Worthy Core

DAY 795

"To the heroes of the hour!" Xenia is once again holding a general 'staff meeting' in her primary conference room on Floor Five, although today she's reserving her avatar time in the event of emergencies. There's quite a few mortals present, but those trying to follow along have to settle for getting the general gist from their monstrous colleagues. At least the basic message is easy enough to get across. "That shit was fuckin' brutal, and I'm saying that as someone who kills people for a living! I wasn't expecting them to throw their best into the grinder to start off with, but I gotta say, I was expecting something a little tougher than that."

The dungeon master turns first to her slimy companion. "Everyone did good yesterday, but I wanna hand out some special thank-yous. So first up, Lolly Pop! Those alchemical firebombs and other toys you came up with were bad-ass. Also possibly war crimes for some of em, but hey, I suppose I'm the law around here. Hope you've got more where those came from."

"No worries!" Lollyp wraps a stretchy arm around Tinsel, pulling the surprised mousekin closer. "The Battle Alchemist here actually deserves some credit for that too - she's been showing me some of the Valleylands recipes they've got for stuff, and we're still trying to improve what we can do with our dungeon-grown resources."

Tinsel eyes the spot where she assumes Xenia is standing. "Eh? Well, it is my job, and I'd rather be mixing up potions than trying to face down sixty gods-damned Domain soldiers, that's for sure. Although I have been burning through my own supply reserves pretty fast, so if there's a chance I might get financially compensated..."

Xenia snorts. "I know the Valleylands army is paying for her shit, but sure, if we get through this I'll make sure everyone gets a good payday. Next up - Beatrice, Thaddeus, good job keeping those ambush squads on their toes and mobile. Could've been bad if the earth mages cracked open their hidey-holes before they got outta there."

Wearing her enchanted helmet, Beatrice is able to translate for the prince before taking a moment to respond. "Thanks, though it was definitely our boys and girls doing most of the work there. Tad and I were mostly just there to provide some cover if things went south."

The raven-haired prince nods. "They were quite disciplined when it came to holding back their attacks until the opportune moment. I wasn't sure quite what to expect from combatants who've never served in an army, but so far these Challengers have impressed me."

"There is a difference between a warrior and a soldier, yeah, but you don't last long in a dungeon if you can't manage teamwork." Xenia turns to her next target. "Taly, the archers and mages under you and that elf from the Dungeon Fuckers did great defending Floor Six. To be honest, I've been worrying a lot about that potential shortcut in our defenses. I almost held back on cracking open the floor for that first squad. If you can keep that up though, there won't be anything to worry about."

The Banshee Queen chuckles. "Well, the fact that you were so worried about it that you assigned a ton of people to help defend it was a key part there. We could've definitely handled worse - I didn't even have to start screaming at anybody - but I think you are right about it being a potential weak spot. If they come properly equipped for that, say with mages who have mass shield spells or something? Or mass levitation? Though what really worries me is if they send a squad of draconics in."

Nallond Bushdiver, the Silent Striker of the Dungeon Fuckers, nods along as he catches up. "Indeed. Fortunately I've heard that draconics don't work well with each other, and that combined with their relatively few numbers means that you don't usually see units heavily composed of them. But if they do come forth we'll find foes with the strength and resistance to take a few hits, and a flight speed most demons or flying mages can't match."

Xenia nods along, although the elf can't see it. "Yeah...don't want to post too many more people on that floor or you'll start getting in each other's way, but I might add in a few more shortcut portals. Make it easier for our reserve squads to reinforce you if they actually make a landing somewhere."

Before continuing, the reincarnator's face turns more serious. "Although everyone did great yesterday, and it's seriously impressive that none of the flesh-and-blood folks here died in all of that, I do want to pause for a moment of silence. ...Doorman, your splintering will not be forgotten. May your killers be answering riddles in hell tonight."

There's some confused glances at that, and Parker cautiously raises a hand. "Uh...Doorman's fine now, right? He reformed at midnight?"

"Yeah, but that was still a dick move!" Xenia's eyes flash. "Dude never hurt a fly - if that green dragon-boy comes back here, I've got a double helping of ass-kicking with his name on it."

"Ah, well, I can't disagree with you there." Parker breathes a sigh of relief, mirrored by several of his colleagues. "So...the rest of this is a celebration party then, I take it? I mean, it's afternoon now and there's been no sign of the Domain, so we've probably got them licking their wounds for a bit."

"Let's not get too wild - we still don't know what they're planning next, but they are gonna be planning something. I don't want anyone drunk off their ass if there's a night attack. But also before we get to properly celebrating, I do want to cover a bit more strategy shit."

There's a few disappointed sighs and glances as some of the attendees look over at the nearby table full of food and snacks, but most of them quickly manage to hide it and restore their full attention to the dungeon master or their nearest interpreter. For this phase of the meeting, Xenia once again turns first towards her lead alchemists.

"I know that doing stuff outside of the dungeon is risky - I haven't even been wanting to send you floor bosses outside, just in case they had some way of trapping you or something. But it looks like they're not pulling out all of their tricks to start with, and we've given them a false sense of security by letting their first two trips up here go without incident. Any thoughts on trapping or ambushing the path up?"

Lollyp passes on the message to Tinsel, who seems about to reply but suddenly pauses in thought for a while. Eventually, she speaks up. "So...yeah, traps are easy. Put an explosive under a hollowed-out rock with a pressure trigger, that sort of thing, not a problem. But...there is an option that's both better and worse."

"Oh?" Lollyp leans forward. "Do tell. I like the sound of it already!"

"...Are you sure you're an elementalist and not a sapper? You got the crazy eyes going on that I got used to back in training...well, whatever." The mousekin refocuses. "We could set off something really big, either whenever or specifically when they're on the way up, that totally fucks with the path up to the dungeon. It's been cleaned up and expanded a bit over the past couple years, but there's still some spots where you can barely have two people passing each other at a time, y'know? If we block the path we delay them even more. The downside is that we get even more trapped up here. As I understand it, Worthy can't manipulate the mountain much past the entryway, so if we decide to leave then we're the ones who gotta dig."

Paladin Sable frowns at the idea. "Surely an army their size has plenty of earth mages. We're probably talking about slowing them down for an hour, not a week."

"Eh, true." Tinsel waggles a paw. "But they'll have to pull those earth mages up to the front to deal with it, and then they're extra vulnerable to a followup trap or ambush. They've definitely got some but they ain't got endless."

Xenia smiles at the idea. "Liking the sound of that. Earth mages have absolutely been the worst cheaters since this whole damn business got started, and if it wasn't for them then they wouldn't have even gotten as far as they did on their first try. It sounds like we're going to need to get actual people out there though to know when the mages are up - anyone gonna volunteer for that ambush squad?"

There's a bit of silence after the message gets translated, but eventually Tolla of the Dungeon Fuckers steps forward. "We'll do it!"

Her companion Renriel looks down at her with a surprised look. "We will?"

"I'll provide the cover, Nallond can shoot them down or trigger the second trap or whatever, and you can provide defense against their own mages. Plus we're a small group, so we'll have better odds of being able to hightail it back to the dungeon without getting caught or running into each other out there."

Xenia taps her lips. "I like it, but they need a little more. Taly, you up for joining them? You can provide camo and firepower, so you're their ideal support out there."

The banshee nods, and Lollyp voices her own agreement. "Tinsel and I can get started on scouting out good ambush points!" She trails off before glancing at the mousekin. "Er...though I might need you to carry me."

"Carry you? Shit, I was thinking of having Zappy carry me."

"Oh?" Lollyp again leans in towards Tinsel, but this time with a very different expression. "Not up for sharing your girlfriend?"

"Don't make it weird, Lolly Pop." Xenia shakes her head before moving on. "Second, and this is an open question to the floor - do we have any ideas on what to expect now that their first raid went so badly?"

There's another silent pause at this, as none of those present are exactly military strategists with an expertise in the Domain, but eventually Trush hazards a guess.

"Well, they won't just be doing the same thing again, that's for sure. As annoying as it is, the Domain army is typically fairly capable. Draconics specifically can be baited sometimes, their pride makes them stubborn and unlikely to admit it when their plans aren't working, but for every draconic in their army they have four demons. And demons are devious."

Sincere stares at his rabbity colleague. "...I am unsure whether that was a compliment or an insult."

"Well look at you, proving my point!" Trush gestures towards the former arcane demon. "You're probably the smartest brain in this place, even with all the newcomers! You live for fuckin' forever, and your 'dietary needs' mean you're constantly trying out new things! Anyways, my point is, even if there's a draconic officer in charge, they'll have enough demon advisors to keep them from doing anything that stupid. Once maybe, but not twice."

The reincarnator narrows her eyes. "I'll...take all that under advisement, but it doesn't really answer the question of what they will do."

"Well." Sincere clears his throat and stands up a little straighter. "If I might put my devious demon brain to work and confirm my reputation as being reasonably intelligent, my guess is that they're going to start using more of the resources they have at hand."

Xenia raises an eyebrow. "...Such as?"

"The individuals they captured in Grassbrook. Moving forward with their own soldiers was a quick and easy solution, one they could easily prepare ahead of time. But within their clutches they have, if I'm not mistaken - the noblewoman who has overseen this territory for some time and who has herself gotten as deep as Floor Eight, whatever Rainlander army intelligence there might be on the dungeon as well as likely numerous soldiers who have spent time here, and then there is of course the Association records on the dungeon and whatever Challengers remained in Grassbrook. I'm sure the Domain had their own intelligence on the dungeon beforehand, of course, but this will be wealth of new information to process."

Beatrice chuckles at that. "I imagine someone like you would be salivating over all of that, huh?"

"Indeed. Although arcane demons are relatively rare compared to the more common succubi and incubi, I am certain the Domain does employ more than a few. Therefore I would expect that the Domain will spend some time analyzing what they have, and then come up with ideal countermeasures for every weapon and trick we have at our disposal. They have no particular reason to rush, after all. We're hardly going anywhere."

"So all I gotta do is rethink all of my tricks and figure out if there's any flaws, huh? Guess I got some homework, then. Alright, I've taken up enough of your time - feel free to enjoy the food and shit, and then this evening we'll see about doing some mountain scouting before it gets too dark. Dismissed!"

The crowd quietly cheers and begins making their way towards the tables loaded with food, and Xenia is about to follow them in order to partake in a few more individual conversations...when her avatar nearly stumbles. Valkyrie Brightsky, who was quietly standing nearby, is the first to notice the unusual slip. "Xenia? Are you alright?"

"That was weird, I..." Xenia blinks, before moving her hand over her stomach. "Well. Been a long-ass time since I've felt anything like that..."