I was deep in thought. Carefully planning out the route for tonight's expeditions when the door opened and somebody came inside. Day 173 as a dungeon, and this is the first person I see. I supposed the chest will be finally paying off. I made it 44 days ago, but it still came in handy sooner than I expected. One step and she is inside. Yeah… I am small, and she is on the taller side, taller than most men I knew back on earth. Long straight black hair, pale skin, heterochromia. At first she looked around and it seemed the strawberry planter caught her attention. She started moving leaves around, looking for ripe fruit, but they need 2 more days. However, all this movement woke up one of my moths. It takes off, disoriented, looking for a different napping spot, causing the girl to jump and scream. Not a fan of bugs? They can’t all be winners, but come on, this is just a goth butterfly. Then a crack of electricity, a spark, left her fingers and fried the innocent moth.

Well that’s rude! Where is this mana coming from? How did losing a moth produce mana? I sent another one. No jumping or screaming this time, but another spark and another surge of mana.

I didn’t get any mana from snakes diving into my rat tunnels and devouring them… this is odd. Does this happen with all people, or just this girl? I can wonder this later, now it’s payday. I started sending out rats, one at a time, but their deaths produced a lot more mana.

Seems I am getting mana just from her fighting. In that case, I shouldn’t make it easy. As she was zapping rats with scary accuracy, but a few volts short of one hit knock out. I formed my moths into a swarm, and had them flutter around her head. Throwing of aim and generally being a nuisance. It took her just 3 zaps to get rid of them, enough time for my rats to get some bites in. Each bite had about 5 spiders worth of mana. Just how much mana can I get from her?

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Soon enough, she was all sweaty and short of breath, I had more rats to spare without compromising my defence. Enough to overwhelm and probably kill… but as much as I like mana, I am not going to commit murder for it.

I let her be, so I can see what her next step is…

“Alright dungeon, you better have some good loot.” She said, reaching for the chest. Judging by her face, I did not disappoint. She stuffed all I had into a backpack. Mostly jewellery and coins, but mostly copper and iron with a dash of gold and silver, and I even spotted 2 gemstones. She was taking them by a handful, so surely she missed something, but by all accounts we both got a nice payday today. Even her taking the loot generated mana. Seriously, what doesn’t make mana with her? I suppose I won’t have time to experiment, seeing that she left. However, her parting words were just wonderful. Simple “I’ll be back” but my mind envisioned all the mana I would get from it.

Come to think of… how does mana work? I know I get it from anything my minions eat, even photosynthesized sunlight. I can use it in place of mundane labour, food, and I can produce magical effects with it. With magical effects doing a lot of leg work; so far I assimilated moths, and strawberries, made a rat spawner and made a war room. Spell casting should also be possible. Now… About that girl? Bites the rat took probably count as eating. What’s new is releasing mana from fighting, killing and looting. Is it just her or does this happen with all humans?. I suppose it’s worth investigating because the payout is crazy. Just this evening, I made nearly double my lifetime production.

I’m curious about that girl… How did she get so pale? Maybe anaemia or some illness? Maybe mild albinism or exotic parentage? Probably not albinism given her hair. Most likely, this area doesn’t get much sunlight, Which means a colder climate. Which means we’re in summer… not good, the cold won’t be good for my minions.