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

“Why should we help them when they didn’t help us?” Violet demanded, as her people’s prejudices against the nearby races were instilled into her from a young age.  She was never told specifics of why they didn’t deal with the other races anymore, but it had obviously been significant enough to warrant instructions not to have any contact with any of them.

* If they are abandoned to their fate, which will happen sooner or later if nothing is done to help them, then it won’t be long before the Cores there will turn their attention to your people.  I’m not asking for anything now, especially since you are all still in danger of being wiped out yourselves, but I have a feeling every race will have to work together to stop themselves from being annihilated. *

Violet was incredulous.  Work together?  Impossible.  She didn’t think that was ever likely, but she was willing to humor the possibility if it allowed her people – and her friends that were in the dungeon with her – to survive.  Thinking of those trapped in the dungeon along with her made her look around for any sight of them.  “Where are Jortor and the others?” she asked, changing the subject.

* They are asleep down below; they worked hard to help finish the Hauler while you were sleeping. *

The mention of the entire point of her presence in the room made her feel guilty for sleeping while the others worked. However, one sight at the machine made her forget feeling guilty; instead, she felt pride at what her people had accomplished – because, as uniform and unadorned as it was, the Hauler was a work of art.

The tracks along the box were brand-new pure shining steel, perfectly placed along the gears that would allow them to turn.  The spikes that were usually attached to the outside of the tracks were reduced down to numerous nubs instead; there were more of them than usual, but they also appeared as if they would work even better – and likely not tear up the ground like Haulers usually did.  The Pilot Carriage was a perfectly sealed wooden box with no seams that she could see, with a thick steel undercarriage that was connected to the track axles.  There was a portion of the Carriage that was cut out, where someone could stand and turn the two steering wheels that were attached to the sides of the cut-out portion.  The steering wheels themselves looked to be made of a solid piece of lightweight wood, which would help whoever was controlling it turn the wheels without getting too tired.  There was also a heavy-duty-looking hitch connected to the steel undercarriage, which looked plenty sturdy enough to connect to the wagons it was slated to pull.

Now all she had to do was make sure it worked.

* Are you sure you’re up for this?  Do you need to rest more to recharge your energy? *

It still felt a little strange hearing a dungeon asking about her energy and well-being; it was quite different from the normal impression she got from dungeons being hungry, murderous entities.  Everyone knew they were “alive” in a sense, but she didn’t think anyone knew the exact extent of their actual natures.  If Sandra could be believed, of course.

“I’m as recovered from earlier as I can be.  Let me see what I can do,” she responded with only a little bit of false confidence.  Violet knew what she was doing, at least in theory if not with much practice, so she was pretty sure she would succeed.  How long it would take to achieve that success was another matter.

All in all, she was going to have to create three different enchantments – for each steering wheel.  Fortunately, they were much smaller enchantments than the Stasis Fields she had created that morning – or was it the day before by that point? – so they wouldn’t take as much energy to construct, but they were a bit more complex.  One enchantment would go on the steering wheel, another on the gear below that would turn the tracks, and the last would connect the two together.  The hardest part of all of it, however, was that she had to hold all three rune sequences together before she let it go, otherwise it would fail and fall apart.

Violet mentally prepared herself by going over the runes she needed to form, which had been drilled into her repeatedly when she was younger.  She had also had the opportunity to repair or strengthen many of the runes on the village’s War Machines, so the right pattern was fairly imprinted in her mind.  Without giving herself a chance to psych herself out, she climbed up on the back of the Hauler and looked at the left steering wheel; using both hands this time, she willed her Spirit elemental energy out to two index fingertips – one on each hand – and started drawing the rune sequences she needed.

She took her time, because she didn’t want to make a mistake.  Strangely enough, she could almost feel a physical presence intently watching her work, and she stiffened up and stopped for a moment; soon enough, though, she realized that it was probably just Sandra learning from her – which was confirmed a moment later.

* Sorry about that; I just learned that I can sort of “lean” on the Visitor Bond to connect to your movements a little more.  It’s entirely observational, however, so there’s nothing to worry about. *

Whenever someone said there was nothing to worry about, that usually meant that there was.  Unfortunately, there was nothing she could do at that point but to continue her enchantments; she had already gone that far, so she might as well finish.  Three different-sized concentric circles made of her Spirit energy floated over the steering wheel, and from that point she added smaller runes