Blixie looked around her to get her bearings. She was flying above a ring of rocks, engraved with slowly dimming runes, that lay on a soft bed of moss. She had only used the academy's portal a few times but only when it had been required in the classes she had taken. The portal lay in a ring of large oaks a few hundred yards from the academy. The academy itself was rather plain compared to the mountains and forests that hid it from the rest of the world. It had been built into the side of a hill and crafted to look like a series of large stones that could have been used by a long dead civilization for unspeakable rituals, or to tell time, or could have been an artistic undertaking. Who knows with artists sometimes. Blixie thought. Fond memories of her classes and fellow students floated through her mind. All the fun, and trouble, they had gotten into during the past couple decades seemed like a lifetime ago and yet it felt like just yesterday that she was entering the school for the first time.

Most of the classes were held inside rooms that had been carved throughout the hill, or in the surrounding fields, mountains, and lakes depending on the class involved. The academy made sure there was a place to practice no matter the element since they never knew what kind of dungeon the students would be assigned to guide. "No time to reminisce." Blixie told herself and she flew off toward the top of the hill to the entrance nestled in the shadowed crook of one of the stones.

Inside the academy, one would think they had been transported to the courts of men or dwarves. The hallways were lined in stone and wide enough for several students to walk side by side. Wooden doors that were scarcely bigger than two pixies were placed sporadically along the walls and small magical lights brightened the hallways. Most dungeon guides could see easily without the light, since most would have to explore deep cave systems to find the dungeon core they would eventually be partnered with, but the teachers wanted the students to learn about how most of the adventurers that visited the dungeons would see and experience a dungeon.

Blixie walked along the empty entrance hall and soon came upon a larger central room with several hallways branching off and a circular wooden desk in the center. A guy in a black robe sat at the desk reading a book, his pale blue skin shone dully in the lantern light. "Hello." Blixie said as she approached. He looked up, his dark green, seaweed like, hair rustled softly. "I need to see Madame Flittlebee as soon as possible, please."

"You do realize what time it is, right?" He responded with a watery warble to his voice.

"I am aware." Blixie stated. "And I would have waited if I could, but I need to get back to my dungeon before sunup." The man just stared back at her without a care.

"And what is it regarding?" He finally said dully.

"I have a question about my dungeon that didn't come up in the classes." She said, her patience slowly draining from her.

"Come with me." He stood up and walked out from behind the desk. "But I'm not responsible if she is unhappy about this."

He quickly walked down one of the tunnels with Blixie following after. A few minutes later they arrived at a nondescript door with a small crest of a bee above it. He knocked loudly and they waited a few moments before a deep raspy called back. "What is it at this hour that needs my dire attention?"

"I have a guide here that has a question about her dungeon that apparently couldn't wait." The blue skinned man responded.

The door slowly opened to reveal the wrinkled wizened face of a woman. The eight eyes arranged in a row on her brow blinked quickly in the sudden light before focusing on Blixie. "Is that you Blixie? Gone for but a minute and already in trouble. Why am I not surprised?" She said in her low raspy voice.

"Hello, Madame Flittlebee." Blixie replied sheepishly.

With a small sigh Madame turned to the man standing beside Blixie "I'll handle this, Fred. You can return to your desk." With a small nod, the blue skinned man named Fred turned and walked back the way they had come.

"Come in Blixie." Madame Flittlebee said as she turned and retreated into her room. "I hope there is a good reason for waking me up at this hour."

Blixie followed Madame Flittlebee inside and closed the door. The room was rather sparse with only a desk and a bookshelf along one wall, a couple of paintings adorned the walls, and a small red rug was nestled between a chair and small side table on the other side of the room. Blixie wondered where the older women slept, since there was no other door and the room couldn't have been more than twenty feet to a side, until she looked up and noticed a huge cocoon of webbing was hanging in a corner near the ceiling.

Madame Flittlebee walked over to stand beside the small side table and motioned to the chair as she turned around. "Have a seat Blixie." Blixie looked over Madame Flittlebee and noticed she hadn't really changed since she first arrived at the school so long ago. Madame Flittlebee looked as if someone had taken a Pixie from the torso up and placed her on the body of a giant spider. Her long black hair was pulled into a ponytail to stay out of her multitude of glittering black eyes. She wore a simple white shirt over her torso leaving her large arachnid body and sleek chitinous legs bare. "Tell me what questions you have child. I'm fairly certain the classes provided by the school should have covered everything that would be needed to guide a dungeon for several decades."

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Blixie sat in the offered chair and tried to get her questions in order. "Well, I was given the opportunity to guide a rather unique dungeon Madame Flittlebee."

Madame Flittlebee be sighed. "Every dungeon is unique Blixie. That is the first lesson taught here, but with how good of a student you were I'm guessing you mean your dungeon is beyond the standard uniqueness of dungeons. Let me take a guess." She thought for a moment. "The dungeon you were assigned has more than two elemental affinities, lies in a region that would greatly support all of them, but since you just graduated you would have been assigned a rather young dungeon, so it is still rather generalized in its monster and trap selections. So, you came for advice on which direction to specialize the dungeon?" She asked looking rather pleased with herself, as if she has answered this same question hundreds of times.

Blixie fidgeted, still feeling like a child under the gaze of a woman that had been teaching her for several decades. Blixie wasn't sure how much information she should share for fear of what might happen. Maybe she would be replaced with a senior dungeon guide that had lost their dungeon in the past, or the school might swarm after Garrett to study him since there were no records, that she knew of, of a dungeon that could use all the elements from its birth.

"There is no need for fear or shame dear." Madame Flittlebee assured Blixie. "I have had this conversation many times in the past. I'm not as young as I look you know." Blixie looked at her as Madame Flittlebee chuckled.

"Well," Blixie said slowly. "I'm just not sure how to ask about it, but the best way i guess is to say my dungeon isn't growing."

"What do mean not growing?" Madame Flittlebee was curious. Dungeons not growing would be like the sun not rising. "Is there not enough mana for it to increase its influence or not enough monsters or adventurers around to feed it?"

"No, there is plenty of mana and it has killed several monsters and adventurers in its influence, but..." Blixie trailed off at the end not sure how to continue without revealing too much of Garretts unique situation.

"I'm too tired to be chasing you around the bush with this." Madame Flittlebee said with a small huff. "Out with it."

Blixie jumped with a small squeak. "Sorry Madame Flittlebee. My dungeon hasn't gained any levels, or experience is what I mean. At least, not any since it first killed a dire rat that had ventured into it."

Madame Flittlebee rubbed here temples and pondered. "It gained experience from killing a rat, but not the others. And the other creatures died while in the dungeons influence, yes?"

"Yes mam." Blixie responded.

"Give me a minute to think." Madame Flittlebee said as she slowly started to walk around the room mumbling. Blixie could hear the occasional 'no' or 'that couldn't be it' from her. After the second circle along the walls and even the ceiling of the room she stopped above Blixie and looked down at her. Did the dungeon's core pillar get damaged after it killed the dire rat?"

Blixie thought back the time when the two humans wandered through Garrett's dungeon like it was nothing then smashing his gem, only for her to find that he had be reborn into a new gem, and the plan to leave the small cavern. "Kind of." She mumbled. "After the dire rat there was a pair of adventures that came through the dungeon like it was more of an inconvenience to be there than anything. After they had found the heart room one of them did hit the core pillar out of frustration, but what would that have to do with it. Doesn't the core pillar just allow for faster mana recovery?"

"Well, yes and no." Madame Flittlebee said as she lowered herself from the ceiling on a fine thread of silk and came to stand beside Blixie. "The dungeons core pillar does indeed allow for faster mana recovery but that is not all. The dungeon core acts as a physical connection from the dungeon core to its surroundings. allowing it to absorb the mana not just in the air but in the elements it is connected to."

"I understand that. That part was covered in the classes, but how does that affect the dungeon gaining levels and growing?"

"Usually if something damages the dungeon's core pillar the dungeon core is destroyed in the process, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised this isn't covered." Madame Flittlebee looked at Blixie. "Most people think that the life force of creatures is released as mana into the air when a creature dies, which is partially true. The mana that was stored in the creature is released into the air for others to absorb and use, but the life force that we know of as experience, that allows for dungeons and other creatures to increase in levels is absorbed into the ground or similar elements surrounding it. So, if your dungeon has lost its connection with its surrounds because of a damaged core pillar, naturally it wouldn't be able to absorb that life essence to increase in level."

"Thats all?" Blixie asked astonished. "Why isn't this covered in the classes?"

"That's all." Madame Flittlebee nodded. "It's not covered because, like I said before, usually a dungeon's core is destroyed if something damages the core pillar, but even if the core pillar is damaged and the core survives the dungeon will instinctually repair it before it becomes a problem." She chuckled.

"Stupid Garrett and his lack of basic dungeon knowledge." Blixie mumbled in frustration.

"What was that dear?"

"Oh, nothing." Blixie quickly said. "Thank you for the advice Madame Flittlebee I should get back to inform my dungeon. He has been rather frustrated about this issue so I'm glad it will be an easy fix."

"Of course, dear." Madame Flittlebee said with a yawn as she started climbing the wall. "If you will see yourself out, I really must get back to bed. I have to teach some classes in the morning."

"Have a good night." Blixie said as she headed out of the room. Blixie quickly walked back out of the halls, waving at Fred as she passed his desk and returned to the ring of stones she had first appeared from. With a deep breath she repeated the dance that opened the gate before. Half an hour later Blixie flew through the portal and was heading back to tell Garrett what she had learned.