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

felt it.  It was good knowing that she could tell when one of her constructs “died”, as she couldn’t be connected to every single one all the time – especially the flying Shears, as they made her a little uncomfortable in the middle of their flight.  That, and they didn’t have eyes, so she wasn’t sure where she was looking at things from.

Also as a result of her “accident”, the Clockwork Spider that had been destroyed evaporated into nothing, leaving behind the Tiny Copper Orb Seed loot.  Since it was near the edge of her Area of Influence at the time and not near her Core, when Sandra tried to use it to create another Spider, it was almost as if whatever governed the operations of a Dungeon Core couldn’t “see” it.  It was only when she had her Tiny Automaton walk over, pick it up, and then bring it close to where the other Orbs originated near her Core, was she able to use it again.  Good to know that I can reuse them, even if I have to bring them close.

All in all, she ended up losing 10 Mana from her Spider’s demise (the original 5 and another 5 to bring forth another one), but it was a valuable exchange because of the information she gained from it.  She could now see why dungeons sent their monsters out far and wide; the amount of ambient Mana that that one Spider had funneled to her over the last few weeks had to be at least 40 to 50 times what it cost her to create it.

After that, Sandra made a half-dozen more Rolling Forces because they were able to move around faster, but only after she had learned to control them properly without endangering any of her other constructs.  They were now much more efficient in getting around her new Area of Influence, and she thought they would make great defenders if they ever were invaded by something.

Speaking of potential invaders, the nearby Territory Ants had maintained their distance and showed no sign of being aware of her presence – for which she was grateful.

 With her now basically at the limit of what she could excavate within her Area of Influence – as well as having about a dozen extra Small Copper Orbs placed on the floor around her Core – Sandra decided that it was about time she “Sized-up” again.  When she was full of Mana, she initiated the upgrade to Size 4 and suffered through the period of inactivity, once again with her sanity maintained by the presence of her nearby constructs.  This time she could even sense a few flying Shears as they drifted by in addition to the clomping of her Tiny Automaton.

When everything came back into focus, Sandra found that her capacities and absorption had doubled again, though she didn’t receive any new constructs.  She did receive a new monster “seed” in the shape of a locked Average Copper Orb, which looked like it was going to be a combination of four Small Copper Orbs to unlock it.  Seeing everything in order, she looked around her new expanded Area of Influence, but her concentration froze in fright above her.

The Territory Ants were on the move.

Chapter 10

The Core Size upgrade must’ve taken longer than I had thought.  Despite it only feeling like a couple of hours had passed, the progress the Territory Ants had made since she last saw them was staggering.  They were only about a foot away now and were continuing to extend their tunnels in a downward spiral.  The farther they journeyed down, the longer it took them to dispose of the dirt and stone they were dislodging. After watching them work for a minute in horrified stillness, Sandra estimated that she had less than an hour before they punched through her ceiling – and she was far from prepared for that.

The one good thing she picked up from her observations was that the Ants weren’t digging through the harder rocks in their way; rather, they either utilized a small group of their kind to pick up and move the smaller ones or just bypassed them completely by making a detour.  Regardless of the choice they made, it was obvious that they weren’t strong enough to punch through the harder stone – which was something that Sandra thought she could take advantage of.

Remembering her initial conversation with Winxa, she recalled that the Dungeon Fairy had mentioned using her Raw Materials for shoring up her defenses.  Therefore, Sandra figured there must be a way to use what she pulled out from the walls in a different way than just creating monster seeds.  She realized that what she needed to do was protect her core from above.

Almost as if they were homing in on her Dungeon Core, she could see that the Ants’ final destination was going to end up directly above her.  If they broke through at that point, there was a possibility that they could drop right on top of her and destroy her Core as they dropped down.  Her relative safety floating in the middle of the air wouldn’t help in that situation.

Winxa!  Where are you when I need you?

Sandra’s plea went unanswered.  After about a minute of waiting for the nonexistent help from her Dungeon Fairy, she decided to improvise and try to do it herself.  Looking into the ceiling above her, she again observed its composition and saw that if she didn’t do something soon, the primarily dirt and tiny stones in between her and the Territory Ants would be essentially useless.

Can I turn it into a big slab of stone, maybe?

She wasn’t sure if she could do all that, but she could certainly try.  Reaching out to her Core while concentrating on the space above her, Sandra “grabbed” a few units of Raw Materials she had left over and shoved