"Problems often become worse if incompetent people try to solve them." ― Eraldo Banovac

I pushed my domain downward, claiming the soil and stone as I went, moving as deliberately as I could. May had said about 25 meters down, but that sounded like a loose estimate to me – and one that would leave me a bit below the level of my second floor (if not quite as deep as I expected the third floor to be. The zone in question was, roughly speaking, a circle about 20 meters across, and centered on an area of denser plant growth. Interestingly, what I assumed to be a mana-rich environment was reflected in a variety of ways – including greater plant density, larger average plant size, and a moderately increased species diversity. I, in fact, picked up a couple of additional plant species, and even a T2 varietal. Not enough to trigger the plant quest again, but a good start.

Blueprint acquired: Blue Snapgrass

It wasn't really blue, though it did have a bluish tinge. More interestingly, it used a bit of metal-aspected mana to produce sharp edges to its blades and even what amounted to a spring-loaded joint that would launch the blades if the plant was disturbed. Not truly dangerous to anything bigger than a meadow vole, but enough to probably keep most creatures away.

Once I moved below the surface, there were minor effects on the microbiota, as well, but nothing of any real note. Soon enough, I was claiming the underlying stone layers, none of which was new to me, unsurprisingly enough. By the 5-meter mark, I was starting to note increased frequency of mineralization, with small pockets of tiny crystals appearing. Those slowly got bigger as I expanded downwards. These were mostly quartz and feldspar but becoming truly impressive in size and purity. By the 15-meter mark, I'd begun to see less common minerals, including ones aspected with the increasingly dense mana. It was doing good things to my mana regeneration, but I worried that I might be affecting the mana gathering array I was looking for, so I tried to consciously limit my mana circulation in this area. It seemed like a bad plan to mess with the mana flows here until I had at least some sense of what it was doing and how it worked. The mana-aspected minerals I was finding were mostly ones I'd already encountered – Wind Iolite and Earthen Sphalerite – but I did find two other versions that were new.

Blueprint acquired: Darkness Schorl

Blueprint acquired: Lightning Weloganite

Darkness wasn't particularly surprising this far underground, but the lightning mana of the pale yellow Weloganite was more confusing. I guessed that perhaps the mana gathering array used at least some electrical elements in powering the sky island, but that was just a wild stab in the dark at this point.

I took that increasing mana density as a positive sign and noted that the highest densities were along the western edge of the column I was driving downwards. I expanded a bit in the direction until I had the highest concentration more or less centered in my expansion zone; Having done that, I expanded the surface area of this expansion zone to include the space above the highest density, making the column have more of an oval cross section.

Still, I was fairly sure I was getting close, and as I passed the 20-meter depth mark, that feeling got stronger as I ran into a massive, squatly pyramidal crystal that seemed to have been emplaced as a focal lens of some sort – the clear crystal perfectly centered at the point of highest density and shifting the mana flows into a more structured, narrow beam. I carefully claimed for myself only a tiny fragment that had chipped from one of the nearly meter-thick edges.

Blueprint acquired: Arcane Quartz

At the 24-meter mark, the beam of mana was run through a prism of sorts and diffracted into seven beams of varying intensity and aspects before entering an open space below.

It became clear, fairly directly, that I'd found the mana node that Mayphesselth had reported, and it was a confusing and highly complex affair clearly involving some forms of magic that spoke to some of the schools of magic I'd been awarded. The beams of mana were projected downward in an overlapping manner that seemed to provide a complicated interference pattern, where the points of constructive interference were marked by incised and inlaid runes, while the areas of destructive interference were marked by low growing, glowing fungi whose caps seemed to incorporate yet more runes. Beneath the entire array, a mat of mycelium was shot through with metallic filaments that slowly knit into a series of thin cables running back towards the core of the island.

I groaned internally. **Gods. Runic Magic, Fungal Magic, plus what, some form of crystalline magic, and possibly some form of electrical system to boot... Yeah, I'm going to need time and help to make sense of all of this! For now, I'm guessing I'd best adopt a modified Hippocratic oath here, and start by doing no harm..."

Quest Completed: Discover Your Mission II – Find a Mana Gathering Array; Reward – Crystallographic Magic Skill

Well, I supposed that explained the fungalmancy skill I'd gotten not long ago. Clearly, I was going to need it to work on whatever issue plagued the sky island. I spent literally three hours simply inspecting the various elements as intently as I could. Without actually absorbing at least small pieces of them, I couldn't secure the actual blueprints, so I opted to commit them to memory, being grateful that at least there didn't seem to be any moving parts.

There also wasn't any obviously problematic area in the array. No region where the lights had gone out, no places where the ceiling had collapsed onto the array, or someone had obviously harvested crystals. I did wonder if perhaps some of the mushroooms had overgrown their designated areas, or if the crystals had developed some internal flaws, but nothing really jumped out at me.

It was entirely possible that this array was functioning exactly as intended, after however many millennia it had been. We were still in the air, after all. Possibly the issue lay in the transmission of power to whatever engine-like thing held us in the air. Possibly the issue lay in the control room, wherever that was. For that matter, it was entirely possible that the island itself was fine, but that something had changed in the environment of the world itself. I laughed at that thought, a bit harshly. The creators of the island had clearly built for the long term, but maybe they weren't really concerned by plate tectonics as a potential problem. I didn't think it was likely, but it was possible that the sky island wasn't sinking, but rather the damn mountains were growing at a noticeable rate.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

In any event, if I was supposed to be the one to correct the problem, it was going to have to be by adjusting the island, and not the mountains, though I supposed that blasting the mountain peaks could be a fallback plan to save time...

**Probably easier to accomplish than figuring this magical engineering project out... Too soon to give up yet, at any rate. I supposed if I can locate one or two more of these, then maybe I could compare them element by element and spot possible problem areas that way...**

Quest Reissued: Find Two Additional Mana Gathering Arrays; Reward: Variable but significant.

Well, I'd better start by figuring out how to get Hakdrilda here to see it without actually claiming it as mine. The obvious starting point in that regard was an access tunnel that ran off in an essentially easterly direction – i.e., coreward. Here's hoping that tunnel wasn't also filled with Lesser Deep Dracolisks.

I'd try following it in a bit, but first it was time for some check-ins with Hakdrilda and with the dragon.

**Might as well bite the bullet and start with the dragon.**

**Mayphesselth, may I have a moment of your time?**

**Back already? What is it this time? You know I'm not looking to hold your hand through this, right?**

**My apologies, and I'll try not to contact you again any time soon, but there were two things I thought you'd want to be notified about.**

**Alright, well let's see if you're right, or if I need to start ignoring your requests for attention. Tell me.**

**First, I did find a mana gathering array in the spot you indicated, so I thought I'd thank your for the tip. It's currently well beyond anything I can work with, so I'm not messing with it; that said, the system has tasked me with finding two more of them. From what you said, they're significantly further away, so that's going to be a while. I will likely ask Hakdrilda to look over the array for obvious issues, but I doubt she'll know much about it; it looks pretty different from the dwarven runic magic she uses. You are, of course, welcome to look yourself, but I don't know if you're interested.**

**That's exactly as I expected. I'm glad you're sensible enough not to mess around with magic you don't understand at least. I'd have warned you about that, but it seemed unnecessary. DON'T absorb it as part of your dungeon; I would expect that to divert mana flows in a fairly catastrophic fashion. **

I gave a mental nod of acceptance. **I appreciate that you judge me minimally competent, but frankly, I'd be happier to have the explicit warnings. I really have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to magic.**

She gave off an aura of amusement. **I'm glad you recognize that; you might be surprised how many senior mages have no idea how limited their knowledge of magic really is. Or perhaps you wouldn't, people being people wherever you are. Now, you said there were two things I should know? What's the other one?**

**I need some additional advice on a draconic-related monster I've found signs of as I push inwards towards the core. Something has been moving ahead of my domain as I expand that way, and I recently found a scale that the system identified as a "Lesser Deep Dracolisk Scale." I figured you were likely aware of them and would have opinions as to how I approach it, or if I approach it at all.**

I could sense her hissing through her teeth in a deeply irritated fashion before she responded. **Still some of those little half-breed bastards left, huh? That was the toughest fight when I moved in here – the Dracolisk lair at the bottom of the island. There was no reasoning with them. Must have missed some eggs or younglings and they've been in hiding ever since. Well, good news and bad news for you, Vay! You have my permission to drive them all out, if they're in your way. I forbid you from assimilating them, and while I can't stop you from getting their blueprint, if you start spawning them in anything but the direst emergency, we'll have a problem. The Lesser ones are pretty dumb, if occasionally canny, and their attacks shouldn't really affect you at all unless you let them into your core room. If you run into any big ones, that is Greater Dracolisks, let me know and I'll take care of them myself.**

**Right. Duly noted. I'm likely to adopt a live and let live policy, but I will let you know if I run into any Greater Dracolisks, and should I get the blueprint, no spawning them in. Thank you for the guidance, May. Hopefully I won't run into anything else I think you need to know in the near future.**

**That would be pleasant, but I'm coming to suspect something I shouldn't expect. Do your best.** The link snapped off, and I pondered it briefly. She didn't sound angry, at least, but I had the distinct thought that her patience was beginning to fray. I heaved an internal sigh and moved on to Hakdrilda.

**********************************************

"You're killing me, Vay. You know that, right? You find what sounds like the biggest ritual circle I've ever seen, involving at least three separate schools of magic – none of which I'm familiar with, ASK MY ADVICE, and then tell me you don't have a way for me to get there yet! Meanwhile, my research is mostly in a holding pattern while you deal with all and sundry!" She raked a clawed hand frustratedly through her long, black hair and tugged the loose braid draped over one shoulder, blue eyes flashing.

Logbook Entry: Sorry. Thought you'd want to know. Looking for entry path.

"Yah, I get it, and you're not wrong. I DO want to see it, even if it's a huge distraction to what I'm supposed to be studying. And there are some tests I can run without your active participation – it's just that the most interesting and promising ones involve your help."

She groaned and scratched her head. "I'll try to look on the bright side. It's entirely possible that I'd learn something from the array that would give some completely unexpected insight into magic; it's just not what I came here for..."

I felt that one. My dissertation research had gone much the same way. I'd gone looking for a specific colonial settlement, but upon closer inspection found that what I was actually digging was mostly much older than that. It was interesting, and even potentially important, but not at all what I was hoping for...

I had, in fact, taken some criticism from advisors for not simply leaning into what I'd actually found until too late. It had limited my ability to adequately address the archaeological remains I'd excavated, because I'd still been caught up looking for what I'd hoped to find. It was actually a pretty common story across the sciences; for every Schliemann or Carter who'd found what they'd gone looking for, there were dozens of others who didn't, or who only found a portion of what they'd hoped for. It wasn't uncommon, in fact, to report finding nothing at all – negative evidence still being evidence.

There wasn't really any way to convey that effectively to Hakdrilda, though, and I suspected that as an academic, she'd always known that was a possibility.

Logbook Entry: Will find a way. You'll love it. Will make a fascinating paper.

She smiled weakly. "Right you are. Old dwarven proverb time... 'The copper vein in front of you is worth twice as much as the gold you haven't yet found.' I'll focus on working with what I've got. But please? Do try to stop by again soon, alright?"

**GREEN**

And with that, I returned to tracing the tunnel leading to the array. It was too big to have been made by the gnomes, and their museum hadn't shown any awareness of the array's existence, but I wasn't THAT far from my second floor; I'd connect them the old-fashioned way, if need be.

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