No Need for a Core?

Moriko hummed to herself as she strolled down the well-worn path toward Riverbridge. It was a pleasant day and while she was eager to see home again, hurrying would leave her sweaty. The whole point of having chosen a pretty dress to travel in was to arrive looking pretty. Admittedly having to sleep overnight in the dress would wrinkle it a touch, but she also knew how to sleep while in a sitting pose, so a simple cloth was all she needed to keep it clean. Still, she was beginning to think maybe she should have brought three changes of clothes this time.

The flutter of a bird caught her attention, and she raised her hand to shield her eyes from the sun so she could watch it fly overhead. The glitter of her ring made her sigh, not so much because of her situation and all the changes it represented in her life, but because she didn’t know how she was going to explain to her parents that she was ‘married’, even if it had come about as a matter of circumstances. Maybe especially because it had been because of circumstance. Her parents loved each other with a passion, as evidenced by her many siblings, and they had always expressed a hope that she'd find someone to settle down with. Perhaps in time...

Well, worrying about it wasn’t going to help any, so she continued her leisurely pace, which was not at all slowed by her concerns. Nope, the thought of facing her parents wouldn’t slow her steps at all. She was 36, she was way too old for that sort of silliness. Really.

Mordecai groaned with relief as they finally pushed down to the third floor, and Kazue looked at him with a bit of concern. He gave her a reassuring smile. “My portion of the core has mostly caught up with yours now; it was hard to maintain my avatar before. And since the core grows along with the dungeon, I now have enough capacity to work with the dungeon itself as well as maintain my avatar, instead of leaving it all up to you. Now, tell me more about your plans? I want my side to at least feel a bit thematically tied to yours.”

“Oh, okay. Um, well, it’s sort of simple, I’m going to train a bunch of rabbits to play the parts of dramatic skits, or maybe a small play broken into five scenes, but in a semi-improv style. There will be a number of open spots, and the people coming through have to try and fill in those roles, and they get to pass a room when they do well enough. But it’s a little harder, since rabbits don’t speak or make noises, so it’s all going to be about the dramatic poses and stuff. What do you think?”

Mordecai tapped his chin thoughtfully a moment, considering the idea as something nibbled at his attention. Oh, yes. Well, let’s start with correcting something. “So, there is a complication in your idea, but first, you should know that rabbits can make sounds, they just usually don’t. They can make small growls and chuffs, and their screams are, well, just ask one to scream for you, you’ll understand.”

He deliberately turned his attention away from the rabbit that Kazue asked, and watched as her face paled. “I, I had no idea. Yeah, not going to ask for that again.” she shuddered, then continued. “So, you said something about a complication?”

“Yes. Training isn’t really going to be enough, especially if you want them dressed in theater clothes. You’re going to have to evolve them and make them smarter. Which is quite doable, but actions have consequences. It will influence how our dungeon and its inhabitants develop. For the most part, I think having smarter creatures is good, but it does mean that sometimes they will make more, erm, interesting interpretations of your directions. It doesn’t affect their loyalty, but they do gain more personality and individuality. And there is a trade-off, it means delaying or avoiding paths of more direct power.” Mordecai had decided to not show her how to interpret and consciously select certain abilities as they grew, no dungeon saw them this early on their own and her instinctive picks would reflect what she wanted better for now. And that could lead to places that conscious decisions could not.

Kazue pondered that for a bit, green eyes half closed with her gaze down towards the floor, one of her tails caught tightly in her grasp as she played with the fur, and then she looked back up at him. “Yeah, I think I want to do that. I’m not too worried about having the strongest of the strong, and I think having everyone be smarter will be good. Um, but how do I do that?”

“Well, it’ll take a while for the ripple effects to be felt by everyone. But to start, figure out what you want the rabbit actors to look like as they run through the play. Then start to channel energy into the concept, and send out an invitation while holding that idea. I don’t know how many will come to you to take the change, but that should set you on the right path, and others may want to select that evolution in the future. I really think you should start with that, it will probably influence how your plays will go, since they will have their own opinions. We probably aren’t finishing the floor today, as I don’t think we have the energy for it; so focus on getting things right more than getting it all done.”

The kitsune’s other tails swished as she nodded, then wandered towards her path deep in thought. He smiled at her retreating form, then moved to his side to wait for her to complete her first task. He had the start of an idea that would use the evolved rabbits as a template.

Within half an hour Kazue had gotten her first batch of rabbit-kin creatures evolved, and Mordecai could begin his idea. It was a small change really, instead of actors and artists, he wanted warriors and mages. Well, more like soldiers, following the definitions that Moriko had used last night. He was going to set up a series of small ‘battlefields’ designed to give each type of his fuzzy soldiers a chance to shine; let's see, for a warm-up we can start with a simple formation of three heavily armored ones with swords and shields; behind them three more with longspears; and about twenty feet behind them a set of three archers. We don’t want a mage to just be able to blast them from far away, so we’ll make slightly larger warren tunnels here, and have them charge out into formation when the explorers are about fifteen feet away. Have the heavy infantry and the spearmen move forward as a formation; the archers are more free-form, firing at will and choosing their targets. And the long room can’t be too wide, but should have some maneuvering space. He settled for thirty-five feet across, which should give enough room for a group to either scatter or secure an area that would be hard to flank.

Kazue beamed down at her adorable creations, very pleased with herself. They were absolutely perfect! Now, to work out her first production. As the kitsune began setting up her ideas, she spoke her thoughts out loud, giving them a chance to understand common.

She wanted just the right sort of drama and romantic tension. Well, prince and princess of kingdoms at war was pretty straightforward. An attempt to rescue/kidnap the princess from the clutches of her father, a confrontation, and a young maiden’s heart torn as her lover and her father clash. The exact ending of the scene wasn’t important for this, after all, it was going to be partly improvised, she just had to designate the key roles. Hmm, let’s make it easy, the path will lead to the backstage, where the cast will line up under signs for various roles, and there will be a circle under each sign. Well, except for the Heroic Prince. That was always going to be one of her new friends, so didn’t need a circle.

There would be a number of empty circles equal to the number of visitors, and, hmm, well, let’s do random designations. In the ceiling, she created a set of glowing crystals that could channel their colored light into a beam. Each person would be lit up with a color matching the light shining on an empty circle. A mischievous smile crossed her lips, if she wanted to it would only take a little bit of attention to make this not-so-random, and she could put people in specific roles. That could be a lot of fun if she wanted to mess with someone. Now, for doing well enough to pass, oh! She had a sudden flash of an idea, and started modifying her room. What’s the point of having a play production if you don’t have an audience? And you passed when the audience gave your group enough applause. Well, foot stomping on the floorboards. Their front paws were a little soft for clapping well.

Soon enough she had a set of seating comfortable for the little rabbit people, and on a whim created a balcony suitable for human-sized folk. After all, while they could always see any play, they might want to actually sit and watch sometimes, especially if Moriko was home.

Mm, variety is the spice of life though. She should create some more plays, and once her friends were more comfortable with the process, they could even write their own!

It was fascinating to watch their minds light up. It wasn’t long before they were responding to her chatter and asking questions as well as providing ideas about the set and costuming. Oh, she was going to have so much fun!

There was a sudden tug on her attention, leaving her confused for a moment until she refocused her attention on the soul link to Moriko. Oh. Oh crap.

Moriko stepped back just as two arrows crossed her path, thudding into the earth about five feet in front of where she had been. The monk had been pretty certain that the ambushers had been aiming a warning shot, but she hadn’t been about to take any chances either. She glanced up into the trees where two goblin archers were grabbing fresh arrows, then stole a look behind her, where two humans crashed out of the bushes to block a retreat. Given the somewhat shoddy clothes, she was pretty certain these were bandits. What the hell? The northern border was the only area in the kingdom where they were a regular worry, and having bandits this close to the Azeria Forest was unheard of. The kitsune were known to be rather ruthless when it came to such, the chances of bandits even being given the option of surrendering to them was close to zero.

And here comes the boss and the rest of the lackeys. The towering, three-horned oni in front was clearly the guy in charge, the heavy breastplate he was wearing and the great sword he was swinging easily in one hand suggested how strong he was. Still, she couldn’t help but wish he was an ogre. While oni were far more civilized than their stronger cousins, intelligence was often more dangerous than brute strength. Moriko had nothing against them otherwise, she’d dated one for a while even, it was just this scenario that she didn't like.

There were two more humans, a half-orc, and a dwarf making up the rest of the group. Nine total. She was pretty certain that she could take out the rest of them if she didn’t have to deal with the Oni at the same time, and a little less certain that she could take the big guy out on her own, but she wasn’t seeing a way through this with all of them.

Moriko reached out through her link as the boss began speaking. “Here’s the deal. Give up, and we’ll take your stuff and let you go when we are ready to leave the area. Try to run or fight, and we won’t be so gentle with you.” There was a dark glimmer in his eyes as he looked her over, and it gave her little doubt as to how they’d entertain themselves. No thanks, even if he’d been trying to pick her up at a bar she’d pass. Her oni ex had been careful and gentle, this guy didn’t give vibes that he’d be so considerate even in the best of circumstances.

But maybe she could find a way to use this to her advantage. Maybe offer up a duel, promising to be ‘cooperative’ if she lost, but getting to go free if she won. It was risky, but she wasn’t just going to give up either.

Kazue’s voice spoke in her head, sounding a little exasperated. “Or, just run. You’re fast, think you can run all the way back?”

Moriko felt chagrined, with an echoing sentiment from Mordecai. They were both too used to being able to take their problems head-on. The monk spun sharply as she finally used her newest technique, focusing her ki as the winds blossomed around her, and ran directly at the two bandits in her path. Only her feet never hit the ground, the air briefly supporting her as she ran up at an angle, leaving turbulence in her wake. Arrows flew at her as she ran over the bandit’s heads, and she even heard the sharp report of a black powder pistol, probably from the dwarf. But the turbulence in her wake protected her for a few seconds, long enough for her to make it back to the ground on the other side and keep running. Now she focused herself on speed, channeling her ki to speed her steps greatly.

It had been about two hours at a stroll, but it would take less than half an hour if she pushed herself. She could hear the two dungeon halves forming plans across the mental link, but she mostly ignored the details, all she needed to know was that she should not hide her tracks when she went off the trail to get to the dungeon.