Lasair was hovering in the middle of her new room. Unlike the sunlight she had seen through the corridor suggested, she was still in a cave. This room was like a cylinder, with an opening on each side, one leading back to her core and the other deeper into the cave. The sunlight was streaming through the top of the cylinder, where there was an opening a few meters across that seemed to open into a forest. She had even seen a bird fly by! The bottom of the room was about ten meters across, although it varied in certain places. There were many crevices in the rock that went a few feet back before returning to the main cavern, looking like they would be perfect hiding places. Overall it was likely triple the size of her first room, and that was without counting the corridor! Lasair had chosen this spot to sort through her new unlocks while she waited for Apollo to recover. Her energy was slowly recovering, and she might even test one or two. Most were pretty easy to figure out, such as [SPIKE PIT] being a pit with spikes. What really interested her was the new options for [ASSIGN], the new abilities, and [ARTIFACTS]. When Lasair had tried to use [ASSIGN] before, nothing but a blank menu had appeared. Now, she had five options.

[INSPECT]: [GUARD]: GAIN A SMALL AMOUNT OF POWER WHEN DEFENDING TREASURE OR ARTIFACTS.

[INSPECT]: [SCOUT]: CAN COMMUNICATE WITH CORE OUTSIDE OF THE DUNGEON, AND GAINS SPEED.

[INSPECT]: [HORDE]: GAIN MORE POWER THE MORE CREATURES ARE ASSIGNED TO THIS POSITION.

Lasair took a moment to assign her ten wisps to [HORDE], never know when that might be useful

[INSPECT]: [BOSS]: CAN ONLY BE GIVEN ONCE PER DUNGEON. GRANT IMMENSE POWER TO A [LIEUTENANT].

[INSPECT]: [KEEPER OF THE FLAME]: GRANT POWER EVEN GREATER THAN THAT OF [BOSS] IF DIRECTLY DEFENDING THE CORE.

Definitely going to give that to Apollo when he wakes up.

[INSPECT]: [ALERT]: YOU ARE NOTIFIED WHEN SOMEONE ENTERS THE DUNGEON.

[INSPECT]: [A DUNGEON'S PURPOSE]: GAIN ENERGY UPON DEFEATING OR KILLING ADVENTURERS.

Again there was the mention of killing. Why did the screen think she wanted to kill people? If she got a reward for either she would rather just drive someone off.

[INSPECT]: [LESSER MANA CONTROL]: YOU CAN DIRECT, WEAVE, AND SENSE MANA. MAGIC ITSELF CAN BEND TO YOUR WILL.

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Lasair tried out the ability for a moment, finding everything to do with mana had become easier. With this skill and the directness of the [SOUL BOND], she might be able to give Apollo a seventh or even eighth level.

[INSPECT]: [ARTIFACTS]: OBJECTS EMPOWERED BY MANA. CAN BE DESIGNED AND CREATE BY THE CORE UPON BUILDING A [CHEST].

[INSPECT]: [MANA-TOUCHED SWORD]: SWORD EMPOWERED BY MANA.

[INSPECT]: [MANA-TOUCHED SHIELD]: SHIELD EMPOWERED BY MANA.

[INSPECT]: [SWORD OF LESSER FLAME]: SWORD IMBUED WITH FIRE MANA, CAPABLE OF LIGHTING ITSELF ABLAZE.

Fire sword? Fire sword.

Although the fire sword was definitely going to be revisited later, for now she was interested in the 'can create' part. She found [CHESTS] under [SPAWN], and placed one in a crevice in the rock. The crevice was wider than the others, but quite far up. It would be easy to see, but hard to get to. She saw that the chest had a menu to fill it with [TREASURE] and [ARTIFACTS]. Lasair mentally pushed the option for a custom [ARTIFACT]. The options for a base were many. Sword, spear, club, ax, knife, staff, shie- wait, staff? It appeared to be a long stick with a crystal stuck to the end. Inspecting said crystal showed her it was one of the [TREASURES] she unlocked earlier.

[INSPECT]: [MANASTONE]: A STONE OF CONDENSED MANA. CAN BE USED TO AFFECT THE FLOW OF MANA IN THE FORM OF A STAFF OR A WAND.

This seemed to be what those without a mana affinity used to do what she did. Speaking of affinities, her fire had unlocked a different variant.

[INSPECT]: [FLAME-TOUCHED MANASTONE]: A MANASTONE THAT CAN ONLY CHANNEL FIRE MANA. IN EXCHANGE, IT WIELDS MUCH MORE POWER.

She was definitely using that.

Looking through options for the staff itself, Lasair finally settled on a polished wood body, about a meter long. Several options for the head had a casing around the stone with a singular opening to focus the output. Lasair edited one of these to have about a dozen minuscule holes at the top of the casing. You would hold the staff perpendicular to you like a rifle, and blast pure fire mana out the holes at the top. There was a demo option that showed an illusion of what it would do. Ever seen dragons breath shotgun shells? Think those, but somehow even more explosive. The illusory blast was a cone about 5 meters long and 1 tall at its widest point. The only downside was that she couldn't use it herself. Neither could Apollo, or the rest of the wisps. Who was she making this for? Ah, who cares, it's a shotgun wand. The last two prompts were to add an effect and name. The effects seemed to be limited to things she could accomplish herself, and she eventually settled on an effect that would use a dumbed down version of [LESSER MANA CONTROL] to funnel mana into the staff, decreasing the amount of energy needed to fire it. The name took her a minute, but she eventually settled on [DRAGON'S BREATH WAND]. The illusion fell away, and a real version settled in the box. Along with all her energy. [ARTIFACTS] were apparently expensive as fuck. She had the [WILL-O-WISP] [HORDE] start guarding the chest. Couldn't have all that work and energy just being stolen. The wisps began to float through the corridor, staying together in a cluster. But they wern't the only thing that roused. Crimson flames lit the walls, and a certain nightlight lifted off her plinth.

Apollo was awake.