By the time the Fool returned to Thameland, the encampment was in a flurry of new activity.

At long last, the surveyors had finally mapped Greymoor. With the edges of the university’s land completely explored, dangerous wild monsters and remaining Ravener-spawn driven from hill and bog, Generasi had mastered the entirety of its domain. The comprehensive mapping had allowed for a standardised map to be produced showing where ore deposits, strategic sites for outposts and natural resource locations were found.

Each member of the expedition team now had their own detailed map to consult as they began new duties. Since there was no longer a need for survey work, some of the surveyors—a number of the most combat-experienced members of the expedition team—had been assigned to land and air patrols for now.

Their duties were also diverse with Grimloch, Theresa, Brutus and Thundar joining Khalik in a new venture: resource gathering.

“We have several areas our cartographers found to be fit for constructing permanent structures,” Professor Jules said, pointing at different spots on a new illusionary map during an early morning briefing. Various expedition members stood before her as she floated in front of the administration tent.

She tapped the map’s symbol for the encampment.

“So, after much discussion with our cartographers and earth wizards, we’ve decided that this area will be the best site for our research castle. We’ll also be building our watchtowers, outposts and way-stations, here, here, here—”

She tapped other areas of the map.

“—here and here…which means, we’ll need good, solid stone for our objectives. Fortunately, Greymoor provides.” Jules pointed to areas on the map with several symbols depicting pickaxes crossed with shovels. “Stone will have to be quarried from those locations using earth magic, then transported here. We’ll need earth magic users, as well as those who can protect them should trouble arise. Any volunteers?”

Prince Khalik waved his hand, an ironic smile on his face as Professor Jules chose him and several other earth wizards for the quarrying work. “To think, I will be taking on the modest duties of an average miner. My father would have a stroke if he knew,” he said quietly.

“I don’t think ‘earth wizard’ counts as an ‘average miner,’ Khalik,” Isolde whispered pointedly.

“Imagine that!” he said dryly, as though what she’d said was the most astonishing revelation ever. “I never thought of that. Do you mean all miners cannot call upon the building blocks of the universe to bend it to their will?”

She rolled her eyes as Khalik laughed.

The meeting was concluded soon after, and parties of earth wizards trekked to their assigned areas: accompanied—as a precaution—by golems, their handlers, blood mages, battle mages, or warriors.

It was shaping up to look like a busy day ahead for everyone.

As for Alex and Isolde, they, along with other alchemy students and faculty members, were tasked with the ongoing analysis of dungeon core remains. The main research tent was buzzing with activity: magical machinery hummed like giant beehives, chugging mana from high-end power units charged in Generasi’s ambient mana every morning.

The machinery was as diverse as it was complex.

Machines to test a substance’s mana conductivity and composition were in use; the university already had data from experiments on the original dungeon core samples that Alex, Jules and Baelin had conducted, but—

“—it always pays to replicate past results on new samples,” The alchemy professor said, as she ran dungeon core remains through a powerful mana spectrometer. “It’s the only way to know if this substance’s known properties are generalizable across different dungeon cores, or if they were unique to the sample we already tested. Let’s hope that our previous findings are consistent with these new samples, otherwise, we might have a lot of disappointment and trouble ahead of us.”

Luckily, there was no such disappointment. They were getting positive results that matched their previous findings: coming a step closer to generating a data sheet of properties generalizable across all dungeon core samples.

While the researchers continued running tests to confirm previous findings, Jules okayed the next stage of experiments: stress tests.

New machines were fired up.

Mage-furnaces to test melting, heat conductivity, and evaporation points. Force Chambers to test the density, malleability, brittleness and other physical properties of the dungeon core remains. While the substance’s mana conductivity was known, Lightning Tubes were used to test the ability to conduct electricity. Polar Vortex Globes examined how its properties changed at falling temperatures.

It would take time to confirm all properties, but the preliminary data was piling up. Already, the research team’s excitement was rising to a fever pitch.

“This…I can’t believe that this land was just…sitting on this gold mine!” one of the researchers said, pulling her bloodshot eyes away from a picoscope. “It’s absolutely incredible. Durable, near-impossible levels of mana conductivity, yet it also acts as a minor insulator against electricity. The mediocre tolerance for cold and tolerance for heat…rises exponentially when mana’s run through it! This is…this is incredible.”

“Indeed,” Professor Jules said.

Crackle!

Lightning blazed inside a lightning tube, reflecting off the goggles in the Professor’s mask. Her white hair—caught up in a tight bun—seemed to flash in time with the lightning. “If the results prove replicable, then we can state that we are on the cusp of a new age, my young friends. Mark this moment: we might be some of those great pioneers whose names will be found in future textbooks and be etched onto plaques. …just, keep your focus on the task.” She turned and stared over her shoulder at the other researchers. “I don’t want any ugly behaviour from any of you.”

Alex and Isolde looked at each other.

“Ugly behaviour?” Alex whispered.

The tall, dark-haired young woman shrugged.

They didn’t find out what Professor Jules meant until the next day.

It had been the end of a long shift—conducting physical stress tests on the substance—and everyone was exhausted. Alex had to stifle a series of yawns as he stripped off his safety equipment and prepared to tackle Ito’s Spiral once again. From somewhere within the group he felt mana shift.

Someone had briefly reached out to another plane.

Glancing around, he saw another student send some of their gear to the laundry tent using Call through Fire.

‘Not a bad idea,’ he thought, focusing through the Mark’s interference and casting Call through Ice to do the same.

Around him, more magic reached out to other planes as members of the research team teleported their gear to the laundry. But, his thoughts were already turning to Ito’s Spiral, which he planned on tackling as soon as he grabbed a quick bite to eat. He’d managed to break his mana into four tiny streams, and was on the cusp of breaking it into a fifth.

Learning summoning spells was still going well, and Operation Grand Summoning Ascension was well on its way.

So far, he’d learned Summon Viper-Devil, Summon Small Ice Elemental, Summon Taranea, Summon Hellhound, and had moved on to learning summoning spells for the other types of small elementals before he switched to more blood magic spells.

Cleanse Flesh was next in line, and really high on his priority list. After facing blood-draks, he now understood how important having a defence against diseases and poisons was against monsters.

There were enough things filled with poisons and diseases out there, and while force armour should protect him from the venom of stinging or biting creatures, things could get lethal if he was sprayed or submerged in something noxious.

Or if poisonous teeth or claws broke through his defensive spells.

Having a way to clear his body of toxins was critical since he wouldn’t always have a blood mage right there to heal him.

Cleanse Flesh was also the foundation for the more challenging Warp Flesh, a spell he’d be able to do a lot with, like capturing enemies alive: the perfect ‘nonviolent’ counter that wouldn’t trigger the Mark.

There was also an idea floating around in his head from using Ito’s Spiral, and if he could combine Warp Flesh with the Mark’s support, he might be able to do something really crazy.

His thoughts were filled with all sorts of plans; he was chuckling to himself like a madman, drawing knowing looks from the most of the team. By now, they’d begun to get used to his…eccentricities.

“Alex,” Isolde sighed. “Can you not have some decor—”

And that’s when a blaring alarm sounded.

Every head turned to the entrance of the main research tent. A student was frozen in place—like he’d been struck by ice magic—on his way out of the tent. The young man went as pale as a sheet, his eyes wide with terror.

“You!” Professor Jules’ voice struck out like a knife. “Stefan, you stop right there!” The blaring abruptly ended.

Several Watchers of Roal advanced on the tent, their hands gripping their swords and staffs as they glared at the terrified young man.

“I—What’s all this?” he stammered.

“I’ve known you for three years,” Jules said. “You’re many things but stupid isn’t one of them…or at least it wasn’t one of them. You know exactly what “all this” is, so don’t play innocent with me.” She held out a gloved hand. “Give me the substance.”

Stefan’s eyes went even wider. “I—wha—I don’t know what you mea—”

“Stefan,” she said, her voice taking on a note of doom. “There was a ward placed around this entire tent the moment those dungeon core samples were brought in. As you, and everyone else just heard, it sets off a warning the instant an unauthorised attempt to remove samples from this tent is detected. And if you try to run—”

The young man began to shake, his body language had been shifting, like he’d been tensing to make a break for it.

“—a wall of force will spring up around the tent before you get five paces away. You are not taking any of that substance with you.” Her voice was a threat.

“But—”

“The ward detects the substance even if one tries to hide it on the astral, or any other plane. So stop wasting my time. I’ve been at magic a lot longer than you.”

He bit his lip as the Watchers circled him, his face puffy and eyes red rimmed, like he was on the verge of tears. He finally reached into a pocket. Alex’s eyebrows rose. There was a feeling of mana touching another plane as the young wizard drew a tiny vial from his shirt.

Professor Jules took it, shaking her head. “I had hoped this wouldn’t happen. But, why would you do this?”

Stefan swallowed. “I…lost my job. Making fourth year tuition was going to be a struggle and I saw how valuable this substance was—”

“Lost your job? When was this?”

“Uh…last week.”

Alex could see all the signs of a lie in his body language: the discomfort, the shifting weight, the hesitation. He was about to say something.

But there was no need.

“Don’t lie to me.” Professor Jules studied him icily. “You’re not doing yourself any favours. I know you’re employed by Jeckl’s Alchemy, and have been since your second year at Generasi. Master Jeckl and I met for supper just three days ago where he raved about how competent you were in your work, and how you’d soon be receiving a promotion. Your false sob stories won’t save you; I wouldn’t be at all surprised if your attempt at theft was due to simple naked greed.”

The student’s mouth opened and closed, his shoulders slumping in resignation.

“You’ll be taken back to the university and I will accompany you to immediately file a formal complaint with the disciplinary board against you. You’re off the expedition. Hope—however futile that hope might be—that you won’t be expelled.”

In tears, Stefan was escorted from the tent by two intimidating Watchers and Jules turned back to the researchers in the tent. “Ugly behaviour is met with ugly results. If any of you want this substance—”

She held up the small vial.

“—then you will have to hunt for it yourselves. At a later time, there will be negotiations for sharing spoils. For now—in this early stage—dungeon cores, samples and other spoils obtained by the expedition belong to the university of Generasi, and attempting to remove any into your own possession is theft. If you want a share of this substance, then wait until a much later time when some can be shared. If you wish to acquire some earlier, then I’m sure the Thameish will fully applaud your efforts to destroy more dungeons. But, that will be undertaken at your own risk.”

She pointed to the vial. “However, theft will be met by the full wrath of the disciplinary committee followed by possible legal actions by the city. In return for riches you will not receive, you might well be rewarded with the end of your academic career, and possibly your freedom. The end. Of everything.”

She gestured around with the vial like it was a weapon.

“And now here we are, inconvenienced. We have applicants on a waitlist for this expedition—Stefan has squandered an opportunity, and will be replaced—but, that means one of you will have to train the new recruit in our research practices in order to get them up to speed on what we’ve been doing, so they can meet expectations.” She hesitated for a moment as if thinking about something, then continued. “Ugly behaviour results in ugliness for us all.”

She stormed away while the researchers looked at each other.

Alex briefly imagined what could have happened had he thought to slip a little dungeon core substance into a pocket to build his staff with. In the bards’ tales of scheming wizards’ apprentices: they often stole from their masters then met doom in some gruesome manner.

He was glad he hadn’t followed those apprentices.

“It looks like we’ll be getting a new researcher,” Isolde said. “I hope it’s someone actually trustworthy. Such….low behaviours will only serve to harm both our research, and the service we provide to your land.”

“Yeah,” Alex said. “I hope it’s someone that actually has some dedication to what we’re trying to do here.”

“My application’s been accepted!” Carey London smiled, her eyes twinkling in delight, as a stunned Alex stared, while grimacing internally as she emerged from the teleportation circle. “I’ll be helping the expedition’s alchemical research team! We can work together again, eh, lab partner?”