As prmoised the second chapter today XD Yeah as sadi still not fully recovered so dont scrutinize it too closely. There will certainly be mistakes in grammar and maybe some logical ones too. I am as always open for suggestions.

Ah now that is an interesting topic. I think it will be fun.

(Me):”True as well. I have been thinking hard about what magics I want to learn. But I think i do not have enough information yet on all the possibilities.”

On my words Kalannar had me tell him all that I knew about mana, spells and everything else related to magic. From the the deepening frown between the Drow´s eyebrows I could tell that it was quite insufficient for his tastes.

(Kalannar):”Well I do have to admit that, for having found out most of this by himself, your druid is quite impressive. But it has many flaws in it. Well let me give you basic explanation for now. Your goblin has a certain understanding of the Worldly Elements as we call them. Those include Fire, Wind, Water and Earth as well as Light and Darkness. Then there are the Primordial Elements, those are a good bit more abstract and would be Nature, Spirit, Spatial and Chaos. Lastly we have the Mythical Elements, Abyssal and Heavenly ”

I listened attentively as Kalannar went into the detail of what made them separate into those three categories. Apparently those were the most basic parts that mana could be refined into. The first part represented the mana that responded to the phenomenon that could be observed in the natural world. Primordial were already harder to define and a lot harder to comprehend in its working and principles. Then Lastly were the Mythical ones. Those were apparently not even really types of mana but rather the intent that was fuelled into the energies by the user. A healer that would stand behind his healing spell with all his heart and mind set on helping and doing good for the sake of good would apparently influence his spells to lean towards the heavenly inclination. Someone that instead put all the negative emotions and intent into his spells would attract the abyssal inclination. At least that is how the Drow understood its workings. While the relations between the worldly elements was quite easy to understand with the attractions and rejections it was not nearly as clean or even definitive on the other parts. Not to mention that there were apparently types of mana that were a mix of different kinds of the basic ones or extreme refinement towards a particular use.

(Kalannar):”Well once you start practising actual magics you will see how things work out. For a Dungeon Lord it is much easier to operate mana after all.”

I nodded and contemplated for a while about all the information I had received. While I was pondering about a few things Kalannar took some of the scrolls and quickly glanced over them. Here and there nodding his head before sorting them out according to some logic in his head.

(Me):”So how do all these types of mana then work with magic skills? After all I heard that some of them worked without a set type of mana.”

(Kalannar):”Very good, yes…. let us take summoning magic as example since we have already mentioned this before. Magic itself is basically a instruction according to which the mana is then formed and used. In some cases the effect of the spell varies according to the type of mana or what combination is used. Most types of magic will need a combination of certain types to reach the highest levels of use. In the case of summoning, if you use earth mana, a earth elemental would appear. The same for the other elements. Of course the spell itself would also have to be adjusted a bit to suit the needs but the basic spell would remain the same.”

If he says it like that…. then what about alchemy?

(Me):”If all that works out, won't I learn some things about magic through the Grimoire as well ? I imagine something as complex as that would need a few tricks.”

(Kalannar):”Yes that is indeed the case. You will get a few mana manipulation skills. I think, Fire, Water and Wind. Since you need to Keep these under control. Whether you actually use your own mana or from the crystals is not really important since you have as many as you like at your disposal. As for magic itself the most important one would be Nature.”

(Me):”Well the mana makes sense I guess. But why is Nature magic that important?”

(Kalannar):”Simple actually… to get the most out of the various plants and fluids or material from other beings, you will need to manipulate it with nature magic. Higher quality potions and poisons actually have magic infused into them as well. This of course will mean that you will get some basics of the enchantment skill as well.”

Hmmm well makes sense. I guess that will leave me no other choice but to do learn that stuff….even though I really do not like being a healer. Though… wait a moment. If nature magic can manipulate those things…. that is worth some thoughts. Well lets hear some more advice from the Pro and see where it leads.

(Me):”What would you say would be helpful for me to learn. Also what can you actually teach me ?”

The Drow made a thoughtful humm at my question and seemed to consider this for a while.

(Kalannar):”Well, as Dungeon Lord it will have a rather large influence on your dungeon. Since what you learn is one of the factors that influences which evolutions your dungeon can unlock. But i would advise to learn things that you can do from the back. It is unwise to put the avatar into a place where it could get into danger. As for what I can teach you. This would include most of the pure Worldly elemental magic and some of their combinations, spatial and summoning magic of course, mind magic and enchantment. ”

Well he did explain that he had a lot of different magics. But that is more than expected. Though I wonder to what level he actually learned all that. There really are a few interesting ones that he knows.

(Me):”I would have expected there to be curses in your repertoire. But there are quite some interesting ones that you know. ”

At my words he gave me a wry smile and shook his head.

(Kalannar):”That thought is just nonsense. Curses and blessings are just enchantments onto a being itself. One with good effects and one with bad ones. So did anything of these take your fancy?”

(Me):”Actually… yes. Mind magic sounds quite tempting, I think outside of my alchemy studies I would like to focus on this one. Summoning and Spatial magic sound interesting as well. As for other things I will still consider it.”

He seemed to be fine with those decisions and wrote some things down quickly while he talked me through some exercises. He also warned me that Mind magic was a versatile and useful, but very hard to master skill. It would also be of very limited use in any battle situation.

(Kalannar):”Now that we are through this part I think we should get back to our interest in what you are planning for your future. This will also lead us to the thing I mentioned earlier about stages.”

I had to take a moment and think back, he had indeed mentioned something about stages but we had then taken our time on golems and magic.

(Me):”Right, you did mention something like that. So what are those stages? Or did you mean levels?”

On this Kalannar shook his head and sighed almost tiredly. But then he reached for the drinks that he had been continually pouring for us and took a big gulp before he went on.

(Kalannar):”No, we know that dungeons have a similar level concept as all other beings do have. But while we have evolutions the dungeons have stages. Since there was never that much contact between Dungeon Lords and other races we only know things from indirect methods and from contact with some of the races living within the dungeons themselves.”

He the reached for the heap of scrolls on the side and pulled out a much smaller one.

(Kalannar):”From what we know is, that at certain moments in a dungeons growth they will enter different stages. You are in the first one, the infant stage as it is generally known. There are others that we call the adult and the elder stages. Those steps have a strong influence on the way you expand your dungeon and on it´s theme.”

On the last part I was puzzled. I had not not gotten any informations of such a thing through the dungeon system yet. But then again it was quite stingy with information about events that are still further off.

(Me):”What exactly do you mean with theme there? ”

(Kalannar):”Well as you surely know, your dungeon´s name is influenced by the way you are seen from the outside. But that is in turn influenced by how you are presented in- and outside. Well let's look at the current elder dungeons that are known in our lands. Gate of Hell, Deserts Mirage, Ice Maze, Ocean Serpent, Ancient woods, Tomb of heroes and the Spatial Ghost dungeon. These Dungeons are the most famous ones that survived the great war. Each of them has a quite unique affinity and look to them. Beginning with the Gate of Hell we estimate that it has a earth, fire and darkness affinity as well as a strong inclination to the abyssal. It is basically a gigantic crater of malice. It is positioned within the north eastern region where once a quite big kingdom had its territory. Sadly for that kingdom it was a quite vicious dungeon. It is assumed that the demons helped make it in secret just like the goblins helped you. The outcome was that scores of demons flooded the kingdom and utterly destroyed it. This happens still today in random intervals which is quite the plague on its surroundings.”

Afterwards he told me about the other Dungeons as well. They all sounded quite amazing and it was no wonder that they were not destroyed yet. It seemed like that would take a monumental effort. The ones that fascinated me the most, were the Ocean Serpent and Spatial Ghost dungeon. Both were able to travel. One through the oceans and the other was by now within something like its own dimension with some entrances popping up and disappearing all over the world.

(Kalannar):”We do know that once you enter the adult stage, the expansion of the dungeon will become easier. Since that is the point where most dungeons grow significantly. The further you progress the more your evolutions will come to bear fruits. For example since you obviously have the crystal evolution you will get a strong jump in quality and in range of what crystals you can make and appear by themselves.”

So it really is just like the levels and evolutions of the normal races. The stages mean a big jump in power and quality.

We then continued to talk about some evolutions and what known benefits there were. But I wasn't too keen on letting them have a say on my path in that area. Obviously Kalannar wasn't too happy about that. But it seemed to be within what he expected. We had spent now a good portion of the day on all this talking and we were both getting tired as well as hungry. So I bid him farewell for now and returned to the goblins to take a meal to myself before I turned my attention to the other matter that I wanted to get done. There was of course plenty to take care of right now with all the new things I had at hand. For better worse the slaves were still in a bad shape. It was obvious that they would need more time to regain their strengths so the field extensions and mining works would still have to wait. Of course I “could” make them work right away. But I was pretty sure they would not last long in that state. This left me with some time to turn my attention to other matters.

Let's see what that Grimoire really can do.

I headed over to my crystal room with the book. I instructed the goblins that no one was allowed inside until I was done. They had their standing orders to follow anyway. So once there I sat down and opened the book. Kalannar had given me a brief rundown on how to use this thing previously. The book was divided into three parts. Apparently the knowledge contained was too much to be imprinted in one go and I would have to learn various skills, as well as practise the imprinted things properly to get the most out of this thing. Quite different from what I expected but quite reasonable. On the first page was actually a large spell circle which had a free space in the middle that roughly resembled a hand.

A drop of blood was it right?

I took a stone knife I had taken with me and made a little cut in the center of my palm before I pressed my hand down on the rough parchment.

Holy fuuu...

As soons as my palm touched the primitive paper it begun. The spell circle lit up and begun to pule. Meanwhile I felt the informations rush into my head like a flood. It was not as bad as back then when I had gotten appraisal and the other dungeon skills but still rough enough. It was a very particular feeling. There is just no way to describe the sensations of actual memories streaming into your mind like a rapid stream.

Unlocked skills up to the level:

Alchemy high

Fire mana manipulation high

Water mana manipulation high

Wind mana manipulation high

Nature mana manipulation high

Herbalism high

Enchantment low

This is really awesome !

I couldn't help the sudden rush of elation that spread through me. The feeling was completely different from when I had bought a skill. I actually knew and understood every bit of information that had been transferred. I understood how I would need the fire mana to regulate temperatures, the water mana to move liquids at precisions that would not be possible without modern equipment of my old world and the wind mana to keep the gasses in check and other such things.

I fucking know 30 different uses for those mountain flowers now ! Holy… I bet Kalannar wants me to get hooked on him with this gift! Well I sure owe him for that.

I took my time for a while to skim through those new memories and realized that I would still have to practise a lot. Even though I had the knowledge now to do stuff, I would still need to get my actual skills up to shape.

Seems it is time to set up a laboratory of sorts huh ?

For now I went and prepared a new room close to the greenhouse I had made a while ago. I made it spacious and well lit. Then I had the goblins carry in the crates related to alchemy and made them leave again to get a bunch of all the plants we currently had. I carefully went about to open the crates and extract the contents one by one. It was a large collection of glass tubes, bottles and other specialized equipment. I carefully set everything up since they had been so kind to supply me with some foldable tables as well.

So that is how he got all that stuff over. It seems they are quite adept at making things that can be quickly built up and taken apart again. I guess they really want me to get started on the potion production if they supply me with all of this. Well not that I don't understand their point.

After looking over the setup I spawned a few heat crystals and set them below the equipment that needed them. The fire mana manipulation let me set their temperature output to specific levels which would really make this whole thing a lot easier. The last addition was a small well at the side to draw fresh water from.

Hmmm now that I look at it, I seem to not quite have enough herbs and such. I will need to get Gobtar and his goblins out and about again.

Since that was the case I decided to put this off for a bit and instead give the other things a thorough look for now. I inspected the slaves and the progress on training as well as out production of necessities and was quite pleased with the overall result. A surprising thing was that the bee queen had been quite zealous and on a inspection she had already laid a good many eggs. If it went on like that we would soon have an increase in their population which was just perfect for me. Later I got over Gobtar and instructed him to take his goblin troops out tomorrow. They were supposed to catch as many animals as they could and set up traps. Of course they also had the order to search for herbs and to get this done smoother I bought them the skills with mana. There was after all, no need for them to have this skill at its best.