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

for her, her last construct was flung far enough away that the heads couldn’t reach it, though they certainly tried.  After a minute, the berserk flailing slowed dramatically until the heads finally stilled for about five seconds – and then they dropped to the floor, dead.  A few seconds later, the giant Dungeon Monster dissolved into a Monster Seed, which appeared to be some sort of large Sapphire – much bigger than the one that the Ancient Saurian had dropped.

Instead of celebrating, Sandra immediately had her Ape on the move.  Its left arm was damaged enough that it wasn’t going to be winning too many fights with it, but she hoped that wasn’t going to matter.  As her construct passed into the tunnel, it picked up speed and ran as fast as it could into the Core Room.  When it got there, she could see that it was another huge room – which only made sense if Monsters like the hydra-thing were created there.  Of course, that also meant that the shining blue Core she was trying to destroy was floating at least 50 or 60 feet off the ground in the middle of the room.

If she had even one pair of Shears left, it would’ve been easy to reach the Core and hit it – and hopefully hit it hard enough to destroy the shining crystal.  As it was, she had a slightly-damaged Ape that couldn’t leap more than a dozen feet in the air – if it were lucky.  Looking around the rest of the room, however, she realized that even if her Ape could get close enough it probably wouldn’t survive long enough to try jumping that high.

Dozens of crocodiles and giant turtles were surrounding her Ape, cutting off the exit back to the rest of the dungeon as well.  It looked like the end, so she gave the only order she could to her Ape, knowing that there was no hope for it – but she thought she’d try anyway.

Destroy that Dungeon Core.

The delay between when her order hit the Ape and when it was attacked by the reptiles surrounding it felt like an eternity, but her construct at least fought back on its own at first without needing instruction.  First, it picked up a crocodile that tried to snap at its leg by the jaws and used it to smash into another crocodile sneaking up from behind; when those two were stunned by the sudden defense of her Ape, it kicked out and turned over a snapping giant turtle that sought to take a chunk out of the construct’s foot.  Then it punched out at another crocodile that was getting too close, before kicking out again and crushing the skull of a second crocodile.

She could see when her order hit her Ape, as it paused for a half-second and then jumped over to the over-turned turtle on its back.  That half-second allowed the other reptiles to close in, unfortunately, and her construct was in danger of being overwhelmed.  However, its orders took precedence over its instinctual need to defend itself and it picked up the giant turtle in its hands – and began to spin around in a circle.

Crocodiles and giant turtles snapped at her Ape’s legs but couldn’t find purchase, luckily, which allowed her construct to pick up speed.  It spun around and around so fast that the Core Room became a blur through the eyes of her construct, until she saw its hands let go of the turtle’s shell.  Less than a second after the Ape released the giant turtle at high speed like a massive discus, it was swarmed by the reptiles surrounding it.

As it collapsed under their weight, it kept its vision trained on the Core high up above – so Sandra was able to see the shell of its own Dungeon Monster impact and shatter the Core just as her construct was destroyed.

Chapter 45

I did it!  I destroyed the other Core! 

Her celebration was abruptly cut off as her Shears above the advancing reptile army – including the two massive Ancient Saurians – showed no change.

Uh…Winxa?  Aren’t they supposed to, like, disappear or something?

“Do you mean the Dungeon Monsters from the other Core?  Why would you think that?” the Dungeon Fairy asked.

You know, because I destroyed the Core…I thought they were tied to it and would cease to exist when it was no longer there.

“Not exactly; they are still Mana-formed creations, and technically exist independently of the Core – though they are essentially mindless without a will of their own.  What the Core does is absorb the Mana that is funneled to them from the Dungeon Monsters, it also allows them to have control over them.  When that control is gone, the Monsters – in this case, the reptiles – will continue to follow their last order until they either succeed or are killed.  If they succeed in their order, they will immediately stop and cease to do anything afterwards.”

So…the village is still in danger of being destroyed?  I did all of that for nothing?

Before Winxa could respond, a notification surprised Sandra.

Congratulations!

You have discovered another Advancement Source!

Dungeon Core Destruction:

Receive AP for eliminating another Dungeon Core

30 AP per Dungeon Core destroyed

Current AP Earned: 30 AP (1X Reptile Classification Core)

Wait a minute – I can earn AP from destroying Dungeon Cores?  Sure enough, when she checked out the screen for her Advancement Point breakdown, it was right there at the bottom.  There was still an unknown Source that had yet to be discovered, but that wasn’t really a concern of hers right now.

“What?  You got some AP from destroying another Core?  I’ve never heard about that before,” Winxa said, shocked.

If that isn’t a bald-faced admission from the Creator of what I should be doing, then I don’t know what is.  The two unknown Sources that