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

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