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

to upgrade than multi-element ones at higher Core Sizes.  I’ve rarely stayed with Cores past Size 20, and those that I remember doing so had multiple elements; I’ll have to check with the other Dungeon Fairies to see if that theory is true or not, but I suspect it is.”

That’s not good if it’s true.  Though, it would certainly explain how quickly this Undead Core has expanded, as well as the rapid expansion of the Reptile-Classification Dungeon Core I was forced to destroy.  Thanks, Winxa.

Sandra briefly thought about trying to warn the Dwarves at that point to watch out for Undead, but she dismissed it after she realized they would still have a major communication barrier preventing such a warning.  Besides, when she looked at their village and their efforts against the Golems – animated dirt-and-stone figures of different sizes, as well as even a few that she hadn’t noticed before that appeared to be made of gravel – on one side and Goblins on the other, she saw that they were well equipped to take care of any Undead they found.

From the looks of them, the Dwarves seemed to be equipped with superior weaponry and armor – which was only to be expected with their Master Blacksmiths – that practically glowed with elemental energy.  As opposed to the Orcs who used energy to enhance themselves, the Elves that manipulated energy outside of their bodies to cast spells, or the Gnomes that enchanted everything they could lay their hands on, the Dwarves used their energy in the process of crafting their armaments.  The armor and weapons then used the energy from the ones using them to empower themselves; it was similar to enchanting in some respects, but the energy was infused in the crafted metal instead of through enchantment runes and thereby stronger – and more limited at the same time.

From what she understood, if the energy was completely drained from the armor or weapon – and by extension the Dwarf – then the metal would start to degrade and fall apart, rendering it useless.  So, while their armor was stronger and could withstand impacts better than all but the most powerful enchantments, as soon as the energy ran out the Dwarves would be next to defenseless. In the same light, while their weapons were lighter-weight in terms of swinging them around, as well as being sharper and packed a punch when hitting Dungeon Monsters, once they ran out of energy…that was pretty much the end of the fight.

Enchantments, while less powerful in general, were much more versatile and didn’t rely on the energy of the user to exist; and if they ran out, they usually didn’t take the material the runes were enchanted onto with them as they deactivated.  She could see the benefits in having energy-infused metal, though, because it made the wielders quite powerful, especially when she watched one of the dwarves out culling Goblins instantly light the edges of his double-bladed axe on fire as he lopped off an arm and then a leg from a surprisingly large and strange-looking one.

“It was probably a Hobgoblin, which are a bit larger than your normal run-of-the-mill Goblin,” Winxa answered her question when she told the Fairy about what she saw.  “And the Dwarves can also use their energy to produce effects like that fire you saw in their weapons and even their armor, as long as it matches what elements they have access to.  You can usually see a slight tint to the metal depending on which element each piece of their armament was crafted with, not unlike those gear tattoos you formed on all your Visitors.”

Now that she was really looking, Sandra could definitely see that the armor and axe the Dwarf was carrying had a noticeable reddish tint to it, especially when she looked at some of the others she saw that were fully equipped.  She saw some green, brown, blue, and even a very slight hint of yellow in one of them, which she assumed was for Natural, Earth, Water, and Air; she didn’t see any black, white, or grey, but they might be out in the forest culling where she couldn’t see them.  Regardless, Sandra thought they were well equipped to kill any Undead they saw with their access to various elements, though if they were forced to fight too many for a prolonged period of time they could have some issues.

It was only when the Undead Core upgraded again that they would be in danger of direct attack.  Though, unless they expanded their AOI by another few miles, then the Dwarves’ actual village – if not the surrounding open lands – was safe for the time being even with another upgrade; Sandra and her own dungeon, because of the specific placement of the Undead Core and her relative proximity to it, might be in danger of being attacked.  She wasn’t overly worried despite the danger, because her dungeon and traps should be more than powerful enough to destroy whatever came her way.

She wasn’t going to take that for granted, of course, as evidenced by the way those Elite Elves almost destroyed her Core.  Luckily she had some time before that became a real possibility so she planned on adding some improvements to what she had…but she doubted that the Undead-based Core would even attack her unless she provoked it – there wasn’t a lot of benefit in doing so.  The Reptile-based Core had attacked her because she had directly intervened between it and the Gnomes, taking away some of its “meal”; if the Undead Core did the same to the Dwarves, that would likely happen again, but she was hoping to destroy it before it got to that point.

The major danger was in the wastelands now, as the AOI of the other Core had greatly expanded inside of it; most of the previously clear route to the Gnome lands was cut off