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

to reach the bottom of the dungeon and found the crystal-like stone that represented its heart…and they ended up destroying it in retribution.”

They destroyed its Core?  The thought of that happening to Sandra made Gerold despondent for a moment, before he remembered that they had done the same thing to the undead Dungeon Core not that long ago.  “Didn’t they know—?”

“No, none of them knew exactly what they were gathering for us, though I’m sure they had their suspicions.”  Jespin hung his head, as if tired of the whole story.  “In my opinion, it was our greatest failure as Master Blacksmiths that I regret to this day, though almost all of the others would disagree: Our secret to the development of our special equipment was so ingrained in us that it was inconceivable to share it with anyone – even those tasked with providing the materials we needed.  Only the King knew of our need for the mithril, which was required so that he could send out the Shieldmen to collect it, but even he didn’t know the exact process.

“Now…well, now we are nearly out of mithril, and soon it won’t really matter if that portion of our secret is revealed.  This orb here,” the Master Blacksmith said, holding up the metal sphere in his hand for Gerold to see again, “represents 1 of the only 20 that we have left.  I’ve been carrying this particular orb around for nearly 250 years, as it was one of the first dungeon loot drops found in that particular dungeon so long ago.  Even this will shortly go into the pool of available materials for another Master Blacksmith to use in the creation of another set of Shieldmen equipment…unless there is a better use for it.”

“A better use?  What do you—oh.”

“Exactly.  If what you say is true about this dungeon, this ‘crafting dungeon’, then it’s entirely possible that it could provide us with as much mithril as we need.  With a large and virtually unlimited supply, we could indeed create more armor and weapons for new Shieldmen and finally start to take back this land from the dungeons that are slowly overrunning it.”  The Master Blacksmith cocked his head to his side as he considered.  “Or not so slowly, if what you also say is true of the dungeons near the wasteland.”

Gerold shrugged.  “As far as I know, we have a short time before things start spiraling out of control, but it could be that things have changed since I’ve been gone from there.  Either way, it sounds like we’re going to need all of the help we can get just to survive here, disregarding the wasteland for a moment.  If you were able to acquire more mithril, how quickly could the Masters create what we need?”

Jespin scratched his head while he considered.  “The major time delay in their creation is the use of our elemental energy; it takes weeks’ worth of our elemental energy to create even one set, and the only way to regain it back is to sleep.  Except…your dungeon found a way around that, didn’t it?  With those things embedded in your palms?”

Gerold nodded and corrected the Master Blacksmith.  “Yes, Sandra created these to help regenerate our energy automatically; faster regeneration can be achieved with additional Orbs touching the skin, if needed.”  He spread his hands and smiled.  “Essentially, this means that you can have your weeks’ worth of elemental energy in a matter of hours.”

Jespin just sat staring at Gerold for a moment, before shaking his head sadly.  “To think, asking a dungeon for help in defending against other dungeons! Never in my 684 years would I have thought that was even a remote possibility.  I guess times are changing, huh?”

684 years?  He’s much older than I thought.

“What…hmmm…what do you think it will take for this dungeon of yours to help supply us with mithril?”

Jespin’s hesitant question hinted that he probably already knew the answer, but Gerold was going to tell him anyway.  It was one of the reasons he was there in the first place, after all.

“Like I said before, Sandra is a crafter first and foremost; she actually felt bad when her actions resulted in the destruction of my gear.  She actually wanted to replace the whole set, but didn’t know the secret of their construction, so the Deep Diver was the next best thing she could provide.”  Gerold hesitated a moment before he continued.  “When Nurboldar was attacked, our people needed somewhere safe to stay; Sandra volunteered to open up her dungeon for them to live. She created vast underground space where they not only could live, but plant and farm the same crops they were already harvesting in the village.  The only thing she asked in return for all of this was a promise from me, a promise that I would attempt to convince a Master Blacksmith to share their secret.  It wasn’t even an ultimatum, as if the inability of acquiring this knowledge would lead Sandra to kick our people out of her dungeon, but was only a promise to try.”

Without doing or saying anything else, Master Blacksmith Jespin got up, walked to the door, and left, leaving Gerold alone with his thoughts.  I guess that’s the answer, then?  I told her it wouldn’t work, though I certainly did try.  Even as our people are in danger of dying the longer this goes on, with dwindling resources to make additional armor for our Shieldmen, it seems as though the secret was to die with us as well.  The former Shieldman knew that it was the biggest secret in their Kingdom, and it was likely hard to even think about sharing any of that knowledge with an outside party – especially a dungeon.

The little that Jespin had shared about the process was probably more than had been shared in their whole history to those not a Master Blacksmith, but