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

That was, if they agreed to it – though she was hoping they would, because she didn’t want any unfortunate accidents between her Monsters or Traps and them.  She had already had to stop her forces out aboveground from automatically attacking the Shieldmen when they first were encountered, and she didn’t want inattention in the dungeon to have unintended consequences.  Not only that, but Sandra would be extremely limited on what she could do with non-bonded “invaders” in her dungeon, so she was considering making it a requirement.

She also used a relatively small portion of the Mana she received to furnish all of the rooms they were going to stay in and live, though they weren’t very fancy; basic wooden bedframes with a simple Bearling Leather mattress comprised of multiple layers, followed by Cotton sheets and a Cotton pillow filled with raw Cotton bolls.  It took some impromptu growing of Cotton in the cleared fields she had for future food production as well as harvesting, but she had plenty of time while the Dwarves were trying to figure out what they were doing in the late night and early morning.

It also took a small army of constructs consisting of Hyper Automatons, Iron-Banded Articulated Clockwork Golems (which, as the name implied, had a much greater range of motion than its previous incarnation), and Large Armored Sentinels that harvested the cotton, assembled all of the bedframes, and worked with Sandra to craft all of the Cotton Cloth pillowcases.  By that time, however, she had gotten so adept at controlling and directing her constructs that it was all done before the Dwarves even started on their journey.  She knew it was certainly going to be a rough adjustment for them, but hopefully not too bad.

The plan to delve through the Undead Core’s dungeon had been delayed, but it was only a matter of sending her Monsters forces to clean up the surrounding areas again before she sent them down to attack; the last thing she wanted was to have them attacked again by those Undead roaming around right now, like what had happened when she destroyed the Reptile Core.  As much as they needed to destroy the Core now, she didn’t want to jeopardize the expedition right from the start; it had been necessary before, because the Elves had been directly threatened and there was very little choice in the matter.

What made that scenario different from now was that she was pretty sure she had the necessary means to carry out the destruction of the Reptile Core with just her constructs; this time, with the Undead Core being so powerful, she knew she needed to improve what she was going to send against it to ensure victory.  She might’ve waited too long, unfortunately, which resulted in what happened that night, but it could’ve been much worse if she had gone into the dungeon with forces that didn’t manage to succeed.  It would’ve put Sandra further behind, while giving the Undead Core the means to upgrade even more, making them even more powerful.

I have to stick by the choices I make, even if they don’t turn out to be the correct ones; I know I’m no expert in these types of matters, and I’m doing the best I can with limited information.  The fact that the Undead Core seemed to be just the opposite of her limited knowledge of strategy and tactical matters only made it more difficult to make correct decisions…but she was learning.  Sandra had tried to be adaptable during the battle between the Dwarves and the Undead and it might’ve even saved some lives, though she was fairly confident she had been outclassed in that by the other Core again.  She was just thankful that the Core seemed so bloodthirsty and out to kill the Dwarves that it didn’t really defend properly against her Monsters when they arrived, otherwise it may have turned out differently.

Regardless, it was over and done with and she could only work towards the elimination of the Undead Core now with focus, and despite the timeline being pushed back momentarily, Sandra was confident it could still happen by the start of the next day.  She just had to deliver the Dwarves safely and then start destroying all of the Undead outside the dungeon again—

…Oh, no – what now? 

Sandra had been constantly monitoring the borders of the wasteland for any threats, because she didn’t want to be surprised by something; although most of her focus had been near the forest filled with Undead, she still periodically looked towards the Elves and Orcs to make sure they were fine.  One of her Shears near the Orc lands spotted something running into the wastelands, stumbling and floundering from apparent exhaustion; dawn was just starting to touch on the horizon, so it was unusual enough at that time of day for an Orc to be out of the village, so she sent her Shears closer to get a better look at what – or, as it turned out, who – it was.

She immediately recognized Kelerim, the half-Dwarf/half-Orc Blacksmith that had left her dungeon no more than two months ago, hoping to help the Orcish people with his new Blacksmithing skills – and to find his father that he just learned about from his unexpected half-brother, Razochek Bloodskull.  She brought her flying construct down farther, only to see what appeared to be bloodstains on his torn shirt, accompanied by a look of extreme weariness on his face.

“Sandra!  *cough* I don’t know…if you can hear me…*cough*…need your help…” he said to no one in particular, before he collapsed to his knees, unable to go on any farther.  Sandra immediately dispatched two of her Apes along with a Repair Drone from her dungeon, which was the closest force she had to him – the others were quite the distance away.