The Crafter's Darkness: A Dungeon Core Novel (Dungeon Crafting Book 4) by Jonathan Brooks (ebook reader with android os TXT) 📗

legs he couldn’t properly sit on the winged horse very well, and he felt like he was going to fall off every few seconds, he realized that he would rather walk all the way to the mountain strongholds than fly again.

* That will take entirely too long.  It’ll be much easier if you can fly all the way there. *

Oh…wonderful.  “Uh, I’d rather die than—” Gerold started to say, before he heard Felbar and his translation in his head.

“There is no way I’m getting back onto one of those blasted—”

They both stopped and looked at each other in camaraderie, before the old Gnome started laughing uproariously.  Gerold joined in after a moment, the weariness in his bones leading him to giggle at something that really wasn’t all that funny.

Echo, Kelerim, and Violet just stared at the two laughing uncontrollably, and eventually Gerold was able to get himself under control, wiping away the tears that came unbidden to his eyes.  The whole situation was in no way a laughing matter, but the Dwarf had to admit that it felt good to release some of the tension he had been feeling after barely surviving the destruction of the undead dungeon.

“I don’t see what you’re all laughing about.  Those Pegasi are majestic, if I do say so myself, and I wouldn’t have made it back if it hadn’t been for Starlight…um…3, I think,” Echo said once they had both settled down.  Two of the Pegasi the Elf had been using as mounts inside their dungeon destruction mission had been killed, so Gerold could only assume that she had named the one that had carried them out of the collapsing dungeon afterwards.

That made them laugh even harder, though this time their shared mirth didn’t last that long; Sandra had to go and ruin their good time.

* The Pegasi are too small and too slow for what I have in mind.  My goal is to have you get back to your capitals in less than a day. *

“That’s…not possible,” Echo protested.  “It takes up to 4 weeks to travel all the way there on foot, even running full out.  The use of horses can cut that down to 2 or less, as can the use of spells to increase running speeds.  Even with Starlight 3, I think it would still take me at least 4 days to reach the capital, and that’s with leaving at first light and traveling until it’s nearly too dark to find a place to camp for the night.”

* Exactly.  I aim to find a way to get you all to where you need to go quite a bit faster than that, as well as being able to transport more than one person, as well as some supplies.  While I go about setting that up, why don’t you all get some rest.  I think some of you are starting to get a little delirious with exhaustion.  Kelerim, if you don’t mind, could you stay here for a moment? *

Gerold figured that Sandra was probably referring to him and Felbar, because the thought of lying down in a bed…or anywhere, really…and closing his eyes was the best thing he had heard all day.  With a nod to the others, the Dwarf found his way out of the dining area and into one of the connecting hallways between the kitchen/dining area and a blacksmith’s forge.  It took a few moments to find the small indentation in the wall that indicated where the hidden door was secreted in the wall; after locating it and walking through another short hallway, he found himself in what Sandra called the VATS.  She had explained that the acronym stood for something something transportation system – again, he hadn’t really been paying attention at the time – but all he really knew about it was it was an easy way to get where he needed to go.

Dropping down a hole in the floor, he barely felt the slightest flutter in his stomach at the temporary drop as a powerful jet of air caught him and delicately lowered him to the floor of the next level.  Walking to another hole, he dropped down again, feeling his eyes closing even as he was blasted by the supportive air; I guess I really am exhausted.  The prospect of sleep was already mentally affecting him, and he was eager to lie down.

Finally, at the bottom of the VATS, he walked through another series of tunnels, a large room that held Sandra in all her shining Core glory – which he waved to as he walked by – and finally to what he was starting to mentally think of as the Dwarven Quarter.  It was a long series of rooms carved out of the stone and dirt underneath the wastelands in a long line stretching out for quite a distance. The first room held something that looked like a basic distillery, though it currently wasn’t in use; the next room was entirely empty, acting as a bit of a buffer he supposed, because after that was where his people were living.

In a series of rooms that didn’t afford a whole lot of privacy and were annoying to travel through – mainly because, if you needed to get to the last room in the line, then you had to essentially walk through everyone else’s bedrooms – there were basic beds set up, six to a room.  The rooms weren’t small, but they started to feel a little cramped with so many people inside of them; luckily being underground didn’t really bother him – or any Dwarves, really – because most of them were used to living in the mountain strongholds.  It was living in the village up top that had been strange to them.

A couple rooms down the line, there were various spaces going off in different directions, as Sandra had added a few things after the original line