The Crafter's Dominion: A Dungeon Core Novel (Dungeon Crafting Book 5) Jonathan Brooks (books that read to you txt) 📖

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