I created one more sconce for the room and its own f-wisp, assigning the little ball of flame to the Lobby.

calling Fanny in, I asked her opinion on the room.

"It's a lot brighter now," she said, idly petting her wisp. "A chair would be nice if I'm going to be working here all day though."

I quickly crafted a smaller version of the stone benches with a high back to it.

the fairy flew over to it. she circled the desk, making disapproving noises. "Stone isn't very comfortable to sit in."

I replaced the stone chair with a wooden chair.

"It could use a little more padding..."

The vine weaving thickened, puffing out.

"Hmm. Maybe some armrests?"

added.

"Armrests could use some padding too..."

ad-

wait.

'is that really all you have to say about the room?' I asked, huffing.

"Nope!" she cheered. "But if you're forcing me to do this, I might as well squeeze every ounce of comfort this little dungeon can give me."

'it's a great opportunity!'

Fanny stuck her tongue out to the air. plopping down in her chair, she sighed. "To be serious," she said, all mirth in her voice gone, "this is...an okay start. You're going to need a door--and to change that tunnel leading to your core room."

she leaned forward, setting her wisp on the desk. "Can you try and make a Challenge that forces adventurers to wait their turn or get attacked by fire wisps?"

'f-wisps,' I corrected.

"F-wisps," she said, rolling her eyes. "So?"

'I'll try.'

a party must wait in the Lobby until the previous entries have left the next room or else previously neutral mobs will turn hostile.

[Cannot pass Challenge as the core does not have a second room!]

'I can't do it because I don't have a second room,' I told Fanny.

the fairy frowned. "Well then I guess you better get started on a new one," she said, "And can you please make it a normal room now?"

'so demanding...fine.'

"Yes!" Fanny cheered. "Finally, I can do my job! First, we need to change up that hallway!"

'why? it looks fine to me...aside from the dirt and stone everywhere...'

"Duh! It leads straight to your core room! That's a huge no-no! Do you want to die?"

'after all that work I already did...'

"It's worth it for our safety," Fanny argued.

ugh. fine.

but I already made the path...can I shift one that's already been made?

[Indeed. Use 'Edit Dungeon Mode' to do so.]

thanks, tutorial. let me just-wait, edit dungeon mode?! there's a mode for doing this thing?

[Edit Dungeon Mode allows for quicker but mana costly dungeon expansion.]

oh. how come I didn't know about this?

[The tutorial attempted to teach the core earlier, however, the core refused to listen to the tutorial's eternal wisdom and guidance. If the core would like to stop missing out on helpful features, it should properly follow the tutorial!]

doubt that'll happen. but I'm tired of sucking, so I'll just use the mode. how does it work?

[Just say [Edit Dungeon Mode].]

I did so and suddenly, I was looking at an overhead view of my dungeon. small, white grids covered the entire thing. it looked kinda cool. plus there was a blue 'save' button in the corner.

alright, how do I delete placed blocks?

[Mentally select one of the boxes of the grid and think 'delete'. This is free and returns mana expended creating the block! Unless you created it via alternative means.]

some snark.

I mentally tapped the little box connecting the lobby to the tunnel leading to my core room and tried to delete it.

[Error! Must have path connecting to entrance!]

what? but I'd been building just fine before my wisps made that entrance!

[Once an entrance is formed, there must always be an accessible path from it to the core.]

oh so I screwed myself. great. if Fanny could see the conversation between me and the tutorial, no doubt she'd be laughing her head off. I resolved not to tell her anything.

how much does it cost to place a block?

[1 mana.]

shoot. I had 5 left in the tank. I'd need to keep at least 2 to keep from going haywire like the last time.

exiting out of edit mode without having done anything, I turned to Fanny about the mana problem.

she frowned and tapped her chin. "We're going to have to lure in some small animals for mana," she decided. "Something easy to kill."

'I only got mana for new discoveries, though.'

the fairy shook her head. "You'll still get mana for killing things over and over again," she explained. "Just less than the first time you killed it. As you absorb it more and more, though, you start getting less and less mana. It's an incentive to keep trying to lure in newer, better, stronger things."

'what a pain,' I grumbled.

"It is what it is. Now, while I don't like it, pretty much our only option is to send out Brick to gradually guide more things into the dungeon to kill them."

turning to the doddling wisp, I nodded grimly. 'you hear that? it's your permission to become an accomplice to serial murder.'

the wisp trilled and flew out of the dungeon.

really not the brightest mobs, even with Names...

***

this is the third Rabbihorn that's come to die.

Brick zipped into the core room and hovered by my core. was travelling taking a toll on it? I watched his little wispy float around my core, basking in its mana.

hmph. guess he'd need to rest after this one...

I turned my attention to the Lobby. the f-wisps there were rapidly shooting tiny bolts of fire at the freakish rabbit. numerous patches of fur had caught on fire, but that didn't seem to slow it down. it was fatter than the others, so maybe that had something to do with it? it also had a fourth eye. creepy.

"Um, Core?" Fanny said nervously.

'it's Cooper,' I corrected, eyeing the Rabbihorn. 'and what?'

"Aren't you gonna, you know, do something?"

'do what? grow a body and stomp on it or something?'

The f-wisps were doing all they can to burn this thing to death but all it did was shake itself off and continue digging at the dirt. soon enough the hole would be wide enough for it to fit.

I clucked my nonexistent tongue. 'don't you have any fairy magic that'll be able to help?'

she shook her head furiously. the movement caught the Rabbihorn's eye(s) and it snarled. she squeaked and hid under the desk.

"There's barely any mana in the dungeon," she hissed. "None of my spells are the best at offense, even if I could cast them without draining myself and killing Wispy!"

...

'Wispy?'

"Yeah! Um..." she flushed dark blue. "I-I named the wisp..." she gestured toward the bright blue, idly twirling teardrop. "Wispy..."

'huh. wait a minute, it could be helping fight this thing! Wispy, go shoot a mana bolt at the Rabbihorn or something!'

[You have Named a mob! 'Wispy' the wisp will now respawn when killed and can travel outside the boundaries of your dungeon!]

"No!" Fanny cried out. I couldn't tell if she was upset that Wispy needed more mana from her or that I was sending it out to fight. either way, the wisp heeded my call. it zipped out from under the desk, puffed out its tiny chest, and spat.

a gleaming rhombohedron¹ made of pure mana hurtled towards the Rabbihorn. it spiraled, like a quarterback's perfect throw, through the air. it sparkled in the f-wisp's light, glittering brighter than the sun as it pierced the rabbit's neck.

its corpse dropped lifelessly through the hall, splattering on the ground with its limbs splayed out. I sucked it up before its blood could stain the tile.

[You have absorbed the body of a Three-Eyed Rabbihorn! You have gained a new mob template! +5 mana for new discovery!

Due to obtaining the evolved form of a current template, the evolved form costs 25% less mana to spawn! +2 mana for discovering an evolved form!]

the Lobby was silent.

the f-wisps settled down in their sconces, recovering after desperately spending so much mana. Fanny peeked her head out from under the desk.

her eyes darted around the room. after a moment, she asked, "S-so is it over?"

'yeah.'

she sighed in relief. "That's...that's good."

grunting, I focused in on Wispy. 'good job, little dude,' I said. 'that was an epic shot.'

the wisp twirled as it floated back over to Fanny, bouncing up and down in the air.

[Warning! Core is experiencing mana overflow due to exceeding its mana cap!]

my dungeon overview popped open.

[Dungeon Overview

Name: Core | Age: 12 hours| Durability: 10/10 | Mana: 20/15

Floors: 1 | Rooms: 1 | Mobs: 4

Mana Regen

Core: +1 MP per day (+5 MP Generated; Brick: -4 MP)
Lobby: +4 MP per day (+9 MP Generated; Assigned Mobs: -4 MP; Challenge Upkeep: -1 MP)]

I'd gotten 8 mana from the two Three-Eyed Rabbihorns absorbed earlier. even though it was super scary, the Four-Eyed Rabbihorn gave me a wicked boost.

it should be enough to at least get me started on the new room and the super cool idea I had for it...