Worthy Core

Before focusing too much on redecorating, Xenia and Guy had been doing what they could to increase their arsenal. Level two traps were barely better than level one - the triggers were only slightly more hidden, the pitfalls were only a little deeper, and the response time was only a little faster. Xenia could cover her rooms in traps and it was unlikely they'd hurt anyone who actually knew what they were doing. And so, they'd gone after some birds. For one, aerial combatants could certainly be useful, but also it meant that Xenia could focus her mana bait efforts in an upward direction, leaving them less likely to attract other local residents down in the foothills.

With Doorman left open, attracting the first few sparrows and robins and so on with the lure of 'birdseed' was a simple task. Unfortunately, it turned out sparrows were effectively invincible against her. They were far too light to set off any of the traps, and the bunnies were...not exactly great hunters. Xenia could have tried locking the door and waiting for them to starve to death, but that would have taken days, and in the end they were only just sparrows. Therefore Guy was attempting to convince Xenia to set her targets...a little higher.

"Xenia. Put the bunny on the trap, Xenia." Xenia responds by clutching the rabbit to her chest tighter.

"Not Sir Flopsy! What good would a smushed bunny be, anyhow!?" Guy's emerald screen does a slight side-to-side roll that seemed to be their version of an eyeroll.

"Dungeon creatures don't set off traps, of course, unless you want them to. But we could use the actual physical bait if we want to catch ourselves a bird of prey. Hawks and eagles are a bit smarter, and they're not going to land on a trap if they don't see anything there, bait spell or no bait spell. Not unless we level up its animal effectiveness a fair bit, anyhow. You can just summon more rabbits afterward, anyhow!"

Xenia feels unconvinced by the necessity of it, still. "Could a bird actually eat one of my rabbits? I mean, aren't they made of like, mana or whatever?"

"Dungeon creatures can be consumed like anything else, although the more of a creature that's removed from a dungeon as loot, the less mana we can recycle from it. It's why most body-part loot tends to be smaller pieces like teeth and claws, and not very many dungeons focus on making cow monsters that make tasty steaks."

The dungeon master hems and haws for a bit, but eventually uses a bit more mana to spawn a new bunny on top of a pressure plate. "...Alright! But not Sir Flopsy! Now, you just stay there little guy, and I promise to respawn you after a bird eats you! Try and look tasty, okay?"

The bunny sniffs around a little but seems to find this acceptable, settling in on the center of the trap. With that set there's little else for the pair to do but take a break and focus on spreading out the mana bait spell once again, this time with a hint of 'tasty bunny'. After an hour or two this attempt scores fruit - or at least comes one step closer. A brown-colored hawk with a wingspan of almost two feet soars in through the open door, finding and taking a perch on a rocky outcrop near the ceiling. It eyes the bunny, but doesn't make any immediate moves to seize it.

Xenia tries to wave the bird down. "C'mon, birdbrain, I made this feast just for you! Eat the bunny already!" The bird actually seems to look at her, but it doesn't make a move. "...Guy, is the bird embarrassed? Should we like, leave and let it eat in peace or something?"

Guy's screen shakes back and forth. "No, no non-magical animal would be able to detect you, let alone me. ...Except..." They turn to look at Sir Flopsy. "...They might just be able to notice that there's a strange rabbit hovering in mid-air somehow. To be honest, I'm slightly surprised you can actually pick the thing up at all, but I guess it's just a form of dungeon creation manipulation...in any case, that could be throwing the hawk off a bit."

Xenia stands up from her stony seat and turns towards the hallway to the next room. "Well, he's not getting Flopsy! I guess we'll just wait in the back until - ahhh!" The motion seems to be enough to trigger the hawk's hunting instincts, with a fleeing - and somehow hovering - rabbit being more attractive than one calmly sitting in the middle of the room. This leads to the bird soaring in the direction of Sir Flopsy, and by extension, Xenia herself. "Ahhh! The damn bird's chasing me, Guy! Get it off!"

"It can't touch you, let alone hurt you! Just - no, don't go into the back, see if you can get it onto the trap!" Xenia does her best to shield Flopsy from the hawk's diving attacks, and while she doesn't actually serve much purpose as a physical or even visual shield, the somewhat-random movements seem to be enough to ensure that the bird continues to miss its target on each swoop.

"Get it off! Get it out of here!"

"Just calm down, would you? This is actually a good - oh, hold on. We ah...seem to have more company." Guy turns to face the door where a new visitor arrives, this one not a bird at all. Instead a small canine seems to have been attracted by the lure of a free meal - certainly not a wolf, but perhaps a breed of mountain coyote or the like. "Oh! Xenia, do you think perhaps you could set a second trap, this one could be useful as well!"

"GUUUUUUUUUYYY! MAKE THEM STOP!" As Xenia runs around the room, the coyote seems to agree with the hawk that a flying rabbit is less strange than one sitting quietly in the open, and joins in on the chase. The two do start to interfere a bit with each other, trying to scare the other hunter off from their meal, but the bait spell seems to be enough to ensure that neither are easily frightened away. "THEY'RE GONNA EAT FLOPSY!"

"Just - Xenia! Just go to the trap, would you!?" Finally focusing a bit, Xenia turns toward the center of the room and the bunny-bearing pressure plate. In her duress, however, she seems to be leaning a bit more on the 'solid' side of things than perhaps she was intending - as she steps onto the plate, she actually kicks the bait rabbit halfway across the chamber, but not before causing the animal to trigger the trap itself. Xenia shrieks as a rock begins to fall right through her virtual upper body, but manages to step forward just before it can crush the strangely-calm Sir Flopsy in her arms. Rolling to the ground, she continues both shrieking and shielding her furry friend until she notices that she's not actually being chased any further. "Xenia! XENIA! ...You pulled it off, Xenia."

Standing up, Xenia looks behind her to spot a heavy stone dug into the floor, a hawk wing sticking out of one side while a ragged tail sticks out of another. Unharmed, the bait bunny hops over to sniff at the carnage. "...I meant to do that."

"All according to plan, I'm sure. Well - ah, here we go." Intruders defeated, the animal mess begins to dissolve into the dungeon floor as the trap resets itself. As they fade out, new notifications pop up from Guy's screen.

Guy whistles, or attempts to, as the pair look over the screen. "Crossbreeding already! I thought we'd need a good deal more rabbits or something before we got that one!" Xenia raises an eyebrow.

"Uh, how's that supposed to work. Like, do a doggy and a bird even, like...y'know?" She waves her hands at each other, not sure how to express her concerns, but Guy guesses at them anyhow.

"Magical crossbreeding, of course. It unlocks once you have two creature ranks at D- or better, and allows you to attempt to create new monster species from your existing schemas. For example, a hawk with fangs, or a dog with wings. You'll need to upgrade your rabbits further to add them to the pool, but as you can imagine the combinations scale very quickly. And the higher grade your creature schemas are, the more you'll be able to direct the process, and the more traits you may be able to cross over."

"Bird dogs, huh? I guess that could be fun to play around with...or horrible and monstrous, one of those. Looking forward to it! How about those accessories, we getting into the fashion industry or something?"

Guy nods. "Yes, actually. With your low-grade rope and iron I imagine you'll be able to make necklaces, rings, perhaps earrings. At F grade they'll be practically mundane - perhaps a one point attribute bonus at most, but it's not nothing." Seeing Xenia's blank look, Guy continues. "...It's for rewards, you see. For the adventurers. If a dungeon provides high-quality rewards, not only does it attract more adventurers, but it's effectively a bribe to keep them from killing you. 'Don't destroy me, look at all this cool stuff I can make for you!', or whatnot. You may recall we already have some low-quality currency options as well, which allows us to produce perhaps a small coin purse at the moment. Once our other materials improve we'll be able to do clothing, armor, weapons and so on."

Xenia scratches Sir Flopsy in thought and nods. "Greasing the wheels, eh? I can work with that...had a bit of a hobby in jewelry design for a bit once, I think, could actually be a bit fun. Still though, home defense first! C'mon Guy, lets make us some abominations!"

WESTERN APPROACH TO TRIPLE PEAK MOUNTAIN
36 HOURS LATER

As night begins to fall, Tassa Stoutheart directs the scouting party to set up camp. They could make a little more distance today if they tried, but soon they'll have to actually start scaling the mountain somewhat, and camping out on an actual mountain isn't worth the trouble of an extra hour or two's worth of distance gained. Fortunately they won't have to do too much climbing overall - they're aiming to work their way around the mountain, not climb the summit, but even that won't be the easiest task. Ragrush steps up to her side, following her gaze up the mountain.

"Think we'll be able to get there tomorrow?"

Tassa shakes her head. "We could, but probably not til almost nightfall, and I don't want to be running into danger in the dark. Unless something looks urgent, I think we'll need to find a spot to camp for a night then aim to reach our destination fresh the next morning." Ragrush nods in agreement, then grins as he checks to see that the others are occupied with their own tents.

"Slow and steady wins the race, hrm? We probably have some extra time before we need to get some rest for the night...how about you and I head into your tent for a bit and...plan our next move, yes?" His hands begin to slip their way onto Tassa's waist, not that she needed the extra help to guess his intentions.

"Sounds like a good idea, Ranger Ragrush...after all, never hurts to be fully prepared..."