Alistair sat down trying to think where exactly he went wrong. As an Adventurer, all he really knew was killing Mana Monsters and getting loot. Sure some dungeons had traps, maze like corridors, even curses and spells that hung in the air, but no one had told him it was going to be this hard. Why was his dungeon level no bigger than 300 feet? How in the world was he supposed to expand his loot table if the only loot came from defeating other creatures? What other uses were there for all this mana his Summoning Circle was storing? After all he wasn’t using it’s mana to cast spells or summon creatures. This thing had some heavy duty magic around it, and if he remembered the spell tapestry it was insanely powerful. Granted creating a new body for him was pretty great, so he wasn’t going to complain, but there just seemed like so many questions. He even had questions about this whole Fire Lichen, where was it supposed to come from? Was it supposed to appear in thin air the Fire Wisps just danced around?

Callum flew over to Alistair and spoke, “Alright, should we try the Fire Beetle? It should not be too hard for you. Without a fire aura, the beetle only has two major weapons its fire breath and its mandibles. Now when it first appears, it’s going to shoot a stream of fire from its mouth out to you. Once it does, you will need to quickly try and flank it without getting hit by the fire. If you are able to get to its side, your enchanted claws should be able to carve through its legs and then you can render it helpless. So shall we get ready?”

Alistair paused for a moment and then quietly spoke, “No.” Callum had already started to head to his favorite circle when he paused in mid-air. Alistair looked at Callum and spoke loudly, “No, we won’t be going into this fight with one spell and my skills. Callum you need to go into the General Help Room and start reading the basics about how to construct a dungeon. This has gone on long enough, and for once we are going to over the basics so we aren’t messing about!” Callum bobbed up and down for a moment and then disappeared.

Callum won’t reappear for another two days. Alistair was able to occasionally go to the pocket dimension to check up on the kid, but in the end, he had to stay in the dungeon keeping an eye on the Elemental. Question after question began to rise in his head, thoughts on what he wanted to do and what kind of dungeon he wanted started to arise. His thoughts of beautiful Magma falls and puzzle chambers deadly with magical traps began to fill his head. Which in turn made him face his dark past of Adventuring. There were times in this quiet dungeon staring at the elemental that Alistair thought about all those he had lost. As a boy, he had been trained to be a melee fighter, since he had no talent for spells or the bow. When he choose the sword and shield to be his focus, many of his teachers told him about the honor of frontline and that many groups needed a hard hitting swordsmen to keep the attention of boss monsters. He had practice for hours his sword work and fighter skills. He remembered jokes and laughs as he defeated opponents and practice illusions. His thoughts would turn to first Adventuring Group that he apprenticed with. His Adventurer Mistress was a large bulky woman that had several scars about the right side of her face that her grey hair could have covered but she proudly pulled it all back into a pony tail. Small details like her nose was too big for her face and her biceps were bigger than his head came to him. As he tried to remember more details about her, tears came to him with a sadness that spoke of some type of tragedy. When the emotions became so strong he thought they would burst forth from his, he would get up and practice his damage spell or he would visit the pocket dimension for a few minutes. During his practice with magic, he learned that he could practice just one movement of the spell over and over again without wasting mana. So he would perform several of the movements making look like he was dancing in the Summoning Circle.

Finally, Callum appeared during one of his practice sessions, allowing Alistair to finish his arcane hand and feet movements without breaking his concentration. Finishing his twirl of fingers with a small step forward Alistair checked his body versus the mental image of the movement in his mind. Alistair turned his head and looked at Callum, “Alright I know you have been studying hard the last few days why don’t you tell me what you have learned.”

“Well, I would tell you to come to the pocket dimension so I could quote the text, but without a guard for the circle we can’t quite take the chance.” Callum said as he bobbed up and down. “First off, I think you will be surprised at all the information that I have uncovered. So for the first day, I read up on basic dungeon features, creation, and strategy. The basic strategy for any starting dungeon is as follows: ‘Find a secure location for your first Summoning Circle. It should have access to a multiple tunnels and converge into a large room. As not all creatures can fly or swim make sure that the circle is located on solid ground with access to shore or a dirt path.’ Sorry it’s a direct quote from the book. I think when you came here, My Lord, they assumed you had some knowledge of your needs for your Summoning Circle and the creatures that came out of it. See the Summoning Circle should sit on a confluence of Mana, that way it gains the most defined Mana Threads and increase the fastest in size. So I want you to stand in the middle of the Summoning Circle for a moment, and lookout into the Magma pits.”

Alistair went to the middle of the Summoning Circle as Callum went over Eastern circle. As Alistair turned out to the Magma Pools, he saw a golden light began to build around the circle. Slowly, the light continued to grow, forming a dome. As the golden light faded into blue, the dome sealed itself and began to shimmer. Runes of Blue appeared in the dome and then the energy vanished leaving a world of bright threads around it. Alistair saws threads flow like water, the bright red threads below acted like waves, but in some cases the currents form a bright spike of energy reaching you of the magma pool into the air. On one of this spikes sat the Elemental a complex web of energy that sparkled as it sucked in energy and poured brown ooze out. The walls were made of brown threads structured in tight knots and bundles, but what surprised Alistair the most was a giant funnel of energy that seemed to converge itself several feet off the center of the Magma Pool. Red, Brown, White, and Yellow Energy swirled around in a great funnel almost mesmerizing Alistair with it beauty.

Callum spoke, “As you can see we are around 100 feet away from the central focus point of the dungeon, and there is no way for the elemental or us to get to it. I want you to think of the great outcropping of rock just underneath the Vortex of energy that you are seeing.” Alistair started imagining a large black outcropping of obisian, directly under the vortex. Callum’s voice seemed to be telling him something, but all he could do was picture the Summoning Circle expanding onto his outcropping of rock becoming so large that the size of the circle was the same size as the Vortex. Runes began to flash infront of his eyes and Alistair could feel his body move and his voice speak each of the runes out load, when he was done with the runes he could see that he was no longer on a ledge near the wall of the Magma Pools, but was under the vortex location and that the circle had gone from six inches to Almost eight feet. Looking around, he realized that he was now three feet tall and almost laughed as an event prompt opened.

Event!Your Summoning Circle is on a Mana Focus Point!Mana is in everything, and flows throughout the world. By claiming a Mana Focus Point for your Dungeon Summoning Circle, it will began to gain Experience Points by how much Mana it filters. For Every 100 Mana Points the Circle Filters, the Summoning Circle will gain 1 experience point, for every 10 experience points the Summoning Circle Gains 1 will be given to you.

Your Pocket Dimension has changed. Instead of rooms, your pocket dimension has become a small settlement of seven huts. Since you Pocket Dimension is a metaphysical representation of your dungeon, by improving either one, you automatically improve the other. However, that improvement may not become readily apparent on the other plane.

The natural instincts of your Fire Wisp has changed. Previous, your Fire Wisp would float from fire thread to fire thread gathering the energy and bringing it back to your circle. Now that your circle is in a focus point, your Fire Wisp will began to work on the focus point channels increasing the fire mana filtered by it. The Focus also provides Air, Life, and Earth Energy have your Mana Monster Aspect work on summoning additional types of Wisps.

Alistair jumped up and had Callum come over to look at the prompt. Callum began to laugh and when he spoke it sounded like his voice had deepen. “Well done, my Lord! The book said that once I was in the Eastern Circle I could invoke several spells that dealt with Dungeon Construction. Now that we are in the Mana Focus, we can do so much more!” Callum started laughing again and Alistair joined him.

When they quieted down Alistair spoke, “So how did this happen Callum? I mean we have been sitting on that little ledge for what about a week? And now I can just move stone and magma around by some type of spell?”

Callum coughed slightly and for a ball of flame it was interesting seeing the ash that came out of him. “Well technically, the spell was always in the Circle. When I showed you the Mana Focus and told you to think of an outcropping of rock, that mental image in your mind activated the spell and started the movement. It also drained almost all the Stored Mana in the Summoning Circle. So we can make ramps, and all other kinds of stuff with that spell. Usually a Dungeon creates Workers to start the work, and the reason isn’t because they can build it more efficiently, though that is one of the reasons. Workers also build deep channels for the energy to come to the focus point. Think of a Great River, that is our Mana Focus Point. Now the Wisps can create small streams to us, and that will help during a dry season and the river is low. But Workers can create deeper channels, like additional rivers that funnel more energy to us. When they create these channels, they are creating stone pathways, magma pools, air vents, and so on all to help channel mana to us.” Alistair looked over the edge and could see that the elemental had back away from the outcropping of rock. It’s body began to move back and forth across the magma pools in agitation, and the only thought Alistair had was, just wait little elemental. Soon we will be coming for you.

Feeling the elation of finally something going right, Alistair spoke, “Alright Callum, what’s next?” Alistair was smiling at the fact that something had gone well and now he wasn’t just holding everything together, but he had finally gotten ahead. I made him want to jump to the next step and work till it was done.

Callum laughed, and Alistair faintly saw a boy going into puberty, as he moved over to the south circle. “I think you going to like this next bit, My Lord. Anyway you asked a question, what’s next. Well, the book said that it was critical to start building up your loot table and spells. See without enough loot, you can’t summon powerful creatures, which we learned the hard way. As for spells, well let me show you something.”

Callum began bobbing up and down in the circle when what looked like a Soul Page prompt came up.

Summoning Circle PageLevel:1Exp till Next Level:2/100Stored Mana:28/300Mana Generation per Hour:15Links to Dungeon Levels:1Spells Found:Weak Fire ResistanceProgression:2%Loot Found:Steel Dagger(Quality: Common)Progression:1%Runes Found:PaProgression:3%Spell Abilities Chosen:None

Alistair began reading the page, when Callum came over to view it. Once done Alistair looked at Callum with a questioning eye brow raised. Callum spoke up, “I read that once the Summoning Circle had been placed on the Focus it begins to accumulate defined mana threads. Well these threads all have a history with them. Perhaps a fire thread was used in the creation of a sword, or in the use of a spell. Those items that are most commonly found in the world will began to be assembled in our loot, spells, and runic knowledge. Once we gain the more common items The Summoning Circle will start to find uncommon, rare, epic, and even legendary quality items that have been lost in time. Just like the loot, the Summoning Circle will start to assemble Spells and Runes for us to use. The book even said as it leveled up it would find Mana Monsters.”

“Anyway, we can speed along this process, by helping it. Here let me show you.” Callum went back over to the circle and began bobbing up and down again. A pale blue outline of a dagger showed up in the middle of the Summoning Circle. It wasn’t anything, just a bunch of lines that showed Alistair what a child thought of a double bladed dagger. “Alright, My Lord, start thinking of what the dagger should look like and the materials in it. Once you have a full image touch the dagger.”

Alistair sighed, and began to think of his old dagger. The steel double edge blade coming to a fat but sharp point. How many hours had been spent on a wet stone making sure that if he needed it, it would go through the hide of a Mana Monster in an instant? He remembered the brass hit and pommel, and cherry polished handle. The weaponsmith had made small grooves in the handle to fit his hands and make sure it didn’t slip during a fight. A faint feeling of its reassuring weight and polished wood came to his hand and he reached out towards the image. Quickly, the image began to fill itself up from the point where Alistair touched it. The steel blade took hold and began to grow into a tang. Brass hilt and pommel assembled, but became blurry as if they weren’t finished. The handle instead of being made of just wood, had a core of wood on it, with leather wrapped around the handle. Slowly the handle began to take shape and a pentagon with a red and orange whirlpool image formed on the pommel. An Unknown rune sat at the center of the whirlpool image. Callum came over and spoke, “Well done, My Lord! The dagger is almost finished as the circle will began to fill in the image you provided with mana until it is assembled. Should be just a day or two. As far as the image in the pommel, that is the dungeons symbol and will start appearing on all our loot.”