The Crafter's Defense: A Dungeon Core Novel (Dungeon Crafting Book 2) by Jonathan Brooks (top 10 novels txt) 📗

deaths of living beings that were funneled to her, the much smaller enchantment “cage” on the Large Spirit Elemental Orb Violet was holding did the opposite.

By inverting the most important runes she had identified, Absorb and Convert, instead of absorbing and converting ambient Mana, it would absorb Mana from the Elemental Orb and convert it to elemental energy.  By inserting another rune in the sequence, Transfer, it would transfer that energy to anything that came into contact with it – which was exactly what had happened to Violet when she held it after the enchantment was complete.

Sandra hadn’t needed her to say anything; the look of wonder on her face had been enough to prove that it was working.  And with that glorious piece done, proven, and working exactly how she had imagined it would, the last piece of the puzzle was complete.

“STOP!” Violet yelled out as she stood on the edge of the tunnel leading to the last defensive room.  It was entirely unnecessary, of course, because Sandra completely controlled her constructs, but it hopefully gave Violet a little more authority in the eyes of the Elves.  Since Sandra couldn’t communicate with them, she had to hope that at least one of the exhausted Elites could speak at least a little bit of Gnome.

“Is that…a goblin?  What’s a goblin…doing in here?” the archer in grey and green wheezed out.

“No, that’s not a goblin, that’s a Gnome,” Clovera spoke up from the ground as she struggled to rise.

Alanthia had even gained a little strength back by that time and was able to scramble on all fours out of the way of the stopped Behemoth foot that was hovering over her body like a death sentence.  “She’s right – don’t any of you speak Gnomish?  I clearly heard her say ‘Stop’, despite the fact that I haven’t heard it spoken in many, many years,” the white-and-red-robed Elf remarked.

Sandra and Violet were in luck.  She translated that last part for the Gnome to indicate that Alanthia was the one to talk to but avoided mentioning anything about goblins – there was no need to make her annoyed at that point.  Then she fed to Violet what she wanted her to say, though she left it up to the Gnome in how she wanted to go about it.

“Do you yield?” Violet asked Alanthia, walking up confidently even though Sandra knew the Gnome was fairly intimidated by the Elite Elf.  Fortunately, she was still holding onto the…hmm, what to call it…Mana Converter?  Elemental Energy Recharger?  Miracle Energy Source?  Regardless of the name, Violet gained a bit of confidence from the enchanted Elemental Orb as she siphoned off the Mana inside of it.  The conversion process from Mana to the energy that she – or any other sentient – could use wasn’t instantaneous; it slowly refilled the Gnome’s energy over time instead of all at once, but it was still a whole heck of a lot faster than refilling it while sleeping.

And it didn’t appear to be a 1-to-1 ratio, either; while she couldn’t see exactly how much energy Violet was gaining from the enchanted item, she could vaguely sense the Mana level in the Orb had only fallen by a small amount.  She thought about a way to possibly recharge the Orb through the ambient Mana around it sort of like how her own Core functioned, but for the moment that wasn’t part of the enchantment; as a result, it was finite, but hopefully it would last a while before the Mana ran out.

“Yield?” Alanthia spoke back to her in stilted Gnomish as she struggled to get to her feet – and failed.  The Elf was too drained from her energy expenditure to get past her knees.  “What are you talking about?  And what is a Gnome doing in a dungeon?”

Sandra was glad she didn’t have to translate, otherwise the delay in the conversation would eventually get annoying.  “I’m speaking for the Core of this dungeon and she has an offer for you.”

“She?  Offer?  I have no idea what you’re talking about, but even the Gnomes have to know about the danger a dungeon like this would impose on us all.”  The Elite Elf looked confused, and so did the others; obviously none of them spoke Gnomish, so they didn’t know what the conversation was about.

“As hard as it is to believe, Sandra – the dungeon here – isn’t a threat to any of you.  In fact, it’s just the opposite – she wants to help.  It sounds crazy, I know, but as far as I can tell it’s true,” Violet continued, to Sandra’s consternation.  Crazy? 

“I don’t believe you – the dungeon must have done something to your mind to make you think that way.  I’ve seen entirely too many of my friends die over the years from a dungeon’s monsters or traps to know better,” Alanthia retorted grimly.

“Believe me or not, it doesn’t really matter to me.  What matters is that you were about to die before the monsters of this dungeon were stopped – or do you believe you would’ve lived another minute or two?  It appears as though you’ve used almost all of your elemental energy reserve to get even this far.”

The Elf appeared as though she wanted to protest – but she literally didn’t have a leg to stand on.  “You…may have a point.  If I had just a little more energy, I would’ve torn through this last metal monster and then would’ve destroyed the heart of this dungeon.”

Sandra ushered in her constructs she had created as reinforcements through the tunnel, and their appearance made the faces of all the Elves drop in resignation – and a little fear.  That wasn’t exactly her plan, as it was just to show that fighting would prove fruitless, but it served her purposes – for the negotiation, at least.  And this was a negotiation, even