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

larger quantities that can be found here.  Thank you so much, Furbrea – I appreciate this more than you know,” Kelerim responded, taking the proffered bag.  The bag itself wasn’t large, so he tied it to his leather belt and walked out the door.

* Phew, I’m glad that worked, but you’ve got some explaining to do when you get back here— *

Sandra stopped talking in his head as he walked out the door and saw the same thing he did.  Unbeknownst to both of them, the warband had come back to the village, out of view of her Ironclad Apes who were keeping watch.

Chapter 36

Luckily, none of them seemed to be looking for him or even in his direction, but the majority of the 40-strong warband were drifting toward the central cookfires, where they were likely hungry after traveling for the last few days.  Kelerim shrunk back into the storage hut’s doorway, but he didn’t go back inside; while it might temporarily hide him from the eyes of the Warriors streaming through village, other than the promise of more swords coming her way, there was very little preventing Furbrea from pointing him out.  Well, that, and when he tried to open the door again, it was locked from the inside.

* You better get moving – it won’t take them long to see you.  Slink around the back of the building and head toward Orcrim; I’ll have my Apes meet you there. *

What followed was the most nerve-wracking experience in his life.  He had been beaten, starved, and ridiculed before, but the anticipation of being spotted by the warband was like someone was holding a knife blade to the back of his neck.  He wasn’t sure if he was just skilled at evading notice, or if it had been so long since anyone had seen him that they had forgotten what he looked like, but he managed to sneak around the back of the building and made it safely through the village unnoticed by everyone.  Including the normal villagers, who were pre-occupied with the return of the warband to care about his presence.

He kept walking steadily out of the village and kept going toward Orcrim, as he fought against the urge to run.  He knew from experience that running almost always garnered attention, even if he were running for innocuous reasons; he knew this, but he still almost did it anyway.  He estimated that he was nearly a half-mile away before he heard a metallic grinding noise coming from behind him.

* You certainly move fast when you’re motivated.  My Apes are almost there, hold for a moment while they catch up. *

Kelerim’s knees were weak as he stopped and turned around, and the tension he had been unconsciously holding in his shoulders eased as he saw the Apes coming.  Once they arrived, he gladly jumped back up on the back of what looked like the same one he had ridden to the village, though they all looked so similar it was hard to tell.

* I’m taking the long way back, as I want to stay as far away from the village as possible.  Hold on tight! *

Sandra was right – it took longer to get back to the dungeon than it had to get there in the first place, though he agreed that it was probably the best idea.  They swung far wide, so far that he couldn’t even see the village anymore; passing through the greener lands of Orcrim only made the stark barrenness of the wasteland even more apparent when they finally arrived.

The Bearlings were out in force in front of their cave, unlike when they left – the beasts either hadn’t see them or hadn’t cared about them earlier.  Fortunately, they didn’t make any move to attack, which probably meant they still remembered the futility of it from their previous assault.  Sandra told him a little about what happened, and he was doubly thankful that the dungeon that he had inadvertently run into ended up being a friendly one.

Sandra was ecstatic when he finally arrived back “home” to his forge and small room located right next to it.  He emptied the contents of the bag on the ground and it was immediately absorbed by the dungeon; he had seen both the absorption and creation of objects so many times over the last few weeks that it didn’t even faze him anymore.  After a few minutes of silence, he could hear the excitement in the Dungeon Core’s tone when she spoke to him.

* Ooh, this is good.  This is exactly what I needed— *

Kelerim smiled to hear the satisfaction in her voice, though he got a little worried when she abruptly cut off her communication.  “Sandra, what’s wrong.  Sandra?” he asked to the empty air of his forge.  She didn’t respond, but it wasn’t the first time something had caught her attention and she left him hanging; as a result, he went down to the kitchen to see if she had prepared any food for him while he was gone.  There wasn’t anything ready for him or even raw meat available for him to cook, so he picked up a stone cup from the table and got himself some cool, fresh water from the spigot.

His parched throat was instantly soothed as he started gulping the refreshing liquid, but he choked on it when Sandra’s voice came back.

* We’ve got a problem – you were followed. *

Well, that’s just great.

*         *        *

Sandra closed out the last of the notification screens she had received when she absorbed everything that Kelerim had brought back with him from his old village.  She now had access to some new Seeds, though it was going to take a little while to unlock some of the larger sizes.

Monster Seed Origination (New)

Name:

Raw Material Cost:

Mana Cost:

Min. Mana:

Max. Mana:

Tiny Salt Cube