《The Diamond Dungeon》


 Prologue: The End

    I yanked on the door. Stuck again. Twice, three times I yanked. It didn''t budge.


    "Alex! Chill out with the door!"


    I kicked the door, accomplishing nothing except hurting my toe. "The stupid thing''s stuck again."


    Bill smiled where he was lounging on the couch. "Dude, relax. You''re just stressed about tomorrow. Calm down, you know it wouldn''t bother you this much usually." He chuckled a bit.


    I smiled too as I realized how foolish I was acting. That door had been getting stuck for ages, and Bill was right that it didn''t usually irritate me very much. "You''ve got me."


    He laughed. "That''s what best friends do!"


    I walked over and sat by the table. I didn''t really need to go out on the porch anyway, I just felt like I needed to move to let out some adrenaline. "I guess I am a bit stressed."


    Bill smiled again. "Of course you are. Anyone would be. Just relax."


    I laughed. "Easy for you to say! You''re not the one giving a presentation to some of the richest people in the world tomorrow!" Even so, I knew Bill would probably still be lounging on that couch even if he heard that a meteor was about to turn our city into a crater. That man was impossible to fluster. You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.


    I tried to relax, and thought a bit about the next day. Tomorrow was the day I was presenting our project to the people we were hoping would fund our first trials outside of a lab. Bill and I had built a new kind of deep-earth scanner that would pinpoint diamonds and report qualities like size and purity, to make mining for diamonds easier. We called it LIMI, for Low Impact Mining Imaging.


    "You still sure about the orphanages?" Bill asked, bringing me back to the present.


    "Yeah, I am." Bill and I had agreed to split any profits from our project 50-50, even though I said Bill had done more than half of the work. He had a double major in Mathematics and physics, and he''d done a lot of the work on our project. I was a geology major who had also done some tinking around with computer programming in my spare time. The orphanages he was talking about were the ones I''d decided to donate half of my share to, to help provide education for the kids there. "You know if it hadn''t been for the schools where I grew up, I wouldn''t be where I am now."


    Bill just smiled. He''d probably already known my answer, he was just getting my mind off of the presentation and onto the good we would do. It worked. Mostly.


    We chatted and relaxed through the evening before turning in a bit earlier than normal to be ready for the next day.


    I was still a bit nervous as I turned in, but relaxing had helped. It was nice to have someone like Bill who had my back no matter what. My last thought as I sunk into the darkness of sleep was that I was totally ready for anything the next day could throw at me.

 Chapter 1: The Beginning

    When I woke up, it was pitch black. At first I assumed I had just woken up too early due to nerves, but then I realized I didn''t see any lights from the highway by our house. Or hear any trucks downshifting. Or Bill''s snoring, which would occasionally drown out the trucks.


    In fact, this darkness felt deeper than normal darkness somehow. It was so dark, it tasted like dark. I didn''t even know darkness had a taste up until that moment. I tried to see if I could see my hand right in front of my nose, but there was one problem. I couldn''t move my hand.


    In fact, I couldn''t even feel my hand! I couldn''t feel anything. I started to panic a little bit. If I''d had lungs, I''d be breathing fast. If I''d had palms, they''d be sweaty. And if I had a heart, it would be beating like the drummer at a rock concert just got a solo.


    Just before I went into a full panic attack, I saw something. It was amazing how comforting it was to just have something to look at. I looked closer, trying to see what it was. I saw a man in a pure white suit, walking next to a woman in a black dress. I had thought the darkness before was as dark as it could get, but the woman''s dress was somehow even darker. It started to give me a headache when I looked too closely (of course that still worked without a body), so I looked at their faces.


    They seemed to be opposite in many ways. The man was old, with happy crinkles around his eyes. His lips were upturned in the slightest smile. The woman, on the other hand, was young. Her face was stern, bordering on angry. Her eyes were the dull color of waves breaking on the beach on an overcast morning.


    As they approached, I started to get a bit creeped out, so I decided to take the initiative. "Hello, I''m Alex. Who are you?"


    The woman responded. "We know who you are, Alex. And we are the ones who brought you here."


    Interesting. "And here is ¡­. where exactly?"


    The man smiled. "It''s a sort of in-between place. A pocket, in space and time. We wanted to talk to you, so we brought you here."


    That had some interesting implications. Bill loved to talk to me about random physics phenomenon, and he''d never said anything about these pockets, which meant we probably hadn''t found them yet. And I had a gut feeling that these two were extremely powerful. Which raised the question: why did they want to meet me?


    I thought about it for a second. If they wanted money, they obviously chose the wrong guy. I was still living with my college roommate in a tiny apartment, although hopefully that would change soon. If they wanted connections, again, wrong person. So that meant they wanted something only I could give them. What a B+ average geology major could help them with, I had no idea. "So, why do you need my help?"


    The woman in white answered this time. "Clever boy. We do indeed need you to do something for us." Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.


    I blinked. Hadn''t the woman been wearing black? Well, now she was in a powerfully white dress, and the man''s suit was pure black.


    "But why did you need me specifically?"


    The man answered this time. "There are a few reasons we picked you. First, you''re clever. You didn''t always get the best grades, but you excelled at things that needed you to think in a new way. Second, you aren''t power hungry. We are going to put you in a position where you might be able to get a lot of power, and we are convinced you wouldn''t abuse it. Finally, it''s easier to transfer a soul if it isn''t ¡­ attached."


    The first two I could live with, but his last reason would''ve given me goosebumps if I''d had arms. "What do you mean my soul isn''t attached?"


    The woman replied. "You''re dead, Alex."


    The man in white looked over and raised one eyebrow (they''d switched colors again.) "Don''t sugarcoat it too much." He said sarcastically.


    The woman was visibly unrepentant. "He''ll need a firm spine if he''s going to do what we need him to."


    As I considered the fact that I was apparently dead, I was less bothered than I thought I''d be. After all, these people needed me. So I couldn''t stay dead. I''d heard of people officially dying who were then brought back to life by doctors, maybe this was the same idea. Although the whole "transfer a soul" line still made me a bit nervous.


    Almost like he could see what I was thinking, the man in white responded. "We aren''t giving you your old life again, but we are giving you another chance at living. It will be unfamiliar, and there will be many challenges. But you''ll have a chance."


    I thought about it for a second. If there was one thing I knew, it was that no one did something for nothing. My coming back to life benefited these two somehow. "And what do you get out of me having this ''extra life''?"


    This time, the woman replied. "To understand that, you must know who we are. We are Balance. Good and evil, joy and pain. Light and darkness, life and death. All of these are necessary throughout the universe if there is to be any growth, but always the balance is in danger. Too much of any one of these would spell disaster. We keep these things in balance throughout the worlds in the universe. When the scales are tipping too far towards one side of the spectrum, we tap the other side to even things out." She glanced at the man as he continued.


    "We often find it difficult to interfere directly, due to our opposing natures. However, when we agree something needs to be done we can help keep the Balance. This is one of those times. On one of the worlds we watch over there is a delicate balance between the Humans and the Dungeons. But right now the balance is starting to tip. It isn''t visible yet, but if things keep going the way they are the dungeons will overpower the humans. You are our plan to keep that from happening."


    I definitely didn''t understand everything in their explanation, but it sounded like these "dungeons" were attacking the humans, and they needed help. That sounded like something I could do. "That sounds doable."


    The woman smiled. She looked like a shark. I decided I preferred her when she looked stern. "You will have a guide, but it won''t be easy. Most of this is up to you. Do not disappoint us."


    And with those comforting parting words, I fell. I fell for days, or perhaps for minutes. The darkness was back, and without any sensory input my sense of time was very confused. A few weeks later, or maybe 30 seconds, I felt a strange feeling, like I was getting squeezed all over. Then I ran into something hard and everything disappeared.

 Chapter 2: The compass

    James woke to the sound of his mother calling for him and the smell of her famous oatcakes floating up the stairs. He bolted upright in bed. Today was the day! He threw on some clothes and ran down the stairs, skipping the last 4. He found the kitchen filled with people.


    "Happy birthday!" They all shouted.


    James grinned. Today was his 18th birthday, the most important day in his life. Today he would find his compass treasure, the guiding direction for his life.


    "Well? Come on! Check!" His brother Jordan called out.


    James smiled and opened his menu. It showed up as a small table in the corner of his eye.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    James Boksae


    HP: 100/100


    STR: 8


    CON: 10


    DEX: 13


    Compass pending


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    It looked the same as last night, except for that last line. He grinned as he announced it to the room. "Compass ¡­ pending!"


    The room broke out in cheers. It was extremely rare that someone didn''t get to find their compass treasure on their 18th birthday, but it had happened. But now that his compass was pending, he was definitely going to do his compass challenge today.


    The compass challenge was the transition from childhood to adulthood. Once you had your compass, you could join the village meetings, you had a vote in the running of the village, and you were considered an adult. The challenge was the same for everyone. You went into the forest by the village totally alone, and you came back with your compass treasure. Or not at all. Most people wouldn''t talk about their challenges, but James had heard a few.


    The village apothecary said she had been terrified to enter into the woods. She had found a rare herb within minutes. Rumor had it she''d never left the village again, but there was no better apothecarian within 100 miles. James hadn''t ever heard her tell anyone what benefits her compass gave her, but everyone said her products had a bit more oomph than they should have, and they always seemed to be exactly what you needed.


    The village blacksmith had planned to be a warrior, but as he walked through the forest looking for something noteworthy to fight, he saw a small diamond sitting slightly in the rock. Knowing the value of even a small diamond, he slowly chipped away the rock around the gem until he had freed it completely. As he freed the diamond, there was a small chunk of ore that dislodged with it. The blacksmith swore that at that moment, the metal in the ore looked more beautiful than the diamond he had just freed. He also swore that once he picked up the ore, the diamond disappeared, but he never could explain how he had the money to build the best smithy within a week¡¯s ride. Nor could he explain the wizard who came a few weeks later and scoured the forest for any more of the precious gems, just to leave empty-handed. Again, James didn''t know what benefit the blacksmith gained from that little piece of ore, but the things he crafted always seemed to stay a bit sharper or last a bit longer than things from other blacksmiths.


    The only one in the village who knew everyone''s compasses was the chief, and he used them to help assign tasks to the villagers. Each treasure gave some kind of benefit to the person, and the village chief was in charge of maximizing the benefits to the village, while still letting the villagers primarily run their own life.


    James didn''t know what his father¡¯s compass was, but he wanted to do the same thing as his father. Hunting in the forest to supplement the village''s meat supply. He had been going out with his father since he was small, and he knew the forest well. Their family also had a small farm, but James enjoyed his time in the forest much more than the time farming. He knew all of the best places to find the deer in the forest, and he had made his own spear. That was one of the rules of the compass challenge. You could only take things you had made with your own two hands. Anyone who disobeyed that rule ¡­ never returned.


    All of this rushed through his mind as he went to sit down and eat. Everyone dug into the meal his mother had cooked. It was as delicious as always, and James mouthed a quick "thank you" to his mother where she stood by the stove, before he started joking with his friends who had come to celebrate his special day. Most of the jokes and comments pertained to James'' soon-to-be-revealed compass.


    "I bet James gets a bird feather! When he runs, he practically flies!"


    "No, he''s going to get a tuft of squirrel fur! Remember the other day when he climbed the tree?"


    "You''re crazy! It''s going to be a wolf claw. Remember when we tried to hide from him in the forest? He found every one of us!"


    "No, it will be a panther fang! When James tries to be sneaky, you never even hear him coming!"


    James smiled as his friends argued about what his compass would be. He was one of the fastest in the village with a dexterity score of 13, so there was a good chance it would be something like they were guessing. With a below average strength of 8 it likely wasn''t going to be anything involving strength, but you never knew. Sometimes people came back with a compass that surprised everyone. And, usually, no one ever actually knew what you came back with. It was frowned upon to share what you had gotten for a treasure, and sharing the boost it gave you was practically as bad as running through town naked. No respectable person would do so. Still, despite the fact that James likely wouldn''t share what his treasure was with almost anyone there, they all joked about what it was going to be.


    As James was laughing with his friends, he noticed his father standing on the stairs. His father smiled and beckoned for James to come upstairs with him. James quickly excused himself from the table and hurried up to his parents'' bedroom. His dad was sitting on the bed, and patted next to him. As James sat down, his father put his arm around James and smiled. "Nervous?"


    James nodded. "A little bit." After all the time in the forest with just the two of them, they had both gotten very good at picking up on when the other was tense. Which was good when one of them spotted a deer and the other immediately stopped, but it also meant his dad had instantly picked up on James¡¯s hopefully well-hidden nerves.


    "I know a bit of what you''re feeling." James'' dad smiled. "Have I told you the story of my challenge?"


    James shook his head. He''d wondered for a long time, but his dad hadn''t ever even given any hints during their long trips in the woods.


    His dad''s eyes got the faraway look they did when he told a story. "When I was your age, I was a cocky little bugger. I just knew I was going to grow up to be a great warrior like those in the stories. As added incentive, I had a girl I needed to impress." He winked at James. "Your mother was just as beautiful back then as she is now, and talking to her was one thing I never had the courage to do. I figured if I came home as a mighty warrior she would definitely take notice and I could start talking to her. I crafted a spear, just like you, though mine wasn''t as well built. I wanted to fight a wolf, bringing back its fang or claw as my compass. I was sure I was ready, but I still had the biggest butterflies in my stomach you can imagine."


    James and his dad both laughed. "I was pretty nervous. Still, I had your mom to impress, so when the time came, I walked straight into the forest, brave as brave could be. At least, on the outside. Then, as I got out among the trees, I started to relax. I started just enjoying my time out in the forest, walking on the same paths I''d wandered so many times before. The weather was perfect, and I had a bit of a walk before me to get to the place I was hoping to find a wolf."


    James could see in his mind''s eye his father softly walking through the forest, enjoying the weather.


    "I spent the afternoon traveling in the forest, spent the night in an abandoned cave and ate some berries I''d found as I was walking. At this point I was mostly just enjoying my time in the forest. I kept walking towards the place I''d heard you could find wolves. As I was walking through a clearing, I heard a small growl off to the left. Instantly alert, I spun around, pointing my spear at the sound.


    "Slowly, out of the shadows of the bushes at the edge of the clearing, crept a massive wolf. It was an alpha."


    James¡¯s eyes widened. An alpha would be stronger, faster, and harder to kill than a normal wolf.


    "I knew I wasn''t going to be able to outrun it, and it was clearly not about to let me go, which left me with one option. I was no longer so excited about getting to fight a wolf. I kept the spear between the wolf and I until I had the perfect shot. I stabbed, aiming for the eye! The wolf snapped its head around and caught my spear in its mouth, snapping it with a firm twist."If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.


    By this point, James was sitting on the very edge of the bed, eyes as wide as dinner plates.


    "I knew I was dead. I was left holding a stick about the length of my forearm. The wolf started walking toward me, when suddenly a blur flew past its head. It snapped at it, but then quickly refocused on me. Again the thing, which I could now see was a forest bluebird that had been following me for a few hours, attacked the wolf, distracting it. Again and again the bird attacked, getting the wolf completely distracted from me. As I backed away to the edge of the clearing, all thoughts of a compass treasure forgotten in hopes for survival, the inevitable occurred. The wolf managed to get a blow in on the bird, pulling out some tail feathers. Steering compromised, the bird crashed into a bush. By this point the wolf had completely forgotten about me.


    "Still, as it stalked toward the bush, I knew I had to do something. After all, any good deed should be repaid in kind."


    James realized that was where one of his dad''s favorite phrases came from.


    "I knew my flimsy stick wasn''t going to do anything to a wolf of this size, but as I looked at it, I noticed a large rock. It was just the right size to fit in one hand. I picked it up, and as quietly as I could I snuck towards the wolf. It was so preoccupied with the bird that had so irritated it that it had forgotten all about me. As soon as I got close, I leaped!"


    At this point James was barely even sitting on the bed, he was basically standing as the adrenaline from the story rushed through him. His father was an incredible storyteller, and this one he did even better than most.


    "As I was flying through the air, the wolf finally realized something was wrong, but it was too late. My first blow hit the wolf right on the head, stunning it. I smashed the rock into its head over and over, until finally it was dead. Then a few more times for good measure. Certain it was no longer a problem, I went to check on the bluebird, but as I turned away, I noticed something. The wolf''s fang was glistening a beautiful mother-of-pearl, and I knew it would be my compass treasure.


    "As I went to check on the bluebird, leaving the fang for later, I found nothing. Despite the noises that had been coming from the bush just moments before that had covered the sounds of my approach, the bird was nowhere to be found. Confused, I turned back to the wolf, only to see something flutter to the ground from the corner of my eye. It was one of the bluebird''s tail feathers, pulled out by the wolf. It also glimmered a beautiful mother-of-pearl, and I realized it could also be my compass treasure. I''d never heard of someone with multiple treasures, but then I realized. I didn''t get both, I could choose. After all, we are the ones in charge of our path, even with a compass."


    James noticed another of his father¡¯s favorite sayings: "We choose our own path."


    "I could take the fang, and return a great warrior, just as I''d desired. But having experienced an actual fight for my life, that suddenly felt far less appealing. And then I thought about the last two days. I truly loved the woods, and I got the sense that having the feather as my compass would lead me to spending far more time in the forest. I looked one more time at the fang, thinking of your mother, who I so desperately wanted to impress. But I knew what I wanted. I picked up the feather, and when I turned around, the wolf was gone."


    James¡¯s father pulled a small necklace from under his shirt. On the end of the necklace was the tail feather of a forest bluebird. "This is that feather. I returned to the village, and told the chief of my challenge, as you will to the current chief when you return. He looked at me and kindly said, ''My boy, you will spend your days in the forest hunting. However, if the time comes to defend the village, I know you will be ready to do what you must. Enjoy your time in the forest, my boy, and be ever prepared to defend what you love. My boy, today you have become a man.'' From that time until now I have learned to hunt in the forest, and I have always tried to remain ready to defend the things, and more importantly, the people I love." He winked. "Not only that, but I somehow managed to get your mom to take notice of me! Sometimes the treasure you carry isn''t as important as the person you are inside."


    James sat staring at the feather dangling from the end of his father¡¯s necklace. It wasn''t what his father had been looking for, but it fit him so well. The freedom of a bird, and the courage of a forest bluebird defending its nest.


    "Today, I know you have some hopes and dreams. But just remember that no matter what you bring back, we are proud of the person you are, and I''m sure we''ll be proud of the man you become." He reached over and engulfed James in a massive hug, which James returned.


    As they separated, his dad smiled and smacked him on the back. "That said, I know you''ll bring back something impressive. You''ve prepared far better than I did."


    He walked out, leaving James sitting on the bed, thinking about his dad''s story. He did feel less stressed, but he still hoped he would bring back something that fit him as well as the feather fit his father.


    <hr>


    After a long relaxed breakfast full of joking and guessing about James'' compass, the group filed outside to send James off. James grabbed his spear from where it was leaning next to the door. He felt the stone of the tip, then examined it.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Wooden spear


    Durability: 15/15


    Sharpness: 2


    Weight: 5 lbs


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    James smiled. It had taken many tries to get a tip sharp enough to get a sharpness of 2, and he had looked for weeks to find the perfect branch to get a durability of 15. Most of his attempts at a shaft had durability between 5 and 10, and his first attempts at a spearhead didn''t even have the sharpness property. He probably wouldn''t need to make any more spearheads, but it was good to know that he could if he had to now.


    As they walked towards the forest, his older brother slid up to him. "You''ll do great." He whispered before he continued joking and laughing with everyone. James was glad everyone was so confident, because the more he realized that he was actually about to start his challenge, the more nervous he got.


    They reached the edge of the forest, and James gave his father and mother a hug. As he tried to let go of his mom, she squeezed him one more time and whispered in his ear. "Go get ''em, buddy." James gave her a squeeze back. His mom wasn''t usually very vocal around groups, but he knew she loved him and was proud of him.


    He walked into the forest, adrenaline pumping. It wasn''t even the first time he''d gone into the forest alone, but today just felt different. Then he passed the luck tree. It was a tree that they always passed on the way out of town and rubbed for good luck. They''d rubbed it so many times that part of the bark was worn smooth. As he rubbed the spot, he felt some of his nerves slipping away.


    As he walked through the forest on the paths he knew so well, he started to relax and enjoy the good weather. He was glad he''d been born in the summer, those who were born during the winter had a much harder time during their challenge. He enjoyed the sound of the leaves swishing in the breeze, the birds singing in the trees, and the smell of the flowers he passed. As he walked, he remembered lessons taught by his father.


    "Son," James remembered his father saying, "in the village we bend mother nature to our will, and she allows it. Here in the forest, we must follow her rules. To survive in the forest, you must become part of the forest. Listen to the birds. They each have something to tell you. Are they alarmed? Perhaps a predator is near. Watch the grass. Is it trampled? Is it tall and strong? Has it been grazed recently? Each tells a different story. When in the forest, you leave all other cares behind, and become a creature of the forest."


    James listened to the birds. Those close to him were alarmed, most likely due to his presence, and those further away were acting normal. He studied the grass. It had been grazed this morning, and whatever had been grazing wasn¡¯t in a hurry. He looked under the grass, parting it with a finger. The ground was moist, there would be footprints. He saw prints of deer, as well as fresher prints of a large elk. The prints weren¡¯t made while running from a predator, so James was likely safe. Still, he remained alert as he traveled.


    "Son," he remembered from his first lesson from his father, "the forest will always surprise you. Always be ready for anything." James thought about his father¡¯s compass challenge, and wondered how much that fed into the lessons his father had taught him. It was good advice, and had served James well, so he intended to continue following it.


    His first destination was a small lake a little under a day''s travel from the village. As he walked he ate some berries he found along the path. It wasn''t much, but he was still fairly full from breakfast that morning. He hiked all day, and as the sun was setting he climbed into a large tree and lodged himself between a few branches. He had long ago learned how to sleep without moving, so there was little chance of him falling out. He drifted peacefully off to sleep to the sounds of the crickets chirping.


    <hr>


    The next morning, James woke before the sun was up. He kept moving towards the lake, always keeping alert for signs of prey. He was feeling antsy again, but he wasn''t sure why. He stayed low, pausing often to listen for sounds in the undergrowth. His father''s story was in the forefront of his mind as he stayed alert for anything that might try to ambush him. Then he remembered another of his father¡¯s lessons.


    "The animals of the forest have far better senses than we do. When the animals act as though something is wrong, believe them. Prepare."


    James listened to the forest. Nothing. Not a bird, not a critter, not even the crickets were chirping. James had never heard the forest this quiet. He thought back to his walk. He hadn''t seen a hide or hair of a single animal all morning. He stood still, watching and listening for anything that could''ve scared all of the forest animals. Nothing. The underbrush was thick here, making it hard to maneuver his spear. He remembered a large outcropping of rock at the lake, which would give anything attacking him only one path, and no cover to mess with his spear.


    He started walking towards the lake, but even more cautiously than before. He knew he could be walking right into an ambush, but the other option was to just stand there, and this way at least he had a destination. As he was walking, he noticed something else. The forest smelled different than it had the night before. He stopped and breathed in deeply, trying to pinpoint the smell.


    Smoke! There was a smell of smoke in the forest that hadn''t been there the night before. Was that the reason? Was there a forest fire? He thought back to the forest fire that had happened 3 years before. When that had happened, the animals all stampeded through the forest, not even stopping when they came to the village. They just wanted to escape the fire. That didn''t match their behavior now at all.


    The presence of smoke made the lake an even more appealing destination, so he kept moving towards the lake. As he moved, the smell of smoke kept getting stronger. Slowly the miles dwindled, the smell of smoke growing by the minute. By the time he reached the border of the forest by the lake, the smell of smoke was so strong it reminded him of sitting next to a big fire and the wind blowing suddenly in your face.


    James crouched by a large bush and looked out over the lake. The outcropping was almost directly in front of him, and he couldn''t see any smoke. Actually, he realized he hadn''t seen any smoke all morning! He''d only smelled it. With how strong the smell of smoke was, it should''ve been getting hard to breathe, and he realized his eyes hadn''t even been watering. Confused, he looked up over the lake to see if he could find any source of the smell. Nothing. Until suddenly the bush next to him burst into flames!

 Chapter 3: New Life

    I awakened in a small room, about ten feet tall, approximately spherical. Then I realized something strange. I could see the entire room, all 360 degrees, without turning. The exception was a tunnel exiting the room, which was pitch black. As I looked around, I quickly got a bit bored. The room was devoid of decorations, other than a few rocks on the ground.


    As I was looking around, I discovered something else I could do! I could move my viewpoint to anywhere in the room. This allowed me to see the sides of the rocks I couldn''t see before, and more importantly, to see myself. As I looked to the center of the room, I saw a large amber stone floating there.


    A floating stone was strange enough, but there was something even odder. Sitting on top of the stone was a young woman. And she had wings. They looked like the wings of a dragonfly, and actually fit quite well with the entire image. As I had no idea what was going on, I decided to see if I could get her attention. "Hello! Could you tell me where I am?"


    She didn''t even blink. Honestly, I''d been expecting a bit of freaking out. If I were alone in a small room and suddenly someone spoke to me I''d definitely have a bigger reaction than that. The only explanation was that she couldn''t hear me, which made communication difficult.


    I continued to explore the room, but the only interesting things were the floating rock and the young woman. I couldn''t move my view into the dark tunnel. Every time I looked at the rock I got the strangest feeling. It felt like I was the rock. I mean, it wasn''t too much less likely than my being an ethereal floating viewpoint, but it still seemed strange. Perhaps I was trapped inside of the rock? That made more sense, although I must be pretty small to fit inside that rock.


    I decided to see if I could get the woman''s attention any other way. I had tried calling out multiple times, but there was zero reaction. I was pretty certain she couldn''t hear me. So far the only things I could do were look around and move my vision. Perhaps I could move something else?


    I focused on the floating rock. I still felt a strange connection to it. I tried to mentally push on it. It was almost imperceptible, but I thought I saw it twitch. Encouraged, I tried again. Another twitch. No response from the woman, but to be fair, those movements were almost unnoticeable. I tried to give it a massive mental shove, and it moved a bit further.


    "Whoa! You''re awake!" I guess that got her attention. She jumped off the rock, hovering in front of it. "This is great! I''m glad we get to work together."


    I had no idea what she was talking about. What were we working together on? Perhaps it was the mission from that Balance person. People? I wasn''t sure how to describe them.


    She hadn''t missed a beat. "My name''s Arianna, and I''m the dungeon fairy for your dungeon! Most of my friends call me Ari. Ari the fairy! I''m so excited to get started! What''s your name?"


    Well, she was definitely excitable. I smiled a bit. Or, well, I imagined myself smiling. "I''m Alex. Nice to meet you, Ari."


    As I''d half expected, there was no response. She still couldn''t hear me. I figured I''d just move the rock again to see if that helped. I shoved it, and it moved upwards a bit. I was getting better at it.


    Ari waited a few seconds, then her eyes widened. "Oh! You can''t talk! I need the bond to be able to hear you!" A bright stream of ¡­ something floated from the woman towards the rock. As it touched the rock, I felt a strange pressure, almost like the moment before you get a headache, but it never progressed to the actual pain. Suddenly, not only could I see the entire room, but I also saw a strange floating box, almost like in a computer game.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Arianna Brightwings is attempting to forge a dungeon bond with you!


    Accept/Deny


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I didn''t know what a dungeon bond was, but it didn''t sound good. I wasn''t about to be put into bondage to anyone if I could help it, and I also preferred staying out of any dungeons. I picked deny.


    Ari looked confused. "What? Why did you deny it?" Then a spark of realization came into her eyes. "Oh! You must not know what a dungeon bond is! It is a connection between you and me that will allow us to communicate. You see, you don''t currently have a body or a mouth or anything like that, so for now to communicate you have to communicate directly mind-to-mind. Don''t worry, I won''t be able to do anything to you, and you could end it at will." Again she sent the little stream of ¡­ whatever it was.


    I still wasn''t totally sure, but she seemed sincere, and I needed to be able to communicate in some way. I picked accept, but stayed ready. Though, I wasn''t sure what I could do if it was some kind of a trap. I guess I could slowly budge the rock over until it ran into her, but I still couldn''t move it very fast.


    Fortunately, once I hit accept, nothing happened, except I felt the strange pressure peak for just a second before fading away. I stayed on my guard, but nothing happened. Ari was just floating there, waiting expectantly. I figured I might as well try it. "Hello?"


    "Hello!" Ari beamed. "What''s your name?"


    "My name is Alex. I''m confused, I seem to be stuck in this rock."


    Ari smiled. "You aren''t stuck in the rock, silly! You are the rock! Welcome to life as a dungeon core, Alex! This is your core room, and the heart of your new dungeon! This is going to be so much fun!"


    I was very confused. I was fairly certain those Balance people had wanted me to fight the dungeon cores, and now I was one. Also, how were a bunch of floating rocks threatening the humans? "And ¡­ what exactly is a dungeon core?"


    Ari looked confused. "What do you mean? Everyone knows what a dungeon core is. It is the little gem that is the heart of a dungeon." She looked at me expectantly, waiting for me to understand. "That runs the dungeon?" Still waiting. "And if it''s taken out the dungeon stops working?" Not ringing any bells. "Do you seriously know nothing about dungeon cores?!?"


    I didn''t think it would improve her opinion of me, but best to just pull the bandaid off. "Not really. And ¡­ a dungeon? Is what exactly?"


    Now Ari looked a bit annoyed. "Look, we''re supposed to be a team. Stop joking around so we can get to work. What do you actually know."


    I shrugged my shoulders. Or, well, I would''ve if I''d had any. But somehow I got the sense that I still sent the feeling across this ¡­ bond thing.


    Ari sighed. "You actually know nothing?" That stung a little, but as far as the topics she was referring to, it was accurate.


    "But I''m willing to learn!" I tried to get her a bit more excited.


    It seemed to work. A little. She smiled at least. "Well, I guess that''s all I can ask for. OK, where to start?" She thought for a moment. "OK, well, you are a dungeon core. This means you are this rock here." She patted the floating rock. "You are an entity who builds something called a dungeon. This is basically your home and lair. You will fill it with things to protect yourself, because a dungeon core is a valuable item, and I''m guessing you would rather not be turned into jewelry." She smiled.


    I chuckled. "Sounds unpleasant."


    Ari nodded. "Especially since being removed from your dungeon is a dangerous thing for you. You live off of essence, which your dungeon feeds to you. When removed from a dungeon, even if unharmed, the dungeon core soon dies."


    That certainly sounded unpleasant. "Note to self, don¡¯t leave the dungeon." Then I had an unpleasant thought. "Does that mean the rest of my life is going to be spent in this tiny room?"


    Ari laughed, a sound like wind chimes dancing in the breeze. A very unique laugh, and rather pretty. "Of course not! One of the main things you''ll be doing throughout the years is expanding your dungeon! After all, you wouldn''t want all of the fighting happening right in the room with your core!" She grew a bit more serious. "Your core may look like a rock, but it is actually rather fragile. It won''t break accidentally, but a solid blow from a decent weapon would be enough. Even a club could do you in."


    I decided to make sure I was understanding right. "So I''ll make additional space somehow, then add defenses to keep people away from me. If they make it to this room, it''s basically game over."


    Ari beamed. "Exactly. And as you grow stronger, your defenses will get even better, until someday whole armies would struggle to get to your core."


    If a single core could eventually combat whole armies, that explained why the humans were having problems. "And how do I grow stronger?"


    "By fighting adventurers and collecting essence, of course!" She paused. "Oh, that''s right, you''re totally new to this. Well, by fighting those who come into your dungeon you''ll grow stronger, and you can also grow by passively collecting essence."


    That was another new word. "Essence?"


    Ari had apparently resolved herself to the fact that I knew nothing. "Essence is a form of energy. All things contain some small amount of it, but it is far more concentrated in living things, especially intelligent ones like humans. That is, to begin with. As things age, they gradually collect more essence. Normally this is done by consuming other things with essence. For example, when a wolf eats a rabbit, the wolf gains a small amount of the rabbit''s essence. This means the older something is, the more essence it will generally have."This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    That made sense to me. It seemed to follow the idea of a food chain, except in addition to nutrients and energy, things also got this "essence" stuff as well. "So something like an incredibly old tree might have more essence than a human, despite being not intelligent?"


    Ari smiled. "Exactly. Now, usually the amount of essence a creature gains within its life is small compared to its inherent essence. There can be things, however, that change this. Say an incredibly ancient dragon dies, and a small tree grows on its remains. That tree will have an unusually high amount of essence due to the high essence food it is getting. Still, unless it passes certain points, it won''t matter very much. These points are called tiers and sub-tiers. I assume you''ve never heard of them?"


    I sent an impression of me shaking my head. As I was getting the hang of it, this mind-to-mind communication stuff was pretty handy.


    Ari nodded. "I assumed. Well, the tiers are pretty simple. They go G, F, E, D, C, B, A. There are more that follow, but you likely won''t encounter anyone higher than that for a long time. Each tier has 9 sub-tiers. So the weakest sub-tier is G-9. This is basically no essence. Things like rocks are G-9. At G-8 and G-7 you have the plants. G-6 through G-1 are the animals, generally increasing in intelligence as you move up the scale. So G-6 would be something like a snail, while G-1 are things like apes that have rather high intelligence."


    The tiers were going to be very easy to remember. I was glad that at least one thing I would be able to keep track of.


    Ari continued her explanation. "Increasing in tier is a much larger jump than increasing from sub-tier to sub-tier within a single tier. So F-9, which is the normal level for a common human, is a fair bit stronger than G-1." She paused for a second to think about what to say next. I''m pretty sure it was the first time she''d actually paused unless she was waiting for me to say something.


    "Basically, a good rule of thumb is that two creatures of the same tier will be approximately equal in strength, or at least able to put up a good fight." She paused to think again.


    I had a question. "What changes to give them so much greater strength? What does a D tier human have over an F tier human, for example?"


    Ari fluttered a bit higher. "Lots of things. They are a lot more resilient, for starters. A blow that might kill an F tier adventurer would probably only slightly harm a D tier adventurer. They are also stronger, so they can do far more damage in the same amount of time. But the biggest thing is mana.


    "Dungeons use essence to manipulate the world around them, but they are unusual in this regard. Almost everything else uses mana, a less pure form of energy. The higher tier an adventurer is, the more mana they have total, and the faster it returns when they use it up. This lets them cast more spells, push past their limits more, and generally makes them all-around stronger."


    Most of that made sense, but there was one thing I wanted to learn more about. "You said mana is less pure than essence. What does that mean, effectively?"


    Ari smiled. "Because essence is more pure than mana, you can do things with it the adventurers won''t be able to do with mana."


    I thought of something. "If humans are pretty high up, and they only start at F-9, how does anyone ever reach the higher tiers?" If it was the difference between a rock and a human to go from G to F, I imagined anything in the A or B tier would be absolutely terrifying.


    Ari nodded. "This is where dungeons come in. In the normal world, like I said, creatures gain essence by killing and eating other creatures. However, there are only so many other high-essence creatures to fight, and every time one of them dies, most of their essence is lost. The exception is within a dungeon. Within a dungeon, any creature that kills another receives some of the essence, significantly more than they would outside. Additionally, a large chunk of the essence that is lost in the normal world is captured by the dungeon core that runs the dungeon. No one knows where this essence goes if they die outside. Some have even hypothesized that the entire world is actually a dungeon, run by the most powerful dungeon core ever, but no one really knows."


    That didn''t seem to help. "Wait, even then you''re just reducing the loss of essence, there isn''t any additional essence being added to the system! Also, does that just make me a reservoir for essence that then just goes to whoever eventually kills me?" That didn''t seem like a good situation.


    Ari shook her head. "The answer to your question lies in two parts. Loot and mobs. I''m going to answer the second question first. As you collect the essence, some of it is put towards increasing your tier, but most of it you use to create mobs. Mobs are any creature created by the dungeon. They are also called things like dungeon mobs or dungeon monsters. Thus, the people in your dungeon almost never attack you, but constantly have things to fight. Your mobs are one of the biggest defenses for your core."


    I think she could feel a bit of discomfort through the bond, because she assuaged my worry before I even said anything. "They aren''t actual living creatures with souls, they are completely under your control and don''t feel pain or emotions. This is actually one of the ways mana is different from essence. Mana can''t create living creatures, even ones that don''t have a soul like mobs. And even essence isn''t pure enough to make a soul. There''s no known record of anything actually managing to create a soul." That was good. I felt a lot less bad about creating robots to be slaughtered than actual living creatures. It also made sense that I couldn''t make a soul. Even that Balance person had needed to find a soul to bring here, even they apparently couldn''t make their own.


    "Now for your first question. First, I need to explain loot. When one of your dungeon mobs is killed, as I explained earlier, the adventurer gets some of the essence you used to create it. The rest is lost. For some additional essence, you can choose to create loot for the adventurers when the mob is killed. This serves as an added incentive to convince adventurers to come into your dungeon. These loot items range from low-value coins for weak monsters to powerful weapons or rare materials as the dungeon grows more powerful."


    One thing confused me. "You said I would be defending my core with these mobs, and it sounds like they would definitely kill a lot of adventurers as they were fighting. Are the adventurers really willing to risk everything for some coins, or even some rare material?" As I thought about it though, I realized that it didn''t surprise me very much. After all, people took some crazy risks sometimes for greed. Still, I wasn''t sure I wanted that many lives on my conscience.


    Ari smiled. "The answer to that is two-fold, and also answers your first question about how dungeon cores actually increase the total essence amount. The first part of the answer is that yes, many adventurers would be willing to risk their lives for the treasures they get in dungeons. But the second part of the answer makes even more adventurers willing. A dungeon can create a special loot item called a resurrection token. This gives the adventurers a point they return to if they die in your dungeon. They are only really risking their lives if they die before they get the resurrection tokens or if they keep trying after dying once. And generally the dungeon¡¯s first room contains 5 very easy mobs with the tokens as loot. This also allows the dungeon to control the number of people allowed in the dungeon at once. Or at least, control how many people will be safe."


    It sounded almost like I could give the adventurers a checkpoint. That made me far less worried about people dying in my dungeon.


    Ari continued. "This is also how dungeons add to the total essence. You see, when an adventurer dies, the dungeon collects a lot of the essence from the adventurer, and the adventurer has it when he or she comes back. This quickly can increase the total essence within the dungeon and the essence of said adventurer."


    These resurrection tokens sounded a little OP. "Why doesn''t everyone just carry a dozen of these tokens? Wouldn''t they become effectively invincible?" I realized something else. "And immortal?" If it reversed aging, that would be insane. I could imagine someone dying from old age, just to come back as a 20 year old from the resurrection token they had carried for years. I also realized Ari had been hovering this whole time. "Also, if you want to sit down again, you can do that. I didn''t mean to make you hover there."


    Ari smiled again, then sat on my core. She patted it. "Thanks. Anyhow, there are a couple of reasons that doesn''t work. First, each person can only have 1 resurrection token. Second, if you leave the dungeon you got the token in, it stops working. Third, they only last for a week or so, even within the same dungeon. You can make them last longer, but most dungeons never need to. Some dungeons add mazes or things like that, and they''ll increase the time the tokens last. Fourth, they don''t affect aging, and at the later tiers, adventurers are practically immortal to aging anyway. Finally, there are some powerful organizations who do keep their most important people within dungeons to protect against assassination, but usually the value of the dungeon is higher than just hiring some good guards."


    That made sense. Now there were only a few more problems. "If I need essence to make mobs, but I get essence from my mobs killing stuff, how do I get started? Do I just hope something comes in here and dies?" I realized another problem. "Also, how do I make mobs?"


    Ari smiled. "The first question is simple. Dungeon cores also collect ambient essence from within their dungeons. In fact, this is another reason adventurers like dungeons. As the ambient essence is pulled towards the core, the density of ambient essence increases. This allows certain plants to grow that can only grow in high essence environments.


    "The second question is also fairly simple. First you have to gain patterns. Then, once you have those patterns, you can make mobs from them. Based on your color, I would assume you are primarily going to be working with earth essence and earth mobs."


    That gave another obvious question. "Earth essence? As opposed to space essence?"


    Now Ari was the one to look confused. "Space essence? What is that? No, there are 8 kinds of essence." She drew a circle in the air as she listed them off. "Light, fire, death, earth, darkness, water, life, air. Everything is composed of various amounts of these 8, usually with one or more more prevalent than the others. For example, the rocks in this room are mostly earth essence, with probably a bit of darkness essence in there as well. If there were mud, on the other hand, it would have lots of earth essence and water essence.


    "These are important because different kinds of damage do more to certain materials. For example, a fire spell would do a lot of damage against a wooden door, but almost none against a stone door. In your dungeon, you will need to make sure no single kind of essence could easily make it through your entire dungeon. Earth dungeons don''t have as much of a problem with this, while fire dungeons sometimes have a hard time preventing water mages from strolling right through the dungeon. On the other side of that coin, fire dungeons usually have a high kill count, because their mobs are really good at putting out a high amount of damage quickly. On the other hand, earth mobs are usually better at surviving damage, but can''t deal as much back."


    That made sense. A fire could do a lot of damage, but was also relatively easy to quench. And unless the right circumstances occurred, a rock usually wasn''t very dangerous, but was extremely difficult to damage. I realized one problem with this whole discussion. My dungeon currently consisted of one 10 foot tall room and a tunnel I couldn''t see. "Ari, how do I increase my dungeon¡¯s size? You said I should keep all fighting out of this room."


    Ari nodded. "Definitely. What all can you see?"


    "I can see the room we''re in. I can see just the start of that tunnel, but nothing in it. It''s strange, my vision cuts off very abruptly."


    Ari nodded. "That''s normal. The area you can see is called your influence, and is technically also your dungeon. Most people, however, call the area you carve out and fill with mobs and traps your dungeon, and the area you see your influence. You use essence to increase your influence, and you can control the area within your influence. This is another thing you can do with essence that adventurers can''t do with mana."


    That made sense. "So now what?"


    Ari smiled. "Now we get to the fun part."

 Chapter 4: The fight

    James lept away from the burning bush. He spun and stared at it as he backed away. The flames looked ¡­ unnatural. They ate away at the bush, but didn''t spread to the trees and bushes nearby. At least I don''t have to worry about a forest fire. James thought, although the thought didn''t bring him much comfort. The flames were clearly magical, and whatever made them would definitely be dangerous.


    As he watched the flames, slowly backing toward the lake, he jumped as he noticed the flames watching him back! A head was emerging from the flames. A hooked beak, like a large bird of prey, the dead orange of coals burning in the stove. Eyes, staring right at him, with pupils the shimmering darkness of coal and surrounded by the deep red of the heart of a flame, fading to a bright orange. As the bird continued to emerge, James saw a neck and body, covered in feathers like flames. Mostly a deep red fading to orange, like the eyes, but occasionally a streak of blue would flash through one of the feathers. Its talons were the deep orange of hot metal, and as the bird walked the heat they gave off instantly charred anything the bird stepped on. It flared its wings and screeched, its wings flaring backward like a large fire in a strong gust of wind. When it screeched, it sounded strangely similar to that of a red-tailed hawk. James wondered for a split second if the two might be related.


    The thought only lasted a moment as a more important thought took its place. A phoenix! What is a phoenix doing here? There used to be wild phoenixes near here, but they had all been hunted, and the only remaining wild phoenixes were in the southern deserts. But this bird perfectly matched the description of a phoenix he''d heard from an adventurer who''d passed through the village a few weeks earlier. But a phoenix here had only one explanation. It''s a dungeon monster! James had heard of rogue dungeon monsters being found near recently killed dungeons, and they were always vicious, killing everything they came across until the adventurers'' guild sent someone to deal with it.


    James knew his chances of survival were low, but he wasn''t going to give up without a fight. He lifted his spear and pointed it at the bird. Suddenly his homemade spear seemed a lot less impressive. He remembered the adventurer telling about his fight with a phoenix. He could almost hear the low, gravelly voice of the scarred adventurer; he could almost smell the smoke of the campfire.


    ¡°We were nearing the end of our run, and approached the final room of the floor, the boss room. The most dangerous enemy in the entire dungeon ¡­ a phoenix. Our group consisted of me, a healer, a mage, an archer, and another fighter.


    ¡°A phoenix isn¡¯t a quick fight. With many monsters, the fight is won or lost within moments. A phoenix is different. They are endurance fighters. As long as they have mana, they will be reborn from the ashes of their previous body. They aren¡¯t especially strong, but they will wear down a fighter with fight after fight. Their magical attacks are also nothing to ignore, although every attack they use means they will revive less times. The larger the bird, the more powerful. The phoenix we faced stood nearly 10 feet tall, with a wingspan of almost twice that.


    ¡°Our first attack was an ice arrow from our archer, killing the bird instantly with a shot through the eye. As the bird crashed and became ashes, our other fighter ran up to the ashes, thinking to get a cheap shot in while the bird was on the ground. As he used a mace, he had very little chance of hitting anything flying. Little did we know, the rebirth of a phoenix is no calm event. A massive explosion of flame smashed him into the wall, where he slid to the ground. As our healer ran over to him, the archer tried to kill it again, but the bird spun and took the arrow to the wing instead, injuring but not killing it.


    ¡°The bird sent a massive wave of flame at the archer, but was blocked by a quick shield from our mage. I taunted the bird, drawing its attention away from the more fragile members of my team. I crouched behind my shield as it sent a condensed stream of fire at me.¡± He gestured to the shield on the ground next to him. The metal was warped, melted in places, and looked like large grooves had been cut in it.


    ¡°The bird attacked while I was behind the shield, carving massive scratches in the metal. I swung with my sword, removing one of the legs of the giant bird. This hit cost me as well, however, leaving a glowing dent in my sword as if I had struck a rod of pure heat. The next shot from the archer sailed true, entering the back of the bird¡¯s head. While the birds are magically strong, they are relatively weak physically. They are quite easy to kill, but the problem is you have to kill them an impressive number of times.


    "This time we gave the ashes plenty of distance, and when the bird returned, the flames in its wings were noticeably less than when we began.


    ¡°Our mage led with an attack this time, sending a massive ice spear towards the bird. The bird responded with a wave of heat that evaporated the spear, but significantly dimmed the flames of its wings. I taunted the bird again, and the bird swerved away from an attack on our healer. It came at me again, and I dodged its swoop while beheading it. I paid dearly for this attack, however, as the intense heat melted my sword. The heat in the neck was far greater than the heat in the legs.


    ¡°As we stayed well back from the ashes, the bird returned. Reviving took very little mana from the bird, but had gained our mage enough time to prepare a large attack. A storm of icicles flew toward the bird, who defended against most of them with another wave of fire. However, the bird missed a few, and where they hit, the flames of the bird dimmed significantly. Again the bird attacked, and once again I taunted it to gain its attention. As I huddled behind my shield, weaponless, I could feel the heat from the massive bird as our archer again placed an arrow in the head of the mighty bird.


    ¡°At this point, we were growing weary, but fortunately the wings of the mighty bird were the color of the final flames flickering among the coals of a dying fire. Our mage put everything he had into a final attack, passing out from mana exhaustion. The bird was caught in the center of a whirlwind of ice blades, which cut dark grooves in the flames of the bird. When the mighty beast finally escaped the whirlwind, it could barely fly. Our archer hit it with a final arrow, and the beast had been defeated.


    ¡°We had not escaped unscathed, however. The second warrior had been killed in the explosion when the bird returned, and the mage had nearly overextended on that last spell, risking everything on one last attempt to take down the phoenix.¡±


    ¡°What would you have done if the bird had returned while the mage was unconscious?¡± James remembered one of the youth asking the massive warrior.


    ¡°I would have died.¡± was the response given. ¡°A phoenix cannot be killed with normal weapons. Remember, I had already lost my sword, and you can see that my shield wouldn¡¯t have lasted much longer. A phoenix also spends almost no mana when returning. There was once a researcher who wanted to know how many times a phoenix could revive if it didn¡¯t use spells. He took a bag of holding, which can hold more than it should, filled with hundreds of swords, and an enchantment to prevent spells in the near area. He killed the bird five hundred times before he gave up. The flames on the bird¡¯s wings were still bright and powerful. It has been estimated that even a weak phoenix could return at least a thousand times if it didn¡¯t use spells.¡±


    James had been glad he wouldn''t ever have to fight a phoenix, but that didn''t seem nearly as encouraging now. He knew his spear wouldn''t do much to the bird. Fortunately this bird was only about 3 feet tall, and was clearly far weaker than the one in the adventurer¡¯s story. Still, that didn''t give James much comfort as he continued backing away from the large bird. As the bird got close, James jabbed at it with his spear.


    The bird flapped backwards. The heat from its wings felt like standing too close to a bonfire on a hot summer day, and as he glanced at his spear, he could see that even though he never even touched the bird, the hairs on the hide strings he''d used to lash the tip to the spear had singed off. He knew he needed a different plan if he was going to escape, because his spear would probably only last one hit.


    At this point James only wanted to escape. He could see that his spear wasn''t the answer. He looked behind him as he continued to back away from the bird, and he saw it. Like one of the legendary blades of planar sundering, there it lay: a fist-sized round stone. OK, maybe not quite as good, but at least it was fireproof and a ranged weapon. The phoenix paused and cocked its head to the side when James picked it up, as if considering this new threat, before it continued stalking towards him. That was encouraging. If the bird was being cautious, perhaps James could escape.


    Fortunately, with his dexterity score of 13, James had always been good at throwing things. Turns out all of that time throwing rocks at stuff wasn''t a waste of time after all! He got ready and let it fly. Yes! It hit the bird in the right wing. The large rock knocked the light bird back several feet, and when the bird stood, its right wing was clearly broken, trailing on the ground, useless.


    Maybe James had a chance. He allowed a flicker of hope to ignite in his chest. If he could hurt the bird so it couldn''t chase him without killing it, he might be able to escape. He picked up another rock, but as he looked back at the bird, the bird opened its beak, and James could see its throat start to glow. He jumped behind a large rock, and just in time. A wave of flame slammed into the rock, and James felt his eyebrows singe from the heat. Fortunately, it only lasted a few seconds, and James peeked back around the rock as it finished.


    The bird was clearly being more careful, keeping its good wing tucked in close to its body. The flickering fire actually made excellent camouflage for the wing, and James couldn''t tell where the body ended and the wing started. But he hadn''t stayed the champion rock thrower for 4 years in the village by only hitting large targets. He readied, and launched his second rock. It flew true, smashing into the bird¡¯s left leg! Again the bird went down, and James allowed himself a bit more hope, as the flicker turned into a small blaze of hope. This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.


    As he was getting ready to run, though, the bird stood again. Apparently, the legs were made of stronger stuff than the wings, as he should have guessed from the adventurer¡¯s story. Still, the leg was clearly damaged, and the bird was having difficulty walking. As James got ready to throw again, the bird opened its beak again. James immediately ducked behind the rock again, and just in time. A concentrated beam of heat passed right through the space he''d occupied a moment before, continuing for about 50 feet before dying out. This further solidified the knowledge that James had to prevent the bird from following him if he wanted to escape.


    He popped up from behind the rock and hurled another stone. Again it crashed into the bird¡¯s left leg, causing the bird to collapse again. James quickly ran to another large rock a bit further from the bird, as the bird had been getting a bit closer than he was comfortable with, although it had made hitting it easier. As he looked from his new fortress, he could see that the bird was still able to walk, but it was clearly very hurt. It had to use its left wing to help support it each time it stepped on its left leg.


    James wasn''t going to pass up an opportunity like that. He grabbed another rock, grateful there were lots of good throwing rocks on the outcropping. It appeared that all of the bird''s attacks came from its mouth, so if he could take the bird down, he''d be mostly safe and able to escape. He just had to make certain not to accidentally kill it all the way, or it would be back at full strength. He peeked around the rock, only to immediately pull back as he saw another ray of flame go through the space his head had momentarily occupied. He quickly smacked out the fire that had started in his hair. Fortunately, the ray was more concentrated than the first blast had been, so the rest of his face only felt like it had gotten a bad sunburn.


    Again he popped up and launched his mighty stone. It flew through the air, careening into the left wing of the bird. Again, the light bird was knocked backwards by the impact, and this time it couldn''t seem to get up. It tried twice, three times, and James felt the little flame of hope in his chest become a burning bonfire of hope. If the bird couldn''t follow, he could escape, keeping obstacles between himself and the bird to be safe from its fire rays. Obviously the bird had come to the same conclusion, as it screeched angrily, craning its neck around to look at James.


    As James got ready to run, the bird opened its beak again, its throat burning brighter than ever before. James dropped behind the rock again, but peeked around the edge just in case. As the brightness grew to a maximum, the bird did something James hadn''t expected: it turned its beak into its own chest. A massive blast of fire hit the bird, followed by an explosion that shook the outcropping. When James looked again, all that was left was a pile of ashes.


    The bonfire of hope had just gotten soaked by the entire lake behind him. James started running up the outcropping, aware of what was coming next. Sure enough, a large explosion followed a few seconds later, sending James skidding, skinning his palms and knees. He looked back, only to see the phoenix staring angrily back. Its flames were visibly weaker, and obviously that attack had taken a lot out of it, but it was just as obvious that it was still strong enough to finish James, and now it was angry.


    James started to back away again, but his foot hit the edge of the cliff. He was cornered, and the bird knew it. The phoenix took off, flying right towards him. He still held his spear, somehow having kept ahold of it throughout the entire fight, but James knew that having that explosion right next to him when the bird came back would be a death sentence. As the bird was flying up the outcropping towards him, he remembered a story his mother had told him and his brothers when they were little.


    "Once upon a time there was a mighty fighter. He roamed the kingdoms slaying any creatures he encountered. His compass treasure was the fang of a cave bear he had killed, and he traveled far and wide, looking for something to challenge himself.


    "Once while he was in the southern deserts hunting down a sand lion pride that had been stealing sheep from a nearby village he heard a sound that made his blood freeze. It was a screech with the power of a hurricane and the hunger of a forest fire. He spun around, and in the sky above him he saw a flaming bird the size of a tree. Despite his great strength, he knew his weakness was against magic, which could easily defeat him from range.


    "As he looked for any escape, he saw a small cliff containing a small cave. Knowing the bird would have a hard time getting into the small space, and hoping it would give him better chances than in the open, the warrior sprinted for the cave."


    James remembered clutching his blanket to his chest as his mother had expertly increased the tension without making it too scary for young children, like he''d been back then.


    "Before he''d made it more than halfway there, the mighty bird was almost upon him. He spun and launched an arrow as the bird was diving. It was a perfect shot, piercing the skull of the swooping bird and killing it instantly. He continued towards the cave, sprinting as quickly as he could, knowing that the bird wouldn''t be far behind. He reached the cave just as a wave of heat let him know that the bird had been just moments behind him.


    "Fortunately for the mighty warrior, the cave took a sharp turn just within, preventing the bird''s spells from reaching him, and the bird itself was too large to enter. At first the bird had tried, squeezing its head into the cave, but this put it in too vulnerable of a position, as the warrior could easily slay it before it got him. He was glad that he''d fashioned a spear from the remains of a fire giant he''d killed, as it was able to withstand the great heat it was subjected to each time he killed the phoenix with it.


    "Stuck in this stalemate, the warrior kept the mighty phoenix at bay for weeks. He was able to sleep at night, as the brightness of the bird would wake him if it tried to enter during the night. But he had to be constantly vigilant for much of the day, as the bird would occasionally try to surprise him. Reviving hardly cost the bird anything, and the warrior didn''t have any spells that could truly harm it. His one hope was that the bird would grow bored or find easier prey and leave.


    "Unfortunately for the warrior, prey is scarce in the southern deserts, and the bird didn''t grow bored. Eventually, his food ran out, and he knew he''d have to make a run for it. The bird had been coming less often during the night, so he made plans to escape the following night. That whole day he took a risk and tried to sleep, making certain that he would have as much energy as possible the following night. Although with the amount of adrenaline that was already pumping through his veins, he didn''t think that would be a problem.


    "That night, as the sun was down and it started to get dark, a miracle occurred. It began to rain. In the southern deserts, rainstorms are rare, and the ones that make it that far are powerful things of wind and pummeling rain. The warrior knew this was his only hope, and as darkness fell, he left the cave and started running.


    "He ran for almost half an hour. His spirits started to rise, as he knew that the longer he went without being detected by the mighty phoenix, the better his chances. Then, the worst occurred. He heard a screech of anger over the rushing winds, and he knew that the phoenix had discovered his escape. His only hope was that the bird would search in the wrong direction, but after only a few minutes he could see a bright light through the storm. He stopped running and caught his breath, knowing that any further running would only tire him out for the inevitable fight.


    "The mighty bird swooped through the storm, rain evaporating on its fiery plumage and creating a train of steam like the tail of a comet as it plunged towards him. The mighty warrior stood his ground, readying his spear. As the bird dove towards him, he dodged the outstretched talons, stabbing the spear deep into the body of the great bird. He didn''t escape unscathed, however, receiving bad burns on his hands from the heat released as he pierced the massive bird and from the scalding steam following in its wake.


    "The bird collapsed into a pile of ashes, as it had so many times before, and the warrior crouched, preparing himself for the imminent explosion. In the cave he''d been protected from the blast by the bend in the cave, and fortunately the bird''s dive had carried it a distance beyond him before it crashed, but he still was ready for the shockwave he knew was coming.


    "The pile of ashes started smoking lightly. And kept smoking. As the warrior watched, the massive rainstorm was keeping the ashes from building up the requisite heat for the bird to be reborn! Eventually the smoke stopped. The warrior wasn''t sure whether he could allow himself to hope, but then, atop the pile of ashes appeared a single feather. It was a phoenix feather, an item only found upon the death of a phoenix, and then only rarely.


    "The mighty warrior ran to the ashes and grabbed the feather. He fell to his knees in the wet ashes and sand, and he wept. The rainwater mixed with his tears of joy as he looked at that feather. It was a powerful magical item, but even more importantly to him, it meant he was safe. He would live to see another day."


    James had let loose a great sigh of relief, matched by those of his brothers.


    "So you see," His mother had concluded. "Sometimes it is better to use your head before starting a fight. The warrior could have faced the mighty phoenix that first day, and he would never have been seen again. Instead, by waiting for conditions that favored him, he went on to live a long successful life."


    All of this flashed through his mind in the moments as the bird was flying towards him up the outcropping. James glanced up at the sky. He might be able to kill the mighty bird once more, if it would just start raining. But the sky was clear for as far as he could see. As the bird approached, James lifted his spear. The bird continued unphased, knowing that in death it would win. It didn''t even ready its talons, depending on the explosion of its rebirth to defeat James.


    Then James did something that surprised the mighty bird. He dropped his spear. As the surprised bird crashed into James, he wrapped it in a massive bear hug, turned, and leapt off of the cliff. As his arms and chest were burning, as they were plummeting through the air, he finally heard a sound from the bird that raised his spirits: fear. As they plummeted toward the lake below, James smiled. You may have gotten me, but I''m bringing you down with me.


    The fall seemed to last forever. He was burning as the phoenix tried to escape, but James'' grip was as strong as iron. Still, the pain was the worst James had ever felt. Everything was burning. His arms, face, chest, it was all pain. And then the fire was inside of him, and he screamed. It felt like liquid fire was coursing through his veins, and as he screamed fire got into his mouth and throat.


    Finally James felt them hit the water. He felt bones breaking under him. He had managed to spin in the air so he was on top of the bird, sealing its fate. Then they hit the bottom, and James'' world went black.

 Chapter 5: Life of a core

    I liked the sound of that. "Let''s do it!"


    Ari smiled. "The first thing to do is increase your influence. This will increase your essence intake, starting a cycle that ends with you being able to fight the most powerful enemies in this world. The first step is to access your dungeon menu. I know you''ve moved your viewpoint around, but have you tried to move it inside of your core yet?"


    I realized that at the start my vision had been at the surface of the core, and I''d never thought to look inside of the core, assuming it would just be black. I tried to move my viewpoint inside of the core, but instead of my viewpoint changing my viewpoint stayed the same, but I got an additional awareness, just like when Ari tried to make the dungeon bond with me. "Whoa!"


    Ari laughed. "No one ever answers, they always just try it. What you''re seeing now is your dungeon menu. It gives easy access to some of your unique abilities as a dungeon core. Over time, they will become second nature, and you won''t need to use the dungeon menu except for a few functions you don''t use much."


    There certainly was a lot in this dungeon menu.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Alex Johnson


    Earth Core - G8


    Essence - 50/50


    Core generation - 5 per hour


    Dungeon generation - 1 per hour


    Dungeon bond - Arianna Brightwings End bond


    Dungeon actions:


    Increase influence


    Absorb matter


    Create item


    Create mob


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    As I looked at it, I understood a decent amount. As Ari had guessed, I was an Earth core, although I was a little disappointed to see I was only as strong as a mushroom, barely better than a rock. I had 50 essence, but I wasn''t sure if that was a lot or not. I also saw that I was generating 6 essence per hour, or one per 10 minutes. Most of that was from my core itself, although Ari had made it sound like most of my essence would eventually come from my dungeon.


    I also saw an option to end the bond with Ari, which was comforting. At this point I was starting to trust her, but it was still nice to see I could end the bond at will. Still, it was a bit awkward to have it right there. I didn''t want to accidentally hit it, I had enough experience to know Ari probably wouldn''t take "It was an accident." as a good reason. I also saw 4 options for "dungeon actions" that sounded like the unique abilities Ari had been talking about. I understood "increase influence" and "create mob" from what Ari had already explained, but "absorb matter" and "create item" were new. Admittedly, they were pretty self explanatory. "Ari, this says my core is creating most of my essence. Didn''t you say it would be coming mostly from my influence?"


    Ari nodded. "Remember, right now your influence is only this little pocket, eventually it will be a massive labyrinth of tunnels. It won''t take long for the essence created by your core to be almost negligible. Also, a few things about the menu. It''s designed to make being a dungeon core easy, and it will act according to your desires."


    "So if I wanted a line to not show up, it wouldn''t?"


    Ari nodded again. "Exactly." I immediately made the line about the dungeon bond disappear. Ari continued. "Also, many of the terms in the menu will have brief explanations if you focus on them and focus on getting more information."


    I decided to try it with the earth core section. It pulled up a new box, again reminding me of something like a computer program on Earth.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Earth Core:


    You are an earth aligned dungeon, giving you various benefits relating to earth essence. Primarily earth aligned mobs will cost 20% less to create, and primarily earth aligned loot will cost 20% less to create.


    You will receive patterns for various earth aligned mobs as you grow, without finding examples, and earth aspected evolutions will be more likely to occur.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    That was a good explanation, but it left me with a number of questions. "Ari, I just tried it on ''Earth core'' and I have some questions. First, who made this menu?"


    Ari shrugged. "No one knows for sure. The leading theory is that it was the first dungeon cores, who had to figure it all out on their own. But that was so long ago, it doesn''t really matter much."


    I wasn''t sure about it not mattering, but I went on to my next question. "OK, well next what does it mean I''ll get ''patterns for various earth aligned mobs'' as I grow?"


    Ari nodded. "To create a mob, you first have to know how. This information is stored in something called a pattern. As you learn more patterns, you can make different mobs. Eventually you''ll also be able to make different patterns, but that''s a long ways out. For now you''ll just use those you find or get for being an earth core. You also will find patterns for loot, and that''s easier to edit or create new patterns, but you''ll still probably just use the basic ones for a while. The oldest dungeons have hundreds or thousands of different mobs they can create as their needs dictate."


    I realized she''d mentioned patterns once before, but I''d mostly forgotten. To be fair, I''d gotten a lot of new info in the last little bit. Still, her explanation made sense. After all, I currently had no idea how to make any sort of mobs, so it was logical that I''d need to learn how somehow. "OK, next, ''earth aspected evolutions''?"


    Ari thought for a moment. "OK, this one''s a bit longer of an explanation. You remember how anything that kills something in your dungeon gets some of the essence?"


    I sent a pulse of affirmation along the bond. This really was handy.


    "Well, that applies to your dungeon mobs too. And if a mob survives long enough, it might build up a significant amount of essence, enough to make it a more powerful enemy. But unlike adventurers, who just become stronger, mobs that reach this point begin to have a chance of evolving. This means they become a stronger version of the same mob. For example, a skeleton mob might grow spikes on its arms and back, or an earth golem might gain an ability to regrow limbs using surrounding earth. This is good, because an evolved mob is less expensive to create than it should be for its strength."


    That definitely sounded like something I wanted to happen a lot. I made a mental note to give my mobs ways to escape if the fight wasn''t going well. Then there would hypothetically be more evolutions. "OK, so what about the dungeon action options for ''absorb matter'' and ''create item''?"


    Ari nodded. "Those are two of your abilities as a dungeon core. Absorb matter is relatively simple. Anything in your influence is under your control, and you can break it down. This is how you will carve out rooms and tunnels to make your dungeon. This is also one of the main ways you will get patterns to make items. Which brings us to your second question. As you absorb things, you learn to recreate the same things. Both as loot, assigned to drop when a mob dies, or just whenever you need it for some reason. For example, you will probably eventually arm some of your mobs with weapons and armour. Again, right now you won''t have any patterns, but eventually you''ll be able to make lots of different things."


    Her explanation made sense, but gave me another question. "If I can just absorb anything in my dungeon, why don''t I just absorb the weapons and armor of any adventurers who try to attack me?"


    Ari shook her head. "You can''t absorb anything too close to an adventurer. Their souls mess with your control, preventing you from absorbing anything they''re holding, and from creating anything too close to them. Especially mobs. The adventurers cause a lot of interference with your ability to create new mobs."


    That also made sense. If I could just add more mobs in the middle of an enemy group, or right next to weakened adventurers, it would be almost impossible for the adventurers to win. Well, that was pretty much all of my urgent questions, so now all that was left was to actually do something! "OK, how do I expand my influence?"


    "Just select the option and mentally push your influence to expand. It will use up your essence to expand. I''d recommend starting down that tunnel."


    It sounded pretty easy, so I decided to just throw in the towel. I selected ''increase influence'' and started to push on the tunnel, like I''d pushed on the rock. It felt like pushing on the wall of one of those inflatable bounce-houses, as I slowly pushed my way down the tunnel. I only pushed in one place, but the area I could see spread out like a bubble, slowly making a tube about the width of the tunnel.


    I continued down the tunnel for about 10 feet, before the bounce-house wall became a brick wall. I glanced at my dungeon menu. Empty. This was going to be a long process. On the bright side, my essence was now increasing faster.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Alex Johnson


    Earth Core - G8


    Essence - 0/50


    Core generation - 5 per hour


    Dungeon generation - 3 per hour


    Dungeon actions:


    Increase influence


    Absorb matter


    Create item


    Create mob


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    "I did it!" It wasn''t much, but I was glad I could now see a bit more. It hadn''t taken long to get bored in the small room I was in.


    Ari grinned. "Great! How far down the tunnel did you get?"


    "Probably about 10 feet."


    Ari laughed, the sound of dancing wind chimes rang again, filling the small room. I wasn''t quite sure what I''d said that was so funny. "Alex, dear, how tall do you think I am?"


    Immediately I knew this was dangerous territory. Possibly my first life-threatening moment as a dungeon core. Guessing a woman''s size was never a risk-free action, but at least I usually had a reference point. As she asked, I realized I had literally no point of reference here. I didn''t even know what measuring system she used. I figured I''d guess a pretty average size and hope I wasn''t too far off. Vagueness was also my friend here. "A bit over 5 feet?"


    Ari then smiled a smile that would''ve chilled me to the bones, had I had any. "And how much do I weigh?"


    I didn''t even know a voice could be so sweet and yet so menacing at the same time! If before I''d been walking on thin ice, now I was dancing the can-can on a rope bridge made of toilet paper. In the rain. Above a volcano. As I panicked and tried to think of something to say, Ari laughed. "Just kidding. I''m about average height for a dungeon fairy, coming in at about 6 inches tall. And I''m not going to tell you how much I weigh." She smiled again, this one her normal one. "So you probably made it about a foot. Still quite good!"This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.


    The burst of relief as I escaped certain death definitely softened the disappointment of discovering my entire dungeon would fit in my garbage can back home. Still, it meant I had a long ways to go. That made me think of something. "Ari, you said the oldest cores have hundreds or thousands of different mob options. How long can a dungeon core survive?"


    Ari blinked. "Until they are killed. Dungeon cores don''t age. Some powerful cores have gotten tired of defending themselves and just closed off their dungeons and eventually disappeared from the knowledge of everyone, every other core is either still alive or has been destroyed."


    That was ¡­ unexpected. I wasn''t sure how I felt being told I was semi-immortal. It was obviously cool, but I couldn''t quite wrap my head around it. I decided to leave considering that until later. "So, ¡­ now what?"


    Ari shrugged. "Now we wait until your essence regenerates. Building a dungeon isn''t a quick process. Fortunately we both have ways to counter boredom. As a dungeon fairy I can hibernate and effectively skip some time, and you can do something very similar. But for now there''s one more thing you can do. Absorb matter doesn''t require any essence. And, it takes practice to do it quickly, just like training a muscle. So select absorb matter and try to absorb one of the tiny pebbles in this room."


    I wasn''t quite sure what she meant, but everything thus far had been pretty simple, so I decided to just have a go at it. I selected absorb matter and focused on what I''d thought was a large rock, but that turned out to be a tiny pebble. As I focused on it being absorbed, it suddenly shattered. But not like a rock normally shattered, this rock seemed to just collapse in on itself in dozens or hundreds of places, then once all that was left were those specks, they broke into tiny specks of light that floated around for a few seconds before disappearing. It was actually super beautiful, it almost reminded me of a fireworks show.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Pattern acquired!


    Granite pebble


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Cool! My first pattern! As I absorbed the pebble, I was a bit distracted by the light show, but I suddenly understood everything about that pebble. Everything it went through as it was being created. Every tiny flaw in the crystal structure of the granite. Every impact it had received that left the slightest chip. Every tiny crack and chip on its surface, or inside of it. I knew the different flows and swoops in the colors. In fact, there was so much info that I immediately started to get a headache. Then, I felt it packaged up and stored away. Now I knew basic stuff about the rock, but not too much. But I knew that when I made the rock it would definitely be exactly like the one I had absorbed. "I did it." I figured she''d already know, due to the rock disappearing, but I figured she was giving me time to work through the massive info dump from absorbing it.


    Ari grinned. "Great job! Now you could recreate that same rock. I''m guessing you got notified that you gained a pattern, probably called something like Granite pebble if I guess correctly?"


    I noticed the very distinct way she said "granite pebble", which somehow matched the way it had looked in the notification. "Yeah. Ari, why does the name look like that? You even said it weird."


    Ari nodded. "That''s right, I haven''t explained loot rarity yet. Every item has a rarity. The pebble is Bland rarity, so in notifications it will show up like that. The rarities are Bland, Common, Uncommon, Rare, Super Rare, Epic, Legendary, and Unique. You¡¯ll probably never see a Unique item, and anything above Rare is probably going to be a good while before you see any. Most of the loot you give out will be in the bottom three levels."


    I had a question. "Why don''t I just always give the best item I have for loot? Wouldn''t that get the most adventurers in my dungeon?"


    Ari shook her head. "I''m going to give you a minute to see if you can find any errors in that logic yourself before I answer."


    I thought about it. If I dropped powerful items, that would make coming in more appealing. I tried to think about an example I knew to figure out what might happen. I thought of the California gold rush. A massive influx of people all trying to get a limited resource. A mass influx of people who then colonized the area. It would probably mean I would have large cities grow close to me, which didn''t seem like a problem.


    I thought about it some more. When massive amounts of something hit the markets back home, that item would devalue. This would mean I would be devaluing my most valuable loot. That was a problem. Then I thought of something else. Many resources on Earth were controlled by one or more groups of people who would look very poorly on someone who started devaluing the product. "Anyone else who produced that item would be rather unhappy that I was giving out so many of them so easily, and probably react violently before I was ready to defend myself."


    Ari''s eyebrows went up. "I hadn''t even thought of that one, but it''s quite possible."


    If she hadn''t thought of it, that meant there were others. I thought for a few more seconds, and thought of another. "If I''m putting out enough value, people might start to fight over me, and I would be possibly in a good bit of danger through this."


    Ari nodded her head, but moved her hand in a so-so motion. "True, but you already have a very high value just due to being a core. So you can''t really avoid that one."


    That was unfortunate, but it just meant I''d have to get ready to defend myself. I tried to think of another reason, and then I realized something. I''d been thinking about the impact it would have on earth, I was somewhere totally different now. As soon as I started looking at the differences, I saw a big problem. "By having extra valuable loot, I''d pull in stronger adventurers. The problem with this is I''d probably never be able to kill one. Which means I wouldn''t get any essence. That sounds undesirable, based on what you told me."


    Ari nodded. "Exactly, and for two reasons. First, as I explained, you get a lot of essence from deaths in your dungeon. Second, essence you collect from your influence doesn''t add to your tier after you reach F9. This is why dungeons don''t just hide in the ground until they are stronger. Once you reach F9 there isn''t much point in waiting longer to break the surface and start fighting adventurers. This combines to prevent you from growing very much at all. I know of a dungeon core that revealed too soon its ability to create phoenix feathers. It''s been centuries, probably millenia at this point, and the dungeon core still hasn''t reached the E tier."


    That definitely didn''t sound like something I wanted. I decided I should definitely keep the loot drops even with the fight to get them. I decided that since I had the pattern, I might as well try "create item". Just as I was about to select it, Ari started talking again. "Now you should probably learn how to create an item. For something simple like a rock it takes practically no essence, so you''ll be able to practice without wasting much essence. When you select create item, you''ll be able to make minor changes. The changes can''t be too large, but things like changing size or shape are totally doable. Greater changes are harder, but you can do them a bit at a time as you absorb it to get a new pattern closer to what you want. Usually though, you wind up with enough patterns that things you want are pretty close to a pattern you already have."


    I selected "create item", happy to know it wouldn''t take much essence. As I selected the action, I saw a list of all of my patterns. It was depressingly small.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Create:


    Granite pebble


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Still, I guess only one option made it easy to find what I wanted. That gave me a question. "Ari, how do dungeons with hundreds or thousands of patterns ever find the ones they want? Should I be avoiding filling my lists with useless patterns?" I didn''t know if I could even do that, but I also wanted to plan ahead if it meant saving myself from scrolling through lists of thousands of items to find the one I wanted.


    Ari smiled. "Eventually you''ll get better at using the menu and you''ll be able to sort the list mentally and remove things that don''t match what you''re looking for. It will become natural, and eventually you won''t even use the list as long as you know what you''re looking for."


    That was good, I liked the idea of not looking through long lists every time I needed to make something. I also paused for a moment, grateful that Ari wasn''t bugged by my incessant questions. "Also, thanks for answering all of my questions. I guess I really didn''t know much of anything."


    Ari laughed, smiling again. She was a very happy person. Or, well, a very happy fairy. "No problem, that''s why I''m here! Also, we''ve long passed the stuff most people would have known, and you''ve shown you''re a fast learner, so we''re probably about normal at this point anyway. Most cores have a much harder time understanding the dungeon menu. "


    That was good to know. I''d rather catch up to normal as soon as possible. In fact, I had a sinking feeling in my non-existent stomach that I wouldn''t have very long at all before I had to start keeping the balance. As far as the dungeon menu went, it seemed pretty natural to me, but if I''d never used a computer I could see how it would be unfamiliar and probably a bit hard to grasp. As I selected the Granite pebble pattern, I saw something that reminded me of a 3-d modeling program. I could still see the room like normal, but I could also see a semi-transparent rock, completely identical to the one I''d just absorbed. I could also sense a table with some information about the rock.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Granite pebble


    Time to create: 0.1 seconds


    Essence to create: 0.08 essence (0.1 ¡Á .8)


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Just before I asked Ari about the essence required I realized it was probably because of the bonus from being an earth core. Still, I had one other question. "Time to create?"


    Ari nodded. I realized she was really good at determining what I was talking about with just a few words. "Creating items takes longer than absorbing them. Large items, complicated items, and rarer items tend to take longer to create. As you practice and grow stronger, the time required for a certain item will decrease."


    "Thanks. Also, I''ll try to ask better questions, it''s probably pretty hard to figure out what I''m talking about sometimes."


    Ari smiled. "Not really, if I try I can see what you''re looking at because of the bond."


    "Ari," I said, still slightly cautious, "what all can you do with the bond?"


    Ari grew more serious, probably feeling a bit how important this question was to me. "I can currently talk to you like we have been, which occasionally gives me insights into your emotions if you let them slip through the link. I can see your dungeon menu and what you''re currently looking at, and I can see anything in your influence, just like you, although doing so for long periods gives fairies a headache. Also, your dungeon mobs will not attack me by default, considering me part of your dungeon. Finally, I can end the bond at will, just as you can. I''ll get additional abilities as our bond strengthens, but I''ll tell you about those as we get close to my having them, how does that sound?"


    That sounded fine to me, and none of her abilities sounded like anything I opposed. "That sounds fine, thanks. I just get a bit nervous when agreeing to things I don''t know everything about."


    Ari smiled and nodded. "Totally understandable."


    With that short detour over, I looked back at the rock that had just been waiting for me. I knew I could make it show up with just a mental push, but I wanted to try the editing thing Ari had talked about. As I focused on the rock, I imagined it being larger. It quickly grew to the size I imagined. I wondered how far I could push this editing ability. I stretched the stone, making it longer, but not wider. It again followed my wishes. I noticed that as I increased the size of the rock, both the time required and the essence required increased.


    I continued messing with the rock. I shifted the different areas of rock around, moving the different colors around. Being a geologist, I tried to create a different kind of rock by adjusting the rock, but it didn''t like that. Every time I got too far, it would reset to the original rock. Eventually I gave up on that and decided to see how much I could change the shape of the rock. I stretched it and started making strange shapes. I got a star and a circle, cube and a cone. Then I decided to try something fun. I started by making it about 6 inches tall, about 3 inches across, and approximately cylindrical. Then I started chopping chunks off. Fortunately, if I chopped a chunk off that was in error, I could just add it back. This made sculpting far easier. Eventually it was perfect. Or as perfect as I was probably going to get, I wasn''t much of an artist. It was a good bit more complex than a rock, so I wasn''t surprised when it took a lot longer to make and took a good bit more essence. Still, I was happy with it.


    Ari jumped a bit as she came face to face with ¡­ herself! I had crafted a pretty good copy of her. It wasn''t perfect, but the ability to undo any mistakes and the ability to superimpose the image on her were both very helpful. I found myself a bit nervous as I wondered how she''d respond. She''d seemed pretty cheerful thus far, but I had only known her for ¡­ I realized I had no idea how long we''d been talking. Without any points of reference, I was having a hard time judging things like time. My internal clock, as it were, was very off. I decided to keep closer track using my essence regeneration.


    Ari jumped off of my core and went over and hovered by the statue I''d made. She grinned. "Not bad, although it''s certainly not perfect, it''s unusually good for a first try. Again, you seem to get the hang of dungeon abilities far faster than most cores."


    My tiny bit of knowledge in 3-d modeling had probably helped a lot here. Turns out using a 3-d printer in high school for a little while was actually a useful life skill. Assuming you got turned into a dungeon core. As Ari further examined the statue, I decided to clean up the room. It was currently littered with random pebbles and larger rocks, so I started using "absorb matter" to get rid of them. As I absorbed one of the rocks near the wall, it revealed a little cubby in the wall and something rolled out. "Hey Ari? What''s that?"


    Ari looked over at the object, and her eyes bulged. If they were any bigger, they''d have jumped out and hovered there on their own. "No way! You found ¡­ a dungeon seed!"

 Chapter 6: Brutal homecoming

    James woke up, feeling oddly damp. His first thought was Why did I fall asleep somewhere I could get wet? Then he tried to get up. His second thought was far simpler: Ow. He suddenly remembered the fight with the phoenix. He opened his menu.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    James Boksae


    HP: 5/100


    Burns (-1 HP/minute)


    STR: 8


    CON: 10


    DEX: 13


    Compass pending


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    James groaned as he felt his health tick down to 4. He knew he wasn''t going to last long. He cracked his eyes, determined to have a last view of the forest he''d loved so much. Instead, as he cracked his eye open, all he saw was a red glow. Turns out the phoenix still hadn''t died. James let out a low chuckle, despite how much it hurt. Well, I guess you got the best of me, didn''t you? As he waited for the blow that took his last few HP, he felt all of his worries slip away. He''d done his best, but a phoenix was just too much. And now, there was no point in worrying, there was nothing he could do.


    He lay there, facedown in the sand, waiting for a few seconds. Why isn''t it finishing me off? He cracked his eyes open again, this time blinking a few times to get rid of the blurriness. Where he''d thought he''d seen the phoenix, instead there was a flaming feather lying in the sand by the lake. James smiled again, despite the pain. He may not have lived to tell the tale, but not many could say they took down a phoenix with nothing but a homemade spear.


    As he felt his HP tick down to 3, he looked at the beautiful feather lying just down the shore. It flickered with all the hues of a fire, red near the center, fading to orange and yellow at the edges. As he looked closer, he could see a thin band of blue at the very center of the feather, fading to white before it darkened to the red he''d seen initially. The feather was beautiful, flickering with a gorgeous mother-of-pearl finish that accentuated the flickering flames the feather embodied.


    Wait. His father had mentioned a mother-of-pearl look that showed him his compass. Suddenly, a dim flicker of hope ignited within him. A phoenix feather was one of the rarest treasures he''d ever heard of. The bonus from a compass like that might be enough to save him. He just had to touch the feather. In his injured state, however, that seemed a monumental obstacle to overcome. Still, the flicker of hope flared within him, and he started to move his arm. As it moved the first few inches he groaned in pain. The burns had created blisters and he''d just dragged them on the sand. Tears blurred his vision once more as he slowly, painfully, inched his hand closer to the feather. It was so close, yet so far away.


    Eventually, his arm was fully extended. His fingers were an inch from the feather. He groaned as he realized he would have to move his whole upper body. Still, while he had been moving his arm the little flicker of hope had become a flame. He felt his HP tick down to 1, and his vision started to go black. He let out a snarl and lurched his body towards the feather. The pain almost made him black out, but he forced himself to remain conscious, knowing that falling asleep would be the last thing he''d do. Half an inch to go. One more lurch and he felt his finger brush something soft. He could no longer see due to the tears, but he saw a menu window pop up.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Select compass treasure?


    Accept


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    As his vision faded to black, he hit accept and felt his HP hit 0.


    <hr>


    He woke up again, still partially submerged in the water of the lake. He felt much better, though that wasn''t saying much. He still felt like he''d fallen in a fire and then a stampede had run him over, but at least he didn''t feel moments away from death. He opened his eyes. His fingers were still resting on the feather, which was no longer glowing. Still, it looked like a moment of flame frozen solid and changed to feather form.


    He looked at his menu.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    James Boksae


    HP: 15/130


    Burns (-1 HP/ 20 minutes)


    STR: 8


    CON: 13


    DEX: 13


    Compass acquired


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    His maximum HP was a lot higher than it used to be, and he was taking less damage from the burns. Part of that was probably that his body had had time to heal, but his increased constitution also would reduce the damage he took. Still, that was reduced even further than he''d hoped. He looked at the feather again and examined it.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Sapphire phoenix feather


    Abilities:


    +50% damage dealt with fire spells


    -50% mana required for fire spells


    Compass abilities:


    +3 Constitution


    Improved rate of natural healing


    Resistance to fire damage


    Additional abilities revealed as discovered.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    That explained how he was doing so much better than he''d expected. The second and third benefits weren''t very precise, which was unusual. He thought about it and decided that the bonuses probably depended on other factors. Perhaps he had better resistance to certain kinds of fire attacks than others. Also, he had a Legendary compass? He had a feeling there were going to be some really impressive other benefits he hadn''t found yet.


    Still, none of those would help him if he didn''t make it out of this forest alive. Impressive compass or not, almost any predator could take him out in his injured state. He may have increased healing capabilities, but he was still badly injured. He got up. It still was very painful, but he could clearly see the benefit of increased healing. He looked at the sun. It was already sinking below the western horizon. He''d been lying in the lake for hours.


    He started toward the village, walking on a path that he knew had an abandoned cave not far from the lake. He would stay there with his father when they wanted to come to the lake early in the morning but didn''t want to sleep close enough to scare the game away. Normally it was a 5 to 10 minute walk, but now he had to be far more careful. Fortunately, the burns were on his upper body and arms, not his legs, so he could walk. Still, it was surprisingly painful, and he soon realized how much you use your upper body to do something as simple as walking. Also, pushing through low-hanging branches wasn''t really possible right now, unless he walked backward so the branches were hitting his mostly unharmed back instead of the burns on his chest and arms.


    Still, within an hour he made it to the cave. It wasn''t large, but his father had a few containers of water that they left there. James realized he hadn''t drunk anything in hours, and his throat was extremely sore from fire flowing down it. As he slowly sipped the cool water, he felt it soothing the burns on the inside of his throat. There was no food in the cave, as that would attract predators, but just the water felt wonderful. James wasn''t sure he would be able to fall asleep with the pain from the burns, but he lay in the cool cave until eventually he slipped into a restless slumber.


    <hr>


    James woke to significantly less pain than the night before. Still, the outside burns looked much the same. He decided the improved healing was focusing on the inner damage first. Which was both good and bad. It was good because those were the most dangerous wounds, but it was unfortunate because he would still have to avoid low-hanging branches on his walk back to the village. At this point his health was only dropping one every few hours, and the increase from the healing should offset that. He took a few more sips of water and headed off. Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.


    It was a long walk to the village, he didn''t think he could make it in one day. He started walking, remembering a place he could sleep for the night. They didn''t sleep this close to the village very often, because it was only about an afternoon''s walk away, but there was one place. As James slowly walked, avoiding all low-hanging branches, he watched for anything he could eat. He hadn''t eaten in over 24 hours, and the water had made him realize how empty his stomach was.


    Soon he found a berry bush and ate some of the berries. It wasn''t much, but it would hopefully help him to have the needed energy for the walk home. He kept walking. His destination was a small grove of trees that he''d built a small shelter in with his friends when he was younger. Since it was about 2 hours from the village for a 10 year old, it was far enough that to a ten year old it seemed like the middle of nowhere, yet close enough that there wouldn''t be any predators and one of the adults (usually his father) could keep an eye on them while hidden. It would make a good place to stop for the night.


    As he walked, he kept a careful eye on his surroundings, watching for anything that might attack him. At this point he was weaponless and injured, but many predators could be scared away by acting large and dangerous, but he''d have to do so before they realized he was injured. The forest was quiet. Everything seemed to have hidden away when the phoenix came through. That was good for James, although it was a long, tense walk. Fortunately, the trees overhead kept the temperature nice, and he slowly felt better and better. He could get used to this improved healing thing.


    He arrived at his destination just as it was growing dark. He slipped into the grove of trees and crawled into the little shelter. There was a bit of jerky in one corner. He ate half, saving half for in the morning. It was pretty bland, but would help supplement the berries he''d eaten that afternoon. He was getting pretty hungry at this point, and the last bit of jerky looked really appealing. Still, he decided to leave it for the next day. Tonight the pain was far less, and James was tired enough after 2 very active days and one poor night''s sleep that he fell asleep fairly quickly.


    <hr>


    When James woke up, it was already around noon. He was happy to find he felt much better. He looked at himself, and much of the swelling was going down, although he still looked really bad. James hoped he didn''t give his mom a heart attack when he got home. Then he smiled as he realized he''d just thought "when" he got home. It started to sink in that he''d actually survived. It didn''t even dampen his spirits much when he realized some small critter had come and stolen his last piece of jerky.


    As he started walking, he smelled something that made his good mood immediately evaporate. Smoke. He groaned. Not again! He quickly looked around. Nothing. Then, through a break in the trees, he saw it. A large plume of smoke from the direction of the village. He''d never felt so happy to see smoke. As he started walking again, he wondered why the village was having a bonfire, which was the only thing that would make so much smoke. Perhaps the hunters had brought home an unusually large kill. Sometimes the village would have a feast for something like that. Or occasionally an adventurer party came through, and they had killed some large beast they wanted to throw a party with. Either way, James was just glad it wasn''t another phoenix.


    Along he trudged, until he was a bit under a half hour from the village. Suddenly he heard a deep voice call out. "Who goes there?"


    Startled, James froze. Again the voice called out. "Who goes there?"


    James tried to speak. Nothing came out. He realized he hadn''t spoken since the fight. He tried again, trying to get a sound. Instead he started coughing. Apparently his throat wasn''t yet fully healed. He tried to stop coughing, but started coughing harder, eventually coughing up a big batch of blood. His eyes teared up from both the coughing and the pain.


    As he continued coughing, a massive man came around from one of the trees, holding a massive maul. "Holy cow! Are you OK?" Apparently realizing how stupid of a question it was, he patted James on the back and called out. "Healer! We need a healer over here!"


    Pretty quickly a young woman ran up on the path, accompanied by another man carrying a sword. "Oh my!" She ran up to James and put a hand on his back. Suddenly he felt like cool water rushed over all of his burns. He gasped in relief as he realized just how much pain he''d been in. He looked at his menu.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    James Boksae


    HP: 95/130


    STR: 8


    CON: 13


    DEX: 13


    Compass: Sapphire phoenix feather


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Now able to talk again, James gasped out his first words in nearly 3 days. "Thank you! Thank you."


    The woman smiled. "It''s what I do." Her face grew more concerned. "What happened to you?"


    As James was about to answer, the first man butted in. "I have a feeling Marcus should hear the answer to this."


    James wasn''t sure who Marcus was, but the other two nodded, and the first man motioned for James to follow. They went down the trail just a little further, then split off to the side. James realized they were heading towards the main road going into the village. He didn''t know where these people were leading him, but the woman obviously had magic and the other two were also clearly adventurers. Besides, they''d helped him, so he was willing to follow them as long as they didn''t show any signs of wanting to do him harm.


    They walked through the forest for a while until, as James had expected, they emerged onto the main road. What he hadn''t expected was the huge camp set up on the road. There were dozens of tents and quite a few people walking among them. As they approached, the first man James had met called out to one of the guards. "Hey John! Go grab Marcus, would ya?"


    The guard, John, nodded and ran into the camp. The man stopped James with an outstretched arm, although James had gathered from his sending the guard to get Marcus that the man didn''t want him in the camp yet. They stood there and waited until a man came walking out of the camp towards them. "What is it, Steven? I was right in the middle of writing up my report, and I want to head back as soon as possible! You know I hate leaving the fort undermanned!"


    The man, Steven, called back. "I have someone for you to meet. This man here was walking through the forest looking like he''d just stepped out of a bonfire. Figured you might want to hear his story."


    Marcus looked at James. "Indeed I do. What brings you to these parts of the woods?"


    James wasn''t sure why they were so surprised to see him, but started to explain. "My name''s James. I live in the village just down the road, and I just finished my compass challenge. I was on my way back when I ran into Steven here."


    Marcus''s expression softened. "You''re from the village, are you?"


    James nodded. Marcus continued. "How did you get the burns?"


    Now James was a bit nervous. He didn''t want to reveal his compass. He knew it was far more valuable than he could protect, but he didn''t see any way around it. He had a feeling lying would be a bad idea. "As I said, I just finished my compass challenge. During my challenge, I killed a phoenix."


    Eyes widened all around, before everyone glanced at the woman. "It''s the truth." She said simply.


    James looked at her, confused. She noticed and smiled back. "I have an ability that lets me know when someone is lying. You''d be surprised how often an adventurer tries to tell me some big story about how they got injured when they really cut themselves while practicing with their weapons." James could see how that would be a useful ability.


    Marcus spoke again, looking sadly at James. "Well, I''m sorry to be the bearer of bad news. We are from the adventurer¡¯s fort a few days'' travel south of here. We came because there was a report of dungeon monsters roaming the area." He paused, looking at James. "I don''t know how to tell you this, but your village is gone. You are almost certainly the only survivor."


    As James'' world shook, the adventurer, Steven, put one hand on his shoulder. Questions ran through his mind. His village gone? How? Why would a dungeon attack them? Was he really the last survivor?


    Marcus spoke up before James could go into a full panic attack. "Don''t worry about where you''re going to live. We found some money in the ruins of the village, and we''ll bring you back to the fort with us. You won''t be rich, but you''ll be fairly comfortable."


    Honestly, concerns about money and where he was going to live had been a long way down the list of his concerns, well under his family and other friends from the village. He only had one small spark of hope left. "Couldn''t you have missed others who ran away, like you missed me?"


    Marcus shook his head. "No, we did a spell to watch what happened to the village. We actually saw you leave at the very beginning of the time we watched, but also saw the phoenix following you and assumed you were dead. No one else left the village since you did, so unless you know of someone who left before you did, there are no survivors."


    James'' hopes fell. The only one who regularly left the village for long periods of time was his father, and he would have been waiting for James to come back. Again, James started to think about all of those he''d known and loved in the village, unable to believe they were actually gone.


    The woman spoke up. "Marcus, he should probably rest. He looks like he''s dead on his feet, and magical healing takes a lot out of you, especially when he''s not an adventurer. Some rest will also give him time to come to grasps with this new information you''ve given him."


    Marcus nodded. "That''s true, this will all seem a bit less overwhelming after a good night''s sleep. It won''t help a lot, but it will help some." He looked at Steven. "Find the lad somewhere to sleep for the night."


    Steven thought for a second. "One of the men in my tent has guard duty tonight. I''ll make sure James here gets a bed for the night."


    Marcus nodded and headed back into the camp. Steven and the other two talked in hushed tones for a minute while James just stood there, numb. Eventually he felt someone take his arm. "Let''s go." Steven led him to a tent in the camp, and James could see some beds. Steven gestured to a bed, and James curled up on it, too tired and numb to even try to change, even as he realized he didn''t have anything to change into. His shirt was basically tatters at this point, most of  the front having been burned off by the phoenix. His pants were still mostly intact, and he slipped his hand into his pocket, where he could feel a soft feather.


    As he drifted off to sleep, he had one last thought. He didn''t know when or how, but he would make the dungeon responsible for this pay.

 Chapter 7: Growth

    "And that is ¡­ what exactly?" Ari was obviously very excited about this "dungeon seed" thing, but I had no idea what it was. Perhaps it was somewhat similar to a dungeon core?


    Ari had to visibly calm herself down as she got ready to explain. "A dungeon seed is an item produced by something called a mana tree. They went extinct long ago, but a few dungeon seeds still exist, and occasionally a dungeon finds one. Most powerful dungeons have at least a few mobs out looking for dungeon seeds, they are incredibly useful to a dungeon of any strength. Finding one this early is quite possibly the best thing that could have happened for you."


    She thought for a second. "Each dungeon seed has two ways it can help the dungeon. The first is if the dungeon absorbs it. This will generally give a benefit directly to the core''s abilities in some way. The other option is to bond with it, somewhat similar to the bond with me, except the seeds aren''t sentient beings. This way, the seed will become an object of some kind that will grow with the dungeon. Some dungeons have gotten a powerful weapon they arm their final boss with, others have gotten various magical items with different purposes, some have even gotten a body for their core. In any case, the item increases in strength with the core it''s bonded to, so you never outgrow the item. Look closely at the seed to see what the absorption benefit would be. You never know what kind of an item the seed will become until you choose to bond with it instead of absorb it."


    Ari made it sound like bonding was the better option. I looked closely at the seed. Nothing happened. Then I realized she probably meant to look at it in a different way than normal. I tried to focus my vision on the seed, something I hadn''t tried to do since getting the 360¡ã vision from being a core. Suddenly a box popped up, like when Ari tried to create the bond with me or when I pulled up my menu.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Dungeon seed!


    Absorption bonus:


    Maximum essence ¡Á5,


    All essence collected from influence ¡Á5


    Absorb


    Bond


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I wasn''t sure what a normal bonus was, but that was insane. A ¡Á5 bonus to all essence I collected from my influence sounded great! To be fair, Ari had made it sound like much of my essence gains would eventually be from adventurer deaths, but still. Especially for now that would be an incredible benefit! "It says it would increase my maximum essence and essence collected from my influence by a factor of 5."


    Ari''s eyes almost popped out of her head again. "By 5!?!" She went over and looked at the seed herself. "Congratulations on your first time examining something, that''s how you can get information about it without absorbing it. It is how adventurers gain information about things in your dungeon. As far as the seed goes, that''s an incredible benefit. Just the bonus to maximum essence is really good. The bonus to essence produced by your influence is more helpful now than later, but even then your influence isn''t an inconsequential part of your essence generation. It would take an impressive item to compete with this bonus, so it''s up to you."


    I thought of the saying "better one bird in the hand than two in the bush." As I was about to hit absorb, I had the strangest feeling. It was as if I felt a tiny voice call out to me. It was there and gone in an instant, but I knew that whatever it was didn''t want me to absorb the seed. I sat there thinking for a moment. The bonus from absorbing the seed might be exactly what I needed to help the humans. Still, there was that voice. So desperate. Pleading, begging, that I not absorb the seed. I thought for one last second, before deciding that I''d bond with the seed. Maybe it was a mistake, but my gut was telling me to bond the seed. I selected Bond, ready to see what glorious item it would become. I saw a trickle of light flow from my core toward the seed, just like when Ari created the bond with me. When it reached the seed, I saw a new box pop up.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Bond created!


    Essence: 0/2000


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I wasn''t quite sure what that meant. Perhaps it was some kind of essence storage device? That could be useful! "I bonded with it. I think it may be some kind of essence storage device."


    Ari smiled sadly and nodded. "That could be useful! Depending on what you can do with the essence stored within it this could be a very useful item. Even if it just increases your essence capacity, that''s still pretty good."


    I wasn''t sure why she seemed a bit sad, but I hoped it wasn''t because I chose to bond the seed. And for the benefit, I sure hoped it was going to be more than that, because I was less excited about the storage increase than the ¡Á5 benefit to essence generation I would''ve gotten from absorbing it. Still, I''d made my decision and there was no point looking back. I opened my dungeon menu to see if I had any essence to test putting it in the seed.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Alex Johnson


    Earth Core - G8


    Essence - 1/60


    Core generation - 3/hour (2/hour to bond)


    Dungeon generation - 3 per hour


    Dungeon actions:


    Increase influence


    Absorb matter


    Create item


    Create mob


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Turns out the seed was taking essence on its own. I wasn''t sure how I felt about that, but there wasn''t anything I could do about it now. I also tried in some way to put the 1 essence I had into the seed, but it wouldn''t go. In fact, I couldn''t seem to do anything with the seed. I was starting to regret not absorbing it. Especially since I realized I was now getting 6 essence per hour where I would''ve been getting 20. "Well, I can''t seem to do anything with the seed. And it''s taking 2 of my essence per hour. I guess it''s back to increasing my influence, right?"


    Ari nodded. "I''ve never heard of a seed becoming something useless, we''ll just have to figure out what it does. Until then, yep. Time to start hollowing out rooms. One tip. First, you can push your influence into the rock a little ways before it starts becoming more difficult and essence expensive, so always keep a buffer around the area where you''re hollowing out. This time a dungeon seed fell out of the wall where you couldn''t see, next time it might be an enemy, and you''re not ready for that yet."


    That made sense. I would want to avoid burrowing into any areas with living creatures for now, until I had some way of defending myself. I settled in for a long time of pushing essence out.


    <hr>


    It had been nearly a week since I had found the dungeon seed. In that time I''d expanded my influence quite a bit. As Ari had explained, the more influence I had, the faster I got essence. Still, I was already noticing diminishing returns on the essence I was putting out. Ari explained this was because the area near me was actually the only area I pulled essence from, but the essence in the rest of my influence would slowly flow towards my core. Thus, my core room would slowly increase in essence density, bringing me more essence per hour as my influence grew.


    Fortunately I hadn''t had any problems with boredom during this time. Turns out being a core somehow reduced my sense of time passing. I could focus just as well as before, but if I was just waiting for something to happen I''d lose track of time until either it happened or something grabbed my attention. Ari also was spending a lot of time in hibernation, which basically meant she would fall asleep on top of my core until either a set amount of time had passed or I said something to her. She''d explained that she actually didn''t need sleep, she could stay awake and alert indefinitely, so I didn''t feel bad if I had to wake her up early.


    Everything had been going well, but now I had a bit of a problem. "Hey Ari?"


    Ari opened her eyes and sat up where she''d been resting on my core. "Yeah?" She asked as she twisted back and forth to pop her back.


    "I''ve finished the first tunnel you told me to make, and there weren''t any problems, but now I''m trying to make the first room." She''d called that the boss room and had explained that my strongest mob would stay there.


    Ari smiled. "Great! You''re making good progress! What''s the problem?"


    I looked at the end of the tunnel I''d made. Turned out what I''d thought was a tunnel was only about a foot long, but I''d extended it another 100 feet or so and added some curves and spots I planned to add more rooms later. Ari had explained that these would be rooms designed to kill anyone who entered them. The adventurers trying to get loot and essence would stop after my boss room, only enemies trying to capture or kill my core would go beyond that. At this point the whole tunnel was relatively narrow, Ari had recommended I only build my first large room far enough away from my core that if there was an accident there I would be fine. The problem came as I reached the place I wanted to build this first room. "The whole tunnel was through solid stone. The area I want to be my boss room, however, is soil of some kind." If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    Ari frowned. "So what''s the problem?"


    Now I was confused. "If I start hollowing out a large pocket in the dirt, it''ll definitely collapse."


    Ari smiled. "Oh, now I get it. There are three ways to prevent your rooms from collapsing. The first is the easiest. Any matter in your influence will obey your wishes to some extent. You can''t make a rock start floating, but if you want the dirt to support the roof, it will support more than it normally would."


    That made some sense. I had some control over the area, so if I just told the roof to not collapse, it wouldn''t. But I still wasn''t sure how much dirt could hold, even if it was holding more than it normally could.


    Ari continued. "This works for most moderately large rooms, especially when it''s good dirt or clay. But for larger rooms without supporting columns or in materials like sand, you need something better. This leads us to another of your abilities. You can replace one type of material in your dungeon with another type you have the pattern for. So what most dungeons will do if they want to create a large room is they will tunnel up to where they want the roof to be. Then they work horizontally across what will be the roof, changing the top to stone. Stone will hold up almost any room you want when boosted by your influence. Then they go down around the edges of the new room, creating walls from stone in the same way. Then all that remains is to extend your influence into the space in the middle of the room and absorb the material, then change the floor to stone if you want uniformity."


    As I thought about it, that made sense. I had forgotten that I could create stone using nothing but some time and my will. And her process made sense. You''d have to build the roof first, since it was going to be holding the most weight, then the walls to hold up the roof. The floor was kind of optional, but still probably a good idea. I didn''t want to have accidental sinkholes in my dungeon.


    Ari still continued. "The final option is the strongest by far, but is also the most time and essence expensive. You can push your essence into stone to increase your control over it. Once you add this additional essence, the stone is nearly impossible to damage, it would take a C tier adventurer with a sledgehammer some time to do any noticeable damage to your essence infused rock, and you can add more essence as you grow stronger, making it even stronger."


    This gave me a whole horde of questions. "Why don''t I just encase my core in this dungeon hardened stone? In fact, come to think of it, why do I have a tunnel leading to my core at all?"


    Ari nodded. "Good question. Have you noticed that if you try to push your influence too far into the surrounding rock, it becomes far harder?"


    I sent a mental affirmative. I could go a few feet into the rock, but then it felt like the bounce house I was pressing on became twice as pressurized, and it ate up my essence far quicker to continue expanding.


    Ari continued. "That is one reason why dungeons keep a path to their core. The reason they use a path large enough for adventurers is two-fold. First, a narrow tunnel makes it slower for the essence to reach your core, decreasing the essence you get each hour. Second, the adventurers don''t trust a core that tries to block all access to itself."


    That second reason rubbed me a bit wrong. "So I have to endanger myself just because the danger tells me to?" That didn''t seem very fair.


    Ari shrugged. "Until you reach a certain level of strength, yes. And the adventurers actually don''t destroy very many cores. Most cores are actually carefully defended by the adventurers. They realize that the cores are their livelihood, but occasionally there is a core that for some reason goes insane. These dungeons are just a danger to everyone, sending mobs on rampaging killing sprees. This is actually what the adventurers are here to defend against."


    That actually made sense. I could understand how giving the wrong person the powers of a dungeon core could be really bad. "So, about the reinforced stone?"


    Ari nodded. "Well, what happens with a few feet of normal stone happens after only a thin sheet of essence reinforced stone, and it blocks the collection of essence as well. If there''s a wall of normal stone and something dies, you still get most of the essence. Not so for essence reinforced stone. You get basically nothing. Also, you lose control of any mobs past the stone. They''ll still follow the last commands you gave them, but you can''t give them any new commands."


    That seemed like some pretty bad negatives to surrounding myself in reinforced stone. Still, I didn''t completely forget about it. That was most of my questions, so I continued hollowing out my first room. Ari reassured me that the dirt would do fine with a medium sized room, so I left it dirt for now, figuring I could always change it to stone later.


    <hr>


    After I finished my first room, a cube about 15 feet to a side, Ari spoke up. "Hey Alex?"


    "Yeah?"


    Ari smiled. "I think it''s time for something fun. It''s about time you made your first mob. After all, we can''t go undefended forever!"


    I was more than willing to go along with her suggestion. I''d been dying to make my first mob for a while. Then I realized a problem. I hadn''t found any mob patterns that I knew of. I had a number of different stone types, some different dirts, even a bit of plant material I''d found. But I hadn''t found anything I thought might be a mob. "I don''t know if I have any patterns. I haven''t found anything I think might be a mob."


    Ari nodded. "That''s true, but remember what it said about free patterns? It doesn''t alert you if you get one of those. Just try it, we''ll see what happens."


    That seemed good to me. I opened my menu and took a moment to see how far I''d come.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Alex Johnson


    Earth Core - G7


    Essence - 84/120


    Core generation - 5/hour (2/hour to bond)


    Dungeon generation - 20 per hour


    Dungeon actions:


    Increase influence


    Absorb matter


    Create item


    Create mob


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    It looked pretty good. I''d hit G7 while digging the room, and like Ari had predicted, my essence from my influence had quickly outdone the essence from the core. I glanced over at the dungeon seed. Still nothing, although the number kept ticking up. I hadn''t been able to put any essence in or pull any out, so I still wasn''t sure what it was. I selected Create mob. The first box only had one option, Golem, so I selected it. That moved me into my next box.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Mob creation


    Form: Select


    Material: Select


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    It looked pretty self-explanatory. I selected form first. There were a few options available to me.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Humanoid


    Mouse


    Lizard


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    "It says I can pick a humanoid, mouse or lizard for the form."


    Ari cocked her head to the side. "Humanoid? Really? Usually a dungeon doesn''t get that until later, humanoid mobs cost a good bit more. On the other hand they can use weapons and other items you create."


    I guessed I had access to that early due to being a human. I knew a lot about how that shape worked. Still, following Ari¡¯s advice I picked a lizard. Then I went into the material list. This had a lot more options. I mentally made a couple of categories to help keep things simple. I was getting the hang of this dungeon menu.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Stones


    Soil


    Plants


    Bone


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    "So, I have a number of different stone types, a few types of dirt, some plant materials, and bone." It looked like when I absorbed something that would work as a mob material I automatically gained it.


    Ari nodded. "That''s about what I expected. Now, you''ll probably want to avoid bone, as that would probably be high in death essence, losing your 20% discount for earth based mobs. Plants are a mix of earth, water, and life essence, so it depends on the mob and plant material whether your bonus applies. Stone types are generally more expensive than soil or plants, due to being harder to damage. So for now I''d pick either a plant based material or a soil based one, and make sure you get the discount."


    I looked at some of the options in those two and eventually picked basic Topsoil. Then it moved me into a thing that reminded me of the view if I was making an item. In the middle of the room was a semi-transparent version of a lizard made of soil. For such a small mob, it cost more than I expected, even with the discount it was 90 essence. I saw that I could adjust this mob just like the item I was creating, but I couldn''t shift it nearly as much. Shrinking was possible, and even decreased the cost a bit, but making it very much bigger would reset it. I could make a few other small changes, but anything too large would cause it to reset. I finally settled on slightly larger claws and teeth and a slightly smaller size overall.


    When it formed it was really cool. A wave of smoke swirled around the point where I wanted the mob, and it condensed into a ball just slightly larger than the lizard I was creating. Then it poofed outwards, leaving only a small lizard made of topsoil behind. I examined my first mob. It was made from topsoil, with small rocks scattered through it. The claws and teeth of the lizard were small pieces of stone. I sat watching it.


    And watching it. It wasn''t doing anything. "Hey Ari? When''s it going to do something?"


    Ari cocked her head to the side. "Did you tell it to do something? Remember, it isn''t a living creature, the only thing it will do upon being created is attack intruders into your dungeon. You have to tell it if you want it to do anything different or in addition to that."


    That made sense. I tried to tell the lizard to do something. Stand up. The lizard stood. Run around the room. The lizard started sprinting in circles around the room. This was pretty fun! Then it did something that surprised me! It ran on the wall for a few seconds during one of its loops. That made me curious. Walk to the ceiling. The lizard turned and walked to the ceiling of the room. "Ari? How does it grip the wall? It''s made out of soil."


    Ari smiled. "The different mobs will have different capabilities. Remember, this isn''t just soil, it''s soil infused with essence and a life-force. So it can do things normal soil can''t do. For example, a stone bird mob could still fly, despite that not making any sense."


    I smiled. Or, well, I felt happy and imagined that if I had a body I''d be smiling. I was still getting used to being a dungeon core. After a bit more playing with my first mob I started digging a tunnel that would lead to the next room. Being a dungeon core sure was cool, but it involved a lot of digging.

 Chapter 8: Camp

    James jerked awake, in a sweat. He''d been dreaming about his family running from a phoenix while he ran to save them. But just before he arrived, there was a massive explosion and he had been jolted awake. He looked around at his unfamiliar surroundings. He hadn''t paid much attention the night before, and the tent was pretty spartan anyway. The beds, really just cots, were up against both walls of the small tent. There were six of them. Then there were two small stools and a little desk opposite the entrance. That was it.


    James sat up. He was still devastated from the news about his village, but it did seem a bit easier to handle after a good night''s rest. Plus, he now had something to aim his feelings towards. He needed to make the dungeon pay. This group of adventurers was probably his best chance. The man from the night before, Marcus, had mentioned taking James to the fort, which sounded promising.


    James thought about his current situation. What do I have available? The list wasn''t long. He currently had a tattered shirt, his pants, socks, shoes, and his compass. Out of those, his compass was definitely the most valuable, but still not super helpful right now. He also remembered Marcus mentioning they''d found some money, and implying that it would belong to James. It was probably mostly the village emergency fund, a bit of cash the chief held in case of a bad growing year to buy some additional food. Every family contributed to the fund every year, and they''d had quite a few good years in a row, so there might be a decent bit of money in there.


    James then made a list of his goals. His big goal was to repay the dungeon that wiped out his village. His shorter term goals included finding somewhere to stay, becoming an adventurer, and finding some source of income. He knew many adventurers eventually made a decent bit of money from diving in dungeons, but to start out was usually very hard. Most adventurers would be sponsored by a village or town, where the village or town paid for a lot of the costs up front and then the adventurer gave part of the loot from the dungeons to the village or town in return. Still, James¡¯s village was too small to sponsor an adventurer, it wasn''t a cheap undertaking. So he didn''t think there''d be enough money for him to become an adventurer, but he had to find a way. His final goal was to discover the other abilities of his compass, but he didn''t really know how to go about that.


    He knew the final step was to make plans. Long term, become an adventurer, level up his abilities, figure out which dungeon was responsible and destroy it the way it destroyed his village. Shorter term, he needed to get equipment and learn about how to get into the adventurer¡¯s guild. This probably involved asking some questions of the people in this camp, and learning about the different kinds of adventurer so he could discover what he wanted to do. His stomach rumbled. He realized it had been a few days since he''d had anything more substantial than berries or a bit of jerky to eat. He smiled slightly. First things first, find something to eat. He remembered one of his mother''s sayings, and could almost hear her voice in his head. "There''s no problem an empty stomach can''t make worse."


    He got off the cot and walked out the front flap. He squinted as the morning sun got in his eyes. The sun was barely over the horizon, and the air was still a bit brisk. As his eyes adjusted, he noticed a small fire off to one side. It had a few seats around it. He went and sat down by the fire as he looked around. He realized he actually hadn''t been in close proximity with many adventurers, and he watched them as they bustled around. He noticed a few things many of them had in common. There seemed to be 4 groups.


    The first group wore heavy armor and carried large weapons. They were generally large men or women with bulging muscles. They walked around like the massive armor they wore was as light as feathers, and the few he saw practicing with their weapons swung hammers and battleaxes like they were twigs.


    The second group wore far less armor and mostly carried knives. They moved a lot like James remembered his father moving when stalking a deer, but it seemed almost instinctual. They slipped from shadow to shadow, completely silent. He didn''t see many of them practicing. He eventually realized that was the point.


    The third group also wore light armor. They carried bows or other ranged weapons like that. They were nimble, but not quite as much as the second group. The ones he saw practicing were launching arrows into targets from various distances. Having used a bow a good bit himself, he watched this group closely. Eventually he noticed some of the best ones managing shots that should have been impossible. He remembered rumors he''d heard that adventurers could do things a normal person never could, no matter how much they practiced. Some people made fun of them for it, but most understood how hard most adventurers practiced. Just this morning he''d hardly seen anyone sitting and relaxing. If they weren''t doing something useful, they were practicing with their weapons.


    The one exception was the final group. This group again wore only light armor. They carried no weapons, though many carried staffs. They mostly sat and read while the other groups would practice with their weapons, and at first James thought they were just less motivated than the others. Then he saw one cast a bolt of fire into a firepit and he realized they were the magic users. Once he was looking for it, he noticed many of them murmuring with their books, and he realized they were memorizing different spells. As he watched this group he remembered the bonus his compass had for fire spells. Perhaps he could become a magic user, since he already had a powerful item related to it.


    As James sat there thinking about what he might want to do, he noticed something else the adventurers had in common. They each carried a small pouch on their person somewhere. This wasn''t too unusual, but James noticed something different about these pouches. They were clearly magical. He saw an adventurer put his massive war hammer into a bag the same size as James'' palm. He looked around and noticed adventurers putting things of all sizes into pouches far too small to hold them. They were clearly bags of holding. James had seen bags of holding before, of course. Many large merchant guilds used bags of holding to transport goods. Still, James definitely hadn''t seen this many magic items in one place before. There was a reason starting out as an adventurer was so expensive.


    He watched the adventurers for a while longer, still enraptured by the bags of holding. He saw a man guarding the front gate put a massive maul into the pouch while his replacement pulled out a Morningstar. The man just getting off guard duty walked towards the fire James was sitting at, and James was surprised when he realized he recognized the man. It was Steven, the man from the day before. As Steven saw James, he waved and turned slightly. James realized he''d actually been heading toward the tent. As Steven approached the fire, he called out. "James! I assumed you''d still be asleep! Have you been sitting there alone for long?" He looked around. "We adventurers are more social when we''re at the fort. We''re all a little on edge right now."


    Steven sat down as James shook his head. "No, I''ve only been sitting here for a little while." He looked around too. "Everyone does seem a bit tense." He realized that what he''d originally thought was high work ethic was actually them being too tense to sit still. He noticed the magic users looking up from their books, unable to focus. The people practicing with weapons never worked themselves too hard, staying ready. "Why is everyone so tense?" If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.


    Steven relaxed in his seat, although James noticed even he still wasn''t too relaxed. "A couple of reasons. First, we are looking at the results of a dungeon monster attack. Those same monsters could attack us at any point. The reason so many of us were brought was in case it was a trap, designed to draw us out of the fort. Which is the second reason. We all want to get back as soon as we can to help defend the fort, we don''t like leaving them short-handed. Finally, the dungeon monsters are becoming more and more bold. Only one other time have they destroyed a village, and there are defenses that are supposed to have kept it from ever happening again. The fact that they failed has everyone a bit on edge."


    James nodded. Then his stomach let out a growl. Steven belted out a laugh. "Now there''s a problem I know how to solve! Follow me!" He got up and started walking, James following behind. He wove a path through a few tents before they emerged at a small clearing with some tables and chairs. In the middle of the clearing was a woman stirring a large pot over a fire. When James smelled the scent wafting off the pot, his stomach growled even louder.


    The cook looked up and chucked. "Now there''s the sound every chef loves to hear! Have a seat, you two, and I''ll have something over in just a moment."


    James and Steven sat down and within a minute there was a bowl of steaming stew and a large roll in front of each of them. James dug in, famished. Before he knew it, the bowl in front of him was empty, the roll was gone, and his stomach was complaining for a new reason. He let out a massive sigh of contentment, matched by Steven. "What was that?" James'' mother was a great cook, but this was still one of the best meals he''d eaten. Some of that may have been how hungry he was, but still.


    Steven chuckled. "No idea! They make it using whatever people find in the area, along with a few spices they bring with them. It''s always delicious, but I''ve stopped asking what it''s made from."


    James was still curious, so he waited until the chef walked by. "That was delicious! What was it?"


    She smiled. "The stew is a hedgehog and some plants somebody found, the rolls are made from flour we brought with us, and filled with jelly made from pigs'' feet."


    James stared as she walked away. He''d liked the filling! Steven laughed and smacked James on the back. "Like I said, I don''t even ask. Annabella is one of the best cooks around, but she uses some strange ingredients. I once had a delicious soup. Delicious, that is, until I discovered it was slug soup. That kind of ruined it for me." James stared, incredulous. Steven laughed again. "Like I said though, it''s always delicious!"


    James just shook his head in disbelief. Still, he couldn''t argue that it wasn''t delicious.


    Steven stood up to leave, and James followed suit. Then he realized he didn''t have any way to pay for the meal. "Uh, I just realized I don''t have any money." He''d heard of people doing dishes for meals, maybe he could do that here?


    Annabella and Steven laughed. Steven reassured James. "Don''t worry, while we''re out on guild business like this the guild covers the food. You''re fine." James glanced at Annabelle to make sure. She nodded and waved him away, still chuckling.


    "How about you help me take down my tent? We''re leaving today, and I''m in charge of storing the tent." Steven started walking again.


    James followed. "Sounds good to me." He didn''t have anything better to do. He followed Steven for a few steps before Steven stopped abruptly and face-palmed. James barely stopped himself before running into him. Steven looked at James and smiled. "Or how about first, we go get you some new clothes." James was about to bring up the point about him not having any money, but Steven interrupted him. "Don''t worry about money, remember we said we found some in the remains of your village."


    James did remember Marcus mentioning that, although he didn''t know how much he had. Then he realized that no matter how little he had he would have to get some clothes, so he nodded and followed Steven to get some clothes.


    <hr>


    After getting some clothes and helping Steven pack up the tent (which was made far easier with the help of a bag of holding), James was sitting next to a fire again. The camp had been taken down surprisingly quickly, and it was almost time for them to head out again. Everyone was bustling around getting the last few things done. James didn''t have anything else to pack up, so he was sitting and waiting, when someone walked up to him. He looked up. It was Marcus, the man from the night before!


    Marcus sat down on one of the other seats. "Hello James, I have a choice for you to make, and some advice for the choice. We''re going to be leaving pretty quick, and I assume you''d like to come with us?" James nodded. "That means you have a choice. You would have just about enough time to go look at your village right now, and it''s up to you. However, my advice is to not, let the image of how it was before remain in your mind as the way it looked. Still, it''s up to you."


    James sat for a moment and thought. At first he wanted to go get one last look at his village. But then he thought about what Marcus had said. It wouldn''t really be getting a last look at his village, according to what he''d heard there was nothing left. He thought for another second. He actually wanted to look closer to the ashes of his house, he might find something that survived to keep as a last reminder. After all, the fire couldn''t have destroyed everything. "I''d like to go, perhaps I can find something in the wreckage of my home."


    Marcus smiled. "I actually thought of that. I have an ability to find things of value. Usually I use it in dungeons to find hidden treasures, but I used it in the wreckage of your old house. We got everything of value we could find in the whole village, but I kept the stuff from your house separate. That was actually the main thing we''ve been doing while here. To see that there were no survivors only took a little while. We collected the things we could from the village for the last while."


    James thought for another second. If that was true, he didn''t have any other reason to go look at the remains. "I guess then I''ll take your advice and remember it the way it used to be."


    Marcus smiled. "Good. I think it''ll be better that way." As he walked away his smile faded slightly. I wish that''s what I''d done.


    James sat there by the fire for a while longer, thinking about his home, which he was soon to leave forever. Eventually Steven walked up to him. "Hey. How you doing?"


    James looked at him. "Not too bad, all things considered."


    Steven smiled sadly. "Bad question. Anyway, we''re getting ready to leave. I''m driving one of the wagons today, but most people are walking. Do you want to ride with me, or walk?"


    James thought about it for a second. Walking sounded kind of nice, but he also wanted to get to know Steven better. And he''d had enough time alone with his thoughts during the past few hours. He smiled at Steven. "I''ll ride with you, if you don''t mind."


    Steven smiled. "I don''t mind in the slightest. This way."

 Chapter 9: Preparations

    I was working on my 4th dungeon room. As I had expanded my influence, I had gained more essence, and that had sped up my work by a good bit. Still, it had been a few weeks. Actually, it was almost time for the seed to hit completely full. I still hadn''t been able to do anything with it, and Ari and I had guessed that maybe it would do something when the essence was completely filled.


    As I was just finishing the room, I felt something strange. I felt a ¡­ pull towards one corner of the room. I felt like there was something a few hundred feet that way that I needed to reach. "Hey Ari?" She''d been playing with the mob I''d created.


    "Yeah Alex?" She hovered in the middle of the boss room.


    "I feel a weird ¡­ pull towards a direction. It happened as I was finishing my last room. Is this normal?"


    Ari clapped her hands and fluttered a bit higher. I''d noticed that how high she flew was a good indicator of how excited and happy she was. When I told her good things she fluttered a bit higher, and when I told her problems she would slowly sink down a bit. I didn''t think she was even aware of it, she just did it accidentally. Still, that meant this was a good thing. "Great! I was worried you''d finish your last room and not feel it. That is the surface pulling towards you. The surface will be about 300 feet in that direction, just about right for your entrance tunnel."


    That gave me a question. "Isn''t the surface probably going to be about 300 feet in a lot of directions then? Why does it have that one direction?"


    Ari smiled. "While you are right, the direction you feel the pull in is going to have a good place for an entrance. For example, if you''re in a swampy location, you wouldn''t want to burrow up into a nasty pool of stagnant water, would you? The direction you feel pulled in would probably have you emerging on a small area of firm ground, and tunneling through solid ground to get there. Or if it''s a mountain, you''ll come out somewhere that doesn''t create a landslide and that isn''t a random hole in a cliff that''s hard to get to."


    That made sense. As I thought about it, there were a lot of less-than-optimal locations I could come out of the ground. In a lake or river, a pile of sand, an active volcano! I decided I would definitely make my entrance in the direction I felt pulled. As I realized that I was only 300 feet from revealing my dungeon to the world, I looked at the 4 rooms I had created.


    Ari had told me that most dungeons began with 4 cubes for rooms and rectangle tubes as the tunnels connecting them, but I wanted something better. As a geology geek I had spent plenty of time in natural caves, so I decided to start like that. The first room the adventurers would see (the fourth one I''d made, the one I''d just finished) looked almost entirely like a natural cave. The one exception was that the floor was unusually even and easy to walk on. The first tunnel I''d wanted to make super narrow and natural seeming, but Ari had reminded me that I would have adventurers of all sizes that had to maneuver in my dungeon while wearing full plate mail, so I''d made the tunnel wider, but added some stalagmites and stalactites they would have to avoid. Just in case a truly massive adventurer came through, I made them hollow and from non-essence infused stone so they could be broken. But to keep all of the adventurers from doing so, I carved grooves on the inside to make them break into sharp shards that might injure someone.


    The second room I made still looked mostly natural, but the floor was perfectly even and the stalagmites had all been cleared away, though there were still stalactites. The tunnel leading out of that room into the third room I''d made into a bit of a maze. Not a hard one, but there were a few splits and circular paths and a few dead ends. This path I made look somewhat natural, but far more rectangular, and I added chisel marks to the walls, as if someone had expanded a natural tunnel. The third room was similar, looking like someone had cleared out a natural cavern and chiseled away at the walls to make it more rectangular.


    The final hallway to my boss room started sort of like the previous one, but quickly became better quality. This was one of the longer tunnels, and I made the quality improve as you went. By the end of the tunnel, the walls were polished white marble, and there were designs carved into the walls. I added alcoves where I placed statues or other things I thought would look interesting, like stacks of books made from stone. As a stone dungeon, I figured people would be distrustful of the statues, so I spent the time and essence to make the end of the hall and the statues and other decorations out of essence-reinforced stone. Hopefully if people attacked the statues it wouldn''t damage them, I''d spent way too long building those things to have them get smashed by the first nervous adventurer to pass them.


    In my boss room I went all out. The entire room was white marble like the hallway, and I carved it based on my memories of the Roman coliseum and other older buildings like those. It had arches and columns on the walls, and I''d created a chandelier on the roof using a bit of glass I''d found. As an added bonus, I''d made one of the links especially weak, so any attack that hit the chandelier would probably make it fall, hopefully hitting an adventurer. That did mean I''d have to remake it a lot, but I thought it was worth it.


    Ari had paused while I examined my dungeon. I had noticed she could kind of tell when I was thinking about something else, and she would pause until I was finished thinking. I could also kind of tell when she was thinking about something, the mind-to-mind communication seemed to convey a dim feeling of activity when she was actively thinking about something. Now that I was done, she continued. "Before you emerge into the outside world, we''ll want your dungeon to be totally ready. First thing first. Mobs. What mobs do you want in each room, except for your boss room, which we''ll figure out later."


    I thought about it. I wanted each room to test something different. I looked at the options I had available for golem shapes.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Humanoid


    Mouse


    Lizard


    Badger


    Snake


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    The only one of those I''d gotten while digging was the badger. I''d found a skeleton of an animal buried while I was digging, and apparently that was enough to get me the pattern for it. Ari had said I would need different amounts of info for different patterns, and usually simple patterns were easy to gain. "The first room is easy. I want it to be as easy as possible, so I''ll go with a mouse." I looked at the materials I had available. I had gained a few more stone types, but those didn''t suit my needs right now. I figured a plant or soil would be my best bet for this. "I''ll probably go with basic soil for these mobs, it looks fairly easy to harm and not very strong. And I''ll see if I can lower the amount of stone in the soil to make it even easier."


    Ari nodded. "Good. For your first room, the easier the better. What about the second and third rooms?"


    I looked at my second room. I decided that this room would test the brute strength of the adventurers testing my dungeon. The only mob I had that would match this was the badger. As for materials, first I tried granite, to match the walls. Unfortunately, that was a good bit more expensive than I could manage at this point. Next I decided to try something from the plant category. I wanted to use wood, but to make sure it would be nice and earth heavy I used roots. It was still a lot more expensive than the soil mobs, but it looked like what I would need. I had been planning on putting quite a few of them because they were not huge, but they took quite a bit of essence, so I decided to only put 4.


    "My second room I want to test the adventurers'' strength. I think I''m going to go with 4 of the badgers, made from root wood."


    Ari nodded. "That sounds like it should be good, but make just one first to make sure it''s what you want."


    That seemed like very good advice. I made one mob, then told it to do some stuff. Run around the room. It started running around the room. Well, sort of. It wasn''t very fast, and it wasn''t very good at turning. The lizard had been way better, but to be fair, I wasn''t going for speed with this mob. I made a large chunk of wood in the middle of the room. Attack that wood. The badger attacked the block of wood like it had been personally offended by the wood. The badger made large gouges in the block. I looked at the badger''s claws expecting approximately equal damage due to attacking the wood, but they stayed sharp. As I looked closer, they actually reminded me of the essence-reinforced stone I had created, but less reinforced. They were taking some damage from attacking the wood, but stayed pretty sharp for a while. Stop. The badger froze, mid-swing. It was good to know they would obey a command to stop so quickly.


    It looked like this was exactly what I wanted, so I made a few more. At this point I needed to wait and regain some essence, so I looked around my dungeon. Suddenly something caught my attention. "Hey Ari! I think the seed''s about to finish filling up!"


    She fluttered over to the tunnel to my core room. She''d been playing with the lizard again, but we were both excited to see what happened when it was completely full. Ari had taught me how to have my menu set an alert, and I''d had it inform me when it was about a minute before the seed would get the last bit filled. Ari flew in and sat on my core.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Bonded seed


    Essence: 1999/2000


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Ari and I both stared at the seed, waiting for that last moment. I suddenly saw a tiny dot of light move from my core towards the seed. I''d noticed that I could actually sort of see essence, especially when it was concentrated like this. It was how I could see that the badger''s claws were reinforced by essence. I watched as the little dot of light moved to the seed.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Bonded mana sprout


    Essence: 0/20000


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I stared at the seed. Nothing happened. "Uh, the name changed and there''s another bunch of essence it wants, but that''s still it." Ari had told me the item would list its benefits in that window.The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.


    Ari slumped a bit. "I don''t understand. I''ve never heard of a dungeon seed becoming something useless, let alone just stealing essence." We both sat glumly staring at the useless seed. Suddenly a small crack formed at the top. Then a small crack at the bottom. It was doing something! Slowly the cracks widened. A small brown strand of something pushed its way out the bottom crack, before burrowing into the stone below. Then another strand, which borrowed a little bit to the side of the first one. Then a thin green strand poked out of the top. I suddenly realized what was happening! "Ari! I think it''s a ¡­ plant!"


    We both stared as the little green shoot grew taller, and as more of what I now saw were roots burrowed into the ground. Soon a single circular leaf unfolded from the shoot, and the incredibly quick growth slowed to a halt. I still wasn''t sure what it did, but I was glad that at least it was something. I glanced at Ari. She was staring at the tiny sprout like it was the most beautiful thing she''d ever laid eyes on! "Hey Alex? What did the name change to?"


    I looked at the menu again. "It says it''s my ''bonded mana sprout'' and there''s another batch of 20,000 essence to fill up again." I wasn''t sure why she seemed so excited. While I was glad it was doing something, it still wasn''t giving me any benefit.


    Ari fluttered off of my core over to the small plant, tears forming in her eyes. "I don''t believe it. After all these years. It''s really happening."


    Now I was definitely confused. It hadn''t even been one year since I bonded the seed. "Ari, why is this plant so special?"


    Ari took a deep breath. "OK, to explain why this is so important is going to need a history lesson. Long, long ago, before even any known dungeons were formed, there was a plant called a mana tree. They were actually the source of the dungeon seeds. Back then, most dungeons had multiple dungeon seeds, both bonded and absorbed. This was balanced, however, by the benefits the tree''s fruits gave to the adventurers. The mana tree was one of the most beloved plants in the entire world, entire religions were devoted to keeping them alive and safe."


    This gave me a question. "But I thought you said the dungeon seeds were rare!"


    Ari nodded, still staring at the small shoot. "A long time ago, the adventurers and the dungeons went to war. No one knows who started it, but dungeons were attacking villages and adventurers were killing dungeons. When a dungeon with a bonded dungeon seed is killed, sometimes the bonded item stays as a usable item for adventurers. This is actually where most of the Unique items around now came from.


    "Still, in this war the ones who suffered the most were the mana trees. Both sides saw the mana trees as a source of strength for their enemies. Dungeons sent powerful mobs to attack groves on the surface, and adventurers destroyed all of the dungeon seeds they got their hands on. This caused problems for the trees, however, as their actual seeds are practically indistinguishable from the dungeon seeds. No one knows why a mana tree seed is called a dungeon seed when examined, but the fact remains that it does.


    Ari had settled at the bottom of the plant, sitting cross legged staring at the tiny sprig of green. She was almost as tall as it was, even sitting down. "Adventurers and dungeons alike tried to prevent the other from having access to a mana tree, and pretty soon all of the groves on the surface were destroyed. The adventurers, knowing the dungeons would eventually overcome them if they had sole access to the mana trees, made a final frontal assault, simultaneously attacking all known dungeons."


    She paused for a second, before continuing sadly. "They succeeded. As part of the attack, a group of mages created a new spell. Some called them insane, others called them monsters. Either way, their spell was designed to destroy all mana trees. Everywhere. All dungeons were destroyed, and so were the mana trees. New dungeon cores showed up, but the only remaining seeds of the mana tree were scattered far and wide. For centuries the adventurers tried to find true mana tree seeds. However, for a mana tree seed to sprout outside of a dungeon takes years, centuries, or even millennia or longer if in a low essence environment. And the adventurers still distrusted the dungeons, immediately destroying them as soon as they emerged. Still, the religions that revered the trees searched far and wide, finding single seeds and bringing them back to their strongholds, where they were placed in high essence environments in hopes of someday finding a true seed.


    "Eventually, without dungeons to fight in, the adventurers turned on one another, fighting for the powerful items dropped by the last dungeons. Throughout all of the conflicts, the religions trying to bring back the mana tree, who eventually joined together under the name ''seeds of hope'', stayed completely neutral. Eventually the powerful adventurers all died out, leaving only the ''seeds of hope'' who remembered the times before. Almost all remaining records from before the wars were kept safe by the ''seeds of hope'' during the time of turmoil. The adventurers stopped killing the dungeons, and eventually new dungeons began to dot the earth.


    "The new dungeons gave an opportunity to bring back the mana trees. Priests from the ''seeds of hope'' would bring a dungeon seed to a new dungeon, offering to give it to the dungeon to bond, hoping it would grow into a mana tree. The dungeons of course accepted, as if it became something other than a tree it was theirs to keep. Time and time again, the priests brought a seed to a dungeon. And time and time again, it became a magical item. Many of the strongest dungeons today were around in those days and have dozens of bonded artifacts."


    She stared at the tree for a few moments in silence. I was starting to see why this tree meant so much to her.


    "Still, the outcome the priests hoped for never occurred. All of the seeds they had found were bonded by dungeons, but not a single tree sprouted. Eventually there were no more seeds, and most of the members of the group decided they would instead become a group over keeping records and knowledge, to keep the past from repeating itself. They renamed themselves ''keepers of hope'' and remain as the largest institution devoted to easily accessible knowledge available to all. To this day, though, there are some who hold out hope for the return of the mana tree, who roam far and wide searching for more seeds. While their search is no longer actively encouraged by the keepers, it is still seen as an honorable quest and many adventurers spend at least a little while searching for dungeon seeds, in the hopes of someday returning the mana tree to the earth."


    I stared at the little sprout as Ari finished her story. "Wow." I said quietly. "I can see why you''re so excited about this little sprout."


    Ari smiled, the tears of joy in her eyes glistening like stars. "Yeah, and adventurers aren''t the only ones who''ve been looking for the seeds. Dungeon fairies don''t go out in the world much, but the search for a mana tree seed is the exception. We still have a few sporadic records about mana trees, and many a fairy has spent his or her whole life searching for seeds. My mother, in fact, made it her life''s quest. I was going to encourage you to bond with the seed when you found it, but when you told me how good the absorption benefit was I didn''t want to be selfish and make you gamble away such an incredible benefit." She smiled again at the tiny plant. "I''m glad you decided to bond with it, though."


    I remembered something. "Is that why you were sad when I bonded it and thought it was an essence storage device?"


    Ari nodded. "You noticed? I''d hoped I could maybe finish my Mom''s dream, but then it looked like it was just another normal item." She looked at the sprout again. "It certainly wasn''t."


    I looked at the sprout with her in silence for a moment. While I was glad I could help in bringing this tree back from extinction, it was too bad being bonded to it didn''t give me any benefit.


    After looking at the new sprout for a moment longer, Ari spoke up again. "And this is probably the best thing you could''ve bonded for your dungeon too! Way better than an essence storage device."


    "What? It doesn''t give me any benefit. How does it help my dungeon?"


    Ari smiled. "Being bonded to it doesn''t give you any benefit yet. The tree itself, on the other hand ¡­ examine it!"


    That''s true, I had only looked at the bond, because that''s where Ari had said I would see the benefits from the bond. As I tried to look closely at the sprout like I had before with the seed, I saw the now-familiar menu pop up.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Mana sprout


    Effects:


    Essence filter


    Essence growth


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    That didn''t help much. Hopefully I could see more info on the effects it had.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Essence filter:


    The item with this effect will filter and purify all essence near it. Purified essence has a number of benefits. First, a dungeon using purified essence will discover that the essence does more than it would normally, decreasing essence costs for dungeon actions. Additionally, mobs in purified essence environments tend to have more powerful evolutions. For adventurers, purified essence has a lower chance of harming people unaccustomed to high essence environments and strengthens them further than unpurified essence.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    That explanation gave me a number of questions, but I wanted to see the explanation of the other one first.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Essence growth:


    The only known instances of this effect are found in mana trees or dungeon fairies. This effect means that the tree grows purely off of essence collected from the ambient environment (or provided by the bonded core, if applicable). Thus, they can grow in solid stone or nutrient-lacking soil with no problems, do not need water or sunlight, and can even survive without air.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    That explanation made a lot more sense, and really didn''t give me any questions. In fact, it answered one I had previously, as to whether dungeon fairies needed to eat. I had never seen Ari eat anything, and now I had the answer. I still had some questions from the first explanation, though. "Ari, this says essence can harm adventurers, but also says it will help them. Which is it?"


    Ari smiled. "Both! It just depends how they encounter the increased essence density. I''ve mentioned before that the essence in a dungeon is more dense than outside the dungeon, and mentioned that one of the reasons adventurers like that is because rarer plants will grow in high density essence. Another reason is that as adventurers are in areas with higher essence density, their bodies start to become accustomed to it. This gives a number of benefits. It''s not a super quick process, but the benefits start to add up.


    "The problem comes if they go somewhere with much higher essence. For example, for a while high-tier adventurers would try to take lower-tier adventurers with them in powerful dungeons to help them quickly increase in strength, but the low-tier adventurers would just die. A body accustomed to high essence density environments is just fine in an area of low essence density, but the opposite is not true. A random person could survive walking into a F or E ranked dungeon, but anything higher than that would start to cause them problems, and anything C or higher would probably just kill them outright."


    So it seemed like purified essence enhanced the benefits and reduced the problems with increased essence density. I wasn''t sure how helpful that would be, but anything that made the adventurers fans of me was totally OK by me! "So now what?"


    Ari thought for a moment. "Really, this doesn''t change much. Just build your dungeon like normal, and be glad for the extra benefits from the tree!"


    Made sense to me, and I''d regained some essence while talking with Ari. Time to get back to work!

 Chapter 10: The fort

    James sat on the wagon next to Steven as they traveled. It had been a few days since they left the camp, the fort they were going to was a few days from his village. When James first realized this, he asked Steven how they''d gotten to his village so fast. Steven had explained that it was a combination of two things. First, they had actually gotten a warning of the monsters'' impending attack about a day before the actual attack had happened. And second, they had traveled as fast as they could on the way there, trying to get there in time to save the village. On the way back, while they were still moving fairly quickly, it wasn''t as time sensitive.


    During the past couple of days James had gotten a lot of chances to see what the adventurers did and see the differences between the groups, which he''d learned were called classes. Steven had helped explain a lot.


    The first group, with the heavy armor, Steven had called tanks. There were various classes within that classification, but they primarily focused on standing there and getting hit. James had also learned that most classes had different skills that they were able to use, which was one of the things that set them apart from normal fighters. Tanks generally had skills designed to keep the enemy focused on them or to reduce the impact of enemy attacks. Steven was working on becoming a tank, specifically a subclass of tank called a bulwark. He had explained that it specialized in heavy armour and being immovable. He had shown some of his skills to James. One made stone tendrils come out of the ground and anchor him in place. He explained that that one was for stopping a charging monster or preventing himself from being pushed away by a bigger monster. His other skill was a classic for tanks, called a taunt. He had used it on James once to show him what it did. Suddenly James had felt a powerful impulse to attack Steven, and he''d started smacking him with a rock he picked up. It wore off after just a couple of seconds, but Steven explained that it would last longer on unintelligent monsters. Their practices involved smashing at each other with massive weapons, charging and blocking charges, and just generally practicing brute force fighting. James didn''t ever want to get in a wrestling match with a tank.


    The second group Steven had called the rogues. He''d explained that they were in charge of moving unseen and hitting the most sensitive locations. Most of their skills involved slipping out of sight or boosting their strength for one, big, devastating attack. One of the rogues had demonstrated a skill for James. They were standing in the middle of the road, but when the rogue used his skill, James suddenly wanted to look anywhere but at the adventurer. He still caught glimpses of the rogue, since he was just standing in the middle of the road, not moving, but James could see how they would become practically invisible if they were actually trying to hide. Their other focus was on finding things that were hard to see. Their training was actually super hard to watch. They trained in the woods along the road, and also acted as the company''s scouts. They each had dull blades with paint on them, and tried to get marks on each other throughout the day. Every morning they got a pot of money put together, and each evening it would be split between the one with the least marks and the one who dealt the most marks. James had wanted to join, but without skills he was not even close to the level of the adventurers. James was definitely considering being a rogue, it seemed like one of the most fun classes.


    The third group was actually the one he spent the most time with, apart from Steven. Steven called them the rangers, and they trained with bows and arrows. Their skills usually made the arrows do something unusual, or made it possible to make shots that should never have been possible. They were in charge of getting food, and James realized why they often had strange things for food. The rangers were used to killing things attacking them, not tracking down and finding something that didn''t want to be found. James spent a good bit of the trip leading the rangers through the woods by the road, looking for game. If he could get them within sight of a large game animal, though, they could almost always get it in a single shot. James had had a bit of practice with the bow while hunting with his father, but this was unbelievable. He saw one ranger stop a charging boar in its tracks with a single arrow to the forehead, snapping its neck and sending it head-over-heels. The rangers had explained that they had a few skills to attack creatures that wouldn''t be harmed much by an arrow, like a skeleton or a slime. Ranger wasn''t a very popular class, since spells were more versatile than arrows, but there were still a few. James thought about being a ranger, but his compass meant spells would probably be better for him.


    Speaking of spells, the group he''d thought was the last group was actually two classes. There were the mages and the support classes. He loved watching the mages practice, it was always something different. He saw plenty of practicing pure power by launching fireballs at rocks. Another one he saw a lot was practicing control, either to make fireballs stay together as far as possible, or a really impressive one he saw was a mage holding complex shaped ribbons of water over his head as he went about doing normal stuff. Steven had told him that most of the adventurers on this trip were actually pretty new to adventuring, but that mage was a good bit more experienced. James had been surprised to learn that Steven had never actually been in a dungeon before. Turns out, most dungeons were far off of the beaten path when they emerged, and they quickly grew beyond new adventurers. Thus, the only dungeons relatively easy to get to have had too much time to grow for newer adventurers to dive in them, and the brand new ones are usually hard to get to, so most adventurers didn''t actually get to dive in a dungeon for a while after becoming an adventurer, they just trained the normal way.


    The support classes were actually part of the mage class, due to them being focused on casting spells, but the roles varied enough that people tended to differentiate. The main role of a support adventurer was as the party''s healer. They were also in charge of giving boosts to the adventurers in their party, so they usually had a good variety of helpful spells. He saw one support class adventurer cast a spell on a horse when it was struggling to pull a heavy load through a patch of mud. Suddenly the horse was moving like there was nothing attached at all, and the problem that would''ve been a few hours of work on James¡¯s farm was solved in minutes. Their other job was having random spells to hinder the attacking monsters. He saw one support adventurer summon a bunch of grasping vines to slow down some rogues chasing him when he snagged a whole leg of roasted jackalope.


    By far the most practice for the support classes, however, came from them watching the tanks practice. Injuries weren''t uncommon during their practices, and James saw a number of bad wounds healed in moments. Given his recent experience with natural healing, even with the assistance of his compass, he could see exactly how beneficial the healing capabilities were.


    Today, however, James was just riding with Steven on the wagon. James had quickly discovered that even with his increased constitution and unusually high dexterity he still could barely keep up with everyone. He''d heard that adventurers were the best of the best, and this group confirmed that. The only ones who weren''t at least James¡¯s equal in terms of travel speed were the tanks, so they took turns riding on wagons. To be fair, the tanks seemed like they never got tired, which made sense. A high constitution would let you travel for longer, where a high dexterity would let you move faster. That''s why the rogues and rangers could range through the forest and still keep up, but were exhausted at the end of the day, but the tanks had a hard time keeping up but weren''t even tired by the end.


    As they rode along, James and Steven had quickly become friends. They had talked about a lot of things, and James had asked Steven all of the questions he could think of about adventurers. Steven was extremely knowledgeable about all things adventuring and dungeons, his father had been an adventurer until he died 5 years before while fighting a group of dungeon monsters outside of their dungeon and attacking the dungeon responsible.


    Suddenly Marcus ran up beside their wagon. James wasn''t sure how strong Marcus was, but he was definitely the fastest one in the group. "Get ready, Steven. We''re almost to the fort." Then he was gone to the next wagon.


    Steven sat up where he''d been relaxing on the seat and started getting himself ready for a fight. Steven usually wore most of his armor, but some things like his helm and his shield he left in his bag of holding for convenience. Now, however, he pulled out everything and got ready.


    James, however, was confused. "Steven, wouldn''t it be safer now that we''re almost to the fort? Why are you getting ready for a fight now?"


    Steven shook his head, although it may have just been him making sure his helm was on right. "Not quite. You know that there are dungeons that send their monsters out of the dungeon? Well, the reasoning behind it, as far as the adventurers'' guild can tell, is they want to wipe out the adventurers so no one can threaten them. In response to this, and to prevent them from attacking villages like yours, the guild created 3 forts and moved all training for new adventurers to those forts. Basically, they put all of their eggs in one basket and painted a big red bullseye on it for the rogue dungeons. So far it has seemed to work, the dungeons have been focusing their attacks on the forts, knowing that losing even one fort would have a bigger impact than taking out dozens of villages."


    James thought about it. Made sense, by making such an important target they had effectively made villages like his unimportant to the dungeons. "So why are you getting ready to fight?"


    "Well, because it is such a big target, the rogue dungeons, or the dungeons that are attacking outside of themselves, attack the fort on a fairly regular basis. Marcus is worried that the dungeons may have been using the attack on your village to split our forces so they could attack the fort while we were gone."


    James nodded, then sat back in his seat. He hoped there weren''t any monsters attacking the fort, he wanted to train a bit before he faced his next dungeon monster. Even with the possibility of monsters to fight, though, James was still excited to make it to the fort. Steven had told him a bunch about it, and he was excited to see it with his own two eyes.


    They went around a corner in the trees, and there it was. No monsters, but ¡­ what a fort! James wasn''t sure fort was even the right word! Could a fort really be that ¡­ that ¡­ enormous? The fort was built in a massive cleared area, and the trees were cleared for at least a mile around the walls. The ground for the last fifteen hundred feet or so was flat ground, providing nowhere to hide. Then the wall! At first James had assumed it was a cliff! It had to be 300 feet tall! And it stretched as far as he could see, making a nearly flat line, meaning the circle made must be massive!


    Directly in front of them, James could see what appeared to be a tiny door at the bottom, but as he strained to see, he could actually see a few guards and realized that the "tiny" door was actually over 20 feet tall, but was just dwarfed by the size of the walls themselves. Then he noticed a second door, this one even larger. It was cut directly into the stone of the wall, and had to be 50 feet tall, maybe more! "What ¡­ how ¡­ but ¡­"


    Steven laughed. "That''s almost exactly what my reaction was the first time I saw the fort! You just have to let it sink in for a second."


    James stared at the fort as they kept bouncing along. "Why do they need such a massive door?" He understood the use of an insanely large wall, but a door to match didn''t seem very useful.


    Steven pulled off his helm and scratched his chin. "You know, I''ve never actually seen the big doors opened. I honestly kind of forget they''re there. The reason I was given when I first came is that some nobles have unusual pets, and some of them are quite large. Still, I don''t think those doors are opened very often, it takes a long time to close them so it''s a pretty big security problem."


    Made sense. With a hole that big the wall wouldn''t even really matter anymore. "But ¡­ how did they even make a wall that big?"


    Steven laughed. "I had the same question. From what I understand, it''s made from some super strong rock found in dungeons, and is nearly indestructible. The wall is also thick, nearly 40 feet thick. The top of the wall is like a giant highway." If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    James'' mind was having a hard time grasping the sheer magnitude of this wall. 40 feet thick? That was insane!


    "As for how they made it, it''s actually all one solid piece to make it stronger. Apparently that kind of stone is incredibly slow and difficult to work with magic, but some of the strongest Earth mages in the guild worked for weeks sealing the stones together. The wall is nearly 350 feet tall, and goes over 50 feet into the ground. To get past it is incredibly difficult, and that''s ignoring the adventurers on top actively causing you problems. Finally, there is an enchantment over the entire fort. If anyone burrows up within the fort, the people in charge will know it."


    They sat in silence for the last mile, both of them just looking at the massive wall that dominated the valley. As they got close to the wall, James could see tiny people on the top, watching them approach. Really, he knew they were normal people, but they looked pretty small at that height. As they went through the gates, there were no problems, apparently Marcus was important enough that the guards knew him.


    As they passed through the long tunnel that was the gate, James waited for his first view of the inside of the fort. It didn''t disappoint. As he looked, he realized the fort was actually an oval, not circular, making it even bigger than he''d assumed. It had to be ten miles across in the middle, and at least as long! Really, he was mostly guessing on the distances, they were just too big for him to really comprehend. As they were traveling towards the middle, he discovered one reason it was so big. All of the fields were inside the wall. As he looked, Steven started talking again. "Even if the fort were completely cut off from the outside world, we''re pretty much completely independent. Crops are grown within for most of the food eaten, and there are many wells, springs, and rain catchers for water. Additionally, because everything near the wall is just fields, if someone wanted to throw something over the wall to cause damage to the fort, like with a trebuchet or a ballista, would not only have to clear the wall, but clear it and keep going for a long ways to hit anything important. Realistically, probably not going to happen. This place was designed to be impenetrable."


    James agreed. He couldn''t imagine anyone actually making it into this place, but then he had a thought. "What about flying monsters?"


    Steven smiled. "They thought of that too. In the town are several massive mana cannons aimed upwards. If something flies in too high over the walls, it will expose itself to the cannons. The cannons are designed to do maximum damage to something flying high over the fort. From what I understand about enchanting, if you add detrimental things to an item you can get more powerful effects. The cannons only have a very narrow angle they can hit, and they have to have a clear line of sight on the target for at least a few seconds to fire. This is probably only going to happen for things extremely far away ¡­ like something flying too high to be hit by the weapons on the walls. Finally, it takes a lot of power to fire them, but there are plenty of mages in the fort to help. The benefits counteracting those big weaknesses is that once they have successfully fired at a target, the projectile itself will actually track down the target, no matter what maneuvers it tries to escape. And when it hits, it hits hard. Almost nothing would survive a single hit from those cannons."


    It really did seem like they''d planned for everything. As they traveled past field after field, James was in awe at the pure size of this undertaking. And Steven had mentioned that the adventurers'' guild had built three of these forts? James had known the adventurers'' guild had a lot of power, but this was insane. "This has to be the most strongly defended location in the world."


    Steven laughed. "Nope! Not even close! That award goes to the dwarves in their mountain strongholds. There are even some cities, like the capital, that are better defended. The reason these are so important, though, is because this is where the training of new adventurers happens. Without the steady flow of new adventurers, there would be no one to keep the rogue dungeons in check."


    James thought for a moment. "What about the king''s army? Surely if the dungeons were going to overrun the kingdom they''d step in and help."


    Steven shook his head. "They''d probably try, but it wouldn''t help. It isn''t super well known, but a strong dungeon crew could probably take on the king''s army by themselves and come out on top. The kingdom hasn''t been to war in ages, so anyone who actually wanted to fight worked towards being an adventurer. The king''s army is composed of those who couldn''t manage to become an adventurer or who just want to pretend to be a warrior. Many nobles actually enlist in the king''s army just to get a title they can use at social events."


    They sat again in companionable silence as they moved slowly closer to the town in the middle of the fort.


    <hr>


    When they made it to the town, James was in awe again. He had known that his village was small, but this was insane! His home was one of the larger houses in the village, with two stories. Some of the buildings he saw here looked like they had at least 3 or 4! And the number of people! The roads were wider than most of the roads in his village, but there were still people filling them! People made space for the wagons pretty well, so they didn''t go too much slower, but it was still crazy! Eventually the wagons stopped in front of the biggest building James had seen yet! Marcus stood in front of the group of wagons. "Thank you, everyone, for your good work over the last few days. Go to one of the guild lodges to get your pay for the trip, and have a good night''s rest tonight."


    James glanced at Steven. Steven chuckled. "What, you thought we all came for free?" He sobered up a bit. "Realistically, for this one I think many of us would have, but any guild sponsored thing like this you get paid to be a part of. The guild pays in two ways. The first is in coin, just like normal. The second is in guild credit. This can only be earned by helping the guild, and is quite useful. Most new adventurers actually spend most of their time either training or trying to earn guild credit, because you can spend guild credit to be taken into a relatively easy dungeon with a higher-tier adventurer. That''s one of the ways they earn credit. Like I told you earlier, it''s really hard for a new adventurer to get into a dungeon, so earning credits is really important."


    That made sense to James. And he didn''t have any problem with the adventurers being paid to come help his village, they had to eat somehow!


    Before James could ask Steven what he was going to do now, Marcus ran up by the side of the wagon they were still sitting on. James wasn''t sure why Marcus always seemed to be in such a hurry, but he was always running everywhere. "James, I have some stuff to deal with that''s come up since we left, but then I can talk to you about your life here. Do you think you can meet me here in five hours?"


    James nodded. He''d forgotten about the fact that he needed to get settled here, and was glad Marcus was planning on helping him. He didn''t even know if he could find somewhere to sleep in this big town. "Sure. I can do that."


    Marcus nodded, then was gone. "Not one to waste time, is he?" James asked Steven jokingly.


    Steven chuckled. "Well, he is pretty busy. And I''m sure he''s way backlogged after leaving the fort for a few days."


    James nodded. Then he remembered what he was going to ask Steven before Marcus had shown up. "So now what are you going to do?"


    Steven shrugged. "Really, I kind of just train, help out where I can to earn credit, and work towards getting into a dungeon. An adventurer''s strength only really starts to increase after they start diving through dungeons and can increase their tier, until then it''s mostly just practicing so you''re ready."


    James nodded. Steven had explained a bit about tiers as they were traveling. Tiers were sort of common knowledge, but there were a lot of misconceptions about them too. Now James had a pretty solid basic understanding of how tiers worked and the benefits to increasing your tier.


    Steven glanced at James. "Well, since you''ve got a while before you need to be back, and the guild halls are going to be swamped with everyone trying to get their pay, what''d you say I give you a bit of a tour of the town?"


    James smiled. "That''d be great! I have a feeling that if I tried to explore on my own I''d just get lost."


    Steven laughed. "Perhaps. Although once you know how, navigating in the city is simple. All streets are either North-South or East-West. The North-South streets are numbered, 1st on the far East, increasing as you go West. The East-West streets are also numbered, 1st on the far North. When someone gives directions, they will always give the North-South street first. So, for example, this big building here is on 20th and 32nd. That means we''re 20 roads in from the East, and 32 roads in from the North."


    It didn''t sound quite as simple to James as Steven had made it sound, but he figured it would become easier with practice. He also made sure to remember the location of the big building, in case he needed to ask for directions later. Steven hopped off the wagon, and James jumped down and followed him into the city.


    Everywhere James looked he saw something different that just begged for him to come look closer. While there were definitely a lot of residences, the shops were far more interesting to James. The town had the normal shops for food or clothing, but it was obviously aimed towards adventurers. He saw stores with weapons, armor, and other things he associated with adventurers. He saw a few stores that had books, and he saw one mage shuffling through a stack of books.


    As they traveled, James was actually surprised by how few stores there actually were! By far the majority of the houses were residences. He also saw a good number of places for entertainment. There were a few inns, a couple of bars, and a few places that he wasn''t quite sure what they were, but had far too many people streaming in and out to be a house. He also saw one of the guild lodges that Marcus had mentioned, and as Steven had predicted, James saw a number of people he recognized from their travels waiting by a counter.


    Then they went around a corner, and James gasped as Steven spoke. "Welcome to ¡­ market lane!"


    James stared. This street was far busier than the others they''d been walking on, with people absolutely everywhere! And all of the buildings were shops. Just with a first glance James saw at least 3 places selling weapons, a couple selling armor, a half dozen fletchers selling arrows, a couple of bookstores, and a couple of places selling more mundane items. There were also a few restaurants releasing aromas that made James salivate. Many of the shops had displays out front or behind front windows, but James could also see that most of the shops went back a ways.


    Steven swept his hand out, gesturing to the chaos. "This is road 35 from the North. Most people just call it market lane. It''s where most of the shops and places like that are situated. All the way from the East to the West, shops are the primary establishment on this street. Most of the shops are relatively small, just a front room with the family that runs the shop living in the back. Still, a few of these are fancier places where there are display rooms and waiting areas for the important guests to be pampered. Most of those are around street 15 from the East, but you can still find a couple over here."


    They started down the road, and James was surprised at how easily everyone got around. Steven, despite being far bigger and stronger than most people, didn''t push his way through the crowd, but the crowd all just kind of worked in sync to get everybody where they needed to go. It reminded James of a school of fish. There never seems to be any room, but all of the fish are still moving freely. He even saw one person riding a horse down the street. It wasn''t moving quickly, but the crowd split around the horse and they managed a decent speed. It reminded James of a river breaking on a rock or a boat moving through a lake.


    As he walked, James noticed something was missing from his village market back home. "Steven, where are the blacksmiths? I see lots of blacksmith shops but I don''t hear any working."


    Steven smiled. "The blacksmiths are usually behind their stores, and you can''t hear anything because most of them have an enchantment to prevent sounds from leaving the areas where they work. There are also enchantments on the whole street that lessen sound once it''s traveled a certain distance. This means I can talk with you just fine but the general noise level of the street is lessened significantly."


    James had noticed that the road was oddly quiet for the number of people, but he hadn''t known why. James found it crazy that they would use an enchantment for something as simple as keeping noise down, but he supposed that''s what you get when you put a bunch of powerful adventurers together to design a town! They walked in silence for a while, James just staring at all of the different things available for purchase. Steven asked about the prices on a couple of things, but didn''t end up buying anything.


    After they had walked on the market street for a little while, Steven tapped James on the shoulder and motioned down a cross street. "You''ve still got a while before you need to go meet Marcus. Follow me, I''ll show you one of the most popular places to go for a good time around here."


    Steven hadn''t led James wrong yet, so he followed him down this new road. So far the town had been like nothing he''d ever imagined, and he couldn''t wait to see what incredible thing Steven would show him next.

 Chapter 11: Build-a-mob

    The next thing to fill was my third room. I had a room testing strength, so this room I wanted to test speed and reactions. As I looked at my options, I figured any of the ones I''d gotten for free might work. Actually, I wasn¡¯t sure about the snake. As it was the only one I hadn''t made one of, I decided to use them for this room, assuming they fit my needs. I had sort of picked the lizard to be my boss, as it was the first mob I''d ever made, and Ari obviously loved playing with it.


    That left me with the decision of what material to use. I was tempted to use soil, as that had proved fairly quick, but that seemed pretty weak. I started looking through the plant options, looking at which ones had enough earth essence to give me the discount. Turns out, most of them did. "Ari, why do so many of the plant materials give me the discount?"


    Ari smiled, still watching the new sprout in my core room. It hadn''t done anything, but I wasn''t surprised she didn''t want to let it out of her sight. "They are a combination of earth, water, and life essences. The discount is pretty forgiving, anything that can reasonably be considered related to earth essence will probably give you the discount."


    That was good news. I had assumed I''d be limited to things that were almost entirely related to dirt and rocks. I was glad to know I would be able to have a bit more variety in my dungeon. I didn''t have too many different plant types, but as I looked through them, I found one that made me grin evilly. Or, well, I would''ve if I''d had a face to do so with. I tried to make my lizard grin evilly for me, but it just looked like it opened its mouth a little bit. Problem was, the plant I wanted to use I only had part of the plant. I wanted the whole thing if my idea was to work. "Hey Ari? If I have a seed for a plant, is there any way to get the other parts?"


    Ari nodded. "Yeah. Just like your essence helped this mana tree sprout quicker, you can do pretty much the same thing with a normal plant too. The difference is that the mana tree only needed essence to survive, you''ll have to make sure the seed you want to grow has nutrient-rich soil and water, but your essence can replace the sunlight and time needed for plants to grow normally. Some plants this works better than others, and just about any plant with magical uses either needs to grow naturally, or uses so much essence to speed up the growth process that it isn''t worth it, but for most basic plants it will work just fine."


    "Sweet! Thanks!" I had patterns for soil and water, so I made a pile of soil in the third room, got it nice and moist, and created a seed on top. Then I realized that the mana tree seed had taken the essence on its own. I was about to ask Ari how to feed essence to the seed, but decided to just try it. Most of being a dungeon core seemed fairly intuitive anyway. I tried to remember how it felt when the mana tree seed had pulled the essence from me. I tried to push a bit of essence to the seed I''d created, and suddenly I saw a tiny dot of light float out of my core and down the tunnel towards the room with the seed. It looked a good bit brighter than before, and I guessed that it had something to do with the mana sprout''s benefits.


    The dot of light reached the seed and sank down inside. It was just like the accelerated growth of the mana tree seed right at first. The seed quickly broke open and roots shot down into the soil. I could tell they were sucking up the water quickly, so I hurried and added more water to keep the soil damp. The plant sent feelers out over the soil, growing large leaves. The feelers buried themselves in the ground and started sending out more feelers. Soon there was a small patch of thick green leaves. There were also some large red flowers and a few were ripening into seed pods. It wasn''t a tall plant, it actually reminded me of how strawberry plants grew in my Mom''s garden back on earth. Back on my earth? I wasn''t sure why this world also just happened to be called earth, but it made me confuse myself sometimes.


    Language problems aside, I now had all of the different things from the plant. I smiled evilly again as I read part of the description I got about the plant. "The leaves excrete an oil that causes mild irritation in the skin of most creatures." I''d found poison ivy. The name it had here was apparently "flaming bloomer". I imagined it had something to do with the bright red flowers and the burning itch I remembered from the one time I got on the wrong side of a patch of poison ivy.


    I selected the leaves of the plant as the material for my snake, and hoped it would be what I wanted. It formed in the middle of the room. Move quickly around the room. I didn''t want to tell it to run around the room, but I wanted to see how fast it was. It wasn''t as quick as the lizard or mice, but for a creature with no legs I thought it was pretty good. I had it go into the patch of flaming bloomer I''d grown. It became practically invisible. I could see the essence animating the snake, but otherwise I knew I would probably lose track of it.


    I created a block of clay in the room. At first I was going to do wood like for the badger, but realized the snake was probably not as strong. Attack the clay. The snake acted differently than the badger had. Instead of rushing and attacking it in a frenzy, the snake slithered slowly towards the block. Then it coiled up and ¡­ struck! Twice, three times it struck at the clay. Stop. The snake froze. I found it interesting that the mobs copied the habits of the animals they were copies of. The badger used no subtlety at all, while the snake acted like an ambush predator. That was good, it meant the mobs wouldn''t need me to spell everything out for them. Although as I watched the snake just sitting there a few feet away from cover, waiting for instructions, I realized I would probably have to give a decent amount of instructions since they had no intelligence whatsoever. "Ari, I just made a snake mob, and it seemed to understand that it should strike from hiding but doesn''t seem to understand that once it''s done attacking it should hide again. How intelligent are my mobs?"


    Ari tilted her hand from side to side in a so-so motion. She was now sitting on my core, although she was still watching the sprout. I had a feeling she wasn''t going to leave that room for a while. "First, none of your mobs are actually ''intelligent'' per se. They don''t think, they don''t feel, and they can''t really make decisions. Still, for reasons no one knows, mobs do tend to get better at fighting as your dungeon gets stronger. Also, stronger mobs will employ more strategy than weaker ones. And if you put a mob in front of two tunnels and say ''go down a tunnel'' the mob will obviously have to pick one. Some people say that the mobs actually do have a method of learning that somehow stays with them even as they are killed and rebuilt by you, but it''s never been proven or even really had any convincing evidence. And there''s never been a single instance of a mob not obeying every command of the dungeon to the best of its ability. With that said, eventually your mobs will get the basics of fighting strategy down, but at the start it''s mostly up to you."


    That made me curious. I''d have to see what I could discover about how my mobs learned. For now, though, I looked at the block of clay. There were six small holes in the block where the snake''s fangs had penetrated. It didn''t look like this mob was going to be very dangerous. I looked closer at the block of clay as something caught my attention. There was a small drop of liquid in each hole. I looked closely at the fangs of the snake. They were hollow! I looked at the liquid in the clay. It was the same oil produced by the flaming bloomer. I wasn''t sure what effect it would have inside of you, but these snakes would at the very least make you very uncomfortable.


    Still, the room wasn''t very deadly. If I wanted essence, I needed deaths. And Ari had explained that an adventurer who didn''t die at least occasionally was considered a coward, so I needed to make sure there was a decent chance of death, not just rashes. I thought about how to make the room more dangerous. Then I had a great idea. The snakes were made out of leaves. Which meant they were extremely light. I remembered a classic trap from movies or books I had watched or read: the pit trap. As my plan for the room started to solidify, I started expanding my essence below the room''s floor. I could definitely tell a difference in how far I could expand my influence with the same amount of essence now that I had the benefits from the tree. Soon I had expanded my influence a good 50 feet below the floor. Oddly enough,in order to go so deep I had to dig tubes straight down so the essence didn''t have to push through too much rock. Although I noticed that the brighter essence could push further into the rock without it causing problems and becoming more expensive. This mana seed was already proving very valuable.


    Once my influence was sufficiently deep, I dug some pits. The first one was right in front of the entrance and was designed as a warning. It was only about four feet deep, so nobody should get badly injured by the fall, and Ari had warned me that the adventurers would always have a healer, so anything non-lethal was temporary, and not even that dangerous. I made a half dozen other holes scattered around the room, which I also expanded slightly. The other holes were deeper, culminating with one close to the exit that was over forty feet deep and had sharp stone spikes at the bottom. That one was the only one with spikes, and it would definitely be lethal. I then added thin layers of stone above the pits, thick enough to support the weight of the snakes, but not a lot more. I then sprinkled some soil everywhere and scattered flaming bloomer seeds everywhere. A bit of water and a bit of essence later and the room was carpeted with a thick layer of green, with random big red flowers.


    I made ten of the snakes, since they weren''t very dangerous. Their job wasn''t to harm the adventurers, their job was to irritate them so the adventurers would chase after them. Then the snakes would go over a pit and the adventurers would have only a split second to react when they felt the ground giving way.


    Now it was time for my final room. The boss room. I realized I didn''t even know how to make a stronger monster. Ari had said my boss would be the strongest enemy in the dungeon, but I didn''t know how to do that. "Hey Ari? How do I make a boss monster, anyway?"


    Ari was still a bit distracted by the new occupant of my core room, but still responded. "Sometimes you''ll have a powerful evolution that would work for a boss. But if not, you can force a mob to evolve by pushing extra essence into it. Basically you shove it full of far more essence than it can handle and it evolves to a more powerful mob, using up that extra essence."


    Sounded pretty simple. Also, it sounded like I needed a lot of essence when I did it, so I looked around my dungeon a bit as I waited for my essence to regenerate. There sure was a lot of waiting as a dungeon core. I looked at my dungeon menu.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Alex Johnson


    Earth Core - G5


    Essence - 147/500


    Core generation - 10/hour (3/hour to bond)


    Dungeon generation - 40 per hour


    Dungeon actions:


    Increase influence


    Absorb matter


    Create item


    Create mob


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I decided to put 300 essence into my first attempt at a boss mob. As I waited for a couple of hours for my essence to fill, I started giving ground rules for my mobs. First thing was that if my core or Ari were ever in danger, those took preference over any other goals. Second was to never attack Ari or my core. After that I started giving more detailed instructions to the badgers and snakes. The mice in the first room I told to just charge directly at any intruders who entered the room, but to otherwise act like normal mice. I preferred them scurrying around to standing there like statues. The badgers I told to charge directly at anyone intruding in the room, but also gave some secondary commands designed to help them make use of the stalactites in the room. I told them to always try to keep a stalactite between them and any ranged attackers. I wasn''t sure if they understood what I meant by ranged attackers, but hopefully it would help. Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.


    The snakes were a little more complicated. The badgers I planned on using a very simple strategy of "try to run them over", but the snakes needed to be sneakier. I told them to stay in the leaves as much as possible, and when they attacked an adventurer they were to strike once and then slither away as fast as they could. They were to try to go over a pit if they could, and keep slithering until either they were killed or they could hide again to go do another surprise attack. Hopefully they would manage something like what I was envisioning.


    After a few more hours of doing little stuff to spend the time my essence was at full 500. I had decided I didn''t ever want to be completely out of essence, just in case. I looked at my lizard. My first mob. Time to boost him and see what happened. I told it to stand in the middle of the boss room, because I wasn''t sure what would happen when it evolved. Then I tried to do the same thing as I''d done with the seeds, but instead of pushing a little bit of essence, I pushed as much as I could. A thick white stream glowed brightly as it flowed from my core, down the tunnel, and into the lizard. At first the lizard just stood there shaking. Then it fell apart. Not knowing what else to do, and not wanting a useless pile of dirt as my first boss, I kept pushing more essence into it. The dirt turned into black smoke. I kept pushing essence into the smoke until I couldn''t anymore. I looked at my menu. Completely out. The smoke thickened, then solidified into a black ball. I wasn''t sure what to think. Move around. Nothing. Float? Nothing. Do something! Not even a twitch. My first boss was a immobile black rock.


    Suddenly there was a loud *crack!* sound. I looked at the ball in hope. There was a crack on one side! As I watched, another formed. And another! The ball wasn''t the boss, it was like an egg that contained my boss! The cracks spread, and pretty soon the side of the egg broke open, revealing my new boss. I wasn''t disappointed any more! "Ari! Come look at my new boss mob!"


    That snapped her attention off of the sprout. "Your new ¡­" her expression fell. "Oh no."


    That wasn''t the reaction I expected at all. "What do you mean ''oh no''?"


    Ari shook her head as she flew off of my core and into the tunnel to the boss room. "You can push essence into a mob to make it evolve, but you''ll usually only get a good evolution once per tier. You shouldn''t have made your boss until right before you opened to the world, so you could put as much essence into the evolution as possible."


    My spirits fell. I''d assumed I could try again if I messed this one up. To hear that I probably only got one shot at this per tier was ¡­ not good. "Well, I pushed a full 500 essence into it." I said hopefully.


    Ari smiled sadly. "Hopefully it isn''t too bad." She made it to the boss room and stopped in shock. Where before the lizard had been only about a foot long, now it measured probably 10 feet or more from head to tail. Before it was made from soil with small pieces of stone mixed in, now it was made completely of a black stone. It kind of reminded me of obsidian, but without the shine. Before, the mouth of the lizard was small with sharp pointy teeth. Now, it had a large jaw like an alligator with far larger teeth. The claws, instead of being small and straight, were large and hooked like a bird of prey''s talons. And where before the tail had been just a cord of dirt, now it ended in a sharp barbed needle. It looked almost like a narrow spearhead or arrowhead.


    Ari hovered there, staring at the mob for a bit, before she realized what had happened. "The sprout! You said it would make your essence better at creating mobs! And it had the benefit of better evolutions! It''s probably a good thing you didn''t add any additional essence, this is an unusually strong looking boss for a new dungeon. Have you seen it fight yet?"


    I sent a mental shake of my head and made a large block of wood in the middle of the room. I had Ari fly to the top of the room, then got ready to see my new boss mob in action. Attack that wood!


    The mob sprinted toward the wood block. As it arrived it jumped up on its back legs for a second. It obviously couldn''t run that way for long, but it meant when it ran into the wood its front two legs were in perfect position to start gouging large slices into the wood. That wasn''t all, either. It slashed at the block with its tail and chewed on it, leaving dozens of deep gouges within a few seconds. It kept at it until I told it to stop. I was impressed.


    Ari was too. "Wow! That thing has some impressive damage output to a stationary target! Tanks are going to have some problems facing that!"


    She had explained the classes of adventurers to me before, so I understood what she meant.


    "Give it something to fight!" Ari was just as excited as I was. I was glad this boss wasn''t pathetic like it might have been. I summoned one of the mice I''d used in the first room. Fight each other. The two charged at each other. It was over pretty much instantly. Snap, crunch, no more mouse. I made a couple of the badgers from the second room, a half dozen snakes, and a dozen mice and lizards. Time to see what this boss could really do. Fight! This time the boss was serious. A cloud of darkness swept from the boss, and the other mobs froze as the boss seemed to sink into the darkness. I could still see it due to the essence infused into it, but I could tell that to normal eyes there were no signs of what was happening.


    I saw the boss mob snap its tail like a whip! Suddenly one of the badgers collapsed, and I saw the tail spike from the boss lodged in its head! The mobs all ran towards the spot the spike had come from, but the boss had already moved. It snapped its jaws shut on one of the snakes as it slithered past, cutting it into pieces. The tail, which I could see was slowly regrowing the spike, smashed into one of the mice, absolutely obliterating it. It kept going like this for a couple of minutes. The boss would pop out of the shadows, kill a mob with a single hit, then fade away before the rest could get there. It didn''t attack the badgers, as it couldn''t easily kill them in a single hit, until it regrew its tail spike. Then another badger was down. I didn''t think the other mobs were ever going to be able to stop it, but eventually the cloud of darkness disappeared. The black boss on the white marble of the boss room stood out like a sore thumb, and immediately the other mobs were after it. It still did all right, but it turned out the stone it was made from was also fragile like obsidian. A good hit from the badgers would make a large crack, and while the snakes, mice, and lizards couldn''t do much damage initially, once there were cracks they could widen them slightly. In the end the boss managed to take down another badger by using the same jumping motion and slicing it apart with its front legs, but this let the final badger get a solid hit in on its back, finishing the fight.


    I sat in awed silence for a moment. "Wow."


    Ari was clearly impressed as well. "I take back my earlier statement, and change it to ''It''s definitely a good thing you didn''t add any extra essence.'' In fact, you may have to make a new boss anyway! This is probably way too strong for a beginner dungeon, especially that dark cloud skill. You managed to find a rare unknown evolution."


    I wasn''t sure what that meant. "An unknown evolution?"


    Ari smiled. "Many evolutions are pretty common, and have standard names. A firebird can evolve into a phoenix. A salamander can evolve into a dragon. But occasionally, a dungeon discovers an evolution that''s either never happened before or is rare enough that the resulting creature isn''t well known and named. Finding these rare evolutions is really good for a dungeon. An evolution is already less expensive than it should be for how powerful it is. A previously unknown evolution adds an additional 50% discount on top of that!"


    That was incredible! I''d been worried I wouldn''t be able to create this boss mob again, since it seemed far more powerful than anything I''d been even close to creating thus far, but a 50% discount would definitely make up for that. "Ari, how has no one found this evolution before? Is it just a random chance?"


    Ari shook her head. "Mobs evolve to follow what they''ve experienced. I think I can explain a lot of the changes of this mob during this evolution. It''s been in a large room this whole time, so it grew larger to fit the large room. Mobs in tight spaces tend to shrink when evolving. It''s been in a room formed entirely from rock, plus rock is just a stronger material. The only creature it has had any interaction with was me, a flying creature, so it developed a ranged attack. Finally, it has spent its whole life in the dark, so it developed abilities that benefit from darkness."


    All of those made sense except the last one. "What do you mean it''s been in the dark? The room''s made of white marble, and is lit quite brightly." There weren''t even any shadows.


    Ari smiled. "To you and me it''s pretty well lit, because we can see using your influence. But what have you placed to actually make it brighter in here?"


    I realized there was nothing. I had even made the chandelier, but hadn''t added any light sources to it! "But then how do the mobs see at all? They could chase the boss once its dark cloud dissipated!"


    Ari smiled again. "Your influence does shed a small amount of light. But it isn''t very much. It''s pretty much black in here. Probably the only reason the other mobs could see the boss was the white marble."


    That did make a good bit of sense. It wouldn''t take much light to see the black boss against the white stone. Still, that was just one more thing I needed to do before I could open my dungeon to the world. I assumed the adventurers wouldn''t appreciate having to fight in the dark. Besides, then they wouldn''t be able to see my glorious artwork in the boss''s room. Although I would probably need to change the color scheme to match the boss a little better.


    Ari smiled. "Now there''s only one thing left to do with your new boss!"


    "Really? What?"


    Ari grinned. "Naming it! When you make a new evolution, you get to name the resulting creature. This is the name the adventurers will see when they examine the boss!"


    Really? That was interesting. Most of my mobs had been given automatic names, and frankly, they were pretty boring. "Soil lizard", "Wooden badger", "leafy serpent", and such. I decided to give my boss a much more impressive name. Hmmmm. What to call you? I thought about the display it had just given. That thing would probably be pretty terrifying to fight, especially during the skill with the dark cloud. I smiled. I had the perfect name. "Ari, how do I name it once I''ve chosen a name?"


    Ari smiled. "Go into the menu to create mobs. There should be an area in the spot where you usually chose ''golem'' called ''evolutions'' or something like that. Then there should be an ''unknown evolutions'' area. Once you''re there you should see something like ''unknown soil lizard evolution'' or something along those lines. Just focus on changing it to a new name and it''ll do it!"


    I followed her directions. It was called exactly what she''d predicted. I did not want the adventurers to see "unknown soil lizard evolution" when they faced my boss. "I want to call it ''Night Terror!'' We can just call it Night, for short."


    The name obligingly changed to "Night Terror" in my menu. This was so cool! I couldn''t wait to see the first group of adventurers face Night.


    Ari was still up at the ceiling of the room. "Now we have a problem."


    Huh? I thought everything was going pretty well! "What''s the problem?"


    Ari shook her head. "That boss is far too strong for a brand new dungeon. You need to find a different boss."


    That was a problem. I wanted Night to be the boss, and Ari had said if I tried again I would probably get a garbage evolution. Besides. I really wanted that 50% discount! "Ari, what if I have it act differently based on the strengths of the adventurers? A brand new adventurer group Night would just charge straight in, like he did against the wood block. Once the adventurers are a bit stronger he''ll fight smarter, trying to sneak around and attack the weaker members of the team, like mages and healers, first. And only if the group is unusually strong does Night use his cloud skill and his ability to sink into the darkness?" I had noticed that Night''s hiding in the darkness wasn''t purely due to the dark stone he was fashioned from, it was also a bit magical.


    Ari thought about it for a second. "The adventurers would be getting more essence than they deserved, but that''s fine for you, because you have the 50% discount. And it wouldn''t be too strong for new adventurers, while still posing a challenge for stronger ones. I like it!"


    I smiled. I had just made my first boss mob. Now I couldn''t wait to open up to the world. First, though, I had to get my dungeon completely ready. Now, how to make lights?

 Chapter 12: Fort life

    James followed Steven down the street. They went over a couple of roads, then came to a building with a stream of people coming out. Steven stopped and waited. James watched as the flow slowed to a trickle, then mostly stopped. Then people started walking in. Steven grabbed James by the hand and got in line to go in. As they walked through the front door, James saw Steven hand someone a few coins, then gesture at himself and James. The woman nodded and waved them in, smiling. "Have a good time!"


    As they walked in, James noticed the sound from the street was clearly muffled. Probably an enchantment like on market lane. He walked through another set of doors and the sound muffled again. If he strained he thought he could still sort of hear it, but only just barely. Then Steven led him through a final set of doors and the sound was completely gone. James'' eyes widened in amazement. They were in a massive room, with chairs on three sides. The chairs were all angled to face the last side, where there was a massive curtain. The chairs got higher as you went further back, so everyone had a clear view of the curtain. Most of the chairs were empty, although they were filling quickly. It looked like the chairs in the middle were the most sought after, and that''s where Steven pulled him to. Once they sat down, James had a great view ¡­ of a curtain.


    The room was pretty quiet, and James wasn''t quite sure what was going on. "Hey Steven." James whispered. "What are we doing?"


    Steven leaned over and whispered back. "Just watch. They give everyone a few minutes to find their seats before starting."


    A few minutes passed as James watched the seats fill in. The middle filled in first, and soon there were only the edge seats or those in the very back still available. Suddenly the lights in the room grew dim and the low buzz of whispered conversations silenced.


    James looked around the room. Everyone was fixated on the curtain. Suddenly it swooshed open! On what James could now see was a large stage stood a man. The room, full of what James now realized was an audience, was silent. "Long ago, in a land lost to time, was born a baby girl." So began the show.


    James stared, awed, as the actors and actresses performed a story of a young girl, her life, her joys, her sorrows, the machinations of a greedy king, the generosity and heroism of a young beggar boy, and the plans and schemes of ancient, powerful beings. James had seen shows before from traveling bards, and once even a group that did shadow stories using a large box and a hidden light, but this was incredible! There were magical battles fought on the stage, with bolts of magic flying everywhere, even occasionally looking like they were about to hit the crowd! There were hurried journeys where the stage seemed to stretch until it was miles long. Powerful monsters made James¡¯ ears ring when they spoke, but he could somehow still hear the whispered conversation that happened next like it was right beside him! James traveled with the beggar for weeks to find his friend, and when the show finally ended and the curtain closed James joined the rest of the audience in a standing ovation!


    As they walked out to make room for the next group, James didn''t even know what to say! "How ¡­ what ¡­ I''ve never seen anything like that!"


    Steven laughed. "See why I didn''t want to spoil anything? This is by far one of the most popular places in the city to spend a couple of hours of free time."


    That reminded James. He''d had an appointment! "Oh shoot! I''ve definitely missed my meeting with Marcus."


    Steven laughed again. "Don''t worry. You''ve still got a half hour or so before it''s time. That whole thing was only a couple of hours."


    James stared. "No way. Just the journey across the muttering seas took at least ¡­" James tried to remember how long they''d watched the ship sailing on the sea. In fact, the whole show was starting to get a bit foggy, like a dream after you woke up.


    Steven chuckled. "It''s a bit disorienting the first time. The whole show is put on by a couple of high powered mages who retired a while back. They got together and tried to decide what to do next. They''d been friends for ages, and realized that they had abilities that could do basically whatever they wanted. In the end, they thought of this show. It''s a combination of spells, a few enchantments on the theater itself, and a lot of hard work on the part of the retired adventurers who do it. They put on a new show about once a week. They''ve been doing it for a long time now, so sometimes they pull out shows they''ve done before if they aren''t quite ready with the new one they''re practicing. One useful thing of being a strong adventurer like they are is that you have nearly a perfect memory, so they can get a show that they haven''t done in decades ready to go in a few hours. And since it has been decades since they did it, most people have never seen it and the few that have seen it have probably been to so many in the meantime that they don''t remember it very well."


    James still couldn''t quite believe it. He just knew it had been at least a few years since he went in there, but at the same time he could see the sun and knew that it had only been a couple of hours. "What enchantments and spells are they using?!? That is insane!"


    Steven smiled. "Like I said, they''re pretty powerful. The biggest enchantments are one that makes you more susceptible to believe things you see or are told, and the other is the one that messes with your sense of time. The first one is why you probably didn''t think about the fact that you hadn''t eaten anything in ''years'' or that there couldn''t actually be a stormy ocean in a single building in the fort."


    James realized those things hadn''t even crossed his mind! Steven continued. "As for the spells and such, those change every show. And they don''t tell much, they''ve gotta keep some secrets to keep the show mysterious you know!"


    James knew he''d definitely be back when they changed shows. That made him remember the coins Steven had handed to the woman out front. "I know high tier adventurers can charge crazy amounts for things they help with, how much is it to watch a show?" Steven hadn''t handed over much, but James knew that getting a high tier adventurer''s help was super expensive, so it made sense that to get in the show probably wasn''t cheap.


    Steven smiled. "Remember, this is their retirement. They''re doing this because they enjoy it. They charge a little bit so people don''t come too much, they want everyone to have a chance to see the show, and they request you go to a single show at most twice. Then, one night a week they charge super high prices. This is when all of the rich and snobby people show up who don''t want to mingle with us normal folk. But other than that night, it''s super doable."


    James was even more impressed by the people who did the show. He walked with Steven back towards the big building he was meeting Marcus at. As they walked, they talked about the show. James found himself wishing he could see it again, and could see why the people running it had to request people go no more than twice. They took streets other than market lane so they could move quicker. Eventually they passed the guild lodge, and Steven bid James farewell since the line was mostly gone to get the pay for the trip to James'' village. "Just go straight down this street and you get there. And remember, if you need to ask for directions it''s on 20th and 32nd."


    James nodded and waved goodbye to Steven. Then he thought of something. "Hey Steven! What are you doing tomorrow?"


    Steven turned around where he''d been about to go in the door. "Nothing, I planned the whole week for the expedition, just in case. Why?"


    James didn''t want to impose on Steven, but he felt they''d become pretty good friends and didn''t know if he''d be able to get back in contact with Steven if they separated now. "Do you want to show me more of the town tomorrow?"This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.


    Steven smiled. "Sure! I''ll be at the big building two hours after sun up."


    James smiled too. "Sounds great! See you then!" He was glad he would have someone who knew their way around in this new crazy world he was going to be living in. He made his way to the big building without any problems, but when he arrived he didn''t see Marcus anywhere. He was a few minutes early, so he just sat on the steps and watched the people of the fort moving about their days.


    As he watched, it really wasn''t that different from his village, just bigger and more crowded. The individual people seemed about the same. James sat on the stairs for a while before he started to wonder where Marcus was. It was a number of minutes past when he''d said to meet him, and James wasn''t sure what to do if Marcus never showed up. He waited a bit longer, then decided he had to ask for help. He saw a woman walking up to the stairs he was sitting on.


    "Hey, could you help me for a second?"


    The woman stopped and smiled at James. "I sure can. What do you need help with?"


    James looked around. "I was supposed to meet someone named Marcus here about a half hour ago, but he never showed up. He recently led an expedition to a village just north of here, do you know how I could find him?"


    The woman smiled slightly. "I would assume he''s in his office."


    James blinked. "He has an office here?"


    The woman chuckled. "He needs somewhere to run the fort from! A place this size isn''t going to run itself, you know! Follow me, I''ll lead you to his office."


    James had to quickly reevaluate Marcus''s position in the fort. James had assumed he was a fairly high level person, perfect to delegate an important thing like leading the expedition to James¡¯s village to. Turns out, he was actually the person running the place. The woman led him into the big building and up a few flights of stairs. James still wasn''t used to buildings having more than one or two stories, and this one had five! The woman led James up to the top floor and stopped at an unimpressive door. She knocked. "Marcus? Someone here to see you." She glanced at James. "Sorry, forgot to get your name."


    James smiled. "I''m James, nice to meet you."


    The woman smiled. "I''m Susan, nice to meet you as well." She walked away as the door opened and Marcus looked out. "Let me guess, you were sitting on the front steps waiting for me."


    At James¡¯s nod, Marcus shook his head. "I need to give people better directions to my office. Well, come on in."


    He opened the door wide and walked over to a desk. It was covered in papers, books, and strange objects. He sat down in a small chair behind the desk, motioning for James to sit in the identical chair on the other side of the desk. Once James had sat down, Marcus continued. "I''m sure you''re wondering why I have such a tiny office if I run the fort." James nodded and Marcus smiled. "The truth of it is, this isn''t my office. I have a big office down on the first floor I use for meeting all of the important people and for holding meetings. However, I discovered soon after starting here that people came in far too often for me to get anything done. So I found an unused room on the third floor and started going there when I needed to actually get some work done and didn''t want disturbed. It worked for a while, but eventually people caught on and started checking that room if I wasn''t in my office." Marcus smiled slightly. "So I moved to an unused room on the second floor. Then once too many people found that one I moved to the fourth floor. Then back to the third floor. And so on and so forth. I figure that if someone wants to talk to me badly enough to check all of the rooms in this building, they''ve earned some of my time. And I tell a few people where I''ve moved my room to, like my secretary and Susan, so if there''s ever something that actually needs my attention I can be found relatively easily."


    James smiled. That made a lot of sense. Even the chief in his village had occasionally hidden himself away to get something done, and he was only in charge of a small village!


    Marcus leaned back in his chair. "Now, we need to figure out what you''re going to do here. You have a bit of money we found in the ruins of the market and the chief''s house, but you can''t live forever on that. You need some way to earn some money. I gave you a bit of time so you could explore and look around a bit, do you know what you want to do here?"


    James thought awkwardly about the entire time he''d spent walking down market lane and at the show. Still, fortunately he already knew what he wanted to do. "I want to become an adventurer."


    Marcus grimaced. "I was worried you would say that. While you have a bit of a nest egg, it isn''t nearly enough to become an adventurer. The life of an adventurer isn''t a cheap one, especially starting out. You unfortunately aren''t even close to the amount you''d need."


    James¡¯s spirits fell. "Can''t you think of any way I could become an adventurer?"


    Marcus shook his head. "Unfortunately, not really. If you could get a town or city to sponsor you you could become an adventurer just like normal. The fort itself sponsors 5 new adventurers every year, but those are some of the hardest spots to get into. Unfortunately, with your lack of prior training, unless you somehow acquire a large sum of money I don''t see any way of your becoming an adventurer."


    James'' sinking spirits hit the floor. So much for all of his plans. "Well, in that case, the things I''m best suited for are hunting or farming. I can do either."


    Marcus smiled. "I hoped you would say that. I know it''s disappointing not to be able to do what you want to, but hopefully you can still build yourself a good life here. I would recommend farming, as most animals are frightened far away from the fort due to the frequent clashes with dungeon monsters. And since I assumed that was what you would choose, I took the liberty of looking into some of your options. I found a small farm, about the right size for a single farmer to work it, relatively close to the town. There''s a small animal pen as well, with some animals to start you off. There''s also some crops growing that will soon be ready to harvest, so you''ll have some income quickly. You had enough to purchase the farm with a bit left over to purchase things you need and to live on while you get the first crop in. And I''ll send over the bag of holding with the items from the ruins of your village. We''ll call it a loan, just pull out the things that you need, anything you don''t want just leave in there when you return it and the guild will either keep it or get rid of it."


    James knew how much a farm like that would cost, and there was no way he should have that much. "How could I afford that?"


    Marcus smiled. "The previous owner was getting older and wanted to move to a different city to be closer to family. He was willing to sell the farm for cheap, as he doesn''t need much any more."


    James still wasn''t sure how Marcus had found such a good deal, but he knew not to look a gift horse in the mouth. "That sounds excellent. Thank you for setting it all up for me."


    Marcus smiled. "It''s the least I could do, I wish I could do more. I''ll get everything finalized, you can go sit downstairs and I''ll have someone lead you to your new home."


    James headed down the stairs and out to the stairs again. It had quickly grown dark. With such tall walls, dusk didn''t last long. Pretty soon a young boy, probably 14 or 15, ran up to him. "Are you James?"


    When James nodded the boy smiled. "Marcus told me to lead you to Old man Douglas''s farm." James stood and followed the boy out of town. They hitched a ride on a wagon traveling in the right direction, and soon they had exited the main town. Sooner than James had expected, the boy hopped off, gesturing to James to do the same. He led James down a short path, then gestured to a gate. "That''s the gate to Old man Douglas''s farm. See you!"


    Before James could say anything, the boy was headed back to the road. "Thank you!" James called out, not sure if the boy would hear him. He assumed this was the farm Marcus had been talking about, "Old man Douglas" matched the description Marcus had given. He walked in. It was fairly dark, but there was a full moon, so he could see fairly well. He could see a large field off to the left, and to the right, he saw a pen. Inside he could see a few cows, a few pigs, and a sheep. He saw a small haystack near the pen, within its own fence to keep the animals out even if they got out of their pen. He saw a small chicken coop, and when he glanced in he saw a dozen chickens. He walked into the small house next to the coop. It was small, but seemed cozy. It didn''t feel like it had been unoccupied for long, it still had that "lived-in" feel to it. He felt the hearth. It was still warm, probably from cooking either lunch or dinner.


    James felt an even increased level of appreciation for Marcus. There was no way the funds collected from his village could have paid for this, and Marcus had clearly pulled some strings to get it for James. Marcus may not have been able to help James become an adventurer, but as James looked around at the start of his new life, he knew that Marcus had gone above and beyond in his assistance. Realistically, he had everything he could hope for. He had somewhere to live, a way to make a living, and a friend to help him orient himself in this new life. James stood in his new house and smiled. His family was gone, and there was nothing he could do about that. But his future was looking brighter than it had since he''d left to find his compass. James decided that for now, he''d just be satisfied with that.

 Chapter 13: Loot

    Making light was harder than I''d assumed. I knew people had used fire to create light for thousands of years, but I couldn''t figure out how. Part of the problem was that I couldn''t make an initial fire, but another part was moving it to the areas I wanted lit. After all, I didn''t want to just have a bonfire in the middle of each room, but I also knew that torches don''t actually work like they do in the movies. To keep a stick burning when it''s apart from any other fuel or heat source? Not easy.


    Ok.


    They had taken a bow and twisted the string around a straight stick. Then they''d sandwiched the stick between two blocks of wood and started moving the bow back and forth. As the bow had moved, it made the stick spin. The friction from that spinning then made the top and bottom places where the stick met the wood blocks extremely hot. It had taken him quite a few tries, but he''d eventually gotten it hot enough that some small shredded tree bark had started smoking and a few embers had formed. At that point it was just a matter of supplying oxygen and fuel at the right rates.


    Now I had to copy them. I had the disadvantage of not having a body, although I had the advantage of being a dungeon core with all of the unique abilities which that conferred. I looked at my mobs. None of them had opposable thumbs. I figured the best option would be Night, since he was the biggest. I looked at my boss room. I hadn''t yet remade Night, although I''d regained most of the essence needed to create him while thinking about making fire. I realized I''d been thinking "him" and "he" when thinking about Night instead of "it". I thought for a second, then gave a mental shrug. Not like it mattered much either way, and I was pretty sure my mobs didn''t have genders. I summoned a new copy of Night. Then I looked at the leftover mobs. There was a badger and an assortment of snakes and mice. "Ari, how do I get rid of these extra mobs now that I don''t need them any more?" She had flown back to my core room once the display of my new boss was over, and now she was looking at the sprout again.


    Ari shrugged. "Kill them somehow. Have them fight each other or make a new boss to get rid of them. They weren''t all that expensive."


    I felt a bit bad for just killing them. Still, they weren''t really alive. If you don''t want to die, walk out of the room. All of them started walking out! At first I thought they had actually made the choice to live before I realized how I''d worded my command. Ari had said mobs didn''t feel anything or want anything at all, and I''d said to leave if they didn''t want to die. Stop. They all froze. Walk again if you want to live. None of them moved. They really were just very lifelike robots. I told them to fight the new boss, and within a few seconds there was only one mob left in the room. I''d noticed that once the mobs died their remains soon faded away, which helped my dungeon stay nice and clean. Forming the curved stick of wood and the straight stick and two blocks was easy. I even made a stand so the top block would stay on the stick, since Night didn''t have an extra hand to hold it on like the person I saw do this before had done. Now the problem was string and kindling. For kindling I realized I could just make slivers of wood appear right where I needed them while the fire was growing.


    Then I realized I would also need to supply the new fire with oxygen. Before I would do that by blowing. But now ¡­ I wonder if ¡­ I used "absorb matter" and tried to absorb the air. There wasn''t really a light show like when I absorbed something solid, but I gained the patterns for a number of different gasses. One of them was oxygen.


    Now I just needed a string. I looked at my options. I noticed the feelers from the flaming bloomer plant. That was pretty string-like, but pretty weak. I thought about how I could strengthen it. At first I was going to braid 3 of them together like they did to make a rope, but then I thought of something! I could infuse essence into rock to make it stronger, why not into this? I created a feeler hooked on the two ends of the curved stick and twisted around the straight one. I infused the long, string-like feeler with essence. The essence seemed almost to resist, like it didn''t want to go in. I pushed a bit harder, and some essence flowed into my string. I told Night to grab the "bow" I''d created softly in his mouth and to move it slowly back and forth. It held! Infusing the string with essence had definitely strengthened it.


    I had Night slowly start moving faster. And faster. And faster! Soon he was whipping his head from side to side. I could see the bottom of the stick grinding at the block. First I could tell it was getting hot. Then it drilled a little ways down into the block of wood and suddenly the heat was being trapped. It built up quickly, and soon the wood started to smoke. I had Night continue for a few more seconds before I absorbed the stick and created a bunch of tiny wood shavings in the hole it had drilled. I watched as they started to smolder. I added some oxygen. An ember! With the super fine kindling and an unlimited supply of pure oxygen, the ember quickly grew into a flame. Soon I had a roaring fire going in the boss room. "Ari! I did it! I made a fire!"


    Ari cocked her head. "What?"


    "Come to Night''s room. I''ll show you!"


    I quickly made a copy of my apparatus as she flew down the tunnel. Once she arrived, I excitedly explained how it worked.


    As she understood what it was for, she burst out laughing. "All of that, just to make a fire?"


    I was confused. I thought I''d done pretty well! "Well, yeah!"


    Ari chuckled a little more. "I have to admit, I don''t know of any other non-fire dungeon that''s figured out how to produce fire using just those abilities. But Alex, you can literally control essence, which is basically pure energy."


    I didn''t see what she meant. "So?"


    Ari smiled. "So fire is basically pure energy as well! If you send some essence to create a fire, it will do so!"


    If I''d been able to, I''d have been staring at Ari in shock, and if I''d had a mouth it probably would''ve been hanging open. I sent a bit of essence to the second apparatus I''d made, instructing it to burn it. The dot of essence arrived ¡­ and the whole thing lit on fire.


    Probably sensing how disappointed I was, Ari tried to console me. "Still, creating pure fire with essence is a lot more expensive than creating materials, so if you can make this work it''ll save you a good bit of essence in the long run."


    I was a bit happier to find that my messing around was actually useful, so I set myself to figuring out how to make a lamp. Turns out it was pretty easy. I had glass, so I just made a glass lamp shape directly on the wall. It was basically a ball with a tube in the top and bottom connecting it to the wall. Then I made a tunnel where the bottom of the lamp went into the wall. I made a long tunnel because Ari had explained that many of my dungeon abilities would have problems when adventurers were near. I then started a stream of oxygen and wood dust flowing out of the tunnel into the lamp. I made a matching tunnel at the top of the lamp, and started absorbing air from that area at the same speed as I made it at the bottom. Soon I had a swift stream of air and wood dust blowing through the lamp. I then added just a bit of fire. With pure oxygen and lots of fine fuel, it again lit easily. I had to adjust the speed of the airflow a few times, but eventually I got it.


    Ari stared. She''d been watching the whole time I''d made it. "Wow! I didn''t think you would get something that fast! This will definitely be more essence efficient than the classic torches, and frankly, I think adventurers will like the break from the norm."


    I thought about it for a second. "Actually, I''ll probably still use torches for the initial rooms. These lamps wouldn''t fit the themes very well. And the boss room has the chandelier, which I don''t really want to try to make work like these lamps, that just sounds like a pain. So it''ll probably just be the hall leading to the boss room that''ll have these."


    Ari shrugged. "Not a big deal. As I said, most dungeons just use torches, so it''s not like you''ll be spending more than normal. And a small flame like a torch can last for quite a while on a single unit of essence."


    All good things. Now I could get some light in my dungeon. "What should I do now, Ari?"


    Ari started listing things off on her fingers. "Mobs, check. Boss, check. Lights, check. Next thing''s probably assigning loot to the mobs. Remember how I told you that you can add extra essence to a mob to be turned into loot for the adventurers when it dies? Assigning loot drops to mobs makes it far easier on you than having to remember what mobs drop what loot. And then the added essence is just included in the cost of the mob when you create it. What loot options do you have available?"


    I wasn''t even sure how to check. "Uhhh, how do I see that?"


    "If you examine one of your mobs you''ll see its menu, and there''ll be an option to assign loot."


    I examined one of the snakes.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Leafy serpent (flaming bloomer)(G3)


    HP: 30/30


    STR: 2


    CON: 3


    DEX: 10


    Assign loot


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Lots of good information there. Ari had explained the stats to me before. STR was strength, and indicated how strong a mob or adventurer was. CON was constitution, and indicated how much HP or life a mob had, as well as how hard it was to damage. DEX was dexterity, which was related to speed and agility. Those were the most common stats to see in a mob, according to Ari. She''d also told me that the average for a human was ten in all three, so my snake was about even with a human in terms of dexterity, but far weaker and lots easier to kill. Which all made sense. I selected Assign loot.Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    There was a pretty big list. But once I sorted out all of the Bland loot there weren''t many left. I didn''t have a ton of options.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Loot options:


    Bland loot


    Resurrection token


    Iron ingot


    Silver ingot


    Low quality uncut diamond


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I knew I needed to assign the resurrection tokens to the mice in the first room, but then my options for the following rooms were not great. "OK, so I have an iron ingot, a silver ingot, and a, quote ''low quality uncut diamond'' as my three options." It helped that I only needed to absorb a tiny amount of something to gain the pattern, there had only been one tiny vein of silver, but now I could make whole bars of the stuff.


    Ari''s eyes widened. "A diamond!?! What rarity is it?"


    I hadn''t yet figured out how to speak the rarities like Ari could. "It''s uncommon."


    Ari thought for a moment. "I bet if you were to make one, use absorb matter to clear away the stone connected to it, and make it nicely cut, it might even become Rare!"


    I wasn''t sure why she was so excited. "Ari, how uncommon is it for a dungeon to have an uncommon or rare item?"


    She smiled. "Eventually? I don''t think there''s a dungeon that doesn''t get some rarer items. Before ever emerging into the world? Now that''s unusual. You probably won''t be able to drop even the Uncommon version of the diamond for a while, as the humans could clean it up to get a Rare item."


    I still wasn''t super solid on the different rarities. "Ari, how likely is a new adventurer to have an uncommon item? And why is the diamond so much rarer than the others?" I knew a lot about diamonds due to my project on Earth, so I knew that small imperfect ones like this really weren''t all that rare, at least on my home planet.


    Ari nodded. "Good questions. For a new adventurer to have an Uncommon item is pretty unusual. Probably one in a hundred will have something, and about one in two or three of those will be something that''s actually useful to them in your dungeon. As for a Rare item, you''d probably only see noble children with those, and they''ll probably make it through your dungeon no problem." She smiled evilly. "Unless you have Night give them a bit of a harder fight." She went back to just explaining. "As the adventurers increase in tier, the rarer items become more common. High tier adventurers hardly even blink at Uncommon loot, and most eventually wind up with at least a couple of Super Rare items at their disposal. Even they, though, usually don''t have any Epic items unless they are unusually powerful or lucky. Legendary items are usually held by a large city, and Unique items are treasures held by nations."


    That was a very helpful explanation. And I could see how dropping this diamond too soon would fall into the category of "excessively rare loot" we''d talked about before.


    Ari continued. "As for why the diamond is rarer, look at its info."


    I examined the diamond''s information available to me. Just like the mana tree, it had an effect! And just like the mana tree, the name wasn''t very helpful. Poor essence well. Hmmm. I tried to get more info on that effect. What followed was a highly technical explanation that kind of flew over my head. Fortunately the last line was "So basically, it pulls essence towards it, increasing the essence density near it."


    "So, it says it''ll increase nearby essence density, just like you said I would. That sounds useful, but is it really good enough to make it that much rarer?"


    Ari smiled. "Nope! That''s useful, but not really all that impressive. There are simple enchantments people put on necklaces to do the same thing, hoping to gain the benefits of exposure to increased essence density. The biggest benefit to a diamond I didn''t think you''d be able to see yet, as you haven''t encountered any enchantments. Most enchantments either have a certain amount of energy stored in them by the enchanter, giving a limited number of uses or a limited lifespan of the object, or the user has to supply the energy, meaning they have less mana left for other things. However, if you anchor the enchantment in a diamond, it will slowly recharge the enchantment itself. Thus, a sword with a flame enchantment might be usable a total of 50 times, or require the user to supply the needed mana. If it has a diamond as part of the enchantment, however, it could ignite anywhere from once to dozens of times per day with no input from the user, depending on the quality and size of the diamond."


    That sounded very useful. I didn''t know much about enchantments, but if they could give you a flaming sword, I could see why people would like these diamonds so much more. So now it was time to assign loot to my mobs. Frankly, my usable loot was pretty pathetic. "Ari, how do I get some loot that''s actually useful? I''m guessing silver is somewhat valuable, but I''d have to give out quite a bit of silver I''m guessing, and I want more variety than that in my loot drops."


    Ari smiled. "First, to get more loot options you can either get a pattern by absorbing it, usually on the body of an adventurer you kill, or you can make it. But as for your statement, you''ll actually probably start with just iron ingots."


    That didn''t make much sense. "What? Why? Those must be practically worthless! People can just mine their own!" I knew that iron wasn''t very expensive back on Earth, and it seemed about as common in the stone I was absorbing here as I knew it was on Earth. Maybe slightly more common, in fact.


    Ari smiled. "Actually, no. After all, the bars you drop will be pure iron. No impurities, no imperfections, no problems whatsoever. While there are a few blacksmiths and metalworkers willing to work with mined metals, most just accept the higher cost and work with dungeon loot. The items they create are better in almost every way because they can better control the composition of the final alloys and the metal is exactly the same every time. Also, dungeon loot is used to create coins, because then there can be an exact weight accepted as the value of one iron coin, or one silver coin."


    Hmm. I knew high purity metals always cost more, so it made sense that the loot I dropped was worth more than the mined metals. Still, I didn''t think iron would be that valuable, but I figured Ari would know better than I did. I still didn''t want to have the loot the same every time though. "Ari, what options can I make so the loot isn''t the same every time?"


    Ari smiled. "The simplest is assigning probabilities to different loot drops. For example, you could give a 90% chance of iron and 10% chance of silver. I wouldn''t give any chance of the diamond, that''s just tempting fate."


    Seemed like a good option to me. I looked at the various rooms. The first room was easy. I set a 100% drop rate for the resurrection token. When I did so, it asked me to set a resurrection point. I selected the area just before the mice room. For the second room I had 4 badgers. "Hey Ari, what would be a good amount of loot for a single run? I want to make sure I''m not being too stingy or too generous."


    Ari nodded. "Both would be bad. A normal run if they don''t get the boss would probably get them ten to fifteen iron ingots. A silver ingot is worth approximately 10 times as much as an iron. If they take down the boss, they should probably get another 5 or so on top of that. These are averages, you could go a bit above or below and be just fine."


    I was surprised they were so low! I knew an adventuring crew usually had five people, so that meant they were each only getting two or three iron ingots! "They can really live on two or three iron ingots for the whole time until they get to dive again?" Ari had also explained that most adventurers had to wait a while between dives, anywhere from a day for unpopular or hard to reach dungeons to months or years for the most popular ones.


    Ari laughed. "No, being an adventurer isn''t very profitable at first. In fact, the biggest reward you''ll be giving the new adventurers diving in you is the essence towards increasing their tier. The loot you drop is relatively small, but it sets the stage for more valuable loot later."


    That made some sense, most things actually weren''t very profitable right when you start. Still, that meant I could be a bit more generous than Ari''s basemark. For the badgers I put a 80% chance of iron and a 20% chance of silver. Most groups would probably get a silver and three iron, about equal with all four iron. There was a small chance some group would get all four silver, but I supposed if they had that much good luck they''d earned it. That meant this room was averaging an equivalent of about 11.2 iron ingots.


    Next up were the snakes. There were ten of them. I decided I wanted about the same loot from this room as the previous one. That meant a bit more than an iron ingot per snake. So I gave them a 10% chance of a silver ingot and a 20% chance of an iron ingot. The other 70% of the time they''d get nothing. This meant there wouldn''t be too many ingots, usually about 3 in the room, but they''d average the same amount of loot as the previous room. I then had a fun idea. Partway down the side of the deepest pit trap I added a tiny ledge, and on that ledge I placed a silver bar. It was about five feet from the top of the hole, so someone would have to be dangling into the hole by their feet to get the bar. Ari had explained that adventurers are unusually strong and flexible, so I didn''t think it was too much, and if it was I could always move it later.


    For Night, I wanted something different than the iron and silver bars. I looked at him. The black stone he was formed from looked pretty cool. I looked at the hook on the end of his tail, and I started to get a few ideas. I made a block of the same stone he was formed from. I started absorbing chunks. Slowly the shape I wanted formed. Soon there was a tiny duplicate lizard, about six inches long, sitting in front of me. Then I made another block. I removed some more chunks, again slowly forming the shape I wanted. Having a model right next to it made this so much easier. Pretty soon I had the basic shape I wanted. I added some wood around the handle, and viola! A knife shaped like Night''s tail tip. "Hey Ari. How much would these be worth?" They were both common rarity, so I hoped they would fit my needs somehow.


    I made a copy of each in the core room so she could see them. She looked at them both. "Hmm. Well, the statue depends a lot on whether the adventurers like them. Occasionally adventurers have some loot item that it becomes a competition to get, then they''re considered more valuable. For the knife, it''s pretty sharp, but also looks pretty fragile, just like Night. My guess is hitting stuff with it would quickly ruin it, but if you could avoid hard items it would make a very good knife. I''d guess it''s about equal to three or four iron ingots."


    Good, that meant I could definitely have both of those drop from Night. I wanted to average about ten to fifteen iron ingots'' value from Night on average. I also decided to put the statue as a 5% drop chance but in addition to whatever loot got dropped. I didn''t want someone to get something useless for beating Night, so until I knew the statues were sought after I''d leave them an extra. I put the knife as a 75% chance of being dropped, a silver ingot as a 50% chance of being dropped, and a chance of between one and five iron ingots, each level having equal chances. This put it at about 11 iron ingots on average, plus the statue. I realized that putting the chances as separate like that meant that some groups might get only a single iron ingot, and some might get everything, but I figured that was up to fate.


    I now had all of my mobs with their assigned loot. "Ari, loot''s all assigned." I told her what I''d assigned to each mob. "Now what should I do?"


    Ari nodded. "Good job with the loot. It''s a bit generous, but that isn''t a bad thing, within moderation. As for what to do now?" She smiled. "It''s time to reveal yourself to the world."

 Chapter 14: A day in the town

    James woke up for the first time in his new house. He stretched, then got out of bed. He glanced out the front door, and looked at the eastern wall. Still dark. James guessed he still had an hour or so until sunrise, though it was kind of hard to tell with the wall. He stepped back into the house. He''d looked around the night before, and the shelves were still stocked with food. Old man Dougas had been prepared, there was quite a bit of food that wouldn''t spoil for a while. James quickly made a small fire and hung a pot of water over it. He''d just make a simple bowl of porridge for breakfast.


    As the water was heating up, James walked out to take care of the animals. There was an extremely convenient well right by the animal pen, so filling the water trough was pretty easy. He threw a few pitchforks of hay over the fence and dumped a bit of grain into the feeding trough. Then he threw a bit of grain to the chickens as well, though they were already pecking around in the dirt. He wasn''t sure how much they would find, and he wanted to make sure he didn''t lose any animals right at the start of his stay here. He''d gotten far more than he should have for the money he had, and he didn''t want to waste any of it.


    After the animals were taken care of, he went inside to eat his porridge. After a quick meal and a few minutes cleaning dishes, he was ready to leave. He double checked the animals and realized that two of the cows were milk cows and needed to be milked. He sat down with a stool he''d seen next to the house and a bucket. It took a few minutes for him to get the cows used to him, but they were obviously used to being milked around that time, so it went fairly easily. He poured some of the milk into a bottle and put it in the icebox he''d found, leaving enough to have a nice drink as he watched the sunrise. He was kind of disappointed. The wall didn''t make for a very pretty sunrise, it blocked most of the view. Oh well, not a bad trade for such a good defense against the dungeons. He smiled. At least he knew this farm wouldn''t have any dungeon monster problems.


    After a few more minutes of relaxing on the house''s porch he got up and left towards the town. He didn''t want to be late to meet Steven. He took a nice relaxed jog towards the city in the cool morning air. The additional hours of shade provided by the wall meant that the fort was slightly cooler than was normal around this time of year. James'' jog was pretty quick, due to his dexterity score, and he had definitely noticed a difference in his stamina since getting his compass. Pretty soon he was in front of the big building again. Because he was still about an hour early, James started jogging down some streets, just to see what he would see.


    He wasn''t really surprised by what he saw. Most people were just getting up, it was only an hour after dawn. Those who were awake were doing their morning routines. A few shops were open for breakfast, and James could see a few that were obviously popular. He''d honestly expected more strange looks, but apparently people running through town was fairly common, so most people didn''t give him so much as a second glance. He ran past a number of people doing some kind of stretching exercises in a small park, and he was tempted to stop and join for a little while, but it was getting close to the time he planned to meet Steven. He was still interested though, so he took a note of the streets the park was on. Then he jogged back to the big building and did some stretches to cool down next to the steps.


    Soon he felt someone next to him, copying him. "Well well! You getting ready to run on your tour of the city?"


    James looked over. As expected, it was Steven. James chuckled. "No, I just finished a nice jog and was cooling down a bit."


    Steven smiled. "Well, there''s a lot I could show you, so we may have to run anyway!"


    James laughed. "Bring it on! I''ll outrun you any day!" With James¡¯s higher-than-average dexterity, he was a good bit faster than Steven, although Steven would probably win in anything long-distance, his stamina was insane.


    Steven grabbed his chest like he''d been stabbed in the heart. "Oh! The pain! The sheer embarrassment!" They both laughed. Once they were done laughing Steven continued. "But really, I do have a good list of things I might want to show you. We''ll have to see how many of them we get through."


    James smiled. "I''m excited to get to know my new home!"


    They started off down the street. Steven pointed out a few places to eat, but James had the feeling they weren''t the reason they were heading this way, Steven had just seen them and was pointing them out. Eventually they got to the place Steven had been walking to. Again Steven handed a few coins to the person at the entrance.


    "I can pay for myself, too." James said. "I don''t want to impose on your hospitality." James was well aware that he''d been the one to suggest this.


    Steven chuckled. "Don''t worry about it. We aren''t going anywhere expensive today, and while I''m not rich, my Dad was fairly successful as an adventurer, so I''m also not worried about spotting you at a few cheap entertainment places. Don''t worry about it."


    James still felt a bit awkward, but knew better than to keep pushing. "Well, thanks then! What is this place?"


    Steven smiled. "This is the town menagerie. They have all sorts of animals here. Some of the rarer ones cost additional fees to see, but for just the inexpensive gate fee you can see quite a few impressive animals."


    They wandered the streets of the menagerie for a few hours. It was bigger than James had expected. As Steven had explained, there were a few areas curtained off with additional fees to enter, but James was perfectly happy outside. There were all sorts of animals, from common animals like deer and bunnies, to more unusual ones like a few monkeys and a sand lion. James watched the monkeys for a while, they were the most active of the creatures he saw. He also saw a number of creatures he''d never heard of. There was a strange plant that would actually snap shut on pieces of food people placed on its leaves. He saw a small lizard made entirely out of stone. There was a small butterfly that changed colors every time it flapped its wings.


    James read the descriptions on the cages, and some of the more boring looking animals became far more impressive. There was a small toad that could teleport short distances through water. When James saw it, it was asleep, but James hoped it would be awake when he came again. There was a small rodent that had long fur. When attached, the fur was soft, but when picked or cut, it quickly hardened. The plaque said it was a favorite of thieves, due to the hair''s usefulness at picking locks.


    James saw a large snake that it said was extremely venomous, but that it produced an oil to coat its scales that was a very effective ointment for most rashes. There was an animal that looked exactly like a chicken. James almost skipped it, but was glad he hadn''t when he read the plaque. Turns out it was actually a carnivorous creature that would infiltrate flocks of chickens before eating them. Its eggs, the sign said, were considered a delicacy, and could actually cure a number of blood borne diseases.


    There was another case that seemed to hold nothing at all. James had taken to looking in the case first to see what he could see about the creature before reading the description, but this container just held a thin layer of sand and a pair of identical small rocks. He looked at the sign, and his eyes widened. "This case only holds one rock, on the right side of the tank. It also holds a carnivorous shape-shifting creature that subsists mostly on small insects and other creatures that crawl on it while it appears to be something else. Mostly harmless to anything larger than itself. Can be held for fee."


    James looked closer at the two rocks. They were completely identical in every way he could see. He noticed a small beetle, which had probably been placed in the case as food for the shape-shifter. The beetle crawled onto the rock, and as James watched the rock seemed to collapse like quicksand under the beetle, quickly engulfing the little insect.


    James also read the descriptions of the creatures you had to pay to see. Most of them were either extremely rare or powerful captured dungeon monsters. There were some impressive descriptions, and there was even a phoenix. James shuddered and didn''t read any further on that one. He knew enough about phoenixes to last a lifetime.


    By the time James and Steven were out of the menagerie, it was early afternoon. "You were right. That was way impressive."


    Steven smiled. "That one I don''t go to as often as the shows we went to yesterday, as there isn''t too much turnover at the menagerie. Still, they occasionally get some new creatures, and it''s always fun to see them. And there''s usually something new you see each time. Today was the first time I''ve seen the shape-shifter eat something."


    James nodded. "Yeah, that was way cool. I''ll definitely be back sometime. I want to see the frog teleport."


    Steven nodded. "Yeah. That''s a cool one. It doesn''t do it much outside of feeding time, and they switch feeding times every day so you never know when it will happen. I''m sure it''s a bit of a pain for them, but it keeps people coming back!"


    James nodded. It worked on him, after all! "So now where are we going next?"


    Steven smiled and started walking. "Next, I''m hungry. I skipped breakfast, and it''s past time for lunch. I''ll show you one of the best places to grab a good, cheap meal when you''re in a hurry."


    James followed Steven down a few streets. Soon they came to a small shop bustling with people. James looked in the back, and saw at least a half dozen people all making food. He looked around, but didn''t see anywhere to sit and wait. Steven walked up to a counter and ordered some food, then came back and stood next to James. "They call this place ''To Go'' because, well, you get your food and go! The food they serve is all easily eaten while walking, and has minimal trash at the end. The whole thing is designed for people who are in a hurry, and it''s pretty cheap as well."


    In just a few minutes, Steven was called up, handed two large meat skewers wrapped in bread, and they headed off. As James and Steven both enjoyed their meal, they started walking again. As Steven had explained, the food was pretty easy to eat while walking, and quite delicious. James pulled the bread and meat off of the skewer as he ate until he noticed Steven just biting through the skewer as well. He looked closely at the skewer. It didn''t look entirely like wood. He took a tentative bite. It was good! It actually had a bit of spice to it that James thought would go well with the meat and bread! He quickly finished his whole meal, being left with no garbage to try and get rid of. And the bread had left his hands clean, so he didn''t even need a napkin. "That''s a brilliant idea." James said. "I''m sure they''re popular with people who don''t have time to sit down and eat a meal."


    Steven nodded, smiling. "Yeah. There are a number of those throughout the town, and all of them are super popular. They are owned by a retired adventurer who discovered he didn''t enjoy adventuring, but he loved to cook. Most of the recipes were designed by him, then he just taught the workers how to make them quickly and safely. Those skewers are a specialty, the adventurer makes all of them himself, no one''s ever figured out what they''re made of."


    James was definitely discovering some great places here in the town. "Where are we heading now?" He asked.


    Steven smiled. "We''re heading to the academy. The academy is where all of the new adventurers train, but it''s a little known fact that entrance isn''t restricted to adventurers. There are a number of different things to do there even if you aren''t an adventurer."


    James followed Steven down a few more streets. He was getting more familiar with the address system as he walked down the streets and saw the signs on corners. They made it to somewhere around the center of the town, and as they walked around a corner, James¡¯ mouth hit the floor.


    The entrance to the academy was huge! Not nearly as big as the wall, but there was a secondary wall around the academy. It was only about fifteen feet tall, but the entire thing was decorated with carvings of adventurers fighting monsters. It was so detailed, James almost expected them to come to life and keep fighting! They had come towards the academy from a corner, so James could see down both walls. It was massive! It stretched probably a thousand feet in each direction!


    Steven chucked at James¡¯s reaction. "Yep! Welcome to the academy. It''s the biggest thing in the entire town, spans 8 blocks. They went all out with the carvings on the walls, though if something were to actually get in here past the outer wall, this thing wouldn''t really do much."


    He started walking down one of the roads by the wall, James assumed towards the entrance. As they walked, James admired the artwork on the walls. While adventurers fighting monsters comprised most of the art, there were also people crafting different things, a few with people tending gardens or plants, and some that James couldn''t quite figure out what they were. Pretty soon they reached the entrance. After the wall, the entrance was a bit underwhelming, it was just a simple wooden gate.


    Steven gestured to the gate. "May not look like much, but that''s because they decided it wasn''t worth the effort of carving it. This is actually a gate they pulled out of a high ranked dungeon and built the wall around. It''s practically indestructible, totally fireproof, harder than most stone, yet still relatively lightweight. At first they were planning on adding carvings, but it was so hard to carve that they decided to leave it as it was."


    That definitely improved James'' opinion of the door. They walked through and James looked around at the large buildings. Steven started giving James the tour. The first building they skipped. "That''s just the building with classrooms and administrative offices. Not much to see in there." They moved to the next building, which was the largest James could see. It filled the space of over three city blocks!


    As they walked in, James¡¯s first impression was of noise. He was pretty sure there was an enchantment on this building as well to keep the noise from reaching outside. The people who''d designed the town had obviously liked those, and James had to agree that they were very nice. Inside the building there was constant noise. Weapons smashing, people shouting, explosions, and cries of pain all crashed into James like a wave, so much so that he took a step backwards. Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.


    "THIS BUILDING IS THE TRAINING HALL!" Steven shouted. "THIS FIRST ROOM''S THE LOUDEST!"


    They walked around the edge of the room. James could see dozens of fights happening. Some were one-on-one duels between two people of the same class. Others were fights between groups of five adventurers, clearly groups intending on being a dungeon crew. There were a number of people watching, and whenever there was a blow that was going to be deadly, they stopped it and declared a winner. We walked through a door and the noise dropped significantly. It wasn''t as sudden as the outer door, but it still was far quieter.


    "Sorry, I forgot how loud that room is. When you''re actually fighting it just kind of blends into the background. Anywho, that is the main training room for tanks, although there are some weights elsewhere for strength training. This room here''s for training archery skills and practicing control with getting spells further."


    James looked over. The room was long and narrow. There were a number of narrow tunnels, and before them stood people holding either bows or spell books. As James looked at the far end of the tunnels, he saw targets. He noticed one person who finished firing all of her arrows hit a button on the wall beside her. The target at the end of her tunnel came shooting down the tunnel, stopping a few feet down from where she was standing. This made collecting the arrows take only a few seconds, then she sent the target shooting back out to range with a few more button presses. James could see how this could drastically increase efficiency of practicing, especially at some of the distances he saw these people shooting at. Although, he supposed, if you missed the target you would still have to go get the arrows, but James didn''t see that happen in the few minutes he was standing there.


    They soon moved on to the next room. This one was almost pitch black. There were people walking around with lamps and dogs. At first James wasn''t sure what was going on until he noticed someone jump quietly over a wall to avoid a man with a lamp. He noticed a small river flowing through the middle, and whenever he saw the dogs get on someone''s trail they either went over a wall or moved to the river. Eventually, though, people made mistakes and got caught. Whenever the people with the lamps saw them they would call out and the person who''d been seen would walk out of the area and sit on the side. As James watched, the pursuit got harder and harder to evade. First, more searchers were added. Then they brightened their lamps, giving bigger danger zones. People started getting taken out like crazy. Soon the number getting caught slacked off again and the difficulty began increasing again. They released a few birds, clearly trained to fly above people. James realized why there were a few tunnels that most people hadn''t been using up until now. They weren''t helpful against the people and dogs, but were one of the only ways to get rid of the birds. Again, people started getting caught very quickly, until the last few people were clearly using skills to avoid the pursuit.


    Still, the birds were proving too much, and people were still getting out. A bird''s eye view like James had just made it too easy to find the people, as long as they weren''t currently using a skill, and James could tell that they were running out of time that they could use said skills. Steven leaned over and whispered to him. James hadn''t noticed how quiet this room was. "At this point it kind of becomes a challenge of who has more mana and who is more efficient in its usage."


    James watched as more and more people eventually ran out of mana and got caught. Soon the lights switched on and James could see that the last person had just been caught. Everyone was patting that person on the back, congratulating him. Steven spoke again. "This room is for practicing hiding. Mostly the rogues use this room, but it''s open for anyone." He looked at James. "Wanna try? They''ll start the next round in probably five minutes. The only catch is it''s considered impolite to leave before the round you participated in finishes, people usually congratulate the winner. But it looked like you enjoyed watching, so I don''t think that''ll be a problem."


    James thought about it for just a second. "Why not! Never hurts to try!" They went over to the group getting ready to go in, and James congratulated the previous victor. "Nice job! You were practically invisible that whole time!" James didn''t even remember seeing the man the whole time he''d been watching until he''d been caught.


    The man smiled. "Thanks! I used a lot of skills, I probably won''t do nearly as well this time, I''m basically out of mana. But that''s another good skill to train, hiding without using mana. You two going to join this next round?" He glanced at Steven''s large, obviously non-rogue build. Steven chuckled. "James here is going to try. He''s new to the town, and I''m showing him some of the sights. I figure I''ll get removed pretty quickly, but if I''m going to watch the whole thing, I might as well participate at first."


    The victor smiled and patted James on the back. "Well, welcome to the town! I hope you do well. One tip, the tunnels aren''t super useful at first, but they can act as a platform to help you get over the walls if you aren''t able to just jump."


    James had noticed that while watching from above, so he smiled and thanked the man for the tip.


    "No problem. One more, if you''re in a tunnel and it hasn''t had any searchers come through in a while, you should probably get out. They don''t leave any path unchecked for long."


    James had also noticed this from above. "Thanks. Anything else?"


    The man smiled. "Have fun. If you aren''t an adventurer you won''t have skills, so you effectively have no chance of winning. That means you can just focus on doing your best and having some fun!"


    James smiled. "Sounds like a great idea. Thanks ¡­?"


    The man chuckled. "Forgot to introduce myself. The name''s Fredrick. Pleased to meet you."


    James smiled back. "And you as well." Suddenly the door in front of them opened and there was a quiet rush for the opening. James went through as well, and so started the game.


    Some people split off to the left or right, but a lot continued forward. James thought about what he''d seen from above. There were some paths near the middle that were only accessible by hopping over a wall, and that''s where James wanted to go. He imagined there would be less people in such a hard to reach location. Fortunately he was pretty good at remembering paths, so he soon arrived at his destination. He looked at the wall. The wall that had seemed so short from above was probably 12 or 15 feet high. Suddenly he wasn''t so sure he could make it over. He knew there should be a tunnel somewhere near there, so he looked off to either side. A tunnel! As he started towards it, he heard an announcement. "Pursuit has begun."


    Immediately he heard people getting caught. He reached the tunnel and took a running leap. He got his hands on the tunnel wall, but then his lower than average strength kicked in. He dropped to the ground. He tried again, running and jumping as high as he could. This time he got his arms over the edge up to the elbows, and he felt a little ridge he could grab ahold of. He heaved himself onto the tunnel ceiling. Suddenly he saw some light coming around one of the corners. He jumped up, grabbing the wall. The wall was far easier to grip than the tunnel ceiling, and James hauled himself over. Just in time, too. Just as his head was going over the wall he saw a lantern come around the corner. He dropped on the far side of the wall.


    He knew staying in one place too long was dangerous, so he kept moving. He tried to stay in places with multiple paths, and if he saw a light down any one path he moved down another. If he couldn''t find a place with three options, he tried to find somewhere he could get onto a tunnel to give him a third option of going over the wall. Still, jumping over was risky. While watching up above he''d seen a number of people jump over the wall to avoid a follower, just to be caught by someone on the other side. A few times he passed another participant, they would usually both jump, then as they realized they were safe they would wave and head off in different directions.


    Pretty soon there was another announcement. "The pursuit now has dogs." James'' first instinct was to head to the river. But then he realized all of the other participants had heard that announcement as well, along with the pursuit. He decided to avoid the river, knowing that as a pursuer he would guess people would head to the river after that announcement. James had seen that jumping over a wall was almost as good as using the river, as long as you didn''t get too many dogs on your tail. Eventually you had to move through the river to throw off the pursuit, but James had seen people last quite a while without going near the river at all, simply by staying ahead of the dogs chasing them.


    A few minutes later, James was waiting at the intersection of three tunnels. He was watching carefully, at the first sign of pursuit he''d head down one of the remaining paths. Suddenly he felt a hand on his shoulder. "You''re out." James looked at the guy who had grabbed him. He didn''t have a lantern, but was dressed in the white clothes of a pursuer. James nodded and started walking towards the exit. He hadn''t known the pursuit might not have a lantern, but to be fair he hadn''t seen the man approach anyway. As he exited, he saw Steven, along with a bunch of other people. A few of them gave him surprised looks. As he sat down next to Steven, Steven whispered to him. "Nice job! You lasted a long time for not having any skills. You''d make a good rogue!"


    James smiled. Lots of practice stalking animals in the woods had taught him how to move quietly, and his higher dexterity meant he could move quickly. Still, he hadn''t lasted all that long, but he was satisfied with how he''d done. They watched as the pursuit got harder. As he''d predicted, Frederick didn''t last nearly as long this time, but he smiled and waved to James as he exited. Pretty soon the last person was caught, and Frederick walked up to James. "So, how long did you last?"


    James had no idea. "Uh, I don''t know."


    Frederick smiled. "Who caught you?"


    James realized that all of the pursuers were out talking to the people who had participated. He looked around until he found the one who''d caught him. He pointed. "It was that guy."


    Frederick looked over. "Oh, Samuel. He gets a lot of people with his lack of a lantern." He gestured to James to follow and walked over to Samuel. "Hey Sam! James here says you''re the one who got him out. How long did he last?"


    Samuel looked at James. "Ah, yes. I got you a bit over twenty minutes in. My recommendation for you would be to always have at least a low level detection skill going. It''s worth the slight expenditure of mana, even though you will have a bit less at the end."


    James scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "I, uh, don''t have any skills."


    Samuel''s eyes widened. "Not an adventurer, eh? In that case, you did quite well. Most non-adventurers get snagged within the first fifteen minutes or so. Quite well done."


    James smiled. He was glad he''d done well, although he was still a bit bummed he couldn''t become an adventurer. Still, he figured he''d be back again sometime, that was quite fun. Stressful, but fun!


    James joined a few more rounds. Steven excused himself, explaining that his build was ¡­ "suboptimal" for this training.


    After James had done a few more rounds, Steven led him out of the building. It was getting on toward evening, and Steven said he had one last place he wanted to show James for the day. They walked towards a large building with lots of windows.


    As they walked in, James gasped again. The whole building was filled with books! James had never seen so many books in his life!


    Steven chuckled. "You seemed like the type who would like a good book. Did you have many books in your village?"


    James shook his head, still slightly stunned by the sheer number of books. "We had six. I''ve read them each multiple times. Two were about history, one was a book of short stories, two more were the stories of someone''s life, and the last one was a made up story called ''Dillard''s adventurers in the Southern Isles.'' That one was my favorite, although I didn''t really like how it ended. It was such an intense moment, and I felt like it never shared how his travels ended."


    Steven smiled and walked over to a lady at a desk. He talked quietly with her for a second, before gesturing to James to follow. They both followed the lady as she led them to the second floor and to a shelf of books, before heading back downstairs. Steven looked at the shelf for a moment before pulling down a book. "Was this the book?"


    The title was the same, although the cover looked different than what James remembered. He opened it gingerly and read a few sentences. "Yep. This is the same book." It was the same story he''d read so many times back in his village.


    Steven smiled and pulled down another book. "Well, here''s book two in the series. It continues the story from that first book."


    James stared at it. There were stories that took more than one book? No wonder the story had felt unfinished! James suddenly had a burning desire to know what happened next to Dillard, his childhood hero. Still, he knew books were expensive, there was a reason his village only had six. But he had to know. "How much does the book cost?" He didn''t have a lot of money, but maybe he''d have enough leftover for the one book.


    Steven chuckled. "This place is called the library. The books are free to borrow for a short time, you only have to pay if you damage them or don''t return them on time."


    James¡¯s eyes widened. "But then, why are there so many bookstores? If someone can just come here to get the book for free?"


    Steven smiled. "First, you can only borrow the books here for so long at once, and can usually only have one out at a time. Second, many of the stores are actually selling magic books, which can teach you how to cast a spell. Finally, the library only has so many copies of each book. If you want a book that someone else is currently borrowing, you can get put on a waiting list, and when they return it they''ll save it for you for a few days. Problem is, if a book is super popular, the waiting list can grow very long, so sometimes people would rather just buy a copy instead of waiting."


    James understood, but fortunately it appeared Dillard wasn''t too popular. "So, how do I borrow this book?" He was definitely going to enjoy reading what happened next. He remembered being so frustrated that the book ended right after Dillard discovered that the king of the Southern Isles was actually a vampire. Especially since he still hadn''t found Jane or Hal.


    Steven nodded. "It''s pretty easy. First you have to make an account here so they know who has what books. That normally takes a little while, but with me to vouch for you it will be pretty quick.  I''m a frequent patron here." He smiled slightly. "I may look like just a hunk of muscle, but I enjoy a good book once in a while."


    James laughed. He''d talked enough with Steven to know he was more than just muscle, he was quite intelligent and a quick thinker. As they started heading back downstairs, Steven continued. "Then you have to prove you have enough money to pay for the book if you were to ruin it. They want to provide books to everyone, but they also don''t want people to create an account just to get a book to sell to get some quick cash. With your new farm, you''ll be just fine, and I''ll vouch for you as well. This should be pretty quick." James had already told Steven everything that had happened as far as the farm went.


    James was glad Steven was being such a good friend, and like he''d said, getting the book took only a few minutes. The lady told James to make sure he brought the book back in good condition within 3 weeks or he''d start to get fines, but James was sure he''d finish reading it far sooner than three weeks. He thanked her and they walked out. It was now getting late, and James knew he needed to get back to the farm to take care of the animals for the evening. "Well, today''s been great, but I need to get going. If we want to do this again, how can I get ahold of you?"


    Steven smiled. "I''m usually here at the training building, either practicing or doing weights. If I''m not here, you could leave a message for me at the front desk. If I''m not here and you really need me, you could check my house. I live on 15th and 9th, in house number 10. It''s tall and green. But other than at night, I''m not there very often. This is definitely the best place to find me."


    James nodded. He was glad he''d be able to find Steven again, he''d really enjoyed today. "Sweet, well, I''ll probably be at my farm. If I''m not there, you probably showed me the place I''d be at, so there''s only so many options. See you around!"


    Steven waved and headed towards the training building. James shook his head. Apparently Steven meant it when he said he spent most of his time there, James had assumed Steven would head home. James started towards his farm at a quick jog. It wasn''t too long before he was back. He threw some more hay to the animals in the pen, counted the chickens (all still there), and milked the cows for the evening. He would need to figure out what to do with all of this milk. After only one day he had close to six gallons of extra milk.


    He made himself a quick dinner of fried eggs, drank a few glasses of warm milk, cleaned the dishes, and headed to bed. Today was a great day.

 Chapter 15: Emergence

    I had been waiting for that ever since she told me I was only 300 feet from the surface. I started digging a tunnel in the direction I needed. Despite the boost from the sprout I still ran out decently quickly, and had some time to think about the entrance. The first room was built to look like a natural cave, but I didn''t really want a 300 foot natural looking tunnel as the entrance. The entrance, I decided, would make it very obvious what they were getting into, then the first room would just be a complete reversal back to natural. The mobs dropping loot would also probably be a bit of a giveaway. Still, that meant I had to decide what I wanted for the entrance tunnel. I looked around my dungeon. I noticed the soil mice in the first room and got an idea. Curl up and don''t move. It suddenly looked like an empty room with a few small piles of dirt on the floor. I grinned internally as I told them to return to their previous commands.


    I created a new mob. I''d noticed that the mobs changed slightly based on my desires, so I wanted to test the limits of that. I made a snake out of clay, and focused on strength above everything else. I wanted this snake to be strong, and it didn''t matter to me if it was fast. When I formed it, it was a bit more expensive than the ones formed from leaves, but my focus on lowering agility and the bonuses from the sprout made it pretty manageable. Move to the far wall. The snake was super slow. I looked and it had a DEX score of 1. But the important thing was that it was strong and still pretty durable. It wouldn''t take too much to kill it, but a firm pull wouldn''t be enough. It wasn''t dangerous if in a large room, the adventurers would easily stay away from it and attack at range.


    Still, that wasn''t the plan for this snake. I created a tube of clay, identical to the snake, in everything except it wasn''t a living mob. I then infused it with my essence like I had with the string. Again, the essence resisted, but not as much as with the string. I had one of the mice come over and try to damage the clay. To my dismay, the mouse still was able to damage the clay. As I looked, I realized why. Unlike stone, where it''s all one solid mass, the clay just squished around the claws of the mouse. I had the mouse try the same with the snake I''d made. The clay of the snake resisted in a way the tube hadn''t.


    I sat, stumped. Or, well, floated, stumped. I''d thought strengthening the clay would make it hold its form, but apparently not. I looked at the snake. What was it that made the surface of the snake firmer? I had noticed that the same was true of my other mobs during their fight with Night, which was why I''d hoped this would work. The leaves of the snakes and the dirt of the mice resisted damage more than it should, almost like it was one piece. I looked closely at the surface of the snake. As I looked, I saw tiny strands of essence running through the clay. They seemed to be what kept the clay together when the mouse tried to scratch it.


    I had a feeling that there had to be something I could do to the clay to do the same thing. I watched the strands of essence. Soon I started to see which strands were the life-force of the snake and which were actually animating the clay. I looked over at my tube. Could I ¡­ copy it? I didn''t need the life-force strands, but the others ¡­ they were my essence. I had the snake slither up next to the tube I''d made. When they were motionless next to each other they were completely indistinguishable. I looked closely at the snake, then switched and made a single stitch of essence on the tube. As soon as I stopped focusing on it, it puffed into nothing but a dim glow that lasted for a second before fading away. If I had to focus on holding the essence in place as I worked, this would be far more difficult, but my stubborn streak kicked in and I started again.


    I managed to get four or five weaves before I lost concentration and one turned into light. This made me lose concentration on the others and they all dissolved. I tried again. I got 5 weaves in place, then as I felt them slipping I focused completely on preventing them from dissolving. Soon I had all five super solid. I looked at the snake again. I added another one, then I started to lose them again. The first one puffed into light, then another two, but I managed to save the last three.


    I continued. Soon I could manage ten. Then fifteen. Then thirty. I didn''t know how many strands I needed, and I no longer cared. I was going to do this. I focused everything on the two tubes of clay. The rest of my dungeon faded into the background. I knew it existed, I was still aware of it, I just no longer cared. Hour after hour, weaving essence through this tube of clay.


    I soon lost track of time. All I saw was the clay and the essence. I lost track of how many times I tried, how many weaves I created, how many puffed into light, and how many times I completely lost control and fell back to ground zero. Finally I had all of the weaves in place. I held it for a second, then released. It stayed.


    For a few seconds. Then it puffed into the brightest light I''d made yet. I didn''t understand. What did I do wrong? I looked even more closely at the snake. I noticed something I hadn''t seen before. I had been staring at this pattern for so long I had it completely memorized. As I followed the weave, I noticed something I hadn''t before. There was a secondary, dimmer weave. I started again. I practiced forming the brighter weave first until I could hold it with ease. Then I started working on the dimmer weave.


    Again the hours passed. More and more weaves formed on the clay. The detail I was achieving was something that would''ve been impossible for anything but a dungeon core. Soon I could hold all of the weaves I could see. I looked again at the snake, extra close, just to see if I''d missed anything. I had every weave in the exact right place. I released the weave. It stayed!


    The lower weave supported the upper, and I watched as it stayed steady. For a few seconds. Then I noticed a twitch. I stared at the two clay tubes, and I saw that one of the underlying weaves had shifted off slightly. Then another. And another. Soon one of the primary weaves lacked the needed support, and it vanished into light. With that weave gone, the entire pattern collapsed.


    I wasn''t discouraged. I was so close. I formed the weave again, but this time held it and watched the two to see if there were any minute differences. I could sort of tell there was something different, but I couldn''t really see what. I stared longer. Minutes, hours, even days could have passed while I stared at the two, I wasn''t sure. Slowly, I started to notice the difference. The essence in the snake was slowly moving, while the essence I''d put in the tube of clay was completely still. Slowly I tried to make the essence move. Almost immediately the essence became unevenly spread and collapsed.


    Confident that this was the final piece to the puzzle, I rebuilt the weave. Again, I tried to slowly start it moving. It lasted a bit longer this time. Again the hours blew away like leaves on the wind, but soon I was so close. When I released the weave, it would stay for a solid minute before destabilizing. I knew I was close. I couldn''t quite get the essence to flow willingly through the paths. I was so close.


    Suddenly the essence seemed to just jump to follow what I wanted. Where before I''d been herding cats during a thunderstorm, now it was like leading a professional show horse. It made completing the weave a piece of cake. As I stopped focusing on the weave as hard, I realized the strangest thing. I had been giving my complete focus to the weave in the snake ¡­ at the same time as I was giving my complete focus to holding the new weave together. I wasn''t multitasking, I was actively focusing on two separate things at the same time!


    As I returned my attention to the dungeon at large, my attention snapped back into a single focus. I wasn''t sure what that had been, but I intended to ask Ari. I looked around my dungeon. Everything looked pretty much like it had before I started concentrating on the essence weaves. My first room ¡­ exactly the same. Room two? No difference. In room three the plants looked a bit thicker, but nothing else was changed. Night''s room ¡­ no difference. Then I looked in the core room. If I''d had eyes they would''ve popped right out of my head. Ari was sleeping on my core, but that wasn''t what surprised me so much.


    "Ari. Ari!"


    She jolted awake. "What? What?"


    I gave a mental prod. "Look at the mana tree!" It was far bigger than before. Where the sprout had consisted of a single stalk with a single leaf, now there was a thin trunk, a few branches off of it, and a bunch of leaves. Before there''d been a few roots, now there was a mass of roots spreading a good foot from the base of the tree before it even entered the stone.


    Ari chuckled. "Just noticed that? That''s been like that for a few days."


    I stared at her. I knew I''d lost track of time, but I''d been working on that for days?!? I examined the tree. The description was the same as before, although I could tell the effect was stronger. After all of my practice, I could easily see the essence moving around and through the tree. I looked at my bond with the tree.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Bonded mana sapling


    Essence: 284/200000


    Benefits:


    Increased essence control.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    That ¡­ was great, but also a bit foreboding. When I''d started working on the clay, the tree hadn''t been even close to reaching the next stage. Also, the tree reaching the next level must have been when controlling the essence became so much easier. If that had been a few days ¡­ "Ari? ¡­ How long was I working on that tube of clay?"


    Ari thought for a moment. "Somewhere around ¡­ six months."


    Six months?!? How? How had I lost track of time that badly?


    Ari chuckled as a bit of my surprise leaked over the bond. "It''s actually pretty common for a dungeon core to get sucked into a single project for days, weeks, months, or even years! I was actually surprised that we were going to open your dungeon without you having a single lapse like that. If I''d needed to, it''s pretty easy to get you out of that state, I just have to catch your attention. Still, did whatever you''re working on succeed, or did you eventually have to give up?"


    She didn''t seem to assume either way, and I realized I didn''t even know. I told the mice to come try and damage the tube of clay. Nothing. They couldn''t even scratch it. "I succeeded. I''m just not entirely sure what it is that I did." I realized I didn''t know what changes the weave would make in the tube. Still, with no way to figure it out, and with six months having passed, I figured I''d better check my menu to make sure nothing had changed.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Alex Johnson


    Earth Core - G2


    Essence - 973/1000


    Core generation - 20/hour (5/hour to bond)


    Dungeon generation - 50 per hour


    Dungeon actions:


    Increase influence


    Absorb matter


    Create item


    Create mob


    Animate object


    Mind shards


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    That was ¡­ a lot different. First, I''d passed a few subtiers and my essence capacity had expanded a ton! My generation hadn''t improved that much, which made sense. I hadn''t expanded my influence, so while my stronger core could pull on the essence better, it didn''t have additional area to pull from. There were two other obvious changes. There was a new dungeon action available and a whole new area.


    "Ari, my menu changed quite a bit during that time. What is ''animate object'' in my dungeon actions?"


    Ari''s eyes widened. "You unlocked animated objects? What were you doing?"


    I explained what I''d been doing. "I wanted to make a strong cord of clay, but when I filled it with my essence like the stone, I strengthened the individual particles, but not their cohesion. I noticed that my mobs resisted things piercing their outer skin in a way the simple essence-reinforced clay didn''t. So I looked closely and saw a weave of essence woven throughout the mob that the clay lacked. So I copied it. Apparently it took longer than I thought." I was still a bit sheepish that I''d totally ignored everything for six months.


    Ari paused, like she didn''t know what to say. "There are ¡­ so many things in that explanation that don''t make sense. First, you can''t reinforce anything but stone and sometimes wood with your essence. So whatever you did with the clay to begin with was something different."


    Now I was confused. "What? I''ve infused all sorts of things with my essence to strengthen them."


    Now Ari looked even more confused. "Like what?"


    I thought about it. "I guess, just the clay and the string when I made the fire."


    Ari paused. "You strengthened that?" At my mental affirmation, she dropped to the ground. "Do it again. Make one normal, and make one that you then reinforce."


    I did so, making them both in front of her. She grabbed the first one, and with a bit of effort she snapped it. Then she grabbed the second one. She pulled as hard as she could, nothing. She quickly flew it to Night''s room. "Have him try to snap it."


    I made a small tube of rock with a hole in it and had her tie the string to the tube and the other end to Night''s tail. Walk forward. Night tried, but try as he might he couldn''t snap the thin string. He gave an especially hard pull, and jolted forward. I assumed he had snapped the string, but as I looked, the string was fine, the rock tube had snapped. Ari stared, obviously speechless. I told Night to go back to the normal routine, and absorbed the string and stone tube, returning the room to pristine state. Ari sat there for a bit longer before absent-mindedly flying back to my core room. "This has some interesting repercussions. I''ll have to think about it. Next you said you ''saw a weave of essence'' in the mob. What exactly do you mean?"


    I thought for a second. "Well, I looked at the mob and saw little ¡­ I don''t really know what they are, but they reminded me of threads, so I called them weaves, made from essence. They were all along the snake, and I guessed they had something to do with it staying together. I could also sort of see the ones I think are giving it life-force, but those were more complicated, changing, and in general just way hard to copy, so I stuck with just the outside ones."


    Ari shook her head in amazement. "Most dungeon cores can see essence to some extent. For most it is just a dim glow around things with high amounts of essence or mana, like strong enchanted items. Some dungeons are better than most, they see it more closely linked to the object and can see lower amounts than normal." She paused. "I don''t think I''ve ever heard of a dungeon seeing anything like what you describe, let alone on a mob as weak as that snake is."


    She thought about it for a moment. "Really, though, this doesn''t have much impact. Unless what I think might be next is what I think it is. What did you mean by ''I copied it.'' in your explanation?"


    This I was most excited to share. "Well, I started using essence from my core to make similar weaves in the inert clay I''d made. If I made just one and released it, it would vanish into light. So I had to hold them all there. At first I could only manage like five strands. Over time, as I practiced, I can now hold ¡­" I glanced at the tube. "Probably somewhere in the thousands. I don''t really know. Anyhow, when I had the whole weave, I released it and it didn''t stay. So I looked closer and saw a secondary weave supporting the first one. So I copied that too. At that point I was close, but not quite there. I noticed the essence was actually flowing along the weaves. What I''d seen as threads were actually more like veins for the essence. I was getting super close to having the essence flow when the tree grew bigger, giving me a boost to ''essence control'' from my bond. That made the last bit super easy." I glanced at the tube. "And now it''s staying just fine without the slightest sign of decay!"


    Ari shook her head in disbelief. "You ¡­ I can hardly believe it. I think you must''ve copied the essence that animates the clay. This makes the clay a single entity, which would provide the cohesion you wanted, but more importantly, it will also obey your commands like your mobs."


    Again, my figurative eyes were wide. I glanced at the tube. Curl up. It did! It curled into a little coil! "Ari, is this how my mobs are made?"


    Ari shook her head. "There are some differences. The biggest one is that when you build a mob, you actually only create the life-force, it then animates the matter built to match it. This has a few repercussions. First, your mobs are living beings. They can grow, learn, and evolve, albeit to a limited extent due to their lack of a soul. Second, it is far less expensive in terms of essence to create a mob than an animated item. Finally, a damaged mob will slowly heal itself if it has access to essence and materials."


    I was a bit disappointed. Was the thing I''d worked so hard to create useless?


    Ari continued. "Still, most dungeons eventually use animated objects to some extent. I''ve never heard of a dungeon making an animated object the way you did, let alone this early, but there are spells to animated objects, and most dungeons learn one eventually." She paused. "Actually, I don''t know how expensive your way of making an animated item is, I know the spell is more expensive than creating a mob. Anyhow, animated objects have a few advantages over mobs. First, because a mob''s animation is linked to its life-force, if killed the entire thing falls apart. For example, if you were to cut off the arm of a stone golem mob, then crush the body, the arm would fall apart. Not so for animated objects. If you were to remove the arm of an animated stone golem, then absolutely crush the body, the arm would still try to follow its commands. Second, you can make animated objects in shapes you don''t have available as a mob. For example, if you wanted said golem to have swords in place of arms, you would have to gain the pattern first to make it as a mob, as an animated object you just build it that way before animating it. Finally, some objects simply don''t exist as a mob. For example, a door could be animated, but there''s not any known ''door'' shaped mobs. Really, most dungeons just use normal doors and let the adventurers open them themselves. Still, occasionally a dungeon wants requirements before the door opens and doesn''t want to use basic keys and locks."If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    Now I had a question. "Ari, I thought you said I needed an unbroken path throughout my dungeon so essence could flow properly. How could I use doors?"


    Ari nodded her head. "Good question. For whatever reason doors don''t block the essence nearly as much ¡­. Assuming there''s a way to open it by the adventures. If you build a locked door with no key, you might as well have built a wall, but if there''s a key, even a hidden one, on the adventurer¡¯s side, then essence will flow through the door fairly well. And essence will flow through an animated door even better, which is another reason they use them."


    These animated objects sounded cool. I looked in the ''Animate object'' area of my menu.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Animate object


    Humanoid


    Mouse


    Lizard


    Snake


    Badger


    Basic object


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Looks like I had options following my mobs, as well as one for "basic objects" that I figured encompassed things like doors and things like that that Ari had mentioned.


    "I can make animated versions of the patterns I have available for mobs, as well as ''basic objects'', whatever those are."


    Ari nodded, before she suddenly cocked her head to the side like she''d thought of something. "Alex, was the tube of clay still reinforced when you animated it?" At my mental confirmation she shook her head in disbelief. "Animating dungeon reinforced stone is incredibly difficult, but also very worthwhile. The stone itself resists the animation. If you''d started with a new tube of clay, you probably would have finished weeks or months ago." At my shock, she smiled slightly. "But! Now you can animate essence-reinforced materials. Since you can reinforce things other than rock." She shook her head, still obviously trying to come to grasps with that. "Those things will be practically invincible. Most dungeons have to choose, for example, between reinforcing their doors or animating them. Only the strongest dungeons have the power to animate the essence-reinforced stone. Golems made from essence-reinforced stone are bosses in some of the most powerful dungeons." As she felt my excitement she stopped me before I got too excited. "You''re still a long way from the essence capacity to make one of those, but it may happen down the road."


    Still, that was exciting news. I was having fun thinking of all of the ways I could use animated objects in my dungeon. It was usually annoying how little I knew, but sometimes I didn''t know I shouldn''t be able to do something, so I just did it anyway. Before I thought of too many ways to use animated objects Ari stopped me in my tracks.


    "But you definitely shouldn''t use animated objects any time soon."


    I stared at her. "What? Why not?" The clay tubes were still critical to my plans for the entrance, which I still hadn''t forgotten.


    She looked at me. "Remember? I said only very powerful dungeons have animated objects. If you have one at this level, the adventurers won''t know what to think, and they''ll probably just kill you to be safe."


    I thought for a bit. "What if I never tell them to move? Then the adventurers would just think it''s normal matter somehow fused into a single whole."


    Ari thought about it for a second. "That could work. But you would have to be incredibly careful not to have any of them move, because if the adventurers think you''re trying to hide something it would be even worse."


    I could do that. I knew how to make my entrance tunnel now, but I had a few more questions for Ari first. "I also got a new area in my menu called ''mind shards''. What are those?"


    Ari clapped her hands and fluttered up to sit on my core. "Ooh! You unlocked mind shards. I had hoped you would based on how long you had been out, but I wasn''t sure. When you go into the area, how many rows are there?"


    I selected it.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Mind shards:


    Lesser (0/100)


    Greater (0/50)


    Master (0/10)


    True (1/3)


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    "Uh, it has four rows not counting the title. Wait, I thought you could see it!"


    Ari shook her head absently. "I can only see what you are currently looking at." She shook her head vigorously, shaking herself out of her shock. "OK, first I''ll explain what mind shards are. I''m guessing at some point during the process of copying the ''essence weaves'' over to the new tube you felt like you were focusing on both at once?"


    That had been my final question. "Yeah! What was that?"


    Ari smiled. "That was you creating a mind shard. Almost all dungeons eventually develop the ability to create additional copies of their brains, although with far lesser levels of intelligence. This is how they can manage a massive dungeon all by themselves. And there are different levels of mind shards. Depending on how well you split your attention when you gained the mind shards, you can get several different levels. And while you can increase your level later, it is hard because they''ve already become familiar with the mind shards they''ve had access to. Also depending on your level of access and your strength, you can have more shards at once.


    "Lesser mind shards are the most plentiful, and frankly pretty easy to unlock. Most cores accidentally unlock those if they try to multitask even a little. Which is why I didn''t tell you about these before, you would probably have tried it on something you weren''t as invested in and just gotten lesser shards. The lesser shards have about the intelligence of a mob. They can watch for a single item to occur, notifying your main brain if it does. For example, most dungeons have one on the entrance to notify them when each new group enters, and on each staircase to notify them of each group that makes it to a new level.


    "The next level is greater mind shards. These are significantly more intelligent. They can make some deductions. Most dungeons have one of these watching over each floor, set to notify the main intelligence of anything that needs attention. The shards are lesser pieces of the core''s intelligence, so they usually think the same things are important, although the greater shards aren''t foolproof and can miss things if they would have to connect a few dots to see something.


    "Only a few dungeons unlock master shards. These have a decent portion of the core''s inherent intelligence. The cores that do have these shards usually only have access to a few of them, and usually set them to roam the dungeon and deal with the notifications from lesser shards, only dealing personally with things forwarded by the greater or master shards. This gives their main intelligence time to study or work on creating new things. Because even for master shards, they lack any creativity and can''t really learn to improve the intelligence of the main core."


    Here she paused. "I''ve ¡­ never actually heard of a true shard, but based on the (1/3) I have a hunch. I think those might actually be exact copies of your current intelligence level. The impacts of this would be ¡­ insane. They might be able to actually be creative and learn new things for you. This would be a major help to you." She paused, then added an afterthought. "Also, you have an insane amount of shards available for your strength. A hundred lesser shards? That usually doesn''t happen until you are of a far higher tier."


    These mind shards sounded super useful. I assumed I''d created a true shard when working, and that''s why I''d unlocked them. The two focuses had seemed equally powerful when I was working on the essence weaves, I couldn''t tell a difference. Then I thought of a problem. "Ari, what if the thing the shard alerts me about is something that only lasts a moment? Then by the time I looked it would be too late."


    Ari smiled. "That''s another benefit of unlocking mind shards. Even if you only unlock lesser shards, you develop a perfect memory. Not only that, but it''s retroactive to everything you''ve experienced as a core. Try to remember the first time we talked."


    I tried to.


    Fortunately, once I hit accept, nothing happened, except I felt the strange pressure peak for just a second before fading away. I stayed on my guard, but nothing happened. Ari was just floating there, waiting expectantly. I figured I might as well try it. "Hello?"


    "Hello!" Ari beamed. "What''s your name?"


    "My name is Alex. I''m confused, I seem to be stuck in this rock."


    "Whoa!" It was like I was there experiencing it all again! I still knew I was just watching a memory, and I could stop at any moment, but it was an absolutely perfect copy of everything I''d been experiencing! Vision, sound, emotions, everything! "That''s insane!"


    Ari smiled. "Yep! And you can re-experience it far faster than it happened. Watching an hour of memories takes about a minute."


    That sounded extremely useful. As did the other things my project had unlocked. Realistically, it was a pretty useful six months, although I still had trouble grasping the fact that I''d just worked on the same project for six months straight without getting bored.


    Now that I''d looked at everything I had gained during the six months, it was time to finish revealing myself. I looked at my essence, which was almost full. That made me think of something. "Hey Ari? Did I just waste six months of essence?" While it would still be worth it, that would be a bummer.


    Ari tilted her hand in a so-so motion. "It''s no longer accessible by you, so kind of. But you actually used quite a lot during your project, and when you had excess some was sent to the mana tree and some was used to strengthen the walls of your core room. They are mostly essence-reinforced now."


    That was good. I knew I probably wouldn''t be able to use it, and I was glad it hadn''t just been wasted. Now it was time to try out these mind shards. I selected a lesser mind shard first, figuring it would be the least strange. I suddenly was aware of all the lesser mind shards in my dungeon. All zero. But I somehow knew that if I''d had one I''d be aware of it. I wanted my first one to be something simple. I set it to watch the room with the snakes and tell me when one went over a pit trap. I then looked at my core room. It wasn''t long before I felt a mental nudge, kind of like with the mind-to-mind link with Ari, but somehow far more personal. I glanced at the room. There was a snake just coming off of the pit. I tried to remember the last few seconds in that room.


    I watched the snake move over the pit trap. I was supposed to alert Alex when that happened. I sent a ping to Alex.


    That was ¡­ strange. I felt so ¡­ limited. I understood now what Ari meant by the intelligence of a mob. The brain I''d been sharing was ¡­ incredibly ¡­ not stupid, but just didn''t make connections. I knew it could still do math, for example, but if asked to make a conclusion based on the answer? Nothing. It actually reminded me of a computer. Relatively good at simple things, but unable to make new connections or solve a complex problem.


    Next I tried a greater mind shard. This one I wanted something a little harder, since Ari had said they could make deductions or understand whether something was important. I set one to tell me when two of the mice in the first room got close to each other. Again, it wasn''t too long before I felt a mental nudge. This one was actually another one from the snake mind shard. I absorbed that one, as I didn''t need it anymore. Then I felt a ping from the one in the first room. I watched what it had seen.


    The mice walked around the room like Alex had told them to. Occasionally two of them would come closer than normal, but I still wouldn''t call that close. Then two of them walked directly towards each other. They passed within about a foot of each other, and I figured that was close enough. Time to ping Alex.


    This one was much more intelligent. Still pretty simple, but able to judge based on "close", where I knew a lesser shard wouldn''t be able to. Next up, master shard. I made this one watch the entire dungeon for anything important. I didn''t really know what this one was going to find. I waited a couple of minutes, but nothing. I realized there probably wasn''t going to be anything in here I needed to know about until adventurers showed up. Still, I watched the memory of the last few minutes from the viewpoint of the master mind shard.


    I examined the dungeon. Everything seemed normal. The mice were running around, the other mobs were doing their things. In the boss room, Ari was sitting on Alex''s core. The mana tree hadn''t changed since Alex had seen it. I watched the dungeon, waiting for something to happen that I would need to alert Alex about.


    This one seemed relatively intelligent. Like Ari had said, it seemed to be fairly close to my normal in terms of intelligence. I could tell, however, that it had no creativity whatsoever. I made another one with the command to create a pretty statue. It formed a block of stone. Then it started removing pieces, and I got excited. Maybe my mind shards would be better than normal! But then I realized it was just randomly removing chunks because it knew that was how you made a statue. Eventually there was nothing left of the original block, and it made a new block and started again.


    I absorbed all of the shards and tried a true mind shard. I just told it to work on the dungeon. Soon it started digging the exit tunnel. It continued until I was getting close to the exit. It wasn''t the same as what I''d done while working on the clay, I wasn''t aware of both viewpoints at the same time, but it seemed somewhat similar. I was getting ready to tell it to stop, I didn''t want to break through just yet, but then it stopped. I watched the time through its perspective.


    I knew I was a mind shard, but it felt exactly the same. I knew I was supposed to work on the dungeon. The last thing I''d been doing was digging the entrance tunnel, before I''d been distracted with the clay. I started expanding the tunnel. I stopped a bit before the tunnel reached the surface, I wanted to prepare just a bit more before I actually emerged.


    Wow! That really had felt just like a normal memory. It even had something I now noticed all of the other shards lacked: emotions. I could also tell that it was just as creative as I was, and that learning something new through a true mind shard would work just as well as doing so with my primary intelligence.


    Well, since that was all figured out, time to finish making my entrance. I had a greater shard create holes in the ceiling of the entrance tunnel, the perfect size for the snake''s head. I then made another greater shard in charge of creating tubes of clay like the first one, except that instead of a head, it just had a ball of clay. The head wasn''t really necessary for what I needed. I then created two master shards in charge of adding the essence to the tubes, one to strengthen it, then the second to animate it. Pretty quickly I ran out of essence. Those animated tubes really did cost an arm and a leg, even with my improved essence. Still, I had all the time in the world, and I wanted my entrance tunnel to be perfect.


    <hr>


    A few weeks passed. It was insane how expensive those tubes were. Still, I had made up my mind, and it wasn''t like I was short on time. Soon I had a big pile of tubes wrapped up in the corner. Once I figured I had enough, I told them to go put themselves in the ceiling of the entrance tunnel. They slithered out, then helped each other get into the holes in the roof of the tunnel. The ceiling of the tunnel originally looked like Swiss cheese, but soon it looked like a wall of vines. Vines of clay. I had the clay tubes leave holes every once in a while randomly. By the end of the nearly 300 foot tunnel, I had about forty holes left unfilled. I then summoned my clay snake mob into those holes. The first one just fell out, so I lifted it up with my essence and had it open its mouth so it wouldn''t fall out.


    Ever since I''d become so much better at handling essence, I''d discovered there were actually a lot of things I could do with it. Creating simple things like fire or wind was easy, and I now had a replacement for the hands I had missed so badly while my dungeon had only mobs with no opposable thumbs. And Ari, I supposed, as I glanced at her where she was sitting on my core.


    With a few last commands, my entrance tunnel was ready. The animated tubes were to act like normal tubes of clay except resisting damage. The snakes were to wrap up and hold anything that touched them, hanging perfectly still until they did so. I did instruct the snakes to avoid wrapping up any vital areas, as this was before the resurrection tokens, and I didn''t want any permanent deaths in my dungeon. Anyone walking into my dungeon would have to brush past the tubes. And for the first thirty feet or so there were no snakes, so I assumed the first person grabbed would receive quite the scare!


    With that done, I announced to Ari that I was ready to break through. She smiled. "Perfect! I''ll go out and collect patterns for you. We don''t know how long it will take the adventurer¡¯s guild to get someone out here to test your dungeon, so I''ll need to get you as many patterns as possible before they do."


    I wasn''t so sure about Ari leaving my dungeon. I looked at her apparent fragility and lack of teeth or claws to defend herself with. "Uh, are you sure you should be going out there? You don''t seem like you''d do too well in a fight." I didn''t want to offend her, but it was true. And I had come to really enjoy her company, I wasn''t sure who I would talk to if she got captured or killed. I''m pretty sure talking to mind shards counted as talking to myself, and I didn''t want to be insane.


    Ari smiled. "You''re right! I''m not built for combat. Dungeon fairies have a number of abilities devoted to being unseen. None of them would work on you, as you are my bonded dungeon, but I could even hide from your mobs if I so wished." She smiled and patted my core before she flew out of the core room and down the tunnel. "It would take a high-tier rogue to see me, and even then they''d have to be looking. Let me go, this is one of the biggest ways a dungeon fairy helps his or her core."


    I still wasn''t sure, but if she wanted to that badly, I knew I needed to let her go. "OK, but if there''s something that''s going to be dangerous to get a pattern, take safety over pattern."


    Ari smiled again as she reached the end of the tunnel I''d dug so far. "All right, Mr worrypants. I''ll be careful."


    I knew I was probably being a bit overprotective, but Ari was literally my only person I could communicate with. I made a small tunnel exit at first. Ari flew out of the tunnel into what appeared to me total darkness. I knew it was actually dark outside, because there was almost no light coming in through the hole.


    As Ari left, I tried to find something to occupy myself. Before I had much time at all, Ari was back! That was nice and quick. I wasn''t even sure what I''d been worried about. Then ¡­ I noticed Ari''s face. And I suddenly became far more nervous.


    Ari looked very worried. "Alex, there''s a problem. Dungeons never emerge anywhere near people, the people have to come to the dungeon. But you emerged right next to a large village. The adventurer¡¯s guild is NOT going to like this."


    I thought about it for a second. "No problem! I''ll just fill in the hole, I can even use an identical soil composition. Then I''ll dig a long tunnel and come out elsewhere!"


    Ari shook her head. "Won''t work. The adventurer''s guild has an enchanted map that displays all of the open dungeons. Someone has probably already noticed you open and they''ll send someone to check it out. They would just assume you have something to hide. They''d definitely find you and kill you at that point." She shook her head again. "No, the best option is to make it blatantly obvious what you are. Then we hope they don''t decide to destroy you anyway."


    I didn''t really like "We hope they don''t decide to destroy you anyway", but it was better than the alternative. "OK, what do we do?"


    Ari nodded, apparently making a plan was helping her keep it together. "Right. You need to give this dungeon a stunning entrance. I''ll go out and find out what I can, and see if I can get you some patterns in case we survive." She flew back out of the tunnel.


    This time I didn''t have to distract myself from worrying about Ari, I was worrying for both of us! I needed to make an awesome entrance, and quickly. At first I was going to go with the classic skull, but I figured that was probably overdone. Plus, it was probably associated with death dungeons, and I wanted to be as clear about what I was as possible.


    I hadn''t thought of anything to use as my entrance yet. I made both of my true mind shards, instructing them to think of an entrance and notify me if they got a good one. After all, three heads are better than one! Pretty soon, one of them alerted me. I looked at what it had been thinking, and I smiled. It was perfect. I absorbed both shards again and started building the entrance. For some reason I couldn''t push my influence out of the dungeon very well, it kind of faded away after a little bit.


    Still, that wouldn''t stop me. I fashioned a massive pair of stone arms in the ground next to my entrance. They were clasping fingers, making a giant arch. I then shoved them just above the ground using my essence. I made another pair, just after that one. I shoved it a bit higher. Then another pair, a bit higher. So on and so forth until the last pair was sticking up almost thirty feet tall. I then smoothed the ground beneath them into a smoothly sloping tunnel. The hands dropped faster than the floor did, so it gave the impression of being grabbed by the hands as I moved my viewpoint down the tunnel to experience what the adventurers would see.


    Ari flew back in the tunnel. She smiled. "I have to hand it to you, the entrance looks great!" We both chuckled before she became serious. "I learned something new, and ¡­ I''m not sure if it''s good or bad. We didn''t emerge next to a random village. Your entrance ¡­ Alex, it is right in the middle ¡­ of an adventurer training fort."

 Chapter 16: New adventurer

    James sat up on his second morning in his new home. He was ready to get used to the farm. Every farm was a bit different, and it was getting close to harvest time so he would need to get on top of things quickly. He looked out the window. He''d woken up before dawn again. He built a small fire and put a pot of water on to make porridge again. He might have to make a trip to market lane at some point to get some different food. And to find a place to sell his milk.


    He went out to take care of the animals, only to freeze in shock. What kind of seeds was Old Man Douglas planting?!? And why in the animal pen!?!?


    Coming up right in the middle of the animal''s pen were a few giant stone fingers. There were more fingers, then hands, then arms that were probably thirty feet tall! The animal pen was completely destroyed, as was the fence around the haystack. Fortunately the animals were still meandering around, most of them were munching on the hay. James walked around to the far side of the hands, where they were the tallest. There was a tunnel leading deep into the ground. James could see a little ways, but then it looked like there were a bunch of vines blocking his view. He didn''t want to deal with this. In fact, Marcus should probably deal with it.


    James jogged out to the road, and was lucky enough to catch a quickly moving cart. He ran up and jumped on, waving a hello to the person driving. They smiled and waved back. Soon James was in the town. Fortunately it seemed like this cart was going right past the big building! As they passed it, James waved goodbye to the driver, who didn''t see it, and jumped off. He quickly headed into the building, planning on heading to the fifth floor to talk to Marcus.


    Instead, Marcus was in the front hall. He was giving commands to an army of runners. When he saw James he smiled at him, but then went back to giving orders. James walked over to him. "Hey Marcus, I have something I need to talk to you about."


    Marcus grimaced. "Now is really not the best time James. Somebody dug under the wall during the night and we can''t find the exit anywhere."


    James blinked. "Uh, I found it."


    Marcus froze. "You what?"


    James nodded. "That''s what I needed to talk to you about. They burrowed up on my farm."


    <hr>


    A few minutes later they were at his farm, everyone staring at the massive tunnel. James had never thought they could move that quickly through the city. Marcus had actually pulled them, and they moved far quicker than with any animal James had been pulled by before.


    As they were looking at the tunnel, Marcus started giving orders. "You, go get the builders. We need a fortification around this pronto." "You, go get me the three reserve squads from the wall." "You, go tell the head of training at the academy that we are on high alert. No dangerous training until I say otherwise." And so on.


    James watched for a few minutes. Pretty soon some builders arrived. They finished disassembling the animal pen and wall for the haystack, and started preparing to build a fortification.


    "Let''s GO, people! This dungeon gave us time to react, let''s make the best of it!"


    Marcus walked over to James, then stood next to him and looked at the dungeon. "Well, well. This was unexpected."


    James nodded. It appeared the dungeons had a feud with him. First his compass challenge, then his village, now even in the middle of the fort the dungeons figured out how to come mess up his life! "I''ll say. I seem to be a magnet for dungeon problems."


    Marcus chuckled. "You''ve never heard of anyone where a dungeon came up on their private land, have you?"


    Finally James had had it. "No, no I haven''t! I never did anything to the dungeons, but they seem absolutely determined to work together to ruin my life! First they try to kill me, then they destroy my village, kill my family and everyone I love, and now they''ve come to ruin my life in the freaking center of an impenetrable fortress!"


    Marcus chuckled again. "Well, it usually only happens to nobles who have more land than they know what to do with. What''s important to you is that the guild gives a percentage of all loot that comes out of the dungeon to the owner of the land it emerges on. Which eventually becomes a LOT of money."


    James'' jaw dropped. He was going to get a percentage of all loot found in the dungeon? Even if that was like a tenth of a percent, he would eventually become super wealthy!


    Marcus continued. "Certainly more than enough to help you become an adventurer." James¡¯s spirits soared above the trees, until Marcus brought it to a crash landing. "It will take a while before you get that much though." Then he looked slyly at James. "Still, I think the guild would be willing to loan you enough money for you to become an adventurer and get some starting gear, just to make sure we start out with good relations." James'' hopes were even higher than before.


    Marcus quickly scribbled down a note stating that James was to become an adventurer. He signed it, then handed it to James. "There''s a class that started at the academy last week. The next one doesn''t start for six months. You''ll have to work hard to catch up, but somehow I don''t think motivation will be a problem for you. Now hurry on to the academy while I figure out what to do with this pain in my side."


    James took the note, said a quick "thank you" and ran at a fast jog to the academy.


    <hr>


    He arrived at the academy in record time. He figured the big administration building Steven had called boring would probably be the best place to go to get started as an adventurer. He walked in the front door. He saw someone he recognized! As she looked up from her papers, he realized it was Susan!


    She smiled. "Well hello there! Fancy meeting you again! What do you need this time?" She joked.


    James chuckled. He was still on cloud nine that he was about to become an adventurer. "I actually could use some help. I have this note from Marcus saying I can become an adventurer. Where would I go to go about that?"


    Susan smiled. "I''d wondered if I would see you here eventually. I guess I get to be the first to say welcome to our newest adventurer! I can help you out with that. Follow me." She walked down a hall, leading James into a small room. "Wait here, I''ll be right back." She walked out. There were a few stools in the room. James sat on a stool near the desk.


    Susan walked back into the room a few minutes later. She was carrying an artfully carved stone case with a hinged lid. She placed it on the desk, and sat on another one of the stools. "OK, so as I''m sure you know, becoming an adventurer is quite expensive. The first reason, as you''ve probably guessed, is gear. From armor and spellbooks to bags of holding, adventurers need some high value items. But those are actually secondary." She tapped the case. "I''m going to tell you about how we got what''s in this case. It all began long ago, before there was any adventurer¡¯s guild. It wasn''t long after the wars following the annihilation of the dungeons. There were few adventurers, and the process to become one was far different. There was no guild to help you get started. You just walked into a dungeon and began fighting. Eventually, if you survived, you would undergo a change. You would unlock magical abilities that gave you strength above what normal men and women could achieve. If you reached that point your chances of death dropped significantly. To reach that point, however ¡­ not a lot made it. This all lasted until one day, a relatively strong adventurer got a vial as a drop from a dungeon¡¯s boss. It was filled with a glowing liquid."


    She opened the case and pulled out a vial. "Filled with this liquid." The vial was glowing a dim white. It wasn''t bright, but James could definitely see the glow, despite being in a well lit room. "Go ahead and examine it, see what he saw." James did so.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Water


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    "Huh?" It definitely wasn''t water.


    Susan smiled. "Exactly. No one has ever seen anything other than ''Water'' when they examine this liquid. Yet it clearly isn''t normal water. The adventurer had no reason to drink it, but he put it in his pack anyway. He left the dungeon and went to eat at a nearby inn. While he ate, the vial was seen by a young stable boy, tending to the adventurer¡¯s horse. The boy, dreaming of adventure, drank the vial, despite not knowing what it was." Susan paused. James looked at the vial. He imagined being a poor stable boy, seeing the vial. It clearly had some magic. It appeared the pull of adventuring was enough to offset the fear of the unknown for that boy.


    Susan continued. "He immediately gained the abilities someone who survived enough dungeon dives gained. When the adventurer returned, he of course noticed that the vial was gone. When he discovered what it had done for the boy, instead of punishing him for taking the vial, the adventurer took the boy under his wing and trained him. The adventurer went back to the same dungeon again and again. The vial didn''t drop every time he defeated the boss, but he was soon helping those who wanted to become adventurers avoid much of the danger. Quickly, the demand for the vials exceeded the number he could get. Knowing he needed help, he arranged competitions to find those best suited to adventuring, and gave the vials to them, along with a charge to help others in return."


    Susan smiled. "That adventurer was Fillard Hingdore, founder of the adventurer''s guild. Ever since, that dungeon has been used to provide an easier way to unlock the abilities of an adventurer. Still, the supply is limited. The dungeon only produces vials occasionally. And originally, if a vial wasn''t used within a few days it would lose its magic, going back to being truly water like it says when examined. Eventually an adventurer discovered that if placed within a case made from dungeon-hardened stone, the magic would last. Now the vials are sent from the dungeon that creates them to the various guild strongholds to create new adventurers."


    As Susan finished her tale, James sat staring at the vial of glowing liquid. He knew drinking that vial would change his life forever. Susan proffered the vial, and James took it. The vial was slightly warm. Not hot, just warm. James removed the cap of the vial. Well, here goes. Down the hatch! He drank the entire vial in one swallow. It tasted like ¡­ water. He could feel a faint tingling as it went down his throat. He felt it settle in his stomach. That wasn''t too bad. Suddenly there was a strange heat coming from near his stomach. It certainly wasn''t comfortable, but James had experienced far worse. Then, suddenly, it was like a dam had burst.


    He screamed and fell off of the stool, curled up in a ball on the floor. It was the phoenix all over again! He was completely filled with fire!


    Susan stood up in shock and walked over to him. His back arched and he started flailing on the floor. "James! James!"


    He couldn''t have answered if he''d wanted to. All he could comprehend was the pain. Suddenly a blast of fire shot out of his hand, hitting the wall of the room. Susan''s eyes widened, and she backed away, summoning a shimmering magical shield. Just in time, as the next blast went right towards her.


    The fire felt like it was in his very veins! Occasionally another blast of fire would emit from some part of his body. Over time the burning lessened. It felt like hours, although it was probably under a minute. Eventually all of the fire was out of him, and James lay on the floor, panting and sweating. Susan cautiously approached him.


    "I think you''d better explain what just happened, as well as why you were just throwing phoenix fire all over the place."


    James lay there for a couple more seconds, catching his breath, before he sat up. "I have no idea." He looked at his menu.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    James Boksae


    HP: 140/140


    Mana: 100/100


    Mana regen: 3 per minute


    STR: 8


    CON: 14


    DEX: 13


    INT: 10


    WIS: 15


    Compass: Sapphire phoenix feather


    Phoenix veins


    Alerts: 3


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    He stared. First, he hadn''t taken any damage from that? How? And second, he had three menu alerts! Those were rare, and only occurred when you did something strange. "I don''t know what just happened, but I have menu alerts."


    Susan nodded. "The vial will give you a menu alert, yes. But it should''ve been painless, and definitely shouldn''t have made you shoot phoenix fire everywhere!"


    James shook his head. "I have three alerts." Ignoring Susan''s look of shock, he opened the first one. As Susan had predicted, it was a notification due to taking the vial. It explained that he''d unlocked mana and two new stats, INT and WIS, which affected maximum mana and mana regen speed, respectively. It wasn''t very long, and didn''t seem unusual based on what he knew. He read it out loud, and Susan nodded. "That''s standard."


    He moved on to the second alert. This one was far more interesting.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    ALERT!The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.


    Due to successfully trapping phoenix fire in your mana channels for a significant amount of time, and surviving, you have gained the following property: Phoenix veins. This property grants the following benefits/downsides:


    -50% mana cost for fire spells


    +20% damage dealt with fire spells


    +2 WIS


    Casting spells other than fire, light, or air causes you intense pain


    +50% mana cost for spells other than fire, light, or air spells


    Casting a water spell deals damage to you equal to (mana cost)/2


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    That was ¡­ insane. The benefits were incredible for fire spells, but it looked like he wouldn''t be casting any spells other than fire, light, or air spells. Especially not any water spells. He looked at his third alert.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    ALERT!


    Your compass (Sapphire phoenix feather) and property (phoenix veins) have developed a resonance. This gives you the following additional benefits/downsides:


    +10% damage dealt with fire spells


    -20% mana cost of fire spells


    Significantly improved control over fire spells


    +1 CON


    +3 WIS


    +20% damage received from water spells


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    This was getting insane! His fire spells would be insane, but he was now also weak against water spells. He looked at his compass, curious. Indeed, he had unlocked other benefits.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Sapphire phoenix feather


    Abilities:


    +50% damage dealt with fire spells


    -50% mana required for fire spells


    Compass abilities:


    +3 Constitution


    Improved rate of natural healing


    Resistance to fire damage


    +100% mana regen


    +20% damage dealt with fire spells


    Additional abilities revealed as discovered.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Well, James decided he probably wasn''t going to be a rogue. At this point it was basically required for him to become a mage. He realized Susan was still waiting for his answer. "Sorry, I was reading the alerts. Um, well, I fought a phoenix a while back, and the alert says I apparently trapped some of the phoenix fire in my, uh, mana channels. I''m guessing somehow the vial let said fire escape?" He shrugged. That was his best guess.


    Susan''s eyes widened. "You fought what? How did you fight a phoenix as a non-adventurer and survive?"


    James scratched his head. He didn''t want to reveal his compass if he could help it. "Uh, belly flopped it into a lake?"


    Susan blinked. A couple of times. "So, you''re saying you just grabbed it and belly flopped into a lake?"


    James nodded. "I landed on top, but it got me pretty good before we hit the water. Apparently some of the fire has been stuck in me this entire time."


    Susan shook her head. "Well, the vial does open your mana channels, so if the fire was somehow trapped in there that would probably have released it." She looked at James one more time. "I guess now you go to class. I bet you''ll catch up pretty quickly, the first week or so is finding your mana channels, and based on what you just said I''m guessing you probably know right where they are."


    James certainly knew where the fire had been traveling, yes. He followed Susan out of the room and down a hall. As they walked, James thought of something. "Hey Susan? What do you do here?" He wondered if maybe she was a teacher for mages. He remembered the shimmering shield she''d called up, although he hadn''t paid much attention to it.


    Susan smiled. "I''m actually in charge of the academy. I run everything here. It''s actually fairly easy." She glanced at him. "Number one rule of being in charge of something? Have good subordinates. I have people in charge of running all of the different areas, and I only need to get involved when something affects two of them or the rest of the fort. Keeps a lot of the work off of me."


    James stared. She was in charge of the entire academy? What was it with him and just randomly running into important people? Still, before he could say anything, Susan opened a door in the hall. "Hey, Matt. Here''s someone who''s joining your class. And I need to speak to you for a moment."


    A man walked out. He glanced at James. "Just grab any empty seat. There are plenty." He then looked at Susan, who waved James in.


    As James entered the classroom, he did see that it was mostly empty. There were only three other people, two guys and a girl, all of whom looked about his age. They all were sitting quietly, James wasn''t sure what they were doing. Still, he walked in quietly and sat in the back. As he walked, one of the guys waved to him. The other one looked asleep, and the girl was focusing and James didn''t even know if she''d noticed him.


    James sat down, and the others went back to ¡­ whatever it was they were doing. James wasn''t sure what to do, so he looked at his menu again.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    James Boksae


    HP: 140/140


    Mana: 100/100


    Mana regen: 3 per minute


    STR: 8


    CON: 14


    DEX: 13


    INT: 10


    WIS: 15


    Compass: Sapphire phoenix feather


    Phoenix veins


    Resonance


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    He definitely was stronger than that morning, although the only thing he currently could use was the increase in constitution. Still, once he learned some spells and skills, he would be a lot stronger.


    Just then Matt walked back in. Everyone glanced up, even the person James had assumed was asleep. "Keep searching for your channels." Matt said. The others went back to whatever they were doing, apparently searching for these "mana channels", whatever they were.


    Matt waved for James to walk up to the front of the room. When James got there, he gestured to another seat by his desk and started talking quietly. "OK, so Susan tells me you are allowed to join a bit late, but that you have a bit of a head start in that you have some idea about where your channels are. Sound accurate?"


    James nodded. Matt nodded, then continued. "She also said that despite kind of knowing where your channels are, you don''t really know what they are. Right?" James nodded again.


    Matt nodded. "OK, well, what this first week is all about is finding those channels. Then after this week there are normal classes. Classes at the academy are super simple. If you want to join almost any class you can, that''s why the guild taxes loot you get from dungeons. You can even miss classes without any problems. Still, the instructors move quickly, and won''t slow down for someone who''s been skipping classes."


    He thought for a second. "As for mana channels, in your body there are limited paths the mana can flow through. Once you find them, you know, but finding them the first time is a bit tricky. First you have to find your mana pool. Most people feel it in their lower chest area. It should feel like a reservoir of power. See if you can find yours."


    James thought about the fire he''d felt. There had been one spot with far more heat than anywhere else. Perhaps that was this "reservoir" Matt spoke of? He tried to feel inside of himself. He remembered right where the burning had been. He just ¡­ had ¡­ to ¡­ got it! He suddenly felt the same area he''d felt with the fire. But now, instead of burning pain, James had the impression of trapped power. It felt like a dam right before it burst, or the last second of blowing up a balloon right before it popped. James could tell this reservoir was filled to the brim, and adding any more would probably be a bad idea. "Found it."


    Matt had turned back to the papers on his desk, and he looked at James in surprise. "Really? Usually that''s the whole first day! You keep moving like this and you''ll catch up quickly!"


    He thought for a second. "OK, now for finding your mana channels. Basically if your mana travels anywhere but your mana channels, it will pretty much immediately break apart and disappear. So basically, start sending bursts of mana out from your pool in random directions. Once you find a direction where the mana doesn''t break apart for longer, that''s probably a channel. Try sending more mana down it, finding the paths where it doesn''t break apart. Generally people have a channel to each hand, each foot, and to their head, specifically eyes, ears, nose, etc. These are the areas you can send mana to do various things, like strengthen your muscles or sharpen your senses or cast spells. Really, what is commonly called ''skills'' is just sending essence to the right parts of your body and doing something with it. Eventually it becomes almost instinctive, and you can do it in seconds. That''s when we say you''ve ''gained a skill'', because that''s when it''s actually useful in combat."


    He thought for a second. "So for now, try and find your channels. Later classes are where you work on using mana in productive ways, but it doesn''t work if you haven''t found your channels."


    He turned back to his desk and James started looking inside of himself at the pool of mana. He had a pretty good idea where his channels were, the feeling of flame rushing through them wasn''t something you forget easily. He decided to go with the one through his right hand first. Then he realized he didn''t know how to move the mana. He figured the only option was to think about it moving. As he did, it kind of twitched, but didn''t really respond. He thought about how he pushed his menu to open, and tried to do the same thing here. He gave a mental push on the mana. The pool of mana seemed to slosh around a bit, but not much. James realized he''d been trying to move the whole pool, and envisioned moving just a drop.


    This made it far easier. Soon he had a drop moving down his channels. He knew where his channels were, but he still wasn''t great at controlling the mana so it inevitably hit one of the sides of the channels and broke apart. Fortunately his core refilled quickly, so he always had plenty to practice with. Soon he was easily able to move a drop of mana around his channel and back. It turned out his channel didn''t actually go to his hand, it was actually a loop. But it went right next to his palm, and as one of his drops was moving past it James gave a mental shove and sent it through his palm.


    It cast a slight glow and gave off a small amount of warmth before fading away. It actually reminded James of a tiny ember floating on the smoke of a fire. Matt looked over from his papers. "Nice job! You got one. Again, that''s usually at least a few days'' work, but it looks like you''re a natural at this. You can go sit down and work on finding the others. We aren''t going to do much more today."


    James went and sat back down on the back row. He continued practicing on the right arm until it became super natural. Then he moved to the left arm, figuring it would be very similar. It was, and before long he had that one down as well. He moved on to his feet. Again, it wasn''t long before he could easily move a drop of mana around the loop and back into his core. Then the other leg. Again, pretty quick. He had one strange moment where he accidently lost control of the mana and it went into a muscle in his leg. Suddenly the leg jerked, kicking the desk in front of him. Everyone looked up at the loud sound. He grabbed the leg where it had hit the table. "Sorry." He grunted. Everyone went back to what they''d been doing except the one who''d been acting asleep. He still watched James. James held onto his now-sore leg. He''d kicked the table hard! If a single drop of mana had made him do that, he could see how adventurers could do such inhuman stuff.


    Pretty soon the soreness wore off. Thank you, accelerated natural healing! He went back to working on his mana channels. He practiced the legs a bit more to get them down, then tried the arms a bit to make sure he was still good with those. Once he was confident with those four he moved on to the one going to his head. Again, he found it fairly easy and just had to become familiar with it. This channel was more complicated than the others, as it kind of spiraled through his head. It hit his right ear, up behind his right eye, down through his nose to the left side of his mouth, across to the right side of his mouth, back through the nose, behind his left eye and past his left ear before dropping back to the pool. With the more complicated path, he wasn''t too surprised when a bit of mana got out of the path and sunk into his nose.


    Suddenly he smelled everything! It was cool for a split second before it absolutely overloaded his nose and made him sneeze. Then again, harder. The third time he sneezed so hard he smashed his nose on the desk in front of him. Again, everyone was looking at him. "Sawy," he apologized, though it sounded kind of strange as he was holding his nose. Everyone again went back to what they were doing, except the one person who kept watching him.


    Pretty soon his nose stopped hurting and he went back to practicing. He slipped up one other time, but the essence went into his ear, so he didn''t make a fool of himself. And in the quiet room it wasn''t too overwhelming, either. Still, he could hear everyone breathing, and heard Matt as he was muttering while doing whatever it was with his papers. "What if I ¡­ no, that doesn''t help. Maybe if I were to use the ¡­ no. Oh, what if I start by ¡­" he trailed off as he started writing.


    Pretty soon James was super familiar with all five paths, but now he was confused. The fire had burned one more place. He sent some mana down the channel. At first it matched up with the channel he called the senses channel, but then when the senses channel broke off to the right to head to the ear, this new path kept going straight. It went straight to his brain, then back down to the pool. Now James was curious. He purposefully sent a drop of mana into his brain.


    Something definitely happened, but James wasn''t sure what. It only lasted for a split second. James sent a bigger drop of mana. Again, something happened, but it was over too quickly for James to figure out what it was. James had an idea. He practiced sending a stream of mana through his channels. Instead of a single drop, he now had a small but steady flow of essence traveling along the path. It was harder than a drop, but not by a lot. The mana seemed to prefer flowing like that, like a stream, instead of all at once like he''d tried at first.


    Now that he could do that, he sent a stream up and into his mind. This time, with a steady supply of mana, the effect stayed. James still wasn''t sure what it was until he noticed Matt''s pen moving super slowly. He glanced at the clock behind Matt. He watched as the second hand sloooooowly moved to the next second. Then sloooooowly to the next. Time was moving slower! Or, really, he realized, he was just perceiving it faster. He glanced inside of himself at the mana moving. It was strangely still moving at the same speed. In fact, the pool was getting low! He watched the clock tick one more time before his mana ran out.


    Suddenly time was moving normally again, and he had a massive headache. He groaned quietly and leaned back in his seat. He held his head. He noticed Matt look up, facepalm, and walk to the back of the classroom. He walked over to James and squatted down. "Um, I forgot to tell you this, but I would recommend not using the very last bit of your mana. That leads to something called mana exhaustion. At the least it causes a headache, but once you''re casting stronger spells it can cause major problems, even death." He grimaced. "Probably should have told you that before you gave yourself a headache. Sorry."


    James nodded to him. "It''s fine. I''ve had worse." While it was a pretty bad headache, it couldn''t really compare to phoenix fire burning through his channels. Maybe that''s why all of the pain since then had felt strangely dull. Even the headache wasn''t that bad, it had mostly surprised him.


    Matt nodded. "Well, as a bit of good news, the vial you took to become an adventurer also dulls pain. That''s why adventurers are able to keep fighting with wounds like missing limbs or arrows sticking out of them."


    So that''s what it had been. James had assumed it was his improved healing, because every time he''d hurt himself it was a sharp spike of pain for a moment, but then it dropped off after only a second or two. "That''s handy."


    Matt grimaced. "True, but it leads to one of the least enjoyable training exercises. Learning to instinctively know how much damage you just took."


    James wasn''t sure he wanted to ask, but curiosity was killing him. "How do you train that?"


    Matt smiled like he was in pain. "You take damage and feel what it feels like to take various amounts. It involves lots of getting hit with weapons and spells, guessing how much damage you took, getting healed, and repeating. Not fun, but pretty important in a dungeon. You can''t be constantly checking your menu to see how much HP you have left in the middle of a fight."


    That ¡­ didn''t sound fun at all. Still, James could see the point. You had to know how much HP you had if you wanted to fight. Matt walked back to the front and James thought about what he''d been doing right before that. It seemed like putting mana into his brain made him process faster, but also used up mana insanely fast. He''d been basically full of mana, and had gone through all 100 within a few seconds. Still, he could see how it could be useful. Especially since he''d noticed his mana''s movement sped up with his perception.


    He waited a few minutes to regain some mana and started practicing again. This was going to be awesome.