The Crafter's Dominion: A Dungeon Core Novel (Dungeon Crafting Book 5) by Jonathan Brooks (best english books to read TXT) 📗

he said sternly, looking at his King— “we cannot promise more help than who is already here right now, because I know the state of our Shieldmen better than you do.  Sire.”  The King just shrugged, not arguing for once.

The same went for all of the others as they couldn’t promise their assistance in one way or another.  The Princess needed to find out the state of affairs in Gnomeria, though it was hopeful that they had made some progress after the successful repelling of the ambush.  The Elves were a little thin on Elites, and the King and Queen couldn’t promise anything other than who was already nearby in the Avensglen.  Palzerk had a fairly legitimate excuse, because he technically wasn’t in charge of anything other than his Warband – but hopefully that would change soon.

* I entirely understand, and I was expecting all of that.  But it’s something that we can strive for in the future, through a lot of hard work and hardship, perseverance and cooperation.  We will succeed in saving all of your people, one way or another.  And don’t forget about your secret weapon. *

“Secret weapon?”

* Me and my dungeon, obviously.  I’ll be there every step of the way, expanding and Bonding with Dungeon Cores in order to make them safer for those nearby. *

The thought of expanding her Area of Influence, connecting with nearby Dungeon Cores, and essentially exerting her dominance over them in order to control their anger and rage, reminded her a little of what the Palzerk had said earlier – though he was referring to the secret of the Mithril alloy:

“Your own use?  So you can use it against us?  Is that the game you’re playing?  To conquer us and fold our people into your dominion?”

It wasn’t her intention to conquer anyone; but to fold them into her dominion?  Well, she thought that notion certainly had a nice ring to it.

Chapter 49

Communication among the Dungeon Cores affected by the beneficial enhancement was at times sporadic, obtuse, or downright frustrating – but he was already used to it by that point.  Ever since the random images started to appear in his mind, the focused Dungeon Core had largely ignored them.  They didn’t really matter to him, their plans and insane image-rambling of death and destruction heaped upon the masses of people out there, especially upon the Dwarven communities living nearby.  Though, he had to admit, he sort of wished that he had gotten in on some raids on the nearby Dwarven village before all of its inhabitants disappeared nearly a century ago.

That wasn’t in his plans, however.  He had developed a strategy entirely different from what he figured was “typical” of other Dungeon Cores shortly after he was reincarnated back into the world.  He had drained as much knowledge as he could from his so-called Dungeon Fairy over the weeks and months he was constructing his massive dungeon, pretending that he actually cared what she thought or wanted.  The information she gave him about Cores was invaluable, and she probably shared more than she normally would because he had learned that most Cores were quite insane – and he, clearly, was not.  He attributed his ability to keep his wits after his death to his thoughts of revenge on the one that had ended his life; that, and according to the fairy, he was in that liminal netherworld for fewer than 20 years, as opposed to 50 years or more like the other Cores.

That essentially meant he wasn’t crazy. Then again, he was “crazy” enough to try to absorb her when she was of no more use to him; in truth, he attempted to do it just because he was tired of her hanging around.  Of course, as he knew it would, his attempt had failed, which caused the stupid flying gnat to leave through one of her portals in tears.  Which still made him smile to this day, even 200 years later.

Since then, he had been playing the long game.  The contracts he had made with the Creator in order to obtain this piece of real estate in the ground were more flexible than most Cores probably realized.  While he had an urge and need to expand his dungeon – to gain as much Mana as possible to upgrade his Core Size – there was technically no clear method or timeframe that had to be achieved.  He found that as long as he had a clear plan in mind and worked constantly to fulfill that plan, it satisfied his needs.

Not that he didn’t desire to cause some wanton destruction every once in a while, as well as killing everything that got in his way.  He was no stranger to death, at least from what he remembered from his old life (which seemed like an eternity ago), so that wasn’t what kept him from doing it; no, it was because it wasn’t in the plan.

A plan to go unnoticed as long as possible, grow as large and powerful as he could, and then – and only then – would he strike, sending out the overwhelming forces of his Fallen until they blanketed the world. It took a lot of restraint to keep his Monsters out of sight while they funneled Mana into him, avoiding Dwarves as they hunted down and killed other Monsters by the scores from other dungeons.  But never once in the 100 years when there were people around did they see one of his Monsters, even if they were only a dozen feet away; not that they were invisible – far from it – but he made sure to keep them out of sight.  Nor did they ever find either one of his entrances, because he made sure to conceal them as well as he could, even if he couldn’t close them up entirely.

But oh, how tempting it was to just let loose and