“So you’re sure you can’t see it in the DNA?”

“I’m positive. Its something magical. Is there maybe some kind of, I don’t know, enchantment for making things grow faster?”

“An enchantment to make things grow faster… No, there would have to be a hidden system of mana conductive material inside of them. Maybe these insects and mushrooms simply grow quickly?”

“I would be able to tell if that was the case… Mana conductive material, huh? What about dungeon roots? The tendrils that extend out of the dungeoncore?”

“Those are mana conductive, but its not like they’re connected to the mushrooms or centipedes.”

“I noticed something while inspecting the feral Kobolds. I was looking at each of their individual organs, trying to find something I didn’t recognize, and I think I found one. A magic organ. Its like a vein system… or I guess, on Earth, we would’ve called it a system of meridians. In fiction, I mean. Because its not real— not real on earth. Both our Kobolds and the Feral Kobolds have it. Not only that… but the mushrooms have one. So do the insects.” Mark paused. “There are three different versions… All of our Kobolds, including Silver, Mala and Axel show one version of the meridian system.”

“The best version, of course. Because its mine.”

“Well… Our Kobold’s seem to have damn near the same meridian system as the fungus and insects.”

“What? The same as a plant?””

“The Feral Kobolds have a unique system. And so did Simon.”

“My prevailing theory is that the meridian system is an artifact of a dungeon changing a creature. A signature, sort of. I bet it also functions as an antennae in our domain, allowing us to communicate. But I don’t have an understanding of the magical system of this world, yet.”

“Theres a simple way to figure it out. What makes them different?” Alverost pulled open the creation pane of the last egg Mark was working on. It took a good chunk of searching to find it, but he did eventually, interwoven between the sinew and flesh, below the skin and so wire thin it was near invisible. Now that he was specifically looking for it, he could see it in all of the Kobolds— in Axel, and Silver. A tight mesh of mana conductive organs weaved in and out of their flesh, pulling the mana from the air and cycling it through their bodies. Alverost compared it to the meridians of their only fully grown centipede.

It was nearly pulsing with dark mana, thick enough to almost be visible through the monsters exoskeleton, if it wasn’t the same color as it.

“The meridians of the faster growing creatures are more developed. More entangled. I would guess that this not only allows them to grow by processing mana, but perhaps makes them overtly reliant on it. I’ve heard that the most powerful dungeon monsters are unable to live long beyond their domain. Still, we can try it.”

Mark watched as Alverost worked over one of the eggs— an orangeish brown one flooding with mana as Alverost changed it. Mark could see the changes— the expansion of am embryonic mana body, tiny little meridians stretching into every programmed muscle and fiber, and then a shuttering flood of dark mana that stained the egg pitch black.

“There. Fixed.”

“You know, we should probably only change one variable at a time… for control…”

“We are already in control. Report back to me on how the new Kobold progresses. I think I’ll name him… Splotch.”

“What? You can’t name him Splotch. We already had a Splotch!”

“Had. Past tense. Reusing minion names means we have to remember less of them. I still wish we would have went for numbers, though. We could call him 4.”

“I… no. I guess Splotch is alright.” Mark mentally sighed.

“Regardless, Axel should be done sorting by now. I need you to identify what exactly what we found.”

“In the new meeting hall area?”

Mark and Alverost shifted their perspective to a room under construction. The walls were yet to be fully raised, but a table still rose in the center. Most of their construction efforts had been focused on the castle above— doubling the height of the walls, for starters. However, they had spared some to build a table within the courtyard, outside of the staircase. Across the table were several itemized objects, loot drops from both their own and the feral Kobolds separated into sections.

“What all do we have?” Alverost asked. Axel and Silver looked up at the air, before moving beside the table.

Laid out before them were three piles of coins in different colors.

“9 Golden Coins. 41 Silver coins. 161 copper coins.” Axel recounted.

“That will be enough to create the contact sigil. Though it will be a pain to hammer the silver into shape. And the rest?”

“Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…” Mark stuttered aloud, seeing the next item on the table.

“Do you recognize them? They are a mix of strange metals, and I don’t understand their purpose. Axel, see if you can bend their shape. Hammer them for me.” Axel pulled a piece of small, pointed metal from the table, holding the point downward. He raised his sword from the sheathe as his side, preparing to use the blunt bottom to smack down into the circular metal at the back of it—”

“Wait wait wait! Don’t do that!” Mark interrupted.

Axel looked up impatiently.

“Yeah I recognize it. Those are bullets. They’re uh… kinda like arrows. For guns. That circle at the back is explosive if you hit it hard enough.”

Axel dropped the bullet on the table, re-sheathing his weapon. Him and Silver both stared at the pile of 9mm bullets warily.

“Okay… 45 bullets then. Should we… contain those?”

“No, no, they’re not that explosive… the explosion is mostly for acceleration, like you put it into a barrel and the acceleration makes it travel down the tube extremely quickly. You would need… a… gun… to do any real damage with them…” Mark said, staring at the next item on the table. A dagger.

“A combat dagger. I used to carry one just like this. How nostalgic. If Valleria comes back alive, we can give this one to her.”

“So weapons can drop from our Kobolds?” Mark asked.

“Yes, any weapons we have an understanding of.”

“And things like… arrows?”

“Arrows, ballistae bolts, bolas… yes. Ammunition or throw-able weapons are common from dungeons.”

“Oh god… We’re totally going to end up introducing your empire to gunpowder…”

“A gun is like an explosive… bow? What is gun powder? Explosive powder? We already have magic that can do that. Our explosions are probably bigger. And, historically, we’ve already seen the use of explosive ‘barrels’ from peasant revolts. Its nothing too impressive, Mark.”

Mark thought that Alverost didn’t realize the magnitude of what he was talking about. It seemed like magic on this world was rather light, not enabling the kind of monsters who blocked bullets with their bare hands or erected magical fortresses around cities, but he would have to wait and see.

“Next is the important part… the drops from the Feral Kobolds. The drops are based on what the dungeon knows and understands, which means these can reveal valuable information about our enemies knowledge and perspective…” Alverost said.

Mark stared at what was at the end of the table.