Worthy Core

The day after the Birthday Party had been a quiet one in Worthy Dungeon, at least, for a certain definition of 'quiet'. Very few teams had actually run any dungeon floors, many of them because they were too hungover, and the rest because they weren't actually done partying yet. The free food and booze had been cut back to normal levels, and most of the games had been packed up, but the additional inn space was still open for the moment and a few of the challenges such as dart tosses were still available without the actual prizes. The fact that there were so many people present was a bit of a draw all of its own as well, encouraging people to stay and share conversations with new friends, or to catch up with old acquaintances long missed.

The Fiver's Lounge had also stayed in something of a party mode, although that was entirely unplanned by Xenia. Five mortals had been hired on for the event as dancers and strippers, three demons and two humans, and Em had made it clear to them that they had been hired on as entertainment and not as prostitutes. Several of them though had decided to take the opportunity to play entrepreneur and do their own 'side business' after their shifts were over, and Xenia couldn't really bring herself to try and tell them to stop. They seemed eager to continue plying their trade for as long as their audience remained as well, but Em only gave them one more day of looking aside before cracking down. A few things could be overlooked during a major event, but eventually word would have gotten around and Alizz would have surely gotten rather cross.

Altogether, even without the dungeon being run there was still enough to keep Xenia's attention occupied for most of the day. The day following, though, was time to get back down to business. Deathmatch Mode had been officially announced to the public during the party, where Challengers could now receive triple the usual rewards by slaying a floor boss, at the expense of an immediate death should they leave the boss arena. As part of this announcement it was noted that it would play by the same rules as Lollyp's Challenge Mode - if a team triggered it, even on one of the early floors, the dungeon would ignore all other arrangements with the Association and go all-out on trying to kill them. Two mid-tier parties had already tried it out on Floor One, where they had little risk even with BB trying his best, but so far none had dared it against one of the lower floors.

While the Challengers were stretching their muscles on the top floor though, Xenia was down deep - deeper than she'd ever gone before. As she stands in a bare stone cavern, staring at a vaguely map-like drawing carved into a stone table, Sincere makes his appearance at a nearby portal. It takes him a moment to adjust his eyes, given that the space is dimly lit by only a single torch, but after he does he makes his way to his employer's side. "Making a new broom closet, are we? Guy said you wanted my help with something?"

Xenia gives him a grin before waving at the dim, cubic cave. "Yup! Welcome to Floor Nine! Decided it's time to burn that killcount floor unlock we earned a while back. Parker's still undefeated, but there were definitely a few groups of Masters in that party earlier talking about how to take him down. I'm betting we're gonna be needing a new floor pretty soon. And hey - freebies!" With a snap of her fingers she summons Guy to her side. "Hey Guy, show him what we won!"

"As you say, ma'am." Dutifully, a list of unlocks is displayed to the Core Guardian.

"Hrmm, some interesting options there." Sincere looks around once again before raising an eyebrow. "As for the floor, it's very...cozy."

"Yeah, well, I got problems."

"I am certain of that."

Xenia grunts. "Problems you can help me with, I mean."

"I am now somewhat less certain."

This time the woman chuckles. "Well hold on, hear me out. So, the root problem is this - there's still god knows how many floors of the old dead dungeon taking up space below us, and even a bit around us at this point. And even with the dead dungeon being dead, I can't build into those old tunnels until we do the dungeon raid thing to claim em. But I don't wanna go through that while I got a perfectly good floor unlock just sitting here. So what I'm trying to do here is build in Floor Nine around the next layer of empty tunnels."

Sincere peers at the map Xenia's begun carving into the table in front of her, but has trouble telling if it actually contains any useful information. "What are you thinking, then? Wrap-arounds with stairwells and tunnels and whatnot?"

"Nah, a little fancier than that. I've been slacking off on the concept of dungeon puzzles, so I figured it's time to dip into that a bit more. It's Portal Maze time!"

The demon squints again at the map, and it starts to become more clear. "Ah, I think I see what you mean, then. These lines here...they're portal connections, not hallways?"

Xenia nods. "Yeah - I haven't started making most of this yet, just a couple of prototype rooms. I could use some ideas, though. The first one I was thinking of was infinitely looping rooms. Like, if I make a series of rooms that look identical to each other, folks could keep passing through them over and over and not even realize it for a while. Til they find the right exit portal, of course."

Sincere rubs his chin as he gives a slight nod. "Not any more dangerous than as a waste of time, but then I suppose that is what mazes are mostly about. It would also be trivial to link the portals differently for different parties. How about something more directly threatening, though? Say, portals that lead right into traps?"

Guy speaks up to answer this one. "Ah, we had actually considered that as well, but there are...complications. As you know, a route to the core chamber must be accessible, which is why we can't simply wall it off, and even hazards like the jumps on Floor Six are limited to a certain level of danger. There's something similar for portals as you suggested, although it can be rather complex."

The man frowns. "Complex in what way, exactly?"

"It's largely a matter of the odds. If there's two portals, one leading to the core and one leading to a trap, well, we cannot simply have a fifty-fifty chance of an instant death. A trap behind such a portal would have to be rather weak or easily avoided, and of course there would need to be a route back out again."

"But different odds change the situation?"

The screen bobs. "Yes, but not greatly. After a bit of trial and error, I would judge that having a portal that leads directly to an instant death would require it to be but one option out of twenty. More, if other routes also had additional such choices down the line."

Xenia shakes her head at the suggestion. "I ain't gonna try and set up twenty different routes through this place, even if they join back up pretty quickly. That'd be using up most of the floor space just for that one damn split. Now, that doesn't mean we can't get nasty with stuff waiting at the other end of a portal. It just can't be feeding people directly into an incinerator or some shit like that."

Sincere chuckles. "Nasty stuff such as monsters, I assume."

"Well, of course! Can't have a maze without a minotaur...well, except I guess here it's some of the adventurers who are the minotaurs. Wasn't being literal anyhow - yeah, there's gonna be a monster. In fact, I think this would be a great spot to base our second wandering boss. Trush is still on Floors Four through Eight, so Floor Nine's currently open for one of those."

"But we don't have such a boss at the moment. Or even a standard floor boss, for that matter." Sincere gazes at the map for a moment before a realization occurs to him. "Except wandering bosses don't need to be ensouled, do they?"

"Nope! If we end up getting enough applicants for it, we'll slot one in eventually, sure. But for the time being, hey - it's a chance to get experimental! I don't wanna put an actual person into something deformed, but unensouled bosses are fair game."

"Hrmmm..." Sincere spends a few minutes in thought, and Xenia gives him some silence in which to think. Eventually, he speaks up. "We do have a few conflicting goals with the layout here. We want a boss who can pursue Challengers through the maze. Therefore, slime bosses are out. However, the need to constantly go through portals means high-speed creatures would lose all of their momentum, as it takes several seconds to activate each one. Therefore rabbit bosses would be, if not disqualified, much weaker than normal."

His boss nods her head. "Makes sense. Undead are next highest-ranking, at B-plus, and there could be some options there. Although...hey Guy, what's our insects tier at again?"

"B, ma'am."

Sincere raises an eyebrow at that. "So high? But we hardly even use any insects."

"Yeah, but remember when I had folks smashing all those bees back on Floor Four way back? We kinda stopped with that cause leveling up to A off of bees was getting tiring and uh, a little gross, but it's still been in the list. The question is, what kind..." As Xenia trails off, her eyes grow wide and she slaps her forehead. "Oh, shit! I know what we should do here!"

Her Core Guardian winces. "With insects? I'm almost afraid to hear it."

"A hive floor! I've even got chitin as a construction material! And honey from our food, if I wanted to burn a ton of mana to have some sitting around. Although, I guess ants would be more cave-thematic than bees, yeah?"

Guy interjects with a suggestion of their own. "If I might, ma'am, consider that monster insects are hardly limited to the forms of mundane creatures, and B is not a low tier. Our popular Rabbit Champions are a B-tier unlock, after all. Have you reviewed the options actually available to you?"

The reincarnator grunts. "I mean, a few, but they got a lil gross and I skipped out. Guess I should, though..." Calling up a new menu screen, Xenia begins to browse through her options. "Huh, we could actually do sapient-level insect people now, though they're still not as human-looking as the rabbits. Way too many legs and eyes...hrmm, hrmmm..."

She spends quite a long time going through the apparently extensive list of insectoid monstrosities, occasionally muttering phrases like 'centipede pit' and 'poisonous butterflies', and at some point Guy and Sincere get to work designing the actual layout of the floor themselves. While the appearance of the rooms in the maze could be customized in many ways, the two focus their efforts on how to use the portals to bridge the disconnected rooms in a way that would be maximally annoying, and marking particular rooms for traps or ambushes for whenever the dungeon master decides exactly what sort of traps and ambushes she would like to have. Eventually though, the two are startled by a sudden shout from Xenia.

"Oh, shit!"

"Ah!" Taking a quick moment to settle himself, Sincere turns back towards Xenia. "Something the matter?"

"Nah, nah, this is good. Oh, so good. I mean, it ain't perfect. Could maybe try out some crossbreeds, see if we can't make it a little better." As she faces her partners, Xenia's smile turns evil. "But I think we've got an option here for xenomorphs."