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

Gnome wanted him to take the orbs followed by some words that meant nothing to him, the Dwarf said, “You want me to take these?  Why?”

The Gnome seemed to be listening to something in his head as he looked blankly past Gerold, before he nodded a couple of times in acknowledgement.  Then, strangely, he pulled up his shirt and revealed a very strange bronze-colored tattoo of what looked like a gear on his chest, accompanied by flecks of grey and red.  It looked strangely familiar – the flecks, not the gear – and it took him a moment to realize why.  Second-shield Bregan had Fire and Spirit as the elements he could access, and his armor reflected that with tints of red and grey, which was crazily similar to what he was seeing on the tattoo.

“I have no idea what that is, but do those colors mean you can use Fire and Spirit?” he asked, forgetting for a moment that they had a language barrier.

The old Gnome looked away like he was listening again, before he nodded again, pulling out a necklace that was hidden before behind his back at the same time.  Gerold saw that two of the glowing orbs were tied loosely to a leather string – one red and one grey, exactly what he had assumed it would be.  I still have no idea what is going on here, though.

It didn’t look like the Gnome or anything else there meant to hurt him, however; they had ample opportunity to kill him before he woke up, and with that Goblin—Gnome—machine he would’ve been dead in moments if it had attacked.  Therefore, with a shrug he took the again-proffered orbs, which was a little awkward considering that he already had one of each in his hands; he wasn’t sure if it was happenstance or by plan, but he now had matching pairs – two blue in his left and two black in his right.

An unexpected pain came from his hands and traveled all the way up his arms, before suffusing the rest of his body; it was so great that he screamed out and dropped to his knees as a bright light coming from his hands nearly blinded him.  The pain then ramped up to heights he had no idea it could reach, causing him to start to black out…but then everything stopped abruptly.

The cessation and lack of lingering pain made him fall to his hands as he tried to make sense of what had just happened.  Gerold realized he was breathing heavy as he hung his head, so he tried to slow his breathing down and take stock of the rest of his body.

* Well, now…that was new. *

Gerold whipped his head up and looked around at who had spoken to him – and in his own language, at that.  It was a distinctly female voice and it didn’t match what he had heard the Gnome say before, so he looked for someone – or something – else.

“Who said that?” he asked, quickly getting to his feet – and was amazed to find that all traces of the unimaginable pain he had just experienced was completely gone, now just a fading memory that he had trouble believing was real.

 * I’m sorry for the pain, it really shouldn’t have been that…intense.  I’m not sure exactly what happened—actually, that might explain it. *

As the voice was talking, Gerold realized he didn’t hear it with his ears – he heard it in his mind.  He brought his hands up to his head in an automatic response, but before he could touch it he paused; looking at his palms, he saw the same bronze-colored tattoo on each hand, though one had black flakes and one had blue flakes.  Not only that, but the orbs he had initially been holding were no longer being held – but were instead embedded inside his palms in the center of the bronze gear.

He opened and closed his hand over and over, expecting some sort of resistance, but despite most of the orb being in the middle of his palm with just the top showing, it didn’t seem to hinder any of his finger or hand motion.  He could still feel the slow regeneration of his elemental energy coming from them, though he had to admit that it felt more…natural?  Almost like he was missing a part of himself and was now…complete.

* That is interesting; I can see a very small trickle of my Mana being fed through the Visitor’s Bond into the Energy Orbs, somehow replenishing them as they transfer you some elemental energy.  It’s barely even noticeable to my natural ambient Mana regeneration, and I would doubt it would consume more than a single point of Mana over a whole day; if it’s doing what I think it’s doing, I think as long as you’re within my Area of Influence, those Energy Orbs embedded in your palms will continue to supply energy for as long as I exist.

 

*Violet, are you getting this?  I don’t know how this happened, but if we can harness this for other applications, we might be able to—*

“WHAT IS GOING ON?!  WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME?!” Gerold shouted, which immediately silenced the voice in his head and even made the old Gnome take a step back.  Everything was silent for a few moments, before the voice came back, though instead of the former excitement it instead sounded apologetic.

* I’m sorry, that was very rude of me, especially after all that you went through.  Again, I apologize for the unexpected pain and I assure you that I didn’t intend for all that to happen.

 

* Anyway, my name is Sandra and you’re standing in the workshop attached to my dungeon.  I know, I know, it’s probably hard to believe – but it’s true, and I’ll take you