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

on a tour later if you want it.  In the meantime, I want you to know that you’re not a prisoner and the Visitor’s Bond – the tattoos on your palms – only allows me to talk to you and prevents my Dungeon Monsters from attacking you and the traps I have set up throughout from activating accidentally.  You’re free to go at any time, but I do have some questions for you if you don’t mind. *

“Free to go?  Go where?  If I go back to my village I’ll be shunned and sent back to the mountains as a failure; having lost my weapon, shield, and armor on my first solo day of culling the Golems, I can’t show my face back there.  And all because of whatever it was that you apparently did, it will be better if they just think I died – that way my family will be able to remember me as brave in falling in the line of duty instead of being incompetent,” Gerold angrily muttered, his voice rising gradually so that it was practically a shout by the end.  The fact that he was talking to a voice in his head that was purporting to be a dungeon had barely penetrated enough after he realized it was most likely its—her?—fault that he had lost everything, been nearly killed, and then had the most horrific pain go through his hands and body.

* I’m also sorry that you lost your armor and axe – but what were you doing here in the first place?  This place is so far from your lands that you couldn’t possibly have seen what was going on from there.  As much as I tend to take responsibility for a lot of things around here that may or may not actually be my fault, there was no way I could’ve planned for your presence here so close to my dungeon. *

That question made Gerold’s anger subside as the real reason most of that had happened became clear: it was his fault that most of what had been done to him because his curiosity forced him to follow his sensitive Nether sense.  The pain and “bonding” or whatever it was came directly from the dungeon, obviously, but he probably wouldn’t have even been in that situation if he hadn’t made the conscious choice to venture out into the wastelands.  As his mind cleared a little, he felt himself telling the voice – whether it was a dungeon or not was still yet to be determined – about what led him to be on top of that hill and watching the battle play out.

She—Sandra, she said her name was—seemed interested in his claim to be able to sense Nether energy even from a distance and asked a few more questions about what he was doing in the forest before he made his way to where he was now.  She also expressed concern that he had seen one of those skeletal rats so close to the forest’s border.

* I’m concerned because it means that the Undead Core knows about the existence of your people, whereas it was likely that it had no previous knowledge of the Dwarves at all.  From what I can see of its Area of Influence, I doubt that it knows your exact location, but if it isn’t stopped soon it’ll expand far enough to either reach your village or else be so close that it will be difficult for your people to move around the land anymore. *

“Even if I was there, we don’t have the Shieldmen to fight something like that; the few reinforcements we have from the stronghold might be enough if they could make it here in time, though it would probably end up with more casualties than we can afford to destroy the dungeon.  I have a feeling that they’d rather just abandon Nurboldar and try to find someplace else to farm,” Gerold said with a touch of melancholy.  He had just barely started on his duty to the village and the Dwarven Kingdom, and already it looked like it was over for the relatively quiet existence of everybody there.  He knew Second-shield Bregan would be disappointed, because the village was supposed to be a place he could train newcomers and semi-retire in a place that didn’t see much fighting.  Heavy fighting, that is.

* I’m working towards destroying it myself, but I’ve had a few setbacks lately; the use of the Gravitational Devastation Sphere – while definitely being more destructive than I had originally thought it would be – has actually given me an opportunity to fight back.  It’s going to take some time and constant attrition against the other Core to get to the point where I can eliminate it, though, so it might not be in time to stop it from reaching your people.

 

* On that note, however, I have some ideas…*

Gerold listened to Sandra talk, growing more incredulous as the minutes rolled by and the dungeon mentioned some unbelievable things – as well as an invitation.  “Before I commit to something like what you’re proposing, I want to see exactly what you’re talking about.  Let’s go on this tour you mentioned before; I think I trust you enough not to kill me outright by this point, but what you’ve said is too hard to believe without seeing it with my own two eyes.”

Less than a minute later, Gerold found himself following one of the strange steel-made apes that he had seen before, hoping he hadn’t been too trusting and made a poor decision.  Who would’ve thought I’d ask to go deeper into a dungeon, especially since I’m unarmed and unarmored.  Regardless of the craziness of it, he found himself looking forward to seeing if everything the voice said was true.

Chapter 22

The Dwarf was surprisingly receptive to the whole situation of Sandra being a dungeon, considering what had just