Matthias had finally maxed out the size of his influence once again. The bad news was that his mana income was less than adequate for his future plans. The good news was that he had found the ocean.

  Well, it would be more accurate to say that his swamp had expanded until it reached the actual ocean. As usual, the local fauna took exception to that fact. As a result, his denizens now had even more to compete with. At least some of the turtles had taken the opportunity to spread to the beaches outside his dungeon. His swamp was much easier to manage without the largest turtles carving it up as territory. Now their young would hatch and march in to take part in their own evolutionary journeys. In a way, it was like watching salmon return to their spawning waters.

  Matthias knew that he did not need to rush his fourth floor. But he wanted it. The problem was that everything about it was expensive. He was running into an issue where he had spent more mana than he would have needed to increase his rarity again. He was back to hovering around ten percent of his capacity, and that troubled him.

  Cedric’s etching was going well. Matthias had to admit that the slime was something of a savant. Cedric had settled on a circuitry-style design for their personal enchantments. The techno-sorcery aesthetic of the finished product was both distinct and pleasing to the eye.

  [Faction Infernal has declared war on Faction Celestial]

  Matthias’ mind shut down for a moment. All thoughts of expansions, new monsters, and new loot tables ground to a halt as he tried to comprehend the implications.

  "Hey, Lucy," he began. "Is there a way to speed up mana generation?"

  "Hmmmm," she mused as she swallowed her current bite of ice cream. "I don't know what else you could do. Your income is already higher than most dungeons would have at your tier."

  "Why the sudden question?" Chloe asked, eyes narrowing.

  "Well," Matthias hesitated, "the world as we know it might be ending."

  The room went quiet for a moment.

  "What?" pretty much everyone asked. Even the fey looked unsettled.

  "The Infernal faction just declared war on the Celestial faction," Matthias confirmed.

  Once again, that heavy silence fell over the room.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  "There are going to be so many deaths," Lucy said, breaking the silence with a cringe.

  "The timing is less than ideal," Chloe noted painfully.

  "This will change much," Sylt said, as Rey nodded in agreement.

  "You could make more resource nodes," Lucy pointed out. "You do get mana from people extracting resources from nodes."

  Matthias winced. "I might be a little short on mana," he admitted to his fairies. "But it is an idea I can try once I replenish some."

  "I mean, this does mean you could do some raiding," Chloe suddenly suggested.

  "Raiding?" Matthias and Lucy asked in tandem.

  "It is the act of sending out expeditions to map and loot the surrounding areas," Chloe explained with a shrug. "It is also a means to supplement mana income. You send your denizens out to cull local monsters and animals, bring back loot, and things like that."

  "Yeah, I'm not comfortable with burning villages," Matthias replied. "I have also been told many times that we are in the tail end of nowhere. There is nothing within a convenient distance of us."

  "But you did just gain access to the ocean," she reminded him. "You could put your efforts in that direction."

  "But wouldn't people want to set up a pier for fishing and shipping?" Matthias asked.

  "Sweetie, why?" Chloe replied. "When teleportation is the main way of getting around, why would anyone need ships? And if they were going to go fishing, they would have started before you reached the coast."

  Matthias thought deeply about that.

  "I keep forgetting how different this place is from my old life," he admitted. "So what should I put out there first?"

  "Lurkers!" everyone answered in unison.

  "It killed a level one hundred in a single attack—that is a bit too much," Lucy added.

  "Fine, fine," Matthias sighed.

  With another sigh, he decided to send all of his lurkers out that way. Maybe they could fight the turtles again.

  He did not have much mana to invest in anything large, so no oceanic dinosaurs. But he could do the little things: shrimp, oysters, clams, corals, a variety of eels, and collections of smaller fish. It felt right to flesh out the environment and make it self-sustaining.

  Matthias only hoped that the rumor that all things in the ocean eventually evolved into nightmare fuel was more rumor than fact.

  He then turned his attention to Sylt and Rey.

  "Sylt, Rey," he began. "Get word to the mortals. Tell the guilds in town what is coming. They need to understand. Maybe they can get some of their people out of the line of fire. We can't save them ourselves, but sending word this early might help."

  Both bowed wordlessly before departing.

  "Chloe, Lucy," he said, turning to his fairies. "I think it is time you explained more about both your factions. Nothing compromising. I won't ask you to betray any trust—just common knowledge, like locations and what they are known for."

  "Do you really think learning anything now will help?" Lucy asked as she settled on the edge of the bowl where his core rested.

  His core had changed slightly. Sparkles of light now drifted amid the swirling violet currents, and the glow at its center flickered faintly in time with his unsteady emotions. He looked like a swirling violet galaxy, complete with twinkling stars, trapped in glass. As the tension built in his mind, the motion within his core grew more intense.

  "Knowledge is power," he sighed, the weight of what was to come beginning to press down on his spiritual shoulders. "And I can't make plans for what I don't understand. I thought I would have years—but it seems I may only have months."