The Crafter's Dungeon: A Dungeon Core Novel (Dungeon Crafting Book 1) by Jonathan Brooks (best books to read for students TXT) 📗

shouldn’t let those poor souls spend decades stewing in their own minds before contracting them to be a Dungeon Core, but do they listen to me?  No, of course not – I’m just the one that has to deal with them trying to eat my precious self even though they can’t actually touch me.”

Sandra didn’t know what to say, as she was still processing everything that she had just heard.  That was fine, though, as the Fairy continued to talk like she was just trying to get through a sales pitch and didn’t care if she sold anything or not.  As she spoke, the life-sized flying creature drifted around Sandra and took in her surroundings.

“Anyway, my name is Winxa and I’m here to fulfill my requirements for the contract you agreed to when you were offered the position as a Dungeon Core.  In short, I’m here to teach you everything you need to know about being a Core, how to absorb the nearby ambient mana, how to create your monsters, how to expand your dungeon, and even how to avoid calling too much attention to yourself – which could end up with the nearby sentient races trying to destroy you instead of limiting your expansion.  Not that any of you ever listen…” Winxa muttered under her breath.

Shaking her head, the floating fairy continued.  “First, I can see that you’ve already learned how to convert and absorb the material your small cave is made of.  However, judging by the look of your Core, you’ve absorbed a bit too much,” Winxa said as she stared at Sandra.  She then took on a lecturing tone.  “When converting natural material, there is a limited amount that you can absorb before your Core reaches its maximum capacity.  Try to avoid this by knowing your limits; if you fill yourself up to your full capacity, your Core will automatically convert this material to mana, leaving you without access to that material for use in expanding your Area of Influence. The key is to ride just on the edge of your capacity, that way you can change only a certain portion of it into usable mana or use it to build up your defenses.

“Try to keep the majority of your material around in one shape or another, because it’s a finite resource.  Ambient mana, however, is practically limitless – but you’ll need to have your dungeon monsters accumulate it for you.  While you can absorb the ambient mana around your Core, its reach only extends so far.  Your dungeon monsters – which you’ll be able to create with your Mana – can range much farther and gather it much faster and more efficiently.  Which, as I’m sure you remember from your previous life as a…what race were you again?”

Um…human?  Finally, a question which she halfway understood.

“Ah, yes – humans.  Quite a meddlesome bunch they are.  Anyway, as a human, I’m hoping you remember – some souls are too far gone and don’t, unfortunately – that Heroes are employed to cull the monsters around a dungeon, thereby limiting their ‘territory’, which is what they called it,” she snorted derisively.  “In reality, dungeons use their monsters to expand their Area of Influence to be able to gather more ambient mana, which slowly regenerates in any given place.  With a wider-ranging Area of Influence, there is much more space to cover – and consequently more mana.

“When your monsters are destroyed, however, you lose the mana that you invested inside of them, which in turn will hinder your expansion of your Area of Influence.  It’s a vicious battle between Heroes destroying a Dungeon’s monsters, and a Core’s creation of more to expand their Area of Influence.  However, as long as you continue to play it safe and use most of your accumulated mana to strengthen and develop your Core, you’ll usually be left alone.  Centuries down the road, if you handle things correctly, you’ll be powerful enough to do almost anything you please.”

Winxa turned directly toward Sandra and spoke more seriously than her previous lecturing tone.  “Now, this next part I’m going to tell you about is where most – if not all – of the Dungeon Cores I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting get into trouble.  Some of them try eating me right after, while others wait a day or two, but all of them inevitably try it; and as soon as that happens, I’m free of any more obligations and I can be on my way.”

The Dungeon Fairy cleared her throat before continuing.  “A bit of history for you, first.  Dungeon Cores were originally formed by the Creator to assist in regulating the sentient races upon the planet that he had designed.  After many centuries of living peacefully in the numerous lands around the world, the seven major races weren’t satisfied with what they possessed and had vastly over-populated their homelands, as well.  As a result, they went to war with each other, scattering atrocities across the world as each race strived to destroy the others in an effort to possess the most land and expand their civilization.

“The Creator didn’t want any of the races that had been made to be destroyed in the process, so the all-powerful being contracted the damned souls of murderers, rapists, and other unsavory characters to create Dungeon Cores.  With the power at their disposal, they were designed to pull the focus of the races back towards protecting their own lands instead of expansion.  And in the process, fighting against the Cores’ monsters would improve them as well, which is how Heroes and those like them became so powerful over time.

“As crazy as it sounds, it worked.  However, there was a constant need to create even more Dungeon Cores because the races kept destroying them.  Thus, the need for another, extremely long-lived and isolated race – the Dungeon Fairies – were created to stay with them and teach them what they