Vysala hissed air between her teeth. “That’s gonna hurt. Come on, you fuckwads, you can do this!” For all of her encouragement - which the group didn’t hear - Zaria didn’t think that Vysala’s confidence was well placed. This group had been a disaster since the start of the run, and they should have pulled back before going into Maw’s fight.

Unless by ‘this’, Vysala had meant ‘die.’ The group was proving surprisingly good at that.

Being picked up and carried by Vysala had been an interesting experience - the perspective made it clear Zaria’s core was roughly the size of one of the witch’s fingernails. Now that gem rested on the bedstand in Vysala’s room, and the opposite wall had a couple of carefully arranged mirrors to let the Witch watch without being watched. If she wanted other angles, she could peer into Zaria’s core directly, but the image was incredibly small.

This was the fifth and last group of the day. “I think this is going to be the second wipe of the day,” Zaria said. Well, not exactly. Her body still couldn’t be moved again today, and Vysala couldn’t hear her telepathy, so Zaria resorted to communicating with her companion by inscribing text on the wall beneath the mirror.

Vysala sighed and nodded. “Idiot healer,” she muttered to herself. The man she was referring to lay dead on the floor of Zaria’s dungeon. At least, the parts of him below the navel did, plus some assorted entrails. The upper half was in Maw. The healer had overreacted to the first acid breath and burned a massive healing rune - which had stripped aggro off the Tin tank almost immediately.

“I think they could have recovered if the tank hadn’t panicked,” Zaria said.

Vysala blew out a breath. “Maybe.” That woman’s head had rolled to a stop somewhere in the corner. She’d charged in front of the healer to block Maw’s acid spray, but in her panic, hadn’t activated one of her defensive runes in time. Taking the full blast to her chest had been gruesome to watch.

Zaria took a moment to look at Vysala’s face. She’d watched every single boss fight. The first two had been rough. Vysala had been clenching her spork so tightly, her knuckles had turned white. Now, though, Vysala was watching with an air of cool detachment. “You were inoculating yourself, weren’t you?” Zaria wrote on the wall.

Vysala nodded. “Being intellectually all right with people dying in the same building as me and doing nothing isn’t the same as being emotionally all right with it. I’m used to death. I’m not used to just watching it. Or at least, I wasn’t.” She shrugged. “With this group, that’s… fourteen today?”

“Maybe. I think the Witch and the Runeknight are about to rabbit.” Sure enough, those two had shared a glance. As Maw tore into the last member of their party, those two turned to run towards the window. “Wonder if I’ll get experience if they break their necks?”

It turned out to be a moot point. The cooldown on Maw’s acid breath had reset. With a giggling snarl, Maw whirled on them and let loose. The liquid sloshed over the two of them.

Vysala didn’t look away until they were, without question, dead. Once Maw started licking up the puddles that had once been people, Vysala turned back to the open book in her lap. She was sitting lotus-style on the bed. “You know,” she said, scanning the page. “There’s an age old debate over which dungeon role has it worse.”

“Oh?” Zaria asked.

Vysala glanced up to the text on the wall, saw Zaria’s question, and nodded. “I’d be curious what you think, between tanks, healers, or damage dealers. Tanks claim they have it worse because they take the brunt of the mob’s aggro. Half the time, no one gets hurt but the tank. Healers claim they have it worse because every death gets blamed on them. Damage dealers claim they have it worse because if either of the other two screw up for a second, they can die.”

“I’ve only seen a few groups,” Zaria wrote. “And honestly, from what I can tell? I don’t see why it matters. At the end of the day, they’re either alive and have some nice rewards, or they’re dead and unable to argue. How about you - what do you think?”

Vysala had gone back to reading while Zaria wrote, and once the sound of the dungeon changing the wall to reflect text did she look up. She smiled once she read what Zaria said. “That’s a good point. As for me? Well, obviously, I think damage dealers have it worse. Because that’s my build. Have to show solidarity for my kin.” She looked back at the book and made one last note. Then she put the tome down and sighed. “Well, you want the good news, or the bad news?”

“Good,” Zaria wrote.

“Good news is, I found the ritual to do it. The bad news is, we can’t do it here.” Vysala rubbed her temples. “We need a reagent that we don’t have access too.”

Zaria wrote a question mark on the wall instead of asking for clarification.

“I need a herocore,” Vysala said. “Apparently, what we need is a foreign mana source that doesn’t belong to you. Once ground up with a few relevant herbs that I do have, I can add some of my own blood and make it into a sigil that I draw on your core.”

“I can make a herocore,” Zaria wrote. “Or at least give you the mob shards needed to make one.”

Vysala shook her head. “It needs to be a herocore that isn’t full of your mana. One that’s been inside a person for at least twenty-four hours, long enough to fully bond with them and flush all dungeon mana out. And that requires killing the person the core is bonded to.”

“I’m guessing Wyrdcores from someone who dies in here won’t do?” Zaria wrote.

“I wish. That’d be easy. But it has to be saturated with mana. And, before you ask - it has to be mana from a mortal, so Cestmir can’t just make us one either. Everyone who runs his dungeon has Wyrdcores - at least of late.” Vysala tapped her chin. “I suppose he could have one left around from back when other Guilds came by to run the dungeon.”

“Let me check.” Zaria sent a message to the Platinum dungeon. A short moment later, he confirmed that he never kept mortal cores lying around - they always got absorbed. Before turning her attention back to Vysala, however, Zaria had a follow up question for Cestmir.

Cestmir chuckled.

Zaria said.

Zaria thought.

That made a kind of sense to Zaria, although it was still odd to think about.

Cestmir chuckled.

Zaria pulled her attention back to Vysala and wrote again. “No luck there. Also, apparently mana for mortals and dungeons is different. Which makes me wonder - how do Wyrdcores not have mana? You all still can do magic.”

Vysala shook her head. “A Wyrdcore lets us create runes. They are… limited bits of the language of the system. But there’s no mana involved - it’s more like we momentarily override a bit of the System. So, for example, Upon Impact, Ward. One of the more popular defensive combinations. What that does, when written down and activated, is basically tell the System ‘this impact stops upon hitting the surface of the object’ - so instead of the impact transmitting to whatever is underneath, it just gets cancelled out.” She brushed her hair back. “It’s how magic items work too, but those are constantly on, so they need mana upon creation to sustain them. Since our runes work for a limited time, and activate once before vanishing, they don’t need that initial infusion.”

“That seems less efficient than mana,” Zaria wrote. “I mean, you clearly make it work, but… why does anyone pick a Wyrdcore?”

Vysala scowled, then took a deep breath. “You don’t know,” she said, although it was clear she was reminding herself. “It’s complicated, and personal.” Now she was addressing Zaria. “So short version? For some people, it’s because of the high level abilities Wyrdcores offer. They’re worth the wait. And for others… well, some people don’t have the option for Herocores. They won’t work for us anymore. Wyrdcores are our only option left.”

Zaria had so many more questions, but Vysala hadn’t looked this uncomfortable around Zaria before, ever. She decided to instead take a different route.

“Is there anything I need to know about how your runes work? And I want to stress need.”

“You know the important parts for life or death struggles,” Vysala said, then hesitated. Her scowl deepened, and she shifted in her seat, then let out a long breath. “Except one, I suppose. This could be vital. A lack of mana means I’m immune to some spells that attack mana. Mana Burn, for example? I have no mana, so it can’t be used against me.”

“That’s good,” Zaria wrote.

Vysala nodded. “However, if the spell drains mana first, then drains something else afterwards - usually stamina, but sometimes it drains life force directly, or does damage once mana is emptied? Those spells go straight to draining whatever else they drain. So… if we go up against a Necromancer? Or a Pale Class? Until I hit some higher level runes and specifically build for protection against them, I’m going to be vulnerable.”

“Noted,” Zaria wrote. “So in case of Necromancer, throw angry boxes at him until he’s dead.”

The joke got a smile back on Vysala’s lips, and she leaned back. “Damn right. Now. Let’s get this bond sorted out. So how do you feel about taking a run at the Reclaimers as soon as you hit Copper? We can get a small dragon’s horde of herocores off their corpses - and get access to the portal as well.”

“I’m very much in favor of this plan. Although it’s not really a plan exactly. More of a concept. But I might actually have a plan. I know it’s small, but mind looking into my core? I really don’t want to draw the whole map.”

Vysala nodded and picked up Zaria’s core, holding it carefully up to her eye and closing the other. As she did, Zaria pulled up her region map. She’d found an option in here earlier, one that Penara had told her about.

Access Nearby Friendly Dungeon Map?

By focusing on it, she could see Cestmir’s map. The older core had shared the link with her, and with it, his link to three other cores in the area. As long as Zaria was this close to Cestmir, she could see the map as they saw it. She’d offered to share her map too, but there wasn’t much interesting there to add - and the link would vanish when she moved away, so it had been pointless.

But the important part was the Reclaimer encampment Penara had told her about. The one with the portal. It sat on the banks of a small river - one of those bodies of water that occupied the awkward space between river and stream.

“That’s our target,” Zaria wrote, just putting the words directly in her core for Vysala to read.

Vysala nodded. “So you said you had a plan?”

“I do.” Zaria moved her vision a little bit north of the encampment. “As much fun as it would be to charge straight in and go stomping, throwing mimics everywhere… even a low level location like this will probably have more than twenty-five people present. If all of them are Copper - or if there’s even a couple Bronzes mixed in - we’ll be in danger. I’m not interested in danger. I’m interested in winning.”

Vysala grinned like a hungry shark. “I’m in favor. So how do you intend to win?”

“We flush them out.” Her vision reached the spot she’d been looking for. About a dozen miles away from the encampment, the river ran through a particularly rocky region. “We go up, and I kick some boulders into the river.”

“And then we wait for them to send a group to investigate?” Vysala frowned, mulling it over. “It could work. Although it does risk that they will take days to send someone, and they may only send one.”

“You’re right,” Zaria wrote. “Good thing we’re not going to wait for them. I said flush them out. Not draw them out.”

Vysala cackled when she realized what Zaria meant. “You want to dam up the river, then break the dam and send a flood downstream for them?”

“Exactly. The flood should also pick up boulders and trees along the way. Plus… wooden mimics float. You and I just run alongside the flood, make sure it hits the encampment first, and then when we get close, I send my mimics into the water and let it carry them the rest of the way. They latch onto buildings when they get close, and once the floodwaters pass, while everyone’s dazed and confused and half or fully drowned - then we go in, stomping and throwing mimics everywhere. Ideally, with me spellcasting from the Cauldron and you slinging your runes around.”

Vysala nodded, her expression positively diabolical. “I’ll have to find a group to do a couple dungeon runs to get the shards I need,” she said. “I’m close to Copper after that demon fight, but not quite there yet.”

“Or,” Zaria wrote. “I’m a dungeon. I can just make the shards for you.”

Vysala blinked. “Oh. Right. Of course.” She paused. “Wait, does that mean you can just boost me up whenever you want?”

“Not exactly,” Zaria wrote. “According to Penara, once we’re bound, it’s likely my shards can’t rank you up anymore, since they’re part of me and we’ll be connected. But you and I will share experience instead, so it’s hardly going to cap your growth.”

“Would have been nice, though,” Vysala said. “Still, I’ll take the boost. All right then. Think you’ll hit Copper tomorrow?”

“I’m almost positive I will,” Zaria wrote. “Five more runs… and then we’ll be ready to go to war.”

Vysala’s grin matched the feeling in Zaria’s soul. She looked hungry for this. “So, are you ready to select the Cauldron? I want to see how a dungeon spell casts.”

Zaria checked outside. Night was falling. She’d be able to move her body again soon. “Almost,” she wrote. “Now that we have a plan for the bond… no more reason to wait. Why not get yourself some food - or take advantage of my demon meat stores? The cooldown on moving my body should be ready by then.”

Vysala nodded and stood up. “I’ll pass on the demon meat. No point wasting buff food.” She blinked. “Also, it’s gross,” she added as a very unconvincing afterthought. “Oh, Zaria? Where are you going to put your body and the cauldron? It’s going to get a bit cramped in here.”

“Attic. Should be fairly easy to make with minimal work. I can put the body right above your room, too, so I can just open a trapdoor to talk to you instead of writing like that.”

Vysala laughed at the mental image. “Then see you soon,” she said. “I’ll eat fast. Don’t do any spellcasting without me! And when I get back, I’ll hit Copper?”

“Yes,” Zaria wrote. “Without question.”

Vysala flashed her a grin and gently set Zaria’s core back down. Once she was gone, Zaria got to work constructing the space for the cauldron and creating – then smashing – the mob hearts for Vysala.

The whole time, she tried very hard not to think about all the ways her plans for the Reclaimers could go terribly wrong.