“Mister Aldin! Pay attention please!”

Aurion’s voice startled Aldin out of his reverie as the man rapped his wand loudly against the podium.

Aldin flinched and jerked himself up out of the slump he’d slowly been sliding into over the past half-hour of Aurion’s lecture. That wand wasn’t just for wielding like a gavel, or for writing on the board: more than one student had been on the receiving end of an Itching Powder spell for falling asleep in class, and Aldin had no desire to experience it.

“Sorry sir,” Aldin said.

In the seat next to his, Aldin’s friend Ravindra snickered.

“Serves you right, daydreaming like that,” the elf girl murmured in a whisper that Aldin knew was meant only for his enhanced hearing. “You know how he is.”

“Do you have something to add, Miss Fenthal?,” Aurion asked, turning his gaze on Ravs. “Perhaps you would like to answer my question?”

“Sure thing,” the girl replied easily. She pushed a lock of her silver-white hair behind a tilted ear.

Aldin wracked his brain trying to recall what Aurion had asked the class just as his attention had started to wander.

That’s right, something about the differences between kinds of mana.

Beside him, Ravs sat up and launched into her explanation.

“Not all mana is the same,” she said “Broadly speaking, we divide mana into two major categories: pure mana, and aspected mana. Pure mana is, as the word implies, untainted by outside influences, elemental or otherwise. It is what usually fuels our spells and enchantments, is produced by the presence of living things, and is what permeates most of the wider world.”

She took a breath and continued.

“While it too is produced by living things, aspected mana tends to only be good for specific things related to it’s nature. It has both an impeding and an enhancing effect on spells and the surrounding environment, and even living things. You could not, for instance, cast a fireball using water mana; your spell would fail no matter how good you were.”

“Likewise, a fireball spell cast from pure mana would be weakened in the a water-dense region, and fire-element monsters would be as well. At the same time, Ice spells would function with increased efficiency.”

“Very good,” Aurion said with a nod. “Now, can anyone tell me why this is actually important for us? How does it relate to the growth of a Dungeon?”

Aldin raised his hand. This question, at least, he knew the answer to. He was the son of a mana-touched, after all, and had inherited some of his mother’s traits.

Aurion rolled his eyes. “Ready to join us after all, Mister Aldin? Very well, go ahead.”

“Creatures with a strong tie to aspected mana generally have a varying degree of difficulty using mana not of their aspect,” Aldin said with confidence. “In some rare cases, like for a Dungeon Core or an elemental, it is an outright impossibility. I’m not sure how it relates to a Dungeon’s growth, but I do know that they always have an aspect, thanks to how they are formed.”

“That is correct,” Aurion confirmed. “A core always inherits an aspect, either because its creator supplies it one, or because it absorbs whatever aspected mana happens to be nearby when it awakens. Whatever aspect that turns out to be, that aspect then begins to saturate the area around the Core. Now, it is common knowledge amongst adventurers, and even ordinary folk, that any given Dungeon begins to exude it’s own aspected form of mana,” he said. “What is not common knowledge is why. Does anyone know the answer?”

Aurion paused for a moment, waiting.

“No one? Very well. The answer is rather complex, and lies in the fact that Dungeons, while they use aspected mana, they absorb all other forms that are not of their aspect. A Dungeon Core functions like a the heart of a vast, malevolent mana conversion device. It draws in all forms of mana that isn’t its own, feeds off part of it, and then converts the rest into its own aspect."

“Most of that aspected mana is then stored within the core itself,” Aurion explained, “but the process isn’t perfect. A fair bit gets ejected back out into the surrounding space, where it simply accumulates because the Core is unable to absorb it. It is a debate among scholars as to whether this is deliberate on the part of the Dungeon or not, as a means to slowly terraform the surrounding area. Others disagree, pointing out that Dungeons already carve out rooms and create entire ecosystems within themselves. Whatever the case, it is a fact that non-dungeon aspect mana goes in, and aspected mana comes out.”

Aldin saw the kid with blue scale-patches raise a hand. Aldin never could remember his name.

“Yes, Mister Veran?” Aurion stopped pacing and gestured to him.

“I’m confused,” the younger boy said. “Dungeon monsters are made out of mana the Core spends, right? If the Core can’t absorb its own type of mana, what happens when they die? My dad always said remaking old monsters was cheaper then making new ones.”

“An excellent question, Mister Veran,” Aurion said. “I’m actually quite surprised you don’t know the answer, given your heritage, but it is a good question nonetheless."

“What Mister Veran here is referring to is the phenomena which adventurers like us term ‘despawning’, and scholars prefer to call ‘Mana Dispersement’. Regardless of term, the process is actually the same whether it is applied to slain adventurers or creatures born of the dungeon. The difference is that dungeon-born are made of mana so they disintegrate, whereas the process takes much longer to break down flesh and blood creatures.”

Aurion began to pace again. “The answer to your question, Mister Veran, lies in the fact that while a dungeon’s minions are made of its aspected mana, like other living things they have mana pools formed of purified mana just like everyone else. This means that their bodies are always involved in the process of actively purifying the mana inside them. The bigger and stronger the monster, the greater the mana pool, and thus the greater amount of purified mana within its makeup."

“This leads to several results. Would anyone care to take a guess what?”

Aldin raised his hand again.

Might as well make up for earlier and guess, he thought.

Aurion nodded for him to proceed.

“Well first, it answers... Velan’s... question,” Aldin said. “If the creature breaks down within range of the Dungeon’s absorption, it can still reclaim a lot of, if not most of, the mana it originally made the creature from, because it's mana wouldn't quite be the right aspect. But I would also bet a good amount of money that it’s also why respawns take time, right? The Dungeon has to re-process the mana, and the bigger the creature, the more mana it needs to process.”

“Exactly!” Aurion exclaimed. “See Mister Aldin, if you’d just apply yourself better, you’d be at the top of the class like Miss Starshine, here.”

He gestured to one of the girls in the front row.

“You are correct, and in fact-”

Aurion cut off and looked over to one side of the room as someone coughed politely. Aldin turned his to see someone waiting patiently at the door to the left of the podium. No, not just someone, it was-

Ravs suddenly leaned over and whispered into Aldin’s ear.

“Is that… Grandmaster Evander?” she asked.

Aldin examined the man who’d entered the room. He was of average build, if a little in the tall side, with plain brown, should-length hair and a well trimmed beard. Even though he was dressed in simple black pants and tunic and lacking his armor, the man simply radiated authority. It was definitely the Black Thorn’s Guildmaster, one of the foremost tactical minds in the world.

“I think so,” Aldin replied quietly with a grin. “There’s no mistaking a nose that big.”

Ravs shushed him, but rolled her eyes and grinned back at him.

As his professor moved to speak with the head of his Guild, Aldin perked his ears up to listen. Sometimes his Mana-touched heritage came in handy, and Aldin could feel his eyes changing as he focused on the Beast-Aspect mana that flowed in his veins stirred, as weak as it was.

“You’re doing that thing again, aren’t you?” Ravs whispered to him. She flicked one of the dog-like ears that poked up out of his hair. “Your eyes are glowing.”

“Shh, let me listen,” he whispered back.

He couldn’t make out the Guildmaster’s words, but he could hist barely make out some of Aurion’s quiet whisper.

“Really? In Arnvale you say…? And its brand new? I don’t see-”

There was a pause as Evander said something.

“Are you sure? I suppose it is a good opportunity, but none of them have any real…”

Evander said something else in reply.

Aurion bowed his head, as if in apology. “Well if that’s the decision, I’ll go along.”

Evander turned and exited the room.

Aurion walked back to the podium, deep in thought. After a moment, he shook hiself all over once, and turned to address the class.

“Well,” he said, “this is unexpected! It seems that you all get a bit of a break from all the monotony of lectures, and get to have some early hands-on experience. A brand new dungeon, not even a month old, has been uncovered in the general vicinity of Arnvale, out in Prisal.”

A stir passed through the room, and Aldin heard Ravs draw in an excited breath next to him.

“It seems Grandmaster Evander wants you have your practical exam early while the opportunity presents itself,” Aurion said. “Get ready to pack your things, because it’s time for a field trip."