Worthy Core

Between the time it took for Beatrice to gather up the supplies required for a proper expedition, and for Grizza to officially 'resign' and register as a Challenger, three days had passed since the woman had made her way back down the mountain. When she finally returns one early afternoon with her new party in tow, Doorman is greeted with the sight of a rather eclectic group of individuals, including a few he was hoping to see again. Behind Beatrice follows Grizza and Roxxy, but behind those two trails Sely and Taly from Alizz's field team. The sisters had come specifically on Alizz's recommendation, both because the Field Agent was very curious herself as to what a demon could be doing under the mountain, and also because the pair provided exactly the sort of healing and ranged capabilities the team was otherwise lacking. Well, that, and because there were still almost no other Challengers in the camp yet other than Initiates, and Alizz certainly wasn't keen to recommend sending any of them down into the unknown.

"Well, well, good to see you again Lady Beatrice. Everything go well down in the town?" Doorman gives Beatrice a smile as she steps up, and she nods back.

"Think we should be pretty well set, yeah! Miss anything while I was gone?"

The door chuckles. "No intrusions, as it happens, although the master of the dungeon has a particular surprise for you, I'm told. And what's this, it seems we have some familiar faces returning..."

Grizza sighs. "Yes, I ah, hope our presence isn't an...issue..." The drider trails off as he realizes the door is looking over his head and ignoring him entirely.

"If it isn't our lovely Challenger sisters! I was hoping you'd grace us with another visit!"

Sely snorts at the attention, but Taly gives a light laugh. "Well, what can we say? We've taken lots of jobs in dungeons before, but we've never gotten one from a dungeon! We don't usually merc out these days, but how could we say no?"

"An excellent attitude! And in further good news, it appears as if everyone here has cleared up to at least Floor Two!" As he speaks, a portal ring appears on the ground not far away. "Therefore, you're all welcome to take one of our new shortcut portals to the safe room at the end of the second floor, which, incidentally, is where the Boss of Floor Two will be waiting to greet you. Good luck on your quest!"

Beatrice, having tested out the shortcut portals before, steps into the ring without hesitation and vanishes. The rest of the group is slightly more hesitant for a variety of reasons, but one by one each of the party steps inside and makes the jarring transition from a clear sunny afternoon to the darkness of a second floor cavern. As they arrive they find that the small square chamber behind the boss arena currently contains a healing fountain in the center, an emergency portal back upstairs, and three different doorways out, one of which frames a slime woman wearing mage equipment. A number of hanging tapestries have been added to the room's walls as well, mostly showing bunnies and slimes frolicking on grassy fields under starry nights.

"Welcome back, Beatrice! And...oh, hey, it's...you guys." Lollyp's eyes pass over the drider and the earth elemental, and then land on the sisters. "...And you guys too! Wow! This is uh...you really found an...interesting bunch, Beatrice."

Although Grizza had heard of further confirmation that the slime was indeed the second floor boss, actually having the woman standing before him again - and speaking in a language he can recognize, this time - still causes the Mage to boggle a bit. "So we're not all crazy, then? This dungeon really does have an intelligent slime as a floor boss?"

Sely has more pragmatic concerns to address. "Hey, slimy, you're not gonna blow yourself up this time, yeah?"

Lollyp rolls her eyes. "Yes, I know, I promised not to do that anymore, okay!? And as for the other question - that's classified. You're here for pest control, and if you're lucky Xenia won't kick your double-sized spider-ass just for wandering back in here, yeah? Though I gotta give you credit for having the balls to do it...and the brains for leaving your pal behind this time."

Beatrice watches the exchange in a bit of confusion. "Uh, was there a problem? I knew the spider and the rock came by before, but that wasn't anything personal, right? Like, people challenge dungeons all the time, yeah?"

Roxxy handles this one. "Uh, our friend Tassa was like, kinda upset that her boyfriend died in here and maybe sorta tried to crack open the core the last time we came by here? But she and uh, Xenia had a good, like, heart-to-heart conversation and I think they really sorted out their issues, you know? Anyways, Grizza and I are good! We one-hundred percent, absolutely positively do not have any ulterior motives regarding the dungeon core!"

Grizza groans. "Thanks, Roxxy." The golem gives him a thumbs up. Convinced, Beatrice also gives Lollyp a thumbs up. For her part, Lollyp decides to join the 'groan' side of the conversation.

"Whatever, I guess. We've carved out a special, mundane kinda shortcut for you guys, if you take the staircase there you can skip around the outside of Floor Three and come out closer to the 'lost dungeon' down there. If you guys wanna head on down, we'll give you the briefing there, but Beatrice, mind hanging back for a few?"

"Sure thing, slime-stuff." The rest of the group turns and takes the stairs out, only to find to their surprise that when they're going around the outside of Floor Three, they're really going outside - the stairway is built directly onto the wall of the mountain's internal canyon, with just enough torches on the side of it to be able to give an idea of how little is really visible in the darkness. The group only gets a few steps before they have to stop and gawk for a bit.

Sely speaks first. "...When you guys said there was a lot of empty space under the dungeon, I wasn't expecting this."

Grizza replies with a rueful shake of his head. "Didn't exactly get a good look at this part of it the first time. But yes, I'd say pretty much any of it really needs to be seen to be believed. ...Speaking of, standing out here is making me a little uneasy. Shall we move on?"

Back on Floor Two, Beatrice turns back to Lollyp. "So, what's up? Something happen?" The Elementalist shakes her head and grins, however.

"Nah, nothing bad, anyhow. We - okay, mostly Xenia - went and made you a present!" Reaching into her vest, the slime pulls out a key and hands it over. "This has been juiced up to loot status, so you'll be able to take it outside the dungeon."

Beatrice takes a look at the key and its bunny-head-shaped grip. "I assume this is for something?"

"Yup! Ah, hand it back for a sec and I'll show you. Our ability to hide doors is based on our traps level, which still isn't that high compared to a lot of folks who might come out here, so we've added a few security layers to this one." Taking the key back, she moves to the fountain. It's not particularly well-sculpted, but a number of carved clamshells and bunnies trickle out streams of water to keep the healing waters flowing. Ignoring the water, Lollyp sticks the key into one of the rabbit's mouths and twists it, causing a click to sound from behind one of the hanging tapestries. Moving over and pushing it aside, Lollyp uses the key a second time on a keyhole built into the wall, causing another doorway to open in the room. "This keyhole's hidden until you use the first one, so folks scanning the walls are slightly less likely to find it. There are special skills and spells for detecting hidden doors, but the higher we tier up the safer this path will be. Anyways, head on up!"

Curious, the warrior makes her way through the door and up a short flight of stairs, coming out onto another long balcony facing the empty void in the mountain. With the ledge of the balcony on her right, to the left there's a hallway leading back into the core of the mountain, followed by a doorway leading into some sort of room, going by the glass and iron-bar-covered windows lined up behind it. Lollyp points at the door. "You'll need to use your key again there - sorry for all the redundancies, but the more times some Rogue's gotta pick locks, the more likely it is we can do something to, y'know...discourage them."

"Oookay, let's see what we got here then." Unlocking the door and pushing it open, Beatrice is met with the sight of what seems to be a small apartment - there's a living/dining space with a table, other furniture and a basic kitchen, as well as a few other doors to other rooms, including at least one leading to a small bedroom.

"Surprise! Oh, and Xenia's here, if you wanna turn on your helmet or whatever."

"Ah, right!" Triggering the enchantment with a brief orange glow, Beatrice looks up to see Xenia's hazy form take shape in the middle of the living room. "Hey, Xen! This is for me, I take it?"

The dungeon master grins. "You got it! I know y'ain't got time to settle in right now, but I wanted you to know you've got a place here whenever you're not out doing big adventure shit. It's a bit basic right now, but we'll keep it upgraded as we go, and hey, we even managed working plumbing in the bathroom there! Just uh...don't ask where it goes."

"Definitely wasn't going to." Beatrice takes a minute to check out each room, and while the furniture is indeed of a pretty rough craftsmanship, it's certainly a massive improvement over the camping gear she'd been using the past few days. There's even some food and water stored in the kitchen area, and thanks to dungeon pressure plate technology, the sinks even dispense water when she experiments with them. Perhaps best of all, the bathroom includes its own bathtub. "Oh gods, that does looks nice. Really do wish I could spend a day trying this out, but it wouldn't be fair to the team I suppose. You could dungeon-magic all this up?"

Xenia follows along, growing excited every time Beatrice checks out something new. "Yeah, technically this is part of Floor Two. It's really close to its floor capacity, but since this room doesn't have any monsters in it and with the plumbing barely counting as traps, it's practically free. Could add some actual traps if we need more security, but figured I'd check with you before putting something lethal outside your front door. Oh, important note though - if ya wanna store anything here, you gotta let me know so I can tag it with my inventory system first. Otherwise it'll kind of, uh...melt when you leave."

Lollyp speaks up. "Also, if you take the other hallway back there, it'll take you to my room. Not that I've got much to show off to guests at the moment or anything."

"Wow, thanks, you guys." Beatrice gives Xenia a false hug, wrapping her arms around where the dungeon master is standing, before pulling back. "Gods, what a mailing address. Beatrice, Apartment Two, Floor Two, Worthy Dungeon. I love it!"

"Glad you like it! Feel free to check it out a lil longer if you want, I'll go on ahead and make sure the team you found isn't poking into anything they shouldn't." The ghostly form blinks out, and Beatrice resumes checking out the mostly-empty cabinets and containers while Lollyp watches on.

"While I did bring enough gold with me to buy a place somewhere if I had to, I definitely wasn't expecting to have a place to live this soon after hopping over. I am glad I ran into you guys like this, I was a little worried I might come over and find a little baby Xenia waiting for me or something, heh."

Lollyp giggles at the thought. "Hehe. To be honest, I think Xenia was half doing this to distract herself. Apparently finding out that it's actually possible to travel between realms on purpose kind of shook her, actually."

Beatrice pauses, putting a piece of fruit back into its bowl before turning to Lollyp. "...Eh? I mean, I figured I'd surprise her, but what do you mean?"

"Uh...just something about how she's gotten used to always moving forward and not looking back, you know? I guess she'd kinda written off that it would even be an option."

Beatrice stands in silence for a moment before nodding her head and half-mumbling a name. "...Sarah." The name only confuses Lollyp, though.

"Sarah? Was that another of your friends?"

The warrior shakes her head and begins moving towards the door. "Not someone I knew, no. And...probably not someone I should talk about. Can ask Xenia if you like but...it's a touchy subject. Anyhow, I better catch up to the team myself. I'm the team leader, wouldn't do to abandon them in a strange dungeon, now would it?"

Lollyp perks up and moves to catch up. "Ah, right! Let's get this quest going!"