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

number of monsters in their land down to a reasonable level, and if they lost those then they were doomed, despite whatever they tried to make up for their loss.  It appeared as though the leadership knew that fact – even if most of the population didn’t – so Violet’s thought and dream to become a Master Enchanter seemed like it would never happen.  By the look on her face, the Dungeon Core could see that realization had hit her as well.

Unless Sandra helped to change that eventual outcome.

* So, what I’m hearing is that your people are facing a crisis right now, one of which you won’t be able to recover from without…time.  Time to teach, time to repair or create more War Machines, time to let future generations grow up to become full-fledged Enchanters – all of which won’t happen because of the threat that the dungeons surrounding your land pose.  But what if I was able to give you that time?  It would only be a short-term solution – like I hope most of my solutions will be – but it might be just enough to give you all that time you need. *

“A fancy speech is all well and good, but what exactly are you talking about?” Felbar asked gruffly – but with a hint of curiosity and hope mixed into his voice as well.

* I’m talking about making your War Machines here— *

“I told you before, I don’t know how to enchant them; I was just an Apprentice and don’t know all the secrets of how they were made,” Violet interrupted her.

Felbar added his opinion, as well.  “And although I can operate one of them better than just about anyone else, even I don’t know how they’re made.  They require someone that has the Spirit and Natural elemental energies at their disposal; while I can remember what the Spirit enchantments looks like, I’m not sure I could reproduce them with any particular talent.”

* Ok, then I have one more question for you, Felbar, before I reveal my idea.  I don’t want this to seem insensitive, but…why you?  What makes Warmasters so special that only you and others like you can pilot the War Machines? *

Felbar bristled at that for a moment, as if Sandra was questioning his worthiness or something.  After a moment, though, he seemed to realize she was asking because of ignorance, not because of any doubt in his abilities.

“We Warmasters specialize in manipulating the Spirit-based enchantments that directly control the movements of the War Machines.  By infusing small amounts of Spirit energy into particular enchantments in a specific order, we can cause the constructs to do just about whatever we want; it takes years of practice and coordination to properly control them without causing them to fall apart in the process, and that’s why Warmasters are so special.”

“That’s true,” Violet agreed.  “They actually maintain the vital Spirit-based enchantments from their energy infusions, though it doesn’t necessarily recharge them – more like putting patches on the rune to keep it operating longer; occasionally one would start to break down because of time or physical damage to the construct itself – which I and some of the others in Glimmerton had to repair with a direct replacement of the enchantment rune.  The other, non-Spirit enchantments on the War Machines themselves, however, had to be replaced once every couple of days, otherwise they would start to fail.  For instance, many of the Natural enchantments on them made the wood and steel parts pliable enough to bend and flex without breaking, which takes a surprisingly large amount of energy to maintain – especially when they are used in constant combat like they usually were.

“For other enchantments, like the Hauler we built for the others to bring home, the energy is constantly recycled through the enchantment, but after a while even those start to break down without additional infusions of energy or rune replacement.  The one they took, for instance, could probably function for a few months before it started to lose power, eventually ending with it breaking down until it wasn’t usable anymore.”

All of that was excellent information, and Sandra was more encouraged every moment.  She had suspected that they had worked that way, but of course the how was the hard part; it was one thing knowing the principle behind their operation, but how it got to that point was something else entirely.

* I think I understand.  Well, if we don’t know how your Master Enchanters do it, maybe we’ll just have to figure it out ourselves. *

“What?  You can’t be serious; it took dozens of Master Enchanters decades or perhaps centuries to perfect the techniques they use.  I highly doubt you’d be able to duplicate what they did in such a short time,” Violet remarked with severe doubt edging her voice.

* Oh, I’m not going to try to duplicate exactly what they did – I couldn’t hope to do that.  However, I think I can figure out a way to get them to work, even without knowing exactly how they went about it.  What will help immensely is if you can teach me all that you do remember from the enchantments, as that will give me a place to start.  And to do that, the first step in the process is to go down to the Enchantment Repository. *

Violet and Felbar looked at each other and shrugged.  “I guess it couldn’t hurt; if she really can figure out how to get them working, then I’m on board with it.  Besides, it’s probably about time to recharge the Stasis Fields on those pillars,” Violet mentioned, before heading out the workshop door.

* While that is true, there’s something about those Preservation Barriers…er, Stasis Fields…that I want to experiment on. *

 

The Gnomes stopped at that.  “When you say experiment, I hope you don’t mean, ‘try a whole