“Not so fast!” said Kyrine, with a chuckle that seemed to resonate through all the air around us. “You still need to sleep, but for a different purpose. As you use spells, summon creatures, and generally perform your role as the Keeper, you will level up your abilities. Those leveling benefits will not take effect without periods of rest. You’ll see in your Command Center when you have a pending level. Then you will need to sleep. Of course, you may still choose to spend time in sleep… I believe that you mortals find it pleasurable, though I don’t fully understand how that works.”

Once again, I was reminded that, though we were becoming close and I was beginning to feel totally comfortable with her, Kyrine was the manifestation of the dungeon core, and not a mortal like I was. There were always going to be big differences in how we viewed the world.

“Well, that sounds fair enough,” I said. “Anyway, I’ll still have a lot more time if I don’t need seven hours a night to function. I’ll still need to eat, though?”

“Oh yes,” said Astrid quickly. “We all need to eat, even Kyrine, though not in the same way as you and I do.”

We all laughed, and even Kyrine chuckled at the joke. She was sustained by magic expended in the dungeon by adventurers.

“Speaking of which,” I said, “let’s get back to business. We’re going to need to create some good challenges if we want to attract adventurers to the dungeon, so it’s essential that I fully understand the way my creatures work.”

Astrid clenched her fists, and a light of challenge came into her eye. “You want me to fight some monsters again?” she said.

I shook my head. “Not this time. Just now, I’m going to see what I can do against them myself.”

I turned my attention to the Dragonlings which all still stood serenely under the waterfall. Directing my thought at them, I caused them to leave the sparkling liquid and return to stand next to me. Their stat readout popped up for me to look at, and I saw with satisfaction that their magical defenses had increased more quickly due to the stacking bonus.

Dragonling’s Magical Defense has increased by 2!

Dragonling’s Magical Defense is now 5!

“I’m going to spar with these creatures, and test out some of my spells against them to see what this magic defense increase feels like to fight against,” I said. “Come on, let’s go a bit further into the middle of the arena. I want enough room to move.”