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

Sandra barely heard her because she was splitting her concentration between two rapidly flying Shears that were approaching either village.  The Elven village was first and she frantically searched around, looking for any threats; after a few moments, she didn’t see any monsters streaming out of the forests on either side, so it appeared they were safe – at least for the moment.  She couldn’t help but think that either the Cores her Area of Influence was touching hadn’t noticed the difference yet, or – what she hoped was the reason – they were a higher Core Size than her and didn’t have access to it.  If that were the case, then it was likely that the ability to share their Area of Influence with a smaller same-elemental Dungeon Core was only for “contracted” Cores like Winxa said.

Moments after confirming that the Elves were at least safe, she sent other Shears towards the Orcs and the Dwarves, though from a distance they looked okay.  She didn’t have a chance to follow up with them, however, because her Gnomish-land-heading pair of Shears arrived seconds later.

And it was a scene out of a nightmare – at least for the small Gnome village there being attacked by monsters.

Sandra now figured out what had caught her attention: the rapid influx of Mana from the deaths of sentient beings.  Normally, when something died in her Area of Influence – especially aboveground – she had to physically have one of her constructs there to absorb it; in this case, however, the special circumstances with the same-element Cores sharing an Area of Influence automatically split anything picked up by either Core.  It was those large infusions of Mana that alerted her that something was wrong.

And it just kept rolling in as villagers caught outside the semi-fortified village were swarmed and killed by all forms of reptile-based Dungeon Monsters.  The Gnomes by themselves were, in general, only about 3 feet tall and weren’t necessarily “fighters” by nature; they had no chance against the surprise attack and viciousness of the larger monsters.  Based on the bodies left behind on the plowed field outside of the village, at least two dozen of them had been slain and their corpses left without another look.  The Dungeon Monsters weren’t attacking because they were hungry; they were attacking because all they wanted to do was kill.

As much as Sandra despised and was disgusted by what she was seeing, she could experience first-hand the nearly insane amount of Mana flowing into her; the rapid influx of the precious resource was exciting and almost euphoric-feeling, leaving her wanting more despite knowing where it was coming from.  She had experienced it before when the Orcs had attacked, but she had also taken her time absorbing the Mana they left behind so that she could properly utilize it – it hadn’t been coming in so quickly and almost incessantly.

Rather than waste it – because there was nothing she could do about what had already happened – she fed all of that Mana into her Core Size Upgrade stages.  Even though it was only half of what was collected from the dead Gnomes, it was soon more than enough to completely finish off all but the last of the 12 stages that were needed for the next upgrade.  The flood of Mana stopped shortly afterwards, as the monsters were temporarily stymied by the village’s defenses.

Large crocodiles, giant turtles, 30-foot snakes, and even smaller-but-quicker lizards surrounded the village, which – unlike the Elven and Orc villages – was protected by a low wall that filled in the spaces in between the squat-looking houses.  It was only about 6 feet tall, but it was enough to hold back the majority of the reptiles coming to kill them; in fact, the only monsters that could get past the sturdy-appearing bricked-stone walls were some lizards who could climb vertically using their sticky feet.  Fortunately, they were held back by the Gnomes’ other defenses.

Large crossbows attached to a tripod were brought to the flat roofs of the houses and hastily set up.  The Gnomes were efficient and worked as a well-oiled team to place the weapons; they aimed, fired, and reloaded them with stacks of deadly-looking 4-foot-long bolts with great effectiveness.   The penetration power behind the crossbows were impressive, as whenever they hit one of the large crocodiles, it would practically slide all the way through their bodies – and even occasionally pinning them to the ground.

The only downside, however, was that they took a while to reload; they had to wind up a ratcheting system that would pull the taut string back into position, which could take up to 30 seconds per bolt.  With a dozen crossbows in place on top of the houses, they were still doing quite a bit of damage, however – but it wasn’t enough.  There were…hundreds of different reptiles out there, and more seemed to stream out from the distant forest constantly.  It almost appeared as though the nearby Core had emptied its entire dungeon in the hopes that a swarm would get the job done.

And it might just work; there were now so many surrounding the walls that they were starting to somehow get organized and climb on top of each other, using their fellow turtles and crocodiles as a stairway to the top of the wall.  They hadn’t succeeded quite yet in reaching the top, but Sandra could see that it was only a matter of time.

“What are you going to do?” Winxa asked hesitatingly after she heard a brief description of what was happening.  Her facial expression was somehow a combination of fear mixed with hope.

I think you know the answer to that.

Chapter 13

Echo crouched comfortably against the side of the small hill and leaned up against the dry, rough rock to support a little of her weight.  An oddly