No Need for a Core?

Moriko needed a drink, and badly. She hadn’t been hit as hard as Kazue had by Mordecai’s little outburst, but it still had been a rough afternoon and her mind was feeling a little frazzled. It didn’t help that she was still processing that strange technique Ozuran had gifted her with. Being able to bring your shadow to life and make attacks with it was, well, weird. It also made her Ki itch, which was a new sensation entirely, so she wasn’t sure she was quite ready to learn that technique and wasn’t going to try using it until she mastered another air-based technique of similar complexity.

Kazue was leading the three of them to the end of the feasting table, where they could greet her family again. After that, the trio settled in at the head of the wide table with the kitsune in the center. It was originally her dungeon alone after all. Her parents and sibs were lined up near her seat, and a seat was reserved on Mordecai’s side for Traxalim, as that party wasn’t quite here yet. The rest of the seats down the long table were pretty much first come, first serve, though with all the guests she’d managed to bring, the rabbit folk were setting up more tables, and based on some of the chairs, she suspected the majority of those were going to be the ‘kids tables’. And Moriko caught Kazue glancing at them with a bit of envy.

“You’re too old for that,” she said to the kitsune with a bit of amusement.

“I know, but playing with kids is usually easier than talking with other adults.” Came back the reply with a mental sigh. “I guess I don’t get to slack that way anymore.”

Moriko held back from teasing her wife any more than that for now and gave everyone in her family a hug before taking her seat. “So how did you guys enjoy Kazue’s puzzles?”

Galan spoke up with all the energy a teenage boy could muster. “They were fun! Well, the first few were a little easy, but after that they got interesting! The best part was when I got to play a villain and sword-fight a hero on stage!” The fourteen-year-old frowned slightly. “I still can’t believe a three-foot-tall rabbit beat me with a wooden sword though. That’s totally not fair.”

“Ugh, boys are stupid sometimes,” muttered Hainako, earning a glower from her little brother before she spoke up louder. “That was not the best part. The plays were very fun, but I liked learning all the different flowers, partly because searching for them all showed me even more interesting plants, and I found some plants useful for alchemy too!” She hesitated a moment, then asked. “Picking them was alright, right? That’s part of exploring a dungeon?”

“Yes!” exclaimed Kazue happily. “That was why I put them there. I try to keep the rabbits from nibbling too much on those, they have their own tasty treat. I think they want those ones just because they know they aren’t supposed to have them.”

Moriko smiled and let the flow of conversation wash over her as she claimed a flagon of mead and drained half of it in a single pull as she let her eyes close for a moment. She’d met two gods, one of them twice, in the past two weeks and she wasn’t sure she enjoyed the experience much. Even most high priests never directly met with an avatar of their own deity, and she wasn’t feeling certain that she’d want to meet her goddess given the rest of the family so far. And maybe she’d better stop such thoughts before she tempted fate too much.

She opened her eyes to find her mother watching her with a quirked eyebrow, and her father looking concerned as well. Damn it, given how careful she’d been for the past several days about drinking only lightly, and at home with dinner, this was a bit of a giveaway. With a sigh, Moriko answered the unspoken question in their eyes. “Today was complicated, stuff I’m not going to talk about for multiple reasons which I’m also not going to tell you. But it’s okay, we worked out what needed to be worked out, and dealt with the other issues that cropped up. We’re good, and I’m someplace where I don’t need to worry about slipping up. I am just going to relax a bit.” Then she smirked a bit and hooked her thumb at Kazue. “The one you need to worry about is her, she’s a lightweight from what I hear.”

“Hey!” Came the expected protest, but it wasn't like the kitsune could refute the description. “Well, I’m being good anyway. This stuff only has a bit of fizz to it.” Moriko eyed Kazue’s cup, then snatched it to take a sniff and a small sip.

“Hah, sweet cider with just a hint of bite. Suits you perfectly.” She teased as she gave the cup back. “After all, your bites are hardly even nips.” Moriko sent, while innocently ignoring how her mental comment made Kazue blush. It was too easy sometimes. And she was happy. She still had a home with her parents, and she had a room at the temple, but this was starting to really feel like her home. And she liked it.

Mordecai could feel how frayed the nerves of his wives were, and his own weren’t a lot better. He did have the advantage of having experienced a lot more of the world, but these deific visits were unnerving. On top of that, realizing how much he’d hurt Kazue by letting her feel that wash of his anger really didn’t help. Still, a lot of good had happened this day, and he let himself slide into a more reflexive social mode while he reviewed some of what was going on while they were occupied.

The progress of the ‘retired’ team through the battle path wasn’t really surprising. They could be going faster actually, but they were being methodical and cautious and seemed to be enjoying exercising skills that hadn’t seen much use recently. The fight with Zushi had been amusing. They’d started from the archway, firing arrows down at the fluffball, and staring with confusion when they disappeared with little effect. A little experimentation had shown that even spells aimed directly at him tended to get absorbed, but spells that had an area of effect could be aimed near him and cause some damage. One of the warriors decided to try his luck in melee using a backup dagger and lost his grip trying to pull it back out before Zushi absorbed it.

Through it all, Zushi did nothing except hop around, which made the group dizzy from the shifting flow of space around the void bunny. A woman wearing well-worn armor of toughened leather had been watching everything after her first arrow had failed to hit, just studying the battle, and she interrupted just as the rest of the group was shifting their tactics. “Hey guys, the boss door is open you know.” Everyone paused, including Zushi, who looked at her and wiggled his whiskers. She sighed. “He’s more of a living obstacle than a real danger I think, try going out the other door.”

She was right of course, and the group eventually managed to scramble out, though Traxalim ‘cheated’ with a levitation spell, since he was not participating in the fighting himself. But there was still one thing wrong with the fight, and after that review of events, Mordecai examined his Floor One boss more carefully. A master spellcaster's untiered spells could hold more power than the strongest tiered of a novice. While this group was not amongst the elite, neither were they novices. But they might as well have been, given how easily Zushi had been able to absorb the spells.

The night-black bunny just wiggled his nose at Mordecai’s presence, then flopped to his side happily. “Yes, you did very well Zushi.” Mordecai praised him, then shifted his focus down to the empty hallway of the fourth floor. There he tried to draw mana into the pattern of a void bunny, a mirror of Zushi. The pattern failed to take; he couldn’t hold it all together at that combined density and complexity. A fourth-floor mob should be able to be as strong as a first-floor boss. This meant they had a hidden Raid Boss before they were even supposed to have a raid boss at all.

He was grateful that Ozu- er, no one had done a careful examination of the dungeon when they visited. Even just thinking that name seemed like a bad idea at the moment. Not that it was a huge power increase right now; a raid boss's power scaled with the dungeon rather than a floor, and their dungeon wasn't very large yet. Having a hidden raid boss also came with the cost of occupying two nodes instead of one floor boss and one raid boss. Mordecai set those concerns aside and moved on to reviewing the second floor.

His design for the second floor seemed to be panning out. Sure, it was a learning and training exercise for novices, but not everyone was as skilled as Moriko in navigating these sorts of challenges. While the man in heavy armor was able to use his weight to gain a bit of traction and manage his balance on the first section, their arcanist had trouble keeping his footing around the nigh-invisible dips and bumps.

At the wall they decided to remain a tight group and take the easy path, having to fend off even more flying monsters, and their heavy was panting at the top, only to start swearing at the tight confines of the stalag-maze. He eventually went for brute force, bringing out a maul to start bashing a straight path through, but this broke some of the crystal flowers and agitated the bunbees, adding more complications to the fight at the same time as they were swarmed by the ‘vampire’ rabbats. None of them really got hurt, just tired and frustrated. Then they had to deal with the mudslide. It took a bit of effort to keep his avatar from laughing during the dinner, and his amusement remained through the rest of their navigation of this floor. Getting through the small tunnel maze that had made Moriko swear was probably the hardest part in all of this floor for them, and they took nearly an hour collecting themselves and resting before they ventured forth to face Hildegard, the Carbuncle. Again, more of a nuisance fight than a true struggle. He could tell their mage was holding back his strongest spells, but he’d made them at least work for the victory, and spent a moment comforting the mind of Hildegard, reassuring her that she’d have a new body in the morning.

Mordecai’s thoughts finally caught up to their actual location on the third floor. They’d cleared through the troops easier than they’d dealt with the obstacles of the second floor and were now ready to have a showdown with Bouncing Betty. They looked wary, which wasn’t a surprise, and Mordecai decided to up the challenge. Normally challengers only had to face any inhabitants that had been part of the challenge and not defeated, but with the combined capacity of Kazue and himself, they could have more strong inhabitants per floor than normal. Kazue used far less than her fair share, which meant he could have more in reserve. There shouldn’t be any more challenges today, so he sent his will out with a question to all of their ‘reserve’ inhabitants, asking who felt like getting into a fight.

He didn’t interfere beyond that, letting them show up individually or join in coordinated groups as they decided after they arrived at the room. As he wasn’t moving them their arrivals were staggered, and the first one didn’t arrive until after the group engaged Betty.

In the end, the challengers still held a clear advantage, but the steady stream of new combatants taxed them and forced them to pull out more of their spells and combat techniques. Mordecai made a note to remember to set up waves like this if he ever needed to defend the dungeon seriously. This lot seemed a lot tougher than the bandits, and he wasn’t sure if he, Kazue, and Moriko could currently take the adventurer group on even now that they were tired, let alone if they were fresh. The three of them needed to be stronger than that.

When the challengers staggered out into the empty hall of the fourth floor, Mordecai created a simple sign near them saying ‘All Clear! Clean up and join us’ with an arrow pointing them to the side chambers Kazue and he had been installing at the start of each floor. It was something he’d really not thought about in his previous dungeon, but with fresh eyes and a fresh life, he was taking the time to build a slightly more civilized experience. This was in part to make Kazue happy and in part a more practical matter. Making a good impression got you allies, and if that cult was still lurking out there, it was only a matter of time until they would need allies.