“What does a dungeon have to do with mana?” I asked Professor Rechts, crossing my arms and tapping my chin in confusion. “Is mana given off by torturing people or something?”

“Torture?” the Saurian asked, raising a furry eyebrow. “Oh, I see. Yes there is a bit of ambiguity in the terms, isn’t there? No, in this context, I’m referring to places where excessive atmospheric mana pools and condenses forming a miasma. These locations are colloquially referred to as dungeons.”

“Miasma, so like some sort of poisonous fog? And this comes from too much mana in an area?”

“Sort of, but not what you’d call traditionally poisonous,” Rechts explained.

The Professor went into teacher mode and dragged me over to a design desk where he could draw diagrams and write notes onto a polished sheet of steel with a wax pencil. I wondered if he expected me to take notes. I also wondered if I would be tested later...

According to the Professor, the mana that hangs in the environment that the other Automata and I absorb as sustenance will collect and pool like any other substance depending on topography, temperatures, air currents, or any number of other factors. In these pools where the mana collects it can become stagnant.

As more and more mana collects in the area it begins to condense until crystals begin to form. I imagined the process to be like rock candy forming in a solution with high concentrations of sugar. These mana crystals, like sugar crystals, need something to latch onto in order to grow. In this case, the mana crystals will begin to form on any living thing that generates mana. Any plants or animals that are in the area will become mana crystal seed material.

When the crystals begin growing on an organism, they also act like a supercharger for the organism’s magic making them orders of magnitude more powerful. On the other hand, the organism’s natural instincts or intellect are completely overwritten by a singular need to feed on the mana of other organisms.

Eventually, organisms that become infected with these crystals will die off, having ignored their natural instincts for survival. The crystals will continue to grow so long as there are sufficient miasma concentration levels. The crystal formations act like mana magnets, drawing in more atmospheric mana to the area.

A subset of Adventurers known as Dungeon Divers will go into these areas in order to mine the crystal formations as they tend to take on the properties of whatever organism they had seeded from. Sometimes, people will intentionally seed specific creatures in a dungeon in order to farm the crystals produced. It can be a very lucrative, if dangerous, business.

Living things can’t last for long in a dungeon before becoming seeded by the mana crystals. Those with high mana pools and low recovery rates seem to do better if they nearly deplete themselves before entering. When I asked about Automata miners, Rechts said that most Automata tended to explode after a short while in a dungeon, though the cause was never fully researched.

The Professor theorized that anything that went into that sort of environment, organic or Automata, would be force fed mana well beyond their normal rate of absorption. In the case of organic organisms, the mana saturation within their bodies would reach a tipping point and the mana would begin to crystalize. For Automata, he suspected, they would exceed their capacity and overload.

Given the capacity of my “batteries”, the idea had merit. Unfortunately, all of the dungeons in the Empire were under the control of the Imperial Army and were typically destroyed before they could get too big. Rechts didn’t know how they did it or where any dungeons were located though. I didn’t relish the idea of having to ask that battle freak, Greevus, for information.

I especially wasn’t looking forward to having to go back to the palace and explain to Milliardo why I suddenly needed to get topped off. Seeing Lena again after how I’d sent her off would also be super awkward.

“About that...” Ram said, casually resting her arms and head on the desk I was sitting at.

It was getting increasingly unnerving how not-me and isolated from my awareness the proxies were getting, while still being able to clearly read my mind whenever they wanted.

“Sorry about that Daddy, it’s not intentional” she said sheepishly.

Rechts looked even more confused than I felt, hearing only her half of this apparent conversation.

“That was mean Daddy. You shouldn’t have done that to Lena. You need to apologize to her,” Ram scolded me.

“I know, but I can’t have her coming along for her own safety. You know as well as I do that if I told her what was going on, she’d insist on coming. I wasn’t about to give her the choice,” I said firmly. “Besides... This is all my fault. I need to fix it.”

“Well if you’re going to go that route, then this is all my fault for not being kinder to MainFrame when I had the chance,” she said dryly.

“Your fault?” I asked, incredulously.

“Maybe it’s Lena’s fault for getting you involved with the Empire and leading to that audience with the former Emperor?”

“That’s ridiculous.”

“Oh, it’s Elita’s fault for not watching you closely enough. Or Beam’s fault for putting you on this planet. Or your former team manager’s fault for making you feel like you had to put in all that overtime and miss your regular train. Or the hiring manager’s fault for hiring you at that company! Or your parents fault for ever meeting in the first place and conceiving you!!” She yelled, standing up and glaring down at me.

I shrank back from her onslaught, unsure of where to look or how to respond. As quickly as her ire flared, it relented and shoulders and expression softened. She moved to stand beside me and hugged my head to her chest, gently stroking the top of my head as Lena had done from time to time.

“See?” she said softly. “You didn’t do this intentionally and it’s clearly everyone’s fault. So there’s no reason for you to have to fix this all by yourself. Let people help you, and not just your proxies. Have some faith in your work. Lena has the latest Primary Operating System patch to protect her from [Dominator.exe] and is not only the most advanced Automata you’ve created but is the first Mage Class Automata in existence.”

“When did you get so smart?” I joked, looking up at her and patting her arms.

“Just programmed that way I guess,” she said with a wink.

“I’m not sure how I feel about this, I’m feeling some very complicated things right now,” Lena remarked, standing near the lift with her arms crossed. “For a really smart guy, you can be really stupid sometimes.”

“You’ll get no argument here,” I quipped. “What happened? Shouldn’t you be at the palace by now?”

Rom peeked out from behind Lena and gave me a shy wave.

“Sorry Daddy. We couldn’t let things go like that. I told Lena everything about what’s happened with Ram and me as well as what we know about Dezaraus.”

“Rom! Not cool Rom, not cool at all,” I pouted.

“Look Prime, I’m sorry. Don’t be mad at her, I’m really grateful that she told me what was happening. Especially since you won’t. I shouldn’t have reacted the way I did when I saw how you were acting with your... daughters... I got jealous. It was unseemly and childish. I beg your pardon,” she apologized, bowing her head low.

“Yeah okay, it’s fine,” I mumbled, looking away. “Tweedle-Ram and Tweedle-Rom may have spilled the beans but that doesn’t mean I’m cool with throwing you into a horde of robot zombies.”

“Beans?” she asked, looking around at the floor.

“Tipped the bogos,” Rom offered to the Princess, who nodded in understanding.

“What’s a bogo?” I asked, getting confused myself.

“It’s like a hamster, but that’s not important right now” Ram whispered to me.

“You guys know local idioms?” I asked, shocked.

Ram and Rom both gave me closed-eye smiles and shrugged their shoulders in synchronized innocence.

“Look, Prime, I get that you think you need to keep me safe from harm. I am prepared to accept that as confession of your feelings of love for me,” Lena said sternly.

“Wait a min--” I began to protest.

“However! You just got done telling me about how great this new body is and how I’m to be the Emperor’s Blade.”

“I did say that, didn’t I...” I mumbled.

“I agree that throwing me to a horde of robot zombies, whatever that is, would be disagreeable if I was but a frail little girl. But I am not. I am a weapon. A weapon of your own design.”

“I guess that’s true...”

“Therefore, we shall hold a contest of strength.”

“A what?”

“Come along Master Artificer!” she yelled, heading for the lower levels. “You and I are going to fight. You win, then I’ll tell you all about a rumor I know regarding the location of a permanent dungeon. If I win, I shall not tell you but will take you instead!”