The Crafter's Defense: A Dungeon Core Novel (Dungeon Crafting Book 2) Jonathan Brooks (large ebook reader TXT) 📖

Therefore, she eventually decided to forgo making things large-scale and looked small-scale with the next option: Fey (Spirit).  The options included Pixies, Sprites, Brownies, and even Fairies – though nothing like the Dungeon Fairy race Winxa was.  Since they were much smaller than the other Dungeon Monsters on the list, the size difference was something she had to consider carefully; while they probably had more than enough dexterity to do even the smallest of detail work, it was quite possible that they would have the same problem as the Giants, with not enough elemental energy to create more than the smallest of enchantments.  Added to that, it was limited to only Spirit as an elemental option, which would severely limit what could be enchanted.  Still, the Fey Monsters she could choose from would likely be really adept at things like jewelry making, and even gem-cutting, as that required a very fine hand at the work.

Next up was the Goblinoids (Spirit/Fire) Classification, with Goblins of all sorts, including different combat-oriented types, but those ones didn’t particularly interest her.  What interested her the most was the Goblin Worker, which sounded ideal for what she needed – something that was used to the manual labor involved with crafting.  And – as much as the Gnomes didn’t want to acknowledge the similarity – the goblins that she had seen to the northeast near the Dwarfs really did look nearly identical in size and shape.  Of course, the Dungeon Monsters she had seen up there were greenish-brown in coloring, quite ugly, and probably had major hygiene problems – but that was something she could live with.  Whether or not they had the same type of natural dexterity and attunement to creating runic enchantments was something else entirely.

Sandra also looked at the other “all-element” option: Primordial.  She was disappointed to see only a Spider, an Ooze, a Wurm, and something called a Sandwalker – none of which sounded like something that could craft, let alone have the ability to enchant successfully.  There were other options in the Classification that looked promising, as well as the other ones she had narrowed down, but that was another problem – they required her to “Advance” her Classification in order to use them.

There were Gnolls and Kobolds, Nymphs and Dryads, Shadow Goblins and Hobgoblins, and even larger Giants that were accessible if she were to Advance her Classification; however, what interested her the most was the Unstable Shapeshifter under the Primordial option.

Do you have any idea what that is? Sandra asked Winxa about it, hoping she would have some sort of insight into it.  It was a significant investment of Advancement Points if she were to go that route (80 total AP), and if the Monster turned out to be useless, she would only have one more she could unlock before she was out of Points.  With a little time and effort, she knew it was only a matter of time before she received more Points, but she wanted to be smart on what she spent her AP on.

“None of those – just like with your constructs – are anything that I’ve heard of before.  I can only take a guess, but even that is likely to be ultimately wrong, so your best bet is to go with your gut – or intuition, since you don’t really have a body anymore,” the Dungeon Fairy replied apologetically.

Sandra decided that she wasn’t prepared to spend all those points quite yet, even if it helped her original Constructs Classification.  First, she wanted to test out the Advancement System to see if it was working; since it was untested by her and rarely used by the other Dungeon Cores in the world, she chose something safe that she thought would have an excellent chance of working: Goblin Worker.

Selecting the Goblin Worker from the Dungeon Monster Selection Menu was as easy as most other things in the Dungeon Core menus; all she had to do was concentrate on what she wanted to choose and the name on the menu blacked out as if it were no longer an option.  A slight shift of something in her Core that felt strange but not uncomfortable was the only indication that it worked – at least she hoped; looking at her current AP on another menu screen showed that she was down to only 84 now.  Nothing else happened for another few seconds, until—

New Dungeon Monster unlocked through Advancement!

Goblinoids (Spirit/Fire):

Goblin Worker now available!

Goblin Worker

Mana Cost: 50 Mana

50 Mana?  That didn’t sound so bad to Sandra, who didn’t really have too much experience with how much non-construct Monsters cost.  If it was the same size – or at least close to – the same size as the goblins she saw earlier, then 50 Mana was a steal; when she considered that her Segmented Centipede cost 100 Mana and was much, much smaller, then the ability for the reptile-based Core to make the Ancient Saurians made more sense.

“I’ve noticed that the flesh-and-blood Dungeon Monsters – that almost every other type of Core can create – are much less expensive than your constructs.  I’m not sure if it has to do with the material or what, but I have to warn you: they are more…fragile than what you’re used to,” Winxa broke into Sandra’s thoughts as the Dungeon Core was thinking about the disparity between the two types of Monsters.

Fragile?  I’m not too concerned about that; I’m not sending this Goblin Worker into battle, after all.  All she wanted it to do was use it to craft and enchant with – not help defend her dungeon; she had plenty that could do that already.

In order to find her new Dungeon Monster, though, she had to visit someplace new on her Core Selection Menu.

Core Selection Menu

Dungeon Classification:

Constructs

Core Size:

20

Available Mana:

3550/19558

Ambient Mana Absorption:

10/hour

Available Raw Material