The Crafter's Dungeon: A Dungeon Core Novel (Dungeon Crafting Book 1) Jonathan Brooks (sites to read books for free .TXT) 📖

emerge from his throat.  Kelerim expected to feel a bone-crunching impact at any time, but after a certain length of time, he realized that if he was going to hit, it would’ve happened already.

He kept his eyes closed, however, so it was a shock when the air buoying him up suddenly ceased, and he fell – three inches.  The surprise landing was enough to make him open his eyes as his weak body stumbled and went to his knees, but he caught himself before he kissed the stone with his face.  But he did it anyway, as he thanked the Creator over and over that he was alive.

* See, what did I tell you?  Perfectly safe!  Now, follow my Ape again, because you’re not done yet. *

Not done yet?  What does she— His question was answered before he even thought it, as he looked up to see the metal monkey falling down another hole, which he noticed had a small stone plaque nearby with a down arrow carved into it.  He looked around to see another hole with nothing next to it, as well as a denoted circular carving in the floor that had an up arrow on another plaque.  He seemed to remember a similar stone sign next to the hole he just jumped down, but he hadn’t paid much attention to it because there were more pressing concerns at the time.

Kelerim slowly got to his feet, wincing at a slight pain in his knee from his fall.  He resolutely walked over to the hole the Ape fell down and without hesitation he threw himself in.  Whatever nerves he still had left were completely numb, so freefalling a couple of feet and then getting picked up by strong wind currents barely fazed him anymore.  Everything that had happened to him since he woke up in the dungeon had been so far out of the realm of normal, that he was beginning to think he really was hallucinating.

He kept his eyes slit against the wind, so he was able to estimate a little better when he was approaching the floor.  The sudden cutoff still made Kelerim stumble a little, but he caught himself before he fell to his knees again.  Looking around, the room appeared almost exactly like the previous one, and he somehow wasn’t surprised to see the metal monkey jumping down another hole.  He’d gone that far already, so it didn’t take much motivation to follow after, though he did pride himself on staying fairly steady on the next landing.

Instead of going down another hole (which he did notice existed), Kelerim instead followed the Ape toward an exit tunnel.  It appeared almost exactly the same as the one he had come through up above; in fact, it could’ve been the same one except for the fact that he knew he had descended somewhere around 150 feet, so the likelihood of that being true was very small.  He considered that it was still possible that everything he saw was all a hallucination, but he was beginning to think that everything he had experienced was all real – he just didn’t have that good of an imagination.

The smell of cooking meat wafting through the doorway leading to another tunnel almost brought him to his knees again, but the thought of food kept him moving.  He followed the Ape into another room in a blur, as he sought out the source of the delicious smell, which he quickly found on a stone plate placed on a stone table close by.  Lots of stone around here, he couldn’t help but think inanely, as he sat on – what else – a stone chair.

Steam still rose from a slab of meat on the plate and Kelerim wanted to just shove it in his mouth, but he also noticed a stone cup of what appeared to be water next to the plate – and he practically dove for that first.  Fresh, cool water soothed his parched throat, only to form a heavy pool of the liquid inside his stomach that started to fill him up.  He stopped before he wanted to, because he knew from experience that his stomach couldn’t hold much after a prolonged period of near-starvation – and he wanted to fit some food inside.

* Oh!  I forgot to get you a fork, hold on a moment.  I’d get you a knife, but I can’t create one of those; I’ll cut it up for you, though. *

Kelerim was about to pick up the meat and start tearing at it, but a stone implement started to materialize out of thin air next to the plate.  It looked like a very short trident, which he had seen a few members of a warband use before, though it was rare; other than the resemblance to the weapon, he had no idea what it was or what it was used for.  Strangely enough, the sudden appearance of it didn’t startle him as much as he thought it probably should.  I really am growing numb to all of this.

His food was then manipulated in the same manner, but instead of something appearing, it was taken away.  Thin lines were removed from the round-shaped hunk of delicious-smelling steak, until he was left with over a dozen bite-sized pieces that he wanted to shove into his mouth.  Instead of using his fingers, however, Kelerim was conscious of the new stone trident next to his plate, and his tired mind finally caught on to its probable intended purpose.  He picked it up and used it to stab a piece of steak, lifting it to his mouth.

The chunk of meat was cooked perfectly, and though it didn’t have any extra seasonings, it was probably the best bite of food he had ever had in his life.  He quickly ate another three bites, barely stopping to savor the taste, but had to stop after only eating a total of four