The Crafter's Dilemma: A Dungeon Core Novel (Dungeon Crafting Book 3) Jonathan Brooks (me reader TXT) 📖

Unstable Shapeshifter in an attempt to find something that could craft better than her Constructs – as well as being able to communicate with the Elves.  While the Shapeshifter could finally manipulate elemental energy for use in enchantments, she still wasn’t able to verbally communicate.

Unfortunately, the Reptile-based Dungeon Core that had destroyed Glimmerton had its sights set on the Elven village Avensglen. With no way to communicate with the elves, she couldn’t warn them of the approaching Reptile army, so Sandra decided to destroy the attacking Core herself.  She ended up sending just under half of her Constructs to assault the foreign dungeon and managed to keep enough of them alive to make it all the way through it, destroying the Core in charge – but that didn’t end the threat.  The reptile army was following its last directive, which was to kill everyone in the Elven village; there might’ve been a group strong enough to repel them, but the Elite Elves had arrived and were in the process of assaulting Sandra’s own dungeon.

Using a special technique to negate the traps inside her defensive dungeon rooms, making them practically useless, the Elite Elves tore through her Constructs with ease.  It was only towards the last of her rooms that they started to run out of elemental energy; before they could be killed by one of Sandra’s Iron-plated Behemoths in the last room, Violet stopped them.  Offering them a compromise, as well as a newly crafted Energy Orb that gradually restored their elemental energy, the Elite Elves had their lives spared and were sent away to defend the village – on the condition that they would help in a future endeavor regarding cooperation with the other races.

With her dungeon and the people inside of it – as well as the Elven village – now safe, Felbar and Echo woke up to find that their world had changed drastically while they were out…

Chapter 1

“…and this place is…what?  A garden of some sort?” Echo asked, still confused at her current situation – but starting to understand that the dungeon she found herself in was quite a bit different from any she had heard of before.  While it had been obvious that it was unusual from her previous observations, the voice in her head was trying to explain just how unusual it was.

* Sort of…it’s my Growing Room, where I can rapidly produce different types of plants and trees at a rapidly accelerated rate.  Those Apple, Pear, Peach, and Orange trees, for instance, were grown and matured in a matter of hours instead of the years it would normally take.  I was also able to grow Flax, Cotton, and even an Oak Tree inside here – all so that I could obtain the proper materials I needed to craft what I wanted. *

That’s definitely…strange.  The dungeon – whose name was “Sandra”, apparently – had explained what happened in the outside world while she was in some sort of healing coma; she really didn’t remember anything after being bit by that blasted snake, so an update of what was going on was much appreciated.  That was, of course, if she could trust the voice in her head; the dungeon’s believability was still in question – at least concerning the circumstances.  Waking up alone and surrounded by stone walls had been a shock to say the least, but what was even more shocking was the “Visitor’s Bond” she had apparently been subjected to without her permission.  Though, if it keeps me alive and allows me to communicate with the voice in my head…unless the poison from that snake is making me lose my mind.  That’s definitely still a possibility.

A little of the information “Sandra” had told her she had already known – like the devastation of the nearby Gnome village – but most of it was new.  The arrival of the Elite team from the capital in Avensglen, their assault on the dungeon where she now found herself, and how they were almost killed – which was honestly unbelievable in and of itself.  She had heard stories of Porthel and Alanthia before, and the fact that such a new dungeon could defeat them seemed impossible; again, if the dungeon could be believed, that impossibility had actually occurred.

Then there was the fact that they were spared; not only that, but they were sent back to Avensglen to protect it from being destroyed by a force of the same reptilian monsters she had seen wipe out the Gnome town.  The dungeon had been a little sketchy on the details regarding the deal it made with the Elites, only briefly mentioning that something was provided to them as an incentive.  What that could possibly be, though – Echo had no clue what a dungeon could give them to make them turn away from their sworn duty of destroying Dungeon Hearts.

Or, rather, Dungeon “Cores”, which was what the dungeon evidently called them.  That was only mentioned when Sandra purportedly destroyed the Heart—Core—of the reptilian dungeon that attacked the Gnomes and her village.  One dungeon destroying another is the hardest to believe, I think.

“So, you like to…craft?”  As crazy as the other things that she was told sounded, a dungeon using its own dungeon loot to craft things was relatively…normal.

* I definitely do!  In my previous life, crafting was my passion and with the ability to craft anything I want – as long as I have the materials and proper tools – it has been an interesting experience.  Of course, it would be even better if people weren’t trying to destroy me every few weeks, but I’ll take what I can. *

From an outsider’s perspective, Sandra seemed to be just a dungeon that wanted to be left alone so she could craft to her Dungeon Heart’s content; in that context, Echo felt a little bad about being the source of the Elites attacking the dungeon.  However,