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

the moment they were too easy to lose if she got into some sort of altercation with a beast or dungeon monster, and she didn’t want to have to carry them in her hands; while Echo didn’t have her bow – which made her feel almost naked without her go-to weapon – she knew that she would eventually need her hands free once she acquired one again.  She was hoping that Wyrlin – who she was told had picked up her bow after she was bitten by the snake outside Sandra’s dungeon – still had it in his possession; apart from seeing her people again and passing out a few of the Energy Orbs to them, getting her hands back on her beloved long-range weapon was what she was most looking forward to.

With a deep breath – and an internal prayer that she wouldn’t run out of stamina and collapse as soon as she got to the village – Echo started to run, using her Air-based elemental energy to thin out the air in front of her and push her from behind.  Within moments, she was racing away from the dungeon entrance, moving a little more than twice as fast as she could run without elemental assistance; she could’ve run even faster, but there was no reason to push herself that much if she didn’t need to.

Along with increasing her speed, she also initiated her active camouflage, making her form disappear to those who relied on vision to locate targets; it never worked well against those who used other senses to locate her, but it was better than nothing.  After about a minute of running, she could feel a slight drain on her elemental energy as she used it, but it wasn’t nearly as much as it used to be – the Air and Holy Energy Orbs were greatly slowing down the consumption.  Echo smiled as she increased her speed just a little more, enjoying being able to stretch her legs after being inside the confines of the dungeon for so long – even if she wasn’t awake for most of her stay.

She took the same route she had used while she had been keeping an eye on the dungeon earlier; it was fairly straight-forward and free from danger – or at least it was a few weeks ago.  Echo was still slightly skeptical about all that had happened with the lizards, snakes, and other reptiles that reportedly attacked her village, but she was cautious enough in her surroundings not to completely disregard it.  The last thing I want is to be bitten by another snake, she thought, which made her shudder mid-run.

Luckily, the journey toward her village through the barren landscape was uneventful; as she got near enough to her home that she could actually see it in the distance, she found that her physical energy was starting to wane dangerously low, so she deactivated all use of her elemental energy usage and walked the last half mile.  By the time she was close enough to be spotted by the lookout watching the direction she was coming from – which was relatively new, as they normally hadn’t kept a guard on the wasteland’s comings and goings in the past – she had somewhat recovered.  In fact, she wasn’t even breathing hard by that point, but she was still tired.

Her fellow ranger – Wyrlin – was, for a wonder, the one keeping watch; it was nice to see a friendly face after being around strange people in a strange environment.  Instead of waiting for her to arrive, the other Elf bounded forward with relief and some unidentifiable expression on his face.

“Echo!  You’re alive!  Porthel told us that you likely were, but I didn’t believe him until I saw you walking out from the wastelands like some sort of wraith,” Wyrlin told her with a catch in his throat, before enveloping her in a hug that felt like he was trying to squeeze her insides out.  To say she was surprised was an understatement; she was glad to see her fellow Ranger, but she didn’t think she deserved that kind of response from him.  He had never seemed particularly emotional in the past and what he was acting like set warning bells off even in her tired mind.

“It…ugh…good to…see you too,” she managed to squeeze out.  One of the elemental energies he could manipulate was Earth, and though it wasn’t typically used to enhance one’s physical body, it certainly felt like it with his sheer strength.  “Can you…let me…go?”

Wyrlin immediately released her and stepped back.  “Oh!  I’m so sorry; I was just happy to have you back.  How did you escape—?” he started to ask, but then he stopped when he looked at her face.

“What are you looking at?  It’s really me – not some sort of imposter.”  She thought that it was a valid concern, especially after hearing – but not yet seeing – how one of Sandra’s monsters could take the shape of anything it came into contact with.  Violet had mentioned that it couldn’t talk, at least, otherwise Echo would’ve been worried about a flood of them appearing in the night and taking the place of everyone in her village.  Such thoughts were patently absurd, but so was everything else she had seen in that dungeon – which made her shiver at the thought of something like that actually happening, despite the growing heat of the day.

“You…you’ve changed.  What are those marks on your face?” he asked, taking a deliberate step back from her.

“What?  What are you talking about?” she asked, now thoroughly confused.  She reached up to her face and started to feel around her cheeks and forehead but couldn’t feel anything.

“Here – take a look,” he said, before a shiny, oval-shaped, vertically placed sheet of water appeared before her face, casting her reflection back at her.  She stepped back in surprise at its appearance