Wandering Dungeon

The glowing stone flowed slowly like molasses, leaving behind a scooped-out area of stone, rising ever so slowly under Garrett's core. It didn't take a lot of focus to move the stone, about as much focus as it did to move the coins Garrett had found and played around with earlier. Garrett figured stone just moved a lot slower because it was heavier and didn't normally move. When the pillar had grown to about two feet the stone seemed to flow a little faster. He felt that it also took less focus than it did before.

"You're doing great Garrett." Blixie said with enthusiasm. "It looks like Earth Shape leveled up as well."

"Skills have levels? How can you tell that it's level increased?"

Blixie sighed. "I forgot how much you don't know. Yes, skills have levels. The more you use them the more powerful or efficient they become. So, since the earth flowing in to make your pillar sped up ever so slightly that means your Earth Shape skill increased. That skill will probably become your highest leveled skill, at least for a while, just because it will be used to make your whole dungeon. Once you're all set up with several floors and it starts taking closer to years to get a new level then you will really start focusing on different skills, but that is years down the road."

"Ah, that makes sense, I guess. So how high do I need to make my core pillar?"

"About four to five feet is usual for a low-level dungeon. Once you get to a higher level you can make your core room bigger and your pillar larger and more elaborate. You should also have the stone go over your core to protect it but don't cover it completely. You need at least a quarter of your core exposed to breath." Blixie told Garrett in her teaching voice.

“Why can’t I just encase my core completely?” Garret asked Blixie. "That way it will be safe, also I don't breathe."

“Because even though your core looks like a common gem it houses your soul and your conscience. Your soul survives by absorbing the ambient mana in the elements around you, but your future monsters survive by using the mana that is continuously released by your core, so if you cover your core completely little to no mana can come out."

It took several hours but Garrett finished his core pillar. He looked at his gem proudly displayed on the four-and-a-half-foot tall pillar. Only a small portion of his gem peaked out of the front, giving off a faint glow. He felt that the pillar was a bit plain being just a rough mound that looked like a pile of stone, so he decided to try molding it a bit more and see how creative he could get. Geometric patterns flourished around the gem and slowly spread out covering the pillar from top to bottom.

"That looks great!" Blixie exclaimed. "Your mana will start to recover slowly now that you have a direct connection to the earth around you." Garrett checked his status and saw that his mana had only recovered by a point after the several minutes it took to make the geometric patterns. "You can also speed up your mana recovery by focusing on it." Blixie continued. "Just imagine the process you did for adding your mana to the stone but backwards. Imagine pulling the mana into your core."

Garrett followed Blixie's guidance and soon he could feel a small mud like trickle of mana slowly flowing into him.

"Mana doesn’t flow well through stone unless it's processed correctly.” Blixie explained. "But as you infuse the stone around you it turns into what is known as dungeon stone and your mana, and the mana that naturally accumulates inside it, will flow through it a lot quicker. Now let's work on increasing your influence some more."

"Do I just add mana like I did with the stone?"

"That's exactly right Garrett! I'm glad you can learn quickly, so at least you're not a complete idiot."

Garrett checked his mana and saw that it was almost half full. He tried to push his mana into the air like he did with the stone, but nothing happened, not even a dip in mana. He could see the string of mana, but it was just floating in the air. With a flash of inspiration, he thought of the end of the mana string diffusing and filling his influence, expanding it like a balloon though he couldn't say what a balloon was. To his amazement it worked. He could see his green bubble of influence expanding a few inches in just a couple minutes. Garrett whooped with excitement and raced around his slowly growing bubble. He kept feeding his mana into his influence until his mana emptied again, by then his influence had grown a couple of feet in diameter.

"Now don't go getting too excited now. You still have to infuse your mana into the stone so you can mold it into your dungeon." Blixie called out. "It doesn't matter how big your influence is if you can't do anything with the stuff inside."

"Sorry. I got carried away, but this way I get a bit more room to float around." Garret got into a routine of infusing mana into his influence and the stone within, smoothing out the floor as he went to increase his Earth Shape ability as well as improve the look of his personal chunk of the world. Chatting with Blixie helped pass the time while he waited for his mana to recharge. Garrett became bored of the routine soon enough and experimented with adding mana at various speeds and found a balance that allowed him to continue adding mana to his influence while gaining more mana than was spent. It significantly slowed down the process, but he figured he could use this later when he was bigger and wouldn't have as much time to actively push mana into his influence. After a few days, according to Blixie, Garretts influence was nearing the wall of the cave closest to him.

Garrett had been waiting for this moment. His influence was almost covering the unbroken boxes and barrels he had seen when he first looked around the cave. Soon he would get to see what was in them. He was so excited he pushed all the mana he had into his influence thinking of the mysteries that could be contained in them. Garrett saw his bubble expand rapidly toward the boxes and cover them.

Garrett floated there stunned. His influence hadn't expanded that much when he put his mana in it before. He looked around and realized that his influence was no longer a perfect sphere. The part covering the boxes was a lump extending out. "Hey Blixie, what just happened?"

Blixie had been slowly flying around trying to plan how they could best make use of the natural cave they were in. The darkness not bothering her since pixie eyes had evolved to see in any lighting condition, except magical darkness. She turned to Garrett when he called out. "What basic information, known to every dungeon but you, can I give to you now Garrett?" Blixie said sarcastically. She saw the lump of influence extending out over the wooden boxes. "When did you learn how to shape your influence? You shouldn't be able to do that for at least a couple of months if not years." She said incredulously.

"I just did as you said and pushed mana into my influence.

"Did you focus on the boxes as you pushed out your mana? "

"I did."

"Well, there you go. Most dungeons only think about pushing the most mana they can into their influence, so it is round but sometimes it can be useful to control the shape of your influence as well as the size. Now, let's go see what new things we have to play with."

"It's just some old, dried-up food stuff." Garrett replied uninterested. "I was able to look inside before you got here."

Blixie looked at Garrett with disbelief. "I know for a fact that dungeons can only see anything that is inside their influence, and when I got here your influence was just a couple of feet in diameter. So, can you please explain what you mean by you saw it before I got here."

"Well, I can see why dungeons only see what is in their influence if they're underground without light, but luckily I have a sun stone." Garrett said feeling impressed with himself as he reached out, grabbed the sun stone from where it was left, and brought it over between them. He feed the little stone some mana like before, activating it. Light burst from the stone blinding Blixie for a brief second and lighting up the small cave.

"Ugh!" Blixie cried out and covered her eyes. "What the hell? Don't just go making a light in front of someone's eyes." Blixie growled angrily. "Wait, how did you make a light?" Blixie asked confused, the pain and spots in her eyes slowly fading.

"I didn't make it. I found it laying around. It might have belonged to the skeleton over there.

Finally, Blixie was able to see again and looked at the stone floating in front of her. "Ah. That makes more sense. So that's why it was so easy for you to infuse your mana into the stone and your influence. You had done it before with this sun stone, but how did you get it to float? I didn't see any wind or gravity magic on your status."

"I just...picked it up." Garrett moved the sun stone around spinning it slowly. "It took me a bit to figure out how to pick-up things though."

"Hold on." Blixie said frustrated, trying to figure out how this was possible. She snapped her head up. "Bring up your status again. I think I know why you can do this."

Garrett pulled up his status with a thought wondering what idea she had. Blixie quickly looked over Garrett's status again. "Aha! I think it is because of this Unseen Force skill of yours. When you pick up something do you see anything?"

"Well, I see a thin...string I guess you could call it, made of mana that seems to attach to it. Is that what you are talking about?"

"Yep." Blixie said. The worry of something else being weird about this dungeon dissipated. "So, it was just a skill I hadn't heard about before. Now that that mystery is solved let's have you absorb those boxes and their contents." Before Garrett could ask how to absorb things Blixie continued. "Go over to the creates and imagine them dissolving into mana and that mana becoming a part of you."

"Alright." Garrett said exasperated. "You are my guide after all." Garrett floated over and tried following Blixie's instructions. After several seconds, the boxes and the food inside seemed to dissolve into particles of mana before being absorbed by Garrett.

"So, now what?"

"So, now you should have the knowledge of how the mana forms those items. You can use your mana to recreate them and use them as rewards to draw in adventurers."

"Can I do that with the coins and crystals I got from before?"

"You have coins already?" Blixie asked excitedly. "I didn't think you would get some until you were able to kill your first adventurer. To answer your question, yes you can use your mana to recreate pretty much anything you absorb. You just have to picture the item in your mind and then add mana to it."

Garrett focused on the image of an apple that he had absorbed from the crate. Slowly a green transparent image of an apple formed in his mind. He pushed his mana into the image like he did with the stone. His mana filled the image like water into a pitcher. Slowly the apple took on a ruby red hue. When the image was full of mana and looked like an apple freshly plucked from a tree Blixie told him to imagine placing the apple within his influence.

Garrett imagined the apple resting on the floor near where the crates were. A small flash of light appeared on the floor, then winked out quickly. Garrett and Blixie looked with excitement at the first item Garrett had created, the first step to becoming a truly great dungeon. On the floor where Garrett Imagined the apple to be appeared a small seed.

"Huh!?" Blixie said perplexed.