Worthy Core

As much as the dungeon trio would have liked to have started digging further into what Sincere had unlocked for them, and what exactly they should do with the man's soul, following a bit of conversation it was agreed that they should probably hold those thoughts until after the team waiting outside had been sent on home. After taking a moment to collect herself, Lollyp gave a shout down the tunnel and the returning party once again made their way back into the dungeon. Unsurprisingly, most of them were rather confused about the sudden disappearance of their demon captive, a question voiced by Sely.

"Uh...oh, come on! Don't tell me we spent the last two days dragging that bastard all the way up here just so the dungeon could get dibs on killing him! I thought you were gonna patch the fucker up?"

Lollyp shakes her head, trying to placate the healer. "It's, um...not what it looks like. He'll recover, we just moved him to a more secure location."

Sely eyes the slime, clearly not believing a word of it. "Right. Cause your month-old dungeon has ways to heal soul damage and just happens to have some whole secret wing for stashing injured adventurers. I knew this sounded sketchy."

Stepping in, Beatrice backs Lollyp up. "Whoa, hold on now. Trust me, I would not have dragged the guy here myself just to kill him, alright? I won't lie, the dungeon has some unusual tricks - but you probably gathered that much as soon as I told you we were bringing him up, right? The important thing is, the quest is done, all mission objectives fulfilled, and no one - well, none of us - got injured. I'd rate this a complete success. So, how about we relax and enjoy the moment, shall we?"

"I wouldn't mind moving on to the part where we settle up, personally." Taly walks over to the room's center table and drops off a pair of bottomless bags. "These hold all of the demon's research and whatnot, I take it we don't get to claim it as loot? Not that I'm much for notes on magical research, but it's probably worth something to somebody."

Lollyp waves a finger at her. "As it happens, those still belong to Sincere, so we'll be holding on to them until he's recovered. Which he's definitely going to be doing. I think we're fine with moving on to payment though, and I think you did earn those bonus prizes we talked about. You folks all know what you want? Actually, first, I'll make a few suggestions. Our armor quality still isn't great, and a lot of our weapons just kind of straight up suck. My recommendation would be accessories, since while that's still pretty low tier too, it's hard to go wrong with enchanted accessories." As she speaks, four bags of coins spawn across the table, and Beatrice takes charge of handing them out to the members of the party. As for the bonuses, Taly steps forward with a request first.

"Could I get an eye mask? I've always wanted one to go with my outfit, but dungeons hardly ever make those. Something with, ah...well, a perception enhancement obviously, but whatever you can do best, I suppose."

"Sure, we can probably do that. Dungeon master?" Lollyp looks off to her side, listening to a response for a moment, before her eyes suddenly go wide. "We can do what now!? Would that be too much...no, we did promise the best quality we can make, didn't we? Alright then...well, good choice, Taly." As the rogue watches on in a bit of confusion, Lollyp holds out her hand as a face mask spawns in her palm. Black with a silver trim, the accessory looks fairly plain for the most part with the exception of a small bunny-head emblem in one corner. "Tap the emblem to activate the enchantment, apparently...put it on and we'll see how it works."

Pulling back her hood, Taly slips the mask onto her face and taps the corner as suggested. Looking around the chamber, she seems fairly unaffected until suddenly she staggers, having to grab hold of a nearby chair for support. "Holy shit!" Looking around some more, she catches a glimpse of Roxxy and staggers again. "Holy shit!"

Sely rushes forward, helping her sister steady herself. "Are you alright? It ain't cursed or anything, is it?"

"No!" Taly begins to laugh a little wildly. "I can...I can see fuckin' magic! Roxxy's lit up like a lantern and - and I think I can see the dungeon spirit! Not clearly, but her form's standing right there, right?" She points at an empty part of the room, and Lollyp has to nod.

"Well...apparently that works, then. Good to know." While Taly continues to enjoy her prize, Sely begins to grow suspicious.

"That'd be the kind of trick a Seeker of Eternity could pull, right? And you're tellin' me the dungeon didn't eat the poor bastard?"

Lollyp sighs. "It really isn't like that, honestly. How about we move on, anything you want, Sely?"

Not entirely mollified, but seeing she's not getting much further with that line of questioning, the healer crosses her arms and thinks. "Heard once about a dungeon that made enchanted, re-usable bandages. Could just slap em on and heal a wound...a set of those would be nice, could hand em out before a delve in case I get split up from folks."

"Let's see...basic cloth with a built-in healing spell, sounds like we can do that, though probably not as good as your own healing magic." Holding out her hand, a set of half a dozen bandages appear, each with another bunny-head emblem. Sely takes them, chuckling as she notices.

"More bunnies, huh? Got a theme, do ya?"

"The dungeon master feels that branding is very important. Next?" Scanning the group, Lollyp spots Roxxy stepping forward.

"Could I get something crystal-based, that'd let me hit folks from a distance? I'm not really much for wearing or carrying stuff, a crystal I could integrate into my body, though."

Lollyp listens to her dungeon master for a minute before answering. "Sounds like we can improvise something. Attacks are weapons, not accessories, but sounds like we can play around with wand crystals and make something a little less powerful than a normal wand, but good enough for an ace-up-your-sleeve sort of deal." Holding out her hand, two yellow crystals form one after the another. "Here you go - definitely weaker than a normal wand, so we'll give you two for the price of one. Enjoy!"

Taking them, Roxxy shifts the stone of her body to create settings for both, one on the back of each hand. Snapping them into place, she feeds a bit of mana through them and generates a crackling sound of electricity. "Oooh, lightning bolts! Thanks!"

"No problem! And last up, what'll it be for the Mage?"

Stepping forward, Grizza rubs his chin in thought before responding. "Does the dungeon have the ability to produce books, yet?"

"That it does. Interested in something from the library, so to speak?"

Grizza nods. "If you did just learn Seeker of Eternity knowledge from Sincere in some way, I would like some books containing that knowledge. It's a very rare path, which I'd like to know more about...that's something a dungeon can put together, right?"

Lollyp nods, if a little hesitantly. "It's not a substitute for actual class training - you won't be able to read them and then go shooting off Supreme-tier spells or anything. But it'll give you a good foundation, maybe speed things up if you do go down that line of training yourself later. Sound good?" As Grizza confirms his choice, four small tomes appear in Lollyp's hand. "Alright, here we go, all the classes Sincere took on the way from Mage to Seeker. Not the only path you can take, of course, but one of em anyhow. Have fun with your reading."

Before Sely can again ask just how the dungeon absorbed Sincere's knowledge, Beatrice claps once. "Alright! Everyone settled up and satisfied? Sounds like quest complete, then! It's been fun! I'll be hanging around here for a bit, I assume you all can make your way back to the camp from here, yeah? Although that does leave one last question...Slooshy." Perking up from the helmet-bucket where Grizza left it placed on a nearby chair, the elemental turns her diminutive head in Beatrice's direction.

"Ah, yup? That's me!"

"Do you want to head out with the others? I know there's a river not far from here, where you'd be able to recharge and...I don't know, live? I don't know how water elementals work. If you want to stay behind, maybe we could sort something out. We can definitely get you some more water now, but it may not be the most hospitable living area overall."

The elemental doesn't need long to answer. "You gave those other water cores to the dungeon, right? Any idea what you're going to be doing with them?"

Lollyp handles this one. "Not yet, no. Did you have thoughts on that?"

"Not exactly...but I think I wanna do whatever they do. I don't mind hanging around a little while if the dungeon needs to sort something out with them, but going out on my own sounds like it'd get pretty boring."

"Fair enough, we'll get something temporary at least sorted out for you in a bit. In the meanwhile, to the rest of you, it's been fun, and give Alizz my regards. I'll probably swing by sometime in the next few days to check in myself." Giving each of the other members of the party a firm handshake, one by one the adventurers make their way to the room's exit portal and return to the mountain's surface. As Grizza leaves, taking up the rear, Beatrice takes a deep breath and turns back towards the elemental. "Alright, Sloosh! I'll show you my place, we can be roomies for a bit, you might like the bathtub. Xen, Lolly, I'll be back in a bit, yeah? Still curious how we're following up with, well...we'll chat in a bit, yeah?" With that, Beatrice takes up Slooshy's bucket and makes her way out of the core chamber.

After giving Beatrice half an hour to settle in Slooshy and grab a snack, the four members of 'The Dungeon Council' regathered in the core chamber. Once Lollyp and Beatrice had taken seats, Xenia started things off. "Alright! So, first off, great job again Trish, you're now officially an adventurer in two worlds. How'd everything work out with the group, by the way?"

"Not bad, not bad. Most of the trip was pretty dang dull, to be honest, but the company was decent. The sisters are definite professionals, and Roxxy's skills were essential. Grizza...probably needs some more experience, to build up his confidence, but to be fair we did make him fight a Supreme-tier opponent while barely out of his rookie days. If Sincere had been a combat specialist, that might have been a really bad fight."

"Good to have some reliable contacts, I suppose. Moving on to the topic of Sincere, then. The most important question I gotta ask is - what the hell is up with the guy's name? Did you guys see that? 'Sincerely Fucked'? What on Earth?" Xenia brings up her soul inventory screen and points at it for emphasis, though it's a gesture partially lost on Beatrice.

"Wait, that's his full name? Sorry, he never mentioned it. Guessing I can see why he wouldn't, though..." Beatrice chuckles before refocusing. "I don't think that's actually the most important thing, though."

Xenia sighs. "Fine, fine, I guess we gotta set the guy up first before we can actually answer that one. Luckily enough, the bastard got us up to B-rank undead all on his own, and Guy, didn't you say we can basically start making like, actual people at B-rank a while back?"

The guide floats a little closer. "Yes, but they're not generally a good fit for a boss-level individual. The 'people' you can make at B-rank are essentially background characters, often used for when a dungeon wishes to make an entire simulated village or battlefield or the like. For one thing, if you get too close to them, they look rather...well, wrong. Too identical, too perfect, clearly not real mortals. It could be rather distressing for an actual mortal to find themselves within such a shell."

Lollyp chimes in. "Well, you've got that Illusionary Demon spell! You could give Sincere a body that has the rough shape of his old one, and put on an illusion to fill in the details. A little funny, casting Illusionary Demon on an actual demon, but hey, if it works?"

Before Xenia can respond, Guy continues. "The other issue is that, since they are largely for decorative purposes, they are the weakest form of B-rank undead and in many ways weaker than some C or even D-tier monsters. Even assuming his mystical skills transfer over as Lollyp's did, it would be sacrificing some of his use in combat, and don't forget that Lollyp still has much lower mana reserves than she originally possessed."

Beatrice adds in a question of her own. "Do we care about combat capability right now? I mean, all your floors already have bosses, unless you were thinking of shelving some, or something?"

At that, Xenia raises a finger. "Oh, I got an answer for that one! I do actually have a slot open without overloading a floor, cause I've got an option for a 'core guardian', basically like a last line of defense I guess. Actually that's been Sir Flopsy for a bit, it started out with like...a really low power cap, but the more our mana cap's gone up, the more mana I can pump into that slot without it becoming a drain. Being a low-power undead might be a good thing, making him one of the new vampire or ghoul types we unlocked would be a mana drain for sure. I think."

Lollyp thinks about that for a moment. "Does...making him a core guardian mean he's gotta live in this room with you?"

"Nah, he can move around like you, but..." Xenia pauses as she thinks that through. "Right. So. Setting up Sincere's body is officially on hold. First up - we gotta make a new apartment. ...Anyone know what demons like in their living style?"