The Crafter's Defense: A Dungeon Core Novel (Dungeon Crafting Book 2) by Jonathan Brooks (top 10 novels txt) 📗

Gnomes as just slightly prettier goblins – were in danger really worried her; not necessarily because she was worried about the others, but because if they were killed the Core would become more powerful and spread its influence to engulf more of Gnomeria.  The dungeons farther inside her homeland – that had expanded practically out of control – were already stretching their War Machines to their breaking point even by keeping them at a stalemate; if this one suddenly started reaching out and attacking from an unexpected direction, that could prove disastrous for her people.

As much as she still didn’t completely relish the idea of working with Sandra because of her role – however accidental it was – in the deaths of her friends and destruction of Glimmerton, Violet was starting to realize that the strange dungeon might be their only option for survival.  That was one of the reasons she had volunteered to go try speaking with the Elves, as Sandra’s death would remove any possibility of help from the dungeon.  The other reason was semi-selfish – she didn’t think she could lift Felbar to move him away before the dungeon collapsed after Sandra’s destruction if he didn’t wake up from his (hopefully) temporary coma.

When that was shot down, she was partly relieved because she didn’t want to be filled with arrows.  The other part was at a loss of what to do, until Sandra surprised her with a potential solution.

* I may have something that might work, but I’m not sure exactly what it is yet.  If it doesn’t work, there aren’t many other things I can think of that might, so I’m crossing my non-existent fingers that it’s a success.  Now, don’t be alarmed by what you might see. *

Sandra’s warning was barely enough to keep her from screaming as a large figure materialized out of thin air 10 feet away from her.  It was as tall as an Elf but much wider; it wasn’t even vaguely person-like in shape, however.  Instead, it looked like a large solidified slime in a rainbow of swirled colors, with bright sparkles emanating from it like the night sky.  It was strangely intriguing and almost hypnotizing at the same time, because when she looked at it the colors moved around in an unending downward cascade of ribboned colors.

Suddenly, it moved; what she could only categorize as an arm reached out from it and touched one of the metal “constructs” walking along the ground.  Both paused for a moment, before the little metal monster resumed its original path.

* Apparently, my shapeshifter cannot copy the shape of inorganic material – or at least that’s the notification that I received.  Do you mind if it touches you? *

Violet took an involuntary step away from the strange monster.  “Uh, why?  Will it hurt?”

* I…don’t think so.  I’m not really sure, because this is the first time I’ve had a chance to use this monster; I just unlocked it through a special Advancement system, and I’m kind of just going on instinct here.  When I’m directing it, I get the feeling that it needs to touch something in order to acquire its form – though how that exactly works I’m not sure… *

She hesitated for another few moments as she stared at the multi-colored monstrosity, but after seeing that it did no harm to the little metal construct, she shrugged and nodded her acceptance.  The monster didn’t even move from where it was; it just extended its arm until it was a long, thin sparkly spike that moved towards her left arm slowly.  Violet flinched as it touched her skin, before a small – and very brief – jolt of pain ran through her entire arm that caused her to yelp, but that was all.  The multi-colored arm retracted quickly back into the large form of the monster, before disappearing completely.

Violet briefly looked at her arm where she felt the little jolt of pain and saw a tiny drop of blood from an equally small puncture wound.  By the time she wiped away the blood to see if any more damage had been done, the bleeding had already stopped.  That’s not too bad.

She looked back up at the strange monster and saw that the colors had frozen in their cascading effect; that didn’t last long, however, as the effect returned – but much faster than it was before.  The cascade became so fast that it was like a blur, and it was distracting enough that it took a moment for her to realize that the entire monster was shrinking, almost condensing in on itself.  Within a few seconds, it was approximately the same size as Violet…and then the same shape…and then the colors evened out until it matched her skin tone, hair, and even her eyes exactly.  It was almost like looking in a mirror – except for the fact that the form in the “mirror” was naked.

Violet covered her own self up in an automatic reflex, as if that could somehow cover the naked body in front of her.  She felt herself blushing profusely as the other “her” blinked and started to move around as if testing its limbs.

* Wow!  That worked better than I thought it would!  Why are you—oh, dang it!  I guess this Shapeshifter can’t copy clothes – good to know. *

A sheet of beige-colored linen fell from above her twin with a slit cut into the middle of it, and the Shapeshifter managed to pull it over…her?...head so that it was draped over her like some strange poncho-looking article of clothing.  It wasn’t really any type of clothing by any stretch of the imagination, of course, but it at least made Violet feel a little better not having to stare at her own naked body.  “What…what just happened?” she asked, still a little shocked and confused over what was going on.

* This is my new