Worthy Core

The next morning, Deylia stretches and yawns in her bed. It's only a show of course, given that the now-monstrous woman hadn't actually fallen asleep at any point, but she'd sensed the man next to her beginning to stir and decided to give him a proper 'good morning' as he blinks his eyes open. Turning onto her side to face towards the noble, the sheets manage to slide off of her to just the right extent to reveal her breasts as she gives him a smile. "Good morning, Raylin. Sleep well?"

It takes him a few moments to remember where he is, but his groggy confusion is soon replaced by a smile. "Mmm, the sleep was good, but what came before it was even better. You're a wonderful sight to wake up to, as well. Adorable new nose included."

The Priestess smiles, her large teeth making the expression perhaps not as devious-looking as it was intended to be. "An even better sight than a pregnant half-elf, I wonder?"

Raylin groans. "You're never going to let that go, are you?"

The rabbit-woman shrugs. "As a point of jealousy? It doesn't bother me, and I've told you this. As a joke at your expense? No, I shall bring it up eternally. Oh, if only I could have been like the dungeon master and seen your face!"

"Please, it's bizarre enough knowing that one woman is apparently watching everything I do. Speaking of, I imagine we're, aha, well-prepared now to test if that boss-slaying bonus is true? No one's actually put it into practice yet?"

Deylia shakes her head as she returns to reclining on her pillow. "Been a busy week for everyone, I suppose. And it is still very vague on the details...I wonder if perhaps 'sexually impacting' you multiple times will increase your rewards? Or if the entire previous night was merely a single 'impact'?"

The man groans again as he begins to rise from the bed, although it's mostly for effect. "I'd suggest trying a second round, merely in the interest of improving the general knowledge of course, but I do need to maintain some energy for our intrusion later today. If the Highbranches have caught up to us then I know Arlon will be eager to be the first to claim the clearing of Floor Seven. First to clear the dungeon since it was added, yes?"

The woman tilts her head as she watches him dress, admiring his form. "Well, yes, and House Highbranch may have cleared Floor Six yesterday, but I doubt there's much risk of them beating you to Floor Seven's clearing now."

Confused, Raylin turns back and gives her a look. "What? Don't tell me something happened and they've given up? Surely I would have heard if they were slain?"

"The story didn't spread before you left Grassbrook last night? Silva Highbranch took a severe injury in the final moments of their fight with Taly - her right eye is entirely lost."

Quickly finishing up with his pants, Raylin returns to take a seat on the edge of the bed. "No, I didn't hear that! The injury was beyond healing?"

"Their party has some supplemental healing skills in the form of Gilda...and for some reason their rogue has some as well? But neither were up to the task. They even brought her to me, but I could only stabilize her. Repairing the flesh and bone of a limb, such as your hand's wound the other week, is one thing. An eye...it's perhaps one of the worst non-lethal injuries to try and heal."

"I can imagine...shame it had to happen to Silva, she was always the more pleasant of the sisters in my opinion."

Deylia mock-gasps in surprise. "Insulting the mother of your children? How uncouth! But yes, even knowing she's your competition, I disliked seeing her in such a state. I don't believe it will stop her from Challenging, but she'll need some time to...well, learn how to maneuver with only a single eye, at the least."

"I can't imagine the daughter of a duke being unable to afford the healing an eye would require, though..." Raylin trails off in thought, then snorts as a realization occurs to him. "Of course, all the money in the world can't buy you services that don't exist. The Association office has an official healer now but they're only Advanced! Regenerating an eye would be...at least Master, yes? In this season...it would be weeks to either send for one to come here or to leave to find one, and then return."

"Which would all but surrender the dungeon to House Perlin. So they won't be doing that, of course."

"Of course. But you're right, they won't be making an attempt for at least a few days. Still, if we can clear the dungeon today, then all the better!"

Deylia smiles, but her face shows a bit of concern. "You've remembered...your preparations?"

The Noble Marksman gives her a charming smirk in return. "Wouldn't forget a thing. Drinks will be on me, tonight - if I can convince the bartenders to take my coin, at least!"

"I'll be there waiting for you. If only so I can keep your drinking under control - the dungeon's rooting for you to knock up more Challengers, you know."

"Dear gods. Perhaps I need a guardian Priestess after all."

Raylin had time to grab a hearty breakfast down at the inn, free with the promise that he'd be attempting a dungeon intrusion later in the day. As much as the Challengers enjoyed their free services, they still felt a little uneasy whenever they remembered that essentially they were offering to give the dungeon a chance at killing them later as their main form of payment. For the most part they'd decided to deal with the issue by not thinking about it, beyond feeling better that if their current meal was going to be their last, then at least they hadn't had to pay for it.

When the rest of House Perlin's core party meets up with him an hour or so later, they take chairs at his table but decline offers of a meal for themselves. As she settles in Sansie gives Raylin a smirk, gesturing at his empty plate. "You've been enjoying the dungeon's services I see, cousin? Much superior to the offerings at the Lucky Bastard?"

The Marksman grins back, knowing she's not talking about the food. "What can I say, Sansie? A...highly motivated staff can make all the difference. Also I have to add, it's rather relaxing knowing that I can go into the dungeon now fully rested, rather than having to rest up from hiking all the way up the mountain as a warmup exercise."

Arlon nods along. "Even just being able to relax at a table like this is a nice break, I'll admit. I take it you...accomplished what you set out to do when you left early last night?"

The other man rolls his eyes. "Arlon, Arlon, I don't remember you being this straight-laced five years ago! The burdens of the house have been weighing heavily on you, haven't they? Yes, Deylia and I have, as far as we are aware, met the requirements for the bonus rewards. Now all we need to do is actually defeat a boss - although since no one's defeated the Floor Seven boss before, it could be hard to say what the normal rewards for it are like. Are you all prepared?"

"We are. Well..." Arlon reconsiders, and gives a slight chuckle. "Maybe another ten minutes and a brief snack before we start wouldn't hurt too much..."

As the party went through the smaller chambers circling around Floor Seven's main room, they found themselves challenged very little by the threats they found within. The mimics in the first section were easily crushed, given that none of them were foolish enough to try picking random gemstones up off of the ground. The devas and pixies in the next few caverns meanwhile were simple targets for Sansie, who was a very well-rounded elementalist. Against the fire-based monsters, blasts of cold, wet wind weakened those she didn't kill outright. When facing fae with bolts of lightning, the noblewoman was actually able to sap the energy from many of their assaults and turn them into little more than tickle-attacks. For the most part all the rest of the party had to do was provide her with cover and pick off those monsters she left wounded, although as a Thunder Priest Palm Redbeard in particular was able to take care of many of the pixies which she missed.

When they finally entered the room of the upside-down forest, they did have to stop for a moment to admire the view. Which they did for a good number of minutes, making idle chatter and pointing out especially interesting-looking 'trees', or wondering if any monsters might come to ambush them. After a bit of that though, Raylin makes an exclamation as he points off to the left. "Ho! Tell me friends, do you see what I see over there?"

Taylim, their Royal Protector, gives an unimpressed grunt. "If you're going to say that the rock over there looks like a penis, my lord, we know, they all look like penises if you want them to hard enough."

"That last one really did look like one though, it had testicles and - and a vein, I swear it! But no, I mean behind it - come, let's take a closer look, shall we?" With no one opposed he leads the party along the cavern wall, and after around thirty feet or so the rest of his companions see what he was talking about. Slightly hidden behind an outcrop of stone, and angled in a way so as to blend in with the rest of the wall, there's a stone ramp which becomes quite obvious once you're looking at it from the right viewpoint. Hugging the wall of the cavern, the ramp goes up past the crystalline treeline, eventually connecting to what might be some form of suspended walkway.

Sansie gives the man some polite applause. "Well, well, Raylin - a secret path! You truly have the best eyes in the party, don't you?"

"Well, it pays to be alert in a dungeon, does it not? Now come, let's see where this takes us, why don't we?" Taylim moves forward to take the lead, his shield held high, but Raylin follows shortly after to keep an eye out for any surprises. As they reach the top of the ramp the party gets a better view of the walkway it leads to, and gets a feeling as if they had accidentally walked into the backstage area of a theater performance. Although it was made out of stone and crystal in order to blend in with the rest of the 'forest', the path ahead was quite straight and even had crystal railings for safety. Moving on, they continue on into the upper levels of the forest itself until Raylin silently motions for a halt.

Using gestures and pointing fingers, the Marksman identifies a number of fae archers hiding in the branches and waiting to ambush them...except the archers are now on lower ground than they are, and not watching the ceiling. Although the railings don't provide much in the way of cover, having both the high ground and the element of surprise adds up to quite the advantage for the team. Raylin, Sansie, and Palm take a few moments to divide up their targets, and on Arlon's signal the three explode with a burst of elemental blasts and magically-enhanced arrows.

Although not every fae they target is killed in a single hit, the survivors are stunned and taken off-guard to a sufficient degree that a second volley finishes them all off within a second eyeblink. In just moments seven archers, or what remains of them, fall to the cavern floor alongside the occasional piece of crystal shrapnel. Smiling, Sansie congratulates Raylin again. "Well, that felt incredibly unsporting - I loved it! Do you think we'll be able to pull that off a second time?"

"If the other monsters in the cavern didn't notice that, we have to consider that the dungeon itself might warn them. Even so, we'll keep moving quietly and make sure that if there's any ambushes ahead they'll be ours, hrmm?"

With the party in agreement they keep moving on, and although they do spot a few more fae hiding among the crystal growths they don't run into any more clumps as large as the first. They do seem more prepared for the adventurers, so perhaps the monsters had scattered somewhat in anticipation of their arrival, but if so it does them little good. One by one every monster is spotted by Raylin, and then taken out at range by either the man himself or his elementalist cousin. Some arrows are fired in return, but between Taylim's actual shield and his additional magical protections, none come even close to hitting a member of the party. When they get to the midpoint of the cavern they reach a few branches in the walkway, each running in a different direction, but Arlon keeps them moving straight ahead.

"These other paths are probably just to provide fuller coverage of the room - the boss is - or, ah, I should say, would most likely be - located opposite of the entry point, wouldn't you say?"

Taylim agrees even as he keeps his eyes peeled for more monsters. "An excellent theory, my lord. I'll move on ahead, then."

Unheard by the party, Xenia curses at her past self as she watches the expedition continue. "Gaaaaah! Why'd I tell Trush to go scare the Fuckers on Floor Four!? I figured someone might find the path up here, but not on their first friggin' run of the place! Now we're gonna have to move it around or everyone's gonna know about it! Thought for sure I had that hidden pretty damn well, too."

By her side, Guy offers a suggestion. "If you're that concerned, you could spend the extra mana to revive Trush and his team immediately. There should still be enough time for him to intercept them before reaching the boss."

Xenia narrows her eyes as she glares at the Perlins, but eventually shakes her head. "I don't want to be putting extra effort into killing folks if they aren't going after the core...mostly, anyhow. Having Trush slime that girl's ritual yesterday was a prank in comparison, y'know? Guess we'll have to see how the temporary floor boss goes...at least the walkway doesn't give them an ambush for that one, ha."

"Silver linings, ma'am."