Worthy Core

After a few hours of group effort, Floor Two, Apartment Three was more or less complete. The basic layout and furniture setup had been directly copied over from Beatrice's apartment, saving some time, and Sincere's research and other stored items had been largely unpacked and moved into bookshelves, chests and the like. The main difference between the two apartments had been on Lollyp's advice, with a corner set up with a writing desk and as much of a magical research laboratory as could be reproduced with Xenia's construction materials and Lollyp's knowledge of the field. Any further refinements would probably need advice from the demon himself, and so the time had finally come to install the dungeon's latest occupant.

Gathered together in the apartment's bedroom, the Council takes a moment to confirm their earlier discussion. Turning towards the bed from where she'd been straightening out some furniture, Beatrice brings up the topic first. "So, you're sure about doing that not-person person thing, Xen?"

Xenia nods. "Yeah, the more I think about it, the more it seems like the only option right now. My only serious options really are undead or slimes, and making the dude a slime would probably be a really weird adjustment. And as for undead...yeah, as far as I can tell almost any other B-tier boss monster would be too much for me to support without a new floor, and making the dude a lower-ranked ghost or a skeleton feels mean. I mean, I'm practically a ghost but at least I can still pick up the stuff I make myself, it'd probably drive another dude nuts."

The warrior nods. "Guess that sounds fair. Let's see how this goes, then."

Lifting a hand over the bed, Xenia begins by summoning a monster identified in Guy's menus as 'False Mortal, Demon, Male', and the body that appears on the mattress is exactly as generic as the description implies. The creature has short, smooth horns, no hair save eyebrows, a thin, pointed tail, and no apparent wings, although they don't turn him over to check. Its height comes in at nearly a foot less than Sincere's original body, although the limbs seem rather more muscular. Lollyp chuckles as the body takes shape.

"Yeah, that's a 'Demon, Male', alright. It's like it averaged out every kind of demon there is, and given how many weird kinds there are, we're probably lucky it fits on the bed. Can you get him any closer than that?"

"One minute, I'm still workin' on it." Focusing, Xenia pictures Sincere's form in her mind, and is slowly able to bring the creature closer to an arcane demon template. Large wings spread from its back, the body grows taller and leaner, and the horns on its head gain an extra inch. Looking it over, Xenia stares particularly strongly at its scalp until hair begins to sprout, black locks springing forward in an uncombed mess. "I...eh, trying to get any finer than that's giving me a fuckin' headache. I think this might be as close as I can get."

Beatrice blushes as she clears her throat. "He was, um. Packing a little more than that. If that's an option."

Narrowing her eyes, Xenia gives her friend a look. "...Suppose I can give it a shot. Since it's apparently a defining character trait of the guy and all that." Turning her focus downward, the dungeon master finds to some amusement that she can indeed gift the creature a few more inches to play with, although even that portion of its anatomy somehow manages to appear generic and featureless, as if it had been sculpted by a technically talented but entirely unimaginative artist.

Lollyp smiles. "Nice."

Beatrice nods in agreement, still blushing under her helmet. "...Nice, yeah."

"Alright, pervs, lets give the man some respect and privacy, alright?" With another wave of her hand, Xenia clothes the creature in a basic set of mage's robes. "There, now you can have all the fun of unwrapping him later, if that's what yer into. And now...for the coat of paint." Pulling up her Illusionary Demon spell, Xenia pictures Sincere as clearly in her mind as possible and casts it at the dungeon monster. The effect is immediate - lines appear on its face, calluses form on its hands, the perfect symmetry of its form is subtly lost, and a hint of a curve appears on its lips, as if it were dreaming a very slightly amusing dream. "Alright, how's he look now?"

Beatrice nods. "I'd say that's pretty good. Anything more exact than that, he'd have to tell you - if he even cares about every skin blemish or whatever."

"Cool. Now for the big finale!" Focusing her mana reserves, Xenia charges the creature up to boss-level status before pulling open her soul inventory. With a quick confirmation Sincere's soul is selected, and soon emerges from her outstretched hand and into the creation, finally bring it to life. Xenia begins to cackle. "Now, rise! Rise from your grave! Mwahahahaha!"

Her friend grimaces. "Is that part required?"

"C'mon, I'm bringing back a demon from the friggin' dead, here! Y'gotta let me have at least a little fun, or what's the point?"

Her question is answered by the demon in question, still lying on the bed with his eyes closed. "Evil laughter, suggestions of 'fun'. I'm certainly not in one of the Heavens, so either the deal worked or I ended up in one of the more amusing planes of Hell."

"If I ever gotta go to Hell, I hope I get to go to one of the fun ones. How are you feeling, buddy?" Xenia leans closer, giving the man a smile as he cautiously cracks open his eyes.

"...A bit odd, if I think about it. Interesting, I can see you quite clearly now, so I take it I am fully a part of your retinue. Other than that, I feel...weaker, but well enough, I suppose. Ah, one moment, allow me to check something." Leaning up a bit, Sincere's eyes glow green for a moment before he examines his own body. "Well, well. Soul fully intact, without a trace of shrapnel, but with notable traces of your own energy. This certainly opens up new avenues, I've never had the opportunity to so closely examine the link between a dungeon and its monsters before."

Xenia chuckles. "Slow your roll, nerd boy. We've still got a few matters to discuss, don't we...Mr. Fucked?"

Sincere eyes his new boss before sighing. "I suppose we'll have to start there then, won't we?"

Miles away in the Challengers' camp, Sely and Taly were enjoying a well-deserved round of drinks in Alizz's tent. Leaning back in her chair, Sely sighs after a long pull at her bottle. "Ahhhh. Gotta say, even if it's already night out, it's nice having a sky up there again. I've spent a few days down in dungeons before but never one so blasted dark all the damn time."

Nearby, Alizz smiles as she puts away some of her paperwork for the evening. "If that's the biggest thing you have to complain about after a job, things must have gone pretty well."

Sely starts to nod, then stops. "Well...the job went well enough. But damn if I don't have an assload of questions that no one seemed particularly eager to answer. Not to us, anyhow."

Picking up her teacup and moving to the tent's main table, Alizz settles in. "So just what was that demon up to, anyhow?"

Taly answers that question. "The only thing he was up front about was that he found a way to make the old dungeon spit out elemental cores. He was using them, too - we had to break almost ten of em to get to him, and it sounds like there's still as many wandering around down there now. But there was more to it than that."

Alizz frowns. "Making elementals? I know they're not like other mortals exactly, but they do have souls. Dungeons can make bodies from mana, but I've never heard of one making elemental bodies...and even trickier, the souls would have to come from somewhere. When a dungeon is destroyed their captured souls are released and allowed to move on. Or so the literature says, anyhow."

Taly continues. "There's more to it than that. The demon said the place was special to the draconics, and in a way that ran deeper than just being an elemental workshop. Unfortunately, he'd only agree to tell that bit of detail to the dungeon itself - or herself, apparently - and given what the dungeon did to the dude when we dragged him up there, we didn't exactly get to listen in on it."

Grabbing his own bottle, Kelsey steps forward from where he'd been listening and takes a seat of his own. "Almost afraid to ask, now. What in hells did the dungeon do to the bastard?"

Sely scoffs. "Well, you see, the job went a bit sideways when Beatrice damn near fucked the poor man to death after we caught him."

Spittle flies from both Alizz and Kelsey as they cough on their drinks. Alizz recovers first, shaking her head. "She did what!?"

Taly laughs. "Before you go getting too much of the wrong idea, I'm pretty sure it was his idea. I mean, the fucking part, not the almost dying part. That part was apparently a delayed reaction to the man's research project blowing up in his face when we finally found him. The man was...a little feisty before we calmed him down. I don't really understand the details, but it hurt him in a way Sely couldn't heal."

"So, what does that have to do with Worthy...Dungeon..." Alizz trails off partway through her sentence, gathering confused look from her colleagues as they notice. "...Shit. Did Beatrice have you take Sincere back to Worthy Dungeon? Where is he now?"

Sely shares a look with her sister before answering. "Well, that's the weird thing now, ain't it. She did have us take him up, yeah, took about two days and we were carrying him for most of one of those. Then we left him and her alone in the dungeon for a few minutes, then when we went back in slimey told us they'd 'moved him to a secure location'. But in the process they learned enough from his skills to make Taly here a mask that can see fuckin' magic, and a whole set of class tomes for the handsome spider. So, y'know. Dungeon ate him, but for some reason they were being real cagey about it."

Watching Alizz, Kelsey gets a hint that there's a bit more to it than that. "Alizz...this have something to do with how Lollyp ended up working for the dungeon? You said not to worry about it, and that was fine at the time, but I'm starting to feel like this ain't a one-off thing."

Alizz stares at the table for a little while, considering her thoughts before answering. "...It's not. Listen, you have to promise not to spread this around to the other Challengers, understood?" Waiting for the rest of the group to nod, Alizz eventually continues. "Lollyp told me the dungeon has a special curse on it, or something to that effect. If...if anyone enters the dungeon and willingly surrenders their soul to it, the dungeon gets them intact. And can re-body them, as dungeon monsters."

The group goes silent for a breath before bursting into noise. Sely, not unusually, is the loudest of those. "Are you telling me we just gave the freakin' dungeon a Supreme-class mage? Not just the spells, but the know-how to go with it? You know what a dungeon could do with that kind of power!?"

The drider raises her hands as she defends herself. "I didn't want the news getting out! Think about it! Think about all the oddball Challengers you've met over the years! Imagine telling them there was a way for them to live forever, fighting every day, killing every day? There'd be no shortage of volunteers, and they're not all the sort of people you would want to give that kind of power to. But...shit. You're saying Sincere was Supreme? I was expecting Master, hoping for Expert. This...fuck." She runs a hand through her hair as her eyes lose focus. "Fuck. This could get really bad."

Kelsey watches her for a moment before speaking up. "What's done is done. Question is, what we do next. I...I ain't disagreeing, about not making the word public. But Lollyp's been notching up kills and she was only a high-level Advanced mage. A Supreme, even if it's in some knock-off body...we might need to reconsider a level restriction."

The Field Agent shakes her head. "A Supreme dying in a dungeon isn't enough of a justification for that. People will ask questions and then this will all get out. For now...we've just gotta hope that the dungeon master is either smart enough or kind enough to keep her new resident buried deep, away from the Initiates. As soon as a party catches sight of him though, we'll have to reconsider. Until then, can I have your word? That no one here will speak of the dungeon's curse?"

The other three look around the table before slowly nodding, Sely answering for the group. "...Yeah, we'll keep a lid on it. For now. Ain't no one gonna know of this except us."

Grizza was enjoying a nice warm meal at The General and enjoying the company almost as much. Not that he was sharing the meal with anyone, as Roxxy didn't need to eat and had stayed behind at the Challengers camp, and Grizza was far too much of an introvert to share a table with strangers. But the simple fact that there were people around him came as something of a comfort. Between his two adventures under the mountain and his imprisonment in between them, it had been far too long since he had been able to enjoy the simple comfort of living in normal society. Granted, he was getting a few odd looks as the only drider in the room, but the locals seemed to be slowly getting used to non-humans visiting their town.

He had unexpected company of a personal sort before long though, as a bulky minotaur man walked up to the table and then helped himself to the seat opposite him. He had the classic appearance of a military minotaur, standing at well over eight feet tall, and all of it filled with solid muscle. His loose tabard showed off his bulging biceps and a hint of the chest below, and Grizza had to consciously force his vision upwards to take a look at the man's face. It took him a long moment to recall the name of his guest before he realized it was Commando Darrosh's second in command, Yarro Tossrock the Warrior Mason, who he had met only in passing days before.

"Ah...Mason Tossrock, yes? How can I help you this evening, sir?"

The minotaur grins as he settles in on his creaking, human-designed chair. "No need for 'Sir's anymore Mage, after all, you're not in the military now, are you?"

"I suppose not. I suppose you are here to receive my report on our expedition, however?"

The officer waves the suggestion off, and Grizza can't help but notice how each of his fingers seems to be as thick as Grizza's wrist. "Let's not be so formal about it, boy, after all, you're just a Challenger friend of mine, not a subordinate or anything of the sort. So how about we start with some pleasantries? How are you, holding up alright from your little trip?"

Never a man who had a great many friends, let alone one he'd never actually spoken to before, Grizza takes a bit to adjust the conversation in his mind. "Ah! Well, I'm fine enough. Didn't take so much as a scratch in the fighting, though it turned out to be rather riskier than anticipated. It seems our missing demon was a Supreme-class mage, and if his focus had been combat rather than research...well, our party leader was no slouch herself, so I expect we would have still come through more or less intact. And actually that part seems to have worked out for me - I spoke to Field Agent Alizz just before coming here, and she told me that facing off with an opponent like that was enough to qualify me for a level ten ranking! Not quite official yet, but it seems I'll be able to move on to Advanced training much earlier than I was expecting."

Tossrock leans over the table and claps the drider on the shoulder, an easy task given the length of his arms. "Well done, well done! As it happens, I brought something along in case you'd managed it." Reaching into his satchel, the minotaur tosses a bag of coins onto the table. "Your 'scholarship fund', in appreciation of your prior service to the Valleylands. We wouldn't want any delays in your training, now would we?"

Eagerly taking the coinpurse, Grizza nods his head in thanks. "Much appreciated. Actually, given what we encountered down there, I was thinking of taking up Arcanist class training, which could prove useful if I were to, ah...make another expedition at some point."

At that, the minotaur leans forward and lowers his voice slightly. "And what did you find down there, Mage?"

"Well, the demon was doing something to create elemental cores from nothing but base mana, which was certainly odd. But odder still is what happened after we fought him, and the man was, ah...metaphysically injured. Our party leader had us return him to Worthy Dungeon for healing, supposedly, but I'm pretty sure that's not the actual reason we did it."

Tossrock's eyes narrow, and he leans even closer forward. "What reason did that lady warrior of yours have for taking him to the dungeon, then?"

Grizza hesitates briefly before answering, running through the facts in his mind one more time. "...It's not a complete pattern, from what I've seen. But given that the dungeon appears to have a fully-sapient Domain-trained slime mage on its staff, and both our leader and the slime were insistent that the dungeon did not, ah, 'eat' Sincere after we left him with them, well." Forcing himself to meet the minotaur's gaze, Grizza continues. "I find myself forced to conclude that Worthy Dungeon has a way of recruiting people into becoming dungeon monsters."

DaScoot

Hey all! While I'm not planning to do hard divides of the story into different volumes, I am putting a pin in this chapter as the conclusion of the story's second main arc, which I'm calling 'The Initiates'. Check in next time as we kick things off for The Advanced!