Worthy Core

The next morning, Lady Darktouched found herself at one of the smaller military headquarters north of Dragon's Jaw. The facility served primarily as a location for magical training, with a hefty side dish of administrative offices, and it wasn't the sort of place Cerise herself had needed to spend time at in years. There were two reasons she had chosen it as her party mustering site however, the first of them being its relatively central location. The second reason was that one of her planned party recruits was already here, having only just recently graduated his latest training course. In fact, as the succubus entered the large office she had reserved for this meeting, she found her first party member was already sitting at a table waiting for her. "Ah, someone's eager for their next mission, I see. It's nice to see you again, Pullyp."

The green slime gives her a wide grin as he takes notice of her arrival. "Lady Darktouched! Have to admit, I didn't expect to see you again either, let alone that we'd be doing a second mission together! Although I'm guessing that that's not a coincidence?"

Cerise shakes her head as she claims the table's head chair. "It's not, but I'll get to the reasons for that when everyone else has arrived. Congratulations, though - you just completed your Slime Reviver training a few days ago, yes? Rather fortuitous for me, although I'm surprised you decided to go for an Expert class. I know most slimes don't."

Pullyp nods. "Yeah, I actually wasn't planning on it. But, I don't know, going out on that last mission with you kind of riled me up, yeah? I mean, mostly it's that, as a healing class, the training teaches me a few more tricks I can use to possibly give myself an extra year or two, so it is worth the effort on that front. But I kinda figured, hey, if I stay around a little longer, maybe I'll get a second shot at a cool final mission - and hey, here we are! Not that I'm hoping that this'll be my final mission already, haha!"

"Ha, I certainly hope not." Cerise smiles, but it fades quickly. "...My condolences, by the way. While I was going through the records I saw that Slime Sentinel Tulupp passed away last month. I don't know if you were close."

Pullyp's face grows a little more serious. "Friendly enough. I know she was bummed out about not getting picked for the dungeon slot, but she had a pretty good run. Um, speaking of..." The man leans in closer, whispering conspiratorially. "Is it true what they say? Is Lollyp still, you know...Lollyp up there?"

"That is what the reports say, and I have no reason to doubt them on that front. Supposedly a benefit of the Goddess of Fertility, and in that regard...I feel that perhaps some things don't quite add up. Perhaps we'll have some more answers soon, but - ah, here they are now."

As Cerise looks up the door opens again, letting in a blue-scaled draconic man in armor. Trailing behind him, she almost misses the much-smaller kobold woman following after, although that may also be at least partially due to aspects of the woman's class. Greeting the pair, she indicates two empty seats. "Welcome, Thunderbolt Hammer Farlossus, Canyon Shadow Woosley, please take some seats. Your timing is excellent. This is Slime Reviver Pullyp here, by the way."

The draconic takes the larger of the seats offered while the crimson-colored kobold requires a bit of climbing to claim hers, so he gets to respond first. "Greetings to you, Lady Darktouched. We were told this was a mission directly on the orders of the Dragonlord themselves, so of course we made all possible haste."

Woosley adds her own input once she's situated. "Yup, no kiddin' - travellin' as a draconic's personal baggage ain't my idea of smooth transit, but it got us here in time. Didn't hear any more details of the job though, so I suppose that's what we're here for now?"

"Indeed. Over two months ago we paid a visit to the new dungeon, Worthy Dungeon, and arranged a...beneficial deal between ourselves and the dungeon spirit. Normally a follow-up meeting would be done around six months later, but the schedule has been accelerated significantly. While the details aren't clear to me, it would appear that the dungeon spirit and the Dragonlord had some sort of long-distance communication with each other, and the Dragonlord now has some...concerns."

Woosley whistles. "Sure wouldn't want to have the Dragonlord having concerns about me, that's for sure. The communications weren't something you set up, though? How'd the dungeon figure it out?"

Cerise folds her hands as she looks over her notes. "As you know, Mount Faralis is a culturally important site to the Domain. Although it was abandoned centuries ago, it would appear the dungeon has acquired access to some sort of property once belonging to the Dragonlord. Not only did this allow their communication, but the Dragonlord wishes to test the dungeon to see if they're, well...worthy of using it, or if we need to begin using a heavier hand with them."

Farlossus grins, his pointy teeth gleaming in the sunlight from the nearby window. "And just what sort of heavier hand are we talking about?"

"We are to present the dungeon with a test, of both skill and intentions. If the dungeon passes, we can renew our positive relationship and perhaps exchange a few more useful items. If they pass the test of intention - that is, their willingness to work with us - but not that of skill, I've been instructed to use one of our Dungeon Punisher spells, to...provide further motivation."

The kobold woman grimaces. "Oooh, I've heard they really hate those. Don't those permanently reduce their monsters or mana or something like that?"

Cerise shakes her head. "Not exactly permanently - a Punisher enchantment can be removed...at least ones of those kinds. There are others, but I've not been authorized to use them, thankfully."

Pullyp raises a hand. "And if they fail both parts of the test? What then?"

This time, Cerise's face darkens considerably. "If the dungeon proves hostile to the Domain, our orders are to destroy the core." That gets the attention of everyone else in the room, with even the aggressive draconic appearing surprised.

"Really? That would absolutely provoke the Rainlanders...not that I mind that much. But even so, destroying a core is quite the unusual order." He pauses before giving a light chuckle. "But what is the test, anyhow?"

The succubus takes a deep breath before answering. "We need to confirm that the dungeon has both the willingness and the ability to kill powerful delvers. It has done so before, but only ones leading groups of weaker soldiers to support them. It has not yet defeated a party of our strength before. And in order to do that...we are to provoke the dungeon into attempting to kill at least one of us."

The room goes silent for a moment, before Woosley speaks for the group. "Well. No offense, but here's hoping it ain't me."

Miles away on the second floor of Worthy Dungeon, Xenia checks in on her favorite boss. Popping in at the entrance to the apartment, the woman takes a minute to examine the slight changes to the room's decor over the past few weeks. On one wall a small trophy collection's begun to build up with items Lollyp had collected from those who had fallen to her Challenge Mode, and which had been added to the dungeon's inventory rather than being absorbed. In terms of power they were nothing of note - a ring from a minor noble family, a particularly artistic helmet, an elegantly curved dagger. Coincidentally they all shared the trait of being much more expensive than the average item found on Initiates - or perhaps not so coincidentally, if the expensive gear had been what helped lead to the overconfidence of the parties who eventually lost them.

On the opposite wall were trophies of a less grisly nature. Alongside the dungeon-crafted pinups of the Dungeon Fuckers, several more artistic renderings had been added of particularly flirty Challengers, who had also spent their share of time enjoying Floor Five. While none of them had yet repeated the Fuckers' trick of getting to experience Lollyp's 'alternate challenge mode', Xenia rather suspected it was bound to happen again sooner or later.

Finally, in the corner was Lollyp's expanded alchemical workshop. With the Forest biome finally pushed into High Quality the dungeon's supply of potential ingredients had expanded considerably, and now there were shelves, barrels and bottles full of items Lollyp had harvested and inventoried for potential use. The slime herself was busy at work on a mixture, needing a minute or two to notice Xenia's arrival. "Ah, Xen! What brings you up here?"

Xenia steps over, examining the workbench and only half-understanding its contents from the skills she'd absorbed over the past few months. "Checking in. I'm surprised you're not playing around with the slime traps on Floor Four, Sincere's been grumbling about having to do 'grunt work' without you."

"Pfft, some exercise will do him good. I actually figured maybe I should go for the opposite though - some anti-slime weaponry. Based on the work of that 'adorable' mousekin of yours from a while back. Normally I wouldn't bother, we haven't seen a single slime Challenger yet, but if it's specifically a Domain party we're worried about...well, can't hurt."

Looking off in thought, Xenia muses. "Ah yeah, that girl...I wonder if we'll ever see her again. You think we'll get some slimes though? It is a little weird that we haven't had any since you came along, now that you mention it."

"Well, yeah, there's a few reasons for that. For one, we're not real mobile. I mean, I got a dungeon boss body which boosts my endurance and speed compared to the average slime, but I'd still have serious issues doing even like, a five mile hike. The other is, well...our short lifespans. What's the point in Challenging? Not like any of us are gonna become Paragons like that. That's why I'm still not really expecting any now, though. We're supposed to show we can fight tough Challengers, right? Unless they bring some slimes as cannon fodder I don't think many of us would qualify."

"Hey, don't sell yourselves short!" Xenia pats the slime's shoulder, then pauses. "...Wait, how did you get all the way up here, anyhow?"

"Easy. Bags of Slime Holding."

Xenia eyes her friend suspiciously. "...You're bullshitting me."

"What? No, it's an actual thing. Bags enchanted to be waterproof and stretchy, and also cancel out a fair bit of weight. Lady Cerise shapeshifted into a bat and flew here with the three of us."

"Huh...guess maybe we'd see some, then. Anything I can do to help?"

"Hrmm...I'm good on ingredients for the moment. How about you entertain me with some gossip? What did happen to you on that dungeon raid this time, anyhow? It looked...exciting."

Xenia almost swoons as she falls back into Lollyp's hammock. "Oh lord, Lolly Pop, you got no idea! Totally worth getting smited and having to wait a couple centuries for! That dick was divine."

Lollyp turns back to stare at her boss. "Wait, that time you got smited had something to do with dick?"

"I was...maybe a little over-cocky on that run. Tried flirting with a god with no sense of humor. But hey, turns out though that a replica of a god, who knows he's just a replica, sure has a different philosophy regarding 'fuck it, why not'."

The slime chuckles as she returns to her work. "And how did you even get the opportunity, then?"

"That was one of my, uh, quick runs, at least career-wise. Did have to do the whole 'grow up from a baby' routine again, which gets old real fast I'll tell you, but I was only twenty when I bought it. Was an adventurer for like...three years? But with all my skills and experience backing me up I was the hottest shit in town. It was one of those worlds where classes and levels actually like, mean something mechanically, so I leveled up real fast."

"...Mechanically? What does that mean?"

"As in, like, I dunno, the gods or whoever set up a system so that when you kill something or do something related to your class, you gain experience and level up and learn new abilities on the fly. I started out by buying a set of lockpicks and old locks and just fucked around with them for a week straight, which made me like a level six Rogue or something and taught me how to throw daggers and hide in shadows."

Once again, the slime turns to stare at her boss. "You...you picked locks for a week. And learned how to throw knives from it."

Xenia grins. "Yup!"

"That is insane."

"No kiddin'. While I don't keep those kinds of artificial skill boosts or whatever when I die, I do keep some of the muscle memory and the actual, non-gamey experience of it, so I kinda tend to rack up combat skills over time if I don't let them get too rusty. Anyhow, I got to level 50 in three years and completed a divine quest to...what was it? Kill a giant monster bird, free some priestesses, find some relic...that kind of shit, anyhow. Earned me an audience with the head of the local pantheon and dumb ol' Xenia of Tallahassee decided to let her crotch do the talking, and got fried up lightning bolt-style. All in all, not really a run I usually put on the resume."

Lollyp smiles and shakes her head. "Certainly looked like round two went a lot better. Maybe you oughtta figure out how to let us ride along into your head on one of these raids."

Xenia shudders. "Now that is one of the most terrifying suggestions you've made all month..."