"So you see, this is how much energy it takes to build a basic dungeon." Alexis waves her hand again and the model of a dungeon disappears. Soon, it's replaced by a strange looking bar graph floating in the air.

"Now a basic dungeon isn't much really. It's just a few floors and a boss room. Most dungeons are stuck on that for years until they can make a bigger one. I got lucky and my core was placed in an area with a higher concentration of mana than most. I was able to build twenty floors before anyone even found me. Then I managed to get all the way to fifty-two before anyone realized how few floors I had." I can see Alexis is getting excited as she is explaining.

"Ok, so what does that mean for me? You want me to pour a bunch of mana into you so you can build it quickly?" Alexis starts to shake her head violently back and forth.

"No, no, no. If you did that, then at best I'd manage to hold onto forty percent of it. Remember big mana influx equals Alexis not being with a fuck." She stops and tilts her head to the side as if she's thinking.

"I mean it's fun, but overall a waste of energy. No, what I want is more simple than that." She waves her hand again and the graph changes. "This is how much energy you are giving me on a daily basis." She motions to a bar that is nearly to the top of the graph. "And this is how much I need to maintain myself through the day." She motions to a bar that's a little under half as tall as the first.

"So what happens to the rest of the energy I give you?" Even though I wasn't the best study in math class, I can tell there is a huge surplus on her end.

"Well, what I have been doing is storing it in these." She reaches below her chair and pulls out a white brick. She weighs the brick in her hand for a second then hands it to me.

It feels surprisingly warm in my hand, and the surface is almost as smooth as glass. I lift the brick up to my eyes to stare at it closer. It's surprisingly heavy for its size. I'd put it at about fifteen or twenty pounds. The brick itself is only about eight inches long and four inches wide and tall.

"Ok, what am I looking at?" Alexis smacks her hand against her forehead.

"Sorry, I spaced on the fact that you aren't familiar with everything in this world. That is a mana stone, well mana brick. I make them to store excess mana as well as use them for a big boost when needed." She holds out her hand for the brick so I hand it back to her.

"Usually mana stones are small when they form naturally. Since I make them, I can make them any size I want. This is about as big as I can make them without them degrading." She tilts her head to the side as she stares at the brick. "Maybe if I tweak the matrix on it just a little bit." Alexis stares at the stone in her hand so long I start to wonder if she forgot about me.

"Uhhh, Alexis?" She shakes her head rapidly before her head snaps around to look at me.

"Sorry, I got distracted. Anyway, when I make a mana stone I can absorb it at any point. So all the power stored inside them is transferred to me with zero loss of energy. That's why I can use them as a boost in power in a pinch." She smiles and I realize she is extremely proud about what she said.

"I'm guessing that's not normal?" I tilt my head to the side a little bit, trying to figure out what I'm missing.

"Yeah, it's amazing really. In any transfer of energy, even the one we have I can only absorb about eighty percent. The rest ends up lost in the air, or leaching into the ground." She smiles at me as she waves her hand and makes another brick appear. She hands the new one to me. It is the same size as the first, but it's much lighter.

"Why does this one feel different?" As I look back up, she is bouncing in her seat like she is excited.

"Because this one is currently empty. I want you to fill it for me. I want to see how long it takes you to fill the stone, and how fast your mana recovers. Then I'll be able to figure out how many stones I would need to fill to complete my design." Her graph disappears and the model of the dungeon floats back in front of me.

"See, if I build my dungeon like this, then I'll be worth more alive than dead to any kingdom I'm in." The way she says that tells me I'm missing something. Still holding the stone in my right hand, I raise my left to cut her off.

"Wait a minute, what was that last part about?" Alexis's face falls for a second before she leans forward.

"Do you know what happens to most dungeons in this world?" When I shake my head no, she sighs and starts to explain. "Most dungeons are destroyed before they get too dangerous. The few who don't become powerhouses that no one under gold rank can hope to enter and survive." She pauses to see if I'm listening, so I nod for her to continue.

"When Vixi was explaining this to me, I thought of another way. One that would make me more valuable alive than destroyed. I came up with this design to be scalable for different groups. In essence, stronger groups can go to an appropriate floor. While weaker groups can train to get stronger in the first few floors."

"Isn't that what most dungeons do? I mean your dungeon started off easy and got harder." Alexis smiles as I speak and seems to get even more excited.

"Yesssssss! Don't you see? Most dungeons don't do that. Most of the ones would have made it an uphill battle from the time that you walked in. I mean not young dungeons because it takes a lot of energy to change floors. I had reached a point where I had shifted my design several times by the time I was found. When the first adventurer walked into my dungeon, they should have died on my first floor."

"Instead, I left every level to get progressively harder. That way younger adventurers could still train and fight as long as they didn't dive too deep. When I started to design my new dungeon, I kept to the same theory. I just added a little bit of a twist." She waves her hand and I see the model fade away to be replaced with a sign of some kind.

"See what I mean? It's perfect! It will let the newer people know which floors are safe. While showing the more powerful ones how to skip ahead to the floors suited to their level. All I had to do was split the levels above and below ground." She starts to shift in her seat and wave her hand at the empty space beside the table. As she goes, another model of the dungeon pops into existence in front of her.

"I mean getting permission to go above and below ground was a pain. It took me a shit load of begging before they agreed on a trial basis. Of course if it fails, then they will never let it happen again." I cut her off before she goes too much farther. My brain is filling up with questions by the minute.

"Hold up! I have a couple of questions that I feel I need to ask. One, what the hell does that sign actually say? Two, who did you have to ask for permission?" Alexis pauses and takes a deep breath.

"Sorry, I forgot you can't read. If you like, I can give you a crystal that will teach you to read this world's script." I wince as she suggests that, remembering the last time I used one of her crystals.

"I think I'll pass on that, no offense." She shrugs then winces as she seems to remember what happened last time as well.

"Yeah, sorry I forgot. Anyway, the sign is basically directions saying which floor is rated for which level of adventurer. As for who I had to beg, it was this world's Gods. Particularly Amenth, the god of dungeons and design. Of course, most people don't know he is the God of dungeons too." Alexis pauses and tilts her head to the side, a move that I'm starting to associate with her thinking.

"I just realized that most people can't talk to their gods anytime they want to. Dungeons are different. We can actually speak to Amenth at any time. If he is busy we might have to wait a while, but we can always talk to him."

"Huh, how about you ask him who has a claim on my soul next time you are speaking to him." I chuckle at my joke, but Alexis gets really quiet. "Was it something I said?"

"No, it's just I asked already. He told me that part of the deal was that he couldn't tell me." She seems to shrink into her seat as I stare at her.

"Did he say why they didn't want you to know?" She nods her head slowly and her voice gets quiet as she answers.

"If you knew who had a claim on your soul, your actions would change. Your God wants you to continue on the path you are on. Whatever you are heading towards, it's the path they want you on." I sit in silence as I digest the information I just received. The fact that there is a plan in place worries me. I don't like being played by anyone, even if it is a god. Eventually, I pull myself out of my thoughts and focus on the stone in my hand.

"So how many of these stones do you need to build your dungeon." I can see that Alexis knows I'm trying to change the subject. Thankfully, she goes with it and smiles as she starts talking again.

"To build it all in one go, I need about ten of them." I weigh the stone in my hand carefully.

"That doesn't seem like very many. You sure you wouldn't need more than that?" Alexis shrugs her shoulders then smiles.

"To build it, no. To fill it with my monsters I would need more, but that can wait a while. If I get it built, I can take a little bit and add monsters in as needed." I weigh the brick in my hand as I think about her words.

"So what do I need to do to fill this brick with mana?" I'm pretty sure it is the same as channeling it through a blade, but I don't want to assume.

"Just channel your mana into it like you did your sword in my dungeon. The brick should take it easier since it's what the material does naturally." As she watches me closely, I start to channel my mana into the brick.

At first, there is barely any feeling of my mana moving. I can feel my mana moving through me, but it seems to be recovering just as fast. I focus harder in order to push my mana into the brick as fast as I can. The rush of power leaving me causes my breath to hitch as the brick continues to soak up my mana.

I feel something in the brick latch onto my mana. A sharp cramp in my center causes me to double over in pain. My mana is flowing out of me faster than I can control. Before I can shut the flow of mana off, I feel myself falling. When my body hits the hard wood of the floor, I hear Alexis scream.

"JIM!" She kicks the brick out of my hand and I feel the connection break.

"What the fuck was that!?" My breath is coming in gasp, and I can't get my chest to quit heaving. My head is so heavy that I can barely lift it off the floor, and the whole world is moving sluggish. I try to push myself back to my feet, but my arms refuse to move. Alexis pulls my head up to look into her eyes. I can see her lips moving, but her words aren't matching her lips movements.

"Jim… you have to pull it together! Jim, you filled it too far! You need to take some back before it goes critical!" I can feel my arms gaining traction on the ground as I force myself into a kneeling position.

"The fuck are you talking about?" I'm shaking my head to try and clear it when Alexis kneels down beside me again. She shoves the mana brick into my hands and I nearly drop it in surprise. The brick is letting off a bright white glow that's nearly blinding. The brick is vibrating so hard in my hand that I can barely hold onto it.

"What the fuck am I supposed to do with this!?" Alexis's voice is matching up with her words now, and my head is clearing a little bit.

"Feel the mana in it. You have to pull some of it back into you or the stone is going to rupture!" The stone in my hand is getting warmer and warmer as I try to focus. It feels like I'm trying to concentrate with a concussion right now.

The mana in the stone is practically roaring at me from inside the stone. I feel my energy reach out to touch the mana in the stone. It's like I grabbed a live wire. My hand clamps down on the stone so hard the edges dig into my hand. As I start to pull the energy into me, it rushes out to meet me.

"That's good, Jim. You just need to take a little more and it will be fine." The note of panic that had been in her voice is gone and she is speaking in a calm voice again. The brick in my hand has finally stopped vibrating and the glow is slowly stopping. When Alexis holds out her hand for the stone, I pass it to her quietly.

"What the fuck!? What just fucking happened there?" Alexis stares at the stone for a second before she replies.

"Ummmmm…...I don't know." She turns the stone over in her hand slowly as she stares at it.

"What the fuck do you mean you don't know!?" Her head snaps up to look at me.

"I mean, I don't know. I've never seen anything like that happen before! Mana stones can only absorb so much mana at a time. Somehow you loaded it with more than it could hold. It was maybe twenty seconds from rupturing! Do you have any idea what would have happened if it had?" I let my body fall back to sit on the floor by the table. My knees still feel weak, but I'm feeling better by the second.

"I have no idea what any of that means. What I'm wondering is….WHY THE FUCK DID I COLLAPSE LIKE THAT!?" Alexis jumps when I yell and drops the brick on the floor. She blushes and leans her head forward, hiding her face behind her hair.

"Sorry. You are right and I should have checked to see if you were alright first." She tries to move closer to me, but I shift away from her. We stare into each other's eyes for a long second before she sighs.

"Your mana levels dropped too much too fast. Basically, your body was shutting down because it lacked the energy to keep going. When you hit a critical level, your body couldn't support itself any more. You probably felt weak, like your limbs wouldn't work for a little bit. At least until your mana started to regenerate enough." I nod my head slowly as she speaks. What she is describing is almost exactly what I felt.

"So why did it happen?" Alexis's face scrunched up in thought.

"Imagine that your mana flows at a set rate, kind of like a water spigot." She makes a motion with her hand and a glowing model of a water spigot with a t-shaped handle on top appears between us. "Up until now even when you were in my dungeon, your mana was flowing like this." She makes a motion like she is twisting the handle and a thin stream of water starts flowing from it.

"Even when you were channeling your mana into your sword, it was this level, roughly. When you started to fill the brick for me, you opened your channels wider." She twists the handle again and it starts to gush water. "The faster it filled, the wider your channel opened. Until eventually, your mana wasn't regenerating as fast as you were emptying it."

"So why did it hit me all at once? Shouldn't I have gotten some kind of warning first? The information I got from the crystal you gave me calls it mana fatigue or some shit like that." Alexis nods her head as a smile starts to spread across her face.

"Yes! You should have, except your regeneration is off the charts!" She waves her hand and the spigot disappears and is replaced with the outline of two people. "See normal people's mana regenerates at a set pace. Some faster than others, but this is the average."

The outline on the first outline starts to fill slowly with a green light. After a few seconds the legs are filled, but the speed seems really slow to me. It takes almost a full minute for the outline to be completely filled. As I glance from it to Alexis, she is staring at me excitedly.

"And then there is your regeneration." When she waves her hand, the outline is filled almost instantly. I blink as I stare at it and for a second, I think that I might have missed something. One second it was empty and the next it was full.

"So what does that mean? Why does it explain why I went from ok to collapsing?" Alexis is practically bouncing on her knees now.

"Because your mana regenerates so fast that it's like you don't use mana at all! When you started to fill the stone, it opened your channels wider than ever. By the time your body realized it was losing mana, it had already lost too much. You didn't get mana fatigue because your body literally skipped it!"

"You sound really excited about that for some reason. Care to clue me in, or are you going to leave me in the dark?" Alexis is practically vibrating across the floor now. I take a second to pull myself back into my chair. When she realizes I'm not on the floor any more, she jumps into hers.

"Because you are literally a mana battery as long as you don't overexert yourself! Just please, please try and fill this one but slowly. Do it like when you were starting out, not like you were at the end." She summons another brick into her hand and offers it to me.

"Uhhhhhh, no." Her face falls at my answer and she starts to pout.

Is she expecting a pout to convince me?

"Please? I promise it won't give you any problems this time. Just don't open your channels as far and it will be fine. I promise you it will be fine. Please, Jim!" I shake my head again and she starts pouting again.

"I'm not scared of the stone. That's not why I'm refusing to fill it." She tilts her head at me and I can see she is confused. I gesture to the mana brick I had just filled where it's laying on the table.

"What all can you make with that much power? I mean ten equals the dungeon you want, so what does one equal?" She shrugs and makes another waving motion with her hand.

"Ummm, alot. It all depends on how rare the materials are, and how hard they are to work with. Also, if there are any moving parts and how small they are." At my confused look, she shakes her head. "Sorry, I'll put it in a measurement that you will understand. With that brick, I could manufacture enough rifles and ammo to arm everyone in Shevel. Or I could make literally ten tons of the alloy Assad wanted for your sword."

I let out a low whistle as I lean back in my chair. The rough math in my head tells me my mana is worth more than I thought to Alexis. It doesn't even cost me anything to fill the brick for her. I still feel like just giving it away isn't the smart play. Yes, she is making me ammo while I carry her. Yes, she helped me out with the weaponsmith. That doesn't change the fact that I will need other stuff to survive in this world.

"What all can you make?" Alexis stares at me for a second before the lightbulb comes on in her mind.

"You want to trade?" I smile at her and nod my head once.

"We have been doing good things for each other by trading. I've helped you and you've helped me. I don't mind filling as many of these bricks for you as you want. I just want to get a fair deal out of it. Or at least one that I feel is fair to me." Alexis's face splits in a wide smile that shows off her perfect teeth.

"I'm good with that too. As long as you fill a minimum of fifteen more for me. That way I can fill my dungeon with monsters in one move too. So what all are you wanting in trade?" I lean back in my chair as I think about that question.

What all do I want? If I had been offered anything I wanted in my old world, that answer would have been simple. There was always a list of things I wanted. Here, it's more of what can I use to keep the ones I care about alive.

"I don't know, honestly. What all can you make?" She shrugs and shifts in her chair.

"Anything I've made, or anything I can picture. The real bitch is if I'm off in my design, it will function exactly like I designed it." At my confused look, she explains. "Like if I designed a rifle, and I had the barrel sized wrong. When I tested it, the bullet would react like it would normally. If the barrel was too small, boom!" She claps her hands together as she finishes making me jump.

"It sounds like you tried that before?" She nods slowly and starts to stare into space.

"Yeah, I thought I could make a gun here. Sort of like a super rare dungeon drop. All I managed to accomplish was using a lot of mana with no results. I could make your rifle now, but I'm not going to. No offense, but it could tip the scales of power in this world too easily."

"So does that mean I'm not getting any more ammo?" I laugh to try and play it off as a joke, but I'm worried that she might be about to say yes.

"No, you need it just to even your odds right now. Besides, you aren't trying to take over a country as far as I know." She smiles at me, but her eyes almost look like they are asking a question.

"No. I don't have any interest in being in charge of anything. All I want is a nice quiet life with Thea, Shiva, and Sarge. Maybe a nice little house on a hillside somewhere." I pause and think about what I just said. Even though I hadn't thought about it before, what I said was the truth. I was never one to want the biggest house and the newest car. All I had ever wanted was a place to call my own and someone to share it with. I don't know if Thea and Shiva feel the same. We hadn't talked about the future yet. We have been too busy just trying to make it through the next day.

"I didn't think you did. You seem the type who just wants to be left alone more than anything." I shake my head as I try to focus on the task at hand. Yes, Thea, Shiva and I will have to talk about the future later. For now, I need to focus on the deal I'm working on with Alexis.

"Anyway, so what about other things from earth can you make?" She shrugs her shoulders and gives me a half smile.

"Kinda sorta, yes. If I know how it works, it's easier. I've managed to recreate a lot of things though, like this." In the air in between us, a metal wristwatch pops into existence. "It took a long time to get right, but I made this. You still have to wind it because I can't quite get batteries to work."

I pick up the watch and turn it over slowly in my hands. The band is almost identical to the ones I saw on earth. Even the dial and numbers on the face look like the watches I remember. Hell if I didn't know better, I would say she had copied the one I left in my truck.

"You made this, from memory?" I raise my eyebrow, not quite believing her story.

"Memory and a lot of trial and error. I was a mechanical engineering student on earth. Plus, my family was always tinkering with something. We used to run a repair shop in town, so I have tore apart a lot of clocks."

"That would help." I stroke the smooth surface of the watch face with my thumb as I think. "What about explosives?" I try and keep my voice level as I ask. I can feel myself getting excited at the prospect.

"Ummm, kinda. I know gunpowder now because of absorbing your rifle. I also know about ammonia nitrate, but I don't know what you mix it with. I know it's used in explosives, but not how. Sorry." Her head dips forward and her hair covers her face again.

"It's alright, I was just wondering." As I'm thinking about what Alexis said, I pick up the brick on the table. "So you're sure if I fill this slower, it won't be a problem?" Alexis nods quickly and I see her eyes widen slightly in excitement.

"Well then, I guess we should make sure before I commit to filling them." I start to channel my mana into the brick, feeling it rush out of my body. Instead of trying to fill it as fast as I can, I focus on maintaining a steady flow. I feel sweat beading on my forehead after the first few minutes of channeling.

"Huh?" Suddenly, it gets harder for me to channel my mana into the brick. It had been requiring me to concentrate, but there was no effort to it. Now it was like the brick was fighting me to keep from absorbing anymore.

"It's full, that's the actual maximum capacity." I stare at the brick in my hand, confused for a split second.

"How long was I filling it for?" Alexis stares off into space for a second before replying.

"Twenty two minutes and nineteen seconds."

"Ok how the fuck do you know that down to the second?" Alexis laughs and waves her hand in the air. The world around us warps around us and is replaced with a grid of pale green lines.

"The fuck!" I jump to my feet, causing the chair to hit the ground.

"Sorry, sorry, it's ok. I was just trying to show you the display I see." She motions me to sit back down as she walks around behind me. "Now if you look right here, this is the current time in the world where we are." She motions to a series of characters hanging in the air that I can't read as I sit down in the chair again.

"I'll have to take your word on that." I feel her hair brush against my neck as she laughs. With another motion of her hand, the characters change into the familiar English ones I can read.

"Better?" I chuckle as I examine the glowing lines over the whole world.

"Yeah, but what is all this?" Alexis laughs again and rests her hand on my shoulder.

Please tell me she's not hitting on me right now. There is no way Thea or Shiva would be ok with this.

"This is the dungeon display. Basically it's how I can shape and create whatever I want." She takes my right hand and lifts it in front of me, and a trail of light follows the movement.

"Whoa, trippy." Alexis laughs again and I feel her warm breath on my ear.

"I've looped you in for now to show you. So just picture something right now, something you know as perfectly as possible." For a second, my mind goes blank and I can't think of anything. Then a childhood memory climbs its way to the surface of my mind. I remember splitting firewood with my grandfather in the fall and the way the splitting maul felt in my hands as I swung it.

"What?" There in the air in front of me slowly rotating is my grandfather's maul. Or at least a model of it. A grid of light green lines cover the surface of the maul. The heavy steel head even has the dents in the back from being hit with a sledgehammer countless times. The wooden handle is just like I remember it, worn smooth by countless swings.

"See, that's how I create an item. Now picture it changing in your mind. I find it helps me to move my hands like I'm shaping the item as if it's made of clay." I follow her directions and imagine the maul's head smoothing out. As I run my fingers over the maul, the dents and dings are erased before my eyes.

"Shit, that could be useful." Alexis laughs again and I feel her hands trail down my arm to hold my hand.

"Now picture the maul becoming more solid. The lines you see will fade away and you will be able to grab it." I feel something pull lightly on my mana as I follow her instructions. As the lines fade away, I snatch the maul out of the air feeling its weight in my hands.

"Wow." I stand up and test the weight of the maul in both of my hands. "It feels like the same one my grandfather had when I was a kid."

"It's as close to it as you can get here. Anything you can picture clear, and know enough about, you can make here." She waves her hand in front of me and a model of my rifle appears. "Anything I absorb I can replicate as well."

"Seems time consuming to do it one at a time like that." I'm thinking about the ammo she made for me. It seemed like she made it a lot faster than that.

"Bulk items are different. You just pull one of them up." She flicks her wrist and the rifle is replaced by a single bullet. "Then you indicate how many you want here." She motions to a blinking square under the round. "Then you just push mana into it until it's done."

"So what if you don't know exactly what you want to make, but you have a rough idea?" In my mind, I'm thinking about what could be the most useful and long term for me.

"Then you think of a basic shape, material, and picture it in your head as clearly as you can." As she is speaking, I'm picturing a chunk of metal as best I can. In the air in front of me forms a mass of metal about the size of a baseball.

"Are you trying to make a grenade?" I wince as Alexis speaks from behind me.

"If I say yes, are you going to judge me?" She starts to laugh and move around me. She leans in and studies the lump of metal closely.

"Not going to judge, maybe I can help." She flicks her wrist and the grenade starts to spin slowly.

"Do you know how the trigger mechanism works, or is this all just guessing and matching appearance?" The grenade grows larger as it spins and starts to come apart in multiple pieces.

"Just guesswork really. I was hoping it would fill in the gaps I didn't know." Alexis shakes her head as she swipes her hand through the air. Several of the pieces disappear and she starts to study the remaining pieces closely."

"If you don't know them, then they won't form. So what about something like this?" As she is shifting, I see a mass of gears and pins appear and slide together. The thin handle and ring of the grenade gets replaced by a wider set with a tail like piece of metal opposite of the ring.

"What is this supposed to be?" She spins the design where I can see it better and starts to explain.

"You know those toy tops that you pull the ring and they wind up?" I nod slowly as I'm examining the pieces in front of me. "Well, I took that basic design and expanded from it. When you pull the ring, it winds a clockwork mechanism inside the cap. When it gets to the end, it triggers a pin to strike a surface. It won't start ticking down until the handle snaps free. That way you can pull the pin and wait to throw it, kinda like an actual grenade." She rotates the design to where I can see the bottom.

"The pin will strike here..." She points at a circular indentation in the cap. "I'm pretty sure you will have about ten seconds after the handle is released." She pulls the body of the grenade to her and looks at it closely. "What are you thinking about for the explosives in here?" I scratch my head as I look at the metal.

"Honestly, I was thinking gunpowder and ball bearings. Unless you have a better idea. I'm picturing these as more frag grenades, not high explosives." She leans back like she is thinking.

"That could work. We can use a primer from a bullet as the actual trigger. So we would just need to pack it in close and fill it with the bearings." Her hands move quickly and the pieces rearrange themselves. Before I can make any other suggestions, she is done.

"Here you go." She hands me the finished grenade with a wide smile. I weigh the metal in my hand, a little surprised at the weight. The finished product is round, slightly larger than a baseball and flat on the bottom.

"So now what? Do I just pull the pin and throw it?" Alexis's eyes go wide as she backs away slowly.

"No, no, no, no! That's a bad idea!" She holds out her hand and I carefully hand the grenade to her. "I have a special area I constructed for testing anything dangerous. Nothing can kill me here, but I can be hurt. It's happened more than once." She runs her stomach as her eyes lose focus for a second.

"I'm sorry." She shakes her head and smiles at me.

"It's all right it was a long time ago, and like I said now I have a special area."

"So how far away is your testing area?" She smiles at me and waves her hand. The grenade disappears from her hand and a panel of light appears in front of us.

"We don't need to go anywhere. We can observe from here." She motions me closer to her so I can see the panel better.

"So is this kinda like a magical tv?" Alexis nods and points to the grenade sitting on a patch of bare rock.

"Yeah. From here, it can't hurt us no matter how big a blast. Now we add in some items to simulate people and armor." With a wave of her hand, a group of ten zombies appear around the grenade wearing steel plate mail.

"Why zombies?" My question makes her laugh so I turn my head to look at her.

"Because they are human bodies, so it's the best way to test its effectiveness. Afterwards, we can examine them to see what the damage actually is. Now quiet, I'm going to pull the pin." Her voice gets higher as she speaks and I realize she is getting excited.

On the screen, one of the zombies stoops down to pick up the grenade. It presses the handle in and pulls the pin out violently. Alexis giggles as the zombie drops the grenade at its feet and starts to chew the pin.

"You're a little psychopath, you know that?" Alexis giggles again as the grenade explodes on the panel of light. I'm forced to blink rapidly at the flash of light from the explosion.

"Seriously, I saw the way you reacted to getting to shoot zombies. Redneck dream right?" My laugh slips out before I can stop it.

"I guess you are right. Still, why did it chew the pin after it dropped it."

"I don't know, they just chew shit when they don't have orders. Now come on, let's go see what all it did." She makes a motion with her hand and my stomach lurches violently.

"The fuck was that!?" My head snaps from side to side to take in the new landscape around us. The wooden floors, table and chairs are gone. They are replaced by an empty space and walls of stone in a rough square. Ten zombies stand around in a loose circle off to our right. Well, mostly standing. Four of them are laying on the ground with their legs broken or missing.

"Sorry, I should have warned you. I just shifted us from where we were to my testing space. Let's go see the damage!" She starts to rush over to the zombies, dragging me along by my hand.

When we get there she kneels down, looking over the fallen zombies wounds. After she checks all the downed ones, she starts walking around the ones still standing. After she checks the last of them, she starts checking the ground around the zombies.

"Well, what's the verdict?" Alexis is muttering under her breath as she walks back towards me.

"It worked, and the trigger worked right. I'm not happy with the results though. So I need to redesign." She waves her hand and my stomach lurches again.

"You, sit." She motions to the chairs as she pulls up another grenade. Raising an eyebrow, I sit in the seat. She starts to mutter as the design spins in the air in front of her. As I'm watching the grenade spin, I feel a yawn escape my lips.

"If you're tired, you can take a nap. I'll wake you up when I get something worth mentioning." She waves her left hand and a bed appears beside me.

"Thanks, but what about my actual body?" She chuckles while she continues working on the grenade in front of her.

"Your actual body is asleep already, and has been since you got here. Think of this as your mind sleeping while your body is sleeping somewhere else. Now seriously, take a nap. I have this under control.

"I don't think we finished making our deal for the stones you wanted." Alexis laughs as she turns to face me. She reaches out and pulls me to my feet to push me towards the bed.

"You want me to make shit for you for filling the stones? I'll even let you come back here and use the display to create things too. So seriously just go to sleep."

"Why can't I go back to my real body and sleep?" Alexis goes back to tinkering with the grenade as I fall into the bed.

"Because it takes a little effort to pull you here. If I send you back, then I'm going to have to take time away from this. If you haven't figured out, I kinda get hyper focused on a new project. So get some sleep and I'll wake you when I have it finished." The bed is softer than I had been expecting, and I can feel myself drifting off.

"I thought with the excess mana I wasn't going to need to sleep as much." My words are coming out as a mumble and I can feel myself drifting off.

"Yes, but you have been awake for two days now. Well, three counting the day before you opened your mana all the way. Not that you will remember any of this, you're already half asleep. If you use a lot of mana, it takes a toll on you. So if you expend a ton of it, you will be able to sleep at night." I can feel my eyes shutting and my breathing evening out as I start to drift off.

"Plus, it's nice to actually have a person here to talk with." I'm not sure if Alexis really said that or not, sleep overtakes me before I can ask.