“So,” Alistair said to Herma, “How do I force a mana monster into submission? It’s a bug, it’s not like I just challenge it to an arm wrestling contest.” Herma snorted at the thought of such a stupid comment. She motioned for Alistair to stand opposite of him and closed her eyes. Breathing lightly Herma felt her aura surrounding her body. Small currents of her presence began to slowly build its way up to her eyes, and like a gust of wind, when she opened her eyes to look at Alistair she felt her presence fly from her to hit him.

For Alistair it was strange at first. Herma just standing there, but in the back of his mind he felt like something was watching him to see if he was food. When Herma opened her eyes, he felt his vision close in around her, shrinking his field of vision to nothing save her eyes. Slowly as time kept going on Alistair felt himself get smaller and smaller, almost as if Herma was asking for him to give up or be smashed underfoot. Then in a moment Herma shook her head and Alistair was free of her gaze. He found himself on his knees and almost felt like someone had been squeezing his entire body.

Herma for her part offered Alistair a hand and he took it. “Alistair a battle of wills or whatever you like to call it, is about primal presence. When a dangerous looking dog stares at you, all it is asking is if you are my pack leader or food. You lock onto their eyes and in your heart you rid yourself of all fear, because as soon as fear enters your mind you become food. What I did was a conscious use of my presence or aura. Every creature can sense a predator’s focus, this comes from your aura. As you look at something, you began take all your presence and knock it out with fear. It’s a dangerous technique for anyone with Charisma score less than 20, mainly because you hold a little back to make sure you aren’t overwhelmed by the other person. My master exclusive battled using this technique, and when he didn’t win he had enough lower level monsters that could swarm the creature that got away. Would you like to try it out on me?”

Alistair nodded. He thought back to his previous life and hoped that maybe his arrogance would finally help him. Alistair closed his eyes, taking a deep breath, when he opened his eyes again he held disdain for Herma in them. Herma looked at Alistair and for a moment she felt the need to bend a knee. However, the reflex to punch Alistair in the face was a lot more powerful. “Ummmmm… well that’s a different way to do it. How about this close your eyes and simply follow my instructions?”

Alistair nodded and closed his eyes. “Now I want you focus on your sense of touch. This feeling isn’t your clothes or an itch, but a light pressure on the edge of all your skin, that pressure is your aura that surrounds you. Nod when you think you feel your aura.” Alistair went searching for his aura and after five minutes he began to sense what he thought Herma was talking about. Nodding his head to show Herma he had it, Alistair waited. “Now I want you to think about gathering up that pressure around your eyes. Once you do, don’t say anything. Just open your eyes and when they connect with mine release that energy outward.” Alistair opened his eyes and made contact with Herma’s. For a split second he almost felt like he was looking deep within her and was ready to bring out her darkest secrets, and then she simply moved her head and the moment was lost.

“Great Alistair! That’s exactly the trick to do. Now let’s practice it so you can become faster.” They worked on his speed several times before he was able to do it within a second or two. “At this point Alistair, you have the very basic technique. Just keep practicing. If you feel a break in the battle of wills, then you have lost and you should prepare to fight. Since the Fire Beetle doesn’t really have a presence of its own I would suggest you go ahead and try using it. Now good luck with your fight.” Alistair smiled and went to his hut to travel back to his dungeon.

Being in his demon from seemed strange after the long hours working in his pocket dimension. However, when he looked around his dungeon he began to see huge changes in the magma pools. The walls had changed to start glowing with Fire mana stones that looked like crystals. The rocky outcropping was twice as large and the Boss Salamander protected a large outcropping of Fire Mana crystals. Fire wisps blinked here and there throughout the cavern, and sense of magic was throughout the air. Walking over to his boss, the salamander lifted his head and Alistair gentled placed his hand on it, stroking around the horn and ridges of obsidian making sure not to touch the cracks which seeped lava.

He stared at the crystals for a long moment, realizing this was part of the loot that the Adventurers would come and take if they entered his dungeon. Thoughts began to come back to him from his previous life about how natural resources would reappear with a boss. He moved his hand over to the crystals setting it on the top one. Slowly mana began to connect the boss and crystals together in a bond, empowering both of them, and the summoning circle began to glow. A prompt came up.

You are attempting to alter the summoning requirements for Monster Subtype Fire Salamander.By using your skill Dungeon Construction you are attempting to alter the spell Summoning Mana Monster: Fire Salamander by also summoning a concentration of Fire Mana Stones with them. This will increase the mana required to summon each creature, but will also increase damage done by the fire aura when near the crystals. Currently a group of five tiny salamanders can live off of one concentration of Fire Mana Stones. The Boss Fire Salamander will require a large concentration from himself.Do you wish to proceed with this alteration to the Mana Summoning Spell for Subtype Fire Salamanders?YesNo

Alistair pressed Yes and the Boss Salamander seemed to hum slightly in contentment. Backing away from the crystals Alistair was glad that the Boss Salamander was tougher in a fight, but also was happy that the salamanders had a food source that would always generate with them. Hope flared in Alistair’s mind at the thought that perhaps the Fire Beetle was the same way. Maybe the Fire Lichen it needed was in the summoning spell?

Alistair went to the Summoning Circle and began casting his three spells. He felt like it was slightly overkill for the beetle, but if it came down to a fight he wanted to be prepared. Callum appeared as Alistair was ready and together they summoned the Fire Beetle. Alistair began to gather his presence in order to fight the fire beetle. As he opened his eyes, he saw a bright red beetle about the size of four inches looking back at him. It began to move forward and then stopped as Alistair felt his presence challenge the beetle. Slowly its carapace opened, bright yellow wings fluttered up and down, but Alistair kept his gaze on the beetle. He began to take a step forward, pushing his presence harder and harder on it, but as his foot came down the beetle shook and jumped using its wings to hover slightly. The beetle opened it’s long serrated mandibles and a gout of flames came out of its mouth and hit Alistairs right side.

Alistair jumped back feeling like he had rolled himself into a campfire. His skin bubbled and blistered quickly by the heat of the flames, but the intense pain that Alistair should have felt was dampened by his adrenaline. The beetle was quick for such a large bug, it began to fly around the summoning circle trying to catch Alistair unawares. Another gout of flame came from the beetle and Alistair was able to dodge out of the way. It seemed that the beetle wasn’t able to maneuver very quickly when its flame was released. So Alistair made ready his move for the next time the beetle decided to shoot its flames.

The beetle flew around, at times Alistair almost lost sight of it as the red and yellow carapace blended in with the magma. Yet the loud humming of beetles wings told him where to look. Finally, the beetle seemed to prepare itself for its flame attack. Time slowed down as Alistair began moving light on his feet to sidestep the flames. The Fire Beetle opened its red hot mandibles and flame began to pour out. Alistair moved to his left letting the flames roll pass his right shoulder and took a swipe where the beetle was at with his left hand. As Alistair saw his claws slash through the delicate wing and into the fire beetles body a smile leapt to his face. However, without its left wing the fire beetle began to rotate in the air uncontrollably, and as the beetle began to turn, Alistair realized that the flame was going to hit him in the face. He tried to move his right hand upward to take the brunt of fire beetles flames, but he couldn’t move fast enough. The Spinning beetles flames cut a swath of damage flesh across Alistair face down to his right side. Pain exploded across Alistair’s face and body, as the beetle crashed into the summoning circle floor and began to bleed out.

Alistair face was raw with burns, and every breath he took sent shooting pain into him. Animal panic was coming up in his mind and with the last little bit of will power he focused on the healing spell. A bright light that Alistair could barely see with his damaged eyes came over him, and the pain receded. Blisters showed up and then fell off, as the worst parts of the burns healed themselves in seconds. Alistair finally took a moment to breathe and the air came in without an instant of pain. Alistair felt the heat that was still coming off of him and began to cast the healing spell again as he watched the beetle. As the spell was finished the usual prompt came up.

Event!You have captured a Fire Beetle!Today you have added to the list of creatures that can be found in your dungeon. Fire Beetle is now available for summoning. The Experience Points from a Fire Salamander is 10. Advancement of your spell mastery has increased by 2%. You meet the requirements to have your creature evolve.

Warning! The Fire Beetle requires Fire Lichen to survive. Some Fire Lichen has been detected in level 2. Please expand your dungeon level before summoning the fire beetle.

Alistair started to feel frustration welling up in him. Yet he took a moment to stop, and think over his options. Right now he had a total of three creatures he could summon, but he had asked Callum to get them when his dungeon was small. He had expanded his territory and in addition had refined quite a bit of mana. Also, he had leveled and in doing so gained level two over Summon Mana Monster, therefore Callum should help him with some evolutions of his creatures. He still needed to work on increasing his territory. He had a lot of things to do, and just because another creature would have helped. He wasn’t going to get anything done if he reacted like a child. Alistair took another breath and still felt frustrated but it wasn’t controlling him.

“Callum, I think I want to take a walk around my dungeon. With the walkways and ramps, I can finally move more than two feet. Care to join me, or do you want to go back to the Pocket Dimension?” Alistair said as he started to walk to the edge of a ramp.

Callum’s small little form bobbed up and down, “Well, I don’t mind floating with you, and it will give Herma a view of the dungeon as well, My Lord.”

Alistair started down the ramp seeing salamanders moving around jumping off of the ledges and swimming around in the magma pools. They took a few minutes watching the Salamanders play, and Alistair spoke, “I wonder why they jump into the magma?”

Callum floated over to the magma and began slowly moving around, like a kid examining the ground for a coin he had lost. When he was done, Callum floated back up and spoke, “Well there seems to be a Mana Monster that is waiting for enough mana to be summoned and the salamanders are swimming around it hoping it will have some meat on it.” Alistair felt his frustration pull on him, but as he saw to salamander roll around on the rock ramp he laughed. After all, Callum could have had an thousand and one reasons why he didn’t see the Mana Monster before this.

Alistair allowed his laughter to die down as the two salamanders went back to the fire mana stone outcropping and laid back down. Somehow he knew that these two were back in his pocket dimension make stone floors. Walking away from them, Alistair was able to ask his next question in a completely pleasant voice. “So what was the mana monster that is waiting to be summoned?”

Callum paused in his floating for a moment as if he was thinking and then started along again. “It looks like it’s a Lava Tube Centipede. From what I can tell, the Fire Salamanders and Lava Tube Centipedes naturally fight amongst one another and kill each other for food. Salamanders and Centipedes also can eat spiders and insects.” Alistair shivered slightly at the thought of spiders, something in his past life tugged at him when the word had been spoken. “Ever since you increase your Summon Mana Monster Mastery, I have been seeing traces of monsters that want to be summoned. However, since you just leveled it up less than an hour ago, I really haven’t been able to find all of them and figure out what they do. I know that there are a couple of wild mana monsters down the lava tubes in front of us.”

Alistair stopped for a moment and looked at Callum. He couldn’t be mad at him, because this was the first time he was talking to him after leveling his skill, and he was telling him important information. So he took a moment to wrestle with his internal feelings and accept the fact that Callum was doing his job to the best of his ability. “Callum, why don’t you tell me what wild mana monster are in the tunnels? Also, next time I level the skill, could you come and find me If you find new mana monsters.”

Callum bobbed up and down, “Of course, my lord, that seems like a great idea. Anyway, I have found traces of Lava Tube Centipedes, Fire Ants, and Fire Slugs. If we expand our territory into the lava tubes, there seems to be a large bat and rat population. Which I believe will feed the Centipedes and Salamanders, once we set up spawning sites for them. There are countless molds and fungus in the tubes feeding insects. As far as Wild Mana Monsters that I can sense; I sense a Slime, Rat Swarm, Bat Swarm, and Red Creeper Vine in the lava tubes ahead.”

Alistair thought about it all and realized that the only thing left to do was increase his territory. “Come on Callum, let’s go talk with Herma and expand the territory. I get the feeling that I probably need to spend some more points on Wisdom and Intelligence.” Thinking of the door in his mind, Alistair opened it up to transport himself to his pocket dimension.