Kazue had enjoyed helping out itle, though she had to admit she was a little shaken by Gil's raw power. She had been able to feel his aura the whole time he was here, but seeing it unleashed was different.

  But now the party was dying down, and they had a glut of mana. Oh, some of it went into repairing the wetnds, and there were a few other projects to spend it on like making the ges Mordecai had done for Betty into a tempte they were calling Usagisune, which they would be making avaible to all the rabbit based s.

  And Mordecai was off making some final tweaks to what were now hex-wolves. Four of the tentacles had been migrated to put two under each wing along the ter line of the hex-wolves, and two had been moved to the upper back, right at the shoulders. Aacles in excess of those six were suppressed and the tentacles were grahe ability to inflict random curses when they hit, though they were immuo curses from their own kind and ily resistant to curses from others. The curses were all minor with a limit of a day, and most of them were mere invenienbarrassing, but there were a few bad lud clumsy type curses in the mix too.

  The number and variety of curses that Mordecai knew was a touch disturbing, but Kazue decided it robably best to not think about it because then she might be tempted to ask about what other curses he knew, and after sulting with Moriko they both agreed that this might fall uhe category of things she didn't actually want to know. And Mordecai would tell her if she asked.

  Ohe hex wolves were finalized, they were added as roaming predators to the wetnds. The mushroom forest seemed like better terrain, but a pack of these guys was very dangerous now that they were smarter and able to learn pack tactics. Their wings were only good for short flights right now, but as the species matured uhe guidance of the dungeon, Mordecai expected older oo be able to gain full flight.

  And a bit more mana could be spent incorporating more minor life forms that had either been brought in deliberately or were small things that had e in ially with travelers. The ecosystem of the warrens was thriving and there were stantly new pnts and fungi to add to the appropriate floors.

  But even after she had stretched to bulk out all the options and variety of the early zohey still had a lot of mana, which meant it was time to go for their zone. And they had agreed to tio grow out. But this was flig with their dedication to maintaining two paths, and failing in the spirit of that would colpse the hat increased their capacity beyond the doubling they already had from having a dual-core. Now that she was aware of the structure of the boons, she could see why Mordecai had guided some of their decisions the way he had.

  Their Zone Zero mao intermihe two paths and still had a sele process for only batants being challenged for bat, so it fulfilled the i of dedig to a dual path if barely, but it roving harder to find a way forward with their upward expansion, and it was further plicated by anizing the power levels of the zones and their current desire to not advertise how far their territory extended.

  And unfortunately, Mordecai could only help her so much. In all else their power over the dungeon was equal, but establishing a new zone was reserved for her alone, he couldn't do more than provide suggestions, so it was oo figure out the correct cept to imbue the zoh.

  Kazue was fairly certain that their desired figuration for power levels would work; they wao keep the town at the lowest may and have a minimal amount of increase spreading into the outward zone, which they had mentally beled "Zo 1", along with the lower zones being redesignated as "Zone Down 1" through "Zone Down 7" for precision in addition to being named 'wetnds' and such. The strange beling was Mordecai's idea, but while it was weird she had to agree that it added a certain sort of mental crity.

  She wasn't sure if keeping Zone Zero at a minimum strength would work for a 'normal' enviro dungeon, as the information they had suggested the outer most zone was always the weakest, but that town was supposed to be the primary entrao the dungeon and abutted against Kuic's territory so they couldn't spread radially anyway. It didn't seem fair to have people who were following the proper course of things to be forced to start in the more difficult zone.

  One of her ideas had been to try and have 'safe paths' marked through the outer zone, with warnings that leaving the safety of the marked paths could allow dangerous animals to attack. But pying with the idea felt awkward and it didn't seem like it suited the dual path of bat and non-bat very well.

  A suitable cept finally clicked into pce along with a design for the bosses. It was going to be a bountiful hunting and nature preserve. All of the 'animals' would be passive unless aried to hunt or trap them, which would allow people disined toward fighting to partake in the rest of nature's bounty. In the meahe creatures would make tempting targets for those already ined to seek a challenging fight, especially the most tempting game here: the mysterious silver and gold bats.

  Belle and Freya were game for this role, and Kazue could finally feel her mana rolling out from their current borders to cim the nd beyond. Iingly, their base zone around the town spread out as well, rippling out in a stretch along Kuic's border in a strip about a hundred yards wide, preventing their more powerful zone from toug the border. Their new zone was otherwise a semi-circle spreading along the foothills and approag the mountain proper.

  And the ma p out, flowing beyond her trol as she was forced to cim the territory caught in the 'V' between the upper zones and the lower zohe suddeying of their pool left both cores stunned and uo reatil they were only left with the small amount that she'd already marked for evolving the two bats.

  “What was that?” Kazue asked once she'd finally recovered enough.

  “I'm not sure,” Mordecai replied as he examihe erritory that she'd not inteo cim, “but it felt like there ressure differential that was equalizing. Mm, it seems to be still drawing a trickle of mana here on the edge. Let me measure the geometry of our territory retive to the outside.”

  As soon as he created a diagram of the situation, Kazue was able to see the problem. When she'd expaheir territory, there had been uncimed nd caught between two pieces of their territory. You could draw a straight line across it that began and ended in the dungeon's territory. They didn't have enough mana to fill out the e, but thankfully the demand seemed to drop off as the distand the aween the edges grew.

  Now that she was looking for it, she could feel a faint pressure that wao fill the entire area in a line from the highest point of their territory down to the farthest point of their current zones, which was their own private area that they had been moving with each zone down they'd grown. Really, it was like a misshapen e whose vertex was their private chambers and whose edge was defined by any other point of their territory that a direct line could be drawn to.

  That was a lot of empty space that wao be cimed. “Um, Mordecai?”

  “Yes, I see it. That's not something I've noticed before, I think we've been instinctively modifying the es of our zoo create a smoother line, but growing this way made too sharp an ao be automatically pensated for and we had to pay the price to start filling it in.”

  “What are we going to do? We'll be uo do anything with our primary pool for quite a while buying up all that space.”

  “Well, with the sharpest need met, I think we regute the flow, so long as we don't cut it off. I, erg, never mind, you have to do it because it touches g erritory. But you should be able to reduce the outflow to a steady and more sustaie. Maybe think of it like a promise ur payment or a tax on our mana? You'll have to find the cept that works for you, but the point is to keep paying while trolling how much. I don't think we cim more zones until we've got this fixed, so we don't want to reduce it too much.”

  Kazue got to work while Mordecai turned his attention elsewhere. She could tell that he was w on somethied to their glut of unwaerritory, but getting this flow under trol was taking up a lot of her tration.

  That was when Moriko asked what was going on, which Mordecai also took care of answering. Kazue was gd their wife ko not interrupt while they were w on a sudden problem, but it also made her feel bad that they couldn't involve her more in the process.

  Eventually, she got it under trol and automated so that it would at her attention so much. It was going to remain a minor nuisail that debt aid off by g all the proper territory, but now she could ig.

  Once her attention was free, Mordecai showed her what he'd been w on and talking with Moriko about. While Moriko didn't have the logistical background to directly help his pn, she did know the dungeon and its inhabitants and made a good sounding board for him. Kazue liked his pn and gave her approval, but let him ha. She felt tired now.

  Mordecai's voice went out to all of their inhabitants, “I hope we didn't worry you with the abrupt mana flow. We discovered the hard way that we o cim some odd territory before we could create another zohis is proving to be a little bit taxing on our mana, but I've e up with an idea where you help. We're marking all of this new area as 'warrens' unless anyone es up with a better idea, but we aren't going to spend mana to reshape the space or create tunnels. Instead, I think it would be iing to challenge you to expand your skills to mining and new forms of stru, and leave it open for you to exploit any materials or spaces as you like.”

  He paused to let that sink in before he tinued, “Now, while some of the hazards of mining are effectively ed by the nature of being dungeon inhabitants, I'd like anyone who takes up this challeo treat it the way outsiders would have to, and take precautions against all the potential hazards. Aih is yours to do with as you please.”

  They both khat the innate loyalties of inhabitants would ine them to take up this projeyway, but they also felt better making this offer and giving them at least the be of g personal wealth.

  versations sprung up and the hum of all the talking and pnning created a nice background to rex in while she recovered from the mental fatigue ling the outflow of maually, pieces of versation drew her bato a more focused state and she joined in on an iing idea.

  The sensus was that they were going to start up by mining into the hillside from the exterior he trading post. This would allow them to move materials vely, rather than trying to shuffle them through the dungeon. As her time nor money were high priorities, they were going to focus on the effiaterials instead. Every bit of earth and rock that they pulled out was going to be put to use in any way that it could. Even just loose dirt could be used, whether to level a piece of nd or to be packed into insution around smaller buildings. The insution wasirely needed as the buildings were well structed, but it would be a nice boon to have in pce when winter eventually came.

  There was also some thought about earthen work fortifications, but in the end, it was decided that it would go against the appearahey wanted. And the real defenses were deeper in the dungeon anyway. They might have trouble finding use for all the materials eventually, but as they were not going to be digging quickly it roblem that could be worked out over time.

  It also provided an opportunity for a new sort of challenge, which was what had snagged Kazue's attention. Any delvers who wao help dig a hole would be able to get paid for their troubles while providing mana to the duhrough their sweat and effort. Dwarves had already e through before, and Mordecai was certain that an official delegation would eventually be sent if for no reason other than to discuss the dungeon's ability to duplicate GOME, so they might get some enthusiastic experts eventually.

  Kazue was feelier now and was ready to turtention back to Belle and Freya, as the mana to evolve them had bee aside before the issue with g territory had begun.

  Zagaroth