I stare at the sword boy, Terry, I suppose, as he reads over all his class options. "Pfff. Nooooow, be a good little isekai newbie and pick the dungeon warlock option. C'mon. First thing on your list!" Of course, I'm not actually projecting to him. But his other options are all way boring, to me.

"Hey, mister priest! This uhh, dungeon warlock thing. It'd let me gain extra powers from a dungeon, right?" I barely hold myself back from cheering.

"That is, how I understand it. Yes. Have you finally settled on a choice? I am slowly expending spiritual energy keeping this ritual active. It is less than my regeneration rate, but keeping it flowing deliberately for too long is still, uncomfortable."

"Sorry bout that, but I think so? Just wanna be sure. You know. Cause I'm thinking, my unique skill seven star swords already gives me seven different elements that I can use. From what little I've heard, there are eight main elements. So if I pick that class and form a contract with the core down the uhh, nether path, I'd have all of em covered, right? Though I guess that'd make me primarily a nether caster with the other elements all covered by elemental weapons as, like a back up? What all does nether do?"

"Nether is the magic of death and decay, and while it does also connect to necromancy, which I, do not recommend." Branheil's voice got louder towards the end there, likely meant more for me than Terry. "It is not, actually elemental evil like some people seem to think. But it certainly has the potential to be used in darker ways than most."

"Hmmmmm."

"Oh for flame's sake! You can change it later if you decide that you don't like it."

"Well why didn't you just say so earlier? Let's go for it, then!"

Branheil groans, but Terry takes the class and runs out with barely a, "Thanks!" then heads straight for the path marked by a fake weather beaten skull.

"Excellent. Sol, could you watch him and let me know if he reaches the core room or dies? I'm gonna go poke that barrier."

"Wouldn't it be, bad if he dies? I mean, he is our first chance at a warlock, which you seem to think will be useful."

"I mean, we have a high rank priest right here. If he dies, we'll just drag his corpse out and ask Branheil to revive him. Heck, it'd even get you class experience. Or, whoever you set to be in charge of the lobby? It's not me, is it? I want to level, sure, but I wanna do it by dungeon scientist-ing."

"Most areas are assigned to me, currently, due to that being the default setting. Though I gave Rath control over the metal mana core responsible for the open portion of the metal section, as well as access to a ki core responsible for the same area. Currently, ten percent of the energy those cores collect is moved to cores under our authority. The others have similar setups, even for those whose dungeon sections aren't open yet."

"Uhhuh. Well, thank you for dealing with the bureaucracy. Certainly not something I'd be suited to. Byyye!"

I zip to the northernmost point of my mana field. It's a little over a hundred meters from the beach, I think. Then my measurement assist kicks in and tells me that it is ninety two point four meters from the beach. Well, at least I was close.

"Of course you wouldn't be. You do everything by whimsy." Ah right, just moving my pov changes nothing for a psychic projection.

Without further ado, I start expanding my mana field towards the beach. Everything is normal until sixty one meters out into the water, when my field just, stops. No light show, or other visible effect, not even a sense that I can't go further. My field just won't expand past that point. Even when I try, there is no mana expended, let alone a further point that I can move to.

"Okaay. That seems to confirm that it is some kind of barrier at least? No energy transfer from the inside? Peculiar. Both ways, I imagine. Or is that because I'm not a person? Perhaps humans could cast magic through, for instance. Tsk. Living bodies can pass through, right? Monsters at or below level fifty, at least. Hmmmmm."

Seeing little reason not to try, I crystalize mana into a half meter long, centimeter wide core, then I float it up point first to the edge of my current reach. I push it forward slowly, stopping after one centimeter. "Success! Now, how bout the field?" Mana flows through the core to expand into a field on the other end. "That easy? The barrier is less than a centimeter thick? And it covers the whole island? Madness. Oh! I can measure the thickness." I expand the field on the outside until it touches the other side of the barrier, then decide to measure the distance between the two fields. "One, MICRON?!! What's paper, like half a millimeter? That is, utterly ridiculous. Hmmm, can I measure the size of the barrier by the curvature of-"

My thought process is interrupted by something slamming into the barrier, then bouncing off with the core caught in its mouth. As soon as the core leaves the tiny mana field I had already expanded on the other side, my pov snaps back to the inside of the barrier to watch as the, great white sized flying fish falls back towards the water.

"Well! Rude. Don't even let a guy get a centimeter out of his bubble without attacking, huh?" By the time I have made a new mana core, this one mostly normal, just with one tiny spire sticking off of one side, I spot what I can only assume is the same fish, floating belly up in the water several meters below. "How? Isn't it normal for monsters to eat things like mana crystals and cores? Plus it had to be over level fifty to parkour off the barrier! No way that was more than a snack for it."

A giant shadow comes up under the fish. Then what looks like fingers covered in crustacean style chitin slip up from the water to wrap around it before dragging it back under.

"Uhhuh, right. Some kind of man-crab that can palm a great white shark. Great."

I wait a minute to ensure things have settled, then nudge the needle like point of the new core past the barrier. "Lessee, one millimeter wide, two point four millimeters out. Should be practically impossible for something out there to grab. But may as well try to, nope to far, back out, ah. Point eight millimeters out. Perfect. Unless something under level fifty goes after it, of course. Hmm. Ah, duh. Dungeon core, just protect it with monsters."

I hastily expand the mana field on the other side and transmute mana crystals one by one into various flying monsters. Then I expand my mana field down to get a look underwater. There's not much to see at the moment. The murk of strange energies and disturbed silt prevents me from seeing more than a dozen meters out. Even then, there are a couple odd creatures that swim away as soon as I look at them. Specifically a pair of odd, miniature whales. Aside from being less than a meter long, they look pretty well the same as humpback whales.

"Why did I bother with expanding beyond the barrier a second time, again? I could have just looked underwater from within. Hmm. Extra mana source, maybe? If I expand it enough. Ah well. I'll check back later. For now, lighthouse."

It's a bit further out from any part of my mana field than the beach had been, but two hundred or so meters, isn't a problem for my current mana supply, certainly not for just a thin tunnel.

The spot I start at is pretty high up, but I still head upward a bit to reach the top of the tower first. The brazier at the top with the ghostly tree and flame within doesn't respond to my presence. Which, fair enough. But that means looking here doesn't do much of anything for me. Unless I want to mess with it, which is entirely a no. Obviously.

I expand my mana field down into the giant pillar, it works, for a little more than half a meter. Any mana I put in past that is torn from my grasp in an instant. "Hnm. Bet that'd go that way for any other energy too, huh? Yea, that's how my day is going. Well, try the sides?"

Before long, my mana field has surrounded the whole lighthouse, with no point of successful entry. Above the surface, at least. Perhaps underground will show some alternative result?

"Dan! The human is in the nether path's core room. Turns out he can heal himself with his holy sword. Stella, sanctus? Ugh, you may have had a point with the fire one."

"Fine. I wasn't making progress infiltrating the tower anyway. Keeps absorbing my mana."

"Oh? Well I may have a solution to that. Which you might have guessed yourself, if you had asked me about the skills dungeon manager gives me. But you'll just have to wait now. He's almost to the core."

I barely manage to move my perspective to the nether core before a popup appears in my view. [Telepathic connection request received. Accept/Reject?]

"My side of things is always telepathy, I think. Makes sense for cores that don't have a way to communicate though." I go ahead and accept, of course.

A moment later, Terry's expression shifts to a grin. Then he bows slightly. "Oh great dungeon, I have come to make a request! In return for uhh, the occasional favor, I guess, I would like to receive a portion of your mystical powers, as well as skills devised by you to use them with."

Hmm, no screen? Is it just a verbal agreement? Ha, probably some measure of intent as well. So we can basically make any deal that both sides agree to and it'll just, work. Or is Lady Vestria leaving it to me to make up the rules? Wait, I'm not projecting all of my thoughts, am I? Given his expression hasn't changed, probably not. Now, do I try to match that energy, or?

"Greetings mortal. I have, some knowledge of what it means that you are a dungeon warlock. I will share units of nether magic with you called, charges, for use in spells or other skills I grant, in exchange for two things. When your energy reserves are full, the overflow from your recovery rate will be transported to my dungeon for my use, and in turn you may receive nether magic charges, wherever you may be. You will receive one charge when I have gained enough mana and ki from you to create two. You will be able to hold a number of charges equal to your current warlock level. The other thing I require is that you return once a month to receive a request for certain items, creatures, or the like. To complete this pact, I require a piece of the fabric your pants are made of. It is not a locally available textile, to my knowledge. Are these terms, acceptable to you?"

"I like these jeans. But I guess the right leg got a little tattered back in the wind dungeon. Can cut em off into knee length shorts, I suppose. Why would you only give me half the nether magic you make though?" He's already trying to cut the legs off of his pants with the elegant single edged golden longsword still in his hand.

"To ensure I gain energy from you either way, instead of taking the risk that you could spend them as fast as they are generated. Though my intent is not to create nether mana units that you would use and only give you half, but rather to gain energy to spread amongst the cores here, and use some of it to return nether magic to you instead. Granted, it is unlikely, that all of your energy overflow would fail to benefit me. There will surely be long spans of time where you are not expending charges, but are still at full on all of your energy pools. But I believe that to be a fair trade, either way."

"I guess that's, good for now. Though I'll want to renegotiate somewhat later when I'm at a higher level, I think. Anyway, here's uhh, some pieces of my jeans. So we're good for the first month of our deal then?" Terry places a nearly whole chunk of one pant leg, and scraps of the other on the floor before my nether mana core.

It occurs to me that I could call that a signing cost and still request another thing, but that seems a little, ill suited to fair dealing. "Yes, we have an accord." [Pact created] I glance at the handy total mana, ki, an spirit counters that are in the menu Vestria snuck in for me that collates all of the different cores counters into one easy set. Nice to see my spirit counter ticking up on its own, for once. Even if it is only, one point every, ten seconds? Ah, measurement assist says that was seven point eight seconds. Counted too fast.

"Whoo! Yeah! Awesome sauce. Now, what spells do I get?"

Yeah, good question. Do I make things up and they'll just work? Well then, going on my knowledge of nether so far, and assumptions I can make. . . "As does the Goddess, I shall offer you three ability choices for your first class level. Withering bolt, a ranged option where you essentially launch a nether charge at a target using mana to propel it and the charge to inflict desiccation and decay damage. Bone wall, where you mix the charge with extra ki and press it into the ground to form a barrier of hardened bones. Lastly, drain touch, by forming a bridge between yourself and a target with spiritual energy and a nether charge, you can drain them of energy and vitality."

"Alright! I'm gonna test all of them!" Terry bounces on his feet, then turns and starts running back into the dungeon.

"Uh, skill points-" [Warlock telepathy connection severed] "Ah, well. He'll figure it out. Ack, and I need to make subskills, I guess? Do I, need to interact with him to make the skills? Guess, I'll figure it out."

I watch Terry as he runs into the earth section, thrusts his free hand at a grave wretch, and yells "Withering bolt!" to no effect. Naturally the dirt stained rodent responds by lunging towards him with its muddy slavering jaws gnashing. He yelps and brings his wind sword, blandly named 'Stella ventus', but interestingly designed like some sort of katana with odd rippling shapes on the flats of the blade, down on its head. "Why didn't it work? Oh, skill menu! Woops. Hah ha ha."

I shake my head and drift away. "You know, it occurs to me that he is just, wandering around, without letting the guild receptionist know. Also, did Aradain even think to get him registered as an adventurer? Oh dear, I fear he may have a bad time once he tries to leave. Hmm, I don't think I have a good way to help. I could give him a new path, but getting him out of trouble now could just cause him further issues later when he does get caught. Ah well, I'm sure it's not something that'd get him executed at least?"

I zip down to the cat room to settle myself before speaking up. "Okay Sol, done with, that guy. For now. Might I ask what skills you gained as a dungeon manager?"

"Don't pretend that you're interested in the bureaucracy related ones. I'll just tell you the important one. Influence generation. It's a field of control that I share with you, that doesn't rely on the three base energies, nor any energy combination. Simply put, I could extend our influence into the other dungeon, and she wouldn't be able to absorb it with her webs, nor likely would any other dungeon through their own methods. I suspect that another dungeon with a dungeon manager could resist it with their own influence field. But otherwise, it should be a way to gain access. Of course, it costs all three base energies to create, whatever exactly the influence counts as. So, naturally with our spiritual energy still lacking, I can't expand it there. I had to establish an influence core, not that it functions like a dungeon core beyond the field, which needs to be kept safe, so I put it in a secure spot. Fairly mid dungeon and fairly deep. And the influence field has to have a direct connection to it, so I can't just project it to other areas or make a second one. But if you can gain us enough spirit, I can create the path for us to infiltrate the lighthouse. Assuming it works, which I think it should, given that you said the tower was absorbing the mana."

"Well, we're getting spirit from Terry, fairly steadily for now. I, did kinda give him a spell option that spends spirit, so that might slow down when he picks that skill. And it'd be far too slow either way. Hmmm. Our best current source of spirit is, killing wild monsters? Guess I'll start by cleaning out the prison rooms I was trapping wild monsters in to sort of vaguely tame. Though I will make sure they die in gauntlet core rooms. Might as well make them useful twice over. Oh! I was just poking around the ocean. Bet I could find a good way to lure lots of wild monsters in that way. Hmm, can you set up a super dangerous room to receive wild monsters potentially close to level fifty while I clear the storage?"

"Ha, certainly. I don't think you've properly looked through the gauntlet core's monster list recently, have you? There are a couple nice surprises. No peeking, but I have an idea already. I'll talk you through it and show you when you're done cleaning the closets. I just need, five hundred and eleven rats?"

"What?" Even I don't rightly have a response to that strange statement.

"You'll understand soon enough. Now be a good boy and get to work."

"Ha! Yes ma'am." With that I zip off to the rooms I stored wild monsters in. Some of them have nothing but corpses already. Others have only one survivor, or all of the survivors are of the same species. But a few have, odd circumstances. For instance, the room of mixed birds now only has two kinds remaining. Several stonefeather pigeons, and one deathshriek dove. The dove is quite large, and I'm sure I don't recognize it. "Natural evolution from the pigeons? Pigeons are a type of dove, after all. Ah well, this way to the meatgrinder for the lot of ya."

After a few checks, I confirm the closest gauntlet core room with a spiritual energy field on it, summon several feliformic beasts, then add the wind elemental mana form to each. I would also enhance them with spiritual manifestations, but saving up spirit is kinda the point just now, so it'll have to do. Then I isolate a path through already carved spaces and open the dove room before luring them down with extra bits of mana.

The battle doesn't last long. I honestly overestimated the dove, and it was by far a better fighter than its pigeony brethren. Sure, I used cats against birds, but only one of them was injured, and even then it was from the deathshriek dove's titular move. Ah well. The next peculiar room is one where all the monsters died. But that didn't stop them. They seem to have all become undead on their own. Not sure how useful a zombie squirrel will be, but hey, it's a thing. It must have been a monster, I guess? A normal animal, shouldn't have followed my mana lures. Still, it and the other zombie critters are worth some value, I hope. Still wondering how they, . . Ah, it is a little close to the nether section. That, makes sense. Either way, to the wind cats with you.

The assorted small zombie animals last longer than the doves did, but that's all I can say about them.

The last monster storage room, I don't really want to disturb, so I shall not. I don't remember what I had stored in here before, but now the only inhabitants are an ant queen and her brood. She somehow built a nest chamber around the mana core I, probably ought not to have left in a room I was storing monsters in. Doesn't seem to have done it any harm though. The colony has already dug their own tunnels up to the surface, and seem to be treating some small wild slimes up there like mealybugs? Definitely need to watch that more sometime later to figure things out, cause weird.

"Alright, how much was, bout two hundred? Helps. Sol, think I'm done. Some ants in one room, but they're interesting, so I wanna keep em. How's things on your end."

"They've, almost finished up. I imagine the surprise will be ready by the time I've walked you through it. Hmm, come here." Sol gently tugs my perspective down to her room, though it looks different from the last time I peeked in here.

There is a small crystal chandelier with a positive moon mana core as its heart casting gentle light through the room. The parts of the wall that aren't covered by lightly spider themed drapes, is in a variety of cool dark colors. The real centerpiece of the room is Sol herself, sprawled out on a bed that looks weirdly fuzzy? She's still under a meter tall, but certainly has come a long way already.

"Ah, noticed my influence core did you? The skill said that the form of it didn't matter, so I figured, why not a comfy bed?" Sol sits up, stretches her arms, and buzzes her wings, though not enough to lift herself off the bed. "A pleasant option when I tend to leave my body sitting still for long periods of time." She brings her right hand to her face and lightly clears her throat. "Not that sleeping on a stone bench would cause me any particular issue."

After a slight awkward pause, Sol suddenly shakes her head. "Anyway, monsters. Yes. Uhh. Behemoths have that, adaptive evolution thing, as you called it. The thing that caused a shallows behemoth in the ice section to grow that fur that you said was like a polar bear's? Then you renamed that as an artic behemoth. Weeeell, care to guess what happened when a shallows and an artic behemoth won a fusion tourney?"

"Hmm. Like a glacier behemoth? Glacial? Somethin, like. Oh yeah, have any of the other behemoths adapted to other environments yet?"

"You can check on that later. And no, it wasn't a glacial behemoth. It was a 'lesser behemoth' which, as far as I can tell, seems to be the default form of a behemoth without adaptations to any environment. Now, do you want to see what happened when two lesser behemoths won?"

Sol lies back down, then moves her perspective next to mine and grabs my hand to lead me off. Hmm, sure is strange the things a dungeon fairy can do. Things that seem to have only been enhanced by her dungeon manager class. Regardless, she leads the way to a room with the peculiar, hand shaped clay look to the stone walls, and sourceless ambient light, that the gauntlet core rooms always have. Most notably in the moment though, is the figure in the middle of the room, surrounded by a field of gore and furry chunks.

It's a behemoth of course. One with dusty gray scales on most of its body, but with a thick black mane, around the neck, and running down the back, even trailing a third of the way down the long lizard-like tail. Its horns are a lightly gray off white towards the tips but fade to black by the base. Meanwhile the claws are all black, excepting the fresh blood staining them. Lastly of note, the scale of the beast. Sol had me warp in right next to it at about head height for a human. I can look straight forward and see under it. Though I am mostly looking up at it.

"I-is this thing the size of an elephant? Five thousand kilograms. That's probably close? Shallows behemoth was like, buffalo sized, maybe. Ha, ha ha. Whoa. Think this thing would be as strong as Aradain at the same level? Stronger? Oh. That's why you needed so many rats. Level rush doesn't say that they have to be equal in any way other than level. So if the basic ability is, so far apart, it isn't really a contest at all. Five hundred eleven rats and one big boi. Uh, level ten? Damn. Level rush falls off fast when it comes to practicality, doesn't it. . . WHY does a mega predator like this need the ability to rapidly adapt to new environments?!"

"Glad that the greater behemoth has awed you. A perfect core for our defense force against wild monsters you lure in, though? I'd like you to give it magic resistance with catalyzation. And we'll need to level it up more with blitz battle before we risk luring anything too dangerous. Ah, already tested blitz battle a bit. It counts wild monsters as invaders, but it also costs dp to actually level monsters up. The price tends to go, up pretty quickly. Still, we already have enough to get it to about level thirty, and we can earn more for the gauntlet core with kills. So, I figure we aren't likely to find anything too threatening to it if we can get it to level forty or so before you start drawing anything from the ocean. The biggest dangers to it would be magical or spiritual abilities, the former of which is much more common."

"Hence the magic resistance. Right. Uhh, hmmm. Would water based and lighting based magics be, most common out there?"

"Typically, yes. Though anything is possible. It is called the ocean of chaos, after all. Why? You want to give it specific resistances instead?"

"Well, my idea deviated a bit further than that. Does a sort of storm cloak to protect against water, wind, and lighting, while also doing a bit of damage of those types within a short range around it, sound good?"

"Can you, do that much with one catalyzation?"

"First, just occurred to me that I hadn't tried catalyzing one thing multiple times. Second, all that I'd be doing is giving it one new ability. The fact that the ability can potentially do multiple things is, irrelevant."

"Well, I guess that's okay then? It should serve the purpose, at least."

"Alright. Well I'm gonna make a storm magic core to see what my affinity is. . . Drat, thirty eight. Better than my starting point in plant magic, but still in the modest magic stone range. If it had been strong. Ah well, greater mana crystal then."

I drop a greater storm mana crystal on the greater behemoth. A wild monster would happily eat the dense mana cluster. But, not a problem with a monster we control. Not that I intend for one of these buggers to ever get out into the world. Because, no. Though they might already have some comparable creatures out there. Hopefully that sort of thing is rare.

"Ack, sidetracking myself. Catalyzation!"

"And a greater mana crystal for magic resistance?"

"Drat. But, makes sense. That all you need hon? If so, I'll start on the path down here while you finish up. Definitely get final confirmation before I start luring anything though."

"Yes, I should be fine. Some holy monsters for healing support, reshape the room a little to let the greater behemoth get the drop on its enemies."

"Does it, need the element of surprise for, anything?"

"Not particularly. But some wild monsters do have a sense of self preservation." Sol laughs wickedly after that statement.

"Okay yeah, fair 'nuff." I start by drifting straight up through the mana field to see where the room is relative to the rest of the dungeon. Turns out, more west than I had expected, but plenty north. Also, deep enough that I could build a reasonable dungeon leading up to that room if I start, thereabouts. It's outside of my current mana field but from this angle it already looks good. So I extend the field for a look. The land elevation trends upwards to the west, and there is a nice cliff face there, next to a thin stretch of beach. Hmmm. "Hey hon, tide pool cave?"

"What?" Sol sounds more distracted than confused, but I'll still call it even with the five hundred eleven rats thing.

"If I build a cave entrance that is below the high tide point, we'll have monsters flowing in on their own with the water, and if I build a decent number of pits there, they'll be trapped in when the tide recedes. Well, some of em, surely. There will likely be plenty that can get out on their own. But we could still get plenty of spirit energy just from nature happening to things in such an area. And that's before we lure them down to the behemoth room. Though I guess we'd need to spend spirit to extend the field into that area. Hmmm. Returns should be worth it pretty fast? But I won't make the area dangerous until the behemoth is decently leveled, so we can count on weaker monsters throwing themselves against it specifically. Hmmm. Maybe we can artificially create a wild mana core for an extra draw? Just need to pull our mana field back after setting up a decent mana generator with a pair of elemental positive and negative mana crystals. Water for example. So a greater positive water mana crystal to generate a lot of water through a trench leading to a negative water mana crystal that'd absorb the water to produce mana. With a little testing to see how much mana is necessary, it should fulfil the condition to form a wild mana core, right? Plus, I could look at it through our spirit field to study how it concentrates its mana. Could be, very helpful."

"You want to set up a wild mana dungeon, as a spiritual energy generator, since it wouldn't use the spirit of killed monsters itself? That's, hmm. Huge? Your ideas are always over the top. I kinda love it though."

"The real problem is ensuring that the wild monsters in the tide pools don't go after the wild mana core. But, I'm sure we'll figure something out. Guess I'll start with the tidal cave, but leave the entrance well above the high tide level until we're ready."

I flood the cliff face, and a hundred cubic meters of space behind it with earth mana, turning any soil in the area to stone, to ensure no risk of collapses as I dig into the area with wind mana. Then I carve into it, starting simple with a round shape four meters across, angled slightly down into the upper portions of the giant stone block.

After a few meters I level it out and widen it into a single giant chamber with many randomly placed meter wide pillars. The overall space is roughly circular, and comes close to the edges of the space I ensured was solid stone. Then I dig pits of varied depths, partially filling some with sand. "Uhmm. You know, I should ask Rib about water plants for this? Wait, this isn't even the important detail right now. Just dig out a couple more layers, then open the way to the behemoth room. Worry about the looks and full functionality later. That said. Remember to raise the tunnel to the next floor down above the tide line outside. First floor will be the sea cave thing. Anything lower would just flood completely. Unless, I use negative water mana crystals just right?"

I dismiss the idea for now, and continue working. After I'm satisfied with the sea cave dungeon's temporary layout I return to the behemoth room. There is now a raised platform on one side of the room, with the greater behemoth and a horde of other monsters waiting. In the lower section is a group of several smaller weaker monsters. There is plenty of room to run a tunnel into the room under the platform the serious force is on.

"Ah, I think I see. You want the entrance down there so wild monsters will go for the weak monsters in the, arena space, and the behemoth can jump down from the stands like elevated space once they're too far in and too distracted?"

"Precisely so. I believe we're ready down here. So finish the path, and start luring wild monsters, won't you? I'll go ahead and start spreading influence towards the lighthouse. I'll let you know when I'm almost there so you can wrap up things in here and seal the path into this room after."

"Yes ma'am." I carve a stone reinforced tunnel in the general direction of the sea cave, eventually finding my way into the middle level of it. Though the tunnel is lower than the intended floor of the chamber. Easy enough to fix. After patching the tunnels together, I lay out a trail of mana crystals leading from the entrance of the sea cave to the behemoth room. One every ten meters or so is plenty for them to be noticed.

With a quick look around the surface I happen across a six legged bear. It's less than half the size of the greater behemoth, which still makes it a huge bear. But interesting enough, and likely a fair choice. It's also just small enough to fit through the cave I made. Probably has some value in the gauntlet core too. My but this plan is beneficial in several ways. Just to be safe I appraise it to check its level, nine, so maybe it has a tiny chance of standing up to our guardian. But, not likely.

A little extra mana in the field doesn't do much to grab its attention, but the first mana crystal to hit the ground snares its attention fast. From there it's simply a matter of luring it across about a kilometer of winding trail by tossing the occasional mana crystal ahead of it before it is nosing its way into the sea cave.

Naturally when it finally reaches the room, it is crushed, practically into a paste by the much larger monster pouncing on it from above. "Neat. But this is too slow. Guess I just need to grind away at it till it's high enough level, then I can poke at the ocean to send more in, right? Haaa. I'll at least try to find like, a pack of weaker monsters next."

After sending in several other monsters, and even one group of a few monsters, the next monster I try to lure in, stops at the edge of the final tunnel. I hadn't payed close attention to it beyond noting it to be a large, two meter across pale green slime before that. But with it pausing abnormally I take a closer look. It is just clear enough to see the core inside. . . Er, cores? What?

It bubbles briefly, and a smaller darker green slime emerges from it, which in turn does follow the candy trail into the deathtrap. Naturally, I throw an appraisal at the larger one.

"Ah, that clears up everything. Thanks. Now, how many levels can our behemoth gain from your spawn, dear mother?" I chuckle as I watch the greater behemoth eat a slime that isn't even a mouthful for it. "Well, there's level twenty four~"

By the time our monster reaches level thirty, the mother slime is half the size it started as. It goes a couple minutes without spawning another minion. Then it starts to crawl slowly back the way it came.

"Oh, that won't do." I spawn the most vicious looking caniformic beast I can, a version that looks like a slightly shaggy but small husky, that I'm hoping to eventually get a wolf-like variant of. Then I throw in a magma golem manaform to make it much more intimidating. "Now, would you kindly chase that slime into the behemoth's jaws." The molten canine howls and runs towards the slime.

The mother slime is a slow creature, and it knows it. After a brief hesitation it spawns another minion to send after the dog while it retreats halfway into the final tunnel. The caniform burns through the mini slime as much as tearing into it. I order it to grab the core instead of destroying it, then send it after the mother slime again.

The wild monster, in a boils in desperation. Spawning five more minions, until it itself is dried up to just a core. The minions are slow too. Hmm. I have my monster drop the miniature core it's holding and jump over the minions to grab the mother's core and run into the behemoth's room. I shoot an order to the behemoth to wait, briefly.

 Once the dog rushes into the room I have it wait halfway in for the slime minions. Then I order the behemoth to kill the slimes, and tell the dog to drop the mother slime's core and run back around to grab the last slime's core to offer the behemoth.

A short time later, the behemoth is level thirty seven, and I send the molten caniform into a safer area of our dungeon. I think he's earned a reward, when I get around to it.

Before I can get back to luring more monsters in, Sol calls out to me. "Dan. Great job on the spirit so far. I'm already about a third of the way there. But, I bottomed out our ki instead. So I guess we should take a break for a while. Sometime tomorrow, or the next day should get us close on ki from our existing ki beasts? Or you can finish getting the behemoth up to snuff first."

"Oops. I used a bit of ki too. But I guess influence is a real energy sink, huh? Total ki counter is at fifteen of two thousand seventy? Spirit at a hundred and eleven of eight hundred. Mana meanwhile feels practically free. Twelve thousand nine hundred and the lower digits are ticking up too fast to matter, of twenty eight thousand. Oh, and natural energy at nine hundred of nine hundred. Woops. Might as well use that to make a few more cores, since they're slow anyway. Kinda forgot the whole thing with attuning them to different elements. Did that work?"

Sol scoffs at me. "You forgot that, this long? Well, yes it did. For six of the eight main elements. The two surrounded by holy and nether just ended up mana attuned as well. So we should probably stick to elements that seem more natural. Though I think that natural energy tends to be much less, specific than the mana forms. So for now, I guess, just leave it to me again. Go have fun with something, since you've been a good boy the last few hours."

"Alright. I do have some ideas to mess around with. Plus, while our mana may seem limitless for now, that's just because we haven't gotten serious about magic and the other combinations. Conveniently, one of my ideas should help us make more mana. Though it is derived from the negative mana series, it also should serve as a good test for another idea. Later Sol!"

I move to the area in front of our main dungeon entrance. "Now, how should I? Guess I'll start with a frame of the mana metal. . ."

A while later Sol clears her throat. I look up from what I'm mostly done with, only to realize that she isn't physically right next to me. Woops. She still moves into speaking. "Okay, Dan. How, is this. Freestanding roof, supposed to help with mana?"

"Darling, it's a picnic canopy! More importantly, the roof is covered by a layer of crystalized negative light mana. It's a bit special because I, dangit I had an idea for a specific name for this. Mana crystal strate? No that wasn't quite? . ."

"Oh, so it generates mana when sunlight shines on it? A decent idea, I guess. But sunset is an hour away."

"Much more than that Sol. It's a mana based solar energy panel! Though I'll probably make some tall floodlights with positive light mana crystals, to put over it, lighting up the area at night and keeping the mana flowing. Plus the whole thing is special because- Mana crystal lattice! That yes. Lattice. It's a thing where I wanted to make crystallized mana with a lower density than even the lesser mana crystals we use for monsters. Which I'm calling 'mana crystal lattice'. There is also what I'm calling a mana substrate built into a thin cavity running through the metal. And if everything works as I think it should, we can retract our mana field from the canopy itself, and have the mana it generates run through the crystal substrate in the legs holding up the canopy. Which run deep into the ground where we would still have a field to collect it. Nothing more mana conductive than crystalized mana, right? Eh, there very well might be, I don't know. But initial tests of the lattice are promising."

"Most of that sounds good, but. Why, would we need to pull our mana field back from it?"

"Don't you see?! We can build mana sources all over and have the mana crystal lattice based substrates running mana back to us, from any distance! There would be a little loss from mana going into the mana metal to reinforce it, but that's as much a plus since that strengthens the metal to protect the lattice against monster attacks. . . I may have just accidentally invented the basis for a mana power grid. And I have ways to create perpetual mana sources! Hmmm. Implications are, endless. A society that uses mana like earth uses electricity would be, interesting. I just need to figure out how to use mana the right ways. . ."

Chaos_Sinner777

Ironically, kinda the other way around from dnd warlocks. In dnd, warlocks recover spell slots on short rest, where most casters require a long rest. Here other magic users just need to recover mana and maybe ki. While the warlock needs those and the charges. Probably still means a short rest would work pretty well though. Of course, drawing power from an outside source is the main thing either way.

Is it weird that I keep insulting Terry's swords' names when I'm the one who came up with them? I mean, I intend to have something happen that causes them to need new names later, at which point I should do better. But like, that's way out yet.

Also realized that by specifying that they need all three base energies for things, it implies other dungeons would need all three to use dungeon classes, but that wasn't my intent. It's more accurate to say that any energy will do, but the system behind things defaults to the most efficient energies that should theoretically be available to the class user. So Dan and Sol who already definitely have access to all three, are told that they need all three. But like Rath who only currently has access to mana and ki, but doesn't have a spirit core under his authority, would have to spend more of the two he has to substitute for the one he doesn't. So, like in the skill unlock thing, just automatic. And even usable without any of the basic energies in a pinch.

Kinda forgot to explain the magic nucleus/stone grades. Probably because I'm trying to do too much. Kek. Anyway. Affinity less than twenty percent weak, twenty through thirty nine percent modest, forty percent through fifty nine percent strong. And that's as far as Dan and Aradain know so far. Of course, Dan and the fae lot can make magic stones weaker than their max too. The first two plant monsters, an ivy man and an ivy warrior, had weak and modest specifically.