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

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