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

preventing entry wasn’t the point of the wall.  If she had left it empty, they probably would’ve thought it was some sort of trick, or a trap – or at least that’s what she would’ve thought.  She wanted it to look like there was an effort to hide and seal it up, and that they would have to use some effort to open it up.  After seeing the brown color in the robe of what appeared to be the leader of a group of Elite Elves, she knew that she wouldn’t have too much trouble cracking it open.  That was exactly what she wanted, too, because if they all entered through her main entrance, her traps and constructs would be quickly overwhelmed by sheer numbers.

When Sandra had first seen them and described what she saw to Kelerim, he had immediately identified the massive Orc in charge as his father, so she could understand – as crazy as it was – why the enormous Warband was there.  What she couldn’t figure out was why there were Elves with them, because she thought she had established a relationship with them; it was a bit tenuous, granted, but she didn’t think it warranted helping Kelerim’s father destroy her Core.  She was only confused for a short time, because she soon recognized one of the Elves: Wyrlin, the Ranger that had treated Echo so badly and had left to stir up trouble.  Obviously, Echo’s estimate that it could take months or years for him to gather enough support was sorely inaccurate.

So, that solved the mystery of why they were all there, if not how they combined forces, but at that point it didn’t really matter.  Sandra briefly thought about recalling all of her constructs and Dungeon Monsters helping to defend the entrances to the 4 dungeons in Dwarven and Elven territory, but she held off; she was worried that if she got rid of all the defenders there, the Cores would have very little preventing them from roaming all around their Areas of Influence.  She also didn’t pull back her mercenaries to help defend because she didn’t want Orc killing Orc, though she did accept one volunteer to help talk to Kelerim’s father before he made a grave mistake.

That person, Perceine, was currently inside the Roc tunnel near her first room, ready to give a speech to warn them off from attacking her dungeon.  She had numerous precautions in place to protect her from retribution, including an insanely powerful Light Shield that was powered by Energy Orbs, and with her ability to move extremely fast with her Air energy, she should be able to escape down the tunnel before any attacks hit her.  Plus, the Goblin Foremen were assembled to throw themselves in front of any projectiles or spells thrown her way, so in Sandra’s opinion there shouldn’t be any danger to her.

Everything was going as Sandra had planned, but the tunneling Dungeon Cores weren’t playing nice.  When the whole situation with the invading Orc and Elf army was going on, each of their extensive tunnels were approaching her dungeon.  Right around the time they were deciding to attack her secondary entrance, the first of the Cores – the Golems – reached the section right outside of her Home room.  While she couldn’t see into their tunnel, she could certainly hear their efforts to find a way through the 2 feet of solid Steel she had covering the entire exterior of the room.

The horrendous bangs of what she assumed were frustrated Golems trying to break through alerted the Dwarven villagers, to whom she hadn’t really mentioned what was going on.

“Sandra, what is that horrible racket?” Glencha asked as she was monitoring her Distilleries.  She was the closest to her Home room, and the noise easily reached her.

* Oh, it’s the Golem-Classification Dungeon Core trying to smash their way into my Home room here.  They, as well as the Goblin Core near your old village and the two dungeons in the Elven territory, have tunneled towards my dungeon.  I don’t think they appreciate my interference in not allowing them to have any Dungeon Monsters outside of their dungeon. *

“Uh…aren’t you worried?  And for that matter, what if they try to get in here?”  The Distiller looked at the walls as if they were going to start caving in at any time.

* Don’t worry, when I saw them coming, I sealed every room and tunnel in my entire dungeon with solid Steel walls.  I’m still finishing the rest of the large tunnel denoting my second entrance, but the rest should be good to go.  You have 10 inches of solid Steel protecting you, so I wouldn’t worry too much; if it appears there will be an issue, I may need to move you – but I doubt it will come to that. *

She still seemed unsure, but took Sandra’s explanation and assurance as fact as the Dwarf tried to ignore the banging and continued with her work.  As for the Dungeon Core, she could see the outside of the Steel wall in her Home room starting to slightly deform, but it was more cosmetic damage than anything else.  At least, at first; after about a minute, even louder bangs could be heard and the aesthetically pleasing stone layer she had along the inside of her room started to crack from the pressure behind.

Fortunately, her abilities as a Dungeon Core allowed her to repair the stone easily with a small application of Mana; as for the Steel wall, it started to bend inwards a little from whatever was constantly attacking it, but after another 5 minutes the banging stopped when there wasn’t much more progress made in actually getting through the wall. Sandra thought they had given up too early, because she could just imagine that a day or more of constant banging would probably allow them access.  Of course, if they indeed tried