Selvara awoke refreshed and rested. As a dungeon fairy and familiar, she was closely connected to the feelings and thoughts of the dungeon heart. Sleeping through the night without being woken by an attack, accident or other catastrophe was almost unusual.

  She opened her eyes and blinked. Had spiders managed to get into her room? Her bed was surrounded by cobwebs. She took a closer look at the web. The pattern didn't really match cobwebs. And it surrounded her in an exact rectangle. What the...

  As her mind caught up with her body and also reached full working capacity, she realized that Malvorik had converted her bed into a four-poster bed with curtains while she slept. He had done it without waking her with his usual mental giggles. His self-control was improving.

  Four wooden pillars held up a fabric roof. On the sides, he had placed curtains made of a fine silk weave. She pushed aside a curtain and looked around her room. The furniture still looked the same, but the floor was now covered with a red fabric. Not exactly a carpet, but close enough. She stroked her toes over the soft material and smiled. Then she walked through the corridor to the heart room and opened the small door. To her it was a fairy-high portal, but to humans it looked more like the door to a doll's house. She cautiously stuck her head through. Malvorik had surprised her too often with his experiments.

  She could feel how active the Dungeon Crystal's mind was. For the first time in a long time, Malvorik ignored all other problems and gave himself fully to his true passion. Arcane research. The basic book for mages had given him back enough of his lost spell knowledge, that he would be able to reconstruct some of the spells he had known in the past. If only he was given enough time. He could now also create a variety of artifacts that were standard equipment for adventurers.

  As there were no dangerous objects moving through the room, Selvara flew carefully into the heart room and looked around. The sketches of swords, spears, armor and shields that had dominated the mirrored walls a day earlier were gone. Instead, she now saw numerous versions of finger-length staffs, surrounded by sketches and notes. She sensed Malvorik's mental grin and hesitated: "Is it safe? Are pieces of armor about to swirl around here?"

  

  Selvara flew up a little further and watched as a summoning circle, similar to those used by dungeons to summon their dungeon monsters, appeared at the bottom of his heart room. Stone sank into the floor in the shape of the lines and the gaps filled with silver, which began to glow shortly after. The air above shimmered. A finger-long wooden stick appeared. A network of fine, metallic lines covered the surface. Fine, as if painted. As a Dungeon, Malvorik could create things with a precision that a mortal artifact mage could only dream of. He created another layer of wood that hid the network of mythril. She noticed two fine lines that led from the mythril pattern to one end at the top and to the upper third of one side at another point. A tiny aquamarine appeared at one end of the stick. With her close connection to Malvorik, she knew that the semi-precious stone was not created, but came from Malvorik's supply. A number of small semi-precious stones that Weylan had purchased.

  A ring of fine silver lines appeared around the aquamarine. A rune formed on the side of the staff at the point where the other mythril line came to the surface. She studied the rune and glanced briefly at the notes on the mirror wall. An unobtrusive glance was not enough to find the right rune in the crowd of runes. She turned around and studied the mirror openly. "Is it this rune here? Purification?"

  

  Selvara cautiously fluttered closer and gently tapped the artifact with her foot. When the wooden staff rolled harmlessly away a bit, she landed and picked it up. "Aquamarine and a rune of purification. What exactly does this thing do?"

  Malvorik let a dirty shirt with numerous tears appear.

  "Where did you get that from? Stole it from the ground after a battle?"

  

  Selvara had to place the artifact, which was far too large for her, over a bent knee and bend a little to align everything correctly. Then she placed her hand on the rune. She felt a pull on her magic. It took no effort for her to let her magic flow. A bluish light shone from the semi-precious stone onto the shirt. The dark stains of earth and blood became lighter after a while. Then they disappeared completely.

  "Nice. That hardly used any mana. Maybe just as much as a level 1 spell. Isn't there a level 1 spell that can do that much faster?"

  

  "That contains mythril? Can't you create whole bars of gold? That would certainly be easier."