The Crafter's Dominion: A Dungeon Core Novel (Dungeon Crafting Book 5) Jonathan Brooks (books that read to you txt) 📖

the background wished to do so), as it would only make things worse for everyone else.  Without more help from external sources, the only thing Sandra could really do was defend, contain, and pray to the Creator that it would be enough.  She only really had to hold on until the new Dungeon Cores – created shortly after the Reptile, Undead, Avian, and Unicorn dungeons were destroyed – reached Core Size 25, after all.  Not so difficult, right?

Except, at another glance at the new Cores’ progress, she saw that they were nearly ready to emerge from their underground domains.  Based on how quickly they were accumulating Mana from their dungeon alone – a maximum of 16,000 per hour, depending on their Core Size – they had likely already upgraded a dozen times or more.  Once they broke free to the surface and sent their Dungeon Monsters roaming about, they would start to receive even more Mana to upgrade.

Which was, contrary to the other Cores attacking Sandra, exactly what she wanted them to do.  At the moment, none of them had large enough AOIs to threaten nearby settlements, nor would they until later. The 2 near the Gnome homeland wouldn’t threaten anyone for a while, because the village had already been destroyed; the other pair near Grongbak, however, would need to be dealt with eventually, but at the moment they were safe.  Which was why she wanted all of the new Cores to stay exempt from the culling of Monsters, because it would allow them to upgrade even faster.

Of course, given a week or two of unfettered expansion, even the new Cores would become a problem that would only add to Sandra’s responsibilities.  Eventually, their AOIs would grow enough to reach her dungeon, and she could be looking at being attacked by 8 Cores at the same time.  That wasn’t a pleasant thought, because she was having a hard enough time with half that number.

How am I going to keep up with that without extra help?  The quick and short answer to that question was that she couldn’t.  But that didn’t mean that there wasn’t any help available; it just meant that she would be taking a risk in the long-term.  Like my father always used to say: “A smart merchant plans for the future; a desperate merchant reacts in the moment.”  And right now, I’m quite desperate!

It was time to talk to Kelerim.

Chapter 12

“Uh, no – it doesn’t work like that.”

 

* Well, why not? *

“Because they only respect strength, and that’s about the last thing that I represent.”

Sandra had to agree, as much as it probably pained Kelerim to admit that.  Though he wasn’t a fighter, the Blacksmith had other skills, and he had improved over the last few days, even without her help.  No longer an apprentice in his skillset, though nowhere near a master, he could create quality steel swords quite rapidly; while she had been “out of touch”, he had spent his hours making more and more swords to trade for mercenaries, and his practice and determination had definitely seen progress.

 

* So, just because he was your father, doesn’t that mean his position as Warlord will pass on to you now that he’s…gone? * 

As much as she was glad Rothgar Bloodskull had died in her dungeon, ending his threat against her Core, the Orc leader still had been Kelerim’s father. 

“No. Blood relation would only give me a chance to prove myself as his heir before outsiders started feuding over the remains of his estate and power.  As soon as the news gets around about his death—” Kelerim continued, with only the slightest hitch to his voice— “the other Warlords will start fighting to take over territory and possessions – including the rest of his Warband.”

 

* Warband?  I thought I killed them all when they attacked. *

The Blacksmith chuckled, as though the deaths of over 3,000 Orcs were of no consequence.  “No, that was only a small portion of his greater Warband.  He might have wanted to get revenge for the death of his son by destroying you, but he wasn’t about to abandon Orcrim and his responsibility by emptying his territory of Warband members.  I don’t know exact numbers, but I think it’s safe to say that he left an additional 50,000 behind to protect his territory.”

50,000?!  That was hard to believe, but then Sandra remembered that numbers had never been the Orcs’ problem.  Arming 50,000 Orcs with substandard and poorly made weapons was probably the equivalent of 500 fully armored Dwarves or 50 Gnomish War Machines.

But 50,000 mercenaries were something else entirely.  Of course, she didn’t need that many – nor could she equip that many, even if she did – but extra help was there for the taking.  If she could figure out how to reach out and apply that help, that is.  Naturally, this was why she’d spoken to Kelerim: to see if he could provide influence over them by virtue of his birthright.

 

* Is there anything you can think of that might help me out here?

Kelerim started to shake his head but stopped as he hammered down on the sword he was working on. Even when she first contacted him, he had kept on with his craft despite his joy at hearing she was back. His dedication making her inwardly smile.  “I was going to say no, but there might be a way.”  He didn’t say anything for a moment as he moved the weapon back to the forge to heat it up.

 

* Yes? *

“Sorry, just needed to finish that,” he said, stepping back from the intense warmth exuded by the forge. He watched the color of the metal change as it heated up.  “Well, I may not be able to take over the Warband, but I can try to appoint a replacement.  They would