Al occupied himself with harvesting the mushrooms in the valley, and Mahya and I continued our experiments with the house.

Mahya turned to me. “I have another idea,” she said, a hint of a smile playing on her lips.

I raised an eyebrow, intrigued. “What’s on your mind?”

She took out a pouch and emptied a handful of gold grains into her palm. “Remember these?” she asked, holding them up, so they caught the light.

I nodded, recognizing the gold we had collected on the rat island. “Yeah, what about them?”

Mahya’s grin widened. “What if we gave these to the house?”

I frowned, trying to follow her line of thought. “You mean, give the house gold?”

“Exactly,” she said, nodding enthusiastically. “Then we give it a coin as an example and ask it to convert the gold into coins.”

I blinked, considering the possibility. “It’s worth a shot,” I admitted, feeling a spark of excitement myself.

We approached the house and placed the gold grains and a single coin on the deck. “House, absorb the loose gold and convert it into coins like the example.”

For a moment, nothing happened. Then, the gold grains shimmered as the house absorbed them. Suddenly, it began releasing coins, each gleaming as it appeared.

My jaw dropped in amazement. “It worked!” I exclaimed, turning to Mahya with wide eyes.

She laughed, her face glowing with triumph. “I knew it would!”

We high-fived, excited, as we checked the stack of fresh coins. It was like we had just discovered a new world of potential with the house. I took out all the gold grains I had and poured them on the deck. Mahya did the same.

Before I could tell the house what to do, Al approached us and asked, “May I inquire as to the reason behind your act of spreading gold?”

“Watch,” I told him, then said, “House, absorb the gold and convert it into coins like the example.”

Again, the gold disappeared, and coins appeared in its place.

Al looked at it with wide eyes, shook his head, and said, “Your house is quite extraordinary.”

Mahya and I collected the coins and divided them equally. Al, with a thoughtful expression, turned to me. “Could you please request your house to construct a greenhouse for me? I am seeking a change to my balcony, specifically to expand and enclose it with glass.”

“Yeah, sure, no problem.”

I said to the house, “On the second floor, in the bedroom on the right, double the size of the balcony and enclose it with glass as a greenhouse.”

The house started moving things, and then I felt a hunger from it. It made little sense; we fed it a lot of wood. I focused on the feeling and realized the house wanted sand or glass—it wasn’t my imagination; I understood what the core needed. This was the first time I could decipher the need. In previous times, it was just a general feeling of hunger.

I turned to Mahya. “Do you still have the sand from the rat island?”

“Yes, do you need it?”

“The house needs it for the glass. By the way, I felt what the house needed, not just a feeling of hunger, but I deciphered it. Is this normal?”

She tapped her finger on her chin. “I think so. You’re the Dungeon Master. But that’s just my opinion, not based on anything concrete. Lis didn’t say anything about it. He probably didn’t know.”

“We need to find a way to tell him everything we discovered. I don’t think the book idea will hold if we keep adding data.” I said.

“We’ll think of something,” Mahya said.

After Mahya poured the sand on the deck and the house finished building the greenhouse, I asked Al, “Do you need anything else for the greenhouse?”

“I possess the soil that I gathered in the dungeon, so I am well-prepared in that regard. I was wondering if your house can create planters for me?”

“House, in the new greenhouse, build rows of planters along the entire length.”

We went upstairs with Al, and he poured soil out of his Storage into the planters. I asked him, “I remember my wife buying bone meal as a plant fertilizer. Is that something alchemists use, too?”

“Yes, of course. Once we locate mana beasts, I will gather their bones and pulverize them for fertilizer. Mulch is also a favorable option, although I can produce it myself.”

I took some bones I had collected in Tuonela and showed them to Al. I had no use for them. “Will these help you?”

“These are amazing! Where did you get them?” he asked, his eyes widening.

“Remember the baby dungeon?”

“Yes,” he nodded.

“From the same place, but from the cave of a giant snake.”

I gave him all my bones, and Al was over the moon. After Mahya exchanged a look with me, she also gave him her bones. If Al had smiled any wider, his head would have split.

I showed him the quills I had from Tuonela and asked, “Can you use these?”

He inspected them, even pricking his finger with one, and said, “Maybe, but you should keep them. You use a crossbow sometimes, and these are excellent as bolts.”

Mahya chimed in, “Give those to me. I’ll do something with them.”

I handed her all the quills, feeling relieved. My storage was overflowing with junk, so getting rid of stuff I had no idea what to do with was great.

I asked Al, “How will the plants grow while the house is in my Storage?”

“They will not,” he replied simply.

I frowned. “Isn’t that a problem?”

He shook his head. “No, as the plants will continue to grow from the moment the house is outside. Given that I do not possess a greenhouse at present, a greenhouse that produces plants intermittently is preferable to none.”

It made sense.

After lunch, I asked Al, “How long do you need to finish harvesting all the mushrooms?” I watched as he examined a giant mushroom, his brow furrowed in concentration.

“Three to four days,” he replied, not looking up.

“If I help you harvest them, how long will it take? I’m ready to move from this valley.”

He finally looked up, a thoughtful expression crossing his face. “At most, it will take one or two days. Especially if you lend a hand with the significant ones,” he said, nodding towards the giant mushroom near the house.

I helped Al harvest mushrooms while Mahya took out her boat and was doing something on it. On our second day of harvest, he asked me, “I am curious as to why you did not consider asking the house to generate pocket dimensions instead of expanding in size.”

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“Pocket dimensions? You think it can?”

“It is logical to assume it is possible. Have you inspected the area where the dungeon was previously situated?”

“No. Why?” I replied, curiosity piqued.

“I examined it. This was my first encounter with a demolished dungeon, and I was intrigued. It is an immense boulder. I was able to navigate the entire perimeter of it without incident. The dungeon was seven or eight times the size of this valley if we combined the measurements of all the floors. A boulder is incapable of accommodating such an area, regardless of its dimensions. Therefore, I arrived at the conclusion that cores create a pocket dimension or some form of spatial expansion. It is reasonable to assume that it can perform the same feat outside a dungeon, particularly when a dungeon master is in charge.”

I rubbed my chin in thought. “You might be right. I never considered that. The entrance to the other dungeon we destroyed was on a rock face, so it was less obvious.” I squeezed his shoulder, adding, “Thanks, Al. I’ll check it out.”

Al was right. It took us two days to harvest all the mushrooms, especially since he wanted to uproot and replant the small ones in the new greenhouse. But finally, we were done.

In the morning, I shrunk the house into the core. Mahya stored her boat and took out the balloon. Al and I held its mouth open, and I expected her to fill it up with air using her spell, but she took out a contraption made of two wood sticks shaped like a V, with the first crystals I engraved with the mana absorption magic circle at the V opening. She fiddled with some runes on the stick, and wind poured from the stick into the balloon.

“This is awesome,” I exclaimed.

“Wait till you see all its capabilities,” she said, looking very smug.

After the balloon was full of air, she fiddled again with the runes, and the top crystal started glowing.

“What is occurring?” Al asked, his brow furrowed in confusion.

“The bottom crystal is wind, the top is heat. The wind passes through the heat and heats the air in the balloon. We don’t need gas anymore.”

Al was exclaiming over her idea while I facepalmed and shook my head.

“What?” Mahya asked me.

“Now I have a huge supply of gas and no use for it.”

“You’re wrong. We have the portable forges that work on gas, and you still need to cook on the boat with gas.”

That made me feel better. “Did we pick a direction?” I asked.

“Not yet, let’s do it now.”

We opened the map, zoomed in, and looked at what was outside the valley. The mountain chain was vast, with several circles of mountains surrounding the valley—the valley, with the mountains, covered over sixty percent of the island’s surface. Between the coast and the mountains, cities or towns dotted the island. They were close to each other, with not much space in between. After rotating the map twice to see the entire area on the other side of the mountains, I didn’t spot any completely deserted areas we could fly toward without our balloon being seen.

“I have no ideas. No matter where we fly, we will be seen,” I said, frustrated.

“Did you forget the camouflage of the balloon?” Mahya asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Right, you’re right. So where do you want to land?”

“Look in the northeast. There’s a yellow area there. I think it’s sand. If I’m reading the scale correctly, the distance between the two towns is about five to seven kilometers. If we land in the middle, I don’t think they’ll see us.”

“Looks good. Al?” I asked, turning to him.

“I concur,” he said with a nod.

When the balloon started to pull and try to take off, Rue jumped in enthusiastically, and we all got into the basket after him. Mahya attached the rod with the crystals into a ring fixed to the basket. I examined the ring; its structure was brilliant. It allowed her to point the rod into the balloon’s opening or twist it to point outwards to create a wind trail and push us in a specific direction.

“Smart,” I said, impressed.

“Of course, I’m a genius,” she replied with a grin.

Al and I laughed, but I had to admit she was indeed a genius. “Need a push from the wind, or is the V contraption enough?” I asked her.

“A push is always nice, especially with the size of the mountain chain. It’s huge!” she replied, adjusting the gadget again.

I connected to the wind and repeated the sequence of emotions like the first time we flew with the hot-air balloon. Let’s play, direction, lack of interest in other directions, let’s play, and our balloon flew much faster toward the northeast.

“Do you need me to channel Restore into the balloon?” I asked Mahya.

“No need. Remember the experiments we did in Canada? Only a dragon can destroy our balloon at this point.”

“What about the basket?”

“Hmm, I didn’t think of that,” she said, furrowing her brows. “Flow Restore into it now and then just to be on the safe side. Next time we stop for a few days, I’ll see what can be done with the basket.”

“If needed, tell me, and I’ll think of a magic circle to strengthen it.”

She gave me a thumbs-up, and we continued to fly. Crossing the mountain chain took us over four hours, and we flew fast! The chain was simply enormous.

I connected to the wind and asked her to slightly lower the speed using emotions. I sent her the feeling that the game was ending and we needed to slow down. In this respect, the wind here was more cooperative than the wind on Earth. There, I had to convince her; here, one sending of a sequence of emotions was enough, and there was no need to convince her. She may have been annoying in that she refused to move me when I was in the air, but in carrying out requests unrelated to my personal aviation, she was much easier to work with than the wind on Earth. I wondered if the mana levels here or the wind’s personality were responsible. I wasn’t sure the wind had a personality, but given that there was a difference in attitude and reactions, maybe the idea of a personality wasn’t that far-fetched.

Mahya held binoculars in one hand and controlled her gadget with the other, expertly guiding us to the sands area. Relatively high dunes covered the entire area from the waterline to about two or three kilometers inland. Mahya adjusted the gadget again, and the balloon descended.

“What’s it doing now?” I asked.

“I reversed the airflow a hundred and eighty degrees. It’s sucking the air out of the balloon to land us,” she said, winking at me. “Yeah, I know. I’m a genius.”

The balloon landed on the sand as lightly as a feather. We all got out, and Mahya stored the balloon.

“How do you want to travel, by land or sea?” Al asked.

I looked at the sea and then at the land, not having a strong preference. “I don’t care,” I said.

“Overland. We need to do a real motorcycle and ATV test. Don’t you think so, boys?” Mahya suggested.

“Sounds like fun,” I agreed, and Al nodded.

Rue started growling in a specific direction. We all looked but saw nothing. I deployed my mana sense and still felt nothing.

“Where is it, Rue?” I asked.

“Inside sand. Rue feel something bad moving inside sand,” he responded.

We all immediately drew our weapons—I took out my two swords—and prepared for whatever might come.

The sand beneath our feet trembled, and then all hell broke loose. Giant crabs the size of boars with pincers like industrial shears started popping out of the dunes. There must’ve been fifty of them, all snapping and scuttling toward us.

Mahya was already swinging her sword at one crab, slicing off a pincer swiftly. She then switched to her rifle, aiming at another crab’s exposed underbelly. Al was beside her, his sword flashing as he hacked at the incoming crabs.

Rue was growling like a beast possessed, his teeth sinking into a crab’s leg and ripping it off with a powerful shake of his head. I spun around, slicing through the air with my katanas, cutting through the thick shells of the crabs as they lunged at me. Their pincers clashed against my blades, but I kept moving, dodging, and striking with practiced precision.

Mahya’s rifle cracked loudly, each shot blasting a crab back into the sand. She didn’t miss a beat, switching between her sword and rifle like it was second nature. “Keep ‘em off me!” she yelled, reloading quickly.

“I got you!” I replied, cutting down a crab that tried to sneak up on her. Al was a whirlwind of steel, his sword cleaving through the crabs with brute strength. He didn’t seem to tire, just kept swinging and slashing with relentless energy.

Rue was having the time of his life, barking and tearing into the crabs like they were oversized chew toys. His ferocity was a sight to behold, and he kept a clear space around us with his attacks.

One crab came at me with both pincers wide open. I ducked under its swing and drove both Katanas into its underside, twisting them for good measure before yanking them out. The crab collapsed in a heap, and I spun to face the next one. I saw Mahya jump high in the air.

“Mahya, how many left?” I called out, slicing through another crab’s leg.

“Too many! Just keep fighting!” she shouted back, firing off another round.

We fought like that for what felt like hours, but was probably just minutes. Slowly, the tide of crabs thinned. Sand and sweat covered all of us, but we didn’t stop until the last crab fell.

Finally, the beach was quiet again. The only sounds were our heavy breathing and the gentle lapping of the waves. I wiped my brow and looked around at the carnage. Crab parts scattered everywhere, staining the sand with their bluish blood.

“Everyone okay?” I asked, storing my Katanas.

“Yeah,” Mahya said, slinging her rifle over her shoulder. “Nice work, everyone.”

Al nodded, catching his breath. “That was intense.”

Rue trotted over, looking pleased with himself, his tail wagging furiously.

“Good boy, Rue,” I said, patting him. “Let’s get out of here before more show up.”

We walked around for a few minutes to store all the crabs and headed away from the dunes.

“Are all the creatures so big in medium mana worlds?” I asked both of them.

They both shook their heads, and Al answered, “There are certain animals that are relatively large in comparison to their counterparts on Earth. The small size of some animals that inhabit Earth astonished me. However, not all the creatures. It is a matter of makeup or breed.”

I relaxed and let out a relieved breath. For a minute there, I thought we would have to fight giant creatures all the time. Mahya patted me on the back and gave me a reassuring smile.

After twenty minutes of walking, we finally reached the road. It was a compacted dirt road, much like those in Shimoor. I frowned, feeling a pang of disappointment. “I was expecting something a bit more impressive for a medium mana world,” I muttered.

She waved a hand dismissively. “It’s just a road—don’t expect any grand surprises.”

We checked the map again and decided to head north. Though, on a round island, calling it north was a bit of a stretch.

I turned to her, a touch of concern in my voice. “Isn’t it risky for us to drive these unfamiliar vehicles around here?”

She shook her head confidently. “Not at all. With the four of us together, we’re strong enough to handle any group that might come our way, even a large one. Plus, with your Personal Information showing that you’re a healer, most people will be welcoming. The chance of encountering hostility is very low.”

“That’s good to hear.”

Mahya grinned and took out the motorcycles. She guided Al through pricking his finger to unlock his bike, and said, “Let’s get moving then.”

We mounted the vehicles and raced down the road, heading toward the nearest town.