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

before she remembered that Wyrlin also had access to Water elemental energy in addition to Earth.  Not everyone had multiple elements at their disposal, and the number that did was falling year-by-year; that was one of the reasons she wanted to be an Elite, because they only allowed those with multiple elements into their ranks.  She didn’t know for certain, but she was fairly confident that Wyrlin also had those same aspirations, though he had never mentioned it before.

Recovering from her surprise, she stared at the reflection in the flat oval of water – and she could finally understand the other Elf’s question.  On each of her cheeks was a bronze-colored gear that appeared to have some white and yellow accents to them; where did those come from?  They looked familiar for some reason and it took a few moments of staring at them before she remembered where she had seen them before: on the palms of the Gnome, Violet. Echo hadn’t really been too curious about them before, because she thought it was a “Gnome” thing; gears and things like that seemed to be a part of their race, if what she had heard and seen of their war machines was any indication.

But now it appeared as though she had them, too – and it wasn’t a coincidence.  The one thing they had in common was the dungeon, so it had obviously come from there.

* I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about them, but it slipped my mind and didn’t really seem important.  They are from the Visitor bonding process, and they shouldn’t have any negative effects attached to them. *

Sandra’s voice in her head startled her so much that she stepped backwards again and tripped over a small rock, landing on her backside with an *oof*.  “But why are they on my FACE!” she shouted, partly out of outrage at their appearance, partly from the shock of having the voice of the dungeon she thought she had left behind in her head, and partly from the pain of her rear end landing on a second rock.

* Well…when I brought you into my dungeon after you were bitten by that snake, you were convulsing quite dramatically.  I couldn’t lay the Elemental Orbs on your chest or have you hold them in your hands like I did with Felbar and Violet, so the only other option was to…stick them in your mouth. *

Sandra actually answered her question at the same time Wyrlin was attempting to as well; he didn’t know Echo was talking back to the voice in her head, and she realized it would perhaps be best if he didn’t find out.  Of course, she didn’t hear the first part of what he was saying, but she heard the last part.  “—know.  Why don’t you tell me what happened down there for the last 16 days, 17 hours, and 43 minutes.”

How does he know exactly when I was taken?  The answer was obvious, however; Wyrlin was a master at his craft in the forest as a Ranger, and could easily read the signs of nature, estimating how long ago something passed by within minutes.  Though the fact that he had calculated her disappearance down to the minute was strange, plus the fact that he had apparently been keeping track of those minutes as time went by.  On the one hand, it probably meant that he cared enough about her that he was extremely concerned for her safety; on the other hand…it was a little creepy.

Regardless of what exactly his motivations were, Echo quickly explained what had happened and how the dungeon itself had saved her, not captured her like Wyrlin said he thought.  When she was done, she looked at her fellow Ranger’s face for some sort of reaction, but his face appeared to be set in stone.

“You’re a slave to that dungeon, you know that, right?  I don’t care what Porthel and the other Elites said – those are marks that it owns you,” he finally said with a harshness to his voice that Echo had never heard before.  “To think, I was worried that it had tortured and killed you; instead, it did much worse – it took away who you are.”

Reaching behind his back, he pulled out a familiar bow which had been strung and looped around his shoulder; he looked at her and threw it on the ground with such force that it cracked, making her wince at the anger behind the act.  “Here you go, I’m tired of carrying it around for you.”

She knew it could probably be repaired, but even using elemental energy in the mending process, it was never as good as it was when it was first constructed. That wasn’t really the most pressing issue, though – it was the fact that Wyrlin was angry at her for some reason.  “What was that for—?” she had begun to ask, when the other Ranger turned away – completely ignoring her – and started to run back towards Avensglen.

What was that all about?  Echo couldn’t figure out why he would’ve had such a strong reaction to the gears on her face. I was the one that almost died and was in a coma for two weeks, so what’s his problem?  It didn’t make any sense to her, and she hoped that the others in the village weren’t the same way.

So, without much choice in the matter – and because she needed someplace to rest after her already-tiring morning run – Echo slowly walked towards the village she used to call home.

Chapter 5

Sandra had watched Echo’s progress from her dungeon, sending her Mechanical Jaguar Queen to follow her from a distance as well as one of her Shears up above – just in case.  Fortunately, nothing dangerous was on the route towards the Elven village, so by the time the bonded Elf met up with