At the threshold, Stella hesitated. She looked at Aster.

Aster smiled back. “It’s not scary. It’s just a step. Look.” He stepped over the threshold and into the dungeon proper.

Stella shook her head, still on the inside of the threshold. “That’s not it.”

“Then… what is it?” Aster asked.

Stella looked up at him. Innocent eyes blinked his direction. “Aster, what’s a star?”

Aster put a hand to his forehead. That’s right! She’s a Dungeon Spirit, born and raised in the deepest cavern of a dungeon! How would she know what stars are? He shook his head at himself, then smiled at her. “They’re these lights in the night sky.”

“Night? Sky?” Stella asked, tipping her head.

Aster cleared his throat. “That’s right, that’s right. Well, on the surface, it turns dark and light on a cycle. When it’s light, we call that day, and when it’s dark, it’s night. Every day, it becomes night, and every night, it eventually becomes day.”

“But there’s lights at night?” Stella asked, confused.

“They’re very small, and far away,” Aster said.

“How long is it dark? How long is it light?” Stella asked.

“Er, a long time. About… twelve hours each? That’s… as long as it takes before you go to sleep.”

Stella paused, considering. She lifted her hand and started counting on her fingers, and her eyes got wide. “That’s a long time of dark.”

“Uh…” Come to think of it, how long does she sleep? Does she sleep? “Uh, anyways,” Aster said, pressing on, “That’s the way it is on the surface.” I can figure out the rest of it later! If I don’t press on, I’ll never be able to explain things.

Stella considered for a moment, then shrugged. “Sounds annoying.”

She started to take a step, then froze. She twisted her hand free of his and stumbled back, shaking her head.

“What is it?” Aster asked.

Stella looked over her shoulder at the hide. She clenched her skirt.

Oh. We shouldn’t just leave that there, after all. Aster stepped back into the final boss room. “We should send your mother back into the dungeon first.”

“Send her? You won’t take Momma away from me!” Stella said, running between Aster and the hide. She held her hands out, her lower lip trembling fiercely.

Aster shook his head. He gestured at his chest. “Bring your core out.”

Stella hesitated. She pressed her hands to her chest and drew the core out again.

“It was bright, once, right?” Aster asked. He sat down beside her, crossing his legs.

Stella nodded. “The whole thing glowed. But now it’s all…”

They both looked at the core. Only a small ball of light remained in its center. The extremities completely lacked light, except for a few pinpricks here and there.

“That’s your mana. As a dungeon, you need mana to survive. If that goes completely dark… you die,” Aster said, serious.

Stella’s eyes went wide. She hugged the orb to herself, leaning over it to examine it closely. “I need mana!”

“You can absorb some from the planet, but to get enough mana to spawn monsters and maintain your unusual biomes, you need to absorb extra mana than what you can get from the planet,” Aster explained. As someone who’s always believed in Dungeon Spirits and dungeon cores, I’ve investigated everything I can about them. Although there isn’t much material on them, I’ve searched the National Library from top to bottom to find out what there is! Putting aside from the Dungeon Keepers, it’s hard to say there’s anyone more versed in Dungeon Spirits and cores than myself.

“Where do I get mana from?” Stella asked, examining her core.

“There’s two primary methods,” Aster said, holding up two fingers. “One. Allowing humans into your dungeon.”

“No!” Stella shouted, retreating from him.

Aster put up a hand to calm her down. “You’ll need to do this eventually, but we can take it slow.”

“I don’t want to. Humans are bad. They killed Momma,” Stella replied, scowling.

“Am I bad?” Aster asked, smiling.

Stella hesitated. After a moment, she nodded. “Yes.”

Ow. Aster laughed, rubbing his forehead. “Alright, alright. But listen. Humans produce lots of mana naturally. More than we can process into magic… which is what humans use. We let off that extra mana without even realizing it, and that’s what dungeons collect and use to create new monsters and rooms.”

Well… that’s the short version, anyways. There’s no need to confuse her with the complicated version. After all, a dungeon opposed to having humans enter doesn’t need to know things like mana spill when casting or using skills, or absorbing mana from dead bodies, or the mysterious mana generated from humans interacting with traps, or mana drain rooms in high-level dungeons, or the thousand other things that can feed dungeons mana. To be honest, humanity doesn’t fully comprehend how dungeons get mana. I’ve tried my best, but there’s only so much material on the subject. Even our best scholars don’t know the full mechanism, so how could I hope to explain it fully to a kid?

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Aster cleared his throat. “In short, humans are good for you. If you want to survive, you’ll have to let them in.”

“No!” Stella insisted, shaking her head.

“We’ll set that argument aside for later,” Aster allowed. “For now, let’s focus on the second way to get mana.”

Stella nodded, scooting closer. She bounced in place, curious.

“This isn’t a mechanism to rely on. Ultimately, this doesn’t save your life. It can only put off your death,” Aster warned.

“Come on, tell me, tell me,” Stella said, impatient.

Aster took a deep breath. I shouldn’t tell her. I should make letting humans into the dungeon her only option. I don’t want her to become too internally-focused and think she can survive on her own, cut off from the world. But… He glanced at the hide on the floor. It’s too painful like this.

He lifted his hand and pointed at the hide. “You can get mana… by absorbing corpses.”

Stella instantly paled. “No!”

“Hear me out,” Aster said.

She frowned and crossed her arms, but waited.

“When you reabsorb their mana, you absorb their spirits, too. The enemies that die in this dungeon can respawn, as long as their bodies aren’t taken out,” Aster explained.

Stella frowned. She looked at the hide and sniffed. “But Momma…”

Aster pressed his lips together. Was it really necessary to take so much of the boss monster? I know it’s a rare dragon boss, but still! You’re really going hard on a young dungeon.

“It will take longer for her, yes, but it’s possible, as long as some of her body remains. If you absorb what’s left quickly, you might be able to recover some of her spirit. With so little left, her spirit will be weak, and it’ll need time to rest—”

“Momma can come back?” Stella asked.

Aster nodded. “It will take some time, but it should be possible.” I don’t know if the soul and personality will remain the same, but at the very least, the monster will respawn. It’s not as if we humans pay close attention to the personalities of monsters.

In any case, it’s her best chance for reviving her mother.

Stella stared at him. She narrowed his eyes. “Really?”

He nodded again. “Really.”

“Really really?”

“Yep,” Aster said, crossing his arms. “The longer you wait, the lower the chances are of it working!”

Stella’s eyes widened. She ran over to the hide. Holding her hands out, she squeezed her eyes shut. Blue mana swirled around her, sending her short hair flying.

Aster stepped back, holding his breath. He eyed the streams of thick, visible mana. That much mana could kill a man. And that’s what she has when she’s nearly depleted?

The hide dissolved into motes of light, then sunk into the floor. Even the stain faded away, every last scrap of blood and rot vanishing into glittering golden lights. The mana faded, and so did the motes. Nothing remained where the hide had been except for a suspiciously empty spot in the carpet of crystal shards.

Stella opened her eyes. Excited, she threw her hand out. Mana swirled visibly around her as streaks of blue light. It gathered, growing stronger and stronger. “Momma… come back!”

“Stella, don’t!” Aster shouted, jumping to his feet. He ran over and grabbed her hands, disrupting her connection to the mana. She has so little mana left. She only absorbed a little bit of the boss’s body, not the whole thing. She’s only regained a scrap of the mana it would take to respawn the boss. If she tries now, she’ll kill herself!

“I’m bringing Mom back!” Stella insisted. She focused, narrowing her eyes. Veins stood out on her forehead and down her forearms.

Something popped. Blood began to leak out of her nose and eyes. Stella’s hands shook. The mana wobbled, swirling out of her control.

Bits of mana coiled around Aster. He winced, gritting his teeth against the sick feeling of foreign mana in his system. “Stella, stop!”

At last, Stella faltered. The light faded. She put her hands to her forehead and wobbled, almost falling. Aster propped her up, his heart racing. If that went through, if she succeeded, not only would she have died, but I would’ve found myself facing a dragon dungeon boss solo! I’m not prepared for that kind of battle!

Tears glimmered in the corners of her eyes. She scowled at him. “You lied! I can’t bring Mom back!”

Aster sighed. “You don’t have enough mana. You won’t ever be able to bring her back if you foolishly drain yourself dry trying.”

Stella sniffled. Her throat choked, stuffed full of sobs. “Liar! Liar! You said—”

Aster’s eyes widened. He pointed. “Look at your core!”

Stella froze. She looked down. Within the dark core, tucked in its very heart, the fragile shape of a dragon curled up, asleep.

Her eyes widened. “Mom?”

Aster grinned. He leaned in, reaching toward the core. This is the first time I’ve seen this happen! Has any human seen a boss monster in a core before? This is amazing! Does this happen every time? Is this normal? How strong does the monster have to be before it—

Stella turned away, hiding the core with her body. “You can’t have it!”

“I don’t want it! I just want to look,” Aster said.

“No looking,” Stella insisted.

Disappointed, Aster sighed. After a second, he cheered up again. To even catch a glimpse of a brand new dungeon phenomenon is incredible. I’ll have to check the library and see if there’s any information on this kind of thing happening before, and if not, I’ll have to reach out to that researcher again!

“You look funny,” Stella commented, poking Aster.

Aster shook his head, focusing back on the moment. He nodded at Stella’s core, now hidden behind her body. “It looks like she’s resting until she gains enough strength to wake up again. If you want her to wake up faster, you’ll need to gather more mana.”

“Oh,” Stella said. She gazed at the figure in her core, then whipped around and glared at Aster. “No humans!”

Aster put his hands up. “I didn’t say anything.”

“I’ll go absorb more dead monsters,” Stella decided firmly.

Sighing, Aster shook his head. “You can’t gain more mana by doing that. All you can do is recycle the mana you already had. There’s no way you can gather enough mana to respawn your mother without humans.”

Stella glared at him. She shoved her core into her chest and hugged herself. “You don’t know that!”

I do know that. Dragons take a lot of mana to spawn, and so do boss monsters. Combining the two, and given how much of the dragon’s body that party looted, there’s no chance she has enough dead monsters in her dungeon to recoup the losses from the dragon. But there’s no harm in us finding out the hard way.

Although… I guess if she hasn’t absorbed monsters for the entire dungeon’s existence…

Aster frowned. But then I’d be walking through hip-deep monsters. She should know how to absorb dead bodies. He turned. “Stella, have you really never absorbed monsters’ bodies before?”

Stella shook her head, her hair bouncing around her face. After a second, she looked up at Aster, her head fully tipped back on her neck. “Momma took care of the dungeon for me.”

“Makes sense,” Aster said, nodding. A second later, he froze. Boss monsters can do that?

I’ve got to send a letter to that researcher. I wonder how much of this she knows?

Bounding ahead, Stella ran to the threshold, then stopped and reached her hand up expectantly. “Aster.”

“I’m coming,” he said, smiling as he shook his head at her. He took her hand, and the two stepped out into the dungeon together.