The Crafter's Defense: A Dungeon Core Novel (Dungeon Crafting Book 2) Jonathan Brooks (large ebook reader TXT) 📖

Something changed…somewhere.  Sandra wasn’t sure what it was that caught her attention, and a quick perusal of her dungeon and surrounding area showed nothing out of the ordinary; Violet was already asleep (or at least close to it) despite it only being late afternoon, the area around her dungeon aboveground was clear of anything that she could see with her AMANS and Mechanical Wolves and Jaguars keeping watch, and nothing appeared to her mind with a warning screen or anything.  Everything looked as normal as it could.

When she expanded her awareness to her entire Area of Influence, she checked on all of the villages to make sure they weren’t suddenly under attack – all of them appeared fine.  Even checking what she could of the aboveground part of the Cores and the Dungeon Monsters they controlled showed nothing.   So, what was it—

Then she saw it – the Area of Influence (AOI) for the reptile dungeon had increased again, and this time it easily enveloped the Elven village to the west.  The Dungeon Core had obviously just finished another upgrade of its Core Size and had its AOI expanded again.  Sandra could only hope – as strange as it sounded – that the Core would go through another upgrade again, but within a minute her Small Animated Shears above the dungeon entrance saw dozens of small-but-quick lizards pouring out and scattering in all directions.

Sandra instinctively knew what the Core was doing; since it had the same limitations she did when it came to seeing things aboveground, the only way it could explore its new, much-larger AOI was to physically have its Dungeon Monsters scatter and discover what was out there.  Earlier, when it had acquired access to Sandra’s AOI, it knew that the Gnome village was near based on the culling that they were doing, if not the exact placement of it.  However, it probably didn’t know where the Elves were at all; it knew they existed due to seeing Echo, but not where – which was why it was exploring using fast but likely-inexpensive Dungeon Monsters.

And once they found the Elves – which was almost a certainty – then another army of reptiles would march forth from the dungeon and attack the village.  Simple yet effective.

Winxa – we’ve got a major problem.  Sandra explained what she was seeing, and the Dungeon Fairy agreed with her.

“You’re right about what the other Dungeon Core is doing.  I’m going to assume when it upgraded its Core size that it no longer has access to your Area of Influence, so it’s exploring what it now has within its own Area,” Winxa said matter-of-factly.  “So, what are you going to do about it?”

Sandra had to stop and think about it for a moment before she answered.  The way she saw it, there were three options she needed to consider.  The easiest one – and which may or may not solve her impending problem with the Elites coming to destroy her – was to do nothing.  The other Core would find the Elven village and attack it, killing all of the villagers and probably leaving an obvious trail back to its dungeon.  When the Elites arrived, Sandra guessed they would either track down the reptile Core’s dungeon and destroy it, or else leave and go back home right away, knowing that there was no point in risking themselves if there were no people left to save.

Sandra immediately dismissed that option; there was no way she was leaving the Elves to die at the hands (or claws and teeth, or whatever) of the other Core.  Not only was she morally opposed to that, but their deaths would just be another thing that she would be responsible for – even if it was completely unintentional to begin with.  And, selfishly, she didn’t know if the Elites would go home even if they destroyed the reptile-based Core – they might just end up finishing their original purpose for coming there and give her dungeon a visit.

The second option was to defend the village the same way she had the Gnome village, though this time she would be prepared.  She could send her constructs in beforehand to get in place before the reptile army even arrived, and perhaps even ambush them on their way through the forest.  It would be easy enough to track their movements via her Shears and be prepared for their attack.  The Ancient Saurians – if they attacked – would still be a bit of an issue, but since they were a lot slower, she knew she would have some time to plan for their arrival.

It was quite possible that some of her new “advanced” constructs that she could create now were capable of really damaging the Saurians, though her most powerful constructs were a bit out of her price range now that they had increased in cost.  Still, Sandra thought it was quite possible that something might be effective, as the names of them appeared to make them quite deadly.  Whether or not that was true was something that she’d have to explore later.

There were two problems that she could see with that option, however.  One, she didn’t think she would receive the same reception from the Elves as she did from the Gnome village.  In the case of the Gnomes, her constructs were a complete unknown and in some way were related to the large War Machines that they operated, so they weren’t completely foreign.  For the Elves, though, they already knew about her constructs – at least in general terms, even if their perception of them was skewed – and believed that she was a danger to them.  Not only that, but she had “captured/killed” one of their own, so they probably wouldn’t take kindly to her Dungeon Monsters being so close by.  In fact, looking at the situation from their perspective, she could