The Crafter's Dilemma: A Dungeon Core Novel (Dungeon Crafting Book 3) Jonathan Brooks (me reader TXT) 📖

want it to go through.”  More than half of the Machine was made from wood to reduce the weight of the entire construct, which prevented too much stress being put on the legs and lower joints; it also prevented it from being too top-heavy, which could result in the War Machine falling over when quick movements were made.

Twisting and turning the wooden torso was important for combat, otherwise the construct would be extremely limited in how it could attack and defend itself. That was why Violet thought it was a valid concern about the oak being put under too much stress; while wood actually bent and flexed better even than Titanium, it also tended to show wear-and-tear faster because of that for some reason.  As she should’ve known, however, Sandra seemed to have an answer for that, too.

* I’m going to be working on that soon; I’m planning on having access to some Ironwood within the next few days, so I should be able to replace all of the oak as well. *

That was great news, but it also meant that it would delay the completion of the War Machine and consequently their departure for home.  She felt it was imperative that they get back to their lands to let everyone know the current status of everything going on near the wastelands, as well as the news they had learned about the other races.  While Jortor and the others had departed and were likely already halfway back to the capital, they didn’t have all of the information.  More importantly – at least to Violet – was the need to get back to a place where everything felt…normal.

Not that the Dungeon Core hadn’t done what she could to make them more comfortable, such as giving them a place to sleep and providing food to eat – even if it was a bit limited in variety (meat and fruit only went so far).  Violet was starting to dream of a delectable vegetable stew served with hot, steaming bread that had a crispy outer crust and soft delicious inner portion—

Anyway, despite all that, being enclosed in what was essentially a furnished cave wasn’t something that Gnomes could get used to; she missed being able to see the sky whenever she wanted to and was tired of it being slightly cool wherever she went inside the dungeon – bundling up with some extra clothes (that Sandra also provided) wasn’t really enough to make her comfortable.

Then there was the fact that when they had to…defecate…they had to go to a private corner in another room and do their business; the ability the dungeon possessed to completely absorb and get rid of their waste was beneficial, but it was just another thing that made the whole place…strange.  Violet was more than ready for some normalcy and to really step back and evaluate all that she had personally learned from her experiences so far.  Not only that, but she would try to kill one of those massive lizards that attacked her village with her bare hands if it meant she could take a bath.  She would even settle for a dip in a freezing cold lake at that point – and would throw Felbar in as well, because she was pretty sure he stunk more than she did…or at least that was what she was telling herself.

The Elf hadn’t appeared yet, but Violet honestly couldn’t blame her for not being eager to go in the morning. Echo was obviously frustrated by the lack of progress trying to teach Sandra how to manipulate elemental energy in order to cast spells, and after the painful blinding light from yesterday the Elf was probably reluctant to suffer through something like that again.  Violet vividly remembered how much it had hurt when the light seemed to burn through her eyes and into her head – and she had been on the other side of the room; she couldn’t even imagine what Echo had experienced being so close to the light’s point of origin.

For herself, however, the Gnome was excited to get to work.  They were very close to finishing the War Machine model’s enchantments and today would likely see if everything would work properly together.  They still had the linking enchantment to do – which Violet had to admit intimidated her a little – and to test out if two different-element Energy Orbs could be used on the same enchantment to power.  They had finished everything else the day before and Felbar had tested each enchantment individually…now they just had to put it all together.

Violet listened as Sandra communicated in detail her vision of what needed to be done to tie all of the enchantments together, and it was certainly a daunting task.  Not only that, but it was going to be different from what Felbar was used to when controlling a War Machine; it was necessary that it be different because it wasn’t all on the same enchantment sequence like the Master Enchanters back home could make, but it would also take some adjustment on the veteran Warmaster’s part.

In fact, it wasn’t until she was really designing the enchantment sequence in her mind that she realized what the biggest difference was: there was no need for the pilot to supply Spirit energy at all.  Instead of activating each of the rune sequences with an extremely small amount of energy from the pilot, it would all be controlled by the linking enchantment – which would in turn be powered by a Large Spirit Energy Cube.  What it also meant – and what gave her a moment’s pause at the implications she suddenly saw stemming from it – was that anyone could pilot the War Machine, not just those Gnomes with access to Spirit energy.  It would still require them to learn how to manipulate the new runes to get them to work, but with the improvements they were making,