"Conversation can be a learning experience for everyone. I never hesitate to reach out when I'm in over my head, and I'll never hesitate to return the favor." ~ Mark Mason

Transcribing the textbooks took a good part of the evening, and it was interesting to see what was acceptable and what wasn't to whoever was monitoring these things. Physics was mostly acceptable to the system, as long as we were talking purely Newtonian physics and orbital mechanics. Some of the other things normally addressed were cut off; I wouldn't be introducing electronics, nuclear physics, or quantum mechanics. I wasn't sure how that would work, exactly, as I was allowed to address basic physical chemistry with atomic and molecular structure, bonding, acids and bases, and basic reactions, though the manmade, unstable elements had been redacted from the periodic table leaving some discreet gaps. I hadn't had to take organic chemistry, so that may have let me avoid some other issues, but I did note references to DNA and genetics had also been redacted in passing.

I'd assume I would run into other problematic areas, but in terms of addressing issues of air flow in mines, it didn't seem like running her through topics of atmospheric composition or the mechanics of airflow and turbulence would be an issue. That said, I also hadn't had any specific training in the engineering of airflow and turbulence, so while I knew some of the underlying science and was aware of laminar airflow chambers, that would likely be the limit of my assistance.

I'd taken some time in the early hours of the morning to go through the works Hakdrilda had provided. The sense I'd gotten was that there wasn't much of a formal scientific method in play, but through long years of experience and some practical experimentation, the dwarves of Aubesan and related kingdoms had established some effective techniques, solid safety procedures, and an appreciation for overengineering their works. They didn't always understand why things worked but were willing to adopt any techniques with demonstrable value. That seemed particularly true when it came to medicine; the downside, if you wanted to consider it that, was that the availability of divine healing meant that understanding the internal function of the body was generally limited to a macroscopic scale – they didn't have a clear sense of germ theory or an understanding of the effects of particulates on the lungs, but they generally didn't need to. Mortality in dwarven mines mostly came from immediate trauma or asphyxiation, rather than long-term chronic issues.

The air magic was all new to me, of course, but a lot of it was used for functions I recognized – filtration, ventilation, and circulation, for the most part. They'd experimented with air magic for mining directly, but earth magic was generally more effective for those purposes, and fire/ice magic was similarly preferred for temperature control. For these sorts of industrial purposes, runic enchantments seemed to be preferred, as actual trained mages were both scarce and expensive, and were generally not involved with the day-to-day process of mining. I looked forward to trying out my new runic magic skill, but didn't actually have any need for enchanted pickaxes or fans just yet.

The work she had given me on pressure, turbulence, and flow was the most theoretically advanced, but was largely restricted to observational experiments and some limited tests, mostly using water. I got the sense that this was a fairly recent attempt to build on knowledge provided by undersea civilizations where the movements of water, especially at different depths, were a topic of practical concern. It seemed like the author of the work had made the logical jump to gas dynamics as a special case of liquid dynamics, which had been studied longer among some of the deep dwellers of the ocean.

In any event, it was likely to be a while before Hakdrilda and I were really on the same page. She had solid, practical knowledge of her field, while I had access to a broader range of theoretical knowledge, but less in depth understanding of what it meant – we'd both be learning quite a bit, ideally. Though to be honest, I mostly wanted to focus on the air magic and some of its practical uses for me, as a dungeon.

This was mostly a matter for later days, though, and once she had risen, I essentially plunked a couple of large textbooks in front of Hakdrilda to see what she could make of them. Things didn't really go smoothly, though, as she possessed no translation magic equivalent to my own; she did have a magic tool that would assist with translation, but she was going to have to train it on the language first – I got the sense that she'd be doing that for several days before the translation would be anything she would consider reliable. She was excited by the various figures in the physics textbook, though, particularly the brief section covering basic fluid dynamics. I left her muttering to herself and running a hand through her unkempt hair as she gnawed on some hard form of bread and dried meat while flipping pages to look at all the images.

Having done my due diligence to the dwarf, I transferred my focus to the dungeon priests, who had completed their morning ablutions and prayers, and were now chatting in low tones over a simple breakfast of fruit and a simple porridge of some sort.

My attention seemed to draw their awareness, and I began with a simple greeting. **Good morning to you all. Did you sleep well?**

Throg took up the role of spokesperson, saying only, **Oh, tolerably. We're not a particularly ascetic order, but we've all slept in less comfortable dungeons at one time or another. And how are you, today?**

I gave the mental equivalent of a shrug. **The days are starting to run together on me a bit. Without any actual need to sleep or eat in a conventional manner, I find my schedule less interrupted by biological needs. That said, I do think I'm going to miss eating and sleeping – absorbing things directly really isn't the same.**

Throg nodded. **I can see that. Losing access to some of those simple pleasures could be a problem. I wonder if that's part of the reason some dungeons try so hard to devour delvers even when not driven by mana starvation. I'm given to understand that it can have some positive, or even euphoric, sensations associated with it.**

I thought back over my own limited experience. **Well, there is a sudden rush of mana that does provide a sense of wellbeing and fullness; I can see that being attractive, particularly if you have known periods of deprivation. I don't think I'm in any danger of seeking out that rush unnecessarily, but the hunger is a powerful motivator. It seems to actively mess with my thinking in ways I don't remember from my more fleshly days. It's weird – I don't have most of the old bodily desires I once did, but the ones I do have seem stronger and more able to affect my course of action.**

Throg and the others were enthralled by that revelation and began actively discussing the philosophical ramifications of dungeon desires before Throg cut them short.

**Apologies, Vay, my colleagues and I got a bit off topic. The nature of a dungeon's hunger has been a point of discussion in the church for a long time, and not one our God has seen fit to lay to rest. You are uniquely qualified to address a number of admittedly abstruse, points of theology for us as the only dungeon known to have ever been a biological humanoid. I can already see some of my more contentious colleagues pointing out that you aren't a characteristic example, though.**

I'm sure my amusement came through clearly. **Yes, that's the problem with contentious colleagues... Or really, anyone with a strongly held opinion – nobody likes to admit they were wrong, and the temptation to poke holes in opposing arguments is pretty much always going to win out for a while. And they're not wrong, really; I'm sure my perspective is a bit different from a more traditional dungeon. I'd just say that in general, when my dungeon instincts are pushing me towards a set of actions, they're generally clearer and more overt than the hazier, hormonal drives I once had. Those would tend to creep up on me, where the hunger is more of a sharper, more abrupt drive. They really feel a bit different, even if I'm not explaining it well.**

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

The priests finished up their breakfast and started to clean up but stopped abruptly when I simply absorbed the remains of their meal, leaving only sparklingly clean utensils and polished bowls behind. They chuckled in amusement at the convenience, while I was pleased to pick up some basic blueprints in exchange.

Blueprint Acquired: Golden Apricot

Blueprint Acquired: Date Palm: Trantor Variety

Blueprint Acquired: Oat Porridge

Blueprint Acquired: Black Tea: Pinor Variety

This was apparently a different enough kind of apricot, to warrant a separate blueprint from the Apricots used by the earlier residents of the sky island. "Trantor Variant" left me curious about whether Trantor was a place or just a name applied to the specific kind of date. Asking Throg, informed me that it was a bit of both – Trantor was a town located in the desert north of the orclands, but the dates in question, while presumably originating there, were now grown broadly in regions with the right environmental conditions. "Pinor," on the other hand, seemed to just be a name for the tea, as far as the priests knew – it might be named after a town, a processing technique, or a person, but if so, they had no real knowledge of the etymology.

That was all a bit of a side conversation, though, and we quickly returned to the business of dungeon growth patterns, common themes, and the roles and personalities of other sapient dungeons. The sense I got was that there was a tremendous amount of variation, but some general commonalities.

Kraal was apparently the best informed on growth patterns and themes, and he provided something of a general overview.

**Well, a lot of it depends on the specific circumstances of the dungeon. For typical, non-sapient dungeons, a couple of rooms a year and a level every ten years or so is probably average – though dungeons that see unusually high or unusually low levels of delvers will tend to vary significantly from that average. Some dungeons may not add rooms for years, and some of the most popular ones in convenient locations may add a level every year. Themes are even more variable, but for non-sapient dungeons, they tend to fall into a few categories. The most common are dungeons that reflect their surrounding environment – with caves being prevalent, but also things like swamps, forests, deserts, and tundra, etc. In similar fashion, some dungeons are defined by their elemental affinities – earth type being most common, followed by water and fire. Those tend to result in particular sets of environments and monsters, for obvious reasons. Others focus more on monster types, specifically – goblin dungeons, kobold dungeons, and the like. Undead dungeons fall in that category too, but those are rarely permitted to grow beyond a couple of levels before being sanctioned. You will less commonly find dungeons that focus on traps or on puzzles; those tend to be some of the dungeons that eventually grow to sapience, as those do seem to require a bit more intellectual capacity to make functional.

Sapient dungeons will tend to grow faster on average – partly because of their popularity with delvers, I'm sure, but also because they are better about planning and have more inherent drive than non-sapient dungeons. Their themes are pretty variable, though the majority of them grow out of simpler, non-sapient dungeons, at which point they tend to specialize beyond their specific roots. Divinely-placed dungeons typically have themes that support whatever their mission might be – whether that's training a specific class (ranging from paladins to assassins and everything in between), purifying a particularly blighted region, testing the faith of supplicants and priest novices, generating key resources for a religious polity, or what have you.**

I asked next about the placement of dungeons. **Are there any obvious factors in where dungeons appear? I know you all told me that dungeons will spawn when other dungeons have been removed from a region, but is there any way of predicting where and when new dungeons will appear?**

Blorg chimed in, as apparently this was one of its theoretical interests. **There are some factors that clearly play into the process, though forecasting new dungeons is beyond our current capabilities. Given their function in maintaining mana circulation, naturally spawning dungeons will tend to appear in regions with high mana flow or regions where mana circulation has been disrupted in some fashion – often by traumatic events like major battles, demonic incursions, or the like. More generally, dungeons tend to be broadly spaced in wilder regions, and more densely distributed around larger population centers (commonly in sewers and abandoned buildings in the most densely settled, and thus usually poorer, parts of the city/town, though occasionally in and around major public venues like market squares or palaces).**

I found that interesting, though not particularly helpful to my own situation, so I tried turning discussion back to divinely placed dungeons specifically, and sapient dungeons more broadly.

**So how would my situation fit in with any of that? Do other divinely-placed dungeons fall into anomalous locations like sky islands? Have you spoken with any of them about their experiences? How often do they appear, anyways?**

Throg shared a glance with her comrades, seeking their input before responding.

**Well, to answer your questions in no particular order. Divinely placed dungeons are fairly scarce and don't seem to appear at any consistent intervals. I did check before we came, and the most recent (before you, that is) divinely-placed dungeon appeared on the continent of Isios a little less than 10 years ago; in Charax, it's been roughly 35 years since the appearance of the dungeon of the Silver Hound in Astron well to the northeast. To my knowledge, there isn't another divine dungeon within 500 km of here. I'm not sure how close you'll pass to any of the others, but it will be months, at a minimum, before you get within 100 km of one.**

Kraal interjected, with a wry cock of his head **Not that dungeons tend to communicate with each other. On the rare instances where they form in reasonably close proximity, they tend to be in conflict – I assume because they're after the same resources. I think only Throg has ever visited another divinely-placed dungeon. You're a first for Blorg and I, at least.**

Throg did nod, slowly, considering her words carefully. **I have visited two divinely-placed dungeons, though not in almost twenty years.**

**The first, when I was in my novitiate, was, in fact, the dungeon of the Silver Hound. The Silver Hound that gives the dungeon its common name is a sylvan deity of the elven pantheon in Astron; the deity is a partner of the local version of Gendras, the god of rangers. It's an unusual dungeon in that it's a primarily field-type dungeon focused on tracking challenges; primarily it functions to train rangers and druids in fieldcraft. It's grown substantially and incorporates a wide range of environments to enable trackers to practice in a broad range of scenarios – ranging from snow tracking in mountains through tests of seeing through camouflage in dense woodlands. The dungeon itself was quite friendly, but a bit, shall we say, narrowly focused on its tasks.**

**The other one is less well known and relatively rarely visited. The Haunt of the Burning Eagle is a fire-type dungeon placed by Druhena, an orcish goddess of fire, as a test for her faithful. As I understand it, the location isn't widely published, but adherents of the goddess are sent at varying stages of their faith to challenge the bosses of the individual levels. Orcish religion tends to require tests of faith and ability, but interestingly, the dungeon is only visited when candidates are tapped by their goddess directly. I only visited the first floor, and even then, only through the intervention of my own deity to offer assistance with a situation that had arisen. Which, I cannot actually discuss with you, unfortunately. All I can say is that the dungeon was both highly distracted and quite angry at the time, so probably not giving the most welcoming impression.**

**As for your other question, I can't think of any divinely placed dungeon that's quite so anomalously placed. Those two are on the remote side, but I think that's more to do with their function than anything else. Part of the challenge is to locate them in the first place, as it were. That could be a factor for you too, but I don't see how it would be...**

Our conversation rambled on for a good while, covering their thoughts on my list of priorities (focus on the divine mission – no surprise there), some interesting ideas on incorporating new blueprints into traps and their placement, warnings to limit access by the Redcrest tribe to manageable numbers and with some formal system, and advice on developing my multitasking capabilities (mostly it would come with time and practice).

By the time the conversation started to wind down, they were asking a blessing from their god before the evening meal. I hadn't realized quite how much I'd missed actual conversations, and I was frankly a bit disappointed to hear that they'd be leaving around lunch time on the following day – after conveying some gifts from the church and taking care of some final tasks.

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