Xu Han, the dungeon core of the Tomb of Ten Thousand Techniques, scrutinized what was left of the cat and mentally frowned. That was... unexpected.

  “Don’t do that again!”

  Xu Han turned to the person who shouted and saw his dungeon fairy digging her ears. Understanding came over the dungeon core. The explosion was loud, and the boom must have echoed through the cave.

  “Sorry about that, Jemma. Are you alright?” Xu Han quickly apologized to his less-than-pleased dungeon fairy.

  “What do you think? My ears are ringing! Told you that won’t work.”

  “I did not expect it to, but even failures can give us valuable information. We now know what will happen when I overload a body with divine power.” Xu Han defended himself.

  “What information? It blows up and creates a bloody mess. Even I could tell you that!” Jemma grumbled as she waved at the blood-soaked walls of the cave. Blood that was already being absorbed by the dungeon.

  “Yes, but now we know how much divine power the body of a cat can hold before it blows up. And how long it would take for that to happen.” Xu Han explained.

  Jemma did not reply immediately but looked strangely at Xu Han instead. “A bloody explosion and you are delighted instead of horrified. I am beginning to understand why they call you The Crazed Scholar in your old world.”

  “Rude. Insolent.” Xu Han light-heartily scolded his dungeon fairy at the mention of one of his more infamous titles.

  “But correct.” Jemma countered.

  The dungeon core had no comeback to that.

  Xu Han turned his attention back to the body of the cat. The two of them were in his core room, the safest room of his dungeon. Eager for experimentation, Xu Han had brought one of the cats into the room and poured divine power into it. He even tried to direct the power to change the body of the cat to something resembling the Guardian of Cards. The result was blood, guts and body parts all over the walls.

  Creating a new species was every bit as difficult as warned.

  “You do know you can’t just forcefully change a cat’s body and claim it is a new species, right? It doesn’t work that way. According to Challenger, you need another body, maybe a human or an elf, and merge them together.”

  “I know, but Challenger’s method is too inefficient. He overloaded two bodies with divine power just to create one new being. There must be a better way.”

  Xu Han may be grateful to Challenger, but the scholar within him had no desire to blindly copy the older core. Xu Han wished to improve his method. Something Jemma was less than enthusiastic about.

  “Well, ‘your’ method is also very inefficient. That’s the third cat you murdered since receiving them. At this rate, you will need another delivery sooner rather than later.”

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  “I have released the rest of the cats through the various rooms on the second floor. With ample food, water and no predators, they will start breeding soon.”

  “Not fast enough at the rate you are going.” Jemma scoffed. “If you really need to experiment, what about that magitech carriage you absorbed? Do something with that.”

  Xu Han mentally sighed when Jemma mentioned the carriage. Some black smoke came out of the crystal that housed Xu Han’s consciousness, and the dungeon core willed them to show a diagram of the magitech carriage. The carriage was a fantastic gift but the gift from The Dungeon Master was a double-edge sword as far as Xu Han was concerned. He had read The Basics of Magitech and went through the carriage, only to understand one thing.

  He had a fundamental disagreement with the design of the thing.

  “Why did the people in this world create things this way? Why are parts of it imbue with magic while other parts of it uses no mana at all? It makes no sense. If they were going to create a magical item, they should create a magical item. Not an item where only parts of it is magical.” Xu Han demanded, his voice echoing around the chamber.

  Jemma, who had finally stopped digging her ears, paused and looked over at the floating dungeon core. “Why would every part of it need mana? That’s just wasteful.”

  “No, it’s not! When you cast a spell on an item, you need to cast the spell on every part of the item, not just parts of it. For example; when I cast a spell to make a cart fly, I need to cast the spell to affect every part of the cart. I can’t just cast a spell on the wheels of a cart so that it could float. If the spell does not need to make the cart stronger, the thing will break apart the moment it goes flies through the air. And the driver will be blown off by the high winds if the spell does not stick the driver to the seat of the cart.” Xu Han explained, but his dungeon fairy just shook her head.

  “Wasteful! Why can’t the driver just tie himself to the cart with a belt?” Sensing the discontent from her dungeon core, Jemma quickly continued. “All I am saying is that not all spells or enchantments work the same. For example, when a mage enchant a sword, they inscribed the rune on the blade of the sword to make it stronger or sharper, and most do not put an inscription on the hilt. Why should they? There’s no need because it would not affect the use of the sword.”

  “Yes, it will. Enchanting the whole item makes the whole item stronger. Enchanting parts of an item is just shoddy work and makes for a weaker item.” Xu Han argued.

  “That may be true,” Jemma conceded, “but full enchantments are also unnecessary. No one expect a sword for sale at a normal weapon shop to have full enchantment. If it does, the price of the sword will be higher, making it out of reach for normal adventurers. It is a waste of time and mana for little gain.”

  “A small gain is still a gain. And if you want to do something, you should do it right.” Xu Han shot back.

  “Perfection is the enemy of good. Perfection is a great aim but never waste resources on ‘great’ when ‘good’ is enough.”

  Xu Han was stunned. The reply from his dungeon core sounded like a saying. “Who told you that? That doesn’t sound like you at all. That must be the stupidest thing I have ever heard in my two lives.”

  “I learned it in school,” Jemma freely admitted, “but it is not stupid. Maybe it’s a difference in magical philosophy between this world and the Crimson Lands, but we don’t waste resources on unnecessary things here. And we are stepping off the path here. I was asking about the carriage. You can understand and create magitech items, right?”

  “Of course. I was a cultivator who reached the realm of Soul Emperor. Artificing and Puppetry were far more difficult disciplines than this magitech nonsense, and I mastered cultivations techniques in both professions. Magitech is simple enough, though I’ll need more practice time before I can create complex items.” Xu Han boasted.

  “Excellent. We can use that for your new floors. Now for your fifth floor I was thinking-”

  “Wait! Wait a moment!” Xu Han quickly stopped his dungeon fairy before she could go on a rant. “I just finished my fourth floor. I never said anything about creating a fifth.”