Creating a Pylon was, in theory, easy. The actual process was a lot harder.

Chesu walked Gem through it with the grace and ease of a teacher who’d repeated this lesson many times before. “Everything in Sleyn—hell, everything in the cosmos, far as I know—is made of mana in various states of stability. You’ve spent your time refining mana that’s around you, but have you actually looked at it?”

Gem focused on the ambient refined mana in the air. It was like some complicated mathematical equation, floating all around him. The majority of the refined mana was made of a single point—which Chesu called a mote. It was a glowing center, and from it sprouted impossibly-thin strands in nine directions. Each strand connected to another mote, and from it more strands which connected to more motes. It was beautiful, complex, and overwhelming.

“Five motes are needed to create one ‘point’ of mana. You’ve got a whole web here, but if you separate out fifteen motes and collect them into a single space, you’ll create a Heart.”

Before the question was finished, Gem tried accessing the motes in the same way he would a block. Nothing happened.

“A good guess, but mana motes are a cosmic thing, not a Sleyn thing. Different mechanics.” Chesu clicked his tongue to the roof of his mouth. “Thing is, I can’t really tell you how to manipulate motes. It’s a thing cores can do, and I’m not a core. All I know is what I was taught, and that’s what I’m telling you. To make a Heart, you collect fifteen motes into a single space and that’ll make them into a Mob Heart. And then once you have a Heart, you shove a single point of mana into it while picturing an obelisk of your own design around it. That’ll create your Pylon.”

“Welcome to being a Dungeon Core,” Chesu said with a sharp laugh.

Like all things since his exodus from the endless void, Gem found he just needed time to puzzle through the issue. He eventually figured it out.

It wasn’t as simple as just collecting fifteen motes. First Gem had to break five motes from the web and coax them into a single unit of mana. Once he had one created, it was just a matter of repeating the process two more times. When all three mana units existed, it just took a slight coaxing to get them to join together.

The resulting joining created a flash of white light. If Gem had eyes, he would have squinted away from the sudden illumination in otherwise murky darkness. But being an omnipresent floating consciousness trapped inside a gem had its advantages, it seemed. His lack of shying away meant he could watch the motes of mana form a skin-like hardness around themselves, becoming a small irregularly shaped crystal.

Basic Heart - Unaligned.

“Got it in one, kid.” Chesu stretched his arms over his head, his wings fluttering rapidly as he stretched. “If you had created the heart with element-aligned motes, you’d have a different type of Heart on your hands. But don’t worry about that for now. Focus on turning it into a Pylon.”

“It can be whatever you wish, as long as you keep two things in mind: the first is that everything on Sleyn—except for organics that aren’t also building materials—is made of blocks. Anything not made of blocks will look out of place if its also obviously not made of organic material.”

“This is a thing that will be present in each room. You’d do well to make it inconspicuous, as savvy adventurers can seek them out. While they can’t tunnel through your blocks, they can absolutely attack and destroy your Pylons.”

Chesu waved a hand flippantly through the air. “Hero Cores is the technical term, but every world has a different name. Adventurers is a common one. Delvers. Heroes. Mercs. All depends on where you’re planted.”

Gem hesitated for only a moment.

Chesu’s face split in two, a nasty smile firmly smeared across his lips. “Oh, that’s genius. No. No, they can’t. Adventurers can’t destroy any of your blocks, and that includes trees you’re growing or have grown.”

Gem put the unaligned Heart in his inventory for the time being. Instead of continuing with his Pylon creation, he returned to his cobblestone generator and created more blocks.

Surprisingly, Chesu didn’t ask what he was doing. Whether because the wisp trusted him or because of curiosity, the wisp allowed him to continue to work.

While generating blocks, Gem kept an eye on his mana total. When it got close to full, he used his Crafting menu to manifest his new block types. Stone blocks required he had two cobblestone blocks in his inventory, and likewise cut stone required he have a stone block in his inventory. It was no surprise, then, that mossy cut stone required he have cut stone.

Each block took one mana to craft—a far cry from the massive expenditure Chesu had made it seem. However, Gem wasn’t able to absorb these. There would be no generators like with his cobblestone.

“Aesthetics. A visually pleasing dungeon is a popular dungeon. At least in the days of there being multiple Dungeon Cores active on Sleyn. You could make your entire dungeon out of dirt blocks and I’m sure you would still be the most popular dungeon.” Chesu laughed at his own joke. When Gem didn’t join him, he added: “get it? Because you’re the only one?”

Gem responded dryly.

Despite there being no real value, Gem felt compelled to craft the stone blocks. Chesu’s cruel humor aside, he wasn’t wrong—Gem didn’t have to go out of his way to be the most popular dungeon on Sleyn. But it felt wrong to buck tradition. The cut stone and mossy cut stone blocks were so much more visually pleasing than the flat bumpy texture of the cobblestone or the rough and coarse texture of the regular stone block.

And there wasn’t much else he could do with his time or mana at the moment.

In order to make sure he made the best Pylon possible, Gem wanted to see a fully-grown tree first. He didn’t know how long it would take for his saplings to grow, but, in the meantime, he could focus on creating a supply chain.

“This whole thing would be easier if you had mobs to help you,” Chesu said at some point.

Gem ignored the wisp. While he wasn’t wrong, there was nothing stopping him from doing things this way.

At least, not yet.