And there is—

—something.

Something faint and far away and effortful and dangerous, but something.

Something she can reach for and pour effort and resources into, and sustain that effort for an amount of time measured in days, without breaks—but if she does that (and she can do that!) then she will have a connection to Somewhere Else.

Something? Something?

Something.

She slumps on the floor, exhausted for the moment.

The something, now that she has identified it, remains within her mental reach.

Can it be prodded into specifying what resources are necessary?

The thing she'd have to set aside some of to make more minions. All of it.

That sounds risky because what if she needs it she won't because she is alone and nothing else can enter into the situation when the connection is open to handle whatever she connects to.

Is it a sort of thing she can build in or as a room, or is it less spatial or less explained than that?

The resource expenditure is sustained over time from a renewable source rather than being a permanent loss; whatever the resource is, it'll be freed up as soon as she's done.

To the extent that the thing has a location, the location is not here. Extremely far from being here. Just about as not here as it's possible to get.

More, careful, study of this possibility seems valuable. She suggests as much to the Manual, so it can do what it's good at. Together, they poke at things.

Speaking of things, are there any other resources she has or lacks, besides gold and the mystery stuff?