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

“Okay…so maybe not.  So, what is it that this dungeon wants?” Alanthia asked bitterly.

“Like I said, she wants to help.  But she also needs something in return.”

“What could we possibly have that a dungeon could want?”  The Elf looked both confused and wary.

“She needs to…bond with you.  As well as agreeing to help in the future in a joint project of cooperation between the different races?” Violet said, a questioning tone in her own voice as she repeated what Sandra was telling her.

“I won’t be some sort of slave to a dungeon!” Alanthia practically shouted – or as much of a shout as she could with her exhaustion.

“It’s not any sort of slave bond, it’s something else entirely.  First, it will allow Sandra to talk to you—”

“And control my mind, apparently,” Alanthia rudely interrupted her.  Sandra could see Violet starting to lose any intimidation she felt from the Elves and was starting to get a little angry.

“Fine, believe what you will.  If it were up to me, I’d have let you all die here, because I’m pretty sure you all thought I was a goblin when you first saw me, didn’t you?”  Alanthia didn’t have the presence of mind to mask her guilty expression.  “That’s what I thought.  But the fact of the matter is, your people need you, and I don’t want another innocent village to be destroyed.”

The Elite Elf tensed up at that.  “Are you telling me this dungeon will destroy our village if we don’t agree with this ‘bond’ thing?”

“No, not at all.  In fact, Sandra saved some of us from a full-scale attack against our own village by an army of monster lizards and crocodiles and turtles.  And while she ended up very recently destroying the dungeon responsible for it, there is another army of them headed for your people’s village right now.”  Sandra was glad Violet didn’t mention how the reptiles had been able to attack them in the first place.

“What?” Alanthia asked, shocked.  “That’s impossible!”

“Again, believe what you will.  I’m sure your people need your help, because if it was anything like what attacked us, they won’t survive for long.  And since you destroyed most of Sandra’s monsters, there’s no army of constructs to help defend them – if your people even allowed them to.”

Alanthia was silent for almost a minute before she finally translated all that was said in Gnomish to the other Elves.  Their expressions ran the gamut between confusion, anger, and finally fear – though it was obviously fear for the villagers, and not necessarily themselves.  Sandra was glad to see that they cared for their people that way; from what she could tell, they didn’t enjoy delving through dungeons and destroying their Cores – it was only done to ensure the safety of their people.

Silence reigned over the room for a few minutes before, finally, she saw resignation on all of the Elves’ faces.  “I hope we don’t regret it, but if what you say is true – and we can’t afford to lose any more of our people – then we…agree to this bond.  But even if you let us leave, we’re essentially all out of energy.  We won’t be much use in defending the village.”

“And that’s where the help Sandra said would come in.  She has developed something…unique and wonderful…to help you with your problem.”  Sandra told her which one of the archers to go to, as it wasn’t completely obvious which one would be the most receptive.  As she approached the man, she held out her hand with the enchanted Elemental Orb.

“I…can feel something within that thing…what is it?” the archer said, getting to his knees from his previous semi-prone position.

“It’s something called a…Spirit Energy Orb, and it will help,” Violet said, naming the enchanted Orb.  Sandra thought it was a good name, as it was simple and fairly described what it functionally was.  With obvious reluctance, she passed it to the archer and instantly Sandra could see a change pass over him.

“I can feel my Spirit energy returning!  How is this possible?” he exclaimed in wonder as he held onto the Spirit Energy Orb.  Some of the color that Sandra didn’t even realize had faded from his skin started to return, like he was quickly recovering from some kind of convalescence.  And, in general, that’s pretty much what the rapid expenditure of elemental energy was.

“It’s something that the dungeon came up with just recently, and she has plans to give you all one once you’ve bonded with her.  It’s a relatively slow recharge to your elemental energy, but by the time we’re done here and get you back to the village, I imagine you’ll be ready to put the hurt on those massive lizards.  The only problem, however, is that in order to create one of these Energy Orbs for each of the elements, Sandra needs to do something…strange,” Violet told them hesitatingly.

“Strange how?” Alanthia said.

Her question was answered when Sandra had her Unstable Shapeshifter enter the room in all its multi-colored glory.

“Don’t worry, it’s only a little blood,” the Gnome said, smiling innocently.

Chapter 48

The next hour was a whirlwind of activity.  Sandra acquired a sample of each of the Elves’ blood – including their fallen leader’s in the earlier part of the room – and then retreated with her Shapeshifter back to her Home room while the others stayed where they were.  Not that they could move much from where they were, other than the archer that was holding onto the Spirit Energy Orb and looked to have no intention of letting it go.  The Elf archer had already recovered enough to stand up and, although he wasn’t quite back into fighting shape, he was much better than just a short time ago.

Now that she had seen the complete