My Core Room was a mess. Unlike the smooth stone elsewhere, the terrain was rough and storm-scarred. There was a charm to it that I didn't expect- more natural, but also more dangerous than the rest of my Dungeon. I had a vague desire to expand on that aesthetic if I could during the creation of the Mana Well.

While studying the room, I massaged my forearm to try and work out the lethargy I was feeling. Leaving the moonlight had gradually degraded the buff it gave me, causing a sort of pins and needles effect. There was something else I couldn't identify, an indescribable feeling. It made me uncomfortable, not knowing what it was or where it came from. But all I could do was get on with things.

The design for the Well that Corina had found required me to flood the area with different types of mana. It was emphasized that each element needed to have at least one element to clash with, like fire and water. Elements that harmonized were also helpful, but not to the same degree. She and Loralei could manage the earth and water mana, but until I added more nymphs, the only one who could manage other types of mana was me.

For the last few hours, I'd practiced 'controlling my Domain'. Although Corina was a surprisingly patient teacher, my progress was slow. Because of my experience surrendering control to her and Loralei, I wasn't flailing around in the dark... But it was like using a muscle for the first time. It rarely worked out exactly how I intended, and the effort was mentally taxing.

I did notice something while 'flexing' my control. To confirm it, I checked my status and found that my CP generation had jumped up to four per hour. At some point, I must have crossed a threshold in Creature count or in the amount of space I'd excavated. It was a comforting boost, though I wished for a way to know exactly where it came from.

The end of the five hour repop timer for the Kindlesprites saw a new Kindlesprite appear. There was little to distinguish her from the others, so I left her to assist the Sculptor's work for the time being. Eventually, she might find her own purpose or I could find something else for her to do later.

Regardless, the time came for me to set up the basic version of the Mana Well. The best way to create the Well was to introduce one type of mana, and then it's opposite. At first I'd wanted to start with the earth, so that Corina could do it and I'd have a sample to reference for the rest- but there was already another type of mana present.

Right now, my Core Room was flooded with darkness mana. To proceed, I needed to exert control over it, and then create an opposing source of mana to balance it. Only then could I start working with the other elements.

No time like the present. I relaxed my attention, directing my thoughts toward the Dungeon. There was a sensation similar to breathing, only mana cycled through the halls instead of oxygen. Where I was, there was a high concentration of pure death mana, a constant influx of energy for me. It was being drawn safely into my Core because of Geni's efforts, but that was no longer the goal.

Gather the darkness in one place, then prepare to fling it into the Well. For that, I needed runework. It seemed wrong to carve the runes into stone, since that meant earth mana would pollute the source of darkness, but I didn't have another choice at the moment. I needed Corina and Loralei to assist me and they needed stone or water to work. The process felt slightly humiliating, like they were moving my hands to draw a picture.

I considered the finished product briefly. Now all of the mana that was being drawn into my Dungeon from outside was being contained here, carefully condensed into a dark orb. A lot of it was being naturally drawn into my Core still, but most of it was just condensed down like the mana in my Heart. However, the majority of our work was still unused. It wouldn't activate until we tied it to the opposing element's source, so I started working on that immediately.

Unfortunately, it was much harder. For the darkness, we just needed to channel the source that was already there. This time, we needed to make a new source from scratch. I did have the basic materials I needed for it. To oppose the death type darkness mana, I needed something like life, healing or light mana. Between the new mana that was coming from the Room with the Elegy active and my True Regeneration spell, everything was available. The problem was figuring out how to cultivate that mana using nothing more than enchanted runes.

There were many, many failures. Random variants of healing spells, sudden bursts of harmful light magic, and many other spell-like effects constantly manifested in the area. Sometimes they would damage the runework and cause even more catastrophic effects.

Even when we stopped to rest, we mostly just talked about how to design the source with the Fairies or on the forums. Unfortunately, I was the most experienced user of this type of magic in the Dungeon. The Kindlesprites had some proficiency with healing spells, but they couldn't really apply that proficiency to enchantment. The forum users were our best bet, but they were... distracted.

Apparently someone had set off a nuke for some reason. That was just the beginning, though. A group of mages had arrived at the location within minutes and used a series of major spells to completely transform the site. Instead of a nuclear wasteland, it was now an impenetrable jungle guarding a massive, unreachable castle.

These mages then publicly declared the creation of 'The Guild', a global organization modeled after a typical RPG's adventurer guild. They would offer increasing tiers of support for members in exchange for service. From what we read, it seemed like a lot of people joined purely for the novelty of the game-like structure.

I could only see the downsides. The power they'd displayed made me look pathetic in comparison. Considering that, these mages could have solved a lot of the world's ongoing problems already if they'd wanted to. Instead they'd waited until they had an opportunity to introduce themselves in the grandest way possible. They clearly weren't motivated by altruism, which left me wondering what they really wanted. It reminded me of that Whiterest guy more than anything...

After far too much time and a lot of screwing around on the forums, we finally managed to stabilize the source for the light mana. All that was left was to link the sources together. Considering the difficulties we had, I was nervous that something would go wrong. But even after checking everything over what must have been a hundred times, there didn't seem to be any problems.

Activating the mana channels was as simple as connecting them to the sources. The entire Room was immediately flooded with mana. The creepy touch of death and the comforting healing magic mixed and exploded into dozens of colors, textures and- confusingly- flavors.

For a while I simply stared at the scene, trying to see if there was any kind of pattern to the flashes of light, darkness and twilight. Then I shook myself. Time to see if this was worth the effort.

Five CP per hour. It... probably wasn't a coincidence. There was a chance I'd crossed another threshold with the Creatures or digging though. Either way, I'd continue on with making the Well. With this much CP, it would probably make sense to Create a couple more Nymphs to manage the other sources, right? That's not just my desire to avoid doing the work myself.

To complement Corina or Loralei, I needed an air or fire Nymph. However, they were unexpectedly expensive. Since I had little need for fire at the moment, I chose to Create an Aurad using forty five CP. I'd place her above the lake, but I spent a moment watching the earth source begin forming. I'm just stalling before meeting a new face... Sighing, I finally teleported back.

Cipiteca396

I'm a little out of sync with the story at this point. If there's something you were looking forward to and it seems like I forgot, remind me what it was.

I finally read Salvos during my little absence. That's a good story, but very long. I feel like a month passed without me noticing?