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

so that wasn’t necessarily the issue.  The problem was that during her assault on the Reptile-based dungeon not so long ago, her response time and ability to give detailed orders to them was severely hampered by their presence in a foreign dungeon.

Sandra wasn’t sure if they would – or even could – react to threats in the way that she wanted them to; her other constructs seemed to have a natural battle instinct to them that worked pretty well, but there were times when death came to them in the form of a trap that they basically stood still for, despite the danger.  Whether those two things would apply to dozens of “Echos” traipsing through the other dungeon was something she couldn’t even test without going there directly.

So, either she was going to have to find some way to ensure they did exactly what they were supposed to, or Sandra was going to have to find some other potential “weapons” to use.  Those “weapons” would, of course, come in the form of Dungeon Monsters – and not necessarily her constructs.  They were already proven to be powerful against creatures and Monsters that could bleed with their various slicing weapons – such as her Shears, the Millipede’s mandibles, her Blademaster, the Jaguar Queens, and even her Sharp-bladed Digger (which was similar to the original, but could turn much faster and had very sharp edges on the “buckets”); however, against the Undead, many of their strengths were disadvantages because they couldn’t do enough damage to something that didn’t bleed.

That didn’t mean there weren’t Dungeon Monsters out there that might be better suited to eliminating the Nether-based Undead.

Therefore, Sandra brought up her Advancement Menu to see how many Advancement Points she had to spend on a little shopping spree.  She was surprised to see that she had acquired a few more AP from somewhere; a quick perusal showed that they came from another Crafting Station, which she immediately assumed was the Distillery she had created.  Not only that, but her “Bathing Room” and her Enchantment Repository (which was finally as complete as it was going to get) apparently were considered Unique Dungeon Fixtures; she briefly wondered why her growing room, her dining room, and even her VATS weren’t considered unique fixtures if that was the case.  The only thing she could think of was that they weren’t “unique” and were seen somewhere else in a dungeon in the past, though that seemed…well, not impossible, but unlikely.

Advancement Points (AP)

Source

Criteria

Point Value

Lifetime Earned Points

Lifetime Spent Points

Core Size

Receive AP upon Core Size upgrade (does not count for Core Size 1 nor upgrade stages)

1 per Core Size upgrade

19 AP

(19X Core Size Upgrades)

19/19 AP

Number of Rooms

Receive AP for each distinct dungeon room at least 4,000 cubic feet in size (20ftx20ftx10ft minimum)

1 AP per qualified room

45 AP

(45X Qualifying Rooms)

45/45 AP

Unique Dungeon Fixtures

Receive AP for each never-before-seen fixture in your dungeon

2 AP per fixture

32 AP

(14X Crafting Stations, 1X Bathing Room, 1X Enchantment Repository)

26/32 AP

Creature Eradication

Eradicate sources of nearby creatures (i.e. lairs and spawning areas)

3 AP per eradication

72 AP

(5X Territory Ant Colonies, 6X Bearling Lairs, 4X Desolate Spider Clutches, 4X Crag Hound Packs, 5X Solitary Broat Spawn)

39/72 AP

Sentient Race Elimination

Eliminate members of sentient races

1 AP per 10 eliminations

8 AP (12X Orc, 71X Gnome)

8/8 AP

Sentient Race Bonding

Form a new Dungeon Visitor Bond with a member of a sentient race

1 AP per 2 Bonds

8 AP (1X Orc/Dwarf, 6X Elf, 9X Gnome, 1X Dwarf)

8/8 AP

Dungeon Core Destruction

Receive AP for eliminating another Dungeon Core

30 AP per Core

30 AP (1X Reptile Classification Core)

30/30 AP

?????

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

(?????) Denotes an unknown, unique Source of Advancement Points.  Perform this unknown action to unlock more information.

Total Advancement Points Earned and Spent

214 AP

175 AP

Total Advancement Points Available

39 AP

Advancement Options

Current Advancement Points

39

Advancement:

Cost:

Choose 1 Dungeon Monster from another available Classification (Repeatable)

5

Give your Dungeon Monsters the option of having a chosen accessible elemental attribute in addition to their base element – Cost increases with each purchase (only works on Monsters capable of using/applying their element) (Repeatable)

10

Reduce the Mana cost of Monster Seeds by 15% – Cost increases with each purchase (Advancement 2/4)

60

Reduce the Mana cost of Dungeon Monsters by 15% – Cost increases with each purchase (Advancement 2/4)

60

Reduce the Raw Material cost of Monster Seeds by 15% – Cost increases with each purchase (Advancement 0/4)

15

Reduce the Mana cost of Dungeon Traps by 15% – Cost increases with each purchase (Advancement 0/4)

15

Extend your Area of Influence by 10% – Cost increases with each purchase (Advancement 0/10)

50

Advance a current Classification 1 level to acquire access to stronger and larger Dungeon Monsters – this also includes any “Advancement Unlocked” Monsters – Cost increases with each purchase (Advancement 1/3)

150

Select a second available Classification to hybridize your Core (This option is only available once)

150

All of that meant that she had a total of 39 AP to spend – and she was suddenly glad that she hadn’t purchased the Advancement that would reduce the Raw Material Cost of her Monster Seeds, because that would’ve given her much less to work with.  As it was, she had enough AP to acquire 7 new Dungeon Monsters, though she was hoping to find something that might work before she spent almost all her accumulated Points.

Obviously, what I need is something that will directly oppose the Undead – who are Nether-based – so I think I’ll look at some options that are primarily Holy-based.  There were quite a few to choose from, especially when she extended her search to include multi-element-Classifications, but she eventually narrowed it down to those she thought might