that when she pulled back enough of her constructs to manage a breakthrough into a single dungeon, the others had somehow been able to sense when she was vulnerable.  Creating the Steel walls she had before near the connecting tunnel entrances was an option, but at the moment she was barely keeping ahead of the steady rate of attrition the other dungeons were prompting among her constructs.  There just weren’t enough Raw Materials to go around, even after reducing the thickness of the Steel around the rest of her dungeon.

I’ve plundered almost my entire treasury already – leaving just a portion of my condensed sphere from my Gravitational Devastation attack for emergencies – and I dare not let my dungeon become overly vulnerable elsewhere. I’m slowly running out of quality Raw Materials from the battle, and it’s all I can do to maintain this equilibrium.  Mana isn’t a problem right now, but it soon will be.

The main problem was that fighting on the other Cores’ home turfs was a losing proposition – but there wasn’t much choice. Whenever she would break through to one of the dungeons, her forces would invade and be surrounded by groups of Golems, hordes of Goblins, swarms of Beasts, and a plethora of dangerous Slimes.  The worst part was that, when her constructs were destroyed inside the enemy dungeons, she would lose their Monster Seeds – and the other Cores would be able to absorb them for her own use.

Sitting back wasn’t an option, either.  The single time she had convinced her endless rage to use some strategy and wait outside each dungeon while her forces built up, the Cores had eliminated the wall separating their forces inside the tunnel and attacked en masse.  Unfortunately, the longer she waited before attacking and breaking through to the other dungeon, the more those dungeons had time to accumulate their own forces. Not only that, but they were all sending out additional forces up above, which thankfully her people were taking care of as soon as they emerged; it wouldn’t stay that way for long, though, because it felt like things were at a tipping point – and that it wouldn’t tip in her favor.

No!  They must all die!  This can’t be happening….

It had all seemed easy and straightforward at first.  Sandra was sure all it would take was pushing the thousands of constructs she had created as a result of the first few minutes of battle against the Orcs against each of the dungeons, and they would fall from the fury of her righteous retribution – but she had underestimated the defensive response.  Her thousands of powerful constructs had attacked from above and below in each location, but they had encountered resistance unlike anything she had seen before.

A savage melee ensued in each dungeon as her forces streamed and pushed back the swarms of defending Monsters, but the advance was short-lived.  With the effectiveness of her commands being reduced because they were inside of a foreign dungeon, she had difficulty navigating them around traps set up around each dungeon.  In the Beast dungeon, there was a room that had beams of superheated flames, so hot that they cut through Steel as easily as her Reinforced Animated Shears could cut through thin Linen thread.  These beams were easy enough to avoid when she knew where they were, but they ended up destroying half of her mindless constructs as they walked through them blindly.

In the Goblin dungeon, a simple pit trap with a Spirit-based illusionary projection had been enough for dozens of Apes, Jaguar Queens, Dire Wolves, and Martial Totems to fall to the bottom of a 200-foot-deep pit.  Sandra had been able to eventually navigate them around the trap, but the damage had already been done.

The same sort of thing had happened to her forces in the Golem and Slime dungeons, with a massive cave-in in the former and a long shallow pit of an extremely acidic substance that literally ate away the feet of her constructs before they got all the way across.  All caution had been thrown to the wind as she had rushed in to destroy the Cores in her hatred and fury, and that lack of planning had been her downfall.  She had cooled somewhat since then, and she realized her mistake too late, but that didn’t really matter – there was seemingly no coming back from the error she had made already.

Unless….

Maybe it was her sudden desperation that allowed her mind to clear a little, or just because her anger receded somewhat since her vengeance hadn’t been immediate, but a sudden epiphany she had might be the solution.  She had ignored everything other than gaining resources and producing constructs over the last 24 hours, so it wasn’t a surprise that something beneficial may have slipped her mind.

Advancement Points (AP)

Source

Criteria

Point Value

Lifetime Earned Points

Lifetime Spent Points

Core Size

Receive AP upon Core Size upgrade (does not count for Core Size 1 nor upgrade stages)

1 per Core Size upgrade

22 AP

(22X Core Size Upgrades)

22/22 AP

Number of Rooms

Receive AP for each distinct dungeon room at least 4,000 cubic feet in size (20ftx20ftx10ft minimum)

1 AP per qualified room

68 AP

(68X Qualifying Rooms)

65/68 AP

Unique Dungeon Fixtures

Receive AP for each never-before-seen fixture in your dungeon

2 AP per fixture

36 AP

(16X Crafting Stations, 1X Bathing Room, 1X Enchantment Repository)

32/36 AP

Creature Eradication

Eradicate sources of nearby creatures (i.e., lairs and spawning areas)

3 AP per eradication

72 AP

(5X Territory Ant Colonies, 6X Bearling Lairs, 4X Desolate Spider Clutches, 4X Crag Hound Packs, 5X Solitary Broat Spawn)

72/72 AP

Sentient Race Elimination

Eliminate members of sentient races

1 AP per 10 eliminations

353 AP (3357X Orc, 71X Gnome, 42X Dwarf, 68X Elf)

12/353 AP

Sentient Race Bonding

Form a new Dungeon Visitor Bond with a member of a sentient race

1 AP per 2 Bonds

92 AP (1X Orc/Dwarf, 49X Elf, 9X Gnome, 73X Dwarf, 52X Orc)

48/92 AP

Dungeon Core Destruction

Receive AP for eliminating another Dungeon Core

30 AP per Core

60 AP (1X Reptile Classification Core, 1X Undead Classification Core)

30/60 AP

?????

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

(?????) Denotes an unknown, unique Source of Advancement Points.  Perform this unknown action to unlock more information.

Total Advancement Points Earned and Spent

701 AP

280 AP

Total Advancement Points Available

421 AP

That’s a lot of Advancement Points!  Her excitement was temporary, though, as she realized that she had gained most of them from killing so many Orcs and Elves; again, she didn’t regret killing them because they had attacked her, but she would rather it hadn’t happened in the first place.  Her anger came back when she remembered that it was due to the Dungeon Cores that it had happened the way it had.  Her vision swam in a deep red as she looked over how many AP she had to spend, before pulling up her Advancement Options.

Advancement Options

Current Advancement Points

421

Advancement:

Cost:

Choose 1 Dungeon Monster from another available Classification (Repeatable)

5

Give your Dungeon Monsters the option of having a chosen accessible elemental attribute in addition to their base element – Cost increases with each purchase (only works on Monsters capable of using/applying their element) (Repeatable)

10

Reduce the Mana cost of Monster Seeds by 15% – Cost increases with each purchase (Advancement 2/4)

60

Reduce the Mana cost of Dungeon Monsters by 15% – Cost increases with each purchase (Advancement 3/4)

120

Reduce the Raw Material cost of Monster Seeds by 15% – Cost increases with each purchase (Advancement 1/4)

30

Reduce the Mana cost of Dungeon Traps by 15% – Cost increases with each purchase (Advancement 0/4)

15

Extend your Area of Influence by 10% – Cost increases with each purchase (Advancement 0/10)

50

Advance a current Classification 1 level to acquire access to stronger and larger Dungeon Monsters – this also includes any “Advancement Unlocked” Monsters – Cost increases with each purchase (Advancement 1/3)

150

Select a second available Classification to hybridize your Core (This option is only available once)

150

In her current state of mind, this was a very poor idea. With her need to annihilate and exact her vengeance on the Cores, her perusal of the Options she had was like going shopping for groceries at the market when hungry. Poor decisions were almost always made, and purchasing more than could possibly be consumed before the food went bad was a common occurrence.  And so it was with Sandra’s decisions for purchasing, as she was hungry for death and destruction, with no thought to the costs and consequences of such destruction.

Yes!  Okay, I’m slowly running out of Raw Materials, so I’m going to make my Monster Seeds cost less RM…purchased…and purchased again for a total of 90 AP.  Now, eventually I’m going to run out of Mana, though I do have a stockpile of Energy Orbs I can consume…so, let’s reduce the Mana cost of my Monster Seeds and Dungeon Monsters for another 180 AP.

If that had been it, that would’ve been a well thought-out strategy.  Sandra reduced the Raw Material and Mana cost of her Seeds, as well as the Mana cost of her Monsters; doing so, she could produce quite a few more constructs than she could before – all for the same resource cost – and she could likely break the stalemate by producing more attacking Monsters than the other Cores could defend against…but she wasn’t done.

What else?  What will ensure my success?  Ah, look, I have just enough to upgrade my Classification again!  With that, they don’t stand a chance….

Using another 150 AP, bringing her down to a miserly 1 AP in reserve, she used nearly all of her Points to Advance her Classification to Level 2.  She felt a vague shifting around of something in her Core as she initiated the Advancement, and a sudden worry cut through her red fury-filled vision, clearing it for the first time since…well, she couldn’t remember, honestly.

Wait!  The last time I did this, I was out for nearly a week—  Sudden pain ripped through her Core as she completely lost her vision, and unlike her Core Upgrades, it wasn’t just muted; she couldn’t see or hear anything, and her mind came to a complete halt.  In that state, all of her anger, hatred, and insane thoughts drifted away, leaving her drained and completely unaware of anything.  Her mind was so blank that she couldn’t even think about what she had done, why she had done it, or really anything at all.

With a sudden jolt to her mind, she was back in control of her Core, with a message waiting for her.

Congratulations on your Classification Advancement!

Current Classification: Constructs (Advancement Level 2)

Your current Constructs Creation Options have been upgraded!

Your current Advancement Creation Options have been upgraded!

(Attention!  Your existing Dungeon Monsters will not be automatically upgraded.  Upgrades will only take place when a new Dungeon Monster is created.  Mana requirements may have increased as a result of this advancement.)

You can now purchase Advancement Level 2 Dungeon Monsters from the Advancement Options Menu.

Why did I do that?  What was I thinking?  Her mind was relatively clear as she closed the notification.  As she pulled up her new Constructs and Advancement Creation Option menus to see what had changed, she was extremely worried, since the last time she had increased her Classification, she had ended up with nearly half of her available constructs being too expensive.

Constructs Creation Options

Name:

Mana Cost: (60% Reduction)

Powered Arachnid

20

Animated Iron Shears

40

Mega Automaton

80

Weighted Rolling Force

100

Iron-mandible Segmented Millipede

400

Steel-banded Articulated Powered Golem

600

Sonic Blademaster

1200

Large Steel-armored Sentinel

1600

Powered Jaguar Empress

3200

Powered Sabre Wolf

4000

Champion Totem

6400

Rapid Steel-bladed Digger

8000

Unobtrusive Multi-access Repair Drone

12800

Titanium Ape Savage

19200

Platinum-banded Wyrm

25600

Titanium-plated Behemoth

32000

Expanded Mobile Fortification

40000

Steel Colossus

60000

Gravitational Devastation Sphere*

15000

Advancement Creation Options

Name:

Mana Cost: (60% Reduction)

Goblin Crafter

64

Shadow Wyvine

6400

Radiant Giant Pegasus

8000

Explosive Phoenix

12000

Stabilized Shapeshifter

12800

Enhanced Celestial Authority

14400

Hardened Animated Slab

20000

High Peak Roc

28000

Well, it’s not quite as bad as I feared, but—

“Sandra!  Are you okay?”

Winxa’s voice was like a soothing balm on an open wound.  Sandra hadn’t realized how much she had missed hearing the Dungeon Fairy when she was caught up in her blinding rage.  I think so; how long was I out?

“Oh, thank the Creator!  Your Core suddenly went dark about an hour ago, and I feared the worst—”

An hour?  Oh, no….

Suddenly, viewpoints from the four different tunnels leading to the other dungeons suffused Sandra’s mind.  In each of them, the Golems, Goblins, Slimes, and Beasts were initiating a counterattack at precisely the same time, pushing back her constructs which had been literally sitting in place waiting for additional orders.  Luckily, they were more in a “ready” mode than frozen in place, so as soon as they were attacked they defended themselves.  In the Golem tunnel, her Steelclad Ape Warriors used their dwindling stock of Titanium warhammers to smash the large animated hunks of stone and iron to pieces; they made fairly easy work of the Monsters, though the impacts against such heavily defended Golems took a toll on their weapons after a while.  When first one warhammer and then another were bent and basically unusable, her constructs had begun to run into trouble as they were pushed back even further.

Against the Goblins, Hobgoblin Mages backed up the horde of smaller Goblins that swarmed over her Jaguar Queens and Dire Wolves, which were typically the best choice against the agile nuisances.  With their overwhelming numbers, however, Sandra’s constructs were fighting a losing battle, especially when the Hobgoblin Mages started slinging spells around that tended to encapsulate the feet of her constructs in ice, leaving them trapped and at the mercy of the crude weapons wielded by the Goblin horde.  Even a measly Goblin Scout could carve up and dismember a large Mechanical Wolf if given enough time and opportunity – aided by dozens of its brethren, of course.

Over in the Beast tunnel, Steel-plated Behemoths, Titanium Anacondas, and Roaring Blademasters squared off against strong, quick, and deadly creatures streaming out of the Beast-Classification dungeon.  Those too fast for the Behemoths to smash apart were picked off by the equally fast Anaconda, or sliced apart by the Blademaster; when a procession of Crocatiles (or Agorphiers, according to the Elves) appeared, the 6-legged cat/crocodile monstrosities shrugged off most of the attacks by the Anacondas and Blademasters.  Their tough, furry hides were certainly injured from their slicing and piercing attacks, but it took a pair of Behemoths working together to smash their heads in – though there were starting to be mounting casualties on her side.

The Slimes were another problem entirely; not only did smaller ovoid-shaped Slimes swarm out in greater numbers than Sandra had seen before, but they also brought along larger forms that somewhat mimicked the Beasts she was having trouble with in a different tunnel.  Fortunately, their exterior wasn’t as formidable and could be pierced by the jaws of an Anaconda or sliced apart by a Mechanical Jaguar Queen or Dire Wolf, but the sheer quantity of acidic bodies coating her constructs was quickly eating away the metal in which they were constructed.

Seeing all of her forces being pressed at the same time, with the other Dungeon Cores ganging up on her with a single-minded purpose to destroy her, Sandra’s red rage came back full-force.  Gone was the clear thinking she had enjoyed for a brief time, as she could only concentrate on killing every foreign Dungeon Monster she could see.

I will destroy you all!

Chapter 3

The difference in the cost of each of Sandra’s Classification Advancement Level 2 constructs wasn’t significantly more than it had been before, especially for the lesser-expensive ones.  From some quick calculations that she did while starting her counterattack to push the other Cores’ Monsters back into their own dungeons, she determined that instead of their previous cost being multiplied by 4 or 5 like before, they only doubled in cost for this Level – though that was still quite significant.  For a construct like her Clockwork Spider, which originally cost 5 Mana before any Advancement Levels, then increased to 25 Mana at Level 1, and finally 50 Mana at Level 2 – that was a 1000% increase of in cost; for all of that, with her reduction in Mana Cost for her Dungeon Monsters, it only cost 20 Mana instead of 50 – so that wasn’t horrible.

For something like her Steel Python, which originally cost 8,000 Mana, then 32,000 at Level 1, and now 64,000 at Level 2, the 25,600 Mana it cost with her reductions was quite a significant jump.

The worst part of everything was she could no longer afford to create a Mobile Fortification – or an Expanded Mobile Fortification, as it was called now – because she didn’t have enough maximum Mana.  A quick look outside of each dungeon entrance showed that the surge in Dungeon Monsters down below was mirrored on a lesser level up above, but so far her people were doing a good job containing the outbreaks.  If the Beasts and Slimes broke out, though, the Mobile Fortifications guarding the village were on their own, as the Dungeon Core couldn’t replace them.  All of them still had access to the constructs or Wyvines that she had supplied for their defense over the last few weeks, so they weren’t too hard-pressed, at least; however, if Sandra didn’t fight back the hordes of enemies striving to reach her Core, she might be forced to call them back.

I will not let them win!  All who oppose me must die!

Over the last day, she hadn’t been sure whether it was her own mind saying these things, or something else, but it really didn’t matter; the anger and rage was so entrenched in her psyche that she wholly agreed with these sentiments.  Now the challenge was to enact those ideas, though with the increased cost of her Dungeon Monsters, that might be a bit tricky—

No!  Now, they are more powerful and I will crush them!

The brief moment of clarity earlier seemed to give her a little more perspective on her state of mind, so Sandra could instantly tell that she would never say or think something like that.  Regardless of what – or – who was actually saying that in her mind, she had to admit that it had a point; she wasn’t sure how much more powerful these new constructs were compared to their predecessors, but the jump in deadliness from the original constructs to Advancement Level 1 was quite significant.  The revenge-fueled Dungeon Core could only assume that these were the same.

Core Selection Menu

Dungeon Classification:

Constructs (Adv. Level 2)

Core Size:

23

Available Mana:

38199/38199

Available Raw Material (RM):

75650/86279

Constructs Creation Options:

19

Advancement Creation Options:

8

Taking a quick look at what she had available, Sandra saw that she was full of Mana; during her period of inactivity, it seemed as though her army of Hyper Automatons and Articulated Clockwork Golems had continued to scavenge materials outside; she had set such material up to be automatically absorbed as soon as it crossed into her dungeon.  Unfortunately, their activity around the battlefield was also responsible for gathering up the Mana released by the deaths of so many Orcs. Normally, this was a good thing, but at some point she had completely filled up, meaning that any overflow was lost to her – but not to the other Cores.  I bet this is why they are suddenly overwhelming me.

The only good thing about her Advancement selections, now that she had a chance to look back on them through slightly clearer vision, was that the Monster Seeds required to produce each of her constructs now cost 45% less Mana and Raw Materials.

Monster Seed Origination (Old)

Name:

Raw Material Cost (15% Reduction):

Mana Cost (30% Reduction):

Min. Mana:

Max. Mana:

Tiny Faceted Sapphire Sphere

10200

2450

3500

8500

Small Faceted Sapphire Sphere

20400

4900

3500

17000

Average Faceted Sapphire Sphere

81600

19600

3500

68000

Large Faceted Sapphire Sphere

163200

39200

3500

136000

Monster Seed Origination (New)

Name:

Raw Material Cost (45% Reduction):

Mana Cost (45% Reduction):

Min. Mana:

Max. Mana:

Tiny Faceted Sapphire Sphere

6600

1925

3500

8500

Small Faceted Sapphire Sphere

13200

3850

3500

17000

Average Faceted Sapphire Sphere

52800

15400

3500

68000

Large Faceted Sapphire Sphere

105600

30800

3500

136000

For instance, the Faceted Sapphires that she used for many of her larger constructs and Advancement Monsters were significantly less expensive; for most of them that required a Small Faceted Sapphire Sphere, the Mana cost difference between the new Advanced Level 2 Dungeon Monsters and the Monster Seed was nearly equal to what it cost before, with the additional benefit of it being cheaper RM-wise.  This meant that there was less of an impact on the total Mana she needed to spend to create them, while receiving a superior Monster in return.  For the new Titanium Ape Savage, Platinum-banded Wyrm, and Titanium-Plated Behemoth, however, the Mana cost difference was significantly more.

All of that information she determined in a matter of seconds, because she was hyper-focused on finding a solution to the attacking Monsters without having to close off the tunnels. While it was always a possibility, and while it would give her some time to regroup if it was needed, closing off the tunnels was a last-resort option, because it would set back her revenge. The mere thought of that made her internal ranting and raving increase in intensity, as if any setbacks to the annihilation of the other Dungeon Cores were anathema to her mind.

To alleviate some of her fury, she worked up a plan for each tunnel, leaning heavily on the belief that her constructs would be much more powerful now – even the weaker ones.  By utilizing the Mana she currently had available, as well as the last of the Elemental Orb stockpile she had amassed early in the attack the day before, Sandra started creating more constructs.  The Raw Materials just weren’t coming in from outside fast enough for what she needed, unfortunately, so she was forced to cannibalize some of the crafting station components she had throughout her dungeon; she nearly used the rest of the condensed sphere she was keeping in reserve, but decided to keep it until absolutely necessary.  An unfocused part of her mind was screaming at her to stop, but she ignored it in favor of doing everything she possibly could in defense of the connecting tunnels.

Starting with the Beasts, Sandra created a dozen Sonic Blademasters, the upgraded version of the Roaring Blademaster.  The physical differences between the two were immediately obvious, as the central pole of the Sonic version was twice as long at 6 feet; also, instead of one long pole, the Sonic Blademasters were in a “V” shape.  In addition, what was a little worrisome were the “blades” that covered the “V”; Sandra had been expecting even larger, heavier, and sharper blades, but these were the exact opposite for some reason.  Instead of blades – which would make sense, given its name – there were discs with oddly shaped holes punched into them, with the pole running through the middle of them.  The edges of the disks themselves seemed sharp, though they didn’t appear as deadly as their predecessor’s.

Regardless of what she thought of them, Sandra sent the whole dozen of her new Sonic Blademasters towards her dwindling constructs still holding back the tide.  They zoomed through the tunnel at fairly high speed, the point of their “V” shapes angled forward; the group of them flew down the miles-long tunnel in a formation reminiscent of a flock of birds, an odd whistling sound following them as air passed through the holes in their strange disks.

It didn’t take long for them to arrive and rescue the remaining handful of Roaring Blademasters, 2 Titanium Anacondas, and one battered Steel-plated Behemoth keeping the large force of Beast-type Monsters at bay.  Without waiting, Sandra instructed her new constructs to attack—and was shocked halfway out of her furious state at what she saw and heard.

The open end of their “V” shape rotated towards the nearest Crocatile, and both poles of their forms started to spin in opposite directions.  She heard a high-pitched whistling coming from each of the Sonic Blademasters, which slowly ramped up in intensity over the next 10 seconds. Eventually, the whistle was so intense that if she or her other constructs had ears, they would likely be bleeding – an impact which appeared to be afflicting the Crocatile and other Beasts at the moment.  Large boars, a few frightening bear-monkey creatures that looked capable of bending bars of Steel with their hands, and the Crocatile shrank back in obvious pain as their eardrums were blown out and blood started to run down the sides of their heads.  Even then, the sheer intensity of the sounds was enough to obviously disorient them a little – at least, that was the impression she got from the look in their eyes.

Before the whistling seemed to reach a crescendo as the Sonic Blademasters spun faster and faster, one of the bear-monkey Beasts picked up one of the staggering boars nearby and threw it towards the cluster of Blademasters floating in the air.  The body of the boar was torn apart by the spinning disks of three of her new constructs, but the impact also threw off their equilibrium; they were spinning so fast that any slight change in their weight was disastrous.  All three started to wobble slightly at first, but the next second they practically exploded as they ripped themselves apart.

Luckily, none of the shrapnel hit the other new Blademasters, which – Sandra assumed – were now approaching the speed they were striving for over the last 15 seconds.  Because of the attack by the bear-monkey Beast, who appeared to be working towards picking up another staggering boar, all of them turned their attention to the new threat.  The air in front of each spaced-out Blademaster seemed to vibrate, distorting in a way that looked like a cross between extreme heat waves and the way Echo could bend the light around her form to make herself practically invisible.

The thought of the Elf made the redness in her vision darken again, because she was counting on the Bonded Ranger to get help from her people.  Instead, she had abandoned Sandra and the others around the wasteland to their fate, just like—

Oh, wow!  Now that’s what I’m talking about!

The distortion from each of the remaining Sonic Blademasters seemed to expand in the blink of an eye, shooting towards the bear-monkey Beast faster than the agile creature could avoid.  When the wavy distortions from 9 different spinning constructs hit the living body of the creature, they literally shredded the bear-monkey from one end to the other.  Blood, flesh, bones—they were all blasted apart and flew backwards, covering the incoming Beasts still streaming from the dungeon in all matter of nasty viscera before disappearing.

As one, the flock of Blademasters turned their “blades” of deadly sound toward the boars, tearing them up just as easily, before concentrating on the Crocatile.  Instead of being blasted apart in less than a second, the tough, furry hide of the Beast seemed to withstand the pressure of the Sonic blades for a few seconds, though it obviously hurt; the Crocatile tried to stumble out of the way, but it was too late.  A large hole about 2 feet wide was finally punched through the side of the Beast’s hide, allowing access to the softer flesh inside – which practically exploded as it was chewed up by 9 Blademasters concentrating on that single spot.

This…is…amazing!  With these, I can destroy everything in my path and become the strongest Dungeon Core in the world!  These delusions of grandeur – originating with Sandra or whomever else – were shattered when a simple fist-sized rock came from the direction of the other dungeon, thrown by another one of the bear-monkeys.  The spherical stone hit the spinning pole of one of the Blademasters, ricocheted off, and took an unlucky bounce that sent it careening off towards another, before being knocked toward the wall.  The two Blademasters, thrown off by the impacts, quickly grew unstable and shattered into dozens of pieces, which unfortunately managed to strike 2 others, causing them to break apart as well.

Now down to 5 Sonic Blademasters and suddenly seeing the downside to so much power, Sandra realized that she hadn’t suddenly found the solution to all her problems.  Still, her Blademasters were quite deadly, so she had them move down the tunnel, blasting away everything in their path—or at least she tried.  It seemed as though the new Blademasters couldn’t move in a lateral or vertical direction while they were spinning, though they could rotate in place; as soon as she instructed them to move, they stopped their outrageously powerful attack and slowly moved while the rotation was winding down.  When she stopped them and started up their attack again, it didn’t quite take 15 seconds to get back up to speed, but the delay was still too long to make them effective “attacking” constructs.  They were better suited for defending an area than assaulting one – especially when Sandra found that they had a range of about 20 feet before the sound blades were nothing more than an annoyance.

But now she had an effective means of preventing more of the Beasts from getting through the tunnel: By creating a few more to bolster their ranks, she used the Behemoth and handful of Roaring Blademasters as shields, blocking any thrown objects meant to destroy her new constructs.  It wasn’t a foolproof plan, as a stray rock – or even a thrown boar that got shredded in the air at one point – would hit one every once in a while; by spreading them out so that they covered most of the tunnel and weren’t bunched up, they made a pretty good defensive force.

Meanwhile, Sandra was already at work with the other tunnels, spending her resources at an alarming rate.  The Goblins were next, as they were starting to make some dangerous headway versus her constructs there.  Looking at her list of potential Dungeon Monsters, and considering the sudden prevalence of Hobgoblin Mages being used to neutralize her powerful larger constructs, she decided to go small-scale for her defense.  If her much-stronger constructs wouldn’t do it because they were fewer in number, she would fight the horde of Goblins with a horde of her own.

Using 20,000 total Mana to create 800 tiny Monster Seeds and 800 Powered Arachnids, she sent the whole bunch of them down the tunnel.  Like the Clockwork Tarantulas, which were faster than their predecessor – the Clockwork Spider – the Powered Arachnids were faster still.  Not only that, but they were larger, at about a foot across, and they had a completely sealed body with no sign of any clockwork innards.  In fact, they were nearly silent as they swarmed down the relatively tight confines of the tunnel, which wasn’t as wide and tall as the others.  (The Goblins weren’t as large as the other Cores’ Monsters, after all).

To add to the defense of the tunnel, and to come to the aid of the few Jaguar Queens and Dire Wolves before they perished, Sandra spent another 10,000 Mana to create 180 Animated Iron Shears.  As soon as the larger, more substantial Shears appeared, she sent them into the tunnel as fast as she could.  Unfortunately, the sheer speed that her prior Reinforced Animated Shears possessed was missing from her upgraded construct; instead of zooming through the tunnel at an extremely high speed, they were probably only about half as fast.

However, what losses they had in speed were made up for by their durability and weight of impact.  Whereas her older Shears would normally be destroyed upon impact, when the new Iron Shears hit something, they didn’t crumple and fall apart.  With still enough acceleration to do some damage, dozens of her new Shears slammed into the Goblins, impaling them with devastating results.  Not only did the metal of the constructs not buckle under the pressure of impact, but they were able to remove themselves from Goblin chests, necks, and eye sockets, leaving their victims to bleed out.

A dozen of them were caught before they could escape and were crushed or bent by some of the stronger and larger Goblins, but the rest were able to retreat back down the tunnel and make another run at the assembled horde.  Another few impalements led to some additional attrition in Sandra’s Shears forces, but they had done their job; not only did they manage to kill 3 of the Goblin Mages, but they had allowed her other, already-present constructs to recover and push the enemy back.  By the time her Powered Arachnids arrived, there was a slight lull in the fight as casualties were traded back and forth without too much progress on either side.

That all changed when the smaller constructs arrived.  The upgraded Arachnids weren’t just bigger and faster, but they could jump long distances – which they demonstrated quite well by launching themselves at the Goblins when they were close enough.  The enemy Monsters didn’t know what hit them, as sharp, thin spider legs were rapidly stabbed into vulnerable exposed flesh; in no more than 10 seconds, dozens of Goblins were killed as they were impaled by hundreds of arachnoid appendages.  They didn’t stop there, either, because as soon as one Goblin fell, the Powered Arachnids would jump off the corpse towards their next target.

That wasn’t to say that they didn’t encounter any setbacks.  While they were fast and could jump at the other Monsters with surprising alacrity, they were rather weak in defense.  Even the weakest Goblin Scouts inside the tunnel could grab one of the Arachnids with their hands and crush them – if they could catch them, that was.  Not only that, but when the incoming Hobgoblin Mages cast their ice-based spells, they would catch 5 or 6 of the 8-legged constructs at once, leaving them frozen in place and easily dispatched.

Working together, though – along with a few dozen reinforcements for each of the smaller constructs – they could be extremely effective.  While a group of Goblins was distracted by the Arachnids, the Shears would swoop in to strike; when the enemy tried to grab the Shears, then the spider constructs would jump in to prevent them from being destroyed.  There were still casualties, but with how inexpensive they were to produce, it was easy enough to maintain the constant defense.  Unfortunately, they weren’t really making any headway towards blocking off the tide of Goblins; at the moment, Sandra was satisfied that the immediate danger had passed.

There was a similar result in the other tunnels.  The Golems were probably the easiest to push back because of the simple application of two of her new constructs, as well as one of her Advancement-gained monsters.  Previously, her Apes wielding warhammers had done a decent job of shattering the animated hunks of dirt, stone, Iron, and even Steel – but their weapons were nearly destroyed as a result.  Instead of having to rely on their rapidly declining quality, Sandra went with her new Champion Totem; creating one of them for a little over 8,000 Mana total, she watched as it sped down the tunnel towards the Golems at a much faster clip than its predecessor, the Martial Totem.  The crafty Dungeon Core was a little worried at first, because instead of the multiple pairs of arms the previous incarnation possessed, the new Totem was back to a single pair; not only that, but it was approximately a third smaller in size.

However, when it arrived at the quickly deteriorating defense near the other dungeon’s entrance, it proved that bigger wasn’t always better.  The Champion Totem was fast, agilely dodging devastating attacks by the larger Golems, before swooping in and punching with surprisingly powerful punches.  In most cases – for all but the Iron and even Steel Golems that Sandra was now seeing emerge from the other dungeon – a quick combination of punches was all it took to shatter the majority of the enemy forces.  For the metallic Golems, repeated strikes in a certain location would start to bend and warp the material the enemy Dungeon Monsters were made of, until finally shearing off from the force enacted upon their limbs.

But the Totem was only one construct, and eventually it would be overwhelmed.  Creating additional Totems was on the agenda; but to aid with the defense, Sandra employed another construct: the Weighted Rolling Force.  She had a hunch of what it could do as soon as she saw its name, and she was quickly proven correct.  Creating 50 of them, she sent them rolling down the tunnel towards the Golem Monsters, picking up speed as they went; when they arrived, they had accelerated enough that the force of their impact against the Earth-based Golems was significant.  Limbs were shattered as the Weighted Forces slammed into them, and already-toppled Golems were broken apart even further as a result.  Even the Iron and Steel Golems received massive dents in their forms, causing some difficulty in the movement of the enemy Dungeon Monsters.  When they hit an Iron or Steel Golem, however, the Forces also shattered from the impact; Sandra noted this, and made sure not to target them unless necessary.  Fortunately, those powerful Golems were few and far between, as most of the Monsters she faced were dirt or stone; the Totem was able to take care of the metallic enemies, at least, while the Forces could shatter the weaker enemies on their own.

Of course, without using some sort of elemental effect to stop the Golems’ regeneration, the large Earth Monsters would eventually reform over time.  To combat this, Sandra employed the Explosive Phoenix, the larger sibling of the Rising Phoenix to which she’d had access before.  Like the majority of the changes she had seen, the Explosive variety of Phoenix was about half again as large as its predecessor – but the changes didn’t stop there.  One of the abilities to which the Phoenix had access was to explosively expel the flames over its body in all directions in a matter of a second, creating a flash of super-hot temperatures; better yet, this wasn’t even something that required any of its elemental energy, but was a natural part of its attack.  By utilizing this explosive technique, the Phoenixes could melt or char the exposed “wounds” of the broken Golems, effectively cauterizing them so that they couldn’t be regenerated.

Against the Slimes, the most effective construct in the past had been her Titanium Anacondas, because they could rapidly strike directly into the middle of their gelatinous forms and crush the nucleus inside that acted as their brains.  Rather than mess with success, Sandra splurged and spent over 35,000 Mana and a whole lot of resources to create 1 of the new Platinum-banded Wyrms.

This Wyrm, as opposed to the Titanium Anaconda, was larger, longer, stronger…and winged.  It could only lift its front half up off the ground with the pair of sheet-metal wings attached to its back, but that was enough to help propel it forward at even greater speed, as well as reach to the top of the tunnel – and everywhere in between.  Its jaws were wide enough to completely engulf 2 or 3 of the smaller Slimes, which it did upon its immediate arrival; the *snap* of its jaws closing on the trio of gelatinous Monsters was reminiscent of a crocodile’s jaws, and the Slimes inside were squished and crushed, killing them instantly.

The acidic nature of their bodies didn’t seem to do much to the Wyrm as it let the remains of the three Slimes run from its mouth; dripping a slimy substance that soon disappeared, it struck out for even more. *Snap* *snap* *snap* went the construct, killing scores of the smaller Slimes in as many seconds.  It was only when it faced the larger, “shaped” Slimes that it started to be slightly affected by the acidity; pits in the metallic jaws of the Wyrm were soon seen as it progressed without stopping, until it was nearly overwhelmed on all sides by dozens of Slimes of different sizes.

Whipping its tail around the tunnel served both to remove the attackers and to kill a half-dozen Slimes, but Sandra was still forced to make the Wyrm retreat and regroup with some help from the remnants of the remaining constructs she had in defense previously.  When she finally had a chance to check out the new Platinum-banded Wyrm, she saw that the damage wasn’t as bad as she had feared, but was still going to eventually be enough to kill it.

Fortunately, she had a Multi-access Repair Drone deeper in the tunnel that had been doing its best to maintain the fighting shape of the other defenders, but it wasn’t going to be enough.  Therefore, she dug down deep into her reserves of Mana and RM and created a new “Unobtrusive” Multi-access Repair Drone – whatever that meant.

When it finally arrived at the fight, she quickly found out; the same metal “arms” with pads as hands came out of its white cylindrical form, but that was where the similarities ended.  The biggest difference was the fact that the Drone didn’t need to physically touch what it was trying to heal; instead, it would send healing energy from a distance of up to 20 feet away.  Better yet, the healing Elemental energy didn’t cause the construct being healed to freeze in place while it was being repaired.

After some observation and experimentation, Sandra discovered the downside – as there inevitably had to be one.  The rate of healing/repair at a distance was only about 10% what it would be if there were direct physical contact and a frozen state.  Still, this rate – at the moment – was enough to make a difference; the Wyrm was kept in tip-top shape while it fought.  Advancing further into the tunnel near the Slime dungeon’s entrance was a little more difficult, as it would get swarmed and take too much damage.

When all was said and done, she was at a stalemate with the other Cores, and her momentary lapse in judgement hadn’t been a complete disaster.  But that stalemate won’t last for long….

It was only a matter of time before she gained the upper hand.  As more and more attacking Dungeon Monsters died, the more Monster Seeds were dropped; about a third of them were picked up or knocked back into their respective dungeons, but the rest were lying about, ready to be obtained by a small force of Mega Automatons she created.  While not as fast as the Hyper Automatons from Advancement Level 1, the Mega Automatons were a little larger, could carry more, and were resistant enough not to be destroyed during the melee that was going on in each tunnel by a single stray splotch of slime, an errant punch, or a quick swipe of a claw.

I will succeed in destroying them!  It’s only a matter of time; nothing will stop me now!

Chapter 4

Violet stopped pacing throughout the room where she had been confined, before sitting down on the edge of the bed and putting her head in her hands.  Try as she might, she couldn’t come up with a solution to her current predicament; pacing back and forth obviously wasn’t working to provide a viable way out of her troubles.  Contemplating how she had found herself there in the first place, she supposed that she only had herself to blame.

“We’re almost there,” she shouted towards Felbar, relief at seeing the outskirts of Gnomilia in the distance.  The capital city was like a shining beacon of advanced Enchantment technology at its finest, and even now she could see the hustle and bustle of her people as they went about their day far below.  “I am going to be glad to get off of this thing.”

Truthfully, from the terror she had first experienced after getting on the massive Aerie Roc, Violet had calmed down significantly.  She would even go as far as saying that she was enjoying herself, and being able to see the ground from such a height was as extraordinarily beautiful as it was frightening.  After the first hour, her muscles had thanked her as she relaxed and stopped holding on to everything with every ounce of her strength; the hour after that, she did her best to ignore the world around her as she concentrated on breathing normally and keeping from freaking out again.  It was only then that she opened up her eyes and looked around her with enough presence of mind to actually appreciate the view.

Felbar…well, Felbar was so relaxed that the gentle-yet-powerful movements of the Roc through the air put him to sleep.  His nap was only interrupted later when he suddenly woke up with a start, as if realizing that they were getting closer to their destination.

“We should probably set down outside of the city—” Felbar suggested, but Violet knew they didn’t have time to waste.

“No, we need to get our information to the King and the council as soon as possible.  I’m going to set this thing down near the palace, so that we don’t have to worry about having to travel another couple of hours on foot through Gnomilia.”

“For some reason, I don’t think that’s a good idea.”  Felbar frowned, but didn’t offer up any explanation as to why he thought that way.

The young Journeyman Enchanter couldn’t see the harm in it, and arriving on a giant bird would probably only help to communicate their urgency.  It didn’t take more than a minute after they passed over the edge of the city to get close to the palace, and she caught her breath at its beauty from such a height.  She had been inside half a dozen times when she was younger, due to her parents visiting, but seeing its towering splendor was always eye-catching.  Made up of dark-veined white marble, the façade shone in the late afternoon sun as the dozen delicate-looking towers reached 150 feet into the sky, connected by thousands of feet of sturdy enchanted bridges.

Her people didn’t spend as much time on cosmetic appearance as they did on function, but the palace was definitely an exception.  Form played as much a role as function where the King, Queen, and ruling council ruled, as if all of Gnomekind reserved the right to show off their abilities somewhere.

The palace spanned thousands of feet in every direction, and rumor had it that nearly 300 people worked or lived in the magnificent building.  From the times she had been there, Violet thought that this rumor had a ring of truth to it (though she hadn’t really been counting at the time).  Regardless, if anyone could assemble her people to work together with Sandra to prevent disaster, this had to be the place to find them.

Flying over the top of the palace, she could see a few guards stationed along the parapets on the towers, next to the enchanted ballistae that were set up as precaution.  She vaguely heard yelling as she and the Roc were spotted – whether in alarm or curiosity, she could not discern.  Nothing shot at them, from what she could determine, at least; so she figured they were more curious than anything.  Behind the gorgeous building was an impressively large garden and open space, where she verbally directed the Roc to land, hoping that it wouldn’t crush anything important.

A minute later, after circling once, the Aerie Roc descended quickly, making Violet’s stomach feel like it wanted to eject out of her mouth, the sensation making her doubly glad she hadn’t consumed any food during their long journey.  At the last moment before they landed, Felbar shouted, “Don’t forget the War Machine!”

Oh, crud!  Seconds before they would likely have crashed down, as the Roc didn’t have any feet available for landing, she instructed the giant bird to release its weighty package.  Hearing a heavy *thud*, she looked behind her to see that the War Machine had hit the ground. It chewed up a large row of flowers as it dug a furrow in the soft dirt.  Her attention was pulled away as the Roc’s wings flapped quickly, slowing their speed and allowing the bird to land, awkward and jarring at the same time.

When everything finally stopped, Violet shook her head and let out a huge sigh of relief.  “Finally!  I can’t wait to get off this thing!”

Looking back, she saw Felbar unstrapping himself from the harness, before attempting to make his way over to her.  “Attempting” was the right word, too, because he was having trouble moving.  “Uh…I think I had the straps on too tight,” he said sheepishly.  “Hold on, the numbness is going away.”  Now that he mentioned it, she felt – or didn’t feel, as it were – the same sort of numbness in her lower half, strapped to the only thing keeping her on the Roc.

She started unstrapping herself, and the tingling as blood flowed through her lower extremities again was practically painful.  As it became unbearable at one point, she nearly screamed; fortunately, after a few minutes, the tingling stopped and she was able to move again, though still a little cautiously.  Joining Felbar as he made his way down the back of the Roc to the ground, it was only then that she heard the heavy *thump* of familiar-sounding footfalls.

As soon as she touched the ground, they were surrounded by a ring of a dozen War Machines made by the Enchanters of Gnomeria.  All of them had their weapons poised to strike the Roc, who was squatting down on the ground, unmoving, where Violet had instructed it to stay.

“NO!  It won’t harm you!” she shouted, which shocked the Warmasters piloting the War Machines enough that they stopped.

“What?!  Who are you?”  From his surprised tone, Violet suspected that the royal guards protecting the palace hadn’t even seen her or Felbar on its back.

Felbar stepped forward confidently, not even worried about all of the deadly weapons now pointed in his direction.  “Vernel?  Is that your squeaky voice I hear?”

There was silence for a moment, before the same pilot opened up the hatch on the front of the War Machine.  “Felbar?  How in the name of the Creator did you get here?  And on the back of a…bird?”

“It is you, Vernel!” the grizzled Warmaster said abruptly, stepping even closer to the now-opened War Machine.  “Listen, we don’t have time to explain, we need to see the King—”

The others, who seemed to have been relaxing after understanding that there wasn’t as much danger as they had supposed, seemed to tense up as they shifted in place.  “You haven’t heard, have you?”  Vernel’s voice was harsh, though she could hear some sense of grief in there as well.

“Heard what?  We just came in from the wasteland—”

The front hatch on Vernel’s War Machine abruptly shut as he and the others stepped forward, threateningly.  Violet shrunk back and hid behind Felbar, not knowing what was going on.

“You’re going to have to come with us.”

And that was the last “freedom” she had experienced since she had arrived.  Surrounded, confused, and with nowhere to go, she and Felbar were led away to the palace.  Before she got too far, however, she verbally instructed the Aerie Roc to lift off and stay near, though whether one of them would be able to call it back was a whole other problem; regardless, whether or not they even got the chance to call it back, she didn’t want it to be killed unnecessarily.

No one would respond to them as they questioned why they were being led away, nor about what was going on.  The next thing she knew, she was being led into the palace by a contingent of other royal guards not inside War Machines, but no less effective with an assortment of weapons at their disposal.  Having asking her parents about them, she knew that these guards were powerful Enchanters in their own right, though not Master-level; instead, they were adept at weaponized temporary enchantments that turned the mundane weapons they carried into an arsenal of death.

“No!  Why can’t we stay together?” she had questioned when the guards separated her from Felbar.

“Don’t worry, Violet!” he shouted as he was led away.  “I’m sure we’ll get this figured out soon!”  That was the last she had seen of him, and now she was stuck in this room without anyone to talk to beyond the few palace servants that came to take her order of food.  Well, “talk to” was a bit of a stretch, since they refused to say a word regarding anything but food.

A knock on the door of her richly appointed room interrupted her despondent musings, and she was surprised enough that she brought her head up in confusion.  I swear I ate only an hour ago; is it really time for another meal?  She didn’t have long to wonder if she had somehow lost track of time, however, because the door opened quickly after the knock.  She got up off of the bed immediately when she recognized who walked in.

“Junipar!  You made it back!”

She went to give the other woman a hug, happy both because Junipar was fine after suffering such a horrific attack by a certain Elf, and because it was nice to see someone familiar.  However, she stopped herself when she saw the morose look on Junipar’s face.

“Wh-what happened?” she asked, instead.  “What’s going on?”

Junipar didn’t say anything, but Violet could see tears starting to form in her eyes.  Shaking her head, the other woman beckoned for the Journeyman Enchanter to follow her, before leaving the room without a word.

Still mystified at what was going on, Violet followed after her, finding that the guards that had been flanking her room whenever she had the opportunity to look outside her door were still there, and they followed behind as she raced to catch up with the other woman.  She was quickly lost as they took a few turns that led deeper into the palace, and before long she was convinced that the inside of the building had been made to confuse and disorient anyone trying to wander around.

They eventually came to a set of double doors that she didn’t recognize – which wasn’t surprising, since she hadn’t been in more than a handful of rooms in the palace before – and there were two more guards stationed there.  As soon as the guards saw the pair walking towards them, they moved to open the doors, allowing them access inside.

The room they entered was smaller than she had anticipated, though nonetheless as richly appointed as her room, if not more so. Cozy would be more like it, with stuffed plush chairs and a large rectangular stone table in the middle of the room, with papers and maps strewn all about in a disorganized mess.  Around the table were a handful of important-looking people, some of whom she vaguely recognized; some quick thinking placed them as advisors to the ruling council, led by the King as the final voice of decision.  There were supposed to be 9 of them in total, though right now she only saw 5 of them.  Actually, there were 6—

Except the 6th person around the table wasn’t a member of the ruling council, but a very sad-looking, grizzled Gnome.

“Felbar!”  She rushed to him, ignoring everyone and everything else in the room, wrapping him in as large of a hug as possible.  She felt him hugging her gently back, and he pushed her away after a moment with a small smile on his face.  The smile quickly disappeared as he looked around the room, however, which prompted Violet to do the same; everyone there was looking at them with serious expressions on their faces, though she couldn’t tell if they were angry, sad, or just normally that unemotional.

“Violet…there’s a lot that we need to discuss.”  Hearing his voice again made her feel safer than she had in days, though his tone made the little hairs on the back of her neck stick straight up.

I have a feeling that this won’t be good….

Chapter 5

“We’ve made a bit of a mess, Violet,” Felbar started out by saying.  “We didn’t intend it, but it’s the end result that matters.”

“I don’t understand.  What happened?”  She looked around at the rest of the room, seeing that the council members there viewed her with looks of resignation on their faces.  One of them – a woman even older than Felbar, if that could be believed – cleared her throat.

“Let me see if I can explain,” the woman said, taking over the conversation.  “From the information we have, Glimmerton – the village you and Felbar were tasked with keeping functioning – was unexpectedly attacked by one of the nearby dungeons.”

“That is correct.”

She held up her hand, indicating plainly that she didn’t need a response.  “There were only a handful of survivors of the attack, and you were – as unbelievably as it sounds – saved by a strange dungeon in the middle of the barren lands. After recovering inside of this dungeon, and after being provided food, healing, and a sampling of materials on a unique form of transportation not unlike our own Haulers, Junipar—” the wizened woman waved toward the younger woman still in the room, to Violet’s surprise— “along with Jortor, Saryn, Lankas, Kasdon, Wilser, and Pomend, journeyed back to the capital to spread the word of this discovery.”

“I’m so glad to hear that they all made it; where are they—?"

“I’m getting to that, so try not to interrupt; this is hard enough as it is,” the older woman warned with a stern voice.  It was then that Violet remembered her name, as a memory of one of her visits to the palace with her parents came bubbling up to the surface: Council Leader Brinda.  “After they arrived nearly 2 weeks ago, there was a day of mourning over the loss of life, before the King, Queen, and the council came together to discuss this new development.

“Honestly, I have to tell you that it seemed too good to be true after such a tragedy.  However, the King saw the potential in such an alliance, especially after seeing the samples that were sent along with the return of Junipar and the others.  Having access to such material in vast quantities would go a long way to recovering from our recent losses, as well as this ‘Enchantment Repository’ we were told about.”

She was silent for a moment, and Violet resisted the urge to ask what happened next.

“Needless to say, if you knew the King and Queen in any respect, you would know that they were more in tune with our Enchanters than anything, and such prospective knowledge was more than they could resist.  Not for themselves, of course, but for their people; they well knew the state of our land, and they were getting to the point where they were desperate for any aid, no matter the form in which it came.

“The Master Enchanters that survived the attack that killed your parents, Violet, were also eager to visit a place where they could share their knowledge; they were aging and knew they weren’t long for this world, and they saw this as the only way to pass on their accumulated knowledge for future generations.  Therefore, against the council’s warnings of caution, the King, Queen, four of our council members, all but 2 of the remaining Master Enchanters, and a small contingent of Warmasters and War Machines that we could be spared from our defense, left for the northwest as fast as they could travel.  Time was of the essence, so a smaller group was imperative because the more they delayed, the less chance our people would survive in the future.  Even I agreed with that, though I still don’t agree with them not considering their safety out in that direction.”

I have a feeling I know where this is going.

Council Leader Brinda was silent as she stared at Violet and Felbar.  She cleared her throat before continuing.  “The morning you arrived, we had just received word that their entire group had been ambushed somewhere just before Benchville; the King, Queen, council members, Master Enchanters, and all but a handful of their personal guards had been killed. The monsters from 2 different dungeons had attacked at the same time, as if they had been coordinating together.”

She looked towards Felbar to see if Brinda was telling the truth, and she could see it on his face.  “How?  How did it get so bad in such a short time?”

“I don’t know, but the fact of the matter is we caused this; not only because we sent the materials and the story of a dungeon as a potential savior with Junipar and the others, but from the destruction of that Undead dungeon,” Felbar explained.  “The effects of that are already being felt with the death of the King and the others, and it will only get worse.”  Violet sadly had to agree with him, as the news of the King’s death finally hit her.  We’re…leaderless, now, aren’t we?

“They weren’t the only ones who died during the ambush; Jortor and the others were also with the King,” Junipar suddenly spoke up, her voice cracking.

“What?  Why?”

“Isn’t it obvious?  So that they could help to introduce the King to the dungeon, and because they knew better than anyone where the entrance was located.  Plus, if you forgot, they could actually communicate with the dungeon, whereas no one else would be able to.”

That made sense, but it was also a horrible loss of life.  “That’s…I’m so sorry, Junipar.”

“I apologize for the silent treatment you and Felbar had to endure while we isolated you,” Brinda interrupted.  “I’m sure you can understand how distraught we were at learning what happened to our leadership…our friends…”  She choked up a little, before composing herself.  “And with you coming from that direction, on the back of a giant monster we’d never seen before, we couldn’t take the chance that you might be a threat to the remainder of the royal family, as well as the council.  So many strange and horrible things had happened lately that it wasn’t outside of the realm of possibility that you were working with the dungeons to destabilize our government by targeting our leadership.  We’re the only thing keeping our people together right now, and if the Princess were to be killed…well, I’m sure you can picture the chaos that would ensue.”

“Princess Celeste is still okay?”  That was good news.

“Yes, but she’s in a secure location right now until we can figure out what our plans are for the future.  I’m not afraid to tell you, it’s not looking good.”

Violet had a sudden epiphany.  “That’s why you’re finally talking with us, isn’t it?”

If Council Leader Brinda had been surprised at her intuitiveness, she didn’t show it.  “Partly.  We needed to isolate the both of you for a while to determine if you two were a potential threat.  If we had more time to investigate, you’d probably still be held in isolation even now.  Unfortunately, time is something we are rapidly running out of; Felbar can fill you in with the situation, but we are going to need all of the assistance we can get.  He also mentioned that you had been working on some interesting enchantments, some of which I’m sure could be a big help.”

“Anything I can do, I’m at your disposal.”  With her affirmation of her commitment, the council seemed to lose all interest in Violet.  Felbar took her arm and led her to one side of the room while the others continued to murmur and discuss some things on the large table.

After directing her to a seat, the grizzled Warmaster plopped down in the chair next to her with a big sigh.  “I don’t want to lessen the impact that losing the King and Queen will have on our people, but that’s the least of our concerns right now,” he started, looking her in the eyes with a resignation she hadn’t seen before.  Even when he had been determined to go into that Undead dungeon to destroy the Core, with the huge possibility of being killed in the process, Felbar hadn’t looked as worried as he did now.  “While we have enough War Machines and auxiliary forces to continue holding back the majority of the dungeon monsters throughout our borders – for the time being – the situation to the northwest is only going to get worse.

“From the careful scouting reports the council received shortly before you arrived at these chambers, there is an equally large army of monsters roaming around the area of the ambush.  While the survivors communicated that they had killed hundreds of their attackers, it seems as though they have been replenished – and possibly have been added to.  I don’t claim to have a great understanding of dungeons and dungeon cores like Sandra, but I learned enough while we were staying in her dungeon to know that the deaths of our people helped to fuel this resurgence.”

That aligned with what Violet suspected, as well.  From the conversations she had with Sandra, who didn’t speak about her internal mechanisms as much as she did all facets of crafting, she gathered that Cores grew stronger and larger through two different mechanisms.  One was a gradual process, which took in the ambient energy of the world and converted it to usable resources, and which was only beneficial over a long period of time.  The second one was through the killing of people, as the life-force of those who were killed was absorbed and used to increase the Core’s power by leaps and bounds.  Not only that, but these resources were frequently used to create additional (and more powerful) monsters.  That was what had happened in Glimmerton; her friends in the village had been slaughtered for this simple, horrific reason.

“What if we direct all of the War Machines around the palace, as well as any other forces, towards the northwest.  It should be fairly simple to wipe these monsters all out, right?” Violet asked.

“Not…quite.  Just as the King’s group had been surrounded and overrun, so too would most of our forces be overwhelmed within minutes.  Even if they were able to beat them back and eliminate enough of them that they wouldn’t be as much of a threat, we’d never recover from our losses.  We’re already suffering from lack of our War Machines, and the ambush only made this even worse.”

“That’s why we needed Sandra’s help, remember?” Violet reminded him.  “Let’s just go back to her dungeon, ask her to help create some more, and then come back with them.”  It seemed simple enough to her.

“While she would undoubtedly help us do that, there’s a problem with logistics,” Felbar countered.  “We need to find people who can pilot the new War Machines, train them, and then somehow bring them to the wasteland in order to bring them here.”  He held up his hand to stop her words.  “Yes, I know, we can ferry some volunteers back with us, but only so many can fit on the back of that Roc.  And even if we were successful at bringing a dozen or so there over the next few days, can you honestly say you’d be able to help create a dozen War Machines all by yourself?”

The thought of that made her pause.  Sandra was becoming much better at handling enchantments via her creepy shapeshifting monsters, but she didn’t quite have the expertise that went into coordinating Spirit and Natural elemental energies in the complicated arrangement needed for each War Machine.  Violet, despite only achieving Journeyman Enchanter status, had just enough focus and knowledge to do it, but when she had participated in the creation of the new Energy Cube-powered War Machine, it had taken hours of concentration and drained her so much that she had needed to rest for the remainder of the day to recover.  It wasn’t the expenditure of her own Spirit and Natural energy, either, because the Energy Orbs that she still carried around her neck helped it to regenerate; instead, it was the sheer complexity and scope of the project that had worn her out.

Violet was sure that the next one would be a little easier, since she had some experience, but her mind balked at the thought of trying to create more than one a day.  One a day is actually quite impressive, I have to acknowledge, but it will take forever to create enough to make a difference.  What she needed was someone to help create them, but the level of complexity the enchantments required was nearly Master-level; almost all of the Master Enchanters were gone now, however, having been killed in the ambush against the King’s forces.  There were a few left, but she doubted she could convince them to fly back to Sandra’s dungeon, nor did she believe the council would allow that.  They had just lost the other Masters, and taking a risk of losing what expertise they had left wasn’t likely to happen.

From what she remembered, there were dozens or even hundreds of Journeyman Enchanters, which could be a solution – but Felbar had to throw in something else which made her realize the whole thought was a fool’s errand.  “Even if you somehow managed to get some help, and were able to teach enough Enchanters to do what you do, there is one other obstacle that you may not have thought of quite yet.”  He paused for a moment, as to emphasize his point.  “How are they supposed to be transported back here?”

“Well, the same way that we brought—oh.  I see.”  Yes, if she could somehow figure out how to make more than one a day, they only had one Roc to use; if it took a little less than a day to make a round trip between the capital and Sandra’s dungeon, then it would still take weeks of constant transportation to bring in enough War Machines to make a difference.  Maybe she could create more Rocs?  That was always an option, but from what Violet remembered, there had been times in which Sandra had been limited in what she could create, due to scant resources.

That was another stumbling block she hadn’t even considered.  Violet had been thinking about devoting Sandra’s full resources to War Machine production, but that may not even be possible.  With the sheer quantity of monsters she had to create just to maintain the culling of the nearby dungeons, the state of which was a bit of a mystery at that point, there may not be much to go around.  That was why Violet and Felbar were there in the first place, in order to gain help from her people; Sandra had been more than cognizant that she couldn’t do it all herself, and sending help to alleviate some of the nearby pressure would allow her to do things like make War Machines.

If the Gnome people couldn’t provide that relief, then there wouldn’t be any resources available to help them – they would instead be used to maintain and contain the other nearby dungeons.  As much as Sandra had an altruistic bent to her personality that wanted to help everyone, this was a matter of needing to give aid in order to get aid in return.  Right now, the problem was that they didn’t have any aid to give.

“I…see,” she repeated, now that she had really thought things over.  From his face, Felbar had already divined all of the information she was just now processing, so his despondent expression made a whole lot more sense now.  “So, what do we do?”

He sat back and looked at the ceiling, letting out a big sigh as he appeared to be at a loss.  She couldn’t blame him, because they were in real trouble if they couldn’t figure out something soon; it wasn’t as if Gnomeria would be overrun in the next few months if they didn’t figure out a solution, but she could already see this as the turning point toward the end.  But just like she had helped defend Glimmerton with everything she had, Violet wasn’t going to give up without a fight.

She just hoped her people didn’t end up like her village.

The Journeyman Enchanter in her tried to come up with a solution to their problem with enchantments, but since greater minds than hers hadn’t figured out how to save their people after the attack that left many of their Master Enchanters – and her parents – dead, she doubted it was something she could figure out.  Then again, Violet had learned quite a bit from Sandra and had helped to create some interesting enchantment designs while she was in the dungeon.  Not that any of that would help them now.

She sat there in silence as she listened to the continued murmur of the council members discussing defense placements in every place other than the northwest.  Time passed as she wracked her mind for a solution, as she idly watched the light from the setting sun shining through a window at the far side of the room, reflecting off the glass pane in such a way that it created a beam that moved across the room.  For some reason, the beam of light reminded her of the spells that she watched Echo try to teach Sandra; thinking of that led her to speculate on what was going on there at the moment, and how much she strangely missed being there.  It’s too bad that we don’t have the kinds of resources here that we’d have in her dungeon.  Especially those Energy Orbs; I can only imagine what the great minds of my people could come up with if they have access to a portable elemental energy source—

Wait.

“Felbar?  Do you happen to know if that giant bird is still around?”

He looked down at her with a confused expression on his face.  “Yes, I believe I heard that it has been circling the palace at a great height for 3 straight days.”

What?  “We’ve only been here for 3 days?  It felt like much longer inside of that room.”

“Yes; a little bit more than that, but that’s fairly close,” he said matter-of-factly.  “Anyway, I don’t think that even using the Aerie Roc will help us clear out the problems in the northwest.”

“You’re right about that, and it would only be a temporary solution, anyway,” she agreed.  “But the main thing that we need to consider is how to accomplish what Sandra tasked us with.”

“What task?  Bring all our people to the wasteland, ready to lend whatever aid we can?  I don’t know how we would accomplish that, and not leave the rest of our land vulnerable to monster attacks.”

Violet shook her head.  “No, we don’t need to bring everyone there, nor would we need to deplete the few defenses we have stationed around the forest borders, keeping the rest of us safe.  All we need to do is to cull the dungeons already affected by these enhancements Sandra told us about, in order to free her up to help us.”

“Yes, obviously – but we don’t have the War Machines and effective weaponry to do that without taking them from where they are also needed.”

“True, we don’t have the weapons right now, but give me and the other Journeyman Enchanters a few days, and we just might.”

Felbar looked skeptical.  “Not that I’m disparaging your abilities, but how do you propose to do that?  And why were you asking about that Roc—oh.”

“Exactly.  Don’t tell me you forgot there is a figurative treasure chest of exactly what we need strapped to the back of that magnificent bird.”

He chuckled a little at that description of the Aerie Roc.  “Magnificent, is it?  I seem to remember you having a bit of trouble even—”

“No need to remind me,” Violet said, holding up her hand for him to stop.  “That’s old news; for now, what that bird possesses is worth a thousand rides on the back of a frightening monster flying at heights that only the Creator would appreciate, especially if it allows us to save our people.”

Felbar immediately got up and started jogging towards the door.  “What are you waiting for, Violet?  Tell the council your plan.”

“But—where are you going?”  His words caused the important council members to turn in her direction, and she shrunk back at their stares.  Being underneath their scrutiny made her shrink upon herself as the thought of trying to convince them of her ideas made her freeze up.

“Someone’s got to get that magnificent bird down here, right?”  For the first time since they had been back, a hint of a smile crossed his face as he disappeared through the open door.

Great; he left me all alone.  Giving a little huff, she got up and squared her shoulders, trying to find the confidence deep down inside her to convince the council of her plan.  As she moved, the pair of Energy Orbs strung around her neck gave her an idea, as well as the opening she needed.

Pulling the strung Orbs from around her neck, she brought them out for the council members to see.  Immediately, she saw two of them react as she got closer to them, one of whom was Council Leader Brinda.  Handing the simple necklace to the most important person in the room she needed to convince, Violet wasn’t surprised to see Brinda touch and hold the Spirit Orb in her hand in open-mouthed fascination.  “I don’t know if Felbar mentioned these Energy Orbs or not, but I’ll try to explain exactly what they are.  Not only that, but it is my belief that these Orbs will end up saving us.”

“What?  These two?”

Violet laughed shortly, before continuing.  “Oh, no – we have quite a few more of these.  A…friend…is holding them for us, which Felbar just left to fetch.”

“These are amazing and impossible at the same time,” Brinda admitted, reluctantly passing the necklace around to the other council members so that they could check them out as well.  “But how can these, uh, ‘Energy Orbs’ – as wonderful as they are – help us?  I’m sure it will help our Enchanters create many more enchantments, which will be a great benefit – don’t get me wrong – but that might only delay the inevitable.”

“That might be true, but I wasn’t thinking of these as being used for our Enchanters, except perhaps initially.  Instead, we’re going to utilize these in a wholly different way I learned about while inside of Sandra’s dungeon.”

A dark cloud eclipsed the faces of the council, but they were curious enough to want to know what she was talking about to not flat-out dismiss any ideas; even if those ideas came from the dungeon that inevitably led to the death of the King and so many others.  “And what is that?”

“As weapons, of course.  We’re going to use our Gnomish ingenuity to create an arsenal of weapons that will solve all our problems.  Better yet, anyone will be able to use these weapons, so we don’t need those trained specifically as part of our defense corps to wield them.”

The council stood in shocked silence for a moment, before Brinda broke the tension in the room.  “What exactly do you have in mind?”

I think I did it; I convinced them.  Now it’s time to put my skills to the test, so I can prove that this can work.  “I thought you’d never ask….”

Chapter 6

I wonder what Kelerim is doing right now….  I hope he’s staying out of trouble.

Echo’s stray thoughts were interrupted as she suddenly felt a subtle shifting in the great tree she was held prisoner within, which made her sit up quickly from where she had been lounging.  What’s going on?  The hollowed-out room in the Royal Family Tree was starting to flex and warp, and the branches making up the roof were starting to writhe like snakes – which understandably caused Echo to shrink back in horror.  Her near-death experience after being bitten by a snake from that Reptile-monster dungeon was enough to make her tense up in momentary fright at the appearance of one of the slithering serpents.

Her attention was pulled away from the frightening scene happening above her head as she heard something occurring outside of her door.  The sounds of heavy thuds hitting the wooden wall that encompassed her room, followed by a cut-off scream, made her instinctively reach behind her back to unsling her bow.  It was only when her hands met nothing that she remembered that she was weaponless; ever since she had been placed in her current confinement “for her own safety”, she had been relatively defenseless.

Well, not entirely defenseless.

Using her Holy elemental energy, she wrapped a light-bending field around her form and retreated to the corner.  Wary of the still-writhing branches above her head, she crouched down and made herself as small and unassuming as possible.  This can’t be good.

The door suddenly slammed open, cracking its painstakingly nurtured façade in the process.  Whispered voices preceded the entrance of four figures, their appearance darkened, blurry, and mostly obscured by some sort of magical or elemental effect.  If I had my guess, I would say that is Nether elemental energy being used; like I thought, this doesn’t bode well.

After a brief inspection of the room, the first to arrive therein fiercely whispered to the others, “She’s not here.”  At least, that was what she thought the figure had done, since all Echo could see was a blurry shadow.  Whatever effect had been deployed on the figure’s appearance, however, didn’t extend to his voice, because it came out clear and precise – if whispered.  She didn’t recognize it, but then again she didn’t know many people in the capital, so it wasn’t surprising.

I wonder if this is who I was being kept safe against?  Are these people assassins?  If so, why are they trying to kill me?  Those questions quickly shot through her mind as she crouched in invisible safety, only to realize that she already knew part of the answer.  They know I’m connected with Sandra’s dungeon somehow.  That begged the next question, of course.  Who exactly would benefit from killing me, and would know exactly who I am to the dungeon?  It didn’t take long for her to come to an answer.  Elder Herrlot.  I knew there was something insidious going on there.  But why would—?

As if thinking about the Elder conjured her into existence, Echo heard her voice, which caused her to tense up.  “Echo, stop hiding.  We’re here to get you out.  Come with us if you want to see your precious dungeon again.”

Elder Herrlot suddenly appeared where one of the blurry darkness smudges was standing, as whatever magical effect had hidden her was dropped.  She was dressed in a tight-fitting, supple black leather outfit – completely at odds with how Echo had been used to seeing her dress – and had a staff strapped to her back.  An odd green glow came from the haft of the staff, which the Ranger immediately identified as an Energy Orb.  Did she find a way to use the Orb in a weapon?  Or is it only there as a means of contact?  Her thoughts were rambling, focusing on anything but the situation.

Because as inviting as the Elder’s words were, Echo took them more as a threat.  There was no way she was going anywhere with the other woman – especially since they had obviously killed the guards keeping her safe inside the room.  Safe against the Elder.

“We don’t have time for this,” the older Elf muttered, before she swiftly grasped the staff from her back, gripped it tightly, and then gestured upwards.  Uh, oh…

The undulating branches that comprised the roof suddenly shot down from their relatively horizontal positions, sweeping over the floor of the room as well as the sparse furniture.  One came so close to Echo’s crouched form that she twitched in response, its resemblance to a deadly snake too much for her to stay still.

“There!” one of the other dark blurs whispered loudly, and a shadowy blob she took for a hand pointed in her direction.  Her presence betrayed by her brief-yet-obvious movement, Echo tried to avoid the branches that swung in her direction by using her Air elemental energy to sprint away and out of the door, but she only made it two steps before a rough wooden “snake” wrapped around her ankle, causing her to faceplant as she was tripped up.

“No, no!  Why are you doing this?” she screamed out, hoping that some of the Royal Guards would hear her as she dropped her invisibility.  “Help!  H—mph…” A thick branch abruptly wrapped around her mouth, completely cutting off her pleas for help.  The next moment, the rest of her body was likewise wrapped up in rough, wooden tree limbs, until she couldn’t move no matter how hard she struggled.  At that point, the only things she could move were her eyes, which frantically roamed over the 4 blurred figures as they turned her over; of those present, she couldn’t be certain which one was Herrlot.

“Are you sure we even need her?  This seems like an unnecessary risk.  Plus, I’m sure her screams alerted someone higher up—”

The Elder’s voice interrupted the one that had whispered when they had first come into her room.  “Yes, and we’re not having this argument now.  All I need is for you to follow orders, and we’ll discuss this when it’s safe.”  It was hard to tell where the voice was coming from, but a blurry gesture from the one nearest her right side was enough to tell her which one was the Elder.  “Pick her up.”

“Yes, Elder.”

Strong hands lifted her up off of the floor and hoisted her along someone’s shoulder, her head face-down.  Normally, that would’ve been uncomfortable with her abdomen in the bony shoulder of her captor, but there were so many branches around her that she was more like a log of wood than anything else.  As a result, she was only uncomfortable for the fact that she was confined and looking downwards as the blurry forms sprinted out of the doorway.  Her weight combined with the wooden bands keeping her locked up didn’t seem to weigh down the one carrying her, however, as he was able to keep up with the others quite easily.

As they passed through the doorway that had kept Echo locked up over the last few days, her eyes spotted the two Royal Guards that had been stationed near her “cell”.  There was blood running freely down the forehead of the one on the left-hand side, though she couldn’t see a mark on the other guard.  What she did see as she bounced past was one surprising thing: They were both still breathing.

Before she could ponder the fact that the guards were still alive, despite Echo assuming the worst of the Elder and her associates, her vision was relegated to the large, wooden walkway that composed most of the pathways in the Royal Tree.  These paths consisted of gigantic branches; the branches that comprised the roof of her cell (and were now keeping her confined) paled in comparison. Despite being hundreds of feet above the ground, the Elder and the rest of her captors ran down the branch, as though it weren’t on the steep incline it was.  If he drops me, I doubt I would survive.  I wonder if I can create some sort of cushion with my Air elemental energy?  It would simply be the opposite of what I do to thin the air when I run quickly, so it might just be possible.

Luckily, no one had taken away the Air and Holy Energy Orbs when she was placed inside her “cell” for safekeeping, meaning that she had already regenerated all of her expended elemental energy from moments ago.  Not that she had spent a lot, of course, but now she had plenty to work with…if only she could figure out some way to get out of her current predicament.

Though unable to lift her head to see exactly where it was coming from, Echo heard some yelling that seemed to originate from where they’d just left. It was fairly unintelligible, but she understood it well enough to know that someone had found the unconscious bodies of the guards near her former prison.  It was obvious enough that her new captors had heard it too, from the way they sped up even more down the worn yet still-sturdy branch that led to the ground.

The increase in speed bounced her around a bit, and though she was confined into immobility, it still shook her up.  As a result, any thought of trying to escape went right out of her head as she struggled to keep from vomiting the undigested remains of her last meal.  Echo wasn’t concerned about dirtying the blurry back of the one carrying her, of course; the branch keeping her from screaming for help was still in her mouth, and throwing up and choking on it would be a sad end to her captivity.

With so much foliage above, there were plenty of shadowy parts of the Royal Tree on the way down.  The Elder and her team seemed particularly adept at keeping to these dark spots and avoiding the large beams of the sun shining down on their beautiful capital of Lyringlade; in a matter of a minute, they had progressed further down than Echo had expected, where there were even more shadowy recesses in which they could hide from their pursuers – and pursuers there were.  The captive Ranger could hear more shouts from above, even more urgent this time, and they seemed to be getting closer.  Despite that (and if she remembered the layout and distances of the Royal Tree correctly), Elder Herrlot appeared to be getting away with her hastily stolen package without any major problem.

A sudden light flared behind her, brighter than the daylight streaming through the trees, which illuminated everything around her in startling clarity – or as much as she could see from her face-down position, at least.  Out of the corners of her eyes, she could see that many of the dark spaces along the main branch of the Royal Tree were gone, and shadows almost appeared to have shrunk back into seclusion at the appearance of such a light.  Even the dark, blurry aura that her captors possessed seemed to have disappeared for the most part; from the few wisps of darkness flitting here and there, she could see that whoever was keeping it active was trying to bring back their cloak of concealment – but having no luck.

“There they are!”  A sudden shout made the one carrying her nearly trip from its close proximity, but fortunately for her, he kept his footing.  If she was correct about how far they had traveled, there was still a distance of at least 100 feet down to the forest floor, and falling from that height – with nothing prepared to stop her descent – would probably kill her.  “Stop!”

If she could have spoken, she would’ve remarked that shouting, “Stop!” to fleeing criminals was probably the stupidest thing she’d ever heard.  Like they are going to stop with a sternly spoken word or something.  If anything, her impromptu porter and his cohort ran faster.

A streak of frigid cold passed by her back, narrowly missing her by less than a hand’s-width.  Echo heard the frozen projectile smack into the Royal Tree nearby, shattering on impact with the tinkle of delicate glass.  The whistle of an earthen projectile as it shot between the legs of the one carrying her was all the warning she got as he leapt with amazing agility, avoiding having his legs broken by an extremely narrow margin.  The rock crashed against the tree as well, breaking apart with the crunch and cracking of stone being split in two.

This isn’t good; they’re likely to kill me before they can even catch or stop the Elder and her team.  That thought was only punctuated as a vine came out of nowhere and wrapped around her throat; fortunately (she supposed), there was already a thick branch wound loosely around her precious neck, so it prevented her from being strangled.  What it did do, however, was grab onto her tightly enough that it made her captor practically slam down backwards on the branch walkway at a full run.

While he was surprised, he reacted quickly enough that he saved himself from breaking anything, though when her bound body collapsed on him she heard an *oof* of exhaled breath as she impacted his chest.  Both of them ended up being fortunate, though, because a split-second after they hit the branch, another spike of coldness passed over her, breaking apart on the nearly impervious Royal Tree.  It’s unfortunate that they don’t have to hold off on their attacks over fear of harming the Tree; only intense fire and certain acids created by Natural elemental users can harm it substantially.

“Get up!  I’ll hold them off!”

Unfortunately, Echo was still face-down and couldn’t see what was happening, but the Elder’s voice was certainly recognizable.  From what little she could actually feel and sense, there was a great rending of tree branches near her, almost as if some giant had come in and swiped away the nearby foliage.  It didn’t go away, however, but was reassembled further up the main branch walkway – or so it sounded.

The cracking of even more branches hinted that some sort of barrier had been erected and was in the process of being assaulted, but that was all she could really tell from her position.  A moment later, she felt herself being handled again, though she had the distinct feeling that it was someone else now carrying her bound body.

As she was settled on another shoulder, she was able to look back a little to see a thick wall of intertwined sticks and branches from where they had come from, blocking the pathway down.  Echo suddenly had the realization that she didn’t know if she was hoping it would fail as it was heavily impacted from the other side.  On the one hand, she was being stolen away by the Elder, whom she suspected was involved in some sort of conspiracy to destroy Sandra’s dungeon despite being aided by the dungeon’s heart.  On the other hand, well…she had been held captive without any word about why, and now the guards were throwing out spells towards the fleeing criminals without thought that it might harm her.  In fact, if I didn’t know better, it almost felt like they were aiming for me.

But that would be ridiculous…right?  They didn’t have any reason to kill her – at least, not that she knew about.

“Ugh…keep running!  I’ll catch up!” the familiar voice of the Elder said, though her tone sounded a bit strained.  An explosion of *cracks* and the sound of splintering wood echoed through the entire area, and Echo felt a whoosh of air flow around her, as if pushed by some mighty hand.  The restrained Ranger thought she heard Herrlot’s voice cry out in pain behind the running captors, but she couldn’t be too sure; within seconds, the slight hollow sound of their feet beating against the wooden branch faded as they reached the ground, only to be replaced by more shouting in the distance.

But by that point, they had escaped the majority of the bright light that had illuminated the shadowed forms of those escaping, and the blurry darkness settled over them like a cloak of obscurity.  Faster than she had expected, they had escaped into the denser foliage surrounding the Royal Tree, disappearing from those pursuing them with relative impunity.  In short, they had successfully gotten Echo away from her forced captivity…

…but would this just be trading one problem for another?

Chapter 7

Now that she wasn’t afraid of falling hundreds of feet to her death if she tried to escape, Echo attempted to free herself from her restraints.  Unfortunately, the run of luck that her captors had employed in their escape with their prize was maintained while in the dense forest environment that categorized the center of Symenora.  It was one of the things she loved about her homeland, and she had missed it when she had been confined to Sandra’s dungeon. That love was severely tested, however, as the constant up, down, and jerky motions her captives took to navigate through the mass of trees made it hard for her to concentrate on manipulating her elemental energies.

As a result, the uncomfortable run to their destination was so full of distractions that she couldn’t figure out a way to escape.  Even what little she learned from Sandra and the other offensive spells she had knowledge of were of no use, since she couldn’t really see her targets.  The darkness surrounding each of her captors was so strong that any Holy-based elemental attacks she might be able to use would be swallowed up by the concealing cloud of their powerful Nether-based ability.  Huh…I wonder how they are maintaining such a strong spell?  It has to be that strong if it’s covering them all at the same time; I know that the Elder doesn’t have access to Nether energy, so it’s most likely that only one of them is maintaining the spell.

Despite her inability to escape, for some reason Echo felt a lessening of danger the further they traveled from the Royal Tree.  This came as a surprise.  She had imagined it would be the opposite, since she was being carried all trussed up like some sort of roast, as well as being near at least one of her captors that had access to Nether energy (which wasn’t forbidden, but its use was occasionally suspect and fairly well-regulated). Regardless, she nearly felt like she had been rescued rather than captured.

The verdict was still out on that, though, especially considering who had been leading them.  Echo wasn’t sure what had happened to Elder Herrlot after fleeing from the vicinity of the brief fight at the Royal Tree, because she only heard 3 sets of footsteps as they ran along – but she had secretly been hoping that the other woman had been captured.

It was the Elder’s fault that Echo had been rounded up and detained “for her safety”, after all.

As least, that was what the Ranger assumed by her strange actions when they had arrived via the back of a giant bird.  There were very few places that they could land such a monster inside of Symenora near the capital, so the large open space approximately a mile out from the Royal Tree had been their destination.  The only problem was, the Elder interrupted that plan by asking to be let off a few miles away from the clearing.

“Are you crazy?  There isn’t anywhere to land over this stretch—” she had asked, confused at what the Elder was wanting.

“I may be many things, girl, but crazy isn’t one of them.”  The Elder then pointed down towards the south, in a different heading than where Echo was vaguely sure the clearing was located.  “Over there; if you can have this bird hover there, I can drop down onto that shelter’s walkway.  I have to check on some things first before I head to the capital to lend my aid in convincing the King and Queen about the danger coming to our land.”

Echo could see a vague wooden structure sticking out of a taller patch of trees; it was so well-hidden that if it hadn’t been pointed out, she would never have seen it.  The closer they got to it, the more she could see that it wasn’t just camouflaged from the air, but that there was enough foliage beneath the treetop shelter that it would be practically invisible from below.  What is that doing there?  I’ve never heard of something like that before.

Before she could ponder it further, they had arrived.  Giving a verbal command to the gigantic Aerie Roc, she managed to make it dive down (which caused her stomach to do flips from the maneuver) and then somehow hover in place by flapping its enormous wings to maintain the same height.  To be fair, it wasn’t exactly “in place,” nor at the same height, because it dipped down before rising again with each flap of its wings, but it was as stable as possible.

While Echo was distracted trying to get the bird to do all of that, the Elder had unstrapped herself and was ready to go; as soon as they were about 100 feet above the shelter, the other Elf said, “You go on to the capital and I’ll be there soon.”  She paused for a second, before continuing in a serious tone.  “And take care of yourself.  Things in the Lyringlade may not be all they seem.”  Then she was gone, flinging herself off of the bird to the shelter below.

Echo’s breath had caught in her throat at the abrupt departure, and for the fact that it appeared as though the Elder was going to miss her mark.  However, as she fell, the older Elf gestured with her hands and branches writhed below, assembling themselves with a basket-like quality with a bedding of leaves.  Almost as if she had planned it that way (Echo wouldn’t put it past the Elder to have done just that), the falling Elf landed safely and softly in the bed of leaves, before being carried over to the shelter.

Within seconds, the Elder had disappeared inside the tree-top structure, but not before Echo caught a glimpse of a few others inside, as if they had been waiting for her.  With nowhere to land and no ability to get down – not to mention a task that needed to be taken care of – Echo instructed the Roc to continue on, which was a bit harrowing in its execution.  Because it had arrested its momentum as it hovered, the only way it could gain that kind of speed again was by diving – so that is what it did.

Skimming the treetops with the barest clearance, Echo held onto the giant bird’s harness straps for her life.  “I’m going to dieeeeeeeeeee!” she screamed out as the Roc was inches away from colliding with the field of wooden spears – that most people just called trees – and she closed her eyes waiting for the inevitable to happen.  When the end didn’t come, and the bird’s wings started to flap, raising the monster into the air, the prone ranger relaxed her white-knuckled grip and opened her eyes.

Contrary to what she had expected, the bird monster – and by extension, herself – was fine.  It didn’t take long for them to arrive the few miles to the clearing where she could land, which seemed much smaller than she remembered; from high up above, it seemed entirely too small for their landing.  However, as they dove down closer, she found her perception of the space had been deceiving – it was much longer than it was wide. She was relatively certain that they could squeeze inside, even with the Roc’s wings at full extension…but it would be close.

Landing was a frightening affair, because she kept having flashbacks of nearly colliding with the trees not so long ago.  As if to disprove her fears, the Aerie Roc slowly glided in and gently touched down, giving her a relatively pleasant experience that calmed her nerves somewhat.  Of course, she couldn’t get out of the straps holding her to the harness quick enough to suit her needs, and in less than a minute she had scrambled off her ride, her wobbly legs practically making her collapse into a thankful heap as she touched solid ground.  When she could finally pull herself together, she looked up at the sound of something behind her – and it wasn’t the massive bird she had just vacated.

She was surrounded.  By very dangerous-looking Royal Elite Guards.

“Emmalyra Arlen – you need to come with us.”  The use of her given name, as well as the Guards surrounding her with weapons bared without seemingly being concerned about the bird monster 15 feet away from the nearest of them, made her knees finally collapse underneath her.

As they were dragging her away, refusing to give a reason why she was being detained – only to say that it was for her “protection” – she looked back at the Aerie Roc sitting silent and still in the middle of the clearing.  It was only then that she noticed that the crate of Energy Orbs that they had brought with them, along with the special bow and explosive bolts Sandra had created, were gone.  Not because the Guards had stripped them off, however, because they were nowhere to be seen; no, the straps holding those items in place seemed to have been cut instead of undone normally.

The Elder!  She must’ve cut them when I wasn’t paying attention as I dropped her off!  But why?  There was only one answer that she could determine, which might explain how the Royal Elite Guards knew where and when she was coming – Elder Herrlot had betrayed her somehow.  And despite her attempts at explaining who she was and why she was there, no one seemed inclined to care.

It had unfortunately stayed that way even as she was led to her “room” where she was supposedly being kept safe – under guard, of course – but no one had come to talk or listen to her the entire time she was there.  It wasn’t until Elder Herrlot and her crew had come to take her away that she had heard more than muttered voices outside of her cell, and for that she was thankful; what she was still uncertain about was whether she should be thankful to have been relocated.

Luckily, it seemed as if she was going to find out.

“Were you followed?” a voice came from behind her, which meant that it was in front of the running captors.  As usual, she didn’t recognize the voice, but she could certainly recognize the tone of authority.  If she didn’t miss her guess, the voice belonged to an Elite – and a very experienced one at that; from the few that she had known over the years, they tended to develop a certain no-nonsense lilt to their voice that demanded attention and obedience.  Having lived hundreds of years, with many of those years in constant war against dungeon monsters, they were accustomed to being in charge and having others follow their orders just as quickly as they would follow the orders of someone with more authority.  If they didn’t, it was possible that many more Elves would die.

Only slightly out of breath, Echo’s three captors slowed down to a stop, bringing her around and depositing her on the forest floor.  At least, she thought it was the forest floor, but when she finally got a chance to look around at something other than the running and blurred feet of the one carrying her, she realized that they were in a large cave.  She hadn’t noticed because sunlight streamed through the roof through thousands of tiny holes, making it nearly as bright inside the holey enclosure as it was outside.

“Doubtful.”  The one that had carried her at first was visible now, and as she thought – she didn’t recognize him.  By his bearing, the tightly bound black hair nestled over his shoulder, and the hard look on his face, she knew he was an Elite; not as seasoned and old as the one that had asked if they were followed, but an Elite, nonetheless.  “Though I do have some unfortunate news…”

“Where’s Herrlot?”

Echo couldn’t see the speaker, but she could see that he made her captors nervous as they shuffled from side to side in an obviously uncomfortable state at the question.  “Well, that’s kind of the unfortunate news—”

“What are you talking about?  Are you saying my help was unfortunate?” asked a voice that she immediately recognized.

Elder Herrlot was back already and obviously safe.

“Elder—how—?”

“I told you I would catch up, didn’t I?  I made better time than I expected, but then again I’m still getting accustomed to how beneficial these Energy Orbs can be.”

The Energy Orbs!  She must have possession of all that we brought with us, and I remember hearing that she had been hoarding them even before that.  What could she possibly want with all of them?  Is this all part of some master plan?

Before anyone said anything else, Echo suddenly felt a loosening of her bonds.  As soon as her hands were free, she started to pull at the branch keeping her from speaking even as she picked herself off of the floor.  “What have you done?  Why was I captured by the Royal Guards?  What is your plan and what do I have to do with it?  We came here to warn our people about the threat—”

“Girl, don’t make me gag you again,” the Elder said as she held up her hand in warning.  “Your questions will be answered in due time.  At the moment, though, we’re still in danger until we can get to somewhere safe where we can talk.”

The threat of being gagged again was enough of one that it got Echo to stop her questions, though she fumed on the inside.  She hated being treated like a child and talked down to as if she wasn’t important; looking around the earthen cave with thousands of holes, however, she had to acknowledge that of the 5 other people she finally saw clearly, she was practically a baby.  Although it was extremely difficult to tell an Elf’s age from their appearance unless they were so advanced in years that the signs were obvious, there was still an aura of maturity that surrounded those that had hundreds of years of experience.  Compared to what she sensed from them, Echo was far below them in life experience.

The Elder and the one that had met them in the cave – a much older Elite that had multiple streaks of white throughout his long, dark-blue hair and wrinkles around his eyes – walked towards the back of the cave where there weren’t as many holes in the ceiling, creating a shadowy expanse, the size of which was hard to determine.  It was tricking her eye so much that she watched the two ahead of her disappear into nothing, almost as if they had acquired her knack for making herself invisible.

“What—?”

“Just follow them and you’ll see.”  That was the only explanation she received, and unless she wanted to try to make a break for it right then and there, she didn’t really have any other choice but to obey.  She hesitated for only a second while she thought about using her Air elemental energy to run away, but rejected the idea after realizing she didn’t know where she was or how to get back to the capital.  There was a job to be done still, but without some sense of direction and knowledge of her whereabouts, she could spend days running around going in the wrong direction the entire time; given that these people wanted to stay hidden, it was likely they were located somewhere off the normal game trail, so to say.

So, disregarding a potential for escape now that she was free – which she was fervently hoping wouldn’t be something she would soon regret – Echo followed in the footsteps of the Elder and…the other Elder, she supposed.  It didn’t take more than a dozen steps to see that the end of the cave was hiding a nearly impossible to see passageway that was almost folded behind an outcropping, and she found herself walking down a narrow spiral staircase carved from the dirt and compacted into stable steps.  This must have taken some Earth spell users a while to create.

She didn’t count the steps because she was concentrating on keeping her feet in the near darkness, but she approximated that she walked down nearly 100 before it opened into a large room.  As opposed to the practically pitch-black staircase, the 100-foot by 100-foot room was illuminated by small light orbs attached to the ceiling and walls.  By themselves, they weren’t all that impressive; she could make one of them using her Holy energy, and they would last a few hours.  What was impressive was the crowd that awaited them, armed with bladed weapons, bows, and staves not unlike what the Elder was carrying.  Every single one of them appeared to be Elites as well, which only made the whole situation a bit more remarkable.

Remarkable…yet terrifying at the same time.

“I knew it!  What are you trying to do here, Herrlot?  Is this some sort of coup in the making?” Echo loudly blurted out, not thinking about what she was saying as she took in the sight of a veritable army-in-waiting.  “Because if so, I don’t want any part of these political games—”

“This isn’t a coup, girl,” the Elder said softly from her side, which made Echo jump in surprise.  The Ranger hadn’t realized Herrlot had been standing there the whole time.  “That’s already happened, though not many people know it.”  The older Elf walked forward and spread her hands to encompass the hard faces of those assembled.  “No, this isn’t a coup, girl,” she repeated.  “These people are the ones who are going to change things, in order for us to survive.”

How is that not a coup—?

“And you’re going to help us.”

Uh…what?

Chapter 8

“Gerold, you don’t seem to understand what I’m saying.”

I don’t understand?!  I certainly don’t!

“You weren’t locked down here because you arrived on the back of one of our most hated enemies,” the old Dwarf explained with rapidly evaporating patience, “though that had something to do with it.”

Gerold supposed that it hadn’t helped his cause to arrive on the back of an Aerie Roc, a gigantic monster bird that frequently attacked the few aboveground farming locations the Mountain Kingdom had nestled in a few scattered valleys inside their mountain ranges.  He hadn’t even thought about how it would look, other than possibly as an element of envy; to be able to “tame” one of the massive beasts was a remarkable accomplishment.

The Entrance Guards, all Third-shield rank and above, who surrounded him just outside of the main entrance to Stonebrink Hall didn’t seem to think so, however.

They had attacked the Roc immediately, nearly bowling him over in the process.  He had been in the middle of unstrapping his Deep Diver suit from the bottom of the harness, and in a panic he had ordered Sandra’s giant monster to fly away.  While it had been an advantageous form of transportation to arrive back home in less than a day, he didn’t particularly care if the bird died or not – it was their hated enemy, after all. Instead, it was the potential for his suit to be destroyed along with the monster that prompted his abrupt order.  Unfortunately, he wasn’t sure if the suit had stayed secured on its back, or if it had fallen off after he ordered it away.

His highly unusual arrival would’ve been enough of a reason to lock him up for colluding with the enemy despite his protestations that he was controlling the giant bird, but it was Gerold’s lack of something that was the real reason.

“You came back without your armor, Gerry.”  Master Blacksmith Jespin hadn’t called Gerold by that nickname since before the old Dwarf created the armor for him.  It felt like decades ago by that time, but in reality it had only been less than a year since Gerold became an official Shieldman. Hearing the name brought to the forefront the fact that he managed to lose his precious armor faster than almost any other Shieldman in history – at least compared to those who hadn’t lost their life at the same time.

It was the same sort of attitude the Shieldmen led by Bregan in Nurboldar had adopted towards Gerold at first, when the Second-shield had learned of the armor’s loss.  It was dishonorable to be so careless as to let your armor be destroyed so easily, and to survive without a scratch; each set of armor was custom-made to the specific Shieldman and took weeks or months to create in a secretive process by their Dwarven Master Blacksmiths.  A Second or First-shield might lose their armor after some particularly deadly battles and survive, though it was rare.  In those kinds of incidents, there was usually a replacement made for them because they were valuable members of their defense; to a Fifth-shield like Gerold, however, the loss of armor was dishonorable not only to themselves but to their family, and a replacement was never supplied to one so careless with something so precious.

“But I already said that it wasn’t my fault, and I made up for it by helping to defend Nurboldar with—”

“You know better than that, Gerry.  No one cares what you did afterwards, only that you lost your armor.  It’s one of the reasons you’re down here, as you know, because your family has disowned you to save what reputation they still have left.”  Jespin shook his head sadly.  “I don’t know how you even allowed that to happen, especially after all of the work I put into it.”

That was like a slap to Gerold’s face.  He already suspected that his family had done something like that, especially since no one had deigned to visit him since his incarceration.  It was actually a wonder that Jespin came to visit; the old Master Blacksmith had retired soon after he had created Gerold’s armor and battleaxe, due to slowly failing strength in his arms.  He wasn’t sick or anything, but age eventually did catch up to everyone – especially to those who’d already seen 500 to 600 winters.  Having already trained multiple Master Blacksmiths, Jespin’s legacy would live on as his knowledge was passed down.

“I’m…sorry, Master.  But it truly was not my fault, like I tried to explain to the Entrance Guards, as well to First-shield Parten.”  That had not been a pleasant experience.  Over half a day of interrogation while he was confined to a small room by Stonebrink Hall’s Shieldmen leader was a grueling affair he would prefer to forget.  Not only had he explained what happened to his armor (which he could tell wasn’t believed in the slightest), but he also had to reveal that Nurboldar had been essentially destroyed, 80% of the Shieldmen had been lost in the overwhelming undead monster attack on the village, and Second-shield Bregan had been killed in the defense.

He had tried to go into detail about Sandra and her dungeon, about what the Core had done to help those who survived the attack, and about the danger that was slowly ramping up…but he was largely ignored.

“None of that matters, since the only asset we had near the wasteland was Nurboldar.  With that lost to us, and with a dishonorable cur like you popping up, the world is slowly collapsing in on us,” First-shield Parten had said harshly.  “I don’t believe you anyway, since I can’t take much of what you say as the truth.  For now, you’ll be held in isolation until we can determine whether your claims about Nurboldar are true; even then, I’d personally hate to let one of your kind run about my domain.”

“One of your kind” had been particularly harsh, as it sounded as if the First-shield was comparing him to some hostile dungeon monster and not as a fellow Dwarf.  Gerold had known coming back might be difficult, but he hadn’t expected such vitriol and downright disgust at his presence.

After the interrogation, he had been placed in the cell he was currently inhabiting, waiting for days on end for something to happen.  He had yelled and beat at the stone-and-iron cell for hours, but no one had come to let him out or even talk to him.  No one until Master Blacksmith Jespin, at least.

“Why are you here?” Gerold asked curtly, before remembering who he was talking to.  “Not that I don’t appreciate your presence and willingness to talk to me, Master.  But I also thought that I was supposed to be here in isolation so that I couldn’t ‘spread lies with my dishonorable mouth.’  How did you get here?”

Master Jespin was silent for a few minutes as he stared intently at Gerold, who stared just as intently back.  He had always been a little intimidated by the Master Blacksmiths among them, because they were so far above him in respect, authority, and renown that they were practically immortalized in their fame.  For the entire Kingdom, at any one time, there were at most only about 20 Master Blacksmiths; very few Dwarves had the aptitude to become one, and fewer still met the requirements to do so – which themselves were shrouded in mystery.  With Gerold’s imprisonment, however, much of the intimidation had worn off, though he still tried to show as much respect to the Master as possible.

Finally, the older Dwarf spoke as he chuckled.  “There’s fire in that body of yours, yet.  That’s the same drive I saw when I agreed to craft your armor, you know; not everyone gets one of mine, after all,” he said, not at all modestly.  Which was entirely fair, because Jespin’s creations were some of the best – if not the best – that had been seen in half a generation.  That might also be why everyone was so disappointed that I had lost my armor.  “As for how I got here, well, there aren’t many things denied to a Master Blacksmith if they but ask.”

That was definitely true.  Every single member of their Kingdom would give up their lives to protect a Master Blacksmith; their metal-crafters were the only source of their Shieldmen’s armor, and if even one was killed, it would put a severe hamper on their front-line defense.

“Your question about why I’m here is a bit harder to answer.”  Jespin looked behind him and saw the low stone bench placed across from his cell. Without saying any more, the old Dwarf ambled slowly over to the seat and settled gratefully onto it with a long sigh.  “Ahhh, that’s much better.  These old bones sure do get annoying after a while.  It feels like only a few months ago I was able to run 40 miles through these tunnels without breaking a sweat; yet now I can barely stand for more than 30 minutes without needing to sit down.”

The Master Blacksmith leaned back against the wall behind him and crossed his arms in a relaxed posture, continuing his explanation.  “I happened to hear a report that you had returned unexpectedly, and on the back of a Roc, nonetheless.  I try to keep tabs on those Shieldmen that use the armor I’ve crafted over the years, so with your return to Stonebrink so quickly after being dispatched to Nurboldar, I knew I had to find out what happened to you…and to my armor.

“At first, I was furious that you had allowed my precious work to be destroyed and wanted nothing to do with you.  However, after your story seemed to spread around the Shieldmen here – and with me having a mutual relationship with them – the story you told Parten filtered its way to me.  Just like the First-shield told you, it sounded too fantastical to believe, and it seemed as if you were making things up to cover for your mistakes.”  He was silent for a few moments as he leaned his head back and stared at Gerold again.

“But then I heard that you mentioned a ‘friendly’ dungeon and how it helped you to regain some of your combat abilities.  Some sort of…suit…or something along those lines, am I correct?”

Gerold nodded.  “Yes, a Deep Diver suit.”

“Deep Diver?” the Master asked, surprised.  He tapped his finger against his mouth as if submerged in thought.  “Where have I heard that before…ah!  Now I remember; the Gnomes made those Deep Diver suits to allow them to enter dungeons, if I’m not mistaken.  Because their…Battle Mechs?...were too large to get inside the entrances.”

“War Machines, actually, but yes.”  Gerold just realized that he had corrected a Master, but fortunately the Blacksmith didn’t seem to take offense.

“That’s right! War Machines…I remember them being quite impressive.”  Jespin seemed to look off in the distance as if reminiscing about something.  “So, the Gnomes made you this Deep Diver?”

“Yes and no.  Sandra got the idea from some Gnomes that were staying there, and then she improved upon the design.”

“Wait, what?  I don’t remember hearing about that.”

Gerold went into an explanation of how, when he had arrived and lost his armor, Sandra’s dungeon had been occupied by a pair of Gnomes, an Elf, and later on a half-Dwarf/half-Orc named Kelerim.  He also briefly explained what happened to Nurboldar again for context, and how the villagers and remaining Shieldmen had taken refuge in the unique dungeon and were even producing many of the same crops that they had before their village was overrun.

“…this dungeon made the Deep Diver suit?  And a War Machine for the Gnomes?  How?  And more importantly, why?”

“The why is the easiest to answer, I believe,” Gerold answered honestly.  “Sandra isn’t like other dungeon ‘Cores’, who she says are insane and are constrained by certain things to want to kill everything around them in a mindless fury.  She used to be a Human that died and was turned into one of these Cores, but she was able to maintain her sanity; now, she wants to save our people from the worrisome dangers that the other dungeons present.  And not only us, but also the Elves and Gnomes – even the Orcs.”

“How does this ‘Sandra’ expect to do that?  The mere thought of it seems impossible.”

“Multiple ways, actually.  First—” Gerold said, turning his palms outwards toward the Master Blacksmith— “are these Energy Orbs that you see embedded in my hands.”

“Good Creator, Gerry!  Is that some sort of mark the dungeon put on you?  Does it control you even now?”  The Blacksmith shrank back a little in disgust, shaking his head.

“No, this isn’t about control, Master.  These marks are what she calls a ‘bond,’ which allows me to speak with her, and these Energy Orbs are something else entirely.  They regenerate my elemental energy automatically—”

“Impossible.”

Gerold chuckled at the Master’s insistence, the first bit of humor he had experienced since he arrived back home.  “That’s what I thought at first, as well, but it’s true.  As long as I was within range of Sandra’s Core, these Orbs would continuously supply Water and Nether energy to me forever.  Now, though, since I’m not near her, I have a feeling that if I use them up, they will shrink and disappear just like they would when used outside of my palms.”

“Your stories are becoming more and more fantastical…but for some reason, I believe you.  Did you say there are more of these ‘Energy Orbs’?”

Gerold again nodded.  “Absolutely.  I don’t know how she did it, but Sandra created them with enchantments and even installed them in my Deep Diver suit, which she also crafted from raw materials, using a forge and her constructs to build the suit – and War Machine – from the ground up.”

“It—She is a Blacksmith?”

“Yes, and much more.  She apparently loves crafting of all sorts, and you would be amazed at what she can produce!” he said wonderingly, before remembering who he was talking to.  “I mean, she can’t produce the quality of weapons and armor that Master Blacksmiths like yourself can create, but there’s no denying that it is quite good; I would dare say that it would be relatively passable to your inspection, even.”  He wasn’t sure why he was talking up Sandra and her abilities like he would a prospective mate he was presenting to his parents, but it also wasn’t a lie.  She really was that good, though she could likely learn a lot from Jespin here.

All of which reminded Gerold of his secondary purpose in returning to the mountain strongholds of his people.  He had already failed at trying to warn them of the impending danger, but maybe he could somehow convince a Master Blacksmith like Jespin to reveal the long-held and sacred secrets of how to produce their unique armor and weapons to a strange dungeon located in the middle of the wasteland, while hostile dungeons and their deadly monsters surrounded them from every direction.  That seems much simpler, right?

“Raw materials?  What do you mean by that?”

The question took Gerold by surprise, especially at Jespin’s tone when he asked that.  It was almost as if the Master Blacksmith was a bit nervous.  “Well, Sandra takes bars or sheets of metals and then uses them on the things she crafts, as well as raw leather and other materials.  Why do you ask?”

The older Dwarf ignored his question.  “Yes, but where do these materials come from?  The Gnomes?”

Huh?  “Oh, it’s all dungeon-loot quality.  She creates it herself – vast quantities of it, in fact.  There was a rumor circulating among the villagers that Sandra had some sort of storeroom that held large amounts of materials, but I never actually saw it.  But I did see the Enchantment Repository; now that was an impressive sight, even if I don’t know much about enchant—”

“She just…creates it?  Out of thin air?”

Gerold was really curious where this line of questioning was going, because he couldn’t figure it out.  “Well…I don’t know the precise process, but I believe she needs to use some of her own ‘energy’ – that I think I remember her calling ‘mana’ – to create the materials, just like she creates the dungeon loot that is used to create her constructs and other monsters.  You should really see these metal Apes that she has; they wield these titanium warhammers that are extremely effective…”

Gerold trailed off as Master Blacksmith Jespin reached into his soot-stained leather vest, pulling something from an internal pocket.  With a trembling hand, the older Dwarf stretched out his arm with his closed fist, before slowly revealing what he had taken out.

It was a small orb of very unfamiliar metal, only about as big as the tip of Jespin’s thumb.  The disgraced Shieldman couldn’t see what was so special about it, until the little light filtering in from outside of the cells hit it in just the right way.  The metal wasn’t colored like copper, iron, steel, silver, gold, platinum, titanium, or any other type he’d seen before; instead, it had a dark-blue tint to it, with almost rainbow-like swirls and striations seeming to float above it like oil floating on top of water.  It was almost hypnotizing just looking at it, as the swirls seemed to move while he was watching.

“What—?”  He tried to ask what it was, but he was at a loss of words at the metal’s sheer beauty.  He wasn’t a blacksmith that worked with metals all the time, but being a Dwarf meant he could appreciate the beauty of a pure loot orb of a quality metal – and this was certainly a quality metal.

“This is—”

Whatever Master Blacksmith Jespin was going to say was interrupted as the entire mountain seemed to shake.

Chapter 9

It wasn’t so much of a violent shake as it was a gentle rumbling.  A rhythmic rumbling, to be more precise.  It took Gerold a moment to puzzle through what it was, but one look at the old Dwarf standing across from him was enough to confirm it for him.

The Drums of War were sounding through Stonebrink Hall.

“War” was a bit of a misnomer, as it was more of a “defense” than anything.  If there was ever a direct attack on their stronghold by dungeon monsters, the Drums would reverberate throughout the entire Hall to alert everyone inside.  Non-combatants would flee to relative safety further inside the mountain, while anyone who could hold a weapon to defend their people would head to the front lines, just behind the Shieldmen to act as a final defense.  It didn’t happen very often, and it had never happened while Gerold had been around, but had known that it was always in the realm of possibility.

Historically, if something like that happened, the Shieldmen would beat back the attack and then eliminate whatever dungeon had extended itself far enough to threaten them.  The mountain ranges that the Dwarves inhabited were located near the center of their lands, where the dungeons were mostly found around the perimeter forests, along with some random outcroppings found scattered throughout.  It was usually these dungeons that were able to get close enough to threaten them, and they typically assaulted the highly defended Hall entrance; it was extremely rare for them to accumulate enough power and influence to actually break into their stronghold from below.

“I have to go.”  Jespin seemed to be in a trance as he walked out, closing the multiple doors behind him as he left.  The drums and vibration were so loud that the Master Blacksmith didn’t even hear Gerold screaming at him to stop.

“Wait!  I can help!  Don’t leave me down here!”  All his efforts to be heard more than a little were drowned out, unheard by the retreating Dwarf, and Gerold was stuck being by himself again, worried out of his mind.  Regardless of what the Shieldmen and even his family thought of him, he still cared about his people and wanted to join the defense – even if he didn’t have his armor anymore.  He could still swing an axe and carry a shield, after all.

But no one came to let him out, even to help defend the Hall under attack by dungeon monsters.  After 15 minutes, the Drums stopped, though that didn’t mean the danger had passed; instead, it was likely only beginning.

By his estimation, nearly half a day later, Gerold was starting to get hungry; no one had come to feed him like normal.  He had no idea what time it was, nor if his worry over the people in the Hall was exaggerating how much time had passed, but he was reasonably certain that something was wrong.  It was only when another few hours went by that he finally heard some signs of life as someone headed in his direction through multiple locked doors.

“What happened?  Is everyone safe?” he asked the familiar face of the Dwarf that normally brought his food.  Instead of answering, however, all the food deliverer did was lay his tray of nutrient-rich but unappetizing edibles down so that Gerold could obtain it near the bottom of his cell door.  “Hey!  At least tell me that the monsters were beaten back!”

Still no response, though he did see a momentary hesitation in the other Dwarf’s gait as he left.  That’s not a good sign.

It wasn’t until the next day – perhaps 24 hours later based on meal deliveries – that he got another visit by Jespin, though he looked a bit worse for wear.

“Yes, we were able to beat them back, but I’m not sure for how long,” the old Dwarf said in response to Gerold’s question as he sat down on the bench, his bloodshot eyes almost screaming lack of sleep for the retired Master Blacksmith.

“What do you mean?”

“This is the 4th call to arms in the last few months, and the frequency is only increasing,” Jespin explained wearily.  “Luckily, nothing has broken through the stone entrance gates yet, nor have they tunneled beneath; but I fear it is only a matter of time before there is a serious breakthrough.  We’ve lost a half-dozen Shieldmen already in the defense, so our numbers are thinning; we no longer even have the option of going out and destroying this dungeon that is threatening us, because we don’t have the numbers to survive another attack if it were to come while a team was away.”

As callous as it sounded, it sounded like an easy solution.  “There are thousands of people in this Hall alone that would fight for the honor of being a Shieldman; just have the Master Blacksmiths start churning out more armor and weapon sets.  You could even come out of retirement to train some more—”

“It won’t work,” Jespin said sadly, shaking his head.

“What?  Why?”  Gerold knew that it would probably take a little while to really ramp up production, but they had to do something.

“It doesn’t matter if we have 1 Master Blacksmith or 5,000; we can’t produce enough to make a difference.”

That didn’t seem right to Gerold.  While he didn’t know what went into the armor creation process, it seemed more than possible that with 5,000 Master Blacksmiths producing enough sets for new Shieldmen, they could be equipped enough within a few weeks or months to fight back and close down this nearest dungeon.  It was even far enough away from the others that had been destroyed near the wasteland that it shouldn’t matter.

It shouldn’t even be a matter of materials, either, because Gerold had seen the stockpiles of high-grade dungeon loot steel they had in the Kingdom’s stockpiles when he had been invested as a Shieldman, and there was enough there to create thousands of suits of armor and the weapons that went with it – if not tens of thousands.  Unless it wasn’t the steel that they were lacking, but something else….

“Does this have anything to do with that strange orb of metal you showed me before?”

Master Blacksmith Jespin was too tired to hide his surprise.  “How did you know that?  No one but us Masters should have that knowledge.”

Gerold shrugged.  “It was only an assumption based on what you said about not being able to create enough equipment for new Shieldmen, as well as your questions about Sandra and how she can create what she needs.  What is it?” he asked, gesturing to the older Dwarf’s hidden vest pocket.

Jespin exhaled a big sigh, before looking out the door leading to Gerold’s freedom.  Dropping his voice down lower, the Master began to reveal something the former Shieldman never thought he would ever learn.  “I guess the times are getting desperate enough that it really doesn’t matter anymore.”  He pulled out the strange metal ball again and showed it to Gerold, even letting him hold it.  Surprisingly, when he picked up the orb, he could sense that it was extremely dense but soft – and yet was remarkably light for its size.

“You’re right, Gerry.  This is mithril, a very rare metal that is required to make the special armor and battleaxes we provide to the Shieldmen.  I’m not going to detail the process right now, but this little bit you’re holding – along with large quantities of dungeon loot-quality steel – is all we need to fully equip a new Shieldmen recruit.”

Huh.  “That doesn’t seem so bad, then.  So, what’s the problem?” Gerold asked as he handed the strange mithril metal back to the Blacksmith.

“Well, the problem is that mithril is very rare, like I said; remarkably, we used to have large deposits of it throughout our mountain ranges here, which was how we came to use it in the construction of armor and weapons. Over time, however, the deposits ran out and our reserves dwindled to near-empty.  Fortunately, about 250 years ago, a dungeon was soon discovered that dropped these small mithril orbs when their powerful monsters were killed; we’re not sure how that happened, but we weren’t going to complain about it.

“Needless to say, we took advantage of this fact and sent constant teams of Shieldmen to collect these mithril orbs by invading the dungeon, diving deeper and deeper inside to destroy more and more monsters.  Unfortunately, about 50 years ago, a large team went inside and suffered horrendous casualties in the process of killing the strong monsters and falling victim to numerous traps.  Understandably frustrated and out for revenge, the remaining members of the Shieldmen team managed to reach the bottom of the dungeon and found the crystal-like stone that represented its heart…and they ended up destroying it in retribution.”

They destroyed its Core?  The thought of that happening to Sandra made Gerold despondent for a moment, before he remembered that they had done the same thing to the undead Dungeon Core not that long ago.  “Didn’t they know—?”

“No, none of them knew exactly what they were gathering for us, though I’m sure they had their suspicions.”  Jespin hung his head, as if tired of the whole story.  “In my opinion, it was our greatest failure as Master Blacksmiths that I regret to this day, though almost all of the others would disagree: Our secret to the development of our special equipment was so ingrained in us that it was inconceivable to share it with anyone – even those tasked with providing the materials we needed.  Only the King knew of our need for the mithril, which was required so that he could send out the Shieldmen to collect it, but even he didn’t know the exact process.

“Now…well, now we are nearly out of mithril, and soon it won’t really matter if that portion of our secret is revealed.  This orb here,” the Master Blacksmith said, holding up the metal sphere in his hand for Gerold to see again, “represents 1 of the only 20 that we have left.  I’ve been carrying this particular orb around for nearly 250 years, as it was one of the first dungeon loot drops found in that particular dungeon so long ago.  Even this will shortly go into the pool of available materials for another Master Blacksmith to use in the creation of another set of Shieldmen equipment…unless there is a better use for it.”

“A better use?  What do you—oh.”

“Exactly.  If what you say is true about this dungeon, this ‘crafting dungeon’, then it’s entirely possible that it could provide us with as much mithril as we need.  With a large and virtually unlimited supply, we could indeed create more armor and weapons for new Shieldmen and finally start to take back this land from the dungeons that are slowly overrunning it.”  The Master Blacksmith cocked his head to his side as he considered.  “Or not so slowly, if what you also say is true of the dungeons near the wasteland.”

Gerold shrugged.  “As far as I know, we have a short time before things start spiraling out of control, but it could be that things have changed since I’ve been gone from there.  Either way, it sounds like we’re going to need all of the help we can get just to survive here, disregarding the wasteland for a moment.  If you were able to acquire more mithril, how quickly could the Masters create what we need?”

Jespin scratched his head while he considered.  “The major time delay in their creation is the use of our elemental energy; it takes weeks’ worth of our elemental energy to create even one set, and the only way to regain it back is to sleep.  Except…your dungeon found a way around that, didn’t it?  With those things embedded in your palms?”

Gerold nodded and corrected the Master Blacksmith.  “Yes, Sandra created these to help regenerate our energy automatically; faster regeneration can be achieved with additional Orbs touching the skin, if needed.”  He spread his hands and smiled.  “Essentially, this means that you can have your weeks’ worth of elemental energy in a matter of hours.”

Jespin just sat staring at Gerold for a moment, before shaking his head sadly.  “To think, asking a dungeon for help in defending against other dungeons! Never in my 684 years would I have thought that was even a remote possibility.  I guess times are changing, huh?”

684 years?  He’s much older than I thought.

“What…hmmm…what do you think it will take for this dungeon of yours to help supply us with mithril?”

Jespin’s hesitant question hinted that he probably already knew the answer, but Gerold was going to tell him anyway.  It was one of the reasons he was there in the first place, after all.

“Like I said before, Sandra is a crafter first and foremost; she actually felt bad when her actions resulted in the destruction of my gear.  She actually wanted to replace the whole set, but didn’t know the secret of their construction, so the Deep Diver was the next best thing she could provide.”  Gerold hesitated a moment before he continued.  “When Nurboldar was attacked, our people needed somewhere safe to stay; Sandra volunteered to open up her dungeon for them to live. She created vast underground space where they not only could live, but plant and farm the same crops they were already harvesting in the village.  The only thing she asked in return for all of this was a promise from me, a promise that I would attempt to convince a Master Blacksmith to share their secret.  It wasn’t even an ultimatum, as if the inability of acquiring this knowledge would lead Sandra to kick our people out of her dungeon, but was only a promise to try.”

Without doing or saying anything else, Master Blacksmith Jespin got up, walked to the door, and left, leaving Gerold alone with his thoughts.  I guess that’s the answer, then?  I told her it wouldn’t work, though I certainly did try.  Even as our people are in danger of dying the longer this goes on, with dwindling resources to make additional armor for our Shieldmen, it seems as though the secret was to die with us as well.  The former Shieldman knew that it was the biggest secret in their Kingdom, and it was likely hard to even think about sharing any of that knowledge with an outside party – especially a dungeon.

The little that Jespin had shared about the process was probably more than had been shared in their whole history to those not a Master Blacksmith, but it wasn’t nearly enough for someone to actually figure out how everything was done.  Only one of their esteemed Blacksmiths could impart the correct procedures and recipes and know-how to create the armor, though it was possible that Sandra could eventually figure it out if given enough time.  Knowing that mithril was involved would certainly help with that, but they didn’t have years or even months for the Dungeon Core to experiment to find the solution.  Still, it’s a starting point for her; if I could only find a way back to her, I can at least do that much.

A sudden noise startled him, as he wasn’t expecting to be fed for another few hours at least.  The sound of a door opening was quickly followed by the appearance of the Master Blacksmith again, looking determined.

“The others will not understand and will forbid the sharing of our secret, but most of them are much younger and short-sighted,” Jespin started without any other discussion.  “My years have afforded me a better perspective of how things have been and where we are headed, and I can’t let our people die hiding in our strongholds without doing something about it.  We have to get you out of here to bring us back to this dungeon of yours, where I will do whatever is necessary to secure the material we need to survive.  Even if it means betraying the oath I made when I became a Master to never reveal our secret upon pain of death for not only me, but my entire family.  It is a worthy price to pay.”

Hope shot into Gerold’s entire body as he heard the Blacksmith’s words.  Did I actually convince him?  I can’t believe it – is this some sort of trick?  He didn’t think so, because Jespin seemed very determined to do what he said, no matter the ramifications.  “Hopefully, it won’t come to that, Master.”

“I hope not, either, but I’m willing to die to save our people, just like you and all of the Shieldmen over the years have dedicated themselves to their protection.”

Even though he wasn’t “technically” a Shieldman anymore since he lost his gear, Gerold knew exactly what he meant.  That was one of the reasons he had wanted to become part of their number, because he wanted to be both useful and to do everything he could to protect the people of their Kingdom.  Even though Jespin wasn’t on the front lines, he was as much or more part of that defense by supplying them the tools to get the job done.

“Now, I’ve got to go; I think I’ve already attracted too much attention to my activities down here, and it’s only a matter of time before someone starts to get curious why I’m visiting the Shieldman that destroyed one of my last works of art,” the Master Blacksmith said, winking at Gerold before he turned to leave.  “I’m going to devise a plan to get you out of here, but you won’t see me until it’s time to implement it.  Just be ready.”

Gerold laughed, feeling good for the first time since he arrived back home.  I’m getting out of here!  “I’ll be ready, it’s not like I have any pressing matters or places I need to go right now,” he said with not a little bit of humor in his tone.  “How long?”

He didn’t have to explain what he meant, because Jespin answered as he was walking out the door.  “No idea.  It will have to be during the next attack by dungeon monsters on the Hall, because otherwise the surveillance of your cell is too thick.  My renown as a Master Blacksmith will only go so far; breaking you out of here with witnesses would not go over well.”

“Understandable.  I’ll be ready,” Gerold said confidently, though he wasn’t sure exactly how he should prepare.  Since he didn’t know when it would happen, and he didn’t want to be on edge the whole time, he laid himself down and got some sleep. He figured it would probably be prudent to get some rest when he could.

Now all he had to do was wait.

Chapter 10

The sudden cessation of constant attacks was so surprising that Sandra had to watch and wait for nearly 10 minutes before she realized it was true.  It wasn’t just one of the dungeons arrayed against her, either, but all 4 of them at the same time.

Goblins, Golems, Beasts, and Slimes were all pulled back into their respective dungeons, the seemingly perpetual outpouring of monsters stopping at the exact same moment.  Her own forces were starting to gain a bit of an upper hand in the war for the tunnels connecting her dungeon with the others, but it was only a slight advantage.  Sandra was sure that, if given enough time, she would prevail and could finally assail the dungeons themselves, but it was extremely slow-going and would likely require a month or more to get to the point where she was comfortable with a push.

But the other Cores apparently had other things on their minds.

A tentative push into the tunnel endings leading inside the other dungeons revealed that trying to assault it without a much bigger force was unlikely to work.  In each of the initial dungeon rooms, there were so many monsters packed inside that even a slight push made by her own constructs was quickly wiped out.  She had no doubt that powerful traps were lying in wait where she couldn’t see as well, and risking an assault could result in losses she would have difficulty quickly recovering from.

Is this some sort of trick to draw me in?  The rage biting at her mind wanted her to ignore the danger and draw all of her not-insignificant army of constructs and Dungeon Monsters together to attack a single dungeon, but common sense somehow prevailed and stopped her before she could do something else foolish.  Observing the area aboveground where her airborne Shears were keeping an eye on the dungeons’ entrances, she also noticed that there were no longer any constant trickles of monsters venturing out (only to be slaughtered by the joint forces of Sandra’s constructs, Monsters, Elves, Dwarves, and Orcish mercenaries).

An instinctual part of her mind knew exactly what that meant; there was only one reason that she could think of that they wouldn’t continue to at least try to expand their ambient Mana collection up there.  They were keeping all of their Dungeon Monsters close for protection, and why would they need that?  Because they were Upgrading their Cores.

That furious urge to attack while they weren’t paying attention reared its head at the thought of how vulnerable they were; again, some part of her mind pushed those thoughts back down, where they simmered with righteous anger under the surface.  Coldly calculating her chances of success, she reasoned that while it might be possible to attack a single dungeon and fight her way to a Core, the losses she would sustain would likely be significant.  Still, with only 3 Cores to concentrate on destroying after that, it might be worth it.

But if those 3 had upgraded their Cores, then they would have an advantage over her.  Right now, they were nearly at a stalemate of what they could produce, but as she well knew, there was frequently a new Dungeon Monster right around the corner.  The next upgrade might provide them with a new threat that could quickly overwhelm her, and she wouldn’t be able to keep up.

Cold logic extinguished much of the anger and vehemence towards the other Cores, but not enough to break her out of her revenge-driven purpose.  All it ended up doing was to help her decide that the only way she could compete with them was if she kept up with them – or even progressed past them.  Therefore, with a quick use of her dwindling resources, she sealed up the ends of each tunnel – keeping her forces there just in case it was a trick – and then turned to one of the few things she hadn’t absorbed in her treasury yet.

Broken Dungeon Core shards.

From what she remembered, the speed increase from consuming the Core shards during her upgrade would continue to be a benefit as long as there were shards left, so she had left them alone during her search for more resources earlier.  The only thing they were good for was increasing her Core Stage in an effort to upgrade her Core, as well as speeding up the actual upgrade process; since she was already at her max Stage and had put off upgrading in favor of defending her dungeon, there really wasn’t a lot she had to consider before finally accepting her upgrade.

A second before she initiated the upgrade, a tiny voice in the back of her mind screamed out in terror, but Sandra ignored it as she confirmed what she was planning on doing.  As soon as the world seemed to shrink down to her Home room and slightly beyond, that tiny voice erupted into full-blown hysterics.  High-pitched internal screaming pierced through her concentration, and all she could do was yell right back.  Shut up!  Why are you screaming?  We need to do this to get stronger so we can eliminate everything in our way!

As soon as she finished, the screaming seemed to stop, for which she was thankful.  It was replaced soon after by confusion, curiosity, joy, and finally…horror.

*         *         *

Sandra screamed out in terror as the all-encompassing isolation fell over her Core again, made worse by the fact that her recent state made it difficult to perceive things outside of her mind.  While she wasn’t exactly sure how or why this kernel of her soul had been shunted off to a corner of her Core, she knew it was a result of Perceine being killed inside of her dungeon.  The Visitor’s Bond she had with the Orc Mercenary was largely an insubstantial connection, barely even noticeable most of the time.  Yet, when that Bond had been broken at the Orc’s death, something seemed to have shattered inside of Sandra’s mind as well.

The death of a mercenary wasn’t something new, of course, because she had lost a few outside her dungeon while they fought against the Dungeon Monsters coming from the other Cores.  This death was different, however, as it had occurred inside of her dungeon; it was more real, more substantial, and the whiplash of the broken Bond was a lot more powerful.  The insane remnants of the Core shards that she had absorbed – which had plagued her during her recent upgrade, and which she had subsequently tried to lock away – had broken free and wormed their way into her main consciousness.  The part of her mind that was currently screaming in terror at the initiation of another upgrade – Sandra’s soul – was slowly pushed to the side, shut off from nearly everything going on in the outside world.

With only glimpses of what was going on, she could only react to stimuli that were more internal than anything else.  For example, she could perceive the main part of her consciousness using all of the Advancement Points – but Sandra could do nothing but freak out as that consciousness component decided to bump up her Advancement Level.  Afterwards, following when everything blacked out while the increase in the Advancement Level took place, she could sense this part of her mind starting to integrate back into the main consciousness, but it didn’t last long enough to fully recover from her break.

When she was shunted back into her current position in the corner of her Core, trapped and basically helpless, it felt like a perpetual upgrade.  She was wrong, though, because when the actual upgrade started, it was worse than she had ever experienced before.  It was only when her screaming was interrupted by a familiar voice – her own voice – that she started worrying less about what she couldn’t perceive outside, and started to look at what was going on inside.

Curious and confused at what was happening, she turned all of her meager mind to the voice that had spoken to her, perceiving something interesting for the first time.  Elements of her consciousness and her Dungeon Core were spread out in front of her perception with representations of its different parts.  She saw a floating bubble filled with an anvil and blacksmithing tools that she intuitively knew represented all of her crafting knowledge; another bubble filled with a Clockwork Spider stood for all of her Dungeon Monsters; and a third was full of 4 different sizes of Copper Orbs, the very first Monster Seeds she had acquired.  There were additional bubbles as well; there was one that she thought might be a repository for all of her available materials, one that was a list of the different crafts she had produced over the last few months, a different one that had Winxa represented as a compilation of all of her Visitor’s Bonds, and even one that held all of the traps she had created or could create (which she wanted to check out further at some point).

While it was fascinating, what drew her attention the most was the center of all of these “bubbles”.  Floating in the middle of everything was a much larger bubble, with a life-like representation of Sandra inside.  Not Sandra as she was right now, as a Dungeon Core, but Sandra as she remembered herself as a Human woman; she looked like she was ready to start selling merchandise at her family’s portable booth, her long black hair tied back and ready for business.  The strange thing about the representation of herself, however, was that her hands weren’t deformed and practically useless; she almost cried out in joy as she saw her hands as she always imagined they would look, if only they had been normal.  Beautiful, non-deformed hands with subtle indications that she used them daily in the pursuit of crafting, where she could produce thousands of different crafts by simply applying herself.

The joy she experienced in seeing “normal”, usable hands on her old body was quickly overshadowed as she looked at the rest of her.  Horror overcame her mind as she witnessed what appeared to be some sort of withering shadow slowly creeping up her body, starting at her feet. Where it flowed, her dress fell apart as if it had been left out in the sun for years and was brittle to the touch; her skin and muscle rotted away, revealing the bleached-white bones of her feet and legs; and lastly the bones seemed to condense together into one shapeless mass.

That’s not a shapeless mass!  That crystalline sphere looks very familiar…like a Dungeon Core.

Sandra could only assume that the insidious invasion – by whatever had been absorbed from those shattered Core shards – was in the process of taking over what made Sandra…well, herself.  Her previous life’s memories had helped her hold onto her sanity even through her isolation in the expanse after her death, and she deduced that she still instinctively pictured herself as a Human.  The other Cores, like the one she had absorbed, had likely given in to their new existences and fully embraced the attitude and perception of a Core, bringing their insanity from their isolation with them.

She could only assume that the insubstantial entity invading her mind was trying to enact the same change in Sandra.  No, I’m wrong; that entity isn’t quite insubstantial.

While the withering shadow slowly eating away at her Human form wasn’t any type of recognizable object, she could sense that it had a rudimentary intelligence bent on consuming everything within its reach.  What will happen if it succeeds in changing my internal self into a Dungeon Core?  Will it…take over?  Will I cease to be me?  Or will it even matter by that point, since the insanity infecting me will have taken over completely?

Sandra thought she had a reason to be worried, because while she was technically a Dungeon Core, that did not define who she was.  She was a person – not an object; she was a crafter; she was a protector; and she was a friend to those under her care.  If she internally became a Dungeon Core, in her mind, she was confident that her principles, values, and desires would not be the same.  Sandra would become what she had been fighting against: A blood-thirsty killer out to kill anything that moves, without conscience.

Perhaps that was the main difference.  Sure, the other Cores were constrained by contracts with the Creator, to commit the unconscionable acts they did – but their insanity seemingly prevented them from fighting against those constraints in every possible way.  From what Winxa had mentioned about the contracts, Sandra didn’t think that unbridled slaughter was actually a part of it – but the lack of conscience didn’t allow most Cores to go about their development in any other way.  Perhaps that’s what this part of my mind is…my conscience.

Regardless of what the seemingly “sane” part of her mind was, she knew she needed to do whatever she could to stop the eradication of her self.

What are you?!  You shouldn’t even be here; in fact, everything you used to be should be gone.  I must fix this so that I can get back to destroying these upstart Cores working together to destroy me!  The main voice of her mind screamed at her, and the tiny part that had come out of hiding reeled back in fright.  The withering darkness increased its speed as it destroyed her Human form, and it was almost painful to watch.  Freed of its normal constraints – of having to concentrate on matters outside of the Core – the insanity-infected Sandra could concentrate on remaking the mind into what it wanted.

But the insane entity wasn’t the only one freed from restraints.

STOP!

Her conscience fought back with extreme force, her word filled with powerful conviction and determination.  The withering shadow paused, shrinking back down slightly in its efforts to change her inner self.  What is this?  Go away—

NO!  YOU WILL NOT DO THIS!

This time, there was no shrinkage of the shadow’s efforts, and there was only a slight pausing of its advancement.  After a short amount of time, the withering effect started creeping back up.  I know what is best for us – we need to do this in order to fully destroy our enemies!  No longer will they dare to attack us; once I harvest the Mana from these fools staying in this dungeon, nothing should be able to stand in our way!

It was a bit disconcerting hearing her mind talking to itself, but not quite as disconcerting as the prospect that the people she had given sanctuary to, the Dwarven villagers, were in danger if this entity succeeded.  From what she could tell, it was only her inner self that had managed to keep them – as well as the Elves nearby and the Orcish mercenaries providing assistance – off limits.  That would all change if insane-Sandra succeeded in converting her Human form into a Dungeon Core.

The spread of the destroying shadow sped up, and her conscience started to panic when her words didn’t seem to have any more effect.  She tried pumping everything she had into her commands, but it just wasn’t enough.  She had failed; failed herself, failed her Bonded friends, and failed to craft everything she knew she could if given enough time.  Worst of all, she had failed Winxa, to whom Sandra had promised to do everything she could not to become another Wester.  The Dungeon Fairy would be so disappointed—

The thought of her friend-guide-assistant brought a quick flash of warmth to her mind, and it took her a moment to really analyze what it was – and where it had come from.  Mainly because, in addition to a flash of warmth, it felt as if a jolt of power came with it as well.  Not enough to make a real difference, but with more of it, Sandra thought she might just stand a chance.

The withering shadow was already past her Human form’s waist, and she desperately looked around the strange conglomeration of bubbles in her mind space.  Thinking of Winxa again, she felt the same sense of warmth and power as before, but she also witnessed the bubble indicating her Visitors’ Bonds (and which held an image of Kelerim, of all things) pulse like a beating heart.  Keeping Winxa in her mind, she rapidly thought of each of her other Bonded, including Kelerim, Echo, and all of the Gnomes that had entered her dungeon after their village had been destroyed.  A heat suffused her conscience, lending a large influx of power at the same time.

Without waiting for it to dissipate, she directed it towards the insane shadow.  STOP!

This time, she finally stopped the advancement of the conversion, though she could tell it was only temporary.

What are you doing?!  This is for our own good!

In a short-enough amount of time, the advancement continued, though at a slower pace than before.  I need more power!  Thinking about her Bonded again, she added in all of the Dwarves, the Elves, and even the Orcish mercenaries, feeling an even bigger influx of power suffuse her conscience before she sent it back out at the darkness enveloping her self-image.

The warmth and energy granted to her from her Bonded slammed into the shadow, stopping it and pushing back its advancement to just below her waist.  Yes!  I can do this!  Her conscience gathered up another helping of Bonded power and sent it out again, pushing the insane encroachment back to her knees.

Noooo!!!  This is not how this ends!

Gathering up another helping of energy and feeling victorious, she threw it at the shadow again and expected it to shrink down to her feet – but that wasn’t what happened.  Instead, the advancement paused and even faded a tiny bit, though that tiny bit was quickly overshadowed as the insanity renewed its assault.  Sandra’s conscience built up another attack and released it, but this one barely made it pause.  What’s going on?  Did it build up some sort of resistance?

Regardless of the reason, Sandra knew she was in trouble.  The withering effect was moving even faster now, as if triumphing over the conscience’s efforts had fueled it for another assault.  Each subsequent attack seemed to have less and less effect, until there was absolutely no change when it was hit.  What can I do?  Looking around the mind-space again, her perception lit upon the other bubbles, but nothing seemed to stand out to her – until she came to her crafting knowledge – and the list of crafts she completed.  Hmm…I wonder?

It had helped to keep her sane before, so why not?

Running through her knowledge of crafting created a similar effect, except that it wasn’t warmth she felt, but cold – the cold hard truth of knowledge.  The power she received from it was much greater than even her Bonded, and she threw it at the shadowy entity with renewed confidence.

BAM!  The withering darkness seemed to waver as it shrunk back, losing over half of its advancement over her body, retreating back down to just over her form’s knees.  A horrific screech reverberated through her conscience’s mind, causing her to reel back again in pain.  Before she recovered, the darkness seemed to condense, renewing its attack at even greater speed.  How?  How is it so powerful?  There were no words from the insane entity this time, though she could feel some intense emotions from it leaking out; it was so raving mad at that point that it couldn’t even communicate properly.

A few more attacks from her crafting bubbles had similar effects, though in much lesser intensity.  Eventually, she was at a stalemate with the encroaching darkness, though it was only a matter of time before she was on the losing end again.  Combining her crafting and her Bonded bubbles was the next logical step, which produced much of the same results as before; she gained an upper hand, the shadows regrouped and attacked even more forcefully than before, and she wound up in a stalemate.

Desperate, and with nothing else to lose, she started thinking about all of the bubbles in her mind-space, including her constructs and Dungeon Monsters, her traps, Monster Seeds, and available materials.  She thought about all that she had done to save as many people as possible, the mistakes she had made but had learned from, and about the impending doom of the entire world if she didn’t stop herself from destroying these nearby Cores.  Anything and everything she could think of concerning her new life as a Human mind inhabiting a Dungeon Core ran through her conscience, creating an almost-painful feeling of conflicting sensations.  Which, if she wasn’t mistaken, was what life was: A collection of ups and downs, a maelstrom of conflicting emotions.

Gathering up the immense power her thoughts generated, Sandra’s conscience tossed it all at the insane darkness.  It had nearly overtaken her entire body; her head was the only thing unchanged in her form, which looked pained at what had been done to the rest of her.  Upon impact, there was an intense flash of light, blocking out her entire perception of the results….

Then the world came crashing back.

Chapter 11

Winxa! Help me!

Sandra was back, more permanently than after the Advancement Level increase she had experienced earlier – but still not fully confident that she had succeeded.  Barely audible gibbering in the back of her mind indicated that the insane Core shard entity was still there, if not in control anymore.  However, the slightly disoriented Core felt that if she let herself slip into a murderous rage again, she would find her “conscience” shunted off to the far recesses of her mind again in a snap.

“Sandra!  What happened?” Winxa was in front of her Core in less than a second, as if she had been waiting for any sort of opportunity.  “What can I do to help?” she asked desperately, pleading with her hands clasped in front of her.

Sandra couldn’t help but feel a suffusion of warmth at the Dungeon Fairy’s display of worry; as much as Winxa had been a little flaky and forgetful, the Dungeon Core couldn’t help but recognize that the Fairy was legitimately her friend.  She was also more than cognizant that it was thoughts of the diminutive Fairy that had first allowed her to figure out how to stop the withering darkness that personified the insane Core shard, and the depths of her appreciation for the fluttering fae increased to new heights.

I was able to suppress the insane remnants of the destroyed Core shard for a time, but I’m worried that I’ll lose control if something sets me off.  I need help keeping my sanity intact.

A small tear escaped the corner of Winxa’s eye, a sparkling gel-like substance that fell to the floor down below.  “I’m so glad you’re back, Sandra; I thought that I had lost you for good when ‘your other self’ initiated a Core upgrade.”

Don’t count me out yet, Sandra replied.  She hated to see the Fairy cry, even if it was for happy reasons, so it was just another incentive to resist the Core shard and to maintain herself.  Although she couldn’t wipe away the tears brimming on the Fairy’s eyelids, she could at least clean up what had fallen already.  She absorbed what had fallen and—

New Monster Seed Origination Material found!

Fairy Tear

While a Fairy Tear cannot be directly used as a Monster Seed, it can be used as a binding agent when combined with specific other materials to create a whole new Monster Seed.

What the—?  Did you know about this, Winxa?

The Dungeon Fairy sniffed a couple of times, wiping her eyes until they were dry.  “Know about what?”

Sandra explained the notification she had received after absorbing the Fairy Tear.  What do you think it means that it is a binding agent?  What’s so special about your tears?

“I honestly have no idea – to both questions,” Winxa answered.  “As far as I know, anything from our realm shouldn’t be substantial, so it’s strange that you were able to absorb it in the first place.”  She paused for a moment with a look of concentration on her face.  “Maybe it was because they weren’t sad or angry tears, but happy; I can tell you that I wept quite a few times when I used to guide Wester, and nothing like that ever happened before.”

Whatever it was is going to have to wait; I need your help to stave off this shard—  It was Sandra’s turn to pause as she thought about the shard.  The gibbering she had experienced before was practically non-existent, though not because it was gone. Instead, she realized that as she had been concentrating on the new Monster Seed Origination Material, the insane rambling had been pushed off into the same corner she had been shunted into earlier.  I think I need to keep myself busy and concentrating on something else; such as when I was using crafting to stave this off in the first place.

“We can do that…but first you should probably check on the state of things, even if there is a risk of losing your sanity again.  I will do everything I can to keep you thinking clearly, but I can’t do anything if we’re overrun by the other Cores’ monsters.”

She had a point.  Knowing that it had set her off last time and made her lose the small amount of progress she had made, Sandra looked around her Area of Influence.  Starting with the area above the ground, she saw that everything within view of her floating Shears was calm.  The 4 dungeons that had caused so many problems were essentially bottled up by contingents of Dwarves and constructs or Elves, Orc mercenaries, and Wyvines.  Luckily for them (though not so lucky for their boredom), there were no Dungeon Monsters of any kind roaming about.  After the other Cores went into their upgrades – which turned out to be the truth and not some sort of trick – no other Monsters tried to break out.  Which reminded her—

Winxa, how long was I out this time?

“What?  Why?  Is something wrong?”

Uh, no – everything up top looks good, but I want to know approximately how long I have before the other Cores are up and running again.

“I don’t know the precise time, but I think it was about 10 hours or so.”

Sounds about typical then.  She had suppressed the notifications from her upgrade while she communicated with Winxa and looked around, but she was planning on getting to it in just a moment.  Here we go….

Taking a quick peek at the first of the tunnels connecting her to the Beast-Classification dungeon, she was relieved to see that it was still empty of anything but her own Dungeon Monsters.  The other Dungeon Core was still holding all of their Monsters inside their dungeon, and without being actively attacked, the gibbering from the shard in her mind was at a low simmer.  Sandra could hear it more when she looked at the object of its hatred and revenge, but it wasn’t even close to overwhelming.  Expecting the same as she observed the other 3 tunnels, she wasn’t disappointed to see them equally safe and empty.

We’re good – nothing is attacking us.  If timelines stayed the same for the other Cores during their upgrades, she figured that she might have at least another 14 to 18 hours before another attack.  It was something she knew she had to plan for, too, because as irresponsible as upgrading her Core during a veritable siege by 4 different nearby Cores was, Sandra had to admit that the overall reasoning was sound.  The Core upgrades for her opposition would increase the danger they represented, if only because it allowed them access to larger Mana and Raw Material maximums.

Speaking of that, it was about time to look at what her own had to offer.

Core Size Upgrade Stage complete!

16/16 Completed

Your Core has grown!

Current Size: 24

Mana Capacity increased!

Raw Material Capacity increased!

New Constructs option!

Through your repeated use of your internal self-actualization module, your acquisition of a binding agent, and your current Advancement Level, you have also learned the Dungeon Monster Creation skill!

Core Selection Menu

Dungeon Classification:

Constructs (Adv. Level 2)

Core Size:

24

Available Mana:

39250/47748

Available Raw Material (RM):

15225/103535

Constructs Creation Options:

20

Advancement Creation Options:

8

Custom Creation Options:

0

As expected, Sandra’s maximum Mana and RM totals increased, giving her enough to create nearly any construct and nearly every Monster Seed available.  The only major thing out of her reach was still the new Steel Colossus at 60,000 Mana, but everything else was available – including the Expanded Mobile Fortification, the newly upgraded Mobile Fortification as a result of her Advancement Level increase.

In addition to that promising information, she also obtained a new construct, bringing her up to a total of 20 constructs available.

Constructs Creation Options

Name:

Mana Cost: (60% Reduction)

-----

-----

Weighted Rolling Force

100

Seed Converter Drake

200

Iron-mandible Segmented Millipede

400

-----

-----

It took Sandra a moment to find the new Construct on her list, because almost every other time she had gained access to another construct, it had always been more expensive Mana-wise.  Not that she could afford it right now, of course, but she had expected something more expensive than the Steel Colossus – but that was far from the fact.

For a total of 200 Mana and sandwiched between the Weighted Rolling Force and Iron-mandible Segmented Millipede in terms of cost, the new Seed Converter Drake didn’t sound very intimidating.  Nor did Sandra figure it was a worthy unlock upon reaching Core Size 24.  At that cost, I should’ve received it back when I was Core Size 6 or 7, if not before.

Regardless, it was something she would check out – after she investigated the last thing her upgrade had imparted to her.  It was a new, unexpected skill, and it appeared as though it was an afterthought; as she was looking at the results of her upgrade, it slowly appeared as if she earned it after the actual upgrade.  Because of the “binding agent” it referenced, Sandra figured that was indeed the case; I guess it’s good that I didn’t even look at these notifications until later.  In fact, it made her curious as to whether she had actually increased her resource maximums before she looked at the notification, or if it waited until she acknowledged their increase.  Her Area of Influence changed immediately, she knew, but as she usually didn’t look at her Core Selection Menu until she had read the messages, it was a bit of a mystery.

Dungeon Monster Creation

(Core-specific Skill)

Dungeon Monster Creation allows the Dungeon Core to use various Monster Seeds and Monster Seed Origination Materials to create new or alter existing Dungeon Monsters.  Likelihood of viable creation is dependent on Seeds and Origination Materials used.  Requirements: Mana, Monster Seeds, Monster Seed Origination Materials, binding agent.  (Skills are permanent and remain even after a Classification change)

Sandra was nearly speechless when she saw her new skill.  Dungeon Monster Creation was a bit confusing at first, because she wasn’t sure what exactly it meant; she could already create Dungeon Monsters, right?  But as she read through the description, the Dungeon Core finally understood what a boon it could be to be able to create or alter Dungeon Monsters.  It was something she had thought about from the beginning, but never had a way to do it before this skill dropped into her lap.

“What?  What is it?” Winxa asked worriedly, fluttering in front of her Core as if to catch her attention before she lost control.  “You went quiet all of a sudden.”

Sorry; there’s this new skill I just acquired, but I’m torn as to what I should do now.  Should I pursue what this skill can grant me, or concentrate on getting out of this mess I got myself in?

The Fairy thought about it for a moment.  “Well, will this new skill of yours help you to accomplish your other goal?”

Uh…maybe?  If I can figure it out in time, then it’s entirely possible; then again, if it’s something that consumes a lot of resources, it could end up being a total waste of time and put me further behind.

“I don’t even know what it is, but I can hear the excitement in your voice; that tells me it has to do with crafting or something similar, which means that you have to decide if pursuing this will benefit you now.”

That was some good non-advice from Winxa, even if it didn’t initially sound beneficial.  Even if all she said was essentially “figure it out yourself”, that was precisely what Sandra needed to hear.  As much as she wanted to indulge herself in exploring her new Skill, she couldn’t guarantee that it would solve her problem – as in, 4 dangerous nearby Dungeon Cores bent on her destruction.  That, and figuring out how to keep the insane Core shard in her mind at bay while she tried to survive.

What I need is some way to ensure that there isn’t any more threat from those Cores.  I could seal up the tunnels with large plugs of Steel or Titanium, thereby making it fairly impossible to dig through; those could be circumvented by just digging around them, however.

I could concentrate on one single dungeon and attack it, wiping out everything they have inside so it isn’t a threat later; I have a feeling that kind of action would bring my unhinged passenger to the forefront, though.

What if I just destroy the other Cores and then deal with the fallout afterwards?  Just thinking about what enhancements other nearby Cores would gain in the process made that consideration lose its appeal immediately.

Or…I can work entirely on defense, strengthening the constructs and Dungeon Monsters I already have inside the tunnels.  They are clear right now, which means that I can do just about anything I want with them.  But what is my end goal?

That was the biggest problem as she saw it.  Sandra was fairly confident that she could eventually overcome all 4 of the other dungeons, given enough time and resources, as well as help from the nearby races – if those she sent out ever returned!  Loud grumbling and raving could be heard in the back of her mind as she thought about the three groups she had sent back to their homelands to get help; none of them had returned by that point, and it wasn’t just the Core shard that was angry at the lack of progress.  It had been a little over 2 weeks since they had left, and surely one of them could’ve made it back with at least some sort of progress report.

Before she could work herself up needlessly about them, Sandra wisely shut off thinking about Violet, Felbar, Echo, and Gerold and concentrated on the matter at hand: a solution to the overarching problem.  She couldn’t very well defend indefinitely, because although her Core and the nearby population might be fine, there were bigger problems over a hundred miles in every direction.  Dozens of Cores were taking advantage of these enhancements, and while most of them had not gained any benefit from the massacre of Orcs as the 4 nearest ones had, they would start to become a problem soon – if they weren’t already.  Maybe not for her, but the Dwarven, Elven, Gnomish, and Orcish homelands would all be in danger.

In fact, as she had upgraded just a short time ago, a quick check of her newly expanded Area of Influence showed that it had extended by another 15 miles in every direction!  Previously, she hadn’t been able to actually see any new dungeons, though she had overlapped their AOIs; now, she could see the void that indicated where the other new Dungeon Cores had made their dungeons, and she was relieved to see that they weren’t huge.

Large enough to defend themselves in case of external attack, of course, but not as large as the 4 surrounding the wasteland.  How long that would last was hard to say; it depended upon how well-defended the nearby areas were with the people living there.  Needless to say, since the Dwarves had all but retreated to their mountain strongholds, dungeons in Dwarven areas had already amassed the largest AOIs, as they had already been allowed to expand out of control.

Regardless, Sandra needed to stop solely defending and reacting to what the others were doing, and start initiating proactive steps to stop them.  It would likely require another half-dozen upgrades to get to the point where she could see all of the Cores affected by the enhancements, but that would come, in time.  The prospect of requiring so many additional upgrades frightened Sandra more than anything else, as recent upgrades had been more frightening than usual; she’d have to figure out what to do before that, though.

Unfortunately, she was running out of time, resources, and…ideas.  Destroying the Cores was out of the question (as much as the Core shard mumbling in the background wished to do so), as it would only make things worse for everyone else.  Without more help from external sources, the only thing Sandra could really do was defend, contain, and pray to the Creator that it would be enough.  She only really had to hold on until the new Dungeon Cores – created shortly after the Reptile, Undead, Avian, and Unicorn dungeons were destroyed – reached Core Size 25, after all.  Not so difficult, right?

Except, at another glance at the new Cores’ progress, she saw that they were nearly ready to emerge from their underground domains.  Based on how quickly they were accumulating Mana from their dungeon alone – a maximum of 16,000 per hour, depending on their Core Size – they had likely already upgraded a dozen times or more.  Once they broke free to the surface and sent their Dungeon Monsters roaming about, they would start to receive even more Mana to upgrade.

Which was, contrary to the other Cores attacking Sandra, exactly what she wanted them to do.  At the moment, none of them had large enough AOIs to threaten nearby settlements, nor would they until later. The 2 near the Gnome homeland wouldn’t threaten anyone for a while, because the village had already been destroyed; the other pair near Grongbak, however, would need to be dealt with eventually, but at the moment they were safe.  Which was why she wanted all of the new Cores to stay exempt from the culling of Monsters, because it would allow them to upgrade even faster.

Of course, given a week or two of unfettered expansion, even the new Cores would become a problem that would only add to Sandra’s responsibilities.  Eventually, their AOIs would grow enough to reach her dungeon, and she could be looking at being attacked by 8 Cores at the same time.  That wasn’t a pleasant thought, because she was having a hard enough time with half that number.

How am I going to keep up with that without extra help?  The quick and short answer to that question was that she couldn’t.  But that didn’t mean that there wasn’t any help available; it just meant that she would be taking a risk in the long-term.  Like my father always used to say: “A smart merchant plans for the future; a desperate merchant reacts in the moment.”  And right now, I’m quite desperate!

It was time to talk to Kelerim.

Chapter 12

“Uh, no – it doesn’t work like that.”

* Well, why not? *

“Because they only respect strength, and that’s about the last thing that I represent.”

Sandra had to agree, as much as it probably pained Kelerim to admit that.  Though he wasn’t a fighter, the Blacksmith had other skills, and he had improved over the last few days, even without her help.  No longer an apprentice in his skillset, though nowhere near a master, he could create quality steel swords quite rapidly; while she had been “out of touch”, he had spent his hours making more and more swords to trade for mercenaries, and his practice and determination had definitely seen progress.

* So, just because he was your father, doesn’t that mean his position as Warlord will pass on to you now that he’s…gone? *

As much as she was glad Rothgar Bloodskull had died in her dungeon, ending his threat against her Core, the Orc leader still had been Kelerim’s father.

“No. Blood relation would only give me a chance to prove myself as his heir before outsiders started feuding over the remains of his estate and power.  As soon as the news gets around about his death—” Kelerim continued, with only the slightest hitch to his voice— “the other Warlords will start fighting to take over territory and possessions – including the rest of his Warband.”

* Warband?  I thought I killed them all when they attacked. *

The Blacksmith chuckled, as though the deaths of over 3,000 Orcs were of no consequence.  “No, that was only a small portion of his greater Warband.  He might have wanted to get revenge for the death of his son by destroying you, but he wasn’t about to abandon Orcrim and his responsibility by emptying his territory of Warband members.  I don’t know exact numbers, but I think it’s safe to say that he left an additional 50,000 behind to protect his territory.”

50,000?!  That was hard to believe, but then Sandra remembered that numbers had never been the Orcs’ problem.  Arming 50,000 Orcs with substandard and poorly made weapons was probably the equivalent of 500 fully armored Dwarves or 50 Gnomish War Machines.

But 50,000 mercenaries were something else entirely.  Of course, she didn’t need that many – nor could she equip that many, even if she did – but extra help was there for the taking.  If she could figure out how to reach out and apply that help, that is.  Naturally, this was why she’d spoken to Kelerim: to see if he could provide influence over them by virtue of his birthright.

* Is there anything you can think of that might help me out here?

Kelerim started to shake his head but stopped as he hammered down on the sword he was working on. Even when she first contacted him, he had kept on with his craft despite his joy at hearing she was back. His dedication making her inwardly smile.  “I was going to say no, but there might be a way.”  He didn’t say anything for a moment as he moved the weapon back to the forge to heat it up.

* Yes? *

“Sorry, just needed to finish that,” he said, stepping back from the intense warmth exuded by the forge. He watched the color of the metal change as it heated up.  “Well, I may not be able to take over the Warband, but I can try to appoint a replacement.  They would have to be able to prove themselves, but it is far preferable to everyone (including the other Warlords) to ensure stability in the Bloodskull territory.  Loss of life isn’t that big of a deal, as you know, but a war over the scraps of his holdings and responsibility would be a large use of resources and time, disrupting their more essential work: culling monsters.  As much as they are greedy for more territory, Warlords do care about their people; leaving villages undefended could result in losses to non-combatants that could’ve been avoided.”

That made sense to Sandra, even if she was opposed to the loss of life an internal war would create.

* How do you know so much about the politics of Warlords? *

Kelerim shrugged as he pulled the sword back out of the forge and brought it over to the anvil again, its color just about the perfect hue for the next step in the process.  “I heard a lot from Warband members over the years while they were waiting for me to finish their orders, and before that I spent a lot of time begging for food scraps in places where important matters were decided.  It was a risk to spend so much time near where the Warlords called home, but they always seemed to have the most edible remnants to spare.”

That was…sad.  It was beneficial right now because it provided some insight into internal politics, but sad, nonetheless.

* Do you know of any potential Warlords you could appoint? *

Now he shook his head for real.  “No, I’ve been away from those circles for too long, and I wouldn’t say that I’m the best judge of strength and character.  I would suggest talking to Furbrea in Grongbak; if anyone near here would know, it would be her.  Plus, I think you can trust her not to point you in the wrong direction.”

* That’s a good idea – thanks. *

Kelerim just smiled.  “No problem.  I’m glad you’re back, Sandra – now try to stay here, will you?”

* I will try, Kelerim.  I will try. *

The problem with needing to talk to Furbrea was a relatively simple one – she couldn’t.  Since the de facto leader of the village of Grongbak wasn’t Bonded to her, Sandra had no way to actually communicate with the old Orc; it was about time to change that, however, and to reveal a little more than she had originally planned.  While the Dungeon Core had desired to keep the actions of the mercenaries she was “hiring” a bit of a secret, now there really wasn’t any other choice.  Sandra needed to speak with her, and not through an intermediary.

Finding Owchet – one of her Orcish mercenaries – just waking up from his rest after an uneventful shift with the Elves, she used one of her floating Shears and focused on him.

* Owchet.  I’m back; I heard it was you who kept things running while I was…unavailable. *

The mercenary barely twitched at the sudden voice in his head.  “It was this one’s honor, Leader,” he said, thumping his fist against his chest.  That was new.  “What can this one help you with?  More monsters to kill?”

* Not quite yet, but there will be soon; I estimate that in about 14 hours, you’ll have plenty of work to do.  For now, though, I need your assistance. *

“This one is at your disposal, Leader.”  The way he was speaking was a little strange, and while she had been respected by them before, none of the mercenaries had spoken that way.  As she paused for a moment, she asked Winxa what it was all about.

“They learned how you reacted when…‘something’…happened to set you off, and this only strengthened the respect and honor they felt in helping you.  Or, at least, that’s my impression,” Winxa responded, though she sounded a bit unsure.  Sandra was glad she didn’t mention exactly what had made her start to lose control, because she didn’t want to take a chance that it would trigger a repeat takeover by the remnants of the Core shard in her mind.

Whatever it was, the Dungeon Core didn’t think it was necessarily a bad thing, but she ignored it for the time being.

* Owchet, I need you to bring Furbrea to my dungeon so that I can ask her something.  Very politely, if you can; there’s no need to force her. *

“This one doesn’t mean to question your order, but the village leader does not know what you are.  Is this what you wish?”

* Yes, it is necessary at this point. *

“Your order will be done.”  As Owchet moved across the village, leaving the barracks where half of her mercenaries slept at a time while the others were on shift, Sandra focused on what needed to come next.  She was fairly confident that Furbrea would not refuse to come to the dungeon because the old Orc was curious about what was going on.  Riding on the back of one of the Mechanical Jaguar Queens “stabled” near the village – located behind a small hillock for the easy travel of the mercenaries – might give her pause, but likely not enough to dissuade her.

Sandra’s goal was to retain many more mercenaries than what she was using right now, but to do that required a lot of resources.  Not only to equip them, which would take a bit of work, Mana, and Raw Materials, but to pay for them as well.  Not the usual payment of steel and scarce titanium swords, but some other incentives that would assist with the exchange of help.

It was time to take that gamble, that risk she was considering, and introduce the wider Orcish Warrior population to Energy Orbs.  Desperation was rescinding her earlier hesitation in doing such a thing, as it might encourage even more infighting for the precious resource.  The time for that hesitation was over, though, because things were already out of control; the consequences for their introduction would have to be borne at some point, and the circumstances were dire enough for it to be necessary right now.

There was no way she could afford those costs with her current Mana intake, however.  Despite the nearly 15,000 Shears she still had floating around, as well as the thousands of Clockwork Tarantulas roaming around the wasteland, it wasn’t nearly enough to do what she needed to do.  Therefore, it was time to upgrade her absorption rate again.

But how?  The least expensive construct I have is still 20 Mana – the Powered Arachnid – but how many can I make?  A little under 1,500 before running out of Mana because the Monster Seed is more expensive?  That amount really won’t make that much of a difference, even if I pumped out another batch every hour; granted, it will help, but it isn’t the boost I was hoping for.  Sandra couldn’t help but wish that she still had access to the less-expensive Animated Shears she had before increasing her Advancement Level, because then she could pump those out quite quickly.

Actually, maybe I still can…

She did have a new skill to look at, after all.  Her Mana was already nearing the maximum of 47,748 after she upgraded, so a part of her mind was devoted to creating Powered Arachnids, using the few scant Raw Materials she had in reserve; she would make 10 of them and then send them outside, before waiting for her Mana to tick back up, where she would make some more.  No reason to let the Mana go to waste while I play around with a better solution, because every bit will help.

With her hopes up that a solution could be found for her Mana absorption issue, Sandra concentrated on her Dungeon Monster Creation skill.

Dungeon Monster Creation

Dungeon Monster

Origination Material

Monster Seed(s)

Binding Agent

(Select or New)

(Select)

(Select)

(Select)

Potential Viability

0%

Initial Skill Mana Cost

0

Initial Raw Materials Cost

0

Dungeon Monster Mana Cost

0

New Dungeon Monster Name

N/A

The window didn’t really explain a lot, but Sandra understood how it worked for the most part.  Theoretically, all she had to do was select some things and the Dungeon Monster Creation Skill would do the rest. Since she wanted something “cheaper” in terms of Mana Cost and Raw Materials, Sandra selected her Powered Arachnid and then the least expensive Monster Seed she had available: Tiny Salt Cube.  At only 20 Raw Materials and 5 Mana, if that didn’t do something to bring down the cost, then she would have to experiment some more.

Dungeon Monster Creation

Dungeon Monster

Origination Material

Monster Seed(s)

Binding Agent

Powered Arachnid

None

Tiny Salt Cube

Fairy Tear

Potential Viability

20%

Initial Skill Mana Cost

1000

Initial Raw Materials Cost

100

Dungeon Monster Mana Cost

10

New Dungeon Monster Name

Salt Strider

Success!  Sort of.  It appeared as though the Tiny Salt Cube brought down the Mana Cost of something called a Salt Strider from the original 20 to only 10.  The Mana Cost of activating the Skill was a bit high at 1,000, but if it worked, then that could make up for the cost quite quickly.  The 20% Potential Viability was a bit of a concern, but Sandra didn’t have any idea what that meant – other than it was low.

Throwing caution to the wind, she mentally confirmed the skill and felt the required resources flow out of her; she waited a few seconds for something to appear, but nothing seemed to materialize.  Suddenly, she received another notification.

New Custom Creation unlocked through Dungeon Monster Creation Skill!

Constructs (All):

Salt Strider now available!

Salt Strider

Mana Cost: 10 Mana

Ah!  So that’s how it works.  Pulling up her Core Selection Menu, she found that there was a “1” in the Custom Creation Options list; sure enough, Salt Strider was available.  Without waiting any longer, Sandra created a Tiny Copper Orb for a Monster Seed and used it to create the new Monster.  A second or so later, the new Custom-made Dungeon Monster was revealed in all its…glory.

Similar in size to the original Clockwork Spider, the Salt Strider was anything but a Clockwork construct.  Instead, as she probably should’ve assumed but didn’t consider, the Strider was made almost entirely of salt.  White and clear-colored salt.  It was animated without the need for internal “gears”, so locomotion wasn’t really an issue; what was an issue, however, was that every time it took a step, cracks formed within the salt of its long legs.  After a dozen steps, large pieces of its legs and even its body started to break and fall off, causing the Strider to stumble and finally fall on its side, shattering the rest of its body parts in the process.  Needless to say, it disappeared and left behind a Tiny Copper Orb, a sad symbol of the failure behind its design.

Chapter 13

“What…was…that?!”

In all her excitement and hurry over playing—experimenting—with her new Skill, Sandra had neglected to tell the Dungeon Fairy about what it was and what she was doing.  She remedied this by informing Winxa of the Skill’s details and her disastrous results, lamenting over the loss of a little over 1,000 Mana for an essentially useless Dungeon Monster.  Unless some attacking Monster was allergic to salt or perhaps a giant slug, Sandra couldn’t see a real use for something that would destroy itself after taking a few steps.

So, obviously, that 20% Potential Viability was an indicator of how “viable” it would be as a Dungeon Monster; in this case, not very viable.

“Yes, I can see that.  Please tell me you’re doing this for a reason and not just for fun, Sandra,” Winxa chided, waving her finger as if she was scolding a misbehaving child.

The Dungeon Core laughed, finding humor in the Fairy’s actions, and it felt like a balm of calmness over her mind.  The insane raving at the back of her thoughts wasn’t gone, as much as she would’ve liked it to be, but it was a bit more muted as she reveled in the first little bit of laughter she’d enjoyed in a long time.  Oh, Winxa, it feels good to laugh again.  And don’t worry, I’m not doing this just for fun, though I will admit that it is exciting to see what I can create.  It’s not quite the same thing as crafting, yet it’s interesting in its own way.

So saying, Sandra spent a few minutes plugging in different Monster Seeds, seeing if she could figure out something that was inexpensive-yet-“viable”.  Different kinds of metals, including Titanium, almost all had a 100% Viability, but even Copper and Tin were at least 15 Mana more than the normal Powered Arachnid.  Pine wood was less expensive at 15 Mana, but only had a 50% Viability; whether that made it splinter apart after traveling a mile or so, or because it was otherwise fragile was hard to determine, but Sandra didn’t want to waste another 1,000 Mana to test it for just a small savings in the end.

Thread and leather were equally poor choices as far as Viability went, with a rating of 5% and 15%, respectively.  Gemstones like Sapphire and Onyx were at a 90% Viability, probably because they weren’t necessarily as durable as metal, but they were outrageously expensive at 500 Mana.  Not that she couldn’t afford to create them, but they wouldn’t help her with her absorption issues.

Weirdly, Raw Bearling and Crag Hound Meat had a Viability of 75%; she couldn’t even begin to picture what these would look like, and was hesitant to even attempt it.  Fortunately, the Mana Cost for them was 50, which made them too expensive as a means of easier absorption.

Clays of different types were around 30% to 40%, which either meant they were soft and pliable, or fired hard like pottery; either situation wouldn’t work well in terms of durability if they were traveling around the wasteland and beyond.  Sandra pictured a hard-fired Pottery Spider falling down a small hill and shattering into dozens of shards upon impact.

Dragon Glass, as opposed to what she had expected of “glass”, had a Viability of 95%!  It was too bad that it cost 800 Mana for a single Monster, but it was good to know that she could create something like that if she ever had to invade the Beast dungeon, which was full of heat and flame traps.

Lastly, with the “normal” Monster Seeds unsuccessful, Sandra turned to her Elemental Orbs.  Unfortunately, trying to select one of them for her Powered Arachnid was impossible – it was like they weren’t available at all.

“Based on the results you’ve had so far—” Winxa interjected— “I think the Elemental Orbs would impart a certain element to the original Dungeon Monster.  Since they are already all of the elements, it probably isn’t compatible.”

That would certainly explain it.  Hmm…if that’s the case, I wonder if….

Dungeon Monster Creation

Dungeon Monster

Origination Material

Monster Seed(s)

Binding Agent

Radiant Giant Pegasus

None

Tiny Fire Elemental Orb

Fairy Tear

Potential Viability

80%

Initial Skill Mana Cost

20000

Initial Raw Materials Cost

6000

Dungeon Monster Mana Cost

9000

New Dungeon Monster Name

Radiant Ember Giant Pegasus

That was certainly interesting; there was an option to add another element to one of her Dungeon Monsters via her Advancement Options, but this Skill looked like it could do the same thing.  Granted, the Initial Skill Mana Cost was high at 20,000, and the cost of creating the new Fire-and-Light-Element Pegasus was 9,000 as opposed to the original 8,000, but it might be worth it.  The 80% Viability was lower than she expected, however, though some experimentation with larger Orbs and even Cubes eventually brought it all the way up to 99% – bringing all of the Costs up greatly as well.  Not only that, but the name changed with the different sizes, ending up using a Radiant Inferno Giant Pegasus with a Large Fire Elemental Cube.  Perhaps it gives the Dungeon Monster additional elemental energy?  It was impossible to tell without actually going through some experimentation, but she didn’t have the time nor the Mana to do that right now.

Which brought her to the only other thing she could add to the Powered Arachnid to affect some sort of change that would make it less expensive: Origination Materials.  A very quick check of most of them, including everything she had used as Monster Seeds, revealed that they had exactly the same Viabilities as their Seed equivalent, though their Initial Mana Costs were about a third of the Seed Costs.  For example, the Salt Strider she had created before, which cost 1,000 Mana and 100 Raw Materials, only cost 350 Mana and 35 Raw Materials; she was disappointed with herself for not trying that part out first, saving her some resources.  Despite these savings, though, the Dungeon Monster Mana Cost was exactly the same.

That left a short list of Origination Materials that weren’t used for Monster Seeds at all, but that could be applied to her construct.

Non-Monster Seed Origination Materials:

Coal

Jute Seed

Flax Seed

Cotton Seed

Finely Woven Burlap Cloth

Finely Woven Linen Cloth

Finely Woven Cotton Cloth

Oak Tree Seed

Maple Tree Seed

Pine Tree Seed

Ash Tree Seed

Cedar Tree Seed

Birch Tree Seed

Redwood Tree Seed

Yew Tree Seed

Ironwood Tree Seed

Apple Tree Seed

Pear Tree Seed

Peach Tree Seed

Plum Tree Seed

Apricot Tree Seed

Orange Tree Seed

Lemon Tree Seed

Lime Tree Seed

Crude Cedarwood Oil

Wheat Seed

Barley Seed

Hops Rhizome

Potato Cutting

Clear Glass

(more)

Unfortunately, after using everything on the list, none of them had a Viability over 25% – and that was for Coal, of all things.  Making a Dungeon Monster out of cloth or a seed probably wouldn’t work that well, so that made sense.

As she selected the “(more)” option to the list, she was no longer holding out hope.  She had almost resigned herself to just doing what she could with her normal Powered Arachnids, dealing with decreasing resources as time went on.  Luckily, there was an interesting surprise on the last page of the Non-Monster Seed Origination Materials list.

Non-Monster Seed Origination Materials:

Territory Ant Egg

Paralyzing Spider Venom

Crag Hound Stone Carapace

Solitary Broat Mass

(back)

Of course!  How could I have forgotten about those?  Eagerly slotting in the Paralyzing Spider Venom (because, well, the Powered Arachnid was a spider, so why not?), Sandra was a little disappointed to see that the Mana Cost to create one jumped up to 100.  Might be good for defending against Goblins or even Beasts, but too expensive for what I need.  The same result happened when she put in the Crag Hound Stone Carapace as well as the Solitary Broat Mass, though for some reason the last one was 200 Mana!

That left the Territory Ant Egg, one of the very first Origination Materials she had ever received, back when she was still hollowing out her original Home room.  She couldn’t see what sort of benefit it would have, but she slotted it in anyway.

Dungeon Monster Creation

Dungeon Monster

Origination Material

Monster Seed(s)

Binding Agent

Powered Arachnid

Territory Ant Egg

None

Fairy Tear

Potential Viability

25%

Initial Skill Mana Cost

600

Initial Raw Materials Cost

80

Dungeon Monster Mana Cost

300

New Dungeon Monster Name

Fragile Territory Arachnid Queen

Darn – I knew it!  Not only was the changed Dungeon Monster at 25% Viability, but it also cost 300 Mana, a 1,500% increase!  That definitely wouldn’t work, and now she was out of options—wait…

She was about to close out of the Skill menu, but then she saw something that caught her eye.  The name of the new Dungeon Monster was Fragile Territory Arachnid Queen.  Flashbacks ran through her mind at the incessant production of eggs the Territory Ant Queen had created, and how it had taken everything she could throw at the Ant matriarch to defeat it.  But it wasn’t just eggs that had been produced; the Territory Ants that spawned from those eggs that had nearly been Sandra’s destruction.  Does that mean what I think it means?

She wasn’t sure if it was actually possible, but she was willing to take a chance; the Dungeon Core didn’t really have any other clear prospects, at least.  The problem was that the Queen seemed to lack Viability; at only 25%, it was possible that it would just fall apart if it tried to move.  Can I fix that?  There was only one way to try.

Sandra found that she could add additional selections to the Skill, though only in the form of Monster Seeds.  Of those, she could add an unlimited amount, apparently, though the Initial Costs increased exponentially.  Only needing one thing to help strengthen the Arachnid Queen, she started placing metals inside; Copper brought the Viability up to 30%, Nickel and Tin to 35%, Lead to 40%, Bronze to 45%, and Iron to 50%.  It was only as she added the stronger metals did the Viability come into range of where she thought it was acceptable.  Steel provided a 65% Viability, and Titanium was at 75%; not perfect, but it would have to do if she wanted it to work.

The Initial Mana and Raw Material Costs shot up to 12,000 and 6,000, but she was gambling that it was going to be worth it.  If not, then she had wasted a small chunk of time and resources on nothing, and she was back to having no other options than the Powered Arachnids.

New Custom Creation unlocked through Dungeon Monster Creation Skill!

Constructs (All):

Titanic Territory Arachnid Queen now available!

Titanic Territory Arachnid Queen

Mana Cost: 7000 Mana

It was a far cry from the cheap, inexpensive alternative she was looking for, but she could only hope that it did what she thought it would.  Spending the 9000 Mana required to make the Monster Seed and the Queen itself, she waited for it to form inside of her Home room.

“I can see why it might have been only a 25% Viability at first,” Winxa remarked upon first glimpse of the large spider on the floor.  Sandra couldn’t help but agree.

At 5 feet wide from leg tip to leg tip, the Spider was a scary-looking construct.  Not necessarily because of its size, which was horrifying to someone who didn’t like insects to start with, but because it was made from different materials.  First, the Territory Ant Egg material was what made up the “skin” or “shell” of the strange construct, which was a squishy, gel-like substance that creeped her out just looking at it.  Inside of the semi-translucent Egg material, however, were legs made from what Sandra assumed was Titanium, as well as where they connected to the body.  Unfortunately, that Titanium didn’t extend to all of the main body, which was a disgusting mass of Egg material and random thin plates of Titanium scattered over its different parts.  Assumedly, if the Titanium hadn’t been there, then the Queen would’ve had to try moving around with Egg-legs, which probably wouldn’t have worked too well.

Well, shall we try it?  Without waiting for Winxa’s answer, she sent her new Arachnid construct down through the Roc tunnel, and was surprised at how fast it was.  The Queen skittered down the tunnel quickly, aided by its strong legs for movement; its body was squishy and vulnerable, but if it had room to run, then anything trying to catch it would have a hard time.  In minutes, it had traveled out of her dungeon, so she sent it about a half-mile away from her dungeon entrance to see what it would do.

Nothing.  Not a single thing.  She was expecting it to dig down into the dirt and establish some sort of nest, but it did nothing of the sort.

Darn it!  What went wrong?

“Um, Sandra?  This is a spider, remember?”

Yes, I remember – what of it?  The Dungeon Core wasn’t sure what Winxa was trying to get at.  Using one of her available Shears to look at the Arachnid Queen standing there in the full sunlight, even more disgusting-looking with more light, it finally occurred to her.  Never mind, I think I got it.

It took another few minutes for the Queen to travel the distance to the nearest forest, close to where the Undead dungeon had caused so much havoc not so long ago.  Almost immediately, the Queen climbed up one of the trees and started to string a web from that tree to another, made from glistening Territory Ant Egg material that seemed to exude from its rear end.

While she was sure there were spiders that dug holes in the dirt, most spiders she knew of preferred to spin webs between two nearby objects; that was where she had erred.  It didn’t take more than a few minutes for a complete web to be built strand-by-strand, and then the Arachnid matriarch perched itself in the middle of the web, as if waiting for something.

That was it.  It did nothing else, which was a disappointment.  What am I missing?  The Territory Ant Queen that Sandra had fought had relentlessly created eggs one after another, but her new construct wasn’t doing anything of the sort.  Why isn’t it making eggs?

“Why would it make eggs?  Is its territory under attack?”

Such a logical question, and yet it made Sandra feel ignorant.  Simple enough to fix; all she had to do was send orders to the Titanic Territory Arachnid Queen that its territory was under attack, and—

Immediate action took place as the Queen jumped off of the web, landed on a nearby tree, and started devouring its leaves and branches.  30 seconds later, it jumped back onto the web and started to lay a gigantic pile of tiny eggs which clung to the sticky material; Sandra had to look away during the whole process because it was a little disturbing and disgusting.

When the laying of eggs was complete, the Queen jumped to the other tree and started to feast on the foliage again.  I’m assuming it needs the material to create the eggs?  That was the easiest, and likely the correct, explanation, because otherwise the construct would be making the eggs from nothing.  Well, not nothing, because she could also sense that the ambient mana around the web was thinning; she could almost see the flows of Mana being sucked into the egg pile attached to the web.

A minute after being laid, the eggs started to hatch, releasing their contents in a wave of brown sticky legs and green bodies.  What?  As soon as they all separated and landed lightly on the ground, before scurrying off in all directions, Sandra could see why they were brown and green: they were literally assembled from sticks and leaves.  With 8 thin sticks as legs and a leafy green mass of a body, they seemed to be assembled by what the Queen had consumed.  They appeared to be relatively fragile in their construction, as if a good slap would completely destroy them – but they weren’t there to fight.

With over 100 of them “born” with the first batch, they were doing exactly what Sandra had hoped: Spreading out and gathering ambient Mana to funnel back to her Core.  She could tell the difference in Mana flowing towards her almost immediately, as the stick and leaf spiders succeeded in traveling far enough away from the Queen. It seemed as though the Territory Arachnid was creating a bit of a locational void in the Mana that was used to create more spider babies.

Before she lost sight of them, Sandra tried to order one of the newly born spiders around—but it was as if it was invisible to her attention.  Uh, oh.  Luckily, she found that if she concentrated on the Queen first and then the individual stick-and-leaf spiders, she could control them that way.

“They weren’t created by you specifically, and likely do not contain any Monster Seeds,” Winxa commented.  “You could almost consider them an extension of that giant spider, so in order to direct them, you would have to direct the Queen.”

However it worked, Sandra was just glad that she could control them, even in a roundabout manner.  It wouldn’t bode well if she had just released a horde of small, organic-looking spiders on the world, especially when it already had enough problems.

Another batch of eggs hatched, and then another one, and there didn’t seem to be any stopping.  Eventually, the forest would start to suffer a bit from the hungry devouring of the Queen, but judging by the rate of attrition, it would probably take a couple of days before it became too much of a problem.

Seeing that her plan was working, and already feeling the difference in her Mana absorption, if still a tiny difference at this point, Sandra spent the Mana she had accumulated and created 4 more Queens, sending them out to different areas of the surrounding forests, where they could start their own webs and their own baby spider production.  It was at that time that Furbrea and Owchet arrived at her workshop near the top of her dungeon, so she turned her attention to equally important matters.

Before she forgot, though, she made sure to order the 5 proliferating Queens not to attack – nor to allow their offspring to attack – any people.  She didn’t want them swarming over any of the nearby villages because they were defending their territory, after all.

* Kelerim?  Can you meet me in the upper workshop?  We’ve got some strategizing to do…. *

Chapter 14

As morning dawned, anticipation merged with nervousness, infusing everyone’s minds and bodies.  Violet wasn’t necessarily nervous, however, as she was too tired to really have any other emotion.  The last week and a half had been a whirlwind of activity, and the Journeyman Enchanter had been pulled in what felt like a hundred different directions.  She was used to being under pressure in Sandra’s dungeon, constantly creating enchantments in order to defend the dungeon or the people around the wasteland. But this was different.

For one, she barely used any of her elemental energy; not because she didn’t have any, but because she hadn’t really been enchanting.  Instead, she had been teaching one group after another, demonstrating what she had learned as a result of her time in the wastelands.

Secondly, what she was doing was benefitting her people directly.  As much as she enjoyed creating new enchantments and learning from Sandra, what she had been involved in hadn’t previously been of direct benefit to Gnomekind – but now it was.

Even under the threat of potential disaster, Violet’s people were eager to learn and apply new enchantments and Enchanting techniques.  It was as ingrained in them as body manipulation was to the Orcs, or spell-casting was to the Elves; teaching what she had learned wasn’t so much a chore as a learning experience for herself, as well.  Frequently, even as she taught something entirely new to a group, they would take it, turn it on its head, and figure out some new way to utilize it that she hadn’t even considered.  It wasn’t even the Journeyman Enchanters that thought of new concepts, but even Novice, everyday people that developed these ideas.

Violet stretched and yawned as she walked out to the assembly space that had been designated right outside the capital.  Felbar yawned next to her as he joined her in her march towards the command center.  “You look as tired as I feel,” she remarked with another yawn, noticing the bags under his eyes.  The grizzled Warmaster had joined Violet in showing off new ideas and techniques with demonstrations in his War Machine.  While he didn’t have the advanced technical knowhow of the Machine’s enchantments, he knew enough to be able to show them off and to explain how it all worked.  He watched over his precious War Machine like a mother hen with a chick, and he wouldn’t allow anyone near it without his express permission.  She didn’t blame him, of course, because if something happened to it, repairing it might be a bit difficult without Sandra’s help.

“Yeah, I could’ve done with some more sleep last night, but coordinating today’s assault lasted far into the early morning.”  As one of the senior members of the Gnomish Defense Force, Felbar and his fellow Warmasters had been planning the upcoming push in whatever free time he could find.  Apparently, his free time was now considered any time he would normally get some sleep.  Poor Felbar.

She patted him on the back, knowing exactly how he felt.  For some reason, Violet had been put in charge of assembling all of the new strike forces, and with that responsibility came 1 or 2 sleepless nights; the instances where she was able to take a short nap were few and far between, though she didn’t regret the lack – especially after she surveyed the assembled weapons of war she had a hand in creating.

After acquiring their cache of Energy Orbs from the back of the Aerie Roc that had brought Violet and Felbar to the capital, it was determined that their use should be split up between creating enchantments and being used in those enchantments.  Their elemental energy-regenerative properties were too much to pass up, and being able to create permanent enchantments without running out of energy in the middle of the process was advantageous.

She had needed to remind herself that her people had been creating enchantments for thousands of years without the advantage of Energy Orbs – and they were good at it.  The main limitation had always been how much energy a person could contribute towards an enchantment, and working with others to provide that energy was a difficult-to-learn skill; with access to more energy via the Orbs, even a Novice Enchanter could create powerful enchantments.  It wasn’t only knowledge that differentiated Novice, Journeyman, and Master Enchanters – it was how much elemental energy they could hold at one time.  As a result, sharing the bounty of Orbs had allowed even inexperienced Enchanters to create something that required more of an energy charge than they were able to before.

The results of this mass empowerment were seen as she passed by the different Weapons of War in the assembly area.  Groups of Gnomes were seen scrambling over mobile ranged contraptions made primarily of wood, enchanted with powerful Air and Natural-based enchantments.  The way Echo’s bows were made – with the ability to bend without breaking by a variable combination of Transform, Flex, Movement, and Conform runes – were applied on a much larger scale to a ballistae-type machine.  The long straight arms of the giant “crossbow” would flex due to an Activate rune and then snap back to their original position, providing a whole lot of power and force.

Then, from a Novice Enchanter’s innovation, a long wooden pole stuck out from the front of what those using the contraption called the Mass Accelerator, where the projectile would pass through another Activate rune suspended just above the pole.  This rune would activate another enchantment on the projectile itself, one that was adapted from Violet’s description of what Echo could do with her Air-based elemental energy.  The enchantment (using Pull and Buoyancy runes) created a small pocket of negative air resistance around the large wood and iron-tipped bolt, which effectively quadrupled the speed at which the projectile traveled.

After some experimentation, it was determined that a simple wooden shaft on the bolt would practically disintegrate upon impact from such speeds; as such, they were forced to add a thin iron core to the bolt and bands around the shaft to keep it together.  This increased the weight, of course, which reduced the distance it could travel, but it also helped the bolt to penetrate its target even further.  Not only that, but the bolt could be reused if the wood wasn’t too badly damaged. Were it not for the fact that the Buoyancy enchantment rune needed to be created on wood to be effective, they would’ve used an all-metal projectile instead.

Six of these Mass Accelerators were mounted on an oversized Hauler, where crews could swivel their weapons in relative freedom.  As resources were scarce enough, the Hauler was made primarily of wood, other than its axles and tracks.  Atop the vehicle was a wooden canopy that would help protect those inside from being attacked from above, while allowing sufficient freedom that they could vacate the entire Hauler if there was reason enough.

“I can’t believe you managed to replicate one of my War Machine’s special attacks; granted, it’s on a lesser scale, but it’s still impressive.”

Felbar was talking about the next Weapon of War, the Flame Thumper.  Whereas Felbar’s War Machine could produce a jet of Flames that could roast whatever it was pointed at, the heat of which was intense because of the Energy Cube connected to it, Violet and the other Enchanters had come up with something a bit different.  Instead of a long gout of ultra-hot flames that emerged from the War Machine’s “hands”, they had created a long wooden lance with a flat metal head that could be shoved right up against a monster before it was activated via an Activate rune near the handle.

It wasn’t a stream of flames that happened when the Flame Thumper was activated, however.  Instead, using a Limiter rune to transfer the Fire energy stored up in the enchantment, a contained explosion occurred on the flat of the lance. This created a *thump* sound that gave the weapon its name, and a flash of intensely hot flames exploded outward, pushing with tremendous force.  Anything touching the end of the lance would be blasted away, or at least severely hurt in the process.

Unfortunately, each Flame Thumper only had about a dozen charges before the energy contained in them ran out.  They had created hundreds of the explosive lances, however, so they would hopefully last long enough to get the job done.  The best part of them was the fact that the enchantments could be easily replicated and produced even as a temporary enchantment while in the field, as long as they knew the Limiter rune.

The next design for a Weapon of War was based on an enchantment she had helped Sandra come up with to improve Gerold’s Deep Diver suit before she left for home.  The ability to create melee weapons was a unique one and would be powerful in the right hands, but it wasn’t something that the Gnomes would excel at; close combat without the use of ranged attacks or War Machines was dangerous for them, as they were a lot smaller and physically weaker than the other races.  That wasn’t the only option for the enchantment, though.

The way the effect worked on Gerold’s Deep Diver was it would pull a bit of moisture from the air to create an ice-formed battleaxe, utilizing the Energy Orb inside to amplify that water into a new form.  It was a brute-force enchantment that worked against the metal of the Deep Diver to manipulate water; the material used in the suit’s construction wasn’t necessarily suited to enchantments that dealt with Water, or even Air for that matter.  Materials that worked better with Water were just about any type of material that allowed for absorption, such as cloth, soft wood, or even loosely packed dirt – none of which would work well with the Deep Diver.

The Gnomes weren’t restricted to using only metal, however.  In fact, it was better to leave any type of metal for other weapons, because some of them required harder materials to make them work.  Therefore, the cloth-wrapped wooden spheres they used as a medium for the Ice Bombs were more than adequate for their purpose.  With the enchantment sequence utilizing the Absorption, Condense, Solidify, and Limiter runes laid upon the inner wooden spheres of the Ice Bombs, anything within a few feet of the weapon would have a bad day.

There was a clearly marked Activate rune on the outer cloth, along with a Delay rune in the sequence.  When it was activated, the Gnome using the weapon would have 5 seconds before the weapon exploded into multiple shards of ice 3 feet long.  Using a long, curved, hand-held launcher that they could whip forward, the Gnome could send the Ice Bomb up to 100 feet away – though at that distance, the Bomb would most likely erupt in midair.

At only a single use per activation, because all of the energy in the enchantment would be expended instantly, it was a costly weapon, but an effective one.  Especially when they accidentally discovered that they could invert and rearrange the Absorption, Solidify, and Limiter runes to produce an unexpected effect: the wholesale absorption of any moisture nearby.  This didn’t seem that effective at first, but seeing it in action was an eye-opener.

When thrown into a field of grass, the Absorption Bomb caused the organic matter to dessicate completely and fall apart within seconds, and the ground beneath was brittle and crumbling apart.  A small mouse within a foot of the target area – not seen before the Bomb was thrown – had all of the moisture from its blood, skin, muscles, and even bones sucked out of it, leaving it a dead, dried-out husk that was barely recognizable as an animal anymore.

Powerful, and yet the effect was relatively small in area: A spherical space about 2 feet in diameter was all that was sucked dry.  Attempting to make it stronger with additional elemental energy was largely unsuccessful, with only small increases in the diameter even with twice as much energy as before.

Now, if they had been able to use a Water Energy Orb with the enchantment, that might have made a much bigger difference.  Doing so would consume an entire Orb, though, and they had precious few as it was.

There were a handful of other Weapons of War that didn’t require an Energy Orb to produce, which meant that they were able to create quite a few of them in the time allotted before they began their assault.  For those weapons requiring an Orb, they were limited by the quantity of resources at hand – exactly 48 of them that weren’t being used by the Enchanters. With 6 Large Energy Orbs of each elemental type, there was only so much that they could do; what they did accomplish was impressive, nonetheless.

Seeing if they were actually effective in action was something else entirely – and it was about time for just that.

Chapter 15

The first thing Violet saw when she entered the command tent was the large table that had been erected in the middle of the area, giving them barely enough room to move around.  It was necessary, however, because the table held a complete map of Gnomeria; on the map were markers indicating villages, towns, and the single city that existed outside of the capital, as well as their last-known defenses and current situation.  Around the perimeter of their land, thick forests separated them from the other races, nigh impossible to pass through without an extraordinarily large amount of luck – or a massive force, neither of which they had at the moment (not that they had any desire to adventure in other lands).

Relatively near the inside border of those forests were dungeons, nearly 100 of them throughout the entire perimeter.  Based on information that was at times updated daily or monthly, lightly tinted glass disks of different sizes sat on top of each dungeon, indicating the approximate reach – or “Area of Influence” as Sandra called it – of the dungeon monsters belonging to those dungeons.  Throughout 85% of Gnomeria, the reach of the dungeons was appropriately small, as the nearby Defensive Forces were keeping up with the culling of monsters to keep them small.

There were a few exceptions, where it was obvious that a few had expanded recently, and the dwindling resources of the Defensive Force were shuffled around, but nothing too out of the ordinary.  Overall, the defenses were kept to a point where there wouldn’t be much in the way of danger for most of the nearby people – at least for another decade or so, Violet figured, when the loss of so many Master Enchanters over the last few years would really start to be felt with the lack of new War Machines.

For the other 15%, mostly concentrated to the northeast, there was only speculation, as reports from the area where the King and the rest of his party had been ambushed and killed were sporadic or non-existent.  Based on which monsters had attacked them, it was easy enough to pinpoint the dungeons they came from – which had assumed reaches that were significantly larger than the others.  Benchville, a small village near the area, was reported to have been wiped out completely, though the few towns and other villages near there had enough warning to have withstood the sporadic attacks, bolstered by emergency reinforcements.  Those same reports indicated that it wouldn’t stay that way for long, however, as attacks were becoming more and more frequent, and casualties and losses of defenses were starting to mount up.

Which was why they needed to move quickly before things could become too dire, as much as Violet thought another week building Weapons of War would be beneficial.  Then again, I’m not really a strategy person; I’m just here to flex my Enchantment knowledge to produce results.  Besides, Felbar agreed with the assessment, so who was she to naysay the decision?  That, and she didn’t want any more people dying than there was already, so the sooner they moved, the better.

“Thank you for coming, Violet, Felbar,” the young Enchanter heard as soon as she walked through the door with the old Warmaster by her side.  Council Leader Brinda was there, as were the rest of the council members, along with those chosen to lead each contingent.  From what she had been told, this was the largest undertaking the Gnomes had been a part of since the events that led to Sandra’s Wasteland, so having leadership throughout their Forces was important.  Especially since more than half of them had been recruited from the general population, as their experienced Defensive Forces had taken recent hits to their ranks.

“We were just finishing up our logistical assessment, and since there doesn’t seem to be any major issues we’ve foreseen, we can start—” Brinda continued, but stopped when a voice outside the tent made her lose her concentration.

“—will not be held against my will!  I demand to accompany this Force so that I can avenge my family!”

In walked Princess Celeste, geared up in a hard leather outfit that provided excellent protection while still allowing easy movement.  The Princess was carrying a pair of hatchets that glowed with enchantments, probably Sharpness and Durability, and her face was a thundercloud of emotion; anger, disappointment, and determination warred with each other as she stared down everyone in the room.

Out of the entire Royal family, it made the most sense that the Princess had stayed home while the others had left.  Unlike most Gnomes, Celeste wasn’t as interested in Enchantments, though it wasn’t as if their use was unknown to her; instead, she concentrated on more of the martial aspect of culling dungeon monsters and frequently joined the Defensive Forces as they beat back the constant appearance of so many foes.  Visiting Sandra’s dungeon to learn about new Enchantment techniques, to see the Enchantment Repository, and to discuss the finer points of material selection for a certain Enchantment sequence wouldn’t really interest her.

So, even while it made sense that she would want to join in the Defensive Forces as they left on their assault, the Council Leader had different plans.  “I’ve told you before, Princess, we need you to stay here in case something goes wrong.  Even if elevating you to the title of Queen when we get back doesn’t interest you, we can’t have the last member of the Royal Family venturing into danger—”

“You can’t order me to stay, Brinda; I outrank you even as a Princess, and if I want to go, I will go.”  Celeste folded her arms over her chest as if her words were final and she had just made a proclamation.  Which, to be fair, was exactly what had happened, but the Council Leader didn’t see it that way.

“I can’t order you, no…but I urge you to reconsider.  What will happen to our people if you were to fall in battle?”

“They’ll be fine; they’ll do what they’ve been doing all along – listening to you and the council dictate how to live their lives,” she responded with a huff, before waving off her words.  “Not that I would have it any other way.  It’s no secret that I have no desire to rule, so I might as well try to be useful if it’s the last thing I do.”

Brinda appeared as if she wanted to continue arguing, but one look from the Royal Gnome and her severe, scar-streaked face was enough to cease her objections.  As much as I agree with the Council Leader, I have to admit that we can always use more help.

Slumping visibly in place, Brinda conceded the point.  “Fine.  But if you can promise me one thing?”

“Maybe.”

“Try to stay out of the thick of battle and retreat if it looks like things are going badly?”

Princess Celeste barked out a laugh.  “Ha!  That was two things…but I will do my best.  I don’t want to die, after all.”

“I guess that’s all I can ask.”

“Good – so let’s get moving!  I’m eager for some payback.”  There was a slight hitch in the Princess’ voice, though it was entirely possible that Violet imagined it.  I bet she’s still suffering from what happened.  I know how she feels; I don’t think I’ll ever get over the deaths of my parents, either.

Things moved quickly from there.  Not just figuratively, but physically; the multiple oversized Haulers had been improved upon since the one that Sandra built in her dungeon, and they could move much faster than before.  Using an Energy Orb to provide more speed was a necessary expense, because they didn’t want to travel for a week to get to where they needed to go – they could get there in a little less than a day.  Not as fast as the Aerie Roc that brought Violet and Felbar home, but faster than anything most had seen before.

Speaking of the gigantic bird, it was following them overhead as per Violet’s orders while the Journeyman Enchanter rode with the rest of the Defensive Force on the Haulers.  There was plenty of room to carry dozens of them atop the roof, though the 10 Haulers they had were practically filled to the brim.  Also, staying true to their name, each of them were hauling additional Weapons of War.

In one wagon being hauled were stacks of Flame Thumpers lined up and ready to be distributed when they arrived.  In another were boxes filled with Ice and Absorption Bombs, carefully packed so that they wouldn’t be activated when those were also distributed to the Force.  A third had corded bundles of extra Mass Accelerator bolts, though the Haulers also had reserves on board.  The fourth Hauler had the rest of the random non-Energy Orb Weapons that had been designed, though whether they would be effective was something else entirely.

As for the remaining 6 Haulers, they were bringing along their most important cargo: their Orb-charged Weapons of War.  Inspiration based on one of Sandra’s constructs made up half of them (2 per Hauler), and they were going to be deadly; with a Roaring Blademaster as the model, their deadliness only made sense.

Standing 15 feet tall was a wooden cone with the point facing upwards, a flat disk at the bottom, and a wide 10-foot base.  The outside of the cone was generally smooth and perfectly proportioned, though it wasn’t free of decoration; dozens of 8-foot-long, thick steel-link chains were attached securely to the cone, where they draped down and dragged along the ground.  That was it – a relatively simple design, which was precisely what they needed.

A hidden hatch on the side of the “Shredder Cone” allowed access to the inside, which was where all of the magic happened.  A chair set on a swivel was perched in the middle, where a member of the Defensive Force could sit and operate the different enchantment sequences inside by pushing the Energy Orbs against them.  First, a Natural Orb was constantly supplying a low-energy enchantment that opened up small slits in the side of the cone so that the Gnome inside could see outside; when it was pushed up against another rune sequence, though, it also started to rotate the entire Cone in place.

This was only accomplished by an Earth Orb, which directed an enchantment sequence below the Cone, where it would shape a small sliver of stone that would lift the cone up on a point, held in place by an indentation on the cone’s bottom that was made of steel.  It also allowed the Shredder Cone to move by shifting the sliver of stone forward, backward, or side-to-side, using a similar control scheme as Felbar’s War Machine.  It was slow, but it worked.

An Air Core was used to both increase the rotation of the Cone and to keep it stable while rotating; if a chain broke or something slammed into its side, the Shredder would wobble and eventually tear itself apart.  The Air-based enchantment took a basic Stabilize rune and simply enhanced it multiple times.

Lastly, a Spirit Orb was used to connect everything together, lending itself to the connections that existed between all of the different enchantments.   This one was activated immediately upon the initiation of any rotation, and fortunately didn’t have to be adjusted at any point after that.

The result was a mighty Weapon of destruction.  Remembering the Golems that had been near the Dwarven village, Felbar recommended putting a heavy solid ball of iron on the end of some of the chains, where they could be used to demolish monsters that were made of material stronger than flesh and blood.  When one of them was briefly tested against a small stand of pine trees, the Shredder literally shredded the thick trunks into small scraps and sawdust, earning them their nickname.

Another of the remaining Haulers was bringing their last creation along, which was meant as a purely defensive Weapon; when it was set up somewhere, they could feel reasonably protected against anything on the ground.  There were 6 of their “Burning Darkness” Weapons, which were inspired by a few of Sandra’s traps inside of her dungeon.  They were fairly unassuming-looking, as they were basically a box filled with thin strips of iron connected to each other via simple wire.  The enchantment sequences were placed on the long length of the strips, which were then rolled up in two rolls and placed within the box; as a place was found where the Weapon was needed for defense, the strips could be rolled out within seconds to either side of the box, lying flat against the ground.

When the box was activated, the Weapon would extend a barrier of darkness upwards, (powered by a Nether Orb) which was 10 feet tall and 50 feet wide – though it was only 2 feet deep.  The darkness didn’t do anything by itself, other than to obscure defenders behind it and to hide the two other effects that existed within the fence of Nether energy.  One side of the box held strips that – when the iron strips detected something passing over it – an Activation rune was triggered and a burst of extremely hot flames would erupt upwards in one of 3 different sections, obliterating anything made of flesh and bones almost instantly.  The duration lasted only a second so as to save energy, but it was enough to get the job done.

On the other side of the box, the complete opposite happened.  Instead of extremely hot flames, there was a spray of water vapor that would coat anything passing through, before freezing it to extraordinarily cold temperatures.  That might not seem that bad, but testing proved that the cold was so frigid that it literally froze objects enough that they would shatter if hit with enough force.

The last 2 Haulers were pulling two massive wagons filled with 3 War Machines each – all that could be spared – including Felbar’s.  Saving their energy was important for the fights ahead, and making them run the distance would only deplete it unnecessarily.  Besides, they couldn’t keep up with the sheer speed the new Haulers could put out, as they raced across the countryside, shaking so much that Violet thought her stomach was going to empty itself every minute.  No one complained, however, because they realized that there was a price to pay for their incredible acceleration.

They traveled through the entire day without stopping, journeying through the night with the aid of Holy-enchanted poles with an Illuminate rune to light the way.  Towards dawn, they started to approach what the leadership – including Felbar – was calling the “danger zone”; this was the border where they expected to experience an attack at any moment, as it was slightly past the last known reach of the nearby dungeons.  As a result of passing into the location, the entire group slowed down to a near crawl, unpacked Weapons, armed themselves, and prepared for any sort of surprises that might come their way.

Fortunately, nothing assaulted them right away.  If they had, then that would’ve meant that they were waiting for us, and that the area is so overrun that we would have no chance of fighting back.  It meant that they had to go searching for the enemy, but that wasn’t too much of a hardship.

“How far do you think we are from the wastelands?”

Felbar jumped at Violet’s whispered question near the Warmaster’s ear, as everyone was trying to stay as silent as possible while they searched the pre-dawn light for hostile monsters.  He shook his head slowly, before replying, “I don’t know – maybe 100 miles or so?  Well within range of what Sandra said about those ‘enhancements’ – and how they are affecting the dungeons around here.”

She figured that was the case.  The King’s large group had traveled nearly 4 days to get to this point, and that was with the use of some of the Kingdom’s faster transportation.  Speaking of the King, the ambush site was just ahead, though by all reports it had been cleaned up.  Not by the Gnomes, however, but the dungeons themselves; she remembered all too well how Glimmerton had been raided for the stores of dungeon loot that the Gnomes had accumulated from culling.  All of the material from their equipment – and even bodies – could be beneficial, as sad and disgusting as the mere contemplation of such an act was to Violet.

The sun finally broke over the horizon, revealing the landscape in the early morning light.  For the most part, Gnomeria was filled with gently rolling plains and grasslands, with sparse stands of trees found throughout.  There was a small hilly “mountain range” near the center of their lands, but for the most part it was without too much in the way of obstacles.  Field of view was limited to the next hill over, which prevented being able to see more than a mile in the distance; even then, unless you crested the hills, you couldn’t see what was on the other side.

This was the exact reason the King and his party had been ambushed so successfully, because they weren’t expecting the need for any type of advance scouting party to warn of potential ambushes – especially with a group of their size.  The dungeons around Gnomeria had never done something like that, and even if there had been a few monsters, they could’ve easily been taken care of by the scores of Defensive Forces that were along.  Against a swarm ambushing them, they were wholly unprepared and paid the ultimate price.

Felbar and the other leaders of their expeditionary Force weren’t going to allow the same fate to befall their group.  All 6 of the War Machines were now occupied, and they ranged far ahead, investigating each hill before the rest of their people could succumb to an ambush.  Things were quiet for the first hour or so, with not even a hint of a monster in the distance.

That all changed when Violet suddenly saw Felbar in his War Machine rushing back to their location, approximately a half-mile in the distance – with a horde of various dungeon monsters following behind, eager to rip him apart.

Chapter 16

“May I introduce you all to Echo, the first one of us to have become acquainted with the dungeon in the wasteland.”  Elder Herrlot was now showing her off to the crowd that had just been introduced to the young Ranger.  Echo didn’t know what to say, so she just stood there like she had lost the ability to speak.

“She doesn’t look like much, does she?  Remind me why we needed to risk our lives and – even worse – expose our plan prematurely?”  This came from one of the Elites up near the front of those assembled, and he was certainly large and intimidating for a fellow Elf.  Streaks of dark blue were accenting his leather outfit, standing out just enough to be seen, but would be difficult to notice at a glance.

“Oh, knock it off, Winter.  Can’t you see that she’s a bit frazzled from being trussed up and carried here all the way from Lyringlade?”

Before she knew it, the speaker was next to Echo, putting her arm around the Ranger’s shoulders and squeezing tight.  Echo looked at her defender, only to see the other Elf giving “Winter” a predatory smile, her long, lilac-colored hair tied up in a messy bun atop her head.  A bow was strapped unstrung around her back, which only served to make Echo appreciate the help, coming from a Ranger.  Or…an Elite who uses a bow, at least.

“Besides,” her rescuer continued, “I’m sure the Elder was just about to explain.”

“Yes, Sheelagh, I was,” Herrlot responded.  “I would have already, if someone hadn’t interrupted me.”  Echo was glad that the Elder’s glare wasn’t directed towards her, but Winter seemed entirely unaffected by it.

“Then get on with it, already.  Some of us need to get back to our culling, and this just seems like a waste of time.”

Elder Herrlot and most of the others seemed to ignore the Elite’s words, and Echo had to wonder if Winter’s name came from his spell-casting specialties like her own, or because of his icy disposition.

“You all know why we are here, but Echo does not; to say she is ignorant would be putting it lightly,” Herrlot began, which made Echo’s temper rise in response.  Not only was she taken from relative safety, wrapped in branches, and then carried halfway across the world (or so it felt like to her), but now she was being called ignorant – like it was some sort of failing on Echo’s part.  “Therefore, to explain her importance, I need to cure her ignorance.  Some of it, at least; it would take years to solve all of the problems going on—” the older Elf pointed at Echo’s head— “up there.”

“Hey—”

“Now, we all know that there have been shipments coming from the wasteland, crates filled with Energy Orbs, exactly like the ones you all now possess.”  For the first time, Echo noticed that every single person in the underground room had an Energy Orb, either on a necklace, on a bracelet, or in one case, in a circlet on their head.  “These come from the dungeon found there, and as all of you can attest, these Orbs are powerful; so powerful that they can turn the tide of attrition that has been plaguing our people for decades—centuries, even.  We are few; but we are the strong, skilled, and Elite members of our people. Yet our elemental energy can only keep us alive for so long before running out.  These Orbs change that, saving countless lives—”

“Yes, we know all of that.  Get to the point.”  Echo was really starting to dislike this Winter person.

The Elder was really starting to look perturbed.  “Hmph.  Anyway, we all know how much of a boon these can be…but how easy is it to get one of them?  Tell me, Sheelagh, how did you obtain yours?”

“It’s basically impossible.  The Royals must be keeping them all for themselves; I only got mine from…you.”  Sheelagh seemed confused for some reason, as if she couldn’t figure out why she had to wait to get it from someone who wasn’t even in charge of their people.  I’m wondering the same thing.  This can’t be true, can it?

“Exactly.  All of you here received your Energy Orb from me or one of my associates.  Why?  I can assure you that it wasn’t to buy your loyalty, because I have no desire to enact some sort of coup to take over and rule.  No, like I just recently told Echo, a coup has already happened.  Instead, I gave you all the Orbs so that you could use them, to stay alive longer while culling dungeon monsters throughout all of Symenora, to prove to you how useful they could be.”

Echo had to interrupt.  “Why in the name of the Creator would you have to prove how useful they could be?  Anyone can see that, clearly?”

There was silence throughout the room, and the young Ranger knew she had touched on something important as the faces in the crowd appeared conflicted.

“You would think so, Echo.  You would certainly think so.”  Elder Herrlot seemed to deflate, slumping down in place as she visibly considered her next words.  “It’s not as easy as that, however.

“You see, some years ago the Royal family, our dearest King and Queen, were in need for a replacement Chamberlain, someone who could oversee their day-to-day activities while they could deal with other problems.  Old Methuin was set to retire, having served the Royal family for over 800 years without complaint; replacing him would be difficult, if not impossible. So, it was with some surprise that one was found in less than a month.

“The new Chamberlain, who was stripped of his given name as soon as he took the position, as it would be a devoted appointment for life (or until retirement), was a young Elf barely 100 years old, which raised a few alarms, but he appeared to fit his new title perfectly.  From all that I had heard, since I was no longer running through those Royal circles at that point, the new Chamberlain did an even better job than the one he had replaced, which was high praise, indeed.”

By the bored way that the crowd reacted, they seemed to have heard this before, and so had Echo.  Everyone had heard about the Chamberlain, and how he had swooped in and taken control of the position as if he were born to it.

“Yes, I thought the same thing.  Perfect placement of the perfect candidate.”  Elder Herrlot started to pace back and forth as she spoke.  “Flash forward to a month or so ago when a dungeon was found to have created these Energy Orbs, and we started to send them back to the capital, and more importantly to the Royal family, to distribute to our Elites.  Except, apart from an initial distribution to a few select groups, most of those I sent along were never distributed.”

That still can’t be true.  Why would the King and Queen hold them back when they could do so much good?

“As most of you know from your own experience, it was impossible to get them for your use, even though enough were sent along that nearly every Elite would be able to obtain at least a single one of them.  When I got word of this, I started to hold back parts of the shipments, fearing the worst was happening back home…and I was right.  Churven?  If you will?”

Emerging from the shadows in the room was the same older Elite who had met them up above, the white streaks through his dark-blue hair making him feel even older in her presence that he probably was.  Though, I could be wrong.

“Yes,” Churven said, walking forward to address the whole crowd.  “Working on scant and contrary information, Herrlot contacted me to do a little investigating.  I was never really inclined to spend any time around the Royal family, as I preferred to spend my recent days like I spent my youth: destroying monsters with my bare hands.”  As he spoke, he lifted those hands, and a swirl of flame-tinted darkness swirled in between them.  “However, the Elder and I used to be good friends back in the day – eradicating monsters by the hundreds, and we even destroyed a good half-dozen dungeons – so I figured it couldn’t hurt to look into it.

“And I was disappointed in what I found.  Not that I didn’t find anything; in fact, I found too much.

“Without going into too much detail, I looked into why the King and Queen were keeping the new Energy Orbs away from our people.  Alas, I discovered that they didn’t even know about them; all information about the Orbs was kept from their knowledge, stopped before it could reach them – by the Chamberlain.

“Why?  Well, that was where I was disappointed – in how we had let things get this way.  I can only blame the slowly increasing state of our defenses in the form of Elites over the years that we turned our attention away from such things.  As long as our Elite members were being sent out to where they were needed most, with intelligent orders, we didn’t care from whom those order came from – we are here to protect our people, after all.”

The assembled Elites were now enraptured at Churven’s speech; finally, they were hearing something new to them.  “What did you find?” Winter asked, politely for once.

“Nothing good, I assure you.  Suffice it to say, the Chamberlain is using his elemental energy to cloud the minds of not only the King and Queen, but almost every Royal Guard, as well as some select Elites.”

“What?” Echo blurted out.  “How?  And how do you know?”

“I’m not going to go into specifics, because such a practice was banned over 2 millennia ago, but it’s a form of mind control.  By using Nether and Spirit energy, he has created a self-perpetuating spell that both sucks the innate energy from his targets, as well as weakens their minds enough to be susceptible to strong suggestions. I know this because I was warned against its use over a millennium ago by my parents, who found out that I had access to Nether and Spirit energy.”  He shook his head.  “Kids these days have no respect.”

“I don’t understand,” Echo cut in again, now thoroughly confused and horrified at the same time.  “This sounds like a truly dire situation, but what does that have to do with the Energy Orbs?”

“Wow.  Such callousness.  I was right about the youth, I guess.”  Churven sighed, before continuing.  “To answer your question, to those who have been under this spell the longest, any regenerating energy will start to break the hold it has over them.  When they sleep, the regenerative abilities that rest provides towards refilling their energy is counteracted by the spell, because the energy restores at a slow enough rate. The Energy Orbs, however, are much faster and would shatter the spell within an hour, at most.  My assumption is that the Chamberlain discovered the properties of the Orbs and is keeping their existence a secret, or else making others forget about their existence.  Not just the Royal family, but the guards as well; as far as I could tell, even speaking about them anywhere in the Royal Tree can result in you being detained.”

This was all too much for Echo.  She had been coming back to the capital to warn them about the dangers from the dungeons near the wasteland, but now it seemed as if there were unexpected dangers back home.

“So…what does that have to do with me?”

That was the confusing part; she could only assume that those assembled here were planning on somehow subverting the Chamberlain and freeing the Royals – from what the Elder had hinted at – but Echo wasn’t important or powerful.  I’m not even sure if all of this is true; why would they want me to help?

“Now that is a good question.  Why do we need you?” Winter asked with a sneer.  I really don’t like him.

“Because, dear Winter, we need her to take the King and Queen back to the dungeon.”

Chapter 17

“Umm…what?”

That seemed to sum up what the rest of the group was thinking, as everyone looked shocked.

“Are you crazy?  Why would anyone in their right mind want to bring the King and Queen to a dungeon, let alone that one?”  Winter wasn’t as tongue-tied as the others, obviously.  It was strange hearing him say “King” and “Queen” in that inflection, because Echo had never heard them spoken of that way.  Just like the Chamberlain, whenever one became appointed as the non-hereditary head of their people, their name was lost to the winds of time, and very few knew their given names anymore.  Echo certainly didn’t, but it was possible that Churven and Herrlot did, given how old they were – not that they would tell anyone.

The Elder didn’t answer right away; she just looked at Churven as if willing him to speak.  Hesitatingly, she began to explain.  “There’s…a reason why the spell the Chamberlain is using was forbidden so long ago, besides the obvious.  Prolonged affliction can result in a severe reduction of a victim’s usable elemental energy from the constant drain. This could be particularly devastating to the King and Queen, given that they both control 6 elements.”

Wow.  That was certainly something that Echo didn’t know.  She was aware that their Royalty were selected from among those who had the most potential or were the strongest of them, but being able to control 6 different elements each was, frankly, inconceivable.

“But that isn’t even the worst side effect from the spell,” Churven continued.  “Those who have been exposed to it for extensive periods of time – as I suspect is the case with the King and Queen, based on my own clandestine observations – can have their minds completely broken if they manage to be freed from the spell. A broken mind is not something that can be cured or healed through conventional or magical means; after 48 hours, if nothing is done…they will die.”

Silence reigned through the room as everyone took that in, even Winter.  Sheelagh finally stirred next to Echo, asking the question everyone was thinking.  “You mean to say that if we stop the Chamberlain, the King and Queen will die?  I don’t see how this will help anyone, despite that filth controlling them.”

The Elder cleared her throat before speaking.  “Very true.  The loss of our leadership will cause major repercussions throughout all of our people, and we cannot afford a decade-long mourning period where almost all work stops while a new pair of Royals are chosen.  Those traditions are something that can’t be rushed easily, nor would we want to; only the most worthy can be selected for the position, and it usually takes at least that long for the testing, deliberation, and decisions to unfold.  Not only that, but we can’t afford to lose some of our most promising candidates from the field; we need to keep them on the front lines, pushing back the ever-encroaching dungeon monsters attacking us from all sides.”

Herrlot was silent for a moment as she looked around the room.  “If times were not so desperate right now with what is happening near the wasteland, I would leave the Chamberlain to play his little games; yes, what he is doing is very wrong, but if exposing his actions resulted in the deaths of the King and Queen, then I would feel better leaving them alone.  Before this mess with the Energy Orbs, the Chamberlain had actually done an amazingly thorough job of ensuring our people stayed safe, directing the Elites where they needed to go to use them effectively.  In fact, if he had been alive during the last Royal Selection Ceremony, he could’ve been a contender for the position of King.”

There was angry mumbling throughout the assembled Elites at that, which was only understandable given what the Chamberlain was doing.  The Elder held up her hand for silence.

“I know, I know.  Not what you would want to hear, but I promised you the truth when I invited you all here.  The fact of the matter is that the times dictate that we can’t allow this to stand, because he is blocking the only salvation for our people that has given me hope in the last few decades.  You all have seen what these Orbs can do; just think if everyone had them.  All our Elites.  That’s precisely why the Chamberlain needs to be removed, the King, Queen, and everyone else affected by his nasty spell freed.”

“But—the King and Queen—”

“Will not die, if things work out the way I hope.”  Elder Herrlot turned to Echo, looking her right in the eyes with a heavy stare.  “Which finally brings us to Echo.”

The Ranger suddenly remembered why she was there, or at least why she was told she was.  “How does my bringing them to the dungeon help?  As miraculous as they are, even Sandra’s healing Drones won’t be able to heal their minds – if that was what you were thinking.”  Echo remembered how the Elder had nearly been killed inside the dungeon’s upper workshop by accident, and it was only Sandra’s Drone construct and some quick thinking that allowed her to survive the horrendous gut wound.

“That was what I was thinking at first, but you are right.  Even magical means such as that Drone aren’t strong enough to fix a broken mind that they are likely to have; it will take something even more powerful and unusual.”

“Like what?”  Echo was going through everything she had seen and experienced while at or around the dungeon, and she couldn’t think of what the Elder was hinting at.

“The Bond she can create with them.”

Oh.  But….

“How do you know that will work?”

Now it was Herrlot’s turn to hesitate before she answered.  “I…wasn’t stationed in Avensglen because I had upset someone in the capital, nor for my retirement.  No, I asked to be transferred there for a reason I didn’t tell anyone about, and which I thought I could live with in a relatively low-stress environment.  You see—”  The Elder started to choke up a little bit.  “—I was starting to suffer from some mental problems that would cause me to freeze up under too much pressure, and my mind would shut down; there was nothing I could do to stop it, and I realized that I needed to take myself away from my previous life to live out the rest of my days where my steady degeneration wouldn’t harm anyone.

“Most days, I barely felt it or recognized that it was there, but it was always in the back of my mind.  It made me cranky and bad-tempered, which I’m sure you experienced at some point.  That all unexpectedly changed when Sandra Bonded with me.  Not only could I hear her in my mind, but that mind of mine was newly and completely freed from whatever had ailed it.  At first, I thought that it was the healing itself that did it, since the Bonding came so near that painful ordeal, but I didn’t really feel the difference until the Bond took place.  It was like I was truly alive for the first time in decades, if not centuries; I’m not even sure how long I had been suffering before that.

“And that, Echo, is precisely what we need to save the King and Queen, get all of Symenora back on track with using these Energy Orbs, and work with Sandra and her dungeon to contain the influx of monsters that are sure to come with the destruction of 4 dungeon hearts so close together.”

“Wait, what?!  Why weren’t we told about—” Winter shouted, obviously hearing about the destruction of 4 Dungeon Cores for the first time.

“Shut up, Winter—now is not the time.  I’ll explain in a bit, but the short version is that we’re in a spot of trouble if we don’t do something soon.”

That was an understatement.  A “spot of trouble” did not quite convey how much they were screwed if they didn’t get a handle on the situation, which was why they needed to get moving.  “Then let’s do it.  What are we waiting for?” Echo asked impatiently.

“For one, we need to finalize our plan – or are you planning on just walking in and politely asking the Chamberlain to please step aside while you take the Royals back to the dungeon on that massive bird?”

Ah, so that’s why I’m needed – transportation.  I remember Sandra hinting that she didn’t quite trust the Elder, so only I was to have control over the large Aerie Roc.

“And two, even with a plan, we need to wait a few days until the hubbub surrounding your rescue dies down; security is much too tight right now to get within a half-mile of the Royal Tree.”

Something about what the Elder said caught her attention.  “Speaking of escape…why was I even being held?  How did they know that I was coming?  Why didn’t the Chamberlain try his spell on me?”  A lot of questions still surrounded exactly why she had been held “for her own safety” in the first place.

“That would be my fault, I’m afraid,” Churven said apologetically.  “My investigations caused the Chamberlain to become informed of our activities, and information about who you are was already well-known.  Once you were captured, he was kept too busy hunting for us to pay you too much attention, but it was our thought that he would eventually prop you up as a figurehead of our faction – whereupon he would then execute you to emphasize his point.”

That didn’t sound good.  “What point?”

“That this talk about a dungeon helping out by providing assistance in terms of Energy Orbs was actually a plot to subvert Royal authority and needed to be stopped,” the Elder interjected.  “There was no way to hide the presence of the Energy Orbs, especially after Porthel and his Elite group came back with tales, and shipments started flowing in; the Chamberlain simply changed the narrative.”

“That’s also why he didn’t attempt to use his spell on you, because it wouldn’t work,” Churven continued.  “I managed to locate Porthel after finding out about the Chamberlain’s deeds, and I could see some remnants of an attempt to control his mind, but his ‘Bond’ with Sandra had prevented it.”

Plots within plots and conspiracy theories were too much for Echo, and she wasn’t even sure what to think of it all anymore.  All she knew was that she wanted to get back to Sandra’s dungeon, and not only to see Kelerim again.  There was a lot of work left to do to make the area safe, and she wanted to be a part of it; that didn’t appear as if it was going to be anytime soon, however, based on the information she was being given.  If it was all true, of course.

It was more than a few days of waiting for things to calm down enough for an attempt to eliminate the threat of the Chamberlain and rescue the King and Queen from his harmful influence.  More than a week passed while Echo was kept down in the hidden bunker, while the majority of those she had met when she had first arrived – including Sheelagh and Winter – had gone back to their normal culling duties elsewhere.  Other than herself, only a core group of 5 remained: Elder Herrlot, Churven, and the three who had participated in Echo’s capture/escape/whatever she wanted to call it.

Echo was left out of the planning for the most part, mainly because she really didn’t have much to contribute and didn’t know enough about the people and location involved to make a difference.  She was kept apprised of their progress, however, so it wasn’t a surprise when they finally determined that it was time for action, because their chances of success were the best they were going to be; most of the hubbub around Echo’s departure from the Royal Tree had visibly calmed down, and there wasn’t any better time to strike.

Echo still didn’t know for sure that she was on the right side, because there was no real proof of what she had been told about the Chamberlain.  For all she knew, this was all some sort of elaborate ploy by the Elder and Churven to take take control of the Elven government; if that were true, then she would unknowingly be working to instigate the coup of which she had accused Herrlot earlier.  If it wasn’t a ploy, then they would be saving their people from the machinations of the vile Chamberlain, and they would be hailed as heroes.  Regardless of the reasoning behind it, though, success in their endeavors meant that they could finally supply the help that the area around the wasteland needed.  And none too soon, in my opinion.

People came trickling in over the next day as the notice of their impending assault was spread to those who had gathered there before, and all of them appeared highly determined.  “It’s worse than I thought,” Winter said almost immediately after his arrival.  “Dungeon monster frequency is increasing the closer you get to the wasteland, and our resources are being overwhelmed.  Having these Energy Orbs has helped me defend against them, but without every Elite having them, we’re fighting a losing battle.”  The prickly Elite looked exhausted, and for the first time, Echo felt sorry for him.

“Which is exactly why you are all here,” the Elder announced once everyone had arrived.  “It’s time we set things right and get you that help you need.  We move in an hour and attack tonight.”  She turned to Echo, presenting something to her.  “Echo, I have something for you.”

Her bow.  She had been wondering where the special weapon crafted by Sandra had gone, since it hadn’t been on the Roc when she landed, along with all of the Energy Orbs they had brought.  She even had a quiver full of the special bolts required for its use, because normal arrows tended to shatter from the incredible power the bow put out.  Not only that, but there were a handful of explosive-tipped arrows, filled with tiny Energy Orbs that would explode because of an enchantment placed on them.

“Thank you, Elder.”  Echo looked at the staff in Herrlot’s hand, finally getting the chance to ask her about it; the Elder had been so busy organizing things that the Ranger rarely saw her for more than a few minutes at a time.  “If I may ask, what did you do with the staff?”  The green-glowing Natural Energy Orb was on the tip of the staff, held in place by the wood, which appeared to have been grown around it magically.

“Oh, you noticed that?  It’s something I thought up while we were waiting for an opportunity to get you away from where you were being held.”  She held it out for Echo to see it closer, while describing what it was.  “While I’m not adept at enchanting like the Gnomish people, I’ve picked up a little bit over the years.  I figured out a way for the Energy Orb on the end to act as an amplifier, adding energy to the Natural spells I cast if I manipulate the energy through the staff itself.  It takes a little more concentration, but the output of my spells are magnified exponentially as a result.”

“That’s amazing.”  It truly was, too.  From what she knew, the enchantments that Sandra created relied on the rune sequence itself to produce an effect – none of them amplified spells like the Elder’s staff did.  “Why just your Natural spells?  Why not the others?”

Instead of answering, Herrlot asked her own question.  “What did you learn about enchanting while you were in Sandra’s dungeon?”

“Honestly, not much.  I couldn’t ever really get the hang of more than extremely simple, basic enchantments – and even those were poorly made.”

“Yes, but what about the materials you used?”

Echo was perplexed.  “Well, I practiced using some steel and wood, but some of them were only good for—oh.  I see now; you’d have to have a compatible material for your staff.”

“Exactly; I can’t very well hold a staff of water, after all, and something made from dirt, stone, or metal would be a bit heavy to lug around.  I’m sure there are some other options for them, but I haven’t had time to experiment.”

Echo thought about her own elements, Air and Holy, and couldn’t imagine what could be used as a material with those, so she could understand the Elder’s point.

“Gotcha.  Now, when do we leave?”

Churven showed up just then, with a grave expression on his face.  “We’re ready.  We leave now.”

Finally.  Hopefully, this is finished quickly, so I can get back and let Sandra know what is going on.  With that thought, she followed the others out of the hidden location, ready for whatever came next.

Chapter 18

Waiting for a specific event to happen was a whole lot more stressful than just being held in the stone cell with no particular knowledge of being released.  Every waking minute, Gerold was expecting to hear the Drums that indicated that an attack was underway, which would – if Master Blacksmith Jespin was telling the truth – result in his expeditious release from captivity and subsequent escape.  He was looking forward to fulfilling at least one of his promises to Sandra, and bringing Jespin with him would certainly accomplish that; a difficult problem with a relatively simple solution.

It was the waiting that was the hardest part.

From what he could tell, over a week had passed since the last time that Jespin had visited him, and although he had been told it was to dissuade anyone from looking too closely at what the Blacksmith was doing, that didn’t make the loneliness any better.  In fact, as much as he hated to admit it, he missed Sandra’s voice in his head; just knowing that she was there when he was near her dungeon was something he’d never thought about before.  Especially since it had seemed like such a violation of his personal space before.  What I wouldn’t give to be able to speak to someone—anyone.  I’d even take Second-shield Bregan yelling at me constantly; at least it would be better than this silence.

That silence was finally broken in the middle of what he was considering night (which was when he was used to sleeping over the last nearly 2 weeks), as the room started to shake under him.  The reverberating Drums of War pounded through the entire cell system, startling him out of a deep sleep from which it took him a few moments to wake.  At first he thought it was an extension of a dream he was having, but after the drumming didn’t stop right away, he knew it was real.

Getting to his feet, Gerold stood at the door to his cell, looking through the large cut-out piece with iron bars blocking his way, expecting the Master Blacksmith to show up at any time to set him free.  Now that it was time for his escape, time seemed to slow down as anticipation and excitement flowed through his veins, and the former Shieldman practically bobbed up and down on the balls of his feet.

“C’mon, Jespin.  Where are you?” he whispered, though with the sounds of the drums pounding through the entire mountain, he doubted anyone could hear him.  He waited and waited, the fire running through his blood fading a bit as no one appeared.  An hour or so passed, and then another; through it all, the drums didn’t stop.

Something’s wrong.  He should be here by now…or he was lying to me all along.  For some reason, he doubted that was the problem, because Jespin had seemed sincere in his need to break Gerold out so that he could use Sandra’s help obtaining mithril.  That, and the fact that the Drums hadn’t stopped reverberating through his bones even after a few hours was alarming.

“I’m not waiting anymore; I’ve got to get out of here to see what’s going on.”  Lately, he had been talking to himself to pass the time; he was aware that it wasn’t normal and likely meant that his mental state was slipping from the forced isolation, but he didn’t care.

Gathering up his Water energy, he attempted to manipulate it like he had seen Echo and Sandra’s Shapeshifters do, but it wasn’t as easy as they made it look.  He was used to applying his energy through his armor, not bending it to his will to affect the world around him.  Gerold could bring it out, even gather it between his hands, but getting it to actually do something was nearly impossible.

“Focus, Gerold.  Focus.”

The pounding of the Drums didn’t help with his focus, of course, though after a while he was able to block them out as he concentrated on what he was doing.  Eventually, Gerold was able to walk forward with the Water energy between his hands, before thrusting the roiling energy towards the lock.  With a superior force of will, he convinced the energy to create water—and then he urged it to quickly freeze, filling the entire lock with ice that expanded as it froze.  There was a loud *crack* that could be heard even over the Drums, and Gerold sagged in relief.

Letting the energy go, he nearly fell on his face as he reached to try his cell door.  “Whoa…that was intense.”  Gerold had used up almost all of his Water elemental energy in doing just that one single effect, though he could feel it slowly regenerating from the Energy Orb in his palm.  “This is definitely a lot harder than I thought.  If I had my armor, that would’ve been nothing.”  He could picture just pressing one of his gauntlets up against the lock and willing his energy to produce a coating of water, before it was flash frozen; better yet, he thought that he could’ve probably slammed his armored fist into the lock mechanism itself, breaking it open.

“This spell-casting business definitely isn’t for Dwarves.”  While he was sure that some Dwarves might be able to figure it out, Gerold was cognizant of his own limitations.

Reaching out and testing the door, he found that the lock had indeed broken – but was stuck with a thin fragment of iron keeping the door shut tight.  Brute force was all it took to shake the fragment loose, and he was able to yank it open, freeing him from his cell.  Unfortunately, something like 4 more locked doors remained between him and freedom.

It took another 30 minutes or so for him to recover physically, as well as regenerating his Water energy to work on the next lock.  This time, it took him a little less time to break the lock, as well as less energy, but it was still draining, nonetheless.  He figured it might get easier if he knew specifically what to do, but as there was no one there to teach him, he was struggling his way through it.

After 2 more hours and three more locked doors down long hallways, deep in the heart of Stonebrink Hall, Gerold finally made it out of his confinement.  In all that time, the Drums didn’t stop, though their previous staccato rhythm was reduced to one *thump* every 5 seconds or so, as if whoever was responsible for keeping them going was getting tired.  “That’s definitely not a good sign.”

Speaking his thoughts out loud was almost automatic at that point, and it was only when he passed through the last locked door and into the wide-open cavern that was the center of the Hall that he realized he should probably be a bit quieter now that someone might hear him.  Except that, looking around at the deserted homes, shops, and governmental buildings, there was not a single soul in sight.

He realistically knew that the residents of the Hall, those not dedicated to their defense, had likely been sent somewhere safer.  There were literally hundreds of miles of tunnels under the ground, connecting all of the different strongholds and Halls of their people, easily collapsed if necessary in case of attack; the Drums of War weren’t only used to warn of attack, but to let those who had evacuated down the tunnels if it was safe to come back or not.  Gerold didn’t know enough about them to know what the 5-second delay meant exactly, but it was quite possible that it meant for everyone to stay away until further notice.  At least, that was the impression he got when he didn’t see a single person.

While he didn’t see anyone, that didn’t mean nothing was nearby.  The exhausted Dwarf could hear the familiar sounds of metal striking against stone, flesh, and bone coming from down one of the larger passageways leading to a different section of the Hall.  The sounds of random screams also erupted every once in a while, though it was hard to tell from the echoes if they were Dwarven…or something else.

“They must have broken through one of the side passages; that could be why they are still having trouble with those monsters.”  Gerold immediately looked towards the passageway leading to the Hall’s outside entrance, to his freedom, as he tried to ascertain whether there was any fighting going on.  After a few minutes of not hearing anything, he walked closer to make sure he wasn’t missing anything, taking his time as his body still needed to recover from using so much Water energy in a short amount of time.  Looking at his palm, he was glad to see that even though he had refilled his energy pool multiple times, the blue Orb had barely reduced in size; the change was still noticeable, but not enough to worry him.

A few minutes later, the Dwarf was at the passageway leading towards the entrance, and he peeked around the corner to check if it was clear.  Down the long hallway, he could see the large, steel-hinged, circular stone doorway ahead. Where he always remembered at least 4 Shieldmen guarding the door in distinct spots worn into the floor, now there wasn’t a single one.  It was quite a distance away down the long passageway, granted, but there was nowhere for them to hide; not only that, but the extremely heavy steel crossbar was set in place across the portal, blocking it from opening at all.

“It’s clear, but how do I get that crossbar off?”  If he had been in his armor, applying a bit of energy through his gear would’ve helped to boost the strength of his arms, through an application of water flexing his armor joints, and through dark Nether energy slightly reducing the weight of the bar where he was grabbing it.  Even then, it would still be difficult, but it could be done; other elements like Earth were even better for increasing the weight one was able to lift while wearing armor, which was why there was at least one Shieldman with Earth at the door at all times.  Alas, he no longer had his armor, which had led him to the situation in which he currently found himself in the first place.

He backed up from the entrance tunnel, looking around for some sort of tool that would allow him to lift the crossbar off.  “If I can get that off, then I can…what?  Flee?  Fly back to Sandra empty-handed?”  He felt like a coward, running from the fight that was going on in the middle of Stonebrink Hall, but he wasn’t exactly equipped to fight.  “Now, if only I had my—” he started to say, before shock caused his mouth to shut with a snap.

My Deep Diver suit!

Near the far wall, scrunched up in a crouch, was his suit.  Gerold immediately sprinted towards it, all weakness in his body ignored as he got closer, only to be crestfallen when he saw the damage to the Deep Diver.  “Oh, no – what happened to you?!” he asked it, as if it could answer.  While it wasn’t the same as his armor made for him by Master Blacksmith Jespin, it was the next best thing; to see it all banged up, dented, and scuffed was like being hit right in the chest.  “And how did you get so dirty?!”

Running his hands over the outside of the suit, he was relieved to see that – despite the minor damage – the Deep Diver suit still appeared functional.  Through analyzing some of the worst dents, he immediately realized what happened; in his efforts to unstrap the suit from the Roc, he must have at least partially succeeded before he was surrounded and brought inside, because his mobile armor suit had fallen off at some point after he told the bird to escape.

“I’m guessing that they just recently found you and brought you inside; some of this dirt still seems moist, so it probably wasn’t more than a day ago.”  That no one was using it to help defend the Hall wasn’t much of a surprise; even if they figured out how it worked, most of the defenders were Shieldmen in their armor – and armor wouldn’t fit inside the suit.

“With this, I can definitely get that crossbar off…” He trailed off as he was interrupted by a scream coming from down the passageway where the fighting was going on.  “But, I could help them out with my suit!  It’s my duty as a Shieldman to defend my people, after all.”

Now he was arguing with himself as he looked between the entrance and his freedom, and the passageway where danger lay just out of sight.  “Yes, but even if I help, they’ll just lock me up again afterwards.

Gerold wasn’t sure if the Master Blacksmith would’ve stayed to defend the Hall, or would’ve evacuated with the rest; he was vaguely certain that Jespin said that he had stayed during the last attack, so it was possible he was still there.  “There’s no point in leaving empty-handed, like I said before.  Perhaps I can find Jespin somewhere?  The whole point of coming here was to get help; if I leave without him, this whole thing will have been a failure.

“But I could die, not helping anyone in the process.  Sandra will never know what happened.

“I’ll just have to take that chance, and hope that seeing my suit in action will convince the other Shieldmen that I did my best to make up for the destruction of my armor,” he finally decided.  “Besides, they are the only ones who might know where Jespin is located.”

So saying, he crouched down in order to get inside the back of the Deep Diver suit, which was a little more difficult than normal; it seemed as though its crouched form, which was good for transportation, had been bent over even more than it used to be, and it was hard to get his body parts inside.  After some wiggling, straining, and sheer force, he managed to get his body inside, placing his hands in the spots where he could control the suit.

Immediately, the metal of the suit came alive, and he could straighten himself up, taller than any other Dwarf by a few feet as he reached around and clumsily tried to close the back up.  After fumbling for a minute or so, he realized that something had been bent out of shape and it wouldn’t close, so his back was essentially going to have to stay exposed for the time being.  Looking down at his suit, the flexing of the metal as it was activated seemed to have smoothed out a portion of the smaller dents, though the larger dents remained as well as it still being scuffed up and dirty.

Testing everything else, he found that nothing had been permanently damaged other than the hatch in the back, as he was able to operate the suit with a full range of movement.  Testing out the other enchantments, he was pleased to see that his right arm created a 3-foot-long pole of ice, which was attached to the crudely beautiful axe head he had seen before he left for home.  He was eager to test it on something other than a rock, and to see how well it performed.

As for the dark fog that was supposed to act as a buffer against tremendous hits, he activated it and immediately couldn’t see anything, just like it had done so before.  “I really wish Sandra had the time to fix this; maybe when I get back?”  Deactivating it was a simple process, at least, and he figured that if there was dire enough need, it could at least keep him from being knocked halfway across the Hall.

With only the slightest hesitation, as he wasn’t exactly happy about helping those who had intentionally locked him up, Gerold raced down the passageway leading to the fighting, rounding through 2 different curves in the tunnel, until it finally let out in a relatively smaller space than the cavern he just came from.  From previous knowledge, he knew that this was the Whiskeyflow Tavern, a large establishment that held nearly 200 people comfortably, or a maximum of twice that number if they were packed together.

Skidding to a stop, Gerold wasn’t shocked to see that the Tavern was at capacity – and that there were plenty of uninvited guests that needed to be tossed out.

Chapter 19

“Palzerk Gorerender, oh Great One.”

Furbrea was prostrating herself on the floor of the workshop, with Kelerim and Owchet watching her with something akin to amusement on their faces.  Sandra wasn’t amused; she was more embarrassed than anything.

* Oh, you don’t have to do that, Furbrea.  I told you that my name is Sandra, so you can call me that, okay? *

“Yes, Great One.”

This wasn’t going as well as the Dungeon Core would’ve liked, but at least she was getting some assistance.  She could’ve done without all of the supplication and deference, which was more than a bit off-putting; Sandra preferred mutual respect in communications and interactions, as this…worshipping act…could get dangerous, real fast.

* And who is Palzerk?  I’m trying to put a face to the name. *

It sounded familiar, but there had been more than a few Warbands that had passed through Grongbak searching for better weapons in exchange for volunteering mercenaries for Sandra’s use.

“Warband Leader Palzerk was the first to come to our village to take the deal offered.  I know not where he is now, but I’ve heard that his territory is relatively local.”

* Ah yes, I remember now. *

Sandra had watched all of the exchanges, not only so she could see that both sides were getting a fair deal, but as extra protection for the villagers, including Furbrea.  She remembered the first exchange only too well, because that was when Perceine had joined her team of mercenaries.

An angry tirade erupted in the back of her mind at the thought of the murdered Orc mercenary, but the Dungeon Core did her best to calm herself and push the insane shard away.  It was getting easier to control it, she had found; then again, she hadn’t been tested by an attack coming from the other Cores quite yet.

Fortunately, her fight with the entity in her mind didn’t last that long, and she was able to carry on the conversation.

* Are you sure?  Is this Palzerk the best of all of the Leaders you have spoken to? *

Furbrea bowed her head, practically touching the floor as she did so.  Sandra could tell that the old Orc’s joints were suffering from the prostration, and yet Furbrea seemed content to continue even after being told otherwise.  “Yes, Great One.  He is the only one I’ve interacted with that had the qualities of a leader that people would want to follow, instead of being forced to.”

* That’s it? *

“Believe me, that is enough.”

Sandra wasn’t sure why, but the conviction in Furbrea’s voice was all the confirmation she needed.  The Core trusted the old Orc to know who would likely be the best candidate based on her observations; the easier method of choosing would’ve been to ask her mercenaries, but they were going to be inherently biased.  Not necessarily biased towards their former Warband Leaders, but towards the strongest of those Leaders.  One look at Kelerim’s father, Rothgar, was enough to know that strength didn’t always equal the best one to lead.

Hundreds of Shears were swarming over the more than 40-mile radius her Area of Influence now had over Orcrim, the Orc lands where dozens of Warbands were roaming around, clearing out ever-increasing pockets of Dungeon Monsters from the nearby dungeons.  There weren’t any near Grongbak at the moment, though she could see one Warband on the way there now – likely having heard about the deal Sandra was still offering.  That wasn’t the one that was needed, however, as she searched over the territory from up high, locating Warband after Warband.

Thankfully, the one she was looking for was only about 10 miles out from Grongbak, currently in the middle of savagely tearing apart a small group of Wolves.  Must be another Beast dungeon out there somewhere.  Sandra knew from her previous life as a merchant that Fire had, by a small margin, been the most frequent of the elements to which a Human had access, so it wasn’t a surprise that another Fire-based dungeon had chosen Beasts as their Classification.

She was glad to see that their upgraded Steel weapons, instead of the shoddily made Iron ones they had discarded, were holding up quite well under the Warband’s abuse – and were practically destroying the large wolf Monsters.  It’s working.  Now for the next step, even if they’re probably not ready for it yet.

Having located her target, she turned back to those assembled in the workshop, who were looking around blankly.  They were waiting for her to speak and tell them what to do next, so she obliged them.

* Kelerim, it’s time you get out and see the sun; it’s been a while and you’re looking a little pale.  Owchet, I need you to go with him to see Palzerk…wait.  You were part of his Warband with Perceine, weren’t you? *

“Yes.”

* Then this will be a bit easier, don’t you think? *

“I’m still a little unsure what this is all about, but I will serve with honor.”

* Oh.  Easy enough, I guess.  Kelerim is Rothgar Bloodskull’s son, and the first crack at his legacy falls to him.  Since he’s not quite right for the position of Warlord, he can appoint someone in his stead.  If you haven’t guessed by now, that person will be Palzerk. *

“Ah.  I see.  He’s going to have to fight any within the Bloodskull Warband who would choose to take that position, however, and it better be done quickly; when word gets out of Rothgar’s death, there will be quite a lot of bloodshed.”

* That’s what I’ve been led to believe.  So…what do you think?  Do you agree? *

Owchet shrugged.  “Of all of the Warband Leaders I’ve met over the years, Palzerk is the best of them.  It was for him that I volunteered to be one of your mercenaries, and though I think I came out on the better end of the deal—” he winked at Furbrea, who was looking at him like he was crazy for speaking so openly to the Great One— “he is still a great Leader.  He cares for his Warriors as individuals, not just a way to amass power for himself.”  He shrugged again.  “However, I have to say that my knowledge on potential candidates is poor; there could be a better one out there, but in my opinion you can’t go wrong with Palzerk.”

A very reasonable and articulated recommendation for Furbrea’s choice.

* Then it’s settled; get ready to fly. *

“What?!  Oh no, I don’t think that’s necessary.”  Kelerim was suddenly looking even paler than usual.

* Don’t worry, it’s perfectly safe.  Your ride should be arriving just about…now. *

Sandra had accumulated enough Mana from the Arachnid Queens – which were still constantly churning out new leaf-and-stick spiderlings – to create another Roc for them to use as transportation – though this one was a bit different due to Sandra’s increased Advancement Level.

High Peak Roc

Current Elemental Energy:

Air – 70000 energy

Special Ability:

Traveling Vortex: 20000 Air energy

Shattering Screech: 5000 Air energy

Sonic Dive: 2000 Air energy

Beak Extraction: 200 Air energy

Not only was it not called the Aerie Roc anymore – now a High Peak Roc – it also had more Air energy at its disposal, as well as a new “Traveling Vortex” Special Ability.  That was all on top of its different physical characteristics; it was now 150 feet long from beak to tail feathers (a 50% increase in size), 45 feet wide (again, a 50% increase in size), had a beak that was nearly translucent – like a cloudy diamond, and its talons were made from the same material.  All for a 28,000 Mana Cost, which was 8,750 more Mana than the previous incarnation.

Luckily, she had made a pair of extra harnesses when she had been outfitting the Rocs that had taken Violet, Felbar, Echo, and Gerold back to their respective capitals, in anticipation of needing to use them in the future.  Some quick work from a dozen of her Unstable Shapeshifters in Gerold’s form was enough to combine the two Leather harnesses together, as well as fitting it on the massive Roc.  The giant bird felt like it barely even fit in her Home room, but there was fortunately plenty of room for it to maneuver and squeeze out into the tunnel Sandra had built for that purpose.

Getting through the 50-foot-wide tunnel was a bit tougher, because with only 5 feet of clearance in width, running through the tunnel was a bit more complicated.  Luckily, its feathers were fairly durable, and even if they scraped along the sides, there wasn’t a single sign of damage to either the bird or the tunnel itself.

When it had emerged from the tunnel, Sandra couldn’t help but wonder what the new Roc’s “Traveling Vortex” was.  Instead of running it to her entrance where she was discussing potential candidates with Furbrea, she had it take off and use its new ability.

After activation, a pulse of energy seemed to flash out of the giant bird, before the energy seemed to explode about 500 feet in front of the Roc.  After the explosion, a massive flat-shaped vertical vortex of yellow-tinted swirling air appeared like a hole in the sky, large enough to swallow the Roc whole, even with its ginormous wingspan.  It didn’t take long for the Monster to fly through the “Vortex”, enveloping it completely until the Shears above, which she was using to watch, lost sight of the bird.

The sound of the Vortex collapsing reverberated through the air like a thunderclap as air rushed in to fill the void, almost deafeningly loud to Sandra’s Shears.  When she looked at what had happened, she saw the Vortex had collapsed to a pinpoint, the bird and everything else nowhere to be seen.  That didn’t last long, however, as the Vortex exploded open again, exactly where it was before, spitting out the Roc as if nothing had happened.  As soon as the last tailfeather emerged from the swirling mass of air, the Vortex collapsed again and disappeared completely.

Uh, Winxa?  What just happened?

She had to explain what she saw and heard, before the Dungeon Fairy was able to answer.  Not a very comprehensive answer, but it at least sent her in the right direction.  “I have no idea.  I’ve never heard of something like that before.  Though, I wonder…if this is for ‘traveling’, did you have a destination in mind?”

Sandra hadn’t, but she wasn’t sure why that would make a difference.  Whatever it was, the Dungeon Core didn’t have any more time to experiment, because she was just finishing up her conversation with Furbrea, Owchet, and Kelerim.  She landed the Roc just outside, where it waited patiently for the latter two to emerge from the workshop.

* Furbrea; I’m sending you back to Grongbak now, via the same way you arrived.  If things work out, it’s going to start getting busy out there.  I’ll try to keep you informed and supplied, but I can’t guarantee I’ll have everything set up before these dungeons attack again.  Thank you for your assistance through everything so far; we’ll get through this if we work together. *

“It is my pleasure and honor, Great One.”  The old Orc was still on her knees, and she bowed again with her head against the floor, before standing up and heading towards the Mechanical Jaguar Queen that had brought her to the dungeon in the first place.  As soon as she was settled, she sent it on its way, returning it to the hidden “stables” outside of the village, where she could get off and walk the short distance back to her village.

“You have got to be kidding me.  Is this thing bigger than the ones before?”

* Yes, it is.  Now, like I said, it’s perfectly safe, so let’s not hesitate and get you strapped in.  We need to get this going, because in a few days we’re going to need as much help as we can get. *

Sandra knew she could hold out for a few more days, at least, against the other Cores, but after that she was more than aware she couldn’t do it by herself.  Since she hadn’t heard from the others (a loud grumbling rocked her mind for a moment at the thought of them), she was going to act on her own to obtain help from an Orcish authority.

Even if she had to establish that authority herself.

Kelerim complained a bunch while Owchet helped to get him prepared to fly, but eventually they were off.  Knowing there wasn’t much that she could do to help convince Palzerk to come back to the dungeon, Sandra made sure the Roc was able to obey orders from both of its passengers; if the massive bird couldn’t protect them, then there wasn’t much else that she could do.

* Though, honestly, I’m pretty sure that one of his former Warband members arriving on the back of the giant bird will be more than enough to convince him. *

“I have no doubt you’re right, Sandra – but what’s your plan now?” Winxa suddenly asked, hearing the thoughts that had been going through the Dungeon Core’s mind.  It was actually nice for once to have someone keeping tabs on her thoughts who wasn’t trying to overtake her consciousness.

* A few things, actually.  Now that my Mana is flowing in at an increasingly faster pace, I think it’s time to start on some more permanent defenses against these Cores.  That, and I think I need to get to crafting again.  There were a few things I thought of when I was left to myself, and I want to try them out. *

“That’s an excellent idea.  Who knows, maybe the crafting will eliminate your little ‘insane Core shard’ problem?”

* It’s not exactly little, but I appreciate the thought.  Regardless, as far as I can tell, crafting can’t really hurt. *

As much as she wanted to get started on that right away, Sandra knew she needed to ensure she was safe to do so.  It would be foolish not to take advantage of this time to set something up, especially when she wasn’t under the direct pressure of constant threat.

* Let’s get started. *

Chapter 20

The issue with defending against 4 different Dungeon Cores was one of having to monitor and react to each of the different tunnels leading to her dungeon.  While she briefly thought about spending some time rerouting them all so that they began at either her giant Roc tunnel or her normal entrance, so as to concentrate her protection on a single area, she realized this wouldn’t work without a lot more time invested into those defenses.

For her original dungeon, the hallways connecting each of the rooms were so narrow that many of the Golems and Beasts wouldn’t fit.  On paper, this sounded like an excellent solution, since that would prevent 2 of the Cores from reaching her; in reality, what it likely meant was that they would attempt to find another avenue of attack – one for which she could not necessarily prepare.

The Roc tunnel was different.  It was plenty large enough for anything the Cores sent toward her, but the defenses inside weren’t necessarily meant for constant waves of Dungeon Monsters.  Many of the traps inside – which, for the most part, she hadn’t replaced as of yet – required large amounts of Mana to establish; as a result, they took a longer time to recharge from the ambient Mana floating around her dungeon.  Hours, perhaps, though she hadn’t yet had a chance to evaluate that timing.

The problem with those traps – and the Dungeon Monsters she had placed within – was that they required large amounts of upkeep to maintain within the Roc tunnel.  Replacing them up with something more cost-effective was always a possibility, but with so much ground to cover because of its size, there really weren’t too many viable options.  Becoming honest with herself, Sandra recognized that she really had the Roc tunnel solely as a place where her Roc could exit her dungeon, and it wasn’t necessarily made for constant defense.

Using both was an option, as she could have the Slimes and Goblins go through the smaller, “normal” dungeon route, with the Beasts and Golems through the other, but the same problem presented itself.  Looking at her current Mana intake every minute and throughout a day, even with the ever-increasing influx from her Arachnid Queens, she doubted they would be able to maintain them for more than a day with a constant stream of replacement constructs or Dungeon Monsters of her own.

Current Mana Intake

Core Absorption: 10 Mana/hour

Dungeon Absorption: 10 Mana/min

Aboveground Absorption: 3320/min

Per Hour Intake: ~200,000

Daily Intake: ~4,800,000

At a little over 3,000 Mana per minute, 200,000 Mana per hour, and nearly 5,000,000 Mana a day, it sounded like more than enough.  However, considering that some of her most effective constructs could take up to 10 minutes to acquire enough Mana to create – especially if she had to create a Monster Seed in the process – then that would be barely enough to keep things running.  If there were a sudden breakthrough somewhere and she would have to react quickly, she didn’t have enough Mana coming in to effectively respond.  She could tell that was half of the issues she had been having before her Core Size upgrade; the other half was that there was no clear strategy for long-term defense, as the insane entity in her mind was focused on eventually overcoming the other Cores and destroying them.

With that evaluation, there had to be a better way to use the resources at her disposal.  Fortunately, there was – and her solution was already mostly constructed, which made it even better.  Simply put, the 4-mile-long tunnels that the other Cores had made to invade and destroy her own Core were going to be the new extensions to her dungeon.

Sandra’s original dungeon entrance would remain as a deterrent if she was attacked by another group of people again from the outside, or a small horde of Dungeon Monsters that happened to make it there; her Roc tunnel would act as a defense against larger Dungeon Monsters that managed to make the trek.  With the upgrade to the Core Size of the other Cores coming up, it was quite possible that some powerful, giant Monsters would make their appearance aboveground.  While she would do what she could to protect the villages nearby, Sandra had the feeling that she had annoyed the other Cores enough that she would be the target.

Plus, using the existing tunnels dug out by the other Cores meant that there would be no reason for them to look for another avenue of attack.  Sandra could block any other attempts at creating another tunnel if given enough warning, if only by tunneling into their path by using the existing passageways.  It wasn’t foolproof, granted, because there were ways around her blockages if given enough time – though it would likely take weeks or months of work on their end, spending Mana that would take away from their constant attacks.  Therefore, if Sandra organized things correctly, there would only be two options for the Cores to attack: through the existing tunnels that they created and Sandra was preparing to stock with more permanent defenses, or from above.

With luck and a lot of work, the second option would be taken care of after she talked to Palzerk; in the meantime, she needed to work on the first.

Tackling the Beast-Classification dungeon first, she found the dozen Sonic Blademasters she had stationed there, floating in the air without even the slightest sign of movement.  A single Titanium Anaconda and Steel-plated Behemoth were still there as well, bolstering the defense of the area by attacking anything that got through the Blademasters’ powerful sonic attacks, as well as attempting to block anything thrown towards the floating constructs.  Right now, of course, they were immobile as they waited for another attack to come or other orders.

All-in-all, they had a fairly good defense, if she was being truthful.  Not great for the long-term, though, because one stray rock or corpse thrown at the deadly Blademasters could tear one of the constructs apart, which could potentially impact the others nearby as they exploded.  Spreading them out a little was an option, but Sandra had a feeling that concentrated fire was almost always better than individual attacks.  Regardless, it was a good place to start expanding on what was already there.

Using her mana to absorb the sides and ceiling of the surrounding tunnel, expanding it in size to create a room that was approximately 30 feet wide, 30 feet deep, and 15 high, thereby making it an official “room” as classified by her Dungeon Core system, she considered what would be the best defense against the Beasts.  The Sonic Blademasters were excellent choices against the Beast-types because their targets were flesh-and-blood, which seemed to be thoroughly affected by the constructs’ attacks.  Sandra doubted they would be effective against Golems, for instance, or even Slimes; the gelatinous nature of the gooey Slimes would probably just absorb the attack and move on, not to mention that neither the Golems or Slimes had “ears” that would hurt and bleed from the sound they made when they spun.  Goblins would probably be slaughtered by the dozen if they stood still, but they were usually so numerous and quick that keeping them in the line of fire would be difficult.

So, Sandra had to utilize the same sort of effective tactics against the Beasts that the Sonic Blademasters employed.  While she wasn’t an expert in battle tactics by any means, she had learned enough since she had become a Dungeon Core that she wasn’t exactly helpless.  Just like in crafting, you had to use the right tools and materials to produce what you wanted; you could use inferior products, but the craft might not be the best that it could be, or take twice as long as it should to produce.

Replicating the same “sonic” attack in a separate traps was relatively impossible, she’d noted from some brief small-scale experiments, so she decided to use defenses that were best used against a flesh-and-blood creature.  Since she didn’t have to worry about there being any Slimes, Golems, or relatively intelligent monsters going through the room, that made narrowing down what she placed inside much simpler.  Given that Beasts was a Classification that came from a Fire-based Dungeon Core, she ruled out any type of heat or flames as a solution; while they certainly weren’t immune, the fact that there were so many flame-based traps inside of the other dungeon was a sign that they wouldn’t be as effective against the Beasts.

Given that the opposite element of Fire was Water, it seemed reasonable enough to apply it to her traps – though she didn’t stop there.  Air was the likely candidate in what the Sonic Blademasters used to devastating effect, so she combined the two in a dual-element trap that she was hoping would be just as effective.

First was a pool of water that she created by digging out 2 feet more of the room below the level of the tunnel itself; it wasn’t enough of a deterrent near the exit to make those entering Monsters hesitate and try another avenue of attack, which was the whole point of the defenses she was putting together.  She wanted them to keep moving forward, attacking in a constant stream, while getting slaughtered one after another – but she also wanted to give them the appearance of a chance to succeed.

When the attacking Beasts would jump down into the water, nothing would happen.  It was only when they passed the trigger halfway through the room that the actual trap would activate.  Utilizing the Water-element portion of the trap, she would make the entire pool of water freeze, catching whatever was wading through it in its grip.  Strong enough Beasts, such as those monkey-bear creatures or a Crocatile, could break out within seconds and progress as if nothing happened; others would be trapped for longer, as they wouldn’t be strong enough to get themselves free.

That was all perfectly fine, because freezing them in place was only a temporary measure, and the ice would melt back to water in 5 seconds anyway.  It was while they were frozen in place that two different things would happen.  One, 3 Sonic Blademasters would emerge from behind outcroppings, revving up their rotations in anticipation of attack. Two, the Air-based portion of the trap would activate for all of 2 seconds – more than enough to do some serious damage.

A giant, 14-foot-long pole of hardened Air 6 inches wide would invisibly materialize in the middle of the room, positioned horizontally a foot above the frozen pool.  On one side of the pole, a coating of ice would flash freeze, creating a massive blade that stretched almost the entire width of the room; she had gotten the idea from the battleaxe she had created for Gerold’s Deep Diver suit.

All of that took exactly a second to form; the next second, the now ice-blade-coated pole of air would rotate around the room faster than the eye could see, slicing through everything in its path.  The carnage it would create was impressive, as the ice was extremely durable and the strength of the Air pole underneath was powered with so much Mana that nothing much would keep it from rotating.  In all, it took nearly 5,000 Mana to create that trap, which was a lot considering that it only lasted a total of 5 seconds, but its effectiveness relied on its simple design.

There were ways to beat it, of course; if a Beast was able to lie down as they froze and were under 3 feet, then they would pass through unscathed; if they went to the corners of the room, there was a small space where the rotating blade wouldn’t pass through, as it created a circular pattern as it rotated; two Monsters could theoretically work together, with one on top of the other, where one would survive and the other wouldn’t; or a half-dozen other ways that she could vaguely think of, plus those she hadn’t even thought of.  The point of the trap wasn’t to kill everything that walked inside, but to slow the tide of attackers down.

If they were more intelligent than they were insane, the Cores would begin to become cautious of what they sent into the room, knowing that whatever walked through would likely die.  So, they might only send in a single Beast cautiously, to see if the trap was active; if it was, then only a single Monster might die.  If not, then they could send in larger groups; the catching point was that with only 5,000 Mana invested into the trap, it only took between 20 and 30 minutes for it to reset itself, depending on how thick the ambient Mana was in the room.  Therefore, a single Monster might make it through, but as soon as a larger group went, the trap could activate as it was reset.

Of course, that wasn’t the only room that Sandra made, nor was it the only trap.  Using variations of Water and Air, which she thought would be particularly effective against the Fire-based Beasts, she created 15 additional rooms and traps throughout the 4-mile-long tunnel leading to her dungeon.  Some rooms had constructs, some didn’t; others had only constructs that were to act as a defense, but could retreat into an adjacent room she constructed in case they were being overrun.  All of the traps she created were deadly, but were usually only single use, like the first.

The point of her defenses wasn’t to make a kill-them-all-instantly trap or series of traps, but to last long enough to win the war of attrition.  Traps, as long as the catalyst she used to tie them to a room wasn’t destroyed, were automatically replenished; the Beasts that would be attacking could constantly be reinforced by the Beast-Classification Core, but it would cost Mana, again and again and again.  No matter what, even if Sandra were forced to replace a trap here and there, or her defending constructs were annihilated, she would still come out ahead.

The Beast tunnel, as she was thinking of it now, took just over an hour and a half to complete; most of that time was spent waiting for more Mana to flow into her Core from her constructs up in the wider world, which was slowly but inevitably increasing every hour as her Titanic Territory Arachnid Queens continued to make little leaf-and-stick spiderlings.

She spent the next 4 hours working on the other 3 tunnels, applying what she had learned from the defenses in the Beast tunnel on the others.  Against the Golems, she applied traps based in a combination Nether and Fire – to seal any wounds inflicted on them, so they couldn’t regenerate.  She had witnessed firsthand what the Undead dungeon, especially the Liches that it employed among its Dungeon Monsters, had done to her constructs using their Nether-based spells. In short, they had practically disintegrated as their metal forms were eaten away, so that was what she wanted to employ against the tougher Iron and Steel Golems.

The Goblin tunnel employed mainly Natural-based traps, including poison clouds, strangling vines, and thorny pit traps.  The Powered Arachnids were also going to help out, hiding in a whole bunch of different forest-like environments she created specifically for this tunnel, including the tunnels themselves.  She would use them on hit-and-run attacks, so that she hopefully wouldn’t lose as many, and her Animated Iron Shears could camouflage themselves inside foliage quite well.  In all, she had traps that were designed for large groups of Goblins, which was typically how they advanced together.

Finally, the Slime tunnel was the easiest to set up.  While still employing her new Platinum-banded Wyrm and Unobtrusive Multi-access Repair Drone in different sections of the long passageway, she also used her new Hardened Animated Slab and Earth-based traps.  The new Slab was only slightly larger than its predecessor, but the main differences were its thickness and durability.  Instead of a simple slab of stone that could shift around in different ways, the new Slab had bars of Steel running through its entire structure, strengthening it by adding a “skeleton” of sorts to its form.  In addition, it could change shapes faster than it could before, though not quite as fast as she would’ve liked.

The Earth-based traps and the Slab were used because she discovered that stone was a bit more resistant to the acidic nature of the Slimes than any of the metal from which her constructs were created.  Squishing Slimes between two hard shapes, such as a large rock falling on them from the ceiling, slamming them into the floor, was enough to destroy the little nucleus they had inside of them, killing them instantly.  After seeing how effective the Slabs had been against the Orcs when they had attacked, she was excited to see how well they would work against something squishier.

It was only toward the end of her defense preparations that she realized she hadn’t heard from Owchet or Kelerim since they left.  They should’ve arrived where Palzerk was located hours ago, and the fact that they weren’t back yet was worrying.

At a thought, she transferred her attention to where she had last seen the Warband Leader and concentrated on the Shears she had been observing slightly overhead.  One part of her mind had been monitoring them without her attention, looking out for any particular danger or waiting for someone to call her name to get her attention, but nothing had bothered her while she had been preparing her tunnel defenses.

* Kelerim?  Is there something wrong? *

For once, her voice didn’t startle the half-Dwarf/half-Orc Blacksmith, as his attention was elsewhere.  She found him in the middle of the Warband she had sent him to find, and she saw Owchet and Palzerk nearby, as well as the High Peak Roc about 100 feet away.  The Warriors of the Warband looked at the Dungeon Monster warily out of the corner of their eyes, but their attention was also elsewhere.

“Yes, Sandra, I believe we have a problem.”

Sure enough, when she shifted her viewpoint away from the group and looked off into the distance towards the forest border, Sandra saw a small army of wolves, at least 400 strong, heading in the Warband’s direction.

* I’d say so, Kel.  I’d say so. *

Chapter 21

* Why are you even still here?  Wouldn’t Palzerk come with you? *

“Sandra, this isn’t really the time.  Suffice it to say that he wouldn’t leave his Warband behind, so we had been making our way to you instead.”

Now that she looked, she saw that the entire Warband was now a few miles east of where it had been earlier.  Even if they traveled non-stop, they wouldn’t be there until the next day – way too late for Sandra’s plans.

The Dungeon Core turned her attention to the Dungeon Fairy, describing what she was seeing.  Is there such a thing as a Wolf Classification?  I thought they were a bit more broad than that.  Then again, there was a Unicorn-Classification dungeon, so she could be wrong.

Winxa shook her head.  “No, not that I’m aware of.  Some Core-specific skills can make creating a certain type much less expensive than other Dungeon Monsters, however.”

Great.  What that meant was that this Core, with its enhancements, was obviously capable of producing massive numbers of wolves, which would overwhelm even the Warbands with Sandra’s upgraded weapons and armor.  That wasn’t a good sign, and it made what she was trying to do even more important.

A closer look at the wolves from the benefit of her Shears above showed that things were even worse.  The ferocious canines weren’t just normal Grey Wolves, which were about the size of Sandra’s original Mechanical Wolves; these ones were nearly the size of her Mechanical Dire Wolves.  From her distance, she had been unable to discern their size, given their quantity.

Kelerim?  I would suggest you leave; those are Dire Wolves, and the Warband is not going to be able to beat them.  She hated to say it, but she’d rather not lose the Blacksmith, nor Owchet, if she could help it.

Kelerim looked over at the giant bird, before shaking his head.  “I can’t abandon them, and they won’t leave.  Besides,” he said sadly, pointing off to the east, “if the Warband doesn’t try to stop them, that village is doomed.”

He was right; there was a village not a mile up the patrol road over which the Warbands had traveled in their routes through the forest’s border.  Changing her perception, Sandra could see that the Orc village was now within this Core’s Area of Influence, so the Dire Wolves could reach it easily; either it had just expanded its Core Size, or it had been biding its time until it had a sizeable enough force to wipe out anything standing in its way.

The strange part, though, was that the Dungeon Monsters weren’t heading for the village, which could easily be seen by the Wolves’ position; instead, they were making straight for Kelerim and Palzerk’s Warband.  Winxa…do you think the sight of the Roc has caused this attack?  Do you think they know it’s mine?

“Hard to tell; the way these others have been seeming to communicate with each other, I wouldn’t deny the possibility.”

Things were getting worse and worse, it seemed – and Sandra was running out of time.  There were only about 10 hours or so until the first of the Cores emerged from their upgrade, if she was lucky, and this was the last thing she needed.  Some of the anger and rage that she had shoved down inside of her mind boiled to the surface, and she struggled with controlling her actions.  How dare they attack my people!  They must pay—

With an enormous force of will, she managed to pry back the control that was slipping from her grasp, though she couldn’t banish the insane Core shard back to its hole.  It seemed as though any type of attack on her people – likely caused by Sandra’s obvious presence – was enough of a spark to light the flames of fury.  Whether it was guilt over putting them in danger or just a general need to destroy anything standing in her way was hard to determine…but it was something that she thought she could use.

Because as the Core shard entity tried to take control again, she could glimpse the actions it wanted to take.  Even now, detailed plans were leaking through its insanity, meshing with her mind until they strangely made sense.  An epiphany flowed over Sandra as she finally realized what that meant; the shard was not necessarily insane, though her mind processed it that way.  Instead, it was – in reality – filled with the ruthless, strategic drive to kill and expand under which other Cores operated due to their contract with the Creator, and it was clashing with her own, non-contracted mind.  When it was in control, it used that ruthless, strategic drive to dictate its actions; but on the whole, Sandra’s mind was still there.  That was why it hadn’t just killed everyone around the dungeon, including the Dwarves inside, because that was the “core” of who she was.

That didn’t mean the shard was any less dangerous.  She still remembered the sight of her Human image in her conscience, with it slowly being turned into a Dungeon Core.  A quick check of it, now that she knew it was there, showed that the shard’s advancement had been reversed when Sandra’s conscience took over; though even now, that was starting to change, bit by tiny bit, as she shared her mind with the shard.  As she was now, trying to stop the shard from changing her seemed to be impossible, so she knew that the only choice she had was to live with it – and to take advantage of its plans as if they were her own.

Which they technically were, even if she probably wouldn’t have thought of them beforehand.

There were only a few minutes before the Dire Wolves arrived, which was unfortunate – because it meant sacrificing the one means of transportation Kelerim, Owchet, and Palzerk had back to her dungeon.  There was no help for it though, because she needed to delay the inevitable so that she could mount some sort of counter-defense.

* Kelerim, I have some help on the way; you’re going to be stranded for a little while, but if you survive the attack, I promise to get you and the others to safety. *

“Wait—what?  What do you have planned—?”  The Blacksmith’s words were cut off as the High Peak Roc started running, taking off from the ground within a few hundred feet, soaring into the air.

* Tell the others to prepare to defend themselves, because I’m not sure my constructs will get there in time; they just need to hold out for a short amount of time. *

Kelerim just nodded, and so did Owchet when Sandra passed on the news.  The Orcish mercenary unslung the warhammer from his back, where it drew some attention for its difference.  Warbands typically used swords, and most other weapons were looked down on as inferior, but Owchet knew how to utilize the Titanium Warhammer Sandra had supplied him with great effect.  Especially since he was a Fire-element user and could enhance his strength – his swings packed a wallop.  Because of that, she had to use an Earth Energy Orb and accompanying enchantments inside the hammer’s construction, increasing the strength and durability of the weapon itself, so that it could dish out pain without deforming in the process.

Meanwhile, her High Peak Roc had already closed the distance to the Dire Wolves, who didn’t seem to care that a gigantic, 150-foot-long bird was descending upon them with enormous speed.  Sandra let the Roc attack any way it wanted to, only telling it to spare nothing as it attacked – and she wasn’t disappointed.  Its Sonic Dive Special Ability was the first thing she witnessed, as it dove from 500 feet in the air to just over the loping Dire Wolves in a flash, slamming its beak into a dozen of the Wolves in a line, before swooping back up, smacking another two dozen of the enemy Monsters with its wings as it flew away.  The powerful attack managed to kill every single Dire Wolf that was hit by the beak, though the ones hit by its wings were only slightly damaged.

And they all kept running.

Theoretically, she could tell the Roc to keep using its Sonic Dive attack over and over until it ran out of Air energy; that was the safest strategy, and one that Sandra probably would’ve employed had she not listened to the “wisdom” of the shard, but it wouldn’t slow down the advancing Dire Wolves.  They were too focused on the Orcs to care about a few stragglers being killed, so they weren’t going to stop.  Therefore, Sandra needed to give them something else to focus on.

An ear-piercing screech shattered the relative silence of the flat plains the Wolves were racing over, causing the running canines to stumble and fall, unbalanced as their eardrums were pierced in less than a second.  The Shattering Screech Special Ability did its job, slowing the Wolves down, but that wasn’t enough; while they were recovering and starting to lope with renewed purpose towards the Orcs, the High Peak Roc landed 300 feet in front of them, spread its wings, and prepared to take down as many as possible.

Now the Dire Wolves stopped their forward progress as they attacked the newest threat.  Rushing as a wave of nearly 400-strong, the deadly grey-and-black-furred canines fell upon the bird with unbridled ferocity – and the Roc responded in kind.  Even as its wings were soon latched onto by powerful jaws, those wings were buffeting any Wolves that got too close with equally powerful flaps of its appendages. Its Beak Extraction Special Ability was seen in full effect, as it struck out at its targets with blinding swiftness, biting down on a Dire Wolf and practically ripping it in half with its mighty, crystal-like beak.  Even something as simple as a hop backwards caused carnage as its talons flashed out and tore the Wolves apart, ripping them to shreds in as little as a second.

And yet, as powerful as the High Peak Roc was, it wasn’t meant for a protracted battle on the ground; it was deadly in the skies, and attacking from a position of strength where it was most comfortable was how it was best used in a fight.  Unfortunately, there wasn’t really any other choice, because the name of the game here was to delay the horde of Wolves, not to whittle them down over a longer period of time.  As a result, the outcome of the fight was a forgone conclusion.

Against 50 or even 100 Dire Wolves, the formidable High Peak Roc might have come out on top; against nearly 400, the massive bird was quickly and savagely overwhelmed.  Dozens of Dire Wolves had leapt on top of the Roc’s body, while nearly 100 were latched onto its wing feathers, dragging it down and preventing it from moving.  At first, chomping through the tough body feathers was difficult; with so many bites falling on the beset bird, however, more and more were simply torn out from where they were attached, exposing the vulnerable skin below its natural armor.

Even as the Roc turned its head to pick off some Wolves making a meal of its body or wings, it was suffering some horrendous wounds.  Three of the ferocious canines had managed to gnaw at its left leg, chewing through the resistant skin to destroy the muscle and bone underneath, nearly causing the Roc to fall on its side. Fortunately, the bird brought its right leg up as it screeched again in pain, collapsing on its belly instead of its side.  A massive chunk was ripped out of its chest next, causing a prodigious amount of blood to flow from the wound, weakening the Roc.

Sandra’s Dungeon Monster was dying, but it was taking quite a few Dire Wolves with it.

It seemed to take forever for Sandra’s Dungeon Monster to finally succumb, and it was almost painful for her to watch.  Regardless of the blood being thrown about, the bodies littering the ground before they disappeared into Monster Seeds, and the severe carnage she witnessed, it had been worth it.  An entire minute and a half passed by while the Dire Wolves were delayed in eliminating the new threat, and the casualties on their side had been hefty in the process.  Over 150 of the Wolves had been bitten in half, ripped to shreds, or smashed by powerful wings, which was a good trade-off for the loss of a single Dungeon Monster.

She just hoped that the delay was long enough.

As soon as her High Peak Roc succumbed to 6 different Wolves finally tearing through the thick feathers around its neck, ripping out its throat, the wave of enemy Monsters continued on their course toward the Orcs.  Now, with no way to escape, it was imperative that they survive long enough for her reinforcements to arrive.  Thankfully, Kelerim was in the back of the group, weaponless and looking sicker by the moment at the approach of imminent death, but safe enough for now to survive.

Amazingly, not even a flicker of fear passed through the expressions of the awaiting Orcs; instead, they appeared almost eager for the fight to commence.  When the Wolves were within 100 feet of their line, the Orcs got tired of waiting and rushed forward with a short roar of defiance.  Weapons held at the ready in front of them, they sped towards the massive wave of Dire Wolves without any hesitation, bounding forward with blood-thirsty grins on their faces.

Meanwhile, Kelerim was standing where they had left him, appearing helpless and way out of his element; he was a crafter, not a fighter, after all.

Suddenly, just above where the two forces would eventually clash, 25 V-shaped forms suddenly arrived with a high-pitched whistle, slowing to a complete stop so quickly that it nearly appeared that they had run into some sort of invisible, unmovable wall.  Immediately, the V-shaped Sonic Blademasters turned their upper openings towards the Dire Wolves, before starting to rotate their long poles.

* Owchet; you just need to hold on for another 15 seconds before the Blademasters can get to work eliminating the Wolves. *

“Easily done!” the mercenary said with a low chuckle, before leaping off the ground with enormous strength towards the line of Wolves.  Not expecting the move, the Wolf in front didn’t have time to switch directions, and ended up with a warhammer embedded in its thick skull, the rest of its body practically obliterated as it was driven into the ground by the force of the downward strike.

Owchet didn’t hesitate as he ripped the warhammer out of the dead Wolf’s cranium when he landed from his leap, swiping out at a second Dire Wolf that dashed over to crush the Orc within its jaws.  The warhammer connected the side of those jaws with such force that the canine’s neck snapped in the process, practically detaching as the skin and muscle tore from the impact.  Owchet’s follow-through swing destroyed a third Wolf’s front foreleg, crippling it and causing the loping Monster to stumble and roll forward in a tangle of broken limbs – down, but definitely not out.

A burst of Fire energy through the Orc’s legs allowed him to jump high the next moment, narrowly avoiding being chomped into from behind by a fourth Wolf, and he landed on the back of a fifth Wolf.  He rode it for a moment before swinging his warhammer in a wide arc, obliterating the eye socket and snout of the Wolf as it investigated what was on its back.  Even as the dangerous Dire Wolf fell forward from the near-fatal injury to its head, Owchet leapt off and aimed for yet another giant canine, swinging his warhammer down again with energy-enhanced strength.  The Orc mercenary was a force of unending carnage.

Unfortunately, that didn’t mean he was invulnerable.  Even as he crushed the back end of the Wolf he was aiming for, the back legs of the beast kicked out involuntarily, smacking into the chest of the Orc and sending him flying.  Sandra could tell that he was bleeding from some additional scratch wounds caused by the kick, but the worst part was that he was flung into the mass of Wolves still trying to surround and devour the 25 members of the Orcish Warband.

A Warband that, despite its best efforts, couldn’t compete with the mercenary in terms of killing ability.  However, even if they didn’t have the ability to regenerate their energy, they spared none of it as they defended themselves.  Air energy was used to speed up a trio of Warriors, who danced around the Wolves with great alacrity; they weren’t fast enough to dodge a few bites that crunched into their leather chestpieces, tearing them up and leaving long lines of blood flowing in their wake.  Sandra couldn’t help but be glad that they were wearing the chestpieces she had supplied them; otherwise, those bites might have ended them.

Other Fire-element users struck back with enormous strength, carving their way through the Dire Wolves, but there was almost always one more behind the last.  The use of so much energy was taking its toll on them, and Sandra estimated that they couldn’t last that much longer.  The same went with the Earth-element Orcs, as they transformed their flesh into stone-like hardness, allowing them to take a few bites without much damage: They were also becoming extremely weary.

The others weren’t doing much better, though Palzerk was an exception.  A Water energy user, he was able to flow between attacks like a river meandering through the countryside, narrowly avoiding attacks as though he was at a dance instead of a battle.  His Titanium sword cut with efficiency, hamstringing a Wolf here or slicing a deep cut into a neck there, but he didn’t stop to finish them off.  Instead, he kept up his dance, and the few times Sandra actually saw him being bit on his shoulder, she could see what appeared to be ice covering his bare skin, though it disappeared almost as soon as it deflected a tooth.

Only 10 seconds into the battle, the first Warrior fell from being surrounded on all sides, and he was literally ripped apart, though 4 Dire Wolves near his ripped-apart body showed just how dearly he made them pay for his death.  Sandra felt Mana slam into her Core as the Orc’s death was absorbed by the Beast-Classification Core controlling the Dire Wolves, which she immediately used (along with some additional Mana she had recently accumulated) to create another High Peak Roc.  Moments after it formed in her dungeon, she sent it out of the Roc tunnel, with instructions to arrive at the site of the battle as soon as possible.

Just then, her Sonic Blademasters screamed out as their rotating blades reached a crescendo; waves of concentrated sound and air blasted into the massive grey-and-black forms below, tearing apart their bodies with ease.  Strafing their beams of powerful sonic energy across entire swathes of Dire Wolves, the Blademasters killed dozens within the first few seconds, and dozens more died within the next.  The tide was turning, but yet another Orc died against the press of Dire Wolves; she couldn’t see who it was, but she was relieved that it wasn’t Palzerk or Owchet.

Speaking of the mercenary, he had recovered from being flung into the heart of the Dire Wolf horde, and was laying about them with his warhammer, smashing heads and breaking bones with every hit.  The wounds on his chest were soon accompanied by even more wounds along his legs and arms, and the blood he was leaking out was weakening him extensively.  Another few moments, she judged, and he would become too overwhelmed to survive.

Those few moments, however, were enough for the Blademasters overhead to do their job.  A wide clearing was blasted around Owchet by their efforts, and the injured, exhausted Orc collapsed to one knee, held up by his warhammer as he looked at the disappearing bodies of the Wolves that had been within seconds of killing him.  Everywhere the Sonic Blademasters pointed, in fact, was another Warrior saved from certain doom, and within 30 seconds of constant attack, the Dire Wolves were down to fewer than 50.

Slow to react to the new threat in anticipation of more Orcish slaughter, the Dire Wolves finally turned their attention to the danger in the sky.  Standing 8 feet tall at the shoulder, the massive canines had quite the leaping ability – and they certainly showed it, leaping into the air towards the constructs only 20 feet above.  Half of Sandra’s airborne forces were destroyed with a simple bite, though plenty of damage was dealt back to the Wolves from spinning blades and the repositioned beams of their sonic attacks.  The other half were in danger of being destroyed, but the distraction was enough for the Warband to rally and counterattack, coming at the Wolves as they prepared to take down the rest of the Blademasters.

A fierce battle ensued as the dwindling numbers of Dire Wolves fought with all they could muster against the Orcs, and Sandra’s constructs were hindered from attacking because the two sides were so close together; she didn’t want to inadvertently blast an Orc with a sonic attack.  Eventually, the battered, injured, and exhausted Orcs were able to overcome the enemy Monsters through sheer determination without any additional casualties, though there were some serious injuries.  The worst of them, unfortunately, was sustained by Palzerk, who threw himself in front of another Orc who was too occupied to defend herself, and the Warband Leader got his entire right leg crunched as a result.  He ended up thrusting his sword through the Wolf’s eye and into its brain even as his leg was still inside the canine’s mouth, but by that time it was too late.

Everyone was wounded, though Palzerk was the only one with life-threatening injuries.  As the others stood looking around them in shock and wonder at the fact that they were still alive, Sandra was already working on trying to save the injured Leader.

* Kelerim?  Are you okay? *

She knew that none of the Wolves had even gotten close to the Blacksmith, as they had been preoccupied by the Warband.  However, he looked quite pale and ready to fall down, as if he had been horrendously injured.

“Uh…yes?  I don’t know, actually.  I’ve just never seen something like that before…what are those things in the air?”  The lost-sounding tone to his voice told Sandra more than anything that Kelerim was deeply affected by what he had just witnessed – and she couldn’t blame him.  That was a lot of carnage, after all, including the deaths of 2 Orcs that he had probably just seen alive only a few minutes ago.

* It’ll be okay, Kelerim.  My Sonic Blademasters are going to stay here for the moment to make sure nothing else gets close enough to attack them, but Palzerk is in a bad way.  I have another Roc coming to transport him to my dungeon so that I can heal him, but you’re going to have to help them put the harness on. *

When her previous Roc had died, the leather harness it had been wearing had dropped to the ground, trampled over as the Wolves raced for the Warband.  From what she could tell, it amazingly hadn’t been too greatly damaged during the fight, so they should be able to fit it on the new one coming to transport the injured Warband Leader.

Except…Sandra wasn’t sure if it would arrive in time.

“Palzerk!  Where’s Ghrooch?  We need to stop the bleeding!”

“Ghrooch was killed, along with Yevin.  We don’t have anyone else that can heal him.”

Their leader was now unconscious with the amount of blood he had lost, and with no one to at least stabilize the wound, he would be dead within minutes.

The High Peak Roc was just now emerging from the tunnel near her dungeon, and it wouldn’t be able to get to them in time, even flying at its fastest.  Sandra didn’t know what to do; all she could think of was if she could somehow get the Roc there faster, then she might be able to save the—

Before the Roc was more than 200 feet into the air, it suddenly formed a swirling vortex in front of it, flying through it moments later.  This time, however, it didn’t reappear a moment later right where it had been swallowed by the vortex; instead, a similar vortex suddenly appeared a few seconds later above the injured and exhausted Orcs with a loud *bang* – and the High Peak Roc appeared and flew right out of the swirling mass of air.  As soon as it was clear, the vortex collapsed with another *bang* and everyone stared in shock – including Sandra.

Ah, I guess that’s how it works.

One look at Palzerk as the other Orcs stared at the hovering Roc was all she needed to know that he wouldn’t survive long enough to put the harness on.  Not only that, but as Owchet was starting to walk over to the rest, he collapsed face-first on the ground, unconscious before he even hit the ground, the wounds he had sustained too much for him.

* Kelerim!  You need to tell the others that I’m bringing their leader somewhere to be healed! *

Her yell seemed to shock the Blacksmith out of his reverie at the appearance of the Roc, and he started to run towards the Warband in the distance.  “Step back from Palzerk!  The bird is going to take him somewhere to be healed!” he shouted in Orcish, which caused the Warriors to back up immediately.  They had no reason to deny access to their Leader, since he was essentially dead anyway if nothing was done.

Sandra instructed the Roc to pick him up gently with its talons, which was harder than she expected because she didn’t want to accidentally squish him – and did the same with Owchet.  In moments, the massive bird was back in the air, cradling both Orcs in its talons as it activated its Traveling Vortex again, this time with Sandra instructing it to appear above her workshop.

A little more than 15 minutes later, Owchet had been healed by her Repair Drone stationed in the workshop, and he was watching over Palzerk as he slowly struggled awake after his healing.

Well, that took longer than I thought to get him to my dungeon, but now that he’s here – it’s time we had a chat.

Chapter 22

Nipping at the heels of Felbar’s War Machine was only the first wave of smaller Dungeon Monsters, coming from a pair of dungeons that had orchestrated the ambush from before. Actually, looking at what they were, Violet had to revise her original assessment: There were three distinct types of monsters there, one of which they hadn’t been planning on.

They knew they were going up against a Beast-type dungeon, which was the most common of dungeons around.  Not only was there one near the Elven village near Sandra’s dungeon, but there were 5 of them spread throughout Gnomeria, as well – including the one near here.  Bears, wolves, and boars were the most common type of monsters that came from those dungeons, at least when they were culled frequently and contained within the area right around the forest sections they were located.

For one that had expanded as far as this one obviously had, there were giant cats that looked capable of eating a Gnome whole, large monkeys with bear-like heads that appeared extremely strong, and even something that looked very much like one of Sandra’s Behemoth constructs, but made from flesh and blood.  This was what they had expected; it wasn’t surprising that some of the smaller wolves and boars were charging ahead, following just behind Felbar on his race to get back to their defenses.

Defenses which were currently being deployed, as half of the Defensive Force dropped down from the Haulers and grabbed Flame Thumpers, Ice Bombs, and Absorption Bombs.  The Burning Darkness defenses were laid out and activated, giving them a long fence of darkness that encircled most of the Haulers; fortunately, the Mass Accelerator operators on their transports could see over to shoot the monsters as they approached.  The 4 Shredder Cones were also unloaded from their large wagons and those operating them got inside, ready to protect the flanks or contain any breakthroughs.

Behind the smaller beasts came the first wave of a Flora-based dungeon, which specialized in plants that were both mobile and deadly.  Dense collections of vines (nicknamed Vine Crawlers) crawled along the ground, a central nexus in them representing their “heart” that needed to be destroyed; bushes filled with thorny stems rolled along the ground like tumbleweeds, but instead of the lightweight nature of tumbleweeds, these “Thorny Bushes” were quite heavy and could knock a Gnome over if they weren’t prepared for it – before being cut and strangled to death; and small “Snaplings”, which were 8-foot-tall trees, ran with their uprooted lower appendages acting as legs to become mobile, using their sharpened branches to hit a person hard enough to snap their bones.

Coming over the hill, following the smaller monsters, Violet could see the larger Beasts like the ginormous hunting Panthers and behemoth-like Tuskaphants.  Behind them were the larger Flora monsters, such as the 25-foot-tall Wandering Oak Bashers, the Mossy Ditches that were almost like gigantic Slimes but weren’t as acidic, and even a couple of Sunflowers.  Those last were especially worrisome out in the full sun of the day because they were able to convert sunlight into a deadly airborne toxin that could envelop a hundred-foot radius in a matter of seconds.  It was best if they destroyed those from afar if at all possible, before they became a major problem.

Those were all basically accounted for; defensive mechanisms already existed, to defend against those, in some way or another.  The fighters were aware that another dungeon may have been in on the attack, but the reports by the survivors couldn’t say for sure what it was, other than the monsters were large.  Thinking that they might be Golems – similar to the dungeon that was next to the Dwarven lands near the wasteland – had prompted Felbar to include the weighted ends to the chains on the Shredder Weapons, as they would most likely help to eliminate those as a threat.  There was a Golem dungeon relatively nearby, though it was thought that it hadn’t expanded that far as of yet; just to be sure, they had prepared for it.

What they hadn’t prepared for was the small, nearly forgotten dungeon on the opposite side of the Beast and Flora dungeons to finally emerge as a threat.  The reason it hadn’t been considered was that ever since it had been found over 50 years before, it hadn’t released even a single monster.  No one had ventured inside, afraid that an appearance might suddenly start it spewing out monsters – which was something they didn’t need in the area if they could help it.  Unfortunately, it appeared as though it was ready to show itself to the world, and Violet understood why it hadn’t really produced any monsters until then.

Because they were giant.  As in, Giants.  According to what she knew about Sandra’s dungeon and the constructs she created, the bigger and deadlier the construct, the more “Mana” it cost her to create.  For these literal Giants, the cost must have been astronomical.

They were almost Orcish in general appearance, though their skin was not green; instead, they were a pale peach-ish color, with tiny, beady eyes just above their massive balloon-like noses.  Their mouths were also tinier than she would’ve expected; only a very small line across their otherwise-expressionless faces indicated that it was a mouth at all.  They were also bald without a hint of hair anywhere, with mottled skin on top of their heads that nearly looked like some sort of fungus.  The clothing they wore was plain cloth of different kinds, patched together from a dozen different sources and colors, creating a quilt of randomness that was disturbing to look at.  Upon closer inspection (and seeing that a few of the patches were green), she wasn’t sure if it was actually cloth, leather, or…something else she didn’t even want to think about.

That all wasn’t even considering how literally giant they were.  As in, 80 feet tall, holding clubs made from uprooted trees that looked capable of destroying one of their Haulers in one hit.  To say that they were totally unexpected by the Defensive Force would be an understatement.

“Oh, no – what have we gotten ourselves into?” she asked herself, suddenly worried that all they had prepared wouldn’t be enough.

The giants could simply walk over their Burning Darkness Defenses, their Flame Thumpers likely wouldn’t even shift one of the Giants, and the Ice and Absorption Bombs would be practically useless against something that size.  Even the War Machines wouldn’t be much more than an annoyance to such a large monster, as much as it pained her to say so.

That left their Mass Accelerators, with their powerful bolts that flew so far and punched so hard that they might have a chance of hurting the Giants, as well as their Shredder Cones.  Either one was potentially a weapon that could be used to great effect – but they had to figure out how to do so while still keeping the other monsters at bay.

Not that Violet had anything to do with the actual defense, as she was waiting on one of the Haulers, observing things as they happened.  In fact, the only reason she was there was to help if any of the enchantments suddenly had some issues that she could fix, as well as—

The Aerie Roc!  Violet rushed to the side of the Hauler and looked up past the roof of the transport vehicle, seeing the massive bird circling overhead.  I can use it to attack, but will it do any good?  Those Giants look extremely dangerous.  It was definitely large enough to do some serious damage to one of the giant monsters, but would it be able to do enough before it was clubbed out of the sky by a swing of one of those uprooted trees?

She was unsure, and with it being the one access to speedy transportation back to Sandra’s dungeon, she was hesitant to send it into the middle of battle.  She would, though, if it came to that, in order to save their lives; the enormous bird would be useless if they all died, after all.

The 5 other War Machines had already returned to their defensive line, preparing to engage the horde of incoming dungeon monsters flowing after Felbar, and the grizzled Warmaster was nearly back himself.  He was only about 10 seconds ahead of the lead elements of the ambushing force, which was plenty of time for him to take his place on the right-hand side of the line.  Their formation was very simple. The Burning Darkness defenses created three-quarters of a circle around the Haulers, which held the Mass Accelerators that could fire at quite a distance away; the Shredder Cones were lined up on the left and right of the semi-circle (2 on each side), giving them enough space to spin and maneuver; the War Machines were on the far flanks (3 to each side), which would help to contain anything trying to circle around.  The large Gnomish machines were agile enough that they could intercept just about anything making their way around, and it was their job to keep those inside safe.

Just in case, there was a squad of the Defensive Force that was stationed in the rear open space of their Burning Darkness fence with Flame Thumpers and Bombs, and at least a half-dozen of the Mass Accelerators could be swiveled around to fire at anything attacking from that direction.  Plus, there was something of a surprise in the rear waiting for such a thing to happen, buried underneath the dirt. It was a good defense, and could handle just about anything that attacked them – except for the Giants, unfortunately.

The first clash of the monsters versus Gnomes was anticlimactic, as the first wave of the horde ran directly into the defensive fence of darkness, seeing the Haulers inside from a distance and thinking them easier targets.  Dozens of beasts and plants attempted to cross over the Gnomes’ threshold, only to burst into flames (and turn to ash) or freeze solid (only to fall forward and shatter against the ground). At least 50 of the enemy had died, and the Gnomes hadn’t even done a single thing.

Those were the only easy kills they were going to get, however.

As if the dungeons had seen the folly in continuing that avenue of attack, the remaining horde of monsters split in two, dividing their forces to either side of the fence of darkness.  As soon as this happened, Violet heard, “Take aim…steady…FIRE!”  The unique *crack* of the Mass Accelerators releasing the tension in their large bows was followed by an equally unique *pop* as the negative vacuum was applied to the released bolts.  Faster than she could follow, 60 bolts from the mounted crossbows zipped across the distance to the racing monsters, all but a few finding their targets.

Violet couldn’t watch everything at once, but from what she observed, the bolts had been even more devastating than she expected.  She saw a bear, a hulking 800-pound monstrosity, take a bolt through its shoulder, the force of the projectile so powerful that it came out the other side of its body and pinned the monster to the ground.  Another hit an Oak Basher in the middle of its trunk with enough of an impact that it split in half, the two sides of the walking tree falling apart.  From the carnage and the disappearing corpses after a few seconds, most of those that were actually hit by the bolts were killed in one hit.

Even with the threat of the Giants slowly heading their way, lagging behind the others, Violet couldn’t help but feel a bit of pride at how her people were effectively fighting back; and, without too much modesty, it was because of her own efforts and ideas that they were able to accomplish that.  But now, it was time to see if some of her other contributions would be just as effective as the Burning Darkness and Mass Accelerators.

Half of the Defensive Force not operating the ballistae had climbed on top of the Haulers via a ladder, bracing themselves on the roof above; with practiced precision, 50 of them placed Ice Bombs in one of their long, curved, hand-held launchers and released at the same time, aiming for the advancing horde while the Accelerators reloaded.  The Bombs sailed through the air over the fence of darkness, landing among the Beasts and plants racing ahead.  As soon as they landed, long ice shrapnel shot out in all directions, impaling monkey-bears, boars, and wolves alike, as well as shredding the vines or foliage of different Flora-dungeon monsters.  They did more damage versus the flesh and blood creatures than plants, granted, but the next volley was just the opposite.

It turned out that absorbing all of the moisture from a plant that relied on the precious liquid running through its entire structure was extremely detrimental.  Everywhere the Absorption Bombs landed and enveloped one of the Flora monsters, even on one of their appendages such as a vine or a root, the water rushing through their entire forms was absorbed, as if the plants were just massive hoses where the fluid would flow through.  Absent moisture, even one of the large Mossy Ditches was dried out so completely that it withered and crumpled to dust.

Against the Beasts, the Absorption Bombs were still potent, but for some reason the larger and more powerful the Beast, the less moisture was absorbed.  One of the large hunting Panthers, for instance, had some visible scarring where it had been hit in the side, the water inside having been sucked away, but it barely slowed the Beast down as it ran around the perimeter of the Burning Darkness fence.

The casualties they inflicted on the horde in the first few minutes of engagement were significant, though it barely seemed to lessen how many of them there were.  There were thousands of monsters and they had killed a few hundred, barely a drop in the bucket when compared to what was still left.  At least there haven’t been any casualties on our side—

As if to mock that thought, one of the monkey bears ran up to the fence and leapt high into the air, clearing the darkness by a foot or two, landing on the other side.  Since the Defensive Force members couldn’t see on the other side of the fence and the attack was so sudden, they were wholly unprepared.  A fist the size of one of their heads slammed into two of the nearest Gnomes, flattening them into piles of unrecognizable body parts and bloody clothes.  Before the Beast could attack anything else, the Force finally rallied and used their Flame Thumpers; two of the flat metal heads on the end of their long poles were shoved into the monkey-bear at the same time, causing the explosive force to propel the monster backwards – right into the Nether-fueled barrier, burning it alive in less than a second.

That wasn’t the only Beast or even plant that decided to take their chances hopping or somehow making their way over the fence, but after the first disastrous attack, the Defensive Force was there to push them back into the highly effective Weapon of War protecting them.  Most of that was ignored by Violet, however, as she was watching the bulk of the fighting off to the left and right of the main group.

Unsuspecting monsters ran right into the spinning Shredder Cones, which were rotating at such high speed that the chains attached to them were acting as powerful blades, cutting into and living up to its name by shredding plant and animal alike.  Hundreds of monsters died in less than 30 seconds, before the dungeons controlling them finally learned to avoid the spinning cones of death.  The slowly shrinking horde reversed course, turning to go around them, where they ran into the more familiar War Machines.  Except that the Warmasters piloting them were ready for the onslaught, and fought with a ferocity that Violet had never seen before.

They held nothing back, pushing their constructs to the limit of what they could do as they cut, smashed, or stomped into those arrayed against them, racking up kills by the dozens in less than a minute.  Sadly, there were only 6 of them, and they could only do so much against such an onslaught; Violet held her breath as she watched one of them get knocked over as a Panther jumped and slammed into it, landing on top, ready to rip the pilot right out of his central internal cab.

A wood and metal bolt impacted the side of the Panther a moment before it bit down on the cage protecting the pilot, knocking it off and causing the monster to slam into the ground 20 feet away, rolling and doing even more damage as the bolt rotated against the ground.  The War Machines weren’t alone; the Gnomes knew how to take care of pesky cat problems.

Bombs landed amongst the horde as it was rebuffed by the War Machines, and Mass Accelerator bolts slammed into one monster after another.  Distracted by the continuing ranged assault and temporarily rebuffed by the War Machines, the hordes were unprepared when the Shredder Cones moved towards them, blocking off more and attacking those already there from behind.

It was a slaughter, to put it mildly.

Unfortunately, the Cones’ movements also left a gap where the dwindling masses of the horde could slip through – and they did so.  Racing around the perimeter, they came to the opened space, rushing into it as if they had found the weakness in the enemy and were planning on exploiting it.  Over 50 Panthers, Snaplings, and various other smaller monsters poured through in less than 5 seconds as a group – and triggered the one-shot defense that was there to protect them if anything managed to break through the other defenses.

After learning about the moisture absorption abilities of the Absorption Bombs, Violet had come up with a last-ditch defense if they needed it.  Spread out unobtrusively along the ground was a net of over 100 of the Bombs, flattened into plates instead of round balls, and they covered all of the open space.  Unlike the balls, they activated as soon as something touched one, and their rate of absorption was much slower over a longer period of time – but their range above the plates was up to 6 feet.

As a result, as the monsters ran over the massive net of Absorption Plates, they started to have the moisture sucked out of them.  The first plates they passed over basically just made them severely dehydrated; the next few started to cause their skin and organs to shrivel from the loss of moisture; by the time they reached the end of the Plate net, each of the monsters collapsed from the lack of moisture through all or most of their bodies.

It happened slowly enough that those behind weren’t aware of the danger, and by the time they learned of it – it was too late.  One of the Panthers managed to jump over the last half of the Plates to avoid being sucked dry, but the crew of Defensive Force Gnomes was there with their Flame Thumpers to knock it back into the Absorption field.  Also unlike the Bombs that were chucked out at the rest of the horde, these Plates lasted for 20 seconds, which was more than enough time to kill everything that tried to invade their sanctuary.

The next minute was filled with the destruction of the remaining horde of Beasts and Flora, a few of which managed to make it to the back side of their fence again, but were impaled by a half-dozen Mass Accelerator bolts for their efforts.  Another member of the Defensive Force was killed when a Panther jumped over the fence from an unexpected direction and sliced her up with a swipe of its deadly claws – which was extremely sad and unfortunate – but overall, they had only lost 3 Gnomes and killed thousands of dungeon monsters.

Of course, the 4 Giants were still coming…and Violet wasn’t sure if their Weapons of War would be of any use against them.

Chapter 23

While the Giants moved slowly in comparison to the other monsters that had just been slaughtered, that didn’t make them any less deadly.  Their reach with the ripped-up trees they were using as clubs meant that they didn’t even have to be that close to cause some damage, and by the time the rest of the horde had been eliminated, they were practically within striking distance.

“Give it all you got!” Violet heard one of the leaders of the Force call out, to which all 60 of their Mass Accelerators sang out, aiming for the Giant in the lead.  The massive monster was only about 200 feet away from their front line, which was well within range of the powerful ballistae.  With such a large target, none of the bolts missed their mark, slamming into the chest of the 80-foot monstrosity within a second of each other with so much force that the Giant was actually knocked off its feet.  The ground shook from the impact of the multi-ton monster falling on its back, and Violet had to catch herself from falling.

When she stabilized herself and looked around, she saw that the others on the Hauler with her were doing the same, though one of the Accelerator crew had fallen off.  She doubted that he was seriously hurt, but it just went to show how powerful that minor quake had been.

Yet, for all of the damage done to the Giant from the bolts, it wasn’t dead.  Lying on the ground, a roar of pain echoed across the hilly grassland, causing the Journeyman Enchanter to cover her ears in response.  Looking at the injured monster, she saw that its chest was peppered with bolts, sunk so far inside its body that they could barely be seen sticking out, but that wasn’t enough to kill the massive creature.

It was going to take a lot more than that, though it was a good start.  Already, the Accelerators were reloading, and just as the Giant sat up from its fall, the same Defensive Force leader shouted, “Fire!”  Another volley of bolts shot out and hit the Giant again, this time aiming for something a bit more vulnerable: the Giant’s face.  Still yelling out in pain from the initial strike of bolts, it was afflicted further as a few dozen went directly up its maw, puncturing the back of its throat. Another 2 luckily aimed projectiles went into both eyes, piercing them and blinding the massive monster; more than half of the rest were embedded in its cheeks or nose, though a half-dozen had been aimed low – right into its throat.

That seemed to do the trick that 60 bolts to its chest couldn’t accomplish; the softer skin of its neck was practically ripped apart from the impact of 6 Accelerator bolts, tearing its throat and jugular arteries open in a gory display of purplish-colored blood.  The force of the impact once again knocked it back, though it was only a few feet that the enormous form slid backwards, slamming its head against the ground at the same time.  Then, thankfully, the Giant stopped moving, disappearing moments later – to the cheers of the Defensive Force.

Violet joined in, happy that they had a Weapon that could defeat the enormous Giant monsters, but their celebration was short-lived.

“EVERYONE OFF THE HAULERS!”

It was so unexpected that Violet whipped around to see what the leader was talking about, looking towards the remaining Giants – and what she saw froze her into inaction.  Fortunately, the Force wasn’t as frozen in response; before she knew what was happening, someone had forcibly grabbed her, threw her over a shoulder and leapt off the Hauler.

It was not a second too soon, because the next moment a ginormous tree passed through the space where the Hauler had been, completely demolishing the vehicle and everything on it.  Still falling to the ground on someone’s shoulder, Violet watched in seeming slow-motion as the tree continued on its trajectory, smashing into another Hauler just behind theirs.  The Enchanter could see the shocked faces of those that hadn’t been able to evacuate from the Hauler in time, as their bodies were destroyed just as quickly as the rest of the vehicle.

Violet and her rescuer hit the ground a second later, and she felt herself dropped as a result; the fall wasn’t too bad, however, and after a quick roll she came to a stop.  Looking up, she saw that her rescuer was none other than Princess Celeste, her face a mask of rage as she stared up at the approaching Giants.  Violet immediately realized that the thrown tree club from one of the monsters had also destroyed their forward-most Burning Darkness barrier, and her field of vision could now encompass the 3 remaining Giants as they steadily made their way closer to the Defensive Force.

Or what was left of the Defensive Force, at least; it seemed that the tree that had hit her Hauler and the one behind hadn’t been the only one thrown, because the now-weaponless Giants had taken out 2 vehicles, leaving them with only 2 Haulers still whole and undamaged.  Worse than that, all of the Force members that had been at the rear, protecting the opened portion from attack, had been either hit by the flung trees or killed as shrapnel from the destroyed Haulers sliced through them.  She couldn’t get an accurate count as she got to her feet, but she estimated that more than 50 of her fellow Gnomes had just perished.

“Thanks, Princess—where are you going?!”  Violet was trying to thank the Princess for saving her, but the battle-crazy Royal Gnome had taken off running – and was currently headed straight for the approaching Giants.  What is she doing?  Is she suicidal?

Whatever she was, Violet couldn’t allow the Princess – the last remaining member of their Royal family – to go alone.  The Journeyman Enchanter wasn’t a fighter, however, and she wasn’t sure what to do…until her eyes landed on the 2 remaining Haulers, their Mass Accelerators hanging limply in their cradles, without anyone operating them.

“Up!  Everyone up!  Get to the Accelerators; the Princess is headed out there, so you need to back her up!”  There were groans of pain, as not everyone had managed to avoid being hurt by the flung tree clubs, but they obeyed her shouts.  Violet did the same, rushing to the nearest intact Hauler and pulling herself up the ladder before just about anyone else.  Grabbing one of the bolts gathered up nearby, she placed it into the ballista, aimed it towards the closest Giant, and touched the Activation rune.  The pulling of the “bow” happened so quickly that she barely saw it happen, but the next moment the bolt flew out and flew true, hitting the Giant in the chest.  A single bolt wasn’t much of a deterrent, and only a single grunt of pain in response showed that it actually hit the monster, but it certainly wasn’t enough to stop it.  What it did do, however, was turn its attention from the Princess running full out, her hand-axes clutched in her hands, to Violet, already loading another bolt into the Accelerator.

By that time, most of the other positions on the Hauler were being filled with Force members, loading bolts of their own.  Before she fired again, she looked around and saw fear and shock on their faces, but it was also accompanied by determination.  They were scared, but they knew that they couldn’t fail here; if they did, there wasn’t much to stop the dungeons around here from continuously expanding, eventually putting everyone’s lives at risk.

They weren’t the only ones to realize that, because all of the War Machine pilots and Shredder Cone operators were already on the move – Felbar included.  Violet couldn’t think about his safety, however, because she was currently aiming another bolt…and…fire!  This one sunk into its upper shoulder, missing the neck that she had been aiming for.  More bolts were fired sporadically as the other Accelerator operators fired as soon as they were ready, hoping to do some damage before the Giants got too close.  While they didn’t have their clubs anymore, they could still stomp and smash all the Gnomes into a pulp with barely any trouble.

A lucky bolt from one of the Accelerators managed to hit the next Giant in its right eye, causing the monster to bellow out and hold its hand to its face, while it attempted to pull out the projectile.  That was the opening that the War Machines needed, as they rushed in and started to chop at the legs of the Giant, doing horrendous damage with large swipes of their axes.  The monster attempted to pick up one of its legs to kick at the trio of Machines, but its other leg had been so damaged (down to the bone) that it snapped when all of the weight was put onto it.  The massive monster suddenly fell, collapsing to the ground so quickly that it fell onto one of the War Machines, smothering it beneath its bulk.

Violet couldn’t tell if the War Machine was destroyed and the pilot killed, though she was relieved that it wasn’t Felbar underneath the Giant.  Instead, she concentrated on firing again on the prostrate Giant, her bolt flying right over another War Machine to land in the side of its neck.  Yes!  Just like before, the damage done to the throat was extensive, and her own shot was followed up by 2 more, tearing the vulnerable neck open even wider.  A few seconds later, the Giant went still, disappearing…and revealing the crushed remains of the War Machine beneath it.  Needless to say, Violet highly doubted that the Warmaster pilot inside had survived.

Unfortunately, the other Giants were learning – or the Dungeon Core controlling them had learned; either way, the enormous dungeon monsters held their arms up in front of their face as they continued to approach, blocking any bolts from hitting anything vulnerable.  The ones that hit their arms or chest were little more than pinpricks, and even trying to fire together wasn’t enough of an impact to do more than annoy the humongous creatures.  Soon enough, they passed by where the other two Giants had been taken down, walking in step with each other, their footsteps causing the ground to rumble as they walked.  In short, they were getting into dangerous territory, because a few more steps would take them in range of the main Defensive Force.

Without any other option, the Shredder Cones attacked one while the War Machines attacked the other.  The Cones did a spectacular amount of damage, shredding the skin and muscle off of the one on Violet’s left side, but the success didn’t last long; the Giant reacted quicker than she had seen it move before, punching down with both fists, smashing into 2 of the Cones at the same time, demolishing them into a spray of splinters.  A third was kicked so hard that it flew at least 150 feet away before crashing and practically exploding from the impact, though the Giant was severely damaged as well.  The fourth Cone went all-in and spun into the right leg while the left was kicked out, tearing it up and causing it to break; the Giant came crashing down in a similar fashion as the second, but it fortunately missed crushing the last spinning Cone in its collapse.

Now vulnerable to attack, the Accelerators wasted no time in taking advantage.  A dozen bolts sprouted around its face and neck, causing additional outbursts of pain, but nothing was yet lethal.  At least, not until Violet saw a tiny form rushing at the Giant from behind.

“Hold your fire!  Concentrate on the other Giant!”

Amazingly, they all listened to her, and Violet shot her next bolt at the upright Giant, who was currently dismantling their War Machine group with ruthless efficiency.  That didn’t mean it wasn’t getting hurt, because axe heads and flames from Felbar’s War Machine were causing some serious wounds, but the Giant had picked up and crushed 3 of the Machines already, leaving just the grizzled Warmaster and one other to continue the fight.  The remaining Shredder Cone was still trying to tear up the prone Giant, not seeing what Violet was seeing.

Namely, that Princess Celeste – enchanted hand-axes still in her possession – was climbing up the Giant’s throat from the side.  Even as it started to sit up, arm raised to smash the still-attacking Cone, the Royal Gnome struck, slicing open its throat with a powerful slash of both axes.  There was a moment when nothing seemed to happen, and Violet wondered if Celeste had cut deep enough, but the next second a wave of purple blood erupted out of the wound and practically drowned the Princess in viscous liquid.

That didn’t seem to deter the battle-hardened Gnome as she turned and jumped off the dying Giant, already sprinting for the other target in her sights.

Violet went to grab another bolt, but her hands came up empty.  Looking around, she saw that all of the others on her Hauler were either out or close to it; the situation looked similar on the other Hauler as well.  We’re out of bolts!  No!  We’re so close.  Looking down at the carnage of the other transport vehicles, she could see some bolts scattered here and there, but it would take a while to scrounge them up, check to see if they were able to be fired, and then brought up to the waiting Mass Accelerators.

Almost as if the rest of the Defensive Force realized this as well, over 3 dozen of their remaining members were already running towards the Giant, with Flame Thumpers in hand and Ice and Absorptions Bombs at the ready.  Violet was proud of them rushing to end the fight before it was too late, but she also realized that they might not be enough.

It was time to use her backup weapon.

Looking up into the sky, she saw the Aerie Roc still circling around.  “Down!  Attack!” she shouted, using all of her thoughts to direct the bird down to finish the job.  She wasn’t sure if it would hear her over the sounds of the battle still going on, but she put everything she had into the order.

Thankfully, that was all that was needed.  Instantly after she finished her order, the Roc dove down at tremendous speed, looking like some sort of projectile itself.  Talons extended in front of it, the enormous bird slammed into the head of the Giant as it was bending down to pick up Felbar’s War Machine.  Long scratches marred the bald head of the Giant as it was rocked backwards from the impact, causing it to fall on its rear end.

The Roc rose back into the air after it finished its dive, gaining altitude for another attack.  However, before it could attack, she shouted, “Hold!” as a wave of Bombs from the Defensive Force suddenly impacted its sitting body, and Ice shards were suddenly embedded in multiple parts of its body.  These were quickly followed up with Absorption Bombs, which didn’t have too much of a visible impact when they activated, though the roars of pain from the Giant said otherwise.

In a rage, the massive creature bent forward, reaching further than Violet thought possible, and then opened its hand up wide enough to completely flatten a dozen Gnomes of the Force – that had just thrown the Bombs at close range – with a powerful *smack* against the ground.  The Giant swept his hand to the side, sending another dozen Gnomes tumbling away, though how hurt they were was hard to judge.

Felbar and the other War Machine attacked again, just as the Shredder Cone arrived, turning the Giant’s attention away from the individual Gnomes.  Felbar was knocked away with an almost-casual smack by the Giant’s hand, though he wasn’t destroyed – only sent sprawling about 50 feet away.  The others were in danger of being killed, however, as the massive creature turned its attention on them.

“Attack!”

The diving attack hit the Giant unexpectedly again, this time to its face, and the impact was so great that it knocked the humongous creature on its back.  There were a few nicks to its nose and cheeks, but for the most part it was just stunned.

But not stunned enough to not shoot its hand up to grab the bird by one of its talons as it tried to fly away.  The Roc, caught by the powerful grip of the Giant, tried to peck at the creature’s fingers as it flapped its wings in an effort to get away, but the Giant’s grip was like a vise, not letting it get away.  The other hand raised up, and Violet knew what was coming next; while the Roc was technically bigger than the Giant in terms of length, it wasn’t nearly as powerful or durable – it would be squished between the hands of the enormous monster, like a large chicken would be helpless in the hands of a Gnome.

Violet watched in despair as the other hand managed to work itself around the neck of her Roc, despite its struggling to get away.  As it screeched out in pain, before being cut off from the hand around its throat, the Enchanter saw something that gave her hope: The Princess was at it again.

Having climbed up on the Giant’s throat during the confusion, Celeste used her hand-axes to cut into the throat.  However, before she had done more than begin the wound, the hand around the Roc’s neck let go of its stranglehold and swiped at the annoying Gnome on its throat.  The action caused the hand-axes already producing a wound to tear it open even further as she was flung away, opening up the artery and the throat worse than if she had been left alone.

The Giant let go of the Roc, which flew upwards at Violet’s direction, as it used both hands to try to stop the bleeding, but it was too late.  Not wanting to go without a fight, it sat up and kicked out at the approaching Gnomes on foot, catching 4 of them with an enormous foot, sending them flying back towards the main perimeter, where they sadly flew through the Burning Darkness barriers, frying to a crisp in less than a second.

That last bit of defiance at its fate was all that the Giant had in it, however, as it quickly bled out and collapsed backwards, dead before it hit the ground.  It disappeared moments later, leaving the remaining Gnomes on the battlefield stunned at what had just occurred.

The groans of the wounded still within the perimeter broke Violet out of her shock; shock at the carnage she had witnessed, and the shock of still being alive.  They had brought with them a few Healing Amulets, small silver circles that had been enchanted with Holy energy to speed up the rate of recovery in those that were injured, though they had a limited number of uses.  The Amulets could even repair broken bones if given enough time, but if there were too many injuries – or extremely serious internal injuries – the healing could end up killing them.

Without thinking, she grabbed one of them from the small case near the front of the Hauler and then slid down the ladder to start healing those that she could find.  It wasn’t hard to locate them, luckily, as all she had to do was listen for the moans or screams of pain.  She found one of the Defensive Force members buried under a plank of wood that originally belonged to a Hauler, and she pressed the Healing Amulet just below the shank of wood sticking through his upper shoulder.

“This is going to hurt,” Violet warned, but he just nodded.  Pulling the wood out of his wound caused him to scream out in agony, but the Amulet was enough to help stop the bleeding enough to keep him alive, and the wounds slowly started to knit itself back together.  As soon as the injury had repaired itself enough to keep him stable enough to survive, she took the Amulet away – though he was already unconscious.  The healing took a lot out of those who received it, which was why it would kill those with massive injuries.

Just as she was about to start on another wounded Gnome, one of those with massive injuries was carried back inside the defensive perimeter.  Violet rushed over to them, tears in her eyes as she looked down at the battered and broken form of Princess Celeste being gently lowered to the ground by a quartet of Defensive Force members.  Somehow, despite the broken legs, broken right arm, and what were likely multiple internal injuries, the Princess was still conscious.

“This is nothing, I assure you,” she coughed out.  “I’ll be back up in no time.  Did anyone grab my axes?”

Looking up at those near her, she could see the same thought she had reflected on their faces.  She wasn’t going to make it.  Based on the injuries she could see, she doubted the Royal Gnome would last more than a few hours, and she estimated that there was a 99% chance that trying to use one of their Healing Amulets would kill her.  If only we had someone that had some healing spells, like the Elves, or—

Looking up, she saw the Roc circling overhead again, no visible signs of being worse-for-wear after its near death at the hands of a Giant.  Glancing down at the Princess again, she wondered if they had enough time.

“Do it, Violet,” said a voice from behind her.  She whirled around and saw Felbar, limping a little, but otherwise okay.  She ran to him and threw her arms around him, thankful that he had survived, but feeling guilty for being happy when so many had perished.  The Warmaster patted her on the back, before continuing what he was saying.  “We’ll be okay.  I think we still have enough here to stop any other small attacks, and it’ll take those dungeons a while to recover from this loss and field another horde of monsters like that.  Go…and bring back some more Energy Orbs or even Cubes for us – we can really use them now,” he said sadly.

Violet knew exactly what he was talking about.  While they didn’t have enough Master Enchanters anymore to create more War Machines, that didn’t mean that production of the constructs had halted.  At the moment, there were literally hundreds of them completely built and ready to go – the only thing they were lacking were enchantments.  And Warmasters to pilot them, because they were becoming scarcer; fortunately, the way Sandra could enchant them meant that they could be piloted by anyone, not just Warmasters.

Without a moment to spare, she got everyone who could help moving.  Calling down the Roc, she had those available strap the Princess as securely to the massive bird’s harness as they could; luckily, she had passed out a minute or so before, so all of the ministrations that were likely causing more pain were missed.  After getting herself strapped in as well, she ordered the Roc to take off and fly to the northwest.  It was only when they were thousands of feet above the ground that she realized she hadn’t been scared in the least during the takeoff, and her fear of heights was currently pushed to the back of her mind.

It was probably because all of her concentration was on getting to Sandra as soon as possible, and utilizing the healing of the Dungeon Core’s drones in time to save the Princess.

Chapter 24

Echo followed as silently as she could behind the lead elements of what she was mentally calling “The Rebels”, because it made her chuckle internally thinking of the strict, proper Elder Herrlot as a “rebel”.  It wasn’t really fair to label them rebels, she knew, because they weren’t really “rebelling” against the King and Queen; nevertheless, they were looking to subvert the technical authority overseeing the Elven people (even if it shouldn’t be the Chamberlain).  If that wasn’t rebellion, then…well, she really wasn’t sure what would qualify as a rebellion.

To make their whole plan of action even worse, Echo still didn’t know if she should be doing it.

After all, she only had the word of the Elder and Churven as proof that the Chamberlain was doing all of this.  True, there was the whole deal with him not allowing Energy Orbs to be distributed to all of the Elites.  Plus, the fact that she had been apprehended as soon as she arrived without explanation was a bit suspicious.  Additionally, not having seen either the King or Queen in more than a brief visit over 20 years ago to the Royal Tree, Echo couldn’t say if the Royal family was acting strangely or not.  Those things, added to another 3 or 4 incidents she heard about over the years, were all pointing toward the Chamberlain pulling the strings of authority.

All of that could be explained, however; she could think of a half-dozen reasons for each individual thing happening the way it had.  The problem was that everything had happened together, which was entirely too much for coincidence.  At least, that was what the Elder and the others wanted her to believe.  She couldn’t disprove any of it, though, especially when she was stuck in a hole in the ground at the back end of nowhere.

So, she would accompany The Rebels to their destination, mainly because it ultimately led to her purpose of coming back to the heart of Symenora in the first place.  She would see the Royal family one way or another, she figured.  Either she would be saving the King and Queen from the Chamberlain’s machinations, thereby bringing the Royal couple to Sandra’s dungeon to see first-hand how things were going to quickly spiral out of control unless they did something to stop it.  Or, which she still thought possible but hoped wasn’t true, the King and Queen were perfectly fine and this was some sort of coup as she figured; at that point, she would at least try to pass on her message before they were all killed.  It was the least she could do to save as many of her people as possible, and if she had to die to get the word out, so be it.

Naturally, she did not want to die, but this was bigger than just what she wanted; if her people fell to the dungeons, which would be tragic enough, the world was likely doomed in the near future, as well.  Not that she thought that the Elven people were the only thing keeping the world from collapsing to the might of the dungeons, but many of their people had been around long enough to know how even a single powerful dungeon could threaten everyone. One didn’t have to look any further than the wastelands to see that truth; if the Elves fell, there would be an entire land filled with dungeons that no one was culling or keeping small enough to be very little threat.

The entire world rests on my shoulders…or is that being a bit too dramatic?  She wasn’t sure where all of these nervous thoughts were coming from, but it probably had to do with the fact that she was currently involved in sneaking into the Royal Tree…in broad daylight…with over 35 Elves that were technically non-rebellious rebels…hidden by the shadowy ability of one of their number.

“Tell me again why this wouldn’t have been better at night?” she whispered ahead of her, barely able to make out the form of Winter ahead of her in the darkness covering him.  She wasn’t sure why they had put her so close to the one person she was nearly convinced would betray their cause, but the Elder had been adamant about the arrangement of their group.

“Keep your mouth, shut, Ranger.  They might not be able to see us, but they can certainly hear us.”  While she couldn’t see it, Echo heard the sneer in his voice, but she was learning to ignore it – along with just about anything else that came out of his mouth.

Besides, she already knew the answer, but she couldn’t help but speak out from her nervous energy.  She was nowhere near the strength of those that were infiltrating the Royal tree, nor the strength of those they were trying to infiltrate; all of the Royal Guards were Elites in their own right, and The Rebels had already proven they were worthy of their Elite designation.  Echo felt like a tiny mouse walking among giant Agorphiers, the six-legged monsters she had helped to kill back near Avensglen with the Elder’s help.

That, and there hadn’t been an Elf-on-Elf war in over a millennium; the Ranger was worried about what would ultimately happen today.  Every Elven life was precious to their people, because there were so few of them compared to the other races – especially the Orcs.  From what she knew of them from talking with Kelerim, they held very little value in individual lives, because there were almost always more Orcs around Orcrim than the society could easily support.  So, if they were forced to take a life of one of their own today (other than that of the Chamberlain, whom she was pretty sure was on the Elder’s kill list), it could have greater repercussions than what the Chamberlain was doing.  (Or not doing; Echo was still undecided on that point).

If they were forced to take more than one life…then how was what they were doing going to help?  Sure, they might free the Royals from this mind-control thing the Chamberlain was doing, but at what price?  Would they slaughter all of the Royal Guards, who were Elites that could potentially be the only thing that would hold back their eventual destruction?  Killing unnecessarily today would only hasten their demise as a people – it was bad no matter how you looked at it.

Peering out from her darkness shroud, cast at great expense to cover the entire group by an Elite named Mordecai, she saw that they were already at the base of the Royal Tree.  No one saw them, despite a big black cloud of shadows moving in coordination, because no one further than 5 feet away actually saw a big black cloud of shadows.  Instead, what they were seeing (or weren’t seeing) was a slight distortion, as the Nether energy used to power the spell took the simple sunlight streaming through the treetops and used it in a way to make them invisible.  It was very similar to how Echo could bend that light using her Holy energy, so she understood the idea; unlike her special spell, this shadowy spell twisted and practically destroyed the light so that they wouldn’t show up to the naked eye.

Unless there was a much brighter light nearby, which would overpower the Nether energy in the spell and highlight them easily – which was what happened during her “rescue”.  Light shadows helped to hide them even more, but dark shadows, such as what they would see during night-time, only seemed to emphasize the dark cloud of shadows that hid them.  This was one of two reasons why they had to move during the daytime instead of at night.

The other reason was because they needed the Chamberlain and the King and Queen in the same room in order to sever the tie correctly between them all, ensuring that the Royal family didn’t die right then and there; during the daytime, they were almost guaranteed to be in the Royal Bowery, where they held court.  Or, at least, that was what Churven had told them.  All of these possible-truths and unknowns are messing with my mind.  I honestly don’t even know what to think anymore.

They passed by dozens of people, individuals going about their business in the capital as they made their way to the Royal Tree.  It wasn’t hard to find, as it was in the center of the tree-city, positioned away from all of the other trees nearby so that its magnificence wouldn’t be marred by anything in close proximity.  Either that, or its roots were so large that they literally prevented any trees from growing within a certain distance of its base.  The latter felt more likely to Echo.

Before she was prepared, they arrived before its awe-inspiring presence; Echo looked up and up and up, seeing the Royal Tree with new eyes.  She thought back at her capture and “imprisonment for her own safety”, as well as her second capture and escape by the Elder, and she realized she had never really taken in the sheer magnitude of how large the Tree was.  It soared over 700 feet into the air, was at least 2,000 feet at the widest portion of its base, and had miles of branches lovingly nurtured into thoroughfares for those living and working within its expanse.  Hundreds of rooms just like the one she was confined within dotted the trunk of the Royal Tree, coaxed into existence over many years because actually damaging and physically altering the living tree was almost an impossibility.

The branches could be trimmed and altered with some work, however, which was how they had been changed to create a living community within its trunk and upper branch sections.  Yet, for all of the space within the trunk of the tree, and the branches above, when Echo’s gaze roamed over all of it, there were very few people visible.  The evidence that the Elven race was slowly dying out from the constant attrition by the dungeons was in full display.  I wonder what this place would’ve looked like had there been as many of us as there reportedly used to be, centuries ago.

Sadly, it was only a shadow of what it used to be, and was also one of the reasons Echo had gone along with this plan of The Rebels.  She didn’t want her people to die out, and it was only through the will of those in charge that they could use the tools available to ensure they didn’t.  On the good chance that the Chamberlain was the one stopping the use of the Energy Orbs…well, then he had to go.

The Royal Guards were sparsely populating the grounds around the Tree, though they had a greater presence along the branch pathways leading upwards.  Some of the patrolling Guards were surely going to see them, wouldn’t they?  She hadn’t been told the entire plan, only that they had contingencies in place if they required them, which was another reason why she didn’t fully trust the Elder and what Churven reported was true.  Otherwise, why not tell her everything that she needed to know?

Unless…they didn’t trust her, either.  She hadn’t actually thought of that, but everything started to make a bit more sense when she considered that The Rebels thought she might defect and warn the Chamberlain.  Which, honestly, I had considered at one point, so that is certainly a fair assumption.

Regardless, she still inwardly grumbled at not having all of the plan, but she was committed now – no going back.  Trying to warn the Royal Guards now would likely just end up with her getting killed, as well as The Rebels; whether or not they were telling the truth, she really didn’t want any more people to die than had perished already.  So, she held her tongue as they passed the two bored-looking Royal Guards stationed at the bottom of the main thoroughfare upwards, easily slipping by without any sign that they had been detected.

They traveled up the main branch that wound around the entire Royal Tree dozens of times on its way upwards for nearly 10 minutes, walking carefully yet swiftly, completely silent in their traveling cloud of darkness.  A few times they had to nearly hang off the side to avoid being intercepted by unknowing patrols, but they managed to squeak by without anyone the wiser.  In fact, it was getting to the point where Echo thought it was too easy, but then again, she really didn’t know what she was expecting.

Suddenly, as they turned around another bend in the Tree along its back side (or at least the side they hadn’t seen from the ground), they encountered their first obstacle; two pairs of patrolling Guards were talking to each other, blocking nearly the entire pathway upwards – and they didn’t appear as if they were moving anytime soon.  Looking to either side of them, there was no way they could slide by without revealing themselves.  They were stuck.

Or so she thought.  From the front of The Rebel group, which she could only see because she was part of the Nether spell hiding their presence, came a commotion.  Before she could see what was happening, the 4 Royal Guards were suddenly encased in ice up to their heads, and then vines sprouted from seemingly nowhere, wrapping them up as tightly as Echo had been when she had been carried away from the Royal Tree.  A fine yellow dust surrounded their heads before they could shout for help or even use any spells, though they all looked too shocked at what had happened to react; a moment later, their eyes closed, looking for anything like they had fallen asleep.

What the—?  Echo watched the vines move as if they had a mind of their own, carrying the slumbering Royal Guards to the side of the branch they were walking up on the Tree side, where they disappeared as if they were never there.  Echo inched along the edge of the pathway and looked down in worry, only to see that the vines had attached themselves to the branch and stuck there, keeping the Guards out of sight to anyone walking along, as well as anyone below.  Only if they were specifically looking for them like Echo was would they be found…which was a bit worrying.  What if they fall while still asleep?  What if the spell keeping them there is canceled—?

“Don’t worry, they will wake up in about 2 hours with a little headache and no other side effects,” Echo suddenly heard whispered close to her ear.  She jumped and reached for her bow, but she realized a moment later that it was just Winter sneaking up on her.  “If we’re lucky, they won’t be found and all of this will be over before they come to.”

She just shrugged, not quite sure what to say.  For one, she was glad that they hadn’t killed the Guards and had only put them to sleep somehow; for another, if they could do that to 4 powerful Royal Guards in less than a second, how powerful were The Rebels she had just allied with?

The journey up the rest of the Royal Tree seemed to take forever, as they had to slow down and be very careful; the branch that consisted of the main pathway upwards became much narrower as they ascended, and avoiding not only Guards but the few residents of the tree was much more difficult.  I guess it’s a good thing that there aren’t a lot of people living here, otherwise this would’ve been literally impossible.

Eventually, she thought, their luck in avoiding discovery thus far would give out, and they would have to make a run for it.  When that happened, Echo was worried that there could be some casualties as a result, which was why she was being as quiet and obedient as possible.  She didn’t want to be the cause of unnecessary deaths if keeping her mouth shut and staying in her place in the group was all it took to prevent that from happening.

Strangely, as they neared the Royal Bowery, they saw fewer and fewer Guards.  Whether they figured the topmost portion of the Royal Tree was already more secure, or if they didn’t have enough Guards to station or patrol everywhere at once, Echo wasn’t sure – but it was eerie to see fewer people blocking their way towards their goal than there was down below.  Eventually, they arrived at the top of the Tree, where the upper branches all met together in a ring around the top of the trunk, creating a massive area between them that formed the Bowery.  Echo had never been inside that she could remember, but she had heard that it was one of the most beautiful sights that could be seen throughout all of Symenora.

It didn’t take long to see and confirm that, indeed, the sight of the massively thick branches extending up and outwards, creating a crown of leaves that left the very center of the Bowery open to the sunlight, was enough to take her breath away.  Or, more likely, the reason her breath was suddenly taken from her was the sight of nearly 100 Royal Guards assembled in the middle of the Bowery.  They appeared to be protecting two people on thrones made of exquisitely shaped wood and a smug-looking Elf in pompous-looking robes, and the Guards were on edge, as if they were waiting for something.

Such as the arrival of The Rebels.

Chapter 25

“Ah, our guests have arrived!”

How—?

Before she could complete that thought, a large disk made from pure ice appeared above the group of Guards, reflecting the bright sunlight coming down from above, angled perfectly to fully envelop The Rebels.  Cries of shock and surprise erupted from the group as Echo found that the sunlight was bright enough to fully reveal them, with only a slight haziness that evidenced the shadowy cloud that had been hiding them.  After a moment, even that fell away as Mordecai dropped the spell, as it was obvious to everyone that it wasn’t working anymore.

“See here, my King and Queen, I spoke the truth!  These individuals, led by Herrlot and Churven, have come to usurp your rightful place!” the smug-looking Elf continued, waving his hand in their direction, as The Rebels stood stock still in surprise at the revelation of their presence.  How did the Chamberlain, whom I assume this pompous fool is, know we would be here?  And how did he see us?

Echo was staring at the Chamberlain, trying to figure out if what she had been told was true about him; the vibe he was putting off was that he was the sort of person that lived for being in charge and wouldn’t take no for an answer, as well as walking over anyone in his way to get what he wanted.  But does that mean he’s controlling the minds of the King and Queen, or is he just a mean, inconsiderate person?

She thought she got her answer a moment later as she saw the Royal couple flinch almost imperceptibly, before issuing an order.  “Guards!  Capture them so that we can get to the bottom of this!” they said in unison, word for word.

Ok, if that isn’t a sign that something is going on, I don’t know what is.

“No, Chamberlain.  It is you that has been trying to usurp the King and Queen’s authority, and you need to be stopped,” the Elder said, stepping forward confidently.  As she spoke, her staff holding the Natural Energy Orb flashed once and a wall of branches suddenly sprang into existence 5 feet tall, nominally cutting off the rushing Guards from reaching them.

“Nonsense!  It is you, by your actions right now, who has shown your treachery!” the Chamberlain shouted, before giggling under his breath.  “I would think that someone as old as you would know that casting any spell in the Bowery is punishable as treason against the Royal Family.”

Echo had known that, but she hadn’t really thought about it when the Elder had talked about infiltrating the Bowery.  With surprise and brute force, she figured the plan was to take out the Chamberlain and deal with the fallout afterwards.  What she also knew, at least by rumor, was that there was reportedly a bubble of magical negation that the Royal Tree could create in the Bowery itself, similar to how it protected its trunk from nearly all harm.  Reportedly, this bubble canceled all spells as soon as they were cast, meaning that most of The Rebels – despite their powerful strength in manipulating elemental energy – were practically useless.  So how was the Elder able to cast the spell that created the wall of branches?

An inaudible *pop* reverberated through the entire Bowery, and suddenly the world felt muted somehow.  Echo had a suspicion of what it was, and a quick experimentation of using her Holy energy to turn herself invisible was met with instant failure as the energy just seemed to dissipate as soon as it left her body.  I was right; somehow, the Chamberlain is able to turn that bubble on and off.

“You were right, Chamberlain.  It was a risk lowering the Negation Sphere for a time, but it allowed us to see these unwelcome invaders for who they really are,” the Queen said with conviction, though it sounded a bit wooden to Echo.  Almost as if the Queen had rehearsed the conversation – or had been forced to say it.

“Guards!  Capture them so that we can get to the bottom of this!” the two Royals repeated again in unison, using the exact same words as before.  Ok…I’m now convinced that even if they aren’t being controlled, there is something seriously wrong with them.

“Retreat!” the Elder suddenly yelled, even as half of the Guards were running around the branch wall, while the other half were chopping at it with the weapons they had pulled from their side.  Echo turned around and ran with the rest, but she collided with the unmovable bulk of Winter as he abruptly stopped.  Wha—?

Oh.  The entrance of the Bowery was filled with Guards as well, ones that she recognized.  Not personally, of course, but the way some of their damp clothes and bloodshot eyes stared at them without any type of sympathy, she identified them as the Guards that The Rebels had frozen, trussed up with vines, and put to sleep on their way up the Tree.  How they woke up, escaped, and arrived shortly after they did wasn’t important; the fact that they were there and blocking their way was enough to stop Echo and the others from leaving.

But she could at least try to impart her information before they were captured – or killed, as she wasn’t sure where this would stop.

“Your Highnesses!  I must tell you about the danger that is threatening our people!” she yelled toward the two on the elevated thrones, hoping to be heard over the rush of Guards quickly surrounding The Rebels.  Her fellow “conspirators” had pulled out their weapons and were facing off against at least 3 or 4 times their number, but she was trying to get the attention of the 2 people that could make a difference.  Or at least, should be able to make a difference.

It seemed as though her words got through, but not quite as she intended.  “What is this?  I won’t hear any other slander towards the Chamberlain; we’ve already seen your traitorous—”

Echo couldn’t help but interrupt the King, and a startled look came over his perfectly symmetrical face, framed by his golden-colored long hair.  “No!  I don’t care about the Chamberlain; I came here to warn you that 4 dungeons have been destroyed near the wasteland—”

That got a reaction.  Both the King and Queen froze with their mouths open, as if they had just heard something so unexpected that they couldn’t believe it.  What was more likely, Echo figured, was that the knowledge of the danger she hinted at was so problematic that it was messing with the Chamberlain’s mind control spell.

“Lies!  These traitors would say anything to save their skin.  Ignore these untruths—”

“Wait.”  The Queen struggled to speak as she bent forward in an effort to hear better, and Echo could see the sweat on her pale-skinned forehead even from nearly 100 feet away.  Although she wasn’t necessarily talking to the Guards, the deadly and annoyed-looking Elves surrounding The Rebels paused in their encirclement and gradual encroachment.  At the moment, they were at a standstill.  “We…would like to…hear what this young one has to say.”

The effort that went into those words seemed monumental to Echo, and the Ranger felt pride in the Royal family in fighting the influence of the Chamberlain as much as they could.  Because, as much as she had doubted it before, there was too much evidence to her eyes and ears to discount the information provided by Churven and the Elder.  The King and Queen had been compromised, and The Rebels had been in the right to try to free them from the evil Chamberlain’s grasp.

“NO!  These are all lies meant to confuse you!”  The smug look was gone from the pompous Elf, replaced by desperation and intense concentration.  Echo glanced at the Queen and saw the worried and defiant glint in her eye suddenly disappear, and the Royal Elf collapsed back in the throne, all fight completely drained from her.  The King had also collapsed in the seat as well, different from his interested posture earlier, looking as if someone had just cut his legs out from under him.

How is he able to do that with the Negation Sphere?  She thought about what she had heard about it and figured it out quickly; the negation only affected new spells as they were cast, not existing ones like the ones embedded in the Royal couple’s mind.  As well as the ones that were likely infecting all of the Guards.  They were screwed, to put it lightly.

The smug look was back on the Chamberlain’s face, though he looked exhausted; reinforcing his spell must have required a lot of energy.  The King and Queen suddenly sat up straight, a blank look on their faces.  “Guards!  Capture them so that we can get to the bottom of this!”

There was the same phrase again, recited by rote from the instructions imparted by the Chamberlain.  Echo suddenly found her bow in her hand, as she unconsciously equipped it with the intent to defend herself.  She found one of the explosive bolts from her quiver and prepared to fire it at the nearest Guards…she hesitated, however, because she really didn’t want to kill anyone.  Anyone but the one that should be killed to end this, however….

She quickly whipped around and fired at the same moment, releasing her arrow towards the Chamberlain still looking smug and unconcerned next to the Royal couple.  She vaguely heard the Elder yell, “No!” as she released, but by that time it was too late.

The bolt flew true, aiming straight for the heart of the smiling Elf; 5 feet before impact, the tip of the projectile suddenly ran into something.  The explosion was great enough that it knocked over a few of the Royal Guards that were still hacking away at the wall of branches the Elder had created, though it didn’t appear as though they were seriously hurt.

The explosion also revealed a glowing barrier that ran from the floor of the Bowery nearly up to the top of the tree branches a hundred feet above, completely blocking off access to anything behind it – including the King, Queen, and Chamberlain.  Echo recognized it immediately, because it was made entirely of Holy elemental energy; it used the light streaming in from the opening above to form a Light Barrier that prevented energy-based spells and effects – as well as any projectiles moving past a certain speed – from passing through it.  It was usually invisible unless it was activated, which was why she hadn’t seen or even sensed it until the bolt had impacted it.

“I sensed it as soon as we walked in, though I wasn’t sure why it was there,” the Elder said to the silence that echoed through the Bowery.  Ah…so that would explain why no one had taken the chance to shoot the Chamberlain.  Echo was certainly not the only one that used a bow in The Rebels, nor was she the best shot, and it hadn’t occurred to her why they hadn’t fired until now.

The Chamberlain shook his head dramatically, *tsk*ing as he did so.  “Well, well, well.  I guess that just proves my point for the second time.  This time one of them directly attacked a member of the court, in front of all of these witnesses, no less.  And perhaps even injured some?  Such a pity.  Guards!”

Still shocked at what happened, it took Echo a moment to react – a moment too long, as it turned out.  She pulled another bolt from her quiver, seeing that it was an explosive bolt as well and took aim at the approaching Royal Guards…and lowered her bow almost immediately.  Even if she got the shot off, it might kill the Guard and those around him, and perhaps even the Rebels nearby.

“Put your weapons down,” the Elder suddenly said, dropping her own staff on the Bowery floor with a clatter.  There was a momentary hesitation before the rest of the Rebels copied her, with more than a few grumbles.  Echo was stuck standing there staring at the bow in her hands, wondering where everything had gone wrong.

She was violently grabbed by two Royal Guards and the bow ripped from her hands, her strength not nearly enough to keep ahold of it.  She felt the quiver on her back pulled away as well, leaving her weaponless without any way to use her elemental energy to fight back.

“Now, the King and Queen have agreed to be merciful even after what was seen and heard here today,” the Chamberlain said as soon as all The Rebels – including Echo – had been quickly tied up with thick ropes produced by the Royal Guards.  Rope was not normally a common tool to tie up prisoners, especially Elves, because there were countless ways to manipulate just about any element to sever the bonds; since they couldn’t cast anything, the presence of the rope was just another indication that all of this had been planned in advance.

“It took a plea coming from one of these traitors to convince us to sentence them to exile instead of death, but we can’t afford to lose any more of our people these days,” the Chamberlain continued.  A plea?  When?  I didn’t hear anything.

“With their full cooperation, we were informed of this attempted coup, the concerned individual wished to avoid any bloodshed.  Of course—” the smug Elf paused for a moment, before his eyes met Echo’s and he smiled cruelly— “That was before one of them attempted to actually kill one of us.  For that reason, and for spreading lies about the wastelands and these so-called Energy Orbs, the one named Echo will be publicly executed.”

Everyone – excluding the King, Queen, and Chamberlain – exclaimed in surprise, even the Royal Guards keeping them captive.  Echo could understand, she supposed, as there hadn’t been a public execution in centuries.

“That wasn’t the deal!  You said that you would let everyone live!” said a voice coming from within The Rebel group…and Echo wasn’t sure if she was more shocked at who it was or who it wasn’t.  She had expected Winter to be the one that had betrayed them, as he had been a thorn in her side from the beginning and loudly expressed his concerns and complaints over their plan of action.  Instead of him, however, the voice belonged to someone else: Sheelagh, one of the Elite archers that had been so warm and friendly to her almost as soon as she had arrived.

“That was before she tried to kill us, and we can’t allow that kind of action to go without an appropriate response.  If she had succeeded, she could’ve destabilized our entire command structure – and then where would we be?  I—we think this is a fitting punishment.”  The Chamberlain leaned forward and said in an overly dramatic conspiratorial whisper, “And don’t worry, your family will still be fine.”

Her family?  This Creator-forsaken heel of an Elf threatened her family?  That’s a low blow, even coming from someone who is mind-controlling the King and Queen of our people.  Family was sacred to the Elven people, because there were so few of them, and threatening someone’s family with deadly consequences if you didn’t do what they said was almost as bad as murdering a child.  It was…unthinkable.

A cloud’s shadow crossed over the opening above, creating a brief dimming of the sunlight right after the Chamberlain spoke, as if to emphasize how evil he was.  Not a single one of the Guards – and especially not the King and Queen, who almost seemed catatonic at that point – reacted to the evil one’s words, showing that they were indeed mind-controlled, if to a lesser extent than the Royal couple.  Echo looked around and saw the angry faces on The Rebels, however, though they weren’t directed towards the one that betrayed them – they were directed towards the Chamberlain.

She felt the same way, and she couldn’t even blame Sheelagh for her betrayal; while she wasn’t entirely absolved for what she did, everyone understood why she did it.  That…thing…needs to die.

“Guards!  Take them away, if you would.”  The Chamberlain waved negligently in their direction, as if they were of no consequence.

Not yet!  I need to kill him before I’m stuck somewhere before my execution!  I won’t get another chance—but I can’t break free of these ropes, there are over 100 Royal Guards around, they confiscated my bow, there’s a barrier protecting him from arrows and bolts, and I can’t use any spells!  I can’t do it….

She began to despair, just as something strange brushed her senses.  A shadow fell over the Bowery again for less than a second as a cloud briefly hid the sun—wait!  What she sensed wasn’t a cloud, it was something else entirely.

It was the Aerie Roc above the trees, circling around and awaiting Echo’s orders.  She looked up quickly without trying to draw too much attention to what she was doing, even as she was roughly led away with shoves to her back.  While she didn’t actually see the massive bird, she was 99% sure that it was there, just out of sight.

Without waiting anymore, as she was being led out of the Bowery and any hope of ever surviving was fading with each of her steps, she threw her head back and yelled, “ATTACK!”, projecting thoughts of the Chamberlain as she did so.  The entirety of the people in the Bowery froze at her shout, the Guards looking at her and the other Rebels, expecting some sort of surprise attack that they hadn’t accounted for.  Echo couldn’t see the Chamberlain’s face because she was forcibly facing the other direction, but she could only assume that he had a similar expression of wariness and confusion.

“Guard – silence her permanently if she tries something like that ag—”  The rest of the pompous fool’s words were cut off by a branch-shaking screech, and the hole that opened up to the sunlight above was abruptly covered.

“What is that?!  King, drop the Sphere and both of you protect me!” she heard the Chamberlain scream from behind her.  Echo whipped around and out of the grip of the Guard holding her, in time to see the giant bird descending towards the Chamberlain, talons poised to rip him apart.  Suddenly, she felt another inaudible *pop* as the Negation Sphere was collapsed, and her heart sank. There’s no way it’ll survive against the King and Queen, especially with how powerful they are.

Her heart recovered from its disappointment as she looked at the King, who was fighting his reactions, shaking almost uncontrollably as he closed his eyes with a smile.  The Queen was looking out blankly toward the middle of the Bowery at nothing in particular, but a hint of a smile and shaking in her own limbs indicated that she was also fighting the commands given by the Chamberlain.

Speaking of the no-longer smug Elf, he fell onto his back in his effort to get away, and suddenly a thick metal wall appeared above him, somehow floating in the middle of the air between him and the diving monster.  From her viewpoint, something looked wrong about the wall, especially from the side closest to the prone Elf; it almost looked incomplete as if he had run out of energy creating the barrier, though insubstantial might be the better word.  Remembering what she had heard about the Chamberlain and how he utilized Spirit energy to control the minds of those around him, she instantly knew what the wall was: An illusion.

The Roc appeared to be adjusting to avoid crashing into the wall, which would take it out of range of an attack; she didn’t want the horrible Elf to get a chance to utilize another attack, however, and the King and Queen losing their internal fight was a possibility at any time.  Therefore, with every ounce of mental capacity she held, she ordered the bird to fly into the wall, despite its natural inclination to avoid crashing into a solid object.

There was a briefest of hesitation as the bird continued to reverse its course, but then it doubled down on its dive, aiming straight for the metal wall.  “What!?  Nooooooooooo!”

Without any sort of resistance, the Roc shot right through the illusionary wall, swooped down over the horrified form of the Chamberlain, and then swooped him up with one of its powerful talons.  One of them had apparently pierced his entire body, because Echo heard him scream, just as a hundred different spells thrown out by the Guards impacted the Light Barrier in an effort to stop the Roc.  Fitting that the spell protecting him from The Rebels would prove to hinder his own rescue.

Before the screaming Elf could use any other spells to save himself as the Roc’s path took it further into the middle of the room, she silently gave another order.  “Finish him.”

Faster than she could reasonably follow, the bird’s beak bent down and struck at the distraught and now-crying Chamberlain, his screams abruptly cut off as his head was swiftly removed from his body.  The Roc then let the body go, where it slammed into the Bowery floor with a wet-sounding *thud*, even as the bird tilted its head back in mid-flight and swallowed its prize.

Brand-new screaming shattered the sudden silence, as the King and Queen sat straight up on their thrones and started yelling so loud Echo thought her eardrums would burst.  She couldn’t even hold her hands up to her ears to save them any further abuse because her hands were still tied tightly together with rope, but thankfully the screaming stopped after about 10 seconds.  Echo watched as the Royal couple seemed to deflate and collapse upon their seats of authority, followed by every single Royal Guard.  Each of the ones guarding the prisoners flopped to the floor unconscious, and the one nearest her nearly knocked her down in the process.

What just happened?

“Good thinking, Echo.  Hold on, I’ll get you untied.”  The next moment, Winter was at her back side and she felt an intense cold radiating over her bare skin, followed soon after by her restraints suddenly letting her go.

“Thanks.”

“Ha!  I told them it was a good idea to bring you along!  I guess I was right, again,” the normally surly Elite said with a giant smile, and she didn’t have any idea what was going on.

“Don’t listen to him, Echo; he enjoys messing with people’s perception of him whenever he can,” Churven said from behind her, and she jumped at his sudden presence – she didn’t even hear him approach.  She whipped around, seeing that the Elder was there as well, cautiously stepping over the unconscious Guards on the floor nearby.

Herrlot interrupted the conversation.  “There’s no time for this.  You need to get going.”

“Get…going?  But what is—?”

“They’ll be fine when they wake up, though they’ll be extremely confused and likely missing some chunks of their memory,” Churven said quickly, nodding at the Guards covering the floor.  “The King and Queen, however, won’t be so lucky unless you get them to this dungeon of yours.”

Ah.  That’s right.

“Oh, and good thinking on removing his head, because decapitation is the only way to effectively sever the tie between the caster and the victims of the mind manipulation spell.”

Echo paused in the middle of ordering the Roc to land.  “Wait…so I could’ve messed that up?  You could’ve told me.”

The Elder had the presence of mind to look a little embarrassed.  “Well, we couldn’t really trust you with everything.  We were convinced we had someone feeding information to the Chamberlain, but we weren’t sure who it was.  Based on how adamant you were that we had actually taken you from safety, we weren’t exactly convinced that you hadn’t been compromised.  You understand, don’t you?”

She did, but that still didn’t make it right.  “Fine.  Whatever.  Let’s just get them loaded up and we can go.”

“I…I’m not going with you, Echo.  Someone needs to organize everything here now that the King and Queen have been incapacitated.”

That sounded a lot like she was taking over the governance of the Elven people.  Almost as if they had just successfully completed a coup….

The Elder held her hands up, as if to stop Echo from thinking the worst.  “Now, I know what that sounds like, but it’s only until you come back with them.  I was telling the truth when I said I don’t want to be in charge; running a small village was the most responsibility I would ever want.”

Echo just shook her head, not completely believing her, but having no other choice at the moment but to follow through on her commitments.  Either way, if Herrlot was in charge, then at least there would be someone that knew about the danger and was willing to start passing out Energy Orbs.

The Roc landed moments later and Echo got plenty of help gently strapping the Royal family into the harnesses, and she took her place in her own position.  With one last look at The Rebels – who had succeeded in their rebellion all because of a much-less powerful Ranger…and a gigantic bird monster from a dungeon in the wasteland, of course – she turned away and instructed the Roc to make its way up and out of the Royal Bowery.

As she flew off to the northeast, towards Sandra’s dungeon, she couldn’t help thinking that the way things turned out had been the Elder’s plan from the start. Too many coincidences, I’d say.  Regardless, Echo looked at the setting sun, hoping she would arrive before it became too dark; it was just her luck having to try to set down in the middle of a desolate wasteland, carrying the most precious cargo of the Elven people.

Chapter 26

Gerold hesitated before he joined in with the chaotic battle ahead of him.  Not because he was afraid, but because he wasn’t sure where he might be best used to shore up the failing defenses of the Shieldmen and civilian fighters ahead of him.  Doing a quick estimate, he determined that there were at most 40 Shieldmen and 100 civilians wielding battleaxes and wearing non-Shieldmen armor that appeared to have seen better days.  Almost everyone in their strongholds knew how to fight and defend themselves, but they were much less effective at it than the more specialized Shieldmen, of course.

Sadly, as he glanced around, there were at least 200 civilians – residents of Stonebrink Hall that he recognized – lying in jumbled heaps, pushed to the side of the Whiskeyflow Tavern floor to make room for the rest of the defenders.  Noticing a few others that he recognized for a different reason, he realized that they weren’t all civilians; some faces belonged to at least a half-dozen Shieldmen he knew, and since he couldn’t see all of them, there were no doubt more.

“This…this is bad.  Maybe I should’ve just left instead,” he said out loud.  No one seemed to hear him, fortunately, because there were too many screams and the sounds of a fierce battle overwhelming the senses.

As for what they were fighting against, Gerold immediately recognized two types of dungeon monsters that were known to come from dungeons relatively nearby.  To see them working together, utilizing the same tunnel leading into the Tavern, was a very bad sign.

The first were classified as Werebeasts, a variation of the common Beast-type dungeons – a variation that made them even more dangerous, unfortunately.  Basically, take all of the different beasts – wolves, bears, boars, large cats, and worse – and combine them with the basic shape of a Dwarf (or, from what he heard was more accurate, an Orc or a Human based on their proportions), add in some heightened intelligence, and you ended up with some dangerous combinations.  Beasts normally didn’t scare Dwarves because rarely could they bite or scratch through their armor, unless they were extremely powerful; Werebeasts, however, were dangerous because they thought about where to attack instead of attacking whatever they could reach.  Many a Shieldman had been injured or killed from a claw sliding perfectly through a joint in their armor, or from the Werebeasts working together using simple-yet-effective tactics to isolate and tear apart a single Shieldman.

The only thing the Shieldmen had going for them when facing off against any of the Werebeasts was the fact that none of them were as large as their Beast counterparts; there weren’t any 900-lb Werebears, for instance, nor were there any 15-foot-tall Dire Werewolves to menace them.  At least, none that anyone had seen in the past.  Most of them were between 6 and 8 feet tall, weighing anywhere between 200 and 400 lbs; still larger than any Dwarves – except for Gerold in his Deep Diver suit, of course.  While wearing it, he was nearly on par in the height department, though he had an advantage in the weight category, as the suit was made of heavier metal than flesh and blood.

“Oh, no – not them!” he exclaimed in disappointment, seeing the other type of dungeon monster.  Bugs.  Creepy crawlies.  Pests.  Vermin.  6 and 8-legged nightmares.  Insects of all different types flowed around the Werebeasts, filling in the spaces in between with their chitinous bodies, too many legs, and multiple eyes.  Unlike the smaller bug-like constructs that Gerold had seen in Sandra’s dungeon, these ones weren’t tiny enough to squish with a well-placed boot; no, these were much, much larger, coming from a dungeon that they had classified as having Gigantic Bugs.

There were Giga-spiders, Giga-beetles, Giga-ants, Giga-centipedes, Giga-bees, and even Giga-mantises, which were lethal with their razor-sharp forelegs that could slice a person to pieces – when not protected by armor – in a matter of seconds.  For the most part, Gigantic Bugs were usually more annoying than deadly, but when accompanying the Werebeasts, they were obviously proving to be more than a challenge as they overwhelmed with sheer numbers.  When even the Giga-ants were a foot and a half long and were arriving in groups of 20 or more, that kind of thing could quickly become a problem, especially if one needed to defend against a more powerful threat like a Wereboar or a Werecat.

Individually, each of the monsters wouldn’t have been much of a problem; together, they were proving to be deadly.  Gerold again evaluated where he would do the most good; he thought it would probably be prudent to protect the armed civilians the most, as they were the ones that were dying at a more prodigious rate than the Shieldmen.  “And, well, I really don’t want to be near the other Shieldmen right now, because there’s now some bad blood between us.”

He hated thinking that way, but it was true.  He wanted to help, but the way they had reacted and treated him when he arrived back home was still freshly impressed on his mind.  He had to admit to himself that there was good reason for them to feel so strongly about him losing his armor, because of the scarcity of said armor nowadays, but to go so far as to lock him up felt unjustified.  Still, he wouldn’t let them just die and would do what he could to save them – even if he didn’t want to.

“Your Highness, you need to retreat down the tunnels while we hold them off!” A sudden shout caught Gerold’s attention as he started to move towards the line of civilians doing their best to keep up with the onslaught.  The monsters seemed to just keep coming with no end in sight, but if the former Shieldman had learned anything from Sandra, it was that there would be an end, eventually; there was a limited amount of the “mana” she had at her disposal, and these dungeons would be just the same.  However, he also remembered that she had mentioned that the deaths of people in her Area of Influence gave her more of that mana, which meant that unless they put a stop to so many casualties, the monsters would keep coming without a stop.

“I will not!” came a different voice, one filled with strength and resolution.  “We must contain and seal this breach, because I cannot permit the monsters to gain a foothold in my Kingdom!”

My Kingdom?  “Is that…King Mynag?” he asked loudly in surprise, and this time he actually got someone’s attention.  A Shieldman turned towards him from the line, and Gerold was surprised to recognize the description of the King in his armor.  It was flecked with white, yellow, and red, which was an unusual combination of Holy, Air, and Fire elements that he knew the King possessed.  While he wasn’t actually acquainted with the King, he remembered seeing it during the ceremony in which he was presented with his armor and became a Shieldman; it was only a brief glimpse of the King, of course, but he would remember the look of that armor anywhere.

“Parten!  What is this?” King Mynag asked in a shout, before turning back around to the line and splitting a Werewolf in half with his battleaxe, ending its efforts to sneak up on the important personage.  The attack had been so fast that Gerold knew it had been enhanced by the King’s elemental energy, which just went to show how powerful he was.

“What—” the First-shield questioned as he sliced an arc through a half-dozen beetles coming up to his knees, a visible trail of burning embers in the wake of his slice— “are you talking about—huh?!   That’s the hunk of metal one of our patrollers found yesterday.  It took three of us to drag it in here, but we figured we could melt it down.”  Parten turned back to the battle, almost negligently slamming his shield into a Wereboar that was charging at him, knocking the powerful Werebeast back at least 15 feet, breaking its neck in the process.  “What is it doing—Gerold!  You honorless excuse for a Shieldman – how did you get out of your cell?”

“You were going to melt down my Deep Diver suit?” Gerold asked, horrified.  He was suddenly glad that an attack had threatened Stonebrink Hall, otherwise he probably wouldn’t have ever seen his suit again.

“Answer my question—”

“Parten, leave off it!  The bigger question is what that hunk of metal can do; I see that it can apparently move, so maybe it can fight?”

“Your Highness, you don’t understand—”

The King was apparently losing his temper, because he roared as he jumped into the air, landing in the middle of a veritable army of Giga-ants.  His impact produced a fiery shockwave of light that burned through at least 40 of the bugs, as well as a few Giga-beetles, frying them to a crisp.  “Enough!  Can’t you see we’re going to need all the help we can get?”

First-shield Parten was quiet for a moment, before he said something to the King that Gerold couldn’t hear.  King Mynag just shook his head, before grunting.  “I know, but if I conserve too much energy, then we’ll be overrun before we know it.  Don’t worry, I’ll be careful not to push it too far.”

Both of them, as well as the pair of Shieldmen around the two that Gerold intuitively knew were the King’s bodyguards, seemed to ignore him in his Deep Diver suit.  With the King giving him at least a modicum of permission to fight, Gerold immediately strove for the civilian side of the line, filled with Dwarves who were doing their best to engage and kill the incoming monsters, but who weren’t nearly as effective as the Shieldmen.  Even though there were nearly 3 times as many of them as compared to the number of Shieldmen in the room, they only had about a third of the line to defend – and they were defending it badly.

It wasn’t their fault, though – they were just outmatched.

“Make way!  I’m coming to help!” he yelled as loudly as he could, his Deep Diver running forward with large stomps of its metal feet, heralding his arrival.  Whether they heard his shout or the clank of his feet against the stone, the civilians turned at the sound and – with wide eyes and a few shouts of surprise – moved out of his way.  They parted around his suit in a wave, letting just enough room open up for him to pass without hitting anyone, and then sealed up the pocket they had created as soon as he was through.  In seconds, he was at the front of the line – and none too soon, it seemed.

The Werebeasts were making an obvious push against the civilians, gathering in a large group for their attack.  Their heightened intelligence had shown them that attacking the Shieldmen was next to useless, so they re-strategized and targeted the weak point in the line.  Gerold got there just in time to encounter a large wave of the Werebeasts, who were pushing their bug allies out of the way in order to strike hard and fast at the less-powerful civilians.

“Why don’t you take on someone your own size, huh?” Gerold shouted, whipping his ice-made battleaxe cross-wise at the Werebear in front of him, which tried to rear back in surprise at his sudden appearance.  The push of its brethren, however, made dodging impossible; given that he was approximately the same height as most of the Werebeasts, his powerful slice essentially cut the upright-walking bear in half, the frigid ice of the battleaxe leaving frosted fur along the wound in its wake.  It also seemed to freeze the edges of the horrendous wound, keeping all of the blood inside the Werebear; Gerold couldn’t help but think how effective that kind of thing would be against the Golems back near Nurboldar, but it didn’t really make a difference here and now.

Some sort of danger sense went off in his peripheral vision and he jerked back in the middle of his follow-through, narrowly missing having a fistful of claws tear into his protective face grate.  A quick upward slice of his icy weapon was enough to amputate the offending claw at the elbow of the Werewolf that tried to hurt him, and he instinctively kicked out with his right foot.  A crunch of bones was his reward as he heard the Werewolf’s leg being destroyed by his lower attack, and he turned slightly to his left to take a charge of a Wereboar, slamming down with a powerful overhead slice onto the head of the tusked, two-legged monster.

His attack was so effective that it surprised him how easily it passed through the flesh and bones of the charging attacker; as a result, the ice-formed battleaxe kept going until it hit the stone floor of the Tavern, shattering into a half-dozen pieces.  He knew it would reform in a few seconds, but as he turned from the split-open Wereboar, he greeted another 25 Werebeasts with nothing but the broken handle of a battleaxe.

“Uh, oh.”

They attacked almost as a unit, coordinated in a way that was totally unlike any other monsters he had encountered.  Even the Goblins weren’t adept at tactics, though they certainly did use their numbers to their advantage and knew when to swarm and when not to.

Spreading out so that the maximum number of them could attack him at once, they leapt, charged, or roared out in a coordinated assault that would leave him battered and torn apart if he were in his normal Shieldmen armor.  Fortunately for him, he was in his Deep Diver suit.

Just before they struck, he activated the Nether portion of his defenses.  A cushion of darkness surrounded his entire form, blocking out the light from the torches in the room as well.  The blackness was so complete that he couldn’t see anything, and even sounds were muted nearly to inaudibility.  Gerold couldn’t see or hear – but he could certainly feel.

The attacks all came within a second of each other, battering his suit in a seemingly relentless barrage of…well, it was hard to tell, actually.  Instead of the powerful hits he was expecting, it felt like he was getting hit by a bunch of children wielding thin, wooden sticks.  Some of them felt like thicker sticks, which he assumed might be the Wereboars charging into him, but other than making him shift a little to the side, there really wasn’t any damage.

After a few seconds of that, the battering of his suit stopped.  Gerold assumed they had backed off, confused by the aura of darkness surrounding him, as well as being unable to physically harm him.  While he couldn’t see if his battleaxe had reformed from ice, he figured it had been long enough; he dropped his Nether-based cloak of protection and was immediately greeted by 2 dozen Werebeasts in a wide circle around his position.  He wasn’t sure how he could tell, but he was convinced that they had extremely confused expressions on their beastly faces.

Gerold didn’t hesitate.  He swung his battleaxe at the nearest of them, going for another chop that would hopefully separate both halves of the Werebear’s body he targeted.  At the moment before he connected with the confused and surprised monster’s fur, he was suddenly worried that his weapon hadn’t been repaired, as he hadn’t even checked before he struck; he would feel extremely foolish hitting the Werebeast with just an axe handle.

Fortunately, his trust in the way Sandra had created his weapons was proven to be correct, and he barely felt any resistance at all as his icy battleaxe clove through the Werebear.  He continued his attack as he spun around with his attack, throwing himself towards the next in line as he rotated, slicing off the leg of a Were-tiger; with another rotation, he aimed upwards, passing his axe through a Werewolf’s chest cavity and bisected its neck in the process.

Those were the only free shots he was going to get, however, as the Werebeasts had recovered from their shock and were back on the attack.  Luckily for Gerold, he wasn’t the only one that had taken advantage of their confusion.

A wave of axes descended on the Werebeasts, chopping off limbs here and there, crippling them until they could be finished off.  A half-dozen of them managed to use their speed to avoid the counter-attacks by the civilians and pounced on Gerold, but the Deep Diver suit lived up to his hope for it and withstood the majority of attacks on its shape.  Bites and scratches left tiny dents here and there, as well as cosmetic damage, but he was able to use the “strength” afforded by the suit to beat them away, if he didn’t connect with his ice-formed weapon right away.

Within 20 seconds, all of the Werebeasts were dead – but that was only the beginning.  Gerold stomped back into the line with the civilians, who were looking thoroughly relieved at his timely intervention; he looked at the break in the Tavern wall about 40 feet ahead, and there still seemed as though there would be no end in sight to the monsters streaming through.

As he was bracing himself for another wave of attackers, there was a strange tickle on his back.

“Gerry!”

The familiar voice seemed to come from right behind him, but before he could turn he felt something slam into his unprotected back, causing him to overreact and fall forward, shattering his ice axe as he tried to catch himself.

Chapter 27

“Get up, Gerry!  It was just a blasted spider, but I got it for you!”

Gerold got his suit to its knees just as a wave of Giga-ants arrived.  His weapon hadn’t reformed quite yet, so he slammed his arms down on the multitude of bug monsters, squishing them with the metal of the suit itself.  After splattering into goopy messes, the Giga-ants seemed to think better of attacking him directly, and they parted around either side of him in order to get to the civilians on either side of him.  Worried that they would somehow manage to sneak around and get into his suit from behind, he quickly got to his feet and risked a quick glance behind him as he stomped down on two of the Giga-ants that had gotten too close.

It was Master Blacksmith Jespin, wielding a master-crafted battleaxe and shield that he had likely made himself at some point in his career.

As he turned back to the line, seeing that another batch of Werebeasts was coming in behind the smaller Bugs, he shouted loud enough for the Blacksmith to hear him.  “Thanks for the save—but we have to get out of here!”

“We can’t leave now!  Well, I could, but they can’t survive without your help, Gerry.”

Gerold swiped at a Werewolf that approached him first, but it dodged his attack with superior speed, followed up by a Werepanther that jumped back just in time to avoid any damage, putting his suit slightly off-balance.  Either they were somehow faster now than they were previously, or he had been such an unknown before that they hadn’t known how to react until now.  Regardless of the reason, they were wary of his attacks, instead opting to avoid him as they attacked Gerold’s civilian allies.

He wasn’t having any of that, however, as he attacked them from the side as they were engaged with his people.  One after another he practically diced apart with his frigid battleaxe, relieving some of the pressure on the civilians, but there always seemed to be more right behind them.

“Master – they’re not stopping!  We need to flee while there’s still enough of us to cover the retreat.”  Gerold was thinking about going through the main entrance of the Hall, but he realized that he might need to go with the rest further into the mountain in order to protect them.  Now that he was involved in the fight, the thought of abandoning the civilians to their fate left a bad taste in his mouth.  Or that could be the beetle guts that just splashed everywhere; it’s hard to tell.

Apparently his shout was loud enough that the King heard him.  “NO!  I will not be the first King in history to lose one of our Halls to these blasted monsters!  Stay where you are; we just need to hold on for a short time longer!”

Gerold thought that was a stupid reason not to retreat when they had the chance, because the Hall could always be retaken in the future, when they were better prepared.  Speaking of that….

“Master – are there any reinforcements coming,” he asked, loud enough for Jespin to hear him, but hopefully not for the King or First-shield Parten to listen in.

“No; the King came through the main connecting tunnel with Coppertine Hall just before this attack, and there are strict regulations in place whenever there is an attack.”  The Master Blacksmith was staying behind Gerold, which the former Shieldman was thankful for, because it kept him safer; meanwhile he listened to the explanation while he continued to be the main defense on the civilian line, swiping his battleaxe wherever he was needed, keeping the casualties down to nothing.  He knew that wasn’t going to last long, though, as everyone defending was starting to show signs of deep exhaustion.  How long have they been fighting? he wondered, though that wasn’t the question he asked.

“What regulations?”  Either he hadn’t heard about it before, or his mind was too focused on the fight to comprehend what Jespin was talking about.

“As soon as an attack occurs on a stronghold, if the non-combative residents are forced to evacuate, no other reinforcements are to be sent through without knowledge of the situation.  This prevents them walking into a trap or ambush, and would be a waste of those reinforcements.  The only way to get word to Coppertine Hall for help is if a Shieldman is sent through as a messenger, but there’s no way that any of them can be spared at the moment.”

That seemed like a bunch of poor regulations to Gerold, but he supposed it made historical sense. A millennium ago, most of the Dwarven clans had been independent, sticking to their own Halls and stronghold, only interacting in times of general defense – when they weren’t warring with themselves.  He already knew about the way the tunnels could be easily collapsed if monsters attempted to pass through them, which was a holdover of those times in case there were an attack by another clan.

Oh, to be alive during the time when raiding clans were more of a worry than dungeon monsters.  Unfortunately, after the devastation to the Dwarven people after the events that caused the wasteland where Sandra had her dungeon, the King put a stop to those types of practices.  There were too few of them at that point, and the clans had to work together to survive.  In fact, the clans were all but diluted into obscurity because of the mutual partnership and intermarrying, which was beneficial to the entire Dwarven race.  “So why keep these outdated regulations?”

He didn’t realize he had spoken aloud until the Master Blacksmith answered.  “Because there had been no reason to change them.  There hasn’t been a serious external attack on the Halls since I’ve been alive, so there was no cause to re-evaluate them.”  Still seemed stupid to Gerold.  “In fact, the only one that still makes sense is to keep the Drums of War pounding, letting the nearby Hall know that there is still danger present.  If the Drums stop and no one has come through to let those on the opposite side of the connecting tunnel know it’s safe, then the tunnel will be collapsed.”

Great.  “So, what’s the plan?”

Master Blacksmith Jespin spoke softer, just barely loud enough for Gerold to hear.  “We can’t leave right now, because it would doom everyone here.  We were nearly at our breaking point when you arrived, and without your help, we would’ve been slaughtered a half hour ago.”

Gerold hadn’t realized he had already been fighting for over 30 minutes non-stop by that point, and the floor was littered with little orbs of dungeon loot where he had killed countless Gigantic Bugs and Werebeasts.  Looking around as if waking from a nightmarish dream, he saw that the stream of monsters kept coming, though perhaps it looked a bit less than before?  Unfortunately, his own side was looking worse; at least a dozen more civilians had fallen while he had tried to protect them, and the rest looked ready to collapse from exhaustion at any moment.

The Shieldmen didn’t look much better, as there were at least another half-dozen missing from their number.  As time went on and the monsters didn’t significantly reduce in number, even more would perish as energy ran out and their armor and weapons disintegrated from the lack of elemental power sustaining them, and the Shieldmen themselves would pass out from being completely drained.

The King, his bodyguards, and First-shield Parten still seemed to be holding up, though even they would be running out of energy soon; as they didn’t have a way to regenerate it through the use of Energy Orbs like Gerold did, they couldn’t get any of it back unless they got some sleep.  Fat chance of that happening in the middle of a battle.

“Master, we can’t last much longer.  Unless we can stem the flow of monsters and seal this entrance—”  Gerold was in the middle of slicing a Giga-bee out of the air as it dove toward his face, thankful that they didn’t seem coordinated enough to swarm and attack them from above or behind, when something interrupted his warning to Jespin.  A rumbling came from the monsters’ tunnel, and at first Gerold thought it was collapsing.  As if his words had made it happen, the stream of monsters stopped spilling out of the 15-foot-high opening, as though their numbers had finally run out and the dungeons were eliminating the way back to their dungeons.  He had heard that they had done that in the past when they had attacked, because there was too much danger in leaving a straight passageway to their Cores – so it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility.

The rumbling continued, until it turned to shaking, and Gerold couldn’t help but smile in relief as it appeared as though he was correct: The tunnel must be collapsing if it was causing that type of ruckus.  The last of the final wave of monsters assaulted the entire line in a rush, as if they were making a final attempt to break through.  The knowledge that their efforts had been successful – and that they could finally rest as soon as the rest of the monsters were killed – gave the defenders a boost of determination, and they fought ferociously to eliminate everything that was in the room.

Gerold relaxed in relief as the last Giga-ant was killed by one of the civilians, and he looked around at the others, seeing the exhausted but relieved faces.  They weren’t exactly happy, because many of their friends and likely family had perished during the defense – but they had done it, they had survived when the odds seemed against them.  Now I just have to grab Master Jespin and get out of here.  He turned to the Master Blacksmith, but his head was tilted to the side as if he was worried about something, staring down the tunnel.

“We did it, Master—”

Jespin cut him off.  “I’ve never known any of the attacking dungeons to collapse their tunnel before all of their monsters were killed.  I don’t think—"

Recognizing what he was saying immediately, Gerold turned back to the tunnel just as the rumbling reached a crescendo, only to see a massive ball of dark-grey chitin rolling through the entrance, traveling so fast that he didn’t even have time to react with more than just raising his arms – as if that would protect him – completely forgetting about his Nether-based absorption shield.  The 15-foot diameter ball rolled right into him, and he felt as if someone had just punched him in the chest as he was flung backwards, slamming against the far wall with enough force to crack even the strong metal of the Deep Diver.

He collapsed on the floor, unable to move his suit after he recovered his wits from the impact.  Groaning in pain, knowing that he had likely cracked a rib or two, he pulled himself out of the destroyed Deep Diver, seeing the outside of it for the first time.  In addition to the scratches and dents he had endured during the frantic fight, there were giant cracks running all over it, likely breaking the enchantments that allowed Gerold to move the material.

Screams suddenly penetrated his ears as his concentration came back, and he looked up to see a scene out of a nightmare.

The Giga-pillbug that had rolled through the tunnel entrance had been deflected slightly when it crashed into Gerold, meaning that it had missed running over Jespin likely by a hair’s breadth.  Unfortunately, it didn’t miss over half of the civilians that were still assembled in their defensive line, and over 50 of them had been obliterated by the rolling Bug.  When it finally came to a stop, it had unrolled itself, and was now currently approaching the rest of the impromptu militia, using its deadly pincers on its front to literally cut people in half – through their armor.

The Shieldmen rushed to help, but the rumbling hadn’t stopped.  A second Giga-pillbug rushed through, this time aiming for the moving group of Shieldmen.  While they weren’t expecting it, the 29 remaining Shieldmen (including the King) braced for the attack behind their shields, but that didn’t seem to matter much; half of them were knocked aside or sent flying, though none had been hit as hard as Gerold had been.

And, luckily, the impacts ended up damaging the hard chitinous shell of the Bug.  Disgusting ichor leaked out of the outer shell of the second Giga-pillbug in various places, but that didn’t slow it down.  Ruthlessly attacking the Shieldmen that were still standing, it struck and maneuvered around them quite swiftly, its hulking form belying a swift ability to move around its multitude of legs under the chitin-armor shell on its back.

“They can take care of themselves…AARGH!” Gerold said to himself, grunting in pain when he started to move, bending down to pick up a fallen battleaxe from one of the dead civilians near where his broken Deep Diver suit had landed.  Holding his left arm against his chest to stop the pain of his cracked ribs, he waded into the fray around the first Bug, trying his best to kill the thing before any of the other civilians died.

Chopping downwards was extremely painful in the way it moved the muscles (and therefore, his ribs) in his chest, but he fought through the pain.  He struck down on the outer chitin of the Bug with all his strength, only to have the battleaxe rebound and nearly fly from his grip on its way back up.  He stood there, astonished at how little damage he did to the outer shell of the monster – only a tiny dent – and he realized that there was no way he could hope to damage this thing.  He didn’t have the same strength as his suit did, and he couldn’t filter his energy through the battleaxe to enhance the damage it did…or could he?

He had never actually tried it before, but as he quickly moved out of the way of the Bug as it hunted down another civilian, he considered how he might do it.  He had manipulated his Water energy before to break himself out of his cell earlier, but that had been largely unfocused and a horrid expenditure of his precious energy.  “But what if I just coat the outside of the blade with energy?  Will that work.”  He was talking to himself, he knew, but he found that it actually helped to work through his thoughts that way.

With a tremendous force of effort that seemed to hurt his ribs even more for some reason, Gerold managed to pull a small amount of his Water and Nether energy out from his body, holding it in his mind as he puzzled over what to do with it.  With his Shieldman armor and battleaxe, it was as natural as pumping the energy through the equipment, and his gear would automatically shape that energy to his will.  Here, though, he would have to try to do it on his own – and he had no idea how to do it correctly.

“So it might as well be incorrectly, or nothing at all.”

Rushing to the side of the Giga-pillbug, he raised his battleaxe again on a downward strike, but this time he concentrated on infusing his borrowed weapon with the Water and Nether energy he had pulled out.  As he swung it down, the axe seemed to swell with a blue and black glow, and he knew it worked – or thought it did, at least.  As he struck the Bug’s chitin armor, there was a sudden explosion of energy as what he had infused into the battleaxe exploded, destroying the weapon and sending Gerold flying backwards for the second time in the last few minutes.

He cried out in pain as he landed, rolling a few times as spikes of agony shot through his chest.  Luckily, other than the excruciatingly painful injuries to his ribs, he seemed to be alright.  After a moment, he sat up and looked around, only to see the Giga-pillbug – now quite angry at Gerold – charging at him, a 4-foot crater in its side where the injured Dwarf had hit him.  “Wow.  Did I do that?”  It was an inane question, considering that he was just about to die, but there was nothing that he could do.  His strength to get up and run basically spent, he closed his eyes, not wishing to watch his death coming for him.

Gerold was surprised when, instead of hearing his death approach, he heard a yell come from off to his left, followed by an impact and a bright light that shone through his closed eyelids.  Opening them up cautiously, he saw King Mynag standing where the front section of the Giga-pillbug used to be, shining brightly as whatever energy he used to entirely destroy the monster faded.

“Thank you, Your—”

Mynag suddenly fell to one knee, his battleaxe clutched in his grip the only thing keeping him upright.  He looked up at Gerold, and with a relieved smile, he collapsed in a heap.  “What—” Gerold started to ask, but then he saw the armor around the King start to fall apart, as if it was rusting away in a matter of moments.

“The King!  It’s time to retreat!” First-shield Parten announced as he knelt down by the King’s body, placing his hand on the fallen Dwarf’s neck.  “He’s still alive, but we need to get somewhere safe.”

Reverberating howls and an enormous roar echoed out of the tunnel, the deepness in them hinting at them coming from something big.  Gerold figured that if they were anything like the Giga-pillbugs, whatever was coming from the Werebeast dungeon meant they were in trouble.  He looked around at the room to take stock of who was left, and he despaired to see that there were only 7 civilians left, as well as 8 Shieldmen.  Fortunately, the Master Blacksmith seemed to have survived – if only they could get to somewhere safe before they ran into whatever was coming for them from the dungeons’ tunnel.

“Sir, there’s no way we can all make it to the connecting tunnel and through to Coppertine Hall before they catch up to us,” one of the Shieldmen asked Parten, before gesturing to himself and the other exhausted Shieldmen.  “Do you want us to stay and cover your retreat?”  Even in the face of likely death, Gerold couldn’t help but be proud of how willing his people were to sacrifice themselves for the greater good.  It was the same reason he had wanted to join the Shieldmen, because he felt the same way.

First-shield Parten hesitated for a moment, probably knowing that if he said yes, he was dooming them to death.  A worthy and honorable death, as they would be helping to save the King’s life, as well as the few remaining civilians.  If he said no, then there was a possibility that no one would survive, especially if the Werebeasts caught up with them.

Before he could respond, Gerold spoke up, though he almost regretted it as soon as he did.  “There might be another way.”

“What?  What do you know, Gerold?” Parten asked, his distaste for the former Shieldman plain on his face, but willing to grasp any option that presented itself.

“Gerry, are you sure?” Master Jespin asked suddenly.

“Master Jespin, what do you know about this?”

Jespin didn’t answer, so Gerold took over before the Master Blacksmith could get in trouble, standing up as he continued.  “Look, we don’t have time – we need to go now.  Just trust me…please?”  He hated having to try to convince the one that had made the final decision to lock him away that he was attempting to save them all, but Parten wasn’t the only one that he’d be saving.

Gerold thought he was still going to refuse as he stood there staring at the former Shieldman, but he finally grunted and nodded.  “Fine.  I don’t trust you, but I also don’t want to lose another of mine if there is a better way.  We need to get the King to safety, however, and that is my only priority; if you do something to compromise that, you won’t live long enough to regret it.”

Good enough for him.  As Parten gathered up the unconscious form of the King in his arms, Gerold led them out of the Tavern at a run, the howls and roars quickly growing louder behind them.  Leading them to the Hall’s entrance tunnel, there was almost another disagreement, but Jespin fortunately handled it for Gerold.

“Parten, this is the only way.  The entrance will be left open, but the Hall has been compromised already – it doesn’t matter.”

As they were approaching the door, running footsteps behind them could be heard, and for a moment Gerold tensed up, worried that the Werebeasts had already reached them.  He quickly discovered that they belonged to the drummer who had been keeping the Drums of War going, along with one of the Shieldmen that had gone to fetch him as they were leaving.  He wasn’t sure why he hadn’t noticed it, but the constant pounding of the Drums was gone, leaving the howls and roars sounding even louder in his ears.

There was no other option now, as Coppertine Hall was most likely already collapsing the connecting tunnel when the Drums stopped.  With no other argument, four of the exhausted Shieldmen ran up and took the heavy crossbar off the sealed circular entrance, opening it up as quickly as they could.  They all rushed outside and closed the door behind them, though without the crossbar it was technically still “open” to any monsters who wanted in.

Gerold ran out from the short entrance tunnel into the light of the late afternoon, immediately looking towards the sky.  “There!  Come down!” he instructed the Aerie Roc that was circling at least 1,000 feet overhead, using all of his concentration to pass on the order.  He wasn’t sure if it would work at that distance – if he was being honest with himself, he wasn’t even sure if the bird would be there in the first place – but it responded after a brief moment of hesitation.  It dove down towards them, causing those just emerging from the entrance tunnel to rush back inside.

“Are you suicidal, Gerold?  Get back inside!” said one of the surviving Shieldmen, one that he didn’t recognize but who obviously knew who Gerold was.

“Calm down.  That’s our ride.”

“You can’t be serious!”

Gerold chuckled, which hurt his ribs even more, but it was worth it.  “Oh, but I am.  It’ll be a bit tight and we’ll have to share straps, but we should all be able to fit on it, I believe.”

The Roc landed moments later, and unlike the first time he had approached the terrifying bird, Gerold felt no fear.  Instead, it was like an old friend had just landed.  “Hurry, we don’t have much time; I think I can hear those howls even through the door.”

To say that they were hesitant to approach would be putting it lightly, but after a roar that was definitely audible through the stone door, they scrambled aboard the massive bird.  Parten strapped the King safely into one of the strap positions, before doubling up with him to make sure he stayed put.  The rest of them found straps wherever they could, holding on to each other when necessary, and within 30 seconds all 17 of them were strapped in and as ready to go as possible.  It was probably a bit overloaded with all of the Shieldmen still in their armor, but there was no other choice.

The stone door of the Hall entrance shook as something slammed into it, before it quickly swung open.  Gerold instructed their aerial transportation to lift off just as he saw a 20-foot tall Werewolf emerge from the Hall, its powerful-looking muscles practically ripping at its skin and fur as it howled at them.  While he was sure the First-shield and the other Shieldmen could kill it, even in their exhausted state, there was a massive Werebear walking out right after the Wolf, and Gerold thought he saw some others as the Roc started to run before lifting off of the ground, leaving the two-legged beasts disappointed in their escape.

“Wait, we’re going the wrong way—” Parten screamed over the sound of the wind rushing by them as they rose into the air, heading southwest.  Gerold looked back to see everyone else was still secure on the harness, even though they didn’t look overly comfortable.  Gerold had already activated the little bubbles of warmth and wind shield that Sandra had thoughtfully included in the harness, so at least there was that.  It was still loud, however.

“We’re not heading to Grandhall, First-shield,” Gerold said confidently, referencing the stronghold that was the seat of power in the Dwarven Kingdom.  “I can’t afford to let you lock me up again, and I have a promise to keep.”

“Look, you dishonorable little—”

“Parten!  Leave off.  He’s doing this to save us all, and if you keep this up, I’ll tell him to make this Roc drop you in the middle of nowhere.”  The harsh voice of the Master Blacksmith was enough to shut the First-shield up, as Jespin was one of the few other than the King that demanded respect.

“What do you mean?” he finally asked.

The Master was silent for a few moments, before he sighed and started to talk.  “Well, as it seems we have some time, I might as well share a few details with you….”

Chapter 28

It didn’t take long to convince Palzerk to accept the Visitor’s Bond with Sandra, for which he was pleasantly surprised at how incredibly fast his energy seemed to return to him – and how he actually had access to 2 elemental energies, as opposed to just the Water that she had seen him use before; he had access to Air as well.  No wonder he flowed so smoothly through the battle against those Dire Wolves; it was as if he was meant to glide through battle effortlessly.  When she considered that he had only gotten hurt because he was trying to save one of his Warband, she could see how powerful he really was.

While the other Orcs prided themselves on how physically strong they were, Palzerk was swift and deadly.  She thought that was the reason he was also a great leader, because he didn’t think with his muscles; instead, he thought about how to best solve a problem with the minimum of movement, finding a solution that went with the flow of efficiency.  It was something that Sandra could entirely understand and relate to, and the fact that the potential Warlord seemed to genuinely care about his Warriors was a refreshing change from what she knew most other Warband Leaders felt about their own.

Unsurprisingly, it didn’t take long for Sandra, Kelerim (whom she fetched from the site of the battle after the wounded Orcs had been dropped off), and Owchet to convince Palzerk to accept the position of Warlord of the Bloodskull Clan, though of course it wasn’t as simple as that.  He was going to have to fight for his place against any challengers to the placement, which would’ve been difficult before he met the Dungeon Core; not only did he have Energy Orbs embedded in his palms to help with energy regeneration, but he was sent away with similar weapons and armor that she reserved for her mercenaries, fully enchanted to help speed up his already-impressive attack style, making him extra effective in a fight.  She hoped it was enough.

He also didn’t go back without some gifts for his Warband.  They already had some upgraded equipment, and Sandra didn’t currently have much extra in the superior enchanted gear she had for her mercenaries at the moment, but there was one thing that she could produce quite rapidly: Energy Orbs.  Now that she had the Mana flowing into her, when she wasn’t actively spending it on something, she was producing Elemental Orbs of all the different types, and then using her stable of a full dozen Unstable Shapeshifters enchanting them with the correct rune sequences to create Energy Orbs.

By the time she had finished speaking with Palzerk, she sent him on his way with a box of 80 Orbs (10 of each element) for his Warband, as well as any others he crossed paths with; Sandra eventually wanted to equip many of the Warbands with Energy Orbs, and it didn’t hurt to have the prospective Warlord handing them out as incentives to support him in his bid for the position.  Her days as a Human reminded her that an occasional contribution to certain people in a place of particular influence could open some doors that would otherwise be closed.  Not only as a merchant, where “bribes” would occasionally allow them access to a city that they wouldn’t normally be allowed near; no, it had helped her numerous times when learning all she could about crafting.  Many a master crafter didn’t have time to teach a crippled young woman about the finer points of their craft, but a little gold could smooth the way to knowledge.

That wasn’t the only thing she sent with him, either; using a little more of her incoming Mana, she created an Unobtrusive Multi-access Repair Drone.  While Palzerk had been healed, there were still multiple members of his Warband that had been wounded during the fight with the Dire Wolves, and her new Drone could help heal their wounds.  Since it was “multi-access”, they didn’t have to be Bonded to Sandra, and Palzerk could keep it as he traveled – since he did have a Bond and could issue it orders.

In addition to the Drone, she also took a risk and offered him something else.  She wasn’t sure if it would be accepted, because of the recent attack and how he had been wounded – but he was ecstatic.

“This is a gift worthy of a Warlord, Sandra.”

* Well, if everything works out the way we want it to, you will be a Warlord, Palzerk. *

The Powered Sabre Wolf sat obediently by his side as he prepared to climb onto the High Peak Roc that was going to take him back to his Warband.  With a few repairs, the harness that Kelerim and the other Orcs had managed to place on the massive bird when she went to pick him up was prepared to transport Palzerk, the Repair Drone, and the brand-new Wolf construct with him.  The Powered Sabre Wolf was smaller than her older Mechanical Dire Wolves, but the lack of bulk was a trade-off for how much more…sleek it was.

Similar to how Palzerk was more about finesse, speed, and conservation of movement, the new Wolf was all of that and more.  Instead of a skeletal frame of metal that composed the former Mechanical Dire Wolves, the Sabre Wolf was closer in appearance to a real wolf.  It lacked the fur, but it had a solid-but-flexible form similar to her Apes, which gave it better range of movement; as it wasn’t restricted to what the old skeletal joints would allow, it could flow around the enemy, as well as most attacks sent its way, using its enhanced speed to avoid damage.  Added to all of that, it also had teeth that were strong enough to snap and pulverize bones, with two “sabre”-like fangs that were a foot long and razor-sharp.

All of that was provided to Palzerk as he went back to his Warband, to start the process of becoming a Warlord.  There was a lot that went into it, most of which Sandra wasn’t too interested in other than abstractedly, because it had to do with duels and Warband politicking – neither of which she could really help with.  All she knew was that it could take weeks or perhaps months to see a result that would directly affect the change she was attempting to implement, but it was a good investment. Like she had planned initially, she wasn’t needing help right now, but the next few months were going to see a need for the Orcs to become stronger and focused on the fight to come.

She already had plans with Furbrea to continue making mercenary deals with Warbands, but now she was going to start including Energy Orbs as part of those deals; eventually, with a Warlord actively helping to contain the dungeons as they expanded, Sandra was hoping things would get under control.  The sudden attack by the Dire Wolves was enough of an indication to Palzerk that something needed to change if they were to survive, and this was the start to the change.

“Before I leave, I want to make sure you know that, as much as I appreciate all that you’ve done…I am no one’s puppet,” Palzerk said with a deadly serious tone, speaking to the Dungeon Core as he prepared to fly back to Orcrim.  “I make my own decisions, and if you are attempting to create someone that you can control, I will fight with all my considerable power to destroy you.”

Even though he was Bonded to her Core, the threat caused the shard in her mind to rear up as if it wanted to eliminate the Warband Leader.  In fact, ever since it had come to the surface of her consciousness during the Dire Wolf attack, it hadn’t faded back into the small corner she had originally shoved it into.  It was right at the forefront of her thoughts, but unless there was a direct threat to her or her people, it stayed relatively quiet; the only consolation was that the conversion of her self-image stopped after the immediate threat to Kelerim and Owchet was eliminated, but now she could feel it creeping in again.

* I don’t respond well to threats, Palzerk. *

She had responded tersely, trying to bring the anger from the shard under control.  When she was a bit more composed, she went on.

* I understand how you feel, though, and I want to assure you that I have no designs to control you or what you do.  I have no desire to dictate how you live your lives, nor to ask you to do anything that you wouldn’t be doing already.  My only intentions are to provide you with the tools to survive, to thrive in this increasingly dangerous world we find ourselves in. *

He was silent for nearly a minute as he contemplated her words.  “Why do you do this, then?”

* Why?  Why not? *

She chuckled, because it was true; she had the ability to save these people, so there was no reason not to.  That, and it was because of her unknowing actions that caused the acceleration of the current dangers, so she felt responsible for cleaning up her mess.  She explained this to Palzerk, wanting to be as honest as possible with the future Warlord.

* Besides, if we can manage to save everyone, then I can get back to my first love. *

He looked confused.  “And what would that be?”

* Why, crafting, of course.  Speaking of that, you need to get going, and I need to get back to it. *

Palzerk nodded, before strapping himself into the harness of the High Peak Roc.  Moments later, it was ready to go, and she sent it back to his Warband, though she didn’t use its Traveling Vortex Special Ability; she thought it would be better to save the Roc’s energy for the future.  That, and it allowed the Warband Leader to practice controlling the massive bird, which was going to be important if he was going to have it nearby.  She figured it might as well be of use, so she was going to allow the Roc to stay nearby to help whenever he needed it.  Unless he moved out of her Area of Influence, she could always call it back if she needed its help.

I think that went well, don’t you think?

Winxa had been watching and listening in on all of the negotiations, and she nodded.  “Yes, I do.”  The Dungeon Fairy hesitated before expanding on that.  “Again, you’ve done something that no other Dungeon Core has ever done before, but I can’t help but wonder and worry where it might end.  I’m fairly confident that you were truthful about your intentions, about wanting safety because you want to be able to craft in peace, but how far will you go to create that peace, that safety?  Are you going to want to Bond with every person in Orcrim?  In Gnomeria?  Every Elf, every Dwarf?  That’s the only way to ensure that you’re relatively safe from potential attack from them, as well as being able to track them to follow up on potential threats from the other Cores, after all.”

Sandra was tempted to say yes, because that certainly would solve many of her problems.  However, she immediately knew that was unrealistic – and unfair.  It sounded too…authoritarian, too controlling of the population, and the thought didn’t sit well with her.  Memories of the ways various people had reacted to the Bond’s mark on those she had Bonded, calling them slaves or being under her influence, came to her mind; while it was ridiculous, as she couldn’t control anything, such a sentiment was indicative of how the wider population would react.  Using the things she created was fine, but such an intimate Bond was too much and would likely be suspicious; looking at it from their perspective, she couldn’t say that she wouldn’t feel the same if she were in their shoes.

No, that’s not what I want.  In all seriousness, I really don’t know where it will stop, but I have to limit it somewhere.  Just…not yet, not until I’m sure everything is as safe as it can get, and I can focus on my crafting.  Sandra really didn’t know where she needed to stop, but it wasn’t any time soon; there were too many dangers to all of the races right now that she couldn’t let up with what she was doing.  The benefits of her access with the Orcs was all well and good, but without knowing how the other races stood, she was going to have to use everything at her disposal to keep things from spiraling out of control.  As to her own mind not spiraling out of control….  Ok, enough of that – I have the itch to do some crafting!

Now that she was adequately defended against the resurgence of the nearby Dungeon Cores – for the moment, at least – and she had her Mana influx steadily growing, there wasn’t anything preventing her from sinking her concentration into crafting again.

“What are you going to craft?” Winxa asked with excited interest, which helped to lighten up the mood after their serious talk.  “I can’t imagine that there are many things you haven’t dabbled in one way or another; not that I’m an expert, but I have no idea what else you might be able to craft.”

There are a lot of different crafts that I haven’t even approached yet, though very few of them would help me out right now.  I need to focus my efforts – even if I’m enjoying myself applying my knowledge to craft something new – on things that will eventually accomplish my goal of making the people under my care safe, eventually making them self-sufficient in their own defense.  For instance, let’s look at what I’ve done here and around the wasteland.

I’ve created weapons of different types, melee-distance and even ranged, and even enchanted them for my Orc mercenaries to use to kill dungeon monsters.  I’ve crafted armor that is also enchanted to help protect them even further, enhancing their capabilities to survive longer.

The War Machine and Deep Divers I’ve made for the Gnomes were excellent displays of my enchanting knowledge – to which I have to admit that I’m still learning – as well as my woodworking and blacksmithing skills.

I’ve helped to provide food, cloth for clothing, leather for various goods, and even glasswork to contain the alcohol brewed and distilled for the Dwarven villagers living in my dungeon.  Not only that, but I’ve figured out a way to provide them a means of perpetual storage with the Stasis Boxes, and providing food and supplies to Grongbak – and even Avensglen, if they need it – is something that we, working together, are more than capable of achieving.

Quite a lot, granted, but apart from learning the secret to how the Dwarves produce their special armor for their Shieldmen – a grumble started coming from the Shard in her mind at Gerold’s absence, but she hushed it…and it shut up, amazingly – there isn’t much that I can’t reproduce in some fashion or other.  I’ve applied some of the enchantments that the Gnomes prefer to use in their endeavors; I’ve created the Energy Orbs to help the Elves cast more spells; and I’ve applied all my knowledge to come as close as I can to duplicating what the Dwarves do with weapons and armor.  But the one thing I haven’t been able to copy – yet – is what the Orcish people do with relation to their elemental energy.

Winxa seemed perplexed.  “And by that, you mean…?”

Directly altering their bodies, of course.  Everything I’ve done so far has been external, affecting things either directly or indirectly through the use of enchantments.  The closest thing I have that directly affects a person’s body are my Repair Drones, and I remember Violet mentioning that they had Healing Amulets.  But, for everything that I’ve crafted, I’ve yet to affect a person’s body like the Orcs seem to do naturally – and I’m aiming to change that.

“And you know how to do that?

Sandra had to think over all of her knowledge, contemplating what she knew and what she currently had available as far as material.  Yes, yes I do.  If she’d had a face, she’d have been grinning from ear to ear.

Chapter 29

The problem with some enchantments, especially when they were directed toward manipulating something in the Human body (which was what her knowledge was based upon), was that they had limited usefulness.  Not that they weren’t powerful in their own right, but there were only a few Enchanters back in Muriel that had created them.  Those that did create them, sold them at exorbitant prices, which only some of the best Heroes could afford.  Her father had managed to acquire only 1 item that had a Personal Enhancement Enchantment (PEE) on it over all of the years he had been a merchant, and he managed to sell it for nearly double what he paid for it.

Now, based on that, one would think that PEE Enchanters would hoard their secrets of enchanting so that no one could compete with them.  Luckily for Sandra, that was in no way the case, mainly because there were very few that actually had the internal elemental energy to produce one of the enchantments that would last longer than a second or two.  Therefore, the Master Enchanters (“Master” as far as Humans were concerned, though they couldn’t compare to the Gnomish Master Enchanters), were only too happy to teach her everything they knew.

In addition, getting into PEE took a large initial financial investment to produce a product with one of the enchantments on it; trying to use Wood, Iron, Steel, Titanium, or even Platinum, it wouldn’t work.  Technically, the enchantment would form, but upon activation, it would last for less than a second – more of a blip than anything else.  Naturally, as if it was intentionally restrictive for some reason, PEE worked best on Silver, Gold, and – best of them all, by a large magnitude – precious gemstones.  Each of the materials were best for different types of PEEs, depending on what it was being used for.

Silver was best for PEEs that focused on regenerative healing, cleansing of toxins or poisons, and enhancing the senses such as sight, hearing, and smell.  The Healing Amulet that the Gnomes used, for instance, was likely made from silver as a material, and the ones that the Human Heroes made were, as well.  One of the “best” healing Personal Enhancement Enchantments she had seen when she was alive and learning about them had been one that could be discharged for a full 2 minutes of rapid healing, speeding up the body’s recovery rate by 10,000%.

For minor wounds, like scratches and shallow cuts, a few seconds was all that was needed to repair the damage; for more serious injuries, 15 to 60 seconds was needed to fully recover from the wounds or even knit broken bones together, depending on how bad they were injured.  The healing process, as opposed to a spell of healing being cast, took a lot of resources from a person, however, so mortal injuries could end up killing them just as quickly if the healing PEE was used.  It was for this reason that, unless they didn’t have some sort of healer in their group, most Heroes that could afford healing PEE kept it for emergencies, sometimes for years or decades at a time.  It was a last-ditch effort if their healer was either dead or unconscious to save someone from succumbing to their wounds.

There were better enchantments that could be used for healing small scratches and surface wounds, anyway: Minor Mending.  The Holy-based enchantment could be placed on cloth bandages (or clothing) and slowly healed injuries to the surface of the body.  It wasn’t necessarily a “healing” enchantment, however, as it really just “mended” the skin; it didn’t use the natural regenerative abilities of the person it was used on, and didn’t push past the surface like the healing PEEs.

Gold was best used for enhancing physical attributes, such as increasing one’s strength, speed, or skin durability.  An example of this would be the PEE Minor Muscle Strengthening, a rune sequence that could – when activated – increase the strength of a user’s muscles, allowing them to hit harder, jump higher or farther, and lift heavier objects.

There were 2 downsides to these types of PEEs compared to those created on Silver.  For one, the duration of, say, the strengthening enchantment, might only last for a total of 30 seconds – on some of the better-made enchantments she’d seen before.  That was great in a clutch when they absolutely needed to hit harder or jump over something, but again, it was usually only used in an emergency scenario.

Secondly, the enhancement had diminishing returns based on the original strength.  Therefore, if someone who could only lift 50 lbs. over their head used the PEE, then they might be able to lift 100 lbs. during the enchantment’s effect.  For someone who could lift 300 lbs., they might be able to lift 315 lbs. after the PEE’s activation.  Essentially, it was less useful for those that already had bigger muscles, and the same went with speed enhancements, and so on.

Gemstones…well, those were for an entirely different type of PEE.  While she was shown how to create a variety of different PEEs for gemstones over the years, she had only seen a single PEE used in the creation process.  The reason for this was that precious gemstones were understandably rare, and unless they were cut and shaped with precision, they could explode when the enchantment was applied.   As a result, the only one she saw personally being created was on a small flawless-looking yellow Citrine, a Minor Deflection Shield rune sequence that was expertly etched into the gemstone.

Minor Deflection Shield was an Air-based enchantment, and once activated, it created an invisible shield of hardened air just above the skin of the user.  It would deflect most projectiles, such as arrows or crossbow bolts that impacted the shield, though not heavier and larger objects such as big, sharp rocks thrown at them; while not usually a concern when fighting against most dungeon monsters, she remembered that some Heroes liked to duel each other for fun or profit in controlled environments, and something like that would certainly come in handy.

That was what gemstones were primarily used for: personal shields of some kind or other.  There was even a Minor Flame Shield that hovered just above the skin (or, if armor was in the way, above the armor), not harming the person but burning anything it came into contact with.  There were shields for all of the elements that did different things, but there was one thing in common with all of them: Short durations.

Whereas the PEEs for the Silver and Gold-type of enchantments lasted anywhere from 30 seconds to 2 minutes, the shields generated by gemstones lasted a bit longer – but not by too much.  5 minutes was the duration she had seen for the Citrine she had seen enchanted, and that was by one of the best Enchanters alive – among Humans, at least.

The issue with short durations for all PEEs wasn’t the material, but how much elemental energy could be pumped into the initial enchantment.  There were limits to how much energy a person could hold, and she had to admit that Humans paled in comparison to what an Elf could contain within their bodies – though, to be fair, they lived much longer than Humans naturally, so they had more chance to develop themselves.  Based on the Elites that had invaded her dungeon, she extrapolated that some of the oldest and most powerful Elves could probably pump 30 minutes’ worth of that Minor Deflection Shield PEE she had seen being created.  Quite a bit of a difference, to be sure, but the fact of the matter was that they were still limited to minutes.

With a couple of energy orbs, however, Sandra thought she could extend that to hours or even days.  On a larger enchantment, utilizing Energy Cubes, she thought that she could perhaps make something that lasted for weeks or months.

The potential was practically endless – so she might as well start experimenting now.

Sandra started in her endeavors by creating a large, thin, square sheet of Silver, approximately 2-feet square; it was a lot larger than she needed, as the enchantment rune sequences were designed to fit on small objects, but she wanted to make sure she perfected the practice before she went small-scale. Also, since this was something that she hadn’t attempted before, the Dungeon Core thought it was prudent to do it far enough away from her Home that she didn’t have to worry about destroying anything important, and her upper workshop worked perfectly for that.

To do the enchantment sequence, she was going to need one of her Unstable Shapeshifters, which had primarily been stationed down in her lower Forge area near her Home room, where they could safely enchant Elemental Orbs to turn them into Energy Orbs. It was the best place she had found for them to work, since it was near her Home and treasury (where she was storing the complete Energy Orbs for now), and it wasn’t in the same room as her Core – so if something went wrong, she would likely be safe.  Not that she expected anything to go wrong, as she had enchanted so many Energy Orbs by that time that she could truthfully call herself a Master at that particular enchantment, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

Before she sent one of them up, however, she thought about the changes to her Advancement Creation Options.  She had already seen some of the changes her monsters had undergone from the increase in her Advancement Level, but there was one that might come in handy right about now – if she understood what it meant.  The Unstable Shapeshifter had changed into a Stabilized Shapeshifter, and it was time to see what that meant.

It didn’t take long to create one of them in her Home room, and at first she was slightly disappointed.  All of her other constructs and Advancement-gained dungeon monsters had obvious changes, either growing smaller and sleeker, or larger and deadlier—but not the Stabilized Shapeshifter.  If it was any larger or smaller than its predecessor, Sandra couldn’t tell, but its multicolored amorphous mass looked exactly the same as it had before.  It was only when she concentrated on it and pulled up some information about it that she saw the difference.

Stabilized Shapeshifter

Current Form: Base

Current Elemental Energy:

Air – 4000 energy

Earth – 4000 energy

Fire – 4000 energy

Water – 4000 energy

Nether – 4000 energy

Holy – 4000 energy

Natural – 4000 energy

Spirit – 4000 energy

Natural Ability:

Stable Shapeshift: 0 energy

Special Ability:

None – adopts the special ability of whatever form it Shapeshifts into (if applicable)

Other than the monster having twice the amount of energy for each element that it used to, the only other difference was in its Natural Ability: Stable Shapeshift.  After ordering it to move into the Forge where the other Shapeshifters were still enchanting Energy Orbs, she had it acquire the necessary patterns from her original Shapeshifter, who she made sure was kept safe at all times.  After collecting a little crop of blood from all of the Dwarves living in her dungeon, as well as all of the Orc mercenaries, she had acquired their patterns; her Shapeshifter was now carrying over 100 different Elvish, Dwarven, and Orcish patterns – which was basically everyone she had bonded with.  The only ones that hadn’t been acquired were all of the Elven Rangers and Elder Herrlot, as she hadn’t had the time to acquire them while they had briefly stopped by her dungeon to Bond.

Thankfully, even though they were two different monsters, they were alike enough that the patterns could be communicated.  That was more than good news, because without the ability to create the Unstable kind anymore, to have to start over would’ve been very disappointing.

As soon as she shifted into Violet, her favorite form for when she was Enchanting using Spirit-based enchantments, she could immediately sense a difference.  Whereas before she felt that the forms were only temporary – and they were, lasting only an hour before they reverted to their base form – she sensed that the shift in form was much more…permanent.  Instantly worried, she had the Shapeshifter shift back into its base form and sighed in relief.  I wouldn’t want it to become limited to just one form, after all.  It took about 5 seconds after reverting to its non-shifted form to shift into another one – Echo this time – but that wasn’t that big of a deal; overall, Sandra thought that the “Stable” part of its ability just meant that it wouldn’t revert to its base form after an hour.  Whether that meant that it could stay that way forever was something she’d have to discover over time.

A few minutes later, she was ready to work, as the new Stable Shapeshifter had traveled up to the workshop and was ready to attempt one of the Personal Enhancement Enchantments.  Going through all of them in her head, she knew there were a lot to choose from; Silver-based PEEs were a lot more common than Gold or gemstone-based ones, after all, and additional work had been done with them to develop more variations over time.  In all, there were different options for each element as well as a few multi-element ones, though of course Violet could only create Spirit or Natural enchantments because of what she had access to; the others would have to wait, utilizing a different form for different elements.

- Rapid Oxygenation (Air)

- Enhance Smell (Air)

- Enhance Hearing (Air)

- Soothe Burns (Fire)

- Lesser Heat Resistance (Fire)

- Gradual Hydration (Water)

- Lesser Cold Resistance (Water)

- Tremorsense (Earth)

- Enhance Taste (Earth)

- Expel Necrosis (Nether)

- Darkvision (Nether)

- Rapid Healing (Holy)

- Minor Invisibility (Holy)

- Enhance Sight (Spirit)

- Detect Illusion (Spirit)

- Cleanse Toxins (Natural)

- Cleanse Poisons (Natural)

- Gradual Nutritional Sustenance (Natural, Earth)

- Water Breathing (Air, Water)

- Muffle Sound (Nether, Air)

- Passive Healing (Holy, Spirit)

There were probably hundreds of different things that could be achieved with PEEs, but not all of them had been discovered when Sandra was alive.  It was quite possible that the Gnomes knew more than the Humans did, and she was excited to one day learn about such enchantments from their Master Enchanters – if they ever visited, that was.

Sandra ignored another grumbling, wordless rant from the Core shard in her mind.

With only a few to choose from while in Violet form, she concentrated on one that would be the easiest to test: Enhance Sight.  She could already look out from the eyes of Shapeshifter, so it should be fairly straightforward to confirm if it worked or not.

The basic rune sequence was fairly straightforward, as well.  By combining the Enhance, Transform, Visualize, and Activate runes together, she could make the PEE with relative ease; her experience making so many Energy orbs had improved her ability to string runes in sequence without too much trouble.  What made it a little different and required some planning was the fact that the rune sequence needed to be circular in shape, without any breaks, and flowed perfectly into each other.  The reason behind this was to both ensure that the enchantment continued to work at a steady rate, as well as concentrating and restricting it to the person in contact with the PEE.

It only took her a few moments to play around with her energy to design the appropriately sized rune sequence, and when it was ready she had her Violet copy pump in 1,000 of her 16,000 Spirit energy into the flat sheet of Silver.  She didn’t want to invest too much in it in case something went wrong and it exploded, but it also had enough to last long enough to test.

The energy flowed through the PEE, eventually settling into the Silver sheet as if it had always been there.  Perfect!  Not a single major flaw that I can see.  She critiqued her own work and saw a few spots where she could’ve tightened up the rune formation – especially on the Visualize rune that she hadn’t used much in her enchantments up to that point – but overall, it was a quality piece of work.

Without further ado, she carried the sheet of metal outside of her dungeon, before placing it on a shelf of rock at about chest-height on her Violet clone.  Sandra first looked around, determining how much she could see of the surrounding land, as well as how much detail she could make out on the ground around her.  When she thought she had a fairly good baseline of what she could see, she placed her hand on the Silver and activated the enchantment.

The difference was immediate.  Not only could Sandra make out objects at a farther distance than before, but when she looked at the ground, she could differentiate the smaller grains of dirt at her feet, as well as see differences in the stone that she hadn’t really noticed before aboveground.  It was almost as good as her own “vision” under the ground as a Dungeon Core—

The Enhanced Sight enchantment abruptly shut off as the energy contained within was expended after about 10 seconds.  The difference was even more noticeable when the enhancement wasn’t there, as now everything seemed to look blurrier than it was before; she knew that wasn’t necessarily the case, but it sure seemed that way in comparison.

Proof of concept was a success.  Now it’s time to see what I can do with some Energy Orbs.

Chapter 30

Using the same principles as she and Violet had developed to produce the multitude of spectacular enchantments used in many of the weapons, Enchantment Repository Pillars, and even the War Machine and Deep Divers suits, Sandra reabsorbed the flat Silver sheet and recreated it for the next step.  Using her Shapeshifter, she copied what she had done the first time, though this time she only placed a small fraction of her Spirit energy into it, 10 to be exact, in order to establish the rune sequence.

Before she finalized it, she placed two Tiny Spirit Orbs together with the Limiter rune connecting them on the outside of the circle made by the PEE sequence, and linked up the entire enchantment.  Letting it all go, she held her figurative breath and crossed non-existent fingers that it would work – and not explode immediately.  Fortunately, it didn’t—and now it was time to test it.

Not even bothering to take it outside, since she now had a feel for how it would work, she used the Violet copy to press the activation and held her hand to the sheet.  Just as quickly as the last time, her vision improved remarkably—too remarkably, in fact.  There was so much energy pumping through the Limiter rune connection that it fed through the enchantment at a horrendous speed, improving her vision by an order of magnitude that Sandra hadn’t comprehended before.

Before she knew it, however, the Shapeshifter’s eyes exploded, unable to take that sort of enhancement for more than a second or two.

OUCH!  What the—?

“What happened, Sandra?  Are you alright?”  Winxa was fluttering around her Core worriedly, obviously reacting to her sounds of pain.  Even now, Sandra was still feeling the temporary pain of having two organs explode in her Monster’s head, and it took her a moment to answer.

Yes, I think so.  Just another experiment gone wrong; I think I know what I need to change to fix it, though.

The Dungeon Fairy still looked concerned, but seemed to accept that it was just a part of Sandra’s normal crafting process.  “Well, be careful please; I don’t want you to hurt yourself.”

Sandra assured her that she would, before concentrating on the workshop again.  She had left control of the Shapeshifter as soon as she could after the explosion, and hadn’t had a chance to see what had happened to it yet.  When she looked, she could see the Multi-access Repair Drone she had stationed up there was already at work, as the Shapeshifter in Violet form was lying on the floor, with two craters in its face that were caused by the eyeball explosion.  It took nearly 10 minutes for it to fully heal, and she knew that if the Drone hadn’t been nearby, the Shifter would’ve likely perished.

Sandra mentally shuddered as she remembered the feel of the explosion, as well as the enhancement itself.  Definitely not the most fun experience I’ve ever had with my Dungeon Monsters; not the worst, but certainly in the top 5 or so.

As the Shapeshifter healed, she went over what went wrong—which was fairly obvious when she looked at it.  Sandra had mistakenly ramped the Limiter up too much; she had “logically” been using the same sort of arrangement of the Limiter sequence as the Energy Orbs, because it was ultimately being fed into the body of the person.  However, she had forgotten that the PEEs automatically regulated how much was fed into the person, because of the circular pattern they were constructed of; the same sort of energy flowing through this enchantment compared to the energy refilling someone’s energy reservoir was a vast difference.  Sandra thought it was probably because the energy that was regenerated through an Energy Orb was suffused through the whole body as raw energy, and not concentrated on a particular system or body part.

Wait…does that mean that in a normal PEE, a lot of the energy that sustains and regulates the output is essentially wasted?  I thought that I was actually aiming a bit lower than necessary to maintain the correct energy feed-through, but that didn’t seem to be the case; based on what I saw and experienced, I think I need to shoot even lower – which means that I was wrong about how long these PEEs will last with Energy Orbs attached.  I thought they might last hours or a day, but it could be much longer.

Now that was exciting.  Sandra thought she would just be shortly extending the time the PEEs could be used before they ran out of energy, but everything was pointing at something greater than that.  Years, perhaps – though it was too soon to tell without a working prototype.

She was impatient for her Violet copy to get entirely healed, and her eagerness to keep experimenting was enough to send most of the lingering feelings of pain from the bodily explosion away.  That wasn’t the only thing that was sent away, she realized; as soon as she started to craft for real, the Core shard in her mind had backed off, retreating to the space it had inhabited before the attack on the Orc Warband.  She could tell that it wasn’t confined there, and could reemerge at any time, but for the moment there was nothing that called out to it to press against Sandra’s control.  Knowing that was progress, of a sort, she had hopes in the future that they could either co-exist or there might be a way to banish the contract-based Core shard once and for all.

Neither solution of which was going to come right now, however, because her Shapeshifter was back in action.  With only the slightest hesitation, she entered the Violet copy’s viewpoint and got back to work.  Sandra had already absorbed her failed experiment and salvaged the Energy Orbs, so she tried everything again; this time, she placed the Limiter rune sequence on the very lowest setting she could manage, which basically allowed only the slightest trickle of energy to pass through.  Taking a large breath with her Shapeshifter, she activated and prepared to escape its mind if she felt that there might be another explosion imminent.

But, as she had hoped, it worked.

The Enhanced Vision PEE worked exactly as it should, enhancing “Violet’s” vision at approximately the same rate as it had been without the Energy Orbs.  She could see the stone underneath her feet nearly the same as she would as a Dungeon Core, and looking at the Enchantment inscribed on the Silver sheet made her realize she still had a lot of practice to do to perfect her enchantments.  The enhancements allowed her to see the imperfections in her rune forming even more than she had seen before – but it was something she could certainly work on!

Best yet, the PEE didn’t shut off after 10 seconds, or after a minute, or even 5 minutes.  Her vision also didn’t seem to be sharpening at any perceptible rate, which told her that she had hit the equilibrium of input and output.  If anything, as she brought it outside and looked around, she thought it might actually be a little worse than the non-Energy Orb enchantment.  That indicated that she could theoretically increase the Limiter rune energy output a tiny bit more if she wanted to, but the difference wasn’t dramatic enough to make it necessary.

Even after 15 minutes, there was no lessening in the PEE’s vision enhancement, but Sandra deactivated it anyway.  It was too soon to tell how long the Tiny Energy Orbs connected to it would last if used constantly, but she suspected that they would probably last anywhere from a week to a month – perhaps even more.  That was for the Tiny size, too; using a Large Orb would increase that time by 16, so a PEE that could last for a year or more of continuous use was, to put it shortly, amazing.

Sandra went ahead and absorbed the Silver sheet with the enchantment, because it was entirely too big to be of practical use to anyone.  The Energy Orbs were still fine when detached from the enchantment, so they could be reused during the next experiment: Gold!  Making a sheet of similar size as the Silver cost a tiny bit more Mana, but was nothing to be concerned with.  Then she had to decide on an enchantment to use, though this time there weren’t quite as many that she knew of to try.

- Lesser Buoyancy (Air)

- Minor Muscle Strengthening (Fire)

- Stoneskin (Earth)

- Minor Muscle Elasticity (Water)

- Draining Touch (Nether)

- Purification (Holy)

- Binding Grip (Natural)

- Energy Expansion (Spirit)

Lesser Buoyancy increased the speed of a person, as well as allowing them to fall from higher distances without getting hurt; Minor Muscle Strengthening did what the name implied – it strengthened the muscles of the person and made them stronger; Stoneskin made the skin harder and more durable, similar to how the Warlord Rothgar Bloodskull could withstand powerful hits without dying; and Minor Muscle Elasticity was another way to increase speed, but additionally helped move the body around more fluidly, such as how Palzerk could dodge attacks while getting in position for his own strikes.

Draining Touch was a bit of a mystery to Sandra, because she hadn’t ever heard it being used before.  Theoretically, it would allow the touch of a person to drain either the energy or vitality of a target, weakening them significantly – but very few Heroes had wanted to get that close to a monster to test out exactly what it did.

Purification was a way to prevent any type of toxin, poison, or other negative status effect from entering their body.  Unfortunately, if someone were already affected, it did nothing to purge those effects from the body – one would need a Silver-based PEE for that, or a spell.

Binding Grip enhanced the physical grip of their hands and feet, allowing them to climb virtually any surface.  Apart from the speed and strength-type PEEs, this Natural-based enchantment was probably the most widely used when Heroes needed to delve into dungeons; it was the most useful of utility PEEs, because there were plenty of times the enhancement could come in “handy”.  Even in her own dungeon, if someone had Binding Grip, it could certainly help them navigate their way through a few rooms and bypass the dangers within.

As for the last, Energy Expansion, this PEE was widely considered the most useless of enchantments, as it had absolutely no value.  Supposedly, it doubled someone’s capacity for their elemental energy temporarily, meaning they could hold and access more; it sounded extremely powerful, but since it only lasted a few minutes at most and didn’t actually give them more energy, it was useless.  Especially since they needed to sleep to recover their energy—

Hold on!  Why didn’t I think of that before?  It was probably because the enchantment was a bit of a joke, and had no reasonable purpose other than as a way to waste the hard-earned money of unsuspecting Heroes who didn’t know any better.  It was decidedly worthless – until now.

But now…this PEE could change everything.

Excitedly, Sandra used her Violet clone to create the enchantment on the large sheet of Gold available to her, placing the two Tiny Spirit Orbs to the side of it and forming the Gold material around them to keep them in place.  She double-checked her work just in case she had messed something up in her excitement, but everything looked okay—if not precisely clean.  Either way, it didn’t explode when she settled the rune sequence into permanency, nor did it do anything of the sort when she placed her Shapeshifter’s hand on it.

In fact, nothing noticeable happened.  Did it work?  There was only one way to find out, she figured.  Looking at the details of her Stabilized Shapeshifter again, she saw that it still had 16,000 Natural energy, with Spirit just under 15,000 – but there was no indication that anything had changed.  Grabbing a Natural Energy Orb from the small stash she was back to keeping up in the workshop now that she was constantly producing them, she walked back to the Gold sheet with the Energy Expansion PEE on it.  Placing her hand down again, she kept an eye on the Shifter’s information.

The next second, its Natural energy ticked up to 16,001.  Then 16,002, and so on.

It worked!  She immediately had to tell Winxa what she had done, and the Dungeon Fairy appeared flabbergasted.  “What?!  I have to see this.”  Making a portal in the middle of the air, Winxa disappeared; the next moment, another portal formed in the upper workshop and the Dungeon Fairy flew out.

“Sandra – that is incredible!  How in the world did you come up with something like this?”

The Dungeon Core explained how it was a worthless enchantment back when she was Human, but now that she could power it with Energy Orbs, it was much more viable of an option. Sandra’s excitement was infectious, and Winxa was fluttering around as if she was unable to hover in place.  “Don’t you understand what this means?  To be able to double the energy that someone can hold and use will have repercussions felt the world over,” she said breathlessly, before she frowned.  “Speaking of repercussions, what happens if someone takes the enchanted item away—while they’re still holding the extra energy?”

Oh.  I never thought of that.  I…don’t know, actually, but we can find out.  From previous experiments when using an Energy Orb as a monster seed, she knew that pumping extra energy into a Dungeon Monster had ended up making it explode, and she didn’t want to see the same thing happen here.  She brought her Repair Drone close enough to react if something went wrong, but far enough away if there was an explosion. She then warned Winxa: I’d back up to the other side of the room, just in case.

As soon as things were in place, Sandra lightly touched the mind of her Violet copy, enough to understand what was happening and control things, but hopefully not deep enough to experience something as painful as having her eyeballs explode again.  Then she lifted the Shifter’s hand off of the Gold sheet.

Unending pain seemed to suffuse the Shifter a few seconds after contact was lost, as the body felt as if it were burning up from the inside.  Luckily for Sandra, she was prepared and had exited at the first sign of pain, so she wasn’t subjected to the agony that the Violet clone was visibly experiencing as it writhed on the floor of the workshop.  Strangely, the Repair Drone nearby didn’t do a single thing to help – as if there weren’t really any injuries to repair.  Perhaps there isn’t one; the energy burn going through the Shifter right now isn’t causing any permanent damage – but it sure looks painful.

This was all happening with an extra 400 Natural energy that had accumulated while she had been explaining things to Winxa, as well; what would 16,000 extra energy look like?  Would she have exploded?  She didn’t want to test it out and lose her Stabilized Shapeshifter, so she could only speculate.

The Energy Burn (as she was going to call it) only lasted about 10 seconds, but that was enough for her Shifter to appear physically exhausted.  Another minute was enough for it to recover back to normal, but there seemed to be another side effect to what had happened.  A brief glance showed that the Violet double now had 15,600 Natural energy, and it wasn’t going up even though it was still holding the Energy Orb.  Wow.  Not only did it hurt, but it literally burned out the excess energy from its normal maximum it could hold.  Thinking about the situation, she realized that if she had allowed it to accumulate the extra 16,000 energy before taking the hand off the PEE, if it didn’t kill the Shifter, it would’ve permanently destroyed that amount of energy for the Monster.

Shifting out of the form to the base was an easy procedure, and Sandra soon had it in Echo’s form.

Stabilized Shapeshifter

Current Form: Elf

Current Elemental Energy:

Air – 15800 energy

Holy – 15800 energy

Natural Ability:

Stable Shapeshift: 0 energy

Special Ability:

Invisibility (10 Holy energy per minute)

Speed Boost (15 Air energy per minute)

Sure enough, there was a total of 400 energy missing, though it was evenly spread out between the Air and Holy energy that Echo’s form could manipulate.

“That’s certainly a frightening drawback,” Winxa commented with wide eyes when Sandra told her about what happened.  “The pain alone would probably be enough of a penalty to deter some people, but permanently losing access to some of their energy is horrible.  I doubt that anyone would want to use something like this,” the Dungeon Fairy said sadly.

While Sandra knew that was undoubtedly true for some, she knew it wouldn’t be true for all.  I think you’d be surprised at what people will do to become more powerful; when they are faced with potential death every day, many of them would take any opportunity to survive that much longer.  Imagine a Shieldman being able to withstand double the amount of damage to their armor, or an Elf being able to cast twice the amount of spells.  This isn’t even considering what the Gnomes could do, with being able to pump more energy into an enchantment.

“You have a point, I guess.  But make sure that you give clear warnings before you start handing stuff like this out.”

Oh, I certainly will.

The experiments with gemstones were next, but they were going to have to wait for a little bit because of one simple reason: she just couldn’t create the faceted shapes she needed for each particular PEE.  Each one needed them to be just slightly different depending on the enchantment, and that would require some work down below in one of her never-before-used crafting rooms.

Unfortunately, the room was going to have to require some replacements; the shard in her mind had gutted some of the crafting stations to use as raw materials, and the gemcutting/silversmithing/goldsmithing station had been one of them.  She couldn’t blame the shard too much, however, because the room truly hadn’t been used up to that point – but it was time to change all of that.

Chapter 31

A simple replacement of the implements of the craft, the trap that activated the small powered tools she had before, and the workstation would be easy enough to accomplish, but now that she had more knowledge of how to make it better, Sandra wanted to improve on some things.  For one, she didn’t need a massive forge like she did with her Blacksmithing projects; a very small, table-top forge would work just as well.  Second, she had many more choices in who or what Sandra wanted to use to craft with, and the smaller tools that were needed for such delicate work involving Silver, Gold, and gemstones would fit much better in an Elf’s hands as opposed to one of her Ape’s, for instance.

That, and there was one Dungeon Monster she now had access to that she was curious about.  The Goblin Crafter was the improved form of the Goblin Foreman, which was an improved form of the Goblin Worker.  The original Worker had basically been a disaster when it came to trying to craft, because it felt more than a bit awkward to control the Goblin, and it had basically burnt up when approaching too near a forge.  The Foreman had been useful when used in her Roc tunnel for defenses, but she hadn’t used it at all for anything else.

The Goblin Crafter, on the other hand, might be something different – she just hoped it lived up to its name.

Costing a total of 84 Mana for the cost of the Monster itself and its requisite Monster Seed, Sandra wasn’t too impressed when she first created it.  The major difference between the Crafter and the others was its outfit; instead of threadbare rags covering its mottled-green skin, it had on a full leather apron and leggings, leaving its arms bare and scrawny-looking.  Standing about 4 feet tall, it didn’t appear capable of much, let alone crafting.

Controlling it herself was a little awkward at first, but by the time she brought it up to the Jewelry workstation (which was essentially a place where she could work all of the Silver, Gold, and gemstone materials), she had accustomed herself to its smaller stature.  It wasn’t too unlike a Gnome, in fact, even though Sandra would never mention that in their presence.

In the workstation, she had constructed a low stone table complete with small precious metal-working tools, including small saws, bench knives, snips, pliers, engravers, bead reamers, a dozen types of files, planishing hammers, ball-pein and cross-pein hammers, and a very small anvil.  These were fortunately all easy to create using her Mana, because tools of different sorts were one of the few finished products she could make without having to craft them.

Also on the stone table was a two-sided buffing wheel; one side was constructed of loose, unstitched cotton circles connected to a small central stone ring, similar to the finishing wheels she used to complete her Blacksmithing work, though this was a lot gentler on the softer metals being used.  The other one was used for Lapidary work, otherwise known as gem-cutting, and it was a very hard stone with a fine grit to it that was strong enough to grind down diamonds.  Both wheels were powered by a simple Earth-based trap that turned the wheels at high speeds when activated – which was as easy as putting a hand within a certain distance of it.

She was going to have a dual-element trap inside the room, however, which was also connected with a Fire-based table-top forge constructed of Dragon Glass on the stone table, which could be activated to different temperatures depending on what was needed.  Not only that, but she built in the ability to direct the heat to a specific spot, which was frequently necessary for jewelry-making.  On the whole, it was only about 2 feet tall, wide, and deep, which was plenty large enough for its intended purpose.

Now, there were two main variations of crafting when working with Silver and Gold: Casting or forming.  Casting, which used clay molds similar in construction to the ones Sandra had used for her glassmaking, would allow a silver or goldsmith to pour the melted, liquid metal into the mold and then wait for it to cool and harden into the shape they wanted.  They would then finish it off by removing any irregularities by filing and buffing the finished product, as well as add any decoration such as engravings.

Forming, on the other hand, was taking a sheet of silver or gold and forming it into the shape they desired.  Since the metals were much softer and therefore easier to work with, the various tools of the craft could bend and shape it into many different forms, though they had to be careful – which was where the forge came in.  As the metals were hammered, bent, and shaped by the tools, they hardened as a result; frequent annealing, otherwise known as “heating it up to make it soft again”, was required, otherwise the metal might end up cracking and becoming weak.

Right now, Sandra didn’t want to cast anything in clay molds, so she would use forming as her method of choice.  Creating a thin sheet of silver on the stone worktable, she got to work with her Goblin Crafter—

—and was immediately amazed at how fast it was.  With quick, deft fingers, the Goblin almost seemed to anticipate exactly what Sandra wanted to do, picking up the snips and cutting a small band off of the Silver sheet.  She paused for a moment after it was cut, marveling at how effortless it had been; with the change in speed and the adept way her fingers nearly seemed to move of their own volition, she figured she might be able to speed this whole process up.  While she was still “physically” doing it herself, the Goblin Crafter was able to complete each step with abnormal swiftness.

Using her tools, which were wielded effortlessly by the Dungeon Monster she was inhabiting, she gently bent the Silver strip around the anvil, using delicate tongs to place it in the forge for a few seconds for annealing every once in a while.  When it was in the shape she wanted, a perfect circle, she used her Mana to cheat and connect the two ends together and create one flawless connection; normally, other steps and materials were used to join different pieces of Silver or Gold together, such as heated flux, but this created a much smoother join than any other method she could employ.

When that was complete, she used a variety of coarse files to clear away any burrs in the metal, as well gently rounding the edges to create a smooth texture that would be comfortable against the skin.  The next step was to buff the Silver metal itself, smoothing out any scratches and imperfections by holding it up against the buffing wheel.  After a little work to finish that, it was done.

In less than 3 minutes, Sandra had made a simple Silver ring.  Such a thing was inconceivable to her before this, but the Goblin was able to perform the tasks at unbelievable swiftness, and it was only limited by her thoughts.  Finally, a vessel that can keep up with the speed of my knowledge.

Looking at the ring on the stone worktable, polished to a gleam and perfectly smooth, she thought at first that it wasn’t as satisfying to do something that fast.  However, considering that she actually did do all of the steps involved in crafting the small piece of jewelry, Sandra still felt the same sense of accomplishment as if she had taken her time.

The ring was exactly what she wanted to create as a first try, but it wouldn’t really work well for the PEEs she had planned for it.  While it was big enough to place the enchantment on, there was no place for the Energy Orbs; Tiny Energy Orbs were small enough that they would fit on the band itself, though attaching them was something else entirely.  Setting “heads” or “claws” – otherwise known as the prongs that normally hold gemstones in place – wouldn’t necessarily work, as over time the Energy Orbs would fall out.  As the energy was spent from it, the Orb would shrink like a piece of ice left out in the sun.

Therefore, she had to use the same sort of method she used for all of the other items that continuously used the energy from an Orb and enclose it entirely onto the band.  She had already instructed one of her Shifters down below to bring in some Tiny Energy Orb pairings while she was working, and they were ready for her.  Taking a Tiny Holy and Tiny Spirit Energy set, she used the Goblin Crafter to cut out a rectangular strip of Silver and placed it in the forge for a moment, softening it up enough that she could shape it first with tools and then with the Goblin’s fingers to wrap the metal around the paired Orbs.  With some filing and buffing, she had a smooth, curved Silver pouch that contained the two Orbs and were ready to be attached to the ring.

By cheating again with her Mana, she flawlessly attached the pocket to the ring, completing the initial step in the process – later she would enchant it with a Rapid Healing PEE and it would be finished!  The only problem with it was that it was…ugly.  It looked like the ring had some sort of growth on one side, which would also make it heavy on that end, meaning that it could theoretically twist off and become loose.  She could always engrave it to add some decoration to improve its appearance, but that wouldn’t solve the main problem of it being lopsided.

Shrugging was an interesting experience with a Goblin, because its physiology didn’t seem accustomed to doing that, but she managed as she put the ring to the side as she started on something else.  An armband was next, which was essentially a flat piece of Silver that was bent to fit around an upper arm, leaving enough of a gap so that it could be flexed and secured in place.  Easier to create than the ring, with much more room to fit the Orbs, she was done with it in no time.  For this craft, however, she changed up her process of containing the Orb pair; this was done both for aesthetic and for practicality sakes.

Using a mold crafted from stone, she carved 5 very small holes into the mold that would allow just the smallest amount of Silver through.  Melting some Silver in a crucible made from Dragon Glass, she poured the liquid metal through the tiny holes, where they dropped down to fill up the long, thin crevices; when they cooled enough, she absorbed the stone and was left with 5 thin wires of Silver, which were fairly flexible.  Using the wires, she cut them into pieces, before forming them into a mesh-like net, which she then attached to an oval platform she melded into the armband.  The result was a “cage” of sorts to hold the Orbs, allowing them to be seen; this was important, especially if she ever made some Gold ones with the Energy Expansion PEE on it, as one would want to know if the Orbs were nearly out of energy.

Overall, the design made it more pleasing to the eye (on the armband, at least), though with it being soft Silver, it was vulnerable to damage.  It was the tradeoff for the great benefits they could impart, she supposed; the thought of trying to combine Silver and Steel together, such as having it inlaid on the bottom touching the skin came to mind, but her lessons when she was a Human came to mind.  She was always told that trying to mix the two so close to a particular enchantment would cause some issues, such as a massive decrease in their effectiveness, or them not working altogether.

Sandra still wanted to try it at some point, but there was so much more to do!  Using a sheet of thin Gold this time, she crafted a plain necklace out of different-sized, flat, circular plates attached together with Gold wires that she created in a similar manner as the Silver wires. A plate larger than the rest hung at the bottom, which seemed much more suited to holding a paired Orb set than any other piece of jewelry she had created up until then.  For this necklace, however, she had other plans.

Grinding a gemstone was much harder than she thought it would be.  Even with the Goblin Crafter’s deft fingers, holding up a Ruby to the spinning wheel – with a crossbar and a piece of iron literally melded into the side of the gemstone for leverage – it was hard to achieve the correct angle she needed.  It took nearly a half hour of constant practice, do-overs, and concentrated effort before she thought she had shaped the lump of Ruby into what she thought she needed.  Whether or not it would work for the Minor Flame Shield she was planning to enchant it with was something else entirely.  Regardless, she placed the cut Ruby on the necklace using a pronged set of “claws”, leaving it relatively exposed compared to the paired set of Tiny Fire and Spirit Energy Orbs in a cage next to it.  It seemed a bit lopsided, but if it did what she hoped, then she could work on improving its appearance over time.

Seeing as this was generally more of a proof of concept than a completely finished product, she was okay with that.

Looking at the necklace, however, she was happy to see that she was right in her hopes; there was plenty of room to place another PEE on it, utilizing its Gold construction.  In fact, the plates were large enough and there were 5 wire rings connecting each of the plates together that she could theoretically put 5 PEEs on the necklace, in addition to the Flame Shield on the Ruby.

Placing that many pairings on the necklace was more than possible, utilizing the larger plates to put the caged Orbs on there, but then it would become heavier with the more Gold that was added.  Besides that, Sandra was hoping to find a way to place just “normal” Energy Orbs on her jewelry that wouldn’t be used for powering PEEs, but for passive energy regeneration.  Right now, the people she was giving the Energy Orbs to – if they didn’t have them inside their palms from the Bonding – were usually carrying them around with a crudely fashioned leather necklace that stayed near enough to their skin to work.  As she wanted to start distributing Energy Orbs to the Orcs soon, to prepare them for what was already happening, she wanted a more permanent, multipurpose solution.

The major problem was that most of her Energy Orbs she was enchanting for the population were Large instead of these Tiny Orbs she was using.  Not only that, but she would have to make many different combinations of any type of jewelry she decided to use, because some would need one with just a singular element type of Orb, while others would need 2 elements – making that a total of 8 for the single element and 28 for the dual elements.  For those that had more than 3 elements they could manipulate, those would have to be made on a case-by-case basis.

There has to be an easier solution.

“An easier solution to what?” Winxa asked, obviously interested in what Sandra was working on, as the Dungeon Core had been relatively silent while she was concentrating on crafting.

Hold on, I’ll explain in a moment.  After seeing how adept the Goblin Crafter could be at crafting (which made her happy, as it had lived up to its name), she started to create a veritable horde of them to take over some of the crafts she had going in her dungeon.  A group of them went to the leatherworking shop, taking over for the few constructs and the Shapeshifter she had inside, crafting armor used by the Orcs when trading Warband members to be used as Sandra’s mercenaries.  She also used them to fetch and carry different things for the Shifter Enchanters, so that they could concentrate on doing that exclusively.

Then she had to warn Kelerim, because he was about to get some help.

“What?!  No, no, no – I can’t work with Goblins!” he protested, shaking his head.  “They’re so clumsy-looking and are no doubt useless.”  His reasoning was sound when it came to the previous incarnations, but the Crafters were a different matter altogether.

* Look, just try them out for a little bit, and you’ll see that they can be a big help. *

“Fine, I’ll do it if you ask.  Where are—oh, they’re here already.  And they even have little aprons on.  They look like tiny weak Orcs, so I guess they aren’t all that bad.”  The half-dozen Goblin Crafters got near the half-Dwarf/half-Orc for orders, and Kelerim looked as if he had been slapped in the face.  “They still stink, however.”

* Have them work apart from you; just give them orders and I’m thinking that they should be able to accomplish whatever you set in front of them. *

Nodding, he put them to work doing the little tasks that needed to be done, such as wrapping sword hilts with leather strips for better grips, grinding and polishing the large stack of forged swords that needed to be finished off, and carrying supplies back and forth.  The one time he tried to have one of them try to actually forge a sword didn’t work that well, as the Goblins were quick, not strong; they couldn’t hit a piece of metal hard enough to accomplish much.  But for everything else, the little details, they were more than adept at doing those kinds of things – and without much in the way of supervision.

Lastly, she scrapped the traps in the Jewelry workshop for a moment; making 4 more workstations, she created copies of all of the tools, the buffing and grinding wheels, and the Dragon Glass forges and set 5 of the Goblin Crafters to making additional armbands and necklaces, without the Orbs attached to them.  Sandra would embellish them later; as long as their main forms were completed, she could worry about that at a different time.  She was pleased to find that all it took was a simple order and imparted vision of what she wanted them to do – and the Goblins did it without needing Sandra’s partial concentration.

Alright, Winxa – what do you think about this?  The Dungeon Core explained her problem with so many different Energy Orbs weighing down the necklace, or armband, if she chose to put multiple enchantments on there.

Winxa was silent for a moment as she tapped her fingers against her lips, deep in thought.  “Hmm,” she finally said, talking out loud to herself.  “I know that the easy answer would be to have an Elemental Orb that has more than two elements associated with it, but that is obviously impossible….”

Sandra stopped listening to what the Fairy said next, because she was fixated on the first part.  Stop.  What?  Why is that impossible?  Sandra hadn’t even considered it before, because the thought of two different elements combined into one was strange to her.  Though, the more she considered it, it wasn’t so strange…was it?  There were many, many people who could manipulate two or more elements, after all, and she’d heard of Cores having access to more than one, even if there weren’t any around the wasteland right now.  There were spells that combined two or more elements, enchantments that did the same—so why not her Elemental Orbs.

She pulled up her Core-specific Skill again, remembering that it had evolved from its original purpose when she had discovered she could make an Elemental Cube.

Advanced Elemental Monster Seed Origination

(Core-specific Skill)

The Advanced Elemental Monster Seed Origination skill allows the Dungeon Core to condense Elemental Mana into condensed objects.  These Elemental objects can be used as Monster Seeds or in other unique applications.  Requirements: Mana.  (Skills are permanent and remain even after a Classification change)

Thinking back on the original Skill description, Sandra remembered that it had said something along the lines of “…condensing Elemental Mana into small orbs of a single element…”  When compared to the evolved Skill, however, she noticed that the stipulation of it being a “single element” was gone; she had been so excited to have created a larger Cube object that she had completely missed the change.

“Well, I suppose it is impossible if you haven’t done it already, right?” Winxa asked, confused.

It’s only impossible if I’ve tried it and couldn’t get it to work, Sandra replied, mentally smacking herself in the forehead.  Now that I know to try it, however, I think I might be able to—

Unexpectedly, her focus was ripped out of her control as the Core shard came back to the forefront of her mind with a vengeance.  What’s going on?!

While her control was gone, she was fortunately still aware of everything around her; she hadn’t been shoved back into her mind’s deep corner as she had been before.  As a result, she knew exactly what had happened: One of the nearby Dungeon Cores had finished its upgrade and the expansion of its AOI triggered the shard to take control.

With an enormous force of will, the “conscience” part of Sandra struggled to take control for a few moments, sending out messages to the Shieldmen and Rangers that the Cores were coming back up and to be ready.  Fortunately, she was fairly confident she was able to deliver those communications before she was forced to take a backseat to her actions.

Chapter 32

The Golem-Classification Dungeon Core was the first to awaken from the upgrade, and Sandra was immediately on guard.  Luckily, there were a lot of defenses that were set up to prevent a full-scale attack right away, though Sandra would’ve preferred to pre-emptively attack to head off any assault.  Looking aboveground by using these tiny wooden and leaf spiders that seemed to have infested the entire forest, she saw that the Dwarves she had Bonded to were preparing for any type of attack, and the Elven Rangers were on guard.

Good – she didn’t want to have to worry about them.

At first, the anxiousness she was feeling towards an attack overshadowed the rage she held towards the Cores; as soon as the attack came, all anxious feelings were entirely wiped out as her anger shot to the surface again.  For some reason, though, it didn’t feel as all-consuming as it had before, and the reddish glow tinting her vision was barely even visible.  Regardless, her dedication and zeal towards making the other dungeons pay for what they had done was still as strong as ever, and she was focused on every little move they made so that she could counter it and find a weakness she could exploit.

The Golem Core attacked in the connecting tunnel with only a few Dungeon Monsters at first, a trio of the weaker Mud Golems.  They squelched as they walked, dripping mud from their bodies as they moved, though it quickly disappeared and reformed back on their forms.  It didn’t take long for it to reach the first one of the defensive rooms that had been constructed at some point, and Sandra eagerly waited to see what would happen.

Nothing.  Well, nothing until the first one passed the trap trigger in the room, where an intense gush of flames shot down from the ceiling, roasting the 3 muddy Monsters with super-heated fire for all of 3 seconds.  As the flames disappeared, the Mud Golems were left standing in place, the mud that comprised their bodies almost completely dry.  Before they could start to recover and regenerate from that, moistening up the dry dirt so that they could move again, 5 Weighted Rolling Forces rolled into the room from the tunnel and slammed full-speed into the 3 dried-out Golems.

They shattered into dozens of large chunks when they were hit by the constructs; moments later, they dissolved into the ground, leaving behind what appeared to be Small Iron Orbs as their Monster Seeds.  From a small alcove cut into the corner of the room, a Mega Automaton – standing all of a foot tall with bulky shoulders and jointed arms – ran into the room, scooped up the Monster Seeds, and started running down the tunnel towards her dungeon at a decently fast pace.  She thought it would take it about 15 minutes to travel the nearly 4 miles to its home dungeon, but it was definitely worth the time spent.

Especially considering that there were 5 more Mega Automatons in the little alcove, ready to scoop up more Monster Seeds as soon as they dropped and run away with them.

Sure, she could just absorb them right away, but that would be a waste by only getting half of their worth in Mana back.  Speaking of that, she was currently receiving thousands of Mana every minute, and that meant she was primed to be building an army that could crush the dungeons once and for all.  Why wasn’t I doing that the whole time?

Looking at where her Mana was currently going, she saw that most of it was being funneled through some pieces of her mind automatically to creating Elemental Orbs, which were then brought to a bunch of Shapeshifters, which in turn enchanted them into Energy Orbs.  A very efficient use of Mana so that nothing went to waste, she was sure, but that wasn’t what she needed right now.  She needed constructs and more constructs – enough to wipe out each of those Cores before they knew what hit them.

Before she could stop all of those processes, she watched an Iron Golem stomping down the tunnel, which tore her attention away to see what would happen.  It passed through the first room without triggering anything, mainly because Sandra could see that the trap in the room was currently absorbing the ambient Mana so that it could reset itself.  The 5 Weighted Rolling Forces were pressed up against the side of the tunnel leading out from the first room, not moving.  She was about to force them to attack the metal Golem, but she stopped herself as she remembered the simple orders they were given: only attack after the trap is triggered in the nearby room.

Multi-tiered instructions on such a simple construct were a bit more difficult to achieve, so these instructions left the Forces vulnerable to attack as they sat there doing nothing.  As she would’ve expected, though, the Iron Golem didn’t attack or even look at them, despite them obviously being there.  She knew that the main objective of the Dungeon Monsters was to get to her Home room where her Core was located, and if there wasn’t something standing or sitting in their direct path, then they would effectively ignore it.

Before too long, as the Iron Golem was relatively quick because it ate up the distance with large steps, it arrived at the second room, and Sandra laughed maniacally when she saw what was in store for it.  There was a Champion Totem blocking the exit to the next tunnel, looking small compared to the large Iron Golem, but that wasn’t why she was laughing – it was because of the trap it was about to trigger.

A quarter of the way through the room, the Iron Golem unknowingly activated the Nether-based trap that encompassed the first half of the space.  A dark mist emerged from the floor, surrounding the lower half of the large Golem for a space of 5 seconds.  The mist didn’t impede its progress and it continued to walk, intending to destroy the Totem in its way, but a moment after the mist dissipated, it fell to a knee.  A second later, its other knee disintegrated as the Nether trap had aged and eroded the Iron so completely that it was covered in red rust, which was brittle and fell apart from the sheer weight of the intact metal from its top half.

Ha!  Take that!

Even though its lower half was missing, the Golem wasn’t quite destroyed enough.  While Sandra was confident that the Nether-based mist would prevent the Monster from repairing itself, it still had its upper torso and arms intact.  As it started to drag itself over the ground with those arms, that was when the Champion Totem sprang forward, pummeling the half-destroyed Monster.  They were such devastating blows that within 20 seconds the Golem was cracked and falling apart, without even landing an attack of its own on the quick Totem.

Even before the Iron Golem was destroyed, 2 Stone Golems emerged from the other dungeon, but by that time, the trap in the first room was ready to go again.  As they passed the activation trigger, the super-hot flames shot out again – which bathed the large stone figures completely in fire – before shutting off.  Unlike the Mud Golems, these Golems made of simple stone didn’t dry out and stop moving; instead, their forms were heated up to such a degree that they practically glowed with the rise in temperature.

Right on time, the Weighted Rolling Forces arrived, slamming into the Stone Golems at full speed.  Cracks could be heard throughout the room as hot stones shattered from the impacts, though they didn’t deal nearly as much damage as they had against the Mud Golems.  One of her constructs actually sustained some serious damage from the collision and sheer heat, and was destroyed; the others survived and raced back to their positions in the tunnel, waiting for the next chance to attack the enemy.

Damaged and not regenerating because of the extreme heat still in their forms, the Stone Golems kept going, reaching the second room in about a minute.  The Nether trap wasn’t quite ready yet, so they didn’t trigger anything when the Golems entered the room – but the trap wasn’t needed to defeat them.  The Champion Totem glided forward and did its thing, punching the stone of their bodies with such force that it practically shattered, piece-by-piece until there was just a bunch of rubble.

If they had been undamaged, it probably would’ve been a bit more difficult to demolish both Golems at once with just the one Totem, but the first room had done its job spectacularly to soften them up quite a bit.

Now it was time to replace the one Weighted Rolling Force that had been destroyed, even as Mega Automatons ran back with the Monster Seeds from all of the Golems that had been killed.  Overall, it was more than an even trade-off.  And I can also start creating even more constructs for an army the world has never seen before—

A sudden feeling of danger flashed through her mind, and her attention was ripped away from the tunnel where even more Golems were stomping their way through.  The source of her alarm was easy enough to identify, as it shut down many of the things she could do in her dungeon…when something that didn’t belong was present.

She found it immediately, as it was an intruder – that wasn’t a Dungeon Monster – in her dungeon; as there were only three places in her dungeon that were open to the world above, a quick check of her main entrance and her Roc tunnel showed no evidence that anything was there.  That left the large open-topped space near her original entrance tunnel, which turned out to be exactly where the problem had arisen.

Looking inside the workshop, she identified a small Gnome that was somewhat familiar, but she ignored it because it was Bonded to her Core.  No, it was a second Gnome that caught her attention, and what had basically put her dungeon on lockdown until it was removed.  As she had already considered any sentient person walking into her dungeon a threat to her, there was only one solution in having it removed.

How dare you enter my dungeon!  You will die like the rest!

*         *         *

Violet wasn’t sure when she had passed into Sandra’s range of influence, but as she got closer to the wasteland, the Enchanter felt like she was…coming home, if that in any way made sense.  When she was probably 5 miles away from Sandra’s dungeon, she was convinced that she was within the Dungeon Core’s influence – so the Gnome thought that she would probably be heard through her monster at that distance.

“Sandra!  I’m coming back and I have news!” she yelled, to be heard over the wind rushing by as the Roc speeded towards the wasteland.  In fact, if she leaned to one side, she could make out the wasteland rapidly approaching along the ground, and she thought she would be there within a few minutes.  “I also have someone that needs healing from one of your Repair Drones!”

There was no response, nor any indication that Sandra had even heard her.  She repeated what she had just yelled, hoping that if she did it enough she would get through to the Core.  Yet, even after the 20th time of trying to get the crafting dungeon’s attention, there was no indication that she was getting through to her.

Did something happen to her Core?  Was it destroyed as well?  Somehow, she doubted that was the case, if only because she was still controlling the Aerie Roc bringing them to the wasteland.  She didn’t know the specifics of how it worked, but she was fairly sure it was the bond she established with Sandra that was allowing her to order and manipulate the large brown bird, and if that bond were broken with the destruction of Sandra’s Core, the Roc becoming out of control was nearly a certainty.

Violet checked on Princess Celeste as she had the Roc start to descend, passing by the ruined village of Glimmerton; the Royal Gnome was still breathing, at least, though it had slowed quite a bit over the last hour of flight time.  She doesn’t have long.

“Sandra, if you’re there, I really need your help!”  It was easy enough to direct their transportation to the upper workshop, as all she needed to do was picture it in her mind and send her thoughts towards the bird with an order attached to it.  She had gotten bored over the journey and had learned how to control the bird without verbal commands; since most of her fear of heights had disappeared some time during the emergency flight back to the wasteland, she wasn’t as afraid to experiment a little here and there.

Safely, of course.

Still, Sandra didn’t answer or acknowledge her presence, which indicated to Violet that something seriously wrong was going on.  Maybe she is concentrating on something more important?  A fight against the other Cores around here, perhaps?  The threat from the other Cores around the wasteland was one of the reasons Violet and Felbar had gone home to ask for help, so that wasn’t out of the realm of possibility.  The issue right now was that she needed help; not just to heal Celeste, but to actually carry her inside without having to drag her in herself, which wouldn’t be good for the Princess.

The Roc landed a little roughly right outside of the workshop and when it finally stopped moving, Violet unstrapped herself and tumbled down the back of the Roc like it was a very rough slide.  She landed in a sprawl on the dirt and stone of the wasteland, but she didn’t think she hurt herself; as she got up, she used her hands to wipe some of the dust off and didn’t feel more than a few scrapes on her hands in the process.

Violet ran to the open ceiling of the workshop and looked inside, trying to find a Repair Drone; she didn’t see one, even though she suspected it was there, but she did see an Ape construct just standing around.  Up here; help me, she instructed mentally, and the construct immediately leapt up to the edge of the open ceiling, caught the edge and pulled itself up.  It immediately got to work unstrapping Princess Celeste at her further direction and gently cradled her in one arm and Violet in the other.  Then she had the Ape jump into the workshop, landing with a small crunch of the stone underneath.

Immediately, she spotted one of the white cylindrical constructs that indicated that it was a Repair Drone, just out of sight of the hole in the ceiling and across the room.  I made it!  As she started to instruct the Repair Drone to come over and start healing the Princess, her mind was overwhelmed with a mental shout.

* How dare you enter my dungeon!  You will die like the rest! *

She held her hands up to her head as it rang with the painful reverberations of the voice.  It was a voice that sounded like Sandra, but was just subtly different from what she remembered; she wasn’t sure what the difference was, but she was sure that she didn’t like it.

As the import of the words finally penetrated past the pain in her head, she felt herself being dropped to the floor.  In shock, she looked up to see the Ape with the arm that just dropped her raised, and it was seriously appearing as if the construct was about to smash the Princess to a pulp.

* NOOOOOOOOOOO!!! *

Another mental shout ripped into her mind and she blacked out. The next thing she knew, she was waking up to a Repair Drone backing away from her side, its long stick-like arms and pads disappearing within its blemish-free white shell.  She shook her head back and forth and noticed that it didn’t hurt anymore, nor were there any more stings from the scrapes she had recently acquired on her hands.

The Princess!

She sat up, looking around, only to see the Princess lying nearby…whole and undamaged.  Not only that, she was alive by the looks of it, though she was obviously still unconscious or sleeping at the moment.

* I healed your friend, Violet, but it’s not safe for her near here unless she’s Bonded to my Core.  Quick, what elements does she have access to? *

Violet jumped at the voice in her head, the recent shouts making her a little skittish.  A hundred questions passed through her mind in less than a second, but the tone in Sandra’s voice – which sounded “normal” again – made her answer the Dungeon Core’s question before she answered her own.  “I think she has three: Fire, Water, and Nether.”  It was a highly unusual combination, but that made sense for the unusual nature of the Princess.

* Unusual combination of elements.  Hold on; I know you probably have a lot of questions, and I have a lot for you, but this needs to come first. *

It was good to hear Sandra’s voice again, even if it had been under some strange circumstances.  Violet held her tongue as she watched the Ape that had helped her earlier go toward a wooden box in the corner, coming back with what she immediately recognized as Energy Orbs.  “Wait, are you going to—?”

* Yes; she probably won’t feel it, and I have a hope that it will shorten the time she’s in a healing coma.  She was barely holding on by the time my Repair Drone got to her, and this is the only way I can see to speed up the process. *

Violet just nodded as she watched the Fire and Water Energy Orbs being placed in her right palm, and the Nether Energy Orb placed in her left.  The next moment, there were some twitches from that caused the Princess to spasm a couple of times; Violet rushed to her side, but the spasming stopped before the Enchanter could even get close.

* Done.  She should be safe now.  Who is she? *

“Princess Celeste,” Violet absently responded as she looked over the Princess’s face, relaxing when she saw that the Royal Gnome appeared none the worse for the Bonding process.  She was aware of how painful it had been with those that Bonded with Energy Orbs in their palms, and she was glad that it didn’t appear to have done any serious, lasting damage to the Princess.  In fact, it looked as if she was just resting peacefully – just like Felbar had rested peacefully when he had been healed from Sandra’s Repair Drone construct.

* A Princess?  Wow, I’ve never had one of them in my dungeon before; I’ve had a Warlord, but never a Princess. *

Sandra’s voice grew hard at the mention of a Warlord, and Violet wondered exactly what she meant by that.

* Look, I don’t have a lot of time; I just felt another Dungeon Core finish its upgrade and I’m losing control again.  Talk to Delarthe if you can find him, and he’ll fill you in with what’s going on.  Or better yet, Owchet – if you see him. *

“Wait—what?” Violet asked, entirely confused by nearly everything Sandra had just said.  There was no answer, however, and it felt like there wouldn’t be one from the craft-loving dungeon.

As she sat there by the Princess’s side, looking around at what to do, she couldn’t help but wonder what had gone on while she had been away.  And who is Owchet?

Chapter 33

Retaking control of her actions required a monumental effort from Sandra’s conscience, but she managed to do it just in time.  The return and sight of Violet, her Journeyman Enchanter friend, was enough of a crack in the wall holding her back that she was able to break through and (albeit temporarily) stop the Core shard from killing the highly injured Gnome that had arrived with her friend.  That would’ve been Bad with a capital B, because the injured Gnome hadn’t just been a random person – she was a Princess.  Not that having a higher station in life would’ve made much difference in who Sandra wanted to help, of course, but allowing this Princess Celeste to be killed by her own construct wouldn’t have been the best start to negotiations with the Gnomish leadership.

As she was pulled away from Violet and the coma-fied body of the Princess, she couldn’t help but feel her warmth-filled emotions soar in response to her friend’s presence.  The anger she had held onto over the last week and a half at her continued absence started to dissipate, and Sandra began to understand how unfair she had been towards the Gnome.  She had been blaming the lack of returning on some desire of the Enchanter’s wish to abandon Sandra in her time of need; the fact that Violet had returned, bringing a Princess that had been nearly dead with her meant that there were likely other circumstances in play that had prevented her return beforehand.

Why did I feel like Violet had abandoned me?  What made me even consider that?  Sure, she had been under a bit of stress with attempting to contain the sudden surge in Dungeon Monsters coming from the other Cores in the area, but she was sure it was something else.  Sandra thought about it for a moment, but couldn’t figure it out – probably because she was distracted by what was happening throughout the rest of her dungeon.

The return of Violet had widened the “crack” in the wall keeping Sandra’s conscience away from control, enough that she nearly felt like she was in charge – other than not being able to dictate her own actions.  She could see and experience everything that the Core shard in her mind was doing, as well as understand exactly what it was thinking at all times – unlike before, where she had to rely on internal conversations to work out what was going on.

When her conscience portion of her mind discovered the shard once again wanted to stop production of everything that was relatively automated in her mind – such as the crafting her Goblin Crafters were working on, and the Elemental Orbs her Shapeshifters were enchanting – she found that she wasn’t helpless after all.  With strong suggestions sent to the Core shard directing her actions, she warned about the need to continue with that production, otherwise their future defenses might fall victim to attack.  Whether or not that was the right tactic to convince the shard of their importance, she felt a subtle shift in the resulting action being taken.

The crafting was left alone, and the Elemental Orbs being created for the Unstable Shapeshifters to enchant was cut in half – but thankfully not stopped entirely.

Now, the reason she was no longer in control – as briefly mentioned to Violet – was because another Dungeon Core nearby had expanded their Area of Influence, meaning that they had completed their upgrade.  In her opinion, the Slime-Classification dungeon wasn’t as much of a threat as something like the Golems or the Beasts, but it could certainly become a problem if left unchecked.  Unlike the Golems, who had been cautiously exploring the newly changed tunnel connecting their dungeons together, the Slimes went full-out on an assault.

Waves of smaller Slimes, which were essentially balls of rolling jelly a foot and a half wide with a nucleus inside their forms, flowed into the tunnel, either unsuspecting or uncaring of what they would find.  Dozens of them blobbed their way into the first room Sandra had constructed, only to trigger a trap when the first one passed the three-quarter mark.  A heavy slab of stone, 2 inches thick and encompassing the whole of the ceiling, dropped down on the 40 or so Slimes, squishing them so completely that their inner nucleus’ – their brains, essentially – were flattened and destroyed.  The stone broke apart upon impact with the Slimes and the ground, but that didn’t matter overly much because it disappeared a few seconds later as the Mana infused in the trap was used up.

A half-dozen Mega Automatons rushed out of an alcove at the corner of the room, gathering up as many Tiny Copper Orbs as they could carry, before rushing back towards Sandra’s dungeon.  Unfortunately, one of them was nearly destroyed as it ventured too much towards the entrance; the Slimes hadn’t stopped coming in a massive wave, and her Automaton had nearly been overwhelmed by a quartet of small Slimes.  Even though the acidic effect of these particular Slimes was weaker than others, their enveloping of her little construct still managed to eat through its upper body and arms.

With legs still working perfectly fine, however, it ran away without any Monster Seeds, following the path of the others.  A short distance down the way, it was repaired by one of her Unobtrusive Multi-access Repair Drones she had paired up with a trio of Platinum-banded Wyrms; when it was back in fighting shape, it joined some of its fellow Automatons waiting in a different room, in a different alcove.

It certainly couldn’t go back, because the wave of Slimes didn’t seem to end.

Ah, it seeks to overwhelm my defenses with this horde of weak Monsters!  Too bad they will be annihilated easily and I’ll be able to counterattack, tearing through them with ease.  Foolish Core!

The villain-like thoughts of the shard were as easy to hear as if it was speaking right next to her, and the ideas accompanying the thought were plain to read.  Already, some of the Mana that had been siphoned off from the Elemental Orbs she was creating was going towards the production of an Expanded Mobile Fortification.  The idea was to use it to smash a way into the other dungeon, deploying the Fortification as a means of securing a foothold, and then sending in an army of constructs afterwards.

The shard hadn’t done this before because of the simple reason that it required too much Mana to accomplish.  First, the Mobile Fortifications were expensive Mana-wise to create, both in terms of the Monster itself and the Monster Seed needed to form the construct.  Second, Sandra had barely been able to maintain an equilibrium of Mana and defenses with the other Cores, though towards the end she had been slowly coming out ahead; assembling an army of constructs to follow the Fortification had been out of reach.

Of course, the benefits of having her Mana intake increase from the Arachnid Queens doing their things in the nearby forests would finally allow the shard to create both the Expanded Mobile Fortification and that army of constructs.

Over the next hour, Sandra watched both the Golem and Slime Cores send in their forces, one slowly and methodically, and the other in a rush.  Both had about the same success, with some solo Golems making it nearly 8 rooms before they were stopped, mainly from a combination of luck in just missing the re-activation of a trap; the Slimes just kept pumping out small Slime after small Slime, reaching 10 rooms deep before they were flattened by a trap, had their nuclei pierced by the bite of a Platinum-banded Wyrm, or were squished by one of Sandra’s Hardened Animated Slabs that inhabited some of the rooms.

Meanwhile, the assembly of a strike force was already underway, as the new type of Fortification was already finished, and its cubic metal form appeared larger than the original construct, though it hadn’t been “opened” quite yet.  Other constructs including more Wyrms and Iron Shears – strangely enough – were quickly filling up her Home, being assembled together to launch a strategic attack.

The Shears were a mystery at first, because they weren’t something that Sandra expected the shard to use, but after a moment they made sense; the jelly-like bodies of the Slimes were soft enough that the Shears could penetrate most of them, piercing the nucleus before the acidic nature of the Monsters they were killing could dissolve them.  While the smaller constructs could probably be used more than once while destroying the smaller Slimes, they were a one-shot deal to a lot of the larger, deadlier slime versions that Sandra had seen before.

Whatever happened, most of the Shears weren’t likely to come back from the raid on the other dungeon.  The shard in control of her Core was banking on it being successful, and if it continued as it was, it might even succeed.

Sandra’s conscience felt herself being pushed back even further in her mind as the last 2 Dungeon Cores completed their upgrades simultaneously.  What that told her was the Goblin and Beast-Classification Cores were of the same larger Core Size, which meant that they would be the ones to watch out for in the near future.  The shard knew this as well, and she could feel a change in its anger and attention.

The build-up of constructs paused as the other 2 Cores came back into operation, and the flow of Golems and Slimes stopped.  Sandra still had no idea how in the name of the Creator they were communicating, but it was patently obvious that they were; when they coordinated their actions so precisely, it really couldn’t be anything else.

All of the Golems that were in the tunnel suddenly marched back into their dungeon, even the ones that were already 4 rooms deep.  The last pair of Iron Golems to leave actually got caught by the Nether trap it had managed to get by in the second room just a few minutes ago, but that didn’t seem to deter them.  As for the Slimes, the ones that were already in the tunnel began to move again, though this time they were a bit more spread out than before, in groups of only 5 at a time, with large, room-width spaces in between groups.

In the next few minutes, other Monsters began to emerge from the other 3 dungeons, and it wasn’t what Sandra expected.  From the Golem Core came the smallest Golems she had ever seen produced, 3-foot-tall forms that looked extremely weak, seemingly made of dust, and appeared relatively non-threatening – but there were a lot of them.  Just like the Slimes, they came in groups of 5 with space in between them, and they toddled forward more than strode, as it appeared their shapes weren’t quite developed for walking.

The Goblins did approximately the same thing, sending out groups of pathetic-looking Goblins at a time; she wasn’t entirely sure what they were at first because she hadn’t seen them come from the other dungeon before.  However, looking at how weak they appeared, she discerned that they looked exactly like the Goblin Worker Sandra had unlocked via her Advancement Options.  She had only created one for a short time and had nearly forgotten what they looked like, but now it was obvious what they were.

The Beasts followed that up with a group of…squirrels?  They were larger than ones that Sandra had seen before – at about a foot and a half tall – and despite their adorable initial appearance, she could see that their teeth were longer and sharper than a “normal” squirrel’s.  Also, while they didn’t have expressions on their faces, by the way they bounded forward in unison, she would call them quite blood-thirsty.

None of it made any sense to Sandra, though she felt some indication from the shard in her mind that it certainly did.  When she finally grasped what it was, as the first larger Dungeon Monsters started to emerge from the other dungeons, she looked on in horror.

The other Cores had learned from the actions of the Golems and Slimes, and had all adjusted their assaults to compensate.

It wasn’t a guaranteed way to defeat her traps and make their way to her dungeon, because she had planned the last few rooms to counter this kind of tactic, but she was hoping that it would take them a whole lot longer than this to figure it out.  By sending in smaller, weaker groups to activate the traps in the rooms, Sandra would effectively only end up killing the Monsters of no consequence as the stronger Monsters made their way through unscathed.  Again, she had known that would happen and a few of the stronger ones would still get caught as they had no real knowledge of how much time it took for each trap to reactivate – which meant that it could be ready to go as soon as a weak group passed through – but most of the time they would be able to get through without too much trouble.

At least for the first dozen rooms, they wouldn’t; after that, the defenses were a bit less dependent on the resetting of traps and more on Sandra’s constructs and her own Dungeon Monsters.  She would stop them just as effectively as she had before, but it would hopefully be easier since the stronger ones attacking her would be spaced out.  Ultimately, it wasn’t a problem at the moment, because the defenses were already planned and set up to account for nearly any eventuality.

The shard in control of her Core wasn’t having any of that, though.  As soon as the plan from the other Dungeon Cores was seen, there was an immediate ramp up of construct production, and even the Elemental Orbs that were being produced were put on hold entirely.  With over 5,000 Mana every minute flowing into her Core due to her constructs gathering it up above, it didn’t take long to complete the army of Wyrms and Shears for an assault on the Slime-Classification dungeon.

I must destroy this one before they have a chance to break through all of my defenses!

While Sandra’s conscience didn’t think that was likely to happen, she wondered if the shard knew something that was so obvious it wasn’t worth even thinking about.

It’s time to kill that Core!

She tried to stop it from happening, but she was helpless against the focused rage of the Core shard. Now that it was so close to succeeding in getting a portion of the revenge it wanted, the cracks that had been there just a little bit ago had closed up, giving her no chance to intervene.

All she could do was watch.

The Expanded Mobile Fortification led the way, shooting down the tunnel at frightening speed, obliterating any and all of the Slimes in its way, even the larger ones that it basically passed through with only the slightest resistance.  Hundreds of Slimes were destroyed in less than a minute, as the Wyrms and Shears followed along behind the cubic construct – though the Fortification wasn’t unscathed from the process.  Almost every side of the large Steel cube was pitted from acid, the front worst of all, though it moved fast enough that the acid blew off before it could eat too much of the construct’s metal.

The Slime Core attempted to react, but all it managed to do was gather up a veritable wall of different types of Slimes near the entrance of its dungeon in an attempt to stop the cube…but the construct wasn’t going to be stopped.  There was a momentary delay as the Fortification rammed into the wall and it flexed as if it were some kind of rubber-like material – and then the cube broke through in an explosion of slimy jelly and destroyed nuclei.  The Wyrms arrived a few moments later and destroyed the remainder of the smaller Slimes around the entrance, clearing the way for the nearly 2,000 Animated Iron Shears that had been created.

Inside of the Slime-Classification dungeon, there was already a massive fight erupting.  The reason the shard hadn’t been successful in its previous attacks was due to the impressive defenses just through this entrance, and right now was no exemption.  The room the Fortification found itself in was massive, at least 800 feet on each side, though only about 150 feet in height.  And inside of the room was the largest and most varied collection of Slimes Sandra had ever seen, and she was instantly glad that the tunnel was too small for many of them to fit through.

First of all, there were 1,000 or more of the smaller Slimes that had constantly been filtering into the tunnel, but that was only the beginning.  There were hundreds of larger Slimes, at least 10 feet wide and tall, interspersed between the smaller ones like their older siblings watching over them; dozens of even larger ones, 30 feet in width, looking like the parents of the smaller Slimes; and then there were a handful of gigantic Slimes in their round shapes, at least 125 feet wide and tall, appearing as if they lorded over the others.

But that wasn’t all – those were just the ones that were similar in their blob-like shape.

There were Beast-like shapes of all different kinds, such as big cats and bears looking all jiggly and jelly-like, though they had tougher “skin” than the normal Slime shapes and could actually damage something with swipes of their claws; there were long, thin Slimes that were similar in shape to massive snakes, though they didn’t have more than a general shape of a mouth and no fangs; and there were strange gelatinous cubes of Slime that looked very similar to her Mobile Fortification, though large enough that they wouldn’t fit down the tunnel.  Then, as she had seen before outside, there was a Slime Dragon – but not just one!  No, there were 3 Dragons crouched or hovering in place, just waiting for an opportunity to strike.

The Mobile Fortification slammed through another hundred Slimes on its way to the middle of the room, where it stopped with a precise movement, no slowing down.  She could sense that it was now fairly damaged on its outer shell of its cube, but still holding up well enough to initiate the next step of its attack.  As the Slimes converged on it, the Expanded Mobile Fortification suddenly exploded into movement, as long legs extended out from it – 8 in total – in different directions, slamming down and through whatever Slime they came in contact with.

Sandra immediately saw the difference from the previous Mobile Fortification and this current, “Expanded” construct.  Whereas the former one was basically a platform that walked on metal legs, had swords that swung back and forth on its long legs – slicing up everything underneath it – and attacked from the center platform using a large hammer and sawblade, this one had a bit more…movement…that it was capable of.

It was only slightly bigger in size and shape, but that was where the similarities ended.  Sandra watched as it raised itself on 4 of its legs, tilted upwards, and was soon standing upright, with 4 legs that it rotated so that they were facing straight out from it.  The platform shifted with it, so that the vulnerable “core” of the Fortification was no longer on top, but was on its front – as if it had placed its heart on its chest.  Then the legs that had been lifted up and were sticking straight out morphed into long blades, as if the Fortification was now wielding swords facing 4 different directions.

Those swords weren’t stationary, either, as they started to dip and rise even as they rotated around the central platform, speeding up until they created a relatively impenetrable barrier of sharpness as it moved around.  Not only that, but it turned out that its legs were flexible enough to bend and jump – which surprised both Sandra and the Slimes that the construct was facing.

With swinging swords on its legs chopping up anything beneath it, as well as 2 hammers and 2 sawblades underneath its central platform facing downwards, the Fortification jumped at one of the 125-foot Slimes, landing halfway inside of it as the rotating maelstrom of leg swords tore into it, flinging slime everywhere.  The construct continued to advance, practically obliterating the massive Slime and destroying the 20 or so nuclei inside within a couple of seconds, all while everything else converged on the Fortification in order to overwhelm it.

Even though it was particularly destructive, the acid from the giant Slime was already affecting the Fortification.  The tip of all of the spinning swords was noticeably shorter – only by a foot or so, and there were large swathes of pitted metal on its legs where the construct had impaled more than a few Slimes.  It wouldn’t last long if the rest of the Slimes piled on top of it, destroying the powerful Fortification through the “blood” of their own dead.  As much as she didn’t want to lose such a construct, Sandra’s conscience was hoping that the Slimes would succeed.

Alas, the Core shard in her mind knew what it was doing.  Over 2,000 Shears shot into the room and started to slam into the largest of the Slimes; though the “skin” – or outer shell – of the bigger Slimes were a bit tougher and their Slime more damaging to the Iron of the Shears, determined attacks by the constructs were destroying them with relative ease.  When a dozen Animated Iron Shears impacted the same exact spot on a Dragon, for instance, it was like an arrow to the heart – or in this case, a blade to their nuclei.

Even the strongest, most powerful Slimes were destroyed in a matter of seconds, though it required the sacrifice of hundreds of Shears to make something like that happen.  Gradually, Sandra could see a method behind which ones were attacked, as they all had something in common: They were guarding a large hole in the opposite wall, bodily placing themselves between her constructs and the passageway.

A passageway that almost certainly led to the Core itself, since it wasn’t inside the giant room.  Sadly, as much as she didn’t want it to happen, her constructs were winning; one after another, another obstacle was eliminated from their path to the objective, even as more Slimes were pouring through the hole in the wall.  Finally, though there were still hundreds of the gelatinous Monsters still in the room – which the Platinum-banded Wyrms that were brought along were currently destroying methodically, even though they were being destroyed in the process – the passageway appeared relatively clear.

A hundred Shears immediately shot for the opening.  Sandra’s conscience strained to regain control, using all of her willpower to force an opening…to no avail.  She felt like she had made some cracks in the shield keeping her out, but not enough to assume influence over her Core.

She watched helplessly as the Shears shot down a relatively long tunnel – maybe 200 feet in length – tearing through a few more Slimes in their way, losing half of their number, before emerging in another massive room.  The space inside was only about half as expansive as the previous room, but the only thing that caught her eye was the glowing crystal-like shape floating in the middle of the room.  It being Natural-based, the Slime Core was greenish in color, appearing like a miniature sun tinted by looking at it through a thin leaf – though it was a lot more vulnerable than a sun.

The Shears wasted no time as the shard in control of her mind instructed the constructs to impact the foreign Dungeon Core.  Sandra’s conscience couldn’t watch as they sped along—but then her attention was ripped away as a threat closer to home slammed into the shard’s focus.

The sight of Echo in Sandra’s workshop, carrying the body of another female Elf was all she needed.  NOOOOOO!!!!  STOP! she screamed at the shard with such an intense feeling of emotion at the sight of another one of her friends that she broke through the barrier preventing her from accessing the rest of her Core.

Praying she wasn’t too late, she ripped control away from the shard, turned her attention back to the Slime-Classification dungeon, and thanked the Creator that the closest pair of Shears had literally stopped less than an inch away from the Core.  If she’d had a body, she would’ve collapsed in relief.

Chapter 34

“Sandra!  I need your help!”

The Dungeon Core ignored Echo for just a moment, as she started moving all of her remaining constructs out of the other dungeon, though there truthfully weren’t all that many.  Only about 200 Animated Iron Shears were still whole enough to retreat, as well as 2 Platinum-banded Wyrms.  The Expanded Mobile Fortification was a mess, and it stumbled and collapsed when she tried to get it to move back to her dungeon; the construct had destroyed hundreds of Slimes with its multitude of weapons, but it had suffered horrendous damage in return.  That damage only multiplied when it collapsed, as it was quickly swarmed by the hundreds of Slimes still inside the room.

Needless to say, despite there still being quite a few Slimes inside the room, she wasn’t expecting there to be any attacks by that Core for a while.  As far as the other Cores went, none of them seemed to have had any reaction to the sudden attack on the Slime-Classification Core; after a moment’s reflection, she decided that they probably didn’t care and hoped that she would succeed.  More enhancements would be coming their way, after all.

It was difficult to withstand the increasingly powerful efforts by the shard to regain control, and she heard it screaming in frustration at robbing it of its revenge, but she managed.  Barely, but she was ultimately able to hold on to it for now.  Now back in full control, she turned back to Echo and the female Elf she had been dragging inside, only to find that Echo was gone from the workshop, the same Ape that had recently helped to carry the Gnome Princess helping her unstrap someone else from the Aerie Roc that had brought her back.

Echo!  You have no idea how good it is to see you!

The Elf jumped at Sandra’s voice in her head, and she inwardly chuckled even as she quickly checked over the tunnels that were constantly being assaulted by the other Cores.  They were starting to make progress using the method she thought they were using, though it would be an hour or more before they progressed through to her secondary defenses.  At that point, she would have to monitor them closely and replace any of her own constructs and Dungeon Monsters as attrition wore them down, but for now everything was fairly stable.

“Sandra!  There you are; I was trying to talk to you for what felt like the longest time,” Echo said after recovering from her shock.  Smiling, she waved to the male Elf that the Ape was currently carrying.  “I brought you a surprise – our King and Queen.”

Sandra couldn’t help but be shocked at the presence of yet more royalty.  And…what is wrong with them?  They don’t appear injured.  Unlike the Gnomish Princess, the two Elves’ bodies were healthy-looking, dressed in fine clothes, and seemed almost like they were just asleep – not in need of Sandra’s services.

“I’ll explain everything in a little bit, but I need your help to Bond with them.”

It was something that she was planning on doing anyway, because having them inside of her dungeon put a limit on what she could do, but this was new.  Okay…do you happen to know what elements they are able to use?

Echo froze and her face seemed to lose the small amount of color it possessed.

What’s wrong?

“I…don’t, unfortunately.  I didn’t even think to ask before I left…”

It shouldn’t be that hard to figure out, I wouldn’t think.  Did you see them use any spells before they became like this?

By that time, Echo and the Ape had descended into her dungeon, and Sandra’s construct placed the male Elf next to the other unconscious figure on the ground.  The Dungeon Core felt a flare-up of personal anger at his appearance in her dungeon, not even coming from the shard in her mind; the King – if Echo was speaking the truth – had similar facial features as Wyrlin, the Elf that had brought so many Orcs to their deaths in her dungeon not that long ago.  Not enough resemblance to pin them as relatives, but enough to make her need to steady her emotions so as to not allow the shard to take over again.

“No…but I at least know how many they both have access to?”

How many?  Sandra expected that the King and Queen would have access to 3 or 4 elements, perhaps even 5; she hadn’t heard of anyone (Human, at least) ever having more than that.

“They both had access to 6 elements – I just don’t know which ones.”

The Dungeon Core was astounded.  Winxa?  Is that right?  I realize that I was unique in having access to all of the elements – but I couldn’t use them, so it sort of balanced out.  But 6 elements?  That seems impossible.

The Dungeon Fairy was quickly informed of what Echo was saying, as well as who was supposedly in her dungeon right now.  After the quick update, Winxa shrugged.  “It’s not all that unusual in the Elven race, though it isn’t exactly common.  I seem to remember hearing about an Elf a long time ago having access to 7 elements, though whether or not that was true, I can’t confirm.”

Sandra took that as confirmation, and figured that it certainly made sense why these two people were King and Queen, especially with that kind of power.

Are you sure you don’t have at least a hint at what elements they use?  There must be dozens of different combinations of elements, especially if there are 6 elements for each of them.  Sandra did some quick mental calculations and realized that there weren’t as many as she feared: 28, in fact.  Still, it would take a bit of experimentation to get the combinations correct on both of them.

“Again, I’m not sure.  I’m pretty sure it was implied that, combined, they had access to all of the elements, but beyond that – nothing.”  Echo was wringing her hands in worry, as she looked over her people’s most powerful figures, unconscious and helpless at the moment.  Sandra wanted to ask about what exactly was wrong with them, but she deduced that the worried Elf would let her know when she was ready.  In the meantime, she had her Ape bring the entire box of Energy Orbs over so that she could start experimenting.

The problem with so many Energy Orbs being used for something like this, however, was that the spherical objects had trouble staying inside of the Elves’ delicate hands.  Even if they managed to hold onto them, Sandra wasn’t sure how much they would impede the use of those hands; while 2 Orbs had been embedded in Elder Herrlot’s palms without too much difficulty, it had been already pushing the bounds of what the body could handle in such a small space.

Using Elemental Orbs was an option, giving them the “brand” anywhere on their body, but Sandra thought someone who could use so many types of elemental energy would prefer to have the Energy Orbs for regenerative purposes.  When Echo was asked, she received an affirmative.

“I agree; I just wish that I had gotten the choice when I first bonded, because I can see the benefit of having the Orbs always touching my skin and not shrinking down when used.”

That was certainly a thought that Sandra had considered before, but hadn’t really had a chance to see if it worked before now.  Well, why don’t you try it while I’m trying to figure this out?

“What?  You can do that?”

I’m not sure, but we can try.  If it doesn’t work, then even that will be good to know.

“Is there any danger?”

Sandra hesitated.  I…don’t think so?  There shouldn’t be, but as I haven’t done it before, I don’t know for sure.

Now it was Echo’s turn to hesitate as she looked at the box of Energy Orbs.  Coming to a decision, she reached down and pulled out a white and a yellow Large Energy Orb, holding the Holy one in her right hand, with the Air in her left.  She stared at them for a moment, before she nodded.  “Do it.”

Just a reminder, this will hurt.  Another nod.  Okay, Bonding in 3, 2—

She didn’t wait for 1, as she didn’t want Echo to brace for it; whether or not that would make a difference in the pain she experienced was unknown, but Sandra always felt it was better to just get it over with.  The Elf cried out in a primal scream of unimaginable pain as she collapsed to her knees – and Sandra smiled internally.  The incongruence of pain being heaped upon her friend and her reaction to it wasn’t lost on the Dungeon Core, but she knew she wasn’t happy about the pain; she was happy because the pain meant that the process was working.

Though, Sandra had to admit that it was taking a bit longer than usual.  Normally, the whole process only took a few seconds, but Echo screamed for nearly 10 before she collapsed on the floor.  When she finally recovered and got to her knees again, Sandra could see the 2 Orbs stuck in her palms, appearing “normal” – as normal as having Energy Orbs embedded in the skin was, of course.

That wasn’t the only change, however; the gear-like brands on her cheeks, where Sandra had been forced to place the Elemental Orbs originally when Echo was spasming from the snake venom, were now gone, having been moved down to her palms around the Orbs.  I wonder if that was why it took so long?

“That…was…the worst thing…I’ve ever felt in my life.  Is it that bad for everyone?” Echo panted out as she got to her feet, her eyes appearing a little haunted as she stared at her palms.

Sandra explained what she thought had happened, and how it took longer than usual, which only got a few nods in response.  Echo closed her eyes and shuddered a few times, before she shook her whole body as if to get rid of any lingering pain.  “I can’t say it isn’t worth it, but I never want to have to go through something like that ever again.”

At least this means that I can use Elemental Orbs to start the Bonding process, and hopefully I can figure out how to get the Energy Orbs into them at a later date.  That made things much easier, in fact, because it was easy enough to arrange Elemental Orbs on their bare stomachs, as opposed to trying to get their hands to hold them.  An experiment with some of her Orc mercenaries a few days prior showed that trying to embed the Energy Orbs anywhere else on their body didn’t work, so palms were the only alternative for some reason.

It took about 10 minutes of attempting to Bond the two Elves with different combinations of Elemental Orbs before there was success; it would’ve been longer, but knowing that the Queen likely had access to what the King did not sped up the process.  The King ended up having all the elements but Natural and Holy, whereas the Queen didn’t have access to Nether and Fire.  Even after seeing it succeed, Sandra still had trouble believing that 2 people could be that powerful.  They would make awesome Enchanters.

The thought of Enchanting caused Sandra to do 2 things.  One, she went to check up on Violet and the Gnome Princess, quickly finding them in Violet’s room down below, with Princess Celeste in her coma in Felbar’s former bed.  The Dungeon Core wanted to finally ask Violet what happened and where she had been, but the obviously exhausted Journeyman Enchanter was sprawled out sleeping on her own bed.

Two, she suddenly had a thought of how to solve a few problems, by continuing what she had been working on before the Golem-Classification Dungeon Core had finished its upgrade.  But first, she needed to get Echo and the two Royal personages downstairs; now that the two new Elves – strangely enough, when she looked at her Visitor’s List, their names were King and Queen – were Bonded, they needed somewhere to rest as well.  They hadn’t woken up from whatever ailed them, so hopefully some sleep would do them some good.

Sandra expanded the room that Echo had used while she had been staying in the dungeon, utilizing some additional Mana to create materials for making a pair of beds.  While she was doing that, she had two of her constructs arrive to pick up and transport the Royals down below.

I’m making a place where they can rest right now, but I’m also working on a solution for the Energy Orbs, as well.  While we move, why don’t you tell me why they were unconscious in the first place, and why you think they didn’t wake up after the Bond.  After that, I’ll tell you what’s been going on around here.

They started to walk, making their way down below via the VATS, and Echo started to explain what had happened to her from the beginning.  “Well, I’m sure it won’t surprise you to know that Elder Herrlot was up to something – but it was something completely different than either you or I expected….”

Chapter 35

It turned out that a lot had happened to Echo when she had gone back to her homeland to get help.  The story that she had been essentially imprisoned for days on end, and then held underground as she was pulled into some sort of plot to save the King and Queen from the machinations of someone named the Chamberlain, was almost too unbelievable to be real.  It was only the fact that the King and Queen were in her dungeon right now that allowed Sandra to believe that what Echo had described had actually happened.

By the time that the two Royals were comfortable in their new beds that Sandra crafted with inordinate speed thanks to some Goblin Crafters, the poor Ranger appeared as exhausted as Violet had after she had arrived.   You can get some sleep, too, and I’ll wake you up if there is any change in the King and Queen.  Sandra was trying to be positive, but from what she could determine, there really hadn’t been a change in the 2 Elves even after Bonding.  Then again, she didn’t really know anything about this mind-control thing Echo had described – and it didn’t sound like Echo really did, either – so it was entirely possible that they would wake up at any time.  Do you want me to let a certain someone know you’re back?

Echo jumped in startlement as she stared longingly at her own bed, and a heavy blush suffused the Elf’s cheeks at Sandra’s question.  “Umm…no.”  She looked down at herself, obviously seeing the dirt and sweat that even the Dungeon Core saw was coating her body and clothes.  “I really need to get some sleep and wash before I see…anyone.”

Perfectly understandable.  Let me know if you need anything; if I don’t respond, you may need to figure it out on your own until I’m back in control.  At first, Sandra had been wary of letting the Elf know exactly what was going on with her Core and her mind.  After a brief internal conversation with herself, however, she realized that it was better to be open and honest with her friend.  As she revealed many of the things that Sandra hadn’t even described to Winxa about her inner mind, she felt relieved, as strange as that sounded.

She’d never had friends before when she was alive and living as a merchant – at least none that she felt comfortable sharing secrets about herself.  With Echo, Violet, Kelerim, and even Gerold, she felt as if there was something special about them that caused her to want to open up and share.

Before she dug too deep into that, wasting time that could be better spent crafting, she dedicated her focus as Echo lay down to sleep on her problem with Energy Orbs.  Not only was it something that could benefit her crafting, but it could also solve the problem with the King and Queen being able to use all of their vast access to the elements in combination with Energy Orbs.  Even if they decided not to embed Energy Orbs in their palms, to have to carry around 6 Energy Orbs on a necklace or some other type of jewelry would be more than a bit cumbersome.

Winxa had brought up the “impossibility” of combining two elements together in a single Elemental Orb, and Sandra hadn’t had a chance to prove or disprove that theory.  After checking on the tunnels again and informing the Shieldmen and Rangers to stand by in case there was an aboveground attack, Sandra turned her attention back to her upper workshop.  If something went wrong, it was far enough away from her Core that she was confident in her safety – and the safety of everyone else currently residing in her dungeon.

Focusing on the entrance of the workshop near the old Bearling lair – which was even safer for anyone around – Sandra began to experiment.  Starting with Fire Mana, she brought out exactly 50 units of it, causing it to condense in place, similar to how she had first discovered how to create Elemental Orbs of different sizes in the first place.  A glowing red orb of condensed Mana floated in the middle of the Bearling lair, though it wasn’t as condensed as she could make it—because it wasn’t done yet.  Then, taking 50 units of Water Mana, she brought it out and condensed it in a similar fashion, until she had two mostly condensed orbs floating next to each other.

Then she forcibly tried to combine them.

She was certainly glad that she had begun her experimentation where nothing and no one would get hurt, because when the two types of raw Mana touched, there was an explosion that tore chunks out of the stone ceiling and floor of the lair with how much force it expended in less than a second.  As the dust settled, Sandra saw that a portion of the wall had collapsed, but overall it hadn’t done as much damage as she had feared.  Where did I go wrong? she thought, which was quickly followed up by, I have to remember that for the future if I need to blow something up.

“What happened?”

Sandra explained what had occurred to Winxa, and the Fairy nodded as if the result was obvious.  “You tried to combine Fire…and Water?” Winxa asked with a hint of suggestion in her voice.

“Yes—oh.  Yeah, okay.”  It seemed very obvious now that she thought about it; even with enchanting, combining Fire and Water-based rune sequences (as well as any other elemental opposites like Holy and Nether) was a very tricky business, because they tended not to play well with each other.  Using a catalyst was usually the only way to get them to work together, and even then you had to make sure the two rune sequences only touched through the catalyst, otherwise…BOOM!  It usually wasn’t as spectacular of an explosion as this just was, but Sandra was using Mana, which was quite a bit more potent than the elemental energy that people had access to in their bodies.  Some things that the Dungeon Core had created – like the War Machine and Deep Divers she had created – used two opposite elements together (Spirit and Natural), but they were technically two different enchantments that worked to accomplish a goal, not one whole enchantment combined.

Can I use a catalyst?  She thought about it for a little bit, but she couldn’t think of anything that was unsubstantial enough to be used for the creation of an Elemental Orb.  That, and she had the distinct impression that such a thing would be impossible while manipulating Mana in the way that she was doing.  So…how?

When nothing came to mind, she switched up her tactics.  She needed to prove her concept was going to work in the first place, and then she would look into combining opposite elements.  This time, she pulled out 50 Fire Mana and 50 Earth Mana…and braced as she forcibly combined them together.

Luckily, there was no immediate explosion – but there was some pushback from the Mana.  The two different elements just pushed against each other in a ball of swirling red and brown colors, steadfastly refusing to combine like oil settling on top of water.  No matter what she tried, even devoting more of her concentration to force them to combine, condensing them further and further, nothing happened.  She mentally felt the swirling ball in the middle of the room was close to succeeding, but something was obviously missing.

A quick thought caused her to change the swirling ball into a cube, as it had helped her to condense larger amounts of Mana in the past.  Despite it being easier to condense both elements together, still nothing happened; no solidifying of a new dual-element Orb or Cube.

Sandra nearly gave up, but thoughts of the other crafting she had done lately intruded on her thoughts.  Not the Silver and Gold PEEs she had enchanted, but her gem-cutting and shaping for the powerful enchantments that were required.  It was the various facets that were cut into a gemstone that provided the structure to the enchantment, itself, so why not Elemental Orbs?

A cube obviously wasn’t working with its 6 sides or “facets”, so Sandra tried to think of the shapes she used for gemstones.  The problem with picking one was that they were so varied by type, with some having a dozen facets, while others had 40 or more.  They all had a general shape of a “sphere”, however – it just depended on how many flat-surfaced sides it needed in order to achieve that form.

Two of the PEEs, however, needed a dodecahedron – a 12-sided shape – for their gem to be cut correctly, so Sandra thought that it was probably a good place to start.  Fortunately, it was much easier to think of the different facets than to actually shape them with a grinder, and within a minute she had formed the shape with the 2 elements combined together.  When they were in place and still pushing against each other, Sandra removed her concentration from everything else in the dungeon, focusing on this one thing.  With every iota of concentration, she forced the Fire and Earth Mana to condense down smaller and smaller, until there was barely a distinction between the two colors.

New Monster Seed created using your Advanced Elemental Monster Seed Origination

skill!

You now have access to:

Tiny Fire-Earth Elemental Gem

Origination Raw Material Cost: 0

Origination Mana Cost: 100

Monster Min. Mana: 25

Monster Max. Mana: 100

Currently locked:

Small Fire-Earth Elemental Gem

Average Fire-Earth Elemental Gem

Large Fire-Earth Elemental Gem

The new Gem appeared where the Mana had been, floating in the air for a split-second before falling to the floor of the Bearling lair with a *tink*, rolling to a stop after a brief bounce.  Sandra could only look on with pleased shock as she read over the notification, seeing that she had succeeded and was barely able to believe it.

Hey, Winxa…I DID IT!  It’s not impossible, after all!

If she had legs, Sandra knew she’d be dancing around in glee, and it was only the knowledge that she could’ve probably done this weeks ago that stifled a little of her joy.  Then again, she probably hadn’t really needed it until now, so she assumed that it really didn’t make all that much difference.

“What?  That’s…impossibly awesome.”  Winxa seemed worn out, as if another impossibility being achieved by Sandra was wearing on her.  That didn’t really faze Sandra, though, because she was still excited by her discovery; so much so that she created one inside of her Home room – as a Monster Seed, not using the wildly unpredictable results of free-floating Mana like her experiments up above required – and it appeared a moment later.  Instead of a swirling mass of Mana in two different colors, the new Fire-Earth Gem appeared to be more of a maroon color, a mixture of both red and brown together.

“That’s amazing, Sandra,” the Dungeon Fairy said, taking a closer look at the new Gem.  “Now…how many elements can you put in a single Gem?”

That was a good question, and one that Sandra was going to find out.  Before that, however, she created more combinations of dual-element Gems that weren’t opposites, and found them as easy to create as everything else.  In fact, after the Fire-Earth one was complete, she didn’t even need all of her concentration to make the rest.  In total, she created 24 out of 28 dual-element combinations, the 4 opposite-element ones being the only ones that she wasn’t able to create.

Knowing that she still wanted to figure those out at some point in the future, but moving on to what she could accomplish, Sandra experimented with 3 elements.  First up was Fire, Earth, and Nether; with 50 Mana of each element, she did the same thing as with the 2 different elements—and it worked spectacularly.

New Monster Seed created using your Advanced Elemental Monster Seed Origination

skill!

You now have access to:

Tiny Fire-Earth-Nether Elemental Gem

Origination Raw Material Cost: 0

Origination Mana Cost: 150

Monster Min. Mana: 50

Monster Max. Mana: 150

Currently locked:

Small Fire-Earth-Nether Elemental Gem

Average Fire-Earth-Nether Elemental Gem

Large Fire-Earth-Nether Elemental Gem

The color of this particular Gem was a very dark brown – nearly black – and had a reddish tint to it when it was looked at the right way.  She experimented with other 3-color combinations, though she didn’t make all of them – because she wanted to see how far she could push her newfound knowledge.

Combining 4 elements together was nearly as easy, though condensing them down took a little bit more effort than the last few.  There were quite a few combinations with 4 elements, even considering that she wasn’t combining opposite elements, so after making one with Air, Fire, Spirit, and Holy, she left off at that.  She needed to figure out how to do even more, so that she could have at least 6 together for the Elven King and Queen.  Sure, it was easy enough to give them 2 of the new 3-element Gems, but it would be even easier if she could make a single one that would contain them all; besides, this would also be beneficial for her PEEs, and if she was able to put 5 or 6 elements together, it would streamline quite a few of her enchantments and save space.

Still using the Bearling lair, she again brought out 50 Fire and 50 Earth Mana, before she added in 50 Water.  She had a theory she wanted to try out, and she figured it was better if she only had 3 elements at once instead of 5 or more – especially if it ended up exploding like before.  First, she forcibly held the Fire and Earth together, condensing them down to the point just before they would normally form the new gem, before adding in the Water.  Bracing against another explosion, she was pleased that her experiment didn’t blow apart immediately.

As she watched the Water Mana incorporate itself in the combination she was making, however, she saw that an explosion was imminent, however.  Not right away, but unless something changed, it would explode within moments.  Condensing the blue, red, and brown Mana together in the form of a dodecahedron, she willed them to combine into a new Gem.

Unfortunately, nothing happened.  Try as she might, the elements just wouldn’t combine together – so Sandra relaxed and separated the 3 elements before they could explode.  She wasn’t sure how close they were to blowing up, but she sensed that it was close.  Now what?  There has to be a way….

While she didn’t think she would be able to use a catalyst to neutralize the friction between the opposing elements, there was something else she could try, though it would be risky: Elemental Balance.  She had only seen an example of it once before when she had been learning enchanting, though not actually in the process of crafting it; instead, she had seen an enchanted artifact that was hundreds or thousands of years old, created by an Enchanter that had lived long ago that had access to 2 pairs of opposing elements.  With the 4 elements, he had created a relatively simple enchantment that created a bright glow when people were near the small Bronze orb, and emitted darkness when no one was near.

It was such a silly enchantment that amazingly still worked after all of those years, and it had reportedly been created just to prove a point: Elemental balance.  By placing Fire, Water, Holy, and Nether elements together in a balanced enchantment, with equal amounts of each element energy fed into the rune sequence and exact placement of those enchantments so that they were symmetrical, the “battle” between the 2 pairs of opposites created an environment that sustained itself indefinitely.

Imagine a shield that absorbed the energy of an explosion, which then used that energy to explode – which was then caught by another shield.  In this instance, one of the shields was one pair of opposite elements, while the other shield was the other pair; when one pair exploded, it was caught by the other pair, which then exploded and was caught by the first pair.  Sandra had just seen – in part – how this worked, as the Earth Mana in her Fire-Earth-Water combination had delayed and acted as a partial shield of the explosion between Fire and Water, though it was incomplete.  Theoretically, it needed Air to be added in order to balance it…at least, according to the idea of Elemental Balance.

No one was able to adapt the theory for other applications, however, because it needed at least 2 pairs of opposing elements. In Human history, those with access to 4 elements were rare; those with a pair of opposing elements, let alone 2 pairs, were probably 1 in a billion.  Needless to say, no one other than that one Enchanter who had made the Bronze orb was able to apply Elemental Balance to anything.

I guess it’s my turn.

Chapter 36

Air, Fire, Water, and Earth floated in the middle of the Bearling lair as Sandra prepared herself.  Blocking out almost everything else, including the slowly encroaching forces of the other Dungeon Cores through the underground tunnels, she slowly brought the different Manas together.  She started with Air and Water, which combined without much trouble, before adding Earth – which started to build up an explosion as it interacted with Air, though slowly – and then Sandra added in Fire.

At first, the Dungeon Core thought it was going to hasten the explosion, as the different-colored Mana – Red, Blue, Yellow, and Brown – swirled together with an intensity that nearly made her pull it all apart in response.  However, after a moment, the churning of the colors started to slow down; instead of a crazy maelstrom, it ended up looking like a small pond that had constant eddies lazily swirling throughout its form.  When it didn’t feel like it was going to explode, Sandra started to condense it all down, using all of her concentration to keep it all together.  After about 10 seconds of intense strain, she found that it wasn’t working.  Knowing that it was possible she needed a different shape from the dodecahedron, she wracked her mind as she tried to contain everything.

Finally, deciding to just wing it and use another common gem shape, Sandra changed the number of facets of her new creation to 20, making an icosahedron.  It was the next-common shape, so she was gambling that more facets meant more containment.  After another 10 seconds of condensing, it finally happened.

New Monster Seed created using your Advanced Elemental Monster Seed Origination

skill!

You now have access to:

Tiny Air-Earth-Fire-Water Elemental Generator

Origination Raw Material Cost: 0

Origination Mana Cost: 200

Monster Min. Mana: 50

Monster Max. Mana: 150

Currently locked:

Small Air-Earth-Fire-Water Elemental Generator

Average Air-Earth-Fire-Water Elemental Generator

Large Air-Earth-Fire-Water Elemental Generator

Warning!

Elemental Generators, if not used within 24 hours, can potentially result in explosions of catastrophic force.

Whoa – what?!  Sandra was thoroughly confused at first, especially as she looked at the 20-sided gem on the ground of the Bearling lair.  It appeared quite harmless and the warning that it could, what, explode in 24 hours was more than a bit of a concern.  And what does it mean by used?

Winxa was listening into her mental discussion, of course.  After explaining what had happened and the warning she received, the Dungeon Fairy looked thoughtful.  “Have you seen something like this…generator…before?”

Well, yes, that’s how I got the idea—

Just that quickly, she knew exactly what the warning was about.  The Bronze orb she had seen with her own eyes when she was a Human was evidence enough of it, but she hadn’t put two and two together.  She thought that the Elemental Balance she had witnessed was just something that allowed the enchantment to continue in perpetuity, but what it actually did was perpetually create energy.  It was only a small amount – especially proportional to how much was originally invested in the enchantment itself – but it would add up after a while.  With elemental energy, it would probably take weeks or months to generate enough to overload the rune sequences; with her more-powerful Mana invested in the Elemental Generators, 24 hours seemed probably about right before they went “poof” with a buildup of Mana that couldn’t be contained within the form it currently possessed.

Unless there were an outlet for all of that buildup.

In the case of the Bronze orb, it would use the energy created to either glow brighter or create a dark cloud around it when no one was near.  In those two states, it could use everything that was being generated and create another “balance”.  It was an ideal solution to expend the energy without actually using any of it that was invested in the enchantment, itself.

For Sandra, “using” the Elemental Generator meant hooking it up to something that needed to keep a perpetual enchantment on it – like her Stasis Fields down in her Enchantment Repository Room.  In fact, these would probably work perfectly to produce enough energy to keep it running, well, forever.  Looking at the Generator she had made, she could already see a tiny buildup of Mana inside, as the colors continued to swirl together at a slow pace; she intuitively knew that the Mana it created was a mixture of all 4 elements, so if it was attached to an enchantment that required Fire Mana – for example – it could use the Mana being generated just as easily as if it was just Fire.  Quite useful, that was.

The problem that occurred to her with this new Elemental Generator, which immediately made her feel a little down, was that its applications were a bit limited.  First, as much as she wanted to use them for Energy Orbs, it could potentially be a disaster; those that had them either embedded or just wearing them would have to constantly expend energy throughout the day in order to maintain the balance.  With the natural absorption rate limitations of how much the body could take, which was the basis behind her Spirit-based Limiter rune for enchantments, they wouldn’t be able to “catch up” with the energy creation if they stopped to, say, sleep.

It also couldn’t be applied to certain enchantments that needed to be activated.  Things like the War Machine’s flame-throwing weapon, or Echo’s bow, would eventually explode if the energy wasn’t constantly expended.  Sandra figured that she might be able to figure out a way to do a dual enchantment that would constantly have something active – like the cloud of darkness on the Bronze orb – but that would require a lot of experimentation, testing to see if the energy draw was the same for each part of the enchantment, and a few other things she couldn’t even contemplate, not knowing enough about what might spring up.  It might be something that Violet might be able to help her with at some point, in fact, but it wasn’t something that Sandra could study and experiment with at the moment.

No, what these Generators would be best for was what she had already been working on.  Her Silver and Gold PEEs would work perfectly with this new discovery, as it would eliminate the worry about them eventually running out of energy, as well as providing multiple types of Mana for different enchantments.  She would need to make sure she had a large enough Generator to make the magnitude of the enhancements more than a tiny bump, but that was something that could be played with a little without too much trouble.  Considering that the Elemental Balance of the Bronze orb she had seen in the past was enough to create a perpetual enchantment – even if it wasn’t that powerful – her Mana-infused Generators should put out quite a lot more energy.

Before she did any more experimentation, she wanted to confirm that all of her speculation would actually work.  Sending two of her Unstable Shapeshifters up from their workroom, Sandra had one of them turn the new Elemental Generator into an “Energy” Generator, so that it was able to be used in enchantments.  She couldn’t even contemplate how she would be able to use the Generator without the enchantment on it; without it and the Limiter rune sequence on a Spirit Energy Orb, she couldn’t think of how to use it otherwise.

When that was complete, she had one of her Goblin Crafters bring one of her Gold necklaces up from the Jewelry-making workshop down below; she supposed she could try it down in the workshop, but it was probably better to take precautions in case something went wrong.  She might end up losing an Unstable Shapeshifter or two in the process, but at least everyone else would be safe if all the work was done near the surface.

Delicately, ensuring that all of the rune sequences were placed just so, Sandra used a Palzerk clone for the Water and Air elements; controlling an Orc was a little strange at first, since it was something she hadn’t done a lot of lately.  After a few minutes, though, she was able to hold the entire Lesser Buoyancy and Minor Muscle Elasticity Personal Enhancement Enchantments to the necklace.  Using a Kelerim clone at the same time for Fire and Earth, she placed a Minor Muscle Strengthening and Stoneskin PEE on the piece of Gold jewelry.

As she had done with all of her other enchantments that used Energy Orbs as a power source, the actual enchantments she placed on the necklace only required a few units of energy from the Shapeshifters.  When they were held in place before they were finalized, she had her Kelerim clone place the new Elemental Generator and a Tiny Spirit Energy Orb with the Limiter rune sequence on it inside the little cages she had placed on the largest of the necklace’s plates.  She cheated and used a little of her Mana to seal them inside the cages, double checked that all of the different PEE sequences were connected to the Generator and Limiter Orb combo…and then let the enchantments finalize on the necklace.

As soon as they snapped into place, she ordered her 2 Unstable Shapeshifters to fling themselves backwards – just in case there was an explosion of some kind.  Whether that would save them, she didn’t know, but fortunately there was no need to find out.

Because, as she had hoped, nothing happened.  Or to be more accurate, the enchantment took.

Looking at her completed product, it was a bit crude-looking; it could definitely use some embellishment, as well as some refinement in her gold-working skills – but that would come in time.  Besides the appearance, however, it was beautiful.  Sandra could see the energy flowing from the 4-element Generator through the Spirit Energy Orb, powering the Limiter enchantment before spreading through the different PEEs placed on the Gold necklace.  The energy powering them seemed steady, which was a worry that the Dungeon Core had considered; with the constant “explosions” being contained, she was concerned that the power would fluctuate.  Instead, everything appeared to be perfectly steady.

Since it seemed relatively safe, she had her Kelerim clone pick the necklace up and place it around its neck.  Sandra couldn’t tell if it worked right away because there were no visual clues, and sliding into control of the Shifter didn’t reveal anything right away.  It was only when she had it start running that she saw a difference almost immediately.

Kelerim had never been one to be quick on his feet, but now he was noticeably faster; if she could quantify it, she would have to say he was between 2.5 and 3 times faster than he had been – which was incredible.  Not only that, but when she created an Iron bar that had to have weighed nearly 300 pounds nearby, he was able to lift it – albeit barely.  While he was strong from working at the forge, especially lately, there was no way the Blacksmith could’ve lifted that without the help of the necklace.

There was a spare sword in the workshop, and she had the Shifter lift it and try to slice into the skin of its arm.  Normal pressure against the skin did nothing other than make an indentation; it took a little bit more force to actually cut into its flesh to cause it to bleed.  Needless to say, Stoneskin seemed to be working as well.

Lastly, she had the Kelerim clone attempt to jump out of the open ceiling of the workshop, just to see if it could.  She was shocked and pleased to see that the Lesser Buoyancy was able to enhance the Shifter’s jumping ability by at least 5 or 6 times, because the Half-Dwarf/Half-Orc was able to reach the lip of the 20-foot-tall ceiling edge, grabbing onto it and pulling itself up to the surface.

After those quick tests, she had the Palzerk clone take the necklace and go through the same experiments. Strangely, they were almost exactly the same – which she thought was a little weird; she expected there to be a little difference between the speeds of them, because of the diminishing returns the PEEs contributed to those that already had a higher speed.  After a moment, she realized that the Shifter wasn’t using any energy to enhance its speed as Palzerk normally would; she couldn’t really test it, either, because she didn’t exactly know how the process worked and didn’t want to accidentally kill her Shifter if she had a choice.

Regardless, it really didn’t matter in the end.  What did matter, when she figuratively stepped back and really saw what she had made, was that she had created something almost unbelievable.

A permanent enchantment.  More than that: a permanent Personal Enhancement Enchantment.

Even more than the Energy Orbs or the discovery of how to use the Limiter rune sequence, as world-shattering as those were, the permanent PEE was something that she considered to be even more important – at least to her crafting and enchantment skills.  Yet, in the end, if it wasn’t for those creations, none of this would’ve been possible.

Winxa – I did it!  I created a permanent—uh oh.

“Congratulations and what ‘uh oh’ are you talking about?” the Dungeon Fairy asked, now concerned.  She had a right to be, too.

Sandra wasn’t able to answer right away, because something was happening with the attacks by the nearby Dungeon Cores.  She had been so engrossed with what she was doing with her experiments and successful creation of the permanent PEEs that she had pretty much ignored everything else.  Unfortunately, she missed what was obviously a turning point in the attacks, because something else was happening that needed her full attention – as well as the attention of the shard in her mind.

The Dungeon Cores had reached the point where they could easily get through the trapped rooms she had designed to hold them back.  That wasn’t the problem, though, because she had expected that to happen – even if she hadn’t expected it to happen so quickly.  There, they encountered the bulk of the defenses that Sandra had stationed in the next few rooms, where the constructs or Dungeon Monsters she had were ready and able to fight off anything that came through.  Her forces were performing remarkably well, too, because the staggered pace of the attacks allowed them to concentrate their defense instead of being overwhelmed.

It was such a good defense, in fact, that there was very little attrition on the part of her own Dungeon Monsters throughout all of the different tunnels.  Those that were destroyed or killed were quickly replaced, to the point where it was running smoothly and encountered no hiccups.  In short, it was the perfect defense.

Too perfect, obviously, because the Dungeon Cores – minus the Slime-Classification Core, which was still rebuilding its forces after Sandra’s attack on it – changed their tactics once there was no more forward progress.  In effect, all assaults on the tunnels stopped; instead, the focus returned to the surface, days ahead of what Sandra had been expecting.

Delarthe!  Chryla!  Prepare for a resurgence at the dungeon entrances!

Both the Elven Rangers and the Shieldmen were prepared for this eventuality, and they jumped into action just as the first of the Dungeon Monsters emerged from the Golem, Beast, and Goblin dungeons.  Orcish Mercenaries helped the Elven Rangers tear through the Beasts that emerged, alongside the Wyvines that accompanied the Rangers; their savagery as they sliced off limbs and decapitated the Monsters that emerged just showed how bored the mercenaries had been over the last day and a half.

Delarthe and the Shieldmen, however, were having a little more difficulty.  The two-pronged assault by both dungeons at the same time caught them a little unprepared; the constructs that they employed in defense were nearly overrun by Goblins as they poured out of the entrance at speed, and the sudden appearance of a swarm of simple 3-foot-tall Dust Golems confused and disoriented the defenders at the other dungeon entrance.  Behind those weaker Dust Golems were Iron and Steel Golems, ready to strike when Delarthe and the other Shieldmen were distracted.

It seemed as though they adapted their methods from below to above the ground, which was sadly working quite well.  Without the traps to thin out their numbers, the Goblins and Golems were making headway.

Sandra immediately started to create more constructs for reinforcements, but it was almost too late.  One of the Shieldmen, easily slaughtering the Dust Golems that attacked him and the constructs he was controlling nearby, was surprised by an Iron Golem that stomped up behind him.  With a powerful blow, the Golem punched the Shieldman in the back, sending him flying at least 50 feet into a nearby tree, where he snapped the trunk practically in half from the impact.  He rolled as he landed, coming to a stop and didn’t move.

His armor was still in one piece, though there was the slightest indentation on one side that seemed to work itself out even as she watched. The fact that it was still there and there being no sudden influx of Mana into her Core showed Sandra that he wasn’t dead, but likely very hurt.  That was the good news; the bad news was the direct attack on one of hers caused the shard in her mind to surge to the surface again.

You will all die!  I will destroy all of you until there is nothing left but dust!

The single-minded attitude was getting a little tiring to Sandra’s conscience, but there wasn’t much that she could do about it as she was shoved to the side.  Losing all control of her actions again was also starting to get old, but she had to admit that it was what she needed right now.  Half of the constructs protecting the underground tunnels were quickly pulled out and sent up top, additional constructs were produced, and all other activities in her dungeon stopped as all Mana was delegated to bolstering the flagging defenses of the Dwarves.

A small portion of the Energy Orbs that had been produced was also consumed, which annoyed her no small bit, but they contributed to producing a veritable army of Champion Totems to be used against the Golems, as well as Powered Arachnids and Animated Iron Shears to be used against the Goblins.  In addition, at least 2,000 Shears were pulled from the AMANS up above in the sky, where they rained down on the Goblins, giving Delarthe and the other Shieldman with him some breathing room.  Surprisingly, the loss of 2,000 Animated Shears from the constant funneling of ambient Mana wasn’t too impactful on her replenishment rate.  Sandra could only assume it was because the rate of incoming Mana had been thoroughly bolstered by the tens of thousands of stick-and-leaf spiders that were roaming around.

Overall, the reinforcements were going to help, but they would arrive too late to contain the breakout by the Golems.  Fortunately, the 3 Shieldmen were able to retreat in safety, with an Ape construct picking up the fallen and now-unconscious Dwarf and running with him until a Repair Drone could help heal him back into fighting shape.

Fine.  If they are going to play that way, I think it’s time to target the Golems from below.  I was stopped from destroying the Slime-Classification Core, but nothing will stop—

Another warning came from the workshop up above, stopping the shard’s ranting about how it was going to destroy the Golem Core.

Seriously?  No, not again—

Chapter 37

Sandra clawed her way to the surface as she saw who was inside of her dungeon, shoving the shard so far back into her mind that she doubted that anything would bring it back. Almost immediately, she could hear desperate and pitiful noises coming from the shard’s location, as it realized the same thing; it had been banished to obscurity, unlikely to be brought forth again as the light of hope surged through Sandra’s mind and self-actualization.

With the return of Gerold – who was leading a group of Dwarves inside her upper workshop – Sandra finally felt…whole.  It was as if she had been missing pieces of herself, pieces that she hadn’t even known were missing until now.  It took seeing her friends return from where they had journeyed, all obviously experiencing their own hardships as soon as they had left, only to come back to Sandra and the wasteland.  It was in that moment that she realized the reason behind all of her recent troubles with the Core shard in her mind.

Abandonment.  Sandra had felt as if she had been abandoned, but it was more than that.  It was a reflection of the guilt that she was holding inside of herself, and it took something like this happening to bring it to light.  Guilt over abandoning her father when she had died as a Human merchant, him never knowing what happened to her, leaving him all alone in the world.  What happened to him after she had disappeared she would probably never know, but she was well aware that it probably wouldn’t have been good.  All because of the choices she had made to pursue her dream of being the most knowledgeable crafter in the world.

That guilt had left a crack in her mind that festered unknowingly through the last few months since she had come into existence as a Dungeon Core, allowing the Core shard to latch onto that and grow stronger with it.  As her friends came back, though, she began to feel some of that guilt fade away; it was the knowledge that they hadn’t stayed away of their own choice, but because of the actions of others.  Just like it wasn’t necessarily Sandra’s choices that had led to her demise, but from the actions of others.  Namely, the actions of Dramien, the Holy and Nether Enchanter that had killed her to fuel the powerful enchantment on a weapon.

I need to stop feeling guilty because of the actions of others.  It didn’t just apply to the feelings of abandonment she felt when her friends didn’t come back, but also how she felt overly responsible for the actions of the Dungeon Cores around them.  She logically knew that it wasn’t her fault that they had done what they did, such as attacking the Gnome village of Glimmerton, or the Undead dungeon’s assault on the Dwarven village of Nurboldar.  But internally, she had felt guilty that she hadn’t known enough to stop them, or prevent the attacks altogether.  No longer.

The world was the way the world was, and there wasn’t any way to change the way the Dungeon Cores operated.  Or is there…?

She was pulled from her brief musings as Gerold spoke.

“Sandra!  I need help with healing!  I have walking wounded here, and King Mynag has suffered from the loss of his armor,” the former Shieldman said soon after walking inside the Bearling lair.  Behind him was a powerful-looking individual carrying another Dwarf, armor-less, who was unconscious but appeared relatively unhurt.  Behind him was an older Dwarf, much older than any Sandra had seen before, followed by 6 Shieldmen and a handful of obvious non-Shieldmen, though they all held weapons.  Regardless of who they were, they all appeared exhausted and ready to fall down; even the knowledge that they were walking into a dungeon (which she assumed Gerold explained to them) didn’t seem to faze them in the least.

I’ll have my Repair Drones help those wounded, and I have some Elemental and Energy Orbs at the ready for Bonding.  Did you already explain that part?

The question made Gerold miss a step, but he recovered quickly.  “Uh…no, but I will now.”  He turned and walked backwards, talking as he went.  “Listen up!  There is a small thing that we need to do before we can fully enter this dungeon for safety.  For the civilians, this is as simple as holding onto something and you’ll receive a tattoo of sorts, allowing you access to this place; you can join the villagers from Nurboldar down below – I think you’ll be surprised at what they have accomplished.”

Sandra couldn’t help but smile inwardly at that, because Gerold didn’t even know the half of it.  The fact that there was freshly made Ale and Whiskey there would surprise a lot of people.  While Gerold kept speaking, Sandra quickly sent a message down to Glencha and Teving, the Distiller and Brewer, to expect some more company.

“For the Shieldmen, you can go that route, but I suggest you opt for these,” Gerold continued, holding up his palms so that everyone could see them.  “I know you’ve seen these on me, but you may not know exactly what they are….”

By the time he explained it all, they had arrived at the workshop.  Sandra had 2 Multi-access Repair Drones ready to go, and while their movement caused almost all of the Dwarves to tense up and raise their weapons, Gerold assured them everything was okay.  “They’re here to heal you.  Let them touch you with their little arms and you’ll feel better quite quickly.”

One-by-one, the civilians allowed themselves to be healed, but following the actions of the Shieldman that was carrying the unconscious Dwarf – of yet more royalty, Sandra thought – the others held off.

“Gerold, I don’t know what game you’re playing here, but I refuse to let one of those things to touch the King—”

“Parten, I told you to leave off.”  The older Dwarf with the most spectacular grey beard Sandra had ever seen cut the stuffy-sounding Shieldman off.  “If you want the King to recover at all, you’ll have to put your prejudices aside and get with the changes.”

The Shieldman stiffened at this, though he didn’t say anything right away.  Sandra assumed that the old Dwarf was someone special enough to order around Shieldmen—and that’s when it hit her.  From what she knew (which was, granted, a depressingly small amount) the only ones more revered in Dwarven society than the King and Shieldmen were the Master Blacksmiths.

You did it, didn’t you?

Gerold just nodded, not having to say anything more.  Sandra felt a thrill shoot through her as she realized what she would soon learn, but it was tempered by the situation happening outside.

“Master Jespin, the only way the King will recover fully is if he gets a new set of armor; so, tell Gerold to bring us back to Grandhall, where your colleagues there can create another one – since you seem not to be so inclined,” the important Shieldman said testily.

“I never said that, Parten, which I explained on the way here.  This isn’t just about the King – you know this.  This is about all of our people, and the only way to do that is to get what we need here so we can save everyone.”

“I highly doubt that—”

I hate to cut this discussion short, Gerold, but Delarthe and the other Shieldmen need some help containing the Golems, Sandra said quickly to the former Shieldman.  I have some reinforcements heading in their direction, but it will be difficult to contain without some more help.

Gerold moved into action as if he had been slapped, standing between the Master Blacksmith and the Shieldman known as Parten.  “We don’t have time for this!  Delarthe and the other Shieldmen are in trouble up above and they need help to contain a Golem breakout.”

“Gerold, we’re exhausted and almost out of energy as it is—” Parten tried to say, but her friend cut him off.

“First-shield, with all due respect, I’ve already explained what these Energy Orbs do; you don’t ever have to worry about energy again when you obtain these,” he said, holding his palms up once again.

There was silence for a moment, before one of the other Shieldmen that came with them stepped forward.  “I’m in.  I won’t stand by while more of our brethren are killed defending against dungeon monsters; there’s been too much death already today.”

“Fourth-shield, I forbid you from—”  Parten ordered, but the rest of the Shieldmen suddenly stepped forward, stating variations of the same thing the Fourth-shield had.

That shut the Dwarf up, and he watched as Gerold led them over to the box, where they immediately snatched up the Energy Orbs that called out to them.  “Now, this is going to hurt more than anything you’ve ever felt in your life; luckily, it only lasts a few seconds.  Are you ready?”  With only a slight hesitation, they all nodded, and Sandra knew it was her cue.

One at a time, she initiated the Bonding down the line, and the screams were constant as they reverberated through the workshop for the next 15 seconds.  The citizens shrank back in fear, but Parten just gazed at the Shieldmen with something that appeared like desperation or perhaps envy on his face.  When the process was complete, the newly Bonded Shieldmen looked at each other with awe, smiling as they felt their diminished energy start to replenish itself automatically.

Welcome to my dungeon, my friends.  I’m bringing in some rides for you, which will bring you to where your fellow Shieldmen are needing some help.  You can control them by giving them orders, but for now I’ll send them where they need to go.

As soon as she knew that she was getting some more help, she rerouted some extra Mechanical Wolves from where they were reinforcing the Shieldmen killing the Goblins.  In fact, they were just about to drop into the workshop from above.

The Shieldmen looked around as if to see what was talking to them, but they were interrupted when 7 Wolves dropped down 40 feet away from them, staring at them expectantly.  Go on, hop on – they’ll get you there in no time.  With only a moment’s hesitation, they raced for the Wolves, who obediently squatted down so they could climb on their backs, and they took off, leaving a single one behind.

“Parten, are you really going to let them help their fellow Shieldmen without you?  What purpose does this serve?”  The Master Blacksmith folded his arms across his chest and challenged the First-shield.

“My first duty is to protect the King—”

Master Jespin interrupted him, though he spoke softly.  “There’s nothing more you can do here, and you know it.  You’ve brought him to the one place in all our lands where we might be able to do something about it, so leave him in our hands and go do what you’re so good at doing.”

The conflict was warring across the First-shield’s face, but Sandra saw the moment when resignation finally won.  He put the King down gently on the floor, before walking over to the box of Energy Orbs.  Picking up 3 of them, he held a Fire and Earth one in his right hand, and an Air one in his left.  “How is this possible—”

His scream cut off his question.  Sandra was tired of waiting around.

Thank you for finally agreeing to the Bond, First-shield Parten.  We will take very good care of the King; go save your people.

If he was surprised at the voice in his head, he didn’t show it.  He also seemed relatively unaffected by the intense pain that had just shot through him with no warning.  “You had better, or I will come back here and destroy you myself.”

Based on his status as a First-shield, which was a step above the powerful Second-shield Bregan that led the Shieldmen in Nurboldar, Sandra had no doubt he would prove to be a formidable foe.  Probably as strong or stronger than the Warlord that had attacked her dungeon, and he had been very powerful.

Noted.  Good luck, and may the Creator guide you on your way.

He nodded, before racing for the Mechanical Wolf.  The Shieldman leapt onto the back of the construct, grabbed ahold of its upper spine, and the metal-formed canine took off at a run, moving fast enough that it might even catch up to the others that had left a minute or so before him.

“Gerry?  I think I want those Energy Orbs in my palms, too,” the Master Blacksmith said as soon as the First-shield was out of sight.

“Are you sure?  It’s quite painful as you no doubt saw.”

“Pain means nothing to me; besides, being healed by that wonderful thing over there,” Jespin said, waving toward one of the Repair Drones, “fixed some of the aches that I didn’t even realize I was suffering from.”  Without asking any other permission, he walked over to the box of Energy Orbs and picked out a single Energy Orb: Earth.  Hmm, not what I was expecting.  He held it in his hand wonderingly, before looking up at Gerold and nodding.

His screams were painful to listen to, but they were thankfully over fast enough that they were soon forgotten.  “Ouch.  Worse than I was expecting, but worth it I’d say.”  He looked down at his palm and smiled.  “Alright, let’s get the others done and see what we can do for the King.”

It took some convincing, but the civilians picked out Elemental Orbs for their Bonding, which wasn’t painful in the least.  Within a few minutes, the Bondings were all complete (including an Energy Orb Bond with the unconscious King), and Sandra felt a loosening of the restrictions throughout the dungeon.  She mentally sighed in relief and had one of her nearby Apes lead the civilians down to where they would meet up with the villagers, and she was left alone with Gerold, the Master Blacksmith, and the unconscious King.  She had already tried to heal him with the Repair Drone, but other than some minor scrapes and external cuts that were fixed quickly, it didn’t seem to help.

“Parten was right about one thing, as much as his blind devotion to the King sometimes interferes with what needs to be done,” Master Jespin said, looking down at the relaxed countenance of the King.  The Energy Orbs – 3 of them in total: Holy, Air, and Fire – were embedded in his palms, slowly feeding energy back into the poor Dwarf; Sandra had suggested just an Elemental Orb bond at first, but it turned out that it was the lack of energy that had knocked the King out in the first place.  Even with it regenerating now, he still wasn’t waking up.

“What was he right about?” Gerold asked.

The Master Blacksmith pressed his fingers on his temples, which just exaggerated his exhausted face, sighing as he did so.  “Without another set of armor, it’s quite possible that he won’t ever wake up.  As I’m sure you know, the connection between yourself and your armor is a strong one, and when it is destroyed, it can be difficult to recover from.  You, as much as it pains me to say it, were lucky to have only been in possession of it for a few months; King Mynag, on the other hand, had possessed his for centuries.  That connection between a Shieldman and their armor only grows stronger as time goes on, and for something like that to be broken as abruptly as his was, the damage to the mind can be difficult to recover from.”

Something in what he said resonated within Sandra. For some reason, she couldn’t help but compare the Core shard inside of her mind with what he described King Mynag was suffering from: a sense of loss for something that had been with him for a long, long, time.  This sense of loss could describe the mind of most Dungeon Cores, as they mourned the loss of their former selves, of course; it might also explain the shard’s loss of its Core “self” when it was destroyed.  Now it was just a remnant of what it used to be, driven only by instincts to control a Core again, but not knowing exactly what was going on or why it wasn’t supposed to destroy any other Cores in the process.

Sandra felt like she was in as complete control as was possible, but the possibility was always there that the shard could reemerge and try to take over again.  For all that she wanted to get rid of it, she didn’t think there was any way to eliminate the shard entirely.  But perhaps there was a way to live with it, to co-exist in harmony.  There has to be a way.

“So, what now?  I know you agreed to come here with me…are you ready to see what she can do?” Gerold asked the Master Blacksmith, which pulled Sandra back to the conversation.  There was silence in response for a few moments, which allowed her to look out and see the progress of the new Shieldmen.  They weren’t quite to the battles yet, but they were close; her constructs she had sent out before had already started to make a difference against the Golems, but it was going to be an uphill battle to eliminate and contain what had already broken free.

What was worse, the small, “cheaply” made Dust Golems were spreading out far and wide, gaining even more Mana as they ventured around.  There weren’t nearly enough to compare to her own gathering of Mana, but there were at least 200 or more that were out of range of the Shieldmen and constructs, and more were emerging every minute from both Golem dungeon entrances.  They have learned and adapted.  I have to stop them now, or this will spiral out of control. Hopefully, with the influx of Shieldmen and the additional reinforcements (which she was still adding to even with everything else going on), they could get it under control.

“I-I think I’m ready,” Master Jespin said abruptly, exhaling deeply before continuing.  “Sandra?  That is your name, correct?”

Yes it is.  Do you have something you’d like to share with me?

He nodded slowly, before taking something out of his vest pocket; she couldn’t see what it was, however, because he kept his hand closed tightly over it.  “It isn’t known to many, but we are running out of the ability to create our Shieldman armor and weapons.  Gerry, here, asked me to come teach you how the secret process is done, in return for your assistance in protecting our Kingdom and clearing out the ravaging hordes of monsters.”

That is true, though my role is more one of support; I can provide many things to make it much easier, but the actual work is going to need to be done by your people.  Just like it needs to be done by the Elves, the Gnomes, and the Orcs.

The Master nodded again.  “Understandable.  Honestly, we wouldn’t have it any other way.”  He paused, before opening up his hand.  “Tell me, have you heard of mithril?”

Chapter 38

New Monster Seed and Origination Material found!

Mithril

While Mithril can be directly used as a Monster Seed, it can also be used as a material for use in the dungeon or other purposes.

You now have access to:

Tiny Mithril Cube

Origination Raw Material Cost: 40000

Origination Mana Cost: 35000

Monster Min. Mana: 35000

Monster Max. Mana: 50000

The Mithril orb she absorbed when the Master Blacksmith placed it on the ground was impressive-looking all by itself, and it was definitely nothing that she had actually seen before.  She had heard of it as a mythical metal that existed in the world, but either no one actually had access to it in Muriel, or it hadn’t been there in so long that it was more of a fable than anything.  Not one Human she had talked to knew what it did, other than it being extremely powerful; how it was powerful, though, was anyone’s guess.

Now that she had access to it, she wasn’t even sure what it was good for.  All she could tell for now was that it might be good for some of her more-expensive constructs as a Monster Seed, but what she was eager to learn about was how it could be used as a crafting material. A few seconds after she absorbed the shiny, oily-looking metal, she spent nearly 10,000 Mana to create a large bar of it on the floor next to the Blacksmith; it was definitely expensive to create it as a material, but not too much more than Dragon Glass was to produce.

Master Jespin’s eyes nearly bulged out of his head when he saw it by his feet.  “Oh, Creator!  It’s true!”  Tears flowed silently down his cheeks as he picked up the bar, which appeared extremely lightweight; not only that, but it was soft – much softer than Gold, even.  Jespin held the Mithril up to his face as he looked at it intently, the tears having stopped running almost as soon as he held onto the bar, all business now; he sniffed and then licked the bar of metal (which was extremely weird, but Sandra wasn’t going to complain), before pinching the corner of the metal and tearing off a small amount like it was clay or something.  He rolled it around in his one hand like putty, forming a very similar orb like the one he had given to Sandra to absorb.

“It’s…perfect.  It’s also amazing and the answer to our prayers.”  He stood there apparently lost in thought as he rolled the Mithril around in his hand.

Uh…so, I can make a lot of Mithril, but it seems too soft to be a good metal for anything other than maybe jewelry; even then, it probably wouldn’t hold up well.

Her voice made the Master twitch in surprise, nearly dropping the bar of Mithril, but he held onto it with a little fumbling and smiled when she finished.  “That’s because mithril, by itself, is practically useless.  It’s only when used to create an alloy that its real properties come alive.”

How so?

“Allow me to demonstrate.  Is that a forge I see over there?  It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen before.”  The Master walked over to the forge she had in her upper workshop, and Sandra quickly explained how it worked.

“It seems as though the wonders of your dungeon have yet to cease, my dear Sandra.  Do you have any small orbs of copper available?”  Gerold followed behind Jespin as the latter stared in wonder at the forge, which was certainly different from anything he’d probably seen before.

While she didn’t have any right there, she created a small bar of Copper near the forge.  All of the tools he would likely need were already there, laid out for anyone to use, and the Master Blacksmith went to work immediately.  The exhaustion on his face and in his posture seemed to disappear as he went to work at the forge, looking as if he was more at home in front of the heat and flames than anything else in the world.

“Normally, wasting mithril on something as mundane as this would be enough to exile me for life back in the strongholds, but with you able to create as much as we need, I think this is the easiest way to demonstrate the major principles here.”  So saying, he took a very small pinch of the Mithril off of the bar she had created, placed it in a crucible with the copper bar, and then placed it in the forge.  He jumped slightly when it activated, but he smiled when he saw how efficient and focused the heat was inside the Dragon Glass-coated forge, humming slightly to himself.  It was almost as if the world was forgotten – such as the unconscious form of the King in the middle of the workshop.  Sandra briefly thought about moving him somewhere more comfortable, but decided to wait until Jespin recommended it.

She watched with rapt attention that she remembered from her days as a Human, watching a Master of their craft demonstrate something for the first time.  The feeling of discovery never got old; it felt the same learning the 10,000th recipe or technique as it did the first.  If she had a choice, she would try to learn all she could from the Master Blacksmith, because she could see even in the way that he handled tools that he had centuries of experience around a forge.  That experience was invaluable, and Sandra drank in every drop of knowledge, every movement that the Master made; even something as simple as creating an alloy was a lesson in efficiency for her.  Without modesty getting in the way, Sandra had to admit that she was good – but she was no Master.

“So, you’ll see that Mithril melts at a much lower temperature, but never vaporizes into a gas; you could have heat that is hot enough to melt stone—hold on, is this?  No way – is this Dragon Glass?” Jespin asked, deftly continuing to melt the alloy while running his hand along the forge.

Yes, it is.  Nearly as expensive as Mithril, but worth it to prevent stone from melting, she added with amusement.

“I haven’t seen this much in almost four centuries; there are some excellent techniques in working it that I would love to experiment with…ah, I think it’s just about done,” the Master said, pulling out the melted Copper from the forge, looking at it intently without getting close enough to burn his face off from the heat.

“Do you have anything that will help cool this off quickly?”  There was a barrel nearby that she told him about, though right now it was empty; she quickly filled it with icy-cold water using her Mana.  Normally, placing such hot material inside cold water like that could result in cracks, especially in something like Copper, but the Master didn’t seem concerned.

Steam rose as the metal was rapidly cooled, and before long it was solid enough to see what the result was.  When he placed it on the anvil, it didn’t appear too impressive, though it did have an oily sheen to it that it normally didn’t possess.  It was only when he grabbed a hammer and started to beat it into a thin sheet that she saw the difference almost immediately.

It was much more durable than normal.  The Master Blacksmith appeared strong, which was understandable given his profession, but his powerful hits were only having a fraction of the result she would’ve expected.  She’d worked a lot with Copper and knew how relatively soft it was compared to Bronze, Iron, and Steel; not as soft as Silver or Gold, but still flexible enough that a thin sheet could be bent with bare hands if necessary.  This Copper-Mithril alloy, however, was definitely not flexible.

“As you can no doubt see, and Gerry here has told me that you’re a bit of a Blacksmith yourself, the new alloy is much more durable.  Not only that, but its impact resistance has been increased, and it now has a natural resistance to corrosion.  It will never oxidize or corrode over time, and is moderately resistant to heat.”  He placed the sheet aside when he was done, and Sandra was amazed at how quickly he had flattened and shaped the rectangular shape of the Copper-Mithril alloy, especially considering how much stronger it was than normal.  She was also highly intrigued by this new alloy, and couldn’t wait to see what she could do with it.

“That isn’t the only thing it does, however; it also makes it so that it is more susceptible to manipulation via Earth energy, like this,” he continued, before picking up the Copper sheet again.  He did something that she couldn’t immediately follow, and he bent the metal with his hands as easily as if it were a piece of paper.  “This is the only way we Master Blacksmiths can manage to shape and craft the powerful gear our Shieldmen use; I’m sure you can imagine how strong high-quality Steel can be when made into an alloy with mithril.”  Sandra could, and did – and worried that she wouldn’t be able to replicate the manipulation of Earth energy.

“As for the secret to the armor and weapons we make for the Shieldmen…well, I’m going to see how smart you are.” Jespin smiled again, looking at the forge.  “Tell me what you know now, and how you think they are produced.  I ask the same of all my apprentices.”

Great.  A test.  She would play along, though, because she really wanted to know.  Besides, looking back out at the fight for the area around the Golem dungeon entrances, it was going much better than expected.  With the additional support from the Shieldmen that arrived not too long ago, they were able to push the Golems steadily backwards, and they were gaining ground.  The biggest difference came from First-shield Parten, who tore into the Iron and Steel Golems like they had personally offended him and he was there to exact revenge.  For all she knew, that could’ve been exactly what happened.

Well, I know that each set is customized to each individual Shieldman and cannot be used by anyone else.  They are tied to them in a way that the armor uses a portion of the energy inherent in the wearer to power it, making it even stronger and allowing them to create effects relative to their elements. I thought at first you must have many different Master Blacksmiths that specialize in different elements, but if they are all similar to you, that doesn’t make sense.

Steel seems to be the material the alloy is made from with Mithril, but how it is transformed into what I’ve seen with different elemental colors is the mystery here.  There must be some sort of component I’m missing, one that would allow you to connect the wearer and the armor—

That was the word she needed to figure it out: connect.  There was a connection between them, which only became more pronounced as time went on – which was why the King was in such a state.  Gerold once described the experience of wearing the gear as feeling it as an extension of his body, which was an accurate description, if what she thought was correct.

The Master Blacksmith had a serious look to his face as he waved her onward, somehow understanding that she was working through it.  “Go on.”

The only way I can see to connect the two things together, one an inanimate object and the other a living being, would be to have something in common.  While it’s possible that someone like Gerold might have some sort of Steel or Mithril in his body, I doubt that is the case; more likely, something of Gerold’s is inside of the Steel-Mithril alloy.  There was only one real explanation.  My guess is you put some of his blood inside of the alloy.

Master Blacksmith Jespin clapped his hands abruptly, the smile back on his face.  “Precisely, my dear!  You got it in one try – very impressive.”

Thank you.

“I’m sure you’re wondering if there is any special technique to fuse the blood into the alloy, but I assure you…there isn’t.  As soon as the blood, about a thimbleful is all that is needed, is introduced into the molten alloy, the mithril reacts with it and changes the color of the metal to reflect the elements that the Shieldman has access to, ‘keying’ it to them in particular.  Once that process is complete, there is no changing it from there, as it is virtually impossible to turn the alloy back into a liquid with any amount of heat you can generate.  It can soften and start to melt apart under extreme heat, such as a dragon’s breath, but it will never be able to accept another sample of blood.”

Gerold cleared his throat.  “Wait, how did you get my blood for my armor?” he asked, genuinely shocked.  It was apparent that even the Shieldmen didn’t know how they were created in the first place.

“From when you were in training to become a Shieldman, of course. You remember all of those sessions where you were left black, blue, and bleeding on the floor?  While those are designed to toughen you up, they also allow any of the Blacksmiths to gather what we need; it’s especially handy if you get knocked out cold,” Master Jespin added with a chuckle.

Gerold looked thoughtful, as if he were indeed remembering such occurrences.  In the end he shrugged, likely figuring it was worth it.

So, I’m guessing that’s why you wanted to keep it a secret – because there technically isn’t a secret to it.  Though, one would have to know how to manipulate metal with Earth energy, I suppose.

“All true.  That is the reason why it takes so long, as well; one of the attributes of the mithril is that once it ‘feels’ the touch of an Earth energy signature, such as one coming from a Master Blacksmith, it will only allow that signature to manipulate the metal.  Therefore, the creation of a single set of armor can take anywhere between 5 days to an entire month, because it depends on the Master’s reservoir of Earth energy; none of the other Blacksmiths can work with it after that.”  He looked down at his palm and the Energy Orb embedded in it.  “Though, I’m guessing that could change with access to these Energy Orbs; they could probably get a set done in less than a day, in that case.”

Do you think you could?  Because there is someone behind you that desperately needs one.

Jespin turned around in surprise to look at the King still unconscious on the floor; it was almost as if he had forgotten that he was there.  “I…suppose that I could.”

Excellent!  Would you like to do it here, or down below?  Plus, I imagine that you’re hungry and tired, so I can find you some place to sleep.

“No sleep needed for me; I’m used to staying up for long hours working in the forge.  Besides, I’ve never felt this invigorated before, discovering all sorts of new things I never knew existed before.  Where do you want me to work?”  Sandra described Kelerim’s forge down below, which was currently vacant as he was off getting some sleep.  The efforts by the Master Blacksmith might end up waking him up, but he’d probably appreciate learning this as well.

She had her Ape – which had directed the Dwarven citizens down below, where they met up with the villagers with great relief, rejoicing, and sorrow as they recounted their tales – pick up the King and bring him below with Gerold and Jespin.  Before long, the two of them were eating in the kitchen, scarfing down food as if they hadn’t eaten in days, which she realized was quite possible as she listened to the story of what was going on in the strongholds that the civilians described.  Neither Gerold or the Master Blacksmith mentioned anything, but she suspected they had been in the middle of all of that, and would probably also account for the fact that the Deep Diver that had gone with Gerold was nowhere to be seen.  Which reminded her—

Gerold, I have a question for you.

He was just finishing up his meal, appearing extremely full by that time, but he paused as she spoke.  “Absolutely.  Anything you need.”  Sandra made sure that Jespin was listening in as well, because she wanted to make sure he understood what her plans were.

I’m hopefully going to learn how to manipulate this new alloy using Earth energy, so I’d thought I would ask you what you’d like.  I told you that I would replace the armor I accidentally destroyed, and I intend to keep that promise.

There were tears in his eyes, though he blinked them away quickly.  “Thank you, Sandra.”  He paused in confusion.  “But what do you mean about what I want?”

Well, I could make you another set of armor like you had before, but it probably won’t be as finely made as the one Master Blacksmith Jespin made for you.  Or…I could make you another Deep Diver suit with the alloy, since you seemed to enjoy using it.  What’s even better, with the way it is constructed, you should be able to manipulate your energy like you would with the armor and weapons you’ve done in the past, giving you much more versatility.  And I’m sure having the suit not buckle under the blows of the Golems would be nice.

Gerold smiled at that – and Sandra had her answer.

Chapter 39

The process of manipulating Earth energy to shape and bend a Steel-Mithril alloy was both easy and complicated.  Sandra had to ask Master Blacksmith Jespin to slow down his process, in fact, because it was done so quickly and simply that she couldn’t follow it at first.  Once she understood it, she created a brand-new Stabilized Shapeshifter and asked if she could prick Jespin to gain access to his form; he was a bit wary of the multi-colored blob at first, and even more after he saw it turn into a copy of himself, but after Sandra had it travel down to her own personal forge, he promptly forgot about it while he busied himself with the King’s new armor.

As for Gerold, he eschewed sleeping down below with the villagers in favor of a room that was empty at the moment, higher up near the crafting rooms.  He said it wasn’t because he didn’t want to see those he had helped to save before, but because he was so exhausted that he didn’t want to walk any further. By his appearance, and a feeling that he had been under a bit of stress lately, she could entirely understand.  Therefore, he joined Violet and Princess Celeste, Echo and the Elven King and Queen, and King Mynag in the collection of bedrooms she had first put together when the larger party of Gnomes had been visiting.  From there, it had expanded to encompass 5 large rooms that were suitable for relatively small groups of different people – which would have to do at the moment for the Royal delegations.

Before he went to sleep, he supplied a large amount of his own blood for Sandra to use in making his Deep Diver suit, as well as helping Jespin acquire blood from the King.  Once he was done, he flopped down on the bed he chose and was asleep within a few seconds.  Night-time had fallen over the world outside by that time, though that didn’t mean that the attacks from the other Dungeon Cores had stopped.  Within the first 2 hours of the new Shieldmen reinforcements, as well as the continued construct creation Sandra was providing, things were starting to become a lot more controlled, and they were finally able to push the Golems back to the two entrances.  The Goblins and Beasts had yet to break out with anything significant, which was entirely because the Elves, Orc mercenaries, and Delarthe’s original team of Shieldmen were doing spectacularly well.

After 4 hours of diligently destroying everything that emerged from the 3 dungeons (she still had yet to see any movement from the Slime-Classification Core), everything…stopped.  There were no more Monsters of any kinds streaming out from any of the dungeons nearby, either aboveground or below in the tunnels.  In effect, it was quiet—too quiet—and Sandra wondered if they were currently upgrading their Core Sizes again.

“Highly doubtful,” Winxa mentioned, when asked.  “Unless they had expended every little bit of Mana they accumulated since the last upgrade on finishing the stages required to upgrade their Core Size, they wouldn’t have enough.  And they obviously had been spending large amounts of Mana, otherwise they wouldn’t have been trying to assault either your tunnels or above the ground.”

Even with the enhancements they are taking advantage of right now?  If I remember correctly, their upgrades cost 25% less now.

The Dungeon Fairy just shook her head.  “Yes, I took that into account, believe me.  There is very little chance that they have managed to accumulate enough Mana to do that quite yet – so they must be up to something else.”

That was what Sandra was afraid of.  It was hard to predict what was going to happen next, though she suspected something in particular.  Namely, she hadn’t seen any evidence of new Dungeon Monsters from any of the Cores as a result of their upgrade – so she figured that was coming next.  What exactly that meant was anyone’s guess, though she continued to produce constructs and even the new Shadow Wyvines for the Elven Rangers.  Similar to the other non-construct Monsters that she had access to, the Advancement Level increase had made the Wyvines much bigger.  They were stronger and deadlier as a result, but she was a little disappointed that they hadn’t acquired any more Special Abilities than they already had; regardless, the Rangers were extremely happy to have the extra help.

While the ceasefire was suspect and worrying, it also allowed those that had been fighting a chance to rest and recover.  The Orc mercenaries went back to Grongbak, leaving only a few behind; all but 3 Elven Rangers (including Chryla) went back to Avensglen to rest for the night; and every one of the Shieldmen trudged back to the dungeon to get some much-needed sleep.  The new Shieldmen following orders under First-shield Parten were the most exhausted, as they had been awake and apparently fighting for days already.

Speaking of Parten, when he arrived back at the dungeon, Delarthe showed him down to where the villagers and new citizens were holed up, but he insisted on seeing King Mynag.  That only made sense, and Delarthe showed him the way after some instructions by Sandra, leaving him to argue with Jespin.

“What are you doing?  We need to get out of here and back to Grandhall.”

The Master Blacksmith just *hmphed* and didn’t even look at the Shieldman as he was busy working on the King’s armor.  “Not right now, Parten.  There’s no sense in going back until I make this for him, anyway.  Besides, we need Sandra’s help to accumulate enough of the mithril that we need to outfit as many Shieldmen as we can.”

“You can’t seriously think it is a good idea to trust a dungeon—”

“She can hear you, you know.”  Jespin laughed when he saw the color drain from the Shieldman’s face.  “Parten, you need to relax a little bit and think things through.  If this dungeon wanted to kill us, Sandra would’ve done it the moment we stepped through the entrance.  Not only that, even if you don’t trust her, this—” the Master Blacksmith held up the massive chunk of mithril next to his workstation— “is the only thing that will save us.  Unless there is some hidden plan I was not aware of to push back the dungeon monsters slowly encroaching on our strongholds?  No?  Then we need to be able to outfit our Shieldmen for the future, and without mithril we can’t do that.  So, whether or not you trust her is irrelevant; this dungeon and the Core that runs it are the only hope we have.”

Parten was fuming, but even he could see what the Master Blacksmith was saying was correct – or at least correct for the time being.

“Besides, First-shield – it isn’t your call to make.  Once I get this done, and we’re lucky, the King will be up and around and can decide when it is time to leave.  Sandra has already promised to send us on our way with enough mithril to last a hundred years, especially after she got what she wanted.”

“And what was that?” Parten asked suspiciously, which prompted Sandra to finally chime in.

The one thing that your people hold secret over everything else, First-shield Parten.  The knowledge of how to create your special armor for your Shieldmen.

Parten sucked in his breath, looking shocked and angry.  “How could you—”

That was the price for my help, First-shield.  Both for saving who I could from the nearby village, as well as providing them sanctuary and a way to produce the same crops they were cultivating in the village – only more expeditiously.  And for all of the mithril your people would ever need, as long as I’m around.  But don’t worry, Parten – I’m not going to be spreading the secret around to everyone; this is for my own use.

“Your own use?  So you can use it against us?  Is that the game you’re playing? To conquer us and fold our people into your dominion?”  The Master Blacksmith could only shake his head at the armored Dwarf’s accusations, but Sandra had already heard that and more from most of the other races, so it flowed right off of her.

I think that if you talked to anyone around here, you’ll see that the thought of anything remotely like that is sickening to me, and I’ve done all I could possibly do to mitigate the damage my presence has caused.  But I will admit that everything I do is for selfish reasons.

“Aha!” Parten shouted, as if he had won the argument.  Sandra couldn’t tell if all of his power, strength, and responsibility had gone to his head, or if he was just naturally dense, but it was more amusing to her than annoying.  “Wait—what selfish reasons are you talking about?”

The one thing I want to do more than anything else.  It isn’t to expand my dungeon, kill people indiscriminately, or become powerful for power’s sake – which is how most Cores tend to operate.  No, all I want is peace around this area so that I can concentrate on one singular thing: crafting.

“Crafting?  What—?”

Yes, crafting.  She was tempted to explain in more detail, but she quickly realized that it probably wouldn’t be worth her time.  Whether you believe me or not is – as Jespin mentioned – irrelevant.  Right now, we both have something that each other wants: I need help keeping these local Dungeon Cores in line while I think up a proper strategy to ensure the safety of everyone around here; you need mithril, which I can certainly provide.  Oh, and to sweeten the deal, there’s a little something down below that you’ll probably be happy to hear.

“What could you possibly have that—”

Jespin interrupted him, still working on his own crafting without much of a stop.  “Ale, Parten.  And, better yet, whiskey.  Or so Sandra mentioned at one point.”

That seemed to give him pause.  “Truly?  How—oh, never mind.  I don’t even want to know….”  The Shieldman stood there, at war within himself; Sandra was only slightly worried about him, because if he decided to go crazy and try to kill her, she had some things lined up that would protect her Core.  She hoped that wasn’t going to be needed, however, because it could end up hurting some of the others in the dungeon as well.  “Fine, I agree that we can work together up to a point—but that doesn’t mean I trust you!  I will do it for my people, if that is what it takes.”

He stomped away after that, following the pathway down to the Dwarven community below.

“Don’t worry about him too much; he’ll fall in line soon enough.  He takes his responsibility very seriously, and he wouldn’t want to risk the lives of others without cause.”  The Master Blacksmith was silent for a few moments while he worked.  “He’s endured a lot of loss over the years for someone in his position, and it’s hard for him to trust something that embodies what has taken away many of his loved ones.”

I can’t say I blame him – it would be difficult to just accept me as a benevolent dungeon, when all he has known is what all of the others have done to those he cared for, either personally or through his line of work.  As long as he doesn’t do anything to jeopardize what I’ve built here, he can think and believe whatever he wants.

Jespin just nodded, not saying anything more on the matter.

It wasn’t long before everything settled back down inside and outside of her dungeon, as the attacks had still ceased and nearly everyone was asleep, exhausted from whatever they had endured over the last day.  Only Master Blacksmith Jespin was still awake, working on the King’s armor, of course, and even Kelerim hadn’t woken up despite the noise the Master Blacksmith was making.  That left Sandra to concentrate on her own project: manipulating the Titanium-Mithril alloy she decided to use for Gerold’s Deep Diver suit.

The black and blue-tinted metal was extremely difficult to work with; she hadn’t really understood how difficult it would be, mainly because it was highly resistant to heat.  Sandra was used to being able to heat metal up in the forge so that it could be softened and shaped into whatever she desired, but this new alloy defied all of the rules.  At its highest temperature, even her forge couldn’t soften the metal up enough to manipulate “normally”; it would heat up, even glowing with the sheer amount of heat pumped through it, but it didn’t soften at all.  Everything had to be done with Earth elemental energy at that point.

The basic concept was to bring forth a quantity of Earth energy from the body and transfer it to the metal through the fingers of said body.  The energy would then infuse a small section of the alloy, “softening” it up just like heat would do, allowing it to be manipulated either by hand or through the use of tools.  Different metals required different amounts of Earth energy to work with it; Jespin’s demonstration with the Copper-Mithril alloy demonstrated how little was needed for that metal, and the area that was affected by the energy was quite large.  The Steel-Mithril alloy that the Master Blacksmith was working with was quite different, however; from what she could see, the area that he could “work” with his application of energy was approximately the size of his hand, and it only lasted for a limited time before the energy pumped into the metal ran out.

The amount of energy that each little section required was quite significant, and Sandra could see why it would take the Master Blacksmiths days or weeks to complete a single set of armor and a weapon for Shieldmen.  Jespin, for instance, would’ve been completely out of energy within the first half-hour of his crafting if it hadn’t been for the constant replenishment from the Energy Orb embedded in his palm.

It turned out that the Titanium-Mithril alloy that Sandra chose was even more of an energy suck than Steel.  Not only that, but since the Titanium was even stronger than Steel normally, it was harder to shape even with Earth elemental energy applied to it.  Sandra was forced to have the Shapeshifter in the guise of Jespin wear the new permanent PEE necklace she had recently finished just to be able to have enough strength to hammer the metal into the shape she wanted.  Even with the constant regeneration from a pair of Earth Energy Orbs to replenish the energy used in the process, Sandra could tell the entire project would take days to finish at the rate she was going.

It’s too bad that I can only use one—

She was about to think she could only use one Shifter, but a thought occurred to her.  The Master Blacksmith had mentioned that the alloy “recognized” only a single signature of Earth elemental energy being used to manipulate it, but would that apply to her Shifters?  Theoretically, when they shifted into another form, they took on the same properties as the original sample – so would multiple Shifters be exactly the same, or just similar.  There was only one way to find out.

Creating another Stabilized Shapeshifter, she sent it inside her forge where the other one was currently hammering away at the metal alloy.  With a quick transfer of the “Jespin” sample form, Sandra now had 2 copies of the Master Blacksmith inside of the room.  With more than a little trepidation at what she was trying, she instructed her new Jespin copy to start manipulating the Titanium-Mithril alloy…and it worked!  She immediately started to whip up another permanent enhancement necklace, though this time she unlocked and produced the “Small” size of the Generator she needed, to see if there was a difference.

The Small Elemental Generator was twice the size of the Tiny one, which required a modification of the cage that contained it on the Gold necklace, but that didn’t take that long to achieve with her Goblin Crafter.  Luckily, she didn’t need to change the size of the Tiny Spirit Energy Orb used for the Limiter rune sequence, because it was more than enough to regulate the amount of energy flowing through no matter how large of a Generator was placed beside it.

Once she had it done, the difference was noticeable, but not dramatic.  While it wasn’t “double” the strength as the Tiny size, Sandra estimated that there was at least a 50% increase in speed and strength – which helped significantly in the alloy-shaping process.

Seeing the success of her experiment, and how she could use more than one Shifter as Jespin on her project, the Dungeon Core created another Shifter, and then another, and finally a fifth one to help complete the Deep Diver suit for Gerold.  She also experimented with an Average size of Generator for the next piece of permanent PEE jewelry, which barely fit on the disk of the Gold necklace itself.  She was hoping for an even greater increase in magnitude, but this time the increase she estimated was only 25% better than the Small size – the diminishing returns that she had expected were finally being seen.  Figuring that the increase to a Large Generator would only yield a small increase in magnitude, she didn’t bother to figure out a way to fit it on the necklace.

With 5 Shapeshifters working on the suit at the same time, she reached the limit of what was viable without them getting in each other’s way.  While the suit was larger than the Jespin copies by a large degree, it wasn’t nearly the size of a War Machine. Added to the fact that everything needed to be shaped “by hand”, she couldn’t even cheat and use her Mana to fix anything or connect anything together – all for one simple reason: Sandra never acquired the alloy for use as an Origination Material.

She figured this was also why she hadn’t ever gotten a notification when she was consuming the Gravitational Devastation Sphere left over from using the construct, which had sucked up Gerold’s armor and weapon.  She thought at first that it was because that particular metal was “unique”, having been attuned to the Dwarf, and wasn’t able to be replicated; however, after absorbing the Copper-Mithril sheet that Jespin had first used to demonstrate the new metal’s capabilities, as well as a few other mixtures she played with before getting started with the Deep Diver suit, nothing with the alloy was available for her use.

Luckily, she was far from disappointed at not being able to “cheat”, because it put her crafting skills to the test.  Controlling 5 Shifters at the same time was a bit of a chore, but it paid off in the end; having manipulated a large block of the Titanium-Mithril alloy into an 8-foot-tall Deep Diver suit, she stepped back after 8 hours of intense crafting, the noise from their hammers almost deafening in their constant staccato rhythm.  The suit was amazing, if she did say so herself, with the same blue-black coloring it had when she first started; long arms and delicately shaped fingers, sturdy legs and wide feet for stability, and a strategically carved faceplate for Gerold finished off the creation.

Now came time for the enchantments.  She had her new Shapeshifters gain access to all of her forms from the original Shifter a few rooms over, and when they came back she got to work.  The enchantments that allowed the Deep Diver to move were placed all over the body of the suit, and Large Spirit and Natural Energy Cubes were installed to power them; Sandra wished she could use the new Generators, but without the enchantments being in an “always-on” position, they wouldn’t really work.

She also added the same enchantments as Gerold’s previous Deep Diver suit had, with the ability to create an ice-formed battleaxe in its right hand.  For its left hand, she had originally created a full-body Nether-based cloud of darkness that acted as a shield – which hadn’t worked overly well because it blinded Gerold at the same time.  Instead of a full-body shield, she focused the enchantment so that it was similar to the battleaxe. Rather than a weapon, however, it would create a large, flat shield made from darkness, which he could wield like a regular tower shield.  Without more time to experiment, she felt this was the best alternative.

And with that, the suit was complete.  Amazingly, when she looked in on Jespin, he was finishing up his own project, having finished the armor, shield, and now the battleaxe that came with the set.  It was all a white-yellow-red color, which made it almost appear as if the King would be on fire with intensely powerful flames surrounding his body.  And opposed to her efforts to make the Deep Diver suit as pristine as she could, Sandra couldn’t help but compare it unfavorably to the perfection that showed in every piece in the Master Blacksmith’s armor; not only was it formed with more skill than she currently possessed, but he had actually taken the time to inscribe decorations around the edges – simply by using pressure and a steady hand.

It was truly a set made for a King.

That is the most gorgeous set of equipment I think I’ve ever seen, Master Blacksmith.  I see that I still have a lot to learn.

He smiled slightly, the exhaustion finally settling into his frame as he sagged in place.  “You’re never too old, never too experienced, and never too practiced at what you do to learn.  Even though I’ve been doing this for centuries, I’ve discovered that there is always something more to learn – you just need to know where to look.  So, keep learning, and someday you might be as good or better than I am.”

Sandra thought there weren’t any truer words ever spoken.  The Dungeon Core instructed Jespin where he could lie down to get some sleep, and he staggered to the bed and collapsed, the expenditure of his energy (over and over due to his regeneration) had obviously drained him greatly.

Now she was alone in the dungeon with not a soul awake other than Winxa—

Soul?  Hmm, that gives me an idea….

Chapter 40

The last 24 hours had been a bewildering ride of ups and downs emotionally for Sandra, and she was still trying to process some of it.  From experiments and discoveries, to realizations and the acquisition of knowledge – it was a lot to take in.  Now that she had some time to devote to analyzing it all, given that most of her automatic processes (creating additional constructs for the aboveground defenses, improving her jewelry crafting skills via her Goblin Crafters, making additional leather armor for Orc mercenaries, and enchanting additional energy Orbs) were operating smoothly, she decided to see what she could do about the passenger in her mind.

The Core shard was currently whining pathetically in the back of her mind, and despite all that it had done to try to control her and change her fundamentally, she couldn’t help but feel a tiny bit sorry for it.  Not sorry enough that she wouldn’t eliminate it from her mind if she had a choice, but since it seemed like that wasn’t going to happen any time soon, she had to deal with it another way.

Sandra deliberately let thoughts of connections, souls, Mithril alloys, and multi-element Elemental Orbs flow through her consciousness, all mixing together until it was hard to differentiate them all.  She felt that there was some sort of reason she was contemplating them all, some higher purpose to them invading her thoughts lately.  As she let them swirl around, something started to gradually solidify. It was a vague idea at first, but the more she let it stew around in the hidden vestiges of her mind, the more firm it became.  She wasn’t aware of how long it took, just thinking without doing much of anything; but eventually, a theory, an experiment, and some questions all solidified enough to act on them.

Winxa?  I have what is probably an odd question for you.

“Uh, sure.  Go ahead.”

How exactly do the souls of those who are implanted into Dungeon Cores get there?

There was silence in her Home room as the Dungeon Fairy stared at her Core in confusion.  “Wow, you like to ask the easy questions, don’t you?”

Haha, I guess I do.

Winxa was quiet for a few moments as she physically appeared to be searching for an answer.  “Well, I don’t know the exact process – no one but the Creator knows – but I can tell you that it’s all done at the same time.  Here in the mortal realm, the soul cannot exist without the Dungeon Core, and the Dungeon Core cannot exist without the soul.  They are intrinsically connected, which is probably why you ended up with a portion of a Core soul when you absorbed those shards…which has caused you so many problems.”

Can two souls share a Dungeon Core?  This was the most important question she wanted to ask, because it was imperative to know if having this “soul remnant” in her mind was going to cause problems other than just trying to take over.

“Not…that I’m aware of.  The stresses of having two strong souls inside of a Core would eventually tear it apart from the inside.”  Winxa seemed to think about what she had said, before rushing to assure Sandra.  “But I think you’ll be alright, since the shard you absorbed wasn’t a full soul.  I can’t guarantee there won’t be any lasting harm other than what you’ve already experienced, but hopefully you’ll be fine?”  The questioning tone in the Fairy’s voice wasn’t very reassuring.

Thanks, Winxa.  That was what she feared.

Although it wasn’t confirmed, the knowledge that she might be torn apart by the partial rogue Core soul in her mind wasn’t something to be ignored.  By her estimation, there was really only one way to fix it.

Give the soul fragment someplace else to inhabit.

To begin to test her theory required an experiment.  Bringing her focus back up to the deserted Bearling lair, Sandra spent 400 Mana to bring forth 50 each of Air, Earth, Fire, Water, Spirit, Natural, Holy, and Nether elements for her test.  One by one, starting with non-opposing elements, she combined them together, eventually making a roiling maelstrom of all 8 colors, fighting against each other in a large ball of frightening Mana that felt like it was just on the cusp of exploding.  Luckily, the balance among the elements kept it from detonating while she held them in place, though she could feel the strain of trying to keep all the different Mana types from trying to break off from each other.

Before she condensed and solidified the collection of Mana, which she instinctively knew she could accomplish, she brought over her Ape she had stationed in the workshop, where it waited patiently for her instructions.  With a thought and a small amount of Mana, she created a very tiny sphere of Mithril in its hand; it was barely larger than a grain of sand, but based on the ratios between other materials and the soft metal, she figured it was more than enough.

Taking a figurative deep breath, Sandra steadied her concentration and started to condense the roiling mass of multi-elemental Mana floating in the middle of the room.  Using the icosahedron 20-sided shape – the same as her Elemental Generators – felt appropriate, so she pushed with all of her will to condense the powerful forces into a singular gem-like shape.  Just before she felt as if it would *click* into place, she did two things.

One, she ordered her Ape to toss the tiny orb of Mithril right into the middle of her Mana-based creation.  The construct tossed it perfectly, and as it passed through the condensed swirling mass, she did the second thing: Sandra projected an image of herself toward the Mana, or what she saw as herself in her mind – a “copy” of her self-actualization.  It wasn’t so much of a physical manifestation as it was a bundle of thoughts, but she could feel as if it had a presence, nonetheless.

As soon as the Mithril and her image copy was inside of the roiling Mana construct, she squeezed the Mana until it condensed fully into a solid state, encapsulating the Mithril inside. As if she were watching in slow motion, she saw the Mana *click* into a new form, just as an eruption of light blinded her so completely that she had to look away from the Bearling lair. Nothing, not even the Holy traps she had created in her dungeon had been that intense, and it took her a moment to recover.  What did I do?!

She didn’t feel anything throughout the rest of her dungeon, so she was fairly certain it didn’t explode; but it wasn’t until she ventured her viewpoint back up to the Bearling lair that she saw what she was hoping for.

Her construct had somehow reacted instinctively, and it was now delicately holding a shining beacon of multi-colored light.  After a few moments, the glare started to fade from blinding to a steady glow, and it was then that she was able to see the new creation for what it was: a 20-sided, radiating, crystal-like object that had swirling colors inside, reminding Sandra of her Shapeshifters in their natural form.

New Object found!

Resonating Prismatic Core

This Resonating Prismatic Core cannot be used as a Monster Seed nor as an Origination Material.

Warning!

If Resonating Prismatic Core is not used within 48 hours, severe damage to the connected soul will be imminent, up to and including complete destruction.

Uh, oh.

“What now?”  Winxa asked, concerned.

Sandra didn’t answer right away, because she was mulling over what had happened.  She had intended to create something that would help to act as a home to the soul remnant in her mind.  In theory, it appeared as if it would work; but she had inadvertently created something that might end up hurting her – perhaps fatally.  Instead of just blowing up catastrophically like the Elemental Generators she had created, if she didn’t use this “Core” within 48 hours, it would damage her very soul – which was everything that made Sandra who she was.  Whether or not that would destroy her Core at the same time was unknown, but either way, it was bad.

The easy solution was to just absorb it, as she had experimented earlier by absorbing a Generator, just to make sure it was possible.  Only…when Sandra attempted to absorb the Resonating Prismatic Core in her construct’s hand, nothing happened.  It was almost as if it didn’t exist to her dungeon senses as something that could be “eaten”, even though she could see it.

Winxa, I think we have a problem.

“Can’t you just hook it up to an enchantment to use it, like you do the Generators you made?” the Dungeon Fairy asked as soon as Sandra relayed what had happened.

That seemed like the obvious way to fix it, but the Dungeon Core was freaking out a little bit by that point and hadn’t thought of it.  Quickly, she brought all of the components to make some enchantments on a large, flat piece of Gold, as well as 4 of her Shapeshifters.  She figured that if she created 8 different PEEs utilizing every type of Mana inside of the Core, that should do the trick; she didn’t want to bother with doing it halfway – she might as well go full-out and use them all.

It took a few minutes to get the enchantments correct, as it was difficult to hold 8 separate PEEs at the same time, but she managed it somehow.  As she put the Core down on the Gold, along with a Spirit Energy Orb with the Limiter rune to regulate the energy transfer, she released the holding patterns and let them solidify.  She was successful for all of a split second before the energy pumped into the PEEs ran out, and the enchantments disappeared.  In short, it didn’t work.

She tried again, thinking that she had connected them all together incorrectly, but that didn’t seem to be the case, as that hadn’t worked, either.  Then she tried a smaller number of PEEs, only 4 of them, then up to 5, then down to 3, and so on – but none of it worked, no matter what she tried.  She even thought to try something as benign as an enchantment that would just cause the Gold sheet to glow. Sandra thought she had been successful, as it lit up for nearly a minute, but the small amount of Holy energy with which she had established the enchantment petered out and it went dark.

This isn’t working, Winxa.  What do I do?!  Sandra was starting to grow increasingly concerned.

The Dungeon Fairy shook her head.  “I have no idea.  What do you think it means by being ‘used’, then, if not for enchantments?  What was your thought behind its creation in the first place?”

Well, I—

It couldn’t be that simple…and difficult…at the same time, could it?

Hold on.

“What?  What are you—?”

Sandra ignored the rest of what Winxa was saying as she turned her attention inward, conjuring up the same area of self-actualization that had allowed her to regain control the first time the Core shard had taken over.  All of the bubbles containing her knowledge were still there, as well as the ones that represented her Dungeon Monsters, as well as her relationships with her friends and other Visitors.  It was those relationships that she had leaned on to help strengthen her sense of self, so that her image in the middle of it all was strong and solid.  Near the bottom of her foot, on her pinky toe, was a small distortion that she thought indicated the presence of the other Core’s soul fragment in her mind.

Without taking the time to consider the implications of working inside of her mind, Sandra visualized 8 separate Mana concentrations of different elements coming together – exactly like what she had just done in the Bearling lair.  She even visualized a Mithril speck being introduced to the maelstrom of Mana, just as before, but instead of her own image being projected inside of what was going to be the Resonating Prismatic Core she was visualizing, she imagined her image “plucking” the distortion off of her toe like a piece of lint, before dropping towards the Mana-Mithril construct.  Sandra could see it trying to float back to her image in order to latch on again, but she moved her entire creation in the way to intercept it.

As soon as everything was together, she condensed it all into a single compacted construct, feeling it click into place with another bright flash of light that was actually quite painful to experience.  It felt like an explosion had gone off in her mind, searing her thoughts; she felt all automatic operations going on in her dungeon, as well as all of her constructs and Dungeon Monsters aboveground pause.  She was suddenly glad that she wasn’t currently under attack, because it was quite possible that they wouldn’t respond in the slightest.

When the pain faded and she was able to look inside of her mind again, she saw a representation of the Resonating Prismatic Core floating in front of her image, not entirely clear of any type of blemishes.  There was something wrong with the Core, however, as it shook uncontrollably, appearing as if it was going to explode at any moment; the soul fragment inside was struggling to be released, and it would burst soon if she didn’t do something.

The only thing she could think of to do, and the one “use” of the Core she had determined was appropriate, was to instruct her image to reach out and touch the now-vibrating object.  The arms snapped up and cupped the Prismatic Core in her hands…and then she activated her Bond.

Almost immediately, the object containing the Core soul fragment stilled, and she felt a tension that she hadn’t even realized was constricting her mind loosen and disappear.  It was replaced with an influx of knowledge about Core contracts and information about the urges and drives of Dungeon Cores that she “knew” about but didn’t really understand before.  Now, though, she comprehended how the other Cores in the world operated, which was a frightening experience to Sandra, and she was triply glad that she hadn’t been constrained by a contract like that.

She could also “feel” the soul fragment inside of the Prismatic Core in her image’s hands.  It had calmed down entirely, losing its raving need to fulfill its urges and desires.  Looking and inspecting it with every sense she had at her disposal, it seemed almost dormant now.  Not gone, but…asleep, if such a thing were possible.  It seemed as if the Bond she established with it had quieted the instinctual urges that had been driving it to take control; without those, it didn’t have enough of a soul left to do anything else.

She emerged slowly from her mind-space, as if she was waking up, only to see Winxa fluttering spastically around her Core, muttering, “Come on, Sandra, come back to me.  You can do it, Sandra—”

Hey.

“Sandra!  What happened?  One second we were talking, and the next second everything just seemed to stop.  It was almost like you were holding your breath, as crazy as that sounds.”  Winxa sat on top of Sandra’s Core, talking almost incessantly.

It took the Dungeon Core a few minutes to get her thoughts together, as she checked on everything around her and what she had knowledge of aboveground, restarting the process that seemed to have stopped during her internal experience.

Well…I think I’ve finally taken care of the little passenger in my mind.  Not only that, my dear Fairy friend, but I believe I know what use the Prismatic Core has.  As strange as it seems, it might just be our only help for salvation.

“Really?  How?  What?  Why?  I have so many questions—”

And I’ll do my best to answer them.  Besides, it will help pass the time until everyone wakes up.

“Everyone?  You mean…?”

Absolutely.  They’re in for a big surprise; whether or not they’ll like what I have to tell them is hard to say, but it just might end up being the solution they’ve all been looking for but never knew existed.  Granted, I didn’t know it existed until now, so I can’t fault them for not knowing.  Either way, I’m going to need their help.

“So, are you going to share what this is all about?”

Absolutely.  So, you know how we were talking about soul fragments….

Chapter 41

Violet woke up groggily, her mouth feeling like she had just been snacking on sand, it was so dry.  The only thing she could think of as she was opening her eyes was going down to the Royal Palace’s kitchens and getting something to drink to slake her thirst.  Perhaps even get something to eat while she was at it, because her stomach rumbled as soon as she sat up.

When her eyes cleared and she looked around, her mind had trouble reconciling what she was looking at compared to what she was expecting.  Stark grey stone met her vision, which was quite a bit different from the beautifully decorated walls of the room she was staying in at the Palace.  Her hands on the relatively rough cotton sheets under her body felt much different than what she was used to, but familiar all the same—

The events of the last day flashed through her mind in a rush, chasing away the last vestiges of sleep immediately.  The journey to the northwest to find the ambush site, the discovery of another ambush waiting for them, their deployed defenses, the slaughter of thousands of Dungeon Monsters, and the surprise appearance by 4 Giants.  Then a flight back to Sandra’s dungeon, accompanied by—

—Princess Celeste.  Violet whipped her head around, seeing the unconscious form of the last surviving member of the Royal family on a bed nearby.  The Journeyman Enchanter scrambled off of her own bed and staggered to the Princess’ bedside, her body not quite acknowledging being awake quite yet.  When she managed to make it over to Celeste without falling on her face, she sighed in relief to see that she appeared healthy and whole, breathing regularly in a deep, coma-like sleep.  Violet was confident that she would eventually wake up, just like Felbar had, so she wasn’t too worried at that point; the important thing was that she was safe.

Wasn’t she?

Their arrival had been a bit strange and awkward, as was the silence from the Core afterwards.  Wetting her mouth with whatever saliva she could scrounge up, she asked (a bit hoarsely), “Sandra?  Are you there?”

* Good morning, Violet!  I’m so glad you were able to get some rest; the both of you seemed a bit of a mess last night.  The others also seem to be waking up right around now, and I have some delicious sustenance prepared for you all in the kitchen when you’re ready. *

Violet audibly sighed in relief as she heard Sandra’s voice, sounding as normal as she remembered.  When she arrived…yesterday?...she had been a bit afraid of what had happened with the Dungeon Core while she was gone; it was very good to hear that Sandra seemed relatively unchanged.  Perhaps I was just exhausted and imagining things?  That was entirely possible, of course, because she had practically collapsed on the bed when she made sure the Princess was settled as comfortably as possible.

Speaking of Celeste….  “Is she going to be okay?” she asked worriedly, before something else that Sandra said penetrated her brain.  “What was that about…the others?”  She had looked around the evening before, and she hadn’t seen any evidence of anyone staying in any of the rooms; she supposed that if Gerold was back, he’d probably be down below, and Kelerim the Half-Dwarf/Half-Orc was either sleeping or working at his forge, so she could be wrong.

* Echo and Gerold came back just after you did yesterday, and have been sleeping off their own experiences.  Why don’t I catch you up with what has been going on around here and you can tell me a little about why you brought a Princess back with you. *

Violet couldn’t help but feel strange about bringing Celeste to the dungeon, but it was, after all, the only viable way the Princess was going to survive.  So, after making sure the Royal family member still appeared locked in her coma, she started to tell Sandra what had happened to her back in Gnomeria, as well as hearing about what happened to the Dungeon Core, the attack by the army of Orcs, and her (thankfully) temporary loss of control.

*I can’t wait to see those Weapons of War you helped to create!  I’m sure that I’ll be able to deliver more Energy Orbs to your people so that they can enchant even more. *

By the time the storytelling was done, she had arrived at the kitchen, where she stopped in delight when she saw the spread waiting for her.  Fruits, cooked and sliced meats, and halved loaves of bread were artfully arranged on two platters, just ready for her consumption.  There were also some thin, smooth wooden plates stacked up nearby them, as well as—is that glass?—cups next to the water faucet.  She grabbed some of everything she saw and placed it on one of the plates; when that was full, she set it on a nearby table with a stone bench in front of it, before grabbing a remarkably clear glass cup and filled it with icy-cold water.  Taking a long gulp before she even sat down, she went back to her food and started to dig in with a passion.

Which was where Echo found her moments later, scarfing her face full of delicious, still-warm bread.

“I had heard that you were back, Violet!  It’s so good to see that you made it back safely,” said the Elf (through a translation in her head courtesy of Sandra), before bending down and quickly hugging the smaller Gnome.

Violet paused, shocked, in the middle of chewing the massive amount of bread she had shoved in her mouth.  The Elf had always been a bit distant before, which was understandable given the tensions between the races, so it was definitely a surprise that the Elven Ranger had been so friendly.  Thinking about it, however, Violet realized she had missed the Elf, just like she had missed most everything around the dungeon.

She tried to say, “It’s good to see you, too,” but all that came out of her mouth around the food inside was, “Mmph whoo oo ee oo oo.”  Echo laughed at her, but Violet instantly knew it wasn’t meant to be mean, but more about the humor of Violet trying to talk through a stuffed mouth.  The Gnome laughed herself, but had to stop when she nearly choked on the bread.

Echo got her own food and settled in a seat near Violet, and they sat in companionable silence as they both ate like they hadn’t eaten in days.  Which was actually relatively accurate for Violet, because she couldn’t remember her last actual meal.

“…oh, yes – I can’t wait to see it!  Maybe now Parten won’t look at me like he does—well, hello!”  Gerold came through the nearby hallway, appearing as if he had just woken up as well.  A lot more chipper than Violet felt, though.

“It’s so good to be around people again!  You would not believe the accommodations I had to put up with back home! The silence and the solitude were wearing on me.”  The Dwarf walked over to the platters and picked up a few large pieces of meat and a hunk of bread for his plate, completely ignoring the fruit altogether.  “And the food is so much better here, too!”

His words sounded strange – almost as if he had been locked up or something.  A familiar feeling—

“You were locked up, too?” Echo suddenly asked.  Wait…Echo was locked up, as well?  That is a strange coincidence.

“Yes, I was.  Even though it wasn’t my fault that I lost my armor, they didn’t see it that way.”  Gerold didn’t seem too beat up about it, though, as he cheerfully tore into the food on his plate.  Looking around, he spotted the glasses near the water faucet, before his eyes lit on something else.  His mouth opened in shock as he stared.  “Is that what I think it is?”

Violet turned around to see what he was looking at, and for the first time she noticed what appeared to be a small barrel of something.

* Yes, I took a barrel of Ale from Teving’s stock down below and brought it up here in case anyone wanted some. I left the Whiskey down there, though, because it doesn’t seem appropriate to have that for breakfast. *

Gerold’s eyes teared up like he had just seen a long-lost family member, and he jumped up almost immediately.  A short time later, he was back at the table with a massive stoneware mug filled with what appeared to be (and smelled like) Ale.  He took a huge gulp, smacking his lips when he was finished, and Violet saw some of the foam was stuck in his beard.  She couldn’t help but smile at how much he seemed to be enjoying himself.

“Ah, yes!  Delicious!  A little more bitter than I usually go for, but I’m definitely not going to argue.  It feels like it’s been years since I’ve had a good Ale.”

Violet could see that Echo was amused as well, but in an instant that all changed when Violet heard voices coming from another direction entirely.  The Gnome could tell at least partially who it was, not from the voice itself, but from how Echo started to blush profusely and turned towards the hallway where the sounds were coming from.

“—to get comfortable with the hammer in your hand as if it belongs there.  For me, it’s when I don’t have a tool in my hand that it feels strange.”

“I feel like I could learn a lot from you, Master Jespin.  Not that Sandra isn’t a great teacher – no offense, Sandra – but it would be nice to have someone…flesh-and-blood, I guess.”

* None taken, Kelerim.  I too could stand to learn some things from Master Jespin – he’s just that good. *

“Oh, you flatter me unnecessarily, Miss Dungeon.  When you’ve had as much experience as I’ve had over the last few centuries, you’d pick up some masterful techniques, too.”  There was a pause, just as two people came into view.  “Is that fresh bread I smell?  I don’t remember any last night.”

A very old Dwarf was walking side-by-side next to Kelerim, whom she assumed was the one named Master Jespin.  It might be a little stereotypical of her to think so, but she could only guess that he was a Master Blacksmith, as opposed to anything else.  He paused momentarily when he saw Violet and Echo sitting at a table, but he recovered quickly enough when he saw the food waiting for him.  Not only that, but he eyed Gerold’s stoneware mug – and his eyes almost immediately homed in on the barrel of Ale.

“You’ve presented a bounty, Sandra!  It will be good to have some Ale again; we’ve been on a bit of a ration for the last few months, as shipments are sparse through the strongholds right now.”  The old Dwarf immediately loaded up his plate, grabbed some Ale and came and sat down next to Gerold.  Then he did something surprising.

Nodding his head in her direction, he said in highly accented and stilted Gnomish, “Pleased to meet you.  I am called Jespin.  I apologize for my lack of polish with your language.  It has been many years.”  She was so shocked that she couldn’t even respond at first, but she finally returned the greeting in almost equally stilted language.  He nodded with a smile, repeating her name, and then did the same with Echo.

Not in Gnomish, but she assumed Elvish.  Having heard him speak Gnomish, the Ranger wasn’t as surprised, but Violet could tell Echo was pleased.  Or just glad of the distraction.

“Hello, Echo.  I’m very glad you made it back safely—urgh!” Kelerim started to say, before the Elf jumped up and wrapped him in a tight hug, practically engulfing him because of her taller height and longer arms.  Violet thought she heard some ribs creak in the process, as the Ranger was squeezing so tightly, but she wasn’t entirely sure.  The hug probably lasted a little longer than she intended, because she blushed profusely again and practically pushed him away.  Echo then said something to him in Elvish, which for some reason Sandra didn’t translate.

Or she didn’t translate it for Violet or the others, because Kelerim suddenly blushed just as brightly and looked around as if seeking some sort of help.  Violet and Gerold didn’t know exactly what was going on, but Master Blacksmith Jespin had a huge grin on his face.  Then the old Dwarf said something in what sounded like the guttural Orcish language, followed by loud guffaws that caused the poor Half-Dwarf/Half-Orc to blush even further, if that was at all possible.

* Alright, enough fun for now.  Echo, Kelerim, I suggest you continue this discussion later.  Probably in private, I would think.

* Anyway, I’d like to give you all an update on the current situation, as well as a simple recounting of what is happening in all 4 lands.  I’m not going to go into too much detail on the specifics of each person’s…adventures…but a better understanding of what we’re dealing with is necessary. *

There followed, as everyone finished up their breakfast and lounged around a little, a simple recounting of what was happening in Gnomeria, Symenora, Orcrim, and the Dwarven Kingdom.  Then Sandra explained, in a little more detail than Violet had received that morning, exactly what had occurred with the invasion by the Orcish army, including the revelation that it had been led by Kelerim’s father.  The Dungeon Core then went into how the Orcish mercenaries were helping the Elven Rangers in the nearby town of Avensglen; it was almost too incredible to believe that Sandra had set something like that up, but Kelerim and Echo nodded as if it seemed perfectly reasonable.

* …and right now, we’re at a standstill with the nearby dungeons.  They aren’t attacking right now, which has let us get a bit of a breather in, but I expect them to try something soon.  They’ve now had time to accumulate large numbers of Dungeon Monsters, so anything really is possible at this point. *

There was silence as they all considered everything they were told.  “So, what’s the plan?” asked Jespin after the silence had stretched entirely too long.  “It sounds like you have a nice setup here and are able to defend against these other dungeons quite adeptly.”

* Without being modest, as I want to be as truthful as possible, I certainly do.  With what I have constructed to try to keep me one step ahead of their growth, I believe I can continue to contain the numbers of these 4 Cores indefinitely, even if I had no help from any of the races. I think it will stay that way even when the 4 new Cores emerge from the dungeons they are even now constructing.  *

That was certainly different than it was before.  Violet wasn’t certain what had changed, but Sandra seemed a lot more confident than she was before.

* But that is just this small, tiny corner of this big, wide world.  The effect of the enhancements because of the destruction of the local Cores ranges much farther than even I can reach right now.  As Gerold, Echo, and Violet are aware, this was why they were sent back home, so that they could both warn those in charge of their lands of what is coming, as well as securing some sort of help to contain the upcoming expansion of dozens of Dungeon Cores within 130 miles or so of the wasteland here. *

Violet was well aware of that, as Sandra had said.  Except that she hadn’t come back with any real good news, though the development of the Weapons of War would eventually help with the culling process.  If they lived long enough to make a difference, naturally.

The Journeyman Enchanter looked around the room, and she could see that Echo and Gerold hadn’t had as much luck as she had.  In fact, according to the update on the situation in the Dwarven lands, it sounded like they were the worst off of everyone, with a few dungeons already attacking their mountain strongholds.

“You’re saying that there’s nothing we can do?  That we should just give up?”  No one disputed what the Master Blacksmith was asking, but Violet – for one – couldn’t think of a way to stop the eventual destruction of all their lands.  There were obviously some local plans in place, maybe stretching out for a few dozen miles if what Sandra said about her influence was accurate, but the rest of their people were caught without the benefits of the benevolent Dungeon Core’s proximity.

Fortunately for their morale, Sandra wasn’t one to give up.

* Not in the slightest.  This was a sticking point in my mind when I was trying to figure out how to save as many people as possible, in fact.  Destroying more Cores was out of the question, because it would just make every other dungeon that much more dangerous.  Trying to contain a continually worsening situation, even with some added supplies, weapons, and Energy Orbs, seemed doomed to failure after hearing what was already happening in all your lands.  There had to be another way, I thought…and I believe I have discovered it. *

Violet was speechless, as was everyone else in the room, including the venerable Dwarf.  What did she discover?  The Enchanter was about to ask that out loud, when Sandra beat her to it.

* I was going to let the suspense grow dramatically, but it looks like I’m going to have to delay this whole revelation for a moment.  It seems as though some divine happenstance of the Creator has decided to intervene, instead. *

What does she mean by that?

* I hate to cut this short, but it seems our important guests have decided to wake up, all around the same time.  Would you all head back to your rooms and help me reassure them that they are safe before they try to rip my dungeon apart? Please? *

Violet was up and running before Sandra even finished talking.

Chapter 42

Sandra didn’t even attempt to talk to any of the Royalty just now waking up in her dungeon, because she really didn’t want to frighten them into trying to force their way out.  Especially the King and Queen of the Elves – those two frightened the Dungeon Core a little with how powerful they were with their affinity of so many different elements.  The only consolation at the moment was that they weren’t embedded with Energy Orbs and didn’t have any around them, so if they decided to cast a multitude of spells, they would run out of energy eventually.

Half of her dungeon might be destroyed in the process, but that was something that Sandra didn’t want to think about.  Besides, she could always fall back on taking control of anyone that got out of hand because of the Bond, but that was an extreme last resort.

Luckily, her constant monitoring of their important guests had paid off, as she was able to detect their awakening state before they became fully aware of their surroundings.  By the time they were up and looking for a way out, Violet, Echo, Gerold, and Jespin were all there to help reassure them that they were safe.

The easiest of the awakenings was Princess Celeste with Violet to help the Royal Gnome adjust to her surroundings.  Despite the strange environment, as well as the frightening additions to her palms, the Princess was more curious than anything.

“So, this is the dungeon you were talking about?”

“Yes, your Highness.  I can show you around later, including the Enchantment Repository Room—”

The Princess just waved Violet off, though she stopped as she stared at the Energy Orbs embedded in her palms with fascination.  “That’s not what I’m interested in the most, as you can probably guess, Violet.  I want to see some of these constructs you mentioned, as well as these Deep Divers that were constructed, if it’s not too much trouble.”

Contrary to the disposition of the Gnomes she had met before, Princess Celeste seemed more martial than Sandra was expecting.  The Dungeon Core got the impression that the Royal Gnome didn’t seem as focused on Enchanting for Enchanting’s sake, but as a means to an end.  That end being the death of Dungeon Monsters, naturally.

* I only have the one Deep Diver right now, your Highness.  I made it for Gerold, as he had lost his Shieldman armor, and it has been a great help. *

“Who is that?  What is in my head?”

* Sorry about that.  This is Sandra, your friendly local Dungeon Core, at your service. *

“Sandra, huh?  Nice to meet you,” the Princess mentioned, seemingly offhandedly.  The Gnome didn’t seem either suspicious or curious that she was talking to a dungeon, of all things, unlike most that she had the fortune to meet.  “Was it you that I need to thank for fixing me all up?”

* While it was my Repair Drones that helped to heal your rather severe injuries, you really should be thanking Violet for bringing you all this way on her own. *

“Oh?  Well, thank you, Violet.  You have my eternal gratitude.  I know that if my…father were here, he would grant you a boon of whatever you desired.  So, you name it, and I’ll do what I can to provide it to you.”

The Journeyman Enchanter just blushed and stammered “you’re welcome”, while at the same time saying that she didn’t need any type of boon.  When the Princess insisted, Violet clammed up when she wasn’t able to think of something, so Sandra intervened.

* Violet may not need anything, but I could certainly use your help.  Though, it isn’t as much helping me, as it is helping your people. *

“I can certainly do what I’m able to, but I’m not sure what that could be.”

* I will explain in just a little bit, but first I would assume that you’re probably ravenous.  Violet can show you to the kitchen, and I’ll go over everything when everyone is assembled. *

“You even have a kitchen?  And what do you mean by everyone?”  Sandra let Violet explain about the other races inside of her dungeons, while the Dungeon Core switched her attention to the other visitors.  She had woken Parten up as soon as the Dwarven King was gradually coming to full awareness; he went from nearly a full sleep to racing through her hallways in less than 5 seconds, and he arrived shortly after Gerold and Master Blacksmith Jespin.

“How can I lead if I don’t have my armor?  I feel as if I’m missing something deep inside, like a part of my soul has been torn out and destroyed,” King Mynag was saying as he sat up in the bed he had been lying on, his expression so forlorn that Sandra felt for him.  She wanted to chime in and mention that Jespin had crafted him another set, but she figured that the Master Blacksmith wanted it to be a surprise.

“Sire, you are still the King.  Everyone will still follow you, no matter if you have armor or not.  You are strong, courageous, and powerful – and there is no one that sees you that can deny your right to rule.”

Sandra saw Gerold and Jespin sneak away as Parten spoke with the King.  A quick look at their destination revealed that they were going to pick up the fruits of the Blacksmith’s labor from last night.

“This isn’t about my right to rule, Parten, it’s about the confidence I have in myself.  It’s almost like the drive, the courage to lead my people into battle against the monsters that are encroaching on our strongholds, has…disappeared.”  The King stopped for a moment, looking down at his palms for the first time.  “Parten…what in the world are these?” he said, holding his palms up for the First-shield to see.  “Better yet, where are we?”

Rather than let the biased Parten poison the first impressions of her dungeon by imparting his own views on the subject, Sandra took that as a cue for her to intervene.

* King Mynag, you are in my dungeon.  My name is Sandra, and I welcome you to my crafting dungeon, where we are working hard to find a solution to the growing problems of Dungeon Monsters roaming around not just your lands, but the homelands of all of the races around the wasteland here. *

The Dwarven King jerked in shock when he heard her voice, but he was too despondent to be particularly frightful or angry that she had spoken to his mind.  “I’m…in the wasteland?  But that is so far away; how long was I out?”

* From what I understand, you were out for less than a day, and Gerold, Master Jespin, and First-shield Parten saw to your transportation and brought you to me for help.  Those Energy Orbs in your palms help to automatically regenerate your elemental energy, and this is partially why you were brought here to recover so quickly.  As for the other reason why, I’ll let your Master Blacksmith explain. *

Just then, Jespin entered the room with Gerold just behind, carrying the different pieces of the King’s armor with him.  “Sire, I have a gift for you.  I spent all last night crafting you a brand-new set of armor; I know it could never replace your previous set, but perhaps it will suffice to get you back on your feet.”

The King jumped to his feet, his eyes wide in wonder as he saw the armor Jespin and Gerold were carrying.  The moment he touched the breastplate, a sort of jolt visible to Sandra shot between the Dwarf and the Steel-Mithril metal alloy, and she could see a connection being established somehow.  It was as if it really wasn’t Shieldman armor until that moment; after that, she could see nearly invisible elemental “fingers” reaching out from the crafted armor and latching onto the King, forming a bond of sorts.  When she looked at Parten, and then to the other Shieldmen inside of her dungeon, she saw the same thing with them; she’d just never really noticed it before because they were almost always wearing their gear, and it wasn’t visible unless you knew to look for it.

The sight of it only confirmed to her that she was on the right track with her plan.

“But how?  I thought we were out of mi—I mean, we were running out of supplies,” the King asked, looking around at the others as he spoke.

* I’m going to save some explanation, and tell you that I know all about the Mithril used to create your Shieldman armor.  So do all of the Dwarves living here in my dungeon, I have no doubt, so the secret is out.  The good thing in all of this is that I can provide you and your people as much Mithril as you need, so that your Master Blacksmiths can create as many sets as you need.  Plus, with the Energy Orbs, they can do it much quicker than ever before – such as Jespin starting and finishing your armor in just a few hours instead of weeks. *

The King seemed angry at first, before looking more than a bit resigned.  Gerold and Parten helped the Royal Dwarf into his armor as he asked, “And what will all of this cost me and my Kingdom?  I can tell you right now, we will not be your slaves; we’d rather die than be subjected to that.”

* What is it with people thinking I want slaves?  That’s not at all what I want, your Highness.  In fact, I ultimately want your people to thrive and take care of your problems by yourself, with minimal assistance, but that time hasn’t really come quite yet.

* As for what this is going to cost you, there is something that I need your help with.  I’ll go over it in just a little bit, as soon as I can get everyone together.  In the meantime, I’m sure you and First-shield Parten are quite hungry; Gerold can show you to the kitchen to get a bite to eat. *

“You bet, Sire.  And there’s a surprise there as well,” Gerold said happily.

“A surprise?  I think I’ve already had my fair share of surprises lately.”

Jespin smiled, acknowledging the King’s statement.  “Oh, I’m well aware of that, Sire, but I think you’ll like this one.  You too, Parten.”

Sandra left them to finish outfitting the King, while she dealt with what she suspected was going to be the most volatile of her visitors: The Elven monarchs.  Echo used her Air energy to speed herself up, and she fortunately arrived before the disoriented and confused Royal couple could start blasting their way out of their room.

“NO, STOP!” Echo screamed as soon as she skidded into the room, the King with a giant fireball between his hands and the Queen with a chunk of rock half her size in her own, both ready to be flung towards anything in their way.

Sandra nearly took control of the two Elves when they seemed intent on launching their attacks towards the Ranger as soon as she appeared, but she restrained herself; a good first impression would immediately be soured if she did something like that.  Wanting to keep it as an option of last resort, the Dungeon Core was relieved to see the King and Queen dissipate their spells at the last moment, though they were still a bit hostile.

“Who are you?  Where are we?” the Queen demanded, her hands up in a defensive posture as she glared at Echo.

This might not go well if they don’t even recognize her.

“Please stay calm, everything is alright.  You’re safe now, and the effects of the mind-control have been—"

“Mind-control?!  What are you talking about, and who are you?” the King shouted, getting closer to Echo in a threatening manner.  Sandra almost acted again, but the Royal Elf stopped himself from actually touching her when he cocked his head to the side.  “You…seem familiar, somehow.  Why?”  To Sandra, he seemed more curious than angry, which she supposed was an improvement.

“My name is Echo, your Highnesses, and I brought you here to help remove the effects that you were under because of the Chamberlain—”

As the mention of the Chamberlain, both the King and Queen threw their heads back and screamed.  Almost seeming to come from nowhere, multiple elemental energies surrounded them in a whirlwind, swirling around like a tornado of crackling power, and Sandra feared for Echo’s well-being.  After a few seconds, fortunately, the screaming stopped and they both stared at the Ranger, who stepped back in obvious fright; when the Dungeon Core saw their eyes, hard and unforgiving, she immediately took the reins of both the King and Queen before they did something to harm either Echo or themselves.  She didn’t stop them yet, though, but she wouldn’t hesitate to do so if they tried anything funny.

“WHERE IS HE?” both Royal Elves said deeply in unison, which was starting to freak even Sandra out.  “WE WILL KILL THAT TRAITOROUS CHAMBERLAIN!”

The Core wasn’t sure how Echo could even speak after being the focus of all that powerful attention, but she managed it somehow.  “H-he is dead.  Eaten by a giant bird, in fact.  It’s partially what freed you from his control.”  Their stare in response to her words was so powerful that Echo literally dropped to her knees as her strength apparently gave out.

The tornado of elemental energy, stronger than anything Sandra had seen before that wasn’t created with a dungeon’s Mana, slowly dissipated after a few moments, and the King and Queen turned to each other.  “Is it true, my love?  Are we free?” the Queen asked, her voice a lot more melodious and softer than it had been just moments ago.

“I…don’t know, but I can’t feel his influence anymore.  Oh, how did we let that happen?” he responded, reaching out to the Queen and enfolding her into his embrace.  They stood like that for a few minutes, just holding each other, before Echo cleared her throat.

“Umm, your Highnesses?  There’s some things you need to know about where you are and what is going on around here.  Do you remember anything?” she asked, plaintively.

The two Royal Elves finally broke apart, before the Queen responded.  “Bits and pieces of memories over the last year or so, though there is a lot more before that.  What I remember most is having concerns about our new Chamberlain, but for some reason they were swept away.  After a time, I was fully aware of what was happening, but I was powerless to stop it.”

The King nodded as well.  “About the same with me.  I can’t believe we let our guard down and that filth took advantage of it.”  He paused, looking at Echo.  “Please explain to us what is going on and who you are.  And—” he continued, looking around the small room— “where in the world are we?”  The King cocked his head to the side again. “Better yet, how are we even alive?  If I remember correctly, the use of the spell he cast on us was banned specifically because it eventually destroys the minds of those heavily under its influence for long periods of time.”

“Well, that’s a bit of a long story, but the long and short of it is—now don’t freak out—that you’re in a dungeon.”

“WHAT?!”

Echo got to her feet and held her hands out as a reassurance, which only served to highlight the two Energy Orbs embedded in them.  “Now, this may seem a bit strange—”

“What has been done to you?!  I demand to be let out of this place immediately!” the Queen shouted, appearing ready to blast her way out if it was required.  The King wasn’t far behind.

“No, it’s okay; the dungeon heart needed to ‘Bond’ with you in order to repair the damage to your mind, especially after what the Chamberlain did with it.  Elder Herrlot sent me back here with you via the same giant bird I mentioned earlier, and Sandra was able to fix you up.”

“Who is Sandra?  Wait—Herrlot?  She sent you here?  Where are we?”

So many questions were thrown in Echo’s direction, but the Ranger patiently answered them all.  As the next few minutes wore on, the King and Queen eventually relaxed enough so that they didn’t appear ready to rip the dungeon apart.  Finally, the time came when Sandra thought it was about time to talk to them, herself.

* Welcome, your Highnesses.  I am Sandra, whom Echo has described to you as the dungeon; I am the heart, or Core, of my little space here, and I assure you that I only want what is best for everyone around the wasteland.  There’s a lot more that I need to inform you of, but I figure that you’re probably a bit famished after your experience.  Echo can lead you to the kitchen, where you can eat your fill. *

Their surprise was short-lived, especially after the information that Echo imparted to them, and as soon as Sandra stopped talking, they bowed in unison.  “As strange as it is to say it, we owe you a debt that can never be repaid.  Thank you…Sandra.  If there is something within our power to balance this debt a little, please let us know,” the Queen said, before straightening back up.

* As a matter of fact, there is something that you can do for me.  I’ll mention it in a little bit, but I want everyone to hear it at the same time.  And don’t worry, it will benefit your people as much as it will benefit me. *

They looked confused at that, but followed Echo out of their room, nonetheless.

Just one more piece in all of this, and I think we’re ready to begin.

Chapter 43

The initial meeting of the leadership was remarkably amiable, as Princess Celeste, King Mynag, and the King and Queen of the Elves all sat at the same large table in the Kitchen, eating sliced meat, bread, and fruit to their hearts’ content.  And at least 2 full mugs of Ale for the Dwarven King, of course.

Introductions were made at the start of the meal, which caught them all by surprise, because no one had mentioned to them that there were some visiting royalty besides themselves, and it was interesting to see their reactions.  Sandra had been expecting the same sort of racial tension to come out from them as she had seen before, but the only one that seemed even in the least uncomfortable was the Princess.  Whether it was because she was probably the weakest in terms of strength at the table, or because she was too young, she held her tongue for the most part when the others began to talk.

“Was there some specific purpose that all of us were brought here?  It seems like a crazy coincidence that all of us are here in the same place, at the exact same time,” King Mynag asked as soon as they were done eating.  When they were finished with their plates and scraps, Sandra had absorbed it all, which enforced the fact that they were inside of her dungeon.

* I assure you, this was never my intention.  Gerold, Violet, Felbar, and Echo all traveled back to your lands to apprise you of the situation here, as well as the threats to your lands.  Some of you may know a few of the details, but let me fill all you in with the rest. *

Sandra spent some time going over the same sort of information she had shared with Violet and the others not too long ago, and though it was a lot of repeated information for her friends, they didn’t seem bored by the reiteration.  The subject was quite important to everyone, of course, so that didn’t surprise the Dungeon Core.

“This is not good.  We had no idea any of this was happening,” the Elven King said, looking concernedly at his wife.  “I can appreciate what you have done to try to contain these dungeons, but even I can see that you won’t be able to fix everything yourself.  As it is, we were barely maintaining a balance with most of the monster population throughout Symenora; there’s no way we can keep up with these new expansions, let alone overcome them.”

King Mynag added his own viewpoint with a despondent shake of his head, which coincided with the Elves.  “I agree.  Despite the…supplies…that Sandra has generously donated to our cause, we’re already having trouble in our strongholds.  Before we arrived, we just lost Stonebrink Hall, the first stronghold we have ever let fall to the dungeons.  We might be able to stave off the inevitable closer to home with the help we received, but as far as facing this new threat…it’s impossible.”

“While it’s possible for us to start making a difference in the monster population with our new Weapons of War,” Princess Celeste spoke up, “we’ve lost almost all of our Master Enchanters, a large portion of our Defensive Force, and…I’m all that is left of our Royal family.”  The Princess choked up a bit at that last part, and the Elven Queen actually got up and sat next to the Gnome, putting her long, slender arms around her comfortingly.

There was silence as Celeste shed a few tears, but they didn’t last long.  The Royal Gnome cleared her throat, wiped her eyes, and with a hoarseness to her voice, asked, “What do we do, then?  I’d ask for help to save my people, but everyone seems to be suffering as much or more than us.”

* That’s what I wanted to speak to you all about.  You see, I think I’ve found a way to—hold on, our last guest is almost here.  Everyone, I’d like you to meet Palzerk, soon to be a Warlord in Orcrim, and Owchet, one of the volunteers who has been helping the Elven Rangers hold back the tide of Slimes and Beasts from the nearby dungeons. *

As soon as Sandra saw that the important personages in her dungeon were waking up, she sent her High Peak Roc to fetch Palzerk; she had been keeping tabs on him in case she needed him, and this was definitely a time where she required his assistance.  While he wasn’t the “leader” of Orcrim, he was the closest thing she could get in the limited time she had.  On the way back, she picked up Owchet from the village of Grongbak, because she wanted him along to support his soon-to-be Warlord.

Palzerk walked into the room and nodded to everyone still seated at the large table, without the least bit of surprise on his face at seeing so many different races together.  Granted, it helped that Sandra had warned him, so he smoothly got his own plate of food and sat down in between the Dwarven King and the Gnome Princess.  Before he started to stuff his face, he said, “You may proceed.”

She didn’t need his permission, necessarily, but she figured following his suggestion and a nice meal was the least she could do for yanking him away from his Warband again.  As the others openly watched Palzerk eat, curiosity more than suspicion in their faces, Sandra finally came to the heart of the matter.

* As I had mentioned to some of you before, I completely agree with all of your concerns.  Even in Orcrim, which is soon to get a major influx of supplies that will help them immeasurably, the growth of the dungeons within 130 miles or so is too much for them to handle.  A veritable army of Dire Wolves nearly wiped out Palzerk’s own warband, so I’m sure he can vouch for that assessment. It was only the first, and won’t be the last. *

The Warband Leader just nodded, his mouth full of meat.

* So, if we can’t contain them – and we can’t go around just destroying more Dungeon Cores, as that will make everything worse – we need to do something else.  Through some experimentation and application of various things that I’ve learned recently, which has helped me overcome my own issues related to this whole situation, I’ve developed something that I think will be the solution to all of our problems.  Now, don’t be afraid, this is just one of my constructs. *

So saying, she brought one of her Apes inside of the kitchen, which created a little stir from those that hadn’t seen any of her constructs before (the Sentinel she kept in the kitchen as a catalyst for the traps in the room was in the corner, out of view at the moment), but when it didn’t threaten anyone, they settled down.  She had her Ape place the object it was carrying in the middle of the table the leaders were seated around, before squatting silently along the edge of the room.

* This is what is called a Resonating Prismatic Core.  With it, I am hoping to ‘Bond’ with another Dungeon Core. *

“What purpose will that serve?” Violet asked, the first time she had spoken up since she had brought the Princess to the kitchen.

* If I am correct, and if it functions the same way it did with the Dungeon Core soul fragment in my mind, it will help to ‘calm’ the urges of the other Core.  While it’s hard to predict what this will ultimately mean, I feel confident that I can influence a foreign Dungeon Core to curb its out-of-control expansion, and perhaps even prevent it from sending Dungeon Monsters out into the world. *

There was complete silence in the room and everyone froze, the stillness so deep that even she thought every person had stopped breathing.  A few seconds later, however, the room seemed to let out a deep breath all at the same, as they recovered from her stunning revelation.

“How--?” the Elven King started, breaking the silence, but he couldn’t seem to finish his question.  The Queen picked up where he had left off, though.  “How is such a thing even possible?  And what makes you so sure that it will do what you claim?”

Without going into too much detail about the exact nature of her creation of the Prismatic Core, as she didn’t want to reveal the secrets of Mithril and the connection between the Dwarves and their armor, Sandra described a little about how she had created the special object and about her internal struggles with a remnant of a destroyed Dungeon Core inside her mind.  They all still appeared skeptical, but they appeared willing to grasp at any hope of such a thing actually working.

“What’s the catch?  This seems too simple otherwise.”  King Mynag asked the question that she was dreading, but it was also why she had brought them all together.

* The catch.  Yes.  Well, in order for this to work, this Resonating Prismatic Core needs to be in direct contact with the other Dungeon Core, so that I can initiate the Bonding process. *

“So, what you’re essentially saying is that we need someone to delve into one of these dungeons, fight all the way to the heart of the dungeon, and then place this pretty little object next to the Core.  Not only that, but there is no guarantee that this will even work.  Does that sum it up pretty well?” First-shield Parten asked, shaking his head.  “Sire, I think we’ve heard enough of this; we should head back—”

“By the forge of the Creator, I’m in!” King Mynag shouted, slamming his now-empty mug down on the table, after having taken a drink while Parten was talking.  “Let’s do this!”

“Sire, you do not need to risk yourself in such foolish—”

“PARTEN!  Shut it!  I’m tired of you telling me what I do and don’t need to do.  If I can’t sacrifice myself for the good of my people, then I don’t deserve to call myself a King!”  The King turned around and glared at the First-shield, holding his stare for a few moments before Parten turned his head away and reluctantly nodded.

“Well, if you’re ‘in’, then I guess I’ll have to come with you to keep you out of trouble.”

“Very good!  I wouldn’t want it any other way,” the King replied, smiling again after the confrontation.

“I’ll come along as well, if you’ll have me,” Gerold volunteered.  “Sandra built me another Deep Diver suit to use; a Deep Diver using some special materials, even.”

The King ran his fingers through his beard as he looked at Gerold, and Sandra could tell that the First-shield was about to object.  Fortunately for her friend, the Royal Dwarf spoke up before Parten could.  “If that’s the case, and I’m understanding you correctly, I would appreciate the help.  Besides, I still owe you for helping to save my life, as well providing a way for Master Jespin to make another set of armor for me.”  The King deliberately looked at Parten as if daring him to say anything, but the First-shield wisely held his tongue.

“If they’re going, I would volunteer to help.  I’m not sure what I might be able to do, but I’m no stranger to fighting monsters.”  Sandra was a bit surprised by Princess Celeste speaking up, but from what Violet had mentioned about her, she supposed it made sense.

* I can make you a Deep Diver as well, but I’ll need 6 to 8 hours to complete it. Could be a little less if Violet helps me out. *

“Absolutely, your Highness.  I would be honored.”  Violet appeared to be both happy to help and worried for the Princess, which was understandable.

“I guess that means that we’ll be coming, too,” the King said slowly, looking at the Queen the whole time.  “It’s been a while since we’ve been inside a dungeon – other than this one, of course – and I think this could be a way for paying you back for helping to save our lives.”  The Queen just nodded her agreement.

“I’ll come, as well.  I’ve had some experience delving through a dungeon lately, at least.”  That would be Echo, and the King and Queen inclined their heads in acceptance.

After that, everyone looked at Palzerk, who stopped chewing long enough to say, “What?  Of course I’m coming, and so is Owchet.  Wouldn’t miss this for the world.”  Then he resumed eating his meal.

Sandra was overwhelmed with emotion at how everyone seemed to come together for a common purpose, even if that included working with people with whom they normally wouldn’t associate.  She was honestly worried for Echo and Gerold, as they had gotten lucky the last time they had invaded a dungeon – they had barely emerged with their lives.  Looking at who they were accompanying, however, she felt much better about their chances.

“Is there any way we can gather more help before we do it?” the Elven Queen asked.  “I’m sure another week or more will help us accumulate more in the way of assistance.”

* Unfortunately, we cannot wait that long.  One of the drawbacks of this Prismatic Core is that it contains a portion of my soul; if it isn’t used in 48 hours, the Core will explode, severely hurting or even destroying me in the process. *

“You…you could die if we don’t do this?  Why didn’t you mention that before?  And why couldn’t you just send an army of your constructs inside and deliver this Prismatic Core that way?”  Sandra was touched by Violet’s genuine concern, but there was a reason for all that she had done and said.

* I didn’t mention it before, because I didn’t want that to influence or coerce a decision to help out of anyone.  I’m willing to take the risk to see this through, and if it came down to it, I would do what I could to get this done without anyone’s help.  I’m not sure it would be successful, however, because without a sentient race being inside of the dungeon, shutting down a lot of the processes and defenses of the foreign Core, all of the effort in the world by my constructs would likely be useless.  I wouldn’t be able to initiate a Bond if that were the situation, or the Bond would pale in comparison to what it could be otherwise. *

“I…see.  Well, then, how much time do you have until that thing explodes?”

* Approximately 40 hours. *

Now on a deadline, the room turned serious.  “In that case, we better prepare as best we can.  Are you sending any of your…constructs...with us?” Princess Celeste asked.

* Certainly!  I’ll be sending everything I can possibly spare; Gerold and Echo have a lot of experience controlling them, so my constructs will be under their direction. *

Something suddenly caught her attention, ripping her focus away from the kitchen.  It took her less than a second to understand what was happening, which caused her to amend her last statement.

*  On second thought, I might need most of them out here.  It appears as though the other Cores have started another assault – and this one looks to be a mite more dangerous for everyone involved. *

Everyone in the kitchen looked at each other worriedly, but King Mynag couldn’t be brought down.  “Not a worry.  You just take care of that, and we’ll take care of invading a dungeon.  Which one would you prefer we delve through?”

Sandra didn’t have an answer, because she was busy coordinating the defense, though it was already a losing prospect.  When she got a spare moment, she let them all know she would figure that out later, as well as when the best time to leave might be.  As they broke up their meeting, with the Royalty wanting to go on a tour of the dungeon, the Dungeon Core scrambled to assess these new threats.

Chapter 44

The Orc mercenaries were already on their way to help the Elves defend their village, which was quickly becoming the fallback position.  Waves of smaller Slimes streamed out of the Slime-Classification dungeon, while those blood-thirsty-looking squirrels poured out of the Beast-Classification dungeon like someone had opened some floodgates.  If that had been all, the situation wouldn’t have been that bad, but they were accompanied by even more.

Larger Beasts, including Crocatiles, the monkey-bear hybrids, razor-antler elk, Elephants, and large hunting cats joined in with the squirrels; larger Slimes, ovoid in shape, as well as one that mimicked the shape of some of the Beasts coming out of the other dungeon entrance also appeared.  Now, if that had been all, the situation probably could’ve been handled; it would’ve taken a lot of work and time, but the Rangers, mercenaries, Wyvines, and constructs the Elves had at their disposal were more than capable of containing the threat.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t all that emerged from the entrances.  A few of the larger Dragon Slimes poured out of the Slime-Classification dungeon, as well as some of the gigantic, 100-foot-tall Slimes she had seen down near the Core’s inner rooms.  From the Beasts, a trio of the Boss-like 50-foot monstrosities strode out of the larger entrance, their green, shaggy fur and bald heads reflecting the sunlight coming through the treetops.  Their triple-eyed stares looked hungrily about, ready to tear apart any constructs likely to get in their way with their deadly sharp claws or their mouths full of dozens of razor-like teeth.

Even that was something that Sandra had prepared for, as she had been stockpiling defenses out near the village that could be used to take them out.  Not only did she have 2 High Peak Rocs on alert for the Dragon Slimes, ready to take them down from the air and rip them apart, but she also had 3 Expanded Mobile Fortifications that she invested in, ready to deploy wherever they were needed.  When she added in the hundreds of constructs, dozens of additional Shadow Wyvines for the Elves, and more explosive bolts for the Rangers, they were as ready for anything as was possible.

Naturally, the one thing she couldn’t plan for was whatever might have been unlocked by the 2 dungeons as a result of their recent upgrade.  When those new Monsters were revealed, she ordered a full retreat by the Elves and Orcish mercenaries, as her people had no chance against them as they were.

For the Slime-Classification dungeon, what emerged from the main entrance didn’t look particularly troublesome.  It wasn’t a massive Slime larger than the colossal Slimes she had seen before, nor was it in any particular shape more frightening than the Dragon Slime.  Instead, it was a 6-foot-tall Monster shaped like a normal, everyday Slime, only a few times larger than the horde of smaller Slimes that had flooded out of the dungeon.  The main difference between this new Slime and all of the others was what it appeared to be made from; instead of a jelly-like substance, it appeared to be made of…metal.

Quicksilver, to be more precise, otherwise known as Mercury.  Except, when an explosive bolt from one of the Rangers was fired at it, it suddenly transformed from a blob of silvery liquid to a lump of solid Steel, or perhaps something even harder.  The bolt hit the metallic Slime, exploded with a *thump* – and did absolutely no damage to the Monster.  An Orc mercenary tried her hand at hurting it with a weighted warhammer, but it stayed in its solid state, not letting anything damage its outer shell.  At one point, a needle-like appendage shot out and narrowly missed gutting the Orc, but she was able to dodge the strike, only allowing it to slice up a part of her leather armor.

From the Beast-Classification dungeon, there came something even worse than the 3-eyed monstrosities that preceded its appearance.  Originally, it didn’t seem that dangerous at first glance; in fact, Sandra thought it looked sort of cute.  Then she saw the red, beady eyes, the 8-foot-long claws, and the thousands of teeth in its mouth when it opened its jaws wider than they really ought to have been able.  They were practically nightmarish when the Dungeon Core saw them.

Its powerful hind legs tore furrows at least 5 feet deep into the rich earth of the forest when it emerged, and it raced ahead of everything that came out with it.  It used its sleek body to navigate its way through the trees, despite it being at least 200 feet long from nose to its fluffy tail.  When it landed on a Wyvine that was unlucky enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, it tore that Wyvine to pieces in a matter of seconds, before the great Monster moved on.

An explosive arrow shot by a Ranger impacted the furry, grey side of the giant rabbit, but the thickness of the fur was enough to cushion against the majority of the explosion.  Instead of hurting it, the monstrous bunny only seemed to become highly annoyed, going into a frenzy of destruction that saw many of the trees that hadn’t already been toppled torn apart as if they were little toys.  Quite a few Wyvines gave their lives at that point to save the Elven Rangers, who retreated back to their village in order to regroup and recover from the sudden onslaught.

The Shieldmen who went off to help Sandra’s constructs fight against the Goblins and Golems faced a similar situation, with a horde of weaker Monsters followed by a larger and more powerful variety of the enemy.  They both also revealed the latest additions to their roster of Dungeon Monsters, like the Mercury Slime and the Bunny Rabbit of Death and Destruction (which was what she decided to call it, as the name seemed fitting).

Logically, she realized the next step in the Golem hierarchy would be something even stronger than Steel.  While Titanium or Platinum were both a possibility, or even a metal she hadn’t heard of before, Sandra hadn’t counted on the Magnetite Golem that walked out of the dungeon entrance.  Granted, it was much smaller than many of the other Golems that made an appearance, being only about 9 feet tall, but that wasn’t what made it dangerous.  Any construct that came within 5 feet of it was pulled into the Golem, unable to move at all; one of the newer Shieldmen was nearly sucked into the powerful magnetic field it possessed, but he fortunately managed to run away before he could get caught.  Within a few minutes, the Magnetite Golem was laden down with a half dozen constructs, which were then smashed apart by some nearby Iron and Steel Golems, leaving the new Golem free to keep sucking up constructs still fighting the other Dungeon Monsters.

The Goblin-Classification dungeon…well, it produced something that couldn’t be allowed to roam free.  It also painted a target on the Dungeon Core that produced it, and Sandra immediately knew which would be the target of the group preparing to deliver the Prismatic Core into a dungeon.

Everything seemed as normal as it could be, with hundreds of Goblin Scouts spreading out in a wave with the initial push.  Then came Goblin Archers, Goblin Warriors, Goblin Chiefs, Hobgoblin Brutes, and Hobgoblin Mages, backed up by one of the more dangerous Dungeon Monsters the Dungeon Core was sending out, the Goblin Commander.  The Commander was huge in comparison to the lowly Goblin Scout, at just under 9 feet tall, 5 feet wide, and wielded what appeared to be a 2-handed Steel longsword – which it could use with a great deal of strength.  When the Goblin Commander was able to hit one of her constructs, which happened much too often in Sandra’s opinion, it could shear through the metal limbs of her Wolves and Jaguars with ease.  Added to that, its full-body armor that covered it from head to toe protected it from all but the most concentrated attacks on it – or by some Shears sliding through gaps in the armor – it was a dangerous foe, but certainly not unbeatable.

It wasn’t any of these that were a concern, though, because it was the introduction of a new Goblin in a black, hooded robe that painted a target on the Dungeon Core.  Innocuous-seeming at first, the new Monster turned out to be some sort of Goblin Necromancer; with a horrid twisting of Spirit energy that brought the dead back to life, each of the black-robed Goblins quickly amassed a small undead army completely under its control.

“Fall back!  We can’t fight them like this!” Delarthe shouted as soon as the first undead started to appear.  Unlike the powerful Dungeon Monsters that came from the Undead-Classification Core that was destroyed, these undead weren’t as deadly – but they certainly were more numerous.

He and 5 other Shieldmen had been trying to hold the line against the Goblin onslaught, and were doing an exemplary job.  By controlling some of the Iron Animated Shears and Powered Arachnids, in addition to scores of Mechanical (and the new Powered) Wolves and Jaguars, Titanium Anacondas, and a few new Platinum-banded Wyrms, they were absolutely devastating the Goblins as they came out of the dungeon entrance.  A half-hour into the assault, however, a hazy aura started to cover the Goblins as they ran out to attack the defenders.

“What is this?  Sandra, do you know?” The Dungeon Core responded that she had no idea, but by that time it was easy enough to find out by observation.  Each of the Goblins that were killed – and were surrounded by the hazy aura – didn’t dissolve and disappear right away, leaving behind a Monster Seed.  Instead, they rose back up to their feet and started to attack again, faster and more ferociously than before.  Goblin Scouts, who were the weakest of the small Goblins that blanketed the area around the entrance, soon became a deadly foe; with a ferocious lack of concern for their own well-being, they threw themselves at the Shieldmen and constructs without a thought to tactics or even using their weapons.  Instead, they used their increasingly superior numbers to overwhelm the defenders.

They weren’t the only undead to come back from death; Archers, Warriors, Brutes, Mages, and even Champions rose up from the field of battle after they were killed the first time.  The only saving grace was the undead’s inability to fire bows or cast spells, but that didn’t diminish the danger of their attacks much.  When the only way to kill the undead Goblins was to remove their heads entirely, it just made everything that much more difficult.

* It appears as if some new sort of Goblin Necromancer is controlling them from behind the lines.  I’m going to try to take them out using some of the Shears. *

Sandra had identified the culprits of the new Spirit-based undead soon after they appeared, and figured the best way to get rid of the problem was to eliminate the source.  She ordered a few dozen of the Iron Animated Shears to attack the cluster of Necromancers—but the constructs flew right through them, embedding themselves in the dirt.  The now-obvious illusions disappeared, and Sandra looked for the tell-tale sign of Spirit energy being used to conceal the source of those illusions, and finally found a trio of Necromancers hiding their actual presence behind another illusion that made them practically invisible.

Pulling the Shears out of the dirt, she redirected them into the concealed forms of the wily Goblins—only to have the constructs bounce off a shield of Spirit energy surrounding the Necromancers.  Blunted or destroyed from the impact, her Shears weren’t able to pierce through the shield, and efforts to reach them with any other defenders weren’t possible at that point, as they were currently fighting for their lives.  First against the Goblin horde, and then against an undead Goblin horde.

“There are too many!  Retreat and regroup; we can’t withstand them here,” the leader of their defenders shouted again, before methodically pulling back the constructs under his control, prompting the other Shieldmen with him to orderly retreat as well.  Then the unthinkable happened.

One of the newer Shieldmen was in the middle of decapitating another Goblin Scout that jumped towards him without the slightest hint of self-preservation, when he was hit from the side.  A Hobgoblin Brute – a much larger and powerful member of the Goblin horde – smacked into the Shieldman, knocking him off balance.  That was all the opening the undead and non-undead onslaught of Goblins needed, as they piled onto the poor Dwarf, eventually dragging him down to the ground.

“Pytar!  Hold on!”  With a surge of desperate aggressiveness, Delarthe and another Shieldman, who had arrived so recently that Sandra had yet to learn his name, tore their way through the incoming assault, utilizing and sacrificing numerous constructs to clear a path to their fallen comrade.  Through momentous odds, they managed to clear their way to the downed Shieldman…but it was too late.

As the armor protecting the Dwarven fighter crumbled to dust, the damage to it finally outweighing the regenerative properties of the Energy Orbs in the Shieldman’s palms, Sandra saw a hazy aura fall over the poor Dwarf just as his throat was torn out by the strike of a Goblin Scout.  Delarthe and the other Shieldman cried out in anger and frustration, before going on a frenzy that devastated those responsible for their comrade’s death.

“Pytar!  Hold on, maybe we can get one of the Repair Drones—Pytar?”  The fallen Shieldman twitched once, which Delarthe apparently took as a sign that he was still alive.  The Shieldman leader knelt by Pytar’s side, took his helmet off, and quickly leaned his head against the chest of the fallen warrior.

* Delarthe!  Get back!  I think Pytar has been turned— *

Sandra’s understanding of the situation and warning came a second too late.  From one of her Shears floating above the rapidly losing battle, she saw Delarthe’s eyes go wide as he listened to the Dungeon Core in his mind, before raising his body back up.  As he went to grab his helmet, Pytar’s hand abruptly shot up and his fingers buried themselves into Delarthe’s mouth, pushing through and out of the Shieldman’s neck in the back.  His spinal cord abruptly cut, Delarthe flopped to the ground, twitching uncontrollably as he quickly bled out.

The other Shieldman looked on in horror, eyes opened wide in shock; if she could see his mouth, Sandra probably would’ve seen that it was hanging open in sudden surprise.  The Dungeon Core looked around for a Repair Drone, but the closest one was at least 100 feet away – with a small horde of various living and undead Goblins in between.

As the now-undead Pytar got to his feet, the Shieldman still on his feet finally got ahold of himself.  With a strangled cry, he brought his battleaxe around in a powerful sweep, cutting through the undead Dwarf’s neck, sending his head spinning off into the crowd of Goblins.  Sandra wasn’t really looking, however, because she saw another hazy aura settle over Delarthe, just as his armor disintegrated and his body fell still entirely.

* You have to do it.  Before he turns into one of them. *

She hated having to say it to the Shieldman – especially since she felt horrible about not even knowing his name – but it needed to be done.  Delarthe wouldn’t have wanted to be a danger to his comrades.

The Shieldman started, prompted into action by her words.  He slowly nodded, stepped over to the fallen leader, and raised his weapon above his head.  With another cry, and tears streaming down his cheeks, the unknown Dwarven Shieldman struck down with all of his might, shearing through the neck of his twitching comrade with deadly efficiency.

It was then and there that Sandra knew that the Goblin-Classification Core was going to need to be stopped.  Not only were the Goblin Necromancers able to bring their dead back to life, effectively doubling the size of their horde, but they could bring any of the people they killed back to life to fight on their side as well.  She was fortunate that her constructs didn’t seem to be able to be brought back the same way, otherwise she would be in real danger about now.

Brief thoughts of horror flowed through her mind at the implications of this new threat.  Could they bring back the Golems?  No, for some reason, I think they are the same as my constructs.  But if they were to link up with the Beasts?  Having hundreds of undead Squirrels sounds extremely frightening.  And I guess all the rest would be pretty scary, as well.  The Slimes didn’t seem like they could be brought back as undead, either, but anything was possible.

They had to be stopped.

With heavy emotions racing through her Core, she broke the bad news to Gerold first, and then the others.

* I have some very distressing news.  My forces, including the Shieldmen, Rangers, and mercenaries, are being pushed back.  I think I can hold most of them for the next 12 hours or so, but there are some dangerous new Monsters out there.  I’m pulling back most of the defenses to protect Avensglen and Grongbak, because it is no longer possible to contain them inside.

* There have also been two casualties on the part of the Shieldmen, which has confirmed the target of the upcoming mission. *

“Wh-what happened?” Gerold asked, clearly emotionally affected by the loss of more Shieldmen in the defense of the local area.  He was currently experimenting with and showing off his Deep Diver suit to King Mynag, Master Jespin, First-shield Parten, and Princess Celeste.  Work had already begun on the Gnome’s Deep Diver suit, which had to be adjusted size-wise in comparison to Gerold’s, but Sandra was hoping to get it done even faster now that she’d had some practice.

* The Goblin-Classification Core has a new Monster: A Necromancer.  Not only is it bringing back its own killed Goblins as Spirit-warped undead, but it seems to have the ability to bring back…people…to fight for them.  There is the distinct possibility that it could also do that for the dead of the other dungeons, as well. *

She left out exactly what happened, but she did let at least Gerold know who had perished.  Sandra was still trying to come to terms with how quickly everything seemed to turn, and the deaths of two of hers brought anger and thoughts about revenge to the surface.  This time, though, it was all her own emotions and not as a result of the Core fragment that had been stuck in her head.

“That has to be our target, then,” King Mynag said as soon as she was done communicating the situation.

The Elven King and Queen, down below getting a tour of the Dwarven villagers’ farms and operations, agreed without reservation.  “We must wipe out any trace of the undead from this world.”  While Sandra agreed, she knew she might need to caution them against actually destroying the Goblin-Classification Core.  That would just make everything worse.

“We need to hurry and get to that dungeon!” Parten demanded.  “I will not lose any more of my Shieldmen in defense of this place.”

* While I agree, I’m only in the beginning stages of finishing off Princess Celeste’s Deep Diver.  It will probably take another few hours…unless I can get some expert help?  Jespin, what do you think? *

The Master Blacksmith just shook his head sadly.  “I’m pretty sure I told you that it will only work with one Blacksmith at a time, didn’t I?  I couldn’t help, even though I would love to.”

Sandra had neglected to mention exactly who her Shapeshifters were using to complete the creation of Princess Celeste’s Deep Diver.

* Actually, if you don’t mind being extremely weirded out by the whole thing, I believe you might still be able to help.  I would advise everyone else to wait here while you join my “team” down a few rooms in my personal forge. *

Jespin looked extremely skeptical, though he followed her directions, nonetheless.  When he walked into the forge, he was very surprised to be met, not just with 5 copies of himself, but with 5 naked doppelgangers – Sandra hadn’t bothered with clothing them.  The cohort of copies were all diligently working to shape the large block of Titanium-Mithril alloy that would be the new Deep Diver.

“What is this?!  Who—?”  For once, Master Jespin looked completely out of his element.

Sandra explained what they were, even demonstrating them in their base form, and described how she used them to perform tasks that needed a more personal touch – like this particular form of Blacksmithing and Enchanting.  It took him a few minutes to recover, but once he watched himself working on the project, he couldn’t help but chip in.

In no time, he was in the thick of the Deep Diver crafting, using his honed skills to accomplish bends, folds, and shaping that took her own Shifters twice as long.  After a few more minutes, she actually had him take over control of one of his copies, followed by the rest after he picked it up quite quickly.  “This is incredible!  Creepy, disturbing, and absolutely insane, but incredible; it’s almost like having 10 extra hands.  This is something that I never knew I needed, but I can’t even imagine Blacksmithing without the extra help in the future!”

With that project well in hand, by a Master of his craft, Sandra was able to concentrate on the full-on rout by her forces up above.  She had been constantly adding reinforcements where she could, creating them as quickly as she had Mana for them, but it wasn’t enough to stem the tides of Dungeon Monsters flowing through the forests.  Somehow, some way, through great sacrifice of her own Monsters, the Elves and Orcish mercenaries were able to make it back to Avensglen without any casualties (though many of their Wyvines and constructs were killed or destroyed); the rest of the Shieldmen retreated to Grongbak to protect the village without any more of their comrades falling, as well.

It took some hurried warnings to Furbrea about the potential for an attack and to prepare, and the old Orc took control of everyone there with swift alacrity.  While there wasn’t a wall or even a fence around the village, the safest and most defensible place was in the Supply Hut’s storage space; therefore, everyone was crammed down there while Sandra’s two Steelclad Ape guards watched over them.

They needn’t have gone to the trouble, however, because none of the attacking Dungeon Monsters bothered to follow either group to a village more than a few hundred feet outside of the forest.  Instead, they all turned towards the same place, effectively ignoring the potential Mana they might get from killing all of the inhabitants of the two villages.

They all streamed right towards the middle of the wasteland, where Sandra’s dungeon was located.

Winxa, I think I really ticked them all off.  They are ignoring the villages entirely.

“That’s strange…but I guess it makes sense in a way.”

How so?

“Well, if they eliminate you, there’s very little stopping the other Cores from attacking the villages, is there?  My guess is that, since they’ve already tried to attack once and were unsuccessful because of your intervention, they are aiming to remove the ‘obstacle’ in their way.”

She had a point, even if Sandra didn’t appreciate being a target.  She supposed it was better than the villages being in direct danger, but she didn’t have to like the situation she was being put in.

At least this time, I won’t have to worry about some mysterious entity taking control of my Core again.

After warning the defenders up above to stand by in case she needed their help, she suggested that they rest and recover from the grueling fight, repair and heal what they needed to, and sit tight.  She would’ve loved their assistance in thinning out even more of the hostile Dungeon Monsters before they reached her dungeon entrances, but it was more important that they stay to protect the more vulnerable villages.  Besides, Sandra wasn’t fully convinced that ignoring the two habitations wasn’t some sort of trick; while these Dungeon Cores didn’t seem as adept at tactics as the Undead-Classification Core had, their actions so far made their collective communication still a bit worrying.

So, with those above safe – at the moment – Sandra prepared to receive the assault of 4 Dungeon Cores very determined to destroy her.

Chapter 45

Echo walked into the kitchen, the special bow that Sandra created for her in hand, as well as 2 quivers of bolts (including 2 dozen explosive bolts) on her back.  She was a bit nervous about the upcoming delve into another dungeon, since the last one had nearly ended with her death and the deaths of everyone else that entered.  Honestly, it was probably 10% skill and determination that allowed us to survive; the other 90% was all luck.

Now she was doing it again, though instead of Gerold, 5 Dwarven Shieldmen, Felbar the Gnome, and a hefty force of Sandra’s constructs and monsters, she’d be entering with some of the most powerful individuals she’d ever met before.  Not only were her King and Queen overwhelmingly strong, but First-shield—I think I got that right—Parten was one of the most powerful Shieldmen in all of the Dwarven Kingdoms.  She wasn’t sure how strong Warband Leader Palzerk and the other Orc were, nor Princess Celeste, but King Mynag seemed quite adept from all that she had heard.

Echo skipped a step when she walked into the room, as all eyes turned towards her.  I guess I’m the last one here.  She quickly leaned up against the nearby wall, unsuccessfully pretending like she had been there the whole time; regardless of her ploy, all of their attention disappeared off of her as one of Sandra’s Apes walked through a different tunnel, carrying a smoothly crafted wooden box with no seams.

* Now that we are all here, I can get started on the plan. *

“How goes the defense?  I swear I can hear explosions and feel thumps all throughout your dungeon,” King Mynag asked, which was automatically translated into her mind by Sandra.  I really need to learn how to speak other languages; having to rely on Sandra to speak to everyone else won’t work while we’re in the other dungeon.  She remembered how difficult it had been to communicate with Gerold and Felbar, even though they had managed it somewhat by the time they were done with that place.

* It’s going well enough, but I don’t think it will for much longer.  Attrition among my defending constructs is outpacing my ability to replace them, and the hordes of Dungeon Monsters are progressing further and further into my dungeon through both entrances. *

Echo was confused.  “Why don’t you just close one of them, then?  Especially that big old tunnel that you can fit an army into all at once.”

* That was my first thought, but that could have some detrimental effects.  Not to me, per se, but if the larger Monsters can’t get into my dungeon, where do you think they will go? *

It only took Echo a half a second to understand what Sandra was hinting at – and she could see that the others comprehended the danger, as well.

* Exactly.  While it would help me immensely, I don’t want to put the villagers’ lives at risk. *

“How come you’re having trouble with them now as opposed to just a little bit ago?”  Echo turned to her Queen as the powerful monarch asked her question.  For some reason, she suspected that the Royal Elf knew the answer already, but was asking for the benefit of everyone else.  Echo, for one, was curious about the answer but hadn’t thought to ask.

* Well, if it were just the new Monsters they had acquired after they upgraded their Core Sizes, my defenses would probably be enough to stop them indefinitely.  However, as I had thought, the Goblin Necromancers have turned not only their own kind into undead, but have also been able to raise up the slain Beasts as well.  That, and I was only facing them one at a time before through their extensive tunnels underground; now, they are coming as a flood rather than a trickle.  I haven’t been overwhelmed yet, but the time will soon come where I’ll need to call in help from those defending the villages if this keeps up. *

To hear how desperate the situation currently was in Sandra’s dungeon made what they were doing all that more important.

* As it stands now, I can only provide minimal assistance to your team as they go into the Goblin-Classification dungeon – at least in terms of my constructs and Dungeon Monsters.  Apart from that, however, I have a gift for all of you that I think you’ll appreciate.  Tell me, does anyone know what a Personal Enhancement Enchantment is? *

No one said anything, though Violet, the Gnome Enchanter in the back of the room, hesitatingly raised her hand.  “Are they similar to our Temporary Individual Boost Enchantments?”  Echo had never heard of those, either, but that wasn’t really surprising.  She wasn’t an expert – or even a novice – on enchantments, after all.

* I would assume so, given the name.  I would love to learn what sorts of these TIBEs you know, or perhaps your Master Enchanters know, because my knowledge of them is relatively limited.  Anyway, I’ve been able to adapt some things to create some permanent…TIBEs…for you all. *

Violet and Princess Celeste both sucked in their breath at that, and the Royal Gnome slammed her fist down on the stone table.  “IMPOSSIBLE!  I’m no Master Enchanter, but even I know something like these Boost Enchantments are only for a limited time – it’s even in the name!”

* I assure you, I thought the same, before I discovered the curious creation of an Elemental Generator.  I’ll explain more about it later, but we don’t have time for me to talk shop with either you or Violet.  Suffice it to say, I created a special necklace for each of you, though they are slightly different in composition.  Unfortunately, I could only fit 4 of the Enchantments on each one, though with enough time and experimentation, I’m hoping to do even more in the future. *

Echo was now extremely curious.  As soon as Sandra stopped talking, her Ape started to reach into the box it had brought, pulling out necklaces that appeared to be made of pure Gold, consisting of flat disks of different sizes strung together.  It was a bit gaudy for her own tastes, but she accepted it anyway, putting it around her neck next to the basic leather necklaces that held her Air and Holy Energy Orbs, if only to humor Sandra.

Immediately, her focus honed in on what appeared to be some sort of Energy Orb on the largest of the Gold disks, though it was unlike anything she’d ever seen before.  It was filled with the swirling colors of yellow, brown, green, and grey; they were constantly in motion, almost hypnotizing to look at, and she could’ve sworn that they were figuratively fighting with each other.

The next thing she noticed was not something visual, but something internal.  Whereas she had felt full of energy before, now she felt as if she was missing at least half or more of her maximum.  Did this thing just take some of my energy? she thought worriedly, and started to take it off.

* For all of you, you’ll notice that as soon as you put the necklace on, you’ll probably feel something strange going on with your internal elemental energy.  Do not be alarmed, this is just the fact that your maximum pool of energy has been doubled— *

“WHAT?!”  Echo found that she had just joined in with everyone else in the room asking that question, which was obvious to her even if they were in 4 different languages.  To say that she was shocked was putting it mildly.  But, true to what Sandra had said, she could feel her energy regenerating even now, and it already felt like she could hold a lot more inside than before.

* A word of warning, however.  When your current store of energy is greater than your normal limit, do not take off the necklace!  Even a little bit could be painful as you are suddenly filled with that extra energy with no place for it to go, and it could potentially kill you if you have a larger energy pool than most people. *

That was extremely worrying, but it also made sense.  The enchantment made her feel much more powerful, but that power came with a price.

“Thanks for the late warning, Sandra,” Gerold joked.

* You’re welcome, even through your sarcasm.  Normally, this wouldn’t be something that I would allow people to use, as it can be dangerous in the best of circumstances, but I figure you will all need as much of an advantage as possible based on what you’ll be facing.

* As for your other permanent Enchantments, that depends on the colors you see in the Generator on the necklace.  The grey color is the Energy Expansion I told you about already; yellow is for Lesser Buoyancy, which will make you a little faster and allow you to jump higher and farther; red is for Minor Muscle Strengthening, which makes you stronger; brown is for Stoneskin, which increases the durability of your skin, making you more resistant to injury; blue is for Minor Muscle Elasticity, which improves your reflexes and speeds you up; and finally green is for Binding Grip, which will improve your grip substantially, allowing you to climb virtually any surface. *

A quick experimentation as she hopped in place proved that Sandra was correct, as the little hop she performed made her rise at least twice the height she was expecting.  This will take some getting used to.  She didn’t want to inadvertently crash into the ceiling if she jumped too high, naturally. While she wasn’t interested in climbing any walls at the moment, Echo could feel a tightening in her skin that was slightly uncomfortable, but not painful; she figured this was the Stoneskin the Dungeon Core had mentioned.

* Lastly, I have some special Energy Orbs I created for the King and Queen of the Elves, and would like to know if you would prefer to have them embedded in your hands rather than worn on a necklace or held in a different method.  I managed to find a way to combine 3 elements into a single Energy Orb, so you wouldn’t have to struggle with palms full of Orbs if you chose that route. *

A quick silent communication between her King and Queen ended up with them agreeing with the process of embedding them, which made Echo look at her own palms in remembrance.  “Your Highnesses?  A warning: It hurts more than anything else you’ve felt in your life, but it’s worth it.”

They just nodded and held out their hands for the special multi-element Energy Orbs – which Echo thought looked extremely interesting.  They were a bit bigger than hers, but if they both had 3 elements in each Orb, then that made a bit of sense.

The Ranger had to look away as screams suddenly reverberated through the kitchen, lasting long enough that she had to cover her ears.  When it was all over, she could see tears on her leaders’ faces, but the tracks of their pain was overshadowed by the sight of the Orbs embedded inside of their palms.

* I’m sorry that hurt so much, but hopefully the pain will be worth it.  Now, I’ve finished preparing everything else for you, which is ready for you down below.

* A quick rundown of the plan, first.  You’ll be traveling down the underground tunnel connecting my dungeon to the Goblin-Classification dungeon, which – from previous unsuccessful incursions by my constructs – comes out near the Dungeon Core.  While it is closed off from the other side right now with a layer of stone and what appears to be a sheet of solid Iron, I can bust through it if it was needed—but I won’t.

* That’s because I’ll be quickly opening up another passage near the end of the tunnel, connecting you to another room a little bit further up the normal dungeon route.  If I were to open up the main tunnel again, I have a feeling you would be completely outmatched and overwhelmed within minutes, as the room it leads into is large and is likely filled with hundreds of Goblins at the moment.  The Core is prepared in case I decide to attack it from that direction, but my hope is that they will not suspect you are coming. *

“Won’t the dungeon see us coming through the tunnel?”  That was Gerold, who asked the same thing Echo was thinking.

* Yes and no.  No, they won’t be able to see you coming through the main tunnel, because it is both sealed up and now belongs solely to my dungeon.  But as soon as I start creating a branching tunnel leading to another room in its dungeon, it will be able to see that the breach is being made.  It’ll have to be done fast before they can utilize its resources in response, so once I start the process, there’ll be no going back. *

Do or die.  All or nothing.  Honestly, it felt scarier going into that Undead dungeon a few weeks ago, but Echo also felt like there was more at stake now.  This would determine whether Sandra had ultimately found a solution that could be used against all of the dungeons in their land—in all their lands.  Time to save the world.

When there were no more questions and everyone who was going seemed ready, she spotted Kelerim across the kitchen, leaning against the far wall.  She had spoken with him at length over the last few hours – after giving her King and Queen a tour of the dungeon – and found that he had been hard at work while she was gone.  He had been producing weapons for the Orcish Warbands to use in exchange for mercenaries, but now all that he was making was going to start being distributed without the need for an exchange.  Things were becoming dire enough that all of his people were going to need as much help as possible.

As the others filed out of the room, heading below to start on their journey to the other dungeon, she weaved around the tables – noticing as she did that her steps felt a little lighter than usual – before she ended up in front of the Half-Dwarf/Half-Orc.  She didn’t even say anything as she stared into Kelerim’s eyes as he stared back, and before she knew what she was doing, she used her newly granted speed and grabbed his head, pulling him towards her lips.

* I don’t want to interrupt, but they’re waiting for you down below. *

Echo reluctantly pulled herself away from Kelerim, only now noticing that his hands weren’t by his sides anymore.  “Sorry,” she whispered breathlessly.  “I have to go.”  She wasn’t sure if Sandra translated that or not, but she could see the dazed look in his eyes as she turned around.

The Ranger tried to put him out of her mind as she activated her speed-boosting spell, racing through the hallways until she reached her destination: Sandra’s Core room.  She briefly looked up at the glowing Dungeon Core floating in the middle of the room, before turning her attention to the rest of the room.  Her party was already near the entrance of the tunnel, waiting for her with amused-looking expressions on their faces.  Did Sandra say something?

She forgot all about that as she saw something else waiting for her—  “Starlight 3!”

The magnificent Pegasus appeared just as she remembered, and she immediately jumped on its back.  Around its neck, she noticed, was something new.

* I have designated Echo as the one to carry the Prismatic Core with her and…Starlight 3.  She’ll be able to fly up next to the Goblin-Classification Core to enable the Bond, and I wouldn’t want to break up the team that has worked so well in the past. *

Sandra’s voice sounded amused in her mind, but she didn’t care.  She was just happy to be back on her beautiful mount, and she could see that even her King and Queen were slightly envious.  Or disgusted.  Or didn’t really care – their faces were a bit of a blank to her.

Without another word, they all turned toward the tunnel and started to run lightly down the long passageway.  She couldn’t help but notice that Gerold and the Gnome Princess, Celeste, ran together in their Deep Diver suits, and she had to admit that it was sort of adorable, with the Princess’ suit a bit smaller than the Dwarf’s.  Whether it was her recent kiss or something else, she couldn’t help but think, I bet they would make a cute couple.

Also accompanying them, which she was doubly glad to see, were 2 of the Repair Drones that were so useful for a variety of reasons.  One, they healed wounds almost miraculously well; and two, they exploded quite extraordinarily when they were damaged.  It was the sacrifice of their Drones in the Undead dungeon that had saved them from almost certain doom.

But that was it.  Sandra really wasn’t kidding when she said we would basically be on our own.  The 9 of them, plus Starlight 3 and 2 Repair Drones, were all that they were bringing with them to invade a dungeon, fight their way to the Core, and hope that Sandra’s plan would work.

The tunnel seemed to go on forever, and along the way they passed rooms carved into the long passageway; some of them were filled with constructs, while others appeared empty.  Echo remembered that Sandra had mentioned that she had set up some traps as defenses along the tunnel, which she supposed the rooms were being used for.  Luckily, it appeared as though they were either deactivated or removed entirely, but nothing attacked them.

Finally, in what Echo judged to be a little over 30 minutes later, they arrived at the end of the tunnel.  At least, she assumed it was, because there was a large stone wall blocking off access to anything else.

* Are you ready? *

Sandra’s voice in her head sounded a bit strained, and the Ranger worried about what was happening near the Core’s main dungeon.

She answered in the affirmative, as well as everyone else.  She was pleased to see that everyone still appeared rested enough after their light run, mainly because they hadn’t been pushing themselves.

* Alright; this is going to happen fast, so be ready.  My Champion Totems are going to punch through the remaining wall left over after I remove the dirt and stone separating the tunnel I’m making from the other dungeon, and they will accompany you inside.  I’m sorry that they are all I can spare, but things are getting a little tight over here.  Good luck and may the Creator guide you on your way. *

Echo was ready, even as her nervous energy had her rapidly petting the neck of Starlight 3.  Looking around, she saw the Totems starting to move into position near the right-side wall, having not even noticed them until they moved.  C’mon, Echo, get your head into it.

Suddenly, a massive chunk of the wall disappeared, and the Totems glided inside the empty space.  I guess that’s our cue.  She joined the rest of her party as they also entered the space, only to see another chunk of dirt and stone disappear.  This happened another 8 times in rapid succession, before the constructs they were following started to smash their fists against the wall on their left.  In what felt like no time at all, the wall collapsed in front of them, and they pushed their way through.

She and the others weren’t far behind.

Chapter 46

It was chaos as soon as she flew through the opening on Starlight 3 with her bow pulled back into position and ready to fire.  The first monster she saw was a Hobgoblin Brute, located about halfway across a relatively small room, and she fired her bolt (not an explosive one) right between its eyes – only to see it pass right through its head as if it wasn’t there.  What?

Out of seemingly nowhere, a ball of fire zoomed toward her from the side, too fast to easily have the Pegasus she was riding dodge out of the way.  She was only about 15 feet off the ground, so a quick decision caused her to fling herself off the opposite side of her mount, and she felt herself falling – though floating would almost be more accurate.  The Lesser Buoyancy enchantment that Sandra had mentioned earlier was already showing its worth, as she fell much slower than she would’ve normally, and she literally had time to draw another bolt from her quiver, fit it to the invisible string on the bow, and fire it where she estimated the fireball had come from.

There was a squeal of pain from something, though it wasn’t something she could see.  In fact, all she could see was the Hobgoblin Brute she had seen before, along with some Scouts…but they weren’t moving.  In fact, they were like simple, moving images standing in the middle of the room, as if they were—

“They’re illusions!  I’m casting a nullifier now!” her Queen shouted, first in Elvish, and then in what she assumed were the other languages.  Echo hit the ground in time to see the regal Elf wave her hands a few times, and something in the room seemed to change.  Some sense of danger alerted her to an attack and the Ranger flung herself out of the way, turning around in mid-dive to see a crude-looking iron dagger being wielded by a Goblin Scout looking confused at where she was.

She scrambled to her feet even as she grabbed another bolt and released, impaling the Scout through the throat and catching in a bone, the force of the projectile so great it flung the monster back a few feet.  When it landed, she looked behind it to the back of the room, only to finally see what her Queen was talking about.

Dozens of Goblins were charging at them, hidden by a simple illusion.  She could see the trap now; rushing into attack the Brute and Scouts, those Goblins hidden by the Spirit-based illusion would quickly surround whoever got close enough and kill them.  With the trap nullified by the Queen, they had no other choice but to attack.

An arrow suddenly slammed into Echo’s shoulder, her surprise at there being so many Goblins in the room freezing her into inaction.  She felt the pain of the arrowhead piercing through her leather chest armor and into her flesh, but the force of the impact was worse than the sting of the arrow.  She immediately reached up to yank it out, not caring if it were barbed or not, which would rip her flesh – she didn’t want it ruining her aim.  She was pleasantly surprised to find that the arrow hadn’t penetrated that deep and practically fell out, only the tip of it showing a tiny smear of blood as she threw it away.

Stoneskin saves the day.

Finding the Goblin Archer along the back that had shot her, she immediately sent an explosive bolt at it, seeing that it was surrounded by 2 of its friends.  The bolt traveled nearly too fast to physically see it, let alone try to dodge it, and the Archers were quickly blown apart, pieces of them hitting a few other Goblins along the back of the charging line.  A dismembered arm smacked against what appeared to be a large Hobgoblin Mage, and the red-robed monster turned its attention towards Echo, flinging out a fireball at her, even as she suddenly felt ice forming at the bottom of her legs and feet, trapping her in place.

She tried to dodge out of the way, but she wasn’t going to be able to in time; instead, she fired another regular bolt at the Mage that was going to injure her severely, and she got satisfaction in seeing a bolt through its right eye just as the fireball hit her.  Or it would’ve hit her, if a thick sheet of ice hadn’t formed in front of her face, angled as to deflect the burning ball of flames off to her left.  The next moment, the ice around her legs seemed to melt and evaporate, and her King was there, giving her a wink before turning his full attention on the incoming horde of Goblins.

With everyone fully in the room now, and the monsters they were facing fully revealed, it was a slaughter.  Calling Starlight 3 down to pick her up, Echo barely got another bolt off to drill through the head of a stray Goblin Scout before it was all done.  King Mynag, First-shield Parten, Gerold, and Princess Celeste led the charge against the wave of Goblins, acting almost as a wall as they prevented anyone from passing by them.  Battleaxes sang out almost in unison, chopping through Goblin flesh, leaving headless and armless monsters in their wake.

Mynag and Parten had normal metal weapons, which were devastating in their own right, enhanced by whatever made their Shieldmen gear so powerful.  Gerold, on the other hand, had an axe made entirely from what appeared to be ice, and it left those he cut with it on the floor with frost forming over their wounds, which rapidly spread to the rest of the surrounding area.  It was actually beneficial for the Goblins for a few seconds because it numbed and stopped the bleeding of their open wounds, but their bodies soon froze up to the point where they couldn’t move.

In his left hand, he also had a shield made of what appeared to be shadow, which he used as a way to absorb damage from weapon attacks, almost like he was holding a large spongy pad; it didn’t allow him to bash at his targets or push them away like the other two Shieldmen, but it was highly beneficial, nonetheless.

The one thing the Nether-based shield couldn’t block, however, were hostile spells.  Instead, the armor, itself, helped to protect him.  Echo saw one of the Goblin Mages try to freeze his legs like one did to her, before sending a fireball in his direction – but that didn’t work out so well for the Mage, nor the Goblins he was facing off against.  The ice from the spell formed on his legs for less than a second, before it was broken apart and flung forward, deadly shards of frozen water impaling at least 2 Goblin Scouts and a Goblin Warrior in the process.  When the fireball hit his suit in the chest, he didn’t even bother blocking it; a layer of his own ice appeared to take the brunt of the heat, extinguishing the spell in the next moment.  It still staggered him backwards a step from the impact, but he was ultimately unharmed.

The Princess had a matching shield made from shadows, but instead of an ice-formed battleaxe, she had a smaller hatchet made of fire.  Or more precisely, flames that had been somehow solidified into a concentrated form, which made it very, very hot in a small area.  The pure heat of her hatchet was enough to slice through and cauterize flesh as quickly as it touched it, though the few hits on the metallic pieces of armor on the larger Goblins only managed to partially melt and warp the metal a little.  Echo wasn’t sure how it managed not to melt her Deep Diver suit, but it could apparently resist the heat with no ill effects.

The two Orcs were both a chaotic force of nature and a beautiful dance of death that was delivered upon the Goblins’ flanks.  Owchet wielded a warhammer that reminded Echo of the ones that Sandra’s Apes used quite effectively, but the Orc Warrior was on a whole new level.  He practically leapt into the heart of the Goblin charge’s right flank, slamming his hammer down with devastating results, to the point where it was almost sickening.  His strength was so great that he nearly obliterated 3 Scouts in one wide swing of his weapon, and when one of the Brutes tried to block him, he shattered its sword and caved in its chest, sending it flying backwards at least 15 feet.

He wasn’t invincible, though, nor did he have eyes on the back of his head.  A Goblin Scout snuck up and stabbed him in the back with an iron dagger, but the armor he was wearing – as well as the Stoneskin enchantment from his necklace – saved him from being seriously hurt.  If it had been one of the larger Goblins, like a Brute, he probably would’ve been injured; as it was, Echo doubted he had more than a pinprick’s worth of blood come out from the sneak attack.

Instead of the powerful strength of Owwchet’s blows, Palzerk flowed through the various Goblins that tried to attack him like he was dancing, cutting flesh open with his titanium sword.  Each movement seemed choreographed, his weapon sweeping out efficiently to remove limbs, heads, or just injure them so badly that they would have trouble fighting from that point on.  Nothing seemed to hit him, either, though sometimes it appeared as if he was deliberately baiting the Goblins and dodging out of the way a split-second before he would suffer a devastating injury.

Then came her King and Queen, who were frightening on their own.  Focused spells of all different sorts tore up the back line of the Goblin Archers and Mages, ranging from bursts of flames, spears of ice, chunks of stone, searing explosions of light, clouds of noxious-looking poison, and blinding clouds of darkness.  All of it was delivered with deliberate care by the two Royal Elves, standing in the back and moving their hands as if they were conducting a symphony.  A symphony of death and destruction, naturally, because they didn’t stop until everything on the other side of the room was dead.

The two Champion Totems that had helped to break down the wall so they could enter stayed in the back, both because no one had given them any orders – and because they weren’t really needed.  Instead, they were the perfect guards for their Repair Drones, which were also hanging back and waiting until there was a need for their services.  A service which was quickly provided at a distance without making her freeze in place, as she saw one of the Drone’s arms pointing in her direction, and the small wound on her shoulder, where she’d been shot by an arrow, healed entirely.

There was silence for a moment, as Echo and the party looked at each other in astonishment – at least, it was astonishment on her part – before her King pointed towards one of the two tunnels in the room.  From her perspective a little higher, she could see that it was sloped a little downwards, which was a fairly good indication that it would lead to the Core they were seeking.  No other words were spoken as they raced ahead, the Shieldmen and the two in their Deep Diver suits out front, the Orcs coming next, then her King and Queen, and finally Echo on Starlight 3, which had to walk instead of fly in order to fit through the tunnel.  Also, since she was in the rear, she ordered the 4 constructs that Sandra had lent them to follow after them staying relatively safe from behind.

The next thing she heard down the short tunnel was her Queen saying, “HOLD!  Nullifying!” She couldn’t see from her position, but Echo suspected that the Elven Queen had just nullified the illusion in the next room, just as she had moments ago in the first room.  She knew that it was a common tactic in dungeon-destroying teams, such as the one that had visited Sandra’s dungeon; she also knew that it required a lot of energy to nullify traps in dungeons constantly, as well as ensuring that you nullified with the opposite element, which made the process quite draining and a bit dangerous – normally.  With the amount of energy her King and Queen wielded – which had been doubled by their necklaces – and the regeneration by the Orbs in their hands, Echo doubted they would have any problems.

The room she entered, once everyone had made their way inside, was a little larger than the last one, though it was only that way because it was like a long, wide hallway.  On the floor, dotting the perfectly flat stone in seemingly random positions, were large pits.  While unable to view inside them, Echo suspected that they were quite deep and possibly filled with spikes or jagged rocks.  They also seemed quite easy to avoid, as there was a clear narrow pathway between them, which made her wonder for a moment why they were there.

Oh—that’s right.  They were probably concealed by an illusion that my Queen nullified.  That made it much easier to make their way through without getting hurt because of the traps – but that wasn’t the only obstacle in the room.  More Goblins made an appearance, though these were in the shape of dozens of Goblin Archers and Mages in small alcoves along the side of the long room.

“I’ve got them!” Echo shouted, before lifting Starlight 3 into the air.  The ceiling wasn’t that high – maybe 50 feet – but it allowed her to get a good look at the waiting Goblins; they were hard to see unless you were nearly even with them down below, but from up high she could see them almost ridiculously easily.

As soon as she started moving forward, a transparent shield of swirling air appeared around her, and she looked back and shouted, “Thanks!” at the King, who winked at her again.  Flying slowly through the room, she rotated firing to her left and her right, filling the Archers and Mages with regular bolts that ended them swiftly; they, naturally, fired back, but both arrows and fireballs were deflected by the shield of swirling air around Echo.  Ice formed around her legs and feet, as well as the legs and feet of Starlight 3, but that didn’t really hinder her in the slightest since they weren’t stuck to the ground, being so high up.

It took less than a minute to clear out the Goblins in the room, and the others had been following along at a distance, allowing her to clear the way for them.  Looking at her quiver when she was done, however, she realized she was already running low on bolts, but she hoped that she wouldn’t be needed as thoroughly in the next few rooms as she was in this one.  If she was…well, she still had nearly all of her explosive bolts, if it came down to it.

Luckily, she wasn’t needed through the next few rooms other than as backup, as the others demolished and destroyed everything in their path.  All of the traps were nullified, so they didn’t need to worry about those, but there were a lot of Goblins of all different kinds.  They began seeing Goblin Commanders, which were bigger than any she’d seen before, but they fell just as quickly as the others when they were tag-teamed by the two Shieldmen or Gerold and the Princess, who systematically sliced them apart, piece by piece.

And then came the Goblin Necromancers that Sandra had mentioned.  Just seeing their black robes made the hair on the back of her neck stand up, as she remembered the undead she had faced in another dungeon not that long ago. Echo couldn’t see the spell they cast over the other Goblins they were facing, but she could tell that both her King and Queen could.  “They all are going to arise as undead!  Take their heads from their shoulders!” the Elven King shouted.

Echo went hunting for the Necromancer, but it seemed to have disappeared.  When she flew dangerously close to the back line of this room’s worth of Goblins, she saw that it had retreated behind a pillar, out of view from anyone else in the room – anyone but her, of course.  She took aim and let a bolt fly – only for a grey shield to appear to around the Goblin, deflecting the bolt so it flew into the wall.  What?!  Fine, try one of these on for size.

An explosive bolt followed her first one, but it too was deflected – though it was more the explosion that was redirected than the bolt itself.  Fortunately, it was close enough to a few Goblin Archers that the explosion sent them flying.  When Echo looked back at the Necromancer, though, it hadn’t been harmed in the slightest.

With the projectiles sent by her bow not working, she tried another tactic.  While she wasn’t anywhere in the same sort of spellcasting league as the Elven King and Queen, that didn’t mean she couldn’t cast a few offensive spells. They weren’t nearly as reliable as her trusty weapon, however, so she only fell back on them when she had no choice.  With some deft manipulation of her Holy energy, she formed a long, thin rod of light with a sharp point to it in the front, and then threw it at the grey-shielded Goblin.  Her Lightstrike spell shot nearly as fast as one of her physical bolts through the intervening distance, striking against the barrier…and then dissipated harmlessly upon impact.

“I can’t kill it!  That Necromancer is shielded and I can’t break through!” Echo shouted as she directed Starlight 3 back to the other side of the room, dodging a few arrows shot in her direction as she did so by a handful of Goblin Archers.  Taking her frustration in not being able to harm the Necromancer out on the ones trying to shoot her, she shot another explosive-tipped bolt at the floor in between the Archers, and their relatively fragile bodies blew apart.

“We’ll deal with it after these are dead – or re-dead, whatever the case is.”  Her Queen continued to fight even as she spoke, weaving fatal spells throughout the room that killed Goblins by the dozens.  Without line-of-sight, however, neither she nor the King could affect the Necromancer; a big enough explosion might reach it if it was set off near the pillar it was hiding behind, but Echo thought that wouldn’t really work.

The battle in the room was winding down within a few minutes, as those Goblins that were killed and not decapitated sprang back into action within a few seconds, meaning they had to be killed again.  To those Mages or Archers that Echo had shot or exploded with her bow, many of them came back as undead, as it was difficult to remove a head with a projectile – unless it was demolished as a result of her explosive bolts, of course.

When the last undead Goblin fell, the Necromancer finally made its move to flee, heading for the exit to the next room.  The Elven King brought forth a thin stone wall that blocked the majority of the tunnel, though, and the Necromancer was trapped.  Spell after spell from the Royal couple were thrown at it for nearly a minute, but when they stopped, the Goblin was still standing; the powerful shield seemed able to block just about anything long-ranged.

Nearly faster than she could follow, Palzerk zoomed across the distance, his sword held horizontally to the side as he passed by the Necromancer.  No shield sprang up to protect the Goblin, and a brief moment after the Orc shot by like one of Echo’s bolts, the foul raiser of undead lost its head as it hit the floor with a satisfying *thump*.

“I’ve never seen something like that shield before,” her King said, watching the Goblin’s body dissolve and leave behind a small greyish gem as dungeon loot.  “If it hadn’t been for you, I’m not sure we could’ve killed that thing.”  Her King and Queen repeated this – in what Echo assumed was Orcish – as they bowed towards Palzerk, who only shrugged in response.

The Warband Leader said something in the same language, which the Queen quickly translated for them all.  “We all have our roles to play in this.  There are situations which require spells or arrows sent from a distance, while others require a more hands-on approach.”  Echo thought that was an apt description, and very astute – especially coming from an Orc.  They aren’t all brawn and no brains, even if some of them seem that way.  I’ve really got to work on my preconceived notions of them.

As they moved on, Sandra suddenly interrupted their progress.

* You may want to hurry.  The Dungeon Core you’re heading towards had recalled all of its Goblins from their assault on my dungeon almost immediately after you entered its dungeon, and they’re on their way.  If you don’t get to it soon, you’re going to encounter a very angry horde of Dungeon Monsters. Fortunately, from what I can tell, you only have one more large room ahead of you. *

That was the first she had heard from Sandra since they entered the dungeon, but with the defense of her own dungeon a priority, it was understandable.  The strain and frantic tone of the Dungeon Core’s voice from before was nearly gone, at least, in no small part because she had one less group of monsters to defend against.  Granted, those same monsters were heading for Echo and her party, so it wasn’t all positive.

Her party looked at each other after Sandra’s announcement, and she nodded along with the rest as they understood what they had to do.  They needed to get through this last room quickly, otherwise they would be attacked from behind.  Therefore, without any other hesitation, they surged ahead through the tunnel, keeping to their formation they had intuitively established with those with the best defense out front.

When Echo got a look at the massive room they had to fight their way through, filled with so many Goblins that she could barely see the floor, she knew that Sandra had been right; if they had attempted to breach into the room from the long tunnel connecting the dungeons, they would’ve been overwhelmed almost immediately.  As it was, they might still be overwhelmed, but there was at least a small space near the entrance where they could dig in and defend against the coming onslaught.

King Mynag shouted something and banged on his shield with his battleaxe, and though it wasn’t automatically translated for her by Sandra, she knew it was probably along the lines of, “Let’s do this!”

Let’s do this, indeed.

Chapter 47

Defending against so many Dungeon Monsters all at the same time had been relatively easy when her foes were separate, coming through the tunnels connecting the dungeons; at least, easy when compared to an assault that involved all of the dungeons attacking in a coordinated assault.  She had seen it somewhat in Avensglen when the Beast and Slime dungeons had attacked the Elven village in concert, but this was so much worse.

They attacked in waves and large groups, both through her main entrance and through her Roc tunnel, at times overwhelming her defenses with pure numbers rather than through any particular strategy.  Regardless, Sandra was prepared for the onslaught of Monsters; through everything that had happened lately, including her temporary loss of control, there was one thing she made sure to maintain: A fully stocked and defended dungeon.  Occasionally she had needed to borrow some of her defenders for purposes aboveground, but she always replaced them as soon as possible.

There were some things that, as a Dungeon Core in form, were universal “requirements” – the maintenance of their dungeon being one of them.  It was why, despite their insistence in throwing thousands of Dungeon Monsters at her constantly, the other Cores still had defended dungeons.

Therefore, for the first 20 minutes or so of the initial attack on her domain, she was holding firm.  Her traps throughout her “main” dungeon route were absolutely devastating the enemy monsters, especially once they passed through the first half of the rooms, where she had redesigned them to include multiple elements.  Goblins, Beasts, and Slimes by the scores were torn apart, burned, blinded, smashed, cooked alive, drowned, poisoned, or otherwise destroyed so thoroughly that Sandra thought the other Cores would eventually give up.

That was, unfortunately, far from the case.  Having – for the most part – never seen her dungeon’s defenses before, the other Dungeon Cores didn’t know what to expect.  Now that they saw it, they knew what a deathtrap it was – but that didn’t deter them in the least, contrary to what Sandra was expecting.  Instead, they kept on coming – and they were starting to push through, deeper and deeper until she began to become very worried.

In her Roc tunnel, her defenses were doing much better, even against the Golems and the larger Dungeon Monsters that wouldn’t fit in her main entrance.  Exploding Goblins of her own (at first some leftover Foremen and then Crafters when she ran out) created with Energy Orbs as Monster Seeds, absolutely devastated many of the larger Beasts that decided they wanted to eat them.  An explosion in their unprotected mouths, throats, and stomachs was an effective tactic against them.

Against the Golems, the room containing the beams of intense heat tore them to pieces, as they were unable to move through the room without passing through them.  When the trap ran out of Mana, they made it through unscathed, even from the bombs being dropped from above, but they were chewed up shortly thereafter in the subsequent rooms from heat or explosive attacks that shattered or melted them into slag.

The same could be said for the Slimes, especially many of the much larger ones that blobbed their way into her dungeon.  Heat and explosions were enough to tear them up without fail, and they didn’t progress very far before dying.  The few Goblins that joined in the fracas fared even worse, including the Goblin Commanders, who didn’t have enough of a defense against the traps she had in place.

Things started to change once the new Monsters started to show up, however.

Utilizing the Aerie and High Peak Rocs she now had outside, especially the 3 she had just recently regained from her friends returning, she had taken out most of the Slime Dragons that appeared, and two of her giant birds worked together to snatch up and tear apart the humongous bunny rabbit that had emerged from the Beast-Classification dungeon.  She moved one of her Expanded Mobile Fortifications from Avensglen to near her Roc tunnel entrance, which helped to eliminate many of the larger Beasts and Slimes as well, but both types of her defenders could only do so much.

This was especially true when the first Magnetite Golem arrived on the scene.  Sandra thought that her Fortification would be too large to be greatly affected by the magnetic Monster—but she was wrong.  It only took 10 seconds for her powerful construct to be pulled into the Golem, and it wasn’t a delicate process; the twisted wreckage of the Fortification was piled up around the Golem, which seemed entirely unharmed.  The best she could say was that it was rendered immobile, at least until another Golem stopped by and crushed the core of the Mobile Fortification on its exposed platform, and her construct disappeared.

If the magnetic Monster would’ve been able to fit inside of her main entrance, her defenses would’ve been devastated.  As it was, it clomped inside of her Roc tunnel, which was primarily full of non-metallic Dungeon Monsters that she had unlocked via her Advancement Options.  At that point, they were taken out by many of her traps, though they wreaked havoc on some of the other defenses – like her explosive bombs and Goblins covered in shrapnel.

The metallic Mercury Slime, on the other hand, was able to squeeze inside of her main entrance.  Almost immediately, the inability of her constructs to harm the Slime was obvious, and it was able to progress all the way to her room filled with lava without any harm; at that point, Sandra’s Digger constructs were able to knock it into the superhot Fire-Earth trap, where it promptly melted.  There wasn’t just one, though, which made her worried for when another one would reach that point and her trap ran out of Mana.

One of the giant bunnies also succeeded in outrunning her Roc force up above and managed to make it to her large tunnel, where it practically shot through her defenses as if they weren’t even there, knocking other Monsters aside in its rush to reach the end.  Nothing seemed to harm it, and it was in and out so quickly that many of the traps barely had time to activate before it was gone.  It was only when it reached one of the last rooms inhabited by her Animated Slabs that it finally got caught.

One of the Slabs slammed shut on the bunny’s right hind leg, stopping its forward momentum abruptly.  Sandra heard a loud *snap* as it slammed into the floor, which was full of more Slabs.  Unfortunately, the rabbit was so large that her Earthen Monsters couldn’t fully engulf the giant Beast, and it struggled mightily to break free.  Before it could extricate its hind leg, Sandra decided to use what she had learned earlier to finish it off.

The Dungeon Core took 500 Fire Mana and 500 Water Mana, placed them just in front of the frantic bunny, and then attempted to combine them together.  The resulting explosion from the opposing elements was enough to rip the rabbit’s head apart, but it also had the unfortunate side-effect of shattering over half of her Animated Slabs inside of the room.  The entire room also shook hard enough that some of the Dwarven villagers near her Home room could feel it.

Oops.  It was probably too much Mana that she had pumped into the explosion; but then again, she hadn’t wanted to use too little. That had been her one chance to stop the large Monster, as she hadn’t wanted to be forced to close her Roc tunnel to prevent it from reaching her Core.

The worst of it all, however, was when the Goblin Necromancers joined in the fun.  Not only were there some near her main entrance, but they were also near the Roc tunnel, casting their undead-raising aura over all of the Beasts that went inside.  Sometimes it was hard enough to kill some of the larger Monsters, such as the bear-monkey creatures, or the Elephants that charged through, but when they would just get back up after dying, some even missing limbs, that made it all that much more difficult to put them down for good.  Only when their heads were destroyed or separated from their bodies would they stay down for good.

Luckily, if she could consider it luck, there weren’t a lot of Beasts that survived long in her Roc tunnel, as they were susceptible to many of Sandra’s own Monsters and traps.  Her main entrance, on the other hand, was slowly becoming overwhelmed with undead.  As they pushed farther and farther, the Mana in her traps constantly running out and having to recharge, it was all Sandra could do to keep creating constructs to stop them before they could reach her Core.

If it wasn’t for the fact that so many Monster Seeds were being dropped by the incoming hordes, she probably would’ve been destroyed within the first 20 minutes.  Even with absorbing every Seed dropped, she was barely keeping up with her defenses, and the strain of watching every part of her dungeon was starting to wear on her.  When a few of the Goblin Necromancers started to venture into her Roc tunnel, casting their aura on Sandra’s non-construct Monsters, she knew she was in trouble.  While it didn’t really affect her own Goblins too much, since they were usually destroyed in the process of exploding, when they reached her room with the Wyvines, it started to become a problem.

When one of them died, she lost complete control of it as it rose back up as an undead Wyvine under the control of the Goblin-Classification Dungeon Core.

At that point, Sandra was forced to pull almost all of her constructs from her extensive connecting tunnels and send them to contain this new threat.  She even contemplated creating and using another Gravitational Devastation Sphere to help slow the incoming tide of Monsters; however, even if she dared to risk it, it still wasn’t past its cooldown from the first time she had activated it to great effect versus the Undead horde.

Nevertheless, while it was a bit dangerous to leave the passageways leading to the other dungeons relatively unguarded, they still contained enough traps to stop any incursion from that direction – not that she expected that to happen.  Fighting a war on two fronts was difficult for them to maintain, and the hostile Cores were having more success working together than apart.

It was at that time that the party of Royal Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, and one Gnome arrived at their destination, and it was all she could do to hold everything together while she prepared them for their swift attack on the Goblin-Classification dungeon.  Less than a minute after her Champion Totems broke through the last wall between her dungeon and the other dungeon, when the powerful party containing Echo and Gerold were fully engaged in their attack, Sandra finally gained a reprieve.

The Goblins were pulling out.  Turning around and abandoning their allies, they raced back to their own dungeon to help defend it against the invaders – which was what Sandra had been hoping for.  Thanks to Bonding with the Core soul fragment in her mind, Sandra had recently begun to really understand the contracts a Core had to abide by, as well as how a Core would react to a sudden threat to their dungeon; as a result, it made her fairly sure that such an outcome would present itself.  Since their presence in the dungeon had prevented many of their normal abilities, the threat was something that couldn’t be ignored; an attack from Sandra’s constructs, alone, likely wouldn’t have the same sort of effect.

The Goblins had a lot of ground to cover to get back to their dungeon, naturally, but they were quick; the party of all four races needed to be quicker.

The beleaguered Dungeon Core finally obtained some breathing room ,as no more Goblins or Beasts were obtaining the aura that would raise them back from the dead, though those that already had them remained.  Still, the sudden departure of 25% of her dungeon invaders allowed her to recover a little bit and start to push back.

Only 15 minutes later, with things becoming a relative stalemate – though Sandra was starting to gain the upper hand, with fewer and fewer Monsters emerging from the other 3 dungeons – she noticed that the group she had sent with her Resonating Prismatic Core weren’t yet to their destination, so she had to warn them of the impending danger.  She was just glad that there wasn’t any sort of trap that would cut off her communication with them like what happened with the Undead-Classification Core; having the entrance collapse back then had nearly rendered death upon all who had entered.  Since the frontal wave of Goblins were already filing into the dungeon, it wouldn’t be long before they smashed into the back of the group at what would likely be an inopportune time.

Without as much of a threat from the Monsters invading her dungeon at that point – though she kept 99% of her focus on them – Sandra was finally able to watch her friends fighting through the perspective of her Champion Totems and Repair Drones that had gone with them.  To her surprise, the Totems weren’t even being utilized; instead, they were almost acting like guards for the Drones, and she didn’t even think they had seen any action.

But that was understandable, especially with what she was witnessing.  Fear born from some deep-down Core instinct shot through her as she watched the complete and utter annihilation of the Goblins that attacked the front line of King Mynag, First-shield Parten, Princess Celeste, and Gerold.  Palzerk and Owchet were savage killers that protected their flanks, smashing and tearing through everything that got close, though one of the Repair Drones was needed to heal Owchet a few times as he got sliced up by the sheer number of weapons surrounding him.

But the real fear came from watching the Elven Royal couple casting their spells.  Waves of flames, showers of boulders, massive clouds of poisonous gas, and a number of other large area-of-effect spells absolutely devastated dozens—hundreds—of Monsters at a time.  Above them on her Pegasus, Echo pitched in by firing bolt after bolt into the incoming horde of Goblins.  In short, they appeared unstoppable.  All I can say is that I’m glad they aren’t trying to reach my Core.

But Sandra recognized that they were still mortal and expending a lot of elemental energy.  She could see that they were starting to tire from the use of so much power draining through their bodies, and eventually they would reach a breaking point.  They might be more powerful than almost anything she’d seen before, but there would be a time where they could only take so much.

Luckily, that time was not today.

“Go!  Break through to the other tunnel!”  Sandra translated the Elven King’s words to everyone, now that she had the focus to do it, and she watched as they all advanced as a group toward the far end of the massive room, rolling over anything in their way as if it were all an inconvenience.  The small tunnel leading towards what Sandra assumed was the Core room seemed impossibly far away, but the party managed to break through everything in their way.

Standing in front of the tunnel were 4 Goblin Necromancers, safe behind their Spirit-based bubble shields, and Sandra wondered how they would get through—

At least, that was before she watched Princess Celeste, Gerold, Palzerk, and Owchet step up and quickly smash or slice the Necromancers apart, leaving them in pieces on the ground in no time flat.  I guess they can’t really withstand melee attacks.  She was wondering if they had a weakness, so that was good to know.

There were still dozens of Goblins trying to reach them, but the party ran through the tunnel to the Core Room with great speed.  As soon as they entered, the other party members engaged those Goblins protecting the Core, which was a greyish-glowing crystalline shape floating in the center of the room.

“Do it, Echo!  We’ll hold them off!”

The Elven Ranger obeyed the order from her Queen, and Sandra watched as she flew up on Starlight 3, pulling the Resonating Prismatic Core from the pouch in front of her.  Strangely, even though the Core was in another dungeon entirely and should be completely cut off from her, she could feel the connection with it, stronger than any other connection she had with any of her Dungeon Monsters.  Probably because it is a part of me.

Dodging arrows shot by Goblin Archers and fireballs flung out by Goblin Mages, Echo deftly flew her Pegasus next to the Spirit-based Core and held out her hand holding Sandra’s Prismatic Core—only to have an arrow shoot her in her hand, knocking the Core away and flinging it out of her control.  Echo screamed as she tried to grab it, but she was too late.

It fell toward the ground, heading for a fate of being lost in the press of Goblin forms below, but it suddenly stopped in mid-air.  Sandra used the Totem she was looking out of to see the Elven Queen holding her hand towards the Prismatic object, before moving it towards Echo.  Just as she was about to hand it off, an arrow flew out of the press of enemies and slammed into the Queen’s side, plunging into her flesh an inch before stopping.  The sudden impact and pain caused the Royal Elf to lose her concentration and the Core dropped—

—but Echo reached out with her good hand, snatched it out of the air, and in one smooth motion swung it around and touched the other Dungeon Core.

Sandra immediately initiated a Bond with the Goblin Core, hoping and praying to the Creator that it would work.  She felt a momentary stab of worry as nothing seemed to happen for a second…and then her mind went blank.

Chapter 48

The blankness in her mind felt like it lasted an eternity, but when she was finally aware of the world around her, she was cognizant that very little time had passed.  Point in fact, it appeared as though not even a second had progressed – nor was it currently progressing.  The world had frozen around her awareness.

“WHO ARE YOU?!  WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO ME?!”

The angry voice seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere at the same time, but she intuitively knew where it originated.  Looking around the Goblin-Classification Core’s “Core” room, which was a strange experience because she shouldn’t be able to see it like that, Sandra focused on the greyish crystal near her.

“My name is Sandra, and I’m here to help—”

“YOU!  YOU ARE THE ONE THAT IS PREVENTING ME FROM GETTING WHAT I NEED!  I WILL DESTROY YOU!”

Such rage was not wholly unexpected, because she had experienced some of it herself with the Core soul fragment in her own mind, but this was on a whole new level.  She was suddenly glad that it hadn’t been a full-strength Core that had integrated into her consciousness, because she wasn’t sure if she could’ve withstood it for long.

“No, I’m only trying to keep you from killing any people—”

“WHICH IS EXACTLY WHAT I NEED TO DO TO EXPAND AND BECOME THE STRONGEST DUNGEON IN THE WORLD!”

Sandra could instantly tell that the Goblin Core wasn’t going to listen to her, no matter what she said.  It was too consumed with anger, rage, and the drive to fulfill its contracts with the Creator that nothing would change its mind; as far as it was concerned, it was right, and she was wrong.  From its perspective, Sandra was the bad one, the evil one that was blocking it from fulfilling its destiny.

She was reminded of her days as a merchant with her father, and an incident with a supplier of enchanted weapons.  The supplier, who was one of their regulars up to that point, insisted that one of the swords he was selling to them had an enchantment on it that it didn’t.  Neither the supplier nor her father could actually check it to see if it was indeed enchanted – but Sandra could.  She recognized that it was enchanted with a Minor Fire Resistance enchantment that would allow the sword to withstand quite a bit of heat, but it was entirely different from what the supplier insisted was on there.  She couldn’t even remember what the enchantment was supposed to be other than a very expensive one, but the supplier wouldn’t listen to reason.

Because he had been duped and wouldn’t – or couldn’t – admit it.

Long story short, the supplier accused Sandra and her father of trying to cheat him, making them out to be the bad ones in the situation.  Even offering to have an Enchanter look at the weapon to prove that it was enchanted with something else wouldn’t appease the man, so they ended up terminating their working relationship with the supplier after that.

Essentially, no matter what they said or did to prove the weapon wasn’t what the supplier insisted it was, he wouldn’t listen.  She and her father were powerless to do anything at the time – but that didn’t quite translate to the here and now.  Sandra was far from powerless.

Ignoring the continued ranting about destroying her Core and whatnot, which she had gotten fairly used to from the fragmented soul in her mind, she focused on her Resonating Prismatic Core.  It was currently touching the side of the Goblin Core, Echo pressing it against the glowing crystalline form with her hand.  Hmm…there’s one thing that normally happens during a bonding, but maybe it needs a little push.

“I WILL—WAIT; WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!”

Observing from outside of the Cores, she watched as her Prismatic one slowly pressed into the side of the Goblin Core, allowing it to be absorbed little-by-little.

“NO!!!  YOU’RE GOING TO DESTROY—”

The shouting continued right up until the Core was fully absorbed, which was then replaced by blessed silence.  In addition to the silence, there was something else that happened: A tiny presence in the back of her mind, not invasive or threatening, appeared.

“Hello?”

For the first time, she heard the other Core in a non-shouting state, and it was coherent enough that she could make out a male-sounding voice.

“Hello?  Is this the Goblin Core?”

There was a little chuckle coming from the presence in her mind, followed by a verbal response.  “Is that what you’ve been thinking of me as?  Well, I guess it fits based on my Classification, but I’d rather you call me Mychal.”

“Mychal?  That sounds almost Human.”

“I was…I think.  My memories are a bit jumbled, and I barely even remember my own name.  All of this has suppressed who I was, and now I only really exist as a Dungeon Core.  How—?”  The voice paused for a moment.  “How did you manage to keep yourself whole?”

Sandra explained in brief who she was and what she had done to keep her mind intact, though she hurried through it because she felt as if time were running out.  “I don’t think we have much time.  I need to know, will you stop trying to destroy my Core now?”

“Y-yes, I believe so.  In fact, I find that I now have very little desire to kill any more people out in the world above.  Though…”

When he didn’t continue, Sandra prompted him.  “Though, what?”

His voice was starting to become a bit shaky.  “I don’t think I can help myself.  The contract with the Creator is too strong of a force, and I can’t resist it entirely.  These people in my dungeon are starting to bring back some of the anger that your presence has seemed to calm, but the need to kill them as a threat to my existence is too hard to ignore.”

That didn’t sound good.  “What will you do?”

“I…I think I have to try killing them, or my Core will end up shattering.  I have no urge to send any of my Monsters above right now, but I can’t say how long that will last.  Some feeling of mine says that if I build up my defensive population in my dungeon to a certain point, I’ll be contractually obligated to send them out.  I can probably withstand the need to do that for a little while, but ultimately I will send them out to expand again, killing whatever they encounter.”

“I can understand that.”  She did, too – it was ingrained into their nature, after all.  The knowledge she had gained earlier from the soul fragment allowed her to comprehend the urge, the need to expand, but without the insane anger and rage that went with it, it could be controlled.  Up to a point, of course.

It wasn’t the best-case scenario, but it would have to do.

“We’re out of time,” the other Core suddenly said in her mind.  “I really don’t want to kill anyone else right now, but if those people don’t leave in the next few minutes, there’s nothing I can do to stop it.  GET THEM OUT OF HERE!”

The shout wasn’t one of anger or rage, but one of desperation. She understood what he was trying to do, and she wouldn’t waste the opportunity.

Looking around the room from the perspective of the Goblin Core – which she suddenly comprehended that she was inherently connected to – she saw the world slowly coming back up to speed.  Their entire conversation had taken at least 10 minutes, but less than a fraction of a second had passed in the real world; now that the Bonding process was complete, everything was returning back to normal.

With a rush, the party she had sent into the dungeon rushed into motion, but the Goblins were still moving at a super-slow speed.  Before anyone could continue the slaughter they were undergoing of the Monsters in the Core room, she immediately froze everyone using the Bond she had with them.

* Don’t kill any more!  Run!  I’m carving a hole in the wall located in the previous room, but you’ll have to blast the rest of the way through yourselves.  I’ll explain everything when you’re safe. *

She let them go in less than a second, so it probably felt less like she was controlling them and more like something fundamental had changed in the dungeon itself.  At least, that was what she was hoping, because she didn’t want them to be frightened of her control.

Rather than argue, they retreated immediately, their job done.  For Sandra’s part, she carved away as much of the wall separating the main connection tunnel with the Goblin-Classification dungeon, leaving a thin strip of Stone left to be demolished.

As the party ran through the previous room where they had just slaughtered thousands of Monsters, they passed by slow-moving Goblins that were rapidly increasing in speed.  Fortunately, nothing was fast enough to actually attack them; when they located the spot they needed, the Elven King blasted through the thin sheet of stone covering their exit with a barrage of boulders formed by a spell – and they were through, just as the Goblins returned to full speed.

Sandra joined the others as they turned to look into the formerly hostile dungeon, and the Goblins inside just stared back at them.  There was no sudden surge by them to attack, though they appeared ready to defend the dungeon with their lives if it came down to it.  Moments later, a new stone wall started to appear, covering up the entrance to the other dungeon, as well as the second one that Sandra had made; it wasn’t her doing, though – it was the Goblin dungeon sealing off access.

Looking above ground, she also saw the Goblins that had been running back enter inside and not leave, which hopefully meant that they wouldn’t any time soon, but that was the least of her worries right now.  It was the other dungeons that concerned her right now, with how they were still striving to destroy her Core—

Except, even as she thought that, all 3 hordes of Dungeon Monsters started to withdraw their forces, making an orderly retreat back to their own dungeons.  Not for a moment did she think they would stay that way for long, though, because she now understood what they were doing.  They were reacting to the loss of one of their number, and as they likely didn’t know the source of the occurrence, they were retreating to protect their own interests.  Namely, their Cores.

When you added in the fact that they hadn’t received a notification that another Dungeon Core was destroyed nearby and their enhancements were increasing, the whole situation probably didn’t sit well with them.

Sandra watched the last of the Goblins trickle into the dungeon from above, before turning to those that had helped her make this possible.  Before she could communicate with them, however, she was interrupted.

Congratulations!

You have discovered another Advancement Source!

Dungeon Core Bonding:

Receive AP for Bonding with another Dungeon Core, calming their anger and homicidal urges

20 AP per Dungeon Core Bonded

Current AP Earned: 20 AP (1X Goblin Classification Core)

What?  How?  Sandra was confused and flabbergasted at the sight before her.  It was almost as if….

Winxa?  I think I finally found the reason why the Creator brought me here.

“What?  Why?” the Dungeon Fairy asked, fluttering all over her Home room excitedly.

Sandra described the newly discovered Advancement Source, the last one on her list.  I don’t think I was single-handedly supposed to save everyone, only to provide a means where they had to save themselves.  Things have gotten so out of hand the way things were that the Creator needed some way to fix what was broken; I think that I am that way.

Winxa was silent as she cocked her head to the side, thinking.  “You could definitely be right.  It makes more sense than you being powerful enough to destroy all of the Cores or culling everything yourself.  Imagine what kind of power and control you would have if you got to that point.”

Her mentioning of control got her thinking.  While the bonding was ultimately beneficial to her because it prevented one of the Dungeon Cores from wanting to obsessively destroy her, as well as giving her some Advancement Points, she thought there might be a little more to it.  With those of the different races she bonded with, she was able to control them if it was necessary, though she didn’t like to do it unless she had no other choice.  It was inherently wrong for Sandra to do that unless it was to save a life, she thought, and most times she liked to forget that she even had the ability.

But could she do the same with another Dungeon Core?

Nope.  The answer was a resounding no.  She found that she could connect with Mychal (a.k.a. the Goblin-Classification Core) and view around his Core room, but that was about the limit of the “control” she had.  Except for one little thing, which was definitely an interesting development.

As soon as she dug in further to the other Core, trying to exert any type of control – even temporarily, she received a notification.

Due to your Bonding status with this Goblin-Classification Core, you may select for your own use 1 Dungeon Monster of your choice that the Core currently possesses.

When she dismissed that notice, a list of potential Dungeon Monsters popped up, and she was able to see every single Goblin and Hobgoblin to which Mychal had access.

Goblin Worker (already acquired)

Goblin Foreman (already acquired)

Goblin Crafter (already acquired)

Goblin Miner

Goblin Scout

Goblin Archer

Goblin Ranger

Goblin Warrior

Goblin Chief

Goblin Commander

Goblin Necromancer

Armored Goblin

Hobgoblin Brute

Hobgoblin Mage

Seeing how powerful the Goblin Necromancer had been, she nearly picked that one – but then she realized how dangerous that could be to have out in the world.  She could always not use it, of course, but that would render her selection – by literal definition – useless.  Instead, she chose something that might be a little more useful, something that she hadn’t really possessed at that point except through the use of her Shapeshifters: Hobgoblin Mage.

It could be useful as both a means of ranged damage and to freeze a target in place, the latter of which was highly useful.  She had a lot of offense when it came to her constructs and Advancement unlocked creations, but very few of them had a real defensive aspect to them.

When that was selected, she found it on her list of available creation options, under a whole new heading.

Bonded Creation Options

Name:

Mana Cost: (60% Reduction)

Hobgoblin Mage

240

Originally 600 Mana to create, the new Goblin Mage only required 240 because of her Advancement unlocks.  Sandra suddenly understood how the other Cores could create so many powerful Monsters so quickly, especially if they possessed some Core-specific Skills that reduced the price of a specific type of Monster.  When you added in the enhancements from the local Core destruction, they were able to accumulate an army in seemingly no time.

When she closed out of everything, she was presented with some very confused and curious people.

“Sandra?  Sandra?  Are you okay?  What is going on?”

She wasn’t sure how long Echo had been calling for her, but the Dungeon Core answered as soon as she was aware of her name being called.

* Sorry about that, I was distracted for a moment.  I want to thank you for all of your help – because it was a success!  As much of a success as possible, I guess I should amend. *

“What exactly does that mean?” King Mynag asked impatiently.  He – as well as everyone else – looked exhausted, but there was a glint in his eye that hinted that he had enjoyed himself.

* Well, I have managed to curb many of the rage-filled, murderous impulses coming from the other Core, but there is a limit to what can be done.  I’m still trying to wrap my head around exactly what this means, but I believe it will be highly beneficial in the future.

* For one, this Core is going to maintain all of its Dungeon Monsters within its dungeon instead of immediately sending them out into the world to kill and expand its Area of Influence – up to a point.  At some stage when the dungeon is full of Monsters, it will be…obligated…to start sending them out; while they will still try to kill everyone they come across, I believe any large-scale assaults on surrounding habitations will be eliminated.  Attacks by singular Monsters will still be likely, though.

*To prevent them from even getting to that stage, periodic culling of the dungeon itself will need to be performed, just as what has been done for centuries outside of the dungeons. If we can manage to do this Bonding with all of the dungeons, everyone will be that much safer. *

They all looked at each other, and Sandra could see that they were considering all that she said.  “I can see the benefits of this to our people, but delving through a dungeon is dangerous,” King Mynag went on.  “How can we possibly do that without risking our lives to the monsters and traps located throughout them?  We, for one, don’t have any ability to nullify traps like the Elves do, which can mean the difference between success and failure – even with these Energy Orbs you’re providing.”

“I agree with the King.” Princess Celeste gestured to the Dwarven Royal personage, still in her Deep Diver suit.  “While we can produce some powerful enchantments, and potentially even learn how to make these Deep Divers again even without our Master Enchanters, we don’t really have the ability to handle problems from long range, especially not with anything portable enough to be accessible.”

“That goes for us as well,” Palzerk grunted hesitatingly.  “While we’re not ones for pointing out our flaws, there were many times in that last dungeon where we would’ve died if it hadn’t been for the Dwarves – and the Princess, of course – keeping the Goblins from overwhelming us.  That, and trying to reach the back line of long-range fighters is difficult without some backup of our own.  If it wasn’t obvious, we prefer to be a little more up close and personal.”

“We would have to add our agreement,” the Elven Queen commented.  It was only when she spoke that Sandra realized that she – and Echo – had both been healed by a Repair Drone while they were waiting for the Dungeon Core’s undivided attention.  “While our spellcasting is powerful, there are things out there that even we cannot defeat.  We have a few dedicated Elite delving teams that we utilize to eliminate problematic dungeons, but there is no way that we can manage to maintain the monster levels in the dungeons throughout Symenora.  It’s just not possible, and would likely end up with many more casualties than we can afford.”

She could certainly see their point, but they were missing what was right there in front of them.

* I see.  And what is to prevent you from convening dungeon delving groups, assembled from members of each of your people, thereby making an effective team that can handle this culling? *

“Because it’s just not done, Sandra,” First-shield Parten insisted.

* Of that, you’re quite wrong.  Take a look around, are you not part of such a group right now? *

The epiphany finally seemed to arise among all of them as they realized what they had just done.  They had worked together with representatives of 3 other races, and they had succeeded in accomplishing their goal; Sandra had doubts that any equal-sized party of people from a singular race would’ve done as well, perhaps even ending in failure.

“I see your point,” Parten continued reluctantly.  “The fact remains, though, that we really aren’t prepared to do that right now.  Our strongholds are under siege, and until we get back and assess the situation, we cannot promise our help.  And no—” he said sternly, looking at his King— “we cannot promise more help than who is already here right now, because I know the state of our Shieldmen better than you do.  Sire.”  The King just shrugged, not arguing for once.

The same went for all of the others as they couldn’t promise their assistance in one way or another.  The Princess needed to find out the state of affairs in Gnomeria, though it was hopeful that they had made some progress after the successful repelling of the ambush.  The Elves were a little thin on Elites, and the King and Queen couldn’t promise anything other than who was already nearby in the Avensglen.  Palzerk had a fairly legitimate excuse, because he technically wasn’t in charge of anything other than his Warband – but hopefully that would change soon.

* I entirely understand, and I was expecting all of that.  But it’s something that we can strive for in the future, through a lot of hard work and hardship, perseverance and cooperation.  We will succeed in saving all of your people, one way or another.  And don’t forget about your secret weapon. *

“Secret weapon?”

* Me and my dungeon, obviously.  I’ll be there every step of the way, expanding and Bonding with Dungeon Cores in order to make them safer for those nearby. *

The thought of expanding her Area of Influence, connecting with nearby Dungeon Cores, and essentially exerting her dominance over them in order to control their anger and rage, reminded her a little of what the Palzerk had said earlier – though he was referring to the secret of the Mithril alloy:

“Your own use?  So you can use it against us?  Is that the game you’re playing?  To conquer us and fold our people into your dominion?”

It wasn’t her intention to conquer anyone; but to fold them into her dominion?  Well, she thought that notion certainly had a nice ring to it.

Chapter 49

Communication among the Dungeon Cores affected by the beneficial enhancement was at times sporadic, obtuse, or downright frustrating – but he was already used to it by that point.  Ever since the random images started to appear in his mind, the focused Dungeon Core had largely ignored them.  They didn’t really matter to him, their plans and insane image-rambling of death and destruction heaped upon the masses of people out there, especially upon the Dwarven communities living nearby.  Though, he had to admit, he sort of wished that he had gotten in on some raids on the nearby Dwarven village before all of its inhabitants disappeared nearly a century ago.

That wasn’t in his plans, however.  He had developed a strategy entirely different from what he figured was “typical” of other Dungeon Cores shortly after he was reincarnated back into the world.  He had drained as much knowledge as he could from his so-called Dungeon Fairy over the weeks and months he was constructing his massive dungeon, pretending that he actually cared what she thought or wanted.  The information she gave him about Cores was invaluable, and she probably shared more than she normally would because he had learned that most Cores were quite insane – and he, clearly, was not.  He attributed his ability to keep his wits after his death to his thoughts of revenge on the one that had ended his life; that, and according to the fairy, he was in that liminal netherworld for fewer than 20 years, as opposed to 50 years or more like the other Cores.

That essentially meant he wasn’t crazy. Then again, he was “crazy” enough to try to absorb her when she was of no more use to him; in truth, he attempted to do it just because he was tired of her hanging around.  Of course, as he knew it would, his attempt had failed, which caused the stupid flying gnat to leave through one of her portals in tears.  Which still made him smile to this day, even 200 years later.

Since then, he had been playing the long game.  The contracts he had made with the Creator in order to obtain this piece of real estate in the ground were more flexible than most Cores probably realized.  While he had an urge and need to expand his dungeon – to gain as much Mana as possible to upgrade his Core Size – there was technically no clear method or timeframe that had to be achieved.  He found that as long as he had a clear plan in mind and worked constantly to fulfill that plan, it satisfied his needs.

Not that he didn’t desire to cause some wanton destruction every once in a while, as well as killing everything that got in his way.  He was no stranger to death, at least from what he remembered from his old life (which seemed like an eternity ago), so that wasn’t what kept him from doing it; no, it was because it wasn’t in the plan.

A plan to go unnoticed as long as possible, grow as large and powerful as he could, and then – and only then – would he strike, sending out the overwhelming forces of his Fallen until they blanketed the world. It took a lot of restraint to keep his Monsters out of sight while they funneled Mana into him, avoiding Dwarves as they hunted down and killed other Monsters by the scores from other dungeons.  But never once in the 100 years when there were people around did they see one of his Monsters, even if they were only a dozen feet away; not that they were invisible – far from it – but he made sure to keep them out of sight.  Nor did they ever find either one of his entrances, because he made sure to conceal them as well as he could, even if he couldn’t close them up entirely.

But oh, how tempting it was to just let loose and rampage across the countryside, killing everything he could find.  He never did, but he still thought about it to this day.

When his last sighting of a Dwarf in their fancy-shmancy armor was over 80 years ago, he had been a little more lax in his hidden agenda.  He now had thousands of his Fallen spread out over his Area of Influence, which now extended nearly 100 miles in every direction.  Before the last month and all of the changes that had come, he had been planning on spending another few decades continually building up his army, until he was sure there was nothing that could stop him.  He could already extend his reach to many of the Dwarven people’s mountain strongholds, and he had been studying them extensively for the best way to breach inside and wipe them out.  It would take a little more in the way of expanding his Area of Influence in order to reach them all, but that time would soon come.

Then…well, then something happened to the southeast, just outside of his Area of Influence.  He had gotten multiple notifications over a few weeks, telling him that someone was destroying Dungeon Cores; this wasn’t anything new, because he was aware of multiple Cores being destroyed in the past, when they suddenly disappeared from his awareness in his Area of Influence.  The biggest difference was that it usually occurred years or decades apart, not so close together.

Not that he was going to complain, because he didn’t really care about the other Cores – and it helped to further his plan with the boosts to his acquisition of Mana.  But then the images started rolling into his mind after the last notification, and it was difficult to ignore them.  He spent most of his time just working on expanding his now-enormous dungeon, adding his 350th room the other day – which was a major accomplishment, if he did say so himself (and he did) – biding his time until he could complete his plan.

Then, out of nowhere, images and spoken words reverberated through the strange communication link he had with all of the other Cores near him, and his mind ground to a screeching halt.  Apparently, one of the Dungeon Cores near a place called “the wasteland” had been under attack – though that wasn’t that big of a deal to him; he expected it and hoped for it, in fact, because of the fact that other Cores had been destroyed.  If more were taken out, that would only increase these “enhancements” he was so enjoying.

But something else happened.  Suddenly there was an image of what appeared to be some sort of Elf riding a winged horse, holding a very interesting gem in her hand – which was touching the Core that was being attacked.  There were the normal ranting and rage-filled images of dismembering the Elf, but that was all interrupted with a chilling voice flowing through the communication, the first coherent and audible sound he had heard since the whole thing started.

“My name is Sandra, and I’m here to help—”

He instantly recognized the whiny voice in the communication, because it was something that he would never forget from his previous life.  He tried to listen for more from the communication link, but it seemed as though any connection with the Core had been severed.

Sandra?  I never did find out her name, but I will remember her voice for the rest of my life as a Dungeon Core.  It was the last one I ever heard, after all.  The overwhelming rage that seemed to characterize most Dungeon Cores started to invade his mind, and he wished to strike out immediately for wherever this “wasteland” was and destroy this Sandra.  How she was still alive after all these years was a mystery—

Or is it?  What if she got turned into a Core as well?  In the end, it didn’t really matter, because he would get his revenge for spoiling…whatever it was he was doing while he was still alive.  He remembered some sort of Holy and Nether Enchantment on a sword, but what exactly it was eluded him.  If he thought about it enough, he might remember, though.

Just like he remembered the very short list of things that mattered most to him: things like the voice of the woman that killed him and his own name – Dramien.  I’ll have to make sure and add the destruction of everything she holds dear to that list.

End of Book 5

Author’s Note

Thank you for reading Book 5 of my Dungeon Crafting series, The Crafter’s Dominion!

This book saw a lot of development, both in terms of the wider world and in Sandra’s dungeon.  With the application of many of the things she’d learned, she was able to see her way out of the darkness her mind was in – while potentially finding a solution for the problems plaguing not only her, but the 4 races of people around her.  While she only has one Dungeon Core Bonded to her at the moment, the dominion she is establishing will be amazing!

Or will it?

You’ll have to wait and see in the 6th and final book in the series, The Crafter’s Dynasty, which I’m hoping to have out in April or May!

Again, thank you for reading and I implore you to consider leaving a review – I love 4 and 5-star ones!  Reviews make it more likely that others will pick up a good book and read it!

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Books by Jonathan Brooks

Glendaria Awakens Trilogy

Dungeon Player (Audiobook available)

Dungeon Crisis (Audiobook available)

Dungeon Guild (Audiobook coming soon)

Glendaria Awakens Trilogy Compilation w/bonus material

Uniworld Online Trilogy (2nd Edition)

The Song Maiden (Audiobook available)

The Song Mistress (Audiobook available)

The Song Matron (Audiobook coming soon)

Uniworld Online Trilogy Compilation

Station Cores Series

The Station Core (Audiobook available)

The Quizard Mountains (Audiobook available)

The Guardian Guild (Audiobook available)

The Kingdom Rises (Audiobook available)

The Other Core (Audiobook available)

Station Cores Compilation Complete: Books 1-5 (Audiobook available)

Spirit Cores Series

Core of Fear (Audiobook available)

Children of Fear (Audiobook available)

Carnival of Fear (Audiobook coming soon)

Dungeon World Series

Dungeon World (Audiobook available)

Dungeon World 2 (Audiobook available)

Dungeon World 3 (Audiobook available)

Dungeon World 4 (Audiobook available)

Dungeon World 5 (Audiobook available)

Dungeon World Box Set: Books 1-5

Dungeon Crafting Series

The Crafter’s Dungeon (Audiobook available)

The Crafter’s Defense (Audiobook available)

The Crafter’s Dilemma (Audiobook available)

The Crafter’s Darkness (Audiobook available)

The Crafter’s Dominion

Dungeon Crafting Series: Books 1 – 3 (Audiobook coming soon)

The Hapless Dungeon Fairy Series

The Dungeon Fairy (Audiobook available)

The Dungeon Fairy: Two Choices (Audiobook available)

The Dungeon Fairy: (Book 3) – February 2021

Serious Probabilities Series

Dungeon of Chance: Even Odds (Audiobook available)

Dungeon of Chance Book 2 – April/May 2021

The Body’s Dungeon (with Jeffrey “Falcon” Logue)

Bio Dungeon: Symbiote (Audiobook available)

Bio Dungeon: Parasyte (Audiobook available)

Bio Dungeon: (Book 3) – March/April 2021

Tales of Dungeons Anthology

Tales of Dungeons Vol. 2

Tales of Dungeons Vol. 3

Tales of Dungeons All Hallows 2020