“I wonder if there are dwarf fortresses around.” I said to myself as I excavated a tall and narrow tunnel, placing the entrance in front of a particular tree that suited my needs.  

The entrance was slightly sunken, with dirt rising up to partially obscure it from three sides. The tree I placed it next to obscured it completely from the fourth side and, because of its leafy branches above, obscured it from the skies. 

Then, I fortified the walls of the tunnel with concrete. I looked down into its cylinder body and it was at least twice my height. 

I that tall enough? I don’t see why not. It’s underground, anyway. 

It was dark, however, so I tried to make a lightbulb, but it was just a hollow, glass oblong. 

If I can use magic to turn dirt to things that aren’t dirt, why can’t I just make stuff? I mean, it’s not like I purposefully rearrange molecules and electrons and all that stuff. I just think, make a mirror or fix clothes. Fuck, I’ve just made concrete and even steel a short while ago. I must be missing something. Regardless, I need to keep moving. 

Without lightbulbs, I was forced to resort to using my magic bullets. Though, I was a bit worried to do so. 

“If they touch the walls, will they explode?” I don’t want to go out like that. 

Thankfully, I can feel the mana in my magic bullets. I’ll just have to make sure they don’t touch the walls. Unless... 

NO! There's no ‘unless.’ I can just save that for another time. 

I made a steel ladder that descended to the bottom and wondered why. I can just fly. 

Oh well, it’s too late now. Before entering the tunnel, I made the entrance out of steel. Why not? Might as well stay true to the aesthetic. I could even place some twigs and leaves on top. If I use some magic, then I can just cover it up from inside the tunnel! 

And so, I did just that. 

As I descended the tunnel, not making use of my shiny new ladder, I decided to dig into the ground further and turn the dirt and some rocks into a steel grate. Should the rest of the floor be grated? Eh. 

I made a hole in the wall and extended the tunnel a few steps. Following my design choices so far, I made the entrance to where I’d be staying the night out of steel. 

Fuck, how to I make a door handle? Fuck it, just push and pull. 

A handle was placed on the door and I pulled it open. Then, I proceeded to dig out the rest of my bunker. 

Fortunately, there were large chunks of rock underneath for me to turn to concrete. Wait, I didn’t put steel inside the concrete. There’s no rebar. Fuck. 

I suppose I can just do it another time; I have to get done quickly and get some sleep! 

I didn’t quite know how to design the rest of the bunker, though, so I just made it a hollow box. A hollow box with concrete all around and just enough room for me to jump. It was quick to do, at least. 

The air was smelling rather funky, though, but that’s because I forgot to add a way to ventilate the air. I quickly fixed that mistake by digging a ventilation shaft into and up a wall.  

Similar to the entrance, the ventilation shaft was a long and even narrower cylinder, but the wall facing into the room was a steel wire mesh. There were also mesh at the entrance and along its insides to catch anything larger than a small pebble. The floor was also dug in and replaced with a metal grate. 

That’s good enough, right? I don’t know how to make electrical fans, so I guess I’m stuck with it. 

Then, I turned to make my bed. Of course, it was going to be covered in silk, but what do I fill it with? Feathers? Can I even? 

All the material I could use was outside as well.  Digging sideways would risk collapsing the ground above and might make onlookers suspicious, while digging down would also risk collapsing the bunker itself. Then, I glanced at the ventilation shaft I made earlier. 

Hmm... Covering the entrance outside with some debris was easy enough, but could I take it further? 

I sat myself onto the concrete floor, cross-legged, and closed my eyes. As I breathed in and out through my nose, deeply and slowly, the mana in the air entered and left me from my nostrils. I could see it all. 

Instead of normal colors in the light, the world was a black canvas and mana was its ethereal blue paint. All the parts of the world I could see were given form with mana.  

The entirety of my body was all mana, even the tips of my hair. There was an outer layer of thick, condensed mana all across my skin and my scalp. The mana inside pulsated and traveled through my body, like water, it collected and condensed in my heart and my brain. Among other places. 

As for the bunker around me, was shaped flat and thickly where the concrete walls were. The same was true for the steel door and other steel parts of the bunker, but much thicker. 

I could feel the mana outside as well, light and airy and dancing with the wind. It passed between every blade of grass and every leafy branch, which themselves pulsated with mana. Just like me, but not quite as concentrated and only through vein-like channels. 

I could even feel the mana in the ground below, growing increasingly dense the further down I searched. 

However, beyond a certain distance, there was only darkness. It didn’t dissipate the way mana did in the sky at increasing altitudes. Rather, it was cut off. There was mana, then there wasn’t. 

I saw various wildlife enter and exit the boundry of my sight. The branches of a few trees would also disappear and reappear as they swayed back and forth. 

Despite such a limitation, as I saw a few birds lie down onto their nests to sleep, I realized something and dissipated the magic bullets I had been using for light. 

“I can see in the dark! Fufufufu!” I no longer have need for such light. 

If I were to compare it with how I see mana with my eyes, it has far less range but it's much, much more vivid. Vivid enough that I could use it as a substitute for sight when there’s no light. 

With my mana, I dissolved the insides of a few nearby trees into fine grains of sand and filtered them through the dirt and down the bunker's ventilation shaft. 

My eyes were still closed, but I could see the dense mana of a steel bed frame appear. Then, the mattress and a pillow. Both of which were linen on the inside, for form, and silk on the outside, for softness. Inside, I wanted to stuff them with goose down, but I didn’t know how to. So, I settled with making some fur similar to the unibunny. 

As I moved my pulsating blue form onto the bed I made, seemingly from soft, blue, pillowy clouds, it was as soft and cuddly as I expected.  

I yawned and stretched as my eyelids fluttered to a close. Yet, as I drifted to sleep, a series of words nagged at the back of my mind. 

Mirror. Concrete. Steel. Fur. How?