Making potions is like baking, my dearies. You don’t need a skill for it – although having one helps! All you need are some good ingredients the more potent the better. Locally sourced is the best, I wouldn’t trust any of the artificial “reagents” those hotty totty alchemists distribute.

No you need to find places of power, mana wells!

Take that power for yourselves, my sisters. Take it and listen to no one but yourself from now on. Take it and be free.

Excerpt taken from some notes written while listening to one of the most well-known covens “The Circle” at one of its periodic indoctrination programs.

Okay, So I’m not quite sure what the best way to use this material is.

First, how about I try swapping it for liquid metal?

Making a crystal snake in his pillar room and replacing its innards with liquid crystal he gave it life and watched, hoping it would show him something new.

The new snake was…less effective at moving around. Less effective at everything really. Liquid metal let them smoothly glide forwards in an "S shape" but liquid crystal while stronger from the side prevented it from bending enough to glide.

The monster could still move – it slowly inched along squishing inwards slightly and then pushing outwards before squishing inwards again in a sad sort of slow process – but it was effectively a failure.

Waiting for his mana pool to regenerate he tried again. This time he used liquid metal…and dropped a few drops of liquid crystal into it making a slightly stronger but also slightly erratically stiffer snake – bits of its body would sharpen into jagged corners as it moved instead of smoothly gliding and even though its body was probably stronger, the end result was still slightly worse than his original design.

Trying one last time he first made a coned head and tried making a Crystal mana core instead of a “Pure” one for the first time. Making a bit of the liquid crystal he brought it near the core hoping it wouldn’t be suppressed.

There actually was a slight decrease in the flow of the liquid crystal, but it worked somehow.

Maybe because it was close enough and the fact that the Crystal mana couldn’t be separated from the water? Note to experiment more in the future.

Making the crystal scales and applying them he noticed the Silicon + Pure mana skin he was using to keep them together wasn’t disabled as well as when he wrapped the half-snake in it.

Let’s see. I’ll make the rings using Crystal mana as well, it's easier now and I don’t really care about keeping them earth…and with that and the last few scales to seal up the holes…

Finally done he tried to give life to his first (mostly) 100% crystal gole-snek.

This result was actually better than the version that just used the liquid crystal.

A slightly stiff slither before the whole snake started to rhythmically slide across the ground. Staring at the snake's body in that focused way that laid mana bare he saw the whole snake was constantly controlling its body. Twisting the unruly liquid crystal in on itself and flipping the polarity of it every few seconds to stiffen or loosen the liquid aiding its movement.

In terms of an upgrade, he could tell it was stronger than his original crystal snake version…the movement was less fluid and slightly slower, but it made up for it in having a much less squishy body.

That being said the result was not as massive an increase in strength as he had been hoping.

The amount of effort – both in time and mana – was higher. The liquid crystal taking more time to setup than the liquid metal. While the snake was slightly more durable for its size, it was essentially the same as his previous snakes if slightly slower. It wouldn't be able to strike as fast and he wasn't yet sure if it having to control its body movement so much would have any other negative repercussions.

He could tell this liquid could do more. But he had also learned his lesson from just “including something for the sake of including it”. The living crystal shoved in the flying crystal and the snake hadn’t given any obvious benefits.

He had to be smarter about this than just “including it for the sake of including it” He was sure he could do more with the liquid crystal material but for now he wanted to take a look at the almost failed product that was the flying crystal.

No. Not failed. I just have to iterate on it a bit. My snakes use everything I learned from my worms and I made countless worms before I got happy with how they were…seems weird that I was ever happy with those they look so weak now.

First off, the spikes were a failure. They were too brittle and broke off when smashed against anything.

Either I have to scale everything up and thicken them or I have to make them disposable.

Can I have them regrow if I make a sack of healing liquid in them? That might start costing a lot because I’m pretty sure they won’t be able to refill their stock and I don’t have a lot of water to spare.

I could just make the whole thing much bigger? That would work but I don’t like the concept of taking more than a single mana pool to make a single monster – it will make iterating any mistakes difficult…I can ask for advice I guess but I kind of want to figure it out myself.

I’ll think about it while being productive, I guess.

Restarting his constant expansion so no mana was wasted when he reached his pool cap, he opened the public chat to see if anything was happening…

Dungeon's R US: BUY MY STUFF!!!!!!!

– Nope.

It's just spam... honestly what’s up with them, why can’t they have a civilized conversation, this is ruining the chat.

I wish I could choose who's allowed to talk in the chat or block half of them or something.

Sending a quick message to all the cores he had been in contact with…well Amy and Bose at least. He didn’t feel like “ZeMadDoctor” would approve of an “I’m bored what’s up” message. Amy took a while to respond but – nearly a second after his message was sent off – he got a response from Bose.

Bringer Of Serene Eternity: Hello! I’m pleasant. Actually, I’ve finally figured out the secret.

Innearth: And what’s the secret?

Bringer Of Serene Eternity: Masks!

Seeming to want to be prodded Bose didn’t elaborate until he has interacted a bit more with him.

Innearth: Okay, how are masks the secret?

Bringer Of Serene Eternity: I’m glad you asked! You see so far, my spirits…are wonderful. Amazing really. The problem is there is nothing exciting to look at. Like sure you can see the swirling air and all that but it's not nearly as impressive.

Bringer Of Serene Eternity: So much work was put into them after all, but they look no different than the first I made. You can’t even tell they have cores stored in the wall! I’m obviously not going to point those out to adventurers, but I still want to show the…absolutely awesomeness of these.

Bringer Of Serene Eternity: My solution is masks. Each spirit now has a fearsome visage as they carry around an embodiment of their true power. A face you know? A few eyes a few mouths and shove a bunch of Mental mana on the whole thing to make them recognized for what they are. Pieces of my soul. Flecks of Serenity.

Innearth: So, these masks…what…are just decorations?

Bringer Of Serene Eternity: What’s with that tone. Decorations are essential for a Dungeon Core.

Bringer Of Serene Eternity: The ambiance. It's important. People come to you for an experience.

Innearth: Yeah, they come to you for experience alright. Bet it gives them lots of XP

Bringer Of Serene Eternity: Are you being purposefully obtuse? No, your dungeon needs decorations so it's not just a dingy hole in the ground.

Innearth: I was just joking with you lol. I started decorating my core room a bit but haven’t really come up with a theme. Feels like something to worry about once I reach the surface to be honest.

Amy: Hey you needed something?

Innearth: Hey Amy no I’m just trying to clear my mind in the hopes something will come to me. I think I want to send you a rematch sometime but with a different monster. I think you should send me one too it could be fun!

Amy: Uh. I guess... I mean I don’t really see the point, but I guess I can send you one. Keep in mind it will literally be a fish out of water. If you want it to be fair you should make a small pool of water for it. Otherwise, this would really just be pointless.

Innearth: It doesn’t have to be now :/ I actually don’t have a lot of water. Like nearly none.

Amy: That’s a shame…I’d send you some of mine but that’s honestly a bad trade for you. I should probably tell you raw material trading is…kinda unsafe right? Like don’t buy a lot of stuff and fill your whole inventory you could get completely stuck.

Innearth: Yeah, I read about that I can be pretty careful. Think anyone would trade for Silicon? I have a lot of Silicon.

Amy: Hah. Everyone has lots of Silicon. I haven’t heard of a core without access to it yet. You have anything else?

Innearth: Idk everything in basalt, I guess.

Amy: Sorry you are going have to be clearer than that. See I have a bunch of sandstone, tiny bit of clay and some water…found a lump of some fossilized thing once that was pretty good.

Amy: Currently I’m running out of metals :/ I have some Iron and a tiny bit of aluminum but that’s it.

Innearth: In that case I can give you a bunch more aluminum? How about 1000kg

Amy: …that’s a very helpful amount… actually an insane amount. I don’t want to make a trade that has an uneven amount of resources so I can give you 1000 litres of water? It should be enough to make an okay-sized pool and will definitely give the monster id send over a fighting chance. I feel like this trade is super uneven I’m getting so much metal for just some water.

Innearth: Nah I like using iron more, so aluminum is less important… and it's started stacking up in my inventory.

A trade request appeared as he was mentioning that. A request with aluminum on his side and water on hers…Accepting the offer, he felt a faint twinge inside him as his inventory was shifted around by a huge amount…. more than he had pulled out or put in at once handled by the system in an unknown manner. This whole time he had kept Bose’s tab open as the eccentric Core continued to rant about how he should make skulls out of metal and embed them in his walls...or make murals showing adventurers gaining vast wealth or dying tragic deaths for maximum ambiance. He also didn’t seem to care that Innearth wasn’t responding much. The fact that Innearth had the chat open indicating he was listening was enough for Bose.

Checking his materials tab, he saw it had been successfully transferred.

Okay. I guess I need a place to put this somewhere before we can finish the trade.

Searching around he decided the room right before his crystal pillar room was as good as any to fill. Stopping the expansion at the edge of his territory he focused on digging a large pool in the center of his room.

I don’t want to use all this water on just a pool so I’ll keep 100kg of it for experimentation.

Finishing the hole, he pulled the water out of his inventory as fast as he could, a trickle breaking into a stream in the middle of the air as the pool slowly filled.

Annand that’s full, I think.

As the pool filled quickly, he noticed the ambient mana in the room drop slightly.

Watching carefully, he noticed some of the environmental mana was pulled into the raw water as he dropped it turning into a faint amount of Water mana in the water.

I guess I’ve never pulled enough raw material out of my inventory to notice but that’s how it's formed. I don’t know if this is useful or not but it's information for later, I guess.

Innearth: Hey Bose you want in on this?

Bringer Of Serene Eternity: Bose? Who’s that.

Oops – even though he had split his attention several ways the part focusing on Bose’s chat was still slightly distracted, I guess I can’t separate my split minds currently. Ahh what do I say he doesn't know my nickname for him.

Innearth: Sorry ignore that… it was meant for someone else. I’m currently setting up a sort of testing trade with Amy where we send a monster to the other and record how they fared. Do you want to do the same?

Bringer Of Serene Eternity: Oh Amy? I haven’t heard from her since that fateful day.

Innearth: Yeah, I met up with her recently - so what do you think?

Bringer Of Serene Eternity: I would, but greatness comes with a price you’ll understand.

Innearth: You…want to be paid?

Bringer Of Serene Eternity: Nono nothing so vulgar. We are friends after all. No, my current minions of the Eternal are bound somewhat to my fabled halls. I have to make a new one and send you the cask and ask that you treat it very carefully.

Innearth didn’t realize Bose considered them friends. He had been leaning towards acquaintances but didn’t want to break his view of him.

I guess we have talked more recently since I ranked up…so friends it is.

Innearth: Oh of course take your time… I can try and fix a monster before sending it to you anyways.

Bringer Of Serene Eternity: I look forward to it!

Innearth: Hey Amy you ready? I set up a pool for your monster.

Amy: Sure, just give me a moment I’m trying to pick. I love them all you understand I think I may have to make a new one for you.

Setting up a trade he selected the newest crystal snake with Liquid Crystal insides.

For Amy’s side, he left it blank and indicated he wanted her to fill out the other side with the “counteroffer required” option before sending it off.

Strangely excited to see what Amy would send he realized his mana was full again and started spawning replacement crystal snakes. The idea of spawning them just to fill a room had made him procrastinate the process previously…but the goal of spawning them to test Amy’s monster pushed it to top priority.

A half-hour or so later as he was making his second snake Amy finally sent the counteroffer with some sort of monster called a “Skreecums”…Someone should help Amy with names they don’t seem to be her strong suit.

Selecting the pool he dropped her monster into the water – a mess of spongy barbed tentacles falling to the pool.

The other Core's monster was massive. While a single one of his snakes was roughly a meter long her monster had a center sack of transparent film roughly half that in diameter with exactly 20 tentacles easily reaching 3 meters away from it – able to touch every corner of the room if it so desired.

Inside the center sack, there were several mysterious organs – 5 small spheres were connected to the outside tentacles each taking 4 and the whole inside was filled with tubes that wrapped around each other and the innards like a pile of ropes. Using mana sight each of the tentacle spheres shone nearly as bright as the core in the center.

Are those smaller cores? Did she use multiple cores in a single monster? I think I wanna try that.

At the very center was a single pure core peeking through some of the ropes bigger than any Innearth had tried to make before.

…What.

Is this a challenge? How long did she spend making this thing? And didn’t she mention her Reelers were basically octopi…Are all of Amy’s monsters’ octopi shaped? Or just these two…

Either way, it felt like she had sent him a boss monster when he sent her a regular monster…

Ignoring the huge many armed monstrosity as it slowly moved its arms around he continued to spawn snakes.

I think I figured out what I want from my flying crystals.

This monster looks like it will grab anything that comes close to it and pull it into the water. I need something that can attack from a distance and hopefully dodge any attacks that come its way. Being in the air helps it stay out of reach and hopefully get to good places to attack from.

Stopping his spawning of snakes after he had made 4 he started to make changes to his flying crystals.

Making the flying frame the same as last time he added a tube running through the center of it. Pulling the longest and thinnest living crystal he could see off the patch he placed it beside the tube and dug a hole into the side.

Trying to think of the best way to break pieces off of the living crystal he settled for two metal spikes on either side of it bound to directionless Kinetic mana so they vibrated constantly. The hope was that smashing them inwards repeatedly would break off shards of the top of the living crystal and then it could regrow into its full length again.

Next, using a concept he hadn’t touched in a while he filled the end of the tube with a donut-shaped sandwich of Fire mana, liquid metal and Earth mana metal.

It's much much smaller than the legs on the jumper... but it doesn't need to push the whole monster through the air. Just hopefully throw one of these spikes hard enough that they can hit that octopus without letting the flying crystal get within grabbing range.

Hopefully, the Earth mana cap will be less likely to shatter than a crystal one.

Adding a core and filling in the body he prodded it to shoot something.

A crack sounded out as the spike cannon was loaded and then a few seconds later a crystal shot out at high speed. Moving in an arced path, the crystal spun several times end over end before shattering against the wall.

Ordering it to attack again downwards the flying crystal flew around impatiently as it waited for its ammo to regrow before leaning forwards and dropping the spike – this version twisting in the air and landing facing upwards.

How do I get it to land spike first?

Trying again he made a second flying crystal with a blowgun this time making a much longer tube.

Hoping this would work how he was imagining it he gave it life and told it to repeat the attacks the other version had done.

Two crystals flew out each mostly doing what he wanted – the one shot at the wall started to turn last minute – but for the most part, it had worked.

They just don’t have as far a range as I hoped.

Is there any way to get them to control these spikes and keep them facing forwards? It looks like Amy’s monster has multiple cores. I can’t just use a Crystal core and hope it will be able to control them better because it will probably disable the Kinetic mana enough to prevent it from flying.

How about I make a version that doesn’t need to fly? Why am I stuck on it flying I have liquid crystal now!

Making a Crystal core and spike cannon he positioned them how he was imagining and then surrounded them in a large sack of liquid crystal reaching all the way to the end of the cannon.

Next making several sheets of pure crystals, he laid armour over his landbound mobile cannon giving it the shape of a turtle.

Giving life to it he asked it to fire and watched as the core pulsed before sending a shard flying out of its blowhole striking the far wall true.

Tweaking the direction of the cannon on the flying crystals to face straight downwards and adding a bunch of stretchy pure mana around the opening as a way to hold each shard in place, he worked on setting them up as bombers.

Spending the next few hours he expanded his army of both crystal bombers and turtle tanks before he was finally ready to attack.

That octopus won’t know what’s hit it.