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

the heavy arrow – more like a bolt, actually – so Sandra put Steel fletching on it at a slight angle, which helped to stabilize it during flight...and then the problem was when it would hit the grip on the bow when it was released, sending it tumbling away instead of flying straight.  It required moving them slightly on the arrow and creating two additional notches on the bow grip that the fletching could pass through, which Echo said would work fine – as long as it was held and released in a certain way.

Each of those arrows required approximately 100 Mana for the Energy Orbs and materials – which wasn’t that much considering what it could do – when she wanted to have a full supply of them for each of her Echo “copies” via her Unstable Shapeshifter Monsters, it added up.  She wanted each of them to have at least 50 of them and although that was technically only 5,000 Mana apiece, the time it took to complete all of the crafting and enchanting was what slowed the process down.

By the end of the fifth very productive day, Sandra was pretty sure they’d all be ready to go by mid-morning the next day; she was already planning on working through the night, and Violet volunteered to stay up later to do so as well, which would help immensely to finish on time. Sandra was feeling good about their chances of success, especially as the Deep Delvers that Felbar and Gerold were going to be using were complete.

The Deep Delvers were a whole new class of Gnome construct – and looked quite a bit different as well.  Instead of 20-foot-tall behemoths, the one that Felbar was going to pilot was 5 feet tall, while the one the Dwarf was controlling was a foot taller because of their height differences.  Also unlike the War Machine, all of the movements of the all-Titanium Delver were controlled by the actual arms and legs of the pilot as they put their own limbs into the construct; essentially, the entire thing was like a large shell around the person inside of it, making them approximately the same size as a Human or an Elf – just thicker and a lot more durable.  A warhammer and double-bladed axe was included as weaponry for Felbar – attached to the ends of the arms similar to the War Machine – while just a warhammer and a flat piece of Titanium (acting as a shield of sorts) was attached to Gerold’s.

Because of the size difference and less space to place Energy Orbs or Cubes, there were weaker Flame Cone and Light Shield enchantments on the Deep Delvers, but they would still work well enough – just not quite the same length of time.  The Delvers were actually completed on day three, but it was taking Gerold that much time to get used to controlling the construct – especially after he fell on his face dozens of times in just the first few hours of getting inside.

It also took him some getting used to being almost fully enclosed with just a small area to look outside the Delver through some slits, as well as the fact that it was extremely difficult to get in and out of the hatch that allowed him to enter the construct from the back – by himself.  After nearly an hour of hyperventilating and acting a little claustrophobic, either his fear was overshadowed by his need to contribute or he hid it pretty well – because he seemed fine.

I think this is going to work out; I think I’ll even see if Echo would be up to riding on a Pegasus to keep her out of harm’s way. Then with all my Monsters and the two Deep Delvers coming along, we should be good.

Halfway through the night, she realized she had made a mistake: she had begun to think that things were going well, and that everything was going to be alright. I should know by now to put my pessimism first, because being optimistic only seems to invite trouble.

Just after midnight – very early in the morning of the day they were going to attack the dungeon – the situation became a little more complicated.  Sandra immediately felt the expansion of the Undead Core’s Area of Influence…and she quickly sent her awareness of her own AOI to see if she should be concerned.  Of course, when she went to go check, she found that the other Core could now reach just barely through the village – which was definitely a concern.

So was the large horde of Undead that streamed out of the inaccessible eastern part of the Undead Core’s AOI, heading west and slightly north…directly towards the Dwarven village.

*         *         *

What?  What was that? 

Something made Gerold sit up straight in his bed, though he couldn’t for the life of him figure out what it was that made him do it.  He wiped the sleep out of his eyes, feeling like he had just gone to sleep only minutes before.

* Gerold!  You’re awake!  Hurry and head up to the workshop; the Undead Core has expanded and can now reach your people’s village! *

Gerold was up and out of his bed before his body could catch up with his mind, and he stumbled badly enough that he slammed up against the nearest stone wall with his face.  Picking himself up, he rushed through the tunnels leading to the clever vertical transportation rooms, where he met Felbar on the way.  The two didn’t even have to say anything, as they had been working side-by-side the last few days without even having to communicate; many of the things they needed to convey could be done non-verbally with hand movements, other visual cues, and a few words that they had learned over the last few days of the other’s language.