Blue Core

The bandages came off after a few hours, peeling away from pale but whole skin of their own accord, after which I put a bed underneath Shayma to lift her out of the water. Even with [Restful Night] active I was pretty sure soaking in hot water for hours on end wasn’t the best thing for someone to do. Once I spun blankets over her, using [Temperature Finesse] to take most of the heat out of the surrounding air, she made a sleepy noise and rolled over, snuggling into the bed. It was adorable, and a side of her I hadn’t gotten to see for a while. Not with all the fighting and stress.

I didn’t let Iniri wake her up when she arrived just before midnight, so the conversation was one-sided. Embarrassingly, I hadn’t caught the conversation with the shadow monster, so maybe it was better that I couldn’t talk to her. It was weird to think she’d heard, and figured out, something about me before I had. Though I doubted that, whatever Tor Kot’s experiments had been, I was the intended result.

At least Iniri had given them my name, and in such a way that they still thought I was a mage-king. Hopefully that meant my level-five benefit would kick in and I’d get to see Tor Kot and maybe whoever else was talking about me among my enemies when the Shadow guy reported in. Until then, I had a lot of work to do.

Something I’d somehow failed to notice earlier was that all of my Sources were gone. I hadn’t stockpiled any, but kept them on the vine, as it were, letting them slowly grow from the chrystheniums. Either when the ecology had died the Sources had evaporated, or my dungeon-self had done something with them, but either way I’d have to wait a couple days for them to start appearing again. Unfortunately that meant I didn’t have much to distract me from rebuilding Meil.

There wasn’t any shortcut or background way for me to do it. I didn’t have any sort of process I could hand it off to. No, I had to remake each building manually. It wasn’t like it was exactly difficult, but it was tedious and I found that I had a lot more work to do than I’d originally thought. Partly because I’d underestimated the size of Meil despite it being part of me, and partly because I wasn’t just making things from scratch. There were partly-collapsed walls, some belonging to me, some not, debris, furnishings, and even the occasional corpse that had escaped either the Red Core’s or my dungeon-self’s notice. On rare occasion there were even survivors trapped under the rubble who needed to be delivered to the clinic. Keri and Annit were still working there, both of them half-exhausted.

I was a one-dungeon search and rescue and repair crew, and while I had a lot of advantages that made it possible, it was still enormously intensive. I kind of regretted agreeing to it, but I was stuck now. Besides, I really did want to see how normal Affinity and Source crafting was done. I had my [Fabricator] and my [Metallurgy] stuff, but that was pretty limited. I still couldn’t do cloth and leather and even much with wood, and there was probably stuff I was forgetting. Or stuff I hadn’t even seen yet, since my perspective had been pretty limited.

While sorting through one of the collapsed areas and using [Assimilation] to remove a particularly precarious section of wall, I ran across something I was tempted to steal for myself. A map. And not just of Iniri’s kingdom, but of the entire continent! Finally, some context for where I was. I decided to make a graven, symbol-free copy inside my core room just so I could have something to reference at will.

The continent itself was labeled Orn, and it was a roughly trilobe-shaped affair, with three enormous peninsulas sticking out from a central heartland to the northeast, northwest, and south. I didn’t realize how big until I located Tarnil, on the eastern coast of the northeast lobe, looking very tiny against the backdrop of the enormous area claimed by the Empire of Ir in the center of the continent. Not that size and power were the same, but it pretty well confirmed that Tarnil was a minor player.

Actually the entire northeast lobe seemed to be that way. According to the map it was heavily mountainous, in a way that defied what I knew of geology, but considering magic and, frankly, the shallowness of my knowledge it was believable. Multiple distinct ranges crossed each other at various angles, chopping most of the land up into little pocket valleys, each one holding its own kingdom. Calling them ‘little’ might be a bit of a misnomer, though, as Nivir was over twice the size of Tarnil but was still slightly below the average.

The Great Northern Waste was on the map too, and if it had previously been part of Tarnil, they’d lost an enormous amount. The blotch sitting north of Tarnil, and very close to where I was, seemed to be on the same scale of Nivir’s valley. I could well imagine the current Tarnil was a minor portion of the original kingdom, the survivors of whatever awful conflict had needed the Adamant Fortress.

So far I’d only heard of Nivir as Tarnil’s neighbor, and that wasn’t too far wrong. With the Waste to the north and Nivir to the west, along with the curve of the shore, Tarnil only barely touched one other kingdom, to the southwest beyond Wildwood. Well, I assumed it was a kingdom but the map only labeled it as Orrelin, one of the big geographical winners of the lobe, a roughly crescent shaped pleateau running from the eastern shore to nearly the western. The other power bordering the Waste and presumably Tarnil’s former neighbor was Haerlish, who had a shallow wedge of mostly coast.

That made it very similar to the current Tarnil, which was a sort of bracket-shaped piece of land with Meil near the very top and the other four cities clustered around a river delta further south and east. Wildwood was south and west, and I suspected it constituted as much of a border as the mountains. Though considering that there were earth mages and wind mages I wasn’t sure how much of a barrier mountains really were.

Considering that I’d found Ansae in a mountain and that this was a world chock-full of mana and magic, digging a tunnel straight through might actually be a terrible idea. Or even flying over. I could well believe that people would stick to normal passes rather than risk disturbing something that might decide to eat their kingdom.

For example, the entire northwestern lobe was blank, with a label that just said Wilderness of Tarkelion. Presumably it was uninhabited, or at least, not inhabited by anyone with a political presence. The only hint of what might lie there was a stylized snake with wings. It took up almost a full third of the landmass, and was bigger than any of the countries, even Ir.

It wasn’t just kingdoms and principalities on the map, either. Nivir’s Great Dungeon was labeled, and after some searching I found a second one on Ir’s coastline, in one of the massive bays formed by the continent’s shape. The third was smack in the middle of the southern lobe, in whatever country Larch was.

Mana springs were more common, with at least one per country. I wasn’t sure how Wildwood compared to them, but it really drove home that my low-mana location was rather unusual. Maybe Tarnil itself was fairly unusual, but then, Ir’s capital was a long way from both its Great Dungeon and any of the eight mana springs within its borders.

With some reluctance I left the map to its original owners, whoever they were, and went back to fixing the buildings. There wasn’t much that the map really did for me, aside from satisfying my curiosity, especially since it didn’t tell me where the mage-kings came from. I knew that they’d arrived on the coast, and they weren’t from the continent, but that left basically the whole wide world beyond Orn.

It wasn’t until later that I found more. In a different and far more intact building someone had a small globe. It was an expensive-looking thing made of gemstones, and while it lacked any sort of labeling I could at least identify Orn on it. Which led me to a problem, because according to the globe, Orn was just one of seven continents, all of a similar size, not to mention a broad scattering of islands and things halfway between. If everything was to scale, this world was enormous.

I did some quick estimations, based on the scale of the continent map I’d found. While it was possible that some things were grossly exaggerated, if everything was correct the planet was something like thirty thousand kilometers in diameter, which should have resulted in crushing gravity and atmospheric pressure. That clearly wasn’t the case, so all I could guess was magic was involved somehow. Maybe I should feel lucky though, if things were magic I could have ended up on a planet that was actually flat, or a cube or something. Unfortunately, nobody had an orrery so I could take the next step and assure myself that the solar system was at least marginally normal as well.

I dispersed the [Restful Night] field around morning, partly because Shayma had already slept for over twelve hours and partly because I wasn’t sure she could wake up with it going. I was pretty sure that as a beneficial field, it wouldn’t have so deleterious an effect, but then again, the only difference between medicine and poison was amount. Only a few minutes later she yawned and pushed herself up, sheets sliding off bare skin. It was a sight I enjoyed no matter how often I got to see it.

Despite being a third of the way through the gestation time on the Dungeon Seed, I couldn’t see any noticeable bump to her belly. Not that I knew what to expect. I’d only used a breeding option that produced something all of one time before, and that was a sort-of monster. With the Purifier line of options being almost definitionally opposed to monsters, it would be a mistake to take that as precedent.

“Feeling better?”

“I feel amazing! Everything’s healed, and I don’t think I’ve slept that well in years.”

“I have a new magic field and it’s called [Restful Night], so I would certainly hope so.” Her hit points were full and she no longer had any had any status effects other than [Well Rested]. Aside from being paler, her arms looked fully restored, even the muscle mass replenished.

“It definitely was restful,” she agreed. “Thank you, Blue! But now I’m starving. Is there anything around?” It was not an idle question. The refugees had been running on scraps and fumes since I was still sure that feeding them dungeon-made meat was a bad idea, courtesy of [Tempered Wisdom], which made the introduction of the tayantan fruits quite the relief. Since those actually properly grew rather than were made directly, they seemed far safer as a food source. Too bad all mine had died off.

All the crops in the experimental rooms were dead as well, withered along with my chrystheniums and grasses and trees. Apparently it had been a really good idea for me to not plug the farming room crops into my mana, given how everything had ended up dying. I didn’t even have basic potatoes for Shayma.

Fortunately, Iniri was starting to have her own breakfast over in Meil, and as queen she of course had first call on the remaining stocks. It wasn’t overly elaborate, just bread and jam and eggs, but more than I could provide. All I had was a couple of leftover pies, now cooled, and a bushel or two of the tayantan fruits. “Looks like Iniri has food. How about I send you over there with some of my fruit? I’m afraid I don’t have much breakfast-worthy fare at the moment.”

I hadn’t much thought about it until Iniri mentioned pulling everyone out of the living places I’d made, but I needed some way to feed Shayma and Keri and Annit once everyone else was gone. I could imitate a refrigerator with [Temperature Finesse] but the rest of it was beyond me.

“Great! Is there anything you need to discuss with her?” Shayma dressed herself again, and I added laundry to the mental list of things I needed to provide, or get someone else to provide, to my people.

“You can tell her to go ahead and fill you in on the meeting she had with one of Tor Kot’s monsters. Or I guess it was one of his monsters. Either way, she did a great job but I’d rather have her tell it in case I forgot something.”

“I hope she doesn’t mind me dropping in…” Shayma blinked at the thin stone bowl I put nearby, filling it with fruits from storage.

“You’re not just my representative, you’re also her friend, and she sounded pretty stressed out yesterday.”

“Well, when you put it that way…” She picked up the bowl, gingerly at first, as if afraid her arms were still tender, then hefting it up. “Ready.”

I went ahead and spun a temporary teleportation field around her, dropping her in front of the door to the fairly large dining room. To their credit, none of Iniri’s guards did more than twitch at her sudden appearance, though Iniri looked up sharply the moment Shayma appeared. I didn’t see any perception skills like Shayma’s in Iniri’s Status, but maybe it was just levels. Shayma did mention she felt more capable after leveling up, and her visible stats had certainly risen, so maybe basic perception had too. I didn’t tend to use her eyes now that I had [Genius Loci] so it was difficult for me to gauge.

“Shayma!” Iniri’s face lit up in a smile. “I see you’re all healed up.”

“I am! I come bearing gifts!” Shayma put the bowl down on the table, eyeing Iniri’s spread covetously. “Think I could get a little breakfast?”

“Certainly.” Iniri waved a hand at a servant, who obediently left the dining room to find the cook. “I admit tayantan fruit is nice, but I’m really looking forward to the next harvest. It’s been a while since I thought of fresh vegetables as a luxury. I haven’t worried about that since my adventuring days.”

“Where did you go to level up, anyway?” Shayma asked, taking a seat at the table. “You don’t really talk about adventuring that much.”

“Well, a surprising amount of adventuring experience doesn’t really apply to being a queen.” Iniri took another bite of toast and jam. “I went down the coast to Ir’s Great Dungeon. I know Nivir’s is closer but...we don’t have the best relations with them. I suppose you’ve never been, but Ir’s is more developed anyway.”

“Like Wildwood is?”

“Much larger than Wildwood.” Iniri smiled. “In fact I believe it was a veteran of Ir’s Great Dungeon that decided to build Wildwood. Most mana springs can’t support a city, after all. Imagine what a fire Affinity mana spring looks like.”

Oh.

Suddenly the fact that fourth tiers from other countries were hanging out at Wildwood when there were so many mana springs around made more sense. While there were clearly a lot of beasts and things around Wildwood, nature and air Affinities didn’t result in horrible flaming wastelands or the like. In fact, it meant that there was plenty of food and water to support a city.

“Huh. I guess that explains why mom and dad didn’t often go to other countries. Though I’m kind of glad they were out in Nivir when the invasion happened.”

“Would that more of our Classers were.” Iniri sighed. “I shouldn’t be maudlin in the morning. There’s a lot of work to be done.”

“I’ll have to ask Blue to let you try out his new magic field,” Shayma said. “Gave me the best night’s sleep I’ve ever had.”

“I could use that,” Iniri admitted.

“Oh, also! Blue said something about a monster visiting yesterday?” Shayma asked, before being immediately distracted by the delivery of her own breakfast.

“Yes, it was...certainly interesting.” The second repetition of the story was more or less the same as the first, but this time it started me thinking about something entirely different. Namely, it had me wondering what counted as damage to a core.

So far, neither of my cores had regained any hit points. Both of them were sitting at all of three Core HP and, aside from a slight divot in the side of one of them, they both looked fine despite the numerical evidence. I was starting to get a little worried, since even slow natural HP regeneration would have been fine, but none meant that I had to repair them rather than wait for them to heal.

Clearly the mage-kings had knowledge of how to repair cores. They’d have to, after all this time. But given that the Meil core had been level nine it was clear to me that they operated on different principles. Well, not totally different, but different enough that I couldn’t really use them as a reference for how I could do things.

If I couldn’t regenerate naturally, that meant there was some sort of material or Skill or something that repaired me, and it probably took resources. So while Iniri and Shayma had breakfast and chatted, I considered the ways I could fix myself. The problem was this was my Core, so my usual solutions of how to affect things didn’t count. It already contained most of my resources, was already part of my mana dynamo, and held a huge chunk of my mana by itself.

Attempting to somehow push any of my resources into my core was an exercise in futility. They were already there, after all, save for the mana that I had in my external storage. I thought maybe if I built some more of those I’d reach some tipping point where I could actually pressure one of my cores, but I hadn’t yet. The storage crystals that might let me do so were one of the things that I could actually build right now, but that ran into a problem too. Apparently there was a limit to how many I could build.

I already had slightly over fifty, and when I hit seventy they started disconnecting from me all on their own. Which wouldn’t have been a problem if that just meant they were standalone chunks of resources, like when I stored excess stone in big empty rooms. Instead, the disconnected storage crystals started melting or, if they had mana in them, they exploded. That was really irritating, but since the number was a multiple of my level I figured it was one of those level restriction things, albeit an unspoken one.

Of course, the overlay never actually mentioned any restrictions like these. Instead I got to waste a bunch of gold and mana and stone and time. I was too annoyed to continue experimenting, so I went back to fixing up Meil while I chewed over the problem. If I had any free experience I could level up the storage crystals, but who knew how expensive they’d get, and anyway [Tempered Wisdom] implied to me I already had the tools to solve it, so it wasn’t a matter of finding a new Skill.

Thinking it over, I had a few resources I hadn’t done much with and still didn’t really know what they were for. Everything about the latticework gem, for example. While I’d used a Core Lattice Gem for Shayma’s ring, mostly due to aesthetics, I didn’t know what it was for. Same with the resource it produced, mana lattice. If I still had any lattice gems I would have definitely tried to do something with them, but they were one of the things lost when everything died. Mana lattice itself just evaporated when I tried to get it out of storage, making me think it was exactly what it said. Mana, structured in a specific way.

I was still musing over these things when Shayma grabbed my attention. “What does The Hurricane want to talk to Blue about?”

“The same as before,” Iniri said. “Only this time I think she’s really serious. She won’t even talk to me until she’s spoken with you, even though she knows I don’t have any actual influence with Blue.”

It took me a minute to locate The Hurricane, who was sulking in a different manor, a street away from Iniri. Though, considering her status, she had reason to be upset.

Mildred Norp

The Hurricane (Level 79)

Race: Mystic-blood demihuman

Health: 1025/1025

Stamina: 880/880

Mana: 1748/1748

Depletion: 270/313

She’d gained something like two hundred points of Depletion over the battle, maybe more, so certainly her Skills had degraded. And maybe stats and regen too, I wasn’t exactly sure how it worked. It didn’t seem to be consistent from one person to another, because of course it wasn’t.

I still wasn’t that interested in her, mostly because of the crazy. Without that she was pretty cute, probably due to the mystic-blood influence, which made her look a lot younger than she had to be. I didn’t know, but I got the impression that getting to fourth tier took a lot of time, and both Liril and Yamal looked to be in their fifties. A very hearty and hale fifties, but still. The Hurricane, and I understand why she went by that when her real name was Mildred Norp, looked to be a well-preserved thirty or so. The vibrant hair probably helped with that.

The crazy could be an act, though. A professional persona. It didn’t seem likely to me, but it was at least possible, and having a fourth-tier in my debt would be useful, if nothing else.

“Well...if she behaves herself I’ll talk to her,” I told Shayma.

“I’m...actually a little surprised Blue’s willing to deal with her,” Iniri said. “Even I find her a little wearing.”

“Mostly I wouldn’t mind having a fourth-tier available for something. Still considering what.”

“Blue can find a use for her,” Shayma translated, making me sound more aloof and calculating, as usual. I was lucky she was good at making my public persona more like a Power and less like someone who had no idea what they were doing. I suspect most people would be far less impressed with me if they heard my meanderings to Shayma.

“I wish you luck with that,” Iniri shook her head. “And speaking of Blue, while most of the treasury here was cleaned out there are a couple items I can use to pay him what I owe.”

“Ooh?” Shayma’s eyes sparkled. “I always wondered what was in the treasury. Any treasury.”

“Mostly currency,” Iniri admitted. “Plus some magical tools that various royals and nobles used during their adventuring days. There are some I’d rather reserve for rebuilding, but if Blue doesn’t like either of these choices I’ll bring them out.”

“I’m pretty good at building myself so I doubt I’d need any of those tools anyway.”

Iniri snorted. “I suppose he is, at that. The two I’m suggesting are an air sled and a monster wardstone. Both of them require you to charge them with mana, and the sled just floats – it’s really useful for hauling things when you’re adventuring – while the monster wardstone interacts with dungeon mana somehow. I’m not clear on exactly how it works, but it keeps most monsters from wandering into your campsite in Great Dungeons.”

“Ooh. That second one sounds really interesting. Maybe it’s kind of a [Bane] item.”

“Maybe, but if I turn it on I’ll do it way out at the edge of your territory,” Shayma said. “Blue wants the wardstone.”

“I thought that might be the case. And the sled?”

“Since it turns out I can’t do magic...I mean, I can take it, but I don’t have anything I can do with it yet. It’s not like you really need it since you can always use my inventory. What about the crafters?”

“I’m still working on getting those together,” Iniri admitted. “If you don’t want the sled I’m sure I can find a use for it. Sell it, maybe. Though we’re still on a war footing, and need food more than gold...anyway, the wardstone is all yours. I’ll send someone to get it. Though, I suppose Blue already has access to it, since he is the room it’s locked in.

“Umm…” Actually that was a valid point. Technically I did have access to everything in the treasury. The locked room Iniri mentioned had several hundred gold coins, several dozen Source capsules, and the magical tools Iniri had mentioned.

Dungeon Wardstone: Keeps away Dungeon monsters

Forin’s Plow: Improves crop yields.

Statue of Biriah: Improves fecundity.

Shared Storage Cube (5): Spatial storage. All storage spaces connected.

Air Sled: Carries items.

My descriptions were still terrible, since I was pretty sure that anyone else looking at them would get more information. The wardstone was a fist-sized white sphere, not very exciting to look at. Forin’s Plow wasn’t a plow at all, but rather a metal spike with runes on it. I figured that it worked somewhat like my own growth fields and flowers, with whatever range and power. The statue was probably similar, but working on animals, and made my wonder where my version of that was. It looked like a statue too, maybe made out of silver, not much larger than the wardstone.

The five storage cubes were really cool, even though I had no need for them, and at least implied what that weird shared spatial field was for. They looked like wooden boxes inlaid with gold, and I could see the spatial magic on them, making them the only active artifact in the treasury. Though from my own experience spatial magic just sort stayed once it was set up, rather than needing a constant feed like my other fields. Calling it active might be misleading.

Finally, the air sled was just a shallow box maybe a meter long and half that wide, with railings. I was pretty sure it was made out of Wildwood Tree wood, which explained the air magic, but beyond that I couldn’t tell how it worked. Unlike the other stuff I didn’t see any runes or active magic. It reminded me that I really wasn’t that wise in the ways of the world despite what any of my Skills might claim.

All interesting, but distracting. “I think it’d be better if she has someone present it formally. Don’t want to get the habit of rummaging through Meil like it’s my own stuff.” I was already a little guilty of that with the map and the globe, even if I hadn’t taken them. Propriety aside, I felt like it’d be a bad idea to simply start taking things other people had. It wouldn’t just breed bad habits, but given the power of Bargains, something like stealing things I didn’t need to might end up harming me through whatever strange mysticism made a Power.

[Tempered Wisdom] advances to 6.

Oh hey, it’d been a while since I’d gotten that Ability to advance. Probably because I hadn’t actually been listening to [Tempered Wisdom] for who knows how long. A month or more, perhaps. Had I even advanced [Tempered Wisdom] or just its prerequisites? I couldn’t even remember now, and the overlay didn’t store things indefinitely, so I couldn’t go back and check.

Iniri nodded. “I appreciate that, actually. I still would call Meil my city, even if it’s controlled by Blue right now. I’m glad that he sees things the same way.” She sent one of her guards down to get the wardstone, and while I did feel a little silly about the whole rigamarole, it did feel more official when Shayma accepted it on my behalf.

“Hey Shayma, feel free to take your time with Iniri, I want to get something set up before we deal with The Hurricane.”

“Just tell me when you’re ready.” Shayma nodded. “Blue says he’s setting something up for The Hurricane so I’m free for a while. Is there anything you need from me, Iniri?”

I didn’t interfere with them any further, letting Shayma wolf down her breakfast and lend Iniri a sympathetic ear. More sympathetic than me, anyway She’d spent some of the previous night complaining but I didn’t know any of the politics involved and couldn’t even make polite noises, so Shayma was a far better companion. It occured to me that if any of this ever came up in the future, Shayma would actually know how I should address it, and that Iniri probably knew that too.

So I took a break from fiddling with details in Meil to do something I probably should have done a while ago. Ansae had suggested an audience hall of some sort, or a petitioner’s circle, or whatever, and if I wanted to set the proper tone with The Hurricane I’d need one. Not to mention any of Iniri’s subjects, now that I was more or less public. If nothing else I’d need Shayma to summon that [Herbalist] there to resolve the matter of the flower she took. Not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, and frankly I was lucky to even notice, but I wasn’t going to just let it pass.

Actually, I was willing to give her some more so I could see what [Alchemy] did with it.

To that end I reshuffled some of my mountain territory. The mountain was eerily homogenous, all granite with the occasional inclusion of a tiny bit of other resource without any rhyme or reason. I’d found some garnet and garnierite, a little more copper and magicite, and one nodule of limonite, all just appearing by themselves. Pretty sure it had something to do with mana.

That meant that I’d ended up just chopping it up into a bunch of identical rooms as I changed the stone into something more useful. Fewer rooms than I could have, because I didn’t want to trigger any landslides. I still remembered that first cave-in. All that meant it was no trouble to push everything near the front of the mountain deeper in. In fact, thinking about it, I decided to play with the mountain face itself, changing a section of steep slope to a sheer face of stonesteel, some twenty meters high and wide. That would give me a start.

It was a lot easier, or at least less tedious and fiddly, to work from a blank slate than try and reconstruct a ruined building, so it took a lot less time for me to turn the vertical face into a grand passageway. Unlike most of the tunnels I’d made, which were in the three to four meter range and square-ish, I made this one a good twenty meters high and half that wide. That gave me an imposingly large entrance hall, domed at the top, that I could have put pretty deeply into the mountain but instead I stretched it out with a Spatial field. Not the full order of magnitude, but enough to turn ten meters of hall into forty.

Then I started work on an actual audience chamber or whatever it was going to be called. I wished I could consult Ansae for what would be appropriate but it wasn’t like I couldn’t change it later if there was something that needed fixing. At first I had thought to go with a big room like some sort of church or cathedral, but that didn’t really seem to express the dungeon-ness of things. I supposed if I wanted to I could make a sort of a labyrinth or ceremonial trap hall or something, but I hadn’t really exercised that aspect of myself too much.

What seemed most appropriate was a mana dynamo. [Dungeon Ecology] and everything that had sprung from it was really what had given me most of my tools. So far the only person who had seen anything near a full dynamo was Ansae, and actually they looked kind of amazing in their totality. Even for people who couldn’t see mana there were different colors and various glowing things. Plus it’d be a nice challenge to fit into as small a space as possible so people could see it all.

Just putting lava at the bottom and ice at the top wouldn’t be very interesting, so I tried mixing it up a little. Making a large hollow sphere and Expanding it fully, I scattered red and white chrystheniums throughout, an even number of each. It took more effort to route the subsequent water and lava and steam around, but the point was to look impressive. The end result was a number of pipes, islands, and water- and lava-falls circulating throughout the open area, but given any length of time it’d just turn into an oven. I could use [Temperature Finesse] to fix things but I was a little leery of something that might fail if I lost concentration or slipped into fugue again.

Instead I used glass and doors, since those seemed to have their own temperature control built in, chopping up hot and cold and ultimately venting the hot air up and away. Then I started filling in all the empty spaces with the other chrystheniums I had, linking up the mana flows as I went. Nature, water, light, dark, illusionary...some of it was a little rough without grass and trees as intermediaries, but I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to do for the landscape yet.

I had a bunch of hanging ornaments, the flowers planted on stonesteel spires at various heights, some of them glowing, some not. The Radiant and Umbral and Illusionary flowers produced points of light and darkness and distorted regions of uncertainty. Crystalline versions shimmered, while wind and storm whipped droplets this way and that, occasionally sizzling against lavafalls.

In the middle of it all I put a storage crystal full of mana, which was only faintly blue but it did glow. A few passes with [Customization] turned it into an ersatz Core suspended in the center of the sphere, since I wasn’t about to use either of my real ones. Of course since I couldn’t respond directly to things I needed a place for Shayma, and to that end I wrapped a balcony around the base of the false core, where I’d teleport her in when necessary. I formed a dais between that and the entrance, somewhat below the balcony, and then I started considering landscaping.

Frankly the chamber was huge. Barely enough to squeeze in a mana dynamo but with most of it being open space it was clear how enormous a five hundred meter diameter sphere was. I wasn’t ever planning to have hundreds of people inside it, and I wanted to show off the mana dynamo anyway, so instead of putting in full ground I grew some walkways, lined them with grass, and sent them meandering about the room. One connected to the dais of course, and I put a few chairs and benches near wide spots where I planted trees

The resulting confection was a fragile-looking thing suspended above and among all the the machinery of the mana dynamo. It was mostly stone and glass, otherwise, with a few of the lava- and water-falls dividing the path. Of course I’d partitioned off the lava so people didn’t get scorched from its mere presence, but since the protection was an open door, [Customized] to be effectively invisible, they could still reach out and touch it if they were so foolish.

With all that done, the domed entry hall was far too plain and austere by comparison. I wasn’t entirely certain what to do with it, since I didn’t want to repeat the mana dynamo, but after surveying Meil and considering what I remembered of Wildwood, I figured just fancy carving would work. It wasn’t like I could put anything meaningful in there, but I could do something like...fractals.

Nature adored fractals, but some of the more esoteric ones looked organic while still being utterly alien, which seemed to fit the strangeness of dungeons. Not that I remembered most of the math but I at least knew the principles and scrawling self-similar designs into the stone was easy enough, as was using [Customize] to give it some color. Shades of blue, of course.

The whorls of engraving curled into themselves, down past the limit of vision, curling upward to wrap over the ceiling and along the floor, something I doubted anyone in this world had ever seen. They crawled into the archways, the gaps filled with glass, a filigree of fractional dimensions. I wasn’t sure the overall effect quite meshed with the mana dynamo room, but decoration had never really been my strong suit.

“Okay,” I told Shayma. “I’m ready.”