The dungeon fairy banged on the door leading from her room to the heart room from the inside with her fist: "Come on, Malvorik! I've been waiting for hours. I know you've been planning something with the construction menu for days. You can't possibly still not be finished."

<Well, what I'm doing requires an unusually high degree of precision and the build menu is not designed for such fine work. How can it be that you are so impatient? Dungeon fairies often wait for years next to their dungeons while they wait for new hero groups.

The fairy opened her mouth to answer and immediately closed it again. She stared in front of her and swayed her head thoughtfully. Then she hesitantly began to speak: "I... That is indeed unusual. However, we are actually using the infinite patience of our pact partner. In other words, an ability of the immortal and infinitely lurking dungeon hearts."

<I am a dungeon heart; you are my pact companion.>

"Besides, you are also a mage and I am a mage familiar. I'm afraid I share your impatience."

<Let's hope I don't get locked up for years then.>

She nodded seriously. "You would undoubtedly go mad. After about two days at the latest."

<Now don't exaggerate...>

She raised an eyebrow.

<Well, I'm done now anyway. You can come in.>

Selvara tore open the door and flew in. Her slow flight was massively accelerated without her doing anything. The course steered her in a curve directly towards the dungeon heart. She braked herself with both arms to avoid hitting her face against the crystal. The rest of her body was less fortunate.

<Not so hasty.>

"What's going on here?"

<What do you mean? You didn't even look at my changes before you flew at me.>

"There's an air current here... or... something..." She looked around. Something was pushing her against the crystal from behind. Wind was something dungeon faeries weren't used to. Her own realm was almost completely windless and so were dungeons, with rare exceptions. Now that she was aware of it, she could brace herself against the force. It wasn't a physical wind. More of a... "Malvorik! Why is there a mana current in the room! I use magic to fly."

<Look for yourself. Look through my eyes.>

Selvara stumbled, then closed her eyes, using her unique connection as a familiar to utilize the dungeon's senses and abilities. She felt him shift his angle of vision right into her field of vision to prevent her from getting dizzy like the last time she tried. She could also see mana streams herself, but nowhere near as accurately as a dungeon heart.

The room was full of mana, as you would expect from a heart room. Only... There was more. Much more than should be here. Disturbances in the mana field of a dungeon could have various causes. None of them were good. Most of them were catastrophic. Was an eruption of the mana line imminent? Had the dungeon heart tried to tap directly into the mana stream?

She hurried to the crystal and felt its surface. Were cracks already forming? It was cool, as it should be. The mana flow... That was wrong. Mana should be flowing from the line of force and increasing the surrounding mana concentration. The Dungeon Heart then slowly drew mana into itself. The mana node Malvorik had placed himself on increased the effect. But the principle had been the same so far. There was a vortex here. All the mana that flowed out of the mana node was drawn back in a spiral and absorbed by the dungeon heart.

She looked around frantically. Malvorik hadn't touched the mana stream itself, otherwise it would have burned up long ago. Why did the mana smell so... mineral?

"Malvorik..."

<Fantastic, isn't it?>

"What exactly did you do?"

<Can't you see it?>

She looked around. For the first time, she also paid attention to the room itself.

The mirrored walls and the archway of the entrance were still there. As always, the heart stone hovered in the middle of the room.

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What was different?

She found silver lines inlaid in the floor, parallel to the walls. Two lines, with runes and various symbols in between. On the ceiling, the same thing was mirrored.

"It's not just decoration, is it?"

<No, but it looks really good, doesn't it? In fact, they are the boundary lines of a sanctuary.>

Selvara opened her mouth, but Malvorik immediately continued: <I've already clarified this with a moderator, it's completely in accordance with the rules.>

The dungeon fairy gasped. He had discussed it with a moderator? An emissary of the gods? Again? She was doomed. It couldn't be long now before an avatar of Golgoroth appeared and charged her with breaking dungeon etiquette. She was dead. Malvorik was dead. Her thoughts took on a panicked spiral until she realized Malvorik was blithely continuing, <This is obviously a mistake the creators allowed to be exploited. At least, if you're a completely unique dungeon and the game balance of the world isn't at risk.>

He had found an exploit? The gods would wipe out the entire city and throw the souls of its inhabitants into the sea of oblivion.

<Are you alright?> The dungeon heart fell silent and turned its full attention to its companion. <Your emotions are all over the place. If I didn't know we were perfectly safe here, I'd think you were expecting an attack.>

"Wait... Did you just say a moderator approved your actions?"

<He took a close look at everything and officially allowed it. In short, there are a few feats for different classes that have the same name. One of them is Sanctuary. If you have both classes, you can use both feats. What you see at the edge of the heart room is a rune barrier that creates the area of effect of a mage sanctuary.>

"A what?"

<A zone in which a mage can cast stronger magic than outside. One in which he is protected from clairvoyance magic.>

"Dungeons are already protected from most clairvoyance spells by Golgoroth's will. It would also be ridiculous if heroes could scout a dungeon with clairvoyance and then simply march through it."

<The interesting thing is how it works. I wasn't quite sure from the description of the feat in the literature, but my theory has been confirmed. A magic shield that wards off all magic would be too strong. One that only wards off clairvoyance would be too complex and therefore easy to circumvent, for example by using a spell based on other spell matrices but imitating a clairvoyance effect. Furthermore, mages would not be very enthusiastic if they could not cast analysis spells within their sanctum.>

"And..."

<The creation gods, in all their wisdom, have solved it quite simply. The shield prevents magic from leaving the area, unless it was cast by the mage himself. This quickly creates a space with a higher mana content. As a result, mana is regenerated more quickly by mages and spells have a stronger effect. Artifacts can be enchanted more easily because more mana can be anchored in the artifact with each spell. Clairvoyance spells work, but they cannot send their results back outwards. This makes them effectively ineffective.>

"The zone doesn't let magic out? So, the mana field is getting stronger? Isn't that dangerous?"

<A sanctuary only makes sense on a mana line. Without it, there is no source for a stronger mana field and these secondary effects do not occur. But there are limits to the strength of the mana field. If it is too strong, no more mana can flow into it. The pressure is simply too high. A mana node, however, emits mana at a higher pressure, which enables an even stronger field. In turn, I can draw this higher mana strength into myself as a dungeon heart.>

"How does this affect your mana regeneration?"

A mental laughter shook the entire dungeon. It grew louder and deeper. The duskgnomes in the dungeon looked around in irritation. The dungeon monsters stopped and began to smile in their own way. They sensed their master's satisfaction.

<It's still fluctuating a bit at the moment, as the mana field hasn't finally stabilized yet. But I estimate that it will level off between double and triple the amount.>

"What did you do with the extra magic? I sense you've done something. Speak!"

<Nothing bad. I just created a few of the lurking stranglers with monster coins, giving them a personality.>

He waited for a protest or an exclamation of horror. He didn't know what exactly was wrong with it, but most of the time when he did something without consulting Selvara, it turned out to be a mistake. Not that that stopped him from trying again and again.

Selvara looked up at the dungeon crystal and nodded: "Good idea. A few monsters with their own personality were long overdue. What happened to your Primus, anyway?"

<Who?>

"Your first dungeon monster. The one who defeated the first Sewer Guild invaders. Don't tell me you forgot about him and parked him somewhere in a corner of the dungeon!"

The dungeon heart lit up mockingly: <Of course not. Glen is doing combat training with Weylan right now.>

"Glen?"

<Weylan said it can't be that he doesn't have his own name yet. I was actually a bit embarrassed. I should have thought of that myself.>

"Combat training? It's a wonder Weylan still dares to enter the dungeon. After you almost killed him just now. Again."

<The obstacle course wasn't that lethal.>

Selvara just rolled her eyes. "The stranglers tested your chest. The funny surprise trap at the end tore exactly three of the three stranglers in the room to pieces. If our assassin hadn't stood on the chest out of sheer paranoia..."

<Snow of winters past. Water that has flown down the river. Let's think about the future.>

Selvara sensed the emotional vibrations that she had come to associate with the fact that Malvorik was implementing what he saw as an ingenious plan. She looked around in panic: "What have you done?"

<Nothing special.>

"What... have... you... done!"

<All right. Weylan thought the training was going too slowly and I created a dueling chamber for the two of them.>

"A duel... You mean a room where they can kill each other, even though they're actually allies?"

<Killing? What are you talking about? The description of the room said...>

Selvara flew to the exit: "Where to?"

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