Sometimes I really feel like an idiot. I’m in a world with magic yet I’m constraining myself to a flawed view of the world where everything is governed by more or less logical rules. What am I talking about?

Well you see I hit the boundaries of my expansion underground at least on the level where my core is, so we began expanding downwards and that’s when I found it, a lifeform that violates conservation of energy rule. Earth Elemental, was it peaceful? No, the moment we found it it began attacking so we put it down by ritual class hydrogen fireball.

What is ritual class magic? It refers to one of many ways of casting magic. This one takes great deal of control and cooperation but the resulting spell is many times better than if casted by using staff or with bare hands.

Mage caste was and is constantly experimenting with very spread out surface level knowledge that I had about my old world. Hence the “hydrogen fireball” it was more mana efficient than regular one since all it did was keep up with separating hydrogen and oxygen from steam and igniting it.

We theorized that this spell with an initial cup of water and handful of mana could be kept active for centuries. The spell could last that long only because of the efficiency and because it was a somewhat natural reaction hence it was generating mana on it’s own but not enough to sustain the flame for more than about 200 years.

Back to the point, how was the elemental ignoring the conservation of energy? It was generating mana from static earth at least it seemed like it and when outer shell was destroyed it begun expending mana to create earth.

Here’s the problem: the mana generated from the rock was less than the amount the elemental was moving to create it. The magic caste could also make rock but they used less mana for it. Energy can be converted into material, but the cost should be static like one joule of power for 1 nanogram of iron and by lowering the power you should have lower output.

But, no, fuck logic let’s optimize mana and make absurd artifacts that will allow someone to make matter out of nothing. What am I talking about!? You see, the older mage optimized spells on it’s own after it passed down it’s shell to the younger generation. The younger generation could spend ability point from the System to buy [Mana efficiency] skill.

Which cut down the required energy to cast spell that before manual optimization cost 100 mana after it was 50 and thanks to the skill which was level 1/10 it now was 48. Oh and also during various tests we made a conclusion that you need to spend at least 50 mana to make a block of rock. Thanks to the skill you used less mana to make the same amount, violating the conservation of energy!

You may brush it off as magic is bullshit my dear audience that may not exist. But this is huge because it allows creation of infinite mana generators and infinite matter generators.

First would for example create natural phenomenon to make mana normally it would be offset by cost of this spell, but here’s the kicker by making the [Mana efficiency] part of that process or even more ridiculous skill you start making like 10 mana from a reaction that costs 9 or less.

Yes infinite energy, it would probably create some mana but at a slow rate but still for a dungeon core such as myself this is huge!

Second would incorporate the first but it would be using the same ridiculous ability twice to make for example generic dirt which btw is composed of other elements such as silica, iron, carbon, different oxides and gold but in very very low quantities like you would need to filter out a ton or two of dirt to get a 0,1 kg of gold. Thankfully I’m on an island so excess or useless material could be used to enlarge it.

I suddenly got a very great idea and ordered half of my military forces to go to the water and catch me some fish. While not letting the natives trespass on my land. It took almost a full day which I spent by pumping my mana into mage caste so that they won’t need to go back to regain their mana.

In my spare time I made a rule for every new mage to always pick an ability/skill that allows them to spend less mana for the same/better result.

As the returning forces drop the almost dead fish in my territory I begin changing it drastically.

Firstly, I made it’s height about 1,3 m and made it capable of reproducing by itself and laying eggs in shallow water. Of course the fish would die immediately because of the lack of lungs to breath on land which I made inside the spare space inside it’s chest.

Secondly, I enlarged every internal organ and added 6 limbs. From the up to down it now had two massive arms covered in scales and small fins here and there, hands had 2 fingers and 2 opposable thumbs. Next was a second pair of hands that were very thin and were designed to either help move in the water or hold small and light things like the eggs. The legs were shaped to allow the creature to move faster than you might expect. The feet were human-ish with 4 slightly longer but very muscular toes with membrane between them.

Thirdly, I changed the neck and head so the creature could look around like an owl. The eyes were changed to resemble those of lizards with horizontal eyelids but they were almost transparent and enhanced with the ability to see mana in the air. Then I made the mouth have shark-like teeth in front with herbivore teeth on the sides like humans. Also the entire stomach and all the pipes that lead to it and from it were changed so that the creature could be an omnivore both on land and in water.

Fourth, I made similar to mage caste, a symbiotic animal that lives with the fish and records the spells. I shaped it to look like a fin on the back along the spine. I also made it possible for the fish to grow its outer shell from elemental mana that I decided to be generally water. So the fully matured and ready for war fish might look like a crystal statue of a fish person. I made these shells detachable but after being detached the crystals won’t bond together with flesh again. Essentially forcing these fish people to use them in their tools.

Fifth, I made them aggressive and able to work well even in huge groups of their or subdued species. As for their initial culture I made them worship me as some sort of pagan God and made them completely ignore anything that doesn’t threaten them or the reward isn’t worth the hassle like an undead bear that has very little or no edible meat but still is able to fight long enough to exhaust any living creature. Ignore doesn’t mean forget about it, in this context it means as long as it doesn’t attack or tries to fuck up some of the plans it gets to live.

Then I saved the blueprint for the new species and spawned so much that I blacked out near the body of water. For the record The creation took half of my mana so in the end I spawned 10…..