For the first time in a century, I woke up. I don’t mean that I awoke from mundane slumber. I mean that my mind actually functioned, I could think clearly, understand more fully, and finally, finally verbalize clearly.

I looked around the room I was in. It had previously been the core room of my new dungeon. However it appeared Norbrant had moved while I slept. I looked down at the pile of trash I sat on top of. In my crazed, almost animal, state I had collected almost everything that even hinted of value. Or ‘Shinies’ as I had called them. I shuddered in distaste but forced myself to paw through the pile anyway. Broken buckles, pieces of rusted mail, a few pieces of mangled silverware. It wasn’t even real silver. I growled in annoyance.

Clambering down from the pile I noticed the new hole drilled into the floor. It appeared to go down some way. Norbrant had started a new layer, though I wasn’t sure how much good it would do us. I understood now, of course, the mistake I had made in those hazy days of stupidity. The world wasn’t ready for new cores yet. There simply wasn’t enough mana.

Mana, as I believe Norbrant has explained, is given off by living creatures, but it’s more complex than that really. Each soul is like a little rift through which mana flows. The larger, or more complex, the soul, the more mana that flows. When a creature, or even a plant, dies its soul moves on to this other plane, allowing a large burst of mana through all at once. The problem was that there wasn’t much complexity left in the world.

The cataclysm, as it’s now called (inspired name, I know), was a wave of mana so powerful that it burned out almost anything that was absorbing mana at the time. Plants, animals, sentient creatures alike, and of course the dungeons. Worse, most creatures respond to high density mana by trying to absorb it, which meant even those not actively absorbing were pushed over the edge and burned from the inside. Because of this, much of the world was scorched. Most creatures of magic were destroyed, and civilization was basically wiped out. Honestly it was a surprise anything had survived.

To make a bad situation worse, the event caused a drastic shift in the weather, leading us into what is now most certainly an Ice Age. I knew because I had hazy memories of being forced further and further south due to cooling temperatures. Dragons may be a warm-blooded reptile but we still hated the cold.

All of this meant that there was precious little mana left. Ley lines and nodes had been destroyed, though they had likely reformed by now they’d be weak, pitiful things. By the standards of the world that came before we were in a mana drought. And I, in my infinite wisdom, awakened a dungeon core. That Norbrant had survived so far was amazing, that there was enough to sustain him and give extra was staggering. It did present a problem though, if he evolved his core too much there simply wouldn’t be enough mana, and he’d die.

This was all bad, but workable. The big problem, however, was the Adventurers. I had dragged a group of adventurers right to our doorstep, and they had indicated they’d be coming back. How could I have been so stupid?! I grabbed my bag and quickly ascended to the top floor of the dungeon. What I found was disappointing. He’d made beetles, almost 60 of them across two rooms. That was it so far. Not enough mana. Curse it all. I supposed it was only fitting that I needed to clean up my own mess.

Scampering out of the dungeon I made my way to the courtyard and stretched my wings. The day was sunny, perfect for flying. I took to the air and did a circuit of the castle. Spying a rabbit, I realized how hungry I was after sleeping for days. One dive later, an aborted squeal, and I had lunch. Now it was time to fix my mistakes.

I began by flying toward Norbrant’s old tower, or what I assumed was his tower anyway. It was only an hour before I was flying over the broken remnants. The tower had, for some reason, snapped cleanly in half, leaving the lower floors still viable, but toppling the top ones off to the side. I landed on the top most floor of the stump and made my way down into the interior. It wasn’t pretty. Most of what had been in here was rotted due to time and weather. I picked through it anyway.

Why was I here you might ask? The answer is simple. Norbrant seemed like the type who enjoyed expensive things. This meant exotic woods and materials. Further only an idiot would turn himself into a Core without having a stash of goods to absorb afterward. If we were lucky they hadn’t all been destroyed.

Finding nothing salvageable on the first floor I made my way down to the second. It was in slightly better condition. I could see what might have once been a desk and chair, several other broken pieces of furniture, and what appeared to be a tub off to one side. I scratched off some splinters from the desk and chair, hopefully he could reconstitute the wood from that. I went down another floor.

Like the one above it this one had been a little better persevered. It was the ground floor and had clearly been some kind of library living room combination, though all the books appeared to have rotted away, the shelves were in fairly good condition. I took more wood scrapings. There were the rags of a moldy carpet on the floor, and I took a scrap of that too. If we were lucky it was animal fiber and he’d be able to reconstitute something.

Once more I descended a set of stairs to what must have been the kitchen, I didn’t bother with any of the items within. Norbrant had already absorbed a plethora of metals from the cell bars. More stairs down, a wine cellar this time. I took scrapings of all the barrels. Then I looked for what I knew must exist. It took me almost two hours to spot the irregularity in the floor, and another three to figure out how to open the secret trap door.

I scampered down the stairs, bag in tow, and found myself in a laboratory, jackpot. How did I know this was here you might ask? Well the answer is simple, the upper floors of his tower were too small to contain the magical apparatuses required for his studies.

Rummaging through the supplies I found that this room had been fairly well preserved. In addition it appeared Norbrant had been careful to keep most of his reagents in sealed containers. For a moment I wondered if he’d be able to reconstitute plants from hundred year old dried leaves. Then I decided it didn’t matter, and dumped samples of each of the containers into the bag. Waste not want not. While I was there I shoved a few other things into my bag as well. Mana crystals of almost all aspects. Some rare minerals. And an entire cache of gem stones.

Down once more I went and found what I was hoping for. A small store room filled with chests. I could tell they’d been covered in runes of preservation at one point, however they’d all burned out, likely when the Mana Wave hit. I started opening chests. There were metals, precious gems, leather hides of dozens of beasts, and seeds, so many seeds. Each set of seeds was in its own little, carefully labled, jar. I had no idea if he could get anything out of them, but I knew we had to try. Some of these species almost certainly didn’t exist anymore. I looked around the store room and sighed. There was no way I could carry all of this. I would need muscle. I sat down to ponder my best possible options.

In the end I decided that my best bet was the human Jake. If I offered to answer questions for him he’d probably raid this place for me and think he was getting the better end of the bargain. Hell, he would be getting the better end of the bargain. Who knew how much magical knowledge had been lost?

I shoved my bag into one of the chests and scuttled back up the stairs, being careful to close the hidden door behind me. I then exited the tower and took to the air once more. I flew along the river back to the castle, circled it once as was my wont, and then took off following the eastern road. As I flew I did some careful math in my head. I am chagrined to say that I still had to use my fore claws. It seemed so little gold and mana only went so far.

It had taken Norbrant four weeks to make the first set of beetles, but Torpor never takes more than two, therefor Norbrant must have increased mana production by creating plants and animals. So call it two weeks. That meant it’d been a month and a half since the adventurers left. How far away was their city? They could be just down the road, or still weeks away, I simply couldn’t know. With a sigh I continued following the road.

It took me twelve days to find the wagons. By then I was dirty and exhausted. I’d had to roost in trees and survive on small game animals the whole way. Alright so I ate small game animals most of the time anyway, but that’s not the point!

I circled the wagons several times, garnering pointing fingers and wary looks from the drovers and people walking alongside. It wasn’t a terribly big caravan, only five or so wagons and maybe fifty people at the outside. I may have counted some of them twice. Or three times. It’s hard to tell from high up, all humans look basically the same.

Carefully I descended, giving them a splendid view of my majestic wings. As I did so I spied my quarry. The four adventurers were walking near the front of the wagons. Out of them only Lila had paused to see what everyone was pointing at. She also looked to be reaching for her bow. Having seen what happened to poor Fred I definitely couldn’t have that.

“LIIIIIILAAAAAAAAAAAAA!” I screeched in my tiny draconic voice. She visibly started, hesitating just long enough for me to land on the road not far in front of them.

“It’s the little bastard!” Exclaimed Hugo when he saw me. “Can we kill the damn thing? It ruined a perfectly good pair of boots.” He growled.

“No.” Stated francis.

“We want to stay on the dungeon’s good side.” Murmured Jake.

“And he just did what we were all thinking.” Finished Lila.

Hugo looked miffed, but apparently let it go. I strutted up to Jake and gave him doleful eyes. “Up?” I said in my most piteous voice.

With a grin Jake picked me up. I squirmed out of his grip and scuttled up onto his shoulder, placing my front claws and head upon his own. “Forward!” I proclaimed Jake snorted, Lila and Francis laughed, Hugo just glared.

I let them walk for almost an hour before I finally spoke up again. “So.” I said, quietly. “We have a problem.”

The four looked around. “Everyone else heard that, right?” Jake asked.

The other three nodded. I rolled my eyes. “I’m up here, on your shoulder.” I explained..

It took Jake a moment to process this information. Francise looked at his own shoulder, Hugo and Lila looked at me. I waved at Lila.

“You can talk!” She exclaimed.

“You knew I could talk!” I exclaimed back just as Jake started to get it.

“YOU BIT ME!” Hugo yelled!

“You got better.” I said. Jake stopped walking.

He reached up and tried to extricate me from his shoulder, I refused to let go.

“Stop that! It’s hard enough holding on up here!” I told him.

“You made me carry you!” He sounded indignant.

“No, you chose to carry me, huge difference.” I explained.

“WELL NOW I’M CHOOSING NOT TO!” He yelled back.

I leapt over his reaching hands onto the ground in front of him and scuttled forward a bit. “Walk and talk folks, walk and talk. Or you’re going to be left behind.” I said as I trotted to catch up with the wagon. The four hurriedly followed.

“Now, as I said, we have a problem.” I started again.

“Are we supposed to ignore the fact of your sudden ability to parse sentences?” Lila asked. Francis nodded. Hugo glared. Jake still looked mostly confused.

“That’s not important right now!” I snapped.

“Like hell it’s not!” Hugo responded.

I sighed. “Fine, sometimes when dragons accumulate enough shini- erhm, treasure, we increase in certain attributes. I won’t bore you with the details, but suffice to say I’m smarter now.” I explained.

“That makes so much more sense now.” Hugo said in a dry, sarcastic tone.

“Not.” Finished Lila.

Francis looked only mildly interested. Jake had found a notebook somewhere and was writing things down.

“Look, do you want to know about the problem or not?” I asked, miffed.

The four gave each other speaking glances. Then Jake spoke, sounding resigned. “What’s the problem.”

“To understand the problem you have to understand a few things about mana.” I began. “Mana is generated by living things. Something basic enough that I’m sure you all understand.” They nodded their heads. “The more evolved a creature is the more mana it generates. Creatures become more evolved by absorbing more mana, usually by living in a higher mana density. Currently the world’s mana density, at least in this area, is very, very low. Are you still following?”

Jake raised his hand. “What do you mean the mana density is low? This is pretty average really.”

“Good question, the answer is, you’re wrong. This is low density. In fact most mana dependent species, that is to say creatures that generate less mana than they absorb, would die in this level of density. If I’m correct most have.” I expounded.

“And you know this because…?” Lila asked, looking skeptical.

“Because I lived through The Cataclysm.” I replied. The four all gave me skeptical looks.

“I wasn’t always this small! Or that dumb.” I said defensively.

“It’s delusional.” Hugo remarked. “I can’t fix delusional.”

“I am not delusional!” I snapped.

“You’re talking about surviving the single most catastrophic event in known history.” Lila commented. “Of course we’re going to be skeptical. Especially since you weren’t exactly this loquacious when we first met.”

I huffed at them. “That’s because I gave up everything to survive.”

“Gave up everything?” Asked Jake, sounding intrigued.

I sighed. “Yes, my intelligence, my size, my magic, everything.” I said. “But really, that’s not important now.” I said, aiming to get back on track.

“This seems pretty damn important to me.” Said Hugo, the others nodded.

“Well too bad. There are some things that shouldn’t be discussed.” I said haughtily.

Jake made an exasperated noise. Hugo looked angry and annoyed. Lila looked thoughtful. Francis was Francis.

“Now, back on topic. Dungeons are a Mana Dependent Creature. That is to say the amount of mana they produce is less than the amount they intake. The mana density of the surrounding area is so low that Norbrant is going to starve eventually.” I explained to them.

“You mean the dungeon, our supposed golden ticket, is going to die.” Hugo said, looking smug.

“Essentially, yes.” I agreed.

“How do we fix this?” asked Jake, sounding alarmed.

“I think ‘can we fix this’ is a better question.” Interjected Lila.

“Both are good questions.” I responded. “I’ll answer them in reverse order. With the answers being ‘maybe’ and ‘it’s complicated’. First, your settlement nearby will naturally raise the mana density of the area, most sentient creatures are pretty complex. Still, it won’t be enough. No, we’re going to have to build a Mana Barrier over the castle and settlement to trap Mana.”

“A what now?” Lila asked as both Jake and Hugo frowned in thought.

“It’s something we use for big spells.” Jake began.

“Basically,” Butted in Hugo. “you create a boundary through which mana can flow only one way, so it gets trapped inside. Usually we use them for big spells that require a lot of mana. But I’ve never seen one more than five or six feet across.” He scowled at me as Jake nodded in affirmation.

“Essentially correct.” I agreed as we continued walking next to the cart.

“It’s impossible.” Jake said after a moment of thought. “The circle would have to be kilometers across, and it’d have to be drawn over running water. Further we’d need a plethora of reagents, some of which are really rare.”

“Well, I have some good news on that front.” I began, receiving a suspicious look from Hugo. “The dungeon can provide almost all of what you need. But I’ll need your help to make that possible.”

“Here we go, the sales pitch.” Hugo said as Francis shook his head.

“It’s nothing major.” I explained. “I just need you to move some chests for me. Dungeons can only create things they’ve absorbed before, so we need the dungeon to absorb the things we want to use. It just so happens there’s a cache of pre-cataclysm materials about two days away from the keep that will suit our needs.”

“Anyone else notice that he keeps using Us, Our, and We but has never actually told us his name?” Francis asked. The other three looked at him, and then at me.

“My name is Nix.” I said. Francis nodded.

“Alright Nix, why shouldn’t we just keep the materials and use them ourselves.” Asked Hugo.

“Because it’s not a large supply of any one thing, it’s a small supply of a lot of things. It was meant to be absorbed by a dungeon so it could create more. Besides, a lot of it is seed and plant samples. Most of which can’t be grown anymore, thanks to the cold.” I told them.

Jake nodded at that. “The freeze, yeah, there are some plants we’ve only kept alive in greenhouses. Even then some don’t do so well.”

“Exactly, except a dungeon won’t have that problem. Which, I should point out, makes this another potential source of revenue.” I said.

“Still doesn’t fix the problem of the circle being too large.” Muttered Hugo.

“That’s easier than it sounds actually. I’ll teach you how to use Barrier Totems.” I responded.

Jake looked up from his journal once more. “What’s a Barrier Totem?” He asked excitedly.

“It’s a specially treated piece of rock or wood all hewn from the same source. You imbue them magically and they create a Sympathetic Link allowing you to cast Circle Magic over the area they enclose.” I explained. Jake wrote that down. “I’ll teach you the proper runes and reagents as we journey. Now however. I need a nap.” I said as I scuttled over to the wagon and hopped into the back.

“Wait! Come back!” Jake shouted after me, I ignored him.