Kazue had been able to tell for a while that this zone was going to be difficult. Their exterior zones were already lopsided semi-circles with how they pushed up against Kuic's borders, and now they wao push the vertical aspects of those zones out of the way so that they could push up a new zo of the ter area. But she'd also been doing some preparation with the excess of mana they'd been colleg, and part of that preparation was that each of the giant pilrs had a matrix of the living crystal running through it.

  And at the other end of this nicely magiductive living material was their core.

  She didn't just reach out the way she normally did to ew territory. Instead, Kazue simultaneously started pushing their mana through the matrix and f it out of the top of the pilrs. This put their mana where she to be and created a denser tration above the starting zohis made it easier for her to keep reag up to cim territory out of the sky.

  And to prove the shape and strength of her i, she was also building the pathway to the sky at the same time. Three inteasks with one of them being fairly plicated. Once upon a time, she'd been nervous with just the thought of g erritory.

  Thankfully, Mordecai was there to help as well. His presence was a fort, and she could feel the touch of his attention as he checked in on what she was doing before cyg back to keep track of all the things going on in their dungeht now. She'd have liked to have more of his direct support, but his satisfa and fidence when he looked over her work was gratifying and she khat they couldn't afford to have both of them focused here if they didn't o be.

  As she grew the sloped paths out and up, Kazue made sure that the living crystal grew with them. A lot of mana was being poured into ref the earth and stohat the dungeon had previously ed in its downward growth, but even more was flooding the air above it as Kazue pushed her desires and will outward. She would not just be a hole in the ground; for all the she loved her people here, she also felt a little trapped by her existence. Reag up and into the sky was reag for a promise of freedom. That uanding she'd gained from her wife, and Kazue hat affirmatiht now.

  Bit by bit the foundation was id, and inch by inch the shape of her erritory was cimed. It vaulted far above even the elevated ground whied the base of their new zoually the two paths merged back together and inte ptform upon which a new city would be built.

  But not today. No, there was o thing she o do. To most of those watg, the growth might appear plete, but Kazue was just preparing herself and gathering more living crystal. When she had enough material and mana gather, she applied her will and the calcutions for her design to that mass.

  From the ter of that high ptfrow a single, giant, crystal tree. This monstrous creation of ever-shifting rainbow hues towered above everything nearby except for the mountains themselves and gleamed brightly uhe warmth of the sun. This was a testament to her desires, a marker of future pns, and the location of their new living quarters.

  Her decision surprised Mordecai, but she didn't have the energy to tease him now. It had beeally exhausting to do all of that at the same time, and she wasn't quite do. Now that she had a crystal tree, she could have crystal roots. Roots that grew down until they poked out of the bottom of the elevated zone and acted as els and amplifiers for the light collected by the stilting tree above. This was how sunlight rovided for the nds caught in the shadows of these ing masses.

  Now she had a tempte and a cept to put into py a a new pattern automate itself. Throughout her territory, the living crystal matrix ected to and incorporated the many different light sources that she and Mordecai had previously created. Now that energy was tied to the light outside, the hues and brightness of the dungeon's light would shift and ge over the course of the day, and match the weather as well.

  By strictly amplifying what was avaible, they gaihe additional be of making the light 'true', whether that be in the form of sunlight, moonlight, or starlight. For most purposes, the dungeon could create 'true enough' light by matg the plex set of spectral colors from these light sources, but for many magical and religious purposes the actual in of the light mattered. Their amplifiers doubled the energy of each bit of light while keeping it restraio the same spectral color, which caused the bits of light to duplicate. Somehow, this made both bits of light identical in all senses and did not dilute the efficacy of the light for mystic purposes.

  With the yout plete, it was time for theming. Kazue had been uain for a while about what she actually wahe theme to be, but her decision to create the crystal tree had made her think of how Moriko was always reag for the heavens on her path. But one ot leap to the Heavens immediately. One must start with the Earth, and this would apply to both paths.

  The very first step toward asding was a shrio the King of the Earth, Kamatha the Great Tortoise. The statue overlooking the altar and table was sculpted out of a single piece of andalusite, Kamatha's favem. Here one must pay homage and tribute to the Earth King to proceed unimpeded, and the suitability of the prayers and s would determine how much eadividual would be effected by the zone's properties. If the worship offered leasing and suffit, there would be no hindra all for the rest of the zone. Should the worship be insuffit then the individual will gradually feel the ever-increasi of the Earth King's will as they proceeded, until they weighed three to five times as much by the time they reach the end of the zone. Should the s be displeasing or insulting, the maximum was ten times as much.

  While that amount of pressure would be ft out lethal to many people, this zone was rated for stronger people only to begin with. It was, in fact, the most mana-dense of the zones adjat to the trading post, a plete inversion of the normal process. This inversion was only possible thanks to the tree she had grown, and that tree was going to have to grow through every zohey grew vertically in order to maintain the zones.

  This was also a test of sorts. It felt right to be able to do this, so long as the shrine and s were sincerely dedicated enough. Once she and Mordecai had triple-checked how the strength of the gravity was tied to the shrine and the bined i of the delver and the judgment of the s, the final touch was to give over the shrine pletely. Over time she had begun to get a feel of the 'dire' of divine energy and prayers, so now she sent a thread of prayer, i, ah-aspected mana in that indescribable dire. The other end of that thread was tied to the shrine and the zone's entment.

  It stung when trol over the thread was taken out of her proverbial hands, but that also meant it worked. She and Mordecai were truly not the judges of the s now. Of course, this also meant that they couldn't trol the entment manually anymore either. Naturally, there was an exception carved out for dungeoures and tractors, but even the most honored of guests would have to pay their own tribute in order to proceed.

  They were also not going to be gettiely as much direct be from things like physical s as they would from such gifts being given to the dungeon directly. But that was fihis felt appropriate for the extra level of challenge. A price aid, and a boon received. It was good, and she was now very, very tired.

  So she simply allowed her focus to withdraw a her mind snuggle up against Mordecai's presence. "I want our avatars and Moriko to live there now. The inal rooms stay, I just want to be able to have my other self wake up to the sun or stare out at the moons and stars at night. I want to be able to look out over our territory, not look up at it." Kazue the her focus drift over to Bellona and Deidre, watg the avatar's progress to keep herself eained.

  "Alright love," he replied softly, "now rest, and I will take over from here. You did well, and I am very proud of you."

  Mordecai had a lot of ideas he was still pying with for the actual bat challenges he would be presenting, but they were a little thin on mana right now so there was little challenge or reward to be found for those who would asd just yet.

  Irading post, his avatar was answering many questions, though most of them were redundant. After all, he and Kazue had created little pamphlets to expin the reality of the dungeon's territory and the limits of their life-saving boon. There was also a lot of emphasis that it took aire year for the boon to be avaible for an individual again, and that the dungeon could not speed that up.

  There was a tiny missing bit there, which would be 'on an individual basis'. The dungeon did have the potential to enhahe recharge rate with future boons, but that was not guaranteed and he didn't want to give false hope or an opening for willful misuandings.

  And speaking of boons, he should see which patterns were avaible for them to attach to their nodes before finalizing decisions owo new raid bosses. Amidst the growing web of potential growth, there were a few that stood out as more iing to him.

  The ability to give all their inhabitants a small boost when faced with strong delvers was one he'd been sidering for a while, as was a newly avaible pattern that he could tie to a material type and create a resoh all the dungeoures. This would let their every strike and attack behave as if it was that material, such as cold iron against certain types of fae or demonic creatures. But despite the weaknesses Deidre's avatar had been forced to take on, Mordecai didn't anticipate that there would be much call for su ability here. So he mentally discarded it in favor of the boost, but did not attach it quite yet.

  Another one he'd anticipated was a slight boost to the itive abilities of their inhabitants. He was fairly certain that Kazue was going to jump at that one, but she was rather drowsy still and Mordecai wao let her rest while he filtered through the options. It wouldn't have a lot of effe the very smartest of their creatures, but it would certainly help everyone else, especially those that had not advanced beyond basic sapience.

  Now that he'd gohrough all the ohat were familiar to him, it was time to examine a brand new option. Mordecai didn't reize this pattern, but it still felt vaguely familiar. This meant it robably reted to one of the boons that they already had selected, and he'd been having to fend off its attempts to attach to the open hat meant it robably reted to something he'd done as it specifically wao attach to his side of the core. That was a good set of clues, but it didn't solve the mystery immediately.

  It took most of an hour to figure out all the pieces of this puzzle and calcute how they ied as a whole, with the final piece being the reition that the resonance of 'three' or 'third' in this pattern was reted to the 'two' of a boon they'd had for a while. It also expined why he'd never seen it before. After all, in his previous life he'd only maintaiwo paths and those had been 'light bat' vs 'heavy bat'. Actively maintaining and using a third path was o him. And now there was a reward of sorts for it, though accepting the reward came with its own burdens in the form of needing to maintaihird route properly.

  Now that he had it solved, Mordecai didn't take long to decide on this boon. While giving their inhabitants more power as needed certainly had its bes, this boon opened up a new opportunity for the dungeon when bined with their other abilities, and assuming some were willing to take the harder challenge. Kazue gathered her thoughts together long enough to focus on the avaible boons and tched onto the itive boosting ability immediately, dismissing all the rest. If it had been his choice, Mordecai would have preferred the security of a direct power boost, but he wasly in a position to pin. After all, this wonderful neacity boost came with a new set of nodes for bosses.

  A slightly greedy part of him wished that these nodes had been doubled too, but the matrix of the pattern was additive and their doubled bosses were in truth additive as well; one for each of the cores. No new raid bosses either. He really had bee spoiled to be disappointed by that fact.

  Ohat was settled, Mordecai realized he'd also given himself way more work as well. The sewers were going to require active pnning and poputing now, and it was going to be entirely his responsibility. There was so much to do.

  Zagaroth