‘How do you feel?’ ‘About what?’ ‘Killing those guys. You were a human once.’ ‘Not really anything. I accepted a long time ago, that to live in this world you have to kill. The first time you kill someone it’s terrible. But if you don’t do it you or someone you care for gets killed. And I don't want that. How about you? You seemed to enjoy it just a bit.’ ‘Fairies are raised to not be bothered by death. It also helps knowing how the world works. But losing friends is never easy. And besides, they came after us. So f@#$ em.’ ‘That's rather straightforward. I thought you might have been a psychopath.’ ‘Hey!’

‘So where we headed?’ ‘Don’t know yet. Being a dungeon was interesting. But it's not for me. I want to do something more or at least different. I was thinking of coliseums and theaters and legendary creatures.’ ‘Big dreams. A bit all over the place. But good dreams.’ ‘I know it's a bit unrealistic for now but I'll get there someday.’ ‘It’ll be cool to see.’

‘I have a question. We’ve been traveling for a while. How haven’t you run into anything?’ ‘Echo location.’ ‘Echo what now?’ ‘It's not the real thing. While I move the earth around us I send a pulse forward. I'm essentially bashing the ambient mana with my own and reading the ripples. If they come back quickly I know there's something in the way and If they’re weak I know there's an empty space and if my mana disappeared then something absorbed it. ’

‘That sounds like mapping or life detection. Not really something a core needs but smart.’ ‘It is. If I infused everything I would be leaving a trail and alerting anything I bumped with it.. This way we won't have a repeat of the pigs.’ ‘I wouldn't mind another hogsworth.’ ‘I bet you wouldn’t.’ ‘Yeah.’

‘Oh hold up. There's a big open space in front of us.’ ‘How big?’ ‘Big enough that I can't see the other side.’ ‘Can we go around?’ ‘I don’t know. I don’t want to end up being turned around if it's a system of caves. I’ll take a peek and then see if we can pass through and tunnel through the other side.’ After creating an opening I could send my mana farther.. If anything were alive in there. We’d seem like a giant stone eye pushed through the wall.

‘Pretty.’ ‘Ferris! What are you doing?’ ‘Taking a peek.’ ‘How did you get outside?’ ‘I just passed through the wall. See.’ ‘How? Can anyone do that?’ ‘A no. It's fairy magic. And don’t fret, only your contracted fairy can pass through your walls.’ ‘You scared me for a second.’ ‘This place is nice. It's wide and closed off. Minus the waterfall but it adds a nice touch. If there were some natural lighting it would be beautiful.’

‘It would be nice. Maybe we could set up here.’ ‘It is a nice idea but. I don’t think we could stay long term. That waterfall won’t bring enough mana in.’ ‘The waterfall brings in mana?’ ‘It is in everything at least a little bit. Turn on your mana sense.’ ‘Whoa..’ ‘I know right. Super pretty.’ ‘Yeah… It won’t be enough.’ ‘You’ll need some adventures or a bunch of animals. Oh you could make an ecosystem here.’

‘I think I'm done with adventures for now. But making this place our own veritable Eden sounds nice.’ ‘We just have to get a few animals down here and your dungeon magic will do the rest.’ ‘We could make a temporary tunnel to the surface and bring down two of each animal like an ark.’ ‘What's an ark? Also we only need one of each. Your dungeon magic can handle making a few. Once you know what they look like.’ ‘I remember what some look like.’

‘Stop. I ment inside and out. They're not as simple as making slimes. If you just made them off of appearance they'd be no more than puppets. They wouldn’t truly be alive and wouldn’t make you mana.’ ’Oh. So creatures I make give me mana?’

‘Yup same if you made people. But people are a bit complicated. They make more mana but if your people are dumb as rocks then it's a mute point. You’d need to steal some memories from adventures or raise them and teach them from scratch. You can’t build a village and expect them to just pick up tools and act like people.’

‘Puppets can act like people with a little managing but wouldn’t hold up under scrutiny. Also They wouldn’t be alive. So no mana.’ ‘So making a village of people would net me a good amount of mana.’ ‘Yes but it comes with some caveats.’ ‘like what?’ ‘Your people leaving and not coming back.’ ‘That won’t be a problem. They wouldn’t exactly be able to leave here.’

‘Huhhhh. But if they wanted to leave. Would you stop them?.. If you opened an entrance in the future and they grew curious. Would you let them leave.’ ‘If I made it a paradise they wouldn’t want to leave.’ ‘Since when did paradise stop anyone from sating their curiosity…’ ‘For someone in their second life you're rather naive.’ If she knew it was my third time around I'd be more embarrassed.

‘I could make them dependent on my mana.’ ‘That's unnecessarily cruel. You sound like a demon.’ ‘You’re making me depressed now.’ ‘Sorry. Making sapients is a big deal. I don’t want you getting hurt…’ ‘Thanks’

I leveled the floor and sat my core room in the center. I smoothed the walls and ceiling in the shape of a dome. Well more of an egg shape. I shifted the opening of the waterfall to the center of the room. I made a disc of glowing stone in the center of the waterfall. The water entered between the edge of the ceiling and the disc in the shape of a ring. I etched channels in the dome for the water to follow and the occasional bump to simulate rain.

The design is more cost effective than it appears. I remembered how water behaved in my previous world. The flowing water clung to the ceiling on its own. I wondered for a while what to do with the pooling water around the edges of the dome. I was thinking of the mist you’d see at the end of a waterfall. I didn't want to make the waterfall bigger. That would ruin everything. What I really wanted was a cloud cover that would ride up the dome. It would give the illusion that there was more space.

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I had a bout of inspiration. I remembered the hydro electric dams in my past life. I could use the waterfall to generate electricity and use it to heat the water to create steam. I made pools at the bottom of the dome. My first attempt to make a heating element was disastrous. You can use electricity to heat water but it can also separate oxygen from hydrogen. The explosion rocked in more ways than one. The shockwave converged in the center and cracked my core room. My room was a sphere if it were any other shape it would have caved in. Luckily we were all inside where it was safe. Albeit a bit shaken up.

‘What the hell was that!’ Ferris held Hogsworth tightly. I couldn’t tell if he was flipping out or couldn't breathe. ’Sorry.’ ‘That was you? What the hell did you do,’ ‘Made a big boom. It was by accident.’ ‘I don’t want to be near when you mean to make something explode. Is this going to be a recurring thing? If you get known for being an exploding core I'm just going to go.’ ‘It was an accident I swear.’ ‘Good cuz I'm stuck with you and I don't want to explode.’

I repaired the damage and made a functioning steam generator this time. It was beautiful. The light refracted in the steam like a reverse sunset. The vibrant oranges starting mid day then sun up or sun down. The color faded back to white at the bottom. The ring of water was visible like orange flowing energy around the sun. I didn’t want it to rain all day round so I modified the bumps to retract in cycles.

It was beautiful. But it was time to bring in plants and animals. I didn’t want the floor to just be stone and moss. I had asked Ferris to bring back animals. She insisted I make a path to the surface. I asked why she couldn’t use her fairy magic to bring them through the ground. I was victim to a tirade about what fairy magic can and can’t do. Ultimately we came up with a plan. One that wouldn’t have her going back and forth and getting tired out.

Dungeons occasionally drop a one time get out of jail free card also known as an escape talisman. Instead of teleporting away it will teleport the wearer to the dungeon. I thought it was a clever idea till ferris told me it already existed. Some dungeons drop them for especially cruel adventurers. It's one of few black listed items that come out of dungeons.

Mine were different enough to call original. Mine came with a delay and became sticky on one side. I wasn’t going to make these for adventures. They were far too easy to use against someone. They were meant only for Ferris’s use. If she ever dropped one and it was picked by someone it would dissolve when they tried to use it. The culprit would be caught red handed. Also the smell of toilet slimes would be hard to remove.

I know Ferris enjoyed how useful they were without even seeing her. Some of the animals she sent back came in screaming with talismans stuck to their backsides. Being a fairy I thought she’d communicate with the animals. Asking if they wanted to come. Not running around slapping *ss. Out of all the fairies. I surely got one of the weird ones. But I wouldn’t trade her for the world.

I raised and lowered the ground to create a dynamic terrain. Hopefully it looks natural enough to fool the eye. I left some of the original floor exposed like natural rock formations. I broke down the rock into sand and made some clay soil too. I wanted to use as much of the materials I had available to my advantage. Creating them from pure mana would be taxing my reserves. I may have given Ferris to many talismans but I wanted her to bring back any animal she wanted. I wanted her to have fun doing it.

I was going for an oasis in the Sahara's kind of vibe. Basically the Sahara's but a bit more lively. It was a nice idea but I didn't see how I could make a horse or a lynx fit it. It was my fault I should have communicated better. I didn’t tell her what the place would be like and I didn't check what the surface was like. ‘I'm baaack.’ Ferris said in a sing-song tone. ‘Oh. It's nice. Didn’t expect to come back to a dessert though.’

‘It's not finished. I need to populate it with plants and rework the environment. The animals won’t survive if I don’t.’ ‘Oh no you're good. Just change the animals.’ ‘Say what now?’ ‘Change the animals. You know dungeon magic.’ ‘It's not really dungeon magic but I get the point.’ ‘Bah semantics. It behaves similar enough. You can do whatever a dungeon can.’ ‘We should call it something else.’ ‘Does it bother you that much?’ ‘Ehhhh not really.’ ‘Then its fine’

I didn't want to hurt the animals but Ferris reassured me. It would feel like getting a massage. But gross cuz your skins moving. I gave them a makeover. Their patterns blended with the environment and their sizes were adjusted. I wanted them to feel like they naturally evolved here.

The horses were slightly shorter. I redesigned their hooves to better walk in desserts. They were wider with four toes instead of one. They were close together so the overall size and shape remained similar to a single hoof. But every step they spread slightly. A soft pad became visible between the toes. The tracks looked like a normal hoof split into four with a gap in between and curve connecting them together . Think of a shamrock if all the leaves connected before the stem. The horses could wear the same kind of shoes as a normal horse although the toes wouldn’t spread. A segmented plate could serve a better replacement to allow the toes to spread while preventing damage to the hoove. If you were wondering why horses have shoes. It's to prevent damage. You want your horse to break a nail. Hoof.

The lynxes. Lynx? Is it plural? They were taller and leaner with longer claws. Their fur was short unlike their former thick coats. The climate was steady all year round and lacked seasons so shedding coats wasn’t a needed feature. I discovered lynx were strictly carnivorous. But I gave them a set of molars anyway. Although they wouldn't eat plants they would use them to squeeze out water if it were scarce. Specifically from cacti. Or an approximation of them. I hadn’t gotten any from Ferris. I made the interior of their mouths rather resistant so they wouldn’t be bothered when munching on them.

I made various modifications to the animals Ferris brought me. She gave the thumbs up. It was apparently better for them to fend for themselves than to persist off my mana. Better returns. They will further adapt to the environment on their own. I just pushed them in a suitable direction.