After he was doh Zushi, Mordecai took a break until after dawn, as he wao che with Moriko aeo get very focused while w on the dungeon; he didn't want to let it slip his mind. During that break, he did the best thing to giving Kazue the cuddles she craved, and that was to settle down with their core in his avatar's p. He gently stroked across the gold surface of her portion of the core, humming softly to her as the hours passed.

  Eventually, the sun rose and Mordecai sent his thoughts to their wife, "Hey love, how is everything going there?"

  Moriko sounded amused in her reply, "Kazue is still having trouble with her wings. We're probably going to spend another day here while she practices shifting them away and back smoothly. It's too bad you aren't here to watch, she's doing most of it half-naked."

  That did sound like a rather eaining show. Kazue's avatar had been forced to shift into her fox form to get her dress back off after her wings had maed, and even that had taken a bit of focus. Shape ging made your clothing adapt to your new form, but it did not make the clothing patible with taking it on or off in the new form, and her dress had not been designed with wings in mind. And even that fox form still had faerie wings.

  "I'll just have to make her demonstrate when you guys get back here," Mordecai said. "I love you both, and I'm looking forward to seeing you again."

  "And," Kazue's core interjected, "I'm looking forward to having a body again so I have my way with both of you."

  "Promises, promises," Moriko teased Kazue, "I still amuse myself by making your other self turn a beautiful shade of red."

  After several more minutes of banter with his wives, Mordecai turned his attention back to their earth-themed zohe stant influx of mana from having twuted streams of delvers gave them a fair amount of luxury in how they spent their mana, but they also spent far more mana per zohan a simpler design would cost. He couldly pin about that, it was the plex design that allowed them the greater number of delvers. Well, that and being on friendly terms with a nearby stable kingdom. It took a certain amount of luxury time for most people to make the initial foray into delving everance zone of a dungeon. Bad times with local kingdoms had usually meant more in the way of marauders than proper delvers. He had rather deliberately eliminated more than a few groups like that, especially if they were stupid enough to talk about their outside activities while inside his territory. But it was best to not dwell on that part of the past.

  The first thing he did to set up the zone was to create ses of malleable shape but sistent areas. Uhese divisions, he created a viscous substrate that would act much like magma a to perpetually stir and flow in ever ging patterns. The ses wouldn't move fast, but the entire zone would be stantly shifting and moving about into random figurations. Enting the ses to make their shape malleable made sure that they moved around each other instead of pressure pushing them up or pulling them down, and it made the shape of each zone difficult to predict.

  Now that he had his mini-zones, Mordecai started creating terrain for eae. Hard-packed earth. Solid stone. Loose and slippery shale with sharp edges. Shifti sands. Thid visud. uled gravel. Ft, hard stone. Shards of obsidian. Different variations of rich earth frowiation.

  Given the stant upward climb one had to make, these terrains made for a variable challenge all by themselves. Adding miniature biomes to the ses that could support them only made those areas more difficult as Mordecai made sure those ses grew thickly, f oo make their own path.

  Once he was satisfied with the basic setup, he started creating variations ierrain. If one did not watch their step they could find themselves stepping into a hole or tripping over a slight rise, and always going uphill could lead oray if a small hill rose to the side of your intended path.

  The final touch to the enviro was to add a stant dust storm. Nothing too harsh or abrasive, but enough to obscure vision. Small objects and creatures were practically invisible fifty feet away, and even a building was pletely obscured less than a hundred feet away.

  Mordecai had sidered having at least slow va flows with thick crusts, but that was far too dangerous for the level of challehat was supposed to be represented. Even a silt river would be a bit much. Especially given the creatures he was making for this challenge.

  He started with a variety of burrowing animals, such as rabbits, foxes, squirrels, and even some small owls. For all of them he ihem with earth essend enhaheir ability to burrow to supernatural levels, though this left disturbed ground rather than passing through without a mark like Amber could. All of these he made sure were hard and dense enough that flinging themselves at a foe was a viable attack. On top of that, they could all camoufge themselves agaih and stone when not moving.

  For the rabbits he added a smaller version of the earthquake attack that Owlbert and Owliver had. The owls retaihe ability to fly and could fling quills like they were rocky darts. The squirrels could gee and throw stones with the same force that a human could throw a stoh a sling. The foxes he made faster and a little bigger, enhang their bite.

  Mordecai also went the opposite dire for a few rabbits and gave them the ability to transform into small whirlwinds of dust and sand. The dust bunnies didn't do as much damage as their cousins, but they made it even more difficult to see and were difficult to damage in their dust-devil form.

  After that, he enhanced some venomous shat had been in their retly cimed hunting grounds, making them into stealthy vipers with venom that inflicted limited petrification.

  To a certaient, all of these were dangerous skirmishers. Mordecai also needed some front-line melee, and for that role he recruited badgers. While they had the same burrowing and camoufge abilities as the others, their primary power came from simply making them bigger and reinf both their cws and their thick fur coat with iron, making a form anic steel. Badgers could already be surprisingly dangerous animals, making them rge and tougher made them suitable challenges for moderately experienced warriors. In a solo fight, he would expect Fuyuko to currently be able to beat a single one, maybe even two, though she'd hardly be able to e out unscathed.

  As a final ambusher, he took some of the tiny strictors that would normally be too small to be a threat to even a child and enhahem into powerful stohons. In solo fights where they got to ambush a foe they were at least as dangerous as the badgers, but they were far less effective in stand-up fights. They could make a nasty surprise in the middle of a battle.

  For rewards, he gave all the earth-enhanced creatures here small gems in the ter of their foreheads. A straightforward reward, but fairly appropriate. Fancier rewards would require defeating the zone bosses.

  When he was satisfied with his work, Mordecai simply set them out to make their homes where they liked in the zohe bunkin troops were more dangerous batants than these inhabitants, but for some groups, the issues with the terrain would make this a more difficult zoo cover, and he was rather pleased with this variety in challenges. He'd give them until tomorrow m to settle in before opening up the zone, and even then he was going to limit this part of the zoo two delves a day for a while. While there were several types of inhabitants, some of them were retively small in numbers. He was hoping that they would be able to recruit more the ime they expanded outast the current hunting grounds.

  "Your turn love," he said to Kazue.

  "I'll take care of it shortly," she replied, "if you take care of something for me. We've got even more visitors. you take care of these guys?"

  The visitors iion were a troop of a hundred soldiers from Kuic along with their ander and some support staff. Bellona had passed on a message that they were ing but Mordecai had not been expeg them for a couple more weeks. Kazue had a buzzkin leading them to a potential campsite well to the side of the trading post, so Mordecai sent his avatar there to meet them and take over.

  After Mordecai and Captain Thomas Nozin were introduced to each other by the buzzkin, Mordecai asked, "How did you and your troops get here so fast?"

  Captain Nozin replied, "Three court mages set up a transport circle. It took most of a day to get everyone formed up and through the portal for the time it . They were a little off and we were closer to Riverbridge than they were aiming for, or we would have gotten here yesterday."

  ly a cheap method, but for this many troops it robably more effit tharansport ships they'd needed for the prisoners. Most transport spells were unreliable with unwilling targets. "Well, we weren't expeg you so fast, so we'll o ask you to set up camp for now. We're trying to make all the buildings out here from harvested materials instead of mana-crafted. Though e to think of it, we still haven't done anything with the feast hall we had to make in a hurry, you at least use it as a mess hall until perma arras are made."

  "That would be most appreciated by my troops," the captain replied. "Are there any specific expectations or rules we should be aware of?"

  "Other thaandard ones we have for delvers, not at this time. However, I have ahat might be more beneficial than you simply ag as ready troops in case of atack. Growing stronger is what we he most, so I was rather hoping we could e to an arra for your troops to earn their keep the hard way if there are ions against your soldiers earning some extra ine on the side."

  After a couple of hours of iations, they came to an agreement. On any given day, thirty of the soldiers would be paired up and act as guards throughout the trading post and awenty would be on a rest day. The remainder would be divided between a couple of delving groups, groups hunting, fing, ging in the hunting grounds, and stru crews to build their own housing and other buildings. Mordecai and Kazue were willing to skip the guards entirely; they felt more fident in their own inhabitants, but Captain Nozihat anything less would not be looked upon favorably by his superiors.

  The guards were going to only provide slightly more mana than the soldiers who were resting, so it wasn't quite ideal for the dungeon's growth, but it was still a notable boost of activity.

  With that settled, Mordecai decided to che on Deidre. He found her, Fuyuko, and the little pixie who had bee attached to Deidre at the beginning of the river zone. Fuyuko was reading out loud from one of the manuals her group had picked up on their delve, and Deidre atiently weaving a small boat in the same style that Fuyuko and her friends had used. The pixie was fetg materials and taking care of other small tasks for Deidre. Fuyuko and the pixie were teically pushing the limits of how much they were supposed to help a delver like Deidre, but Mordecai didn't mind. Deidre's circumstances werely normal.

  He waited for Fuyuko to finish her curreion before he interrupted the tableau. "Hello Deidre," he said as he walked closer from where he'd been watg. He was a little amused that she was the only o surprised by his presence. "Fuyuko, why don't you take a break and go get a meal? I'll keep her pany for a while. When you are done, bring a meal back for uest."

  "Um, yeah, sure thing," Fuyuko mumbled as she scrambled to her feet.

  While the girl headed off, Mordecai turned his attention to the pixie. The small fey had taken up a spiked hairstyle and wore an iing ensemble of bck leather and silver studs. "What has your name bee?" he asked of the tiny being.

  "I'm Payne!" she decred proudly, then immediately looked nervous. "Um, if that's okay?"

  Of course it was. Deidre and Payne; Sorroain. He really wasn't looking forward to learning the details of Deidre's history. "That's fi's clear you two are being close." Rather, Payne was making herself Deidre's familiar. It was clearly on the pixie's initiative, if Deidre had tried to y cim to an inhabitant as a familiar then he and Kazue would have felt it immediately and intervened. "Why don't you join Fuyuko for a while?"

  "Ah," the pixie hesitated and g Deidre, who nodded in reassurance. "Okay, I guess. Um, be ba a while." She flitted off after Fuyuko, gng back occasionally.

  Ohey were alone, Deidre asked, "What would your majesty have of me?" Her tone was as calm and cool as ever, but there was a hint of mischief in her eyes. He took that as a good sign.

  "Please don't," Mordecai said, hands up in a surrenderiure. "This whole thing is a mess, and the territory that is also our domain feels weird in ways I don't have words for."

  "I only imagine, and hope to keep it that way," she replied as she tinued w on her boat.

  "So, what are your thoughts and observations about the rest?"

  "Mm. You two are a strange dungeon. This path feels so vulnerable at first gnce, but with two other paths avaible, you always foreoo them as it maintains a path forward. This has invited many more people into your territory, and you are both so geh them. You care about each of them, to a small extent at least." She sighed and shook her head. "I don't recall feeling particurly hostile ba the beginning, but I am fairly certain I did not particurly care about most of my visitors."

  "her did I," he replied, "not at first. But my first group of people were professional and friendly, and they helped set me on my path. Even then, I don't think I cared as mutil I first fell in love."

  "Love," she said wistfully, "I 't say I ever really khat. Perhaps in the care of my inhabitants, when those decisions were mine."

  Her phrasing was odd, but the meaning was clear to him. Whenever she'd been ensved, her masters had taken over even the minor details of who and what her inhabitants were. It would be harder to love creatures you were forced to cim and alter to the whims of another. "What do you know of the flict between me and the Puritasi?" The flict that had driveo ensve a duo use as a on against him.

  "Not much," Deidre answered. "They've talked about yend a lot, but I have heard little that seemed worth believing."

  So Mordecai told her his story, including many though not all details about what had happened since he had been awakened by Moriko.

  "Hmm, more was correct than I thought, if in a twisted way," she mused, "but less was correct about who you are and your motivations." She tinued w on her boat-to-be while she thought. "It's hard for me to trust, and you uand why. I find Fuyuko and her e to the Shattered Oo be the most ving argument in your favor, even above the effects of your being caught between Faerie truth and the nature of your oaths as a priest of Ozuran. Even so, I ot give you the whole of my trust. Not yet at least. There is only ohing that will win that trust."

  He sighed and nodded. "And even that level of trust ot be instilled in your core without returning you to your territory, which we ot let happen until after your situation is resolved." Having to talk around the issue like this was annoying, but he didn't want to risk tripping whatever ands she'd been given to not talk about her e or her master.

  "Getting a core's trust be vital to helping a duoo," Mordecai said. Deidre narrowed her eyes as he tinued, "If a dungeon had, say, found itself forced to hold onto an excess of mana instead of using that mana to grow, a sudden release of that straint might make reguting the mana difficult. Having some support from another dungeon could help, but there's pretty muly one way for a duo make that e to another dungeon." Namely, having his avatar hold onto the trolling devitil the job was done and he could break her bindings.

  But that would put him into the position of holding her core's 'leash' for at least several minutes. "If that caused the distressed core to fight the avatar trying to help it, then it would be much more difficult to get the job done safely."

  Deidre's breath quied as her body tensed, and Mordecai simply waited for her to recover. After she'd mao rex she said, "That would be asking a lot of a core who had just met this fn avatar."

  "I agree, but perhaps that is a hypothetical we work on aime. Fuyuko and Payne are returning with your food, I think I'll leave you to them for noill have plenty of time to talk iure, it will be over half a year before we might be able to get you home." Unlike him and Kazue, Deidre's dungeon was limited in how strong she would be allowed to get, lest she break free of her master. So there was an unmoving goal of power to achieve, and he hoped to implement a much more open strategy that would involve a lot of soldiers from Trionea.

  Zagaroth

  [colpse]

  What everyone else thinks she looks like:

  Spoiler

  [colpse]Well, not that young, but that sort of cute. :D

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