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

mainly talking about her – but now she was more interested in what they thought of her dungeon.  And, to be frankly honest, she was a little worried about the two Ancient Saurians that were still heading towards her dungeon.  Well, she was worried…until she checked on their progress and saw that they turned around and were heading back towards where they came from.

Winxa, why would those Saurians be turning around?  I would’ve thought that the temptation of the Gnomes here would keep them coming, Sandra made sure to send her thoughts towards the Dungeon Fairy alone.

“I tried to tell you before, the other Cores are insane and homicidal, but they aren’t stupid.  You completely annihilated his force back at the Gnome village and then destroyed their reptile army here without suffering many casualties yourself; after getting a look at your dungeon and your traps, they probably decided it was a lost cause.  I’m sure they ended up gaining more Mana today than they had in the last decade, so it makes sense if they want to pull them back,” Winxa said matter-of-factly.  “Especially if they are ready to upgrade their Core Size; you probably eliminated many of their actual ‘dungeon monsters’ defending their dungeon but having two massive Ancient Saurians standing guard outside will go a long way to defending themselves.”

She hadn’t thought about that before; it was still strange to think of the other Cores as thinking beings instead of mindless homicidal floating stones, especially given what she knew about them and their history.  And not “throwing good money after bad” was a common expression while she was a merchant; the other Core had already wasted a significant amount of Mana with the failed invasion of her dungeon.  All of the Monster Seeds left over from the reptiles dying had already been collected and deposited in her upper VATS room, where she was planning on bringing them down later.  Unlike in the Gnome village, the reptile Dungeon Core wasn’t able to collect them for reuse.

So, with that threat at least temporarily off the table – for now – she turned back to her immediate problem: Gnomes. Sandra had some ideas of what she’d like to do with them if they were willing, but she knew that she would have to explain a few things to them first.  She wasn’t looking forward to that conversation.

Before she could interrupt them and broach the subject, however, a woman’s scream from somewhere captured her entire focus and attention.  She discovered it immediately aboveground near her entrance, through one of her Mechanical Wolves standing sentry nearby.  Sandra immediately instructed two of her nearest AMANS to propel themselves downwards, where they sliced cleanly through the snake latched onto Echo’s calf muscle, destroying all three in the process.

The Elven woman fell to the ground and convulsed a few times; Sandra could see her struggling to rise but failing to find the strength. Judging by the coloring of the snake, she guessed that Echo only had minutes to live; the Gnome that was bitten by it back at the village had been struck in the face, so the venom inside the snake’s fangs had gone straight to his more vital areas.  The Elf wasn’t foaming at the mouth quite yet, so Sandra thought she might have a little bit longer before it was too late.

One of her Ironclad Apes quickly ran out of the dungeon’s first room and threw her over its back in a hurry; Sandra didn’t have time to be gentle.  It ran back inside and went immediately to the VATS room Sandra had opened up and deposited her a little more gently on the floor.

Is there something about my dungeon that draws unconscious people, or am I just lucky?

Chapter 23

Sandra knew she didn’t have a lot of time; as soon as her Ape put her down, Echo started to foam at the mouth.  Thinking quickly, she had the Golem still there walk to the Elemental Orb pile; Sandra had to guess correctly because she didn’t think she’d have more than one or two tries to get it right.  Thinking about the Elven woman’s abilities and what type of elemental energy she used, Sandra remembered seeing the white of Holy energy dissipating after she had dropped her invisibility; her superior speed had to be either an infusion of Earth to her body to increase her muscle strength or an outward application of Air to reduce the resistance as she ran.

Remembering what Winxa had said about Elves being the masters of manipulating the elements – but not necessarily inside their bodies like the Orcs did – Sandra reasoned that Air was the likely one.  Grabbing an Air and a Holy Large Elemental Orb, she brought them over and placed them on Echo’s chest – which she immediately bucked off as she convulsed violently again.  Picking them up via her Golem, Sandra looked for a solution; the woman was in her death throes and she didn’t think she could get them to stay anywhere on her body…well, almost anywhere.

Knowing that she probably couldn’t breathe anyway, Sandra shoved them in her mouth and pushed them to either side of Echo’s inside cheeks.  Then, before they could escape or be involuntarily spit out, she activated the Dungeon Visitor Bond for the third time on someone unconscious in her dungeon, hoping for the woman’s sake that she had guessed correctly.

Just like the bond with Kelerim, 1,000 Mana and 5,000 Raw Materials flowed out of her Core and into Echo’s still-convulsing body.  The now-familiar bright light erupted from around her face and even Sandra had to look away; when it was done, the Elven woman was completely still – and with a bronze-colored gear tattoo visible on each cheek.  She didn’t bother to check, but she wouldn’t be surprised to see white Holy flakes in one and grey Air flakes in the other.

Immediately,