“Is there a reason we aren’t just Teleporting back to the city?” Zavira asked as I expanded my residential pod. “You have a Space affinity too, right?”

I turned to face my new companion as my pod continued growing to fill the end of the tunnel. “I do,” I answered slowly as I considered my response. “I guess I just got used to staying in my pod. It’s comfortable, and it keeps me from having to pay rent somewhere.”

It wasn’t the whole answer. In truth, I wasn’t entirely sure why I was so inclined to stay outside the city. I’d initially decided to stay outside the city to keep myself from getting distracted, but I could probably accomplish the same thing by sticking to a schedule.

Was I unconsciously avoiding other people? I didn’t think so. At least, not entirely. I’d already reached out to Greta, Dawn, and Marjorie to let them know I’d arrived on the fourth floor, so it wasn’t like I was afraid of making connections.

Since my new Tier Four pod was an exact replica of my old one, it was really more a matter of familiarity. Also, staying in the pod really did save money, not that finances were a huge concern for me. I had plenty of funds, and it wasn’t very difficult to earn more as long as I had the material to craft with.

“Would you mind Teleporting us back at night instead?” she asked conversationally. “I don’t mind staying in my cabin when it’s needed. But if we can enjoy the comforts and conveniences of the city instead, I’d rather do that.”

Truly, going back to the city every night wouldn’t be all that different from setting up a semi-permanent camp while we explored a zone. The difference in mana cost between traveling to a camp or the city was negligible, so that wasn’t really a factor.

When I really thought about it, there was little reason to insist on staying outside the city if it was something Zavira wanted. If we were going to be adventuring through the dungeon together, compromise would be important.

“I suppose that would be fine,” I replied after a moment. “Not tonight, though. It’s already late, and I want to craft a few things before I go to sleep. We’ll head back early tomorrow and figure out our long-term accommodations.”

Zavira smiled happily at my concession before setting up her own travel shelter. The shelter looked remarkably similar to the one Ros had owned in the other timeline, and I suspected it was made by the same manufacturer.

There weren’t a lot of companies that made conveyances that could morph into temporary accommodations. Of those I’d seen, only one catered to higher-end clientele. Though Ros had made the exterior as plain as possible to keep from drawing attention, it was clearly made by the same company.

“Ha! I should have expected you’d have a MealMaker!” Zavira exclaimed when I withdrew the device to make dinner. “I guess it makes sense that you’d get one early since your sect makes them,” she said as a similar device appeared in her hands.

While my MealMaker likely had access to many more recipes, it appeared relatively plain compared to Zavira’s device. Where mine was simple and unadorned, Zavira’s was decorated with several artistic touches and looked very high-end. However, it likely only contained a dozen or so recipes unless her parents paid for more options.

Even the most basic model provided a lot more options than the competition. My devices also didn’t force a user to overwrite an existing recipe to get a new one. Instead, the sect sold bundles of additional recipes while also allowing the device to scan prepared meals to capture the blueprint for the recipe.

And, of course, each ‘uploaded’ recipe was added to the master crystal’s repository.

It was just too bad the master crystal I had with me couldn’t sync to the one at Sect Headquarters while I was in the dungeon.

“Yes. I got one of the first ones ever made,” I said, leaving out the fact that I’d designed the device.

“Wow. Here I thought I was special for getting in on the alpha release,” she said jokingly. “How many recipes does yours hold?”

“I’m not sure what the limit is,” I said honestly. “It’s got a couple hundred dishes—”

“Ascended Ancestors!” Zavira exclaimed before flushing brightly and covering her mouth with both hands. “I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to interrupt. The number just surprised me.”

I waved a hand. “It’s fine. I tried to get as many recipes from home as possible before entering the dungeon. Food is important, and I didn’t want to lose the tastes I grew up with, you know?”

The Hephaistos Sect Disciple looked excited by my statement. “I do! I did something similar before leaving home as well,” she said as a grin spread across her face. “We should exchange dishes, then! I’ll make you something, and you can make me something. That way, we can each try something new!”

Happy to have seemingly found a kindred spirit, I had my MealMaker create several small tasting dishes to exchange. Zavira’s device couldn’t modify portion size, so I was limited to a single meal from her device.

Though I was the originator of the design, I couldn’t access the programming runes her device used since the Epikairos Sect had used obscuring and anti-tampering runes to protect the device from being reverse-engineered or manipulated.

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As I programmed the small dishes for my new companion, I was happy to see that the master memory crystal in my device had already copied the recipes stored in her MealMaker. I didn’t even need to do anything. As soon as both devices were removed from storage, my device was updated with the new information.

I wouldn’t get updates from outside the dungeon, but it was good to know that any MealMakers brought into the dungeon would update the master crystal in my device. Good food really was that important.

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

“We should push deeper into the zone,” Zavira recommended when she entered my new apartment a few days later.

We’d considered sharing a place, but I quickly learned that Zavira was a lot more… socially active than I was, and I didn’t want her nighttime comings and goings to become a distraction. She very much embodied the concept of ‘work hard, play hard,’ but her ‘play’ was a bit more extreme than I was comfortable with.

We ended up getting apartments in the same building, though hers was on a higher floor and was much more posh than mine. Both had built-in workspaces that allowed us to craft in the comfort of our respective homes, which was particularly nice.

Zavira had quickly set up the mobile smithy she’d brought in a storage ring, complete with a magical forge and everything. I was amazed that it was only Tier Four, but she confessed that it was a growth item that would quickly adapt to whatever environment she was in.

I could only shake my head at the extravagance, but I supposed it saved her from having to recreate all of her tools and equipment on each floor. Now, she just needed materials to work with, and those were generally found deeper into the underground zone.

“I’m fine with that,” I said, looking up from my breakfast.

“Oh, what is that?” my new friend asked as she stepped closer. “Is that another one of your weird Earth-foods?”

I pulled the plate a bit closer and covered it protectively. “It’s strawberry crepes. Get your own,” I said, pointing to the MealMaker I’d left out for her to use. Zavira excitedly connected to the device and began programming her breakfast.

It had become a bit of a routine over the past few days, but I found myself enjoying the interaction.

“Oh, this is really good,” she said after taking a bite. “The berries are like a mix of flutterberries and pyrals. They go well with the cream and flat cake.”

When we finished our meal, I stuffed the dirty dishes back into the MealMaker and set it to recycle. After putting everything away, I turned to Zavira.

“We were pretty close to the transition between low and mid-tier yesterday. I’ll guide us there as soon as we arrive.”

“Having a Space affinity must be so nice,” Zavira sighed.

“It does come in handy,” I agreed a moment before I wrapped us both in Space mana and shifted us to the Anchor I’d left the day before. I’d checked to make sure nothing was in the immediate area, but my range was limited for targeted Teleports.

“Mobs ahead,” I said as soon as my perception registered the creatures. It was just a couple of burrowing rats, so I wasn’t very concerned.

We quickly dispatched the creatures and stored the bodies before heading toward the mid-tier area of the zone. I kept Spatial Sense extended, searching for anything of interest.

My range was far enough that I could ‘see’ several mobs in distant tunnels, but none were close enough to mention. Still, I shifted our heading toward the mobs since I had nothing better to target.

The underground zone was not perfectly flat, nor did it exist in only two dimensions. There were tunnels above and below us, which I’m sure made navigating difficult for anyone without a Space affinity.

“I found something,” I said after several minutes. We were close to the new group of mobs, but I’d just picked up a vein of iron at the edge of my senses. “Iron. It’s being eaten by something, but there’s a lot of it, so there’s no rush. Do you want to fight our way there or Teleport directly?”

“Teleport, please.”

Two seconds later, we were in a new location. The tunnel was a bit larger than the ones before, but it was hard to recognize with the massive armadillo-looking creature taking up half the space.

[Ferruvenator – Level 35 – Metal]

“Another armored mob,” I said with a sigh.

Zavira shook her head as she looked at the creature in anticipation. “No. This kind of armor I can deal with. It’s not all that hard to push one of the plates out of place. It exposes the weak skin underneath. The weird metal fur is much harder to deal with,” she said.

“Do you want to handle this one on your own?” I asked.

“Please,” she replied. “Just keep an eye out for anything that might try to sneak up on us. I’ll let you know if I need help.”

She did not need help. It was probably the fastest encounter we’d had since partnering up.

With the creature distracted by the iron ore it was gluttonously consuming, Zavira was able to lift one of the plates covering the creature’s neck using her Force magic before quickly slicing through the unprotected skin beneath with a telekinetically-controlled blade.

“That seemed almost unfair,” I commented as the Force Mage beside me smirked.

“Eh, life’s not fair,” she replied before storing the large creature inside what I assumed to be a storage device.

There was no way she had enough room in her inventory if it was anything like what the rest of the challengers got. I hadn’t asked about it because that kind of question was often seen as rude. I certainly wouldn’t like someone asking about my storage capabilities.

“Can you use your Space magic to collect the ore?” Zavira asked. “I can knock chunks from the wall, but I know some Space Mages can simply remove the ore and store it without the extra steps.”

I considered her question for a moment. I’d used Space magic to dislodge ore in a rift before, but I’d never tried directly collecting something. I could easily sense where the ore and regular stone met, so it shouldn’t be that difficult to encase the ore with Space mana and either directly store it or Teleport it out of the wall.

It wasn’t like it had a soul or could otherwise resist my magic.

I started small, grabbing just a few pounds of material from the wall as a test. I couldn’t exclude non-metal since my control wasn’t quite to that level yet, but I managed to remove a decent chunk of ore with only a bit of regular stone mixed in.

“Yes! I’m so glad you can do it. That will save us a lot of time,” Zavira said excitedly. “Can you grab the rest? We won’t have to bother hunting for more iron for a while with this much to work with!”

Resigned to my new role, I began collecting ore from the wall of the underground tunnel. When I filled my inventory and shifted to storing the ore in my ring, I received a notification.

Congratulations!

You have learned a new skill: Mining.