—Luneil—

Luneil stared down at the figures moving around the campfire below, an odd feeling of trepidation filling him. He had no idea what the adventurers below had decided upon and his worry only increased when he saw a glistening white object flit out of Bas' tent and into the night sky.

He couldn't bear waiting any longer. The fissure that surrounding his crystal body ground open. Instead of using his typical net of grass to carry him, he recreated an enlarged version of one of the black socks he had absorbed off Bas' corpse and added four long strips of cloth to serve as claw-holds for his Dire Ravens.

His body barely fit inside, but the sock was still significantly more sturdy than his former method of transportation. Also, since the sock had been stretched to its limit, the fabric was spread apart sufficiently to see through.

With a command to his Ravens he was once again flying through the air. However, as he neared the mouth of his Dungeon he felt a tugging sensation, as if his Dungeon complex was connected to him and pulling him back.

"Stop," Zeph was practically shouting, "not so quickly. Reabsorb your mana and disconnect your presence from the walls."

Luneil ordered his Ravens to stop flying and set him down. He silently reprimanded himself for not paying sufficient attention to when Zeph had warned him about this before. If he had tried to force his way through that unpleasant feeling, he might have died. It was an uncomfortable reminder of his own mortality, however powerful he might be.

Fortunately, it was easily rectifiable. He commanded his monsters to wait for him, then slowly withdrew his mana from the walls, noticing the large discrepancy in what he'd put in and what he'd gotten back out. Oh well. It hardly mattered. He had a practically limitless supply of mana with his current Lifeforce supply.

When he'd absorbed Bas' body, and subsequently remade it out of mana and Lifeforce, he had received a major windfall of power. It would only happen once, nevertheless the amount of Lifeforce he had gained was astonishing.

Finally, after an hour, he had absorbed the last remnants of his mana and fully removed his consciousness from the walls. Luneil was once again satisfied that he had chosen to take his time and form his Dungeon in a shape that possessed a natural structural integrity, as opposed to shoring up weaknesses with mana. If he'd chosen the easier option then the entire thing would have collapsed the moment he withdrew his mana.

A strange feeling of freedom overwhelmed him and he was forced to quash a small voice that urged him to cut and run, to disappear into the night and see everything the world had to offer.

His wanderlust could wait. He was immortal. If he was careful, he had all the time in the world to see all of Era's beauty, perhaps even recreate it.

So, instead, he flew down towards the bottom of the valley, pondering what exactly he ought to do. He wanted to make the valley safe and habitable, to make it a prime location that any sane person would want to settle in.

In a way, he suspected building a town was a bit like building a Dungeon. It needed to be accessible, but it also required defenses that would protect its inhabitants. The key difference was that no one would care if all of the invading force died. It was an amusing double standard. People... they wanted a monopoly on violence. Happy to maim and kill each other to their heart's content, and accustomed to having their own people massacred. But the very second a Dungeon or a monster decided to engage in wholesale slaughter, leaving no survivors, they attempted to exterminate them.

Luneil chuckled to himself as a dark plan began to form. It would take a long time and he didn't have the resources at the moment, but perhaps it would be feasible.

First, however, he had to rectify an oversight.

He reached the first of his Mirages scattered along the valley floor. As much as he was loath to admit it, Blue was right, the flowers were too dangerous to be left out there. Especially if he wanted settlers to form a community here. Dungeon creatures were expected to be limited to their Dungeons, for whatever inane reason.

Luneil replaced the Mirages with normal flowers, slowly sweeping across the valley until he was fairly certain that he had swapped out all of them. It was a dissatisfying job, undoing all of his hard work, but it was necessary. As much as he hated to admit it, being a Dungeon was political, in its own way. He had a reputation to maintain.

It was still dark when he finished and Luneil found himself looking towards the campfire and the adventurers' tents surrounding it. He was tempted to sneak closer and torment Bas a little, but there was still a dwarf on watch. It simply wasn't worth the risk.

So, instead, Luneil followed the river down to the end of the valley. It passed tightly between the juncture of two steep mountainsides and the water seemed to boil as it struggled to break free of the tight gap that it had plunged recklessly towards. However, the valley's entrance was not completely secure and it would be a relatively easy feat to sneak up and around.

That wouldn't do.

He moved towards a boulder-strewn bank and let his gaseous mana flow out of him and seep into the bordering mountainside. When he had invested enough mana into it to bring it under his control he began to flex it like a muscle, adding stone where he went. The slope steepened into the begins of a treacherous gorge covered in loose rocks and unstable outcrops of stone.

He continued extending the cliff face upwards and repeated the procedure on the other side, wincing internally at the volume of mana he was burning through. He still had plenty, but the amounts he was using were simply exorbitant. As the gorge grew in height, the amount of rock he needed to create increased exponentially, since he needed to fill in the area behind it as well in order to ensure a stable formation. He looked at the towering mountaintops towering impossibly high above and immediately gave up on the idea of extending the cliffs all the way up there.

He placed a few Mirages into little dirt filled alcoves in the rock face, their calming pollen and hypnotizing petals, coupled with the treacherous terrain, would be more than enough to make most people fall to their deaths if they tried to scale the cliffs. He doubt any defending settler would complain about that.

Finally, he flattened out the land at the top of the formidable outcropping of stone, giving it a plateau-like shape that was perfect for adding additional fortifications to. Luneil itched to add more to the area, but he forced himself not to. The area was convenient, and so any settlers would likely overlook the improbability of finding something like it, which gave Luneil some leeway. Regardless, he had to be careful not to arouse suspicions too far.

With that in mind he skirted around the edges of the the valley, looking for more ways to enter it. Fortuitously, the only one remaining was the pass that Kort's team, and Luneil himself, had first entered the valley through.

He could not do much with this, especially since the adventurers had traveled through it recently and would notice any large scale changes. Instead, he settled for reinforcing the stone beneath the thin covering of earth and subtly flattening the crest of the pass so that it was more conducive to having stable structures built upon it.

While moving around the valley and altering the landscape he had been absorbing any interesting rocks that piqued his interest. Calling over to Zeph, who had been following him for the entire time, he quickly replicated them and questioned her over their natures. As expected from a creature that had spent a long time tending to Dungeons in underground locations she identified all of them without pausing.

Well... She had taken a moment to imply that he was perhaps the result of an incestuous relationship between a certain chunk of galena and iron pyrite.

But Luneil graciously ignored the jab, she was helping him after all. And it was admirable help indeed. Galena was a mineral that seemed to be comprised of shiny gray cubic structures and protruding octahedral nodes, Zeph pointed out that it contained high amounts of silver which was moderately valuable, even if it tended to be overproduced by other Dungeons in terms of coinage and ores.

There were other ores as well, the copper-containing chalcopyrite, the iron heavy magnetite with its strange attractive and repulsive properties, and perhaps most importantly, lignite. Lignite was nothing special or particularly rare, it was simply a form of coal. According to Zeph, coal was crucial for achieving the temperatures needed in iron and steel-working. Not only that, but it also provided a fuel source with which to endure the long dark mountain winters. There were a small number of trees in the valley, but they was not enough to sustain a large population.

That's where the coal came in. The fact that his Dungeon existed would serve to attract those who wanted to try their luck and turn their lives around. The existence of coal, however, would force them to rely on him for their heating needs, and that was exactly what he wanted. The desperate, the weak, the hungry, and the cold.

Luneil was acutely aware of his reliance on Lifeforce. If he lost more to adventurers killing his creatures than he gained through the deaths of others, then he would gradually be bled dry. However, if he was going to cause deaths, he would rather they be deaths that could be attributed to stupidity, inexperience, and desperation.

He recognized that his attempts to kill Blue—which, by the way, he considered to be successful, since she had technically died—had been imprudent. His actions had most likely been misconstrued as pure bad luck. But what if they hadn't been? The situation could have gone far differently. He'd likely be fleeing the area at this very moment, assuming he would have survived the encounter. It was possible that the area inhibition of his powers emitted by the adventurers could prevent his escape.

After a moment's thought, he realized it would. He would have had to disentangle his mana from the his Dungeon complex's walls, and that took time. He had no doubt that Kort would have been able to punch through the rock in order to reach him.

Luneil berated himself, he needed to be more careful, and less impulsive. His rash actions had heaped a multitude of problems on his head from the very start. He had temporarily destroyed Zeph and risked her Lifeforce on a gamble. Then he had planted the Mirages in the valley without knowing their full effects. And that had prompted Blue's wariness towards him, which caused him to attempt to kill her.

Not that killing was bad, mind you. But you needed to kill the right people.

Yes, that was it. Luneil hummed to himself contentedly. It was the same as with people's double standard on violence. They might hate death, decry it as their ultimate enemy. But that wasn't it, was it? If they hated death, Dungeons would have been wiped out. No. People hated it when people weren't meant to die.

A necromancer getting his comeuppance was justice. An old dwarf dying in bed was natural. But a young dwarf dying in a freak landslide? That was a tragedy. Even if landslides were natural.

Luneil snorted, it was insane. They all believed they had a purpose, and freak accidents contradicted that. People would rather believe that there was some underlying reason behind the death of those who died, despite their potential.

He shuddered to himself, only now realizing how close he might have come to his end. A kill on the first exploration; how many adventurers would attribute that to a mere accident? It was much easier to attribute to malevolence, and what greater malevolence could they imagine than a rogue Dungeon? How many innocent Dungeons had been branded as rogues due to a freak accident? It was an amusing irony, that they became victims of that freak accident themselves.

Well, it would have been amusing. If the possibility of it didn't feel so real. He still had no idea what Kort and his team thought about their disastrous Dungeon run. He wanted to get nearer, but he could still see that Grimheld was on the lookout.

The light of the three moons was blocked by a thick bank of cloud, which had eased his mind while modifying the terrain, however, he was still not comfortable flying close enough to be able to eavesdrop on everyone in the camp.

Of course, he didn't need to fly.

***

Luneil burrowed through the dirt. He'd absorbed his Ravens and his carrier sock a while ago, replacing them with a Blackshell Harvester; the oversized beetle was far better suited to pushing him through the cramped tunnel he'd created.

Every now and then he would create a small hole above him, so that he could protrude a small sliver of gaseous mana, through which he could see his destination.

It wasn't optimal, but it was the best he could do. He had tried imbuing mana into the earth above him and letting it turn back into a gas once it reached the surface, but it didn't want to comply. And while he could force small cracks to open up, allowing his mana to enter, it was far less effort to simply destroy a small area of dirt and fill it back in later.

Grimheld had surrounded the camp with a thin shell of gaseous mana, using it to detect any abnormalities that crossed the perimeter. The dwarf evidently had exceptional control, since his mana formed a thin but stable shell covering the nearby area. Most surprisingly, despite the occasional strong gusts, the dome of mana only flexed minorly before rebounding back into its former position. It was an impressive creation, and a telling example that mastery of mana was more than the mindless application of brute force.

Of course, the perimeter would do nothing to stop Luneil from tunneling underneath and reemerging on the other side. After all, what sort of suspicious bastard would suspect an intrusion from below ground.

Grimheld, apparently. Inches away from breaking through to the surface, Luneil felt the telltale numbing effect of unfriendly mana on his senses. He immediately filled the small hole back in, only now realizing that he hadn't seen a tether of mana connecting Grimheld to his dome. In hindsight, it was obvious that the dwarf had to be connected to it somehow, otherwise it would simply fly away. However, the revelation that Grimheld had anticipated the possibility of an attack from below, and spread a thin film of mana across the ground, was worrying.

More worrying, however, was the feeling of mana seeping through the ground towards him as it slowly pushed aside dirt to reach him.

He was still for a moment. This wasn't good. He had no idea how he'd been detected. And yet, as the small tremors from the dwarf's heavy footsteps sent down showers of loose dirt as he neared, Luneil realized he had to do something. Before the dwarf's interfering aura stopped him from escaping.

That could not be allowed to happen. Yet, he didn't want to reveal the long, tunnel he had dug either. That would only arouse suspicions. He extended his mana as far away as he could manage, filling in the passage he'd created. That issue had been addressed, but now he was trapped.

The dwarf was coming closer and Luneil could feel his presence growing, already beginning to interfere with his control. He had to do something quickly.

Absorbing the Harvester that he'd used to push him along, Luneil spread out his mana and urgently began to dig. Not the neat subterranean corridor he had used to get here, but a messy winding system of tunnels, all connected to a central chamber with grass roots poking down from the ceiling.

He rolled down into the chamber he had created, knowing full well that the short distance traveled would not save him if Grimheld examined the area properly. Whether the dwarf would do so, or not, was anyone's guess—purely the luck of the draw.

Luneil wasn't interested in luck. With the remaining time available to him, he created a small family of six rabbits and issued a command.

Act natural.

Everything went dark.

Grimheld's feet still shook the ground overhead but Luneil was no longer able to manipulate his mana. In desperation, he cut his attachment to it, feeling a burning twinge as it dissipated. Despite the momentary pain, he was relieved. Any gaseous mana in the area would give away his nature in an instant.

He shook with powerlessness as the full effects of Grimheld's presence washed over him and the tremors of his footsteps stopped. He tried letting his mana seep out again, to no avail. He couldn't even see where he was—although, that had nothing to do with Grimheld. All Luneil could do was listen, a task complicated by the beating of the rabbit's heart.

The rabbit was dying, causing its heartrate to spike. Yet, it still followed its orders, behaving normally despite its situation. It was quite impressive, actually. Especially considering Luneil had removed most of its non-essential internal organs in order to fit inside it. Which explained the darkness. He was surrounded by rabbit muscle and a spiderweb of squished blood vessels.

The rabbit was on the large side to begin with, but even then, Luneil's presence inside would make the rabbit's stomach appear monstrously bloated. He could only hope the rabbit he had created was female, since he currently had no way to check. He wondered what would happen if Grimheld saw a pregnant male rabbit and chuckled, despite the potentially dire circumstances he had found himself in.

He could almost feel the dwarf's mana thrust aside the loose covering of earth that concealed the warren, probing down the tunnels, searching for hidden threats.

The sense of closeness intensified, agonizing in its own way as the foreign mana came within inches of him, and stopped.

"Rabbits, eh?" Grimheld's voice was soft, deadened by the earth between and punctuated by the throb of the rabbit's heart.

Luneil felt a thrill of triumph, his ruse had worked. Then, the animal's heart began to stutter.

Deprived of oxygen, the rabbit began to twitch and spasm, the violence of its death throes overcoming the compulsion of Luneil's orders. But Grimheld was already walking away, taking his mana with him, no doubt satisfied that the rabbits weren't a threat.

Luneil gave a mental sigh of relief, letting himself relax. He reabsorbed the rabbit he was inside, as soon as Grimheld's interfering aura faded away. Then, because he was feeling excessively lucky. He made another rabbit, this time modified to survive the strain of having a large crystal concealed in its belly.

The resulting rabbit was large and slightly deformed, but there was no reason why it wouldn't suit his purposes. It was dark outside which would conceal the creature's abnormalities, as long as it didn't stray too close to the fire. Then, since he wasn't happy about going deeper into the camp completely blind, he sent a stream of mana up into the bunny's mouth, through which he could see the main chamber of the facsimile warren.

Ordering the other rabbits ahead, he followed them above ground, holding slightly back in case Grimheld was hungry and had his crossbow on hand.

Luneil's concerns were unfounded, the dwarf had eaten recently, and so spared only the briefest glance to look in the direction of the rabbits as they crossed the thin film of gaseous mana that clung to the darkened ground.

It was almost too easy. He directed the five normal rabbits to nibble at the grass near the campfire, at the very edges of the firelight. Meanwhile, he moved towards one very specific tent, feeling the numbing sensation wash over him as his proximity to the dwarves interfered with his control of mana and Lifeforce.

Luneil was close enough to hear hushed voices emanating from Kort's tent, where he was engaged in a conversation with Ola.

"—you sure the Council will accept it?"

"Well, they're nae going t' pass up a Dungeon. Bas will hold the deed t' the land, in name at least. And if they want access t' that land, well, they'll have t' play nice. That'll start with them pardoning us. All of us." Kort sounded smug.

"And if they don't?"

"They will, as long as Bas doesn't try t' f—"

"He won't." Ola interjected, "But he's not the one I'm worried about."

"Then who, pray tell, are you worried about?"

"I..." Ola trailed off, "I don't know. But not Bas. He's not ruthless enough."

The two dwarves lapsed into a speculative silence.

Luneil moved closer, also thinking about Bas. He needed the boy to toughen up. Ola was right about him being too gentle. He was far too squeamish at the moment. And while the way he had revived Blue was impressive, Luneil didn't want a healer at his disposal. He wanted a killer and a leader.

He instructed the rabbit to turn towards Bas' tent, when he heard Ola cough behind him.

"The Dungeon?" The question was extremely vague, yet it belied a deeper meaning.

"What about it?" Kort, as usual, failed to grasp that meaning.

"Don't you think it's a little strange?"

"It's nae gone rogue, I thought we'd already sorted this out." Kort sighed.

"Not that. Doesn't it seem a little too... advanced?"

"How? Its creatures are weak, even that insect-headed deer was pretty fragile if you take those flailing roots out of the equa..." Kort paused, "You might be right. The Dungeon's nae even old enough t' be dropping loot yet; so why does it seem t' have a basic grasp of strategy?"

"How should I know?" Ola said, her shrug evident in her tone, "Only seen stuff like that in Dungeons that are at least a few decades old. Do you think w—"

"Nae need to be hasty." Kort interjected, "We're all alive. Let's nae leap t' ascribing bad intentions. It's probably just a fast learner."

They were silent for a moment. Luneil tried to spot their individual silhouettes through the canvas of their tent, to limited success.

"Now fuck off," Kort said, "I need my beauty sleep."

Ola sniggered and partially stood up, brushing against the tent walls as she eased her way out. Luneil ordered his rabbit to back away, deeper into the shadows.

He waited for a short amount of time, permitting his rabbit to nibble pointlessly at the grass. His creatures didn't exactly need food, but...

Did Bas need to eat? And if so where did the food go?

Luneil thought back to his initial attempts at farming using grass. The small seedlings had grown over time, starting with a small amount of Lifeforce and generating more as they matured. Yet that hadn't happened in his Dungeon complex. There were only two real differences in the conditions; one being that the plants were now surrounded by mana, and the second being that they were now underground.

His gaseous mana shouldn't have any detrimental impact on his plants, which meant that... Dungeon plants needed light to grow and generate Lifeforce. If he created Dungeon creatures that hadn't achieved adulthood, they too required Lifeforce to mature—whether it be obtained from food or killing or just imparted by him.

But what happened when the animal was already fully grown. His creatures normally didn't need to eat. So where did the excess Lifeforce obtained from the food go? Did it accumulate, or did it dissipate into thin air?

Luneil put the question to one side, directing the rabbit he was hiding within to hop over to Bas' tent. As he drew away from Kort's tent, the mana stifling aura eased, it didn't have much of a real impact on Luneil's current actions, but it was still reassuring. He spotted one of his other rabbits out of the edge of his vision, and directed it back to the warren, leaving the rest to nibble happily at the grass.

There was no aura of suppression from Bas' tent, a clear sign that there was no one else inside. Regardless, Luneil was wary as he let a thread of mana snake up and out of the rabbit's mouth, probing lightly against the tent and annihilating a small portion.

And Bas was there, fast asleep. Not for long, obviously.

Wake up little human.

Bas snorted and turned over in his sleep, otherwise refusing to awaken.

This called for drastic action. Luneil created a small wasp and directed it to fly towards Bas' sleeping form. Of course it wouldn't be fair to just surprise him with a stinger to the face, so he directed his final caution in as quiet and unobtrusive a mental tone as possible.

Last warning.

As expected, the human didn't even flinch. Oh well, Luneil had done all he could,

The wasp landed on Bas' nose and...

"GAAHHH!"

Bas' hand flew towards his face, slapping himself with a brutal amount of force in order to dislodge the offending insect that had just jammed its stinger into his nose.

"Are ya okay, kid?" Grimheld's voice came from the other side of the camp.

"No," Bas grumbled, "something just stung my nose."

Grimheld chuckled.

"Well fuck you too." Bas rubbed his nose, smearing green insect blood and guts across his face.

Luneil savored the moment, laughing to himself at the sight of the reddening handprint blossoming on Bas' face.

Zeph zoomed in through the gap in the tent to examine the damage before turning to Luneil with a laugh, "You really are a twisted piece of shit, you know that? It's one thing to have a human as a pet, it's another thing to torture the poor thing."

Luneil only laughed harder, watching as Bas buried his head in his bedroll and tried to get back to sleep. He almost did as well...

Hey buddy.

"FUCK." Bas shot up onto his feet, head pushing against the peak of the tent.

Once again, Grimheld's laughter could be heard from the other side of the camp, "The insects are really bothering ya tonight, aren't they."

"Yeah," Bas replied, a smug grin on his face as he looked around reflexively for the source of Luneil mental voice. The smug grin promptly vanished when a newly created insect did a noisy flyby in front his face, with a muffled yell he ducked back down.

What's with all the shrieking?

"Maybe don't fill a Dungeon with freakish insect monsters," Bas muttered. "What do you want?"

"Oooh, he's a sharp one, takes after you... Oh, wait..." Zeph's voice piped up.

Bas frowned, "Did you say something? I couldn't quite hear that."

Luneil's imaginary eyebrows rose. Bas could hear Zeph? It must have something to do with them both being made out of his mana.

Zeph hovered closer to Bas. Then she screamed in his ear, "Yes. My name is Zeph." She paused, her voice taking on an impish tone, "But you can call me Mistress."

"Oh dear lord, there's two of you." Bas cradled his head in his hands, speaking quietly to avoid alerting Grimheld.

"Yes, Luneil works for me." She shot a pointed glare at the rabbit he was hiding in, "Don't you?"

Yes dear. Luneil sighed, at this moment he wished that he had hands to bury his face in.

Bas glanced around, he squinted and looked closer as his gaze alighted on Zeph, "What do you want?"

"Your fealty and eternal obe—"

Luneil cut her off, silently noting to himself that Bas seemed to be able to partially see Zeph as well. I want to talk. To learn. It took a great deal of Lifeforce to bring you back, so I need to recoup on my investment. That's the only reason you're alive.

The line about the amount of Lifeforce required was a complete lie—Luneil had in fact made a net gain by absorbing Bas' original body and subsequently reconstituting it out of mana—but it had the desired effect. Bas' face paled, even in the area of the self inflicted slap mark.

Therefore, you're going to tell me how to make a... what was it you called it? Train? That sounded interesting.

Bas' face brightened and he opened his mouth to speak, before realizing where he was and continuing in a quieter tone. "A train is a series of metal boxes with wheels that uses steam to power an engine that makes the wheels turn."

What's an... engine?

"An engine is, ummm... An engine is something that, ummm... uses moving and expanding gases to create movement." Bas' voice had faded to a mumble by the end as he stared at the floor.

Luneil took a moment to process what Bas was saying. How?

"It, uh, takes momentum or energy from a source and uses it to drive motion in the desired direction."

But how does it do that? How do you make an engine?

Bas was obviously fascinated with a small speck of grit on his bedroll. "I don't know," he muttered, "I never learned about that in school for fuck's sake."

So you mean to say that you know about lots of useful stuff, just not how to make it

"It's not that, it's ju—"

Do you how to make anything that I could use? Or do you just know of them. Book learning isn't useful in a Dungeon, it's not useful for one either.

In truth, the information about how engines worked was enlightening and Luneil's mind was already overflowing with ideas about how he could harness the momentum of objects to work for him. Not that he was going to tell Bas that...

"What about acid? I know where that comes from."

Fine. Although, I doubt your information will be that useful. None of it has been so far.

Bas spluttered. "Fuck you. You can find acid in the stomach's of animals. Hydrochloric acid, anyway. There are stronger acids, but hydrochloric acid is pretty strong. I knew a bulimic girl and the acid in her stomach ate away at her teeth whenever she made herself vomit."

Is that it? Luneil asked, Stomach acid can dissolve teeth. You really are full of such... useful information.

"Go to hell. I know how to make gunpowder."

No you don't.

"Yes I do. All you need is saltpeter, charcoal, and sulf—" Bas' face took on a corpse-like pallor as he realized what he was talking to, "Actually, that's wrong, I don't know what the la—"

"Did you mean sulfur?" Zeph screamed in Bas' ear.

Bas squinted at the space that Zeph occupied, the whites of his eyes barely discernible from his face. "Don't. Please. I'm begging you. Just don't."

Luneil directed a thought over to Zeph, What's gunpowder?

The Sylph flitted over to him, speaking softly so that Bas wouldn't overhear, "I don't know."

Luneil addressed Bas once more, Why not? Give me a reason why I shouldn't.

"Because where I come from, gunpowder only made things worse, it killed a lot of people." Bas shook his head, looking around and trying to find something to glare at.

So what? People die. But you and me, we're immortal. Well, I am, anyway. The weak will always die, no matter what. Are you weak?

Bas paused, "If you make it, I'll never tell you anything. Ever."

Sure, go for it. I'll just make a replica of you and torture every last piece of knowledge out of you.

Could he do that? Luneil wasn't sure. The only reason he hadn't thought of it before was because the idea of having multiple Zephs was downright alarming. All in all, given his current lack of information, it was a bluff.

But Bas didn't know that, and Luneil knew it.

"Fine, take this." Bas reached over towards the hatchet in the corner.

I've already encountered your little axe. It was... disappointing.

"No, not that." Bas brushed the hatchet away, revealing a glossy book that had lain beneath it.

I don't want your bedtime stories. Luneil said dismissively. Deep down he felt the familiar stirrings of excitement. What did the book contain? The only way to truly know was to pump Bas for information, primarily by making him feel inadequate. Everyone wanted to feel as if they were unique, as if they had some intrinsic worth. Bas was no different.

Bas tentatively held the book out, hands trembling, not quite sure who, or where, to offer it to. "It contains the building blocks of my world's knowledge about how the universe operates."

Luneil let a tendril of mana rush forward through the hole in the tent, letting it brush up against the book and annihilated it. He felt a thrill of satisfaction from obtaining the book's pattern and chuckled as Bas stared at his now empty hand, clenching and unclenching his fingers.

Time for the killing stroke.

Not good enough.

He recreated the book above Bas' head and let it drop with a heavy and satisfying thunk. Then, he withdrew his mana, patching up the hole in the tent. He left Bas staring mournfully at the book in front of him, too stunned to speak.

Luneil gathered the four rabbits that had remained above ground and the campfire, directing them back to the facsimile warren, laughing to himself as he went. He was making his way back to the warren himself, passing the second last tent, when something stopped him dead and filling him with cold dread.

"Is someone there? Who's laughing?" Blue's voice came from the tent and Luneil bolted away as fast as the rabbit's legs could carry him. "Grim? Who's there?"

"Just rabbits."

"Rabbits are crepuscular." Blue's voice became tinged with worry.

"What?"

"They're not active in the middle of the night."

Luneil's rabbit dove towards the hole, as Grimheld pounded towards him. The thin film of mana around the entrance to the warren seemed to swell and thicken as he approached, clinging at him and impeding his progress through it.

His momentum slowed to a crawl. Or a really retarded hop.

And then he was through, the film of mana insufficient to stop him, even as a crossbow bolt buried itself to its feathers in the dirt where he had just been. Then he was racing through the tunnels, surreptitiously collapsing them as he went.

He didn't slow, even as the tunnels came crashing down behind him. This was not the time to get complacent.

Luneil entered the main chamber where the rest of his rabbits were waiting. He ordered them to follow him, not out of any lingering attachment, but simply because he didn't want his rabbit to be singled out for a bolt between the ears.

He exited through another tunnel that opened out beyond Grimheld's perimeter. Luneil was alarmed to see how much the dome of mana had enlarged, most likely in an attempt to trap his rabbits within the warren.

He heard the deadly twang of the crossbow string, followed by a meaty thud as one of his rabbit meatshields was speared to the ground by one foot of iron, wood, and feathers. Then a hail of daggers descended on them in a rush of displaced wind. The majority buried themselves to the quillons in the soil, while two sheathed themselves in his rabbits' spines.

He chanced a glance behind him, regretting his decision to do so as he saw Grimheld drawing daggers from his belt and... dropping them.

As they had started to fall that they spun in midair and reoriented themselves towards the fleeing rabbits, shooting forwards at high velocity.

He ordered all the rabbits under his control to veer to the left and right as they ran. The movement threw off Grimheld's aim as none of the subsequent daggers hit his rabbits. Looking backwards once more he saw the dwarf slumped on the ground, visibly exhausted while the rest of the bleary-eyed adventurers piled out of their tents, fumbling with their weapons. To one side stood one very confused human scratching his head and trying to look inconspicuous.

Judging that he was now well out of sight he absorbed the remaining two rabbits, noticing a faint difference in their Lifeforce quantities. He faintly remembered that the one with less Lifeforce had been sent back to the warren early, even if the difference was marginal.

Luneil was pleased with the confirmation of his theory. It did indeed seem that his Dungeon creatures would gain a minor amount of strength from consuming food.

It wasn't so much for getting them to mutate from too much Lifeforce, but rather them acting as Lifeforce collectors that he could send out to gather more power for him with minimal effort. Every little helped after all, and with Kort's team skimming off a little Lifeforce every time they killed one of his creatures, he needed as much as he could get.

So engrossed in his thought processes, he barely had time to register as his rabbit plunged headfirst into the river in the middle of the valley. Unfortunately the idiotic creature had followed his orders of 'Keep on running' to the letter.

Luneil panicked for a brief moment, before remembering that he didn't need to breath and so wasn't at any risk of drowning. On the other hand, the rabbit wasn't waterproof, so he absorbed it and let the river current carry his spherical body to a gentle rolling stop on its rock strewn bed.

Luneil relaxed there for a moment, watching fish drift above his head, barely visible against the sky. Come to think of it, this was the perfect opportunity to obtain some new creatures.

He created an interwoven net of Ropewood branches, watching with interest as several fish and one eel attempted to slip through the holes, only to be crushed by the constricting branches.

Used to the vast rushes of Lifeforce that came from larger creatures, Luneil barely even noticed the small amounts that he obtained from the fish. Regardless, the patterns were welcome.

With his fishing out of the way, he reabsorbed the net of branches and created a chunk of wood around himself, which floated to surface. He just let the running water bear him downstream, watching the riverbanks flow past him.

Eventually, however, he got bored of the ride and began to make his slow way back to the Dungeon complex. He wanted to try a few new things out.

***

Luneil had finished painstakingly reintegrating himself with his Dungeon complex's walls and reset the water reservoirs after the stream had run dry.

However, with all this complete, he had the rest of the night to test out everything he wanted to try. With a small amount of trepidation and a good deal of excitement he watched as Bas' form began to form out of thin air, coalescing into being.

Zeph spoke up just then, "It's not going to work, you know. Bas' copy isn't going to obey you just like that. You could always turn him into a skeleton by using Lifeforce to animate his bones, but that defeats the purpose of making an intelligent creature. He's not even going to..."

Luneil ignored her and watched as the Bas clone stretched and looked around.

Touch your head.

The copy of Bas paused, cocking his head to one side before shrugging and tapping his head lightly.

Walk over there.

The duplicate began to walk, then frowned and stopped in place.

I said walk over there.

He began to walk again, but this time towards the Dungeon's exit—the exact opposite direction in which Luneil had indicated.

Do as I s—

"Why?" The duplicate's voice was a flat monotone. Luneil looked closer, his eyes were empty of their usual liveliness, devoid of even antipathy.

Because I want to know what you know.

The duplicate cocked his head, "Don't. Won't. Can't."

What do you mean?

"Don't know. Won't say. Can't remember." Bas' voice never fluctuated, no sign of exasperation evident.

But... you're Bas. I know that yo—

"Who Bas?" For the first time, the duplicate's tone changed. He sounded intrigued and his eyes seemed to light up. Then his gaze clouded over again, "Must go."

Won't you stay.

"No." The duplicate was nearly at the entrance.

Suit yourself.

With that final exchange, Luneil absorbed the duplicate, feeling intensely irritated at the events. It was like it was an entirely different person inside of Bas' body, an incredibly frustrating and obstructive person with none of Bas' redeeming memories.

He fixed his attention on Zeph, What happened there?

"As I was trying to tell you, attempting to make a copy of an individual doesn't work too well. Not if you want them to keep their memories and personality. Once you've created more than one... something gets... left behind." Zeph snorted, "The past Dungeons I observed were never so stupid as to do it with humans, but they all tried it out with kobolds or goblins at some point in time. The copies you create are, for all intents and purposes, new people."

So how do I make intelligent creatures do what I want?

"You need to incentivize it, and often simply promising immortality, as you did for Bas, just won't cut it. These are new creatures, only beings that have lived are afraid of death."

Hmmm.

"Stop pretending to think, everyone knows your dirty little secret."

Luneil ignored her, as usual. Even if the test hadn't gone as he had hoped, it had still reached a reasonably solid conclusion. He moved onto the next thing he wanted to test out. Acid.

A detached human stomach flopped onto the floor of his Dungeon, leaking liquid out of both ends onto the floor. In among the partially digested food, there was something that might have been acid, but he wasn't certain. In brief, it was a disgusting churned mess.

There had to be a better way of doing this.

Luneil reabsorbed the stomach and the gastric juices pooling over the floor. Then he examined the pattern of the stomach, comparing a series of animals. He saw how a certain series of motifs controlled the release of acid, while others created a protective layer of slimy mucus to stop the stomach from dissolving itself in its own juices.

Finally he felt confident enough to merge those motifs onto a plant, adding plentiful amounts of Lifeforce for good measure and mixing in the aspects of a few of his favorite plants. The result was a colorful gourd shaped flower with a delightfully scented reservoir of flesh-melting acid, which he name the Acid Lily.

And when he said 'flesh-melting' he had obviously tested it out, on multiple cute and fluffy creatures... just to be sure. The Lily had a wonderful habit of tracking the motion of nearby creatures before the acid reservoir contracted, sending a vicious jet of concentrated acid flying towards its target.

The result was so enjoyable that he obtained the pattern of the acid itself. After all, it had too many enjoyable recreational uses for it to be squandered solely on a single plant, however entertaining that plant was.

And so, in the spirit of the moment he might have altered the contents of the stream running through the center of his first room. Sure, it killed off all the Ropewood snare traps in an impressively short time, but in his opinion it was definitely worth the sacrifice. Especially since the acid was relatively clear and could be easily mistaken for water, which would be extremely amusing indeed.

Inspired, Luneil put the mysteries of Bas' book and gunpowder manufacture to one side. He began to plan out his second floor, pondering the meaning of life and the number of ways to melt a dwarf's face off.