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

to lose all of its color and his mouth opened and closed repeatedly.  “Uh, well,” he finally managed to get out.  “I’m…not sure about that.  The secrets of their production are passed down from Blacksmith to Blacksmith and very few outside of their little community know how it is they’re made.  I certainly do not, and I’m almost positive no one in the village knows, either – not even Second-shield Bregan.  As much as I think your help would both be much-appreciated and may even be highly beneficial, I can’t see a way to convince any Master Blacksmiths to give up their secrets—”

* You know, if I learn how to make some, I can make you some replacements for the ones you lost earlier. *

His mouth shut with a snap at her words, and Sandra could see something in there that just sealed the deal: hope.  Gerold had mentioned that he likely wouldn’t ever be getting replacement armor or axe for the ones that were destroyed by the Sphere, and she was dangling that hope of…being whole again…in front of him.  She wasn’t deceiving him, of course, and she would absolutely create another full set of everything for him – nothing soured a relationship like deception, even inadvertent deception. What he didn’t realize was that – because of her unique access to quite a few different techniques as a Dungeon Core – she was fairly confident she could not only create some of the special armaments once she knew how it was done but could improve on them as well.

“I’ll see what I can do.  It might take a while to convince them to share that knowledge, and I may have to lean on my mother and her political influence, but I will do my best.  If you can convince all of the other Shieldmen in Nurboldar that it’s the best for everybody, that will certainly go a long way towards bringing a Master Blacksmith here.”

* That is all I needed to hear.  I trust you to see that through, but you have to take things one step at a time.  You’ve got another task before that could ever happen, you know. *

“Don’t remind me; convincing everyone from the village to abandon everything and move into a dungeon because of a threat they undoubtedly aren’t even aware of is going to be tough,” he said, before shaking his head.  “Actually, tough isn’t the right word; impossible is more like it.”

* I have no doubt you’ll figure it out, because it’s their lives on the line if they don’t listen to you.  Or, to be more accurate, it’s all the alcohol they’re going to miss out on if ignoring you seems to be the way they’re going. It’s up to you to do it, though, because I have no way of communicating with them.  Let me know how I may be of help, as limited as that will probably be. *

“I will; I just have to figure out what kind of help you could possibly provide other than sending your monsters—” he started despondently, before he tilted his head to the side.  “Actually, I think there might be something you could do…”

Chapter 23

Sandra knew that Gerold wasn’t going back to the village right then, however, because of two very important reasons.  One, it was nearing the end of the day and it was already starting to get dark; two, the fatigue from being horrendously injured and then miraculously healed finally hit him all at once.  She could only guess that he had been fighting the fatigue while he was still adjusting to where he was and exploring the potential refuge for his people; once that was all over, he practically sleep walked up to the dining area to get something to eat, before flopping down on the bed Sandra had hastily created for him in a nearby empty room.

The thought of beds made her realize that she hadn’t even asked how many Dwarves were in the village; she had seen at least 50 of them out in the fields and around some of the buildings from afar, but she knew there could’ve been twice that many still inside those buildings and she wouldn’t know it.  Not to mention the Shieldmen who seemed to house themselves separate from the villagers, which were hard to get a count on because they were constantly moving in and out of the immediate area as they culled the Dungeon Monsters in the nearby forests.

Regardless of the numbers, before they arrived – she had no doubt the village Dwarves would eventually escape to her dungeon for protection once they had visual proof of the threat – she had to prepare places for them to sleep and, well, live.  It was one thing having a place to lay down their heads to sleep and that might be enough for Echo, Violet, and Felbar at the moment; they had other things they had been doing like enchanting, working on the War Machine, teaching Sandra how to cast spells, and delivering Energy Orbs to the Elven village.  The Dwarves, on the other hand, wouldn’t likely do any of that; the villagers’ jobs had been farming and things related to farming, while the Shieldmen were used to culling and killing Monsters.

If Sandra was going to help them farm – and she had already decided she was going to start doing that, even if no Master Blacksmiths ever came to teach her (though for how long she would do such was dependent on that eventuality) – she needed to start finding a place they could do that.  Before she did any of that work, however, there were more important matters to attend to.

Namely, figuring out a way to destroy the Undead dungeon.

Her Rolling Forces were still slowly making their way around much of the open space and just inside the trees, destroying everything they were