No Need for a Core?

It hadn’t taken Kazue long to work out the trap to their desired specifications, and when the testing was satisfactory for them and their first-floor bosses Mordecai moved on to the second floor. “I’m not going to make a lot of changes here actually. We’re mitigating the power of druids and elementalists if they are trying to break the system, but it is not fair to try and make them useless for normal trials. So I want to change only two things, which would be the mazes. So, first I am going to alter the cliff top area by making a random selection of the stalactites and stalagmites hollow and filling them with noxious, flammable gasses, but not directly toxic ones. Following that, we make a smaller selection containing an air-activated chemical that releases a flash of light and a small spark. People brute forcing by breaking their way through a few at a time will have some warning and face a smaller explosion if they ignore it, while someone blasting a tunnel all the way through should be able to take the larger blast.”

Mordecai paused to double-check the mana costs of his project, then nodded. “And as I thought, more expensive than just terrain would be, but less than normal traps as you have to go out of your way to trigger them. I still can’t believe I never noticed how much the purpose of a thing affects the mana costs.”

Kazue glanced up at him as she finished with her fortifications of the second floor. “And he’s your god too. Sigh, it seems I married a failure of a priest, whatever am I to do abou- yip!” He cut her off by using his shadow to spank her despite her barrier of floofy tails, but this did not stop her entirely as she smirked with darkened eyes. “I’ve already been distracted by thoughts of being punished. Just how distracted do you want me to get?”

He snorted in amusement. “Moriko’s been a bad influence on you.” Mordecai replied, ignoring any responsibility he might have for her ‘corruption’. “And if I really wanted to punish you, I’d just tie you up and leave you in a room alone, with nothing to do.” Which was an empty threat given her ability to discorporate her avatar, but he got a suitably horrified gasp from her. “Now pay attention, I want to use your recently honed technique for the cramped maze. Make the layers just steel and living crystal since they will be closer to the surface, and surround the tunnels at a depth of six inches. This will let people expand them a little, increasing the diameter by a foot, but still leave them a little cramped, especially for the larger species.”

The little kitsune complied but stepped close to snuggle against him as she did so, an arm and two of her tails wrapping around his side. He wrapped his arm around her shoulder, but then bent his elbow to reach up and lightly tickle her ear, amusing himself as it twitched in response. When she was done, he added, “And, if you would be so kind, we could use similar gas pockets and flash stones as the other maze, in case someone does try to force their way past that barrier. Only make the pockets of gas bigger, they’ve already had a chance to be warned before this.”

She finished up, then asked “Alright, that’s two changes. Second boss time?” One of her free tails slapped at his hand tickling her ear, but she didn’t really try to escape either.

“Exactly. So, synergy is important, as well as an ability to stand alone. And honestly, Hildegard is awesome, but she needs a team to work well. Our second boss should be able to both stand alone as a reasonable threat and to work well with Hildegard. So tough and armored is my thought, which would give Hildegard a good target to heal and would be even tougher while shielded. Flying creatures from the floor already cover the skirmisher concept, so this would round things out.”

Kazue pursed her lips in thought. “That sounds good, but I can’t think of how any of our current friends fit that description at even a small scale. I assume you have something else in mind?”

“Naturally. I was thinking Moriko’s hometown brought us a solution. So a question for you, do you think river crabs are cute?”

“Hmm.” He watched as she fidgeted thoughtfully. “I normally prefer warm and fuzzy, but the little crabs are kind of weird-cute. I think a big one is going to be scarier by nature, but maybe if it acts cute too?”

Mordecai grinned. “I think I can arrange that. Now, let’s see here, we’ve got quite a few options.” While fish were pretty hard to transport that far alive without proper magic, crabs were heartier in that regard, so there had been a few to work with and he had seeded the little streams with them as part of their ecosystem. Under the influence of a growing dungeon’s mana the first of the eggs that had been laid had already hatched, and the first signs of mutations were beginning to show. But they weren’t feeling quite right.

He searched a little further, noting that some had managed to get past the grates and were now in the tunnels leading to the sewers. A closer look revealed that a small population of tiny crabs had managed to gain a foothold at the very edges of the sewer. They were not big enough to draw the attention of the more dangerous slimes, and their mix of scavenger and ambush predator food-gathering strategies mean they had plenty to eat. Even so, only those with the right combination of caution and aggression managed to live for long against all the other small creatures that had begun to evolve here.

After examining his options Mordecai picked a pretty blue and orange one, then directed his will at the tiny little mind. Its individual existence was too small to even properly register as a guest or a hostile, but there was a spirit and a will there, and its brain held at least some primitive concepts. ‘Loyalty’ was too subtle and complex, but ‘cooperation’ it had a vague sense of, and could be strung together with a sense of time stretching ever onward, along with a promise of growth, strength, and food. That spark of a spirit agreed, and the crab was now theirs.

“Hello, little one,” he murmured as he brought it to him, cupping the crustacean in the palm of one hand. “What do you think?” He then asked Kazue as he presented their new charge.

“Oh, he is shiny and very pretty. Mmm, you want him tough, and he’s for the second floor. Are we going to include crystals and gems into his form?”

“That is what I was thinking. I want to lean into your living crystal concept actually, which should also alleviate his need to molt. We don’t want our boss to require regular periods of downtime because his shell is soft. And I think we want him to be fairly large. As a second-floor boss, that will require a certain amount of slowness, but we can keep his reflexes sharp. He and Hildegard should be able to work in tandem, with a focus on making it hard for people to get around him to get at Hildegard, while Hildegard keeps him and the skirmishers healthy and shielded. As a solo boss for weaker delvers, any group without enough oomph is just going to find themselves having trouble hurting him. Solidly aimed attacks at the right angle that also have sufficient power to penetrate. A wet-behind-the-ears recruit will not find purchase without luck being on their side.”

Kazue nodded along as he described his thought, then tilted her head to the side. “Mmm, if we have fliers and fast people, exploring groups might have those too. And if Hildegard is busy healing, she can't shoot them with her light beams. Maybe we should give him a way of coping? I was thinking he could spit a stream of water at them. Oh, wait! Better! Something sticky! He’s already going to be made of living crystal, we could use that to tie in the concept of the viscousness of nectar, or better yet, the honey! Or is that too many steps to keep it easier to tie the ideas together?”

“No, I think that would work quite well.” And give him a chance to examine another version of a high-pressure liquids system. “I like the name Crios for him, what do you think?” When Kazue nodded her approval Mordecai smiled at his new friend. “Well Crios, time for you to get big and meet your new friend.” The crab appeared in the second-floor boss room as Hildegard backed up to watch this new ally transform. “Grow big with your hard crystal shell, and defend this dungeon with all your might.” The two of them poured mana into the tiny crab along with all their concepts and images and tied his spirit to the free node for a second-floor boss. It didn’t take long for the little one to start growing as his shell’s surface hardened while also acquiring greater flexibility and resilience.

Crios danced excitedly as he grew, waving his pincers about and testing his ability to spit a stream of sticky blue goo, leaving splashes on the wall. With the growth of his body came room for the growth of his mind as well, and the two of them could communicate with him better now. Once he understood the totality of his situation better, the crab was even more pleased than he had been before.

For a finishing touch, Mordecai created a large pool of water along the back wall that slopped back into a deep tunnel leading to a private cave for Crios, so he could rest underwater as he pleased, and have a dramatic entrance surging up out of the water.

There was a niggle of jealousy from Hildegard at the special home for Crios, so Kazue stepped in to make some adjustments. The carbuncle already had access to the warrens, she just didn’t have a special room of her own. Making a room to Hildegard’s preferences was easy, but it took a moment to decide on a suitably dramatic entrance method. In the end Kazue decided to focus on a more stately presentation, where the lightly glowing creature could emerge from a tunnel entrance with a bright sparkling from gems now embedded in the wall she would be emerging from. The tunnel entrance was ten feet above the floor and had a small ledge she could stand on majestically before trotting down a sloped path that would put her in the center of the room. It cost a bit more mana to complete this as Kazue wanted the path to disappear once Hildegard was settled into the center of the room.

And with that, the second boss and the changes to the second floor were complete, at least for the moment.