When Dominik returned to the cave, he quickly brought the books and extra clothes to Fran’s room, then shaped a few large bookshelves into the walls. He placed the book on creatures into one, and the books on magic in the other. Eventually he’d make more of a library, but for now he’d put them in Fran’s room. She’d want some bookshelves anyway.

Then he got started on his special project, the thing he’d been thinking about since before they left town. Summoning an earth elemental, or perhaps creating one, however it worked. Since he couldn’t find any good books on summoning, he figured, since he’s close to the earth, and able to use some advanced earth elemental spells seemingly only available to dungeon cores, surely he could summon an earth elemental, or create one. And he’d wanted a cute little earth elemental walking around the dungeon.

He sat in the hallway and gathered dirt from the wall, shaping it into almost a sort of little snowman. It was around two feet tall, with a round body and a big head put on top. He shaped little ears on top of its head like a teddy bear, and gave it little hands like paws on a bear, with each hand having a little thumb, which would mostly likely be opposable. Probably.

He hardened the earth a bit to hold its shape, then added legs after he laid it down on the ground. The legs were simple and got bigger at the ends, so the bear, or earth elemental could hopefully stand. Once it was brought to life of course. He put in eye holes with his fingers, and gave it a little mouth. Finally it was ready, but nothing happened. He tried focusing on summoning some sort of spirit, or creating some sort of spirit, and he almost felt as if something would happen, but nothing did. After sitting there in the hallway trying to summon an earth spirit, he decided to go to Fran’s room and ask her.

“Do you know anything about summoning earth elementals?” Dominik asked.

Fran closed her book and put it down. “No, not really, but I know you have to create some sort of body for them.”

“I did, but it’s not working.” He said as he gestured for her to come out into the hallway. There she saw a big stone teddy bear laying in the large hallway.

After examining it for a while, she finally said, “I think you need mana crystals for elementals. That’s the physical aspect that houses their spirit in our plane. The element making up their body is controlled by that.”

Dominik began to remember fighting elementals, though rarely. Attacking the body and having to destroy one, or multiple mana crystals to destroy it. Otherwise the body would just reform with the element that made it up, returning to its original shape. Some he recalled being filled with multiple mana crystals and using magic of their elemental affinity, and others were bigger, usually with only one or two mana crystals, and mostly just relied on their size and strength. They used their mana mostly for reforming their body. Those were much simpler elementals, and much simpler to defeat.

He realized that must’ve been what inspired him to make it small. Earth elementals fighting in a place filled with stone and dirt could use it to protect their bodies, and to attack. Having a smaller body to reform and protect was advantageous, if it could store enough mana in its mana crystals. Meaning he’d have to give it some very powerful, very complex mana crystals to keep it safe and make it a strong caster.

“Alright, thanks. I think I remember now. I just need to make some mana crystals for it. I might even make another one so he has a little friend. This one will be a little boy, and I’ll make a little girl. Then they can play together and keep eachother safe.” Said Dominik, as he picked up the little statue.

He placed the statue in Fran’s room, then soon returned with another slightly smaller bear which he said would be a little girl. Either a little sister, or a childhood friend, he wasn’t quite sure. Fran wasn’t quite sure why they were being stored in her room either, but she guessed that, since she had the bookshelf, it was also now the de facto room for magical creations as well.

Dominik returned to his main body and began working on the mana crystals required for the earth elementals. He would need a lot of mana, and quite a bit of time to create them, especially the main cores he would put in their chests. These two cores he made the size of a fist, there was plenty of room in their chubby bodies for it. He made these the most complex, making sure they could store a massive amount of mana, and filling them with it.

Then he created slightly smaller cores for the head. After that, he decided he’d give them mana crystals as eyes. He tried creating something similar to the eldritch eyes on his body, eyes that could be more like mana crystals than eyes however. He thought the earth elementals should be able to see all around their bodies to some degree, like his sight of the dungeon, as they should be able to see through the element making up their bodies, but he thought perhaps these eyes would allow them even clearer vision.

He made the first set of eyes a darker gold for the boy, and a brighter yellow for the girl. They both had dark slits for pupils like his own, but these were more crystal than biological, all of this was still repairable however, with mana.

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He also made a small square crystal for each of their hands. He’d put these into their palms so it’d be like they had little paws. He’d used a massive amount of mana not just creating these mana crystals, but filling them with mana. He could’ve filled the cave with demons using that much mana. At least he thought, not that he actually knew how to summon anything. Other than earth elementals hopefully.

Finally after several days, he’d finished his creations, or rather the requirements for his creations. He brought them out into the large hallway again, and softened the stone in places to insert the mana crystals. Then he placed a hand on each chest, focusing on summoning the spirit into the mana crystals within the stone bodies.

This time he felt it, the spirits from another realm, the beginnings of sentience in an elemental spirit. He brought these spirits forth, and bound them into the mana crystals. They felt willing to come here, eager to explore a physical plane. He bound the rest of the mana crystals in their bodies to the spirit, and the spirit to them. The spirits each recognized their bodies, their full forms, so they could recreate them if they were ever damaged.

He left the earth soft and malleable on the outside of their bodies, and hardened the earth inside their bodies around the core mana crystals in their chest and their head. Unfortunately, he couldn’t make them as indestructible as the walls of the dungeon.

It seemed that, just as he couldn’t seal off the path to the source of the mana at the bottom of the dungeon, neither could he seal off the mana crystals acting as the source for the elementals. This powerful earth magic had rules that could not break. Finally, after he finished setting their forms, finished creating their bodies, it was done.

The earth elementals rose, and tentatively stood on their little teddy bear legs, using their hands to help them stand up. He could see a light in their eyes, and they seemed to prefer looking through their eyes as well, turning to face things that caught their interest. He picked up the little teddy bears, and carried them over to Fran’s room to show them off.

She was still sleeping, but he was sure she’d lain down several hours ago, so it wouldn’t be long until she was up. He sat down in her room and played with the little teddy bears, his newly summoned, and newly created earth elementals. He had the troglodytes bring them interesting rocks to play with, and picked up the little teddy bears and hugged them. They were happy little things, and they seemed to get along fine.

Soon she woke, perhaps because she’d gotten enough sleep, or perhaps because of all the movement in her room. She turned over and looked at them a bit, before being sure what she was seeing was real.

It’s not that she’d never seen an earth elemental before. She’d seen an elemental of every basic element. But she’d never seen anyone make them into some sort of teddy bear, or give them eyes. Certainly not stones that looked like eldritch eyes, that seemed to glow. Most elementals are made by mages for combat, or for menial labor.

As she saw him play with the teddy bears, and watched them play with strange rocks brought by the troglodytes, she couldn’t help but think it was one of the sweetest things she’d seen, but also one of the most unhinged things she’d ever seen.

Eventually she sat up, giving up on sleeping now that her room had become a play area for baby earth elementals. “So you made them.” She said, “I didn’t think you could just make mana crystals like that.”

Dominik smiled and said. “I already made a big one for my avatar, so I knew I could. The eyes on my main body are already kind of like mana crystals too, so I thought I could make some for them.” He gestured to the baby earth elementals slowly rolling a rock back and forth between them, with their legs splayed out like toddlers as they sat there, engrossed in the activity.

Dominik continued. “After we eat breakfast, we’ll go see what they can do. I’m sure their magic will work well in this cave. I’ll keep them on the seventh floor after they’ve gotten a hang of using their magic. They’ll be the secret bosses of the seventh floor, and I’ll make it suited perfectly for them. They can take out anyone who might somehow get past me on the sixth floor.”

After this, Dominik and Fran ate. She cooked eggs from the grubs and the dodos in a frying pan, and added some seasoning. Dominik thought it was very good. The earth elementals imitated them by making little things in the shape of the eggs with dirt, already shaping it a bit with their magic. They then put the food in their mouths and chewed it. Then spit it out. Because they don’t need to eat.

“I’ve found out why dungeon cores don’t just wall off the entrance to their room.” Began Dominik, after finishing his meal. “They can’t, at least not with an impenetrable wall. The earth magic weakens if you try to seal it off, even if you try to make the doorways or the hallways too narrow. You have to have a clear path to the source of the mana. That’s the only way you can use this advanced magic granted by a connection to the earth. You can’t sever this connection with the rest of the planet though.”

Fran considered this. “It is powerful magic. More powerful, primal sorts of magic tend to have specific rules. I guess even dungeon lords can’t get around that sort of thing.”

“But I can create a living area.” Dominik responded. “I can seal off the parts of each floor we want to use, and have it only accessible at the bottom floor, down the hallway. Then when we want to leave the dungeon, I can create an opening at the top floor temporarily and seal it. As long as I’m not sealing the main path to the dungeon it’s fine.”

Fran smiled at this and said. “I guess we can really make this place into a home then.”

“Yeah.” Said Dominik. “But I’ll have a lot of work to do before people start coming. At least I should have another week or two, maybe three. That should be enough time.”

With that they had the troglodytes take their plates away, and led the little earth elementals to the surface, to try using their new magic.