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

they could do that, but she wasn’t an expert on insects.  Regardless, it meant that unless she found some way to stop the Queen – who showed no signs of stopping anytime soon – she was going to be fighting this territory war indefinitely.

A circular portal appeared in the air about two feet in front of her Core unexpectedly, and Winxa emerged with a frustrated look on her face.  The portal collapsed and disappeared as soon as the Dungeon Fairy was completely out, closing with a near silent *pop* that she hadn’t noticed before.

“You would not believe—what is going on!?”

Impeccable timing, Winxa.

Chapter 11

“Sandra, what did you do?” Winxa asked, shocked at the constant battle being waged against the invading Territory Ants.

It’s not my fault.  These Ants were directly above me and as soon as I upgraded my Core Size, they dug down here while I was helpless.

“Well, why haven’t you stopped them yet?”

First, I don’t know how, and second, they keep coming and there is no let-up.  Third, I am very limited in what I can do while they are attacking so constantly.

The Dungeon Fairy looked around at the defenses and defenders Sandra had set up, noticing the stone dome above.  “I can see that, and that was a good idea to create a stone barrier.  I would suggest doing that for your entire dungeon when you get a chance, though of course that will have to wait until it’s safe.  Which should be soon, as there should be an end of these insects soon.  How long have they been attacking?  A few minutes?”

Two hours, give or take a few minutes.

“Two…hours?  Wait…” Winxa said, shocked and confused, before looking closer at one of the Ants before it died and was absorbed by the Dungeon Core.  “Oh…well, you didn’t say these were Territory Ants – that’s a whole other situation.  They have the ability to reproduce non-stop until the threat to their territory is either dead or has vacated the area.  Neither of which will help you in this instance.”

I noticed.

“Well, then that just means that you’ll have to kill the Queen and then you’ll be fine.  Normally, your new unlocks at Core Size 5 should be more than enough to take care of the situation – so, what did you get?”

It felt like it had been days since she had “Sized-up” instead of just hours, which meant that she couldn’t even remember what she had upgraded to.  In fact, she realized she hadn’t even opened up her menu lately, as everything she had been done while creating new constructs and seeds was all performed intuitively when she thought about it.  Her instincts told her that it was probably supposed to be that way, and that the menu was just a way to get started.

Core Selection Menu

Dungeon Classification:

Constructs

Core Size:

4

Available Mana:

74/80

Ambient Mana Absorption:

.08/hour

Available Raw Material (RM):

250/400

Convert Raw Material to Mana?

150 RM -- > 6 Mana

Current Dungeon Monsters:

59

Constructs Creation Options:

4 (1)

Monster Seed Schematics:

2 (1)

Uh…I’m only at Core Size 4.

“Core Size 4?  Based on the size of your cave, and the number of monsters you have, you should’ve been at least Core Size 5 by now, or more likely Size 6.  I was gone for almost a month and—”

I didn’t want to go back to that empty place when I upgrade my Core, so I kept putting it off until I didn’t have anything else that I could do.  And most of my constructs you see were made after the attack, as I’ve been inundated with so much Mana that I had to use it on something.

“I guess that I can understand that.  The insane Dungeon Cores that I usually deal with aren’t bothered by the isolation that upgrading brings, so I didn’t look at it from your perspective.  However, Core Size 5 usually has beneficial upgrades, which you might be able to use to beat back these stupid Ants and get on with your dungeon expansion.”

But I’ll be completely vulnerable—

“That’s true, but remember, you have your Dungeon Monsters here and you can easily set them to keep doing what they’ve been doing.  That is their job, you know; although they are there to help you accumulate ambient Mana, their primary purpose is to defend your Dungeon Core.”

What Winxa said made sense to Sandra, although she was still hesitant to commence with the upgrade to Size 5.  Looking for another answer afforded no other solutions, unfortunately, so she gave in and decided to do it when she was ready.

Only after another hour of constant battle against the tenacious insects – and after creating an additional dozen Rolling Forces and Animated Shears – was she satisfied that she would be safe.  It had been at least a half an hour since one of her constructs had broken in “death”, so she was fairly confident they could last until she was done upgrading again.

With her figurative fingers crossed in an ancient symbol of good luck, she activated her Core Size upgrade and felt the sensations of the world around her fade.  The space she could still see and hear things was a little larger than last time, but she couldn’t detect much; a few sounds from farther away constructs killing Ants were all she could hear.  They were away from her Core trying to destroy the invaders near where they were entering her cave, which meant they were blessedly away from her vulnerable self.

Sandra was saved from mind-numbing emptiness when Winxa flew up and perched on top of her Core.  The Dungeon Fairy sat up there and watched whatever was happening outside of the Dungeon Core’s senses for what felt like hours, but in reality, it was probably no more than a few minutes.

“I…want to apologize for abandoning you for so