No Need for a Core?

Facing away from his queens while standing in their faintly glowing bedroom high in the crystal tree, Mordecai materialized a vellum sheet covered in unnecessarily beautiful script. He quickly scanned it, to check that he hadn’t forgotten anything, then handed it to his wives sitting side by side on the bed. As Moriko’s hands were filled playing with the fur on one of the kitsune’s tails, Kazue held it so they both could see.

“This is a rough sketch of the timeline for freeing Deidre’s dungeon. Obviously, there is a lot to do before we can even start direct planning. And with the way our circumstances keep changing, I kept things simple for now.”

“Adding as many zones as possible before Spring makes sense,” Kazue said thoughtfully. “We’ll want to be as powerful as possible if we’re going to be the ‘heavies’ going in. Wouldn’t it be convenient if Gil was back before then?”

“Not likely,” Mordecai responded, “Li usually involves longer trips than that, and Li's instincts trend toward a certain amount of fairness. Gil would easily win against most, and I don't feel ready to host a bout between Gil and someone who can go toe to toe with him." He shook his head at the image before continuing. "The tournament will also feed us more power, as well attract more combatants who might have some potential contractors amongst them. And we might be able to squeeze out one more zone with the mana we get from the tournament.”

“With all that mana, we should be able to do all that while investing in an incarnated avatar for you too, Mordecai,” Moriko chimed in, “It’ll be fun putting you through your paces.” She added with a leer, a smirk pulling at the corners of her mouth.

Mordecai teasingly eyed his wife and replied, “I think you'll find I'm still up for the challenge." He didn't anticipate being reset as far as Kazue had been; not only did he have much more experience with adapting to a remade avatar, this avatar's template had been created with his full depth of knowledge and power. There should be little in the way of adjusting and relearning to be done.

But it was time to move on to the next subject. "We’ll need to find some neutral dungeons for us to train in, preferably as close in type to Deidre’s as possible. Luckily, our irrepressible fairy daughter has a fondness for bards, and bards have a fondness for talk...amongst other things. This includes more details about the eastern and southern dungeons. According to that talk, the eastern dungeon is heavily involved in trade and such, much like us. That’s why I think we should visit the southern dungeon. It seems that their relationship with the nomadic tribes is very focused on rites of passage and other combat challenges. I don’t think Deidre’s core has been allowed to develop anything other than combat and traps, so that should be the more similar experience. But the southern dungeon is significantly harder to get to, and I want to keep travel time down, so I’m not sure what transportation to use. We don’t have the time to spend on travel, unlike when you both went out on your trip.”

Kazue flopped onto her belly, flipping her tail out of Moriko’s grasp, then whipping it back into her hands, the other tails gently caressing her wife. “Oh, I think I have an idea there.”

“Do tell,” Moriko said, amused at Kazue’s clear self-satisfaction.

“Well,” Kazue said, “my parents will be visiting again before too long. They’d have been by eventually anyway, but considering how Moriko’s parents were affected by the fairy thing, I’m sure my parents were as well. That’ll probably speed them up. Admittedly, we’ll have to deal with Mom first as she’s pretty overprotective, but we’d previously discussed ideas about how interesting Dad’s main wagon is.”

She sat back up, smirking at Mordecai, her hands resting lightly on the bed between her legs, arms gently pushing her breasts up and out, creating a very distracting view. “Of course,” she said breathily, wiggling a little, “this next part requires the ingenuity of our clever and brilliant husband, letting him put that wonderful mind of his to work.”

“Uh huh,” Mordecai said dubiously, even as he enjoyed the proffered view enabled by the deep neckline of her dress. Moriko seemed to be taking advantage of the scenic view as well. Kazue’s deliberate overacting could certainly be entertaining, in more ways than one.

“You see, I remember you saying you had an idea about how to get an airship at least partially made with our resources. I’m sure you can figure out a way to make or enhance one of Dad’s wagons as part of a more than acceptable trade deal with him.” Kazue fluttered her eyelashes at him. ”And I’m sure I can convince him to take up a new trade route and take us along with him as part of the deal.”

Mordecai laughed softly. “Fine, I think I can come up with something,” he said and then gave her an evil grin. “Though, I think I will be taking that implied payment up front.”

“Oh, why, whatever could you mean?” Kazue said with false shock, hand raised to the hollow of her throat.

He ignored her question to glance sidelong at Moriko. “And seeing as how this is my payment, you’ll just have to wait and watch.”

“Oh?” Moriko purred as she pulled the now forgotten vellum from Kazue’s loose grip and tossed it to the ground, “Make me.” Her eyes glittered with challenge as an eager smile crossed her lips.

Mordecai did exactly that, though she certainly made him work for the victory. Once he had Moriko secured, Mordecai claimed his ‘prize’ from Kazue. He made sure to take his time to enjoy the process, and only let Moriko participate once she’d ‘asked’ nicely enough.

When their playtime was over and they'd had the time to cuddle and relax for a bit, Moriko slid out of bed and picked up the vellum so that they could continue to discuss the plan while they cleaned up and got dressed. As her spouses attentively watched the sway of Moriko’s backside, Mordecai mentally sketched out the basics for fulfilling Kazue’s idea, which didn’t take him long, though what presently seemed the most efficient idea would require some cooperation and agreement from a pair of ‘horses’.

Hmm, payment. He was fairly certain that Ricardo could afford to trade an appropriate value for the components of Mordecai’s idea, but he was also pretty certain that Ricardo wouldn’t be inclined to do so if he had a better option. But there were now enough zones that her parents could delve for the value instead and claim the wagon as their prize.

“Now, let's discuss the training of the Azeria Dungeon teams,” Moriko said as she slipped into the bath.

Kazue came up beside her, asking, “Are you sure Training Team A will let us leave them behind? They’ll be working hard to help train Fuyuko. The rest of Team B might want to come as well.”

“They’ll have to," Mordecai replied, "as I doubt any of our prospective teammates for her will be allowed to go. They are either minors or beholden to other responsibilities, if not both. The training trip is one thing, a trip into a dungeon being forced to try to kill us is another." Honestly, he wasn't thrilled with Fuyuko going either, but she had connections to the area and would be fifteen in just a week more. Not an adult, but neither a child really. "As for Team B, most of them won't have sufficient connection to the dungeon for our oaths to necessarily bind them and they are too strong for us to readily suppress. I want to be able to swear that we are there to free Deidre's core and make sure that she can't be pressured into a Break."

That emergency power did require the threat of true harm to the dungeon to initiate, a properly worded oath from three fairies should suffice to prevent that, especially given Mordecai's status as a high priest of Ozuran. There could still be difficulties if Trionea's forces had a sufficiently powerful squad, but that was a problem for the future. "Moving on," Mordecai asked, "What do you think of the teams?”

Moriko pursed her lips thoughtfully a moment before saying, “Team A is a little scattered for combat capabilities.” Kazue and Moriko considered the list for a moment more before Moriko added, "I certainly see Allania and Rika being appropriate as they worked with Derek and Shizoku during Derek's first combat training here, but I'm not certain about getting my little brother into combat delves."

Mordecai joined the two in the bath and said, "That's up to you and your parents of course, but he was able to hold his own in spars against Fuyuko and has received training from Gil." Given the luponi girl's advantages, that meant Galen probably had more skill in a straightforward, one-on-one fight. That did not always translate well to survival fights, and Fuyuko had been undergoing a lot of intense training since then, so that did not necessarily make him equal in overall strength and combat ability. "He would need to start doing combat delves here first, to get him used to the chaos outside of a spar."

“Hmm,” Moriko said thoughtfully, adding her assessment of the team, “Shizoku is still the strongest overall and Fuyuko seems to be catching up fast, but if Derek and Galan were to take the front line together with Fuyuko and Rika as skirmishers, then Shizoku and Allania could focus on their support roles and make sure no one gets hurt. Shizo could hold back on her spells until the team starts getting pressed."

Rika's training as a ranger was similar in some ways to Fuyuko's training, and Allania's focus was mostly as a priest and healer. With Shizoku using her alchemical skills mostly for support and healing, that would give the others plenty of opportunity to practice. While everyone not on the Final Assault Team could just do delves here, the Assault Team itself was mostly people who had more limited options in the Azeria Dungeon territory. Also, getting experience in a more neutral environment might be useful for the team training of the others as well.

"Um," Kazue asked, "why do you have the three of us in our own team? I mean, everyone on Team B seems like they'd be at least as strong as us." The five-member team of Bellona, Xarlug, Bridgette, Orchid, and Paltira was mostly well-seasoned, and Xarlug wasn't far behind the others with the amount of training he'd been getting.

"True," Mordecai replied, "but I am also looking to the long term. This will be the first time the three of us get to fight together like this and I think it's important that we get our teamwork down. Once we all have some practice in the initial three teams, we can reform as The Final Assault Team with Bellona, Xarlug, and Fuyuko, and then practice together with them. The others can reform as they like." The three of them had already agreed that the Assault Team should be those most closely tied to the dungeon. Xarlug was currently a bit of a stretch but it didn't seem implausible that he'd be a contractor by then and none of them could see Orchid as having any objections.

“And then we just return to the Azeria Dungeon, prepare, travel to Trionea, and free Deidre’s core; just like that?” Kazue asked.

“Just like that!” Mordecai said with a smile. It certainly wasn't going to be that easy, but dwelling on it right now wasn't going to do much good.

After taking time to relax and then clean up, Moriko and Kazue released their "private play time" commands they'd given their familiars. None of the dragon hatchlings was particularly happy with learning that particular rule, but given the reactions they'd received the one time that curiosity won out, it was thoroughly ingrained now.

As his wives headed out to the tasks they'd decided on for themselves, Mordecai found himself at a loss for what to do. Once a dungeon had enough experience it usually didn't need the full attention of both core and avatar, and this dungeon had two cores looking after it. This was part of the reason Mordecai’s avatars had historically spent so little time at home, there was not much that the avatar needed to do there.

So he decided to start by reviewing what everyone was up to, to see if anything would inspire him.

Moriko was leading a training session for Betty and several of the other usagisune along with Nezha and Ysi, their dragon bosses for the swamp lands, who were both there in their human forms. All the inhabitants that could take a humanoid form received some training in that form to maintain circumstantial flexibility. Especially if their true forms were a lot larger than humans, as they might need to fight in a small space. Thunder and Lightning were happy to have their larger brethren there; they found the masima dragons fascinating, especially as they had lightning powers in addition to their brine-related magic.

Kazue had taken Fuyuko out on a shopping trip through the stalls and carts of their more mercantile visitors, mostly to get Fuyuko used to that sort of socialization rather than because of a need to buy anything. Carnelian Flame was enjoying herself as well, darting about to explore everything. Tasting everything too, if not prevented from snatching samples.

Bridgette had found a combat delving group to join the day before, which had been interesting. Without her familiar Fintan, maintaining her full disguise as Ruby would have been easy enough, but the familiar was rather eye-catching. In the end, she'd decided to keep using the pseudonym while not using the disguise. This made her true identity a rather open secret, and there were some people who had trouble working with this dual identity, but so long as she was officially Ruby she didn't have to worry about the normal proprieties of being a princess. Well, most of them at least.

Bellona and Xarlug were also topside, though on duty. Technically. They were geared and ready to act if needed, but the inhabitants had a handle on things and most visitors had learned that the cute rabbit people were quite capable of handling themselves. Xarlug was acting much like a contractor, but he seemed to be waiting for Orchid's return so that issue could be resolved before he spoke with Kazue or Mordecai about it.

Deidre was on her third attempt at taking on the Earth Zone. Her first attempt had resulted in a resounding failure at the shrine, which rather confused her as she'd selected perfectly suitable offerings. When she asked Mordecai about it, he'd simply told her that the dungeon wasn't the one judging the offerings. She'd been surprised to learn that a dungeon could integrate a real shrine into its challenges, and Mordecai had to suppress a spark of anger at this sign of how little she had been allowed to truly learn and grow. Most dungeons figured out something along those lines within ten to twenty years, sometimes sooner.

Her second attempt was better as she'd managed to put more sincerity into the offering instead of being perfunctory, but she'd still been partially affected by the increased weight of the zone. This time she'd been able to find the right mindset and emotional state to be truly sincere in her offering, and it appeared to Mordecai that she felt genuinely happy when it was accepted fully. He rather suspected that she'd given up on connecting with the gods some time ago without realizing how much her bindings had been interfering.

Deidre was still shadowed of course, but by Kansif this time. She wasn't obligated to do so, as she wasn't a contractor, but it did allow her to do a little delving herself at the same time. Her offering was accepted the first time, which she waited to offer until after Deidre's third attempt was accepted, but Kansif had a lot more experience interacting with the world and the various manifestations of divine will.

After his mental review of everyone's activities, Mordecai sent his thoughts toward Cimbu and said, "If you want to train and play a bit, take flight. I'll meet you in the air." He hadn't left their bedroom yet, so he went to their upper balcony and launched himself into the air with a powerful leap before he transformed into his Ambassador form.

A short time later there was an aerial show for those on the surface. One figure was a biped with feathered wings, metallic scales, and seven fox tails of different colors. The other was a large dragon made of clay. The two raced each other through the skies just above the Earth zone and then dived down to fly below the zone and wind their way around the pillars. What started as a simple competition of speed evolved into a test of agility and maneuverability, then into a mutual chase where each was trying to tag the other with a hand or claw without being tagged in return.

Eventually, Mordecai led the chase back up into more open space and the two spun apart to begin the ranged portion of their game. Cimbu's longest-ranged weapon was the ability to fling heavy clay at high velocity; at shorter ranges, he had steam and mud/clay breath weapons. Mordecai had a variety of choices, but for this game kept himself to flinging fox fire at his foe, though he did allow himself to switch up the elemental energies he used, though it always had a fire-like appearance.

Mordecai was by far the more agile of the two, but he was also more constrained in his space. He couldn't fly outside of the bounds of their territory, while Cimbu did not have that limitation. The raid boss was less powerful without the energy supplied by the cores, but he was still an elemental dragon.

The biggest loss Cimbu faced outside of the dungeon's territory was the flexibility of his breath weapon. He was still a tea pet at heart, and his steam breath could be used in a recuperative mode, with the exact properties varying by what teas he'd recently ingested. He could also get people drunk if he imbibed enough alcohol, thanks to the einherjars' influence. Cimbu also had less flexibility in his clay breath; he couldn't infuse healing properties into it, nor could he make it less viscous. If he wasn't careful, he could suffocate an opponent who couldn't clear the clay from their face quickly enough. The situation was worse if the environment could dry the clay quickly.

Mordecai's greatest challenge for this game was to not allow enough clay spatter to accumulate that it affected his wings, but for the most part, he had little trouble dodging Cimbu's attacks. Cimbu's larger size made him a much easier target and his elemental nature made him heavier, and thus less maneuverable, than most dragons of similar size. That was why Mordecai was limiting himself to the weakest forms of his fox fire, as he was able to score many more hits.

The two did not play, er, train alone for too long, as other flying dungeon inhabitants wanted to get in on the game. There was the slight problem of needing to maintain enough inhabitants in the lower zones to provide challenges for the delvers so only a few were able to join at a time, but they did start cycling up as soon as they could.

Some were limited in how much of their power they could use, as the earth zone was not as mana-dense as some of the lowest ones were, but one particular challenger stood out as she had no such limitations. When she was done with conducting her training session, Moriko rose to the skies to join in the fun, along with Thunder and Lightning.

It was after sunset by the time a set of sweaty, muddy, and worn-out figures landed on the upper balcony of their tree-top home. Before Mordecai and Moriko could enter, they were confronted with a stern-looking Kazue who crossed her arms as she stared at them. "Both of you, straight to the baths. You aren't to touch anything or remove anything before you get there."

Moriko and Mordecai glanced at each other before they gave Kazue tired grins. "Make us," they told her. Thunder cracked open an eye briefly before letting his head droop again, while Lightning didn't even bother with that much.

Kazue's eyes narrowed at them before she proceeded to do exactly that. Neither of them was in good enough shape to put up much resistance, especially as Kazue used a bit of magic to help her push them about, but that wasn't really the point, was it? In the end, all of them were forced into the baths where they lay 'helplessly' as they were scrubbed clean and pampered.

Mordecai and Moriko were barely able to drag themselves downstairs to join Kazue and Fuyuko for dinner, and the familiars were already curled up in a corner and passed out. Carnelian had slipped away to join in the games as well, but she had also returned much sooner than the others. The dirtiness had become too much for the more cat-like dragon.

To Do List

1) Add as many zones as possible before spring/the tournament, without compromising other goals

2) Hold the tournament

3) Hopefully add one more zone after the tournament

4) Invest in an incarnated avatar for Mordecai

5) Have an intense training expedition to the southern dungeons

6) Return, prepare, and travel to Trionea

7) Free Deidre's core

Training Teams

Team A:

Fuyuko, Shizoku, Derek, Galan?, Allania?, Rika?

Team B:

Bellona, Xarlug, Bridgette?, Orchid/Paltira?

Team C:

Mordecai, Moriko, Kazue

Final Assault Team:

Mordecai, Moriko, Kazue, Bellona, Xarlug, Fuyuko