Worthy Core

Xenia and her 'construction crew' had spent several hours working out just how much space they had to work with when it came to making their new indoor forest. While clearing out a massive amount of space (and shoring up the roof so it wouldn't collapse) did consume some mana, the main limiting factor was the other voids in the mountain getting in the way. On the southeastern side of the newly claimed space was the large abyssal cavern, which Xenia didn't want to go digging into just yet, and to the north was Floor Three. To the west was another Great Dungeon hallway, and while Xenia could dig a connecting tunnel to it, she found that she couldn't outright take over and use the space - at least not until they did another 'raid' into the old dungeon to claim it. Going down would mean running into a whole hive of Great Dungeon hallways and caverns, which could perhaps be avoided with a more narrow floor design, but not the expansive space Xenia was aiming for.

They could, however, go up. There didn't appear to be any old hallways in that direction, and as long as they stayed south of Floor Three there was plenty of room to work with. After making that discovery, Xenia tweaked her original forest design somewhat. From a top-down view the floor would still be circular, several hundred yards in diameter with an island in the center, but the area where people would enter the floor would be lower than the rest of it. A cliff would then cut off that third of the space, with a waterfall near the center and a number of spots where the cliff could be climbed, some being easier than others. With the ones that looked easier being more trapped, of course.

The higher-elevation portion of the floor would then be elevated over the old Great Dungeon hallways, avoiding that obstacle. Even then, there would still be a few hidden depths. An underwater cavern had been dug out for the water elementals, reachable only by those who could not only breathe but dig underwater, given the narrow and twisty path it took to reach it. More importantly, Xenia's core chamber was now hidden underneath the center island, where of course the eventual boss fight would take place.

For the moment however it still all looked fairly unimpressive. Not so much as a shrub had yet been planted, only the space cleared out, although the cavern ceiling had been coated with bioluminescent moss to provide a level of light similar to a moonlit night. The self-replenishing river and waterfall had been filled with water to see just how expensive such a decoration could be, and came out to a sizable drain of fifteen mana, even more than the twelve it took to put the majority of Floor Two on a moving platform. Still, Xenia was insistent on its importance to tying the whole floor design together, and now that it was in place, it was time to finally meet the dungeon's newest residents.

Leaning down over part of the river around the central island, Lollyp peers for signs of Slooshy. "You still in there, Sloosh? You didn't like, fall down the waterfall or something, didja?"

Ten feet further down the shore, a face appears along with an arm to wave with. "I'm down here! Hehe, we're pretty much invisible once we get deep, aren't we? All you'd be able to spot is our core, and given how dark it still is down here..."

Xenia nods. "No kiddin'. Setting up torches might ruin the vibe, but I might need to set up a bunch of those glowy mushrooms along the floor, too, or maybe spraypaint some trees with the moss or something. So, how's the first review? Space seem big enough for you and three more Slooshies to live in?"

After Lollyp translates for the dungeon spirit, the elemental drifts a little closer and nods. "Definitely. I'd put in another underground connection between our cavern and the lower part of the river if I could, though. Going back up the waterfall the hard way might be possible, but a real pain in the ass. Decor's a lil dull, too, but I know you're still working on that part. It should be real nice when it's all set up! And maybe if you could find some fish or something to play with..."

"Water monsters would definitely be real nice to have." As Xenia says that Beatrice suddenly perks up from where she was still drying out on the shore, after testing the difficulty of swimming to the island. The warrior looks a bit odd in soaked underclothes and her enchanted helmet, but at this point Xenia's grown rather used to not actually being able to see her friend's face.

"Oh, hey! You just absorb dead stuff, right, you don't necessarily need to have killed it yourself? Cause when I was doing inventory I still had a ton of leftover rations from the Sincere expedition, and that includes some dried fish. Being stored in an Item Box slows down decay a fair bit, but I was still thinking of dumping some of that before I left. You can feel free to keep a share or two of rations along with my trash gear."

"Sweet." Xenia's head tilts in a moment of confusion. "I know I've absorbed at least some meat with people's food, but it's not like I can make cows or pigs. Or wheat, for that matter. Guess maybe I need to absorb a whole example of a thing and not just a slice? I bet a dried fish would be enough for that, though. Anyhow, getting distracted. Sin-man, any special water magic I need to do to liven up these elemental cores?" Reaching into her metaphysical inventory, Xenia dumps the three spare cores onto the ground in front of her as the demon approaches.

"Fortunately not. While it generally takes specially-aspected mana to create an elemental core, once the core has been formed, any sort of mana is sufficient to awaken the creatures. Note that waking up a water elemental only generates a small amount of water along with it, but given that there's plenty more here for them to absorb, that won't be a concern in this case."

"Cool. Here we go, then!" Pressing her mana into the cores, much as she does when upgrading her monsters to a new tier, Xenia finds that she actually experiences a sensation of the cores being thirsty for her magic. Rather than feeling the need to apply some pressure to force her mana into them, they suck it up like dry soil does rain, and it doesn't take long for them to reach their full capacity. Slightly swelling, cracks begin to form along the surface of the stony spheres, which first emit small droplets of water but quickly expand into flowing rivulets of fluid. Puddles grow around each of them, but that doesn't seem to be enough as soon tendrils of water start being sucked out of the nearby river, drenching each of them with buckets worth of magical dungeon water.

Finally, having drunk their fill, each of the cores rises on a pedestal of fluid which slowly develops into more-or-less humanoid forms. Arms and faces eventually become visible, although it's almost impossible for Xenia to distinguish any particular identifying characteristics. The first time one speaks however the voice is clearly much more masculine than Slooshy's feminine tone. "Hi!" The speaker's head turns one way and then the next before continuing. "Is this the ocean?"

The elemental on his right answers him, this one speaking in a girl's tone, although still notably different from Slooshy's. "No, dummy! This is too small for that! This is a sea."

Waving her hands, Xenia decides to step in before any larger scale confusion sets in. "Ah, heh, hold on now, let me explain...wait. Shit." As the elementals ignore her, Xenia droops. "Dammit, even if the cores are registered to me or whatever, they still can't see me? This is bullshit! I really need that goddamn avatar spell already, dammit. Lollyp, you wanna take this?"

Lollyp nods as she steps in. "Hey there! Actually, this is way smaller than even that. This is sort of an artificial river we set up in a dungeon, so uh, welcome to Worthy Dungeon! I'm Lollyp, floor boss of Floor Two, oh, and this here is Slooshy! We were wondering if you might want to live down here? Granted we're still working on the place, so it's not real fancy yet, but if you have any suggestions now's a good time to make them!"

Slooshy rises from the river, giving a wave of her own. "Heya! I've been living here for a bit now, in a bathtub, and while that wasn't bad the river is way better! I've heard there's a bigger river outside, a real one, but I've been kinda wanting to see what a dungeon river's like. Also, if we live here we've got official permission to drown people!"

The eyes on the third elemental widen as a boy's voice comes out. "Whoa, really!? You mean people like that lady with the metal head, there?"

Lollyp quickly steps in to divert that train of thought. "Whoa, whoa, only people who invade the dungeon, not the ones who live here! ...Also, seriously, you consider that a job perk? Who even brought that up?"

Beatrice gives a slightly embarrassed cough. "I might have been talking with Slooshy once or twice, y'know, extolling the virtues of staying here and helping out with the, um...chores, haha..."

"Ah, right. Um, thanks, I guess? Though, Xenia here wants me to note a few things - she's the boss, by the way. Dungeons are kind of designed to test and occasionally kill people who intrude them, but mostly that's done by monsters and bosses, like me and Sincere here. You're not dungeon monsters though, which means you won't revive if a Challenger kills you. So, just putting that out there, we're not actually expecting or requiring you to fight anyone if you don't want to."

The first elemental raises his hand. "But we can drown folks if we want to and they're intruders, then?"

"...Right, yes. If you want to."

"Sweet! Then yeah, living here sounds way better than some other river where you can't even have fun."

Lollyp shrugs, deciding to take that as a win. "So, you three have names, or do you need some?"

The elemental in front speaks first. "I'll be Slooshy!" At the sound of that, the Slooshy standing in the river seems to get angry to the point that Lollyp would almost think she was beginning to give off steam.

"You can't be Slooshy! I'm Slooshy! You can be Junior Slooshy!"

The elemental considers that for a moment before making a counter offer. "What if I shorten it to Jooshy?"

"Juicy? I guess that works." Lollyp turns to the other two. "How about you? Preferably not Slooshy Three and Four, I'm thinking."

The new girl speaks up next. "Oooh, can I be Squirt? And my bro here can be...Spurt!" The other elemental shrugs, apparently not having an issue with being assigned a name by his 'sister'.

"...Juicy, Squirt, and Spurt." Lollyp turns to give Xenia a bit of a side-eye. "This is your fault, somehow. You're a bad influence on your kids!"

Xenia mock-gasps. "Me!? I ain't got nothin' to do with it, Lolly Pop. That being said, they all sound good to me! Now, let's let the drippy kids go and play for a bit, and make us some bushes. 'Medium Quality' forests are real close, I can almost taste it, and I wanna get that unlocked before we waste a lot of time decorating shit. Probably gonna burn most of today's mana, but by tomorrow, this place is gonna get interesting..."