The Crafter's Dungeon: A Dungeon Core Novel (Dungeon Crafting Book 1) Jonathan Brooks (sites to read books for free .TXT) 📖

and controlled.  Must be special Dungeon Core magic or something.  The one thing it did have, that strangely made it look more “alive”, were two round holes in its head where its eyes should be.  Two small colorless crystals sat in those holes, eerily similar to the Spider’s multi-faceted eyes.

Regardless of how everything worked, the fact that her Spider construct was still going without any signs of stopping or slowing down hinted that she probably shouldn’t worry too much on how they operated, and more on what they could do for her.

Alright little man…thing…let’s see what you can do!

Chapter 9

Sandra quickly discovered that she could do a lot more with her new Automaton than her other construct.  While her Clockwork Spider’s anatomy was foreign enough that she had difficulty directly controlling it, her Tiny Automaton didn’t have that limitation.  It was a little awkward at first, because it didn’t have the same range of movement that she was used to; actually, it almost felt like the time she had injured her leg when she was 12 years-old, and had to wear a splint to keep it largely immobile while it healed.  When she walked around with her Automaton, it was more like trying to walk with relatively stiff-but-flexible legs, and although the arm had an elbow, the entire limb couldn’t move more than up and down in a straight motion.

One fortunate thing she found, though, was the fact that it had fingers that weren’t deformed!  While Sandra doubted it could do much more than hold a stick and bash away at things, it was still an improvement over what she had when she was alive.  Back then, she could theoretically hold a hammer in her hand; if she tried to hit anything with it, though, the tool would fly away when she couldn’t maintain her grip on it.  With the rudimentary fingers on the stiff-armed and legged Tiny Automaton, however, it could bang away all day and be fine.

The possibilities of the future only made her more excited.  If she continued to get larger and stronger, she could only imagine what kinds of constructs she’d have access to – perhaps even one that could do some crafting!  To make and create something with her own two hands – even if it was through an intermediary such as one of her Dungeon Monsters – was a worthwhile goal that she wanted to pursue.

With renewed purpose, Sandra practically attacked the cave walls and expanded her home until it was nearly eight feet in diameter.  She ate away at the reach of her senses, or Area of Influence as Winxa had called it, and created an almost perfect half-sphere with a four-foot-tall ceiling.  The floor she left relatively flat underneath her Core, because after a small amount of experimentation with her Automaton, she found that it had difficulty navigating over rough terrain.  As a result, she kept her humanoid construct near her and let the Clockwork Spider roam everywhere else.

She discovered that with the expanded cave, there was an overabundance of available ambient Mana that wasn’t being absorbed quickly enough by just her two constructs.  As a result, Sandra decided to create three more Clockwork Spiders and sent them to patrol throughout the room in different areas.  Even that expenditure wasn’t enough to impact the amount of Mana she was being funneled by her constructs, which was a little less than 1 whole unit per minute at that point, so she also created an additional 5 Small Copper Orbs and left them alone until she needed them.

After an indeterminate amount of time chipping away at the cave walls, creating the additional constructs and orbs, and in general enjoying her newly expanded room, she finally reached the limits of the range she could reach.  That, and she was full of Mana again and had to make a choice between creating more orbs and increasing her Core Size.  With a deep mental breath, Sandra decided to just go for it and bear the temporary void of nothingness again.  She activated the Core Size Upgrade and braced for the uncomfortableness of isolation.

Amazingly, the experience wasn’t so bad this time.  She wasn’t sure if the knowledge that it was coming somehow helped, or that she would eventually break free from it, but she didn’t panic (as much) as she did the first time.  Actually, when she really looked back on it, the real reason was probably because her awareness of her immediate surroundings had expanded; at just the edge of her perception, she could hear the sharp *clunk* of her Automaton walking in a set pattern beneath her Core.  That “lifeline” of normal sound anchored her sanity firmly in place.

Your Core has grown!

Current Size: 3

Mana Capacity increased!

Ambient Mana Absorption increased!

Raw Material Capacity increased!

New Constructs options!

Core Selection Menu

Dungeon Classification:

Constructs

Core Size:

3

Available Mana:

1/40

Ambient Mana Absorption:

.04/hour

Available Raw Material (RM):

0/400

Convert Raw Material to Mana?

N/A

Current Dungeon Monsters:

5

Constructs Creation Options:

4 (1)

Monster Seed Schematics:

2

And with that, her maximum capacities in Mana and Raw Materials doubled again – as well as her Ambient Mana Absorption.  Additionally, like before, Sandra could sense even farther out from her Core…and she got a surprise.

She wasn’t quite alone down there.

About 15 feet above and towards what she had been considering the front of her Core – and nearer what she assumed was the surface – was the beginning of a large colony of Territory Ants.  They were only about an inch long in length and half as wide, but what they lacked in size they more than made up with their deadliness.  Individually, they weren’t much of a threat, but they rarely attacked anyone by themselves; instead, whenever a foreign entity entered their territory, they attacked together as an entire colony and swarmed the enemy with seemingly endless numbers – and