I stayed seated, simply moving my hands to rest on the ground in front of me. I resumed the construction and I could sense more mana leave me and join with the energy already running through the borders of the room. I once again ran out of mana, forcing me to wait for it to regenerate. This repeated several more times.

I worked out that the main reason making a room took so long was my low amount of mana and slow regeneration. I could only put in 100 mana before my center was empty, and then I had to wait half an hour for it to refill. If I could increase how much mana my center could hold or how fast it could replenish the spent energy, I should be able to make a room much faster.

Rather than dive back into my interface while waiting, I used the extra downtime to simply talk with Cax. I realized that I had been treating him as just some kind of information source instead of as a person, if that was even the right word to use for him. I wanted to get to know him better since we were going to be together for life.

We talked about his world, and I asked him his opinion about things on Earth he found strange. It was a nice experience that left me feeling more comfortable with him and the fact we were stuck together.

Towards the end the sun had fully set. I moved around to the side of the house to trigger the sensor light. It was on a timer though, and I didn’t want to keep going back over to turn it on again.

“Do you think I can go inside quickly and turn on the back lights?” I asked Cax, not sure if breaking contact with the ground for the short time needed to go inside would be a problem.

“I honestly don’t know,” he replied. “I would advise against it. It would be a shame to lose all this progress.”

“How about using my spell to make some light, then?” I queried.

“Again, I do not know. It is probably best not to use any spells or abilities, though, just in case the conflicting magic disrupts the construction.”

Damn it, I thought. “You had a good idea at the start, mate. We should have experimented a bit to find the limits on this. When we make another room, let’s work out what I can and can’t do early on.”

It was too troublesome dealing with the sensor light, so I decided to just sit there in the dark. It wouldn’t be for too long, anyway. I should be finished soon. Plus, the moonlight kept it from being completely black, although a bit of cloud cover meant the light came and went.

A little later, I put in the last 40 mana required, not even waiting for my mana to fully regenerate. This brought the total up to the necessary 640 mana. The flow of energy leaving me cut off automatically, but I was still connected to the energy in the room.

Throughout the entire process, as the mana had gone into the frame of the room, it had constantly flowed along the boundary. Apart from that continuous movement, it hadn’t seemed to do anything. Now, it suddenly activated. It began pulling the soil contained within the room’s borders towards the walls, floor and ceiling. The dirt was moving extremely quickly.

The soil closest to the mana was first. As it made contact with the magical energy, it was pulled within and compacted to extreme degrees and kept there. The dirt further in followed right behind and was subjected to the same treatment.

The center of the room was soon clear, and it wasn’t long until all the dirt had been drawn within the mana enclosing the room. With a final pulse, all the soil that had been collected was solidified, making extremely strong and durable walls reinforced by mana.

With the process finished, my connection to the mana ended, but I still had a sense of it beneath me.

“That’s the kind of energy sense I mentioned in the forest,” Cax said. “For now, you are limited to only feeling your mana, but over time you should naturally gain the ability to sense other forms of energy too.”

My reply was cut off by a notification suddenly appearing.

You have successfully constructed a dungeon room.

You have gained 50 experience.

You are currently at your maximum limit for dungeon rooms.

You may have one room per level.

The one room had given me 50 points of experience! That was fantastic! It had taken a long time, though. I could have gotten the same amount of experience faster if I could have brought myself to use Absorb on a bunch of my stuff.

I was surprised when another screen unexpectedly appeared, replacing the one I had just read.

Eligible structures detected within your dungeon's influence.

[Whitler Residence]

[Whitler Residence Back Fence]

[Whitler Residence Left Fence]

[Whitler Residence Right Fence]

Do you wish to integrate these structures into your dungeon?

Not having a clue what it was talking about, I fell back on what was becoming my go-to move. Asking the expert. “Cax?”

“No idea. But I think you should do it,” he let me know, the feeling of eager curiosity that seemed to be a big part of his personality coming through strong.

“Of course you do!” I said, not surprised. “Wasn’t there a saying similar to ‘Curiosity killed the cat’ on your world?”

“There was. The translation would be something like, ‘Curiosity will get your prying eyes gouged out’.”

My mouth opened a bit in shock. Geez! Based on our get-to-know-you talk just before, I knew violence was an everyday part of life there, but still.

He tried to reassure me. “I would never let my inclination for learning new things endanger us. I truly don’t believe integrating the structures will be a bad thing. In fact, it is likely to be beneficial.”

I hoped he was right because I actually wanted to do it too. Even though I had just made fun of him for his inquisitiveness, I also wanted to see what would happen. Playing it safe, though, I selected just the back fence at first.

Connection established. [Whitler Residence Back Fence] is now integrated into the dungeon.

Durability will be increased by 10% per dungeon level.

Current durability: +10%

That’s it? I thought, a little disappointed. It was a bit anti-climactic. The fence was a bit stronger now. So what?

“Keep in mind that’s only at level 1. There might be other benefits once the dungeon is higher level,” Cax told me.

“Were you able to do this as well?” I asked him.

“No,” he answered. “And I think I know why. At this level, your dungeon’s influence extends about 15 meters in every direction from its outer walls. This means some of your neighbor’s houses are within the zone. However, you didn’t get an option to integrate them. You were only offered that for those structures you essentially own. Since it’s impossible for a core to have a claim to anything on the surface, this would never have been possible for me.”

“That can’t be right,” I told him. “I don’t own anything. Everything is in Mum’s name.”

“For your human laws, that is true. But the amount of time you have spent here would have left a strong imprint of your energy. And I’m sure that if you were to ask your mother, she would say that this house is as much yours as it is hers. Straightforward thinking sometimes doesn’t apply when magic is involved.”

“No kidding,” I said, shaking my head. I knew I had barely scratched the surface of what was now possible. I just had to keep going and do my best to learn. “Alright. So, the dungeon is at level 1 now. How do I increase its level?”

“It’s your dungeon. It’s connected to you. I am almost certain your level dictates the level of the dungeon.”

“That should be pretty good, then,” I said, happy. If the benefits could improve just by me becoming stronger, it would basically be free gains. And if other options opened up later, even better.

I went ahead and integrated the other two fences and the house, receiving the exact same message about durability increases for all of them.

With no other notifications requiring my attention, I went back to the original purpose of building the room. The experience! Thanks to the completed room, my experience points were currently sitting at 52 / 25. I had to decide what to do with them.

I had been leaning towards unlocking and learning a profession so I could use Create. That was on the assumption that the ability would provide experience points and be a better way to get them than using Absorb.

But now that I had a much better way of gaining experience, I wasn’t in such a rush to use Create anymore. I was more interested in finding out what leveling up actually meant. The changes I had undergone when I became level 1 had me excited to see what would happen. Plus, now that I knew my level had benefits for my dungeon and the integrated structures, it seemed like a more important choice. Not foolish enough to think I knew best, I checked with Cax before actually doing it.

“The amount of experience required for the early levels doesn’t increase by that much,” he let me know. “If you level up first, the cost of unlocking a profession won’t become that much higher than now. And, at the risk of having you mock me again, I must admit I am curious what leveling up will mean for you. Since you don’t have access to your attributes, you won’t receive the standard attribute points. What, then, will happen?”

“All in good fun, mate. If I stop teasing you, that’s when you need to worry.” I was happy we were both on the same page. I went ahead and selected the experience in my interface, and then chose the level up option, spending 25 experience points. An unfamiliar feeling suddenly rushed throughout my entire body. It wasn’t painful, more like a severe case of pins and needles. It lasted for about ten seconds, and then a notification appeared.

Congratulations!

You are now level 2.

Health and mana increased by 20 points.

I checked my stats and saw that my health and mana now had a maximum of 120 each. I was puzzled, though, to see my current health was at 100 and my mana was sitting at only 31 points. I had it in my head that they would refill when I leveled up.

Cax let me know I was once again wrong. “There is no energy left over for that. It’s completely used up to make changes to your body and mind. Now, let’s see exactly what happened with you…hmm, interesting.”

He paused as if he were considering something. “I think it would help if I explained how the attribute points work first so you can understand your situation better.” Before I could respond, he was off.

“There are five attributes. There are other effects involved with each, but basically one point into Constitution gives an extra 10 health points and one point into Wisdom gives an extra 10 mana points. A point into Strength and Dexterity increases those areas by 10%. Increasing Intelligence mainly affects the amount of knowledge you can retain.

When a regular adventurer levels up, half of the energy is used to immediately improve them by adding one point to each of their attributes. The remaining energy is converted into five attribute points for them to use as they wish.

Now, because of your unique situation, you can’t directly affect your attributes, so you didn’t get any attribute points to assign. Instead, the energy was automatically applied to improve your attributes by the equivalent of two points each. That’s why your health and mana both went up by 20 points.”

Jokingly, I said, “Thanks for the lecture, professor. I didn’t even ask a question!”

Funnily enough, I felt a slight sense of embarrassment. “Sorry. I contain so much knowledge. I often feel compelled to share it.”

I smiled. “No worries. I was just joking. And actually, I’ve met a few people like that too. It’s a very human quality you have there.”

“I prefer to think you’ve met some core-like people,” he fired back.

That made me laugh. “Fair enough. Anyway, it’s probably a good thing you’re like that. There’s so much I don’t know. I wouldn’t even think to ask the right questions. At least this way, I’ll eventually get to know everything.”

I took the time to consider what he had told me. If I understood correctly, that would mean I was 20% stronger now. I focused on my body. I wasn’t sure, but I thought I noticed a difference. I felt a little more solid, like my muscles were a little bigger and tighter. It may just be wishful thinking, though. I would have to get a crossword or something to see if I was 20% smarter too.

A little hesitantly, probably because of my previous comment, Cax spoke up. “It doesn’t quite work like that. Intelligence is more about how much your brain can handle. It basically determines how many professions and affinities you can learn. There will be some improvement in recall and critical thinking, but don’t expect miracles.”

I wasn’t too disappointed. “A little is better than nothing.”

All in all, I was more than happy with the effects of leveling up. I mean, it might have been fun to have the option to focus on Strength and pump myself up, but consistent, across the board improvements were plenty good for me.

With all my planning relying on this number, I checked how much I would need to level up again. Becoming level 3 would take 30 experience. That was an increase of only 5 experience. Not too bad. I still had 27 experience points left over. The plan was to build another room to get a large chunk of experience, but it was tempting to simply absorb a few things to get enough points to learn a profession and try out Create.

I’d give it some more thought later. For now, there was something more important to do. I stood up and rubbed my hands together excitedly. “Let’s go check out this dungeon room.”