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

way to fix those potential problems was either to stop production completely and hunker down or to ramp it up, “flooding the market” with so many Energy Orbs that scarcity wasn’t a problem anymore.  Sandra hated to have a target on her back and have to defend against greedy Elites looking for her creations, so she disregarded stopping production completely.  Not only that but doing so would ultimately end up hurting the Elven people more, taking the Elites away from the front line against the dungeons.

Therefore, she needed to ramp up production and distribution; the first was easy enough, but the second was going to take some strategizing – and unfortunately, Echo was no help when Sandra asked her about it.  The Dungeon Core also expanded on her options to see if the Elf had an opinion about the situation – and that was when a third option was brought up.

“I don’t have any access to any of the messengers that journey in between the Avensglen and the capital; there are only a few towns and villages on the pathway back, as most of our people have retreated back to the city for protection.  Short of going myself – which is always possible – I’m not sure how to get them there without going through the Elder,” Echo said when Sandra was done explaining the situation.

The Elf was silent for a few moments as she contemplated something.  “I don’t know if your ‘flooding the market’ idea will necessarily work – those in charge like the Elder will just accumulate larger amounts, making them even more powerful; unless you can make millions of the Orbs, then the 300,000 Elves that aren’t part of the Elites or ruling houses will probably never see them.  Granted, it’s more than likely that those who are doing the majority of our defending will obtain what they need, but if they become overconfident and start to actually push back against the dungeons…there’s a good chance many of them won’t come back.  If that happens, then we’ll lose some of the few Elites still out there that have a chance of stopping our inevitable demise.

“What you need to do – as crazy as this idea is coming from me to a dungeon, of all things – is expand your…territory, or whatever you call it until you can actually reach the capital.  That way, your Dungeon Monsters will be there to distribute your Orbs to everyone, not just those in charge – but to those who could use them to increase their own fledgling abilities so that they could also help in the defense.  From my perspective, it’ll be much easier to ensure our survival if we have 300,000 Elves that can defend themselves from Dungeon Monsters, rather than just the 300 Elites that we have.”

That number was news to Sandra, who had known that the Elves were in trouble – but she wasn’t aware of how deep in trouble they were.  She couldn’t even imagine only having 300 Heroes around when she was Human; she wasn’t even sure if there was an accurate accounting of them anywhere, but she could only guess that there were tens of thousands of them, if not hundreds.  With only a few hundred, though, Echo was right – if they lost even a dozen of them to overconfidence and pushed back before they were ready, then their survival was in jeopardy.

But…expanding my Area of Influence?  There were risks in that as well, not in the least allowing access to it to any lower-Sized Dungeon Cores in the area – of which there were likely a few.  Most of those towards the capital were probably quite a bit developed if they were actively pushing against the defenses the Elves had in place, so that wasn’t really a worry; Sandra’s concern were those smaller towns and villages along the way that weren’t in danger…until she came along and messed that all up.  She was still torn up about what happened with the Gnome village because of her expansion, so she was hesitant to cause any more issues like that.

Nevertheless, the “Dungeon Core” part of her existence was excited at that prospect.  Expansion and becoming powerful were natural instincts of her particular incarnation, it seemed; even if Sandra was able to curb most of those impulses because she wasn’t contracted, that didn’t mean they weren’t there…only contained.

* I have to agree with your assessment of the situation, Echo – but I’m not yet prepared to expand quite that far.  The repercussions of such an act, as much as I’d like to do it, are currently too great; for now, I’ll keep providing as many of the Orbs as I can easily produce, as long as you deliver them.  In the future, though, I’ll see what I can do – unless another solution presents itself. *

“That’s fine with me, just don’t be surprised if you have some of the greedier and seedier examples of my people show up here looking for handouts within the next few months.  At least some of what I’m bringing will help my people, if not all of it; from what you’ve provided already – even considering if half of it is taken and squirreled away – our people will survive for years or decades longer than they probably would’ve.  And for that, you have my thanks – even if some think you’re a bad influence on me and the Elven people in general, I feel that you’re honest in what you’ve been doing, and generally want us to live and survive.”

With that, Echo hitched the two bags on her back again as they had shifted slightly over the last few minutes and headed out of Sandra’s dungeon.  Watching the Elf make her way through the barren – and hopefully relatively safe now – wastelands, it was more than obvious that she had fully recovered; even loaded down with two heavy bags,