Doyle’s concentration is on a single point of void at the center of his core. All around him is a sea of power and he has to move it. The void is his potential to expand, while small the space within has no conceivable limit. So if it wants to expand, Doyle just has to encourage it in a more literal sense.

He pushes on that void and without changing expands outward to cover his core and pushing the sea of power outward. Now all he has to do is use that pooled potential to squeeze the void back down as far as he can.

From outside Ally fidgets as watches Doyle. An hour passes without any reaction, but she trusts him. Half an hour more goes by, but then a glimmer expands out of the core. The speed it grows is slow, but at least something is happening now.

After a few more minutes, there is a globe of liquid power encapsulating the core. Inside Ally can just make out a blackness coat Doyle’s core. She isn’t sure what that is about, but it doesn’t feel bad through her link to him so she can only sit back and watch. Then the sphere of power starts to shrink.

The outer surface of the liquid power crystalizes and contracts. This layer of crystal grows as it shrinks, absorbing more as the liquid becomes unable to stay liquid from the pressure. The process continues until the crystals reach the shifting blackness around the core.

From there the facets of the crystal coating shrink. Each moment that passes makes it harder and harder for Ally to see the core as it becomes like frosted glass. Then the crystal reaches the size of the core and continues to shrink.

Inside Doyle is ignorant of what has happened on the outside. From the center of the void he can no longer see out and there is only his core. He can feel that there is still room left to contract the power outside though, and so continues. Tighter and tighter as if without end he draws the power towards him.

Eventually he reaches a point that his mind can no longer compress the power further. One final push from Doyle and there is a pop. With a suddenness that shocks him, the surrounding void retracts right through his perception and back into the center of his core. All around him is the familiar site of his core room, but that is it. His perception stops at the edge of his room like when he had first woken up in it. Though he notes that Ally’s room was included, so that was a thing.

Ally on the other hand is quite worried. The crystal sphere had shrunk down until she could no longer see it, but that didn’t last. There was a sound like a bubble popping but drawn out and then the sphere expanded outwards again. This time though it didn’t stop and it forced her out of the core room. Once the crystal sphere had covered the entire core room, it shrunk one final time. Though with much greater speed and taking the room with it, leaving just a hole in the ground.

For both Ally and Doyle it seems that everything has stopped, but there is one final surprise left. As they relax and start to worry about one another, the final remnant of the power bursts out. Though instead of a sphere it takes the form of a disc, and through it the two can see each other again. With that, a system message appears before both of them.

{Second floor dimensionally anchored

World Energy cap +1500 [Constitution(15) * 100]

Second floor spending limit set to 2200 [Previous floor’s limit(1000) + Intelligence(12) * 100]

Random monster package purchasable for 500we

Monster level cap updated}

Ally flies through the portal without reading the message and looks around. ‘I guess you have to fill in the stone out there. But hey, at least you can improve the walls of your core room without worry.’

Doyle nods as she goes on but she can tell he isn’t paying attention. She sighs, here she was worried about him and he has his nose stuck in a blue screen. Ally lands on his core and sets about reading it with him. After Doyle has had a few more moments to digest what he is reading, he asks the system to ‘[please show me the monster level cap]’.

{Monster Level Cap: 3 [Level(1) + Floors(2) + Path Modifiers(0)]}

Ally notices this and nods, ‘their level cap only goes up when you get a new floor, so that is why you got nothing from leveling up. Also, each floor has an internal level range. As you have nothing modifying it yet, it is easy to figure out. First floor can have monsters from level one to four and the second floor can have level two to five.’

Then she pokes the line about the monster, ‘that will actually affect what possible results you can get for your random monster. Your starting monsters were all things that could be level one. Some creatures are so powerful at maturity that the system starts them at a higher level.’

‘You might have noticed none of your options had any one stat above ten and that is why. Ten is the generic human starting point for stats and because this is a humanocentric dimension that is what the system took as normal. The random monster you will get starts at the second level and so at least one stat will be 11.’

Doyle’s core flashes to get Ally’s attention. ‘Uh, quick question. My goats start with a constitution of 12. What’s up with that?’

Ally pauses then pulls up some screens, ‘I guess that is another thing you got from dreaming of goats. I had taken a snapshot of the monsters you got offered and there goats only had a six. Can’t believe I didn’t notice that. Doesn’t really change much about what I just said though.’

‘Honestly? Your goats are probably just an example of why adventurers shouldn’t blindly trust any published stat sheets. Just like not all humans have straight tens when they become an adult, everything will have some variance. This is best seen in mounts as their strength has been trained so they can carry their owner.’

Doyle nods at this and asks, ‘so does it cost more to spawn higher level monsters?’

She shrugs, ‘sorta? How it works is that spawning a monster at the floors minimum costs the default. So whether it is a level one goat on floor one or a level two goat on floor two it will cost you, what is it now? Four, yeah, it will cost you four world energy. To spawn a higher level monster or raise the level of a pre-existing monster will cost you. In fact, it will hurt you bad.’

‘Each level higher than the starting point costs you the same as it would to summon another. That means even if you wanted a level four assassin vine on your first floor, it isn’t possible. You don’t have 1200 world energy to spend on the first floor after all.’

‘There is a catch to this though. Whatever the difference is between the min and max level for a floor is the number of free levels you can hand out. That means you could have one max level monster on a floor or a few slightly tougher enemies.’

Hearing that Doyle sighs, ‘I really want to make my kobold leader level three as I assume the general level cap is still in effect.’ Ally nods at this.

Doyle tilts back, ‘figured as much. Anyway, I would like to max the leader, but I don’t think I should. Kobolds are awesome, but my goats get the most from levels right now. Five extra compared to two. I guess I will up the three goats in her room with my free points and remove the goat in the vine room to up the last one as well.’

Ally chuckles, ‘yep, the plus three strength they get is worth it. Plus your kobold is supposed to be a leader. Let her lead the goats. A general doesn’t need to be the strongest. They only need to know where best to use those under them.’

Doyle bobbles for a moment, ‘there is more about that message and the two parts annoy me. I didn’t know my intelligence and constitution would affect my floors.’

Ally shrugs, ‘same here. I knew that stats had various things they did, but I thought it was like what wisdom did. An effect that gets better with more points. I guess you live and learn. What are you going to dump those stat points in now that you know this?’

Doyle’s core dims and he hums. ‘You know we haven’t looked at all the stats for me yet? I haven’t even checked half of them yet. The thing is we don’t really have the time to comb through it all. On my side adding the new floor didn’t seem to take much time, but from the entrance I can see it is almost dawn. For now [system, show me the descriptions for intelligence and constitution, please].’

{Intelligence: The power of one’s mind. Your race’s crystalline mind makes great use of intelligence and each point is five times as effective at shrugging off mind affecting abilities. However, on a basic level this increases the speed at which you can think through things and remember stuff. The crystal structure of your mind is particularly good at storing information and so when you put effort into recording something it becomes stored perfectly. This stat also improves how much you can squeeze down the void when gaining a new floor as that comes from the sheer power of the mind.}

{Constitution: A body’s specialty is maintaining itself. While this can represent greater regeneration from damage, there are many paths this can take and your race is known for its focus on structural integrity. Each person can have something different affected by constitution. Some heal faster and others become impossible to poison. While the other two body stats can change the body when high enough your constitution will change you with the first added point. Because of your race’s nature this stat also represents how much world energy you can hold as your body stores the energy instead of some metaphysical space created by the mind or soul.}

‘Well, that explains it then. I guess it would make sense that when I am a literal magic gem my body would determine how much power I have.’ Doyle sighs, ‘So how does mana work with you fleshy sorts?’

Ally chuckles, ‘for me, because my race is soul based the power gets stored in my soul. Humans are an odd lot as there isn’t a specific place for them. It really just depends on what type of energy they use and where they think it is stored. A fighter with qi likely has it stored in his heart or in his soul if his specific variant of human doesn’t have a literal dantian.’

‘Human mages are even more of a tossup. Your classic wizard will have their mana collect in their soul and then lock it into their mind in specific patterns for each spell. Sorcerers store it in their blood by default, though being one of the more chaotic professions don’t take that as gospel. Though speaking of gospel there is one more example.’

‘For humans, the most stable storage place is those who worship a higher power and get abilities from said patron. In those cases it gets stored in the soul, period. In fact, with a great enough energy sense, you can spot those types easily. The greater power is able to give them spells and abilities because they have a conduit hooked up to their soul that you can detect. This conduit allows the believer to directly channel their faith to the being without any loss and the being to give them power in return.’

‘Though speaking of greater powers are you going to buy that random monster?’ Ally tilts her head and looks at Doyle expectantly.