“That’s easy enough. First, we have to see what elemental affinity you have. That will decide how to most efficiently display your core and what types of monsters your dungeon will have.”

"How do we do that?" Garrett asked. "Do we need some special magical item? Or a long grueling test? Or do I get to choose it?"

Blixie laughed. “Nothing so silly or elaborate. Just bring up your status screen and it will have your affinity there.

"And how do I do that?"

Blixie was so surprised by that answer her wings stopped fluttering and she fell about a foot before catching herself. Shaking her head, she mumbled to herself, “What soul doesn’t even know that?” She took a deep breath to quell her rising irritation at the fey council for this ridiculous assignment. “Just focus on yourself and think the word ‘status’.”

It couldn’t be that easy, could it? Garrett thought to himself, but did it anyway. The blue translucent panel appeared before him again.

Name: Garrett Species: Dungeon Level: 1 Exp: 0 Exp to next level: 100 Element: None 18/20 MP Unused skill points: 0 Boss Monsters: 0 Special Abilities: Unseen Force level 3, Earth Shaping level 1 Monsters Available: None

A faint glimmer of a memory dashed through Garretts mind. He felt like he should know where he had seen this before but the memory was already gone.

“Did you get it pulled up?” Blixie asked. “We don’t have all day.”

"I did." Garrett replied. "Can you not see it?"

“No, I can’t see it. I told you it is invisible except to you and those bonded to you. Remember?” Blixie slapped herself on the forehead. “Ugh, I was so surprised about your lack of common sense that I forgot to form the bond.”

"Bond?"

“Yea. When a dungeon guide meets their dungeon one of the first things we are suppose to do is form a bond between ourselves and the dungeon. That way we can communicate with the dungeon spirit from a distance and be able to see the status page of the dungeon to help make decisions.” Blixie pulled out a tiny dagger, pricked her finger and let a drop of her blood fall onto Garretts core.

Blixie the Pixie would like to form a link with you?

Do you accept?

Yes/No

Garrett had learned his lesson from the other boxes that popped up. Yes, Garrett thought. The blue box disappeared with the same bubble-like pop that the last one did.

“Perfect.” Blixie stated. “Now that I can see your status screen let’s see what it says.” Blixie stared at the floating green ball that was Garrett and blinked a few times. "Ahhhhhh!" Blixie yelled and flew backwards in surprise.

"What happened?" Garrett asked concerned.

"What is that floating above you?" Blixie asked with surprise and a little fear in her voice.

Garrett looked above him and saw only the green glow of his bubble with pure darkness outside it. "What do you mean? I don't see anything above me."

Blixie pointed at Garrett. "Tha-that green floating ball above your core."

Why is she pointing at me. Garrett wondered for a second before it clicked. Garett laughed. "I thought you were a dungeon guide and knew all there was about dungeons. Your pointing at me. I was kind of wondering what I looked like. I just can't go past the bubble that surrounds the gem, uh my core I guess."

"I have been trained on what it takes to guide a dungeon no matter what happens, or so I thought. I have never heard of something like this." Blixie took a deep breath to calm herself down and tried to make sense of what Garrett said. "If what you say is true then it might be your spirit. The spirit of a dungeon is contained inside its core but they can sense anything going on within their sphere of influence. What you call your bubble. They can also focus on specific parts of their influence to see what is happening but their spirit is still held within their core. It seems your soul is only tethered to your core and not bound within it. "

"Is that bad?" Garrett asked, a hint of fear in his voice.

"I'm not sure." Blixie answered. "I've never heard of this before, but if nothing bad has happened yet it should be fine. Since there is nothing to do about that let's get on with seeing what your element is."

Blixie flew back over by Garrett and looked at his status. "Let's see. Element is...none?"

"Is it bad to not have an element?" Garrett asked with concern. "Because you make it sound like a bad thing."

"No, it is just odd. Most Dungeons have access to one element which determines the types of monsters it can create. There are some dungeons that have access to multiple elements and can create the monsters from either element or create hybrid monsters. I have only heard of a couple of dungeons in the history of our world that have had no elemental affinity which allows them access to all the elements."

"That sounds amazing." Garrett said with excitement. "So I can make any monster?"

"Eventually. You are still limited by your level, amount of mana you have, and on what level you create the monster. Let's see what monsters you can create for now." Blixie looked back to Garrett's status. "None?" She said confused. "None?" She started getting angry and yelling. "how are we suppose to build a dungeon with no monsters?" She floated slowly to the ground sulking. "Why did the counsel have to send me here of all places. "

Garrett flew down next to Blixie. "Are you feeling okay Blixie? What's wrong?"

"You can't create any monsters. That's what's wrong. All dungeons have at least one or two weak monsters they can create to start with." Blixie said sadly. "And all you have for skills is Earth Shaping, which will allow you to shape and mold the earth within your influence, and Unseen Force, Whatever that is."

Garrett stayed silent for a while to let Blixie think through things and went floating through his bubble to see if maybe it had grown again.

After a bit of time Garret remembered something about his status that Blixie hadn't explained. He went back over to the sullen pixie. "Hey Blixie, can I ask a quick question?"

Blixie sat on the ground hugging her knees to her chest. "Go ahead. That's what us dungeon guides are for." She said somewhat sarcastically.

"What are skill points for?" Garrett asked. He thought maybe he could distract her from her brooding by getting her to talk.

Blixie sighed with sadness. "As you gain levels you will earn skill points that you can use to learn new abilities and spells." She said monotonously as if repeating something she had memorized out of a textbook.

"So could I use those skill points to get monsters to summon?"

Blixie snapped her head up so fast Garrett thought it was going to pop off her neck. "Of course! Why didn't I think of that. Not starting with any monsters is probably because you have access to all the elements."

"You said there were some dungeons in the past that could use all the elements. Did they start without monsters as well?"

"I don't know. Not much is know or remembered from them. It has been probably a good thousand years or so since the last dungeon that could use all the elements was created." Blixie said nonchalantly.

"Are any of them still around?" Garrett asked, his interest piqued.

"There is one left that I know of. The headquarters for the mages guild surrounds the entrance so they decide who gets to use it. They call it the world dungeon since every few floors the dungeon changes the themes to different elements and environments with monsters that use those environments to great effect. It's great for people to practice different elemental spells or fighting against them."

"If they started without monsters as well then they must have gotten them as they gained levels." Garrett said with excitement. "So what do we need to do get me some levels?"

Blixie was flying around and practically vibrating with excitement by the end of the conversation. She stopped in front of Garrett and coughed into her hand getting into her teaching mindset. "The first thing you need to do is setup your connection to the area around you that will makeup the physical area of your dungeon, and to do that you need to form your core pillar."

"Before you ask me 'how do I do that?' I will tell you. I see that you have a decently sized influence for how young you are, so I guess I don't have to tell you how to push mana into it."

"Actually," Garrett interrupted Blixie sheepishly, "I haven't put any mana into it. I didn't even think about it." Blixie stared at Garrett, astonished at the lack of common dungeon sense he had. "It did grow a few inches in diameter since I've been floating around for...I don't really know how long it's been."

"ugh!" Blixie groaned. "You don't even know how to use mana. That is the most basic thing dungeons do. It's like breathing."

"Except I don't breathe." Garrett said with a slight chuckle. "But I do know how to use mana." Garrett floated over to the dropped sun stone and started to feed his mana into it.

Blixie was pleasantly surprised to see the small stone start to glow and light up the surroundings. She looked around and quickly assessed the small cave they were in. Her excitement grew as she saw the wooden boxes and barrels, she gave a small shout of glee when she spotted the mushrooms, and practically danced with joy when she saw the skeleton. She quickly flew around the small room and assessed the quality of the items she found. "This is perfect for starting out. We will have access to wood from the crates, some food that's in them, the mana mushrooms on the wall, and even the skeleton with the sword through it. But first back to your core pillar."

Blixie flew back over by Garrett's core and waved him over. "Since you can already infuse that sun stone with your mana then this will be easy. You are just going to do the same thing except push your mana into the stone underneath your core."

Garrett floated over to his core and focused on the stone beneath it, He pushed his mana toward the stone remembering the way it felt from when he tried it with the sun stone. His mana sank into the ground and he could see it being absorbed like water into dry desert sand. The stone took on a green glow as the mana infused it. After about a minute his mana stopped flowing and the stone faded back to its original color. Garrett could still see the glow in the stone a little if he looked close enough. Garrett felt empty and lethargic. "Why do I feel so tired?" Garrett said with a yawn.

Blixie laughed. "First time running out of mana?" Garrett checked his status and sure enough his mana shad dropped to zero. "Don't worry, it will slowly refill over time. As you get more levels your mana reserves will also increase, and as your influence gets larger the faster your mana will recover."

After waiting for awhile Garrett was still feeling groggy, so he checked his status and his mana was still at zero. "Hey Blixie, why is my mana still empty?" Garrett looked over at Blixie and saw her doubled over laughing. "What's so funny?"

"Sorry, sorry." Blixie said between laughs. "I was just wondering how long it would take you to figure out that your mana wasn't refilling. You were faster than I thought." Garrett scowled at her, or at least tried. How does a green ball of light scowl, he wondered. "I also wanted to to show you the importance of your core pillar. With it you are able absorb the mana not just in the air but from the ground as well."

Garrett calmed down since he knew Blixie was just joking around. "So, can you finally tell me how to make the core pillar?" Garrett said exasperated.

Blixie's laughter finally slowed to a stop. "That's the easy part. Now that you have infused the ground with your mana you can control and shape it how you want with the Earth Shaping skill. You just have to picture how you want the pillar to look and impose your will upon it"