Worthy Core

Xenia is still laughing to herself the next day, as Guy and Sincere help her with the finishing touches on Floor Nine. "I still can't believe they thought Parker vaporized her! With one hit!"

Sincere smirks along, although truth be told the humor of it had already worn out for him. "I suppose in their defense, the fact that Parker was able to duplicate Lady Highbranch's runes meant his abilities were particularly difficult to predict. Perhaps she knows some enchantment that allows her sword to take on that sort of effect?"

"I doubt she's got anything that good if she hasn't already used it, but who knows, I guess." She finishes artfully crafting a chitin-based wall into the appearance of a set of screaming faces, but sighs as she looks it over. "I'unno, horror's not really my usual style, but I feel like this floor could use a little something more, y'know?"

Guy glides on over to make a point. "Well, do recall that we're currently working with the floor under full torch illumination at the moment, ma'am. Turn down the lights, add in a bit of smoke or mist, and everything will look quite differently, I am sure."

"Yeah, but..." Xenia trails off for a moment before snapping her fingers. "Oh, right! I've still got some upgrades to cash in on! Not to mention I've been stockpiling souls for ages lately. How about we spin the big wheel of fortune, eh? Maybe that'll be an inspiration for something new to add to the place."

That, at least, Sincere can agree with. "Probably not much benefit to holding on to those random upgrades at least, no. Good luck on your draws - or, you know, bad luck, whichever suits you best."

"If it weren't for bad luck, Sin-man, I'd have no luck at all..." Xenia taps through her interface screens, and soon enough her first set of free upgrades from her anniversary achievements has been cashed in.

Xenia looks over the list with a bit of a frown. "Well, rodents could maybe add to the creep factor, but D-tier at Floor Nine? They'd be shock value at best! Well, still got another."

"Hrmmmm..." The dungeon master considers her second prize set for a bit longer, tapping her foot. "Arachnids are definitely in line with the horror theme, but C-tiers are still a little low. Hey Guy, do you think we'd get sapient spider-people at B tiers? ...Ain't that just, like...driders?"

"As a matter of fact, I believe there are some monsters that are very similar in form to driders, as it happens. However, not all cases of 'sapience' means 'humanoid'. Monsters such as giant spiders can become quite intelligent even while preserving a fully monstrous form."

"Hrmm, yeah, that giant spider that shanked Frodo was supposed to be pretty smart, wasn't she? Maybe we crossbreed them with the insects to get something extra-freaky, and just set aside a room or two for those...eh, lets go for it."

Having sent five souls on to the great beyond, Xenia takes some time to examine her new unlocks. "Ohh, yeah, I see what you mean with the 'Arachne' in here, Guy. Got the same basic body plan as a drider, but...is that a whole extra mouth? Also, the queen version goes up to a dozen feet tall, now that's pretty impressive. Hell, that might be the biggest sapient unlock we've got yet."

"Arachne, you say?" Sincere rubs his chin. "I have a feeling B-tier might be quite low for those, actually. I seem to recall hearing of a dungeon in the Valleylands with an arachne boss said to be twenty-five feet tall at least, she's often engaged by several parties at once."

Xenia chuckles at the thought. "Guess the S-tier bosses are full raid-type challenges, huh? Well...don't feel like juicing them to A-tier right off, even if I've still got the souls for it. Crossbreed first, see how horrifying we can make them come out - plus we can still grind up the insect side of things for free, as long as we keep doing bee-smashing sessions every now and then."

Guy bobs. "I'll activate the crossbreeding program right away! Beyond monsters, have you considered traps, ma'am? Beyond the confusion of the portal maze, that is."

"I did have something in mind, part puzzle, part trap. You know that unlock we got the other day, how I can create items that implant skills now? Ones we've absorbed, anyhow?"

At the mention of them, Sincere actually gives a rather wistful sigh. "While you can now simply directly implant any skills we have into my mind, my former self would have paid a fortune for such items, at least any with relevant skills. It's extremely rare for them to hit the market, you know."

Xenia scoffs at the information. "Yeah, I ain't fuckin' surprised. Do you have any idea how expensive those are for me? A single Advanced-tier skill implant takes up basically my entire daily mana pool, and I thought I had that thing bigger than I could even use it at this point! If we had access to higher-tier implants, I don't think I'd be able to afford to make em anyhow! Honestly, with that sort of investment, I don't think I'd even wanna bother making random implant items. Probably just save em as custom rewards for people we owe favors to, or something. But, I figured out a cheat way to use them!"

As they hear that, Guy's response is wary. "A cheat, you say? I'm not sure I like the sound of that..."

"That's why you leave the dungeon-building to us mortals, Guy! Anyhow, there's two main ways to use skill implants." Xenia begins to count off on her fingers. "One, I can put them into single-use scrolls that permanently burn the skills into a person's brain. Not like, an entire class all at once, but a spell or a special move or something like that, y'know? Maybe two or three in a scroll, if I wanna burn the budget."

Her demon companion guesses the other option on his own. "The other being enchanted gear, yes? Rings, helmets, etcetera? The benefit being that it's not consumed by use and can be traded around, the downside being that you do have to equip the item until you've learned the skill yourself. Such items, should they possess valuable skills, often become family heirlooms or so I am told."

"Yeah. But here's the trick I've noticed." Xenia grins, raising a finger into the air. "Enchanted items don't have to be loot items."

Sincere tilts his head. "Hrmm? Oh, you mean in the sense that they can be gear for monsters, yes? ...Although I'm not sure why you would do that rather than simply implanting the skills the normal way, if you wanted to do that. Perhaps as some sort of quick-swap...but no, my understanding is that it's not something you'd want to do in the middle of a fight."

"Maybe that's the intended use, sure. But I'm thinking about using them for puzzle items."

Now Sincere is intrigued. "I...think I can see where you might be going with this, but please, continue."

"Right, so, lets say I wanted to make a thick wall of ice blocking a hall or something. I could only make it as thick as like, a low-level Expert could break down with a hammer, as the lowest common denominator of what a Challenger might be expected to be able to do, and our current accessibility ranking. There's other ways to get past a barrier like that, like melting it, but I can't assume a party has that sort of magic, the same way I can't assume anyone can just fly around on Floor Six to get past a fifty foot jump."

"But if there was a handy magic ring nearby, which could grant the ability to cast pyromancy spells..."

"Then it'd be like having a door with a hidden key, and the accessibility limits get way more lax! Plus, since it's not a loot item, and it'd go poof if anyone tried to actually keep it, the mana cost to make em is way lower. Hell, as part of the floor design, I'd probably get a free replacement every day if someone did actually take it."

"Hrmm." The Mage begins to pace back and forth as he considers the options. "There's probably a wide variety of ways you could set up something like that...although as you said, it's mostly equivalent to having a door with a key, yes? Interesting, perhaps, but perhaps also over-complicated."

The dungeon master rubs her palms together with an evil smirk. "Ah, but here comes the trap part of the puzzle-trap, Sin-man. Cause I can also toss em in a pile of cursed gear. And from what I can tell, 'Identify' is not exactly a common skill or spell around these parts."

Having followed along in silence, Guy speaks up once again. "An intriguing idea, ma'am! What sort of curses did you have in mind, though? We can create curses from many of the enchantments and trap types we have unlocked, but aside from that contest at the party, we haven't been using them very much."

"I'd like to use that new fear trap we unlocked, actually - the one that makes people experience the memories of the dead? I think that'd be extra hard for people to detect. Like - if I turn a ring into a lightning trap, to zap people who put it on, it's gonna be chock full of lightning mana. Some magic-types might notice that and get suspicious. But skill implants and fear effects are both, like, mental things. The only downside is it only counts death-memories we've gained since we got the achievement, so the library of options is a bit slim at the moment."

Sincere considers that before chuckling to himself. "I suppose that is in keeping with this being the 'traumatize the Challengers' floor. It's almost too bad that this one comes after Parker's arena, otherwise their experiences here would likely give him quite a few new fears to play around with himself."

Xenia's eyes widen in realization. "Hey, I'm not aiming to traumatize anyone! Just...you know...horrify them so badly that they drop their guard and become easy prey to a chimeric abomination that's probably gonna wanna eat them, lay eggs in them, or both?" Her face goes blank as she considers her own words. "Fuck, I am creating a PTSD factory. Well...maybe there's a potion that can help with that? I'll toss it in the floor rewards."

"I'm sure it will be much appreciated." The Core Guardian's voice is dry as he diverts the topic. "So, specifically, what did you have in mind for the enchanted gear? There was the pyromancy example we discussed, but of course many Experts or Masters will already have such magic among their party. And we can only grant them Advanced-tier magic at best."

"I've been looking at our skill library and their spells and stuff, and did you know that Lollyp wasn't just an Elementalist? She's a Slime Elementalist."

"A Domain-specific class branch, yes - or I should say, a slime-specific branch, even. I admit that I don't know what differentiates it from a standard Elementalist, though."

"They get a few extra spells for altering their own body, to make it resistant to the elements, or make it tougher or stretchier. Not a lot, mind, it sounds like their Warrior classes get a lot more alteration spells in there. But...it lets you alter slime. And...I have Slime Fabric and Slime Material as things I can make..."

Sincere winces as he sees where this is going. "Don't tell me, you're going to - "

"Make a big ol' tunnel blocked up by sticky, snotty slime?" Xenia gives him a toothy grin. "Oh, better buckle up, cause this floor is gonna get real gross."

DaScoot

Next time, we take a break for the first smut of the arc!

Enjoy!