No Need for a Core?

While Moriko was off on her run, Mordecai and Kazue were doing the finishing touches on a new room, which Mordecai had dubbed their ‘War Room’. There wasn’t much to it really, a circular room with several seats around a low ‘table’, and some more seating suitable for lounging around the edges of the room. The key was that the table in question was actually a short pillar growing out of the ground, and Mordecai was using that connection to weave the final bits of an enchantment. Above that pillar was an illusion representing a tactical view of the entire dungeon, though certainly its scale was off and inconsistent to fit the spatial warping that was part and parcel of many advanced dungeon builds. Most five-floor dungeons would not have delved into creating strange spaces, but with Mordecai knowing more about what could be done, they were able to pull tricks that other dungeons wouldn’t learn until later.

The room was Kazue’s idea if Mordecai’s to execute, but you wouldn’t know that based on what the kitsune was doing. Namely tormenting their wife with teasing ideas about what they were actually doing, many of which Mordecai found dubious to their practicality. Now, technically, he could set the record straight, and there would be many who would say that it would be more honest to do so. Those are people whom Mordecai would try to gently correct, and consider fools if they would not learn.

The games that people close to each other can play are already complicated enough. And the two women were definitely playing games with each other. Mordecai was not foolish enough to step into these games. Even without the complication of the three-person relationship, stepping into games like this uninvited was a good way to get people mad at you. So with that in mind, he kept his thoughts very carefully neutral, and would only step in if he thought one of them was about to hurt the other.

Which he found unlikely given that the reason Kazue had suggested the room was to make it easier for Moriko to learn the dungeon layout and suggest ideas. The controls for manipulating the illusion manually were in a ring around the pillar, and would only respond to the three of them, or future contractors. As a safety feature, the illusion would automatically turn off if none of them were in the room, and would only turn on if deliberately activated. It couldn’t manipulate the dungeon, but information was a useful weapon too.

Now that the hologram was finished, Kazue tested it out by manipulating it both mentally and through the physical controls to make sure they were intuitive enough for people who hadn’t built it. “That looks good. Now I have a question.” She pointed at a column in the center of the sewer spiral, with a continual spring enchantment at the top keeping it full. The only exits for the water were a series of small tunnels that Mordecai had been tweaking and then using to fire streams of water at the slimes. “What is going on there and why are you attacking the sewer slimes with it?”

Mordecai smiled slightly. “I’m testing out combinations of pressure and aperture size and shape. I’ve probably got the data somewhere in my stored memories, but I’d have to hunt for it and I don’t know how much it’s attached to. So it seemed best to just conduct experiments now.”

“Uh-huh.” She said dubiously, looking to see if he was going to offer up more clarification. He amused himself by just keeping up that small smile which offered nothing. “Ooh, that’s just aggravating. Obviously, it has something to do with that water enchantment you want Aia to get you, but you are going to insist on being mysterious. Fine, keep your secrets, ancient dungeon-man.” She stuck her tongue out, then turned her attention back to the illusion. “Alright, do we want to start working on filling out floor five, then?”

“Mmm, I get the temptation to rush, our instincts urge us to do it and each floor does add to our direct power, but I think we’d be better off with a little bit of redesign. We’re still a long way off from brute force being our best bet, so we should take advantage of what we’ve learned and our new capabilities to spruce things up, and then work on going deeper with everything else in place. And here’s the first thing I want to change. We made some redirect-type traps for each floor to shuffle off actual hostiles to the sewer system if we didn’t detect them on the top floor, but I don’t think that’s taking full advantage of what we have available. It just redirects them laterally. And we saw how much having a chance to wear people down can help. What if we change it so that we have the redirect trap at the level exit? Instead of going down, the new path leads them to a tight spiral up, eventually forcing them out into the top of the sewers?”

“Oh, that sounds effective. And the deeper we are, the longer the spiral up, exhausting them even more!” She paused, then looked at him with a sigh. “You want me to do it, don’t you?”

Mordecai hesitated a moment before answering. “Sort of. I mean, yes, in that I want to teach you how to do this, that I think you need to be able to do this. But also no, in that I wish I didn’t think it necessary to push you. Unfortunately, to grow you need to be able to leave the dungeon. I’ve seen what has happened with dungeons who for whatever reason retreated into themselves completely. It has never ended well. And exploring the world, well, it sounds like this new kingdom is relatively safe, but few places are always safe and you’ll need to go beyond those safe borders at some point. I won’t insist if you say no, but I will bring it up again at a later point.”

Kazue’s teasing of Moriko over their link had stopped, and Mordecai sent Moriko a quick message to let her know everything was fine, but a subject had come up that broke the mood. Then he simply waited.

Her tone was very somber when she did respond. “If I do this, if I make this right, and we ever have to use it, then people are going to die from what I made. Because I made it to kill them. I, I don’t like that idea at all, Mordecai.”

“I know love. But no matter how much magic I teach you, no matter how much Moriko trains you to fight, if you can’t make that commitment to defend yourself at all costs, and you two are in sufficient danger, it could get really bad. Your avatar being killed might not be a true death for you, but outside of this dungeon, Moriko doesn’t have that protection. And, well, all things considered, death isn’t the worst possible outcome for you. You can’t just abandon your avatar body if you don’t like your situation; the avatar self can be rendered as helpless as any other being. There’s a reason Moriko was so willing to move up to breaking bones the moment her boundaries were crossed.”

Kazue frowned at him, looking annoyed. “And what would you know of it? It’s not like it’s a problem you’ve had to face.”

Mordecai didn’t take actual offense, he recognized her anger as a reaction to the way he was pushing, a defense against taking this step that would force her to redefine herself if she took it. But his tone still sharpened. “Kazue.” She winced slightly, realizing that she’d made a mistake. He continued, to make sure she understood exactly what her mistake was. “I was creating avatars for centuries, each one starting fresh in skill and power, and men are not as immune to being assaulted as your comment implies. Furthermore, while I settled on a male identity as working best for me, I experimented with several gender types across many species. I don’t have access to exact enough memories to verify one way or another, but do you really think that across all that time, across all those starts, none of my avatars had to deal with it? That none ever had to cope with the worst outcome?”

Kazue was looking at the floor, and she took a deep breath when he was done. “You’re right. That was stupid.” She sniffed. “Mordecai, I’m scared of doing this. I’ve never really had to hurt anything before, not even normal animals. Which I know is kind of hypocritical, I’ve eaten meat, I’ve worn leather, and I’ve benefited from the results of other people killing animals. But the thought of doing something that is designed to deliberately kill people hurts.”

She looked up at him, her green eyes dark and wet. “But I do get it. Heh. I told you I read a lot, right? In some stories, a stubborn girl would refuse to start learning that bit, and then hesitate in a fight, and someone would have to protect her, they’d get badly hurt, and maybe die. And that’d be Moriko here. Well, I am not going to let that happen. So just give me a few more moments.”

Mordecai stepped up to her, wrapping his arms around her and holding her close. He’d been holding back until they finished talking it through and she’d made a decision about whether she was going to do it today or later. He was pleased that she’d seen her own way through to this, but he wasn’t happy about how she was going to feel for a while.

After a short while, she took a deep breath and lightly pressed on his chest. “OK, I’m ready.” He let go and moved behind her as she faced the hologram once more. “Well, this first part is easy enough.” He watched as she did exactly as he had described, then copied the slick slope and drop he’d made at the primary entrance. But he’d not finished making it as deadly as he really could, there had been some potential to use it as a ‘just lethal enough’ option if someone needed to be taught a lesson. The stronger they got, the more it meant that putting someone on this path was fully intended to kill them. “So, at the bottom of the drop, spikes, right?” Kazue’s voice was strained.

He leaned forward to kiss the back of her head, then whispered. “Steel that’s just starting to rust. Obsidian. Fibrous malachite. Rough textured, splintering hardwoods. Sharpened Bamboo. Edge them with small blades, with hooks and back barbs. Make no part of the surface safe to touch.” Kazue was shivering as she followed his guidance, the sewer route no longer held any options of mercy. This was a death pit, and Kazue had both imagination and empathy in abundance. “Now, can you test it, or do you want me to?”

“I can.” She whispered. “I’ll make myself watch it too, with my full senses.” She created a human body at the top of the slope. They had all the information to create life, making a dead body was even easier. The body slid down the slick, wet rock, flew off the edge of that slide, and arced down into the pit. The results were messy. Kazue got sick.

Mordecai had been expecting that and held her from behind as she retched, keeping her from falling too hard as she collapsed. He made sure to sweep her hair back and hold it for her, even as he started using dungeon magic to remove the sick out of the room and clean up the smell as fast as possible to not trigger her again. He was efficient enough to make sure to move that mass to the sewers for disposal, and more than wise enough to never mention that it had not just conveniently ‘disappeared.' He doubted she wanted to be aware that her own sick had been used to help feed the slimes. She was too smart to not know he’d done something with it, but also smart enough to know that she did not want details.

“It’s okay, you did well, love. But you’re done now, you can relax. Shh.” He held her as her reactions started to subside, and she eventually curled up into a ball in his lap, crying about being sorry for being a wimp. “Don’t let yourself think that way, Kazue. Empathy is never something to be ashamed of. It’s part of what makes people good.”

It took about fifteen minutes for her to calm down completely, and even then she was rather embarrassed that she’d had that reaction. But that was why he’d pushed her to experience at least this much now, where it was safe for her to just react and recover. Mordecai suspected that Kazue was going to be the type who always got sick after a real fight, but as long as she was willing to work on it then they could make sure she wouldn’t be sick until it was safe.

Speaking of safe. “Kazue, let’s take a little break, and after that, I can show you some safety stuff to make sure nothing gets out of the sewer, and then we can work on secondary floor bosses, okay?” Creating and enhancing life was not as direct a threat of violence, and she was much better at that.

“Yeah, OK. That sounds good. Um, I think I need to go to the washroom for a bit. I know, magic already took care of everything, but I’ll feel better. And maybe you can make some scented candles or something? If there isn’t another scent, I’ll keep imagining it.” Kazue shakily got back to her feet as she spoke, and he followed.

“Of course, love,” he replied and gave her a light kiss, which surprised her and made her blush briefly. “I’ll take care of everything here, you do what you need to do.”

“Really, you kissed me after that? Even with magic, right after, I,” she shook her head to interrupt herself. “Thank you.” She finished, then walked out to go get cleaned up.