While I was waiting for Faellen to exit its deep and ponderous state I started working on the walls of the Dungeon. Nothing fancy, not even any extra rooms like last time. Just pure and simple thickening.

It wasn’t fast, sadly, as my mastery over the Create Ability stood only at it infancy, so I couldn’t produce a great amount of material just yet. What I did produce, however, while not much, was honest work.

My patience is, despite being a Dungeon, not endless. I got bored of pretty fast, before even doubling the thickness of the walls. Which is why I decided to experiment.

First, I would finally make something other than Dungeon Stone. The material was cool and all (also extremely fucking weird), and it’s awesome seeing magic at work, but there’s only so much wonder one single action can produce. Which is why, air.

Air. Air, air, air. Air isn’t really anything. Neither is stone, now that I think about it. Both are just mixtures of a bunch of different elements. So could I make those too? Who knows, but before that, air.

Creating air was, surprisingly enough, a much more different sensation to creating stone. It felt much softer, if that makes any sense. Maybe if I had some actual mana to turn into air, I’d be able to feel more closely what’s going on. But for now I was relying on the shenanigans of my Paradox Aspect, so I couldn’t confirm nor deny that.

What I could confirm, and what was perhaps the most import detail, was that creating air went much faster. Like, maybe even a thousand times quicker (don’t quote me on that, it’s just a feel-based estimate).

Which meant that it wasn’t long after I’d started that the whole Core Room was filled with Dungeon Air.

“What are you doing! Stop!” a hand ambushed my crystal core and I heard Faellen shout. Seems it still wasn’t back to how adapted it was before.

“Is there a problem? I was just filling the Dungeon with air, since I never got around to doing it last time,” I said.

“Is there a problem he asks,” the fairy muttered to itself, “Of course there’s a problem! How much damned air do you want to make?! Are you trying to crush me!?”

“One, not a man. Two, sorry. I can’t really feel the atmosphere like this.”

“Are you sure?” that seems to have blown the wind out of its sails. “As far as I know your Dungeon Sense ability should include that as well.”

“Oh shit, really?” I say and immediately try it out.

It takes me a little while, mostly since it’s such an alien feeling, but I do finally manage to sense something which could be pressure. I’m a little distracted at first, it’s very strange to feel pressure as a sense and not through my body, aka pain.

Anyway, the pressure is really high here. I may have produced a bit too much air… Damn, that just sounds like I farted a lot. But I digress.

“Oh, right, now I feel it,” I say to Faellen, who’s hands is luckily still on my crystal. “Alright then, two things. When I use Destroy, it makes mana out of nothing. Which you said is bad and so I shouldn’t use it unless you give me the go ahead. And second, can we please make a bond already? I feel sort of powerless when I have to wait for you to start every conversation.”

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The fairy facepalms with its free hand. Unfortunately, I don’t know if it’s at me for my ever-evolving weird situation, or itself for forgetting the bond.

“Fine the, let’s get the bond out of the way first,” it says and not long after the request appears in front of me.

Dungeon Fairy, Faellen, offers you a Bond.

Bond type: Timeless Dungeon to Dungeon Fairy bond.

Accept?

“Wait, that’s a different one to before. Why’s it timeless instead of basic?”

“Because,” Faellen explains with a hint of frustration, “I don’t want to die. And this is the most likely thing I could think of to ensure your Ability also grabs me. At least until you learn to control it.”

Oh, yeah. That’s understandable. Can’t imagine how it must feel to know you’re gonna die. Or that you’ve already died? Time travel is weird.

Oh, that reminds me, “So I can master and expand my Abilities. I’ve had a hunch before, but it’s good to know.”

“What? Of course you can! Did I not tell you before?” it sounds a bit distraught at this. Then, with a quiet mutter, “Seriously, what was I thinking?”

I accept the System prompt and move on to other stuff. The other stuff being my accidentally made crushing machine, also called the atmosphere. Technically it’s not that much of an issue, I could just Destroy some of it, but something tells me there’s a better way.

And indeed, it would appear my most wonderful fairy assistant had already thought of something. “Enchanting,” is the apparent solution, “You have the enchant you Dungeon walls to not let any mana through.”

“What about when I want to expand beyond my current walls?” I voice my worry.

“But you don’t really use mana do expand, do you? At least not yet.” At my mental nod, it continues, “So it would also be a good test. To see how your Ignore That Ability truly functions. Besides, the enchantment won’t be anywhere near absolute. Any guided mana should be able to push through, so it would also be good practice for you.”

Although I’m loath to admit it that does sound quite reasonable. More than reasonable, in fact. I’m almost ready to head off and start enchanting, when something crosses my mind.

“Hold on, how does this help with the air pressure situation?” I ask, puzzled.

“Other that you using some of that air for the enchantments themselves, it’ll also keep any future ambient mana contained. Which should, in theory, protect you against whatever it is that’s dangerous about making mana, and thus allow you to use Destroy whenever you need it.”

“In theory?” I ask worriedly, “I would have though you would want to be certain before letting me lose like that.”

“Can’t be certain if we don’t know what even is the danger. But it’s reasonable enough to expect that if nothing gets out, then nothing can know anything is happening,” Faellen finishes explaining. “Additionally, it’ll also allow you to establish a mana cycle within your Dungeon, but that’s for later.”

Yes, I wholeheartedly agree. I’m not sure I want to even bother with making a mana cycle. If it’s anything like the water cycle then it’s going to be a huge pain in the ass to balance it all. I think. I’m not an expert.

Either way, it’s time to do some enchanting.

It isn’t long before I find out another awesome thing about air. It produces much less mana upon destruction. This makes it much easier to grab said mana in more manageable quantities, which in turn means I can use all of it on enchanting without letting any slip past me.

Then again, it does also make the whole process slower. Slow enough that I get bored and start pushing my skill with both Destroy and Control. Mostly just to see how much I can do at once, but then I also begin with some nonsensical things.

Like destroying air on one side of the room and then dragging it all the way to the other side for enchanting. It even more inefficient, and quite ridiculous, but also pretty. To see mana fly through the air like that, maybe it’s not such a bad idea to establish a mana cycle.

Still don’t know what it is though.