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

comes to enchanting and rune creation, but as far as simple – and not so simple – manipulation of the elements for the casting of what they term ‘spells’ in various useful ways, no one can beat the Elves.  And going up against a dungeon filled with Nether-based traps and monsters, they could potentially pick apart the defenses like they were nothing.”

So why are they in danger of being wiped out if they’re so powerful?

“Don’t you remember what I told you?  They don’t reproduce very often, and though they are long-lived, each time one of them dies it’s almost a tragedy to the Elven nation.  Their decline mainly comes from the inability to replenish their numbers, not through something as simple as the inability to craft better weapons like the Orcs suffer from.”

Ah, that’s right.  If that’s the case, then what do you think I should do about—wait, don’t try to answer that.  I don’t want you to inadvertently say something you shouldn’t.

“Thanks,” Winxa said with relief.  “I probably would’ve said something out of reflex, and I really don’t want to experience that again.  What you do is up to you, but now you’re on a time limit.  I’d give you…two weeks or so.”

Sandra thought the same thing, though apparently unlike Winxa, she hadn’t a clue of what to do about it. She had been hoping to help the Elves out in the future – somehow – but things with them hadn’t really gotten off to a good start.  Though, she had to admit, it was a much better start than the one with the Orcs had been – Kelerim notwithstanding.  The problem with the Elves didn’t sound like it could really be solved by anything she could craft, either, because it sounded more of a “manpower” issue than not having the best weapons or even enchantments.

One more question for you, Winxa – and hopefully it won’t be classified as advice; if you think it is, then don’t answer it.

“Okay…there’s no harm in hearing it, I guess.”

Why aren’t the different races working together to fight against the dungeons?  It seems like that would be an ideal solution to the problem.

“That’s something I can answer without too much difficulty, though the answer is technically a long one – I’ll try to shorten it for you,” Winxa said happily, after hearing that it was something she could safely answer.  “Now, this is some of the information that I learned after I became assigned to be your Dungeon Fairy,” she warned.

In the beginning, Sandra remembered Winxa leaving the dungeon quite a bit more looking for information than she had lately, though Sandra was never precisely sure what the Fairy had found out – but some of it she was likely to learn now.

“Basically, after the races came together to defeat Wester—” Winxa looked sad at the mention of her former Dungeon Core’s name, though whether it was because she was sorry for what he did or because she was sorry he was destroyed, Sandra couldn’t tell— “they retreated back to their respective homelands.  Things were a little tense despite the cooperation, because even after the success here, they were forced to defend their respective nations against their “native” dungeons; since most of their concentration was on destroying the hugely powerful Dungeon Core that was threatening everyone, their local dungeons had also become relatively powerful as a result of inattention.

“This led to squabbling between the races as fault was passed back and forth, with accusations of the others not contributing enough to the war against Wester, and even to blaming the other races for destroying what was once a vital area of international trade and access between the different racial nations – namely, the wasteland you now find yourself in.  Normally, this place had been a kind of “off-limits” area for dungeons, which fostered many to travel between the different lands – which was actually the opposite of what the Creator had planned when the Dungeon system was put into place.  If you remember, it was developed to curb the conquering impulses of the races so that they would stick to and protect their own lands.

“Anyway, in comes Wester to upset the entire thing, and the resulting destruction of the area was – as crazy as it sounds – exactly what the Creator wanted, though the consequences of those decisions are still being felt today.  I would never say that the Creator made a mistake—” Winxa looked up as she said this for some reason— “but some choices weren’t exactly…the best.  Which was why I said that you’re likely here to fix some of that.

“So…years went by and more disagreements were had between the races, leading to a few fights, which then led to an increase in the number of dungeons bordering their lands.  This led each race to concentrate on their own people rather than trying to foster any type of discourse between themselves, and so now you can see where that got them.”

That…was the short version? Sandra asked humorously at the long discourse.

“Well, yes…I could’ve added another couple hours’ worth of information, like specific information on the disagreements between the Orcs and the Elves, and the Dwarves and the Gnomes, and—well, you get the idea.”

Thank you, Winxa – I was just messing with you.

“I figured.”

Getting the races to work together didn’t seem feasible at this point, so there didn’t seem to be a solution to help the Elves right then.  That didn’t mean she couldn’t still help the Orcs and the others, though to do that she was going to have to communicate with them somehow; in addition, communication might aid in convincing the Elves not to come after her – she could dream, right?  Nevertheless, opening up some sort of dialogue before things escalated too far was a bit of a priority now.

The only way she could think to do