The Crafter's Dilemma: A Dungeon Core Novel (Dungeon Crafting Book 3) by Jonathan Brooks (english readers txt) 📗

it.  After a few times using it, she had made what some might say were imperceptible adjustments to it, but it worked perfectly after that.

That was before it was broken by Wyrlin and she needed to have it mended using some Natural elemental energy again.

There were those who specialized in bow-making using their energy, of course, and their bows were some of the best you could obtain.  However, the effort in their production usually meant that they were rather rare, and for someone like Echo – or any of the other Rangers in Avensglen – it was unlikely that she’d ever get her hands on one of their quality.  The rest of them had to make do with what they could craft themselves, applying techniques passed down from generation to generation and using locally obtained wood for that purpose.

She had been lucky to have acquired enough yew wood to make her bow, but now that Sandra had demonstrated that she could create it on demand, she was confused as to what, exactly, she was doing.  “What is all this for?”

* This bow is going to be a little different from what you’re used to, but many of the bows I’ve seen crafted were what we call “composite” bows, made from altering layers of materials to aid with strength under pressure – as well as allowing for some specific enchantments to be placed on it. *

Looking across at herself was starting to become “normal” – it’s clothed at least – as Sandra liked her Shapeshifters to use her body to perform more delicate tasks, as well as for enchanting.  The thin boards and metal definitely qualified for a delicate task, as she could imagine one of the metal Apes she had would probably crack the yew wood as soon as they were picked up with its large fingers.  She didn’t blame the dungeon for wanting to use the right “tool” for the task, but she couldn’t deny that it was still a little unnerving.

Rather than explain any further, her copy started to pick up the different pieces on the table, slotting them into a spot that she didn’t even notice on the titanium tube; at first she thought Sandra was just randomly placing them inside the small slot, but after a while she seemed to see a pattern.  She started with 6 of the yew lengths on one side, before adding 1 of the titanium sheets, then 2 more yew, then another titanium sheet, and so on until there were a total of 5 titanium sheets separated by 2 yew, ending with another 6 at the end.

Then she did the exact same thing on the other side, until Echo could finally begin to see something take shape.  It looked very unlike any bow she had seen before; in fact, it really just looked like a really odd stick.  Before she could say anything, the other Echo closed her eyes and ran her hand over the bundled pieces she had inserted starting nearest the tube; wherever they passed, the yew and titanium lengths seemed to combine together and fuse to the tube as well, sort of like what she had seen the Ranger that had used his Natural elemental energy to combine her pieces of yew together to make her current bow.

* It’s a little bit of a cheat, because they normally use a flexible glue to combine the layers together, but this works too – and it’s much faster and easier.  Now that these are together, I need to enchant this. *

Her double abruptly vanished, and the clothes seemed to fall to the floor, blocked by the work table; concerned, Echo rushed over to see what had happened, only to see a copy of Violet practically swimming in the previously right-sized clothes.  That didn’t seem to faze the Shapeshifter Sandra was controlling, however, as a nearby wooden box was at hand to lift the Gnome Enchanter up to the table height.  As the small figure managed to get her hands out of the now too-long sleeves, she grabbed the “bow” and started to do…something…to it.

Reaching into the folds of her clothes, the Gnome eventually fished out two pairs of fairly small Energy Orbs – one colored green and three colored grey.  Then, in a small slot on the back top of the titanium tube that she hadn’t noticed before, the little person stuck two orbs inside it until they were hidden, followed up with two more on the back bottom.  When they were inside, the metal seemed to flow over the slots, hiding them completely from view.  Then, she continued her fancy hand-waving – which seemed unnecessary to Echo – for a couple of minutes.  Fortunately for the Elf, who was looking at the whole process in confusion (she had tried enchanting something after looking at some examples in the Sandra’s Repository, but couldn’t manage more than a few lines and almost a complete rune – but not quite) it wasn’t completely silent as Sandra/Violet did her thing.

* So, what I’m doing here is putting two enchantments on this bow, with a simplified Activate rune compared to some of the ones Violet put on the War Machine and warhammers wielded by my Apes.  Normally, you’d have to be able to see Spirit elemental energy to use one of them, but I have a feeling you’ll be fine even if it’s invisible to you; I’ll go over that once I’m done, because otherwise it probably won’t make sense.

 

* The Natural enchantment, however, should be easy to understand; it works in a similar way to the ones on the War Machine, allowing the wood and metal layers to bend much easier than they would normally, which should allow you to pull on the bow with minimal effort.  It’s activated as soon as you nock an arrow to the string, and when you let go the enchantment deactivates, straightening the composite