Having all this mana just sitting in my proverbial pockets is making me a bit antsy. I wonder if that’s a dungeon thing, or a me thing. Having a big bank account doesn’t make me want to spend it, but in games, I tend to spend my resources as I get them so I can get more resources.

Whichever the case, those expansion options are calling to me. I’ve been upgrading the alchemy and enchanting labs so Queen and Thing can do their things, but I still have a good chunk saved up, and I really want to get some more room to do stuff.

I also think I’ve come full circle on how I’m going to expand. Past the cemetery could be interesting, but It’d make me more than a bit lop-sided to do that. Up keeps whispering like a temptress, but I keep thinking of what happened the first time I expanded downward. I don’t want to cause a hurricane or tear a hole in the sky or something to actually facilitate my upward expansion. Maybe I can ask the ODA about that. Telar seems to be working on an information packet, but I think she’s going to wait for Tarl to get back before she tries to tempt me with it.

The ratkin’s hunting tunnel was a really tempting direction to go, until I gave it a bit of thought. They are deliberately hunting outside me. If I expand down their hunting tunnel, they’ll be back to hunting inside me. Not to mention that Violet would probably freak out at having a powerful neighbor rubbing elbows with it. So I think I’m back to the original plan: expand down the tunnel Aranya came in from.

I take a few seconds to simply look at the area I’d be getting, though ‘look’ isn’t really the right word. I can just sense a volume that will become mine. Oddly, the volumes for the different expansions are not all the same, nor are the costs. The smallest expansion would be taking part of the town, but that’s also the most expensive, while expanding up gives a ton of volume and costs less than everything else.

I wonder why? Probably another question to ask the ODA. Alright, enough waffling. Time to either do my business or get off the pot. I spend the mana to expand down Aranya’s tunnel.

Yvonne

Yvonne, Ragnar, and Aelara walk through the wilderness on their patrol. The birdkin ranger feels she’s shirked her duties in this regard long enough, and her friends are happy to help her with it.

Well, for certain values of happy. While the dwarf manages to look vaguely interested at the wooded surroundings, Aelara the elf is looking a bit haggard.

“Why are we doing this, again?” asks the city-elf rhetorically, once more. Yvonne smiles at her friend and spreads her arms to take in the nature around them.

“Ranger duties,” she says with a smirk, which earns a snort of laughter from Ragnar, before Yvonne continues. “I suppose we’re deep enough out here now that I can actually show you. It’s not some secret ranger rites or anything like that. I’m actually surprised you haven’t figured it out, Aelara. I thought you studied magic.”

Aelara sighs and mentally puts on her big-girl pants. “I have, but more in actually using it. I can feel the mana around us, but if I paid attention to it all the time, I’d never be able to focus on anything else.”

“Well, focus on it now,” encourages the birdkin. Aelara obliges, and she can even feel Ragnar giving it a shot. With her elven friend, it’s like she’s opened her eyes and is now looking around. With her dwarven friend, though, it’s more like a blind man reaching out and poking what’s around him. It’s not too surprising to Yvonne that his mana sensing is terrible. Like most physical classes, his magic is a lot more internal, so he’s a lot less sensitive to magic around him.

Aelara starts to look intrigued as she takes in how the magic is behaving around them, and speaks up. “I can tell something is different than in the city, but I don’t know how to put it into words.”

Yvonne nods at that. “It is different, yes. In cities and towns, and even some forests, the ambient mana is turbulent. Ranger teachings say complex life makes mana move, and like life itself, it’s more than a little chaotic. But in quiet places like this, the mana is still and stagnant. It’s like the difference between a frothing river and a scum-covered pond. And like a scum-covered pond, unpleasant things can develop in stagnant mana.”

“Monsters?” says Aelara with interest. None of her studies really talked much about monsters. Now she supposes she should have been looking for ranger texts instead of diving deeper into wizardly mana theory.

Yvonne nods. “Yes, monsters. Some seem to breed like ordinary life, but others seem to simply form from the stagnant mana. They attack because the waves we cause are a threat to them. They want to make the mana stay stagnant, while we seem to only churn it more and more.”

“Ach, reminds me o’ wha’ the’ cragstriders like t’ talk about. They say th’ dungeons try t’ smooth th’ mana out, making a middle ground b’tween rapids and ponds, as ye’d say?” says Ragnar, and Yvonne nods before he continues. “Tha’s why they attack dungeons. We make a mess o’ th’ mana and dungeons smooth it out and get th’ mana movin’ over a huge area. Th’ beasties try t’ destroy it so they c’n get back t’ whatever it is they do.”

Yvonne nods again. “Yes, or they may come after various settlements instead, ignoring the dungeons. After all, the dungeons need the energy of delvers to exert their control over the local mana. If the monsters destroy the ‘food’ of the dungeon, it’ll starve and the mana will go still once more.”

“Are the monsters really that smart?” asks Aelara with concern, and Yvonne shakes her head.

“It’s not so much intelligence that guides them to attack people. To them, there are two threats: the big dungeons, and the smaller people. If they cant attack the dungeon, they’ll attack the other threat to them: people. It’s like when two large predators’ territories start to encroach. Neither really wants to try to fight the other directly, so they’ll instead compete for food. Either there’s enough for the both of them, or one is eventually driven off.”

Aelara gives her a flat look. “I don’t think I like the idea of being dungeon food.”

Yvonne just shrugs. “It’s not my best metaphor, but it’s not that far off. Wandering monsters are a threat to people and dungeons alike.”

“Is that why you’re out here, then? To protect Thedeim?” asks Aelara, and Yvonne smiles and shakes her head.

“Technically, I suppose, but I’ve had this duty for longer than I’ve been a Resident. Besides, I like being out in nature like this, even if I sometimes have to cull undesirable things,” she says and points down at a large print left in the loose soil, an obvious sign for her friends of what she's been tracking for a while now, before giving her friends a playful smile.

“Though that’s where you two come in. It’s a lot easier to deal with wandering monsters with a couple friends at my side.”

“Aye, and the experience isnae ‘alf bad, either.”