ã€ŠOf Gods and Dungeonsã€‹


 Ch. 1 - New Life

    ¡°To anyone who can hear me - I ask of you, please, find a way for me to live. To save my life, or to come back as something else, I don¡¯t care. Please. I don¡¯t want to die.¡±

    Amy turned over in her bed to throw up again. Not that anything came out anymore. She gasped after the wave of dry heaves passed her by.

    It was another on her list of desperate attempts. She was a scientist, after all. While she didn¡¯t believe in a god of any kind, she was in favor of testing. She put her heart and soul into each attempt, no matter how she thought it¡¯d turn out.

    Begging random deities, though, was at the bottom of her list. She didn¡¯t have much time left.

    It was a cruel testament to human perseverance that she wasn¡¯t dead yet. How could such a delicate balance of chemical reactions continue under these conditions? Her skin hung loose and limp from her brittle bones. She couldn¡¯t eat anything anymore - her diet consisted of broth, and she could barely keep that down. Her hair, nails, and a handful of other fast-growing cell types had long since perished from the brutality of chemotherapy.

    Cancer sucked.

    Time passed slowly as she lay in her bed. Her mother came to visit her every day, but they¡¯d run out of things to say. Her mother was endlessly capable of talking about nothing, leaving the room full of the pleasant sound of her voice. She was kind of glad that her father had never had to see her like this. She¡¯d gone from being an admittedly small part of an amazing chemistry research team to dying from accidental exposure to a rather intensely carcinogenic creation. It was downright embarrassing.

    Other than her mother, she¡¯d mostly stopped having visitors. Her brothers had said farewell months before, and her boyfriend had decided it was too hard to stick around.

    She couldn¡¯t blame him too much. She didn¡¯t want to be here, either.

    But there was nothing to do but wait. She couldn¡¯t even play video games.

    From the time of her prayer to any who could hear her, it took three days before her heart grew silent. By then, she was almost too exhausted to be afraid.

    Almost.

    She clung to her consciousness with every scrap of will she had, fueled by her fear. She refused to fall into oblivion, even as she felt utterly certain that she would.

    And¡­ she didn¡¯t.

    She blinked in confusion as she found herself standing on a field of pure white, that seemed to stretch only a few dozen feet away. It gave the impression of standing in a spotlight within a void.

    Am I dreaming? she wondered uneasily. It would be an added layer of cruelty to dream of dying that vividly. She¡¯d been certain it was real.

    Three pedestals appeared before her and she screamed in surprise, falling on her rear.

    Things should not just materialize out of thin air. Things only did that on TV.

    She stared at the pedestals for a long moment while her heart stopped racing. Slowly, she pulled herself to her feet and gave them a closer look.

    On each pedestal was an object. One held a sword, the second held a mask, and the third held a book. She had a powerful feeling of importance about this, making her uneasy.

    Her choice was so obvious it didn¡¯t even register as a choice. She reached for the book instantly.

    As soon as her fingers touched its leather binding, all three pedestals disappeared, and a figure emerged. She squeaked out a small sound again, but was marginally less surprised this time.

    He was a man - a perfect blend of the stereotypes of ¡°geek¡± and ¡°over-enthusiastic scholar.¡± He looked older than her, maybe in his thirties. His glasses were comically oversized, and the passionate excitement on his face could have fit on an eight year old. Unruly brown hair framed his thin face, and curiosity shone from his eyes so intensely it felt tangible.

    Still, despite his unimpressive appearance, there was something unnerving about him. That feeling of importance emanated from him to such a degree she felt cowed, even though his familiar look should have put her at ease.

    ¡°Greetings, greetings!¡± he said, as soon as he appeared. ¡°Oh, I¡¯m so terribly excited to meet you!¡±

    ¡°...oh,¡± she said, confused.

    ¡°Yes, yes, yes,¡± he said, pushing his glasses up his nose. ¡°My name is Biblio, the demigod of books. So very exciting, yes, may I know your name?¡±

    ¡°Your name is Biblio,¡± she repeated dully. ¡°The demigod of books. Did¡­ what¡­ what?¡±

    ¡°Oh, poor thing, you must be a bit overwhelmed, I¡¯m sure,¡± he said, looking honestly apologetic. ¡°Dying is a rather traumatic event. Do take your time.¡±

    She blinked at him. She needed to sit down. There were no chairs, but the floor seemed perfectly fine.

    As she sat, he held mostly still. He was fidgety, and looked like he was full to bursting with questions.

    ¡°My name is Amy,¡± she said after a minute. ¡°Amy Barnes. I¡¯m a lab tech.¡±

    ¡°Amy Barnes,¡± he said, sounding almost reverent. ¡°Lab tech! Oh, my my my. What is¡­? Oh, but forgive me, I¡¯m not here to ask you things.¡±

    ¡°Why are you here?¡± she asked, curiosity beginning to force its way past shock.

    ¡°To tell you things!¡± he said happily. ¡°I¡¯m sure you have ever so many questions - gods know I would - but I¡¯m afraid there have been quite a few restrictions placed. There¡¯s so very little I can tell you, but I will tell you all that I can.¡±

    ¡°Restrictions?¡± she asked. ¡°What restrictions?¡±

    ¡°The primary gods,¡± he said, offhandedly. ¡°They want to ensure there is as little bias as possible, after all. This is the most exciting event of the century! The millenium, even! Maybe even longer!¡±

    ¡°Right,¡± she said. ¡°I¡­ I died, right?¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± he said, looking confused. ¡°We¡¯d assumed you knew you were dying. Was it a surprise?¡±

    ¡°Nope, I knew I was dying,¡± she said. ¡°I was just making sure I wasn¡¯t hallucinating.¡±

    ¡°Oh, that is quite sensible, very sensible indeed, yes, yes,¡± he said, nodding. ¡°You are not hallucinating! You did, in fact, die. Though we don¡¯t know what killed you.¡±

    ¡°Cancer,¡± she said.

    ¡°Cancer,¡± he repeated. ¡°Hmm, yes, the word doesn¡¯t translate perfectly, but I think I understand.¡±

    On the list of things she was curious about, that didn¡¯t make the top ten at the moment.

    ¡°Can you tell me what happened, please?¡± she asked.

    ¡°But of course!¡± he said. ¡°You see, the gods can only interact with mortals in a few very limited means - to prevent cheating, you see - and one of those means is by the fulfillment of earnestly made prayers!¡±

    ¡°Oh,¡± she said. ¡°So, the prayers I¡¯d tried¡­?¡±

    ¡°Quick, aren¡¯t you?¡± he said, looking pleased. ¡°Indeed! Now, normally, we wouldn¡¯t be able to do much about it, because your world is the domain of a solitary god - he¡¯s quite jealous, you see, and tends to object rather severely when other gods attempt to interfere. But you, Amy Barnes, you weren¡¯t religious at all! We felt it in your prayer - you had no attachment to that god. That meant we could snatch you away, in your moment of death! It¡¯s the first contact made with your universe in thousands of years!¡±

    ¡°Snatch me away¡­?¡± she repeated.

    He nodded vigorously, ¡°Yes, yes. You¡¯re in our universe now! The world of Yaelsin, it¡¯s called. Lovely name, isn¡¯t it? We can only fulfill prayers made in earnest, according to their wording, and only if they align with pre-existing desires. Quite limiting, you see, yes? But! But your prayer, Amy, your prayer was exquisite - it was earnestly made, and while ¡®anything¡¯ is something we cannot fulfill, you made a list of options! The pantheon has been in quite the flurry these last few months, arguing about how to handle it.¡±

    ¡°Months?¡± she said. ¡°How long have I been dead?¡±

    ¡°About four months,¡± he said. ¡°We kept you unconscious while we made plans. I say ¡®we,¡¯ but as a mere demigod, I¡¯m not a part of the deliberations.¡±

    ¡°Can you tell me the plan they decided on?¡± she asked.

    ¡°Not entirely, but in part, yes,¡± he said. ¡°You will be returning as a dungeon - quite excellent, yes?¡±

    She wanted to interrupt him to ask what the hell that meant, but she figured it¡¯d be best to answer one question at a time.

    ¡°Yaelsin has been rather stagnant for some time,¡± he said, sighing forlornly. ¡°The gods have come to an effective stalemate. Any suggestions for disrupting the stalemate are assumed to be laden with bias, and so have been shot down. You, though, Amy Barnes - you are a true unknown! You come from a world about which we know nothing. You have no knowledge of the gods of Yaelsin. Your personality, your leanings, are entirely unknown. You are known to have a resistance to religion, which makes it seem like you¡¯re less likely to align with the first god who finds you, making things seem even more fair. You are the finest opportunity for a new game since the gods reached stalemate!¡±

    ¡°A¡­ game,¡± she said, distaste clear in her voice.

    ¡°The realm of mortals is the playing field of the gods,¡± he said, smiling apologetically. ¡°It is simply the way of things. You needn¡¯t worry about that, not really. No gods may directly interfere with you ever in your life, and are forbidden from indirect interference for an adjustment period of one year.¡±

    ¡°Let me get this straight,¡± she said, rubbing at her face. ¡°I died. I was snatched away by actual gods, of another universe. This was because of my prayer, and because I¡¯m an unknown. You wanted an unknown element, in hopes of disrupting the current stalemate of the gods, in a way that could not have been manipulated by any of the current gods. Right?¡±The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

    ¡°Most excellent, yes, yes,¡± he said, beaming at her with pride.

    ¡°And I¡¯m talking to you, because I picked the book?¡± she asked.

    ¡°Oh, yes, quite astute indeed!¡± he said happily. ¡°We didn¡¯t know who should represent us, so we selected three options. I¡¯m so very glad you picked me!¡±

    ¡°Right,¡± she said, rubbing at her face again. She felt completely overwhelmed. ¡°Let¡¯s go with the next big detail - what is a dungeon?¡±

    ¡°Oh, I¡¯m terribly sorry, but I can¡¯t tell you that, I¡¯m afraid,¡± he said.

    ¡°Why not?¡± she asked.

    ¡°Well, we don¡¯t want you to act like other dungeons,¡± he explained. ¡°There¡¯s plenty enough of those! You will have the normal instincts and abilities of a dungeon, though, so no worries about that! And, of course, you will retain all of your memories, skills, and knowledge. It¡¯d be rather pointless if you were just an ordinary dungeon, after all, yes? Ha ha!¡±

    She blinked several times.

    ¡°But dungeons aren¡¯t alive,¡± she said.

    ¡°Really?¡± he asked, marvelling. ¡°Your god makes dead dungeons? Whatever is the point, then, I wonder?¡±

    She blinked at him again.

    ¡°I appreciate the information,¡± she said cautiously, ¡°But I have to admit, I¡¯m curious why you¡¯re telling me anything at all. Why not just reincarnate me, and see what happens?¡±

    ¡°Oh, we considered that, yes, yes,¡± he said. ¡°But you see, I¡¯m afraid, most dungeons don¡¯t survive their first year. We have chosen a rather nice starting location for you - not too nice, of course, that choice involved quite a bit of arguing - but even so, we were worried that, in your confusion and panic, you might make poor choices. If you died early, then the whole game would be over before it began! So, we hoped to have you calm and ready before you start.¡±

    ¡°What usually kills dungeons?¡± she asked.

    ¡°I¡¯m terribly sorry, but I don¡¯t think I can answer that,¡± he said, looking honestly sorry.

    ¡°Can you tell me what wrong decisions you¡¯re hoping I¡¯ll avoid?¡± she asked.

    ¡°Um¡­ no,¡± he said, thinking. ¡°I¡¯m not supposed you tell you anything at all about the ¡®being a dungeon¡¯ part. I can only tell you a little about the context around the situation.¡±

    She frowned. Biblio - what a silly name - seemed quite honest and forthright. She was pretty sure that, as much as he might want to help her, he wouldn¡¯t bend the rules. The demigod of the mask, though? If that was a god of deception or something, he might manage to twist the interpretation to help her a little, if he thought it¡¯d bias her towards him.

    ¡°There¡¯s one thing I¡¯m really unhappy about,¡± she said, sighing heavily. ¡°I¡¯m sure, as much as I love books, I¡¯d have met you one day, no matter what. The other choices, though? The mask, especially? I really should have picked that one.¡±

    ¡°Oh,¡± he said, looking unhappy.

    ¡°You can¡¯t blame me for being curious, can you?¡± she asked, smiling at him. ¡°I mean, wouldn¡¯t you want to meet more demigods, if you had the choice?¡±

    ¡°Well, yes, but, the choice was already made,¡± he said.

    ¡°But, couldn¡¯t you go back to them and ask?¡± she said sweetly.

    ¡°That, um, that wasn¡¯t part of the plan,¡± he said uncertainly.

    ¡°But wouldn¡¯t it be good for the gods, if the pantheon looked reasonable?¡± she asked. ¡°I mean, obviously it was acceptable for me to speak to the demigod of the mask, else he wouldn¡¯t have been there. You wouldn¡¯t want me to think poorly of the gods, so early in my new life, would you?¡±

    ¡°I, um, I suppose I can ask,¡± he said, looking uneasy.

    He disappeared. She fidgeted for several minutes.

    Another figure appeared. He was incredibly handsome, and as dignified as Biblio had been approachable. The smile he gave her jolted right through her body - the sort of smile that would make throngs of teenaged girls swoon, even though he looked like a strange blend of middle aged and young. Ageless, perhaps.

    Biblio¡¯s enthusiasm had taken the edge off of the deep feeling of importance, but this man embodied it. He looked as though he were a full god, graciously permitting a favored priest to call upon his time.

    ¡°Amy Barnes,¡± he said, his voice as smooth as the finest silk. ¡°It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance. I am Prosopon, the demigod of personas.¡±

    ¡°Ah,¡± she said, smiling to cover her unease. She felt vastly out of her league. ¡°I appreciate your willingness to speak with me.¡±

    ¡°How could I refuse such a charming request?¡± he asked, looking amused. ¡°Now, then, why don¡¯t you tell me the real reason you asked for me?¡±

    She flushed a little and stammered.

    ¡°I just want a better understanding of who I¡¯m working with,¡± she said awkwardly. ¡°I figured two demigods would give me a better sense of it than one.¡±

    He smiled again, and she suppressed a pleasant shiver. His smile was so warm and inviting, but it would not be a good idea to develop a crush on him.

    ¡°Clever approach, my dear,¡± he said. ¡°I fear that Biblio has already advised you of most everything that can be said, and so I may not be able to help you as much as you might wish.¡±

    ¡°Perhaps not,¡± she said. ¡°But, I wonder, will I be meeting you and him again in a year?¡±

    ¡°Directly? No, not any of us,¡± he said. ¡°But I suspect you¡¯ll find a few who favor personas within the ranks of the god of guile.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s the god over you?¡± she asked.

    ¡°Alas, I cannot tell you anything about the structure of the pantheon,¡± he said with a rueful grin. ¡°I merely wished to let you know where you might look, if you wanted to find those who serve beneath me.¡±

    ¡°Much appreciated,¡± she said, and he dipped his head in a graceful nod. ¡°Sir, I am worried about something. Will I be forced to be a tool of the gods?¡±

    ¡°A reasonable concern, my dear,¡± he said. ¡°But allow me to reassure you - the gods have no more power than they are granted.¡±

    ¡°So they can¡¯t get into my mind, or force me to do anything?¡± she asked.

    ¡°Correct,¡± he said. ¡°Only if you pray for a god to have access, will they gain such a treasure.¡±

    ¡°Why would anyone do that?¡± she asked.

    ¡°The gods do not have to answer prayers,¡± he said with a wry smile.

    ¡°But they can,¡± she said, and nodded thoughtfully. ¡°So people trade their, what, faith? For power and other benefits?¡±

    ¡°Just so,¡± he said.

    ¡°Because the gods can only act through people, he said?¡± she asked. ¡°So that¡¯s the only way they can ¡®fight¡¯ each other?¡±

    ¡°You are perceptive, my dear,¡± he said warmly.

    ¡°So how do I figure into all this?¡± she asked.

    ¡°You, specifically?¡± he said. ¡°I fear I am forbidden to say.¡±

    ¡°Have they ever done something like this before?¡± she asked. ¡°Brought other people back as dungeons?¡±

    ¡°A few times,¡± he said. ¡°Most recently was a few hundred years ago. It is impossible to find a resident of Yaelsin who is free of bias with the gods, of course, and so a continent was given five dungeons. Each soul was chosen by one of the gods who chose to engage in that game.¡±

    ¡°What happened?¡± she asked.

    ¡°They all died within ten years,¡± he said.

    ¡°Why?¡± she asked.

    ¡°Anyone who is affiliated with one god becomes the natural enemy of another,¡± he said. ¡°Each dungeon was the reincarnated soul of a high priest. They had great power, for their allegiance. Each gained as many boons as their patron gods had the power to grant. Yet, it was not enough.¡±

    ¡°Power, at the cost of being a target,¡± she said with a frown.

    ¡°Just so,¡± he said. ¡°Dealing with gods and demigods is distinct from aligning yourself with one. I would, of course, never make any pretense of giving you advice, but I feel it is useful to understand the nature of your situation.¡±

    ¡°Can you tell me the difference between gods and demigods?¡± she asked.

    ¡°Alas, any specifics about the hierarchy or politics of the gods are forbidden,¡± he said, looking remorseful.

    ¡°You said the dungeons died within ten years,¡± she said, and he nodded. ¡°How long would they have lived, had no one killed them?¡±

    He smiled, and his eyes glinted with amusement.

    ¡°While I am forbidden from telling you about dungeons in general, I suppose I can tell you that those, specific dungeons were entirely ageless,¡± he said. ¡°Immortal, if not slain by specifically malicious intent.¡±

    ¡°Was there anything special about those dungeons?¡± she asked.

    ¡°Hmm,¡± he said, looking thoughtful. ¡°Why, I fear I cannot think of a single thing out of the ordinary about those dungeons, other than that they were reincarnated humans.¡±

    ¡°And Biblio said I¡¯d be ordinary, for a dungeon?¡± she said, getting excited.

    ¡°Naturally,¡± he said. ¡°How could the gods be convinced to actually agree on any alterations to the standard? It¡¯s a wonder they agreed on the standard in the first place - only the gods themselves could create such magnificent beings as dungeons.¡±

    She sighed with pleasure. Immortality¡­ if she played her cards right, she would never have to die again.

    ¡°I really appreciate you talking with me,¡± she said, gratitude suffusing her voice.

    ¡°I am glad to hear it,¡± he said, with a faint bow. ¡°It has been an absolute pleasure talking to you. I fear the rest of the gods are growing displeased at our discussion. Are there any further questions I might address, before I am whisked away?¡±

    The time pressure made her freeze up. She had so many questions¡­ she could talk to him for days straight before she ran out. What to ask?

    ¡°Is there anything I can do, or should do, to prepare?¡± she asked.

    ¡°You are permitted to contemplate and rest for as long as you require, before you begin,¡± he said. ¡°Beyond that, you will bring nothing with you but your knowledge.¡±

    ¡°Could I make a deal with you before I go?¡± she asked impulsively.

    He laughed, and the sound was so alluring she had to withhold a sigh of appreciation.

    ¡°Would that I could, my dear,¡± he said. ¡°But, unless you swear fealty to one of the gods, we are forbidden from making direct deals with you at any time in your life. You may only negotiate with our priests; and even then, only after a year has passed. Why, there won¡¯t even be any priests on your continent for a year.¡±

    His smile grew slightly strained. Amy blinked at the realization that the air around her felt¡­ tense, somehow. As though she was immersed in a pool of irritation.

    ¡°With that, my dear Amy Barnes, I believe I must say farewell,¡± he said, bowing lightly. ¡°I look forward to seeing what you achieve, and have the highest hopes for your success. Good luck.¡±

    With another charming smile, he disappeared again, and she was alone on the plane of light. That weight of irritation around her had faded somewhat, but hadn¡¯t disappeared entirely. Prosopon of personas had made a risky move, inviting the irritation of the other gods in exchange for her gratitude.

    She¡¯d intended to take whatever he said with a grain of salt, assuming it would be pure manipulation, but she couldn¡¯t disregard the gifts of knowledge he¡¯d given her. She assumed it had to be true - surely the rest of the gods would have objected more severely if she¡¯d been lied to.

    No, she was convinced that he¡¯d been playing straight with her. She was honestly grateful, and would find a way to thank him for it, someday. Biblio, too, though mostly because she couldn¡¯t help but appreciate a demigod of books.

    At the moment, she had time to think. She tried to guess what a ¡°dungeon¡± was. There were a number of meanings, but none of them involved something that was alive. What was she going to be? What was she going to lose?

    I suppose it isn¡¯t worth worrying about. I don¡¯t have enough information to figure it out. And, besides, I¡¯m tired of sitting around just thinking.

    ¡°I guess I¡¯m ready,¡± she said, looking up at¡­

    ¡­ darkness?

    She couldn¡¯t breathe. She needed air. She scrambled forward and dug away the earth, desperate for air.

    It moved so easily, and felt so soft beneath her hands. It was scarcely seconds before she broke through and sunlight poured in. She gasped in pleasure.

    As the fear faded, she remembered that she wasn¡¯t supposed to have hands. She looked down at them.

    Only¡­ there was nothing there. There was no body at all. How was she looking around? How had she dug at the dirt?

    She took a deep breath with non existent lungs. Or maybe she was just centering herself. She brushed aside the thought. Most dungeons died within a year¡­ this meant she was in danger and had to figure things out quickly.

    She looked around and saw a beautiful turquoise gem. It was precisely the same shade as her favorite color, and for a moment, she marveled at its beauty. It was large, for a gem - perhaps the size of the tip of her finger, and perfectly spherical.

    After memorizing the perfection of its glistening facets, she turned her attention to the area she was in.

    The tunnel was tiny, only about three feet from the gem to the surface, and perhaps a mere six inches wide. Amy realized with a start that the tunnel began at the gem.

    Was she a gemstone? A magic gemstone?

    She wanted to sit down again, but had no body. She gave in to the feeling anyway, just to see what would happen.

    The world dimmed, and she found herself inside the gem. It felt like she was laying down on the softest bed imaginable, or perhaps in a jacuzzi. Perfect relaxation.

    As pleasant as it was, she pulled herself back to the tunnel. She had to figure out exactly what she was and what she could do.

    She¡¯d died once already. She wasn¡¯t going to do it again.

 Ch. 2 - Mana

    The first thing she tried was leaving the tunnel. She¡¯d not intended to go far - not with her gemstone body being killable, and so easily accessible - but it turned out that she couldn¡¯t leave at all. Seemed like sunlight was her bane. The more clearly she could see the sky, the more it seemed like her ¡°self¡± was withering away.

    I am a magic vampire crystal, she thought to herself with a laugh.

    It was not what she¡¯d expected, but she had to admit, the idea was growing on her.

    Further experimentation revealed a few more interesting details. Anything she wanted to remove, such as when she¡¯d dug the dirt away, disappeared into some sort of space inside her mind. She knew precisely how much dirt and stone that she¡¯d absorbed. Everything she absorbed, she seemed to gain knowledge of, as well. Not only did she know how much of it she had, she understood precisely what it was made of, and how.

    She could also put the material back, in any arrangement that she desired. Interestingly, the limit of precision was limited to her ability to comprehend it. She could build the walls of her cave¡­ well, her dungeon, she supposed¡­ one molecule at a time.

    That had a lot of potential.

    Her fiddling with the dungeon had expanded it to roughly five by six feet, and about three feet tall. She was interested to realize that she felt fatigued.

    No, that wasn¡¯t quite right. She was a little tired, but it was more than that. She felt hungry.

    But what was she supposed to eat? Sleep didn¡¯t feel right, and she didn¡¯t have a mouth. Absorbing dirt and stone felt nice, but it wasn¡¯t satisfying.

    Another approach, then.

    She¡¯d noticed that she couldn¡¯t absorb the bugs and roots around the tunnel entrance. There was something about them that resisted her. She could push them a little, but that was the limit.

    On a chemical level, it didn¡¯t make sense. There was nothing different about living things than any other assortment of chemicals, other than the fact that they were alive.

    So, maybe if she killed them? Could she absorb them, then?

    She wasn¡¯t sure how she was supposed to kill them if she couldn¡¯t use her magic on them directly. There were some plants that had fallen when she¡¯d dug out the ground underneath, but they¡¯d take time to die. As for the insects¡­ maybe a trap?

    A tiny pit opened up in the ground - about an inch across, and four inches deep. She made the edges and bottom perfectly smooth rock. The ground had been a little damp, so she had a small amount of water to work with. She didn¡¯t need much, though. She poured in about an inch¡¯s worth.

    A little beetle was walking near her pit.

    Why hello, my lovely new lab rat. Sorry you have to die, but it¡¯s for science! You understand, I¡¯m sure. Well, you don¡¯t, really, but that¡¯s okay.

    A little bit of moving air was all it took to knock the beetle into the hole. As expected, the walls were too slick to climb up, and so she waited for the beetle to drown.

    Oh! That feels good!

    A sweet, satisfying rush of pleasure filled her as the beetle died. Her hunger faded the tiniest amount.

    That wasn¡¯t what she¡¯d been testing for, but she¡¯d take it. She was glad to note that her test had been successful, to boot - she could, indeed, absorb the beetle.

    It was a delightfully intricate creature. Compared to the rocks and dirt, the knowledge that flowed into her was even more exquisite than the death had been.

    With the knowledge and material, she wondered¡­

    Another beetle, an exact copy of the previous, was fashioned from her internal stores. It lived. She watched it move with fascination, and realized that not only did it live, it was hers. She could control it, could command it, as she pleased.

    Maybe this was how dungeons were supposed to work. Maybe they defended themselves with the things they created. Not that a beetle could do her any good. But there was another perfectly good idea to test - maybe she could change the beetle!

    She poured her magic into the beetle, focusing on making it larger. She felt it pulling on her reserves, but her reserves were lacking. Hmm. Well, she didn¡¯t have any more organic material.

    She tried stone, instead. She focused on trying to strengthen the beetle¡¯s carapace. To her delight, it worked perfectly. The beetle was now too bulky to move, but it worked!

    Another idea occurred to her to try. If she was magic, maybe she could make the beetle magic, too.

    Magic strength, she thought, trying to force the idea into the beetle. Her power dimmed a little, but the stone-armored beetle was now prancing around as though it were light as a feather.

    Her hunger was growing intense enough to get really annoying. She needed more death in her dungeon, and soon. She also needed more material to work with.

    And she had just the man - or bug, anyway - for the job.

    The little stone beetle charged at her command, slicing at the handful of earthworms, ants, and other little beetles that she¡¯d exposed.

    He didn¡¯t have an ounce of trouble. The other critters couldn¡¯t bite past the stone, and his enhanced strength made short work of them. It reduced her hunger a little, but even when all of the creatures in her dungeon were dead, she still ached.

    Well, surely the smell of rotting insects would attract some new life. The earthworms were the wettest corpses, and seemed best for the task, since the moisture would make their rot more smelly. The stone beetle moved them near the entrance, and she made another little hole to the surface, to improve air flow.

    Her next thing to try was sending her beetle outside. She gave the command to leave and come back immediately, since she didn¡¯t want to have her ¡°self¡± next to the entrance again.

    She watched, uneasy, as it marched along. It pulled her power along as it walked, sucking it out of her as it stepped into the daylight. She was still connected, but her magic withered when it was outside her dungeon. The drain wasn¡¯t much, but this was not helping her hunger problem. She pulled the beetle back promptly.

    Fine. So hunting outside wasn¡¯t happening.

    She¡¯d had enough of waiting. Did she really have to sit here and wait for things to come into her dungeon?

    The best she could do was prepare herself in the meantime. She absorbed the beetle and ant corpses. She decided to have one strong defender, rather than a bunch of useless ones. She made her little stone guardian larger, with the material drawn from the other insects.

    He was an herbivore, she discovered, as he went munching on the slowly decaying bits of plant matter. It gave her a tiny measure of power, too, and better still, every bite gave her more of that intimate knowledge of construction.

    The scientists of earth would kill for knowledge of this intricacy.

    She played with her stone pet for a while, and found that her attention was easily split. She watched the entrance as she played, eagerly hoping for something to come in.

    It was only a few hours before flies started showing up, just as she¡¯d hoped. She let them land and feed on the earthworm corpses while the stone beetle got into position to pounce.

    Only, she felt something change. The flies¡­ some of them were laying eggs.

    Oooh. That also had potential. Most excellent. Would life transform chemical energy into¡­ what should she call this power?

    Hmm¡­ ah, yes, of course! Mana!

    She had her stone beetle launch at the flies, but he was too slow. Despite a valiant effort, he didn¡¯t catch even a single one.

    Well, at least she got some eggs out of it. Maybe she shouldn¡¯t have killed everything in reach. She¡¯d leave them to hatch and grow. If she killed them right before they emerged as flies, she¡¯d probably get the most mana possible, before they could escape.

    She needed more. She probed around with her senses, and found that she could infuse mana into the walls of her dungeon. That mana came back completely when she absorbed the infused dirt, and even unabsorbed, it provided her with intimate knowledge of what was within.

    Her senses really were incredible. She could ¡°see¡± and ¡°hear¡± whatever she was focusing on, in a way that wasn¡¯t too unlike human senses, except that her senses were perfectly sharp. It was her ¡°peripheral¡± senses that were truly astonishing, though. Even when she wasn¡¯t focusing on something, if it was within her dungeon, she knew it was there, and knew everything about it.

    Life blocked her senses just as much as it blocked her magic, but beyond that detail, she knew where every single speck of dust was, as clearly as if she could see it. Barring the unpleasantness of her unsatisfied hunger, she was really having quite a bit of fun.You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

    But survival came first.

    A fearful instinct was pushing to bring her core away from the opening, but that just didn¡¯t seem like the best plan. She didn¡¯t have a lot of power to work with. Going deeper wouldn¡¯t make her safer - after all, if something came in here looking to kill her, having to go two feet deeper was not going to make a difference.

    Getting more power, on the other hand, would. Power, in this case, was knowledge and mana.

    So she branched outward instead.

    Little tunnels expanded from her tiny dungeon - tunnels that only her beetle could traverse. It seemed mana needed air to flow through, so this was the only way to extend her reach. Range was a problem - the further from her core she got, the weaker her magic was. Rather than going for distance, then, she went for more complete coverage.

    The process was building her appetite, but if the view from her main entrance was any indication, this area was full of life. She did catch a few earthworms in the process, which the stone beetle collected for her.

    Still, it wasn¡¯t enough. Her hunger grew to the point where she felt faint, and she had to stop. Maybe those flies would rejuvenate her enough, when they matured.

    She collapsed back into the crystal. It felt relaxing enough that her hunger was bearable, if only just.

    Sleep was apparently not something dungeons did, though. Every few minutes, she popped out to check on her stone beetle and on the eggs. More flies had come in when she wasn¡¯t paying attention, but they hadn¡¯t hurt anything - they¡¯d only added more eggs.

    Once it was night, she decided to test her ¡°vampire¡± theory. She had her stone beetle make a quick dart outside.

    It was much easier. He could make it an entire foot outside of her dungeon before she even started to feel the drain, and even then, it was much less.

    So, dungeons could send out their critters at night, then. That was good to know. Even so, it wasn¡¯t very useful right now.

    When the stone beetle came back, she decided to see about upgrading him. She had the knowledge of ants, and she wondered if she could upgrade him with their details. She made his mandibles like theirs, but larger and also enhanced with stone. She had to change his head shape a little, because he was off balance.

    It brought her hunger to an acute level, but her little stone pet was now able to carry things much more easily.

    She sent him to the surface to collect food for her.

    One thing she quickly discovered was that killing things outside - a small scouting ant, in this case - did nothing for her. They had to die inside the dungeon. Well, fine. She ordered the beetle to collect all fallen plant matter, and to capture all the creatures it could find.

    Her minion¡¯s hunt was somewhat successful, and just barely made up for the cost of his upgrades.

    She wasn¡¯t big on patience. The hunger was annoying, but nothing compared to the pain of cancer. She knew she shouldn¡¯t push too hard, but it was difficult.

    She had magic. She had access to insanely detailed types of knowledge that biologists would kill for. She could make alterations to living things, and see how they worked in application.

    How was she supposed to be patient in the face of all that?

    A balance, maybe. She poked her magic at one of the fly eggs, wondering what would happen if she poked it long enough.

    To her surprise, after about five minutes, her magic got through. The knowledge flowed into her and she giggled in delight. This had cost her nothing! Or close enough to nothing that she couldn¡¯t tell. Either way, it was time for testing!

    She took over one full batch of eggs. She was able to poke as many as she liked at once, and even poking two hundred eggs into submission didn¡¯t seem to take any mana.

    Patience was much easier when she had something to do. She eagerly checked on the egg development every few minutes. It was so cool to see every detail of their growth as it happened.

    About twenty four hours into her new life, the eggs started hatching. Maggots were disgusting, but fascination won out. She could see their little bodies in incredible detail, inside and out. At least, the ones she¡¯d taken over. She seemed to have just as much control over these ones as the beetle!

    Time for testing.

    First things first. She wanted to know if she could capture them once born. She poked a handful of maggots, and after about twenty minutes, she got through - they were here. Most excellent!

    It did take a little mana this time, though. Oh, well. She examined them.

    Interestingly, they were different from the maggots she¡¯d already owned. These ones seemed a little weaker. Maybe by capturing creatures, she gave them a little of her magic?

    Next test.

    She had the beetle kill one of the maggots from her control group - the ones she¡¯d not touched. As expected, she got a miniscule flow of mana - a tiny fraction of what she¡¯d gotten from earthworms. Next, she had him kill one of her maggots. To her surprise, she got a flow - significantly more than the natural maggot. Apparently, it didn¡¯t matter that it was hers, and seemed to confirm that her maggots were stronger than natural ones.

    But she¡¯d made an incidental discovery, too. Her stone beetle had also gained some of the mana from his kill. If she hadn¡¯t been looking so closely, she¡¯d have missed it - but he¡¯d gotten a little stronger and faster.

    She¡¯d have clapped her hands in excitement, if she¡¯d had any.

    The hunger gnawed at her, but her curiosity was irresistible.

    She whispered an enhancement to ten of the maggots she¡¯d claimed as eggs, cringing as the drain on mana felt like actual pain this time.

    Eat faster, digest faster, develop faster.

    It had worked so naturally with the beetle, after all.

    Another giggle escaped her as she watched them start ravenously devouring the earthworm bodies. She could see the internal development of her chosen few vastly outstripping the natural-born.

    This was too easy, it wasn¡¯t even fair. All she needed was death, and she had the power of a god.

    The fact that her latest experiment had caused her actual pain was enough to slow her down, though. Instead of continuing to experiment, she simply observed the four types of maggots. Control group - the maggots she¡¯d never touched, as eggs or otherwise. Natural-born - the ones she¡¯d taken over, after being born. Mana-born - the ones she¡¯d taken over as eggs. And, lastly, the enhanced - the mana-born that she¡¯d given magic.

    The enhanced maggots were seriously busy little bugs. They grew so fast that they molted three times before the mana born had molted even once. The natural born were a few hours behind the mana-born, and the control group lagged even further behind.

    Apparently, her development enhancement wasn¡¯t entirely necessary - just belonging to her was enough to speed up growth.

    That evening, she noticed that her hunger had ebbed a little. She tried to figure out the source. A little trial and error revealed that living things let off a faint bit of mana.

    It was so little that it hardly seemed worthwhile. But, she suspected it depended on the type of life. Earthworms had given a hundred times as much mana as a maggot, on death. Maybe the ratio would hold in life, too.

    The control group were only just starting to molt when the enhanced maggots slipped into a dark corner of her dungeon to form a brown shell around themselves. She couldn¡¯t remember much about insect life cycles, but she figured it might be a little like butterflies. What was the term for that stage again? She dredged up the word ¡°pupae¡± from her memories. This would be the pupal stage of development.

    It was kind of cool to watch them dissolve into goo inside of their shells, and begin to take the shape of a fly. The process was so fast that she was entirely content just to watch. She was glad that she could watch all of her toys at the same time, but the enhanced were fascinating enough to draw the majority of her attention.

    Six hours later, and the brown shells began to split, revealing flies.

    They looked almost nothing like the flies that had laid their eggs.

    These creatures were smaller, but only by a little. Their wings were proportionally larger, and their mouths were¡­ well, actual mouths. Instead of the little proboscis that she¡¯d seen in their parents, these guys had chompers more like their maggot selves. Their digestive systems, too, seemed to be partway between a fly and a maggot. There were also signs of magic within the digestive system - maybe her command to ¡°eat faster¡± had accidentally had this result?

    Fortunately for all parties, it was nighttime again, and so she was able to send her little monsters out hunting.

    They could eat anything. They flew back with large mouthfuls of plants and insects alike, finishing them off within her domain. One surprised her by chewing through some wood as easily as he had eaten through an ant.

    Her monstrous flies grew so fast weeds would be jealous, and within an hour of their emergence, were already larger than their parents had been. She had them hunt aggressively, leaving her stone beetle to guard the maggots.

    Her recovery was slow, but steady. When using magic became merely uncomfortable again, instead of painful, she decided to resume her own hunt.

    Magic returned to the little tunnels she¡¯d fashioned the day before, and she began to seek out new life. She kept her search slow, so that she used mana no faster than her hunters gathered it for her. It was probably midnight, so she had several hours before her hunters had to withdraw.

    Two hours later, she felt a faint resistance to her magic that could only mean the presence of life. Something much stronger than an earthworm, too, by the feel of it. Or maybe a bunch of earthworms in a pile?

    She carefully dug below it. Fortunately, it wasn¡¯t far from her core, so it wasn¡¯t too straining. She did need to widen the tunnel to her core, so the mana flow was intense enough for the job.

    Beneath the creature, she dug a pit and lined it with stone. She wasn¡¯t sure how big it was, but she figured, best to cover all possibilities.

    In addition to some water that would drown insects, and the slick walls that had captured her beetle, she created some exceptionally thin spikes. They¡¯d break, but ideally, they¡¯d break inside flesh. The thinner they were, the sharper they were. She also made tiny hooks along the sides, so they¡¯d lodge into whatever flesh they found.

    It was ready. She began digging upwards in excitement. Her magic fizzed out before the ground broke and she grumbled in frustration. Apparently, her inability to directly affect life, or anything near life, wasn¡¯t something she could overcome with mere willpower.

    She glared at the soft dirt above her trap. What was waiting for her there? A mouse? Probably something big - she could affect the ground directly beneath insects, and whatever this was, it stopped her magic before the ground was even too thin. Maybe a rat?

    She thought fondly back to the rats in her old lab. Furry, clever things they were. Some were so friendly. Obviously, she couldn¡¯t get too attached, since she was testing the effects of whatever her lab had been paid to study, and generally, those studies ended in death. Still, she¡¯d found a balance, where she could appreciate the creatures even as she killed them for knowledge.

    Sighing, she returned to her task. So she couldn¡¯t dig it out directly. If she dug out horizontally enough, the ground would collapse under its own weight eventually. Hopefully, the ground was thin enough for her spikes to work, since the needle-thin spikes would break on impact with rocks. She made a few of them thicker, just in case.

    It was hardly a minute of digging before the ground burst open in a sudden flurry of moving legs. She was startled and pulled back, briefly frightened, before a shrill scream filled the tunnel.

    If she had a heart, it¡¯d have been racing.

    And laced with a little guilt.

    Instead of the mouse or rat she¡¯d been expecting, she saw a rabbit squirming in pain on her spikes. Blood was everywhere.

    She couldn¡¯t even put the poor thing out of its misery. Even her enhanced flies couldn¡¯t bite through the fur - it was just too thick, and they¡¯d be crushed in the rabbit¡¯s death throes before they got through.

    So she waited awkwardly, and was rewarded for her efforts with a surge of pleasure and warmth. It was easily a thousand times as much mana as the earthworms - ten thousand times, maybe.

    Her hunger was nearly sated - she almost felt like she could relax.

    But she noticed that her mana was flowing into the rabbit¡¯s tunnel. She followed the trail, and found forks in the tunnels.

    This wasn¡¯t just the tunnel of a single rabbit. This was a rabbit warren. There were dozens of the delicious creatures.

    Her mana problem had just been solved.

 Ch. 3 - Growth

    She spent almost the entirety of the rabbit¡¯s mana to infuse their warren, claiming it as her own. The creatures didn¡¯t seem to notice, but she definitely noticed the steady intake of their mana. They let off as much energy in every second that they slept as she got from killing a maggot.

    Of course, she couldn¡¯t help but wonder if she¡¯d get even more mana, if they were hers. The fly experiments had suggested that it might be possible to take over them once born, but she figured it¡¯d be costly. Better to kill them and recreate them, probably. She already had the necessary material and knowledge, but she¡¯d expended too much just taking over the warren.

    For now, she would rest. With the steady supply of mana the rabbits provided, resting was a viable option.

    That didn¡¯t mean her hunters would stop their task. The ravenous flies worked through the rest of the night. They were able to scavenge perhaps a full dozen feet from her cave before the drain became uncomfortable. The treasures they brought back were worth it.

    Grass - and more importantly, grass seeds. Moss. More varieties of beetles and ants. They¡¯d grown large enough to carry very small twigs. She spent a portion of her precious mana to make them even larger. More¡­ she needed more of everything.

    In the meantime, she planted the grass seeds and moss. An ecosystem would be ideal. She could figure out what to do regarding sunlight, but water was a more immediate concern.

    She could wait for rain, but that might take a while. She thought about it, and realized that surely, if she dug deep enough, she¡¯d hit the water table.

    Grinning, she started digging a well. Stone slipped into her reserves as easily as dirt, and she laughed to herself at how much easier she had it than her ancestors. It would take a while to get enough mana to hit the water table, but she could be patient.

    As the sky grew brighter, she watched the hunters more closely. She wanted to see exactly how the sunlight inhibited her.

    Her control started to wither before the sun emerged, but direct sunlight had the strongest effect. To her surprise, it was much less powerful of an effect than it had been before.

    Previously, it had seemed like the drain not only inconvenienced her, but also harmed the beetle. This time, it felt like the fly itself was completely fine in sunlight. The only problem was that her connection to it was more draining.

    It warranted another test. She sent out her stone beetle. Like the previous day, the drain was almost immediate, and powerful. She withdrew both the beetle and the flies.

    Hypothesis one: beetles were, for some biological reason, more susceptible than flies.

    Ants seemed like a good third candidate, so she created a few. On exposure to sunlight, they withered exactly as much as the beetle did.

    So, either flies were exceptionally resistant, or there was something else going on. She thought about what other differences existed between the beetle and flies.

    Hypothesis two: creatures she created were more susceptible than creatures that had been born.

    That one was easy. She created a new fly, based on the template of her mutant hunters. She also created a brand new beetle, just for thoroughness. She sent both of them outside.

    Aha! Both creatures immediately struggled under the sunlight. She¡¯d have to breed more species to confirm it, but it seemed like the best theory.

    Of course, the question was why. She took one of the hunter flies and made the new fly match it perfectly, down to the atom. There should be absolutely no difference between them.

    Both went outside, and quickly returned.

    Nope. The new fly suffered under the sunlight, whereas the old fly was just a little more costly to stay connected to.

    But why?

    Physically they were the same. So, the difference had to be magical. She tried to figure out if she could see the difference.

    Her vision expanded, and she marvelled. Physical objects disappeared entirely from view, replaced by a wispy awareness that was as beautiful as it was bewildering. Minutes passed as she tried to gain a better understanding of what she was seeing.

    As the awe subsided, she sighed. She could have kicked herself. She¡¯d been playing with magic all this time, and it hadn¡¯t occurred to her until now to see if she could actually see it?

    The difference between the two was extreme. The created fly was tethered to her with a beautifully glowing thread. Other than that, there was absolutely nothing in it - it was one hundred percent her. More than merely belonging to her, it was her.

    The enhanced fly, on the other hand, had a speck of mana that was clearly its own. Its ¡°soul,¡± she supposed, though the flimsy thing seemed unworthy of the word. This soul-thing was its own, though it was so full of her mana that it was entirely under her control. It, too, was tethered to her, but the connection was more nuanced.

    Even so, they were both only flies. There was just so little to work with - their magic was so faint that the very process of looking closely at it was almost enough to kill them. She couldn¡¯t get much information from souls this weak.

    She thought of one test she could try. She cut off the connection from the flies. The born-fly staggered in the air, confused, but then went off to go feed on more earthworm corpses.

    The created-fly, though? It collapsed to the ground, instantly dead.

    Interesting.

    She tried to reconnect. It took a few seconds, but she regained control of the born-fly with no trouble. The created-fly remained dead. Reconnecting wasn¡¯t good enough. She pushed harder, focusing on making it live. It worked, but to her surprise, it took almost as much mana to reanimate it as it did to make it in the first place.

    Last thing she tried was to make a soul for the created-fly. She couldn¡¯t seem to figure out how to do it. On one level, she¡¯d been gaining a deep confidence in her magic - it really seemed limited only by her raw power and her comprehension. So, either this was a hard limit, or she didn¡¯t understand something.This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    She gave the rabbits a greedy look. She could only imagine what wealth of knowledge they might provide, if she could examine them. Once they had babies, she¡¯d try her damnedest to acquire one, even if it was expensive.

    That was for the future.

    For now, her hunters cost too much during the day. They couldn¡¯t gather enough living things to pay for their own maintenance. She withdrew her hunters with a wistful sigh, and gave them an instruction to do their own thing, as long as it remained in her dungeon. She didn¡¯t want to pay them any attention at the moment.

    While they went off feeding on the various corpses, plant matter, and rabbit poop, she started playing with her senses. She wasn¡¯t going to make that mistake again.

    Her first attempt was as perfectly successful as almost everything else she¡¯d tried. She was able to see infrared with a passing thought. Next, she saw ultraviolet. Hearing worked just as well, with hearing subsonic and hypersonic sounds with ease.

    This is so cool!

    She¡¯d already known that she ¡°knew¡± everything that was in her dungeon - this was just another way of perceiving it. She figured that her default was human-type vision simply because that¡¯s what she was used to. Every other type of vision or hearing was equally accessible.

    The thought made her realize it might be more than vision or hearing. She tried to smell, then taste, then feel - each of those worked, too.

    It was quite firmly established, then. If something was in her dungeon, then it was hers to know.

    As much fun as it was to play around with her senses, the itching desire to protect her core kept her mind on her mortality. More strength was needed.

    She tried cultivating her plants. They, too, responded to her magic as naturally as breathing. Sunlight was just energy, so realistically, she should be able to replace that with mana. In that way, she¡¯d be trading mana for organic material.

    Likewise, if she used mana to create light directly, it might work. Problem was, it¡¯d likely be even less energy efficient than powering the plants directly.

    Better to not waste the mana, if possible. She considered her sunlight-harvesting options.

    Idea number one: she could open a hole in her roof, and let the sunlight come directly in. The problem with this idea was that the sunlight would only light up a small area. It shouldn¡¯t wither her magic, since the sunlight coming in through her entrance didn¡¯t weaken her at all. It only affected her magic when it was outside of her dungeon.

    Idea number two expanded on the concept. If she made a combination of mirrors and lenses, she could get a bunch of sunlight from above to a wide area inside her dungeon. The problem with that, though, was that bending light was all about angles. The sun would be at a different angle throughout the day, which meant she¡¯d either have something inefficient, or something that required constant adjustment. It also had the problem that nothing she could create was either reflective or transparent.

    Idea number three was to see if she could recreate fiber optic cables. She remembered the Christmas tree she¡¯d gotten the previous year - it had light coming from a bulb at the bottom, which went through the little wires, and emerged in pretty patterns. The problem with that was that she didn¡¯t know anything about optics. She didn¡¯t know if she needed special material, or specific sizes, or what. Like idea number two, she didn¡¯t have anything transparent to work with.

    She wanted to kick something.

    Fine. Maybe she¡¯d take another route. If she couldn¡¯t get the sunlight into her dungeon directly, then she¡¯d get the energy from the sunlight into the dungeon.

    Her latest idea required a plant bigger and hardier than the grass or moss. None of her insects could manage it.

    A rabbit, though, could.

    Rabbits also required a lot of plant matter to sustain themselves. This would have to wait until evening, when she could send it out foraging. She might as well get prepared in the meantime.

    Half an hour later, she¡¯d killed a second rabbit with the same setup as she¡¯d used to kill the first one. The mana infusion was as delicious as the first had been, and she found herself tempted to kill all the other rabbits in the warren.

    Not yet, not yet. They could forage during the day, whereas her creations couldn¡¯t. Best to let most of them live.

    By the time she returned her attention to the main room of her dungeon, she was met with a surprise. Her female hunter flies had mated and laid eggs. The crazy things had completely finished the reproductive cycle before the mana-born maggots had even managed to emerge from their pupal shells.

    To her delight, the eggs seemed to be developing with similar degrees of maddening haste. Did her enhancement pass on to their children?

    There were too many things she wanted to pay attention to! She wanted to study the development of her various experimental groups of flies. She wanted to dig her well for water. She wanted to get more rabbits, for more mana. She still had an annoying itch to hide her core deeper into the earth. She wanted to see what different effects she could put on the flies. She wanted to breed different creatures. She wanted to see if creatures that she created could breed.

    Priorities. She had to prioritize.

    What mattered most was survival. For that, she needed mana. Long term, killing all the rabbits wasn¡¯t the best plan. Having a viable ecosystem, on the other hand, probably was.

    The key ingredients for life were in two categories. One was energy; namely, sunlight. The other was raw materials - this amounted to mostly air and water, combined with stuff in the soil. All life started from that basis, and all energy came from the sun.

    Energy was the biggest factor, for her. Killing stuff had the biggest payoff, but wasn¡¯t reliable. Slow and steady wins the race.

    That decided her. She drew on the ambient mana from the various living things in her dungeon, and resumed digging her well. She finally hit water about thirty feet down. She sucked some up into her reserves, and fell back into the crystal to rest.

    Shortly before sunset, she emerged again, startled to discover that the hunters¡¯ eggs had already hatched. She had nearly five hundred of the enhanced maggots chowing down, quickly catching up to the control group maggots, who still hadn¡¯t entered their pupal forms.

    They weren¡¯t her immediate concern, though. She created her rabbit, and was delighted with the lovely creature. So much more strength, more complexity! And the senses were amazing, compared to the bugs. Its mind wasn¡¯t what she¡¯d expected. It didn¡¯t seem to have any thoughts or feelings at all. It was just a mindless puppet, with only the faintest presence of instincts.

    Huh. Either rabbits are profoundly more stupid than I¡¯d have guessed, or creating them has effects that the flies are too simple to reveal.

    Rabbits didn¡¯t have great nighttime vision, and the effect of the daytime drain was strongest in direct sunlight. She hoped that in the hours of twilight, she could strike a balance. As soon as the dungeon entrance was shaded, she sent her rabbit off.

    The pain made her wince, but she pressed on. It wasn¡¯t bad at all, really - about on par with a sunburn. The little legs ran for all they were worth, as she looked through the rabbit¡¯s eyes for her goal.

    It was the first time she¡¯d really seen outside of her dungeon. The flies¡¯ vision was almost useless, and she couldn¡¯t get close enough to her own entrance herself to see much past it, other than a little expanse of green hills.

    The rabbit¡¯s eyes weren¡¯t nearly as sharp as humans¡¯, but they still worked for long distances. She was able to make out so much more detail. Her dungeon was on a large hill, on the eastern side. In the distance, she could hear what must be a river flowing. It was mostly hilly grassland, but a forest started only a few hundred feet away, to the north. To the south, a good distance away, she saw some strange shapes that she couldn¡¯t quite make out.

    Hopefully not important. In any case, she wasn¡¯t in a position to investigate. Her objective would probably be in the forest. The rabbit¡¯s legs launched the furry body at a delightfully fast pace.

    She crossed into some direct sunlight between the dungeon and the forest line, but she endured it. Even though it was only for a few seconds, the rabbit was a little hurt. The fur was fine, but the skin underneath was badly burned.

    Amy ignored it, and focused her search through the forest.

    There!

    Some kind of ivy was growing in the shade of the trees, and her rabbit dug in a frenzy. She started gathering up the length of vine into a ball, so it could be carried.

    ¡°Oh, Maya!¡± she heard, and she froze. The voice of a little girl? The rabbit became as still as a statue. ¡°Look! It¡¯s a rabbit!¡±

 Ch. 4 - Making Plans

    Humans?

    ¡°Yes, it¡¯s a rabbit,¡± the older one - Maya, presumably - said with a sigh. ¡°You don¡¯t have to comment on it every time we see one.¡±

    There were two girls there, holding baskets. They didn¡¯t look like any race Amy had seen before, but were definitely human. They looked similar - sisters, probably?

    ¡°But it¡¯s so cute!¡± the younger one squealed with delight.

    Maya rolled her eyes.

    ¡°They¡¯re all cute,¡± Maya said. ¡°And the forest is full of them. Let¡¯s go, Sarah.¡±

    Humans!

    Maya looked to be about twelve, and Sarah was about ten. The rabbit¡¯s ear twitched as Amy¡¯s mind went into overdrive. Baskets¡­ they were gathering something. Berries, maybe?

    ¡°I¡¯m going to try to catch it,¡± Sarah said with a huge grin as she settled into a crouch.

    ¡°You¡¯ll never catch one,¡± Maya said, sounding like this was something she¡¯d said a thousand times. ¡°Can we just go?¡±

    ¡°But I love bunnies,¡± Sarah said. ¡°Let me try¡­ here.¡±

    She shoved the basket into Maya¡¯s arms.

    Should I let her catch the rabbit? Amy wondered, frowning to herself.

    No. Best to make the rabbit seem normal, for the time being.

    The rabbit quickly resumed bundling up the vines. As soon as Sarah got close, it bolted back to the dungeon. Sarah gave chase, laughing, but wasn¡¯t too disappointed when she fell behind.

    Humans. A human settlement was within walking distance of her dungeon. What did that mean for her?

    Amy could barely keep focused on the vine she¡¯d collected. It needed an infusion of mana to become ¡°hers,¡± and to restore it to health. She also healed the rabbit, while she was at it. She had plenty of material to rebuild the flesh with.

    With the rabbit¡¯s help, she got the vine nicely growing both inside of and outside of the dungeon.

    Humans were the most benevolent and malevolent creatures in the world. The surest way to live was to be beloved by humans. Giant pandas were a great example of that - the poor beasts couldn¡¯t even mate properly, but humans invested massive amounts of time and resources to keep the species going. And why? Because they were cute. That¡¯s all it took. Dogs were both cute and useful, but just cute was good enough.

    Focus. I need to get this growing!

    She could make the parts of the plant outside of the dungeon grow by channeling her mana through the plant, but it was expensive. That was a shame. Still, it seemed like her plan would work.

    She needed to collect more raw material. She sent her hunter flies and rabbit outside to gather as much plant matter as they could. The rabbit looked possessed as it ran back and forth to the dungeon, dropping off mouthfuls of grass and leaves.

    Humans were also the deadliest creatures on the planet. How many species had they driven extinct? She remembered something she¡¯d read about mosquitos. Biologists around the world were studying their ecological impact, to see if it would hurt anything if they went extinct. Humanity was seriously considering a planet-wide genocide of one of the most successful organisms ever to have lived on Earth. And why? Because they were annoying as hell. That, and they killed people.

    She¡¯d collected enough plant matter for her purposes. She had the rabbit pull the parts of the vine that were outside back inside. She made it grow, fueling it with mana and absorbed grasses. The leaves grew broad and dark. That part of the vine went from a few inches long to several feet long, branching in multiple places, to cover a wide area.

    Once she was satisfied with it, she had the rabbit place the vines back outside. She had it dig a nice furrow for the roots, and draped the vines all over the hillside. A little magic poured through the vine, and she was able to make the roots grow in deeply.

    What about rhinos, though? The thought distracted her again. Rhinos, elephants, and probably a bunch of others. These creatures were useful to humans, even loved by humans, but were being driven to extinction because they were valuable. And why? Because some people were shortsighted, greedy bastards.

    She did not want to go the way of the rhino.

    Anxiety was gnawing at her, but she pushed it aside. What did she need to do again? Right, right. The parts of the vine that were inside of the dungeon were heavily modified in an entirely different way. They didn¡¯t need leaves, or chlorophyll. They grew strong, thick roots that greedily sucked up the water she provided.

    Different pods started growing along the length of vine. They began to ooze a sweet liquid. It was a copy of nectar, the structure for which she¡¯d absorbed from flowers. This would be food for her insects.

    It wasn¡¯t producing much, yet. This step was about proving that it could be done. If everything went according to plan - and really, why wouldn¡¯t it? - then the vine would collect sunlight from outside, water, and nutrients from the soil, and would produce whatever energy-rich plant matter she desired on the inside.

    Amy was quite pleased with her creation. Happily examining the structure occupied her for a few minutes before her mind went back to her neighbors.

    Humans, just a stone¡¯s throw away. The gods had chosen this spot for her. So what did that mean? They didn¡¯t want her to die, but it had also been insinuated that this area wasn¡¯t perfect. Was their presence a good thing or bad thing? Were they a threat?

    They¡¯re obviously a threat. There¡¯s nothing more threatening than humans. Besides, didn¡¯t the persona demigod¡­ what was his name¡­ oh, right, Prosopon... didn¡¯t he say something about dungeons only being killable with malicious intent or something?

    She couldn¡¯t make them go away. And really, she didn¡¯t want to. They were people! Her people! It wasn¡¯t as lonely as it might have been; maybe her human instincts were more or less gone? She should have been half mad with loneliness by now, but she was fine. That didn¡¯t change the fact that she wanted human company.

    She knew she should make a list of options to consider, but there was only one option that was obvious to her. And it wasn¡¯t the one her new instincts were screaming out for, either.

    I mean, really - hiding my core deeper, and killing anything that shows up? Isn¡¯t that just begging for a dedicated extermination group to come and wipe me out? Sheesh, these instincts are ridiculous. Obvious truth number one: do not ever become a threat to humans, because humans have a solid track record for dealing with threats.

    Becoming the ally of humans was the only real choice here, long term. Humans protected what they liked, and destroyed what they didn¡¯t like. And while people were sometimes bad at protecting stuff, whoo boy, were they good at destroying stuff. She needed to be liked, to be protected.

    But she didn¡¯t want to be a slave, either. Not a slave; forced to work for her survival. Not a dog; loved, but still a servant of man. Not a rhino; harmed or killed for the purpose of greed. Not a parrot; admired, but locked in a cage her whole life.A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

    What, then? Was there an analogy she could aspire to?

    She remembered a video she¡¯d watched online once. A dolphin had had a fishing line or something wrapped around its fin. It couldn¡¯t get it off on its own. So, it approached a diver. The diver was thrilled to be trusted with the task, and happily cut the dolphin free.

    Some dolphins had it bad - no species was completely safe from mankind, not even humans. But, generally, it seemed like a good relationship.

    Dolphins are my inspiration, then. I will be cute, useful, a little shy of humans, playful, and communicative. Well, depending a bit on the local culture, I¡¯d guess.

    Their culture. Wait, why could she understand them? Surely they weren¡¯t speaking English!

    The book demigod had said something about translation¡­ hmm. Maybe another perk of dungeons was the ability to understand language? That seemed a little too convenient. But then, the dungeons were crafted by the gods for some reason; and all to the exact same standard, too. Amy supposed it did make sense - after all, the gods would want the dungeons to understand their own priests and such. Probably.

    Huh. Well, no sense in overthinking that. She¡¯d eventually learn the real purpose of dungeons.

    In the meantime, she needed to learn about the local culture as soon as possible. It was critical that she know what she was dealing with before they found her. The rabbit was too costly to maintain outside of her dungeon, and the flies just didn¡¯t have the senses for the job. Even if she enhanced them, they were just too slow.

    What she needed was to capture a living rabbit.

    Best to do a little testing on the process, first. Amy looked for her control group of maggots.

    ¡­ and couldn¡¯t find it.

    That didn¡¯t make sense. She knew where everything was in her dungeon. She examined the flies and maggots more closely, looking for the life that she didn¡¯t own. But they all were hers. Too many, actually.

    She laughed as it clicked in. The maggots that she¡¯d tried to leave alone fell under her control anyway. She recognized them, now - they were like the natural born, except far behind in their development. They¡¯d hatched two days prior, and still weren¡¯t pupae yet. The natural born were just starting to enter that phase. The mana born were almost ready to emerge from their pupae. The hunters¡¯ offspring were already pupae again - Amy suspected that they might emerge at around the same time as the mana-born did.

    She was also pretty sure she didn¡¯t need any flies except the hunters. The others would just be more food for the ravenous little monsters. They might as well mature first, though - she got more mana that way.

    In any case, it sort of addressed the issue with the rabbits. They¡¯d be hers one way or another. The issue was, she wanted one now.

    Based on her limited testing, the younger they were, the better. She was seriously feeling the strain on her mana already. Maybe she ought to wait another day.

    Surely, though, she couldn¡¯t overuse magic to the point of damaging herself without realizing it ahead of time. Right? She could push. After all, she was gaining mana from the rabbits at a steady, if slow, rate. If she overdid it, she¡¯d rest then.

    There were some baby rabbits in the warren, which wasn¡¯t surprising, considering their reputation. But, they were obviously not newborns. Amy considered, and decided to go for it. She focused on the litter of rabbits closest to her core.

    She sent some hunter flies to get a closer look. Living things which weren¡¯t hers were a little blurry, with dungeon senses. The flies didn¡¯t have great vision, but it was better than nothing.

    On examination, it looked like the four little guys were a few weeks old. She wasn¡¯t all that familiar with rabbits, but she¡¯d seen plenty of kitten videos. Comparing them to kittens, she¡¯d put them at four or five weeks old.

    They really were adorable. They were exploring the warren a little, but didn¡¯t venture far from the nest, nor did they go outside. Amy decided on a two-pronged attack. With her created rabbit¡¯s help, she gathered a big mouthful of grass. She whispered an enchantment into the grass, trying to make it thick with her magic, to take over anything that ate it. Then, she had the rabbit lay down the grass in front of the babies.

    They obligingly started nibbling away. As they did so, she pressed her magic into them, trying to take over. She made the most progress when they ate the grass, but it wasn¡¯t enough to take over. After an hour, she was exhausted and hungry to the point of pain, so she backed off. Still, she sucked away at the mana around the babies in particular, hoping it would weaken their resistance.

    The pattern of alternating attacks with draining continued for hours, until something new caught her attention. The hunters¡¯ offspring were emerging from their pupae.

    This second generation was as changed as the first had been. Hundreds of flies started to fill her cavern, in these last hours of the night, and in their numbers, she noticed something new.

    Not all of the flies changed in exactly the same ways. She¡¯d attributed the little differences in her ten hunters as nothing but normal, individual variation, but many of these flies were significantly distinct. Quite a few variations failed miserably, but most were buzzing around without trouble.

    Some had taken her eating enhancements to heart, with oversized mouths, misshapen heads, and an even more expansive digestive system. They scarcely resembled flies at all, and more like winged fang monsters.

    Some had taken her size enhancements further, and were already twice the size of their parents. Their limbs were bulkier, and thick with strength enhancing magic, able to carry things far larger than themselves.

    Others seemed to go in entirely unexpected directions. A few had developed wings so much larger that they started to resemble dragonflies. They¡¯d also been unsteady fliers - with that comparison in mind, Amy tweaked them a little to resemble dragonflies even more, and they improved vastly.

    The creepiest, in her opinion, looked like oversized, winged maggots. That was an image she could have gone her entire life without seeing, let alone in the exceptional detail her dungeon senses provided.

    All in all, it was both promising and a bit too much. Amy considered what to do with them.

    Some, like the freaky mouth ones, were clearly going to be good at attacking things. She was pretty sure most humans would turn around at the mere sight of them, let alone after having a bite gouge out a half inch worth of flesh. She created a few lumps of material - wood, leafy matter, and rabbit hide - to test them out on. Of the most successful, she kept four females and two males for breeding stock, and kept them at the back of her dungeon, where she¡¯d keep them safe and well fed. She directed them to consume all but twenty of the losers, which would serve her in the meantime. Due to their bizarre head shape, she decided to call them jawtooth flies.

    The ones with size and strength benefits were tasked with carrying small rocks and sticks around. As with the previous group, she selected the most promising breeding stock, and had them consume the lives and mana of the rest, barring some workers. These, she called gatherer flies.

    The last group she made into scouts. These, she tested by sending them out into the pre-dawn fields. The ones who traveled the furthest with the least mana drain were the victors, and they, too, feasted on their brethren.

    The amount of mana she got back from the several hundred flies she¡¯d killed was more than expected, and much appreciated. She absorbed the material from the uneaten corpses, and used the material to further enhance the breeding stock.

    She couldn¡¯t help but do another test, too. She was curious if fully physical changes would be kept in the breeding. In addition to the dragonfly-like modification she¡¯d done, she decided some of the jawtooth flies should have refined stone teeth.

    In the process of refining the stone, she was surprised to discover that it turned transparent. It looked like glass.

    She groaned as she belatedly realized the obvious. Yes, it was glass. Silicon dioxide. The bulk of Earth¡¯s surface was mostly oxygen and silicon, if she remembered correctly. And this Yaelsin place was obviously quite similar to Earth. Normally, sand was used to make glass, but that was because it was already mostly pure. She didn¡¯t have purification problems.

    Her jawtooth flies had magically enhanced, razor sharp, glass teeth. She couldn¡¯t wait for them to breed.

    Beyond some fine tuning of the scouts, the biggest change for them was in trying to enhance their senses. The only approaches that worked had the downside of actually requiring steady mana flows from her. That may work in the future, but not yet.

    She sighed to herself, and sent all three groups out gathering, while she resumed her assault on the adorable balls of fluff.

    Right before dawn, their mother returned, and nursed them. Amy had a moment of inspiration, and moved to strike. Her rabbit charged the nest and tackled the mother in the middle of nursing. She fell, startled, and a few drops of milk splattered on the side of the nest. Amy¡¯s rabbit jumped onto those drops, protecting them from the life energy of the confused babies.

    Amy absorbed those precious drops. Now she could recreate rabbit milk. Her rabbit drove off the mother, leaving some whimpering little fluff balls behind.

    Her next task was more complicated. She adjusted her rabbit, making it as much like the mother as she reasonably could. Her stolen rabbit was female, which made it easier. A few more tweaks, and she started producing milk.

    And then began nursing the babies.

    The process was incredibly fast after that. Amy could feel her magic slipping into the babies with each mouthful of milk. It was only a few minutes, and they were hers.

    If she had a body, she¡¯d have done a victory dance.

    Their mother would probably come back, and if not, she¡¯d figure something else out. In the meantime, though, she only needed one.

    She selected a female with particularly perky ears and directed her away from the nest. The connection with the created rabbit was cut, leaving it dead again, and she reabsorbed its body. Using that material, she carefully forced a faster development in her newest acquisition.

    Half an hour later, Amy was again exhausted, but she had what appeared to be a completely functional, nearly grown female rabbit under her control.

    As soon as she had mana for the task, it was time to scout the human village.

 Ch. 5 - Tourist

    There were a lot more bugs around Amy''s dungeon than she¡¯d first realized. The scout flies and jawtooth flies were able to move faster and capture other bugs more effectively. Soon, she had what appeared to be ladybugs, grasshoppers, and even a young mantis. The fact that she was gathering during the day might be part of the change, too, she realized.

    Amy wondered if she¡¯d be able to find actual dragonflies - she seemed to remember they were predators, so would probably be far superior to the regular flies. Though¡­ if she did find them, they¡¯d probably eat her minions. So that might be challenging.

    And if she extended the scout¡¯s hunting range into the forest¡­? Spiders would be a fantastic addition to her arsenal. They should add poison and silk to her list of things she could create. Though, they posed the same acquisition problem as dragonflies.

    If she weren¡¯t saving up mana for the human village, she¡¯d have them go for it immediately.

    As it was, though, she set them to gathering material and mana for her. She had the three baby rabbits head out to gather, too, while the speedily grown rabbit slept right next to her core. She set both the jawtooth flies and the gatherer flies on the babies for protection, in case there were cats or something around. The bunnies were far better than flies at getting plant matter. The scout flies were out catching as many insects as they could find.

    At around noon, she discovered the obvious fact that flies - even enhanced flies - were not up to protecting baby rabbits. A hawk flew off with its snack, and she sullenly took her two baby rabbits back into the warren.

    The speedily grown one slept soundly as Amy contemplated it. The rabbits were so much more valuable than insects. They produced more mana, both in life and in death. They were stronger, faster, with better senses. But they were also prey animals. The insects were probably only alive since she¡¯d been using only the flies, and only right next to her dungeon. She should expect more casualties as she expanded her hunting range¡­ and honestly, probably even next to her dungeon, too, as predators discovered the amount of food here.

    She needed her rabbit to survive the scouting mission. And more missions after that. But what was she supposed to do about hawks? She sighed, and decided to add a magical enhancement for speed. That¡¯d help with both scouting and escaping, she figured.

    It was driving Amy crazy to wait till sundown. She fidgeted with everything in her dungeon that didn¡¯t require mana, since she was still saving up for the trip.

    The dungeon vine was working almost perfectly. A few tiny tweaks didn¡¯t drain her mana that much. Energy was absorbed by the leaves and flowed in the form of sugar down the length of the stem, into the pods, which dripped onto the piles of maggots. Many maggots ate each other in their desperate bid to ¡°eat faster.¡±

    The second generation flies had already laid eggs that morning. It seemed to have stabilized at a reproductive cycle of about twenty four hours. Sheer madness, to have a new generation every day.

    What would her rabbits become?

    Amy glared at the sunlight outside the entrance. Every second made her even tighter with nerves. She wanted to see the village!

    Finally, the ground in front of her dungeon was shaded. She whispered good luck to her rabbit, who oddly twitched her ears as though she could hear Amy. Then she sent the rabbit off running.

    South, south, to the strange shapes she¡¯d seen before.

    Amy kept her attention on the rabbit¡¯s wide area of vision, watching for predators. Especially in the sky. A few times, she diverted course when she got suspicious of something, but for the most part, the rabbit ran like it was possessed.

    Which, she supposed, it actually was.

    In any case, it only took about an hour¡¯s solid trek to get to the village. During her trek, she noticed that the babies¡¯ mother returned to nurse them again. Good, so her interference had no long term consequences.

    Her attention returned to the trek. The sun was still high enough for Amy to see clearly, and she eagerly took in the sights and sounds.

    Homes were built out of wood and straw, mostly. The roads were dirt, and well used. She¡¯d not paid attention to the clothing that the girls had worn, but now that she saw lots of people, it stuck out to her. The fabric reminded her of the burlap sacks that she¡¯d done three-legged races with, as a kid.

    Window panes of something opaque - wood, or animal parts? - were wide open, allowing delicious smells to fill the air. The people seemed friendly and in good spirits. As she listened, she realized that she could both tell they weren¡¯t speaking English, and also understand them. Even gestures made intuitive sense to her.

    It was like being in a renaissance fair. These guys were definitely pre-industrial revolution. Amy frowned to herself. At least, her mental image of herself frowned. The rabbit¡¯s face just wasn¡¯t up to the task. In any case, she was having a hard time judging what she was dealing with, here.

    She continued to have the rabbit slip around the village as she pondered.

    On Earth, there were places in the world that were more technologically developed than others. Surely, that¡¯d be true here, too. If she were here randomly, then the odds would be in favor of this being more middle-of-the-road. But, she was placed here on purpose. So, was this their version of highly advanced society? Or some tribal village in the middle of nowhere? Or something else?

    Prosopon of personas had said that there¡¯d be no priests on her continent for a year. So maybe this was a new continent they were settling? They could be new settlers. That would mean that they¡¯d probably have skilled crafters, but limited materials. Glass, for instance - they might know how to craft glass, but might not have brought much overseas, and might not have found any good sources of high quality sand.

    Lots of people noticed her rabbit darting around, but as expected, no one seemed upset by it. A few kids chased her, but she could easily outrun them. The handful of dogs were harder to outrun, and a few cats almost successfully ambushed her, but the magic enhancement of speed made her escape handily.

    Wood was everywhere, but there was some metal, too. She wasn¡¯t a history buff, but none of the technology and architecture seemed to be a perfect match for anything she¡¯d seen in school or on TV. Some things looked a little more advanced than she¡¯d expect, and other things looked less so. It made it hard for her to get a good sense of what she should expect.

    With magic dungeons in this world, and priests who got power from the gods, there should be magic things somewhere. Shouldn¡¯t there? But maybe it was like Earth, and only rich people got good stuff. Maybe this was just some random town, with noone special. Her rabbit nodded thoughtfully, matching Amy¡¯s self image, and she had to laugh at herself.

    Still, there might be a rich person here. That¡¯d probably give her the best indication of their capabilities. She started looking for a nicer home, moving hastily due to the setting sun.

    As she poked her head up to look inside a window, she felt a sudden pain in her side. It was enough to knock her mind out of the rabbit, making her less acutely aware of the rabbit¡¯s suffering. The connection was still strong, though, so she forced herself back in, to figure out what happened.

    An arrow shaft was sticking out of her hide. Mana was pouring out with the blood, and she realized that her presence was keeping the rabbit alive. She could save it. Even from this range, the connection was strong enough, she could pour her entire remaining reserve of mana and close the wound. It wasn¡¯t worth it, though.

    A man holding a bow reached down, and picked her rabbit up by the ears. He looked surprised, and pulled out a knife. It moved towards the rabbit¡¯s throat, and¡­

    The connection was gone.

    Amy sighed. She¡¯d gotten careless, and now she was down two of four rabbits. She¡¯d have to be seriously careful not to lose the others.

    In any case, expensive as it was, she had some excellent information. The biggest, in her books, was that she was leagues beyond them, technologically. Sure, she didn¡¯t exactly know how to build¡­ well, almost anything, really. Not from the raw starting material, anyway. But she was pretty sure that just knowing what was possible would make a massive difference. That, combined with her ability to put stuff together exactly the way she wanted? And, of course, immortality.If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

    She could cause an industrial revolution. And whatever the next technological leap was after that. And maybe even get computers going. She¡¯d kind of learned a little about how circuits worked from some video games. Batteries were all chemistry - she could make those out of some fruit and strips of metal back from high school.

    Of course, that begged the question of what she ought to do. Even the gods didn¡¯t know about the advanced technology of her world - at least, she was pretty sure they didn¡¯t, based on their conversation. And they couldn¡¯t take it from her mind.

    That made for one hell of a trump card.

    She fell back into her turquoise gem to think, drawing mana to herself in her excitement. There were too many things she didn¡¯t know about this world, and wouldn¡¯t be able to find out from simple scouting trips into the local village. But all signs pointed to her having incredible potential here.

    All she had to do was not screw up, for a few phases of her life.

    Technology knowledge wouldn¡¯t protect her from some enterprising young soul from stealing or destroying her core. Between her instincts, and her conversation with the demigods, that seemed like a thing that would normally happen. She needed to be protected on a lot of fronts, and more advanced technology would only be a part of that.

    Besides, practically everything she knew about was a tool for humans. It wasn¡¯t like she¡¯d be able to build an automated turret system within the next few decades, if not the next century.

    After a year, the gods would start messing with things. She wanted to be ready for them. For now, her goal was clear. She was going to befriend the village; get them interested in working with her and protecting her; get a series of protections on her core, in case any of her new human friends were the greedy poacher types; and start doing some serious experimentation with her capabilities.

    Pleased, she pulled away from her core and looked at her dungeon. She noticed something different instantly.

    Her core was larger.

    And now that she thought about it, she had less mana than she¡¯d expected.

    Huh. So, drawing mana to myself when I¡¯m in the core makes it larger? Are there any other changes?

    The obvious guess was that it¡¯d make her magic stronger. What was a good test¡­?

    She reached out to her vine creation, and decided to push the outside growth. Her hypothesis was confirmed, as it took notably less effort to make the plant grow. It took the same amount of mana - just less time and focus.

    Her attention snapped to the rabbits. That was the reason she¡¯d failed to capture the babies in the first place - she couldn¡¯t push them hard enough. There were about ten other babies, all a few weeks old, scattered around the warren. She hadn¡¯t noticed a big difference in mana between ¡°her¡± rabbits and the others. There was some, but it wasn¡¯t enough to be worth gambling on being able to pull it off.

    She was tired. The scouting mission had been expensive, mana-wise. She begrudgingly decided to rest overnight, while her bugs gathered for her.

    It was hard, but she did really need the rest. Falling back into the crystal, she let her mind wander with all sorts of fun daydreams about what she might accomplish.

    Just before dawn, when the mother rabbits were about to return to nurse their young, Amy decided to capture all but two of them. She took her last remaining female baby rabbit, and used the last of her rabbit-type material to advance her growth. It made her nervous, to use up her reserves like this. Still, it¡¯d pay off.

    A whispered enhancement drew on her mana, and made the newly adult rabbit the best surrogate mother ever. She¡¯d produce milk like a miniature dairy cow. She chowed down on some of the grass piles the insects had gathered, and with her tummy full, she hopped over to the litters.

    Amy was originally going to leave one nest alone, but she changed her mind at the last minute. She could always find out if her enlarged core would enable her to take over things easier with the eggs of visiting flies - she didn¡¯t have to delay getting the high quality rabbits for that test.

    Next thing was to decide what to do with the humans. She didn¡¯t want to go to their village again - losing two rabbits in one day had hurt. If she could get the humans to come to her dungeon, though, that¡¯d be a good start.

    Two aspects of that to consider. One, she did not want them to find her core. It was one of the few areas in which Amy fully agreed with her dungeon instincts - most people wouldn¡¯t steal, as a rule, but they¡¯d fall to temptation with a really good opportunity.

    Instead of making an obvious entrance that was well protected, as her instincts suggested, she decided to go with a hidden entrance that was extremely unpleasant. First, though, she¡¯d make the ¡°human friendly area.¡±

    The one room of her dungeon was expanded a little to the back, and broadened. All of her production components - fly breeding and vine nectar pods - were moved to the back area. The front was made nice and clean. She split the sections away with a complex dirt, stone, and glass wall. On the off chance anyone decided to break through the wall, they¡¯d be sliced to ribbons with the embedded glass shards.

    There were several openings in the wall, to allow for easy mana flow. Most were small, and wouldn¡¯t allow more than an arm to get through. The largest one, big enough for a human to easily get through, was covered with a big portion of the vine, making it look like a solid part of the wall was simply overgrown.

    The vine stem also had slivers of glass in it, looking like thorns, but way worse. Even better, if a human gently brushed aside the leaves, out of curiosity, they would be faced with piles of rabbit poop that were infested with maggots. How many humans would brave sharp thorns for maggoty rabbit poop? Surely not many.

    On the off chance some human did decide that they wanted to investigate the maggot-hole, they would find themselves attacked by jawtooth flies. None of those options were very lethal, since Amy would rather humans give up than get hurt.

    However, if anyone braved the jawtooth fly swarm, there were no options left. The entrance to her well was covered in a solid layer of dirt and vine roots. It¡¯d handle rabbits with ease, but a full grown human would trigger a collapse. They¡¯d be sliced with glass thorns and would slide down an oily passage, lined with thin, hooked spikes, to the bottom of her well. It was deep enough to drown anyone who fell in.

    In the interest of being humane, she wanted them to die quickly, if it came to that. As a chemist, that part was easy to figure out. She got some bacteria producing some ethane gas down in her well. She¡¯d turn it into an organic garbage dump - any organic material she didn¡¯t have direct use for would go down there. It¡¯d make for a fetid cesspool of slime and rot.

    Better still, ethane was really close to ethanol, chemically, and was flammable, to boot. She¡¯d be able to harvest the ethane, if she wanted. She could turn it into alcohol, which would surely be a good item for trade. If the human were starting to emerge, she could set the ethane on fire. And, almost for sure, the human would suffocate to death in the absence of oxygen.

    Oh, that did remind her. She needed something to set things on fire. She thought about it for a bit, trying to remember all the different ways she knew how to create fire. Chemists were known for loving fire and explosions. In her experience, that stereotype was spot on.

    One idea came to her, and she looked at her glass suspiciously. Quartz. She remembered learning about something called the piezoelectric effect, and how quartz was really useful for that. Certain materials, if compressed, would create electricity, and quartz was one of those things. Wasn¡¯t quartz just silicon dioxide?

    She frowned at her glass shards, examining them closely. There were a few different types, she realized - there were a half dozen different arrangements of silicon and oxygen in there. Though, it looked like that was due to imperfections in the structure. There were two types, ultimately. One was a crystalline pattern, and one was a sort of random, but stable, blob. The blob looked more like glass, to her. Maybe it was?

    She separated them into two groups. Each one was carefully adjusted to be exactly its own pattern of silicon and oxygen, with no impurities. She let the first group form into a shape that matched its own crystalline structure. The glass-like one, she made into a cube. Next, she needed to hit it with something, hard.

    Amy grumbled to herself. She didn¡¯t have a hammer, and couldn¡¯t use one if she did. Maybe she could use her magic to compress the crystals?

    She gave it a shot. It didn¡¯t work well, but she was able to see itty bitty sparks of electricity from the one of the two - the crystalline sample. The idea of setting up a system to create fire on command might be nice, but it¡¯d be unreliable. Instead, she¡¯d set something on fire as soon as she felt like a human might be getting ready to go too far.

    At last, she felt reasonably confident in her setup. With that, she opened up her entrance. It was about six feet high, and perhaps ten feet wide. It looked like an overhang more than a cave, which was exactly what she wanted. A cave might seem threatening.

    The vines were grown out even more, and with the rabbits¡¯ help, she had them grow all over the entrance. Now, the shaded area had what seemed like leafy curtains. Drawing on more water from her well, she created a little reservoir above and behind the trap wall. A trickle of water began to pour down, looking like it was the reason for all this greenery. It collected in a stone basin before overflowing and seeping into a series of cracks in the ground.

    Next, she made a few little boulders of stone. They ¡°coincidentally¡± had sections that were perfectly shaped for humans to sit on, right next to the water basin.

    All in all, rather natural looking, but quite convenient. Any human visitors would have clean water for drinking, and a comfortable place in the shade to sit. She might make it more obviously manufactured, if the villagers proved non hostile.

    Pleased with her creation, Amy moved on to her next step - luring in a human.

    Based on the interaction of little Maya and Sarah, she knew just what to do. Humans were creatures of habit. Most likely, she¡¯d find Maya and Sarah in the woods again, and probably shortly before sunset. Sarah would be easy to lure with a rabbit.

    Amy grinned to herself in excitement. Her upgrades hadn¡¯t been all that expensive, and she had mana enough for the task. It was even a good time to start, with sunset only a few hours away. She gathered a bunch of baby rabbits. She didn¡¯t have enough material to make them larger, but honestly, baby bunnies would be better at this than adults.

    Time to go find the sisters!

 Ch. 6 - Greetings

    ¡°Maya! It¡¯s a baby bunny!¡± Sarah squealed, to Maya¡¯s annoyance.

    ¡°It¡¯s spring,¡± Maya said dryly. ¡°That happens.¡±

    ¡°So cute, though!¡± Sarah said.

    ¡°Yep. They do that,¡± Maya said.

    ¡°I¡¯m going to try to catch it,¡± Sarah said.

    ¡°You¡¯ll never catch one,¡± Maya said automatically, taking Sarah¡¯s basket again.

    Maya ignored her sister as she continued walking through the grass. They¡¯d just moved out of the forest when Sarah had made her ¡°discovery.¡± She¡¯d had a creepy feeling like she was being watched for the last hour or so, which had her on edge. She fingered her bowstring uneasily.

    ¡°Maya, Maya!¡± Sarah shrieked in excitement. ¡°Look!¡±

    Maya looked over in confusion. Sarah was actually holding the little rabbit. It wasn¡¯t even trying to escape.

    ¡°That¡¯s¡­ weird,¡± Maya said.

    ¡°I think it hurt its leg,¡± Sarah said, cradling it to her chest. ¡°It was limping as it ran away.¡±

    ¡°You should put it down before it dies of fright,¡± Maya said, but narrowed her eyes at the rabbit. It didn¡¯t actually look frightened.

    ¡°It¡¯s fine,¡± Sarah protested. ¡°I¡¯ll take it to its nest. Let¡¯s see¡­ oh, look, there¡¯s more baby bunnies. I bet it¡¯s that way. Come on, let¡¯s go!¡±

    Sarah skipped along, happy as a clam, while Maya followed behind. Sarah was walking towards a hill that they¡¯d never been to before, though they¡¯d seen it plenty of times.

    ¡°What¡¯s with this grass?¡± Maya asked, looking at her feet as they walked. ¡°It¡¯s so short, but there aren¡¯t any horses or whatever out here.¡±

    ¡°Maybe it¡¯s because of the bunnies,¡± Sarah suggested.

    ¡°I¡¯ve never seen grass this short all in one area from rabbits before,¡± Maya said.

    ¡°Ugh, just because you¡¯re thirteen doesn¡¯t mean you know everything. It¡¯s just rabbits. Come on!¡± Sarah said.

    The rabbits were moving weirdly. They seemed like they were leading Sarah to the hillside. Didn¡¯t rabbits usually try to avoid leading animals to their homes? Sarah wasn¡¯t paying any attention to the weirdness, and was happily cooing over the baby in her hands.

    ¡°Oh, this is nice,¡± Sarah said, as they reached the hillside.

    She brushed aside a few hanging vines and sat down on a boulder in the shade, still cradling the rabbit. The other rabbits had come inside and were huddled together next to a vine-covered wall. They didn¡¯t look scared, even though Maya and Sarah had to be too close for comfort. They looked¡­ curious, Maya thought.

    ¡°Are you thirsty, little guy?¡± Sarah asked, scooping up some water into her hand to offer the rabbit. It sipped at the water.

    ¡°Sarah, this place is weird,¡± Maya said.

    ¡°I know, but¡­¡± Sarah started to say, but cut off in realization. ¡°Oh.¡±

    Maya nodded.

    ¡°You know the rules,¡± Maya said.

    ¡°Any unusual behaviour from animals, or unusual changes to landscape-¡± Sarah recited.

    ¡°-have to be reported immediately,¡± Maya finished.

    ¡°But that¡¯s for dungeons,¡± Sarah protested. ¡°There¡¯s no way this is a dungeon.¡±

    ¡°Doesn¡¯t seem like it,¡± Maya agreed. ¡°But those are the rules. And I¡¯ve never been in a dungeon. So who knows?¡±

    ¡°All the stories about dungeons are about how they¡¯re evil, and kill people, and make monsters, and stuff,¡± Sarah said. ¡°And they always have a clear entrance. There isn¡¯t even an entrance here, or a cave, or anything. It¡¯s just a shaded spot.¡±

    ¡°Except the divine dungeons, remember?¡± Maya said. ¡°They weren¡¯t all evil.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, but they also had priest guardians,¡± Sarah said. ¡°And even they had entrances and monsters. And they killed anyone who went in, who wasn¡¯t a priest. And they all died forever ago. This place has no entrance, no monsters, and no priests. Totally not a dungeon.¡±

    ¡°Maybe the stories are for scaring kids,¡± Maya suggested. ¡°Maybe real dungeons aren¡¯t that bad.¡±

    ¡°Maybe,¡± Sarah said with a sigh. ¡°But what if they say we can¡¯t come back? I like it here!¡±

    ¡°They¡¯ll only say that if they decide it¡¯s a dungeon,¡± Maya said. ¡°If it¡¯s not, why would anyone care?¡±

    ¡°I guess,¡± Sarah said, frowning. ¡°Can we stay for a while?¡±

    ¡°What if it is a dungeon, though?¡± Maya said. ¡°What if a monster shows up?¡±

    ¡°You have your bow,¡± Sarah said. ¡°And, it¡¯s definitely not a dungeon.¡±

    ¡°I can¡¯t take on a monster,¡± Maya said.

    ¡°Can, too!¡± Sarah said. ¡°You won the archery contest.¡±

    ¡°For kids,¡± Maya said. ¡°And three people entered.¡±

    ¡°So?¡± Sarah said. ¡°You can shoot a monster.¡±

    Maya groaned.

    ¡°Fine,¡± she grumbled. ¡°We can stay for a few minutes. But, if we see anything that looks like a monster or dungeon entrance, we¡¯re running.¡±

    ¡°Deal,¡± Sarah said, grinning as she pet the bunny.

    Maya settled in on the boulder opposite Sarah. It really was nice here. The water was ice cold, and after Sarah swore it tasted good, Maya sipped at it. It was refreshing.

    They stayed for nearly half an hour before Maya insisted on leaving, because they were losing their light. Sarah put down the baby bunny, pet it again for good measure, and they headed off.

    ---------

    What have I done? Amy thought anxiously.

    She¡¯d been so excited about her plan, she hadn¡¯t stopped to consider the timing, or any other details.

    Amy wasn¡¯t just a dungeon in a world of humans. She was in a world with other dungeons.

    And, of course, she had to draw attention to herself when she wasn¡¯t even a week old. She could have lured the kids here after building herself up a little more, but no, she had to do it immediately.

    And now she was going to be investigated, to see if she was a threat.

    At least she¡¯d gotten some useful information.

    Her favorite bit was discovering how amazingly intense the mana was from the girls. It had been downright euphoric, having them hang out for half an hour. One human child gave off more ambient mana than the entire rest of the dungeon combined. Much more. It felt downright pleasurable just having them present.

    The other useful knowledge was a better understanding of the nature of dungeons. She felt confident in her guess that the ¡°divine dungeons¡± were what Prosopon had told her about, from a few hundred years ago.

    It gave her the impression that dungeons were pretty much all considered threats. That didn¡¯t bode well for her plan. But, maybe she could come across as something new. Something that was only similar to a dungeon.

    In any case, based on what she¡¯d heard, she guessed she was getting adult visitors in the near future. She wanted to make more preparations on that front.

    Her instincts screamed at her to dig deeper, bring her core further away, and make monsters and traps to protect the route to her. But again, that just didn¡¯t seem best. Her pit trap and jawtooth flies were fine. She did make a few little revisions to both - she separated the sludge pit from the clean well water, for one thing. For the jawtooth flies, she made an opening in the jaw, so they weren¡¯t limited by the speed at which they could swallow. They¡¯d practically be able to drill through flesh.

    In fact, her tests on plant matter suggested that they could probably eat a tunnel through a tree in under a minute. Human flesh would be far faster.

    Her trap and monsters were fine. No, if someone got past those, they could get past anything else she could create at the moment. Instead, she went with something her dungeon instincts did not like.

    An escape plan.

    She wasn¡¯t sure what would happen if her core left the dungeon, but she couldn¡¯t help but think it wouldn¡¯t necessarily be fatal. She¡¯d just probably get incredibly weak, and have to start all over again somewhere else.

    Obviously not ideal, but better than death. She modified her mother rabbit to have a little pouch, like a kangaroo. She tested it out, and found that it didn¡¯t allow her core to ¡°breathe¡± properly. That had been unpleasant to learn.

    An alternative occurred to her. She made a loose mesh, with holes barely too small for her to fit through, made of rabbit fur. On testing that, it was uncomfortable, but manageable. Of course, rabbit fur mesh was far too weak for the task.

    What sort of fiber can I made that is strong enough? she thought, and then laughed maniacally. Carbon fiber!

    Carbon nanotubes woven into a thread, to be specific. It was so easy to make it was almost painful. Something this powerful and useful should not be that easy. It just wasn¡¯t fair.

    She didn¡¯t know how the scientists of Earth made carbon nanotubes, or what structure they ultimately had, but that didn¡¯t matter. She had the right idea, and the power to make any idea happen.

    Rather than the single tube that dominated pictures online, she decided to make a triple-tube - one larger nanotube, with another layer within, and another within that. She fiddled with the structure a little to make them attach to each other.

    The strands she made were as thin as hairs, almost invisible, and yet were incredibly strong. The rabbit fur mesh was remade with carbon fiber and she found that she could be easily carried around.

    With all of the holes that the rabbits made in their warren, she had plenty of escape routes to choose from. Her gemstone body was still small, even after the increase - now about the size of a thumbnail - and the baby rabbits were plenty big enough to carry her. She made a carbon fiber mesh for each of them.

    The last thing she decided to make was a decoy. She made a chunk of quartz the exact shape and size of her core. She remembered that gemstones got their colors from chemical impurities - that was easy to test. She had a lot of elements to choose from. She hadn¡¯t identified them all, but she had them.

    After two hours, she was really glad that this experimentation did not require almost any mana. She¡¯d given up on getting the color right. She¡¯d found all kinds of colors - including what looked like actual amethyst - but the blue-green of her core was just not going to happen. She sighed and decided to make three decoys of different colors. They wouldn¡¯t need to know what color she really was, after all.

    The glow, on the other hand, was easy and intuitive. It was exactly the color and brightness she was aiming for. She figured it was because physically changing the crystal required knowledge, but magic was based on desire and intentions. The disadvantage of magical things, though, was that every single magic effect she¡¯d found actively drained her mana. Physical changes were absolutely, perfectly permanent.

    If she had to escape, there¡¯d be four rabbits running. One with her crystal; one with a glowing purple amethyst; one with a pretty red gem that didn¡¯t quite look like ruby; and one with a yellow gem. She turned off the glow, for now. No sense wasting the mana.

    Her final act was to get her core as far away from the entrance room as possible, to buy a little extra time if escape proved necessary.

    Well, that was it for her preparations. There was nothing left to do but wait.

    Waiting wasn¡¯t fun or exciting.

    Best to have as much mana as possible in case things went south. That meant she wasn¡¯t allowed to play around. It was irritating to have magic and not be allowed to play with it. Of course, it was no one¡¯s fault but hers. No, she had to go and get people¡¯s attention as soon as possible, because obviously, she was an impatient idiot.

    She sighed and nestled in to her core to wait, continuing to berate herself.

    Her rabbits stayed safely at home, while her insects continued to forage. Now she knew that the consequences of their foraging was obvious, but it didn¡¯t change the fact that she needed more mana and material. She was pretty sure all insects within twenty feet of her entrance were dead - only her scout flies had any luck hunting.

    Amy managed to almost do absolutely nothing the entire night, other than a few last minute tweaks. It was one thing to restrain herself when she was so hungry that it hurt, but restraint when she had spare mana? There were so many things she wanted to do!

    Dawn came eventually. By that point, she discovered what it felt like to actually feel satisfied. Mind, it was only her hunger that was satisfied - her itch to hide her core better seemed to grow proportionally to her mana reserves.

    An hour after dawn, Amy noticed unusual movement through her scout flies. She took one and enhanced its senses, gladly paying the mana drain cost for more information.

    Two horses were trotting towards her, with a large dog running alongside. She recognized the amber coloured hair of the two sisters riding the second horse, but she didn¡¯t know who the rider of the first horse was. He looked healthy and fit, maybe in his late twenties or early thirties. His black hair was in a tidy ponytail and his beard was short and well maintained. His eyes were sharp, and held the spark of intelligence.

    They pulled to a smooth stop a dozen yards from where the grass became short. The man helped the sisters down from the horses, which Sarah appreciated, but Maya didn¡¯t. Both Maya and the man pulled out a bow and arrow. He tasked the dog with keeping watch over the horses. The dog was clearly pleased at the task, and set to walking in circles around the horses, who simply grazed and ignored the dog.

    Amy brought the enhanced scout fly closer - low in the grass, and from behind - to eavesdrop on the conversation.

    ¡°Yep,¡± Sarah was saying. ¡°This is it.¡±

    ¡°You were right to report it,¡± the man said. ¡°This is unlikely to be anything other than a dungeon¡¯s work.¡±

    ¡°Really?¡± Sarah asked. ¡°But it was nice here!¡±

    ¡°We¡¯ll see,¡± the man said. ¡°Do you remember your job here?¡±

    ¡°Yes, sir,¡± Maya said promptly. ¡°If any monsters appear, or you disappear, or you yell ¡®run,¡¯ we ride back to the village as fast as we can to get help.¡±

    ¡°Good,¡± the man said, turning to walk towards the north side of her hill. ¡°It shouldn¡¯t come to that, even if it is a dungeon.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯ve been in dungeons before, right?¡± Maya asked.

    ¡°Several times,¡± the man said.

    ¡°Are they all as bad as they say?¡± Sarah asked.

    ¡°Yes,¡± the man said. ¡°But they¡¯re incredibly useful. It¡¯s the only way to get refined metals and crystals.¡±

    The only way? Did they not mine iron anywhere?

    ¡°And monster parts,¡± Maya said.

    ¡°That¡¯s right,¡± the man said with a smile. ¡°That¡¯s how I earned the money to get my home here.¡±

    ¡°So cool,¡± Sarah said. ¡°I didn¡¯t know you were a delver!¡±

    He nodded, looking around. They were at the north side of the hill, and there was absolutely nothing unusual there, other than the presence of too-short grass. He continued to make his way around, circling her dungeon.

    ¡°If this is a dungeon, are you going to be a delver again?¡± Maya asked.

    ¡°I might have to,¡± he said with a laugh. ¡°It¡¯s dangerous, but if a dungeon becomes too strong, it sends monsters out into the night. Someone¡¯s got to keep its strength reasonably low.¡±

    Amy thought this was promising. It sounded like they would be more likely to try to use her as a source of resources instead of killing her outright. That could go badly, if she were made into essentially a slave, but it eased her nerves a little.

    ¡°You don¡¯t want to?¡± Maya asked, looking disappointed.

    ¡°It depends, I guess,¡± the man said with a shrug. ¡°I¡¯m enjoying being a hunter. Deer don¡¯t try to rip your head off, or lure you into pit traps. It was exciting being a delver, I¡¯ll admit. Thing is, you really need a team to safely handle dungeons. The only other person in Miran who¡¯s skilled with dungeons is retired.¡±

    ¡°But you could train new people,¡± Maya said.

    By that point, they¡¯d circled the entire dungeon. The man seemed satisfied that this was the only entrance. He cautiously began to step forward towards the hanging vines.

    ¡°Only with a bow,¡± the man said. ¡°We¡¯d need someone who can fend off heavy blows with a shield, and who can slice through things an arrow¡¯s not good for. Plus, getting a mage - a healing mage, especially - would be ideal. Worse, not only would it be hard to get the people, but we don¡¯t have any iron for the quality of shields and armor we¡¯d need.¡±Stolen novel; please report.

    Amy had iron, she realized. Not much, but there were things other than silicon and oxygen in the rocks. Her senses didn¡¯t quite let her see how many protons and neutrons they had - a fact that she found mildly disappointing - but plants and animals needed iron, so it stood to reason that at least some of the extra stuff was iron.

    Now wasn¡¯t the time to analyze it, though.

    ¡°That¡¯s sad,¡± Maya said. ¡°Wouldn¡¯t going alone be really dangerous?¡±

    ¡°Too dangerous,¡± he said. ¡°I¡¯d have to bring others. We¡¯d have to do our best. But¡­¡±

    ¡°But people might die,¡± Sarah said, clutching her hands close to her belly.

    The man nodded as he poked at the vines with an arrow, as though testing it for a reaction.

    Which suggested that she could do something like that. She tested it quickly on a part of the vine that was inside. She giggled to herself at the realization that she could animate the vine length for a little less mana than it¡¯d take to make a living creature of its size.

    The man was satisfied with the nonreactivity of the vines, but sliced down an opening anyway. She supposed that he didn¡¯t want his exit blocked.

    ¡°This is rather inviting,¡± he said, frowning at the setup that Amy had.

    ¡°It¡¯s comfy, too,¡± Sarah said, peeking around from behind him.

    They stepped in cautiously, and if Amy had had a mouth, she¡¯d have groaned in sheer pleasure from the mana intensity. The girls were heavenly enough, but the man...

    ¡°And the water tastes good,¡± Maya added.

    ¡°That¡¯s strange,¡± the man said, tapping around the water basin as though looking for structural weaknesses. ¡°Dungeons are sometimes inviting, but only old ones, after they¡¯ve started to get smart. There¡¯s no reason to think it¡¯s old, though. An old dungeon wouldn¡¯t care about some grass outside, and would have plenty of monsters around.¡±

    Amy privately agreed with that. She would make monsters, too, although only as a defensive measure. They wouldn¡¯t be easily visible, but she¡¯d have them anyway. And surely, she¡¯d eventually get enough plant matter that she didn¡¯t want anymore.

    It was also interesting that he said dungeons ¡°got smart¡± as they got old. But it wasn¡¯t enough information to come to new conclusions.

    ¡°Ephraim, look!¡± Sarah said abruptly, glee in her voice.

    He turned immediately and saw her pointing at a few baby bunnies sticking their noses out of holes.

    ¡°Huh,¡± Ephraim said, as she knelt to pick up one.

    It obligingly hopped into her hands at Amy¡¯s command. He stared.

    ¡°It¡¯s so cute, isn¡¯t it?¡± she asked, showing it to him.

    ¡°Yeah,¡± he said. ¡°You¡¯d said the rabbits were friendly, but¡­ why?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s why we came here,¡± Maya said. ¡°We followed the bunnies here.¡±

    ¡°Why would it lure you here, but not lure you deeper? And I don¡¯t even see an entrance to the dungeon proper,¡± he said, looking around, perplexed.

    If luring them in deeper was a normal thing¡­ maybe the intensity of the mana flow was stronger, the closer they were to her core. She¡¯d not noticed it before, but the ambient mana from the rabbits wasn¡¯t strong enough to easily detect changes in intensity. The insects hadn¡¯t even registered.

    With humans, though?

    If it would be even stronger, if they got closer¡­ she could only imagine what it would feel like.

    A craving for the imagined sensation started to grow in her mind.

    Sarah shrugged and resumed petting the rabbit.

    ¡°I guess I¡¯ll keep looking,¡± he said, shaking his head as he started poking around at the wall.

    Amy watched nervously as he poked the open area of the wall.

    ¡°Aha,¡± he said, grinning, as he parted the vines, bringing his face carefully closer to peer inside. ¡°These are sharp, too. But it¡¯s still¡­ I don¡¯t know, it¡¯s like the dungeon doesn¡¯t want us to go in here. It looks awful, and smells worse.¡±

    He took out his knife and carefully started cutting away the protective vines. He was going to check inside, Amy realized. She didn¡¯t want to kill him, but she also did not want him to go inside.

    Maybe it was time to go the communicative route.

    Best to have an avatar. Her ¡°mother¡± rabbit looked unusual, which she figured was a good start. She quickly made its fur pure white and a little fluffier, to stand out even more, then she sent it through one of the little holes.

    ¡°Oh, look!¡± Sarah said. ¡°Another bunny! It¡¯s so pretty, Ephraim, look!¡±

    He¡¯d already turned at the first sound of her voice, and looked at the mother rabbit curiously. Amy had her stand up on her hind legs and deliberately shook her head back and forth.

    He blinked.

    ¡°You¡­ you¡¯re communicating¡­?¡± he asked, bewildered.

    She nodded.

    ¡°You¡¯re asking me not to go inside?¡± he asked, sounding even more off balance.

    She nodded again.

    ¡°Are these your babies?¡± Sarah asked, and Amy laughed to herself, before having the rabbit nod towards Sarah.

    ¡°So you¡¯re intelligent,¡± Maya said.

    Amy¡¯s rabbit nodded.

    ¡°That¡¯s so cool,¡± Maya said, sounding like her sister in her excitement.

    ¡°It¡¯s¡­ it doesn¡¯t make sense,¡± Ephraim said. ¡°Are you an old dungeon?¡±

    Amy hesitated. She hadn¡¯t been a dungeon long, but she wasn¡¯t exactly young, either.

    ¡°You don¡¯t know¡­?¡± Ephraim said, misinterpreting her hesitation. ¡°Do you know what a dungeon is?¡±

    It suddenly occurred to Amy that the gods had considered reincarnating her with no knowledge of dungeons at all. She could pretend that it had happened that way. Feigning ignorance might make her seem less threatening.

    The rabbit shook her head.

    ¡°Huh,¡± Ephraim said. ¡°Well, you¡¯re not like any dungeon I¡¯ve ever seen before. Do you want to hurt us?¡±

    She shook her head vigorously. Amy thought she¡¯d best play it up even more, and had the rabbit huddle down and shake.

    ¡°You¡¯re scared of us?¡± Ephraim said.

    She nodded.

    ¡°We won¡¯t hurt you!¡± Sarah promised. ¡°Your bunnies are too cute to hurt you.¡±

    ¡°Sarah, you can¡¯t make that promise,¡± Ephraim said. ¡°If some idiot from the village tried to destroy her core for its magic, or to steal it to sell, she might decide it was a betrayal and go after us all.¡±

    ¡°¡®She?¡¯¡± Maya asked.

    ¡°Well, if she¡¯s intelligent, it seems rude to call her an ¡®it,¡¯¡± Ephraim said with a shrug. ¡°And besides, she didn¡¯t just choose a female rabbit to represent herself - she chose a female rabbit with the most engorged, obvious teats I¡¯ve ever seen. I think she wants us to think of her as a female.¡±

    He looked back at the rabbit and asked, ¡°Am I right?¡±

    That wasn¡¯t the plan, but Amy approved. Her rabbit nodded, and Amy tried to make her have a happy expression.

    ¡°This is strange,¡± Ephraim said again, shaking his head in confusion. ¡°A gentle, female dungeon¡­? That¡¯s not something that¡¯s ever happened before.¡±

    The rabbit shrugged. Amy had to laugh at how ridiculous the gesture looked.

    ¡°I¡¯m not going to,¡± Ephraim said cautiously, ¡°But if I did go inside that hole, would you hurt me?¡±

    The rabbit hunkered down, shaking, and nodded her head.

    ¡°So you do feel the need to protect yourself,¡± he said, and she confirmed it. ¡°But you actually don¡¯t want to lure me in, to kill me.¡±

    This time it wasn¡¯t a question - just a perplexed statement. She nodded anyway.

    ¡°But why did you lure the girls here¡­?¡± he asked. ¡°Right, yes or no questions. Did you lure them here on purpose?¡±

    She nodded.

    ¡°Was it to hurt or kill them?¡± he asked, looking like he knew the answer.

    She shook her head.

    ¡°Some other reason,¡± he said, and she nodded. ¡°Yes or no questions means I have to guess¡­¡±

    ¡°Maybe she was just curious and wanted to meet us,¡± Maya suggested.

    Close enough. Amy¡¯s rabbit looked at her and nodded.

    ¡°Huh,¡± Ephraim said. ¡°Good guess, Maya.¡±

    ¡°Thanks,¡± she said. ¡°What do we do now?¡±

    ¡°I have no idea,¡± he said. ¡°She¡­ she might not even be a dungeon. She might be something else, something we¡¯ve never seen before.¡±

    They all looked at the rabbit with curiosity. Poor Ephraim looked completely stumped, whereas the girls looked mostly intrigued.

    ¡°We¡¯ll be telling the chief, right?¡± Sarah asked.

    ¡°Yeah,¡± Ephraim said. ¡°But¡­ this¡­ it¡¯s unbelievable. I don¡¯t know what we¡¯ll do.¡±

    ¡°Will they try to find its core?¡± Maya asked.

    The rabbit hunkered down and shook. Sarah reached over and pet it soothingly, which made Amy laugh to herself again. She wasn¡¯t actually afraid at the moment, but it was a nice gesture anyway. The rabbit nuzzled up against Sarah, as though needing the comfort.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know what they¡¯ll decide,¡± Ephraim said, ¡°But I¡¯ll argue against it. There¡¯s no sense in angering the only nice dungeon anyone¡¯s ever found.¡±

    ¡°But that means we won¡¯t get the materials,¡± Sarah said.

    Aha! An opportunity. The rabbit hopped up, nodded eagerly at them, held up one paw - hopefully they¡¯d understand she meant ¡°wait¡± - and then had the rabbit dart inside the dungeon proper. Between the presence of the humans and the partially blocked passage, her magic was pathetically weak in the entrance area.

    Materials-wise, she didn¡¯t have much. She had some metals, probably, but they needed identification. Besides, they were usually best as alloys, which needed testing to get the right blend. At the moment, the only decent stuff she had was the quartz and quartz-glass. They might be rare - other dungeons might not think about purifying things at the chemical level. She¡¯d only gotten the glass in the first place because she was removing chemical impurities, which she¡¯d figured would reduce the strength of the rock.

    What should she make¡­? She wasn¡¯t an artist, so she¡¯d need to build it from scratch, or from something she¡¯d absorbed¡­

    Ah, that made sense. A rabbit! Her dungeon knowledge gave her the exact shape and size of the avatar rabbit she¡¯d made, and she could easily form a copy out of quartz. She did so, but wasn¡¯t happy with the result. It was so plain.

    The ¡°fur¡± of the rabbit was made white, with the simple addition of microscopic air bubbles just beneath the surface. She made the eyes amethyst. As a final touch, she whispered a little enchantment into it, so that it would cast off a faint blue light.

    She cut off her connection, to confirm the magic stayed around without her input. According to her magic sight, it was draining from its own tiny supply. She shoved a little more mana inside, in hopes it¡¯d last for a while. In the scheme of things, as long as it was impressive, she was happy.

    Lastly, she made a little bag for it out of carbon fiber. The bag wouldn¡¯t look impressive, but they¡¯d eventually notice that it was ridiculously tough. Utility, magic, and beauty. She nodded to herself, and had her avatar rabbit loop the strap over her head.

    It was a bit awkward to drag the gift rabbit through the hole, but she wriggled it through eventually. The avatar shook off the dirt, and then presented the bag to Sarah.

    ¡°For me?¡± Sarah asked, excited. Ephraim frowned, thinking.

    She put down the baby bunny and pulled the quartz rabbit out of the bag. Her eyes were bright as she squealed in excitement.

    ¡°It¡¯s so pretty!¡± she said. ¡°It looks just like you!¡±

    ¡°And it¡¯s glowing,¡± Maya said.

    ¡°Why did you give it to Sarah?¡± Ephraim said quietly.

    Amy¡¯s avatar looked up at him and tried to figure out how to tell him. She hopped over to Sarah, huddled down and shook, then nuzzled up against her. Then she looked at Ephraim.

    ¡°Because of Sarah¡¯s promise not to hurt you?¡± Ephraim asked.

    She could have hugged him. Instead, she nodded vigorously.

    ¡°So this gift¡­ you¡¯re offering to trade for your protection?¡± he asked.

    Nodding wasn¡¯t good enough. The avatar hopped up and down in excitement, too.

    ¡°Okay, okay,¡± Ephraim said, laughing. ¡°We¡¯ll present it as a peace offering from you.¡±

    She nodded again.

    ¡°Look, Miss Dungeon,¡± he said, to her amusement. ¡°I can¡¯t promise anything. But I¡¯ll talk to them. The chief¡¯s a sensible sort. He won¡¯t do anything rash.¡±

    She nodded, bounced over to him, and nuzzled his leg. He laughed and pet her.

    ¡°Alright, kids,¡± Ephraim said, looking at the girls. ¡°Pack up the gift into the bag, and let¡¯s get going. We¡¯ve got quite a report to make.¡±

    The girls immediately put their things away and started following him. Amy suppressed her wave of displeasure when she stopped being able to absorb their ambient mana. As soon as they were past the region of short grass, Ephraim paused.

    ¡°Look, girls, this is big,¡± he said so quietly that Amy couldn¡¯t possibly have heard him, if the scouting fly wasn¡¯t practically on his butt. ¡°You need to be extremely careful with what you say.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s a secret?¡± Sarah asked.

    ¡°Yes, in a sense,¡± he said. ¡°We¡¯ll tell the chief. It¡¯ll be discussed with the council. But absolutely no one else can know about this yet.¡±

    ¡°Why?¡± Maya asked. ¡°Because someone might try to steal it?¡±

    ¡°That,¡± he agreed, ¡°and the fact that people outside Miran would be interested. That¡¯d be true enough if it was a regular dungeon, but this? We could get attention from the magocracy.¡±

    ¡°What would they do if they found out?¡± Sarah asked.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know, but I do know that they don¡¯t give a horse¡¯s tail about us,¡± he said. ¡°Whatever it is they¡¯d do, it¡¯d be for their benefit, not ours. And if they angered the dungeon, then we could suffer the consequences for their actions.¡±

    ¡°Got it,¡± Maya said. ¡°We didn¡¯t tell anyone else about it yet - we went straight to the chief. So it should be easy.¡±

    Sarah just nodded quietly, holding her hands close to her belly again.

    ¡°Good,¡± Ephraim said. ¡°Let¡¯s get going.¡±

    They mounted the horses, who¡¯d not ventured more than a few feet away from where they¡¯d been left. The dog eagerly greeted Ephraim, who reassured him that he was a good dog. The dog looked excited about the opportunity to run next to the horses again.

    Amy was happy with how that had gone. She watched them ride off under the late morning sky, wondering what the future would bring.

    When they were out of sight, Amy decided to turn to a new task. Since, apparently, materials were the big interest in regards to dungeons, it seemed wise to identify them as soon as possible.

    She pulled from her reserves all of the unidentified elements, which was fairly mana intensive. She supposed it would make sense that she¡¯d have to pay for the difference in chemical energy.

    Hydrogen and oxygen were already identified, from water. Nitrogen was easy, based on air composition - it was the one that accounted for most of the atmosphere. Silicon was known from her quartz. Carbon hadn¡¯t taken long to identify, and she¡¯d done so back when she¡¯d started adjusting plants.

    Some new elements she was able to identify instantly. Chlorine gas smelled just like pools, after all. Sulphur smelled like rotten eggs. The rest was either metal or too small of a quantity for her to really mess with, yet.

    Once she created the pure metals, she was able to identify them quickly.

    The super light metal that burst into flames the instant it was exposed to air? That¡¯d be aluminum. She purified it again and made it into a sphere, rather than random clumps, before returning it to her dungeon. The surface was instantly covered with aluminum oxide, and then it was fine.

    Two super light metals didn¡¯t react with the air, but did explode on contact with water. Those would be sodium, which was lighter, and potassium. She was surprised to find she had nearly the same amount of each.

    The small bit of heavier metal was probably iron. Iron would react with oxygen slowly, so she figured an easy test was to get it wet, leave it out, and see if it rusted.

    She had her suspicions that one of the itty bitty piles of metal was calcium, but she couldn¡¯t be sure. It fizzled when she dashed water on it, which lent itself to the hypothesis.

    Pleased with her testing, she decided that since iron was in short supply, she¡¯d see if she could do anything with aluminum. University chemistry classes popped up in her memory as she recalled learning about the rather insanely intense refinement processes that it took to change the naturally occuring forms of aluminum into the widely used metal of her world. She seemed to recall it was also useful in ionic forms, too. If she figured out how to use it well, it¡¯d probably make for an excellent trade resource.

    Hours slipped by as she mixed and matched elements, seeing what she could make with her new toy.

    She was startled from her play by an unexpected noise from outside. It kind of sounded like a person shouting? Like frustration, or anger, or disbelief, or something?

    She rushed her mind through the connection to her enhanced scout fly, raising it from its comfy place near a nectar pod. She was anxious as it flew outside maddeningly slowly.

    An entire group of people were there. What had happened? What had she missed? What time was it?

    The sun¡­ it was only halfway down. It was just afternoon. Either she¡¯d missed an entire day somehow, or the villagers moved fast. The scout fly snuck up close, to listen in.

    It was a group of men of various ages. All of them bore fairly crude weapons and armor. The various bows were far superior to the swords and clubs. They looked fairly relaxed, but stiff, as though they¡¯d been standing there for a while.

    ¡°...is dangerous. What if you¡¯re wrong?¡± an older man asked Ephraim.

    ¡°It¡¯s no more dangerous than dungeon delving,¡± Ephraim said.

    ¡°Unless it¡¯s some sort of trick,¡± another man said, sounding paranoid. ¡°Sleeping out here? It¡¯s madness.¡±

    ¡°Dungeons only like to kill people once they¡¯re inside,¡± Ephraim said. ¡°I was here with just myself and two kids. If she wanted to spring a surprise attack, it¡¯d have been then.¡±

    ¡°But you were ready for it,¡± the older man said. ¡°If you¡¯re asleep¡­? It might try to drag you inside.¡±

    ¡°I really don¡¯t think I¡¯ll be in danger,¡± Ephraim said. ¡°I¡¯ll have Lucky and a horse here. Lucky¡¯s trained to run for help - he¡¯s done it before.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯d be too late to help you,¡± the paranoid sounding man said.

    ¡°I know,¡± Ephraim said. ¡°But this is a way to test her. I think she¡¯s both young and smart, from what I¡¯ve seen. There¡¯s not much a young dungeon can do to get me from a hundred feet away, not with Lucky at my side.¡±

    The eldest man - presumably the chief, by his body language - raised up his hands in a subtly authoritative gesture.

    ¡°Enough,¡± he said. ¡°Ephraim¡¯s suggestion frees us from the normal requirements, which would strain our people. If he is right, then we gain a great boon. If he is wrong, he may die, but so too will many of our young men in the coming months and years. Let us accept his gift of willingness to risk his life for our people.¡±

    ¡°Let it be so,¡± the others chorused in a ritualistic way.

    Amy wasn¡¯t sure what the plan was, but she had to admit to being quite pleased with Ephraim. It was flattering that he trusted her, and noble that he was willing to risk his life over it.

    It seemed as though the discussion were over. The various men wished Ephraim luck. The chief told Ephraim to be careful, and to report any new findings. After that, they packed up and left.

    Except for Ephraim. He brought his horse and dog to the forest line and pulled out some supplies from a pack on the horse¡¯s saddle. After tying the horse to a tree, he took off the bridle and saddle. He set up a hammock in the trees, and then dug a little fire pit off to the side.

    Draining on her mana though it was, the scout fly followed him as he calmly sauntered into the woods. She decided the easiest course of action would be to land on his belt. It¡¯d be hard to see what he was doing, but the odds of a predator catching her fly would be lower. That, and it¡¯d be a little cheaper, mana wise, if she didn¡¯t have to give the fly instructions.

    He gathered a few large rocks and put them into her carbon fiber bag. He also gathered some twigs and sticks.

    Well, she could impress him with another little gift.

    She pulled her mind back to the dungeon and made a quartz rod with a little plant matter in the middle, for easier holding. At the end of the rod, she made some more carbon fiber cloth and arranged it in an awkwardly puffy tangle of threads. She bound them together and to the rod. Next, using material drawn from the plants and knowledge from the rabbits, she filled the gaps with rabbit fat.

    Now that she had a torch, it was time to light it. She decided to try to light it with magic, rather than setting up something complicated with the quartz crystal.

    Her first few attempts fizzled out, but she finally made an enchantment stick. The cloth was now trying to make other things catch on fire, which resulted in the rabbit fat finally catching aflame.

    It worked, but it was not remotely mana efficient. It might be sensible to set up an ignition system with the quartz crystal after all.

    For now, though, it was good enough. She had the avatar rabbit grab the torch by the plant stem handle in her teeth, and bounded off to the campsite. She was pleased to discover that her rabbit had an easier time than expected. Improving her core was definitely on her list of things to do.

    She didn¡¯t beat him there by much. The rabbit was just placing the torch carefully into the pit when Ephraim returned.

    ¡°What¡¯s this?¡± he asked, laughing. ¡°A torch bearing rabbit? You are full of surprises, Miss Dungeon.¡±

    She perked up at his return, and watched him place the rocks around the firepit before putting the sticks in. Lucky helped, like the good boy he was.

    ¡°I wasn¡¯t quite ready for the fire yet, but I appreciate it nonetheless,¡± he said. ¡°I¡¯m assuming, if you¡¯re here, that you overheard our conversation?¡±

    She¡¯d only overheard part of it, so she shook her head.

    ¡°Just being friendly, then, huh?¡± he asked, smiling at her. ¡°Well, the plan is, I¡¯m going to camp out here for the next while. I¡¯m used to sleeping out in the rough, and I¡¯ve been in dungeons, so I¡¯m perfect for this. I¡¯ll watch over you. If some foolhardy chap comes to give you a hard time, I¡¯ll give him what for. If you turn out to be a regular dungeon - which I don¡¯t expect - then I¡¯ll let the chief know. That¡¯s about all there is to it.¡±

    She nodded at him. She wished she could stay and talk, but the mana drain was still too much. For now, she had to withdraw. Hopefully he¡¯d come visit, and not just the area right outside, either. Inside, where she could sip away at his deliciously intense mana.

    The avatar rabbit yawned hugely, stretched, and then waved goodbye to him. He laughed and waved at her, saying goodbye before resuming setting up camp.

    Both the rabbit and scouting fly were brought back to her dungeon. She considered her options, and decided to get to work enhancing her own core. If it improved her range and effective leverage with her magic, then it was a priority.

    Now that she was trying to enhance her core, she became aware of how slow the process was. It was as though her mana was simply crystallizing, expanding the natural shape of her core.

    Ah, well. She made sure her rabbits were comfortably taking care of themselves, set her insects to go gather what they could, and resigned herself to a long night of concentration.

    In the morning, she pulled out of her core, to find herself in a bizarrely distorted room. Everything was smaller than it was supposed to be. The five foot by eight foot room had felt plenty large enough before, but now it seemed almost suffocatingly tiny, with the entrance to the outside almost painfully close.

    Her instincts won this fight - without even thinking about it, Amy immediately scooped away a dozen feet of dirt to the south, and increased the height of the cavern such that a human could easily stand within. A rabbit rushed in at her unconscious command, grabbed her core, and ran to the back of the enlarged room as fast as it could move. Even then, only having one ¡°room¡± between herself and the outside was deeply uncomfortable.

    By the time she regained a sense of herself, she¡¯d added hundreds of cubic feet of the earth to her reserves.

    Well, it looks like enlarging my crystal has drawbacks, too. Maybe I¡¯ll need to take things slower in the future.

    On the bright side, though, her power had dramatically improved. Previously, she could only dig through the ground at around the same speed that a human could dig through loose sand with their bare hands. Now, she was as fast as a small team with shovels. Plus, since it was easier to dig, it seemed to use less mana in application.

    Her appetite for mana seemed to have grown proportionally, too. The rabbits had once looked exquisite. Though they paled next to humans, they had still been satisfying last night. Now, they reminded her of mere broth. Technically meeting her requirements, but almost disgustingly insufficient.

    She had planned on playing with her aluminum creations some more. She¡¯d found that aluminum and oxygen made for a remarkably hard, pretty crystal. But that was not happening anymore.

    No, her hunger was insistent. She would find a way to improve her mana intake.

    For that, she needed more life. Whether to kill it or include it in her ecosystem, the requirement was the same. For that she needed to get the life from somewhere else. For that¡­

    Ephraim is a hunter, she remembered with a start.

    She grinned and directed some flies and rabbits. She had an excellent idea.

 Ch. 7 - Neighbors

    Amy had spent too much mana in her instinct-mad rush to expand her dungeon. She needed more, and she happened to know about an especially delicious source of mana scarcely a hundred feet away. For her plan to work, she needed to construct a few things. She had barely enough mana for the first part of the plan.

    After a bit of minor construction, she sent the avatar rabbit outside. She ran gleefully over to Ephraim¡¯s camp.

    He was enjoying a breakfast of simple rations and water as he sat by a tree. He perked up as she appeared.

    ¡°Good morning, Miss Dungeon,¡± he said, his eyes bright with curiosity. ¡°Coming over to say hi?¡±

    She nodded and then gestured to him to follow her. She turned around, darted off two feet, and then looked back. Lucky really wanted to chase her, but apparently, he¡¯d been trained not to do that.

    ¡°Something to show me?¡± he asked, getting up and dusting off his pants.

    She nodded again and bounded off. He and Lucky followed, after he grabbed his bow and a short sword.

    He followed her into the entrance area and smiled at the improvements. Most were just small quality of life improvements, like adding rabbit fur pillows to the seats, expanding the water basin, adding glasses for easier drinking, and generally making things look a little nicer. The room was also far larger - forty feet from the sitting area to the dungeon opening.

    One addition, though, he gave a curious look to.

    ¡°What¡¯s that?¡± he asked, as he walked over to the rock outcropping.

    He examined a lovely altar, lined with crystals and gemstones that caught the light in exquisite ways. Behind the altar, on the right side, was a smooth stone pillar. They were right in front of the Do Not Enter hole that went to her dungeon proper, on the opposite side of the room from the sitting area. It served to make it even harder to get inside, without actually blocking any mana flow.

    ¡°It¡¯s pretty,¡± he said. ¡°But I¡¯m not sure what it¡¯s for.¡±

    She nodded and gestured at him to stand back, next to the seats. He did so without hesitation. She did a quick test, and she could barely affect the altar with him there. Even from forty feet away, his presence blocked her. But, she realized that she could affect things on the other side of the wall just fine. Seemed like having separate rooms would be a good idea. In the meantime, though, this was good enough for her demonstration. It¡¯d be more mana costly than it had to be, that was all.

    Her avatar picked up a tiny, razor sharp knife with her modified forepaw. Another rabbit bounced over - a small created one, since she didn¡¯t want to lose any of the born rabbits. The avatar pantomimed tying up the created rabbit, and dragged it over onto the altar. Once there, she slit the throat of the created rabbit, and bounced back, next to Ephraim.

    Amy absorbed the rabbit back. The stone pillar next to the altar glowed faintly, and amethyst formed at the bottom - a simple progress bar.

    Next, the avatar bounded back over to the altar and squeaked strangely, mimicking speech. She bounded away again. Once it was at a distance, Amy produced rich green grasses. At the same time, she ¡°lowered¡± the progress bar by absorbing back most of the amethyst. The avatar bounced back, grabbed the grasses, and stuffed them into her mouth. Then she looked at Ephraim.

    ¡°A¡­ trade system?¡± Ephraim asked, and her rabbit nodded. ¡°You¡¯re wanting me to bring animals here, and kill them for the mana?¡±

    Interesting that he used the same word for magical power that she did.

    She hesitated and then nodded slowly.

    ¡°Yes, but,¡± he said, musing. ¡°I¡¯m going to guess you want other things, too.¡±

    She nodded.

    ¡°Okay,¡± he said. ¡°Let¡¯s test this out. Is something small okay?¡±

    She nodded again, feeling like bouncing in excitement. He smiled and headed off with Lucky into the forest.

    Barely half an hour later, he came back with a prize - a squirrel. It was dying from an arrow wound in its side, but hadn¡¯t quite perished yet. Ephraim was sweating, looking like he¡¯d just been running back at full tilt from the forest.

    ¡°Not¡­ sure¡­ if¡­ it¡¯s¡­ in¡­ time¡­¡± he panted, putting the squirrel body on the altar.

    He put his hands on his knees, gasping for breath. The squirrel died before he¡¯d fully recovered from his run. Amy wanted to do a dance in delight as the knowledge and mana flowed into her. Apparently, while his presence blocked her ability to do anything with the altar, it didn¡¯t block her knowledge and mana absorption. Despite the fact that squirrels weren¡¯t all that impressive, she was still excited. Squirrels had a major advantage over rabbits - they could climb.

    But she couldn¡¯t get the material with him so close. When he caught his breath, her avatar pushed him back to the sitting area. Once he was far enough away that she could effectively use her magic again, though only just, she absorbed the squirrel body and raised the progress bar.

    ¡°So that column - that represents how much credit I have stored up?¡± he asked, pointing at it.

    She nodded.

    ¡°That¡¯s brilliant,¡± he said, sounding impressed.

    Amy felt a little awkward at the praise. She¡¯d stolen the idea from the vast number of progress bars she¡¯d seen in her life¡­ it was nothing special, to her.

    ¡°So I can ask for something, and if you think it¡¯s less than the credit I have stored up, you¡¯ll make it for me?¡± he asked, and she confirmed. ¡°Huh. Well, how about a new bow?¡±

    She nodded and directed him to put his bow on the altar.

    ¡°Oh, but I don¡¯t want to give up my old bow,¡± he said.

    She sighed to herself. It wasn¡¯t like she could explain that she had no idea how to build a bow without absorbing one in the first place. So, she kept gesturing at him to put the bow down.

    Finally, he relented, though he seemed uneasy. She shoved him back and then absorbed the bow. Knowledge of the structures of various materials flowed into her, and as soon as they did, she recreated his bow. But she valued knowledge, so she added a little to the progress bar for him.

    ¡°You¡¯re paying me, for¡­ nothing?¡± he asked, confused, as he walked over to pick it up. ¡°Isn¡¯t this my bow?¡±

    She nodded, since she wasn¡¯t sure what else to do. He was shoved away from the altar again, so she could make him his new bow.

    It¡¯d take experimentation to make an improved material for this purpose, but she could make him a copy that was at least a little better. She made a few little adjustments, removing a few instabilities and impurities in the material, though not to the extent that it would wreck the wood. Once she was satisfied that it would definitely be better, she created it. It took most of the rest of her plant matter reserves.

    The amethyst progress bar dropped to nothing, and a new column appeared, on the other side of the altar. This one was carved with images of leaves and grasses. Using one of the varieties of aluminum oxide gemstone she¡¯d discovered, which was green, she filled in the very bottom of the column. Amy tried very hard to make her rabbit appear to be sad as it looked at the pillar.

    Ephraim frowned as he examined the pillar.

    ¡°You¡¯re showing me how much plant stuff you have?¡± he said after a minute.

    She could have cheered, but settled for vigorous nodding.

    ¡°So you couldn¡¯t make me another bow?¡± he asked, and she shook her head. ¡°You absorbed the first one - was that so you could know how to make one?¡±

    She nodded.

    ¡°Well, that¡¯s easy,¡± he said, looking pleased. ¡°Do you want me to bring you wood?¡±

    She nodded again.

    ¡°Oh,¡± he said, his eyes lighting up. ¡°That¡¯s what you want. Animals, for the mana, but also resources. Right?¡±

    She nodded slowly again.

    ¡°You want those, but also something else, too?¡± he asked, and she nodded eagerly. ¡°I¡¯ll figure it out eventually. What materials do you want?¡±

    With him standing inside her dungeon, she could do this all day.

    She created more pillars, with them all showing quite low reserves. One was covered in animals - rabbits and squirrels, since she couldn¡¯t make a decent drawing of anything else - marked with a dull brown quartz. One was covered in swords, hammers, and fire, trying to capture the idea of metal, though the art was awful. Its progress was marked with shiny aluminum. One was covered in books, in hopes of capturing the idea of knowledge. It, too, was low, but used the brilliant blue sapphire of one of her aluminum oxide gems.

    ¡°This is absolutely brilliant,¡± he said again, marveling.

    He approached once she was done, examining the pillars in detail.

    ¡°The flesh of plants, the flesh of animals, and metal,¡± he said, which she confirmed. ¡°Books, though? I¡¯m not sure how to figure that. And what about your mana level?¡±

    She wasn¡¯t sure she wanted to share that knowledge, but she could always lie if she had to. She nodded, and pushed him back to the stone chairs, so she could make another one.

    This one she made of pure quartz, and its progress was indicated by adding impurities to the quartz, making it a lovely, dusty rose hue. She made it higher than the others, but still uncomfortably low.

    ¡°Other than the pillar of books, I think I¡¯m getting this,¡± he said. ¡°We trade materials and mana to you for purple credit. We can use that credit to build anything you know how to build.¡±

    This time her nodding was emphasized with happy bouncing.

    ¡°I¡¯ll go test this out,¡± he said. ¡°I¡¯ll bring you some things, get a sense of how this works. I¡¯ll be back soon.¡±

    She waved goodbye as he headed off. While he was gone, she started working on part two of her plan. A secret room was under construction, right next to the entrance room.

    Over the course of the day, Ephraim brought back many delightful things. Trial and error revealed to him that each new donation raised the knowledge pillar only the first time, and he was able to figure out that it was knowledge. Every addition, whether it gave mana, knowledge, or raw material, all raised the credit pillar.

    He gave her all of his possessions to gain the knowledge from, which she gave right back. The absorption and recreation did cost some mana, but the knowledge was worth it. The arrows, especially, looked promising. They were flimsy things, made of regular wood, obviously with the expectation of not being reused. She quickly figured out a way to make them out of carbon nanotubes, fletched with carbon fiber. She suspected that even with a glancing blow, the carbon fiber fletching could slice someone open, thin as it was. It also didn¡¯t need an arrowhead - she just made the tip get narrower, until it was a fine point, only a single, thin carbon nanotube wide.Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

    Ephraim asked for an improved copy of every one of his possessions, to see what she could do with it. When he asked for arrows, she created a normal sort of improved one and a carbon nanotube one. He examined the carbon arrow with fascination, and accidentally cut himself on the tip.

    ¡°That¡¯s sharp,¡± he said. ¡°Do those cost the same as regular arrows?¡±

    She nodded slowly.

    ¡°Close to the same,¡± he amended, which she confirmed. ¡°Let me go try this out.¡±

    Twenty minutes later, he came back with wide eyes.

    ¡°It went straight through a small tree,¡± he said. ¡°It took everything I had to yank it back out.¡±

    She shrugged.

    ¡°What is that stuff?¡± he asked quietly, staring at her. ¡°The bag, too, is that same pitch black color. It¡¯s tough as nails.¡±

    Since her only answers were ¡°yes,¡± ¡°no,¡± ¡°maybe,¡± and awkward pantomiming, she just stared at him.

    ¡°What I¡¯d give for you to be able to talk,¡± he said, sighing. ¡°Can you make other things out of that stuff?¡±

    She nodded slowly, then shoved him back to the seating area. This time, he sat down, looking comfortable.

    How to express that she needed time¡­

    She created a large mural behind the altar out of quartz. While she wasn¡¯t an artist, she didn¡¯t need to do a great job. She used simple air bubbles to make the lines white, so as to avoid using any valuable materials. On the left was half of a sun. The top was a full sun. The right was half a sun again, and the bottom was a crescent moon.

    She created a silvery line out of aluminum to point at the current time of day, which was only an hour or so before sunset. She pointed at it, but didn¡¯t let him walk over.

    ¡°That¡¯s a timepiece,¡± he said, peering at it to make out the details. ¡°Interesting.¡±

    She nodded, and then used magic to create a line on it. It made a circle, moving clockwise, to indicate time passing. Then she pointed at the knowledge pillar.

    ¡°Oh,¡± he said. ¡°It takes time to figure out how to use materials in new ways?¡±

    She nodded eagerly.

    ¡°You¡¯re something special,¡± he said, shaking his head. ¡°You can figure things out over time. It¡¯s like you¡¯re actually a person. It makes it weird calling you Miss Dungeon. Do you have a name?¡±

    She nodded, then shrugged.

    ¡°Not like you can tell me, huh?¡± he said, smiling ruefully.

    She shrugged again.

    ¡°I¡¯m glad it¡¯s not upsetting you,¡± he said and stretched. ¡°I have to admit, I¡¯m kind of tired from running back and forth to the forest all day. I may want to head back soon.¡±

    She shook her head, and he raised an eyebrow. He was not leaving an instant sooner than he absolutely had to, if she had any say in the matter.

    She gestured for him to sit, and then squeaked in her pretending-to-speak way.

    ¡°You want me to talk?¡± he asked, and she confirmed. ¡°About what?¡±

    She pointed at him.

    ¡°About myself?¡± he asked, and she nodded. ¡°I suppose that makes sense. You¡¯re probably as curious about us as we are about you, huh?¡±

    When she nodded this time, he settled into the chair more comfortably and filled a glass with water. Lucky stretched out on the floor, looking relaxed, though he kept eyeing the rabbits.

    ¡°Let¡¯s see,¡± he said. ¡°Where to begin¡­?¡±

    Amy¡¯s rabbit was a very good listener. It helped that she could easily split her focus, allowing her to work on new ways to use carbon nanotubes while remaining perfectly attentive. She asked questions, nodded, and otherwise reacted at the right times. Questions were easy to ask - all she had to do was get his attention when he mentioned something she was curious about, he¡¯d make a guess about which question she was trying to ask, and when she confirmed, he¡¯d answer.

    He happily chattered away for hours. She learned about his youth, about dungeon delving, about how other dungeons usually operated, and about the continent they were on.

    Turned out, they were on the same continent that had been used for the ¡°divine dungeon war¡± of centuries past. The war had gone so badly that what remained wasn¡¯t really habitable for humans, and so had been abandoned. The various temples had advised people three months prior that the land was suitable for habitation again, with a few stipulations. One was that neither the priesthood or ¡°magocracy¡± were allowed to have a presence here for some time, and recently, they¡¯d found it was for a year. That didn¡¯t mean that they didn¡¯t have an effect - messages could be conveyed, and agreements could be made.

    The magocracy made Amy nervous. They were a ruling body of mages that had influence in every country, due to the fact that they had an effective monopoly on magic.

    The part that made Amy most nervous was learning that humans could become mages in one of two ways. They could be born with the talent¡­ or they could consume a dungeon core.

    It was illegal to kill dungeons in virtually every country, because of the resources they could provide, unless the dungeon became aggressive enough to warrant a death sentence. That said, the law typically only slowed the process down. Some dungeons became powerful enough to keep themselves safe - Ephraim knew of some dungeons which were centuries old. No one made it to their cores anymore.

    Dungeons were generally simple minded brutes. Ephraim said they were about as smart as dogs, usually, and the oldest ones became about as smart as a human eventually. Even the divine dungeons, which were intelligent, operated in the same general way. They created rooms and mazes, populated by monsters, to protect their cores. It was usually the same basic layout, too - a series of rooms per floor, where each floor was tougher than the last, and usually a particularly tough monster at the end of each floor. This monster generally provided an especially nice prize when defeated, encouraging delvers to try again on harder floors. They tried to find a balance of deadliness and treasure that kept humans coming, but also kept the fatality rates as high as the population would tolerate. If a dungeon proved too lethal, no one would enter it for years, which tended to make them more reasonable. If they stayed too lethal, then an edict would be given, allowing the dungeon core to be taken for its mage-making properties.

    Amy had to admit that this was pretty much exactly the result she¡¯d expect if she followed the pressure of her new instincts. The setup was ostensibly to protect the core, but by its nature, it invited people to approach, and invited the attitude of making it possible to overcome the traps and kill the monsters. Practice makes perfect, which meant most dungeons were perfectly good at making traps and monsters with critical flaws. If they avoided those flaws, they were punished with years of starvation, with nothing but their own monsters for mana.

    Probability made it practically inevitable that eventually, someone would make it to the core who¡¯d be tempted enough by its power to claim it as their own.

    It was a good setup for having the exact same outcome, over and over again.

    A little after sunset, Ephraim started sounding rather sleepy. By that point, Amy¡¯s avatar had been sitting in his lap, ¡°fighting¡± with Lucky for head rubs for an hour or so. She knew that it¡¯d be best to wait until at least the next day for part two of her plan, but¡­ she just did not want him to leave. He was too delicious. She decided to go for it.

    ¡°... which is how Chief Wade became the leader of Morin,¡± Ephraim finished, and then yawned hugely. ¡°I¡¯ve been here a while. I¡¯m beat. It¡¯s been nice chatting, one sided as it¡¯s been, but I should be heading back to the camp.¡±

    It was time. She¡¯d been practicing. She was ready.

    The rabbit nodded and then gave him the perky-eared look she¡¯d been using for ¡°excitement.¡±

    ¡°Oh?¡± he asked.

    Amy was nervous about his reaction to this idea, but she kept the avatar looking excited. He was pushed away from the seating area. Once he was far enough away that she could do her work, she absorbed part of the wall there. It revealed a nice quartz-and-aluminum door, which was currently open. Her rabbit presented it with a flourish.

    He cautiously went inside and as soon as he saw the details, he laughed.

    There was a bed with rabbit fur blankets and pillows, which had taken so much material that she¡¯d needed to create it from the raw elements. Quite costly, that! There was a window, a fireplace, a chair, and another door, opening to the bathroom. Everything was made of quartz, carbon fiber, rabbit fur, and what amounted to dried grass, depending on the texture desired.

    The bathroom had an aluminum mirror above a sink with a very simple faucet, which her rabbits had tested to her satisfaction. The toilet simply had a deep hole underneath, but it would be fine, since she could absorb the material when he left the room. The part she was most pleased with was the hot tub. Temperature, she¡¯d found, was easy to magically adjust.

    ¡°You¡¯re asking me to move in?¡± he asked.

    Her rabbit nodded enthusiastically and gave him an over-the-top cute expression. It had taken some work to get it right on a rabbit¡¯s face.

    ¡°But¡­¡± he stammered. Aha! It was working! ¡°But I mean, I¡¯m supposed to be at the campsite, and¡­ and I¡­¡±

    She continued to use the power of irresistible cuteness.

    ¡°It might be dangerous, though, I mean,¡± he continued to splutter.

    Amy¡¯s rabbit cocked her head, as though she had no idea why it might be dangerous.

    Perfect. He actually blushed.

    ¡°Not that I¡¯m saying that you¡¯re a normal dungeon, or that I don¡¯t trust¡­ um¡­¡± he said, raising his hands in awkward apology.

    The rabbit snapped her head back as though hit with a realization. Then her eyes got wide and her whole body sagged. She was the most adorable image of sadness that Amy had been able to devise. She nodded forlornly and dejectedly hopped away.

    ¡°I do really appreciate it, though!¡± he said. ¡°It¡¯s so nice of you, and I think it¡¯s a good idea -¡±

    He was obviously about to clarify that statement, so she cut him off by spinning and giving him another hopeful expression before he had the chance.

    His voice trailed away and he scratched at the back of his head sheepishly.

    ¡°You understand why I have to be careful, don¡¯t you?¡± he asked in a low tone.

    She sighed and nodded her head. She hopped over to him and lay her head against his leg. He knelt down and pet her.

    ¡°I feel like a cad, rejecting something that obviously took a lot of work,¡± he muttered.

    Amy felt the tiniest bit guilty for intentionally making him feel that way. But his mana was so delicious¡­ And besides, it wasn¡¯t like she was actually going to hurt him. The sooner he believed that, the better.

    ¡°Maybe we could compromise?¡± he said, and she looked at him hopefully. It was the first honest expression in several minutes. ¡°See, the issue is two parts. On the off chance that you are trying to trick me into falling asleep where I can be more easily hurt, I need to be able to escape. The other - the bigger issue, really - is that I¡¯d look like an idiot for sleeping here on the second night.¡±

    She nodded slowly. Sounded like he trusted her on a gut level, but didn¡¯t want to be caught with his pants down, as it were. It suddenly struck her how strange it was, that all it took was to spend a day together, have hours of conversation, combined with some physical affection, and he trusted her. That kind of reaction had been true and normal in her human life. Now that she was intentionally manipulating someone - however non sociopathic her intentions - it creeped her out how easy it was to do.

    ¡°So¡­ I don¡¯t know, maybe if it¡¯s opened up to the outside?¡± he said. ¡°If you are a dungeon - and I only say that because I can¡¯t imagine what else you could be - then your power is strongest when it¡¯s inside of walls, and can¡¯t go through walls easily. So if it¡¯s opened up, I could get out easily, even if a monster showed up.¡±

    Her rabbit nodded eagerly, even as Amy wanted to suppress a disappointed sigh. A monster? Really? If she wanted to kill him in his sleep, why would she use an approach that might wake him up? She could think of half a dozen ways off the top of her head, just with the stuff she had. She didn¡¯t have the really dangerous stuff yet, since she didn¡¯t have the materials, but life was rather delicate. And it was practically impossible to get a chemistry degree without knowing about the dangerous stuff, since safety training was such a massive part of the process.

    Brushing off that chain of thoughts, she absorbed away the door and the window. Now, both an empty door frame and an empty square made for an easy escape.

    ¡°That¡¯ll do, yeah,¡± he said, giving her an awkward smile.

    Her avatar made a happy squeak and then hugged his leg. He couldn¡¯t help but laugh, reaching down to pet her again. As she bounded forward to help him settle in, he sighed and shook his head at her.

    Amy giggled to herself. That reaction looked like he believed she couldn¡¯t see him, which meant he¡¯d begun to think of the rabbit avatar as actually her. That meant that he¡¯d be more likely to trust her on a gut level. Who could distrust an adorably fluffy bunny?

    Muhahahaha, beware the power of adorableness! Amy cackled to herself. She was feeling unreasonably smug about that.

    Ephraim moved his camp to his new room. Amy assured him that she would watch over the horse overnight. The horse could fit in the entrance room, so if it wanted shelter, there was no issue. Between that and her jawtooth flies, it would be fine. Lucky was the first one on the bed, to her amusement.

    Ephraim decided to clean up, first, though he¡¯d apparently never had a bath before. The avatar rabbit had to show him the point of the big tub of water. Amy was worried about the temperature - she¡¯d made it slightly too hot for comfort for the rabbits, but hadn¡¯t had a human to test it on.

    She must have done a good job, since Ephraim thought it was heavenly. He sank into the smooth stone depression and kept talking about how wonderful it felt.

    Amy was fussing with a part of her self identity that she¡¯d not really thought about since becoming a dungeon. Here she had a good looking, fit man, naked, easily visible, and she didn¡¯t know how to feel about that. Part of her had such a strong expectation of being attracted and embarrassed that she almost felt it. But¡­ it wasn¡¯t real. She didn¡¯t have a body that reacted to those things anymore. Her instincts just didn¡¯t care that he was naked, other than that he looked easier to kill.

    Sexual orientation and gender were major parts of a human¡¯s self identity. Now, she didn¡¯t have either. She was playing up the female idea to make it easier for people to trust her, but all the parts of herself that she thought of as ¡°female¡± didn¡¯t exist. Was she a woman anymore, by any definition? Was she human still, at heart? What did it mean to be human at heart?

    She tried to laugh at herself at having an identity crisis over there being an attractive man in a bathtub. Still, it had shaken her. Her mind was fundamentally who she was, in her opinion, but her mind had been changed. Her instincts and drives were different.

    Who am I? she thought anxiously, watching him shift position and sigh in contentment again. Am I even Amy Barnes anymore?

    Thoughts plagued her while he enjoyed his bath.

    After a while, Ephraim¡¯s skin got wrinkly, and he decided to head to bed. He kept his shortsword, bow, and Lucky with him as he settled in to sleep.