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

He felt a slightly familiar tingling sensation run over his skin, the same thing he felt when he was trying to spark a fire to life.  This particular feeling didn’t come from him, however; he instinctively knew it was coming from the direction of the forge.  A second, rougher, sensation rolled over his skin as well, but he didn’t recognize it; nevertheless, he could tell it was coming from the grinding stones on the other side of the room.

The familiar and strange sensations lasted for nearly a minute, before he felt them intensify in less than a second, almost as if something was rushing toward him.  A brief spark of pain infused his whole body, but it was blessedly gone as if it had never existed before he could even cry out.  And then all the different feelings faded until he was left shaking and confused in the middle of the room.

* Sorry about that, I didn’t know it would feel strange.  I had only done that with my constructs before, and they can’t really experience any physical sensations.  Anyway, it’s done and it’s time to get started! *

Sandra started to show him how the unique, black glass-plated forge worked, and how to regulate the temperature inside by the placement of whatever he was working on.  It was strange not seeing a place for fuel and air circulation, but he had to admit that it was much easier not having to worry about it.  The grinding wheels were even easier to understand, and the fact that they wouldn’t wear down and have to be replaced was an even better tidbit of information.

The only problem was, he didn’t see anything for him to work with: no iron or even copper.  He figured he wasn’t going to learn much by working with stone, so he raised his concern to Sandra.

* Don’t worry about that, I’ve got you covered.  We’ll be working with all sorts of different metals, but I usually only create them when I need them. *

“Wait, you create the metal?”

* Of course, I am a dungeon after all.  I can’t create anything other than basic materials and tools, however, so weapons, armor, and even other finished goods like leather need to be crafted.  Which reminds me, I spent a little time making you something to replace the one I damaged with the bonding. *

Kelerim looked toward another wall where the Ape was pointing and saw another leather apron hanging up.  Looking down, he realized that the apron he had been wearing was essentially just scrap now and was barely hanging off of him, so he took it off and threw it into the corner, where it almost immediately started to dissolve and disappear.  Shaking his head at yet another strangeness of the dungeon, he picked the new supple leather apron off the hook and tied it around him, unsurprised that it fit him perfectly.  He had never had anything new before; his old apron had been the previous Blacksmith’s which he inherited when he took over the smithy.

* Clothes will have to wait until I have access to the raw materials to craft it.  I tried absorbing a scrap of your shirt I found up above, but it lacked the base ingredients I needed to even begin.  In the meantime, let’s get to it! *

A small block of pure iron appeared on the workbench and Kelerim smiled at the familiar sight.  Now this I can do.

Chapter 34

Over the last nearly three months of her life as a Dungeon Core, Sandra had forgotten about the physical limitations of Humans, Orcs, Dwarves, or any other race out in the world.  Her constructs needed no rest, could accurately strike over and over at a single spot without fail, and were – in comparison to their size, at least – fairly strong.

Kelerim, while not necessarily a weakling, was not.

To be fair, he had obviously been malnourished before he even arrived at her dungeon, and the two weeks of unconsciousness only exacerbated the issues.  However, with a steady diet of as much food as he wanted, his muscles started to fill out; she wished she had some variety to give him, but for the moment “meat” and water were the only things on the menu.  Fortunately, the singular source of nourishment didn’t seem to negatively affect him, so she wasn’t too worried.  Two weeks after he woke up, his muscles and stamina had already started to show improvement with his new diet and constant exercise.

That first day, though, the weakened state of his body forced him to give up any pretense of work within a half hour.  Luckily, she had already started hollowing out another small room that was located right off from Kelerim’s new smithy, with the thought that it would be his living quarters.  She hadn’t actually started making any furniture inside the room yet, but he didn’t care – he ended up just collapsing on the floor in exhaustion and slept the night away.

A bed was going to be hard to make, however; well, the bedframe would be easy, but the softest thing she could make was dirt, and that wasn’t much better than stone.  The only material she had any type of access to was Raw Bearling Hide, which she had successfully been able to make into Leather for his new apron.  She supposed it was the best alternative to bare stone, so she ended up making a thin mattress that was essentially just 5 layers of thick Leather piled on top of each other.

Leathermaking was fairly easy, though time-consuming.  And, unfortunately, she didn’t possess all the materials like salts which would help with the initial cleaning of it, but she could still do the best was able to.  First, she had to boil the raw hide, which would both clean it of any