‘It’s purely for practical purposes,’ the Core was quick to explain, making the Arcane cube spin slightly in the air. ‘I have recreated the amount of room the Druid’s room can be on a smaller scale so I can insert different items to see what he prefers.’

‘And what exact scale are we working with here?’ the Queen questioned. The aforementioned druid was not too slow in poking the floating cube. The Core did its best in making it react to the man’s movements, not having any desire for breaking his finger. ‘Just saying it’s on a smaller scale will mean nothing if we don’t know what scale you mean.’

That was fair, the Core supposed. Doing its best to create a smaller humanoid figure, it placed the new model inside the cube. It was about three quarters the total height of the scaled-down room. A perfect example.

‘There,’ the Core stated. ‘Now start asking what he wants in the room. I will try my best to showcase it on the model.’

Was the Entity’s action overkill? Most definitely, yes. There was no real reason to do such a thing, doing it in real life was much easier. But, that was not the path the Core wanted to take. Not too long ago, it had thought of desire in the realm of levelling up its [Arcane Mastery] skill. Such a thing was not done by being idle. It was achieved by being challenged again and again, always on the brink of failure. Even with how much time had been spent trying out [Physical Arcane], the Core knew it hadn’t reached its limits yet. There were too many details it had trouble recreating, sharp edges being one of them. And humanoid figures? The current one was nothing more than a very lengthened sphere, put together in the rough form of something that had two legs and two arms. The head was barely able to be seen.

“We need to know what you want in this new room of yours,” the Queen finally said once again, somehow regaining the lost composure. Having a cube appear for no apparent reason was perhaps slightly distracting but the Core knew she could get through it. “And since your demands might be more than a bit technical, we thought it best to set up a little model first. Just say what you want in it and it will appear on the model. If it doesn’t, try and explain what it is. Some of your fancy [Enlightened] nonsense is not as well-known as one might believe.”

“Oh… okay,” Buck said, sounding unsure about himself. In front of the man, the cube still spun around slowly, the humanoid model inside standing on a specific point. The Core could already tell the gears were turning in the man’s head. “I guess my first request would be to have a bed? Those leather pieces I have now are fine and all but I don’t think I’ll refuse the chance to have an actual one.

A bed. Beds. The Core was already challenged with such a simple request. Digging into its mind, it tried its best to figure out just what a bed was exactly. It was something the [Enlightened] slept on due to the comfiness and ability to protect them from the environment. It was known for being soft, warm, and very hard to get liquids out of. The current set-up for the man to sleep in had all of these requirements but he wanted more? The Core supposed that the traits simply being there at some level wasn’t enough. It had to be an overwhelming trait instead of a mere one that could be mentioned as an afterthought.

First, how did one remove the coldness from the current model? Well… the floor was cold in the cave, it being made of stone and basalt. Neither had the highest ability to be heated up easily. Not wanting to rip off the base materials that would make up the floor, walls, and ceiling, the Core instead decided on raising the bed on a small platform, legs being attached to each side of the model to make sure it could hold weight.

Then came the comfiness, a rather easy endeavour. If the current level of leather stacked wasn’t enough, the Core would simply double it, creating a thick layer of animal pelts. While it might have looked slightly unbalanced from the side, the Core was sure it would create a great amount of heat isolation. That part was rather easy, though it raised the total height of the bed by an extra couple of centimetres. It already went up to the man’s knees at that point. Was that truly how the [Enlightened] wanted them? How peculiar.

Not wanting to disregard the final requirement of environmental protection, the Core allowed another layer of leather to be on top of the current one, creating a pocket in which the man could enter with everything but his head. It would protect the main body from wind, cold, and anything that could attack him during the night. His head would still be unprotected but there was little to do which wouldn’t cause issues with air circulation. Still, the walls of the bed were raised just a bit more to make it possible to hide the sleeping form from casual observers. A bed-frame one could call it.

Having finished the model, the Core did its best to recreate it with only [Physical Arcane]. The leather was hard to truly replicate, its rough looks near impossible to make with the material normally so smooth. Yet, even when forced to make it more curve-like than actual bumps, the Entity thought it had done a rather good job. Placing it down to the side of the room, the Core waited for another request.

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“Oh, wow, it worked,” Buck said, eyes widening and the lower body looking ready to take a few steps back.

“I don’t normally lie about things like these,” the Queen answered with a dry tone, though it was clear to see that she was slightly surprised as well. “Do you have any more requests that you would like to voice? If not, I believe there is a lot of space inside the room. Perhaps a chair?”

“Yeah… that would work fine,” Buck said after a few seconds of contemplation. The Core was quick to fulfil the new order, a chair being easier than anything else. It was just a less comfy and smaller bed. It had about the same height and an equal amount of legs, after all. “Could you add in a table as well? It would be great if I could have some food somewhere civilized instead of it being on the ground all the time.”

How weird those two-legged creatures were sometimes. They wouldn’t get sick if they ate it on a clean floor so why waste space creating a space where only food could be? The Core didn’t understand it but obeyed the request, not seeing any reason to ignore it. There were three chairs instead of one. It could be that the man would get bored out of only sitting in one place, after all.

“Maybe a shelf or two on the walls?” the Druid asked after the new additions were finalized on the model. “I know that I don’t have much in the way of items right now but it would be good to have someplace I could hang stuff on or put them. Maybe even a chest if you know what those are.”

A chest? The image of one with a curved top came to mind but the Core had little desire to make such a thing. Hinges were too annoying to make with the current materials available. Instead, the Entity chose to make a wooden box where the top had a thinner outer layer that made it harder for it to fall off on accident. With how high the bed was, the Entity could even make the box short enough to put under there. Space efficiency was important no matter what was being done, after all.

“Is there anything else you want?” the Queen asked after the man was quiet for a minute or two. The Core spent the time between the requests trying to make the current models more detailed. The roughness of leather was becoming more precise with time, though the Entity was forced to make it favour looking more like the real material rather than feeling like it. It hoped the man wouldn’t want to touch the inside of the cube lest he could very easily cut his finger open. There were too many objects inside with rather unusual sharpness. Sharpness that had been impossible not too long ago. The Entity was improving!

“I don’t know if I needed to request this one or not,” Buck began, smiling awkwardly as if he was about to be the punchline to a joke. “But would it be possible for it to be lit up like this room? I know you turn it off when I leave and that you keep the rest of the dungeon dark at nearly times. So… would it be possible for my room to have some light built into it? Perhaps something I can turn off and on? It doesn’t have to be magical. A candle would work fine if I’m being fully honest.”

A candle? The idea of open, continued flame within the Dungeon felt rather unsafe to the Core, the amount of air being consumed for such a thing being quite large. And with how little drag came into the deeper parts, it wouldn’t be too surprising if the man could die in his sleep. Though… the current idea could do that anyways. If the man was forced to stay inside the room for almost a day in a row, no air could enter without the Core making such a thing happen naturally. A pipe couldn’t just be made into the Dungeon lest sound could travel through on accident. But what else could be done to make sure the man didn’t die without reason…

A pipe going somewhere other than the Dungeon, of course. Since the cave itself was located on a rather steep hill, making a few holes at the top would lead to no real suspicion, too many birds and whatnot living up there. If those were used for ventilation… the Core could suddenly see how the plan could work. The man’s suggestion to simply use candles was forming into an actual idea. It would require quite a bit of tunnelling but that was fine. Creating the new space would take time anyway. Now, the important part was just to put it on the model before making it real. Adding a few tubes on the top of the cube and a stack of candle-like objects on the simulated table, the Core sent an affirmation to the Queen.

“That seems doable,” the Queen said, paraphrasing what the Entity had informed her. “Is there anything else you want?”

“Not, no,” Buck answered. “This should be more than enough. Thank you.”

“You shouldn’t thank me,” the Queen retorted. “I’ve done nothing more than standing around.”

The Core ignored the two others for a moment, finalizing the design in its head. There were still a few patches of an empty floor in the new room, but it was supposed that some parts were needed. The man was meant to walk around, after all. Some manner of balancing was required to be there. Though… rearranging things slightly, the Entity began to make the models more realistic, adding in every kind of material that would be needed for the actual room. A tree would make out most of the furniture, more specifically the oak normally found itself. It would have to be finely shaped lest it could damage the user but that was easier said than done. The chest got a few more indents added to make it easier to move around and a bottom that wasn’t fully flat so there was less friction on the floor. All in all, everything was to scale and just about how it needed to look.

A [Skill] has been improved!

You have understood [Arcane-Manipulation] more deeply

Ah! There it was. The Core had started to get worried about how much work had been put in on the model. The details had been worryingly accurate at the last stages, to the point where the models could have been mistaken as shrunken, actual objects. The Entity would have certainly made that mistake on its own, though any others with the ability to see through transparent objects might have become suspicious. It didn’t matter too much.

However, the [System] sent out another message at that point. It was one that the Core had never seen before. And the details within… were exciting to hear.

Congratulations

You have achieved a breakthrough in [Arcane-Manipulation]. For your efforts, you have unlocked the [Arcanium Runic-Path]