[Z]

To all the single men in the world. To all you lucky men let me give you some advice. NEVER let a woman move into your home and then tell her your poor.

"YOUFUCKINGLITTLEPEICEOFSHIT!" The flame nymph yells so loud I think I've developed tinnitus.

"No and please stop yelling. That won't help anything."

"Don't. Tell. Me. What. To. Do." She growls.

"Then don't yell at me in my body," I say camly. But inside my mind I am scared beyond belief,"I saved your life whether you like it or not so don't you dare threaten me."

She stays silent for a few seconds. I leave her and go check over my hallway again. I have double in length allowing me to see more eggs and the end of my hallway. I have connected all the new grains of sands so this entire area is square with a smooth wall at the end.

I expanded both right to the end, and left to the unknown so does that mean this is now formally considered a dungeon. The ants don't act any different so I assume they don't care. Actually there are about three times as many ants walking around now. They have moved all the eggs near the one I captured making a empty circle around it. All the other eggs seemed to be under consent guard. I won't be able to capture more.

"Hay Z!" The nymph yells though not as loud as before.

"Yes?"

"Damn you zone out fast. Lesson I will forgive you for the botched healing," I literally did not know what that word meant. And now that I think about it I still don't,"If you promise me that you will completely heal me when you can. And once you get big enough I can get my own room."

"That doesn't sound like I get a lot out of this." I say wanting to go back to my egg.

"Let me finish!" She screeches but stops herself from getting too loud."In return I will teach you about this world and more about essence."

I sigh. At Least she is giving me something to work with.

"Okay this is reasonable," I say giving her my full attention."What was it you asked me earlier. Essence storage and regeneration? Teach me about that please."

"Allright first let me see your spiritual body," she says.

"Okay."

I go to my spiritual body with her following my mind. And then she 'helps' me.

"Aww," she says like looking at a puppy. From my experience with her so far she would probably incinerate it."It's so small. Are all newborn dungeon this small?"

I mentally shrug."I don't know I am the only one in existence."

"Anyway. To check your Essence Storage and Essence Regeneration Rate, or ES and ERR for short, go to your spiritual body and say Check Essence Status."

"That's it I just say a few words," I ask baffled. This is way too easy there has to be more to it than that.

"You calling me a liar?" She ask threatenly. "No, no, no," I say a cold sweat going down my mental mind,"I'll go do it right now." I focus entirely on my spiritual body saying the words carefully and with precision.

"Check Essence Status."

Affinity:Earth

Rank: (Not Attained)

Essence Storage:4

Essence Regeneration Rate: .2Per Day

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What the? My jaw hits the floor. This is a complete game changer. With this I now actually have numbers to calculate with and can plan ahead the cost. Why was this not showed to me earlier. I recall the talk Dungian had with me earlier. Right I'm not trusted so they won't tell me anything. Whatever I don't need them I'll be find on my. Going back to the status my regeneration rate is not very high so I can’t rely on it to replenish me. And what is a rank? I remember her saying something about it when we made our pacted.

“Z!” the flame nymph shouts getting my attention.”Damn you zone out fast. I’m not done pay attention.”

I focus back on the flame nymph still thinking of new strategies.

“Now I can see your Essence Status because you have showed me your spiritual body. Normally you will not show either to anyone. Also, because you have no rank no one will be able to find you which is very good.”

“What is a rank?”

“A rank is where you place in regards for ES and affinity. From weakest to strongest they is Fledgling, Apprentice, Journeyman, Veteran, Expert, Legendary, and Godly. Each rank has four levels in it. You have no rank which means you don’t meet the requirements for Fledgling. Which if I remember correctly is to have 100 ES.”

“What is your rank?” I ask. The amount of essence she has in her body is way more than 100.

“I am a Veteran,” she says,”or was I had to use some of my center to escape the people hunting me.”

So she is being hunted. That explains why she was injured. I won’t ask her about it, she’ll tell me later.

“What is a center?”

“It will take too long to explain and it will be years before you come even close to worrying about it. Now I need to explain ES more clearly. You see it means the amount of essence you can store in total, not the amount you currently have stored. So it is useless in combat and is only somewhat useful for using essence. Which is also something we are going to talk about.”

“This is going to be long lecture isn’t it?” I ask already knowing the answer.

“Yes. Usually it is years of study to learn all about essence. I’m teaching you all I know in about a day or two. Now silence I must concentrate.” Yeah you need to concentrate not like I'm the one learning.

I don’t say that outloud for I wish to keep my hearing. I sit and listen to her explain.

“Essence usage is very complicated and very wasteful. To conjure a flame or to create an earth wall you must use a certain amount of essence. But you don’t use all of it. For example to conjure a small flame will take fifteen essence yet only fourteen point five essence goes to the flame and the remaining point five essence gets spread out unused. This is much more for little conjurings and also if you have a low affinity. To check your affinity you go to Essence Status ond touch affinity. Go ahead and do that."

I follow her instructions and once I click the affinity tab a new screen pops up.

Affinity: Earth(50%:100%)

"The more affinity you have the less essence is wasted. If you ever get one hundred percent affinty you waste no essence for that type of affinity, but that is exceptionally rare. I'm actually impressed with how high your affinity is with the amount of your earth essence in the air I thought you had something closer to twenty five percent."

"My earth essence is in the air?" I ask startled. With what she just said that means that the reason the ants moved their eggs here and why there are so many ants patrolling so much is because they are feeding off my essence. Dungian told me when she took me here that animals will flock to my because of the essence I give off and that they will get stronger because of it. So I have basically been feeding the ants a free meal and caring for their eggs. Crap! I need to find a way to channel my used essnce somewhere else so that they don't get the benifits and then become a threat. Argh I wish this flame nymph will hurry up.

"Yes. Actually I've been wondering whar have you been using your essence for you seemed to have used quite alot for your size?" 

I explain to her that I need to spread my influence into the grains of sand around me in order to see and move them. And that I've been trying to subjugate a ant egg, but it seems more resilient.

"That would cause the amount I've detected. Also," she's now going to start asking question. Crap again she'll take forever!"From what I remember of the past dungeons anything that was killed in them they can make. Why don't you kill an egg and just make more?"

"I already have and I can't make it because I don't have the required essence. Which, now that I know of this screen, is eight essence."

"Then expand your ES with your size it should be pretty easy."

I respond with silence letting her figure out what my answer to that.

"Oh right you don't know anything forgot your only three months old," she says like a wise sage,"Okay in order to increase your ES you can either cultivate till you are completely full of essence then continue which expands it slowly or take in large amount of essence at once which increases it dramatically. The first is much safer and really the only way to increase your ES when you don't have large amounts of essence available, the second can result in death if your spiritual body breaks."

"Yeah I came close to breaking my spiritual body when I accidentaly killed an egg the amount of essence I recieved increased my ES by I think one essence." I already know what I'm going to do. I'll cultivate continuously to increase my ES only stopping to add essence to the egg. I've already invested alot of essence into that thing I'm seeing it through to the end. I tell her my plan and the problem with my essence being in the air and she agrees.

"I can't send you essence from my body when it is in your storage so I will occupy myself with devising a plan to solve for your essence in the air and a plan to start raising an army."

"Army?" I ask confused.

"An army is a large group of creatures that fight other armies." She explains.

"Thank you for the explanation, but why do we need an army?"

"Because Z we are taking control of this ant colony," she says softly like talking to a baby,"then we will take control of this entire grassland." She finishes a sinister arua coming off her mind. One that I will not lie is kinda hot.