The Crafter's Darkness: A Dungeon Core Novel (Dungeon Crafting Book 4) by Jonathan Brooks (ebook reader with android os TXT) 📗

meeting of her emissaries had just been held, was fine for a small population of a dozen or less, but there were now over 60 people living down below – which meant more space was needed to cook and eat, as well.  After bringing the height of the prep spaces and stovetops up to a point where the Dwarven villagers could easily access them, Sandra built a massive oven that could hold half a ton of food if necessary, and would hopefully come in handy when they got their first harvest of wheat in to bake into bread.  Granted, baking was one aspect of cooking that she hadn’t learned as much about as she would’ve liked to when she was alive, but there were a few villagers that she could watch and learn from.

The oven itself was modeled after the Blacksmithing forges she had above, mixed with the oven she had in her other kitchen.  By selecting from about a dozen temperatures using small pedals set up along the outside of the large oven, the entire fixture would employ a Fire-based trap that would heat it at a constant temperature in its entirety. The side facing the kitchen was left open, though it could be closed with a thin, relatively lightweight sheet of Dragon Glass that could be fit into a slot carved into the lip of the opening.  Two protrusions that acted like handles were on the outside of the Dragon Glass sheet, which helped with moving it when it was needed.

She spent more Mana on the kitchen than she did with the fountain (almost 15,000 compared to 4,000), but there was a lot more going on in the large cooking space than just water flowing.  Still, it was worth doing and the Dwarves had taken to it with great alacrity, using the Raw Bearling Meat she created for them as well as the different fruits she had in the above growing room to make meals for themselves.  Once they got the underground farms set up and running, they would be able to cook even more variety of foodstuffs to eat.

That was about all she had time to do, however; all of her spare attention, focus, Mana, and Raw Materials went towards building up her constructs and other Dungeon Monsters again.  Although her normal defending constructs dispersed throughout her dungeon were still intact, as even in an emergency she was hesitant to remove them, her forces aboveground had been essentially devastated.  Oh, she still had over 7,000 Reinforced Animated Shears in her Airborne Mana Absorption Net of Shears (AMANS) floating above her dungeon and scouting along the perimeter of the wastelands, though that number was diminished from what she would prefer after having to utilize quite a few of them to invade and destroy the Undead dungeon.  Sandra also had 1,500 Rolling Forces that had been integral to the destruction of so many Undead around the area, as well as just under 400 Hyper Automatons that helped to move dropped Monster Seeds back to her dungeon, but as for her other forces, she was down to almost nothing.

The Dungeon Core had under a dozen Pegasi at her disposal, which had been integral to getting Echo, Felbar, and Gerold out of the collapsing dungeon, as well as 6 Steelclad Ape Warriors armed with enchanted Titanium warhammers that she had kept in reserve.  There were also 8 Rising Phoenixes that were helping to patrol the skies and observe the area below them, though there wasn’t too much that was exciting to see.  All the rest of her constructs and Dungeon Monsters outside of her dungeon had been destroyed when she attacked through the Undead dungeon’s rear entrance (or, as it turned out, main entrance) to help those trapped inside escape.  The only consolation was that the large War Machine was still available for Felbar to use if needed, though the two Deep Diver suit constructs were now buried under many thousands of tons of dirt.

Therefore, she had been gradually rebuilding what she could with what Mana she had funneling into her automatically, though it was slow going.  Her stockpile of Mana in the form of Monster Seeds that she had held in her treasury was nearly empty because of all that she had put into the attack on the other dungeon, so now she had to rebuild everything before she could even think about helping elsewhere.

In addition, there were other things to consider, including something that felt like years since she’d done it: Upgrade her Core Size.  There was something in the announcement regarding the enhancements for the other Cores that was extremely important regarding that, and would potentially make a difference in what she chose to do over the next few months.

“These enhancements are not granted to any Cores that – in any way – participated in the destruction of any neighboring Cores, whether through overt, clandestine, or inadvertent means.  In addition, any previous mentoring benefits are now instantly null and void for any Dungeon Cores taking advantage of these enhancements.”

It was the part about “mentoring benefits” that made the most difference to her because what that essentially meant was that she didn’t have to worry about the other Cores using her Area of Influence to move around everywhere.  At least, that’s what Winxa said when Sandra asked her.

“Yes, that is precisely what that means.  These new enhancements override whatever benefits they would’ve received through the mentoring program, so you no longer have to worry about passing them in Core Size.  Of course, if—sorry, when—these enhancements end, they’ll likely be back; that is something that you’ll have to deal with at that time, though.”

It would be good to be able to upgrade her Core Size, and not just because she hadn’t done it in a while…and it was like an itch in the back of her mind that wanted to be scratched.  It was obviously part of her nature