How does a dungeon design itself? It should actually be quite simple, really. After all, consuming matter and growing are the fundamental basics of any life form, magical or not. Though while I had the knowledge, that once again didn't mean I knew what I was doing.

(Ha, ha, no wonder I didn't really do anything. I'm actually a little scared, what if I mess- gah, stop thinking like that! Just go with the flow!)

I focused inwards, trying to imagine something. Nothing fancy for a start, just a room. A single room that-

*Ding* [Error: Room cannot be placed.]

"Uhhhh... might I know why?"

*Ding* [Error: No Floor has been defined.]

(Derp, of course.)

I pressed my eyes shut, suppressing how I was feeling like an idiot. Before I started losing myself in that feeling, I just did the reasonable thing: define a dang Floor.

(Okay, deep breaths. Floor, define Floor... Ah!)

I realised that I needed to assimilate some of the area first. Malfissa was right about that. A cube of about 3 metres to every side was taken over by my mana field.

(Yeah, I'll totally need more practice for this.)

The cube was defined as Floor 1, necessitating me to place an entrance corridor since the Floor itself was roughly two metres deep into the rock, otherwise I could not make a room. My DP dropped by around 50, but I got it.

(There, one cubic room, one corridor.)

An entrance with a stone arc frame was automatically added.

(Actually, since we want to hide, can I...?)

The leafy door frame-like... frame disappeared, leaving only a cave-like entrance. I already needed a couple deep breaths.

"Hah... hah... Th-This wasn't nearly as hard when I messed with the old Floor 2..."

"Well you are starting completely anew, so it stands to reason the Menu cannot provide you with automatic assistance."

"I guess the building assist functions or somesuch got reset... bummer."

I stood upright again, not at all discouraged. The fact I just claimed a (small) part of a mountain for myself with magic was obviously not something just anyone could do. I felt a tiny bit proud.

I placed the Dungeon Core in the middle of the room so it would be a little more secure, then Malfissa, Mr. Imp, and I stepped inside.

"Rock wall, rock wall... right."

For the sake of disguise, I altered the location of the entrance to the side - which meant overtaking more rock of course - and disguised the entrance with rocks that seemed natural enough in colour.

*Ding* [Error: Cannot place. Dungeon must have non-closed entrance.]

(Right, so we can't be fully cut off... okay, how small an opening does this allow?)

As it turned out, if I left a winding gap which at best a child could fit through, it was acceptable to the system. I made the entry corridor snake about so any eventual light from the inside could not be seen by anyone standing on the plateau.

I placed a torch on the wall for some additional illumination. The light from the Dungeon Core was fairly faint in this darkness, so the torch helped quite a bit. Then I called Mimissa, who quickly appeared next to me. She promptly went for the obligatory hug.

"Oh, you've already made a room. That's so fast."

I did not admit how much I actually had struggled at first, though perhaps this was more some form of stage fright than anything else really. Mimissa patted my head.

"Good girl, good girl. I'm so proud of you!"

I could feel the blush coming on, but it did feel nice. Alas, I had work to do...

"Ahem, I advise that you continue with this."

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

...which Malfissa as kindly as ever reminded me of.

"Right, of course. What was it? Mana vents, ley lines? Charged crystals perhaps? I doubt you picked this position for no reason." She nodded. "Let me see..."

I focused on further expansion. The Dungeon Core glowed ever so slightly brighter, the function graphs and waveforms on its screen becoming more busy with activity. Admittedly I had no idea what they represented; the only thing I could possibly imagine the point of was the 109% efficiency rating.

(Claiming costs DP, which we don't have much of... I should try for small tendrils to poke around.)

In a rough cone I send out groups of mana field tendrils to go ahead and claim everything in their paths. It was difficult to keep them relatively even and stabilised so they would not just claim everything around them as well.

Mimissa touched my hand and squeezed lightly. The feeling reassured me that she had my back. I just had to go slow and steady. Unfortunately I could feel a headache coming on, and-

"Gah!!!"

Said headache hit me all at once, making me fall to the rocky floor.

"Czara!"

Mimissa had me wrapped in her arms in a second. I pressed my eyes shut, trying to drone out the headache assaulting the front of my brain. My hands were pressed hard against my temples.

"I-I'm fine... I just need a moment..."

She summoned a cup of tea and also provided a nice bar of chocolate filled with nougat. The sweetness helped lessen the headache.

~~~~~

At Mimissa's urging, I sat down - more comfortably this time - and leaned against her chest. I was a little frustrated that I couldn't finish this task as quickly as I wanted, or at least thought I should. Mimissa hugged me, so I just tried to not think of anything for a bit.

"Mimissa?"

"Mmm? What is it?"

"I worry about Anastelle. If I don't manage this, she... you know."

"I know, but you can't rush this. I also know you'll succeed, so she'll just have to try not make her wound worse. Once we got enough DP to buy an anti-curse scroll, everything'll be all better."

I nodded.

(She's right, if I rush and mess this up it won't help anyone. Alright, time for a different approach!)

~~~~~

I got up shortly after, having recovered enough to try again. I realised I tried to keep too complex a form with the many mana tendrils, which overloaded my inexperienced dungeon mind. In other words, while precision was key, being this precise was like trying to control a person doing complex surgery remotely, and I attempted several of those at once.

"Actually, can I help you with this at all?"

"I'm not sure you can help with the mana field. This whole assimilation process is a lot less based on the [Menu] and more a matter of feeling around."

"Oh, that's... I'm sorry, I-"

"You don't need to apologise. Just you holding my hand as before and catching me if I fail is enough. All I could ask for, really."

I smiled, and Mimissa smiled back after a second or two. As for Malfissa? She and Mr. Imp sat in a corner.

(Are they playing cards? Guess they're bored again.)

I needed to focus in a more efficient way, so I put my attention back to the task at hand.

"Alright, I'll try again. *Breathe* Here goes..."

My concentration went back to the tendrils of mana. This time I decided to advance only a few of them at a time, kind of like cracks in the stone formed by water ice expanding, breaking them piece by piece. Time went by, an hour, then another half. The piecemeal approach worked, giving me far less negative feedback. Any bouts of headaches I could anticipate made me stop for a few moments. And after all the poking around...

"Oh? Ohhhh? Mimissa, everyone, I think I found something in the depths."

Roughly 60 metres away from us, at a depth around 40 metres below flat ground and a little to the right - relative to the entrance as far as the map was concerned - was some kind of disturbance. It felt energetic and the moment I tapped into it, my DP counter shot up by 15 points.

"Very well done, you found a natural source of mana. How does it feel?"

"Feel? Uhm... energetic, pulsing. A little like a heartbeat, but very slow. Maybe one pulse every ten seconds? More like twenty, really."

Malfissa smiled. That clued me in that I had found something useful.

"I believe you have hit a minor ley line."

"A 'minor' ley line? That kind of implies 'major' ones exist, too. What's the difference?"

"The ley lines are a network of energy which the world cycles both through them and the air in an infinite loop. Minor ley lines split off from major ley lines, which in turn were split off from primal ley lines. Imagine it a little like a web, with the big strings forming the base structure and the smaller strings giving it the shape and function of the actual web."

"I think I get the picture. So if we keep searching, we'll hit a major ley line or maybe even a primal one?"

"Only if you are very, very lucky. Even finding a minor one is already quite the boon. Its source, the major ley line, might easily be hundreds of kilometres away. For the time being, attempt to make a permanent connection via your mana field so you can fully tap into it. The mana flow will then regularly add power in the form of DP to your Dungeon."

I went and did just that. The mana field tendril which had hit the vicinity of the ley line was made thicker by my will, and I grew it further to wrap around the ley line proper. Or well, I tried; the ley line was at least 30 metres in diameter, although more oval in shape than perfectly circular, so I kind of just rested the tendril on it. I would have to observe how much mana we could really suck out of it, but for the time being we had gained a steady supply at least.

"You did it, Czara! Here, have some more chocolate."

"Nom, nom… shooo good."

*Ding* [Access to Minor Ley Line established. Continuous flow of DP is being calculated, please wait warmly until it is ready.]

Job well done!