It was a very nice sword. And now it was his. Fred smiled. The brand new blue Treasure Sprite contained a small image of a very fine long sword, which the fighter had dropped. "Hey. Do these humans know that they can get multiple fine new longswords, just like the one the fancy fighter had, if they keep killing my creatures?"

Not yet. But they will. They're clever. They'll figure it out soon enough. Once they do, they'll start leaving equipment inside you purposefully.

"Okay. I should make more rooms."

Yes. And go deeper. You've gone up and down the slope, but the really valuable real estate is deeper into the mountain.

"Real Estate? Are you sure I'm not just a landlord?" Fred asked.

No. It was a figure of speech. I'm just telling.. . no, advising you to start digging down.

"So, from where? Do we want humans to have to go through the ogre's lair to get further?"

Not necessarily. Humans will seek out your creatures to attack them anyway. Your current domain structure isn't bad.

"Yeah, but the hallways are too small."

I do have some advice about that. I recommend that all of your lairs be accessible from the front entrance, but I believe I've said before that some creatures will need more access and freedom. So why don't you make a large, vertical shaft down to your domain's second level? Easy for big flying monsters to get in and out, hard for humans to get in, unless they can fly.

"Huh. I never thought about it as a second level, but that makes sense. Okay, good idea. Time for me to do some serious digging."

Also, can I offer some friendly, constructive criticism? The humans know of you, and what you are. No need to hide, and you have tremendous power to shape the earth any way you want. Feel free to be creative as you can be. Big box rooms and straight halls? You can do better than that, I know.

"I hear ya. Lemme get to work." Fred did. First, he made a sloping addition to his cross hallway, plunging down at a thirty degree angle. As he started it, he decided to make it a long spiral down, not just straight. He noticed that his "speed of dirt" was visibly faster now; he could move more dirt and rock faster. Mostly rock, now, as he descended deeper. He got the sloping tunnel to do a loose 360 degree rotation, and then 100 spans of tunnel deeper towards the mountain, before he felt he had done enough. "This is deeper than I've ever been", Fred thought.

He found some strange striations in the rock. It was gold. He just knew. "Hey, I found gold! Can I make coins now? Can I make my own treasure?"

Without knowing what the human coins look like, you'd best make gold bars, as specific treasure. Or you could make your own coin design. I'd like to see that. But Treasure Sprites are only made from items that others drop inside your domain. You can't make any Treasure Sprites with that gold.

"Specific Treasure?"

Yes. I believe I told you that Dragons will need gold in their lairs. You'll find other specialized uses for gold in time. But now you can place gold anywhere you want in your domain, and that can be a powerful lure to get adventurers to go where you want them to.

"But what if they take it? This gold seam doesn't seem like a lot. What if I run out?"

Did you forget? You can transmute all you want. You have rock. Turn it into gold. It's your magic.

"Yeah, I kinda wished you were joking about that. It still gives me the creeps. Like too much power in my hands. Like a monkey's paw thing."

Monkey's paw? I don't know about that.

"Yeah, where do I remember that from? It's a thing. A story where someone has wishes that are guaranteed to go wrong every time. Like a curse."

Your magic is not a curse. Trust me. It comes straight from Aeru, and Aeru doesn't give out curses.

"Well, forgive me if I don't flood the world with gold. It still feels wrong to me."

I don't want that either, and I'm glad you want to be careful and thoughtful. I admire that about you.

"… Okay. Well, back to digging."

Fred decided to make a hub room here, and branch off in three directions, making a large circular room at the end of each branch. The rooms were bigger than any he'd made before, and they took a while. Night fell while he was working, and he kept an eye on the young raiders who kept running in to grab herbs from his main entrance. Shortly after nightfall, new people showed up at the entrance, and Fred turned to pay attention.

It was at least three dozen people, including lots of people who looked like the Four Tropes did; good quality, well-fitted equipment, and competent attitudes. Some old men in robes who bossed others around. Some wagons in the distance. Other humans who looked like laborers.

See the sigil on that man? He's from the official adventurers guild in this nation. This is it. Everyone knows about you now, and you should expect regular delvers from now on.

Fred noticed that the original villagers were absent. He hoped they'd been paid off, not simply run off.

One woman, dressed in tight-fitting black clothes, approached the entrance. Suddenly she shimmered and changed. Fred assumed she had some sort of invisibility spell. "Cool!", he thought. He could still keep track of her, as she slid silently into his domain. She quickly poked her head into each monster lair, and none of them stirred or reacted. She took a bit longer to peek at the bear, and when Fred looked too, he saw something he hadn't expected. The boar was in there too. Snuggled up to the bear. They were spooning like lovers. "What the hell? Is that a normal thing?", Fred thought.

She spent a bit more time examining the bat-man's lair. It was very hard to see the bat-thing in its little high nook. Plus, Fred realised he hadn't removed any of those spikes he'd made, so she had to move carefully.

Then she moved to the ogre's room. It was snoring face down on its pile of stones, but as she moved into its room, the ogre's arm picked up a stone and flung it at her, all without seeming to wake up. Fred was amazed when she dodged the missile, and it slammed into the far tunnel wall with a huge crash. She ran from the room immediately, but continued down the corridor to the sloping spiral ramp, while watching behind her. The ogre never woke up to pursue her, though, and soon enough she found the second floor that Fred was busy excavating. He could see that she'd spotted the gold seam too. After a few more minutes of careful poking around, she climbed the spiral, slipped past the creature lairs, and exited.

Fred could see her reporting back on everything she'd seen to the others gathered there. "Well, now they know what I'm made of." Fred smiled. "Jim? Why is the boar sleeping with the bear?"