Worthy Core

Three hours later, an exhausted and slime-covered Challengers Association party attempts to catch their breath and collect their thoughts outside the entrance to Worthy Dungeon. While 'slime-covered' is better than 'blood-covered', the group's morale is still not exactly at record highs as they sit or lean against the mountainside. Even so, Field Agent Alizz does her best to keep the party focused on the job. "Okay, right...let's collect our preliminary notes while it's still fresh in our minds, shall we?"

The normally-cheerful Taly growls in response. "Sure. Note one: the third floor suuuuuuucks."

Alizz tries not to smile at the comment, which would only encourage more along that line of thought. "Noted. But let's go in order and keep organized, shall we? Floor one - as 'Doorman' suggested earlier, the first floor appears to be largely unchanged from our first visit. Any disagreement?"

Taly raises a hand, this time making a useful point. "The skeletons were like, slightly tougher. Still went down to us in one hit, but they were just that little bit faster and tougher to break. Given what we saw on the third floor, especially those bosses, I don't think the dungeon's upgrading them or their equipment as much as they could, but they are getting upgraded a little."

Shuffling around, the kobold Kelsey roots around in his bottomless bag for a moment before pulling something out. "Got additional loot from the boss, too - on all of them, actually, I'm pretty sure the dungeon got one of those upgrades for bonus boss loot some of them seem to have. Those luck charms - and what a nasty little trick that is, huh? Those luck charms have always been rabbit-themed, but this time we got that...bag of carrots." He holds up a small cloth bag, holding about a half dozen of the orange root vegetables. "Seriously, this is bonus loot? A light, healthy snack, eh?"

His boss chuckles at the description. "Ah, not quite! I can sense that they're mana-enriched, though I couldn't tell you what they do. Bonus speed, perhaps? Or maybe a health item? We'll have them analyzed before anyone takes a bite. Meanwhile, Floor Two thoughts? Also seems largely unchanged."

Sely grunts as she wipes the last of the slime from her pants. "Skeleton ambushes mighta been a lil tougher, like Taly said, but otherwise yeah. Course, we did have to actually fight Slimy this time, so that was fun. Though it kinda felt like she was still holding back?"

Alizz can't disagree. "I felt that from all of the bosses, actually, but can you be surprised? Imagine the dungeon going through all that effort to work out a deal with us, and then it accidentally kills us an hour later? Still, I can see now just why Lollyp's been so dangerous. I would have never imagined a single slime mage could have held off an entire team for as long as she did, especially when all of us belong to higher-tier classes than she had."

"Ah, but the 'boss fight' setup is just perfect for the girl, you know?" Kelsey pulls off a gauntlet as he speaks, shaking out a few flecks of slime before he continues. "Her magic ain't as strong as it used to be, she ain't got a real Elementalist's reserves, but she don't need em, really. She's not fighting in pitched battles now, or holding a static defense against invaders - she gets to ambush a party, then do a little fight that probably don't last more than five minutes, win or lose. So she gets to shoot off all her big fancy zap attacks, and if anyone's still left standing, she's already in close quarters so she can just grab up an axe or somethin' and go to town." He chuckles, remembering the fight. "She ain't trained for melee, but the girl's got enthusiasm, I'll give her that."

Taly grumbles. "Stupid slime senses, too, my darkness effects barely slowed her down. Still, with Alizz fizzling most of her magics, she didn't have much she could actually hurt us with. At least the bonus boss loot was fun..."

At that reminder, Alizz sighs. "Right...along side some money and health potions, we got a hefty little box of...seriously, slime lubricant, is that what that is, Sely? Are you sure?"

The masochist raises an eyebrow. "You're asking me? You're the one who was vowed to a slime!"

Taly leans against her sister with a smirk. "So why would she ever have needed the extra lube, eh? Speaking of, Sely and I are claiming dibs."

"Granted. Not asking questions, just...please, take it off our hands. And finally...Floor Three. Oddly nonlethal, until reaching the bosses."

"And soooooooo frigging annoying about it, too!" The rogue's brief good mood quickly vanishes again. "The first room wasn't so bad, I like a good trap room every now and then, you know? But then two rooms after that with nothing but gross nuisance monsters!? What was that about?"

Her sister joins in the grumbling. "And what was that fake sex dungeon about? How do you set something like that up and then like, not have a mini-boss or something in there? Just sticks out like a sore thumb otherwise."

Kelsey gives the cleric a smirk. "Heh, and what kinda mini-boss would you be wanting to fight in a room like that, huh? Or were ya thinking something other than a fight entirely?"

"No, no, no!" Alizz waves her hands quickly, interrupting that train of thought. "Leave that kind of perversion to the Dungeon Perverts, please! I won't have that from my own team, thank you very much! Moving on! That...magical puzzle room with the hopping slimes, also a little frustrating, to be honest. You either have to sit and watch it for a while to figure out the timings, or just deal with brute forcing the traps. Still, given that the traps do announce themselves ahead of time, I have trouble seeing that chamber actually racking up many fatalities."

"Could be someone might trip and fall on some shit, if they were still slimed up." Sely eyes the blobs of slime left sitting on the ground next to her, which of course only now choose to start dissolving now that the party's already spent the effort scraping them off. "Dammit, forgot it would do that. Anyhow, third floor bosses - a double boss, fun little switch up. Ghost-types, but unless someone's got something special for ghosts that seems like almost entirely a physical encounter. Smash the armors or get smashed. Of course, the damn tentacles do make it harder."

Alizz nods. "Fortunately quite a few Cleric specialties have techniques for spotting and handling the undead, so it's not unmanageable. Or, of course, one could be in possession of a spell that strips ghosts from their possessed objects and shortcuts much of the fight." The drider allows herself to look just a little smug at that final part, causing Kelsey to roll his eyes.

"Yeah, yeah, practically felt like cheating once you hit em with that. The shield we got as loot looks nice, too bad I've already got my flame-enchanted gear. All in all...still way harder than a dungeon this young normally is, or one at three floors, but like you said, not unmanageable. Keeping the recommendation Initiates don't go past Floor One, and anyone else better be ready to handle slimes. Sound about right?"

"Yes...though I do worry about when Xenia fully opens up that fourth floor. Got myself a feeling that it's going to be quite the difficulty spike, and that's before considering that our 'arrangement' stops applying at that point." Alizz pauses for a breath, then climbs back to her eight feet. "Alright, think that's enough of review for now, may as well be on our way. Thank you for the challenge, Doorman!"

The dungeon guardian gives the party a wooden nod as they start their trip back down the mountain. "Be seeing you soon!"

Xenia sits in her core chamber, recently moved back to Floor Three, and senses as the Association group begins to leave the range of her dungeon-sight. "Looks like the party guests are on their way home, and had themselves a good time! Or, well, a kind-of annoying time, but I suppose that works too. So! Alright!" The dungeon master claps her hands. "Suppose there's no more point in dawdling, huh? Time to call up a goddess and see what we can work out."

Sincere gives her a smile from the other side of the table. "Feeling nervous? I imagine many people would the first time they get into direct contact with a higher power."

"Oh, sure I would be if this were my first time. Think I've personally told the gods to suck my nuts like, at least three times by now, and I've only been smited once! So I've got pretty good odds on this working out, I think."

Guy hovers with a little more uncertainty than they did a moment before. "Are...are you sure you wish to go through with this, ma'am?"

"Absolutely! Let's ring her up, Guy!" Without further ado Xenia goes through her menus, finding her 'divine favor' in her inventory, bringing up the divine contact list, and scrolling through until finding Kahlia, Goddess of Fertility. "Alright, here goes nothin'. Oh blessed Kahlia, give me something sweet..."

The room around Xenia goes blindingly white, and when her vision finally fades back in, Xenia finds herself standing in the middle of a small clearing within a forest. Looking around, she finds herself with a bit of deja vu. "Huh, if it weren't for the actual sky, I'd think I was back on Floor Four again. Forests must be the in-thing this year."

"Normally, I receive visitors in my heavenly palace, but I thought that perhaps the Forest would be a more suitable setting for this particular meeting." An oddly-deep woman's voice speaks from behind her, and as Xenia spins, she quickly realizes the reason for its unusual timbre. Sitting on a throne that seems to have grown straight out of the ground, made of dirt and roots, sits a woman measuring at least ten feet tall. Her eyes sparkle an emerald green, her long hair is a wavy black, and her skin displays a deep brown. As Xenia soaks it all in her eyes need to spend a fair bit of extra time wandering, for there is a great deal of that glorious skin to be seen. White fabric drapes over her torso, leaving ample space for her breasts to press out on the sides, while another strip of cloth hangs between her crossed legs. That particular piece of fabric provides even less coverage, as despite her unusual size, the width of her hips would still manage to seem proportional on a god twice her height.

"Jesus Christ."

"No, Kahlia. Did you perhaps select the wrong option?" A smirk crosses the divinity's face, and as Xenia's mind catches up with her, a realization sinks in.

"Wait, the Forest - this is familiar! This - this is the planet where I spent all that time as a tree? You were my boss!?"

"I was. While we never had reason to speak, I have to admit, I was rather pleased to have a reincarnator serving the role of Guardian for a time. It's so hard to get hold of one of you, you know - you're so few, and the damned Fate and Destiny divines always seem to get first dibs."

Xenia gives an awkward smile. "Heh, no idea I was so popular. Guess it's too bad for you that I got moved on, huh?"

The smile fades from the goddess' face, and she nods. "Yes, I have to admit, I feel a little bad about that. I didn't mean for the meteor to hit you personally, you know, I was just...a little upset at the time."

The reincarnator's head tilts. "Upset? At...oh, wait. Was this because of the - "

"Because of the giant, two hundred-mile long forest shaped like a dick, followed by a thousand miles of meadows filled with white flowers?" Kahlia interrupts as her eyebrow rises. "Yes. Yes, that had a little something to do with it."

"Oh. Uh...sorry? It was just such a boring job, you know, I had to make my own entertainment!"

"Don't get me wrong. I enjoy a good dick, and it was an impressive amount of effort. But there's my image to think of, you understand. One simply cannot let their personal realms be vandalized, I had to burn the whole thing down before someone noticed. Oh, thank me that I caught it before Palain came to visit! But I did perhaps overreact, and as I said, I do feel a little badly about killing you in the process."

"Ah. Um...no hard feelings?" Xenia scratches her head, and another fact strikes her. "Huh...alright, updating personal records. Guess I've been smited twice..."