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?"

<Everything is fine. I have now adapted my dungeon skills better to artifact crafting. Watch out.>

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?"

<Correct. The artifact is finished. You can go ahead and touch it.>

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?"

<Correct. That's exactly where it came from. Now point the crystal at the shirt, touch the rune and let mana flow into it.>

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?"

<Correct again. But a) only mages can use the right spell and b) even they have to learn it first. Revenants focus their studies on spells they need for their quests. Cleaning things is very low on their list of priorities. But as soon as they have wandered through a forest or crawled through a dusty dungeon for the first time, they will quickly realize that they are missing just such an artifact. Even non-mages have a small supply of mana that the mythril can draw out of them and use.>

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

<The lines are hidden inside an affine wood. Safe from damage. The mana is passed through over a long period of time and the consumption itself is already very low. Lines that are thinner than paper are therefore sufficient.>

"Weylan bought the aquamarines cheaply on the market. Just 1-2 carats are enough for the weak effect. All you have to do is create the wood and a touch of mythril. That could actually be economically viable."

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<Weylan and Trulda in particular had some ideas about what revenants might need. Self-repairing armor, magical weapons, the usual artifacts. Except that I would have to invest a lot of gold for the materials. After lengthy discussions, however, we were able to work out a few inexpensive artifact ideas. This is where the feat for creating limited spell matrices really comes into its own. By weakening level 1 spells and casting them over a longer period of time, I get artifacts that anyone can use, cost hardly any mana and are still useful. Combat spells don't work like this, but anything where there's no time pressure works great. Cleansing and mending are two spells that revenants practically never learn, but which they often need.>

Selvara grinned, as she had seen filthy revenant groups return to the city several times. Revenants who hadn't taken any spare clothes, tents or even blankets with them.

"Can I see what you made?"

Selvara waited patiently until a few more wooden sticks appeared in the summoning circle.

<So, you already know the artifact with the cleansing spell. This one contains the mending spell. As long as the material is still there, the spell can patch it up. You hold the spell effect on a broken object and the spell repairs it. Torn clothing, dried leather, even damage to weapons or armor if all the pieces are still there. Metal takes much longer, but clothing is back to mint condition in no time. Then I have an artifact to dry things. The Create Water spell, reversed into Destroy Water.>

Selvara wondered: "You can reverse spells?"

<Of course. Very easy with modular spells if you know the principle. Most of the matrices are simply mirrored. Of course, you have to know which parts you can't mirror. For example, the part that provides mana to the spell must remain normal. And the targeting matrix of course.>

"What happens when you reverse the Mend spell?"

<Nothing dramatic. This has almost exactly the same effect as the level 1 Weakness spell, which makes materials slightly more fragile during its duration. At best, it enlarges a few existing cracks.>

"Have you tested it yet?"

<Not necessary. We demonstrated this in detail to the adepts at the academy. Remember, I taught this for years. Weakness really only exists as a basis for much higher-level destruction spells.>

The dungeon fairy looked around curiously: "Do you have anything else? I've got used to more outrageous ideas."

A mental laugh rang out: <Naturally. Here is a ball of red-colored glass and ruby dust. The holder is meant to be placed on a stick. One about a step long, with a point at the other end.>

A rod fixed to the ground appeared with the sphere already attached to the top. Selvara flew around the construction and then carefully placed her hand on the sphere and let mana flow. The sphere greedily drank up the magic. Nothing else happened.

<There are two runes on the holder. Touch one of them.>

Selvara did so and the sphere glowed reddish. A faint but warm light spread. Warm like a cloudless spring day. Pleasant and not too hot.

<Heat and Cool. Two simple spells that can change the temperature of objects. Weakened, slowed and directed at the surroundings. To be more exact, I've used a reversed heat spell so I can use the same kind of gemstone. Due to the reduced spellpower, even a sprinkle of ruby dust is enough.>

"That could be interesting in a room or tent. It's of little use outdoors."

<That's what it was intended for.>

Selvara saw the list of spells on a mirror wall: "Create metal or earth are level 1 spells? I thought only dungeons could create matter."

<The spells are not comparable to my dungeon powers. A level 1 spell creates a fist-sized amount of fire, water or metal in a simple form. This matter only lasts a maximum of one hour, then it dissolves again. Earlier, if it is heavily stressed.>

"So, no conjured tools?"

<No. For halfway usable tools you'd need a spell of at least level 3, or an artifact like Habakuk's Handy Toolbox. A level 3 artifact, but it is probably one of the most optimized enchantments. Master craftsmen and artifact mages have been working on it for over three hundred years. Reach into the toolbox and you'll get the tool you need. Unfortunately, this is still a little above my current abilities. The artifact requires Cerebrum Crystal to understand the user's thoughts and three Skill Crystals to give it knowledge of tool crafting. Not to mention the other required gems, Mythril and Mana Stone.>

"How much do these cleaning artifacts cost?"

<That's the beauty. Each one only costs me about 200 MP. Plus some more for permanently manifested wood and a few grams of mythril. The gemstone is bought cheaply. It takes me just under 7 hours to make each one. I could produce about seven gold coins in that time. I sell these artifacts for...> He broke off and directed a questioning thought to his dungeon fairy.

Selvara rubbed her chin thoughtfully: "It's hard to say. Weylan said that according to the academy, the guideline for artifacts is about one gold coin per MP plus material costs. But no revenant is going to spend 200 gold coins on it. They just don't have that much at the beginning."

Malvorik sent out his thoughts. <Weylan... Can you hear me?>

He heard the mental equivalent of a grunt and some vague images. Only slowly did the Assassin Apprentice's thoughts become comprehensible: "Do you know what time it is?"

<The perfect time to discuss the economic future of the dungeon?>

The dungeon heart could not clearly understand the next thoughts. The images looked like someone was smashing chunks of glass while banging his face against a desk.

"What do you want to know?"

Malvorik explained his new developments in detail. After a while, he also had the distinct feeling that Weylan was waking up and listening attentively.

"By Peituwin, this could be a gold mine! I'd ask 200 gold pieces each for the staves. Then make one with both runes. That saves the cost of the aquamarine and mythril... You can incorporate two spells into one artifact, can't you?"

<Matrices... But yes. I can. However, Mend is based on the elements earth and ore. Therefore, it requires a different gem. Different spells make the build exponentially more complex. So that wouldn't be as beneficial as you might think.>

Weylan was silent for a while: "Then make a set out of it. A backpack with customized leather straps for the spell-foci. Plus an Everfull Flask, of course, all the normal base adventurer gear, one of each of these cold/heat artifacts, clean/ dry and mend spell foci. All for… let's say 500 gold pieces."

<Spell-foci?>

"You need a good name for these things."

<These are mana siphoning auto incantation artifacts with modified limited spell matrices. Calling them spell foci makes no sense at all. A spell focus would be an artifact that increases range or power of a spell that is cast through it. If there were an artifact like this, that isn't just a mage staff.>

Weylan interrupted him: "I like spell-foci. We call the whole thing: The Hero Master Pack. Every hero group needs one. A whole group can certainly afford one after a few quests. I visit a few leather makers during my lunch break and order a sample for the backpack. See what you're missing for the equipment part. We need a rope, climbing hook, folding spade, carving knife, plate, tin cup, a small wooden axe, a few fishing hooks, fishing line, a rolled-up bedroll on top ..."

<Why do we need to include half a general stores inventory?>

"Revenants are lazy. If they get everything they need in one package, it will be much more interesting for them. It only costs a few gold pieces of additional equipment, too. Believe me, it'll be worth it."

<Well, let's try that then. You first try to sell some of the spell-foci, while I work on the first Hero Master Pack.>

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