It was finally time. I selected the option to build a path to what would become my new floor and was prompted to select how far down I wanted the path to take me. Keeping in mind the warning by Lilly I selected 10 meters. That should give me plenty of space to build whatever I wanted without worrying about getting too close to my first floor. I decided to make the path down out of stone again. If I could only do a part of my new floor with it, I was going to make it count. A few of the bigger rooms and maybe some really long hallways. Lilly did promise me to supply me with enough mana if I didn’t have enough. Considering I only have 103 mana left I suspect I’ll need it.

After I decided to make the path out of stone, I thought that would be it. Normally I would get the estimated mana cost but something different happened now. A new blue box with options.

Please select the kind of path used to reach your new floor: Sloping path - 240 mana Simple stairs - 280 mana Spiral staircase - 400 mana

Well that’s new. I know what a slope is. My entrance is on a slope after all. But I’m not sure what stairs are. Spiral staircase seems related but I’m equally clueless about what that is. All I know is it’s the most expensive option and since I can’t afford even the simplest without help from Lilly I might as well pick the most expensive option.

“Lilly.”

“I know what you want. Are you sure?”

“If you’re willing to give me some mana, I want to try it.”

“I said I would. I won’t ruin the surprise of what a staircase is if you promise me not to look while it’s being built. Deal?”

“Okay, as long as I get the mana that’s fine.”

I feel mana rush into me. This is so much nicer than having to wait for hours for more mana. I wonder if my Fae can give me their mana like Lilly does? I haven’t really read the status pages of everyone around me apart from their names so I’m not sure how much mana they have but with over 80 Fae I’m sure it will be helpful.

I pick the spiral staircase option and I soon find myself drained of much of my mana again. It seems either Lilly can’t give me more or she gave me just enough to build it. One of the walls of my core room started to deform. That must be where the path down will start. Lilly started tapping me quite hard however as I looked at it.

“No looking. You promised me, little pebble. I know you’re good at ignoring things if you want to. You did it when I spent all that time telling you names. Something you still haven’t thanked me for that by the way. Not that I expect you to. It would just be nice. Just to let you know. You can’t make your Fae supply you with mana.”

“Why not? You can, why can’t my Fae do the same?”

“They are a part of you, made from your mana even. If they try to give you mana it’s just like me focusing my mana in the right hand and then shifting it to the left hand. My body doesn’t gain anymore mana from moving the mana. Just like your Fae are a part of your body you can’t gain more mana from they since they are just another part of you.

There are many theories of how Dungeon Cores work. The theory most favored by those like me, those that help and can see all that your kind can do. Is that what you see as your available mana is just a small part of your actual mana. That is the only way to make sense of the fact your kind can provide mana to so many creatures and create things that should be impossible for so little mana. That you can even radiate enough mana to cause it to become denser. All of that would not be possible without a vast reservoir of mana far greater than what can be accessed by the cores. Your Fae are connected to you with that reservoir but that also means any mana given to you by them simply returns to the reservoir. I’m not connected to you in any way so the mana I channel doesn’t go to the reservoir but to what you can use.”

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“Is that true? Do I really have that much mana?”

“It’s just a theory, little pebble. Remember how I told you about the greatest magics being made by crazy people? Trying to figure out anything related with magic using logic. That’s just foolish. Magic works because it’s impossible and fantastic. Logic can explain a great many things but magic is not one of those things. If you meet a wind mage from the west, he will call out the name of the spell he’s casting and soon he’ll fly on the winds, but it you meet a wind mage from one of the southern continents he will just gesture with his hands and take off in flight. It has nothing to do with how they were thought or the gods they worship. A mage from the south calling out spells like a western mage is just a shouting fool, nothing happens. Just like a western mage that learned all the gestures needed from the southern mages will just end up waving his arms about. Why that is, well, who can really know? I find that it doesn’t matter as much how you can do things little pebble, the thing that truly matters is that you can.”

I try to take in and understand all that Lilly told me. In a way she’s right. I don’t need to know about mana I have that I can’t use anyway. Or why my Fae can’t help me generate mana. I just need to know what I can and can’t do and do the best I can with it.

“Well that’s enough distraction. It seems like the path has been completed. Feel free to ignore everything I told you. It's meaningless drivel. Now, go and explore your new spiral staircase, while I leave all the books I’ve brought with me here.

I’ll head back home now. You’re not the only thing in my life after all and I’m sure that without me you’ll spend weeks building out your new floor. Or at least it should take weeks. Try and understand what’s written in the books and maybe you’ll find some more inspiration. I’ll be back before winter really sets in in a month or so. Remember to save the upgrade points. Thankfully you didn’t mess up this time but I rather not risk the plan on your impulsive behavior again.

Oh right. You have no idea about winter, do you? Well pretty soon, the snow will begin to fall outside your dungeon. That’s why the aurochs migrated. They needed to reach lower altitude where they can wait out the winter. It’s terrible further up the mountain in the winter. I know you can’t really feel the cold but trust me. If you could you would not want to be there during a storm.”

Winter? Cold? So many questions but Lilly was already taking blocks out from her storage bag that I assume was the books she mentioned. Then she left the Core room without saying a word. Once she left my dungeon the mind link ended.

That’s right Lilly. Leave without even a goodbye. It’s not like I care... much.

There were 17 books in total for me to learn from but that had to wait. It was time for me to see my path down. I once again pretended to not be me and instead something that had to walk to see what was ahead of me. I came to the opening in the wall and found a circular room that stretched down beneath me. A small path to walk on lead to the center of the room where a large pillar stood. Several flat stones extended from the pillar in a pattern starting from the path I was on until the lowest stone touched the bottom of this new room. I tried to imagine walking down on the stones. Aside from the height between the different stones being a bit big for my imagined adventurer I could see myself getting down the pattern easy enough. Maybe my idea of how tall an adventurer is, is wrong? Maybe adventurers were bigger than Lilly? She did tell me tall ones were over two meters and she’s hardly taller than 60 centimeters. Well either way. I’m quite satisfied with my new stairs. If that evil herd of monsters from earlier came in here, they would fall down quite far. I can’t see them being careful enough to get down without falling.

Since I still had to wait on my mana to regenerate, I decided to read the books Lilly gave me. Shouldn't take that long to do. I find them all in the ‘Floor Accessories’ menu. I haven’t gotten anything else in that menu so I pick one at random to summon.

It just lays there. Motionless. After a while I grow frustrated. Where’s the blue box window from this thing so I can read it? Maybe if I move it a bit? Since it was summoned by me, I can at least influence it enough that I can move it around. After moving around a bit, the book finally opens. I was afraid I had destroyed it but it seems the book was designed to work that way. I look down and see lots of squiggly lines.

This is horrible. If that’s supposed to be writing I can’t understand them. How am I supposed to learn from these books? If the others are like this they’re impossible to read!