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

he started to sweat in his full tanned Leather outfit.  It wasn’t the most comfortable, but it was all he had; his cloth shirt had essentially been destroyed when Sandra had “bonded” with him and he had gotten a massive bronze-colored gear burned into his chest, and his pants had been practically threadbare before he ever left the village.  Cloth, she couldn’t make; Leather, on the other hand, was plentiful.

Although it wasn’t the best for traveling during the heat of the day, it would offer a little bit of protection if he was attacked – either in the wasteland or in the village of Grongbak.  He wasn’t too scared of being waylaid on his journey, though, because he was traveling with some powerful allies on his side.  Not only that, but the Ironclad Apes moved quickly and tirelessly over the barren landscape, which sped up travel exponentially.

He felt a little foolish sitting on top of one of them, with his legs wrapped around its barrel-shaped torso, but if it meant he didn’t have to walk the entire way, then he was willing to look silly for the sake of expedience.  Which made a big difference, because they approached the village’s outskirts even quicker than he expected.

It turned out that Sandra’s dungeon was much closer to the village than he had realized.  During Kelerim’s exhausted and thirst-ridden wanderings, he thought that he had traveled tens of miles, but the reality was that it was just over two miles away.  He had to admit that he didn’t have the best sense of direction, so it was more than possible that he had turned in circles while he had been out there before.

All of which meant that they arrived within an hour; it only took that long because he hadn’t been entirely sure of the right heading, so they had needed to search around for the village for a while before they found it.  Fortunately, riding on the back of tireless runners made the distance seem insignificant when you didn’t have to run it yourself.  They hadn’t seen anything on their way, or at least nothing thought them easy enough prey to bother them, so Kelerim was encouraged.  Maybe this won’t be so bad.

About 500 feet away from the village and just out of sight behind a small hill, he jumped off the back of his Ape-based transport and crawled up the stone and dirt mound, looking at the village at the edge of his vision.  He couldn’t see any of the guards on the wasteland side, but it was probably because nothing threatening ever came out of there; most of the danger they might encounter would come from the dungeons located a dozen miles out to the northeast and southwest.  With the wasteland to the southeast and the relatively safer rest of Orcrim to the northwest, they only had to worry about two directions.

Fortunately, at least in his time there, the closest dungeons were small enough that they never saw any dungeon-based monsters near the village of Grongbak.  After talking with Sandra and learning a little about how her “Area of Influence” increased and how “Upgrading Core Sizes” worked, he now knew that it could be just a matter of time before they expanded enough to reach it.  Just like Sandra’s dungeon was now within range.

Kelerim felt a little bad about thinking that this whole thing was just an elaborate ploy by Sandra to kill everyone inside his old village just like a normal dungeon did; however, after looking at the situation, if that really was her objective, she could’ve explored the wasteland herself with her constructs, found the village, waited until dark, and then sent in a dozen of her Apes to slaughter everyone.

The fact that he was there and alive in the first place lent credence to her story, as well as her superior crafting knowledge and the appearance of her dungeon.  It was unlike any other that he had ever heard of – and he doubted the world had ever heard of – and he was willing to take the risk of allying himself with her in her supposed “purpose”.  He thought that it was a worthy endeavor and would potentially save many lives, but it was still a dangerous proposition overall.

And it all started right here.

One of the metal monkeys handed him the leather-wrapped bundle of steel swords, complete with sheaths, and he nervously walked toward the village.  He looked down at his leather chestpiece and saw one of Sandra’s Animated Shears sticking out from his one pocket that he possessed.  It was the only thing that looked “normal” enough not to cause a stir, so it would allow her to keep any eye on things.  Plus, it could help defend him if it were necessary.

* Are you sure you want me to keep the Apes so far back?  It will take at least a minute for them to reach the village if you’re in trouble. *

“Yes, it’s better to risk potential danger for myself at first than to incite the entire village at the appearance of your constructs.  Don’t worry, at the first sign that things are going to go bad, I’m getting out of there,” Kelerim whispered to the Shears in his pocket.

She didn’t respond, but he wasn’t really expecting her to; they had discussed many times what was going to happen, though he was still nervous despite the planning.  Walking back into the village as if nothing was different was going to be hard, but he steeled himself and tried to affect a casual walk as he crossed the distance to Grongbak.  Sandra had told him that, from her experience as a Human while she was alive, the best way to blend in was to act like he belonged there.

Of course, it was hard to blend in when he was shorter than everyone, had hair all over his head and face,