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

interesting aspect of her trap was that it required someone to trigger it by stepping over the threshold into the room – and then staying inside; if they left, however, it reset after 5 seconds so that it wouldn’t use all of its accumulated Mana up all at once.  Her initial thought when she made it was to prevent someone from sticking their foot over the trigger and then stepping back, waiting for it to run itself out – but all her precaution brought now was the sight of her 8 Totems in plain view for the assembled Orcs.

“This dungeon shouldn’t be here, but I can see now that it is exactly what this is.  We need to destroy it before it becomes larger; leaving it for even a couple of days might make it too powerful to take down later.  And allowing it to stay here is out of the question, as we can’t afford to maintain this dungeon’s monster population in addition to the ones we are already doing.  This should be pretty easy, though, because it appears as though this is a newly opened dungeon,” Razochek told his warband.

This isn’t good – why won’t they just go away?

“Why do you think its newly opened?” one of the Orcs Sandra hadn’t heard speak before asked from the back of the group.

“Because we didn’t see any type of dungeon monsters aboveground.  They always attack when you get near their entrance, and those Bearlings were definitely not part of this dungeon.  My guess is that it just recently opened up to the outside and hasn’t been able to spawn any monsters capable of taking out those beasts we just slaughtered.  If that’s the case – and I believe it is – then other than a few tricks inside here, we won’t find much resistance,” the Orcish warband leader stated confidently, before urging his subordinates on.  “Alright, we’re pushing ahead – standard formation, but give yourself some room to swing; I don’t want anyone hitting each other.  Thornhix, you stay back until this room is cleared, as you’re injured.  And…go!”

And just like that, the Orcs rushed into the first room, which triggered the Nether trap again, and started swinging wildly around at what they couldn’t see.  Three of her Basher Totems were destroyed within the first three seconds, but the rest managed to regroup and focus their efforts on a single Orc.  Powerful blows rocked the unlucky and blind warband member, hitting him mainly in the sides because it was the easiest to reach, but the Orc withstood the majority of the blows with only minor damage.  He must be utilizing his elemental energy to make his body tougher. 

With twenty arms bashing away at his defenses, though, the strong Orc couldn’t hold up his defense forever; in less than 10 seconds, his ribs had taken one too many blows and his defense cracked, along with a large portion of his ribcage.  He collapsed on the floor and the Bashers followed up their advantage and beat the rest of his life out of him.

Sandra hated watching her constructs take a life of one of the sentient races; she wanted to help them all against the dungeons and killing them quite defeated the purpose.  She wished she could just speak to them and tell them to stop, but there was no way to communicate with them – except through an intermediary.  Kelerim was slightly hesitant to throw himself into the thick of battle, though, despite his insistence that he help protect the dungeon.

“You want me to what?  I doubt that they’d listen to me, especially if Razochek is there – I’m the last one he’d listen to.  However, if that’s what you want me to do, I’ll do it,” he told her.

Sandra hesitated for only a moment as she watched the Orcs descend on the Basher Totems that had just killed one of the warband members.  They swung blindly but effectively, as they homed in on the sounds they had been making; as a result, they managed to destroy the rest of her constructs without suffering any more casualties or even injuries.  When it was obvious that they were going to keep going even after the death of their comrade, she sent Kelerim up.

He ran to the VATS and shot upward fairly quickly; the Air traps sent him aloft through a similar hole to the ones that allowed him to descend, and another one would catch him when he passed through to the other room and gently deposit him off to the side.  It was those traps that she had the hardest time designing, because the force needed to propel him upwards was tricky to get right; she had ended up smashing dozens of constructs against the upper ceiling until she learned how to regulate the force dependent upon the weight of whatever was being lifted.

Kelerim moved so quickly that he arrived at the top just moments after the Nether trap in the first room ran out of Mana and had to recharge.  He arrived at the second room as Razochek and his diminished warband entered the tunnel leading from the first room.  Sandra could tell he was nervous, but her friend stood as confidently as he could as the Orcs got closer.

“Kelerim!  What are you doing here in a dungeon?” Razochek stopped before entering the room, his surprise at seeing the one he had chased out of the village obvious on his green face.  “And how are you still alive?”

Kelerim nervously cleared his throat, but then spoke confidently.  “Go back before it’s too late.  This dungeon isn’t like the others you know, she only wants to help—”

“SHE?  The wasteland must have cooked your brains, Hafanorc.  Dungeons are mindless killers and don’t want to help us.  I don’t know how you survived this long, or why it hasn’t killed you yet, but I can’t allow this dungeon to