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

he passed by the Necromancer.  No shield sprang up to protect the Goblin, and a brief moment after the Orc shot by like one of Echo’s bolts, the foul raiser of undead lost its head as it hit the floor with a satisfying *thump*.

“I’ve never seen something like that shield before,” her King said, watching the Goblin’s body dissolve and leave behind a small greyish gem as dungeon loot.  “If it hadn’t been for you, I’m not sure we could’ve killed that thing.”  Her King and Queen repeated this – in what Echo assumed was Orcish – as they bowed towards Palzerk, who only shrugged in response.

The Warband Leader said something in the same language, which the Queen quickly translated for them all.  “We all have our roles to play in this.  There are situations which require spells or arrows sent from a distance, while others require a more hands-on approach.”  Echo thought that was an apt description, and very astute – especially coming from an Orc.  They aren’t all brawn and no brains, even if some of them seem that way.  I’ve really got to work on my preconceived notions of them.

As they moved on, Sandra suddenly interrupted their progress.

* You may want to hurry.  The Dungeon Core you’re heading towards had recalled all of its Goblins from their assault on my dungeon almost immediately after you entered its dungeon, and they’re on their way.  If you don’t get to it soon, you’re going to encounter a very angry horde of Dungeon Monsters. Fortunately, from what I can tell, you only have one more large room ahead of you. *

That was the first she had heard from Sandra since they entered the dungeon, but with the defense of her own dungeon a priority, it was understandable.  The strain and frantic tone of the Dungeon Core’s voice from before was nearly gone, at least, in no small part because she had one less group of monsters to defend against.  Granted, those same monsters were heading for Echo and her party, so it wasn’t all positive.

Her party looked at each other after Sandra’s announcement, and she nodded along with the rest as they understood what they had to do.  They needed to get through this last room quickly, otherwise they would be attacked from behind.  Therefore, without any other hesitation, they surged ahead through the tunnel, keeping to their formation they had intuitively established with those with the best defense out front.

When Echo got a look at the massive room they had to fight their way through, filled with so many Goblins that she could barely see the floor, she knew that Sandra had been right; if they had attempted to breach into the room from the long tunnel connecting the dungeons, they would’ve been overwhelmed almost immediately.  As it was, they might still be overwhelmed, but there was at least a small space near the entrance where they could dig in and defend against the coming onslaught.

King Mynag shouted something and banged on his shield with his battleaxe, and though it wasn’t automatically translated for her by Sandra, she knew it was probably along the lines of, “Let’s do this!”

Let’s do this, indeed.

Chapter 47

Defending against so many Dungeon Monsters all at the same time had been relatively easy when her foes were separate, coming through the tunnels connecting the dungeons; at least, easy when compared to an assault that involved all of the dungeons attacking in a coordinated assault.  She had seen it somewhat in Avensglen when the Beast and Slime dungeons had attacked the Elven village in concert, but this was so much worse.

They attacked in waves and large groups, both through her main entrance and through her Roc tunnel, at times overwhelming her defenses with pure numbers rather than through any particular strategy.  Regardless, Sandra was prepared for the onslaught of Monsters; through everything that had happened lately, including her temporary loss of control, there was one thing she made sure to maintain: A fully stocked and defended dungeon.  Occasionally she had needed to borrow some of her defenders for purposes aboveground, but she always replaced them as soon as possible.

There were some things that, as a Dungeon Core in form, were universal “requirements” – the maintenance of their dungeon being one of them.  It was why, despite their insistence in throwing thousands of Dungeon Monsters at her constantly, the other Cores still had defended dungeons.

Therefore, for the first 20 minutes or so of the initial attack on her domain, she was holding firm.  Her traps throughout her “main” dungeon route were absolutely devastating the enemy monsters, especially once they passed through the first half of the rooms, where she had redesigned them to include multiple elements.  Goblins, Beasts, and Slimes by the scores were torn apart, burned, blinded, smashed, cooked alive, drowned, poisoned, or otherwise destroyed so thoroughly that Sandra thought the other Cores would eventually give up.

That was, unfortunately, far from the case.  Having – for the most part – never seen her dungeon’s defenses before, the other Dungeon Cores didn’t know what to expect.  Now that they saw it, they knew what a deathtrap it was – but that didn’t deter them in the least, contrary to what Sandra was expecting.  Instead, they kept on coming – and they were starting to push through, deeper and deeper until she began to become very worried.

In her Roc tunnel, her defenses were doing much better, even against the Golems and the larger Dungeon Monsters that wouldn’t fit in her main entrance.  Exploding Goblins of her own (at first some leftover Foremen and then Crafters when she ran out) created with Energy Orbs as Monster Seeds, absolutely devastated many of the larger Beasts that decided they wanted to eat them.  An explosion in their unprotected mouths, throats, and stomachs was an effective tactic against them.

Against the Golems, the room containing the