So proud. I’m so proud of her.

Julia is on the verge of becoming a Second. Her meditation is in its fifth hour and I can feel that she’s nearing completion of the process. If I put a bit of mana in my eyes I can see her hara glowing from the concentration of her own mana.

She’s such a good child, almost listening to my teachings and doing whatever she can to please me. Since I’ve taken her in, she doesn’t need to fear death all the time and can be much happier. She’s working hard to repay me allowing me to rest, sometimes a bit too much for her own good.

The mana in her hara is glowing brighter every second. It is time now.

I see the mana suddenly leaving her hara and flowing through all her body at once, like a confined explosion. I can see some of the mana concentrating in her throat, and doing something to her. I don’t fear this. When the mana gathers somewhere during an Evolution, it’s always a sign that something will change in the body, almost always for the better.

After half a minute the glow starts to fade and she opens her eyes. She’s looking at me and I look back with all the pride I feel thinking of her as my student.

“You did very well. Congratulations.” I said to her.

“Thanks.” She signs with her hands.

“Tell me, do you feel something different in your throat?”

She nods.

“Then try to use your voice.”

She looks at me like I’m kidding her.

“Go on, try it. I think you get your voice back.”

“...” She opens her mouth and tries to talk. “...a…!” She makes a small sound and looks surprised by it. “...an…” I can see she’s trying to say something. “...an...u…”

“Stop. Don’t force on it. You’ll have to learn how to talk anew. Take your time.”

She signs a “Thank you.” and jumps at me, putting her tiny arms around my neck and giving me a big hug. I can feel her tears of joy soaking my shirt.

-

When I come back from the sudden memory, I see the Dwarf Franziska is still in the aftershock of the experiment.

I feel proud of her too. Why? I suppose it’s a mix between the fact that she followed my bits of advice on how to become my ‘citizen’ and the feelings the memory brought back to me.

She’s the first sapient being I manage to claim, my first citizen. Whatever will happen to her in the future, she will always have a special significance for me.

It’s a good idea to claim sapient beings. The mana she provides me is so tasteful and of such a better quality and bigger quantity than all of the other creatures, plants or materials I ever claimed.

Why didn’t I ever heard of dungeon’s doing this before? Is it because I don’t have all of my memories and knowledge back yet? Is it because it’s so complicated to claim sapient beings? Or maybe, it has been done but also kept it secret? I’ll have to make experiments to further advances my theories on the subject and see what more I can do. But, if I can avoid it, I don’t want to make them on my citizens, I’ll make them on those who break my rules.

Speaking of rules, I think I need to rephrase them to make people accept them more easily. But not now, I have to focus on my Dwarf.

---

With her eyes still closed she’s able to feel the walls, the floor, the roof and the few pieces of furniture in the room. She moves her arms and feels the air running on her shirt sleeves as if it was running on her bare skin, she can tell where and how all of her clothing are touching each other and herself, it’s like if they were part of her. When she opens her eyes she can see with so many details, if she focuses a bit she can see the different fibers of her clothes, and her slightly improved eyesight lets her note that the walls are even smoother than she taught before.

And the energy. Oh, yes, the energy. There is so much of it. She can feel the Dungeon’s mana flowing inside her and filling her mana pool. In a few seconds, her mana reserve is fuller than it has ever been. She tries to make it move under her skin, like her mother taught her to, and it’s easy, so easy. She never managed to master this technique of strengthening one own skin before, but now she feels like she could do it in her sleep.

She also feels like she could use the Dungeon’s mana outside of her body and become some kind of mage, one of the almost non-existent and so powerful Dwarves mages. But the Dungeon’s energy flow makes her think she could keep at fighting days and nights without feeling tired as it’s refilling her mana pool quicker than she had ever been able to empty it and make an even greater fighter than a mage.

She grabs her small hammer and makes a few swings in the air. First, she’s surprised by the lack of weight, then the swiftness of her movements is taking all of her attention, she’s moving with more ease than ever. And she’s also capable of feeling the hammer like she’s feeling her clothes, discerning with precision where and how the wooden handle is connected to the iron head. She’s vibrating at the anticipation of practicing and fighting with a true armor and her weapon of predilection. With those, she thinks she could beat a Second while not being one herself.

“So? How are you finding it?” She hears a voice directly in her head. It startles her, but she’s quick to realize it must be the Dungeon itself talking directly in her mind. That fact brings her back a little to reality.

“It’s fantastic... I feel so much power. I’ve never felt this good in all my life. I have so much energy, I think I could never sleep again.” She responds, emotions filling her voice.

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“Yes. I can see that. It’s feeling quite good for me too, you're providing me with so much mana than my other creatures.”

“What? How can I provide you with mana when you’re the one filling my mana pool?” What the Dungeon’s saying doesn’t make a lot of sense.

“I don’t know, I have theories, but I’ll need to study the phenomenon to understand it. Anyway, I want to make some tests, are you willing?” It doesn’t know? That’s not reassuring. And ‘tests’? Why? What kind of tests? Will they hurt?

“No, I don’t know everything, I’m still a young Dungeon after all, barely a few months old. And the first test is conclusive. If I focus on you, I can hear your thoughts. I don’t think it will be hurtful.”

“You can read my mind?! Stop that!” She shouts out cursing at the Dungeon in her mind. If it is going to monitor all her thoughts it’s going to have a bad surprise as she can consistently swear for a long time.

“If I focus on you I can, yes. And please, stop swearing like that. I hear you even if I’m not listening when you’re shouting out like that in your mind!”

“What?”

“Yes, it seems that you can shout your thoughts out and I will hear them, even if I’m not listening directly to your mind. That makes me think you can learn to do the opposite and think at a quieter level, one that will prevent me from reading your mind. There, happy? It’s up to you to train your mind now.” Franziska finds some resentment in the Dungeon’s voice, maybe calling it a ‘fucking piece of mind-fucker retard only able to eat the shit of its monster while looking at them fucking each other like a big and purulent and stinking pervert’ and other names like that, was not such a good idea. But if she can indeed train herself to think in a way the Dungeon can’t hear her, even if it wants too, that can prove itself useful.

“Okay, but please, don’t read my mind. And, what are your other test?”

“I want to test if I can control your body.”

“What?! No way!”

“Rest your mind, you are my first Citizen. As such you’ll have some privileges. And you were willing to become one, it means I won’t force my will upon yours if it is not a matter of imminent death.”

“Hrm. I still don’t like it.”

“It is just a test, I want to see if I can do it. I won’t force you to do it, if you don’t want.”

“What will I have in return?”

“I already promised you equipment and power. What do you want?”

“I want to continue my father works. I need a smithy.”

“Hmpf, fine. I’ll build a smithy for you. But you’ll have to find your materials yourself in the Maze.”

“Can’t I have those already?”

“No, I’m trying to establish a meritocracy here. It would be too big of a reward for just that.” As the chat continues Franziska starts to find the Dungeon’s voice has weird sound in it, it makes her think of that Human traveler her parents invited to dinner once. It has an accent almost like him, for what she remembers he was from a far away country that had suffered a terrible calamity so many years ago. It also sounds kind of masculine.

“Okay then. Go on and do your thing.”

“Thanks. Now please, relax, I’ll try to move your arm.”

Franziska right arm becomes dull and her first reflex is to move it, but she stops herself from doing so. She can also feel that something is entering into it and spreading in all the member. Then she sees it moving on its own, her hand turns a bit and her fingers folds and unfolds themselves. The sensation of dullness and the foreign presence leave her arm as it returns to dangle on her side.

“Harder than I thought. How does it feel?”

“Strange and scary, like when you’re sleeping on it all night and can’t have a good feeling of it in the morning, then you have the impression to have pins and needles in it.”

“Okay, this time I want you to try and resist it.”

When the dullness starts to enter her arm again, Franziska resists to it by moving it around. Then the dullness grows and starts to itch at her. She keeps on moving her arm but it is harder and harder to have it move like she wants it to do. After thirty seconds she starts to feel pain in it, like an ache, and focus all her will on moving her arm like she wants to, but with a strike and a cry of pain she completely loses her control over it and falls down on the ground. The Dungeon’s strong presence removes itself quickly, returning to its usual constant and faint presence.

“Sorry, I didn’t expect it to be this painful, I’ve felt it too. Here, let me heal you. If you want to know, it was particularly hard for me to do it. I don’t think I could control your whole body if I wanted too. I’m telling all that to you in a show of good faith.”

As the Dungeon’s talking to her Franziska feels a warm sensation enveloping her and soothing the pain and fear away. It reminds her of her father embraces and it bites at her heart, making her remember the good days with her parents and that makes her sadder than she felt in the past years.

“Shhh. Don’t be sad. I’ll make you strong. I will make you powerful enough to affront whatever you want. And you’ll have your revenge.”

“It’s fine, I can deal with my sadness alone. Any other tests?”

“Yes, see that box on the table?” Franziska looks at the table and sees a box slowly growing out of it.

“Yes.”

“I want you to open it.” That’s an easy demand, in comparison to the previous ones.

Franziska walks to the box, grabs it and pulls the lid to open it. But the box doesn’t comply and stay closed. She forces on it to no avail and increases again the strength she’s using on it.

“Stop forcing on the box. The first part of the test is a success. I’ve made this box to be impossible to open with simple strength. You need to use mana to unlock it. I see you can already make the mana flow as you want in your body, but you need to be able to make it flow in your weapons too. This exercise consists of you opening then closing the box with your own mana. You can use mine if you manage to do it, but the exercise will only be completed if you can do it with your own.”

“Wait, what? What are you talking about? Exercise?” Franziska doesn’t get what’s the Dungeon is talking about.

“Yes, to become a powerful warrior you need to be able to make your mana circulated in your equipment as easily as in your body, it’s the next step after being able to concentrate your mana under your skin. And the first step on this path is to open and close this box.”

“I know that, my mother explained it to me. I just don’t get why I need a box.”

“It’s a practice’s tool. And it’s also the first step in some of the next arrangements I’ll put into my domain. Try to take your mana to your fingertips and then out of it and in the box.”

“What kind of arrangements?”

“Restricted areas reserved for Citizens.”

“And how is opening a box related to that?”

“Because the accessing system will be based on the same principle that the opening and closing system of the box.”

“That’s interesting, but what kind of restricted areas?”

“Comfier houses, public hot baths, gymnasium, your smithy, stuff like that.”

“Oh, that’s good. I think it will encourage the others to become Citizens.”

“That’s the point. Now I have other stuff to focus on, keep on training your mana manipulation.”

“Yeah, yeah. I’m going to practice on this thing. And don’t take over my body ever again.”