Mael and Snyl saw the church collapse from where they were on the dirt road leading into the bog before they heard it. They didn't see what caused it, but there was something small and white near the building, almost looking like, well, they weren't sure. It was too far away.

They immediately began running as fast as their training, experience, and prime youth would allow, approaching quickly. It almost as quickly became apparent what, and who, the white thing was. It wasn't like there were that many people in Plainsheart.

Leldro noticed them approach, though it wasn't that they were trying to be stealthy, only fast.

"Hello, tavern patrons", Leldro said to the approaching men of roughly equal size.

Mael rolled his eyes. "What are you doing out here, Leldro?"

"The job you failed to do, it would seem. You said that there was a monster here, but you were only slightly right. The monster was spawned by a dungeon, and I'm destroying it."

"Dungeon, he says! Here?" Mael retorted to Snyl.

"Would I be able to destroy this many buildings so easily by myself? No, this is a dungeon's doing."

Snyl finally said something. "Any dungeoneering is supposed to be done by our guild, and the Ministry is only supposed to aid us if we request it."

Leldro exploded. Well not exploded, but he got angrier and louder. Somebody might explode later though. "Allowing this den of monsters to grow unhindered is a threat to us all!"

"No, it's a boon to us all", Mael argued. "Unless we're stupid. Don't you remember the stories about how profitable Bogsreach was when it still had its previous dungeon?"

"I'm not from Plainsheart, I grew up in Treesedge. Apparently the Exterminators in Plainsheart don't exterminate anything."

It was already obvious to Snyl and Mael that they had to report what they'd learned, but now time was of the essence, and they'd need backup. Seeing that talking any further was pointless, they took off running back to the Guild.

Leldro, on the other hand, considered his break very much over, and he began praying far louder than he had previously.

-----------------------------

[Warning! Enemy spell effect!]

There was that dull prodding pressure again! 'Screw that guy! Seriously! What is wrong with you? I'm gonna figure out something to do about you, you know! You know what? Screw this too! I'm not gonna rest here. I'm gonna stay on the move, buying and selling and relocating over and over, just to get out of here! Maybe I'll find a cliff and you'll chase me over it! Buy room!'

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

[Insufficient mana.]

'What? Okay, so I have to sell a, no, I only have two rooms. I need more! The messages said I generate, but no, that won't work because he won't leave me alone! So, what, I have to convert stuff into mana, then? Fine! Where's something useless?'

He looked around, and not too far away from the dirty straw and his core, he saw it. Rat feces. 'Now don't you make me touch each of these nugs, you turd! I want all of it converted! Turn all this rat shit into mana, and let me buy another room, and you already know it's the room next to the grassy area towards the hill I didn't look at yet!'

He felt like he had taken in a breath, though not a very big one. Only around as big a breath as you'd take when your doctor tells you to. 'I'm grabbing whatever I can find, since apparently I need it. You'd better not make me convert stuff I don't have other copies of if you know what's good for you, you screamy book guy!'

'Store!', he yelled as he touched the dirty pile of straw, which began to disappear like other things did when they went into storage, but it reappeared in the same place it already was. Going outside, he touched everything else he had already found but didn't claim yet, as some of the things he had claimed started to appear around them. He easily found rusty tongs, a broken stool, a water trough, a rusted hammer head, and what looked like a wooden stick sticking out of a mud pit with no grass around it.

Looking closer for bugs and animals, trying to nurse the pain in his ribs, or in this case, the distorting of his territory, he only found one tiny thing. It was a little bug with a lot of legs that rolled up into a sphere when it got scared, and usually lived under rocks or old slimy wood.

Walking away, trying to not hear that obnoxious guy with minimal effect, he started looking through the water that was apparently a lot deeper here. In one or two places, he found that he sank deep enough to submerge himself. But he didn't didn't even notice right away, and had continued breathing normally. 'Am I not breathing?', he asked himself. 'I can feel myself breathing. But, as a dungeon, taking mana in is like breathing in, and spending mana is like breathing out.'

[Room dimensions altered by external forces.]

[Maximum mana and mana generation decreasing to compensate.]

'Fine! Okay, okay!' He got out of his own head, and stopped intentionally ignoring his surroundings, especially the man. 'Convert all the stuff I touch into mana. Just what I touch! Not the whole set!' He started touching tufts of grass, one after the other, not noticing he was almost making a bee-line straight to Leldro.

He felt a burning sensation, seeing the normally invisible wall black and blue and cracked, sizzling when he touched it directly... with the top of his head.

Frightened and in pain, he ran back to the furthest edge of the "room" just past the blacksmith, which was apparently the edge of town. Did he get the other room like he said?

He took another step, and felt himself slightly dizzy and hungry. Nope. He took a step back.

'Do I have enough mana now from the grass? I feel like I do, like I could play a sax! Buy- actually, let me see my borders for a sec, and buy room!'

A transparent blue energy wave spread from the edge of the boggy room further out, just reaching the edge of the hill where some of the dirt had moistened enough that it had a visible cliff, even if that cliff was only a few inches tall. Then, just as the wave hit, it disappeared.

[Room dimensions altered by external forces.]

[Maximum mana and mana generation decreasing to compensate.]

'You're getting too good at this, you stupid stupidface!', he screamed, but without much energy. He couldn't do this forever. He'd need to really sell a lot of stuff, and move his Core, but selling previous Core rooms was having diminishing returns, took six hours each time, and that guy's screaming at him was having increasing effects.