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

she was waking up from an out-of-body experience after finishing the design and she realized that she had just spent more time in that phase than she ever had before.  She felt drained despite her elemental energy levels being near full from the constant regeneration from the Energy Orbs, but she had a feeling she had gone through her entire capacity more than once.

 The way she was feeling was completely at odds with how the Elf looked, who had apparently shown up at some point while she was working.  Echo appeared to be rested and refreshed, if a little flushed for some reason; she even had what appeared to be a genuine smile on her face, which was a little strange to see on the normally surly or sarcastic Elf.  Felbar was nearby and talking to her, and he had a small grin as well.

“…I’ll be sure to let her know; she’s been working really hard to finish these enchantments on the War Machine, and I’m confident she’ll be pleased to hear about it.  Truth be told, I think I need one as well—” Felbar was saying to Echo, before he saw Violet looking in their direction and cut himself off.  “Ah, you’re done!  There’s a pleasant surprise waiting for you when you’re ready for it,” he continued, still grinning from ear to ear.

She had no idea what he was talking about, but she wasn’t about to let herself get distracted.  The design for the linking enchantment was fresh in her mind and she was ready to test it out, for better or worse.  “I’ll check it out once I’m done with this – I don’t want to lose it.”

Turning her attention away from the others, she picked up the two tiny Energy Orbs with Limiter runes she had created earlier – one Spirit and one Natural – and placed them on the two little slots carved into the back of the War Machine; once they were in and secured with a simple metal flap, she started the process of creating the linking enchantment – for real this time.

After playing around with them so much during the design phase, the process went faster than she thought it would; as she quickly used her Spirit and Natural elemental energy to first create the Transfer sequences, she started to worry that she wasn’t going to have enough to complete it all despite being full.  Building one control module after another, she breathed a sigh of relief as she found that she indeed had enough, though it was close with her lower quantity of available Natural energy.  When she filled the last rune of the enchantment sequence, Violet started to tremble as she held it steady for a moment, before carefully connecting the entire thing to the two tiny Energy Orbs.

The entire sequence she had created – as well as the prior enchantments she had created on the model – flared brightly for a moment and she thought she had made a mistake somewhere; in less than a second, however, the light faded, and everything seemed to stabilize.  Violet found that she had collapsed to her knees at some point from the strain of holding everything together, so before it could get any worse she took a deep breath…and let the enchantment finish.

The rune sequences seemed to sink into the materials she had used for them, from the stone and leather harness, to the copper wires, to the wood and metal of the model itself.  The Apprentice Enchanter waited for something to happen and readied herself to scoot backwards out of the way…but nothing happened.  In fact, she wasn’t even sure it actually worked, until she reached a hand over to the right arm control module and placed her fingers on it.

The arm on the model shot upwards, until it was pointing towards the ceiling with its battleaxe attached to the end of its “hand”.  Violet slowly moved her fingers down the control module and watched as the arm came down and moved side to side as she continued to adjust her fingers. She felt a smile of her own slowly creep across her face as she realized what it meant.

I did it!  It worked!

There was still a lot of testing that needed to be done, of course, but it was a very good sign that nothing had blown up or seemed to have any other issues so far.  As she looked over to the applause of both Felbar and Echo, she felt a strange sensation pass over her.

* Congratulations, Violet!  Or should I say Journeyman Enchanter Violet – at least that’s what your name says on my Visitor list now.  I didn’t want to bother you before because you appeared to be determined to finish the enchantment – and what an enchantment it is – but like Felbar mentioned, there is a surprise for you I think you will like.  And you deserve to take a much-needed break after that! *

“Nice job, Violet!  I can’t wait to practice with it while you get washed up, and don’t worry – I’ll be partaking later,” Felbar said excitedly.

Washed up?  What does he mean?  Violet was so exhausted from the enchantment that she walked in a daze out of the workshop as Sandra told her where to go.  She had no reason to argue, but she had enough presence of mind to let the Dungeon Core know something important.  “I…don’t believe that I’ll be able to complete the enchantment on the larger War Machine by myself; that smaller model almost wiped me out all by itself, and I’m worried that the other will be impossible with my current energy levels.”

* Don’t worry about that; I had figured that it was going to require more than just one to complete it, even if it is simpler than what your Master Enchanters create.  I saw what you did to put it all