No Need for a Core?

While the monk was away, the dungeon cores did play. Mordecai amused himself with this thought as he set about finishing his part of the third level. It took two days because he wanted to make sure there was enough variability, not only creating five different ‘battlefields’ but putting in the effort to make the terrain automatically randomize between variations, then generate more rabbits to fulfill various roles so he could field different sets of troops. Most combat scenarios involved some combination of melee and ranged troops, but he also had setups for melee skirmishers who would dart in and out of reach to try and strike once before retreating, and mobile ranged skirmishers who fired on the move, making themselves difficult targets to nail down. This last was enhanced by his opportunity to analyze Brongrim’s flintlock. He changed the design a little bit for the smaller hands, and to not copy the clan markings, but it was basically the same design. It had also given him an idea for a different weapon, but that would have to wait.

All of this required that he have more rabbit troops available to call upon than he’d actually use in battle under normal circumstances. Fortunately, they could do just that, as their double core gave them double the capacity of a normal dungeon and the warrens could expanded and adjusted to accommodate these new inhabitants. While he was working on this, Kazue was working on her plays. She also wanted to make sure that she had a lot of variety. This didn’t cost them any mana really, so she was only limited by her imagination, though most of her vignettes were based on scenes she remembered from plays she’d seen and stories she’d read, minus some of the steamier books.

But now he needed a boss, and he interrupted Kazue to help him out. “So, I’m looking for an interesting warrior to change things up. They’d be a rallying point for any soldiers who were not defeated; I’m going to keep that an ongoing thing. You take the combat route and try to skip fights, then it bites you later. Now, unlike my previous two, I want this one able to dish out damage, but I don’t have any special ideas, so I thought I’d check with you first.”

Kazue fidgeted as she thought, playing with her tails, but then an idea seemed to click and she gave him a big smile. “I got something, and I bet it will confuse most people too.” One of the blue rabbits she’d created early in her playing around with creatures appeared in the center of the final battleground. “Her name is going to be Betty.”

Mordecai eyed the little redhead, who was doing her best to maintain an innocent expression. “I’m a bad influence, aren’t I?”

“Uhuh!” She agreed, then told him the rest of her idea. Oh, this was going to be fun. And he could even add a little bit. Once they agreed on the concept, they started pouring all the mana they could into Betty, who rapidly began to grow, rearing back as her form shifted into a bipedal stance. Muscles rippled under that soft fur, which grew thicker to form protection, and her front paws reformed into powerful hands. And before long she was done, and they smiled at their latest boss.

The Bouncing Blue Boxer Bunny, Beautiful Betty.

She was fast and agile, striking with powerful punches that could graze opponents with sonic vibrations even if they missed. She could also channel sonic strikes into long-ranged attacks. This was also where Mordecai put all of his traps, seeding the battleground with a wide variety of pressure plates that Betty could inconspicuously skip over with her hopping style of movement. He was getting kind of eager to see how his combat-focused creations would do in an actual fight, but he didn’t want any undeserved deaths either. The dungeon creatures might respawn, but they didn’t have a way to keep visitors from dying if things went badly. He should probably make sure this route had sufficient warning for now.

“Thank you, love,” Mordecai murmured as he pulled Kazue into a hug and gave her a kiss. “She’s perfect.” He smiled as she blushed, then snuggled into him. Those shy reactions to simple affection would fade as she got more comfortable, but he expected her cuddliness would increase.

“Hmm,” she said thoughtfully. “We should have enough energy to make our fourth floor by tomorrow. What do you think?”

He considered their mana flow and nodded. “I agree, but I’d actually like to ask you to hold off. There’s a little bit I want to tidy up with what we have here, I think it’s worth the investment to improve a bit before we grow.”

“Okay,” she replied, not too concerned with rushing, then looked up at him with a half-lidded gaze. “So, what should we do until we have some more mana?” The question was followed by her biting her lower lip, and he couldn’t help but laugh. Then he gave her exactly the response she was looking for and they left Betty to get to know the troops coming to meet their new leader.

…

While curled up on Kazue's bed later that evening, they discussed his ideas. “Well, I want to start with cleaning up our entrance. Your work on the path selection chamber is perfect, but we still have a rather random cave in front of it. Since we are pretty much ready to receive visitors, I was thinking we could push the entrance back to the edge of our territory, and maybe give it a fancy door. Then give the entrance area proper walls, as well as some ornate designs to hide entrances to the warrens, which shouldn’t be too hard. I also was thinking of adding shrines dedicated to the Empyreal Pillars. They should make people feel safer about trusting our intentions, and the interaction of people praying inside our territory should be a minor mana boost as well. Plus, this creates an opportunity for delvers to receive minor blessings.”

Kazue thought about it, rolling onto her belly to kick her feet idly in the air. “Mmm, that sounds good. I can come up with the art for it. I think we should include the elven gods too, we’re close enough I expect to see some of them. But what about the other pantheons? It’s not like there’s another living dungeon nearby, and I don’t want people to feel left out. I don’t think there’s enough space for shrines dedicated to everyone. Maybe we should create a bunch of little side rooms instead?”

Mordecai nodded. “That’s a good idea,” he replied before catching a foot to briefly tickle it, causing her to yelp and flail. “We should also consider more contractors, like rangers and other travelers who might appreciate having a home base outside of a normal town.”

He proved impervious to her attempts to retaliate by tickling him back, so she resorted to biting his arm lightly before giving him her best glare. “You just want more wives. Maybe I could get some more husbands instead!”

The insincere accusation made him laugh. “Yeah, sure. But seriously, I think we could form at least six more contracts, though at this point none of them could be as strong as Moriko. I was only able to form that contract because I was stronger at the time. And rather than wait to see if we come across someone we like, I figure we can put up a sign over one of the tables saying we are looking for contractors and setting up some requirements for anyone who wants to apply.”

Kazue sat back and wrapped her tails around herself to begin nibbling on a tip thoughtfully. “I guess. I mean, from what you asked Moriko to do before, one of the things we want is people who can bring new stuff to us, so yeah, people good at finding and identifying rare stuff makes sense. But what do we really have to offer them?”

Mordecai listed off benefits, raising a finger for each one. “A safe home with a room designed to their specifications. Workspaces with nearly unlimited materials to experiment with, though they have to use ‘real’ materials to take anything out since they can’t claim loot. Near immortality as a retirement plan, with the caveat that they have to stay here if they don’t want to age. Extra payments as available from prizes we collect and trades we make. And something interesting to do. For the right people, that’s enough.”

The kitsune blinked at him, slightly damp tail forgotten about. “Huh. Well, if you put it like that, I guess I can see why adventurous types might like that, if money isn’t their main motivation. Um, so I guess applying should require them bringing us something new? What else?”

That made him think for a bit. “My situation was different. I could only have a couple at first, and mostly just wanted people I could trust to help me defend myself if needed. Between Moriko and myself, you have two strong protectors already, and your training is coming along well so you aren’t exactly helpless either. Still, the trust part is important. Sure, if someone turns traitor the contract will break the moment they make that decision, but that can still prove dangerous. We could work on that a little by having them stay as a guest for at least a month, which will also help them find out if they can live in a dungeon long term. Oh, how about this? All new contractors have to be approved by all current contractors in addition to us.”

“I like it!” Kazue bounced slightly on the bed in her excitement. “We can work on the exact wording later, but we can make it a fancy bronze plaque! Hmm, though we can make gold now so if we embed it solidly in the wall we could make gold plaques! Or would that be over the top? Yeah, too much. Let’s stick with bronze.” She nodded as if he’d had a chance to edge in a word there, his agreement taken for granted.

“Alright, that’s done for now.” Mordecai said, grinning at her. “I think I want to alter our ‘base’ area however. We could expand and divide what we’ve got going on here, and have the main hall where we meet people outside of our private chambers, and put all the corridors and rooms for guests, inhabitants, and most contractors branching off from there. Moriko stays on our side of course. Then we can make our own central rooms a little smaller and cozier.”

Red-tails swished as the energetic young woman flopped forward onto her belly again. Mordecai was content to just sit up against the pillows and watch her. He’d never understood why all the normal races always had individuals who needed to constantly move and fidget like that when talking and thinking. Although, races like gnomes defaulted to that sort of energy. Hmm. That seemed like the sort of thing he might have looked into before, but with so many of his memories still stored and compressed, it wasn't a detail he could recall readily.

Mordecai dismissed the distracting train of thought and returned his attention to his wife and her adorable fidgeting. Kazue finally spoke up after considering the idea for a while. “Okay, I think I see the idea, and it feels like I can designate an area that big as a single section. Um, hmm, that seems like it’s going to take more energy to create each floor, but I agree, it should be worth it.”

“I didn’t have a plan like this when I was first expanding, I just created areas that people requested and rarely moved them, and made sure things got connected with shortcuts where needed. But given all that I’ve experienced and a fresh start, it just seemed better to create a more central community.” He was happy she approved of the idea, she grew up in a small community so if it made sense to her then it was probably the correct choice.

Then a wave of conflicting emotions surged across their soul link, startling them and causing them to quickly switch their focus towards Moriko. Once he understood the situation however, Mordecai was quite pleased. He’d been quite willing to give her all the space and freedom she needed to make her own choice, but this was the decision he’d been hoping she’d make, and Kazue was radiating a similar set of emotions. Then he realized she’d made that choice while slightly intoxicated and a bit worked up. That deserved a little reward in his opinion. Hmm.

“Kazue, we need to wait for some mana to recharge anyway, and you do seem to enjoy keeping ‘occupied’. Want to see if I can arrange for us to visit our wife in her dreams?” If the prayer forming in his mind worked, it would really only eat up the attention of their avatars, their core would still be aware of the dungeon itself. He took being pounced on and kissed as a ‘yes’.