Worthy Core

Xenia swears under her breath as she stares up at the empty window above, then swears above her breath a few times more for good measure. "God, like it wasn't bad enough having adventurers in my basement the first time. Now we've got a dude who went in there on purpose? It's like a vermin infestation or something!"

Guy watches alongside her. "It is quite confusing. Given that the first party had to dig their way back to us, there doesn't seem to be any other way out of the mountain. But we haven't seen indications of there being anything below to find beyond empty space, either."

The dungeon master sighs. "And we still don't have any way of going down there and digging the asshole out. Well, guess I can close the barn door, at least." She waves a hand, summoning iron bars to block off the windows to anything larger than a flying rodent, then looks back at Guy. "Him going down there does close off the intrusion, right?"

Guy bobs. "Indeed. I'll go ahead and display our results, shall I?" With that, a number of new screens appear.

Xenia reads through the displays. "God, I'm really seeing now how we get motivated to draw in more powerful assholes. These lowbies aren't bringing us hardly anything we didn't have already, really almost makes me feel bad for 'em. Maybe. Tiny little bit." She pauses when she moves on to the achievements. "Whoa, hold on now, hold on now...Soul Store? The hell is this, Guy?"

The guide turns to face her with a sudden shiver of excitement. "Ah! The Soul Store! I remember this now...if remembering is the correct term, I suppose. But this is perhaps one of the most powerful tools a dungeon can gain access to. In addition to using souls to empower various dungeon creatures or constructs, you may also choose to release them to the primary Well of Souls, in exchange for dungeon upgrades!"

"Huh...I guess I was kinda wondering what to do with all these guys, other than just randomly buffing shit up just to use them. Kinda woulda liked to have known about this before, but eh, let's take a look." Going through her menus, Xenia finds the new Soul Store option and brings it up.

Reading through the options, she sucks in a breath through her teeth. "Shiiiit, random gambling options? This thing's gonna have me burning through souls way faster than I can earn em if I ain't careful. Buying specific stuff might be good though, let's see what we've got here..." As she goes through the first shop menu, Xenia begins mumbling a song quietly. "St. Peter, don't you call me 'cause I can't go, I owe my soul to the company store...oh, c'mon, what the fuck? Everything in here's crazy expensive! The cheapest shit is ten souls, and that's like...'Ferns, Low Quality'! And constructs...god, same thing, even F-tier dragons would take me a year! Really pushing me towards a gambling addiction here, Guy."

"I take no responsibility for the content of the store stock, I'm afraid. Ah, though with our new reduced cooldowns, I sense Lollyp has already recovered herself. We could consult if you want shopping advice, perhaps?"

Xenia nods. "Yeah, that's a nice buff, should save us a lot of time waiting around. Let's drop in." Snapping her fingers, the pair of virtual forms teleport into Lollyp's apartment, where the slime woman has just finished putting on a new robe from the set Xenia had prepared for her. "Hey, Lolly Pop! Good work there, you got yourself a speed-respawn achievement."

Lollyp looks up at their surprise entrance. "Oh, nice! It's really hard to judge time when you're out, but that did feel a little faster somehow. How'd I look? To be honest I kinda felt like Challenge Mode coulda justified taking out a couple more of them, but hot on the heels of that other party it felt like maybe a bit much. Two full wipes almost in a row might kinda hurt the reputation a lil."

"Eh, two out of seven ain't a bad rate going forward. Though one of em took an alternate exit out...we'll get to that later. Right now, check this. I get Guy's 'convenient' lapses in memory, but I'm surprised you never mentioned this either." Xenia opens up a store menu screen and tosses it over in Lollyp's direction. Taking a look, the slime's brow furrows.

"A...soul store? This isn't one of your oddities, is it? ...Huh. Never heard about this bit, though I guess it could explain some things. There's enough other ways for dungeons to get stuff that I never really thought there'd be something like this."

"A trade secret, huh? Well, the specific unlocks are all way out of our price range right now, I'm guessing they're not really gonna be an option til we've got like, just a constant stream of idiots coming in here and falling into traps or whatever. Any thoughts on the other options, though?"

The slime takes a few minutes to flip through the various screens. "...You ask me, I'd say the way to go is specific upgrades for what we've already got. We oughtta focus on our core competencies, y'know? Then once we've maxed out the stuff we're actually using, maybe then try some random unlocks and hope we get something good. Y'know...start with stuff like upgrading slimes?"

Xenia chuckles. "Nice try. I mean, I buy the idea generally, but I'm a lil worried about getting too over-dependent on one thing as it is, y'know? I would like to keep bumping up rabbits a bit more, though we're still two steps away from the B tiers...hrm. Gonna think on this a bit and get back to it. For now, how about a post-murder round of brews, eh?"

Lollyp grins. "That I can definitely agree with."

That afternoon, Field Agent Alizz groans as she collapses onto her paperwork. "What a fuckin' shitshow, Kelsey."

The kobold chuckles from the other side of the tent. "Maybe, but if ya ask me, we got lucky."

The drider looks at him incredulously. "Three more Challengers lost is lucky!? I just...I was really hoping Lollyp would ease up a little more, you know?"

Kelsey grins. "As a matter of fact, y'ask me, she actually was. I mean, accidentally triggering a challenge mode on an already difficult boss fight? That's some insanely bad luck, boss, that shit could seriously wipe out a party. Especially one that had never even worked together before. On top of that, Tafyaf said he thought the girl was actually going softer on'm than she could have, though he said he wasn't sure about it."

Alizz takes a moment to consider his point. "...I guess that's true. But gods, what a look. Eight out of eleven Initiates killed in about a week, and another with a probably career-ending injury." While the Archer Tane would survive the unplanned amputation of his leg, healing that could replace a limb was rarely cheap and generally beyond an Initiate's earning power. He could perhaps earn enough in another year or two at a different job and pick things back up later, but the statistics said he probably wouldn't. "But maybe worse is the demon vanishing from an apparently safe rest area. I don't understand what happened there...the dungeon master could have sent in a monster to pick off stragglers, but that wasn't the impression I got of her style."

"Yeah, that one I'm blaming on the dude himself. Arcane demons, y'know? My money says, he saw that shiny new floor, was all, 'ooh, look at this brand new thing I can discover just for me', and dashed on alone and lost his head to the first trap he found. I ain't pinning that on Tafyaf or the dungeon. No accounting for idiots."

Alizz's eyes narrow. "Hrmm...you know, he's the only one of the three with no surviving kin listed for me to send letters to. Granted, demons don't usually have very large families. Still...I mean, really, between that and this new third floor, I'm getting really tempted to just go pay another visit ourselves and see what's up."

At this, Kelsey shakes his head. "Wouldn't recommend it, boss. It's already weird-lookin' that you went into the place solo and came out fine, we start making weekly trips to the place and people are gonna start askin' questions, you know? You know the routine, we put a bonus bounty, an extra level promotion or whatever, up on whoever can chart out the new floor and let the Challengers handle it themselves."

The agent sighs. "But right now we don't even have any Challengers who can do it. A few more Initiates wandered in today, but after the last run, they seem to be wisely waiting until some Advanced classes start to show. If only we had some high-level Firsters hanging around - " Before Alizz can finish her thought, she's interrupted by the sound of thunder from somewhere within the camp. "Shit! Kelsey! Some drunk idiot's probably started a fight out there!"

The two quickly grab up their weapons and rush towards the sound, but when they arrive at the source they find only a single figure, standing in the center of a scorched ring of grass. The unknown person is dressed in a style of full plate armor neither have seen before, with the only hints to their identity being that they're humanoid, tall, and most likely female. Raising his shield, Kelsey takes charge of the task of identification. "Hey! Hold there, stranger! Mind tellin' us who y'all are!?"

The figure turns in his direction, their face entirely covered by their helmet's visor, but a woman's voice answers him back. "Just a tourist. Don't suppose you can tell me where I am?"

Kelsey and Alizz share a look. Teleportation spells aren't entirely uncommon, but they are expensive, and not the sort of thing you use without knowing what your destination is. But then, given the strange fashion of the woman's armor, for all they know she came from a continent on the other side of the planet. There is a touch of something being off about the woman's voice as well, a possible sign of a magical translation enchantment being built into her armor or accessories. Cautiously, Kelsey answers. "Challenger's Association camp, just outside Grassbrook. Just set up pretty recently...where'd you think you were hopping into, girl?"

The warrior chuckles at his description of her, apparently finding it amusing as she makes no motion towards the obviously-enchanted blade at her waist. For that matter, as the pair examine her further, their eyes almost begin to water at the sheer magical energy washing off of the woman like a wave. Some of it is the after-effects of the teleportation, most likely, but every single piece of her armor and equipment has the feel of top-tier goods, the kind neither of them possesses even a single example of themselves. Alizz whispers to Kelsey. "Careful! If she's not at least Master-tier I'd eat my hat, probably more like Supreme!"

The woman laughs again, though. "Don't worry, I'm not here for a fight. Just sight-seeing. Not really going anywhere in particular, really. Tell me about Grassbrook...what's this camp of yours about?"

Alizz takes over for the discussion at this point. "This is the, ah...the temporary camp to administrate Challenger intrusions on the new dungeon in the area, up on Triple Peak Mountain. Worthy Dungeon, it's called."

The warrior looks up at the nearby mountain. "A dungeon, huh? Now that does sound interesting...tell me more."