When john logged back in, more than three hours later, he found himself standing ankle deep in mud in the middle of the village square. The square was deserted, and as he looked around he could see that none of the buildings had come through unscathed, though the damage seemed to be limited to broken shutters and stripped roof tiles. With an annoyed grunt he started walking towards the eastern edge of the village, his feet making sucking noises with every step.

Finally reaching the end of the road, john was thankful to step off into the, now considerably flattened, grass. While it was still squishy and slow going, the grass held the ground together far better than a plan dirt road. However, all too soon he came upon the remains of his own road which, despite having been packed quite well, was still a muddy mess.

“Great, just great, next time past me gets the idea to make a dirt road remind him of this,” John muttered to himself.

By the time John reached the location where his farm should be he was dirty up to his knees, and exhausted from fighting the mud the whole way. Something he’d only just realized he didn’t need to do, as there was no rule stating he had to walk on the muddy road. After a grunt of annoyance John took a moment to survey his domain. What he saw brought a wave of depression down on him.

Something had obviously gone terribly wrong during the storm. Where once there had been two acres of field, a house, and a mana well, there was nothing but barren, disturbed earth. Beginning where the Mana Well once stood there was a large crater, easily 20 feet in diameter, and pushing out from it seemed to be ripples of earth, making the once smooth ground uneven and treacherous. Looking around the only thing that seemed undisturbed was the unknown Megalith; it hadn’t moved an inch, nor did it have a scratch on it. The same could not be said for John’s house.

John slogged across the uneven muddy ground to the pile of shattered and burned stone that had once been a domicile. He looked at it for a moment and then shook his head, given the devastation it was unlikely much of what he’d stored inside had survived. Turning away he trudged toward where he judged the cellar had been. After about 20 minutes of searching he found what was left of the entrance, a section of shattered rock and mud. With an effort of will he used Move Earth to remove the rock and mud, revealing the staircase step by step. Luckily only the first few feet had collapsed, and he quickly broke through to the undamaged section below.

Making his way quickly down the battered and cracked stairs, John found himself once more in the storm cellar. He looked around at the starkly lit interior and quickly located where he’d died. Fortunately it appeared that when he’d ‘exploded’ it hadn’t been the kind of explosion that involved painting the walls. However, the area was covered in scorch marks and warped stone. Stepping over he picked up his coins, the death stones, the corn, and the amulet that had fallen when he’d died. The stones, coin, and corn went into his inventory. The amulet, however, was warped and twisted, and it appeared both remaining mana stones had been destroyed. A quick evaluation told him it was ‘trash’ and had no redeeming characteristics. He then turned his eyes to the final item on the ground.

[Name: Medium Bi-aspected Light/Raw Mana Stone]

[Quality: Good]

[Description: A large mana stone of good quality, due to circumstances of its creation it contains two aspects.]

[Raw Mana: 0/2,585,399]

[Light Mana: 0/57,613]

The roughly spherical mana stone was about the size of a basketball. The entire thing was that mana-blue he’d come to expect from raw shards except that at its heart he could see a chunk of silvery stone about the size of a softball. With a motion and a tiny expenditure of Move Earth he separated out the light stone, leaving him with the raw stone and a much smaller light stone. With another thought he smoothed out the rough exterior of the raw stone leaving it smooth and glassy. All the while his mind worked at the problem of where the stone had come from. He’d been in the middle of making the light stone when he’d been hit by, what he now realized, was a massive deluge of mana. Apparently his control of the spell had lasted fractionally longer than his control of the light aspect, resulting in a bi-aspected stone. But where had all the mana come from?

“OH WOW! IT REALLY DID BLOW UP!”

John looked over at the stairs as he heard Sally’s voice.

“I don’t see him, do you think he logged out?” Ex’s voice drifted down to him as well.

“No, I’m down here!” John yelled up at them.

“OH NO! JOHN IS TRAPPED UNDERGROUND! DON’T WORRY JOHN! WE’LL SAVE YOU!” Sally shouted exuberantly.

“There are stairs right there,” Ex replied far more sedately.

A few moments later sally came charging down the stairs and into the cellar. “I’M HERE TO SAVE YOU JOH- holy crap that’s a huge mana stone!”

“What? How big is it? What kind? You’re blocking the doorway!” Ex said in annoyance.

Sally stepped into the room and to the side, allowing Ex a look.

“Oh wow that is really big! How much mana did that thing cost?! Sally said you can make them now, right? How does that work?”

John looked at them and then the mana stone he was holding. “About two and a half million, it cost ten times that amount to make. And before you ask, I have no idea where all that mana came from.”

“You have no idea where 25 million mana came from?” Ex asked.

“Nope, one moment I was making a mana stone the next I exploded from mana overload,” John said with a gesture to the scorched and warped floor.

Both Excelsior and Sally took a moment to examine the spot.

“So did you blow up first, or did your mana well blow up first?” Sally asked.

“Don’t know, probably me, I was pulling power from the well at the time, then I lost control and found myself in my home room.”

“So… You blew up your farm,” Ex said with a smug air about him.

John sighed. “I’m pretty sure I didn’t precipitate the explosion.”

“But it still blew up!” Sally said with a grin.

“Fine, my farm blew up, I have nothing left but what’s in my inventory, happy?!”

Ex and sally winced.

“Okay, I admit, now might be a bad time to be ribbing you over it, sorry,” Ex said.

Sally just awkwardly patted john on the shoulder. John sighed and seemed to deflate.

“It’s not that bad John, it looks like you only had a small house and this cellar, right? Your land is still cleared, sure it needs a bit of flattening, but that’s easy enough,” Ex said in a more conciliatory tone.

“Oh! Oh! You can build a barn this time! And get some cows! And Chickens! And maybe a goat!” Sally started ticking off farm animals.

“Why a goat?” Ex asked.

“Because goat cheese is amazing!” Sally paused and then gasped. “WHAT ABOUT MAGIC GOAT CHEESE! John! You need a goat!”

Despite his mood, John found himself chuckling. “How do you even make cheese out of milk?”

“That sounds like a you problem!” Sally said happily.

John looked between the two, Sally all but bouncing in place and Ex smirking, then he shook his head. “Why are you two here anyway?”

“What? We’re not allowed to visit a friend?” Ex did an excellent job of putting on an indignant air.

Sally swatted at Ex. “We’re here because Grandma Loren said there was a really loud noise from out this way and she wondered if we’d go check on you. Ex totally said it was your farm blowing up! But I was like ‘nah, it’s probably fine!’ Sorry, Ex was right.”

“I’m never going to live this one down,” John said with a shake of his head.

“Nope!” Ex said cheerfully. “Anything we can do to help while we’re here?”

John thought about it for a moment, then nodded. “Do you have any earth stones? All mine are empty, and without the mana well to charge them…”

“Sure, we’ve got loads of them, I’ll even give you a two for one special.” Ex opened his inventory and glanced inside before closing it. “I’ve got twenty on me right now.”

“Alright, I’ll take all of them.” John willed ten coppers into his hand and passed them over to Ex, who started handing him mana stones. “So, what are you guys doing next?”

“Well, we were thinking of delving again,” Ex admitted. “Though I’ll be honest that’s getting pretty boring.”

“Oh! Oh! I wanna go look at the crater! Maybe we can find some clues as to why the well exploded! Then his next one won’t explode!” Sally all but bounded up the stairs.

“I guess you’re looking at the crater,” John said, smirking at Ex as he followed sally up the stairs.

Outside the sun was now shining, though the ground was just as muddy as earlier, making the short trek to the crater a torturous slog. They arrived to find sally holding what appeared to be a large chunk of granite.

“I know what happened to your well!” She said excitedly. “It got hit by lightning!”

“What? How do you know that?” Ex asked.

“Because inspect says so, duh!” Sally held up the chunk of stone so they could both see it clearly.

[Name: Lightning Blasted Granite]

[Quality: Trash]

[Description: Once part of a mana well, this chunk of granite was blown off when lightning caused a mana overflow, detonating the well.]

“Wait, the lightning caused a mana overflow? How does that even work? How does electrical energy become mana?” John looked at the stone, puzzled.

“Dunno,” Ex replied eloquently.

Sally dropped the rock and picked a couple more out of the sides of the small crater. “All the same,” she informed them. “That’s really cool though! Maybe you can harness lightning to make more mana!”

“Sure, I just need frequent storms and giant mana sinks to hold all the energy it generates,” John said with a snort.

“I mean, if lightning storms are normal around here that’s not actually a terrible idea,” Ex pointed out.

“And when am I gonna find the time… or the materials… to build it? I still have no idea if, or when I’ll be able to build a portal, and I’d really hate for someone to do that before me.”

“Didn’t you buy all those space stones? What else do you need?” Ex asked curiously.

“I’m not sure, I didn’t actually buy the blueprint yet. And I’m not sure I’m going to use the space stones, the ones I can make now are better… if I can find the mana to make them.”

“See! That’s why you need a Lightning Mana Array!” Sally exclaimed.

John just shook his head and smiled. “Maybe someday. For now I think I need to sit down and plan out some buildings and new farm plots. Maybe decide what I’m going to grow going forward. Oh, and make a new Mana Well.”

“Eh, isn’t that a bit risky after the last one?” Ex asked.

“Nah, I’ll put it in the Cellar this time, should be safe enough from lightning strikes there.”

“Alright, well, good luck John. C’mon sally, the dungeon isn’t just going to hand us free levels and loot!”

“Bye John!” Sally said as she leapt out of the hole.

“Later!” John called after them as they started their way back down the muddy road. “Oh, hey! Just because the road is there doesn’t mean you have to use it, the grass is way easier to walk on!”

Both of them stopped and looked back at John, then at the road, then at the grass to either side. Ex let out an explicative. Sally just laughed and walked off the road.

After watching them get on their way John moved back down into the cellar. The first thing, he had decided, was to build a new Mana Well. Taking the basketball sized mana stone out of his inventory he sat on his rock and stared at it for a moment. With an effort of will he called up the Mana Well Blueprint and overlayed it on the stone. Then, with another effort of will and a small expenditure of mana, he pulled stone up from the floor to create a cradle for the Sphere to rest on while he worked.

For the next few hours John painstakingly carved the runes, lines, and sigils of a mana well into the sphere. When he was done he found he was dissatisfied with the results. Thanks to the tutoring the system was giving him in enchanting, he now realized this was the most basic of Mana Wells. Essentially the blueprint was little more than the children’s primer version of a mana well, the kind of thing you give a promising apprentice to practice on. Unfortunately he didn’t have the ability to make a better version yet.

[Name: Mana Well]

[Quality: Good]

[Description: Though made of good quality mana stone this well was crafted by inexpert hands, leaving it lacking in the sophistication that would make it truly great.]

[Connected Devices:

Unknown Megalith – 75% Capacity and Collection Reduction]

[Total Capacity: 2,585,399]

[Current Maximum Capacity: 646,349]

[Total Collection Rate: 2,393/Minute]

[Current Collection Rate: 598/Minute]

[Current Charge: 0/646,349]

“What?! No! Disconnect the unknown megalith!” John shouted in annoyance even as he made an effort of will to do so. He felt a momentary resistance, and then the Unknown Megalith disappeared from the connected devices.

“Good riddance,” he muttered to himself.

Standing up, John plucked the mana well from its cradle and moved over to the pillar. With an effort of Move Stone he sunk the sphere into the pillar itself, right around the center mark, pushing it in until only a small portion stuck out.

With another effort of will he smoothed the cradle back into the floor, and moved the block of stone over to rest against the pillar. With a gesture he reshaped it into a plinth and went about making a new Charging Plate. Finishing it, he used one of his two raw mana stones to line the plate, and then put the other in his wand, which he linked to the well. Only then did he realize he’d invalidated the purchase of all those earth stones.

Shaking his head, John created enough mana stone to finish off the charge plate. He then created another seat of stone, opened the blueprints module, and sat down to plan out his new farm.