I'm cranky. I don't WANT to lose my only conversational partner. Sure, a solution was presented but that's gonna take a bit. Lots of interesting info tho. Still, gotta question. Knights?

I draw on the wall. Wizard hat and staff man. Man with sword and shield. Man with a spotted outline. All got aura bubbles. I tap on the knight.

"Oh, do you not know what knights are?" Bryn quirks her head. "Well, where a magister will expand their aura to hold as much essence as possible, a knight will compress their aura." She's squishing an invisible ball with her hands. "They have much smaller reserves and little range on their magics but the magics are much stronger. They also have less fine control. Only nobles are allowed to become knights- a knight can generally charge though a mages domain and kill them easily. Or just shoot them with a greatbow."

A shrug and a sigh. "Anyone can become a delver and unlock their aura if they're willing to take the risk. The empire makes sure the weak who gain power can still be managed. Could be worse- the old empire restricted access to the dungeons." She goes back to her cake. I wander off because it's frustrating to be near her but have to resort to charades.

Netli was fun to watch. Dude ran down and found his grandparents at the edge of the village. Threw his grandma in the air and caught her. Tried the same to Itzal- Itzal tried to dodge but got caught and when Netli threw him into the air he stayed up there. Apparently Netli is super strong now- he a knight? He's got a good ten feet of aura though…

They introduced him to the rest of the tribe- apparently, they only saw him post-coma- and he made an endearing ass of himself. Friendly and with good will but with no limits. Puppylike. Eventually his grandmother told him that she hadn't had a proper bath in years and that he should go dig a pond in a clear attempt to stop him from embarrassing her further.

Netli roared off full of enthusiasm trailed by the kids and a few younger adults and then proceeded to dig a pond in the middle of the stream all by himself with his bare hands all while telling his audience delver stories. He was telling a story when he just slumped over and started snoring- unaware of his own physical limits? Or just narcolepsy?

Anyways, several ladies dragged him out of the water, cleaned him up a little, and shoved him in a tent. They were discussing whether they had to take off his pants when the grandma arrived to chase them off.

Gonna be fun to watch this dude.

That was all before Bryn woke back up. I spent the time I was watching carving out a room for Bryn near the hall of murals, but closed it up when she awoke. I want a completed room to show her and not a work in progress.

I have some chores to tend to. I checked the rest of the tunnel system for ghasts forming and took them out myself. I launched a net in a rubber band cannon! Reminds me of shop class… I tried making a spring-powered one but the springs didn't boing. I recall spring steel is kinda special so I'll have to experiment. I don't want to experiment while facing down an angry soul tornado.

Once the will was netted the ectoplasm lost its protection- aura- and I could touch it directly. Easy peasy. Fixed up the tunnels too- I'm sad to lose the confusing maze effect but apparently proper airflow is important.

Next I checked my lil tunnel to hell project. The tunnel had collapsed in several places, damaging the magic drill, but it kept digging. Interestingly the off-balance magic formations made it dig at an angle in a squiggly movement. Dissolves a hole, slides down slope, dissolves more, etc. Messy.

Another problem occurred- the water near the bottom of the tunnel was getting rather hot but wasn't boiling. Neither were bubbles rising to the surface. I recall a bit of trivia- in underwater fumaroles the water is superheated but can't boil due to water pressure. What happens when the pressure on top of the tunnel is released- say, because the very top got hot enough to boil.

I think the answer is 'entire dungeon gets steam-cleaned until sterilized.'

That's bad.

I dug a tunnel up to the surface for the steam to escape and then planted another water generating snorb in a pit. The theory is the pit will fill and overflow, draining into the tunnel. That way the snorb can provide water to the geyser without getting boiled. I dropped a second magic drill down the original tunnel to clean up the blockages and then walled the entire area off.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

Exit tunnel size insufficient for proper essence venting. Reopen the sealed chamber and expand exit tunnel.

Hokay dokay Akasha sir! Or whoever controls the blue boxes. Geeze. Now I feel watched all the time. Good thing I no longer have any embarrassing biological functions.

Hey tho, didn't I have another reward promised? The right to trade once I cleaned up the ghasts?..

I do a double-check and find out there are a couple of places with no ghasts forming but bad essence flow. After I fix THOSE up…

You have eliminated all soul traps in your territory. You have pleased Vijnana and been given the right to trade souls for ectoplasm. In the future all human souls who die in your domain will have their souls encapsulated to prevent accident absorption.

Neato. Bit impersonal. Sorta feels like I finished a quest. Where's my xp, gold, and 4 STR 4 STAM leather belt? Hmm. I can make my OWN 4 STR 4 STAM leather belt. Maybe.

I go back and find Bryn reading her book. Also a welcome bonus: the big crab snipped her way out of the harness, ate a bunch of plants, then found the river and laid eggs in it! I don't think the eggs are fertilized, though. I send it back to the cart, reattach the harness, load up the ghastbags, add primitive rubber wheels, and send Bryn off to deliver them and get me a male crab. This involves a confusing one-sided conversation and me drawing a crab with a dick. Bryn thinks external fertilization is weird.

Wonder what she'd think about anglerfish.

Then I have time to relax and read my book while leisurely finishing her room. I can't make memoryfoam, possibly because I have no clue what memoryfoam is made out of. Other than foam and memories. Instead I make her mattress and pillow out of furfoam- the same stuff as fur, which I CAN make despite only knowing that calcium is an ingredient, in a porous block. Like one giant strand of hair with a bunch of bubbles in it. Looks fine but it's weird to think about.

Theory: I can make things occurring in this world without detailed knowledge, but if it hasn't existed here I can't make it unless I make it manually And yet: plastic bags. Hmm.

I make her a mirror by having a polished silver backing covered in safety glass- the safety comes from a thin grid of carbon nanotubes. Makes it a bit gray. Ironically, I don't think this is how modern mirrors are made. I'm going off descriptions from fantasy novels. Also, it took me three times to get one that cracked instead of shattering when I hit it with a rock. Cleaning up glass is easy when you can just melt it.

Carbon nanotubes are much easier to make now. Have my skills improved or have nanotubes been added to the library of available substances?

For more natural lighting I make a tunnel to the surface. I line the hole with a layer of shiny silver and then fill it with a ton of quartz. Should give it a nice warm ambient light. I can't see it myself. Nor can I see if the mirror works, despite being able to tell the glass is grayish. My magic eyes are weird.

For a nightlight I made a handheld lantern filled with dungeon moss and water. The moss starts withering when it's disconnected from the wall, but flourished again in the water. Whatev. More safety glass for the bulb. Hopefully the water will recharge ambiently.

The part I'm most proud of is the bathroom. A personal snorb provides drinking water with the excess water either pouring into the toilet or the bathtub depending on how you turn the spigot. The toilet looks toiletty on top but is just a ten-foot drop ending in a matter to mana array. Don't drop your phone in it, you won't get it back.

The snorb has his ass exposed to the hallway and an essence vent on either side to satisfy the essence venting requirements.

The bathtub is a work in progress. I intend to add some heating runes, assuming they exist, but for now I just have a hollow below it which you can fill with firewood. Then I added a bucket to put out the fire when the water is hot enough.

I can multitask well enough to read the basics of runecrafting while I'm doing all this and it's fascinating. It also includes a primer on mana- Bryn is probably right, these were written for us specifically.

Mana is an omnipresent energy that does not interact with normal matter. Warp is 'unresolved' matter that chaotically changes normal matter when exposed to it. Essence is a mixture of warp and mana. The mana pulls the warp into the ethereal realm and gives it a 'handle' by which aura can manipulate it.

Aura is a mixture of essence and will and is required to manipulate both mana and essence. You can only unlock aura when your body becomes saturated with essence and the pressure builds enough to break the soul/mana barrier. Which I did not know was a thing before now.

This tidbit gives me an interesting idea. I make a bit of warpstone. My soul shrinks.

WARPSTONE IS MADE OF SOULS! Well, primarily silicon like a lot of rocks but it somehow is imbued with ectoplasm. It is the ectoplasm that gives it its anomalous properties. Shouldn't it be called soulstone instead?

Anyways, nice educational infodump before it gets into the mechanics of runecrafting. I’m about to get into the meat of the matter when I hear sneezing, then, “Gods! There’s more mana here than temple street on solstice! What the fuck!”

Bryn is back! And I have to rethink the toilet design!

Maybe do NOT make water and then just destroy it four seconds later.